Chapter Twenty-three
I made it there with five minutes to spare, my legs aching, chest heaving, but there. Looking around, I didn't see Mina, so I took a moment to lean against the wall, taking in deep gulps of air as my heart rate slowed.
"Denki?" I heard Mina call from behind me, and, still breathing hard, turned to face her, trying to smile.
"H-Hi," I replied nervously. She looked beautiful, and concerned, and annoyed, and confused, but she was acknowledging that I existed again, so this was absolutely a plus.
"Why. . ." she started to ask, before shaking her head, expression firming as she grabbed my arm and dragged me back into the same hotel she'd last talked to me in, which I hadn't realized, not having memorized the address, the building looking different in the early afternoon light.
I happily paid, as she pointed out the same room we'd been in before to the attendant, a fact which wasn't lost on me. She didn't say a word as we walked in, and we dropped our bags off. She gestured to the bed, and I, confused, took a seat, only realizing that doing so put her slightly above me after I did so, not that I minded.
"We need to talk," she announced, and I had to laugh. "What?" she demanded.
"I'm sorry, it's just, guys are supposed to hate it when women say that, but that's the best thing I've heard all week. Sorry," I apologized again.
She stared at me, before shaking her head. "So this. . . thing. Did you ask for it?"
" No," I vehemently denied. "We're talking about the Company thing, right?" I clarified, and she glared, annoyed, but nodded, so I reiterated, "No . I have memories of my old life, then a weird dream thing in an infinite white space, then waking up here, where I was also Denki, but not. Um, wait a sec." Grabbing my phone, I opened up the app, and queued up the 'welcome to the Company' message I got, handing it to her. "Didn't talk to anyone, just got this."
She read it, nodding, and then handed it back to me. "Okay. No more capturing people," she declared.
I wanted to say yes, but part of me resisted, for reasons I couldn't really explain. "Villains that try to kill and torture innocents that haven't done anything to them aren't people, they're monsters. And I didn't have a choice with you. Other than you, I haven't captured any people."
Mina blinked, processing my statement, jaw working, before she nodded. " Deal. And no accidentally capturing anyone else." I just stared at her. "No, that's dumb," she muttered to herself. "No buying anyone," she commanded instead.
"Haven't yet, and I'll only do it if you say it's okay," I agreed.
Her shoulders set, "I'm never going to be okay with that."
"Then I'll never do it," I shrugged. "But circumstances change. I trust your judgement, which is why I'm giving you veto power over me."
She slowly nodded, commenting, "You're not making this easy."
"I'm trying to agree to something I'll be able to hold to, instead of saying what I think you want to hear," I told her seriously, heart hammering in a way that had nothing to do with my run over. I knew it would be easy to lie and agree with everything she said, and then just try to hide it from her when I did what I was going to do anyways, but I was in this position because I refused to hide things from her, and I wasn't going to start now.
"Mina, I lo- I care for you," I corrected, my mother's warning in the back of my head. "It's why I told you, and only you, the truth about what happened to me the moment it impacted you. I'll be honest, even if it hurts, so I never give you reason to doubt me, and because you deserve the truth. I know, now, that I could've done that better, but I was worried that you'd reject me, so I had to say something, before I gave in and didn't say anything, because I was too scared."
She stared at me in disbelief. "You jumped in to fight the guy that was supposed to kill All Might, but you thought you'd be too scared to tell me?"
"Losing you hurt worse than losing to that thing," I shrugged, eyes a little blurry as I blinked them clear. "Hell, my main worry fighting it was that I wouldn't see you again."
"You. . . You. . ." Mina said, sighing, before moving forward, putting her hands on my shoulders. "You didn't lose me, dummy," she said, smiling sadly. "I just. . . needed time to think."
"Really?" I asked, looking up into her black and gold eyes, hopeful. "I just thought, with telling me to go, and not talking, and, well, I thought you just were hoping I didn't exist."
She winced, before taking a half step closer, wrapping my head in a hug. "No, I just. . . freaked out a little. Can you blame me?" she asked and I shook my head no. "I. . . didn't tell anyone," she said, and I could feel her rest her chin on the top of my head, barely paying attention to the shirt my face was being pressed to as I focused on her words.
"I felt like I should've, but. . . but you hadn't really done anything," she sighed, moving back a little, before she dropped into my lap, straddling me. "Like, 'hello officer, I'd like to report that my boyfriend got forced to work for interdimensional slavers, can you please help him?' How'd that even work?" She frowned, "But you haven't, like, gone out looking for people or anything, right? Just the people that attacked us?"
"Just them," I confirmed. "Haven't thought about it for days, actually." She nodded, and I had to ask, "How do you feel about that?"
She considered it, and an ugly look flashed across her face for a moment. "What happens to them?"
"Copies of them, and them themselves since I sold them too, will get bought by others, maybe even other people like me, out there in the multiverse," I told her, honestly. "They're branded, so they'll be more inclined to like their owner, get along with the other branded, and be, well, loyal to the one they're bound to, but they can still say no if it's something they'd never do."
" Good," Mina declared, surprising me. Then again, I'd learned that the tiny amount of characterization I'd seen in the first three seasons only gave me the barest of insights into her true character.
"Really?" I asked, just to be sure. Denki's memories showed me how, well, dehumanizing, people were towards villains. Not that I had any room to talk, as I was right there with them, but I was aware I was in the minority back home, but apparently not here. Of note is that there was a lack of any 'they're people too' sentiment, except for the very fringes, groups with names like 'The Church of Clarity', 'The Meta Liberation Front', and 'The Virtuous Villains', and they weren't taken very seriously. Second chances could be given, but they were the exception, not the rule, culturally. Then again, I wasn't in America, with its Christian underpinnings, as I had to keep reminding myself, I was in Japan, and a Japan that'd changed even more than the one I knew of.
If losing WW2 had drastically changed Japanese society, fracturing, accelerating, and shifting it into what I'd known before, the two hundred years of crises that was the advent of Quirks had done it again, but even more so. Crime was more common, fights between heroes and villains publicized and watched as sport in a way that cops versus criminals rarely were back home, but with that came a much starker view of things. If criminals fought pro heroes, then it was entertainment, with Face and Heel clearly delineated, but when they started to hurt normal people the reactions were. . . strong, to say the least.
"They're Villains, Sparky. Bad ones. After what they did to Sero. . . well, not those ones, but the others with them? They deserve it. I don't suppose you could somehow get the witch that burned him?" she asked, and I shook my head. "Okay. But if we see her again, I'll stamp her myself." She blinked, as, suddenly, in her hands, was the Stamp. "Um, what?"
I nodded. "Yeah, it does that. If you want to use it, or have worries that stamping would take care of, or anything like that, it gets called," I told her. "Only you and I can see it, there's some kind of perception filter involved. I don't know the specifics."
Mina's brow furrowed, "You used it during the fight. And. . . and you kept on throwing it away. At the park, at school, in the woods. Why did you do that?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Because I liked you, and wanted you to like me back because you did, not because you were forced to, and I was worried you'd wake up and realize I wasn't that great and leave, so it'd show up, but I wasn't going to do that to you, so I threw it away."
"Be honest," she said, after a moment, pausing, chewing her lower lip. "If I had been, you know," she waved the stamp, "would. . . would I have cared about it? About any of it?"
I shook my head, " No. One of the central features is that it makes you okay with it."
"Then I wouldn't have yelled at you. Or ignored you. Or. . . anything," she commented, thinking out loud.
"But then you wouldn't've been you," I shrugged, her attention refocusing on me. "And even if you never talked to me ever again, I still wouldn't've regretted refusing to use it on you." Taking the black cylinder, I tossed it into the garbage, just like I had dozens of times.
We sat there for a long moment, just holding each other. "So, you said that you looking like that, all fit and stuff, that you could share it?" she inquired, and I nodded. "Why didn't you? Or does it take a while?"
"Um, you weren't talking to me, so I couldn't ask you if you wanted me to activate it," I pointed out.
"Of course I want you to," she argued, looking at me like I was being silly.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't just going to start doing things to change your body without you expressly giving me permission," I objected.
She looked at me questioningly, "So, you didn't think that maybe doing that would show me it wasn't all bad?"
I returned the look, only this one was suggesting she might be a tad bit crazy. "I never even thought of that, Mina. Changing your body like that? Without you able to have a say, or control it?" I shivered. "There's a reason, the first Defense I got was the one that made me, and now you, immune to body-warping effects. Oh, and also disease, parasites, and poison," I added as an afterthought, before turning back to what I was saying. "Having your own body warp and change out of nowhere, unable to stop it, even if it's beneficial? That's some hardcore nightmare-fuel, at least for me."
Mina pouted at me, "Well when you put it like that, it sounds all bad and stuff."
" Because it is," I had to affirm.
"But, well, I'm here, literally asking for it," she continued, as if I hadn't said anything. "Now make me all hot!"
I raised an eyebrow, reaching to press her down on my lap for a moment, provoking a squeak. With the panic, and the fear, of the moment gone, I was starting to react to having her in my lap again. "I will strongly contest that you are already hot, Mina, and be willing to argue the point, at length, with any that disagree."
" Length is right," she muttered, cheeks darkening to fuchsia. "You know what I'm talking about, Sparky!"
Lifting her up from my lap, so she was sitting to the side instead of straddling me, I fished out my phone. With my left hand on her back, I thumbed open the Company app, showing Mina her profile. "What's the lock for?" she questioned nervously.
"So you can't be sold," I informed her.
"Oh. . . good," was the entirety of her reply. All of the Defenses she had were listed, along with a prompt asking about Body Talent. Clicking it opened a menu. Listing the various features and the toggles to turn them on or off. Her breath caught as I handed her the phone. "Me?" she asked, unsure.
"Your body, your choice," I told her earnestly, and she just shook her head.
She flicked on the fitness and health options, but Mina paused at the one asking her what her height should be. "You know how tall you're going to be?" she asked.
"Six foot two," I replied, pausing to remember that no one outside of Burgerland used imperial measurements, not even the imperials that created it. "Um, hundred and ninety centimeters. But I'm only one one-seventy-seven right now."
She frowned, put the phone down, and stood, pulling me to my feet as well. She moved a hand levelly from the top of her head to the bottom of my neck, then reached up, grabbed my head, and pulled me down for a kiss .
It was sudden, and shocked me a little, but I went with it, reveling in the feeling, as my arms wrapped around her, holding her tight to me. The last few minutes had been an emotional rollercoaster that I was trying to ride, starting to smooth out while I waited for the next drop, but this, this was what I wanted. Not the sex, though that was nice too, but the feelings of closeness.
It was either a few seconds, or a few hours, later, I wasn't really sure, when finally we pull away from each other, both of us breathing a little hard, and both flushed. "What was I doing?" she asks, and I shrugged, moving in for another kiss, before she pushed me back. "Right! Thanks!"
Standing on her tip-toes, she pulls me back in, and I go with it, enjoying it. She pulls back, frowns and looks around. Dragging me over to the bed, now a little confused, she positioned me so that I was facing it, then clambered up, kneeling on it, and pulled me in for another.
"Are you. . ." I trailed off, even as she reached up and pushed down on my shoulders. Obliging her, I crouched down a little so we were even, was kissed again, and, with a grin, crouched down even lower so she was taller than me before leaning over to kiss her again, the feeling odd with our normal height differences reversed.
"Oh, god no," she laughed pushing me away. Lifting me back up, so she was only a few inches lower than I was, she kissed me once more, nodded, and then suddenly dragged me onto the bed.
I went with it, falling onto the mattress, turning over to look at her as she grabbed my phone and moved up to lay down next to me, pushing me flat on my back so she could curl up beside me. Holding my phone so we could both see the screen, she moved the height slider so it read 180 cm. "Did you figure out how tall you wanted to be by kissing me?" I had to ask.
"Can you think of a better way?" she retorted, and, to be honest, I couldn't really argue with that.
She quickly added in the other options, like age-capping, and the removal of minor defects and genetic problems, but when clicking 'confirm' she got a prompt asking her for the time-frame of the changes, set to one month. She started to pull it down, but a window appeared, telling her that any less would likely be noticed by others, and she grumbled, just clicking 'okay' and confirming the changes would take place over the next thirty days.
Waiting a few seconds, she announced, "I don't feel any different."
I had to laugh, "Mina, it's gonna take a month. You're what, one four-hundred-thousandths of the way there?"
"You and your math," she spat, as if it were a swear, but was grinning. She curled up tighter against me on the bed. "This is really a thing. We're really doing it."
"Till death do we part," I agreed. "Because the only way for us not to be bound is for me to sell you or one of us to die, and I'm never doing the first, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the second doesn't happen either."
"Ugh, I'm too young to be married," she groaned. "You better take responsibility, Sparky!"
"Normally getting married is taking responsibility, Pinky," I teased.
"When we graduate, we're getting married," she informed me. "Like, with a ceremony, and everything!"
"Sounds like a plan," I smiled.
"And don't say. . . wait, you said yes?" she demanded. "Oh, okay, um, good," she mumbled. "No kids until after we're married!"
"Sounds good," I agreed. "Possibly even a bit after, since it'd be best to get settled, and, since we won't age past twenty-five, we've got nothing but time."
With the air of someone looking for something to argue about, she insisted, "But I do want kids, just, later."
"Same."
She sat up and peered at me. "Is that what you want, or do you not care?" she questioned.
"The ceremony, it'd be nice, but if you didn't want one, I'd probably go along with it," I replied honestly. "If you wanted kids now, I'd suggest you wait, because I don't think either of us are ready for that, ignoring all the other problems it'd create. Kids later though. . . I think I'd be a good dad," I commented wistfully. "But not yet."
"Aren't guys normally supposed to be, like, afraid of commitment and stuff?" she asked skeptically, eyebrows raised.
"What part of me is normal?" I shot back.
Mina nodded, dropping back onto the bed next to me, dragging my arm over so I was holding her as she propped her head up on my shoulder. "Yeah, okay. . . . so, who's Mei?"
"My friend in the support course," I told her easily. "I've talked about her before."
"You didn't say she was a girl," Mina pointed out.
I took a second to turn that seeming non-sequitur over in my head. "Should it matter? Momo's a girl, and I'm friends with her."
". . . You're introducing us," Mina declared.
"Okay," I shrugged. "Fair warning though, she's kind of. . . intense. And odd. She also calls her inventions her 'Babies', which takes a little getting used to, but she's a good person Just. . . really focused. You know the thing I used against the villains in the mountain area?" I asked, getting a nod. "Collab project between the two of us, mostly her."
". . . fine," she muttered, but when I looked down at her she shook her head.
We laid there, my arm around her, comfortable with each other, until she finally asked. "When you got here. Did you run or something? Instead of taking the train?"
"Oh, I was at UA when I got your message," I shrugged, "Not at home."
"But, it takes like an hour to get there from here," she pointed out.
I nodded, "I'm aware. I didn't take the train. I rode the wires." She looked up at me questioningly. "It might have been super-illegal, but I wanted to make it on time."
"You could've just told me you couldn't make it. I'd wait," she argued.
"Nope, didn't want to risk you saying no," I disagreed, giving her a one-armed hug. "Besides, I'm pretty sure All Might won't say anything."
" All Might?" Mina asked, rolling on top of me, getting up on her hands and knees, straddling my leg and with one hand on my chest.
"Yeah, I was training with him when I got your message, and told him I had to go, but he gave me a lift to the station," I explained, and she stared at me in disbelief. "What?"
"What happened since I- since we- after the USJ?" she demanded.
I figured out how to phrase it. "Um, okay, you can't spread this around, okay?" I started, and she gave me a 'really?' look. "This isn't like the other thing, I mean, it is a little, but it involves Midoriya, and All Might. People would actually believe this one."
She stared at me for another moment, before she shrugged. "Lay it on me," she said, with a resigned smile.
"Midoriya and All Might have pretty much the same power, and I copied that too," I said. "And I was working with it when he showed up, but played it off as just another kind of electrical transformation, and got him to train Midoriya, as well as Sato, Kirishima, and the others whose powers are just 'your body but better', and he insisted he train me too."
"That was you?" she asked, "Kiri was super jazzed about that! Wait, All Might. . . is he Midoriya's dad? They have practically the same power! How did I not see that before?" she said, gazing off into the distance.
I hesitated, I didn't want to lie to her, but. . . "He isn't, though he might say he is if pressed, but the truth is. . . something even I'm not supposed to know, and even hinting that you know could put you in danger," I told her. "If you want to know, I'll tell you, but it doesn't really help anything if you do."
Mina considered that, before shaking her head. "Nah, if you don't think it'll matter. But, wait, you have their power?" I nodded, concentrating, and bringing it to the surface. "Oooooooh, that's sooooooo cooooool!" she gushed. "So, can, like, you go boof and punch guys into the air like All Might can?"
I shook my head, letting it settle. "Nope. Just like yours, I've got a waaay weaker version. Maybe one percent of the real thing, max."
She looked me over, before flopping back to the side. "Still cool," she declared, idly tracing the faint patterns of power on my skin. "Though, can I just say how freaky it was when you used my power? Like, the stuff you made felt like my stuff. Like, not even the acids my mom can make feel that way. Did you have All Might's power when we, um, were here last?"
"Should've shown you that instead?" I guessed.
" Totes," she agreed. "Wait, you blew off All Might to talk to me?" she asked, just connecting the dots.
I shrugged, "You're more important to me."
My. . . girlfriend? Fiancé? Mina gave an aggrieved sigh. "Gawd, Sparky, you can't just say things like that!"
"Pretty sure I just did," I smiled.
"Ugh, what did I do to deserve this?" she mock-whined.
Leaning over, I kissed one of her horns, causing her to shiver. "Be amazing?" I whispered. She however, sat up, got off the bed, and started to walk to her bag. "Mina?" I asked, suddenly worried, the power I was holding on to fading. "Did I say something wrong?"
"What?" she said, almost absently, moving things in her purse. "Oh, no." she paused. "You're just. . ." she slapped her cheeks. "Okay. This is how this is gonna go. You rented this room for the night. We're gonna use it for the night. And I swear to god, if in the morning you tell me, you're, I don't know, a robot from the future, or a rogue angel from heaven, or a scout for an alien invasion or something, I'm gonna melt your balls off. Okay?"
I blinked, "I can guarantee you that I'm not any of those things. I've got knowledge of one possible timeline, but only through summer, and I've already completely wrecked it without meaning to, that and the Company thing are the only secrets I have, and, well, you know both now."
She hesitated, "Did what happened to Sero. . ."
"No," I said, shaking my head, "no one got that hurt in that version. Well, Aizawa did, but I tried to stop that. Did stop that, I guess, as he was hurt worse originally."
Her jaw worked, before she gave me a firm nod, and a half-glare, "You get a pass because you told me right now. But no more things? You're not the second coming of Super-Jesus or something?"
"I wasn't aware there was a first coming of Super-Jesus," I quipped, but at her warning look I shook my head again. "No, The only other big thing you said you didn't want to know about, and really has nothing to do with either of us. Oh, the alternate timeline thing is how I know about the other thing, by the way," I added.
"Anything else?" she asked, and I shook my head. "Okay, good. Right. So. What was I saying?"
"Using the room," I prodded, and she blushed.
"Right, yes. We're gonna use the room, and we're gonna move forward, together. Okay?" she demanded. "No secrets, no 'technically not lies', and no regrets! Okay?"
"Okay," I agreed, pausing as my stomach rumbled so loudly it surprised both of us. "So, order room service, and then. . . stuff?" I asked with a smile.
"Yeah. Stuff," she agreed, smiling right back. "I kinda skipped lunch too. I was super nervous about this."
She grabbed the menu as I texted my mother, to say I'd be home tomorrow, and that I was staying at a friend's. She asked if it was Mina, I said yes, and her response, which made me laugh, was exactly two words:
Told you.
AN: Next chapters, as usual, on .