Chapter Text
Minoru walked with no clear destination in mind after being expelled from UA. With his parents out the house, he had hours to hole himself up in his room and masturbate to his favourite porn without interruption, losing himself in his lust and allowing himself to forget his current situation, if only for a while, by sating his physical desires, but the prospect lacked appeal.
Normally, going home and jerking off to the raunchiest porn he could find and had saved on his computer was the highlight of his day. Now, he just felt empty; the idea of gratifying himself to pictures and videos on a screen merely a reminder that he was simply desiring what he could never have, what would be forever out of reach to one such as him like a monkey constantly grasping at the reflection of the moon in a lake.
His aimless walking brought him to a street crossing, his mind a million miles away as he stepped off the sidewalk despite cars driving back and forth across the road. He was deaf to the shrieks of car horns as they swerved to avoid him and the yelling of civilians who tried to reach him, to pull him back onto the pavement. Most of all, he didn’t even hear the blaring horn of a truck as it came barrelling towards him, not even when it was right next to him mere moments before it hit him.
The truck came so fast that he barely felt the impact as the truck broke his small body upon impact, sending him flying through the air before violently reacquainting itself with the earth. He rolled and bounced across the ground like a ragdoll, each fresh impact making a sickening crunch as his bones shattered like toothpicks and a wet splat as his flesh was pulverized. Minoru eventually came to a stop, lying on his back with his limbs twisted into unnatural angles, his bones have punctured through his skin at the break points.
Now, that the initial shock wore off, he felt the pain. It was the worst agony he’d ever felt in his short life; he’d be screaming if he wasn’t suffocating on the blood that came pouring out of his mouth, each desperate attempt to get air into his lungs drawing a wet, pained choke from between his lips. Blood poured from his chest, staining his white school shirt and the rest of his uniform red.
Minoru’s consciousness was fading fast, his vision blurring in places and darkening into pitch in others as his thoughts got slower and his mind became fuzzier as he struggled to stay focused; sounds coming to his ears in muffled tones, as though he were underwater. He knew in situations of injury it was advised to try to keep the injured person awake, to prevent organ failure or the body going into medical shock, which could lead to death if they weren’t treated quickly enough. Still, part of Minoru wanted to just let go, to close his eyes and allow death to take him. He hadn’t accomplished anything in his short life, he’d failed the one thing in his life he could call an achievement before he could even start training to be a Hero, and had caused a working man to wear the brand of murderer, even if it was accidental, all because he was too busy moping to have any consideration for his surroundings, compounding on the disappointment his parents would feel from him not just getting expelled from the most prestigious Hero school in the country not even a full day into the school term, but also having a son who died such a stupid, pitiful death.
What did he have to life for? Surely, this was such a fitting death for one such as him. His parents would mourn him, but they’d move on eventually since they wouldn’t have to worry about him being a constant burden in their lives, and the world would continue to turn without him in it – it’s not like he would have any great impact on the lives of others or the state of the world, even if he tried.
As death pulled him into its embrace, the life fading from his body as the flame on a candle wick would be extinguished in the wind, one thought entered his mind before he passed on from this world: Maybe, I’ll be reborn as someone better in my next life. Maybe then, I’ll have a chance of achieving my dreams.
Minoru’s eyes snapped open; it felt like mere seconds after Minoru closed his eyes for the last time in acceptance of death that he was awake again. With a start, he realized his body was free of the pain that accompanied the wounds that had killed him, and a quick cursory feel of his form told him that his body was uninjured. Not only that but there wasn’t a single speck of blood on his uniform; in fact, it was entirely clean and wrinkle-free.
He was laying on a bed. It was the loveliest bed he’d ever laid in, the material of the mattress caressing his skin with a feather-light touch whilst being firm enough to support his weight without feeling stiff against his body and it was warm as though it were freshly laundered, the scent of cherry blossoms tickling his nose as he gently inhaled. The feeling of being able to breath freely after his last moments were spent choking on his own blood, unable to get the faintest whisp of air to pass his lungs, put his mind at ease and for a moment, Minoru forgot all his troubles – his violent death, being expelled from UA and having his dreams go up in smoke, making his parents feel the pain of outliving and having to bury their child, no matter how worthless that child ultimately was – and just lay there, not wanting to get up and wishing he could just close his eyes and never have to wake up ever again.
Curiosity, however, kept him awake. Is this the afterlife? He thought, looking around. He was in a vast grassy field that stretched on as far as the eye could see, lush, vibrant flowers of all kinds from roses to tulips to sunflowers populated the field and bathed in the (morning? Early afternoon?) sunlight. Looking up, he saw that the sky (or an approximation of the sky in whatever this place was meant to be) was a clear, bright blue with nary a cloud in sight. He hadn’t done nearly enough good in his life to wind up in heaven, but he doubted he’d done enough bad deeds to wind up in hell either. Maybe, he was in purgatory, the middle ground between salvation and damnation.
“Good to see you’re awake,” a feminine voice said, startling Minoru out of his musings. His eyes landed on a dark-haired woman who sat some distance from him – who definitely hadn’t been there a second ago – smiling at him with warmth in her violet eyes. “Please join me for tea.” Indeed, she was sitting at a table with a tea kettle (freshly made if the steam coming out of the spout was anything to go by), a container for cream, a bowl for sugar, and two cups laid out before her.
Warily, he swung his legs off the bed and dropped the short distance to the ground – he noted that the bed was positioned relatively low to the ground as if whoever had brought him here had taken his small height into consideration – already missing the comforting warmth that put his mind at ease after waking up in this strange place.
She was beautiful even without makeup from the delicate line of her jaw to the soft button of her nose to the elegant curve of her cheekbones, the porcelain skin of her oval face looking soft to the touch. She was resplendent in a black dress that provided a striking contract between its dark colouring and the paleness of her skin whilst outlining the slender lines of her body and hugging the lush curves of her womanly physique. He approached the table and sat down in the vacant chair, finding himself gazing at the long line of cleavage her dress exposed as she stood up and leant over to pour tea into his cup.
A polite cough drew his attention, making him snap his eyes back to her face where her gaze pinned him in place for a moment before he looked away guiltily as his cheeks warmed in embarrassment. Rather than being offended the way most women were when they caught him ogling them, however, the woman seemed amused, if the soft laugh she let out was anything to go by.
Minoru coughed before speaking, seeking a line of conversation to steer himself away from the awkwardness he’d created. “W-where am I?”
“The interstice,” the woman answered simply, pouring herself tea. “The middle point between life and death.”
“What?” Minoru asked.
“Your body is dying,” the woman responded, her words bringing back the memories of his body crumpling into shattered bones and pulped meat, his lifeblood oozing out of him as pain dominated every one of his sense, rendering him blind, deaf and mute as his body desired some way to vocalize his pain, to scream his agony as some reminder that he was still alive. Alas, all he’d been able to manage were wet, choking gurgles as his lungs became filled with blood, suffocating him as his life faded away. Worse than that, was the fact that his life had amounted to nothing, his life one of failure as he died an unloved and unwanted nobody.
Minoru didn’t release he’d been crying until he saw the tears splash against his clenched fists. Raising his bowed head, he reached up to his eyes and felt the tears run like rivers down his cheeks. He also didn’t realise that the woman had moved around the table and was now crouching before him, laying a soft hand on his shoulder.
Meeting her eyes, he saw the warmth in her gaze and the sympathetic – but not pitying, for he was so used to seeing the latter alongside naked scorn when people beheld his dwarfish height, saw them cringe when they heard his gratingly nasally voice – look in her eyes. When her grip on his shoulder tightened, drawing him against her and pulling him into an embrace, something inside of him broke. Overwhelmed by everything, he buried his face into her chest, his tears straining her dress as accompaniment to the sorrowful cry that tore its way out of his throat like the dying scream of a wounded animal, becoming a litany of pleading for more time, of asking Why me? Why did I have to be the one to die like this? until it devolved into a discordant chorus of gibbering that even Minoru couldn’t make sense of anymore.
The woman held him as he broke within her grasp, running a hand through the purple balls that made up his hair and saying nothing until his frenzied words had quieted, letting out a soft series of hums as she rocked him back and forth, her kindness an anchor that kept him grounded in the here and now. He didn’t know how long they stayed like this, but he allowed himself his weakness as he held her, finding solace in her presence as she was an escape from all that had befallen him.
Then she spoke four words that would change his life, even if he didn’t yet know it.
“There is still time.” The woman’s words cut through the storm of negativity that dominated his being.
“What do you mean?” He pulled back to face her, the hoarseness in his voice from crying and screaming his pain out only adding to the suspicion that laced his question.
“Your body may be dying, but your spirit is yet to pass on to the afterlife proper.” The woman explained, a gentle smile on her face. “You can still choose if you want to live.”
“How?” He demanded, pulling away from her and already missing the gentle touch of the first woman who willingly embraced rather than violently rejecting him. “What I choose doesn’t matter, if I’m already dead.”
“Doesn’t it?” the woman, her head titled to the side.
“OF COURSE IT DOESN’T!” He yelled. “None of this matters since I’m making all of this up. My body is dying, my brain is running out of oxygen, so it’s conjuring up whatever fantasy my subconscious provides as one last comforting memory before I fade away for good.” His words became bitter after his initial outburst. “No way God or Death would waste time talking to me when there are so many people who need kindness way more than I do.”
“I never said I was the Almighty or the Grim Reaper.” The woman responded, rising to her full height and towering over Minoru’s diminutive stature at a statuesque six feet.
“It doesn’t matter.” Minoru said dismissively. “You’re not real anyway.”
“Do you want to live?” The woman asked in lieu of responding to his statement.
“What I want doesn’t matter,” he muttered.
“It does to me,” she said. “Do you want to live?” She repeated.
“Of course I want to,” he spat, “but people on Hell want to be absolved; doesn’t mean they’re entitled to get it.”
“Aren’t they? If their sins are worthy of being forgiven and they truly sought redemption, were willing to change not just to escape an eternity of torment but because they truly wanted to better themselves, don’t they deserve to at least try?”
“Are you the Devil?” Minoru asked cautiously, taking a step backwards. “If I’m going to Hell, then just take me there now and get it over with.” He said, trying to inject more courage into his words than he felt as his heart locked up in fear, his breaths coming in fast and short as he could feel flames burning his skin, blades and meat hooks tearing into his flesh and his body opening up like a book as his organs were pulled out of him piece by bloodstained piece.
The woman laughed. Not a brief peal of laughter, but a full-bodied laugh that saw her bending over and hugging her sides in apparent amusement.
“The Devil!?” She got out between her laughs. “That rebellious upstart isn’t fit to shine my shoes
“Who the hell are you then!?” Minoru demanded, tired of her speaking in circles.
The woman smiled, her gaze once more arresting him as something undeniably ancient came over her face, the now glowing violet jewels of her eyes not just seeing him but looking past him as he felt her stare into the depths of his soul, dissecting him for everything he was, everything he claimed and wished to be, everything he could be. Then, she spoke in a voice that sounded like millions, no, billions, no, trillions, were speaking all at once; the unsettling chorus of sound making the previously light air so thick Minoru felt like it was crushing him from all sides, the sudden pressure driving the breath from his lungs. It wasn’t just the air, but the previously bright sky darkened as shadows that hadn’t been there before shot across the ground like water snakes slicing through a pond to creep up Minoru’s legs before rising like vines to encircle his torso then his arms and finally his neck.
“I am Kuromaru. Mugen Kuromaru. I am the infinite dark circle, the one who exists above all, I am everything, everywhere and nowhere all at once, present but unseen, the first and last speaker but unheard for my voice reaches the highest and lowest depths of existence for I see all that is and all that will be.”
Each word was free of empty boasting, delivered not as a proclamation of greatness but an undeniable truth as though creation itself was speaking of the fundamental truths of the universe such as the power gravity exerted on terrestrial bodies and the promethean heat stars emitted as they lit the darkness of space, an endless bonfire against the true, empty, infinite darkness that would swallow life itself whole in its suffocating embrace.
It didn’t matter what Minoru’s opinions of her words were, it didn’t matter if he feared her or not, for what use was there in fearing a fundamental force of existence itself? It had been there long before him and would be there long after he was gone.
“Still,” the woman began lightly, her voice becoming a singular’s woman soft register as apposed to the countless speakers it once was, the shadows receding and the sky bright once more, her words cutting through the overwhelming presence that had stopped his heart for a time, allowing him to breath again as he fell to his hands and knees, greedily intaking large gulps of air as his heart pounded a frantic drum beat in his chest. “If this is all a mental conjuration, if I am indeed a mere figment of your imagination, then what’s the harm in you answering my question?”
She came over to him and knelt down in front of him. Taking his face in her warm hands, she gently raised his face until he once more met her eyes, eyes that were free of dark light that spoke of knowledge no human should – or could – ever possess.
“Do you want to live, Minoru Mineta?”
“Yes,” he spoke, “more than anything.”
“Then live,” she responded, pulling his face towards hers until her lips brushed against his. She kissed him with the paradoxical warmth of a mother and the passion of a lover, and Minoru accepted it for it was proof that no matter how hard life was, even a worthless wretch like him could be loved. He closed his eyes, losing himself in his first kiss, for if they were still open he would see everything around him – the grassy, flower-laden fields, the sky, the tea table and set – fade away into white light before the woman and he too disappeared.