8 Who would have Known \0/

(A/N: In the near future I will be editing my earlier chapters, closing plotholes, and developing some things.)

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The streams of the river flowed, the wind picked up, and the sun was showing itself. As time passed, the forest near the river turned warmer and cozier. The squirrels came out of their lodgings and the birds flew out of their nests as they sang their morning tune.

At the river's stony shore, a monstrous body could be seen. Said body even, while inert, had the local wildlife unsettled. No forest residents dared to approach it, after all, the 'thing' looked so foreign that even local carnivores would get indigestion consuming its flesh.

Cthulu's brain, which was previously exposed, and battered was now closed. His damaged extremities were healed, and his complexion was returning to his healthy white-pale color. His body had healed for hours on end, able to restore itself to its optimal condition.

Just as his final wound finished recuperating, Cthulu flashed his eyes open. He raised himself prepared to fight. To be surprised by no opponent nor conflict. He was all alone in this forest. The only thing that presented a danger at the moment was himself.

Then a sudden influx of memories bombarded his brain. He now knew what had happened the night before. Only one word could describe his current emotions.

"Hell Yeah!!! I am Free!!! I am free of the Association!" he yelled while jumping up and down like a kid who had gotten his favorite candy. He was finally free!! He didn't feel the device the Association planted on his brain. Chief probably destroyed it with his last shot during the confrontation.

He was ecstatic! He was finally free! He could do whatever, whenever and however he wanted. He could now finally break the bottleneck of his Quirk!.

His quirk "Mimic" relied on three things: energy, visualization, and concentration. The energy department could be improved upon, but he didn't know how to increase his spirit or mental energy due to its vague nature. He tried everything to increase these two, cramming information, meditating, and even praying, but none worked. If anything, Meditation seemed the only beneficial discovery since practicing it heightened his awareness and made it possible to visualize and concentrate easier.

He theorized that by making more space in his brain, he would gain more "mental energy" so she asked for Sheffield's help several times.

Nevertheless, he was now free from the Association. Now knowing his limits, he would break his body and rebuild it better each time. Doing so may help him improve his brain, muscles, resistance, and toughness.

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(Flashback: 3 years ago)

In an unassuming house on Pine Oak Dr, in an unimportant city in Texas. There were 5 children, Two of them were playing against each other in "Call of Honor 24" in the living room while the other one watched as they yelled at each other for cheating. Sheffield was watching the new romance/drama series that just came out on the TV in the master bedroom. The last 'kid' was in the basement training his quirk.

"Fuck! What am I missing?! I have been here for hours for nothing!." Cthulu was frustrated with his progress. Every other member of the team had reached their peak performance except him. He could barely morph his original body without going into 'object mode' first.

He was getting tired of trying and trying and not getting anywhere. He knew that the next step towards 'humanizing himself' was being able to morph his extremities into different objects or be able to manipulate his shape. Still, He couldn't understand why it was so damn difficult! He could manage to turn his hand into a gun, but not the other one at the same time! And to top it all off, he was beginning to forget things from his past life as well!

When he was in his last body, he expected to forget things with time, but he is now in his "biological Prime"! Is it because his brain is full of his past life memories and is deleting them to make space for new ones? That would make sense, but that is supremely inconvenient nonetheless.

If he could manipulate his brain, it would be much easier to deal with that problem. Now that he thinks of it, Sheffield could help him in that matter, could she not? She was the telepath of the team for a damn reason.

Having resolved himself to ask for her help, he went upstairs towards the main bedroom.

"Sheffield?" Cthulu called to get her attention without seaming intrusive

"Shhhhhh" Sheffield responded, which mildly annoyed him, causing him to raise his none existent eyebrows.

"Sheffield I need your help" Cthulu tried again.

"Shhhh!! I am watching my drama ask me later!" Sheffield replied annoyed by Cthulu's insistence which at the moment was intruding on her 'sacred time'.

"If you don't help me now, I will scare you for a month" Cthulu said, losing his patience. Threats like this often worked with the team since his biological ugliness compounded by his quirk, helped him scare them shitless.

"Damn you Cthulu! What's so important that you can't wait an hour for it!" yelled Sheffield royally pissed off at Cthulu. She missed seeing her favorite pairing interact because of him!.

"I have reached a bottleneck, one that you can help me remove" Cthulu dryly stated.

"Tell me how exactly I can help you with that" she said sarcastically

"With your quirk, you could do some voodoo shit and let me consciously alter my mind" Cthulu replied half asking- half stating.

"Let's say I could do that, What's in it for me then?" Sheffield responded trying to earn some favors.

"I'll answer sincerely to three questions you ask not holding back anything. In exchange, you have to help me with this and teach me the mind arts." Cthulu stated.

"Ok... but how am I supposed to teach you my quirk? You might have resistance to mind quirks, but that doesn't mean anything. For all we know, it could be just a side effect of your quirk, she replied in a patronizing way.

"Just use your quirk, and I would not actively resist, then... I don't know...call for my consciousness or something" Cthulu declared, unsure if it would actually work, but if it did, he would be able to progress further.

"Ok... Lay down and close your eyes" Sheffield ordered, pointing to the nearby bed as Cthulu followed.

"I am going to use my quirk" Sheffield warned before activating her 'Mind walking mode'

There was no resistance; Normally Sheffield couldn't enter the minds of 'sentient beings', but if they were 'receptive', there was a chance of access. Essentially a person's mind was like a door. A door can be made of wood, metal, or other materials, but at the end of the day, if you have the right key, all of it would be useless.

If she were to compare the mind of Cthulu with all the ones she has accessed over the years, she would say it was one of the strongest ones. His door was made of a strong material that brute 'mental force' would hardly budge it. The thing that surprised her was that his mind's lock was never in the same place, it always changed. The moment she tried to 'hack it open', the lock would always move to someplace else, making accessing his mind quite difficult.

This time around, she could enter because Cthulu left the 'door' half open. From what she could tell Cthulu was a guarded person, he probably had secrets and things he wouldn't tell anyone. She was half tempted to find his 'secrets/inner thoughts', but she was a person of principle and believed that everyone deserved their privacy...well, everyone except her enemies. Nevertheless, Cthulu was part of the team, the only family she has ever known, even if he sometimes made her furious, and for that, she would teach him.

To do that, she had to first 'see' how much control she had over his mind.

'Open your eyes'... nothing happened.

'Imagine a taco".... nothing happened.

'View first memory'... just like that the memory of Cthulu's birth was broadcasted like in a cinema.

Sheffield, at first, thought it looked pretty normal. Then she saw how the doctors looked at her team leader, the look of pity and disgust evident. The worst part was not the doctors but his own mother. He could hear her, how she referred to her child, how she almost threw him away, how she called him "ugly" and that he was some kind of "joke".

The fact that that memory came up enraged Sheffield. First memories indicate when a person/animal was aware of itself; if the memory came up then he still can recall what happened. So yeah his teammate still remembers when his mother called him "monster". Cthulu may be ugly, but he didn't deserve to be called deplorable names almost every day of his life. He didn't deserve to suffer like that. In her fury, Sheffield kept seeing the events until Cthulu got adopted by the 'nice lady'. She saw the bullying he endured, she saw how he trained his quirk every day he could, she saw how life always shat on him but he held his head high. If anything, she was proud of him and had found a new kind of respect for him. Her life was also shit, but not to that degree. She reminded herself that there is always someone worse off than herself.

After the viewing session, she realized she had just broken her oath, at least partially, since she didn't push to 'hear' his inner thoughts. Nevertheless, she had broken her oath; she supposed she had to make it up to him later.

'Cthulu's consciousness, come to me!' Sheffield ordered.

After a brief second, there appeared to be a flash of light that briefly blinded her. After the flash dimmed down Cthulu was floating in his 'mindscape'.

"So...How much did you see" Cthulu said with slight of an edge in his mental voice expecting his companion to snoop around on his mind.

"All your memories until you got adopted without your inner thoughts" she said apologetically while looking down.

"Well...that's better than what I expected I guess...Question, do you know what my objective is?" Cthulu asked inquisitively

"Well...no, I was taken by the drama, I guess. I didn't really take a look at anything else." she said while her opposite fingers were touching each other.

"No harm, no foul... let's get to work" Cthulu stated, already wanting to finish as soon as possible.

"What is no harm no... it doesn't matter" She said and proceeded to break down what Cthulu had to do while he still was here.

She told him to imagine a memory and when it was projected in his mindscape, to grab it and compress it. When compressing it, he had to imagine some kind of word or thing in which to convert the memory. Then she recommended Cthulu build something that could help him order his memories. He asked her if memories could be replicated. To that, she answered that they can, but it would take double space. Immediately he forgoes the idea of creating a backup at this moment; maybe later if his brain suddenly grew more space, but for now, only one 'Ram' would do.

Cthulu created a library with all kinds of books. Said library was a misdirection since he stored all his memories in a computer that was hidden under the floor of the library. He figured that if someone was able to enter his mind, they would have a harder time looking for his memories that way.

The advantages of compartmentalizing the memories were that it would free more of his brain to create new ones, he could access them easier and 'filter out' what he didn't want, or at least it was all that Sheffield told him. She also stated that while entering his mind was a 'tough job' he should still 'imagine/create' more defenses so, if some enemy is able to penetrate his mind, he can defend himself mentally.

At the end of compartmentalizing all his memories and creating a library, Cthulu was tired, so he would ask for her help another day. nevertheless, he was extremely grateful and was willing to forget her 'snooping around' if she would help him create his defenses next time.

Unknowingly to them, both left the mindscape with a greater understanding and appreciation of each other. At that moment was when their 'arrangement' blossomed into friendship.