On Dagobah Municipal Beach, which was nothing more than a massive dump of waste.
Piles of rusted metal, broken machines, and industrial trash stretched as far as the eye could see, and right in the middle of this mess, Minoru Mineta could be seen training, stacking rusted pipes and broken handles into a box, adjusting them carefully so they wouldn't fall.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered, "Alright… this should be enough for one round," before turning around and walking off again, scanning the junk around him.
He was searching for more small things he could stack into the box so he could use them later as weight training before dumping everything at a scrapyard for recycling.
His eyes soon caught something. A broken antenna was stuck halfway inside one of the smaller scrap 'mountains.'
"There we go," Mineta said as he took a few of his sticky balls and threw them onto the scrap pile before jumping on them.
Boing!
Boing!
Boing!
In just five seconds, he bounced his way to the top.
"My speed is increasing… but it is still likely very low compared to Gran Torino," Mineta murmured as he walked toward the antenna.
Just as he reached out to grab it—"Stop!"
Mineta froze.
'There is someone here?' he thought in surprise.
He looked down from the scrap mountain and saw a girl with pink dreadlock-style hair, angrily waving her hands at him.
'Mei Hatsume!?' Mineta thought, shocked. 'According to the original story, she becomes a top inventor and even helps in the war against Shigaraki when Deku was away.'
"You!" Mei shouted. "I finally found the thief that was stealing the parts for my babies!"
Mineta's face went blank. 'It is a good thing I know that by babies she means inventions… or else I would really freak out,' he thought.
"I'm not stealing," Mineta said calmly. "I'm training here. I clean up scrap and machines and dump them for recycling."
Mei crossed her arms. "If you do that, then how will I get the parts I need?"
Mineta looked at her—Then at the three massive bags behind her. Each one was bigger than his height. All filled to the brim with machine parts.
A sweat drop rolled down his face.
He jumped down from the scrap pile and walked toward her.
"How about this," Mineta said. "I train here, and you can select anything you want from the junk. I'll carry whatever you choose. It'll help my training, and you get your parts."
Mei paused, thinking. "…Hmm." Then she shrugged.
"Okay."
Then instantly—She dove into a pile of scrap.
"Ooooh! This one! And this! And this too!" she shouted excitedly, throwing parts left and right into her bags.
Mineta stared. 'She's… strong.' He watched her casually lift heavy metal parts and toss them like nothing.
He decided not to think about it.
Instead, he walked toward a rusted fridge, bent down, and lifted it with some effort.
"Do you need this fridge?" Mineta asked.
Mei turned her head. "Yeah! I'll take it! It might help me make the body part for the rocket launcher I'm building!"
Mineta slowly placed the fridge near her bags. 'I am NOT going to think about a 12-year-old making a literal rocket launcher for god knows why' he told himself.
Time Skip
Mineta was now pushing a trolley filled to the brim with scrap. It creaked loudly under the pressure.
"Ghh— this has to be around 200 kgs…" Mineta wheezed as he pushed forward with all his strength.
Beside him, Mei walked casually, carrying a bag filled with small parts like nuts and screws.
"I didn't expect someone of your stature to have this much strength," Mei said.
Mineta kept pushing, breathing heavily, until finally they reached her house.
Or rather—A giant garage.
"This is my father's shop," Mei said.
Mineta immediately dropped the trolley and straightened up, breathing heavily before letting out a long sigh. "That… was a good exercise…"
Mei nodded. "I'll meet you again next week for more parts."
Mineta froze. "…Next week?"
"And don't touch electronic stuff," Mei added. "Keep them aside when you train."
Mineta stared at her. "You will use up THIS many parts in a week?!" he exclaimed.
Mei puffed her chest proudly. "Sometimes genius people's inventions tend to explode."
Mineta looked at her smug face. Then remembered all the explosions she caused in U.A.
'…Now it makes sense.'
He shook his head slightly. "With all this talking, we didn't even introduce ourselves."
He extended his hand. "My name is Minoru Mineta."
Mei grabbed his hand and shook it. "Mei Hatsume! Future genius inventor!"
She immediately turned around. "Bye!" she said while cackling. "I can't wait to finally make my grenade launcher 3.0!"
Mineta sweatdropped.
'…Should I ask her to make support items for me?' he thought. 'With my past life knowledge, I could give her some ideas… but would that be a good idea…?'