I've noticed there's a lot of hatred towards Mineta, and much of it is warranted. However, I had a concept idea and it won't leave me alone until I write it. So here is my little one-shot; and hopefully I can make a version of Mineta that people can actually stomach! Also he's still short in this, but not the ridiculously small height like in the series.
May 18th, 2019 EDIT: I fixed some of the grammatical issues that I'm famous for.
Chapter One: Chance Encounter at the Gym
For Minoru Mineta, it was another typical night of walking alone back to the dorms. Being in the top 10 of his class, he figured that he did not need to go to the emergency study session hosted by Iida and Midoriya. However, once he heard that Mina and some of the other girls would be there, he immediately knew he had to as well. Although he was distracted and did much distracting, the session itself was actually very helpful. With Midoriya's insane amount of knowledge pertaining to quirks, and Iida's no nonsense attitude, he was able to leave the study session feeling more confident about the upcoming test. Every topic had been thoroughly covered, and everyone decided that it would be best to leave. Mineta felt adequately challenged, which meant that his best friend, Kaminari, was positively near-death. This thought made him pause. For all his time here, he had only made one true friend. He knew he was not as bombastic as Bakugo or Kirishima, but he also wasn't as quiet as Shoji or Koda. It doesn't really matter anyways, I'm just here to meet girls and be a hero. This thought did put a smile on his face, but it was much more forced than he realized. As he looked up and saw the moon shining, he knew he the curfew would be coming up in a while.
One of the only sources of light outside emanated from the gym. Despite its spacious interior, he could see a lone figure within. He kept on walking, not caring about whoever was going to be reamed by Aizawa. Despite this, his pace got slower and slower until he was practically crawling past the gym. Heaving a heavy sigh, he turned around and went through the large double doors. He glanced around the impressively sized gymnasium. It truly was spectacular, with its modern design and ample amounts of different equipment, all of which Mineta had never used. His small frame was maintained by his quirk – which also needed reserves from his body, although many thought he was simply small. He remembered Yaoyorozu saying her body similarly handled her quirk, but he knew she kept her body in much better shape than him. Ah, Yaoyorozu. Nobody holds a candle to you. He thought to himself with a perverted grin stuck on his face. Every boy in his class shared his opinion, although he was the only one brave/stupid enough to say it out loud.
After taking in his surroundings, and getting sidetracked thinking about his dream girl, he finally decided to check on the other sole occupant. As he starting walking towards them, the first thing he realized was that their long black hair was in a recognizable ponytail. The second thing he realized is that they, or rather she, had a lot of bare skin exposed. It was to Mineta's delight that he realized it was Yaoyorozu that had passed out in the gym. If he did not have his mouth clamped shut then he most certainly would have been drooling. Stealthily grabbing his phone and slowly creeping up on her, he knew these pictures were going to last him awhile.
He did not want to wake her up, so he crept up on her still figure. Once he was within a few feet, a thought popped into his head. Like a villain in the night I'm going to get what I want! He thought to himself with a sneer. Wait, what do I mean, 'like a villain?' I'm a freaking hero! His footsteps began to slow down. The reprimand did not help his conflicting mind. Would a hero really be that obsessive? Would a real hero fulfill such selfish desires? This isn't right. He came to a stop and looked at her again, this time focusing solely on her face, he was too preoccupied objectifying her earlier to notice the furrowed brow and scared expression currently on her face. She must be having a nightmare, maybe a blanket will help? He knew a blanket in a gym would be impossible to find, but something to cover her up might ease her mind. He looked around the main area until he saw a sign for a sauna on the east side of the building. If a sauna was there then certainly a towel would be too! He ran both quickly and quietly until he found what he needed: an extra-large towel, big enough to become a makeshift blanket. Unfortunately, it was on the top shelf. Thank you Quirk God, this one time. He thought before sticking a ball to the wall and crawling up to snag the object he needed. When he came back, Yaoyorozu was looking even worse. She was murmuring in her sleep. This time, rather than creepily approaching her, Mineta simply walked over to her and draped the towel over her, while looking away from her the entire time.
When the somewhat warm object covered her, Yaoyorozu hummed comfortably. She no longer had those worrying features across her face. Mineta glanced at her and noticed that she did have a nice smile. This only made him feel worse though. Jesus, I can't believe I was gonna prey on her while she was asleep. These thoughts were coming in full force now. He was reliving all the instances where he did something disgusting. Whether it was feeling up Tsuyu, or spying on the girls' locker room, he could not stop the hate he felt with himself. For Yaoyorozu, it was all amplified, because she was always the one he targeted the most. During the moments he harassed her, he never thought about how she felt. She should have treated me worse, they all should have... How could he try to be good when all he did was bad? If he was willing to prey on his classmate while she was asleep, then how much further could he have gone? He looked at his phone again, seeing the time. He had a little less than an hour before curfew started, but luckily the dorms were within a five minute walk.
He almost wanted to throw the phone against the wall, remembering his plans with it. It was as if all of his earlier perversion was transformed into self-hatred. Mineta walked over leaned against the opposite wall on the other side of the room, deciding his classmate deserved all the sleep she could get. He decided he would stay there just in case she did not get up in time, and also to keep a safe eye on her. Yeah, like you're any better than some other creep coming in here… He could not physically move. This anger and sadness sapped him of his motor functions. However, he felt the adrenaline rush when he suddenly saw Yaoyorozu's eyes open; and then they immediately locked in on him.
"Mineta? What are you doing here? How long was I out?" She asked him while stretching. He averted his eyes.
"Oh I'm not sure, I saw you passed out in here and wanted to warn you about the curfew." He was still being honest, but there were some beads of sweat starting to form.
"That's very kind of you to-" Her words were cutoff when the towel fell from her and landed on the ground. She then looked back up at him with the briefest, yet most intense, flash of anger. However, she then calmed herself, "How long have you really been here? I know this towel wasn't on me when I passed out."
Mineta's head darted left and right. He was already looking for a way out, just like with any other tense situation he ends up in. That thought though made him stop though and shamefully look away. "I saw you in here, and you were having a nightmare, so I got a towel and covered you to see if it helped…" Again, this was not the whole truth, but maybe he could sneak out of here without her knowing. Maybe he could pull one over on the smartest person in the class.
"I, um, appreciate that." She was at a loss for words. Mineta, her perverted purple blob of a classmate actually did something kind. It was certainly unexpected, but not unwelcome. She looked at him again and flashed a genuine smile. When she did though, he oddly looked even worse than before. Now that she thought about it, he was noticeably deflated.
"Mineta, is everything alright?" She asked apprehensively. As the classroom vice representative, it was her duty to ensure everyone was healthy, even the unsavory ones.
"Oh, yeah, I'm doing alright. Don't worry about me…" Even he knew the lie sounded weak, but he was desperately hoping that she would not pry. Unfortunately, when he made eye contact again, she looked even more determined to get to the bottom of it.
"I haven't heard you lie that often, but you're not very good at it. Please Mineta, tell me what's wrong." She slowly began to approach him, but not close enough to get into his personal space.
With a heavy sigh, Mineta looked up at her. Yaoyorozu almost gasped when she made eye contact. The only time she had seen such a vortex of emotions was when Midoriya lost Bakugo. Here, Mineta looked so small and dejected that a light breeze could topple him over. "Look Yaoyorozu, you're the smartest one in the class… why do you really think I stuck around after I came inside?" He could not even look her in the eye as he finished the sentence. While she did not give an external response, her internal one was a return to that white-hot anger she felt earlier. It made perfect sense to her: he came in to prey on her and then get out, but she caught him in the act. It felt good to have justification for her rage, but even she knew that story did not hold up. He covered her up after the nightmare, he was still in the building rather than escaping the second he could, and he could barely even look at her. Normally his eyes would be glued on her but now there was minimal eye contact.
She still had not responded, but decided to state the facts, "You were going to do something vile involving me, right?" Even though she tried to be diplomatic, her knowledge of previous encounters made her blood slightly boil.
"Yeah, I was… I saw you and, yeah. You know the rest…" By now he had his knees up to his chin and his arms crossed in front of him. The words he said were muffled, and he was definitely not being louder than he had to.
After looking away, visibly disgusted, Yaoyorozu looked back at Mineta. Again, her anger was quelled by curiosity. If he did what he wanted to do then why is he so depressed? She had to ask him the burning question. "Why? Why would you do something like that? Why are you like this? Why are you trying to get all of your classmates to hate you?!" This time, her hand clasped over her mouth, regretted the words that so easily spilled out. It was what she had wanted to ask since the very beginning, but felt too indifferent to care. But now, in this enclosed and private space, the truth slipped out so easily.
Mineta wanted to be mad, but everything she said was the truth. Everything he did was at the cost of someone else. His perversion was directed at people who may have been his friends. His entire reason to be a hero was to get girls to like him. Everything he did seemed to revolve around girls. That was the introspection he never realized before. He thought about his life before coming to UA. Then, he looked at Yaoyorozu with the same empty look and told his story.
He was even smaller back at his old school, which is something the bullies always made him aware of. Some people were generally nice to him, but genuine friends were hard to come by. Once dating and relationships became more important, Mineta still found himself alone. He had to do something that would make everyone respect him, or at least notice him. What he ended up doing was walking up to the most attractive and popular girl, and making an extremely graphic comment about him and her. The bullies begrudgingly admitted that he did something they could never do. From then onward, Mineta only viewed girls as something to use for his self-esteem. As long as he pushed the envelope and did things no one else would do, he stayed off the lowest rung and people would remember him. He never thought about the feelings of those girls. He never considered if they would be a friend to him. To him, this bitter teenager, getting whatever he wanted was the only way to live.
He ended this story with a long sigh. Nobody knew this story, not even Kaminari. It felt surprisingly good to let out all his emotions, even though it was to a furious classmate. However, when he looked up at her, there was not a face of anger. Instead, she looked as if tears threatened to spill at any moment.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're actually crying? I just told you I use people and don't care! I'm a horrible person! You should be mad! You should use a sharp object and hurt me and-!" His words were cut off by Yaoyorozu enveloping him in a surprisingly strong hug. Despite his protests, she kept on holding him. It was then he realized that the last time he received a hug was from his parents when he left for UA. This thought made his own eyes begin to water, as the emotions crashing together became too much to bear. He gingerly wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug. It was fairly weak, since he was scared about overstepping his boundaries. He felt her hold him tighter, and she whispered that everything was alright. Then, everything fell apart for Mineta. The tears freely flowed down his cheeks as he held on to her. Right now, she was the only source of comfort for him in such an emotionally vulnerable state. He held on tight as she kneeled down next to him and pulled him close. It was something neither of them would ever expect to happen.
Mineta rubbed his eyes until he felt better. Once he was able to speak, he now had his own burning question. "Why did you do that? You could have left me here after I told my sob story," he didn't want to admit it but his background did sound like an excuse for his personal failings.
"It's not just what you went through at your old school, it's seeing how you've changed. Just by doing such simple things like looking out for me and realizing what you were doing was wrong shows such great personal growth!" Yaoyorozu was practically beaming by the end of that sentence. Similar to when she tutored her other classmates, she loved being able to help someone struggling and see them grow.
Mineta looked away for a bit, but then returned her gaze with a smile – a real, genuine smile. This was the first one he's had in a long time. Normally with Kaminari they're just goofing off, but this time was something special. Yaoyorozu stood up and offered him a hand, the smile on her face shining like the moon outside. He took it and stood up, glad to have decided to come into the gym on this fateful night. Checking his phone again, he realized that the curfew was about to start!
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! We're totally gonna be late for the curfew!" He said with panic going back into his veins after a long absence. However, that was all he got out as she grabbed him by the collar, threw him on her back, then sprinted to the dorm buildings. It was just like the Sports Festival, except this time she wanted him there. They barely managed to barrel through the doors before the automatic lock sealed shut behind them.
"I'm glad you let me sleep, I would have never made it if I was as tired as before," Yaoyorozu stated while still sucking air into her lungs. Mineta scrambled to the common area to get a glass of water. She thanked him again with a dazzling smile, which he was still not accustomed to. Mineta looked around and realized everyone must have been asleep or in their rooms.
Mineta broke the silence, "Hey Yaoyorozu, what was your dream about earlier? You didn't look like you were in a good place." She looked away with a frown, as it must have been something personal.
She looked away, then responded, "I had a dream that I failed doing something and people died because of it. Everyone hated me… so that's why I went to the gym and trained until I passed out. I figured I would feel better after doing that but I had the same nightmare again." These insecurities were familiar to Mineta, as he remembered her almost losing her mind while training with Todoroki. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she laughed the pain away. He didn't want to overstep his boundaries and give her a hug, but a little contact would go a long way for helping her feel better. She noticed the hand on her shoulder and turned to look up at him. She gave him another bright smile as she stood up, now recovered from the exhausting sprint. Mineta noticed how he had to slightly stretch his arm when she stood up. She seemed to notice this as well and let out a small, yet cute, laugh. This time he blushed and removed his hand, then scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. These kinds of sincere moments would take some getting used to. Until then, he just glad to finally be on the right path.
As they both started walking towards their rooms, they each agreed to talk to each other more often. Before she closed her door, Mineta promised that the old version of him was long gone, and she was glad to hear that. They each went to their own rooms. As he lie awake in bed, he talked out loud to himself, "Who would have guessed being a decent person would make people like me!"
So there it is everyone! I know Mineta deserves much of the hate he gets but I figured I could make a sympathetic, and hopefully good, story for him. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
EDIT: Hey, if I should make another chapter then let me know in a review!