Twisted Nightmares
Chapter 7
Why are you acting this way?
At the mention of the furry principal, it made Midoriya frown. "Principal Ne-" He began.
His thought was cut off by chuckling from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see Mineta giggling to himself. His odd actions caused Midoriya to blink innocently. Had he missed a joke? Had something happened while he had been thinking to himself?
Sero however had a guess about what the boy sitting on the floor was laughing about. He remembered Mineta's words to Kaminari and Mina earlier.
"But I'll pass. Unlike you two." Mineta's words rang in Sero's mind, and he understood why he was laughing now.
Sero had a bad feeling about this. Especially how his classmates would react to Mineta.
"What are you laughing about?" Yaoyorozu said, rather irritated. Mineta's face had that one smug look that drove people like her insane, and his suddenly smug attitude wasn't helping his case.
Mineta attempted to stifle his giggles. "Sorry," He said, getting up on his feet and dusting himself off. "It's just that it's kinda sad how Mina and Kaminari are gonna fail against the principal, it's kind of amusing since he's just a little rodent."
Out of all the perverted, bratty things Mineta could of blurted out, Yaoyorozu hadn't been expecting that.
Even Recovery Girl leaned back in her chair to look at Mineta in surprise, obviously taken off guard at his rather disgustingly snide comment.
Midoriya looked back nervously. What was Mineta trying to say? Was the grape haired boy getting worked up again at the mention of Mina and Kaminari?
Yaoyorozu seemed to voice his concerns. "What are you trying to say Mineta?"
Mineta looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "I'm saying that they'll fail. Nezu is too smart for them."
Even the Pro Hero Recovery Girl didn't take his casual insults lightly. "I'd suggest rephrasing that Mineta, those are your classmates. You should show them a little respect."
"Like Bakugo respected me when I dared question him?" Mineta huffed, recalling when Bakugo showed some sparks in a failed attempt to threaten him, and no one had really done anything. To be fair, he should of told an adult about Bakugo's attempted assault. But no one had really brought it up, so he technically couldn't blame them. But even Midoriya hadn't mentioned anything about it... well at least to Mineta's knowledge. He wasn't going to start pointing fingers. Not yet, at least.
His snide commentary got him a frown out of Recovery Girl, who turned back to the screen, muttering something about kids and their manners these days.
"Even so," Iida countered. "They are still your classmates, and your friends! I implore you to show respect! Showing disrespect towards your allies is not very heroic at all!" He had begun to chop his hand in the air violently, which was in character for Mineta's bespectacled classmate.
"Yeah!" Mineta said, voice full of sarcasm. "Like how they said people like me were only likable if I was dumb?" Mineta rolled his eyes just thinking about them. It was actually really funny how the school decided to put the two lowest ranking students in midterms from Class A against a Pro who's quirk was based around high intelligence.
He frowned as he thought about it. The higher ups at UA who decided the teams and who fought who obviously had a sick sense of humor. Whoever it was, Mineta wanted to shake their hand, since it was actually rather amusing in hindsight.
"Still," Tsuyu had decided to hop on the 'Scold Mineta' train as well. "It's not nice to be talking about them like that. Insult or not, they're your should stop." Tsuyu's stern tone implied that she didn't want to be argued with, but Mineta wasn't about to back down.
Mineta made a noise of obvious disgust, ready with a sarcastic retort. Then the only voice that couldn't be argued against decided to chime in.
It was Midoriya. The green haired boy knew things would only get worse if he allowed Mineta to get worked up even more, and he had to stop it now, before it got bad, so he spoke his mind. "Mineta," Midoriya said calmly. He had that sad/concerned expression on again, the one that drove Mineta up the damn wall. "How are you going to be a hero with an attitude like that?"
Yay. Mineta couldn't wait to hear what Midoriya had to say next, because he knew he was probably in for a earful from the green haired boy.
Midoriya's took the grape haired boy's silence as an OK to continue. "A hero should always be kind! And they shouldn't be a bad person, people will look up to us when we're heroes! We can't just lash out at others because of something they did. We can't just hold on to our negative feelings! You should treat others how you want to be treated!" Iida nodded at Midoriya's points, giving an affirmative "Hm!" in agreement.
He wanted to make a sarcastic comment at first, but backed down from the stares of the other students. Unless you were the tragedy that was Bakugo, insulting Midoriya usually wouldn't end well for you.
Mineta quietly stared, almost considering his friend's words. He wanted to say something, but held is tongue in fear of upsetting Midoriya. Midoriya had done nothing to him, why should he take it out on him?
Seeing that arguing with Midoriya would get him nowhere, Mineta huffed, accepting defeat and plopping back down on the floor. It seemed that Midoriya was victorious once more. "Hmph." Mineta hoped that was a good enough response for Midoriya, before the green haired boy started asking something among the lines of "What would All Might do" or something like that. Apparently that seemed to satisfy Midoriya, he made a little noise and turned back around to watch the screen.
Slowly, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, and Sero turned back around. Tsuyu took the longest, for she took one last look at Mineta, since her warning bells were screaming now.
Bullying definitely wasn't something Mineta was well known for either.
She noted that after everyone else had turned around, his smug smile slowly started to come back.
When Kaminari's and Mina's exam began, Mineta turned to watch the screen as well. He looked forward to watching them fail.
And, holy hell, was it glorious. Watching the two low scoring students run around a training city as the principal commandeered a damn wrecking ball was actually pretty struggled not to burst out and laughter as the they idiotically ran around the city in full panic for the entirety of their exam. Mineta would probably felt bad for them, if it wasn't so damn hilarious.
His smile grew as they grew more panicked and desperately tried to find a way to the exit, only for them to end up in a pile of rubble. He felt amusement tingle in his stomach.
"Team Ashido and Kaminari retires due to running out of time."
Utter defeat. That's all the pink skinned girl from Class A was feeling right now. Just crippling, utter, defeat. Mina clenched her fists and grit her teeth in frustration. How had this happened? This was a little furry animal that beat them, and embarrassed them in front of the entire UA. The shame she felt built up in her stomach, or was that acid? She felt like she wanted to throw up. But her empty stomach had nothing to offer, so she just collapsed, not saying a word.
Kaminari was trying to keep his cool, he clenched his fists and unclenched them periodically, trying to keep in his anger and shame. He should of passed this! This was supposed to be a piece of cake! But they failed! The realization of his failure made a recent memory pop up, that involved a certain grape head.
"You'll fail," Mineta said to their faces.
And he was right. The little pipsqueak had said it so confidently as well. In front of his classmates, no less. How the hell did he know that? Was it a lucky guess?Since Mineta's recent actions these past days, Kaminari had stopped hanging out with him. Almost like they disliked each other now, because Mineta had been changing. And he had been changing for the worst.
But now, he had failed, and made himself look like a complete and utter idiot. All the teachers saw him fail. What would they think of him now? What would his friends say? What would his friends think? He couldn't get these negative thoughts out of his head, as they slowly built up inside him.
He punched a piece of wall sticking out of the debris pile. "FUCK!" He shouted and continued to pummel the slab of cement, even when he was pretty sure that his knuckles had started bleeding. Anger and shame clouded his mind, he couldn't think straight.
Mina however, couldn't even cry, or throw a tantrum. She just felt so exhausted and frustrated. She settled for quietly sitting on the ground and putting her face in her hands just in case if she cried, the cameras couldn't see it. If they did, they'd broadcast it to whoever the hell actually bothered to watch her do the exam. Hopefully no one. She held her face in her shaky hands, not saying a word. Just silence.
"Kaminari, Ashido," Midoriya said solemnly.
"They really couldn't do a thing," Iida said. "They must be very frustrated."
The door behind them opened and the group turned to see that Uraraka had returned. The brown haired girl jogged in with a unhappy expression on her face. "What? Mina's team lost?" her voice betrayed her sadness on her friends failing.
Yaoyorozu nodded sadly. "Yes. The principal's strategy was too perfect."
"Really? That's too bad!" Uraraka said. It bummed her out to see them not pass.
"Uraraka! Congratulations for passing your exam!" Iida said, pushing up his glasses.
She nodded happily at her bespectacled classmate. "Thanks! You too Iida!"
Yaoyorozu noted that Mineta's smile was so big that it gave All Might a run for his money. But All Might never had the smug cockiness that Mineta currently held in his smile.
"Oh my word, I can't believe they failed." Mineta said sarcastically. "This is completely unheard of, how is this happening?" Mineta blurted out. He was having that smug look, to Yaoyorozu's annoyance. She despised that look.
The other students turned to where the grape haired boy that was sitting on the floor. He currently had his hand over his mouth to conceal the huge grin of amusement. But Sero, Yaoyorozu, and Tsuyu seemed to catch on to his antics already.
"I told you they'd fail." Mineta said with a blank expression. He forced himself to hold in the smug smile that threatened to break out. "They should of planned." He remembered looking them dead in the eye and telling them. Why didn't they listen? Probably pride.
Uraraka was seeing this for the first time however, and shot a worried look at the green haired boy standing next to her. Midoriya just seemed to have a hopeless look in his eyes. It seemed he didn't completely understand why this was happening either. Seeing as how Mineta seemed to be mostly glaring at Tsuyu and Yaoyorozu, he took the second to lean in close to Uraraka.
"Mineta's been insulting Kaminari and Mina, even before they failed the exam. I think it's because they said something to him earlier in class, and I think Mineta took it to heart." Midoriya whispered.
Uraraka's eyebrows went downwards as she frowned. "Mineta usually isn't like this, he's been changing, hasn't he?" Uraraka knew Mineta pretty well from his perverted reputation, and she knew something was wrong.
Midoriya nodded. "Ever since last week..." Midoriya didn't like the grape haired boy's hostile attitude towards everything now. It wasn't a very heroic attitude to be having.
As Midoriya and Uraraka whispered to each other, the conversation continued with the other students.
Yaoyorozu gave Mineta a dirty look in disgust. "You should watch what you say about them." She didn't like him badmouthing her friends. During their study sessions before the written exams, Yaoyorozu had become good friends with Mina and Kaminari. To see them fail hurt her heart, but for Mineta to start making fun and insulting them...it made her mad.
Mineta just shrugged, obviously not caring too much about what Yaoyorozu had to say. "As soon as they stop saying stuff about me."
The frog girl had a deadpan expression."You should still show them respect, ribbit." Tsuyu said. Her voice betrayed a tad bit of irritation, which Mineta picked up on. He just rolled his eyes at her comment. Fat chance of that, friendo.
Irritably pushing up his glasses, Iida turned towards Mineta. "Even if they did not pass, it's incredibly disrespectful to rub salt into their wounds!" Iida declared, once more hand chopping the air.
Sero, a bit fed up with Mineta's attitude as well, decided to add his two cents. "Even if they disrespected you earlier, you should be like, the bigger man right?" If Mineta was trying to act like an adult, he could at least try to see reason right? Or was he just being snobby a gain?
In reality Mineta knew what Sero was trying to get at, and it was a noble thought to have, but Mineta couldn't really care less. Those two thought they could just insult him without thinking he'd retaliate, well they were incorrect about that. He turned to Sero "I don't think I can be the bigger man Sero. Height isn't exactly something I have." Mineta said sarcastically.
That seemed to slightly irritate the tape boy. He shook his head. "No, I mean like, be the mature one in the situation!" His voice had a tinge of the smallest amount of anger. Mineta would give it to Sero, he held his anger in well. He smugly looked back at the others. "Ok, I'll tell you what." Mineta said to the group of students. "If I lose my exam, I'll apologize to Kaminari and Mina for what I said. Sound good?" That was a fair deal, right? Well, at least he thought it was fair.
"No!" Midoriya said as he joined the conversation, shaking his head. He seemed to be done whispering with Uraraka. "You should still be nice to them either way! Stop being difficult!"
The grape haired boy simply rolled his eyes."Don't worry," Mineta said, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "I will." But his voice told Midoriya that he probably wasn't going to stop being difficult any time soon.
Uraraka gave Mineta a glance, then patted Midoriya's back sympathetically. The two students turned back around to look at the screen. Seemed that conversation was over then. That, or they just gave up.
Tsuyu, Iida, Sero, and Yaoyorozu gave him one last look before joining Midoriya.
He ignored any other sounds, as he closed his eyes for a power nap. He already knew the results of the other exams as well, so he could ignore them, and he was pretty sure no one really wanted to talk to him right now.
But for his exam, he was indecisive. Should he just play ignorant, let Sero throw him, and take the easy win after trapping Midnight? He was always proud of outsmarting the Pro Hero ever since he did it the first time. What he really wanted was to get the cuffs on her, to prove Mina wrong. He wouldn't just run away. After the horn signaling the succession of Jirou and Koda, Mineta had made up his mind.
Another rewrite done. As I'm posting this, I'm on hiatus from other stories, so the main focus is rewriting! Review/Fav/Follow if you enjoy this story.
