Hey everyone! In just two weeks since the first chapter, this story is officially the second most reviewed Mineta story on the entire site! Just five more reviews will make this number one. To make things even more incredible, this story alone has gotten over 4,000 hits since it was posted. You've all been wonderful! I really appreciate the support!

To thank you all, and to celebrate these milestones, Chapter Ten will be a bit special. Featuring not one, but TWO main characters, please welcome Deku and Lord Explosion Murder to the stage! :D

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Reviewers who requested Bakugo and Izuku: NRSB, Zuzuzuki, Blank C

*Guest reviews italicized

Thanks everyone! ^o^

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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the things! Not even one of them!

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Things had been quiet for the past few days, without even a gruesome death or a string of especially bad luck to liven things up. Mineta had been enjoying his break to the fullest. Every breath was wonderful, and even classes seemed less boring than usual.

There was just one thing which was out of the ordinary.

Bakugo kept staring at him.

Staring as if annoyed and confused and furious all at once, his crimson eyes piercing and his mouth twisted into a scowl of frustration. He constantly rapped his finger against his desk, or tapped his foot on the ground, as if the storm of questions in his head were leaking out in his movements. He'd even stopped bullying Izuku as much, opting to ignore his childhood victim while his attention was so diverted.

It wasn't the worst thing Mineta could imagine Bakugo doing, but it was distracting. Every time he looked up, it seemed like Bakugo's angry scowl was looking back at him.

He would have asked what his problem was. Really. If he hadn't been afraid it would result in him being blown up. Or eviscerated. Or otherwise maimed, beaten, exploded, or murdered. Mineta's annoyance was not worth getting killed over.

And so, he ignored Bakugo as much as he could, pretending the spiky haired blond was a gorgeous tsundere woman staring at him with erotic frustration instead to pass the time, until one day he looked up to see Bakugo standing in front of his desk.

Mineta jumped. He couldn't help himself. Bakugo held his bag carelessly over one shoulder with a single hand, glaring down at the tiny boy.

"Have I killed you yet?"

Mineta was already shaking his head as he answered, his heart pounding like a jack rabbits. "N-No?"

"Tch," Bakugo said, turning away without another word, leaving Mineta staring after him with confused terror.

It was quiet until a few days later, until just after a particularly grueling training regimen, when Bakugo appeared in front of him again. "How about now?" Bakugo demanded, scowling ferociously at the grape hero. "Have I killed you?"

"No!" Mineta answered, and Bakugo glowered as he stalked away, kicking a garbage can over as he went.

Mineta closed the door of his locker later that day to find Bakugo glaring at him from behind it. "How about now?" the explosive hero snarled, frowning with annoyance.

"Look, I'll tell you when you kill me!" Mineta burst back.

"Promise me," Bakugo deadpanned, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "And if you don't, I'll annihilate you."

"Fine, I promise!" Mineta said shrilly, and the explosion hero walked away with a final glare. Mineta yelled at his back. "Why do you want to know, anyways, are you the devil?"

Bakugo didn't respond, leaving Mineta staring after him with a confused mix of emotions in his tiny heart.

Despite his promise, Bakugo seemed to become more and more tense as the days went by, especially after hearing the stories of Mineta's deaths by the hands of four second year students with elemental Quirks. But Mineta didn't have time to worry about him, especially after he lost all his sparring matches in a single day. He booked a training room, already annoyed at the loss of his free time, and Iida promised to train with him.

In retrospect, Mineta shouldn't have been so surprised when he opened the door to see Bakugo instead of their class rep, his arms folded and a grin of anticipation on his face. It was late enough in the day that the training room was empty, including the battle arena in the center of the equipment and seating.

Of course, Mineta automatically tried to leave, but the doorknob snapped off in his tiny hands, leaving him trapped.

"Your bad luck gets worse when you're in danger" Bakugo called out behind him, standing on the battle arena in his full hero costume. "And the jinx will actively prevent your rescue by others."

As if on cue, the security cameras smoked and hissed. The flat screen monitors went fuzzy with static as their video source was cut off.

It was just bad luck that the security guard watching the monitors happened to fall asleep a few moments prior.

Just bad luck that the training room wasn't being used by other heroes at that exact moment, despite the busy school.

Bakugo grinned as Mineta slowly turned to look at him with shaking knees and wide eyes, his expression downright demonic. "You wanted to spar, didn't you, Tiny Grapes? Bring it on."

Fire bloomed in his palm, and he empathized his final words by hurling a weight at Mineta with the full force of his Quirk. It tore through the air like a hulking, twenty pound bullet, and crushed itself into a flat plate against the wall above Mineta's head.

If he hadn't ducked on reflex, with a totally manly shriek, Mineta might have…

"Come on!" Bakugo shouted, his vivid red eyes alight with battle fever. "Use your Quirk. Try to defeat me! Give me everything you've got, and die screaming!" With explosions snarling in his palms, Bakugo surged forward, the flares of light from his crackling explosive power reflecting in Mineta's terrified eyes.

'With him in the air like that, I can't stick him to the ground!' Mineta realized in a panic, throwing sticky balls anyways, forcing Bakugo to dodge to either side as he advanced. 'He's gonna blow me up! I knew it, I just knew it!'

Bakugo's next explosion slammed against the ground, hurling him in the air above Mineta's final, desperate barrage of balls. Two more explosions in quick succession changed his momentum forward, then back down at Mineta diagonally, his palm outstretched with sparking nitroglycerin gathering in his hand…

The death he expected never came, as something struck Bakugo bodily from the side. Mineta looked up from his huddled spot on the ground, uncovering his eyes.

Izuku Midoriya breathed hard, his fist still outstretched, odd power surging and sparking around his body. "Kacchan…I thought you might try something like this…but I hoped I was wrong! When I heard you ask Iida to take his place in sparring, I knew I had to see for myself. I've been waiting here since class ended!" He straightened, his normally calm eyes shining with hurt and betrayal. "Why, Kacchan? Even if he's cursed, Mineta is still our classmate! Why are you trying to kill him?"

Bakugo picked himself up from the rack of weights his back had slammed into, spitting blood to the side disdainfully. Despite the pain the blow must have caused, his rough voice betrayed no discomfort. "What are you talking about? I'm the 'traitor'. Can't you tell?" Explosions blossomed between his palms and he shot forward, his fist striking the place Izuku's head had been. The green haired hero dodged with such speed Mineta could barely follow it, but Bakugo didn't give him time to counter, flying just out of reach.

"No!" Midoriya shouted, his fist creaking as he clenched his muscles. "Your eyes, Kacchan…your eyes aren't gold!" He blocked Bakugo's explosive punch with his crossed arms, his feet skidding back a few inches on the ground. His eyes went wide as Bakugo's other fist shot towards his face, and Izuku rolled to the side, pushing off with enhanced strength as he straightened to counter with his own right handed punch in a flash. Bakugo's power exploded down, the explosive strike sending him safely upwards while searing his opponent below him in the same move.

"What does it matter, you damn nerd?" Bakugo snarled, baring his teeth as he smiled, the constant explosions casting stark shadows along the angles of his face. "He'll come back to life anyways! No one will remember this but him, not even the school! What does it matter if I kill him?" His words were a howl over the double handed explosion he fired at the green haired boy…and Mineta, behind him.

Midoriya only had a second to react. He dove towards the wall, snatching Mineta with one arm, and pushed off the wall with both legs with all his strength. He cried out as the explosion burned his lower legs, his speed just too slow to carry them to safety entirely.

His heroic rescue seemed to make Bakugo more furious. "Why are you protecting him? He's scum! Biojinx cursed him for a reason! He'll probably grow up to be a villain someday! Unless this curse gets bad enough that he's willing to try and change, he's just going to continue to be scum!"

"The only villain I see here is you, Kacchan!" Midoriya howled, setting Mineta down as he blocked an explosion with a nearby table, the metal shining red hot as it absorbed the blow.

They seemed more interested in fighting each other than in Mineta. He scooted to the side, and scrambled behind some exercise equipment, hardly daring to believe his good luck. Hopefully they would beat each other down, and Mineta wouldn't have to do a single thing. He hid and waited…and shrieked as another weight crashed into his hiding place, sending the machine skidding back against the floor. A bar slammed into Mineta's head before it settled, and shining sparks flew in front of his vision dizzily, his head ringing like a drum.

He heard Midoriya cry out with pain, and Bakugo's victorious shout.

"Mineta!" Izuku called out, his echoing voice cutting through the haze of the grape hero's mind. And then: "No, Kacchan, don't!"

An explosion roared, a crash echoed around the room, and when Mineta looked up, he saw Izuku standing in front of him, his arms outstretched and smoking, with a stunned Bakugo staring at him through his mask.

How had he moved so quickly? Mineta gaped, wondering if he was just confused because of his concussion. Surely Midoriya hadn't been able to cross the room in the blink of an eye…

"You can't!" Izuku gasped, his torso burned and bare. "He's still…our classmate! You can't kill him for no reason!"

Bakugo didn't attack right away, his voice shaking with fury. "You fucking nerd…everything you do pisses me off! Just once, can't you see things my way? Just once can't you stop being such a pathetic weakling?"

Midoriya smiled. It was a sad smile, resigned and without much hope. "I can't do it, Kacchan. Even if he deserves it. Even if he has it coming somehow! I could never…"

He stopped.

Stopped mid-sentence, his arms falling to his sides.

And power surged under his skin like living lightning, so powerful the air around him hummed with strength, and when he tilted his head back to look at Mineta, his golden eyes were bright with hatred.

In the same second, the same instant, he tore the heavy exercise machine away from Mineta like it weighed nothing at all, exposing the concussed hero on the ground.

Bakugo looked like fucking Christmas had come early. Like it was the best day of his life. "Oh, hell yes!" he shouted, as Deku's super powered fist surged towards the ground, shattering the concrete into a crater of destroyed rock, making the terrain nearly impossible for Mineta to evade them on. "Finally!" he shouted, his predatory grin widening as explosions roared behind him, and his legs snapped Mineta's head to the side with two consecutive kicks.

Mineta knew he should fight back, knew he was actually in trouble now, but his head was muzzy, and his limbs wouldn't respond right away. His ears rang, and he tasted blood…

Midoriya's punch shattered his ribs like matchsticks, and he surged backwards like a bullet, only to be struck by Bakugo's explosive, destructive power from behind, which shot him back towards Deku.

"Catch, you damn nerd!" Bakugo howled, clearly enjoying himself.

"One for All…" Midoriya shouted, his muscles creaking as his clenched fist shone with power. "One hundred percent!" His fist connected with Mineta's stomach, and it was like every bone in his body shattered at once. Maybe they did. Mineta couldn't even scream as his back hit the ruined floor with meteoric power…

But when he looked up, Bakugo was above him, his twin grenade gauntlets shining with bloody light. "Die, you damn extra!" he shouted, and a hellish explosion of fire rained down on him with a burst of gold and scarlet, the heat so intense Mineta's shattered bones were seared black before they disintegrated into dust.

Black smoke filled the destroyed room, swirling over the destroyed floor, which featured a brand new crater of molten hot rock with an ashen smear in the center. Bakugo laughed, clutching his stomach.

Izuku shook his head, touching his forehead faintly as the gold faded from his eyes. "Kacchan! What happened here?"

"You fucking killed Mineta, that's what happened," Bakugo snorted through his laughter. "Punched him to oblivion! That might be the first useful thing you've ever done."

Izuku looked down at his shattered arm, which did indeed look like it had destroyed Mineta. Panic sparked through his eyes, and his voice went high with shock. "But I didn't mean to! I must have been the traitor, right? Oh no, what would All Might say? And if I killed him, where did all this smoke come from?"

Bakugo didn't answer. He was still laughing when the current reality faded, whispering back into a possibility.

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