Twisted Nightmares
Chapter 2
Something's wrong.
Mineta was currently being comforted by his mother, who sensed something was wrong when she heard gasps coming from her sons room. She had leaped into action and had found him silently sobbing in his sleep, and grabbing at his chest like it was hurting. She immediately took action, hugging the small boy and whispered words of comfort. It had eventually worked, the small boy waking up, and the small sobs coming from the small boy transitioned to simply quiet gasps.
If they had stayed that way, Mineta was pretty sure he would have fallen back asleep. All that was missing was his mother singing him a lullaby like he was a toddler again. He did feel his eyelids threaten to close, since the supposed threat to him had now been vanquished. And with his mother comforting him, he didn't mind her tucking him in and quietly walking out. He'd probably conk out under 5 minutes if she did. He felt exhausted.
"Minoru."
The yearn for rest was stopped however, as his savior's voice stopped him from closing his eyes.
Resisting the urge to groan at any chance of sleep being taken away from him, he looked up at his mother. The worry on the woman's face was clear as day. "What happened sweetie?" She said softly, not wanting to push for an answer, but still wanted some closure on the topic.
He squinted his eyes, searching his memories for an answer. Then the emotions all hit him at once. He remembered every single detail.
"Stay with us Mineta!"
"Oh stars, he's bleeding everywhere..."
"I don't want to die."
The horrible thoughts made him start to tear up again, terrified. His mother instinctively stroked his head in an effort to calm the frightened child. Mineta was thankful she wasn't pushing him for an answer. Mineta didn't see any advantage of lying to his mother about it. "I...I had a really bad dream," Mineta whispered. And it was true. It was probably the worst dream...no, nightmare he had ever had.
His pathetic tinny voice seemed to have triggered a protective response from his mother, for she hugged him even tighter than before. "It was just a nightmare honey, it never happened." She said soothingly. Mineta repeated that to himself in his head like a mantra.
Just a nightmare...
Just a nightmare...
Mineta understood it was probably just a nightmare. But it was still a horrifying thing to experience either way. He just hoped that the camp would be different then in his dream, because it had felt terrifyingly real. Thank All Might for his mother, if she wasn't here he probably would have had a panic attack. Being alone after having a nightmare like that...
His mother looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated. She took a deep breath and whispered to him."Minoru, sweetie. Are you just nervous for the exams?"
Mineta's train of thought went completely blank. His thoughts came to a complete halt.
Exams?
Those words seemed to freeze Mineta's world. The exams? Hadn't he already take the exams? The exams where he and his classmate Sero faced off against the 18+ Pro Hero Midnight? Was that a dream too? His mind raced with questions and possibilities. How was that even possible?
He could have been just pondering these things for long minutes, if his mother hadn't spoke up again.
"What's wrong Minoru?" His mother had noticed his silence.
Mineta shook his head, eyes squeezing out more tears. "U-um, n-nothing." He mentally slapped himself after saying that. She's not gonna buy that, what a half assed response.
One look on her face told Mineta that she wasn't buying it. Mineta's mother was a lot of things, and gullible was not one of them. She looked at him with a concerned expression. While rubbing away another tear that managed to escape Mineta's eyes, she spoke in a hushed tone. "Honey, if there's something wrong, I'm can tell me." Her sweet voice almost made Mineta break. How was he supposed to explain that his dream was the possible future? That he had gotten butchered by a villain, and had to watch as his few friends mourned him? That he had felt himself dying? He decided to risk lying to his mom. His mom who just wanted to help him, and wanted what was best for him.
"Y-you're right Mom." Mineta said with a shaky smile. It was the best one he could come up with. "I'm really nervous about the exams. They're probably gonna be really difficult, including the practical."
Lady Luck seemed to smile upon Mineta, as his mom's concerned expression eventually turned into a small smile. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she decided not to press it. " Mineta, sweetie, it's perfectly alright to be nervous. It's completely normal." His mother said softly. "Thank you for being honest with me." Her voice was genuine, and Mineta knew she had bought it. He didn't feel good.
Her words of her believing him hammered the final nail in his theoretical coffin. There was no going back now. He put on another false smile. "You're welcome mom." Mineta tried not to let his smile break, for it felt like it was going to shatter.
The school day passed by any other day, considering how most classes went at UA. But for some reason it felt oddly familiar, but Mineta couldn't put his finger on it. Classes went by per usual, but it wasn't until later that day, Mineta realized something was very, very, wrong.
It was during one of the classes he had with Aizawa, AKA the Pro Hero Eraserhead. The topics were pretty normal, but was nearing the end of the class, the problem revealed itself.
Aizawa currently held a stack of papers in his hands. Why did this feel so familiar?
"That's it for class," Aizawa announced to his students. His gaze was glued to the papers he held, not even bothering to look up. At his students. Breathing in, he glanced up. "There's only one week until the final exams."
Mineta found his train of thought once more coming to a grinding halt as Aizawa said those words.
What. Mineta felt like he was paralyzed. He was hit with the world's biggest case of deja vu. Mineta didn't exactly have the memory of an elephant, but why did it sound so damn familiar? Like he had heard this before?
The roomed seemed to turn deathly quiet for Mineta, but he was partially aware that Aizawa was still talking about something. He watched as Aizawa finished his announcement for the class, and promptly exited the room. Something suddenly popped up in Mineta's subconscious. He remembered... his friends, Mina and Kaminari. There were about to shout something, about their studiess...
"I HAVEN'T STUDIED AT ALL!" Mina and Kaminari shouted, Mina with a big smile, and Kaminari with a terrified expression, most likely the electric boy realized the consequences for the lack of studying.
Mineta felt a chill run up his spine. This had happened before! Did it? This did...
No. No. No damn way. He refused. He would not accept that as a reality.
It would be a huge coincidence if not. Mineta prayed it was coincidence. It was a coincidence! It had do be! Mineta felt himself relax a little. As long as Mina and Kaminari didn't began shouting at him for something, he'd be fine. He had a hazy memory of their anger at something he did. What had he done again?
Deep in thought now, Mineta stared blankly forward, his mind full of what-if scenarios his brain could think up for him. He began to subconsciously tune out any of the other conversations around him, ignoring the chattering of his fellow classmates about their studying. It was only when he heard accusatory shouts aimed at him Mineta broke free of his subconscious. How long had he been zoning out? He was aware that a certain horned pink girl and a blonde spiky haired boy were shouting at him now.
"Ninth place?!" Kaminari and Mina cried, mortified at the little grape pervert placing above them.
Mineta was confused. Ninth place wasn't that bad, was it? He wasn't the top genius of the class, that honor went to a certain student with a creating quirk. The tones of their voices implied they were angry. Did he do something wrong? His mind went blank, as his brain could not fetch any answers.
"And here I thought you were one of us!" Mina screeched, her high pitched voice slightly made Mineta wince.
Kaminari did not seem to be very pleased at the situation either. "Guys like you are only likeable if they're dumb!"
Dumb?
He wasn't dumb. Mineta knew that very well. Why the hell were they calling him dumb?
Mineta felt angry at Kaminari's harsh words. He was not dumb. He decided to counter by turning halfway towards the electric boy, and glared at him icily. The anger Mineta felt, it didn't feel natural at all, but it was like he was on autopilot, and couldn't stop himself. He was in the right here, he was defending himself.
The blonde boy fell silent under Mineta's disturbingly angry gaze.
"Are you two finished?" Mineta spat angrily. What was their issue? Why did they insult him? He studied! He worked hard! He did his work. They didn't, why did they direct their anger at him.
The blonde boy and pink girl in question couldn't find an answer to Mineta's venomous question. They clearly did not expect such an angry response from Mineta.
Luckily, Mineta's angry reply wasn't too loud, as it didn't seem to catch any of the other student's attention. He silently thanked his lucky stars.
Someone else seemed to want to speak to the two students in front of him. "Ashido! Kaminari!" A voice called from behind them. The two turned to see bushy green hair greeted them, and a winning smile from none other them Midoriya Izuku himself. "L-Let's do our best!" Midoriya said cheerfully. "We all want to go to training camp together, right?" The boy obviously wanted to cheer up the two lowest scoring students in the class, as their chances of passing the exams as of now were pretty low.
"Yes! As class rep I also have high hopes you'll all be moved to action!" Iida had stood up to hand chop and chime in with Midoriya in his encouraging efforts. Even Todoroki joined in as well, saying something Mineta didn't pay attention to. Because Mineta wasn't focused on their conversations at the current moment. For he had a new issue to deal with. After he broke off the glare he had given Mina and Kaminari, Mineta found himself under the gaze of Izuku Midoriya.
Being under the judgmental gaze of Midoriya Izuku was probably in the "Top 10 Worst Things That Could Happen To You In UA" The worst part is that it was never an irritated look. When you knew you messed up badly, Midoriya would give you a sad look with those green eyes of his, like he was very concerned about you, and it seemed like he wanted to say something, but didn't want to offend or anger you. So unless it was a bad enough situation, Midoriya would just give you the "Sad Look". Even if you had no idea what you did, his gaze would manage to make you feel guilty about something. Looking at Midoriya when he was sad was comparable to looking at a kicked puppy. It was just so sad.
Damn. It seemed that Midoriya had noticed Mineta's little angry outburst towards the two lowest scoring students. He'd probably would try to ask if something was wrong.
Mineta prayed that Midoriya would spare him.
Just look away, don't ask, don't ask, don't ask...
Luck smiled upon Mineta once more, and Midoriya eventually turned away to rejoin the conversation with the other students that wanted his attention. Mineta released his breath. He didn't even know he had been holding his breath. Ugh, Midoriya really knew how to wrack someone's nerves, that's for sure.
After his little convo with Kaminari and Mina, Mineta had certainly had his fill of that class. He went to lunch, and relived the moment where the one short haired blonde taunted his friends, and the orange haired girl gave him a good chop. It felt like a blur, since lunch usually progressed the same way, even if it was somehow a time loop. Monoma still grinded Mineta's gears, but Mineta was pretty sure the pretentious blonde would always be like that. Hell, the blonde probably grinded everyone's gears.
On the topic of the time loop, only now had Mineta decided to give it some thought. Was it a time loop? Had he seen the future? Was this a bad future where he could change it? His mind raced with ideas. Not a single recorded quirk in history had any time related powers. Right? Unless it was a huge coincidence that he seemed to be reliving the past, did he have a second quirk? It wasn't exactly common, but having two quirks wasn't exactly unheard of. Take Todoroki for example, he had the power of ice and fire, though he couldn't control them simultaneously sadly.
But still. A freaking TIME quirk? He felt so confused. That was stuff you never saw in real life, only in the comics or something.
After he finished his lunch and headed back to class. He found himself reliving another moment from his past when the hot headed Bakugo scolding Mina and Kaminari for being cocky about the practical.
Wait a minute. He knew exactly what was coming next...
"Hey, Deku!"
Oh, boy. Bakugo. Right. This was when Bakugo came to scold "Deku" about something, and how he was so much better.
Yeah right.
The entire classroom seemed to stop in time, the activity in the room coming to a grinding halt. Now everyone's focus was now on Izuku and Bakugo, who currently were looking right at each other.
Mineta rolled his eyes. Here we go...
The angry Bakugo continued his rant. "I don't know if you figured out how to use your quirk a little or what, but you seriously keep rubbing me the wrong way." Bakugo's tone was full of anger and hate.
Mineta heard hushed voices from behind, and he turned to see that there was whispering from Ochako and Mina. They mentioned about how Midoriya used a similar move set when he was racing. Which was true. Mineta faintly remembered how the green haired boy mimicked the explosive boy's moves during the race. Bakugo had a rather angry expression on his face, that was for sure.
Bakugo continued in a irritated tone. "I don't need another half assed result like at the sports festival. At the upcoming finals, we'll get individual scores. So we'll see whos better whether we like it or not." His eyes were full of even more anger, if that was possible.
Bakugo pointed a finger at poor Izuku, and would of continued normally like last time-
If it weren't for Mineta and his big mouth. He suddenly remembered what Bakugo declared last time. Didn't he say something like...
"I'll beat you with an indisputable difference!"
"I'll beat you with an indisputable difference!"
Whatever Bakugo was going to say, was halted by the blabbermouth Mineta, who was currently sitting behind Midoriya. He had already spoken, and the entire room had went quiet once more at his words.
The reason the sudden silence being Mineta. He had just perfectly parroted Bakugo's declaration simultaneously. Not just parroted, he had said it exactly like Bakugo did. To the pitch of his voice, the pronunciation of the words, and the rate he had said it.
Oops. Mineta thought. He was a tad bit nervous now, but not much as he usually would be. His mind was still reeling from previous events. Mineta found himself rather puzzled about the whole "Time Quirk" shenanigans. Could they blame him though? Any average person would probably still be freaking out about it.
But now the entire class was staring at Mineta now, the tension seemed to had risen exponentially. Mineta however, had a rather blank look on his face since he was still was borderline meditating on his issue. But Bakugo did not like someone mocking him.
Enraged, he marched over to Mineta's desk. Mineta found Bakugo's face shoved right in front of his. The angry blonde's eyes screamed hatred. Though that wasn't a surprise, since it was Bakugo.
"What the fuck was that? You little shit." Bakugo growled at Mineta. Was he even more angry than before?
The grape boy in question however, seemed to be in a different world. He was still pondering about, y'know, Basically everything. After a few seconds Mineta seemed to just notice the spiky boys presence. "Huh? What? Can I help you?" Mineta said in a rather monotone voice, obviously distracted with his thoughts.
That was the incorrect thing to say apparently, for Bakugo's anger rose tenfold. Mineta swore he saw little explosions coming from Bakugo's palms, or maybe he was just imagining things. But this was Bakugo, so you could never be too sure.
"You think you're so funny you little asshole? Try that again, and-"
"Let me guess," Mineta tinny voice stopped Bakugo from finishing his sentence. "You'll kill me?"
That was a huge risk. But in all honestly, Mineta just wanted to go home now. He didn't want to deal with Bakugo or Midoriya, but for different reasons. It was obvious why he wanted to put as much physical distance between himself and Bakugo, but Midoriya's reason was completely different.
Mineta's unexpected snarky comeback had effectively shut Bakugo up for a few seconds. Mineta took this opportunity to get up and walk to the door. I've obviously overstayed my welcome here. Time to make an exit.
But Bakugo being Bakugo, he didn't like to be ignored. Enraged, he marched after Mineta, explosions at the ready, but not enough to damage school property, or cause grievous injuries.
"You think you can just ignore me you little shit? I'll blow you to smithereens!"
Uh oh. This is where I get decked in the face, isn't it?
But Mineta had a coincidental flashback of the first combat training earlier that year. It was when Midoriya had clashed against Bakugo in the "Villains vs Heroes" exercise. They both had put on quite a show, although Uraraka managed to get the bomb. In their infamous duel, Mineta remembered that Midoriya said that "Kacchan attacks with his right first." and that was how he dodged that first move.
Would it work for Mineta? Well, he was about to find out if he could pull that move off correctly. Eyeing the larger shadow that was easier to see thanks to his small size, he saw the explosive blond raising his right arm to strike him. Wow, he DOES strike with his right first. How did Midoriya know that though?
Mineta desperately ducked, hoping it had worked. Bakugo's hand swung over him, missing him completely. If Mineta had turned around to see his handiwork, he would of seen the surprised expression on Bakugo's face. However, Mineta was sweating a little, his nerves were now wracked once more. Mineta took advantage of Bakugo's stunned silence, and quickly exited and slammed the door behind him.
Bye, Bakugo.
After narrowly escaping Bakugo's angry clutches, Mineta took a right down the hall way, and saw a rather familiar tuft of black hair slightly poking from the corner of the hallway.
Aizawa. Who else had hair like that? It kind of reminded Mineta of a overused toothbrush that desperately needed replacing. But why was he here? Didn't he leave for the day?
It was then he realized the place where Aizawa presumably was was perfect for listening to, it was the back of the classroom.
Looks like Aizawa was eavesdropping. Not that Mineta could do anything, it wasn't exactly against the rules to listen to your troublesome students bicker, right?
Mineta heard the door behind him open again. That was definitely Bakugo, still angry as ever. Mineta then began to speed walk towards Aizawa. He knew the teacher would ask why Mineta was approaching him, and he had to come up with a question to justify him just waltzing up to the teacher, instead of leaving the building. He had to be fast. He heard the class door slam open, and saw that Bakugo exited the room and also had spotted Mineta. He began to speed walk towards him as well, hatred in every stride. Mineta sweated a little again. He was still nervous. Old habits die hard.
"Something you need Mineta?" Aizawa had spotted Mineta approaching him. Aizawa had noticed that Mineta had a rather blank look, although his face seemed a little pale.
"Yes teacher, I just had a question about the practical." Wow, smooth one Mineta, he definitely won't question that.
"What about it?"
Mineta blurted out the first thing he could think of. "Will there be robots like the entrance exam? Or something completely different?"
Bakugo had spotted the teacher as well, and his stomping had slowed down to a walk, and eventually to a halt. Phew.
"You'll just have to find out on exam day." Aizawa glanced down at the stack of papers gripped in his hands. Mineta took the opportunity to look at Bakugo dead in the eye, and with a smug grin, he mouthed a single word to Bakugo.
"Kacchan."
That seemed to hit a nerve. But with Aizawa standing right there, there was nothing Bakugo could really do. Growling, he turned and left.
Mineta turned his gaze back at his teacher. "Shouldn't we know what we're doing for the exams? Isn't that a little unfair towards the students?"
Aizawa responded with his trademark creepy grin. "Heroes will face unexpected situations in the field of work, if you're not ready to face them-"
"I shouldn't be in the hero department?" Mineta finished.
Aizawa raised his eyebrows. Has this kid finally learned something about being a hero?
Mineta thanked Aizawa for answering his questions, and left.
Ugh. He lifted his hands as he walked, and saw they were slightly shaking. He managed to make Bakugo look rather foolish, and was pretty proud of that. But the explosive student still managed to make Mineta nervous as hell.
Bakugo was a simple person in reality, he was very predictable.
In fact, Bakugo's autonomy could be compared to a chihuahua's autonomy.
50% Tremble.
50% Hatred.
And that was basically it. It was short and sweet, and 100% accurate. Mineta giggled to himself at his little joke, slightly lifting his spirits. But it was short lived, as he had to figure out what the hell was going to happen during the camp.
He had a lot to think about.
Rewrite for chapter 2 is complete! Please Review/Fav/Follow if you enjoyed!