Twisted Nightmares

Chapter 13

Attack Of The Forest Beasts

Upon seeing the immobile boy, Midoriya bounded over to the still form of Mineta. The boy was completely still. Midoriya inwardly panicked at the lack of movement. What happened? Why is he down here? Quickly, Midoriya checked for a pulse. A heartbeat was thankfully there, and the boy's chest rose and fell. Mineta was alive but was not moving, other than when he breathed. Relieved, Midoriya gave a shaky thumbs up to the others. He tried shaking the poor boy, but to no avail. The kid was out cold. Nasty bruises covered the side of his face and some on his arms, probably from the fall. He winced upon seeing some purple blotches.

"What happened to him?" Sero cried. Last time he saw Mineta, he was warning the class about something behind him, but nothing was there when they looked. They then heard Aizawa shouting Mineta's name. When he and the class turned back to where Mineta was standing, the boy was no where to be seen.

"He looks beat up," Hagakure worriedly said, wringing her hands together nervously.

"How did he get down here? He looks pretty bad..." Uraraka said curiously, looking up the cliff where they had stood earlier.

Ojiro sweat dropped. The grape boy looked almost dead. "Did Mineta fall?" It was the only explanation he could come up with.

Midoriya looked up at Ojiro, and shook his head. "I don't think so. The railing was too tall for Mineta to fall over, and I don't think he'd fit through the bars." He glanced back at Mineta. So if he didn't fall, and no way would the heroes throw him over, so it wasn't that. Though he could... Midoriya's eyes widened as he looked back up at the cliff, and at Mineta. He started to piece together the possible answer for their question. "Did..." Midoriya began. "Did Mineta jump?"

"You mean he wasn't thrown off?" Sero said with a drop of sweat rolling down his face. He glanced back at Mineta in disbelief. "Mineta willingly jumped?" Why the hell would he jump? What would he be trying to accomplish?

The green haired boy nodded. Question everyone was asking now was why? Why would Mineta decide to throw himself off a cliff? Midoriya tried searching his memory for any probable reasons, but couldn't put anything together.

"Is he crazy?" Jirou said, as she leaned a bit closer to get a look at the damage. "That fall would of killed him, if Pixie didn't see him jump and summon that land mass."

"It definitely would of killed him." Kirishima said, getting a gruesome image of Mineta splattered on the ground. He shook the disturbing thought from his head, trying to get his bearings back.

Even Kaminari was starting to show concern for his old friend. "You don't suppose he was trying to...trying to..." Kaminari swallowed the lump in his throat, not being able to finish the thought out loud. He did not dare to.

The warm summer air seemed to freeze as his classmates considered what Kaminari was implying. Nervous looks were plastered on the faces of most of Class A, except Bakugo, which simply raised an eyebrow at the situation. Tokoyami had a rather indifferent expression, although his head was lowered just a tad bit.

However, Tsuyu seemed to the one to voice the unwanted question everyone had. "Did Mineta attempt suicide?" said the frog girl, her monotone tone now changed to a rather solemn one. Her face appeared completely blank, but Midoriya noticed the slight shake of her voice when she had said the last word. Tsuyu wouldn't admit it, but now she was worried as well.

The seemingly cold air now had turned into solid ice. No one wanted to give their thoughts on the question.

"He, he wouldn't..." Iida said, hesitation clear in his normally calm voice. His voice shook with uncertainty, as he wasn't exactly sure himself. He cursed his doubtful tone, but there was that one whispering in the back of his head, telling him that it could be the reason. It would make sense, but why?

Sweat had began to run down Mina's face, the beads of liquid glistened in the sunlight. "I, I don't understand..." Her normally cheerful smile had died down into a slightly frightened expression.

Even the normally cool headed Yaoyorozu frowned. "But, it would perhaps explain his behavior these past few weeks...his unusually short temper nowadays. Mineta has also been lashing out at people lately, he's also been isolating himself from everyone as much as he could. I'm not saying that he might be having these type of thoughts, but it is common that some people with depression are more irritable."

Uraraka looked at Yaoyorozu, then back to Mineta's still form. "Why are they Pro Heroes treating this so normally? To me it looks like he had just tried to take his own life, and they don't seem to concerned."

As if on cue, they heard earth coming down from above them. The students looked up to see Pixie Bob coming down herself on a smaller patch of earth. Her expression was oddly indifferent.

"Well, at least one of them is concerned," Jirou whispered to Uraraka from behind her, as the platform descended to their spot at the edge of the forest. They watched as the platform finally reached the ground, and Pixie hopped off.

"Where is he?" Pixie immediately said upon arriving to the bottom, not wasting any time.

"M-Miss Pixie!" Midoriya called, "Over here!" He gestured for her to come over to where he was, where he still was looking at Mineta. The boy still didn't move, other than breathing in and out. Pixie quickly jogged over to him and crouched down. Midoriya watched as her goggles lit up a bright blue, and seemed to almost scan over the boy. Could that thing check for injuries? Midoriya wondered.

As her visor scanned over the boy, a green check mark popped up in her HUD. No sign of any notable or dangerous damage to the head or body. Sighing, Pixie turned to the other students. "He's all right. He'll have a few nasty bruises, and will probably be sore when he wakes up." What the hell is with kids being so durable?

Midoriya glanced down at Mineta worriedly. "So, he'll be fine, r-right?" His green eyes shone with concern as Pixie stood up and dusted herself off.

"He should be fine. There's nothing too bad." Most of Class A let out a collective sigh of relief as Pixie relayed the news to them. The Pro Hero calmly turned towards Midoriya once more with a calm expression on her face. "He won't need emergency medical attention, so he's still fit to cross the forest."

Sweating nervously, Kirishima looked down at Mineta. "How? He's not getting up anytime soon, he's out cold!" He scratched his head in confusion as he and his friends watched Mineta's chest rise and fall. "Can we wake him up?"

Pixie spared a glance towards the red head. "Probably not."

Jirou blew a raspberry at the blunt response, now a bit agitated at the Pro Hero not being very specific on the matter. Her face was one of mild irritation, especially at the Pro Hero being vague on the whole situation. "Then what do we do about him? Are you taking him back with you?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

All she got in response to her question was silence. Absolute silence. Pixie simply glanced back at Mineta, then to the forest. She huffed, and started walking back to the cliff edge. "He's fine, except for a few bruises. He can make it through the forest. Same rules apply as I stated before, be there before lunch."

"W-Wait!" Mina cried. "How is he supposed to make it by himself? He's unconscious!" She wrung her hands as Pixie used her quirk to make her own little platform once more. It seemed that Pixie had already made up her mind about leaving him there. "You can't just leave him!" Mina said she tried to stop Pixie from leaving.

"You can't leave him either," Pixie said as her platform began to ascend to the top of the cliff.

What's that supposed to mean? Class A thought simultaneously as Pixie reached the top. She glanced at them from the top, then disappeared to presumably speak to Aizawa and Mandalay. Class A was left to their thoughts as awkward silence painfully filled the air. Some more impatient students such as Bakugo began to visibly become more antsy. More calmer students such as Hagakure or Ojiro had thoughtful expressions, though made no moves to say or do anything.

"Does she expect us to leave him?" Todoroki said as he watched Midoriya crouch down by Mineta once more.

Sero raised an eyebrow at the question. "But she said that we can't leave him either," He jabbed a finger to the top of the mountain where their teachers were. "I'm guessing we're supposed to take him." That earned him some mutters of agreement from his classmates who also thought the same.

Looking at the seemingly endless forest, Midoriya nodded. "Alright, I can take him for right now. If it's a straight shot to the camp, I can handle the extra weight for a while." Might as well, doesn't look like we're going to be fighting anything anyways. As he reached down, he was stopped by Kirishima's expression, which looked to be both thoughtful, but horrified. "Kirishima, what's wrong?" Midoriya said worriedly. Other classmates caught on to Midoriya's concern, and turned to look at the red head who still hadn't said anything.

"Kirishima?"

Kirishima frowned. "Sorry, sorry. It's just..." He glanced at Mineta once more. "I'm not saying Tsuyu's correct about what she said earlier, but why would he? What had happened to him that made him want to throw himself off a cliff?"

Sato winced at Kirishima's bluntness. "I...Shit, I don't know. I'm pretty sure none of us know Mineta outside school..." He glanced at the female students. "And probably for good reason." He was sure that Mineta probably had no female friends in real life, or on social media. Everyone saw how he acted at the Sports Festival.

"Maybe..." Sero said holding a finger up, "Something happened to him outside of school recently?" Had to be, he thought. Nothing notable really happened to Mineta in school, other than the godforsaken USJ attack. He was very used to the old Mineta, a pervy, cocky, brat that seemed to bred to play the "comic relief" role on a television show or something. But now he was disturbingly more competent, and smarter. And he seemed to have an uncomfortable amount of sass.

Clenching his fist, Midoriya spared a glance to his friends. "I don't even know myself, there are so many possible reasons..." Depression. Traumatic event. Loss of a loved one. Isolation. So many possibilities.

Watching them talk as he grinded his teeth, Bakugo angrily grew more and more impatient. If the little rat wanted to skydive off a cliff, let him! Maybe he'd get a better quirk in his second life. Throwing sticky balls, what a dumbass quirk. Why the hell are they crowding around Mineta like it is a funeral? We have to move before I miss my damn lunch! He was getting visibly agitated at the lack of anyone doing anything.

Midoriya noticed Bakugo was very close to quite literally exploding with impatience. He gulped. Bakugo's fits were not to be taken lightly. The burn marks on his skin could attest to that. However, before any exploding blondes could begin having a hissy fit, a loud, shrieking roar seemed to grab the attention of everyone. It's gurgling growl made everyone who heard it become uneasy, the warbled cry rumbled against their eardrums. Another growl came from the forest, almost seeming to shake the ground. Whatever what made that noise, it was painfully obvious that it was getting closer.

"Wh-what is that?" Hagakure squeaked out fearfully at the loud sound.

The culprit of the loud noise had decided to show itself to the class, growling angrily. A huge, brown, horned monster towered over everyone, with sharp teeth. It's brown skin was rough, dull, and almost looked like it would crumble. It's sight focused on the unconscious Mineta, and growled in anger. Raising a claw, it angled its claw to swipe at the small grape boy.

Koda, seeing that the monster was making a move for his classmates, started running towards the beast with his arms out. "Calm down, kind beast! Stay back!"

The beast ignored the oddly shaped boy's tinny voice, and settled for angrily swiping at the nearest student. The huge hand nearly hit Midoriya, who carried the still form of Mineta over his shoulder. Why hadn't Koda's quirk calmed the monster down? He was pretty sure that thing was an animal. Or a beast. Only for his theory to be proven incorrect, when a chunk of the monster's face crumbled off, and landed dully on the ground. That chunk had a earthy, soil like look to it, almost like...

Dirt?

Midoriya's eyes widened. I get it! With Pixie Bob's quirk...She's creating these beasts! In that case, they'd have to fight these beasts, and make their way to camp in time for lunch. It sounded impossible, but nothing was impossible for Class A, right? "Kaminari, can you handle him for a second?" Midoriya said, as the beast prepared for another attack.

The electric boy hesitated, but eventually nodded. "You can count on me!" Kaminari knew he didn't have time to spite the little grape boy. He was training to be a hero, dammit! Aizawa had given him a second chance by allowing him to come, he wasn't about to waste this second chance. Kaminari slung Mineta over his shoulder and backed off as Midoriya approached the earth beast.

"One For All..." Midoriya began to glow. "Full Cowling!" The beast simply roared in response, somehow seemingly more angry.

"Finally!" Bakugo growled, a sadistic smile on his face, ready for battle. He'd been keeping his temper in check as much as he could, now he was ready to destroy any thing that dared to stand in his path.

Fearlessly charging the beast, Todoroki used his flash freeze to immobilize the huge beast. The monster struggled to move in a rage, to no avail.

"Reciproburst!" Iida shouted as his engines ignited with blue fire coming out. The fire burned his pant leg off, and gave a mighty kick to the monster's right arm. It shrieked as the targeted limb exploded gloriously and kicked mud everywhere.

Speaking of exploding, Bakugo was now currently flying at the earth beast's remaining left arm, explosions popping in his hand. He had an insane smile plastered on his face. "DIE!"

The explosion completely incinerated the final arm of the beast.

With both arms gone, it left it's head wide open for attack, and Midoriya took full advantage.

"SMASH!"

"So, he's fine then?"

Pixie nodded at Aizawa, who currently held a rather bored expression as he watched her from behind. She jabbed a thumb towards the forest. "Yes. He's able to keep going, but he seems to be out cold."

"So he's immobile for the time being?" Aizawa said as he took some eyedrops, watching as Pixie fiddled with her odd pair of goggles. "What do you have planned for him?"

"Well, he should be able to make it to the camp, if the other students pass my test." Pixie said while yawning. "If not, then he's out of luck."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "Test? I didn't know you had another test other than the forest beasts." Actually, we discussed this way before today. She should notify me of these sudden changes if it's going to be a thing now. "Is this something I should've been notified about earlier?"

Her back still to Aizawa, Pixie shrugged. "Weeeeelll... I actually came up with it a few minutes ago." She let out a chuckle. "I had to improvise on the situation, and it'll show whether they got spirits of heroes, or focus on self preservation."

Eyes slightly widened, Aizawa took a quick glance at the forest. "You're testing to see if they'll help Mineta?" He could see the logic in that, to see who will act more heroically, and to see who focused more on getting to the camp faster. He hummed thoughtfully, "Well, that is very interesting. I guess we'll find out who will be the hero."

Pixie focused on controlling her earth beasts, and saw that Kaminari holding Mineta over his shoulder as the other students charged the earth beast. "Well, it seems that that one electric kid seems to be rescuing Mineta. How noble!"

Whatever he was thinking about stopped when he heard Pixie's commentary on the situation. Wait, electric boy? "He got blonde spiked hair?" A nod. "Kaminari. Hm." Out of all the kids that could of rescued Mineta, it was Kaminari? From recent events, it was clear that Kaminari and Mineta were not on good terms. Seeing this sudden change of heart, it was promising for the student who failed the practical.

Aizawa looked on with little to no interest at the smoke currently leaking out of the forest. Although his expression didn't change, he still felt a pang of pride in his chest. "Well then, I continue to count on you then, Pixie Bob."

Pixie Bob simply frowned thoughtfully. "Right. Leave it to me."

Truth be told, she had to deal with her fair share of suicides in the line of duty as a hero. It was part of her job. Most cases were adults with nothing left to live for, or just had given up on life. She had to get used to the sight of the bodies after impacting the cement street.

Children however, was something she could never get used to. Luckily for Mineta he didn't have any life threatening injuries. The boy only seemed to have a few bruises.

And the horror of watching one of the future heroes from Class A willingly jump off in what seemed to be an attempt on their own life had actually shaken her. She wasn't expecting for that to happen within the first five damn minutes of their camp shenanigans. Putting a paw to her forehead in slight stress, she focused on controlling her earth beasts. She'd ask Aizawa about the kid hurtling himself off the cliff later. She wanted answers.

Sato looked on in awe at Todoroki. "You guys defeated that beast in an instant?"

Sero joined in as well. "You guys did it!" Sero cried happily, pumping a fist. No wonder those guys were in the top strength wise, they were pretty damn strong! "That beast didn't stand a chance!"

The red haired boy who stood by Bakugo had a look of admiration on his face. "You're amazing, Bakugo!"

Bakugo ignored the praise, he seemed to be staring at something deeper into the forest. "Not yet." And he was correct, for the ground itself seemed to rise from the earth, twisting and shaping itself into the forms of beasts, dragons, and other creatures straight out of a fantasy tale. The monsters roared upon seeing them.

"Ah man," Kaminari said nervously. "How many are there?" The boy had lost count of how many beasts were forming from the earth.

"What should we do?" Mina said, sweat now visible on her pink skin. "Run away?"

Sato began to look around. "This is no joke. If we don't make it to the facility by noon, then we don't get lunch."

Yaoyorozu felt resolve at the seemingly hopeless situation. "Then we have no choice but to get through here and take the shortest route."

The other students nodded.

Iida held up a hand. "Alright. Let's go, Class A!"

"Yeah!" Then the students of Class A clashed against the forest beasts.

Shoji used one of his Dupli Arms to create an eye to search the area for more of the earth beasts. Bingo. "There are three up ahead! Two each on either side!" He warned.

Jirou had plugged an ear jack into a tree. "Seven in total!" She confirmed.

Sero swung across the trees using his tape, his "tape swinging" eerily similar to another super here. But he wouldn't tell you who if you asked him, though.

Using his agility, he quickly wrapped the earth dragon's wings up, effectively rendering it flightless.

"Sato! Kirishima!"

Quickly throwing a handful of sugar cubes in his mouth, Sato's muscle grew five times bigger, ripping through his shirt, and he charged.

Kirishima activated his hardening quirk, and began to pummel the dragon, while Sato landed a large uppercut on the beast, sending it flying back.

"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami said, summoning his dark counterpart.
"Got it!" The dark creature evaded the earth cyclops beast's attacks, while Ojiro also helped in distracting it, leaving the monster open from behind.

"Aoyoma, now!"

The french boy had planted himself on top of a tall tree. "The finishing blow, right?" He sang as he blasted the cyclops with his laser. The light incinerating the beasts insides, causing the creature to finally die.

All in all, it definitely was more then three hours by the time they arrived at the camp. The entire day had been filled with fighting monsters, and someone having to carry poor Mineta, who still hadn't woken up after all this time, to Midoriya and other student's concern. While they engaged with the monsters, one designated student would hang out in the back while they carried the unconscious Mineta. They hoped (excluding Bakugo who couldn't care less) that Mineta would wake up soon.

Hours later...

One by one, each student from Class A exited the accursed forest, bruised, beaten, and panting. The bruising wasn't like the nasty ones like Mineta had from his fall, since Pixie wasn't exactly trying to slaughter the poor students. The Pussycats apologized for how long it took, since they assumed the students would have equal time to the Pussycats themselves.

Aizawa noticed the awful condition of his class, and a certain student caught his eye yet again.

A panting Midoirya was carrying a still unconscious Mineta over his shoulder, his movements slowed from exhaustion. They would just have to put him in the med room, and when Mineta woke up and was healed, Aizawa had several questions for the grape boy.

And Aizawa planned to get answers.

Didn't change too much, as I said before my chapters were slowly improving, I couldn't really do too much. This is probably the chapter I'm least proud of, since the logic in it was kind of dumb in hindsight. But I have an explanation: I originally planned to change this chapter a lot more, a scenario where Mineta was brought to the hospital. But a major issue would be he being kept there for suicide watch, I highly doubt they'd let him go back, so the new canon for this chapter is the cliff is less steep than it originally was in the anime. So it's short enough to only have bruising if you fell halfway, so Mineta lives. If you think this was kind of a dumb chapter, I'd agree. Please bear with me though, I'm trying really hard on this story. Also headcanon that Pixie's Glasses or eyegear has a HUD and can scan stuff for injuries, since they are rescue based heroes after all. Well, if you enjoyed this rewrite, please Review/Follow/Fav! Cya!