Twisted Nightmares
Chapter 20
The Sting of Failure.
SUMMARY:
Feeling the effects of failing again takes its toll on Mineta's already fragile emotional state.
Failure hurt most when you tried your best. And really tried your hardest, as in putting everything you had into it. If you believed that you could actually succeed, it made failure a whole lost worse then just average failure. When you put your heart and soul into completing the task, but ended up doing it incorrectly, it felt awful.
Failure was a pain Mineta couldn't even put into words when it had first hit him. Sure, he had failed at a lot of stuff before, being #1 wasn't really his thing. He succeeded in a lot of stuff too, but the sore feeling of failure would resonate for much longer in his chest. He felt it when he was woken up by his mother.
Mineta's mother had walked into his room to gently wake him up for school, but had stopped when she heard his quickened breath. A few tears were leaking out of his eyes as well, and she immediately knew her son was having a nightmare. Acting on instinct, she quickly approached his bed and put an arm on his body to gently squeeze him, to hopefully get him to wake up. Her efforts were rewarded when Mineta's eyes flew open and shot up like a spring, breath still quickened.
"Minoru! It's alright sweetie." She said as Mineta's beady little eyes scanned his surroundings, as if it was his first time there. His frantic search stopped when his eyes settled on his mother.
He squinted his eyes. "Momma?" He said hesitantly, as if it asking her was a mistake.
"Yes, it's me honey. It was just a nightmare." She quickly assured him, rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him. Nightmares have happened before, and they had made her little Minoru cry. But that was back when he was a little toddler. To have a nightmare that actually made Mineta tear up from fear... She didn't like it.
"Nightmare..." Mineta parroted the word out loud.
It seemed he finally realized it was just a nightmare. She softly hugged him, relieved he had finally come back to reality.
It all came back to him. It all came back at once. He felt like he had been hit by a semi truck when his memories flooded back into his skull. He remembered it all. His second demise when he had made a foolhardy attempt to save Pixie during the camp attack, how the Lizard had managed to catch him when Mineta hadn't been fast enough to evade him. The entire standoff of the Heroes trying to get him back. Everything.
He suddenly realized why his neck had a sort of phantom pain when he woke up. Lizard definitely twisted far enough, that was for sure. Hope I don't have to experience that again. Mineta thought as he absently rubbed his neck.
He was now looking into the eyes of his concerned mother, who still was waiting for an answer from him. Deja Vu was going to be a common thing, wasn't it?
Well, he just had to go with the best option. "I had a bad dream." Mineta said softly. Not very original, but it'd work. Mineta was now aware he actually had been crying. He didn't feel like crying right now, oddly enough.
So why were tears leaking out of his eyes? He he did feel something else slowly flicker to life in his stomach, though what he couldn't tell yet.
His mother gave him a reassuring smile. "It was just a bad dream, you're okay now."
Mineta sniffled. "Yeah, I know. Thanks." He looked outside of the window. "I suppose I should be getting ready now, huh?"
His mother nodded in response. "Yes, you probably should. I have to get ready myself, are you sure you're okay right now?"
Mineta just nodded, and his mother gave him one last warm smile, and exited the room.
The feeling had begun to increase inside his stomach. It slowly puffed up and made it's way to his chest, it felt hot. Once Mineta realized he was subconsciously clenching his fist, he recognized the feeling inside of him right now.
Anger.
Anger at himself, and how stupid he had been. How stupid that he'd let himself get caught. Mineta clenched both fists now, and punched the wall as hard as he could. "FUCK!" He said out loud, not a shouting volume in case of his mother still being able to hear through the wall. The sound of his fist making contact with the wall could be compared to someone knocking on the door. The wall in question was unsurprisingly unaffected by his weak arm strength, not even the paint had a mark on it.
Of course it wouldn't. I'm just so damn weak, aren't I? Probably the weakest in the entire class. Why did this task have to be mine? Why couldn't someone better like Midoriya have this damn quirk?
Fuck. Fuck! FUCK! I fucked up so fucking bad. How did I manage to fuck it up?
He planned. He prepared. He borderline prayed. But he still failed, nonetheless. Mineta thought he could do it, and shocker, he was wrong. But he just wanted to do something right for once. Well, it seemed that it obviously wasn't one of those times. At this rate, would he ever do anything right? Mineta felt that the answer to that question was probably no.
Desperately, he tried searching for some sort of bright side to all of this. There was always a bright side, right?
Well, you at least have another go at this whole thing, right? At least you're not stuck in purgatory.
Yeah, another time to fail. Go me. I didn't even last 10 minutes by myself. Maybe if I actually stuck to half of my original plan I would of lasted at least 30 seconds longer.
The sting of defeat was a very painful sensation. Even after Mineta's miniature tantrum ended he somehow felt exhausted after just waking up. He'd just have to try again, but he'd try to make things right. He wouldn't take out his anger on his friends, they didn't deserve that. His friends had nothing to do with his failure. He knew it was his own fault that he failed, that he died a pathetic death.
And this time, he wouldn't just be a brat to his friends. He wasn't looking forward to going back, and he was feeling rather queasy after dying again. But, he'd still try. Plus Ultra, and all that stuff. He got dressed, said goodbye to his mother after giving her a hug, and went to school. He really didn't want to go, but he still had to. People were counting on him, even if they didn't know they were.
"There's only one week until final exams." Aizawa deadpanned to the entire class.
Mineta sighed as he ignored the announcement, as he had heard it twice already. It was still rather strange to experience, at least in Mineta's case. When some people rewatch a movie they've seen before, they seem to notice it actually seemed to be a bit different than the first time. Mineta was pretty sure it was called the "Mandela Effect" or something like that.
Well, that's what it felt like. When Mineta watched Aizawa announce the exams, he noticed things he previously didn't remember. After he actually focused a little, he noticed Aizawa's eye slightly jerked over to the more lower scoring students upon mentioning the exams. Just for a split second though, he had to be paying attention to actually notice the subtle eye movement.
Also how Aizawa's thumb twitched a little as he had the stack of papers in his hand earlier. Mineta had begun to focus on miniscule details like that since he had literally had seen all of the other stuff before.
After he left, the usual scene played out like last time. Mina and Kaminari had screeched about how they hadn't studied at all, Mina laughed carelessly while Kaminari held his head in his hands in utter despair. Mineta smiled at the little scene playing out.
He felt regret again over the fact that he lashed out at them originally, but he was still trying to adjust back then. Mineta did not feel 100% okay at the moment, but he'd have to push through for now. He had a job to do.
"Ninth place?!" Mina cried, pointing at a finger once more at Mineta in an accusatory manner. "And I thought you were one of us?"
Kaminari as expected, jumped in. "Guys like you are only likable if they're dumb!"
Mineta braced himself. He wouldn't behave like last time. Alright, here I go...
Mineta turned to the two students who were currently enraged at his placement, and just gave them a friendly smile. "Hey, I'm sure you guys will do great if you study and work hard to pass! I wouldn't worry! I think if you put the effort in, you'll be fine!" He gave them a thumbs up.
He felt oddly amused as they both recoiled, obviously not expecting the overly friendly response from the grape haired boy. Their tense angry faces twisted into one's of surprise and confusion. They seemed to have trouble coming up with a response to what Mineta just said. In reality that was probably the nicest thing he had said to Mina this year.
Mina frowned. Her eyes had a glint of suspicion. "Was that sarcasm, Mineta?" Mina said with her hands on her hips. "Because to be honest I'm having trouble telling if you're being sarcastic, or if you're being genuine."
Well, he couldn't blame her for that. He probably hadn't been very pleasant the day before. Or the day before that. And the day before that.
But another student seemed to notice the friendly suggestion as well, and came to his rescue. And thankfully, it was the purest soul there.
"Mineta's right! W-we should do our best!" Midoriya said, a hopeful smile on his freckled face.
Iida also gave his 5 cents on the matter, and it almost seemed that Kaminari and Mina were almost overwhelmed with the sudden support coming from their classmates. It was thanks to Yaoyorozu suggesting that she could assist them with their studying, that it broke their temporary trance. They happily agreed to come and study, to Yaoyorozu's delight.
But Mineta still felt very troubled. The sting of failure was still fresh in his chest, and even if he had put on a smile for his two friends, he wasn't really doing too great. But he knew who he could ask about failure at lunch, and hopefully they'd help him.
Because the sting was beginning to build up, and it threatened to overwhelm him.
"Hey Midoriya." Mineta greeted his green haired friend, who was currently sitting with Uraraka and Iida. Speaking of his bespectacled classmate, Mineta was originally going to ask him for his advice, but he thought Midoriya would have better experience. Midoriya actually seemed glad to see him, to Mineta's slight surprise. "H-hello Mineta!"
"Heya," Uraraka managed to say with a mouth full of rice.
"Greetings, Mineta." Iida said, about to put some of his rice in his mouth as well.
"Uh, do you mind if I sit here?" Mineta said hesitantly. His voice seemed unsure of the response that Midoriya would give him. Thankfully Midoriya simply smiled and nodded. Mineta muttered his thanks as he sat next to Midoriya with his tray of lunch food.
"I don't mean to be rude Mineta," Uraraka said curiously. "But did you come over here for a specific reason?"
Mineta's eyes widened at the question. "How did you...?"
"I don't mean to be rude or anything!" Uraraka waved her hands. "But it, it just looks like something's bothering you. I have a knack for seeing that kinda thing in people. I saw ya frowning n' stuff while you walked over here, and since you were frowning at the floor instead of us, I'm guessing something's on your mind."
Damn. Was I really that easily readable?
Mineta chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I had a question for you Midoriya. Well, actually I needed advice on a, eh... a certain issue I have." He twiddled with his fingers, a bit nervous.
Midoriya luckily seemed ecstatic to help a friend. "Oh, then what's wrong Mineta? Did something happen?"
Midoriya's innocent question made Mineta wince, considering the fact that he was about to kill the mood. "Something like that," Mineta said. "Midoriya, how do...how should I deal with failure?"
Midoriya's eyes widened a little at the surprisingly deep question. He seemed befuddled, and slightly was too surprised to say anything. Afer a few seconds, he shook his head to clear his mind. "Well, I, wow that's sudden. I mean... Sorry." Midoriya was obviously caught off guard at the question.
Mineta refrained from making any snide remarks or any mean comments at Midoriya's reaction. He just sat there, ready to listen.
Regaining his composure, Midoriya took a deep breath. "Okay, sorry about that. We're not perfect Mineta, we'll all fail sometimes. Even if I do happen to not succeed at a lot of things... I don't let it put me down! If I keep trying..."
Mineta shook his head. No, no, no. Not like failing a test or a race or something like that, you don't understand!
"Midoriya. I don't mean that kind of failure." Mineta bluntly said out loud, cutting Midoriya off from finishing his encouraging speech.
"Eh?" Midoriya said, confused at Mineta's sudden interruption. "What do you mean then?"
Mineta felt a little bad at interrupting Midoriya, but he needed just some sort of advice. "I mean, like what if I put everything, and I mean everything, into trying to win, into succeeding in something really important, but I manage to fuck it up anyways? How do I deal with complete utter failure? Every time I think about it it...I hate it!"
Mineta didn't mean for it to sound like that, but he found himself choking up a little the more he spoke. To say he felt awful for failing was a massive understatement. He felt crushed. He was so damn sure that the other night at the camp was the one. The one where he didn't die like the first time he was at the camp. He had overestimated his abilities it seemed, he stupidly charged in blindly and got himself killed.
He found himself continuing his mini rant. "Because I-I did and I, I fucked it up, I really tried, Midoriya. I shouldn't be moping, but it still hurts to think about it. I could of done better, could of done SOMETHING different. I could of-"
"Hey, hey, calm down Mineta!" Midoriya quickly whispered, panicked at the fact that Mineta's voice was slowly starting to raise the more he spoke. Luckily no one had noticed yet, but Midoriya didn't want to risk the entire cafeteria of students turning towards their table. The boy put his hands on Mineta's shoulders, and gently shook him. He didn't know what happened with Mineta that got him this way, but he didn't want the boy going into hysterics in the middle of the lunchroom.
The shaking seem to snap Mineta out of whatever he was going on about, thankfully. "S-Sorry." Mineta said, now very self conscious of the bizarre looks he was getting from his classmates at the table. "I didn't meant to go off like that..."
Midoriya's grip on his shoulders released as the grape haired boy shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, completely now aware of the tantrum he just threw. Even Iida was speechless, who originally was going to scold him earlier for swearing, but stopped the more Mineta spoke.
Realizing how awkward he probably made his friends just now with his yelling, Mineta shuffled uncomfortably. "I should just, go to a different table..." Mineta said, moving towards the edge of his seat to leave.
Midoriya quickly put a hand on Mineta's shoulder once more to stop from him from leaving. "No, No, sorry! I should of said something, I just didn't expect that." He winced at his wording, knowing it probably sounded harsher then he intended. Especially how he said "that" at the end, he needed to work on his tone.
"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't of went on that little rant, I'm sorry." Mineta said, now feeling awful for upsetting Midoriya. He should of kept check of his emotions, but they just seemed to overwhelm him the more he talked about the way he was feeling right now. The anger at himself. The shame of failing. He needed to keep check of these emotions.
He steeled himself, taking a deep breath inwards. That wouldn't happen again. He'd try to answer Midoriya if he asked anything though, just to end this seemingly endless circle of apologizing to each other. He'd have to be vague, just as long as his friend didn't ask what happened to him.
"Mineta, what happened?" Midoriya said. "What did you fail? Are you okay?" The green eyes had a clear amount of concern in them.
Fuck.
Could his luck be any worse? Or Midoriya had a second quirk with mind reading or something. Or just coincidence. Now Mineta knew how the others felt when he predicted stuff that had happened previously. Then again, he was probably asking for Midoriya to inquire about what had happened, especially after that little rant of his.
Deja vu aside, he had to once more steer Midoriya off track. He wasn't ready to tell what happened, not yet. "I, I can't say. I don't want to..." Mineta answered honestly. He didn't feel prepared enough to tell them. He planned to though. Just... not yet.
Midoriya didn't seem to like the lack of clarification. "Mineta..." He said, his tone resembling that of a parent trying to talk to a stubborn child. "If you don't want to tell that's okay, but if you do, I can help! If it's causing you this much pain, you shouldn't have to go for it alone."
Wait a minute. This feels familiar. I feel like this has happened before. Not to me...what is it... I've seen Midoriya acting this way before...
Then the truth of the situation hit him like a bus. Mineta almost face palmed at his own stupidity, as he realized just now that he had unintentionally set himself up for the dreaded "Midoriya Treatment". He literally made the first mistake of informing Midoriya of the problem straight to his face. How many steps did he unintentionally skip thanks to him admitting the issue right in front of the green haired boy?
To say Midoriya was troubled at the moment would be a pretty big understatement. A humongous one to be precise. Everything seemed to be going pretty alright for today so far, other then the fact that he was concerned about some of his fellow classmates possible results in the future exams. But he wouldn't name anybody specific though.
Though he was pleasantly surprised earlier, thanks to Mineta being surprisingly encouraging to Mina and Kaminari. When the two troublesome students had mini panic attacks at their lack of studying, Mineta had shockingly turned to them, smiled, and gave some encouraging words. Midoriya had joined in himself not too long after in an effort to lift their spirits.
It seemed to have worked for the most part, even Yaoyorozu had offered assistance in studying, which they both immediately agreed to. It was a relief to see them trying and putting effort into passing the dreaded final exams. Though Midoriya would agree with them on one thing, final exams were always nerve wracking.
Except just a few seconds ago, when he was approached by Mineta, who said that he had a problem. Sure, everyone had problems to deal with, and their own ways of dealing with them, but Mineta... he apparently seemed to have failed in doing something very important to him, even going on a rant about how he messed up something bad. He even cursed, which had caught him, and Iida, especially Iida, off guard.
The way his hands almost seemed to shake the more he talked, it unnerved Midoriya greatly. So he decided to put a stop to it by calming the grape boy down, by putting his hands on Mineta's shoulders, and shook. It actually worked, to Midoriya's surprise. (And relief).
He had snapped out of it, and apologized, and it turned into both of them apologizing to each other, which didn't help the situation at all. But now he looked at Mineta, who was refusing to respond to him at the moment. His refusal to communicate wasn't really helping. Midoriya scratched his head in thought. He'd have to approach this issue differently, it seemed.
"Mineta," He began, surprising himself by not sounding hesitant in the least. "About your issue..."
"What about it?" Mineta's quick response had a hint of suspicion.
Undeterred, Midoriya continued. "When you think about it, I mean really think, as in blocking all other thought out and focusing on it, how does that make you feel?"
Mineta stopped, seemingly not expecting the new question from the green haired boy sitting next to him. "Well..." Mineta then put a finger to his chin in a matter not unlike Tsuyu.
Midoriya regretted asking the question because a few seconds later Mineta quickly nodded. But Mineta had swallowed before speaking, and when he answered, he quickly noticed a very audible shake in the boy's voice.
"Y-yeah. If I uh, if I think about really hard...I'm getting choked up, aren't I?" Mineta seemed to be trying not to sniffle or breathe in too quickly, as if he was afraid of a sob coming out instead of just breathing in normally.
Midoriya shook his head quickly. "It's alright Mineta, it's just a natural reaction to stress. I promise I won't judge you for having this sort of reaction to the situation. I've been in situations similar where I kind of almost cried as well. I won't make fun." Midoriya flashed him a hopefully encouraging grin.
Deciding to join in, Iida refrained from hand chopping but still made gestures with his hands. "Midoriya is correct, Mineta! No one has full control of their emotions." Iida glanced down at the floor in shame, recalling a recent event where his emotions almost got people killed. "Believe me, I would know about that whole matter of emotions."
Midoriya glanced down for a second as well, remembering his frightening experience with Stain.
"But!" Iida continued suddenly, catching the people at the table off guard, "I know what it's like to fail in trying to do something very important. I tried doing something as well during my time under a Pro's tutelage,but the thing I was trying to accomplish... It wasn't a very noble thing. And because of that my actions caused bad things to happen. I felt horrible when I failed, even though I managed to get out mostly unscathed. Well..." Iida glanced at the scars on his arm, courtesy of a certain blood villain. "Mostly."
Mineta's unstable breathing had transitioned into gasps, not quiet sobbing yet, but very close. "H-how, how do you deal w-with it? I just f-feel so awful when I think about it..."
"Mineta," Iida began cautiously, unnerved at Mineta's behavior. "I don't mean to sound harsh when I say this, but have you considered talking to a teacher, or perhaps a counsel-"
"NO!" Mineta suddenly blurted out, cutting off Iida. It was actually a bit loud enough for other students to hear from the other lunch tables, causing them to turn in his direction. Mineta shrank into his seat out of embarrassment.
Midoriya did not like how quickly Mineta had rejected Iida's idea, especially considering the fact that mentioning counseling made Mineta's eyes widen and triggered the quick and loud response.
"No." Mineta repeated, a small whisper only the people sitting near him could hear. "I don't want that."
"If you don't mind me asking..." Uraraka said, finally joining the conversation instead of watching on the sidelines. "When did this happen? Was it a very recent event? Or was this like a while back?" The brown haired girl cringed. I'm being a bit too aggressive with the questions, I should cool it with the rapid fire questions, probably isn't really helping the situation right now.
But thankfully Mineta didn't seem too bothered though, but that was probably thanks to Midoriya. He had put a hand on Mineta's left shoulder, and tried to give a reassuring squeeze. It mostly had stopped Mineta from spiraling into sobs, and he'd stopped gasping as well, so that was a plus.
Rubbing his eyes from the few stray tears, Mineta spoke. "It...it was last night."
Uraraka definitely hadn't expected that, but she'd work with it. But even if the mental wound (and maybe physical wound) was still fresh, she understood it now. "That makes sense actually."
That made Mineta tilt his head in curiosity. "It, it does? H-how?"
Swallowing the last bit of rice she had been chewing when Mineta first responded, she continued. "Well, I have a feeling that it might be harder to handle a bad situation, like the failure thing you mentioned earlier. Since it was just last night, it's probably very difficult to handle at first. Like, its fresh on your mind right? You're just feeling this kind of emotion for the first time, and your body's obviously not used to it."
Midoriya didn't say anything, but he noticed how Mineta's eyes glanced at the floor momentarily when she said "first time".
Iida seemed to like her logic. "I can agree with Uraraka's reasoning! The...event that I don't like to think about, the way I felt was very similar to how you do right now." The bespectacled student clenched his fist as the thought of his stupidity in trying to get revenge resonated in his head. "It hurt to think about as well, I also got very emotional when I first thought about it after it happened. I never liked having the thought in my mind, and it was a very unpleasant time."
Midoriya noticed how the grape haired boy seemed to deflate, did he think he perhaps killed the mood?
"Until!" Iida suddenly said, spooking everyone at the lunch table with the sudden increase of volume. "I started spending time and interacting with my friends here at UA!" Iida had a smile on his face now. "Interacting with friends and family after something bad happening to you can be very beneficial to your state of mental health. Although it's rather unpleasant to think about my experience that one time, it's easier now thanks to my friends here. And since I am Class Rep, it is my responsibility to stay strong for UA, and especially for our classmates in Class A. And it's because of them I am able to have the strength to be the Class Rep."
Midoriya nodded. "Yeah! If I'm ever going through a rough time, it's much easier to handle if I'm with friends!" He turned towards Uraraka. "Uraraka, you've helped me with some stuff like that, and I'm really grateful for that!" Midoriya smiled, not noticing how Uraraka's cheeks had a bit of red on them when he mentioned her name.
"Y-yeah! Like how I told you Deku meant that you could do it!" She had an embarrassed smile now, but luckily Midoriya didn't notice that either.
He instead continued, "Yeah, just be with your friends and family, Mineta. I know the hurt won't go away immediately, but over time it'll get better! I promise!"
"Speaking of friends Mineta," Midoriya said. "Have you been talking with anyone since it happened?"
Mineta shook his head. In reality, he only interacted with Mina and Kaminari after Aizawa left the class earlier. "No, not really."
"Have you told anyone else?" Uraraka said curiously. "Other than us, I mean."
Once more the grape haired boy shook his head. "No, you guys are the first people I talked to about this." He glanced at the floor again. "I probably should of told someone else though..."
"Well, I'm glad you trust us enough to tell us," Midoriya said, sincerity in his voice.
Uraraka had a little smile as well. "Yeah!" But Uraraka's smile was really coming from the fact that Midoriya's smile was just so damn infectious, she just had to grin as well.
If you asked Uraraka about Mineta, she'd say she wasn't the biggest fan of the infamous pervert of Class A, but his sudden turn of attitude today was a very welcome change. Normally she expected him to make a little cocky response at his decent scoring of the midterms, not turn around and be friendly to the two low scoring students.
But if she had to be honest, she kinda hoped Mineta would stay this way, but not if Mineta had to be going through something like this. To make him almost cry, she would originally have ignored it, remembering Tsuyu telling her tale how at the USJ how easily Mineta had burst into tears.
But she could read people pretty decently, and when she looked at the little grape haired boy, and how he had borderline burst into tears just by thinking about whatever happened to him...It probably wasn't a very nice thing.
She didn't like to think of the many possible events that happened to Mineta. What had he meant by "failing"? Did he lose someone and thought that he had failed them? Did his actions inadvertently cause something bad to happen?
She wouldn't press for answers, but she definitely would be thinking about it later on.
"Thanks guys..." Mineta said. "I know you're right about the friends thing, but Mina and Kaminari are gonna be at Yaoyorozu's, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me near her, or in her house. I'll try to deal with it myself. But thank you for the advice."
Midoriya didn't like the finality of Mineta's tone when he said that, as if the conversation was over. Mineta seemed to think so, as he quietly went back to eating his meal. Midoriya wouldn't accept that. "Mineta, you don't have to study alone!" Then the green haired boy seem to light up, "Hey, we could all study t-together!"
Mineta noticed how Midoriya's voice had a tinge of nervousness when he glanced at Uraraka while saying "together".
Uraraka thankfully, seemed to like that idea. "Yeah, we could study together Deku!" Uraraka turned to Iida "What do you say? It'd be fun for us to study as a little group!"
Iida put a hand to his chin. "Well, even though my grades are in very good shape, I will not just stop studying, no matter how confident I am about my knowledge of the exams. I suppose it wouldn't hurt!" Iida had begun to hand chop once more, almost hitting the lunch table once or twice.
Mineta ignored the violent gestures and instead had a little smile on his face, which Midoriya grinned at. He was ecstatic to see his friend in a better mood, even if the grape haired boy wouldn't share what happened. He was not about to push for an answer, it was important to respect someone's privacy. It was progress enough for today, at least for Midoriya.
After a vote was taken, it was decided that the study sessions they'd have before the exams would be at Midoriya's house. Originally it had been a tie for Iida and Midoriya, when a certain brown haired girl voted for "Deku's house". Midoriya had been embarrassed, saying that when he got home he needed to get ready, and that he "wasn't prepared for this", and "I hope I don't mess this up." His rambling was cut off by Uraraka's quick reassurance that it would be perfectly fine, and that she was looking forward to studying with him either way.
Mineta was feeling a bit better after the whole conversation at lunch happened. Truth be told, he was terrified at first that Uraraka and Iida would not welcome his intrusion at their lunch table, but was pleasantly surprised when they didn't seem to mind him sitting with them. He never really had a study session before, so this was kind of a new thing to him.
After lunch, and nearing the end of the day, it was the time when Bakugo stomped into the room to confront Midoriya, Mineta made his move.
It wasn't too spectacular, as Bakugo began his speech, Mineta had pretended to be asleep. In the middle of the speech, Mineta pretended to wake up, and politely asked for Bakugo to keep it down. Bakugo of course reacted in the only way he knew how, and that was anger. He told Mineta if he "Wanted a damn nap, you should go home you worthless sidekick" Mineta simply stood up and walked out, to Bakugo's surprise. He didn't know if the explosive blonde had finished his rant for Midoriya, he hoped he stopped.
But if you asked Mineta if he knew anything about a sticky purple ball on the class floor, and how Bakugo accidentally stepped on it while trying to exit, and how it took 10 minutes for Bakugo and Kirishima to get Bakugo's shoe free from it's sticky grasp, Mineta would inform you that he didn't know anything about that specific matter.
As he walked home, a smile slowly grew on his little face. The study session actually sounded like fun, since Mineta was very well informed on the questions of the written exam. Besides, hanging out with his friends would hopefully be very fun. And relaxing. Because Mineta honestly felt like he needed a break.
Just like last time, Not much to rewrite! Added some words, changed some phrasing and sentences, and evened out some paragraphs to look neater and less crammed. If you enjoyed, please Review/Follow/Fav! Below this is part of the original draft, but since it's having to do with review responses, I'm keeping it here.
Now it's time to respond to reviews. Let me explain how this is going to work, I'll put the date and chapter corresponding to the review posted, and then my response will be in bold below. The reason for this is because if I post the persons entire review, it might be a lot of words, therefore adding more words to the chapter itself. If people read and notice that a chunk of the chapter is just reviews, they might stop reading. My reviews will also be wordy as well, and some pretty long, so I settled for having long responses instead of both. And yes, I know that this explanation of the whole review thing is a paragraph within itself, but its best if I explain now. ALSO, IF YOU ARE GOING TO RESPOND TO MY RESPONSE IN THR REVIEWS, PLS REVIEW THE CHAPTER AS WELL, SAME LOGIC AS I SAID IN CHAPTER 19, BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE HEARING YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CHAPTER, AND THAT IT'LL HELP ME AS A WRITER. Ok, sorry about the mini rant. It's over. Without further ado, let's do this!
ZFighter18 chapter 19 . May 25
Thanks, I do love me a good Mineta fic as well! I also hope more Mineta positive fics come out, because the fans hate for the grape boy is kind of cringe for me at this rate. The more I write about the story, the more he's becoming my favorite character. (Probably why he's my phone background now lol) But the only gripe about my story is my bad artwork for the cover, I wish it had a cooler picture. But more Mineta stories sounds great!
BIG BadJ chapter 19 . May 25
Glad to see you're excited about the story! Also, Happy what now? I uh, don't know that series if it's an anime or a comic or something. But glad that you like it!
PoisonPen37 chapter 19 . May 25
Thank you very much! I'm happy to see you're excited for what happens next in the story! Because I too am pretty excited!
fencer29 chapter 19 . May 25
Ok, I want to start this out by saying that you're probably one of my biggest critics, (which is okay since stories need criticism in order to get better later on, since only praise makes a person's ego pretty big, and hostile to the smallest amount of criticism, so keep on reviewing) and the amount of care and detail you put into your reviews is honestly kind of intimidating to me. I may or may not start sweating when I see your reviews because I know I'm in for a word thrashing. I can't think of any other way to word it, but you get it. And yes, I won't stay as long as that, and I definitely won't make as many chapters as I did before just on the practical, looking back that was quite a lot, and some of it felt like filler, which I'm ashamed of. I'm glad for your suggestions, and be aware I do take them into consideration. Overall, I'm glad you're still reading, and I hope you continue to review my fanfic! (Holy shit that was a paragraph itself lol)
Amberdeengirl17 chapter 19 . May 25
Yeah, Mineta's a bit young to be dealing with all this isn't he? I'm proud he held out as long as he did too, I still LOVE the idea of Mineta being pulled by a quirk only for him to slam two grapes on the ground and hold, the visual is just so damn cool. And you've seen what he's gonna be doing this time, hopefully it'll work out! See you next time, love your reviews!
Twilight no Kami chapter 19 . May 25
Thank you, I'm glad you like my work! Especially the "fucking good" are actually pretty encouraging words, I felt my morale raise just by reading that :D Hope you stick around for more chapters!
brycel chapter 19 . May 25
Yes, he's dead, mah poor grape boi ;-; I'm glad you appreciate my efforts to develop Mineta as a character. Most fics that have Mineta even appear are mostly kind of cringey as they use him for jokes of him getting beaten up after he does "Perverted thing #29" it's not enjoyable to watch Mineta get beaten up like that. I do hope more fics develop him as well. And you've seen how's he's already trying to build a better reputation instead of lashing out at everything. And as you seen, he goes back to the same exact time. Anon's review (Which is after this) inquires also about him going back further, but as you seen this isn't the case. Since Mineta had gone a bit early before the villains arrived to get his stuff, and he actually got caught a bit before he originally got his chest caved in the first time. It was the longer time it took for Mineta to die since it was just a simple neck snap after a long confrontation, and Midoriya left earlier the 2nd time at the camp since the panic of a bleeding classmate was no longer there. Midoriya was probably confident that the Pro's could save Mineta (Which unfortunately was not the case for the grape boi) but since he died during the camp attack as well, he woke up roughly the same time as the first time. You'll see what I mean by just beginning, things are gonna be much different than last time. Hope this helps!
Kai Dragoon chapter 19 . May 26
Yeah, the foreshadowing implied that he wouldn't. Well, this was a rather laid back chapter (except for mini panic attack), I hope it was interesting! I had enough angst from the previous one and wanted to lift spirits, even if just a little. I hope you keep reading my work man!
Ickarium chapter 19 . May 26
Well, I like spelling it as "Oi."
Mineta is Subaru? Isn't Subaru like, a car company or something? I swear I've heard of the word in a commercial... And things seem to be looking up so far, so that's a plus, right? Glad you are enjoying the story.
bajy chapter 19 . May 26
You said it buddy. You said it. Poor Mineta ;-;
Guest chapter 19 . May 25
Yeah, at least he gets another run. Well, as I explained before, since he died at the camp attack, he wakes up the same time as the first.
Anon chapter 19 . May 25
To the time of waking up, refer to brycel please, I don't wanna retype all of that XD And I'm very glad that you do appreciate how Midoriya interacts with Mineta. Our grape boi is the main star of this story, and the broccoli boi is on the sidelines. But that won't stop Midoriya from being a helpful innocent friend to those in need, because main character or not, Midoriya is going to be a nice kid. He's gonna help his friends either way, and seeing Mineta not being a pervert is probably something that Midoriya wouldn't mind seeing more, since he wants everyone to try the hardest, and be the best that they can. Glad you enjoy how I write him!