Nezu sat back, deep in thought as I stared at him. Uncle Charlie had already left getting back to his patrols. Nezu had been sitting there quietly for at least a half-hour, school was definitely out at this point, hopefully, I hadn't missed anything too important. "Right, by my calculations there are six major possibilities. Number one and the least likely. You are telling the truth, you are from the future. However, there are certain things you do not know that I would think you should know if you are from the future. Though it is not impossible you may have not been informed of these items."
Nezu shifted in his chair but didn't take his eyes off me as he continued. "Number two, you are lying about everything, and you just got lucky that some of the things you said border the truth of things you shouldn't have known," I grunted, and anger at the accusation logical as it may be flooded my face, but Nezu continued as if I had not done anything at all. "Three, you have been under a lot of stress and have lost track of the difference between reality and daydreams. We come back to the things you shouldn't know, but many of the things you know can be deduced logically given the right determination. However, many does not mean all, there's one thing you know that would be an amazing guess, I myself have not been able to confirm it yet." Well, crazy was better than being a liar I supposed. I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the last three.
"Fourth, you have been the victim of an attack by a villain that has left you hallucinating and has boosted your mental capabilities allowing you to put together things in the public eye that most would not." How on earth was that more likely than the first three? Surely there would be proof of that easily accessible? What the hell was he smoking? Had I come to the wrong person? "Fifth, you are an enemy agent here infiltrating the school." If I got arrested it would all be for nothing. No, not for nothing, Nezu knew, and eventually, enough things would align Nezu would know. It would be a setback, but not the end. "The last option and most likely is that this is an enemy operation, your memory has been tampered with to spread misinformation to open the window of opportunity for what the villains really have planned. This would explain everything in a nice neat box, however, life rarely likes to hand us things so nicely gifted." Well... actually that one would make sense from a twisted point of view. Villians would know all of this, and the confusion from having access to wrong information could only help the villains. Though they were trading away some of their anonymity by making that move.
No, I wasn't going to play this game, I would know if my mind had been tampered with, wouldn't I? Fuck, No I am Mineta, I've come from the future, I'm not gonna let this mind fuck me. "So what do we do then?" Actually, this may have been the absolute wrong angle altogether, I may have just seriously fucked myself. My eyes flickered to the window, could I make it off campus if they decided to arrest me? It would be hard, but I had gotten out of worse situations.
"Well, we proceed exactly as we have been of course Mineta." Wait, what? "I can not in good conscious just pick a random option and assume it is correct however likely it may be. This situation requires monitoring. If this really is a villain's plan, I still do not know their real target, and flinging things around randomly will fix nothing and may even fall exactly into their hands. The most likely thing is the next few actions will be exactly as you say they will be so as to lure us into a false sense of security. Therefore, the best thing I could do is to simply update security and keep a close eye on you. Keeping an eye on you will also only help confirm whether you are lying, suffering from stress, or from the future." Nezu gave me a smile, but this time it did not fill me with confidence, I felt like prey before a hungry predator. "Rest assured, the students at this school will be protected at all costs." And like that, the moment passed. "And as of this moment, you are one of those students. Now I am going to arrange for you to talk to a member of our faculty who is on the payroll for specific times like these. Anything you say to her will be kept in strict confidence, and she will be able to help you deal with some of the burdens you've been struggling with Mineta. I think that brings our meeting to an end, please have a nice day." As Nezu stepped out of his chair I followed suit, heading for the door. The door opened for me as we approached, it must be automatic from this side. "If there's anything else you would like to talk to me Mineta, my door is always open."
I nodded stepping out of the door. "Thank you Principal Nezu for your time." Had I accomplished anything? Was I crazy? Why didn't I feel any better? I had told someone, wasn't that supposed to make me instantly feel better? As the door closed behind me and I started walking to the exit of the grounds, I couldn't help but feel cheated. I had done something, this should have been an absolute change to the timeline, but instead, Nezu had chosen to do what, nothing? Watch me closer? Didn't we tell children that telling an adult was supposed to be a way to fix things? Surely I had grown out of those stupid ideas of simplicity? Surely I knew life was never simple and problems were never so easily fixed? Had I expected to be able to fix one thing and change the future? No, but I had thought it would be simpler I guess. Maybe if it had been Midoriya he could have made a master list and just started fixing things one at a time and making a better future. Hell Bakugo could have just went from one villain to another kicking their asses and throwing them in jail. But it wasn't them, it was me here. I couldn't keep sitting here dithering over what I was going to do. Though maybe I should have thought this over more? It had been a desperate moment that had burst out of me telling them everything.
I wonder would I look back on this day in regret or triumph, the cat was out of the bag for all the good it would do. It seemed as though Nezu was determined to let events play out the same way, at least for now. I wonder if that was just another way fate or whatever forcing time to follow the same path. The theory I had been brainwashed by a villain, I didn't like that theory at all. My memories were too specific for that, I couldn't have known about Iida and Yayorozo being president right or Midoriyas speech? I was definitely from the future even if Nezu didn't believe me yet.
"It was decided you'll be supervised by a three-man team composed of me, All Might, and somebody else. We will be conducting another trial of the foundational skills of heroics. Today its the trial of Rescue." I guess it was today, it was finally here. Despite my warnings, everything had seemingly gone about the same in the last few weeks. Studying, practicing with our quirks, rinse, and repeat. "Each of you will be wearing your hero gear, myself included. When you arrive at this facility I expect each of you to act like the Heroes you will be. That means that if something happens that you can not handle, I expect you to retreat and get help. Is that understood?" Agreements from my classmates. This didn't feel any different. Had Nezu decided just to ignore my warnings, or were we as students being fed as bait to the villains? I know how important this was to our development, but could I really let my friends risk their lives to become better heroes? Whos to say this event was the only way for that to happen? For all, I knew everyone would be fantastic heroes regardless. In fact, I was certain of it, my friends had all been amazing, to put them at risk like this was the height of irresponsibility. I was trading possibly their lives on a fear of changing the future, wasn't I? A real hero would have found another way. We had arrived and everyone was filing off the bus. Aizawa stood in front of us with a small crate sat beside him.
"Before we go inside class, please line up and grab one of these rescue masks. Some of you might not have built-in filtration systems for your gear, and I highly recommend that you add that to your costume design or start carrying one around with you. You may require this mask for today's scenario depending on the zone you are in. Please note that these masks work by containing about a half hours worth of fresh air, they function in any environment such as smoke or underwater and are one of the basic support items many heroes carry on their person. I don't need to remind any of you that these masks are not toys and to use them as needed or if instructed to do so by myself or another teacher." That was different I think, I definitely don't remember having a mask, but then again, I had not really needed to use one... Maybe I had just forgotten about it?
Stepping into the USJ was like stepping into my nightmares. Looking around the room, it was all I could do not to succumb to a panic attack. I was a pro, what the hell was wrong with me? The person standing at the top of the stairs surprised me greatly. It wasn't thirteen who was the school's rescue specialist but Midnight. Clever, her quirk would give us the best fighting chance if I was telling the truth without pulling security from the rest of the classes. It also explained the gas masks. Thank god, they had tried to make some changes, but did Midnight's quirk work on Nomus? She had been taken out to early in the first timeline to say for sure, and she just like Aizawa would be taken out by the sheer strength of it, if her quirk didn't take it out first. There were very few people who could reliably defeat a Numo. Kaminari had been very good at stalling the creatures, but you needed a very destructive quirk to be able to actually destroy them, the regeneration was a terrible advantage. Even if I managed to connect my grapes to it, it would just pull apart anything I got stuck to it. Or rip a part of itself off to do so.
And then it was beginning. The hole opened in the middle of the room, exactly the same as last time. I darted for the door, knowing if I could get it open Iida would have a better chance of escaping again. "MASKS ON!" Shouted Midnight as she ripped open her costume. My classmates quickly hurried to follow the order, their questions being swallowed by the urgency of her order. "EVERYONE STAY TOGETHER! YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO UTILIZE YOUR QUIRKS IN SELF DEFENSE" Door opened, mask on I turned to Iida to call to him. Too late, unfortunately.
"Greetings, we are the Villains Alliance. I apologize for the presumption but we took it upon ourselves to enter U.A Academy, the base of heroes. In order to engage with Mr. All Might, the symbol of peace. We were wondering if we might be allowed the opportunity to extinguish him, you see. Was Mr. All Might not meant to be in attendance at this juncture?" I felt it before I heard it. The sheer force of wind pressure buffeted against me.
"HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I HAVE COME!" All Might was here, instantly, I felt all the pressure release from my shoulders. It was going to be okay, they had told him and he was here. It was that relaxation I think that cost us. Kurigiri turned into what could only be described as a black fog that encompassed everything around me.
"You will be scattered, and tortured, and slain." And I was falling again for the second time straight into the flood zone. I had only moments to twist my body so I hit the water feet first. I released the breath I was holding as I realized my mask was still sealed to my face. I could see what looked like a shark Villian swimming towards another form in the water. Fuck, this was still one of the worst environments for me to be in, there was no way for me to get there in time or do anything with my quirk. A third form darted in fast and smacked the shark villain away, before grabbing my classmate with a long appendage that could only mean it was Tsuyu. With one powerful flick of her legs, she was on top of me pulling me with her as she flew to the surface like a torpedo. Quickly she threw my still unknown third classmate onto the deck.
"Thank you Tsuyu for the save." She smiled at me before grabbing me with her tongue and I was the next thrown onto the ship like a sack of potatoes. Was it just luck that Tsuyu and I had ended up in the shipwreck zone again? The odds were extremely against it. The muttering of my third classmate told me it was absolutely Midoriya, which left three possibilities. We had somehow been randomly picked a second time, the future was unchangeable, or Kurigiri had put all of us exactly where we wanted. But why? Placing Tsuyu with us had optimized our chances of survival? If they truly had no idea who we were it should have been random again, shouldn't it?
"Asui, you... Ahem, Tsuyu, you're able to move freely! It's your strength, why would they put you here? In other words, they don't know what the student's quirks are!" Tsuyu was nodding along, though I didn't feel as great about that theory as I might have in the past. "They separated us and their strategy is to assault us with sheer numbers. They've got us beat in both numbers and experience! We have only one key to victory! Our one advantage is that they have no clue what our quirks can do!" Last time, I had spent the whole time freaking out, but right now, every second we spend here is another second something could go wrong and someone could get seriously hurt. We needed to go now.
"Tsuyu, you could jump pretty far-carrying Midoriya and me right?" Tsuyu nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face as she listened to me. "Midoriya, do you think one of your finger flicks could create a ripple effect with enough force to pull the villains together?" Midoriya followed along my train of thought and beat me to it, the little genius.
"And you could get them stuck altogether with your quirk, preventing them from following us or hurting anyone! That's brilliant!" A few seconds later, the plan was agreed on and Midoriya was running towards the edge like an insane person. "DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" God, he was intense, but Midoriya was probably the coolest of all his classmates. How could someone who practically cried every five minutes be so damn awesome? Tsuyu and I followed and did our part flawlessly, landing us in the water far enough not to get caught up in the mess the rest of the villains were currently trapped in. Midoriya's finger was broken, which I was able to splint up from my utility kit. Once that was done, Midoriya was already chopping at the bit to get to the center and see what was going on. There was no talking him out of it, and I wanted to see what was going on myself.
The middle was exactly the sort of chaos I was expecting, though something was off, a feeling of wrongness sat in my stomach. All Might was engaging the Numo directly blow for blow while dealing with the distractions of all the minor villains who were out for blood. He darted through the minor villains while the Numo chased him in a deadly dance that with every blow reduced the odds against All Might. He dodged bullets and acid and blows all the while knocking out each villain with a single blow. That level of control was unbelievable. All Might could have killed all of those minor villains with a single swing but he fought to the death while carefully calculating what each villain could take. The man was heroism incarnate. But we could see it, the odds were too great for him. Fifty plus villains plus the Numo was wearing him down and he was protecting his left side for some reason. Had he taken a hit there earlier? As All Might hit another villain in the face breaking another mask it finally hit me. All of the villains including the Numo were wearing gas masks. The staffing change hadn't happened till after the break-in, how could she have possibly known? Midnight and Aizawa were nowhere to be seen, potentially still fighting the warp quirk villain at the top of the stairs.
The black mist appeared next to a figure who was off to the side observing. My attention drawn to him, the sense of wrongness turned into pure fear. I had known he would be here, but seeing him brought it all back. "Shigarika Tomura, I was unable to prevent one of the students from escaping with his life." The monster turned toward us and I felt like he was looking right at me.
"There's no doubt that if they throw dozens of pros at us, we can't win. It's game over." Panic. "It's game over... For now." Panic. "Actually, before that, why don't we use this opportunity to take..." Shigaraki vanished and was in front of me, he was reaching for me, I was going to die. "THE SYMBOL OF PEACE'S PRIDE DOWN A NOTCH!" A hand grabbed Shigaraki's shoulder, halting him before it could grab my or Tsuyus face. "You really do try to save everyone All Might." All Might was coughing up blood as he held onto Shigarakis arm, the Numo had its hand dug into All Might's left side. Midoriya tried to hit the Numo with a full-powered punch that did nothing. I couldn't move. All I could hear was someone screaming as I sat there and did nothing. A shot pierced through the air hitting Shigariki's arm and in a flash, the three villains were gone. The screaming stopped and I realized it had been me who had been making the piercing cry of despair.