Today was a good day for the students of class 1A. It was a Saturday morning, so school wasn't a matter of concern for everyone. Well, mostly everyone, except for the class representative, Tenya Iida, that man always had school on the forefront of his mind.
Other than that, it was also a stormy day, but instead of the usual gloom that follows such days, it didn't feel like that to the future heroes. It felt more…comfortable, almost as if the rain and the sound of it falling brought some calmness to their mind.
A lot of them students were just starting to wake up, or were already relaxing in the multiple places the Height Alliance gave them, somewhere in the kitchen preparing a warm breakfast for their classmates, those included Satou and Ochako.
As soon as the pair finished preparing the most important meal of the day, they called out to everyone present.
"Guys, can you please go over and wake up the rest, please?"
As soon as they both called everyone out for breakfast, the rest of the class showed up, except for two people: Izuku Midoriya, also known as the bone breaking hero, and Minoru Mineta, infamely known as the resident pervert and degenerate of the class.
Once everyone noticed this, Mina Ashido decided to speak up.
"How about we choose who goes to wake up Midoriya and Mineta… with a game!"
She was ecstatic at the thought of turning this small situation into a mini game, and it seems the idea was well received between everyone, except the girls, who didn't want to go anywhere near Mineta's room.
"All right boys, have fun!" She said, as she started dragging the rest of the girls away.
"THAT'S SO UNFAIR, SO UNMANLY!" yelled all the boys in unison, with Kirishima being the red sheep of the group, while another person didn't object at all. And that was Kirishima.
"Well, I guess we should decide this with a game." suggested Ojiro.
"We don't have to, I'm ok with going to wake Mineta u-" Kaminari was cut off abruptly before he could finish by Aoyama.
"We need to make this a spectacular game that can show my brightness!" he really wanted to show off.
"This game needs to be manly!" Kirishima continued.
"Guys, seriously, I'm ok with waking up Mineta, His room is much more normal than you mi-" he was cut off again.
"I see… An elimination game definitely sounds like the best for this situation, then." this time, it was by the class rep, Iida.
"Seriously Iida-san, even you?"
"What nonsense are you talking about, Kaminari-kun? Go fetch us some sticks or toothpicks from the kitchen and a pen." he ordered.
"I could've easily ended the whole thing and brought the both of them, but no, you want me to get tooth picks and pens… You guys are weird."
After Kaminari brought what was (ordered) requested of him, Iida started explaining the rules of the game.
"The rules are very simple. I'll mark one of these tooth picks with this pen, then we will shuffle them, and whoever gets the marked toothpick, gets eliminated, and won't have to go wake them up. Pretty simple rules."
"With my elegance, I'll have the spotlight in this game," Aoyama said arrogantly.
"Guys, seriously, we don't have to this, I'll just go up there an-"
"All Right! Let's do this!"
"That's the spirit, Kirishima-kun!"
He was being completely and utterly ignored.
"You know what? You guys have fun, I'm just gonna sit this one out, I don't think there will be any objections to that." he just wanted peace of mind at this point.
"Ok guys, first round!" Iida shouted, ignoring him again as well as the rest.
"Y'all a buncha bitches" Kaminari said, leaving the circle to go sit on the couch.
The game went on, as the rain was pouring outside, tense like the wind that was blowing between the 1A boys, but in the end, only one person was left.
"When I said I'll have the spotlight, I didn't mean as a permanent guest!"
Aoyama kept complaining that the outcome was decided, he had to go and wake up the two, and more admittedly, Mineta.
"Oh, hey guys! Is breakfast ready?"
As soon as those words were uttered everyone knew who said them, it was the loveable green-haired boyof 1A, Izuku Midoriya.
Everyone turned around to look at him and greet him, except for Aoyama. And then, lightning strikes started robbing the dormitory of it's light for a second, and as soon as the light came back on, no one was in a different place from they once were. Except for Aoyama, whose head was tilted to an unnatural degree facing Izuku, with a shadow being cast over his face with a menacing look to add to.
"Midoriya, care to play a game?" He found his prey, and he was so close to go on his hunt.
"Sure, what is it?" Midoriya, oblivious to the situation that happened before his wake, was excited to participate in a friendly activity. But it wasn't a friendly one, he was just caught hook line and sinker to what Aoyama wanted.
"Wait, wait, wait, Midoriya doesn't have to do this, the game was for waking him up!" Kirishima pleaded, trying to save his friend.
"That's true indeed, but now that he is here, it's not against the rules for him to play, we said it will be between all the boys." Aoyama argued.
"Yeah, sure, between all the boys…" Kaminari says, mumbling alone on the couch.
"That's correct, this doesn't go against the rules that we set up."
"Come on, Iida, we can't do this to Midobro!" Kirishima said, shocked that Iida was on with this.
Aoyama continued to tilt his head, above what's naturally possible for him.
"If he says it's ok, then there shouldn't any problem, right, Midoriya?"
"I-I don't even know what you guys are talking about, I'm not sure I want to play anymore…"
Izuku was confused by the whole thing, and started to question the friendly nature of this activity he was being led to.
"What...?" Aoyama said, in an angry condescending tone.
"W-what…?" Izuku was scared now.
"Green headed says I agree?"
"I agree?"
"Good. Let's play.""I can't believe I fell for that.''
Feeling ashamed by himself, Izuku couldn't describe what he felt at that precise moment.
"Ok, Midoriya, this is a fair fight between two men!" He exclaimed, showing pride in all of his spoken words.
"L-let's get this over with, I'm scared enough already!" With no lies said there, Aoyama was showing some crimson red flags today.
The two got ready, Iida shuffled the toothpicks to preserve the fairness of the game, Kirishima was tearing at such a manly spectacle (thinking so because of Aoyama's words) and the rest of the class was feeling tense, wanting to see the result.
Both picked their choice, and both felt suspense building up with each second. It was now or never for both of them, to Aoyama more so than Izuku, who still doesn't understand the point of this and why it's happening, because he didn't have the time to ask.
As both looked at their toothpicks, one man fell to his knees, and the other roared in victory.
Izuku has lost, and now is facing a challenge he never knew he had to face.
"I knew my elegance would show up and pull me through!" Aoyama felt like this was the second happiest moment of his life.
"What is going to happen to me…?" Izuku was scared shitless for his fate as he was repeating those words.
Iida, acting as the judge, approached him to tell him about his deserved punishment.
"Izuku-kun, as the rules state, now that you have lost you must go to Mineta's room to wake him up."
As soon as those words were uttered, the gleam suddenly left his eyes. This might truly be the most difficult challenge he has faced in his life.
Some of his classmates were, to be honest, not caring for the whole ordeal. Some were silently praying for the poor lad, some, albeit one couldn't think of anything, but the sweet taste of victory, and oh… how delicious it was.
Izuku didn't stay pondering his fate for too long, but soon he picked himself up, clenched his fist, and started moving towards the stairs. As soon as he got there, he didn't turn around, he just uttered the words "pray for me".
Silent prayers were being sung for him, no one knew what could happen at the end of his journey, but they hoped it ended quickly for him without suffering.
After a few moments, Izuku disappeared from the ground floor, and a few moments of silence filled the dorm. A minute passed, and then two, then it was three.
The students thought that this might be a first of Izuku "bone-breaking" Midorya deciding to chicken out of the dare.
As soon as the thought began to spread between them, lightning struck again, and the light went off for a few seconds this time: When the power came back, nothing changed, silence still filling the place. But then, after 10 seconds or so, Silent screams could be heard loud and clear from upstairs, and everyone could tell they belonged to Mineta.
The students rushed upstairs to see what the commotion was all about, and when they got to Mineta's (it was the only place they could guess it came from) they found him on the floor shaking, holding his head in disbelief while staring at his personal TV that he has in his room.
No one was paying attention to the surprisingly normal interior of the room, they were all shocked by what they say from following Mineta's line of sight.
Izuku was shaking the whole way as he went up stairs, 'growing up quirkless, inheriting the quirk of the symbol of peace, fighting off villains, all of these were hard things that life threw at me but I always was able to stick my landing and bounce back from them, but today this might be the hardest challenge yet' Izuku kept thinking to himself us he got closer and closer to Mineta's room.
He finally made it to the floor the room was in and he could see the door very clearly, he was scared, with every step he takes his breathing became more ragged and his walking posture more awkward, he became frantic, in his eyes the door almost had a dark aura surrounding it, yet his legs kept on moving, his face not leaving the door, he was not running away.
As soon as he got directly infront of it he kept staring it, he felt a force pushing against, almost like a wind or a barrier keeping him away, but he pushed through, his hand reaching for the handle and having a good grip on, it was now or never.
In a quick motion Izuku opened the door, and he looked inside to see it, and it was…normal, it was a normal room, yes there were some posters of female heroes hung up on the walls but nothing too vulgar, the room had a few purple patterns around the walls and it was neatly clean, in the middle left there was Mineta on his desk with a small TV and gaming console, he must have brought them both from his house, he also had some snacks next to them.
Soon Mineta noticed Izuku, "Oh hey Midoriya, what brings here" Mineta wasn't confused or surprised that Izuku came, to him it was a friend that suddenly decided to visit.
"..." Izuku didn't respond, he was stunned at the revelation that occurred before him, Mineta's room…WAS NORMAL!!!
"Midoriya?" Mineta now was starting to get confused.
"..." Izuku remained static in this place
"Midoriya""Midoriya!" Shouted Mineta getting a bit weirded out by what's going on.
"Oh, what? Sorry, where am I?" Izuku was completely loss.
"You're in my room man, why did you come here?"
"Oh yeah, it's just that breakfast was ready and the guy- I decided to come fetch you over" Izuku didn't want to reveal what actually went downstairs, feeling a bit bad for his small friend.
"Ah, it's ok, no need to because I have all these snacks that I got specifically so that I spent this morning here" Mineta showed him the collection, some light foods and juice boxes.
"And why is that Mineta-kun" Izuku was a bit curious.
"I finally got this game that I have been waiting for here, so i was planning to beat it 100% in one go today, it's a really cool game" there was a hint of excitement in his voice.
"That's cool, let me have a look" as Izuku got closer the kind of game Mineta was having became more clear.
"I-is this a dating sim?"
Mineta stated for a second at Izuku before responding.
"Huh, I'm surprised you knew what that even is" Mineta forgot that his classmate was still a normal person, a normal person that has access to the internet and is a teenager.
"Yes it is, you might think I got for the otome aspect, but this actually a brilliantly designed JRPG, I would highly recommend…you know what, why not watch me to see what I mean" He was excited to have someone he considered as a friend play games with him in his room.
"But we need to go for breakfast Mineta-kun" He didn't forget why he came here in the first place.
"I already told you, I got everything I need here, can't you just like, stay for at least 5 minutes or so?" Mineta really wanted to keep him here, Kaminari is the only person that visits and it's kinda lonely here, but he still wants to play the game, so he needs Izuku to stay put, and so he used the only trick he knows, pleading eyes, which worked well with his short stature to give an almost innocent begging look.
"Fine, I'll stay" He reluctantly agreed thanks to his friend's eye digging holes in his self consciousness.
"Yes! This will be so much fun!" He was really happy about this outcome.
"But this type of game isn't really my jam"
"Don't worry, the main hook of this game is it's mechanics and difficulty rather than the dating sim, that's just there to appease buyers" This was surprising for Izuku to hear, to think that Mineta got the game for the game itself and not to date those digital characters, maybe they judged him too harshl-
"Although the girls are still totally stacked" well…maybe it was a little bit deserved.
"Alright let's do this!" With energy crossing through him now that he had someone to spend the time with he booted up the game with vigor and waited for it to load.
But as the game was loading a massive lighting strike happened right next to the dormitory, it's light mysteriously filling and engulfing the room they were in, this made the electricity go our for a bit, and it shocked Mineta in all honesty, he was genuinely a bit scared at that…and by that it means he was absolutely losing his rocker at what just happened.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!" His screams were defeneaning, but no matter how much he screamed he didn't get a reassuring response or any sound for that matter from Izuku, he was a bit concerned that his friend was in a much worse state, so for one of the few moments in his life, he put his big boy pants on and tried to reach for his friend in the dark.
But he couldn't find anything, he kept calling his name but there was no response, this was really scaring him now.
After a few moments lightning struck back again, the lights came back on, Izuku was nowhere in sight, the TV and console booted up again, this time the game finished loading quickly, this caught Mineta's attention and so his eyes wandered there, and what he saw made him scream, the loudest scream he has ever had, was it fear, concern or envy, Mineta didn't know at the moment, but he still screamed.
After that a bunch of footsteps can be heard running towards the place.
Then a bunch of class 1A students barged in to see what the commotion was about.
They all were looking at the same thing, they could tell it's real, but couldn't understand how it came to be. Their friend Izuku was on the TV screen as a 2D image that wasn't moving, in what looked to be fantasy themed clothes.
They didn't understand how it came to be, was this a prank, a joke, a surprise by Mineta for Izuku? They just didn't get it.
Mineta weakly got up from the floor and walked to the TV.
He picked up his controller and pressed start.
After going through the beginning screen and everything, the game finally started and it showed a fully modeled Izuku in the different clothes than the opening screen but still in the same themes, they felt worse in quality than what he had there.
A dialogue box showed up.
Izuku just woke up, he didn't know why but he was unconscious for god knows how long, but it's weird the ground beneath him didn't feel like a normal floor or a bed, expecting that he was put at least in the infirmary for getting knocked out, burning, it felt more rough, more jagged, it felt like he was laying outside in a forest and when his head finally registered that in he looked around and found himself in a place exactly how felt.
He was in a forest, the only thing he saw was trees stretching as far as the eye could see, bushes strewn around everywhere, and no sign of life he could see at the moment.
He took a moment to catch his breath considering he started hyperventilating at the situation, but that was cut short when he heard screams coming from close in the forest.
His heroic side just couldn't let that slide, he picked himself up and dashed to where he could identify the sound coming from, until he got to an spot where it was clear of trees, and what he saw was a weird scene.
Uraraka was there, she was wearing worn and torn clothing, he didn't know if it was because of what was happening or that's just what she was wearing, and she was being attacked by what seems to be a slime, a creature of just pure blue goones that it was see through, and it moved in its place weirdly.
Izuku didn't have time to question where he was, what was that, what was exactly happening and most importantly why, but he knew one thing.
He will help Uraraka.
