Chapter Ninety-Eight
Mineta knew he wasn't going to be the best.
His Quirk, while kinda cool, was not the kind that made it to the top tier, not unless he joined a team like the Pussycats, who, collectively, were ranked thirty-two in all of Japan. He'd gotten better, and seen gains, but there was a giant gulf between himself and the top-end of his class, just like there was a chasm between most heroes, and men like All Might.
The big three of his class were obvious: Midoriya, Todoroki, and Kaminari. They were Mini-All Might, Mini-Endeavor-plus, and the unholy bastard child of All Might, Endeavor-but-Electric, Edgeshot, and Power Loader.
Really, it just wasn't fair.
But life wasn't fair, or else he wouldn't be three and a half feet tall.
Past those three, in the top seven there was Bakugo, Ashido, Yaoyorozu, and then either Asui or maybe Uraraka, and all four of those bodacious babes were dating two of the big three, which just wasn't fair. I mean, leave some for the rest of us, you bastards!
Then again, Mineta did have Tina's picture as his homescreen on his phone, which he wished they'd let him take with him, so it wasn't like this was some sort of caveman tribe thing. Though he was a man. And was currently in a cave.
Though what he was watching wasn't cave-man stuff.
Gilligan's Island maybe, but not cave-man.
"Good, now thread that vine-braid through here, and over this, but under that, so these force vectors cancel each other out, letting you pull here but extend this," Kaminari indicated with unnerving intensity, using bits of scrap-metal he'd literally torn from the 'office' they were in with his bare hands, reshaping the metal like it was clay, which was insane.
Then again, that was just Kaminari in a nut-shell, emphasis on the nut. It was one thing to see it at a distance, but to be in the same room as him, able to smell the blood that soaked half his outfit with the dude just waving away their concerns with his previously broken arm that, "Nah, it's fine, I'll heal" as he went back to carving up wood with electric claws, using a bit of electricity to char it so his 'notes' would stand out more cleanly, well, that was different.
At least, looking at his teammates, they were just as freaked-out as he was. Vine-girl was going along with it, but Komori had drifted over to sit on the desk next to him, watching the electric eccentric work. "Is, is this normal, shroom?"
He started to say no, no it wasn't, but... "Uh, kinda?" the ball-headed boy shrugged. At her incredulous expression, he told her, "Look, is there, like, some people in your class who are just, like better than the others?"
Slowly, the girl shook her head no.
"Really? Huh," Mineta sighed. "Well, you know how the semifinals of the Sports Festival were nothing but Class A, and except for the guy that's joining our Class, the semi-semifinals were too?" he questioned, waiting for a nod. "Yeah, at I-Island, I was there for a fight between All Might and a Villain that... it was just nuts. But Midoriya was there right next to him, Ashido and Todoroki helped, and Kaminari, Kaminari hit the guy hard. And then there was the plane, and you saw the lake and," he shrugged again. "I guess it kinda is."
Komori frowned, "Kinda makes me feel like Hymenoscyphus fructigenus, ya know?"
Mineta didn't, but he got the gist, nodding, trying to think of how to respond. "Agreed. But, like, every fungus has its place, right? Sure, there's matsatukes out there, but we need shiitakes and maitakes too, right?"
The girl blinked her big brown, cross-pupiled eyes, and smiled at Mineta, who tried not to blush. Once you get past the crazy, she's kinda cute, he thought. No! Remember! Professionalism! "S-so, were you going as hard as you could, before, uh, this? Because I was!"
"Me too, shroom!" she nodded emphatically. "I thought passing my school's fitness exam was enough, since I can just grow my precious little fungi everywhere, but you were popping up all over the place like Pleurotus ostreatus, shroom!"
"Yeah, I've been training, 'cause, you know, little legs mean I'm always having to run," he replied, only kind of joking. "But I've been pushing myself the last couple months, especially after the work study. Having to go on patrol all over the place really showed how much I needed to up my game."
"Same, shroom!" the short girl agreed. She paused, thinking hard about something. "Hey, uh, Mineta?"
"Yeah, Komori?"
"When school starts, you wanna be exercise-buddies!" the fungus controller asked hesitantly.
Holy shit, I read this story! the boy thought, but, no, no, that was the old Mineta, the new one was a hero first, amazingly charismatic ladies man second, so instead he smiled, heroically, and nodded as he gave her a thumbs up. "Sure! That sounds great. We'll be small, but mighty!"
She laughed so hard she snorted, which he'd never had a girl do before when he talked them, so, making sure he didn't mess it up, Mineta did the smart thing and shut the fuck up.
"Okay, that's the last of it," Kaminari sighed, stepping back. "How's that feel?"
Frowning, Shiozaki was sitting on the remains of converted office chair, her tendrils wrapped down and around her, interwoven into a rectangular carriage with two more seats behind it. More than that, though, were the shaped metal that formed eight insectile 'legs', with vines running through them, making them twitch. It was like she was a giant metal spider, and, to be honest, it was seriously creepy.
"Alright, bug movement patterns are pretty simple, which, considering they're just biological robots, makes sense," the inventor stated. "Spiders are an easier platform, which is why Powerloader had Mei and I work on these before we went to tentacles, which are more versatile but much harder to work with, though that's also a description of my lab-partner. Eight might seem like a lot, but you're not moving eight different limbs you're moving two, while kind of gripping with your toes a little. Now, Up!" he commanded, and, surprised, Shiozaki's vines tightened, lifting her up with a scared gasp. "Hold!"
He walked around, wrapping his knuckles on the joints. "Good. Could be better. When we're home, if you want, I can talk to Mei about whipping something up that's collapsible, and with leads so you don't need someone to braid your hair for you," he commented idly. "Okay, pick up these legs, and only these legs."
Walking around the religious girl, he tapped four. "Okay, now move each of them forward four feet. Don't worry about falling, the other four feet you have will keep you stable. Then once they're down, apply a little pressure to the floor, to make sure the 'grip' is tight. I used the rubber bottoms of the furniture, so they're a bit odd, but I'm not making an electric kiln just to melt it from proper pads. Once you've got the grip on the forward set of four, bring yourself forward until your weight is on the forward set, then pick up the back set, move them up, put them down like normal, shift your weight back to the 'back' set, and, presto, you're walking like a spider. To turn just take shorter steps on that side. Give it a shot now."
Haltingly Shiozaki moved back and forth, quickly gaining in fluidity, and creepiness, with her movements. "I, I think I got it," she commented after a couple minutes.
"Good," Kaminari replied, momentarily smiling. "If you need to jump, bring them together all then extend down, but I wouldn't do that unless you really need to, as if you do it just right you're gonna fly like twenty feet in the air. Also, as I'm sure you could tell, I used the vines from your crown backwards, which leaves the top and front sections of your scalp free to manipulate as you would normally, for capturing enemies, grabbing things, or grabbing onto things and pulling yourself forward if you want to go all Spiderman, ironically. Or Kamui Woods, I guess," he added, at Shiozaki's confused expression, the clarification making her smile.
The blond musclebound teen sighed, then blinked, shaking his head, working his no-longer-injured shoulder, though his entire left side was now stained with partially dried blood. "Good, good, in that case... in that case it's time to go to work."
And Mineta watched as Kaminari seemed to change.
His stance shifted from leaning back and mostly straight, pitching forward a little and getting lower. His expression went blank, not the excited confidence he normally wore, or anger, or anything. His hands opened and his fingers curled, twitching a little, momentarily flickering into electric claws. His feet shifted as well, turning electric, as the steel balls he'd filled his pockets with clinked softly.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he muttered something, Mineta trying to read the man's lips, as he said something like 'Full Calling', and golden veins formed on his body. The lighting down here wasn't the best, but Kaminari's skin seemed like it started to glow, crackles of electricity flashing across his limbs, which dissipated harmlessly into the air.
"Alright," he stated, voice tight, but somehow more, speaking almost to himself. "Now, how is, shit!"
In a blur, Kaminari moved, and slammed, back-first, into the side wall over two dozen feet away, crossing the distance in less than a second. Hitting it hard enough to break the stone blocks, splattering some of it with blood, he landed down into a roll, came up, and launched himself forward another dozen feet before landing. Taking a few halting steps, each one pushing himself several feet into the air, he got it under control. "Okay, okay. Complimentary... ah. Of course."
"Uh, Kaminari? You okay?" Mineta questioned, his classmate's behavior… he didn't want to say wrong, then tried not flinch as the guy's head snapped up and stared at him with an almost wild look in his eyes, before he blinked, and untensed, as if just seeing the ball-headed boy.
"I, yeah. New power expressions. Always a learning period," he stated, tone clipped, leaning back and forth before launching himself forward, twisting about to land, feet first, on the ceiling, and then kicking off again, twisting again to land right in front of the two of them, Komori flinching as the force of his arrival kicked up a breeze that would've ruffled hair, if Mineta had any, one that smelled of lightning. "Shiozaki's good. Time to go. Climb in. Strap in. Too much time already," he commanded, leaping to the doorway.
Exchanging worried looks with the rest of his team, Mineta and Komori moved over to Shiozaki, who, after a moment, splayed out her 'legs' to tilt and let them get into the other seats, vines coming up over them in a harness. "Kaminari?" the vine-haired girl questioned, the boy's head snapping over to her, though without the weird eyes this time at least. "Your voice seems… different."
"Voice?" he echoed, frowning. "Test. Ah. Test. Test. Test. Good. Thank you. Now let's go!" he commanded coldly, dashing out the door in an instant, and leaving them alone.
As Shiozaki started to move them out, barely able to fit through the door, Komori asked, "Is he normally-"
"No," Mineta replied, frowning. He'd seen Kaminari annoyed, and angry, and scared, and even kind of mean, but never cold, like Todoroki, but somehow worse. Endeavor's son seemed like he didn't have very much emotion at all, but with Kaminari, it almost felt like he'd taken out a knife, weird as it was, and he wasn't waving it around, that'd be Bakugo, but like he was telling you how he was going to stab you with it, and there was nothing you could do to stop him.
More simply, it was freaking scary.
Shiozaki turned their spider-bus, and started clambering down the tunnel, Kaminari already in the distance, glowing like a beacon, the vine-girl trying her best, getting faster, and faster, until she was moving quicker than either girl could run, taking the corner a bit hard, but she reflexively lifted the legs to brace against them, and Mineta realized why Kaminari had made it into a spider instead of a car, which should've been a lot easier.
However, as they turned, their leader was already gone, disappearing down another turn, and Shiozaki moved to follow, the loud zap-boom of Kaminari's rail gun going off, as Mineta and Komori were carried along, turning the next corner a few moments later, to see not a fight, but a slaughter.
A dozen of the smaller guys were down on the ground, all of them beheaded, one of the taser ones blown to bits, two of the big guys headless as well, while, with his arm electric from the elbow down, Kaminari jumped in close to the last big one, slamming claws into its chin with an extended limb. Then the arm split in half, leaving a gap between the two lines of his 'forearm', each with claws sunk in, more lightning sparking as the teen fed a metal ball into that gap, and, with another zap-boom, the huge guy's head exploded in a shower of dark dirt.
"Shiozaki!" Kaminari called, his voice a whipcrack that almost made her stumble, and Mineta was glad for all of them she didn't. "Getting better?"
"I-I am! It is an unusual method, but insects are some of our Lord's creations, and I am understanding his greatness ever more," she smiled, a little nervously, quickly maneuvering herself over to him.
He nodded sharply. "Hear that. Killed these to test. Others we'll blow past. Understood?
"Yes!" she nodded in return. "I do."
Kaminari's blank expression momentarily twitched into a smile. "Good. Then let's hunt."
MHA
Any thoughts Mineta might've had about being on Kaminari's level?
Fucking gone.
He also realized now that he'd never seen Kaminari seriously fight, at least against someone weaker than himself, and that Mineta hadn't realized what a difference that made.
They'd torn down halls, torn across rooms, and torn through everything in their way, Kaminari a constant rolling mass of violence that put Bakugo to shame, beheading and dismembering anything that got in his way, not stopping to see if it'd worked, not that he'd need to, just constantly running, clawing, chopping, tearing, anything he left behind either 'dead' or in no shape to stop them.
If these had been people, this would've been an absolute massacre, and the ball-headed boy was well aware that, if Kaminari were a Villain, and he'd tried to stop him, Mineta would be dead in seconds unless he got insanely lucky.
Shiozaki had gotten faster, had quickly skittered through the tunnels after their leader, but while she'd gotten better at moving, so had Kaminari, who half the time didn't even touch the floors anymore, bouncing off the walls like an electrical murder pinball.
And other than maybe being a little stronger, nothing about Kaminari's Quirk had changed, just the way he was using it.
But worst of all, after clearing the second evidence room, which the blond murder machine didn't even let them enter before he ran through inside, killed everything that moved, and ran out with the bags of evidence, was when Kaminari's hand had brushed up against his, lighting arcing to strike the boy, which didn't hurt.
At least not physically.
-EBETRAYALDEADSOMANYDEADMYFAULTSHOULD'VEKILLEDBETRAYEDFRIENDSLOSTMYFAULTKILLBETRAYERDEADLOSTMYFAULTDESPAIRDEADLOSTDRAINEDDEADMYFAULTNOTAGAINNEVERAGAINKILLRAGEBETRAYERDESPAIRMYFAULTRAGEKILLNEVERAGAI-
Mineta had locked up, every muscle going tight, his heart beating furiously in his chest, only his harness keeping him in his seat, as Shiozaki's vines looped around the bags and they kept going, Kaminari turning into another rolling ball of murder that they followed after.
"You okay, shroom?" Komori had asked, concerned.
"N-Nah, I'm fine," Mineta had deferred, wondering what the actual fuck that was. Did the lightning that surrounded the blonde baddie brutalizer contain his emotions? Or maybe his thoughts? Because there had been thoughts in there, just jammed up into one giant stream that tried to drown him.
There'd been a girl in Mineta's middle school that could make butterflies she used to send emotions and messages with. She'd used it to bully Mineta, and other boys, with how disgusting she thought they were, and how much she hated them, while her friends always said they didn't see anything and the teachers believed those harpies, but that girl's hate had been, like, 'I hate the taste of natto'.
Kaminari's had been…
Mineta didn't have words for what that had been, and anything he could think of would never be enough.
The only upside was that Kaminari's ripping apart of everything in their path suddenly made a lot more sense.
The blood-soaked teen was even now was clearing out another evidence room, as the three of them just watched, one of the 'freeze-ray' dirt people hitting him full on with it, but instead of being frozen solid he just tore through the mist, then the head of the guy wielding the gun, grabbing it before it hit the ground and using it to freeze half the room, then tossing it in the other direction, tearing a bit of metal off a desk with his other hand, crushing it, then firing it at the descending Support item, breaking it apart, causing it to explode and cover the other half of the room in ice as well.
Then, not even bothering to look at what he'd done, Kaminari leapt to the back wall, collected the evidence bags, and, with a couple jumping steps, tossed them to the rest of his team. "That's ten. Yes?"
"Twelve, actually, shroom," Komori corrected.
The blond didn't snark back, or apologize, or anything, he just nodded mechanically. "Good. Follow me. We're going up."
And then he was off, Shiozaki struggling to follow, only able to keep up because of the dirt dudes that they ran across, Kaminari slowing to bounce between the enemies as he ripped them apart too, going up and up, running into more and more of them, at one point Kaminari turning and blowing open a closed off entrance and taking that, in a mad rush that Mineta could do nothing but hold on for, Komori beside him grabbing his shoulder to keep her balance, which would normally be a definite check in the score! box, but the shorter teen couldn't help but wonder what Kaminari would do next.
Going down the now-open tunnel lessened the number of guys they had to fight, until they hit a sudden incline, and then were out, in the fresh air and sunlight, after what felt like weeks underground, despite it just being a few hours, Shiozaki struggling to come to a stop, only to be caught by Kaminari, who dug two spiked legs into the ground and gently grabbed the woven 'carriage', easily weighing a couple hundred pounds, and bringing them to a rest.
Around them, other students were standing, Midoriya's team, along with Bakugo's, Todoroki's, and Monoma's, all staring at them.
Turning, Kaminari's tone was cold as he almost shouted, his voice loud but with no intense emotion in it. "Pussycats! To be clear: Combat is allowed between teams! Correct!?"
Mandalay and Tiger exchanged worried looks, while Ragdoll grinned. "Yep! Did little Shocky get a boo-boo?"
The Pussycat's leader turned an outraged expression on her green-haired teammate, while Monoma, paling, put his hands up. "Uh, hear that, Kaminari? What I did is perfectly within the rules! And since-"
Head snapping over to the power-copier, a burst of electricity radiated from their team lead, and then he was gone, charging forward, even as the ground surged up between them, only to be blasted apart, Monoma scream of terror wrenching to Mineta's heart as he was sure he was about to see someone die.
"Kaminari!" Midoriya yelled, starting to spark with green lightning, looking a bit like the Kaminari in a weird way, starting to dash forward, but he wasn't going to get there in time.
The electrical man had lifted Monoma up by his head, one electrical claw closed tightly around the boy's skull, holding it in place, as his other, blood-soaked arm flattened into a spike, and his stance shifted, feet firming, as he intoned, crackling, "Then so is this."
And struck.
There was a snap-BANG, as Kaminari's arm shot forward, not piercing through the teen, but passing right by his head, the limb extend outwards twenty feet until it hit a tree.
A tree which then exploded.
Splinters went flying, thudding into the forest around it, but none of them came back their way.
Midoriya stopped, halfway to them, as Monoma whimpered, a few drops of blood coming down his face from where the tips of Kaminari's claws held him tight, but he was otherwise fine.
Mineta couldn't see his team leader's face, but he didn't need to. "Act like a Villain. Be treated as a Villain. You disgust me."
The front of Monoma's pants darkened, and Mineta couldn't really blame him.
Dropping the power copier, the boy's legs crumpled under him, as Kaminari turned his back on the backstabber and started to walk away.
"W-wait!" Monoma called, and Kaminari stilled, slowly turning back to look with a warning glance. "W-what did you mean? I have a 'Hero's power'?"
Mineta was confused, as that wasn't what he'd heard, but then realized they'd probably talked before. The 1-B student probably dismissed it, right until Kaminari almost killed him.
It would certainly get Mineta's attention.
The electric man stared at the other student for a long moment before he sighed, the arcs of lightning all around him fading, as he muttered something to himself, too low for Mineta to hear. Louder, he told Monoma, "Your power is literally teamwork, you dumb piece of shit. You're the Captain Planet 'when our powers combine' asshole, with a dash of 'anything you can do I can do better' on top. I don't know who told you that you were some kind of 'side character', with a 'weak' Quirk, but you're a goddamned Trump for fuck's sake, and whoever didn't understand what that means is a fucking moron!"
"I-It was Vlad," the boy said, looking over to the teacher, who Mineta realized was being held back by Aizawa.
Kaminari turned to stare the Pro in the eye. "You're a fucking moron!" Turning back, to Monoma, he sighed again, bringing his bloodstained arm up to pinch the bridge of his nose, the cold-beam that he'd been hit with having un-dried most of it, making it drip down his arm, leaving a bright-red smear on his face as he did so.
"Listen. Quirks are good, but they're limited. When you get some that synergize, however, they get fucking ridiculous. This is ENTITY Elimination 101," Kaminari said, paused, looked momentarily lost, then shook his head. "Right. What? Right. You want to be a Pro? Want to make it to the top ten?"
Hesitantly, the power copier nodded.
"Good. You can do it. But you need to do three things. First, make a team. Maybe from UA students, maybe not. Find a number of people whose Quirks stack, like how my Electrification is touch only, while Setsuna's Quirk means 'touch only' is now way less restrictive than it used to be. Throw in Toru's invisibility and you've now got a hundred invisible flying tasers, which is just kind of ridiculous when you think about it," he stated, and Mineta had to agree, wondering how he'd even fight someone like that. "And while I know you think you can only 'use' one Quirk at a time, the fact you can stack effects means that's bullshit, and either a mental block or something you need to train. Again. Not a Quirk expert. Find someone who is, and if they just parrot conventional wisdom go talk to Nezu."
Starting to pace a little, like a caged tiger, Kaminari continued, "Now, no way in fuck am I ever being on your team, but that's step one. Get power sets that jive well, even better if they can work well together without you mixing them so they're a force to be reckoned with and you double that, but there you go. Also, that means if you deal with a Blank, like me, you can still kick twelve kinds of ass."
"Step two," he declared, as everyone just watched, unsure about the sudden tonal shift, "is to work the ever living fuck out of your Quirk! Consult experts. See if you can direct its growth. Do measurements to see if you copy at exactly the same power, less, or more, and if you can train that. See if you can add a fourth slot, maybe by copying three and trying to copy, and hold, a fourth. I don't know, I'm not a Quirk expert. Five minutes is a lot in a fight, but upping that will help with patrols and shit where you might not be able to re-up before the fight starts."
Kaminari paused, and then glared at Monoma, who quailed under his gaze. "Step three, stop being a little bitch." Mineta thought that seemed a little unfair, but he wasn't done. "Your Pride will get you killed, as, if we were Pros, and you pulled what you pulled today, I'd assume you were working with the Villains and fucking kill you. But it's more than that. You're a dickbag, and no one likes you because of the way you act, they merely tolerate you because they're nice, or weak, and will drop your ass as soon as you graduate. But more than that, your Pride means you think you can't be wrong. Let me guess, you thought the robot test was 'unfair' because you couldn't copy others' power like you could in the entrance exam?"
He waited, and Monoma, after a long moment, hesitantly nodded.
"Aizawa!" Kaminari called, still staring directly at the other boy. "Could you have passed the robot test?"
Their homeroom teacher smirked. "Easily."
"And, since they're robots, they are immune to his Quirk," Kaminari stated. "Now what's your fucking excuse?"
The power copier blinked, surprised, "I-I'm not a Pro!"
Rolling his eyes, Kaminari explained, "When I wanted to know how to use my super-strength, I sought out All Might. When I wanted to know how to invent things, I went to Power Loader. Maybe, if you want to learn how to fight without your Quirk, you should seek out the expert in fighting without Quirks. The fact that Vlad let you twist in the wind's kinda fucked up, when you think about it. I mean, Aizawa's a dick, but he's damn good at his job."
Every gaze but Kaminari's slid to Eraserhead, who just smiled at the insult, and gave a one shouldered shrug. The man slowly walked over to the pair, saying, "I think I can set aside some time. If Mr. Monoma is willing to put in the work."
The blond boy hesitated, until Kaminari sparked a little. "I-I am!"
"Good, now-" Aizawa started to say, putting a hand on the young man's shoulder, stiffening, likely getting whatever Mineta had been hit with, but other than a single second pause, their teacher kept going like normal, showing how ridiculous the man was. "You should probably go wash up, Kaminari. Pixie-Bob's monitoring shed has a bathroom, and I'll bring you an extra uniform. We brought them in case someone ripped their pants while fighting."
"It's fine," Mineta's classmate idly disagreed, "I'm healing."
"Would Ashido say the same?" their teacher questioned dryly.
Looking down, Kaminari blinked, eyes widening in surprise. as if he hadn't known he was covered in blood. "I'll… get right on that. Thanks, Aizawa."
Their homeroom teacher shrugged. "Just doing my job."
Music:
Fucking Gone - GOD EATER TV ANIMATION OST - Rinne [HD]
AN: The Next Four Chapters Can Be Found on and Subscribestar! Also, I've started a new one-shot thread called MULTIVERSAL GLIMPSES, found HERE!