Chapter Text
My clock read 11:42 PM in bright green letters. I was sitting in my bed, wrapped up in blankets, trying to finish the last of my biology problems before their due date at midnight. Just a few more , I thought to myself, yawning. Despite trying to keep my attention on my homework and attempting to keep my eyes open, they eventually fluttered closed.
My alarm clock went off shrilly. I could have sworn I turned that off , I thought sullenly, blindly reaching out to stop the annoying sound. At that moment, I realized my alarm clock never made such a high-pitched sound. In fact, mine didn’t sound anything like that at all. Confused, I sat up and looked around. It wasn’t my room.
The walls were gray rather than light blue, covered in what looked like posters of anime characters (was that an All Might one over there?). On the shelves, there were knick-knacks and toys instead of books. “Where…” I muttered to myself, getting out of bed. The bed, while smaller than mine, seemed almost to be taller. So was the door. And the ceiling… Wait, no, that isn’t it. The ceiling was normal, and I was short . I rushed over to the mirror and stared back at a different face.
Mineta… Minoru? I poked my face. It was Mineta’s face. I stared in shock at the mirror for several minutes. I’m Mineta? I frowned at the mirror, wondering if this was even real. “I’m probably dreaming,” I muttered to myself. “I’ve been watching too much anime. What a weird dream.” It’s not as though Mineta was a character I particularly liked, either. I’d rather be Momo or Ashido or something.
I heard a voice shouting from the other room. “Minoru-kun, isoide!” it yelled. Immediately, I understood the meaning of the statement (“Minoru, hurry up!”) and recognized the voice as belonging to Mineta’s uncle. “Hai, Ojisan!” I shouted back automatically. I stopped, surprised. Can I speak Japanese now? I wondered, and as if by response, Japanese phrases swirled through my mind. I could. If this is a dream then how am I speaking Japanese? Some kind of subconscious understanding? The brain is such an interesting organ…
“Minoru, if you don’t hurry up, you’re going to be late!” the voice shouted. Not bothering to dwell on the fact that I could suddenly understand his Japanese, I responded, “Yeah, I’m coming! Be right out!”
I ran over to the closet, which had several UA uniforms in it, and quickly changed into one. So Mineta was already in UA. In the dream. Whatever. Once I had it on, I rushed out to the kitchen, though it was annoying having to reach up to grab the door handle. Yeah, I was definitely short.
My uncle (Mineta’s uncle?) had already made breakfast. “You ought not to be late for your third day,” he said gruffly. “Don’t forget your backpack.” I nodded and quickly finished eating. I grabbed my backpack and waved as I left. “Bye, uncle. Thank you!”
UA was a short bus ride from the house. I knew the route instinctively and my feet started taking me towards the bus station. How did I know that? I wondered to myself. A memory flashed through my mind: Mineta running to the bus station, from a first person perspective.
That was yesterday? Yesterday in this world, that is. It must be. So, I had Mineta’s memories and knowledge. That would explain the Japanese. This dream was weirdly elaborate. Maybe I could call it a hallucination or a delusion by now? I decided I would think about it later. Thoughts about me hallucinating were very distracting.
I arrived at the bus station. The bus ride itself took under 20 minutes and brought me less than a block from the UA gates. And blocking the gates was… reporters? The news? I wasn’t sure why they were there. There wasn’t anything in Mineta’s memories about it, though the scene did seem familiar. I snuck through the crowd easily, blending in, and managed to sneak past Iida as he shouted about All Might to a reporter.
I paused a moment before the enormous door of class 1-A, which looked even more enormous due to my new shortness. I had to admit it was a little bit intimidating. As I walked through the doorway, I was surprised to feel the stares of some classmates on my back. I turned to see Yaoyorozu and Jirou giving me irritated glares. Wait, why would they be mad at me?
Suddenly, memories flashed before my eyes: Mineta flirting with Jirou right before the entrance exam, Mineta making suggestive comments at Yaoyorozu during the indoor battle training.
Oh. Yikes. I avoided eye contact with them and quickly sat down. On the bright side, if we’d already had indoor battle training with All Might, that means I didn’t have to take the quirk apprehension test today. Especially since I’d only had the quirk Pop-Off for… something like a half hour now.
More people were walking in and Aizawa Shouta, the 1-A homeroom teacher, came in just as class was about to begin. “Decent work on yesterday’s combat training…” he began, explaining he had watched our progress on the video feed. This definitely sounded familiar. When he told Bakugou, “you’re talented, so don’t sulk like a child over your loss,” and told Midoriya to get his quirk under control, I knew he was repeating exactly what he had said in one of the early episodes of My Hero Academia. Season 1, definitely.
“Let’s get down to business. The next task will decide your future,” Aizawa said ominously. While the class was tense, I wasn’t worried. My memories of the early seasons were a little fuzzy, but I didn’t think there was anything too high-stakes going on yet. “You have to choose a class representative.” The class exploded in a buzz of activity, with several people shouting that they wanted to be class representative. I sat quietly as Iida stopped the yelling and suggested we vote.
On my slip of paper, I wrote “Iida”. While I could tell from Mineta’s memories that the class representative was a coveted position, it just didn’t seem right to vote for myself (or anyone who wasn’t Iida). In my mind, only Iida could be class rep.
“I have… one vote?” Iida said, looking a cross between surprised, disappointed and satisfied. “I’m not the class representative, but I’m glad someone voted for me.”
Huh. I don’t think Iida got any votes last time.
The vote showed that Midoriya was class representative, with Yaoyorozu as the vice. Yeah, this seemed to definitely be going along the path of one of the Season 1 episodes.
As homeroom ended, we got back papers with Aizawa’s feedback about the indoor battle training. The criticisms aimed at me were mostly Aizawa urging me to take the training more seriously. Yesterday, Mineta was easily distracted and made his partner (Yaoyorozu) uncomfortable, dismissing most of her ideas, even when they were good.
I grimaced at the comments. Aizawa was harsh, but correct. It was something the real Mineta would have doubtlessly needed to hear, but they just gave me terrible secondhand embarrassment. I guessed that Mineta probably made a poor impression on Aizawa yesterday.
I put it away in one of my folders as English began.
The rest of the day passed quickly. I didn’t talk much, except to Kaminari, who the previous Mineta had been hanging out with during the past few days. I got along well with Kaminari’s easy going nature, and got the feeling that most people did. Still, it was very awkward between me and the rest of my classmates. Essentially all of my female classmates didn’t appreciate how the previous Mineta had treated Yaoyorozu and Jirou (and now that I think about it, he might have made some sexist comments during the quirk apprehension test too and ugh, this was such a mess…) In fact, several of my male classmates, like Ojiro, Sato, and Kirishima, also thought I was just weird or had crossed a line. Stupid battle trials, being broadcasted to the whole class. I was very proud of them for not tolerating sexual harassment, but it still sucked that no one wanted to talk to me.
Oh well. At least I had Kaminari.
It was still very early into classes, but I began to sort of figure out which classes were easy or hard. English would be a breeze; I was fluent. Math would be easy, too. In real life, I was a college student with a STEM college major. UA may be advanced, but it was still high school. Modern Literature would be… okay. All of my Japanese was coming out of Mineta’s memories, but he seemed well-read enough. “Modern Hero Art History” (taught by Midnight, of course) was definitely going to be a loss.
At lunch, I absentmindedly grabbed a tray and after getting food, decided to sit next to Kaminari and Kirishima. Kirishima had been avoiding me, but obviously didn’t want to be rude. I decided to respect it and not try to start a conversation with him. While we ate, Kaminari asked, “Hey, Mineta, are you okay? You seem kinda quiet today.”
Kaminari was pretty perceptive. I never noticed that in the original series. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just didn’t get much sleep.” I waved away his concerns. “How abou…” Suddenly, the alarms in the cafeteria were blaring. Someone shouted that it was “Level 3”, whatever that meant, and there was a lot of panic.
Oh! Now I remember this, I thought. This is when the League of Villains breaks in to get the class schedules for the USJ attack. That means… wait, does that mean the USJ is going to happen tomorrow?!
The timeline snapped together in my head. The media. The class rep vote. The alarms. All of those things happen on the day of the break-in... and the day right before the USJ attack.
Ah, shit.