Kirishima (+ Mina)

Back in the present, Mineta was absorbing Denki’s account.

Apparently, Jiro and he were an actual item now, and, according to Denki, Mineta himself had been the one to help them get together. She essentially became the third member of Mineta’s friend group and the three would often hang out together.

It went without saying that Mineta was completely unknowing about all of this. Sure, he’d given Denki some advice, once or twice, but he never remembered them being taken seriously... nor actually working, for that matter.

Not to mention, the idea of Jiro in particular being on pally terms with him was far too otherworldly. He was supposed to believe that they were all friends now.

Not only that but, supposedly, Jiro’s way of ‘thanking’ him for getting Denki and her together was giving him some photos of her and the other 1A girls. Apparently, none of the pics were explicit or outwardly lewd. Just some selfies and pics at sleepovers, beach days and girl’s nights, etc. Even so, Mineta couldn’t help but drool at the thought of seeing some pics of the girls in their cutest nightwear or in bikinis. Mineta had to find these pictures later, if they did indeed exist.

He had digressed.

As far as Mineta knew, Jiro absolutely hated him. Not just as an annoyance but as an insect.

If what Denki told him were true, then maybe there was some validity to the whole... changing reality thing.

Maybe he needed to test the waters a bit.

Knocking Mineta out of his thoughts, Denki spoke up, “You okay, man? You seem confused about something. At least lost in thought.”

Right, whatever happened, it’s left Mineta’s memories in-tact but has altered Denki’s and, to that extent, potentially everyone else’s, too. However, from their observations, it would appear as though Mineta were the one to have their memories radically altered. He had to be careful not to give the impression that he was an alternate version of the Mineta they would know. So, he had to play it cool and go along with everything.

“Yeah,” Mineta replied, lifting his hand and giving the electric boy a thumbs up, “I was just lost in thought about those pictures Jiro gave me. She’s a real gem.”

It hadn’t been a lie, technically, which helped to sell it.

“Yeah, she really is,” Denki agreed.

Had Mineta’s dreams actually come true? Was being a pervert just... normal now?

He felt a rising euphoria and let himself relax.

“Oh yeah, but I must admit I like the boobs on the other girls way better, but to each their own, right? Oh man, I count my blessings every day we have such sexy hotties at our school. Momo’s boobs were just yearning for me to get a handful in class earlier. Oh, and Tsuyu was totally giving me the eyes earlier. Well, to little Mineta, really. And Ochako looks so fucking sexy in her make up. Not to mention, Mina–”

“Are you done?” Mineta heard Kirishima mutter sternly, sending him a glare which took Mineta aback.

“Wha- What did I say?” Mineta quietly asked, partially to himself, as well as Kirishima.

Looking around the room, he noticed a handful of the guys sending him similar glares his way. Ojiro and Shoji in particular were staring at him from behind their backs. Iida also seemed to be giving off a stern, parental stare but it was still enough to confuse Mineta. If this was a world where perverts were normal, why were they giving Mineta the hard stares. Even in his own reality, Mineta had said some far worse stuff and all he ever got was a disapproving comment or a flat dismissal. Never a hateful glare. Certainly not from Kirishima, who always struck Mineta as cool and friendly.

Kirishima spat back: “You don’t have to keep going on. There are no women here, y’know? You’re not impressing anyone.”

Mineta felt put out by the comment. He didn’t know what he should say to that.

Filling the silence that had gathered over the scene, Denki came to Mineta’s side, as the smaller boy stood mute. “Hey, man. Don’t be a dick. Mineta’s just speaking his mind.”

“Well, he doesn’t need to,” Kirishima retorted, “I’m tired of him bragging about how fucking amazing he is with girls, like we all need to fucking know about it.”

Sero spoke up, joining Denki’s side of the argument, “Hey, man. It’s not like that. He was just talking about the girl’s bods. That’s it.”

Mineta took a quick evaluation of the changing room: of the thirteen other boys in the changing room, Sato, Iida, Shoji and Ojiro seemed to be on Kirishima’s side, giving himself and his two friends hard, confrontational looks; five in all. Denki and Sero had come to Mineta’s aid; two. Of the rest, they were either treating this with neutrality, like Aoyama and Izuku, or the case with Katsuki and Todoroki, flat out ignoring the exchange and were continuing changing without mind.

A pretty mixed bag, to Mineta’s guess. Why were they being so different and, somehow, even less tolerant of his perverted antics than before. Mineta thought his wish meant he wouldn’t be judged or looked down on for being a perv anymore, right? He couldn’t even remember what he had wrote at this point.

“Yeah, well I’m tired of having him remind me how inadequate the rest of us are, okay!?”

Kirishima suddenly rose up from where he was sat and took a powerful step to Mineta, causing the smaller boy to nearly jump out of his skin. The other guys, even the ones that had been on Kirishima’s side initially, were quick to close the distance and restrain Kirishima, in case anything went too far. However, the red-headed riot took no further step forward, but just stared angrily down his nose at the shivering grapefruit student.

“WE GET IT, MINETA. YOU'RE MANLY, OKAY!? YOU'RE REALLY, REALLY MANLY!”

-FLASHBACK, ONCE AGAIN-

The day had gone rather smoothly so far, Kirishima opined, as she got his walked with his food on a try, scouring the area for free spots to sit. Granted, there were plenty of them, at the moment, but Kirishima wanted keep looking until... Bingo.

He had spotted Mina, alone, having just sat down with her lunch moments before. She looked absentminded. Kirishima gathered that Mina wasn’t really used to being alone, always preferring and relishing company. She game to life amongst a crowd and took all social events in complete stride; one of the many things that Kirishima lov- admired about her.

However, whenever he had caught sight of Mina alone, she almost came off as ‘switched-off’ and lacked any of the same energy.

“Hey, Ashido!” Kirishima called out to his old middle school peer, catching her attention away from her food, which she seemed far more keen to stab and play around with than eat.

“Hey, Kirishima. What’s up?” She asked.

“Can I sit with you? I- well... noticed you were by yourself and all,” Kirishima asked, trying not to come off too weird.

“Sure. Come on down. I wasn’t doing much anyway, so I would enjoy the company.”

Sat down and facing Mina, Kirishima took a moment to congratulate himself for working up the courage and pushing through.

“I’d tell you what I’m hungry for, but I wouldn’t want to put Kirishima off his food.”

Kirishima groaned. Why did he always have to fucking show up when things are going well?

Mina, however, appeared overjoyed at the new arrival to their scene.

“Hey, Mineta!” she said, gleefully, abandoning her food entirely and turned to face the short boy with the pop-off quirk.

Kirishima had to admit that when he first met Mineta officially in the U.A. classroom, he hadn’t thought much of him. To be honest, he gave the immediate impression of being rather dopey and innocent, considering his tiny, child-like appearance. However, it wasn’t long at all before Mineta showed his true colours, unashamedly. He’d start with the occasional comment in private about one of the girls, some female heroes that were popular or even the female teachers but, quickly after, began to voice those same comments aloud and, to the other boy’s shock and amazement, right to the girl’s faces. After only a few weeks into the term, Kirishima began to notice just how much the ladies were drawn to him. Especially once Mina started showing interest. He knew that girls had a thing for perverts, but he had never actually seen it up-close and so potent until Mineta.

“May I join you two? It’s alright, if not. I didn’t want to interrupt anything,” Mineta inquired, not letting his eyes leave Mina.

“Well,” Kirishima was about to say, before Mina cut in, overtly enthusiastic.

“Of course, you can sit with us. We wouldn’t mind that,” Mina said, before realising the lack of real consensus and turned to Kirishima, asking, “Right?”

Fearing he was going to come off as a jerk, if he refused, Kirishima uttered a, “Sure.”

“Neat. Don’t mind me.”

Mineta, instead of climbing onto the chair conventionally, utilised his short stature to simply walk underneath the table, eliciting a giggle from Mina that Kirishima wasn’t quick to copy.

They heard his muffled voice coming from below them, “Hmm. Red panties today, Mina? What’s the occasion?”

Mina quickly blushed and made to place her hands onto her skirt to cover up the clear view at her underwear. However, Mina accompanied it with a playful squeal, making it clear that she wasn’t upset and was, in actuality, really glad to see that he noticed.

“You little sneak, Mineta,” Mina pretended to scold the little man, as he now clambered onto a seat. One right beside Mina, Kirishima noticed, clenching his jaw.

Mina continued: “As for the reason, there isn’t one. I was simply running out of white ones, so I’ve started using the coloured ones.”

Amazingly, Mineta replied back, “Ah, so there’s an entire laundry bag of your panties for the taking. You’ve got to invite me around to your room some time.”

Kirishima watched Mina’s reaction to Mineta’s absurdly quick and witty line. She looked so mirthfully overjoyed, yet coy and flustered at the same time. She had gone all red, (well, whatever colour you get when you mix deep red and pink) and was laughing so sweetly. Kirishima also noticed that she had begun subconsciously moving herself toward him.

“Maybe, Mineta,” Mina said, with a mock slyness.

“I like maybe,” Mineta said, hungrily giving Mina his full attention.

Kirishima was kicking himself, as he began to glare at Mineta. How the hell did he make it look so damn easy? Two sentences in she was fawning over him.

It’s not like he couldn’t have asked to see her underwear. He could probably look under the table right now and catch a glimpse, if he wanted to.

Before he realised what he was doing, he had pushed himself downward so that his head was underneath the table. He could the hard chairs/benches they sat on, the floor, Mina’s shoes, Mina’s green socks, Mina’s LEGS. He dare not peak any further, as his heart was beating in his ears and panic overtook him.

He shot back up, completely red faced, to the extremity in which it was hard to discern where his hair ended and his face began. The **** in which he rose caused the table and content upon it to rattle and quake, which only alerted the others, who had seemingly been engrossed in some conversation about something or other.

“What happened, Kirishima?” Mina asked.

“Your face is red,” Mineta added, “What’s got you so excited, hmm?”

Kirishima didn’t notice this but Mineta had been prodding his head in the direction of Mina when he had asked, praying that Kirishima would take the bait and join in, instead of just sitting there barely saying a word.

“What no it’s not. Nothing happened. I just... thought I dropped a fork, but it turns out I hadn’t, see? I was looking for a fork underneath the table and blood went to my head. That’s all.”

The two gave Kirishima a long silence. Mina was kind of bummed out, whereas Mineta put his hand to his brow. The latter let out an “oof.”

As the lunch period continued, Kirishima was getting increasingly more frustrated. The same formula was repeating itself: Mineta would do or say something amazing that Mina really appreciated, Kirishima would try and do or say something similar and fall flat or back out at the last second, and they’d get right back to their conversation. Kirishima becoming more irrelevant, after each repetition.

--

“And you could produce so much acid that it melts all of your clothes, and the villains are so enamoured by your bod that they won’t notice me swoop in to capture them with my quirk.”

“But what if you used your awful quirk to pin me to the wall with your balls too? I’d be completely at your mercy. I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

“I’m pretty sure your acid could melt his balls, Mina,” Kirishima said in a whispered, grumble, from across the other side of the table.

“Huh? What did you say Kirishima?” Mina asked.

“Uh. Nothing,” Kirishima said with a start, not realising that he had said what he had out loud.

“Oh. Okay, sorry,” Mina said, before she turned back to Mineta yet again.

Mineta decided to change it up: “You know, I bet Kirishima would have some pretty good combo moves. If he’s can get as hard as Unbreakable, imagine how hard he’d get if he caught you naked.”

Mina gave the right response, giving Kirishima a side glance and giggling into her hand.

Kirishima, on the other hand, caught the wrong end of the stick and assumed that Mineta was trying to make fun of him in front of Mina.

“Mineta, isn’t there a whole school full of girls for you to enjoy? Why don’t you go bother them for a change?”

Shit, Mineta thought, realising that his plan had gone sideways.

Mineta thought it was best to defuse the situation and was about to apologise to Kirishima and let him and Mina be for the rest of the lunch period. Before he could, however, Mina snapped back at Kirishima:

“Hey! What was that for? Mineta was only trying to be nice.”

“Nice? By talking about my dick getting hard or you being naked bait for villains? How are you falling for this?”

“Falling for this?” Mina spat back, betting herself flustered in offense, “Kirishima. We’re only joking around. Gosh, why are you being such a buzzkill today?”

That hit the last nerve Kirishima had. Before another word was said, he slammed his hardened fists into the table, causing the entire room to fall silent, as he got up to leave.

“Y’know what? I’ve got better things to do than listen to some pug-nose jerk that thinks he’s the hottest shit alive try to get into your pants with stupid pervy pick-up lines all day!!!”

With that, he stormed out, catching the attention of Denki and Jiro, Midoriya and Iida, Uraraka and even Bakugou.

Mina seemed to deflate, once Kirishima was out of sight, as she slumped back onto her chair, trying not to let herself cry.

“I’m so sorry,” said Mineta, his hand resting on her shoulder as a way of comfort.

“It’s alright, Mineta,” Mina said, letting her hand reach up to her shoulder the grasp his tiny hand, “It’s not your fault Kirishima is such a creep.”

-BACK TO THE PRESENT-

Mineta stood still and silent as Kirishima stood before him. No matter what universe, he was fairly confident that, if Kirishima really wanted to, he could pummel Mineta into powdered grape juice. Whatever beef this Kirishima had with whoever this universe’s Mineta was, this Mineta wanted no part of it.

Almost immediately after yelling, Kirishima’s face softened (quite literally, in his case), as he came to his senses.

“I’m sorry, Mineta. That wasn’t cool of me.”

Mineta still remained static but was able to see that any fury in Kirishima had been snuffed out.

Before Mineta could say anything, Denki cut in:

“Yeah, you should be sorry, Kirishima. What were you thinking, threatening Mineta like that?”

“It’s okay, guys,” Mineta finally found his voice, but was just off again by Kirishima.

“No, they’re right. I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that. I was just angry...” he began, but seemingly trailed off at the end.

“Why?” asked Mineta, in earnest. He genuinely had no clue.

“It’s just... Well... It’s just that you don’t really know what it’s like to be a loser.”

Mineta was just able to hold back a laugh and remain stone-faced. It was with no easy feat, mind.

Kirishima continued on, “I know you probably think getting girls is easy but some of us just aren’t as charismatic as you.”

“As pervy as you, he means,” Ojiro added, holding a similar embittered expression, looking down shamefully.

“Yeah,” confirmed Kirishima, “being a perv is just not something that comes natural to all guys. It’s hard for some guys to just, y’know, see a woman for her body and tell her lewd stuff right to her face...”

Kirishima looked down at the floor, letting a pained groan escape:

“Ghugh. I sound like such a creep.”

“No! You’re right!” All eyes rose and turned to look at Midoriya, who had chosen to stay neutral and off-side until now. The half dozen eyes that now set upon him caused him to shrink back slightly but he was able to continue, “It’s never been easy for me, either. I have trouble expressing anything when it comes to girls. The idea of talking to a girl about romance is a lot for me, let alone anything perverted. A lot of girls thought I was a creep in middle school. When I started working on getting into the hero course, I just kept away from girls and stayed focus on training. Eventually, I realised it has just been easier not to try at all.”

This all really struck Mineta.

“I don’t know what to say...” Mineta rubbed the back of his head, “I guess... I just kinda’ assumed all guys were just as perverted as I was and just needed an excuse to show it.”

Again, Mineta wasn’t even lying. He always thought he was just being open about his kinks and interests and everyone else just kept theirs hidden because society had enforced it on us all. Were all the other guys really that... pure, after all?

“Yeah right,” Kirishima said glumly, but then realised he was still in the wrong, “I-I mean, no. If me and Midoriya aren’t enough examples, just look at Todoroki.”

Mineta was surprised to hear Todoroki, of all people, being compared worse than him when it came to girls.

“He's not good with girls and they avoid him like the plague. Or even Bakugou. I don’t think he’s ever expressed any interest in women. He doesn’t mind them calling him a creep, though.”

Bakugou, who was now in the middle of tying the shoes of his hero costume, rose his head and let out a guttural, “HUH!?” in surprise, before taking out one of his ear buds.

“I HEARD MY NAME BEING MENTIONED! ARE ONE OF YOU IDIOTS TALKING ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK, HUH?”

Bakugou, upon turning, widened his eyes in angered shock.

“HOW HAVE YOU MORONS NOT FINISHED CHANGING YET? WE’VE GOT TO BE OUT ON THE FIELD ANY SECOND!!! GET GOING, DIPSHITS!!!!”

Iida, upon realising his mistake, immediately took action and tried to direct all those to be dressed and out of the door in the next minute, accompanied by a series of signature arm flaps.

Everyone short of Bakugou and Todoroki hastened their changing.

While Kirishima was attaching his... (utility braces, I don’t know), he said, “Hey, Mineta. Again, I’m really sorry about that just now. Are we cool?”

“Yeah. Of course we are,” Mineta said, noting Kirishima’s relieved exhalation.

Mineta thought over what to say next and, after a fierce internal battle, decided to try to throw this Kirishima a bone.

“You know, Kirishima? I noticed Mina was yawning in class earlier. Then she gave you a look.”

“Yeah, so?”

Mineta couldn’t believe that Kirishima was actually so dense.

“I- Eh. She was extenuating her curves to you, of course... she wanted you to look.”

Kirishima held a blank face, but Mineta saw a small light behind his eyes, “Do you think?”

“A good rule of thumb: take as many opportunities to look at a girl as you can get. Especially, if she’s practically inviting you to.”

Kirishima gave Mineta an appreciative look, “I’ll try that from now on. Thanks Mineta.”

By then, they had all got suited up and were making their way out of the changing room.

“Sure, sure... any time,” Mineta said; his mind was still troubled.

Firstly, he wasn't particularly happy about doing the right thing. He liked Mina and wanted to enjoy her himself but Mineta knew that Kirishima (this version, at least) was kind of similar to how Mineta was before. A loser; always losing the girl for the more popular one. The hotter guy. The stronger or the richer man. Now that Mineta was suddenly on the other side, as the more perverse guy, he could sympathize with what Kirishima must have been feeling. Not about Mineta but about himself.

That explained it, Mineta realised.

Mineta had wrote that he wouldn’t be judged or looked down on for being a pervert. However, that had actually not been the case here at all. Kirishima hadn’t looked down on him but was jealously looking upward. He believed Mineta was an ideal; an unreachable one. It was easy to understand why he’d get angry about that.

Well, he didn’t need any more evidence to know what had really happened. He had actually used a magic book and had changed reality. He may have completely changed the social norms of the world to accept perversion as normal and even the mindsets of the women to love being perverted on. However, the entry seemingly hadn’t made the men any more or less perverted than they already were beforehand. What it had done was made it so that Mineta was seen as the socially acceptable one and the others were seen as the weirdos.

Mineta felt his heart bleed. For a short while, he was considering ways to reverse things or to put things right. However, Mineta countered himself: “Aren’t they just living the life I had to for so long? And I had to do that with almost no support from anyone. Why would it be okay for me and not for them?”

After all, the book was still in his room, wasn’t it? He’d have to go all the way back. He couldn’t do that. He had lessons to attend, of course.

Maybe Mineta could... just enjoy being the perverted chad of the class a little while longer.