12 Hollow

The seconds, the minutes, it all passed with a speed that wasn't usual for me, I have been living a life that did not require me to pay any attention to the world around me, ever since I started listening to Blake, my world became one based off my goals.

I would stand up in the morning, practice two hours of exercise, rest, study for a few hours, and practice more exercises. This was the only life I knew.

In my previous life, it wasn't that different, but instead of studying or practicing exercises, I was always reading manga, light novels, watching anime, or playing a video game. It wasn't like I was always like that.

There was a time in my life where I liked to play the role of the best, I studied countless hours just to have the best grades, I loved being admired and looked up to, but then something I never expected happened.

I looked at that girl and my heart finally gained a rhythm, it finally started beating. Mysterious, unknown, and dangerous, that was how I felt, to think that I would be interested in a girl like this made me question many things.

I wasn't so aware of myself at the time, my friends Rafael and Danny never minded but it was because we had similar tastes, still, I couldn't deny some facts that made me feel fear. What to do when your heart asks for something you can't have?

I was a child but even now I can't answer this. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the reason I never managed to fully express myself to her, the reason she wanted nothing with me, but did so with someone else that I viewed as someone worse... Could only be attributed to who I was.

My rival at that time, if I can even consider myself as such, was the most popular guy in the school, he was athletic, tall, slender, very mature, never talked about anime, manga, games, or other childish things, and was always going back and forth, never staying too much time at home.

In comparison, I was shy, small, chubby, always at home, and only talked about the fore mentioned subjects. My only redeeming quality was my effort to studying, but it wasn't enough, eventually, I started feeling hollow inside.

I wasn't happy, watching anime gave me a fake temporary state of happiness, they allowed me to look at an unrealistic world where there was still hope, but wasn't hope one of the evils inside Pandora's box?

I stuck to that hope until I finally realized that nothing would change, unless I became someone else, she wouldn't like me.

Eventually, my views broadened, and I noticed how was being much more childish than I could have thought before. Why was I putting so much importance on her, on my feelings? I was only 14 years old, there was surely more to this world than that...

But if that was the case, why I felt so empty inside? Why did I start giving up on so many things? Why coming to this world of heroes did nothing to change my views? Why?

Even now, looking at Momo across the room, fighting with Jiro, when I should have gone to help her already, those questions keep coming back to me.

Why was I so desperate for recognition, why did it mattered so much for me? I looked at Denki and waved my sword at him, he was slow and clumsy, it only took me two movements to completely get him off guard, his electricity didn't work as my suit could simply collect the energy and disperse it on the ground beneath me.

After knocking him out with a simple but effective hit to the guts, I turned to Momo and watched as she fought against Jiro.

For her, things weren't that easy, Jiro's quirk allowed her to launch soundwaves at her enemies, the power was enough to destroy the walls and even the pillars sustaining the room.

...

"Villains win!" All Might shouted and the people gulped as they looked at the screen.

"Well, that was fast..."

"Eh, it must be a record..."

With that, team Momo/Mineta were recognized as the quickest winners of today, their battle wasn't as flashy or as interesting as the others, but their efficiency was terrifying, from planning to putting everything to practice, they did everything they could with mastery, and while only Momo used her quirk, it couldn't be denied that there was indeed no reason for Mineta to use his, as his martial arts training proved to be more than enough.

Bakugo, the explosive boy, watched the screen with shaking eyes. When he came to U.A. he thought he would be the best, he thought there was no one there capable enough to face him. But after feeling first hand what it meant to actually fight someone and not just straightforward bully them, he understood just how behind many of those guys he was.

If Mineta, Todoroki, or Momo wanted, they all could defeat him in a one on one battle, and what made him furious was that to achieve this, none of them actually needed strong quirks. While that wasn't really the case for Todoroki who had the strongest quirk in their class, Momo and Mineta's movements and skills were things he couldn't even hope to achieve, his instincts saved him countless times, but as Deku already showed, instincts without discipline mean being predictable, and if he was almost defeated by someone who couldn't use his quirk, imagine fighting against someone who actually can.

When the four arrived, he gave them a quick glance and clenched his fists, he hated feeling like that, he hated looking at someone who should have been an ant and feel smaller than them, it was the same feeling he felt after that encounter with the slime guy, the feeling of being powerless in face of a situation.

"Congratulations Mineta, and Yaoyorozu, it was a perfect use of quirks, strategy, and skill, of today's groups yours showed the best teamwork so far." All Might congratulated them and explained to everyone what mistakes Jiro and Denki ended up making.

Mineta sat down on a nearby chair and drank a mouthful of water, while the others started watching the next group he 'observed' Jiro, Denki, and Momo. From where he was, he could clearly hear what they were talking about, but to avoid looking creepy he decided to make some routine repairs to his kodachi.

"You guys need to be more careful when making your strategy, I recognize the fact that you easily identified our location using your skills, however, your plan was simply to barge in and fight...

"In a real situation, you must always remember to consider your opponent's strength and weakness, and what actions they might make. If you had considered this, the probability of defeating us could have been much higher.

"Just consider your quirk for a moment Jiro-San, forcing us into a closed environment without much space to maneuver would be your best chance to knock us down, such space could be the corridor for example. And Kaminari-San, considering your quirk, you should have put much more thought into your costume, your primary weakness is that you can't control the electric discharges it produces. If you could control their direction, it could have a strong potential for medium or even long-distance battles, and since it has such a hand-to-hand focus in its most natural form, you should have given much more focus to your body and martial arts prowess.

"Take Mineta-San as an example, his quirk alone isn't that useful unless the enemy is incapable of avoiding some balls, but by mixing his quirk with an extremely high level of martial arts, he pretty much made himself one of the most dangerous individuals someone could ever think of facing. It is for that reason alone that he managed to knock you out so fast."

Jiro and Denki lowered their heads, their eyes were almost teary after being scolded like that.

They could only sigh, and reflect upon her words, after all, they knew that things wouldn't have been so difficult if they had planned their actions more carefully, or trained better before enrolling into U.A., after all, they not even once considered how their quirks alone weren't enough to make them heroes.

"Thank you for helping us see our mistakes, Yaoyorozu-san." Jiro smiled and thanked her, Denki however, just sighed and fell with his back towards the ground, at this point he just wanted to rest.

"Don't worry, it's my duty as a fellow student to help you," Momo answered.

She turned her head to the side and looked towards Mineta who was currently looking at his sword and making some adjustments to its inner components. Her mind was wandering over what she reflected about today.

For Momo, if there's one thing she doesn't like, is being incapable of understanding something, and at the moment, Mineta is that something. 'Well, I'll keep an eye on you.'

Mineta gulped and put down his kodachi, his hand touched the surface of the blade, he felt the hard iron and sighed. This emptiness is growing... Blake was right, I need something...