A Rainbow Grape on a Rotten Vine

Chapter 1: The Plan

It was a fairly quiet day in the dorms. Some people were hanging out in the commons area, relaxing after a long day of training and schoolwork. Others were watching Satou in the kitchen as he made a cake. All was peaceful, until...

"AUUUGGGHHH!!!! MINETA YOU PERV!!!!"

A loud smack followed by pathetic whimpering was heard and then soon after a purple lump was thrown into the commons from the girl's bathroom area. Groans of disgust were heard from around the room as 1-A's sniveling purple grape rat Mineta twitched in pain from his spot on the hard floor. Moments later a pissed off Jirou followed by a nervous Yaomomo came storming out of the bathrooms.

"Augh, Mineta you disgusting creep how many times have we told you to STAY OUT OF THE GIRL'S SIDE OF THE BATHROOMS?!?!"

Jirou was yelling at Mineta and proceeded to continue to verbally and physically beat down on the smaller purple kid. Yaomomo looked on uneasily, clutching her hands to her chest tighter. She looked up from the scene when she noticed a couple of her classmates come over. Uraraka looked fairly disgusted and Midoriya glances over at Mineta warily before turning to face Yaomomo. Uraraka sighed, arms crossed as she stared at the carnage.

"So what did the grape do this time, Yao?" She groaned, shaking her head. Yaomomo just stood there, clearly uncomfortable.

"Well, to start I wanted to try on the new shirt my mother sent me. But it was after training and I wanted to freshen up so I headed down to the baths to take a shower. I had just gotten out and was going to put it on when Jirou came in and said she heard Mineta. She found him hiding in the laundry basket and then chased him out."

Uraraka growled and then stomped over to Mineta, who looked about as purple as his hair at this point. Midoriya watched her go then turned to Yaomomo and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything though he was interrupted by Kaminari, who had just come downstairs and was running over to them. He stopped right next to them, panting.

"Dudes I am so, so, sorry. He was supposed to be hanging out with me in my room! I had a new video game I wanted to show him and since Bakugou and Kiri are out sparring right now, Sero was taking a nap and I couldn't find Mina anywhere, I was gonna play it with him. But he said he had to go to the bathroom real quick and I didn't think he'd go and do this, good lord-"

His rambling was cut short when Jirou buzzed him with one of her ear jacks.

"Oh quit it, I you just sent him down to spy on us for you!"

"W-what?! No way! C-come on J-J-Jirou you don't really think that do you?!"

Their bantering continued as the others present looked on. Midoriya risked a glance at Mineta to assess the damage done to him by the enraged female.

He was covered in bruises and at this point he was only a few shades darker than his hair? Ball? Orb? Things. He had a few cracked and his eyes were swollen shut. There was a faint trickle of blood from his nose that could have either of been from the beating or something even less unpleasant. Occasionally he'd twitch and groan in , the only real signs that he was in fact, still alive.

He looked up from assessing the damage at the feminine voice that came from the dorm's entrance.

"What in the heck is going on here?!"

Standing in the doorway was the 21st member of class 2-A, Eriko Akashi. She looked confused and a bit irritated.

Eriko was a new transfer to UA at the end of last year from America. She was the adopted daughter of Present Mic's younger sister, making her his niece. She'd been living in Oregon for the past four years and moved to live with her uncle in Japan. She was in the top five of her former class at the hero school there and passed the mock entrance exam for UA so Principal Nedzu allowed her to join class 1-A.

She was fluent in English and had her best scores in Modern literature and Math, mostly because she was a bookworm and she said her older brothers taught her a lot of stuff back home, particularly in the science and math department, for example, how to remember the entire, complete periodic table by heart and how to build a nuke out of a febreeze can.

She was also the Mom™ friend and looked after everyone. While Yaomomo was better at helping her peers with studying and getting caught up, Eriko was better at providing emotional comfort and support. She cared for everyone in the class equally with a mother's love. She said she cared so much because her own birth mother was never around and she didn't want her classmates to feel neglected now that they were all living in the dorms. Which also meant she cared about Mineta as well.

She stalked over, confusion written all over her face as she stared at the scene before her.

"Can someone please tell me what in the blazes is going on here?"

Jirou released Kaminari, letting him flop onto the ground next to his accomplice. She looked at Eriko and just sighed, gesturing at the purple lump on the ground.

"Mineta," She spat out, "Was trying to watch Yaomomo change in the girl's bathroom."

Eriko looked at the boys on the floor, lines of worry and mild irritation creasing her face.

"And what about Kaminari, what did he do that deserved your wrath Jirou?"

Jirou huffed, crossing her arms she looked away.

"He had Mineta come spy on us for him, that's what."

Expecting something like this to come from her, she turned to look at the other three members of the party still standing. Yaomomo just looked away and Uraraka was still glaring daggers at the would-be corpse of a Mineta. Eriko locked eyes with a Midoriya and raised an eyebrow, tilting her head towards Kaminari with a questioning look in her eyes. Midoriya smiles sheepishly and shook his head.

Eriko sighed, a tired expression settling onto her face. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and shook her head. Lifting her head back up she motioned to Midoriya for him to come help her.

"Yaomomo, Jirou, go get yourselves cleaned up and take a break. Uraraka, just go back to whatever you were doing before this and Midoriya come help me and carry Kaminari. You're gonna assist me in taking these two to Recovery Girl okay?"

A nod.

She started to go over and pick Mineta off the floor from the uncomfortable position he was in. As she did that Midoriya went and hefted Kaminari up onto his back. After they got the two trouble makers situated they began the trek down to the nurse's office.

As they traversed to the main building Eriko looked down at the bruised and bleeding boy in her arms. She frowned.

'Mineta... why do you act like this? You're here to be a hero, to help others, so why do you hurt your female classmates like this? I just don't get it...'

Looking back up ahead a plan began to form. It might be stupid and it might not work and maybe only a fool would come up with it but she would try. And little did she know, that self sacrificing plan of hers, would lead to uncovering a problem much larger than she originally thought...