18 Steps To Discovering Purple - Told By Kaminari Denki

Step 1: Mineta Leaving

Yes, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't like that at all. At least not in this story. Mineta didn't leave because he was expelled and he wasn't excluded or bullied by the students and he didn't do anything perverted, he just left. Why? Well, at the time we didn't know. I guess you'll have to find out as we go.

I first noticed something was wrong when I came upstairs late the night before. I'd stayed up late trying to muddle through some stupid homework, and as I reached the second floor I noticed that the light in Mineta's room was still on.

When I peeked in through the sliver of the open door, he was sitting on the floor of his room, surrounded by boxes. And he was crying.

I wish I could say I went in to comfort and talk to him. Things would have been so much better if I had. But no, I was too much of a coward, and I was scared to make things worse. So I just left. Just left my classmate crying on the floor of his room.

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

~~~

The next morning there was no sign of our purple grape juice friend. He was gone, completely and without a trace. He didn't even say goodbye.

At first we thought it must be a joke. Bakugou snorted and said something about him running off to peek on girls before school started, while Midoriya started mumbling to himself as he analyzed Mineta's absence. That was when the guilt started eating at me. I wondered if I should tell them about what I saw, but decided that Mineta wouldn't want people to know about his moment of weakness. I certainly wouldn't want anyone telling people if it was me. So instead I dealt with the guilt by smiling extra brightly and charging Sero's phone. And skipping breakfast, not that anyone noticed.

It was only when Mineta failed to show up for class that we got a sense something was wrong. It threw our group dynamic off, and even though no one actually commented on his absence I could tell everyone was keenly aware of it. Then Mr. Aizawa came to class.

He hopped in in his usual yellow sleeping bag. He positioned himself in front of the class and waited for silence to fall (which was achieved by Iita chopping the air and yelling for quiet). If I wasn't so accustomed to hiding the shadows under my own eyes, I wouldn't have noticed the subtly darker, deeper circles under his.

"Minoru Mineta will no longer be attending this school." An outburst followed this statement, which he promptly ignored.  After a moment people quieted down, eager to hear the explanation. None followed. Instead Mr. Aizawa launched into an explanation of our training exercise that day. He deflected any and all questions about Mineta.

The guilt came back then, gnawing at my insides, but it was overridden by confusion. In the end I decided not to think about it too much.