This is a short story.

It is 100% canon, but I couldn't find a good place to put it.

So look at this more like a filler episode. Not necessary if you're here for the main plot, but still an enjoyable read. (At least hopefully.)

I'm currently taking a break from chapter 24 (finished writing this after I was done with chap 27) to write this. This thing is moved further up in the book just because this is about when it takes place.

Sarcastic Mob. 🤌
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     A purple blur zig-zagged down the UA dorm hall, little feet tattering as the figure dashed at neck breaking speeds. Mob was just exiting the kitchen, having just finished his turn cleaning the dishes. As he heard the approaching blur, the younger teen spun to the purple smudge and gasped. He hadn't even the time to put up a barrier before the shortest member of class 1A tackled him, standing on the poor boy's slightly bent knees and tugging on the collar of his new school uniform.

     "NEW KID YOU'VE GOTTA HELP ME!!" Screaming into Mob's face. "YOU SAID YOU WERE AN ESPER RIGHT?!?"

     "Mm....Yeah..?"

     "AND ALL ESPERS CAN SEE GHOSTS, RIGHT!?!"

     "..Most of them--"

     "--THEN YOU'VE GOTTA HELP ME, MAN!!!" Mob's eyes widened a little. This teen was so desperate. Whatever the issue was..it must be serious.

     "Wh-what's the matter?"

     "THERE'S A GHOST HAUNTING MY DREAMS AND MAKING ME GAY IN THEM IS WHAT!!!"

     "Huh...? That doesn't really sound like an issue to me.." Mob finally gained the witts to grab the smaller boy and pry his grabby hands off of him.

     "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!?" Being placed on the ground. "MY ENTIRE BRAND IS ON THE LINE HERE!! MY ENTIRE THING IS BEING INTO WOMEN, AND I CAN'T DO THAT IF I'M--GAH!!" Gripping his head, Mineta flopped onto his side and curled into a pathetic ball. Mob watched with confusion and disinterest.

     It was likely this wasn't even the work of a spirit. Maybe Mineta was just Gay.

     "YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!! PLEASE!?!"

     "No thanks. I'm too busy.. Sorry." Stepping around Mineta, Mob shuffled along to finish whatever he'd been doing before that didn't involve losing his hearing.

     Mineta writhed on the floor in deeper agony as his only hope left him. Then, suddenly jumping from it. "PLEASE, I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THE MONEY I HAVE!!"

     Mob spun around. Now he was interested.

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     "I'm sorry. I'm basically broke." With a dumb, mournful look on his face, Mineta handed a wad of cash over to Mob. The fourteen year old certainly wouldn't consider this a small amount, but it was no open vault to a stack of gold either.

     "Since you'll be fighting spirits out of my head or whatever tonight, I figure you could sleep over." Mineta pointed to the still cracked open door to his room. A menacing purple aura spilled forth from it, one which had nothing to do with spirits.

     Mob looked down at Mineta blankly. "...You know you can just tell me you have a crush on me. It doesn't have to be this elaborate."

     "THE CRAP?!? THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO AT ALL!!!" The small one's eyes bulged right out of their sockets, face red as a tomato.

     "If you say so..." Mob rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'll just go to sleep and use astral projection. Make sure you're asleep by nine at least."

     "Yes, yes! Thank you!!!" 🙏

      This was going to be a long night...

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     After Mob had finished with his homework, he checked the clock. 9:32. Mineta should be asleep by now. Sighing, the teen curled up in his futon and allowed his eyes to slowly drift shut.

     A faintly glowing, light blue spirit emerged from the boy's body, looking around the dark room and making sure that his body was still alright. His physical body was sleeping soundly, still breathing. Good. Mob's spirit floated up and hovered around a little bit. Before he left his room, Mob checked to see if he could still use telekinesis in this form. He stuck out his little nub arm and focused on a small empty cup by his bed. Slowly, the object floated above the ground. It worked!! How cool was that??

     No, he probably shouldn't be playing around with his powers now.

     Mob set the cup back down and phased through his dorm-room door. Only a few seconds later, he entered Mineta's room the same way.

     Huh... Aside from the clutter and posters of skimpily clad women, Mineta's room wasn't all too different actually. Still, Mob made sure not to snoop around or look at anything for too long, quickly approaching the sleeping classmate and entering the small one's mind through his ear.

     He had never done this before. Yet somehow it felt so natural as well, like most things involving his powers I guess.

     Mob entered a dark void. The only thing he could see was himself, now in his preferred human form. Mob walked around for a while, following the faint presence of an aura just out of reach. After a while, he hit something.

     "Ow!" Mob rubbed his nose. He felt around this invisible wall for a little bit. Ah, this must be it. The teen used his fingernails to tear a scratch through the wall, revealing a bright, colorful world beyond.

     Well, more colorful than a dark void at least. 

     The wind howled past as Mob stepped through the gash in Mineta's dream... Where were all the people?

     He stood on a hill before a bleak, gray city scape. The sky was filled with clouds, the only light for miles being that of the blood red sun set peeking through the bedding of clouds.

     Mob's blown hair tickled his face, his old, simple black school uniform hugging his skin.

     Where would he even find this spirit?

     Time passed differently in this dream world than the real one. He could sense that. But still. An hour was an hour. And Mob was making no progress.

     The sun never set in this world. Nothing ever changed. The same, slow, disturbing reversed piano music played on repeat, slowly burning through Mob's ears. It sounded distant, yet no matter how far he walked, he could never find its source, and it forever remained the same distance from him, no matter what.

     After the boy was certain at least two hours had passed in this dream world, Mob huffed and floated into the sky to leave the run down city streets. There really was nothing he could do if he couldn't even find anyone. He had no leads. Mineta's presence was all around him. There was no way he could track down the Mineta in this dream world unless something were to happen.

     But nothing ever happened, because nothing about this place ever changed.

     Hovering above the old, abandoned city which contained not an ounce of life, Mob scanned his eyes over the scene. For another hour or so, he just flew around looking for something that resembled life.

     But there was nothing. Not a soul.

     Wait-

     A little dot flicked by in the corner of his eye. Mob's body spun, his eyes landing on what appeared to be a person running across city roofs, jumping from building to building. There was no aura around this being despite its great power. Again, must be due to this dream world and its weird ways.

     Mob flew quickly to follow this only entity here. When he at last approached, flying beside the running person, he recognized the fluffy green locks and emerald green eyes. It was Izuku! Only, his hero costume resembled a cheap green and white onesie now. Perhaps an older version of his current one?

     "Izuku, where are you going?!" Mob yelled to the boy he flew beside. The only sound escaping the greenette's mouth were his rapid breaths. His feet pelted hard against the concrete roof, face drenched with sweat. He paid no attention to the boy flying at his left. Like he couldn't even see the Esper. "What's going on?!" Mob tried again. But the other didn't even bat an eye. Strange. Or, maybe not. He'd never been inside someone else's dream before. Maybe this was normal.

     Whatever was the case, at least he now had some kind of a lead. Something to follow that would hopefully bring him to Mineta and the potential spirit.

     That eerie music in the back of his head picked up its pace, suddenly growing louder and louder until it rattled his ears. Izuku shot a look over his shoulder as if expecting something to be there. Oh..right! Izuku could just as easily be running away from something as well! ..But, then..what?

     Stopping and landing on the flat roof, Mob turned around and waited for whatever might be lurking. Part of him hoped it was Mineta. And part of him didn't. It would be...really creepy if it was.

     This whole thing, place, everything was creepy!

     After a few seconds of standing on the roof, waiting, something did appear. A strange purple rope of sorts latched onto the edge of the building, more following, steadily pulling something up onto the roof.

     The rope was revealed to be sticky hair, the head they were attached to being the hair of a terrifying woman.

     Her face was melting. No eyes. Just soulless dark voids filled with black, oozing goo. The woman sloppily pulled herself onto the rooftop, like a fish out of water, only using her strange purple hair to carry herself along. Hair which was everywhere, sticking to everything. Like a disgusting, tangled web.

     The woman bellowed something incoherent from deep within her gut. Her soulless eyes stared through Mob, fixed on the fleeing greenette.

     And then appeared the dreamer himself.

     Gripping onto one of her legs with all his might, Mineta tugged the woman back, trying and failing to use his own sticky hair as an anchor. However, his just wasn't sticking for whatever reason, rendering him completely powerless. His skin was all scratched up, bruised and bleeding from head to toe. He too wore his old middle school uniform, which was scuffed and tearing at the joints.

     "..M-mom... Please..stop..."

     She did not listen. Quickly picking up speed, she prepared to leap over the gap between two buildings, her son doing everything in his power to stop her, even if that meant destroying himself in the process.

     "I won't... Let you hurt... My boyfriend--!!

     -I -I mean friend!!" His slip up made him stumble, sliding down his mother's leg until he was holding on by only her foot. She leapt, hair grappling onto the other building's edge as she soared through the air.

     The struggle continued same as before on the roof of the other building. Mob's sharp eyes scanned the dreamscape again for anything out of place. ... There! He sensed it! A spirit's presence! So there was one after all!

     And then something weird happened. As if the dream was fading out, the bleak world began to melt away. Holes started to open up in the fabricated reality, revealing painted splotches of vibrant color all around. Though the color was welcome, its world destroying tendencies.. not so much.

     Mob leaned into a spring toward where he sensed the spirit's presence. A hole of color opened up under him, which he fell into, entering a void of overwhelmingly bright color and chaos.

     Through the color, he could see windows into the other world, steadily growing. Using telekinesis on himself again, Mob flew out of one of them, appearing much further away than before. Huh, so they really did act like portals.

     Mob used this to his advantage, diving through the pockets in reality to track down the source of that spirit.

     At last, appearing again beside Izuku, who was now blurry despite being in focus, Mob caught sight of the spirit. It was a dark figure, hiding in one of the windows in a taller building next door. Aha. Mob zipped toward it, smashing through the glass with a small blast of energy.

Tuk!

     A stapler slammed against his hair before he could even open his eyes again. The teen recovered in time to stop the following keyboard tossed his way mid air with telekinesis. His eyes narrowed, head slowly turning the spirit's way.

     "Aaa!" The dark figure shrieked. Only two large glowing blue eyes made up the features on its face. It was essentially just a walking shadow. "Are you a ghost too?!??"

     "No. I'm an Esper.. What are you doing here inside Mineta's mind?"

     The spirit clicked his tongue. "We-well I didn't know what else to do after I died! I was shocked to find out spirits even existed. Thought I may as well get my revenge on this brat before passing on to the afterlife!"

     "Revenge for what?"

     "He killed me!!!" Mob's eyes widened. "All I wanted was an easy life, so I followed this Shigaraki guy, who promised a mountain of cash for all of us if we helped him out! So I and a bunch of other crooks infiltrated this place called the USJ to stir up some trouble! Nothing much; just scare some kids a bit! Distract the other teachers from protecting All Might! Nothin' harmful!.. But then one thing lead to another, and suddenly I'm sucked into a whirlpool and stuck to a bunch of other guys with the kid's weird ball hair... upsidedown, I might add. And just because my quirk allowed me to hold my breath a little longer doesn't mean I could hold it forever! ... And so now I'm here! You caught me, happy now?! But what are ya gunna do now?! Exorcise me?! Is that even possible for a kid like you to do?!"

     Mob stood in place, lacking any form of response.

     You mean Mineta...killed someone..? With his quirk? It was unintentional, sure, and it was in self defense as well. But... Does that justify it?

     "What's wrong, kid? You're looking like the terminator over there! Chill out!" Mob blinked. He hadn't even noticed he'd been staring the spirit down while thinking.

     "Oh...sorry."

     "It's...alright?-"

     "-Would you call your death fair?"

     "Wh???"

     "You were a villain attacking innocent students. Even if you didn't intend to kill any of them, it's possible that they thought you were going to. So then wouldn't Mineta's actions have been out of self defense? How then should we measure who is to blame and who isn't?"

     "Uhh.. I dunno, but.. I'd prefer it if I just went to prison."

     "But say that weren't an option. Say you really did think you were going to die. ... Would you kill a villain like yourself if you were in their shoes?"

     "I- I really don't care for all this mind bendy stuff! I just want my revenge." They really didn't have much time left. The floors, walls, and ceiling above them were all slowly deteriorating.

     "Speaking of that... Why did you decide to mess with Mineta about being gay instead of anything else? I at least would think an easier way to do that would be to give him nightmares or something."

     "Tch!" The spirit tilted his head, bright eyes scrunching to convey a smile. "You know, I spent a long time haunting this kid; trying to figure out how to best punish him for killing me... After all, there's only so much I can do as a spirit.. Didn't take me long to find out how miserably pathetic he and his life are.

     So then what do you take away from someone who already has nothing? Simple... Their identity."

     The spirit chuckled darkly. "Ever since his mother was arrested, that little brat has based so much of his personality on lusting after women.. even I pity him for it. ... So I thought it would be really funny if I challenged that by making him question his own sexuality! And it worked like a charm! Only a week of doing this and he's already begging an Esper to come and save him!!" The spirit clutched his stomach as he laughed.

     "Alright." Mob stared ahead coldly at the spirit giggling with glee. "I think that's enough from you. Enjoy the afterlife."

     "Wait, you can-?!"

Bzzz!

     "Aoaoughaaha! Exorcising me with your quirk!?! Aaagha! Isn't this the same as killing?! Ack!" The spirit was quickly fading away, his words not yet registering to the boy. "You're even worse than that brat if you think this is acceptable!! You hear?! You--"

     He vanished.

     Mob dropped his hand as realization set in, the last remaining smudges resembling the real world melting away. Leaving only.. color. Color and confusion.

     Everyone.. and everything was gone... Except for his conviction. That, sadly remained.

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     "Are you SURE you got all of it?! Every last drop?!" Mineta stood in Mob's doorway early that morning, still in his PJs clasping his hands together.

     "Spirits aren't like water. And yes. I exorcised it."

     "Ohthankgod!!"

     "Oh and I have one more request for you."

     "Yes?"

     "Go to therapy." Immediately after, Mob shut the door.

     ...He would... He would probably have nightmares of that experience for a while now..wouldn't he?...

     Oh well.

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These things'll kinda be like one-shots I guess. So, if you have any fun ideas, feel free to share them in the comments! I may just write them! ;]

Also, sorry if the humor isn't to your liking. The next one-shot I have planned follows The League of Villains and Ryo dealing with an annoying neighborhood kid, so I promise if you didn't like this one-shot, there's a chance you'll like another.