MHA: GAMER PATH

Chapter 156: UA's Underground Dungeon (3)

~Third POV~

[UA Highschool – Underground Dungeon, Japan]

Realizing they're missing their classmate Shinso they tried to locate him as Ida suggested while looking for their classmate, "Perhaps he became separated earlier as we fled?"

They tried retracing their route back to their starting point, but the pile of rubble that had marked the spot where they'd fallen was nowhere to be found. Kirishima asked in a confused tone, "Huh? It was definitely here, yeah?"

However, Ida responded with his arms crossed, stating, "No, I think it was that way."

But Tokoyami countered, pointing in another direction as he said calmly, "I believe that was the way we came from."

Each of the three-pointed in different directions and realizing that they grimaced at what seemed to be a bad omen as Ren couldn't help but ask bluntly, "Please don't tell me … that we've lost our way as well?!"

The tinge of panic in Ren's voice was apparent. The many side tunnels they'd observed earlier revealed just how convoluted and enormous this underground space really was as Tokoyami asked, "What's our course of action, Ren?"

Listening to his question, they continued to move forward as he bluntly said his plan, "We search for both Shinso and the exit."

/////

[UA Highschool, Heights Alliance, Musutafu, Japan]

Meanwhile, back at Heights Alliance, Bakugo entered Kirishima's room angrily, demanding barging in, "Gimme back my lint roller, Kirishima… Wait, huh?"

Katsuki Bakugo, who had nearly finished his cleaning, stopped by Kirishima's room. He was none the wiser that his friend was at that moment battling it out in the underground dungeon as he grumbled, eyes narrowed, "How long's it take to trash a freakin' punching bag?"

With his usual grumbles, Bakugo barged into his friend's room and found the lint roller he'd come to collect sitting on the floor. As he clucked his tongue in annoyance and bent over to pick up the tool, he noticed a prominent dust clump under the bed as he growled, "Y'call that clean?"

The skilled kid known as 'the Talented Mr. Bakugo' to his classmates was a pro at tidying as well, so it barely took him a second to swipe at and extract the dust with the long-handled lint roller.

Bakugo stood up with a derisive snort and then noticed a torn poster on the verge of ripping off the wall, hanging near other pieces of paper on which Kirishima had written inspirational phrases till he heard a voice from outside Kirishima's room, "Whatcha doing in Kirishima's room?"

Hanta Sero had also been dropping by to borrow Bakugo's lint roller, and as he'd passed Kirishima's doorway, he'd passed Kirishima's doorway, he'd found Bakugo busy rehanging the poster as the explosive boy replied obviously, "When Kirishima hung up those weird papers, he somehow ripped this poster, so I'm fixing it. Duh."

That was obvious enough, but what Sero wanted to know was why this task had fallen to Bakugo in particular. Before he could rephrase, though, he noticed Bakugo managing the job with dexterity and guessed that Kirishima's half-assed cleaning hadn't sat well with the meticulous Bakugo as Sero said curiously with a sly grin, "Y'know, Bakugo, if, against all odds, the whole hero thing doesn't pan out, you could totally start an odd-jobs shop."

Bakugo snapped his head around, yelling at Sero in a defiant tone, "Huh?! There's no universe where that happens!"

/////

[UA Highschool – Underground Dungeon, Japan]

While Bakugo was roaring at Sero, Kirishima and the others were busy staring at a wall. They'd been cautiously creeping down passages in their search for Shinso, but the pathways had kept branching until they had no clue where they were or where to go next.

Finally, they hit a dead end, but attached to the wall was a strange button that seemed to scream, 'Push me!' It was as if the simple protrusion was enchanted to draw in passersby and fill them with an inescapable desire to push it.

Kirishima, unable to hide his childlike curiosity, asked, "Should we?"

The others felt the same way, but Ren resisted and shook his head, his voice of reason sighed in a disappointed tone, "Being the voice of reason, we haven't the faintest what pushing this button could do! Assuming this really is a UA facility…"

Ren's words of doubt, spoken cautiously since he was the first to bring up the idea, were met with silence. Ida had secretly been thinking the same thing as he said, agreeing with Ren in a serious tone, "I have my doubts as well. A mazelike training facility is certainly within the realm of possibility, but I cannot explain the toy monkeys. Even if they were meant to represent villains, why unleash them before construction was completed?"

Tokoyami murmured as he began to ponder the underground dungeon, "But if it's not connected to U.A., then…"

The other three finished his thought under their breaths, in unison, "Villains…"

A dark pall fell over the group, but Ren smiled to smash the bad vibes and said, getting attention, "Possible but very unlikely. C'mon, it's more likely that this place used to be a gym maze for rescue training or better yet – "

*Click*

Before Ren could finish his words, [Dark Shadow] appeared as he said innocently, pressing the button without an ounce of hesitation, "Oh! A button!"

All eyes were staring wide-eyed at [Dark Shadow] as Tokoyami shouted, alarmed that his familiar had activated the button, "Dark Shadow! What have you done?!"

[Dark Shadow] had no idea why the boys were gasping in horror and freaking out. Ren tried to calm the situation down from panicking boys, "Please! Remain calm! And remain alert for anything!"

The boys wasted no time in scanning their surroundings for impending danger as Kirishima muttered nervously, "Sure, like in the movies. In this kinda situation, the first trap is usually a trapdoor…"

They glanced at the ground and noticed a nearly imperceptible seam. Ida shouted, fearing a sudden pitfall, "Everyone, to the wall!"

The others obeyed, slamming their backs to either side of the dead-end tunnel. But the ground showed no sign of splitting open.

*RMBL*

As the group peered at the suspicious seam, Ren felt a bit of crumbling dirt fall on his head and glanced up just in time to see the ceiling rushing toward them as he shouted, "Everyone! Run!"

"Huh? Ack!"

Ren's timely alert had kept them from being crushed by a two-meter-square block falling from the ceiling, but before they had a moment to breathe, another block was descending upon their new position.

*THUD*

Kirishima yelled as the chain of blocks began falling faster and faster in a panicked tone, "What nowww?!"

Ida, running at the back of the group, had a leg grazed by one of the weighty death traps. Meanwhile, after confirming that Tokoyami had cloaked himself with [Dark Shadow] and was using his [Black Fallen Angel] mode to fly down the tunnel, Ren slowed down just enough to grab Ida's and Kirishima's hands, speaking up, "Here we go, you two!"

"Whoaaa?!"

*WOOOOSH*

The three boys blasted down the tunnel at a ferocious speed, courtesy of Ren's [Gearshift] Quirk. Within seconds, the falling blocks were far in their rear view, and after another moment, they'd moved a safe enough distance away as Ida said, gasping for breath, "You saved us… I've never moved quite that fast before…"

Kirishima, who was panting, added, breathing heavily and getting some air, "Felt like we turned into a gust of wind, there…"

Ren apologized for the impromptu escape tactic and breathed a sigh of relief when, at last, the sound of falling blocks had subsided as he said calmly, "Yes, we seem safe for now. And clearly, that button was indeed linked to a trap. Let's hope it's the last one we trigger."

[Dark Shadow], on the other hand, chirped, treating the death trap like a ride at a carnival, "Wanna do it again!"

As Tokoyami glanced upward to scold his floating familiar, he noticed a monitor attached to the ceiling. One was completely out of place in the rocky environs as he asked, "What is that screen doing here?"

As he spoke, a "10" flashed on the monitor. The other three boys were now paying attention as the monitor displayed "9" and then "8."

Ren felt a bad feeling in his gut as Ida said, feeling a chill in his spine, "What is it counting down to…?"

Countdowns are one way to exert control over human psychology. They inspire both a sense of caution and excitement, driving the viewer to stick around and see what happens at the end.

This countdown had the boys in its grasp, drawing their eyes while also causing them to back away instinctively. When it reached "0," the much-discussed trapdoor flapped open beneath them.

*Click*

"Wahhh?!"

They had been standing directly over the pitfall that lay in wait, so there was no hope of grabbing onto the edge or otherwise stopping their descent. Nor could they resist zooming down the convenient slide placed directly below, which had been slicked over with some kind of oil in preparation for just this very moment.

As they slid down in the darkness, any attempts to right themselves only got them more tangled up, to a comical extent.

"Ida, your exhaust pipe thing's taking a trip up my butt!"

"Apologies. Allow me to… Ouch! What just stabbed the back of my head?!"

"Why wasn't this the first trap, damn it!"

"Ren! That's your complaint about this fall trap!

Tokoyami tried to speak but only mumbled a muffled, "Dah muh eek!"

Tokoyami was attempting to explain that it was his beak drilling into Ida's head, though his explanation was drowned out by Ida's pained cries. Meanwhile, Ren was at the head of the pack.

When the other three slammed into his back, he tried to peel them away but only managed to get tangled up in the flailing ball of limbs. The four boys' combined weight shot them down the greased slide with more momentum than ever, and the slide shifted to a near-vertical drop until…

*Pop*

Freefall.

The boys were rendered speechless for a moment by the jarring sensation of their stomachs floating around in their bodies, but they managed to gasp when they saw what awaited them at the bottom of the fall as they screamed appropriately, "Ahhhh!"

A lattice of iron bars shaped into a giant birdcage. The top was popped open and seemed ready to slam shut the instant that unwitting victims fell in. Imprisonment seemed inevitable, especially since their greased-up bodies had no means by which to resist.

Just before falling into the cage, however, the boys suddenly found themselves floating back up as [Dark Shadow] grunted, holding all four afloat, "I! Hate! Birdcages!"

The boys' eyes sparkled as they beheld their savior, a dark angel incarnate. Ren, using [Float], grabbed onto the boys as Tokoyami praised his Quirk joyfully, "Well done, Dark Shadow!"

Ren grabs ahold of Ida and Kirishima using his [Float] Quirk. Everyone having cleared the birdcage's yawning opening, they landed a short distance away in a nearby tunnel. Unlike the other passages, this one had no offshoots and seemed to slope downward.

Not ready to move on just yet, the group slumped to the ground in a circle, catching their breath as Ren said in an annoyed tone, "So many intricate traps. Are these all designed to capture intruders such as ourselves? I'm hard-pressed to believe that this is truly a U.A. facility."

Ida nods his head, agreeing with Tokoyami's suggestion that he catch his breath: "This labyrinthine trap hoard seems more like something constructed by villains."

Kirishima suggested eyeing Tokoyami as he sarcastically said, "Y'think… the villains are in here with us?"

Shaking his head, Ren replied calmly, taking the chance to take a breather, "There's a good chance they're somehow watching us, at least."

Everyone nodded as Ida concluded, speaking up in a determined tone, "Regardless, our objective remains the same. Find Shinso and find the exit. Then, we report to Aizawa Sensei and inform him about our discovery!"

The thought that villains were once again aiming at the U.A. from the shadows lit a fire in the hearts of these three, who could very well be the only ones aware of the plot now. They were inspired to fight back, but Ida asked in a concerned tone, "I hope Shinso is unharmed… We've traveled quite a bit since losing him…"

Tokoyami, assuming the worst, muttered in a grim tone, "We can only hope that the villains haven't caught him."

But Ren took control of the situation as he stood up and said, "Let's press onward."

*SLAM*

Suddenly, there came an enormous slam from behind. Several paces away, a perfectly round boulder had dropped, one that seemed an exact fit for the breadth of the tunnel, with Ren wryly grinning in a mocking tone of the situation there in, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me…"

Succumbing to gravity, it slowly began rolling down the slope as Kirishima shouted, "No way… Nuh-uh! We've gotta be on a movie set, right?"

Ida said in a panicked tone as the boys ran from the boulder, which was already picking up speed, "Sadly, Kirishima, I'm afraid this is reality!"

*RMBL*

The slope's slant grew sharper, and just as the old cliché would have it, they spotted a dead end ahead. With nowhere left to run, Kirishima found the resolve to spin around, plant his feet, and shout, "We'll see who breaks first!"

Kirishima's whole body hardened up, and behind him, the other two braced themselves for impact as Ren activated [Full Cowl], preparing their strike, "I have your back, Kirishima! Let's get the job done! Time to show our ultimate muscles! ORA!!!"

*SMASH*

With Ren's cheer encouraging him and assistance, both thrust their fists at the spinning boulder, just barely managing to withstand a force that would've crushed a lesser man as they pushed. Small cracks spread across the boulder's surface and quickly blossomed into massive fissures that tore the raging rock in two.

A fully prepared Ida leaped at one half with a kick, while Tokoyami with [Dark Shadow] smashed the other half with their assault. A splintered piece of rock bounced off the wall and flew toward Tokoyami.

However, he was caught off guard and couldn't react in time, "Ugh!"

Ida winced, having taken a direct hit to the shoulder while shielding Tokoyami. Tokoyami gasping as his face crumpled cried out, "Oh no, Ida!"

Kirishima and Ren also ran over to their injured friend as Kirishima yelled in a shocked tone, "That's blood, dude!"

Ren placed his hand over Ida's injured wound in a calm tone, "Let's try to stop the bleeding. It'll only be a few seconds."

*Shiii*

Activating his [Cellular Activation] and healing his wound, Ida forced a smile past the pain, fading lightly as he apologized to them, "It's just a scratch, so don't let it trouble you. Besides, we haven't the luxury to fritter away our time sitting here…"

Ida stumbled a bit from the pain, slowly fading. Tokoyami was ready to assist, grabbing hold as he apologized to him, "I'm so sorry… this is my fault!"

Tokoyami typically presented himself as an aloof loner, but on the inside, he actually cared about his friends a great deal. However, before he can lament Ren's [Instinct] and [Danger Sense] kick in, he turns his head back, gasping, "Something's coming!"

*Fwp*

*SCREEEE*

Ear-piercing screeches. The flapping of wings. A swarm large enough to block the width of the tunnel. A close encounter with more black creatures that thrived in darkness, as Ren said, "Bats? It just had to be bats, wasn't it?"

What happened next was that the boys were then swallowed by the bats rushing towards them…