A/N: So I wanted to get to the crux of things fast and here we are? Part of me wishes I'd polished this a little more, but I think it works as it should. Hope so. Ah well. Class 1-A shenanigans ensue! Have fun, few of you who found this! Am sending you all the cookies I can get my hands on!
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Chapter 2: Swim, Deku! Swim!
~x~
There were, Midoriya Izuku decided, better things in life than falling head-first into ice-cold water.
Actually, there were better things in life than falling, period.
Saltwater filled his mouth, his nose, his ears and stung his eyes. Head would've certainly bumped into the bottom had something not caught him at the last possible second. Dropped him gently on firm ground half a moment later. Even through blurred vision, he still recognized long, slick tongue retracting, and Tsuyu, clinging to the rock wall the way only she could.
"That was close, Midoriya-chan."
"Yeah." Fingers inspected his forehead, until running into a painful bump. Midoriya winced. That was going to bruise for a while, he could tell. Tsuyu must've caught him last moment before he'd inadvertently ended up with a concussion. "Thanks a lot, Tsuyu-chan. You really saved me back there." And boy, had she saved him. The cave was dark and his eyes still stung from the salt, so he couldn't really see much, but what he could see gave him the creeps. Giant rocks sticking out of the deceptively deep water, everywhere around them. Most of them sharp and pointy. If he'd actually hit his head on one of those, concussion would've been the least of his worries.
"You're welcome, ribbit." Tsuyu joined him on the isolated rock, inspecting their surroundings with equal amount of concern as Midoriya himself felt. Then looked his way. "Are your eyes all right? You probably shouldn't do that."
Midoriya froze. All the lectures from his mom on how rubbing his eyes would only make the problem worse slapped him at once and he pried his hands away, with much willpower. "You're right. Sorry. It's just the salt, it burns…" Blinked the still gathering tears away, and took in their surroundings one more time. "Um, do you know where we are? One moment, Kacchan was yelling and exploding stuff, next I know, I'm falling…" He trailed off, Tsuyu's shake of head enough an answer in itself.
"I was hoping you'd have an idea," she said. "I don't remember moving from my chair." Tilted her head when she noticed him tense. "What's wrong, Midoriya-chan?"
He shook his head, trying to listen. Soft waves hitting against solid wall, kind of like somebody was trying to walk through the water in the distance. Which, all things considered, shouldn't have surprised him. If he and Tsuyu had ended up here, then what was to say the others hadn't? But even squinting, he could barely tell one rock apart from another. He wasn't even sure where the light was coming from, but there was just enough of it so he could see his immediate surroundings.
Water. Rocks. More water and rocks. Rocks sticking out of the water, rocks hanging from the ceiling. Everywhere he looked it reminded him of those caves he'd seen in movies or video games, but there was no easily discerning exit, let alone an entrance. The ceiling itself, though shrouded in darkness was most certainly there, which brought up the question of where exactly he'd fallen from. He had a feeling that, if he ever found out, he wasn't going to like the answer. Further on his left, a wall high up. Come to think of it, Tsuyu had been clinging to it until a short time ago. And further ahead—
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Beside him, Tsuyu tensed. "What — what is that?"
Midoriya's finger trembled as he pointed. An abomination, a monster, a creature of darkness, coming after them—
Tsuyu's voice shot an octave higher. "Midoriya-chan, isn't that—"
A monstrous giant, looking like some sort of an ugly ogre taken straight out of a fantasy RPG. With only dirty rags covering its crotch area and a deadly looking club hanging over it's shoulder. Beady yellow eyes focused down, sharp and deadly claws almost as long as Midoriya's fingers, reaching for something at its feet — Jirou.
"Wait, Midoriya—"
Too late. By the time the warning in Tsuyu's voice reached him, he was already in Full Cowl. Jirou was right there, at the monster's feet. Unconscious. There was no time to think. He aimed his feet towards the bulky arm about as muscled as All Might's. But that's fine! All Might is All Might, and this is just a monster! As long as I catch it off guard, even if it's stronger than it looks, even with five percent of power, I can still— Crap! He wasn't gonna make it!
"Tsuyu!"
Time seemed to crawl to a stop altogether. Tsuyu's tongue, wrapping around Jirou, in slow motion. Pulling her unconscious body away, milliseconds before the deadly claws closed around empty air. Then the moment passed, and the beady eyes were on Midoriya, the heavy looking club heading straight towards him. Tsuyu pulled him out at the last second, piece of his tattered pants hanging off of the metal spike that only barely missed its mark.
Tsuyu gently dropped him on the rock beside her.
"T-t-thanks. Again."
"Sometimes I really wonder what goes through your head. Ribbit."
Midoriya did too. Those claws looked scary, the club even scarier, and he didn't really want to find out what would've happened if that thing had hit him. "Sorry," he hurried to explain. "I just thought, if I could get a punch in—"
"That's not what I mean. Look, Midoriya-chan."
Midoriya blinked, startled, but he looked. And what he saw sent ice coursing through his veins.
Where there had been one giant ogre monster before, now it looked like dozens of them had gathered, monstrous eyes glowing with a certain hunger that made his hairs stand on end. An army of starving monsters, teeth the length of his palm and ugly drool dripping everywhere. And they were coming right at them. Midoriya idly wondered if the whole running to school business had just been a lull into a freakish nightmare full of eldritch abominations. Did he even get out of bed this morning? Man, he knew letting Kaminari talk him into watching that scary movie before bed had been a bad idea.
"Eeeeep, what do we do? Should we run? Or fight? But those clubs are scary. Those things have a long reach anyway and the clubs just make it longer. Plus, it's like they're floating on water, and they're completely silent when they move and look at those teeth!"
"We'd best make our way out of here," Tsuyu noted.
"Yeah!" Midoriya agreed with all his heart. But where, he wanted to ask. There were at least a dozen of monsters there, possibly more, and simply by the nature of their appearance, they had the huge advantage of knowing this cave. The rocks on the bottom made doubly sure that picking that route would be even riskier than fighting those things head on - and they had no visible way out. Think, think, think. There's gotta be a way to get through this. They're huge, and they're strong, but they stay away from the water and rocks and—
Ripples. Right in front of the monster that had tried to get Jirou. Soft, at first, but followed by bubbles. And then something burst out of the water, punching the monster with enough strength to knock over several of its peers like bowling pins. The entirety of the mob came to a stop in that moment, trying to make sense of the situation. And, waist-deep in the water, breathing hard with a fist raised high in the air, rock-solid muscles standing out against the drenched school uniform—
"Kirishima!" Midoriya yelled, voice melting with a mix of surprise and relief.
The student in question turned, startled, squinting through the strands of wet hair. "Eh? Midoriya?! Tsuyu?! What the heck? Didn't know you guys were here too!"
"Forget that! Those things are still coming! Let's go!"
But instead of joining them, fist slammed into a hardened palm, the rest of Kirishima's body hardening a moment later. "Hell no! Those things got one on me, but no way am I letting them get away with it! Heck, they tried to eat Jirou! Wait! Is she okay?!"
"I have her right here," Tsuyu said.
"Ah, good! I was worried for a moment there!" Something of a menacing smile spread on Kirishima's face. "You coming, Midoriya?! We're gonna bust these things until they learn not to mess with us!"
If possible, last thing Midoriya wanted was picking a fight with half a dozen disfigured monsters. But the rest of his classmates could be anywhere in this place, and if Jirou's state was any indication, down for the count. And those monsters looked really, really hungry.
"Yeah!" he yelled, mid-Full Cowl. "Tsuyu-chan, get Jirou-san out of here! See if you can find anyone else here! Kirishima and I—" Both feet slammed right into the disfigured monster's face, and Midoriya smiled. "We'll take care of this!" Then he kicked off it, twisting through the air before landing right in the water. Ignoring the shudders the sudden cold sent along his spine, he straightened, fists out, back-to-back to Kirishima. His fiery-head classmate grinned.
"Hell yeah! You're going down! Ya hear me, ugly face?!"
Back on the rock, Tsuyu shook her head, exasperated. "Be careful, ribbit." Then she grabbed Jirou, and jumped.
"Got it!" Midoriya swallowed thickly. "So, um. Any ideas?"
"Uh." Kirishima put his guard up, teeth clenching. "Um, not really. See those claws?"
Midoriya shuddered. Long and sharp and pointy, and had almost tore right into Jirou's body, there was no way he wouldn't.
"Yeah. Well, I saw one of those rip through rock like it was paper," Kirishima continued. "Teeth, too. If I didn't get out of the way, I think they would've gotten right through me, even with my hardening. Oh, and I dunno how, but they're hovering over the water. I tried to pull one of them under with me, but it's like there's some kind of a barrier that prevents them from touching it."
"Err, right! Remind me to thank Tsuyu-chan for getting me out of there, again," Midoriya chirped. Then froze, eyes widening as he spun to stare at his classmate. "Wait. How long have you been fighting them, Kirishima!?"
His classmate shot him an odd look, before glancing back towards the monsters, lost in thought. "Dunno. Ten, fifteen minutes? They didn't pay much attention to me at first, but then Jirou fell out of nowhere and…" he shook his head. "Anyway, safe to say, it's Jirou they're after. And I don't think they'll mind going right through us if that's what it takes. Can't let them get anywhere near her, right, Midoriya?!"
"Right!" Speaking off, the monster ogres seemed less inclined to attack now that Jirou was no longer in sight. Or they might've just been fighting smarter. Which meant they needed a plan, a strategy of some sort to get out of this place. He needed to think, think, think— "Wait. You said there's a barrier keeping them away from the water?"
Kirishima nodded.
"It's just a guess, but it could be they don't like water much. Or it could be that it weakens them."
"Well… That's one theory I wouldn't mind testing out." Something of a smirk formed on Kirishima's face. "Think you and I can make a wave big enough to drown those crazy bastards?"
Midoriya grit his teeth. Clenched his fists, and dropped into a stance. "One way to find out. Let's go!"
Bakugou Katsuki had certainly had better days. Between getting barely any sleep, thanks to some assholes being hungry at 3 in the morning, to an argument sparking several hours before normal waking up hours over the missing box of cereals, he would've been better off staying up all night to count stars or some shit.
It only got worse from there.
Rubbing the ache from between his eyes, he scowled. The buzzing headache irritated him slightly more than his drenched school uniform. Did that half-and-half bastard go freezing the entire place? Ugh. But that sure as hell didn't seem to be the case. First, half-and-half bastard was nowhere in sight. Second, he was definitely no longer in the school building, let alone the dorm common area.
Bakugou pushed himself up, ignoring the trembling in his limbs. Move, damn it. Move! Bad idea, because he ended up falling right back down on his ass, entire body feeling almost as bad as if he'd gone up against All Might in full throttle again, except this time there were no weights to obstruct his teacher's perfect. As if having one side of his uniform completely and utterly wet wasn't enough. What the fuck just happened?
Memories flashed in his mind, sort of like a fast-forward video, cutting through the images at breakneck speeds, only making him dizzier in the process. He remembered the classroom, and that idiot Kirishima edging him on about something again, and Deku being annoying as usual. Then somebody called out to him — stupid fuckmunch, if he wanted a fight, why the hell would he hide — and next thing he knew, there was something on the wall. Something black, and weird, and it was crawling towards him.
Then, black. All black.
Bakugou remembered the creepy, crawly thing. Bakugou remembered activating his quirk (admittedly a little stronger than he'd intended). And Bakugou remembered — no. Punched that train of thought right back where it'd come from, then blinked rapidly to clear his head. No way in hell he'd seen that. Grabbed a handful of water and splashed it in his face. Salt stung his eyes, but at least it helped him regain focus. Right. Had to figure out where he was first, and how he got here. Then beat the shit out of the one responsible.
"Eh, is that — Bakugou-kun? Bakugou-kun!"
He shot straight up, eyebrow twitching in irritation. Last he needed now was to look like a fucking wimp in front of his idiot classmates. Speaking off, was that — "Huuuuuh? Uraraka?" Why the hell was she here? And running? But as soon as he spotted her, fumbling through the shallow water with oversized weight over her shoulder and waving at him, he had to blink and look again. That couldn't be happening.
"Bakugou-kun!" she yelled again, adding something unintelligible along. He stared, utterly confused, as he recognized the baggage over her shoulder as, first, Kaminari, and second, weightless. The fuck?! He could only see one way this could go, and he didn't like it one bit. "Wait! Wait just a second—!"
"Catch!" That was all the warning he had, before she flung Kaminari right at him like a baseball ball.
Sweat stopped pouring down Bakugou's face, mild-panic attack subduing (although he'd never willingly admit he'd panicked, fuck no) when he realized that, instead of falling, the unconscious idiot was floating half a meter or so above him. Then he spotted Uraraka's hands, and blanched. "Oi! OIIII! You pull that shit and I'll—!"
"Release!"
Kaminari dropped out of the air like a rock, toppling them both into the water. Bakugou spat out a mouthful, rising to his elbows — a little grateful that it was just about ankle deep. "I'll — I'll fucking kill you!" As if his school uniform hadn't suffered enough torture already! "Get the fuck off!" Pushed Kaminari's limp body off of him and got up, rage boiling, because Uraraka was going to pay for this shit — when the girl zoomed past him him like a tornado, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Run, Bakugou-kun! Run! Aaah, where is Tsuyu-chan when you need her?"
"What the flying fuck are you on about?!"
But one glance back, and then he saw it. An army of frogs, wider than Aizawa-sensei's desk, and about as tall as Bakugou himself. Ugly green, with — wait. Were those tiaras on their heads? Bakugou stared. Then the tail freak kicked one of the frogs right in the eye before doubling back and rushing to catch up with Uraraka.
"Hurry, Bakugou! They're fast and crazy strong, we gotta get away! At least until Kaminari and Hagakure-san wake up—!"
"Get away, you say?" Bakugou rose, bristling. Several explosions shook the air around his hands as he took a deep breath, held a fist out. And snarled. "I'M FUCKING PISSED AS HELL! Run?! You run, you stupid shitheads! I'ma blast those fuckfrogs through seven hells and back! And then I'm coming for you, Uraraka! Don't think for a moment I'm letting you get away with pulling this crap!"
"Eep!"
"Wait, Bakugou—"
"Too late!" he yelled, cackling madly. "I'll break these damned frogs to pieces! Just watch it!" And then he leapt into the air, using the blasts to build momentum, before aiming them down at the oversized amphibians. "Have some of this, you dumb fucks!" Faster than the eye could follow, he rained a shower of explosions.
Coming to a stop with her arms and legs trembling from exhaustion, Uraraka stared at the scene, fighting to catch her breath. A rain of explosions, followed by unfiltered roars of the targets. Not quite pained, but certainly outraged. And Bakugou looked like he'd only barely started. "Whoa," she managed. "So… brutal." Then grabbed onto her knees for balance, as nausea washed over on her, but not even that was enough. Ojirou caught her before she fell.
"You okay?"
Uraraka smiled awkwardly. "Aw, sorry. I think I overdid it a little…"
"It's fine, use this chance to rest. Bakugou is nothing if not tenacious…" but she followed his gaze full of concern, towards where the monsters were obscured in a dark cloud of smoke. Took note of the serious look on his face.
"You don't think it's going to be enough, do you, Ojirou-kun?" she asked.
His jaw tense, the martial artist nodded. "It's just a feeling. I don't know what happened, but I don't think Kaminari would go down without a fight. For him and Hagakure-san to be in this state…"
He didn't finish. He didn't have to. Uraraka glanced towards Kaminari's unconscious form, without any sign of injury. But he hadn't responded when she'd called out to him, and he hadn't responded to Ojirou either, no matter what method they'd used. Same with Tooru-chan. Then the huge frogs had come after them and Ojirou-kun grabbed Hagakure and ran for it, and Uraraka had done the same for Kaminari. They'd tried to fight, from time to time, but no kick worked and even Uraraka flinging a rock size of her bed only barely slowed the giant frogs down. And if Ojirou-kun was right, and both Kaminari and Hagakure ended up in this state because of the frogs—
Don't think about it! Bakugou-kun is strong! They got Kaminari-kun and Hagakure-chan by pure dumb luck! That's it! But they won't do it to Bakugou-kun!
She had to believe that.
Bakugou dropped back down, breathing heavily. Took a second too long before standing back up straight. But given he wasn't glaring at her yet, Uraraka had a feeling this was far from over. He was just waiting for the smoke to clear before—
A whip came flying out, faster than the eye could follow. Ojirou jumped back, only narrowly escaping it. Uraraka would've been caught, if he hadn't pulled her too. And Bakugou—
"Bakugou-kun!" she screamed.
He blasted himself up, escaping the whip at the last possible second — which, now that the smoke cleared, Uraraka actually recognized as a tongue. So wait, are they like Tsuyu-chan? Decided to think about that later. Bakugou was glaring at her like he wasn't sure if he wanted to blast the frogs first — or her.
"What the hell are you getting all worked up about?!" he yelled, suddenly, and a part of her admitted that okay, maybe she had been underestimating him a little. He didn't have that bad priority assortment. But none of the frogs looked like they'd even had a scorch-mark after that rain of explosions, and if anything, they seemed to have gotten even angrier compared to how they'd been when it had been just her and Ojirou-kun running.
"This is bad! Bakugou, get back! We don't have a chance!" Ojirou yelled, alarmed.
"Don't you tell me what to do! Said I'd blast these things to seven hells, that's exactly what I'm gonna do! Watch me! Stun Grenade!"
Uraraka flinched at the roar that followed, courtesy of the giant frog flying back towards its peers. Couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for the poor thing. Wished she could say they didn't deserve it, but they did try munching on Kaminari's foot, so letting Bakugou at them was probably fair game. After all, before Uraraka had gotten her gripes on the situation, Kaminari had almost lost his foot and — eh, wait. Kaminari-kun?
She turned then, fast enough to break her neck. Awake! He's awake!
He's right in the line of attack!
"Kaminari-kun, duck!"
His head whipped towards her, and then, either understanding the danger or doing it purely by instinct, he dived down. Just as another tongue whipped right above his head. He shot right back up, wide eyes looking around him. "Whoa, what the hell?!"
By then, Uraraka was already running, shadow of a plan forming in her mind. "Kaminari-kun! How are you feeling?!"
"Feeling?!" he shouted back, wide eyes following where the tongue had disappeared, and Bakugou was blasting off another frog. "I'm fine! What the heck is going on here?!"
"Good! Listen to me! I have an idea, and I need your help! It's a gamble, but it's the only way we can get through this! I think! Can you use your Quirk?!"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be—?"
"Do it on the count of three! One!"
"Whoa, Uraraka, what in the—" but she sped past him, bracing herself. She'd worked hard for this! And maybe she was tired already, and a little nauseous, but she couldn't afford to give up, not now. If they had any chance of making it through this, they needed to put those frog monsters down for good! Isn't that right, Deku-kun?
"Wait!" Ojirou yelled, still staring at the spot where she'd tapped him less than a moment ago.
"I won't! This is the best chance we have! Two!" She was closer now. To both Bakugou and the frogs — and a part of her really wished these frogs were more like Tsuyu, less like anime monsters, but now wasn't the time to get distracted. She wasn't close enough, not yet. She had to jump further and faster, otherwise this would never work.
"Agh, damn it, this better be worth it!" Kaminari yelled.
"It will, trust me! Bakugou-kun!"
He heard her! He wasn't turning to her, he wasn't helping with her plan, he was too stubborn to do that, of course he would be. She should've guessed from the start. But she wouldn't let that deter her, not now. She jumped then, with all the strength she had, slamming both her hands right on his shoulders. "Three! Kaminari-kun, NOW!"
And the world exploded in yellow.
Floating several feet in the air, fighting the overwhelming wave of nausea, Uraraka watched the electric currents spread at a crazy fast rate, encompassing entirety of the wide cavern within moments. Somewhere above her, Bakugou was shouting obscenities of the like that would have her father rinsing his mouth with soap, but otherwise not struggling. Further away, Ojirou's eyes were as wide as saucers as he hung several meters in the air, while making sure Hagakure was still safely positioned on his tail.
Then it stopped, and all of the frogs collapsed at the same moment, out cold. Followed by everyone else, as Uraraka's Quirk gave out.
"So-sorry," Kaminari winced, as the only one still standing, as if the whole ordeal did nothing whatsoever to tire him out. "I… er… sorry. Water all around, I thought I'd just use a small attack. Didn't think it would turn out… quite like this."
Fighting to keep the contents of her stomach in, Uraraka gave him a thumbs up. "Good job" she choked. Then blacked out.
As it turned out, the ogre monsters weren't exactly weak to water, much to Midoriya and Kirishima's frustration. If anything, it only seemed to annoy the disfigured creatures even more than the two young heroes-in-the-making had. Which, to be fair, had a poor influence on their odds of getting out of the situation unscathed.
"Okay, so! Water didn't work, giant rocks didn't work, and they're tracking us either by the noise we're making or our scents!" Kirishima summed up, as they hopped over to another rock. "Further, they're moving faster than Todoroki on ice and we're only avoiding them by caving in the ceiling and — holy shit, is that a crossbow?! What is this, an MMO?!"
Midoriya almost wished it was. With MMOs, at least, you knew you could beat the monster, even if you didn't exactly know how right away. But aside from having high mobility, crazy strength and dangerous claws, the monsters were intelligent, capable of complex strategy and very determined to catch their prey. By which he meant Kirishima and himself. Moreover, with all of that and some common sense kicking back in, he had more than enough reason to believe that most of this was nothing short of real and definitely happening and holy shit that arrow almost caught me right there—!
"We need a plan, some kind of a plan, to get away, if not win—"
"Oi, Midoriya, want to risk it with the caves again?" Kirishima yelled, breaking him out of the train of thought. Following the gesture, Midoriya spotted the smaller passage, leading away from the area they were in. To get to it, they'd need to risk going back in the water, and hell if they hadn't stumbled more than once in the rush. The rocks at the bottom were a good, strong, and surprisingly not a slippery footing, but Midoriya lost the count of all the times they'd lost momentum because they couldn't determine the depth. Still, the cave Kirishima was pointing at was just tall enough that, if they caved it in, the crazy ogres wouldn't have a way to follow.
"But if we do that, then how will we find Tsuyu-chan and Jirou-san again? We have no idea where they went! And what if there are others here, and we leave them with those monsters?"
"I don't know, man, we'll just have to risk it! We gotta believe in them! The girls are strong enough, okay?! Plus, at this rate one of those claws will get us, and then what do we do?!"
Point, right there. By now Midoriya had lost count of how many close calls they'd had. Plus, he was beginning to feel the strain. Given the damage to his arms, the amount of power he could use was even more limited than it had been before. Especially considering he didn't even have his costume here. If he tried to get another hit in before getting some rest… He didn't really want to know what might happen.
Tsuyu-chan… Jirou-san… please be okay.
Then, he nodded. "Fine. Let's do it."
Kirishima almost missed his step. "EH? Really? I mean, I know I suggested it, but it's the last-ditch, hope-it-works-or-we're-totally-out-of-options idea. For all we know it could be a dead-end and then we're toast. Are you sure about this?"
"If it were just one of them, or maybe two, then fighting at close quarters, we'd win for sure. But with so many of them, we don't stand a chance anyway. And aside from Jirou-san and Tsuyu-chan, we still don't know where everyone is. You're right, it's a risk. And probably the last thing we didn't try… but right now I can't think of anything else."
Kirishima winced. "Yea. Well, we can just cave it after we find a way out. Here goes nothing!" he yelled. And jumped straight into the water. Midoriya froze, when he didn't immediately come out, but a moment later, the familiar bright red came in sight, and relief flooded him. Those few seconds had almost given him a heart attack!
Kirishima moved the hair out of his face, grinning. "Wheew! Cold! But it's pretty deep here. We can swim!"
"Right!" Midoriya yelled, then followed. Swam out after a few seconds, glancing towards the gathering crowd of monsters, and their seeming confusion over what to do now. It would only last a few seconds, before those with the ancient crossbows returned to the forefront. And then, the 1-A boys would be back to running. Or, swimming, in this case. "Let's go. Before they figure out what we're up to. They're not communicating out loud, but obviously they're doing it some other way."
Kirishima glanced back towards the gathering monsters, then nodded, a little absent minded. "Yeah."
The cave they entered, as it turned out, was much, much smaller, and about as wide as a smaller school corridor. Not quite as tall. But it was much brighter compared to the previous cavern. And the water several times colder. Swimming was all Midoriya could do to keep his limbs from trembling.
"Say," Kirishima started, "I've been thinking about this, but d'you think the water is the source of light, here? It's somehow all glossy and stuff. Kind of like glitter, maybe?"
Midoriya glanced at the surface, thoughtful. "Well… that's not how I'd call it, but you're not wrong," he mumbled. "It's just… it's really clean. I've never seen water this clean before."
"Yeah. But it tastes like shit. Even ocean water is better than this."
Midoriya chuckled awkwardly. Glanced back towards the entrance, where the ogre-like monsters hadn't dared to follow. Yet. He had a sinking suspicion they were swimming right into a trap, and the monsters were somehow aware of it.
"You know," Midoriya began, suddenly, "at first I thought this might be some secret test of character and all that… Remember, Aizawa-sensei said he's still upset over… over what happened in Kamino… so I thought maybe he'd try to catch us off-guard. Prepare us for the provisional licence exam…" he trailed off, pointedly looking anywhere but at Kirishima. Then, his voice picked up again, a little stronger, "It's just, the nature of it… it's not the same. How do I explain it? It doesn't feel like a test. These monsters… I feel like they're really trying to kill us. The intent… is just that real."
"Intent, huh…" Kirishima pondered, for a moment looking about as lost as Midoriya felt.
Silence reigned for a few moments, before Midoriya got the gripes on what he'd been wanting to say in the first place. Even if the very thought terrified him more than anything else right now. "Say, Kirishima… what… What if it was the League of Villains that somehow sent us here?"
"HUH?!"
"Think about it! I mean, no, even when I was falling here, it wasn't the same like being caught in that warp gate back in USJ, but is there anyone else who would have an interest to scatter us all over a dangerous place? Which raises a question of how they got into the school in the first place? More importantly, why? Since the beginning, they've been avoiding the school grounds, it can't be just because they were worried about All Might. Or did All Might retiring encourage them to try and come even with all the teachers present? And in that case, why us? Why would they come for us, specifically? And how would they do it without being noticed—"
"Oi, oi, slow down, man," Kirishima cut him off, a little of the color draining from his face. "I mean, I get you're worried… I am too. Yeah! I have an idea! How about we call the others, see if they have a better idea what's going on Gimme a sec." He shuffled around for a few moments, before pulling out a phone. "Ah, there! Still working, too! Awesome! They really weren't kidding when they called this thing waterproof."
"Crap! I totally forgot!" Midoriya winced. Stuffed his hand into his pocket until he found the phone, but he already knew what would happen when he did. "Busted… Mom's gonna be so upset! And I promised I'd respond in time, too…"
Kirishima shrugged awkwardly. "Well, not like you could help it. Phones are some weird stuff, it might even work after it dries off. You never know. And damn it, no range. Should've figured, since it's a cave and all."
"Yeah," Midoriya mumbled, not too convinced. With his luck, he'd crush the phone by accident before ever giving it a chance to dry. "Anyway, let's figure out what we're going to do about that."
Kirishima turned, back towards the entrance where the first of the ogre monsters had begun to glide into the cave, picking up speed as they went. "Oh. Oh, I am so not looking forward to that again."
