"Izuku, look out there!" Kaminari pointed out a round window. "I can see outside!"

Going down a few steps on the ladder, Izuku came back to the window that he hadn't really bothered to look out of before. He was tired and everything ached badly so what good would looking out a window do, but once he saw what the other boy was pointing at, he understood.

There was water out there, crashing against some kind of metal ship puffing out smoke. From the skip came a long line of people that looked more like the two chefs than anything. They were round and walked slowly, like their little legs couldn't push them faster than the pace they were already going at. The line lead to the left and disappeared somewhere that the window couldn't see. What on Earth was going on in this place?

"Who do you suppose they are?" Kaminari asked.

"I have no clue." Where they other monsters? But there were so many of them. He looped a leg around the metal bar and sat down, letting his arms rest for a moment. What would a group like that need from this place? Well, there was a kitchen, which probably meant that there was someone to cook for. Were these people...guests? Did they come here to eat all of that meat? They sure didn't look very hungry.

"They're kinda creepy. I feel like they can see us."

Izuku knew that the window was far out of their view, but he felt the same. Any of them could just turn as look at them, even though it was unlikely. "Remember the plates that were stacked really high up? They were all dirty. I think they're here to eat all of that food."

Kaminari didn't respond immediately, either thinking over the idea or shocked from the implication. Finally, after a while of silence, Kaminari spoke. "Let's keep going. I don't want to get stuck wherever these guys are headed."

With that, the two of them continued their journey up, now afraid of what lay ahead.

...

With aching muscles and soft pants, Izuku finally made it to the top. He pulled himself up to a wooden ledge and rolled until his entire body was away from that horrible ladder. He stares at the high ceiling for a moment, trying to feel his limbs again. "I'll never climb another ladder in my life."

Kaminari had the energy to chuckle as he knelt next to Izuku, a tired smile on his face. "Let's hope that's true."

Once both of them could somewhat feel what it was like to be alive again, they stood up and continued on their path. Every step felt like they were dragging their legs, but it was the best they could do. They just had to hope that they wouldn't meet anyone else in this horrible place. Walking along the wooden floors, Izuku saw yellow lights shining behind a several rows of shoji doors. The white fabric stretched across the dark wood made the lights a bit dull, but in a way, it was really nice. He might've enjoyed it, if it weren't for the horrible sounds of chewing behind it. They had to get out of this place.

"Are those..." Kaminari pointed. They couldn't see beyond the doors, but the sounds were enough to tell what was going on.

"The guests." Izuku answered. The clicking of silverware and dishes wasn't very inviting and if anything, it made the boy feel sick. He didn't want to know what those things looked like up close. "Let's go before they spot us."

Nodding silently, Kaminari walked with him as they made their way out of the room. The next one was nearly identical to the last, except this time, they didn't have the shoji to hide them. Sitting on tall stools were several of the guests. Their bodies were large and their backs were hunched as they leaned over the counter. Izuku could barely see the plates of food between them, some of the dishes having fell off onto the floor while others laid in random places along the counter. They were slobs, eating and eating without a moment to breathe. They shoved their fat fingers into their open mouths as they chewed on long strings of sausage or thick slice of ham.

Izuku took the lead, carefully stepping across the floor. If they were quiet, then maybe they could avoid the guests all together. They didn't look like they would be looking around, all of their attention fully focused on the food in front of them. Now was their chance to move.

They stopped when Izuku saw a gnome cowering just below the counter. It was curled up on itself and shivering. For a moment, Izuku debated on what to do before derailing from his current destination and slowly crept toward the gnome. He heard Kaminari's clothing shift behind him but didn't look. He had enough time to get the gnome out too.

As he stepped closer, the sound of chewing and swallowing got louder. He kept a closer eye on each of the guests, their hand still swatting around the counter to grab anything that might've resembled food. As he stood just under the stool one of them were sitting on, a large slab of meat came down in front of him, nearly crushing him to death.

He shouted in surprise and immediately regretted it. It was just loud enough to catch the guest's attention, it's small eyes lowering until it spotted him.

Izuku grabbed onto the gnome and ran, coming back to where Kaminari was standing and bolted for the door. He heard the guest grunt and squeal as it fell to the ground, it's body hitting the floor with a loud thud. Izuku didn't look back as he ran. His legs were already starting to burn, but he didn't have time to stop.

"Run faster! There's more coming!" Kaminari shouted from behind him and sure enough, with a glance back, there were at least three guests crawling after them on their stomachs. Their hands reached out to grab at Kaminari whenever they got close, but he stayed just out of their grasp.

Izuku ran into a darker hall and turned right sharply, nearly running into a wall. As they ascended down a short flight of stairs, they could hear the guests crash into the wall and scrabble around each other to get back up. They were so close. He could practically feel rumbling of their movement in his soul.

Taking a hard left this time, Izuku ran down a brighter hall lined with shoji. He glanced back in time to see the guests tumble down the stairs and continue their chase. Why did they want them so badly?! They were nothing compared to the food they already had!

There was an exit just ahead. They could make it. But just as they were exiting the hall, the shoji crashed down, receiving even more guests who had suddenly turned their attention to the two boys. Scrambling out of their chairs, the rest of them began to join the mob of guests giving chase. Izuku panted out in hard, heavy breaths as he ran forward. He passed the door frame and ran up a ramp that led to the end of a balcony. There was a Japanese lantern to grab onto and as he jumped from the wooden railing, he reached out with one arm and grabbed onto the lantern. It swung him across the gap and he let go once he made it to the second balcony, just across from the one he just left.

Falling onto shaky legs, Izuku finally looked back and saw Kaminari running up the ramp. The guests were right behind him, reaching out to grab at him in any way they could. He reached the end of the railing, just like Izuku had. But the lantern was just out of reach and he fell into the dark abyss below, a terrified scream echoing after him.

Kaminari was gone.

...

Izuku felt numb. Too numb to continue to sob as his eyes grew red and puffy. He didn't know how long he spent sitting on that balcony, crying for Kaminari to respond, but nothing came. The sickening crunch of the boy's body hitting something still filled his ears but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Kaminari was gone and there was nothing more to do about it.

Standing up slowly, Izuku couldn't tell if the ache in his chest was from his overworked heart or the pain. Either way, he had rested long enough and needed to move on. He still had a mission to do and now, he had to honor Kaminari's sacrifice like he did with Iida and Asui. Each step he took felt heavy and labored, but he pressed on. This next area was dark and had a similar design as the nursery had, dark wood floors and tall walls. For a moment, he worried that he had looped around back the beginning, it was unfamiliar enough to put him on edge.

The dark hall connected to a large living room with a stair case going up the side. A large eye sat on one of the walls, closed. It was probably for the best. Who knew what it could do. The last ones turned children into stone, like it had with Kirishima.

Izuku decided to head up the stairs, making quick work of climbing up each one and finally arriving on the upper floor. There were several doors but most were locked. Something about this felt familiar, but he knew he had never gone here before. Looking around for a moment, he saw a light turn on in one of the rooms, the door opening slowly. Gasping, Izuku ran for cover but saw nothing to hide behind. He was fully exposed.

A few minutes of panic passed and nothing came out. What? Standing up slowly, Izuku walked toward the open door, keeping his footsteps light and quiet, he listened for any sounds and nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard someone begin to hum a tune. It sent shivers up his spine and felt far too close for comfort, but he had nowhere else to go. Taking in a deep breath, Izuku inched toward the door frame and peeked inside.

The moment he looked, the humming stopped and the room was empty. He wasn't sure whether to be comforted or unsettled by that, but moved inside anyway. It was a small room with only a vanity mirror and a few shelves. In front of the mirror was a velvet red chair and what looked to be a hairbrush on top of the desk. Walking up to the chair, Izuku jumped up and grabbed onto the cushion. The chair threatened to tip over but held steady as he pulled himself up with weak arms.

The cushion itself was fairly soft and sunk a bit as Izuku stepped on it. Now that he was at eye level with the mirror, he could see the cracks in it. Had someone smashed it? There were pieces of glass along the desk. What happened? Looking around the desk, he saw that hairbrush from earlier but beside it was a large key with the eye shape on the handle.

"This could be important." He whispered to himself, picking it up with both hands and held it close to his chest. Looking around, he didn't see any other doors in the room, which meant that this likely opened one of the other doors down the hall. Jumping off of the chair, Izuku grunted softly from the impact but moved on. Walking out of the room, he was surprised to see just how dark it was in the rest of the hall. He hadn't even noticed it before.

Izuku squinted through the darkness to try and see where the next door was and stopped in front of it. He really wished he had his lighter right now. He could barely see the door knob through the shadows, much less make out where the key hole was. The knob was probably too high up for him to reach anyway and getting a key inside of it would be nearly impossible. Looking around, Izuku saw the other doors along the wall as his eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness. There were so many.

Looking back down at the key, he analyzed the eye symbol closely. The eye on this key was open, as if it were staring at him. Looking back up at the door, the eye symbol on it was closed. Did he have to find one that was open? He had doubts that it would actually work, but he had no other options at the moment. If he just wandered around the floor, he could end up meeting another monster.

Now that his eyes were more adjusted, he could see the symbols on each door without having to walking up close to them but much to his frustration, none of the eyes were open. Deciding to go back down the stairs, he suddenly felt like he was being watched. The darkness was a lot more prominent down the stairs and he dreaded having to walk around without being able to see very well, but he hadn't seen anything before...

"You can do this." Izuku whispered to himself as he went down the steps, trying not to stare into the darkness for too long, which was difficult. "Just find the door and go in. But what if he found it and it was even darker inside? What if it unleashed some great evil that controlled this entire place? What if-

Izuku stopped when he heard the humming again. This time, it came from his right, where the stairs continued down. He couldn't see if anything was down there, but it sounded so close. Terror took hold of him and he inched as far away from the humming as he could. His back hit the wall and he stared into the darkness in front of him, straining his eyes to see something. The humming never stopped as he searched, which was a bit of a good sign. It meant that whatever this thing was wasn't moving closer, but it wasn't moving away either. He was stuck there.

Through the darkness, he thought he could see a slight glimpse of a figure, tall and thin but as soon as he was beginning to put together what it might be, the humming stopped. He froze, waiting for something to happen, but nothing came. Was this a good sign? He wasn't sure, but at least the silence meant that he was probably alone now.

Turning away from the end of the stairs, he saw that what he thought was a hall against his back was a door, engraved with an eye that was open. Perfect! Now, how did he get the key into the hole...

Looking back down in the darkness, he debated whether it was worth the risk to go down there, potentially exposing himself to whatever that humming thing was, but in the end, he sucked in a deep breath and walked down the stairs. In the darkness, he could only see a few blurs and anything he saw was hard to make out. His foot hit something metal and Izuku swallowed down a scream, crouching to hold his throbbing toes. What on earth did he just run into?!

Reaching forward, he felt the object. It was slightly cold and metal, shaped into a circle that went up, hollow inside. His brain connected the dots, saying that this was a bucket. Well, wherever this came from, he could use it at least. Standing up again,-he ignored the dull throb in his foot-Izuku grabbed onto the metal handle and dragged the bucket with him up the stairs. It wasn't too heavy, meaning that there shouldn't have been anything inside, but it's size made it difficult to pull up.

He winced every time it made a loud clang, wanting to scream from the paranoia, but he couldn't get it up the stairs without the noises. He just hopped that the humming wouldn't come back.

Pushing the bucket upside down, Izuku climbed onto the edge and reached up to feel the key hole. Keeping one hand on it, he held the key up and aligned his hands, thrusting it in and twisting. The door opened with a soft click. Letting go of the key, Izuku pushed the door open, hating the way it creaked as it went, and stepped off of the bucket and into the room.

It was brighter inside, the middle of the room having a small light shinning down on some sort of pedestal. Racing forward, Izuku stood on the pedestal and looked ahead. There was a button in front of him and a very large eye just ahead, closed. Not even the eye in the living room was this big! A part of him was scared to touch the button, worried that it might make noise or alert whatever monster was lurking around...but his curiosity won out.

The eye opened as he pressed the button down, a metallic screech coming from it but once it was open, he didn't care about the sound anymore.

There was a large screen under the metal, divided into several sections and showing different areas. In most of them, there were beds with little...children in them. Wait, was that the nursery? He looked between the screens, the blood draining from his face as he soaked it all in. Most of the beds were empty save for a few and he could recognize that head of brown hair. Uraraka was sleeping softly, oblivious to the horrors just outside the door. Ojiro was there too, sleeping in a bed nearly across the room from hers.

This whole time, they were being watched. Every thing they did was seen. When they slept, when they tried to escape. When they played or laughed or cried or were taken from the nursery. Someone saw it all on this screen. But who was it?

The light above him turned off, making Izuku gasp sharply. Then, the door that lead into the room slammed shut. There was no humming, but he knew something else was in there. He backed away from the pedestal, now feeling lost in the middle of the dark room. He couldn't see anything at all. His breathes came quickly as he struggled to find out where it was or even what it was. There was the sound of moving fabric, drawing closer. He was going to die here.

"Stop!" He screamed into the emptiness, clutching his head tightly as he braced himself, but nothing came. What was going on?

The light came back on, just to show a tall figure towering above him. It was a woman, dressed in a dark brown kimono, her hair twisted into a tall bun on her head. She wore a white mask over her face, the eye holed black and empty. He shivered, about to stand up and run-where to?-but stopped when she reached out her hand, holding up a small figure with some kind of dark magic.

His eyes blew wide. "Asui?!"

The small girl struggled in the lady's grasp, her feet kicking out in front of her. "Iz-" Both of them disappeared into the darkness, but they weren't gone. He could still hear the shifting of fabric.

"Let her go!" He shouted, his own voice echoing back. "Asui!"

"Izuku!" Asui croaked back, her voice filled with fear. "Help me!"

"Asui!" He shouted back. He ran into the darkens, chasing after her voice but stopped when he tripped on something. He sucked in a pained gasp and held his knee. It throbbed painfully, threatening to overwhelm him.

"Izuku, please!"

Fabric swept by him, too close for comfort. He grabbed onto something metal, hoping it was a weapon, and dragged it back into the light. Much to his surprise, it was a mirror. What was he supposed to do with this?!

He saw the lady draw closer in the corner of his eye and he held up the mirror as a shield, hoping to avoid whatever magic she would use on him. As he clenched his eyes shut, he heard her hiss and scream in pain before disappearing into a puff of black smoke. Looking up, he drew in sharp, hiccuped breaths as he tried to understand what just happened. Was she gone?

"Look out!"

Izuku turned around in time to see the lady appear behind him, her arm stretched out to grab him, but she stopped when he angles the mirror in her direction again. The mirror grew bright, shinning against the lady's face and she backed away into the darkness again. With a moment to process this, he looked down at the item in his hands, both relieved and shocked. Was that why the mirror in that room was cracked?

She appeared again, but this time, he was ready. He angled the mirror in her direction and didn't stop as she backed away. He pushed it forward, chasing after her. "Give Asui back!" He shouted, hoping she would let the girl go and leave them alone.

As he followed the lady into the darkness, the mirror grew brighter and brighter until it burst, pieces of glass shattering across the floor. A sickening scream echoed out and the lights broke above him. Izuku fell onto his back, the wind rushing out of his lungs for a moment. His finger tips buzzed and his mind begged him to just get up! Get up!

Another light came on, a little ways away from him and under it was the lady, laying on the floor and whimpering in pain. A small gnome was curled by close by, but not resting against the lady. It looked scared and he could tell that it was cowering, even from his spot on the floor. Standing up on shaky legs, he rushed over to the gnome first.

"Oh no." He stared down at it. There was nothing about it that made it different from all of the other gnome he had seen either in the nursery, the furnace room or just walking around, but he knew what this meant. That magic surrounding Asui must've done something and now...her body was gone, replaced with a little gnome. The lady was the one who turned them, then. She was the one who took away his friends. Todoroki, Momo and now Asui. They were all victims to this monster's magic and there was no way to reverse it.

"Asui?" The gnome didn't respond, just continued to cower away from him. She wasn't in this little creature anymore. Asui was gone.

Slowly, Izuku turned toward the lady, who was still whimpering on the floor. Anger boiled in his stomach as he slowly stood from his kneeling position and marched toward her. She didn't make any signs of moving or even acknowledged he was coming closer. He felt his vision hyper-focus on her, his anger roaring louder and louder.

"You killed her." It wasn't a question. "You killed her...so I'll do the same to you."

He knelt next to her head, seeing only a slight glimpse of the face under her now broken mask, but he didn't care to analyze it. With a murderous frown, he lowered his mouth onto her pale neck and ripped at it with his teeth until she stopped moving. Warm liquid ran down his chin as he backed away, his anger only slightly relived. He could only think of how she deserved worse.

Turning back to the gnome, he stood up again and gently wrapped his arms around it's neck. He only let go once it stopped shivering and grabbed it's hand once he stood up. She was so close. She was so close to making it out...Izuku kissed the gnome's little hat in reverence, hoping it would be enough to show how sorry he was for not getting there in time.

He walked back down the hall with the little creature in tow, his mind numbed over. His steps were like a hollow march, echoing against the walls. He had nothing to fear now. There was no one who could stop him. He stepped out into the open air, the smell of sea salt meeting his nose and birds called around him. The metal ship had left but he didn't care. All he could see for miles was water, but he was free. He was finally free from The Maw.

Author's Notes: You guys voted for Izuku to escape successful! It was really lucky for you guys, because I was planning to ruin his escape. I might still write an additional chapter, which will be very short, with the second option, but this one is the one I settled on. If you want to see pictures of any of these character, aside from The Spider, which is my own creation, you can google them or even play the game. If anyone has anything to say, don't he shy and leave a review! Thanks for going through this adventure with me!