Kerori watched as the group floundered, so easy to rile up. Now she could just start now, but she would wait a minute. "Why does he keep doing this!?" Eiko shouted in frustration. "Shoving himself into danger without a second thought even though it'll get him killed! Does he not realize we care!? Fuck it!" Yeesh, again, glad she stopped at sister status.
"I can get you to him faster, you know." Kerori brought out her two familiars. "They can get you to your boy toy no problem-"
"He's not my boy toy! He's my friend!" Eiko shrieked at her. "He is basically my best friend, equal to Gaako, except I want to be more than that!" She tugged at her hair. "Why can't he see there are people who can give him more than friendship!? Why can't he accept that I love him...that we all love him." Eiko began sobbing.
"I kind of hate him at the moment." Kamui shrugged, only to get punted into the treeline.
Lied walked up to the girl tentatively. "I don't know Izuku as well as you do, and I doubt that'll change anytime soon, but I've spent a lot of time concentrating my senses, noticing the little details, just like you, remember?" Eiko nodded. "We all have problems, but whatever Izuku's gone through, they're not going to go away so easily. I'm sure he just needs time to sort out whatever it is."
"Right right, he just lived out his trauma after all." She growled. "Well if he can't save himself, then I'll do it for him!" She shouted. "I'll be his hero! I'll protect him, I'll become so amazing that he'll have to admit that there's someone special out there in the world who loves him!"
"Thanks for giving us these familiars, Kerori." Ah, now she could talk.
"Giving is such a strong word … lending at a price is more like it."
"What-" Lied was cut off.
"Whatever it is, we'll accept the price later, now come on!" Eiko got onto her snow king fox, slapping the beast as it ran forward. Ah, the desperate, so easy to manipulate.
"Wait for me!" Shouted Lied, jumping onto her Blizzard Wolf and moving fast. Perfect, now was the perfect time to strike the-
"I'm coming!" Damn it, the traitor was riding with them!
Orobas watched as the student, Izuku Midoriya, once again got in his way. "Why the hell is he here? Why the hell isn't he back in the cave!? WHY THE HELL ISN'T HE SUFFERING IN DESPAIR!?"
"Izuku-kins! I-it was awful! You were g-gone and D-deku showed up asking for juice and said you were never coming back!" Clara Valac weeped in the boy's arms. "Don't leave me! Please don't leave me again!"
"It was just an illusion, Clara. I'm here now, and I'm not leaving. You don't need to worry about it, we're going to get you back to the class, and find whoever did it." The nuisance attempted to reassure.
"I'm afraid that's not happening." Orobas began walking to Midoriya as the boy tensed.
"Orobas, I assume." The boy crouched in defense, keeping the gremlin behind him. "What's your problem?! Why are you targeting the Misfits!?"
"Because of the Misfits I've had to deal with constantly being in second place! Do you know people have called me the number two guy! Hell, they called me a cultist of that numeral 2 group!" He vented in frustration. "Do you know what it's like for people to assume you're a part of a cult!?"
"..." The boy gave him the most deadpanned expression he's ever seen. "You have … no idea." The sheer tone of that voice gave him an unbelievable amount of empathy. "But it doesn't give you the excuse to attack others!"
"Oh please, I've put all this hard work and effort into trying to reach your level, and so far you all seem to just survive on natural born talent, dumb luck, or random skills that are useless in any other situation!" He worked hard to reach where he was, he wouldn't let that stand.
"Natural born...natural born...fuck that!" The boy cursed. "I've had to work twice as hard as everybody around me just to reach the standard! I've barely survived this insane asylum of a school this long just doing that! You don't get to assume what my life is like just because you struggle a little! Do you know how many people now are assuming I'm planning a mass orgy!?" That last one was way too much to unpack, but that was neither here nor now.
"A little?! I struggled as hard as absolutely possible! I went the last month without sleep, only supported by sheer magical energy from various stockpiles of energy I've had to accumulate during my life out of preparation! I saw your body type when you gave the speech, it looked like you hadn't worked out a day in your miserable life before coming to this school! Where was the hard work there!?" He screamed at the boy.
"I spent ten whole years trying to learn how magic worked! How to utilize each and every ability I've ever come across and encountered, because anytime I even attempted to try anything else, I was berated, bullied, attacked, and nearly killed for even considering I was anything other than useless!"
"What type of moron would berate you for training yourself!? That's stupid and idiotic waste of time that makes them far inferior to you, bastard!"
"And what kind of idiots think anyone strives to be number two at everything on purpose?! Seriously, it's like no one at this fucking school has any sense half the time!"
"They just jump to conclusions one after another out of their own impatience and lack of comprehension!"
"And that just causes more and more trouble!"
"And you can't do anything about it because people have reached their final opinion about you!"
"And those conclusions start to snowball into their own little problems that build up and up until they reach their own levels of insanity!"
"And the sad part about that is, you start to believe in the insanity itself! You truly believe you'll only ever be second best…"
"And you start to think everyone is right about you loving the danger…"
The two breathed heavily, staring at each other with absolute fury and respect. The sad thing is it really sounded like this guy got him. Who knows, maybe they could have been allies at one point in time. Sadly, he made a pact, to see this through to the end, every last misfit targeted. He glanced at Valac, who was just looking back and forth at them in utter bewilderment.
"Now that motivations are out of the way and fully understood." He cleared the air, straightening himself. "Is there anything else you want to say before we begin?" He would give this person of mild respect the courtesy of last words … or at least last sane words before Trauma took place.
"Yeah, there is. I despise what you forced my friends to go through, and after the festival, we're going to have a talk about that, but.." Midoriya dropped his guard. "Thank you!" Orobas paused his preparation, stupefied as the kid bowed before him. "I … had a lot of problems I wasn't aware of, you brought them to the forefront. I'll be able tackle them head on, so thank you! Your power really helped me!"
That … never happened before. Felt kind of nice in all honesty. Was he really in the right about this? No, he was, Ocho said so. "Your...Welcome." He responded, before releasing Trauma, this time with a slight heaviness entering his chest he couldn't identify the source of.
"Clara, get out of the way!" Midoriya threw his ally into nearby bushes, taking the full brunt of his Bloodline himself. Instead of instantly being horrified, he glanced around. "Clara, Trauma is tied to an object, it can be anything, what's in that direction?" He pointed into the forest.
"A tree!" She shouted.
"Rafire!" It sputtered, but a ball of fire was launched, burning it as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Devi it still hurts to hear … and the ring is in really bad condition." Oh, overstressed? Clearly this was to be taken advantage of.
"Then I guess I'll just make myself the target." The two tensed. "And when you attack me, game over. It's how Andros lost."
"Clara, hold on! I'll.." The suit Midoriya wore grew more holes, before eventually fading away in a flash of light. "Damn it! Can't go into hero mode like this!"
"Hero mode?" He stated condescendingly. "Sorry, but heroes don't exist-" He paused, hearing thunderous feet approaching.
Eiko moved as fast as possible on the back of the fox. "Lied, I know your low on reserves, but how close are we?" She asked, opening her bag.
"Ten Yards away! We're going to cut it close though!" Lied shouted, his right eye and ear now black. "Izuku has Clara safe, but Orobas has them in a corner! I don't think Izuku can do anything now! He must've overloaded the ring or something!"
"Right, experimental construct, of course, it would have a bunch of flaws that make it hard to use, but he'd use it anyway." She grumbled, constructing multiple tools simultaneously. Focus needed to be on the task at hand, taking the lessons Robin taught her to heart, riding, building, and strategizing. "Distance between Izu and Orobas?"
"Four feet! And he's standing still for the moment!" Lied shouted. "I think he's about to use that illusion magic again!"
"Then he needs preparation and will keep his distance." If he was going to move in close she may have been concerned, but the distance from Izu was good enough. Ten yards quickly became five, and she decided it was close enough. She put her three inventions into position."You cute idiot, do you know how much I want to be mad at you right now!? How much I'd wish I could slap you silly for jumping in front of the danger again!"
The first one, mobility, an air cannon aimed behind her, launching her a fair distance forward. She holstered it onto her hip and pulled the trigger, sending herself flying into the air, despite the shouting of Lied. "Yet I can't, because it's why I fell in love with you in the first place! You were my hero, taking the hits I couldn't handle! I couldn't stop you from doing so even if I was the Demon King!"
The second one, anchoring, metal wires shot out from her shoulders, hitting the ground right in front of Orobas, and dragging her into it fast. Landing would normally force her to roll, but these would keep her straight due to their being four different points. The look of surprise on Izu's face was beautiful in it's own way.
"Well that ends today! From now on, I'll take the hits that come my way. I'll lift you into the sky when you want to fly..!" The third one, damage, an explosive cannon she aimed right at the bastard's face. "So take this for trying to rip those wings, you son of a bitch!" She pulled the trigger, a loud explosion enveloping the demon and sending him flying. "I'm Izu's hero, now and forever!"
"Eiko! You're here, thank devi…" Izu didn't get the chance to finish as she grabbed his face, pulling on those cute freckles.
"You reckless moron! I get it! Hero that saves everyone! I understand that! Well everyone includes yourself too, you know!" She pulled him in closer. "If you're going to keep going out and give everything you have until there's nothing left, then be reasonable and let me do so too right beside you! Either we all go Plus Ultra, or none of us do! Got it!?"
"I get it, I get it, I'm sorry!" He tried to shout, but it was jumbled by his pinched cheeks. It was actually kinda cute, and his face felt warm. "I just had to act fast, illusions are one thing but Trauma is just another level, you know?"
"Yeah. I know." Eiko still wanted to throw up at what Orobas ability did to her. "You've never talked about what Bakago did to you kindly, but you still call him Kachaan. That's a lot to unpack in of itself."
"I spent fourteen years of my life with the man, habits die hard." He shrugged. "Pretty sure he'd still call me Deku even in some weird dimension where we made up."
"Well fortunately for you, we don't live in whatever fucked up reality that's happening." She let go of his face. "You live in this world, surrounded by friends who love you, you know?" She held his hands. "You don't doubt that, do you?"
"Yeah!" Oh right, Clara was here, lovely time to ruin the moment. "We're all friends Izuku-kins, we all love you!"
"Yeah, friendship, wo ho!" Lied and Gaako showed up on the wolf. And she was having such a moment too. "You didn't get hit again, did you? We don't want any more repeats of what happened to us." Lied continued.
"Eiko Oni." Everyone blinked, turning to a small speaker bat. "You've been disqualified for direct violence against another student."
"Bullshit, it was a life or death situation!" Gaako complained, standing up for her like always. She really did need to repay the girl one of these days.
"Eistring's a hero! Heroes don't get fired from games!" Even Clara was joining in. Maybe this was the start of something...tolerable, she wasn't willing to go for sharing status with her.
"Guys, it's fine. I knew what I was doing, and I don't regret a single thing." Eiko shrugged. "Heroes put everything on the line all the time, even if it's to save just one person, right Izu?" Izu nodded, though he looked a bit ashamed. "Don't give me that look, Izu. You're One For All, right? I'm putting all my hopes and determination into you now. Besides, I was gonna give you Lied's points anyway, this just works out for the best."
"Well screw you too, sorry about the fact you couldn't rank, you bitch." Lied grinned savagely at her. With all he went through, she'd have to give him something.
"Well, with that out of the way, what are we going to do about that asshole Orobas?" Gaako pointed out. "Doesn't he have that pot you guys need for the leaf?" The group blinked and turned to the smoking crater of a direction she yeeted the student into. Ah, right … woops.
Schneider, still masked as a teacher, walked to the frantic students. "She gave him a point blank explosion! How could he have just walked away!?" Lied Shax shouted frantically.
"It's actually pretty easy to walk away from an explosion, it just leaves burns and impact wounds. Shake yourself right and if you're lucky, no internal damage." Izuku Midoriya spoke with absolute certainty in his voice.
"Izuku, honey, no, that's not a good situation." Gaako Koopa called out from her spot. "The fact you think that it's possible, or sane, to walk off an explosion is a no."
"Well sorry, I've spent about a decade getting real familiar with it face first from Katshitzi Bakago my entire life, and I'd like to think I've built up a good tolerance to such an attack."
"Izuku-kins is the reason I keep explosions out of my games. When he's not around a lot of students just pass out and never wake up. Then they stop showing up to school because they're scared." Clara Valac spoke with dangerous innocence.
"We're never regaining our sanity from any of this, are we?" Lied Shax spoke with acceptance. "We're scarred for life, and we're dead last too to boot. To think I could've won that bet too."
"Now, now, I wouldn't say it's over yet." He spoke, walking to the group.
"No, we can still do something, we're not withdrawing!" Oh right, the mask.
"You see, it's funny. Just learn where they're walking, wait it out with a decent post, wait until they hand it over-" Shcneider ripped off his shape changing mask. "And they believe they actually won."
"Schneider? What are you doing here?" Izuku Midoriya asked, confused. "I thought Orobas said Jazz was eliminated."
"Ah yes, you see, Jazz was eliminated, but I wasn't." He grinned under his mask. "And with that, combined with his knowledge from the screens, I was able to swipe a special little item." He pulled out the most important item in the game.
"The pot of ending!" Lied Shax shouted. "You ingenious Madman! You disguise yourself as a teacher to trick him into giving it to you?"
"All in the name of screwing him over, right up the ass." He spoke. "Now as everyone is aware, you have the seed of beginning, correct?" The group tensed up, preparing for a fight.
"Yeah..we do." Izuku Midoriya held onto it from the side, covering it from his sight.
"Good, then only one thing needs to be done." He smirked.
"And what's that, Lion man?" Clara Valac asked, raising up a sword.
"Giving it to you." The group froze in utter bafflement. Kind of funny in all honesty.
"Um … do you mind explain-"
"What do you think you're doing, stealing the pot from my friend!?" Oh, Alice Asmodeus has arrived, how lovely.
"Azz, baby, wait, let him explain!" Gaako Koop got in front of her lover, shielding himself from the fire with her scales. "Don't kill Izuku's only chance at winning now! I'll tell your mother everything if you don't stop!"
"Please don't! I'm already going to have to live down the ad, I don't need that added on!" He spoke, absolutely terrified for good reason.
"... What ad?" She and Izuku Midoriya asked in confusion.
"Ignorance is truly beautiful, let's not waste time tainting that innocence." Alice Asmodeus relented. "So are you going to hand the pot over or do we need to negotiate?"
"The pot is all yours, Izuku Midoriya." Scheider Allcor tossed the item over to him. "I have my own aspirations to accomplish at this year's Harvest Festival." Mainly screwing over Orobas and winning that betting pool. "Besides, it's pointless to rank up without Jazz, we're partners."
"Thanks Scheider, you're a true friend, you know that?" Izuku Midoriya said innocently. How did he qualify for that title? Everything he just did was perfectly logical. "I'll make sure to pay off your guys debts after this is all over." … What now?
"You, you'll pay them off?" He asked with a bit of desperate hope.
"Yeah, I mean, Grandpa gives me whatever I want, and cash like this he can pull right out of his wallet. Besides, you shouldn't have to worry about being a slave when we still all need to reach Dalet(4). It's All For One and One For All in this class, right guys?" The Calamity Cult leader turned to his posse.
"Right!" Everyone else cheered. Was it possible? Did such empathy and kindness exist in this hell of a world? Was there true, pure, goodness in this life after all!? His studying didn't prepare him for this!
"I … I see." He nodded. "I'll leave you all to it." He began walking a ways down, reaching a good spot no one could hear … and reached into his ear piece. "Midoriya is a saint!" He cried out to his partner, tears running down his fur.
"Bro, are you alright? Did you give the pot back?"
"I finally see it..I understand it perfectly now!" The Lion boy shouted to the heavens. "Friendship is Magic! Chaos is my God now! All hail the glory of the Calamity Cult!"
"... Does the pot have insanity in it?"
"Izuku Midoriya is paying off our debts!"
"I'm not religious but I'll pray to that!"
"Alright then, we have the seed and the pot!" Izuku shouted, joy filling his body as he laughed. All of their effort paid off! It was almost worth confronting every nightmare he ever had all at once...almost.
"Alright...so now what?" Gaako asked, returning to her position as the group's main voice of reason. "You guys figured out HOW to get the Legendary Leaf from this stuff, right?"
"Right, the talking animals told us." Everyone not in the group looked at Lied like he was insane. "Literally, we had Kamui translate a song. We know we need to get the pot and the seed and put them together. From there it should be easy to grow the leaf, right?"
"You expect putting a seed in a pot and just waiting a few seconds will magically make it grow? We live in a world of magical science, not fantasy." Azz deadpanned.
"Back where I'm from, that should be a contradiction, but why am I questioning reality now?" Izuku groaned, rubbing his forehead as Clara played with the pot. "Okay, so Stolas-Sensei created this entire forest, right? This Jungle is essentially the culmination of everything we've learned at Bablys so far."
"Right, so what have we learned that could help us..grow...plants that's it! Quam-Quam, right!?" Lied jumped up with his tail springing. "That's the first spell we've learned to use!" Lied took the pot from Clara, placing it down after putting the seed in. "Alright then, Quam-Quam!" The pot began to glow as a moment passed … a moment longer … then the glow died."I WAS WRONG?!"
"Yep!" Clara gratefully answered for him.
"Okay, that did work, plan B?" Gaako asked.
"I'll bleed on it." Everyone looked at him, concerned. "It worked on the vines." He was about to, but got interrupted.
"Nagayo!" Everyone turned to the little demon that's been his companion for the last few days.
"Who the hell is this cretin?" Azz spoke with his usual amount of eloquent douchery. "They … oh the smell … I'm going to..." Oh never mind, he actually had a point this time with a green face. Forgot his sense of smell was really good.
"Oh, that's Narfra. She's been helping me the entire festival." Izuku waved to her. "Sorry for forgetting about you again, and for assuming you were a boy."
"Nagayo." Nafra held her hands up in understanding, before summoning a watering can from out of nowhere and pouring it on the seed. "Nagayo."
"Aright, does everyone have some sort of pocket dimension or is it just-" Lied was interrupted as the pot began to glow much brighter. "It's working!"
"Yeah, Izuku, I'm questioning whether or not you have a bloodline since you're constantly summoning that journal from out of nowhere, but that can wait, you have to get on this now before the festival ends!" Azz shouted.
"Quam-Quam." Lied shouted, before looking pale. "I can feel the drain this time, it's soaking up mana … so much mana … pretty colors." Lied started acting like an anemic.
"He can't do this on his own! I'll add my magic to the mix, Quam-Quam!" Izuku stuck his hands out, pulsing out as much mana as he could muster. "Crap, it's not enough! I'm spent from using the ring for nearly all four days!"
"Quam-Quam!" Azz added his own. "No good, I've spent all my time fighting non-stop!" How much mana was this thing going to soak up!?
The seed started to open up little by little, but other than that, no progress had been made. "I've barely fought this entire festival, maybe this'll do it! Quam-Quam!" Gaako stood next to her boyfriend. "Okay, even fully charged this thing is just soaking it up." They needed a large stockpile then, someone who ...
"Clara...!" Izuku shouted, reaching out his hand to her. She's been taking all her prey's mana with her seduction methods, so this challenge was made for her! "I need your...!" He yelled louder, his body starting to feel weaker.
Clara's eyes brightened to the brim, gasping as her face seemed to glow ever brighter than the seed. "You never have to ask for anything, Izuku-kins! That's why we're best friends!" She grasped tightly onto his hand, and suddenly he felt a whole wave of warmth overtake him. "Have all of it!"
"Wait, Clara, this might be too…" It was too late, as everyone's body started to glow. Fortunately it didn't feel painful and torturous like with the magical beasts, but he could still feel something long and furry growing on the side of his head. "How does this happen, I'm not even channeling anyone with fur!?"
"The world just wants you to be a bunny, dude. Stop trying to fight your inner nature and accept it." Gaako rolled her eyes. "It's worked out so far for you."
"Your growing skin again."
"I take it back, fuck you magical surge!" Now she was on his side.
"Damn it, scales are coming back on me!"
"Sorry I keep changing my mind, the surge is ok." She was really flexible in all honesty.
"I'm getting super muscles again!" Clara laughed innocently.
"And I … honestly just feel really feminine." Lied spoke, confused.
"Oh...you probably should avoid going to the bathroom for about an hour after this is done." At least Izuku couldn't feel breasts on his chest this time, so Lied was a necessary sacrifice.
The seed kept cracking, and cracking, and cracking…"Come on, what's it going to take to get a stupid legendary seed to bloom!?" Azz yelled, his voice becoming a bit more raspy as he stuck out a thin forked tongue.
"It-It's still Quam-Quam, so it still works on our desires! Everyone, imagine the most legendary and amazing plant you could muster! Imagine something great, something out of this world!" Izuku concentrated harder and harder, his browning getting filled to the brim in sweat, his wings sprouting out in all their large and feathery glory. "Come on leaf … GROW!"
"So you're next, huh?"
Izuku looked behind him, finding no one. "Did anyone else just hear…"
Izuku couldn't finish as the seed poofed up in black smoke. "What the..what happened to the seed?" Lied waved his hands, trying to clear the air.
"Uh, guys? You might want to take a look." Gaako pointed to where the seed was, or rather, what the seed became. Which was a small plant with a dopey smiley face.
"... I blame Clara, you all know I'm right this time." Azz spoke out.