CHAPTER TEN
Quantum Stuff 101
"They grow up so fast..." muttered Saitama, as Deku, Uravity, and Bakugo stood dumbfounded at the sight of Kirishima before them, only bigger and somehow even more manlier.
"Um, who is that?" asked Shinichi as he pointed towards Red Riot, Migi looking on in an analytical manner.
"He's one of these hero kids' friends. He actually just got sucked into some vortex when he ate some mochi not even that long ago."
"...what..."
"It's been a long day..."
Deku walked up slowly to Kirishima, still finding it hard to believe it was really him standing in front of them.
"Relax, bro. I'm the real deal. It took me a few years, but check how big my muscles are!" He then began to flex, showing off his veiny muscles in action. "Pretty cool, yeah?"
Suddenly, Deku enveloped him with a great big hug, though he wasn't able to wrap his arms around his muscular torso. Kirishima was taken aback by this, but accepted the hug nonetheless. He suddenly felt Deku's body begin to shudder, as he stepped back to see a tear trailing down Deku's face. "Woah woah woah. What's wrong, bro?" he asked with a hint of concern, getting down on one knee so as to face Deku directly.
"I swear, Deku's a leaky pipeline with everything..." muttered Bakugo, getting a swift elbow jab to the arm from Uravity.
Deku said, "I just... I don't know what happened... You were there... and then... I felt so helpless..."
Kirishima lightly patted Deku's shoulder to snap him out of his self-pity, causing Deku to look up at him. What he saw wasn't anger or hatred, but the beaming grin of 1-A's resident redhead.
"No worries, bro. I'm all good. I just had some bad food his all." Kirishima chuckled at his own joke, causing Deku to regain his composure and smile a little, while Uravity tried to hold back a laugh at how paternal Kirishima seemed to be right now.
Kirishima then noticed Bakugo standing next to Uravity, as excitement entered his eyes. "Uraraka! Bakugo! Man, I missed you guys!" He quickly strode over and swept them up in a bear hug, the sounds of their bones popping causing Deku to wince.
"LET GO OF ME, STRAWBERRY!!!" Bakugo yelled.
Kirishima let loose a booming laugh, before letting go of a fuming Bakugo and a heaving Uravity.
"Well," began Kirishima, as he stood up, hands placed on his hips, "I've certainly got some stories for you guys. It's been a wild... what's it been... 10 years, now?..."
"10 YEARS!!!" exclaimed Deku and Uravity in unison.
"Yeah," he said with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his head, "Though it looks like you guys had your work cut out for you, too." The rest of the group took in the surrounding scene, with grayed, parasitic corpses and flames strewn about the rubble of the previous battle.
"You could say that again," Shinichi interjected.
"Woah, cool hand!" said Kirishima, noticing Migi's eye and mouth on the surface of his palm, "So who's this guy?"
"I'm Shinichi, and this is Migi," he said, lifting his right hand and gesturing to it.
"Solid. I'm guessing you guys aren't from here..."
"You could say that again," Shinichi replied.
"Now that we're acquainted," Migi butted in, "We need to figure out how we plan to get home, and return everyone to their proper world."
"And we need to find Genos, too," added Saitama.
"Wait, Genos, as in Demon Cyborg, Genos? That Genos?" asked Kirishima.
Saitama quickly looked back over at him. "Wait, you've seen him? Where is he?"
"That's... a little complicated, I'm afraid. I ended up meeting him in an alternate universe, where he got me out of a pinch with some really weird tentacled people. After that, I think he said he was looking for you, so I let him know that we'd met. He portaled out after that, but he left this behind for me." He then slowly pulled out a strange disc-like device, with several blinking lights rapidly flashing different colors.
Deku marveled at the strange device, leaning in to get a closer look at it. "Woah... What does it do?..."
"From what Genos told me, it's a device called a Skip-Disc, designed to allow its user to cross the fabric of space and time to take you... well... anywhere really... That could be the past, the future, a planet, even alternate worlds and timelines. I gotta be honest, I still don't know how it works, or how Genos managed to get his hands on one."
With that, he slipped it back into his pocket, and continued, "Only problem is, I just about used the last of the fuel for this device, which thankfully managed to get me to you guys, but if we're gonna get anyone home, we're gonna need to find some kind of fuel source to power it."
"I'm guessing it's not gonna be your typical AAs," said Uravity.
"You've got that right," said Kirishima.
"May I inspect the device?" asked Migi.
"Sure thing," said Kirishima, handing it over without hesitation. It just went to show that a shapeshifting parasite wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen from the past several years he'd been gone.
Small tencaled forms of flesh grew out from Migi, holding up the disc. A set of eyes, almost like a snails, grew out and observed the disc from all sorts of angles.
"What are you looking for?" asked Shinichi, curious as to what exactly his parasite was up to.
"Whatever fuel was used, there appear to be traces of it on the other parasites we encountered. I also am picking them up from Kirishima as well, yet seeing that he has been in close contact with the device, that makes sense. What I don't understand is that I'm also seeing trace amounts within us."
"How would that be possible?" asked Deku, "Unless, do you consume a strange fuel of sorts?..."
"Deku?!" said Uravity, knowing that he wasn't intending to be rude, but he oftentimes didn't register his exact words until after they'd been spoken, the cute nerd.
Shinichi looked aghast, and tersely replied, "What? No! I eat normal food! I'm a normal person... well.. more or less... But I don't guzzle gas!"
"I'MSORRYI'MSORRYI'MSORRY!" said Deku, rapidly bowing, "I didn't mean it like that! I was just curious..."
"For crying out loud, Deku! Get a grip, and stop asking whatever stupid questions you dig out of that brain of yours!" Bakugo chided.
Shinichi let out a sigh, a slight grin on his face, "It's fine. We're all just a little too confused and manic to think straight. It's been a weird day for all of us."
Migi then piped in, "However, I am detecting a huge sampling of the fuel source nearby."
Kirishima looked incredulously at Migi, before saying, "Wait, what? Where?"
"From that building there," said Migi, one of his small tentacles gesturing to the building near them.
The group looked up, and saw it was the very place that had started the whole fiasco in the first place.
"Three Amigos Cafe," huffed Bakugo, "I told you there was a reason why I don't eat Mexican food..."
The group now entered the kitchen, looking about at the destruction that had ensued from the previous battle involving Saitama, Deku, Uravity, and The Three Amigos. Dust was littered about, along with large chunkc of rubble, insulation, and cooking utensils, bent and strewn about.
"I sense it coming from in there," said Migi pointedly, his eye focusing on the walk-in refrigerator, which currently had a Deku-sized hole through the open door, as well as a few streaks of blood along the floor and walls.
"Man, those guys sure gave you quite the fight, huh Midoriya," said Kirishima.
"You could say that again," muttered Bakugo with a sly grin, "You haven't been slacking, have you, Deku?"
"Not one bit, Kacchan," said Deku, a look of grim determination in his eyes, "Just getting warmed up is all."
Bakugo, a little offset by the fact that Deku stood his ground, huffed and turned back to the scene of the broken fridge. Uravity smirked a little at the fact that Bakugo hadn't bothered to make a comeback of sorts.
"So, what's the fuel source trace you picked up?" asked Shinichi.
"I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it's coming from that safe back there," said Migi.
The group huddled into the refrigerator room, Saitama grumbling as he accidentally stepped into some of Deku's spilt blood. "I'm gonna need to get this washed once I get back," he muttered, grabbing a stray rag off of a shelf as proceeded to scrub at the slick liquid, trying to get it off of his boot. Deku and Uravity's faces slowly went red at how normal Mr. Saitama was acting, having just casually stepped in Deku's blood. "Also, why is there a rag in here anyway?... I want to know where it's been..."
"I swear, you're so incompetent and idiotic for a superhero," grumbled Bakugo, receiving a death stare from Saitama.
"Can you get it open?" asked Shinichi, not paying any attention to what was occuring behind him.
"Not this time," said Migi, "This safe is locked with a passcode. The only way I could unlock it was if I obtained some memories from one of my kind involving the use of the code, but they're all dead in the street."
"Right..." said Shinichi, still not over how matter-of-fact Migi viewed everything.
"Looks like it's time for Plan B," stated Kirishima, proceeding to harden his right hand. "Stand back."
Everyone took a step back, while still leaning in to get a better look at what he was doing.
Kirishima then hardened his left hand too, and using both hands, gripped the body and the lid of the safe, attempting to pry it open like the impenetrable clam it was. He heaved and pulled, but his strength alone couldn't budge the door to crack open. He then proceeded to deliver several swift punches to the safe, but not even those could dent it.
He then stood up, turning to the group and saying, "Whatever this thing is made of, it's locked up tight. I don't think my quirk is gonna work on this one. Sorry, guys."
"Maybe we're just using the wrong quirk then," said Bakugo, sparks emanating from his palms.
"We are not blowing up the safe," said Uravity, rubbing her brows, "If there's fuel in there, we could all get blown to smithereens."
"A little explosion never hurt anyone," said Bakugo, a wide grin breaking out across his face.
"Except for the fact that this is fuel used for traveling across all manner of space and time," said Deku, "We don't know how volatile it is."
Bakugo paused to process that, and huffed, mad that for once, the broccoli-haired nerd was actually posing a good point.
Saitama then walked past everyone and crouched down in front of the keypad on the safe, his hand rubbing his chin.
"I wouldn't do that," said Migi, redirecting everyone's attention towards Saitama, "There are potentially thousands of combinations, but only one of them would work. We don't know if putting in the wrong passcode could destroy the sample, or much worse, ki--"
His point was interrupted as the safe clicked open, large swathes of cold vapor cresting the edge of the now open safe.
"ll us... all..." said Migi, for once showing a look of utter surprise at the fact that Saitama had just opened the safe on the first try.
"All right! Mr. Saitama for the win!" cheered Kirishima, flashing a thumbs up in his direction.
"Holy woah!" said Deku, "How did you know the code?!"
"I didn't..." said Saitama bluntly, looking back at the group.
"Oh... so... you just... guessed... and got it right on the first go?"
"I suppose."
"That's amazing! What was it?"
"1234..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...what..." said Deku, his eyes squinting from this information.
"1234..." said Saitama, using the same tome as when he had first told him the combination.
"No way. There's no way someone would have used such a simple passcode... right?..." asked Deku, looking to the group to confirm that his theory wasn't crazy.
"Perhaps they took the route of 'smart as an idiot'," said Migi, "In assuming that we would assume they did a complex passcode, they would never expect us to think of such a simple passcode they could use, in this case, 1234."
"Some plan that turned out to be," said Bakugo.
Saitama then slowly reached into the safe, and pulled out a large capsule, locked up and filled to the brim with strange, purple objects, but the fogged up glass made it hard to identify what it was. With a simple twist of the lid, the lock on it sprung off with ease, falling to the ground. He then pulled the lid off and began to turn the capsule upside down.
"I don't think that's a wise ide--" began Deku, but Saitama ignored him and proceeded to dump out whatever was inside. As he tilted the capsule, small, round, purple rounds fell to the floor. They almost looked like...
"Hate to break it to you, Migi, but all I see in here is a bunch of purple mochi..." said Saitama.
"The fuel substance I'm picking up from them is off the charts," said Migi, ignoring Saitama's plight.
Kirishima reached down and picked it up, observing it between his still hardened hand. "This is it alright."
Deku leaned in, and realization dawned on him. "That's the same mochi you ate earlier that teleported you away," he said, "The Portal Blend."
"Yup, that's the one," confirmed Kirishima, "It has the same stuff in it that powers my Slip-Disc. Makes sense, given that they both have the same capabilities, only the Slip-Disc makes it more exact in where you end up."
"Y'know. I did have some food from a new diner that opened up near where I live," said Shinichi, "They recommended I try their Portal Sauce, which was good, but after that, I ended up waking up out in a field near the city. Is it really possible to have a fuel source from food though?"
"With the stuff I've witnessed, I'm willing to believe that there's alien living in the moon."
The group just gave him a confused stare at that notion.
"Long story for another time."
He then looked towards Migi, recognizing him to be the best one to come to a conclusion on what to do. "Migi, do you think it's possible to convert the mochi and use it as a fuel source for my Slip-Disc?"
"I was thinking so," said Migi, "Can I see the capsule? There's something I want to try."
Kirishima handed the open capsule to Migi. "Hold this, Shinichi," said Migi, with Shinichi grabbing hold of the capsule with his normal, left hand.
Suddenly, Migi transformed himself into a vertical row of blades, before spinning them at an aggressively high speed and plunging himself into the capsule of mochi, blending up the Portal Blend as it slosh about inside. After a few seconds, he stopped, whipped himself about, and then pulled out, now as clean as when he first started.
"That should do it. Now, Kirishima, where does the fuel get put in?"
"Right here," he replied, tapping a button on the Slip-Disc, which activated a small opening in the center of the device.
Migi then grabbed the blended canister and slowly began to pour it into the machine, stopping after just a few seconds. "That should be enough. Try it out."
Kirishima then tapped on a few additional buttons. After entering in a sequence, the disc flashed even more rapidly, before hovering in his hand and humming loudly.
"Yes, it works!" he exclaimed with a celebratory fist pump, before pressing another button, causing the device return to its dormant state.
"What do we do now, though," asked Uravity, "How are we going to be able to locate the others and Genos, and get everyone back to their homeworlds?"
"That's a little tricky," began Kirishima, "I can do about ten jumps on a full tank, and we probably have about six more refills left in that canister alone. But there are practically infinite applications in regards to using a Slip-Disc, and I'm not well versed in quantum coordinates of other worlds. So to put it simply, I have no idea how we're going to find everyone, unless we get lucky."
The group let out a dejected sigh.
"Wait a minute..." muttered Kirishima, an idea donning on him, "There is one way though. If we could get some form of genetic identification, like spit, hair, dandruff, anything like that, we might be able to lock in on their recent coordinates and get to them that way."
"Would fingerprints work?" asked Uravity.
"Yeah, that could work. Why do you ask?"
At that, an excited grin lit up her face as she reached into her suit's pocket and pulled out a special phone with a smiley frog face on the back of the green phone case.
"That's perfect!" said Kirishima, catching the phone as Uravity tossed it to him. He pressed some buttons on the device, until a small rod poke out, casting a thin blue light that scanned the phone screen up and down. After that, the disc chirped as the rod descended before responding in a female voice, "Fingerprint Match: Asui, Tsuyu of Universe XJ584-09. Current location: Universe UJ398-45, Milky Way Galaxy, Planet Mars, Tharsis. Current Date: 25/03/2073"
"Wait, did that thing say she was on Mars?..." asked Deku, his eyes wide in shock.
"Man, been some time since I've been in space. Hopefully this one doesn't actually have gravity in space," said Kirishima, as he stepped out of the refrigerator, "Everyone outside. We're gonna need space for the jump. Let's go." He then walked out of the gaping hole in the kitchen wall to find his way to the street.
"So, no one's going to point out that he's apparently been in space with gravity... ok," said Saitama, following the others out.
Before too long, the group stood around Kirishima, as he made a few final taps on the machine. Upon tapping the last button, the disc hovered several feet above the ground, starting to spin quickly and flash every kind of color into the air.
"Alright, guys. Everyone grab on to the hand of the person to your right and your left, and form a circle. Whatever you do, don't let go." He grabbed on to the hand of Deku on his right, and Uravity on his left. Deku got a hold of Saitama's hand, while Uravity tried to coerce Bakugo into giving him her hand.
"Yeah, that's not happening, Round-Face."
"Ok. Your funeral, pal."
He then rolled his eyes and took Uravity's hand in his, though his grip was rather slack. He then gave his left hand over to be held by Migi (which internally grossed him out) and Shinichi placed his left hand in Saitama's right hand, after having fastened the capsule of Portal Blend mochi fuel on his back with a makeshift sling.
"Quantum jump in 10..."
"Just a reminder, try not to hurl while we're jumping. It can get pretty messy.
"9..."
"If any of you tell anyone about this, I will personally kill you all..."
"8..."
"This is crazy! We're actually going to space!"
"7..."
"Wait, shouldn't we be wearing space suits for this?"
"6..."
"Nah. It should be fine. I'll just hold my breath..."
"5..."
"... I'msorrywhat..."
"4..."
"This is going to be pretty interesting. I might be the first of my kind to be on the Martian surface."
"3..."
"DON'T TALK WHILE YOU'RE HOLDING MY HAND! YOU'RE GETTING SLOBBER EVERYWHERE!"
"2..."
"Seriously, guys. Shouldn't we have space suits on!?"
"1..."
"Nah. When it comes to quantum jumping, things usually tend to work out just fi--"
Before Kirishima could finish his sentence, the group was promptly sucked together into the disc in the space of a millisecond, the disc warping in on itself shortly after with a resounding boom.
The street was once again quiet and empty, save for an office worker leaning out from an alleyway with a glass bottle in his hand, having just witnessed the group's quantum jump, and taking in the destruction of the previous battle with the parasites.
"Man, I gotta lay off the booze," he said, draining out the last of his beer before dropping the bottle and collapsing into the alleyway due to losing conciousness.
Hey guys! I'm back! And only a month after my last post. ...yay...
Sorry for the late update, but hopefully this longer-than-usual chapter can sate your appetite.
For some avid fans of a certain classic anime, you might already know what universe they'll be heading to. Let's just say, it's about to get a little jazzy up in here.
I'll hopefully get another chapter out soon, but until then...
See you, Space Cowboy...