Izuku's eyes watered as dust got into his eyes. Thick smoke surrounded him and set his lungs on fire, making him feel as if he were suffocating. He found himself trapped under a giant slab of concrete after the roof had collapsed and fell on top of him. Both of his arms had been crushed in the process.
Izuku shifted his body under the rubble and managed to plant his feet against the giant slab. Green electricity danced across his legs and he started to push, causing the slab to slowly lift off of him. With a grunt, he was able to finally kick it off, sending it flying back a few feet. Now free, he was able to stand on his feet before he went into a coughing fit from all the smoke. The walls and roof around him were currently on fire, and he could feel himself going dizzy from the lack of fresh air.
"AHHHHHH!"
A scream echoed through the halls and the room, snapping Izuku back to reality and causing him to shiver in fright. He stumbled across the fiery room and out through the doorway. The hall he entered wasn't in much better shape, and the ceiling and walls were covered in flames. He walked through the hall, trying to keep his distance from the fire, but hissed in pain as it reached out and stroked his body.
"I'm coming. I'm coming!" he tried to scream in assurance, but it only came out in choked, quiet wails, his lungs and throat still suffering from the smoke in the air. He ran down the hall as fast as he could, dodging the falling and flaming pieces of wood along the way. The further down the hall he went, the louder the screams got.
After what seemed like forever, the hero-in-training was finally able to reach the end of the hall, which was a room sealed off with double wooden doors. The once shiny oak was now charred and blackened, the metal door knobs glowing bright red from the heat. This is where the scream had been originating from. With his arms of no use, Izuku raised his foot and smashed it into the doors, kicking them off their hinges. The sight before him made him gasp out in shock and almost made him throw up.
It was Ibara, trapped in some kind of prison chamber made of metal and thick glass walls. Fire was being shot through the floor and ceiling, engulfing the girl and burning her alive. Her once porcelain skin was blackened and charred; some of it had even melted off and exposed the red muscle underneath. She pounded and clawed against the glass, leaving trails of blood everywhere she touched. "Help me!" she begged in agony.
Snapping out of his shock, Izuku rushed forward and raised his One For All-powered leg before smashing it against the glass. The greenet expected the glass to break so she would be freed, but the glass stayed strong; there wasn't even a scratch. He was startled and tried kicking the glass once more, this time upping the percentage of power behind the kick, but got the same result: absolutely no damage.
"Izuku, please save me!" she pleaded. The skin on her face melted and fell to the floor, revealing the red muscle and bone that was hidden underneath.
"I'm try—I'm trying!" he shouted, his whole body glowing green as he started repeatedly kicking the glass, and even with broken arms, started punching it as well. From 60%, to 95%, to even 100%, the glass didn't get a scratch on it, not even as he started hitting it desperately and wildly like a mad man. He watched, helplessly, as Ibara melted and crumbled before him.
"Why didn't you save me, Izuku?" she asked before the inside of the glass structure was fully engulfed in flames.
"No. No! Ibara!"
(Real Life)
"Ibara!" Izuku shouted as he shot up in his bed, panting like a dog under the hot sun. With wide and wild eyes, he looked around, no longer finding himself in a burning building, but rather his bedroom. The scent of burning flesh was replaced with cinnamon and apples, causing his rapid heart rate to finally slow down. He tossed off his covers and looked down, inspecting his arms and legs for any marks or burns. He sighed in relief when he didn't find any. "It-it felt so real," he whispered, the stench and feel of his flesh being burned still fresh in his memory. "That's two days in a row. What's happening to me?"
Still on edge, he jumped as a chorus of flutes and violins suddenly started to play from seemingly nowhere, but calmed down upon recognizing it was the theme song of an old movie from centuries ago called 'Alien.' Turning to his nightstand, he plucked his phone off the charger and saw Mina's name popping up on the screen. 'Wonder why she's calling?' he thought before answering.
"Midori!" she shouted the instant he answered, causing the greenet to flinch. "Midori! Midori! Midori! Midori!"
'How can she be so hyper this early in the morning?' he thought. "Ashido? Why are you calling so early?"
"There's a carnival in town," she informed him, much to his confusion.
"Uh… okay?"
"Sero was talking really funny and slow when I called him, and Kiri and Kami are busy with family stuff. I have no one to go with and going to carnivals by yourself is so lame! Are you busy today? Do you wanna go with me?"
Ah, so that's why she had called him; she needed someone to go to the carnival with. He wasn't busy, per se; in fact, he had been planning on making this a 'him day' and relaxing, and maybe do a bit of studying or working out. While that sounded appealing, spending time with the pink-skinned girl sounded more appealing, and it'd be nice to go to a carnival with someone who (hopefully) wouldn't try to start a fight with every carnie. Yeah, this could be fun.
"Sure, I'd love to go with you."
"Great! Meet me at the pier in an hour! Thanks Midori!" she said before hanging up.
With a stretch, he grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower. It'd been a while since he had been to a carnival, and he wondered what awaited him and Mina.
(One hour later)
The children were loud, the animals stunk, the sun was hot, and the lines were long, but the sparkle in Mina's eyes as she smiled ear from ear made it all worthwhile. The girl was jumping around the place, going from game to game and from food vendor to food vendor, wanting to try and do everything possible. It felt weird being back at the carnival after so long. It had been roughly eight, maybe nine years since he last came to one. The greenet had been banned from them ever since the incident involving Bakugo, hot sauce, a penguin, a hockey stick, and a clown. He still shuddered at the memory of the screams from that day.
"Midori!" Mina shouted before clutching onto his arm and yanking him towards a carnie game. It was an old school one, where the carnie stacked bottles and you had to knock them down with a baseball. The walls were littered with various stuffed animals of famous characters, like Tarantula-Lad, Shart the Goblin, Steve Triangle, Folder the Robot, and more. "Can you win that for me, pleeeeeease?" she begged, while pointing towards the grand prize; a life-size plush of a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. In order to win it, according to the sign, you had to knock down every bottle 20 times in a row.
"Sure." He nodded, believing it would be easy. Trading 600 yen for a ball, Izuku readied his stance before throwing; the ball hit square in the center of the six-bottle pyramid, but the two were confused when it didn't topple, much less budge. "The hell?"
"Ooo, better luck next time kid." The carnie, a man in his early 30s with slicked black hair, pink eyes, and a small scar running about three inches across his chin, cackled while pocketing the yen.
"That's so unfair! He hit the bottles and they didn't even shake!" Mina argued.
"Guess it wasn't a good throw, or he isn't strong." He shrugged. "Wanna try again? You don't wanna upset your lady friend, do ya?"
'So not only is he a cheating carnie, he's also an obnoxious one. Where's a penguin and a hockey stick where you need them?' Izuku thought before handing over another 600 yen and receiving another baseball. Readying another stance and fighting against the urge to use a bit of One For All to even the odds, Izuku threw the ball—and got the same result. The bottles still stood tall, and the carnie's mocking laughter didn't help calm his rising anger.
"Better luck next time!" the carnie cackled.
"Let's go, Midori; it's obvious this thing's rigged," Mina huffed, annoyed with the cheating carnie and a bit disappointed that she wasn't gonna get the alien plush.
"Let me give it one last shot," Izuku requested before slamming 600 yen onto the stand. Doing so caused one of prizes, a plush of Mr. Squashead, to fall down and reveal a sign. The carnie scrambled to pick the plush up and cover the sign, but Izuku and Mina were able to read it before he could. "I could've used my quirk this entire time?" Izuku exclaimed.
"Well, uh, ya see, the thing is… fuck," the carnie whispered under his breath. "Fine! Use your stupid quirk," he grumbled bitterly while handing Izuku a new ball. Out of the six years that he had been working here, the last five he had managed to hide the sign and scam literally thousands out of their money. Now, the streak had finally been ruined.
Taking the ball and readying another stance, Izuku allowed One For All to travel through his body and into his right arm. Using all 15% that he could currently use seemed beyond excessive, so he figured dialing it down to 1% would be the safest and smartest choice. Winding his arm back, Izuku threw the ball at the bottles once again.
There was a giant gust of wind that nearly knocked the carnie off of his feet, and the cheating employee watched as the ball destroyed the bottles and smashed through the back of the stand, completely destroying it and leaving a gaping hole behind. He watched as the ball continued flying down the shoreline before making contact with a speed boat that had been parked in the water far away. He was left mortified as the boat started to sink.
"My boat!" he cried out in shock, watching helplessly as the nose of the boat sunk under the water. Thank God he had listened to his dad about getting insurance. He flinched at another slam, and turned to see that Izuku had placed another 600 yen onto the table.
"Another please," Izuku said with a grin, causing the carnie to gulp.
(Five minutes later)
The carnie could only watch in despair as Izuku knocked down the bottles for the 14th time in a row before slamming more yen down onto the table. Robotically, the carnie handed him another ball and waited for Izuku to toss it. Ever since he had witnessed the kid's strength, the carnie had become too scared to continue his cheating and stopped using his quirk on the bottles, which allowed him to connect any two or more objects together and make them strong enough to withstand any opposing force. At least, that had been the case before this kid came around. He hadn't been expecting the kid to have a strength enhancement quirk, let alone one that seemed like it could rival a pro like All Might.
Readying his stance for the final time, Izuku threw the ball and watched as it smashed into the pyramid of bottles, knocking them all onto the floor for the 15th time. The two students cheered in victory, and Izuku felt Mina pounce onto him and hug him.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you Midori!" Mina cheered as she nuzzled his chest. She reached up and pecked his cheek, causing the greenet to chuckle and blush as he returned the embrace.
"Congratulations, you've won the grand prize," the carnie said with mock enthusiasm, wanting the two to get as far away from him as possible. "Since I know you don't wanna lug this thing around with you all day, I know a guy who's able to shrink objects to any size for a set time. I could call him over and have him shrink it for a few hours?"
Izuku and Mina shared a look and silently agreed to trust the man… for now, anyway. They nodded at the suggestion.
"Hey Akio! Come over here and shrink this thing for me!"
Akio, a man who stood about 5'10" with no hair and light blue eyes, looked up from his booth and walked over to Izuku and Mina. Akio's quirk let him shrink any object he touched, living or not living, for a set amount of time, with six hours being his max. He ran a miniature maze and would shrink carnival attenders to let them participate. They watched as his hand glowed blue before he touched the Alien plush, causing it to shrink and shrink until it was just a few inches tall, just small enough for Mina to slip it into her pocket.
"It'll stay that size for three hours, which should give the two of you plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the carnival," he informed them. The duo thanked the man before continuing their journey through the carnival.
(15 minutes later)
"Hello? Hello, hello! Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm... finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact so... I know it can be a little overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uhh, you'll do fine!"
"You saying that makes me worry, my guy," Izuku muttered to himself as he sat in a computer chair, the computer in front of him made to look like it was from hundreds of years ago.
While looking around the carnival, he and Mina had found an 'interactive experience' that was based off of a game from centuries ago. The goal was to 'survive' each 'night', which were only five minutes each, for five 'nights' in a row. They had overheard some other attendees saying the experience was scary, so the duo had decided to give it a shot and see who could last longer. The building was big enough to be split in half, allowing them each to play.
Izuku was to use the computer to check up on the hallways and whatnot. On either side of him were two buttons. One was used to lock the doors and the other was used to turn on the hallway lights. The greenet was still unsure on what he was supposed to be checking on.
"Now concerning your safety: the only real risk to you as the night watchmen here, if any, is the fact that these characters... uhh, if they happen to see you after hours, they probably won't recognize you as a person. They'll most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on. Now, since that's against the rules here at Freddy Fazzbear's Pizza, they'll probably try to... forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazzbear suit."
"Wait… who will do what?" Izuku exclaimed, finally paying attention. Flipping through the cams, he shuddered as he stopped on one with several creepy-looking animatronics on the main stage staring into the camera.
"Um, now that wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't filled with crossbeams, wires and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area. So you could imagine having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort... and death."
"Oh fuck off."
"Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh. Y-Yeah, they don't tell you these things when you sign up. But hey, first day should be a breeze. I'll chat with you tomorrow. Uh, check those cameras, remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. All right, goodnight."
"Hmmmm, ok, ok, this is fine. They're just dumb animatronics, I'm sure I could close the doors faster than they could get here."
(Underneath the building)
Two men were currently watching Izuku through a hidden camera in his 'safe room.' One of them was short and pudgy with spiky orange hair and green eyes. The other was tall and skinny with a pink and teal mohawk and brown eyes.
"How badly are we gonna fuck with this guy, Peng?" the taller man asked the shorter one.
"Let's make him shit himself, Jin," Peng cackled before standing on top of a chair and touching the ceiling above with glowing orange hands. Jin followed his lead with glowing white hands.
Jin's quirk allowed him to bring inanimate objects to life, while Peng's quirk allowed him to make any moving object increase in speed. A deadly combination for this experience.
(With Izuku)
"Where'd the duck go?" Izuku asked himself as he flipped through the cams, trying to find the duck animatronic that had disappeared when he was switching views. "It couldn't have gotten fa—oh fuck!" he shouted after switching on the light in the right hallway, revealing the duck staring at him through the window. He slammed the door button and watched it close just before the robot started banging against the door. He gasped upon seeing his battery life decrease with every hit. Now he was down to 40% with three minutes left.
"This is so one-sided," Izuku mumbled as he opened the door after seeing that the duck was gone. He started to hear running coming from his left, and quickly shut the door before whatever animatronic could get in. It started slamming against the door, and Izuku used this time to look through the cams before seeing the curtain to 'Pirates Cove' had been opened. "One minute left, just one more minute," he said to himself before everything, the lights, the computer, and even the small fan on the desk, shut off. Chimes started to play in the distance and started growing louder as someone, or something, got closer.
Izuku sat there and waited, assuming he had already lost and that an employee would come and guide him to the exit. But there were heavy footsteps running down the hall, causing his hair to stand on end and make him forget that this was just a game. For a second, he was back in the USJ with Nomu. The greenet didn't even realize his body was glowing green.
Out of the left door came a giant figure, one that jumped towards Izuku and let out a deathly scream as it got in Izuku's face. The ugly bear face with sharp teeth and dead eyes reminded him of Nomu. Izuku let out his own shout before reeling a fist back and sending it forward towards the animatronics chest. The punch sent the robot flying through the air before smashing through the ceiling and continuing its ascent. Izuku winced when he realized that he hadn't punched a Nomu, but rather just one of the robots.
He was going to be in so much trouble for this…
(20 minutes later)
"Pffft, hahahahahaha!" Mina laughed on the bench to her pouting green companion. In her hands were several pictures she had bought from the experience, each showing Izuku slowly lunging his fist towards the robot, his face full of fear. "You-you, hahahahaha!"
"Yes, yes, very funny," Izuku grumbled, annoyed.
After the incident, Izuku was escorted out of the building and forced to wait for the owner to come talk to him. Eddy Schmidt, owner of the building, was a bit angry over the situation, but he understood that some people couldn't handle it like others. Thankfully, he had insurance, so Izuku wasn't in too much trouble. However, Eddy had requested that Izuku help out during an upcoming weekend to serve as some form of punishment, which Izuku agreed to. After that, Izuku had to wait for Mina to finish. She had managed to survive all five 'nights' and won a plush of a golden teddy bear. The pinkette then spent several minutes laughing at him.
"Are you done now? Can we keep going?" Izuku asked, wanting to put this whole ordeal behind him. After another solid minute of laughing, Mina agreed, and the two continued walking around the carnival, trying to find something new to do.
(Two hours later)
Izuku huffed as he flopped on his bed, tired from today's events, but nevertheless happy that he had spent some time with Mina.
After the whole 'punching a robot through the ceiling' fiasco, the two had played with bumper cars, ridden a roller coaster, gone to the fun house, and after Mina nearly made herself sick by eating countless carnival food, the two had decided to call it a day and head home. Now he could relax and—
Izuku felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and fished it out. He noticed he had a text from Yaoyorozu and opened it.
Momo Yaoyorozu: Are you busy tonight?
Momo Yaoyorozu: And do you own a suit?
Another update down, another date down! Hell yeah. Don't know what else to say tbh, hope you've been enjoying!
Have a nice day/night y'all, see ya in chapter 23!