MEGA-ULTRA-SUPER-WARNING: this chapter includes child mutilation, suicide, murder, disfiguration, and generally creepy and unsightly imagery. Enjoy~


Luffy wasn't shocked long before turning around and landing lightly, neatly. There were much less students here than the last time. Maybe 25 or so. Everyone was confused, wondering if this was another test.

But the pitch black was so familiar, and Luffy put his hands over his ears, trying to not think of the screams of his fellow first years. The shouts of fear, pain. He felt his arm, as if it was being sliced off again. But then Law was there, gripping his arm. "We'll be okay."

They had no way down, now. The vine girl wasn't present. Maybe somebody else had a good quirk. Luffy wondered if they should stay there or not. If they should do as they'd done before. Law and the other first years from their class came together. Luffy lit up his finger and let the light dance across the chasm.

It was a mistake, as they saw monsters on the walls, watching them. Not nomus, but ones with huge mouths, full of jagged teeth. They had glowing gold eyes. There was no way they were staying there. The students screamed, but Luffy talked over them. "We've been here before! We know what to do based on last time!" he said, his voice loud but tone calm.

The screams quieted as they gathered in one mob, facing all of the monsters covering the walls and ceiling about them. "Based on last time, there are levels, and once we descend, we cannot get back up without injury. There is a level with bubbles, and if you step on one, you will hallucinate gruesome things. If that happens, just try to attack the hallucination and you'll be okay. There is a hot level, a water one with a monster inside, and a level with spores that you cannot breathe in. If you do, you could turn into a mushroom. It… it might be different this time, but be prepared for some scary things."

The group were breathing heavily, fearfully, but they nodded. "Does anybody had a quirk we can use as a rope to descend?"

"We can't descend," someone with purple hair and spikes said. Luffy frowned, asking what he meant. "This is the floor. There's no way down." Luffy had Dazzy turn brighter, and lit up the floor of the cave. The guy was right, there was no ledge. Already from the start, it was different. Luffy moved the light upwards, and they found there was a hole in the ceiling.

It was clearly covered in monsters, but they had to get up close to them. Shit. Nothing might be the same this time! Law asked if anybody had a useful quirk like that. He and Luffy could be able to climb, as could Shoji and Tokoyami. Shoji could use his arms well, they were strong, and Dark Shadow should be helpful in this situation to help the bird man climb.

They had no idea about the others. But a girl said she could make webs. She could build a ladder of webs. They agreed to this, and Luffy was glad he had his gloves on so his fingers didn't sever the string. Those that had been there before, the four of the ones that lasted until the end, climbed up first.

The four made it up and climbed past the wall-monsters. Dazzy was lighting up the web to help them all. The monsters made a creepy chittering noise, and someone at the bottom slipped, and screamed as his started to melt the closer he got to the floor before he was only a puddle and landed in a sickening "splat" sound. Screaming could be heard, but Luffy turned back upwards and continued to cry silently.

"Last time we couldn't ascend, now we can't descend," Tokoyami said in a dark voice. The others said nothing, though they knew that was what was happening. Once again, they only focused on themselves, tuning out the others below them. Their screams of fear and pain as another student fell to their painful-sounding death.

Tears were down Luffy's cheeks, but he couldn't tell. All there was to climb higher. When they finally came to the top of the hole in the ceiling, the monsters grew smaller, but started biting at the strings. The four picked up the pace and made it up to safety from falling. Luffy shouted at them to hurry, go faster!

He had Dazzy out, but released another light, which was lighting up this second room. They saw it was huge, not a room, but what seemed like an open plane. It made Luffy feel that they were not anywhere on earth. At least, not in the normal world. This one wasn't completely pitch black, but the foliage glowed.

Those who hadn't fallen to their deaths made it up just as the string severed. There was no going back down. They had to find a way up, but they couldn't see any sort of hole. Luffy closed his eyes and smelled deeply. He smelled fresher air from the left. Far to the left. "Let's go that way," he said. He had his glowing friends scout, and came back to him to nod or shake their heads.

The two nodded, and lead the group forwards. There were holes in the ground everywhere. Luffy did everything not to step in them. Who knows how much they had to descend to die, to melt into an unrecognizable puddle. Those kids… their families would never recover their bodies. Couldn't ever.

Everyone was looking closely at the ground when Luffy warned them of his hypothesis. They went slowly, Luffy letting out more lights. He was allowing the weakest of them, while they were in floating balls to take up less energy of the faupta.

Thankfully, nobody fell, nobody stepped in a hole. They were making their way across, seeing a light at the end of the field, before Luffy could sense something coming up from behind them, and whirled around to see one of the spore monsters. Like how those poor students looked in the end only more like a movie monster. Not huge, but bulky and scary.

Luffy told them to run. They sprinted away, no longer able to keep track of the holes, only had to hope they were lucky. One tripped, but didn't knock anyone else down. They screamed as they morphed into a squishy thing. A creature that looked like it was made out of goo. "Nggglrrr!" it sounded, it's mouth deformed and tongue hanging out. He… it wasn't human anymore. "Jonsi!" his friend shouted, and picked it up, but the spore monster got to him, and both turned into mushrooms immediately. More screams were made, but nobody else tripped, though everyone seemed to be crying.

They all dove into the rapidly closing door that they aimed for. But one was too late, and the door shut, severing her hand. They could hear her screams before they went silent. They were all silent, breathing heavily, terrified. Luffy needed a break, and just put his head between his legs. Everyone else were doing their best to collect themselves. They'd lost five. Five people were dead, and their bodies probably would never be recovered.

Eventually, Luffy stood, and said they should continue and get the hell out of there. They nodded, some reluctantly, and stood. "Let's walk staggered. So nobody will knock another down by tripping." They got into formation, Luffy's lights back out to guide everyone through the black. They were so helpful, and Luffy was owed them a debt somehow for this.

They arrived at another wall upwards, with no monsters, but the wall was slippery to the touch. Luffy touched it and smelled. It was just water, or just smelled like it. The rock was the slippery part and the water just didn't help things. "The spider web girl is dead," somebody said in a flat voice.

Luffy swallowed, and asked if anybody else could help that way. "I can create sticky surfaces. Maybe I can stick our hands to the wall and we can climb that way," another girl said in a small, shaking voice. She went forward and tested her glue on the wall, pulling her hands away with difficulty.

Luffy opted for his claws, along with Law. Everybody else were given the stick to both their feet and hands, and the climb continued. Up they went, slowly and quietly but for ragged, panicked breathing. The lights illuminated the wall easily, following them up fluidly. They all felt before they saw black bugs slithering out of the walls. They seemed to want to wrap around the bodies, but the glue seemed to deter them.

Maybe it smelled bad, but they continued. By now, they were in fight or flight mode. There was no longer absolute fear and panic. All of them knew they were fighting for their lives, to avoid a painful death. Up and up they went before they made it to the top and climbed over. Luffy and Law helped them all up, and nobody had died from that level. Dazzy and another one went ahead to scout, and came back, shaking their heads in that direction, but pointed to the left. Luffy didn't need to tell anybody as they walked in that direction silently, and then came across a beam. A stone beam dividing two sides of a chasm. It was skinny, but doable as long as they were careful.

Luffy said, "We should walk across. Who knows if laying on our stomachs will kill us. Will be too deep." Everyone agreed with that, and went one at a time. Luffy's feet were small, so he made it across just fine. He was on the other side, and saw it was grass, but looked like normal grass. He lit up the beam as the others walked across. The surroundings were still black, empty. The sounds echoed, as if it was just a huge cave or tunnel.

The person before Shoji's turn… they panicked and slipped, grabbing onto the beam, but it was too late. He didn't fall, but they all watched in horror as his body warped and mutated into the same blob creature as the other. It - he - moaned that gargled moan before. He was a large blob, blocking the path. Disjointed, just skin and lumps of flesh. He had one limb, but no real way to move. Nobody could get across now, though.

"What do we do now?" the girl with the stick asked. Tokoyami walked forward, and asked the creature to move, to let them go. It - he! - didn't reply, didn't seem to understand what they were saying as he moaned and didn't move. Tokoyami walked closer, with tears down his cheeks, as he pushed him off the ledge with his foot. They didn't even hear him cry out as he fell, or hear him hit the bottom.

Everyone was silent, nobody protested. There was a silent vow to not say a thing about Tokoyami's necessary choice. They all made it across the beam safely. Now, there were 14 or so. They'd lost six or seven, Luffy couldn't tell. Last time, everyone got out. They were severely injured, but nobody was dead. Here… they were dead. Or, or those nonhuman creatures. How would you fix that?

They continued on, Shoji with his arm around Tokoyami's shoulders for comfort. But then they came across a door, leading into a lit up room. It looked like the room they'd come from, before they were kidnapped by the darkness. But it was wrong. "Don't touch anything!" he screamed. "This isn't real, it's an illusion!"

"How do you know?" someone asked from behind, but not in a rude way, not an accusation. Luffy said it smelled nothing like a normal room, and definitely not the one they came from. He couldn't smell any human scent at all. This made them all wary, and everyone walked around the objects in the room carefully.

They were cautious and silent before they made their way through another room. Back into the empty and expansive darkness. "N-No more, I don't want to go any further," a girl he hadn't heard speak yet said, standing in the doorway as everybody else was outside, back in the dark. "I'll wait in here for help."

Law asked what she'd do if no help came. She'd be stranded and alone. She'd die all alone. "Stop it!" she shouted, putting her hands over her ears. "My friends are dead! I don't want to die, too! I'll be fine here!" she shouted, clearly trying to convince herself. "I... I still hear their screams! It's all in my head!" She bend forward, and many shouted at her to not, as she crouched with her hands over her ears.

She clearly didn't do this on purpose, but she too turned into the blob. They couldn't bend down to pick her up and take her with them as she moaned and made slobbery noises, her tongue hanging out, longer than her new arm, disfigured and just looking squishy. Tears were in her haunting eyes, like she was in terrible pain. She was the only one so far that was covered in blood, too. The others hadn't looked in pain, more empty and not aware of anything. She looked aware, but couldn't make any human speech. She just laid there.

Nobody screamed, nobody surprised by death or disfigurement anymore. These kids were different from the last group. They were smart, determined and detached from the death and only out to protect themselves. "Can you move?" Luffy asked. She said nothing and didn't make any move like a nod or shrug or anything. Just laid there. Immobile.

"W-We can't leave her here like this. What if she's never found, and just trapped here for good?" a boy asked in a grim voice. "Someone needs to put her out of her misery." Silence hung in the air.

"I can do it. I can make spikes come out of my fingers." Luffy wasn't paying attention to who said it, only at the poor crying girl. Still crying. They definitely should put her out of her misery. Nobody thought they could come back. And this was not an illusion based on the fact that this had happened before. And people really were injured, it wasn't all in their heads.

The boy walked forwards, and looked away as he spiked her. The blood melted the ground and herself as she left. The boy hissed, getting a drop of blood on his leg. It burned at first, and he went to turn around before his leg went numb, and his eyes widened before Shoji was there, and caught him before he lost balance and fell.

No more blobs. No more.

Shoji assisted him the rest of this level. It really did feel like a level, as if it were a terrible, terrible videogame. The guy was eventually put on Shoji's back and hung on tightly, even though his leg with the burn was useless now. It didn't look to be spreading, which was a relief.

Nothing changed visually, but suddenly there was a blaring roar, a sound that didn't match where they were. Kids put their hands over their ears as the blaring disturbed the massive bats seeming to be hanging far above them, previously out of sight and staying silent. Two fell after being bitten by the huge bats. They fell, and blobbed. But nobody could put them out of their misery until the bats swarmed them and ate them alive, though they made no pained sounds.

The students ran forward, now two more gone. Nine or ten gone now. They got out of that area, and the bats didn't follow. This time was taking much longer than the last time. It felt larger, more detailed and deadly.

The next level was a room. It felt different, though. Like it wasn't in the hell anymore. Like they'd jumped somewhere completely different. It was large and had couches. Luffy could tell this room was real, and when they all were inside, the door slammed shut and sealed. Then a voice started speaking, one that Luffy didn't recognize.

"Welcome, those who were strong enough to make it! This is the final part of this place before you get out of this hell. I can't promise the next part is fun, though! Zehahahaha! This level is a game. ten may leave. The rest must stay behind. Don't worry, you'll die comfortably!"

The atmosphere changed instantly, everyone glaring at one another. Nobody would hesitate anymore. They were just told the end was in sight. And they could only get out by either agreeing for some to stay behind, or forcibly making them.

"We're gonna be leaving. The four of us," Luffy said to the group that weren't his friend, his classmates.

They all stared at each other, and made teams. Friends grouped with friends, if they were lucky enough to all be alive. Some picked up weapons that were sickeningly hanging from the walls. This was planned the whole time. Luffy looked around the room, and saw cameras. Before anybody could do anything, he grabbed a handful of nails in a bin and chucked all of them into the lenses.

Now, nobody could see what was about to happen. Tokoyami brought out Dark Shadow as others armed themselves with weapons or their quirks. But they paused when two raised their hands, both holding hands.

"We volunteer to stay," another previously unnoticeable and silent girl said, her friend being a boy shorter than her. Everyone were surprised that they volunteered. "I… can't ever move on from this. This will haunt me for life, and I don't want to deal with that. M-my sister is dead. I have nobody else. So… I v-volunteer to stay behind." The boy nodded along, though he didn't say anything.

Both of them walked to the couch and sat down, not turning into blobs. There were thirteen people in the fight, now. They had to get rid of three. Everyone separated, losing their alliances immediately besides the friend groups. Law asked, "Who is the most useful here? Who will drag the rest down by going forwards? If there is something next, and whoever is responsible for this is lying."

Eyes slid to the injured guy, who couldn't use one of his legs. His expression crumpled, and he started to sob before grabbed a knife in the vase at the table, and slit both wrists deeply. He killed himself instead of waiting to die in a comfortable place. Though maybe the monsters were waiting to get inside. They didn't know where they were or what was next. "Please, get out of here and tell my family I love them," he said in a broken voice. They watched in pained silence as he slowly bled out before he was gone. He was dead on one of the couches.

Twelve of them left. Two to leave behind. Law asked the question again. All eyes looked around, and one landed on a girl with spiky pigtails. Her quirk was that she could compact her body, having not helped at all in their expedition to survive. "No! Yo you can't do that, I'm plenty useful!"

Everyone looked ashamed, but had collectively made the decision. She had to be sacrificed for the others to live. Two more people had to. She grabbed the knife the one who committing suicide used. She brandished it at them, arms shaking in fear. It was one against eleven. Sticky girl dashed forward, and coated her feet in stick.

She tried to get out, but was trapped. "No! You can't do this! I-I can be helpful, I promise! Please!" she begged. Luffy would hear her begging his mind for the rest of his life. Law grabbed his hand and held it tightly. They ignored her as best as they could as she screamed and cried, trying to get out of the glue that wouldn't come undone. With sticky girl's power, they could all be a victim.

But it was the best way to do it. Nobody would be a true murderer. They wouldn't dirty their hands with blood. They continued their stand off, nobody volunteering, and knowing all of their quirks were helpful in some way. But two were deemed the most useless, which was cruel, but something they had to do to survive.

"Rock paper scissors," Tokoyami suggested. It was awful, using a game to determine who would die. But they did it. The one who lost grabbed the neck of his opponent and used his quirk to harshly twist. He fell to the ground, dead. The guy who did it looked at his hands, and vomited. He just killed somebody barehanded.

Out of pure guilt and horror, they lost another one to himself. They released the girl who was stuck to the ground, who was sobbing in relief. Now they had ten. They could progress from the room full of dead or to be dead kids.

The voice reappeared and said, "Very good! Well, you're all welcome to move on! Zehahaha!" A door opened in front of them, and they left the dark, dark room that had nothing to do with the lighting.

They were out in a parking lot somewhere. They all sighted out in relief, falling to their knees before sobbing after the traumatizing experience. "I only wanted this one all along," the person who made the sick game said, standing behind Luffy suddenly, and sucking him into the ground before Law was there, leaping with strong legs to thrust his claws into the villain's throat and yank Luffy away. He was snarling at the villain, who looked shocked and gargled on the blood of his punctured neck. Blood welled up and out of the wound, and he fell to the ground, dead. Their torturor was dead. Finally. Had he created that whole dimension? The very real one. It felt so real, though.

Without him, though, they'd never get any of those bodies that were intact. The door was gone, as if it had come out of nowhere. "Luffy look off his shirt to wipe the blood off of Law's hands. "I'm sorry," Luffy said quietly.

"I don't regret it. He deserved to die anyways. Let's go find a phone or something." The group of ten all vowed to not say a thing about the murders. Now Luffy was part of another secret pact. They all walked to the nearest building down the road far, far from the empty parking lot. When they got there, they walked inside, many disheveled with their fingers bleeding. They looked a mess, and got a phone from a shocked worker.


If you'd like an idea for how the blobbed kids look, carefully look up "Mitty" from "Made in Abyss". CAREFUL, some is pretty graphic. Poor kids. And the mystery of the dark pit is not over yet!