Aizawa's first thoughts upon entering the new area was that he did not like it. Not that he'd liked ANY part of the alternate gallery, but he liked this part even less than some of the others.
They were still in 'the gray area', as he'd come to think of it. When they exited the door they were faced with a wall in front of them and hallways going up to their left and down to their right. The thing he did not like was that, at the ends of the hallways, he could see the edges of a black statue to the right and the frame of a painting lady on their left.
"Caught between a rock and a hard place, it seems." Hizashi murmured, having seen the same thing. "No coin toss this time, we'll have to think it through."
Izuku was looking back and forth, and seemed to understand what the adults were talking about. He may not have seen the statues in action, but being told that they were dangerous by a couple of pros was enough to have him on edge at the sight of them.
"I vote we go right." Aizawa said. "I'd like to avoid the painting women as much as possible."
"Is that because the painting ladies are ob...uh...obsessive? You said they get really focused on people right? You never said the statues get like that."
Aizawa nodded in approval of Izuku's reasoning. "Right. We've had a few run ins with both, but the painting ladies are always more aggressive because of their obsession. So we'll probably have an easier time with the statue."
"Plus, the statues just seem to attack whatever is closest, while the painting women go after the roses specifically. The roses are a lot more delicate than we are, so a type of monster here trying to get the rose is a lot more dangerous than ones just going after us." Hizashi added. Izuku nodded in understanding, and subconsciously put a hand over the rose in his pocket.
Since they seemed to agree on a direction, Aizawa took things to the next step. "I'll go first, since I've got a weapon that can take care of the statues at a distance. Hizashi can bring up the rear and keep an eye out to make sure nothing sneaks up on us. Midoriya, you stay between us so you'll be well protected."
"Can't I help too? I mean, if you guys get overwhelmed?" Izuku asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"Midoriya, we're heroes and you're a civilian. It's our job to save you, not the other way around."
"Well, yeah, I know, but I could still help if it was an emergency! I'm not useless..."
Izuku's shoulders hunched and he crossed his arms while ducking his head. Hizashi gave him a pat on the back. "Nobody said you were little listener, but we've known each other for a long time and know how to respond to each other. So it'll be easier for us to focus if we're just working off of each other." Hizashi tilted his head thoughtfully. "Though, if something is about to get my rose, I certainly wouldn't mind you grabbing it before you run for cover."
This seemed to mollify Izuku, as he straightened up and gave him a nod. "Okay, that sounds like a good plan."
They made their way toward the statue in their chosen arrangement. Aizawa's grip on his capture weapon tightened as they got close to the statue, but he was soon right beside it an it hadn't moved. Though, even if he hadn't done that, he would have tensed at the sight of three more statues that were standing in a line with the one they had first seen.
There was an opening between each statue, which they soon discovered were additional hallways. The hallways spanned the whole length of the room, and there were painting ladies at the end of each. There was four of them, just like the statues, and they even had the same variety of clothing color: red, green, yellow, and blue. They got a little too close to the red lady when they went down the first hall, and she launched from the wall with a shattering sound. Aizawa kicked her in the face before the other two had time to react, and the force of it flipped the painting lady onto her back. Since she was basically attached to the bottom of the frame, this caused her to get stuck at a painful looking angle where she wiggled around like an overturned turtle.
"Oh, I have to remember that trick." Hizashi said with a wide grin. Izuku stood beside him giggling, though if that was from amusement, relief, or some combination, was unclear.
"So you'll actually help next time?" Shouta asked, making a show of being put upon. Hizashi grinned wider.
"Hey, I conceded that I would never match your catlike reflexes before we even graduated, which gives me free license to sit back and enjoy watching them in action now."
Despite the banter, the group did make a point of not getting too close to the other painting ladies. They discovered that there was a door at the very middle of the center hallway, but it was locked. They also found that there was a second half to the room, connected to the first half by two short, wide hallways. The lower hallway had a single door, which was locked, but the upper hallway gave them something more to work with.
There were two doors in the upper hallway. The one on the left had writing that asked for a password, and four tumblers beneath it that allowed one to cycle through numbers. The writing on the right door asked for the number of painting ladies in the room, and had two tumblers beneath it. Aizawa immediately tried putting in '04' on the right door, but nothing happened. Hizashi tried putting in '03', in case it didn't count the one that 'woke up'. Still nothing.
"Does that mean there are more painting ladies in the other half of the room?" Izuku asked, his hands balled up in the ends of his shirt.
"Probably." Hizashi admitted. "But at least we know how to take them out now." he grinned at Aizawa, who shook his head.
"We don't know how long she'll stay stuck like that, or if its easily duplicated. We should be careful as count the rest of the room."
"Sour puss." Hizashi muttered fondly. Shouta ignored him, instead staring at the floor thoughtfully. After a few moments he turned to Izuku.
"Hey kid."
"Yeah?"
"You wanna be the one to count the painting women? It'll be easier for us to keep a look out if we're not distracted trying to remember that."
Hizashi smirked at Shouta as Izuku's nodded eagerly. His smirk grew wider when Shouta caught sight of it, and narrowed his own eyes in response. He really was such a softy when it came to kids, and Hizashi would take every opportunity available to tease him about that.
While the hallways in the first half of the room had been long and vertical, the halls of the second half were long and horizontal. Plus, they were lined with painting women rather than just having them at the end of the hallways. That meant they could only keep a single hallways' width away from the painting ladies that they passed. Hizashi didn't want to think about all of them coming to life, it seemed like this half of the room was nothing but painting women!
Well, there were two exceptions to that. One was another gray door, once again locked. Hizashi hated how directed that made him feel, like whatever ran this place was leading them down a very specific path. The other was a tall paining nestled among a line of painting woman, and it was one that Hizashi recognized.
'The Hanged Man', the painting that had once been a tarot card. He called the group to a halt in front of it, and stared at it thoughtfully.
"This painting being here seems too deliberate to be coincidence." He said aloud.
"Yeah, I've counted seven more painting ladies and this is the first painting that isn't of a lady." Izuku agreed.
Aizawa took one more look at the surrounding painting women, then took a few steps closer to 'The Hanged Man'. The atmosphere of this place made the man's despairing expression even more unsettling.
"Well, looks like we might have the code needed for the other door." He announced, looking the painting up and down before settling his gaze on the man's shirt. "We needed a four digit number, and there's one printed on this guy's shirt.
Izuku leaned to the side so he could see around Aizawa, and squinted at the Hanged Man. "So we need to put in the number '2659'?"
"Not quite, you gotta take into account that he's upside down." Aizawa leaned far over and pressed his head to his shoulder, making his hair fan out. "The number is 6295."
Izuku frowned, but then he did the same pose as Aizawa. "Oh! Now I see it. I'll remember that one too."
There was only one more hall to look at after that, once again filled with nothing but painting ladies. With that, all the currently available space in the second half had been officially explored.
"So what's the final count, little listener?" Hizashi asked once they were back in the upper hallway. Shouta was busy keeping an eye on the first half of the room, just in case the one alive painting lady had righted herself by now.
"Including the first four we saw, I counted 14." Izuku reported. "Should I try putting that into the tumblers?"
"Go for it!" Hizashi encouraged.
Izuku had to reach a little bit to turn the numbers, since they were fixed to the upper part of the door. He put in the '1' first, and the moment the '4' clicked into place there came the sound of a metallic clack, like the sound of a deadbolt being unlocked.
"Nice job." Shouta said. He had moved much closer to them now, but his focus was still on looking around. Hizashi placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, ready to push the boy out of the way should something terrible come barreling out of the room, and carefully opened the door.
Thankfully, Hizashi's worry was unfounded. The small, square room before them was empty, save for a short bookshelf, a sign in the back corner, and a familiar table and water-filled vase that stood in the middle of the room.
"Nobody needs the vase, right?" Hizashi asked as they all moved into the room.
"Nope, we're all still good from the vase back in the last section." Shouta confirmed as he closed the door behind them.
"I really wish they'd put some of this stuff in Japanese. I can only read a couple of words on here." Izuku complained. He'd gone over to look at the sign while the pros were talking. It wasn't actually art, so he figured that meant he should be okay to approach it. Hizashi stepped over to join him.
"Well, part of the problem may be that some of the letters are missing at the end." Hizashi pointed out. For the benefit of his companions he read aloud as much of it as he could.
'Please do not touch the displays.
If by any chance you damage any
exhibits you wil b comp sat n'
"The last word could be 'compensated', but it doesn't make much sense to say someone will be compensated just after warning them not to touch anything."
"Well, it's kind of a moot point anyway, since we've already touched the art plenty." Aizawa pointed out.
"Have you touched any of the painting things with your hands? Mom said that not touching with hands was the most important part because of oils on people's skin."
While Hizashi gave Midoriya a brief lecture on why skin oils were so damaging to normal paintings, Aizawa knelt down in front of the bookshelf. He tried pulling out various books, seeing if any of them did anything or were hiding a key, and was only able to pull out one labeled 'Wonderful Days'. It appeared to be one of those books where visitors could enter thoughts about museum exhibits. Just like before, he couldn't fan through the book and look at everything, so he let it fall open naturally. It ended up on a page with a single entry.
"The gallery is such an amazing place, with so many strange things. I had so much fun playing here that the day was over before I knew it! Isn't it a fantastic place? Why don't you join me here? You'll be fine with all this company..."
A shiver ran up Aizawa's spine as the read the last line. 'I wouldn't exactly call the 'residents' here good company.'
"Anything interesting Shouta?" He just barely kept himself from startling when Hizashi spoke up from behind him. Instead he shrugged his shoulders and put the book back.
"Nothing useful." Maybe he'd talk to Hizashi about the possible implications of the gallery 'talking' to them later, without Midoriya around. The kid had been pretty level headed so far, but Aizawa didn't want to freak him out unnecessarily.
They conducted a brief search of the room, and couldn't find anything else useful. So they moved on to the left door with the four digit password. Turns out they had been right about the number of 'The Hanged Man' being the password, and they were soon walking into a room of the same size and shape as the one right next to it. The key difference here was the furniture.
In the upper right corner there was another table with a vase on it, though this one didn't appear to have any water in it. But what most caught the pro's attention was the stool and easel that was propped up just in front of them. Nothing appeared to be outwardly unusual about them, yet looking at the spot caused the hair on Aizawa's neck to stand up. It wasn't quite the feeling of being watched, Aizawa knew that feeling intimately well, but it was similar. Based on the way that Hizashi was leaning away from it, he must be feeling it too.
Izuku, however, was a different story. While he too seemed hesitant to approach the stool, he did crane his neck to get a better look at what was painted onto the easel. Then he started looking back and forth between the easel and the vase in the corner.
"What's up kid?" Aizawa asked.
"The furniture is weird."
"Yeah, it feels creepy to me too." Hizashi said, but that made Izuku shake it head and wring his hands.
"That's not it. Well, I mean, it does feel weird, but it's more than that. It feels...it feels like someone is meant to be here painting the vase, but usually when someone draws or paints something they have it in front of them but instead the vase is all the way in the corner..."
Aizawa shook himself and forced himself to stop looking at the stool. His eyes landed on the easel instead, and he saw that it was indeed a partially done painting of the vase on the corner table.
"You know what little listener, you may be onto something." Hizashi said, rubbing his chin. He looked at the easel from different angles, then walked over to the small table and started to push it to the other side of the room. Izuku tilted his head.
"What are you doing?"
"Making it so the 'artist' can see the subject of his work of course." Hizashi replied. When the table was far enough over he angled the table so it was facing the easel. As he pushed, the table abruptly stopped and locked into place. They heard the same metallic clack of a door unlocking, but it was much more distant than before. Hizashi was allowed one brief moment to flash a triumphant smile, before another, closer sound made them all jump. Aizawa immediately recognized the cracking, splintering sound.
"Damn, sounds like another painting is on the loose."
"Shouta! Language!"
"It's okay. I have a friend at school whose said that word before, and plenty of other bad words too." Izuku informed them. Hizashi shook his head.
"That...that's not the point..."
"Save it for later." Shouta interrupted. "Moving the table did something out there. We should go figure out what it is."
Shouta insisted that the others stay behind him while he cracked the door open, and he was glad that he did. The newly awakened painting lady was visible just at the end of the hallway, which placed her between them and the second half of the room. A real shame that, since Shouta was pretty sure that was the direction the 'unlocking' sound had come from. He informed the others of the problem in a low voice.
"Think we can sneak around to the lower hallway and get in that way?" Hizashi asked, matching his tone.
"We'd have to time it right, and be quiet about it." Thankfully these things didn't seem to be overly intelligent. He could have held that one down while Hizashi and the kid went by, but he didn't want to assume that this painting was the only one free or that others wouldn't break free while he was occupied with the one. Best to try and avoid detection first and leave fighting as plan B.
After a brief argument that consisted mostly of gestures, Izuku conceded to being carried for the sake of stealth. After that was decided, the group crept out of the room and down to the lower hallway. Hizashi's chin rested on Izuku's shoulder as he held the boy close to him, which let Izuku act as a set of second eyes for Hizashi. Just before they turned the corner to go into the lower hallway, Izuku frantically tugged on the back of Hizashi's shirt. The man took the hint and turned around. He saw that there was a painting lady at the very end of the hall, same color as the one Shouta had kicked before. Which means that one had probably righted itself. Thankfully it wasn't looking their way; Hizashi tapped on Shouta's shoulder and pointed at it. When Shouta saw it he scowled and picked up the pace.
They sneaked out of the lower hall and toward the gray door in the second half of the room. Amazingly, they made it all the way there without drawing either painting's attention, seeing any additional ladies, or having any burst out the wall while they were passing by. Hizashi felt a bit worried that a part of him thought of this as good fortune.
Shouta tested the doorknob. When it turned and the door opened, Hizashi finally set Izuku back on the ground. The new room was bigger than the previous two they'd entered, but almost completely empty. There was no furniture of any kind, and the only thing adorning the walls was a body length mirror standing at the very back of the room. Hizashi had never thought of mirrors as sinister, but the fact that it was the only thing in here made him suspicious.
"Let's spread out and look over the floor and walls. There are still two more doors out there that are locked, and there's got to be some way to open them." Shouta said.
Hizashi went over to the right wall. Shouta took the left and Izuku started looking around the center of the room. Without walls to look at, Izuku reached the end of the room quickly and started looking at the mirror.
"Anything interesting over there?" Hizashi asked when he noticed Izuku standing in front of the mirror, moving his arms up and down and side to side.
"Not really. I'm pretty sure it's just a normal mirror; my reflection moves the same as always."
"Anyone ever taught you how to spot a two way mirror?"
"You can tell that from the side that isn't see through?" Izuku asked. Hizashi nodded and walked over.
"Yeah, there are a couple things you can do to figure it out. A lot of people try this thing where they hold their finger up to the mirror and see whether or not there's a gap between the finger and the reflection, but that's kind of hit or miss because it can depend on what angle your looking at it and stuff. There are better ways you can tell for sure. One of the ways is looking at how the mirror is set up with the wall. You see-" Hizashi was cut off by a frantic tugging on his clothes. He looked down at Izuku, and saw that the boy was pointing at the door with wide eyes. Hizashi's eyes trailed up, and he blanched.
"Shouta? Did you hear the door open at any point?"
Shouta looked away from his inspection of the left wall, saw where they were looking, and turned toward the door himself. He almost swore. There was a mannequin head sitting right in front of the door.
"No, I didn't." He pushed himself away from the wall and started the walk over to the head, keeping his capture weapon at the ready. Hizashi and Midoriya nervously joined him, though they stood further away than he did. Shouta looked it over carefully from a few steps away; it looked like the same kind of head they'd seen in the hallway on the way here. Shouta braced himself and used his foot to gently nudge the head.
Nothing happened.
"What do we do about it?" Izuku asked.
"We might not have to do anything. It's not reacting violently so far, so we might be able to just move it when we want to leave." 'Hopefully' Shouta mentally added.
"The fact that we saw them in the hallway might actually be a good sign." Hizashi said slowly. "With the statues and painting ladies, the very first ones we met here tried to hurt us, but none of the heads in the hallway did. So that might be a sign that they just want to, heh, watch us." Hizashi rubbed his arms, despite his words it was hard to get past the head's creepy vibe.
"So...we just keep an eye on it?" Izuku asked.
"About as good of an option as we have right now." Shouta admitted. They drifted away from the head and went back to what they were doing.
"So, what were you saying about the mirror Mr. Mic?" Izuku asked.
"Huh? Oh, right. Well, if a mirror is hanging on the wall, then it's just a regular mirror, but if it's built to be a part of the wall it makes it more likely that there are people observing on the other side."
Izuku nodded and pressed his head to the wall to get better look at the mirror's side. "The side is thin, but I'm pretty sure it's just hanging there."
"Good, that's good. Another test you can do is to try knocking on it. If it makes a dull sound then there's just a wall on the other side, but if it sounds more hollow then it probably has on observation room on the other side."
Izuku rapped his knuckles on the mirror surface. "It doesn't sound hollow to me."
"Not to me either, so I'd be pretty confident in saying this is just a mirror. There is one more test you can do though. Observation rooms have to be pretty bright if you want to see through the mirror, because it ends up being like tinted glass. So you can also try getting really close like this," Hizashi put his face right up to the glass and cupped his hands around his eyes "and if it is two-way you could see just a little bit of the room behind it." He pulled away. "You wanna try-EEEEEEE!"
In the reflection of the mirror, Hizashi and Izuku saw the mannequin head floating just behind Hizashi's head. Hizashi whirled around and the head dropped down to the floor, like it was trying to fool them into thinking it hadn't been floating at all.
"Why you- get lost!" Hizashi yelled, and reared back to kick the head. Before he could follow through, Izuku threw himself at the main, and the pair stumbled back.
"Oof!"
"You both okay?" Aizawa asked, appearing at Hizashi's side.
"That stupid things scared the daylights out of me, but we're fine." Hizashi admitted with a huff. He looked down at Izuku, who still had his arms wrapped around Hizashi's torso.
"What was up with that, little listener?"
Realizing that things had calmed down. Izuku peeled himself off Hizashi and looked away in embarrassment.
"Well, you said there was a good chance those things wouldn't hurt us, and it really hasn't, not yet at least. And that one sign, it said not to damage the artwork, so I thought that hurting it before it hurt us might be a bad idea." Izuku's words got quieter and more mumbled as he went on. Hizashi arched his brow.
"You thought of all that in that one moment?"
"Well, I'd been thinking about the sign earlier, and you just said the stuff about the heads, so it all kinda came together when you moved..."
"That was some quick thinking kid."
Izuku looked up, his eyes wide with surprise at the approving tone in Aizawa's voice.
"Don't give me that look. You got a bunch of observations together in a very short amount of time and acted on them when you thought someone was going to do something dumb."
"Hey!" Hizashi cried. Aizawa ignored him.
"So I'm just stating the facts. That was good, quick thinking."
"Yeah, this place is murderous enough with the statues and the paintings and other random things that come to life. It's probably best if we don't make a whole new subset of them angry with us." Hizashi admitted. He ruffled Izuku's hair and gave him a thumbs up. "Sorry for scaring ya, little listener, and thanks for stepping in. Now let's get back to getting out of here."
Izuku's expression of awe didn't fade, even as they declared there was nothing else of interest in this room. Though it did get replaced by a smile and a giggle when Hizashi muttered an awkward apology to the mannequin head as they made their way back out.
A.N.
It wasn't until writing this chapter that I finally understood the logic behind having to move the table and vase to that specific spot of the floor. No wonder the developer had to add those little black spots to give the player a hint, it took me years to make that connection!