"So, what to try next?" Hizashi pondered as they left the mirror room and headed downward. "That room didn't give us much of a clue."
"No, it didn't. Which is odd, since pretty much all the room have had some kind of point." Shouta pointed out.
"That's true. So maybe there's a chance that just going in there unlocked something. We'll have to take a look around and-"
Loud crashing sounded behind them. All three tensed and turned around. Two painting woman had come off the walls behind them, cutting off their access to the mirror room. Both were looking at the group, eyes gleaming with hunger.
"Run!" Shouta ordered. "Upper hallway!"
They fled down the corridor. Another painting lady, this one in green, burst out of the wall as they ran past.
"WAIT!" Izuku cried, stopping in his tracks. Hizashi nearly knocked him over.
"We gotta move, Midoriya!" He started pushing the kid along.
"But look! A key!"
He whipped around and looked where Izuku was pointing. There was a gray key sitting just below where the Green Lady had been hanging.
"Dammit! Shouta!"
Aizawa wrapped the Green Lady up with his scarf, but the other two weren't far behind. Shouta managed to get the other end of his scarf out and around one, but he was already holding one painting down, so the entanglement only slowed her down.
"Listener, grab the key!" Hizashi barked. He ran forward and kicked the one lady who was still free. She skidded back, but didn't flip like it had when Shouta did it earlier. Should he use his quirk? Would the sound have any affect on these things? They were already stronger than the average human, based on how hard Shouta had to work to keep them down, and he didn't want to get swamped. Would a loud noise wake up more of them?
"I got it!" Izuku cried.
"Go for the lower hallway." Shouta called out. When he heard Izuku's feet patter away, he released the paintings and ran, with Hizashi right behind him. They caught up to Izuku within seconds, and Izuku handed the key off to Hizashi.
'Please let this be the right one.' Shouta thought to himself. Hizashi went for the door while Shouta pushed the closest painting ladies back.
"It worked!" Hizashi yelled. They all rushed inside and slammed the door shut behind them.
The pros each had a hand on the door, while Izuku stood a little ways in, panting.
"Guess it's a good thing Guertena never painted their legs." Hizashi said, listening the the pounding of fists against the wood. The knob never moved though. "You think they'll forget we're in here after a while?"
The Painting Ladies stated 'obsession' with humans didn't make that likely, but Aizawa didn't think stating that would help the atmosphere. "We can hope, and at the very least we've got a new place to explore. We might find something in here that's useful."
"Good point." Hizashi said, while his eyes swept the room. There was a strange red and white sofa at the center of the room, which he recognized from the gallery, with a small sign near it. It was the only seating available, aside from a couple of knocked over stools. There were bookshelves in one corner, partially covering up a window. The only other artwork in the room was of a woman on the back wall. It was different from the other painting ladies though, a full body portrait of a woman in modern casual clothes. Hopefully a portrait was all it was.
"Great job with the key earlier, little listener. As your reward, you get to pick where we search first." Hizashi joked.
Izuku did not respond.
Hizashi looked down at him. Izuku was staring at the portrait on the back wall with wide, terrified eyes. He started walking towards it, his steps slow and mechanical.
"Hey, kid." Shouta called out.
Izuku kept walking, stepping around the couch on instinct, his eyes never leaving the painting.
"Midoriya!" Shouta snapped. Izuku still showed no sign he had heard. The two pros gave each other a worried look before going after him.
Izuku was standing right in front of the painting now. His little fists were balled up in the end of his shirt, and he was breathing faster than normal. Hizashi knelt down next to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. The kid jumped like he'd gotten an electric shock.
"Easy Izuku." Hizashi said, tightening his grip on the kid's shoulder. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"
"She, she shouldn't be here! She didn't get stuck with me, she shouldn't be here!"
"Who shouldn't be here?" Shouta pressed.
"My mom! That's her in the painting!" Izuku cried, tears spilling down his face.
Hizashi drew back in surprise, and looked up at the large portrait on the wall. Now that he was looking at it more closely, he could definitely see the resemblance between her and Izuku. They had the same shade of dark green hair, the same eyes, even the same face shape. Plus the painting was incredibly life like, so detailed that one could have mistaken it for a photograph instead of a painting. No wonder Izuku was freaked out.
"What does it mean?! Did the paintings get her and turn her into one too?! We, we can't leave her here! She's all I-"
Izuku's words cut off when Shouta put his hands on both sides of Izuku's head and looked him in the eyes.
"Izuku. Stop thinking for a moment, and focus on me." Tears still streamed down the boy's face, but he remained silent, and Shouta continued. "I need you to breathe with me, okay? We're gonna be taking deep breathes."
Then Shouta started taking deep even breathes, emphasizing the movement of his chest so Izuku could follow along. His attempts were strained and choked at first, but as the seconds passed he began to breathe easier. Once he was able to do long, even breaths without trouble, Shouta stopped and removed his hands.
"Feeling any better?" he asked.
Izuku looked away. "I...a bit. But what about Mom?"
"I don't think you need to worry about her." Hizashi cut in before Izuku could start freaking out again. "I know that plenty of things in here have been scary or dangerous, but there's been a lot more things that have just been regular paintings or parts of harmless puzzles. This is probably one of those."
"But, the other art stuff was all Guertena's other works right? He shouldn't have a painting of my mom."
"That's a good point, but there has also been stuff in here that wasn't in the original gallery. And some of the scary things we've come across have just been that, scary, but not dangerous. You remember the mannequin head from a little earlier?"
Izuku nodded slowly.
"Well, that was a good example. You stopped me from kicking it because you were able to guess that it wasn't really going to hurt us, it just did it's best to freak us out. So there's a good chance that's all that this is." Hizashi said, gesturing to the painting. "It's probably just the gallery trying to scare you."
"...so, it might have just gotten a look at her when she was in the gallery, and used that to make the painting?" Izuku asked.
"That's definitely a possibility." Shouta confirmed.
"But what if it's not? All the other people in the gallery disappeared! What if they all ended up in paintings in here?"
"Midoriya, we have no evidence of that aside from the painting's accuracy, which could mean a lot of things. Hizashi's theory is just as likely to be right at this point, and we won't get anywhere thinking up hypotheticals." Shouta's words were firm, but became gentler as he continued. "We have to focus on what we can do right now. Right now, we can find our way out. If we find out that other people are missing after we escape, then we'll get back up, find our way back, and go looking for them. But we can't help anyone if we get stuck here too. Understand?"
Izuku looked between the two of them. Apparently he trusted what he saw, because after a few moments he nodded.
"Okay...okay, let's hurry and figure out how to get out then."
Hizashi smiled at him. "Atta boy!"
Shouta went to look around while Hizashi offered Izuku a tissue to help clean his face up. He decided to check out the sign near the couch first. He may not be as good with English as Hizashi, but it looked all of these words were ones he knew.
"Tired? Why not sit for a while? You'll never be hurt again"
Okay...maybe it was just a translation thing, but that sounded awfully ominous to Shouta. He looked at the couch, taking in it's pristine white fabric with veins of red crawling across it. It almost looked like it was trying to emulate something alive.
"Hey, this couch is artwork. So don't sit on it." Shouta warned the others.
"Got it." Hizashi said. He was done helping Izuku finish calming down, and Izuku followed the man around as he went to explore the room.
It ended up being quick work. None of the bookshelves seemed to hold anything useful, and the floor wasn't hiding any keys. They looked behind the bookshelves to be sure, and under the couch. The stools appeared to be just regular furniture as well.
"What is up with this section and sending us into pointless rooms?" Hizashi muttered, crossing his arms in irritation.
"Well, maybe it isn't pointless?" Izuku ventured. "The mirror room didn't have anything useful in it, but we couldn't get into here until we went in there. So maybe we just had to stay in here a while?"
"Maybe." Shouta conceded. It seemed a little out of character, given the types of obstacles and puzzles they had to deal with until now. But that could have been the point, to break the pattern and throw them off. Or maybe the puzzle was just figuring out how to navigate to each new place with all the painting ladies coming to life. "Either way, we aren't making any progress in here."
"Let's go see if anything has changed outside then." Hizashi said.
The sounds of fists banging on the door had quieted while they were searching. The group members were various degrees of hopeful that this meant the painting ladies had moved on. Shouta, being the least optimistic about that, was the one to go forward to open the door. He listened carefully, and couldn't hear anything happening on the other side. Still, he readied his capture weapon before grabbing the knob.
It didn't turn.
Shouta frowned. "Did one of you lock this after we got in here?" He asked over his shoulder.
Hizashi tilted his head. "No. Can we even do that?"
"The last time I had the key was when I gave it to Mr. Mic." Izuku said. "And I haven't been near the door since."
Suspicion began to percolate in the back of Shouta's mind. It seemed unlikely the painting ladies could have done it, since they couldn't even turn the handle. There had been statues around; none of them had ever tried to interact with the doors before but that didn't necessarily mean they couldn't. What if Izuku had been right? If this room wasn't pointless then it could be-
BOOM!
Everyone jumped. The sound that had come from the door was a far cry from the pounding of the painting women, it was more like someone was trying to take the door down with a battering ram. The sound repeated, and then suddenly it was all around them, sounding from each wall.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
"What happening?!" Izuku cried, clinging to Hizashi's arm. He looked around wildly, as if the cause of the noise would suddenly materialize in the room.
"It sounds like something is trying to break in!" Hizashi shouted over the noise.
Shouta's blood pounded in his ears. There were so many paintings and statues out there, if they managed to break in then he and Hizashi would be severely outnumbered. They would need to slow them down. Shouta's eyes scanned the room, and landed on the window in the back.
"Hizashi! Help me!" Shouta yelled, running for it. One of the book cases was tall enough and wide enough that if they moved it in front of window it might stop anything from getting through it. Hizashi caught on right away, and ran over to help him push the heavy book case.
Seeing what they were doing, Izuku ran over to one of the shorter book cases. He started to drag it toward the door, hoping to reinforce the other obvious weak point of the room. Shouta ran over to help him once their task was done, and they soon had it tipped over in front of the door as a low barricade. Hizashi had picked up one of the stools by seat; he looked like a animal tamer ready to fend off some angry beast.
BOOM!
Cr-Crack-CRASH!
Without much warning, part of the back wall gave way, wood splintering and cracking. Painting ladies spilled in through the new hole.
What followed was like some horrible game of tag. The couch stood in the very center of the room, and the trio were by the door. They had to make their way around the couch if they had any hope of making it to the opening.
"I'll make a path, you guard our back!" Shouta shouted. His capture weapon lashed out, wrapping around a painting lady and throwing her over the couch. He advanced forward as much as he could, and Izuku followed him. Hizashi brought up the rear, fending off the growing number of painting ladies with the legs of the stool.
Desperate for some way to help, Izuku whipped his head back and forth. Aizawa seemed to be doing okay with his capture weapon, but Mr. Mic was starting to look overwhelmed. Seeing a book on the floor, fallen from the tipped book case, Izuku grabbed it and hurled it with all his might at the ladies behind him. It smacked one right in the face, slowing her down.
"Nice shot!" Hizashi yelled.
"Just one more I can see, get ready to run!"
As soon as they heard the 'thump' of a thrown lady, Hizashi and Izuku surged forward after Shouta. The adults had to duck down to get through the hole, but Izuku could run through just fine. They entered the upper hallway, but they weren't out of the woods yet.
While they were in the room, every painting lady and statue in the area had come to life, and were now roaming the halls. There was no hope of sneaking around now.
"The gray door in the first half of the room is our best bet, head there." Hizashi urged. There was no argument.
They once again took up their position of Shouta leading, Hizashi guarding, and Izuku staying between them. It was hard going. The hallways here were narrow, making it hard to maneuver if more than one artwork was attacking. Hizashi's stool worked well for fending off their pursuers, and Shouta's capture weapon and fighting style cleared them a path, but they still had statues that managed to get a swipe in or painting ladies that clawed at an ankle, and Izuku had to dodge several that briefly made it past their defenses.
But finally, they found the remaining gray door. To their relief, even from a distance, they could see that it was partway open. They pushed themselves forward. Izuku almost stumbled when a painting lady grabbed at him, and almost fell, but Hizashi grabbed his hand and pulled him onward.
They burst through the gray door. Shouta slammed the door shut behind them, and Hizashi let go of Izuku's hand to wedge the stool under the door knob. Not trusting the door to be enough protection after the wall had given way, they continued to run down the hall, hardly noticing the continued gray coloring or the mannequin head paintings on the wall. When they reached the end of the hallway, there was another gray door, and a hallway leading downward.
"It doesn't sound like...anything is following us." Hizashi panted.
"Yeah. Let's take a break here." Shouta said, wearily sinking down into a crouch.
"Whew, that was intense, huh?" Hizashi said, leaning against a clear bit of wall. "But we made it! We sure showed them, didn't we little listener?"
Izuku didn't answer. He stood in the center of the hallway, his eyes unfocused and his limbs shaking slightly.
"Little listener? Are you alright? Did one of them hurt you?" Hizashi asked. He glanced down at Izuku's chest and was relieved to see that the green rose was still there. Probably missing a petal or two, but otherwise undamaged.
"Hey, kid, can you look at me?" Shouta asked, a bit of worry seeping into his voice.
Izuku began to turn toward him. But as he did, one of his feet caught on the other, and he fell down to his knees. Shouta sprang forward and caught him by the shoulders.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Izuku's eyes slipped shut, and he sagged forward. He fell limply into Shouta's arms, the sound of his own name echoing in his mind as everything went black.