26.05.2023
It is I, the Absolute Madman and I gotta a lot of things to address so let's head straight for the comments!:
I See Your Secrets - First of - no you don't. Second of - What kind of intersection? If it's a roundabout then maybe the doctors can straighten you out? Badum-tss. If it's more like a clover leaf then that's very (un)lucky. Badum-tss.
Tri-Edge - Ah yes. The man of the hour. I honestly doubt you'll ever read this but Imma do it anyway! I could go on and on, answering all of the issues you have with this story, but neither of us have the time for that I think, so I'll keep it short - In your last comment you've said 'It's like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion'. This comment was posted under the chapter number 50. 50! If it feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion then just don't watch it! I myself dropped a lot of stories because I didn't like how they were developing and never once thought about giving them a second chance, so why are you still reading this? I'm pretty sure there's a lot more well-written fics out there that you can possibly enjoy.
Damedanedameyo - I got you fam, Izuku is going to get into a fight in this very chapter. It will be a very brief and one-sided one, but it'll happen!
n1ght4ury20 - I'll do my best!
And now, the chapter!:
"So this is some kind of harem/Izuku monopolizing effort hybrid?" Itsuka summed up after hearing out the girls' explanation.
"I'd appreciate it greatly if you didn't call it a harem, but yes, that's the gist of it." Momo confirmed after voicing her feelings about the term 'harem'.
"But this sounds exactly like a harem." Itsuka argued, seeing both Mina and Tooru nodding to show their support.
"It's a polyamorous relationship, a wholly different endeavor." Momo insisted, though stayed silent when asked to list the aforementioned differences.
"What we're calling it is not important anyways!" Mina stated firmly. "What is important however is whether or not you're in or out?!" She declared and pointed a finger at Itsuka. "What will it be then?!"
"You're really passionate about it…" Itsuka mumbled to herself with a sigh. "I don't really have a choice do I? Competing with you doesn't exactly seem like a good alternative. For some reason I feel like my life would be in grave danger if I even tried." She explained, an eerie spine chill confirming her fears.
"So does that mean…?" Izuku asked, having stayed silent up till this moment, but finally brave enough to speak up.
"Yes, I'd like to join your polyamorous relationship." Itsuka responded, putting special emphasis on the last two words and watching in delight as Momo's face lit up with gratitude.
"Hurray!" The girls and Izuku cheered, congratulating Itsuka on making the right choice.
"It's not that I'm not happy or grateful, but could you guys leave now that we've sorted this out? I'd like to finally put my clothes back on." Itsuka asked, still protecting her dignity with a blanket as the girls almost restrained her when she went to pick up her clothes earlier.
"Oh, yeah, it's about time for us to go." Mina responded, scratching her neck sheepishly.
The joint task force had completed its objective so it was time for one final retreat. The girls slowly backed out of the shack, vanishing outside one by one, with Mina returning moments later to close the door behind them. Silence weighed heavily in the room for a few moments, but it was quickly dispelled by Izuku.
"Well, that certainly was something." He joked, partially embarrassed by the girls' sudden entry and impromptu indoctrination/interrogation.
"Yeah, you can say that again." Itsuka agreed and they shared a laugh over how random this whole interaction was. "Okay, we had a laugh about it, now can you hand me my panties?"
And with that the two started sorting themselves out, dressing up whilst making sure to keep their hormones in check or else they'd have a bonus round. Neither of them would complain about it too much, but the girls' barging in sexual style kind of ruined the mood and doing anything even remotely intimate would feel a bit forced at this point. There was a good way to combat this ruined mood however - sleep through it and hope for a change of heart in the morning. And that's exactly what they did.
It took a lot of convincing - not really - but Izuku reluctantly - not really - agreed to stay the night with Itsuka. Thankfully the rest of the girls were too shook by Mina breaking their doors in to even think about checking in on each other and thus the two lovers were free to spend the next couple of hours cuddling together as they slept.
Now, meanwhile Izuku was busy expanding his harem, way up in the sky someone else was busy discovering and breaking the wonders and laws of the known and unknown universe. Although currently his object of obsession was something much more down to earth and nowhere near as grandeur as his usual shenanigans.
"Huh, would you look at that…" Martin whispered to himself as he studied the results of every single test that Martha had done. And there were a lot of them.
"Have you finally found something interesting?" Martha asked through the speakers, as always accompanying her master, just not in her semi-physical form.
"What I didn't find is the interesting part." Martin responded with a smirk. "I expected to find wires, circuits and swarms of nanites, but instead all I see are organs, veins and tissue." He explained, pointing to the few different x-rays and several schematics being suspended in midair to his right.
"So Shuusa has really become a human being?" The assistant asked with distant hope seeping into her words.
"It's either that or they had a friend that they forgot about who looked almost exactly like the Midas-class automatons and had the exact same abilities as them. Take your pick." The Absolute Madman provided with a bucket of sass thrown into the mix.
"But how's that possible? Even you have yet to discover a way to turn metal into flesh." Martha questioned, the situation exceeding the limits of her logical comprehension.
"That's the thing - it's not possible. There's absolutely no way that five to nine teenagers living in caves were able to do something that I couldn't figure out for centuries at this point. It's already obvious that they had nothing to do with it. And the most infuriating part about this whole thing is that I can't even retrace Shuusa's steps, because she doesn't have a black box that I could access!" Martin rumbled, his words sounding like furious shouts, but his expression fixed into a sort of sick excitement.
"I have a feeling that you're enjoying this way too much. Something tells me that you wouldn't be nearly as happy even if everything went smoothly." His assistant shared her thoughts as she finally decided to materialize next to her master.
"Well, getting the answer served upon a silver platter is not exactly my style." He confirmed with a grin. "Since we have no clues, let's start from scratch. Redo all the scans of the planet, see if the terraforming operations unearthed something interesting. Meanwhile I'll try to get these kids home. Once they're out of our hair we can focus on other things." Martin stated before storing all the test results inside a single folder and storing it for later. "Now… How the fuck do I figure out which Earth they are from?"
center-/center
With the construction of the drainage system, Izuku and the gang could finally stop worrying about their crops being flooded or drying out due to the unpredictable weather. They finished it just in time too, as mere hours after their work was done, yet another heatwave showed up. But this time something was different. The unavoidable heat was joined by another, much more unsettling, feeling.
They were being watched. Again. This would've probably freaked them out somewhat, but by now they already knew that they were the only ones on the entire planet, so in the worst case scenario they were being stalked by a predator of some kind. This still posed an issue however as they've already spent a couple of months in this hidden valley and no animal ever stumbled upon this little village of theirs. It seemed as though their peaceful days were coming to an end and they'd seriously need to reevaluate their defenses. Momo was of course ecstatic at the thought of getting to design even more stuff, but was torn between doing just that and studying Martin's holographic gizmo.
Izuku and the girls tried to pinpoint the location of their stalker several times, but each attempt was immediately spotted and resulted in the aforementioned intruder retreating before their position was revealed. The funny thing was that everyone had their own, vastly different, guesses as to where the stalker was stalking them from.
Some of them pointed towards the southern ridge of the valley. Others were dead set on observing the overhang that provided them with a roof over their heads. And there were even some suspecting the sheer cliffs in the east and north. The not-so-funny thing was - they were all right. Even though they were all suspecting different angles, they couldn't help but also notice the spine chills coming from several directions. This could mean one of two things.
Explanation one - they were being stalked by something that knew how to stalk whilst remaining well-hidden, changing its hideouts regularly to avoid being spotted before it was prepared to strike. This was the optimistic option.
Explanation two - they were being stalked by a whole bunch of somethings that knew how to stalk whilst remaining well-hidden, changing their hideouts regularly to avoid being spotted before they were prepared to strike. This was way worse.
Even if they were to be suddenly attacked by a solitary predator, they'd be more than able to fend it off with Izuku's Tek Spear and Momo's Tek Carbine. Two versus one would be an easy fight especially with Momo awakening her innate sharpshooting skills. She spooked everyone in the valley the first time she decided to train with her Carbine, but nowadays they took it in stride like it was nothing, especially since Momo asked Shu to help her build a silencer for the Carbine to reduce the noise made by the firearm.
Still, as amazing as it was, the Tek Carbine would be virtually useless against a pack of fast-moving targets that could easily outmaneuver Izuku and get to her before she could react. She was tempted to try her hand at making a bayonet of sorts, but something told her that affixing a bayonet without a non-stop, pounding artillery barrage to charge into just wasn't worth it. The obvious way to solve their lack of arms was to make them, but they were running very low on resources and Izuku was very adamant about not using his daughter as a 3D printer. A very noble thing to support even with their struggles.
Without a different way to acquire resources however, they'd need to pray real hard for their stalker(s) to fuck right off so that they could return to their relatively peaceful and not necessarily uneventful daily routine.
But what if they were to find a way to acquire all the resources they'd ever need?
It was just a normal day and nothing about it indicated that they'd be making any kind of discovery today. The weather was awful of course, but at least it was raining instead of scorching, so this could definitely be considered the lesser of the two evils, especially with their fully functional drainage system in place.
Izuku and Shiozaki were just wrapping up their inspection of the fields - you can't be too cautious when your survival depends on this stuff - and were about to head back to their respective homes when the drumming downpour morphed into a thundering hail, bombarding anything and everything that was not protected by a roof. The impacts were quite powerful and every hit left a stinging sensation on their skin that'd no doubt turn into a bruise in a couple of hours.
The duo had no other choice but to dash for the nearest cover, taking shelter in a shallow alcove in the northern cliff. There was just barely enough room for the two of them and even then some bullets came dangerously close to smashing their toes. The fact that Shiozaki seemed very apprehensive about being in Izuku's close proximity definitely didn't help. Still, they were safe here and they could wait out this sudden hail in relative peace. Izuku would've enjoyed to pass the time with some chit-chat, perhaps getting to know each other a bit more, but something told him not to test his luck as he had a sneaky suspicion that he's done something to offend Shiozaki, even though he couldn't figure out what that could've been.
And so with neither party deciding to speak up, the two waited in complete silence, although that silence was barely audible due to the pommeling hail raining down upon their valley. Still, even though they were safe from the elements at the moment it didn't make the wait any less frustrating, especially since they didn't have anything to occupy themselves with at the moment.
Frustration was something that Izuku was very familiar with already, so it was easy for him to feel it coming up after they spent what felt like hours just staring into the distance, hoping for the hail to stop soon. When it became clear that the weather had no plans of letting up anytime soon, Izuku's frustration reached its peak and so he decided to went it the Kendo way - by choosing violence.
As such he promptly turned around to face the rock face of the cliff and then threw a really wound up haymaker that'd put to shame some of the professional boxers. It of course hurt like hell, surprisingly the motto of 'if you hit a wall, hit it hard!' doesn't make much sense unless you're rocking a pair of vault-breaking gauntlets and live in Piltover. Izuku expected to feel the pain and Shiozaki certainly didn't expect his sudden violent outburst. What Izuku didn't expect was for the cliff to actually budge.
He thought that it may have been his imagination at first and so, before Shiozaki could stop him, he wound up another haymaker and slammed his fist into the rock once again. It was subtle for sure, but the rocks definitely trembled upon the impact. One might even say they were quaking in their boots.
Shiozaki was still shocked by what was going on and even though she was slowly catching up, her apprehensiveness was the opening that Izuku needed to deliver one more blow to the cliff. He had to admit, punching the cliff and making it budge was hella exciting and an excellent confidence boost. Seeing the rocks collapse as a result of his actions? Pure dopamine.
If Shiozaki was about to get her wits about her just a moment ago, she was now firmly back to square one with absolutely no chances of catching up to her fellow greenhead. She didn't have time to even try and catch up however as the collapsing rocks kicked up an enormous amount of dust off the ground, effectively enveloping the duo in a miniature sandstorm.
Both Izuku and Shiozaki started coughing violently, bits of dust flying into their mouths and causing that unbelievably weird feeling of sand rolling across their tongues, absolutely disgusting. The two covered their mouths to the best of their abilities and once the dust started settling they spit out all the remaining sand.
"D-Did you just fight a cliff?" Shiozaki asked, staring at her fellow greenhead in pure disbelief.
"I sure did." Izuku confirmed, his eyes staring firmly ahead. "More so, I think I actually won." He added, causing Shiozaki even more confusion.
"What do you mean?" She questioned curiously.
"See for yourself." He responded and moved to the side, allowing Shiozaki to witness the effects of his handiwork.
As soon as her eyes left his frame and moved over to where he was pointing with his gaze, Shiozaki couldn't help but agree with his assessment of the situation, for right before their very eyes, a cave entrance had formed and it didn't seem to be a shallow one at that.
"Can I now sing that I fought the rock and the rock lost?" Izuku asked, dopamine still running rampant inside his system.
As soon as the hail let up - which conveniently happened just a few moments after Izuku's unexpected discovery - Shiozaki and Izuku went to alert the others about their finding. Needless to say that reveal sparked a great deal of excitement despite being quite the overused trope at this point. Still, at least it offered some kind of a break from their daily day-to-day lives, even if it was to be a brief one. Spoiler alert - it wasn't going to be very brief.
They had to wait with exploring the newly discovered caves for an hour or two because they had somehow misplaced their old flashlights and so Momo had to quickly make new ones. Thankfully they were able to easily decide which crystals to use despite having nine distinct colors to choose from and soon enough they were ready to venture into the unknown.
The entrance itself was well lit up by the sunlight peeking inside through the human-sized hole that Izuku had created and then widened for easier passage. Just a few steps in, the narrow-ish tunnel opened up into a small cavern that was roughly the size of their homes, just without those neat straight edges and crystal chandeliers.
What came next was the reason as to why they needed the flashlights. On the opposite side of the room was another corridor, though this one was much wider than the entrance and nowhere nearly as level for it led deeper into the ground.
A few brave souls volunteered to check the tunnel out, the group being led by Izuku who was joined by Itsuka, Momo and Tokage. Izuku was acting as a vanguard, his emerald-ish light pointing constantly forward in search of dangers, whilst the girls pointed their own flashlights at the walls, floor and ceiling, searching for something useful or interesting.
One thing that Momo was quick to notice was the fact that this tunnel didn't seem that stable and would most likely require some support if they were to use it for something. She was about to go on a rant about safety when her mind ground to a halt when she spotted a very familiar pink-ish hue in the distance.
She threw caution to the wind, running past Izuku and dashing towards her object of interest. The others had no choice but to follow her, trying to see what could've made Momo act like that. Once they caught up to her, Itsuka and Tokage were still as confused as before as Momo was simply staring at a patch of pink-ish hue on the side of the tunnel. Izuku, having already seen something similar in the past, already knew what was going on, yet he decided to ask anyway.
"Is that Element?"
"Yes!" Momo exclaimed happily, pure dopamine coursing through her veins.
It was clear from her reaction alone that they'd be returning to this tunnel in the future, even though Itsuka and Tokage still had no idea what was going on and what even was Element.
With their newest discovery, the four decided that it was a good idea to return back to the surface and relay the news to the rest. Thankfully nothing came charging at them from the darkness once they turned their backs and so they were able to make the journey back no problem.
Once they were back in the chamber at the entrance however, they were met with a very particular sight. Mina was massaging both of her cheeks in a very energetic fashion whilst Kyouka and Tooru were busy sexually assaulting one specific part of the wall.
"What's going on?" Izuku asked once he got over the initial shock.
"I leaned on the wall while we were waiting for you to get back and scalded my ass, again!" Mina whined, earning herself a quiet reprimand from Shiozaki at having used the word 'ass'. What a prude.
"Wait, don't tell me you've found another hot spring or a lava pool…" Momo mumbled out, her voice showing hints of hope at the possibility of having her hellforge rebuilt.
A couple mighty swings of Izuku's Salvaged Icepick showed that Mina did indeed find another hot spring, or more like hot springs because there were two smaller baths and a third much larger one, all of them steamy hot and ready to soothe body and mind.
Some of the more cultured members of their group noted that the larger spring looked big enough to possibly fit all of them at the same time. How very convenient and not at all a hint at anything.
'I fought the law and the, law lost!' No, Izuku fighting the cliff is not a reference to Dwayne Johnson. Also - hot spring sex is back on the menu. As is Element! I could guess which one you're more interested in, but I think like I already have a pretty good idea about that.
Anyways I'm off to sleep, so have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!
