[Todoroki and Jirou]
The two teens were walking on a sidewalk, where there are closed businesses on the right, which were all empty and barren. Fog kept rolling in while they trekked on the concrete path, the mist almost obscuring their vision. Thankfully, the streetlights were still on, which did let them see just a bit of what was in front of them.
Once they came up to an intersection, Todoroki stopped.
Jirou stopped as well, turning to him, "Hm? What's up?"
"...It's just...this all feels...eerie. This whole town. It's completely abandoned," Todoroki explains.
Raising an eyebrow, Jirou countered, "Well, there was that one girl we saw, Anju."
"Well, yeah, but...I mean, you feel it too, right?" Todoroki asked her, "This whole place is just...weird."
"Oh, I mean, no, yeah, I totally agree," Jirou nodded in agreement, "The idea of a town this size being empty is really...well, it's actually unnerving."
"Yeah...which makes me wonder if we can really find Iida in this town," Todoroki pondered. "Who knows where he might be."
"Hey, we'll manage. No worries," Jirou said to him. Although, she then looked troubled, "I mean...if anything, we can find where Stain is, if he even is here..."
"Hm..." Todoroki turned to his right at the intersection of the street. "...Maybe we can take a turn and look over here."
Jirou looked at where Todoroki's gaze was, "I mean, it's worth a shot."
Nodding to that, Todoroki went to his right off the street, Jirou following him.
They walked up the sidewalk of the street...the fog still clouding their vision a bit...
...Then, as they were walking, they both noticed something on the right side of the buildings.
One business had lights on...they were open.
"Huh?" Todoroki looked at the business next to him.
"What?" Jirou also uttered, looking to her right as she sees the lights on at this...
...clinic...
There was an urgent care clinic that was supposedly open in this abandoned town.
Todoroki went over to the name of the clinic that was on the window to see what it was.
Chinmoku Urgent Care Clinic
M.D. Kurumon Maiku
"...This is...odd..." Todoroki muttered.
"Yeah..." Jirou looked at the glass door in curiosity. Going over to the door, she grabbed the handle...and opened it. Jirou's eyes widened as she gasped lightly, "Hey, the door is open!"
Turning his head to see that the door was, in fact, open, Todoroki blinked. "...Huh..."
"Um…" Jirou stuck her head inside the clinic, "Uh, hello?"
...There was no one present in the clinic.
Jirou reared her head back out and turned to Todoroki, "Uh, maybe we should look in here?"
Todoroki looked to his right at the clear window that showcased the lit-up inside of the infirmary.
"...I mean...maybe..." Todoroki then thought of something, his eyes widening. "Wait. Maybe Iida could be in there."
"Hm?" Jirou took a glance at the inside of the clinic, "Oh yeah..." she glanced back at Todoroki, "Well, hey, maybe we should look inside!"
Todoroki nodded, "Yeah...although, I hope it doesn't mean he's hurt if the lights to this clinic are on," he muttered in worry.
Wincing at that, Jirou looked back at the entrance, "Oh...yeah...well then, let's stop standing around and see if he's actually in here!"
"Right," Todoroki agreed.
They went inside the clinic...
The swinging door closed on them, and they surveyed their surroundings.
There was a long receptionist counter and a door that was next to it on the left of the counter. Several chairs were seated near the window, the area being the waiting room. Behind the counter were doors to patient rooms and a lone hall on the left.
Jirou called out first, "Hello!?"
A moment of silence...
"Iida!? Are you in here!?" Jirou called out to their classmate.
Todoroki looked around the area, and called out as well, "Is anyone else here!?"
...No one answered...
"...No one," Jirou said, "I'm not even hearing any movement from my ear jacks,"
"Hm. Yeah..." Todoroki looked at the door, "...Hey, Jirou."
Jirou turned to the two-colored hair boy, "Yeah?"
"...It's not trespassing if no one is here, right?"
Knowing where he was getting at, Jirou said with a teasing smirk, "Dude, we're already trespassing in this government-owned abandoned town-turned-park either way. I think we've gone past breaking rules at this point."
...Todoroki blushed a tad bit as he turned his face away to hide his embarrassment, "Uh...right..." he turned his head back to Jirou, "Well, in that case, I think we should just look in every room and every corner around this clinic to see if there are any clues."
"Well, someone definitely left these lights on, so maybe we can find something here to make us move forward," Jirou informed.
Nodding to that, Todoroki agreed, "Yeah. If any case, we should start looking around now. I'll...um, I'll lead us on where to go, okay?"
"Oh. Uh yeah, sure thing," Jirou nodded.
Todoroki came up to the door and reached for the doorknob to turn it, opening the door and entering the main office of the clinic.
As they walked down the hall, passing desks and computers to their right...
...Which they noticed.
They glanced at the work area.
"...Wait..." Todoroki looked at the open cubicles with narrowed eyes in curiosity. "Why would...there be computers still here?"
Jioru blinked, "Hey...yeah...not only that, but why would there be any desks here at all even? This place should've been cleaned out, as well as the other businesses around here, right?"
"...Yeah..." Todoroki turned to his left to see an entrance to the cubicles, "...Follow me. And stay close."
Jirou did as she was told as she followed close behind. They entered the work area as they trekked through the narrow path of cubicles to their right.
However, as they walked past two of the cubicles, Todoroki spotted something in the third cubicle.
On the desk, in front of a computer...was a key.
Seeing this key, Todoroki and Jirou looked at it, a little baffled.
"A key?" Jirou voiced her concern. "What would...what would a key be doing here?"
"...I don't know," Todoroki muttered. He went over to the cubicle and picked up the key.
It looked like a normal room key, but there was a keychain hanging off it. It said "Maiku's Office".
Todoroki raised an eyebrow, "This is the doctor's key..."
Jirou also looked at it weirdly, "The doctor's key? Wait...then...someone is here?"
...Todoroki looked over the other cubicles that were on the other side across from them.
"...Come on," he said as he went around the loop of the work area, Jirou following him in tow.
As they made the loop around the area, they passed three more cubicles...there were just desks and computers in them. Nothing was on their desks.
They exited the work area. Todoroki paused as he looked down at the key in his hand.
"...Well, I guess we should find this office then," he muttered.
Jirou nodded, the feeling of unease and curiosity going through her mind as she wondered what this all entails.
They walked down the hallway past the work area, coming up to an intersecting hallway where there was a break room up ahead. At the end of the right hall, there was another room, probably the main office for the practitioner of the clinic. To the left hallway, on the right side of the corridor, were three patient rooms, and on the left side of the hall were three more patient rooms.
Todoroki went to the right hall to go to the end of it, heading straight to the door of the room. Jirou still followed close behind.
When they went up to the door, they read the thin plaque on the right side of it.
KURUMON, MAIKU
"...Well, now we know whose key this is," Todoroki mutters.
"...Yeah..." Jirou looked back behind her and around the semi-empty area, feeling a little anxious, "...I'm beginning to feel like something's up."
"...Yeah. Me too," Todoroki agreed.
He glanced at the doorknob, a keyhole in the knob...
...Taking one glance at the key, he inserted the key into the knob. Turning it, he unlocked it and then opened the door.
The office was dark, the lights turned off.
Finding a light switch next to him on the left, he turned the lights on.
...It all looked like an ordinary office...with a desk, a computer on it, and a couple of chairs in front of the desk, as well as a chair behind the desk. There was also a table in between the two chairs and a cabinet drawer on the right...
There were even diplomas on the back wall...
...Which...felt odd...
Todoroki went over to the diplomas on the wall behind the desk and gazed at them.
"...This...guy must be very well respected..." Todoroki said, his voice laced with uncertainty.
"Uh...yeah..." Jirou just stood there as she looked at the diplomas on the wall...until she said, "Okay, we're thinking the same thing, right? Like, there's no way this doctor would've left all his things here around one-hundred thirty-plus years ago...right?"
"...I wouldn't think so," Todoroki answered, but sounded unsure, "But...maybe he's just odd like that."
Jirou looked back at the diplomas, seeing her reflection on the glass of the picture frames for them.
"..." she looked back at the desk, staring at it for a second, until going over to it. Todoroki looked back behind him to see where she was going.
The ear-jack girl gazed at the surface of the desk for a moment...putting a finger on it, she swiped it to see if there was any dust on it...
"...You know what else is odd?" Jirou muttered, turning to Todoroki as she stuck her hand out with her finger pointing up, "There's no dust on this table."
...Todoroki blinked at that.
"Look at the diplomas. They're basically clean from dust. Meaning, someone has been taking care of this room...like it's been used...for quite some time."
"...But...that's impossible. There's no one here besides that Anju girl...right?" Todoroki asked
"Yeah. But even then, what is she doing here?" Jirou asked Todoroki that question.
"..." Todoroki looked back at the diplomas to see if what Jirou was saying earlier was actually true.
Sure enough, the glass surfaces of the diplomas were all…clean...
"...Do you think that Anju girl is living here?" he asked her.
Jirou shrugged, "I don't really know. Maybe? I mean...that has to explain why it's all...well, no, I guess the desks, computers, and diplomas aren't really a reason why Anju would be staying here, cause...she would get all that stuff somewhere..." Jirou grunted as she glanced down in thought, "Man, this is all strange."
"Yeah..." Todoroki turned back around to look at the desk. The computer was on the desk all by its lonesome...
Deciding he should test it out, Todoroki walked over to it and looked under the desk to see if a PC was underneath it.
...Sure enough, there was.
Raising an eyebrow at that, Todoroki tried to find the 'on' switch for the PC. Finding it, he pushed the button to turn it on. There was no light indicating it was on, so he stood up to see if the computer monitor was on as well.
...Nothing happened.
Thinking that the monitor wasn't fully turned on, he pushed the button on the right bottom screen.
...Nothing happened. It didn't come on.
Todoroki frowned at this, "Well...this is isn't helping us."
Jirou looked down at the desk and saw a shelved compartment below the surface of the desk. She reached for it and pulled the shelf open, revealing the contents inside.
Inside the desk...were two keys.
Each of them had a tag attached to it with something written on it...
The tag on the left key said Jirou Kyouka.
While the tag on the right key said Todoroki Shouto.
Blinking at these keys in surprise, Jioru and Todoroki looked down at them in curiosity.
"...These...keys have our names on them," Todoroki commented, a little stunned.
"Y-...Yeah..." Jirou narrowed her eyes at her key in suspicion. She reached for hers and picked it up, bringing it up to her face to observe the key. It looked like an ordinary blank key, no words of the manufacturer on the metal or any symbols to make it unique...which is odd. She picked at the tag with her name on it and turned it around...to see the room number.
PATIENT ROOM 6
"...Patient room 6?" Jirou made a confused face.
Todoroki, seeing the words on the tag of Jirou's key, glanced down at his key. Wondering what his would say, he picked it up and looked behind the tag.
PATIENT ROOM 5
"..." Todoroki also observed his key, which looked blank and ordinary also. "...Um...what-"
Then, he noticed something appearing on the monitor screen. Turning his attention to it, he slightly gasped in shock.
It now had words displayed on it.
Jirou looked away from her key to see the words on the screen as well, her eyes widened in surprise also.
There were two words on the monitor:
GO SEPARATELY.
...Both teens glanced at each other warily.
First of all, they mostly wondered how the monitor screen came on with words on it.
Todoroki kneeled down to see if the PC was on.
He saw that the PC didn't have any indication of it being turned on.
Getting back up, Todoroki tried to turn off the monitor...but nothing happened. The words and the image didn't turn off.
Blinking at this, Todoroki glanced at Jirou, who was kind of weirded out by all of this.
"...Go separately?" Jirou repeated the message on the screen as she wondered. She glanced at Todoroki as well, wondering if he would somehow know what was happening.
Looking down at his key, Todoroki pondered what the significance of going to these patient rooms was.
But another pondering thought was lingering in his mind.
...Is someone here?
"...I...think we should do what this person says," he said cautiously.
"But...who is this person? The Hero Killer?" Jirou asked curiously.
"...I don't know...maybe..." Todoroki looked up at the door that led them out of the office. "...Come on."
Jirou followed Todoroki while carrying her key, feeling a little creeped out by all of this, making her get closer to him as they walked.
Once they exited the office, they walked forward to the patient rooms in the next hall. Upon seeing where the patient rooms were, Jirou's room was on the far left side of the hall, while Todoroki's room was on the far right side of the wall, making their rooms across from each other.
As they stood in front of their doors, they paused for a moment to say something to each other.
"Um..." Todoroki started off, "I...don't know what's behind our doors, but...be careful, okay, Jirou?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. You too, Todoroki," Jirou said as she turned her head to him with a nod.
"Hm..." Todoroki turned his head to nod at her as well.
They all turned their attention to their doors...briefly glancing at their keys, they inserted them into the knobs of the door handles. Upon hearing the 'click' of the locks of their doors, they opened them, the doors swinging gradually inside the rooms.
The rooms were dark.
But they trudged on inside either way. They're Heroes-in-training, they have to be brave to face whatever Villain is doing this...or if it even is a Villain at all...
Todoroki went in first. And Jirou went into her room second.
They both turned on their lights in the patient rooms.
[Todoroki]
...It was just as it was. Just patient a room.
Upon entering the room, Todoroki looked around the area.
There was an examining bed to the right of the room, a cushioned bench up ahead, with a sink and cabinet next to it on the upper left side of the room, with cabinets situated above the sink. There was also a rolling stool next to the examining bed, as well as a chair in the lower left of the room.
...Todoroki moved forward, wondering what he was supposed to look for in here.
...This is all just...bizarre...who waited for us here? How did they know we were going to go inside this clinic? Who's behind this? Stain? I mean...is he smart enough to do this? Is there really a Villain residing here, doing all of this even?
His answers remained unanswered...
He glanced at the hospital bed...
...He remembered...
...He remembered that day...
The screaming...the crying...the betrayal...
Todoroki frowned at that event.
No. You shouldn't blame her. It wasn't-
SLAM!
Todoroki, startled, quickly turned around and saw that the door behind him was closed.
"J-Jirou!?" he called out, rushing over to the door and reaching out for the handle. Gripping it, he tried turning and pulling it, but to no avail.
"Jirou!?" Todoroki called out again, hoping somehow she heard him(and depending on her ear jacks, he knows she can).
But after a few seconds, Jirou seemed to haven't come to his aid...
...Which was a red flag.
"Jirou!" he called out one more time...and met with nothing.
...Turning around to face the room, Todoroki thought of any options on what to do to get out of this patient room. Sure, he can freeze and break down the door, but that would be property damage...and he doesn't want to get in trouble with that.
Yeah...Father would not like that...hmph...
He had to find a way to get out of here without damaging this place...and see if Jirou is alright.
She didn't call back...she usually has great hearing...
Frowning at the thought of something happening to one of his classmates, he hurriedly went over to the cabinets to somehow find something to unlock the door. He opened the cabinets above the sink to look inside them, only to find nothing. Letting out a curse, Todoroki tried the cabinets below the sink. He opened one of them...
...Only for him to blink dumbfoundedly.
"...What?" he asked himself.
In the cabinets below the sink...there was nothing there...
...Except for a human-shaped hole in the wall.
It was big enough to crawl inside.
"...Uh..." Todoroki kneeled on the floor, observing this hole in the wall.
Where...Where does this go?
"...I...I guess I'll just have to see. I mean, this could be the only way out..."
So Todoroki climbed inside the lower cabinet and crawled into the hole.
As he did, he mentally noticed that this hole felt like it was man-made...almost. The way the bricks behind the wall looked eroded but chiseled to make this path clearly means someone made this.
...But the question is, why?
As he crawled into the hole, he kept crawling further, ignoring the sometimes sharp edges of the bricks as his arms and knees scratched against them.
He kept crawling...seeing a light at the end of the tunnel...
After a minute of crawling, Todoroki reached the end of the hole.
Getting out of it, he stood up on his feet and looked around where he was, everything alit in this area.
...He was in...some kind of shop?
Blinking at the change of scenery, Todoroki looked at all the things that were in this shop...
Everything inside...looked like fine dinnerware and cookware was displayed on tables...plates, glasses, vases, serving dishes, display cases...even some tea cups and...teapots...
...
...Todoroki...was confused.
"What...? But...wait..." he muttered, his expression looking unsure, "What are...What are these decorative wares even doing here? In this...In this shop? In this abandoned town? ...In this building even?" he looked around once more as he surveyed the area. "Why is there even anything here at all?"
...No answer came...
...This raises more questions. Todoroki thought uneasily.
As he stood there, he looked at the nice porcelain dishes, cups, bowls, and..teapots...
...Todoroki walked past them.
Walking past tables of fine porcelain, ceramic, and ivory dinnerware and cookware, the two-colored-toned-hair boy was wondering what this all entails...why he was here...
He turns a corner from a table to come up to a path where there was a large wooden display cabinet ahead of him.
There were five tea kettles made of different hard materials on the display case, as well as a pile of papers...
He can't help but stop and look at them for a moment at the distance he was in.
...Picking up his feet to walk forward, Todoroki came up to the display case that has the tea kettles on it.
Four of the tea kettles were lined up and shined in the bright fluorescent lights above him, each of them being in order a porcelain one, a ceramic one, an ivory one, a stone one...and in front of them at the right, was a metal one.
Each of the tea kettles on the display cabinet had tops on them, as well as intricate markings on their exteriors...except the metal one, the appearance just being a bare-plated tea kettle.
...Todoroki stared at the last one, the metal tea kettle, for a good while.
...That...That tea kettle...
Shaking his head to get rid of that one bad memory, Todoroki looked at the other tea kettles.
Again, each of them had intricate designs on them. The stone one had that of a Japanese dragon on it, while the ivory one had a printing of a flower, the ceramic kettle had an icy mountain that was in between two rugged mountains, and the porcelain kettle depicted three snowflakes together forming a triangle.
When done with that, Todoroki looks at the papers next to the metal tea kettle.
The papers looked like they were folded up and aligned to make it read like a book...
It was then he realized that these papers were actually...one whole newspaper.
Raising an eyebrow, and wondering why a newspaper was there, as well as wondering why a newspaper is even existing at this point in time, Todoroki reached for the paper and observed it, holding it up to his face.
He read it, seeing it was named The Chinmoku News.
The headline of the newspaper read:
Family of 6 in Home Fire:
4 perished, 2 survived
Eyes widened at that, Todoroki checked what the date of the newspaper was.
January 31, 1999
He blinked at the date.
"...1999? That's...a long time ago..." Todoroli muttered.
He read through the main article, skimming through and reading that the house fire was to be investigated, not knowing the cause. The eldest child and the youngest child survived the fire, but each managed to have severe burns, the eldest being burnt all over and clinging to life, while the youngest was burned partially on his...left side...
...This sounds...a little like...
Frowning at all the thoughts that were coming at him at once, he shook his head to clear it.
What...What were these survivors' names? And what started the fire?
Out of morbid curiosity, Todoroki wanted to keep reading the article, and seeing that he had to turn the next page to know the rest, he went to that page...
...and upon going to the page, he froze.
On the second page were words printed out...and on the third page...was some sort of...diagram?
The diagram on the third page had two circles above four more circles, which the two circles had lines and turned to connect each of their lines, forming one line and separating that line to reach and touch the four circles...
The words on the second page said these words:
LINE
UP
THE
TREE
"...Line up...the tree?" Todoroki mumbled in confusion.
...Wait...
He looked at the tea kettles and observed them again.
However, upon looking at them a second time, he then noticed that the place he picked up the newspaper from had...a circle indention next to the lower bottom right tea kettle, the metal one...
In fact, there were other circle indentions, all occupied and rested on by the tea kettles, the household appliances being cradled by the slots.
He soon realized...that this...tree was referring to a family tree...
...And the tree was actually upside down on the surface of the display case.
Meaning...
Six people...two alive...
...He has...had a family of six...
...and...these two sons...had been...burned...
...He, Shouto, had been burned by hot water...and...the other son...
...was burned by fire…
...His own fire...
...The youngest son was burned on the left side...just like Shoto's left side.
...No...this...this couldn't be what this paper is talking about...
...Certainly a little disturbed and somewhat creeped out (No matter how much he wanted to not admit it), he shook his head and looked at the paper again and tried to analyze it, going back to the first page. He tried to see if there were other articles on the front of the newspaper...
But he saw that the other articles...said the same thing. It was about the fire...about the four people perishing, and the two sons surviving...
He unfolded the paper to see if anything else was talked about.
...They were the same articles.
...Shoto's mouth was partially agape.
...This newspaper...no, this can't be about me and...
He fingered the fourth page to see what that page and the fifth one looked like.
It said a different message.
The fourth page said:
WELL,
GO AHEAD.
The fifth page then said:
PLAY THE GAME.
...Shoto turned to the last page at the back of the newspaper.
It also has one last message on it.
It said:
JUST LINE THEM UP,
AND YOU WIN A PRIZE!
SO, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
GO AHEAD AND PLAY.
(Turn back to pages 2 and 3)
"...What's going on here?" Shoto asked himself, feeling almost a little perturbed.
He glanced at the tea kettles, looking at each of their markings, insignias, and pictures.
Turning back to the second and third pages once more, he looked at the diagram.
Okay...so, the two represent the parents, and the other four represent the kids...
Glancing at the tea kettles again, Shoto decided to place the opened newspaper down on the table next to him. He gazed at the left indention next to the metal kettle.
"..." He stood there, silently wondering...
...Could the metal tea kettle...be me?
Deciding to test that theory out, Shoto picked up the metal tea kettle by the top handle and placed it on the left indention next to it. If he can make out the indentions, they all seem to be an upside-down family tree.
Once again, he observed the row of tea kettles...
The stone one...stoic...hardened...
...Dad...
He reached and picked up the stone kettle and placed it on the lower right indention next to the metal kettle.
Seeing the ivory kettle and the depiction of the flower on it, he was reminded of his mother...
...That one is Mom...
He lifted up the metal kettle and placed it on the upper right row of the kettles. Now he lifted up the ivory kettle and placed it next to the stone kettle below the others.
Now that the 'parent' kettles are positioned in the two indentions below, It was now time for the 'kid' kettles to be aligned.
However, it appeared one was missing.
...Huh...where's...the last one?
Looking at the three tea kettles that already filled in the three indentions, the only one that wasn't filled was the third one from where he was standing.
Shoto glanced at the three remaining tea kettles.
Hmm...if the metal one is supposed to be me, then...
He looked at the two other kettles.
The ceramic one and the porcelain one.
Upon looking at the ceramic one, the one with the larger icy mountain, he could only think of one person that would be a mediator on certain things...
...Fuyumi...
He reached and picked up the ceramic kettle by the top handle and moved it next to the metal kettle, the third indention.
When he sees the porcelain one on the far left, he almost knew who this one was, depending he was the third child, thanks to the hint of the three snowflakes.
...Natsuo...
He reached and picked up the porcelain kettle by the top handle and placed it next to the ceramic kettle.
Now was the vacant indention to the far left.
He can only think that this is his own spot…
Shoto picked up the metal kettle and placed it to the far left of the row.
...There was only one tea kettle left that wasn't in its spot...
He looked at the far right of the row of kettles.
...The eldest child...
...He wondered if there were any other kettles around this area. Although, if that was the case, then what would he be looking for? What was the eldest child's symbol if he were to search for another kettle?
Glancing up at the display case, he sees a cabinet above the platform where the tea kettles were.
There was a knob on the left side of the cabinet door.
...It's worth a shot.
Reaching up to the cabinet door, he grasped the knob with his fingers and pulled it, opening it...
To his surprise, he sees another tea kettle. This time...a wooden one...
It was an impractical tea kettle, but there was something interesting carved on it.
It depicted an etching of a flame on the side of it.
Blinking at the tea kettle, Shoto gazed at it for a few seconds until he then reached out and grabbed the kettle with both hands. Observing it, he made the connection to what this tea kettle represents.
...
...
...Toya...
Shoto looked down at the upper left circle indention...and put the tea kettle on it.
Now...the set was complete...
...His family...
...was...
...
...Then the lights went out.
Startled, Shoto got on the defensive, looking blindly around the area he was in through the darkness.
Then, a dim light appeared...below him where the tea kettles were.
He turned his attention to the light and saw that...there was something in one of the tea kettles.
It looked to be inside the wooden one, the light illuminating somewhat through the flame etching on it. The spout was also shining light out of it.
Blinking in bafflement once more, Shoto stared at the lit-up wooden tea kettle for a couple of seconds, until he cautiously went to the left side of the display case and reached for the item. When his hand was near the top lid of the kettle, he twisted it and took it out. He used his other hand to reach inside the kettle, the hole almost big enough to fit his hand through. Once he put his hand in, he felt something metal...
Getting a good grip on it with his fingers, he got out what was inside.
...It was a clip-on flashlight.
...Shoto was a little confused.
"A...flashlight?" he asked himself, a little puzzled, and yet a little disappointed.
...Not a very good prize...
He frowned, "Well...I guess I can use this. Even though I can use...my fire, I won't be able to burn anything down with a flashlight."
Thankfully, his shirt had a breast pocket, so he clipped the flashlight onto the pocket.
Now he can see through this darkness...
Although, who turned out the lights?
...That thought was concerning.
Turning around and away from the tea kettles, Shoto walked back to where he originally was, the light leading him the way. The whole shop felt like it was blanketed by darkness, the flashlight being the only beacon of hope there.
As Shoto walked forward and tried to navigate the turns around the display tables and cabinets, careful to not brush against any fine china so it won't make a noise and startle him, as well as not breaking anything, he thought about those tea kettles...
Those kettles represent my family...at least I think. But...why? Who...actually, who and how did they know about the traits my family has? And...how did they know about-
Crik-crik-crik...
Shoto froze and looked around where he was to find the source of the sound.
"Hello!?" he called out.
...There was silence...
...Crik-crik-crik!
The noise sounds like...someone was moving ceramic...or porcelain...or something hard and fragile...
"...Anyone here!?" Shoto called out again.
...Crik-crik-crik-crik!
The sound came from...behind him.
Todoroki quickly turned around.
...To find that there was no one there...
Except...there was a lone ceramic tea kettle there on the table he passed.
...It wasn't there before.
Feeling a little bit uneasy, Shoto looked at the kettle cautiously, his eyes still on it.
This one looked...different.
He walked a bit closer to it, taking heeding footsteps towards it.
When he got closer to it...he made the details...
The kettle was...all black. Like iron...however, there were cracks all around it, making it look like it was glued together...like it was broken before...
Shoto looked around his surroundings again, calling out once more, "Show yourself! I won't use my fire here, but I will use my ice to freeze you!"
...CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
He looked down in surprise.
The sound was coming from below him...in front of him...
...The tea kettle...
...Shoto stared at the tea kettle, the feeling of uncertainty and unease gnawing at him.
...
...The tea kettle shook.
He gasped in shock, moving back away from the kettle.
It kept shaking...
CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
Then, a series of pops came out of the tea kettle below it.
Out came four black spindly spider-like legs, two on either side of the kettle. The tip of the legs all stood on the surface of the table, lifting the iron kettle up...like some sort of spider.
Mouth partially agape, Shoto looked on with blinking wide eyes at the tea kettle in wonder and slight awe, never experiencing something like this before.
The tea kettle began to wobble, but found its footing, and then...crawled to the edge of the table, but soon, it was walking under the table...like a spider.
Once it was fully upside-down, its legs let go of the underside of the table and it fell, letting the kettle swing its weight back on its four spider legs. It landed, bending its legs as it supported its weight again.
It crawled out under the table...and stopped in front of Shoto.
...Shoto just looked at this thing, confused and...maybe disturbed?
Then, something peculiar happened.
The lid of the kettle...lifted up...showing an eyeball. A dead-looking eyeball, with the surface of the eye looking milky white and hazy.
The teenager gasped at that.
What...What the hell?
It stood there...
...And then, it shot something at him from its spout.
It was a projectile, like a fast bullet. But it wasn't a bullet...
PHEW!
It hit Todoroki's exposed right arm.
"AH!"
The projectile felt...hot. And wet...
Fearing that it could be blood, Shoto grabbed his arm on the spot he was shot at.
It was wet...but it didn't feel thick enough to be blood.
He brought his hand up to see what it was.
...Water.
How steamed water.
Then, another shot hit his left pant leg.
PHEW!
"ACK!" Shoto exclaimed in pain again.
He backed away from this creature that was shooting hot water bullets at him.
What the hell is this thing!?
It shot another one, right at his chest.
PHEW!
"AUGH! QUIT IT!" Shoto yelled at it as he stomped his right foot on the ground to use his ice power, spreading it toward the thing. Once ice connected to the creature, it froze the spider kettle in place.
Rubbing the spot stinging on his chest, Shoto got his bearings together and gazed at the ice-incased critter.
"...Just what is this thing?" he asked no one, not thinking he will receive an answer.
But then-
CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
More clanging noises were coming from his left, right, and even behind him!
"What!?" Shoto exclaimed in shock, turning around in all directions as he let his flashlight illuminate where the sounds are coming from.
Then, he spots another one of the same creatures on his left, crawling on top of a cabinet!
Another one!?
Then he looked behind him and saw one crawling over to Shoto.
More!?
Then-
PHEW!
Something hot and wet hit his back!
"ACK!" Shoto turned around to see that there was another one crawling on the front of a cabinet on his right.
He could hear more clanging...
CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK-CRIK!
It sounded like...everything was coming to life!
Then he sees the one he froze on the ground.
The ice...it was evaporating!
The creature was emitting some kind of heat...steam. Or maybe the hot water it was spewing out of the spout? Either way, the spider-looking monster was breaking free from its icy confines.
Crick-crick-crick-CRACK!
It was free!
Oh shit!
One of the monsters on his right (he might as well call them Steamers), came up to him and looked like it was ready to jump on Todoroki. Quickly, he turned his right arm into an ice spike and thrust his arm at the Steamer. It struck the monster and it went back from the blow, hitting and colliding with the one on the ground in front of him.
Turning around, Shoto began to high-tail it out of there. He ran forward, the Steamer in his way, about to fire a hot water bullet at him, when he kicked the creature out of his way, sending it tumbling underneath a table.
He kept running, turning around corners as he tried to escape these things, knocking into some of the furniture as he kept going.
The clanging of these Steamers continued...
And Shoto was still running.
After a minute of running away from the monsters, he started to recognize where he was. Soon, as he turned a corner, he sees the hole in the wall that led him here.
But in front of him were three more Steamers!
Cursing his luck, Shoto skidded to a stop.
He could hear the clanging of the other Steamers getting closer.
At that point, he had two options.
Okay, freeze them, or...I mean, I don't want to set this whole building on fire, but...
He didn't have more time to think when one of the Steamers shot a hot water bullet at him. He barely dodged the liquid bullet as he ducked to his right. The other two started firing as well, one hitting his right shin on his pants, and the other hitting his left forearm as he tried to shield his face from the shot.
"Augh!" Shoto exclaimed.
The clanging sounded like they were right behind him.
Screw it! I'm gonna have to freeze them and make a run for it!
He put his right foot firmly on the ground and placed his right hand on a cabinet. The ice spread quickly and it surrounded the area, encasing the Steamers with frost as they stood there frozen in place, from behind him on some of the furniture, and to the three that were blocking his path.
They were all frozen around him.
Go!
Shoto ran forward, even kicking the three Steamers from the side, most likely hurting or damaging them, but he didn't care at this point. They looked like abominations anyway, so maybe they were...
Shaking his head, he didn't have time to ponder. He went down to the ground and crawled through the hole.
He crawled...
...He could hear faint crackling sounds in the distance. They were trying to break free.
He crawled faster.
Soon, after a few seconds of speedy crawling, he reached the patient's room in the clinic. Once he got out of the hole, he took extra precautions and fired an ice blast from his right arm into the lower cabinet and the hole inside it.
Doing that he turned around...
...And realized the lights were out in this room as well.
In fact, the bottom crack of the door didn't indicate that there was any light at all in this building.
While he takes brief notice of this, all of a sudden, the sound of the door to the patient room opened. Shoto flashed the light on the door to see who opened it...
[Jirou]
Now that the room was brightly lit, Jirou looked around the area she walked into.
It was just an average patient room...one with an examining bed to the right, a revolving stool next to it, a chair to the lower right corner of the room, a cushioned bench to the upper right of the room, and upper cabinets with a sink counter below them along with some more cabinets below all of them.
Looking like there was nothing that stood out to her when she walked further inside, she began to wonder what the purpose of going into this room was when she spotted something on the counter sink...
...A notepad.
Jirou blinked.
A notepad? What's...that doing here?
She walked over to the counter and looked down at the notepad.
There were words written on it.
First of all, her eyes widened at this discovery. If someone wrote this on this notepad, then...
Someone was here.
Or...they could have left it here? ...Possibly two-hundred-ish years ago?
As she recovered from that shock, she now noticed what the words said on the paper.
They said:
FIND A HAMMER IN THIS ROOM.
FEEL THE WALLS HERE.
USE THE HAMMER.
"...A hammer?" Jirou muttered in confusion.
SLAM!
Startled beyond belief, Jirou yelped. Turning around, she sees that the door was closed.
"What the!?" Jirou exclaimed.
She went over to the door and grabbed the handle of it. Twisting it, it wouldn't budge.
It was locked.
"What!?" Jirou exclaimed in shock, "Hey, who's there!? Who are you!? Show yourself, you coward!" she yelled out as she pounded the door.
...No reply came from behind the door...
Jirou growled, "You don't want me to kick your ass first when I'm out here!"
...Still no reply...
Glaring at the door with gritted teeth, Jirou said, "Me and Todoroki don't play games, you know!?"
However, she realized something...
Wait...Todoroki should've heard me yell...and he would've come over here by now...
...Jirou backed away from the door.
"...Hey! Todoroki! You there! I'm locked in!" she tried to call out.
...No answer...
"...Uh..." Raising an eyebrow, Jirou tried again as loud as she can, "Hey! Todoroki! You okay!?"
...Still no answer...
...Now she was getting kind of worried.
"Um...why isn't he replying back? Or even...going to the door?" Jirou wondered.
He didn't...he didn't lock me in here, did he?
Shaking her head to rid that thought, Jirou said to herself, "No, don't be stupid. Todoroki isn't the type of guy to do that...I think...I mean, that's more Kaminari's thing...I think..." she frowned, "Man, I got to know my classmates a lot more...still, I don't think that's Todoroki's style."
Upon going to that conclusion, Jirou just looked around the room...her eyes rested on the notepad again...
...She walked up to the notepad again, and read the words once more.
"...Find a hammer?" Jirou asked herself in slight disbelief. She looked at the cabinets above her.
"..."
Reaching up to grasp the knob of the cabinet door, she looked inside it...
...There was a hammer inside, as well as...a flashlight?
And there was a sticky note on the cabinet wall.
It said:
TAKE THE FLASHLIGHT TOO.
She raised a brow at that.
"...Why...would I need a flashlight?" Jirou muttered.
When no answer came, she decided to just heed the note on the wall and cautiously take it. It was a stick flashlight, one that she can hold in her hand. She also reached for the hammer and took it as well.
Now with both items in her hands, she just looks at them with intrigue...
"...How are these gonna help me?" Jirou asked once again to herself.
FEEL THE WALLS HERE.
...She looked around the room, glancing at the walls from left to right.
When turning to the right of the room, she sees an open clear wall next to where the examining bed is located.
...Jirou got a little closer to the wall...
Upon closer inspection of it, she sees that the wall in front of her looks...like it was newly plastered...
It almost looked like the person plastering it was covering a hole...
Jirou reached out and touched the plastered wall with her finger, and tapped on it.
It felt...hollow...
She tapped the wall above this hole to see how thick it was.
It was like tapping concrete.
Stretching her ear jack and placing the tip of it onto the plastered-up hole on the wall, she penetrated the covered wall and could hear...
...Some air...coming through the hole.
It sounded like the hole indentation was there for a while...or it could've been recently plastered...
Either way, the plaster felt a little thin...
...Retracting her ear jack away from the wall, she glanced at the hammer in her right hand, putting one and two together as she remembered the last thing the note said.
USE THE HAMMER.
...Wouldn't I be damaging property?
"...I mean, I just punched a hole with my ear jack, so..."
She looked at the wall in front of her, the hole present on the indention...
"...Well..." Jirou looked over at the door. Walking over to it, she tried one more time to open it. Using her right hand as she tucked the hammer under her arm, she twisted the handle, only for it to still be locked.
"...Alright then. I guess I have no choice," Jirou mumbled.
Going back to the wall, she got the hammer in her right hand and prepared herself to use it on the plastered part of it.
Rearing it back, she paused...
...Oh don't hesitate! Just do it!
And that she did.
Swinging the hammer down with force, she struck the wall.
CRACK!
A piece of rubble fell out of the wall that had been inflicted by the hammer. A hole was now in the plastered part of the wall...
Jirou, still holding the hammer in her hand, looked at the damage she had done.
"...Well, no turning back now," Jirou muttered.
And with that, she kept hammering the plastered wall.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CR-CRACK!
CRACK!
CR-CRACK!
CR-CRACK!
CRAAACK!
CRAC-CRACK!
CRACK!
With that last swing, Jirou basically crumbled all the plaster away to create a human-sized hole to crawl into...
Where it goes, she doesn't know...
...Jirou frowned and sighed, "Well, I damaged a wall to make a hole that leads to who-knows-where...perfect."
Despite her sarcasm, Jirou was really wondering what this all entails here...
"...Well, what now? Does this person want me to crawl into this hole?"
...Yes...
Jirou froze.
"...Who's there?" she asked.
The voice was faint...faint enough even for her to hear...and she has some really good hearing.
...Nonetheless, hearing this faint voice actually...she's not going to lie, that creeped her out.
"...Hello?" Jirou looked around the room slowly and cautiously, making sure she can spot this person before-
Crawl...into the hole…
She gasped.
"...Who are you?" she asked the voice.
...Bring...the flashlight...
...Jirou was now starting to get a little...not scared, but...disturbed...
Not only the voice sounded faint, but it sounded grave...cryptic, even.
"...What's going on here? Do you know where Iida is?"
...Bring...the hammer...just in...case...
Looking down at the hammer in her right hand and the flashlight in her left hand, she frowned, and said out loud to this voice, "What are you playing at!? We're trying to find our classmate! Tell us, or at least me, what's going on!?"
...Go...
Now Jirou was a little annoyed.
"Not until I have some answers!"
...
...
...
...Jirou growled in aggravation.
Damn it! Who was that!? I can only pick up the voice through my ear jacks, I think, but now this guy ain't talking!
"...Okay, fine!" Jirou called out, "But just know that you're harboring two teenagers for some kind of game, which results in a kidnapping, and that you made me inflict property damage! I'm trying to be a Hero, so if I'm somehow expelled from this, then I'm coming for your ass!"
...
"...Tch!" Jirou then pocketed the flashlight and the hammer in her pockets and went inside the hole that she made. She began crawling inside it, making sure she didn't scratch her arms and elbows on the rough edges of the hole, as well as scrape her jeans.
Soon, a minute passed, and she came over to the other side of the hole. Upon getting to her feet, she looked around the area she was in.
...There were...mannequins...
Mannequins were displayed around this area...each with a different pose...
...No, this isn't freaky at all...
Frowning at this kind of setting that she was in, Jirou mumbled disgruntledly, "Yeah, this guy will definitely get a boot up his ass."
Not that she was afraid of mannequins...but this situation isn't making her feel any kind of comfort.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Jirou carefully walked around some of the mannequins.
Each mannequin was made like a blank white slate, only having some details, such as eyes and noses. They were all posing in an alluring fashion, some plainly, some in a seductive way...
What really bothered Jirou was that...even though they are just mannequins, they looked...curvaceous...along with having some...obvious additions to their chests...
...Mannequins aren't supposed to have that much detail on their bodies...
She scowled at the mannequins, "Hmph! Whoever made these were a perv."
As she kept walking, she keeps seeing mannequins upon mannequins with 'ample' assets...
...No guy cares about all of that, right? I mean...I may not have...those, but...like Momo said, I'm my own kind of beautiful…
Do you believe that, though?
Jirou froze...
...Did I...think that? ...Or...
It sounded like it was...spoken out...but she didn't say it out loud...
...
...These mannequins are giving her the absolute creeps.
Grunting in frustration, Jirou muttered, "What am I exactly looking for? I was locked in that patient room, I crawled into that hole in the wall I destroyed, and now I'm here..."
Just what is the purpose of all this? ...And why didn't Todoroki hear me from the room? The door and the walls can't be that thick.
She kept walking around the mannequins...trying to find something...
...However, she soon did.
There was something that looked out of place within the mannequins...
There, in the corner of the room, there was a mannequin...
...Holding a scalpel in its right hand.
The mannequin was posing, its right arm out as it looked like it was partially stabbing something.
On the front of the mannequin though, there were words, written in red spray paint...
Two words were on the faceless head of the model, and two words were on its chest area.
They each, in order, simply said:
TAKE IT.
USE IT.
Jirou blinked at this...
...I don't really like what it's telling me here...
...
...But...what is it telling me?
Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, and mumbled, "Okay...a little freaked out here."
She reached for the scalpel, hoping that the mannequin won't somehow lunge at her.
Once Jirou grabbed the scalpel with her thumb and finger, she pulled the surgery item delicately...letting it slide out.
Getting it out, she turned the blade around to hold it in its handle. Now equipped with a weapon, almost, she turned around and looked at the rows of mannequins in the room.
"...Now what?" Jirou asked herself.
The message said to 'use it', but...on...what...?
...Silence was her only answer.
"...Right," she grumbled.
So she kept trekking around the mannequins, passing by multiple ones to see if there was any kind of clue that she can find...or if she was supposed to go back to the hole that lead back to the patient room...
Until the lights went out.
"AAH!" Jirou exclaimed in shock.
It was dark...she was alone...in a room full of mannequins...
...Shit!
Taking deep breaths to calm herself, she hurriedly located the flashlight in her left pocket. Her left hand got a hold of the base and she quickly pushed on the button to turn on the flashlight.
The light shined on a couple of mannequins.
Turning from right to left, she stood there, beginning to really hate her environment.
"...Okay. Alright...just...keep walking...or something..." she tried to comfort and reason with herself.
She kept walking forward...avoiding any mannequins...and trying to find what she is supposedly looking for.
As she kept walking forward, trying her best to maneuver all the mannequins, she realized something...that she hasn't noticed before.
...How...How big is this room?
It felt like her trek went on forever...
...What's happening here? Who is...who's doing this? Someone with a...a Quirk? I mean, yeah, obviously, but what kind of Quirk? I mean...what is this?
When she tries to calm down and think logically about this situation, she comes up with one mannequin...this one standing out from the rest of them.
This mannequin was just...standing there. With its arms down, it made the impression that it looked like it was lying on something when the model itself was just standing.
But as for what was on the mannequin...there were surgical lines...on the chest...vertical lines on the breasts, and around them.
...Jirou looked at the scalpel in her right hand.
"...What the...why...?"
Okay, this is mad disturbing...
"...You know what? Screw it. Whoever is doing this wants me to play their game, then so be it," Jirou said in disgust. She shouted out to whomever, "Fine, you sick freak! If that's what you want, then I'm gonna do it! Not because you want to see it, but because Todoroki and I don't have time for this crap! We're here to search for our classmate, and that's what we're going to do!"
She then reared the scalpel in her hand...she kept it in the air like that for a few seconds...hesitating...
...Scowling angrily, she snarled, "Fuck it!"
Plunging it into the mannequin's right breast, she dragged it down and ripped the 'skin' harshly.
Upon doing that...red liquid started pouring out.
Jirou's eyes widened and gasped in horror. She dropped the scalpel in shock.
The red liquid began pouring out of the 'wound', gushing like a waterfall...splattering on the ground.
It kept going...until soon, the pouring liquid began to lessen...and then, after a few seconds, it started to drip like a faucet...
...Until something came out of the wound.
It was metal-looking and fell on the floor with a soft 'cling'.
...Jirou looked down at the floor with her flashlight...
The whole part of the ground she was standing on was red-stained...
The whole liquid looked like...
Blood.
Blood from a stab wound...
But in the 'blood' puddle, there was the object...
...A key...
...Jirou slowly reached her hand toward the floor to get the key...
She picked it up...it was stained red...
The key was just an ordinary-looking key...with a plastic tag keychain on it...with the words saying:
Woodside
Apartments
"...A-...Apartments?" Jirou asked herself in question, a little bit of fear and shock from what she just witnessed, and a little bit of curiosity.
Shiff-shiff!
Startled by the sound, Jirou gasped and looked around the area with her flashlight, swinging it as well as turning around frantically to see who was there.
"Wh-Who's there!?" Jirou shouted, trying to put up a brave front.
...Shiff-shiff-shiff!
...Now Jirou was starting to feel a little scared...
...
...
...
...Shiff-shiff-SHIFF-SHIFF!
...Oh, fuck this.
Jirou pocketed the key and ran.
She didn't know where she was going, so she ran in a straight line, bumping into mannequins, even going far as knocking some over, making louder noises as they crashed onto the ground.
Shiff-shiff-shiff-SHIFF-SHIFF!
The noise was getting closer!
Jirou booked it, not caring if she sloppily knocked over any more mannequins.
SHIFF-SHIFF-SHIFF-SHIFF!
Fuck! Keep running! Keep running!
But then, something grabbed the sides of her torso!
"AAAH!" Jirou halted abruptly as she fought her way off whatever this thing's grip is.
The thing viciously turns her around, and Jirou gets to see what was attacking her.
...It was a six-armed mannequin of a woman!
However, the eyes were all black, and the lips were painted red like lipstick. And it had...black and long stringy hair that stopped to its shoulders. The other two sets of arms on each side were going upward, like a ballerina. It also has two legs that seemed to look like they were bent outward and trying to balance itself as it walks.
But there was also another noted detail...there was another set of arms and hands that were resting on the woman mannequin's breasts...almost as if she were covering them out of either shame or decency.
Jirou looked on, wide-eyed in horror as she stared at the creature that was hunting her.
...The Mannequin lowers her four arms as the top pair of hands reached out to her face...softly stroking it with its fingers.
The teenage girl didn't know what to think of this, she was too frightened.
Once it was done with that, the Mannequin then used both of its hands and cupped the sides of her face, basically grasping it.
Then, the second pair of arms went reached out to her...slowly as the Mannequin was about to go...for her chest...
Seeing where the hands were going, the feeling of dread was coming to her in the most embarrassing of fashions. When the Mannequin's hands were close to Jirou's small breasts, she began to struggle.
Oh hell no!
She then remembered quickly and got one of her ear jacks to upwardly stab the arm that was grasping her right face.
Then, its mouth, which opened like a puppet, howled in pain!
As it let go the right side of her face, Jirou got the hammer that was sticking out of her right pocket, and swung the hammer down to smash the arm that was grasping her right side.
Jirou wasn't finished, however, as she continued to use not only her hammer, but the flashlight in her left hand as well to swing and smash the left arms of the monster wildly and at the approaching hands. As the Mannequin dropped Jirou, the teenager landed on her feet and high-tailed it out of there again.
The Mannequin was screaming out in pain...
She could tell that that thing was obviously not happy right now.
Jirou still ran forward, though, and kept running...
...It was then, she found the hole.
Oh, thank goodness!
She basically went right in, with the hammer in her right hand, and the flashlight in her left hand, and crawled her way to safety...
At least she hopes.
She crawled and crawled fast, the screams in the background fading into something feral, probably anger. Jirou could vaguely hear the footsteps again coming from behind her.
No! Get the hell away from me!
When she came out of the hole and into the patient's room, she didn't waste time as she went over to the door, and tried to pull the door open when she twisted it.
Surprisingly, it opened.
"What the-!? Oh, now!?" Jirou aggravatedly yelled.
She exit the room(also she noticed the clinic's lights were off, but she couldn't care less about that right now), and went over to the patient room where Todoroki went into.
She opened the door hurriedly and saw Todoroki standing there, with a clip-on flashlight in his breast pocket.
"J-Jirou!?" Todoroki exclaimed in shock.
"Todoroki! We got to go! NOW!" Jirou told him.
Apparently, he didn't ask questions and followed her out of the room.
They ran through the hall and turned to the hall past the cubicles, and went out to the waiting room, and out of the clinic.
They were outside now, but they kept running, taking a left...
Running until they got away from that clinic...
Soon, the two teens ran for about two blocks, and they were starting to feel exhausted.
They stopped to catch their breath...
"Hah...hah...hah...haaah..." Jirou gasped for air.
"Huff…huff...huff...huuuff..." Todoroki was catching his breath.
They both stood there as they recovered from their events...
...Jirou then turned to Todoroki, who in turn, looked at Jirou.
"...So..." Jirou muttered, "...Did you encounter something unnatural as well?"
Todoroki's eyes widened in shock...and soon, they softened, "...Yeah..."
"...Oh...what, uh...what was it?" Jirou asked him, a little surprised that he actually did experience something bizarre like her.
"...Um..." Todoroki looked away for a moment, "...It's...kind of messed up..."
"...You too?" Jirou asked him with surprised blinking eyes.
"...Um..." he then looked at Jirou again, "What did you find, if you've found anything?"
"Oh, uh..." Jirou then realized that she still has her hammer in her right hand. "Oh, uh, c-can you hold this for me, please?"
"Oh, um, sure," Todoroki said with a blink as he took it off her hands.
The Rocker Girl then put her hand in her right pocket and got the key out, "I, um...found this."
Todoroki also got the key from her hand and looked at the tag. "...Woodside Apartments?"
"Yeah...I think that's...our next destination?" Jirou said, a little unsure with a half shrug.
"...Hm...well, we should probably find these apartments...I guess," Todoroki said.
"I mean, yeah..." Jirou looked back at the way that they came from, "...Uh...let's keep going. I kind of have a feeling that that won't be the last time we...uh, see whatever the heck we saw..."
"...Okay," Todoroki looked thoughtful as he glanced at the key...and soon back at Jirou, "Do you...want to talk about...uh, what we saw back there?"
"...I mean...not right now..." Jirou said with a frown as she glanced at the ground.
"..." Todoroki looked at the way forward. "...You're right. We probably should keep going."
Looking up at Todoroki, Jirou said, "Y-Yeah...we still gotta find Iida..."
Nodding to that, Todoroki said, "Right."
But the question is...
...Which way is the Woodside Apartments?
Hey all! Here is a long chapter for ya! I hope it's worth the wait! :)
Tell me what you think about the monsters and the symbolism! Also, tell me how the story is so far! I would love to hear what you all think! :D
Thank you all for reading! Leave a fave, follow, and a review! Until then, keep on rocking everybody! 8D
-TSP