Chapter 3: When Hell Freezes Over Part 5 (Daily Life)

Remaining Students: 14

Yūgo Hachiken (Silver Spoon): Ultimate Tutor

Reyn (Xenoblade Chronicles): Ultimate Tank

Pietro Maximoff "Quicksilver" (Marvel Cinematic Universe): Ultimate Speedster

Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Pilot

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Prince

Satou Kazuma (Konosuba) Ultimate Thief

Bede (Pokémon): Ultimate Gym Leader

Ray (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Strategist

Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club): Ultimate Poet

Konata Izumi (Lucky Star): Ultimate Otaku

Saki Nikaido (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Biker Gang Leader

Tsuyu Asui (My Hero Academia) Ultimate Amphibian

Minori Ichinose (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure): Ultimate Bookworm

Kale (Dragon Ball Super): Ultimate ?

Team 1: Hachiken, Tsuyu, Minori (Cure Papaya), Kazuma.

Team 2: Sayori, Saki, Bede, Pietro.

Team 3: Kale, Tails, Dimitri.

Team 4: Reyn, Konata, Ray

Hachiken's POV

Insert Song: Ocean Palace (Sonic Heroes)

"M-Minori… I mean, Cure Papaya? How did you do that?!"

I asked her as she got into a battle-ready stance, my eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I saw her in that flashy outfit.

"No time to explain, Hachiken! Just going to say that it'll help out in a pinch, although you two are in more than just a pinch right now. Here I go, haaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Her kiwi shaped earrings came off and she began to twirl them around in the air.

PEW! PEW!

She just… formed them into lenses that shot lasers! What in the world?!

BA BOOM!

"YARANEEDA!"

The monster cried out in pain when their eyes got hit by the lasers. Wait, it's moving its hands up to shield its face, which means…

"WHOA WHOA!"

"AAAAAAAAAGH!"

Me and Kazuma slipped out of its hands as we quickly approached the ground. I shut my eyes and hoped I wouldn't go splat…

"Got you, ribbit!"

Tsuyu thankfully swings by and picks us up and places us back on the ground. Kazuma and I stretch our backs out after being put through some unwanted chiropractic treatment.

"Agh, couldn't he have just attacked her while she was transforming?" Kazuma calls out the ridiculousness of what we saw.

I cracked my spine again as I turned to him, "Be grateful that he didn't or we'd be broken in half!"

Tsuyu and Minori go at the monster together, showing how their unique powers were enough to tango with it. All the while, I looked on and sighed, wondering what I brought to the table out of us four now…

Tsuyu stomped on its brain from above as Minori then took out some kind of fancy looking rod.

"Heart Rouge Rod!"

Oh, so that's what it's called. She twisted it to make some yellow glowing lipstick appear before using her mouth to blow into it, creating a yellow heart bubble that ABSORBED HER, WHAT?!

"Pretty Cure! Panpaka Papaya Shot!"

The bubble turns into a giant papaya with a face as it leapt into the air, when Minori reappears to slice it open to shoot some green seeds at the monster! I… am not making this up, I swear. A little glowing pair of lips surrounded the… Yaraneeda? I think it was shouting its name at us, how unique… Cure Papaya turned away from it after finishing her attack.

"Victory!" She declares while spinning around like a ballerina.

KABOOM!

… That thing just straight up exploded. I held my head with both my hands as I processed that entire scene.

"Holy crap… Minori, that was… wow."

Minori kicked a tiny piece of rubble bashfully, "Was it? Then, um… thank you, Hachiken!"

Kazuma crossed his arms and lowered his eyebrows, "So when were you gonna tell us you were some fruit-flinging magical girl, huh? You probably tried to keep it all to yourself so you could show us up!"

"I tried telling you back during our first meeting in the cafeteria, and I was unable to transform before Bede and I had that conversation with Monokuma! Do not try to make it seem like it was my fault." She replied back sternly.

"Guys, come on…" I got in between them before they got more angry at each other.

"Hey Tsu, back me up here!"

Tsuyu was busy looking at something and ignoring Kazuma's complaining as she should be. Curiously, I walked up behind her to see what had her attention and my eyes widened.

"That was… a hologram?"

The monster was all glitched and most of its body was missing from that explosion. The four of us roamed all around it, wondering what the heck was going on before the doors to the next section of the maze opened up.

"Ah, damn. We better keep going, we'll think about this later!" Kazuma ran ahead as we followed him and saw what was next.

Flame jets on moving platforms with a spike pit on the bottom, oh joy… The other went ahead as I took a few more deep breaths and another strange thing suddenly popped up before me. It was a glowing rainbow box with a question mark on it, I tap it and it shatters.

"Got Item! Choose who gets it!"

Uh… are these the random items that you can use on the other teams? Nope, not gonna be a jackass and bring down anyone.

"No opponents selected! Now choosing a random team…"

Shoot… my bad. Here's hoping that whoever gets this won't slip up….

Sayori's POV

"Agh! Ack! Ahh!"

Monokuma was right when he said it would be worse, this is way different than it was when I was watching it from the stadium seats! My cute little bow almost got burned to a crisp until I blew out the fire on it, and this cute new glowy track outfit already had two rips on the sleeves.

"Sayo! Keep up, will ya?! Doriyah!"

Whoa! Saki just kicked one of the swinging axes into a wall, we all passed by it while catching up to Pietro. He really has no problem running through all of this stuff, I couldn't be more jealous of his super speed. I looked at Bede as he scowled at Pietro, and I giggled to myself because his outfit was so pink!

"What are you laughing at?! Keep your eyes on the prize…" He told me and I couldn't stop myself from laughing a little.

"Ehehehe, sorry Bede, it really does suit—YOUUUUUUUUUU! Oof!"

I slipped before landing on my butt and I turned around to see that someone left a banana peel on the floor! I didn't see that while I was running ahead, where did it come from? And whoever put it there better pick it back up, littering is just awful!

I let out a sigh before the lights dimmed and the doors behind us closed.

Pietro shrugged with his shoulder, "Hm, an actual challenge."

"Okay, who wants to get wrecked?!" Saki bumped her fists together and gritted her teeth.

A lightning bolt then struck the ground and what stood before us was…

"Pika! Pika!"

Awwwww!

"He's such a cute widdle guy!" I immediately ran over it and nuzzled its cheeks.

BZZT!

"Owie! Bad widdle guy, bad!" I scolded the small animal for jolting me.

"Pikachu, eh? I… don't if I can punch it and not feel bad about it." Saki patted it on the ears, which I noticed had adorable little yellow flower earrings on them.

Pietro shook his head, "This can't be all there is, is it? Do I just need to punt the rat across the room?"

I saw him lifting his leg up and I immediately went to protect it.

"No no no! I won't let you!

"I feel bad, but if this is the only way then…"

I saw him spinning his leg at rapid speed as I panicked more.

"I won't let you touch a hair on its cute little head!"

"Oi, Bede, quit starin' at nothing and solve this. You're an expert on Pokémon, so figure something out!" Saki told him and he sighed.

Bede grunted and pointed at something, "There, you see it?".

A small panel opened up, revealing a small red ball that looked kinda like the ones Bede has on his belt. It sucked the cute little mouse thing into it, before the ball suddenly got a red digital forcefield around it as it was launched into the air.

Bede looked at his cool little wristband and it glowed that same kind of energy.

"Of course the stadium is built like that…which means that this Pikachu will…"

Insert Song: Battle! Max Raid (Pokémon Sword & Shield)

The ball landed on the ground and agh, my eyes, I couldn't see a thing! I rubbed them for a bit before I reopened them.

THUD!

A loud thud was heard as I looked up to see that the widdle Pikachu wasn't so little anymore…

"PI!"

My mouth was so wide, like it was close to dropping to the floor like in cartoons! It was all giant and chubby, which was even more adorable by the way, though I can still tell this wasn't good at all. I took a few steps back before I heard Bede gasping.

"Get down!"

"PIKA… CHUUUUUUU!"

BZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPP!

"AAAAGH!" We screamed.

The big mouse thing shot a bunch of lightning bolts from above and we all barely dodged it… still cute, but it could learn some manners!

"Alright, c'mere, you big lug! I'm gonna make you fall on your fat ass! Hyah!"

Saki jumped towards it with a flying kick, but its pudgy body bounces her backwards with a BOING! Right as she was flying backwards, a glowing rainbow box appeared and Saki's body went right through it to shatter it to pieces.

"Go Item! Which of your allies gets a power boost?"

Where is that voice coming from?

"WHOOOOAAAA!" She yells as she lands in Pietro's arms after he dashed to catch her.

"Ugh, nice catch, Quickshitter."

"Don't mention it, you undead brat. But we've got bigger problems!" Pietro responds back before putting her down and running in between the Pikachu's legs to try and trip it.

Over in the corner of the room, I saw Bede looking down at those balls again. The Pikachu was charging up again and it looked like it was aiming at him!

"I shouldn't go for my ace just yet, I should save her and just use this one…"

"Bede, watch out!"

I tackled him as soon as the mouse sent a bolt his way. I looked directly at him while panting heavily.

"Are… are you okay?! That was a real close one…"

He looked like he was about to say something, but shook his head and stood up, dusting himself off.

"Now, Rapidash!"

After he pressed a button on his ball he let out a unicorn! I was looking at it with complete astonishment as I just wanted to brush its majestic hair, though Bede slapped my hand away before I could.

"Hmph! As mean as always…"

Bede ignored me before giving his "Rapidash" a command.

"Drill Run!"

The horn on its head began to spin like a drill as I watched it charge into the giant Pikachu. It looked pretty sharp, so I hoped the big mouse would be okay as I then spotted Saki hunched over and Pietro running towards her. He's about to run into her, oh no!

"Watch out, he's going to crash into—"

That's when Saki held both her hands out like a ramp and smirked.

"You sure about this, pal?"

Pietro smirked back, "It'll be fun, I saw it in a dream once so I thought I could take a spin at it. Ready?"

Saki nodded as I looked on, wondering what the heck they were planning.

"Comin' atcha! One FASTball special on the house! HRRRRRAAAAAGH!"

She ended up launching him with all her strength and Pietro shoulder tackled the mouse right across the head! The Pikachu falls unconscious as Pietro lands and he fist bumps Saki, holy cow! It soon faded away, which made me glad it wasn't real, but curious on what they were… holograms?

"That was incredible, you two just worked together perfectly! How did you do that?"

I asked as I came over to them and Saki answered.

"That box thing I crashed into? It was like one of those item boxes in Mario Kart! That one pumped me up and made me stronger, so this speedy bastard had an idea for me to launch him using that and his speed! Cool, huh?"

I nodded quickly " Very very cool! So… you guys don't hate each other anymore?"

Pietro shrugged, "Hmmm… it depends on how I'm feeling, though right now I'm trying to be a class act… Oh, the door's opened, keep up zombie girl!"

Pietro ran ahead while brushing past Saki's ponytail just to annoy her.

"Hey! Tch, class act? More like a class-hole!"

Saki immediately got angry and chased after him as I just stood there and giggled. I guess they won't grow out of it, hee hee, it's kind of like a sibling rivalry!

"You, Sayori…"

Bede appeared behind me as he recalled his Rapidash back into its ball.

"Y-Yes?"

He sighed as he held his hand out to me, "... Thank you for getting me out of the way of the thunderbolt."

My eyes widened, I can't believe he's complimenting me… after all the time he's been such a meanie… am I dreaming? I have to be, Bede being nice to me? Impossible! Preposterous! Inconceivable! Pretty sure I learned a lot of those smart words from Yuri.

"Hurry up and shake before I change my mind, we're wasting time here…"

Hee hee, that's more like it.

"Ehehehe~, sorry. You're welcome! Let's go now, Bede!"

I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me to the next part of the maze.

"H-Hey! Unhand me or you'll regret it!" He shouted at me as I ignored him and continued running with him.

Hachiken's POV

"Yeah, ha ha! We're breezing through this no problem!"

"Ya! Ra! Nee! Da!"

Kazuma bounced the head of a dark knight (with the same unmotivated face as the last monster) on his knee like a soccer ball before kicking it away! He actually managed to use his Steal ability to grab it, just how does that work?! I kicked the head ball to Tsuyu, who managed to hit it to Minori, who brought it back to Kazuma as he delivered one final stab onto it.

"Hoo, man, it felt good to do that. Last time I fought a guy like this I didn't get the final blow and missed all the exp I could have gotten. Wish I got experience from that, but I'm fine with just stabbity stabbing it." Kazuma grinned as we watched the door open.

I let out a sigh as Tsuyu walked over to me and put her gloved hand on my shoulder.

"Hachiken, you look like you're troubled by something, ribbit."

I flinched as I looked back at her and cleared my throat, "Who me?! I'm okay, I'm okay! Ha ha ha… ha."

Her usual blank expression was a sign she definitely didn't believe me.

"Ugh, I guess I do have a problem… I feel like I don't really add much to this team with you three and all your amazing powers. I'm just a guy from a farm school who knows how to do math well and take care of animals." I put my head down on my knees while sitting down.

"Mmm, well that isn't all that bad actually. You're intelligent and you are considerate of other living things, even if you can't do what we can you still have merit, Hachiken."

I peeked my head up from my knees and saw her smiling at me and I let out another sigh.

"That is helpful to hear that, thanks… but how are either of those going to help me with this maze?"

She grabbed my hand and lifted me back on my feet, "Hm, ribbit… I guess you just have to find out. Don't be afraid to go beyond your limits."

My eyes went wide for a brief moment before I softly nodded, though my head was still staring at the floor.

That's why she keeps on repeating that "Plus Ultra" thing, she wants me to push myself… hm… We rejoin Minori and Kazuma as we swung on ropes over (potentially) bottomless pits, vaulting over shockwaves, ducking underneath tranquilizer darts, and avoiding large stone fists looking to crush us.

We make it to the next room, once again the lights go out and we wander around a dark room. It was completely silent aside from our breathing, and we were thankful that our outfits were glowing so brightly so we wouldn't lose each other. Another minute passes and we still haven't found our next battle. I tried to lean against the wall of the maze only to find that it wasn't metal at all.

In fact, the wall was breathing and pink… hold on… I recognize this snorting…

"P-Pork Bowl?"

Insert Song: Giga Farm (Silver Spoon/Gin no Saji)

As soon as I said that, the lights came back on and to my horror was almost the splitting image of the pig I took care of in my first year. Almost, because it had that same uninterested face as before, and HE was HUGE! Is this… some kind of twisted nightmare where Pork Bowl came back for revenge after becoming bacon?

"YARANEEDA!"

It cried out the same name like the others, except this time it sounded all deep and nasally. The bad piggy squealed loudly as I was pushed back by its breath… Minori, Kazuma, and Tsuyu all did their best to attack the big boar, but all their attempts failed.

Lasers from Minori? He got hit in the eyes and only got angrier, ramming into her before she could even react.

Tongue-tied by Tsuyu? The runt of the litter took the frog girl on a ride until he flung her into a wall.

"Ok, porker, I'm gonna spit roast ya!"

Kazuma shoots a fireball directly at his snout… and it was effective for a bit… until the pig straight up tried to eat him.

"MMPH! MMMPH!"

Kaumza let out a muffled scream as all three of us pulled on his legs to get him out of there. As soon as we freed him we regrouped in a small little circle, while Evil Pork Bowl sniffed around for food.

Kazuma brushed saliva off his cape, "Blech, can't believe I smell worse than if I was inside a giant toad!"

Tsuyu gave him a quick tongue slap before getting to the point.

"This giant pig is too durable, ribbit! We need a new strategy."

It was then that I saw two item boxes, and that's when I remembered that they can also affect our environment, not just our opponents'! It was right above the piggy's head and a lightbulb went off in my brain. God I hope this works…

"Tsuyu, I need to get above him to grab those boxes. Can you two distract Pork Bo— I mean, the Yaraneeda?"

Minori nodded and Kazuma grimaced.

"Do we have to?" The latter asked.

"What other options do we have? You shouldn't be so frightened of something like that!" The former grabbed his arm and led him back towards the pig.

Her personality really is different when she's all Papaya'd up.

"Hold on tight, Hachiken, ribbit. I'll try not to drop you…"

I'm just hoping that these items won't give her butter fingers, or… butter tongue as that's what she was holding me with. Ugh, that doesn't sound very pleasant, I shouldn't have thought of that. Back to the action, I kept myself from panicking or barfing as Tsuyu was swinging around from the ceiling.

"Urgh… there it is… get closer…" I uttered out as Tsuyu nodded.

Down below the other two were working as hard as they could to keep him occupied. Minori shot her laser beams into his snout before kicking it. Kazuma froze the evil Pork Bowl's stubby legs and snuck up from behind to slash its twisted tail off. The tail fell off and fades away and I'm reminded how these things were indeed holograms, strangely ones that could hurt us physically.

I felt bad about doing this, I mean he looks like a pig I knew and loved, yet he was a danger to us and we had to stop him. Tsuyu gave one more big swing over to the boxes and she tossed me over.

"RAAAAAAHHHHH! Agh, please let there be something good in these!" I closed my eyes as my hand touched the item boxes.

I cushion my fall by landing atop the large pig.

"Got Item! Choose who gets—"

"Just send that one to whoever! I need one for myself!" I said to the robotic voice lady as I switched over to my second power-up.

"Ha ha ha! Man, these challenges are nothing, I'm shocked!" Reyn laughed loudly.

BZZZZZZ!

Reyn was literally shocked by electricity, leaving him all smoky and with a poofy afro.

"GYAAAAH! Ey, who did that?! I'm gonna smash you into the ground!"

"Heh, he's drawing in all that aggro into himself, great strategy Reyn.." Konata snarked as Ray pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Come on, come on, come on… yes!"

Luckily the second one was something I can use on myself… but what was this? A bunch of straps and a saddle? Well, better than nothing I suppose.

"Huh?"

"YARANEEDA?"

Light enveloped me and the big pig before I found myself sitting atop a saddle with an equally large harness on him.

"W-Whoa! Hachiken… can you control that thing?!" I heard Kazuma shout a question from below.

I gripped the straps carefully as Tsuyu brought him and Minori up on top of the pig with me.

"I guess we're gonna find out…" I gulped as everyone held onto my back and I flicked the straps, "Hya!"

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!" We all belted out at once as we rode our trans-pork-tation right through the walls of the maze.

All the doors turned into scrap and the hazards bounced off his fleshy exterior! Granted, it was not a pleasant ride in the slightest, it's much harder than riding a horse! Still, I appreciate not having to run around and avoid pointy things that can cut me open.

As soon as we passed through one more wall we ended up in this very large open space. Before I could question why it was so expansive it was answered with the finish line being lit up with neon lights at the very end of it.

We made it… only one final dash towards the end…

"Hyah! Uh… hyah?"

I tried flicking the straps again, but discovered that they were disappearing. Same thing as the mega Pork Bowl as we all soon land on top of the grassy field.

"Grgh, thank god… I was about to barf if we rode that thing for any longer…" Kazuma retched while holding his stomach.

I walked forward, placing my hand on his snout and leaned my forehead against it.

"Thank you, old friend, hope to see you again soon…"

I whispered as I turned back to watch my companions staring back at me with confusion.

"U-Um! We should keep moving!"

Minori gave me a sincere smile and nodded, "Y-Yes. Only a light jog until the end, although it's likely that there's one final enemy we have to face. We should be prepared for… eh?"

A cool breeze blew through the four of us, I felt myself shivering as I took another step. It's like the temperature in this room just dropped by a whole lot, I could even see my breath as the grass was now an icy white. The wind started to intensify as we heard a loud thumping noise.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

I think I was both frozen in place from both fear and the cold atmosphere, because that looked like a GIGANTIC iceberg that could move.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!"

Even its voice felt like a blizzard as we got launched back towards the entrance to this room. This was already not looking good, but that's when the other shoe dropped…

"Tsuyu… are you okay? Hey… wake up!"

I tried shaking her, but her eyes were beginning to close and her body was falling limp. It was then that I remembered that her abilities as a frog meant something else that I never even considered…

Hibernation…

Brace yourselves, everyone. That's all I'm going to say. Next chapter is live now…