Chapter 6: The Coral Reef in the Desert

It had now been five days since the Special Region Exploration Unit had left Uwabami's mushroom forest, and for those last five days, they had been driving through a desert.

A dry, rocky, desert, with nothing to show for it but pictures of crags.

"Hey, Uraraka, how are you holding up there?" Kirishima asked his car's gunner.

"Just keep the sunscreen coming!" the brown-haired girl called out from above. "Also, I'd like you to refill my canteen, please! I'd rather not die of dehydration up here!"

"Roger that!" he smiled. "Uh, Lieutenant…?"

"I heard her, Kirishima," Momo said, as she reached into the magic bag, thought of a water jug, and pulled out just what she wanted. "Make sure to give it back once we're done."

"Gotcha."

"Five days," Awase, the car's driver, groaned. "We've been out here in this goddamn desert for five days, and we've got nothing to show for it. No civilizations, no monsters, no nothing."

"That's not entirely true," Kirishima said. "Remember that basilisk from a few days ago?"

Three days earlier…

The crew couldn't help but admire the creature. It looked like a chameleon, but it had eight legs, a giant red rhino-like horn on its nose, was longer than all three of their LAVs lined up, taller too, and, if Bakugou's book was accurate, could turn them all to stone with just a glance.

They decided to admire it from afar.

Oh, and to make sure that the camera didn't have the flash on, as to not draw its attention.

"Okay, we have one monster to show for it," Awase corrected himself. "But that's it."

"Well, we are in the Rupes Desert," Melissa, the fifth passenger of the vehicle, stated. "This place is not exactly known for sustaining any major life like, say, a sandy desert."

"Oh, yeah, good point. We haven't seen a single sand dune, either."

"Mmm…" Momo was about to say something when she noticed something on the horizon. It kinda looked like a rock formation, or a plant. Grabbing a pair of binoculars, she took a better look, and saw… Colorful rocks? I can see blue, yellow, and pink…

"Kirishima," she called out to her communications specialist. "Radio the others. Tell them that I just noticed something interesting on the horizon, and that we'll be getting closer to it."

"Roger."

"All units, this is Kirishima," the radio crackled to life. "The Lieutenant spotted something in the distance. It could be an actual thing, so get ready to get out of the LAVs, just in case."

"Understood," Itsuka replied. A small part of her was hoping that whatever Yaoyorozu saw was actually something, just so she could actually prove herself out there.

While she laughed off the fact that her and Neito got high off mushroom spores, a small part of her was still embarrassed by the incident. Not only that, but she knew that if she felt like that, then her boyfriend felt far worse, and he would only be more gung-ho to prove himself.

Which would only end up making things worse.

Not only that, but that was one of the few things the entire squad was talking about. The only other topics of interest were the giant scorpion and the snail monsters, and honestly, most people were pretty uncomfortable with the fact those things existed.

And sure, she could relate. Realizing that humans aren't anywhere near the top of the food chain in this world was a bit of an unnerving fact, so of course rather than that shit, everyone would try to find something light-hearted to think about.

Even if it came at the expense of someone else's dignity.

So really, for everyone's sake, Itsuka hoped that whatever Yaoyorozu saw was actually something. Hopefully, that would mean at least a new thing to talk about.

"Oh, hey, I can see it!" Awase said.

Whatever Momo saw, it was far closer than before. It was a location, alright. She could see blue and yellow structures that somewhat reminded her of the mushroom forest, along with pink branches. Honestly, the height itself made it seem like another forest.

As they drove even closer to it, she saw even more things…

"Yo, Lieutenant, do you see those things flying around them?"

"I can, Awase," she replied. She could see them alright. Whatever these things were, they were alive, and they always stayed close to the colorful structures. Maybe they were birds?

Grabbing her binoculars once more, Momo took a closer look at whatever was flying around the structures. Let's see, they're a bluish-silver, they move from side to side, they have fins –

That immediately made her do a double-take.

"Wait a minute, are those… FISH?!"

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"

For some sad reason, Momo knew those would be Rin's first words.

Five minutes after the squad leader realized that there were FISH FLYING IN THE SKY, she radioed the other vehicles to keep driving, and to follow her. Ten minutes after that, they found an entrance that allowed their vehicles to fit inside, and some observations became clear.

The colorful things were not some weird rocks, or some man-made structure, those were coral. And those things that were flying, or more accurately, swimming in the sky were fish.

They had entered a coral reef.

In the middle of the desert.

Where there was no water.

What the fuck?

"Private Rin," Momo called out to him. "You're an expert in zoology. Care to explain… this?"

"Explain?" He looked at her like she was crazy. "EXPLAIN?! HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN THIS?! THIS SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE! FISH FLYING IN THE SKY?!"

"They're actually swimming in the sky," Kodai pointed out.

"My point still stands! This violates so many laws of natural science! Like, for example, what the hell is keeping the fish swimming through the air in the first place?! This place acts like there's water, but we can clearly breathe out here! Hell, there's not even a change in gravity to mimic the effects of being underwater! Second off, how are they breathing?! Fish gills are designed to take in water and filter out oxygen! They're not designed like lungs, they can't breathe in air! Finally, what the hell is keeping them and their epidermal mucus from drying out in this desert sun, WHEN THERE'S NO GODDAMN WATER TO BEGIN WITH?!"

It was at this moment Momo realized Rin was having a mental breakdown.

She needed to salvage this. Fast.

"Shield-san." Momo looks toward their resident angel. "Since you're a local to this world, perhaps you may know how this environment is at all possible out here?"

"Hmm…" Melissa thought about it a bit, before responding with, "Magic."

"THAT EXPLAINS NOTHING!" Rin snapped at her.

"OKAY!" Momo clapped her hands, trying to diffuse the situation. "Since we have five competent scientists in our ranks, how about we use them? Uraraka, an explanation to how physics around this works would be nice, and Tsuburaba, assist her. Kaibara, take some soil and earth samples. Komori and Rin, see if you can identify any of the local flora and fauna."

"And the rest of us, Lieutenant?" Monoma asked.

"The rest of you can form teams of three and scout the area around us. Awase, Monoma, and Bakugou, take the eastern path. Melissa, Kirishima, and Kodai, take the east. Kendo, Aoyama, and Sato, you will take the path in front of you. Report back in an hour."

And with that, everyone got to work.

As the fish swam around them in the air, Awase had to admit, this was a nice change of scenery. Compared to the desert they had been traveling for the past five days, this place was an explosion of bright colors and beautiful creatures.

It looked like they were on an alien planet, and yet, all of the fish that were swimming past him were definitely the types he had seen in an aquarium back in Japan. It kinda reminded him of Uwabami's mushroom forest; familiar, but with a twist to it.

The twist this time around being that both he and the fish could breathe in the same place.

"Look alive, boys," Monoma commanded them. "Who knows what's out there…"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure it's fish," Awase said. "And maybe some starfish, and the occasional crab. On, and I'm pretty sure I saw one of those rock lice you find in tidepools scuttling about –"

SMACK!

"Ow! Bakugou, what the hell was that for?!"

"Idiot! Did you already forget what happened to you the last time we were in a forest of weird shit?!" the demolition expert asked. "You were turned to stone! Hell, I was almost eaten by some goddamn fungus! And both of those things happened because we were woefully unprepared for what was in that forest! This place could be no different!"

"Bakugou's right," Monoma replied. "None of us had any idea that there were so many things in that forest that could kill us. For all we know, this place has just as many dangers…"

"RRRRR…"

"Speak of the devil."

"Take some pictures, Aoyama," Kendo said. "Aizawa's gonna flip when he sees this."

"Oui," the French sniper agreed, as he took some photos of the local fauna.

"You think I could make some sushi out of these fish?" Sato asked.

"Absolutely not!" Kendo looked horrified at the suggestion. "These are reef fish! They're already endangered back on Earth, do you really wanna start reducing their populations here, too?! And besides… don't you remember basic biology from middle school? Animals with this sort of coloration tend to be poisonous. Remember those poison dart frogs?"

"Yeah… that was a bad call."

"There is a saying I recall known as, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints," Monsieur Sato," Aoyama said. "Of course, we will be taking more than a few pictures ourselves, but we'll only be taking what we need for scientific research, and nothing more."

"That's right, Aoyama," Kendo smiled. "We'll…"

"Hm?" Both Sato and Aoyama noticed she stopped talking. "Kendo?"

"We're being watched."

"Mm," Kodai hummed, as she pointed to a… "Starfish."

"Yep, it's a starfish alright," Kirishima nodded. "Big and orange one, at that."

Kodai pointed at something again. "Crab."

"Yeah, that's definitely a crab. It's also orange."

"Octopus."

"Let me guess, Kodai…" Kirishima sighed. "It's also orange?"

"Yellow. With red rings."

Okay, that got Kirishima's attention.

Turning towards where Melissa was pointing, he saw that, floating out of the coral crevices, was an octopus, around a meter in size, with a dull yellow skin tone, and with dozens of red rings adorning its body. It seemed to be observing the group, curiously.

"Hey there," Melissa said, as she got down on her knees, in an effort to appear less threatening. "Come on out, little guy. My friends and I won't hurt you. Promise."

The octopus slowly floated towards them, approaching Melissa. Kodai made sure to record the interaction on her phone, as Kirishima made sure not to make any sudden movements.

Eventually, the octopus stopped right in front of them, lifted up one of its long tentacles, and waved. In turn, Melissa gave it a small smile, and waved back. Kirishima, deciding to follow suit, lifted his hand as well, to wave, but before he could register it…

…the octopus touched his hand.

He didn't panic. Melissa didn't show any signs that this was a bad thing, and the octopus didn't seem like it was trying to grab him, more like, it was trying to get a feel of him. Kirishima figured it was trying to shake his hand, but in its own octopus-like way.

Slowly, Kirishima gave it his own, big smile.

FWOOM!

In an instant, the octopus darted away, back into the crevice, and into hiding. Kodai stopped the recording, and Melissa got up. Kirishima wondered for a second if his smile scared it away, when he heard some sound coming from the sand, approaching them.

Footsteps.

Turning their heads, the three of them saw a newcomer approach. He was tall, and definitely bulky. In fact, due to the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt, they could see his rock-hard abs. But he was at least wearing a blue jacket, with gauntlets, a darker shade of pants, and a yellow-and-black bandana covering part of his spiky white hair, kinda like Awase.

He waved towards them. "Hello there!"

Switching to Latin, Kirishima greeted him first. "Hey! My name's Kirishima! What's yours?"

"I'm Desutegoro, but you guys can call me by my adventurer name, Death Arms!"

"An adventurer?" Kodai asked. "Like, ones that explore dungeons?"

"Yep, that's us!" Death Arms smiled, pointing at himself. "Explore dungeons, slay dragons, save princesses, all that kind of stuff! When you need heroes-for-hire, we're the guys you hire!"

"That is so manly!" Kirishima's eyes had stars in them.

"What are you doing here?" Melissa asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" Death Arms pointed a finger at them. "An angelic paladin, and two human fighters, here, in the Corallium Forest, of all places? If I was a betting man, I'd say that you're adventures, too, and you're here for the shrine's magical map!"

""The what?"" Both Kirishima and Kodai were now confused.

"Oh, I guess that you're not there for that, then. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you about it," Death Arms murmured. "In the center of this coral forest, there is a large tree, and in front of it, a shrine. Etched in it is an up-to-date map of the continent. Legends say that the shrine always updates itself whenever a new part of the world is discovered, whenever new countries are created, or when new borders are drawn. It even never runs out of ink. So, the only thing a person would need is a piece of parchment to get themselves a copy of that map."

Kirishima, Kodai, and Melissa all looked at each other for a few seconds before Kirishima asked, "Could you please give us a moment?" Then, they immediately huddled.

"Guys this is huge," the artificial redhead whispered. "A literal map of the continent? And one that is that up-to-date?! The Lieutenant would kill for something like that!"

"Agreed," Kodai whispered back. "Need to obtain it."

"Guys…" Melissa said, worryingly. "I'm not sure about this…"

"Kodai, you got any paper on you?" Kirishima asked.

"Mm-hm. I have a roll used for headrests, but it can be used for this…"

"Alright, let's do this," Kirishima smiled, as the huddle broke up. Turning back to the adventurer, he asked, "Ahem… would it be alright if we accompanied you to this tree?"

"Sure, the more the merrier! Follow me!"

The three of them followed the white-haired man through the coral reef, two of them excited at the prospect of such a valuable item, while the angel of the group…

Melissa didn't know why, but something was off about that Death Arms guy.

"Alright, what have you found so far?"

It had been half an hour since Momo ordered the three teams to explore deeper into the coral forest. Since that time, the science team she stuck around with made as many observations about the environment as they could. Time to see the fruits of their labor.

"Well, Rin's observations about there being no water were right on the money," Uraraka said.

"How do you figure that?"

Uraraka proceeded to open her canteen of water, and pour some of it onto the ground. "The water isn't being absorbed into the atmosphere by any kind of magic, it's just falling to the sand at a normal 9.8 meters per square second. This would imply that all the living things in this ecosystem have somehow evolved to survive with seemingly no water. Also, for why the fish are able to fly, my current guess would be some sort of force field, but I'll need more data."

"I see. Tsuburaba?"

"All the clouds around the area seem to be cumulus type, with the occasional nimbostratus. My best guess is that any water that shows up here gets evaporated as normally, and then when it rains, this… coral forest absorbs whatever it needs to survive, and the rest of it gets evaporated again. So, there's a good chance this place still needs water to survive, but just a small amount."

"Okay. Kaibara?"

"The sand here is the same type of sand we'd find on a coral reef back on Earth," the geologist explained. "It's fine sand mostly composed of calcareous fragments of biogenic origin. I also did some analysis on the coral, and the base of it all seems to be made of limestone deposits."

"I'm going to need the terminology of some of those words you said."

"Calcareous fragments are made up of calcium and magnesium, like the limestone. Stuff that's biogenic means that it was made by once-living things, ma'am," Kaibara answered.

"Thank you," Momo said, as she turned to the botanist. "Komori?"

"Well, considering that it's a coral reef, the majority of the creatures here are all animals. However, I did manage to find some sea lettuce, a type of edible green algae," she said, showing the baggied sample. "I also noted that the algae was healthy and showed no signs of dehydration, which, given where we are, is honestly kind of baffling."

"I can imagine. Rin?"

"Okay, so I decided to just identify any type of animal I found, because if I tried to figure out how they're all surviving out here in the desert, I would probably go insane," the zoologist said.

"Good call. What did you find?"

"The majority of the coral and other sedimentary life here are ones that can be found back home. The pink branch-like ones are known as precious coral, the purple tube-like ones are stove-pipe sponges, the small green ones are a type of plate coral, and I saw a lot of different types of table elkhorn, and staghorn coral, of various colors, too," Rin said. "But aside from the fact that some of those corals were way larger than normal, I also saw some that looked more like freaky mushrooms or something else completely, that I honestly couldn't identify. Maybe an expert in marine biology could, or maybe they're just coral native only to this world."

"And the non-sedimentary animals?"

"The ones I could identify were all native to Earth. In terms of invertebrates, we had sea lice, red boxing crabs, orange sea stars, and in terms of fish, we have clownfish, moorish idols, píntanos, blue drummers, blue tang… and do you see those giant fish swimming above us right now?"

Momo looked up to where Rin was pointing, and she could see that up above her, there were two giant gray fish with barely any tail, and the most odd of fins moving above them.

"Those are ocean sunfish, also known as common molas."

"Wow," Momo whispered. Nature truly was amazing.

"This is Monoma, come in!" Momo's radio suddenly crackled. "We have an army's worth of hostiles surrounding us! My count's at least two dozen of them! Requesting backup, NOW!"

Momo's, along with everyone else's eyes, widened at the implications. Immediately, the black-haired woman got into action. "Uraraka, with me. The rest of you, stay here!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the brown-haired soldier nodded, grabbing her assault rifle, and followed her commanding officer down the path she sent her soldiers earlier.

Hopefully, they will make it in time.

"This is Monoma, come in!" Itsuka's radio suddenly crackled. "We have an army's worth of hostiles surrounding us! My count's at least two dozen of them! Requesting backup, NOW!"

Neito, Itsuka's mind immediately jumped to. "Aoyama, Sato, we have to –"

Before she could even finish her order, both she and Aoyama saw something that first made them do a double-take, and then made them freeze in horror.

Sato was being held down by two wolf-like creatures.

Their bodies had a purplish-gray coloring, while their muzzles and legs were white. They also possessed large eyes, long tongues, and sharp teeth. In fact, Itsukua would have mistaken them for wolves, if it wasn't for the fact that they had spots and cat-like tails.

And two of them had managed to pin Sato to the ground.

Without either her or Aoyama hearing them.

Ituska felt so stupid! She literally warned them that something was watching them, but then the second someone called them for help, she immediately let her guard down, and this was the result! One of her teammates was almost dragged off to become puppy chow!

It was now a stalemate. Neither party knew what to do. The wolf-monsters were caught in the act, and they knew it, but the humans simply stared at what they were doing in confused horror. Even Sato didn't know what exactly happened. One moment he was standing, the next… this.

No one moved a muscle. But then… one of the wolf creatures opened its mouth.

"Uhh… woof… awkward…" it growled out.

That immediately made Itsuka's blood pressure spike through the roof.

Those things could talk. Meaning they were intelligent. They were capable of planning, and executing a strategy, and they were smart enough to grab Sato while no one was looking.

"Uhh… woof… Bye-bye."

FWOOM!

Before either Itsuka or Aoyama could comprehend what the hell just happened, the two beasts sunk their fangs into Sato's body, dashed off at the breakneck speed of a cheetah, dragging Sato along with them, as he stirred up a bunch of dust while being dragged away.

"HEEEEELP!"

"SATO!"

For most of his life, Katsuki Bakugou hated it when he was right.

Sure, it was fun in grade school. But once he got into junior high, that shit got old, real fast. Now, the only times he ever felt satisfied with his ability to always be right was when he was trying to make a point to some idiot. But this was not one of those moments.

Because, once again, he was right about something.

This coral forest was infested with hostiles.

"GOGEKO GAKEKO!"

BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA!

He, Monoma and Awase were now surrounded by no less than two dozen furry monsters with huge-ass teeth. The best way to describe them was as if they were those yellow Minion things, but without eyes, taller than the average person, way stronger arm muscles, claws, and their fur colors ranging anywhere from a pale white, to a dark blue, to sickly green, and brown.

Hell, he even saw a pink one with those animal patterns found on rugs.

"RRR… GAKEKO!"

They were all jumping around the place, roaring at them, and screaming some sort of gibberish. The ones that got closer to them got shot, but they weren't letting up.

BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA!

"Ugh, there's too many of them! And they are not even fazed when they see their buddies get shot up!" the bandana-wearing guy complained. "At this rate, they'll be able to surround us, and then pick us off one by one as soon as our assault rifles run out of ammo!"

"Well, if we need to get rid of them in one fell swoop, then I have the perfect solution!" Katsuki grinned, as he opened up his satchel and pulled out a grenade. "One frag, comin' right up –"

"NO, DON'T!"

Katsuki turned around to his commanding officer. "Why the fuck not?!"

"Look around us!" Monoma yelled, waving his hands all over the area. "If you set off an explosion, it could destroy parts of this ecosystem and the habitats of various wildlife!"

"With all due respect, our priorities seemed to be a little fucked-up, sir!" Katsuki said that last part with a hint of sarcasm. "You'd rather let those things eat us than risk some coral?!"

"Just keep shooting them until help arrives!" he barked. "That is an order!"

Katsuki groaned, but obliged. Sure, he might be loud, crude and rude, but he isn't the type to be insubordinate. So, he kept shooting at the furry eyeless fuckers, until…

"RAARRR!" One of the bigger ones, with horns on its head and wearing leaves all over its body like some kind of makeshift clothes, charged towards them.

"BAKUGOU!" He could hear Awase yelling for him.

He didn't have time to react, to shoot.

But he did have enough time to see his life flash before his eyes.

This was it, wasn't it? This was how he was going to die. He was going to get eaten alive by some furball, an entire world away from his country, from his home, from his parents, and from –

BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA!

"Huh?"

Before he could even register what happened, Katuski saw the giant furball get riddled with bullet holes all around the head area, and fell down onto its belly, head-first into the sandy floor.

PLOP!

From behind the dead monster, he could see her.

Yaoyorozu.

In an instant, she and Uraraka started firing at the monsters from behind them, scaring them, and promptly making the majority of them run away as fast as possible.

They were gone. He was alive.

He was gonna make it back home.

As the remaining SREU troops waited by the cars, Kosei looked over to his best friend. "Hey," Kosei said, grabbing Sen's attention. "You ever wonder why we're here?"

"You mean why are we here, in this world? I guess it's because we were the most qualified, but I personally like to think that we're here to fulfill our purpose," Sen said. "To get ourselves each a monster harem, bro! From elves, to onis, to sexy witches, we're gonna catch 'em all!"

As the two boys laughed, Uraraka simply groaned in annoyance. "Ugh. Boys."

Author's Note: Okay, confession time. The mushroom forest from the previous chapter was inspired by that one episode of the old "Dungeon and Dragons" cartoon from the 1980s, and the coral forest for this chapter is from the first episode of the second season of "Princess Connect! Re: Dive," just to let you all know.

Also, I can't believe I'm saying this, but for the love of all that is holy, please be respectful in the comments. So, nothing trollish, or criminal. I won't even acknowledge them, as I'd rather respond to actually good critiques. Speaking of which…

ShinyZubat: Yeah, one of the common themes of this story is that any characters that didn't have a conventional human look in canon will be a completely different species here, with Mina being a tiefling and Uwabami being a medusa. But I'm glad you liked Uwabami. And as for Mina and Kirishima's relationship, that's a surprise for later. And as for the Imperials… well… yeah, honestly, no one likes them, including themselves.

And now, for the last bit of shilling…

I also drew a piece of art depicting Uwabami as a medusa back when I originally wrote this chapter a few months back, and it'll be on my Discord, along with some of the MHA subreddits (I still don't know how to paste images into AO3), so check it out!

If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!

- Ernalore