Never Fish that Bites Back
Izuku is at the front of the Snapper Head to look ahead of the river seeing that they still got a long way to go, even though this is going to be a smooth ride to the mist where Flower Fruit Mountain should be.
"(Why do I get the feeling that this boat trip is going to be a smooth one for long.)" Izuku thought felt worried.
"I can hear your heart beating soft with worries, Izuku." Suzu said, standing next to him.
"Yeah, just worry that we might come across some troubles along the way like the Demon Bull King's followers." Izuku admitted.
"But we haven't encountered any of them since we left the dock, maybe they're doing something else like catching their king on internet." Suzu guessed, with a little joke at the end, but Izuku still feels worried.
"Whatever happens, I'm sure we can face them head on together." Suzu believed with her head on his shoulder.
"R-Right! I promise not to let you down." Izuku blushed upon feeling her head on his shoulder.
"Would you look at that? Those two are slowly shattering the walls of the Friendship Zone, their bodies seeking to connect with the forest and lake as their witness of their love on the verge of blossoming." Malga narrated while drawing the scene in a paper that matches Izuku and Suzu's moment.
"I wonder if they're gonna have sex on the deck?" Margot asked casually.
"Absolutely not! This is Mister Jinbe's ship, and we will NOT do anything indecent on this boat while I'm around!" Tomo stated while her cheeks are blushing a little.
"It's still a beautiful moment for those two to have each other like this when the chances come, showing how they are destined to be with each other." Hassan pointed out.
"Yeah, I can see that. Everyone in our class has been wondering when those two would get together with how they act around each other." Eijiro said.
"Right, Baku-Bro?" Eijiro asked Katsuki who doesn't really care about the relationship between those two.
"I'm more interested in the fights we'll be facing." Katsuki stated.
"Still, Izuku and Suzu deserve the happiness." Margot placed a hand on Malga's shoulder.
"Yeah." Malga nodded, but there is a hint of sadness and little bit of jealousy in her eyes, and in some of the other girls.
"So, how are we to the mountain, Jinbe?" Makiko asked.
"Shouldn't be long, we left the dock about thirty minutes ago, so we should be able to reach a shore that close to the mist in about over an hour then you will have to make the rest of the way on foot which is about three hours." Jinbe answered.
"Shit, I thought the river trip was gonna be shorter being thirty miles and all." Makiko was surprised to hear that.
"We are traveling outside of the big city beyond the walls, but you also got the distance a little off because it's actually thirty-six miles away." Jinbe mentioned.
"I was off by six miles?!" Makiko gasped.
"Well, you were never good with directions that well." Minori chuckled.
"Shut up! You're the one who tried to make good impressions on our former principal back in high school, having a silly crush on him." Makiko countered with a tease talking about their past.
"No! Don't say that out loud!" Minori cried, not wanting her embarrassing secret to be revealed.
"That's it! How about you and I settle things in one of our favorite games…" Minori pulled out a barrel from one of the corners and place her elbow on it. "An arm-wrestling contest." She smirked.
"Oh, I was wondering when you would bring that up!" Makiko smirked and placed her elbow on the barrel.
"Wow, those two seem really competitive." Shantae commented.
"It's our first time meeting one of our teacher's friends and we can already tell how they are." Kimi said.
"Let's do this!" Makiko and Minori pressed their foreheads onto each other.
Their grab into each other's hands tightly with intense stares into each other's eyes, the moment of their friendly rivalry is about to erupt like crazy with the children watching.
"3…" Minori started the countdown.
"2…" Makiko got excited for this.
"1…" Minori smiled.
"GO!" They shouted at the same time and started their arm-wrestling contest with their muscles bulking a little with veins showing.
Makiko and Minori are putting everything they got into their arms trying to push one to a side though it would appear they are evenly matched, there are a few times when Makiko would be able to push Minori's arm back a little though same could be said about Minori.
"Come on, Makiko! You can do it!" Shantae cheered.
"Show them how you burn the world, Minori!" Kimi cheered for the other woman.
"Wait, you're not cheering for our teacher?" Tomo was surprised.
"It wouldn't be fair for all of us to cheer for one woman alone." Kimi pointed out.
Minori once again tries pushing her opponent's arm back to get a point in, but Makiko wouldn't give in that easily as she pushes her back.
"I see you're still crazy strong as ever!" Minori grinned groaning.
"You too, glad to know that you've haven't stop your training." Makiko commented, gritting her teeth.
Makiko kept on going with their contest of strength with their bodies now glowing in their aura, Makiko's aura being royal blue and Minori's aura is red, and a small burst of shockwave from their intense clash of the arm-wrestling contest.
"Wow, I've never seen Makiko pushing herself this much before!" Izuku was shocked to see this.
"I know, Miss Oriotorai never uses her full strength on us whenever we do training at school. Fuck, I don't think she was even using half of her strength back then too!" Eijiro gasped.
"Come on, I want to see who's the winner here!" Katsuki shouted, really wanted to see which of them is stronger so that he can train harder to surpass one of them.
Suddenly the barrel holding their elbows and their free hands on it broke into pieces from the intense pressure of their strength contest, but that didn't stop the two strong women from trying to overpower the other despite losing the barrel.
"Come on, is that all you got?" Makiko asked.
"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing." Minori said.
They keep up with their contest of strength for a while longer until they were suddenly pushed away from each other by a powerful shockwave from the collision of their aura, both crashing into each side of the boat making big holes.
"…And I just had ship repainted too." Jinbe sighed. Seeing those two going overboard with their strength again.
"Makiko, Minori, are you two okay?" Izuku asked in concern for them.
"Are we okay?" Makiko asked back groaning.
"Seriously asking us that…" Minori groaned as well.
"We're both doing okay!" Makiko and Minori bursts out of the holes showing they are fine.
"Man, that was great! That had to have been our best arm-wrestling contest in years!" Makiko chuckled as she and Minori walk towards each other in the middle.
"I'll say, I can't remember the last time I ever faced anyone else who isn't you to have push me to my limit." Minori smiled.
"This certainly takes me back to our good old days back in school, huh?" Minori remembered those days.
"Bet you would be great at kicking bull demon's butt." Makiko believed.
"I still can't believe your kid found the stick of THE Monkey King himself, and able to hold it at all." Minori looked over at Izuku who is talking with Shantae and Kimi.
"Yep, that kid is full of surprises, and I always believe he could be a strong fighter even with his Mystic Sage power being a non-fighting type." Makiko smiled at Izuku, knowing he could do great things.
"Really? What is it?" Minori asked.
"And that's how I was able to find out that my hair can be a powerful whip on my first ty." Shantae finished telling her story.
"Wow, I never would have thought something like that can happen." Kimi said.
"Still, I think you should be careful with how you use your hair as a whip, otherwise you might end up hurting someone." Izuku advised.
"Don't worry, I'm always careful with my hair." Shantae promised.
"Hey, have you ever done fishing before?" Shantae asked.
"I don't think so." Izuku shrugged.
"Well, I can tell you're a little stress with this whole adventure, so I was thinking that maybe we can help you relax with some fishing." Shantae explained.
"Hmm, that actually sounds like a good idea. But I don't have a fishing pole." Izuku said.
"Well, you have that staff, all you need is a long string and a hook." Shantae looked at the red staff.
"Actually, I have some fishing poles inside if you desire to fish some food for yourselves." Jinbe mentioned.
Soon, Shantae got her own fishing pole along with Hassan and the two women while Izuku decided to go with using the staff as he ties the fishing line on the staff and the hook at the other end with the bait on it.
"A makeshift fishing pole, has a nice mystical touch." Izuku commented.
Izuku and the others have started fishing for relaxation to begin with the water looking a little calm, but there are some fishes inside the water as they swim around.
He took in a deep breath to take in that fresh air of the outdoors with his mind going to a peaceful state despite everything that is going on, he is glad to take the chance to have a moment like this.
"You were right, this is relaxing." Izuku said to Shantae.
"I'm glad you're feeling it. Can't have our hero go stressing himself out before he could save the day." Shantae smiled.
"So, if I understand this right, you ended up finding that staff while you were out on a ramen delivery." Shantae recalled on what Izuku told her and the others.
"That's right, crazy way to find out the legends and stories were all true." Izuku nodded.
"I'm just glad he's still alive in the end, but I'm worried about the mist we'll be heading to." Suzu said, getting herself next to Izuku.
"I heard some pretty rumors about the mist like when you get lost, you hear some noises and there isn't anything around that causes it, not even a little bug buzzing around." Minori recalled hearing that.
"Really, I heard something else." Makiko said.
But then the Ruyi Jingu Bang started moving down from how the fishing line is being pulled down which Izuku quickly notice this.
"Oh, I think I got a bite!" Izuku started pulling the staff back trying to reel in the fish.
"On the first try, how awesome!" Kimi was excited.
"Come on, reel in that sucker!" Shantae said smiling.
"I'm trying! Oh, this one is a really strong one!" Izuku said while trying to pull the staff back, but he struggled to get the fish to come.
"Don't fight it too much, let the catch pull making it let its guard down and then pull again. Catch it when its guard is down the most." Jinbe advised.
"(Ah, reminds me of my younger days when I would go out fishing with my family.)" Jinbe thought smiled as he remembered his childhood.
Izuku does his best to make sure the fish while following Jinbe's advice to let the fish think it has the upper hand a few times, he's not really sure if he can bring in the catch since this is his first time fishing and trying to reel in the fish but he is going to give this his all with the best of his abilities.
"Okay, I almost got it!" Izuku groaned, feeling the moment to reel it in is close.
"That's right, keeping doing what you can and show them the kind of sharpness you have!" Hassan encouraged his friend and classmate to keep on trying.
"(Hmm, sharpness. Why do I suddenly feel like I've forgotten something important?)" Jinbe thought asked himself.
It doesn't look like there's a problem with the river and the group enjoying themselves, but there is this really bad feeling that eating him up like a big instinct warning that is telling him to stop them from fishing. Like a blade is suddenly coming for him.
"Wait, blade. Fishing." Jinbe started to slowly realize something important.
Then Jinbe turn his head to the right just in time to see a sign they were passing by.
His eyes widen with shock of realization when he read the sign and now knows what this bad feeling that's been trying to warn him.
DANGER! BLADE-TAIL NEWT AREA! BE CAUTIOUS!
"Izuku! Stop, don't reel it onto the ship!" Jinbe shouted.
But it was too late as Izuku does one last pull with Suzu hugging behind him for support to reel in the fish, only for something sharp to come right at his face to slice his head in two though he was saved by Minori with a kick.
The "fish" that landed on the deck of the ship is not a fish at all, but a newt about the size of a big dog with the tail being literally sharp as a blade on both sides and its eyes are silver with the sharp pupils being green.
"What the fuck is that?" Katsuki asked.
"Be careful, that's a Blade-Tail newts. They're one of the dangerous creatures in the area we're in, they swim around until they slice up anything that comes into their territory and have even killed people in the past whenever they get caught by fishers!" Jinbe quickly informed.
"Like a stupid excuse of a lizard is going to scare me." Katsuki looked down at the newt.
The Blade-Tail Newt glares at Katsuki feeling that this one just insulted it and charges at the boy to cut him into pieces, but it was blown away by Katsuki's Explosion Mystic Sage power when it jumped at him though it recovers and starts moving around fast.
"It's stubborn, but not for long!" Katsuki chased after the newt.
Katsuki zooms around with his power for a speed boost to catch up and attack the newt sending it flying with an uppercut explosion and a flying kick to send it crashing into a tree.
"Not even a good warmup." Katsuki was disappointed of the short fight.
"It's not over! Blade-Tail Newts are never alone, they travel in big pacts like wolves!" Jinbe warned.
Then two other Blade-Tail Newts jump from the water and about to attack Jinbe while he's being distracted, but the fishman is always focus as he senses them coming this way and threw a strong kick that knock them both away at the same time.
But that didn't stop dozens more Blade-Tail Newts from getting on board of the ship and surrounding our heroes.
"Fighting newts. I think this might be our first time doing that sort of thing, Makiko." Minori said.
"Yeah, though this does remind me of the time we fought some stinger-tongue frogs." Makiko recalled that time.
"We can't let them damage the ship." Izuku said.
The newts start attacking everyone with their swift movements and the sharpness of their tails to cut them up, but everyone isn't the easy prey the newts thought as some of them get blown away by their combine strength,
Suzu dodges them the best she can thanks to her super powerful hearing to know where they are to attack her from, and she even knocks them away with a few punches and kicks. Tomo jumps back five feet and fires an arrow made of light from her bow piercing through several, and Eijiro has hardened his body to withstand the blades before punching them away.
"You folks could use some curry after this." Hassan said while dodging the newts, showing his body to be very flexible and twisting himself around four times as he grabs four newts, then he spins around fast to knock the others away.
Kimi just stood still to allow the ten newts to attack her at once, but they suddenly felt their own bodies being sliced like they cut each other somehow.
"Sorry, but this flower will not be pushed around by bullies like you." Kimi grinned.
Shantae fights off some of the newts with her dancing to kick them down and off the ship along with whipping them with her hair, then she jumps for a hip attack to send one crashing into several others. Minori crack her knuckles and burst them into flames to punch away the many newts.
"The girls back home will never believe this." Makiko said while slashing away the newts with her sword using only one hand.
Izuku fights off the newts while using the staff though he is struggling with the control on the extending and almost hitting Katsuki which got him angry, but he was able to get the last one forcing the rest to retreat.
"Good work, everyone! We managed to survive, now the rest of the trip should be smooth sailing." Jinbe smiled.
"Yeah, but next time… Give us a warning next time!" Makiko said with an angry smile which Jinbe got scared.
"Hope there won't be any more trouble up ahead." Izuku looked ahead, but what he doesn't know is that trouble is coming for him.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Man, they just wanted to have a little fishing time to keep their minds at ease during the trip only to end up fighting a bunch of newts with swords for tails, but that's only one of the danger things that are waiting for Izuku and the others once they reach the mist.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!