Chapter 47: Down We Go

“Text” – Normal speech

‘Text’ – Thought

“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world

“Text” - Attack

“Text” – Radio/Communication lines

“Text” – None Japanese speech

(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word

Line Break

(Previously)

“As you all know, plenty were ideal team players and ensured their skills and strengths helped those in their teams flourish, and because of that, this is the board as it stands!” With that information out there, the screen changed to show the current scoreboard, one that flipped things on what had been the leaderboard.

Swift Blacks: 240 points. Star Players – Yanagi, Monoma and Todoroki

Mighty Golds: 100 points. Star Players – Midoriya and Furasu

Burning Sunsets: 80 points. Star Players – Kuroiro and Yaoyorozu

Stylish Sapphires: 80 points. Star Players Uraraka and Hatsume

“What the hell? How they’d get that high up?” Bakugo yelled as his team was now tied for last.

Kamakiri snorted, glaring at their short-tempered and ill-tempered teammate. "Maybe we could have gotten more bonus points if you didn't keep bailing on us." Bakugo turned back to him, a nasty look at him, but he restrained himself, though Kamakiri matched his glare.

"Well, that makes sense; if not for any of them, our entire strategy would have fallen apart," Shishida noted.

"Told you were a star player, Furasu!" Kaminari pats the support engineer's back a little too hard, but Tsunotori kept her on her feet.

“For the team who got the most, you'll receive a larger cart, with internal cushioning and shock-absorbing wheels, as you don't need to worry too much about stuff breaking.” Midnight explained as the animated Nezu pulled out a cart that represented that, looking like it was designed to move through some bad terrain, with durable, large wheels.

“For the Golds, you can choose between a larger cart with either internal cushioning or shock-absorbing wheels.” With the second, animated Nezu wheeled out a second one, which, side to side with the first, was clearly inferior.

“And for everyone else, you’ll get a regular cart with either of those options.” With the last one, Nezu just brought out the one, which looked to be the most basic of the group, the sort that seemingly had no features and was to be pulled by a string at the front. Even if its size was smaller, as when Midnight said it was regular, she meant it as it was maybe 2 thirds the size of the other two.

Ojiro sighed, happy that his team would get one of the better ones, but that still left him with a difficult challenge. "Of course, that's how it'll be; we shouldn't have expected anything worse."

"Hold on, they're sending us into an abandoned structure with a cart and task to retrieve valuables with different values that can break; why does that sound familiar?" Ashido was sure she had heard of a game with a similar theme; you even got gadgets.

“Focus on the task and daydream later, Ashido.” Monoma reminded her as she blew a little raspberry his way.

After explaining the event and its rules, Midnight started the clock. “You’ll have 5 minutes to pick those 8 that will venture into the depths!”

Line Break

Monday morning continued on through the tidy streets of Musutafu. Traffic hummed quietly through the streets, with little congestion to be found, not when the town wasn't as traffic-heavy as a larger city like Tokyo. Along with the cars and trucks were bicycles ridden by the young and old, while the sidewalks were busy with residents going through their days with little fear, focused on their own issues.

Why would there be reason for them to feel otherwise when U.A. called this place its home? When they had built up their homes, businesses, jobs, and lives under the aegis of the hero school, which produced the best and brightest heroes. And today, of all days, was even better as it was the day of their annual sports festival. Not only was it a chance for those who could afford it to enter the vaunted grounds of the respectable institution, but it was also a chance for the entire country to get a trailer of sorts for the kinds of heroes that would soon be patrolling the streets.

Inside bakeries, bookstores, groceries, and corner stores, shoppers and staff alike glanced up at screens. Bystanders gathered around electronic supply stores, which had TVs in the windows broadcasting the events live. Others tapped at their phones, mainly the younger folk, sharing a phone as they sat in skate parks and on park benches watching.

Excitement rippled through all of them, whether they were out doing errands, handling work-related tasks, or, as was the case for many, taking the day off school and work so they could watch the events as they happened. Through their screens, they could hear how U.A. had just announced their second event, which would be a scavenger hunt on steroids, as the students would be sent down into an underground complex straight out of a horror movie.

For one, he sat in a small café overlooking the main square. A young man with dark hair occupied a booth by himself. Before him rested an absurdly tall bowl of ice cream, so large that the waitress wondered if he was waiting for friends to split it with, as surely such a skinny man couldn’t eat all that…right?

He disproved that by grabbing a spoon and going to town on the sugary treat. However, despite seemingly savoring every spoonful, his attention remained on the live feed on the mounted flat screen.

His blue eyes tracked every move of one competitor in particular: Todoroki. He had hummed when Endeavour's youngest child's team came third in that last event, having been expecting more. t'I must frustrate Endeavour to no end to see his masterpiece fall short.' He thought with a smile across his face.

"It's not a bad show; it's a real fun time," he said aloud, softly so as not to draw attention to his presence. He turned his head and gazed out the window—at the sky, at the buildings, at the people minding their business, and lastly, at the quirk spirits.

Translucent and polite, the apparitions watched over shoulders the news as it came in, some speaking with one another and probably discussing their ideas on who would be the ones to watch out for or would win the first-year event. They went unseen by the ignorant masses and kept out of the way of the living.

"But in a bit, we'll gonna show these people what fun looks like. I hope he comes; I really hope he comes." The man chuckled as he continued to eat his ice cream.

Line Break

“Just 5 minutes?” Kirishima asked.

He wasn't the only one surprised by how little time they had for this, but others were already moving to try and create the teams for it. “Okay, so as much as I hate to say it, but this team's gonna need Bakugo on it," Tokage stated, to which Bakugo turned a glare at her.

“Why’d you say it like it a bad thing? I’m the best one here!” Bakugo thumbed his chest. He was the one who crossed the finish line last time, taking first. The least they could all do was act like it!

“His attitude aside,” Rin ignored his teammate's issues. "If the structure is already compromised, and other teams could fight us, we'll need someone to fend them off and blast through debris." He would rather they send people in they could trust to work with the team, but this wasn't something they could afford to be too picky on. The best thing they could do was keep him away from anything he might break.

"Wouldn't that just destabilize the entire structure?" Uraraka asked, wishing they had gotten a map of the place. She had seen enough schematics lying around her living room table growing up to understand them a lot better than most.

"We'll be careful about that. Besides, not even Bakugo over here will be dumb enough to bury one of us, not when he'll be penalized with the rest of us." Tokage replied. Iida stepped in and grabbed Bakugo before he made more of a scene.

“Okay, who else?” Aoyama asked, realizing that he would be ideal with a quirk like his that could act as both a defense and a light source.

“Hatsume’s quirk could be great for spotting things-!” Uraraka tried to bring it up, but the support student turned away with a happy smile.

"Nope! I got to show off what I needed to, and now I want to plan my next batch of babies!" Hatsume, having said her piece as she had been constantly reminded to, turned and walked off. Having nothing else to contribute and believing it would be best if she removed herself.

Besides, she was overflowing with ideas and needed to write them down now so she could get started with them as soon as possible!

Her team didn't quite know how to handle that. Iida looked like he had a system crash, allowing Bakugo to break out of his hold but mercifully not jump Tokage. Aoyama smiled; he was just as confused. It was left to Fukidashi to get things back on track. “…Okay, so Hatsume’s out. You wouldn’t mind us using your items still?” He yelled at the retreating Hatsume and waved back over her shoulder.

"Go ahead; they can get even more time to the shrine if you use them." She sounded so flippant about it when she had been so invested in them earlier. Still, perhaps with them showcased, her attention was on other things.

“I’m going.” Todoroki declared to his team, though he glanced in the direction of the Might Golds, particularly on Midoriya, as he wouldn't let him embarrass him like that and not counter.

Monoma spotted where Todoroki was looking, the same as Shiozaki and Ashido, but decided not to argue about it. "Not argument there. Your ice can help support the ceiling and block us from attacks." Monoma agreed with him, as he had no issues as long as their ice and never-fire user didn't get too invested in some attempt to one-up the Golds.

"All right, aside from Todoroki, who else should go?" Tsuburaba asked.

"How about Yanagi and Shiozaki?" Mineta suggested. His team, particularly those from the hero course, looked at him suspiciously. Seeing how Shiozaki was eying him, he quickly explained his reasoning. "Yanagi's quirk would be great for grabbing stuff and smashing whatever others find. Shiozaki could use her vines to feel around and keep them back."

Shishida frowned, but he doubted that he couldn't find fault in all of Mineta's reasonings. "Sounds practical. We don't know the condition of the arena. Some things could be located through treacherous routes. Being able to shorten or outright avoid them could prove a boon."

"I'm not on board with outright sabotage. If we must confront others, it should only be slowing them down and defending what we find." Shiozaki stated that she didn't wish to become a hero if she had to act in such a despicable means to get ahead.

“Well, it will help out cause. If we don’t mess with them too much, others won’t target us nearly as much, right?” Ashido asked, to which Komori nodded.

“That’s 3 then. Who else?" someone asked, many of those present unwilling to venture down when they lacked the training and, for most, the incentive to put themselves in danger against the hero course.

“Shinso,” Monoma said, to which the up-to-now silent Shinso looked in his direction. "Are you up for this?"

“Me?” Shinso asked, wondering when he could make a mark and prove that he deserved a place in the hero course. But he got stuck in his head.

That wasn't an issue that Honenuki had as he hit his fist into his open palm. "Oh, course, your quirk would be great down there. The best part is that you haven't used it yet; the others would never see it coming." Shinso had, reluctantly, explained his quirk to them earlier, having been annoyed that he had to for the sake of the previous game.

He had been expecting comments about it, the rude, and those people thought of as 'polite' or 'nice.' Even jabs about not using it on them, but instead, none seemed to treat him any different. It was…puzzling, but with the obstacle race, he didn't have time to ponder it as he did now as he was reminded that they didn't seem to care for his quirk outside pure utility.

“W-why not you?” Shinso couldn't help but feel a pulse of uncertainty in his gut, but Monoma shook his head.

"This is a team event, isn't it? So why would I keep others who could handle things better from performing? With you on our side, we'll take first this time." He felt that Shinso needed this, as he recognized a kindred spirit when he saw one. Besides, he had already done quite a lot in the previous event. If that was his only contribution going forward, he was satisfied.

"And we should send Shishida also, the team's real technical, but you can never go wrong with some power. And his nose will be great at sniffing out the rest." Ashido added, having latched onto Shishida's side and hanging off the taller student who, to those who looked closely, blushed under his fur from the unexpected contact with a pretty girl.

Coughing to maintain his composure, he accepted the request but not without adding. "It could be affected by the air quality down there, but I can't imagine that our teachers would compromise the breathability of the event."

Line Break

"Yeah, it'll be dumb not to have Kuroiro down there. There's bound to be a lot of dark spots and crawl spaces he can move through." Kaibara stated as he gestured to the shadow walker.

“Knowing U.A. and how crazy they can be, wouldn’t be surprised if most of the area isn’t lit. it’ll be hard enough searching for stuff as is.” Togeike agreed with Kaibara on that front.

"What about me or Jiro?" Hagakure asked, fussing about being passed over when the two would be perfect for this.

"Your quirk works best, and you're naked, and I'm pretty sure that we can't just let you strip." Jiro reminded her, as sure nothing would be shown, but they didn't need to give their detractors ammo. "As for me, sure, I'll be a good scout, but only for other teams. Someone like Shoji would be a better pick as he can do that and fight if we need to."

Shoji wasn't against the idea, and he could see her logic, but "I'm not sure that fighting would be a smart idea, but on the other hand, things might get hairy down there. How much depends on who is sent by the other teams."

"Well, Uraraka's team's sending out Bakugo, and Todoroki seems to be heading down as well, so yeah, expect something to happen." She pointed out that she could hear the other teams planning pretty well, even with the audience's continued cheers.

“I forget how sensitive your hearing can be, Jiro.” Ojiro complimented.

“I don’t make a big deal out of it. And I learned how to tune things out as I really don’t like hearing people’s private conversations.” She left out the part where she got used to people who knew about her hearing avoiding her or rooms going silent when she was close because no one liked their big and small secrets being known by her.

She hated it, but she understood their fears. They didn't know her, and her resting face didn't scream trustworthy as it did 'I'm judging you.' A look she inherited from her mother. Lucky for her, outside how…out there her classmates at U.A. could be, they never seemed to care about that.

She wished some did, as Awase, Kaminari, and Mineta really fit into the horny college student, and she didn't need or want to hear more about their thoughts and fantasies relating to the girls.

"Fine, but if we want power, Tetsutetsu and Kendo can go with it." They got the sense that Hagakure was pouting.

"I'm more a bulldozer than anything," Tetsutetsu reminded them. Sure, he could fight down there, but maybe they shouldn't send the bull into the already unstable china shop.

"(Kero) As long as you're smart, that shouldn't be a problem," Asui commented. "Also, Yaomomo would be ideal as well. She can create whatever you guys need and has a pretty solid head on her shoulders."

"Is that acceptable to you all?" Yaoyorozu asked, grateful she was suggested but not wishing to step on any toes. When non spoke, she nodded. "Then I shall gladly join the search team."

"We need brains more than brawn down there, so I might get too many chances to fight, but hopefully, we won't need them," Kendo added.

Line Break

"I think we should have Furasu continue on, " Shoda said, which surprised the support student.

“M-me?” She asked, having assumed her part was done.

“It’s a practical decision,” Tokoyami crossed his arms. “Having someone with a mind for engineering and structural integrity can be a boon in deciding which treasures to seek."

"B-but there's a really big difference between support engineering and civil engineering!" She rebuffed, only for Tsunotori and Kaminari to latch onto her, making a Maina sandwich between two blonde bread slices.

Chuckling at how red the support student was getting, Tsunotori booped her nose. "Well, duh, we know that, but you'll have an easier time noticing stuff than we would, right? Besides, you can upgrade our cart and keep it moving."

"I don't think there's a rule against your items being included. Having the shield generator could be really useful, but you would need to keep it running in case something happened," Agoyamato complimented, which only made Maina redder.

“Oh yeah, and with that hoover board, we can even bring up more stuff!” Kirishima recalled.

“Broken.” Kodai reminded him, only for the redhead to laugh as he waved it off.

"We can work together to fix it. It doesn't need to carry much, and if worse comes, we can just carry it like a stretcher." Kirishima gave an optimistic response that had Kodai leaning her head to the side but sighing. She wouldn't argue with him on that; besides, if he was right, it would help their case.

"I'm totally gonna be going down, too. The place is a mess, but with my quirk, I can keep things together for us to get what we find and get out. Or just block paths to keep the rest off us." Awase stated as Midoriya and Bondo nodded.

"I would go, too, but my quirk could turn against us down there," Bondo nervously added. Also, I don't want anyone to be stuck if something goes wrong and they get hurt."

"Hey man, that's completely understandable. We're just trying to find some stuff; we don't want to hurt anyone doing it." Kirishima stated, a hand on the taller student's shoulder.

"He's right, but since we might need strong fighters, why don't you and Tokoyami join Kirishima?" Midoriya nominated.

“Me?”

"We'll need some muscle, too," Furasu meekly said, but both her blondes encouraged her to continue to speak her mind. Even if not to fight, we don't know what we're up against or what we're looking for. We might need to move debris to get to stuff."

"Oh, that makes sense. And the rest could also block paths to slow us down or try and keep us trapped as the time runs out." Kirishima scratched his chin.

"I'm afraid that I would need to refuse." Tokoyami surprised them. "I understand and support the rationale, but I can't join the search party in good conscience."

“Why’s that?” Midoriya asked, worried that he might have offended his classmate.

“You all understand that my quirk binds me to a spirit of darkness, correct?” They all nodded as odd speech aside; they could get the gist of it. "Well, there is more to it. Its power is proportional to the amount of life I walk under. On a bright day like this, while powerful, Dark Shadow is still limited, but should I venture into the depths, where light could prove scarce…"

"I don't get it. Wouldn't that make you even better for this?" Kaminari asked, to which Tokoyami shook his head.

“No, for the stronger Dark Shadow gets, the more violent he becomes while my control over him weakens.” At that, Dark Shadow popped out, apologizing for the 'last time' it happened, which Tokoyami accepted and moved past.

Midoriya wanted to ask about that as if nothing else. He was incredibly familiar with rogue quirks, but he'd never heard of one happening while the host was still alive. On the other hand, sapient quirks were incredibly rare.

“Oh, I see. But wait, doesn’t that mean fighting people with quirks that make light is like your kryptonite?” Sero asked him, scratching at his chin as he tried to recall times that Tokoyami fought against people like that.

"It has been since Dark Shadow first manifested, and while I've trained to build a resistance, I lack an immunity to such," Tokoyami replied, grateful that he may never develop immunity to the light, not when it would strain his control so much it could endanger the very people he sought to save.

“Don’t fight Aoyama then.” Kodai kept it short as he nodded at her.

"In place of myself, why not have Midoriya be dispatched? While not as powerful, his abilities make him quite versatile and can be a booster for whoever is sent with him." Tokoyami offered a counter to his incapacity for this.

"He's not wrong. If I'm not mistaken, you can use four separate things as part of your quirk, right?" Shoda asked though those of the hero course knew otherwise. They couldn't just talk about it.

"Yes, it's fire, ice, electricity, and a booster role. It's not the strongest, but it's the one I'm most familiar with." Midoriya replied. Though he could use more than the four, he didn't think he would need to use the fifth.

"I've been meaning to ask, but just how powerful is he? Have you ever heard of a quirk like that?" One of the business course students asked, another shaking their heads.

“Never.” A general student added that they had some crazy powerful pros, like All Might and Captain Celebrity, who had quirks that seemed to grant them an insane amount of power. Still, even with them, there were limits. Limits Midoriya didn't seem to have.

Midoriya gulped when he felt the pressure of their suspicion and curiosity. While he would rather he wasn't the center of attention, he had planned for this. "It's just an oddity of my quirk. It allows me to gather and harness energy. After a while, I realized it could manifest in different ways." There, it was accurate but was missing details, not enough to be an outright lie, but enough to throw anyone off the scent.

Sero clapped his hands, drawing attention off the odd case of Midoriya’s ‘quirk’ and onto himself. "All right, we have four people. Should we include another?" He didn't know what the others would send, but their team seemed pretty capable enough as is. A smaller one might not be able to search as much ground, but it would be easier to coordinate and move.

"Hey, since Midoriya can act as your battery over here, why not have Pony go? Her horns could be pretty nice to grab onto stuff from afar." Kaminari suggested, getting a little blush and smile from Tsunotori.

"Oh, stop it, you. You're making me blush." The American laughed as Kaminari continued, Furasu still trapped between the overly friendly hero students. She seemed uncomfortable, but how she was holding onto them both implied she liked it more than she would admit.

"Would you look at that? They're bonding over buttering up Furasu and complimenting each other." Agoyamato commented, as this, among the other insane stuff, only made it clearer how weird the hero course was, but…a good kind of weird.

However, that weirdness could cost them. "Guys, if we want to repair our gear, we should get to it. We have less than five minutes."

Furasu yelped, breaking out from the blondes, and ran towards their Hoover craft, which had been brought in and seriously needed repair. “You’re right, where’s my tools!?”

“I’ll help!” Midoriya jogged over, as he wasn't skilled with tools, but he liked to think that all the time he'd spent in his mother's lab made him marginally more useful than the every-man.

“So will I!” Tsunotori leaped in as well.

Line Break

“Time’s up, my lovely contestants. It’s time to get into your starting spots!” As Midnight cracked her whip and students moved to obey her instructions, she added. “But before that, let’s have another look at the leaderboards!”

1st place: Swift Blacks: 240 points.

2nd place: Mighty Golds: 100 points.

3rd place: Burning Sunsets: 80 points.

4th place: Stylish Sapphires: 80 points.

"So we all use different entry points. That sounds reasonable." Kendo noted that her team had taken a regular-sized cart about the size of a shopping trolley. They had debated over it but ultimately picked the one with padding, as Yaomomo could just make them shock-absorbing wheels and suspension once they got down into the mall.

"No kidding, a bottleneck now could spell disaster before the event starts; that's some bad television," Shoji stated, eyeing Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya. All 3 capable of doing serious damage, even if the latter wasn't nearly as likely as the first 2.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to this as something as trivial as entertainment." Yaoyorozu sighed as they lined up with their route in a giant concrete entrance. As far as she could see down it, there were no lights, which made sense as Cementoss had only raised all four entrances minutes ago, so there was no time for any electrical work to be done.

“It can be both, you know?” Uraraka joked, as their team was to Yaoyorozu’s immediate right. Like them, they had picked a trolly with padding as the brunette had already used her quirk on it, rendering it weightless, held in place by Tokage’s detached hand.

“Part of being a proper hero is about putting on a fantastic show,” Aoyama smirked as he flicked some hair to the side.

"Looks like our first plan got scrapped before we could use it," Yanagi stated, looking toward Shinso.

"It's fine," the general studies student replied. We'll have plenty of chances once we get into the thick of it."

Shiozaki frowned as she looked into the shadowy depths. “Todoroki, from this position, it seems like we’ll need your flames to light the way-”

He cut her off. “They’ll be lights down there, I don’t need fire for this.” His back remained to them, so he missed how his team looked at one another. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten salty about his fire, so much so that Monoma had to be the one to use it after copying his quirk.

“Is there something I should know about?” Shinso whispered to Yanagi, to which she sighed.

“You and the rest of us, but good luck getting him to talk.” She whispered back. Her focus was more on their cart, which happened to be the biggest and most secure of the bunch.

“All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, prepare for our scavenger hunt! Any thoughts, Inversal, Supercharge?” Present Mic asked his fellow commentators

“Not much other than we have a versatile spread of people down into the mall," Inversal replied, his eyes going over the students. Their names were displayed on the screens, along with pictures taken during the previous event.

“They’ll need to be really careful; we’ve put in some…surprises for them as well.” Supercharge giggled, which didn't comfort the students.

“What did she mean by that?” Tsunotori asked.

“And start!” Midnight's shout offered no explanation or reasoning. They just had to get going, which they did. All four teams moved into the tunnels, which would take them into the search area.

Line Break

Darkness pervaded Midoriya's team's path as they entered the underground. Because of that, they moved slowly. Kirishima had taken the lead, the cart supported by one of his hands while Midoriya held up the back. Tsunotori and Awase handled the cobbled-back-together hoover board. Between them, Furasu carried the shield generator, ready to activate it at a moment's notice.

As they approached the bottom, the pitch black around them was broken as they saw a lone emergency exit sign flicker. As they approached it, they found that doorway as large as a garage door and already open. Entering, they met a large space, its tiles floors cracked in some spaces, missing in others. What businesses hadn't seemingly had time to pull down their storefront gates had the glass shattered, giving glimpses into the toppled clothing racks, mannequins, and deserted isles.

A collapsed ceiling beam lay out on the path ahead, with scorch marks creeping up it. The walls and ceiling also showed signs of a serious fight.

“They really went all out, didn't they?" Tsunotori muttered in awe as they maneuvered their 2 carts into the mall.

"It's brighter than I expected. It'll make it a lot easier to search for the items," Midoriya added. While some lights flickered and others remained dead, there were enough of them, both in the mall's halls and coming out of abandoned stores, to see.

"Are there any issues we should be aware of?" Awase asked their support teammate, who nervously looked around at the place, well outside her comfort zone. However, this was a team effort, and she wanted to do her best.

"I'm not seeing anything too dangerous. There are no dangerous cracks, the place isn't shifting, and we aren't hearing anything." She replied that that was good; maybe the U.A. had only damaged portions rather than risk compromising the entire structure.

“No kidding, this place is dead.” Awase frowned as the entire place was giving him the creeps.

Midoriya agreed with him, but something stuck out to him. It was far too quiet. "Wait a second. Uraraka's team should already be down here. Thanks to them only having one cart and her quirk, we don't hear them anywhere.

The others stopped and realized that he was right. Even if she and her team had gone ahead, how far could they be that they couldn't hear them? Wouldn't there be signs they were here if they first checked this floor? Did they just forget? No, they couldn't see people like Iida and Tokage letting that slide, and they were sure that Bakugo wouldn't be quiet either.

"Where did the others get off? We weren't that far from them when we went in," Kirishima asked. They looked around the place, and aside from the one emergency exit they used as their entry point, there was none, at least not on this level, where they found stairs leading up and down.

"They could have sent us to different mall floors to try and keep us separate, at least initially," Tsunotori suggested.

“Well, till we see any of the others, that’s just what we’ll go with. But we should really focus on finding some of those items. They didn’t give us any clues for the first one.” Awase stated that if this was a mall built to scale like U.A. did its training areas, searching the entire place with just 5 people would be impossible to do in 20 minutes.

Midoriya understood that, but he didn't think they would have been sent in with no chance of finding something fast. As Shoji said, this was part entertainment, and he was sure cameras were around. “If they directed us down to this area, then there’s bound to be something around. Furasu and Kirishima, you guys stay with the carts. We'll start looking, " he directed.

“Got it.” Kirishima nodded, sticking close to their non-combatant as the rest broke off. Each picking a store, they started looking. Midoriya had gone into an abandoned Korean BBQ place. The place might have been in better condition if not designed to be a mess, with plates, glasses, and silverware left where they had been, some on the floor. When he picked up a fork, he found it was just good-quality tin foil.

With Tsunotori, as she looked through the isles of a school supply store, she felt a drip of water on her head. Looking up, she spotted what looked like a leaking water main. "They even have working plumbing; U.A. really went with realism, didn't they?" She called out so the rest could hear her.

“But not too much. I was worried that I would find a restaurant filled with good food, but they'd go to waste," Kirishima replied, as the layout of the place was crazy. From what he recalled, malls tied to a bunch of stores with similar themes and goods together, but here? It was like they just picked and chose places at random as Midoriya went through a restaurant, Tsunotori a school and office supply shop, and him, a general grocery, one with working fridges and freezes but other than ice and empty plastics, no food to be found.

“But it’s still weird.” He added as he picked up what looked to be an open cereal box, only to find packing peanuts inside.

They weren't the only ones stomped by things. As they suspected, the teams found themselves on separate floors of the weirdly designed mall. They were searching through, some looking through debris and others moving around things. All the while, all of their progress was being viewed by the audience, but with a catch as unknown to them. At the same time, there were dozens of cameras carefully hidden around to keep watch; they also marked out the locations of the items in question.

The contestants would pass by them, never seeing them. This drew continued engagement from the audience, who yelled, bet, and begged for them to find them, wondering which team would be the first to locate an item.

“Guys, I think I found something!” Midoriya proved to be the first to do so, as he spotted something close to the back of the restaurant's kitchen area, carefully hidden from view by a stack of cleaned dishes. Approaching, he found that it was…a figurine, an Eraserhead figurine at that.

Confused, he looked it over. Flipping it over, he found a note attached to the base. "Yes, it's a clue!"

When it came out to meet the others, Tsunotori looked as perplexed as he did. "You found an Eraserhead figurine just sitting there?” She'll give U.A. credit; it was a pretty sweet-looking figurine with a dynamic pose and everything, and for an underground pro who rarely, if ever, had such made, it was rare. However, when she looked at the back, the surprise just kept coming. “And it’s only worth 10 points?” Printed across the back of the hero was the number 10, along with the letter 'D.'

“Well, he’s not the only one who found something,” Kirishima said, holding up something he had found in the store's bakery. It was another figurine, only this one of Snipe, holding his gun like a true Western gunman in a quick draw pose. “Also worth 10 points.”

"I feel like there's a joke here, but we don't know the context," Awase commented, but at least this was something, having added 20 points to their tally.

“Are all the items gonna be figurines?” Furasu asked as the two placed the figurines into their main cart.

"Maybe, but at least these ones aren't too big and seem sturdy enough, but we can't waste time looking for D ranks like this," Midoriya stated, unfolding the note attached to the Eraser figurine. “This one says something about checking a naughty spot.”

“I'm pretty sure mine says we should look through the hobby store." Kirishima reported what his clue said, which wasn't a name, but like Midoriya's, it had to be connected to a hero that they could reasonably know, probably a member of the staff.

"If the items are all hero places, then a naughty place has to be Midnight related," Tsunotori stated, as that was too easy.

Kirishima whined, "Please don't tell me we gotta search through the women's clothing part of some store; that's so creepy." He hoped that it was just the women’s clothing and not something like their underwear or lingerie.

Furasu wasn't eager for such either and hoped they could focus on the other. “What about hobbies? That could cover a few of the teachers.”

Midoriya approached a map printed on the wall of one of the malls. Looking it over, it didn't give details for the rest of the levels but did inform them that the mall had 9 levels, and they were on floor 3. It also had information on where stores were, with a helpful spot denoting where they were on the map. "According to this map, there is a clothing store near here. We can check it out while the rest look through the Kosho across from it."

"Sounds like a plan," Awase stated as the group grabbed their carts and moved deeper into the building.

In the shadows, unknown to them, they were being watched. Bright, curious, and eager eyes watched them move before moving away, not making a sound as they sought to wait for the perfect chance to pounce.

Line Break

After over a month, I have finally returned! Oh, that was a long break, a tad longer than I envisioned, but it's now over. And with it being a nice Sunday afternoon when I started working on this, I have plenty of time and much inspiration to use for the following chapters. More Than You Think is still on pause, mainly because I have another story slotted into Friday, and I learned my lesson about trying to get 2 uploads done in a day with my schedule booked as is. Once the commission ends, I can finally work on that other WIP and get some chapters out.

As for this, I saw many people figure out what inspired it, and I was chuckling as I read some of the comments about it. For those people, you can already guess how things will go with this because U.A. never makes anything easy.