MHA: GAMER PATH

Chapter 154: UA's Underground Dungeon (1)

~Third POV~

[December, UA Highschool, Heights Alliance, Musutafu, Japan]

The cold, dry air at the end of the calendar year isn't ideal for an active lifestyle, and while wild animals instinctively take it easy during this season, people are somehow busier than ever. For instance, take the big winter cleaning hallmark of the year's end in Japan.

U.A.'s School Festival had ended without incident (relatively speaking), and Endeavor had formally taken up the mantle of number one hero once his battle with the High-End Nomu encouraged the people in the faith of heroes where All Might lacked and had been busy taking his role as a teacher of UA dropping his popularity.

At first, he didn't receive the warm public opinion once enjoyed by his predecessor and the Symbol of Peace, All Might, but following the number two hero, Hawks, down to Hakata was the first step to changing that. The two found themselves locked in a battle to the death against a High-End Nomu, and ever since, the public's general unease over the absence of the Symbol of Peace had been steadily replaced with support for Endeavor.

The run-in with the High-End had been no mere coincidence, however. Behind the scenes, Hawks was contacting the League of Villains (at the request of the Heroes Public Safety Commission), and engineering this battle had been a loyalty test of sorts.

Right around when classes 1-A and 1-B were having their Parents' Day, the Metahuman Liberation Army had come under the control of the League of Villains, giving rise to a new organization called the Paranormal Liberation Front.

The Safety Commission had become aware of Tomura Shigaraki's newfound resources and his scheme to destroy society and the status quo. Still, out of the many heroes and hero fledglings with provisional licenses who would soon launch an all-out attack on the P.L.F., only a small fraction had any idea about what was to come.

Nobody at U.A. High knew about these dark machinations at the moment, except Ren Yuki, which was just as well since the students were already occupied enough with the big winter cleaning.

Within the dorm buildings, they had their rooms and personal spaces marked by unique aesthetic choices that represented their personalities. Regularly cleaning these rooms was up to the individual, of course, and though tidiness was generally linked to the soundness of body and mind.

Not every student lived by that creed. Some cleaned their rooms every day, every two or three days, some once a week, some once a month, while still other stubborn souls had never cleaned their rooms since moving into the dorms. Those who made exceptional efforts to keep their spaces clean had already finished the winter cleaning, including class 1-A's student, Tenya Ida.

Tenya Ida tied a stack of books with string and placed the bundle in a cardboard box as he said proudly with a satisfied 'job well done' smile on his face, "There we go. All the books I've finished reading!"

Though Ida was never one to neglect day-to-day tidying, even he was prone to procrastinating when it came to cleaning his desk, his bookshelves, the space behind his bed, and the gutter out on the veranda, so he felt unusually refreshed as he surveyed his now impeccably clean room.

All that remained was to mail the box of books to his family. Ida's 'to read' pile had shrunk considerably, so he would have to ask his mother to ship over another bundle or two of new reading material. With the box in his arms, he left the room, carrying it down the stairs and then to the hallway as he was stopped by some peppy music and a loud, "Oooh …"

Listening to the sound coming from Denki Kaminari's room. This door was also ajar, and Ida spotted his floormate reading a magazine as he asked, barging in curiously, "I suppose your cleaning is coming along swimmingly, Kaminari?"

Reading a magazine, Denki stopped turning his head to see Ida as he replied, raising the magazine for him to see, "Sure is! But y'see, I was sorting my mags, and I stumbled across this one."

He turned the magazine around, showing Ida a page with an interview of the Laundry Hero: Wash and the Equipped Hero: Yoroi Musha. Though Wash's answers were all some form of 'Washashasha,' Yoroi Musha had been more than willing and able to share his thoughts and feelings with the interviewer.

Revealing the magazine to him, Denki explained as he continued reading the magazine in genuine interest, "I skimmed through this the first time—lotsa words, y'know?—but now that I'm reading it for real, there are some great insights here. Wanna check it out?"

Ida's curiosity was piqued, but he had a greater concern now as he asked Denki, confusedly adjusting his glasses, "That's all well and good, Kaminari, but aren't you in the middle of cleaning?"

Hearing Ida's response, Denki shrugged his shoulders as he explained to him casually, "Well, sure. But until I finish reading this, how'm I s'posed to know if it goes in the trash or the 'keep' pile?"

Ida's eyes twitched as he checked on Denki's pile of trash and magazines, mouth agape and flabbergasted as he said in a stunned tone, "You'll never finish the task unless you learn to sort more quickly! In fact … Oh dear, look how many magazines you have left. And, hrm? Is that dust I spy in the corner? Even your skateboard is coated in it! Don't tell me … you haven't even begun to tackle the veranda?"

Denki places his head closer to the magazine, shrugging his shoulders and replying, "Uhh, the veranda's not exactly on my to-do list. Who cares?"

Ida sighed, placing his hand over the bridge of his nose as he began to explain stoically to Denki, "If enough dry leaves have been deposited in your gutter by the wind, then the gutter will fail to serve its purpose during the next rainstorm!"

Denki's head shot up as he asked, looking seemingly down as he replied, "Dang, really? But how's a guy even s'posed to clean out the gutter, of all things?"

With a blank expression, Ida thought dryly, 'First, remove the debris.'

But before he could begin his next lecture, he glanced around the room again as he thought seeing his decorations, 'There's little sense in jumping ahead to the veranda when the room itself is still a mess, right? In which case, why don't I just…'

Ida was fully prepared to dive in and offer to help Kaminari clean, but he stopped himself at the last second, shaking his head and scolding himself as he thought, 'Proper cleaning is a component of self-discipline! My helping Kaminari would be decidedly against his own interests!'

Rather than rob a friend of a chance for self-improvement, Ida turned to Kaminari and said, "I have tools for cleaning the veranda in my room. They are yours to use if you'd like."

Hearing this, Denki smiled as he thanked Ida with a nod of his head, saying thankfully, "Oh, y'mean it? Thanks."

Ida returned Kaminari's carefree thank-you with a smile and left the room as he thought seriously, 'If he hasn't finished by the end of the day, I can help tomorrow.'

Ida was always reluctant to abandon a constituent in need. As Ida rode in the elevator from the third to the first floor, Izuku Midoriya was in his second-floor lab, busy creating his own weapon as he carefully adjusted the chemicals, muttering, "Okay, if I add this here – no, wait…!! This is too much – "

*KABOOOM*

Ida blinked as he heard an explosion, asking Shinso next to him, "Did you just hear that explosion below?"

Ida had made it to the first floor and was now speaking to Hitoshi Shinso just in front of the elevator. He answered stoically, "Eh… must be Midoriya or Yuki testing their Support Gear blowing up on them."

Shinso held a black garbage bag filled with trash as he tried to take it out. Being a responsible person meant that Shinso was another student who dutifully cleaned his room daily.

Ida, who was now contemplating checking up on his classmates' cleaning progress, replied with his head down, "Perhaps not, then…"

That's when he spotted Eijiro Kirishima dragging something toward the entryway. Ida asked, "And what might that be, Kirishima?"

Kirishima looked at Ida as he answered with a smile, gasping for breath, "Just hauling my busted punching bag off to the garbage."

The punching bag weighed at least one hundred kilograms, not including the stand, which was dented and bent past the point of usefulness. Ida couldn't help but ask curiously, "How on earth did your equipment end up that way?"

Kirishima replied, looking a bit glum, scratching his head as he answered Ida's question, "Got a little too fired up during training, I guess?"

Ida's and Shinso's eyes popped. It would take quite a bit of 'fire' to warp the punching bag's sturdy stand, but Ida was impressed by what this implied about Kirishima's training regimen Ida said, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you train in your own room!"

Hearing the praise, Kirishima flexed his arms, showing off lightly with a toothy grin, happily replying, "These muscles don't lie, dude! And there's nothing more trustworthy than good old-fashioned hard work!"

Ida merely shook his head as he shifted to the broken punching bag and added, "What a shame, though. No more training for you now that your equipment is broken, right?"

Kirishima, unbothered, only cheerily, said as he continued dragging the punching bag toward the front door, "Not to worry! You can buy anything online, so I'll have another one before you know it."

Seeing Kirishima's braced legs shuffle awkwardly, Ida set his box down, ran over, and grabbed one end of the heavy load in a helpful tone, "Allow me to assist."

Surprised by Ida's helping hand, Kirishima couldn't help but ask, "Eh? Do you mean it? Weren't you in the middle of something or whatever?"

Ida replied with a light smile, helping Kirishima, holding his destroyed punching bag, "My task can wait, and this is far more efficient."

Shinso slung the trash bag over his shoulder, gripped part of the punching bag stand, helping as well, and said stoically, "I can grab the other side."

Kirishima could hardly believe his good fortune as two of his classmates helped him out with a grin, he said, "Dang, you really don't gotta! But thanks?"

Shinso said with a sly grin stoically to Kirishima as the three boys started moving toward the garbage area, "No reason not to help each other out."

While on the subject, Ida couldn't help but ask Kirishima about his progress in cleaning up his room, "How is your cleaning effort coming along, Kirishima?"

Kirishima, with a nervous grin, responded in an unsure tone, comparing himself to Bakugo, cleaning, "I wish I could say 'just dandy,' but I ain't so great about sweating the small stuff. Not like Bakugo, who was up there scrubbing every little nook and cranny."

Ida's eyes blinked, surprised as he commented in a somewhat surprised tone, "Ah, despite what one might assume, Bakugo does have an eye for detail. It's surprising considering his personality."

They walked beneath the leaden winter air, talking about everything and nothing. The boys remarked on their white, faintly visible breath; they said hi to a cat who had decided to settle down on the U.A grounds, and they chatted about effective training regimens, their academic studies, distinguishing the several moods of Aizawa Sensei, and even the dinner menu.

It was when Shinso, looking ahead, said, "Hmm?"

This prompted the other two to notice Fumikage Tokoyami up ahead. He was carrying a large paper bag and immediately realized where his classmates must be going with the busted training equipment as Tokoyami said, "The usual garbage spot is full."

He had his trash to dispose of but had been forced to seek out the provisional dumping area, set up to accommodate any overflow during the big winter cleaning as Tokoyami said calmly, "I believe this is our garbage's new destination."

Tokoyami showed a map on his phone to the other three. It looked to be at "the edge of the woods, not far from the dorms. The info had just been sent to all students, but Ida, Shinso, and Kirishima hadn't brought their phones since they'd assumed the chore wouldn't take them long.

With a decisive nod, Ida thanked Tokoyami, "We're lucky we ran into you."

The trio was now a quartet, and they proceeded toward the provisional dump, now with Tokoyami's [Dark Shadow] also supporting part of the punching bag. The chitchat continued until they came across one of their teachers, Power Loader, sitting on a bench.

He was alone, drinking a canned coffee with an empty instant ramen container at his side. The boys said hello, prompting Power Loader to wave awkwardly before scampering back to the staff lodgings.

The teachers were doing their own cleaning today as well. Ida wondered aloud with a tilt of his head, "Why dine outside when it's so chilly?"

Kirishima shrugged his shoulders as he suggested in an unsure tone, "Change of pace, maybe? Like, to wake himself up?"

Ida seemed convinced enough, and Tokoyami changed the subject as he said, "Have you three felt the small earthquakes at night recently?"

Shinso gasped and nodded, but Ida and Kirishima simply turned to each other and shrugged as Ida said, "I have not. Perhaps because I make a point of going to sleep early each night?"

Kirishima nodded his head, agreeing with Ida in a chill tone, "Same here. After training, it's a quick bath, then snoozeville."

Tokoyami looked puzzled at the two but left the subject go and said stoically at the two, "I see … How odd. I've been checking my phone for any reports of earthquakes, but I haven't seen any."

Kirishima's eyes blinked as he suggested in an unsure tone, "Maybe just your imagination, dude?"

However, Tokoyami shook his head as he said sounding gravely serious about the matter, "That was my thought at first, but my imagination can't be responsible for nearly twenty instances…"

Ida turned to Shinso for his take, which the latter offered stoically, "Jiro said that she heard a strange noise during each little "earthquake. Like something's breaking somewhere. Or maybe scraping, or grinding…"

Kyoka Jiro's [Earphone Jack] Quirk allowed her to pick up even the faintest sounds, and the boys knew that testimony from someone so skilled at reconnaissance shouldn't be taken lightly as Ida wondered out loud, "What on earth could it be…?"

Assuming the phenomenon was happening, was it something natural or not? This question nagged at Ida and made his brow furrow, but his thoughts were interrupted by a jangling and rattling that approached from behind.

From behind, Ren Yuki, who held several cardboard boxes as he said, "Garbage run?"

It was an odd sight since everyone knew that Ren was an avowed minimalist who didn't own enough stuff to fill that many boxes with his [Sub-Space]. He noticed the boys' stares and answered before they could ask, explaining that he had finished cleaning his room as well as the communal bath and kitchen before offering to take out the girls' trash for them, as they hadn't finished their cleaning yet.

The five began walking again, and the gang asked their newest member about the mini earthquakes and strange noises Ren said curiously, "I was wondering about that too. The noises are too faint to pinpoint, though."

Since Ren's Quirk let him have enhanced senses, his eyes and ears are enhanced, he was another classmate skilled at scouting, so the fact that both he and Jiro were still in the dark about this phenomenon told them they would ignore it at their own peril as Ida said in a concerned tone, "I can't claim to know what's going on, but we ought to inform Aizawa Sensei posthaste, once we're finished out here."

The group finally reached the backup trash spot near the woods and placed the punching bag near the edge of the small pile that was steadily forming. Ren deftly set down the cardboard boxes, and instantly, Tokoyami's gaze was drawn to a bat-shaped decoration in one of them.

Tokoyami's eyes widened, barely able to contain his excitement out loud, "Could that be… Batboy?!"

Ren paused, gazing at the decoration with his lips twitching as he thought, 'Seriously? Did we get a Batman-themed hero?'