*Squish, squish, squish*
Izuku walks along the path he had walked many times with a glow berry in his hand. He could swear that the stony ground he was walking on had flattered him because he had to walk towards the stalagmite caves for a water refill. After all, three cans of water aren't enough to quench his thirst for more than a day or two.
Soon, the outlines of stalactites and stalagmites were visible up ahead. Then Izuku stops in his tracks and turns his head to his right. Ahead of him, just near out of sight, were the dim outlines of ruined structures. They lay unmovingly, roughly a 10-minute walk there. But the way there was clear.
Moss grows across the ground, floating plants wriggle slowly in mid-air. And near where the middle of the path he'll so be walking down, was a single circular like-thing that stood isolated. If Izuku hadn't been staring at sketches of that thing for weeks, he might mistake it for an out-of-place stone, of some sort of structure somebody built to discard their trash.
But Izuku knew better, than what was written in the journals as a 'shrieker'. One of the things that inhabit the dark caves. That thing was what warned the prominent figures to emerge from the ground. It was like an alarm, it would shriek when something made a sound, and wake the creature to emerge from the ground.
What Izuku was about to do was reckless, dangerous, and putting his life at stack. But he needed to do it. If he could find a safe spot in the ruins, he could be much safer there. Possibly.
Izuku picks up a rock lying nearby. The stone he picked up just so happens to have a jagged edge. 'Good.'
Izuku slowly proceeds forward towards the 'shrieker', the rock raised with its sharp edge pointing outwards, like a dagger in his right palm, only it was heavier than a dagger. Gradually, Izuku was right above the 'shrieker'. He gently places the glow berry in his left hand and he slowly begins raising the stone above his head, gripping it with both his hands, before bringing it down!
*Crash!!!*
Echos of the noise played through the cave. Clicks and shrieks responded, but not a single scream came from the shrieker that Izuku struck down.
The sides of the shrieker that the stone came in impact with broke and shattered. A liquid-like substance under the glow from the berry revealed it as a murky blackish-green thick mucus. Like the substance had a mind of its own, it slowly flowed out and engulfed the glow berry that Izuku sadly placed much too close to the shrieker.
Izuku takes a step back from his handiwork. The shattered shrieker just looks more like an extremely-large bowl filled with a mysterious substance now broken and spilling out. Who knew something so dangerous was constantly being called upon by something this harmless? The villains were reliant on these things warning them of intruders. Without these shriekers, the villains won't be aware or alarmed that somebody was wandering through their area.
With the shrieker taken down, Izuku continues his journey through the mossy terrain. Even without a shrieker, there were still many dangers along the way. The seaweeds, for example, were still a massive nuisance and threat. They were susceptible to sound and could warn shriekers even further out. But they were also relatively easy to deal with. Pull them out with a strong thug, and they'll wither away into the moss silently.
After a while of walking, Izuku was steps away from the stone structures of the ruins. From up close, it looked like a walkway from an ancient Japanese structure, but without the roof above it.
Izuku took a gulp, and place a step forward onto the stone structure. The silence was what followed as the confused kid took another step onto the structure.
Silence.
Izuku was confused, the structure should be made out of stone like the hut. When Izuku walks normally around the hut, his footsteps are often audible. But right now, his steps were silenced for some unknown reason. Izuku bends down to examine the ground.
The ground was relatively soft and fluffy, much to Izuku's surprise. He raises the glow berry in his hand closer to the ground to examine it. The ground was relatively light, it had a greyish color, meaning it blended well with the black bricks. But it was what made the ground that surprised Izuku. The ground he was stepping on was made out of wool. The wool was tightly compacted together and used for flooring.
This somehow completely reduces any sound from his footsteps. Izuku got up, and jump into the air, and landed on the ground. But still, there was no noise.
Izuku cracks a smile underneath the mask. Not only was this place much larger than the hut he currently resides in, but the flooring here seemingly had been replaced with wool that cuts out any footsteps(the hut/shack that Izuku stays in does not have any wool for flooring. It has a stone flooring that creates footsteps' noise.). If the entirety of the ruins has wool floorings, then the villains won't even be able to catch him.
Suddenly, Izuku releases something. 'What of the villains from the ground were just underlings, or maybe even part of somebody's quirk? What if the real mastermind was hiding within the ruins? The wool could be a precaution as the quirk seemed to attack anything that made noise. Would I run into them if I stayed here? What would they do to me if they found me?'
A gurgle sounded from behind Izuku, who look behind him to see nothing. Izuku then slaps himself in the face with both hands, squishing the berry in his hand onto his face. Izuku then releases a sigh as he took out another berry.
'Stop thinking Izuku, you can't be sure the villains are here. Calm down, calm down. If the real mastermind is here then I'll just have to deal with him, maybe her. Or them? Whatever the case is, I'll just deal with them if I meet them. That's a good idea Izuku, stick to it."
A chore of clicking sounded behind Izuku.
'Damn, I must have muttered that last part out loud!' cursed Izuku internally, 'Guess I haven't gotten rid of that habit yet.'
Izuku then begins to walk down the pavement to explore the ruins. After a moment of walking, Izuku was right in front of the actual ruins. A castle shape structure was in front of Izuku, the real reason he was here. If this place could provide him with a safer place than the hut, then surely he has to move here. It's only logical as it would be much safer.
Izuku then walks into the abandoned structure, it was dark, as expected. But it was voided of dust and cobwebs like a normal abandoned building. The ground was the same, wool was used as flooring. Windows were built into the walls lined across the hallway. Empty lanterns hung from the ceiling or laid on the ground.
Izuku picks up one of the lanterns. The inside of the lantern had been burned empty. The bottom was coated in a thick blanket of black dusty sand. But the lantern did give Izuku an idea. He places the glow berry into the lantern and shut the small door. The glow of the berry suddenly brighten making the room Izuku stood in much brighter. With a clearer view of the room, Izuku begins to analyze his surroundings.
The walls were made out of black bricks like the ones that made up his hut. The width of the room from the ceiling to the floor was roughly about 8 to 9 feet long and the length from one end to the other was about an average of 12 x 18 feet wide(average living room size). Each corner of the room had a jutted-out pillar with a small ledge. The walls of the room also had some sticks with burnt edges sticking out, as they had been glued onto the walls. At the center of each wall was a hole, seemingly meant to act as a window.
Lanterns hung on chains loosely from the ceiling. Some chains were barren and their lanterns lay on the ground.
'Must have fallen, maybe the chains had rusted? But wouldn't that mean all the lanterns have fallen by now?'
And at the center of the room, for no apparent reason, was a massive circular hole in the ceiling that lead to the rooms above.
'Why,' was the only thought that went through Izuku's mind at the sight of the hole in the ceiling. 'What were these people trying to accomplish?' Izuku stood right underneath the hole which seems to lead to the top of the building. below Izuku was a
'There isn't any way up to the other floors. Unless the people here had some sort of flight quirk, like levitation, wings, or air manipulation. But that should only help one person up. Maybe a quirk that can help many people get up, like telekinesis?'
The thought of telekinesis remained Izuku of his sister. And the rest of the things he missed. His school, his home, and his parents. Even if he wasn't welcome to them, at least he felt safe. He had proper food, filtered clean water to drink, and a warm place to sleep. The dark cave had none of those.
Izuku lets out another sigh and begins towards the other 'door', which was a hole in the wall on the other side of the room. He needed to find a room he could at least shelter at.
The ruin was rather open, Izuku didn't know whether it was the building's design, or it had collapsed over time. There were small sections of rooms that contain the remains of collapsed chests, burn-out lanterns, and maps of the structure. Upon seeing the first map he came across, Izuku sat down and begin to sketch the map into a spare page in the book with chalk. And when he was done, he continued exploring.
He would sometimes come across sections like bridges over the moss, which he'll need to jump over. There would also be times when there was no wool for flooring, meaning Izuku had to sneak silently. in case a shrieker or seaweed was nearby. But there just wasn't any seaweed, shrieker, or moss within the ruins. There were words scratched across the walls in some rooms that creep Izuku out slightly. The words scratched were the same letters from the book Izuku deciphered, but they were too vague for Izuku to understand what they meant.
Eventually, Izuku spotted a wooden ladder that would lead him up to the floor above. Izuku sat a foot on the ladder, slight surprise by the durability of the ladder as it didn't even creak when Izuku placed his foot on it. Izuku begins to climb the ladder and soon reaches the next floor.
The room Izuku is in now looks like a watch tower, with windows and a balcony that leads to the outside. Izuku walks out of a doorway to the balcony to get a better look at the ruins. But through the lantern's light, nothing could be seen.
'That's weird,' thought Izuku, 'I can't even see the out-lined of the ruins from up here. Does that mean the higher I am, the harder it is to see? Maybe looking upwards is much clearer than looking downwards?! I can see buildings further outwards much easier than I can see the ruins below. Then why was this balcony built if the view is so much more obstructed up here? Does that mean the people who used to inhabit here had some way of seeing in the dark? A night-vision quirk maybe, or echolocation? Or maybe some sort of device.'
Izuku lets out a sigh: 'Maybe I shouldn't question the inhabitants' decisions. They knew to lay the floorings with wool, they should know what to do better than me. But the question is, what happens to them?'
Izuku backs away from the balcony and walks back through the doorway. Izuku lets out a yawn: 'I should just find a room to rest in. And plant the vine on a ceiling before it withers. Definitely on a ceiling without a hole in it.'
Izuku silently chuckles at his own joke before turning and deciding to walk out of one of the doorways that had a sharp turn to the right once out of the room that leads right onto a pathway without any sides.
'I need to be careful,' Izuku thinks, 'there aren't any sides to prevent me from falling off the pathway. That's one careless design flaw, I guess. But I do think I see something in the distance.
Izuku walks out of the room and takes a turn.
Only to be faced with a figure, blocking his path!
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Apologies for the long wait and update. And the slightly lazy writing when describing the ruins. But I do hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for reading.
Best regards;
BMXK7669