Chapter Text
What?!
“What the fuck do you mean ‘Round Two’? We beat your shitty monster, we played your stupid games, what the fuck is round two?” Kacchan said.
Ayano giggled. Izuku never thought he could hate someone’s laugh, but hers was really getting on his nerves.
“Didn’t we just say it was only the beginning? If you want your prize, you have to earn it. Fight for it. Sacrifice for it. Round two, round three, as many rounds as it takes.”
“And who decides how many rounds it takes?” Izuku asked. He already knew the answer.
“Why, we do, of course!” Ayumu said.
“So we’re never getting out of here,” Todoroki stated. “You’ll keep running us through your games until we die.”
“That’s not true,” Ayano protested. “We’re completely fair! You know that people have won before. You can win, it just takes actual work. If it was hopeless, people would just give up, and where’s the fun in that?”
“So you’d really let us defeat you? I doubt it.”
“Well, doubt it or not, that’s the only way you’re leaving.” Ayumu crossed his arms. “So you can play the next round and actually move forward, or you can sit here and pout about it.”
“Yumu-kun,” Ayano hissed. “Don’t talk to the boys like that. Wonderland is supposed to be fun .”
Ayumu huffed. “They’re the ones being stubborn. What’s the point of having them here if they don’t cooperate?”
“The same point as always, Yumu-kun. If they don’t want to play, we can’t make them. Besides, we have other parties we can attend to. We have the Number One Hero. He’s been fun too!”
“Wait,” Todoroki said, “Endeavor is playing too?”
“Uh, duh,” Ayumu said. “He wants the same thing as you, pretty much.”
The three of them by themselves weren’t enough, but if they could somehow find Endeavor, then they’d maybe have a shot at beating the twins.
“Fine,” Izuku said, “we’ll play.”
“Hah?! I didn’t agree to shit, Deku!”
“So you’re just going to let these villains win?” Todoroki asked.
It was the ultimate battle, Kacchan’s stubbornness versus his need to be the best.
“Ugh, fuck you.” More black smoke came from his mouth. It seemed to happen whenever one of them expressed something negative…
“I’m beating your game, and then I’m burning this hell hole to the ground.”
“Wonderful!” Ayano said. She and Ayumu raised their arms and snapped.
They were back in the second room, the one with the roulette wheel and the void.
“Ugh, not this shit again,” Kacchan complained.
“Yes,” Ayumu said, “This again! You all know how to play, right? Of course you do, you played less than half an hour ago. Three sacrifices. If you don’t accept, you get a penalty. Who’s up first?”
Izuku spun before anyone else could volunteer. It was a little awkward, spinning with his left hand and struggling to close it over the spike, but he didn’t complain.
Brain.
“Ooh, brain again! What do you think, Yumu-kun?”
“Oh,” Ayumu said, “I have a good one. Midoriya Izuku…”
And then he stopped talking.
Izuku looked around to find everyone staring at him.
“...what? What am I sacrificing?” he asked.
“Midoriya, you already sacrificed. Don’t you remember?” Todoroki asked, visibly concerned.
“In the first round, yeah. This is round two.”
“What the fuck did you do to him?” Katsuki asked Ayumu.
“They didn’t do anything yet, Katsuki. They just stopped talking.”
Katsuki and Todoroki stared at him like he’d grown another head.
The twins started laughing. What was so funny?
“Ah, Yumu-kun, this is amazing!”
“Of course, Yano-chan! Brain is just so fun to work with, so versatile!”
What… What the hell happened? Izuku clutched his aching head. Had he already given something up?
“Bakugou, Todoroki, would one of you like to spin?” Ayano asked sweetly.
… But wasn’t it still Izuku’s turn?
Regardless, Todoroki spun.
Skull. What the hell was skull?!
Ayano clapped. That was not a good sign.
Ayumu cleared his throat. “Todoroki Shouto, if you take this sacrifice, you’ll have… a bit of bad luck, somewhere down the line. Do you accept?”
Bad luck?
“That’s it?” Todoroki asked. “Just some bad luck?”
“Just some bad luck,” Ayano confirmed, “though I will remind you that this is round two, and things will be harder than they were in round one.”
“I think I can handle it. I accept.”
Ayano snapped. Nothing happened.
“Bakugou, your turn,” Ayumu said. Katsuki spun.
It landed on swords.
Ayano tilted her head. “This is an interesting one, for you.”
“Bakugou Katsuki, if you accept, you’ll sit out of the next challenge. Your teammates will be entirely without your aid, and-”
“Pass.”
“...All right. Penalty.”
Izuku waited for mind-numbing pain, for more confetti, anything that would signify that this “penalty” had begun. Instead-
“Your penalty is another sacrifice,” Ayano said.
That was… a bit underwhelming.
“That’s it?” Katsuki asked, equally unimpressed.
“Well, yeah,” Ayumu shrugged.
“So what’s stopping us from spinning until we get something we can live with?” Izuku asked.
“Oh, I think you’re misunderstanding,” Ayano said. “It’s not another sacrifice in exchange for that one. You have four total sacrifices now. So Bakugou spins again, then one of the three of you will take another sacrifice on top of that.”
Oh. So the more they passed, the more they would have to give up. Great.
Katsuki growled and spun the wheel.
Skull.
“Fine,” he said, before the twins even asked. “It’s the same as Icyhot’s, right?”
“Well, yes,” Ayumu scratched the back of his neck, “but there’s a way we do things here. Bakugou Katsuki, if you take this sacrifice, you’ll have a bit of bad luck at some point during your stay in Wonderland. Do you accept?”
“I already said yes, dipshit.”
Ayano snapped. She hummed. “It’s been a while since we’ve had two skulls in one round. I’m so excited to see what happens!”
One spin left. Before anyone else could move, Izuku spun.
“Hey!” Katsuki yelled. “That was mine, Deku!”
“No it wasn’t, it was anyone’s,” he said. “Be faster next time.”
Body.
“Midoriya Izuku,” Ayumu said, “this sacrifice will… let’s take a bit from your internal systems. Life force is a classic. You’ll get sicker a little more easily, get tired faster, and take a bit more time to fully recover from stuff. How about that, do you accept?”
What choice did he have? He supposedly gave something up that round, but it couldn’t have been that important if he couldn’t remember what it was.
“I accept,” he said. Ayumu snapped, and-
Izuku’s knees buckled beneath him. He barely caught himself on the side of the wheel. Todoroki moved to help, but Izuku waved him off before pulling himself back up.
He felt like shit .
The dull throbbing in his hands intensified into a pulsing ache that traveled up his arms, especially sharp in his right. His head felt like a woodpecker had thought his green hair meant he was a tree and decided to dig around for a snack. His breathing was harder and heavier than it had been only moments before.
Black fog puffed out with his breath and he wasn’t even saying anything. He was simply living his negativity.
“G-great,” he mumbled. “‘S that all you got?”
“Oh, we have much more,” Ayano purred. “It’s time for Trust or Forsake!”
They snapped, and the swirling lights and music were like someone drove a nail into his brain.
“The one who decides this time will be… Bakugou! Go ahead and pick, Bakugou,” Ayumu said.
Katsuki hesitated, actually hesitated, hand hovering over the buttons.
“Katsuki,” Izuku said, and Katsuki’s arm tensed. “Choose trust. I know forsake seems easier, but it’s not what a hero would choose.”
“Whose fucking decision is this, Deku? I don’t need your help.” He slammed his palm down on the pink button. “You doubting that I’m a hero, nerd? I’ll kick your ass!”
The board lit up.
YOU CHOSE: trust
THEY CHOSE: trust
Confetti rained from the ceiling once again, this time pink. How much of this place’s budget went to confetti alone?
“Congratulations, your faith in humanity wasn’t misplaced… this time,’’ Ayano said.
“You’ll get to complete the challenge at normal difficulty,” Ayumu added. “I think this one’s going to be pretty fun!”
Considering what happened in the first challenge, Izuku really doubted it.
Again, the twins snapped.
Again, the room swirled.
Izuku opened his eyes to darkness, except not quite. He looked down. His costume was glowing a bright green. Katsuki’s orange highlights and the white half of Todoroki’s hair were glowing as well.
The twins were violently bright, and so was the object behind them.
Or… objects? It almost looked like…
Oh god.
“Welcome to our obstacle course,” Ayano said. Her voice almost seemed strained. “I had- I had a lot of fun creating this, it was inspired a bit by your Sports Festival, actually.”
“However,” Ayumu cut in, “there’s a couple key differences. One, you’re not allowed to use your quirks.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Katsuki said.
“Also, Ayano said, “as some extra motivation-” she gestured for them to turn around.
There was a huge mass of yellow behind them, writhing and pulsing to the music. As Izuku listened closer, he could also hear… buzzing.
“Bees.”
“Bees?” Izuku asked.
“Bees!” Ayumu confirmed. “Once the challenge begins, these bees will be released, chasing after you. If they catch you, it will be… unpleasant.”
“The pain can not be bee-lieved,” Ayano cackled, leaning against Ayumu. Almost as if she needed support.
Maybe she was reaching the limit of whatever her quirk was. If she was the one doing everything, then it was possible that creating such a large course and many individual bees was tiring her out, on top of what she was doing for the other victims. If they could catch her off guard-
“Go!”
Oh shit. Running time.
The three of them passed through a red-glowing Torii gate and onto the first obstacle, which was, because why wouldn’t it be, several sets of walls in a narrow corridor that smashed against each other. Just what every death course needed.
Not too bad, if you could get the timing, but the bees made it difficult to wait too long.
Next was a balance beam over a chasm of nothingness. He dashed across, thankful for his low center of gravity. Apparently being short did come in handy sometimes.
After that came an open section of floor with brightly colored tiles scattered haphazardly throughout. He’d be an idiot to trust them, so he darted around each as best he could. He didn’t want to know what they did.
He had to crawl through a pit full of unidentifiable fluorescent goop, under barbed wire. Interestingly, the goop disappeared when he was back on solid ground. Could Ayano not make things last? Did she have to keep focus on what she created?
Two obstacles left. He was exhausted, but not particularly challenged. This was no more stressful than Aizawa-sensei’s Hell Course.
Another open area, though he quickly managed to find the obstacle when stuff started falling from the sky. He couldn’t tell what it was supposed to represent, only that it was brightly colored and looked like it would crush him if he didn’t dodge.
That’s when it happened.
Katsuki screamed in frustration somewhere behind him, and Izuku looked back.
Shit!
Katsuki had tripped. Something in the back of Izuku’s mind whispered Bad Luck , but he ignored it. As Izuku ran back to help him up, another rock thing fell- and landed right on Katsuki’s legs with a sickening crunch .
Izuku made it only seconds after, seconds that could’ve been used to prevent this if only he’d been allowed to use One For All.
“Fuck off, Deku, I don’t need your help!” Katsuki projected his usual rage, but it was tinged with fear and pain. The black smoke glowed purple as it came out of his mouth.
“Thank me later,” Izuku said as he shoved the mass off of his friend.
The buzzing behind them grew louder, angrier, almost hungrier.
“Fuck you,” Katsuki said again as Izuku tried to help him to his feet. Katsuki’s knees buckled beneath him.
“Just- go already!” Katsuki shouted. Todoroki ran over as well, and together they situated Katsuki onto his back.
The bees were close, too close, as they reached the final obstacle, a simple rope wall, although a tall one. It had two ropes only, but they only had two people that needed them.
“Hang on,” he told Katsuki, who grumbled but tightened his arms around Izuku’s shoulders. There was no time for arguing.
This would be difficult with the extra weight and his hands not working right, but he’d trained with All Might. He’d trained with Endeavor.
Failure was not an option.
The two of them climbed, side by side. The top seemed impossibly far. It could’ve been another trick by the twins, the final obstacle eternally out of reach, but it could’ve just as easily been Izuku’s anticipation fucking with him psychologically. Eventually, though, they were at the top, and then-
Bad Luck .
Todoroki’s rope snapped. Izuku shouted as Todoroki fell, as if in slow motion, toward the giant mass of yellow swarming below. His arm shot out to grab for him-
And so did Black Whip, bright green and glowing.
Fuck the rules, Izuku was saving his friend.
Black Whip latched onto Todoroki as the swarm rose to meet them, swinging wildly as it retracted. Todoroki hit the wall with a bang.
Izuku pulled the three of them up and over the edge of the wall. Somehow, the drop down wasn’t as high as the climb up.
He and Katsuki crossed the finish line, another fluorescent Torii gate, Shouto staggering behind them. They crumpled to the ground.
Izuku looked back, and the bees had stopped just before the gate.
There was no confetti.
Instead, the lights turned on, harsher than they’d been since they’d first entered Wonderland what could only have been hours ago.
Clicking footsteps. Izuku looked up, still breathing heavily.
“Well now,” Ayumu said, arms crossed. He reminded Izuku of one of his middle school bullies after they had pushed him to the ground but before they started beating him up. Ayano was like one of his teachers, hands on her hips, radiating faux disappointment and sadistic glee.
“Someone broke the rules~” she practically sang.
Obviously, she was feeling better.
“We told you, no quirks allowed. And what did you do, Deku? You used your quirk.” Ayumu shook his head. “Foul play calls for punishment.”
Ayano raised her arm and pointed behind them, towards the Torii gate. Towards the mass of yellow still just beyond.
She snapped her fingers.
