Chapter Text
“None of this makes any sense.”
He whispered, sitting on the stairs, looking at the two numbered doors ahead of them, and the people around him, just as confused as he was feeling.
“How did you get here?”
Izuku Midoriya was sitting next to him, pulling his knees up, looking at him instead of the doors. Maybe he didn’t want to think about what was behind them just yet.
They would have to go soon, but not yet.
“Probably similarly as you or the others. I went home for the weekend from the dorms. I went into my room, and suddenly there was some kind of gas, and I saw a figure in a gas mask. I have no idea how did they get in there. Even though my father wasn’t home, we still have a very good security system.”
“I suppose you’d have to be” Midoriya nodded seriously. “Being the family of the Number Two hero, after all…”
“Yeah. And then I woke up, on this ship… on the deck below us.”
“And water was pouring in…”
“And then there was the voice…”
-
“Say. Do you know about digital roots?”
This wasn’t the first thing the boy expected to hear after waking up. He also didn’t expect to have water pouring into his cabin… cabin? This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Where was he? Nothing made sense.
“Digital roots are simple. And those are how you can open the door before it floods.”
The water was rising steadily, and the boy staggered towards the door, with a huge number 5 on it. Next to it, was a mirror.
He looked normal. He didn’t look changed - mismatched eyes, two-coloured hair, burn mark. Everything seemed to be in order.
He didn’t feel harmed either. Which would quickly change, if he didn’t get out.
He raised his hand, and the water froze - but the water pressure coming from the outside was too big, and if this was a ship… a sinking ship… he couldn’t freeze an entire huge body of water. He had to find another way out.
And there was the matter of the heavily modified voice talking through the speakers.
“Shouto Todoroki. I’ll tell you a bit about digital roots, alright? To make this easier, otherwise you won’t even make past your own door. Best to explain it through an example, alright? Let’s say you have to find the digital root of 3, 4 and 5. First, you have to add them up. 3+4+5=12. Now you have a two-digit number, you have to sum the digits. 1+2=3. Therefore, the digital sum of 3, 4 and 5 is 3. Understand?”
The water was now ankle-high in the cabin. It was a ship cabin, and Shouto was not really feeling like taking math questions, needless to say.
“What does that have to do with anything?! Let me out!”
“I hope you understood digital roots, Shouto. Because you will have to find numbered keykards to open the door - see the number 5 on your door and your wrist? You have to use at least three numbered keycards. The digital root of the numbers of the keycards has to be 5. Good luck. You probably just have a few minutes until the water will get too high on this deck.”
-
“But you got out!”
“Yeah. I had to find the keycards first, and on our way as we run upstairs, I met with everyone.”
“Nine of us… Just like our numbers.”
Ah, yes.
It wasn’t only Shouto’s door that was numbered.
On his left wrist there was a bracelet, which looked like a wristwatch, with the number 5 on it. Midoriya had the same, with a number 6 written up. There were two tiny buttons on both sides of the bracelet, but upon being pressed, they did nothing.
“I think most of us have different numbers. I mean Kacchan has the number 3 bracelet…”
“Stop fucking calling me Kacchan, for fuck’s sake!”
Oh right. Katsuki Bakugo was also there. If possible, even more pissed off than usual, his bracelet clamping over his bare wrist, and he was scowling.
“We all thought it would have been a good idea to use codenames, but…” A jovial, slightly older man with greying hair spoke, spreading his arms. “After all, we have no idea how we got here…”
“But fucking Deku had to mouth off.”
A lazy voice piped up next.
“And you are also using names, don’t you?”
“Nobody asked you, Mindfreak!”
“We could use first names!” Midoriya stood up, raising his hands, trying to get everyone to calm down. “That way… some anonymity is preserved…”
The purple-haired guy with the lazy voice slowly tilted his head.
“Does that mean you’ll call me Hitoshi, then?”
A blush spread on Izuku’s face.
“I mean… it’s a good idea is it not?”
“Izuku, huh…” Shouto tried the way it rolled off his tongue, and Izuku blushed even more.
“Why the fuck are you blushing, fucking idiot?” Katsuki’s mood didn’t seem like it would improve any time soon.
“Nothing Kac… I mean Katsuki. This is gonna be weird isn’t it?”
But before anyone could have answered, or the rest of the players could have spoken up, the loudspeakers came to life.
“Welcome. I am your host for the evening. You shall all call me Zero. You may as well say that I am the captain of this ship as well. You had been chosen to participate in a Nonary Game. I will now explain the rules.”
-
There were nine people in front of the staircase, and Shouto didn’t know most of them. There were Izuku, Katsuki he did know, and there was Hitoshi from the General Course - there was another young girl with silver hair who was from class 1B, there were two pro heroes, one a woman with snake hair, and a burly man in his fourties with short-cropped dark hair. There was a jovial, older man, and a fidgety skinny man.
Nine of them, all of them wet from running up from the watery deck.
Nine of them, all of them having bracelets.
And a voice talking through the speakers.
“The rules are very simple. As you had no doubt noticed, you are on a ship, which has begun to sink. In total, it will take it about nine hours to completely sink, and you will drown.. The only way out is if you find a door labelled with the number 9. In order to find it, you will have to pass through other numbered doors, each of them labelled with numbers through 1 to 9.”
“What if I just fucking blow up a door, huh?” Katsuki hissed, sparks flying from his hand. The mechanical voice continued.
“Forcing a numbered door would lead to penalty. There are tiny needles hidden in your bracelets - if you break a rule, the needles will enter your wrists, injecting you with poison. So I would not use brute force to open numbered doors, or to take off your bracelets, if I were you.”
“So… how will we open the numbered doors, then?” Snake Woman asked.
“Every numbered door has a device next to them. Those are called REDs. you have to put your hands against the RED, to input your bracelet number into the device. At least three, or at most five numbers can be entered - and if we add up the bracelet numbers, the digital root of that sum has to correspond to the number on the numbered door. After that, you have nine seconds to enter the door. Everyone whose number had been added has to go in, if you choose to pass through. Not more, not less. On the other side, there is another device, called the DEAD, where you have 81 seconds to also enter your numbers. If you don’t, there will be a penalty for everyone who is on the other side of the door. If you are wondering how to take the bracelet off: there are two ways. One, you win the Nonary Game. Two, you die. You try to force it off, and be it with Quirks or otherwise, and it will result in a penalty.”
Silence.
Zero spoke again.
“Understood the rules?”
“So… if say, I want to go through door 4…” Izuku mused, muttering, staring at that door ahead of him. “I could go through with Katsuki, and… uh, who has number 4?”
“I do” Silver Girl raised her hand. “And uh… why?”
“Because I have 6, Katsuki has 3, you have 4. 6+3+4=13, and 1+3=4. See? The digital root of our numbers is 4.”
“I could also enter that room with her” Shouto said, musing. “I’d just need uh… Katsuki, and uh… the number 1 bracelet. Because I have 5, it would mean 1+3+4+5=13, and again, the digital root is 4 again. There are a lot of combinations.”
Before they could devolve into counting even more, Zero spoke again.
“Remember. You won’t have to go through all numbered doors. You just have to find a door labelled with 9, to get out. Good luck. You have nine hours.”
Zero’s voice was gone, and all that remained, was silence.
And nine people were standing in front of two numbered doors - one with a 4, and one with a 5 on it.
-
“So. I think it’s better if we introduce ourselves first. Otherwise, this will never work.” Jovial Man slapped his hands together. “I think it’s better if I start, I have bracelet number 1, after all. You shall call me Daiichi, then, if we go with first names.”
“I guess I’m next, then” Hitoshi scratched the back of his neck. “I am Hitoshi. I have bracelet 2.”
“Katsuki. Bracelet 3” Katsuki shrugged, glaring daggers at door 5.
“I have bracelet 4” Silver Girl spoke up, fidgeting with her dress. “I am Reiko.”
“My name is Shouto. I have bracelet 5.”
“I’m Izuku. Bracelet 6.”
“I have bracelet 7, and… well, you probably know me, so I think my pro hero name would work. I am Malichor” Burly Man shrugged.
“Then I shall go with my hero name as well. I am Uwabami. Bracelet number 8” Snake Woman smiled.
There was silence. Everyone turned to look at the fidgety Ninth Man.
“So uh… what about you?” Shouto was the one who asked.
“What about me?”
“Aren’t you going to… tell us your name?”
“There is no point” The Ninth Man sneered at all of them. “I have no plan on working together with you imbeciles. I am getting out of here.”
With that, he grabbed Reiko, and dragged her towards door 5.
And his hand formed spikes around her throat.
“Do not even dream about using your Quirk, because my fucking spikes are faster, got it?! I’m getting the hell out of here. Put your hand on the RED”
Reiko just raised her hand, putting her head over the device.
Beep.
The Ninth Man put his hand over it as well.
Beep.
“You… One… you get over here and put your hand over the device too.”
Before Daiichi could have moved, Katsuki raised a hand.
“What the fuck?! What if we fucking don’t work together?”
The Ninth Man smiled, a dark smile.
“I think you know.”
Shouto glanced at Hitoshi, who stood a bit behind - and Hitoshi looked completely stunned, for some reason.
Nothing made sense, but…
Beep.
Daiichi put his hand over the device.
The Ninth Man pushed Reiko away, and he just grinned, and pulled the lever, opening the door.
“So long, fuckers. Have fun with Zero and his fucking games. Hah.”
The door closed.
And on the other side of it, Shouto knew, he just knew that everyone was thinking about the same thing.
“The penalty…” Uwabami whispered. “He forgot the penalty.”
It only took about twenty seconds that the screaming started, the Ninth Man begging them to open the door.
“He lied to me, please let me out, let me out, the beeping won’t stop, it won’t accept it, please let me out!”
“Did I not mention?” Zero’s voice came through the speaker again. “Once a group passed the numbered door, it can’t be opened again until the room is completed.”
“You bastard! Let me out!”
There was no more response through the speakers.
Zero went silent.
And after a little more than a minute, the screaming stopped too.
There were eight people standing in complete, shocked silence in front of two numbered doors, and a clock behind them was counting the time mercilessly.
And they had less than eight hours left.