Time Changes Us (DekuBaku)

50

A/N I am so sorry. I've been working a lot of mandatory overtime and I literally slept all day yesterday. The only reason I'm awake now is because my twins woke me up or I would still be sleeping. It's been a long week. 😓 Anyway here is the chapter you should have gotten yesterday. 😵‍💫

Deku's POV
We were staying with Aunty Flame while we stayed in Rome but she works most of the time so we pretty much had the flat to ourselves. Hero Fest only lasted for a week but we also have an actual mission for the second week and right now we are scouting the location. Kaminari wasn't doing terribly either, considering he doesn't know Italian and wasn't familiar with the area.

There was a suspected child trafficking ring in the area and it was our job to look into it. Simply put, they don't have enough evidence for "real" heroes to go storming in but if it's us they can say that we are just kids and we are bound to make mistakes. They really submitted a mission request to have us fly almost 15 hours one way just for that reason alone. But if it is a child trafficking ring then it's worth coming out here. I would rather that wasn't the case though but this is the reason for heroes after all.

It was actually Kaminari that found our mark and he and Toshi tailed him while Kacchan and I kept our distance, scouting both ahead and behind them to make sure it wasn't a trap but we didn't find anything. It wasn't until the villain was at the church doors that my heart sank. I have a very bad feeling about this.

Kacchan and I entered through the catacombs, already having a vague understanding of the layout, thankfully it wasn't nearly as extensive as the ones in France or we would be in trouble, sadly though. This is Rome, so they weren't that far off either. In some ways it was worse in others easier, I don't think I could actually pinpoint the differences though.

"Deku!" I heard Kacchan hiss and I stopped dead in my tracks. Sure enough we had stumbled across a burial chamber and thanks to the dark I almost walked face first into a few of them. A shiver passed through my body at the thought of touching the dead corpses. I nodded my thanks before focusing again on our task.

There was a very fresh stench in the stale air that made my nauseous and I couldn't help the unease, knowing that soon we'll come across a body. A fresh one. We rounded a corner and the stench got worse but at the same time we saw children huddled around the small room, many of which were crying while others were laughing.

It was pretty obvious that the ones laughing were trying to cheer up the ones that were crying but it wasn't helping, then they saw us.

"Who are you!?" One boy stepped forward while the rest tried to back away.

"Kid, we're just lost, where the hell are we?" Kacchan groaned and true to form he sounded irritated as hell. "Some test of courage this is, we can't even find the exit let alone the shrine," he added as if we really were here on just a dare. We are in plane clothes because the hero agency wanted us to try and blend in if we could, using our young age. "Izu, why the hell did you have to run off, now we're both lost!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," I whined and it was clear that the kids bought the lie, hook, line and sinker.

"And what is that fucking smell? Did someone kill a skunk or some shit?" Kacchan complained some more. One of the kids nervously pointed at a pile of clothes on the floor but no one said anything so I walked over and flipped the blanket laying on top only to squeal and fall back. That was a corpse, the bones bloody and much of the tissue was left but there were also rats eating on it so I scrambled back as fast as I could until Kacchan helped me up again.

"We have to be quiet or more will come. It's not safe to go outside," one of the children whispered, as if the rats would attack them if they weren't quiet enough. Did they think dead bodies were loud? I don't understand.