Triple Nightmare /Bakudekutodo

Chapter 63: Mr Thunderhoofs motivation!

Midoriya POV:
Even after it had gotten clear that the monster was outrun Mr Thunderhoof wouldn't stop galloping through the narrow halls. As promised I held onto him tightly the entire time. "What was that thing?" I asked loud enough so he could hear me over all the surrounding noises. "To be honest I'm not sure myself. All I know is that these creatures exist at mass in this place. So, even after we part ways keep an eye out for them and try avoiding them as much as possible." Mr Thunderhoof answered.

After a while we had finally slowed down and I was able to sit up straight instead of clenching onto this strangers naked upper body. "Mr Thunderhoof, might I ask another question?" "Ask away, Mr Midoriya." I hesitated. "How long have you been in here? And how did you end up here in the first place?" I asked eventually. "Might I first figure out, what makes you so curious?" We had reached walking pace so I carefully swung both my legs over to one side and slit off Mr Thunderhoofs back. He stopped for a moment and as soon as I had caught up to him we continued walking side by side. I looked up at him. "I don't have any deep intentions. I just noticed that you seemed to know your way around here." I answered his earlier asked question. "Your instincts must be good. I have been here for quite some time now. But you were wrong about one thing. I definitely don't know my way around this labyrinth. No one does." His expression darkened. "I'm just as lost as you are." "But don't you have one of those compasses? The ones leading to our rooms." "I had one, yeah. But once you find your room you have to put that compass in an opening in order to open your room door. Once inside it never comes out again." Mr Thunderhoof explained. "Does that mean you can only enter that room once?" "That's right. After recovering from some exhausting travels I had just put behind me, I was ready to leave again. That's when I realized it." "What is it?" I asked interested. "I'll give you a tip: this Hotel is never full but since years no one has left. How does it work?" "It is a big place. Maybe only very few people check in?" I guessed. "Wrong. The owners make sure that new people regularly check in." He smiled at me trying to figure out his riddle. "I don't know.." I said. "Please, tell me." "Fine, the answer is:" he started "Someone new checks in. They get a room and go find it. After a day or two they leave the room. The moment they are out someone new can enter even though the first one hasn't left the hotel just yet. It's a never ending circle and even though there are more and more people who end up on this ship there will always be free rooms for more to come." he finished. "I see. But how does it help the owners. It's not like they earn any money off of it." All of a sudden Mr Thunderhoof went silent.

He was just staring into the hallway ahead. "Mr Thunderhoof?" It seemed as if he was debating to himself whether to tell me what he knew or not. Suddenly he looked at me again. "I don't know if it's the truth but..." "What is it?" "Since years there has been a rumor going around." The way Mr Thunderhoof said those words made a shiver go down my spine. "You see..." He seemed to be struggling finding the right words. "*sigh* A couple of years ago people suddenly started talking about a group of humans who apparently were stirring up some trouble. At that time that wasn't anything special but for some reason villages that had been visited by said humans started talking crazy." I had a bad feeling. "They said that those humans were from another world. Aliens or something. They supposedly had some kind of magic called quicks? I'm not sure of what they called it but somehow in this world that magic wasn't active. I know that it sounds insane. At the beginning I didn't believe it myself but then..." He leaned down to me and whispered: "I saw them with my own eyes." My hands started shaking. A kind of terror went through me as he said those words. I looked at him with wide opened eyes. What if he knew something that could help us?! "Y-You met them?!" Mr Thunderhood straightened up again. Then he just silently nodded. "How do you know it was them?" I asked. The tension was unbearable. "Because I saw their magic. It was out of this world. Those humans were mere children but managed to open a portal into another world!" "A portal?" "That's what it looked like, yes. But right before they could enter it something happened. I could never figure out what it was but It caused a terrifying event, proving those people must be monsters!" What happened?" "They started murdering each other." My breath suddenly stopped. The terror moved right into my bones. "W-Why would they do such a thing?" I whispered not being able to raise my voice. "I'm telling you. They got greedy and didn't want the others to be able to return home with them. That has to be it!" It didn't make sense. I knew it didn't but how was he suppose to know. "Fact is: recently there have been new rumors." I froze. "They're back." Did he mean us? Shoto, Kacchan and me? How did people know? A million thoughts rushed through my head. "Since people started talking again saying they've returned a lot went out to hunt for them. After what had happened the last time our people were scared that they could hurt us." All of this just made such few sense. "If they would even kill their own then they are a threat to us. I mean, why did they come here in the first place? We must have something they want! And I will be the one who finds out what that is!"

To be continued ...