Dungeons And Heroes

Your Future

The campaigners, Eijirou at their side, rushed to meet the newcomers.
"I can't believe it!" Eijirou exclaimed, breathless. "Denki?!" He looks around at the others. His eyes fill with surprise and excitement. "Mina and Hanta, too?!"
      Mina, a girl with a pink flush to her skin and horns from her head jumped forward and threw her arms around Eijirou's neck. "How are you?!" she shrieked. "It's sooooo good to see you again!"
     Eijirou smiled warmly. "I'm well, and very glad to see you, too!" He turned to his other friend Hanta. "And you, Hanta! It's been too long." His smile turned to a nostalgic, saddened one.
     "Who are all these other people?" Izuku marveled, inspecting the small crowd.
     Denki laughed. "These are just some friends of mine from all over, really."
     "How did you know we needed assistance?" Tenya asked, wonderfully perplexed.
     Denki scratched the back of his head. "I felt bad after our first encounter with you all, Izuku, Tenya, and Ochaco. I knew in my heart I should've come along. I should never have left Eijirou and Katsuki in the first place when we knew how much danger they could be in. So I rounded up some friends of my own to help right our wrongs." He beamed at Eijirou. "We're here to stay and help however we can."
     "What are you doing here?" Katsuki growled at Denki, scowling, choosing just that moment to saunter up to them.
     "Katsuki..." Denki droned off uncertainly. "I don't know what to say."
     "Nothing!" snapped Katsuki in frustrated response. "You've said all the wrong things in the past, so you should have nothing to say to me now."
     "I apologize for all that," Denki replied, his face twisted with regret. "I'm so sorry. But you have to admit that even you said some things back then that were wrong."
     Katsuki's eyes flashed, but Eijirou answered before Katsuki could. "Yes, he did. But didn't we all? We left off on horrible terms. But I just missed you all terribly afterward."
Denki nodded, understanding. His friends each stepped forward to introduce themselves. Izuku caught names such as Minoru, Momo, Yuga, Kyoka, Toru, and even the girl serving along Denki at the tavern, Tsuyu. There were so many more, but Izuku couldn't keep track of them all.
     Even Katsuki eventually seemed to warm up to everyone. Well, he at least stopped giving them all the death glare, so Izuku called that a win.
     "So... what now?" one of the boys, Mezo, Izuku remembered his name was, asked. He was a shapeshifter, and morphed one of his many arms into a mouth to speak, while his face was masked by a scarf.
     "Now, we find out what's been happening to my dragons," Eijirou responded, his voice hard with anger, his face flushed the same shade as his crimson hair. He obviously cared about the creatures in the cavern, creatures like him.
     "You really want to do this, Eijirou?" Katsuki asked uncertainly.
"Of course," Eijirou answered, his face set. "Everyone," he began, addressing the entire group, "I'm going to be the bait for whatever dark force is within us. I will lie in wait outside of the cave, and you all will stay in the mouth of the cave, ready to attack whatever awaits us."
"I can come with you!" Toru, a girl with invisibility powers, exclaimed. "Right? No one will be able to see me, but I can most easily alert everyone else if you and I see something that they can't."
Eijirou nodded.
Ochaco turned to Izuku, her eyes wide. "This is our final dungeon, isn't it? This must be why you got the One For All!"
"Yes." Izuku clenched his fists and looked at his campaign members. "We've come so far for this day. It's been such an honor to have you all in my campaign. Thank you."
Shoto gave a small smile, straightening his coat. "You talk like we're about to die, Izuku. I can assure you, with all of us together, we'll be fine."
"Certainly!" Tenya puffed out his chest with pride. "You have the best knight, prince, and witch at your side! And that's not even including all these others fighting for our side!"
"Yes!" Ochaco cheered, her staff sparking. "How could we possibly lose?"
     Eijirou shouted his agreement, then started his fantastical transformation into a dragon again. First, wings spread from his back, then the rest of him began to change until he was the red dragon again that the campaigners had met coming into the mountains.
     Katsuki rested his hand on the top of Eijirou's scaly dragon head and murmured, "Be safe."
     Eijirou squawked affirmatively. He then headed out of the cave, and they had to assume that Toru was following him.
     Izuku eyed the new sword at his side. There was weight to him now. Not just the weight of the sword on his hip, but the weight of his friends's fates resting ultimately on his shoulders.
      Izuku looked worriedly for Ochaco, his first friend on the campaign. He pulled her aside as the others watched Eijirou leave.
     Ochaco peered at Izuku with worry. "Are you okay? What's the matter?"
     Izuku could feel himself paling. "What if I make a mistake? What if I fail?"
     Ochaco grasped Izuku's hand and firmly told him, "This isn't all on you, Izuku. All of us will fight as one. You don't have to feel like all of this is on your shoulders, Izuku, because, no offense, it's not!"
"But- But I got the One For All!" Izuku exclaimed, pulling it out of its sheath for emphasis.
Ochaco shook her head. "Izuku, don't you understand? You're not doing this alone. We are not leaving you to save us all. We are going to be heroes today. That's a plural word. Heroes. You don't have to hold the responsibility of protecting us all. We'll protect each other. We'll all be brave. We're going to win today, whatever evil we might be facing."
"I understand, Ochaco," Izuku replied, feeling the courage return to him. "Thank you."
Realizing their hands were still clasped, they jumped away from each other, both of their faces flushed. "S-Sorry about that! I just- just needed your attention!"
"Uh, y-yeah, I get it!" Izuku stuttered back.
"Hey!" Tenya shouted over to them. "If you two are done being awkward messes, would you get over here? It's showtime!"
"Dungeon Master, how does our future look?" Izuku asked Eraserhead.
"Believe it or not, that's not for me to decide," the D.M. admitted with a shrug. "Your future is entirely for you to decide what to make of it."