Crossing Fates : Special Story 7 - The Divided (BakuDeku)

7 - His Jail Cell and Cellmate

Izuku woke in stages.

His first thought was Last Dance, ha.

Death's Detnerat show was a little heavy-handed on the metaphor. Or was it a simile?

He could never keep those two straight.

His hip and neck hurt, and the baby was kicking at his full bladder.

Why was the bed so hard, and who had put rocks in it?

Awareness came crashing in. Bolting into a sitting position, he looked around wildly. The last thing he remembered was sitting in a helicopter with his kidnappers. Most of them were just goons taking orders.

The one he was really afraid of was the Elven woman with the scarred face. Not since coming face-to-face with Kai Chisaki had Izuku looked in a person's gaze and realized they were capable of doing anything, anything at all.

Then, a sudden blackness. They must have hit him with some kind of spell.

And now this.

He was in a shallow cave that had been converted into a cell. Instead of being underground, it appeared to be some distance above ground, possibly twenty or thirty feet up a cliff face.

He could look out over a desert-like clearing that was surrounded by a dense, strange-looking forest. A multitude of colored dome tents and campers lined the edges of the clearing and disappeared past her line of sight.

The opening of the cave was barred with some sturdy metal beams that definitely meant business, and they were secured into place by what appeared to be newly poured concrete at the base. Outside, there was a narrow ledge about four feet wide.

There was no door set in the bars. There wasn't any way out that he could see.

His stomach clenched. He wasn't meant to leave this place.

The only items in the cave were a bucket in the corner and a pile of cloth and leathery bones in another. The pressure against his bladder had become urgent, so he quickly used the bucket while his mind raced, cataloging more details.

Sunshine poured in, warming half the ground inside the cave and leaving the rest in shadow. At the moment, the breeze that blew through the cave was hot and dry, but it would get cold at night.

He was wearing an extra large tunic that flared to comfortably accommodate his pregnant belly, ankle-length trousers, and flat sandals. The outfit was stylish enough for a casual sightseeing jaunt, but it wouldn't offer any warmth or protection when night fell.

Outside, the clearing was full of activity. Dozens of workers were constructing a large wooden structure that looked like a dragon. At the base, they stacked high piles of more wood.

The scene reminded him of articles he had read about the annual Glowing Man festival held in the Detnerat desert. The Glowing Man festival was, by all accounts, a place for wild freedom of creative and personal expression. Although it had become better organized in recent years and had a security presence for the duration, it still held a touch of anarchy, and unpredictable things happened.

Were they building a giant effigy to burn? Of KATSUKI?

He pressed against the bars as he tried to see as much as he could, clenching his hands around two pieces of the round metal. In direct sunlight, they were too hot to hold for long, and the desert sun was too fierce for his pale skin, especially without any sunblock for protection.

Rubbing his belly anxiously, he backed away to the nearest strip of shadow at the back of the cave. His heart hammered, and his skin felt clammy, and his mouth dry. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but as hungry and shaky as he felt, it could have been a full day.