Camellya_Addams
patreon
Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 106
🕑 Added 2025-06-14 01:21:49 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
June 11, 2xxx - Izumi Pov.
"Happy birthday!" I exclaimed happily as I entered the room. I could hear Taylor moaning as she was still sprawled out on the bed with Ruby.
"Izumi, it's too early. You promised not to wake me up early on the weekends, and it's my birthday. I decide what to do, and I decide to sleep in all day." Taylor groaned sleepily as she hugged Ruby like a pillow.
"I second- Yaawn - the motion." Ruby yawned as she covered them both with the sheets. "…happy birthday…" she mumbled sleepily. Taylor just grunted. I snorted lightly.
"They've been like this for two hours. Good luck getting them up," Azula said distractedly, sitting quietly on one of the couches while sipping tea with a book in her hand. I rolled my eyes.
"It's almost 10 in the morning. Be thankful I let you get enough sleep. Normal people already started their day hours ago," I said playfully.
"Normal people are still asleep. You and everyone who gets up at dawn are the abnormal ones." Taylor growled, and I laughed.
"…get up Tay …" Ruby murmured.
"...I thought you were on my side." Taylor growled. Ruby moaned.
"He only wants you… if you leave, he'll let me keep sleeping," Ruby moaned tiredly.
"Traitor," Taylor snorted. Luckily, Taylor finally decided to leave her nest of sheets and sat up, in the process tearing the sheets off Ruby's skin.
" Gaah! Light! My archenemy!" Ruby moaned as she writhed.
"I thought your archenemy was raisin cookies," Azula said distractedly. Ruby shuddered.
"Don't make me imagine those monstrosities so early in the morning, Zula, and correction, raisin cookies are my mortal enemies," Ruby replied as she looked for some sheets to cover herself.
"And the difference?" I asked playfully. Ruby remained silent.
" Tay, tell them." Ruby said simply as she grabbed the sheet and covered herself once more.
"No, thanks." Taylor groaned as she rolled out of bed. Once she reached the edge, she sat up and yawned deeply while running a hand down her face. As slow as a stick insect, Taylor finally stood up. She blinked a few times and looked over at Ruby, so cozy in her bed, and I could practically see the moment she made a face of annoyance. She grabbed Ruby's sheets and pulled them off her once more.
" Gaah! Light! My archenemy!" Ruby repeated, and I burst out laughing. I could even see Azula smile slightly while Taylor had a satisfied smirk. " Tay!" Ruby moaned. She turned over and placed herself on her stomach, her whole face pressed against the bed to avoid the light. Taylor pulled the sheets away from Ruby and finally looked at me.
"So? Why am I up at such an ungodly hour?" Taylor asked tiredly. Azula and I snorted derisively.
"Your birthday present! I planned a trip!" I said happily.
"That sounds dangerous if you're planning on taking her somewhere," Azula said as she flipped through the pages of her book.
" And it had to be at this time? Couldn't we go in a couple of hours?" Taylor asked tiredly.
"No! I've already arranged everything, and we need to be there as quickly as possible!" I chirped. Taylor sighed as she started walking toward the bathroom.
"Can I know where we're going, or is this a surprise, as always?" Taylor asked, grabbing a couple of items scattered around the place.
"I'd say it's a surprise, but you have to prepare properly. It's a shame. So... put on your costume, we're going to a dungeon!" I chirped. This time, all three girls froze in place before immediately looking at me. Ruby clumsily got out of bed and looked at me. Azula closed her book and turned her head while Taylor turned around in disbelief.
"Excuse me... did you say dungeon?" Taylor asked slowly, and I nodded. "A dungeon... like a monster dungeon... not a sex dungeon like Darkness wants to build in the spare rooms." Taylor clarified, and I snorted in amusement.
"Yeah, a monster dungeon, a very real one." I said amusedly. Taylor just blinked.
"...a dungeon? Like a birthday trip?" Taylor asked, terribly confused. I smiled widely and nodded.
"Okay, I know you put your ideas in some kind of mental hat and pull one out completely at random, then completely ignore it and do the exact opposite. But... could you explain why you're going to a dungeon?" Azula asked, equally confused. I snorted at the analogy she'd just given.
"That... is best kept a secret." I said, my eyes twinkling. The three girls moaned loudly. I just clapped. "Chop, chop. The faster you move, the faster you'll know." I said playfully as I hurried Taylor. Taylor groaned but started moving. "By the way, you can come too if you want," I said in Ruby and Azula's direction.
Azula simply shrugged and stood up.
"Color me curious," Azula said plainly as she began to move. Instead, Ruby grunted and slowly stood up.
"I hate you," Ruby growled as she stood up with a pout. After Ruby and Taylor got ready, we had a light breakfast, and then we all changed into our costumes. After telling the girls our destinations, we finally arrived at a rather special room inside UA.
" Ehh ... I've never been in here before." Ruby said, impressed, as she looked around. There were a few students present, but the main feature was a large screen and a map of the entire Shizuoka prefecture, with dozens, if not hundreds, of yellow and red dots scattered all over the map.
"And… what exactly is this place?" Taylor asked curiously as she looked around.
"This is the place where students are assigned missions. UA acts as an independent hunter's guild. They have priority when it comes to selecting dungeons to clear throughout Shizuoka Prefecture." I began to explain what I had recently learned.
"There are two types of quests. The first, the yellow dots on the map, indicate areas where dungeons can be cleared without killing the dungeon boss, allowing the UA Recovery and Harvesting team to loot the resources. And then the red dots, which are those dungeons that have already been looted and need to be closed by killing the dungeon boss, and are a bit more urgent because of the shorter time limit." Explain.
"Isn't it supposed to be the same group?" Azula asked, frowning. I shrugged.
"Not really? Not even in Draw Sword did the same group handle both jobs. It takes time, maybe days, to be able to loot all the resources inside the dungeon. While there are some low-level hunters just standing guard, they can't keep S-ranks standing outside the dungeons doing nothing for hours."
"After all, as long as they don't approach the dungeon bosses, there shouldn't be any problem with the offensive group retreating after killing all the monsters. I suppose a lot of UA's funding depends on dungeon resources. It would be a complete waste to shut them down suddenly." I said with a shrug. Not really. Even canonical UA had too much money from the government.
"Uh, interesting, but don't the gates last like 10 days before they break and the monsters can escape?" Taylor asked. "Do you have time to set them up as quests for the students? I mean, there must be around what? 120 students between the 3 years in both the heroic and hunter courses? I don't think everyone would be part of it or do enough quests to close the gates in time."
"And you're right. It definitely wouldn't work that way, which is why I said UA has 'priority,' not 'exclusivity.' While I'm sure there's a group of professional hunters affiliated with UA tasked with clearing a large number of gates and securing resources, the truth is UA can only monopolize the entrance for the first three days after it opens."
"Yes, during that time, no student took the quest. Then, it becomes public for the rest of the hunter guilds in the area. Although you can still accept dungeon quests after those three days, as long as another guild hasn't cleared it." I explained simply. The trio simply nodded.
"And yet there are so many doors to clean?" Ruby asked, looking at the map. I grimaced.
"Let's say, around 3 to 5 gates open per week in a city, or in a similarly sized designated area. Shizuoka Prefecture has around 20 cities and three times the land area in mountains and forests. So, around 150 gates open per week." The trio almost tripped as we walked.
"So many?!" Ruby squealed in disbelief. I nodded.
"I mean, if you just take the number at face value, it seems like a lot, but really, isn't it? Like I said, that's 3 to 5 gates per week in a city. Something that any city with a decent guild could easily clear. There's also the fact that out of those 150, let's assume 100~120 of them should be E-rank to C-rank, so once again, any guild should be able to clear those dungeons."
"The only problem is that many of them open in areas that are somewhat difficult to reach. Mountains and dense forests. Areas that cannot be reached by ground vehicles. That makes harvesting difficult. In fact, I'm self-convinced that the increase in aerial vehicles is to blame for that," I said dryly. And Aincrad. I suppose. Since the only way to get there is by air.
"Oh... I guess that doesn't sound so bad." Ruby murmured. I nodded. Finally, I walked over to a screen and began to manipulate it.
"Take out your scrolls," I said, and everyone did as I asked, and I did the same. I quickly registered us for the mission that Nezu had happily reserved for me after I told him my idea.
With a small ping, all of our scrolls received the correct notification that we had accepted the correct mission.
"All right! That's it! We need to get to the helipad! There should be someone waiting for us!" I chirped. The three of them blinked once more.
"Do we have a helipad at UA?" Taylor asked, taken aback. I reacted the same! UA didn't mess around.
-----------
"So, can we finally find out why we came to a dungeon in the middle of nowhere?" Azula asked, staring at the enormous portal in front of us. Twenty minutes ago, we had stepped off the aerial vehicle that had transported us. Unfortunately, the trip had taken almost an hour; we even had time to eat the lunch I had prepared before we landed.
"You're exaggerating. There's a city nearby." I pointed absentmindedly. Azula snorted.
"It must have less than 10,000 inhabitants. At most, it's a village," Azula replied mockingly. I rolled my eyes.
"Same difference," I said dryly. "But yes, you can finally know!" I said cheerfully.
"Finally." Taylor moaned. I laughed lightly and turned to look at her.
"So. Today is your birthday. Just like last year." I began while looking at Taylor. She just raised an eyebrow.
" Yeah, I know, that's how birthdays work." She said mockingly. I rolled my eyes.
"As I was saying, I was trying to think of a gift for you. And it would be boring to buy you books, or video games, or clothes. I already do that for you every day," I said distractedly. Taylor blushed at that last one. "And I ended up thinking about your last birthday!" I said cheerfully.
"The time we went to the bug museum," Taylor said with a small smile. Azula snorted amusedly. I nodded with the same smile.
"The same one! As you recall, underneath said museum, there was a very nice, but semi-illegal, exhibit of insect-type monsters!" I added with a knowing look.
" Ooohh, now I'm curious." Azula said with a wild smile. Taylor just snorted.
"Yeah, I remember. It was the first time I saw insect-type monsters. They were glorious." Taylor said, her eyes dreamy. "It was also the first time I controlled insects with my quirk. I…" Taylor stopped, her eyes widening. "You didn't!" Taylor squealed, excitement surging through her body.
"Oh, I did it!" I said happily. Taylor squealed and hugged me tightly.
"You're the best!" Taylor said as she started kissing me. I laughed happily.
"I know." I panted slightly, although I was in a tight hug from Taylor, so it had no effect.
"Oh, this is going to be amazing! What kind of insects are they!? How big are they!? Do you think we'll be able to ride them?! We'll be able to use them as combat mounts! I know I'll look incredibly wild with my scythe while riding a giant ant!" Ruby said excitedly from the side. I snorted in amusement at that image.
"I guess the idea is to spend as much time as we can in here while Taylor plays with her bugs, before we clear the dungeon?" Azula asked with a small smile, not sounding at all bothered by the idea of spending the entire day inside the dungeon just to watch Taylor have fun.
"Partly." I said cheerfully. Taylor pulled away from me and looked slightly confused.
"Partly?" Taylor asked. I smiled broadly at her.
"We're stealing the monsters from this dungeon!" I said with chaotic glee. To my chagrin, none of the three laughed at my incalculable genius.
"Izumi… as amazing, cool, and wonderful as it sounds, I don't think we can bring out monsters without attracting attention." Taylor said regretfully.
"au contraire, ma chère." I said playfully. "Normally, we couldn't. But! The great, amazing me! Has the power to solve all problems!" I said arrogantly. The three of them looked confused, and I pointed at my shadow without hesitation. It took a few seconds for all three of them to connect with the idea before their eyes widened. I laughed out loud.
"Exactly!" I said happily. "I have almost infinite space and a carrying capacity in tons! We can fit all the bugs we want into my shadow without any problem! Yes, it's not the best option since I'll need to be present if you want to release it. But as long as we're together, you'll practically have an army of monster bugs!" I said happily.
"I-" Taylor tried to say, her eyes wide open as if a wire had shorted out in her brain. She almost looked like she was about to faint from the excitement. She seemed slightly dizzy. "I love you," Taylor said immediately. "I love you, I love you, I love you, goddess, I love you so much!!" Taylor said forcefully.
She grabbed my face with both hands and started kissing me hard. As much as I wanted to keep kissing her, we were on a schedule, so I pulled away.
"Let's leave it for later. Now we have an army to get." I purred gravely. Taylor shuddered with excitement. I don't know if it was because of the promise of sex, or because she was about to get an army of insect monsters.
"That's going to be epic!" Ruby squealed in excitement.
"As… unbelievable as that may be. And I really, really hate having to be the voice of reason. We won't get in trouble, will we? I'm sure Taylor doesn't want to spend her birthday in prison," Azula said cautiously. That seemed to bring the other pair down a notch, and they looked at me with mild concern. I laughed lightly. I'm sure at this point, even without permission, they'd be happy to raid the dungeon.
"Don't worry, I've been working on it with Nezu all week! This dungeon has been open for about 7 days. Nezu made sure to keep it secured for us." I said happily. The trio sighed in relief.
"And the monsters will be able to leave the dungeon in your shadows?" Ruby asked, much more sober. "I simply nodded.
"As I said, I've been preparing for this moment, so I've already tested whether it's possible. It turns out my shadows confuse the door, thinking there's no monster, and it allows me to leave with them in tow. Or something similar. We couldn't really figure out what was going on, but it was possible." I said cheerfully. Azula grimaced.
"Yeah, that would have been a terrible quirk if it were in the hands of a villain," Azula said dryly.
"Aizawa said the same thing! Although he almost cried when he remembered I was in my possession!" I said with sadistic glee. The trio snorted.
"Yeah, I agree with Aizawa." Ruby said with a giggle.
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's go, birthday girl?" I asked cheerfully in her direction. Taylor's eyes lit up, and she practically ran to the dungeon. The rest of us looked at each other and quickly followed Taylor.
The bad news is it was only a C-rank dungeon, the maximum Nezu had allowed me to complete. Just in case, I had complete faith in Taylor's quirk to keep all the insects at bay regardless of their rank, but I could understand Nezu's caution.
So, like most low-rank dungeons, they were pretty generic and poor at spawning special insects. But even so, they were C-rank monsters, and just as expected, they were insects, specifically ants—ants the size of a large dog that reached up to half my height.
Obviously, C-rank insects were no problem for Taylor's quirk, and all the insects came under her control almost immediately.
Taylor practically squealed with joy when she saw them. She was currently hugging one of the ants. Ruby had been disappointed that they weren't big enough to ride. But her expression quickly changed when Taylor placed two of them underneath her.
Now Ruby was laughing out loud like a cartoon villain as she stood on top of two ants while pointing in a random direction as if she were in charge.
Azula was simply inspecting the ants. I grimaced when she seemed slightly amazed that ants had teeth, and indeed, two rows of sharp teeth.
We all played with the insects for a few hours before I started putting them inside my shadow. Luckily, the insects, despite being large, didn't weigh as much as I'd expect for their size. So all the ants in the dungeon, which numbered a couple hundred, were able to fit inside.
Taylor had a huge, bright smile on her face the entire time we were in the dungeon, except when we had to kill the dungeon boss, which turned out to be a giant, three-meter-tall spider. Taylor was almost salivating, sadly; the boss was something we couldn't get out of the dungeon.
And since the dungeon was in such a rural area, plus there weren't any corpses to recover, and it had been a long time since it opened, Nezu just decided that we might as well close it down immediately.
Plus, it still felt light compared to the weight of my shadows, so I placed all the dust inside my shadows after easily cutting them into pieces, so we completely cleared the dungeon without any problems.
I left the boss to the three girls, who practically slaughtered it. A C-rank is hardly a challenge for them; even if they were alone, they'd be able to clear the dungeon with ease.
Once we were done, our transport was still waiting for us, so we were able to return to UA quickly with a good amount of loot in my shadows. It was fortunate, and extremely rare, that my weight would only affect me in some way, but not carry over into the real world.
I could be carrying tons of weight, which would influence my movements and everything else, and that would even help me train my muscles the way I wanted. However, if I stood on a scale, it would simply read the weight of a normal person.
It's a typical quirk that breaks physics for you. None of the teachers found it odd beyond the fact that it was convenient.
Once we returned to UA around dusk, we changed and headed to our dorm. Taylor was so happy she barely paid attention to what was inside.
"Happy birthday!" several people exclaimed as soon as Taylor entered the dorm building. Taylor looked surprised, and I allowed myself to smile; it really wasn't easy to surprise her like this. This wasn't the first birthday the dorm had celebrated; last week was Ravel's and Sona's, on June 3rd and 7th, respectively.
We were all already accustomed to these small parties. There was even a no-gift rule. Mainly so that no one would feel obligated to give someone else a gift just because it was their birthday. We only gave gifts to close family members.
"Mom!?" Taylor squealed in surprise as she looked at my mother.
"Happy birthday, Taylor," Mom said with a wide smile. Luckily, it was the weekend, and UA allowed guests in the dorms, so inviting her wasn't a problem. Taylor recovered from her surprise, took long strides, and hugged Mom.
I could see several people recording and taking photos of the moment. Hmm, I'd have to remember to ask them to send them to me. I'm not a fan of social media, but Taylor somehow is. She'll be able to upload everything once she's calmer.
Seeing Taylor's huge smile, and yes, today was a good day, I allowed myself to smile as I joined the party.
