Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor's POV – November 3rd.
"Principal, Sensei, Power Loader, thank you for this." I said politely as we moved to a secluded spot within UA.
"Don't worry, Young Taylor, it's a pleasure to help a student! " Principal Nezu said cheerfully over Aizawa's shoulder.
"Likewise, we're here to help," Power Loader said with a nod. "Besides, it was a good challenge. We've been able to replicate most of the design and theory of the Koreans' wave-canceling blueprints, but we haven't been able to thoroughly test it yet," she added apologetically.
"That'll be enough," Aizawa said easily, and I nodded.
"It's better than entering Jeju completely bewildered," I said with a sigh. I could see Power Loader tense slightly, but she didn't say anything.
"I'll make sure it works," Power Loader said tensely.
"We trust you, Maijima." The Principal said gently. Power Loader nodded, and we finally arrived at one of the Ground Omega areas, the wooded area within UA. It was incredible in itself that UA had a huge wooded area as a training ground, but considering it had several fake cities... yeah, UA didn't do anything small.
The four of us went in and walked through the wooded area and I stopped stiffly.
"Oh?" I said unconsciously.
"Ah, I see they're already within your range, huh? " the Principal asked playfully. I blinked slightly.
"Are there... monster ants inside a cage?" I asked curiously. Nezu laughed slightly.
"Jeju ants." The Principal said easily, my eyes widening slightly.
"Wow, you actually managed to bring some ants back from there?" I asked, genuinely surprised. The Principal just laughed as if the question was funny.
"I have my ways," the Principal said easily. "Let's go to the location, and bring yours too," Nezu said. I just nodded and looked at the ants behind me, smiling fondly.
I had six of the monster ants I'd gotten from Izumi for my birthday. That meant I'd had them for at least four months. I'd... I'd really grown attached to them.
Although some of them were really battered. They had been used for training along with the others. Aizawa had asked me to use them in certain exercises over the months to simulate monster attacks.
Which I gladly did. The dog-sized ants were adorable; it was a waste that they mostly stayed in Izumi's shadow, so I agreed. I even grew fond of them for a while.
I must admit… I had grown fond of them. They were the first insects since my Awakening that I had grown attached to. When my quirk changed, and because of all the trauma of what had happened with my old terrariums, I hadn't really allowed myself to become attached to my insects in the same way, but… the dungeon monsters were different.
To begin with, they didn't age. Apparently, according to all the biology that had been discovered about the Monsters, none of them aged; their essence stones somehow sustained them. They could be killed easily, but certainly none of them aged, or at least, there has been no record of any monster dying of old age.
And those that have been studied haven't shown significant deterioration in their bodies over the years. And that was saying something, because from what I'd been able to find out while investigating, there are still some experiments being carried out on the same monsters that they've kept for decades.
So my ants, none of them had aged at all, but they had grown a little because they constantly ate the flesh of other monsters that UA supplied.
Even so, many of them had changed or acquired different markings due to the constant fighting. Some had small scars, or their armor was cracked in certain places; one had even lost a leg in a fight.
I had grown to care for them to the point of even giving my insects names for the first time in years. I sighed fondly as I glanced at my insects.
An ant, small but the fastest of the group, with mandibles strong and sharp enough to be dangerous, I named Atalanta, after Antalantos, a famous hunter and the fastest runner in Greece.
There was another ant that had been able to grow with chitin much more resistant than the rest; she named it Aias the Great. One that had grown to be twice as big, she called it Gulliver.
Finally, there were two of them who had lost a leg; one of the ants who had lost a front leg, she had named Hook, especially because she had a small prosthesis made by Ruby and Jinx, and the other one who had lost a back leg, she was named Ahab for the same reason.
.
And finally, the only male in the group, a small ant with a slight deformity on its thorax, whom I named Quasimodo. I was surprised to find a male ant; most dungeons whose monsters mimic animals still largely retain the nature of those animals.
In this case, in an ant colony, 95-99% of the colony was always female. From the queen to the workers and soldiers, the latter two were sterile and used that space for other things, like stings.
The males only existed during reproductive periods, and their main function was to mate with future queens to produce offspring.
The dungeon monsters couldn't mate. Some dungeon bosses, or other special minor monsters, could create them somehow if it was one of their abilities, like a queen ant monster, but they didn't mate naturally. Most of the monsters' reproductive organs were redundant.
That means there was no need for male ants in the ant dungeons. The dungeons had no need to produce male ants, but they still existed, albeit very few in number. I suppose that's why they said the dungeons lacked consciousness; they were simply a kind of natural disaster. However natural the creation of portals and pocket dimensions might seem.
That said, the males differed from the other female ants. They usually had wings during their reproductive stage, something the dungeon definitely tried to give him some, but for some reason, couldn't manage it properly.
The wings were malformed in Quasimodo, leaving some protrusions on his thorax that made the ant look hunched.
They were silly names, but they were my ants with silly names. At least they were better than the names Izumi had given his summons, no matter how much Izumi argued about it.
"We're here," Power Loader said as we entered the small clearing within the forest. I looked around to see the Jeju ants, each in a different cage. Beside them were six other open cages. I simply nodded and led the ants into their cages to prevent them from escaping if my quirk were interrupted.
Power Loader moved immediately and secured the cage doors with ease, then nodded contentedly before stepping back and looking at the Principal.
"Ready, Young Taylor?" asked Principal Nezu, looking at me. I wrinkled my nose and nodded while taking a deep breath.
"I'm ready," I said easily. Nezu nodded as Power Loader grabbed a communicator.
"Activate the nullifier," she said simply over the radio. I frowned and looked around before I saw a white tower with a huge satellite on top, pointing in our direction.
"On." A voice came from Power Loader's radio. I immediately froze and shuddered slightly before wincing and gritting my teeth. I tried to focus on my quirk and could feel it becoming more... off. I groaned softly as I began to fight against my own quirk; using it felt like swimming upstream.
"-Yamura!" Aizawa's grip on my shoulder snapped me out of my reverie, and I glanced at him distractedly, trying to focus. "Loader, turn it off!" Aizawa barked immediately.
"No!" I exclaimed suddenly, surprising him. "G-give me a second." I stammered slightly before taking a deep breath, then breathed once more, slower, more air, more oxygen. I tried to control my quirk; I'd never had difficulty using it before. It was all or nothing.
It was 'all' 99% of the time, and 'nothing' when Aizawa used his quirk on me. I didn't have to exert myself to make my quirk spread, but now it felt like moving molasses, like trying to move slowly underwater.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I finally said as I breathed heavily and wrinkled my nose.
"Are you okay? Does anything hurt? What did you feel? Are you able to use your quirk?" The principal asked immediately, completely attentive.
"I'm fine, just a slight headache, it's passing," I said honestly. "And... is it complicated?" I asked, confused. "It doesn't deactivate my quirk, it just seems to... interfere with it. Like it clashes with my quirk, but doesn't disable it, it just... interferes with it, makes it harder to use, but doesn't nullify it, it's... I don't know how to explain it." I said with a sigh.
"It's causing you noise," Nezu said with a hum. I looked at him curiously. "As we discovered from the medical studies they performed on you, you have a specialized brain structure beneath your brain that is physically integrated into it, which is used to generate and transmit a specialized bioelectrical signal that allows you to control insects, and also to manage the enormous amount of information you receive from them."
"The jammer we built was built following the specifications of the Koreans; they have studied the insects of Jeju for years, so their signal blocker works mainly on them."
"Both signals seem similar enough that the nullifier won't nullify your quirk, but it will interfere to some extent. Both signals appear different, but they have some similarities, enough to clash with your signal and interfere with your quirk, creating noise, interference." Nezu said with a hum, and I could only nod.
"My range was reduced when the signal collided with my quirk. It was... like my quirk had been placed underwater. I had to manually move and expand it for the first time; it was like moving in slow motion," I said, frowning. "I was able to push it back up to my current maximum range, but I think I lost a few dozen meters of normal range," I said, wrinkling my nose.
"And what about control over the insects in the forest? Over the monsters?" The Principal asked quickly. I stopped and concentrated.
"Total control over normal insects. I'm able to sense and control them with the same ease as always. I thought there might be some delay in my commands due to how slowly my range expanded, but it seems I still have the same perfect control as always once I started controlling them," I said with ease. "Even my monster insects I can control as usual," I said while looking at my beloved monster ants. "The only thing that seems to interfere is—" I stopped stiffly and blinked before turning around, looking at the cages, and frowning.
"Miyamura?" Aizawa asked cautiously. I could only glare indignantly at the Jeju ants. I snorted stubbornly and stared at the insects before forcefully pushing out my quirk. It was... like I had to pierce through something incredibly dense to reach them.
"Okay, I've got it." I said with a grimace before taking a deep breath. "Wow, that was the first insect I had to really try to control." I said with a frown.
"Effort? So you can control the insects of Jeju? " the curious Principal asked.
"The nullifier didn't work?" Power Loader asked.
"It works." I told Power Loader immediately. "I... can sense the signals the ants send, when I control them I'm able to sense what they sense, so I'm able to sense the signals they send to each other."
"Now it's basically useless. It's... like those signals practically cut out immediately. They work, but apparently that interference caused problems. Trying to control them was like trying to extend my quirk beneath the nullifier, but much denser," I said, frowning. "I practically had to push my quirk with all my might to control them," I added with a grimace.
"Hmm, the signal interference and the nullifier should cause even more interference when they collide," Nezu said easily before nodding. "Even so, I'm glad it worked. Excellent work, Maijima," the Principal said with a smile in Power Loader's direction. She nodded in satisfaction.
"If you're able to perceive the signals of the Jeju ants, can you use that to transmit your signal? Or at least, transmit orders using that signal to other ants outside of your control? " Aizawa asked curiously. Nezu stopped and looked at me curiously.
"That would actually be a good way to circumvent the limits of your quirk," the principal hummed. "You're not relaying the signal that creates your quirk, but rather controlling it through a second signal unique to ants," the principal said animatedly. I wrinkled my nose.
"Could you turn off the nullifier?" I asked Power Loader. She just nodded and spoke once more into the radio. The nullifier shut down quickly, and I could finally breathe easy. I focused on the ants and the signals coming from them. After a few minutes, all I could do was wrinkle my nose in disappointment.
"I can't do that," I said, pouting. "The signal they use only seems to receive orders from the queen. Besides that, it only works as a kind of locator to sense other ants nearby, but I can't do anything like send orders with it," I finally said. "I would need the queen for that," I said expectantly.
"Nice try, young Taylor," Nezu chuckled. "But I doubt the Koreans will let us keep the queen ant. As interesting as the queen's ability to create evolved ants is, once you control her, you could manipulate the insects for your own purposes. The queen is still the boss of Jeju's dungeon; they need to kill her." The Principal said, shaking his head.
"Create insects." I murmured dreamily before sighing. "I guess I'll have to give up on that idea. The dream lasted a long, wonderful five seconds." I said ruefully. The Principal laughed amusedly.
"Now, now, I just said that the Jeju ant queen isn't possible, we just need to find another queen. There are dozens of insect-themed doors that open every month," the Principal said, amused. My eyes sparkled.
"Don't give her any ideas. Trying to control those insects is complicated, and if there's a power nullifier, making her lose control of those kinds of insects in the middle of a fight would be catastrophic," Aizawa said solemnly. I shuddered slightly.
Yes, that wasn't a good idea. When I lost control of my quirk with Aizawa, there wasn't much of a problem other than the immense discomfort of only having my senses. The insects would simply go back to doing their thing, flying away.
But with the monster insects, it would be completely different. Their most basic instincts were to kill any living thing in sight. That would mean that losing my quirk would cause the insects to immediately attack the nearest thing they could find, whether it was the villain, heroes, innocents, or me, indiscriminately.
"I understand." I sighed wearily. "Putting that aside, could I stay here and train under the nullifier? I'd prefer to get used to it and lessen its effects so that when I'm on Jeju, it won't catch me off guard." I finally said. Nezu nodded.
"That was the idea," the Principal said easily. "Now that we've determined the nullifier doesn't cause harm to you or your quirk, you can stay as long as you like at Ground Omega to train and get used to its effects." He added, "Although I expect that if anything gets worse or feels out of the ordinary, you'll let us know immediately." I nodded seriously.
"I'll take care of setting it up and adding a remote control so you can turn it on and off as you please from here. I'll only need a couple of hours, then it's all yours," Power Loader said with ease.
"Thank you for your hard work, Power Loader," I said gratefully.
"Don't worry, you'll need to be fully prepared for Jeju. It's our job to prepare you for these things," Power Loader said matter-of-factly. "I'll go prepare the nullifier," she said matter-of-factly before turning and walking toward the white tower.
"While training will certainly help, remember that this is a hastily constructed prototype, and Maijima doesn't have the time to build a better one. The one they'll use in Jeju will be a specialized satellite; it will definitely be much stronger than this version. Keep that in mind when you're there," the Principal said seriously. I just nodded.
"I'll do it." I said seriously.
"Very well," the Principal said, nodding. " And by the way, take a break, enjoy the festival, try not to overexert yourself; you'll need all your strength." The Principal said gently. "Anything you need, just ask. We'll be here. It's the least we can offer after asking that favor of both of you," the Principal said, almost sadly. I just nodded.
"I'll do it, and don't worry, Izumi is more than excited to go to Korea, he'd do it for free." I said dryly. The Principal laughed heartily.
"Even so, don't doubt it." The principal said once more. I could only nod again. "We'll go back first." He finally said and gently punched Aizawa, who just nodded.
"Be careful, Miyamura," Aizawa said simply before turning around and heading for the exit. I just stood around the cages, sighing. I approached the cages where my insects were. I opened one of the cages, then slid down and sat against one of the bars. Quasimodo immediately came over, and I started petting her like an overly eager puppy.
Yes, Jeju was dangerous, but… Izumi was confident enough to face anything there, and even if it wasn't, well, that meant we had to face it together. I smiled slightly at that as I gently stroked Quasimodo.
A/N: If you liked the story, join my patreon, patreon.com/Camellya_Addams, there are up to 10 chapters in advance, thank you. Or you can also visit my Ko-Fi, ko-fi.com/camellya_addams.