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"How long has it been," Bakugo asked into the empty silence as they continued boring through the earth.
Kenji glanced over at the two oxygen canisters tossed behind him, "Thirty minutes give or take, but we shouldn't talk, we'll waste air."
Bakugo snorted but thankfully followed Kenji's advice, closing his mouth for once and falling back into silence.
"W-wait, I-I think I got something," Honenuki exclaimed as he pushed against the earth, "There's an opening, but somethings off."
"Wha- what's going on?" Tetsutetsu asked as he stirred from his brief nap against the dome wall, "Are we back at the sinkhole?"
"Honenuki-chan says he found something," Tsu answered helpfully before
"Off how Honenuki?" Momo asked, trying to focus everyone back on the task at hand.
Shaking his head Honenuki didn't answer immediately, "It's something about the stone…it feels like…concrete. Should I break through?"
"We have to be at least a few hundred feet underground," Bakugo refuted as he stood up and moved towards Honenuki, "You really expect there to be concrete?"
"I'm just telling you what I feel!" Honenuki shouted back, his hands still half stuck out of the dome, "Maybe it's not concrete, but it's not natural stone either or at least not the same kind of stuff I've been tunneling through for the past thirty minutes!"
"Both of you need to calm down," Kenji spoke up as he focused on maintaining the dome around them, the strain of which had already drenched him in sweat from the effort, "Either way we don't have much of a choice."
"Kenji-chan is right," Tsu answered and chimed in, "We're already halfway through our last canister and Momo can't make another. I'd say we go for it."
When no one raised their voice in objection Honenuki nodded, "Alright then, here we go."
A brief second later Kenji felt the pressure on his barrier disappear and he let it drop letting a wave of light pour into the room. Everyone winced and shut their eyes as even the soft light felt like staring directly at the sun after being entombed in dark underground caverns for several hours.
Opening his eyes after a second, Kenji quickly forgot about his temporary blindness as he looked around. They were in a long tunnel with light hanging down from the ceiling and Honenuki had been right, the walls and floor of the passage were lined with concrete.
"Where are we?" Tetsutetsu asked as everyone looked around the room in a stunned silence.
"Are those pipes?" Honenuki asked as he stepped forward and pointed at the thin metal pipes bolted to the walls.
"Are we all thinking the same thing?" Bakugo asked as his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Tetsutetsu flesh transformed into metal, "Somehow I think we are."
"Um I don't have a clue what's going on," Honenuki admitted honestly.
"Poachers," Bakugo answered gravely, "Low life scum who create passages under the wall to hunt the Dread Beasts and sell their materials on the black market. Though I've never heard of them creating permanent passages with concrete this far from the surface."
"Nor this sophisticated, I think these pipes are distributing oxygen through the tunnels," Momo guessed as she touched the metal pipes which were cool to the touch, "This isn't some cobbled together operation, stuff like this takes years of planning and execution."
"Doesn't matter, we're gonna smoke them either way," Bakugo boasted as he slammed his fists together causing a small explosion.
Tsu almost immediately shook her head, "We can't go in guns blazing, if these guys are poachers they make their living killing dread beasts they're going to make short work of us."
Bakugo didn't immediately refute Tsu's objection but sent her a nasty glare, "So what, we're just supposed to stand here sucking on our thumbs?"
Tsu frowned at Bakugo but didn't snap back and fell silent.
"Well we can't stay here," Tetsutetsu voiced his opinion into the silence, "Maybe we don't go in exploding everything and everyone in sight, but if these guys are poachers eventually they need a way into the city to sell their goods."
Momo nodded along in agreement, "Tetsutetsu right if we can find our way back to civilization we could get in contact with the Academy. I'm sure by now there's already a search party looking for us."
"Alright then, I'll coat the floor so we don't make any noise," Kenji offered before he went ahead and followed through, covering the floor with the abyss.
They then set out, walking down the tunnel two at a time. The entire time Kenji couldn't help but note how well built and neat everything was, the floors even looked to be recently sweeped.
"Would there be any reason for poachers to clean the floor?" Kenji asked into the silence only to be met with a series of confused stares.
"What are you talking about?" Bakugo asked with tangible hostility.
"If poachers use these tunnels to go in and out of the city with dread beast parts, shouldn't there be dirt or dried blood or any sign that people have been here recently?" Kenji asked as he started to get a bad feeling.
"Kenji's right, these tunnels look brand new," Honenuki nodded as he reached out and dragged his finger along the wall feeling the smooth concrete under his fingers, "W-what if they aren't poachers?"
"What else would it be you coward," Bakugo contradicted with a hiss, "Just cause their tunnels aren't covered in piles a trash doesn't mean-"
All conversation died as without warning the tunnel opened going from a passage that two people could barely walk down shoulder to shoulder into a massive underground space.
Peering around the corner, Kenji froze as he looked around, "Um I don't think poachers can pull off all of this."