The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 23: Searching

It had been several days since Izuku had disappeared. After he had vanished into the shadows the UA faculty later found his room raided. Among the things that were missing were his backpack, some blankets, and clothes. The whole ordeal left everyone with way too many questions. Yet for some reason, Bakugo had seemed to know a bit of what was going on. The teachers had questioned him thoroughly after the incident which allowed them to try and get a better grasp on the situation. With their new information in mind the school increased its security, despite all of this, however, Izuku was still missing. The pro heroes had been notified to keep an eye out for him and the police had begun searching, but no one was turning up with any leads. Ochako sighed as she stared down at her homework. She was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything lately. She supposed it had first started when Izuku had begun to ignore her. She could tell since then, and even before then that something had been bothering him, but she had no idea what it might be. She had tried to get him to talk to her, but the more she tried to get him to open up the more distant he had become. Eventually, she had stopped trying. Ochako leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. She found herself thinking back to the night of the school dance again and again. Before Izuku had started to act so strange towards her when they were still friends. She thought back to when she and Izuku had tried to dance. The way Izuku's arms had held her. His warm embrace had felt so safe and comforting; she yearned to feel like that again. But now she never would. Now he was gone, and who knew where he was? He clearly didn't want to see her again, and the thought of that hurt her more than she wanted to admit.

She was spurred from her thoughts when she heard a knock at her door. She checked her clock. Almost 9:00 pm, this was a weird time for someone to be paying her a visit. She opened her door and was surprised to see Bakugo standing out in the hallway. He had a bit of a serious expression on his face.

"Bakugo? What are you doing here?" The boy looked hesitant for a moment before he spoke.

"There's something I should tell you. It's about Deku," he froze for a moment and looked around as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

"Can I come inside to tell you this? I feel a bit exposed out here," Ochako nodded and stepped aside to let the blond boy inside. Entering the room Bakugo looked around for a minute seeming somewhat uncomfortable.

"You can just take the chair," said Ochako noticing his discomfort.

He nodded and sat down while she sat down on her bed.

"The first thing I should ask is if you want to know this, because I think I might know where he is," Uraraka was surprised for a moment. Did he know? How? She decided that these were questions she could ask later and began to consider Bakugo's query from before. Did she really want to know where he was? If she did know where he was, what would she even do with that information?

'Are you kidding?' a little voice whispered in her head. 'You know exactly what you're going to do with that information,' But still.

"I don't know if I should know. I'm probably the last person he wants to see right now with the way he was acting before," She heard a small noise come from Bakugo, but it took her a moment to realize that it had been a snicker.

"What's so funny?" she asked indignantly to the boy who seemed to visibly be trying to keep a straight face. Her question broke him and suddenly he was laughing.

"It's nothing," he said. "It's just that you and he are both equally hopeless," What was that supposed to mean?

"In all seriousness though," said Bakugo returning to his more usual demeanor.

"Deku does want to see you. Whether he realizes it or not," Ochako was less certain, but Bakugo seemed so sure that she gave in.

"Alright. Where is he?"