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Kota felt selfish for running away after all that that man had just done for him.
He had saved him, even though he didn't know him at all. They had only just met so why was he willing to risk his life for him?
Kota finally understood the words Mandalay had told once, that one day he would meet someone that would change his mind, someone that would be his hero.
Kota refused to not do anything for him in return, that's why, as he cried and panted from running he searched, not for safety but for someone to help.
For someone...a hero, that could save izuku.
He didn't know if he was already dead, or if he had won, but no matter what had happened Kota would find help.
It felt like hours that the panicking boy ran, but eventually, he ran into a tall figure dressed in all black, and for just a moment Kota thought it was another villain and let out a scream as he fell to the ground.
"Easy" the voice spoke calmly, and when Kota looked up again he recognized the man as the teacher of the hero class, Aizawa.
He was a hero.
He could help.
"You're Kota, what are you-"
"Please! You...you have to save Mr. Deku! H-he...he fought a villain to protect them and now...I don't know if he's dead or alive! Please save him!" The boy screamed, almost incoherently as he sobbed, but Aizawa understood and he felt a tightness in his throat.
"Where is he?"
"U-up on the cliff" Kota pointed in the general direction of the cliff, but Aizawa didn't have knowledge of the surrounding area, nor could he leave the child alone in a forest roaming with villains.
"Lead me there"
Aizawa had no idea what he would stumble upon up there.
A boasting villain, and the dead body of one of his most promising students? That was his greatest fear.
A million possibilities ran through the hero's mind, but what he saw when he arrived was not one of them.
On the ground was a beaten and bloody villain.
Scattered rocks and cracks in the cliffside spoke of a great battle, and there on the edge was a pool of blood.
"He...he was right there!" Kota pointed to the pool of blood.
But there was no Izuku. Only the villain remained on the cliff with no sign of what had happened to Izuku Midoriya.
Even Aizawa that was normally the level-headed one began to panic.
"What in the world is going on?"
Not only did the signs point to a battle more powerful that izuku could fight, but in the case that he had then he should have fainted and would still be laying here.
Had he perhaps been taken by villains? But why not take their ally?
Nothing made sense.
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Elsewhere in the forest Todoroki, Shoji, Tokoyami, and Katsuki were standing together.
They had been able to beat an answer out of one of the villains. They were after Katsuki. What for they didn't know, but it had t be sinister, and they had no intentions of letting their friend be taken.
"I don't need your protection, you extras!" Katsuki yelled, but it went on deaf ears as the others tried to strategize on how to quickly and safely get back to camp.
Villians were roaming everywhere, and sections of the forest were still ablaze, in other words, no matter what they did going through the forest with the villains' target no less, would be dangerous.
"Going on the path is a long way, and there will probably be more villains there, so I think it would be best if we simply cut through the dark forest directly to camp," Tokoyami said, although a bit unsure.
Even though he was powerful and had just taken down a villain in one fellow swoop, going through the dark forest again frightened him with the thought of losing control, but luckily the fire users could see through the panic in his eyes.
"We're a strong team, I think we can do it, and with me and Bakugou by your side, you won't lose control," Todoroki told Tokoyami as he created a flame in the palm of his left hand.
"Yes of course" Tokoyami nodded.
"I say we surround Bakugou as we walk,"
"I don't need it!!" Bakugou screamed, but once again everyone simply ignored him.
Normally they would sigh and give up on him in a situation like that, but it was as if his ego shielded him from seeing just how serious the situation really was.
Everyone else understood, but Katsuki refused to see it.
"Alright, let's go"
"Listen to me!!!!"
"No"
Walking through the forest was nerve-wracking.
They swore that they could hear fighting, and at one point they even heard what they were sure was a gunshot that made even Katsuki turn quiet as if he began to understand that this was truly life and death, and some of his classmates might not make it.
But suddenly it was far too quiet.
Bakugou and Tokoyami was gone.
"Bakugou! Tokoyami!"
"Where are you?!"
They thought that perhaps his ego had gotten the better of him again and that he had run off in the direction that they could hear fighting, but before they could figure it out a man appeared in a tree.
A villain.
"Excuse me my intrusion, but ill be taking these" the villain spoke, almost politely as he held up two pearls.
From the way he spoke to the disappearance of their classmates they knew that he'd been to the one to take them, and the way he hinted to the pearls meant that he somehow had them trapped there.
It had to be his quirk.
"I won't let you" Todoroki yelled as he placed his right hand on the ground making an iceberg that went for the villain, but he gracefully jumped off of the branch on the tree and around the ice, causing them to momentarily lose sight of him, but they did see him put the pearls in his pocket as he bid them farewell and leaped away to where they couldn't get him.
"Dang it!"
"You guys!"
The boys turned to see Uraraka and Asui running up to them, having barely missed the action of the villain.
Hurriedly they told the girls what had happened.
"If only Deku were here, he'd figure out what we should do" Uraraka panicked, not at all liking the thought that her classmates and friend had been captured and was being carried off to an unknown location.
Everyone couldn't agree more. Izuku was a strategist and was especially good at thinking in stressful situations. Sometimes it was like he understood their quirks better than they did themselves.
"We just need to think...what would Midoriya do?"
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"Kota, did the villain, or Midoriya say anything that could give hints as to what happened?" Aizawa asked the shaking boy as he tied the villain up with his scarf, though it didn't seem like he needed to worry about the villain waking up, he was really out for the count, even if he did awake he was too injured to move.
"Think good and hard"
The boy was still high on adrenaline and had a hard time focusing, but he tried. He pulled at his hair and tried to remember helpful information.
"Ah! Yeah! The guy said he was his boss's son, whatever that meant"
Aizawa stilled.
"What did you just say?"
izuku was who's son? No, it couldn't be.
But as a hero, Aizawa couldn't deny the witness's statement.
Izuku had never spoken of his family, but Aizawa did know that he had been raised by a single father after his mother's tragic death, it had said as much in the papers he had on every student.
Izuku had never shown any signs of abuse either, he was a happy boy, but if what Kota said was true, what could it mean?
His hands shook as he thought over it.
Both with the USJ and now, nobody other than the teachers and the students had known they were there, and that's why they had been so careful not to let information about this place slip.
Someone had given the villains information. Could it really be Izuku?
"Kota we're going! I need to find Mandalay, and quick!"
If it was true, everyone had to be told to stay away from Izuku, to not engage, and to think the worst of him...to think that he was one of them