The crowd in the festival had increased by the time Izuku left the tent, to the point where he may had to squeeze pass them to get to the shooting range. At least, he was trying to, but his mind kept going back to the tent. To where he nearly confessed to Uraraka.
He was feeling surprisingly quite frustrated, but he didn't know whether he was frustrated because that he got interrupted by Bakugo before he had the chance to say or frustrated that he somehow forgot why he wasn't going to tell her in the first time. Even if she did return those feelings, there was still the fear that his dedication to becoming the number one hero would shatter any chance of a relationship.
"Come on, Izuku. Focus!" He scolded himself, rubbing his face with his hand as he tried to focus his attention back into finding the shooting range. He couldn't lose focus of his goal - both in his hero duties and in keeping his true feelings at bay.
Once he managed to bring his mind to focus, he continued on, remembering seeing the attraction near the middle of the festival when he first entered, so he headed in that vague direction. As he did, he started to think about the call.
To others, it would sound like Bakugo was sounding like his usual self, but Izuku, being around him for so long way before U.A., had noticed a slight waver in his voice. A sense of unease that rubbed him the wrong way.
"I hope nothing bad has happened already."
After minutes of walking, the shooting range finally came into view. It was a classic, friendly shooting range, with the moving targets being dressed as villains and fake plastic guns decorated with pro heroes. As Izuku began to walk in between the stall and another next to it, some of the participants saw him and waved to him. He gladly waved back before heading down. Walking down further, he ended up outside of the festival and into a maze of dark alleyways.
"Ground Zero! Red Riot!" He called out as he began to pick up the pace, turning corners as he called for them. He soon used his Quirk, not only allow him to find his friends quicker, but to provide some light as the alleyways were pitch black, with only the occasional spots of lights shining through.
"Kacchan! Kirishima! Where are you?" He shouted again.
"Deku! Over here!" The voice of Kirishima directed him to another corner where he found his red-haired friend waving at him at the middle of an alleyway.
"Hey! You guys are pretty far from the Hero Festival." He commented once he reached him, turning off his Quirk.
"Yeah, well... it might be for the best." Kirishima said, looking clearly uneasy. Worry started to form in Izuku as his friend led him down the rest of the alley and turned the corner. The moment they did, he gasped. He froze and his eyes widened in shock and fear.
A splatter of blood stared back at him that covered the right-side wall, while some found its way sliding down onto the path below. The only light in the alleyway shone at the blood, making it stand out even more. He was so shaken by this that he almost didn't noticed Bakugo there, crouching down next to the blood.
"Finally. Took you long enough." Bakugo addressed him, though he didn't turn around to face him.
"Wh... W-What happened?" Izuku found his ability to speak again, barely managing to ask the question.
"We're not sure, man." Kirishima answered with disappointment. "We were patrolling the festival, when Bakugo noticed someone suspicious heading down this way. We tried to follow them, but we lost their trail. Soon, though... we came across that." He used his head to gesture towards the red stain in front of them.
"The bastard was trying not to draw attention on themselves." Bakugo stood up, turning to face them. "But I know a villain when I see one."
Izuku let out a deep breath that he didn't know he was holding, clenching his fists to stop them from shaking. This was what he feared. He knew that a villain would attack at some point during the festival, but for it to happen now...
"W-Where's the rest of your group?" He asked.
Bakugo huffed. "Who knows? Tried to radio them, but neither Rocketman nor Icyhot responded."
"That's why we called you." Kirishima added. All three of them turned silence, with Izuku still absorbing the situation in front of him.
"Also, just so you know..." He jumped slightly with Kirishima suddenly breaking the silence. As he looked at him, he saw a smirk on his face as he pointed towards Bakugo. "It was his idea to call you here."
Bakugo growled loudly. "So what?! And I told you not to tell the damn nerd!" Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at this, along with Kirishima. It definitely helped ease some of the tension off and he wasn't surprised that Kirishima was the one to do so.
"So... what do we do now?" He asked once the chuckling subsided.
Kirishima shrugged his shoulder. "I'm not sure, though I don't want to alert the other heroes yet."
"Yeah, you're right. We don't know the whole situation to bring attention to it yet." Izuku agreed. "Besides, we can't sure if that blood was made by the villain you saw."
"Well, for your sake, let's hope so." Bakugo grunted. Izuku nodded in response.
"Then, I think Bakugo and I will continue to search for the villain, and you can as well." Kirishima suggested. "But not for too long. We shouldn't stay away from our patrol for so long."
"Then, we're already wasting time just standing here." Bakugo pushed past them before running down the alley behind them. "Come one, Red Riot!" He shouted.
"You'll be OK?" Kirishima asked. Izuku smiled and nodded in response. That was enough for him to smile back, patting his back before he ran after Bakugo. "Radio us if you find something!" He called out, disappearing around the corner.
Izuku leaned up against the wall as a shaky sigh escaped him. He rubbed his face with his left hand while clenched his right into fist, feeling the usual pull of stiff muscles. The festival wasn't even two hours in and already there was a villain on the loose.
"We have to find them before..." His voice, while quiet, was full of steel determination. He removed the hand from his face as his eyes went to the splatter of blood on the wall. It wasn't the first time he saw blood, but the fact that this blood was hiding behind a festival full of happy visitors churred his stomach.
"If only Identi was here." He thought, knowing that the seasoned pro hero in his group had a Quirk that can identify anyone by tasting even the tiniest drop of their blood. After taking one more deep breath, he pushed himself off the wall, charged up One for All and began heading down the dark alley, away from the blood.
He ran down more alleyways, keeping his eyes peered for any movement. Eventually, he saw something pass just meters away from him, prompting him to head down faster. But once he reached the area where he saw movement, nothing was there. He let out a frustrated grunt before continuing his trek.
"I can't let them get away. I can't let them hurt any of the attendees if I ever want to..."
Suddenly, something shoved into him heavily from his left side, causing him to briefly lose his balance. Once he caught himself, he immediately got into a fighting stance and increased the charge of his Quirk, facing the direction he got shoved at. But his eyes grew wide the moment he saw who it was.
"Uravity?" His quirk quickly dissipated as he went up to Uraraka, who was leaning forward with her hands on her legs, breathing heavily down. "A-Are you OK?"
"Yeah... I'm fine." She answered, still breathless. Finally, she managed to catch her breath before looking up and giving him a smile. "Sorry about that. Couldn't catch myself in time."
"No, it's OK." He assured her. "Wait, how come you're here?"
"Well, Red Riot radioed me about you possibly needing help with something." She explained.
"Oh... I see." He wondered why Kirishima told Uraraka, especially since they agreed not to tell the others until they knew exactly what was going on. "Did he tell you why?"
She shook her head in response. "Is anything OK?" Izuku could see and hear the worry and concern in her, which only made it hard to him as he was debating whether to tell her or not.
He bit his lower lip before answering. "Well... I-I want to tell you, but... we're not sure ourselves if..."
"Deku, look out!"
Everything suddenly seemed to move in slow motion as Izuku was pushed out of the way by Uraraka. As he was, he saw her raise her hands like she was blocking something. Then, a floating knife appeared out of thin air and slashed at her. Her scream of pain and a small splatter of blood from the action made Izuku freeze in terror.
"Uravity!" He screamed, seeing her lean up against the wall, grabbing hold of her slashed hand. Still in terror, his eyes quickly shifted to the floating knife that began to somehow disappear. His terror turned into anger as he ran towards it.
He barely heard Uraraka's protest as he charged up his Quirk and swung his leg at the area. He didn't hit anything and instead hit the wall, creating a big dent. Quickly removing his foot from the wall, he turned around to face the same direction as before, where the sight in front of him shook him to the core.
It wasn't that, in the only patch of light in the alleyway, he saw someone wearing a black cloak that covered their entire head and body; it was the fact that the person wearing the cloak was invisible, making them look like a ghost. No face, no body and yet, Izuku felt like they were taunting him. The floating clock then moved into the darkness behind them, prompting him to snap out of his shocked state and ran up to them. But the moment he reached there, the person was gone. Disappeared even.
"How...?" His words disappeared from his mouth as he spoke. Even in a world full of strange and unusual Quirks, this particular Quirk gave him such an uneasy feeling. Especially one that was clearly being used for villainy.