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“ For the next game, you will all be seeking, and you will all be hiding.” Aizawa starts to explain the second game, only to be interrupted by Iida.
“ But sir, that doesn’t make any sense!” The always stiff boy blurts out. Aizawa sends a scathing look his way and continues.
“ You will have micro cameras on your body at all times. Don’t worry, they automatically stop when you enter a bathroom, we won’t be invading your privacy. But this serves as a way for us to know when you get out. To be taken out of the game you need to be spotted by one of your classmates. If you are caught on your teammates camera you’ll be contacted and you may return to everyday life. If you are spotted by a teacher, you will also be taken out of the game. If you and another person see each other at the same time we will determine who saw first and eliminate you according to our findings. “
“ So, we have to stay out of sight of our entire class, and teachers while also attempting to see them to get them out?’ Iida asks slowly, as if he’s misunderstood the assignment.
“ Yes. You’ll also be expected to complete your assignments while staying hidden. I will have packets that can be picked up at any point in the day.” Aizawa grins. “ And finally, you can stay in your room the entire time, but just be warned, I will be doing random checks as will the other teachers. Nezu has given us an incentive for every child we can get out, so we’re all a bit excited for this next assignment.” The class gulps instinctively
“ What about the regular cameras? And we can get our classmates out, what about the teachers?” Izuku asks, tapping a random rhythm on his notebook. Aizawa arches an eyebrow. Midoriya has been surprising him at every turn since this unit started, and it’s starting to raise some questions. Fact of the matter is, when you have a stupidly overpowered quirk, most kids don’t think to cultivate other skills besides those quirks.
And while Midoriya had horrendous control over his quirk in the beginning, he’d taken control soon after. He’d need to investigate after this unit was over. But first he’d see what all Midoriya was capable of.
“ Good question Midoriya. For the first day, we’ll be lenient about the regular cameras. If you're caught on them, then it won’t affect your grade. But after the first day, if you are caught on the regular cameras, not only will it penalize your regular grade, your location will be sent to a teacher who will then try to track you down. As for getting us out, no there isn’t a way to get us out. But I’m willing to make this interesting.” Aizawa looks out at his class, who look back apprehensively.
“ If you are taken out, you will still be allowed to seek. For every person you get out while only seeking it will add points back onto your grade. And I do believe some of you will be needing those points at the end of this, so take advantage of that. “ Aizawa pointedly looks at Bakugou. He wouldn't be surprised if he’s the first one taken out this time. “ And if the last person to be found can manage to go 24 hours without being found while everyone looks for you, then you’ll be given an advantage in the next game. Do you have any questions?”
The class begins to shout out questions.
“ What about food?”
“ What does this have to do with learning stealth or anything to do with heroics?”
“ Can we talk to the people who are also taken out?”
“ Why do we have to play this stupid fucking game?”
“ Where do we sleep if nowhere is safe?”
“ Can we team up to seek other students after we are taken out?”
“ We can’t be seen by teachers or our classmates, but what about other students?”
“ We don’t even know where all the cameras are!” Aizawa sighs.
“ You’ll have to risk sneaking to the kitchen and being caught. Yes you can talk to the students who are taken out if you are also taken out, If you team up then you’ll have to split the bonus points. And you’ll have to find somewhere you find safe to sleep. And being spotted by anyone will get you out of the game.” He pauses, waiting for the kids to quiet down.
“ And let me throw you this hypothetical. You're sent undercover to bust a drug ring. You can’t just search for evidence or hope to happen across evidence, you'll be killed that way. You need to know how to avoid cameras, and people, know how to move around a base without being located because it can mean the difference between life and death. There’s no better way to learn those skills, than to do exercises that emulate those skills. That’s why you are doing this stupid fucking game.” Aizawa explains.
“ The last game helped you work on stealth. You had to try and be quiet to get flags, and take them before people noticed. But ultimately you could fall back onto your quirk if that happened. This game is all about staying in the shadows, and not being found, not just stealing things from people. Each game will show you another skill to use, and help you practice them. It’s also to show you how much you need to work on those skills. Once the games have been completed, I’ll show you how to be more efficient.”
The speech seems to have worked, everyone quiets down and the ones who’d looked disgruntled about having to do this exercise, look to at least accept it, even if they aren’t excited.
“ Two hours to prepare. Then the game will start.” Aizawa exits, leaving his class quiet. Izuku is the first one to stand and leave. He can feel the daggers being thrown at his back as he leaves by Jiro. Several of his classmates are going to have it out for him, which means he needs to be careful.
The last thing he hears before exiting is Momo.
“ Why do we need to prepare anything? It’s just hide and seek. It’ll be easy to gather food or go to sleep.” And isn’t it weird to think you won’t need anything? Maybe it’s because he learned early on it’s the exact opposite. Izuku’s entire middle school experience consisted of him trying to make himself as small as possible, and hiding wherever he could. He had to start bringing his lunch to school, because entering the cafeteria was a death sentence.
Or to bring a change of clothes and a blanket to school, because there were days his classmates decided it would be fun to lock him on the roof, and he wouldn’t be let out until the next morning.
Once Izuku is out of the classroom, he activates OFA, spreading about five percent of his power throughout his limbs, and books it back to the dorms. Luckily, he’s mildly prepared for this. The day he’d been told about dorms, had been the worst day of his life. Sure, by then he’d been pretty confident that his classmates wouldn’t turn on him like middle school, (well everyone except Bakugou), but he’d prepared for the worst just in case.
You never know after all. So when he’d learned about the dorm system, Izuku had been sure to memorize the camera positions, always staying in front of one in case someone tried to attack. Since it was a hero school, if he took the evidence to a teacher, they would have to do something. Or that’s his guess at least. It was why he’d taken up hacking as well. If he needed to, he had an entire computer file full of clips that could ruin Kacchan. But he won’t do that yet, he’s getting better after all.
Izuku had also memorized and explored the vent system when he’d been enrolled in the school in case he needed to disappear quickly. He’d set himself up a nook in the vents to stay in when people were mad at him. He hadn’t needed to use it yet. The vents connect across everything, going into the ground when it needs to go to another building, so if Izuku wanted to he could just stay in the vents for the entire game. And surprisingly the vents were rather large, and clean. In comparison the vents at his middle school had been cramped and dusty
Izuku suspects that Nezu uses the vents to get around as well, which would make sense for the cryptic stoat. Izuku thinks that there are also secret passages in the school that he just hasn’t discovered yet.
Izuku slips into his room quietly, slipping his to-go bag out from under his bed. There are toiletries, a medical kit, a couple changes of clothes and a stash of non-perishable food inside. On a whim he also grabs his laptop. If he needs to leave the vents, he’ll be able to set a loop up so he’s not caught on camera hopefully. It would just be a precaution, since he knows how to evade the cameras, but a good one to take just in case. And he’ll be able to watch the proceedings on camera, so he knows when he needs to move.
Once he’s grabbed everything out of his bag, he heads back downstairs. He’s not planning on taking part in seeking out his classmates. Maybe Jiro will forgive him if he actually gives everyone a chance to participate this time. But the game will most likely span for several days at least, which means Izuku is going to need more food and water than what he has in his bag, or then what he has stashed in his vent nook.
Nobody is in the building yet, but Izuku makes quick work of the cabinets, pulling every snack and food that doesn’t need to be refrigerated into his bag. Then he grabs a case of water lined up the back wall and sets in on the counter. A glance out of the kitchen window shows several of his classmates walking toward the building, which is Izuku’s cue to leave. He hops onto the counter next to the water, and reaches for the vent cover. It’s already loosened, from late night exploring, so it’s easy to unscrew and take the cover off.
He slips his bag in, and then hefts the water into the vent, climbing in after it. He replaces the vent cover right as Tokoyami and Aoyama come in, sliding further back as the two make their way through the common rooms and to the elevator.
Once they're gone Izuku begins to army crawl, waiting for the tight space to ease up and shoving his supplies in front of him. The space quickly opens up, and he’s able to sit up comfortably. He can’t stand of course, but it’s more than enough space. Two rights, and once left later, Izuku comes across a vent shaft that plummets downward.
It leads into the ground, to travel toward the school, which is exactly where Izuku wants to be currently. A rope hangs from a loop that he’ll be able to climb down. The first time he’d come this way, he’d slid down and nearly died hitting his head on the sharp turn at the bottom. After he’d recovered, he’d brought a rope and made sure he had a safe way to get to the bottom.
He’d done that for every plummet, just so he could go back and forth without dying. He slides his backpack on and grabs the water in one arm using the other to grab the rope. With a final look back, Izuku starts to lower himself down one handed. He can’t afford the noise sliding the water down the vent would cause, or he’d just let it fall to the bottom.
Once at the bottom, it’s a very awkward ten minute crawl to his crawl space. It’s a juncture, with 6 different vent openings attached to it. It’s smaller than everywhere else he’d found, but it’s an illusion. There's a hole in the far right corner, just big enough for Izuku to squeeze through, and barely noticeable in the dark light. It leads into a room about 20 by 30 feet. It’s larger than anything he’d found. It hadn’t taken long for him to take it over, bringing a futon and various blankets and pillows to make himself a nest.
He also had nonperishable food here, and he’d brought strings of lights that he kept on with a large battery pack, so he could have light while in here too. It was cozy, and much better than Izuku’s old hiding places.
He checks the time. One and a half hours until it starts. With nothing better to do, Izuku plugs his laptop into the battery pack, turning on the lights as well, and covering the opening with a black cloth he’d brought so the light wouldn’t alert anyone and begins to hack into the cameras so he can have a front row seat to the shit show about to go down. He doubts he’ll have to move unless he ends up being the last one in the game. Then Aizawa might figure out that he’s in the vents and come after him.
If that happens, then Izuku will need to move onto the training grounds. He should be able to avoid their teachers in the literal maze of metal in Ground Alpha. It doesn’t take long to hack into the cameras, he’d left himself a backdoor the first time he’d hacked into them. Though it does bring up a little concern about how easy it was to break through UA’s cyber security. He’d been meaning to bring it up to the Principal, but something always came up.
Once he’s in, he quickly switches over to the 1-A dorm cameras to check on where everyone is at. The common room is empty, proving that everyone has at least learned their lesson about staying close to their classmates. In fact, as he switches through the different cameras, he can’t see anyone. The one exception is Aoyama, who he can see walking through the second floor halls toward the elevator…and Jiro who is in front of his door, banging on it.
There’s still an hour until the games start, but it seems that everyone has at least begun to hide already or are making their way to their determined hiding spot. With nothing better to do, Izuku unmutes the camera so he can hear what Jiro is doing.
“ Midoriya open the door! You haven’t left the dorms, I know that. I’m not going to trap you or anything, but I want to issue you a challenge! You allowed Todoroki to do that, and it’s obvious that you view me as a threat. I want to live up to that, so just face me and let me issue my challenge as your rival. I’m going to beat you.” Midoriya winces.
Yeah, he’d definitely have to mend things with the goth girl after this. He couldn’t exactly exit his room, since he wasn’t there, so she’s just going to think that he’s ignoring her. True to his thoughts, Jiro growls angrily, and kicks the door.
“ I will find you Midoriya and then you're going to regret throwing me to the wolves.” With her challenge issued, Jiro takes her leave, entering her room.
The rest of the prep time passes quickly, and with that the game begins. It’s anticlimactic, watching the timer run out, only for nothing to happen. Izuku can’t see anything on the cameras, as he lazily switches between them and it seems everyone is hiding so far.
It takes 6 hours for anything of significance to happen. Aizawa swings by on his capture weapon, peering through every balcony. Most of the people in the dorms had evacuated, except for Iida, and Momo.
When Momo exits her room in a huff, pulling her camera off and taking off a camouflage blanket, Izuku can guess what happened, and it would have even been clever and enough to work if it wasn’t Aizawa who’d found her.
She’d made a camouflaged blanket specifically to make it blend into her room. It was a creative use of her quirk, and for someone who wasn’t trained in stealth, it would have worked. But Aizawa is clearly trained in stealth and espionage, hence him leading these classes instead of All Might.
It’d be kind of funny actually trying to watch his larger than life mentor attempt to teach them to sneak around. The image in his head of All Might on his tippy toes, in an all black jumpsuit, brings a snort of laughter bubbling out of his chest.
Iida doesn’t seem like he did anything special, perhaps he was going to try to hide when he heard footsteps? It’s not particularly creative, and definitely not foolproof. He doesn’t even have a hearing quirk like Jiro to fall back on. Iida will definitely have a long way to go with espionage. Over the next few hours, teachers trickle in peeking into the rooms in an attempt to find Izuku’s classmates but besides Aizawa’s success in the beginning the teachers don’t find anyone.
It seems most of his classmates are better at hiding than Izuku expected of them, which means this may go on for longer than he thought it would. All seems normal until Izuku sees Kaminari walk into sight of one of his cameras. He hadn’t seen any of his classmates approach, but as soon as he appears on camera, Kaminari’s camera beeps and he’s taken out of the game. This happens twice more, before Izuku realizes it’s happening.
Even though it’s through a camera screen, he’s seeing his classmates and getting them out. Izuku immediately shuts his camera off. He’d promised himself that he’d give everyone else a chance. He menatlly apologizes to Shouji, Sato and Kaminari. He hadn't meant to get them out but it was too late now to change things. The only thing he can do now is keep out of it, and hope not to get caught.
With his spying cut short, Izuku takes a short length of rope, and rigs a small trap at the beginning of his opening to warn him if anyone is coming and settles in for a long wait.
Two days pass in a blink of an eye, Izuku only leaving his nest to pick and drop his school work off. He chooses to do it at three in the morning each time, and ends up getting Mina out on the first night. She’d had the same idea, and since she hadn’t thought to look up, was taken out easily.
At least she’d seemed good natured about it, simply shrugging and muttering something about going to bed. Izuku also goes information scavenging during this time, following Midnight and Present Mic for a time to learn that after 24 hours half of his class was taken out, by Jiro and the teachers and himself. Jiro has been playing aggressively, using her hearing to her advantage and seeking out anything with a heartbeat. Kacchan hadn’t made it past the first night much to the bitter blonde's anger. He also learned that Nezu put an especially high price on his head for the teachers. He was worth three bottles of the finest alcoholic beverage the teachers wanted.
But other than those instances Izuku spends his days in his nook, reading and doing his homework and catching up on the 11th season of the Walking Dead. On Day 5, the announcement comes. Aizawa caught Jiro, and the hunt is on for the last student...Izuku.
Izuku makes a mad dash for his laptop, the rat almost certainly knows his position, and he wouldn’t put it past him to leak it for the drama, which means he needs to leave immediately. Izuku only needs to last another 24 hours, and then he’s in the clear.
Izuku goes forth with his plan, leaving the vents and heading for Ground Alpha. He makes it without incident, easily passing Iida and Kaminari by. He sets a loop up before he leaves, that he’ll disable once he gets through to Ground Alpha.
Things go well at first, the first six hours are quiet. But after that, the cityscape is flooded with every teacher and hero student in the school.
The rat had told.
Izuku then starts the fight for his life, staying in the shadows as much as he can.. Alas, even Izuku’s skills aren’t good enough to evade that many people for long. After eight hours and thirty two minutes, Mirio pops out of the ground in front of Izuku with a mischievous grin.
“ Sorry buddy but you're caught! If it helps you were really hard to catch!” Izuku sighs but accepts his defeat, setting his bag on the ground and plopping next to Mirio’s face.
“ It’s okay Mirio-senpai. I still have a long way to go.” Mirio gives him a weird look at that, which Izuku doesn’t understand, but accepts.
The next day, classes resume as normal, and Aizawa-sensei looks pleased. Well as pleased as an always grumpy cat man can look.
“ This time was much better, and about where I expect most of you to be as first years with little to no trouble. Some of you still weren’t taking this seriously, but most of you buckled down, and lasted at least 24 hours. A lot of you had creative hiding places, or evasion tactics. “
“ Momo, you were one of the first people caught but your camouflage blanket was smart. It just needed to be fine tuned a bit more, and in the dark you wouldn’t have been caught. YOu just need to pay attention to your surroundings and have back up plans as well. Jiro, you used your hearing as a weapon, you got out over half of your class. Well done. Midoriya.” Izuku props his head up at the mention of his name.
“ Good job at evading everyone for so long. We need to talk about something we saw on your camera, but otherwise you did well.” Aizawa claps his hands. “ You guys, there was a clear difference in skill between these last two games. It lasted longer, and you guys actually gave it your all. You're using your heads. And for those that aren’t? You’ll catch up soon.” The class gulps.
“ I’m proud. “ It’s nearly unheard of praise, and brings tears to more than one person’s eyes. It doesn’t last long though, Aizawa grinning his now familiar sadistic grin.
‘’ Now I’ll talk about our next game… paintball.”