Darkside (BkDK)

~~** It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... chicken man! **~~

Just before he was able to get a good look at his possible partner's face the boy jumped down from his perch on the swing and began walking towards the exit. "He's on the move, headed north towards the main street. I can't see his face yet but It could be him. It has to be him."

Silence fell over the line for a few moments before Quake spoke. "I can not detect Deku's steps. I believe we may be chasing a false lead."

"The fuck we are! That's him, I know it." No one disputed the blonde. They knew if Quake said it wasn't Midoriya then it wasn't but they also knew how hard this was on Katsuki. The youth needed to see for himself that this was not his partner to believe it.

Five minutes later Dynamight finally managed to get a good look at the other teen's face without being spotted and his stomach dropped. Quake was right. It wasn't Deku. After angrily letting the others know, Bakugo began making his way back to the car. As he walked he couldn't help shake the feeling that someone had been watching him the whole time since leaving the park. He wrote the feeling off as nerves at possibly finding his wayward Bunny but with every step he took with his heavy heart now he grew more confident. He could feel eyes on him and not the ones belonging to the few citizens passing him on the path.

After scanning every possible dark corner around him for the tenth time with his sharp ruby colored eyes he could not find the source of his disease. Accepting that this was not a usual situation where his body would react predictably, the spiky-haired youth assumed maybe he was just over stressed. Saying nothing about his lingering suspicion he shook out his shoulders and approached the already gathered group of Heros waiting for him.

Over the next week many similar sightings would be reported not only at Might Tower but also every Hero agency that had any ties to UA. Nine days have passed since the discovery of Deku's disappearance and there were not yet any successful sightings of the greenette.

That's not to say there weren't developments in the case. Three days ago Katsuki validated Flurry's theory about having been attacked by Kaede Nekamoura, confirming the woman's status as a double agent.

The supervising Hero had filled in her charge about the likely Villain and the boy's forgotten encounter a few days after it happened under the watchful eye of All Might and Specter. They had spent far more time than was comfortable for the somewhat asocial teen talking about suspected effects based on Deku's behavior in the months leading up to his disappearance. In the end they were able to break down the effects into a sequence of sorts.

First came the night terrors. The group feared they could be challenging to spot since it was already an ongoing condition for the blonde but he had been managing his sleep issues surprisingly well over the last month. After a little persuasion he gave his word to tell the others if he had one. He would also disclose if it was inline with what he usually experienced or differed in some notable way.

The second symptom they suspected was the whispering voice the freckled boy had reluctantly admitted to hearing. That would surely be a new thing for Bakugo so he would be able to report that immediately if it happened.

The final symptom the group suspected was temperament. Izuku had grown to be filled with anger in the last few months before he left. The incident with Sato might have been the beginning of the possible symptom but they could not be sure. There was an uncertainty regarding the missing greenette's acquired anger. Dynamight explained the boy had described feeling rage in his letter, but the question remained: was the rage a result of the quirk or a cumulative reaction to its effects?

This personality development would be completely out of character for the curly haired successor of One for All but harder if not impossible to detect in the secret Villain's second victim. The hothead teen was often filled with anger for various reasons, so how would they note any change? He had anger for himself for past misdeeds and limitations. Anger at the world for not being fair. Anger towards Villains. Anger at always feeling so angry.