The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 6: Taken

"Alright, students listen up,"

It was early on a Tuesday morning and all of class 3A was standing outside of an overgrown forest. The previous week they were told that they were going to partake in a hero exercise a bit different from what they were used to. That had been an understatement. On top of that, the exercise would be instructed and observed by All Might

"Your task here today is straight forward but difficult," continued the #1 hero.

"The situation is this: a small group of hikers was on a pleasant trip through the woods when they ran into a problem that required them to veer off course. In the process, they lost their route and are now lost in this forest. You are here to help find and recover these individuals. We will all remain here until you do, which means you need to find them as quickly as possible. But that's not all, our investigation of the problem that caused these hikers to get lost is revealing that foul play might have been involved, so there may be dangerous individuals searching for these hikers as well. Other teachers will play the roles of these people. Find the hikers and recover them safely."

The entire class was in shock. This was an insane training exercise!

"Oh man. This is gonna take forever!" wailed Kaminari.

The blond hero turned his smile towards him at the remark, "Precisely! This is why you will also be splitting up into teams of two for this! Each of your assigned partners has already been decided."

Everyone internally groaned. Everyone except for Deku. Although he had been getting slightly more comfortable with the school, talking to his fellow classmates was still something he tried to avoid. Having his partner pre-chosen would save him the trouble of trying to find someone to work with him.

30 minutes later class 3A was walking through the thick foliage of the forest on the hunt for their quarry. Izuku had been teamed up with Todoroki, both of the teens had come to a silent agreement immediately that unnecessary words need not be spoken. The silence between them wasn't unfriendly, just that neither individual saw it as necessary for completing their current objective. Plus any noise might attract any hostiles in the area.

Class 3A was in total: 10 search groups, to maximize efficiency each group would try and take a different section of the forest. Ochaco and Iida had been assigned the right-wing while. On the other hand, Deku and Todoroki were tasked with searching the back left section. Because of this they had a lot of ground to cover and knew they shouldn't waste time.

Several hours later the pair reached a small stream and decided that they should take a breather and refill their water. They took turns refilling the canteens one at a time while the other kept watch. Once they had both drank their fill and were about to head out Deku heard a rustle in the bushes to his right. Todoroki, on the other hand, hadn't heard anything and continued ahead.

As he was about to step between some trees Deku noticed small tripwire between them. He jumped forward and tackled Todoroki to the ground right as something flew out from the forest and splattered against a nearby tree. Both of the boys stayed perfectly silent as they tried to identify any sounds nearby but the forest had gone silent again.

They looked at each other for a moment before slowly climbing to their feet. They carefully looked around but couldn't spy anything out of the ordinary. They made sure to watch every step they took as they walked over to the tree that had been hit by whatever projectile had been meant for them. On the tree was a platter of some thick red liquid which was now slowly running down the bark of the tree.

"I think that's a red dye," muttered Todoroki to Deku. "Probably set by one of the teachers, I guess as a way of seeing if we were caught by it or not."