~O~

Izuku opened his eyes, ready to run.

But in front of him stood a shadowy figure with a white smirk.

Izuku screamed.

The figure lunged at him, his smirk never disappearing. But, fortunately, Izuku ducked and escaped from his side. He ran at his top speed to get away from that thing, eyes widened and heart throbbing and a twisted feeling rising in his system.

He ran out of the kitchen and towards the living area. But that didn't change the simple fact that there was no exit.

Once he neared the wooden wall — where the door was supposed to be — he, on instinct, kicked with all of his strength. He didn't know what he was doing. In the past few seconds he had come to the conclusion that this 'quirk' of his allowed him to run at an incredibly fast speed since he manages to escape even thought that figure was right in front of him.

But now that his kick had formed an opening in the wall as the old wood broke into pieces and scattered around, Izuku figured that his quirk might hold the components of super strength along with that speed. That described the surge of energy and power he felt when he activated it.

As useful and helpful as it sounded to have supernatural strength and speed in this situation, it wasn't getting him anywhere good.

The problem only seemed to rise once Izuku was out of the cabin.

And it wasn't because of that blacked out figure.

It was his own fault.

His right leg was so badly injured, it wouldn't be a surprise if the bones were broken. He could feel the pain from his toe to his knee.

In his own fear, he didn't take into account how much power he was accumulating in his leg in an attempt to make an opening. He didn't even think if there could be a backslash to his quirk.

But he couldn't just stay here lost in his thoughts, analyzing his power forever.

He turned around to look at that figure, breathing heavily as his hands slightly grabbed onto his injured leg.

He was just standing there. A few feet behind him, in the dark. His smirk only grew wider by second. He didn't move, at least that was what it looked like. He only stared at the green haired boy with blank eyes.

That blacked out figure. That person — that thing was playing with him.

It was like he knew Izuku would injury himself. He knew Izuku was weaker than him. He knew Izuku wouldn't be able to escape to the clearing for a second time. It was like a hunter threateningly watching a trapped rabbit's helplessness, waiting for the right moment to shoot.

Izuku looked back in front of him. The path where he came from in the first place.

The night was in full bloom. It was dark and once he would enter the forest, there wouldn't even be the moonlight to aid his vision. He had to depend on his memory and sketch a map in his mind to the clearing through the forest. He can ignore the pain in his leg, but it would slow him down regardlessly. One wrong step and he's dead.

He took a deep breath.

It's going to be a pretty troublesome run.

But he was ready.

~O~

"Bakugou it's four thirty in the morning... Why did you wake us up?" Kaminari yawned as he walked in the Common Area of the dorms with Iida at his side. The blue haired boy didn't look as sleepy as the electric blonde though. A few moments later, Uraraka too came rushing down, her chocolate brown hair was disheveled.

Todoroki was already there. He was sitting on one of the couches, going through his phone while Bakugou stood next to him — impatiently tapping his foot, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Hey... What's up?" Kaminari asked as they all walked next to the two.

"Here." Bakugou passed them his phone. The conversation he had earlier with Midoriya was on screen.

Kaminari scrolled through the chat while Iida and Uraraka looked over his shoulder.

"They said it's a quirk that's keeping Deku alive. For now." Bakugou explained, "If I'm getting anything from this conversation, the quirk's got him into some kind of shitty place with some stalker or some shit like that. He doesn't remember a thing properly and he doesn't know where the fuck he is. Tracking the number won't do shit so we're going to the hospital to get to the bottom of this."

"... And what're you doing, Todoroki?" Uraraka asked, tilting her head to a side.

"I saw an article earlier saying something about quirks like these from a quirk research hospital. I ignored it at first but when Bakugou told me about his conversation with Midoriya, I suspected it will be best if we had a little more information on the quirk." Todoroki said. "Here it is,"

He turned his phone to the others.

"Psyche related quirks that activate after a near death experience. Powerful quirks that are able to alter the state of mind and sometimes the physical world. Usually found to be controlled by some kind of embodiment of the greatest fear or desire of the person whom the quirk belongs to, cutting them off from reality. Assumptions have it that sometimes it's controlled by some sort of different personality or alter ego. Extremely rare cases are there for such a quirk to develop. 89 percent cases, however, don't make it far and end up dead." Iida read it out loud.

"That sounds horrible," Kaminari said.

Uraraka asked, "Does it say anything about survivors? How did those people come back from it?"

"Forming a contact with reality," Todoroki replied, "Midoriya was somehow able to text Bakugou and I take that he has a chance of survival. We should be able to save him if we keep the contact stable and remind him of his past. Nothing is lost. We still have till tomorrow sundown. We can save him."

"Then what're we waiting for?! I'll give Mr. Aizawa a call and we can leave now!" Iida exclaimed. He seemed happy to hear that.

Uraraka and Kaminari nodded beside him while a small smile appeared on Todoroki's face as well.

If they could save Midoriya from his death, that would mean everything.

Iida went ahead and called Aizawa while the others stayed there. Uraraka and Todoroki thoroughly read the article again, just in case they missed something while Kaminari was giving himself small shots if electricity to keep himself awake every now and then.

Though Bakugou stood there with a stoic face.

Something was off...

He had a feeling that,

There was more depth to this quirk...

~O~

Izuku ran towards the hill, not caring about his injury.

Though he would admit, it hurt. But something in him was telling him that the feeling of pain was nothing and he should ignore it.

He didn't look back to see whether or not the figure was running after him. But he didn't slow down. Not for a second.

Izuku reached the slope of the hill quickly thanks to his quirk. From there he dragged his injured leg with him as he climbed up.

Sweat lined his forehead as he suddenly felt his muscles aching. But he still kept his pace and went ahead.

'Just a little more...!!' The green boy thought as neared the hilltop where the forest started.

Once he reached the hilltop, his hands clutched around his injured leg again. He groaned as he felt the pain rise up. Izuku rolled up his pants a little to see that his skin had turned a deep shade of purple while blood ran down his leg. He needed fast medical attention if he didn't want it to get infected.

The green head turned around to look back on instinct. The blacked out figure wasn't there anymore. Not behind him. Not anywhere on the hill's slope. Not back in the vale. Nowhere in his sight.

A smile appeared on his face as he turned back to run through the forest. He was so close to get out of this place. He could finally meet all those people he saw in those pictures. He would hopefully get all his memories back. He would be free from this mess.

Izuku took a step forward.

And his expression dropped once he looked ahead.

The forest that led to the clearing; wasn't there. The pathway wasn't there. The clearing that should be visible from this distance wasn't there.

There was another slope. And the hill ended with a cold river cutting it off.

Right...

He should've thought about it.

Why was it that this vale was the figure's boundary?

Why was the figure playing with him when he could so easily run away?

The answer was right in front of him, yet he didn't notice.

This wasn't the real world. There were no limits to this thing that was after him. This entire built up world was his boundary. There never was a safe place to run to. He really was playing with him. Izuku was trapped. And trapped with no escape.

Izuku heard the voice chuckle.

⚫⚫⚫

｢ How naive of you to think you can leave.」

⚫⚫⚫

Scared. Panicking. Tired. Hurt. Alone.

Izuku felt something cold crawl up on his skin. He didn't move. He didn't raise his head. He didn't look. But he felt a presence behind himself.

"Wh-What are you...? Just what do you want from me?!" Izuku asked, tears were coming to his eyes now. He was shivering.

⚫⚫⚫

｢ Shh... All your questions will be answered.」

⚫⚫⚫

"Just... Just let me go—! AH—!" Izuku yelled as he dropped to his knees.

His head.... His head felt like it would explode any moment. It was so agonizing, even taking a single breath in shot pain up through his veins.

It didn't stop. And he couldn't ignore it anymore. His body felt like it was freezing from the inside. He clutched his head but finger felt numb.

The tears fell down and he couldn't see a thing. Yet he could tell the figure was lurking over his bent down body.

Izuku felt like he was going to pass out from the pain. He tried fighting against it. But soon his vision went black.

And he laid there unconscious.

The white smirk grew wider on the shadowy figure beside him.

⚫⚫⚫

｢ Let's do it properly this time... Izuku.」

⚫⚫⚫