~O~

It didn't take long before Recovery Girl arrived at the scene with two robots carrying a gurney. After Aizawa's shout, it was Tokoyami who had found enough strength in himself to move and rush downstairs to get the nurse as his homeroom teacher had said. Iida was still frozen in his steps, horror and worry were absolute on his features.

The old nurse quickly checked the green haired boy's pulse and acknowledged the severity of his wounds before he was laid on the gurney and transferred to the infirmary. Of course, the process did not go as smoothly as it sounded. The students downstairs were more than just frantic and frightened upon seeing their unmoving friend being transfered to the infirmary.

They tried to come along with him to the infirmary or asked various questions like 'what happened to him?' and 'who did this?' but of course Midoriya needed medical attention more than they needed answers so Aizawa stayed behind and settled down the commotion the kids were causing in the common area so Recovery Girl could peacefully leave with the injured green haired boy. Aizawa, however, couldn't stop All Might from trailing behind Recovery Girl and Midoriya with the same antics as that of a worried mother. He was beginning to believe in Todoroki's theory a little bit more...

Anyways, the raven haired man turned to where the group of worried teenagers were looking at him anxiously and began, "Look, I know that you're all worried about Midoriya but you have to act rationally here. Everything else can wait as the first priority is to make sure he doesn't... We don't lose him, okay. To find whatever happened back there and whoever was responsible for attacking Midoriya is not — I repeat; it is not your duty. Whatever happened, I want you to leave it to the pros. I'd rather not have to see an other one of you stabbed and bleeding to your death. Got it?"

"But, sir! You can't just expect us to just sit down like nothing happened! Midoriya could die, we can't not look for that unmanly bastard who attacked him." Kirishima exclaimed with distress evident in his voice.

The redhead only received a stern glare from his teacher in return and slumped his shoulders in defeat, "Fine... But I'm not promising I won't do anything if I find the person who attacked him."

"Neither are we." Uraraka added, although much more shakily with Ashido clinging to her arm and nodding as well.

"Nor that I want you to." Aizawa sighed, not really knowing what disaster was waiting for him ahead, "Just be careful."

~O~

It had been close. It had been too close; that was what Recovery Girl told All Might after a whole two and a half hours of treating the boy in the infirmary while the retired hero waited outside. Several stab wounds — six to be exact were found on the boy's body. Two in the back, two in his torso, one in his right shoulder and one in the chest. Some deep and some deeper than the rest, then there was the carved '15' on his left wrist. Midoriya had lost a considerable amount of blood too.

Regardless, the boy was out of danger for the time being thanks to the skilled nurse.

On the other hand, the news of a student being attacked in broad daylight had reached throughout the school, igniting fear and anger alike. The latter could be seen in 1-A particularly. It was a miracle nobody realized the truth behind the seemingly harmless training exercise yet. The next day, early in the morning right before school hours started, a discussion was unfolded in the conference room among the teaching staff — save for a certain retired hero who was currently watching over a still unconscious Midoriya.

"Should we check the security footages?" Midnight asked breaking the ice.

Power Loader sighed, "Already did. Same results as earlier when we were looking for that toe. It's all a loop activated right before the traitor makes a move."

"Okay, let's think of something else then. There are fingerprints left on the knife, right? Snipe went to get that dealt with. Other than that, All Might said Midoriya had the number 15 carved on his wrist, now what could that mean?" Present Mic added.

"A seat number? Age? A sort of ranking?" Vlad King pondered.

Aizawa quietly mumbled, "It would have made sense if it was just 13 but I guess we aren't that lucky."

"I'll be ignoring that." Thirteen said.

Nezu, on the other hand, was busy analyzing the situation altogether, "Our faux traitor hadn't even done anything yet and the real traitor had already almost killed a student. If the appendage really served as just a warning sign then they shouldn't have gone and done this not even half a day later. This incident changes the whole purpose behind that severed appendage. Then there's the fact that only Tokoyami and Iida were on the floor where Midoriya was attacked."

"Could either of them be the culprit? Or someone in 1-A?"

"They should be our top suspects but my brain has doubts. Those kids really didn't see anything special happening. Although, we would need to question them soon." Nezu stated.

"I doubt we can work under the cover of the exercise anymore too. Some of the students are capable enough to realize the situation at hand. We would have to explain everything to them sooner or later." Cementoss admitted.

"And then what?" Midnight asked, "We just tell the kids one of them is a traitor and make them lose their faith in us? Where do we go from there? The commotion it'll cause will just give the traitor all the more chances to escape and... Was this their trap all along? They're going to escape UA by wavering the students' faith in heroes? Dammit..."

"That might as well be the complete opposite of what they might actually be thinking yet we wouldn't be able to tell. The traitor's mind is becoming harder and harder to read." The principal rested his face in his paws and closed his eyes, "Unless, there isn't just one mind at play..."

Present Mic stood up from his seat, slamming his hands into the table upon the submission, "What do you mean?! There can't be two of them now, can they?!" Midnight slapped both her hands on her face in exasperation beside him.

"Now, now, don't worry about it. Just another educated guess." Nezu dismissed him without even looking up at the hero.

"You know who it is, don't you? Would you be so kind to spare us some blood?" Aizawa questioned, his voice was just as demanding as his expression.

"I said," Nezu repeated his previous words, "Don't worry, Aizawa. I assure you if I'm correct then no other students would suffer any serious harm."

"But they are still in harm's way!" Present Mic debated. But, of course, the principal didn't waver and refused to give away a name — or two names in this case. Quietly setting down his cup of green tea, Nezu stated, "I can be wrong. Nobody is perfect after all."

"Dammit..." With a defeated sigh, the loud blonde slumped back into his seat as the principal diverted the conversation and moved onto possible security updates they could make to keep the students safe under the impression; 'in case he was wrong with his wild guesses'. Well, at least the kids still trusted them. That still counted as a win, right?

Or not considering how someone might have eavesdropped on that entire conversation and put the pieces together all this time. In all honesty, Kirishima and Uraraka thought they might get an update on Midoriya's condition by asking a teacher since they weren't yet allowed to see him. They had not intended to learn this perspective changing fact that one of the truly is a traitor — or two of them.

Regardless, one thing was certain. Whoever attacked Midoriya was a part of Class-1-A... And so was the traitor. Hopefully, they would know how to carry this new information on their own and not cause a commotion among their classmates.

~O~

"One of us is a what now?" And hope went down the drain.

"You heard me. One of us is a mega unmanly mole. And I hate mega unmanly moles. Especially when they've stabbed my bro!" Kirishima pouted, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation.

"I believe there's a better way to go about this," Yaoyorozu suggested, "I mean, I get why the teachers would want to keep this piece of information from us given that we're all equally suspects but that doesn't necessarily mean to put the blame entirely on us. There could be someone who's responsible surely?"

"You know, Yaomomo? That was very sus. I would have thought it was you if not that the knife was Bakugou's, ribbit." Asui admitted.

The ash blonde exclaimed with anger, "Huh?! So you think it's me, Frog Face? You think I stabbed Deku?"

"Come on, Tsu. I know Bakugou stabbed Deku last weekend but this one can't be him. He openly tried to kill him before, why would he need to do it in secret now? Plus, he was making hamburgers..." Uraraka tried to settle down the accusations. Although, she only ended up making it worse.

"Are you the traitor's accomplice, perhaps? Nezu did say there were two of them, right?" Sero looked at the redhead for confirmation who nodded his head in reply with a thumbs up. When the brunette groaned in annoyance, Kaminari cried, "B-But Uraraka I thought we were Smash Bros! You can't be my Smash Bro if you stabbed my other Smash Bro!"

"I did not stab anyone and not Deku of all people!"

"Everyone, keep quiet!" Iida silenced the group of teenagers before continuing, "This is a serious situation whether you take it that way or not! Now, you all know the truth behind this Traitor Hunt is to capture the real traitor. The one we were following at day one was the faux traitor set up by our teachers but what we saw yesterday was definitely the work of the real one. As Mr. Aizawa said in the beginning of our exercise, it could be any of us. It's still any of us. It could also be no one in 1-A but we would never know that if we don't figure out the truth in due time."

"It is a rather dark situation. You will never truly know which one of your comrades will turn their backs on you. What a mad banquet of darkness..." Tokoyami added on.

"The teachers didn't want us to know about this. We shouldn't let them know that we realize their true purpose now. We should too work under the cover of the exercise to find the real traitor." Todoroki suggested, his face just as expressionless as ever.

"But if that's truly one of us," Kirishima started, looking at his classmates, "They already know the plan, right? Either way, just know that whoever it is, I won't forgive you."

There was a moment where everyone only soaked those words in before Jirou questioned their next move, "Well, should we just wait for the fingerprint scan now or...?"

"It's best if we get to that first. It will give us some clarification. Plus, it wouldn't take long at all given by his the heroes were talking. I'm pretty sure the results would be out as of now." Uraraka said, her rosy cheeks resting in her palms.

"Say... Who's up to take a somewhat illegal sneak peek in an important school file before homeroom starts?" Ashido asked, standing up as she cracked her knuckles out of enthusiasm to catch a rat.

"Mr. Aizawa will literally kill us all if we were late to class, you know, " Kaminari shrugged, "Count me in!"

"Woah, dumbass, sit down. Not everyone is barging in there, okay? Only one student will go while the rest of us head to our classroom." Jirou then looked around, and so did the others as she asked, "The question remains; who will go? Certainly not Kaminari. Or Mina for that matter. No offence, but you guys can't be trusted with this one."

"On account of us being the traitor or on our ability to possibly burn the papers midway?" The said pink skinned girl questioned, tilting her head to a side.

"Take a wild guess." Jirou replied to which Ashido mumbled a quick, "Understandable."

"I hate to say this, but if we want the work done flawlessly, we have only one choice left..." Sero sighed and most of the class seemed to understand what he meant while some began side-eyeing their supposedly less trouble causing spy. The spy in question, however, was the only one in the part of the class that didn't fit in the most people who understood what Sero meant. Confused, he asked,

"Why the fuck are you extras looking at me?"