~O~

Aizawa honestly didn't know what he should have expected during the interrogation session. He might have expected it to be a normal one like the one earlier that week but that was just wishful thinking at this point. Everyone had picked the person they were going to interrogate already but Bakugou had not yet arrived. When the raven haired man asked his teammates, they said that they saw him with Nezu last.

Aizawa would like to repeat that Team Green was a mistake.

He didn't pry further neither attempted to get in contact with the principal. He knew Nezu knew who the traitor was. Aizawa also knew that, of all people, Bakugou could never be the UA traitor. That only meant one thing; Nezu was telling the ash blonde who the traitor was. Which low-key made Aizawa want to throw him under a train but he would never express that out loud — he had a life to live — but why Bakugou of all people? Sure, the ash blonde was smart and efficient but there could have been a better choice on Nezu's part like maybe Yaoyorozu or perhaps, you know, the teachers?

Nezu refused to tell any of the teachers a lot of things from the very start. The principal never even shared his guesses of who could it be that was betraying UA. There were no hints for the teachers, nothing behind the whole 'traitor cut his own appendage to scare UA' which Aizawa was damn well aware of that Nezu knew who's it could've been and what was the purpose behind it but refused to share. There were so many things that rat didn't let pros know and he was in his office dropping all of that on a student right now. Could Aizawa not be trusted with that information? Or any other teacher for that matter? Was the traitor really one of his students? Was that why he wasn't being told anything? But didn't that mean that he should be the first person to know? It was his class for goodness' sake. If Nezu could tell one of his students then why not him?

And why Bakugou of all people?

Wait—

"You good there? You look kind of pale." Vlad King asked the raven haired man, the voices of the students faded away for the underground hero as he blankly stared ahead. When he didn't get a reply out of Aizawa, Vlad King asked again, "Aizawa, is everything okay? Did you...?" Then in a quieter voice, "Did you find out who it is?"

That did it. Aizawa ran.

He didn't reply nor give any warning. He didn't say anything to his coworker, he just ran outside of the 1-B dorms. Vlad King's yells were forgotten behind him as he sprinted as fast as he could towards the main campus not really caring about anything or anyone in his way. If he pushed a student or two out of his way or caused someone to stumble and drop some papers, he didn't care. He only skidded to a halt once he arrived at hallway where Recovery Girl's office was located.

Because Nezu told Bakugou. He told the one person who was most likely to hunt the traitor immediately after knowing but he had been gone for a while now and he hadn't returned at all which meant that he didn't immediately go after the traitor which meant the traitor wasn't just 'someone'. It was someone the ash blonde knew personally. Aizawa felt the need to repeat the fact that Team Green was a mistake and the reason it was one were the two stupid idiots Aizawa had somehow dubbed as the twin stars of 1-A.

Bakugou and Midoriya were both not present in the interrogation session and for whatever obviously different reasons that might have been, no one could convince the raven haired man that they weren't connected to the roots of the whole problem.

Aizawa knew he was right the moment his eyes fell upon a very disheveled All Might looking through every room in the hallway when he should've been glued to a certain green head's bedside.

The retired hero met Aizawa's gaze and immediately blurted out, "Midoriya's gone..." There was no other explanation needed and the raven haired man ran for the security room, taking the other with him as he did.

He hoped Midoriya was just a victim.

Oh, how wrong he was.

~O~

"Caught me red handed now, didn't you... Kacchan," The green haired boy didn't make another move. Whatever he was going for, wherever he was aiming to run, after seeing the ash blonde, it looked as if the boy had truly given up on that.

Bakugou, on the other hand, didn't quite know how to feel about this entire situation. It was for sure a tough spot. Midoriya was the last person one could have expected to be the UA traitor but here they were. The boy had already attempted killing himself once before, the ash blonde had no doubts he was running away to finish the job and this big game of betrayal once and for all. And that was why he was there, why Nezu told him everything about the traitor, he had to stop the other one before it was too late.

"You idiot..." Bakugou started, not really knowing how else to keep the other boy in front of him, "Did you really think killing yourself would put you out of his control? For fuck's sake, that bastard could easily have a revival quirk for you or do you not really know how Nomus are made?"

"Huh? So, you already know that much. Good... I almost gave up on dropping hints," Midoriya weakly chuckled.

"It is not a joke, Deku." The ruby eyed boy retorted, "How the fuck did you escape anyway? Wasn't All Might watching over you or some shit?"

A small smoke spread across the boy's face as he replied, "Yeah, he was... I realized I couldn't stay longer when I fully gained consciousness a few hours ago and he wasn't just going to let me go... I then pretended to 'accidentally' break a glass and cut my hand so he could go get Recovery Girl," The boy lifted up his left hand to show it bleeding profusely through shallow cuts, "I jumped out of the window as soon as he went out."

The ash blonde gritted his teeth at the sight of the blood but decided to keep quiet about it for now. If Midoriya could stab himself multiple times then this must be nothing for him — only for him though, for Bakugou and everyone else to know about this later, it seemed that the green head's appointment with Hound Dog was now long overdue. It wasn't long before Bakugou found Midoriya dragging his feet backwards slowly, he was trying to run. Shit, okay, what should he do to stop him. He couldn't just manhandle him back to the infirmary, the green head was surely going to fight back and that would definitely lead to him opening his wounds or breaking a bone. So, fighting was off the table. What else should he do? Talk to him, change the subject, ask him more about this whole mess, "Hmph, clearly your dumb ass doesn't even know how or where to stab and you just jumped out a window like that?"

Whatever energy was left in the green haired boy was used in a futile attempt to look and sound offended, "I told you it's difficult when your hands are shattered! They keep trembling, Kacchan. I really can't help it!"

"Doesn't explain the cuts on your back." Unamused, the ash blonde rolled his eyes.

Midoriya stammered upon hearing that, "Ah... Well... Well, um you can say All For One didn't— He didn't really want me to end it like that so he tried to interfere... Although, his control wasn't as strong as before and I still managed to stab myself a good few times. I assume it looked convincing enough that I didn't do it? I wasn't really going for that... But that's how it ended up anyway."

Bakugou was quiet and calm unlike how the green head had expected him to act. The ruby eyed boy ran a hand down his face, "How did he even get to you? He's imprisoned, isn't he? Does it have something to do with One For All or is it a completely different quirk that those Tartarus idiots didn't catch him using?"

"I... I don't know, honestly..." Those were genuine questions Midoriya had asked himself before too, but he hadn't had the chance to analyze it properly. He couldn't get the answers he wanted in those small moments of consciousness. But now that he felt the control wearing off, maybe... He could delve deeper into this whole mess to find the answer, right?

"And what are you planning to do now?" Bakugou asked, snapping the boy out of his thoughts, "Why the hell couldn't you 'stay longer', Deku?" That was stupid question to which the ash blonde knew many alternate answers to already but at least Midoriya seemed to consider a little longer, even if it was just to reply to his rival. But that was a good thing because he needed to keep this idiot from running away and this was fortunately working.

"I guess... I guess— Ah, my memory isn't very clear but I believe he was going to get into my head again soon so I-I thought... Shit— I thought I should just get away from everyone before I end up hurting someone." Midoriya's voice cracked with the last words, the boy refused to meet Bakugou's gaze as he stood there fidgeting with the hem of his bloodied shirt.

"And what were you going to do stop yourself? He can control you. He can get back here to hurt whoever he pleases in your body, how were you planning to stop that from happening?" The green head's crooked fingers stopped fidgeting but instead settled on clutching the piece of clothing he was wearing. Midoriya didn't reply nor look up at his childhood friend. The ash blonde only growled, "Don't stay quiet, I fucking know just staying away from everyone wasn't your plan. What were you going to do, Deku?"

"I..." Midoriya started, sounding quite unsure of himself as he said, "I-I have a way. I can stop it. I can stop him."

"How?" Bakugou didn't sound satisfied with that answer of his.

"If you would just—"

"Deku, what the fuck was your plan?"

"I can't... I can't tell you— You'll—" Midoriya's hands started shaking and those crooked fingers began fidgeting again, moving on from the hem of the shirt to find something else to hold on to tightly. In the end, they could only grasp at the anxious boy's forearms.

"Try to stop you because the chances of this plan ending up in you dying are a hundred out of hundred?"

"Wha... N-No," The green haired boy slowly looked up, panic evident in his emerald eyes, "N-No... No. No no, you've got it all wrong! I wasn't going to do anything... Reckless? Reckless... Yeah... I wasn't... Trying to be that..."

"Just spit it out already, Deku. What were you trying to do?"

"I..." Midoriya trailed off and it was very clear to the ash blonde that he didn't have any other idea, he was definitely just going to finish his job and kill himself once he got away from prying eyes, "I-I just—!"

"Bakugou!"

Aizawa's voice interrupted the trembling boy from beneath. Both boys turned to look in the direction of their homeroom teacher's voice to find the man running up to them with a certain retired blonde following suit. That was... That was good. Perfect even. Bakugou managed to stop Midoriya long enough for their teachers to arrive. He didn't need the nerd to word his plan, he knew it anyway. Besides, All Might and Aizawa were better suited to talk the green head out of it, they would definitely look for a different way to get him out of this mess. It was okay, it was fine. Midoriya wasn't going to kill himself anymore.

Once the two teachers had gotten up to the same level as them, both their eyes fell on the green haired infirmary escapee who looked positively like a corpse. It was his trembling limbs that that gave away the fact that he was indeed not a corpse just yet thankfully. Although it didn't stop Aizawa from blurting out, "What the hell, Problem Child?" And honestly, who blamed him, "Just what were you thinking, running away from the infirmary with all those injuries? You too, Bakugou, I need an explanation. A proper one."

The ash blonde just mumbled a, "Whatever, tch," and turned away while the other boy just stood there weakly staring into nothingness before he uttered a quiet, "S-Sorry..."

"Can't really keep my eyes off you for three seconds, can I?" All Might gently rested his hand on the boy's uninjured shoulder as he heaved out a heavy sigh, "You really scared us back there, my boy. Especially with everything going on,"

"With everything... What do you mean— Y-You know?" The previously unfocused boy looked up at his mentor with a confused expression. The man could have meant anything, he could've been talking about the training exercise or how Midoriya was injured but by the way he said those words... It felt as if he knew that his own successor was the traitor they had been trying to catch.

"We went to check the cameras to find you but apparently Nezu beat us to it." Aizawa explained, "He filled us in on the way... You should've just told us, Midoriya. Why on earth didn't you, it wasn't something you could solve by randomly stabbing yourself, kid."

"I-I'm sorry... I know that was— that was stupid but I just couldn't—" The boy was cut off by a sudden shiver that ran down his spine. It was growing colder and his injuries weren't having it apparently. Good for him, the others noticed his discomfort and offered to take the discussion somewhere else.

"Come on now, this is no place to discuss this. The last thing we want is for you to catch a cold on top of all this," All Might suggested, "Plus, I'm pretty sure Recovery Girl should be back in the infirmary to look over both of you if there are any other injuries, hopefully not but it's still better to check."

"Oh no... She must be very angry with me after that," The green haired boy realized, horrified, "Can't we g-go to the dorms or something?"

"Sorry, Problem Child. She will beat all four of ours asses if we did that."

"Aw..."

"I can't believe you're more scared of that old woman than a multiple quirked bastard controlling you, damn nerd."

Midoriya only pouted in reply.

Shinsou unintentionally overheard some stuff.

~O~

The rest went as smooth as it could. Thankfully, no one else was told about Midoriya being the traitor or All For One controlling him — Nezu handled that with ease. Afterwards they began discussing how should they permanently break Midoriya out of it so everything didn't need to happen one more time. Nezu suggested that they just keep an eye out for the boy if something was to happen again for they couldn't pinpoint exactly what let the villain control the boy. It didn't help that Midoriya himself did not have any solid memories to base something on.

They continued the exercise, stopping it would only lead to more questions.

The weekend arrived fast and Class-1-A gathered around Ground Beta to end the exercise by submitting there final culprit — they did have a faux traitor to catch too after all.

"Shouta Aizawa," All twenty of them said collectively with absolute finality.

All Might hid his wheeze under a bloody wet cough while the said underground hero stared at his students, baffled the man asked, "I beg your pardon?"

"Beg all you want, Mr. UA traitor," Todoroki was surprisingly very into the whole thing, "We're about to expose you so hard."

Aizawa didn't get a chance to say anything before the storm came.

"Mr. Aizawa you were the one to tell us about the hunt in the first place, which okay, you are our homeroom teacher so that makes sense but then you worded some stuff that made you a prime suspect in all our books. You said that the traitor could be anyone and went on and gave examples — examples which consisted of literally everyone except you and Nezu. Yes, you said 'teachers' in general but to us, sir, you are a 'homeroom teacher'. So, that was your first slip up." Uraraka explained and good lord, she sounded so confident.

"Secondly," Sero took it from there, "You said that the traitor had already been given a script. Now, what does that imply? Who gave the traitor a script? You, of course. So nonchalant in saying 'if its not you then find out who it is,' like we don't see what you're trying to do there, Mr. Aizawa."

"If I may add," Oh no, Yaoyorozu too, "Where you said it could be anyone and might have any number of accomplices, you also dropped a hint that they preferred to work alone. At least be subtle, sir. You blew your own cover with that one. Who else is supposed to fit that if not an underground hero himself?"

"You were also very collected when the severed appendage appeared. While All Might and every other teacher seemed to worry where that came from, you didn't," Iida's tone was so accusing, the boy was surely just acting the part for training, "Not to mention you're a very capable and extraordinary underground hero. If anyone can stay hidden from the entire UA faculty while carrying out traitorous plans its you." Aizawa found Midoriya and Bakugou snickering in the back, the real traitors. The raven haired man was so lucky Present Mic wasn't here.

"And last but not the least," Oh great, Kaminari had evidence too, just how suspicious was Aizawa acting for it to come to this, "You didn't tell us about the real traitor."

"What?"

"No! Nothing!" Ashido flailed her arms in denial and then turned to the electric blonde, "Kaminari, you idiot! We weren't supposed to tell him that!"

"You knew? Oh god..." All Might gasped.

"Hey! That's not as bad as Mr. Aizawa being the faux traitor! Plus, you suspected it was one of us. That hurts, you know. Class-1-A is a lot of things but rats ain't it." The pink skinned girl defended.

Hagakure added, "And even if one of us was, we'd all just join them. Came up with that last night."

"So true, ribbit."

"So, in conclusion," Kirishima ended with, "Mr. Aizawa, you are found guilty. And unmanly."

"Congratulations, you're all wrong. It was Shinsou." Aizawa spoke up, ready to escape whatever shit show this was. He was so going to sleep for a long long time after this.

"Eh, close enough." Todoroki deadpanned as he wrote something down in a notebook. Aizawa didn't want to know what it was.

~O~

Later, past midnight, Midoriya walked out of the dorms avoiding all cameras and prying eyes.

With his hands in his pockets, the boy took quiet and calculated steps as he made his way deep into the forest surrounding the campus.

He stopped at a specific spot under the moonlight, his expression unreadable as he waited in the wind. His injuries didn't hurt anymore and the cold wasn't a concern for him.

Soon enough, a dark shadow swirled open and engulfed him at once, the boy was gone before one could even blink. In the next moment, however, the green haired boy was somewhere else, somewhere he hadn't been before. It was a lab of sorts, filed with tubes and pipes left and right. Uncompleted Nomus and a big screen by which a somewhat familiar old doctor rested in a chair. As the boy stepped closer to him, the light of the screen illuminated his face — his eyes blank, lacking their usual bright green.

"We've been waiting, Izuku Midoriya."

Why you may ask?

Well, because he was the traitor. As simple as that.