Quirkless Volleyball (Adopted)

Chapter 14

Iida was sore in his legs, which were still moving as he sprinted around the woods and around the training camp. His breath was heavy and his arms felt like rubber, almost not willing to move. But he still kept going, after all, this was all beneficial to his becoming a hero, just like Tensei. 

Tensei, who was now bedridden, unable to use his legs. 

His teeth grit as he continued. Although Iida did regret trying to find the Hero Killer by himself, he suspected that if he were allowed to, he'd do it again. 

The loop around the woods was now almost complete. After that, he would need to do another loop around the training camp area where most of the class was, then he'd need to do a shorter lap around another part of the woods to finish his 10k. Ten minutes of rest, and then Iida would be back at it, pushing his quirk to the limits. He rounded the corner, barely avoiding hitting his teacher. 

"Sorry, Aizawa-sensei!" he quickly yelled, not being able to stop. It was a direct order to not stop, and he didn't hit him, just kicked up some dust. Still, Iida felt a small amount of guilt. 

Running around the building, he spotted his teacher once more, who was going over to Tiger. Aizawa said a few words before Tiger nodded and Midoriya followed Aizawa towards the building. Iida furrowed his forehead as he watched them, only to remember that he had to turn soon. Looking back forward, he narrowly missed a patch of trees and his path. Iida adjusted his course. 

Whatever Aizawa had to do with Midoriya was a mystery that Iida wanted to crack, but now wasn't the time. He continued to move at a fast pace towards the finish line.

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Iida was a very observant person. He could tell when something was needed and when it was not. That is, when his logical side wasn't taken over by his emotions, like with the Hero Killer Incident. Why did everything have to involve Stain?

But this was different. There was nothing to provoke him. And Iida was very sure that Midoriya was nowhere there. 

Although he had taken three minutes to get to the finish line, took a ten minute break, and five minutes to get here, whatever Midoriya had to do in the building certainly shouldn't take this long. But, if anything, Midoriya could be taken a rest. Perhaps Midoriya was injured. 

However, Iida thought, Midoriya was perfectly fine when Aizawa pulled him out. Not only that, but with Midoriya's attitude, it was impossible for him to request a break, out of all things. He'd push through it, if training with him shown anything. For heaven's sake, he broke all the fingers in his hand just to prove a point to Todoroki, what the point was, Iida had no idea. But it must've been something important for him to do that and to make Todoroki use his fire.

Aizawa was still there, Iida noticed, watching the others train, occasionally giving advice to those and encouraging them, if encouraging included 'Hurry up, make yourself better', or 'Let's go, you want to be heroes, right?' and the like. And Iida supposed that was encouragement, in an Aizawa-sensei way. The man meant well for them. 

And so, Iida turned for his third lap to finish his 5k.

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At this point, Iida was even more concerned. Midoriya was still not found anywhere, since he had first disappeared into that building with Aizawa. How had anyone not noticed? It was around 40 or so minutes since he left! 

Midoriya certainly wouldn't stop this long if everyone else was still training, he'd feel guilty and jump in as well. How did he know this? Iida was friends with him, of course, not only that, but it actually happened once! His dedication to become a hero was inspiring!

So one could assume that Midoriya was training inside, perhaps? What kind of training would have him train inside the building, where many things could go wrong? They were working on their quirks after all, and Midoriya's quirk inside a  building could go downhill very quickly. 

But if he wasn't inside, where was he? Iida slowed down for several seconds before realizing it. Picking his speed back up, he continued his run, a frown still present on his face. 

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This was ridiculous, Iida thought in his head. He was doing his third 5k after the one where he saw Midoriya and Aizawa together. 

Almost one hour. 

Usually, Iida wouldn't notice this, the only reason this time was that he almost ran over Aizawa during that one lap. 

Now that Iida thought about it, was this related to whatever he did after school? Midoriya did have a teleporting friend after all, surely it must be somewhat easy for that friend to do this. 

But, they'd have to have a location, wouldn't they? In order to create the portal, they'd have to know where the portal would be located. Did Midoriya tell them the secret location of the training camp?

Actually, that should be impossible. Iida scoffed at that idea. It was a secret location, for heaven's sake, meaning that both the outside world and the students didn't know where it would be located. Only the teachers knew, after all.

And that pointed all the suspicion to Aizawa-sensei. But that couldn't be the answer, he was the teacher, the one who risked his life to save them during the USJ, the one who had their back. He refused to believe it.

If he couldn't figure out how the portal was there, he'd figure out why. With that said, Iida was back to square one, wondering where Midoriya was. He sighed, or at least attempted to as he ran. 

Midoriya, despite being one of his best friends, was a mystery that Iida could not understand. He could easily tell when he was out of loop, but for Iida to not know anything about Midoriya outside of school was disappointing. 

Was the Midoriya he knew the same as the real Midoriya? Or was there nothing to worry about? All that Iida knew was that he had to be better.

Both as a hero and as a friend.