When the night fell, a few of our young heroes-in-training had gone for a walk in a new location: a small forest not far from UA grounds. They were allowed to go wherever they wanted since there was no adult supervision, but they still had to make it out alive by midnight. Hence, Tenya Iida suggested that they regroup on the location of a giant, white pole.
Midoriya, Mina and Yuga Aoyama went off with each other. While the sky was still well-lit, even more so with a full moon in the air, the former had brought a flashlight along with him because, you never know what happens out there.
'I don't know if you know this, but this is frightening,' said Aoyama, trying not to shake. 'Are you sure there are no scary creatures out to get us?'
'Are you sure you haven't been watching enough scary movies?' asked Mina. 'They must be getting to your head already.'
'I have watched enough scary movies and I have never flinched when confronted-'
'That's bullshit and you know it.'
'Can both of you calm down?' Midoriya reprimanded. 'I'm trying to focus. If we stay out here any longer, we'll find ourselves behind everyone.'
'Behind everyone? That depends, how long have we been out here?'
'I don't know, Ashido. What I do know is that we've got 50 minutes to midnight. This gives us enough time to walk around the entire place and if we're lucky, we'll be out in about 5 minutes.'
'Are you sure you're not lying, mon ami? I did not tag along with you, just so you could use me as an emergency flare.'
Midoriya checked his phone.
'Not lying, Aoyama. We should be alright.'
A considerable amount of time had passed, and the kids were feeling all sorts of emotion. Aoyama was looking even more frightened, Midoriya was looking bored and tired, and Mina was starting to panic.
'We've been walking for hours,' said Midoriya, sounding dazed and confused. 'This forest is… vaster than I thought.'
'I stand by what I said about the scary creatures not existing, but what if a strange creature of the night really does come for us?' Mina asked, holding onto him.
'We're heroes-in-training; we'll be ready to attack. The big question is, where are we?'
'What do you mean, "where are we?" We're in a giant forest for crying out loud.'
'But Iida said we should meet where the giant pole is. I don't see anything, all I see are trees. If anything, I'm starting to think we may have gone off-track.'
'Off-track?' yelped Aoyama. 'Check your phones, mes amis ! Surely Google Maps will get us out of here!'
'Sorry Aoyama, but my phone's on low battery,' said Midoriya. 'At least Ashi- I mean, Mina brought hers along.'
'Yeah, about that,' she started to speak. 'I left my phone back in my room. I thought I wouldn't need it for a boring walk.'
'So we're lost,' said Midoriya. 'Great.'
'Wow Midoriya,' said Mina. 'I never knew you had no sense of direction.'
'If you want to blame this on me, now's not the time. We need to think up a way we can get out of here.'
'And how are you gonna do that? Suggest that we walk around in circles?'
Midoriya was going to tell her this wouldn't be the case, but he took a more thoughtful position.
'You know, that doesn't sound so bad when you think about it,' he said, his interest piqued. 'See that thick tree over there? We turn left, walk for 5 minutes, turn left again, walk for another 5 minutes, and so on. When we return to that tree, we'll walk for 7 minutes and then we…'
'Are you sure we won't get lost again?' asked Aoyama. 'We're already stuck in the middle of nowhere as it is, so how do you expect us to rely on instinct? I thought you were the strongest one in our class.'
'Yes, but I've already been training enough tonight and I'm trying to keep my quirk in check.'
'That's not a good excuse, and you know it.'
'Mina, if I try jumping up, chances are that I'll probably hit my head on a branch or something.'
'I don't see any branches or leaves, it's all open up here. You had one job, Midoriya. One damn job!'
Sure enough, Midoriya did use Full Cowl to leap up in the air. He couldn't see any pole.
'The pole isn't large enough,' he addressed his team. 'I guess we'll have to take my approach.'
'Fine,' groaned Mina. 'But if we're the last ones, I'll start believing you're cursed.'
'I guess that means we're cursed as well,' said Aoyama.
As expected, Midoriya's strategy took its sweet time. Despite walking laps, gradually prolonging the distance they had walked, the kids were hardly getting anywhere. It didn't help that they only had less than 20 minutes to midnight left. Sure enough, Mina was able to make out a noticeably large ruler and led the boys towards it.
'Wait a minute,' Mina said as soon as they were out of the woods. 'This isn't a ruler. It's that pole Iida was talking about.'
'Then how come we're the only ones here?' asked Midoriya. 'No Iida, no Kaminari, no Uraraka.'
'Are you implying they got lost as well? I guess that makes us even.'
Little did Midoriya, Mina and Aoyama know that they were the first ones out. Sure enough, the rest of the group managed to make it out on time. Wherever they got lost too and what they did in the woods is another story for another day.