HOUDINI

Aizawa tapped his foot and checked his watch. A niggling part of his brain whispered that Hagakure was in the room, barely holding back her laughter at his lack of awareness, but he had swept the room with his scarf when he had arrived, and the door had remained firmly shut since then. The roof had no rafters to hide in, the floor and walls were solid concrete, and the only accessory was the test dummy awaiting Hagakure's arrival.

Aizawa resisted the urge to call out. Instead, he swept the room with his Quirk. With the room still empty, Aizawa opened the door, swept his scarf across the frame, and locked it behind him.

"Has anyone seen Hagakure?" he asked Iida.

Iida looked horrified. "It appears I have been most remiss in my duties as a valued leader of our class! One of my own classmates, missing. Call the heroes!"

"I'm a hero."

Iida blinked. "Then call more!"

Aizawa checked her room. "Hagakure, you can't put this off forever."

He poked his head in the cafeteria. "Every hero needs a Hero Move, even the ones no one ever sees."

He crawled into a classroom in his sleeping bag. "Take your failing grade on the chin. No matter how bad it is, you can't do worse than Kaminari."

Hauling himself up a flagpole by his scarf, Aizawa peered over the school's roof. "You can't hide forever. I will find you, and I will fail you."

He poked his head inside the washing machine. "Even I have a Hero Move, and my Quirk is looking at people until their Quirks give up."

He opened up Izuku's mouth and peered inside. "Don't make me go to Nezu. I will find a way to give you negative points."

The thermal imaging goggles he borrowed from Hatsume exploded when he looked at the sun by accident, his scarf had a collection of twigs, leaves, and a bird's nest from all the trees he checked, and seven new TikToks went viral as students posted memes of his search. Tired, cranky, and down a pair of eyeballs, Aizawa stomped into Nezu's office and said, "Hagakure, where."

"Aren't you supposed to be watching Hagakure's Hero Move? It's quite something, I'll tell you that."

Aizawa bolted back to the exam room. The door was still locked. He opened it and saw the training dummy hanging from the ceiling by a rope, tied, gagged, and blindfolded. Pinned to its chest was a note that said, "Hero Move: Houdini Trick Capture. P.S. I was here the whole time."

Aizawa stared at every inch of the room, until paint peeled and stone crumbled under the weight of his gaze, but Hagakure still eluded him. With a screech of raw fury, Aizawa stormed out and brewed a giant pot of coffee.

Once Aizawa left, Hakakure unzipped the dummy's suit. She nimbly contorted herself out of the ropes binding her and landed on her feet. She held up gloved hands and shouted, "Ta-da!"

500

Disappearing acts are so much easier to pull off when you're always invisible.