[SHIT. Ochako squeaks, turns tail, and runs off immediately, fiddling with her comm to set her own timer and taking off towards the main living area. She's already formulating a few ideas, but whether or not it'll work on him, well...]
[aizawa hops up onto a crate to perch, loosening up his arms and shoulders with a little shake. he's hoping she'll opt for full evasion instead of trying to immobilize him, though he'll be pleasantly surprised if she manages it.
rather, he's hoping that if nothing else, this lesson shows her what she can and can't do against an enemy on the ship. raider attacks aren't the only thing to worry about; despite ochako's promises of a largely peaceful fleet, aizawa has no way of being certain that there won't one day be some well-meaning but dangerously unstable individual who decides that a crewmate is better off dead than a slave to the atroma.
her minute's up.
aizawa slips down from the crate and begins his near-silent stalk throughout the ship.]
[Ochako has never been the one to excel in her class- she's been mostly middleground across the board, and she's admitted both to herself and to others that she's relied too much on her friends to get her where she's at. It's part of why she pushed herself in the fight against Bakugou, why she'd trained with Gunhead instead of a rescue placement like she'd truly wanted. Forcing herself beyond her comfort zone, working on her own without her reliable support system- this training is more of what she knows she needs.
She gives it a genuine effort. She's gone past the kitchen, discarding first one shoe at the crossroads of one corridor, then the other at a different split, in an attempt to move silently and distract. She'd had a particular cubby hole in mind, out of place and hard to see unless you know where to look, but when she gets there... crap, Max filled it with rations since the last time she checked it. Now she'll have to figure out a new spot...]
[aizawa stops for a moment at the first shoe, but barely pauses at the other. smart. but if he knows his student, she's likely to head for a surefire space she knows is advantageous to her. that's her method back home too; focus in a short-term goal and then barrel toward it at full strength.
it doesn't change his own strategy. he's not hunting her specifically, after all; he's sweeping the ship. so he begins at one end and proceeds to check every room he can enter, every vent, every crevice he thinks she might be able to fit into. he doesn't bother keeping too quiet, either; the idea here is to see how quiet she can be.]
[The one good thing about her power is that she can be plenty quiet- making herself even lighter on her feet, on top of removing her shoes to get rid of her footsteps as much as possible. And he's right on the mark as far as vents and crevices go- on her way back from sneaking away from the foiled cubby hole, she notices an unlatched ventilation shaft near the hall's ceiling. It's hard to get to - it takes a bit of tentative floating, and she has to fight back the dry heaves - and it's a little noisy, climbing into it, but once she's deep enough into the shaft, she's pretty sure he can't reach her. Now she just has to stay quiet for twenty minutes!
...It's dusty in here. Should they be cleaning these? They should probably be cleaning these. Crap, that's her job.
[she's pretty good at keeping quiet at least; there's plenty of ambient sound on the ship anyway, so aizawa has no clues on where she could've gone and a quick search of all the accessible rooms reveals she's not just hiding somewhere obvious, which he didn't expect. aizawa heads over to the armory, picks up one of the small laser-oriented handguns available for passenger use and disables the firing mechanism, popping out the battery charge while he's at it.
then he goes looking.
the first few vents and maintenance tunnels he checks are empty, but then he spies a cover slightly off-kilter. hm.
well, it's doubtful she can go far, so instead of bothering with stealth just marches over, yanks the vent cover off and taps the butt of the pistol against the edge.]
Bang bang, [he intones before peering into the vent to see if she's actually- yup. there she is.]
[She lets out a quiet shriek as the panel is yanked off, hands quickly clapping over her mouth, but it's too late. He's definitely spotted her, if he didn't hear that. Crap, she can't even try to escape like this. ]
[gives her a mildly annoyed look before backing up so she can crawl out.] I passed by this vent multiple times. Tell me you weren't in there the whole time.
You boxed yourself in. [SIGH] I did tell you that your smaller size was an advantage, but I didn't mean you should use it to cram yourself into an inescapable place. The idea was for you to use the space for maneuverability in case of contact.
Nothing in particular. I'd planned on checking the vents from the start. [he flips the pistol in his hand and holds it out to her grip-first.] Also, assume anyone invading this ship will be armed. The armory has these available for all crew; it'd be simple for an intruder to get one.
[he jerks his head back toward the hall.] C'mon. We're trying again.
[Oh god, now she has to show what she learned. Ochako hastily jumps back to attention, following him anxiously, her mind already racing. A better hiding spot... she needs a better hiding spot...!]
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[She gives that another thinky-think.]
Do I get a head start before you go looking? And are Quirks allowed?
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rather, he's hoping that if nothing else, this lesson shows her what she can and can't do against an enemy on the ship. raider attacks aren't the only thing to worry about; despite ochako's promises of a largely peaceful fleet, aizawa has no way of being certain that there won't one day be some well-meaning but dangerously unstable individual who decides that a crewmate is better off dead than a slave to the atroma.
her minute's up.
aizawa slips down from the crate and begins his near-silent stalk throughout the ship.]
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She gives it a genuine effort. She's gone past the kitchen, discarding first one shoe at the crossroads of one corridor, then the other at a different split, in an attempt to move silently and distract. She'd had a particular cubby hole in mind, out of place and hard to see unless you know where to look, but when she gets there... crap, Max filled it with rations since the last time she checked it. Now she'll have to figure out a new spot...]
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it doesn't change his own strategy. he's not hunting her specifically, after all; he's sweeping the ship. so he begins at one end and proceeds to check every room he can enter, every vent, every crevice he thinks she might be able to fit into. he doesn't bother keeping too quiet, either; the idea here is to see how quiet she can be.]
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...It's dusty in here. Should they be cleaning these? They should probably be cleaning these. Crap, that's her job.
Don't sneeze, don't sneeze...!]
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then he goes looking.
the first few vents and maintenance tunnels he checks are empty, but then he spies a cover slightly off-kilter. hm.
well, it's doubtful she can go far, so instead of bothering with stealth just marches over, yanks the vent cover off and taps the butt of the pistol against the edge.]
Bang bang, [he intones before peering into the vent to see if she's actually- yup. there she is.]
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...Aww, I thought I was gonna make it...
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Um... most of it, I guess? At least half. It wasn't what I had in mind at first, so I had to find it in a hurry.
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Let's hear your self-assessment. What do you think you did well, what would you change?
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[Okay, okay, she'll take this seriously. Let's see...]
Um... well, I didn't panic when my first spot was full... but I should've had a few ideas to start with? Ah... so... oh! ...no...
[THINKING.... THINK....ING....!! what would Deku or Yaoyorozu say...]
...the vent wasn't too good for escaping once you caught me, huh.
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[Also: there were spiders.
It's impossible not to be disappointed, but he doesn't look like he's about to fail her, so that's nice.]
What gave me away?
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[he jerks his head back toward the hall.] C'mon. We're trying again.
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Y-yes sir!