[OP: "Lapis Lazuli"-- The Oh Hellos]

Dabi wasn't expecting Mabui to have a good answer... Apparently, he'd gotten her full arsenal of defenses this time.

He remembered Hinata's advice... He didn't want to try to, but he was curious to see if it would yield any results.

Strangely, Mabui didn't sound nearly as angry at his dislike of Cloud as she did that it was directed at her, which didn't make much sense to him.

Unless she thought it was one and the same, which it could have been. But that was hardly fair, as the others had pointed out him...

"It's not that I think Cloud is completely bad," he said aloud, carefully.

She did look surprised at least.

"Some people say that you're more loyal to each other than the other Villages are," he went on. "Which, in of itself, might be...an okay thing. Just not when it's taken as okay to do things to other people that shouldn't be done. Maybe I'm not a saint, but I had to own up to that way of things being wrong... Maybe I did find this more difficult because of the Hyugas. I guess the other Villages, I didn't have any way to confront them for what they did, so I could pretend it didn't happen...other than Uchiha himself anyway, and he's...complicated. I never said I handled this kind of thing well. I used to be crazy because of how much I couldn't work through this stuff...and you're unnerving when you act like none of it matters. I guess that's the ninja way, but I've never been able to unsee anything just for trying to."

He stopped.

He didn't know why he'd admitted that to her... He hadn't meant to go into all that.

But she'd just kept looking at him quietly, with those big, serious eyes, and he'd had a hard time stopping.

And Mabui didn't rush to say anything snippy this time.

She was thinking that had sounded kind of real, not like an excuse.

Finally, she answered.

"No Village is without its flaws--this much is fact for anywhere--or its sins. But, acknowledging that is not the same as hating it, at least not for people who inhabit them. Don't you have the same loyalty for your own home?"

"No," Dabi said offhandedly. "Not for years. They burned that bridge...and if I did, it would be only for the innocent ones."

"That's an odd idea of loyalty, to be only to those who are innocent... I wonder who qualifies as innocent in your book, then."

"Oh, in our book no one--" Dabi realized he'd just walked into a trap all on his own, since she'd clearly not been being literal.

Mabui just looked at him like he was an idiot. Or just a hypocrite maybe.

"Then you pick and choose who you view as worthy arbitrarily?"

"No, it's just..." Dabi was struggling here. "It's not like that. People can be corrupt through and through."

"Well, if a person can be, though I think that would be few people, I doubt that an entire Village can be," Mabui replied tightly. "I protect Cloud because many people in it lead good, honest lives. And Lord Ay, despite what he's done to the other Villages, he puts us first. Whether it makes him a popular world leader or not, for us, that is the most important quality in a Kage. He would lose his other arm to save anyone in the Village without a second thought. From what I hear, Leaf is not so kind to its people."

"No, it's not." Dabi had no problem with this, since he had no loyalty to Leaf either. "None of 'em are. But Ay shouldn't get to demonize every else just for the sake of his own people either. And not kids."

"It has been many years," Mabui said. "Do you think all this is still the case?"

"If it was, you would still defend it. All of you would. That's the problem. This is not personal."

"It seems personal." Mabui folded her arms again. "And hypocritical. If this happened, what would I be able to do about it? What does it change anyway? Even if a Kage did do something horrendous, the Village still remains. A Kage can be replaced--can the Village?"

"And what Kage was ever replaced for being corrupt?" Dabi scoffed. "They get offed or die."

"What do you know about all of them? Just the bad? Or the good also?"

"Who decides good here, lady?" Dabi snorted. "I don't think you're all unbiased."

"Perhaps not... Are you?"

Pause.

"No..." Dabi finally admitted.

Mabui looked slightly smug here, but not for long. She didn't usually dwell on such feelings.

Dabi didn't often have this much trouble winning an argument except for Shine, usually. Mabui apparently could do pretty well when she actually tried to...or perhaps it was she'd by now heard enough of his speeches to know how to fight back.

A pity she didn't do that to the schmucks in her own Village then...

[Anyone notice how contradictory his way of perceiving her is? Like, she's annoying, but then she should stick up for herself more. Go figure...but Dabi's way of looking at almost everyone in canon is contradictory, so I guess he hasn't lost the habit of being at war with himself.]

"I do know right from wrong though," Dabi added.

"You admitted to doing the same thing not an hour ago," Mabui retorted.

"But, I knew it was wrong later."

"I suppose then, if we're going to come to that conclusion, we'll have to have time," Mabui said.

She thought that would make him angry, but instead Dabi looked at her hesitantly and then grinned in a sort of triumphant way.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was kinda admitting that I'm right," he said. "So...you think it's wrong already."

"Kidnapping children? I think everyone--" Mabui stopped at the realization that saying it would be incompatible with Cloud history. "I mean..."

"Nope, don't you even try to unsay that." Dabi looked at her like an irritating teacher would have. "Uh uh. You basically admitted it... Why is that so hard?"

"If I did admit it, it was hard for the same reason that you can't admit when you're overly critical," she fired back.

"Who said I thought I was?" Dabi frowned.

"What was the last 10 minutes about then?" Mabui replied. "It's not the first time you've attempted to backtrack when you think you've gone too far. I wish you would just not go so far to begin with."

"If you knew that, why did you act like you didn't?"

"Why do you act like you don't know you're being rude?"

"So...pettiness?" Dabi raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

"If that's petty... I considered it to be not wasting my time arguing." She frowned again.

"Same thing." Dabi rolled his eyes. "Wow..."

"I just don't know why you dislike me so much." Mabui said something she might not have intended to say either.

"I don't," Dabi said before thinking. It was his knee jerk reaction.

Oddly, once he said it, though, he realized it was true. That wasn't what bothered him...

She looked surprised again.

"I mean, compared to the other Cloud," Dabi corrected, but it wasn't convincing even to him. "Only because you can have a conversation about this crap at least, though you won't budge. But be real, with Sakura it wouldn't get further than a few seconds before she'd attack. I dunno if you can't attack or if you just don't."

Mabui got an odd gleam in her eye.

"While I wouldn't do this, you should probably realize that my jutsu would allow me to rip the internal organs out of your body, if I was as inclined as some in the Village are to take slight annoyances to that extreme."

She didn't usually say anything like that. Maybe her anger was making her more vulgar.

"I guess that answers our questions about how your power works." Dabi didn't seem put off. "That would be more intimidating. I'd lead with that the next time someone attacks you."

"No, doing that kind of thing was frowned upon by my clan. It pollutes the purity of the jutsu." Mabui lifted her chin. "It's possible, but not condoned. Those who resorted to it were treated coolly by the others."

"Interesting... A ninja clan who doesn't constantly use their jutsu to kill? Sounds a little hard to believe."

"Perhaps you don't know them as well as you think then," she shot back.

"Sounds more like an exception, not a rule."

"Sounds as if I've been that in more ways than one." Mabui tilted her head. "For whatever reason."

"You have no idea..." Dabi thought back to the war. "Hey, real question: do you like Team Zoe, or are you just doing this for the clout?"

"The clout? You mean to restore my standing?"

"Yes."

Mabui hesitated. "This is about the other day... My first loyalty is to Cloud, but I believe that gratitude is important... I respect that Team Zoe has been attempting to help me, even if you are not always successful about it. You all seem to be good people...most of you, anyway. I don't know that I think about what I 'like', it's just what's best for the Village, if I can. You seem like the better allies to have. Personally, I have no reason to resent you."

"Really? With all the heat you took for something we didn't even do on purpose?"

"Exactly...I can't blame you for it," Mabui said. "It would be perhaps easier if I could think there was some reason for it...but if there is not, that's all there is to it."

"Wow, someone who doesn't hold pretty grudges over things that weren't someone else's fault... Are you sure you're Cloud?"

"That's not amusing...if it was even meant to be."

"Maybe that was poorly timed," Dabi admitted reluctantly. "It's not that... Well, some of you are...decent...in your way. But I don't have to like you for that. I still think Cloud is messed up as much as the other Villages are."

"If you want to think that, I suppose it's up to you. I don't have to agree," Mabui said just as loftily. "And you went to all the others. Did you act like this in them also?"

"No...not as much," Dabi said. "I guess what pisses me off about Cloud is they're making all this out to be some big concession on their part. And you're involved now too. "

What? Concern for her? Not possible, Mabui thought.

Not that it didn't align with some of his previous actions and words, but...no...

"I was going to be involved no matter what," she observed wearily. "Being Ay's assistant."

Dabi shuffled. He was kind of lost in thought now, but he was thinking of the situation and how he would have felt if it were him--he had a pretty good idea, actually, based on his past.

"Doesn't it piss you off? The way they all just turned on you without any proof?" he said darkly.

Mabui winced.

She was on the point of denying it. No, it didn't bother her at all...

Certainly she wouldn't have told him yesterday even if it did, not with his smug attitude.

But...well, if he was serious...

"What good would it do if it did?" she hedged.

"You sound like Shine and Wally," Dabi snorted. "All we ever hear from them--'It doesn't help to get mad.' 'What good does taking it personally do?' It's not human, I think. Someone could stone them and they would still walk it off."

"Stone them?" Mabui said oddly. "I'm not sure how they could walk that off."

Dabi laughed before he realized she wasn't joking...and that he didn't think she was funny anyway...right?

"Oh, you're...serious?" he said. "No, they could walk that off. They did. Well, one did."

"What?" Mabui frowned in confusion.

But Dabi recalled he wasn't supposed to talk about that a second too late. "Forget it, not important."

"That sounded important."

"Well, it's none of your business anyway."

"Then why did you bring it up?"

"Nothing, just thinking out loud." Dabi shrugged defiantly. "Enough of this. Everyone's done looking by now. I just hope they found something so this wasn't a complete and utter waste of time."

He turned and walked away huffily just as if he was the one who was offended.

Mabui was puzzled by the sudden mood swing but smart enough to know Dabi had just let something else slip he wasn't supposed to--and that it might be important.

However, she didn't know what "stoned" meant. This was not a form of execution in the ninja world, unless it was by some special jutsu, so all she could assume was that it had to do with the Village of Stone.

The one that Tsunade was tight-lipped about.

What had happened there exactly?

[Wonder whether finding that out would be good or bad for Cloud at this point?]

* * *

The others had investigated the houses the same way and had gotten pretty much the same results.

In addition to finding the recording papers, they had only found some scuff marks and some faint chakra trails that led to the outside of the town, but they faded too much to trace after that.

On the recordings, they'd heard more screaming, more sounds of the girls, and a few boys, getting taken, and more threats from the captors. But, not a lot of helpful clues.

"I suppose if they knew to put the paper there, they knew not to say anything that would help us find them while they were in the room," Temari said.

"This whole thing is sick." Wally hated it. "Those poor kids. I could just find whoever did this and really lay into them, you know? I mean, I don't usually go that hard, but these creeps are the worst of the worst."

"And you've fought Darkseid," Shine remarked, but not with much humor.

"So have you. Tell me this isn't worse," Wally pointed out.

"It's worse," Shine shuddered.

"We have to find them," Shoto said.

"I want to," Gaara said. "But this hasn't told us much. The trail seems cold."

"Did it seem like Hanabi or Eichi figured out what's going on?" Ino asked, worried.

"I don't think they quite did," Momo said. "Should we tell them?"

"No." Hinata shook her head.

Both younger teens were by the town's square right now, refilling water bottles.

"I don't want Hanabi to know," Hinata said. "I'm not sure I want to know, but your reactions have made me at least guess."

"Worst case scenario is something unthinkable," Shine said.

"Best scenario is what then?" Dabi asked bitterly.

"They could have taken them just for experimentation," Sasuke said, as if he really thought this was better.

Everyone looked at him in either disgust or surprise.

"Yeah, that's what you would think was better," Suigetsu said, meanly.

"I guess, since he agreed to it willingly, that makes sense." Sakura was quite salty about it also.

"Hey," Shine reproved. "That is not kind. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves... I'm really not sure which is worse, actually. Both options can be lifelong problems, but...why even compare?"

"Both involve physical abuse, if you think about it," Kankuro said.

"Stop." Tenten flinched. "I don't want to talk about this. We just need to find them and rescue them, and that's it."

"We could try another village," Sai suggested. "Maybe they left evidence in one of the other ones."

"That is the only thing to do," Gaara agreed. "But it could take another day to go through all of them... We prepared for that, but how long will Lord Ay wait?"

"As long as it takes," Mabui spoke flatly. "In fact, the longer the better, I think. He'll still be planning."

"We all know Lord Ay is just using this to stall for time," Wally said. "No need to pretend otherwise."

"He is?" Karui looked up.

"The distance seemed like the best way to prevent any more incidents while they try to decide what to do," Mabui said reluctantly. 

"Not sure what good it does to be out here," Suigetsu said. "Like the village will magically not hate us if we're gone for a few days."

"At least they can't attempt on our lives while we're gone," Karin said.

"But is this really safer?" Shoto said. "These people are clearly dangerous. I know we're immune to genjutsu, but you all aren't."

"What?" Karui said. "What do you mean? You're resistant?"

"No, immune," Shoto said.

"No one is completely immune." Karui folded her arms. "Even if you're really resistant, there could be some trick to it to make it stronger."

"You've said that before." Mabui leaned on a stone wall. "You're immune."

Dabi looked down.

"We are immune," Shine said. "But only the 7 of us." She pointed at the hero team and Wally and herself. "Sasuke and Sakura are both highly resistant. The others may have grown more resistant since we started this. I think Ino is too."

Ino nodded.

"But only we are immune," Shine said. "At least, so far we have been totally immune, except for when there were chemicals involved. It's true enough we could be affected by that, but then, I doubt whatever it is is like a drug. Still, it was less strong on us than on ninja."

"Ninja? As if you're not one?" Karui said.

"Do you see headbands on us, sis? Didn't we say that before?" Camie gestured flippantly.

"I thought you just meant you were rogues," Karui said.

"We're no rogues," Shoto said. "We're just not ninjas... Why is this so difficult for everyone? Plenty of people in your Village don't actually work as ninjas."

"But they're from ninja Villages," Karui said. "And you all can fight. How can you not be ninjas?"

"Girl, that is so ninj-ist," Camie exclaimed. "Not right."

"The way you talk is not right," Karui said. "Seriously, can anyone actually understand her?"

"The worst  part of it is that eventually you start to," Sakura said. "It's creepy."

"I'm not creepy," Camie said. "What's creepy is this whole mess."

"Are you samurai then?" Karui pressed.

"You can only be two things, right?" Bakugo scoffed. "Freaking lame."

"We are getting off topic," Shine reminded them.

"Which is in poor taste with something so serious," Temari said.

"Duh, it's called copium," Camie said.

"What?" Karui said.

"She's right, the humor helps you deal with the stress," Wally agreed.

"Copium is code for humor?" Mabui was puzzled.

"Well...not exactly. I guess it can be code for anything," Camie said. "Whatever you do to cope. Like, that you can't stop doing. Like opium, but it's coping, so copium."

"What's opium?" Ino asked.

"Uh...nevermind," Camie winced.

"Is Sakura hitting people copium?" Sai leaned over to Camie to ask.

Camie snicked. "So yeah."

Sai made a note.

The team's bizarre-ness had been wearing on Karui before, but this situation was dialing it up to 90. She looked ready to blow a gasket.

The funny part was, half of Team Zoe didn't even notice the bizarre-ness anymore--they were so used to it. Those that did were barely even worried about how the Cloud perceived them.

"So we agree we need to move on then?" Shine said.

"Yes," Gaara refocused. 

So they headed back on the road to get to the next town.

* * *

The mood sombered once they had to walk again.

Everyone kept a close eye on Hanabi and Eichi, even though there was little chance a group this large would be attacked.

However, Mabui pointed out that it was also impossible to miss them, for any decent scout.

Temari told her that they'd relied on being more intimidating than stealthy thus far on the mission, which was not a very ninja way of thinking--but more akin to Cloud's strategy than it was to Sand's, admittedly, so Mabui found it less odd.

Dabi was lost in thought.

"This is bothering you?" Shine said to him, finally. "I know, it's pretty disturbing...or do you feel guilty?"

"Way to be subtle there," Dabi grumbled. "Well, maybe, but I was thinking of what I was talking to Dragon Lady about earlier."

"Mabui, you mean? You know that name really doesn't fit her. She's so mild most of the time."

"Ha," Dabi scoffed. "Not as mild as you think. Should have heard her go off... She sounded just like you, actually."

"I doubt anyone could do that, but, if she finally sapped, it's no surprise." Shine was brutal.

"Yeah, that was what it was like." Dabi didn't even sound mad. 

"You like sass, so I'm sure that's not what bothered you."

"No, what bugs me is this whole mission, while clearly it's a big deal, is nothing to Cloud but a way to distract us from their issues. And to keep her and Karui out of the range of their own Village." Dabi was disgusted. "It's messed up. And, with all that, they're still loyal to it. Ninjas make no sense."

"Perhaps not to us, but to them, I'm sure it makes sense," Shine said.

"You think as poorly of them as I do. Don't bulls--t me," Dabi snorted.

Wally gave him a warning look. "Let's keep it civil, Dabi."

"She knows what I mean," Dabi protested.

"Around the strangers, perhaps it's better to use more respectful language," Shine reminded him. "But yes, I know what you mean. Actually though, I think Mabui's situation has made it more clear to me why they are so loyal."

"They like abuse?" Dabi raised an eyebrow.

"Well, no...some of them might." Shine shrugged. "But I suppose it's exactly why we're tempted to just leave and not deal with this anymore...because we can. And they can't."

"Huh?" Dabi said.

"Surely you've seen this already," Shine said. "It's why most criminals never get out of crime. It's not the thrill of breaking the law, it's that law breakers tend to be as cult-ish as cults themselves. They don't let you leave. And the Villages are, more or less, one big cult around the ninja systems and the Kage, however they try to sugarcoat it. Simply put, even if they wanted to leave, they have nowhere to go. Until Gaara united the forces, you couldn't even visit a rival Village easily other than for exams without potentially causing a war... Even that could do it. And Cloud could even do that. Do you think any other Village would have taken a Cloud in if their own Village didn't even want them? Remember how important loyalty is to them. Even if they don't like Cloud, they'd still assume anyone who'd turn their back on their own Village was useless or worse. And then, the Villages tend to kill their deserters. You really can't leave. Not in disgrace. Neji squeaked by because Kakashi made it an official position and Mei allowed it. Same with the others. But we have the most generous bunch of Kages ever to rule at the same time right now... See, things line up in history, Touya, like I've told you before... Before this era, before this year, even, this would have been unthinkable. The Lord always sets up certain rulers to coincide with each other when something big needs to change...and I'm glad we're here to see it, but to retroactively go back and assume it was the same before now, well, that's foolish."

Dabi thought. "I guess you're right... They're stuck. But, they could still resent the Village."

"It's a survival tactic not to dwell too much on the negative, Touya," Shine said. "One, perhaps that you have never employed, but, there's Fuyumi. And if you had no power to take action, as you had with your quirk, likely you would have accepted resignation also. The ability to do something is part of the reason we're discontented without doing it. I can't say if Karui has options, but it's clear that Mabui does not. She's not powerful enough to earn her place anywhere else--not securely--and to resist her Village's fighting force. Maybe Ay could...or Bee...and who does what they want in Cloud?"

Ay and Bee, obviously.

Dabi frowned. 

"It tracks," Wally said. "In a sad way."

"To not even want to criticize, though," Dabi and. "I guess...I mean, what you're saying is that same reason people in the LOV ignore their differences, because there isn't really any other options, but I thought it was stupid then too."

"But you still did it," Shine pointed out. "Because it was all you had. And that is why she's loyal to Cloud. It's all she has. She has no family, it sounds like no friends--not now--and no other options. Gaara has offered to help, but, let's be real, taking it would be admitting defeat. They hate that, especially Cloud ninjas. I can't see she's so different from the others that she doesn't have that pride. Really, I admire that in a way. They're tough cookies...but, yes, to us, people who are more free, it seems pathetic to hang onto it. But we have all the benefits of seeing all this get turned around in our lives because of a miracle. I can't expect the same from those who haven't, and you probably shouldn't be expecting it either."

"Yeah, you're really kind of hard on people who are the most like you," Wally said. "You've got some internalized hatred there or something. Can't you just feel sorry for them instead?"

Dabi stuck his hands in his pockets moodily. "I could...but you didn't pity me. That was why I listened to you crackpots. You always acted like I could understand you. Everyone else just acted like I was crazy, and I was."

"But we treated you the way we wanted you to become," Shine said. "And it's an old truth that people will rise or sink to the extent you give them...not always, but almost always. The nature of a person is pliable, and we're made to be, because we're meant to imitate the glory of the world around us and the Lord, but if all we are seeing is darkness, we imitate that. All the ninjas are examples of that in some way, and so are all you heroes, and so are we. It's a human condition. Perhaps you should ask what you're giving these people to reflect."

"And they dish it back all right," Wally said. "They're all snarky to you...but if you like that, I guess."

"I like it more than being sickly sweet like Princess is," Dabi said.

"You don't mind it from her."

"That's just how she is. It's not her faking it, so it's not as bad." Dabi shuffled.

"Then the others might be more genuine if you give them the chance," Wally pressed. "And stop giving Mabui such a hard time, too. Poor lady has been through enough. Personally, I like her. I don't know why you don't."

Dabi stared straight ahead.

"He does," Shine told Wally. "It seems to me that's the problem."

"Why would that be a problem?" Wally asked.

"Good question," Shine said. "Touya, why is that a problem?"

"Firstly, I don't," Dabi said. "Secondly...well...I don't know. She actually had a theory about that herself."

"She did? Wait, you talked about this?" Shine said.

"Yeah...I didn't want to. She brought it up." This wasn't entirely true, but Dabi remembered it that way.

"I'm surprised she would," Wally said. "Hey, she's more bold than I expected. Talk about a weird thing to talk about."

"It's not a big deal." Dabi didn't like the tone they were using. "But she said the most out of pocket thing, that I hate Cloud more because of the Hyuga's whole deal."

Shine and Wally stared at him.

"Duh," Wally said.

"Yeah, didn't we talk about this already...? If we didn't, then I at least thought it," Shine said.

"Well, not that outright, even if you did." Dabi was more annoyed than usual, they noticed already. "Well, is that such a big deal? I mean, Cloud are jerks."

"You know, as much as personal bias would influence me to think so," Shine said, "objectively, they really may be the nicest village. All of them backstab each other constantly, but the others all do it to their own people as well. Cloud at least keeps it cool inside...until now."

"Yeah, they're really no better," Dabi said.

"But, they think she already betrayed them," Wally said. "So it's not the same thing as just massacring her family... Sounds like they died out."

"Unless that was a cover," Dabi muttered.

"We don't have any evidence of that," Shine replied. "The point is, Cloud isn't so bad. They're giving us a hard time, but they really have every reason to think the rest of the Villages are jerks. The worst of their arrogance is that they do have a basis for it. If we tallied up the crimes of this world, wouldn't they still be the least guilty?"

"So the best Village, objectively, is subjectively the worst one for us to be in?" Dabi said. "That frigging tracks, really. What else do I expect for a team of troublemakers like us?"

"I still don't see how this is Mabui's fault," Wally said. "And I think she's right--you're making this personal, but we're not supposed to do that. The Hyuga thing sucks, but they saw them as enemies. And we don't even like the Hyuga clan ourselves. We wouldn't kill them, but that's not seen as such a big thing here. Which is messed up, but you're judging them by our standards, not their own. Unless they adopt ours, isn't that unfair?"

"Doesn't your book say that all men know the real truth in their hearts?" Dabi said. "Even if they've never been told? They know all this is wrong, just as much as I knew what I did was wrong. I stopped caring, but I knew it was."

"True," Shine said. "They know, deep down. But Cloud still comes off the least guilty here. They've stayed out of most conflicts with the other Villages, aside from defending themselves or trying to get an advantage over them from time to time...but, I mean, a few incidents in a few decades, versus the constant ones with others, does seem like nitpicking on our part."

"So I just concede that Cloud is superior? I can't dislike them?" Dabi bristled.

"Whatever you feel about the Villages, each individual person in it is not responsible for all of that," Shine said. "And we've been over this, so I know you know it's true. The interesting thing is why are you having such a hard time letting it go. I think you are making it personal."

"And if I can't help it?"

"You can always help it. Even if you feel it, you can choose not to act on it. By and by, the feeling will go away. Our feelings align with our actions, sooner or later," Shine insisted.

"If you're looking for a reason to justify acting like this," Wally warned, "we're not gonna give it to you, man. I'm glad Mabui called you out on it. Funny though, how did she know?"

"Clearly, she's observant enough," Shine mused. "That's the risk when you make a pest of yourself." She glanced at Dabi. "People pay more attention to you if you consistently draw their attention, even negatively. A smart person will figure out why you're doing it before you will."

"Knock it off," Dabi said.

"Just consider that there is nothing she can do to alleviate her situation that she hasn't already," Shine returned to the real subject. "And resenting Cloud won't help her solve anything. If it makes her act paranoid, in fact, that's a bad thing. It's all she's got, and she's going to hang onto it. That's the only reason these people have to live. What else is there to do? If you were in the same position, I think you'd do the same. Your freedom to fight that system is a privilege you don't even think that you have, but it is a privilege nonetheless. Shinobi are more oppressed people than we are, no matter how bad your society treats villains. It's still more lenient than this one. And ours is a cakewalk by comparison."

"Yeah, don't make excuses to us," Wally agreed. "You need to act better. End of story."

Dabi got no more out of them than that. They refused to listen to any more of his complaints about Cloud from that point forward.

Though, even he was getting tired of listening to himself. He held grudges compulsively, but that was the old Dabi... The new Dabi was able to see how pointless it was, but the habit of feeling that way and thinking that way was still there.

So what would he do about it?

[Dabi is the type who would have to work a very long time at learning to let things go, and it's only been months for him, you have to remember. This is really pretty swift progress, all things considered.]