[OP: "Hello My Old Heart"--The Oh Hellos]

Kankuro, Hanabi, and Eichi kept an eye on the escaping kidnappers and their cargo.

The prisoners continued to not resist. 

Kankuro didn't understand it. He knew it was genjutsu, but it was disturbing that they didn't even know what was happening to them, likely...and were being taken to their probable deaths. It was sick.

Hanabi and Eichi didn't fully understand what was going on, as he hadn't given them all the details, and he hoped he wouldn't have to.

Wally got to the river and drew a barrier, hoping to slow the bad guys down, but it wouldn't keep them from carrying out their plan forever.

He looked around for anything he could use as a fallback if they did toss the people in the river.

Since they were by the coast, there were taller trees here, mostly palm-like ones and other ocean-side trees.

Wally had an idea.

He used his speed to knock a few of those down. The river wasn't that wide. He used the air to catapult them into it with a whirlwind.

Of course, he couldn't aim that well, but the trees got carried along to some rocks and wedged in.

It wasn't a perfect dam, but it might catch some people if they were still above water when they made it that far.

He hoped some other people could swim.

But this was still not a great solution.

* * *

The others caught up to Kankuro pretty fast.

He waved at them and then told Zoe to swoop down to where the few rogues had separated from the pack.

He hoped they could catch one of them.

Hanabi saw them run for it when they got lower.

"They saw us," she said.

"These people are cowards," Eichi said. "At least the bandits fought you openly, even if they feared you."

"And what do you expect the kinda lowlifes that do these things to be? Noble?" Kankuro scoffed. "You two stay by the bird, all right? I'm taking my puppets and apprehending them."

"But what if they're tougher than you?" Hanabi asked.

"Nonsense, they'd be no match for me." Kankuro had gotten himself in trouble going off alone before, but he figured these people would not have strong attacks if they were running already.

He slid off and headed after the last one they'd seen.

"I see one of the tags there." Eichi pointed at one tree near them.

"They stuck a bunch on other trees, to mask sounds, I guess," Hanabi said. She slid off Zoe and went toward it. "Kankuro said we shouldn't break them, but maybe they said something we should know."

"Okay, but hurry. We should fly closer to the others," Eichi said.

"They'll catch up with us, Ei, no reason to move." Hanabi picked up the tag. She peered at it. "The markings look a little different than the others."

"Are you sure?" Eichi asked.

"I'm good at visual recognition." Hanabi pointed to her eyes. "Kind of have to be... I don't know, it's similar, the writing, but are these the same symbols?"

"Maybe it's a variation?" Eichi wondered.

"Mabui could read them. Where is she?" Hanabi asked. She looked up. "I see...Gaara-sama is bringing them."

She went to Zoe and got on. "Let's go meet them then."

"I just said that," Eichi said.

"Well, it wasn't as important then." Hanabi patted Zoe.

Zoe took off and flew toward Gaara.

It wasn't that far off though; he'd been only half a kilometer away. Kankuro had descended when they were only about one km away.

[For Americans, that means they were roughly 3000 feet away.]

Gaara had Mabui and Dabi with him and had taken Camie also, when she said she didn't want to fly with Bakugo.

"Yo, sis, where's Kankuro?" she asked.

"He's gone to catch one of the rogues. They broke off from their pack. He wanted to follow them," Hanabi said.

"That's smart, but I wish he'd told us first," Gaara said.

"He had to act fast," Eichi said. "But Hanabi found something."

"We both did." Hanabi actually gave him credit. She held it up. "Mabui-san, can you read this?"

Mabui looked dizzy. "I...uh, I'm not sure." She was seeing better, but things were kind of blurry.

She tried to step off the Sand and missed the right point and nearly fell on her face.

Dabi caught her, rather clumsily.

"The flash grenade kind of backfired," he said.

"Flash grenade...what?" Hanabi said. "Why would you use that?"

"We had to get away fast. Princess had to distract them." Dabi stepped off the Sand.

Mabui righted herself and pulled free. "I can manage... I can mostly see now... Is that one of their sound-absorbing tags?"

"It is, but I think it looks different." Hanabi held it up to her.

Hinata and Naruto landed then and saw what they were doing.

"I saw more of these around," Hinata confirmed.

"Yes, they stuck many of them around this area," Hanabi said. "To hide their sound from us, I thought."

"Makes sense if they didn't want us to hear those wagons," Eichi said.

Mabui was trying to read it, not very successfully. "It looks the same to me..." She rubbed her eyes.

Some of the others landed.

"Here." Sakura reached for Karui's eyes (they'd caught up). "That should help."

Karui blinked. "Oh...it did."

"Do Mabui then, fast." Hanabi was impatient.

"All right, all right," Sakura said. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be trying to read right now."

"It seems to be something important," Mabui said.

Sakura touched her eyes.

Mabui blinked. "How...how did you do that?"

"I learned a little about this from Tsunade. I had to use it in Mist Village already," Sakura said.

"And it worked," Naruto said. "It's pretty amazing, huh?"

Mabui nodded. Then she looked at her paper. "Well, now that I can read it...it's the same, Miss Hyuga..."  She paused. "All except for these markings here." She touched a few of them that were drawn close together in the middle of the paper.

Then she took out one of the torn ones they'd had before and examined it. "Yes, it is different. This symbol means 'sound', but these ones do not. I don't recognize them."

"Is it in a code?" Momo asked.

"It has been a while." Mabui knit her brows. "Also they are set close together. Someone did this very precisely."

"What words are the same?" Shine asked.

"'Repress' or 'suppress' is there. 'Absorb'... Words like that." Mabui kept checking with the other two. "Also, this paper is thicker than the others."

"Thicker?" Momo repeated.

Mabui turned it over. "It's almost like there's a sealed something inside it..." She started to peel at the edge of the paper.

It was true--it was thicker than the other tag.

"Could it be chakra?" Sakura wondered.

"That wouldn't be that thick," Temari said. "While you're figuring it out, I'm going after Kankuro. He might need backup."

"I'll go with you," Gaara said. "The rest of you, catch up with Wally. The tags won't matter if we keep them in our line of sight."

"All right," Shine said. But she frowned. "Still, why did they slow down to do this at all?"

"They thought it would work on us." Sakura shrugged.

The Sand left to find Kankuro, and the others went through the rocks to find Wally. Shine had him in her sights still.

"We could move faster if we flew," Sai said.

"We're too close now to fly," Shine said. "We'll catch them all right if you all move at your usual speed. We pulled ahead of some of them."

Mabui was still studying the paper as they walked.

"There's another one." Hinata pointed to one rock.

"Those things creep me out," Camie said.

"Yeah, I had a feeling about them," Bakugo said. "Hey, Secretary, stop toying with it."

"If I could get it open, it might have something inside," Mabui insisted. "Anyone have a sharp knife?"

"I do," Momo said. "But what if the insides of it--?"

Suddenly, they all heard something.

It was branches rustling.

Hanabi and Hinata's eagle eyes picked out the person sitting in one of the trees, watching them.

"Hey, it's one of them!" Hanabi said.

The person didn't say a word. They just made a hand sign and then leapt to another tree... There were more of them here, by the river, even, than by the beach.

"Hey, come back!" Bakugo took off after them.

"Careful, Katsuki!" Shine cried.

"What hand sign was that?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know--" Ino began, and suddenly Mabui gasped.

They turned to her.

The paper in her hand suddenly started to dissolve. The ends were crumbling back on their own, and something was coming out of the inside--it looked like dust, but a strong smell was coming from it.

Camie coughed. "What is that?"

"I know the symbol now," Mabui said strangely. "It was like it was blocked from my mind while I was touching it, but...now I know. It's 'memory'."

"Memory?" Karui said. "What does that mean?"

"The other tag is dissolving too," Hinata said suddenly. "I can see it...More of them are ahead of us."

"Wow, you can pick all those out? That's pretty impressive--" Naruto began.

"Not the time, Naruto. Something is wrong. Those things are some kind of trap," Shine said. Then she coughed. "What is that? Is it a drug?"

"We'd be passing out if it was a drug," Momo said. "Could it be some kind of choking or blocking thing?" she coughed. Then she covered her mouth. "Don't inhale it."

They all started to run to get away from the tags.

As they ran, they were losing breath and beginning to feel lightheaded, especially the people less suited to it.

Dabi lagged behind almost at once. He was in less good shape than his brother and the other hero kids.

His head spun... Whatever that stuff was, it was making them lightheaded. The smell was getting stronger the farther they went, not lighter... The tags must have been all over.

It was a trap, they'd fallen right into it.

His mind was getting fuzzier... He thought he was passing out.

Blindly, he stumbled toward a rock and crouched behind it. If he was going to faint, he didn't want the culprits to see him right away at least...

He keeled over...

* * *

At some point the others had lost Dabi...and then they'd lost each other, the powder or gas or whatever it was making them too disoriented to know what happened. They were stumbling around at first, and then most of them passed out when they had run a certain amount of time.

Hanabi and Eichi both stopped running sooner and became violently ill.

Hanabi was so dizzy she didn't even see when the person who'd been in the trees had come back.

"I found the two little ones," they were saying to someone else. "The toxin was too strong for them. They'll OD on it if I don't give them the antidote...but it won't matter. They're too small to put up a fight. I've got the girl. I'll get the boy in a minute."

Hanabi's arm stung as something was pricked into it. She was too out of breath to see straight.

But then her arms were held behind her back and tied, and a bag was shoved over her head.

That wasn't going to blind a Hyuga, but she was too loopy to use her Byakugan effectively at the moment anyway.

She was still dizzy.

She never fully blacked out, but everything was jumbled for a while, and she heard voices and yelling that might have been Eichi, but she couldn't make sense of any of it.

By the time her head cleared, it could have been half an hour or longer.

But then she finally started to understand what was being said.

"Yeah, we'll take these two with us. It's our consolation prize for losing the others... Just two will be light enough... Yeah, we might snag a few more out of the trees. They won't know what's happening..."

Hanabi began to struggle suddenly, feeling she must escape.

"No point, little girl," the voice said to her, and she was shoved strongly in the back. "Your shinobi friends won't be coming for you. They'll not be thinking of you at all for quite a while...  Better get used to the idea of belonging to us now."

Hanabi bit her lip.

Whatever he said, she knew the others would still find them... She just needed to wait...

But where were these scoundrels going to take them in the meantime?

* * *

Dabi woke up with a start. His head was pounding.

He looked around at the unfamiliar terrain...didn't look like anywhere he'd been before.

He was next to a big rock...but the color of it was this sandy, pinkish color, not normal for the woods he was used to hiding in.

"What happened?" he muttered to himself, pushing himself up on it. 

He felt like throwing up...

But the pressure in his head eased with the adrenaline rush, as it sunk in that he had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there...and that didn't bode well.

"S--t." He looked around. "What...what was the last thing I remember?"

But when he tried to think of that, his headache came back.

He thought... He knew he'd been in some house...right? No...further back than that...or...less far back?

It was kind of hard to think of what he remembered happening last, but he had a feeling he'd been in some kind of trouble.

Someone must have shot him with some drug... Then they'd not bothered to collect his carcass. Maybe he'd not been important enough to capture. They just didn't want him to fight them.

That made sense. He was hardly the most important member...

"Can't remember what we were even doing out here," he said to himself, rubbing his neck. "But someone else is probably out here if I am... If they didn't take me, they wouldn't have taken them. That's reasonable."

He realized he'd been talking to himself, but no one was around to hear it and think he was even crazier than he already was, so it didn't matter.

He pulled his jack closer. It was warm...warmer than it should have been, he felt like, but he felt a chill of fear.

Not surprising if the enemy was likely out here too.

He rubbed his head and started to walk toward the part of the trees he saw light through.

But once he was closer, he saw the light was only a small break in them that didn't lead to anything but more rocks.

He still felt sick, but it was passing a little with the fresher air.

He turned, just because he had no idea where he was, and went the opposite direction.

That time, the trees opened up a lot more and led out to a sandy bank.

And from there, he saw the ocean. It was pretty far off still but definitely within walking distance.

"Okay..." he said. "So...farther out than I thought...but there's gotta be a d--m city near here if there's ocean..." He turned back to the trees.

No way he'd not get lost in there...but he didn't like how exposed being out here was either, not if there were hostiles in the area.

Still...

Weighing his options, he just followed the shoreline for a short while, hoping to find a path.

But nothing so far.

Then he saw movement.

Some shad- looking people wearing netting and masks were making their way around some of the big rocks along the shoreline.

Dabi moved behind one of the trees and crossed down.

The poeple didn't see him.

Some of them were carrying large bundles, it looked like. The bundles were squirming.

Dabi didn't know if they were people or animals, but he didn't want to know.

He turned and took off into the forest again.

Then he stopped.

Why did he feel kind of guilty?

"It isn't like I would be able to do anything," he said to himself. "I don't know what they're doing, and I don't want to know... This is some shady s--t, whatever it is, and we're not gonna be mixed up in it... We don't deal in humans."

He shook his head. "And what could I do?... I wouldn't do anything... I'm not a hero."

He walked away again.

But he wasn't easy about it, despite what he told himself.

And he couldn't shake the feeling he wasn't out here alone before... Who had he been with? And were they in trouble? What if they were the ones getting taken off...?

That actually seemed likely.

Giving up, Dabi turned back--and finally realized that he was lost.

"Oh, brilliant." He hit himself in the face. "Of course. I don't know how to navigate the woods--how could I forget that? Stupid city slicker in the freaking countryside! Genius idea. Whose idea was it anyway?"

But as he didn't know who to blame, it wasn't very satisfying to insult them.

Now that he was lost, he was in more need of saving than he'd be able to help anyone else, no matter who they were, but he could call for help...

He then realized he didn't have a communication device, even if he'd wanted to try it... What the heck? How unprepared... Or had someone taken it off him? He didn't like the idea of being searched while he was out cold.

But the shady party had been going somewhere, so they had to have connections out here--a hideout, a truck, a store, something. He'd have to find it.

He didn't know where to go, but he tried to go the way he'd thought they'd been in...but he no doubt was turned around because he didn't find the shore again.

 Might have been going away from it, actually.

He'd just about given up hope of finding anyone else when he heard a scream.

It was a woman's scream, and that was promising--in that Dabi considered that to be less of a potential threat than a man.

It was someone else, and he had nothing to lose now.

He followed the sound, but he'd have been lost again in a moment anyway if he hadn't heard yelling immediately after it.

It seemed there was more than one voice yelling.

"Get away from me!" That was the woman's voice.

"You're just prolonging the inevitable, sweetheart." That was a man's. "Where are you gonna run to? Now hold still. That won't even hurt, I swear."

Dabi followed that voice and finally saw a man. He was wearing dark colors, so he was hard to see through the trees, but he had a long rope that stood out a bit more.

Then Dabi saw another one, lurking behind some rocks.

The person they were chasing was hard to see at first, since she was smaller, but finally Dabi spotted the woman.

She looked like she'd already been running, based on the state of her hair and the leaves and dirt all over her clothes, but other than that she was unharmed.

Dabi wasn't eager to get closer if they had dangerous abilities, but he doubted he'd get another chance to get info so easily.

Then he got a bit of a surprise.

The woman scrambled up the rock she'd just reached like she could stick to it.

Uh...weird power.

But useful, but not really combat useful.

"You're not getting away that easily." The men weren't even in a hurry.

Dabi assumed they had another trick if they weren't even trying to stop her.

"She's getting a little far," the second one said then.

"The chase'll make it more fun," said the first.

"I don't know about the one," the second said. "She's definitely Cloud. I mean, look at her. Do you want the Raikage to be looking for us?"

"I'll do you one better--she's an official," the first said. "The way she's dressed, for one thing. And she doesn't seem like much of a fighter, I'd say--Intelligence Division...and I've heard that the Raikage's assistant is currently a woman."

"A Kage's assistant wouldn't be out here doing legwork," the second said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes they do. The war left them short-staffed," the first said. "All that would up the price for sure."

"But is it worth it? We got the other two already. I think we're pushing our luck," the second said.

"Then stay out of it, but I'm going to get her... She's gotten far enough away now."

The man sprang over the ground with an ease that Dabi didn't think looked natural.

He had no idea what they'd just said. Lightning shadow? Was that a gang name? Sounded like one of those Paranormal Liberation fools' names.

He slipped around the trees.

The other hunter saw him. Or heard him--Dabi wasn't that light-footed.

"Another one," the second hunter said. 

He came at Dabi with an unnatural speed.

Dabi shot fire at him.

He didn't seem ready for that. He jumped back, surprised.

The fire started spreading to the other trees.

"What? You fool!" The man started to put it out hastily.

Dabi left him to finish and rushed after the other one.

The woman had gotten a nice distance away in that time, considering, but she had nowhere to run.

The man approached, licking his lips.

"If you're who I think, you don't have any real attack power," he said. "Can you even use Lightning Style?"

"You can't think I'd answer that." The woman held up her hands defensively. "Whoever you are, you should not risk the wrath of the Raikage by attacking me."

"I knew it," the man said. "You must be his assistant."

She narrowed her eyes.

"This is my lucky day," the man said.

He lunged at her.

Dabi didn't do anything. He figured if she could fight, he didn't need to bother getting involved.

Unfortunately, it didn't go very well.

She dodged, but this other guy was faster and grabbed her by her wrist.

"Running won't do anything. There's no one coming to help you here," he said. "They're all gone."

The woman slapped him, but it didn't do any good.

Then she made some sign with her hand.

Dabi expected her to release some attack, but he doubted it would be enough.

And all he saw happen was that a rock suddenly hit the guy in the head. Seemed to come from nowhere.

The guy let go of the woman abruptly and rubbed his head.

She pulled out a short-handled knife and jabbed it into his torso.

Dabi had Toga flashbacks.

But points for not hesitating, he supposed.

But her mistake was she didn't aim very well. The blade didn't hit the man's heart because he backed up and knocked it out of her hand before she could move. 

"Just for that, b---h," he snarled, "I won't take it easy on you!"

She started to spring back, but he sprang forward and hit her hard enough to knock her into a tree.

Dabi winced.

That reminded him a little too much of his father right here...

Maybe that was why he snapped and didn't wait any longer to do something.

The man took out a longer blade that appeared to be a curved sword.

"I'll teach you to stab me," he said.

Dabi sent blue fire towards him.

He intended to incinerate the man, but at the last second he stopped.

Why did this feel...wrong?

It didn't make any sense. He didn't have any pity for scum like this. If anyone deserved to die, it was b-----ds who did this kind of s--t.

But...his hands just seemed to stop of their own accord.

The fire was still enough to reach the guy's legs.

He whirled around in surprise. 

"What in the h---?" he cried. "I thought you would be out cold still."

Still?

"So, I have you to thank for that, huh?" Dabi was pissed off. "Why am I not surprised? All right, Jack the Ripper, why don't you drop that toy and start telling me what the h--- is going on here?"

"Even if I told you, you'd never believe it." The man didn't notice he had blisters on his legs.

But then he looked down as the pain started to sink in. "Ow...d--- it! How hot is that fire...? It felt cold."

"Yeah, dumba--, blue fire can feel cold because it's so hot," Dabi said. "Guess they didn't teach you science in your misogyny class. Now, talk."

He moved toward the guy.

The guy backed up to the tree.

"All right, no need to get frisky," he said. "I didn't do anything to you, really. There's no need to make this personal. You were just in the way. We don't want you, so you can just walk away, and there won't be any problem."

The woman was picking herself up. She seemed surprised to see someone else out here.

"It feels kinda personal." Dabi wasn't buying it. "Now, what did you do with my team?"

"They're long gone--wait, you remember them?" the man said.

"Remember?" Dabi said. "Why wouldn't I remember them?"

"That doesn't make any sense," the man said. "You shouldn't remember anything... Unless there's an anomaly in your bloodline... Are you resistant to drugs?"

"Drugs?" Dabi said. "Hey, I know you doped us up, but this sounds a little worse than I pictured... not just a tranquilizer, huh? What did you do, you sick b-----d?"

"I..." The man seemed shaken up. "If I told you, they'd kill me."

"If you don't tell me, I'll kill you and save them the trouble." Dabi blazed up again.

He thought maybe he should just kill him.

"All right, all right!" The man held up his hands.

The woman suddenly yelled, "It's a trick! Behind you!"

Dabi turned.

The other hunter had appeared, and he was holding some kind of weapon in his hand, something like a throwing star.

He threw it at Dabi.

Dabi didn't think he'd be able to duck it, though he tried.

But then it vanished out of the air suddenly.

"What...?" the other guy said.

The woman had her hands up.

Then she picked up something off the ground. It was the throwing star.

She tossed it as the first man just as he was going to stab at Dabi when he was distracted.

Dabi jumped, and the sword missed him by centimeters.

The throwing star hit the guy in the neck.

He yelped and cussed the woman out very vulgarly.

The other man ran at them.

Dabi shot flame at both of them, and they fell back, then began to yell as the fire hit their clothes.

They dropped and started to roll in an attempt to put it out.

They'd be badly burned and scarred anyway, even if they survived.

Dabi wasn't going to wait to find out. They might have more weapons.

"Let's go," he said to the woman. "Unless you want to stick around and see if they have more."

"No," she said, looking confused.

Dabi took off into the trees, and she followed, but then she said, "Are you trying to get to the shoreline?"

"I was, yeah." He paused.

"That's not the right way." She pointed to the right. "It's that way."

"And how would you know?" Dabi didn't peg her for the country type based on her clothes.

"The way the trees look, the angle of the sun, and there were seagulls flying over that part of the sky," she said, almost insulted. "Why are you doubting me?"

"Well, I just met you for one thing, and you weren't running that direction before," Dabi shot back.

"I didn't have much of a choice about that--but this is not the time to discuss this. They'll be after us soon enough," she said. 

"Yeah, sure," Dabi said. "I mean, if they're not burnt to a crisp."

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't think shinobi will give up that easily."

"Shinobi? What? Is that what they are? I don't know that gang."

"Gang?" She looked puzzled. "I don't think they're a gang...rogues, probably... I..." She rubbed her head. "I can't remember."

"You can't?" Dabi realized this was something more disturbing.. "Huh...we should compare notes...away from here."

"Follow me then." She took off now.

Much faster than she should have at her height.

Dabi was getting pretty weirded out, but he followed her.

And, sure enough, she found the clearing that led to the shore pretty quickly, but then she looked around.

"This place is too open. We're sitting ducks here," she said. "Did you have allies out here?"

"I don't remember what happened, so how would I know?"

"You don't remember what happened either," she said, with a quizzical look.

Now that it was broad daylight, Dabi got a better look at her.

No visible quirk...

Also she was...kind of unusually pretty--if he was the type to notice things like that, which he wasn't, but it was hard to miss. She looked like a doll in a display case...if that doll had been fighting in the woods.

She also had dark skin, which was rare in rural areas of Japan, though, with the way people spread out now, he didn't know if it was that rare.

 Still...

"I'm guessing you're not from around here either," he said.

"No..." she said. "I mean...I'm not sure where here is... Do you know?"

"No clue. Last thing I remember was being with the League. And I don't know what we were doing..."

"League? What league?"

"You don't know the League? Seriously?"

"No..." She frowned again. "I suppose you've heard of Cloud Village though."

"I have no idea where that is, but it sounds like something out of a cartoon," Dabi snorted. 

"Cartoon? It's one of the five main shinobi Villages... How could you not know that?"

"In my defense, I dunno what happened in the last 24 hours, period, so..." Dabi thought. "I think... Who was I with out here? I mean, it had to be the League, but...nothing about this looks familiar."

"I don't know who I was with either, but I wouldn't be on a solo assignment this far away from the village," the woman said.

She paused. "I suppose I should thank you for back there... You're not wearing a headband. Are you even a ninja?"

"Ninja?" Dabi snorted. "What is this, a movie? How cheesy is that. Don't tell me--there's samurai too."

"Why is this so funny?" she said blankly.

Dabi paused.

Okay...she was serious...

So...maybe from one of those cults you heard about that locked people up and never let them see the outside world and lived by some ancient thing...like the Hasakai gang, for the yakuza....only if they never let anyone out of doors...like that one kid they had, maybe.

His head hurt again...like he'd forgotten about that.

"Well, whatever you say, but I'm not a ninja," he said more cautiously. "Just a villain."

"Villain? That's an odd thing to call yourself. I'm not even sure what that means."

"Definitely a cult," Dabi said aloud. "Whatever. Do you remember anything about what happened?"

"Not a thing," she said. "And I don't know if I should even be telling you that."

"Well, if you want to take your chances with those guys..." Dabi pointed behind them. "Go ahead. I'm not one to talk to weird people either, but I need answers. And clearly both of us are involved in whatever this is, so I assume I'd find them by sticking with you, but I guess I can understand not wanting to trust random people in the forest."

She frowned but then glanced back. "Well, that said, maybe you have a point...for now..."

She pushed her hair back. "My name is Mabui Tsukura..."

"Dabi."

"Dabi?" 

"Yes."

"That's your real name?" Still skeptical.

"Why is that so hard to believe? Everyone's name is usually pretty much based on their quirk," Dabi said. "I think it fits, personally."

"I've never heard of anyone being called that before." Mabui shook her head "But I suppose....  You use fire? Are you from the Land of Fire?"

"Is that how this works? You said you were from Cloud or something? Do you use clouds?" He was sarcastic.

"No...and it's the Land of Lightning, and it's the Village of Cloud. Really, how could you not know that? Are you from some small village that never lets their people leave it?"

"Oh, you could say that," Dabi said vaguely. "Though, sounds like you are also."

"No...we're exclusive, but I can leave. I just don't... I work in the office mostly."

"That explains the outfit," Dabi said. "Not exactly combat-oriented."

She frowned at him. "Your clothes aren't that practical either, if I must point it out."

Dabi glanced at his clothes. "Yeah, well--" He stopped. He hadn't looked at his hands till now.

He pulled his sleeve up and looked at his arm... It looked completely normal.

"Ahhh!" he yelped.

"Quiet!" she hissed, shoving her hand over his mouth. "Have you lost your mind?"

Dabi got a hold of himself. Sort of.

But he began to feel up his arm and didn't find any scarring.

Then he reached under his shirt, though he didn't lift it up.

Nothing.

He felt his face... It felt normal...no staples...no scars.

"What happened to my skin?" he cried.

She peered at him.

"It looks normal to me... Does it feel irritated?"

"No, that's the problem--it feels normal... If I had a mirror right now..." He looked around, but nothing was in sight.

"If you're not in pain, I don't see what the problem is." Mabui was not sympathetic. "Control yourself."

[Bet no one saw this twist coming.]