[OP: "Notos"--The Oh Hellos]

"I guess you've got your picture painted of me now," Dabi said dryly. "I'm not surprised. This is how it goes when anyone hears the real reason. It's not pretty, but life isn't pretty."

"I...think you're a very bitter and mistrusting person," Mabui stated bluntly, "who wishes the world was more fair than it is."

Dabi paused, waiting for the "but".

However, it didn't come.

"Was that it?" he said. "That's your whole statement?"

"I suppose I'm not exactly your judge," Mabui said. "I don't know you... I don't know if you're as corrupt as you claim to be or not. I suppose I just can't quite configure your words with your actions. If it was all that you say, you didn't have to step in and help me."

"I was thinking it was a better chance to survive," Dabi objected.

"But it was a risk, wasn't it? And why take it for a total stranger, if you think so little of these people you don't even know?"

"Well, those scumbags deserved to be stopped..." Dabi realized slowly his reasons were, in fact, kind of contradictory.

"Then you have some sense of justice, under that anger," Mabui pointed out. "Perhaps you did have selfish reasons also, but you could have decided to look for someone else, in less danger. And a coward wouldn't have fought them--against someone they didn't know the powers of, anyway."

"Hmm, I don't do things like that." Dabi thought back. "Always used to quit any fight I didn't think I'd win."

"Then something has changed since then." Mabui gestured. "I can't make sense of it either. You certainly seem like a frightening person to be around...and yet, in all this time, you haven't threatened me. Though you have no idea if I've been lying to you this whole time about not knowing what was going on. And you refuse to use your ability, since it's dangerous to use... These aren't the actions of a raving lunatic, so, I don't know, maybe you don't really believe your own words as much as you claim to."

"That's ridiculous." Uncomfortable, because it sounded a little too plausible.

"Is it?" Mabui shrugged again. "I'm only basing this off observation... Perhaps I'm wrong. I'm missing plenty of information, after all. But I find it hard to think you really believe that all this is worthless, or that you shouldn't do the honorable thing after all."

"Should? That doesn't matter."

"If you say so...but I don't think that's all there is to the story," she replied confidently. "At least, I hope not. I'd hate to think I've been talking to someone so deranged as that this whole time."

"You have some nerve saying that to me if you think I'm deranged."

"What will you do about it?" she asked.

Dabi frowned.

She frowned back.

Dabi wondered if he should want to set her on fire...

He looked away. "Dangerous game you're playing there, lady."

"I told you, it's Mabui...and I'm not so sure... Really, you don't seem as explosive as I'd expect if you were truly unhinged."

"I'm not explosive...but that doesn't mean I'm not dangerous," Dabi said darkly.

"Well, perhaps...but then, I might be also."

"Sure, what are you gonna do? Drop a pebble on me?" he scoffed.

Mabui tilted her head. "You realize I could use my power to rip the organs out of someone's body, right?"

Dabi shot her a double take. "That's hardcore... Really?"

"Yes...if I knew the basic location of the organ...which is simple at close range."

"That is scary." Dabi sounded impressed. "Have you ever done it?"

"No." Mabui blanched. "No, my clan thought it was vulgar to use it that way... A few of them might have resorted to it, but they were always full of shame about it if they did. It's not using the power 'elegantly', to use my mothers words."

"Sounds like something my mother would say," Dabi snorted. "I'd be threatening people if I could do it."

"Then it's just as well you can't. The power is hard to control in some ways... In fact, using it on any part of a person's body was forbidden till you had perfect control of your aim... You could kill them if you missed."

"Nice." Dabi still thought it was impressive.

"It's not nice." Mabui shook her head. "It would be disgusting to... Well, anyway, we're not...killers, usually. Not the Tsukura clan."

"Most people aren't."

"I mean...shinobi usually are expected to be willing to. We would if we had to, but we're usually assigned to other things, often support. It's been tradition as long as I can remember." Mabui knit her brows. "For generations. Some people do think that makes us weak, but I've never regretted the loss. I don't think I would enjoy assassinating people, even if it was my duty."

"Enjoy it?" Dabi laughed dryly. "I don't think that's the point. I didn't even enjoy it, I just did it out of rage."

"Rage...duty...enjoyment...some don't think it matters why, as long as you do the job. But I don't agree. I think the motive for something matters."

"Is this off topic, or are you circling back to me?" Dabi wondered.

"I doubt you want me to really assess you." Mabui didn't think he'd enjoy that.

"Oh, go ahead, I'd like to hear this."

"Why?"

"It's always fun. The court-ordered therapist had a few good ones." Dabi shrugged.

"I'm not...whatever that is. I'm just a shinobi. I call things as I observe them, patterns, behavior analysis, abilities and motive, that's what we have to learn," Mabui explained. "I generally have context clues. Which I don't currently have."

"So you don't know."

"I think you might not like it no matter what it was. No one ever likes to hear that much about themselves." Mabui was very right about that.

"Sounds like a cop out." Dabi was infuriating as usual, even when she didn't remember why he was doing it.

She frowned at him, and then she leaned back and glanced upward. "I was only thinking that your stated motives seem to have at least a trace of a more noble cause. Injustice is difficult to understand...though, with a family, I don't think it's honorable to not treat them the same as other people."

"Of course you do. Nothing new," Dabi scoffed.

"Usually there is nothing to do even if you want to," Mabui said, wondering why she had strong feelings about it. Wasn't it what everyone would say? "Many people don't like the way the world works, but they do nothing about it. It might be frustrating to notice this... I've never tried to rectify it myself. I doubt I could even if I wanted to. I might almost admire even trying to, if it was through better means...but that's the problem. It all does seem more like going rogue, not like really making anything better. That puts you as a potential enemy--in the category for the Villages, at least... Though it sounds like your culture, where it is, agrees with us there. Maybe it really is shinobi but by another name."

Dabi didn't buy it but didn't say anything.

"But the strange part is that you've apparently changed your mind about what you should do," Mabui said. "For a reason you can't even remember, but you remember that you did it. It must have been an important change if it would come to mind even when the reason for it is gone... and you don't act quite how I'd picture other rogue shinobi to act...so, I don't know. I wonder if you even know."

She was quite right about that last part.

Dabi didn't like it. "I'm undecided?" he said. "That was the best you could do? You don't know. That's not really an answer."

"I guess I would suspend judgement. If it turns out, once we get out of this, that you aren't rogue now...well, I don't know--usually you'd still be punished, but punishments should fit the crime, I think. It would take a better person than me to know what to do with that kind of information..." She tilted her head. "And if it turns out you're still a rogue, then they wouldn't hesitate to treat you as such. I doubt it will come down to my opinion either way. Personally, I don't know what I would do if it did. I've never put much thought into whether people can be forgiven for such missteps if they change...but sometimes Villages let people off the hook if they can be useful."

"That's so typical. That's part of the corruption. Preferential treatment because of power. I hate that."

"It would benefit you, in this case."

"So? I still hate it," Dabi grimaced. "In fact, that was probably why I didn't just get punished more harshly... Yeah, that had to be it... It's so messed up. Why did I ever agree to it?... Maybe I didn't. Maybe they dropped it because Pops is such a big deal. Just figures."

Mabui didn't comment.

But she did think it was very odd for anyone to complain about the system if it benefited them, shinobi or otherwise. Seemed like her complaining about her family prestige being the reason she got promoted, as if thinking it was unfair was going to benefit her in some way.

Though it was honorable, in one sense, to not wish for special treatment that was not warranted within your own merits. Stupid perhaps, but honorable.

Dabi was an odd person, she decided. He was certainly troubling enough to be a concern for any Kage if he was their citizen--and likely would be dead or imprisoned already if it was up to them. His own leader must be more lax.

On the other hand, he had an odd strain of honor and justice and conviction that made him seem not quite the picture of the rogue the Villages seemed to paint--people without principle and who only wanted chaos and hated their own people just because they couldn't get to the top themselves. No, that wasn't his motivation, she'd say...at least, not all of it.

Made her wonder, if she could remember how they got here, and if it would fill in the blanks for her, what she'd thought of him before. [Good question, right?]

Dabi, running out of things to say, wondered moodily what she was thinking.

Not that he cared what a random stranger thought...though certainly he'd said enough to get himself in big trouble if it turned out she did know how to contact the police.

But then, it was nothing that wasn't already all over the news. Now that he'd remembered more, he knew most of this wasn't a secret. She probably only didn't remember it because of the drug to begin with.

It was weird, telling it to someone who didn't have a bias already, at least, not a full basis. Clearly, she had her opinions about what was appropriate.

Sounded like a total follower, too.

But he was used to that. It was more unusual for someone to at least consider his side even if they were determined to think he was still wrong. But to weigh it, at least, and see part of the point...

He thought it had happened before, but he didn't remember when or why, and he felt that it wasn't quite the same situation anyway.

This was so frustrating... If he just had his memory, he could know why he'd made those choices...but knowing he'd made them without knowing why felt like he was looking at the life of someone else, someone he didn't know...and the man seemed bolder and less angry than he had known himself to be for years.

He seemed rational, mostly. But Dabi knew he himself was not--he knew he'd gone mad...that any shred of sanity he had left was just what was keeping him together so he could plan for revenge. 

[At least that's who the writer turned him into at the end of the manga...so disappointing. And I didn't know that when I wrote this story the first time. I always thought Dabi had more potential as an anti-hero type than as a villain and, worst of all, as a headcase. I thought that it sucked all the power out of his story. Sure, you feel sorry for him, but that's all. You don't feel compelled by him or able to root for him anymore, and that wasn't the type of character he was set to be at first. See, he was introduced with an ideology in seasons 2 and 3, even if he was little nuts, but he was far more sane than Toga or Bladetooth or Muscular were, who were contrasted with him, and that's why he was in charge of the Vanguard Action Squad and none of them were. But then the manga reduced his motives to just hating his family, instead of also hating the corruption of hero society, like he at first claimed to. And then they made him just lose his mind and kill himself basically. (I assume by the time anyone reads this, that will be common knowledge.) It's such a waste, and it wasn't very consistent. People like Dabi usually have more in mind than just one big show of revenge. And his character was more useful to show the failings of hero society than it was to just out his family, but that was all he really ended up doing, and even that was unsatisfying because it no longer seemed like it added anything to the story to punish his father or Shoto or anyone else.

When I wrote my MHA story, I wrote Dabi to be more of a rebel against society, and his family was the motivation for that, which I thought matched his earlier character before it was ret-conned. Some might disagree, but hey, it was my story and I could do what I wanted.

So that's the canon I'm matching with, not the show's canon, if anyone was confused about this scene and the last chapter also. You can read about my Dabi in the MHA: Mystery From Another World, books 1 and 2. https://www.wattpad.com/story/195185530-mystery-from-another-world-mha ]

* * *

Momo had had the worst time of anyone, probably.

When she woke from the disoriented state everyone was in, she found she was already captured.

Fortunately for her, the kidnappers didn't think she was very powerful. Since she had no headband, they'd assumed her to not even be a ninja--also since they found no ninja weapons when they searched her. No weapon at all, in fact.

They tied her up using regular rope and hooked her to the back of one of their wagons.

Momo didn't see any of the other hostages and wouldn't have known who they were if she did, but, as a hero student, she deduced quickly that she was being kidnapped.

"Who are you people?" she asked.

"Shut up," they told her.

"She might scream," one said.

"None of the others would know to help her," the other replied.

"They might try anyway. Some people are like that."

"True." They looked at her. "Don't scream or we'll have to get rough."

Momo pursed her lips. "I wasn't going to scream. Do I know you?"

"Nope," they said.

"But you will," said another meanly. "You look pretty fragile. Rich kid?"

Momo just stared at him.

"You should answer someone when they talk to you," they said.

Momo thought to herself that she was getting tired of this. She didn't remember exactly how, but she knew she'd been facing people Iike this for weeks, even for a year if you counted UA, and they were all the same.

She was sensitive enough to be disturbed by them, yet she was too smart not to get bored of endless repetition of the same schemes.

If she were bolder, like--suddenly her head throbbed.

Whatever she'd been about to think...the quirk that had erased her memory didn't want her to know.

Momo deduced that her memory was merely suppressed, then, which was a relief.

"Hey, are you deaf, girl?" the man addressed her.

Momo realized she still hadn't spoken. 

"Were you hoping I was rich?" she asked.

"We could get a ransom if she was rich," said one of the culprits.

"No, we don't want anyone to notice us," said the other. "That just makes it worse, actually. Might have to just snuff her like the others."

Momo felt a chill.

"I'm not rich," she lied.

Maybe it wasn't entirely a lie. She certainly didn't think she had access to her bank account here...wherever here was.

"Of course that's what you'll say," the first man said.

"Why did you ask me after your threat then?" Momo didn't know where she got the nerve.

They glared at her. "Watch your mouth."

"We shouldn't talk to the prisoners," said the second. "You know, you could end up getting attached to it, like a pet. Makes it hard that way."

"Eh, true," said the first.

Momo was left alone, thankfully.

She thought she could escape easily, but could she get away from them? She didn't know how fast they were or what their quirks might be.

She'd need a better distraction than just a flash grenade, too. She had no clue where she was, so how was she supposed to evade them?

But she couldn't let them take her away either.

Before more than an hour and a half had passed, these crooks met up with another guy, who appeared out of a rocky and wooded area not that far from the strip of sand and shoreline that they'd been leading her on.

"Why do you still have a prisoner?" the newcomer said.

"Consolation prize. We had to toss all the others, so we thought we'd snag one or two of the shinobi," said one of the others.

"The whole point was to avoid them finding us," the newcomer said.

"They won't find us just because of one or two," said the other. "We can hide them."

"Look at her, she'd get a high price," said the second.

The newcomer eyed Momo like she was one of the horses they had dragging these wagons.

Momo frowned at him.

"I don't know that it's worth the risk," he said.

"Do you really want to come up empty on this operation?" said the first.

The new guy considered. "Maybe one or two... Actually, we found one of them ourselves. The Cloud. Well, we found both of them, but two of our best hunters got nearly cremated by one of their rogues. The b-----d is a demon, I can tell you. SOB set them on fire, and that b---h they were trying to get also. The other Cloud."

"We really need the Cloud," the second man said, "or they'll bring the Raikage into this before we can ever get out of the Land of Lightning."

"You don't need to tell me," the new guy said, spitting as if to show his disdain for whoever they were talking about.

Momo made a face to her herself, but no one was looking at her, thankfully.

 "The Raikage has not cared about us for all this time," said the first crook. "Why should he start now? If you attack his own people, he will start taking notice."

"He's already taking notice if he sent them at all," said the new guy. "Though two fragile little women are hardly a threat. But he may have wanted to assess the danger. If they disappear, it looks bad."

"We can just move the operation to a new area," said the second. "And Cloud will look around here, not find anything, and give up."

"Maybe," said the new guy. "Well, we can't let them go tattling back to him anyway. Either we kill or capture. But the one has a rare jutsu type. Be a shame to just let it go to waste."

"Maybe, but they can be harder to control," said the second.

Momo was not missing any of this, but she tried to look as if she was not paying attention.

She was not the best at acting or espionage, but she had the idea she'd practiced lately with tricking people more.

"I'll tell the hunters to capture the one who's alone," said the new guy resignedly. "Then we'll decide what to do with her."

He left again.

The other two decided to "park" the wagon behind an outcropping of rocks by the water.

Though the sand wasn't doing it any favors.

Momo wondered if she should try to escape into the ocean. She could make a breathing apparatus and swim...but what if they could follow her? And she wasn't a very strong swimmer in the ocean...not without help.

She would have been glad to have an aquatic quirk.

Before she could come up with a real plan, she realized she might want to wait for them to bring the other person back.

Whoever it was, her odds might be better if they both escaped...and besides, the heroic thing to do would be to wait.

So she did.

They didn't give her food, but she wouldn't have taken it even if they had.

She did notice that her pack was in the back of the wagon. She hoped everything was still in it--whatever she'd had in it to begin with. She thought it was food and other supplies.

About 30 minutes later, as the sun was sinking to where it must have been late afternoon or early evening, she saw more of the villains coming back.

This time they did, in fact, have someone else with them.

A dark-skinned girl with angry gold eyes and wearing a uniform Momo didn't recognize.

She must have also been drugged or had a quirk used on her, because she didn't seem to know who anyone was either, but she sized Momo up when they shoved her next to her.

Momo thought it was unwise of them to tie them so close together, but they didn't seem to think they were a threat.

The girl had a few marks on her that showed they'd already had a fight with her before.

Momo risked whispering to her in a low voice, "Are you all right?"

The girl frowned at her. "Do I look all right?"

"I mean...can you run?" Momo glanced up to see if the villains were listening, but they were discussing whether to move out or wait overnight.

"I could...if I could get away." The girl looked at her hands. They were tied up with restraints Momo didn't recognize--they looked like paper with markings. "They got my hands in these d--n bindings, and they knocked me around a few times before they pinned me down."

Momo pursed her lips. "Do you have a combat type quirk? Or a way to escape?"

"What?" The girl glanced at her.

"If I got you free, could you attack or escape?" Momo asked impatiently.

"I could try," the girl said. "But it's 3 to 1--"

"Hey, stop whispering!" One of the villains suddenly noticed them. "Why didn't you gag them?"

He took the new girl and pulled her away to a piece of driftwood that was jammed into the rocks and hooked her to that.

Momo didn't believe it would really hold her, but she couldn't seem to move her arms at all to yank free.

Hmm....what was in those bindings? A nerve nullifying agent?

It was getting darker, nearly twilight.

If there was any chance of running, it would have to be before dark.

Momo began to bend over a little to hide her quirk as she concentrated on her creation. She would only get one chance, probably.

She hoped they didn't know her quirk... They couldn't, right?

The men were putting up some kind of tent or some sheet, to hide their presence. How it would she had no idea, till she saw it change to look like the landscape. What kind of quirk was that?

She tossed the bomb she'd just made into the wagon and then ducked.

It wasn't a very strong bomb, modeled after the land mines UA used in training, but it still sent the wagon scattering into bits. Some of them hit her in the arms, but she ignored it.

The villains yelped and ducked, assuming they'd been attacked.

Momo's rope had come off the wagon when it exploded, and she got up, grabbed her bag where it had landed on the sand, and ran, though her ears were ringing and her head was buzzing from the impact.

She ran up to the other girl and yanked her binding off the rock.

"Come on," she said, her own voice sounded funny and muted, but the girl could read her lips anyway. She nodded and followed.

Momo dashed over the sand.

The men were starting to look around. They glanced towards her and began swearing.

Momo was yanking her wrists out of the rope, and they had red marks on them, but at least they had not lost all feeling yet. They hurt as the blood rushed back towards them, but she forced herself to shake them to speed it up.

The other girl was running much faster than her now, but her arms were hanging limp. She pulled ahead of Momo and then looked at her oddly. "Hurry up!"

Momo realized this girl has just...run onto the water.

She stared at her. "What...?"

"Come on, get on the waves," the girl said.

"I can't do that!" Momo cried. "I didn't even know that was your quirk."

"My what?" the girl said. "Are you crazy? They're going to catch you."

Momo shook her head.

The girl plodded back toward her. "Get these off my hands." She held up her arms very stiffly.

Momo formed a knife out of her hand and sliced through the paper/cloth binding easily enough.

The girl seemed surprised at her doing it that fast.

But the men had already gotten to them.

"Nice try." One had some kind of net. "But--"

Momo didn't wait for him to throw it. She ducked and threw something at them.

The sonic bomb was weak, since she didn't want to knock herself and the girl out, but right next to them in the air, it shocked them into falling over, dizzy.

"What was that?" the girl said.

"Nevermind that, run." Momo ran and realized the sand was slowing her down. She made a staff out of her arm and used it to vault herself several meters forward.

The other girl was keeping up just with running. She rubbed her hands. "I can attack now. I still say we go underwater. Cloud are good with water."

"I can't walk on water," Mom said.

"Can't you send your chakra out?" the girl said.

"What? I don't even know what you mean by that," Momo answered.

She thought. "I can make breathing masks."

"Uhh fine, I guess." The girl was puzzled. "How are you gonna do that without a scroll?"

Momo just shrugged, then she stopped running and raced into the water's edge itself.

The girl followed, still standing on top of it.

The men were getting up again, though they were staggering like they were drunk.

"Losing time," the girl said.

Momo pulled the breathing masks out of her shoulder. "Here." She handed her one. "Just put it over your mouth. It'll last maybe 20-30 minutes."

"That better be enough time." The girl put it on. "That water is ice cold, but better that than being taken."

She took Momo's arm. "Hang on."

"What?" Momo said.

The girl promptly picked her up like she was a sack of potatoes and leaped onto the water's surface and then began running over it.

She was much stronger than she looked.

Momo glanced down at the water. It didn't look very friendly with the light sinking below the horizon.

The men cursed at them and tried to run after--but they didn't seem as sure-footed as the girl on the water. They wobbled.

"Poorly trained shinobi, if they are shinobi," the girl said in disgust. "Clearly they're not Lightning shinobi. We have to get lost while they're still far away. Get ready to dive."

Momo nodded.

The girl stopped running on the waves and then released whatever power she was using to stand on them, and they both plunged into the sea.

It was ice cold.

Momo had little time to focus on that though. She started to swim as far down as she could stand. The water pressure increased though.

After only 5 meters or so, she was struggling, but the other girl seemed to have a way to push harder. She glanced at Momo and motioned at her.

Momo struggled.

The girl finally grabbed her arm and then, like with her feet, propelling them further away.

The masks lasted a full 15 minutes before Momo could tell they were starting to filter less.

They might get another 10 minutes out of them, she thought.

But by now the girls had lost the villains. They clearly hadn't been able to follow them under the water the same way.

She motioned at Momo that she wanted to head up.

So they did.

Even after just 20 minutes, the light had changed a lot. It was definitely twilight now, almost night.

They could see land, but they'd moved at least 200 meters away from it.

"Wow," Momo said through her mask. "You're a strong swimmer."

"It's easier when you can use your chakra correctly." The girl sounded a bit salty about it. "But, at least we got away... Where'd you get these masks from? They last much longer than reeds."

"I'm not sure... Uh, I made them," Momo said. "I mean, the design is adapted from a patented label, but I made it myself."

"I wish we had those at home," the girl said. "Uh...by the way, what's your name?"

"Oh...Momo," Momo said. "Yaoyurozu..." Usually she said her last name first, but for whatever reason she'd felt like her first name was more acceptable.

"Karui," the girl answered. "Of Cloud...but you got that already... If we live through the night, remind me to thank you for the save back there. And if we don't catch our deaths with this icy water."

"I think I'm going numb," Momo said.

"It's too cold to swim," Karui said. "We have to get out. Walking the rest of the way doesn't sound fun, but it'd be faster than swimming. Then we could dry off."

She easily climbed out of the water. She just stuck to it.

Momo was amazed.

"Come on," Karui said. "Can't you do anything with your chakra?"

"I can't do that. That's not my quirk," Momo said, shivering.

"Quirk? No, just push your energy out... Everyone can do it." Karui was exaggerating there, since a non-shinobi wouldn't have known how.

Momo thought she was crazy.

But then something in her head said, "Do it."

She had nothing to lose by trying, she supposed.

She put her hands on the water like it was a table and thought of energy going out of them.

To her great upset, they suddenly stuck to the water like it was plastic wrap sticking to your feet.

She pushed, and the water shifted under her hands like a trampoline might bend but still support weight.

"There." Karui took her by her shoulders and pulled her up.