Dabi's frustration continued to grow as he realized he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. It had been almost two hours since the meeting and he was still affected by what had happened. He couldn't seem to calm down, which was starting to become an issue, with his flames reacting so strongly to his emotions. He could feel the warmth emanating from his wrists and engulfing his whole hands. He took a deep breath. He had to keep his feelings in check. He could not afford to accidentally burn down his surroundings right now. What little he owned was there with him, in this shitty motel room.

A new text from Jin distracted him from his thoughts. He had discreetly followed Namie from the location he left her at, to get her address and had just sent it to Dabi, as he had requested.

Finally. It was time to leave. Dabi grabbed a black hoodie from the pile of clothes that was growing on the chair, as well as a black scarf to cover the bottom half of his face. If anyone recognized him, it was gonna be a huge mess, so he would have to be careful for once. He lifted the scarf up above his nose as he crossed the street to reach the supermarket nearby. If he was going to spend the night watching her apartment, he was gonna need something to eat, so he ended up buying a sandwich, and an energy drink.

Few days prior, Spinner had stolen a van that was still in good shape, even after their encounter with the whole Overhaul thing. He entered the vehicle and took the direction that Jin had indicated in his messages. Why did he have to send so many messages to report one simple information. He'd have to talk to him about that at some point probably, it was starting to get on his nerves.

Apparently, Namie's apartment was the one on the ground floor, barely elevated from the street. Her windows were covered with thick curtains, but he could still distinguish the shape of the furniture in the rooms.

The lights were soon turned off in what he had deduced was the living room, and he could see Namie's silhouette appearing in the other room. Even if it was just as a shadow casted on the curtains, the sight of her made all of the anger resurface. He did not notice as the coating of the wheel started to melt where his hands were still holding it tightly.

The burning sensation of a chunk of melted plastic landing on his legs made him realize he was probably holding on to a lot of frustration, to have his hands warm enough for that to happen. He took them off of the wheel and tried to calm down for a few seconds.

When he looked back up at the apartment, he was surprised by the scene that unfolded before his eyes. The sight of Namie's dark shape, bringing her hands to her chest and slowly going down her stomach, was troubling him. What the f-? A look of realization crossed his face as Namie let her shirt fall off her shoulders. Ooooh. The left side of his mouth curled up in a smile as he guessed the shape of a bra being taken off and appreciated her flexibility as she bent down to remove her last piece of clothing. Funny, what the sight of a woman undressing in front of you could do to the brain. In fact, he had to admit, no matter how resentful he was towards her, this was fucking hot and all he could think of at the moment was how he would have liked to see more than just a damn shadow.

A noise coming from his phone made him bow his head, and when he turned it back up, Namie was nowhere to be seen. Shit! He opened up the notification.

- Low-cost Deadpool -

Oi Dabi, you still alive? You didn't answer my texts, I'm worried. Hope you're feeling better!

- Low-cost Deadpool -

HA YOU'RE SO WEAK! YOU'RE LIKE A PATHETIC LITTLE FLOWER, YOU GOT CRUSHED SO EASILY! YOU FRAGILE BASTARD!

Dabi rolled his eyes, and answered with a simple "Fuck you". Jin was such a pain in the ass sometimes. He tried to focus again on his current mission and looked back up at the apartment. The lights were still on, so she was still inside.

A bit more than half an hour passed before Namie's silhouette appeared again at the window. What the hell took so long? He had started to worry that she was onto him and had tried to escape the surveillance. He let out a sigh of relief for not having lost her so quickly, just as she neared the window to shut down the blinds. The lights went off shortly after, and he figured she finally went to sleep.

A short while after, his stomach started to grumble, and made him realize he still hadn't eaten that day. He turned on the radio to have a background noise and started unpacking his sandwich. As he started his dinner, his thoughts drifted back to the events from earlier that day.

This encounter with Namie had definitely been something. He still felt a bit nauseous from what had happened. He had never felt a memory so vividly, and didn't remember it to be so painful in the first place. Of course, unleashing flames that burn at 4000 degrees tends to hurt quite a bit, but on this hill, he didn't remember feeling anything. It felt like he had been numbed, as much physically as emotionally. He couldn't figure out why it had felt so different from what he remembered. And now, just thinking about it again made a feeling of anger crush his chest, and he could feel himself burning inside.

In an attempt to calm down and avoid burning down the van, he let his head fall back and closed his eyes. It turned out, he was so worn out by everything that had happened this day, that this was enough to lure him into sleep.

Dabi had a hard time opening his eyes, as the first rays of sun reached his cheeks. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was and realized he had actually fallen asleep. He looked at the empty can in the passenger seat. Energy drink, my ass! He grumbled as he crushed it in his fist and threw it in the back of the van.

He looked up at the street, and at Namie's apartment where the blinds were still closed. A quick glance on his phone made him aware that it was barely 6 am, which meant that he was probably still asleep. He would have to wait.

After a moment, the blinds opened, and Namie started her day. She was moving around her apartment, turning on her TV, probably eating breakfast and then quickly disappeared from view. When she came back, the same scene as the previous night took place, but in reverse. Instead of taking clothes off, she was putting them on, and he had to admit it was way less sexy. He let out a chuckle as he watched her struggle to zip up what seemed to be a dress. Well, if not hot, at least it was entertaining.

A few more moments later, she turned the lights off and finally left the apartment. The street was a bit busier now that the day had started for most people. With his hood and scarf, it would be quite easy for Dabi to blend in, so he decided to follow her on foot.

They walked for about half an hour down the street until they reached a square, where she entered a small building. Shortly after, he found himself standing in front of this same building, trying to figure out where she was. He saw a metal plate on the outside of the building, with Namie's name and phone number written on it, as well as an indication of which floor her office was.

Dabi looked around and was relieved to find no hero agency around. This meant that he could just sit in the small park in front of this building, and very likely not be bothered. He'd still have to stay on his guard, but it should be easier than expected. He found a nice bench that allowed him to have a direct view of the building's hallway, where Namie's office was located.

At the end of the relatively uneventful day, he followed her back to her apartment and settled in the van. Again the evening was quite boring too, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Well that was until late at night, when the same scene as the previous night unfolded. Once again, he could see the silhouette of Namie undressing through the curtains, except this time, it seemed that while doing so, she was also… dancing? He smiled and made himself comfortable in his seat as he took in every single one of her movement. If he had a show like that every night, this week of surveillance might not be such a drag after all.

After a very long week of observation, he finally had a pretty good grasp of her life.

During the week, she was working in her office from around 8 am to 6-7 pm. She usually took a lunch break in the park he was observing her from, which had ended up being quite tricky. At one point he even thought she had recognized him, but it was actually a false alarm. She had quite a lot of pro-heroes as patients, he recognized some of them, such as Mt. Lady and one of those Wild Pussycats people that the team had encountered a few months ago, and some other heroes, he guessed from the costumes. Most of her patients were civilians. Among them were the police commissioner, some journalists, and members of the mayor's office. She was not bragging back then, she did have connexions.

She also worked on Saturday mornings, and it seems that she received younger patients, probably students. He also saw Eraserhead enter the building that day, with a young grey-haired girl. He wondered if she was the child that Shigaraki had been talking about, she matched the description pretty well. For whatever reason, Namie was also going to her office for a few hours on Sundays, although he couldn't see anyone enter the building then, so she didn't seem to have appointments.

Regarding her personal life, he didn't actually learn much. She went to the gym three times during the week, for a few hours, and always met with a red-haired woman at these times. She met this woman again during the weekend, so she was probably a good friend of hers. The rest of the weekend, she did not do much: went shopping, took a walk, and otherwise stayed at her place, moving around a lot.

It seemed that she had a pretty good and quiet life. She had a job that she was successful at, if the number and rank of her patients were any indications. She was liked by people, as he had seen from any interactions she had with everyone she crossed paths with. She seemed happy too, was always smiling and dancing in her apartment. It was definitely not the life of a reject like himself and the other members of the League. He really didn't understand why she wanted to join them, what her motivations were…

After one last evening of surveillance, Dabi finally made his way to the meeting point, to report to Shigaraki, questions still in his mind, that even this night's shadow puppet show had not been enough to distract him from. He was determined, he had to figure this out.