The Girl with Silver Hair and Pointy Ears
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Spiral Flames in Lugnica! Finally, I know, finally I updated. Apologies it took so long, I was closing out The Servant Who Will Rule the Seas and also had a busy weekend so I wasn't even able to get it to my beta reader until this week. But it's here now and hopefully it was worth the wait, but I'll let you decide on that and don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Now I've kept y'all waiting long enough, so with no review questions this week let's get to the story!
The Kingdom of Lugnica: City Fountain
'Okay, Dabi, think.' The pyrokinetic ordered himself. 'What just happened and what was the cause of it?' The first part of that question was relatively easy to answer: he had died.
Even now, he could recall the feeling of sudden separation as that red-haired knight's hand chopped off his head. The thought had occurred to him that maybe the whole thing had been an illusion, but if so, how did they reset and how did Nejire see the same thing? Moreover, he had been close enough to death enough times to know what it felt like.
So, some way somehow, both he and the blue-haired hero had been reset to this position right after he had gotten decapitated. Speaking of which:
"Could you stop looking at my neck already? Dabi said in annoyance as Nejire continued to circle around him, looking intently for any sign of where his neck had been cut. "My head is perfectly fine."
"Yeah it is, but how?" The U.A. student asked as she stopped in front of him with a finger to her chin. "Even some of the best healing Quirks couldn't do much for a decapitation unless your head was put back on right away. Even then, it would be a long shot as to whether or not you'd survive."
"The only Quirk I know that might be able to return someone's decapitated body to what it was previously is that Eri girl's." Dabi added. "But she needs physical contact to do that and I haven't seen her anywhere so far." He gritted his teeth a little then. "This must be the work of that damn puny witch Pandora."
"I mean, she was able to drop us here in the first place with that strange power of hers so it wouldn't be so weird if she did have something to do with this. Too bad she isn't here right now to give an explanation about what's going on." Nejire commented before suddenly remembering something. "Oh wait! She did mention that thing about us finding a, what was it, silver-eared half, uh, elephant!"
"She said 'elf' you airhead." The pyrokinetic corrected in a deadpan tone. "Silver-haired half-elf."
"Oh, you were paying attention." The hero-in-training said while clapping. "That's wonderful!"
"Spare me." Dabi said while rolling his eyes. "Pandora promised us those Divine Protections or whatever, so I listened enough to get a general idea of what she wanted. Honestly, I'd hoped to settle it earlier until the red-headed monster showed up."
"Oh yeah, you tried to burn me again." Nejire said with a frown before returning to a more neutral expression. "But I guess I can't get too mad at you considering you got your block chopped off. Hey hey, maybe we should go find that guy and see if he can help us."
"Screw that." Dabi instantly replied. "What makes you think he won't take one look at my burnt mug and chop my head off again?"
"I mean, he asked you to stop trying to burn people last time." The wave motion girl pointed out. "And we're not accomplishing anything by hanging around here."
"No, we're not." The flame Quirk wielder admitted as he started walking down the alley. "So let's start asking around about that elf girl, but no knights. Losing my head once is more than enough."
"Then don't cause trouble again." Nejire retorted good-naturedly. "And remember to ask nicely. People will be far more willing to help when you act friendly."
"Yeah, but they don't appreciate it when you try to act like their mom." Dabi pointed out. "And we're looking for a silver-haired half-elf. How hard could finding someone like that…be?"
He quickly got his answer when they stepped out onto the main street and noticed that not all of the people looked exactly like, people. In fact, quite a few of them had animalistic features ranging from simple things like fangs or ears to humanoid animal bodies.
Such a sight didn't frighten the duo by any means as they had seen far weirder types of Quirks in their world. But it did mean that finding a half-elf in this city might be closer to finding a needle in a haystack than they had hoped.
Still, it was the only lead they had and so the two proceeded through what they now saw was a marketplace with numerous stalls selling everything from food to jewelry. It probably explained why not many people gave them a second glance unless they took a closer look at the outfits they were wearing, namely Nejire's. Dabi's outfit could just about pass for a drab coat from this world, especially if Reinhard's uniform was anything to go by, but bodysuits were another story.
It got really annoying when she had to leap out in the middle of the main road and save a kid from getting hit by a fast-moving carriage, which was pulled by some kind of giant lizard or dinosaur. The crowd applauded and then several people came in bombarding her with questions about her outfit and what kind of demi-human she was. Nejire answered back with several questions of her own, and Dabi finally had to pull her away from the crowd and further down the street.
"Hey hey, what's the big idea?" The hero-in-training asked as the villain finally let her arm go.
"You were wasting time, that's what the big idea is." Dabi responded without looking at her. "We're trying to find someone here and it's gonna take a lot longer if you spend hours playing twenty questions."
"But what if someone knows where the girl we're looking for is?" Nejire countered. "And it would've been rude to not answer at least some of their questions."
"You heroes save people and head off to the next problem all the time without answering any questions." Dabi pointed out as he moved to cut through a nearby alley. "No reason to break stride here. Now let's head for another section of the city. Who we're looking for is probably—"
He stopped upon noticing three individuals standing in the center of the alley, blocking their way.
"Well what do we have here." The apparent leader of the trio said. He was a grey-haired young man dressed in what was apparently grey prison garb with shackles on his wrists and ankles along with piercings on his face. "You two are some odd lookin' demi-humans."
The other two were dressed in differing outfits with the smallest one, possibly just four feet, wearing a brownish red cloak with a bowl haircut. The biggest one looked like he came out of the Arabian Knights with a vest, baggy pants and braided hair covered by some kind of wrap on his head.
"Oh, we're not demi-humans." Nejire replied, not seeming to notice that the three individuals were obviously thugs. "I style my hair this way when I'm in costume. And Dabi's a burn victim."
"Aren't you technically a burn victim too?" The pyrokinetic pointed out.
"I don't know, flame man, am I a burn victim?" Nejire replied with the kind of smile that said 'eat shit and die.' "Or is setting girls on fire how you tell them you like them?"
Dabi rolled his eyes at the comment before deciding it was best to deal with the current problem.
"Anyway, what do you pricks want?" He asked with an obvious lack of interest. "Are you gonna try to rob us or somethin'?"
"Well duh!" Exclaimed the leader as he pulled out a pair of daggers. "Now fork over all you got before I carve it out of ya!"
The hero and villain both glanced at each other before shrugging and holding up their hands. Dabi's blue flames shot up and formed a large fireball in his hand while Nejire's Wave Motion Quirk spiraled in the palm of her hand. That instantly got rid of the thieves' bravado as they realized they weren't dealing with ordinary people before quickly turning and running for the other end of the alley.
Strangely, the leader suddenly fell to the ground due to a figure coming in from the other side of the alley and leaping off his head.
"Sorry, coming through." A small girl with very short blond hair said. She wasn't dressed too extravagantly with a brown vest, what appeared to be a black top underneath said vest that left her midriff exposed, black pants with an incomplete left leg and a long, flowing red scarf.
She bolted past Nejire and Dabi with a quick enough glance to notice their oddness before rushing out the other side of the alley.
"She seemed in an awful hurry." Nejire noted. "You don't think she did something bad, do you?" Her question would be answered, but it wouldn't come from Dabi.
"Wait! Stop thief!" Yelled another girl who turned and ran into the alley, quickly apologizing as she passed by the three thieves who were now just interested in getting away.
"Oh, she went this way." Nejire called, pointing out of the alley. "That is if you're looking for a little blond girl."
"I am." The girl replied before looking both ways down the street. "Oh no, she's gone."
"Probably slipped into the crowd and then back into one of the other alleys." Dabi said dismissively. "In a city this size, you'd be lucky to find her at all, especially if she knows the place."
"Then do you know where she might've gone?" The victim asked. "I need to find what she stole."
"We've already got someone else we're looking for." The flame Quirk user answered. "We don't have time to be helping—"
"Actually, we have plenty of time." Nejire interrupted. "And besides, I've been training to help people for a few years now, so we should be able to narrow down the thief's location fairly quickly."
"What in the world are you—" Dabi started to ask before the blue-haired girl grabbed him and pulled him further into the alley.
"Have you really not noticed?" She asked. "You remember the description we were given, right?"
The annoyed pyrokinetic didn't know what she was getting at but glanced back over at the girl anyway. She had on long white boots and a short white dress with purple frills on the bottom and top but no sleeves or shoulders. Instead, her large robe-like sleeves appeared to be separate from the rest of her outfit.
But those weren't the most important details. What was really important was the fact that the girl had long, flowing silver hair. "Oh yeah." Dabi said. "Hey girl, what species of flower is that in your hair, do you know?"
"Oh, this." She replied in slight confusion as she pulled her hair back slightly while touching the flower, revealing a pointed ear. "It was something Puck gave to me, although, I don't remember what sort of flower it was supposed to be."
"Strange, I thought elves knew all about the forest." Dabi dryly commented. "Maybe I heard wrong."
"Well, I'm actually a half-elf and—"
"Lia!" A voice from seemingly out of nowhere called out before a small, grey cat suddenly flew out of her hair.
"We've been over this." The floating cat said. "Don't just go telling people you're a half-elf."
"OH MY GOODNESS!" Nejire cheered as she was suddenly up close to the cat and to the Lia girl. "You have a floating cat?! That's so neat! Are there more like him? Is this one a boy or a girl? If there are more do they talk like him, then how is he flying—AH!"
"Will you give it a rest." Dabi said in mild annoyance while pulling Nejire back. "Why don't we all start by introducing ourselves. I'll go first just so I can get it out of the way, the name's Dabi."
"And I'm Nejire Hado!" The blue-haired girl exclaimed. "It's nice to meet you, Lia!"
"Actually, 'Lia' is what Puck calls me." The half-elf replied before bowing formally. "My real name is Emilia. It's nice to meet both of you. And, as said, this is my friend Puck."
"Hey there." Puck said while waving. "And to answer a few of your questions, I'm not actually a cat but a spirt that looks like one. And sorry to tell ya, but there's only one talking cat spirit like me flyin' around."
"Oh, you're a lucky girl, Emilia." Nejire said excitedIy. "I would love to have a flying talking cat."
"Why don't you or that cat do something useful with that 'flying' and try to spot the thief." The pyrokinetic suggested. "She's probably long gone since we've been standing here wasting time, but it's worth a look."
"Wait, you can fly too?" Puck questioned as he floated closer to Nejire.
"Yep." She replied with a big smile as she floated several feet up in the air. "It's taken some practice but I'm really good at it now."
"Wow, I've never seen someone float with light magic before." Puck observed as he circled around Nejire's feet to get a better look at her Wave Motion Quirk.
Naturally, the U.A. student wouldn't just hang still in the air. She twisted and turned while laughing and explaining how her Quirk functioned. Dabi just sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"You'll have to forgive Puck." Emilia said. "Your friend Nejire reminds him of someone he knows at the mansion. She also has short blue hair."
"You've got animal people here so I can't say I'm surprised about you having people with colorful hair." The villain replied, trying not to sound bored. "Anyway, let's go report your item stolen to whoever the authorities are around here and they'll probably have it back in no time."
'Assuming any more of them are like that Reinhard guy.' He thought while trying not to rub his neck. 'Seriously, fuck that guy.'
"I'm sorry but we can't do that." Emilia said while forming an "X" with her arms.
"Why not?" Nejire asked, now hanging upside down in the air near Emilia's head. "I thought the knights around here are supposed to be awesome."
"It's not that I can't trust them with finding what was stolen." The silver-haired girl replied. "It's just that this is the one item I have to find on my own, or at least without the help of the knights. But since neither of you are knights, it should be fine if you help, right Puck?"
"Yep." Puck replied while landing on Emilia's shoulder. "Now let's get to scouring the kingdom!"
A Couple Hours Later: The Slums
"It doesn't surprise me in the least that our thief would be here." Dabi noted as they walked through the dilapidated lower section of the city. The two had talked with Emilia while they searched and managed to get a much better grasp of their situation.
The city they were in was the capital city of the Kingdom of Lugnica; hence, its large size which started with the royals and other wealthy citizens in the more central part of the city and got to be poorer and poorer the farther out one went from the royal castle. Naturally, that meant the slums were almost on the outskirts of the city and took a bit to walk too.
They would have gotten there sooner except Emilia had insisted on stopping to help a lost child find her parents. Dabi, naturally, said to leave the brat to someone else but was quickly overridden by Emilia, Nejire and Puck. The flame user tried to tell them that the longer they let the thief wander, the more likely she would pawn off whatever she had stolen but their minds were set on it.
There were two things in Dabi's mind:
On the upside, it didn't take too long to find the little girl's father: a green-haired man running a stand that sold "appas" which were basically this world's version of apples.
On the downside, in a manner of speaking, the fruit merchant actually was familiar with the thief who had stolen from Emilia, a girl named Felt. Now this was technically good news for them, but Nejire and Emilia both made fun of the fact that Dabi had wanted to leave the lost girl be.
"Yeah, it worked out this time but that doesn't mean it's gonna work that way every time." The pyrokinetic grunted. "Take it from me, cute and adorable does not always mean safe."
"I think you're just upset that our idea wound up getting us closer to our goal than your idea." Nejire teased. "But Emilia's right, helping others can wind up being beneficial for you as well as them."
"I work with people when they prove themselves to be useful." Dabi retorted. "Otherwise there isn't much point in bothering as far as I'm concerned."
"He doesn't think very highly of people, does he?" Emilia whispered to Nejire.
"Nope." The Big Three member responded cheerfully while flipping her hair with her hand. "I actually used to have long hair like yours until that guy burned it off."
"Dabi burned your hair off?" A surprised Emilia said. "But why on Earth would he do that? I thought the two of you are friends?"
"Our little alliance is, complicated, to say the least." Nejire replied. "I would honestly advise keeping an eye on him. He might not look like it but he's very opportunistic."
"She's not wrong, Lia," came Puck's voice from the green crystal around Emilia's neck. "That guy gives off a malicious aura. He obviously doesn't have good intentions, but what intentions I can read are vague at best. It's like the guy isn't sure what he's after."
"Oh, he knows what he's after." The U.A. student stated. "He just has no idea how to go about getting it. For that matter, I'm not entirely sure what to do either now that we're in this kingdom."
"You are both clearly from outside of this country." Emilia noted. "If you need help getting home, then I'm certain a friend of mine could help."
"We don't want to be a bother or anything." Nejire replied with a wave. "You can let us worry about how we're getting ourselves out of this."
"But you're already helping me more than you know." The silver-haired girl countered. "The item I'm seeking, my insignia, is extremely valuable. Also, it wouldn't feel right if I didn't repay you for all of your help in some way."
"Well, collecting favors isn't really something I was brought up to do." Nejire said. "I was always taught to help others without expecting anything in return."
"I wasn't." Dabi said suddenly. "If you're feeling generous after this, then I'll gladly take a reward."
Even with his back turned, Nejire knew he had a somewhat evil grin on his face. 'Yeah, that's what I figured.' The U.A. student thought. Not that she would ever bought his sudden desire to cooperate as genuine.
Dabi was undoubtedly behaving right now because he had recently been decapitated and didn't want to risk causing a similar incident, not that Nejire blamed him. So instead, he was doing just as she said and being opportunistic. He was hanging around here right now because it was useful, and he was helping Emilia right now in order to figure out what Pandora wanted them to do. Nejire hadn't forgotten how he had tried to kill her earlier or the other times he had tried killing her and her friends.
Even now, just thinking of being set on fire by him, the feel of the flames burning her skin as he no doubt laughed gleefully. It was enough to make her heart start racing and her breathing somewhat erratic.
She clenched her fist for a moment, working to steady her breathing a bit as Emilia and Dabi continued having a bit of a back and forth talk about when it was and wasn't a proper time to accept a reward.
'Remember your training, Nejire…' She mentally told herself. 'Don't let fear control you.'
"This appears to be the right place." Dabi said suddenly, snapping Nejire out of her thoughts. "It's an utter shithole."
He wasn't far off the mark. The houses didn't look good to begin with in this section of the city, and the farther in they went, the worse off some of them seemed. Some had collapsed roofs while others had fallen walls, and some had so few pieces holding up the roof that it was a miracle they hadn't collapsed already.
The state of the people there was worse. Many of them had practical rags on, and even more of them had outfits that were covered with dirt.
The thing that stuck with Nejire the most were their eyes. The ones who ran and hid from them had frightened eyes as if they expected someone to attack them the moment they got too close. And the ones who didn't run or barely spared them a glance, had eyes that looked absolutely dead.
It was the kind of look that the blue-haired girl had gotten more accustomed too recently than she'd ever cared too. And one of the people responsible was walking along next to them.
That witch Pandora really did have a sick sense of humor.
"Alright." Emilia said after a moment. "We're here now but I just realized something: does anyone know what Felt's house looks like?"
"Given that she was dressed slightly better than the rest of these losers." Dabi said. "Probably one of the better kept places. Why don't you fly up and take a look for something like that, Wave Girl."
"Please, call me Hado." She replied with the kind of polite smile that said, 'screw you.' "And I can do that, wait here just a moment." She floated off the ground, rising above the dilapidated houses and other condemned buildings while turning to see as much as possible. "Wait a sec, I think I've got something."
There was an old two-story house not far from where they were and, as Dabi had guessed, it looked better kept with some of its less boarded up windows still intact.
"Nejire or, uh, Hado." Emilia called. "Can you see anything up there?!"
"Well, for starters, 'you' can call me Nejire." The wave motion girl said as she landed. "And yes, if we keep going straight down this road, then we'll arrive at what I hope is the house we've been looking for."
"You don't have to worry too much if it's not." The half-elf replied. "In the worst case scenario, we can ask the spirits if they've seen her."
"You're gonna have to go into a better explanation at some point on why talkin' to dead people gives you magic powers." Dabi dryly commented as they continued on.
According to their new friend, to a degree, she was a Spirits Arts user. Apparently, they could cast magic in the form of the four elements or some variation of them thanks to being able to commune and form contracts with spirits. It had something to do with the spirits collecting Mana from the environment while other magic users wielded the Mana generated by their body.
A lot of it went over Nejire's head and Dabi didn't actually care that much how it worked at first until he learned the kind of magic Emilia specialized in.
"Puck can explain it a little better than me." Emilia stated. "But we'll have to put it on hold for now since we're here."
Even without Nejire's confirmation, Emilia was able to determine that they were at the right place. The building was like the U.A. student had described: give or take two stories tall, rundown, managed to have all of its windows either intact or boarded up to some degree and an at least somewhat solid door.
"Okay." Nejire said. "One of us should go around the back and make sure that there aren't any exits or backdoors the thief can use to escape. If we move quickly enough, then I should be able to restrain them with my Quirk and we can get your insignia back without any problems."
"That sounds good." Emilia agreed before turning to the pyrokinetic. "Dabi, do you think—"
"Not gonna happen." He replied, immediately shooting the idea down. "Your magic would be better suited to this given that you can just seal the doors closed with your power. And I know how thieves think, that girl will be more willing to negotiate if the person she stole from isn't in the same room."
Nejire and Emilia looked at each other upon hearing Dabi's reasoning.
"He's not exactly wrong." The blue-haired girl admitted. "Dabi's self-control isn't his strong suit. He could light the whole building on fire if we leave him to guard the back."
"I'll admit that's true." Emilia said. "But I still feel like I should be the one confronting the thief. The insignia is my responsibility, after all."
"You can confront her when we catch her." Dabi stated derisively. "Then you can make her say she's sorry and all of that nonsense. Besides, you're still taking on the responsibility by making sure she can't escape out the back, so it's not like we're telling you to do nothing."
"Alright." The half-elf agreed reluctantly. "But if something does go wrong in there, then please say something."
"We will, and don't worry." Nejire assured with a smile. "We've dealt with plenty of situations like these before."
Emilia nodded in understanding before heading around the back while the villain and hero-in-training approached the front door.
"I'm surprised, Dabi, I never expected you to be so worried about her." Nejire noted.
"Don't get the wrong idea." He growled. "I just want to get out of this world as fast as possible, and since I can't torch the witch who sent us here, I'm just playing along. Personally, I couldn't care less what happens to her. So let's get this over with."
The villain then unceremoniously kicked the door in before strolling inside with a lit flame on his left hand.
"Dabi." Nejire protested. "Let's try and talk this out with the—"
She almost ran into the villain who had stopped abruptly in front of her, gazing intently at something. The blue-haired girl moved to look at what it was and froze.
In front of them, now illuminated by the villain's blue flames was a giant, dark-skinned man kneeling on the floor. The reason why became clear when they noted that the giant had a profusely bleeding cut on the back of his neck.
Nejire had only a short time to take this in before Dabi suddenly shoved her to the side yelling "MOVE" It was none too soon as a blade passed mere inches from her neck before a figure gracefully landed and then flipped backwards to avoid a blast of fire from the pyrokinetic.
"Oh? I was sure that I hid my presence." The assailant said.
They could now see she was a black-haired woman of slightly below average height wearing a revealing purple outfit with a long purplish black cape. She held what appeared to be a purple-bladed kukri weapon, the light from the recently set flames of the house glinting off of it.
Nejire would have scolded Dabi for setting fire to the old building except it's what was now providing the light that let them see this apparently lethal stranger.
"You can hide your presence but not your shadow." The pyrokinetic stated as he summoned blue fire to both of his hands. "But what's the big idea in trying to kill us, anyway?"
"Witnesses would be a problem for someone like me." The black-haired woman replied with an evil smile. "I'm certain you can understand the inconvenience an assassin would face if they were recognized."
"An assassin?" Nejire repeated while looking around the room. "You…you killed them for the insignia, didn't you?"
"Oh, you know about that." The assassin drawled. "Then I suppose I can tell you my name. I am Elsa Granhiert, and I'll be opening your bowels this evening."
The smiling woman then shot forward at incredible speed, far faster than a normal human. If Nejire hadn't been used to the speed of people like Mirio and Iida, then she might not have seen this coming.
Fortunately, Nejire's guard was up now and she dodged into the air while Dabi, now expecting people to move a bit like Reinhard, was ready and able to dodge the attack and even counter with a quick fireball.
The assassin was quite nimble, though, and leapt right over it before going for the pyrokinetic again. Elsa was forced away when Nejire fired her Wave Motion Quirk, almost hitting her target if she hadn't dodged to the side.
Elsa then ran towards the wall and ascended it like some kind of cat using all four limbs before backflipping off of it and slashing at the blue-haired girl.
The Big Three member dropped backwards and to the floor, her arm instinctively held up in case a blow did get through. This happened to be a good idea on her part as a large cut appeared in her left gauntlet right after that.
Dabi threw more fireballs which Elsa evaded and Nejire had to duck to avoid.
"Will you watch where you're throwing those!" Nejire exclaimed, really not wanting to get burned today, or ever if she could avoid it.
"Stay in the air or stay down." He retorted. "I've got no interest in losing my head again!"
"And you should really be more worried about yourself." Elsa said as she seemed to appear behind Nejire with her blade raised.
As the blade came down, though, yellow energy seemed to emerge from the floor in a spiral motion, surrounding the assassin as her blade bounced off of it.
"Hey hey, that's my line." Nejire shot back as she stood up, her left hand glowing from the use of her Quirk.
"Oh, now this is interesting." Elsa said, examining her new prison. "I've never seen light magic used like this before."
"Yeah, we're just full of surprises." Dabi retorted before igniting another flame on his hand. "Now why don't you start talkin'. Who in the hell hired you to take the insignia?"
"Now don't think me so discourteous as to divulge the name of my employer." Elsa replied, still smiling evilly despite the situation. "Or at least that's what I would say, but my employer didn't give me their real name to begin with. In fact, the only instructions they gave me were to come here with the funds to purchase the insignia."
"Wait…" Nejire said, her eyes widening as she looked at the dead body. "So you weren't told to kill that man; and the girl, Felt, did you…"
"It simply occurred to me that disposing them both was easier." Elsa replied, her smile widening somewhat. "I believe I mentioned earlier, it would be an inconvenience if someone recognized me on the street, and their bowels looked so nice and healthy."
"You're a monster." Nejire stated with narrowed eyes while clenching her fist. "They might have been thieves but they didn't need to die. You even made a deal with them and then you killed them just because!"
"Guess we're in an agreement on this." Dabi said before blasting the black-haired woman with the full force of his blue flames, burning the skin off of her body as her flaming corpse fell to the floor.
"DABI!" The U.A. student yelled. "What are you doing?!"
"We didn't have any further use for her, and besides" He pointed out. "I thought you'd be happy to see that lunatic get roasted."
"But we could've just turned her in." Nejire shot back. "The knights might've known something else! Now what are we supposed to do?"
"Obviously we're stickin' with the half-elf." The villain retorted. "I get the feeling we were gonna wind up doing that anyway."
The hero-in-training wanted to say that he was wrong, but it was most likely true. That wasn't the point, though. Before she could argue further, however, Puck came flying in through a hole in the wall.
"Hey guys, everything okay in here?" Puck asked while floating around before taking in the scene of the burning body. "Whoa, it's a mess."
"Yeah, but we're fine." Dabi replied while massaging his neck a bit. "Some crazy knife bitch gave us some trouble, but she's roasted now. Guess the only thing left to do is find that insignia."
"Which hopefully wasn't on the body you just fried to a crisp." Nejire pointed out, causing Dabi to sweat drop a bit. "Honestly, if you had just let us—SPLURGH!"
The stunned bluenette looked down and noticed, to her horror, that a purple blade was piercing her abdomen.
"You needn't worry about me, little one." Elsa purred. "It's not the first time I've been set on fire."
The shocked hero turned her head to see that the assassin was not only alive but had all of her skin back.
"Instead, worry about giving me your bowels!" Elsa added.
The knife was yanked out of Nejire's stomach and back. The pain was now very present as she fell to the floor.
She wasn't aware of much else going on after that, not the sound of panicked voices or fire and what appeared to be ice flying through the air.
In fact, she was becoming far less aware as time went on, except for the blackness closing in around her.
'No, not now, not like this.' Nejire thought to herself as the faces of her friends flashed before her eyes. 'I still…need to get back.' Those were her last thoughts as she slipped away.
The Capital of Lugnica: The Fountain
Nejire gasped, taking in air as if she were about to suffocate.
Her eyes took a moment to adjust to her surroundings as she realized it was daytime again. Daytime in a familiar location.
They were back at the fountain again like the time Dabi had supposedly been killed.
Although, she was starting to doubt that quite a bit now because she had definitely been stabbed a moment ago.
'It really happened, didn't it…' She realized. 'I…actually died.'
So it seems Pandora's little gift extends to more than just Dabi, and depending on who you ask that might be a little inconvenient. But the main question is whether or not our hero/villain duo will figure out what's really going on. But before we get around to that, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Lastly, be sure to stop in next time as our duo figures out how best to deal with the lethal, seemingly unkillable assassin! 'Til then.