Loot House Rumble

Hello everyone and welcome to the third chapter of Spiral Flames In Lugnica! We got a fight set up for this chapter that'll pit our duo's abilities against one of Lugnica's more dangerous assassins so it should be fairly entertaining. Not to mention, there's also my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! And that's about it for this author's note so, with no review questions to answer this time around let's dive on in!

Capital City of Lugnica: The Fountain

'I died, I died, I died.' Nejire thought over and over again as she tried to control her breathing. 'It wasn't a near fatal injury or getting pulled back from the brink, I really, truly died!'

"Hey." Dabi's voice sounded suddenly, causing the U.A. student to jump a bit. "Take a deep breath already, everything's fine."

"…Fine?" Nejire repeated before standing up slowly. "A moment ago, I was dead, a knife tore through my abdomen and left me on the floor bleeding! I watched my life flash before my eyes as everything slipped away into…well it wasn't nothingness that's for sure!"

"You're preaching to the choir." Dabi shot back with narrowed eyes before pointing to his neck. "Need I remind you I was the first one of us to die, in this world and in our world. So believe me when I say I know the feeling. That's why I also know you can get over it."

"Did you just get over it when you died the first time?" Nejire responded with a surprisingly even voice.

Several blue flames lit up on Dabi's body in response to that before he clenched his fist and forcibly put them out.

"I accepted my first death." He spat. "No, I embraced it. I left behind the name Toya Todoroki in the river I jumped in to stop myself from burning alive as you may have heard. I allowed myself to be reborn as Dabi and my grudges have kept me alive long after I should've died! Death hasn't stopped me from pursuing my goals yet, and if you're half the hero you claim to be, then it won't stop you either."

The blue-haired girl went silent at that, digesting his words for several moments before sighing. "I guess…it wouldn't solve much sitting around here trying to wrap my head around everything. However it happened, we're still here and we've still got something to take care of."

"Better." The flame wielder said before turning to walk towards the main street. "Now come on. We've got an elf and her annoying talking cat to find."

"Half-elf." Nejire corrected as she moved to walk beside him with her hands behind her back. "That's probably important. Maybe this time she'll tell us why it's important, and maybe she'll tell us more about spirits and magic too."

"Feel free to flap your gums at her all you want after we find her." Dabi replied in his usual annoyed tone. "Right now, we're in a hurry."

"You think we need to head back to the slums?" The wave motion girl inquired.

"Where else would we be headed?" He asked back in irritation.

"It's just…I don't think we actually need to do that." Nejire answered. "I'm pretty sure she's not there right now."

"Why in the hell wouldn't she be there? And try to make your answer quick." Dabi decided to ask, grudgingly.

"Well, to start with," Nejire began, "We're back at midday and all the same people who were out before are out now doing the same things they did last time."

"Just cut to the chase and tell me where you're going with this." The pyrokinetic practically ordered.

"Come on, this way." She instructed before grabbing Dabi by the arm and leading him along. The annoyed villain had little choice but to go along with it, deciding to look around and see if he could figure out what she meant.

It all became clear, though, when they arrived at a specific spot in the street. The spot where a little girl was about to be run over by a wagon.

As before, the hero-in-training flew in and saved her easily, getting heartfelt gratitude from the mother and then bombarded by questions from the crowd about her outfit and whether or not she was a demi-human. Unlike last time, fortunately, Nejire said she and Dabi needed to get going and the two hurried down to another familiar alley.

"Did you see?" She finally asked. "That same girl, that same wagon, and the exact same incident."

"Yeah, and I almost wish I didn't." Dabi replied while putting a hand to his chin. "We weren't just sent back to the same place as before. All the events we went through last time are happening again too, albeit slightly differently because we acted slightly differently." He rubbed his head in annoyance then as the likely explanation came to him. "We're stuck in a damn time loop."

"One that activates whenever we die." Nejire added. "And if that's the case, then the next question we need to answer."

"Is whether or not we'll always be sent back to the same place and time." The pyrokinetic finished for her. "Which we can find out by not dying for a bit."

'It also means we have to keep each other alive.' He mused in annoyance. 'Because the reset happens even if only one of us dies.'

"That still means our best chance is probably that Emilia girl." Nejire surmised. "So we find her, help her, and then maybe the friend she mentioned can help us too."

"First things first then." Dabi reminded as they stepped into the same alley as before. And as if to further support their theory about a time loop, the same three goons were waiting for them ready to spout the exact same line.

"Well what do we have h—" The thug leader started to say before Dabi spawned a large blue fireball on his hand.

"Someone who'll roast your face off and stick those piercings in unpleasant places if you and your little shits don't scram right now." He said with a look of mild excitement.

Nejire wondered for a brief moment if he was going to fry them anyway before the trio of thugs turned tail and ran for the other end of the alley. And just like before, the little blonde thief, Felt, came leaping right over them and ran towards them. Unlike before, though, the duo knew the situation.

Just as Felt was going to leap up and off the wall, Nejire flew in from behind and grabbed her under her armpits.

"Hey what gives?!" The Thief exclaimed as she struggled in the heroine's grip. "Put me down, uh, whoever you're supposed to be!"

"Who me?" The U.A. student asked innocently. "I'm Nejire Hado, a hero in training."

"A what in training?" Felt asked back in confusion. Nejire noted for the first time that the thief had red eyes before answering.

"A hero." The wave motion wielder replied with a smile. "I know you have knights in this kingdom, but we don't have a lot of those where we come from."

"Yeah, your friend is way too scary to be a knight." Felt commented back before resuming her struggles. "Now let me go already! I haven't done—"

"Oh thank goodness," the voice of Emilia said as she came running down the alley. "Could you please hold her for another moment?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no." Felt panicked as she started wiggling and squirming in Nejire's arms, doing everything she could to twist and/or flip out of her grip.

"Here, let me." An annoyed Dabi said before grabbing Felt by the ankle right as the blue-haired girl was about to lose her grip.

The little thief yelped as she was suddenly upside down.

"Also, you reach for that knife, and I'll torch ya." He emphasized his point by lighting a blue flame on his hand with a menacing glare aimed at the young girl. She could tell pretty quickly that he did mean to kill or at least severely injure her if she tried something and instantly moved her hand away from the weapon she kept on the back of her belt.

"Please, we don't need to be rough or anything." Emilia said while holding up a placating hand. "I just need her to give back what she stole, that's all."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Felt replied curtly while crossing her arms, trying and failing to look dignified while hanging upside down. "I'm running late for a business transaction already and my client is going to get very upset if I don't make it in—hey!"

It seemed Dabi had little patience for whatever excuses Felt planned to come up with and simply started searching her pockets, regardless of how invasive he was being.

"Dabi!" Nejire exclaimed before grabbing Felt around the waist in an attempt to pull her away. "Now is not the time to be a pervert!"

"I'm not." The pyrokinetic shot back as he tried pulling the thief towards him. "I'm getting this done and over with."

"It'll be just as easy to convince her to give us what she stole back." Nejire pleaded while still pulling on Felt, creating an awkward tug of war.

"Not like it matters." Dabi reminded her. "She's gonna get way worse when she gets to where she's going."

"Both of you stop!" Emilia yelled, causing the trio to freeze, save for a small black item that fell out of the thief's pocket.

"There it is." Puck exclaimed as he came flying out of Emilia's hair and down to retrieve the insignia which they could now see was a black symbol with a red jewel in the center. "We need to be more careful, Lia, this is not something we want to lose."

"Guess that's that." The flame user commented with a shrug as he basically dropped Felt's ankle. If it weren't for Nejire, then the thief probably would've fallen to the ground. "Now beat it shrimp while I'm still in a good mood."

"What did you mean?" Felt said suddenly as she stood up and glared at Dabi.

"Pretty sure 'beat it' doesn't need to be spelled out." He replied before raising his hand to conjure some blue flames. Before he could, though, he was interrupted with another question.

"You said it was gonna get way worse where I was going." Felt pointed out. "What did you mean by that?"

"You're heading to the slums, aren't ya?" The pyrokinetic asked, now realizing his mistake. "After coming all the way out here to grab a specific item from a specific person, most thieves would be stealing money and multiple valuable items to pawn off. But you picked out this girl and snatched that specific thing from her which leads me to believe you were hired for this job."

"Or maybe I was just stealing something from the richest looking person I saw." Felt countered. "Don't know if you noticed but she doesn't look poor."

"I'm actually flat broke." Emilia revealed. "I was with someone who had money, but we got separated."

"Something a good thief would've known." Nejire chimed in. "I learned during my internships that thieves often pick out and observe possible marks. Given that you swiped that insignia off of her, which she never would've pulled out since it's not something she uses on a daily basis, you would've had to know she had it beforehand."

"Well, I'm kinda new to this whole—" Felt started to lie again before Dabi bonked her on the head.

"Don't even try it." He growled. "A newbie wouldn't be able to run through a crowded street and snatch something without hardly breaking stride. That's what you did, right?"

"Yes." Emilia answered for her. "It was so fast I almost didn't see what happened, and when I felt around in my pocket, my insignia was gone."

"Maybe don't say the name of it out loud either." Puck pointed out, causing the half-elf to go a little red with embarrassment.

"Guess that confirms it." Nejire chimed in. "So you were hired by someone to get that insignia, were you? I'll bet they also had a place where you were supposed to meet, right? Maybe somewhere down in the slums?"

"Like I'd tell any of you a damn thing!" Felt snapped. "You wouldn't understand what it's like, anyway, scraping by with whatever you can get your hands on!"

"Does this look like the face of someone who's had a happy life?" Dabi remarked while pointing to himself. "Spare me the poor little slum girl spiel, you're lucky enough to still have all of your skin. And if I were you, I'd find a nice family to adopt you because I imagine the one who hired you to get that insignia won't be too pleased to learn that you lost it."

"What do you mean by that?" Felt asked. "I'll just tell them I haven't gotten it yet."

"Felt." Nejire said while putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I get the feeling that you're not dealing with a person who just gives out second chances. If this insignia is so important that a professional thief like you was hired to steal it, then there's a good possibility they might kill you whether you have it or not. It's something powerful but evil people do sometimes when they can't afford to leave any loose ends that would lead back to them."

"Wait, you think…" the short thief started to say before a look of both realization and horror washed over her face. "But if that's true…Oh no—OLD MAN ROM!"

She turned to run back down the alley but was stopped by Dabi grabbing her by the scarf.

"Hey what gives?! I need to get back there now and warn the old man!"

"And I just realized that would be annoying for the three of us." Dabi replied. "You might survive that assassin, but they could escape and come after you both later, and us."

"An assassin." Puck repeated as he floated up near the pyrokinetic's face. "What makes you so sure an assassin is behind all of this?"

"It's what I would do." The flame wielder answered. "At least if I didn't incinerate the loose end myself, I'd send an assassin. Then I'd probably incinerate the assassin afterwards if I felt it was the best way to completely cover my tracks."

"It's a wonder you managed to stay 'employed' for so long." Nejire quipped, drawing an annoyed look from Dabi.

"Still, if what he says turns out to be true then lives are in danger right now." Emilia said before looking down at Felt. "Please, tell us where the meeting place is. If you do, then we can help you save the one you call Rom."

"You're assuming a lot if you think I'm tagging along." Dabi dryly remarked.

"Don't be like that." The wave motion girl chided. "I'm tagging along, after all, and you know it would be best if you tagged along too. You wouldn't want something to happen to me, after all, right?"

"Tch, fine." The villain grunted. "But only because it'd be a headache if I didn't."

"You two have a weird relationship." Puck commented before flying back to Emilia. "But I don't sense any major hostility from them, so it looks like we can at least rely on them. As for the thief, I guess you want to bring her along too?"

"We should." Emilia replied. "After all, she'll know the quickest way to get there and then we could even plan a trap."

"Good idea." Nejire agreed. "Dabi and I might have just the plan for dealing with this problem."

Evening: The Slums

The group trekked down to the slums at a much faster pace than before, which was to be expected when they had a guide who knew all the shortcuts. Alhough, there was still a slight detour to help the lost little girl find her appa-selling father, which was another issue that took much less time now that Nejire and Dabi knew who to look for.

One thing did need to be attended too, however, so when they got to the outskirts of the slums, Nejire pulled back slightly to where her charred ally was walking.

"What?" The pyrokinetic asked with a glance in her direction. "Don't you have more 'questions' to ask the little thief?"

"Oh, I have plenty." The blue-haired girl confirmed. She had been asking away for several minutes after they had started walking, enough that Felt was starting to get annoyed. "But there's something I think we should decide on."

"You better not be tryin' to think up some dumb team name for us." Dabi warned. "This thing we got goin' is temporary and no amount of cuteness from you is gonna change that."

"You know I'd rather team up with Emilia than you." Nejire replied while puffing up her cheeks in annoyance, which for her was still cute. "No, I'm talking about the death loop. You think we should tell them about it?"

"You really think they'd believe us?" The flame Quirk user asked skeptically. "I know they got magic in this world but that doesn't mean time travel is a common thing. Besides, you plannin' on doing a lot of dying?"

"Of course not." The heroine answered immediately. "But neither of us planned the last two times either. If it does keep happening, then people are going to eventually want to know how we know things we shouldn't technically know and I doubt they'll believe we're just super smart."

"Guess you're right." Dabi supposedly agreed. "You're way too airheaded to pass off as hyper intelligent."

"Meanie." Nejire pouted while lightly punching her temporary ally in the arm. "You just haven't seen me in a good pair of glasses. I make a great office girl cosplay."

"Do they even have offices in this place?" He asked with a sigh. "Look, you do whatever you want but remember it's my neck on the line too. If you've got to tell them something like the death loop or us being from another world, then just make sure it won't get either of us killed."

"I doubt Emilia would do that." The blue-haired girl said with a finger to her chin. "But I guess I'll keep it in mind. Oh look, we're here!"

"Yeah, welcome to Old Man Rom's Loot House." Felt introduced as they approached the familiar, to two of them anyway, structure. "Now hold up and let me do the talking. He's not used to having this many customers at once on a normal day."

"No funny business." Dabi warned with a glare. "You try somethin' and I'll burn this place to the ground."

"Yeah, I get it you don't trust me." Felt sighed. "But I'm putting a lot on the line here too. I'm not even asking you to plug your ears for the password."

She then knocked on the door in a short sequence that was clearly a code before an old, somewhat growly voice answered back.

"For a rat?" The man asked on the other side of the door.

"Poison."

"For a whale?"

"Harpoon."

"To the noble dragon lord?"

"We're bags of shit." Felt answered one last time.

The door opened then to reveal a rather large man, possibly larger than the six-armed hero student Shoji. As expected, he also appeared to be somewhat old with a bald head, dark skin, long grey eyebrows and a red tattoo on the left side of his head. His outfit consisted of only a black vest with the front open to reveal the white hair on his chest and exposed his overly muscular arms while his lower half was covered by a pair of black pants.

Any normal person might have been slightly intimidated or wary of such a large person, and in the case of Dabi and Emilia they raised their guards slightly.

But Nejire's reaction was a bit different.

"WOW!" She practically sang before suddenly floating into the loot house at eye level with the old man. "How did you get so big? Why are your eyebrows so huge? Do you have a gigantification Quirk? Can you shrink? Where did you get that tattoo?!"

"Gah, what in the blazes?!" The giant of a man exclaimed as he backed up a bit. "Who in the world have you brought to my place, Felt?!"

"Yeah, I was going to mention that." The blonde thief replied while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "I kinda got caught, but it's okay, I'm not under arrest or anything."

"What kinda sense does that even make?" Rom asked back. "You best start explainin' right now why I got three extra people here interruptin' my afternoon booze and why one of 'em is floatin' around like a damn spirit!"

"Oh sorry, the floating is a habit." Nejire said while giggling before landing lightly on the floor. "I'm Nejire Hado, and these are my friends: Emilia and Dabi."

"And Puck!" The cat spirit exclaimed as he flew out of Emilia's hair. "I know I got my schedule to keep and everything, but I can hang out for a bit longer."

"Right, and there's Puck the cat spirit." Nejire laughed while introducing him.

"Don't get the wrong idea." Dabi spoke up. "I ain't friends with this bunch, they're just a headache I have to deal with right now."

"Well I'm Rom." The large man replied. "And if you wanna talk about headaches, I'm still waiting on an explanation as to why an elf, some floating light magic girl, a spirit, and whatever this barbecued weirdo is supposed to be, are in my house?"

"It's about the job I was hired for." Felt answered. "These guys seem fairly positive that we're gonna wind up dead if we go through with it."

"What makes 'em so certain of that?" Rom asked skeptically. "And for that matter, how did they even know what you were hired for?"

"Call it experience." Dabi replied derisively. "I've been hired to do unpleasant jobs before and this one has 'tie up loose ends' written all over it."

"Alright." The giant man nodded. "Let's say I believe this job is gonna go south, then how do I know you're not the ones who are here to shut both me and Felt up?"

"Because I'm the one she stole from." Emilia answered while raising her hand. "It was my insignia she was after. It would be unnecessary to have the two of you steal an item that was already mine just to have you both killed afterwards. No, we're here now because I wish to know the identity of the one responsible for all of this."

"So if you cooperate with us, then we'll not only help you keep your lives." Nejire began. "We also won't report your theft to the knights."

"Is there any chance we could still keep the client's money?" Felt asked. "The payday was supposed to be huge for this job."

"Don't push it." Dabi said with slightly narrowed eyes. "You're not the only one flat broke right now so let's get this over with. What time was your client even supposed to show up, anyway?"

"Oh, uh, honestly right about now." Felt recalled with widened eyes. "But I think she's running late."

"That can't be right." Nejire added. "If this is the time then—EMILIA LOOK OUT!"

Her warning came just in time as a purple blade seemed to descend from the shadows towards the half-elf girl.

A floating barrier of ice appeared between her and the assassin, deflecting her blade and forcing the woman to flip away several feet and land in a crouch.

"How wonderful," came the voice of Elsa as she slowly stood up to her full height. "I've never gotten to cut open a spirit's stomach before. And you two are rather strange as well, I wonder if your bowels look human on the inside."

"So….so it's true then." Felt spoke nervously. "You were planning on killing me and Old Man Rom after you we gave you the insignia?"

"The thought had crossed my mind." The assassin admitted while limply holding her weapon. "Having too many people know what I look like could cause trouble for me given that I'm usually hired for assassination work. But in this case, you failed to do your job and the original owner of the item followed you all the way here with reinforcements. A shame, I was hoping you were more than just another slum dweller, but it seems I was wrong."

"So that's it, you were just going to kill them one way or the other." Nejire said with narrowed eyes as she took to the air. "That's the kind of psychotic thinking only a villain would find sensible. That makes it unfortunate for you because you're facing a hero-in-training now!"

"Oh my, what are you babbling about?" Elsa cooed before shooting forward at high speed and jumping a surprising distance in the air.

Nejire moved quickly too, fortunately, and evaded the attack before firing at where her opponent was going to land.

The assassin was agile, though, and flipped the moment she hit the floor, avoiding the yellow energy of the blue-haired girl's Wave Motion Quirk. She continued to flip and spin, throwing a few needles in mid-turn which Hado dodged by dropping back down to the ground.

Elsa then got in close with her blade raised but was forced back by a blue fireball.

"Hey careful!" Rom shouted as Dabi continued to fire one stream of flame after another. "Are you tryin' to burn my house down?!"

"I'm trying to kill the bitch." The pyrokinetic replied while still using his Quirk. "You got a better idea besides torchin' her?"

"As a matter of fact," Puck announced while forming several shards of ice in the air above the assassin, "I do!"

The shards all rained down on Elsa at once, freezing her in a large misshapen block of ice.

"Nice going, by the way, I was able to charge up plenty of Mana while you kept her distracted. Now we just need—" Puck's sentence was interrupted by the sound of cracking ice as the frozen prison holding the assassin suddenly shattered.

"One should always be prepared." Elsa commented from behind her cloak before it suddenly disappeared, leaving her outfit more revealing than ever.

'A cloak designed for deflecting magical attacks.' Emilia realized. 'But it looks like it's only capable of working once, so we can still take her out.'

A task that would be easier said than done as the assassin rushed forward again, her speed a little faster than before without the apparently heavy cloak.

Nejire moved in front of Emilia and intercepted Elsa with a wider range blast of her Quirk, forcing the lethal woman to cartwheel to the side to avoid it before jumping again to dodge Dabi's flames.

Puck added his own attacks to the mix, firing off shard after shard from his little paws that was also accompanied by Emilia.

Amazingly, Elsa demonstrated a level of agility that was on par with Himiko Toga or even a little above it as she leapt, slid, flipped, spun and dove out of the way of the numerous attacks, even cutting through several ice shards with her kukri blade.

Rom and Felt could only stand and watch in awe at the sight before them, not having seen such a battle up close before. They also didn't expect the next part:

When Elsa dodged another set of attacks by jumping off the wall and spinning in midair, she suddenly found herself stuck to the floor upon landing. She was stuck by ice.

"You didn't think I was just shooting those around at random, did you?" Puck teased with a wink.

"Nejire, now!" Dabi ordered, not having to explain his intentions as the U.A. student dove down next to the assassin and put her hands on the floor. The yellow spiraling energy of her Wave Motion Quirk then surrounded Elsa as she looked on in amusement.

"Oh, I've never seen light magic like this before." She cooed. "And to think I've been outwitted by a talking cat, what an odd day this has turned out to be."

"Most villains don't expect to get caught." Nejire commented. "But it happens to all of you eventually."

"Yeah, and none too soon." Puck added with a yawn as he rubbed his eyes. "My time and Mana just ran out."

"You did great, Puck." Emilia complimented. "Just leave the rest to us. Like Nejire said, we'll deal with this villain."

The cat spirit gave a quick salute before vanishing into thin air, leaving the rest of them to figure out what to do with their would-be-killer.

"Oh, it pains me that you keep calling me a villain." Elsa feigned hurt and innocence. "I'm simply a woman doing her job. Ask the little one over there, it's a tough world out there."

"Bite me you psychotic slashing shithead!" Felt yelled back. "You haven't the slightest idea what it's like living out here!"

"Clearly you've never been to Gusteko." The assassin hummed. "But a more immediate question is now that you have me here, what do you plan on doing with me?"

"Depends." Dabi spoke up. "Do you happen to have the cash you were plannin' on paying the girl with?"

"I might." Elsa replied with an evil smirk. "Care to come and take it? I'll even drop the kni—"

BOOOOOM!

Her evil smirk, along with the rest of her head was engulfed in blue flames before falling over.

"I wasn't plannin' on giving you a choice on that." The fire user said with an evil smile of his own. "Hey, little blonde thief, grab the money and get back over here quickly."

Felt started to argue but a hard look from Dabi was enough to get her moving.

"You know, I don't hold people in place just so you can set them on fire." Nejire commented as Felt quickly moved back behind her and the others.

"Sure about that?" Dabi quipped. "Some of my best shots today have been when you were holding someone in place. Guess I need to work on my aim a bit while we're here."

"You didn't seem to have any trouble aiming at me last time." The blue-haired girl pointed out with her hands on her hips. "I would have way more burns if it weren't for some good healing Quirks."

"Could have been worse." Dabi shrugged before the supposedly dead assassin leapt back up, her face somehow in good repair as she readied to bring her kukri blade down. And it would've worked, had this been last time. But the hero and villain were ready this time as they both fired their attacks at the regenerating woman, blasting her into the back wall and burying her under a large amount of rubble. "You could've ended up like that."

"Just what in the world's going on?!" Felt anxiously exclaimed. "Didn't that assassin have her head blasted off a moment ago?"

"She did." Emilia confirmed. "I've heard about such abilities, but they're supposed to be rare. That assassin has the ability to regenerate."

As if to emphasize that point, the black-haired woman burst from the rubble once more only to get blasted back once again by Dabi.

"So she's tough to kill, is she?" The pyrokientic asked rhetorically as a manic grin crossed his face. "Guess that means I can go all out!"

Flames rose from his shoulders and raged on his hands as he prepared one of his biggest attacks yet.

"Oh nuts, time to go everyone!" Nejire warned before directing the rest of the group out the door. It was none too soon as the entire section of the house Dabi was aiming at exploded in blue flames. "Jeez, Dabi, that was not okay for you to just go ahead and cause mass property damage!"

"I'll take that as a 'thank you' for making sure you didn't get impaled this time." The flame wielder quipped, walking out with a grin as blue flames continued to burn behind him.

"I'm with the floating girl on this one." Rom spoke up. "That's my house you just set on fire there. Are you at least gonna put it out?"

"If I could put my flames out easily do you think I'd be a walking barbecue disaster right now?" Dabi asked back.

Rom facepalmed upon hearing this, wishing now more than ever for a strong drink.

"It's not all bad." Felt chimed in as she held up the bag of money. "We still got our payday and I checked it to make sure that this is enough to get us out of here. So maybe all this trouble is a sign that we should be mov—"

The sound of something bursting from the rubble reached their ears once again as a kukri blade came flying out of the debris towards the group.

Nejire and Emilia moved to intercept it, but the blade mysteriously veered off course as a newcomer suddenly appeared between them and the assassin. Or at least it was a newcomer to most of them.

"Oh not you again." Dabi groaned as Reinhard stood in front of them.

"You make it sound like we've met before." The red-haired knight responded with a glance in the burnt man's direction. "But I know I'd recall a distinct individual like you."

"I certainly will." Elsa said as she now stood on the roof of the burning building. "This has been an interesting encounter, but I've come close enough to dying today and my odds of winning don't appear to be improving. So until we meet again, take good care of your bowels."

The regenerated assassin turned and leapt away just as part of the roof exploded, covering her escape as the rest of the group looked on.

"Whew." Nejire sighed in relief. "With luck we'll never have to deal with her again if we're lucky."

"And what about our situation so far makes you think we're 'lucky' in any sense of the word." Dabi remarked in a deadpan voice.

"You're both lucky enough." Reinhard pointed out as he turned to them. "An appa merchant happened to inform me of a group of strange but nice people heading into the slums. His little girl was worried something might happen to you, so I decided to take a look. Although, now that I'm here, I will need an explanation of what exactly this 'situation' is if you don't mind."

'Oh boy.' The hero and villain thought at the same time. 'Where do we even begin?'

Where to begin indeed, but at the very least our heroes have managed to best the assassin after the insignia and now they have a chance to learn a bit more about their situation. Of course, that'll be in the next chapter, in the meantime feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. And don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Finally, stop by next time as our heroes are introduced to the inhabitants of the Mathers domain. 'Til then.