The Mad Pyro Unleashed

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Spiral Flames In Lugnica! We're back upon request of, well the original story requestor, with an emotionally charged chapter this time around. And for those who haven't heard, I've got a now! That's right, if you're looking for news, drafts and other info in relation to my storytelling you can find it there. So if you like what I do you can send me some support and if all goes well I'll eventually be able to spend a lot more time doing this and getting chapters out faster! Just type in 'maskedspider' at the end of the website name and you should be able to find me. But before all that, we still got a chapter to do and no review questions this week so let's get to the story!

Nighttime: Forest in the Mathers Domain

The sounds of chirping insects rang throughout the night, a calming noise in spite of the situation. Currently, Dabi was following behind Rem with his hands in his pockets, but his eyes alert, scanning for even the slightest hint of hostile movement. Nejire was currently high up in the air, acting as a lookout for anything that might be coming their way.

"We're getting close." Rem announced while raising her head slightly and sniffing the air. "I can smell the scent of humans this way."

"You say that like you're…" Dabi began before realizing the obviousness of it. "Who am I kidding? You work for an apparently uber-powerful clown and a half-elf with a talking magic cat. Of course you're not human."

"Much the same could be said of you and Miss Hado." The maid pointed out while pushing through some branches. "Your scent is human but the nonmagical abilities you wield indicate that you are much more than that."

"Don't know if you happened to listen to any of our conversations with Snow Girl." The Pyro responded. "But Nejire and I are actually pretty common in our world, it's even considered weird when someone doesn't have a Quirk."

"How common would you say 'Quirks' are in your world?"

"The common estimate is eighty percent of our entire world's population. Flame Quirks are actually a dime a dozen over there so I'm not even that unique. The whole country recognizes who I am because of the way I use my Quirk."

"If we're lucky you won't have to make great use of it tonight." Rem said. "Starting a fire this close to the village could prove troublesome."

"Don't I know it." Dabi replied with his trademark evil smirk on his face. Before anything else could be said, Nejire dropped down in front of them.

"Guys!" Nejire exclaimed while pointing. "There's a big clearing up ahead! I think I saw the children there!"

Rem nodded before picking up the pace with Dabi trailing behind while Nejire flew alongside them. Sure enough, the children they'd been looking for where all sprawled out and barely conscious.

"Petra," Nejire said while landing next to and examining a girl with short orange hair, "Are you alright?" She received a groan in response as Rem knelt down to examine them.

"Their breathing is shallow and they're all extremely weak." Rem observed. "No doubt this is the work of the Mabeasts' curse."

"Beatrice said a curse couldn't be removed once activated." Nejire recalled. "But if we keep them from getting weaker, will they be okay?"

"My sister is more skilled at magic than I am." Rem revealed. "The best I can do is cast a healing spell. Once their condition improves we can carry them back to the village."

The wave motion user let out a sigh of relief, that is until Petra groaned somewhat.

"Ne…ji…re…" The little girl said weakly as her eyes opened to look at the blue-haired hero.

"I'm here Petra." She replied. "Save your strength. We'll have you back home in no time."

"Missing…" Petra breathed out. "One is still… missing."

Hado's eyes widened as she looked around and realized the village girl was right. She'd seen one other girl with the group today. "Oh no, Petra's right." She said. "There was a girl here with a braid, but she's not here now."

"It's likely she was taken away by the Mabeasts." Rem surmised. "If that's the case, then her survival is unlikely. We should concern ourselves with the ones we can save right now."

"You and Dabi are more than enough to help the kids here." Nejire countered. "I can fly over and—"

"No." The pyro cut her off. "You two stay here. I'll go find the one with the braid."

"But Dabi, it'll take me less time to find her." The blue-haired girl pleaded.

"Maybe, but your Quirk can also form a defensive barrier around the kids." He pointed out. "And Flail Maid needs to stay here to heal them. Me going is the best option because I'm less likely to torch the ankle-biters here."

"I'm simply going to assume you're bored and hoping to burn something." Rem commented.

"I didn't trek all the way out here for anything less." Dabi replied before marching off. He wasn't lying, either: he really wanted to test how his new magic mixed with his flames.

But there was another reason.

'Something's off about all of this.' He thought. 'I'm pretty sure those Mabeasts aren't picky about flavor.'

In fact, all those kids should've been a small feast for them, yet for whatever reason they were just left lying around in the clearing. Perhaps the monsters didn't actually need to eat the children to get what they wanted, but if that was the case then why drag them out here instead of draining them of their energy while they slept? It all added up to one thing as far as Dabi was concerned: those damn beasts were smarter than he thought and actually laid a trap. But even knowing that didn't deter the pyro as he pushed his way deeper into the woods.

After pushing through another section of bushes he found who he was looking for: a girl in a long-sleeved blue dress with her long blue hair done up in a braid. She was lying by a log in an area that was clear enough to walk in but not entirely visible from the clearing he'd just left.

"Alright." He said, stopping by the girl's collapsed form and looking around. "Your bait worked and I'm here. Your move, doggo."

As if in answer to his invitation, a pair of red eyes appeared in the shadows before the beast they belonged to stepped into the moonlight. It was a large dog-like monster with the black and brown coloration of a rottweiler, in fact it looked like a rottweiler crossed with a doberman if you didn't include the enlarged fangs, line of small spikes running down its spine and glowing lines on its sides.

The average person might've been intimidated by such a creature but Dabi merely smirked. "Finally some real action."

Or so he thought before the canine creature seemingly melted back into the shadows of the woods.

"Tch, really?" He commented. "I've worked with far stealthier people than you."

Case in point, the moment the Mabeast charged out of the bushes, he raised his hand and shot a fireball that scorched the creature, leaving little more than a burnt husk on the ground. He examined his right hand while manipulating his gate. His smile widened as he observed the quickly cooling skin.

"At least you were good for one thing." He said. "Now I know this works. I just might have to thank that witch before torching her." To do that, however, he would have to deal with another problem first. More eyes started appearing in the bushes, at least a dozen or more. "So there's the rest of your pack. Heh, fine by me, bring it on!"

The Mabeasts charged out of the foliage, snarling with fangs bared and murder in their eyes. Dabi responded in kind and unleashed his blue flames from both hands, not bothering to hold back as the attacking predators were quickly roasted alive. The ones in the rear scattered back into the woods, the part that wasn't starting to catch on fire. The flame wielder's eyes scanned his surroundings, not letting his guard down until he knew all of the vermin had been dealt with.

This proved to be wise, as one of the Mabeasts lucky enough not to get torched leapt over the flames and at the villain with its jaws open, ready to clamp down on his neck. Before Dabi could roast this one alive, a large shard of ice sailed through the air and struck the beast, tearing right through its body and heart.

"It seems we were right to worry about you setting the forest on fire." Rem observed, honestly surprised that only a small number of trees and bushes were currently burning.

"I thought you were more worried about the little brats." The pyro responded. "Why are you both here?"

"I went back and led the villagers to the children." Hado answered. "They should be past the barrier by now. The only one left is the girl with the braid."

"She's right over there." Dabi pointed to the log. "Hurry up and get her out of here. I've still got some torching to do."

"No Dabi, we need—" Nejire tried to protest but was interrupted when several more Mabeasts began emerging from the bushes.

"Wolgarm." Rem informed. "They're not the most dangerous Mabeasts alone, but in great numbers they'll be more than we can handle."

"Maybe more than you can handle." Dabi laughed before his whole body ignited in blue flame. "But for someone who's finally perfected their abilities, this is just a damn good time!" The wolgarm seemed to take this as a challenge and charged. The villain responded by holding up his hands. "Let's begin! Hell Spider!"

Streams of blue flame shot from Dabi's fingers and seemed to bend and twist like whips as he moved his hands back and forth. The scorching tendrils sliced through anything they touched, be it flesh, foliage or wood, and in some cases even caught things on fire. Such as the case for the approaching wolgarm as the pyro laughed all the while. There was a minor issue with the execution of his technique, however.

This technique was developed as a precision move, meant to slice up enemies without causing too much damage to everything else. Dabi, however, didn't care what he damaged and sliced one of the nearby trees, which toppled towards the braid-haired girl. Thankfully, Rem's acrobatic ability allowed her to evade the tendrils and snatch the girl from harm's way before the tree fell on her.

"Lady Hado." Rem said while taking up a position by a large rock. "I will need a moment to heal this girl before we carry her the rest of the way."

"I understand." The hero-in-training replied. "I'll stop Dabi." With that in mind she stepped forward, lithely evading the one or two tendrils that were arcing back their way. "Dabi! Dabi, we need to go!"

"You go." He glanced back with a malicious grin reaching from ear to ear. "I'm milking this for all it's worth! I'm going to see just how far I can push it!" The flames around his body rose even higher as he turned his attention to the one area that hadn't been set on fire in front of him. It was also where the largest number of wolgarm they'd seen yet was emerging.

"You're just drawing more of them to us!" Nejire yelled while raising a hand to shield herself from some of the heat. "We don't have a reason to stay here anymore so come on!"

"So what?" Dabi laughed. "Let them all come, I'll torch every last one of them!" He took a stance and held his arm out, commanding the flames around his body to concentrate in front of him.

"No! Dabi, stop!" The blue-haired girl pleaded as her eyes widened.

"Flashfire." The heat was now unbearable, forcing Nejire to take a couple of steps back while still begging him to stop. "PROMINENCE BURN!"

A blinding explosion was unleashed, incinerating everything in front of the flame-wielder. This was his most powerful move in temperature, speed and force, one that had been passed down to him by his father before it was deemed too dangerous for him to become a hero. It was also the reminder of a nightmare for the Big Three member standing behind him.

It was just like that day when he'd revealed his identity as Toya Todoroki to the world. She'd been about to deal a finishing blow to the restrained League of Villains members before he engulfed her in blue flames fired from his back. It lasted only moments but in that time all she felt was searing pain. Nejire had nearly blacked out from the pain then and now it threatened to return.

'No, not again, I don't want to get burned again!' She thought frantically while clutching her head, feeling the tears on her face evaporating almost as soon as they were produced. This had to stop, it had to, it had to. "I said," Nejire growled before jumping forward with her Quirk swirling in her right hand, "STOOOOOOPP!"

The pyro was taken completely off guard, his face twisting into complete surprise and disbelief as he was blasted into the ground by the U.A. student's Quirk.

This was just the beginning. Hado pinned him to the ground and slugged him in the face over and over with both fists. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" She was hysterical, not caring if she wound up destroying Dabi's face in the process, in fact the possibility of him dying and them resetting back to their last point wasn't enough to get her to stop.

"Get off!" The villain yelled, finally managing to push the traumatized girl off of him. "What the fuck's gotten into you!?"

"What do you mean what's gotten into me!?" Hado barked back. "Between the two of us, I'm being more reasonable right now because you can't reel in your damn power trip!"

"It's not like anyone cares if this forest is cleared of those filthy mutts." Dabi pointed out. "And what's wrong with me enjoying a little extermination?"

"The fact that you're endangering the forest and the village." Nejire reminded him. "You've already started a fire and it's not going out anytime soon. But you couldn't care less if the whole village and everyone else in it gets burnt to ashes! Just like you didn't care when you killed those thirty innocent people, didn't care when you hurt your own siblings and didn't care when you burnt me!"

"And why should I care who gets burnt?" He scoffed. "No one cared when I got burnt—"

"Stop using your family drama as an excuse!" Nejire yelled, completely fed up with everything about the villain in front of her. "Whatever your father did to you, he's still a fucking saint in comparison to the bastard you are now! He told you to stop using your flames the way you were and you didn't listen! The only person Toya Todoroki can blame for getting burnt that day is Toya Todoroki!"

"Tch." A very annoyed frown crossed Dabi's features after hearing that before he stood up. "It's Dabi to you." He put his hands in his pockets and started walking back towards the village. "This atmosphere is way too sour. I'm heading back."

The hero-in-training narrowed her eyes at the pyro, trying to decide if she should be annoyed or relieved that he was finally turning around.

"If you're both quite finished," Rem cut in, carrying the unconscious girl in her arms now, "We should head back to the village."

"But what about the fire?" Nejire asked almost numbly. "It's starting to spread."

"I will deal with it." The maid assured. "Now, we need to get going before—"

The earth exploded, the sudden activity caused by a strange yellow light. Hado had half a second to recognize it as earth magic before the ground churned and advanced towards her, Rem, and the braided girl. It was a landslide that didn't rely on gravity to travel.

Not having anymore time to think, Nejire shoved Rem and the village girl out of the way with as much strength as she could muster. She felt nothing but pain after that, the force of the moving soil picking her up off the ground and sending her flying. Everything went black after that.


"An Unknown Amount of Time Later: One of the Village Cabins"

Images flashed before her eyes, one after another. Most weren't accommodated by sound but the ones that were seemed to be full of worry, and a tad bit of annoyance.

"She should be alright…"

"Irritating heroine…"

"You're in a predicament…"

"I and the villagers owe her…"

"You really going back out there?"

"We need to stop what you started."

...

Nejire opened her eyes slowly, an unfamiliar ceiling greeting her along with the unfamiliar white sheets of an unknown bed.

"Where am I?" she thought aloud, then nearly jumped when she actually got an answer.

"In the house of one of the villagers." Dabi answered. He was sitting in a stool next to the bed, his usual apathetic look on his face.

"And you actually stayed and watched over me?" Hado asked skeptically.

"Yeah, that's some gratitude right there." He scoffed. "I carried both you and that little brat back here."

"You obviously carried me back because it'd be a problem for you if I died." She countered. "But I guess I should be grateful that you got the girl back. Wait, what about Rem?"

"Healed up the both of us and sent word out to the mansion." The villain explained. "Betty or whatever her name is came along and took a look at my ankle." He held up his right leg for her to see. "I got bit and by extension cursed while carrying you out of there so once again, feel free to thank me."

"But Beatrice can pull out an unactivated curse without any problem." The blue-haired girl pointed out. "So you didn't have a lot to worry about. I'll bet you only carried the girl with the braid because Rem made you."

"Alright, fine." Dabi groaned. "Yes, the little maid tossed the girl to me while I was pulling you out of the dirt and told me to run for it. When I tried to argue, she pointed out that I'd made the fire too big already."

"That's an understatement." Nejire snarked, throwing the covers off of herself as she made to stand. Rem must've had to remove some of her outfit to get a better look at her injuries because she was currently in blue pajamas. "Where's Rem now?"

"No idea." The pyro shrugged. "After healing us, she sat around impatiently after sending word to the mansion. Her injuries heal much faster than a regular human's, so what few she sustained getting back here have already healed. Once her mana was restored, she took off to deal with the fire."

"Rem is one of the three most qualified people at the mansion to deal with that sort of thing." The U.A. student admitted. "But if you have no idea where she is, does that mean the fire's still going?"

"Haven't bothered to look. I figure it'd be pretty obvious by now if this place was going to burn down."

"Alright, I'm going to go looking for her." Hado said, poking around the room for her outfit. The villain rolled his eyes and pointed to a basket at the foot of the bed which had what she was looking for in it. The blue-haired girl simply nodded before grabbing her outfit. "Do you mind?"

"Before I go, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" The skepticism was clear in her voice.

"I plan on going back into the forest with you." Unsurprisingly, Nejire looked at him as if he'd grown another head.

"And just why in the world would I want you going within a hundred feet of the forest after what you pulled?" She scoffed. "All we had to do was go in and get the kids out, but no, you had to have your little power trip and set everything on fire. Now Rem's out there risking her life to clean up your mess and I don't plan on leaving her to fight those Mabeasts alone."

"I hear ya, I know it's my fault." He admitted. "That's why I should come along."

"Are you really trying to tell me that the great villain Dabi is actually feeling remorseful for something he did for the first time in his life?"

"I won't apologize for the things I've done up to this point." The pyro bit back. "It'd just be a bit of a problem for the both of us if they decide we're too much trouble to keep around."

"Hmph, at least we're on the same page as far as that's concerned." Nejire huffed. "But fine. I'll bring you along on the condition that you actually listen this time and keep yourself under control. You think what you did is a problem now, it'll be a hundred times worse if you accidentally burn Rem in the process of rescuing her."

"Got that covered." Dabi assured while holding his hand up and producing a cloud of freezing vapor. "This time, I'm gonna push myself to the limit with ice. Even if I were a lot stronger with it, there's a lot less chance of any fires or people getting hurt with this. So whaddya say, round two in the dark and evil forest?"

Nejire simply nodded.

'Don't make me regret this.' She thought as Dabi left the room with a small smirk on his features.

Neither of them knew it at the time, but this would mark a turning point in their dynamic, and not necessarily for the better.

And they actually seemed to be getting along for a bit there. But villainous habits die hard, as Nejire has learned, and it won't be an easy lesson to forget. That's for next time, though, so 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. Also, don't forget to check out my and see what I got going on. Lastly, stop by next time as our heroine and villain confront the puppy behind it all! 'Til then.