Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

35 || Explanation

Puppet blinked several times before fully opening her eyes. She started to move, going to push herself up.

"Hey, hey — easy." Beside her, Hawks expressed his concern. He gently gripped her arm and helped her sit upright.

The group of Kurogiri, Puppet, Hawks, Mr. Compress, and Dabi were still out in front of the collapsed building.

"I'm fine." Puppet shrugged her arm away and held her head in her hand. Her back still hurt, but she hoped that it would heal itself quickly.

"Are you sure, my dear? You haven't done that in a while," Mr. Compress, also crouched next to her, pushed, noticing that she looked drained.

"Yeah," she replied, "I'm just tired."

"Let us get to a more secure location." Nearby, Kurogiri opened a warp gate beside him.

Dabi eyed the dark portal. "Where does that lead?"

"I made sure to have a backup plan in case something like this happened. It leads to a safe house," Kurogiri explained. He was a smart man and had planned ahead.

"What will you do?" Mr. Compress asked.

"I will gather the others and join you all there."

The magician gave the warp villain a simple nod in return.

Hawks helped Puppet up, one of her arms draped around his neck and one of his hands around her waist to support her. He walked her through Kurogiri's warp gate, Dabi and Mr. Compress following them while Kurogiri stayed behind to help the other members.

—

Once through the portal, the group of four villains found themselves in a run-down room.

The room had a circular wooden table with four matching chairs, there was a small kitchen that was a bit of a mess, and a somewhat ragged couch was in the middle of the room.

Puppet pointed to one of the chairs at the table and Hawks helped her over, kicking the chair out with his foot. He leaned over and helped her sit down.

"What did you do?" he asked.

Dabi listened in to her answer. His curiosity had been piqued; he hadn't known she could do what she did. Mr. Compress had already known, and so he focused on exploring the room.

"I transferred my conscious into a soul and controlled it as if it were my own body," she answered.

"Well rest," Hawks insisted. "I'm sure it took something out of you to do that."

Puppet nodded, leaning onto the table using her elbows. Transferring herself to a soul usually wouldn't take too much energy, but, like Mr. Compress said, she hadn't done it in a while and it was therefore more taxing.

She sighed.

———

Kurogiri walked over to the group of villains that had chased after the pro heroes. He opened a warp gate to the safe house, where the rest of the group already was. "Tomura Shigaraki, the authorities are close. We must go."

"Aww, but I wanted to cut them!" Toga whined, using her knife to point in the direction that Eraser Head and Present Mic had run.

"Yeah! They deserve a beating!" Twice chimed in to support his comrade. "They can't run!"

Ignoring the other two members, Shigaraki agreed with Kurogiri, nodding. "Fine, let's go. It's not like we won't know where they'll go."

The four stepped through the warp gate to the other side, into the safe house, Kurogiri closing the warp gate behind them.

"It's lousy," Shigaraki grumbled looking around the room.

"Would you rather be living in the woods?" Kurogiri asked accusingly. He had had it with his boss' childlike standards and behavior. He gestured to the exit. "If so, be my guest — there's the door."

With a scowl, Shigaraki walked away from the warp villain and flopped down in the chair next to Puppet at the table in the room.

"There are rooms upstairs. A few of us will have to share so I have assigned each of us rooms based on our cooperation with each other," Kurogiri informed, then he started listing off who was paired with who. "Twice and Hawks are sharing, so will Compress and I. Everyone else has individual rooms. If you have an issue with the way I have done things, feel free to take it up with me."

No one had an issue with the pairings; Hawks and Twice got along well, as did Kurogiri and Mr. Compress.

Shigaraki aggressively pointed to Puppet, earning a glare from the black-and-white villain. "You owe me an explanation."

"Fine." She sighed, letting her annoyed demeanor calm. She explained what she had done again the exact same way she explained it before to the members who had just arrived.

Once Puppet had finished her explanation, she pushed herself up from her seat and started walking toward the staircase that led to the second floor. The building was two stories tall, with the first floor being the main living area and the second floor being the bedrooms.

"And where are you going?" Shigaraki asked.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm going to sleep. I've used up enough energy today," Puppet shot back as she walked up the steps, not waiting for him to respond.

—

Puppet found herself a room with a single, completely made full-sized bed. She took off her boots and placed them at the foot of the bed. She also took off her throwing knife dispensers from her arms, laying them down on a small nightstand that was beside the bed.

She flopped down into the bed with a heavy sigh, rolling over and covering herself with a blanket that had been at the edge of the mattress. She got comfortable and drifted into a rather peaceful slumber, despite the fact that her back still ached.