As The Dust Settles (fem!Geten X Dabi)

Chapter 3: A Mutual Understanding

Geten observed the crowd from her platform, supported by a large pillar of ice that formed from water in the drain. They were like ants surrounding the newly restored ground, marching in an orderly manner to the tombstone and back behind the circle, a berth given to the memorial out of respect for the fallen and Ms Curious.

Many of the citizens had gathered for the service. Only a few groups were on cleanup duty, not unlike what she was supposed to be doing. But that wasn't her job. She wasn't like these ants, mindless slaves for their new master, their new king.

She only listened to Re-destro.

At least, she used to. Something in the back of her mind had started to bite her, like a parasite making its home in her brain. It fed her thoughts, thoughts she found alien. Thoughts she despised.

From her birds eye view, she had a beautiful scenery of her the destruction of her city. To the north, Shigaraki had reduced everything, from the centre to the city limits, to rubble and ashes, shaped in a cone. To the east, where she had been fighting Dabi, the buildings were like tree stumps, cut through with a giant blade, or an eruption of ice pillars that decimated both the housing and the plague of clones. She smiled, recalling that display of strength.

And it was there that she saw an azure flame roar to life that melted her smirk. What was that bastard doing now?

She rotated her palm. The ice obeyed, shifting and churning, the molecules expanding and contracting. Layers of ice on the pillar crept over one another to reach her platform and harden, while the ice behind her descended in a reversed fashion, unraveling into layers that then twisted around the pillar and then ascended.

The technique was one not many ice-users could perform; many opted to simply unleash a wave of ice to slide across, but a skilled opponent would use the same ice to chase them. Hence, this mode of travel was one of her greatest prides. Oh, it looked easy. Many assumed she was simply willing the mass of ice to move in whatever direction she chose, but it was so much more than that, a mechanism others could only wish they could comprehend.

"I said don't bother me, didn't I?" Dabi said as she touched down on the ground, his eyes trained on the blaze in front of him.

"You said you were clearing the southern section. I'll do whatever the hell I want." She replied.

"Plans change, I need to clean up the mess you made."

"So did I." She gestured at the festering heaps of gloop from the clones that painted the fractured roads.

The fire grew a darker shade of blue. Geten smelt the unforgettable smell of burnt human flesh. She heard Dabi inhale deeply, then exhale.

"You're a strong one, I knew that," Dabi said over the raging fire, then he turned to look at her, "But you killing your own comrades, that's a bit...cold."

He shrugged. "Of course, I can tell you don't care. You never had any respect for them. You thought they were weak, and you're right. Look at them."

She did. There they were, bodies piled onto one another, their silhouettes all conjoining to form one hideous, but very dead, beast. Pitiful. Pathetic.

"They barely did anything. Those injuries we took? All from your leaders. They were the strong ones. These guys, just cannon fodder, just meat shields. Useless."

She knew she should be speaking out against them. They've trained for the festival, as did she. They tried their hardest, and many died for the cause. But she knew it was only she that deserved to be gazed at with pride by Re-destro.

And so she stayed quiet, and Dabi did the same. All that was heard was the sound of flames unleashed from his hands, like a furnace.

After a minute, he stopped. The job was done. All that remained was a heap of ash, black like the scorched earth.

And Geten felt no sympathy.

Dabi looked at her once more appraisingly, as though dissecting her expression. He didn't speak.

Geten glared at him. "What are you looking at? You can go. I'll get people to clean this up."

"Just seeing if you look like me," He responded.

She growled. "I look nothing like you."

Dabi shook his head and started to stroll away. "You look exactly like me."

Geten felt a beast emerge within her, like a snake that had uncoiled in pure fury, striking. She roared, throwing her hands out in front of her. The ice responded. Shards of them sprung from her pockets, the remnants from the drains below. They aimed straight at that creature.

He shot his hand out and a wave of blue flames engulfed the shards, melting them dead. The flames dissipated.

He was staring at her now, with those lifeless eyes of his. Then he slowly turned and continued walking, his hands in his pockets.

"What was that, Apocrypha?" Skeptic's voice came from behind her. She turned to see the CEO glaring at her.

"You're going to get yourself killed by attacking the League." He said.

That tone of his, like a parent reprimanding a child...she hated it.

"He doesn't care." Geten waved her hand to summon her ice. She stepped on it, looking at the floor.

"Why not?" He replied, aggravated.

"Because one of us is going to kill the other soon enough." With that, she ascended into the sky and left.

____

Dabi saw bodies. They were strewn out like garbage in the alleyway, their flesh and clothes still smouldering. Like cinders, ash floated into the air, invisible against the sooty, darkened walls. Their bodies would be too soon.

After all, who were these people? Gang members, unaffiliated with any of the major players, just some upstarts who thought they could hold a candle to him. So Dabi made sure they became candles.

If you're trash, at least be useful and burn like kindle for me, he said.

How many was that now? He stopped counting long ago. It wasn't worth the effort or memory. He didn't have a lot of those.

What did he have, concealed in the synapses of his brain? Faces and fire. Just those two. And those faces spoke. But the fire...it just screamed. Sometimes they wailed, but never silent. Only one plume of fire had ever stayed quiet. And it angered him.

Another memory reached out unexpectedly.

Burn it. It's not worth remembering, Dabi had told him.

And so he did. What did he know? He was a lost child, a child abandoned and unloved. And so he torched the bodies. They were nothing but fire in his memories now.

How long ago was that? More than ten, surely? Because before that, he didn't call himself Dabi.

"Hey, you stoning?" Hawk's voice brought him to the present. Dabi glanced at him. He was carrying a black haversack. He grinned.

"I'm fine. Let me see it."