"You can't let the past

hold your future hostage."

-LL Cool J

(what a legendary name. I'm not joking with this one)

{Well? How are you planning to get in contact with him now that we have hostages? I thought that the problem was that we didn't know where he was.}

They ignored her, simply going about the 'tasks' that they still had left to do; Dabi with the cars and the flamethrowers in the armory (which wasn't that good of a combination, now that she thought about it), Toga with the dead people, and Twice... well, who knew what he was doing. Gray wasn't that curious. She was fairly sure that he'd show up eventually. But the point was, there was an actual, real problem in front of them, and now they were both playing with flamethrowers and making jokes about rigor mortis after Dabi emerged from the garage (yes, he brought his flamethrowers with him).

Now they were playing let's-wave-dead-people's-hands with stupid smiles on their faces.

Seriously.

What the fuck.

Her thoughts were repeated out of her 'mouth'.

{Seriously. What the fuck are you people doing.}

That seemed to finally get them out of their trance, as Dabi looked up and noticed her.

"Oh, you were here Gray. I didn't notice you."

{You little piece of-}

He casually brushed his pant leg as he stood up, to get rid of some make-believe dust (like a gentleman that he wasn't), and walked away from whatever Toga was doing now with perfectly calm grace.

(It only made Gray more pissed off at the guy.)

"Well, to answer your question, this base has a direct line to the man himself. It's utterly untraceable since it was made by a quirk - the man who owns the quirk is missing, so no luck there either - but we can make him come regardless, even if he knows that it is a trap. He's shown to be pretty attached to the family that he does have, so I'd say that this is a pretty good gamble to take on."

{So that was the case... That line felt weird, as I wasn't able to investigate it but to think it was that... Wait. You little son of a bitch. You heard me the first time!}

The stupid idiotic smile resurfaced on his face, and Gray sighed.

There was no talking sense to the guy if he purposefully chose to be stupid. He knew it too, and that's why he always did it.

(At the very least, it was good that her master's arms and legs were less stressed. She had never seen him crack a single smile during the time of his induction to the League of Villains - she had never seen her master do it either, but that was beside the point - and now that he was doing it, she just saw it as a good thing. Even if it was incredibly annoying. No human could put up an emotionless mask for long, even if the face that he wore was partially fake... It was still a good sign, in her book. In fact, all of the villains that had pledged allegiance to her master looked significantly better, more carefree—

Even if it was at the cost of her sanity.)

{Haaa... Well, at least you guys are enjoying yourselves... If we're done here, I'm going to go back. I trust that you guys can handle yourselves from this point onward. I'll group back with Deku and we can prepare for capturing that man, whenever he shows up.}

(She knew better than to call her master Izuku in front of these people. She was smart, after all; she knew that they weren't friends or anything of that sort. She doubted men (and women) like that could ever have friends. It was a mere whim, in the end. She would never expose a name that - ironically enough - had been her master's undoing in front of people that she didn't even trust. She would hesitate even if she did have her master's permission, really. She may not be able to draw conclusions from information that she didn't have, but she was still oh so very smart. Possibly smarter than her master. She wouldn't have a glib tongue that exposed everything to the world so simply and naively. Not when their motives - while praiseworthy - could dry up just as quickly as they appeared.)

Her exit seemed like it would be unimpeded, but Dabi called out to her just as she was about to leave.

"Do you really think that's a good idea, Gray-chan?"

{Oh?}

Her serpentine-like gold eyes of lightning and electricity became cold and foreboding.

{And why would it not? He won't be happy with you if you make him lose this opportunity. There are a lot of... complications in their relationship. They both want to kill each other more than anything else, and there's no other way that this can end, other than bloodshed; if you never inform him, this will never be resolved and you will suffer for it. I can guarantee that.}

Of course, despite all the reasonable things that she had said, Dabi still maintained his opinion.

"I agree with you, Gray. But, I don't think that this is the correct timing for him to find out. Let's face it, whenever he talks about Yuganda Itoku, he isn't a man of vengeance. He's a man who wants to die and take the latter down with him to Hell and then kill him again and again and again for the rest of eternity. You know this, don't you? I haven't repaid my debt yet, so I would prefer if the man I owe it to didn't die before I could do it."

Gray twitched, ever so slightly.

He was smarter than he looked for being able to figure out that much.

(Yes, Gray was aware of it. How could she not? She lived in his mind. Izuku wanted to kill Yuganda Itoku, but that wasn't all; he wanted to be killed in the process.)

{I'll ensure it never comes to that, Dabi. He'll never be able to kill himself on my watch, through himself or others.}

(And hadn't that been the only truth that was ever true? She was like a grieving child that had a dog with cancer but just couldn't bear to free it from its misery, to put it down. In her incubation period, she had stopped him from harming himself out of self-preservation. If he died, then she would naturally die as well. But when she got her ego, it was more than just that. She just... She just wanted him to be better. She tried everything at her disposal: comforting, persuasion, and even forcefully activating feel-good chemicals within the brain. But it didn't work.)

(It never worked-)

(...Why couldn't it just work?)

"You know, Gray-chan, you're very smart. A bit too smart, I would say. But you're pretty arrogant too, aren't you? Are you aware of what Yuganda Itoku's quirk is?"

Gray fell silent.

She wasn't just aware of it, she had experienced it. Dabi and the rest had only heard a secondary report from her and their research on the man. But she had gone up against it, felt the futility of it. He was the very antithesis of her as a quirk. Nothing she did could possibly break through that shell. He didn't even react to it beyond instinctive flinches. She was truly... helpless.

{I know, but... He'll never ever forgive us if we don't let him do this, and when it comes down to it, I can deflect bullets.}

Her eyes like molten gold burned hot.

{We may not be able to do anything to him, but he sure as hell won't be able to touch so much as a single hair of my master's hair.}

Dabi smiled.

"I think you're misunderstanding me a little, Gray-chan. We'll naturally bring him along eventually, but I think it is best to call in the ransom ourselves and take him captive. Deku-san would be free to do whatever his heart desires afterward. This way, he won't rush to his death or... have problems with how we are drawing this out. I believe that he doesn't prefer to operate in this way, correct?"

Gray's voice resounded in a hard laugh.

{You just don't want my master to ruin this little operation you've done after you put so much effort into this, is it? I'm sure you want to repay him, but the rest simply don't want their fun to be ruined. Fine. While only a paltry excuse, the reasoning is solid. Ring that man up and we'll ransom the hostages tonight.}

Very soon, night came.

It was a still and quiet night, with not even a chirp from the birds, or a hum from the cicadas.

The only sound that could be heard was quiet, hushed voices that faded with the wind.

{...It's been an hour since the appointed time.}

"That little callous piece of shit. Does he not care about his mother and father, his grandma? The reports made it sound like he gave a shit about them."

Another voice chimed in.

"Sooo~... What do we do~?"

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"No, you idiot! They're innocent, they shouldn't be killed-!"

All the voices came to a stop as one figure in a clock dark as night cleared his throat, as blank eyes in the darkness gleamed.

"Kill them. He should be aware of the consequences of ignoring our demands."

And that was that.