While this was happening with Deku's party, the party of Bakugo, Camie, Ei, and Mina was having a much less pleasant time making their way across the remaining Dark lands and back to the South. They had gotten as far as the place where they'd been attacked by scorpions, before Ei took another stint as a dragon to speed things up. It was true with only 3 people, he could move faster, and things were taking less time to cross than the first time. But even so, it might be another week before they got home.
Mina could have gone back to her enchanted forest, but she seemed disinclined to do so. It would be dull after this. She and Camie kept having doubts that leaving Deku and Ochaco had really been the right course of action.
"Sure, I wanted to kick him in the face, but still," Camie said.
Bakugo stubbornly refused to acknowledge any of what they said.
Ei wished they'd thought more carefully before making the decision. "Deku's got no common sense," he said, "and Ochaco's just one person. How will they ever survive on their own? They could have died by now, and we'd never know. I just wonder, man."
"You're making me feel worse," Mina said, "Seriously, King Bakugo, don't you feel any remorse at all?"
"For that liar? H--- no!" Bakugo snapped, "Stop talking about it. He's not even here, so act like it!"
"It's no use. Bakugo has never changed his mind ever," Camie said drolly. It was not quite true, but she didn't care. "Do you think they miss us?"
"After how we talked to them?" Ei said, "No way. They probably hate us."
"It won't be so bad if we could just tell someone else about it, and maybe they could help," Mina said, "I wonder where that fay and artificer went? And the sprite lady in that one village too."
She hesitated. "Do you remember what they warned us about? Pride, arrogance, ... you know, and getting too caught up in that. Is that what we did?"
"I don't feel proud," Camie said.
"No one feels proud when they're too proud," Mina said.
"All of you pipe down!" Bakugo said.
"Oh, will you come off it?" Camie kicked dirt at him. "We all know that you've been grumpy this whole time because you feel guilty. Why don't you just admit it and suffer like the rest of us? We're barbarians! We're supposed to stick with our groups when we make an agreement. It's us against the world, and we abandoned our group. It doesn't matter how you look at it, we could've done that better. You just stormed away, and that's why everyone else left too."
"Are you saying it's my fault all you d--- morons did the same thing! That you don't make you own d--- choices?!" Bakugo whirled around to yell at her.
"I'm saying we couldn't exactly not follow you, you jackass!" Camie said, "Someone has to make sure you don't die!" She shoved him in the chest. "You didn't give us a chance to talk it out!"
"I didn't need to talk! I already know what to do when people lie!" Bakugo said, "You should be grateful I didn't kill him on top of it!"
"Like killing the 9th holder would be a good idea," Camie snapped, "I should be so grateful you had an ounce of intelligence, you mean? Do you think before you do anything, Bakugo?"
"Shut up, wench!" Bakugo said.
"Wench?! How dare you?! I'm a goshdanged Princess!" Camie said indignantly, "I ought to pummel you for that."
"Like you could!" Bakugo was only dying for a change to vent his frustration violently instead of verbally.
"I won't give you the satisfaction," Camie dug it in deep.
