Strings (BNHA x OC)

98 || Chasing Ghosts

Third Person P.O.V.

"Atsuhiro.." Puppet weakly spoke his name.

After a moment of shock, Mr. Compress quickly rushed towards her. Puppet pushed herself towards him and nearly collapsed into his arms, both physically and mentally exhausted and in pain. He lifted her to try and help her stand but she couldn't steady herself, so he let her lean on him for support.

"What on earth-?! Wh-What happened? What did you do?!" He questioned with great concern.

"I'll explain later. Right... right now you need to compress me. We need to run." It was more of a demand than a request.

"But I thought you didn't trust me to do th-"

"Just compress me! We don't have time!" She raised her voice.

"Alright." He gave in to her request.

Once Puppet heard that one single word, her eyes closed and she fell slack in his arms. She wasn't unconscious, just not present in her own body.

With some hesitation, Mr. Compress kept his word and compressed Puppet. He put the marble into his pocket and started to run in the opposite direction, back to the League.

———

Puppet opened her eyes, feeling physically renewed. Her head still pounded from using her quirk, but otherwise now she was able to fight.

"Fan out!" She heard the deep voice of Endeavor call, "We need to find her! She can't have gone far!"

"Yes sir!" Several other people yelled in response.

'Well, that's convenient.' Puppet thought.

She started to make her way towards the voices. The goal: to get their attention.

Through walking around for a minute, Puppet found that she was on an upper floor of a deserted building. She also knew that at least Endeavor was a few floors down from her.

She walked into a stairwell and looked down. Shining through one of the entrances to a floor below was a bright orange color. It was like it was flickering— like a flame.

"Looking for me, Endeavor?" She called. Then immediately, she turned and ran. It was now a game of hide-and-go-seek.

"There!" She heard the sidekick Kido shout.

In an instant, Endeavor propelled himself up the stairwell and to the floor where Puppet was. He prepared a blast of flames. Only, she had vanished. There were no windows, no doors, only a small room made of concrete. She couldn't have ran anywhere, and yet, she was gone.

——

Puppet opened her eyes again. Now she was in a different area in a different soul. Her head throbbed even more than before and it became hard to focus.

She started to run around, trying to gain as much attention as possible. If she could do that then she could draw all of the flaming heroes in the opposite direction of Mr. Compress.

It worked— unfortunately it worked a little too well. She had multiple sets of footsteps running after her. At this point she was struggling to keep her distance, one of the flaming sidekicks, Kido, hot on her heels.

Her vision was blurring and her head spun from using her power. She was at her limit and wasn't going to be able to hold out much longer.

The wall next to Puppet crashed in and bright green flames briefly engulfed. She fell into a wall and down to the ground.

Following the attack, Burning walked through the hole that was blown through the wall with her quirk. She pulled some of her green flame hair and held it in her hand threateningly. She planned to throw it at the first sign that Puppet was faking.

But Puppet never moved from her spot against the wall. She didn't even have the strength left to transfer herself into another soul let alone her original body. So she just sat there, slumped against the wall. Cornered.

Moments later Endeavor came stomping into the room with Kido close behind. The number one's flames were as bright as ever, lighting up the room with an orange hue. He walked up and stood beside Burnin, a furious look on his face.

"Tell us where you are." Burnin demanded at Puppet.

"Hah.. I'm already long gone..." Puppet wheezed out. She was now resorting to buying time for Mr. Compress to get away. For no matter how fast the magician was, Endeavor could still catch up to him. "You can search around here all you'd like.. but you won't find me."

"You're acting foolish. The injuries I dealt to you need treatment— you know that, I'm sure." Endeavor said, "We can get you necessary treatments—"

"Don't act like you care." Puppet said through a cough. "You killed Hawks, even though all he was doing was to protect me."

"I told you before, he made me loose my grip."

"Don't give me that crap. You could have caught him— and I'll kill you for failing to do so. I promise you that, Endeavor.." Though Puppet was no more than a heap on the ground, her words were firm.

In a fit of frustration, Endeavor blasted condensed high-power flames into the corner where Puppet in the form of a soul sat. The soul was instantly destroyed.

"What now, sir?" Burnin asked.

"Search the area for her. She's injured so she wouldn't make it far on her own." Endeavor pinched the bridge of his nose. "If we can't find her and she really is gone, we'll need to report to Tsukauchi."

"Yes, sir!" Burnin saluted before she turned and ran away to carry out her orders.

—
A/N: I'm not dead, just really busy.