As The Dust Settles (fem!Geten X Dabi)

Chapter 5: His Weapon No More

"You." She faced him.

"I try to get away from this...party," Dabi said, the last word dripping with disdain, "and I find you here. This is really beginning to annoy me."

His head was tilted to the side, staring at her with those cold eyes of his. She realised his true intentions behind his words and actions: an invitation to fight to fulfil their mutual promise.

For the first time that night, Geten's face twisted into a smile.

"You were a pathetic nuisance the minute you showed at our doorstep." With that, Geten raised icicles and sent them flying towards the fire-user in all directions, like targeted missiles.

What followed was something Geten grudgingly admired. Dabi seemed to note every shard's position. He rolled to dodge one, blasting fire at two to melt them while resuming his standing position. He swept his right arm, creating a barrier of flames that stopped the few coming from the front. The last shard, about to stab him in the back, was used as a platform to backflip off of, sending the shard into the ground shattered. The man landed unscathed, and judging by his indifferent expression, unimpressed.

Geten allowed herself a smile, but Dabi couldn't see it from her parka covering her face. "Shame you didn't present such versatility when we last battled. It would have made for a more interesting fight, if you hadn't stood still the entire time and fired," She called out.

"I don't bother exerting myself for weak trash," He replied.

"That's a compliment, then."

Dabi's face morphed into anger. He rushed at her, his hands igniting.

Geten performed another 'raising' gesture, with an ice spike forming underground and about to pierce her opponent, when Dabi did something that stunned her.

Dabi, without shifting his glare away from her, aimed his palm at the ground and fired, melting the oncoming ice, which never reached his feet.

What the hell? He predicted that? Geten thought as she raised a thin wall of ice to separate the two. Waving her arms, ice carried her upwards, evading Dabi's violent flames that punched through the wall and where she was a split second ago.

Once she was twice his height, the ice beneath her reformed and flowed towards her arms. She let herself fall headfirst onto Dabi, who had just noticed the shadow blanketing him.

She slammed onto the ground, gauntlets of ice cracking the pavement like glass. She scowled, seeing as Dabi had managed to leap away in the nick of time.

A stream of azure fire was sent her way, which she raised her fists to block.

Need more ice, she thought. She felt for the melting ice around her; the molecules were beginning to vibrate more vigorously but still under melting point. With a thought, their temperature plummeted like an uncontrolled elevator down a shaft. The water molecules slowed, the effect spreading fast. Soon she had more ice at her disposal.

Just in time for her to coalesce them into shards and shoot at Dabi.

Dabi growled and fired another blast to nullify the attack. He clutched at his smoky right arm.

"Getting tired yet? Painful, isn't it?" Geten taunted, grinning at her imminent victory. All other thoughts faded away, leaving only one in her mind: I'm going to kill him.

"What about you? You're shaking." Dabi pointed a finger at her hands. Immediately, she shoved them into her pockets.

He smirked at her reaction. "Let me guess. Decreasing the temperature of the ice requires you to absorb their energy. And it has to go somewhere, right? You."