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The blond looked around at the devastation that reigned the place with a mix of awe and fear – nobody told him he was going to hell but he suspected it all along, and when his time finally came he didn’t act surprised at all, just worried about the never-ending flames touching his wings.
Hawks tried his best to remember how he died as he walked along the dark path that surely led somewhere important; had it been during a fight against a villain? Had it been of natural causes? Had the calories from the chicken wings he so loved finally clogged his system? He didn’t know and at that point he knew it didn’t matter at all. The heat wasn’t overbearing and it actually felt like going through a sauna, something he gladly welcomed even if he looked crazier than ever walking through hell with a big smile on his face.
It wasn’t a long walk until he saw a big, black arc on the middle on the road with a hooded figure leaning against it, two bright blue eyes fixed on him as he made his way over. Somehow, he recognized the man, but he couldn’t put his finger on it quite right. “So, it’s finally your turn now, huh?” the stranger said with a raspy voice, and when the man took off his hood Hawks finally realized who he was.
“You?” he exclaimed, a certain sense of satisfaction hitting him like a big wave. “I knew you were a bad guy but you came here too and they sent you to check on everyone who arrives to this place? That must’ve sucked.”
“I am not but a mere figment of your personality, someone sent to guide you with the face of the one dearest to you,” the man spoke, the surgical staples that decorated his burned face moving and threatening to tear with each word spoken. Hawks was puzzled. “I’m not the one you think I am. My real name is not one you can speak in man’s tongue, but you can call me the way you did… Dabi.” The newly-arrived eyed him up and down and noticed the weird clothing the other… man was wearing – some simple shirt and pants with no shoes and the hooded cape, yet despite the items being a bit ragged he seemed clean and sharp. “We had been expecting your arrival, but you came a bit before your due time; I do wonder what happened,” the new Dabi added, the familiar face twisting a bit with a grimace.
“I was actually hoping you could answer me that,” Hawks whispered.
Before anything else came from him, the other one turned around and walked through the arc, and then said, “Once you cross there is no turning back. You can come and learn to serve our Lord or you can stay in limbo for all of eternity.”
There was no hesitating as Hawks quickly crossed the portal, which turned to dust in just a second. He had no time to be amazed at that as he noticed he was being left behind by Dabi, but as he stared at the walking figure he started to remember little snippets of things that had happened between him and the “real” one, and he wondered if the same thing could happen in the land of sins. In what felt like a moment of stupidity he ran after the retreating figure and when he was close enough he spoke again, a goofy smile on his lips.
“Hey, do you happen to have a map to this place?”
Dabi turned around and looked at him like he was crazy. “No, we do not have maps here – we guide ourselves by our instinct and knowledge.”
“That’s a shame,” Hawks followed, “because I just got lost in your eyes.”
As he focused on their path again, he only heard a short sigh and a snap of fingers before the new Dabi presented him with a scroll. “Here’s the map,” he said after Hawks had grabbed it carefully, “please do not get lost again; no place is safe around here and the Lord doesn’t like wandering subjects.”
They stopped for a moment while Hawks supressed a laugh the best way he could and put the scroll in one of his jacket’s pocket before turning once more to his new friend. Somehow, the interaction had given him back some of his old courage. “Oh, I was wondering if you could actually give me directions…” he looked around as if searching for something and for the first time he felt intimidated by the emptiness of the place, but he was determined to succeed. “I was wondering how to get to your heart.”
Making some finger guns at the creature in disguise, he wondered if he would be about to get killed for a second time (if that was even possible) or if he’d get plainly exiled from hell altogether. “I do not have a heart,” was all Dabi said with a tired expression before turning around and resuming the march back to wherever he was taking Hawks, and all the latter could do was let out a long laugh. Blue eyes were glued to him, unbeknownst to him, as he walked forward and joined his new companion.
If he had won the affection of a heartless bastard back on Earth, how hard could it be to do the same thing in hell?