Across the Sea***

Rumi had gotten us to a small camp ground rather quickly. It was pretty obviously set up for heroes to use rather than normal campers. Setting up the campsite was simple enough since a small tent sized bunker was already set up in the middle of the camp site. 

Rumi however eventually left me behind with a radio. It was mostly so she could go investigate the areas people had reported strange sightings. For myself though I needed to focus on some training.

Feeling the sun on my skin I began absorbing it. Sucking the light out of the air and the area around me dimmed. It was as if I was in a bubble of darkness. This was the good thing about training in the woods. It was also one of the biggest reasons I was out here.

I began siphoning the heat from the air. I felt the warmth of the life around me. However I snapped my eyes open and twisted in a direction. I felt something big. My light absorption bubble was small compared to the bubble I could Siphon heat from.

I could tell when I drew the heat from the air the animal reacted to it. Hopefully it was just a type of wild boar. I thought for a moment and sighed. Deciding on the stupid thing to do I moved in the direction of the animal. It could be either the creature that was reported or it might be able to lead me to the creature.

Either way I started walking in the direction of what I sensed. Not exactly the smartest idea, but… I threw out small pulses feeling out the heat sources in the area. Whatever I felt vanished, but I quickly found where it was. Large paw prints lingered with a dense amount of heat coming from them.

In front of them was a small pond, it seems the creature was drinking. I held up the radio Rumi gave me, "Hey? Are you there?"

I had to wait a minute before she responded, "Yeah? What's up?"

I scratched my head and wondered how I should phrase this. Normally I'd just take a picture, but that was kind of why we had radios. There was no cell service… "How do I put this,I found large paw prints?"

Rumi radioed back, "Do one set resemble a cat while the other a dog?"

That was exactly what they looked like. The left print was that of some kind of feline, the other was either a bear or some kind of wolf. "Yup, did you also find some?"

Rumi answered back, "No, that is what some tourists described. Where are they?"

I looked back at where I came from, "About North East of the camp by a small pond of wat-"

I snapped my head in the direction of a distant sound. However a second later Rumi came flying down from the sky. She landed with a loud slam and had a broad grin. "Did you just jump here?"

Her Grin grew, "You know so many people forget how far I can actually jump." She shook off her triumph and moved over to the paw prints. "What kind of freakish creature is this?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Are you talking about the mismatched shaped paws, or the fact they have what looks like thumbs."

Rumi slapped me, "Those are off-putting yes… but I am referring to the fact it moved quickly and in total silence."

My eyes went wide as I failed to recognize that. It moved almost instantly out of senses. Yet the tracks it left behind are massive. Where had it gone? How did it disappear so quietly? "If it is a quirk beast, its size and shape aren't due to its quirk."

Rumi nodded, "Or it's a monster with more than one."

I frowned, she was right. I wasn't the only proof of that, it wasn't totally confirmed, but surely that Nomu creature had more than one quirk. "So how do we track a beast that is completely silent?"

Rumi shook her head, "We don't, at least not directly. You sensed it through absorbing the heat from the air or something?"

I nodded, "That is exactly how. It reacted instantly to the temperature drop of a degree."

Rumi started walking back toward the camp, "So we wait a bit."

I raised an eyebrow, "We wait?"

Rumi nodded, "Call it a hunch, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it will come to us. So use your infrared vision or whatever to find it while you suck the heat out of the air. While you do that, I am gonna put on a coat I had packed and stay nice and warm in the shelter."

I frowned, "Why are you pushing off your work to a student? I don't even have a license."

She smirked, "What do you mean it's training! Besides this part of your quirk I can't help you train anyway." She waved it off like it didn't matter. However I knew Rumi was being cheeky. I sighed and followed back to the camp.

———

I sensed it, a shiver across my scales. My fur protected me from the changes, but I felt the temperature drop. I don't know how my body worked, but I was both cold-blooded and warm-blooded. Traits that were thoroughly integrated into me.

Someone had sucked the heat from the air. "ThEy SenSEd Us!"

How had someone found us? I shook my head, I mean me! How had they found me? Is it just a coincidence? I wanted to hide, to satisfy some of my hunger. That way I don't go overboard. 

"OveRboArD? ThAt WAsN'T RigHt…" I shook my head once again and sniffed at the air. "Talking to ourselves. What was the p-PoiNt?"

Those people, were they heroes? I ran rather far away, my ears twitch though. I heard some hikers use another language, so I was pretty sure this wasn't america. I flicked my ears around in thought. The animals here are somewhat new as well.

I was likely in Japan, had I traveled that far? I licked at the air, it was getting colder again. Was that from the sun going down or was it that hero? So many questions…

I am still hungry…