17/07/2021

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The Emperor's Dragon
Nestling 61

"Hitoshi!" Izuku called happily.

The purple haired boy looked around before his eyes fixed on to his friend. "I still can't get used to you with brown hair!" he grumbled as he moved forward.

"I told you why," Izuku replied, still happy.

"I know and it sucks," Hitoshi replied as they began walking.

He'd arrived in Mie Prefecture over the short winter break. Izuku had been waiting for him on the day he arrived and it felt like the six months apart had never happened. Hitoshi was happy to see Izuku but he knew his friend was hurting. Izuku hadn't said much, except to say that his dad was healed as much as he could be but was still requiring medical attention all the time.

If Hitoshi was honest, he missed Izuku's dad. He hadn't met Hisashi that often but the man had always been honest with him and was always in good humour. It had been nice to talk to someone who knew what his quirk was but who, like Izuku, was genuinely unafraid of him.

His mum and dad tried but he could tell they remembered the past, when he'd accidentally used his quirk on them. He didn't know but when it first came in he hadn't realised what was happening. Having Izuku and his dad talk to him without even batting an eye had been a balm he hadn't even realised he'd needed.

And now Izuku was sad. He didn't show it all the time but it was underlying everything he did. Hitoshi had only seen him a few times since they'd moved but he'd been able to see that.

"I had Kurogiri and Tomura help me with some stats and I just don't get why people think Heroes are great," Izuku said softly.

Hitoshi looked over at his friend. That was an odd statement. "What type of stats?" He asked.

"Civilians injured or killed and property damage," Izuku replied immediately. "Some are better than others. Rescue heroes for example don't usually cause property damage, or at least no more than any other rescue team and sure they have people die but those people would have died anyway. But the combat heroes, some of them have terrible stats."

Hitoshi nodded as they continued walking. Heroes were broken into a few types. There were the limelight heroes and underground heroes but beyond that there were more delineations. There were rescue heroes, combat heroes and support heroes.

"Everyone knows that villains do damage. That they destroy property, injure or kill people and most of them aren't that bad. They get caught before they can get that bad, but there's no reporting on the damage heroes do."

"It can't be all heroes?" Hitoshi murmured.

"It's not," Izuku admitted. "It's mostly the combat heroes."

Hitoshi sighed. "Who make up the top 15 or so positions on the Hero rankings," he said.

"Top 27 actually," Izuku corrected.

"Isn't um..?" Hitoshi couldn't remember the Hero exactly.

"Number 16 Exodus?"

"Aren't they a support hero?" Hitoshi asked.

"Not technically," Izuku allowed. "Even so…"

They were getting close to their school now and there were more kids around them. Hitoshi got a few odd looks because he wasn't recognised but he was surprised that no one was saying hello to Izuku. His friend didn't seem bothered but Hitoshi knew how Izuku thrived on having friends.

"So who has the worst stats?" He asked.

"All Might."

"Seriously?"

Izuku nodded and there was not even a ghost of a smirk gracing his lips so Hitoshi knew he was telling the truth. Then Hitoshi remembered the battle. "If we take out the battle your Dad got injured in, does that make a difference?" He sought clarification.

"Endeavor," Izuku answered immediately.

"Wait, what? You're telling me the first and second ranked heroes in Japan have the worst stats?"

"Yep," Izuku said, popping the P.

"How..?" Hitoshi stuttered. He wasn't really sure what question he was trying to ask. How did he not already know this? How did the public not know? How did they maintain those ranks? There were a lot of questions.

"I'll tell you later," Izuku said as they came into view of the gates. "Do you want to meet Ochaco now?"

"I think it will have to be at lunch," Hitoshi replied. "I'm meant to go to the Office," he told Izuku remembering what his instructions had been when he went to the new school.

"I'll take you there!" Izuku chirped, all hint of the heavy topics they had been discussing leaving his voice.

"Thanks!"

-ted-

Ochaco approached Izuku's classroom a little tentatively. They took turns going to each other's classrooms for lunch and today Izuku said he'd have a surprise for her. She was a little nervous about that.

He'd been… different since his dad had been injured. Darker, more critical of everything. Her mum and dad told her it was inevitable. That Izuku was hurting and probably didn't have any other way of expressing that pain. She just had to be understanding, and let him know if he hurt her.

He hadn't hurt her. Ochaco didn't think Izuku would but he did scare her slightly. He was so intense and the direction had changed.

But he had seemed genuinely happy when he told her he had a surprise for her today, and that had been at her birthday. She shook her head. This was going to be a good thing, Ochaco told herself and stepped through the doorway into the classroom.

She looked straight at Izuku's desk and saw that he'd already shifted it so that they'd have space to eat lunch but there was a third desk there. Her eyes widened.

There was another boy sitting there. He had purple hair, and purple eyes but he looked a bit tired.

"Ochaco!"

Izuku's voice was genuinely happy when he saw her. He waved her over enthusiastically.

"This is Hitoshi!" he introduced her happily. "He moved here over winter break! Hitoshi, this is Ochaco!"

The other boy gave her a smile. It showed his fond tolerance for Izuku. "Hi, I'm Hitoshi Shinso," he added his own introduction.

"Ochaco Uraraka," she said, sitting down.

"I went to school with Izuku at his last school," Hitoshi told her.

She felt a stab of jealousy at that. But then she remembered that Izuku had only spent a year at that school. She'd been to school with him for two and a half years so she had known him longer. That had to count for something, didn't it?

Izuku was watching them both with a smile. It was genuinely happy.

"Izuku and I started school together," she replied. Internally, Ochaco shook her head. She was being silly. Izuku had said many times that he wished all his friends could meet. It wasn't so that he could abandon any of them, it was because he thought they'd be friends as well. He wasn't going to like Hitoshi over her. Even if he was hurting, he wasn't like that. "But I'm sure you've got lots of stories from last year?"

The boy grinned at her, as he took off the lid on his lunchbox. "Do you know he got suspended?"

"What?" Ochaco yelled in surprise. Izuku suspended? That did not make sense. "Izuku?" she turned to him, her eyes wide. How did he get suspended?

"You didn't know?" Hitoshi asked but you could tell he was laughing.

"I didn't tell her," Izuku said in a small voice.

Hitoshi laughed. "It wasn't anything bad," he told her. "Just one of the other kids hated him."

"What?" She said again, more quietly this time. How could anyone hate Izuku? He was so nice!

"She had a grudge and the teachers favoured her.. Don't worry about it," Hitoshi explained, shaking his head as if to dismiss the matter.

Except, it wasn't that easy. Ochaco needed more information.

Izuku sighed and Ochaco watched as he fished a croquet out of his lunch box and put it into Hitoshi's. Then he fished out a small corn cob and put it in hers with a grin. "It wasn't anything bad," Izuku said. "You know that I've been learning self defence with Kurogiri?"

Ochaco nodded. Izuku had let her know that ages ago.

"She didn't like that it made me faster than her."

"Huh?" It wasn't a great response.

"Izuku won our school sports festival. At least for our year," Hitoshi elaborated. "She didn't like that, so she pulled a fake with her quirk and Izuku was suspended."

"How do you fake something with your quirk?" Ochaco asked. They weren't meant to use them during sports. Well, unless they were mutant type, then it couldn't be helped.

"Her quirk allowed her to break off parts of her body," Hitoshi said, picking up the croquet and biting into it. The crunch was audible even from where Ochaco was sitting. "It didn't hurt her, but she pretended it did."

"It wasn't bad," Izuku said with a shrug. "I got to spend the week with my dad!"

Ochaco nodded, then looked pensive. "No change over the break?" Izuku had refused to answer that question on her birthday.

Izuku shook his head. "No change. He's going to be on a respirator forever," he added, almost hissing.

She looked at him sadly, not sure what to say.

"It's not your fault!" Izuku picked up on her look. "It's the hero's fault."

"Izuku," Ochaco said softly. She didn't like the new direction he was taking.

"It is!" He insisted.

"You were going to tell me about some statistics," Hitoshi said.

"What statistics?" Ochaco asked quickly, hoping it was a way to diffuse the situation or at least change the subject.

Izuku swallowed a grape he'd just popped into his mouth with an ostentatious swallow, then he looked around before pulling out his phone.

"You're not meant to have that-"

The look Izuku gave her was more than enough to say 'I know' and Ochaco fell silent and watched as Izuku opened the screen and tapped for a few moments before he handed it over to Hitoshi. She got a glimpse of the screen and it looked to be text.

"What statistics?" Ochaco asked again, feeling ignored.

"You're not going to like them," Izuku said.

"They are about heroes," she concluded.

"They are," he replied as Hitoshi scrolled his way slowly through the phone. Izuku swallowed. "I know you don't think it was the hero's fault that dad was injured," he said softly.

"It was an accident," Ochaco said but she didn't feel the conviction she had felt before.

"No, Ochaco, it was a raid," Izuku said. "They were there to get Toxic Chainsaw, and they didn't make sure the civilians were evacuated," he explained. "The first part of any raid is to make sure that those not involved, do not get hurt. The first thing any hero should do is protect civilians, but they didn't. They cared so much about getting Toxic Chainsaw that they didn't act to protect the civilians."

"But that might have tipped off Toxic Chainsaw," she objected.

"It's their job!" Izuku countered. "And why did they go after such a dangerous villain in a commercial area? Couldn't they have waited until he was somewhere else?"

At that, Ochaco was at a bit of a loss. Those points were true. "I don't know."

"I don't either," Izuku sighed his response. "But it does mean they are responsible. Obviously Toxic Chainsaw is the most responsible but the Heroes should have done better. What's making me really angry, Ochaco, is that my dad isn't the first time this has happened."

"Wha?"

"That's what the statistics are," Izuku told her. "They are the true numbers from various hero fights. Usually the damage is blamed on the villain but that's not always true."

"And how did you get that information?" she asked, curious. Even as young as she was, she could see that if the information was that bad and available, the media would have put it everywhere.

"Kurogiri told me they come from a number of sources, and you have to cross reference to get to the bottom of them. Dad's company JBQC, provided some too, since they do large scale construction and have access to those numbers via the building industry. Your parents could probably get those numbers from the Union too."

Ochaco wasn't sure what to say about that and before she could, Hitoshi sighed. "Endeavor is the worst though," he commented, looking up from Izuku's phone.

"How'd you figure that?" Izuku asked.

"Can I read them?" Ochaco asked at the same time.

Izuku waved at Hitoshi to hand over his phone. Ochaco took it, noting how warm Hitoshi's hand was. She scrolled to the beginning of the information.

"All Might has larger civilian losses but also large savings. Endeavor takes on fire villains and that collateral damage is larger," Hitoshi said. "It's just a feeling. Plus, All Might donates more, so he's at least partially aware of the damage done."

"Tomara actually says you are right," Izuku grumbled.

The two of them could tell that he didn't want to admit it.

"If you look at the numbers on a per capita basis, then Endeavor's figures are worse. You don't need to consider donations. But…" Izuku growled this time, his eyes becoming hard in a way that Ochaco was familiar with. He was not going to give on this point. "It was All Might who took out Toxic Chainsaw, so for my Dad, the responsibility lies there."

Hitoshi sighed. "You better read," he told her.

Ochaco nodded and looked down at the phone. The first heading was 'The Hiratsuto Incident' which she'd never heard of. There was a date under it, which was eleven years ago.

"They are in chronological order," Hitoshi told her, correctly interpreting her frown. No one cared about stuff that old!

The description was simple. All Might fought an unknown villain, triggering a landslide. She scrolled down. There was a table underneath.

Deaths 14.
Injuries 53 of which 29 were catastrophic.
Damage in excess of 2 billion yen.

Ochaco felt her eyes widen at the numbers and scrolled further. The next heading was under the table. The Komagome Fire. Endeavor fought Crossfire, real name Kaen Netsu. The information was just as brief as the previous entry. The date was from eight years previous.

Deaths 6.
Injuries 79 of which 14 were catastrophic.
Damage in excess of 3 billion yen.

"Miss Uraraka! You know you are not allowed a phone during school hours!"

Ochaco wasn't the only one to jerk at the teacher's voice.

"I will be taking that," Miss Haru said.

She had the presence of mind to at least flick the screen to a menu before Ochaco turned around in her chair and sheepishly offered up the phone.

"I'm sorry!" Izuku said before Ochaco could say anything. "It's my phone. I was using it to check on my dad."

Miss Haru turned to Izuku. "Then why did Miss Uraraka have it?"

Izuku looked down and Ochaco felt kind of sick. "I was showing her an article I'd found."

Miss Haru sighed. "You know the rules, Mr Chui. I'm confiscating your phone. You may collect it at the end of class today."

"Yes, Ma'am," Izuku said softly.

The teacher moved away.

"I'm so sorry!" Ochaco whispered frantically.

"Don't worry," Izuku replied easily. "Where did you get up to?" He asked instead.

"Only to Komagome," she said, happy that the matter seemed to be dealt with.

"The others are the same," Hitoshi told her. "There's a whole list of incidents, all the way down to late last year."

"And they are all the same?"

Izuku nodded. "I'll send you the document when I get my phone back." He really wasn't concerned.

"But why don't we know about this?" Ochaco asked.

Izuku looked sadly at her. "It took me a while to learn this but it's because Heroes are controlled by the Hero Public Safety Commission and they need Heroes to have a good reputation. So they won't let through bad publicity. Hence we don't find out about the bad things… Until they happen to you."

Ochaco gulped at Izuku's last words. There was a note she didn't recognise in his voice. It was one of deep feeling. But…

Apparently Izuku could sense her apprehension. He gave her a sad smile. "It's okay. I know it's hard, but you'll see it eventually," he told her.

"We should finish lunch," Hitoshi broke in, jerking his head towards the clock.

And the tension disappeared but Ochaco remembered it and she wasn't sure what to think but she knew things had changed.

-ted-

Hitoshi is back! And has now met Ochaco! The posse is getting together.

Who do you think the unknown villain might have been? :D Catastrophic injury is actually a term that means life changing, something you don't recover from. We are talking spinal cord injuries, amputations, internal injuries, loss of sight, hearing or other senses, multiple bone fractures and head and traumatic brain injuries. AFO qualifies on at least three of them - amputation (of head!), loss of sight and smell, probably other bone fractures, and head and traumatic brain injuries because they don't get much worse than that!

All Might also qualifies on internal injuries and probably a whole heap of bone fractures. So they, in the battle, they both did a number on each other.

-ted-

Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!