07/12/2021

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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 26

Despite the fact that he had been running late, Izuku still made it back to the office space just as Kurogiri messaged him. He shot back a message immediately, asking for a few more minutes. The misty man sent him back a nodding emoji, and as Izuku got his breath back he took off his gakuran. His undershirt was tucked in. Izuku felt the waistline of his shirt, patting it to feel the broken scales that were there. If they weren't actually attached to him, they weren't reabsorbed.

Carefully he pulled up his inner shirt and then brushed the loose scales to the floor. Some were in pieces. Others were whole, but they'd all broken from him when Kumou had hit him. They weren't strong enough. They had provided some protection. Izuku had to admit that. He was sure the hit would have hurt more if he didn't have the scales, but the fact remained they had broken when a twelve-year-old hit them. He probably should have just relied on shock absorption but using that was a bit obvious. His quirk was Fire Breath. If he'd just stood there and taken Gatarui's blows, it would have been obvious that something was wrong. The scales were the better option. But-

Gigantomachia breaking them Izuku could deal with; Gatarui breaking them was a different matter.

Though…

Izuku frowned. Was he being fair? Gatarui had a spider-type mutation quirk. Spiders were strong, so Kumou might have increased strength.

That would also explain why he was annoyed that Izuku kept defeating him.

He shook his head, allowing his hair to go back to being green. Kumou probably did have increased strength. His scales stood up to quite a bit of abuse when he wasn't using his strength quirk. He needed to do some research on spiders to figure out what Gatarui's skills might be, though it didn't seem as if the boy had poison or webs. That was something.

He had poison. At least his dad told him he had. He'd gotten it when his dad was unconscious, and he didn't like to remember that time. He hadn't experimented much with the quirks his dad had given him then. Dad had told him that his quirk had wanted to keep two of them. Night Cat, which allowed him to see in the dark, was used occasionally. The other one was Poison Fang. He hadn't used it at all.

He hadn't even tested it.

Izuku bent down and swept up the fallen scales as best he could. He picked out a few whole ones and put them in his bag, but the others he put into the bin. The office wasn't serviced, but he took the bin bag home with him for disposal every few days unless there was foodstuff there, which meant he took it back that day...

Izuku sat down and held one of his scales. If Gatarui had increased strength, then it was perhaps okay that it had broken. And… maybe it was a good thing that he had regeneration. Others wouldn't walk away from a fight with the other boy. That would be why Gatarui always wanted to fight him.

So… if it happened again, what did he do? He could just knock him out by taking his quirk, but Izuku didn't know what people remembered of that. Usually, Giran used his quirk to make those he practiced on forget. What would happen if he did it without Giran's quirk? He would have to find out preferably before he was forced to find out.

And if Gatarui challenged him again… He'd deal with that when it happened. Maybe he could poison him?

But to do that, he'd have to find out how strong his poison was. He held up a scale, rubbing it between his fingers.

It looked like he had some research to do.

-ted-

It was interesting how hindsight made everything clear. Mirai sighed as he looked at the report. It was a report that wouldn't usually come to Heroes, especially not to him but with his investigations, he had put certain electronic tags on things, and here it was.

The Minister of Education had disappeared. He'd vanished from his secured home in the middle of the night. His wife was left undisturbed, and the alarms were still active. There was no sign of foul play. No broken windows or doors, no disturbance in their garden or inside, no nothing to suggest anything more than he had left of his own accord.

Except he hadn't; he was missing.

The Government had made a few statements and then appointed a new Minister - pro tem - and things had moved on. The police were still investigating the disappearance, but they admitted that there wasn't a lot they could do without evidence. They were running searches throughout the country, but Koichi Hagiuda had not appeared anywhere, and his bank accounts were untouched.

Sir Nighteye knew what that meant, and he should have known that All For One would have had someone planted in the Government. The things that… principal didn't tell him became clear now. He'd been disgusted with her at the time, and he was still disgusted with her, but it was clear that she had known more than she let on.

It made sense. If All For One's child was quirkless, and that was a definite maybe, but all records from that school indicated he was, then the child would need protection. And what better protection than from the Minister of Education himself? That would mean his records were cleaned and buried. All For One wanted that but even for a villain who excelled in complex plots that seemed excessive.

A simple bribe to his homeroom teacher or a generous donation to the school would have been less evident than buying off the Minister of Education. Though how had he been bought off? There was nothing in his finances to suggest any financial impropriety.

Unless…

Sir Nighteye looked at the picture of Koichi Hagiuda. The man was later middle-aged and so utterly average that it was difficult to believe he had anything to do with All For One. His quirk was named Taion, which was simple in its use. It allowed him to control his body temperature at will. He'd used it a few times as a junior politician to pass through the security heat scanners at frigid temperatures as a joke…

Mirai blinked, looking at the picture as a new possibility occurred to him. All For One hadn't bought off Koichi with money; he'd bought him with a quirk. Koichi Haguida was not really Koichi Hagiuda but someone else… someone who was undoubtedly officially missing and quirkless.

But if you had someone like that, why had he been removed? Even for a villain of All For One's standing, removing a pawn like the Minister for Education was a big move. What had caused Koichi's downfall?

The obvious conclusion was that it was something to do with All For One's son… Or that All For One had found out how he'd been tracked down. But the Minister had done his best to normalise all records of the boy, and he'd been able to track down All For One only because that Principal was disgruntled. Given how many people All For One left disgruntled, that really shouldn't be the reason.

But, All For One was a villain, reason did not have to feature… No. Sir Nighteye couldn't allow himself to think that about this villain. Time and time again, All For One had shown he was completely logical so long as you were completely amoral. The only time he displayed passion was about quirks, and Koichi's quirk was nothing to be passionate about.

So the man had done something that had triggered All For One's ire. It bothered Mirai that he didn't know what and as he looked at the photo of the Minister he couldn't help but hope that the man thought whatever he'd done was worth it. Mirai opened up a new email. Yagi would want to know.

The two of them hadn't talked for months. They still worked together, technically but the Number One Hero had not spoken to his sidekick since the evidence became clear that All For One had survived.

To the media, and the public the relationship was as strong as ever. To the rest of the agency, the relationship was strained. To them, there was no relationship. Toshinori considered it a betrayal that he hadn't been informed of All For One's survival. And Mirai knew that the Number One Hero blamed him for the failure of Tsukauchi's mission to rescue the child.

The child was already a lost cause but he couldn't tell either of them that!

On some days, Sir Nighteye wondered why Yagi was still around, why he hadn't split entirely but he knew why. All For One. The villain took up his entire time and Toshinori chased every hint of a lead to try to find the man.

They were leads that went nowhere. They were leads that didn't lead anywhere. The man had gone to ground and even deeper than he had after he'd kidnapped his son. He'd be found only when he wanted to be found.

Even so, Sir Nighteye looked. There may be another mistake, somewhere, and while All Might's sidekick knew that his boss didn't believe he took the case seriously, he had no idea. Finding All For One was vitally important because if All Might did…

He didn't want that vision to come to pass. He couldn't let that vision come to pass. Just this once, he was going to find a way to change what he'd seen.

So, Mirai sighed deeply and typed out a new email, informing Toshinori about Koichi Hagiuda's disappearance, and his probable link with All For One. Then Yagi would get involved. The investigation would still go nowhere and everyone would be more frustrated.

But it would be worse if he said nothing.

He really was between a rock and a hard place.

-ted-

"Daddy?"

"Yes, my Little Dragon?" All For One replied to his son. Izuku was currently using a gripper to increase his hand strength. His son wasn't using his strength quirk so was using both hands to move the small device. Izuku had seen him using them and had wanted to try, except the gripper he used was far too stiff for Izuku.

"How strong is Poison Fang?"

"What do you mean?" Hisashi asked.

"The poison," Izuku clarified, his voice trembling as he pulled the gripper as hard as he could.

"I think you will need to work your way up to that one," All For One murmured as he thought about Izuku's question. He remembered the quirk now. It was one he had accidentally given to Izuku. "I'm not sure how strong the poison is, my Little Dragon," he had to admit. It has been a long time since he'd used it and he couldn't entirely recall where he had gotten that quirk.

He might have gotten it while acquiring a different quirk. That happened sometimes. People got in his way and the easiest way of removing them was to take their quirk. It wasn't like he didn't have uses for random quirks, no matter what they were.

"Oh," Izuku replied.

"Did you use it on someone?" All For One asked curiously. Not that it would matter if Izuku had as it was time Izuku began asserting himself, but it was good to know.

"No, but Gigantomachia says I should use everything I can in a fight, and I've never used the poison," Izuku replied, putting the gripper down.

That was an interesting answer. Hisashi could tell Izuku was speaking the truth to him, but there was something deeper in his son's words. What had been the catalyst for Izuku to think about the poison quirk?

"Did something else happen?"

Izuku sighed, picking up the gripper again. This time he used his strength quirk and actually moved the handle. The fidgeting told All For One that he was correct.

"Gatarui challenged me again," Izuku said eventually.

"I take it you won?"

His son nodded. "I didn't take his quirk because I wasn't sure if he'd remember that," Izuku said.

It was a reasonable consideration. All For One didn't care if people remembered that he took their quirk. It added to his reputation. Izuku was a little young to garner such a reputation. "Very good," Hisashi praised. "You thought about using your poison?"

"Yes," Izuku confirmed. "But I don't know how strong it is," he came back to that point.

"Then, my Little Dragon, we will have to find out," All For One said with a smile.. "I believe the Doctor can determine the main toxin and its potency," he explained before frowning.

"Daddy?" Izuku saw his confusion.

"How do you deliver the poison?" Hisashi asked.

"Deliver it?"

"Snakes and spiders bite to deliver their poison. Do you need to bite them?" All For One asked. If Izuku did, he might have to get his son some sanitation quirks.

"I can," his son told him, and to his sight, All For One saw Izuku put the gripper down before he lifted his hand to his mouth and pulled back his lips to show off his teeth. He presumed that Izuku was showing off venom delivering fangs and suppressed his hatred that All Might had denied him such a view on reflex. "But I can also deliver through claws," he continued, letting his mouth go and holding up his hand.

Hisashi couldn't see the detail, but the way Izuku held his fingers seemed to indicate that they could be used. He wondered if his son had claws and again cursed All Might. He needed to find another sight quirk. The one he had was adequate, but he was missing so many details. And since All Might knew he was alive, he wouldn't even have to hide that he'd taken it.

"Very good," All For One said. "Now, we need the Doctor to test for the type of poison it is, and its potency, and while he is doing that, we will have to see how effective your delivery methods are."

"What do you mean, Daddy?"

"There are different types of poison, my Little Dragon."

"There is?" Izuku seemed intrigued.

"There are. But we will have to learn about them together," Hisashi told his son since he didn't know much more than that. For a moment, Izuku looked disappointed but then he brightened. He liked learning, and he liked learning with his dad.

"Shall we call the Doctor?" All For One asked.

Izuku nodded enthusiastically.

All For One smiled, pleased with Izuku's questions. His son was beginning to realise he had weapons and that he needed to know about them before he could effectively use them. Those were lessons he was more than happy to teach.

-ted-

So Izuku has research to do into spiders. He's probably not going to find much or at least not much applicable but but he'll try.

And Sir Nighteye has something to look at but given that AFO doesn't want to be found, even more than before, I don't think there is going to be many leads from a man who disappeared in the night, from his bed. There's no cars to track and all that. So while they might know that the Minister has a connection to AFO, they aren't going to find AFO from that. Right now, AFO can't afford to be found, so he's not going to be found. He's a good underworld boss! A good one! No need for a hero to take him out.

And Izuku now has lessons with daddy into poison and venom. AFO is so proud. Izuku is learning to use his quirks!

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out.

-ted-

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