06/07/2022

Goes with Chapter 21 of Fledgling

The Emperor's Dragon
When Mei was tracking down Izuku, what if she decided to visit, not just crack his phone?

Mai looked at her phone and then frowned. She never got phone calls from Hisashi. It was usually her calling him. Even so she picked up the phone to answer the call. "Hisashi! This is a surprise," she greeted the man jovially when the call connected as voice only.

"Mai," the voice was terse.

She tensed. It was never good when Hisashi was terse.

"Do you know where your daughter is?"

The question shot through her heart. How the hell did Hisashi know she had a daughter? She kept her dealings with him strictly professional. "How do you know I have a kid?" she demanded. How much had Hisashi been tracking her? How had he done it? He came to her for that sort of thing.

"Do you know where your daughter is?" he repeated.

"She's down the back," Mai replied. There was no point in attempting to lie to Hisashi. He obviously knew she had a daughter and so it was best to find out what he wanted. He wasn't making threats after all, just asking.

"Is she really?"

Again the question shot through her heart and before Mai could answer, the call changed to include video. The shot was clear. It was of Mei. She was standing, looking guilty, in front of someone else. Mai couldn't even see all of the someone else and belatedly she realised, from the size of the hand resting on Mei's shoulder that someone else had to be Gigantomachia.

"What have you done?" Mai demanded. "If you hurt her-" She didn't finish the threat. Against Hisashi it was useless. She knew that. She felt the cold pool in the pit of her stomach as she realised exactly how helpless she was and Hisashi would know that.

"Why did you take her?" Mai instead asked.

"I did not. She showed up on my doorstep," the man Mai knew as Hisashi, but also knew that he had several other names, including one whispered only as rumour, told her.

"What?" This made no sense.

"She showed up on my doorstep asking about my Little Dragon," came the further explanation.

The feed from the video cut off as the call was returned to voice only. It didn't make Mai feel any better. "I don't understand," Mai said. How would Mei know about Hisashi? How would she even find Hisashi and then even if she did, why did she go to the man? And what was his Little Dragon-

Wait…

Mai felt her eyes widen. Mei had been chattering about how she'd found an investor and was making something for them, except that she couldn't get in touch with her investor… Mai hadn't looked into it because it seemed like a good thing, and a normal childhood event to fall out of contact with friends, especially those who were online but…

If Hisashi was saying that Mei had shown up on his doorstep then the man would not be lying. And if he was referring a Little Dragon, his Little Dragon then that was code for his child. That could only mean one thing. Mei's investor was Hisashi's child.

Of all the people in the world she could have connected to…

Mai would laugh if it weren't so serious.

"I trust you understand the situation now?" Hisashi asked after a few moments of silence. She never knew how he always seemed to understand what she was thinking but he did. Those silences in conversation where others were confused, Hisashi always just knew what was going on. Mai had sometimes wondered if that was his quirk but the rumours always had his quirk as something much darker.

"I believe I do," Mai said with a sigh. She owed Hisashi. "I'll owe you a free job if you deliver her back," Mai indicated. That would be cheap.

"Include communication devices so that our offspring do not feel the need to jeopardise our locations," Hisashi added blandly.

"A free job and communication devices," Mai agreed. She probably should have thought of that herself.

There was silence on Hisashi's end for a few moments. It was only because she had dealt with the man many times that she knew this was simply one of Hisashi's tactics. Most people reacted to the silence by offering him more and Mai bit her lip to keep silent. There had been nothing in his voice to indicate he wanted more and now that she'd had a few moments to think, even with the initial question about Mei he'd seemed more exasperated than angry.

"Agreed. Text your coordinates to Kurogiri and I will contact you about the job in due course," Hisashi said eventually.

"Will do," Mai agreed, feeling relieved. "I'll make sure Mei stays at home," she added.

"You do that," Hisashi agreed before the call was cut.

Mai stared at her phone. With her eyesight she could see every little detail on it and then she took a deep, shuddering breath.

It appeared she would be having words with her daughter and…

Her computer was going to have to be locked. She'd gotten lucky this time… She'd gotten incredibly lucky that Mei was still alive. Hisashi's people wouldn't hesitate to kill her. Her age would not have been a protection if they felt she was a threat or even if she was somewhere she shouldn't have been. Hisashi's residence was definitely somewhere she shouldn't be. Next time…

There would not be a next time.

There couldn't be.

Hisashi would not tolerate it.

-ted-

I think I said it at the time, while I know Mei is good at stuff, I don't think she'd be great at everything at this age, which is about 11.5 years old. So in this way, her mother is the smart one at hacking. But... yeah, what if Mei took a more direct route.

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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