23/08/2022

Welcome back or Welcome! Emergence was meant to be Dragon but it got too long so... this is hopefully book 3 of 4. For those who don't want to read previous books, summary of events to date is below.

This is Book 3, but you can understand what is happening even if you haven't read the others.

Summary of Fledgling - For Those Who Don't Want to Read It.

Izuku gets trained by his father and Gigantomachia though nothing is yet mentioned of being a villain. He continues going to school with Ochaco and Hitoshi and misses communicating with Himiko. Izuku makes friends with Inasa and continues to work with Mei on his father's helmet. Eventually the helmet is finished, and to pay for it, Izuku buys Mei a company and gives her most of what is left over of his investment money as start up funds.

Inko is still pursuing Izuku and while she doesn't realise that Toxic Chainsaw is a cover up, she does realise there are anomalies with the story she was given. She takes the HPSC to court and eventually gets told a version of the truth. They didn't go after her son because they feared it would alert her husband. All For One was funding Inko's case and while he keeps his agreement with her - letting her see Izuku - she didn't do what he wanted - have the case go public because Inko was stronger than his control. As a result, he kills Inko and has her resurrected as a special Nomu that appears completely normal and functional.

Sir Nighteye sees All Might dying at Kamino and wants to do anything to avoid it even though he knows he's never been able to change the future. He is involved with Inko's case and eventually makes the decision that they should tell her before the case goes public. He checks the future after this and sees that it's changed and he doesn't look further into it because he's so happy. Hint, it was Inko's strength in not bowing to All For One and a decision All For One made that changes the future.

All For One is maneuvering and while he watches his son grow, and searches for a way to heal, he slowly realises Izuku is as important to him as his brother and he doesn't want to be betrayed by his son. The decision is made to use Tomura as his replacement body and copies of All For One are grown. Other quirks are collected and cloned for Izuku's eventual use. Eventually All For One resolves to let Izuku go into the world so he can make his own choice with the warning that if he is to go against his father, then, he'd better do so at full power.

The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 1

"Little Dragon, is everything okay?" Ochaco asked carefully

It was the first day of school, and while Izuku had been happy to see them, there was a sense of sadness hanging around him. She had no idea what might be causing it. It was too early in the year to be melancholy about High School.

She'd asked Hitoshi earlier but the other teen didn't know what was bothering their friend.

"It's nothing," Izuku said.

She shared a look with Hitoshi. They silently agreed it was definitely something. She leaned forward and gave Izuku a hug. "It's so good to see you!" Ochaco said. It wasn't a lie.

Izuku wasn't able to see them over summer. His dad was too sick and had been for the last few years, ever since they were ten. She tried to remember if he was like this last year but couldn't.

He returned her hug and once again Ochaco was surprised at how strong Izuku was. "It's good to see you too, Ochaco. I'll be okay. It's just that…"

She felt Izuku take a deep breath.

"It's just what?" Hitoshi asked softly.

"It's just that, ever since I was five, Dad's told me that he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. That he wanted me to help him." Izuku pulled back from her hug and looked to the side, into the distance.

"I didn't understand what he wanted at first. Then I got that he wanted me to work at his businesses, and work with him."

"Did something change?" Hitoshi asked.

Izuku sighed and then he nodded. "He said… he said over summer that he was letting me go," their friend said. He laughed, but it sounded hollow. "I'm not even employed so he can't let me go!" he joked, except it was obvious that Izuku didn't find it funny.

"Did he say why?" Ochaco asked carefully. She wasn't entirely sure what Izuku meant with what he was saying.

He gave them an odd smile. It was one of those smiles that wasn't really a smile. "He said he wants me to be sure," Izuku told them.

"Ah," Hitoshi said, and it actually sounded like he understood.

Izuku picked up on that as well. He looked over at the purple haired teen.

Hitoshi picked up on the unspoken question. "I've seen it happen before," he murmured.

"Seen what happen before?" Ochaco asked.

"You know how some businesses are inherited?" He asked.

Both Izuku and Ochaco nodded. Ochaco especially knew that. Her parents had never expected her to take over. They had made that clear almost as soon as she was old enough to understand it.

"I've seen them go bad before," Hitoshi said. "Sometimes, it's just expected that the kid will take over the business, but it's not really what they want to do. When they do take over, things go badly."

The way Izuku looked at Hitoshi told him that he was wondering what it had to do with him.

"Izuku, your dad has told you since you were young that he wants you to take over, or at least work with him in his business, right?"

"I said that," Izuku confirmed.

"But that's what he wants. By saying that he's letting you go, he's making sure that it is what you want."

"Oh!" Ochaco sighed as she nodded. She got it now. "Yeah, he is," she confirmed for Izuku. "He loves you, so he wants you to think about what you actually want," she told her friend. "When you decide that, I'm sure he'll support you, no matter what it is!"

Izuku actually chuckled at that. "He said that," he confirmed.

"Because he loves you," Ochaco repeated that bit.

"I just…" He sighed. "I thought I was sure of what I was going to do but now I don't know."

"And that's what he wants you to find out," Hitoshi told his friend.

"I wish he'd given me some warning," Izuku complained.

"I don't think you can give someone a warning about that. But, it's not like you are never going to see him, is it Little Dragon?" Ochaco pointed out.

"No," he said with a smile. This one was more real, though it was still a bit sad.

"Anyway, it's the first day of school!" Ochaco said, deliberately upbeat. "What did you two do over summer?"

That turned the conversation into a much nicer area, and her friends smiled as they launched into their own tales.

It was good to see them.

-ted-

Hitoshi had one elbow on the table so that his head was resting on his hand. After school, he met up with Ochaco and Izuku for half an hour to work on their homework and to chat before they went home. They all lived in separate directions so it was their time together.

"Why do they do career counselling in the first week of school?" He groaned.

"Why is counselling so unrealistic?" Izuku returned his question.

Hitoshi looked up. "You didn't?" He asked.

"He did," Ochaco said, sitting down at the table.

"What was the response?" Hitoshi asked her, already imagining how his friend's question would have been viewed.

Ochaco chuckled.

They were in separate classes this year. Ochaco had class with Izuku so she'd seen it first hand.

Hitoshi looked at her, silently asking for the rundown.

"Mr Chuga asked what everyone had put down on their career form, and then he said he already knew that everyone had put down hero."

"I didn't," Izuku said.

"Everyone but Little Dragon," Ochaco corrected.

"Did you put down hero?" Hitoshi asked.

The way Ochaco flinched told him she had. Izuku caught the movement as well and for an instant he looked stricken. "I don't know what I want to do," Ochaco admitted and before anyone could ask she continued with her story. "But after Mr Chuga said that, and everyone calmed down again, Izuku got up. He asked if the school was just going to accept their nominations or provide more realistic counselling."

Hitoshi choked as he laughed. That was so much like Izuku! "What did he say?" He managed to get the question out. Barely, as he continued to snicker.

"Before or after he managed to stop looking like a fish?" Ochaco countered with her own question.

He kept laughing. Even Izuku cracked a smile at the memory.

"Mr Chuga eventually said that there would be career counselling," Izuku said. "It better be realistic," he added darkly.

Ochaco and Hitoshi nodded. They knew what their friend meant. Izuku was one for facts and figures. He had shown them the real statistics from Hero battles. The real outcomes, the ones that weren't reported. Last year, when they were told to start thinking about their careers, and everyone around them had declared they wanted to be a hero, he'd actually given them the real numbers about becoming a hero.

Statistically only one person in their school would become a hero, yet just about everyone had put that down for their desired career. It didn't make sense.

"What did you put down, Izuku?" Hitoshi asked.

"I wasn't sure what to put down," the green haired teen admitted. His hair colour was actually close to his natural colour today. He'd started changing his hair colour after his dad's injury and had never stopped. White hair seemed to be his preferred default, like his Dad's but sometimes he went with his natural colour or something else.

"Couldn't exactly put down corporate CEO?" Hitoshi joked.

Izuku gave him a dirty look. "I used to like working with the scientists, so I put that down," he said.

"Oh, you'd be great at that!" Ochaco said enthusiastically.

Hitoshi nodded his agreement. Izuku would be a great scientist. "Did you put anything down about quirks?"

"You mean like a quirk counsellor?" his friend asked.

"Actually, never mind scientist, Little Dragon," Ochaco interrupted. "You'd be a fantastic quirk counsellor!"

"I thought about putting down Analytics, but most of that has to do with Heroics," Izuku told them.

And they both knew what Izuku's thoughts were about Heroes. He'd never forgiven them for letting his Dad get caught as collateral damage. It made sense, but it was an odd view, considering the way everyone else looked at Heroes.

"You should do it!" Ochaco encouraged him. "And then charge them a fortune for your wisdom. It would be legal payback!" she laughed.

Izuku grinned and nodded his agreement. "We'll see. I'm sure there are a lot of jobs out there that we've never even heard about!" He said.

"True," Hitoshi agreed. "I hope the school does give decent counselling," he added. "I don't want to be limited by the usual popular suggestions."

Izuku looked over towards Ochaco. "Did you really put down Hero?" he asked, bringing up something they had touched on earlier.

Ochaco sighed heavily. She ran one hand through her light brown hair before she answered. "I didn't know what to put down," she said. "But I kind of do want to try out as a Hero."

Hitoshi knew how much that would hurt Izuku. "Why?" he asked before Izuku could.

She gave them a weak smile, knowing that she was hurting Izuku. "I want to be a rescue hero, so that I could have rescued your Dad. I want to help people the way you do Izuku, just by being there."

They both noticed the tears forming in Izuku's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Little Dragon," Ochaco said.

He shook his head but they could see the way that he bit the inside of his lip to keep from crying. "It's okay," Izuku said. "It's your choice."

"I don't want to be one of the Heroes you've told us about, Izuku. I don't want my stats to be like that. I want to be a hero," she emphasised the word.

Izuku nodded. "I know," he said. He at least sounded sure this time.

They sat in silence for a while. "Did you get homework today?" Hitoshi asked, changing the subject.

Both Izuku and Ochaco groaned. He took that for a yes. "It's the first week!" Ochaco growled.

"It's the last year," Izuku pointed out. At the end of the year, they'd be sitting entrance exams for High Schools. This year, their school would be doing everything they could to prepare them.

They hadn't held back on the homework.

"We should get going," Ochaco said, smiling at her friends.

"We should," Hitoshi agreed.

"Yeah, that homework isn't going to do itself," Izuku agreed.

They chuckled and stood. The group of friends travelled through the school to their shoe lockers and changed their shoes. Then they walked to the gate. Just outside the gate they looked at each other.

"See you tomorrow, Hitoshi, Little Dragon!" Ochaco said brightly as she tugged her pendant out. Izuku had given it to her years back and it was still a beautiful lustrous green. It had come as a bit of a surprise to find that Hitoshi had one, as did Izuku.

Izuku had explained to her that he had gotten some of them. He'd given them to people he trusted. Ochaco had joked that even his dad had one, but the joke had been on her when Izuku told her that yes, his dad did have one. Izuku had told her that the pendants meant nothing now but he wanted them to mean something in the future. Now, the pendant simply meant he knew them. In the future, Izuku wanted it to mean that he would help her. She'd felt warm at that. It would probably never be anything but the thought was nice.

Izuku followed suit and Hitoshi reached for his belt. He had a pendant as well but he wore it on an extendable cable that was attached to his belt.

They reached out, touching the pendants to each other. It was the thing they did to say goodbye to each other. It was the gesture to say that they'd see each other again.

"See you tomorrow," they all said, and then turned away, walking home.

-ted-

Izuku walked down the road. He wanted to feel betrayed that Ochaco had put down Hero for career counselling but… No! He wasn't going to think about it. She could do what she wanted. She wasn't him.

Instead he looked at the shops he passed as he walked. He changed his hair colour slowly as he walked. It went from green to brown and then settled on blue. The change took a few blocks, so that the people he passed didn't notice. His eyes, he allowed to change to red far more quickly. Less people looked at them.

The shops that he passed were busy with after school activities. There were a few people from his Middle School in them but most were filled with Mothers or Fathers doing day to day things. Izuku kept walking. He hadn't told his friends that he no longer lived in Tsu.

He hadn't lived here for years. Ever since the Heroes found them again. Instead, they were living in Yokohama. It may seem silly living so close to Tokyo, which was where All Might was based, but his dad had explained that being under All Might's nose, and search area was actually safer. Especially as he had a history of being in regional Japan. All Might would not look so close to home.

Izuku hoped that would be true. So far it had been but… He didn't know how long it would last, even with them all being careful. It was the same reason he'd been allowed to go back to school in Tsu.

Dad had explained that he'd been found twice in Tsu, so again, the Heroes wouldn't think he'd be there. But living in Yokohama and going to school in Tsu meant that he went to school via Kurogiri's warp gate. And to ensure that he wasn't seen coming out of it, a small office space had been rented here. Izuku walked to the building it was in, and made his way up to the office. He checked the mail and then unlocked the door before he entered. He locked it behind him and pulled out his phone.

Kurogiri expected him to message at about this time and so the message he sent was quickly responded to with a warp gate appearing before him. Izuku went through without hesitating. He emerged into the back room and Kurogiri reformed in front of him.

"Welcome home, Izuku," the misty man greeted him.

"Thank you," he said.

"Dinner will be at 7," Kurogiri told him.

Izuku nodded. "I'll be doing homework," he said. It wasn't a training day today.

He trained his quirks with Kurogiri every second day, and for longer on the weekend. He trained with Gigantomachia every other day. His Dad said he wanted him to make his own decision but he hadn't stopped Izuku's lessons, though he had made it clear that if Izuku wanted to stop then it would be his decision.

He didn't want to stop.

"Very good," Kurogiri said but Izuku could tell that the misty man knew something was wrong.

He was thankful that the warp gate didn't ask. He might have pushed it from his mind but he really needed to think about it.

Dad had said that one day he might have to make a choice about Ochaco… That her beliefs about heroes and society would clash with his, and that they may have to go their separate ways.

He just didn't think it would be this soon.

-ted-

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-ted-

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