03/09/2022
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you are the greatest!
The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 4
Izuku sat on a platform, looking down at the melee that was going on over the lake. It had become something of a tradition at the Kasumigara Bay Quirk Use day. Those with flight quirks had a very energetic game of tag but they were divided into teams. Those with wings, and those without. It had started a couple of years back when he and Inasa had first come.
That's what he was doing now. He would join the melee on the side of the no wings, but only after Inasa arrived. To be fair, there were a couple of people with wings who were waiting to join the mock battle as well, so it wouldn't be like one team was going to get a leg up when the two of them joined. And, it wasn't like there were any rules. Sometimes those with wings took out their teammates, just the same as those without did too.
So long as everyone was having fun, no one seemed to care and no one should care.
"Izuku!" the call was joyful.
"Inasa," he cried, looking down at his friend who was rapidly rising to meet him. Izuku patted the side of the platform beside him, indicating that his friend should sit with him.
Inasa flew up beside him and took the insubstantial seat. It said a lot that the brown haired teen trusted him enough to be supported by his quirk.
"How have you been?" Izuku asked, grinning at Inasa. It was kind of odd. His friend was still so much taller than him.
"Good. You?"
Izuku actually considered the question before he nodded and gave his friend a smile. "I'm not too bad," he answered honestly. "Though I don't know if I will be able to come to the Quirk Use day later in the year," he said.
"Hmm?"
"Exams," Izuku answered. "You've got them too, don't you, or does sponsorship get you out of them?" he asked with a laugh.
At that, Inasa's expression clouded for a moment. "There's exams even if you are sponsored," he said. "I have to pass UA's entrance exam but not the practical one. I think I have to give some sort of demonstration or pass a private test," he added. "They don't let you in if you are stupid, even if your quirk is great."
Izuku nodded. "You'll do fine," he reassured his friend.
"We'll see," Inasa said with a big sigh. He turned his black eyes to Izuku, looking down slightly. "Shadowcrawler can't really teach me to use my quirk. He relies on stealth and I'm not- well," the brown haired teen gestured to himself, and Izuku snickered, picking up on the implications. Inasa wasn't fat but there was a lot of him. "Most of his allies aren't that flashy either. Magneteé can sort of fly but she's not that great at it."
"She can fly?" Izuku was intrigued. He'd looked up the hero and her quirk. It was, as Inasa had told him once, magnetism of people, which she was good at using in creative ways. But there was no record of her flying.
"Keep it a secret," Inasa said, suddenly looking worried. "She's working on it as a new move," he added.
Izuku nodded. "How does she do it?" he whispered theatrically, even though they were surrounded by nothing but empty air.
"It's got to do with some support gear that lets her make a north and south pole and use them to attract each other while rejecting the ground and… It's kind of complicated. It would be easier to use a hover pack," Inasa laughed.
"They are teaching me a lot though," Izuku's friend said carefully and Izuku gave him a sharp look. There was something in his voice.
"You want to ask something?"
Inasa sighed again. "I do but I don't want to offend you," he added.
"You're my friend," Izuku said, as if that explained everything. Inasa couldn't offend him with a question.
The other teen nodded and seemed relieved. "They are teaching me how to think," Inasa said, looking up at the sky. It was autumn but the weather was fine and there wasn't a cloud present. The sky was blue but not that summer blue, it was a bit more washed out, the type of blue that told you the seasons were changing. It wasn't yet the pale winter blue that sometimes showed through the clouds.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Everything but especially things that don't make sense. Those are important for heroes but, it did make me think of something to ask you," Inasa said.
"Me?"
His friend nodded. "The first time I met you, you were practicing with your quirk. And I know you've kept practicing over the years but why? You've said you aren't training to be a hero, and I can't think of any other profession where you could use it, so why do you practice so much?" Inasa sounded worried at the answer.
Izuku laughed. He'd discussed this with his dad. He knew he couldn't say he was training to use his quirks (or he'd say quirk) simply to use it because he knew that wasn't allowed. Civilians weren't allowed to use their quirks in public. And he could hardly say that he'd be using it to help his dad so instead the answer had to be something else. "I was practicing for control," he told his friend. "I probably don't need to practice flying, I admit, it's the fire breath part of my quirk I have to practice so that I can maintain control. You've seen how strong it is, so you can imagine how bad it would be if I lost control accidentally."
When dad had explained the answer Izuku could see it was the truth. In order to use his quirk to help his dad, he had to have control, so when he replied to Inasa, he wasn't lying. He had to have control of his quirk so that he could use it effectively and efficiently but he knew Inasa would think that he was working on control so that he didn't use it.
But as his Dad had said, it wasn't his fault that his friend drew the wrong conclusions.
Inasa actually looked relieved at the answer.
"I practice with others too. They get me angry, or happy and I have to control fire breath 'cos if I don't-" Izuku shrugged, not bothering to elaborate.
Inasa nodded. "I hadn't thought about it like that," he admitted.
"My dad had," Izuku said, before he sighed. "Anyway, that's depressing and we are here to fly," he deliberately changed the topic. "Are you ready?"
His friend gave him a grin. "I'm always ready," Inasa announced boldly.
"Are you?" Izuku questioned archly before he returned the grin and then released the platform they were sitting on. He didn't fall because he'd been expecting it but Inasa gave a startled cry and plummeted a few metres before he controlled his fall.
Izuku looked down and grinned. "You're it?"
Inasa shook his head, his expression amused. "Oh, it's on!" He agreed and charged.
-ted-
Izuku propelled himself backwards as he skimmed over the surface of the lake. They might be a bit old for tag but the game was fun when you could fly, and so while Inasa and he had played a bit, they'd also been dragged into the larger game. He was watching Inasa as the other teen charged at him.
"You are still picking up particles," he announced as he rose into the air.
Inasa followed, the whirlwind that was carrying him aloft was defined by water particles picked up from the surface of the lake. As he rose higher, they dissipated but Izuku could still see where they were.
"Well, of course I am," Inasa replied. "My whirlwinds have to be wide to carry me," he explained.
"Yeah but I can see where they are," Izuku countered. The problem there should be self explanatory.
Even though they were flying, Izuku saw his friend sigh. "I think it's inevitable with the whirlwind," Inasa said eventually. "The wind is just going to pick up things."
It wasn't often that Izuku had the urge to take a quirk. It usually happened while he was watching vids of people using their quirks. He wanted to see if what they were saying was true or if there was another way of doing something. Sometimes, he wanted to while watching a recording of a hero versus villain fight. He wanted to see if there was something more the hero or villain could do with their quirk which would have changed the outcome. At that moment, after Inasa spoke Izuku felt the urge again. He really wanted to borrow his friend's quirk and see if what he said was true. It wasn't that he didn't trust Inasa, it was just…
Hitoshi and Ochaco were used to him giving them suggestions on their quirks. And they were happy to try those suggestions with him around. In Hitoshi's case it was necessary as he was usually the test case but with Ochaco it was because she knew he'd refine his suggestion based on what he saw. They both knew that if the suggestion failed, he'd just laugh, not at them, but at however it failed. They also knew if it succeeded he'd be happy for them! So he never really felt the need to borrow their quirks to see what they could do. He knew they'd try what he suggested and let him know how it went if he wasn't there.
"You should try to minimise it," Izuku advised.
At that, Inasa looked annoyed. "I'm trying," he snapped and then looked apologetic. "Sorry," he mumbled. "It's just not that easy," he added.
Izuku gave him a smile. "The things worthwhile never are," he replied.
"And you think that cutting out the debris on the whirlwind is worthwhile, when the wind picks up almost everything?" Inasa pressed.
Izuku thought about that for a few moments before he chuckled. "I suppose if you can't stop it, you should try to make an advantage of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Pick everything up!" Izuku said. "Make a smoke screen, or today a water screen," he added, gesturing towards the lake below them. "Make it so that I can't tell your direction because there's so much stuff in the air," he elaborated.
"Maybe not today," Inasa countered.
Izuku cocked his head.
"If I pick up the water, I'll make those with wings unhappy," he said.
"True," Izuku had to agree to that. He could handle it but anyone with feathered wings would find them heavy, and beyond that, no one liked wet clothes. Especially not for flying in.
They flew around for a bit longer before landing on the bank. As was usual with the quirk use days, the local stores had relocated to the foreshore, which gave the whole day a carnival like atmosphere.
"So I know I'm going into Heroics," Inasa said to him. "What do you want to go into?"
Izuku looked up at the sky as they walked through the stores. The smells were good and there were even a few enterprising people who had souvenirs. Little hats or fans for sale. He noticed that a couple of the drinks vendors were offering a collectable cup. It was decorated with a picture of Kasumigara Bay with people flying over it. There were even a few dots to represent people swimming. And of course, on the top was a large number to represent which Quirk Use day this was, so that you could collect the whole set!
"I don't know," he replied eventually. He really didn't know. His dad said he was free to make his own choices but… There was so much. He didn't really know what he wanted to do.
"You should consider heroics," Inasa said seriously. "You'd be really good at it," he added.
"No." Izuku replied. There was no give in his voice. "I'm not going to become someone who hurts people, just so that others can claim I'm helping."
"It's not like that," Inasa defended.
"Then what is it like?" Izuku asked. He hadn't really given Inasa the same stat information he'd shared with Ochaco and Hitoshi but with the other boy being sponsored by Shadowcrawler, perhaps he should. "A lot of times the so called villain just needs a bit of help."
"So you think that pick pocket needed help?" Inasa challenged.
"He was just a criminal. I'm talking about others," Izuku corrected.
"Then be that type of hero," his friend told him. "You'd be a brilliant hero, no matter what field you went into. Your quirk is strong enough for it."
"And what about the rest of me?"
"What do you mean?"
Izuku gave his friend a look from the corner of his eye. "My personality? My desires? My methods?" He listed some of the possibilities. No one seemed to take them into consideration. It always seemed to be about the quirk.
"Personality? Izuku, you want to help so much that you…" Inasa shook his head. "You would be a brilliant hero. And I think-" he sighed but didn't continue.
"You think?" Izuku prompted.
"I guess, I just wish that your dad being injured hadn't turned you away from that," Inasa said.
"That's the type of hero I wouldn't want to be," Izuku said. "And I don't want you to be that way either," he added.
Inasa smiled at him. "Then maybe you should be my manager?" He half joked.
He thought about that for a few moments. "Maybe." Izuku nodded. In a world where everything seemed to be about heroes, maybe he should consider being a manager. At least then… Well, Ochaco and Hitoshi had touched upon it. It would be legal revenge. He chuckled. "Yeah, maybe," he said with more surety. If he was a Manager, he could make sure his heroes did things right. He could get them a contract with Mei and…
Mentally he shook his head. He was falling into the same trap as everyone else. Heroes weren't everything in this world. He had to look at alternatives before he decided that he wanted to go that way. It wasn't something he could decide right here, right now.
"If you did, I could see you at UA," Inasa added.
Izuku laughed. This wasn't something his father had pointed out, it was something he'd realised on his own. People his age tended to think school was everything. School was just the beginning. He shouldn't make decisions about school based on friendship, rather he needed to make them based on what made the most sense for the long term.
So while it would be nice to go to school with Inasa, Ochaco or Hitoshi, it shouldn't unduly influence his decision about what was the right school for him.
But… at the same time he knew UA was one of the best schools in the country both for heroics and other streams. That should influence his decision. He wondered if his dad would help?
No… Dad had said he didn't want to influence his decision and while that was painful… He knew Dad was doing that because he loved him. Izuku loved his father because of that but… it didn't make his decision any easier. He was beginning to see what adulthood was like. It was hard to make decisions and know you had to live with them.
But it was the only way he could be him and he was glad his dad recognised that.
"We'll see," Izuku told Inasa. "I haven't decided where I'll go to high school yet," he added, sighing. "So we'll see what happens."
That was all he could say.
-ted-
I am introducing characters and interactions Izuku has had from the previous fics for those who haven't read them, and as a reminder of how things are at this point in time. Canon included final year Middle School but mostly as a training montage. I, unfortunately, don't have a training montage, so we are instead going through a meet the characters montage! High School is coming, I promise.
My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out.
-ted-
Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!
