30/10/2021

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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 15

"Thank you, Kurogiri," All For One said as his servant dropped the delivery into the room. Gigantomachia was quick to grab it. "Please return to Tomura and Izuku. I don't wish the boys to be alone for long," he added the instruction.

"Of course, Sensei," the misty man replied before he disappeared.

The delivery whimpered.

All For One tsked. "Oh come now Koichi, you didn't truly believe this wouldn't happen, did you?" He was sitting at the back of the room, covered in shadows, so that even as Koichi peered into the darkness, the man couldn't see him.

"I haven't told them anything," Koichi said desperately, struggling against Gigantomachia's grip. The huge man didn't move so much as a millimetre.

"I am aware of that," Hisashi said smoothly.

He detected the moment of hope Koichi felt about his statement.

"But equally you have not been telling me anything," All For One continued.

Those he gifted with quirks who then went out into society as his agents weren't actually expected to report back to him frequently. That was too dangerous and in many cases he had no need of their information. Koichi as the Minister of Education was useful for keeping an eye on politics, not just Education and therefore only passed on information when it was requested, or when something specific needed to be done. He essentially served as a sleeper agent, one who could be activated, and deactivated as the need arose.

It was not an onerous role. It was not even a dangerous role. There were other ways All For One could get the information Koichi supplied but it was a role Koichi had denied.

"I can't!" Koichi said.

"Why not?" Hisashi asked, allowing for some other factor to have impacted Koichi's usefulness. That had happened occasionally. Rarely, one of his agents was discovered by someone else, and if that other power didn't just remove the agent, blackmail was a routine process. He could somewhat forgive an agent who found themselves in that situation but at the same time they should have known to tell him. He did not tolerate rivals.

He knew it wasn't the case this time, but there was a certain way these conversations went and he would stick to the script while it suited him.

"I can't!" Koichi repeated. "You've done…" The Minister swallowed. "Slave rings, murder, human experimentation, extortion… I can't."

This wasn't a rival, this was a moral objection. All For One hated those. It appeared as if Koichi had developed a conscience. And not a very selective one at that, given that he had never had to do any of the listed crimes. The people who performed those tasks for him were far more stable in their moral choices.

"I do not see the problem," Hisashi commented.

At that Koichi gaped. "You've committed so many crimes. You've killed so many-" he objected.

"I do not see the problem," All For One stated again. "I have not asked you to do anything like that," he added. There was little point in denying the accusations. He had committed all of those crimes, and many more besides. They were only crimes if you considered them to be crimes. To him, they were simply business opportunities.

Koichi gasped.

"The terms of our agreement were very clear," Hisashi commented, ignoring the way Koichi was gaping at him. Really, had the man not thought about anything? "Your support, in exchange for your quirk."

"I didn't know I was supporting a monster!" Koichi actually showed some spirit.

Of course, the outburst offended Gigantomachia. The large man growled and shook Koichi hard. Hisashi could tell his bodyguard wanted to do more. He tutted. "You cannot be that naive," he said.

Koichi gasped again, coughing as he tried to breathe. Gigantomachia had not been gentle. "I haven't told them anything," Koichi cried. He was beginning to see reality.

"I know you haven't. You've lost your nerve," All For One said almost gently. "And you aren't going to tell them anything," he added.

At that, Koichi's eyes widened. He had been peering into the gloom, trying to get a glimpse of him. "No! I won't tell them anything!"

"Yet you will not tell me anything," All For One pointed out. "I suppose you could give me back the instrument of our agreement."

It took Koichi a moment to realise what Hisashi was talking about. The man trembled before he nodded. "Take it!"

"You have no problem returning to Kachi?" Hisashi asked.

"Take it! Please just take it!" the man begged.

All For One sat in silence for a few moments. It always surprised him how supposedly intelligent people could be so willfully stupid. Koichi knew what was going to happen. He knew what the consequences were of his change of heart, and yet… he'd somehow convinced himself that he could walk away, that he could just give the quirk back and that would be that.

Hisashi didn't shake his head, but it was a close thing. In some ways, he preferred dealing with other villains. Those he had to take out, and who knew he was coming for them either made their peace and accepted it, or fought the entire way. But no matter what they decided, they had no illusions as to what was to come. They knew the only way to possibly avoid death was to kill him. It didn't do them any good, but at least they didn't delude themselves.

Koichi… no Kachi was an intelligent man. He wouldn't have offered him a quirk otherwise. But somehow… He didn't know. It was stupid and he was tired of the charade.

"Bring him," All For One ordered.

Gigantomachia stepped forward, thrusting Kachi into the shadows. The man got a brief glimpse of him before Hisashi's hand closed over his face and he took back the quirk. He wasn't gentle. Kachi fell into unconsciousness immediately. The quirk settled back into him. It was one of those odd quirks that was useful but pointless. The quirk he'd given to Kachi was named Taion and had allowed him to control his body temperature at will. He'd picked it up when quirks were new, thinking it would be a useful quirk to avoid temperature sensors. And before he'd gotten skilled at other means of infiltration, it had been a very useful quirk for him but one that he had been happy to give to Kachi in exchange for his loyalty.

Now it was back with him because Kachi had lost his nerve.

"Take him to the Doctor as raw materials," All For One instructed Gigantomachia. At least Kachi would be useful to him that way.

The huge man nodded, and backed away.

All For One sighed. He hadn't thought Kachi was that weak but apparently fear made morons even of the supposedly intelligent. He dismissed the matter. At least he had another quirk for Izuku to practice with, so that was something.

And… he looked around with his sight quirk. It was time to go.

-ted-

Sir Nighteye sat across the table from All Might. They were in a police station, in one of the interrogation rooms. He had a feeling his boss had chosen this room because it was sound proofed. He really hoped the recording instruments were off, and that there was no one behind the oneway wall but with the glower Yagi was giving him, he knew that there was no point in checking.

The green scale that forensics had found was sitting in the middle of the table.

"Did All For One have a quirk that gave him scales?" Mirai asked, deciding to ignore the tension. He knew what Toshinori wanted to discuss and frankly, tracking down the villain was more important having a tantrum that he was still alive.

He saw the Number One Hero tremble. "No," came the very short answer.

Internally, Sir Nighteye sighed. Yagi was going to be difficult about this. What good would it have done him to know that All For One might have survived during his recovery? A recovery that was still ongoing, and would likely never be over? It would have distracted him. It would have stressed him and that would have been counterproductive.

Besides, there was still no absolute proof that All For One was functional. The man hadn't been the premier villain in the world because he had incompetent underlings. This could be the result of their work.

"A similar scale was found previously," Mirai pointed out.

"He doesn't wear jewelry." Terse and in present tense. Not good.

Mirai looked over at his boss, meeting his eyes squarely. All Might could be intimidating but Sasaki was used to him.

"Interesting," Sir Nighteye said clearly. "This one was found at the demolished building. Another one was found at the battle site. If he wasn't wearing jewelry, or had a quirk that gave him scales then it's safe to conclude this one comes from an underling. A very close underling.

"It also means, we can't be sure he destroyed the building," Mirai added forcefully.

That, at least, penetrated slightly. He could tell with the way All Might shifted.

No matter what the Number One Hero thought, it wasn't guaranteed that the building had been destroyed by All For One. Infact, it was entirely possible that it was an underling, one that was trying to cover their tracks and perhaps make it seem as if All For One was either alive, or more healthy than he was. There were a multitude of reasons for this. He shouldn't have to elaborate on them.

"The style was his," Yagi pointed out.

Mirai nodded. There was no point in denying that. "You destroyed his brain," he said instead. "We pulled in the very best healing quirks for you and you are still injured, and very lucky that humans have two lungs, and can live without their stomach and parts of their intestines. But humans cannot live without their brain," he pointed out reasonably.

Whether he liked it or not, All Might had to acknowledge that fact. The Number One hero still glared. "You told me that he was gone. That he was dead," he pointed out.

"Because that is what we believed," Sir Nighteye replied, downplaying the situation.

The way Toshinori's head moved told him that he wasn't buying it.

"You believed it with his body missing, with evidence that his followers had taken him?" Yagi questioned venomously. If All Might's fans saw him now, they would never believe he was the Number One hero.

Mirai sat for a moment. He didn't really want to admit that the Commissioner had lied to him. That was his job after all, to see through the lies others told them to present real, clear evidence. But maybe it would be for the best in this situation. After all, Heroes were meant to be able to trust the Commission. "I thought he was-"

The door banged open and the two heroes were instantly on guard. In All Might's case the chair he had been sitting in went flying back, hitting the wall and shattering on the concrete facing as he shot into a fighting stance.

A disheveled police officer stood there, eyes wide at the reception. They gasped a few times but managed to remain standing at the sight of the Number One Hero ready to fight them.

Yagi quickly fell out of his stance and plastered a smile on his face. "What is it?" he asked.

The officer gasped, heaving in air. He'd run with this news.

"Juhin has escaped," he managed to get the words out.

Sir Nighteye saw All Might slip into character. Yagi boomed out a laugh. "Then we will simply recapture her," he told the Officer. While the man was still gasping for air, Mirai saw the way the man was reassured at the statement.

"Let's go," All Might ordered, looking at him.

Mirai interpreted the look. It told him they weren't done here. He nodded and there was nothing more to say. For now.

-ted-

Yakuni stood with Daruma Ujiko, looking up at the five tubes he was in charge of. There was something small growing in each of them. He was… He was beyond excited.

When Daruma had said that he would ask permission to try cloning to copy quirks, he expected it to take ages for Ujiko's sponsor to agree. But whoever they were, agreement had been quick. And it was accompanied by the most outrageous promise he had ever heard.

Five copies of the one quirk, and if he did well, one of those copies was for him! He had no idea what the method of transfer was going to be but Daruma had simply shrugged and said his sponsor would take care of that. The man hadn't even questioned it and that had let Yakuni know that whoever that sponsor was, they could transfer quirks.

Daruma had looked at him, amused in that conversation and then asked for him to say why he thought they had been copying quirks, if it wasn't to transfer them to someone. Yakuni had to admit he hadn't had an answer for that.

"This type of cloning is simple," Ujiko said. "We had genetic material," he explained.

Yakuni nodded. He now understood far more about the theory than he had before. Genetic material had been taken from the original quirk user, and then the DNA removed from a single cell, and injected into an egg after removing its original nucleus. They'd done that five times. From there, the eggs had been allowed to grow and that's what they were looking at.

"The other copying I am doing will not work this way," Daruma said. "I've told my sponsor this since he was rather eager to try it for other quirks."

"Why won't it work?" Yakuni asked.

Daruma looked at him, as if assessing what he could accept. "My benefactor has many quirks. Even if I had a genetic sample from him, there are so many quirks that separating one would be nearly impossible."

He gaped. "How many quirks does he have?"

"Several hundred," Ujiko replied absently.

It was the fact that his employer was so blase about it that convinced Yakuni that it was true. He could hardly believe it.

"I've told him that from now on if he could collect a genetic sample, along with the original quirk that would be most helpful if he wants to have a copy of it."

Yakuni had no idea what was going on any more. He knew he was no longer working at just a job but it was becoming more fantastic every time he did a shift. First his suggestion had been taken, then he'd been promised a quirk and now he found out that someone had hundreds of quirks? What world was he living in? "Copies for the prototypes?" he asked, focusing on keeping his breathing even.

"Yes," Daruma said. "This batch is just the beginning, and if your technique works, then the future batches will be much more diverse."

"How many more will be made?"

Ujiko smiled at him.

Yakuni didn't know what the number was but from the pleased look on Daruma's face he knew it would be many. He knew Ujiko had a quirk. He now knew his benefactor had hundreds of quirks and while he didn't, he was suddenly glad to be associated with them.

No matter what they were doing, it was going to be nice to be on the stronger side.

-ted-

Remember the Police and Heroes are separate in MHA, so the Police didn't tell the heroes they lost Juhin until they'd gone through their internal procedures. Besides, Juhin was their capture and the heroes had just let the guy she sold out get away. So the Police did all that work, and were going to have to release the woman, for nothing, not even a bigger bad guy off the streets. I think, that would make them a bit pissed at the Heroes, privately, of course. Besides if they could catch Juhin before she was released but escaping, they could charge her with more things :D So yes, there is a delay between Kurogiri nabbing Juhin and All Might finding out.

It wasn't clear last time but Izuku's phone was wiped in addition to the reception being turned off. Now he could probably figure out how to turn it back on but for now he is accepting his father's limitations.

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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