21/12/2021

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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 30

"Your training is going well, my Little Dragon," All For One told his son.

"Gigantomachia has lots of ideas!" Izuku told him.

Hisashi smiled. He knew what his body guard was like. When it came to fighting, Gigantomachia was surprisingly adaptive. And since, when he fought for real, he displayed no mercy to anyone regardless of age, stature or ability, he knew how to fight lots of different opponents. Izuku's education would not be skewed towards fighting people of Gigantomachia's stature, though his son was probably already aware of that, at least peripherally.

"I'm glad to hear it but do you remember your lessons with me?" All For One asked.

"I remember!" Izuku insisted.

All For One laughed. He knew his son remembered. "Well, today's lesson is a question," he told Izuku.

As usual Izuku was cautious. During the time when they were hiding, they had discussed many things. Ethics, business, hero versus villain fights, everything. So Izuku knew there was always a purpose behind his questions.

"How would you take over the world?" All For One asked his son.

Even with his poor vision, he could see the way Izuku blinked at the question.

"You can use any means necessary," Hisashi added the stipulation, "but they must be realistic."

"The world, or Japan?" Izuku asked.

All For One chuckled. It was a good question. Tomura hadn't thought to ask it. "Let's start with Japan then, before we get ambitious," he allowed.

Izuku nodded and Hisashi could tell his son was thinking and soon enough he was listening to his son's muttering as he worked at the problem.

"How do you take over a country? If it's Japan we have a parliament so you could get voted into that. But you'd have to be a member of a party. And is there an age limit on that? I probably can't do it now. I'd have to wait until I was older. Does it have to be me though? It could be someone who worked for me. That would have the effect. They'd still have to join the party, and then work their way through the ranks and get to be Prime Minister before they could suggest laws.

"Actually no. They can suggest laws when they are a member of the party but no one would take notice of them. It's easy to counter.

"How else can you take over? Tomura's games always show someone fighting their way, and killing the Demon King or the General or someone but… That doesn't seem right. Do I have to take over with power? Fighting here wouldn't really mean you'd taken over. You could take over with a large enough fighting force but how do you maintain peace after that?"

All For One suppressed a smile. His Little Dragon was drawing some good conclusions and he thought that Izuku would ask him for more parameters soon. It was interesting that Izuku's first thoughts were to enter parliament. It was not what he expected. He had expected the more straightforward force that Izuku had seen in Tomura's games to be the first reply. His son was wise enough to see some of the pitfalls there.

"Take over. Take over how? I could take over the Heroes by becoming the Number One Hero. Or I could take over the media. That would give some control."

Izuku shook his head, coming out of his thoughts. "Daddy, when you say take over, what do you mean?"

This time, Hisashi didn't bother to suppress his smile or the chuckle that accompanied it. "That is a good question. As you've already surmised, there are many ways of taking over a country. In this case, I want you to think about how to take over Japan so that you make the rules, or at least take it over such that rules you want are made," he explained.

"Rules I want are made?" Izuku repeated his words.

All For One nodded. "Yes. Let's say I want a rule to say that all motorcycle helmets must be pink, then how would you take over so that the rule gets made? You can make the rule yourself, or you can have some other means used but the rule must be made and enforced."

Izuku laughed at his example, no doubt picturing it in his mind. Hisashi had deliberately picked out something trivial. The rule wasn't important, the method was. And by deliberately downplaying the rule, Izuku wouldn't associate this exercise with something bad.

His son sighed. "That's hard," he complained.

"It is," All For One agreed. "But that's why I'm asking, my Little Dragon."

Izuku nodded, and then sat beside him, leaning against his chair. Hisashi dropped his hand to rest it on Izuku's head. He wondered how much longer Izuku would let him do this.

"I don't think force is right," he said finally. "It would work but, even if I used force, others would fight back and it would be chaos. You'd have to have overwhelming force, and that doesn't seem realistic," Izuku said, referring back to his stipulations. "Even if you could, it would be a lot of work to ensure you maintained the force," he added.

"So how else can it be done?" Hisashi pressed.

Izuku was silent for a few minutes before he shook his head. "I can't think of anything that would be guaranteed. And everything I can think of would take years."

"Well, my Little Dragon, if you've come to that conclusion I think I can give you some hints," All For One said.

"You know how to do it?" Izuku seemed surprised.

"I have several theories," he admitted. "They are just theories, as they have not yet been tested. As you can imagine, testing these theories is not as easy as testing the Doctor's theories."

At that, Izuku chuckled.

"I want you to look into history, my Little Dragon. Not just Japanese history. Look at Europe. Look at America. Look at China and Russia. There are lots of military takeovers, but there are also others where force was not the deciding factor. Look at them and then you can come back to me with an answer."

He felt Izuku look down. "Was that before quirks?"

All For One smiled. He wasn't sure if Izuku would pick up on that. "It was!" he praised his son. "I'm sure you will find lots of examples," he added.

There were lots of examples to be found and in those cases where the military didn't figure significantly, there were several similarities. He was sure Izuku would find them but he would most likely have to explain to his son that some military force was going to be necessary.

That's what the prototypes, the Nomu were for. But all of that was for the future. For now, his Little Dragon would be engrossed in looking for those examples and he could gently lead him through the exercise. It was a grand question, so confronting that most wouldn't take it seriously. It was good that his son had.

He looked forward to Izuku's suggestions and together they would mould those suggestions into his plan. When Izuku took his place at his side, and led his forces, All For One wondered how his son would react to knowing that he had helped with the plan. He rather thought Izuku would be pleased.

Yes. Izuku already knew the world needed fixing but he wasn't sure how. Having him look into the past, and develop plans with him, for what seemed to be trivial, or impossible questions would give his Little Dragon the experience he needed. It would take time but Izuku was twelve, so they had time. And when the prototypes were ready, when Tomura was ready, and when everything was right…

"Do you know why I'm asking you this, my Little Dragon?" All For One asked Izuku.

Izuku thought for a few moments before he shook his head. "No," he replied uncertainly.

"Do you remember, my Little Dragon, what I said when you realised you couldn't help people as a hero?" Hisashi asked.

It took Izuku a moment to remember. "You said I would help people."

"Yes," All For One agreed. "You will stand by my side when I change the world," he continued his son's memory. "But first I think you can help with the plan to change the world."

He felt Izuku's smile. Even without seeing he could tell when his son was smiling but he would never forgive All Might for taking his son's smile from him.

No matter how the plan changed with his son's suggestions, that part was not going to. All Might would lie broken before him. It would be years before that day. He knew that but as All For One turned his quirk sight to his son, he knew it was coming.

And for the moment, that was enough.

-ted-

"I know Izuku won't, but are you going to try out for the school team?" Hitoshi asked Ochaco at lunch.

"Hm, why won't you, Little Dragon?" Ochaco asked instead of answering.

Izuku huffed. "Because everyone assumes I'm training to be a hero," he answered. There was no way he was trying out for the school sports team, for any sport!

She chuckled. "And you are definitely not," Ochaco replied. She turned to Hitoshi. "I'd like to," she said seriously. "But I don't know that I have the time. I'm still helping mum and dad out with their business on weekends," she explained.

"I thought they were on that Panel?" Izuku asked. He felt a slight tinge of worry. Were they still earning enough?

"They are, but I like helping," Ochaco told him with a smile.

Izuku nodded, already feeling better. His friend was just that sort of girl and he understood. He liked helping his dad too.

"Why don't you try out for the team?" Izuku asked Hitsohi.

"Me?" His friend was incredulous.

"Yes," Izuku answered ingeniously.

Ochaco chuckled again at the shocked look the purple haired boy was giving them.

"There's no way I'd qualify," Hitoshi said.

"I could fix that," Izuku told him, cheekily.

"How?"

"Just follow my routine for a bit, you'll be fit enough," he offered with a grin.

"I'd be dead!" Hitoshi countered.

"How do you know that?" Ochaco asked. "We don't know what Little Dragon's routine is."

"I'll still die," Hitoshi pressed.

Izuku laughed. "Let's just say that none of us are trying out for the school sports team, and leave it at that?" he offered.

"Yes!" Hitoshi agreed.

Ochaco looked like she wanted to argue slightly but she knew that she wasn't going to be the one trying out. "We'd probably better," she conceded, and then laughed.

Izuku smiled and then applied himself to his bento again. He knew Hitoshi hadn't been serious when he asked but these little conversations were fun. He cherished them.

He cherished conversations with his dad but they were almost always serious and this was just for fun. He was so glad he had friends.

-ted-

"Careful, Johnny," Doctor Garaki told the little prototype as it wheeled the tank behind him. He was going to try again to fix Sensei's eyes. This time the plan called for a little more preparation.

They made it to the operating room easily and Kyudai directed Johnny to push the tank into position next to Sensei's chair. It was modified much like a dentist's chair so that it could lay back and Garaki could operate on him. The tank was half sized, and in it floated an amorphous mass of flesh. Technically it was alive but it was alive in the way cell cultures are alive. No one considered it important. There was an opening in the top of the tank and pink flesh was pressed to it. It was lumpy and looked kind of gross but it was useful.

There was a smaller tank attached to the side which contained two floating eyeballs. The irises were gold. They belonged to Sensei. When both tanks were in position, Johnny skittered to the side, hiding near the back wall in the deep shadows that were there.

"I can start any time," Garaki told the other man, not commenting on Johnny's behaviour. The small Nomu was loyal to Sensei but apparently remembered that his master had ripped him in two.

All For One nodded and reached out, placing one hand on the blob of flesh that was exposed. Since transplanting eyes with the regeneration quirk was difficult, and the implanted eyeball had been absorbed into Sensei's body, he was going to try transplanting them when the regeneration quirk was absent. The mass of flesh would hold the quirk well enough for the short period of time it took for Kyudai to perform the operation. It had the added bonus of potentially resetting the quirk as well, so that if it was acting from some template, it would hopefully make a new template when Hisashi took it back.

Sensei lifted his hand again, indicating that the quirk had been transferred, and Garaki moved forward. He had the anesthetic gas ready to go into All For One's oxygen but before he could trigger it he froze.

The scar tissue on Sensei's head was writhing. He'd seen that effect before, when Izuku had first given his father the regeneration quirk. He'd seen it on the Nomu who had regeneration when he was testing them. It was fascinating but as he watched, the flesh degraded and the skin peeled back, revealing muscle and bone.

"Take the quirk back!" Kyudai barked.

All For One must have felt something wrong because his hand was already moving. He slammed it down onto the flesh and Garaki could see the exact moment the regeneration quirk was transferred back and active. The writhing of Sensei's flesh stopped and reversed. Scar tissue formed again and when everything was whole again, Kyudai allowed himself to sigh.

"Doctor?"

His reprieve wasn't long. Garaki sighed again, thinking hard. "I believe I need to change my theory about the regeneration quirk," he stated.

Sensei said nothing but he was a master of the silent question.

"When Izuku first gave you the quirk, and it failed to completely heal your head wound, I assumed that it was operating from some template but if that was true, then you should not have degenerated then. My updated theory is that Regeneration is still trying to heal you but it cannot heal your brain completely. The scar tissue you have now is the point to which it can heal you but beyond that-" He shook his head, trusting that Sensei would have activated his sight quirk to see the motion.

"And my eyes?" All For One asked, referring to the previous attempt to implant eyeballs.

"It most likely viewed them as foreign material and absorbed them," Kyudai answered immediately. "It's actually quite interesting," he continued. "The quirk came from a woman, and I am curious to know how it would view semen. Could she become pregnant?"

"A question for another day," Sensei interrupted pointedly.

"Indeed." Garaki agreed. Sensei was aware that gender played a role in the function of some quirks but he genuinely did not care about such distinctions in a person. All he cared about was how useful the individual could be to him and how much that usefulness would cost. Everything else was peripheral and while it was sometimes leveraged, again that led back to the judgement on usefulness and its cost.

"Doctor," Sensei said seriously. He looked directly at him with his blind eyes. "If I cannot be healed conventionally, then other methods must be examined," All For One announced, referring back to some of their previous conversations.

Kyudai gulped. There was a great amount of freedom there, but there was also a great expectation. "I will look into some transference options," he promised because if he could not heal Sensei's body, then more drastic measures were called for.

At least it was new territory to research. He just wished the stakes weren't so high.

-ted-

Izuku, you helping your dad is a just a wee bit different from Ochaco helping her parents. But that will be something you'll have to find out in the future.

And there, AFO has now asked Izuku and Tomura the question about conquering the world and has gotten two very different answers. And Izuku has more research to do.

And the Doctor's assumption about the Regeneration quirk has been revealed. The quirk is still working but just can't deal with that much damage to the head. So now, if normal healing isn't going to work, alternatives must be found.

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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