04/01/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 35

"I'll find out who has fighting experience," Giran promised All For One. "Then I'll have them ready for you. Three at first?" he asked.

"We will work up from there," the Emperor of the Underworld agreed.

"Okay," Giran said into his phone before he sighed. "Sir?"

"What is it, Giran?" All For One asked.

"As you requested, I have collected the information you need about Shuyona. What do you want me to do with it?" He wasn't an information broker but he knew the value of information. Still, All For One had already paid for this information but hadn't requested it.

There were a few moments of silence as the man thought. "Keep it for the moment but give it to my son, when he asks," the most powerful villain in the world said.

Giran blinked, knowing that the gesture wouldn't be seen but he understood what the man was doing.

"Gigantomachia," the broker heard All For One speak to his bodyguard. "Remind Izuku if needed, when you think he is ready for that."

That just confirmed what Giran thought. It explained why the man had let his son hear his report on how he'd been found by All Might. The woman was on death row, even if she didn't know it, and while she might not be the kid's first kill, the broker suspected she'd be among the first.

Not that he cared. She should have considered the consequences of going against All For One. "Of course, Sir, I'll keep it," the broker told the man.

"When would you like those with fighting experience?" Giran asked, returning to their previous point.

"As soon as you've properly established their credentials, and price."

He nodded. That was normal. Those who could fight wouldn't be like those his highness had practiced taking quirks from. They would have to be in charge of their faculties. They would remember. "I'll see to it."

"Good," the Emperor of the Underworld said before the connection was cut.

Giran looked at the screen for a moment before he sighed. The man was abrupt, but he paid well and… He was one of those clients the broker knew wouldn't betray him. At least, probably not. It was a possibility with everyone but All For One wasn't a new villain. He was old and established. He knew what he was doing. There were never any regrets.

He had learned a lot, while being paid.

That was the best.

-ted-

Izuku looked at his phone contacts. He had a listing for Himiko there but no number. He looked, occasionally and had even written to her but had gotten no reply. Her parents probably threw out his letter.

Even so, it was her birthday today and he thought he should do something for it. She might not know it, but he would. He missed her. He liked Ochaco and Hitoshi but Himiko was his friend too! And he missed talking to her the way he did with Mei and Inasa.

Izuku sighed. As much as he missed her, there wasn't a lot he could do about it. Nothing that he hadn't already tried. And… He'd send her a joke. She wouldn't get it, but he'd at least know he thought of her and maybe, one day… he could send the backlog of messages.

There was, of course, absolutely no question as to the type of joke he'd send her, the question was which one. He'd gotten more lately, though some were of the same type. Izuku felt his lips quirk at that thought. Type… Blood type… Himiko would have laughed. He looked down at his phone and typed the joke.

Why did the vampire get fired from the blood bank?

Tradition said he had to wait for a response before he sent the punchline.

He just hoped he'd remember it!

-ted-

"Yakuni!"

He smiled at the greeting, turning to look at the younger teen. "Dragon!"

"What'cha doing?" Dragon asked, coming to stand with him.

Yakuni looked up at the bubbling tube he was working on. All the tubes were kept bubbling these days unless they needed to look directly at the specimen. It was just in case Dragon was to come by. This tube was in a row with four others. He grinned. "This will eventually be a copy of my quirk," he said. He almost couldn't believe he was saying that sentence.

My quirk.

The phrase still filled him with glee. The glee was countered by rage that it had to be this way but for the moment, the glee was dominant.

"Oh!" Dragon's green eyes went wide.

"We started five copies at the same time, and only accelerated one, to test that the theory worked. And since it has-" Yakuni didn't finish.

"That's amazing! So these ones will soon be ready?"

He nodded. "I think your dad wants to give you one of the copies," Yakuni said.

"Really?" Dragon was enthusiastic. "He hasn't said anything."

"I think so," Yakuni replied with a smile. The teen was nice. For a child who had no doubt been raised with the best of everything, the teen was nice.

"Well, there's nothing there yet," he announced, looking up at the tubes.

Yakuni nodded. "I just took them out of growth acceleration," he told the teen.

"Oh. How long will it take then?"

"That's a difficult question," he told Dragon honestly. "You know from observing my quirk that it didn't come in all at once."

Dragon nodded.

"Well, that's because no one is entirely sure when a quirk is fully developed until it is used. We did time the quirk I have, but acceleration of growth isn't the most precise method. I think these will take another month to come in. We have been a bit conservative this time."

"I'll let you know," Dragon told him.

Yakuni nodded. "I've been practicing," he said.

"Oh? What can you do?"

There was a child-like glee to the question. Dragon was truly interested, and it wasn't just because he might be getting a copy of the quirk, it was because he wanted to know. If it was about a quirk, Dragon seemed to have endless curiosity.

"Your dad wants me to collect genetic samples of useful quirks, so I've been practicing with organic matter. Fruits and things like that are fine but I think I can store something which is actually alive!"

"That's fantastic!"

"I'm still working on it," Yakuni said, "but I also think that when something is in my pocket, it is in a sort of stasis."

"Really?"

"Really."

"That's amazing. There is so much you can do it with!" Dragon said. "You could store so much food in a pocket!" he announced.

Yakuni laughed. "A cheese sandwich?" he asked.

"If you want," Dragon said dismissively. He obviously had something else in mind. "Do you have to have a pocket?"

"I do," Yakuni said. "I'm already changing my wardrobe so that all my clothes have pockets. But… I think maybe, if I can practice enough I can use it without a real pocket. It's just too new at the moment."

The teen actually nodded at that. "Most people don't get to practice with their quirks, so you are doing well," he said.

"Thank you," Yakuni replied. He meant it.

Dragon waved it away. "Did you find some new assistants for the Doctor?" He asked instead.

He nodded. "They aren't here yet. The Doctor is doing some background checks first, and then probably has to give them some training." Yakuni sighed. "Not a lot of quirkless people bother to study, even if they are smart. There's no point when you know you can't get anywhere," he explained. He knew what that felt like but he'd wanted to challenge the system, right up until the system had crushed him. He couldn't say he'd been stupid because it had lead here but, he knew he'd been lucky.

The teen nodded. "It shouldn't be like that," he said. Yakuni could tell he meant it.

"Well," Yakuni said, giving Dragon a smile. "With what you and your Dad are doing, maybe it won't be like that forever," he offered the future vision.

Dragon sighed and his eyes went distant as he looked at something Yakuni couldn't see. "Maybe someday," he agreed.

Yakuni smiled. "Definitely."

-ted-

Izuku sat in the library. When his Dad had asked him how he'd take over a country, it wasn't a question he'd been expecting. And he honestly didn't know how to answer. Now, after looking through history, he wasn't any closer to an answer!

Things didn't make sense. Throughout history there were lots of takeovers! Though he was wondering now what counted as a take over. Dad indicated that you had to take over such that your desires were implemented as law. Izuku knew that he meant that the laws would be acted upon and not repealed in a year or two after they were implemented. Dad meant that they became part of the rule of the country.

That meant there were quite a few ways of taking over. He thought Dad meant taking control but maybe he meant control from behind the scenes… except that didn't seem to be a good option. Or rather, if it happened, there wasn't a lot of evidence for it. Which, Izuku rather thought was the point.

So for the moment, he was focusing on military take overs.

He'd had to rule out Africa. There had been multiple military coups and counter coups there based on religion and just plain desire, but there wasn't a lot of information available on them. It was the same with South America. So he was focused on other parts of the world. Australia hadn't had a coup. It was kind of boring so he'd quickly looked on. The Middle East, Europe, Asia and Russia had had lots of changes in government, at lots of different times in history. He'd ruled out anything in the middle ages. Those were mostly military take overs, and the consequences… There had been consequences but the times were different then. The populations were more controlled.

He'd looked at things in the 20th century. There was a lot of change then and he was beginning to see that there were some patterns and differences.

The key seemed to be to keep everything internal. And if your country produced something for export, you had to ensure that supply was maintained. Other countries got involved if supply was cut off. And once you had control you had to remain in your borders. Again, other countries didn't like it if your military crossed the border. You could however support others, and influence them, you just couldn't be seen to be doing it directly, unless you were a large enough country.

Japan wasn't a large enough country. At least, Izuku didn't think so.

So… to take over, it could be done militarily, so long as you kept exports going and stayed in your country. With Japan being an island nation still, that shouldn't be too hard. Or you could take over legitimately, using the elections, though that did seem to take longer and was less certain, unless you had an extremely popular platform.

Unless… Izuku wondered if you could become so powerful that the government had to recognise you, and therefore give you what you wanted. What was that called? In the US it was called lobbying but Japan didn't seem to have the same sort of groups. But there didn't seem to be any reason you couldn't get them. Except… Usually your idea had to be backed by a lot of the public. What if you wanted something that the public didn't want, and you couldn't come up with a way of making it attractive to enough of them?

Tomura would say force but was that really the answer?

Izuku thought about it for a while. Maybe it was but not the way Tomura meant. He remembered something else his father had told him. Strategy. So strategically applied force might be the way to go in that situation.

So… if he was in a position to make the rules, what would he change?

He was a bit surprised when the answer came to him immediately.

Heroes. He wanted to change that system so that they were actually heroes, so that they didn't bother people like his Dad who were helping people.

Although… Did Japan really need heroes? He knew they needed someone to look up to but in his study of the past, Izuku had realised it hadn't always been heroes who were idolised. Before it was musicians, sportsmen and women and actors and actresses. There was a wider variety of people who were admired. Some of them were pretty shallow but… the pool of people who were admired seemed wider.

So there were two options. The first was to take over militarily. That was possible but Izuku didn't like it. Once you took over you had to remain in control, and you had to remain strong enough to fend off other nations. It was possible but it seemed to have more uncertainty. It would be better to be strong enough to compel the government to do what you wanted and what he wanted was…

He wasn't exactly sure but he knew things couldn't continue the way they had been. The hero system had to change. He'd need to think more about how it needed to change before he could say exactly what he wanted and given that Dad had asked him to think about how to take over, or at least, be in a position to make the rules, he thought that his Father would have some ideas.

Izuku smiled, closing the book as he nodded to himself. He'd discuss it with Dad tonight.

-ted-

"There's one more thing I need to add, though I didn't write it."

"What is it, Dark Sentinel?" Karou Andaru sighed. He hated dealing with the underground heroes but since they didn't operate out of agencies, the Hero Public Safety Commission had to deal with them directly and he was one of the poor saps who did it.

The problem with underground heroes was that they hated paperwork. He'd yet to meet one who didn't. Therefore they all filled out the bare minimum and then expected him to fill in the rest of the blanks! He wasn't their secretary.

"There's something going on in the underworld."

"There's always something going on in the underworld," Karou replied.

"No, this is different," Dark Sentinel rebuked him. "This is-" the hero didn't finish.

"It's?" Karou probed. Underground heroes should get lessons on how to speak straight.

Dark Sentinel didn't reply immediately and just as Karou thought he was going to have to make something up the man sighed. "It's like they are training someone, or something."

"Training someone?"

The hero shook his head to indicate he had no further information. "That's what it seems like."

Karou already knew that unless he got more information this report would go nowhere. "What gives you that impression?" he pushed. "And don't tell me just a feeling," he added. Underground heroes were big on that reply. It was stupid! He couldn't fill out a report on their feelings.

"There's been a lot of calls for random jobs. Short term, reasonable pay, and no details. Usually that's an indication that someone needs random thugs for a job but nothing has come up." There was exaggerated patience in Dark Sentinel's tone. It told Karou that the man was explaining only because he thought it was important.

Karou thought about the hero's words for a few moments. He was right. There had been no major villain activity lately that involved a lot of thugs. Except just because of that, how did Dark Sentinel know that it was training. "There haven't been, except training seems to be a long shot."

"Which is why I didn't mention it until now," Dark Sentinel said. "The call for work has changed. This time they want those skilled in fighting on the same terms. Short term job, reasonable pay. The previous jobs have been for anyone. There's been no skill specification and those who were accepted-" The hero shrugged. A shrug could mean a lot with an underground hero.

"Those who are accepted?"

"It was anyone," Dark Sentinel said. "Even those so addicted that they could barely walk were accepted."

Karou didn't know what to think about that. "Have you spoken to anyone else about this?" Underground heroes didn't exist in a void. They did speak to each other on occasion, though not as openly as regular heroes.

"Some of the others have seen the same but don't know what it means," Dark Sentinel admitted.

"Villains don't train," Karou pointed out.

"Then they are testing the strength of something," Dark Sentinel pointed out. "There is something happening in the underworld," he repeated. "I don't know what exactly but it will be bad."

And they were back to being vague. Nevertheless Karou nodded. "I'll ask the others if they have any idea," he said.

"Do that. We need to know," Dark Sentinel said, rising.

He didn't see the hero leave, that was part of Dark Sentinel's quirk but Karou knew enough to hold back his sigh until he was gone.

Underground heroes were such a pain.

-ted-

People are training and learning. Yakuni is getting better with his quirk and Giran will help Izuku get better with his physical training. But all of the training he's done so far is beginning to attract attention. The underground heroes don't really know what is going on but they know something is up.

Though Izuku is also learning and researching his father's question. There's a lot to learn because there's been a lot of take overs in history. Izuku, obviously, wants the ones that are well documented so that he can learn from them so he's going to be looking for the ones that will have documentation in Japanese so he can read them.

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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