19/02/2022

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You are the greatest!

The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 48

"Mrs Midoriya is here to see you again," Junsa told him.

Tsukauchi frowned at the information. "Thanks," he said but instead of going straight to his desk he paused in the corridor and thought. He'd already told her about Hisashi. Well, everything he could so what else could she want to know?

He felt a sudden flash of cold… What if she had found something that was…

Naomasa shook his head. No, that wasn't possible. Even if Sir Nighteye and All Might weren't on the best of terms at the moment, if Mirai couldn't find something, then there was no way Inko would. Except…

She had lived with Hisashi, All For One for several years. Did she know something they didn't? Did she have access to another source of information? He grimaced. There was only one way to find out that information.

Tsukauchi took a deep breath, bracing himself before he walked into the area where his desk was. It was in the open plan part. Despite the fact he was the main liaison with Hero Agencies, he didn't rate an office.

Inko was sitting quietly at his desk and was largely being ignored by the other officers. She wasn't a fixture but they were used to random people waiting for Detectives and so long as no one caused trouble then the general policy was to leave them be. After all, to be sitting there, they had to have already gone through security.

"Mrs Midoriya," Naomasa greeted Inko as he walked up. He was rather satisfied that he did not sound defensive.

"Detective," she replied, rising to nod respectfully at him.

He indicated that she should sit as he took his own seat. "How can I help you today?" Tsukauchi asked.

Inko smiled at him. "I thank you for the information you gave me about Hisashi. It has put much of his actions into perspective."

He nodded but said nothing to that.

"However, I feel that I should have asked something sooner. You were in Tsu during the operation when All Might took down Toxic Chainsaw."

"I was looking for Izuku," Naomasa confirmed.

"How did you know Izuku would be there?" Inko asked.

"How did I know-" Tsukauchi trailed off. Shit. It was a good question. It was a logical question.

The public knew the operation was to take out Toxic Chainsaw. There were no other parts. What did he tell her? Could he tell her that it was Izuku's records that let them find Hisashi?

From the way Inko smiled Naomasa knew he'd been quiet for too long. It told her that there was something she hadn't been told. He sighed. Nighteye should be dealing with this. "He was tracked down using Izuku's school records."

Inko frowned. "Weren't you tracking Toxic Chainsaw?"

Crap. What did Inko know? He'd told her Hisashi was a villain but he hadn't mentioned Toxic Chainsaw. Did she think Hisashi was the villain's boss? How would she have worked that out?

"Oh," Inko nodded to herself. .

Tsukauchi listened intently wondering what she had realised.

"You were tracking Hisashi to get to his boss, Toxic Chainsaw."

Wait, what? He ran the sentence back through his mind. Yep, she really had said that and… Well, it was better than the truth. "It was a long shot," Naomasa admitted.

Inko frowned. "Then why didn't you get Izuku that day?" she demanded.

He shook his head sadly. He wasn't about to take the blame for this. Nighteye could answer for his decision. "I wanted to collect Izuku from school," he said. "But I was ordered to delay and go to his house."

"But-?" Inko frowned and Naomasa didn't know exactly what was going through her mind but he had a fair idea.

"The addresses were all false," he told her.

Inko nodded slowly, her eyes half closed. "Who gave the order?"

"I don't know," he lied. He really didn't like lying, especially with his quirk but… well apparently he did have some sense of solidarity. "I know it came from the hero side of the operation," he told her.

Inko nodded and then her face took on a determined look. "Thank you very much, Detective," she said as she rose.

"Mrs Midoriya, I am very sorry that I was unable to find Izuku then."

"I know you are," Inko agreed. "But I believe someone needs to tell me why, in a mission to apprehend Toxic Chainsaw, your mission was delayed."

He couldn't say anything to refute that and so he simply nodded. Let Nighteye explain it to her. He deserved to see the consequences of his actions. Tsukauchi nodded. There wasn't anything else he could do.

"Thank you for your honesty," Inko said and then she disappeared, heading out of the station.

Tsukauchi sighed heavily. He should ring Nighteye and let him know that Inko was still looking into her son's disappearance but honestly, the Hero should know that. No parent would ever stop looking for their child. If Nighteye thought she would… well…. He needed a reminder about people. It would remind him why he was a hero.

Well… he hoped.

-ted-

Izuku sighed as he tapped open the message list. He'd made it a tradition that he'd send Himiko a joke on her birthday. It might have only started last year, but he was going to keep it up, until he saw her again. And every time he thought of her he added another joke.

There were a couple there now, starting with the first one. Why did the vampire get fired from the blood bank? That was on her birthday last year. The others had been sent at various times and as he read over them he was thankful he could remember the answers.

He hoped he'd still remember them when Himiko got them.

What did he send her now? Ah! He recalled something. It wasn't so much a joke but one of the morbid statements people made, especially scientists. He was sure Himiko would appreciate it, especially once he sent the punchline.

Whatever you do, always give 100%.

Even without a punchline, it was a good sentence. It would be better with the follow up but… Himiko would probably say it should read 'especially' rather than 'unless'.

He grinned, thinking about it and then put his phone down.

"Happy Birthday, Himiko."

-ted-

Inko clicked back and forth on the report on her computer before she internally signed and closed it. She had other things to do when she was at work rather than looking into Izuku's case.

"Why'd you close it?" Meigo asked.

"It's just the Police Report," Inko replied, opening up the database she was cross referencing today.

"Didn't you get that three days ago?"

"Yes. This was the extended report," Inko replied as she looked around for the reports she was confirming.

Inko didn't see the way her co-workers shared a look behind her back. She did however hear them roll their chairs over to her station.

"Let's see the forms you filled out," Ume announced.

"But-" Inko objected.

Setsu shook her head. "We all agreed they are hiding something on this case," she told Inko. She had discussed the case and information she'd gotten from Tsukauchi with them. "But it's not Izuku they are hiding. We just have to make it clear to them that they can keep their secrets, but you won't go away until you get the information about your son."

Meigo snorted. "If they had any degree of sense, they would have realised that already."

"Politicians don't care about things until it happens to them," Ume said. Her voice sounded tired. As if she had personal experience in this. "What form did you fill out?" She asked.

Inko frowned. "The Request For Records," she replied.

Ume shook her head. "Yeah, that's why they are stone walling. You need to fill out a Request for Hero Operation Records, and probably put in a Freedom of Information claim for the Police Records and the HPSC records. That Detective told you it was a joint operation?"

She was all business.

Ume looked thoughtful for a few moments after she finished speaking. "And… It would probably pay to put in an Application For Information with All Might's agency," she added.

"All of them?" Inko asked, shocked.

"All of them," Ume replied. "Shouldn't take us more than about 15 minutes to get them all filled out."

"Wait… what?" Inko objected. "Why?"

This time she did see the look the three exchanged. "Inko, what do we do?" Setsu asked.

"We work through documents to find connections the Police or Heroes can use to close older cases," she responded immediately.

"Yes. That's what we do," Setsu agreed. "So why wouldn't we help on your case?"

"But…" Inko felt tears gathering in her eyes.

Meigo gave her a smile. "Inko, you'd help me with forms if there was a lead on my mother, wouldn't you?"

"Of course."

"So why wouldn't I help you about Izuku?"

"We don't-" Setsu said before sighing. "We don't often find something that helps. We do often enough to keep getting funded, but there's usually a lot more work that needs to be done even once we make a connection. The fact that there is hope… That we could potentially help solve your case makes this special! It would give us all so much hope if you find Izuku and we want that, for you, and for everyone else."

At that Inko did burst into tears but they were happy tears. She felt… She'd never really feel truly happy until Izuku was back but she felt as close to it as she was going to get.

"Right, let's fill them out and then get back to looking for others," Ume took control and the forms were passed out and handed back to Inko.

Ume gave the group a smile. "Submit that paperwork, and then-" her smile had a slight predatory look. "If they don't give you the information, I have a few numbers for you."

"What?" Inko asked.

"Let's see what they do," Ume dismissed the question.

Inko gave her a look but the older woman held firm. "Okay," she agreed. "Thank you," followed as she tucked her paperwork away. All she wanted to know was why they knew Izuku was there, and why he wasn't with her now… It wasn't too much to ask for, was it?

-ted-

Izuku lay back in his bed, looking up at the ceiling. It wasn't that interesting but he wasn't really looking at it. He'd put this off for long enough. Too long, if he was honest with himself. He had one foot hanging out of the bed. It kept him from becoming too comfortable so that he could think.

He sighed, blowing the air upwards. The first thing was something he knew but didn't really want to acknowledge.

In the eyes of society, his Father was a villain. And, given general events, he was quite a strong one. All Might didn't capture street thugs. Well, he did but it was usually random encounters, not actual raids.

And even after All Might injured Dad, he still came after him. There wasn't a lot of publicity but the Number One Hero had been in Tsu right before they moved to Yokohama. And a building, their building had collapsed.

No. Izuku shook his head. He knew what happened there. Dad had collapsed the building.

So what did that mean, really?

Society called Dad a villain, but was society right?

He already knew what Tomura would say. Society lived with a facade. All the sheeple lived with the wool pulled over their eyes.

And the older teen wasn't exactly wrong. He knew it. He'd experienced it. Society clung to certain truths, even if they were lies because they were nicer than reality. He knew that. The Doctor had shown him other examples both historically and contemporary in science. The Doctor's examples gave him hope.

In science, at least, eventually the truth came out. The Black Death was divine punishment. Cholera was caused by miasma. Covid was spread by 5G towers. Those with quirks infected the normals. All of those theories were wrong. Some had been taken seriously at the time. Others had been laughed off but science had disproven them all.

Even now, there were papers supporting some of the Doctor's earlier research which said that those who were deemed quirkless, probably weren't. They had a quirk factor, and therefore they were probably stabilizers of quirks. They were essential for everyone.

But did society come around?

Yes. He knew that.

But it was slow. It usually lagged and there were some people who wouldn't ever change their minds.

So society thought Dad was a villain. They didn't see how he was trying to help others. How he helped those without quirks and…

Did he actually do that?

Izuku frowned. His father had a lot of very useful quirks. How had he gotten them? If they were mixed as useful and not useful… Or did his dad only show him the useful quirks?

Though, Dad had a long time to collect them.

He shook his head. He was trying to justify something he already knew.

Dad took quirks from those who did want to keep them. At least at times. If they were attacking his Father, he could understand that. Gigantomachia was right. The quickest way to end a fight was to grab someone's quirk and knock them unconscious. He'd seen that himself.

Dad had said that in some fights if he took the quirk, it would be because he earned it. Was that how Dad had gotten so many useful quirks?

No.

He was deliberately being naïve. He had to be realistic.

His dad had taken them. His dad was a villain. Villains did that type of thing.

But was it wrong?

Dad wanted to change the world. He did want to make it better for everyone, didn't he?

Izuku sighed and thought about that. He'd watched heroes take out villains all the time. The news was full of those reports. There were videos everywhere. Most of the villains claimed they had no choice.

That was true. He knew that was true. He had seen the evidence. A lot of the so called villains were those who just needed a bit of help. But there were other villains. Those who wanted to hurt people. Those who traded people, who hurt others deliberately.

No. Those weren't villains. Those were criminals. Society called them villains because it was an easy tag. But they were just criminals.

So… if his dad was a villain, but not one of the normal ones, and he wanted to change the world… Izuku frowned. Historically his dad would be called a revolutionary. Why was he called a villain now?

Quirks.

He nodded to himself. If he took out quirks and looked at his dad's actions, then his dad would be called a revolutionary. He wanted to make the world better. He had plans on how to do that, and he actually acted to help people where he could. That Police Captain had been helped. Yakuni had been helped. There were no doubt others Izuku didn't know about.

And if his dad was a revolutionary, then there would be those people who wanted to maintain the current structures. Heroes were the obvious people. Or those society called heroes. But there were others who'd have a vested interest in keeping things the same. Politicians, the HPSC, and even normal members of society wouldn't want things to change.

Those were the people who would oppose his dad. Those were the people who had probably confronted him in the past and he would have fought. Maybe not an actual fight but sometimes verbal fights. Dad had probably taken the quirks of some of those people.

That was simply part of the fight.

He sighed again, and squirmed a bit, settling himself more comfortably in bed. It was summer but tonight was cool and it was nice to be warm.

Society called dad a villain but that was just a tag of convenience and he wasn't a villain in the way most people thought of villains. Society used that tag because it was easy. Most villains just needed some help. They didn't want to hurt people. Those people who did, while they were called villains were just criminals. Those people like his dad, those who were probably considered really bad villains actually weren't. Oh, some probably were. Toxic Chainsaw appeared to be one of them. He just wanted to hurt people. But his dad was a revolutionary. He wasn't hurting people because he wanted to but because he wanted to make society better. And he wasn't just saying that. He actually had the plans. Izuku had helped with them.

Izuku nodded and pulled his foot in. The warmth felt really good for it.

There were still other things to think about. He knew that but at least while society called his Dad a villain, he could be sure he wasn't.

That was important.

-ted-

Naomasa told Inko that Hisashi is a villain but he didn't give away too many other details. Knowing that Hisashi is a villain, is not a linear step to Hisashi is the head villain, so that's why the ladies are trying to fit in what they know with what the public knows. And Tsukauchi should have known better than to give her half the story, because with half the story… who knows the fictions that get made up for the other half. Of course, when she only got an eighth of the story, she's made up enough fictions!

And Izuku is thinking deep thoughts. His study into history had given him other ways of framing his father's actions. Of course, he's still looking at the best of it but at least he's thinking about it. It can't be an easy to thing to believe your loved father is evil. Good thing Izuku is got at mental gymnastics... he learned that from his dad!

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!