"I am so sorrryyy!"
Izuku was slightly amused by the fact that when he started out he had been prepared to apologize to patients, but instead the first two patients he ever had had apologized to him instead. The amusement quickly faded when the reality of the situation set in again.
"I-I know it's not much, but here." She held out a bag of coins. Ah, so that's where she had run off to. She had sprinted out his door the second they got over the shock of her acid destroying his clinic, saying something about paying him back. He would have chased after her but he was still in shock, not to mention her running had left more puddles of acid that he wouldn't be able to cross anyway. "It's all my savings, and some money I borrowed from my parents."
Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed it, before opening it. Damn it, as expected, it was a mix of copper and electrum coins with a few silvers mixed in. If they had all been gold or even all silver he might have a chance at paying for all the damages with it, but this likely wouldn't even cover a tenth of what it cost. It was still many, many times what a patient would normally pay for a consultation fee, but it wasn't enough.
He looked up to see Mina still staring at him, hopeful.
He sighed. "It's fine, thanks for this, it'll help."
She seemed to have picked up from his tone that it wasn't enough, since it took another ten minutes of her crying and apologizing before he could tell her it was ok and send her home.
Sitting on the only chair in the room that wasn't destroyed, he pulled out an abacus, calculating the exact extent of the damages. Her acid hadn't eaten away at any of the walls or ceiling, thank goodness, but she had destroyed practically everything else, some to the point of unusability.
Shit.
Even accounting for all his savings and the money Ashido gave him, he only had enough to replace the furniture and repair the basic amenities while still keeping this place running. All the specialized equipment and additional luxuries couldn't be replaced, meaning that not only would his place look pretty barren for a while, but more importantly he could only offer the most basic medical care capped at maybe stitches, nothing past that.
He normally didn't drink, but he felt that he earned it. Pulling out a heavy ceramic bottle from his cupboard, he uncapped it and took a small sip.
His face reddened and he tore the bottle away from his lips, hacking and coughing, and his head felt like it had been hit with a stick. When his mom warned him the local wines were strong she wasn't kidding!
Grabbing a cup, he filled it up with a little of the wine, water and a small dash of honey, and took a tentative sip.
Better.
He drained the rest of the cup in one go, enjoying the pleasant burn and the fact that he now felt the slightest bit less tense. He made two more cups for himself before the buzz became obvious enough that he stopped.
His stomach rumbled. He hadn't eaten anything since last night, he had completely missed breakfast cleaning up. Picking out a few coins from the pouch she had given him, he headed out the door.
One advantage of living in the lower class area was that the food was generally cheap no matter where, well cheap for his standards anyway. Choosing an inn with a promising smell coming from it, he entered.
As soon as he went through the door he made a mad dash for the counter, noticing that a large bunch of what looked like dock workers were also heading to it. Slamming his hands on the wooden counter and ignoring the weird look the waitress was giving him, he took a quick look at the board.
"One beef and bean stew, one potato pie, and one bottle of hippocras." Normally hippocras wouldn't be the first thing he would order, the spiced and sweetened wine drink being too rich and too expensive for his tastes. But in an inn like this the hippocras was probably some sour wine that they dumped leftover sweetener herbs and spices into, which made it cheap and strong, currently two of his favorite qualities.
Tossing the server payment and a tip, he brought the food to his table, carefully packing up the potato pie into his bag for lunch later, before digging into the beef stew.
As expected, the stew was 90 percent beans, with generous amounts of beef stock, some sprinkles of beef fat and once or twice an actual chunk of meat, enough so that it was technically what the menu promised. Regardless, it was filling and tasty, and he greedily downed mouthfuls of it.
A waitress walked by his table with a plate stacked with meats and fruits. The smell alone told him this was an expensive dish, probably the best this place had to offer. He wouldn't be surprised if the owner had specifically slaughtered animals for it.
He looked back, wondering who had ordered it. He was expecting a band of mercenaries, celebrating a big contract, or maybe shopkeepers who could afford such luxuries having a big breakfast.
Instead it was a girl, taller than he was. Her robes were obviously bought by somebody incredibly wealthy who wanted to blend into the populace but didn't know what commoner robes looked like. They were dark black, shades darker than any normal dye could get, and the cloth was incredibly dense and thick, whereas common robes were normally thinner and made of coarser fabric.
She was seated in a corner booth by herself, nursing a bottle of expensive wine and a goblet. Another mistake, nobody would ever buy one entire bottle of that kind of wine by themselves, that could cost an entire week's wages, you bought those for parties or gifts.
The robes shifted, and he squinted. Scales. She was probably a humanoid dragon, that explained it. Dragons were incredibly rich, the few families that lived near here anyway. Some got rich through conquering, some got rich through their powers to make precious gems and metals, and some merely through their titles.
He wasn't the only one who noticed her. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the same bunch of people that he had beat to the queue staring at her and muttering. Judging from their expressions this wasn't just curiosity.
Oh boy. Stuffing the wine into his bag, he brisk walked over to her table.
"Hello miss, mind if I join you?" She seemed slightly startled, but nodded. She raised another piece of meat to her mouth, but before she could bite down he leaned forward and whispered to her.
"Look, there are some people over there looking at you. Don't be too alarmed, but they might not have the best of intentions."
She glanced over at the bunch of them, and her eyes widened in fear.
"Calm down, all we have to do is-" But she didn't give him a chance to finish, standing up and leaving.
He gaped at her as she rushed out the door. What was she doing? In situations like this she was supposed to move to a more open table while he went to hail a cart for her! They wouldn't dare grab her in a public area like this, but- just how sheltered was this dragon?
Giving his half finished bowl of stew one last look, he sprinted out the door after her.
He burst out onto the street, noticing with some relief how the streets were pretty crowded, before his relief disappeared when he saw her ducking into a back alley.
Urggghhhh. He sprinted after her, managing to grab her arm before she got too deep in.
"What are you doing? Why are you in an alleyway?"
"This is a shortcut to where my carriage driver is."
He was about to grab her and pull her out onto the streets before he saw the same bunch of people passing by the mouth of the alley.
"Screw it, shortcut it is."
Slowly, he placed his hand into his pocket, tightening his grip around his pocket knife. They were a mix of lesser cyclops and humans. He was grateful that these were lesser cyclops, as these were human sized they didn't have the power or bulk of greater cyclops, so if it got down to a fight he would at least stand a chance.
He glanced at the dragon beside him. What kind was she? If she was a warrior-kind dragon then there was nothing to be afraid of, those could level walls and heft ships with their power. But she had meekly ran away rather than fight, meaning that she was probably another kind.
A producer kind? It was possible, those tended to be rich by selling what they produced or by offering services at places like smelters. He prayed that she emitted something like fire or acid, and not like one of his unfortunate classmates who could only emit chalk.
"Hey you!"
The two of them stiffened. Behind them came a bestial growl and a huffing not unlike that of an angry bull. 'We know you know we're here. Turn around."
Slowly, they turned. The bunch of workers were standing there. Most of them were a fair distance away, but one of them, the largest cyclops, was standing just a few feet away.
"You." The cyclops pointed at him. "Get lost, we're here for the girl."
Damn it. Looks like he had seen wrongly, they were dockworkers no doubt, but not the honest kind. These were likely "fixers", people who hung around docks and skimmed goods off arriving ships or intimidated them into paying exorbitant fees, and could be persuaded into other crimes.
This gang was like any gang of bullies, most of them were fine with immoral acts but didn't have the guts to do it themselves, so they went along with the mood of the boss, who had the personality to control them and the guts to push them to do it.
It's ok, that was good. It meant that if they somehow managed to scare off the leader, the rest would scatter.
"Hey." He spoke at a whisper, soft enough that they wouldn't be able to hear him. "What type of dragon are you?"
She leaned down to whisper back, but before she could the cyclops lost patience and charged.
Instinct took over. A small tidbit of knowledge that had been floating around his head since anatomy school sprang forth. Cyclops are strong, but their single eye makes their field of depth poor. To compensate, they developed extremely quick reflexes at anything from the front, but this makes them slow to react to side attacks.
The cyclops swung at him, and he sidestepped. Years of avoiding bullies had made his own reflexes sharp, and he dodged the clumsy swings before stabbing the knife into the cyclop's side.
He immediately tore it out and stepped back a few feet. As he had hoped, it had hit the cyclop's kidney, causing the monster to double over in pain.
Before the monster could recover, he lunged to cut a major artery, but it lashed out blindly. The dragon yelled, he stabbed the knife into the monster's wrist, and twisted.
"Boss!" The rest of the gang surged forward, and Izuku forced himself to yell.
"Oi, get back!" He brandished the knife, flicking blood at the street, and growled. "If you know what's good for you, get this guy and leave, or else.."
The gang looked among themselves, grabbed their boss by his limbs, and ran.
Oh thanks goodness. His shoulders sagged. There was no way he could have beaten all of them if they decided to rush him.
"Hey." He turned to the dragon. "Are you- you're injured!" The cyclop's wild attack had left a nasty gash across her shoulder.
"Keep pressure on it." Pulling out a handkerchief, he pressed the cloth to her shoulder. Ideally he would remove the cloak first, but there wasn't time for that, and she might argue. Not giving her another chance to run off, he grabbed her shoulders and led her to his clinic.
Kicking open his door, he led her past the mounds of melted furniture, he sat her down on his chair and pulled the dragon stitching kit, which really only had a tougher needle to punch through scales as its selling point, and anesthesia. She pulled off her robe, and he started stitching up the wound.
Now that she was wearing only normal clothes, he could see that her body was covered in red shiny scales, yet they were soft and flexible, meaning she was not a battle type like Ryuko.
To distract her, he decided to talk to her. "So what's your name?"
"Mom- ah! Momo Yaoyorozu."
"Why are you alone in there? No offense, but it doesn't look like you really come to these parts. Shouldn't a dragon have bodyguards or servants following them around?"
"I do, but I left them behind."
"What? Why?"
"I was…" she sighed. "I was curious. I wanted to see what life was like in the lower class areas."
'Ah." He understood. It had been made worse by the war mostly affecting the poorer areas, but the rich and poor were pretty segregated in this city. Everything about her gave off the impression of an overly sheltered existence, she was probably bored out of her mind.
"Well, its done!" He wrapped clean linen around the stitches to hide them, and grinned at her.
"Thank you. I owe you my life." she rummaged around her pockets for something. "How much are your fees? I'll pay double."
"Well, er, the thing is…" Come on, he told himself, spit it out. "I was hoping for… something more." He felt embarrassed just saying it, but if she was rich, she should have no problem paying extra money, money he desperately needed.
Apparently he was worse at communicating than he thought.
'Wha-wha-what's wrong with you?" Yaoyorozu sprang up from her seat, her hands crossed over her chest. 'I'm not going to sleep with you just because you saved my life!"
"Sle- wh-wh-" For a few moments his mouth opened and closed rapidly as his brain struggled to grapple the magnitude of the misunderstanding that had just taken place.
"No, I-I-I didn't mean… that!" He waved his hands wildly in front of him. "It's just, my clinic got damaged, I really need some extra money!" To prove his point he gesticulated wildly around the clinic, showing off the damaged furniture.
"Oh." Although her face was still beet red, Yaoyorozu blinked in understanding. "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you."
He sighed. All these years and he still couldn't talk to girls. Only to turn around to see Yaoyorozu taking off her shirt.
"Asodakaidjfn" he screamed out gibberish, slamming his hands over his eyes. "Miss Yaoyorozu what are you doing?!"
"P-paying you?"
"H-how is this paying me? I thought you sai-" His words died in his throat when he peeked through his fingers again and saw what she was doing.
From her stomach scales emerged a gigantic nugget of gold, larger than the size of his fist, in fact it was the size of the pie he had bought earlier. It was sprinkled with gems the size of grapes, all expensive ones too, emeralds, rubies, sapphires. She handed it to him. "Here."
He hesitated, almost afraid to touch it.
"Is this not enough?"
Not enough? This was enough to last him, he didn't even know, he never thought he would get so much money at once!
She seemed to take his silence for agreement, because she placed the nugget on the table before pulling another two out of her stomach. She looked like she was about to pull out a third before he stopped her.
"It's alright… this… this is a lot of money."
She blinked in surprise. "Is it?"
Wow.