10/09/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 6

Giran stood at the magazine stand as he looked out the window in disgust. Late autumn rain was bucketing down in torrents and he was meant to meet a new client. He was a businessman and for first meetings he preferred to meet them outdoors, somewhere they couldn't be overheard. The convenience store wasn't ideal, no matter how well he knew the owner, and knew that the cameras would be off. There were other customers to think about but it was better than an overhanging balcony. He had some standards after all.

If this customer panned out then he could meet them somewhere else, somewhere a little less informal but not on the first time, not when everything told him this could go one of two ways… He had a sense for these things. He could sort of tell which customers were going to make it and which were just going to get scooped up by the nearest hero. The customer he was meeting today, he wasn't sure about. He had a feeling she could go either way. If she wasn't picked up by a hero then… Yeah, she was going places and for a small part of her profits, he'd help her out.

The door chimed and from the corner of his eye he saw a high school girl walk in. She shook off her umbrella and then stabbed it into the waiting cover dispenser with a hard shove. The dispenser clicked and she continued. The broker sometimes wondered about high school girls. Their skirts were almost always so short, and while the view was nice (if you were into that sort of thing) he wondered how they weren't cold. He wasn't into that sort of thing… at least, not that young. He preferred his woman to have a bit of experience and skill.

The girl looked around and then shrugged as she walked through the aisles. Giran suppressed a sigh. Great… she was here for the same reason he was, to get out of the rain. Which meant when his client got here… they may have to move somewhere else since he didn't want to be overheard.

He went back to pretending to read his magazine. Ignoring the smell of wet that was permeating the store. With the rain as heavy as it was outside, it was inevitable.

"You Giran?"

He didn't expect the high pitched voice to ask the question. Even so, Giran was a professional. He didn't jump or flinch at the question. Instead he turned the page of the magazine and looked at the girl from the corner of his eye. She had slightly damp blonde hair and gold eyes. No, they were more yellow than gold. He knew what gold eyes looked like and hers were too yellow to really be gold. She was dressed in a nondescript sailor uniform and there was still some water beading on the sleeves of her cardigan. And resting just above the bow was a small green token.

Giran felt his eyes widen. "Where did you get that?" he hissed, not answering her question.

The girl looked offended before she cocked her head slightly. "Get what?"

"That?" Giran said, folding the magazine to hold it in one hand as he tapped his chest. You never reached out to touch clients, not without making it darn clear that's what he was doing and he certainly wouldn't do it with a new client, and not with a girl.

The girl reached up and lifted the leather string from her neck, lifting the green token away from the bow and allowing him to see it more clearly.

Fuck, it really was what he thought it was. "How did you get that?" he demanded, looking her up and down.

Her socks were pulled up but her skirt was as short as he'd thought it was at first glance. The cardigan was baggy so he couldn't tell what weapons she had under it. He assumed something since that's what she was meeting him for. Her nails were reasonably well kept and her fingers didn't have scars… That was interesting. If she used a knife he'd have expected to see a scar or two. Her eyes were yellow gold and she was looking at him with a slightly confused expression.

"It was given to me," the girl replied.

Giran sighed. "Yeah, well it means I'll help you," he said. "Dragon'll be pissed with me if I didn't," he added.

She frowned. "Izu-mumft!"

Giran slammed one hand over her mouth as she spoke. It didn't matter what he thought about touching clients, she couldn't say his name here. It wasn't so much Dragon he was concerned about but Dragon's Daddy. The teen had a ways to go but Giran knew he'd get there. He had the pedigree and the quirk. "Not here," he said, giving a deliberate look towards the security camera. Thankfully she picked up on the look and equally thankfully she seemed surprised that he'd moved.

He pulled his hand back quickly when he felt her mouth shift. "And no biting!" He added.

Really, villains these days were animals!

She just gave him a challenging look but said nothing.

"Come with me," Giran said, putting the magazine back on the rack as he turned towards the door. He huffed slightly. The rain was still pouring down. "Congratulations, you're a client now," he added, striding towards the door. The tap of her shoes on the tiles told her he was following.

He raised his umbrella as he stepped into the wash. Well, that hadn't gone to plan.

-ted-

Giran didn't take them far. Not to his office at least but rather to a small cafe that with the downpour was empty. The owner was grateful for the customers but after delivering coffee and some small biscuits had taken his rather generous tip for the hint it was and disappeared.

He looked over at the girl. She wasn't a girl but a teen. He estimated she was older than his Highness and Giran wondered if she'd gotten that scale because she'd gone to school with Izuku. He'd thought there was only one girl like that. "Don't say his name in public," he said softly, picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

Being in the warmth of the cafe was nice but the extra jolt from the hot liquid was good. It wasn't as cold as winter, but the deluge was cold enough.

Yellow gold eyes watched him warily before a smile spread across her features. Her canine teeth caught on her lip. "You know him?"

"I know of him," Giran corrected. "I don't have his contact details," he added.

"But you see him?"

He shook his head. He had an idea where that question would go. "No. Not often. Maybe once a year," he explained. It was more information than he'd usually give out but it wasn't information that was valuable and he sensed it would save further, annoying questions. And it was true. Since his highness had graduated from quirk lessons, and a few battles, there hadn't been much need for his services. "I just know this, if you've got one of them," Giran said, gesturing towards the still visible scale, "he likes you and since I want to say on his good side, I'll help you."

The girl looked amused. "He's younger than me," she said, the insinuation obvious. Why would he do the bidding of someone that young?

Giran nodded, and took another sip of coffee. "Let's just say I want to stay on his good side," he explained. "Drink before it gets cold."

She didn't even look at the cup. "I prefer blood," the girl said without any hint of embarrassment.

"They don't serve it here," he retorted. "How did you get that?" Giran asked.

"It was given to me."

"Yes, but where?"

"At school," the girl replied.

Giran nodded. He wasn't going to get anything further. "So what do you want? And what's your name? I should at least know that," he added.

She gave him a measuring look. "Himiko, Himiko Toga," she told him.

He nodded, committing the name to memory. "So what do you want?" Giran asked.

"You really know Dragon?" Himiko asked him instead of answering.

"I do," he told her. "Enough to know that right now, it's not him I'm worried about, but his dad. That," he nodded again to the pendant, "means more than you think it does."

"He told me he's given them to people he trusts."

"He has and as you say, he's young, but his Dad approves. That's enough to make it a very powerful token."

Himiko thought about it for a few moments before she nodded. "Tell him I miss him, and give him my details," she said. "If you see him."

"I will," Giran promised. It was a simple thing. Usually he'd charge for that but for All For One, it was something he'd throw in. "Now, what do you need?"

From somewhere a knife appeared on the table between them. Even he could tell it was a cheap knife. The blade looked dull and there were suspiciously brown flecks on the handle. "Something that holds a better edge," Himiko told him.

"Material?" Giran asked. If she liked blood, and there was no reason to doubt her, then it was obvious why she wanted a knife.

"Anything," she said. "Just so long as it holds an edge."

"How many?" He had a few in stock. Combat knives were a stock standard item that were usually easy to shift, so he always had a few.

She looked considering. "As many as I can."

At that Giran laughed. "You might know him, but you aren't on account," he said. "I'll give you a price list," he told her.

Himiko actually pouted but nodded.

Giran gave her a small smile. "Well then, welcome to the family."

-ted-

Izuku looked down at the page. He just didn't feel like doing his homework tonight. Especially not history. When he'd studied coups and other things like that, it had been fun but somehow learning about history in the classroom was just boring. The last year of Middle School seemed to have raised boring to an art form as well. If there was a sporting event for Boring, he figured Middle School teachers would fight it out to be the world champions. Inasa and Mei said theirs were just as boring.

He sighed and tried to refocus but Tomura wandered into the room. Sometimes Izuku did his homework in his room but Kurogiri complained that they never saw him if he went too long in there so he'd learned to occasionally come and do his homework here.

"I took your Waka character," Tomura told him idly as he sat at the table. He was, as always, engrossed in a game and was looking down at the hand held he was tapping at.

Izuku looked up at him. Today, Tomura had two hands on him, one gripping each of his upper arms. The rest were absent so he could see the older teen's face.

"You took what?" Izuku asked.

"Your Waka character," Tomura repeated, punching his thumb down hard on the left controller.

Izuku wasn't sure what he was playing but from the slightly annoyed look, it probably wasn't going well. He cast his mind back over the games they'd played, trying to remember that character. He liked games. They were fun but he didn't take them as seriously as Tomura did and he'd played an awful lot of support characters for the older teen. "Oh, that one," he said as he remembered. The conversation wasn't that interesting but it was far more interesting than his history homework. "Why'd you take him?" It had been ages since they'd played that game.

"They released a new DLC," Tomura said absently. "It focused on Waka," he added.

"I thought you didn't like Waka?" Izuku probed. Waka was usually on the good side of that game. Not a hero side, because that game didn't have heroes but there was a definite good and bad side. Waka was an attack character, which usually Tomura would have loved to play but in that game he wasn't the primary attack character.

"I don't," Tomura shrugged. "But the DLC gave a bonus if you uploaded a developed character into it."

Izuku snorted. He should have known that was the reason Tomura was taking his character. If it got him some advantage in a game, then he'd do it but he hated when his opponents used the same advantages against him. Izuku could still remember the time when Tomura was playing in some online tournament. He'd uploaded a super buffed fighter only to be trumped by someone who'd uploaded another character that was… well, Izuku had his suspicions about the tournament but the opponent's character was buffed with the exact counters for Tomura's.

The grey haired teen had complained about that for weeks!

"How's your team going?" Izuku asked. Tomura usually had a team of people he played some of the role playing MMO games with.

"Tch," was his only response. He took that to mean that the team was no longer. It didn't surprise Izuku. The teams never seemed to last that long. No one had the time to play the way Tomura did, and those that did, they didn't want to always play second string to Tomura.

It was actually kind of amusing. When those players, the ones who could devote the same amount of time to the game Tomura did left him, they almost always started up their own guild. Tomura would then usually crush said guild. If he couldn't do it personally, 'cos some game mechanics meant a lone player couldn't take on a guild, then he'd recruit or trade. He was pretty good at that when he wanted something.

Of course, sometimes Tomura got crushed. It depended on who had the better ingame connections, or acted first. Sometimes Izuku wondered what Tomura's reputation was in the gaming community. He had to be known, kind of anyway, but then he realised, he really didn't care that much. It was one of those passing questions he'd ask someone if he thought they'd know, and he'd be entertained by the answer before he put it out of his mind.

"So what's the point of this DLC?" Izuku changed back to the game.

"It's Waka's back story and his connection to the main enemy."

Izuku couldn't remember the main enemy from that game. "Okay. Does it give you a bonus for the main game?"

"Nah, it's just a side story," Tomura answered.

"Slow game month?"

"They pushed back the release of that new one," Tomura spat.

That new one was a new RPG that Tomura had been looking forward to. He'd played the beta, and dev version but the actual release would have given him much more to do though… "Has dad got you doing anything?" Izuku asked.

At that, Tomura actually looked up. His red eyes were disgusted. "He says I have to wait," he replied.

Izuku cocked his head slightly to ask the follow up question.

"I have to wait until I'm of age," Tomura continued. "Otherwise the NPC's won't take me seriously," he added, gesturing vaguely at the wall towards the world.

Izuku nodded at the reply. "He said the same to me once," he reassured the older teen.

Tomura looked surprised at that and Izuku tried to remember exactly what his dad had said.

"Dad said he doesn't use children, like the heroes do, and that people would see us as children. They won't take our conviction seriously," Izuku related the words he remembered. From Tomura's look, his dad had said something similar this time to the older teen. "You're nearly old enough though," Izuku said. Tomura was nineteen.

"Another year," he spat and Izuku knew that's what his father had said.

"Maybe dad's working on something to help you?" Izuku offered the suggestion. He had no idea if it was true but he knew from experience that Tomura just wanted some justification. From the look Tomura gave him he might have actually hit upon the truth.

The older teen nodded and sighed, before he looked back down at his game. "You still have to help me with All Might."

"And Toxic Chainsaw," Izuku replied. Instead of insisting that he would help Tomura, he'd simply taken to reminding the other boy about his responsibilities.

Tomura looked up and nodded. "We'll get them both," he agreed.

Izuku smiled and for once, they were in agreement. Which was better than his homework, which he still had to do. Izuku sighed and turned back to it when Tomura returned to his game.

Yeah… his teachers really could bore for Japan.

-ted-

Tomura and Izuku have a normal relationship… or as normal as it's going to get. Yes, they fight, but they have also lived with each other for more than 10 years now so they do get along with each other as well. That's what I'm trying to show with the earlier fight and the now rather peaceful scene.

Though Izuku did hit upon something there when he suggested his Dad is working on something to help Tomura. That something is the copy of All For One that has to be made before Tomura can get the original quirk. Of course, Izuku doesn't know that.

Yay if you can pick the game :D I thought it was obvious but unlike Tomura and Izuku I haven't played that many games :D

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!