18/10/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 17 - First Preparations

Izuku frowned at the stove while he waited for the water to boil. Hitoshi had been correct today. The media had gotten into the school grounds because the gate wasn't there. And when he'd left today, skirting through the teachers who were still guarding the open entryway, he was sure he'd seen dust.

Dust that looked very familiar.

But… Tomura wouldn't be at UA, would he? And if he was… why?

All Might, he realised immediately. Tomura wanted to kill All Might and now knew where he was. He hadn't actually seen the Hero. The man was sticking to the Teacher's Lounge and teaching Heroics Classes. He wasn't sure what he'd do when he saw the hero. He couldn't make accusations. He knew that but he wasn't sure if All Might would notice if he tried to grab One For All.

Or if he couldn't take it, Dad had said that All Might would probably pass on One For All… if he got close enough to All Might he could probably tell if he still had Uncle Yoichi's quirk.

But… What was Tomura doing? Izuku sighed and turned off the stove before he got his phone. He didn't have many text's with Tomura but he had enough. They hadn't needed to text each other when they lived together.

Why were you at UA? Izuku texted. He went back to the kitchen and put the water back on as he waited for a reply. While he waited he chopped up some carrots. One of the reasons he was hoping UA had a practical class in home economics or something like that was because he only knew a few recipes. And a lot of kids at UA were living away from home for the first time. They could all benefit from it.

He saw the status of his message change from delivered to read and waited but the dots of reply didn't appear. He got the rice cooker out and measured out a serve before putting it on. Once that was done, there was still no reply.

Are you gonna tell me or what? He sent to let Tomura know that he knew he'd read the message.

He should probably eat some greens he decided as he waited again for a reply. Kurogiri would expect it. He got some soft greens from the fridge. While he did the shopping, Kurogiri did provide him with a suggested food list. Store bought food was too salty according to the misty man. Izuku mostly stuck to his suggested shopping list. It made things a lot easier when he was at the store trying to decide what to get. He prepared them and put them on a plate next to the now boiling carrots. The first time he'd cooked, he'd put them in at the same time. The results had not been good.

Another way Kurogiri helped him was by leaving small, pre-cooked packages of meat in his fridge. That way he didn't have to worry about doing that bit, just the vegetables and rice and meat was expensive! So it was good for his budget as well. Not that money was an issue. Dad had been honest when he'd said he'd be generously supported but... It was nice to have a bit more savings.

Again, Tomura read the message and ignored him. Izuku huffed. It was going to be like that, was it? Tomura did that sometimes. He'd done it more often now that he was of age to be helping out dad. He always claimed he was busy but Izuku suspected it was more likely he was engrossed in some game. He sent a third message and then put his phone down to attend to finalising dinner.

Once everything was done, Izuku looked at the small table. He knew he should eat there but… He looked at the pot and the rice… eh, it was easier here. He plonked the drained carrots and greens next to the rice cooker and got his chopsticks. This was definitely easier.

He grabbed his phone too and looked at the messages. Tomura had looked at his third one but hadn't responded. Izuku sighed as he chewed a carrot. It was slightly crunchy but was okay. He was definitely being ignored. Time to up the ante. He hit dial and put the phone on speaker as he continued to eat.

The phone rang and rang and rang and nothing happened. He ate a bit of rice before hitting redial.

Tomura would probably put his phone on silent and then claim he hadn't felt the vibration but Izuku had a solution for that. Mei had a little app she'd made. Most phones, even when you put them on silent, would sound the alarm for you. Mei's app used that functionality to force the recipient's phone to ring. And as a bonus she'd set it up so that he could make the ring on Tomura's phone be at maximum sound. There was no way he could claim he hadn't heard.

Izuku grinned to himself as he ate. He was getting answers.

One way or another.

-ted-

"It's ready?" All For One asked for confirmation.

Garaki nodded.

He took a deep breath. The copy of All For One was finally ready. "How many quirks will I be able to hold?" The problem with copying All For One was that it did not copy well. The copies were never as function as his own. The Doctor assured him he could have gotten a perfect copy of All For One if he didn't already have quirks or perhaps gave away all his quirks. That was not going to happen.

"Maybe twenty," the Doctor indicated.

All For One nodded and brought one hand up to tap at his chin. He needed to decide which quirks to keep. "You have storage made?"

"Yes," Kyudai indicated.

"All right," he murmured. "I will need to keep Regeneration and-" he didn't finish the sentence as he thought about the quirks he'd need to give away. Not all of them would go to Tomura, even if it would make transferring his mind easier. Tomura was not ready yet, and if he got all his quirks, all at once, then he wouldn't grow. And while he didn't need to grow if he was only going to be a replacement body, Tomura would need to be able to lead until the point he took over. That's where he needed to grow.

"Regeneration, infrared, life force," he murmured. Those he had to keep, in addition to the fake All For One.

Garaki nodded. "I'll have the storage brought?" He didn't even question that Tomura would not be getting all of his quirks.

"Yes," he said. There were several quirks he'd have to put into storage before he gave Tomura All For One. He didn't need Tomura seeing them and wondering where they were. He'd never given Tomura an inventory of his quirks. "I believe I will have to store the Russian quirk and the ones belonging to Izuku's friends."

"Tomura would find them useful," Garaki said.

"He needs to learn how to inspire loyalty himself," All For One explained why he would not leave them with Tomura. Once he took over, he could retrieve them.

The Doctor nodded. He didn't have a preference on what quirks Tomura got.

"I will have to think," All For One said finally. While he had quirks he could put into storage immediately, there were others he'd have to decide between. Tomura would get some, but others would need to be put into storage as well.

This was a difficult decision.

-ted-

Jelemi Lau watched with the rest of the group as the boy at the front growled and silenced his phone again.

"Shouldn't you get that?" someone asked from the side.

It might actually be interesting if the brat answered it. All Jelemi knew was that he was here for a job. The main job would go down in the afternoon, but he was part of the morning crew. Basically they just wanted him to go out and cause trouble. The more, the better. The brat was explaining the compensation scale.

"No," the brat at the front snarled. His voice was kind of muffled from the hand covering his face. It was creepy but the brat was covered in them. "Dragon's just trying to get in on action that isn't his."

Jelemi wasn't the only one to freeze at the statement. "Dragon?" he asked. "The Dragon?" He'd heard about Dragon. Honestly, he'd thought Dragon was just one of those underworld creations used to keep them in line. Kind of like All For One. But the brat didn't appear to be sophisticated enough to make it up.

"He's a pain in the ass," the brat snapped but the effect was lost by his phone ringing again. "Argh!" he screamed and for a moment Jelemi thought that the brat would take his phone out and throw it to the ground. Instead he grabbed it out and this time answered it. "What do you want?" he actually growled.

Jelemi gulped. From what he'd heard of Dragon there was no way he'd growl at them. The brat was… more connected than he thought.

He couldn't hear the response, and noticed that everyone else was silent and leaning forward as they tried to hear.

"Doing the legwork you promised you'd do for me," the brat snapped. He'd introduced himself as Tomura Shigaraki but that name meant nothing. He was young… maybe not physically but mentally. Jelemi wasn't sure what he thought about working for someone this young but… the brat had money, and he needed the cash. That's all that really mattered.

"Sensei said I couldn't!" he replied to whatever Dragon said.

Who was Sensei? Jelemi could tell he wasn't the only person to think that. A couple of the others gathered shook their heads to indicate they didn't know.

"I'm not going to hurt any of your little NPCs. They won't even be there!" At that Jelemi saw Shigaraki shake his head.

"I'll call them what I want!" he said next, almost laughing.

What the hell were they talking about? It sounded like Dragon had people who might be involved with the afternoon mission. He didn't know what that was about. Shigaraki hadn't said what it was, except it would be big and they'd be talking about it for years to come.

"They'll be fine. The losers aren't even going to be there," Shigaraki repeated before he shifted slightly as if he was surprised by what Dragon had asked. "What do you mean his quirk?" He demanded.

Dragon said something in response.

"Sensei said I could," came the reply.

"You get what?" Shigaraki demanded a moment later.

Jelemi wondered what Dragon had said to get that reaction because it seemed as if Shigaraki was genuinely surprised by it. It also seemed as if Dragon knew what was going on with both operations. He'd only heard rumours of the guy, and they mostly focused on how you didn't get in the way of his agents or … the consequences were generally too gruesome for words. Not that Jelemi had ever wondered what they would be. Not really. He'd never even seen any of Dragon's agents but he knew if he did they'd have some sort of small green tag to tell him.

He'd never expected to hear of Dragon now but… Geez. Whoever they were, Dragon really was on top of everything!

"No, that was not the deal!" Shigaraki yelled. "It was an exchange, and if you don't start helping, then I won't owe you jack!"

Whatever good feeling Jelemi had about this job vanished with that sentence. Was Shigaraki trying to get out of a deal with Dragon? Seriously? Hadn't he heard what Dragon did to people who broke deals with him? The Dorei group had found that out the hard way! Dragon hadn't even taken the merch. He'd just left that for the heroes to find. Along with the rotting corpses of what had been the Dorei group.

Jelemi wasn't the only one who shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, I suppose that's true," Shigaraki said more softly. "Neither of us have done anything yet but if you don't start-" Whatever he was going to say it appeared Dragon cut him off.

"Don't use Sensei against me!" He snarled at whatever Dragon had said. "I know he said I couldn't ask you but-" That was Shigaraki stopping himself as he appeared to realise that whatever they were discussing, Dragon had won the point.

Whatever Dragon said next made Shigaraki snort. "Unless you chicken out," he said but there was no heat in the statement as there had been earlier.

Jelemi couldn't hear the reply but he felt cold. It was as if somehow Dragon had reached through Shigaraki's phone and frozen the room. He didn't shiver but he saw someone else actually cringe back.

Shigaraki snorted again. "Yeah, we'll see."

He might think the handsy brat was a brat but… if he was standing up to Dragon then he had balls. He might be deluded on other things but he had both balls and connections to be able to talk to Dragon like that.

The brat hung up his phone and jammed it back into the pocket of his coat. He gave off an air that was distinctly annoyed.

"Listen, man, I'm not gonna go against Dragon," someone said.

Jelemi agreed but had a feeling that now was not a good time to mention it. Not with the way Shigaraki's entire demeanor changed at that statement. He had been annoyed, now he was angry. And with the anger there came a feeling of danger. He couldn't see Shigaraki's eyes but he could feel him.

"So you'll go against me?" the question was soft, so soft it was almost not heard.

"Hey no offense man!" the speaker said, obviously feeling the anger now.

Shigaraki raised his head. The hand on his face shifted with the movement and to Jelemi it seemed as if the brat got older with the motion. "None taken," he replied and then he moved.

Jelemi had no idea what Shigaraki's quirk was but with the way he reached out his hand, he probably had to touch for it to be effective. He kind of wished he was wrong a moment later. The guy who'd spoken, cried out and tried to dodge but the kid was obviously not all bark with no bite. His hand touched the guy's shirt. It disappeared but Shigaraki hadn't pulled back and his hand touched the guy's skin.

It withered and greyed and then peeled away and the guy screamed. It didn't stop though and Shigaraki took a step back and surveyed his work. The decay, because that's all it could be, spread further exposing muscle then bone before it all disappeared and the guy collapsed.

He wasn't sure what to think of it. The conversation with Dragon was real enough… this was… Shigaraki didn't appear distressed. It wasn't his first kill, not if his reaction to being challenged was to kill. Instead in the dead silence of the room he reached down and pulled up the disembodied stump of the guy's arm and hand. It wasn't decayed and almost looked as if it could join the hands on his body. Jelemei did a count… if they were Shigaraki's trophies then… Fourteen. Was that fourteen dead or seven? Either way he didn't want to know.

"Not even worth it," Shigaraki muttered and the arm and hand he was holding disappeared like the rest of the body.

Not trophies then. Not exactly if he didn't keep them. And even if they were, then the count was misleading. Killers didn't destroy their trophies.

"Are there any other challenges?" Shigaraki called to the room.

No one said anything.

Sure, they were villains. They made their living on the outskirts of society, preying on it but most villains weren't that bad. Jelemi knew that. Most were as willing to help you as they were to hurt you, sometimes more willing, especially if you weren't challenging them. The really bad ones… Dragon, All For One and the others who may not be real but who were spoken about in whispers, those were… Those were the killers, the ones the heroes should really focus on.

And it appeared he had another name now. Shigaraki.

"Good," Shigaraki muttered as he moved back to the front of the room. "You guys are to create havoc tomorrow. The more, the better. But do it in your assigned locations. We'll let you know if you should move and when you've done enough and by tomorrow night," he laughed. It was bitter and cold. "You'll know exactly what you contributed to."

Jelemi wasn't sure what he thought of that. It was one thing for the brat to tell you that the job was going to be big but watching him kill someone… that changed the meaning of his words. And watching him argue with Dragon… If Shigaraki wanted to be a big player then… he could be going about it in the right way. Or he could piss off Dragon enough that the guy would do something about it or one of the heroes could get Shigaraki. Or that Sensei, whoever he was, might do something. There were a number of options and most of them weren't success.

But… In the morning he had a job to do and he'd do it and then… Then he might go look at that job his cousin said he had. He was perfectly okay making some extra profit here and there but… He was not getting involved in a fight between the bigwigs because that's what this seemed to be shaping into and people of his level had no right to be there. If they were smart, they cleared out. If not…

They'd all just been given the practical demonstration of the consequences.

Jelemi knew where he wanted to be.

-ted-

I have the full conversation between Izuku and Tomura somewhere but let's just say that Izuku was being annoying to Tomura and getting away with it because he was right about the convo.

And also, thank you to Dizmo from my Discord for the name Jeremi Lau - the other names are coming :D

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out. It's a year old now! YAY!

-ted-

Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!