01/11/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 21 - So Dad Really Is... A Villain!

Izuku sat at the table. He'd packed away the dinner dishes, and had done his homework. He was sitting in the dark now as he thought. He'd originally begun thinking about the choice his father wanted… no needed him to make but he'd just vacillated between opinions. He had to be sure on that one and Izuku felt that he was best 'thinking' about that decision subconsciously. Once he'd made it he'd have to make conscious choices about how to implement it but until then… he wasn't really ready to think about it yet.

Instead he'd settled on thinking about his father.

A while back he'd thought of his father as a revolutionary and been comfortable with that, but his father was correct, that was a child's thinking. His dad admitted it. He was what the world called a villain. The Heroes had come after him because of that.

But words were just words. Labels were just labels. Action is what made them true, not the act of being labeled.

So was his father really a villain, even if he admitted it?

Izuku took a deep breath as he thought.

Yes.

The answer was clear. And objectively there was no other answer. Yes, his father was a villain. Not just because he broke the law, but because of everything else he did.

He didn't know everything his dad did or had done but the evidence was there. Giran wouldn't call him His Highness if his dad was not someone of importance. Garaki …

Izuku shook his head as he thought of the Doctor. Later. He'd have to consider the Doctor's experiments later. For now he wanted to focus on his dad.

He was a villain but was he really wrong? Izuku snorted with the thought. On some things probably… no, definitely. No one could be right on everything but that didn't make you a bad person. Did being a villain make you a bad person?

What made you a bad person? The thought immediately followed.

Most would say breaking the law but did that really make you bad? What if it was a bad law? What if you broke it to help someone? Breaking the law was not the sole definition. For some it was but for others, it wouldn't be. What was the definition for him?

Lying? He dismissed that immediately. As far as he could tell, his dad had never lied to him but he was coming to see that Dad had… been selective with the truth at times. But was that the same as lying? He'd sort of seen it before anyway. Ochaco's parents didn't tell her if they were in debt and so wasn't that being selective with the truth? Was what his dad done anything different from other parents? He wasn't sure but from overhead conversations in class, he didn't think so.

So if that didn't make a person bad, then what did. Quirk stealing? Except that was dad just using his quirk and… that could be bad, Izuku realised. People weren't meant to use their quirks unless they were licensed. In practice people looked the other way so long as no one got hurt and there was no property damage. The younger you got, the more they looked away.

But would people see his Dad taking a quirk as simply being him using his quirk?

Izuku's mind answered that immediately. Absolutely no way! They would see his dad's quirk as the worst they'd ever encountered. Worse even than Hitoshi's or Himiko's. Worse than anything… a true villain's quirk.

At that thought Izuku snorted to himself again. If there was one thing he knew about his dad it was that he was good. Not necessarily a good person but whatever he put his mind to, he was good at it. Business was just one example. As a businessman Hisashi Riji, the head of JBQC who unfortunately went missing was considered one of the best.

Gigantomachia told him his dad could fight and… If All Might had come after him, then yeah, there was enough evidence there to suggest his dad was a very good fighter.

So… his dad was a good businessman in both the legitimate and illegitimate spheres of society and could fight. That sounded like a villain.

But it didn't answer his question. Was his dad bad?

The only thing that came close was potentially using his quirk. Dad admitted to trying to take All Might's quirk but that was his uncle's Quirk so was that bad? He knew most would say, yes it was but they didn't understand. To them quirks were something that belonged to the individual and… No they couldn't understand that dad just wanted back something of his brother's. If Izuku had a brother he'd want something to remember him with so that wasn't bad.

Taking a quirk from someone else?

He could already hear Gigantomachia telling him that if he was in a fight, taking his opponent's quirk was the fastest way of ending it. That was pretty clear cut but… His dad took quirks to help peo-

Izuku stopped that thought. It was ingrained but it wasn't necessarily the truth. His father had admitted that. I think we can dispense with the gentle narratives of your youth, he'd said. Izuku hadn't thought about what that meant at the time.

He had to now.

It was pretty clear. His dad had taken quirks because he wanted them. He was still taking quirks because he wanted them but… Before Yakuni's method his dad had taken the quirk, leaving the person quirkless. He'd admitted it but hadn't quite said it. While I will still help people, there are other quirks, I believe will be useful. Especially now that the quirk can be copied, without the original owner having to lose it. It was couched in the gentle narrative of his youth but it was a hint. In the way that his dad said things, it was an admission that he'd taken quirks from people who wanted to keep them. And not just those he was fighting.

He knew what he'd thought previously. That it was okay because his dad was a revolutionary. And in many ways that statement was still true. His dad wasn't like most of the villains who just wanted to hurt people. Dad wanted things to change. So maybe he should think of his dad as a revolutionary villain.

At that, Izuku laughed. It sounded like a revolutionary hero, which is what Ochaco was wanting to be. Beyond having a license and endorsement from the Hero Public Safety Commission was there a difference between the two? He knew some people would tell him there was. But it was really a matter of which side of the law you were on. One side supposedly maintained the law while the others, by definition, broke it.

But… he knew a lot of those supposedly maintaining the law broke it. It just wasn't reported, and no one seemed to care. And there were people who made a living thinking up new and more creative ways to justify why a hero had broken the law. He knew that. They were called marketing departments and at least some of his classmates were going to be heavily involved in that.

They didn't see it as bad. They just saw it as part of the system. Or told him that the hero didn't mean to break the law and that was the biggest difference. Introduction to Hero Management emphasised that heavily.

So… he pushed that aside. He already knew, most times the difference between hero and villain was simply definition. Heroes weren't good and villains weren't bad, not automatically. But what made someone bad?

He came back to quirk taking. Was that really the only thing that made his father considered to be bad?

It was pretty bad, Izuku admitted. He knew what it was like to be quirkless. The world wasn't nice. But… would it be different if it was known you'd had a quirk and it was now gone? He wasn't sure. It would probably be better, he thought. And some people might never notice that you'd lost a quirk. You weren't meant to use your quirk unless you were licensed... So why did the quirk matter so much? Izuku thought.

He'd thought that before and hadn't come up with an answer. He still couldn't answer the question. Obviously for heroics, having a strong, useful quirk mattered but they were paid to use their quirk and… they were paid to maintain the status quo but to be a hero, a real hero, someone who helped people… That wasn't about the quirks, that was about the actions and how the quirks were applied. You could be a hero without a quirk because you would still be helping and that's what it should be about.

And that wasn't helping him with anything.

What made his dad bad? Quirk stealing, yes but that was in the past. What else?

He could remember something his dad had said once. People say I'm evil, Izuku. But the truth is they still want what I sell and what I do, so if I am evil, then they must bear part of that weight.

Yes, that's what he'd said. He'd only been ten or eleven at the time so hadn't thought about it further. He had to now.

What I sell. What did dad sell? Through JBQC it was a multitude of things but Izuku didn't think his father had been talking about that then. What did he sell?

Drugs? That was a real possibility. But did selling drugs make dad bad? People had been selling drugs for centuries. So long as others wanted them, other people sold them. They were only considered bad because the government of the day said they were bad. And at least some of them had become legitimised over time. So how could they be bad? Most governments dispensed heroin to those who needed it. Not addicts because no one got addicted now unless it was prescribed. And that was because they needed it to treat some other issue.

There were other drugs though. Street drugs. He knew that. Those weren't going to be legitimised. Dad probably sold them. Not personally. His dad was far too busy for that but he probably had suppliers and dealers and the whole network. But was that inherently bad? It was easy to say that if his dad didn't sell them, someone else would and that wasn't the answer Izuku wanted. Was it inherently bad?

No, not really. People made their own choices. Dad simply… he was a businessman. He filled their market needs. So… as dad had said, was he evil for selling it or did they bear part of the weight? They had to bear part of the weight, Izuku decided. Dad didn't force them to take the drugs. They chose that, so had to bear some personal responsibility. The entire reason behind the rule not to use your quirk was because of responsibility. People had the personal responsibility to ensure that they kept others in their society safe. Rights came with responsibilities. And rights without responsibility… that was just anarchy.

Dad was right with his statement. People bore part of the weight, so that didn't make dad bad.

So if he was a villain, what did make him bad?

Izuku finally let his mind turn towards Garaki's work. He knew what was in those tanks. He hadn't initially but he knew now that in every single one of them there was a person. And some of the conversations he's overheard said that there were more of them.

Plus… He remembered Johnny. The Doctor said he created him but at the time Izuku hadn't asked anything further and he should have. Johnny was created from what? Was he another person who'd been modified?

That was possible but Izuku didn't know enough to say, so he had to think about the ones he knew. The tanks. There were people inside them. The Doctor said they were volunteers but were they? He'd never had any reason to doubt that in the past but… Human experimentation wasn't allowed. The law was clear on that because of the ethical concerns. At least, that's how it had been taught to him and even in the past human experimentation had been closely monitored. Had the Doctor really found that many volunteers or had they just grabbed people?

That was possible. There were always those on the fringes of society who wouldn't be missed. And Izuku was equally sure there were some who had that make Dad bad? Or the Doctor?

He wasn't sure. He thought about the experiments that were allowed. They still didn't know why quirks had appeared. It was almost two centuries since they had started showing up in humans and animals and… they didn't know why? That was ridiculous!

DNA had been discovered in the 19th century but they didn't have the context to understand it fully then, but once humans did, starting in the 20th century they had made so many discoveries. It had taken about 80 years to map the human genome and that was because of ethical concerns. But 80 years was far less than 200!

He shook his head. There probably was some bad things happening in the Doctor's research but… by itself, no it wasn't bad. It was essential He was pushing human knowledge forward and he was doing it against the weight of the world.

They should know far more about quirks than they did. Izuku was suddenly sure if a quirk had emerged earlier, just a few decades earlier than… They'd have found out why, or at least the scientists of the day would have looked far harder. The war would have still happened. He acknowledged that. There would have been human experimentation but… they would have known. So no, the Doctor wasn't bad and Dad wasn't bad for sponsoring him.

Plus… The Doctor had been pretty clear that at least some of his research had saved Dad so… it couldn't be bad.

So was dad bad?

He wasn't, not if- No. Izuku shook his head. He was being deliberately naive. He was only thinking about the things he knew he could justify.

His dad was a businessman. An underworld businessman. The news made it clear that involved breaking the law, which wasn't inherently bad but there were things like turf wars and gangland killings. Had his dad killed people?

He had. Izuku didn't pull away from the memory. His dad had admitted it. He'd admitted it when he asked if …

Did you kill them? That had been his question. It had been about the former holders of All Might's… no Uncle's quirk.

His dad hadn't tried to hide or justify his answer. He had simply admitted it. I killed most of them, yes. Then the justification had followed. They were trying to kill me, my Little Dragon and I do take that personally.

Izuku swallowed. He hadn't really experienced that so he didn't know what to think but if you were trying to kill someone, then it was personal. And if you were trying to kill them then didn't they have the right to fight back. Gigantomachia would definitely agree with that. The giant had told him clearly that unless both parties knew that a fight was only for practice then it was a fight to the death. That was the most sensible outcome. He hadn't thought about it at the time and … Gigantomachia was his dad's bodyguard. It was his job to keep dad safe so for him that made sense. For Izuku it didn't always. His lips quirked as he remembered Gatarui. He hadn't need to kill the other teen, just show him that he was never going to win.

But Dad… Dad had killed. And… Izuku knew he'd be lying to himself if he believed dad had only killed those who had been trying to kill him. There would be others.

You didn't get to be the boss of the underworld.. The Emperor as Giran termed him if you didn't show your strength. But was that bad?

Objectively most people would say yes… but this was the underworld. Death was… Izuku didn't want to say expected but it was not something odd. And… he recalled his first class in Introduction to Heroic Management. The curriculum for that particular class had laid out any number of scenarios that would be difficult to manage and thus they would go over them in detail. He remembered the topics. Collateral Damage, Civilian Death and Lethal Force Authorisation.

Ms Kanri had said they wouldn't go over Lethal Force Authorisation much in their first year but they had to be aware of it. It was when a hero was authorised to kill.

Izuku took several deep breaths, pushing aside the memory as he instead thought of the actuality. There were times when a hero was authorised to kill. What made that different from murder?

Nothing.

He was sure Ms Kanri would say it was. That it was different because the Commission authorised it and they thought long and hard on each of those calls but in the end… when the action was taken, how was it different?

The only difference Izuku could see was that a hero acted on the orders of another. A villain, one who killed, acted on their own desire. That was a bit of a difference, true but… the end result was the same. And if his dad had killed, then he'd made the decision and carried out the act. In some ways that was better. His dad didn't delegate that, so he saw the consequences of his actions. It would be easy for someone in the Commission to simply authorise it and think nothing more of it. They didn't see villains as people… Dad, if he kil- when he killed, Izuku corrected the thought, knew that the person he was killing was human, was a person.

He nodded to himself. Yes, that was bad but it was no worse than a hero, so objectively, it couldn't be bad.

Dad was a villain, Izuku thought to himself but that didn't make him bad. And… He thought about his father over the years. It was also true that his dad helped people. Yakuni was an example. The older teen had been quirkless and… Izuku knew what would have happened to him and that would have been bad.

Yakuni was so intelligent! So yes, dad was a villain but that didn't make him bad. And yes, he did things that people would consider bad but… that was part of his work. And… Dad didn't take the quirk of everyone he met and he didn't kill everyone. Izuku frowned as he thought about that. There was a code, he realised.

Dad had some set of rules he worked to. He didn't know what they were but dad obviously did. Izuku smiled at that realisation. It felt… it was slightly freeing because with it came the knowledge that even if he decided to help his Dad, he didn't have to be bad. The world might call him bad, might call him a villain but...He could choose what he did and didn't do.

And… in some ways, that made him freer than a hero.

Izuku opened his eyes and tilted his head up as he looked at the ceiling. He smiled and stretched. Dad was a villain. That was fine. He was a good one. That was probably better, because it meant dad stood at the top and no one told him what to do. If he became a villain then… well, he'd probably have to do what Dad wanted but that was no different than following the Commission as a hero.

And so, that wasn't bad.

-ted-

Izuku learned self delusion from the best. AFO wouldn't be proud of this even if he'd do it himself :D I thought this was a necessary chapter because Izuku is meant to be thinking about a decision but so far he's sucked at that. So at least now he's thought about it peripherally with what it means for his Dad to be a villain, and by extension, he should realise what it would mean for him to be a villain. Though, he is sort of proud of his dad too. His Dad is a villain but at least he's the best villain! That has to count for something, right?

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out. There's a heap of other authors there, so come along and chat to us all!

-ted-

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