25/02/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 50 - Hero Politics

The Principal gave them a moment to think before he looked around. "There are a number of issues," Nezu said. "They are not mutually exclusive, but they are not completely intrinsically linked. The solution to one does not necessarily weigh upon the other solutions but they may influence them," he added.

Nighteye nodded. That was a very fair assessment.

"There's only one real problem," Commissioner Sozo grumbled.

Nezu turned his furry head to the side as he looked at the Commissioner, obviously wondering which problem the man thought was the largest.

The Commissioner just looked back before gesturing towards All Might. "His reveal of his civilian persona!" he stated.

Yagi looked a bit chagrined but quickly recovered.

"That's one issue," Nezu agreed mildly.

Mirai knew the Principal but not well, so he mostly knew of the Principal. With what he knew, he rather imagined Nezu had lists he kept about everyone and one of those lists was how intelligent he thought they were. The Commissioner was obviously being marked down. A lot.

"What others are there?" The Commissioner demanded.

Nighteye could see that Nezu was almost disbelieving at the question. The principal dealt with students who, no doubt, asked somewhat silly questions at times but students were expected to ask those questions. They were learning. The Commissioner was expected to have thought about these things.

"The reveal of a villain who can and did fight AlI Might," Mirai answered for Nezu, allowing his tone to make it clear this was not the only issue.

"The villains who got away," All Might added but there was an uncomfortable catch in his voice.

"Covering the losses from last night," Nezu said. The Commissioner may not think Gran Torino was much of a loss, but it was still very much touch and go for Best Jeanist. Gang Orca and Mount Lady were injured and would require time off to heal. Tiger had gotten away with Ragdoll and so had avoided injury. Ragdoll was still unconscious but from what Tiger said, she was most likely quirkless. They did have to think about the losses and how to minimise them in the minds of the public.

"Alright, there are more issues but at least some are self-inflicted," Sozu added the jab.

Toshinori just gave him a crooked smile. The Commissioner and the Commission would be on the hook for them as well, at least in the court of public opinion and often that was enough, especially with a villain like All For One.

"We know who the villains were who got away," the Principal said, as he moved on, "so we can start monitoring their known associates and haunts," he dismissed the matter.

Mirai saw the way Toshinori's lips tighten at the statement. There was something more he knew about those who got away, and it had to be something All For One had told him but he didn't seem willing to share. At least, not yet.

The Commissioner nodded. "We should be able to take care of them quickly," he murmured before he sighed. "As for the existence of this All For One," he paused and did not look happy. "At least he has been captured," Sozo said finally.

Nighteye was kind of interested in that reaction. The former Commissioner, Soukan had been far more interested in All For One. He'd been interested in finding All For One's son on the assumption that the boy wasn't quirkless but had a copy of his father's quirk. Then, Soukan would have come up with some excuse to have the boy work for the HPSC. Sozo was less interested in that.

"True," Mirai agreed, "but-" He sighed. "He will embolden others."

"Then we will put them down," Sozo growled. The way he said it made it clear he thought prison was too good for them.

"Of course, but we must deal with the losses," Nezu said mildly.

"Yes." It seemed Sozo had already been briefed on the injuries from last night. "Those at the bar will be fine," he said. There had been no major injuries there. The secondary site, the warehouse was meant to have been the easier site but in true form it hadn't been. "Gang Orca and Mount Lady will recover. They are just bruised."

All Might looked relieved at that. "Best Jeanist?" he asked softly.

"They aren't sure yet," Sozo replied matter of factly. The best medics were working on him but these things took time. All they could reliably say was that he was not dead, yet. And all that really meant was that All For One had not seriously been trying to kill Best Jeanist. If the villain had been then all that would have been left was a smear.

Yagi closed his eyes and nodded before taking a deep breath. He knew all of that.

The Commissioner was silent for a few moments but then his eyes went hard. It was actually surprising to see him displaying the traits of a Commissioner. "What I need to know is if All For One has underlings who can directly step into his place?"

At that, Toshinori shook his head. "Not directly," he said. "I took out much of his network before I fought him seven years ago and I do not believe he's replaced them," he explained. "Though Gra-" Yagi stopped mid-name.

Sozo had the good taste not to push but they all knew what Toshinori had been about to say. Gran Torino would have known that detail.

"What about the ones who got away?" the Commissioner asked instead.

"Too young," All Might replied. "In time, Tomura would have been one of his commanders, but not now. Maybe that was his plan to replace them," he added.

The Commissioner nodded, and Mirai could see how he was working things around in his mind. "The public already know that we lost one hero last night," he said. Gran's body had been dumped and the media had gotten their first, and had then made the connection to the very public fight last night.

"The All Might Agency will take care of the funeral arrangements," Mirai told the group. He had no idea what Gran Torino's wishes might be but he was sure that Yagi would know. Or at least would know who to ask or where to find that information.

"Are you sure that is wise?" the Commissioner asked. "It might send the wrong message," Sozo added.

"Wise?" Toshinori asked with deliberate care. Mirai noted that Nezu heard the warning as well as he did.

The Commissioner gave All Might a look that said clearly that the problem should have been obvious. "Gran Torino wasn't a member of your Agency, and having you organise the funeral will only bring attention to his death."

"I don't think that's a problem," Nezu answered diplomatically. "The world knows the operation was run by All Might, so having the All Might Agency take care of the funeral will simply be them honouring the losses incurred."

Mirai was positive that the Principal knew that sending off Gran Torino properly was important to All Might.

The Commissioner thought about it for a few moments before he nodded. Sir Nighteye knew he didn't really care about Gran, he just wanted any bad publicity to be dealt with quickly. "We still need to come up with something for Best Jeanist but that can wait until we know his ongoing condition," Sozo said, leaving the question of Gran Torino. "Which leaves, you," he said looking to All Might.

Yagi nodded and then looked up at the ceiling as he thought. "There's a number of ways of dealing with that," he said slowly.

"Oh?" The Commissioner did not sound convinced. Interestingly, Principal Nezu was nodding but then the rat had probably thought of a few options himself.

"You may not realise this but my entire career has been to bring All For One down," Toshinori said candidly. "He killed my mentor, he killed-" All Might didn't finish. The Commissioner didn't need to know the history of One For All.

"What are you suggesting?" Sozo asked suspiciously.

"I could retire," Yagi said.

"No!" Sozo said. "That would definitely send the wrong message."

Toshinori gave him a wry smile. "It's going to happen eventually," he told the Commissioner.

"What is?"

"My retirement," All Might told him bluntly.

"Not now," Sozo insisted. "If it came with the reveal of this All For One then-" the Commissioner shook his head.

"It could be a good thing," Nezu suggested. "It gets everything over and done with," he pointed out. "It could be sold as a triumph."

All Might nodded and Sozo looked vaguely interested but Mirai shook his head. "For that to be well sold, we have to take out his sons as well."

"Sons?" Sozo choked the question. Nezu looked interested as well and Toshinori was conflicted.

Mirai nodded. "All For One has two sons," he explained. "Tomura Shigaraki is the eldest and the youngest is Izuku Midoriya."

He was somewhat surprised when Toshinori shook his head. "Tomura Shigaraki is not his son. He's-" he paused, grimacing. "He's Nana Shimura's grandson," he said eventually.

Sir Nighteye could tell that the name meant nothing to Sozo but Nezu nodded gravely. "So, not a son?" he confirmed.

Yagi shook his head.

"Well, he will still need to be contained if we are to say you retiring is for the best," Mirai said, trying to convey an apology with his eyes. He knew who Nana Shimura was, but he had no idea she'd had a child, let alone a grandchild but… corrupting him was something All For One would do.

"Tomura Shigaraki will no doubt do something," Nezu said, managing not to sound cheerful. It was more that he was assured of that and truthfully, Mirai couldn't find fault with his reasoning. "The youngest though-" The Principal stopped and looked at him, obviously asking for more information.

Mirai shook his head. "We don't have much information on him," he admitted. "His name is Izuku Midoriya, but it's also been Izuku Chui, Izuku Inpei and Izuku Kawa," Sir Nigtheye recited the names he'd found for the boy.

"But always Izuku?"

He nodded. "It could be because he was young," he explained and then gave Yagi a sharp look at his expression. Toshinori quickly schooled his features into something neutral and he gave a signal indicating that they'd speak later. Sozo missed it but Nezu didn't.

The Principal leaned forward. "Well, until he does something, and that's if he does something, we can deal with him then," he said. It almost sounded like the rat believed it but Mirai sighed under his breath and nodded minutely. He'd have to give the Principal his files.

"What we need," Sozo said suddenly, "is a distraction," he announced.

"A distraction?" All Might asked mildly.

"Not so much a distraction," the Commissioner corrected, "but an affirmation of strength. Something to tell the world that we have dealt with the mastermind, and it's only a matter of time before the underlings are caught and tried."

Nezu looked thoughtful at that.

"What do you suggest?" Sir Nighteye asked when it became obvious that the Principal wasn't going to speak.

"We've taken out the mastermind, but we have to root out those who supported him, no matter where they are," Sozo said.

It was only because Nigheye had one eye on him that he saw Nezu's small sigh. What did the rat know?

"There is also the fact that we need to talk about the liberties your students took," Sozo continued, pointedly looking at the Principal.

Nezu looked back. "My students simply rescued their friends. I find their desire to help each other quite refreshing."

Sozo was not happy with that answer. Nighteye knew why. The students had actually attacked a villain. It would be bad enough if it was a civilian… Actually that wouldn't have been bad. The civilian could have claimed self defence. The students had deliberately travelled to the area and then attacked one of the villains. True, it was to save a fellow student and true, without their actions, it was likely that the villains would have gotten away with the Bakugou boy but… It didn't appear that the villains were going to kill the students. And maybe… if the villains had gotten away then they wouldn't have killed Gr-

Might have beens where not what they were here for.

"No," Sozo objected. "Your students deliberately travelled to a combat zone and interfered with the operation. They could have gotten themselves killed. They could have warned the villains, or given them more hostages. They should not have been there! And they used their quirks in public!" The Commissioner at least had the good taste not to say that they might have contributed to Gran's death but Nighteye was sure others would not be so restrained.

"They wanted to help rescue their friends," Nezu defended them but from the tone Mirai already knew the rat didn't expect to win this argument. But the Principal was going to argue and the sidekick wondered what outcome he wanted.

"An admirable sentiment but one that goes against the law," the Commissioner responded. "One that must be punished. It simply will not do to give the impression that those who are meant to uphold the law believe they are above it!"

Nezu's face, being rat-like, wasn't always readable but Mirai could tell he was annoyed at something. "True," he conceded the point to the Commissioner, because not doing so would be ridiculous. "But they are still children, and still in training and that should be taken into consideration."

"No, it means they should be held to a higher standard!" Sozo objected. "We cannot have questions about our heroes to be. They must be seen to obey the law and to have no connections to villains."

Where had that question come from? Mirai wondered as soon as the Commissioner had said it but the answer was quickly revealed. Nezu showed no reaction to that, but All Might flinched. Ah… there was a question about one of the students, Sir Nighteye realised. Maybe not one of the ones who was on the so called mission but one of them, somewhere and… Nezu wanted to use the connection. The Commissioner did as well but in a more obvious manner.

"We vet all our hero students. None of them have a connection to known villains," the Principal said. It even sounded true. It probably was true. While it wasn't unheard of for some heroes to have villains in the family, they were tenuous connections. Their cousin's cousin or something like that. Or the hero in question generally made it their goal to make sure their relative was in jail, usually by their hand to show that their loyalty was with justice.

This seemed to be something else.

"That is not true," the Commissioner said with certainty. He lifted one eyebrow to challenge Nezu.

Mirai wondered what the Commissioner knew.

"There is no evidence of a connection, there is just circumstance and coincidence," Nezu replied.

"There is collusion and contact," Sozo retorted. "You've already indicated that UA has a leak, can you ignore the potential that she is it?"

"She is not the leak," Nezu said forcefully. "The villain was speaking to confuse, and… in the event that there is a link, is it not better to know the enemy?"

Mirai didn't know the full details but he nodded. If there was a student at UA who they knew was connected to the villains, then it would be easy to use them to track the villains down. It was possible that they had a connection they didn't know about, and even if they were a villain, or a spy, the Principal was right. It was far better to know the weak link. It was far better to exploit that connection to your advantage.

Sozo shook his head. "UA needs a win desperately. We need a win," he added, acknowledging with bad grace that the Commission would be taking a hit as well. "Finding the villain spy and dealing with her will give us that."

"Except she isn't the spy," Nezu tried to logically point out.

"But there is a link! And if you expel her then the real spy will be relieved and will probably reveal themselves."

Nighteye saw the way Yagi looked at that. The expression said silently that he doubted any spy of All For One would be so careless.

Nezu took a deep breath. "I think this is a mistake," he said.

"We need a public win," Sozo emphasised. "And we still need to do something about the reveal," he added.

Toshinori sighed at that. "The details of my quirk are not known," he stated the obvious. "I will simply have to admit now that the buff form is part of it, and that I cannot hold it indefinitely," he explained. It was a reasonable explanation. Time limits on quirks weren't unheard of. "And I can say that the more energy I use, the faster I burn through my buff form," Yagi added more detail to the story.

Sozo thought about it for a few moments before he nodded. "Good enough. But I want that girl gone," he added.

"You can't arrest her," Nezu noted. "We have no proof of anything."

"The public don't care about that. It's all extra detail," the Commissioner waved his hand. "What they will care about is that a villain collaborator has been found and expelled."

That was, unfortunately, a true statement. Mirai nodded his agreement though he still had no idea who this girl was.

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Four heads turned towards it as the door opened and a saffron coloured young woman stuck her head in. It wasn't just her skin that was saffron coloured, it was all of her, leaving only the natural shades of light to define her features. "Commissioner, you have that other meeting?" she told Sozo before pulling her head back and closing the door.

"Ah," Sozo grumbled, but he rose at the summons. He speared All Might with one eye. "We will go with that for you, All Might. You can retire another time."

Yagi gave a soft smile. "Understood, Sir," he confirmed, though Nighteye thought his friend had wanted something when he offered to retire.

"Good," Sozo said. "That appears to be everything."

"Until there are new developments," Nezu agreed easily.

A little too easily, Mirai thought as the Principal nodded at the Commissioner.

"Good," Sozo said again. "If we play this right… Maybe it won't be a complete disaster," he said before he stepped back from the table. "And maybe-" He didn't finish as he walked to the door.

"We hope to capture Tomura quickly," Yagi said.

"See that you do," Sozo said as he left.

Nezu watched him go before he seemed to smile and then speared All Might with one black eye. "Now, shall we talk?"

-ted-

Nighteye really should be looking into All Might's future right now, rather than talking politics. He might find that he doesn't like what he sees. But alas...

The Commissioner just wants to keep things as they are. Keep the public trusting in the system and he is right, that he has to give the public a visible and painless win... Unfortunately, the nobody he thinks he is inflicting consequences on, isn't as much as a nobody as he thinks... and those consequences may be on a boomerang.

My discord is on this code: TcBnRN7aDn 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-

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