07/03/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 53 - The Truth, Please

Izuku wasn't quite sure why Hitoshi followed him after lunch. As usual they'd eaten with Mei in the Support building, and then broken up to go to their afternoon classes. General studies was west of Support and Management was south. Ochaco had stayed back with Mei to talk about an upgrade to a support item and Hitoshi had just shrugged and said he'd walk with him.

It was nice but unnecessary.

At least, that's what he thought, right up until Hitoshi dragged him sideways into a small room once they reached the Management building.

"This one will be empty all afternoon," his friend announced. "The third years are at work experience," Hitoshi muttered.

Izuku looked around. The room was small. There were ten desks in it, and they were arranged in a U shape.

"This is one of the specialist classrooms," Hitoshi explained before fixing him with a stare. "Now spill it," he instructed.

"Spill?" Izuku asked.

Hitoshi just glared at him.

Izuku sighed. He'd had the stupid thought that if he didn't talk to Hitoshi then he wouldn't lose his friend over what happened last night. "You don't have to talk to me," he muttered. "You can just say you aren't my friend anymore and walk away," he told Hitoshi.

The glare got deeper. "Just tell me everything."

"So you know what to tell the authorities?"

Hitoshi actually growled. "You silly little Dragon! You once told me you'd be my friend, even if I became a villain," he snapped. "What makes you think I'd be any different?"

The challenge hung in the air between them. Izuku looked to the floor. "All Might was fighting Dad last night," he admitted and left it at that.

"You told me that last night," Hitoshi reminded him but his voice was gentle. "Why was All Might fighting your Dad?"

"I don't know."

"Izuku," Hitoshi prompted. It said without words that he had to have some idea.

And unspoken, between them was the fact that All Might didn't fight minor villains, especially not on national television. Izuku sighed as he slumped into one of the chairs. "Dad's always told me he wants to change the world," he said. "That the current system of heroes and so called villains is not viable and certainly not fair," he added.

Hitoshi nodded. "It perpetuates discrimination," he said.

"Yeah," Izuku agreed. "People have to have good or bad quirks. Dad wants to make it so that they just have quirks. And… Are you familiar with the work of Dr Ken Kyuuin?"

"Never heard of him!" Hitoshi announced. It wasn't surprising. The name was one that Doctor Garaki used to publish some of his work. Along with Daruma Ujiko.

"He's one of the few research scientists who agree with an old theory. It's one the scientific community largely ignore and the public actively rubbish."

"The public don't usually care about scientific theories," Hitoshi pointed out.

"True," Izuku nodded. "This one though is about quirkless people," he explained.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Izuku shrugged. "The theory states that quirkless people aren't actually quirkless. They have a quirk factor, after all."

"They do?" Hitoshi actually sounded interested.

It was a reality of quirk society that most people knew at least a little bit about quirks.

Izuku nodded. "They do," he confirmed. "And if they have a quirk factor, then there's a possibility they have a quirk."

"Wait a minute, do you mean to tell me that 20% of the population has a hidden quirk?" his friend demanded. While he had never known what it was like to be quirkless, his quirk had been deemed villainous, Hitoshi was aware that a villainous quirk was better than no quirk at all.

Izuku shook his head. "Not hidden quirks. They show up differently. The theory is that they have a stablisation quirk."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not really proven," he had to admit.

"Yeah 'cos no one likes dealing with the quirkless," Hitoshi agreed.

"There's a few though. Dr Kyuuin has managed to study a few families where one of the grandparents was quirkless and everyone else had a quirk. He says that the grandchildren have both stronger and more stable quirks," Izuku explained. "The original theorist couldn't really test it that well."

"Okay, and what does that have to do with your dad?" Hitoshi asked.

"One more theory," Izuku said and then continued when his friend nodded his agreement. "Singularity," he said the word and wasn't surprised when Hitoshi frowned.

"It's a theory that says quirks are going to become too powerful to be controlled," he summarised it simply. It was more complicated than that but the simple description was enough. "The singularity will be the person who… well, the theory isn't completely clear, either they will self destruct, or they will destroy a large portion of the world," Izuku gave the outcome.

"That sounds ominous."

He nodded. "If you look at the way quirks have been increasing in strength though, it's possible," Izuku said. "Human's exchanged the genetic instruction for a toe joint, for-" he gestured around them to indicate the myriad of quirks that were in existence. "And in the last few generations, they've gone from something simple, like bendy fingers, to quirks that can alter the weather, can allow a near infinite amount of mass to be absorbed, can transport people instantaneously over large distances…"

Hitoshi nodded. No doubt he was thinking of his own examples. "How does that tie into your dad?"

That was the real question.

Izuku sighed. "Dad's not doing this for scientific principles," he said, fighting back the urge to give a hysteric laugh. "But you can see how the current world view would contribute to that," he added. "Dad wants to make things better, for everyone," Izuku said instead.

"All Might doesn't usually fight someone for that," Hitoshi pointed out. He was careful to make sure he wasn't too doubting.

The rational part of Izuku understood it was a fair question. The part of him that loved his dad wanted to reject it without comment. He debated for a moment about how much to tell Hitoshi but then realised that All Might was deliberately being quiet about his Dad. It might be time to have the truth out there, and that meant he didn't lie to his friends.

"There's two reasons," he said slowly. "Society calls my dad a villain because he wants to change things. That obviously goes against the way things are," Izuku explained. He knew Hitoshi had seen that often enough. Everyone had if they thought about it. School kids to politicians had a tendency to call those who didn't agree with them villains. Hero society meant that everyone knew what that meant. "What makes a villain a villain?" he asked his friend.

"What do you mean?"

"What makes a villain a villain?" Izuku asked again. "How and who decides who is a villain?" He added the clarification.

Understanding dawned on Hitoshi's features. They had spoken of this before. "Most villains are just criminals," he said, "or just need some help. Some just have quirks society considers bad," he continued.

"Yeah but who labels them a villain?" Izuku pressed.

"Society," Hitoshi told him.

"And?"

That seemed to surprise Hitoshi and he blinked and then thought about it. "The HPSC," he said.

Izuku nodded. "They make the final decision on who is and isn't a villain. When heroes are in the field their targets are assumed to be villains, and since most of them use their quirks they are considered bulk standard," he said.

Hitoshi gave him a wry look to indicate he agreed.

"So with my dad, he obviously used his quirk," Izuku said drolly.

At that, Hitoshi frowned. "What is your Dad's quirk? I thought you told me it was Fire Breath," he said slowly, obviously going through his memory.

Izuku looked to the side with a grimace.

The purple haired teen knew what that meant. "What is it?" he pressed.

"It's the other reason All Might was fighting my dad. This time it's for a personal reason. Dad's quirk is called All For One," he explained. "It lets him take quirks from other people, and use them and give that quirk to someone else."

"It what?" There was no denying the incredulous note in Hitoshi's voice.

"It allows hi-"

"I heard that but- Are you kidding me? Your dad can do that?"

Izuku nodded. "Dad uses it to help people. Those who can't control their quirks, he can sometimes take their one and give them something else. Or if they are old, he can take it and not worry about that."

Hitoshi nodded. Quirk control was considered a problem for two groups. Kids and the elderly. Izuku's dad could help one group, except… He didn't need to think hard how society would view that, how the HPSC would view it. "How many quirks does he have?"

"Lots," Izuku replied. "But it wasn't his quirk that All Might was fighting him for," he added, gulping.

"But-" Hitoshi wasn't sure what question to ask.

"Do you know that I had an uncle?" Izuku asked suddenly. It was actually kind of nice to be able to talk about this to someone who wasn't Tomura, Kurogiri, the Doctor or his Dad.

"You do?"

"Had," he emphasised.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Izuku shook his head. "He passed away before I was born," he said. "Dad can take and give quirks, my uncle could give his quirk away," he said with a chuckle. When you phrased it like that it sounded useless. "It also had a stockpiling function. I don't know why or how, but my uncle gave his quirk away, and now All Might has it."

He could see Hitoshi trying to process that information.

"That's not so much why All Might would fight my dad, but why dad would fight All Might. Since my uncle died, his quirk is the last thing left of him and dad wants that back."

Hitoshi's nod was somewhat distracted. "Let me see if I have this straight," he said slowly. "Your dad was fighting All Might because the HPSC calls him a villain, and society would as well. But also because he wants to change society."

Izuku nodded.

"Actually, how does he want to change it?" Hitoshi asked.

"Get rid of heroes," Izuku said immediately, holding up one hand. "Some people are villains. They use their quirk to dominate and hurt others and do bad things," he admitted. "But you know that most of the villains aren't," Izuku said.

"Yeah, so what does your Dad want to do about the true villains?"

"Have the police take care of them, probably a unit of special forces. Dad wants to get rid of heroes in their current form, where they can independently decide someone is a villain and act as the judge and jury. The very concept of a hero means there has to be a concept of a villain to go with it, and that just makes self fulfilling prophecies."

Hitoshi nodded at that. Those who said to get rid of heroes were usually villains and thus they were seen as wanting disorder and anarchy. But if you explained that you still had to have some way of dealing with those who were truly misusing their quirk to abuse others, then people realised, you still wanted an orderly society. You still wanted them to have jobs, have families, to have food and go to the supermarket. You still wanted society. That calmed people because they knew you weren't trying to take away their comforts.

Izuku watched as his friend slumped into a chair. It was a lot to take in, he supposed but he felt strangely lighter, as if, somehow in telling Hitoshi about this, a weight had been lifted from him. It was a weight he hadn't even been aware he was carrying.

"So, if your Dad has a quirk that can take other people's quirks… actually is it forever?" Hitoshi asked slowly.

"Forever," Izuku confirmed. "It's not like Monoma's where he makes a copy though-" Izuku made a face. They could copy quirks now but that wasn't what Hitoshi was asking.

"Though?"

"I'll tell you in a bit. When Dad takes someone's quirk, it's gone," he confirmed.

"Okay," his friend sighed. "If your Dad can take a quirk, and your uncle could give his quirk away, what is your quirk?"

For a moment, Izuku felt like he'd been stabbed, and then he smiled. Before that smile became a laugh. "Yeah, fair," he told Hitoshi. He had left himself open to that question given what Hitoshi knew of his history. Fire Proofing, that came with Fire Breath. Mei thought he had facets of different quirks in his family's history and… "I have something similar to my Dad's quirk. I can take quirks but, if I keep them too long, then I can't give them away," he admitted.

"You have-" Hitoshi breathed the words as the implications sank in. "Holy shit," he muttered. "So where did you get Fire Breath and Fire Proofing from? Or are they the same quirk?" he asked suddenly.

"Dad gave them to me, and I don't know where he got them from," Izuku replied.

"So are you telling me that someone, two someone's, are quirkless out there?" Hitoshi waved at the wall with the question.

"Maybe," he was forced to admit. "I don't know where Dad got them from but-"

"But what?"

Izuku grimaced. He didn't really want to talk about copying quirks but on the other hand… it would make his quirk and his Dad's quirk more acceptable to the masses if they said they took copied quirks. He was pretty sure Hitoshi wouldn't care but… others would. "One of the researchers working for my Dad, I mean working for my Dad personally, worked out how to copy quirks," he said slowly. "I think it was part of a plan to give quirkless people a quirk," he added, spinning the story out of nothing.

"That's genetic engineering!" Hitoshi gasped. There were rules against that and they were enforced even harder than quirk usage rules.

"Any research into quirks is generally genetic engineering," Izuku shrugged. "But the researcher wasn't experimenting on the person," he defended the research. Yakuni had done that and he was proud of Yakuni's achievements, even if he hadn't seen him in what felt like forever.

"Ugh," Hitoshi groaned. "I suppose that's something," he admitted.

"Did you not know that JBQC has med research labs?" Izuku asked.

Hitoshi shook his head.

"Oh. They do," Izuku shrugged.

His friend gave him an odd smile. "Not exactly the research I'd think they'd be doing," he told him.

"Yeah, okay," Izuku agreed. "But lots of companies have them, but they just keep quiet about what research they are doing. They'll tell you they are doing research into drugs, or authorised genetics, but nothing more. And…" He took a deep breath.

"What?" Hitoshi demanded.

"There's a lot of illegal research out there," Izuku said. "It's just not reported as research. And it's not very good. But people are curious and they will look into things. Quirk suppressant drugs only came about because of research. I think it was actually illegal research," he added. He wasn't quite sure.

Hitoshi sighed and nodded. "Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't be surprised by it but people don't usually discuss genetic research and quirk research and all that."

"I know," Izuku said, nodding shallowly. "But that's part of the problem with the way things are. People don't discuss what makes them uncomfortable or what isn't seen as correct. But you can't just keep shoving problems away. They don't just go away that quickly and in some ways, I think that's why some villains are created. They had a problem but no one was willing to help them with it, because it was either difficult, or uncomfortable and things just kept getting worse and worse until-" he shrugged. There wasn't a need to elaborate further. Hitoshi knew what he meant. Some villains were the victims of circumstance.

"If we discuss these things, then we can, society can, figure out what the root cause of the issue is and fix it. It won't stop everything, I know but, it means we are trying to be better than we are, 'cos all I see at the moment is quirked society, hero society has taken the same prejudices that existed before quirks, and updated them, all the while thinking we are better, when really, we are just repeating the mistakes of the past."

Hitoshi smiled. "You are so passionate," he murmured.

Izuku snorted, of course he was passionate.

They sat together in silence for a while. Hitoshi was obviously thinking about what he'd heard. "So," he drawled after a while. "What are you going to do?"

Izuku made a face. That was the real question. He shook his head. He wanted to change the system. He wanted to help his dad. He wanted to strangle Tomura for getting dad captured… he… wanted so much but he had no idea how to do it.

"I don't know," Izuku sighed.

He really didn't.

Hitoshi gave him a sympathetic look. "Perhaps a better question would be what do you want?"

That was easy and the instant Hitoshi asked the rage he'd been feeling last night came back, pushing away his tiredness as if it wasn't there.

"You mean before or after I rip Tomura's heart out for getting Dad caught?" Izuku snarled.

He wasn't aware of it but with his emotion being so raw he lost control of some of his quirks. They surged and Hitoshi was left staring at his friend, who was showing off a side of himself that he'd never seen. Izuku was rather pragmatic. Now he was enraged.

"After?" Hitoshi prompted.

"All Might's head on a platter and those brats expelled!" He growled.

Hitoshi gave him a wry smile. "Something more realistic?" He asked.

Izuku took a deep breath and sighed, letting his rage go, except that he knew it wasn't completely gone. It was still there, still bubbling in his mind and it would come to the fore when he could do something with it. Now, with Hitoshi there was nothing to be done. "I guess, I want people to know that my Dad isn't just another villain. I want them to know that he wants to make things better."

Hitoshi nodded. "You want to change things?" He asked.

"Yeah, and that, but… I know you said it would take more than one event but, I just don't see how to do it."

"You are tired, aren't you?"

Izuku didn't even really get to nod his reply to that one before Hitoshi continued. "You should skip out on the rest of the day and go home and sleep," his friend advised. "Then, tomorrow, you can think about it more and-" he shrugged. "I don't know what to say, Little Dragon, except that you are going to have to make some hard choices," he added.

At that, Izuku nodded again. Hitoshi was a good friend because everything he said was true. He was going to have to make choices. And he was going to have to live with them.

Everyone was.

-ted-

Izuku desperately needed a sounding board! Good thing Hitoshi is such a great friend that he can do that for Izuku, because yes, once Izuku has to act on a decision, everyone is going to have to live with it.

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-

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