21/03/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 57 - Wipe The Floor

The day had passed slowly for Izuku. After he'd spoken to Doctor Garaki he'd messaged Ochaco to make sure she was okay.

That was just before disbelieving messages flooded their chat from Mei and Hitoshi. News travelled… well not that fast really since he was expecting them to message earlier. He answered for Ochaco, emphasising the stupidity of the heroes. Hitoshi had messaged him privately but he'd promised to talk to his friend later. He didn't want to be distracted, though at about 3pm, he regretted saying that. 5pm seemed a long way away.

He'd messaged Mei and Hitoshi telling them Ochaco would be fine, and he'd help her out. Physically she was going to be fine but… Being expelled from UA meant she wouldn't get a place at another hero school. Not in their heroics course. So he didn't know what she was going to do yet but… He'd make sure she was okay, somehow.

He'd messaged Himiko as well, though he didn't expect her to answer if Kurogiri was keeping them off comms as Doctor Kyudai had indicated could be the case. Then he'd spent some time looking up what it would take to get another number. Thankfully it wasn't much. He could take care of it when he got out of here.

Doing such mundane research had taken the edge off his anger but he could still feel it bubbling away under the surface of his mind. He had to release it somehow. Dad had taught him to think about what he did, what society did, and so, he thought about the heroes. They had expelled Ochaco but not those who had gone on the rescue, not even the one who'd attacked. What did that mean? What were they trying to do? The Heroes could have gotten away with expelling just the one who attacked, while lauding the others as being careful, so why hadn't they sacrificed him? Why Ochaco?

The students hadn't been at school yesterday but they were today. Shoes had been in each of the shoe lockers he'd put his challenge notes in. But… why were they punishing Ochaco? Could it really be just that she had a connection to him? The heroes obviously knew that she'd been spared at the camp… Why weren't they just thankful that had happened? If she hadn't had his scale, she could have been killed!

He shook his head. 5pm was still so far away… and he still didn't know why. He probably wouldn't ever know why but one thing he did know was that those who had gone on that so called rescue mission… they weren't heroes. They didn't deserve to be here. And…

He knew what he had to do. Izuku made his way to training ground delta and was waiting in the centre. He was early but... he had nothing better to do.

Interestingly the sense of being watched came back almost as soon as he got to the training ground. A cursory look around had shown no one obvious and it was curious that they suddenly knew where to find him because he hadn't sensed it for the rest of the day. So, the person watching him was either one of the people he'd challenged, or… they'd read one of the notes.

The second option seemed far more likely. He closed his eyes briefly and focused on the feeling. Whoever they were, they were good at staying out of sight and out of his immediate sensing range. That probably meant they were watching him pretty intently. He had a pretty good sense of what was around him at most times but if he concentrated he could extend himself a bit more. He hadn't figured out how to do it without concentrating though.

Training ground Delta was pretty open, which was why he'd chosen it. Others were industrial complexes or city scapes, this was more a gentle field or more likely set up to represent a large city park. There was a tarmacked 'road' running around the edge of the training ground. And it was… Ah, there they were. Izuku sensed the person. There were a few other students around but they were moving to and fro as they went about their business. This one was standing still and… there was something, a particular prickle on his senses that said they were interested in him.

Except there was something odd. It felt like they were in two places. Izuku cracked open one eye, just a little and examined the closer feeling. It took him a while to see it but eventually he did. There was an eye in one of the trees. It seemed to be embedded in the wood- no, it wasn't. It was actually resting in the joint of one of the branches…

A wash of familiarity went through him. He'd known someone with a quirk like that, and he'd known they came to UA. Setsuna Tokage. So… she was over there, and her eye up in the tree. Izuku made sure he was looking to the entrance of Training Ground Delta when he opened his eyes again. He wondered if they were getting Setsuna to watch him because they knew he had been Izuku Inpei at her school or if she had just the most convenient quirk.

He'd have to ask her and just as he was preparing to pull her eye over to him, the first of his guests arrived. It was just after 4. Bakugou was early but Izuku had been tired of waiting.

If Izuku had made a little bet with himself as to the first person to arrive, he would have gotten it right. Katsuki Bakugou came roaring through the entrance. He was early, but he was expecting Bakugo. Of those he'd invited there were two he weren't sure would show up but he'd deal with that later. Izuku got up, and rolled his shoulders back and theatrically yawned. "You are barking what?" he asked, reaching up to rub one eye as if he'd just woken up.

"Why you! I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Bakugou actually grinned, right before he launched himself towards Izuku.

He was ready for that. The 1A student was over confident and one of the weaknesses of his quirk was that he had to get up close and personal. Izuku dodged Bakugou's opening explosion, and grabbed his arm. He didn't have those stupid gauntlet things on that he had put on his costume so it was easy enough. Katsuki grinned and Izuku saw him pivot, to bring his other hand around. It would have been an explosion in his face, except there was no explosion.

The moment of confusion was all Izuku needed to then haul the Class 1A student up and over. He put Bakugou down on to his front and then sat on him. Given he'd activated kilo to make himself heavier, there was no way the 1A student was getting up. Plus with his arm still in Izuku's grip, he had reduced leverage.

"What the fuck did you do, you little shit?" Bakugou roared.

Izuku applied a bit more pressure to the arm he was holding and was rewarded with a crack as the humerus broke. It shut Bakugou up and Izuku was a little surprised he hadn't screamed. He had made an odd inhale, something between a gasp and burp.

"I told you I'd wipe the floor with you… actually, no sorry I didn't tell you," Izuku apologised brightly. "I told All Might I'd have wiped the floor with you if I'd finished the Sport's Festival. I guess he never bothered to tell you that?" he asked conversationally.

Even with the broken arm, Bakugou was still struggling. "You are just a villain!" he growled.

Izuku sighed at that and shifted his grip slightly. He moved down Bakugou's arm to below the elbow and made a quick pulling movement. Another break, this time of the lower arm bones. Bakugou hissed. "I don't like you, Bakugou. I think you are a symbol of everything that is wrong with the hero system. You are arrogant and uncaring. You only want to be a hero to engage in fights, to prove to your immature masculine ego that you are the strongest," he told the boy. "You don't care for people." Izuku shook his head, making sure Bakugou could see the motion from the corner of his eye. "And you know who else has all those traits?" he asked with a soft smile.

"Don't you dare!" Katsuki growled from between clenched teeth.

"A villain," Izuku said. "That's why Tomura was interested in you I guess. And you know, it really would be easier for you to be a villain," he said. "Then you could be yourself and you wouldn't even need to pretend to care… not that you do," he added.

"I'm not a villain!" he roared.

"But you are not a hero," Izuku countered. He would have said more but a burst of cold warned him of the incoming glacier. He had time to take a deep breath and meet it with a breath of the hottest fire he could generate.

Steam poured away from the point of impact and when it cleared, Izuku had shifted slightly so that he was standing. He kept one foot in the small of Bakugou's back, holding him down. "Let me up."

"Oh hush," Izuku muttered as he looked up to greet his second guest. Shouto Todoroki looked surprised that his ice had been countered. He was flexing his left hand experimentally. Izuku huffed. "Please don't use your fire, Todoroki," he called.

The student's behind Shouto looked surprised at that.

"Use it!" Bakugou urged.

"That wouldn't be wise," Izuku countered. Todoroki looked at him quizzically, obviously asking why he shouldn't. "All that will happen is that Bakugou here will end up crispy, and I'll end up naked, and I'd rather not fight you in the buff," he explained with a cocky smile.

"Do it," Bakugou practically screamed.

Izuku rolled his eyes and held up one hand. He then blew fire on to it. The students watching looked worried for a moment before he let the fire fade and wriggled his fingers at them. Then he looked down at Bakugou. "On second thought though, I really wouldn't mind if you crisped this villain," he said with a bright smile.

"You should surrender!"

Izuku didn't recognise Iida's voice but he didn't have to with the way the teen stepped forward.

"If you surrender now, I'm sure you can get counselling and you won't have to be a villain."

"Why would I surrender?" Izuku asked, genuinely curious. It wasn't like he'd done anything that bad.

"Mitei, there are more of us than you," Iida told him gently, as if it should have been a revelation to him.

Izuku laughed. It was a real laugh. For the first time in a couple of days he was actually amused. "You really think you can beat me?" he chuckled, half pointing at the group, though the effect was lost as his hand shook with mirth.

"There are five of us and one of you, and you are just a management student." Izuku recognised Kaminari as he stepped forward to stand with Iida and Shouto.

"Ah the vigilante," Izuku murmured. "Isn't it amazing how hero students can get away with so much. And how punishment is so inconsistent," he added, shaking his head. "Though I suppose maybe Monoma is right? 1A is favoured?" he asked.

The way Kaminari flinched told him he'd hit a nerve. Monoma must have been saying something like it wasn't fair that Uraraka got expelled when nothing happened to the 1A students. He was right but… even he wouldn't do anything about it.

"You can't win," Kaminari repeated.

Izuku grinned. "Why don't we find out?" he invited, looking over the group. He'd been right with his little self assessment. Shoji had ignored his challenge, so had Honenuki. Since, as far as he could tell they had only been peripherally involved, he supposed he could accept that. "I'd be a little careful though," he warned, glancing downwards significantly. Bakugou had been blessedly quiet for the last few moments. "If I step down too hard then-" he shrugged, letting them imagine what would happen. He didn't want to break Katsuki's back. It was tempting but better justice would be Katsuki fully understanding what he'd done earlier.

"You're not that strong!" Kaminari announced.

Izuku just gave him a look and was pleased when Kirishima whispered something to his friend. At least one person realised that if he was holding Bakugou down then he wasn't completely bluffing. It did put a pause on their plans and he used the time to check on Setsuna. She was lurking just behind the gate and her eye was still in position. She was probably frantically calling for a teacher.

Which meant he was on a time limit now. They wouldn't have had Setsuna watch him unless they were also ready to do something.

"Well?" he invited.

The group didn't move.

"Looks like they are cowards who won't even try to rescue you," he told Bakugou loudly.

The reaction was everything he could have hoped for. "Just get the fucker!" the teen yelled, levering himself up as much as he could. It wasn't far but Izuku didn't press harder.

That startled them into motion. Kaminari raised his hand. Izuku recognised the gesture. It was the one he'd used to attack with the other night. He had no immunity to electricity so had to avoid it but before he could dodge, Iida pushed Kaminari's arm down. "You'll hit Bakugou," he warned.

"Just do it!" Katsuki growled.

"You heard him," Izuku encouraged as the group looked at each other. They didn't seem to know what to do. "Oh come on!" he egged them on. "It can't be that hard to figure out how to attempt to rescue one person!" He shook his head. "Or do you need the Commission to hold your dicks when you take a piss?"

The insult was crude, but did the trick.

"Down!" A woman's voice yelled.

The teens fell to the ground, revealing that Yaoyorozu had been hard at work while out of the direct line of sight. Izuku had time to see that she'd made something that looked like a cannon before it fired. A weighted net opened, and while he was pretty sure he could break it, he was also sure it might tangle him up for a necessary moment. He kind of wished he had the quirk his dad was using the other night but he had something close enough. He pushed out with Caeli Imperim. The quirk answered his call as easily as it always had and the net came to a sudden halt midair. It hung there.

"Interesting effect," Izuku murmured, loud enough to be heard.

The girl gaped at her now useless net and she looked kind of tired. "Oh… you ran out of lipids, right?" Izuku chuckled.

The others weren't sure what to do, so he took the decision from them. Izuku stepped back and before Bakugou could scramble to his feet, he shoved one foot under the prone student and kicked him straight at the group. Bakugou hit Yaoyorozu and the two of them went down in a tangle of limbs.

The other boys jumped and ran at him. Iida led the way. It wasn't that far, so he didn't have a long time to accelerate. Izuku knew that was his saving grace. If Iida had been going faster, he couldn't have seen him. Instead, Izuku used Caeli Imperium and kilo again to push his limbs to go faster as he dodged out of the way, and at the last second he hardened the air around Iida's ankles. It was just a moment but it was enough. Iida crashed to the ground, which gave Izuku the moment needed to touch him. He jumped back as Kaminari yelled as he swung a punch his way. The teen's hand crackled with energy.

Izuku fell into a fighting stance and kept dodging as Kaminari swung at him. Every punch crackled but he didn't have time to play. He stepped to the right, and ducked under a telegraphed punch, before pushing Kaminari off balance from behind. With the touch, he relieved the boy of his quirk, causing him to collapse to the ground and turned back to face Kirishima and Todoroki.

"What did you do?" Todoroki demanded.

"Nothing dangerous," Izuku waved one hand. "They'll wake up in about half an hour," he added reassuringly. "Now, do you want to try?"

Izuku got the impression that they wanted to talk to Setsuna, but to do that would reveal there was someone else. He saw no reason to enlighten them as to the fact he already knew.

In response to his question, Todoroki sent another wave of ice at him. Izuku sighed and blew fire at it again. He didn't have to break it all up, just keep from being enveloped. "While I admit, there's a limit to how much I can breathe out, Todoroki, there's a limit to how much you can put out," Izuku called, as he used the steam as cover to move. He raced around the glacier, intent on coming at the students from the side. He could end this now. He could just grab their quirks and leave but he'd promised his father he'd make it seem like his quirk was the same as him and now was the time he demonstrated his dedication towards that.

As he rounded the glacier, he could see that Todoroki and Kirishima had moved. "He's here!" Yaoyorozu yelled.

Izuku turned to her. Bakugou was standing beside her and she'd managed to put his arm in some sort of restraint. The teen was glaring at him but didn't come at him. "You do have some common sense," Izuku murmured. Another glacier came out of the first but Izuku ran ahead of it, straight at Bakugou and Yaoyorozu. Bakugou tried to swing at him with his other arm but it was a simple process to slip his quirk back to him and then rip it away so that he fell unconscious. Yaoyorozu didn't know what happened and in the hesitation she showed, it was too late. Izuku slapped her, using the movement to yank her quirk away. She fell onto Bakugou. He was going to have fun with her quirk later.

That gave him just enough time to jump before the glacier hit. Todoroki must have known he was about to hit his comrades because the glacier stopped. Even so, Izuku landed on it and slid down it. The glacier had gone through the net he'd left hanging in the air and he jumped over the rough patch caused by that to keep sliding. Todoroki saw him and braced.

So predictable. Izuku instead jumped, using kilo to make himself lighter. To Todoroki he knew what it looked like. It was an impossible jump but really, shouldn't heroes expect that? When he was directly over Todoroki he grinned at the hero student, and instantly increased his weight. Gravity took care of the rest and he crashed down onto the Number Two Hero's son. The moment he touched him, Izuku grabbed his quirk before he sprung away from Kirishima.

Izuku landed, feet digging into the turf. "You are more cunning than you look," he complimented Kirishima.

"What did you do to them?" the demand was snarled. Kirishima's red eyes glared at him and his teeth were clenched.

"They'll be fine," Izuku assured him. "I promise, in about half an hour, they'll wake up. Just for now, they aren't going to be interfering."

He growled and Izuku could hear his breath.

"I did warn you, you weren't going to win," Izuku said conversationally.

Kirishima said nothing, instead he charged. He could have grabbed his quirk immediately but decided to see what he was like hand to hand. Izuku let green scales cover his arms as they exchanged blows. His scales were strong but… When Kirishima hit them, he had the same problem as he'd had against Gatarui. When someone had some sort of physical boost, they didn't stand up that well. They did protect him. He knew that from experiments with Gigantomachia, but they weren't as strong as they could have been… but they were going to be. Izuku caught Kirishima's punch, and smiled at the red eyed teen. "Thanks," he said as he yanked away his quirk.

He was going to have fun experimenting with Yaoyorozu's quirk but Kirishima's was going to be useful.

Izuku took a deep breath and looked around. All of them were down and… that just left Setsuna. Her eye was still on the tree. He lifted one hand and used Caeli Imperium to yank it towards him. He heard her cry out from behind the training ground wall. Did she really think he hadn't noticed?

He grabbed the eye out of the air and held it carefully. He let her see him as he raised it to his face. "Hello Setsuna," he greeted her. "I'm only going to tell you once," he said with a smile. "If I catch you like this again, I'm going to break you apart, and then take your quirk and watch you die," he whispered.

Her eye widened. She'd heard. Izuku smiled again and crushed the disembodied eye in his hand before he breathed fire on it to get rid of the squishy slime. He knew how her quirk worked. It would grow back but this would be painful, as evidenced by the cry from behind the wall.

"Young man!"

Izuku looked up and immediately any good feeling he had disappeared.

All Might stood there, in his hero form. Damn it. He'd stayed too long.

"Young man," All Might said again. He was trying to sound gentle. "We can fix this."

Izuku stared at him. And then he laughed. It was a bitter, hollow laugh but as he laughed he let his hair fade to white and turned his eyes gold. The widening of All Might's eyes was somewhat cathartic but wasn't going to be enough.

"No, we can't," Izuku told him before bracing. He wasn't sure what to do now. But he sure as hell wasn't going down. Not now. Not yet.

Not to All Might. He reached for his phone. Now, he needed Garaki.

And he absolutely hated that.

-ted-

The problems of having a hot head is they ruin all your other plans... poor heroes, should have figured Bakugou has no patience. With Momo, I know she can make more than a canon and a net but she's had a full day of school and is tired, so doesn't have a lot of reserves. And as for the others, they really aren't trained to deal with someone like Izuku who can take quirks and isn't afraid to hit hard. Especially when he's angry, and right now, he's really angry.

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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