04/04/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 61 - AFO Saw It Coming

"There's nothing here."

"What do you mean there is nothing?" Endeavor growled.

"There's nothing here," came the confirmation report over the radio.

The Number Two snarled. "I'm going in," he announced and stormed out.

Yagi watched him go. He was dressed in his costume but in his small form and he knew it was making some people uncomfortable. He'd been given any number of looks but he had to be here. The raid on Mitei- Izuku Midoriya's apartment would call for him if the boy made an appearance. It appeared the boy was already ahead of them.

He raised a radio in his hand. "Tsukauchi?" He called his old friend.

"The apartment is empty," came the explanation before he could ask.

"Empty?"

"No one has lived here. There's no furniture, no food, no nothing. Though there is some sort of sensor on the lights," the Detective replied.

"What does that do?" He asked.

If Izuku was not here, then he would not need to fight. The boy had a copy of his Father's quirk and he was the only one who could fight that. It would be best if they could capture Izuku early and get him to give back the quirks. Then…

The Number One Hero wasn't so naive to think that it would be easy to deal with the boy. All For One was in Tartarus and god willing he would die there but Izuku- That was going to be difficult. The Commission would like to get their hands on him. He knew that. But so far, the boy hadn't done anything that was irredeemable. All he'd done is use his quirk! If he gave back the quirks then…

It wouldn't be completely smoothed over but it would go a long way to making things right and he was prepared to intercede on Izuku's behalf. If the boy was willing to be rehabilitated then… His teachers said he had a very bright future in business, and there was no doubt he could be a good… great hero. He had the right skills but… Toshinori knew that skills weren't all that it took but the way that Izuku had helped his friends in the Sport's Festival made it clear that he could, when he wanted, have the right mind set.

Too many people thought he stood alone. They deliberately ignored those who supported him. Toshinori wished he could change that somehow but he had no idea where to begin on that. The world needed a pillar but… Everyone forgot the foundation.

"It appears to turn the lights off and on, with some randomisation for times," the Detective told him. "Nothing stupid, like 3am- wait…"

The radio went dead but All Might wasn't concerned. Naomasa was probably getting further information. A moment later the radio crackled to life again. "There is some late night randomisation but only for short periods."

All Might nodded to himself, even though Tsukauchi wouldn't see it. "So it's set to simulate someone living there?"

"Yes," the Detective told him. "We are questioning the neig- Endeavor's here," he said as he cut off but the Number One Hero had heard enough. They were going to question the neighbours about Izuku.

They knew he lived here… Or did they? Setsuna had picked up her surveillance of Izuku here and this was Mitei Chui's registered address with the school but… They had a warper on their side. Izuku could very well be coming home and then leaving to almost anywhere…

"Naomasa?" All Might called into the radio.

"Yes?" His friend said a bit testily. No doubt Endeavor was less than impressed with their findings.

"Are there any cameras on the balcony level?" He asked.

Mitei Chui's apartment was like many in Japan. It was accessed from a walkway balcony that held the door and a window.

"Yes," the Detective told him.

"Are there any recordings?"

That was enough for Naomasa to get the gist of what he was suggesting. With the empty apartment then they needed to be sure that Izuku had been here, and recordings were the only way. "They are in the Ground Floor server room," came the reply.

"I'll check them," Yagi said as he strode out. He'd been waiting, holding back but there was no need to wait any further since Izuku was not here and even if, for some reason, he was returning, then he wouldn't get close. There were simply too many people involved in the operation.

He made it to the room in good time and found it secured by a Police Officer. He nodded to the woman who was giving him an awed gaze. While it was odd to have the gaze directed to his skinny form it was familiar enough that he could work with it. And it was useful to get doors open, such as now.

All Might went into the server room. It was a misnomer to call it that. There was no real server here but it was what they called it. Instead, there was a simple guard set up, with some screens. Mostly the room was filled with recording devices. The Number One Hero saw instantly that there were only limited records kept here. He sighed. He had no idea why people still did that. Offsite, online storage was just as cheap and could handle so much more records…

But they were soon enough that the records they needed would be here. And, Toshinori ran a cursory eye over the facility. It seemed simple enough. He called up the records for Izuku's floor and cast his mind to a time when he knew Izuku should have been on the balcony. The morning the Uraraka girl was expelled. Was it really just yesterday?

The time stamp was a bit imprecise but he didn't need to watch the recording in real time. Yagi told it to go at three times speed. He should be able to see if someone appeared and then slow down. Tokage had said… what time had she said? Ah yes… 0655… so it had to be sometime around then.

Just as he was about to hone in on the time, All Might heard Endeavor's growl. The Number Two Hero came to stand next to him, staring at the little screen. While Yagi wasn't in his buff form, Endeavor's presence made the small room feel overly full and he knew, that there were things Enji wanted to say to him. He was actually mildly impressed at the man's restraint. He usually just said what he wanted. It was one of his good traits in that people knew where they stood with Endeavor.

A flash of movement from the screen caught their eyes and Toshinori slowed the image before backing it up. It was Mitei, emerging from his apartment. So he did live… or at least use this apartment for commuting. He had his UA uniform on and after locking the door walked confidently along the patio.

Enji snarled. "That's doctored," he spat, gesturing towards the image.

Yagi backed it up and watched again, focusing on the usual weak points and true enough around Izuku there was a faint haze. "Yes. That's not his quirk."

"Forensics!" Endeavor at least turned towards the door before he yelled. The team, or at least someone from the team came running. "That is adulterated. Fix it," he demanded, pointing vaguely towards the screen.

Toshinori gave the woman a smile. Tsukauchi claimed that his smile on his skinny form was more like a rictus but it was all he could do to calm the woman who was obviously tense. "What is your name?"

She gulped but then looked determined. "Kagaku Sousa," she gave him the reply.

He nodded, waving off Enji's frustration. Yes, his son was currently quirkless, but otherwise fine. And doing this the gentle way would get more answers faster. Force was not always the answer.

"Well, Kagaku, this image has been altered. We'd appreciate it if you could tell us all the usual details," Yagi said softly. He recognised the little symbol on her lapel. Kagaku was exactly the forensics team member they needed. She was a digital specialist. She was probably so close because there had been nothing in the apartment except for the light timer! But that would have taken no time to figure out and the rest were now sweeping the small rooms for anything that could be of use.

"Of course, All Might," she replied, stepping forward to the machines. She gave them a hasty look, before pulling out a small device from the satchell she carried. It was quickly plugged in and unfolded turning into a small laptop computer. Then Kagaku's fingers seemed to fly over the keys. The image on the little screen froze and rewound and she looked up at it, tilting her head one way and then back as she examined it.

Toshinori had no idea what she was looking for and he was equally sure Endeavor didn't either but they both remained quiet.

Before she said anything, Kagaku looked back at the tiny screen of her laptop and she went through several windows looking for something. When she found it, it appeared to be nothing more than some lines of code. Her lips pursed as she read it.

"What is it?" Enji demanded.

"The image is altered," Kagaku confirmed for them. "But it appears to be an automatic cut and paste," she explained.

Yagi wasn't sure what to feel at that. It could mean a lot of things. Though, who would go to the trouble of setting up something like that for an apartment? That answer came easily enough. All For One. Except it didn't answer the question of if Izuku had even been here. The image of him could be pasted in from miles away.

"From where?" Enji growled the question before he could.

Kagaku leaned forward, staring at the code before she scrolled down a little further in it. "Ah!" She said and All Might knew the exclamation was to herself. "There it is," she murmured.

"There what is?"

She turned back to the two heroes. "The automatic lights were randomised, but they were also tied into door movement."

Enji did not look impressed at the statement. "Make sense! What door movement?"

Toshinori was more gentle with his nod. "If no one was living there, how was the door moving?" He phrased the question with a bit more background.

"Not that apartment's door movement," Kagaru said. "A different one."

"Where?" Endeavor tensed with his demand.

"That's what I'm trying to work out. Because it appears the footage cut and paste is from roughly the same location and it's…" She looked back to her screen and typed a few things in. The two heroes recognised several searches over the code. One showed up something.

A close look indicated she'd been searching for the word 'origin'. It was in english. A lot of code was in english since it was far simpler to code in those letters than Japanese Kanji.

Kagaru frowned as she looked at the code.

"What is it?"

"It's two floors down," she said. "At least that's where the link for lights is and… the video too," she added.

All Might felt cold as he realised what All For One had done. It was a very, very simple deception. "Endeavor, wait!" He yelled as the Number Two Hero stormed out.

"For you to be too slow again?" Enji snarled. "For you to stand there while the brat gets away again? I don't think so."

It was obvious that the Flame Hero would have said more but he was already shouting at the police to get ready to raid the other apartment. Except… Yagi could feel it. Izuku wasn't here. If he was, he'd gotten away at the first sign of the raid. He wasn't stupid.

"Which apartment?" he asked Kagaru for confirmation. The woman looked worried.

"The exact same one, but two floors down," she told him again. "The lights come on when they are on in that apartment and off when they are not."

"And the walkway?" That was the bit that had shown them the image had been changed.

"It's a cut and paste. It's done okay. A quick look or someone who doesn't know what to look for would just think the image is bad," she explained. "It takes the image from two floors down, and puts it into this floor, so that it seems whoever is living in that other apartment is actually living there." Again Kagaru gulped. She was on the team here so she knew they were trying to catch a villain. The briefing hadn't been perfect. It had glossed over several points but she knew, if both the Number One and Two heroes were present then that villain was dangerous.

"Thank you," Toshinori said before he turned away.

"I'll collect the evidence," she said.

"Please," All Might agreed before he strode towards the cluster of Police who didn't seem to know what to do. "Naomasa," he called into his radio.

"Yes."

"Two floors down," he said. "Izuku lived two floors down. The lights are tied into that apartment."

It only took his friend a moment to realise what he was being told. "On our way!"

Yagi was grateful that Tsukauchi didn't complain that they didn't have a warrant for that apartment. They had a warrant for Mitei Chui's apartment… It was… Why had All For One set up such a simple deception. No one had needed to check on Mitei during the year, so his apartment address hadn't been confirmed. It had been confirmed as being real but not as the actual place of residence. So the double apartment…

Had All For One expected them to find his son sooner and set up the deception? The time it took for them to find the real apartment would have given Izuku time to get away, even if he wasn't already running. And-

There was a crash from the apartment building. All Might grimaced. That was probably Endeavor breaking the door down.

"We're in," Naomasa confirmed a moment later.

Toshinori bit his lip as he waited for news. The certainty that he felt that Izuku was not here waned but he knew there'd be more noise if he was but emotions didn't listen to logic.

"No one here but-"

"But what?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice reasonable.

"He has been here," Tsukauchi told him. "Or at least, someone lives here," the Detective corrected.

He needn't have bothered. All Might knew it would be Izuku's apartment. "Are there any signs he's been there recently?" he asked.

"The water in the kettle's not hot," his friend replied, which was enough to Yagi to know Izuku hadn't been there when they'd made the earlier raid.

"Get a reader in." Toshinori flinched at the acid lacing Endeavor's tone through the radio. The man was angry and… The Number Two hero had a right to be angry but even so, Toshinori hoped he found Izuku first. He had a feeling if anyone else did, it wouldn't go well. But… He grimaced. It wasn't likely to go well anyway.

"Where is the brat?" Endeavor growled through the radio before Naomasa cut off the line.

All Might sighed and swept his hair back as he looked up at the apartment. It was easy to see now which one it was by the movement around it. The regular residents would be talking for weeks about this and…

He had a feeling that they needed to capture Izuku sooner, rather than later. Or… Yagi didn't want to think it but he knew what he was feeling. If they didn't capture the boy on the sooner side, then Izuku would be the second coming of his Father and the world… he couldn't survive that.

-ted-

Way back in Chapter 8 of Emergence AFO set up this little deception. He was thinking that Izuku would be at home when the heroes came and need the little bit of time but the deception is still good, though ultimately unnecessary. Izuku isn't going back home. Not now. Not for a while.

He'll have to make a new home.

And the heroes... They'll keep searching.

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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