06/05/2023
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you are the greatest!
The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 70 - Bribery
Commissioner Kouki Sozo forced himself to take several deep breaths. As he breathed he flexed his fingers. He was a career public servant. He'd learned various exercises to keep his temper in check and to work through his anger. He never got rid of all of it, just enough to ensure he wasn't making stupid decisions. No matter what the public believed, stupid public servants did not get to be Commissioners.
Equally, Commissioners who presided over public scandal did not remain Commissioners for long.
The loss of six quirks could have been covered up and ignored if it was simply six random people. But the loss of six hero student quirks… six who were relatively well known, that was not going to be something the public let go. The Commission could have controlled the situation but then the Yaoyorozu's had gone and exploded the situation. Their press conference…
Sozo resisted the urge to groan. He understood that they wanted their daughter's quirk back but they should have cleared their press conference with the Commission. The Commission would have denied it, of course, but they could have then worked to capture this new villain. Now the Commission's resources were split. They were dealing with the public fiasco that the Yaoyorozu's Press Conference had caused, as well as gathering what information they could about the villain.
"The Principal is here to see you," his assistant said.
Kouki nodded and sat back in his chair as his assistant showed Principal Nezu in.
The rat gave him a measuring look as he entered but Sozo was a career public servant, he knew how to keep his expression bland. He knew the rat would take the expression as a challenge but he was not about to give away any information he didn't have to. The Principals of the Hero schools always thought they were more important than they really were.
"Commissioner," Nezu greeted him as he took a seat. The rat looked rather small in the chair but Kouki ignored that. He couldn't afford to be distracted.
"What happened?" He asked, not bothering with pleasantries.
"With what?" Nezu asked.
Sozo gave him a look. He had no time to play games with the Principal.
It appeared that Nezu smiled at him but it was hard to tell. The rat knew what the stakes were. "You expected us to know we had a student who could take quirks?" Nezu asked.
"Yes," he managed not to shout the answer.
The rat looked at him. "I did warn you not to make precipitous decisions," he had the gall to say. "If you'd given us more time to investigate, we would have known that Mitei Chui, was actually Izuku Midoriya, Hisashi Riji's son."
"You had him enrolled and you didn't know," Sozo pointed out. "More time was hardly necessary," he added. The only way they'd figured it out was when the boy acted.
"In light of previous events, we were conducting reviews on all students," Nezu said, sounding entirely too reasonable. "We had not yet reached the Management students, though when we had, the anomalies with his enrollment would have become clear."
"No," the Commissioner said firmly. "This is not the Commission's fault."
The rat didn't answer immediately but it was obvious he was thinking. "The taking of the quirks is directly Mitei Chui's fault, but he was enrolled without doing anything and in his own words, the trigger for taking them was your direct cause."
"The Commission has made no move against him," Sozo refuted the Principal's statement.
"But you did against his friend," Nezu said. The rat was smart enough not to sound triumphant.
It took Sozo a moment to put things together. "That girl?"
The rat nodded.
"She's a no one," the Commissioner dismissed her.
"She is his friend," Nezu countered. "There are a number of things going on that we do not completely understand but are now in a position to make assessments," the Principal continued.
Sozo made a gesture to indicate that the Principal should continue. While this fiasco was UA's fault, there may be information which would help them all come out of this. And public servants who didn't know the facts were often blindsided by something.
"We were somewhat suspicious of Mitei Chui," the rat told him, "enough to have someone watching him."
"From when?" the Commissioner demanded, ignoring the fact that they had been watching Chui, though he did note it. There would be no way that particular operation was legal but no doubt the Principal would have some justification for it or some legal loophole. Even so, if needs be, he could use the action as a distraction.
"From just after the All For One incident," Nezu said breezily. "He met with the girl the morning she was expelled," the Principal continued, "and then he came to UA as usual, though he did not go to class. Instead, he wrote challenge notes to the group."
"Group?"
"The two kidnappees, and those who went to rescue them. UA knew about the challenge, of course. We were curious as to what he would do. Mitei did, after all, get through to the last round of the Sports Festival before pulling out but he had made claims to All Might that he'd win if he had fought."
That was new information. "All Might has had interactions with him?"
"Toshinori is a teacher," Nezu replied. By that, Sozo understood that the interactions were simply those between a teacher and student but it was something for him to note.
"Did the challenge notes provide any clues?"
That was a dangerous question and Nezu knew it. If there were any clues to Mitei's true identity then UA should have acted to prevent the battle. "We only had one challenge note before the fight," Nezu replied seriously.
Sozo knew better than to show any disappointment at that statement.
"It was the one to Kaminari," Nezu continued. "It was designed to provoke him. All of the notes were and we saw what happened."
"We have. Though, why weren't the other two there?"
"Shoji believed it to be a waste of his time and Honenuki had an appointment with his mentor," Nezu explained.
It appeared the Principal had an answer for anything except…
"Challenges are against UA policy," Sozo pointed out. "Why did you let them go ahead?" He didn't need to add that if they were suspicious of Mitei before that, then it was dangerous.
"We were ready to interfere," Nezu indicated but Sozo could hear that things hadn't quite gone as expected. He didn't push. He knew the Principal would lay out UA's reasons if he just waited. While Nezu was very intelligent, there were ways in which he was predictable. The desire to explain, while not something that could be relied on, was not non-existent. "The students arrived early. All Might did confront Mitei after the fight," he elaborated.
"And that's when he said he only did it because the girl was expelled," Sozo made the connection.
Nezu nodded.
The Commissioner waved one hand. "He's a villain," he stated coldly. "His Father is a villain and he has now revealed his true face. The expulsion of the girl is just an excuse."
"He has been attending UA for months without any sign that he would take quirks. He had no particular interest in those quirks either," Nezu countered. No doubt the rat could show examples of that. "All Might also reported after the battle that All For One was distracted. He made several statements which, in hindsight, are clear references to his son. All For One claimed that he wanted to give his son a choice. Interestingly Mitei indicated he was going to remain in school."
"They are both villains," Sozo said. How many times did he have to say it? Villains could not be trusted.
"Villains do not always lie," Nezu said and it was little comfort that the rat did not seem to like that statement.
"They do when it suits them," the Commissioner pointed out. Villains did not always lie but they were not exactly known for being trustworthy. That's why they were villains.
"The fact that he will claim that will play well for the media," came the retort. "Especially when there is very little reason to have expelled his friend." There wasn't an accusation there, but Sozo heard it anyway.
He wasn't concerned about that. It could be shown that the girl was a known villain collaborator, and at the very least a sympathiser and therefore had no place in a hero course. The only argument there was that they should have demoted her to the General Studies course to show her the error of her ways.
"Did you know the Yaoyorozu's were going to make that announcement?" Sozo asked pointedly. Nezu knew the true question. Did he tell them that was their only choice?
"I suspected they would," the Principal replied.
That was the problem with Nezu. He always had an answer and that answer was never bad for him.
"The Commission has taken no action to find Mitei," the Principal continued.
"It's barely three days since it happened!" Sozo growled.
"Ah," Nezu definitely gave him a smile with that murmur. "Perhaps I should rephrase. The Commission has not been seen to be doing anything to find Mitei Chui," he observed.
Sozo knew that was a dig at him and the Commission. He'd insisted that Nezu expel the girl because they had to be seen to be doing something. He still thought that. The fact that Nezu was claiming the Commission was doing nothing, and that the Yaoyorozu's thought that… "They are well aware of our efforts," he rebutted Nezu's statement.
"And are those actions close to finding him?" The rat pressed.
The Principal probably knew the answer better than Sozo. They had no idea where Mitei Chui or Izuku Midoriya had disappeared. "He has his Father's resources now," Sozo mused, saying nothing that Nezu wasn't already aware of. "It will take time to track him down."
"Ah," Nezu murmured. The noise was enough to express his belief that the Commission would not find anything.
"Of course, UA will be assisting the Commission with our efforts," Sozo indicated.
Nezu said nothing, just flicked one of his ears to indicate that he was curious.
"Of course you will. I do not like offering a villain sympathiser anything but if the girl can lead us to Mitei, then offer to rescind her expulsion," Sozo instructed.
Nezu's black eyes glared at him. "No," the rat said. "I am prepared to do that, but it will be clear that she was expelled upon your orders and it will be rescinded on your orders."
Sozo thought about that. It wouldn't be too bad if they could keep it quiet but there was no way to do it now, not with the Yoayorozu's very public plea. "You don't think she'd give up Mitei?" he asked instead.
"I do not believe so," Nezu told him. "Izuku took the quirks on her behalf. He has made himself a public villain. I doubt she'd be willing to betray him for a mere reinstatement of her position."
"That would be the neatest solution but if we can't do that, we will have to go with the alternatives," Sozo said. He also admitted to himself privately that it was entirely possible that she wouldn't know where Mitei was and the rat would be contrary enough to rescind the expulsion without checking and then blame the Commission for the fall out.
"Alternatives?"
"Mitei's other friends," Sozo said. "He has them, I presume?" He vaguely remembered reading a note about the Sport's Festival recently and how Mitei had only entered to make sure his friends got through to the final round.
At Nezu's nod he continued. "He's young. He will want to talk to them sooner rather than later. Make sure they are loyal to us! Who are they?"
The rat didn't seem pleased with the idea but he hadn't objected yet. "One is in General Studies and one is in the Support course," he gave the information.
"That seems unusual," the Commissioner observed. Most students tended to stick to friendship groups in their own course.
"Izuku is not a normal student," the Principal said.
"Perhaps, but his friends can still be useful to us. Get the General Studies kid into Heroics. He did well at the Sport's Festival yes?"
"Reasonably well," Nezu admitted.
"And find someone to take the Support Student on as an intern."
"It's early!"
That was true. Heroic's students sometimes took internships in their first year, but it was far more common for them to start in second year. It was more common for all of the courses to take an internship in their second or third year.
"You'll find someone, I'm sure," Sozu dismissed the objection. Let Nezu use his political capital to get the student a place. "Just make sure his friends know that staying with the system is far more beneficial than some ill conceived attempt at villainy."
Sozo sighed. He was still angry at the Yaoyorozu's but he felt that they might have a way forward now. "There's no chance he'll give back the quirks, is there?" He mused.
"Toshinori doesn't believe that will happen."
"He has no experience with Mitei."
"But he does with his Father," Nezu retorted.
Sozo nodded his acceptance of that. "We need him caught soon," he said unnecessarily.
"Daiki wasn't entirely incorrect," Nezu pointed out. "All that Izuku has done at the moment is use his quirk."
"To steal other quirks!" Sozo reminded him.
"Let's ignore that for the moment, after all, Kaminari used his quirk too," Nezu said. "If we ignore what the quirk does, then that's all he has done and if he gives them back then… there's really no harm done."
"Except the public now knows it's possible."
"That's not his fault," Nezu mused. "And in some ways, it would be a victory over his Father if he was to -"
"He won't be a hero," Sozo said firmly.
"I don't think he wants to," Nezu allowed, "but even if he's a manager, then that will be a victory over his Father."
Sozo shook his head. "Given his current actions, I don't see how that is possible." He didn't know everything about this Mitei, but it seemed as if the child was- He clung to notions of fairness and… Heroes were expected to be fair, they were expected to say all the right things but they knew what 'fair' meant. The smart ones did anyway. Fair meant ensuring that Heroes were seen as good. Fair meant ensuring that people didn't think otherwise, that they thought nothing of villains, except to tsk at how bad they were. That was fair. Except this Mitei had the child's view that fair meant some fairy tale. There was always favoritism. It was a fact of humanity.
"It would be desirable," Nezu pressed.
The Commissioner wondered why the Principal was so insistent on this. "The Commission isn't going to kill Mitei," he announced. "As you say, he has used his quirk, which is something that happens every day. But he used his quirk to assault others, and to steal from them, so some punishment must be given, or everyone will think that they can use their quirks without consequence." Sozo would privately admit he hadn't really thought about Mitei that much but he'd spoken to his predecessor Commissioner Soukan Haruta, who was very interested in the case. Haruta had suggested several practical solutions to the problem Mitei represented and had pointed out that the public wouldn't care what happened to the teen so long as he didn't keep stealing quirks. Or at least, so long as he didn't keep stealing quirks from heroes. The Commission could use him to take quirks from villains, and then hand them on to others. That would be the best outcome. Then they could-
There were lots of options.
So no, they weren't going to kill Mitei. That would be such a waste but they did have to control him.
The Principal nodded. "It's possibly too little, too late, but I will be giving suspensions to the group who went to rescue their friends."
"On top of having their quirks stolen?"
"The suspensions will not be long," Nezu allowed.
Sozo nodded. "Whatever it takes to keep his friends onside," he murmured. He had a feeling that no matter how hard the Commission tried to catch this one, they would fail, unless they could get someone… He'd accept a Judas, but a Brutus would be better.
It would all depend on the opportunity and the Commission would have to create that.
One way, or another.
-ted-
It's a good thing that Mei, Hitoshi and Ochaco are aware that anything offered will be poisoned in some way. And a suspension is hardly going to cut it... Infact most people won't notice it. If they want to 'catch' Izuku, then they are going to have to do the one thing they don't want to - change the system. If they do that, they admit he's right but if they don't... those who are loyal to him will remain loyal and those who support the system will continue to support it and the stalemate that is the carefully balanced world of heroes versus villains will continue... at least until one side manages to get a new weapon. The villains have that - Izuku - but he's still not quite aware of what he represents. He'll become aware of it, and then he has to decide where best to aim himself :D
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!