06/06/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 76 - Official Bribery

Hitoshi sat in Mei's lab at lunchtime. It was just the two of them now and their free time was spent more in silence than conversation. He'd offered to go somewhere else but Mei had said it was okay for him to come and… He didn't really have anywhere else to go but the silence highlighted the fact that they had both been Izuku's friend, not each others.

They'd been working on becoming each other's friend but that took time and it was far easier when Izuku was here. Now that he wasn't…

He sighed and then spotted a package of papers under a collection of random bits that hadn't been there yesterday.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing towards it.

"Wah's wha?" Mei asked, poking her head around from what she was working on. Her voice wasn't just muffled from the object but because she was nibbling on the corner of a dry biscuit.

"What's that?" Hitoshi asked again, reaching out to tap the packet of papers. He knew better than to try to pick it up. Mei would have a cat if he disturbed any of the gizmos and bits and bobs that were on it.

"Oh that," she said, and ducked back to what she was doing. "That's just an internship offer."

For a moment, Hitoshi wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. "Just an internship offer?" he murmured eventually, wincing at how incredulous he sounded.

"You didn't get one?"

"An internship?"

"Yah," Mei replied. He actually heard her put down something and then she reappeared from behind whatever it was she was working on. Her green-yellow eyes speared into him as she looked him over.

"Why would I get an internship offer?" Hitoshi asked.

"Not that," Mei dismissed his question, waving one hand. "A bribe," she clarified.

He immediately knew what she was talking about. Hitoshi didn't think he'd changed expression but from the way Mei's face altered, he'd given himself away somehow.

"You did," she made the statement.

Hitoshi heaved a deep breath. "Yeah, I did," he admitted, knowing it was pointless trying to deny it. If it had been Ochaco or Izuku he probably would have gotten away with saying nothing. Mei seemed to know him… well, not better than they did, because she didn't, but she was a lot more direct with questions.

"What did they offer?"

"A place in the Heroic's course," he told her. Now that he'd said it, he was curious about something himself. Why had Mei called it a bribe? Was she really still loyal to Izuku?

"Oh ho!" Mei exclaimed. "Pulling out the big guns."

"Who's your internship with?" He asked, curious to find out how big the guns really were.

"Kunshu," she replied.

He felt his eyes widen. "They're-"

"Yeah," Mei agreed with the incomplete sentence. Kunshu were the biggest supplier of support equipment to the hero industry, bar none. There were some, smaller specialised companies that had contracts with individual heroes but on the whole Kunshu just made contracts with heroes and made sure they kept them happy. For someone like Mei, who would be going into support, the type of contacts an internship with Kunshu would get her could make her company. Or would make her one of Kunshu's 'must keep' employees. He'd heard rumours of what they'd do for them! "Who made the offer to you?" she asked.

She should already know. He'd told them he had a work experience place. "Eraserhead," he said.

Mei came over and sat at her desk. It was the one that held the plans for her babies. She spun around in her chair. "They are being kind of heavy handed, don't you think?"

"A bit," Hitoshi said.

"But you are tempted?" Mei continued with a grin as if could read his mind.

Hitoshi sighed but before he admitted it he gave her a pointed look. "Aren't you?" he challenged.

She looked a bit chagrined but then sighed. "A bit," she repeated his earlier answer. "But-" Mei shook her head. "It's just too obvious and I don't know what they'd expect as payment."

Hitoshi hooked a chair for himself and sat down, leaning back. He'd told Izuku he'd still be his friend, no matter what happened and he meant it but as far as he knew, Mei had never made such a promise. But she had a great relationship with Izuku. "Let's look at it a different way," he suggested. "Since they've been so good to offer such a good bribe," he added.

Mei snorted but from the corner of his eye he saw her nod. The statement made Hitoshi realise he wasn't sure they were talking about the same 'they' and he'd have to then clarify that with her.

"Would taking the offer really hurt Izuku?" he asked and then wondered if he really should have asked so openly. He was in UA, and while Mei was a friend, they could have bugged her workshop.

"I have a baby for protection," she answered an unspoken question. "Why do you think I can joke about it here?"

"Fair," he allowed. He should have picked up on that earlier. Though he had another thought. Was Mei saying that to catch him in a lie?

He hated this!

"There's also another consideration," Mei mused. "What do I know about Izuku that could possibly hurt him now?"

Hitoshi frowned. "What do you mean?" She sounded actually resentful.

Green-gold eyes glared at him. "How well did I really know Izuku?" Mei demanded. "Oh sure, I knew he had quirk facets but only 'cos that was the lie to cover up his real quirk! I knew his dad was injured, but he left out the little fact his dad is a villain strong enough to fight All Might even injured! I knew he had contacts! But I had no idea those contacts were villains!"

"Do you think I knew any of that?" Hitoshi asked pointedly. He didn't need to tell Mei that he had been Izuku's friend for longer. "I've even met his father on several occasions! Izuku always said his dad was a businessman 'cos it's not like there was any good time for him to say 'Oh, by the way, my dad's a super-villain'," Hitoshi said it in a high pitched voice.

That drew a reluctant chuckle from Mei as she acknowledged the truth of that statement. They'd discussed this the other day, at that cafe. It seriously wasn't the socially acceptable thing for Izuku to admit his father's real occupation.

"You do know Izuku," Hitoshi told her.

"What do you mean?"

"You know Izuku," he repeated. "We may not have known about his dad, or that, but Izuku is Izuku. He made his desires, thoughts and all that clear with us."

Mei nodded at that. No doubt she'd have conversations with Izuku about heroes, society and other topics over the years. Hitoshi didn't know how much the two of them had talked but he knew they'd kept in contact with each other via text.

"I just don't like the fact that this has been offered to us. It's too-"

"Obvious?" Hitoshi supplied the possible word.

"It is blatant," she agreed. "Why now? Why us?"

He'd wondered the same thing. Ochaco was known as Izuku's friend and had been expelled. She was called a villain lover online. He'd seen the posts. There were lots of them. Some of those posts were calling for Izuku's entire class to be expelled, for all his friends to be expelled. They were idiots! If they did that, then they were just perpetuating villainy. Fortunately, his teachers, and others appeared to know that. But it did mean there was really only one reason they'd been offered the positions. "Because they don't want to lose information sources," he said. "Momo's dad said that if Izuku gave the quirks back he'd overlook what he'd done. I'm willing to bet if Izuku said he wanted Ochaco reinstated, Momo's dad would move heaven and earth to make it happen. I'm also willing to say that I bet the HPSC would consider it. But it's not going to happen. Izuku won't do that."

"He won't?" Mei asked for confirmation.

"If he thought he could do it without arrest he might but I doubt it," Hitoshi said. "Not with everything else that happened," he clarified.

Mei nodded at that.

"So, I think they've done this to keep us onside and to ensure they have a source of information on Izuku. Ochaco has absolutely no reason to tell them anything but-"

"If we take this, we'll have to spill the beans?" Mei used the old expression.

"Yeah but what do we know? Really?" Hitoshi countered reasonably.

At that, Mei's expression indicated she knew what he meant. They could describe Izuku, they could guess what he would do but they had no practical information about his real quirk or his likely actions as a villain. Oh, sure they could say he wanted to destroy Hero Society but they had no idea how he'd go about that. Hitoshi had thought about what he knew and on a specific like that, he just didn't know anything valuable.

"There is an alternative," he told Mei drily.

"Oh?"

"They could be doing it so we are hostages," he suggested.

It was a possibility but the HPSC would have to then arrange for them to be punished for Izuku's actions and while he was sure they could do that, he was equally sure that the general public wouldn't approve. And while he may not know how Izuku would go about taking down Hero society, HItoshi knew that the public would have to lose faith and… He didn't want to be a hostage. He didn't want to be punished for something he didn't do but if he was, and if that helped Izuku then… He was just masochistic enough to accept it. And that was mostly because he knew Izuku's vengeance would be spectacular.

"It could also be a way to make us shut up," Mei speculated.

Hitoshi nodded. It could be. "Are you going to take it?" he asked.

"No fair. I was going to ask you," she pouted before sighing. "I think so," Mei said. "If I want to make Mie into a good company, I'm going to need those contacts. You?"

"I think so too," Hitoshi said. "But I'm just not going to accept everything."

"Revolutionary?" Mei asked, using the word Ochaco used to describe the hero she planned to be.

"The only way," Hitoshi grinned, holding up one hand.

Mei chuckled, and slapped her hand against his. "Revolutionary!"

-ted-

While they were looking for Kurogiri, Himiko was actually skipping down the few corridors here. They were in a warehouse and sure it was quite a large one but you'd think it would be easy to find one man but the warp gate was very good at being discreet. He might even have gone to see the Doctor.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Himiko chuckled happily. "But… Izu?" There was a worried note in her voice that caused him to turn to her.

"Hmm?" She actually looked concerned.

Before he could say anything more, Himiko flicked one of her hands, and a knife appeared in it. Izuku stared at it, dumbly. Where had that come from? The sleeves of her uniform were intact and… where was she keeping that?

She giggled at his dumbfounded expression. "Before we can go we have to get you the right equipment!"

"Equipment?" What did she mean?

Himiko spun her knife around one finger. "What tools do you want to use to do this? I'm happy to loan you my knives but you'll work better with your own tools!" She told him with a smile.

"Oh!" That made a kind of gruesome sense.

"Or do you want to use a sabre clip, or a spear point? A khukuri? I'm pretty sure we can get a karambit too if you want. Or… oh I like long clips but they don't fit under my uniform. You could totally use them though!" Himiko listed a variety of weapons.

Izuku frowned slightly as he thought about the list she'd given. He didn't recognise all the names but given that it was Himiko, it was pretty obvious what she was talking about. "Aren't they all knives?" He asked.

She grinned at him before her expression clouded. "You don't want to use a gun, do you?" Himiko sounded faintly disappointed at the question.

Izuku shook his head, wanting to reassure her. "Definitely not! I just thought I could use my natural gifts."

Her yellow eyes widened and she actually shivered at the thought. "It will be messier," Himiko cautioned, "and it's harder than you think to bite through skin."

Izuku shook his head and held up one hand, allowing the claws he got from Poison Fang to form on his fingertips. He didn't say anything but watched as Himiko's eyes widened. He saw her focus shift from his claws to his face and then back to his claws.

Then she pouted. "That is so not fair!" Himiko complained, spinning her knife around her finger before it disappeared. He still didn't know where it was stored!

Izuku let his claws fade and Himiko's expression changed again. She grabbed his hand, holding up his fingers. "Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked seriously, as she rubbed his now clawless fingertips.

He frowned gently. "What do you mean?"

"It's very personal," Himiko told him. "I mean, really personal. For your first time… you might not want to be that close."

Izuku blinked and for a moment didn't understand what she was talking about, and then he realised. "I would have thought you'd like me being that close."

She gave him a pointed look. "I said I'd teach you," Himiko told him seriously. "So I gotta consider everything. You may not want to be that close on the first time. It's-" she sighed. "I know you can do this Izu, it's just there's no need to make it more difficult the first few times. That will just make it harder in the long run. So if that means a bit of distance at first, then that is the best way to learn."

That made a sort of sense. You didn't learn anything by taking on the hardest problems first. You worked your way through easier problems, working your way up to the hard issues. "I did kind of jump in the deep end immediately, didn't I?" he murmured, recalling Tomura. He hadn't used claws but he had used a quirk. And if he'd used a knife, maybe he could have thrown away the knife in a symbolic way to distance himself from what he'd done.

Himiko nodded at his statement.

"I'll see if Kurogiri can get me something," Izuku allowed. "But I'll also see how I feel when I see her." The thought of her brought his anger back. "I don't want to- If she did do what I think she did, I won't care how hard it is," he proclaimed.

"You really hate her, don't you?" Himiko said.

Izuku sighed. "It's an old hate," he explained. "You saw my dad, and the mask he was wearing?" It was a silly question. The entire world had seen his dad and the mask.

Himiko nodded anyway.

"She's one of the reasons, probably the key reason my dad is like that."

"How?" Himiko demanded. "Is she super strong or-" she didn't finish but Izuku knew what she was concerned about.

"Oh, nothing like that. You know her. Mrs Shuyona," he told Himiko.

It took her a few moments to remember who he was talking about and Izuku watched as her expression changed.

"Our Elementary School Principal?" There was a note of incredulity in her voice. He knew what she was questioning. How could she have possibly hurt his dad? Or even lead to his dad being hurt!

"Remember I was pretending to be quirkless," Izuku explained. "She has a grudge against quirkless people. She kept putting marks on my record and even after I'd left she did that. The Heroes used that information to find Dad and All Might-" He didn't continue. He didn't have to. Himiko was intelligent. She could connect the dots. The Heroes had found his Dad and All Might had injured him badly.

"That's why I have to check that it really was her," he added. "Kurogiri should know. And if it was her, then-" he didn't say more, but clenched his fists and trembled slightly.

Himiko reached out and put one hand on his shoulder. She was surprisingly warm. "Let's keep looking! And I hope it was her!" she giggled. "I wanna see you covered in blood!"

Izuku gave Himiko a smile. He didn't really want that but… if it really was Shuyona who had led the Heroes to his Dad, and he thought it was, then she had a lot to answer for.

This should be an easy lesson.

-ted-

Hitoshi and Mei have been bribed but the Commission might be a bit late with their peace offering there. Izuku has made his pitch to Mei and AFO already dictated Hitoshi's future but still... who are they to say no to such nice contacts?

And Himiko as you can see, is going to take her teaching role seriously. Targets, equipment, feelings... she'll cover it all to make sure Izuku is the best of the best.

Izuku has such good friends.

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!