01/07/2023

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 83 - Don't Wake The Dragon

It had been a while since Giran had seen Izuku and the changes in the teen were startling. Sitting across from him was Dragon, not Izuku. He might look young but his eyes were hard and he felt like an experienced villain. Giran dealt with lots of them. There were a couple of different types. Those who had skill but no confidence. Those who had skill but no intelligence. Those without skill but the ability to bluff. Those without skill but strength. There were lots of combinations and in the right situation all could be successful.

The dangerous ones though, the truly dangerous ones were those who had skill, intelligence, strength and the will to use all of it.

Sitting across from him was one of the dangerous ones. Izuku knew his quirk was strong and he knew how to use it. He didn't just use it in a petty way either like so many did. He was also intelligent and the air of innocence about him was gone.

He was dressed plainly but Giran could see that the clothing was of high quality. Black pants and a black shirt were simple enough and he had a pair of red sneakers on. Kurogiri stood in the corner watching everything carefully.

"I want them," Izuku told him.

Giran nodded. "My agent's are looking," he assured him before shaking his head slightly. "It's a little bit different from those who attacked Katsuki."

At that, Izuku actually cracked a smile but it was short lived. "How?" he demanded.

"Those who attacked Katsuki were part of the broker Tsuku's stable."

"Stable?" Izuku asked.

The questions made it clear how much Izuku still had to learn about villain society. He had the quirk, he had the power and the cash and contacts but he lacked some of the basic information. Kurogiri would help with that, so would the others, if they stayed with him now that Tomura was dead.

"Remember when you were training to use your quirk?" Giran asked.

Izuku nodded.

"I recruited those people. They formed part of my stable of contacts," he explained. "Tsuku is a broker who specialises in providing muscle for jobs, so he keeps a lot of contacts. Some of them have really identifiable quirks and the Police could figure it out quickly. Plus Katsuki could tell them who attacked him," Giran added. "Your friend has not woken up to speak and-" He paused, unsure how Izuku would take the next words.

"And?" came the prompt.

"And I do not believe those who attacked are a part of our society."

Giran watched as Izuku thought. "I still want them," he answered. "And when I get them, I want you to spread the word that they went against Dragon."

"Did they?"

"Ochaco has one of my tokens," he told the broker.

"Ah," Giran understood what that meant. "I'll make sure people know."

Izuku nodded again before he leaned forward. "Tell anyone who can bring me the entire group, if they do so, they may ask a favour of Dragon," he instructed.

Giran felt his eyes widen slightly. "That's their payment?" he asked. For many that would be payment enough.

"No, I'll pay the bounty as well. That's only if they can bring me the entire group," Izuku clarified. "Now, for my own curiosity, is there any way to get Gatarui off? I understand he was only peripherally involved with Katsuki."

Giran was surprised. He didn't think Izuku knew the names of those who had attacked the other UA student. "Any decent lawyer could."

"And his own won't?"

Giran laughed. "Not likely."

"Get him a better one," Izuku instructed.

The broker frowned.

"He does not have a token," Izuku explained, "but I did go to Middle School with him."

That was interesting. "So spread it around that he's an associate."

"No!" Izuku laughed. "Nothing of the sort. Just tell him that his old friend Izuku wanted to see what he could do," he said.

Giran looked at him. At the moment Izuku had white hair and gold eyes. The words reminded him of his father. "You are your father's son," he murmured.

Izuku said nothing but Giran could see the question. "It's something he'd do," the broker explained.

That seemed to please Izuku but after a moment he shook his head. "Just make sure I'm the one who gets to Ochaco's attackers first," he said as he rose.

Giran nodded. "I'll get the medical reports as well."

"Good," Izuku said as he rose and turned to Kurogiri.

Before the teen left Giran looked at him again. "You're really going to keep their quirks?" he asked. There was no need to specify which quirks.

Izuku chuckled. It wasn't a pleasant noise and Giran was once again reminded that All For One had prepared the persona of Dragon for his son. The teen was stepping into it. "I might give back one," he announced. Interestingly, that appeared to be news to Kurogiri. "But it will be paid for," he added.

Giran laughed but before he could say anything further, Izuku had left and Kurogiri had disappeared, leaving him alone in his office.

Izuku had changed but… For his future career, that change was for the better.

All For One would be proud.

-ted-

Nishita Omimi sat in the corner of her apartment. She'd called in sick. She was sick and her hands trembled so much she was having trouble holding her tablet. When she'd posted about Bakugou and … how had it gone so wrong? Where had it gone so wrong?

She shivered as she typed a message to BS_Hater. It was really his fault! She had wanted the villain lover… No she hadn't wanted that. She'd just wanted the villain lover punished. Taken in by the Police for questioning. It's what should have happened! How was she to know that the villain lover was a friend of Dragon?

But she should have known. They should have known. The villain lover was… well a villain lover. Dragon was a villain. Except… Dragon wasn't just any villain. He was one of the most dangerous men in the underworld. To go against him was to die.

The rumour going around some of the more questionable sites she was on was that the villain lover did know Dragon. Was one of Dragon's… no one knew what to call them. But everyone in the underworld knew that the people who had a small green scale were under Dragon's protection.

It was an odd thing and Nishita didn't really understand it. Dragon's people carried tokens, but there was also a rumour that at some crime scenes, Dragon's token had been found. The few people she'd spoken to said it was easy to understand. Anyone alive with a token was under his protection. Anyone dead had pissed him off.

Looking at it that way, it was simple but how did you know who had a scale?

That, her contact had laughed, was the trick because they turned up in the most unusual places.

Nishita forced herself to take a deep breath and looked at her hands. She willed them to steady as she typed. She decided to keep the message simple. There's a rumour going around that the villain lover had one of Dragon's scales.

She left it at that. Maybe he'd know something more. She thought that maybe BS_Hater was one of those opportunistic vigilantes. Not one who went out and deliberately looked for villains to fight, but one who would do so when the opportunity arose. He had some experience and…

She'd never meant for that to happen.

-ted-

Bokusen Shoko looked at the message. It was from the original thread poster. The one who had started the question about the villain lover. It appeared concerned.

Dragon's a myth, he wrote back, not even hesitating before he pressed send.

Dragon was a myth. A well constructed one but Dragon wasn't any individual. He'd been interested in the information when it had started really going through the underworld a few years back. There'd been hints that someone was moving but no one knew anything. And then there were rumours that there were those who had Dragon's favour, and if you went against them, Dragon came after you.

It was nice but it was a fantasy. It was something someone probably used to cover up their activities. Personally he thought Dragon might be a construct of one of the Yakuza clans. They could have pulled it off. After all, no one had ever seen Dragon, or anyone who worked directly for Dragon. They'd all supposedly seen the outcomes of crossing him.

It was simply too much innuendo for Dragon to be a real thing.

He's not. He's real. He put bounties on us! While it was only text, Bokusen could imagine the panic of the writer.

Where? He sent the reply, rolling his eyes. He was a vigilante. If there was a bounty on him, then he'd already know about it.

It took a while for a reply to come and in that time, Bokusen returned to his lunch and the time his work allowed for lunch was over. He put his phone away, resolving to look at the message later. It was probably just one of the fake sites that liked to harp on as if they had real information. Those sites were useful because they kept the pretenders from getting in the way but they were annoying when people believed them.

It was only later, when he got home and was preparing to go out again, in his other guise that he looked at the response.

Bokusen blinked. The response was just a link. No message. The link itself was the problem. It wasn't a trash site.

Shit. The thought flashed through his mind as he tapped the link. It took the page a moment to load but he was thankful he'd long ago set up his phone so that he didn't have to go through recognition every time.

The post was quite simple. He didn't know much about the account that had posted but that didn't matter. All Bokusen had to know about the account was that it had the little pips next to the avatar that signified it was a verified and trusted account. Whoever was behind it had similar posts and had filled the terms of those posts.

Bounty offered for the identities of those who attacked Ochaco Uraraka. The title line of the post proclaimed. The details were laid out in simple numbers.

1.5 million yen for each of the assailants

3 million yen for each of the leaders - BS_Hater and NOUA.

Bounty doubled for delivery.

Dragon's favour added for delivery of the lot.

He looked at the post.

Shit.

The bounty amount wasn't astronomically high or anything but it was enough that those with a passing interest would be looking into it. And if you were one of those people who believed Dragon was real then the last line…

Shit.

He knew Ochaco Uraraka was a villain lover, and as a villain lover, she obviously had connections to villains. That was all public knowledge but she was blacker than he'd believed. How the hell had she gotten into UA?

That was a question to post when there was more time. For now he had to think.

He didn't use the BS_Hater account much and he didn't post anything that would reveal him. NOAU did but she didn't know him. Not really. She'd just seen him in real life for the first time the other day, though she'd told everyone an alternate account name, he knew it was her. And the others who'd come at his call… Yeah, they didn't know him either.

So he wasn't going to be tracked down by any posts the account had made. Would he be tracked down by the IP? He usually posted while on his phone. And… Well, there went that phone. And for the times he'd posted while on his computer… He had been using protection there. He wasn't stupid. Villains weren't the only ones who liked to track you.

He couldn't be tracked from that account. But was there anyone in his other line of work who knew the name? No… he used different names on each forum. Some people didn't. They wanted the recognition but he wasn't interested in that. He just wanted the information.

Could they recognise him on camera as Edge Dart? He didn't see how. He hadn't been in costume though…

There was a chance they'd connect his quirk with his vigilante persona but in that case… Well, they'd still be at step one. They'd have to figure out who the vigilante Edge Dart was and they hadn't started making the connections.

If there was a bounty on him though, and on the others… then the Heroes would probably also be looking for him. They had probably already been looking. Ochaco Uraraka was a villain lover but they had to look into these things. Bokusen didn't hate them for that. It was their job but he also knew that they probably wouldn't be as efficient as they should be so… they'd have no more luck with finding hints to his identity as a bounty hunter.

He nodded to himself. It would be best if he abandoned that account but so be it. One account for a villain lover wasn't a bad trade.

-ted-

Detective Tanjiro was new to the task, that's why he'd been given this case. It involved a home invasion and a beating of a young woman. Evidence suggested quirk use but it was iffy enough that the higher ups had declared it wasn't a quirk. Evidence also suggested it had been the young lady versus about seven people. He gritted his teeth. She must have been so scared.

At least they hadn't…

They'd just beaten her but that was bad enough. He had this case, and not homicide because she was still alive, barely. She was in Mustafar General Hospital in a coma. There was some evidence to suggest she'd fought back, which was good for her but nothing he could tie to someone.

Her apartment building was too cheap to have camera security and while he'd gotten some footage from the road, all that showed was a group of black clad people approaching the building. Tanjiro knew that footage showed her attackers but he lacked the resources to track the footage back along the streets to get a shot of them. He'd already been told it would just be him on the case and while he could look at some footage, it was going to be a waste of his time if he couldn't find something. And since he didn't know the route the attackers had taken… He needed something to narrow down the possibilities.

And it wasn't like this was his only case. He had others but he wanted to do this one justice. No one should be attacked in their home and sure Tanjiro had heard the rumours that Ochaco was a villain lover but that didn't justify what had happened.

His email pinged. He felt his stomach clench. It was probably a new case, which would leave him even less time on this one. He thought about not looking at it immediately but the Lieutenant would know and then give him a look. The Lieutenant had a passive quirk that let him know when his officers put off things, even things like reading emails. If he hadn't heard the notification now, then he wouldn't be putting it off, but he had. With a sigh, Tanjiro clicked the program, and looked at the email. He felt his eyes widen when the subject line was Ochaco's case number.

That could either be good or bad. It could be more help or some more information. That would be good. Or it could be his notification that he was off the case. That would be bad.

There was nothing for it but to open the mail. He clicked and the screen bounced to the front.

Detective Tanjiro,

The agency has been assigned to assist in this case, as per the attached documentation.

He almost snorted reading that. He might be a new Detective but he knew what 'assigned' meant. It meant the agency would take over his case.

Please provide a summation of the case so that we might provide the appropriate resources.

Toshinori Yagi.

He blinked at the message. It was short, and the attached document had the right name. Tanjiro clicked it and flicked his eyes over it. One thing you got used to as a Policeperson was filling out paperwork. He could tell, almost instantly it had been filled out correctly.

A hero agency had been assigned… err agreed to take the case. He wondered why that had happened, and then he realised he didn't know which agency. He didn't know the name Toshinori Yagi but that didn't mean anything. There were a lot of people he didn't know. Tanjiro flicked his eyes to the email address.

Shit. He knew that address. All Might's agency.

What the hell was going on?

"Detective Tanjiro?"

The voice interrupted his shock and Tanjiro looked up. Another Detective stood there, with an escort of a uniformed officer.

"That's me," he said.

The other Detective smiled. "I'm Detective Tsukauchi," the man introduced himself. "I was sent to liaise on the Uraraka case."

On a normal day, Tanjiro would have put it together but today he was feeling a gamut of emotion and he just wasn't with it. "Liaise?" he asked stupidly.

"You got Toshinori's email?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Just then," he admitted.

"Then you know you have help coming," Tsukauchi said. "What do you need first?"

Tanjiro blinked. He'd just been thinking he didn't have the resources to truly work this case but… It was good that a hero agency was involved now because they brought more resources and he had a far better chance of finding out who had hurt the girl but…

All Might's agency did not just get involved with regular cases and that scared him.

What the hell was going on?

-ted-

Izuku has no idea how to find the people who attacked Ochaco, but he does have contacts who can find them, or at least help out. Giran to the rescue... err... is it rescue when it's to kill them? Oh well...

And the morons - some of them at least - are now aware of what is going on and are rightfully concerned. They pissed off the underworld boogie man and found out that he's a lot less boogie and a lot more man.

The Detective... well he might just survive what is going on given his attitude. He might technically be on the wrong side, but Izuku will appreciate that he does genuinely want to solve Ochaco's case. That sentiment will go a long way with Dragon.

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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