23/07/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 39 - The Truth Doesn't Change

Hitoshi had gotten a couple of odd looks when he'd joined Class 1X for their debrief from the scenario. Some of those looks turned into understanding when the student thought about it for a moment but others were still vaguely insulted. He wasn't overly surprised. Hitoshi hadn't needed Aizawa's warning that there would be a mixed reception when his apprenticeship was more widely known about and definitely when he began participating in class. Some of the General Studies students had been supportive, others had been wildly jealous and he had seen no reason why the Heroics students would be any different. The looks were telling him he was right. No matter what happened in the future, he could already tell that some of them would never believe he was a hero because he hadn't gone through what they saw as the 'only path'.

He listened as they went over the first team's performance. There wasn't much to say there. The villain team plan had been solid, with him the unexpected fly in the ointment. When someone complained that he shouldn't have been there, it was politely, but firmly pointed out that only about 1 in 100 hero operations ever went fully to plan. There was always something unexpected that went wrong, and if this had been a real operation, then there would have been more civilians around.

The whiner had shut up and the debrief had moved to the next team's actions. Hitoshi watched the video and saw the moment he made his move. He shook his head, telling himself again that if this had been real, he wouldn't have chosen then to do something. Even as a vigilante, at that point, the hero was confronting the villains and the hero's civilians were relatively safe. The only reason he'd gone for it was he had a score he had to maintain in the exercise.

"Why did you do that, dude?" One of the students laughed.

There was something about the tone that jarred Hitoshi. He cocked his head slightly and huffed. "Yeah, I don't have experience being a vigilante," he muttered.

It must have been louder than he thought because silence greeted him.

Shoji, Jiro, Jozu and Shouto were all staring at him. The rest of the students sensed something was up and were watching intently. Hitoshi glared back. He hadn't meant it that way… But he kind of had.

"Shinsou, enough!" Aizawa snapped.

Hitoshi huffed. "Yes, Sensei," he said. Bloody hell. He must have hit a nerve. "If the situation had been real, I would not have entered into it," he said to the students who were still watching, nodding to the one who had asked why he'd done it. He thought they were from Niryu High. "But I had goals I was meant to achieve as well," he added the explanation.

That seemed to do the trick and there were nods from the students, while Aizawa gave him a measured look. Inwardly Hitoshi sighed. They were still watching him but… He might not have meant it quite the way it sounded but it felt good to say it, because he knew what they were thinking and… they knew he had a point.

-ted-

With UA hosting students from multiple Hero High Schools, Lunch Rush was providing more than just lunch. Hitoshi glanced towards the cafeteria's kitchen. Dinner today appeared to be prepared by Lunch Rush's assistants but it still smelt divine. As such, when he had the opportunity, he ate dinner at UA, rather than at home. Not that he didn't love his mum and dad's cooking but… they fully admitted they weren't professional.

Up until now, he'd never been approached by others, though Hitoshi sat with people from General Studies when he could, and on the rare occasion he'd gotten Mei out of her lab, he'd sat with her. Today was different.

He turned from getting his food and found himself looking into the wide eyes of several students. From their uniforms, they were from a variety of schools, which meant they were hero students from the other classes. .

"Bro! Did you really punch Todoroki in the face?"

Hitoshi frowned at the question. It made absolutely no sense. Off to the side of the group, he recognised one of the students from Class 1X and fixed them with a stare. It was the boy from Niryu, who he'd learned was named Hajime Kubo. He was the one who'd been calling him 'dude' earlier. At least he appeared exasperated about the question as well, if the eyeroll and head shake was anything to go by.

"He did not punch Todoroki in the face," Hajime replied for Hitoshi. "He just gave the whole group a verbal slap down."

Hitoshi resisted the urge to ask Hajime to stop helping him. The second sentence was not necessary and all it did was rile up the group looking at him. He signed and knew the best way to deal with this was to actually talk to them about it. "Get your food and we'll sit over there," Hitoshi said, indicating towards one of the larger, and mostly empty tables. He moved there with his tray of food.

The group scrambled to comply.

"Sorry dude," Hajime said as he went past. "I think they want it to be fisticuffs at one pace," he explained.

"Are they in Elementary or something?" Hitoshi groaned, as he reminded himself these were meant to be some of the best heroic students in training.

"They just want to unwind," Hajime said.

Hitoshi sighed again and moved to the table while Hajime went to get his food.

It wasn't long before Hitoshi was surrounded by the group but the short wait had allowed him to take the edge off his hunger by wolfing down some of his dinner. When they were gathered, Hitoshi sighed again. He was fast coming to understand why Aizawa hated reporters and these guys weren't even journalists!

"Right," he said definitively. "I did not punch Todoroki in the face. I never even went near him!" He announced.

There were some looks of disappointment.

"But you did slap down the group?" Someone demanded.

Hitoshi gave them a look. "I simply pointed out that I do not have experience being a vigilante," he said matter of factly.

"Dude!" Hajime laughed. "You said it in front of Todoroki, Shoji and Jozu!"

"And?" Hitoshi prompted, though he knew exactly what was being implied. It just didn't count for Shouto.

"Shoji and Jozu!" Hajime repeated as if he didn't believe that Hitoshi didn't know.

The rest of the group were watching. Hitoshi was silent.

"Dude," Hajime almost whined.

"I don't have experience in vigilantism," Hitoshi repeated.

"And Shoji does?"

It was safe to say the question took them all by surprise. Hitoshi turned around to see Jiro standing there. She looked offended.

"More than me, but less than Kaminari," Hitoshi replied pleasantly, deliberately digging in for a fight.

Jiro stared at him. Actually the entire group stared at him then she swallowed. "Kaminari," she said, and then paused, looking devastated.

"Is alive," Hitoshi snapped before she could say anything further. Hitoshi held up his hand and ticked off his fingers as he continued. "Is conscious, is in school, has a future to look forward to and can actually go and visit his friends when he wants to."

For a moment, he could see that Jiro didn't understand what he was referring to, then he saw the moment she understood and was slightly surprised her expression went from sadness to resolve. She wanted to fight. Well fine, he was more than ready for this fight.

"At least he doesn't associate with villains," she hissed.

Hitoshi chuckled. "No, he just went out of his way to attack them, on national television," replied. He could have defended Ochaco but he knew, in situations like this, attack was far better than even the most truthful and righteous defense.

This time was no different. He could tell Jiro was outraged and he fixed her with a stare that wordlessly said he could go for many, many more rounds of verbal sparring if she wanted.

"You are such a villain lover," Jiro spat.

"You really want to go down that path?" Hitoshi asked, his glare turning even flatter.

It appeared she realised what she'd said and without saying anything more Jiro turned and quickly moved away.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Hitoshi spat before he turned back to the watching group.

"Bro!"

"Dude!"

"Bro, you know she's going to run to a teacher," someone told him.

"And what is she going to tell them?" Hitoshi asked, reasonably. "Everything I said was the truth."

That seemed to get the group thinking again. "Yeah," one of the girls, who so far had said nothing, agreed gently. "Our teachers told us that if it had been any other school, they'd have been out on their behinds and if it was us, then the closest we'd get to a hero placement in the future was as the janitor!"

There were some laughs about that, but for the most part everyone was somber. "I'm not exactly in a position to ask him, but I think that's one of the reasons why he did it," Hitoshi said quietly. "Izuku wasn't a villain then, and our friend got expelled because she supposedly knew a villain and because she knew about the so called rescue mission." He shook his head. "By that logic, Jiro should be expelled too. Most of the hero classes should because they all knew. So she gets expelled, and then those who were vigilantes on national television and who got in the way of heroes get what?" He left the question open because he knew they knew what the official answer was.

Hitoshi shrugged after a moment of silence he sighed. "In answer to your question, I didn't punch Todoroki in the face," he smirked. "Izuku got there first."

The group chuckled but that faded quickly. No one wanted to be seen laughing about a villain and… Hitoshi knew, they didn't really know what to say.

Life was just like that.

-ted-

Karou had long ago realised he was in a dead end job but every time he tried to get out of it, he somehow ended up back here. Here being one of the front line contacts for Underground Heroes for the HPSC. It wasn't like he ever tried to leave the HPSC when he sought new positions. He just wanted to do different work.

But no…

He was stuck.

And day, after day, after day he took reports from Underground heroes, validated and collated them, sent any useful information over to Intelligence, and then filed the reports, and signed off on the hero's paychecks.

Honestly, for some of them, if the pay came without the report, they'd take that. They'd do the job too but underground heroes had a real hatred of paperwork. Often he had to fill out half the details!

He wasn't even there for the battles but… He knew how to estimate damage, how to fill out the expense reports, and insurance claims and… yeah, Karou knew way too much about how to fill out hero paperwork. If he ever did go to an agency…

He sighed heavily as another hero came in. Like most underground heroes, the man was dressed in black. Unlike most underground heroes, he didn't wear a mask. Instead, he wore a long grey scarf.

"Eraserhead," Karou greeted the man.

He got a nod in return. That was positively warm for a greeting.

"Still no minion?" Karou asked, raising one eyebrow. Everyone in the know, knew that Eraserhead had an apprentice and bets were on as to when the kid would be deemed competent enough to go on patrol with the man.

Thus far, those who had bet on 'the middle of no-way' (that was the polite way of phrasing it) were winning because there was no sign of the kid.

Eraserhead gave him a flat look and didn't bother to answer. Instead he pulled a sheaf of documents from somewhere, and handed them over.

Karou took them. Eraserhead worked at UA as a Heroics teacher, so he usually had his paperwork filled out properly. It was one of the smaller mercies, but Karou would take what he could get with mercy.

The title took him by surprise. Interim Assessment on Hitoshi Shinsou.

"Already?" Karou asked.

"It's due," Eraserhead told him shortly.

"Anything to note?" He'd read the report, but like all reports, on villains or apprentice heroes, there would almost always be things underground heroes just would not write. That's why he asked. They'd tell him but they'd never put it on paper.

Eraserhead sighed. "He's still working through his anger at events," he reported brusquely. "He can't see the bigger picture yet, because he gets stuck on what happened to his friend but he will get there," the underground hero actually sounded confident of that.

Karou nodded. He knew better than to make notes… which is probably why he was still at this job. He'd heard what some of the others who'd tried to do it did. They had absolutely no situational awareness and gave no thought to operational security.

"Anything else?" he probed.

Eraserhead actually had the good taste to pretend to think about it before he shook his head. "Thanks," Karou said but the hero was already turning away. That was the problem with underground heroes, they never stopped to chat.

Instead, Karou sighed and opened the report. Eraserhead at least knew how to make it concise and in this case, Karou knew his bosses wanted the information so… He'd best get that summary made for Intel and then… There'd be another hero report he'd have to fill out because they hadn't.

There always was.

-ted-

"Are you sure this is good for her?" Sha asked, watching as the little girl entered the room. In it was a single bed, with an older man lying in it.

"The man is her grandfather," Kaigo countered, watching just as intently. When Exodus Rubble had brought the kid in, she'd gone through processing and then eventually made her way to them. Their specialty was child assessment for rehoming, which was a full time job. Everyone saw heroes out at work. No one saw the armies that supported them. They were just one part of that army.

"Yeah but she keeps crying for 'Yuki-ni' and no one knows who that is," Sha pointed out.

The little girl had gone up to the bed and was now clambering on to the chair placed at its side. She seemed to recognise the man, which was something of a relief, but she also didn't seem distressed by his current state. Which probably meant, as young as she was, she'd already been aware of it.

It might be interesting to see if she recognised the old men who were insistent on visiting the old man. They tended to him quite carefully but had been politely, but firmly, told not to be present for her visit.

Her hair had been plaited into a single braid down her back today. It was easier for the child care staff to do that than to have to spend the time to untangle the inevitable knots if she was allowed to wear it loose. On her forehead was a horn but even in the time since she'd been brought in, it was reducing in size. Sha had no idea what that meant.

Kaigo sighed. "Look, this guy is her legal guardian, even if he is unconscious. And the Docs think they've figured out why."

That was news to Sha. "Huh?"

The girl sat on the edge of the bed, and looked gravelly at the man before she reached out and took his hand. That was a good sign. She didn't say anything but Sha knew she could speak. He also knew she tended not to if there was no reason. Most of what she had said was asking for Yuki-ni but she had also admitted that this Yuki-ni had said she had to go with the hero. Yuki-ni was probably some sort of imaginary friend so no one was working too hard to dispel her beliefs in him.

"A couple of constricted flow points. Not enough restriction to cause damage," Kaigo specified with a shrug, "just enough to keep him unconscious. And absolutely not natural."

The way that Kaigo specified that last told Sha there was far more to the story than that. "Someone did that with a quirk?" Anytime anything wasn't natural, it was always a quirk. It was kind of silly to describe quirk effects as not natural since quirks were natural but… Not normal wasn't quite the term they wanted.

"Apparently. I think they are working their way up to surgical adjustment at some stage," Kaigo said, before writing some notes.

Sha looked back to the girl. She was still just sitting on the bed, holding the man's hand. "Are they sure that is wise, given where he was found?" The girl had been found in an illegal lab. All signs pointed heavily towards her being experimented on in that lab and the building was owned by one of the Yakuza factions that had been raided earlier in the day. The man had been found in the earlier raid. He had been lying on a futon, in a sun filled, traditional tatami floored room. There was absolutely no doubt he was being well cared for. There were two older guys in the room who said they'd been taking care of him but- It was still an anomaly with the raid given the state of the main targets. They'd been unconscious, also in a tatami floored room, and they'd also been quirkless.

"He'd be able to tell the Detectives quite a lot about the case," Kaigo countered

"True," Sha acknowledged but he'd heard Kaigo's doubt. "But-" The man might not want to tell Detectives anything.

Kaigo gave him a wry smile. "Yeah, I know." he said, shrugging. "But above our paygrade," he finished with a mocking smile.

Sha sighed and turned back to watch the girl. "Way above," he murmured.

They just dealt with the fall out from hero raids. It was other's who made the decisions and they just had to deal with it. It was the way of the world and they sure as hell weren't going to change it.

-ted-

carer - 介護者 - Kaigo-sha

Just because Hitoshi is getting reprimanded, doesn't necessarily change his mind, or the truth about what happened. And Eri gets to see her Grandfather. I always wondered what happened to the guy's body, because Kai is said not to have killed him. In this case, his body was found and is now in care and Eri, who is also in care can see her grandfather. Given what she went through with Kai, seeing her grandfather unconscious is probably not even a trauma blip!

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! Not just about MHA.

Would longer, but less frequent updates be appreciated, or keep to shorter, more frequent updates?

-ted-

Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!