08/10/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 58 - Blackmail

Izuku sat with closed eyes as he waited. He was in a large room. It was Kaigiin Shigi's bedroom. Gigantomachia was behind him, which reinforced the belief that Kamoni's husband had a taste for the large, given that the huge man wasn't hitting the ceiling. The room was stupidly huge. It contained a large bed, a dressing table on one of the far walls and a drinks cabinet on another, several arm chairs, which he was using now, and rugs on the floor. There were four doors to the room. One was the entry, another lead to the walk in wardrobe and the other to the equally palatial ensuite. Neither of them had another entry. He'd checked. The last one opened to a small ground floor balcony that overlooked the gardens of the house. They'd come in through that one.

There was security but Izuku had discovered that one of his new quirks, the one he used to contact the Nomu actually, was very effective at blocking small signals that the security systems made. So while the security system had picked them up, and had sent the alarm, it just hadn't gone anywhere because he'd blocked it from going further. That was going to be fun for some system expert to look over since everything was working as it should.

He was dressed in black leather, highlighted with green accents and had let scales cover his visible features. There was a screen in the room and Izuku had loaded a short video on it, though the screen was off. Kamoni had provided him with the video, and it should be more than enough to convince Kaigiin to toe the line. Izuku had looked into Kamoni's relationship and he wasn't sure why Kaigiin had bothered to send the thugs to encourage her to return. He was the one who came from money and it was enough money to have paid her off and…

Sometimes people did odd things.

While he'd been waiting he'd had a quick rummage through the room and had found some more vids. He hadn't had a chance to look at them but, if Kaigiin didn't see things his way, and the release of the vid did nothing, then the next tactic to try was an avalanche of vids. While Japan had come a long way in recognising sexual abuse, people could still pass off a single vid, they couldn't pass off a whole library.

"Gigantomachia," Izuku said softly.

"Little Lord?" came the immediate reply.

"How close do you need to be before you can track someone?"

Izuku sensed Gigantomachia shift his stance slightly to look down at him but he didn't open his eyes. He trusted Gigantomachia.

"It depends on the location," he replied.

"When we get to Tartarus, we are going to have to find Dad," Izuku said. "He's likely to be underground," he added.

Izuku got the impression that his father's bodyguard was thinking.

"I will find him," he said finally.

He didn't say anything but Izuku knew, with that reply, that it wasn't going to be easy. He'd have to find out as much as he could about Tartarus before they went though… Maybe once the assault began, he could talk to Dad via the Nomu? That was something to think about. Once he finished here, Kurogiri was going to open a warp gate to the Police Captain who had ensured they hadn't been caught several years ago. The man was loyal to his father but had information about Tartarus. In his own words though, he indicated the information he had was not worth breaking him out of prison. So Izuku would go to him. Briefly anyway.

Because his eyes were closed, Izuku was focused on his hearing. He heard a woman's laugh before there were footsteps that came closer. They belonged to two people. They didn't sound completely stable and Izuku could well imagine that they'd been drinking, and were probably still drinking.

Izuku had arranged the chair so that he was facing the door. It banged open. The woman had her back to him and Izuku could see she was tall, thin and dressed in a red dress. Kaigiin had his hands on her back. She laughed. "You are so naughty!" she exclaimed.

He flared his presence, focusing on Kaigiin. He was tipsy but not so drunk that he didn't feel the challenge. Izuku watched as he stiffened, and not in the way the woman wanted. He actually pushed her away and looked over to him.

Izuku knew what he looked like. Black leather, and green scales with glowing eyes. He waited, letting Kaigiin make the first move. "We'll have to do this later," he announced, and practically pushed the woman out the door.

"Wait, what?" She demanded but the door closed and cut off any further objections.

Kaigiin had more guts than Izuku thought. "Well, this is one of the most direct business meetings I've attended," he said as he sauntered over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a measure. He looked to Izuku, as if asking if he wanted one too.

Izuku waved one hand. "This won't take long," he said.

"Oh?" Kaigiin seemed curious but Izuku could tell he was worried. The hand holding his alcohol shook just a bit.

He taped the remote, turning on the screen and letting the small vid file play. The screen showed a very graphic display of Kaigiin in bed, fully engaged as it were, with a lady who was most definitely not his wife. This section of the vid was simple, it was later where Kaigiin got to attempting to coerce his wife to join in. The man should realise that if he had this bit, he had the lot.

The man's demeanour changed. "Where did you get that?" he tried to sound carefree but Izuku could hear the note of tension in his voice.

"It was given to me," Izuku told him, before he flicked the screen off. "I'm not here to do anything as uncouth as demand money or anything like that. What you do in your time is up to you," he said.

"Then what do you want?" Kaigiin demanded.

Izuku gave him a smile. "Just stay away from your wife," he told Kamoni's husband his price. He didn't need to explain what would happen if Kaigiin decided to go after Kamoni again. "That means your little helpers as well," he added, placing particular emphasis on the word. Since those helpers were still in Mr Compress' pearls, Kaigiin would have no idea what had happened to them, and that was probably weighing on him. At least a little.

"I want the original," Kaigiin snapped.

Izuku laughed. "No. It's no longer with your wife," he added, though that really should have been obvious. "Just stay away from her, and there won't be a need for that to find itself in inconvenient places. You can even keep on doing that. Just not with her," he added.

The man looked at him like he was insane and Izuku could see him putting things together in his mind and coming up with a stupid answer. "No, I don't have to do anything," Kaigiin announced. "You are no one."

Izuku waved off Gigantomachia. While his father's bodyguard would make short work of the moron, that would send the wrong message. Instead, Izuku flared his presence. He was getting better at it and he focused his attention on Kamoni's husband. The small gasp told him he had the man's attention, and Izuku ratcheted up his presence, focusing on Kaigiin. He let his eyes glow, using Night Cat to make them seem a brilliant acid green in his face. Izuku got up from the chair. He'd have preferred to remain seated but he wanted to be sure he got this bit right. Standing tall he continued to focus on Kaigiin. Kamoni's husband again fell to his knees. Izuku took several quick steps towards him so that he loomed over him.

"Who am I?" Izuku asked.

Kaigiin swallowed and trembled. "I don't know!" He whispered finally.

"I am Dragon," he introduced himself finally.

There was a moment before the words registered and then they did and Kaigiin actually stopped trembling and became absolutely still.

"So," Izuku said with a breathy little sigh, "You will not go near your wife, and you won't find out anything more about me but if you do… Be assured, you won't like what you find," he said, before he flared his presence again and turned. Kaigiin's oversized bedroom looked out over the gardens of his house and that was how they'd gotten in and it was how they'd get out. Gigantomachia was surprisingly quick when he moved through the door and a moment later Izuku was with him, standing on the small balcony, before he looked up at his father's bodyguard and gave him a nod.

Then they ran. It took them less than 5 seconds to clear the wall. Once outside, Izuku slowed and let his scales fade as he walked down the road with Gigantomachia in close attendance.

He really needed that chauffeur. Hopefully, Unten would take him up on that offer. He could use Kurogiri for this sort of thing but there were times when he had to maintain the illusion of normality with the bar. If they closed it too often, there would be suspicion, which is why Kurogiri said he'd have to attend to Kaigiin himself, while he would warp him to Saitsu. It was a decent compromise.

"Do you think he'll obey?" Izuku asked Gigantomachia, looking up at him.

The huge man considered the question. Izuku knew it wasn't usually what Gigantomachia would be asked but it wasn't like he had a lot of experience with blackmail. "For a while," the large man told him.

Izuku nodded. "I guess I'll prepare to release the files then," he said with a shrug. It didn't bother him if Kaigiin was disgraced or not. It might bother Kamoni but she would probably come around once she realised that it meant he couldn't bother her.

"Have you met Saitsu?" Izuku asked another question.

Gigantomachia nodded. "He will help as much as he is able to," came the rumbling assessment of the man.

Izuku closed his eyes briefly as he walked, trusting his other senses to keep him from running into something. "Yakuni tells me he doesn't want to be released?"

"That is true," Gigantomachia told him but offered nothing further.

Izuku's phone buzzed and he pulled it out and looked down. There was a message from Kurogiri. It is quiet.

Quickly, he looked around and spotted an alleyway. "Kurogiri can pick us up," Izuku told Gigantomachia as he headed towards it. The large man followed and as soon as they were off the main road, Izuku texted their coordinates to Kurogiri. A moment later the warp gate appeared and they stepped through it, into the back room of the bar.

Kurogiri reformed. "It went well?" He asked.

Izuku nodded. "Hopefully," he said.

The warp gate closed his eyes slowly to acknowledge the response. "It is too early to see Saitsu, so you can either sleep, or see who is around," he indicated.

"I'll see who is around," Izuku replied. He didn't want to be a distant leader, at least not to his first recruits, which meant he had to be present.

Kurogiri moved to the side to let him go through to the bar. Izuku immediately saw that Dabi, Mr Compress and Twice were present as were a few other random patrons. He moved to sit at their table, while Gigantomachia took up a position near the door. Izuku had seen the huge man in the same position in other bars and it reminded him of the past.

"The boss," Dabi jokingly greeted him.

Izuku acknowledged that with a soft bark of laughter.

"So will the fuckboy behave?"

"For now," Izuku gave Gigantomachia's answer. "No one has found Tartarus' building plans online?" he asked.

The droll question got him several eye rolls but they were good natured.

"Unfortunately not," Atsuhiro told him. "But we have worked out a way of questioning a guard," he added.

There was something in his tone that put Izuku on edge. The feeling didn't get any better with the way that Twice was looking at him. "I'm not gonna like it, am I?"

"Maybe," Dabi drawled.

"What is it?" Izuku demanded. When he made his choice, he had promised himself he wouldn't hold back. He couldn't afford to be naive or innocent or to hesitate. Not if he wanted to win. He had to be prepared to do whatever it took for victory.

"It will depend on what quirks you either have or can get," the magician explained.

When he said that, it became clear what they wanted. It was nowhere near as bad as it could be. "Ah, you want me to mind control them to talk and then make them forget they were questioned?"

Atsuhiro nodded.

"I don't have a quirk that can do either," Izuku murmured, running his mind through his quirks. "But I do know where I can get one of them," he added.

"Which one?"

"Mind control," he replied, wondering if Giran's quirk would be enough for the memory part of the operation.

"You know where a mind control quirk is and you haven't taken it?" Dabi appeared outraged.

Izuku gave him a bland look. "I don't take friend's quirks," he said flatly.

That brought the fire villain up a bit short and Dabi stared at him. "You don't take friend's quirks?" he repeated. "How do you know he's a friend? He's not here!"

"He's not," Izuku agreed. He hadn't really expected this topic to come up but he should have. In hindsight someone should have been curious as to if he was still friends with people from UA. "And I know because the HPSC don't know a tenth of what they should about me," he explained in a tone that said he was not going to go further.

He had reminded Dabi the other day that he was the boss and while the fire villain joked, he should equally know it was the truth. He was the boss and while he would accept questions, and suggestions, he made the final call. And he had made the final call on Hitoshi.

"Now, on the memory part of it, Giran's quirk could do but I think you want something a little more… thorough?" Izuku asked, moving on from the revelation of Hitoshi.

"That would be for the best," Atsuhiro agreed.

"The guard has to go back to their job," Twice indicated. "They can't go back to their job," he added.

Izuku smiled but he understood the statement.

"Putting the defenses aside, do you have a plan?" Atsuhiro asked.

"For Tartarus?" Izuku already knew the answer but wanted the extra moments to compose his thoughts.

"For Tartarus," the magician agreed.

"What's public knowledge about Tartarus is that it's on an island, at the arse end of nowhere, connected to land by a single bridge," Izuku said.

"Yep! No!" Twice agreed.

"I think it's safe to say that at least one of the defenses will be to remove that bridge," Izuku continued.

"That limits ground assaults," Dabi pointed out.

"Not really," Izuku disagreed with a cheeky grin.

"It does!" Dabi insisted.

With the outline of a plan still forming in his mind, Izuku didn't want to give away anything but this was so obvious it shouldn't even be a question. He pointed to the bar, where Kurogiri was pouring a drink. Dabi followed his finger, and it was kind of comical to see the way his eyes widened when he put two and two together.

"How many gates can be open?" the fire villain asked.

Izuku smirked. "More than one," he answered. There was no need to provide that information.

"So why not just open a gate into Tartarus?" Twice asked and Izuku could see the way he was clenching his teeth so as not to ask the opposing question.

"If that's possible, I'm all for it," Izuku said. "But there's a few problems, and the first one being I don't know where to open the gate too," he indicated.

"To say nothing of whatever sensors may be present," Atsuhiro added.

Izuku gave him a nod to acknowledge that. "This is why we need information. I don't want to assault a fortified position, on the perimeter if we don't need to assault it," he said. "Honestly, if I could, I'd do what I'm doing tonight, and have Kurogiri open his warp gate to exactly where I want to be but-" He shrugged. That was not going to be possible, and they knew it.

"So who are you talking to tonight?" Twice asked, grateful to be able to move on. "They aren't going to talk," he added.

"They are going to talk," Izuku corrected gently. "The man is a former Police Captain."

"Loyal to your father," Twice said. "Not loyal!"

"Yes, loyal to my father. As a Police Captain though, I think he will have some information about Tartarus," Izuku highlighted the reason he was going to talk to the man. "At the very least, he should be able to tell me which are the grossest exaggerations and myths about the place."

At that the villains nodded and Izuku was pleased. He didn't want to overstate what Captain Saitsu could offer but he felt the need to justify the reason he was going to talk to him since it wasn't like the operation was completely without risk.

"Can you try to find some Tartarus guards?" Izuku asked before anyone else could say anything. "I'll see what I can do to find a suitable memory quirk. Though a disgruntled former guard would be best."

"You are willing to do it?" Dabi seemed a little surprised.

"If we can't find someone willing to talk?" Izuku asked rhetorically. "Definitely I'm willing to do it, but I might need to give back the quirks to allay suspicions. While I don't know what the Heroes would think if a mind control and a memory suppressant or alteration quirk went missing, I don't think this is a good time to bring their attention back to us."

"It's still on us," Whisper pointed out.

Izuku jumped. She hadn't been here earlier! He looked to the older lady. She was carrying a tray of drinks and put them down on the table before waiting to hear his answer.

"It's still on us," Izuku agreed. "And I don't know what they'd think when they found out those quirks were missing but… I think it best to just stay quiet. For now."

The villains nodded and Izuku was relieved. They knew, as he did, that if they assaulted Tartarus, they'd be loud enough for all the world to hear.

That would be enough.

-ted-

Progress with Izuku for his villain career and his plan for Tartarus. The plan... when they make it, for Tartarus should make it seem like its easy to break into.

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.

-ted-

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