16/07/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 37 - Learning to Work Together

Dabi leaned against the wall. He was doing something he didn't do very often because he already knew where he wanted to go. He was thinking of the future, and specifically the path he was taking to get there.

His future was pretty simple. Dance on the corpse of Endeavor, having first made that corpse. It had been his goal, waking or sleeping for as long as he could remember, though it had taken him a while to articulate it quite as clearly as he could now. Everything he'd done, every alliance he'd made and then betrayed had been focused on the goal of watching Endeavor die.

Allying with Dragon was no different. And maybe allying with Dragon was not going to get him his desire.

He'd known the kid was young when he signed up but the kid had been willing to learn so that was a plus. And the kid stayed with them and discussed plans with them…

It was those plans that were now worrying him, in that the kid didn't seem to have a plan. Sure, he had an outcome but it was one of those long term outcomes and wasn't well defined. 'Remove heroes' sounded great until you wondered what replaced them and what that meant. Dabi thought the kid was now coming up against those walls but he was also inclined to believe that Dragon was facing a far more fundamental problem. He didn't know how to get to his goal.

While the kid had made sure they were paid, and had a secure base, well stocked with food and water, he hadn't done anything for a while and he hadn't spoken of any plan. Dabi knew about laying low. He knew that there were times when you just had to stay put and hope to god you had enough cash to pay for deliveries, because if you used your account you knew it was going to be tracked.

This didn't feel the same. This felt like they were just waiting for waiting's sake.

This wasn't progressing his plan to get Endeavor and right now, Dabi didn't know what the kid was waiting for.

Sure, they'd effectively taken out the Shie Hassaikai bastards but so what? They were just a group who got in the way. It didn't do anything against the heroes. They should be planning some sort of strike against them, something just to remind the world that they were still here. Something that would go towards making the system crumble… An attack that might attract Endeavor.

He sighed. He had a plan to get Endeavor, and he'd fall back on that if he needed but Dabi had hoped that the kid would be more active.

It's only been a few weeks, the rational part of his mind reminded him. You had to give the public time to digest information and if you did too many things at once, the HPSC got enthusiastic about finding you. That had happened to him once but since he was minor, the HPSC hadn't really been that serious. Still, he'd learned the value of a well stocked hideaway then.

His teeth rasped at his upper lip as he thought. If he was going to get out, then it was best that he get out sooner rather than later. And it would be best if there was some distraction so that they didn't notice immediately. He'd pulled that often enough with groups that he no longer had a use for. Some he'd only signed up with for a single job so leaving was expected. For others, the group had gone the way of the dodo, so it was good he'd left when he had.

Dabi didn't think the kid would do that. It was a possibility. It was always a possibility but he figured the kid's dad had enough still loyal servants that they'd bail the kid out but they wouldn't bail anyone else. Without them though, yeah, the kid would go further than most, but Dabi could see it coming to an end in a blaze of battle. And that might be before he got Endeavor.

So, he needed a distraction… and the best type of distraction would be one that was useful to him. Dabi grinned as things fell into place. The kid, or rather the guy who'd been with the Shie Hassaikai had said that the Nomu, one of them in particular, could defeat Endeavor. He could steal it and they'd be distracted from his absence looking for it, especially if he said he was going out for a day or two… They'd see the coincidence but not the actuality until he didn't come back.

And then if the Nomu did defeat Endeavor, well and good and if it didn't… Dabi was pretty sure it would at least damage the Flame Hero, and then he could do the rest. He'd like that actually. The thought of dealing the final blow to the bastard had kept him going for quite some time. It would be sweet to be able to do it in reality.

Yeah, that was a good plan for now. If the kid didn't indicate some change soon then…

He'd made his desires clear and if he wasn't seeing progress on them, he had no reason to stay.

All villains were like that and it was best the kid learned it now rather than later.

As for Shouto… if he was dumb enough to go near the kid again, then, he couldn't help, not really. He'd done his duty and hopefully one day, Shouto would see he'd been on the right side all along, though Dabi admitted that side was somewhat fluid. In the end, for him, all that mattered was Endeavor, and watching him draw his last breath.

The rest was superfluous.

-ted-

After a slightly extended homeroom, where they had performed brief introductions, Inasa was a bit surprised to find himself dressed in his hero costume at one of UA's many training grounds. The murmuring of the rest of the class indicated they were surprised as well, though the UA students were attempting to play it cool. They were also, very clearly, ostracising Shouto Todoroki. It was almost pathetic how obvious they were being.

Their class had been split into four groups of five. It was supposedly randomised. From the looks on a few other faces, they shared his belief that the draw had been rigged but it really wasn't worth complaining about.

The first years had the fewest classes of heroic students, with only one extra class. UA had altered their class line up so that there were 11 to 12 UA students in each of the first year classes. Class 1X and 1B now had 12 UA students, with 1A having 11. The remaining places, taking each class up to 20 students, were made up of those from other hero schools

He was in Class 1X and in his group of five for this exercise he had three UA students - Shouto Todoroki, Fumikage Tokoyami and Juzo Honenuki. Given that, of all the UA students he'd interacted with, he'd spent the most time with Shouto and Fumikage, the coincidence was rather striking. Ishina was in his group. He'd been surprised at that. He thought she was in second year, but during homeroom, she'd simply shrugged and that was all the explanation needed.

The groups were clustered according to the break up and were waiting for a further explanation but the teachers were agitated about something and had moved away, actually into one of the buildings of the cityscape to discuss it.

Inasa looked up as the teachers reappeared. A teacher he didn't recognise came forward. "There will be two teams at a time going through this scenario," he said. Inasa thought it was Meiwaku Kawa from Toui High School, which would make sense, since they had one student in this class as well. "One team will be the hero team and one the villain team but only one of you will be assigned the role of hero or villain," Meiwaku told them.

That information brought some muttering from the class. "The other four have assigned roles as two support heroes and two civilians," the teacher continued. "For the villain team, it will be two minions and two hostages," he explained. "You will be drawing lots," Meiwaku explained, gesturing to boxes that had an opening in the top.

"Don't worry! We will be doing more exercises like this so that you will get an opportunity to act in all positions," Meiwaku said before anyone could object.

"We are training to be heroes, so why are we acting as civilians?" someone asked the question.

Inasa wasn't the only one who saw UA's Aizawa huff.

"A good question," Meiwaku said diplomatically. "It is important that you understand the thought processes of people in these situations. If you are a civilian, you are not allowed to use your quirk, and you are subject to the instructions of the hero or villain. This will give you a taste of what those you will be helping go through in such situations and will allow you to know how to better handle the situation. It will allow you to see from a civilian's point of view, what they need in the situation, so I would encourage you to truly get into your assigned character."

Inasa could see the logic of the scenario, but he knew it would be flawed. No doubt the teachers knew the scenario was flawed as well since those assigned as civilians were not going to be civilians in the future. Still, it would be interesting to see it from their perspective, even if it wasn't the full experience.

"To make it more realistic, if the civilians use their quirks, your team fails," Aizawa said.

"What about the villain team? A civilian can use their quirk to get away then," someone asked.

That didn't seem to impress the UA teacher. "Hostages on the villain side, use their quirk at their own risk. The villain isn't going to take favourably to it," Aizawa pointed out.

And, Inasa thought to himself, civilians weren't likely to have useful, powerful quirks. If they did- No, he couldn't think that. People could have useful, powerful quirks and just not be a hero or a villain… but that's what they mostly became. Most people just had something that was quirky but not necessarily immediately useful.

The other teachers just looked at Aizawa for a few moments, waiting to see if he'd say anything more before they shrugged. "You will draw lots for positions in your team, and there will be additional information on your role included in that," Meiwaku said. "Now, the parameters for success are as follows. Basic success for both teams is to remain intact, and uninjured."

"Doesn't that mean mission failure for the hero?" someone asked.

"Basic success is making sure no one else falls victim to a villian," Meiwaku explained. "A better success for the hero side will be rescuing the villain's civilians and capturing the villain and their support. For the villain side a better success will be capturing the hero's civilians and capturing the hero and their support."

Inasa felt that basic success was a bit lame. He could see where it parallelled reality but how could he be a hero if he was satisfied with just leaving a villain to do what they wanted? He'd been aiming for better success and he got the impression the rest of his team were aiming for that.

Actually, from the feeling coming from all the teams, they were all going to aim for that.

"Points are deducted for damage to buildings, and unnecessary injuries," Meiwaku added. "You've probably noticed that the teachers from all the classes are here," he continued. "That's because the others are currently at regular studies but we will be putting all the classes through the same scenario. There will be times when they will go through a scenario first. You are not to speak to them about this scenario until the end of the week, when they will have gone through it."

That made sense. That way everyone would get the same experience and… pessimistically, if someone did tell someone else what to expect, it could be used as a test as well. If they spoke, they were obviously not trustworthy and that was probably a bigger test for the UA students since they had been in classes together until now, though Inasa didn't think Shouto would have much problem, he wasn't sure of the others.

"Oh, one more thing, in this scenario, expect the unexpected," Miewaku told them before he stepped back and gestured towards two boxes. "Teams One and Two come forward please."

What did 'expect the unexpected' mean? Inasa wondered, and could tell that the other students were also wondering what that referred to.

"We are team three, but I think it would be good to get some planning in," Juzo said.

Inasa nodded. They might not know what roles they'd have to take but they could work on a general strategy.

"I think we are the hero team," Inasa said.

"I believe first we should determine if we all want the same outcome," Fumikage said.

"What do you mean?" Ishina asked.

Juzo gave her a smile, but with his constantly exposed teeth it was as if he was always smiling. "Do we want to go for the basic success, or go plus ultra?" he asked, using UA's motto.

"Oh!" Ishina said, which signalled her understanding. "Plus ultra!" she added, balling one hand into a fist and pumping it.

As if there had been any doubt. For this multi-school training endeavour, UA had asked for the best students. There was no way any of them would settle for the basic success. The outcome might be that, since the opposing team would be going for the same thing they were and that might stalemate them all. But at least they all wanted the total win.

"Our choices will be limited by who has what role," Shouto indicated.

"Unfortunately," Ishina agreed. "I'm a support hero, so if I get the main gig… I'm not going to be able to really get into combat," she told them.

"Yeah but you can keep your assigned sidekick going, and heal any injuries the civilians might get," Inasa was quick to point out and he'd seen the way Ishina moved. He was pretty sure she could scramble over just about anything anyway. There was a confidence in the way she moved that told him she was fit, and agile.

"The scenario is set to reflect reality where a hero will often have to protect civilians," Shouto said thoughtfully. "We should think of ways of being smart civilians," he observed.

"Do you know much about this training ground?" Inasa asked, though he nodded to indicate he agreed with Todoroki's statement.

The UA students shook their heads. "Haven't used it yet," Juzo told the group.

"Hmm," Inasa sighed. That would be too easy. "I believe our most urgent requirement upon entry will be the need for intelligence, not just on the other team but also about the environment. Since we can't do the environment here, what can you tell us about the other team?"

"Togaru Kamakiri, formerly of Class 1B, Setsuna Tokage, formerly of Class 1A and Neito Monoma, formerly of Class 1B, with Choukyori Shiryoku of Toui High School and Hajime Kubo of Niryuu High School," Juzo identified their opposition.

"Setsuna has a good quirk for spying," Shouto volunteered the information.

"Let's go over this logically," Inasa said. They didn't have much time and they could get distracted if they weren't methodical about this. "What does Setsuna's quirk do?"

"It's named Lizard Tail Splitter. It allows her to break off parts of her body and move them independently, including her eyes," Fumikage reported.

That would be useful for a spy but maybe she'd be one of the civilians. "Togaru's quirk?"

"It's named Razor Sharp and allows him to make blades from any part of his body. They are very sharp," Juzo said. "But we might be able to lure him away from the group," he added the observation.

"Hot headed?" Ishina chuckled.

Juzo nodded.

"Neito's quirk?" Inasa asked about the next student.

Juzo grimaced. "His quirk is called Copy. It allows him to copy your quirk, and use it for about five minutes. Probably more," he said.

"He can what?" Ishina demanded.

"If he touches you, he can copy your quirk," Juzo repeated.

That could be annoying, Inasa realised.

"How many can he copy?" Shouto asked curiously.

"I think about three, but he might have upped the limit again," Juzo said.

"So at least, initially, we can expect him to have a copy of his team's quirks," Inasa said. "Does anyone know anything about Choukyuori or Hajime?" he asked.

"Choukyuori might also be an information gatherer," Juzo said. "She was in my group for the physical assessments, and her quirk seemed to involve looking at something in the distance. I don't know exactly what though," he added.

Inasa nodded. He'd been pulled out of that testing and had done it later so he had missed out on the opportunity to observe his fellow students. "Hajime?"

The other four in his group shook their heads, and before they could determine anything more, there was a whistle, which indicated that the first two teams were in position.

UA believed in letting you learn from other people's mistakes, so they turned their attention to the screens that were displaying the activity. There was another siren call, and the two teams moved out.

-ted-

Finally getting to some events in the Inter-School Training event :D And I've gone with a good old hostage situation. Let's have some fun!

Oh, and Dabi is being Dabi. He wants Endeavor's head on a platter and that's all he wants.

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-

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