25/12/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 82 - Ambush

Dabi sat and watched the square from the window. He should have brought coffee, or snacks, or something. While today would be the culmination of years of work, and he was full of anticipation about that, waiting was boring.

But… Dabi reminded himself. This wasn't bad.

A lot of the heroes would be taking today off after last night's Hero Billboard. Endeavor would be working. He'd have shown up at his agency at about 8am and done paperwork for an hour or so, and now, during morning peak, Endeavor would be on patrol.

Today's patrol was likely to rile the man up in a way that… Dabi could admit to himself that he'd never be able to get Endeavor that angry. Today, instead of melting respectfully out of the way, Dabi fully expected the public to want to congratulate the new Number One Hero. They'd want his autograph. They'd just want to be near him. They'd want the reassurance that they hadn't lost a protector. All Might had retired weeks back, but the Billboard last night was the first, tangible evidence for the public that a new era had arrived.

In Endeavor's eyes, they'd just get in the way.

But Endeavor was also Hero enough to know that he couldn't just shoo them away and that would make him angry. Really angry.

If Dabi didn't have the Nomu with him today, he'd almost be prepared to stay and just watch that and laugh. No, he wouldn't but, he'd probably watch for longer, just laughing.

He was reasonably secure in an empty office block. The whole building wasn't empty, but the floor he was watching from was currently for lease. If you knew what you were looking for, it was easy to find vantage points, especially if you didn't have a problem with breaking and entering.

In this case, Kurogiri had deposited him, and the Nomu here, including a small, extra Nomu that Yakuni had insisted he take. It hardly mattered. Between Rappa and Rikiya, Dabi didn't expect Endeavor to survive long.

On the other hand, the man hadn't been the Number Two hero for so long without having some skill. Endeavor probably had tricks he hadn't shown the world.

But if you countered his quirk, with fire proofing as the Nomu had, and you countered his physical strength, which the Nomu did just by being Nomu, and you could deal with his sidekicks, then Endeavor was just a man. A strong man. A skilled man. But just a man. He'd bleed and die just like any other.

There was a commotion at the corner of the square Dabi was watching.

There he was now… and… Dabi felt the scarred tissue of his chin stretch as he grinned. There was a crowd of people around Endeavor and while Dabi's eyesight wasn't good enough to pick out the man's expression, he could tell it was annoyed. The man gave off that impression.

"There he is," Dabi said to the Nomu.

They came up to the windows, with Rappa glaring down at the newly crowned Number One Hero. Endeavor was easily discernible from the crowd. The flames of his moustache, beard and eyebrows were clearly seen, even if the larger patches of flames on his costume were obscured.

"There's probably some sidekicks in the crowd," Dabi warned the Nomu.

The look Rappa gave him was distinctly unimpressed. The look reminded Dabi that the Nomu had to obey him, but they didn't have to like him. "They will interfere with your fight," he pointed out.

That somewhat mollified the High End.

"Let's let him get into the middle of the square, then-"

Dabi had a feeling if he didn't give the order, Rappa would attack now.

A few minutes later, Dabi regretted saying it, as Endeavor seemed to crawl across the square. The only consolation was that the man would be even more frustrated at his progress. And if anything, the crowd seemed to be getting bigger. Eventually the new Number One Hero reached the centre of the square, and the Nomu lunged forward, breaking through the glass to attack.

Dabi saw them tensing and was quick to grab one. He couldn't make the leap to the ground. He could if he used two fire blasts to slow his fall but that would unnecessarily overheat him, so it was best to catch a lift down with the Nomu.

It was definitely a good thing that he'd given the Nomu their instructions while waiting for Endeavor to appear on his patrol. Rappa used the force of his jump and the hover quirk he had to leap straight towards the new Number One Hero. The others made sure their jump put them clear of the falling glass, so that they landed in the middle of the road.

The honk of cars was vaguely familiar, but Dabi paid it no mind.

The crowd seemed to move as one. They screamed and melted away from Endeavor, which revealed the sidekicks who had been there.

"Take care of the sidekicks," he ordered the Upper Tier Nomu as he gestured for Rikiya to stay with him. The Near High End had a larger build than Rappa and towered over him. It was a little bit disconcerting but necessary.

And it had the desired effect.

With the Near High End standing over him, the sidekicks quickly recognised he was in charge of what was going on.

Endeavor probably noticed as well but was busy fighting Rappa.

That was fine. While Dabi wanted Endeavor dead and would have liked to laugh in his face as he killed him, he was equally prepared to slip the knife into the man's back.

The winners wrote history. He could paint Endeavor's demise as heroically or as cowardly as he wanted once the man was dead. His younger self had delusions of a stand up, fist to fist, quirk to quirk fight with the new Number One Hero. His current self… He just wanted Endeavor to die.

With Rikiya shadowing him, Dabi made his way towards Rappa and Endeavor. It appeared Endeavor had already tried flambéing the High End, who had just laughed. That fire proofing quirk was effective, and appeared to offer heat protection as well.

The civilians had run which didn't change a thing. It was actually a bit surprising. Dabi would have thought some remained to see the new Number One Hero in action but from the corner of his eye, he could see the last of them running… or actually hobbling around the corner of a building. There was no doubt in Dabi's mind that those in the offices around the square would be watching from the windows, thinking they were safe but… that was a matter of circumstance.

There was only one bad thing about the civilians running… It made him very obvious to both Endeavor and his sidekicks but that was all part of the plan.

There were quite a few of them. Endeavor had probably brought every sidekick he had with him today and it hadn't worked to keep the crowds away. But it did mean he had lots of back up, and some of them had figured out he wasn't a Nomu and they were approaching cautiously.

Dabi grinned and clapped his hands together to light them in blue fire. It was a party trick, but effective.

"Let's dance."

-ted-

The morning patrol after the Billboard was never one Enji looked forward to but for the last few decades, he had always run a patrol the morning after the Billboard. He was no slacker who couldn't work because of one night.

In the past, he'd been sought out by those who wanted to reassure him that in their opinion he was the Number One.

As if their opinion mattered! It didn't mean a darn thing! They were just a hindrance to doing his job!

Early on in his career, before he got to the Number Two rank, Endeavor had accepted that he wasn't going to be as popular as other heroes. He just wasn't cut out for it. And what was popularity anyway? It was just the transience of being liked. It had no bearing on a hero's actual ability. Their job was not to be popular but to take down villains and he did that better than anyone. He had done for years.

And this year… finally…

Endeavor would like to think that he'd finally reached the Number One position because he'd been recognised for all his work, but he knew… He'd only gotten there because All Bloody Might had retired. It just wasn't…

Darn whatever little fuckwit in the Commission who thought that popularity should be a measure of a hero's rank!

And just because he'd finally reached the Number One position, did not mean he was going to be lax at his job. He was the Number One now, which meant, regardless of what anyone thought, it was his job to keep society safe. And with the way things were going…

All Bloody Might would retire now, just when things were collapsing.

But Enji would hold them together. He would do it, somehow and then there'd be no question of which of them was really the better hero.

This morning's patrol was seriously testing his desire. All the well-wishers were worse than having nobodies tell him they thought he was Number One. Most of them didn't mean it. They had no idea of the amount of work it took to be a high-level hero. Most of them were just inane civilians who wanted to be close to greatness. They were just getting in the way.

But as the Number One Hero Enji knew he couldn't simply shoo them away. He had to take their thanks and admiration with at least… tolerance rather than indifference. If it wouldn't be such a pain, he would have let Hawks take the position but having that young brat lord it over him… Yeah, it would be a very cold day in hell before that happened.

So, Enji put up with the well-wishers and tried his best to get through the patrol. He'd have to make up the delay back at the office but… His new rank should have him some leeway at least. It would serve the Commission right.

At least when he turned into the large square, it wasn't full of civilians wanting to congratulate him. He'd seen what All Might sometimes had to deal with, and he understood why the hero sometimes took the aerial route out of confrontations. He couldn't do that, not without burning people but… Enji wouldn't deny there were times when he was tempted to do it.

Thus far the patrol had been routine. Theoretically the days after the Billboard should be a gift to villains but the top heroes knew it and while they attended the Billboard, they made sure they had transport waiting so that they could get back into the field around Japan quickly the next day. He wasn't the only Hero who'd gone from the Billboard to a flight. It was the responsible thing to do.

And over time, most villains had figured out the days after the Billboard were not a good time to try the patience of heroes. Some were elated by their rank, but others were upset, and it was always convenient if a villain appeared so they could take their frustrations out on them. It usually did good things for their rank in the next year.

Endeavor figured he wasn't that lucky… At least he did until he heard glass break. The civilian's surprise turned into horror as they saw something fall from one of the surrounding buildings. Endeavor saw it as well, but his feeling was something different. By the time he could turn he didn't get a good view of what was falling but he got a good enough view of the broken window that he knew it wasn't an accident. Something had deliberately broken the glass.

He cast his eyes downwards, towards the base of the building and saw… He'd seen these things before. Or at least things like them. In the Hospital basement at Jaku and Hosu and Kamino. These ones were covered in black skin. It was not a natural dark skin but a pure obsidian tone which only acted to highlight the lighter colour of their exposed brains all the more. And there appeared to be someone behind them. At least there was a flap of fabric that could be someone, though equally it could be something on one of these things.

The crowd around him sensed that something was wrong and thankfully began thinning. He couldn't really cut loose if they were here without burning some of them and while it would be their own fault for getting in the way, Enji already knew what the media would have to say about it. He was having a hard enough time handling Shouto's media profile. He did not need the extra work.

There was one still in the air. It had to have some sort of flying, no floating quirk.

"Get the civilians out of here, and then start getting rid of those things," Endeavor ordered his sidekicks before he assessed the angle the floating one was coming in at. If he used a tight blast of fire he could hit it.

He followed his assessment with action, sending a blast of fire at the creature. All Might had called them Nomu. The burst of flame caused the civilians to run, and Endeavor ignored the screams. No doubt some bint would claim he was aiming for them. He didn't have time to think of that now. At least he knew his sidekicks could do their job and would get the civilians out.

The other creatures were fanning out and Enji felt his eyes narrow as he saw them literally kick aside cars. They were strong. Really strong. He tried to remember what else All Might had said about them. They were people. They were dead. And they could have multiple quirks. Time to find out what these things had!

Except- the one in the air was still coming for him. He dodged and from the corner of his eye he saw the flash of steel.

Endeavor hadn't maintained his position as the Number Two Hero for decades because he was unskilled or unobservant. He ducked as the one that was floating slashed backwards. Its skin was still black and showed no sign of damage and its fingers were blades.

His mind focused on the lack of damage.

This could be a problem.

-ted-

Shabou Kan didn't like heroes. He didn't dislike them either. He understood that the work they did was important and that it kept society safe and all that. He just wished they were a little less in your face about their work. Couldn't they take care of things quietly? Like the Police did?

You never saw a Police Officer standing there yelling that they had arrested some criminal? But- He huffed. He supposed if they didn't do that, then they wouldn't be called Heroes. The very name implied some sort of fanfare.

Take today for instance. He was just minding his own business, trying to get to work. But no… He couldn't even do that. When he'd emerged from the subway, there'd been a huge crowd gathered. More than usual for a workday. And besides that, a workday crowd was quiet, and sombre and hurried to get where they needed to go. This one was loud and not moving.

He'd wracked his brain, trying to think if there had been an advertisement for some event. There could be. Osaka had its fair share of festivals, and he didn't really look at posters for information. And he couldn't recall anything in his feeds. That didn't mean he hadn't missed something. So when he saw it, he sighed, and resigned himself to just having to push through them until he got to his office.

Except, the crowd had begun screaming, and not in the happy way a festival did, when whatever it was about came on to stage. He couldn't see a stage either and weekday peak hour was not the time to run a festival. The screams were accompanied by the sound of car horns and then Shabou was pushed back. He tried to fight the flow of bodies for a few moments but realised if he did then he was going to be trampled.

Still in the moments he'd fought the flow, he'd at least gotten to see what the fuss was about. It was some sort of villain attack, and these villains all had the same uniform or something. They were all a dull black with impressive musculature. If he was into that, he'd be jealous since all the villains looked like they could put any gym jock to shame. But they also didn't appear to care about anything but themselves.

Shabou turned and allowed himself to be carried along as there were more shouts and a roar of fire behind him. He didn't look back. He could see perfectly well from the reflection off the office buildings. Someone had a fire quirk and wasn't afraid to use it.

This was why he didn't like heroes. If the heroes didn't shout about their abilities, then villains wouldn't feel the need to attack publicly like this and everything would be a lot quieter. He looked at his watch and sighed. He was going to be late but at least most people would be late if the heroes were fighting villains…

But that meant he'd have to work late and what was the code on his timesheet for 'late by villain?' He was gonna have to look that up. As the crowd rounded the corner, cutting off vision from the fight, Shabou sighed.

There had to be a better way.

-ted-

Dabi has begun his ambush! The Nomu are happy about it :D

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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