09/04/2024

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The Emperor's Dragon
Dragon 10 - Volunteering Is Easy!

"How is the apprenticeship coming?" Mei asked. With Ochaco and Izuku gone, it was just herself and Hitoshi at lunch. While she was happy to focus on her babies, even Mei could admit it was quieter.

And… well, she'd promised Izuku she'd keep Hitoshi supplied and that required talking to the client, so this wasn't chit-chat, it was business.

She had already contributed to his costume. Given that Hitoshi was being trained as an underground hero, his costume wasn't that fancy. It was distinctly like his mentor, Eraser Head's, though with more armor… and thanks to her, better protection and gizmos.

"It's going okay," Hitoshi told her.

Most of Mei's class would not believe she had tact. They would not believe that she could pick up on subtlety from the mere tone of voice but she could. She just knew, from long experience, that if she reacted to those things, she'd be dragged into the so-called dramas and traumas of her classmates. She had way too much on to be bothered with that.

However, a client was a different matter.

"Really?" Mei replied, her tone enough to convey her doubt.

"It's fine," Hitoshi repeated.

Mei looked over at him. Hitoshi was sitting in the area deemed safe for eating. All that meant was Mei didn't put oily or otherwise contaminated pieces of equipment or tools there. But… it worked, which was good enough. From what she could see, Hitoshi meant what he said but…

"Which bit of the apprenticeship is bothering you?" she asked.

The purple-haired teen huffed. "Eraser Head has me practicing with a version of his capture scarf," he began to explain.

Mei nodded. She'd seen the plans to incorporate a version of the scarf into Hitoshi's costume. It would literally wrap around his neck and upper shoulders and would, if positioned right, cover the mouth guard he used to modulate his voice.

"He won't let me have one though until I can break out of it," Hitoshi continued.

"Ah!" Mei got the drift. She might be concerned with making her babies but she knew what type of teacher Eraser Head was. He'd probably trapped Hitoshi in his capture scarf and expected the teen to get free. And Hitoshi hadn't been able to. "What have you tried?"

"It's fire resistant, so I can't burn it, and even if I could, doing that while wrapped in it is stupid," Hitoshi told her. "You can't wriggle out of it, since it just tightens, and I can't cut it."

"What have you tried to cut it with?" Mei asked.

Hitoshi made a small gesture and a knife appeared in his hand.

It wasn't anything special. The blade was about four to five inches long and looked sharp but Mei knew just because something looked sharp, didn't mean it was. "Did you get through any of it?" she asked, stepping forward to look at the knife.

"I think I dulled the blade, but that could also have been the angle," Hitoshi told her.

Mei snorted. The answer told her something that should have been immediately obvious. "Eraser Head's capture weapon, what's it made of?" she asked Hitoshi, hoping he'd pick up on it as well.

"It's a bias bound cloth made of- Ah, fuck!" he snapped. "This was never going to go through it," he brandished the blade.

"Not in a million years," Mei agreed. Eraser Head's capture weapon was not 'cloth.' Not technically. It was a steel wire alloy, woven with carbon nanofiber. It was one of the super fabrics that manufacturers like Tissu made exclusively for the hero industry.

"Do you have something that can cut it?" Hitoshi demanded.

Now that was a question Mei liked. She didn't give Hitoshi a verbal reply, instead a bright, brilliant smile appeared on her face.

Did she have something that could cut Eraser Head's capture weapon?

Were her babies awesome?

Of course she did.

The question was now, which method would Hitoshi pick?

-ted-

Garaki would admit that his position as Jaku Hospital Board Chairman had some drawbacks. There was no doubt that the position had its uses as well and those uses outweighed the drawbacks but, when he was involved in the drawbacks, they were frustrating.

In this case, it was the paperwork associated with the position. Still, it was paperwork that needed to be done to ensure the smooth running of the hospital and he needed the hospital to run smoothly. While the basement wasn't his main facility, it was a useful source of raw material and he did not need anyone investigating. People didn't ask questions if things ran the way they expected them too.

Still, sometimes, it was annoying to have to sign off on the various requisition orders and employment notifications.

But necessary.

He applied himself to the paperwork with determination and was therefore surprised when he heard the door to his office close.

That was wrong…

It should have been closed already, Garaki thought as he looked up and was confronted by a small girl… no woman and a man. The woman lunged at him, clamping one hand over his mouth.

Kyudai was too surprised to do much against her.

"You will help him!" she hissed.

Garaki looked over at the man. He was dressed in a black coat with a ridiculously large collar and was holding his side. The white cuffs on his jacket were suspiciously brown and Kyudai could see a stain of red seeping down his pinstripe pants.

"You will help him," she repeated. There was a prick from Garaki's side and he glanced down. He couldn't see exactly what was there but he knew what the feel of steel against skin was like.

He nodded under her hand and felt it tentatively lifted.

"I'll need some bandages," Kyudai said. "And-"

"Get up slowly," the woman ordered.

There was no point in disobeying. Garaki rose slowly. "There's a treatment room across the hallway," he breathed the words.

She nodded but didn't release whatever it was she had pressed into his side. The man swallowed, and moved away from the door. Kyudai made sure he didn't make any sudden movements as he moved, and he quickly opened the door and looked up and down the corridor. This was mostly an administration wing, and it was late so there wasn't anyone there.

With the woman in tow, he crossed the corridor to the treatment room and opened the door. The man grimaced and took the few steps to enter the room. There as a patient bed in the room and the man leaned against it. The woman followed Garaki into the room and closed the door.

"I need to get bandages," Kyudai told her.

She glared at him. Her eyes were pink with purple rings and while unusual, he had seen far more interesting effects. All For One no longer had eyes but the man could glare better than anyone. Eventually she huffed and then nodded, before she withdrew, what Garaki thought was a blade. He caught the flash of a knife before it was sheathed.

Garaki moved to one of the cupboards. In the treatment rooms they were labelled, so that they could see that he was opening a drawer that contained bandages and saline. As he reached into the drawer, Kyudai slipped his phone from his pocket. He rummaged in the draw, pulling out a bandage as he texted Kurogiri.

Send Giga here, he managed to get the text sent, before he turned with the saline. The other bandages dulled the sound of his phone dropping into the drawer.

"I'm going to need to see the wound," he told the man.

The man's blue eyes were clouded with pain but he nodded, and tentatively took one hand from the wound. It was a mistake. Garaki could see the blood well.

"Put pressure again," he instructed immediately. "I think we need to clear the clothing away," he told the woman. "And it would help if I knew what caused the wound," Kyudai added.

"You don't need to know," she snapped. "You just need to help him."

"I will," Garaki reassured her. "But I need to see the wound, so that I can clean it. And I need to know if there's likely to be anything in it," he added. "You don't want it getting infected."

"If you could lie on the bed, that would help," he addressed the man.

Blue eyes were not trusting but he also knew he had to be treated. Gut injuries were not something you could leave to heal on their own. He eased himself onto the bed, and Kyudai could hear his breathing shift as the motion put pressure on his wound.

Kyudai picked up some gauze, and moved over to him. He pulled the man's hand away from the wound and slapped the gauze down. "Can you shift the clothes?"

The man nodded and braced before shifting his clothing.

Garaki couldn't see the wound. There was too much blood. He reached out to grab the saline he'd retrieved earlier and then gently poured some on to the wound. It washed the blood away and Kyudai saw the injury. It was a puncture, about three inches long. In all likelihood, someone had used quite a large knife to make it.

"I can stitch it up," Garaki told him. "But I really should check what it hit inside," he added.

"Just stit-" the woman didn't get any further, when a black disk opened and Gigantomachia suddenly crowded into the room.

Neither the man or the woman were in a position to resist and Gigantomachia was not one to hold back. He quickly had both subdued, though the man was unable to fight.

Garaki retrieved his phone as Kurogiri formed near the door. "The warehouse," Kyudai ordered and was pleased when the familiar sensation of Kurogiri's warp gate enveloped him.

It was a tribute to Kurogiri's skill that Garaki arrived in the warehouse at a different position than Gigantomachia and the new prisoners. It gave him the chance to activate some Nomu to support All For One's bodyguard. Not that Gigantomachia needed it, but he would need the Nomu to move the new prisoners around.

And, first he'd have to find out what their quirks were before he decided if they should just disappear, or if they could be useful before that happened. Gigantomachia released the prisoners into the grasping hands of the Nomu as Kyudai appeared from between the tubes.

"Thank you, Gigantomachia," he said before roughly running through his plan of action. First he had to find out what their quirks were and then… the man was probably strong enough to be the base of a mid tier Nomu and he could always use more experimental subjects or… Maybe Johnny wanted a companion? He didn't make many smaller Nomu but there could be a use for them and gender was hardly a restriction.

Kyudai gave the woman a somewhat amused look. "Now you are going to help me."

-ted-

Kyudai looked up at his two newest prisoners as he thought. The old, tried but true tactic of threatening one with harm had gotten them both to talk, before Garaki had the Nomu shove them both into tanks and dosed them with sedative. He'd gotten a look at the man's… Gentle Criminal's wound, and while it was deep, and painful, it would heal. Or it would if he wanted it to.

Kyudai was now left with an interesting quandary.

The two called themselves villains but he was reluctant to assign that tag to them. Vigilantes didn't work either and the best term was glory hounds. The exact tag didn't matter. The important information was that no one would come looking for them and they hadn't told anyone where they were going.

That had given him a smile. It wasn't often that two experimental subjects presented themselves with such efficiency to him.

Gentle's quirk, elasticity was of some interest but it was La Brava's quirk that interested him more. Love was one of those quirks that had quite a bit of potential if used correctly. Any strengthening quirk had potential. The emotion aspect was somewhat restrictive but he could work with it.

Which was why he was in the quandary.

Nomu did not feel emotion. Nomu obeyed. That was all they did, which limited the potential users of the quirk, except…

There were two Nomu who felt emotion. And technically the High End Nomu could feel emotion just that love was… It was in their repertoire of feelings but it was not one that they'd apply to someone else. Kyudai knew that they didn't love him, they didn't love All For One and they didn't love Izuku. They obeyed but that was not love.

Gigantomachia loved but…

No, there were really only two Nomu who could use her quirk…

And there was only one who Kyudai could guarantee felt love. Except it was not here. It was out in the world doing… He actually had no idea.

Garaki knew All For One wanted his wife turned into a special Nomu, merely to cover the fact that she had been in contact with him during the time she had been pursuing a case against the HPSC. If she'd disappeared immediately after the case concluded, then suspicion would have been raised. The entire case had raised suspicion. Her disappearance would have cemented suspicion and Sir Nighteye was doggedly persistent when he wanted to be.

No, it had been better to send Inko back into the world as if nothing more had happened than the case finishing. Of course, quite a bit more had happened to her in the week after the case. He'd moulded her fresh corpse into one of the finest special Nomu he'd ever made, especially in the time frame. And Inko's only loyalty was to Izuku. She wouldn't seek him out, but if she saw him in danger, then she would do everything in her, now not insignificant, power to protect him.

Which was what would make La Brava's quirk an interesting addition to Inko. Eventually some media would get lucky and there'd be a televised battle with Izuku. If Inko was watching that, she could activate Love and give Izuku a boost. And since Inko's love was focused on her son, that boost would make quite a difference, and, if La Brava had not been lying, and given what one of the Nomu had been doing to Gentle at the time, Garaki had no reason to believe she had been, then distance did not impact her quirk. Emotions were not tied to location.

Which meant Inko could remain exactly where she was and Izuku would get an unexpected boost.

Yes, that could be interesting.

He was, unfortunately, a bit more restrained. In order to give Inko Love, he needed her here and given that her only loyalty was to Izuku, he had no way of recalling her. Or of ensuring her compliance when she was here. Other Nomu just accepted him, she…

Garaki sighed. It would depend on what she remembered from just before she died. And memories that close to death were hard for him to predict. Inko should remember him as the family Doctor… and even that wouldn't put him in good stead but if she remembered he'd been there when All For One had killed her then…

It was best to assume that Inko would not react favourably to him. Kyudai sighed. He could just kill the woman and that would solve the problem but it was a waste of a good quirk and enhancement quirks were hard to come by or… he could ask Yakuni to do something but he had the feeling if he did that, the formerly quirkless young man would tell Izuku, and while All For One's son was developing his villainous outlook, there was a chance he would not approve of what had been done to his mother.

People could be surprisingly sentimental at times. Izuku was no different.

Which left the direct route. Have Gigantomachia grab Inko, sedate her, insert the quirk and release. He could easily make the necessary cocktail of drugs required to subdue Nomu Inko and… yes, that was the best option.

Now to organise it.

-ted-

I forgot this chapter was here :D On the count down to the initial meeting with Kai, there's one more chapter between this one and that event. You will completely understand why when you see that chapter.

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! Not just about MHA.

-ted-

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