08/04/2025
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The Emperor's Dragon
Chapter 108 - Business
Rikiya Yotsubashi was not accustomed to waiting. But here he was. At least here was sumptuously appointed and a nervous looking intern was making sure he had everything he needed. The couch was perfectly padded, and the room had a fine view of the skyline, with the glass tinted just the right amount to block the glare without impeding his view.
The intern had assured him that he'd be seen shortly and Rikiya had forcibly reminded himself that right now, he was the CEO of Detnerat, not the Head of the Meta Liberation Army. Detnerat commanded some respect but in JBQC's headquarters, Detnerat was just another company. Though, they had invited him.
"Ah, Rikiya," the voice was warm. Janee was always warm. She approached him with a smile.
As always, Janee was immaculately presented. Rikiya had offered her a job at Detnerat but she'd refused. Gently refused but still refused. It was part of the corporate game.
"Janee," he greeted her.
"Thank you for coming," she said with a smile and then gestured towards the other side of the waiting room. There was an office there. Rikiya recognised it as the CEO's office. That was unusual.
"Your owner is here?"
"You indicated you wanted to talk once the legal issues were resolved," Janee reminded him. It was a remarkably straightforward statement from her.
He recalled that Detnerat had given a response similar to that for an inquiry by JBQC. He had no idea they were still interested. "We did," Rikiya replied pleasantly. "I trust the resolution was equitable?"
"It could have been better," Janee said breezily. "But we can work with the resolution." She gestured for him to precede her into the CEO's office.
Rikiya hadn't been here before. There was a large desk near the window and a set of couches off to the side. Surprisingly, there was a three-tatami area to the side with a low table and cushions set into the far corner. The walls appeared to be traditional paper inset into wooden frames. It was eclectic to say the least. It fitted with what he knew of the villain who had been the CEO of JBQC.
There was a girl, in a UA uniform sitting on one of the couches. Janee moved to them and indicated that Rikiya should take a seat at the other couch. He did so and examined the teenager. Her uniform indicated she was from the Support Course and had pink hair in dreadlocks. Her eyes were green yellow with cross hairs in them. Rikiya had known that JBQC had changed owners, but this was the owner?
He should walk out but Janee wouldn't have invited him here frivolously. She knew what an insult it would be to him to meet a teenager!
"Mei Hatsume is the owner of JBQC," Janee interpreted his stare.
"No," Rikiya said firmly. "A villain usually called All For One is the owner of JBQC," he replied.
"I don't know that person," Janee was equally firm. She'd always been firm on not knowing the villain. She knew, obviously, but she never admitted it.
Rikiya frowned, trying to remember what All For One was calling himself. "Hisashi Riji," he snapped when he remembered.
The teenager gave him a look. "I bought him out," she told him flatly.
It took him a moment to comprehend that. "What?"
"I bought him out," the salmon haired teen repeated. "A man like that, with injuries like that, how much do you think he'd pay for relief?" she asked blandly.
Rikiya frowned. Logically it made sense, but it also made absolutely no sense either. How had she known All For One? Who negotiated for her because he refused to believe she had done that herself?
She huffed. "I knew his son. Though I didn't know Izuku's dad was a villain then," Mei explained.
The son was an opening Rikiya hadn't even been aware existed. No one had. And no doubt All For One had worked hard to keep it that way. But while he could vaguely appreciate that All For One had wanted relief from his injuries, he did not understand why he had handed over his entire company. Unless…
There was more going on here than he thought and if Mei knew All For One's son then…
Ah… All For One had not handed over his company to Mei Hatsume, he'd perhaps given it to his son. On paper, Rikiya was sure he'd discover that Mei was the owner. In reality, it would belong to either All For One or his son. Which was not reassuring.
All For One's son had made far too many mistakes. He'd discussed this with Chitose, Koku and Tomoyasu last night. His mind flashed through the memory.
"You are still going to the meeting?" Koku asked.
The Meta Liberation Army had confirmed that All For One had been released from Tartarus. It was easy with their contacts, even if Chitose was being fed bullshit from the Hero Public Safety Association about the incident.
"Yes," Rikiya had told him. "This will be a good opportunity to see what has changed."
"It might be too early," Tomoyasu had told him.
Rikiya had nodded. It may well be too early as All For One would probably be contacting many of his sources but his meeting was scheduled and it would look odd to cancel or postpone it.
"If they maintain the fiction, it's an opportunity," Chitose reminded them.
"But do we even want to be associated with him? He's made so many mistakes!" Koku reminded them.
"That is what this meeting will determine," Rikiya had indicated. It was true though. All For One's son had made many mistakes and if he was still legally controlling JBQC then that would leave them reputationally exposed. Which was, in many ways, worse than being financially exposed. No one knew exactly what would happen when Izuku Midoriya was captured by the heroes, but it was generally accepted that he would be.
Unless the MLA dealt with him first.
The only thing that All For One's brat had done right was off that arrogant prick calling himself Tomura Shigaraki. And they knew that was an alias because there was simply no one registered with that name. It wasn't surprising that All For One would have set it up though.
"This meeting will allow me to see how much influence All For One's son has at JBQC, or if it is just a cover for All For One. Remember, JBQC is a legitimate business, and they will honour any agreements." Unspoken was that he could bargain for an agreement that was wholly in their favour.
Chitose seemed to accept it, but Koku wasn't convinced. Koku had the least practice in actual business though.
"And in due course, the MLA will crush both All For One, and his son. This will be a way of establishing an information source," Rikiya mused. Koku understood them. Tomoyasu understood them more. The man shook his head.
"The Yakuza idiot tried to use the kid," Tomoyasu pointed out, mockingly.
That particular event had provided quite a bit of intelligence and Rikiya understood Tomoyasu's warning. If All For One's son thought he was being used, then he'd lash out. All For One would probably be more subtle. He'd allow the use as an information gathering mechanism. It was simply standard business practice.
Rikiya nodded at Tomoyasu to indicate he'd heard the warning. "If we cannot arrive at a mutually beneficial bargain-" and by that, the MLA knew he meant beneficial for them, though there would be some, superficial benefit for JBQC. Afterall, they had to appear to be benefiting, or it would make no sense for them to agree to a deal. "-then I will simply walk away," he told them. It reminded his Commanders that tomorrow's meeting was business. Detnerat business, not MLA business, though the two were, as always aligned, they were not always interlinked.
His Commanders nodded.
In as much as Izuku Midoriya had made mistakes, there were opportunities in those mistakes. The kid was hated. The heroes were focused on him. Not quite to the exclusion of all else, though with the raid on Tartarus and the death of Endeavor, that might change, but to the exclusion of enough. For that alone, All For One's son was useful.
But there would come a point in time where both All For One, and his son would outlive their usefulness. That was the point where their interests could not be closely linked because the MLA would destroy them both. If the heroes hadn't got to them first. The odds were against them both, and while Rikiya didn't know if All For One was a betting man, there was a point in time when the gamble was lost.
All For one had reached that time… years back. He just didn't know it yet.
"Knowing his son seems like an unexpected opportunity," Rikiya commented. He still wasn't sure how much power this Mei had, but he was leaning towards nothing. The story was plausible and consistent. It was the story she'd gone with in court but…
For a moment the teenager just gave him a look. "An unlooked for opportunity," she agreed with a nod.
He looked to Janee, giving her a look that bespoke his scepticism. She simply returned a challenging view. It was meant to reassure him that this Mei Hatsume really was in charge.
It didn't.
"This was a mistake," Rikiya indicated, making to get up. Janee was controlled enough to simply display a mild look of surprise. Mel looked stricken. As he stood, Rikiya wondered what All For One or his son were holding over her. Not that he cared but it was an anomaly. Were they holding something over her or… It didn't matter. "I don't deal with children," he said. "And your offerings would be limited," Rikiya added. Part of the idea of meeting had been to try to get a way into the Hero Industry Support Items but while it was possible that Mei Hatsume would be a good support item designer in future, and may even be capable of it now, they would find a better way before investing in her paid off.
"I thought that was what Hearts and Minds was for," Mei muttered, loud enough to be heard.
By itself it was a throw away statement, but it revealed that even if Mei was a token leader, Janee had briefed her well. So maybe he could wrangle some sort of deal that would allow Detnerat or the MLA to gain an opening in JBQC. "Interesting," he murmured but didn't offer any other opening.
Mei apparently recognised the tactic. "Fine. How about I prove to you that I know what I'm doing?" she suggested. Before he could say anything, the teen launched into another question. "What is your alliance's biggest problem right now?" she demanded, her expression turning from stricken to determined. It betrayed her belief she could do something against him and gave him even more information. She was determined, not desperate, which meant that if the deal failed, or nothing was agreed to then she was not going to be punished. That was interesting. He would have thought that Mei had instructions… and she probably did, or perhaps, she just didn't understand the consequences of not doing what All For One wanted. That was more likely.
Even so… He remained standing. "Satellites," Rikiya told her. SpaceXYF had delayed their launch again and were now talking about having to delay for an either season.
Mei nodded at his statement, and he could tell she was thinking. "Humour me," she asked. "How much do they cost - a satellite launch?" She didn't have to tell him that if he exaggerated too much, Janee would just offer her the corrected information.
Rikiya sighed but was just curious enough to actually humour her. This was not a direction they'd thought the meeting would take. He sat back down, but on the edge of the couch to indicate he could still leave. "It depends on the satellite size and launch vehicle but anything from about 10 to 250 million."
Mei didn't look surprised. She nodded and Rikiya could tell she was mentally noting the information. He still didn't know where she was going with this. "What's the weight of the satellite you are launching?"
If it was just a communication satellite for Tomoyasu's Feel Good Inc, then the weight would be much smaller. There were a number of other… capacities onboard. "About 800 kilos."
"And how many?"
That was getting into touchy information but everyone knew the satellites were for communication. "About 30," Rikiya told her. This was one of the alliance's longer term plans. If they could launch their own network, then that would dramatically lower the cost of their communication plans. And once they got people coming to them for communications, there was a lot of information that could be extracted. They would be in a situation where they could… He didn't want to get too far ahead of himself.
"So… let's say your launch costs about $50 million," Mei murmured.
That was a bargain estimate.
"So about $1.5 billion to launch them all."
Janee was giving him an openly sceptical look. She knew the alliance didn't have that type of capital. "We are planning to launch over the next decade," Rikiya explained. That was all publicly available information. What was not public was that the MLA would have launched itself before then, which would make his launches far cheaper.
The Executive Officer nodded, and was apparently reworking numbers in her head. She seemed satisfied.
"Hmm," the teen murmured. She was obviously doing calculations as well. "To prove my inventions are good, are in fact, first rate, I will do a trial launch for you."
"Trial launch?" Rikiya couldn't help but ask. It sounded like he'd be footing the bill for her start up.
"I will launch one of your satellites for… what we'll call a proof of concept price. We'll negotiate the rate for future launches after the first. But the launch will also prove to you that I am as good as my word and that you will be getting more than your monies worth dealing with me."
"How much?"
"Five million," she stated confidently, holding up one hand. "The figure is not open to negotiation. You get the launch window and the orbit lane license for your sat, I will get it into space."
"And the environmental permits?" These days you had to have them for launches, or a lot of offsets.
"I'll take care of that as well," Mei indicated.
It was tempting… except there was no way to launch for that much. Not even as tertiary cargo. The rockets, the… This was just a ploy to get five million out of him.
"You are lying," he said.
"No, I'm not," she told him, not even looking insulted. Janee's face betrayed nothing, which meant either knew what JBQC's owner was doing, or she knew nothing. Janee was professional like that.
"If I agreed to this, I'd want collateral," Rikiya told her. If she stole the money, she'd be dead but- if this was real… Rikiya reminded himself that she had, somehow, impressed All For One. That head gear the villain had been wearing was good enough that the HPSC was willing to challenge patent laws to claim ownership, so there was something to it.
"What?"
"JBQC," he responded immediately. The answer actually shocked an expression from Janee.
"No," Mei replied, shaking her head. "Ownership of my medical ba-invention," she corrected her word. "The one I just was awarded control of."
That was an interesting counter proposal, especially since that was the idea she had been hoping to get Detnerat to market for her. His marketing people said that initially it would be a loss but over time, the device would make money. Tentatively they'd placed the profit estimate at about 5 million, over 2 years.
She either knew that or had made very realistic estimates herself.
"It will make your investment back. This is a win, win bargain for you. Either you get your launch at a fraction of market rate, or you get my invention. But when you get your launch, I expect Detnerat to come to the table to market my inventions and I will give you what information I have about the hero support industry."
It was a good bargain. And if she could launch a satellite then her inventions would definitely be useful… even if they needed to be powered down. That was the opposite of the usual problem.
"You have a deal," Rikiya agreed.
"Janee, have that drawn up into a contract," Mei said as she rose. She walked around the coffee table that was between the couches and stuck out her hand.
Rikiya took it. Her grip was firm. His was stronger.
"Pleasure doing business with you," Mei said.
"We will see who's pleasure it is," he replied.
They would, because no matter her skill, he remained doubtful.
But, time would tell.
-ted-
Google tells me it can cost between 10 to 400 million to launch a satellite and while MHA is meant to have ignored space travel, I imagine they still have satellites and launch them. So they brought the upper cost down a bit, IMO. The lower level cost, possibly not, unless you are launching the really really tiny sats as secondary payloads. Though the really tiny ones might be tertiary payloads!
Anyway, Mei is entering the big leagues, and... she has many goods that will help her there. And while Re-Destro might not want to deal with her, Rikiya really has to if he wants his plans to progress.
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!