The Emperor's Dragon

So Close, But Yet So Far

It wasn't often one was called into a meeting with the Number One hero, All Might, and his only sidekick, Sir Nighteye. In any other circumstances White Spirit would have been honoured, or flattered. As it was, coming on top of everything else, she felt sick and tired and worried.

It didn't help that both of them looked particularly grim. She'd never seen All Might without his patented smile. She sat down across the table and looked over at the two heroes. They simply looked at her. There was another man beside them, a police officer by the badge that was showing on his belt.

"Look, what is this about? I'm rather busy," she snapped and inwardly winced. She was not going to be making a good impression.

"We are here about the raid," Sir Nighteye told her.

The less said about the raid, the better. It was a cluster fuck with a capital C. She wasn't sure what went wrong though. Ruthless Shade wasn't meant to be that dangerous. They knew his abilities. They knew his followers' abilities and yet...

Half way through the raid things had started going wrong. They'd lost contact with Scarlet Scorpion and FreezeStar before they realised anything had gone wrong. And then there was a huge hulk of a man. Phantom hadn't stood a chance and Sage had a long road to recovery. And now, what they were finding as they went through the building was even more worrisome.

Children's toys and clothes. The only consolation White Spirit could take was that the children had their own rooms with proper beds and thus it didn't seem like it was a people smuggling operation. Those crammed the kids into as small a space as possible and definitely didn't give them toys.

"What about the raid?" She snapped, before taking a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry. Things are not going well," she offered the paltry explanation. She really didn't have time for this meeting.

"I understand," All Might said before Sir Nighteye could say a word. "We want to know what you found," he asked.

"What we found? What we found doesn't make sense!" White Spirit growled. "Look, before I launch into explaining everything, what do you know already?" She demanded, ungraciously. They obviously knew, or strongly suspected something and she was tired. It would be better to get this over with.

Sir Nighteye looked offended but All Might nodded. "Before we tell you anything, I'd like to confirm one thing. Do you have a good photo of Ruthless Shade?" he asked.

White Spirit nodded and pulled out her comm. She tapped the buttons for a few moments, dumping the photo to whoever was in range. Right at the moment she didn't care who saw the image.

All Might brought out his own phone and it pinged when it accepted the image. He tapped the screen, and looked at it before he held it up for Sir Nighteye and the police officer to see.

"That's him," the officer said.

White Spirit knew what they were seeing. They'd gotten an image of Ruthless Shade with his cowl down. He had brilliant gold eyes and almost hauntingly white hair. It reflected whatever light was around, and in this image had taken on a blue hue.

"It is," All Might confirmed before he looked up at her again. White Spirit noted that his eyes were sharp. "Ruthless Shade is not some minor villain," the Number One Hero said.

White Spirit wanted to object but she wasn't quite sure what she would be objecting to. Probably the implication that they couldn't handle one villain.

"He's far more than that," All Might continued before he took a deep breath. "In your dealings, have you ever heard of a man just called 'Sensei'?" he asked. His blue eyes were quite serious.