The Emperor's Dragon

Work, Work, Work

It was less than 48 hours since the battle against All For One and while that meant for most people things were going back to normal, at least, as normal as they could be with the buildings and infrastructure destroyed, for Sir Nighteye, it meant his paperwork was still in full swing. This part was not something he usually did, but for All For One, he'd make an exception.

The field morgue was still in use and Sir Nighteye displayed his hero license and then waited in the front tent for the appropriate coroner to come. The woman hurried up to him. She had gray skin and brilliant pink spikes for hair with slit eyes. It looked almost like a lizard mutation, albeit of odd colours but there were no other physical differences to her form. "How can I help you, Sir Nighteye?" she asked.

"I believe I can identify a body," he told her.

She simply nodded. She was professional enough not to look relieved. "Do you have a physical description?"

He recalled the photos. "White hair, gold eyes, medium-heavy build and a good suit," Mirai provided the description, aware that the most important points were the last two.

The coroner frowned and her lips pursed. "Anything else?"

"About 210cm tall," Mirai added. "I believe the body belongs to Hisashi Riji," he supplied the name, looking at the tag that was around her neck, searching for her name.

The woman shook her head. "There's no one fitting that description."

Sir Nighteye wanted to say there had to be but he held his tongue. The first responders had said the body was in very bad condition. "I believe he has extensive wounds."

The coroner shook her head again. "There is no one fitting that description," she repeated. "You are welcome to look though."

He frowned, but nodded. The woman moved to the desk and pulled out a guest pass. She handed it to him and Mirai finally got a look at her name. There was nothing suspicious about it. Anchi Shono.

"Thank you Anchi," Sir Nighteye thanked her and then moved through the plastic sheeting to where the bodies were laid out. They were all on stretchers and covered in sheets.

"The ones at the back are unidentified," Anchi told him.

He nodded and moved back. The tent was large, and cold and the stretchers were laid out in lines. Sir Nighteye began at one corner and began working through the corpses. Some had torn and bloody clothes. Some had barely a scratch. Others showed their injuries clearly and the cause of death was obvious, but all of them had heads.

The first responder had said that All For One was missing his head. The group that had given Toshinori first aid had been very clear about that.

He went through each body, one after the other, with a sense of worry growing. All For One was dead. He had to be. Why wasn't his body here?

"Has anyone claimed any of them?" Sir Nighteye asked Anchi who was talking softly at her tablet, writing up one more report on a victim.

"None of the bodies have been released to the families yet," she replied absently.

"Then has anyone taken a body?"

She knew what he meant. Had the government taken one?

"No. These are all victims," she told him. "You can check the identified bodies," Anchi added.

"Hisashi Riji hasn't been identified," Mirai replied. He didn't know all the names but he'd checked that much.

"Then he might still be out there," Anchi gestured vaguely around them. They were still cleaning up.