The Emperor's Dragon

Best Served Cold

"You lied to me," Sir Nighteye stated. He didn't slam his hands on the desk, or hiss, or engage in any other histrionics, no matter how badly he wanted to. Instead he fixed the Commissioner with a bland stare.

The man returned it but the fact that he wasn't spluttering at the insult or otherwise taking offense told Mirai that the Commission knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I didn't lie," Commissioner Soukan said mildly. "I just didn't tell you."

"So what happened?" Mirai demanded. "Exactly how do you lose a headless corpse?" he added the question.

The Commissioner snorted. "We didn't. We never had it," he stated.

That caused Sir Nigtheye's blood to run cold, and he saw again in his mind's eye one of the images that had come to trouble him. The man had All For One's build, and seemingly All For One's multitude of quirks but covering his head, and a part of his chest was a black mask. The obvious conclusion was that it was him, except... he had been headless! No matter what quirks you had, there was no coming back from that. Not even regeneration quirks went that far and Toshinori would have known if he had a regeneration quirk.

Soukan sighed. "First responders checked the body. There were no signs of life. They then grabbed All Might and got him treatment. The site was marked off, as you well know. Then when we sent the corpse collectors in, there was no body."

Sir Nighteye shuddered. "So his people got him?"

"It would seem that way," the Commissioner nodded.

Mirai took several deep breaths to calm himself.

"I don't see why you are worried. All they have is a corpse."

"Maybe," he murmured.

Realisation dawned on the Commissioner's face as he no doubt recalled what Sir Nighteye's quirk was. "What have you seen?" He demanded.

"All Might, without his quirk, fighting someone who could have been him."

"Could have been?"

"The height was his, the build was his, the suit was his, as were the multiple quirks. However, there was a black metal mask covering his head and shoulders."

The Commissioner worried his lip as he thought. "A clone perhaps? Or a puppet?" he offered the alternatives. The thought of the figure being one of them had occurred to Sir Nighteye as well but...

Human cloning was illegal. It wouldn't stop All For One came the immediate retort from his mind. "He wouldn't allow himself to be cloned." That argument felt better to him.

"He is no longer calling the shots."

The statement from the Commissioner was enough for Mirai to know what they would be trying if they had All For One's body. They would be desperately trying to extract his quirk, and if that meant cloning the man, that's what they would do. They had blood, so they could still be attempting that. He made a mental note to truly check. The world did not need another All For One.

"He's not, but if there is anything of him-" Sir Nighteye didn't finish. He didn't need to. The Commissioner understood.

"Let's say the person in your vision was him. He could not be fully functional," Soukan said matter of factly. "They pulled brain matter out from All Might's hand, so at the very least, he has a traumatic brain injury."

Sir Nighteye ran through the rest of his visions. He'd done this already but another check never hurt. Except, he could not find that man again. One battle was all he'd seen. He could look into Toshinori's future again and look further but that was chancy. His visions were in real time, and even with All Might being on limited time, that was more events than he could observe in an hour. "I'd feel a lot better-" he didn't finish. He'd feel a lot better with a body and a cremation but the Commissioner wouldn't have allowed that. Even so, no matter what the Commission had planned, he'd feel better with the body under their control.