The Emperor's Dragon

Sore Throats and Hero Work

Yakuni rubbed at his throat. It hurt. It was like he was coming down with something except he had no other symptoms. It was just the sore throat and the lack of breath that caused. It wasn't enough to stop him from coming to work.

Especially now that he had a quirk to copy. He finally had the sample and was now setting it up in a growth tube. It would accelerate the growth from mere cells to a clone that was about three and a half years old before he allowed it to grow at a natural rate. It had been tricky to get the sample without alerting Dragon, or his friend, but Dragon's dad had been clear. And no matter how he felt about Dragon, and he liked to think that the teen was a friend, Dragon's dad paid the bills. So in the end, that was that.

He'd also put a copy of the sample on record. He didn't know what this quirk did but if the boss, Ujiko's sponsor, Dragon's father, wanted another copy then it would be simple to take that sample and grow another clone. Ujiko had been full of praise when he suggested that they start keeping records like that.

Durama was a great biologist. There was no question of that in his mind but after working with him for a while now, Yakuni could see that he was also very results oriented. He didn't think about the process much and certainly almost never documented things properly. On the other hand, he liked systems and thankfully Ujiko didn't seem to mind when he implemented them, especially if it would make something easier in future.

That was great. This had already been close to a dream job but given that he'd gotten a quirk out of it, and he got to work on cutting edge biology, it was as close to perfect as he could imagine.

If only his throat would stop hurting.

His rubbing it had caught Ujiko's attention too. The man was working in front of a tube that had a teenager in it. The boy had been overweight but was now trim. It made his wings look even larger. There was already a copy of the teens quirk being grown. Dragon's father wanted it for Dragon.

"I'll be fine," Yakuni told the man.

"I'm sure you will," Ujiko replied without turning to him.

Yakuni pressed the last few buttons on the tube, letting the process begin before he turned away.

Where had he put that gargle... He needed the pain relief. And then... he'd figure out something later.

-ted-

Garaki sighed when Yakuni disappeared. The boy was going to have to make a choice soon and hopefully he picked the right one. All For One was not in the mood to be challenged. Not after the failure with the change quirk. And there was something else bothering Sensei. He didn't know what it was but the man was frustrated about something more.

When Kurogiri had found Sensei, he'd been summoned, and had quickly inserted the breathing tube again before moving him to the nutrient bath. That had probably been unnecessary this time but it did allow him to better gauge Sensei's recovery. Even so, Sensei should have known better to experiment on his own but...

The Doctor shook his head. He was not going to change the man.

At least the subsequent experiment had been with him present but the results had not been pleasing. Using the girl's quirk, All For One could change his form to his uninjured state, however, as soon as the change wore off, he was absolutely exhausted.

It wasn't just a temporary exhaustion either. Kyudai had measured Sensei's blood sugars and other stats, and they were all depressed. Using the quirk had a huge toll on his body, even more than a combat quirk. He suspected it was because the quirk didn't want to change a body to look like itself and that drained more energy. Or because it was temporarily fixing his injuries. Both were viable theories.