The Emperor's Dragon

Truthful Fictions

"Inko?" Setsu said. Her voice was so quiet it almost wasn't audible over the fans that kept the air moving in their little office.

"Yes?" The green haired woman replied at a much louder volume. Not overly loud, just normal talking volume.

Setsu was silent for a few moments. She and Meigo had drawn straws and she had the short one on who had to talk to Inko about Izuku. Though... maybe she was looking at this wrong. Maybe it wasn't something to be trepidatious about. Maybe they should be joyful because it was a solid lead on Inko's son.

"Did the Detective tell you why he was in Tsu that day?" Setsu asked.

She could see that Meigo was listening hard. Ume had figured out that something was up and was listening as well.

"Yes. He was there to get Izuku, but he couldn't," Inko replied immediately, the ever present note of pain in her voice when she spoke about her son was poignant.

"No. Sorry I didn't mean that," Setsu said, shaking her head. "What I mean is how did the Detective know Izuku was in Tsu? How did they know Hisashi was in Tsu? You've told us that the Detective said he was there for Izuku but how?" She needlessly elaborated on the question.

From the way Ume jerked it was obvious she understood the implications.

They all knew the pain of someone missing with no explanation and this... well, this was as close as any of them had gotten to finding out the truth. Inko was lucky that way.

Setsu watched as Inko blinked. Then her eyes closed.

"He never said," she whispered and the other ladies knew Inko had just had the same revelation they had. There had to have been some way the Detective knew Izuku was in Tsu.

"Inko, the Detective also said that Hisashi is a villain right?" Ume said before they could get too tangled in their thoughts.

"He did."

"Then the obvious way the Detective knew Izuku would be in Tsu is that Hisashi was working for Toxic Chainsaw. All Might took out that villain but Tsu isn't All Might's usual patrol so it had to be a planned raid," Ume explained.

Setsu nodded. That made sense. It made a lot of sense. If the heroes were tracking Toxic Chainsaw then they would have tracked down his known associates too. If Hisashi was a known associate then the Police would have known from the Heroes and the Detective could have made the trip down to Tsu to see if Izuku was there.

"Yeah but why didn't he tell her?" Meigo interjected. "And where is Izuku now?"

Ume took a deep breath. "Operational security, perhaps?" she offered the explanation. "As for where Izuku is now..." At that she shook her head. "Hisashi is missing. So there's a few possibilities there. The simplest is that he took the opportunity to do a runner and grabbed Izuku and is somewhere else." She shook her head sadly knowing what Inko would feel at that. "Another option is that his body is one of the unidentified ones that got buried," Ume continued. "But that doesn't explain where Izuku is," she added. "And I don't like that explanation."

"Why?" Meigo asked for Inko.

"Even if Hisashi died, surely Izuku would have gone to the Police, or school or something? I find it hard to believe that Hisashi's associates would have immediately thought to grab Izuku in that event. They'd be too busy fighting it out and a nine year old is not a threat," Ume explained. "If he was older-" Again, she didn't need to finish the sentence.

"What if someone else got to him?" Setsu asked. She didn't want to but they had to look at all options.

"You mean like a child smuggling ring?"