The Emperor's Dragon

Unexpected Contact

How are you doing, Izuku?

He looked at his phone. The message was from Inasa and he hadn't heard much from his friend... associate? Izuku wasn't quite sure any more. He hadn't heard from Inasa for a while.

I'm not too bad, you?

Pretty good, came the fast reply.

Izuku blinked at his phone, wondering what Inasa wanted and then he shook his head. He shouldn't be that suspicious. How is Shiketsu? He asked. He wanted to know how it differed from UA. Shiketsu was a dedicated Hero School and didn't offer General Studies so he was interested to know the differences that caused. Except ever since he had enrolled, Inasa had been distant.

It's interesting. They emphasise discipline and quirk control. How is management?

It wasn't really the in depth analysis Izuku wanted, but it was a start. He smiled fondly at his phone. Interesting. They alternate between hero management and company management, he told his friend. You know which one I'm more interested in, he added.

He'd never really spoken to Inasa about heroes, not beyond telling him his dad had been injured.

I can imagine, Inasa sent back. What can you tell me about the hero student's quirks though?

Izuku blinked at the question. It answered what Inasa wanted but why would he want that? He decided to play along with it.

There's a couple of interesting ones, he replied. A couple of them have been trained, he added. Those were sort of obvious answers.

I know. All the recommendation students trained, and at least some of the regular entries would have slipped in some training, Inasa replied. It was, again, kind of obvious.

Izuku got the impression they were both dancing around something. For him, it was wanting to know if Inasa wanted to be his friend again, and for Inasa... he wasn't sure what. That's true, he sent back.

Can you tell me about Yuga Aoyama?

He frowned at the question. Yuga Aoyama was a member of Class 1A. He'd gotten through to the tournament round of the Sport's Festival and that was about all Izuku knew. Why would Inasa be interested in him? Why?

There was silence on his phone for a while and he could tell Inasa was thinking. Eventually the replying dots appeared. There's a rumour going around that UA will send their first year classes to Provisional Licensing this year, came the response.

While he had an answer, it didn't make any sense. So what? Izuku replied. What did it matter if the first years got their Provisional Licenses? Though, it wasn't normal. And it would mean they were ahead of their counterparts in Shiketsu.

Inasa didn't reply immediately and Izuku got the impression he was thinking. None of the other Hero schools really like UA, he sent through finally. There's a tradition at the Provisional Licensing Exam to try to make the UA students fail. Eventually they pass, but usually on their second or third attempts.

And some don't pass at all? Izuku questioned.

_へ_(‾◡◝ )

What happens if they don't pass? He really didn't know. He knew Heroes were licenced but he'd never really thought about the specifics of it.

Then they have to get sponsored, Inasa told him. And they usually don't do as well as other heroes in the long term.

Inasa didn't know that he really didn't care about that. He'd be more interested if the answer was 'they couldn't become heroes'. Does Shiketsu send their first years?