The Emperor's Dragon II

This Is My Price

Dabi looked at the screen. The press conference was over but he couldn't stop staring. The others were similarly quiet. It was safe to say that the press conference wasn't what they thought it would be. It probably wasn't what anyone thought it would be like.

The door at the end of the warehouse opened and the kid came back. His expression was neutral. Himiko and Kurogiri followed him.

"You've probably got questions," he said as he came close.

It was fair to say that. They had questions even before the conference.

"What do you think about Stain?" Butterfly asked.

"I've never met him," the kid replied. The response seemed honest.

"You want to kill All Might," she said pointedly. "And Stain says All Might is the only real hero."

"Ah," the kid nodded. "I've never met Stain but I have met All Might. I can appreciate Stain's mantra that heroes should be heroes. I agree. I completely agree," he told them. "Heroes should be heroes but All Might is not as good as Stain believes," he added.

"All Might is the only hero," Butterfly insisted.

The kid shook his head. "You saw my dad the other night, right? He appeared healthy to you but he's not. All Might caused that, so for me, it's personal," he told them.

Dabi could understand that. There were morons out there who'd say that Endeavor was a good hero. They didn't know better. And while Stain was right, and All Might was a great hero, there were those who would have a different experience. And the kid had to know most of them were Stain fans. He'd told them straight out earlier what his plans were. He had guts at least.

"Did you take their quirks?" Mr Compress asked, referring to the press conference.

"Yes, I did."

The response was deceptively simple but there was no trace of a lie.

"How many did you take?" Dabi asked.

"All of them, except for the two who didn't show up to the challenge."

There'd been nothing about that in the press conference. "Who didn't show up? Who showed up?" Twice asked.

"Shoji and Honenuki didn't show up," the kid told them. "I wasn't too surprised that those two didn't show up. They seemed the most sensible."

"So you took Bakugou and Todoroki's quirk?" Dabi enquired. Even though he really wanted to know what had happened, he couldn't show too much interest in only one of the UA students.

The kid gave him a look as if he was trying to figure out something. He smiled slightly. "I'm sorry you guys went to so much trouble to kidnap them," he apologised. "I told Tomura it was stupid but..." he shrugged.

"Todoroki could have been convinced," Dabi said. "I don't know about the other one."

The kid shook his head. "Probably not," he announced. "Bakugou is one of those people who think that to be a hero means you get to beat the crap out of villains. No finesse."

"Not a hero according to Stain," Whisper murmured.

"Not a hero," the kid agreed. "He's going to find out what it's like to be quirkless." The kid's expression shifted slightly. "Probably not exactly what it means though, since everyone knows he had a quirk."

"So you really aren't giving them back?" Mr Compress asked.

"I have no reason to," the kid said immediately. He jerked his head towards the screen which was now off. "I was impressed that they didn't insult my Father, but they didn't offer anything I'm interested in. All they offered was for me to return things to the status quo." He looked as if he was thinking slightly. "And they didn't even promise I'd be free to go if I did that," the kid concluded with a short bark of laughter. "I guess they don't have permission for that," he said.