The Emperor's Dragon II

Official Bribery

Hitoshi sat in Mei's lab at lunchtime. It was just the two of them now and their free time was spent more in silence than conversation. He'd offered to go somewhere else but Mei had said it was okay for him to come and... He didn't really have anywhere else to go but the silence highlighted the fact that they had both been Izuku's friend, not each others.

They'd been working on becoming each other's friend but that took time and it was far easier when Izuku was here. Now that he wasn't...

He sighed and then spotted a package of papers under a collection of random bits that hadn't been there yesterday.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing towards it.

"Wah's wha?" Mei asked, poking her head around from what she was working on. Her voice wasn't just muffled from the object but because she was nibbling on the corner of a dry biscuit.

"What's that?" Hitoshi asked again, reaching out to tap the packet of papers. He knew better than to try to pick it up. Mei would have a cat if he disturbed any of the gizmos and bits and bobs that were on it.

"Oh that," she said, and ducked back to what she was doing. "That's just an internship offer."

For a moment, Hitoshi wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. "Just an internship offer?" he murmured eventually, wincing at how incredulous he sounded.

"You didn't get one?"

"An internship?"

"Yah," Mei replied. He actually heard her put down something and then she reappeared from behind whatever it was she was working on. Her green-yellow eyes speared into him as she looked him over.

"Why would I get an internship offer?" Hitoshi asked.

"Not that," Mei dismissed his question, waving one hand. "A bribe," she clarified.

He immediately knew what she was talking about. Hitoshi didn't think he'd changed expression but from the way Mei's face altered, he'd given himself away somehow.

"You did," she made the statement.

Hitoshi heaved a deep breath. "Yeah, I did," he admitted, knowing it was pointless trying to deny it. If it had been Ochaco or Izuku he probably would have gotten away with saying nothing. Mei seemed to know him... well, not better than they did, because she didn't, but she was a lot more direct with questions.

"What did they offer?"

"A place in the Heroic's course," he told her. Now that he'd said it, he was curious about something himself. Why had Mei called it a bribe? Was she really still loyal to Izuku?

"Oh ho!" Mei exclaimed. "Pulling out the big guns."

"Who's your internship with?" He asked, curious to find out how big the guns really were.

"Kunshu," she replied.

He felt his eyes widen. "They're-"

"Yeah," Mei agreed with the incomplete sentence. Kunshu were the biggest supplier of support equipment to the hero industry, bar none. There were some, smaller specialised companies that had contracts with individual heroes but on the whole Kunshu just made contracts with heroes and made sure they kept them happy. For someone like Mei, who would be going into support, the type of contacts an internship with Kunshu would get her could make her company. Or would make her one of Kunshu's 'must keep' employees. He'd heard rumours of what they'd do for them! "Who made the offer to you?" she asked.

She should already know. He'd told them he had a work experience place. "Eraserhead," he said.

Mei came over and sat at her desk. It was the one that held the plans for her babies. She spun around in her chair. "They are being kind of heavy handed, don't you think?"