The Emperor's Dragon II

More Thinking Time Please

Shouto looked down at his phone.

2:43pm, Aldera Municipal Park, at the twelve hand of the flower clock.

There wasn't a need to specify anything else and the location was pretty exact. There might be other people passing by but there was unlikely to be others standing around.

The time was... The time had to be a joke since it was exactly twelve hours after he'd sent his message.

He'd checked where Alderea Municipal Park was and it was reasonably close. The map he'd looked up had even labelled the flower clock.

Shouto wasn't sure what to think about that. It meant that whoever was behind the messages had picked out a real place. Did that mean they were real or were they just smart and couldn't do what they said they could? He bit his lip. The nervous gesture was something he'd never have done when his father was around but Enji had been somewhat odd the past few weeks. It was as if he didn't know how to deal with him, and so he'd been relentless in his pursuit of Izuku Midoriya, or Dragon as they thought he was known in the underworld.

Shouto was a bit confused about that. He understood that Izuku Midoriya was Mitei Chui. That much was easy. Mitei Chui was one of the first year Management Students at UA but if he was involved in UA, then how did he have time to be Dragon, who was meant to be a big deal in the underworld. It made no sense. There were only so many hours in a day, and ... he knew how they could be assigned. For most of his life, his every waking hour had been planned. There just wasn't enough time for Izuku Midoriya to go to UA, complete his homework (and everyone said he was) and be active in the underworld.

And of all the things he was thinking of, that shouldn't be something he was considering.

Shouto knew he should tell his father about this but he also had a fair idea what Enji would say. He'd think it was a trap, and it could be. Shouto wasn't stupid enough to have discounted that possibility. It was probably a scammer, but a smart one and no one would be waiting there.

Or it could be real. Except that was the smallest possibility, which is why he'd been silent. But on the chance that it was real, he knew he should tell someone.

Except, Enji had been called from the house last night to deal with- Shouto wasn't sure. It was something to do with prisoners. He got that much but he didn't know which prisoners or where. And he didn't know how much longer that was going to take. Still, even if he couldn't tell his father, he knew he should tell someone... if it was real...

They could capture Dragon there and everyone could have their quirk back... Whoever he'd been talking to hadn't said anything about setting a trap.

Shouto snorted. They didn't have to. He already knew what would happen if they tried to trap Dragon. There'd be a heap of quirkless people.

And he'd never get his quirk back.

He shook his head. This was most likely nothing. It was someone playing a joke on him. At worst, there'd be paparazzi there and his father would have to deal with that but...

He couldn't help the small hope that this was a real offer escape and so...

Shouto sighed and got up before he slipped his phone into a pocket.

It was time to go.

-ted-

Izuku was thankful it was sunny this afternoon. He needed the energy boost. He'd gotten the prisoners into the tanks and got the process started before he'd had Kurogiri take him back to the warehouse where he'd fallen asleep. But it wasn't really enough sleep and he hoped he could get more tonight. He'd also asked Kurogiri to look into alternate accommodation for them. The warehouse was okay for emergencies but they needed somewhere better.