The Emperor's Dragon II

Times Have Changed

Izuku sat on his bed and took a couple of deep breaths. It was nice to just be able to sit and think by himself for once. The last few weeks had been so hectic that he'd always just fallen to sleep for as long as he could get. It was nice now to have some space to call his own and to actually go through the routine of getting ready to sleep. He hadn't realised how much he'd missed that.

It gave him time to reflect.

Things were going... In one way they were going well. He hadn't been captured. The majority of Tomura's crew had agreed to follow him and he was working on a plan. In another way, it was going terribly. He'd killed Tomura, mucking up his Dad's chances of being healed. He didn't have a solid plan or anything resembling that and-

He swallowed hard and shoved the thought that he'd failed his Dad from his mind. There would be another way.

There had to be another way. He'd just have to find it.

There was time. He couldn't expect anything to be done in a month. He'd have to take the time to build the support he'd need to maintain control of society and-

There were so many problems. He hadn't discussed it with his crew but it would be a lot easier if his Dad was free. Then... Then, Izuku sighed. He'd be in a subordinate position but that wouldn't be too bad. His dad knew the entire plan and-

For the moment, he couldn't think like that. He had to lead. Though he didn't have a definite plan. Even so, he could work with that. No matter what he wanted to do eventually, he was going to need more manpower, so that had to be his first goal. Then he could work on other plans and maybe someone would have some suggestions.

Though... He was a little disappointed in those who had been gathered for Tomura. When he'd mention thinking about a quirk to counter their weaknesses, he'd been hoping someone would have realised that support equipment could also help. But... No one had suggested it. He thought about that for a moment. Maybe their weaknesses weren't something that could be effectively handled by support equipment. He should check because even if they couldn't counter a weakness that way, support equipment was effective for other things. It was support after all.

He took off his shirt, and the light vest, folding it carefully. Just seeing it reminded him about Mei and the fact he was going to have to be careful with it. Or get someone else to build another.

Izuku sighed. He'd have to talk to them about that.

He blinked and revelled in the fact that while his eyelids were heavy, it wasn't the exhaustion he'd felt the last few days. It was just the usual tiredness at the end of the day. That felt nice and with a smile, Izuku lay down and pulled the covers over him.

One thing his dad had never said but was obvious in hindsight, what the world called villainy took just as much work as heroics. He needed his rest.

-ted-

Dabi had to admit that being out of the warehouse was nice. If it got him revenge on Endeavor, he'd have stayed there, but it was better here. Plus, the warper had somehow got the bar stocked, and that helped.

The five of them were gathered at one of the booths. They'd been spread out earlier but when some of the locals had wandered in, the warper had shooed them to the side. Paying customers took precedence over them apparently.

"So now that the boss has gone to bed, we should have some adult talk," he laughed.

"What, you gonna tell us you're still a virgin, Crispy?"

Dabi reminded himself that while he'd lived with these guys for the last few weeks, he hadn't really had to interact with them. And now that Dragon had given back Shouto's quirk... He could just walk away but that was- The underworld ran on the strength of people's word. And while there were times when you could get away with breaking it, he already knew now was not going to be one of those times. He'd have to learn to deal with this one.