The Emperor's Dragon II

Realisation

With the heroes having arrested Garaki, Izuku had accelerated the timeline a little. The original plan called for them to interrogate the Electoral Commissioner one night, and then Tartarus' Manager on another night. But they still had time tonight and while it would have been far kinder on the therapist Ryouhou, Izuku reminded himself that the man was being paid. He would have to deal with it.

They emerged from Kurogiri's warp gate into an alleyway as a group. Izuku saw Ryouhou shiver but decided it was best to ignore it. Instead he checked the time. It was about 10pm. Not too late.

"Is Fulaka in position?" Izuku asked.

"Fulaka?" Ryouhou murmured but Izuku could tell he knew what it meant. They were going to talk to someone else tonight.

Kurogiri didn't answer immediately and Izuku knew better than to prompt him. The warp gate was checking. "Not yet," the misty man replied delicately.

"We'll wait," Izuku announced.

"We are waiting?" Ryouhou demanded.

"Unless you want to see her while she's on the loo, we can wait," Izuku told him.

Ryouhou seemed to think about what working people would be doing at this hour and then blushed.

All of the people they were talking to were going to be defensive, but there was no need to add acute embarrassment to their predicament. It was likely to be harder to erase as well, though Izuku wasn't sure if that really had an impact and saw no reason to test it.

Ryouhou looked like he might say something more but fell silent as they waited and after about ten minutes, Kurogiri silently expanded into a disk again. Izuku stepped through, trusting that Twice would ensure the therapist and Unten followed after he took control of Fulaka.

He was thankful he had the copy of Hitoshi's quirk. Even just using it on Senkyou had made things easier but using it reminded him of his friend's promise and Izuku knew that he had to make time to see them soon. And he had to give Ochaco back Zero Gravity! The heroes had probably expected him to do that on her last night in hospital but that was a stupid time...

Any time the heroes could anticipate was stupid. So he was still waiting. It would probably have to be done at a random time and was not his thought for now.

"Hi Fulaka," Izuku said as he emerged into her bedroom. Tartarus' Manager, or at least the person Whisper thought was Tartarus' Manager looked up, shocked. She had been looking down towards the book in her lap. Her husband was in bed beside her, but he was already asleep.

"Wh-"

Izuku took control before she could say anything more and held one finger to his lips to indicate the need for quiet as Ryouhou, Unten and Twice emerged from Kurogiri's disk behind him. The warper reformed after they moved out of the way.

"We just have some questions for you," Izuku told Fulaka, already knowing that she wasn't going to be reassured, but he tried.

Unten stepped forward then. They really needed to have Fulaka tell them the truth and they didn't want to linger. "Are you Tartarus' Director?" the formerly quirkless man asked.

She looked startled but then his quirk kicked in. "I am."

Izuku blew out a small sigh of relief. He didn't doubt Whisper, but she had just picked Fulaka as her best guess. It appeared her instincts were right. That's why the first question was to confirm Fulaka's position. He looked back at Tartarus' Director, this time paying attention to her husband. The man appeared asleep, but they couldn't afford to be fooled here. There was a small bottle of pills on the bedside table, next to a half full glass of water. Izuku didn't have Mei's quirk, Zoom, but he did have reasonable eyesight, and he could see that they were sleeping pills.