The Emperor's Dragon II

Losses and Gains

Dabi wanted to laugh. The chaos was beautiful. Enji's sidekicks were scattered and the man himself was facing off against Rappa... and doing not too badly, all things considered. Rappa was optimised to take out Endeavor but Dabi knew his old man hadn't maintained his position with a lack of skill.

The sidekicks had done him a favour though, and had gotten rid of the crowd. Dabi didn't care if they died, but they were annoying to wade through when he wanted to get somewhere. And he could see that the sidekicks were now facing off against the Nomu.

Even the bitch that had taken a shot at him. Dabi didn't remember Enji having anyone with a quirk like that in his sidekick line up, but even as he's recalled that, he'd also kicked himself for thinking that Endeavor's sidekicks wouldn't have changed over time. Still Rikiya had intercepted the arrow and while the explosion had been surprising, Shin would take care of the bitch.

Infact, it looked like she'd fallen into the range of Shin's passive quirk, Strah. It was an area effect quirk, but rather than giving the Nomu any physical advantage, it gave Shin a mental one. Strah induced fear. But not just any fear, it induced the target's greatest fear. So long as they were in range.

Dabi had no idea what the sidekick feared but he could see she was feeling it in the way she trembled and moved.

Then she shouted. "No!"

He had no idea what that would do until Shin fell.

"Oh, for fucks sake!" Dabi growled. He saw the arrow sticking out of the Nomu's brain and sure, that was something that killed people, weren't these Nomu meant to have regeneration? Yakunita had told him regeneration didn't work on the brain but... Why hadn't Shin acted to protect it?

Rappa will defend himself entirely, Yakunita's voice played through his mind and Dabi strained to remember the rest of what the young man had said. Rikiya will as well, to a point. The others are Upper Tier, which means they can fight, but unless they think something is a threat, they won't defend themselves, and their views are pretty linear. If you order them to protect you, then they will, and nothing will get close but that doesn't apply to them. They don't have a sense of self preservation.

It was more than that! Dabi wanted to rage now. Shin had done nothing! The others seemed to be doing okay, and were each keeping several sidekicks occupied but... If he let her tell the others how weak the brain was-

He huffed. Yakuni had also muttered something about how the Doctor had left out steps in the process but Dabi had no idea what that could mean and he didn't want to entertain his newly pessimistic thoughts. So, with Rikiya in tow, he stalked over to the woman.

She saw him coming and fired off several arrows at him. Rikiya's still huge arms swept them out of the air and they didn't explode. Apparently she could do different things with them.

"That's not going to work," Dabi told her.

"Why are you doing this?" the woman asked him as she tried to keep her distance. Arrows required space.

There was only one answer to that. "Because I want to see Endeavor's head on a plater, with his charred corpse blackening the ground before me," he told her with a grin. He could see it in his mind's eye too. He'd seen it many times. Today it would be a reality.

She looked horrified for a moment. "No!" she cried again and backed away, firing more arrows.

This wasn't going to work. "Rikiya, kill her," Dabi ordered. The Near High End was much faster than him and he could handle himself without a bodyguard. He wasn't helpless.

And it was long past time he confronted Enji.

Dabi turned his attention to the new Number One Hero. Endeavor was fighting Rappa, though to the Nomu's displeasure, it appeared that Enji was predominantly dodging Rappa's swipes. As Dabi watched, Enji did not attempt to flambe Rappa so he must have already learned that the Nomu was fireproof.