The Emperor's Dragon II

Life Sucks

Akemi looked at her patient. Quirks sometimes made it hard to tell what a normal skin tone was but Toxic Chainsaw just looked ill. And proof of that was that he hadn't woken up yet. He'd been unconscious since just after they'd taken him off that cross until now, and she hadn't drugged him.

She'd checked. The guards hadn't drugged him either and when she'd carefully asked if there had been any necessary forceful handling, the guards had told her they hadn't needed to. He'd been unconscious.

So... why was he unconscious? It had to have something to do with that spike she'd detected last night. Akemi still had no idea what it was. Her equipment wasn't that precise and was mostly calibrated to detect contraband.

With a sigh, Akemi pulled up the paperwork on her tablet. First, she'd have to run the need for the test up the line and then- Her head snapped to her patient as there was an odd sound from the bed.

Akemi immediately checked his eyes but they were still closed and everything else was unchanged. She just had a heart monitor on him and all that was showing that his heart rate was a bit faster than what she'd expect. Villains were usually fit. The good ones were anyway but Toxic Chainsaw had been incarcerated for over a decade. He couldn't be as fit as he had been when he was active so she'd put the faster heart rate down to simple fitness level. It wasn't like it was in a dangerous range.

She didn't know what caused the noise then she detected the smell...

"Crap."

Literally.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Akemi cursed. The bastard had just shat himself.

She'd been hoping he'd wake up to attend to his bodily functions but of course he hadn't... villains were the worst.

Akemi put her tablet down, turning the screen off. She'd have to fill out that paperwork later. She grabbed the patient lift. At least she didn't have to struggle to lift him herself... and as she breathed through her nose, she reminded herself to look at the silver lining.

She had a stool sample now.

-ted-

When the news broke during class Mokuge knew today was gonna suck. Not classes. Aldera High School classes sucked just as much as everyone else's. It was the rest of the world that would suck.

She didn't have a quirk worth a darn for the hero industry. She had no interest in the hero industry. They were just a bunch of overpaid public servants. She did have a great quirk for her interests though and it was just a pity that apprenticeships for her industry demanded a High School graduation certificate.

And wasn't that ironic? The people paid the big bucks on the public purse graduated from vocational high school, while those who wanted to become chefs had to graduate from real high school. It told her how messed up the world was. But... Mokuge thought it probably worked out in the long run.

Her quirk was perfect for her chosen profession. Perfect Taste. No matter what she ate, she could tell you every ingredient, and the proportions they were used in. She was beginning to be able to tell what order they were added to dishes and what the cooking technique was too. What that meant was that she was going to be a great chef, and since cooking, while hard, and while it had long hours, was much, much safer than heroics, her earning capacity was not limited to a few years.

So while heroes retired and had to reskill, she'd just keep gaining skills, and with luck, reputation and therefore a larger pay cheque.

That was the plan, anyway.

But she had to get through today.

Which was sucking.

She'd gotten out of class and was walking towards La Trattoria. It was a small, Italian restaurant she worked at. She got to do some work in the kitchen as well. They couldn't hire her as an apprentice but they could slip in some 'occasional work'.