The Emperor's Dragon II

To See The World Change

"Finally!"

Izuku spun at the voice and then stared when he recognised Saicho. She was accompanied by what looked to be a hoard of four-year-olds.

She smiled at him. "Who would have thought that your good habits made things hard!"

"My good habits?" Izuku asked. He tried not to have habits! Habits made you predictable.

"Not those types of habits," Saicho waved one hand as if she'd heard his thoughts. "Your good habits. You try to make sure you get enough sleep. You try to make sure you keep to a schedule for it, and you have a good routine. That means you sleep well, but it means I... we can't always get through to you."

Izuku blinked. "Oh." He wasn't sure what else he could say. When he woke up, he'd realise this was a dream but right at the moment, he couldn't bring that thought into focus.

But that was partially because he'd made another connection. It was one his conscious mind had made already but it seemed like a revelation to his dream state. "You're a vestige."

Saicho gave him a look. It clearly congratulated him for realising the obvious. "We all are," she said. "Which, if you recall, is exactly what I wanted."

He remembered that. Saicho had told him she wanted the part of her that was her quirk to live on in him.

"I had no idea it was so literally possible," Saicho continued, showing her good humour with a smile.

"You are okay though?" Izuku asked, and then realised he had no idea what a vestige would need.

"Oh, I'm fine. We're fine," Saicho told him, gesturing to the children. "We want to be here."

He looked at her sharply. What did that mean?

"Come along," Saicho said, instead of explaining. "We don't have to do this standing, and the kids will want to play soon."

She turned and walked off. Most of the kids followed her. A few stood still. They looked between him and Saicho, their eyes wide with questions. Izuku had no idea what the questions were or even how to begin to answer them.

It was only then that he noticed the scenery. Seeing it allowed him to remember his previous dreams. There'd been a dinner table on corpses and an island with a playground and crucifixes.

And in both there'd been a dragon.

There was a rustle from overhead, and Izuku looked up, straight into one massive green eye.

The last two times he'd seen it; it had startled him to wakefulness. This time, Izuku just smiled. "I'll... um... go and talk to her," he told it.

The eye didn't do anything and Izuku decided, in the way that people do decide in dreams, that it wasn't really something he could worry about, and he headed after Saicho, with the last of the children trailing after him.

It wasn't a forest or the island this time. Izuku found himself walking through a grassland. The grass he was walking on was short and soft but all around him the grass rippled like waves in a wind he didn't feel.

It wasn't a long walk, though since this was a dream, it could have been miles and it felt as long as it needed to be. Saicho led him to a campsite. There were chairs set around a fire that was laid in a pit defined by rocks. It was very idyllic. Tents surrounded the fire and Izuku really didn't know much about tents except these ones looked large. There was a covered gazebo set up with a table and chairs under it. Saicho led him there and indicated he should sit at the head of the table. The chair was fancier and the look she gave him, as she took a seat beside him was amused. It told him that it was his dream, so the fanciness was his fault.