The Emperor's Dragon II

Looking to the Future

Kamoni sat with Muko in the empty bar. It wasn't open and technically they shouldn't be here, but it was a familiar place. After the events of today, Kamoni knew they wouldn't be the only ones seeking familiar places.

All Might was gone. Kidnapped by a villain. While the former Number One Hero had retired, it still made an impact. The villain's son had then fought a new hero to a standstill before escaping. Kamoni was actually relieved at that. She knew Izuku and she didn't wish him harm but... It was disconcerting to reconcile the young man who had helped her with the person she'd seen fighting today.

Muko was the one who'd put everything into perspective for her. Muko pointed out that the bad guy of any battle was simply a function of the side you were on and that Izuku hadn't been any more violent than the new hero. Kamoni hadn't believed him until he'd made her watch the battle, without sound. The lack of commentary made her actually watch and think and see.

Izuku's moves had countered the new heroes and they'd both rendered destruction around them. Izuku hadn't caused any more than the hero. If you listened to the commentary, everything was Izuku's fault. If you watched, and actually saw who did damage, you knew it was about even. It was eye opening.

It was how the system was.

Muko had summarised it with the statement that society didn't want to see things that made them uncomfortable. She knew that. Kamoni had seen it with her husband. Society didn't want to see what an asshole he was. Most looked at her and thought she was just trying to grab attention, trying to drag him down.

She wasn't. She just wanted what was fair. To be seen for herself and to have her husband be seen for the asshole he was. But that made people uncomfortable. That made society uncomfortable.

Kamoni felt her hands tighten on the glass she was holding. The bar was closed but Muko poured a mean drink.

"What is it?" he asked.

Kamoni looked up and forced her hands to loosen their grip. "I'm thinking of parallels," she told him. Her bodyguard looked confused. "Parallels in the way that perception is always what is easy for society."

Muko looked at her for a few moments before he nodded. He understood. He was quirkless and society really didn't like to think about the quirkless. Society didn't like to think the quirkless were contemporary. It was okay to think about them as the past but definitely not as something... somebodies, who existed now.

"Society doesn't like to know it got things wrong."

"Or it does, but only when it's trendy," Kamoni retorted, thinking of what happened when enough celebrities, usually heroes, backed some social thing.

Muko nodded. He knew what she was thinking about. "Or when they are forced," he added.

"Or when they are forced," Kamoni echoed his statement. That didn't happen often but occasionally someone had the will to ensure society changed.

Izuku had that will and the charisma to change society but after today, he was going to be seen as a villain. That wouldn't stop him, but it would make society resistant to his voice, no matter how logical or wise. Society didn't want to be told it was wrong by a 16-year-old villain. Even if that villain was right. Especially if that villain was right.

But society did listen to her demographic. The demographic she was in, when she was a good wife to her asshole husband. Not the demographic she currently occupied. Society listened mostly to the males but if a gal had the right connections, she could go far, and if she pulled the right strings, then society would have to listen. It would be compelled to listen and to change.

And if those changes happened to help a 16-year-old villain and her, with assistance from her not actually divorced scumbag husband, then... she'd suffered for it and deserved the change and the benefit they brought.