The Emperor's Dragon II

The Current We Build Upon

"What the hell is this stuff?" Yakuni demanded, holding up a vial Dragon had given him ages back.

Izuku looked over and Yakuni saw him recognise it. A smile stretched over his features and rather than answering he pulled out his phone and tapped on it for a bit, before Dragon turned it to show Yakuni what turned out to be a headline.

"'Toxic Chainsaw Dead'," Yakuni read aloud. "Who's Toxic Chainsaw?"

"The second man I have ever wanted to kill," Izuku told him.

There was no need to ask who the first man was, and Yakuni was smart - both book and street smart and he looked at the vial. "You poisoned him with this," he breathed. He knew the vial was a toxin, but Dragon had neglected to give him a lot of detail about it, just saying that he wanted an antidote created. In the last few weeks, he'd read a lot about poison. He knew a lot more about them now.

Izuku shoved his phone into a Pocket before holding up his hand, forming claws. Yakuni could see a drop of something at the tip of one of them.

"Okay..." Yakuni murmured. "Okay," he repeated as he took a deep breath. He knew why Dragon wanted an antidote now. "I'll look into what the doctors treating Toxic Chainsaw found," he said, mostly to himself as he thought about what had recently learned about poisons.

Izuku nodded. "I don't think it's going to be easy," he told Yakuni.

"Does the Doctor have anything?" Yakuni asked.

"I don't know but you can ask him, after Dad decides to get him out," he said.

"I'll have to do that," Yakuni agreed. "You don't like to make the projects easy, do you?" he asked teasingly.

Izuku grinned. "I know you are up to it," he gave the vote of confidence.

"Yeah, yeah," Yakuni grinned.

Izuku looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "The Yakuza-" He paused.

"The moron, yes?" Yakuni prompted.

"His plan was stupid. He was never going to have the respect he wanted but if you aren't after respect, then blackmail does have some uses."

"You want to blackmail people with poison?"

"I want the option to heal someone," Izuku corrected, looking a bit chagrined.

Yakuni gave him a hard look, but Dragon didn't offer anything further. And in the end, he would just have to trust that Izuku was careful. He had been until now, so there was no reason to believe he'd be reckless now. "Just make sure you are careful with that quirk, 'cos I'm not going to get the antidote ready any time soon."

"I can wait," Izuku said. "There's no one I really want to kill now."

"Someone will probably volunteer soon," he said rather pragmatically.

"Someone always does," Izuku agreed.

-ted-

Rikiya suppressed his annoyance when he felt he had a visitor. He had had the security of his house upgraded since their last visit, but the teen was again sitting on the couch. This time, he had a different person with him. It was an older woman. She had a long black braid running down her back. She gave him a smile and a polite nod as he once again took up a position on the other couch.

"Well?" Dragon prompted after several minutes of silence.

Rikiya blew out a breath.

He had checked Dragon's claims. All four were users of Trigger. And not just once. They were shown to be addicts. They had been cast out of the MLA. It was actually a good thing for the MLA. It had given him the opportunity to drive home some object lessons on the standards expected of MLA members to some of the newer recruits.