Sleepy Dragon

"She's asleep?" Ora asks in disbelief. "How's she asleep? She's flying!"

Mera shrugs from across the table in the HPSC headquarters, where the two DAB agents are meeting him to discuss the current situation.

"That's what he said, and the fact she hasn't reacted to Hawks paired with the odd flying supports that." He puts a hand over his mouth as he yawns, which also prompts an idea. "Is she sleep-walking? Er, sleep-flying?"

Ora and Kami exchange helpless looks. As far as either of them know, none of the other dragons have ever done anything while asleep. Especially during their 'bonding' period! Those are supposed to last a minimum of two years during which the only thing that can wake them up is a threat to their Hoard! The DAB did send a team to check on Izumi's Lair, but they haven't gotten anything back from them yet. Which isn't a surprise given the distance involved.

Ora sighs. "Just… have the hero follow her, for now. Don't try to wake her up, we have no idea how she'll react."

Mera nods, relaying the instructions to the top fifty hero. And then the three wait. There's nothing else they can do without more information, whether it comes from their investigation teams or the heroes.

`~`

Hisashi Midoriya is a man prone to cursing the quirkless. Something that everyone who resides in the same prison as him is more than aware of. To the point that even those who initially shared his thoughts about the quirkless have begun to rethink their opinions. After all, if someone like him talks about quirkless like that, then are they really the right kind of things to think?

Not that the man in question ever really notices, always lamenting how amazing his life would be if it wasn't for 'that worthless excuse for a living thing' that was his daughter. He blames everything wrong in his life on the girl, no matter how ridiculous it is to even try and link them to her.

Him being in prison? His daughter's fault. Getting beat by the guards for ranting after lights out? His daughter's fault. Beatings from the other prisoners that the guards turn a blind eye to? His daughter's fault. His food being bland? His daughter's fault. Sneezing and accidentally setting his pillow on fire again? His daughter's fault. The guards refusing to replace his pillow yet again? His daughter's fault.

Essentially, as said, he blames his daughter for everything wrong in his life, no matter how minor.

And today, when some sort of giant scaled beast crashes into the prison yard, crushing a good dozen prisoners under its bulk, he of course blames his daughter. When prisoners swarm the beast, determined not to miss out on the possibility of escape after seeing its wings, he of course blames his daughter after he gets shoved to the ground in the stampede. When someone steps on his leg and snaps the bone, it's his daughter's fault.

When flames far more powerful than his own fly from its mouth, frying the vast majority of the prisoners in front of it, it's his daughter's fault. When the beast's tongue shoots out and drags the charred bodies into its maw, it's because of his daughter. When it eventually turns its attention to the now fleeing prisoners, it's his daughter's fault.

When it's claws pierce his stomach and drags him to its maw, screaming in pain and panic, he blames his daughter. When its teeth start tearing him to pieces, his last thought before his mind vanishes into the empty void of death is; Izumi, this is your fault!

Hisashi Midoriya, along with fifty other prisoners, is devoured by the Emerald Dragon, never knowing that in this single instance, Izumi truly is the cause.

`~`

"She's sleep eating?" Kami blurts out in shock, and Ora can't help but silently agree with his surprise. During the 'bonding' process, dragons essentially enter hibernation, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they enter a form of stasis, where they don't require any kind of sustenance. It's why they haven't been collecting bodies and storing them in her freezer. Even frozen, they would go bad before she was supposed to be up.

Meanwhile, while the two DAB agents are utilizing everything that they've been taught in an effort to understand the situation, Mera is promising Hawks a month's worth of vacation for ensuring that none of the guards at the prison died. Yes, the amount of prisoners that died is unfortunate, especially given that none of their crimes elicited anywhere close to a life-time sentence, but the public will be more accepting of the fact that 'villains' died instead of 'innocent people'. Not that the guards aren't innocent, but there really isn't a good reason for there to be such a disparity in how people view the two groups. Mera blames his predecessors.

He's pulled from his thoughts by a loud ringing sound, one of the DAB agents' phones. Kami accepts it, putting the call on speaker so that the three of them can hear everything. "Report!" The golden haired man says sternly, his face uncharacteristically serious. At least until he sends a smirk at his partner, silently gloating that the team that reports to him is the one that found something first.

"Someone was in the Lair." The first sentence easily wipes the smirk off of the man's face. He swallows, dread pooling in his stomach. Next to him, Ora's face has lost all color and she clasps her hands together on the table to try and stop them from shaking. "Nothing seems to be missing, thankfully." The reassurance causes the agents to let out simultaneous breaths of relief at the worst case scenario not having occurred. If a dragon's Hoard was stolen from then the death toll would easily be in the thousands, even without considering the 'bonding' process. If someone had stolen from it while Izumi was 'bonding'…

"But someone was here, there's no doubt about that." All three within the room curse at the knowledge that the situation was caused by an outside force. An incredibly stupid one, given the literal warning signs they put up.

"Any clues about who it was?" Ora asks in a clipped tone.

"A hero, judging by what's left of the clothing." The voice on the phone sounds unsettled by what they found, which isn't all that unusual whenever something happens that involves dragons. "Can't tell what color it used to be, but it looks like whoever it was got flattened. Nothing left but scraps of cloth and blood."

Ora sighs, leaving Kami to thank the man for the good work and telling him to take his team to rendezvous with the others. No sooner than he ends the call than Ora's phone rings. She answers immediately, not even needing to say anything before the woman on the other side makes her report.

"We've caught one of Endeavour's sidekicks trying to flee the forest," she reports, causing Mera to groan loudly before dropping his head on to the table. "According to him, Endeavour has spent the past year searching for the girl in an effort to apprehend her, thus 'proving' his superiority to All Might." Mera lets out an even louder groan than before, even with it a bit muffled by the table. Ora and Kami ignore him.

"Understood. Anything else?" Ora questions.

"Just that the sidekick ran after seeing her flying out of her Lair. He doesn't know what happened to Endeavour."

"Good job, return to the base of the Lair and meet up with the other team. Don't let the sidekick get away." She ends the call after getting their confirmations, sharing a look with Kami before they both turn to stare at the head of the HPSC. Mera takes a deep breath filled with the smell of the steel table before sighing and reluctantly looking up. Seeing the accusatory expressions on their faces, he quickly explains.

"I specifically told every hero not to go after the girl, and I made sure that every hero understood that. They accepted without too much trouble, mostly, and those who didn't at least agreed not to seek her out after I informed them that she's the one who created The Emerald Lake on a whim. All Might and Endeavour were part of the same meeting, which is where I mentioned that All Might's license would be suspended for aggravating the girl."

He sighs. "Endeavour was… doubtful about her strength, even after I brought up the incident that got All Might's license suspended." He grimaces. "That… might have been a mistake, now that I think about it."

At Ora's raised eyebrow, he explains. "Endeavour has always had his eyes on surpassing All Might, even before he became the number one hero, the Symbol of Peace. Hearing that a child did what he couldn't must have disturbed him more than he let on. That or he thought beating her would mean that he beat All Might, which is why he searched for her."

Ora breathes deeply and holds it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly. "Regardless of the circumstances, he interrupted something exceedingly important, and quite honestly we have no idea what to do now. Even knowing what caused this, none of the other branches have dealt with this kind of situation."

She shakes her head. "And informing any others of her kind about what happened might make the situation much, much worse given how important the 'bonding' is." She sighs, dropping her head into her hands.

"All we can do is wait and hope she goes back to her Lair after eating her fill."

`~`

Mei hums to herself as she finishes hooking everything up, spinning the blades by hand to make sure they won't jam or anything. That would be unfortunate, but she also has her jetpack with her just in case!

She nods to herself after she finishes checking everything, but before she can climb inside her baby she feels someone's arms wrap around her. Not that she's surprised, she could see that she was coming long before she could physically see her.

"Sorry I'm late, my teeth were aching so I grabbed a quick meal on the way."

Mei shrugs. "You're fine, I only finished getting everything set up myself."

Himiko hums in acknowledgement, looking at their latest method of transportation with interest. The only way she can really describe it is that it's a helicopter made out of junk. "Did you seriously strap three engines and a propeller to a bathtub?"

Mei chortles. "I did way more than that! You just won't see it until I need it!" She pauses and taps her chin while looking skyward. "Not that we will for this, we're just bringing Boss back home."

Himiko nods, letting go of the inventor and jumping inside the tub, finding the bottom to be surprisingly comfortable. "Yeah, I guess." The blonde scowls while Mei climbs in and sits in front of her. "Seriously, who was stupid enough to bother Izumi? They're lucky she's just hungry!"

Mei nods as she starts the engines, the control panel sticking out of the front of the tub lighting up as she grabs the handles. "Yeah, and especially since she's still asleep. Can you imagine how pissed she'd be if whoever it was actually managed to wake her up?"

Himiko snorts. "Oh, she'd be pissed pissed! Like, burn down their hometown angry!"

The bathtub plane shoots off the beach in an explosion of sand, not even needing to build up any speed to shoot off into the sky. Behind it trails a sturdy net, filled with a multitude of shiny objects carefully polished to a bright sheen that glints in the sun's rays.

"It's a good thing we're marked," Mei mentions as they steadily gain altitude. "Who knows what would happen if we weren't around to play damage control."

Himiko throws her head back and laughs, her pointed fangs bared to the sky. "She'd probably throw a fit about all that food going to waste!"

Mei rolls her eyes as she turns the plane towards their destination. "People aren't food to everyone you know. When we first met, didn't you say that you only drink blood?"

Himiko shrugs casually, looking out at the passing landscape far beneath them with slitted yellow eyes and a small smile on her face. "What can I say? Izumi rubbed off on me."