Chapter 15 - Senior Management Meeting

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That night, when the Red Dragon suddenly appeared in the middle of Hadano City in Japan, the world of heroes experienced a level of power that was incomprehensible to most people. 

The Red Dragon was so uncommonly strong that it seemed unfair, something outside the rules of the game, and indeed it was, because it was a creature from a universe with a much greater scale of power.

However, as suddenly as it appeared, the Red Dragon mysteriously disappeared without a trace, which left everyone confused.

So, at the meeting of the National Security Council that early morning, none of the heroes who had fought the mysterious monster had the answers, after all, they were the ones who had more questions than anyone else.

In the brightly-lit hall of that meeting room, a tense atmosphere hung in the air, broken only by the restrained murmuring among the heroes and authorities present. 

The Prime Minister, sitting at the head of the table, stood up, sighed deeply before taking the floor while sweating profusely.

"H-heroes and advisors, we f-faced an unprecedented threat tonight. The d-dragon represented a power far beyond our recent analysis of the global spectrum of Quirks. N-now, with its mysterious disappearance, we are at the mercy of uncertainty. T-the media wants to know if it was a villain or a genetically created monster that got out of control, l-like the nomus."

Again, the silence perpetuated. No one knew anything relevant that could help.

So the first to break the silence was the hero Endeavor, whose serious expression indicated his frustration at the inexplicable. Wearing his normal clothes, now that he was a retired hero and only an advisor, he stood up and said:

"Does anyone have any idea what that was? And where the hell it went?"

Deku, still trying to comprehend everything he had seen, stood up to speak. "I was one of those who faced the dragon. I flew up and hit him really hard, but he didn't even seem to feel it, he didn't pay any attention to me, as if it was nothing to him. I'm pretty sure it's not a person."

Dynamight, normally noisy, was quiet and serious, and only opened his mouth to say one thing during the entire meeting:

"That thing also managed to stop several of my strongest explosions, it definitely wasn't a machine integrated with biological technology or anything like that."

The hero Manual, who specialized in communication between the heroes and the government, nodded, standing next to the prime minister. "Whether it's a creature or a human, there's something that can even fight hero number one and number three at the same time. That's worrying. Few people in the world could do that, in fact, I'd venture to say no one. If it were a person, how could someone with such strong Quirk go unnoticed by our eyes? Even if it was a villain, we would have heard about it. And if it's a creature, where did it come from?"

"It doesn't matter now. The news has already spread around the world, we need an official statement. We can't leave the population panicked or insecure." Hawks stated. "The official figures aren't too bad and they haven't been released yet, so what are we waiting for?"

The prime minister, sitting at the head of the table next to Deku, was clearly at a loss. He was middle-aged, but had never attended a meeting as important as this one.

Deku realized this, stood up and cleared his throat before addressing those present. "Colleagues, we seem to be facing something that goes beyond the scale of the threats we know. The priority now is to remain calm and understand what has happened, but a statement is important, we can't deny what has happened, so I'm going to hold a press conference myself. After all, for now the best we can do is calm the population, not create fear or insecurity so as not to turn the country into chaos. I'll say that we'll send a team to analyze all the available data to understand what happened and that we already have a suspect, but we can't reveal any more details so as not to hinder the investigations."

"That's good, but..." Hawks began, only to be interrupted by Deku.

"Dynamight and Hawks, if possible I want you two to keep an eye on this case with me." Deku said, looking at his companions, who nodded. "And Endeavor, please call Shoto, if the dragon appears again, his Quirk will be the most useful in dealing with this monster. Furthermore, Minister, I would ask the Secret Security Force to check the data of other countries to see if there is anyone outside Japan with an Quirk that resembles the dragon we saw yesterday. For all we know, the individual could have taken a powerful power-enhancing drug and become that size."

The Prime Minister nodded, silently grateful to have Deku leading the situation. 

"All right, I'll order that research immediately."

The heroes agreed to the proposal, recognizing the need to act with caution and responsibility in the face of the unknown.

*

Luckily, and also thanks to the heroes' quick action in evacuations and rescues, the number of victims of the dragon disaster was much lower than expected for something on this scale.

And as I was close to an area where the heroes were acting, I was quickly found by one of them, only with a white cat in my hands - the Red Dragon hated it so much that I turned it into this that it wouldn't stop roaring, or rather meowing. I was then quickly taken to the safe house where my parents were.

At first, I thought they would be angry, after all I had let go of my mother's hand in the middle of all the confusion, something only an idiot would do, only they weren't angry at all, quite the opposite in fact, they seemed deeply relieved, which made me feel a bit bad for hiding so much from them.

My mother, her eyes watering, ran towards me and hugged me tightly. The white cat was squeezed between the two of us at that moment and mentally mumbled as much as he could.

"I thought you'd..." my mother began, but her words were lost in a relieved sigh. 

My father, equally moved, hugged us too. "I'm glad you're all right, son," said my father.

At that moment, I obviously chose to omit the details of what really happened. The weight of the truth could be overwhelming, and I wanted to preserve the sense of security they found at that moment - I mean, it would be terrible if I said that the Red Dragon was the cute cat that was with me. So I chose to say that I got lost in the shuffle.

My parents were relieved to see that the white cat's presence went unnoticed for a few minutes, but soon Fuyumi noticed.

"What's that, dear? Where did you get that cat?" My mother asked, stroking the little feline who seemed to be resting comfortably in my arms. "He's so cute!" 

I was the only one among them who could understand the cat's meowing, which he said mentally:

"That's it, you inferior human! Stroke me or I'll destroy you!"

I smiled nervously, thinking that the Red Dragon's pride was not unlike my own when I first arrived in that world.