"Even flying this high is nothing to dragons," I explain to the unicorn who has one-sidedly decided that I'm her new mother. Which… well, mothers are sort of like the owners of their children, right? And since Eri does belong to me, she's technically not wrong to call me mom? Maybe? Though, children are also kind of like pets, I think.
You have to make sure a pet has food and drink, they know where to go to the bathroom, that they're entertained enough so that they don't get bored and end up breaking something or doing something they aren't supposed to, etc. You basically do all of those same things with children, so children are pets, and therefore their mother and father are their owners.
Which means that Eri calling me mom is her acknowledging the fact that she does belong to me, regardless of any sort of claim anyone from her past may have over her. Therefore, it is an acceptable term for her to address me under, and I shall allow her to continue using the title.
Not to mention that she also shares my blood now, so, from a biological standpoint… she kind of is my daughter? Sort of? I think?
Whatever. The point is that, since she's mine now and on her way to becoming a full blooded dragon, I need to make sure she understands how to dragon correctly. Which is why, at this moment, I'm getting her used to flying! I'll leave most of the stuff Long explained to me about dragon origins, territory etiquette, and establishing her own Lair and territory for when she's older.
I stretch my neck to look back at the small child secured between two of the spikes lining my spine, snug between the base of my wings. "It's important to remember that you aren't a human anymore; in fact, you are much, much better than a human. Don't limit yourself by what you think humans are capable of, because, unlike them, dragons don't have limits."
"Yes Mom!" Kya! So cute! Her fangs haven't come in yet, but she does have a single pointy tooth that gets shown off every time she smiles, and it's absolutely adorable! It's baffling that Ora and Kami were so put off when she was munching on her chicken nuggets a few days ago, she was radiating absolute cuteness with that blissful smile on her face!
Maybe it's because she tried both the chicken-chicken nuggets and the chicken-people nuggets and immediately declared that chicken-people nuggets taste way better? But that's only natural considering how tasty humans are, so it really shouldn't have come as any surprise to them.
"Is there anything specific you want to see or visit? I just want you to get used to flying today, so we have all the options!" Now that I think about it, I probably should have made a plan when I decided that we'd go flying, but I still haven't gotten around to figuring out what all is different now! After I got my new phone from the DAB, the Trio at least told me about some new hot springs that suddenly popped up while I slept. Apparently the people who built it dug an underwater canal to a pool of lava they found to make a natural hot springs! Not only that, but the lava is supposedly green! Which obviously means that I need to check it out soon, green is my whole aesthetic!
"Nope!" She smiles brightly at me (my eyes!), "I just want to spend time with Mom!"
Ack! Direct hit! We're going down! Defeated by my own possession… What a cruel twist of fate! In all seriousness, I do actually stop flapping my wings from the unexpectedness of her words for a few moments, forcing us to drop rather suddenly, but thankfully I flare my wings to catch us in a glide without any trouble. If her cheers and calls to do it again are any indication Eri seems to think I did it on purpose.
…Which I did. Absolutely. I'm meant to be having fun with my unicorn, after all, so why wouldn't I act like a roller coaster a few times? And obviously I can't warn her what I'm going to do; the unexpectedness of the sudden drops is half the fun!
I make sure to dip and dive as we fly from that point on, adding a few twists and spins to surprise her. It really is fun flying with company that can keep up, even if the only reason she can keep up right now is because I'm carrying her. Especially when they're so enthusiastic! It's going to be great when she finally grows her own wings! Though I'll have to make sure to teach her what she should and shouldn't do, don't want anything embarrassing to happen to her. Then again, I messed up a bunch when I was first learning to fly, so it's only fair that my prized possession suffers through the same. Plus I can get some good pictures of her embarrassing moments to show off to the other living parts of my Hoard. Future blackmail material!
I feel Eri shudder on my back and frown. Is she cold? I don't think it's cold? Or does she not have fire flowing through her veins yet? Should I fly low- when did we get so low!? I look down at whatever city we're flying over and am surprised to see that I'd accidentally started flying in the city at some point. It's a good thing my instincts didn't let my fly into a building, my unicorn might have gotten hurt!
…Does she have the durability of a dragon yet? Maybe I should ask Himiko to try and stab her in the arm to test it….
"Mom," Eri's strained voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I'm taken aback by the sheer disgust in it, "do I have a really nasty sister or cousin?"
I don't reply right away even though I'm pretty sure that the other dragons don't count as either of those. There also aren't any other dragons in Japan at the moment, so I don't know why she'd be asking about them anyways. So whoever she's talking about, the answer is the same. "No, you don't."
"Then who is that?" I arch my neck to look back at her then follow the direction of her finger. Off in the distance I see-
Oh.
Ew.
Super, incredibly gross.
Thankfully the… thing vanishes out of sight behind some tall buildings before I'm subjected to more of the utter nastiness that they are. Ugh. I point my nose in the thing's general direction. "Make sure you take care of your scales so you never end up like… that, Eri."
"Yes Mom!" She answers immediately with more than a small amount of worry in her voice. I can't really say I blame her though, given how utterly repulsive the thing looked. And that's from so far away! I shudder to imagine what it would be like to be close to the thing. I make it a point to fly in the opposite direction from where I saw them heading, I don't want to risk getting close to it. Who knows what kind of diseases it could have!
"That was unpleasant," I say to Eri, partially thinking aloud and partially trying to take her mind off the thing. "Do you want to look for humans to fight? That always makes me feel better."
I watch her from the corner of my eye as I curve around a building, still ignoring the shouts and pointing from the people below us in the streets. They've probably been doing that since we ended up in the city, but since I wasn't paying attention I can't say for sure. It's probably a safe bet though considering how glorious my fully scaled form is. Obviously I would catch their attention!
Eri frowns and shakes her head. "I don't like fighting…" Her voice trails off and I feel yet another flare of rage towards Bastard for what she experienced while she was with him. Not that I actually know anything about either of them since Eri refuses to talk about it, but he's clearly the reason why she isn't interested in fighting! Which is a shame because I love it! It's amazing to prove that I'm stronger than whoever thought they could challenge me! But wait, if she doesn't like fighting…
"Why do you like playing with Bastard's head so much if you don't like fighting? That's how I got it, after all!"
She tilts her head cutely at me in confusion and I make a mental note that getting a camera is now a priority. Too many cute moments have already gone undocumented, and this travesty shall not stand! "But that's not fighting, that's playing?" She says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world, which, well, it is.
So, "It's not the fighting that you don't like, but being involved in the fighting yourself, then? Do you like the trophy I collected, at least"
"Yes!" She says with another smile, "I love it! It's so fun to play with his head!" She's clearly happy that I understand, and I nod in satisfaction that she's already starting her own Hoard, even if it is something I got for her. And it's not shiny or pretty. I add people to my own Hoard, though, so I'm not really in a position to judge if she's interested in collecting heads. In fact, I think it's adorable!
I can't help but arch my neck to give her a smile of my own, my fangs on full display. It's a nice moment, too bad it's ruined by an overwhelming desire to kill something just moments later.
"Apologies, but I'm going to need to see your flying permit." The utterly grating voice has me whipping my head around and coming face to face with the thing we saw earlier, and I was right: It is even uglier up close.
Large, pale leathery wings with a sharpened spike at the top curve, a scattering of poorly maintained scales across its upper arms and completely covering its legs, and a tail that's base is far too large for how quickly it starts to thin out. A mildly closer look at its claws has my mouth pulling away from my teeth in a sneer at how dull they are, the thing even has artificial claws covering the ones on its right hand! It's an utterly pathetic and disgraceful sight to see! I literally feel like I'm about to throw up from just how ugly it is, and that's not even mentioning the complete lack of horns that are meant to be poking through the messy blonde hair!
It's like someone decided to try and make a giant chicken look like a dragon but only had a vague idea of what a dragon actually is! Then they got so embarrassed that they tried to cover it up with a red curtain, but the thing tore through it to turn it into a dress!
But, as I finally deign to look the thing in the eyes, I realize that the disgust I feel towards this thing's appearance is my reaction. The visceral hatred and urge to kill that forces an eruption of flames from my maw that the thing dives down to avoid?
That's my dragon instincts. The words spill forth before I can even consciously consider them, filled with the promise of untold levels of violence.
"Half-breed!"
`~`
Ryuko Tatsuma, more widely known as The Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu, was simply doing her usual patrol, putting on a bit of a show with some aerial acrobatics when she's sure the area is safe, before she caught sight of something large in the air. Obviously, as a hero, she has no choice but to investigate, even if it does take longer than she thought it would to track what she saw down.
She wasn't all that surprised when she realized that it was a person she'd seen; with the loosening restrictions on public quirk use a number of people capable of it have begun flying to their destinations, as opposed to using any other form of transportation. Which she can fully empathize with, given her own love of flying through the air. There's really nothing like it.
Still, just because people can fly in public without being a hero doesn't mean that it's always safe. They have to apply for a permit so it can be confirmed that they have enough control of their quirk that they won't endanger anyone should something happen, as well as ensuring that the quirk itself doesn't have a harmful method for the user to fly. One person could 'bounce' off of people's minds to propel themselves through the air without even touching them, but it resulted in the individuals used as propulsion to suffer a brief but intense moment of amnesia. Depending on what the person is doing or where they are, it could prove incredibly detrimental to their health, so the person was refused a permit.
So, despite how clearly flight capable the individual is, Ryukyu does still have to ask for their permit to confirm that they are allowed to fly. What she wasn't expecting is for the individual to breathe out a wave of green flames!
Her training and experience kicked in and she managed to dodge it, but it was a close call. But that's not what has her entire body shaking in abject fear. No, she was feeling uneasy the whole time she'd been getting closer, but she'd brushed it off as her imagination. But meeting their eyes solidified the unease into genuine fear, and the words she speaks has her instinctively wanting to flee as far away from them as possible despite never having heard them in her life.
"Half-breed!"