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A New Existence Chapter 14
🕑 Added 2023-10-18 13:53:02 +0000 UTCMan, writing that last chapter was hard-not because I didn't have any ideas but because I had to give the heroes ANOTHER L against the League as I didn't realize at first just how much things could change for the worse without someone like Midoriya in the mix-more then that, someone like him(or in this case, her) with the power of One for All. This chapter will be a sort of break from the action, time for the heroes and students to pick up the pieces and figure shit out while slow, I do think that the main show and manga needed more moments like this, breaks between the action to give both the characters and readers time to breath.
Chapter 14: Cracks
“Onto the main segment of the hour, official sources have declined to comment but unnamed sources have claimed that the official death toll has exceeded over 200 students, heroes and government personnel with many more wounded.” Even 2 days after the attack, it was all the news could talk about as people could look at their phones as they walked, listen to the radio as they drove, or look up to one of the large screens mounted on buildings to keep up with events.
The second newscaster, a prominent reporter whose age showed in his wrinkles and lightening blond hair nodded. “Yes, however, while we can't prove this at the moment, our reporter on the scene was able to capture this footage of the response to the incident, not only is the place crawling with ambulances, but one can make out what appears to bodies being loaded into hearses.” Daikaku Miyagi directed attention to the footage in question.
In it, around the stadium was nothing but activity as it was surrounded by police vehicles, firefighter engines and ambulances, but off to the side were several hearses with bodies being loaded into, they couldn't tell who they were as they were all covered up, but the fact that they had to be there was concerning enough. The footage also caught how there were dozens of other news vans and reporters on site but all were kept back by law enforcement, the cops grime-faced and silent even when pushed to answer by an occasional reporter.
“Law enforcement has stated that numerous villains were captured in the unprecedented attack on what we've been told was a provisional license exam for hero students. One of the captured was the death row escapee, Moonfish who was convicted for among other charges: 11 Murders and 42 Attempted Murders.” An image of the villain in question was shown, but it wasn't from the current incident rather it was from his court appearances a few months prior. The man needed to be heavily restrained and sedated just to keep him from screaming and/or attacking the occupants of the courtroom.
“Hours after the attack, the villain group known as the League of Villains claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed that such attacks will continue in the future.” His co-anchor, a woman a decade his junior continued with the news, the image shifting to showing the suspected leaders of the League, Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri, with the images in question being blurry, taken during the Hosu attack from a distance. “This latest would be the third time that the League has conducted an attack.”
To the side, the hero expected they brought on, Aorio Kuraishisu nodded, as grim as the other two. “That's right, 3 times now the heroes had the chance to handle these villainous upstarts, and 3 times they've failed. Its first attempt could be easily forgiven, after all, it's been years since villains were able to gather in such numbers but after Hosu, we expected that the heroes would be better prepared for such an event and yet Dagoba proves this to be false. That failure to prepare has now resulted in the deaths of countless people, including students.”
“The public needs answers after such a tragedy, what were the countermeasures in place? What changes will be made in the aftermath? How will villains respond now that the League has developed a consistency in their actions?” Miyagi asked, giving voice to the many questions that people demanded answers to once news broke of the attack, the loudest among them being parents.
“This failure to catch onto the villain's plans before they were acted upon, and failure to save their students and civilians from danger should be a wake-up call to heroes across the country, they can't keep going on as they are.” The female news anchor, Ayano added to the conversation as things hadn’t been peachy for a while now.
“I agree, I fear that the power of the symbol that is All Might has started to falter as in the past, his mere existence kept crime down, with Japan having crime rates consistently in the top lowest in the world for the last quarter century. But it appears that was the double-aged sword as his symbol got so big that other heroes have been resting on their laurels.” Kuraishisu surmised that too many heroes weren't giving it their all, or relied on All Might to solve issues which wasn't a viable solution when the man spent most of his time teaching. Even if he wasn't working at U.A. it would have taken him time to arrive at the Provisional licensing site, a time where students would have been killed.
“Or taking bribes to ignore crime as was the case with the Shie Hassaikai incident.” Miyagi reminded them both that even though all pros involved with the fiasco were charged, reprimanded, had their licenses revoked or were handed a criminal penalty, the fact that heroes would stoop so low as to accept money from criminal elements had done a number to their public approval and societal trust in them as a whole.
From the studio, interviews with people on the streets were shown, starting with a woman who appeared to be in her late 50s walking with her husband. "I don't know what those heroes were doing, but it wasn't enough.”
“What kind of messed up world do we live in when hero students are thrown into the meat grinder like that, brats don’t even have a day’s experience in the field yet they had to fend off villains?" A 20-something-year-old office worker asked, an angry frown on his face.
“I'm not comfortable with my daughter going to a hero school if they can't even defend their students. First, it was U.A. and now this? She'll be better off at a regular high school, at least I know she'll be safe.” A mother in her early 40s stated, her daughter who was with her angrily avoided the camera as her mother told the nation she wasn't going to even get the chance to apply to a hero school come the spring.
“I'm not taking any more chances, once my boy finishes his 2nd year, he's going to transfer out of his hero school. I'm not going to wait till I'm one of those parents who called in to identify his corpse because his teachers couldn't keep him safe.” A literal stone-faced man gruffly told the camera crew before stepping onto his train to get to work.
“First it was corruption and now it’s incompetence? If I was still young, I would be having second thoughts about wanting to be a hero.” A 30-something support engineer told them, his lower body that of a goat with a pair of horns on his head.
“Parent organizations in 5 different prefectures, including U.A’s home prefecture-Shizouka, are calling for hero schools to not admit any new hero course students in the following academic year till they can prove that they can both educate and protect their new students.” Back in the studio, Miyagi brought attention to another issue that stemmed from the League’s activities as of late. “A spokesperson from the Education Policy Bureau had this to say in regards to the calls from parent groups-”Parent organizations in 5 different prefectures, including U.A’s home prefecture-Shizouka, are calling for hero schools to not admit any new hero course students in the following academic year till they can prove that they can both educate and protect their new students.” Back in the studio, Miyagi brought attention to another issue that stemmed from the League’s activities as of late. “A spokesperson from the Education Policy Bureau had this to say in regards to the calls from parent groups-”
Line Break
The wall-mounted TV was shut off by Present Mic, the man not needing to hear any more of their negativity and reminders when he could just open a window and listen for the dozens of reporters swarming about U.A. Dark as it was, at least U.A wasn't the only school facing backlash from the public and press, as just about everyone that had students present at the time of the attack was dealing with their own wave of reporters and angry parents.
Leaning back into his seat next to the ever-silent Aizawa, he and the rest of the staff awaited the principal to arrive, as he had been delayed due to a conference call with the other school's principals about this mess. Not even a moment later, the door slid open as Nezu entered, his amused smile gone from his face.
“That bad?” Snipe asked, having only seen the man this upset enough times that it could be counted on one hand. The principal didn't respond, rather he allowed Cementoss to help him into his seat, it was only them that he did.
"It ran longer than expected, mainly due to the last-minute inclusion of the vice-Minister of E.C.S.S.T, and representatives of the HPSC, the national police and NPSC.” They felt like they should be surprised, but at the same time, they didn't. This was the largest villain operation in 30 years, something once thought impossible in the age of All Might, yet not even the man himself, in his weakened true form, could raise any issue with so many parties being involved in this mess.
“What are the final numbers?” Vlad asked him, speaking for his fellow homeroom teacher who looked less like he hadn’t slept and more like he had nothing but nightmares whenever he closed his eyes. He could only imagine the horrors he saw that day.
Nezu, again didn’t answer immediately, but instead reached for his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, another rate sight as he only smoked when especially stressed. However, not even Recovery Girl smoked him as he pulled one out, reached for his other pocket and took out a lighter.
Lighting his cigarette, he took a long drag of it before puffing out a steady stream of smoke, leaning into his chair as most of his strength left him with his stress. “At the time of the attack, there were around 2500 people present, of that, 1500 were students.” He began, giving them the context for just how many people had been in the splash zone. "There are over 1200 casualties, of which 401 have died, either in the initial assault or as a consequence of it."
Hearing that, they might have known things were bad, but not even Eraser believed that they had been that bad. “Fuck.” Midnight gave words to their collective disbelief. She couldn't recall any incident with a casualty count that high that didn't include a major natural disaster. Most villain attacks, even the worst ones, were lucky if they had death counts in the double digits. Maybe-MAYBE a villain could reach 30-plus victims over time, but that was it. Hitting numbers past 50 was a fantasy for most villains, but it seemed that the League had made that fantasy into their nightmarish reality.
"In terms of percentages, the highest was among teachers as over 85% were killed or wounded defending their students and the civilians on site." Nezu was both an educator and as a hero hoped that they could take whatever comfort in that face that he did, knowing that while they gave their lives, they did so to protect others like a true hero would. “Students unfortunately had the second highest as over half were killed or wounded.” They turned to Eraser, the man being comforted by Present Mic who looked worried for his friend.
“They…they just kept coming…” Aizawa was reliving it, as he had in his nightmares for the past 2 nights. No matter how many he handled, how many he took down, it was like the hydra as 2 more seemed to sprout from the ground to replace them. “They swarmed us, kept us away from our students, I saw…so many fell, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it…” The stoic, rational man couldn’t hold back tears as he remembered their screams, their pleas and then the silence as so many went down and didn’t get back up, only to later leave the exam grounds in body bags.
“That’s not true, Shōta. You did all that you could and more, and because of that, none of your students fell that day.” Vlad said to his fellow homeroom teacher, a sentiment shared amongst them.
“What are their conditions? I heard that things were pretty serious.” Midnight turned from her old high school junior to Recovery Girl, who unlike most of them, had been called to the scene in the aftermath and made several trips to the hospitals treating the wounded.
The elder pro took a breath. “Most of them were injured in some way, but most were good to go about a kiss from me and a nap to recoup their strength. Even that Midoriya girl.”
“What was wrong with her?” All Might asked, to which Recovery Girl snorted in irritation and concern.
“She had a massive slash to her side and had one of the other students seal it shut with a blowtorch, that was what is wrong with her.” That was another surprise as most of them wondered just what the hell went through her head to even attempt that, and how she managed to retain consciousness after the fact. All Might and Nezu remained silent there as they both saw her medical reports from when she was held captive by Chisaki, they knew that in comparison, a blowtorch wasn't that much to her which in itself, only made them feel worse.
Unfortunately for them, Recovery Girl had other bad news. "But there are other outliers. Hagakure and Ojiro both suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns thanks to their encounter with the League’s arsonist.” The tailed boy needed another week off school and other physical activities, especially ones that involved his tail while his invisible classmate was lucky that they had doctors on hand that specialized in burn treatment, combined with her quirk-the girl would only have some minor scarring which couldn’t even be seen.
“The Koda boy was unharmed physically, but he’ll need serious therapy as he had the unfortunate luck to run into the arsonist as well, and watched as the man burned every single animal he could send at him to ash.” She shivered, having seen the boy as he was being comforted by his mother, appearing like a shell of his former self while she guessed he knew this kind of thing would happen, it wasn't as if he could prepare for him via exposure treatment.
“Poor boy was hysterical and was only consolable thanks to the efforts of another school’s student finding him.” She didn’t know the girl’s name, but she knew she was from Seiai so perhaps she’ll contact them to pass her thanks.
"Recovery Girl, they all need therapy. Being a hero is a messy job, we see some messed up crap when we're out in the field, but they're all teens and students. All of them have been exposed to a horror that only All Might has seen before." Power Loader added he might spend most of his time in the lab keeping Hatsume in check, but like everyone else, he manages to fit in hero work.
"I doubt Hound Dog will have the time to see to all of them," Ectoplasm noted, looking at the guidance counsellor who could only nod his head.
“I can handle a few of them, but unless they’re given a period or two off, I can’t properly deal with all of them.” He managed to say without barking and growls.
“The other principles raised similar concerns, and the commission and government agree that this needs to be handled with professional hands. So, we can expect that therapists will be made available to us and the students in a few days.” Nezu was at least pleased with that, as he had suspected that the commission would attempt to bull their way forward and pretend like their teenage students wouldn't need help dealing with this mess.
Finishing his cigarette, he snuffed it out on the ashtray he always had ready at his place at the table before he took out his tablet and sent document files to the rest of them to review. “As for the villains in question, why he did manage to capture 311 of the villains, we estimate that there were at least 800 that appeared in the assault, meaning that a majority escaped capture." It wasn't much, at least at the moment, but they could review the full police report on their own time.
“Those that have been questioned by police are mainly small fry, grunts. They might be better than the ones from the USJ but they served the same purpose as their predecessors.” He explained, as most of the names on the list of captured villains were D-Rank with C-ranked coming up now and then. “However, they did give up information regarding the heavy hitters of the League, this is what the police has been able to gather since.”
With that said, he sent them a separate folder, this one containing all that the police could dig up involving what they suspected to be the leaders or lieutenants of the league under Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and their wealthy shadow benefactor. However, even though the files on Shigaraki and Kurogiri started back during the USJ incident, there was relatively little on either of them as the last name Shigaraki didn't appear to match anyone with a resemblance to the villain in question, there was a physical copy of someone that might have, but it had since been misfiled and lost as was expected of a file that dated back at least 100 years.
Nor were there any files about a quirk that Decay, even stolen ones. It was even less with Kurogiri as they didn't have a name, or a face and his quirk didn't appear in the records. Warp gate quirks were incredibly rare, but none on record operated similarly enough to Kurogiri for them to be able to connect them. At best, they could pray to get DNA samples from the two and run it through every database they had, but that would take time.
On the bright side, the same wasn't true with the other villains that they believed to be the League's powerhouses while names were absent, as was the case with the villain known as Dabi, there were extensive reports on his activities dating back at least 3 years. Oddly enough, most of it was legal or small-time crimes like petty theft, nothing that would result in anything more than a fine or a week in a holding cell, so how did someone go from that to arson and multiple homicides?
“A kid?” Snipe looked up at Present Mic, the man’s attention on the villain that went by Mustard, real name Takeshi Tachibana. Looking through the file on the brat, Snipe could see why his fellow teacher was surprised as, besides the fact he looked beat to hell in the arresting photo, the kid was only 15.
Nezu on no such surprise or sympathy for the human, his age be damned. "He was the one responsible for the gas, a good portion of the dead thanks to him shooting whoever he came across. Because of that, he's being charged as an adult and could see himself ending up at Tartarus till he's old and grey." Nezu was appalled that a young man would use a firearm to inflict harm, but reading the report based largely on testimony from Aoyama and Yaoyorozu's experience fighting him, the boy felt nothing for killing. And upon learning that, not a single person present felt the urge to speak in his defence. Was it tragic that he'll be spending the rest of his days in a box? Yes, did he deserve it? Also yes.
“Moonfish was returned to custody, at Tartarus where he'll remain till his execution is carried out in a few days." Thirteen spoke up, the rescue specialist having taken the chance to read through the rest of the information regarding the League such as Muscular, real name Goto Imasuji and the man responsible for 34 grievous assaults; 21 attempted murders and 8 murders. And then Magne, real name Kenji Hikiishi, who before her involvement in the Dagoba attack was wanted for 9 aggravated robberies; 29 attempted murders and 3 murders. Reading through it, she felt her eyes narrow in rage at the fact their students went up against such monsters but paused when she saw that attached to the forms was information regarding Nomu.
“Nomu information?” She asked, getting Nezu to smile, even if slightly.
“Yes, thanks to the efforts of Midoriya and a 2nd-year student from Shiketsu, we managed to capture several Nomu which can be studied so we can better fight them, or if fate allows it, reverse the process that turned them into mindless monsters." He would have to give his thanks to the girl when they met once more, as he was sure his counterpart in Shiketsu was planning to do if they didn't already as before this, most Nomu were corpses recovered after being slain, this would be a prime time to examine a group of living specimens.
“What of Gang Orca?” All Might asked, worry for his fellow top ten pro clear in his bony face.
“He’ll live, but he’ll be on the bench for around 2 months as the breaks his bones suffered, along with the laundry list of other injuries he suffered need time to heal properly.” Recovery Girl answered for Nezu as she had been present to heal the man of the worst of it and make sure he knew to take it easy till she or another doctor gave him the okay.
“Never thought I’ll see the day that a top ten hero would be laid up in bed after a villain attack, this is not going to bode well in the long term as villains not even connected to the League will get uppity.” Midnight noted, as she had to think back, years back to the last time this happened and that was only for a couple of days, so hardly anyone noticed.
"No kidding, I've been getting nothing but hate calls to my radio show from hero critics, concerned parents and downright trolls, though at least that last one is common." Present Mic replied.
"Yes, reviewing how the League conducted the attack, it appears that used a refined version of their attack plan from the USJ," Nezu explained, as that was part of the reason why he had been called to speak with the police in the aftermath, as they sought to pick his brain on the assault itself, how it was possibly planned, how long would it have taken, possible drop points and exit points. It was thanks to him that they managed to find the warehouses that served as the League's jump point, about 21km away from the actual attack site. Unfortunately, aside from discarded food and cheap furniture, the place had been empty.
“So, what’s the play going forward?” Snipe asked as it would be foolish if they tried to just continue business as normal, nor could they just make changes that couldn't be seen as then the public would think they were just carrying one normal.
“It’ll be a multi-pronged plan as it was decided that myself and other principals will be attending a press conference where we address the public concerns over the safety of our students, but we won't be limiting admission for the coming spring," Nezu explained, the principle looking as pleased with the guaranteed headache that the conference will be as Aizawa liked to wear bright colors and sing for his students. One didn't need his level of intelligence to know that it would get ugly as the reporters would tear into them for every fault they could find, real or imagined.
"That will go down nicely," Aizawa muttered, the man keeping silent and merely listening.
“Which is why I’ll be taking Vlad and Eraser with me, as the homeroom teachers of our first-year hero course, you’ll both be expected to offer up answers.” Nezu at least looked apologetic about it as if he could, he wouldn’t ask this of him after what he and his students went through, but he didn’t have much in the way of a choice.
Aizawa knew this, so he kept his cursed-filled refusal to himself. “Joy.” Present Mic and now Midnight joined in on making sure he didn't spiral, hopefully, he'll be able to work through enough of his issues before the conference else a single careless comment from a reporter could make him lash out.
With that settled, he turned to the second part of the plan. “As for our current students, all schools have been advised to switch to a dorm system as while the League was once primarily focused on U.A. this latest attack shows that they’ll just as easily target other schools.” He suspected that the rest of the schools in the country would be getting the notification either that day or the next, which didn’t leave much time for them to create or acquire student accommodation on short notice.
“As for the schools that were involved, our switch to the dorm system is non-negotiable.” He looked towards Cementoss as he'd be key to them getting their dorms built in time for their students to move. The man merely nodded, as he and the principal had discussed this in the past, but there was never much reason to do it.
“What of the students whose parents that don’t wish to see their students enter it?” Power Loader asked as he couldn’t see 100% of parents sighing off on this.
“As I said, it’s non-negotiable. If the parents decide not to sign off on it, then their child will be removed from our school and transferred.” Nezu replied, not liking it as much as they did and already seeing some possible issues that could come from this.
"This is a headache waiting to happen, not to mention it'll bring the mood down among students if friends they've made are suddenly transferred." Vlad King noted, rubbing his nose as he could see the other courses taking it out on the hero course as they were the ones consistently targeted. He wished it wasn’t a possibility but the fact is, as a hero focused school-despite having the best education possible for its other courses, most folk only saw U.A. as a school of heroes, it was why they had to chance the uniforms to help tell them apart as students in other courses got sick and tired of being confused for the hero course, only to be met with disappointment from people when they cleared it up.
“Hence why we’ll spend the next week following our press conference convincing each family.” Nezu saw each of them frown at that as he knew this would be an uphill battle.
"And what of the exam itself?" Thirteen drew attention to herself before she continued. "Class 1-B managed to pass their just fine, but class 1-A's was interrupted. How will that affect work studies?"
Turning back to the principal, they waited for his response as while unfair to class A, it would be just as unfair to forbid class B from partaking in work studies when they qualified for it. "That was another issue that came up during the meeting and," Nezu knew that, but he also knew that what he was about to say next would invalidate that to some extent.
“The vice-Minister of E.C.S.S.T and representative of the HPCS were quite firm so by their order, a temporary suspension of all work students has been put in place for all 1st and 2nd year students, along with a limited ban on 3rd years who will need special permission from both the E.C.S.S.T and HPSC to continue with whatever work studies they’re currently on.” Here, even the silent Aizawa's eyes widen in shock at such an extreme reaction. While hero students didn't officially make up part of the hero workforce, they still acted as sidekicks to agencies across the country, for them to suddenly be pulled, it could mean that hundreds of heroes would be off the table.
“Wait, all students? That seems extreme, wouldn’t you say?” All Might asked, to which Nezu frowned but before he could speak up, he was beaten to the punch.
“Not really,” Snipe answered for him, crossing his arms. “Think about it, this entire mess is centered around how teens were forced to fight for their lives against villains. I can't imagine what it would do to remind people that teens do that on the regular via work studies, license or not. Or am I wrong?" He finished with a question directed towards their boss, who nodded.
“You’re quite right, that was the crux of the HPSC’s argument as it wouldn’t do well for our already shaky public approval if people saw students out in the streets, potentially getting injured.” Students were the most likely to get injured on the job due to their lack of experience, and while most cases weren't anything too serious, in the wake of dozens of deaths and many funerals needed to be planned, the commission thought it wouldn't do them good to keep them out and about.
“They’re going to hold them back till they can find and destroy the League, I assume?" Midnight guessed.
“Yes. Till we can deal a critical blow to the League, I doubt that they’ll let any student act in any official capacity as a hero.” Nezu confirmed that the commission and police had been rather cagey on the details.
But they did speak freely on other topics as Nezu leaned forward in his seat, a glint in his eye that spelt misfortune for whoever got his ire. “However, there is a silver lining to this tragedy as because the League has attacked other schools, they might have shown their boldness, but also opened themselves up to more pros looking into them, teachers wishing to get justice for fallen students, alumni wishing to right the wrong done to their former schools.” He saw that the other principles had been outraged over this, they had been sympathetic in the past due to their unexpected troubles with the League, but now? The League might as well have declared way on all of them.
A declaration that they pounced on as with so many extra eyes and hands, they managed to dig up some truths. "Because of that, we have found a promising lead into the League, in Kamino ward where we suspect we'll find a Nomo production plant."
Lime Break
While the teachers continued to have their discussion over things, Midoriya sat on an old couch she found. It wasn't that strange that a piece of furniture would just be lying around as she was surrounded by trash, everything from children's toys to fridges and stoves. Takoba Municipal Beach Park, once a beautiful beachfront, had truly become a dump where even the current saw fit to dump whatever they pleased on its shores. "Someone should clean this place," Midoriya spoke to herself, watching the tides come and go with the sun’s rays reflecting off the water, giving them a nice shine.
“Maybe I’ll take some time off to do it.” She smiled at that, it would do some good to clean the place and open this place up for public enjoyment again. But for now, she'll enjoy the silence of it as she couldn't stand being in the Bakugo household any longer than she had to. She didn't hate Aunt Mitsuki or Uncle Masaru, they were great hosts, it wasn't even the proximity with Katsuki…or maybe it was? She couldn't put it into words, but he didn't even need to do anything to make her uncomfortable. His just being his loud, aggressive self was enough to make things awkward, almost as bad as his clumsy attempts to check up on her. So, she took a blowtorch to the side, so what? She was still fine, a hell of a lot better than most. Still, seeing his face twist into a grimace when she reminded him that she had been through worse left her with a confused and unsettling feeling in her gut.
As she kept to herself, she never noticed that someone had been watching her from the shadows, hidden by the trash hills, they kept their box-cutter close while their cat-like yellow eyes fixated on her.
Line Break
And with that, the end of another chapter. I wasn't able to give exact numbers, but I don't think I had to as even the War arc seems to of had a lower hero body count than this, which tells you that things are going to get messy in the future. And to think, these cracks are forming in a world where All Might is still active, so you can only imagine how bad things will get when he finally is forced to retire.
