A Duty To The Future
ZERO
"Exam successfully completed at ten thirty, January eighteenth." Haraki announced in the stuffy transmission room. The other staff members clapped as the numerous screens mounted on the walls powered down. He leaned back, stretching his arms above his head and cracking his knuckles.
"Now to tally the scores..." He sighed as he stood up and gathered the empty paper cups off the console.
Incredible performances had been displayed today. As intended by the new system, most of the students had an even score of rescue and villain points. Except for a few bloodthirsty ones who apparently wanted to reach U.A. by scaling a mountain of obliterated drones. Haraki crunched the numbers roughly, the damages for this exam would be in the hundred thousands. And that's from the damages only. Factoring in the cleaning crew that would take at least a month to clear the debris and make everything ready for the next exam in a year pushed the sum into the millions. A trite sum when split between principal Kobayashi's deep pockets and the government's even deeper ones. Perks of an economic boom.
The teachers had been quick to excuse themselves, leaving behind the department of heroics people to power down the systems. Haraki caught the attention of a colleague of his and made a drinking motion, thumb pointing towards his mouth.
Tonight? He mouthed soundlessly.
You bet. The other man answered in kind.
Yes! Haraki celebrated inwardly and powered his console down, the screens going black one by one.
Surprisingly enough, the exam had went off without a hitch. No major injuries, no major structural damage to any of the buildings. Except for the one that had been molded into a giant spire but that was not Haraki's problem. The only problem he had to think about was how he would get home drunk as he would be this evening.
Without warning the door burst open. A young U.A. employee stood in the portal, breathing heavily.
"Sir! There's been an emergency!" She wiped the sweat off her brow. "An intruder, he assaulted Overmind in the Drone Hive!"
"What?!"
A villain? Here? Impossible. Haraki jogged towards the woman and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Was anybody wounded? Have the authorities been informed? Do we know who it is?"
"No sir, nobody was wounded and the staff have subdued him, they're checking for ID now." She held out the walkie talkie to him.
Haraki yanked it from her grasp, pushing the PTT button. "Haraki here, talk to me. Over." He let go of the button.
It took a moment but the device crackled. "Suzuki here, somebody infiltrated the hive but we caught him. Over."
"Is he a villain you recognize? What does he look like? Over."
"No he's not. He's in his teens, tall, black hair, looks a bit pasty. They are searching for his ID right now. Over."
Haraki's mind worked, filing though pictures and mugshots of villains new and old, none who matched the description would have motives to disrupt the exam, nor held a grudge against Overmind. He had not been active in the field for nearly two years now.
"Sir, we have an ID. What the... its an exam participant!" he gasped.
It could not have been a villain. They had run full background checks on every participant and on every close relative and acquaintance. The whole department had worked overtime to facilitate that.
The media never cared for details like investigations and evidence. He could already see the headlines: Villain infiltrates Hero Academy's exam despite government supervision! Can we still trust the officials to do their duty? If this came out it would be a disaster of unprecedented political ramifications. An icy sense of dread wormed its way into his gut.
"The ID reads: Aizawa Shōta exam participant number 103, can you confirm the ID?"
The Aizawa boy from a week ago? Tall, black hair and pasty, the description fit him to a T. That changed things. Massively. He couldn't have been an infiltrator, his intentions were genuine. The smoldering determination he had witnessed behind those eyes that day was genuine. No doubt about it. It had been the reason why he had caught his interest.
"-sir? Sir! I repeat: Can you confirm the ID? Over."
"Y-yes, I confirm the ID. Bring him to the second floor of the exam center, the far meeting room on the right. And don't let the students see you, use the tunnels. Over and out."
"Will do sir. Over and out."
Haraki handed the device back to the woman and stormed past her into the empty hall. Half his mind on assembling the committee, he was sure the boy did not have any ill intent. There was just the matter of getting to the bottom of it. Overmind was a choleric simpleton, throwing tantrums like a spoiled child. The young man would have difficulty finding someone who would sympathize with him here. He frowned in frustration. I'm probably the only one. He couldn't let this potential go to waste he had to do something.
Haraki jogged towards the transmission room for the Drone Hive where he burst through the door.
In the rectangle of light that crashed into the room with him he saw two of his underlings from the department in various states of undress. The woman sat on top of the main console, pulling down the man by his tie.
"This has got to be a joke..." The older man rubbed his eyes. He wanted to punch himself for thinking this would be a relaxed day. Clothes rustled and zippers were pulled up. He waited for the sounds to stop to look up again. They stood before him at attention, avoiding his gaze, both of them beet red. "You know, I used to think that I was babysitting a group of kindergartners." he sighed. "Congratulations you two! You've convinced me otherwise." The pair hesitantly met his gaze. "Apparently I'm babysitting horny teenagers!" He threw his arms up in frustration.
"Sir, I am so sorry we just-" the man tried to explain himself.
"I don't care, Atsushi." He silenced him with a wave of his hand. "I'll let this slide," the pair's expression brightened, "on one condition." And darkened again. "You have five minutes to compile all the footage of participant 103, Aizawa Shōta from district P on a tape and bring it to viewing room 3 E down the hall."
"Sir, the system has shut down, it'll take at least a two minutes to get back up."
"Not my problem. And be thorough." He walked out into the hall. "Also wipe that console before you leave, for goodness sake!"
Haraki took off towards the viewing room, which was, at least, devoid of any licentious coworkers. He dragged a desk over to the biggest TV with an integrated VHS player, slammed a stack of blank papers down on it and sat.
The tired examiner did not know whether to laugh or cry. He rested his head on the cool tabletop and closed his eyes. Probably the only shuteye I'm getting today.
The image of him lounging in a cozy Izakaya with a cold mug of beer in his left hand and a juicy Yakitori skewer in his right went up in a cloud of smoke. In its place the all too familiar thrumming of an oncoming migraine marched towards his forehead.
Shōta was pushed down onto a chair by the two guards that flanked him, handcuffs clattering against aluminum. He was positioned in the middle of a U shaped table, meeting the gazes of teachers, department employees, the principal and Overmind. One seat was empty at the base of the U. Braveclaw and his the assistant Fuzaki were among there too.
A clock ticked loudly. Behind the middle seat at the base ,which was occupied by the principal, an oversized and far too flattering portrait of Kobayashi joined all the other judging gazes in the room.
The wood paneled walls were decorated with various awards, degrees and black and white group photos of men and women in uniforms.
"He called us here and now he's late." A white haired man with a mustache, clad in a black suit and tie tapped his finger against the armrest of his chair.
"What I don't understand is why this is even up for debate." Overmind sat next to the principal, his arms folded in front of his chest. He shot Shōta a poisonous glare and turned away with a scoff.
"I agree," the principal added. "We should be alerting the police!"
Shōta swallowed. Being disqualified was bad enough, but now they would call the cops? U.A. would be out of the picture, but he could try Ketsubutsu Academy, since he had applied for them too. However if the cops were brought into this... trespassing, assault and unauthorized quirk use were no minor offenses. That meant a criminal record, which in turn dashed all his hopes of ever becoming a hero to bits.
He wanted to talk, to explain the situation to them, but the words escaped him. Trying to reason with them had proved fruitless, everything he said was instantly dismissed as lies.
The entire room looked at him like he was the biggest inconvenience they ever had to endure. Shōta felt like a sentenced man standing before the chopping block. He looked at his hands in his lap, the dull reflection of yellow light on the cuffs shifted as he ran his fingers over the metal. Cold and smooth. Had he known this would happen Shōta would have stayed in his bed. How he wished himself home, rolled up in his covers. Mom and dad were probably waiting for him to return. Oh no. What would his parents think if they heard of this. A shiver ran down his spine. Their son: gone off to become a hero, came back a criminal. How proud they had been, how devastated they would be. Shōta buried his face in his hands. All just because he wanted to play the wise guy. Dammit!
Two knocks sounded at the door. Shōta looked up to see Haraki stepping through it. He looked worse than he did a couple of hours ago. He had discarded his suit jacket and his white dress shirt was wrinkled and untucked, his tie hanging loosely around his collar which stuck out at odd angles. Their gazes met for an instant. Haraki winked. Shōta nodded, his spirits lifting.
A man and a woman pushed into the room a metal table on wheels that carried a TV set, the examiner dismissed the pair and they left as quickly as they had entered.
"Finally. You're late." the principal scowled.
Haraki smiled and clapped his hands together. "Sorry gentlemen, had to do a bit of work." He sat down on the empty chair at the base, next to the principal. "So, I believe everyone has been briefed on the-" he paused when his eyes fell on the bindings around Shōta's wrists. "Are you completely out of your minds? Did you seriously cuff a fifteen year old boy in a room full of professional heroes? Get those things off!" The guards next to Shōta looked from Haraki to the principal and back, not sure what to do.
"Haraki-san I have to insist that-" the principal interjected. Haraki cut him off with a sharp glare. The rotund man shrunk back in his chair and made no other sound. After a nod from the examiner the cuffs were taken off. Shōta rubbed his sore wrists.
"Now, I believe everyone has been briefed on the situation?" Affirmative grunts filled the room. "Still, I would like to hear the offenses on which you have based the disqualification of this young man. Overmind-shi."
"He disrupted the exam, broke into U.A. property and assaulted me." Overmind recounted.
"He also stole my animal crackers." The guard on Shōta's right added.
Haraki narrowed his eyes at him and quickly shook his head.
"First of all, he did not disrupt the exam in any way. From the reports he 'assaulted' you seconds before the exam ended so don't insult our intelligence." Haraki said dismissively.
"Second, the exam site is not U.A. property, it belongs to the department. So it falls to me to decide if he trespassed. Which he did not."
Overmind huffed once but did not look the examiner in the eye.
"Haraki-san, this is ridiculous. This boy could be villain. He made an attempt on Overmind's life for heavens sake!" Kobayashi protested.
"Impossible. Everybody from the department here will confirm it. We did background checks on everybody." All around the table men and women from the department nodded.
"You cannot deny that he assaulted him though."
"No, I can't. But let's hear the boy's side, as I'm sure none of you have even let him make a case for himself." He turned to Shōta. "Why were you inside the building where the drones came from?"
Shōta hesitated but this was his only chance. He swallowed. "Haraki-san had said that later when we would be in the field that we would pursue and fight villains and search and rescue civilians. I did everything but the pursuing part of that, so I arrived at the logical conclusion that I had to pursue the mannequins-"
"They're drones you idiot!" Overmind shouted. Braveclaw, who sat on the corner adjacent to him tried to shush the upset teacher. Haraki shook his head.
"Continue."
"I had to pursue the drones. I treated the exam as a villain invasion in which the smart thing to do would be to find and defeat the boss rather than waste time with underlings. I thought there was a secret objective to the exam. At the time it seemed plausible." At the time, yes. Now, not so much.
"So what did you do?"
"I followed the patrols back to their origin and found a hidden doorway through which I accessed the office building and subdued the one who was creating the villains."
Mutters went around the table. Haraki wore a thin smile on his weary features. Shōta wrung his hands. Surely they would understand his reasoning.
"How did you subdue him?" he asked.
"I hog-tied him with a power cord."
The room exploded into peals of laughter. Braveclaw howled as he threw his head back. Overmind had went as red as the ball on his antenna.
"Oh man..." Haraki wiped the tears from his eyes.
"He snuck up on me! I was caught off guard!" Overmind slammed his fist on the table, scarlet with fury.
"A heinous assault indeed." Haraki giggled. "But on a more serious note now." The room slowly settled back into a now much more comfortable silence. Shōta took a deep breath, relaxing slightly.
"So you slipped past security, scaled twenty floors without getting caught and subdued a pro hero. That is extraordinary." He looked at his colleagues. "It would be a crime to let that much talent go to waste."
Heated discussions broke out among teachers and department officials alike.
"Haraki-san, I know for a fact that Aizawa-kun scored twenty five villain points and twenty three rescue points which puts him at a forty eight total. Seven points under the passing grade of fifty five." The rotund principal pointed out. "Which makes this whole discussion redundant." He grinned, pleased with himself.
Shōta's heart sank. He had spent half the exam on a wild goose chase. He had scored no points since the time he fixated on the secret objective.
"Let me correct you there Kobayashi-san." Haraki turned the TV set behind him on and inserted a videotape. On the screen played scenes of students fighting the drone villains. "You see, an interesting little detail is Aizawa-kun's quirk which disables others. Apparently he used it on Overmind and look what happened." He pointed to the TV. Drones were collapsing left and right, bewildered students staring in disbelief at the heaps of limbs in front of them.
"As I am aware, because I organized about eighty percent of this exam, there had to be at least two drones out at every time for each student. Across district K,L,O and P which hosted 25 students each we have a total of two hundred vanquished drones. By his quirk alone. Which puts Aizawa-kun at a grand total of two hundred and forty eight points."
Two hundred... Shōta's jaw dropped.
"Everybody present here who supports revoking Aizawa Shōta-kun's disqualification, lift your hand."
All hands were raised except for two: the principal and Overmind who stormed out of the room.
"Very well, you won Haraki-san. Disqualification revoked." Kobayashi sighed. "Welcome to U.A. Aizawa Shōta."
Everybody filed out of the room one by one, Braveclaw stopping to slap Shōta on the back and flashing him a toothy smile before leaving.
Haraki was the last one. "Come on," he motioned him to follow. They scaled a switchback staircase at the end of the hall and came to door which Haraki unlocked.
A strong wind swept over the rooftop and Shōta shivered. The examiner did not seem fazed by it, leaning against the railing, eyes staring sightlessly at the exam site below, as he pulled out a cigarette and put it to his lips. He cupped his hand over it against the wind and lit it. Shōta stood next to him, watching as the clean-up crew worked, students entered the buses that would bring them back home.
Haraki to a long drag and blew out a plume of smoke that was carried away by a gust.
"They do that to you?" He pointed towards Shōta's nose with the butt of the cigarette.
There was still a patch of dried blood under one of his nostrils. He scratched it off. "No. ran into a door down in the tunnels."
The examiner chuckled.
"I wanted to say thank you, Haraki-san." There were not enough words to express his gratitude to the man before him but he would try at least.
"Ugh, being called like that makes me feel old." he extended his hand. "Takameru. Pleased to finally get to know you."
"Shōta." He shook his hand. It was bony and rough but it gripped his firmly nonetheless.
"Well Shōta, you've made quite the impression on the teachers and our staff. Can't say if it's the good or the bad kind. We'll see in the long run." He scratched his salt and pepper stubble.
"Believe me, I never wanted to make an impact like that." Shōta rubbed his hands together and stuffed them down his pockets. Something rustled. He pulled the pack of animal crackers from his pocket.
"You actually stole that guy's animal crackers?" Haraki laughed, smoke pouring out of his mouth with each breath. "I believe you, you're not the type who wants to be in the spotlight."
"How do you know?"
"Saw it, with my special eyes."
"Quirk?"
"No. Just years of experience and intuition. I'm quirkless actually." He looked at the crackers. "You gonna open that?"
"Er... sure." He ripped it open and Haraki grabbed a handful.
"Thanks. For the last few days I've been surviving on a diet of coffee and cigarettes." The older man stuffed the crackers into his mouth. He didn't check which animals he had gotten.
"That can't be healthy."
"Eh." he shrugged. "You've made an enemy today, Shōta."
"Yeah..." A teacher at the school he would be attending. Meetings would be inevitable. He just hoped he would not have him in any subjects.
"Don't worry too much though. Overminds a vindictive little cu-" He coughed. "A vindictive little fellow, but don't get discouraged, he's mostly bark and no bite."
"I'll keep that in mind."
They spent a few quiet moments, munching on a few crackers, Haraki lit a new cigarette.
"Takameru-san, I have a question. Why did you go to such lengths just for me?"
He took another long drag and thought as the smoke bloomed.
"I may not seem like it but I love my job. It is exhausting at times, the people can be a major pain the neck and I often marvel at the vastness of human stupidity. See exhibit A:," He pointed downwards. Overmind was getting into a car with one of his drones at the wheel and sped off. "On the other side, its people like you that keep me going at this job. The students. There's no better feeling than meeting a former student on the street and seeing them all grown up in their costumes, fighting injustice." He tapped his cigarette once and ash scattered into the wind. "I have a duty, Shōta. To society and to you kids who want to protect it. A duty to the future."
"I see in you a hero who thinks logically. A rare trait for someone in this line of work. Heroes are known for charging in with reckless abandon. 'My body moved on its own when I saw you in danger!'" He said in a deep gravelly voice. "Sure, this time you thought a bit too much for your own good." Shōta looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "But you are still young, you have time to learn. And that is where I come in." He took a final drag and tossed the cigarette over the railing. "I ensure that the potential you have doesn't go to waste and you get the education to fully utilize it."
"That, and out of all the kids today you were different. The good kind of different. You have a strong drive to become a hero and for what I think an amazing reason."
"I...I don't know how to thank you."
Haraki laid a hand on his shoulder. "Become a hero you can be proud of. That's more than enough for me." He smiled, tired creases forming across his cheeks. "Go on now, the buses are leaving soon." His hand brushed off and he walked past him and down the stairs.
Shōta looked up in to the cloudless sky, pushed back the lump that had formed in his throat, and bowed deeply towards where Haraki had left.
"Finally. Student 103, what took you so long?" The female staff member from the bus ride snapped at him.
"Bathroom."
"Fine, get in. Roll call!"
Shōta walked back to his seat, Hizashi was already there, his pompadour had deflated a bit since the exam and he was in the process of fixing it up. He smiled as he saw him approach.
"Ay, compañero!" He held up his hand, Shōta high fived him. "How'd you do?"
"Not bad. You?"
"You know me, wasted forty two of the suckers. Rescued another twenty six." He puffed out his chest. "How many did you get?"
"About the same." Shōta sat down on his seat.
"You think the puppets collapsing before the end was intended?"
"Dunno, maybe a malfunction or something."
"Student 103!"
"Here!"
"Student 134!"
"Here!"
"All students on board! Let's go." The bus rumbled to life and slowly lurched forward. The AC blasted Shōta's eyes with a steady stream of hot air. Goddammit. He rummaged around his pockets but he had already used up all the eye-drops. He still had about half of the animal crackers left though.
"Yo, want some?"
"Ouuh baby, heck yeah I want some. Thanks, bro!" he reached into the pack and pulled out a single one. "A lion. Sweet!"
Shōta reached in as well, grabbed one and munched it without looking.
A/N: Thanks for reading! And thanks to the people who reviewed, followed and favorited. The feedback is very much appreaciated!
Many thanks go out to rubyxblade for proofreading and editing! Please check out their work as well!