Trixuny - Indeed. In all honesty Joker, for example, should just be tried and shot, instead of... well, you know. Dealing with issues like that without losing your moral high ground is going to be a major part of the story.
WARNING. I'm generally against content warnings, because honestly, most of them are for really puny reasons that people should just get over with instead of overreacting. But there is some rather nasty stuff mentioned in this chapter. If you are really squeamish, you should consider skipping the part between:
"Huh." Dabi looks at Mustard again. "So what did he give to you to buy you off?"
And
Overhaul had to agree. That was one… unexpected demand. Then again, after something like that, there is just no way for the Mustard to betray him. Or, at the very least, to even consider helping the police or Defiant. So he did as Mustard asked him to.
Consider yourself warned.
(***)
"You aren't the only one who is scared of that." Aizawa admits after a few seconds. "We'll look into it. But you have to be aware that the best way to deal with this problem is to find a way to somehow deactivate meta-abilities in a way that doesn't require me to stare at all the inmates permanently." He still isn't fully over the revelations that his eyes can do that. "And that would require some… medical tests."
He doesn't add that, but obviously the only metahumans that can be medical tested are Network members. And probably he himself. Considering his ability to deactivate meta-abilities, he is clearly the prime research material.
Great. Now he will have to avoid secret government organizations as well.
"As I said, I'm not going to force anyone." Defiant decides to stay adamant on that issue. "But I'm sure that at least some of them would agree. Although I have to say that I happen to have an idea on how to deal with at least some villains."
"Meta-ability?" Aizawa asks and Defiant shakes his head.
"No, although having a meta-ability to, I don't know, imprison people in pocket dimensions would be pretty cool." Defiant replies. "Let me ask you a question. How many crimes are you willing to overlook if a person in question decides to straighten themselves up and atone through a hero work?"
"Really?" Aizawa's brow raises.
"The villain-to-hero is a bit of a common trope in the superhero genre." Defiant replies. Aizawa can spot a dodge like that easily. "I realize that the world doesn't work exactly like those stories, but I do believe that there are things to learn from them."
"I suspect that you're not saying this without a reason." Aizawa decides to ignore the dodge and go directly for the throat. "So you have someone like that in the Network already, am I right?"
"Y...yes." Defiant's confidence collapses for a second. "Look, I'm not going to argue for the rehabilitation of people like Mustard and Overhaul. They are clearly far too gone. Maybe after spending a decade or two in a high-security prison with some specialists. Maybe. This way or another, they have to be jailed first. But I do have two people within the Network that I believe can help the police a lot. And I do believe that they both deserve a chance."
Aizawa gives him a blank stare for a few long seconds, while his brain is working in overdrive. How to respond to that? Eventually, he arrives at the conclusion.
"This is going to be something done on a per-case basis." He replies. Tsukauchi opens his mouth to protest. "Tsukauchi, we've already confirmed that some metahumans are either impossible to contain by our prison system or will cost too much to restrain for us to be able to deal with them. If I have to choose between executing some otherwise unstoppable petty criminal or have him work for us while being carefully monitored, I'd prefer the latter. Especially as... " He sighs painfully. "How am I supposed to explain in court that someone committed crimes with a superpower? And how am I supposed to prove it?"
The world is going to be a mess for at least a while. Defiant could go away with a lot of crimes, for as long as there wasn't someone to witness them. No fingerprints, ability to do things at a distance without the risk of leaving DNA traces… and that was merely a telekinesis. Powerful, yes, but also bland.
Overhaul, though? And what about Mustard, even? Proving in court that he can discharge toxic gas is going to be a pain unless he decides to admit. They don't even know where that gas is really coming from. Is there an altered body part in him that doctors can investigate and prove, with sufficient evidence to back it up, that he truly can produce poison gas?
Pain in the ass. At least until the meta-abilities are revealed and the chaos of the aftermath stops. Which might as well take decades.
"This is… true." Tsukauchi says after a few seconds of digesting the news. "I don't like that, but... " He sighs.
"Just for the record." Aizawa says back to Defiant. "I can't promise an amnesty. That's not something I can do as a mere superintendent. What I can promise is arguing for amnesty once the meta-abilities become public knowledge, for as long as the person in question did offer significant contributions to the police work and behaved well. I can also promise that until the reveal day, I will ignore their past. Once again, for as long as they cooperate and behave. Are those terms acceptable?"
"I can't hope for anything more, now can I?" Defiant (wisely) concludes. "You probably want to talk about those two cases we have on-board, am I right?"
Aizawa nods.
"Well, the first one is Hijack." Defiant replies. "He is responsible for a string of convenience store robberies in Hosu. I believe those to be caused by desperation of someone homeless, especially as they ended when he managed to get money from different sources. His quirk allowed him to do that without harming anyone."
It's not Aizawa's district. But his memory does connect the dots.
"Those stun gas robberies?" He asks. Close to two dozen of those, and all that the Hosu police had was a recording of a young man wearing a disguise. So, not much.
"It's actually a mind-control quirk." Defiant replies. "But yes."
"Wait, mind control?" Tsukauchi pipes in. Aizawa would have done that on his own if given two more seconds.
"Less scary than it sounds." Defiant answers. "And very useful. If he speaks to you and you respond to him vocally, he can instantly hypnotize you and issue you an order that will be followed in a trance-like state. I believe that it was mostly some variant of 'give me the money'. Probably worded to include some sort of 'do not remember it' clause. I'm sure you realize how useful he will be in police work."
"No, I don't." Aizawa this time is the first to speak. "Mind controlling criminals sounds like going a bit too far. And a great way to have press vultures on our asses once the meta-abilities are revealed."
Defiant sounds vaguely disappointed with Aizawa's lack of recognition for Hijack's abilities.
"Well, he can't force confessions out of people." Defiant replies. "Or, to be exact, he can, but it's one of the orders that can be resisted when one wants to. But can you imagine a better negotiator when someone takes hostages? Or threatens to jump off a building?"
Oh. Yeah, that was an usage of that meta-ability that Aizawa (and Tsukauchi) didn't come upon. Hijack can simply tell those people to stop doing that - and they would stop. That's a massive asset when correctly used. And probably a great way of restraining people like Overhaul or Mustard without causing massive collateral damage in the process. At least temporarily.
Hijack is definitely possible to be arrested. But it would be problematic currently. Eventually a guard will accidentally respond to something he shouts from his cell, and then they'll have a problem. Besides, imprisoning him requires a prison warden who knows about meta-abilities. So they know that they shouldn't answer him no matter what.
"Aren't you afraid of him manipulating you?" Aizawa decides to make a last check.
"I'm somehow immune to his quirk." Defiant promptly replies. "I had a very serious talk with him that if he ever uses his Hypnosis on anyone without their consent, not in self-defense and not as a part of a hero's work, I will be… mean. I think he is scared of me now." Good to know. "So, accepted?"
"Reluctantly, but yes." Aizawa replies. Non-violent crimes, not a large loss to anyone and a potentially extremely useful meta-ability. Hijack is going to be strictly monitored, but in the meantime, his imprisonment isn't worth the hassle. "What about the other one?"
"That one will be harder to accept." Defiant admits. "Carmilla. Known also as the Hosu Vampire."
Harder to accept is an understatement.
"Absolutely not!" Aizawa raises his voice for the first time during his talk. "She is a serial killer with at least ten victims under her belt. You can't be serious!" Tsukauchi appears to agree with him.
"Two victims." Defiant replies. Aizawa's brow raises in response. "She has no idea who killed the remaining eight, but she is adamant that it wasn't her work. I suspect that some local criminal group started to kill in a similar way to her to throw the suspicions off themselves. I also believe that she has very serious attenuating circumstances."
"Attenuating circumstances?" Tsukauchi is the one to ask. "To murdering people?"
"Her quirk allows her to perfectly impersonate anyone whose blood she drinks, with the length depending on how much blood she drank." Defiant replies. "Body, voice, some quirks and even certain personality traits and behaviour. She instinctively knows how to behave as anyone she impersonates, in short. Unfortunately, it also makes her crave human blood. She literally cannot live without it, and when she doesn't receive enough of it, she goes berserk when she sees or smells it. The Hosu Vampire attacks stopped when she ran into Hijack, who figured out how to restrain her with his quirk when she goes into a frenzy."
That's… certainly an attenuating circumstance. Not enough to make any reasonable court to let her go, but enough to restrain her and force her into therapy rather than imprison or execute her. The real problem here is that they can't (for now) explain her actual reasons to a court. And it's not like there are therapists capable of dealing with her… unique problem.
"Where is she now?" Aizawa asks. If Hosu Vampire is now in Takoba… he'd like to know that much.
"In our headquarters." Defiant replies. "Chained to the wall, handcuffed, legcuffed and wearing a muzzle. She agreed to that, by the way. We consider this a stopgap measure before Alchemist will finish the prototype of her restraining device."
Another hard to reasonably imprison right now metahuman. How are they going to explain to the warden that this particular prisoner needs a regular supply of blood bags? If she can even use blood bags, and doesn't need the blood to be straight from the tap.
They can do it. Just not without saying things that will make people suspect that they are all insane. And Aizawa does not trust the prison system in Musutafu. He is almost certain that Chisaki is practically running half of it at this point.
"Muzzle?" Aizawa asks. "Don't you need her to speak for Hijack to restrain her?" That sounded counterproductive.
"She is sometimes too far gone to respond with words." Defiant replies. "It's better that way, since she'll exhaust herself while trying to get out of the bindings. Making her less frenzied and more likely to respond once that happens. Although I do admit that it's a rather makeshift solution."
Now, time to answer the real question.
"You do realize that I can't do a thing to get her out of murder allegations EVEN if I wanted?" Aizawa replies. He adds the last three words when Tsukauchi gives him a worried stare. "I do admit that those are some valid attenuating circumstances, akin to a… normal insanity. But killing someone while insane isn't something you can just walk away from."
"I understand, I understand." Defiant quickly replies. "All I want from you is to look the other way for now, while we keep her adequately restrained. And then provide a good word about her behavior during the trial. Feel free to claim that you didn't know that she was the Hosu Vampire, I'll play along."
"You know that if people discover that you were harboring a serial killer, things will get nasty?" Aizawa asks. "I mean, after the meta-ability reveal day." And oh dear if this day won't be the beginning of the biggest shitstorm of a century at last. He really has some complicated feelings about that prospect.
"I know." Defiant replies without a second of hesitation. "But if she is willing to go as far as she did to not hurt anyone anymore, I'm willing to give her a chance. Especially as… well." He sighs. "I know what it feels like to lose control over your quirk and harm someone. Sure, the man I hurt was Overhaul, but I still had some nightmares about that."
Huh.
"I see." Aizawa replies. "If you are willing to take responsibility. Full responsibility." He says. "If she as much as wounds someone who didn't deserve it, I'm going to jail her and probably you too. Got it?"
Defiant nods.
(***)
Aizawa left the meeting with a sense of urgency, a feeling of existential dread, a Metahuman Network tablet for communication purposes and a detective that seemed deeply confused about his decisions.
"Aizawa…" Tsukauchi tries to talk with him once they leave the fast food restaurant.
"Not here and not now." Aizawa shuts him immediately. They will have time to talk about it in the relative safety of his office.
Relative, because… are there any remote-seeing or remote-hearing meta-abilities out there? Because if yes, then no place is truly safe anymore.
(***)
"Oh my god!" Izuku says loudly when the police officers leave the fast food. "That was literally the scariest thing I ever had to do. I was sooo sure that they'd arrest us all!"
"Fat chance." Mei replies. She is looking at the restaurant's surroundings through her drone' eyes on her laptop, making sure that the superintendent and his companion are actually leaving. "I'd like to see their reaction when they realize whom they arrested! My parents would have gotten me out of jail in an hour. And you too, since I'd ask them to."
"Yeah, but they might have figured out my identity, and they might have phoned my mom during that hour." Izuku replies. He really doesn't want to even imagine the result of that. "Alright, so let's go before…."
He freezes. Mei is busy staring at the menu. Despite being very adamant before the meeting that she isn't hungry. He is almost certain that there is a reason for her sudden interest in the menu, and she expects him to figure it out.
So he sighs loudly.
"I'll buy you something, but it's gonna be a take away." He says, and she smiles at him. At least this is the type of an establishment where he can actually afford to buy her something.
(***)
"I must admit that I do not actually like this deal." Tsukauchi says finally once they are in Aizawa's office. Superintendent would generally prefer to be in a position to agree with that, but he DID read the Network member (plus known supervillains) summaries.
It only made him realize more acutely that the world is changing. And they either adapt or things will get very, very ugly.
"I don't like that deal either." Aizawa admits. "We're going to include untrained amateurs in police operations. Something that we'll have to keep secret OR attorneys will tear down all the collected evidence in the courts. But we don't exactly have a lot of options here."
He gestures towards the tablet lying on his desk.
"Reading this has only reinforced my beliefs on that matter." He leans back in his seat. "Some of those powers are frankly ridiculous. One of the Network members can teleport herself and other people around, can you believe this?"
Tsukauchi blinks at him a few times. Yes, shock is a natural reaction. What if there was a villain with an ability like that? Able to just… teleport into bank vaults? And how do they even incarcerate someone like that?
Neither of them enjoyed the idea of being ordered to kill people. But unless someone manages to find a way to deactivate meta-abilities, then governmental death squads might be the only potential solution. However nasty of an idea that was. After all, said hypothetical teleporting villain could instead teleport bombs around.
Even nuclear ones. How do they stop him from teleporting into a nuclear weapons storage?
There was an option that such a death squad already existed, but Aizawa doubted it. There was no order to report odd incidents to the police higher-ups. Such a thing would have to be a good start of such a death squad system.
Unless this is something done higher. Was the National Police Agency responsible for that? The assistant commissioner in charge of the city still didn't get a replacement. Might have been the reason why Aizawa wasn't informed.
"Throw every established protocol into the trash. "Superintendent announces. "We're the ones who are going to be writing those. And I'm willing to go very far if it means that this city and its inhabitants survive."
And he means it. They have to take down Overhaul.
He can only wonder what that man was up to right now.
(***)
Overhaul has a good day. After a long while of pursuit, the Shie Hasseikai managed to locate a new metahuman villain in the Musutafu Prefecture. Of course, locating him and recruiting him were two completely opposite things. Especially as it was someone close to his own level in strength.
Especially as, considering the rather dangerous reputation the villain in question had (and the fact that Overhaul wasn't certain how his power actually worked), he had to be… diplomatic. That shouldn't be a problem.
He left the car in front of the ruined factory, somewhere in the old industrial district of Hosu. It wasn't his turf, but the local groups knew that he wasn't someone to mess up with.
Just in case they didn't know it, he had Mustard, Kurono and ten of his best men. Most of them were former SAT, rangers or other special forces members that didn't find satisfying jobs after the war ended. Even their equipment was that of the spec ops.
He was proud of them. And they were intimidating enough to deter the local riffraff.
Kurono stayed next to the car with them. Mustard and Overhaul marched forward, the former taking point. He knew that even if he was shot or attacked with a superpower, his boss would still patch him up. Even from death.
He was ready to take that risk.
However, this time nothing like that happened. The factory was almost entirely empty. The only exception (at least on the ground floor, if Overhaul's intel was correct, the metahuman in question lived upstairs) was a chair in the middle of the old assembly hall.
And the rather horrifically defaced man sitting on it, wearing some damaged and tattered leather jacket and trousers. There was also a black haired woman wearing some dirty hoodie, standing next to him and glaring at the new arrivals.
Clearly, they were expected.
"So, visitors." The defaced ruin of a man spoke in a raspy voice. "If you are trying to sell us something, then you picked the wrong address."
Overhaul wonders if they were spotted from a window, or if their new potential recruit had some… interesting backing. Then again, did it really matter? Overhaul respected the power of their host enough to not risk a direct confrontation.
The powers of himself and Mustard weren't exactly a good match against him.
"No, I'm here looking to buy something." Overhaul calmly replies. There is only one chair in the room. Intentional. Someone likes to feel like a king facing his supplicants. "Namely, the services and loyalty of the infamous Arch-Arsonist of Musutafu. Or do you prefer Dabi?"
Arch-Arsonist is a bit large of a title. But, Overhaul is ready to stroke Dabi's ego a bit. Then again, that man DOES have a rather incredible track record. Especially as he managed to keep his involvement largely unknown to the police and the local firefighters. Overhaul is lucid enough to admit that.
"Dabi is alright." The king agrees generously. Overhaul will enjoy toppling him. "And you? You must be Kai Chisaki. There are very few in this Prefecture who are strong enough to try to make me work for them."
"Correct." Overhaul calmly replies. Dabi is probably curious why he is wearing a gasmask. It's Chisaki's plan B. "You have quite the reputation for starting fires, Dabi." And Overhaul has a lot that he wants to see burn.
"I like fire." Dabi replies with a shrug. "It's my entertainment and a hobby." Overhaul enjoys the fact that Dabi completely ignored the three digit number of casualties (124 if he remembers correctly) of his little hobby. That's exactly the type of mind that Chisaki needs for the Shie Hasseikai.
"Yes, and I need fire." Overhaul replies. "Just not the normal one. The blue one would do quite nicely."
"It costs a lot to produce a fire that hot." Dabi dodges the question. "Resources alone…"
"We both know that this isn't the case." Overhaul shoots him down. "I'm willing to entertain a guess that you don't need anything to create blue flames. Anything beside yourself and your little superpower. Am I correct?"
Dabi didn't expect that. Good.
"Huh." Dabi finally says. "Looks like you know a bit more than I expected. Am I correct to guess that it has something to do with your bodyguard's rather… odd attire?"
"Yes, Mustard is a… showcase of my little initiative." Overhaul replies promptly. Mustard stays quiet. "I'm trying to gather criminals with superpowers from this prefecture. Because, believe it or not, I had something very valuable stolen by a self-proclaimed superhero. And I want to get it back."
"Superhero?" Dabi looks vaguely amused by that idea. "Someone has a power like me and he uses it to help others? Huh. You can find loonies everywhere, I guess. But yes, Chisaki. I do have what you could describe as a superpower. Unfortunately, it comes with downsides." He chuckles raspily.
"I see." Overhaul decides that if it's about his health, then he probably has that in a bag. "So, if I were a demon and I wanted your soul… what exactly would I have to do for you?" Dabi looks at him questioningly. "I already got Mustard's soul. I desire more."
"Huh." Dabi looks at Mustard again. "So what did he give to you to buy you off?"
Mustard knows the drill. He looks at Overhaul, who nods. Then he returns his attention to Dabi.
"My chief bully from school." Mustard calmly replies. Oh, how incredibly messed-up in the head that kid is. Truly, Overhaul's equal in malevolence if not more. "Limbless, helpless, and believed by the world to be dead."
Dabi sounds like he forgot how to breathe for a few seconds. Finally he takes a deep, asthmatic breath.
"You're fucked up, kid." He says. Overhaul can hear Mustard snicker under his helmet.
"You want to know what's fucked up?" Mustard replies calmly. "Receiving a false love letter from your crush and arriving at the meeting place, only to discover your chief tormentor, hey boyfriend and his two friends waiting for you. And then having to live through a group rape, while she was filming it all. And knowing that you can't do a thing to her for this because her family is influential and it pretty much owns the school and the local police. And you are no one." He lets out a light laugh. "So personally, I think what happened to her is karma at work. I manifested my power a week later. Ever since then, her life has been hell. Like mine used to be."
Overhaul had to agree. That was one… unexpected demand. Then again, after something like that, there is just no way for the Mustard to betray him. Or, at the very least, to even consider helping the police or Defiant. So he did as Mustard asked him to.
"So, Mr. Dabi?" Overhaul takes advantage of the prolonged silence after Mustard's little outburst. "What do I have to do to get your lifetime loyalty? How about… healing you? Would that do?"
"It's impossible." Dabi shoots him down. "The damage is too great. I have maybe two or three years left and…"
Oh, this is going to be way easier than Chisaki expected. Like taking candies from a baby, really.
"I assure you, Dabi." Overhaul interrupts him. "No wound, no damage and no sickness are impossible to heal with my superpower." Dabi's eyes widen. "And I can do that with just a single touch. Of course, not for free."
After all… he can always take away what he gave them.
"That's an interesting offer." Dabi replies after a few long seconds of silence. "How about I give you a counter to that? There is more than just one person with a combative superpower in here, you know." Overhaul's eyes drift over to the woman standing behind Dabi. She replies with a nasty grin. "So, if you heal me… only what's inside, we're kind of used to the burned skin now… you'll get our services. And if you do something else, something…. much harder to achieve now, at least without our help… you'll get our souls. How does that sound?"
Much harder to achieve now? Oh, Chisaki considers that to be an interesting challenge! Whatever it is, he plans to eventually be powerful enough to attempt it. After all, his already great ambitions have grown tremendously since he met Defiant.
What good supervillain dreams of being a major criminal boss? Or, to be exact, what sort of supervillain with a power like Overhaul dreams of something like that? He could be so much more! Especially with the chaos that the reveal of the superpowers will bring.
Perhaps the best way of dealing with the police is to become the government? Kai Chisaki is almost certain that the government will not survive what's coming. And what better thing to replace it than a group of people with superpowers?
Ruling his own part of the post-apocalyptic wasteland that used to be Japan will be entertaining.
In the meantime, he'll play along.
"Very well, Dabi." Overhaul replies with a smile hidden behind his gasmask. "I can agree to that, I believe."
(***)
Look, Dabi is way too often portrayed (due to his Mysterious Backstory then upgraded into Daddy Issues Supreme) as prime boyfriend material in fanfics. Uhm, no. Let's just say that his debut as a proper supervillain is way ahead of us, but once he does that... well, he already killed three digit number of innocents during the last several years of his career as the Arch-Arsonist, and it'll only get worse from then on.