Chapter 16: The case continues

"Court is back in session," The judge said as the janitors cleared out, "Before we start, Eraserhead, could you please keep an eye on Endeavour to make sure his quirk doesn't get out of control again?"

"You want me to use my quirk in the courtroom," Aizawa replied out of pure reflex. Only after the words were out of his mouth, did he realize how much he sounded like Nedzu when he said that. He gulped and looked towards the judge to see his reaction and was shocked to see him smiling.

"Yes, yes you do have a point. Tsukuachi-san, do you have quirk-suppressing cuffs on you?"

Tsukauchi grinned as he understood what the judge was implying, "Yes, your honor,"

"Please cuff Endeavour-san!" The judge ordered. He smirked slightly as Tsukauchi put on quirk-suppressing cuffs on Endeavour.

"Your honor, what madness is this?"

"Suchi-san calm down. I should have removed him from the courtroom for attempted assault on a minor. If you wish for your witness to remain, these rules have to be followed," The judge said. Endeavour tried to argue but the judge spoke back, "We will discuss more about this after the case at hand is over. The judge said, "Now let's carry on with the case,"

Suchi sighed, the judge was really ruthless, "Your honor, I'd like to call Midoriya Izuku back to the stand," Suchi said.

"Sure. Don't want Hattori Watanabe too?" The judge asked with a sly smile.

"No, your honor," The lawyer said through gritted teeth. The brat was too troublesome to deal with. He so wanted to get the judge for his sly smile too but he wasn't going to risk his career by headbutting with a judge. Izuku walked up to the stand.

"Now Midoriya, let's say that the article and the case investigation was in fact a coincidence,"

"Your honor, the investigation date clearly states that the investigation was started before the article was released. If anything, it's a coincidence that the article was released at the same time. Not the other way around," Inko objected.

"Objection sustained. Please do not make baseless claims, Suchi-san,"

"Yes your honor, I'm sorry," Suchi grimaced, "Midoriya, can you please tell me, some spots where you were bullied and at what times?"

"Uhh, behind the school, in the playground, even in the halls. The teachers never did anything so the bullies were everywhere but they acted mostly during lunchtime," Izuku replied.

The lawyer nodded and turned to the judge, "Your honor, I would like to present video evidence from the school's surveillance cameras that clearly show Midoriya is lying,"

"Approved,"

The lawyer nodded and the tapes were loaded in a TV. The tapes started, "Your honor, as you can see on the tapes, nowhere does it show that Midoriya or any other student was bullied. In fact, you can clearly see, the teacher stopping a fight here," Suchi pointed out.

The judge furrowed his eyes at the strong evidence. Inko countered, "Your honor, these tapes might be from after Izuku left,"

"Objection sustained. Suchi-san what do you have to say?"

"Your honor, at the bottom right, you can see the timestamps along with the date of the tape. These tapes are clear evidence that Izuku is lying!"

The judge noted something, "Anything else?"

"No, your honor," Suchi said with a smirk.

"Inko-san any questions for Midoriya?"

"No,"

"Alright, Midoriya you can return to your seat," The judge said with a smile, "Alright, does the prosecutor wish to provide any evidence?"

"Yes your honor," Inko said coolly as she gathered some things. Tsukauchi smirked, "Here we go," he muttered to himself.

"Your honor, the tapes have been tampered with," Inko exclaimed.

"Objection, your honor! She has no evidence to refute our evidence,"

"Objection sustained,"

"But your honor, I do have evidence. The police have gained the actual tapes from the school and they tell us an entirely different story," Inko grinned with a tinge of sadism in her voice.

"Your honor, the police gave us a warrant for getting the tapes. The tapes they have are the same as ours,"

Inko smiled, "No, your honor, I assure you the tapes are not at all similar,"

The judge furrowed his eyes in confusion, "Could you, er, could you please elaborate?"

Inko smiled and motioned for Tsukauchi to explain. Tsukauchi smiled slightly and stood up, "Your honor, The police recovered tapes stolen from Aldera's security room and we went through it,"

"Your honor, surely they aren't allowed to do that?" Suchi objected.

"They are actually. The police are legally allowed to go through everything recover," The judge replied with a smile.

"But, we weren't given notice by the prosecutors!"

"Oh, we did. The post office sure is slow," Inko replied with a smirk. She had specifically asked the post office to take their time to deliver the news to Aldera.

Suchi scowled and sat down. Nedzu was smirking, Inko had told him the plan already and he was glad to see it working to perfection. Aizawa was groaning in his mind since there was someone else who was intelligent enough to work with Nedzu. Meanwhile, the police commissioner seemed to be in a hushed conversation with Tsukauchi to straighten out the details of the case and how the evidence was procured.

"Alright then, let's see the tapes," The judge said.

Inko nodded. The tapes were loaded. At first, the scene seemed to be a normal one. Students laughing and moving around the classes. But then it started. Students being teased in the class, the teachers snickering in response, getting angry when the victims complained, and snapping at them. The judge swallowed with a pained look on his face as he saw all the strong quirks being used without restraint on the other kids. He winced as he noticed Izuku getting beaten up. He wanted to stop the recording but he knew he'd have to watch it for the sentencing. Fortunately, the tapes were in fast forward so he didn't have to sit through all of them for long. For Izuku, his entire school life was flashing in front of him and it was not good. Watanabe and Kaminari glanced at each other uncomfortably not sure how to help. Inko stood with a pained expression, she couldn't come and comfort her son since she was pointing out hidden details to the judge. Luckily, Natsume stepped in much to Inko's relief.

Aizawa clenched his fists in anger at the amount of bullying that was taking place. He so wanted to beat the shit out of the principal right then and there. Nedzu's grin had also disappeared and his face seemed to be more grim. Yagi sighed in his mind, he had expected this. Quirkless people were never treated properly even in his time. He felt really sorry for Izuku.

The tapes showed Watanabe's fight with Bakugou too. It was clear that Watanabe had acted in self-defense so there was no worry there. Aizawa was a bit impressed at how effectively Watanabe had broken down Bakugou through his close combat. The tape wound on and on and showed more violence before cutting off.

Inko cleared his throat, "That's all of it your honor, I rest my case,"

The judge nodded, "Anything to say Suchi-san?"

"Your honor, they have surely tampered with the tapes!"

"The tapes were sent to the lab. Ours were reported original while yours was shown to be tampered with. We sent it to three separate labs and they all showed the same results. I have already submitted the results to the judge," Inko replied.

The judge dug through some of the papers and found the report in question, "Yes, that is what seems to be the case. Anything else to say, Suchi-san?" The judge asked clearly already forming a sentence in his mind.

Suchi scowled. There was no way he could win the case anymore. No sane person would believe that Aldera was innocent. He smiled evilly, "No your honor, I rest my case," At least his career wouldn't be destroyed by trying to protest such a case. Aldera's staff looked shocked, a few were sobbing in distress, something that pissed both Aizawa and Watanabe.

The judge nodded and wrote down some notes for a few minutes. The room sat in a quiet tension. Finally, he cleared his throat, "This court... finds Aldera guilty of all charges, as well as perjury, erasure of evidence, child negligence and abuse, child endangerment, destruction of mental and physical health. All of Aldera's assets will be seized and will be sold to compensate the victims. All former and present students will have mandatory 6 months of therapeutic sessions. The length of punishment is to be 10-12 years for all the staff involved. However, each and every member of staff will be investigated further by the police and the sentence may or may not be increased,"

The judge paused for a moment before continuing, "Suchi-san, you will also be investigated for evidence tampering. The court also orders the BAR council to launch an investigation and recommends a suspension,"

Suchi gave a defeated glance at his lap. It seems like he couldn't escape the consequences.

Some of the staff started sobbing harder. A few of them got up quickly and tried to escape but Aizawa used his capture scarf and smashed them into a wall. Tsukauchi and the other police officers quickly restrained the rest. Nedzu smiled in sadistic glee while Inko wore a proud smile.

Izuku looked like he couldn't believe that the judge ruled in his favor. However, instead of being shocked, he couldn't stop grinning. Kaminari was smiling too but he realized Watanabe was unusually quiet. He was smirking as if something more was to come. Kaminari was right.

"Now, Endeavour-san, let's backpedal to your case," The judge said, "The court charges you with attempted assault on a minor, attempted assault on a key witness who was also a minor in a highly important case, and damage of the court,"

"What, you can't sentence me!" Endeavour exclaimed.

The judge sighed, "Unfortunately you are right. We cannot sentence you without prior notice of a court summons. That is why I am charging you. The police will take you to the station and hold you in jail there. This court also denies bail until the hearing,"

Endeavour went red with anger but the quirk -suppressing cuffs did its job and restrained him. Meanwhile, it took so much self-restraint for Watanabe to not explode in joy. Izuku and Kaminari were slightly edging away from Watanabe but they would be lying if they weren't enjoying Endeavour's downfall too.

"One more thing," the judge said, "Would the guardians like to press charges?"

Immediately Watanabe started nodding excitedly. Inko massaged her head, she didn't want Watanabe to keep bugging her for the rest of the week to charge Endeavour. It would be a lot of work but she would do it, "Yes, your honor," Watanabe let out a slight, excited squeal at that. Nedzu smirked a bit. Yes, he would love to teach this kid.

"Alright, so Endeavour's court date will be next Sunday. The court is dismissed!"

The doors to the court opened. Immediately the media started trying to take photos and tried to ask Inko and the judge about the case. But before any of that could happen, they noticed Endeavour being brought out in cuffs along with the Aldera staff. Not to mention he looked bruised and beaten up. Immediately everyone crowded around him, trying to get information on what happened. The police tried to push the media back but in the confusion, Ryuzen got everyone to slip out of the crowd and into the car.

Tsukauchi somehow managed to get Endeavour into the police car and drove to the police station. Once he reached there, he pulled Endeavour out and sighed inwardly as he saw his team of lawyers already there.

He braced himself to have a heated argument when he noticed something. He ignored the angry lawyers' rambling and waved them off with an angry expression on his face, "Sansa, how are you already here? I thought you were taking the Aldera staff to the central prison,"

"What? When? Why would I go from the police station to the court just to take them to prison anyway? Plenty of other guys were there," Sansa said.

"Oh come on Sansa, stop joking! You were at court, beside me remember?" Tsukauchi asked, with a slight worry in his voice.

Sansa's eyes furrowed in confusion, "But I didn't! I came in late today and I have been on call for backup the entire day today. Ask anyone!"

Tsukuachi's worry grew. He turned to the receptionist who just gave a hesitant nod. Tsukauchi gulped. At that moment, another officer came running, "Tsukauchi-san! A viral video has been circulating showing everything that happened at court today! We have no clue how it got leaked!"

"What!?" Tsukauchi exclaimed and snatched the phone from him, "The angle is right next to me. There! You can see my coat ruffling in and out of the corner!"

"What does this mean, then?" Sansa asked.

"It means... a villain copied your appearance and came to court,"

"You look really happy Dabi,"

"You know who I really am, so you should know why," Dabi replied happily, "Thanks though. Without your help, I could never have known that he got knocked out by a teenager," Dabi wheezed. Still laughing, "And he says, he's better than All Might, hahaha. That other kid too though. He knew that Endeavour would trigger the sprinklers. That green-haired kid didn't do much but I guess I sympathize," Dabi ranted off to his friend.

"You like them. Does that mean you will cut them?"

"Not everyone's like you," he deadpanned, "No, I like these three. And if anyone messes with them, they'll pay,"

"Aww, I wanted to cut them,"

Dabi chuckled, "Please don't,"

"Well let's go cut someone else then,"

"Who?"

"Someone put out a hit on the electric kid. Wants him kidnapped for some reason,"

Dabi's grin vanished, "We don't know where he lives though,"

A grin met his question, "Already got the files here. Stole them from the station,"

Dabi smiled. He gave one last glance at the 'shrine' of pictures he had stuck on the wall. He had Endeavour getting knocked out by All Might, by Kaminari, being brought out in cuffs and bruises. He couldn't wait for the storm that would hit the media tomorrow, "Let's go then,"

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