Ch. 3
When the students disembarked the bus, they walked towards the newly-constructed building, with a big, purple ribbon and a podium on a stage. The building had a fresh painting of white all over, with a rectangular build and a low ceiling, almost as if they were entering a movie theatre. There seemed to have been part of another building right behind it, towering to a couple stories high. The most notable feature was on the top of that building, and on the main building too, was a giant, purple, 5-sided star, watching over the building and the people it now served to protect.
The crowd was filled with many citizens, heroes and common men alike. At the front with the stage, there were a few people sitting near the podium, as if they were going to speak.
"Now you're going to need one of these," Aizawa motioned, pulling out lanyards from his pockets. "They'll allow you front row seats and a tour of the facility once the ceremony is over. Take these and show them to the man over there." The man he was pointing to had a clean white shirt dressed up and down with decorative yellow zippers.
The students excitedly grabbed their passes. There was no special design on them, just the purple star and a purple stripe on the bottom that said ALL-ACCESS PASS.
As the students were making their way to the front of the crowd, a few notable faces of many heroes were spotted amongst them (Author's Note: who shall be introduced later). Deku, of course, was the first to yell out "WOW! Look at all the heroes here!"
But what are they doing here? What connection do they have to these upstart heroes who just showed up out of nowhere?
As the group approached the front of the stage, Giorno was the first to speak to the man in white. "Ciao Bucciarati!"
"Ah Giorno!", he responded, "It's good to see you again. I see you have some friends from the Academy." He bent over a bit to get a look at the new group of people.
"I don't believe we've met. I'm Bruno Bucciarati, head of one of the divisions here at the agency," he spoke in a lucid tone, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Thank you," responded Deku, "I'm Izuku Midoriya."
The rest of the group went on to introduce themselves, to which Bruno responded with the following:
"It's nice to meet all of you...so Izuku, do you think you and Giorno have become good friends?"
It was at this point Midoriya sweat a bit. "W-W-Well… I mean he's a good friend...b-but I've only known him for a day, a-a-and I haven't gotten to know-"
All of a sudden, Bruno was right up to Midorya's face. He bent down a little bit and then…
*LICK*
Bruno's callous tongue ran up Midoriya's face dripping sweat at an exponential level. To say the rest of Midoriya's group was in shock...would be an understatement; even Bakugo and Josuke were unsettled. Giorno just stood to the side with a serious look on his face.
"What a surprise…" Bruno spoke as his tongue left Deku's cheek, speaking with a heavy inflection "That's the distinct tang of a liar…"
Deku began to sweat even more while Bucciarati gave a stern darkened glare in his face… before it lightened up to a warm smile on his face and said:
"Because you and Giorno have already become best friends. I can tell just by the taste of your sweat."
Deku still stood there with all the color drained from him, as if he was only an outline eagerly waiting to be drawn in once again.
"Well I must be off," Bucciarati spoke, turning around, "I have to get ready to speak for the ceremony...but before I do, let me lead you to where you will be sitting" With that, the zippered man walked slowly towards the stage, leading the future heroes with him as the ceremony was about to begin.
The students took their seats as the applause began to ring, welcoming the heroes out onto the stage. With his broad stature, Deku realized this was the man Sero and Shiozaki had fought yesterday, and he went by the name-
"Good morning," the gentleman spoke, "I'm Jonathan Joestar, or you can call me by my hero name, JoJo. I'm very pleased to stand in front of all of you today, to announce the opening of the Joestar Agency."
The crowd gave a small bit of applause for the introduction before he continued.
"The Joestar Agency is a place not only dedicated to the protection of the innocent when villains start to cause problems, but also to the monitoring of crime activity before a villain even has a chance to commit that crime. With a team of over 20 heroes and sidekicks, Japan and the world can count on us to be a major contributor in the hero field."
The crowd once again rang out in applause in response to JoJo's major accentuation of the last line in the speech. Once it died down, he resumed talking.
"And now to talk more about the facilities of the Agency, is its Financial and Logistics Officer, as well as loyal and great friend of mine, Mr. Robert E.O. Speedwagon."
The crowd gave smaller applause as the yellow-haired Brit made his way to the podium. With a firm handshake from Jonathan, he got up to the podium to speak, as Jonathan went to the side of the stage where who seemed to be the next speakers were standing.
"Top of the morning to you all, Speedwagon spoke, "Like Mr. Joestar just said, I am Robert Speedwagon, and in charge of Finances and Logististics here at the Agency. Thanks to the work of one of the top construction companies in Japan, we were able to get the building off the ground within a whole week. You may also know this company as the people behind the construction of the dormitories of UA. I don't know about you, but I say it's quite impressive."
Speedwagon stepped away from the podium with what seemed to be a clicker in his hand, as he used it to turn on the television positioned at the entrance of the agency, turning from a spinning purple star to a slideshow of pictures for the presentation.
The first slide showed a room with walls white and purple, and a ton of equipment sitting inside. "Inside the agency, you will find a state-of-the-art gym with equipment guaranteed to boost your strength. We have treadmills, lifts, and much other equipment."
He flipped to the next slide, one of an open dirt track with a grassy center around the ring. "In the back of the agency is a wide dirt area that can be used for further training whether it be for speed, physical combat, and in the case for one of our heroes, horseback riding."
"A hero that fights on a horse?" Deku questioned, while being amazed at the wide facilities offered.
Speedwagon flipped to a slide with what seemed to be a containment of water with tiling and a netted screen. "Nearby the track, you can find an Olympic-sized swimming pool, perfect for aquatic training or even relaxing if need be. Though, with the busy lives heroes lead, I'm sure it may be difficult to find some time to relax a little." Speedwagon gave a light chuckle, while the audience gave our plenty of hearty laughs.
The next slide Speedwagon flipped to was one that was once again inside, but the walls were completely white. In this room sat many computers towards the side walls, while the width wall contained a large screen. "In this room contains the work of one of our departments which you'll hear more about shortly. Thanks to the funds, were were able to buy state-of-the-art technology from the police department and the top computer companies. With that we were also able to buy…
The next slide he flipped to was also white, yet part of the room was divided and elevated, with wide glass panels and what seemed to be a control room. There was also a door which led to a ramp, taking the person down to an empty space with blue grid lines running in both directions. The crowd looked amazed at what this room seemed to be, and their curiosity and amazement only grew once Speedwagon resumed his speaking.
"Here sits our amazing Virtual Fighting Simulator, or the VFS for short. Here we can simulate any experience necessary to aid in training of the next and better heroes. Thanks to public hero records, we can create simulated heroes and villains to fight to further heighten the experience."
"We also have a wide welcome desk, many conference rooms, and even a containment facility for villains if they are caught, yet the police are somehow not able to reach them. There's so much more to the facility I wish I could show you, but you can see for yourself in the future. In the meantime, I'd like to turn it back to Mr. Joestar for the next bit of the presentation"
Jonathan, who was standing to the side, returned to the front as Speedwagon was finished. As he thanked Speedwagon and got the clicker from him, he began his segway with one key announcement:
"Now I want to be clear: these amenities are not only available for those working or interning in our agency, but these facilities are open to all heroes and heroes-in-training for those who wish to use them."
The crowd erupted in excitement as different heroes sported different looks of either excitement or a plain expression they always wear.
"However, we require payments to use the training facilities. Heroes can either sign up for a yearly membership of 2000 ¥, or pay 1000 ¥ for each individual visit they make. When the ceremony is over, we'll have some stations so you can sign up for memberships, or if you have any questions"
"Oh man," Uraraka cheered in excitement, "That's very cheap! What a steal!"
"Midoriya," Giorno questioned as he tapped the boy's shoulder, "What does Uraraka mean by that?"
"Oh" Midoriya flustered, "I'll explain later. It's kinda complicated..."
"Now," Jonathan resumed, "To explain more about the different departments of the Agency, please welcome Jotaro Kujo."
The crowd applauded as Jonathan left the podium and another figure walked up. As Jotaro walked to the podium, Midoriya's eyes widened in realization.
That's the man Kacchan and I were training with! He yelled in his head.
"Good morning," he spoke in a low monotonous voice, "I am Jotaro Kujo, head of one of the three departments of the Joestar Agency. The Agency consists of three units: The Crime Fighting Unit, The Investigation Unit, and the Prisoner Reform Unit."
"All heroes working in the Agency are members of the Crime Fighting Unit, as when necessary, are ready to be on the field. But heroes who join the Agency have a chance to join one or both of these different units. For the Crime Investigation Unit, I welcome Bruno Bucciarati to the stage to explain more."
Again, the crowd applauded, as the man Deku and the group talked to earlier came up to the stage to speak.
"Buon giorno, everybody," he spoke, "I'm Bruno Bucciarati, head of the Crime Investigation Unit of the Joestar Agency. Having grown up on the streets of Italy, I have seen a lot first hand, which is why I was chosen as the head of this unit. Our job is to send our members around the city to monitor crime, as well as keep track of any major crime and drug rings running around in the city. Our team consists of many detectives and reformed former Italian mafiosi. By bringing these two different sides of life together, we hope to curve and prevent the crime rampant on the streets, and ultimately bring peace to hero society. Grazie, and to introduce the Prisoner Reform Unit, Jolyne Cujoh."
The crowd cheered the impassioned Italian as he walked to the stage to introduce the next and final speaker to the stage. Jolyne dawned a black and dark pink version of her attire from the incident with Inko and the Thugs.
"Good morning," she spoke in a lucid tone, "I'm Jolyne Cujoh, head of the Prisoner Reform Unit. Now, not many people know this, but I actually ended up in prison for a crime I didn't commit. But, since I wasn't yet a hero, I didn't have any connections to get me out. But what I saw in these prisons...were genuine innocent people who were all changed by the prison system in some way. Our goal with the Prisoner Reform Unit is to help the innocent or those of good conscience do well both in and out of prison, which could possibly, if we get permission to, allow them to begin their reform by working with us on the streets. For those whose crimes can be considered unforgivable by many others, our goal is to either begin to help them change their views, or if that is just not possible, keep their evil agendas away from possible future crime doers. One step to the creation of a better hero society is to help those who may be considered villains, but have hearts of gold, giving them another chance to step back into the limelight of society. With that, I thank you, and I will turn it back to Jonathan for closing remarks."
The crowd again gave magnanimous applause, but Deku's mind was wondering elsewhere…
Is Jolyne...related to that Jotaro person? And the Reform Unit...do you think...they could benefit from it…, while the image of a staunch, tall man and his tiny sidekick played in his mind.
Jonathan walked back up the platform while the other speakers went to the back of the stage, where the entrance to the Agency had a purple ribbon attached to the front, waiting for it to be cut.
"Thank you Jolyne and Bruno for those inspiring words. And thank you all for coming today; that concludes our ceremony for the opening of the Joestar Agency. And now...let us cut that ribbon, and bring forth a new era of the protection of peace in hero society!"
The crowd gave a wild cheer and applause as Jonathan turned around and faced the ribbon. He lifted his hand up, channeled the life energy in hand to form the wild sparks of Hamon, and brought a swift karate chop to the ribbon, cutting it in half and opening the way for brand new, bizarre adventures to come.