No comment replies this time because reviews system broke and they don't display (the number grows, but nothing more than that). I'll reply to them all once it starts working again.
(***)
"It's been almost a week since the HPSC ceased to exist." Nedzu announces to the people gathered in his office. The rat himself is looking out of the window, observing a distant training exercise, before turning his face back in.
All Might and Eraserhead are there. Stain is there, as always, clad in All Might's merch. Endeavor, surprisingly enough, is also there - officially he was accompanying his wife on her 'friendly bonding time' with Inko Midoriya, but Nedzu quickly snatched him for himself.
Endeavor is doing his conscious utmost to pretend that he didn't recognize the Hero Killer. What the hell's the deal with All Might, is there a non-PLF aligned supervillain that he isn't close with?!
Does he even want to know the answer to that question?
"Wait a moment." All Might says, suddenly closing his eyes. "Could you repeat those words, Principal Nedzu?" The eyes in the room are suddenly on him.
"It's been almost a week since the HPSC ceased to exist." Nedzu repeats his words, eyeing All Might questioningly.
"Ahh…" Yagi Toshinori shivers slightly, with a smile blooming on his face. "That hits the spot, thank you."
?
… right, 'HPSC ceased to exist'.
Endeavor groans slightly. Why is All Might like that? Was he always like that? If not, then who exactly borrowed his body? Or is that some sort of impersonation quirk in play? Once again, does he even want to know?
Also why the hell did Stain close his eyes to clearly bask in the glow of those words at the very exact same time as All Might did, even without being prompted?
Are those two guys long lost brothers, except one of them is ugly and the other is Stain?
Endeavor manages not to laugh at the thought. But the smirk that blooms on his face seems to suggest that he is recently getting better. Or, at least, he has something resembling a sense of humor once more.
Not a particularly good one, but at least it exists. He'll work on details.
"You're right." Nedzu nods. "This really hits the spot." Endeavor manages NOT to groan. Why is he even here? "But I think that it's the time to have a small, let's say, a debate panel. Concerning the impact that it'll bring upon the Hero Society."
Eraserhead raises his hand almost immediately.
"No, Aizawa, you can't go take a nap in the corner." Nedzu replies immediately. Eraserhead rolls his eyes around while lowering his hand.
"Well, it was worth a try." The teacher says before sighing. Endeavor actually feels slightly better after knowing that he isn't the only person that would literally prefer to be ANYWHERE other than this room.
"So, I'm going to make a theory." Endeavor decides that if he has to sit through it (he probably does, it's not like anyone in the room can order him but…), he can as well make it slightly shorter. "You have some unofficial leaks suggesting the course that the Hero Society will take, probably from the government. And you want to share them with us."
"Precisely!" Nedzu looks oddly happy about it." It's nice to work with intelligent people, Endeavor!"
He totally ended up in Nedzu's fact… wait, was there even any faction now? It's not like there was any HPSC to oppose anymore. This downgraded factions into networks of mutually familiar faces.
"So?" All Might suddenly looks much more interested.
"It looks like we have some very deep reform of the Hero System in the works." Nedzu replies. "The government is trying not to mess anything up seriously this time, so I suspect that we're looking forward to at least a few months of intense debates and fixing potential loopholes in the law to come."
"Cool." All Might nods. "The only law worse than a bad one is one that was made in a hurry." Endeavor finds himself nodding slightly in the background. "I was actually worried that they would throw everything out of the window and try to write a new system on the fly."
"Thankfully the cooler heads prevailed." Nedzu replies. "The first thing I can tell you is that I don't think that we're going to get another HPSC. Even under a different name."
That was… surprising.
"Really?" Endeavor's brow raises. "How are they planning to govern this whole mess without a Hero Commission?" He is the last one to defend it, but he has to admit that there was a role that it played.
"Apparently they decided that the big reason for the whole… disaster was that the HPSC was given too much power and too little oversight." Nedzu replies. He isn't wrong. "Its prerogatives are going to be split. To begin with, I suspect that this years' Hero Billboard Chart is going to be the last one in the history of Japan."
That was… radical. Endeavor, All Might and Eraserhead seemed to be in agreement. Stain in the middle was slurping a bloody smoothie in the background, clearly not giving a shit about the subject matter.
"How are they going to rank the heroes otherwise?" Endeavor is the first one to ask.
"Basically by throwing the popularity factor out of the proverbial window." Nedzu replies. "The popularity rankings are going to still be there, but will no longer be organized by any governmental organization. And they will have no direct effect on your standing in the industry."
"Ah, that's an interesting approach." All Might nods thoughtfully in the background. "I must say that the whole bit of marrying show business with law enforcement was always something that I found the most questionable in heroics as a whole. So I think that's a good idea."
"Yeah." Stain stops slurping his smoothie for a moment to speak. "That marriage was stupid. Show business is all about hiding your flaws. Law enforcement agencies getting influenced by that are the root issue of a solid half of the problems."
Should Endeavor be worried by the fact that he agrees with the Hero Killer on something as important as a major reform of the Hero System? Probably.
"So what's going to be the new grading system?" Endeavor decides to ask. "Because for as much as it's a potential source of problems, I believe that at least its existence is a must-have."
"Well, there are several ideas." Nedzu replies. "One that seems to be gaining the most support is actually one of the more radical ones. It suggests borrowing the F to SS-Rank designation from the villain ranking system and applying it to the heroes."
"That's radical alright." Eraserhead doesn't remember anything similar worldwide. Most of the countries were running a similar grading system for villains and heroes as Japan, after all. "How are they going to judge the heroes in question?"
"Whatever it's going to be will be either inconsistent or prone to repetition of the past problems." Stain comments. Endeavor finds himself agreeing with the man again, what the hell?
"I believe that the running idea is to divide heroics into several more 'separate' branches." Nedzu continues. "Underground Heroes and Limelight Heroes, basically, with maybe Rescue Heroics as a subcategory of Limelight heroics. Each branch would basically judge themselves with governmental oversight. So, if you, a B-Rank Underground Hero, would want to apply for an A-Rank promotion, you'd get a group of A-Rank underground heroes and some government officials to oversee the whole judging process. Mock-battle, review of your work history, this sort of thing."
"Who would do the governmental oversight?" All Might asks. Looks like someone's still vary of a new HPSC showing up.
"Probably some new agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication." Nedzu replies. "Grading villains would be moved into the competence of another new agency, this time of the Ministry of Justice."
"Sounds like someone is really adamant about dismantling the HPSC prerogatives for as much as possible." All Might decides to comment. "Good."
"Why the hell did we even allow the HPSC to gather so much power to begin with?" Endeavor decides to cut in, because honestly, it's a mystery to him.
"Bureaucratic power creep, frankly." Nedzu shrugs. "Never underestimate the governmental agency's drive and desire to expand its prerogatives. The Dawn of Quirks was particularly shaky in our country, resulting in the heroes being seen as a pillar of the society. This, in turn, allowed the group behind them to justify gaining more and more power by claiming that it's needed to keep said pillar standing. It should have been split at least fifty years ago, but at that time they were already strong enough to counter any potential attempts from the government to put their growth in check."
Stain nods in the background. Yeah, this sounds about correct, at least in Endeavor's opinion. Bureaucracy, ugh.
"And, besides, trying to dismantle their petty empire felt like something that would weaken heroics." All Might adds. "Letting it exist felt like the safer bet, especially as the HPSC was doing its best to not make the government and the people as a whole realize just how deep its corruption ran. That's why its collapse was so sudden and dramatic - because Hawks made everyone realize that the costs of its existence massively outweigh the benefits the whole time."
"I personally suspect that at least the last two prime ministers considered dismantling the Hero Commission." Nedzu cuts in. "But with so many major terrorist organizations rampaging in the countryside, it was always 'not the right moment'. I also wouldn't be surprised if the HPSC made sure that those organizations continued to exist without growing too much, because their rampages justified its continued existence."
Considering how much the public (and, it seems, Nedzu) overembelished the HPSC' corruption and downright villainy, Endeavor wouldn't be surprised if in a few weeks he would hear someone seriously claiming that its president was a shapeshifting alien planning to take down the society in order to facilitate its subsequent conquest by the alien overlords.
Shitting on the HPSC - and pinning the blame of about everything that went wrong in the country in the last few decades on it - seemed to be the new national pastime.
The biggest negative side effect was probably a lot of people in the Ministry of Justice going bald (or white-haired) over the amount of villains demanding retrial because their crimes were clearly pinned on them by the HPSC to clear the image of some corrupted heroes.
Hawks announcing that mechanism to the world was a necessity for a swift take-down of the HPSC, but it wasn't without negative side-effects. Worst of all, some of those villains were probably correct.
"What about the more ethical oversight of the Hero Society?" All Might decides to switch the subject. It was, at least technically, a part of the HPSC prerogatives. Of course, it mostly used it to shut down police investigations when 'their' heroes were involved, under the 'we'll handle it' pretexts combined with 'it's a danger to public safety'.
"Still on the fence." Nedzu replies. "The ideas vary. From a dedicated police task force to some sort of governmental-backed 'Hero Ethics Commission' that would be composed almost entirely of people seconded to it by the National Police Agency and Public Security Intelligence Agency, plus someone from the government to oversee its operations. And probably a much bigger degree of transparency. So they would probably add several distinguished civilians as observers, be it retired judges or notable social activists. Under NDAs for what would be defined as a potential security threat if leaked, of course. But I think that it's still a step in the right direction."
"Tell them to let the opposition parties pick some of the observers." All Might grumbles from his seat. "We don't want it to change into another circle jerk simply because the present government decided to take full control over it."
"That's an idea with some notable support in the Diet, I believe." Nedzu nods. "Especially the Hearts and Mind Party is pushing for it."
"Those hero-skeptics?" Endeavor asks, sounding a bit more forceful than he intended. "Right, I guess life proved them right. So I can't exactly complain about them anymore, now can I?" He adds before groaning loudly.
"True." Nedzu nods. "They were under a sort of a sanitary cordon in that no major political party would even consider forming a coalition with them. But now we expect that they'll surge in numbers and… I'm not sure if the whole 'sanitary cordon' arrangement can continue."
"Good." All Might suddenly cuts in, with the eyes in the room focusing on him. "I hate the whole idea of a 'sanitary cordon' established in a parliament simply because some group has political views you don't like. If close to fifteen percent of your population has issues with something and you opt to ignore their existence instead of trying to understand what caused said issues to try to fix them, you're just an ass. And you're only going to make said fifteen percent feel more embattled and alienated, and thus more prone to radicalizing."
Silence in the room. Even Endeavor finds himself staring at All Might in shock. Hell, even Nedzu didn't see that coming.
"Wait, don't tell me that you're voting for them?" Nedzu asks, actually blinking at the former Number One Hero a few times. That was a lot of surprise for such a small body.
"And what if I do?" All Might looks back at him, one of brows raised. "Half of their political program is practically ripped off the United States' hero system and the American approach to quirk usage by the general population. Which, by the way, I consider to be at least ten times less stupid than we have here. I kept away from politics as All Might but it's not like Yagi Toshinori, the Might Tower accountant, was forbidden to vote."
Oh, so All Might wasn't just a chaos gremlin in disguise the whole time, Endeavor realizes. He was a politically radical chaos gremlin in disguise. Brilliant.
"Mood." Stain comments from the side. "It's not like I get to vote while being an outlaw, but I'd probably vote for them as well. The literally one and only party to call the heroes on their bullshit. Even if they're all politicians." The last word sounds like an insult in his mouth. It probably was.
"Wait, what exactly is the American Hero System about?" Endeavor finds himself asking. Only to immediately curse himself in his mind because All Might's face suddenly brightens up.
"Well, how great of you to ask about it!" Yagi's smile grows even more unhinged. "I wish that I had some heads-up about this meeting being a political debate because then I'd ask Izuku to get us some whiteboards filled with statistics."
Eraserhead groans in the back. Stain looks like he actually wished that he would get to see that. Because of course the Hero Killer would like to see that. He and All Might are basically best friends at this point and 95% of their friendship is composed of complaining together about the state of the Hero Society. And, clearly, indulging in political extremism.
Which, apparently, includes shitposting on the internet. Because of course it includes shitposting on the internet. Mr. Compress is in on that as well. And, worst of all, Izuku "Chaos Gremlin" Midoriya, although it was mostly the HPSC bashing and trolling All Might haters.
"But basically speaking, do you know which countries fared the best when the Dawn of Quirks came?" All Might asks. Oh, great. He is a history buff too. The horror. "Or, to be exact, why did the United States probably come out of it the least damaged of all countries out there?"
"The wealthiest ones?" Eraserhead asks. "Money helps you a lot."
"No, it was mostly due to the private ownership of guns." All Might replies. He sounds vaguely proud, probably due to being a gun owner as well. Yagi Toshinori left America, but America never left Yagi Toshinori. "For two reasons. The first one is more obvious - it kept a lot of quirk users fairly… civil. It actually caused a long-term change in how their villains operate to this day."
"How exactly?" Endeavor actually finds himself curious.
"Because unless you're really powerful, there's a fair chance of getting shot before heroes even arrive at the scene if you're acting out in the wrong neighborhood" All Might replies. "You have two main categories of villains in the States', if you exclude organized crime that tends to mix guns and quirks. And various randoms without affiliations that tend to be arrested or shot very quickly. First ones are those that are basically too harmless to be shot and are pretty much treated as a form of public entertainment or as a special brand of social activists. Levelers and the Hero Killer would fit right in, especially Gentle Criminal and Mr. Compress."
"They DO get arrested occasionally, but are typically let out fairly quickly, with but a slap on the wrist." Nedzu decides to add. "Both because they tend to be popular and because they don't kill or permanently injure. There is even a semi-official rivalry system where they can 'pick' a hero to be their designated nemesis and for as long as they are in the area, they'll be the ones told to fight them. Typically with some cameras around."
"It probably lasts until they cause too much collateral damage." Eraserheads points out. This, in his opinion, sounds stupid.
"Oh, of course." All Might admits. "But most of them are actually insured against that. As I said, social activists and public entertainers. The type that starts their heists by throwing large hams around. In one case I saw, literally, because that guy was protesting against some vegans trying to shut down his favorite barbeque stand. So he started throwing ham at them while shouting that he is a villain named 'Lord of Hams'. He even dressed himself to look like a butcher and had a surprisingly vicious battle with the first hero responders. No, I'm not making this up."
Stain actually chuckles at it. Endeavor marvels at the sheer stupidity of the scenario that he was just presented with.
"The second category is supervillains." All Might continues. "Those that are strong or devious enough to not be at risk of getting shot. Those tend to be a menace. Honestly speaking, if I were to grade their danger level on a 1 to 10 scale, Muscular would be somewhere between 4 and 5. But their organizations tend to suffer from a major weakness."
"Let me guess." Eraserhead thinks that he knows where this is going. "The crippling lack of lieutenants."
"Yes, exactly!" All Might sounds happy about him getting this correctly. "The villain organizations in the States tend to be shaped like an hourglass. So you have one to a few truly horrifying supervillains at the top, and a lot of mooks because it's always easy to find some thugs, but they severely lack competent lieutenants. As they are guaranteed to draw the attention of heroes and police but aren't tough enough to survive a major skirmish. People like Magne or Moonfish wouldn't survive for long. Hell, if Dabi showed up in public, he'd probably get shot in the head by the police sniper and that would be the end of the Arch-Arsonist."
Endeavor decides to NOT react in any way about the mention of Dabi. The wounds are still there. They will probably stay there until his death.
"And for as much as people's attention tends to be drawn to those at the top…" Nedzu continues. "... the B-Listers are what tends to cause the most casualties. Especially when they're around the A-Listers who are drawing the heroes' attention to themselves."
"Yep." All Might nods. "This really took a lot of steam from the post-Dawn of Quirks chaos in the United States. The second thing that gun ownership ended up helping in was in terms of a mindset."
"Mindset?" Eraserhead asks.
"A significant chunk of the population was accustomed to the concept of people out there carrying guns." All Might replies. "One history professor in America summed it up by saying that a big part of the old Republican Party rationalized the phenomenon as 'cool, people are born with guns nowadays' and continued living as if nothing changed. You had some overtly religious nuts and some fringe racists to cause problems, plus the Democratic Party took a while to get used to the phenomenon and stop trying to restrict quirks as a form of weapons, yes. Like that stupid Rhode Island hero act, urgh." He shivers a bit. Stain does the exact same thing. "But in the end, the local population didn't switch into a genocide mode because someone used a quirk to kill a handful of people before being restrained. Which helped avoid the spiral of mutual revenge between quirked and the quirkless that sank a lot of countries more used to internal peace."
Like it almost did to Japan. The Meta-Liberation War was a peak of the phenomenon, with a significant chunk of the quirked population being done with what they perceived as oppression.
It was nasty, on both sides. But it made the lawmakers realize that they have to change the policies because they aren't working and if they stick to it, they're just going to cause the Second Meta-Liberation War to break out soon.
"So I guess it was a bit of a 'blessed with suck' moment." Stain adds. "Yes, the US before quirks kind of sucked, but it turned out to be a blessing when every other country started to suck and they had an advantage of experience in living like that." All Might looks vaguely hurt by someone dissing the United States but decides to not elaborate.
"It also made them restrict quirks to a much lesser degree." All Might continues. "Which is honestly where I agree with the Hearts and Mind Party. We were and still are a society that's very against guns, and we seem to have transferred that approach to quirks. Japan has one of the most restrictive quirk laws in the world, and I personally think that it's total bullshit."
"How does it work in the United States, exactly?" Endeavor decides to ask. Because honestly, it sounds interesting. He never visited the US and he doesn't plan to, but knowing how the heroes there operate might be beneficial.
"Well, to begin with, the restrictions on quirk usage by the National Guard, police and emergency services are much laxer." All Might replies. "Their members are free to apply to a special course in quirk usage organized by the hero school. If they pass it, they can use the quirks in their work without having hero licenses. They basically don't have dedicated rescue or recovery heroes, because whoever isn't ready to battle villains tends to go for emergency services with a quirk license."
"Looks like we wouldn't have Uwabami if the United States annexed us after the Second World War." Stain grumbles. "God I wish." No one decides to entertain his words. Except for All Might who nods slightly towards the Hero Killer before continuing.
"Heroes are also allowed to permit quirk usage of civilians under their supervision and responsibility." All Might adds. That actually picks Endeavor attention.
"So if Hosu happened in America…?" He asks, and All Might quickly nods.
"There would be no real problem with illegal quirk usage, even if they weren't from a hero school." All Might replies. "Of course, if they died while following your orders, things would get nasty for you. Which is why this right is typically used in situations that don't involve high profile villains. So if there was a flood, and for example Eraserhead was stranded with a group of civilians and it was a cold night, he could tell one of them with a fire quirk to keep the others warm. They could even volunteer to help him fight off some looters while using their quirks, of course under his responsibility. Doing both in Japan is technically illegal, even if it tends to be ignored unless someone is severely injured in the process or decides to sue the hero for some stupid reason."
Eraserhead himself did that with Kouta Izumi and his water quirk during the Training Camp. To put out the fires caused by Dabi. Of course, it was still technically a private property of Kouta's caretakers, meaning that it was perfectly legal.
But if it was someone else's property and they turned out to be pricks, they could legally sue Eraserhead for endangering said property by allowing the illegal quirk usage of a non-hero (thus, not trained properly) on it. Even if it worked in the end.
"My favorite is probably the special quirk licenses considered to be a part of a social security system." All Might continues. "Basically speaking, if Momo Yaoyorozu was born in a poor family in America and didn't manage to get into a hero school, she could apply for a license to produce goods for sale. She would need to start a self-employment company, and do the paperwork, but she would receive a right to produce and sell a certain amount of goods a month. Typically enough to live comfortably, but not enough to get filthy rich or threaten economic stability. She could also apply for raising her limit if she had some serious medical conditions, requiring her to use more money and so on."
"I'm still surprised that the Americans agreed upon it." Nedzu chirps in. "We all know what their approach to social security is." All Might nods. Yeah, it's one thing where he has some serious issues with the United States.
That AND the fact that they have no hero agencies, instead they have pretty much hero corporations. They earned money from merchandise and deals with the local governments about providing assistance for local police units and emergency services. Heroes (even ones like Star and Stripe) weren't leading them, instead were pretty much hired by them.
Of course, when you were someone like Star and Stripe, the corporations in question were ready to sell their metaphorical genitals to persuade you to work for them. The top hero transfers between corporations often hit headlines in the media.
"Well, it's treated as less a social security and more like 'permitting people to earn money on their own', so I guess it was more palatable to them. "All Might comments. "But it's one more thing that we have restricted in Japan and, honestly? I think that we would have less crime if we introduced a similar system, because a lot of poorer people that only have their quirk going for them could earn money without resorting to crime. And just so we're clear, the Hearts and Minds Party advocates for introducing said system in Japan. But then they get screeched on because 'that's what heroes are for' and 'oh no, can you imagine the economic goddamn turmoil'? They regularly get a bit too far with their demands, but I always thought that this was more of a 'if you don't want ten, at least agree to five' method of pushing the lever."
All Might seems to be temporarily spent. That's the moment that Endeavor was waiting for.
"What are their chances of winning elections?" Endeavor asks Nedzu. The rodent shrugs.
"Hard to say." The Principal replies. "They regularly go a bit too far, as All Might stated. Sometimes sounding like some surviving Destroists. But they're relatively tame this time around, sticking to more constructive criticism and pushing forward their more moderate reform projects that were consistently rejected in the past. Koku Hanabata seems to be wary of going too far and alienating the potential voter base that just opened in front of them. They have maybe 15 to 20% chance of winning the election I believe, but a much bigger chance of growing large AND accepted enough to be a potential member of a ruling coalition."
Looks like someone is playing it smart this time around, Eraserhead decides. Well, politics doesn't interest him at all, but after hearing All Might' tirade, that particular party doesn't seem as stupid as he thought earlier. The more you know.
(***)
Did I just spend an entire chapter worldbuilding, using the words 'Hearts and Minds Party is growing in popularity' as an explanation for indulging in my own addiction? Yes. Do I regret that? Not really, no. The stuff mentioned in this chapter is going to do a lot of things in the long-term for characterization of both the MLA and for giving to context to various changes to come.
Also both Ties that Bind and it's darker and edgier twin sister (Exiting the Stage) both indulge in criticque of the canon Hero Society, it kinds of fits, doesn't it?