Guest - True. Fighting and the likes are a relatively small part of their work. Most of the hero activity is actually done by sidekicks (Kyoka Jirou with her detection and surveillance ability, Shinsou with his hypnosis and Mieko Eto with her warpgates probably see most of the work, and none of it includes fighting anyone). We're trying to be realistic here, you see :v
SentinalSlice - Unsurprising, Defiant is a BIG problem for him. Probably the biggest. As for Izuku's quirk strength, no atomic manipulation. He is (especially with Ignition) pretty much the Number One Hero of Japan, even if he losses in sheer firepower to people like Amplitude to Tornado. But in a combat, especially in a duel? Very few can fight against him. Even Carnage would struggle at this point.
(***)
Izuku ends up delaying the meeting with Kuroiro for three more days. Aizawa agrees to that. Letting him stew a bit in the realization that no, there is no escape from Tartarus, should make him a bit more… Well, maybe not helpful, but at least talkative.
As a result, some things end up happening before that happens.
(***)
"So…" Principal Sasaki sits in his trusty chair. He is in his office, with doctor Shuzenji and Counselor Inui. The latter seems clearly angered. The former looks like she desire to commit a murder on someone. "... what can you tell me about Rabbit?"
What Principal Sasaki managed to glean about Asa Naoki's past was … interesting. He is at this point acutely aware that he ran into another gem that somehow managed to avoid the UA attention. Although in this case, 'somehow' was his abusive mother.
Sure. It wasn't another Izuku Midoriya. But he was highly intelligent and surprisingly knowledgeable for someone with an education this incomplete. Despite only finishing junior high school, he managed to self-educate (in secret) enough to actually pass the final exams of the UA senior high school. Almost ace them, actually.
That alone deserved further guidance and help in order to achieve his maximum potential. And there was more.
He was also a deeply empathetic individual, with a deep drive to help others. How much did this stem from his own abuse making him realize that there were evil people out there - and relate to their victims - was something harder to establish.
"If his mother manages to somehow avoid long-term responsibility…" Shuzenji says. Principal finds it unlikely. That would require the central government actually surviving and being obstinate enough to ignore changing times while sticking to old laws beyond the point of reason. "... please write her into your red notebook."
"That bad?" Principal asks. Chiyo Shuzenji is generally against the existence of his red notebook, if she actually put forward a suggestion of adding something to it…
"I'll be frank." She replies. "She has messed him up. Badly. For now, he is functional enough, but the mismatch of development levels and other anomalies caused by her quirk's influence WILL eventually kill him. He probably won't live past forty. In all honesty, if not for the whole 'there is war out there and we need everyone we can to wage it', I'd recommend having Eri rewind him by several years, to undo the most damaging changes."
That would be problematic, in Mirai Sasaki's opinion. In several ways simultaneously. Though eventually it's rather likely that it'll have to be done. Either that or simply making him not degrade any further by keeping him at his current age.
"Temporary means?" He decides to ask.
"I can alleviate symptoms." She says. "Correct some minor problems. He'll be under a lot of drugs, but the treatment should make the situation more or less manageable for the time being. It'll include something to alleviate his anxiety to some degree, but until we've found the right drugs for him… well, he is in for a rather troublesome few days."
Ryo Inui decides to intervene at this point.
"I'd prefer to do it once the business with Kuroiro is concluded." He says, getting their attention. "He is already clearly suffering from lack of physical contact with people, especially if you consider what he went through in Shizuoka. It might be beneficial for him to be able to get a hug if the meds give him a serious moodswing, at least."
"Speaking about that…" Principal asks. "What's your general assessment?"
"Are you sure that he and Midoriya aren't long-lost twin brothers or something like that?" Ryo asks. When Mirai gives him a questioning stare, he decides to elaborate. "High intelligence, crippling anxiety, extremely low self-worth majority of which seems to depend on helping others, developed several admirers that he has no idea how to deal with… honestly, the only serious difference between them is the fact that his Bakugou Katsuki has a massive crush on him. And is fiercely protective rather than violently abusive."
"Rini Akaguro?" Principal asks for confirmation.
"Yes, rather horrible temper, but I've spent enough time in that line of work to be able to deal with that." Ryo replies. "She is surprisingly intelligent, it's just her emotional development… well, someone messed it up. Badly. She only knows how to be angry about things. Rabbit appears to be the only exception, which seems to at least partially stem from her not wanting to be like her parents… apparently a rowdy bunch. She refuses to be angry at Asa, but since she has no idea how to act on her crush, she is instead angry at those who, in her opinion, mistreat him."
Which, and they both knew it, was a reasonably good foundation for some positive development.
Rini Akaguro was very similar to Bakugou Katsuki. Except she seemed to be aware of her faults, and was genuinely trying to curb her anger and steer it towards something even remotely constructive. None of those three things could be said about Bakugou.
"It goes both ways, doesn't it?" Mirai asks, and Ryo nods. Asa Naoki's hero name isn't exactly hiding anything.
"Indeed it does." Ryo replies. "She hates herself for being angry and violent. He hates himself for being unable to stand up for himself and be violent when needed. In a way, they both want to be more like the other. Hopefully they'll realize that it can't reasonably work and agree to meet somewhere half-way."
That, indeed, would be preferable. Edge is way too aggressive, while Rabbit is way too timid. Making them exchange their personalities wouldn't be much of an improvement, all things considered.
"Poltergeist?" Principal decides to continue his questioning.
"I'll be honest." Ryo replies. "She would kill herself already if not for the fact that it would feel like a post-mortem betrayal of Kendou and Tetsutetsu. I'm having her on a suicide-watch, both here and off-school. She is also my priority patient right now. I'd personally feel better if she could be kept on school grounds permanently, but…" He sighs. "...she is an adult. And unless she agrees to this, I can't do much except for trying to kidnap her."
"I'll try to persuade her to stay here more." Principal replies. "Hopefully I'll also manage to get her family to live somewhere on the school grounds. Having them around might be… beneficial." Ryo nods. Chiyo is busy listening - it might be useful in her line of job further down the line. "The other two?"
"They are like Edge, just to a lesser degree." Ryo replies with a slight chuckle. "Immortal was thoroughly brutalized by what she went through, and while she lacks the ability to feel pain, the emotional scars are still there. She naturally clinged to both Brawler and Rabbit, who were the ones who got her out of the hell that she was living in. Now Brawler is dead, leaving her only with Rabbit. Who, as stated…"
"... is smart, kind, gentle and helpful." Mirai takes over. "Pretty much her prince on the white horse, except more anxious. So her attachment to him will, sooner or later, bloom into infatuation. If it didn't already."
Ryo Inui nods. He isn't the only qualified psychologist in the room. It's just that Mirai Sasaki is too busy to do field work by himself. Except for some choice cases. Mostly those that he sees as having a potential to join his wall of fame.
It's not exactly healthy. Healthy relationships in most cases require healthy individuals. Otherwise, there'll always be some degree in imbalance between participating sides. And imbalances are… dangerous in the long term.
There are exceptions. Kirishima and Ashido are probably the best example. Although it's rather obvious that Kirishima Eijirou loves Ashido Mina he remembered from the past - what makes the relationship healthy is that she wants to become herself from the past. So both of them are working hard on it.
"Correct." Ryo decides to add. "Deadshot is a bit similar. Lone mother, who… well, she doesn't feel… very feminine, so to say. Aki doesn't say a lot, and tends to be very Aizawa Shouta in behavior. She doesn't even try to hide that she is attracted to Rabbit over him being… well, everything that her mother wasn't."
She likes cute things and people. Rabbit is cute. Hence, she likes him. Simple logic, but internally consistent.
The former SAT member isn't honestly to blame here. Aki Tsutsumi actually decided to become the superheroes to, in a way, follow in her footsteps. She looked up to her, and wanted to be more like her mother. The problem is that while Kaina Tsutsumi did her best as a mother, it simply wasn't enough.
"Your assessment?" Mirai asks. Ah yes, the hardest question.
"Let them do what they want." The counselor replies. "Chances for it developing into a repetition of Midoriya situation are relatively low, especially because Asa Naoki's social anxiety is way stronger than his. If things stay the way they are, they'll still be helping each other with their emotional development. If things start going down Midoriya's route, well, their teamwork is rather extraordinary in combat. Closeness between them has benefits. If Rini Akaguro decides to go for it, the others will probably support them. Honestly…" He sighs. "Edge will probably be heartbroken if Immortal or Deadshot go for it first, but I don't think that she'll stop looking up to Rabbit. Unless something truly extreme happens. So aside from trying to work on their personal issues, the situation is more or less stable in my field."
"I'm starting to think that the meta-abilities are either more common in problematic individuals or there is some other mechanism in play that we don't know of." Chiyo decided to cut-in. "Look, don't get me wrong. Those kids? Hearts in the right places. But we're reaching the degree of traumatic backstories and emotional issues that shouldn't be possible unless there is some connection."
Ryo and Mirai exchange glances.
"Didn't Kirishima awaken his meta-ability when he thought that he was going to die?" Ryo asks. "Perhaps some extreme emotional states heighten the chance of meta-ability awakening?"
"I'd prefer that to not be the case." Mirai replies. This sounds like something to produce a lot of crazed villains. And inexhaustible supply of those, in fact. Traumatic events don't produce the most stable of people. "Another thing we'll have to examine. Before I forget, Chiyo. What about Toxin?"
"Midoriya is a mad genius when meta-abilities are involved." The doctor replies. "And I'm ready to die on this hill. It's hair. I had a hunch when I realized that they appear to be similar to Deadshot's hair. They resemble plasticine, really, just softer. Ingesting even a small bit of it works as an universal antidote to her poisons and actually renders you immune to them for some time. I'm at this point practically certain that she is a double-quirk wielder, a complex mutation causing her general toxicity and another meta-ability responsible for her vocal attacks."
"Did you…" Mirai decides to confirm it just in case. Chiyo Shuzenji appears vaguely hurt by the lack of faith.
"I've made a small supply of them." She replies. "Also it turned out that while its internal composition seems to be completely nonsensical, Arsenal can replicate it to a degree. So we don't have to worry about being caught off-guard by that."
At least something is working as intended. It was a nice change of pace, in Mirai Sasaki's opinion.
(***)
Aizawa has expected Senior Commissioner Oh Koji to somehow man up and stop being an utter moron after Hawks told him to piss off. In all honesty, it was a mistake. Expecting a miracle was something so utterly non-Aizawa that the Assistant Commissioner himself was surprised with his expectations. Once hindsight settled in.
Oh Koji was pissed off at Hawks. And, by extension, on Aizawa Shouta, who has taken him on-board right after Hawks' SAT unit abandoned Koji's ship. So, he did the dumbest thing possible and decided to take revenge.
Koji decided against simply throwing them out of the Force. Apparently because someone from his office (probably some former UA graduate) told him Aizawa is getting cozy with Principal Sasaki, who is using Shouta Aizawa to better safeguard the neighborhood of his school in exchange for political favors.
And that war could end up ugly.
(the fact that Overhaul was probably going to take a closer look at Mirai Sasaki afterwards was a problem, although considering the Principal's security, not a directly deadly one)
So, instead, he tried for some elaborate black PR scheme, tailored to ruin Aizawa and Hawks reputations at once. To make them resign on their own. Which included some surprisingly well-crafted official statements, some interviews and a lengthy talk about the state of affairs in Takoba.
Including the recent disasters (like the Mustard's gas attack), about the Special Operations Unit (which became a common knowledge now), and about the deaths of some police officers (like those two unfortunate men that Dabi killed before the Marukane Ward fire) in the line of duty. Not to mention the amount of police officers that were recently wounded.
Aizawa felt a sudden urge to call Overhaul and exchange Firestorm for an assassination attempt on Koji. Why the hell was this man so incredibly dumb? The country was going downhill, and he was playing internal politics? Right after the Shizuoka Massacre? There could as well be no police in a year or two, what's the point of playing games like that?!
Unfortunately for Oh Koji, the PR campaign backfired spectacularly.
("So…" Aizawa asks, while staring Principal Sasaki down. No one said anything openly, but to the Assistant Commissioner 'what happened' was a question with an obvious answer. Said answer was sitting in his office's chair right in front of the police officer.
"In my defense…" Principal says, staring the assistant commissioner back. "... all I did was provide that TV station with some absolutely correct statistical data, and ask Hawks to get interviewed by someone they sent. Oh, and arrange some anonymous statements from various police officers working for you.")
The results of Principal Sasaki's intervention included:
1. The general populace of Musutafu discovering that the spike in police casualties coincided with massive increases in arrests, numbers of solved cases and seizures of illegal weaponry, and drugs (and etc.), and expansions of the regularly patrolled areas. Especially in Takoba.
Meaning that casualties weren't caused by incompetence, but by the police starting an open war against the local crime (both organized and not) and slowly gaining the upper hand. Despite fierce resistance it encountered.
2. The general populace of Musutafu discovering that the rise in crime stats had less to do with the criminal activity rising, and more about the police expanding their regularly patrolled areas, meaning that more people actually bothered to report what happened.
When applied to the map of Takoba, it became obvious that the actual crime stats throughout the city grew smaller, it's just that some new areas began to actually exist in said stats.
3. The general populace of Musutafu discovering that the Special Operations Unit actually has an extraordinary track record thus far, including some operations that even the former spec ops soldier invited by the studio as a consultant admitted to have been incredibly hard, yet executed flawlessly.
(mostly because Hawks was absolutely lying about the way they happened, he can't just tell them that he had Eclipse open a warpgate to the building's broom closet which was the one place that the defenders didn't guard - but he was lying very convincingly)
Together with the fact that the Special Operations Unit was composed of former Anti-Firearms Squads members of the local RPU, supported by what was left of the Musutafu' SAT. So not exactly a bunch of random nobodies hired for some nefarious reasons.
With SAT's demise not being a common knowledge, it came up as a bit of a shock. Even to people at the governor's office, as Sasaki informed him.
Bonus points for people discovering that the fact that at least a single squad of the SOU is constantly next to Assistant Commissioner Aizawa not because he is a megalomaniac or anything like that, but because his head is currently worth five million dollars.
And he already had to evacuate his family into an undisclosed location, which happened a few days before a group of heavily armed thugs stormed his house. Right in time to run into a police stakeout at the site.
4. The general populace of Musutafu discovering that Aizawa does all of that with full support of Assistant Commissioner Mera from Aldera police and the superintendent Haga Maiko from Sekoto (recent addition to the circle of enlightened, who probably wasn't going to play much of a role in the greater scheme of things but was useful as an picture of local police supporting Aizawa).
With Commissioner whateverhisnamewas (that was a quote from one of the anonymous police officers) not doing anything at all, and Senior Commissioner Koji being mostly busy politicking. The reporter hoped for some juicy gossip (probably about Aizawa), instead got much more than they expected.
5. The general populace of Musutafu discovering that all of that was done while the police was financed so badly that on at least one occasion they had to use borrowed crayons to draw an operation plan because the precinct ran out of writing supplies.
And that's without mentioning the constant problems of the local police force to actually scrounge enough money for the officers to get paid. It was precisely the reason for the aforementioned writing supplies shortage.
Despite that, the police - as stated - has managed to actually push back against the criminals, making the crime rates in the patrolled zones drop, while said zones were simultaneously expanded.
6. Senior Commissioner's Koji representative getting utterly humiliated in the TV station (live) by not knowing how to answer the questions presented by the host, to the point where he stormed out of the room. Which certainly didn't strengthen his position.
("So… you've made me into a public hero." Aizawa said to Principal Sasaki. "Don't you think that you should have asked me about it first?"
He doesn't do well with publicity. It's bad enough that he knows that every criminal in the prefecture would absolutely love to get him killed.
"Not really." Principal replies. His tea lies forgotten on the desk in front of him. "I told you a while ago to focus on the police work, while letting me deal with the PR and the politics. You agreed to that. What I did was a part of my prerogatives."
Principal has a point. Aizawa doesn't like it.
"And… let me guess." Aizawa decides to ask. "Did you make sure that Koji gets humiliated by feeding him with easily counterable yet impressive looking stats through some of your graduates in his office?"
"In my defense…" Principal says dryly. "... starting a smear campaign against successful police officers like you and Hawks in times of the crisis as bad as the current one, should be considered a treason. And dealt with accordingly. Koji earned whatever was going to happen to him now."
Again. He has a point. Aizawa doesn't like it.
"Besides, we needed a mood changer." Principal says. "For the prefecture as a whole. No one expects you to make public appearances. Especially not when you are being targeted to this degree. But people needed a symbol. Someone to act as a prominent feature of their 'things will get better' daydreams. Yagi Toshinori isn't enough on his own. And Defiant isn't yet public knowledge."
"You're planning to make him into a symbol as well?" Aizawa asks back. He really isn't sure if the kid is ready for that.
"Eventually." Principal replies. "Mostly for the metahumans, but… not only."
Aizawa Shouta sometimes wishes that he didn't need Sasaki so much.)
Aizawa wasn't even surprised when he was cordially invited to the governor's office two days later, Kuroiro's affair temporarily forgotten due to the size of the shitstorm caused by Koji's PR offensive attempt.
Yagi Toshinori looked the same way as ever. Intimidatingly tall, gaunt, occasionally coughing some blood into a handkerchief. Then again, that man was a war hero. There was something in his presence that made even veteran police officers like Aizawa prefer not to raise their voice in his presence.
The height - and the crippling injuries that somehow didn't stop him from switching into politics once the war ended - didn't mean a lot when faced by that fact.
"So…" Yagi asks when they are alone. Aizawa is standing in front of his desk, in his official uniform that he gets to wear so rarely nowadays. It's slightly crumpled. Then again, Aizawa was wearing a bulletproof vest over it before entering the governor's office. "... is all of what I heard on TV true?"
"For as much as the situation in the country is bad…" Aizawa decides to play it safe. He doesn't know Yagi, but he knows that he is facing a former soldier. "... I'm not sure if answering such questions about my superiors behind their back does justice to the discipline within the police ranks."
Hard to say if Yagi agreed with that or not. But he decided to play along.
"Well, then as a governor of the province I'm going to officially order you to speak." Yagi replies. "Or, even better. Let's assume that it was true without stating it openly, because what I managed to find out during the last two days suggests that it was true. Is there anything that you'd like to add?"
He'd really like to add the truth about meta-abilities. But Principal Sasaki persuaded him otherwise. It's not that Yagi Toshinori won't believe them - he probably already saw a metahuman or two during the war. The real problem was that he'd believe them - and he would immediately run to the prime minister's office to tell her everything.
The last thing they want right now is the government panicking. Principal Sasaki wants the procedures (the 'professional superheroics' initiative, the supervillain incarceration, metahuman education, healthcare, rehabilitation and at least a rough understanding of what their powers can and can't do, etc.) to be tested and improved as much as possible before confronting the government.
Besides, the local police departments throughout the country are already adopting the system one by one. Aizawa knows that the Metahuman Network has twelve branches outside of Musutafu at this point. Most of them are literal days old, and none of them gets even close to the firepower of what Musutafu prefecture has, but it's still giving them precious occasions to fine-tune everything before the Reveal Day.
They can't exactly base all the procedures on the most well-organized and supplied regional branch. If anything, Musutafu's Metahuman Network is an exception to the rule more than anything else. Exception that will probably end up working as a strategic reserve for the entire organization.
"I'm afraid that the only thing I have to add…" Aizawa says slowly. "... is that the local SAT decided to work for me because there is a leak in the prefectural police headquarters. Somewhere high. Enough for the criminals to always pack their bags and leave before their arrival. Walking into a trap consisting of twenty former special-ops operatives working for the local crime boss was the proverbial last straw for them."
"... what was Senior Commissioner Koji's answer to that revelation?" Yagi asks. There is something worrying in the look on his face. Aizawa finds it telling that he completely ignores Takehiko, the head of the prefectural police headquarters in question. Someone really did his own investigation before calling Aizawa for a face-to-face meeting.
"I believe that the SAT leader summarized it as…" Aizawa decides that there's need to drag it any longer. Some news are best delivered once and for all." "... 'oh no, anyways.'". He does his best to properly relay the accompanied tone of voice and face.
Judging from Yagi Toshinori suddenly hunching over the desk, looking like he just shrunk significantly, he managed to nail it.
"Well, that's just brilliant." Yagi announces with a tired voice. "It's time for some emergency measures. I'm going to contact the prime minister once this talk is over and ask her to help me boot Takehiko out of the Force, and get you promoted to the rank of Commissioner."
Aizawa actually finds himself blinking at the man a few times. He is still getting used to wearing glasses, he hopes that it didn't make his accidental reaction look weird.
"You're fully authorized by me to completely ignore whatever Senior Commissioner Koji tells you to do." Yagi continues. "If someone asks, you're working directly for me from now on. As the head of the prefectural police force. Feel free to do whatever organizational changes you wish to, even if they are against the established police procedures, for as long as you'll manage to restore order in Musutafu. I'll see what I can do about finding additional funds."
"That's… a bit of a change in policies." Aizawa decides to play it safe. He has really been thrown out of his comfort zone by suddenly getting a totally unexpected promotion.
"Until the Shizuoka Massacre, I focused the remaining funds on rebuilding the war damages and restoring the local economy." Yagi replies. "The logic was that if the economy and social services will return from the dead, less people will be forced to resort to crime. Considering the mess that Hosu is and what happened in Shizuoka, we've reached the limit of this policy. We need to suppress the crime to a manageable level before we continue the restoration efforts. So, naturally, we're changing the policies."
(***)
Aizawa gets another unexpected promotion. How much longer until he ends up being the youngest Commissioner General in Japanese history? xD Who knows.