Jpx0999 - I'd say that most religions would be pretty cool about it. The real problem are always the fringe groups, but those are problematic whether they're religious or not. People greatly overstate the tendency of religions to go Deus Vult on something like metahumans. Okay, except for weird american protestant churches but those are an outlier.
Fun historical fact - in late Roman times there were recurrent stories from a distant land to the east about some tribe of 'dogheaded people' (google Cynocephaly for more). August of Hippo (one of the most influential Christian saints of that time that wrote a very big book about theology, politics etc. called The City of God) heard of those talks, and mused about it in said book, eventually deciding that for as long as they are humans (which he defined as animal capable of reason, so what we would call 'sapient'), they are descendants of Adam as well. And said book is rather influential at least in Catholic Church to this day. And also it's not a separate event since there is a ninth century frankish theologian named Ratramnus who mused on the same thing and concluded that if such people exist, they are most certainly fellow humans and it's a Christian's duty to spread the Gospel to them.
As stated, fics tend to exaggerate religious response to such events because I guess they need some easy-to-hate and very onedimensional enemies to fight? Dunno.
SentinalSlice - Don't want to spoil any plottwists :P
(***)
Training your body was an important part of being a hero. Quirks were powerful tools, but there is no point in having a cool and powerful emitter quirk if you are terminally overweight and lack stamina, making you arrive at the scene when everything was over. Hence, physical training.
A lot of physical training. Kan-sensei was a rather demanding teacher. Some of them thought that it wasn't enough and (with Kan-sensei's knowledge and conditional agreement, overworking wasn't good in the long term either way) has set-up a small training room in one of the unused flats at the upper level.
Kirishima used some of his own share of the Branch income to buy some training equipment. When he had nothing more interesting to do (so, typically, when Mina was having a Tartarus shift), he secreted himself to the room for some additional training.
His physical strength, endurance and stamina were pretty much all that he had going on with himself when combat was involved. He had to capitalize on that as much as possible, right? Staying behind the other heroes would be pretty bad. And very unmanly.
He was in the training room, taking a brief rest before exercise, when someone showed up. Someone that Kirishima didn't expect to see.
"Uhm, ex…excuse me?" He heard a voice. When he turned his head towards the source of it, he saw Rabbit awkwardly peeking into the room. "C…can I c…come in?" Oh, that ki…. damn, that man really needed some confidence.
The Sekoto Branch wasn't yet established. The superintendent in charge of the local precinct (together with the local fire brigade) were very interested in having local heroes, it's just that organizing the local hero agency was taking some time. For the time being, Rabbit and his small team were still living in the Takoba' headquarters.
"Sure, sure." Kirishima quickly replies. "The room's free to use by everyone." In his opinion, it should be used more by everyone, but… well, the school training is clearly enough for most of them.
Rabbit is wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. Quite colorful. Add his complete lack of facial hair and shoulder-long hair and suddenly it was very easy to be confused about the gender of the person standing in front of you.
Kirishima, at this point, realizes that it's a touchy subject for Rabbit. So he says nothing. Though in his opinion, Rabbit could clear a significant part of the general confusion (that clearly frustrated him) with some serious wardrobe change. Then again, he probably knew about it, so it had to be a conscious choice.
He expected Rabbit to go and start training, but instead, Asa is staring at him, clearly trying to say something but having difficulties doing so.
Kirishima is almost certain that this is going to be some serious talk. He is massively under equipped when it comes to serious talks. Where is Mina when she is so desperately needed?
"Hey, calm down!" Kirishima decides to intervene, because Rabbit really looks like he is on the verge of dropping dead. His social anxiety is truly terrible. "I don't bite." He technically does, but only in some very specific situations. It's certainly not a play right now.
"I… I…" Well, damn, he really is about to hyperventilate. Then he unleashes a string of words said so quickly that Kirishima fails to understand most of them. Still, some words are audible enough.
"You want me to help you be more like… uhm… me?" Kirishima asks, seriously confused at those words. Rabbit nods furiously. "More like me, as in…" He flexes his muscles. Rabbit nods furiously again.
Oh. Well. That both makes perfect sense and is rather… uhm…
"You do realize…" Kirishima decides to be honest about it. "... that with your body-built, I don't think that you can get anywhere this bulky, right?" Rabbit shrinks all of a sudden. "Hey, don't give me that look!"
Rabbit promptly freaks out. Kirishima decides to intervene before Edge's Rabbit Mistreatment Detection Radar goes off, because then things will get hairy. That girl's kicks were goddamn lethal, enough to knock someone as tanky as him out instantly (unless his Hardening was on).
"Calm down." Kirishima does his best to deescalate. Rabbit seems to be interested in deescalation as well, as he takes a few deep breaths, probably does some mental trickery (like imagining Kirishima's head to be a potato or something like that) and calms down a bit. "I'm not saying that you can't train, getting stronger and more fit is both a good idea in our line of work and healthy in general. Just… I don't exactly fathom you turning into a muscular juggernaut."
He can do a lot, but sometimes body build just says NO. Rabbit is really short, and there isn't much body mass to work on. Judging from how much the k… adult ate (while still staying small and really… uhm… narrow limbed), it was a rather hopeless case.
Rabbit shrinks again. This time, much more. Seeing someone already this small deflate further is painful.
Kirishima needs his girlfriend. Very, very much. He is really bad at stuff like that, and he is worried that he'll mess something up further. He clearly isn't doing very well thus far.
"Hey, I'm not saying you can't get stronger or anything." Kirishima decides to fix whatever he managed to break. "I'm ready to help you in that, I mean it's a very manly thing to exercise properly, improve your body and…"
Rabbit clearly perked up after the word 'manly' was thrown around. Surely it's now what Kirishima is thinking, right?
"Wait." Kirishima says and he did it a bit too… loud. So Rabbit almost took a step back in shock and fear. "You want to get a six-pack because you want to be more… uhm… manly?"
He retracts his earlier statement. It's great that Mina isn't with him. She would laugh way too much about the word being thrown around. And they would get nothing done. Besides, she would probably try to pamper Rabbit, and that would be rather… counterproductive.
Rabbit confirms Kirishima's theory with a clearly worried nod.
He manages not to laugh at that. That would freak Rabbit way too much. And he needs encouragement, not something that he would misinterpret as mockery.
Alright, Kirishima. You loaded most of the points into Strength and Constitution, Charisma is clearly your dump stat, but you can do it. Just think about what you're going to say before speaking. It'll be alright. Ask yourself what Mina would say too, that'll be helpful.
"You do realize that you're already manly as hell?" Kirishima says, and - as expected - Rabbit stares at him with a look of total confusion and disbelief on his face. "Dude. It was your plan that crushed the Abegawa Tenchu Kai villain unit, and then you almost managed to repel the completely unexpected attack of the Shie Hasseikai. Something that we, despite having twice or almost thrice your numbers, would struggle with. And after that battle, which was so bad that it's referred to by the media as 'Massacre', you didn't mop down, and you didn't resign. Instead, you resolved to continue fighting in the name of your fallen leader. That's manly as hell!"
Rabbit looks like he almost got a heart attack during the course of this brief speech. Somehow, he has survived having his worldview do a hundred-eighty on him.
"Y…you really think so?" He asks, clearly too confused to just accept what he heard at the face value.
"Yes!" Kirishima says with as much confidence as he can. Rabbit really needs that. He slightly overdid that and Rabbit almost freaks out again. "Look, true manliness is about standing up for those that are weaker than you, sticking to your beliefs when things get hairy, taking responsibility for the things you do, living in a way that doesn't make you regret your past choices. You have that all in the bag."
Kirishima is honest about it (just like he is honest about most things). He never went through anything even nearly this bad. Rabbit feels like a scaredy cat, but after hearing the exact description of the events of the Shizuoka battle, Kirishima is in awe.
In a way, he feels like Midoriya. Well, like Midoriya used to be (he is a bit too gloomy and nervous in a different way nowadays). Sunshine for most of the time, but when in trouble, it turns out that there is steel underneath all that fluff.
"So it really doesn't matter how much muscles you have, how long your hair is or what clothes you're wearing, for as long as you have the spirit of a man." Kirishima says while raising his fist. "So you don't have to worry about all of that."
Rabbit seems to be on the verge of having a panic attack for a few long seconds. All while he is clearly busy digesting what he just heard (that's quite a multitasking). Kirishima gives him all the time he needs for that.
"You…" He is clearly struggling with that. "...you'd like T…Tetsu. He s… said similar t…things."
Rabbit clearly didn't believe him. Or, perhaps, he did, but he began to question himself again after that horrible, horrible night.
After hearing some things about Tetsutetsu, Kirishima really wishes that they got to meet. He sounded like another best friend candidate after Yoarashi, perhaps more. Well, now all that he can do is put his back into avenging him. Or, to say it in a less questionable way, into making sure that Goto Imasuji will stop killing people.
"Well, I guess you're right about that." Kirishima agrees. "Look, the point is, if you want to get stronger, I'd be super happy to help you. Just… don't value yourself based on how you look, alright? It's the decisions that matter."
Rabbit seems to be - once again - busy digesting his words. Kirishima is busy slightly freaking out that he said something wrong. Still, he keeps the expression of confidence on his face. He thinks that it's a good idea in those circumstances.
"O…oh. Okay." Rabbit seems to have come to a decision. "I…I'd like that help. If I ccc…" He stutters really badly, so Kirishima decides to be a good guy and interrupts it with a quick thumbs-up gesture.
It's so quick that Rabbit almost jumps back in fright.
That guy really needs some confidence. Or Edge near him 24/7. He seems to be slightly calmer when she is around.
(***)
Musutafu was a prefecture full of contrasts. Or so Stain decided soon after he and Luna (plus the two of their… co-workers) arrived there. The better parts of it seemed to be doing better than Tokyo, probably due to being located almost perfectly to avoid the worst during the war.
By the time the Chinese reached Musutafu, GSDF were in full retreat (total rout, and that was taking it lightly). So no intense combat leveling entire districts like in the western parts of the country. And by the time the Americans reached Musutafu (with international support, naturally), the Chinese army was looking worse than the GSDF did a year earlier. So no intense combat leveling entire districts - like in the eastern parts of the country.
Hosu was more of an exception confirming the rule, if what the vigilantes heard about the state of affairs in the city was anything to go by.
In short, the better parts of Musutafu resembled pre-war Japan much more than Tokyo. But the worse parts of Musutafu made Tokyo look beautiful and unblemished. Sometimes those two worlds coexisted next to each other. One street looked like the war never happened, while another was still a half-deserted mess.
Only one of them had some proper experience when investigative work was involved. Stain, theoretically, was a former police officer (even before he was transferred into the SAT), but he wouldn't consider himself to be very good at that. His skills lie mostly in fighting, and he is completely aware of that.
Luna was a lost cause when things that weren't combat were involved. Chainfist - aka Kendo Rappa - was just as bad as she was, if not worse. He was in only for some quality fighting, because illegal cage fighting wasn't gratifying enough. Especially when your superpower made you absolutely trash everyone in a few seconds.
"So…" Stain tried to say something, but he was brutally interrupted.
"I'll look into this." Knuckleduster says, with an expression of slight irritation on his face. He is the oldest of them all, but his fists are… dangerous. He is also a former intelligence officer, so probably the best person to look for intel. "Just try NOT to start any fight in the meantime, alright?"
How exactly did he move from working for the Public Security Intelligence Agency into the business of illegal - and permanent - neutralization of supervillains? How - and why - did he change working alongside well-adjusted people in suits for stalking the alleyways with a bunch of battle junkies (Rumi and Rappa couldn't be described differently, and Chizome was pretty close to this status himself)?
Iwao Oguro sometimes isn't sure about that himself. World War is a crazy time to be alive.
Then again, let's be real. Taking down supervillains while having only the almighty power of guns (and fists, and some explosives, and some friendly battle maniacs as well) on your side is a rather harsh challenge. And he loves challenges. And all of that while making society a favor, really!
"No promises are made." Luna announces from her couch. She is clearly gleeful at being allowed to take her hoodie off and show off her rabbit ears. It's not like there is anyone in this abandoned flat that doesn't know of her… peculiarities. She kicked her legs on the table and somehow managed to summon (magic was almost certainly involved) a bottle of beer out of nowhere. "C'mon, I'm itching for some fighting! You don't expect me to just sit around, doing nothing. Right?"
Knuckleduster and Stain exchange glances. Akaguro Chizome non-verbally agrees to satisfy Rumi's destructive urges in some… more… low-profile way, if need arises. Besides, it's good training!
Hopefully she won't break any bones during their sparring sessions. That would suck big time. They only recently healed.
The two of them are the sanest people in the room. To quote one black market supplier of theirs (Giran had a way with words), their whole party had exactly two braincells, and Knuckleduster and Stain were the ones to carry them at almost all time.
"So, what's the plan?" Rappa asks from his corner. He is probably itching for a fight just as Rumi is, although he is a bit less vocal about it.
"You read the news." Oguro replies. "Considering how Commissioner Aizawa is hyped as a main defender of the law in the prefecture, I'm almost certain that he's our man. Especially as the local SAT apparently rebranded into his personal attack dog unit. Which makes perfect sense if…"
"... if it was all done to let them operate against supervillains in secret." Stain takes over. He was a former SAT member, after all. "Which means that Aizawa knows about the superpowers. Do you think that he is actually employing their users?"
"Would have explained his recent successes." Knuckleduster scratches his chin. "The problem is, we're all technically murderers. Sure, the people we've killed were nasty criminals that the police failed to deal with, but it's not like we can expect the meeting to be all sunshine and roses…"
"Good." Rumi announces. "Sunshine and roses are for weaklings, I want…"
"...so we should first focus on finding out as much as we can about the whole scheme." Knuckleduster completely ignores her. "Trying to get anywhere close to Aizawa is probably a lost cause, as he has an entire squad of counterterrorists following him around. Not to mention some friendly superpower users that might be close. And if any of them see some scary looking people that they don't recognize, they'll probably react badly. So, as I said, lie down for a bit and let me work."
Rappa and Stain will probably behave. The latter because he was the most disciplined from the group, and Rappa because acting too rashly would deny him the good fight that he looked towards. Luna was going to be the main problem.
(***)
The rather twisted and adrenaline-pumped course of the war delayed that for more than a month. But eventually, the dreaded capital M Moment has arrived. Principal Sasaki informed Izuku Midoriya that he believes the time has come for him to meet the UA student council. The only reprieve came from the fact that he didn't have to come alone.
He picked Momo, because she had that high class air that would really fit among the best people that the conventional UA had. He also picked Hitoshi Shinsou, because sometimes he really wanted to see Hijack suffer.
"I…" Hitoshi reacts to the announcement. "...fucking hate you, Midoriya."
Ah, that hit the spot.
After some additional thinking, Izuku has also decided to add Setsuna Tokage to the party, a fact that Principal Sasaki seemed to agree with. She was, after all, a branch head. Getting some experience in dealing with meetings like that made perfect sense.
Rabbit wasn't included. Rabbit was very happy about not being included. He might have been a theoretical branch leader as well, but… well, he wasn't yet at the point where he could actually hope to NOT die of fright during a social event.
He was getting there. But making him even remotely functional during a meeting like that required bringing his girls along, and… well, having the future elites of the country meet Edge so early into the discovery of the meta-abilities existence' would have given them the wrong message.
Principal Sasaki, naturally, made sure to not let them get overwhelmed. They didn't meet the whole student council at once. Four members per four members.
The president of the student council, Mirio Togata, was… well, he certainly had the presence of a politician. Big, tall, surprisingly honest looking smile on his face. Considering what Izuku knew about him (he did some research), most student council presidents of the UA for the past twenty years ended up in politics.
Some as prime ministers.
Mirio Togata was apparently more or less politically aligned with the current government. Since the ruling party knew that they could expect top priority from UA student council presidents, he was already an official member of it. He was playing quite a serious role in the local structures of the party for Takoba - and he was yet to graduate from the UA, where he was studying politology and history.
At once. With top grades, naturally.
That was some scary level of brainpower and dedication. Scary but, perhaps, understandable. Mirai Sasaki recruited only the best - and only the best of the best achieved his personal attention.
The second member of the student council was Nejire Hado. An extremely rare case of a woman that looked objectively (even Izuku had to admit it, even if he was perfectly happy and satisfied with what Mei and Tsuyu brought to the table) better than Momo Yaoyorozu. The figure alone was something that most women out there would absolutely kill to obtain.
She was from the UA's unofficial (Mirai Sasaki would rather kill than refer to it that way) idol course. So not only did she look absolutely stunning, she was also good at dancing, singing, modeling and who knows what else.
Considering the fact that she was in the UA, she was also no slouch in the brain department. Mirai Sasaki didn't want his school to produce 'idols' who then promptly ruined their own good image by saying something incredibly stupid on the TV. Besides, if their career fell flat, good education meant that they could immediately switch to something else.
Scary people. Scary people everywhere. Izuku's acute sense of inferiority was only growing a bit more acute.
The third member was Tamaki Amajiki. This time, well, a mood kindred. It was rather clear that he didn't really want to take part in that meeting. He was a classic case of computer geek.
Apparently a great programmer (and video game developer, though mostly indie stuff for now), who was co-opted into the student council because having someone that actually mastered such skills as powerpoint presentations and the likes was deemed as highly beneficial.
The last member was Yuyu Haya, from the Economics Course, pretty much the student council's treasurer. Surprisingly unremarkable, at least in looks. Then again, the student council members were all top of the top. So she had to be worryingly competent.
And it's not like the economics course merely learned about the theory behind the economics. Once you get deep enough into the course, you end up not only getting a lot of practical experience in actual companies, but often also setting up your own.
Not to mention getting some small capital from the school (that could be used both on that and, for example, on some stock trading that you actually were graded on if you managed to maintain some steady profit). Details depended on what you wanted to do after school and what you were clearly talented for.
(***)
The meeting was… interesting. To a relatively small degree, all things considered. Izuku has already seen a lot of people getting enlightened about the existence of superpowers. At this point, well, he has mostly gotten used to it. .
There is always disbelief. Followed immediately by shock (with some slight remnants of disbelief, quickly dispelled) once someone presents their meta-ability. Eventually, less or more anguished realization that this isn't a joke. And once that settles in, people start to try to learn out more to figure out what to think about this.
Here, the reaction was… well, pretty much according to schedule. Amajiki freaked out silently, Yuya and Hadou with varied degrees of vocalization. Togata managed to maintain a poker face through it all (Sasaki probably felt some paternal pride at the spectacle).
What followed was mostly a debate about the whole system (that Principal Sasaki was clearly establishing through Defiant and Commissioner Aizawa). Three-way one, with Sasaki, Midoriya and Togata doing most of it.
Izuku was aware that the talk was less important than it sounded, really. It was just three people talking about politics in the room full of people that were busy getting to know each other. And didn't pay it much attention.
Quite quickly pairs were formed.
Setsuna Tokage was extrovertic enough to find common ground with Nejire Hadou (she was also an amateur dabbler in showbusiness, with her little prank youtube channel). They seemed to be rather chatty with each other.
Amajiki and Shinsou were less chatty and more… Well, they both clearly didn't want to be in the room. In the end, they were pretty much standing in the background near each other, VERY occasionally saying a word or two.
Haya and Yaoyorozu, in the meantime, weren't exactly doing the same things in their work, but they were left alone AND, at least technically, Yaoyorozu was a part of the Network management. That was a foundation to build upon.
It was still incredibly awkward.
Mirio Togata wasn't even hiding that if there was a button that - if pressed - would take away the powers of all metahumans without harming them, he would press it. Izuku, personally, isn't surprised. Togata is politically conscious. He knows that the government isn't doing so well, that the country is at a direct risk of collapsing, and learning about supervillains being out there…
Well, there'll be no recovery. At least not anytime soon. In a way, Izuku agrees with Mirio. Doing that would certainly save a lot of lives.
On the other hand, Mirio Togata was clearly impressed with Izuku and the others deciding to help (and pretty much volunteered to be in the thick of nasty things happening) the police and the rescue services.
Of course, everything according to Principal Sasaki's long-term plans. He is probably planning to make Mirio Togata a future prime minister and is already introducing valuable people to him. What exactly he was hoping to achieve with Izuku Midoriya (other than finding a way to keep Japan alive) was anyone's guess really.
Izuku was very happy that Principal Sasaki was on their side.
(***)
Once the meeting is over, Izuku spends almost half an hour talking with Setsuna about the Aldera branch developments (everything seemed to have been going alright). He would have been talking longer, but that's when Tsuyu sent him a message.
She wanted to… huh?
(***)
Daily reminder that the stereotypical manly qualities such as the ones that Kirishima clearly tries to embody can be possessed by anyone, regardless of their gender identity. And probably fucking should, because if everyone had them, the world would be much manlier, err, nicer to live in. Also Rabbit is getting an additional boost to confidence and his feeling of self-worth and this will probably bloom nicely further down the line.
Also it's mostly the headcanon because I don't plan to write that far but I greatly suspect that Mirio Togata will get there. I'd certainly vote for him, he is a based chad in canon and is probably a based chad in here. And having him know a few crucial members of the Metahuman Network beforehand will both shape his outlook on metahumans and the soon-to-be pro-heroes system (as Mirai Sasaki is clearly intending). Especially as I suspect that they'll be meeting occasionally just more in the background.
Next chapter includes copious amounts of good things happening to Tsuyu (who, as established, deserves all good things) and a lot of tooth-rotting IzuTsu fluff. I regret nothing. Feel free to speculate on what's happening to her :P