Disclaimer: I don't own Tiger & Bunny in any way, shape, or form. I just like to play with the characters.
Summary: [Set after the introduction of Lunatic - volume 4 of the manga / episode 7 of the anime.] Kotetsu takes Bunny's advice of intelligence over instinct.
Yuri pushed the door open to his office with a barely concealed sigh.
More paperwork, more victims, and more people getting away with literal murder. I wonder if Lunatic should appear during the new moon as well as the full moon?
He paused, seeing a tall, spiky haired man in a white vest and green, long-sleeved shirt bending over the pictures he had on display in the weak window light.
That's right. I wanted to talk to Wild Tiger.
"I see-"
Tiger jumped, his hip catching the table and throwing all of the pictures into a frenzied, wobbling dance. The two of them stood frozen, watching, then sighing in relief that nothing had broken.
"Hahaha, sorry," the lanky man grinned, rubbing his head. "But no harm done, right?"
There are no fines that could replace those photographs.
"I see you received my message," Yuri finished smoothly, transferring the stack of papers resting against his chest to the overflowing inbox on the right side of his desk.
Truth be told, my whole desk is the inbox.
"I was just admiring your pictures," said Tiger, looking back at them. "Are they family?"
"Not at all," replied Yuri. "I have enough criminals paraded daily into my office that I don't feel the need to entice them with ideas of revenge."
And I don't need another set of eyes judging me here.
"Ah, yeah." Tiger shoved his hands into his pockets. "I can understand that. It's why all of us have Hero names and masks."
"Except for Mr. Brooks."
I still suspect Mr. Maverick behind that irrational action, since the man was most insistent during registration, but as I'm uncertain what gains could be made of it, I'm unsure what to look for.
"Yeah, except for Bunny. Though he might be regretting that every time he tries to go out shopping and ends up getting mobbed instead," laughed Tiger.
"Hmm." Yuri's lips lifted at the amusing thought.
I'll have to keep a closer watch on them. This is not the first time a NEXT has come with such baggage, but Mr. Brooks is quite extraordinary in his resolve, and being hand-picked by Mr. Maverick makes it even more of a special case.
"Looks like you're pretty busy." The Hero nodded at the untidy, towering stack of papers, drawing Yuri's eyes with the motion.
Always.
"And so," Yuri said, turning to smile at Wild Tiger, "I'll get right to the point. I wanted to thank you for your latest 'Crusher of Justice' moment."
Blushing and grimancing at the same time, the Japanese man rubbed the back of his head.
"That would be the... the truck into the apartment building, right? Or is there something else I haven't gotten an invoice for?"
"No, that was the precise one." Judge Petrov began to shuffle some of the papers on his desk, pitching a flyer for deliverable sushi into the full trash. "Thanks to that, and the effect of the inhabitants needing to leave immediately, we were able to find evidence of both elder abuse and child abuse with the two families in the complex that we've been keeping our eyes on."
Something we've been sitting on for too long.
"Wait, what?!" Tiger's eyes narrowed. "You knew, and you left people in an abusive situation?!"
Trust me, it's not by choice. At least your villains are stupid enough to be caught on live TV... I have to cheer my on from the sidelines, praying that they step into a trap I've laid along the way.
Yuri spread his hands out.
"Unfortunately, yes, in these cases we had to. There was not enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for one family, and as for the other, they kept slipping out of our grasp."
Tiger scowled and made a fist.
"You should have just arrested them!" he declared, gesturing wildly. "Not... not allowed them to keep hurting other people!"
If only.
"I work for the Administration of Justice, not Hero TV. That means," Yuri continued, holding up a finger to forestall Tiger's next outburst, "I don't have as much... leniency, we'll call it, as you do. If you, in the midst of catching a criminal, find another crime in progress, you can act on that to arrest both suspects. Everybody cheers, you're awarded points, and people thank you. I, and the people who work with me, must already have evidence as strong as either you or your partner when NEXT powers have been activated. Otherwise, the person gets away, and we may not find them again. Or, we find their victims. In the morgue."
Never heard the phrase "the wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine"? My office may be slow, but I do try to capture the spirit of the latter phrasal part at least.
Tiger closed his mouth, eyes downcast.
"I... I hadn't thought of it that way."
Nobody does.
"Hadn't thought that these people, if they were to know that we were watching them, would get up and move? It's happened before, and I dare say it'll happen again, something usually slips through the information cracks. However, we now have enough evidence, for both situations, to put the perpetrators behind bars."
And if not, then Lunatic might need to pay them a visit. Either way, thanks to you, justice will be delivered.
"Um... good." Wild Tiger let out a small laugh, turning it into a cough. "Any chance that could decrease my fine a bit? I have a da... daydream that one day all my fines will have been paid."
Interesting ... were you about to say "daughter" Wild Tiger?
"No." Yuri shook his head.
"Why not? If I saved people?"
"Tiger, what is justice?" Yuri asked. As the man began to answer, a black cell phone on the desk began to sound, rattling paper with its vibration mode. Yuri looked at the number. "Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Tiger, but I must take this."
Unfortunately , one does not simply ignore the mayor's call.
Snatching up the phone, Yuri slipped out into the hall, leaving Tiger along with his thoughts. Thankfully, the phone call didn't take more than two minutes of reassurance, and his hand was resting on the doorknob when he heard a raised voice in the room.
Did he receive a phone call as well?
Yuri pressed his ear against the door.
"...justic... Lunatic?!"
Well... this could be serendipitous, if not what I meant to happen at all.
Palming a key from his inner jacket pocket, he unlocked the room next to his office, checking to make sure that the hallway was clear, before slipping into a darker room that held a pen, a notepad, a comfortable chair, and enough technical equipment to record what was happening in his office.
Thank you again Ms. Keanna, for having the audacity to try and steal Hero information from my office last year; this one-way mirror is still proving extremely useful.
"...wait..." Yuri watched as Tiger rapped his forehead with his knuckles. "Bunny's always harping about using intelligence over instinct, so let's try that approach before I accuse him of murder. Judge Petrov's always been fair. Firm, but fair."
Good to know what you think of me.
Tiger frowned, cracking his knuckles. "So... if he's fair, then how could he be the one killing people? He couldn't, right? That's not balanced at all."
Black and white is balanced, but I believe you see the color as a solid grey. I could remain grey all the time, as I do at work, or I could balance my black and white, which is what being Lunatic allows. I make myself even more stable by spreading my actions between the two.
The agitated hero paced the room, huffing and sighing and arguing with himself; Yuri settled into the chair, crossing his legs and switching on the recording equipment, mostly so that he could hear the man clearly than to have proof of anything.
Maybe I should have all of them do this. I could learn a lot about what makes Stern's Heroes tick. And possibly what breaks them.
"Okay, first of all, Judge Petrov works in the Administration of Justice. Of course he has an idea of what justice is, and that other people probably have different ideas. That's obvious. How many times has Kaede said I was being unfair?"
And who is Kaede to you? The daughter you might have let slip?
"On the other hand, that was almost word for word that same thing... I think?" There was a hissing sound, Tiger sucking air in between his teeth in frustration. "I remember Lunatic asking me that same question. But... there's only so many ways to say the same thing with the same words, right? Otherwise pizza becomes a cheesy, tomato-covered circle of dough."
Yuri watched at Kotetsu paced back and forth, stopping in front of the pictures. A quavering hand reached out to pick up the one with Yuri and Ms. Agatha.
I should call her up and see if she'd like tea tomorrow. Since her abusive sister disappeared, she' s been discovering so much more about herself.
Tiger put it down to pick up another one.
Old Mr. Kowalski. Had no idea who was stealing from his bank account at first, but he went to his grave happy that his thieving grandson was serving his community service at a nursing home.
"But there are all these pictures..."
Pace. Pace. Pace.
"And I've seen bad people do good things. Nobody's fully evil. And even those who think they're good people can end up doing really bad things."
Oh? Should I be keeping my eye on you, Tiger? Or is this about your partner?
"I feel it. I feel it in my gut that he's Lunatic. It makes sense. A judge would be in the perfect position to know, to have the information about who's done what."
Hmmm... this could be unfortunate. Yuri shifted slightly in the chair.
"But... the evidence doesn't make sense. Why would a judge in charge of justice become a viligante?"
Because they became sick of nothing being done to help those that really need it.
Tiger sighed, then flopped down on the couch in front of the desk. He cradled his head in his hands, causing his voice to come in muffled.
"Ugh... I should listen to Bunny more often. These thoughts... they're just making me sick."
Interesting that he'd trust his partner over his own instincts. Most people never obtain that level in a relationship. I wonder if there's more than just being partners?
Yuri turned off the machines, gave the command for the MP4 to be sent to his personal email box, then left the room, locking it behind him.
"My apologies Mr. Tiger," he said upon entering the room, eyeing the man on his couch. "Now, where were we?"
"My idea of justice." The words were low, as if the Hero didn't want to say them.
Still fighting your instincts? Let's make sure that you don't reminisce about this conversation and come to a different conclusion. You're one of the few Heroes that I admire Mr. Wild - I'd rather not mar that unnecessarily.
"I asked that because for most people, their idea of justice is rooted in, well, being just. Being fair." Yuri strode over to the corner of his desk and leaned against it. "If I lowered your fine, many people would have the idea that my action wasn't fair, and that I was favoring you."
"But, you could just say that I helped people," protested Tiger, locking eyes with Yuri.
"Would you want me to mention who? How? Or even where? Bringing in a single detail would mark these people as the abused, those that are 'not strong enough,' 'easy to take advantage of,' or even 'stupid'."
"I didn't..."
Didn't think? Probably not, most only think for themselves.
"Do you remember the It's Me* scam?" Yuri continued in a pleasant voice, as if Tiger hadn't just spoken. "It targeted the elderly, the more vulnerable people in our society. Someone would call an old name from the phone book, and plead-"
"Hey, it's me, I need some help," continued Tiger, his voice dull. "The person would say the name of who they thought it was, and when the caller repeated it back, they thought it was the real person."
"And then someone else took over, saying that they were holding the person for ransom, that the person owed them money, or however they wanted to play it out," finished Yuri, nodding. "You seem very familiar with this. Did someone you know fall victim to it?"
Tiger nodded.
"Yeah. One of our neighbors. They called and pretended to be her son. Stole her life savings."
"And how did the neighborhood react, once word of that got out?" pressed Yuri. "Did they pity the woman? Or..." The judge opened one hand and gestured upwards.
"To her face they pitied her," Tiger replied, eyes looking anywhere but at Yuri. "... but, behind her back... they wondered how stupid the woman was, not knowing the voice of her own son."
"That's why I'm not going to release any information about the ones that you helped," said Yuri. "Let them be able to walk away from this, to go somewhere else and not have everybody sneer at them, jeer at them behind their backs."
"I understand," said Tiger, taking his cap off to fiddle with it. "It can't be done without looking unfair, and for it to look fair, it would actually harm them. With that being the case, I have no problem with your judgement."
"That is why I invited you in here. To thank you." Yuri nodded. "From one crusader of justice to another."
No matter that we each answer justice in our own way; the fact that we answer is enough.
Tiger smiled, and Yuri felt his an answering one on his face; there was a special energy with this man, a natural one that rolled off in calming waves.
Enough. You've already behind on today's schedule.
"Now, I've got work to do, and I'm sure that you have paperwork as well."
"Heh, I usually leave it with Bunny. It gets done that way, quicker and with more details."
Fair enough. I can sense that your coworker probably has more patience with that aspect of the job than you do.
Yuri nodded.
"Have a great day then, and I'll see you soon."
Most likely with the next ream of paperwork for something you've damaged. Oh well. Your heart's in the right place, unlike those other so-called Heroes.
"Probably," smirked Tiger. "And hey... thanks for all of your hard work too." He pointed to the messy desk. "You guys here do just as much, if not more work than us, and nobody says thanks."
...I was not expecting that.
"Some do say it..." said Yuri, nodding at the table. "My photographs are proof of that. But, coming from you? From a Hero of Stern? All I can say to that is 'you're welcome.'"
Tiger waved goodbye and headed out the door, leaving Yuri alone with what his life had become: work.
At least get a good cardio workout in a few nights each month.
Yuri chuckled, grabbing the top file.
Ah, Mr. Koddy. It looks like the victim testifying against you has suddenly dropped all charges; what a surprise. I think you and I might need to have a chat later on this week.
Letter from the Soup - I for Instinct
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