Contradictions

by EducatedBlade

What does it mean to be a hero? Is it only about doing the right thing?. Yasu always thought that heroes were worthless and fake. But, because of chance his life changes and he ends becoming one of those very heroes. How will he navigate the complicated tapestry of Heroes and Villains in a world where everybody wants to be a hero.

8. Chapter 8

MHA

Chapter – 8

Nezu started us off, "I am sure many of you are already familiar with each other and some are new faces, since I am the only one familiar with all of you allow me to make the introductions."

Nobody objected so he started off, "I am Nezu as you already know the principal of Nezu and these two pro heroes here are All Might and Endeavour, the number 1 and 2 Pro Heroes respectively."

He gestured towards Gran Torino and Recovery Girl, "These two esteemed ones are Gran Torino and Recovery Girl both are retired Pro Heroes who were famous heroes of their time and this is one of their still active colleagues Yoroi Musha as you are no doubt already aware."

He then gestured towards Kaina and the young trio along with Nighteye, "These 5 are young up and coming heroes, Lady Nagant, Gang Orca, Best Jeanist, Shishido and Nighteye."

He looked at the two members of the police force and these two are, "Detectives Yamato and Tsukauchi from the Police Force."

He then gestured at me, "And finally the reason, we are holding this meeting in the first place, Pro Hero Sleeper from the HPSC."

All of us greeted and nodded at each other, but Endeavour looked at me with a glare, "Sleeper, I have never heard of you before. What's your hero ranking?"

I looked at Endeavour and couldn't help but laugh, it was an open secret, he was obsessed with Hero Rankings and wanted to replace All Might as the number one hero but it was quite surprising to see how much weight he put on those arbitrary rankings.

I smiled and leaned back in my chair, "Rank 390" I said with ease.

Endeavour seemed pissed off by my attitude, "So, a useless and incompetent hero is the reason for this meeting. Nezu, I am not going to sit around and waste my time. I am out of here."

I just scoffed at his words and didn't bother with replying but I could see Kaina, Yamato, Naomasa and surprisingly Nighteye bristle with anger at his statement, but it was All Might who spoke up,

"Enji, calm down. Young Sleeper's ranking is not a true reflection of his abilities. He is a talented young man who has helped me multiple times."

I appreciated the defence but I couldn't care less about Endeavour's opinion on me, the others just seemed to be watching it like some kind of drama.

Endeavour just snorted but showed no sign of leaving, so Nezu nodded I noticed he was observing my reaction but when I looked at him, he turned to address the room, "Yes, Sleeper over here has come across crucial information in his work and that information is the reason, we are all here today."

The projector lit up showing the images of the lab used for quirk experimentation by All for One

"These images were from an old case. As you can see, these labs are where a site of horrific human experimentation." Nezu looked at everyone gathered, "Sleeper and Detective Yamato along with their assistants were involved in this case providing help to All Might."

"What they found in their investigations was quite terrifying, this lab is just one of many which were kidnapping people especially children and experimenting on them."

I could see the disgust and anger on the faces of the heroes who were not aware of this before,

Shishido was the one who spoke up, "Where are the bastards who did this? Tell me where they are principal and I will tear them apart."

Best Jeanist spoke up from the side, "Calm down Shishido. It is not suitable for a hero to say such things." He looked at the images of the victims, "Though, I do understand your anger in this case."

Nezu nodded, "I share your views on these crimes. All Might and Gran Torino have discovered the culprits, it's a group run by an enigmatic villain called All for One and this is his helper Kyudai Garaki."

The images changed to show two images, one of a man in a suit wearing some sort of helmet and a pudgy doctor.

"Sleeper over here has been trying to track them down along with the help of the Police Force and recently he has had some success."

He nodded at me while the others in the room seemed to appraising me,

"He has discovered several operations of All for One which have already been shut down by All Might and the police but recently he has discovered the locations of several labs."

He turned off the projector and looked around the room, "This is the reason, you are all here. We wish to strike all the targets at the same time to shock our enemies and we need your help to carry out this operation."

Gang Orca spoke up first, "The three of us will assist you to bring this evil to justice. You can count on us Principal." Which received nods from Shishido and Best Jeanist.

Endeavour just snorted but didn't leave the room, while Yoroi spoke up, "It is the duty of heroes to take down villains and protect the innocents. I will help you to the best of my abilities, my comrades."

Recovery Girl just grumbled, "Foolishness. That's what this is but I can't stand aside after seeing these victims. Get hurt as much you want; I will patch you all up."

Nezu smiled at that, "Thank you but before we begin our plans. There is more information to be shared."

Yamato nodded and cleared his throat while Naomasa pulled up his laptop and connected it to the projector, "As you all must know, this is not a small-time villain gang but a large operation."

The screen lit up showing the board which was made at the Police Station, Naomasa clicked on one and it gave the details of the case,

"Tsukauchi and I have been compiling as much information as we can about All for One and his organisation. These are cases related to him as you can see, he has a finger in every pie, drugs, human trafficking, smuggling, weapons dealing etc."

"It's honestly quite shocking to see the size of his criminal enterprise. But this is not the most impressive part, his information control is the most impressive. No one even knew of his existence till now. We have several theories behind this but All Might and Gran Torino would be better suited to speak of his capabilities."

Yamato sat down and the projector was turned off again as the heroes processed the information. Gran Torino didn't wait for him to gather their thoughts and spoke up,

"All for One is the greatest villain to ever exist, this is an undeniable fact. He is faster, stronger, smarter, durable and versatile than any other human being on this planet. This is for a very simple reason, his quirk," He paused as the others looked to him, "His quirk is All for One, the ability to steal quirks from others, combine them and use them in tandem. All quirks in the world exist just for his quirk."

I could practically feel the shock in the room along with an undercurrent of fear after all, for heroes' quirks are their lives. If someone could take it from them, they would lose everything.

Everyone broke out into speech at the same time as I just looked at the reactions of the people present here. It was amazing how such famous people who were constantly praised could act like frightened children.

I just watched on in amusement as the others tried to control the chaos, it was about to keep going on before All Might stood up and slapped the table. Instantly, all sounds quietened down as everybody started paying attention to him.

"I know, this is terrifying for you and that is a kind of enemy, nobody ever thought we would face. But, are we not heroes, we are the ones to jump into the fire first for one reason and one reason only to save lives. We always knew the dangers when we decided to step into this career but we still decided to fight against evil. All for One is the greatest adversary we will ever face." All Might bowed his head to everyone gathered there, "I humbly ask for your help."

There was a stunned silence around the room. Honestly speaking, I was shocked as well not what I expected at all. Though, it was quite inspiring, if I had any faith in humanity perhaps, I would have been moved as well but it surely worked on the others.

Endeavour spoke up first, "Hmph, he doesn't scare me. It's just a minor matter, I will deign to help you."

Best Jeanist spoke up next, "How can we ourselves heroes if we hesitate because of fear. You can count on us All Might."

Yoroi Musha smiled, "I will help you All Might. To fight against evil is our duty and responsibility as you say."

All Might smiled even more widely than usual, "Thank you, all of you."

Nezu smiled an evil smile, I could practically hear, an evil voice saying keikaku in the background before his expression became more genial, "Let's discuss the raid then."

It was 2 days since the meeting and I was sitting in a large building along with Recovery Girl and Nezu which was serving as our command centre. The raid was in various locations in Japan which were quite far from each other which limited the ability of us to provide backup.

So, we came up with a plan, if things became too hard, they would first call for backup from the local heroes along with the police whose response was being coordinated by Yamato and Naomasa.

If they still needed help, All Might with his ridiculous speeds would move after taking out his targets, he had to take out 4 targets while others had only one each. Medical aid would be given the same way with All Might grabbing Recovery Girl and just running. It was almost ridiculous, how powerful All Might's quirk was.

We had made all our preparations and Nezu was going over the final details while I was speaking to Kaina, "Remember Kaina, easy and efficient. There is no need to make harder for yourself by monologuing, looking cool or saying witty one liners. Move in and take them out with no drama."

"I know, senpai. Looking cool is for movies and anime focus on the mission and finish things up without any fuss." I could hear her exasperation

"Good, then I won't harp on and allow you to get ready," I heard her mumble something but I cut the call before I could hear her clearly.

I stretched my arms and looked to the side, where recovery girl was smiling at me fondly as though she had seen something precious.

I raised an eyebrow, "Something funny to see."

"Nothing at all, you seem quite worried about her."

"Of course, I am. She is the one with the least experience out of everybody and the one most likely to make a mistake that would get her killed."

Recovery Girl smirked, "Is that all?"

I nodded, As expected, she figured out I didn't mention something, "Okay, it's more because her quirk is limited in a mission like this. Honestly speaking, her quirk is perfect for killing people not for a mission in which the goal is to arrest."

Recovery Girl looked surprised for some reason and was looking at me with strange eyes and she asked, "What do you think of her?"

I was going through the drone feeds which Nezu had linked up and answered distractedly, "Hmm, she is quite talented and will go far as a hero. She listens well and learns quickly. Her teamwork with me is quite good and I assume that will be true for others as well. All in all, a very good hero."

Recovery Girl facepalmed for some reason, "I meant your thoughts on her on a more personal level."

I looked at her quizzically and then was struck with a thought, this old gossip totally thought Kaina and I were having some young love drama between us even though we were only friends and I smiled inwardly, this was going to be fun. I always wanted to see the reactions of people to a person like a dense anime protagonist in real life.

So, I nonchalantly said, "Her personality is quite good. She is quite kind and loves kids. I am sure, she will be a good wife for some guy or girl out there. Ah, I am feeling jealous just thinking about it. Maybe, I should do a background check on evert person she meets"

I loved the expression on the old lady's face at the moment, Nezu met my eyes behind her and smirked, I felt like he understood what I was doing but felt there was some other message hidden in that smirk.

Recovery Girl muttered something about, 'dense fools', 'feeling sorry for Kaina', 'clueless men' and 'hitting me with her syringe' which was a tad bit overboard in my opinion.

Nezu spoke up from behind her, "Don't worry, Recovery Girl. A skilled sniper never misses their target after all."

I had tuned out of the conversation by then and was paying only half attention to them and was instead looking at the various angles shown through the drone footage.

Recovery Girl said something back and Nezu began laughing like a maniac which was quite disturbing to hear.

Eventually things quietened down, as everybody was in position. Nezu didn't bother saying anything and just said, "Begin"

Immediately the screen was full of fire, explosions and walls breaking other than Kaina's feed which was very calm. All Might finished one already was moving to the second one.

I pressed a button to connect to Naomasa, "Target 1 neutralised"

"Confirmed. Sending the units in."

I continued to look at the screens without bothering to pay attention to the police moving in,

"Target 2, Target 5 neutralised." As expected, Endeavour was quick as well.

And thus, it went on, with the labs falling to the raids one after the other and no particularly strong counterattack from the villains in the lab.

I continued my work and eventually we were all done with no nasty surprises other than maybe some bruises but when we meet back Recovery Girl will fix them up easily.

I just leaned back in my chair and relaxed while feeling the satisfaction of a job well done, when my phone started vibrating and I saw it was Kaina. I answered it,

"Kaina, did something happen?" I asked puzzled by the sudden call.

"No, no nothing happened, Senpai. I was just getting bored waiting for the police to arrive, so I called to spend some time talking to you for fun."

I chuckled at that childish reason for a call and said, "Sure, I am free anyway. So, let's talk the night away."

It was the evening after the raid, all the members returned to Musutafu tired but triumphant and Recovery Girl ushered into UA for a check up while I headed to the Musutafu police station to help them in wading through the evidence and information gathered.

I was now sitting in the meeting room with Kaina waiting for the others to join in. Kaina seemed to be tired because she was leaning on me with her eyes closed while I was sorting through the documents. I was tempted to push her away because I was feeling annoyed about her leaning on me while I was working. But, decided to leave it alone when I thought about her fatigue.

I continued to work for 15 minutes when the door was opened with Nezu leading the motley group, Kaina jolted upright as soon as the door opened. I guess, she was little high strung after all.

I ignored her to see the heroes, all of them looked healthy only Yamato and Naomasa looked tired with dark circles under their eyes which was to be expected as they were working with me for most of the time.

Nezu sat down on the head of the table and waited for everybody else to settle down, before beginning, "Let me congratulate all of you. Yesterday's mission was a roaring success."

Everyone cheered at that, as they congratulated and patted each other's back. Nezu waited for them to settle down, "Now, the two detectives and Sleeper have been working ever since you returned to sort through all the evidence gathered and give some insight into All for One's goals."

I cleared my throat before speaking up as everyone looked at me, "Well, honestly speaking, this was a pain with the amount of encryption on the computers it toom forever for them to give me access to the information. But I am quite efficient in my work and was able to gather many pieces of information."

"First, I began we finally know the reason behind the experiments. The goal is to create an army of biological weapons. They are mashing together multiple quirks into a single container which is brain dead and can only respond to basic commands."

I could see the disgust in their eyes before Gran Torino, "That's a problem, he will practically own an army by the end of it."

Everybody had troubled looks on their faces, "That's not likely to happen because I have seen the data and they are not at all close to success. In fact, only one of their projects showed any signs of success before failing as well."

"Though, I know, they are planning on creating a weapon with teleport capabilities. We have to shut them down as fast as possible before they actually succeed in their mission."

Gang Orca spoke up at that point, "How are they finding so many people to experiment on?"

I shrugged, "Multiple sources, kidnapping of people with decent quirks, paying money for desperate volunteers but the largest source are the slums. Nobody gives a damn if people from the slums disappear, there is no law enforcement nor any records for anybody living there. As far as our great heroic society is concerned, the slums don't even exist and their inhabitants are basically invisible."

That statement caused a dreary statement to form over the room. So, I decided to move on,

"Anyway—" I said cheerfully "I did disc-"

Shishido banged the table with his fist and pointed his finger at me full of anger, "What kind of hero are you? Doesn't this affect you at all. You are talking about hundreds of people being taken away to be experimented on."

I looked at him puzzled for a moment unable to realise what was pissing him off so much and then I realised the people in this room, are almost all from decent families with everything mostly provided to them. None of them have actually lived or experienced the slums.

I just shrugged at him, "I don't know why you are so upset about this? I have been seeing people disappear in the slums since forever. It's nothing new, it happens all the time, why one of my buddies who I shared a bed with was even taken by All for One in front of my eyes. All this is not that important, people disappear in the slums that's a fact of life like the sun rising in the east. No need to get upset about something like that, if you want to fix it then best of luck to you Sisyphus."

Shishido looked he was about to maul me just then but Best Jeanist placed a hand on his shoulder and asked me with a careful tone, "You are from the slums."

I nodded and confirmed, "Yes, I am from there. Lived there for most of my life. That's why as I was saying, take my advice and forget about the slums, they are not going to be fixed any time soon. In fact, All for One is even be doing the government a favour by getting rid of so many vagrants, maybe we should give him a medal or something for keeping the streets clean."

I laughed at that but then I noticed no one else was laughing and looking at me with strange expressions instead. Kaina even grabbed my hand and pressed it for some reason.

I looked around, "Guess, my sense of humour really does suck." I coughed moving on, "I discovered something else, All for One is also shutting down various of his projects and asking his men to lay low. I predict, he is trying to weather the storm which we are causing. So, we will have to ensure we keep up the pressure till we find him."

"We also have information on various ways he is earning and spending money along with more locations to raid. None of them are labs, they are just parts of his other criminal enterprises. I propose, we start hitting them quickly before they move or go into hibernation as per All for One's orders."

"And finally, I have some pretty amazing information. A quirk is mentioned in the data, one which All for One can't steal."

Everybody became intensely interested in what I was saying not that they weren't interested before,

"It's been dubbed One for All. Its effect is not mentioned but I assume since it is the antonym of his quirk perhaps it allows one to share power with others instead of taking it, it can also boost the power of other quirks instead or it has the ability to passed on to others just like All for One can pass on his stolen quirks to other. Whatever it is, we need to find the wielder."

All Might looked distinctly uncomfortable right now and Gran Torino looked awkward as well, I wasn't the only one who noticed and Nezu spoke up, "Is there something you would like to share with us?"

All Might looked even more troubled after that and opened his mouth to say something before Gran Torino stopped him,

"We know who the wielder of One for All is, but there is a problem she is dead killed by All for One."

I raised my eyebrow, "That can't be true. All for One wouldn't be chasing after some ghost, he clearly believes the quirk is still out there. Unless, the quirk can-"

Gran Torino, "No, she is dead. Her name was Nana Shimura and she was my closest friend and All Might's mentor. Yes, All for One was unable to take her quirk and no, we do not know why."

"When she passed, she asked us to defeat him. So, we deceived him and made him think, the quirk could be passed on to others. Yagi here took the mantle of being bait as the possessor of Nana's quirk to sell the idea, he even named himself All Might. Just so, All for One would have no doubts about the veracity of our claims. It's all a lie though."

Gran Torino finished his spiel and All Might looked at him with shock, I guess they didn't plan on sharing this information with us.

Naomasa spoke up, "That's how"

Yamato asked him, "That's how what?"

"Remember, the plan to lure All for One to an advantageous field where we can use traps to weaken him. This was the bait; they were talking about."

Gran Torino nodded, "You are right, Detective. That was quite astute of you."

I looked at Nighteye who looked stoic and All Might still looked troubled and felt like I was missing something. I knew Naomasa had a truth detection quirk; I need to speak with him after this.

"Okay, this is useful but now these experiments make sense. He couldn't steal her quirk so he came up with an alternative using science and medicine to transfer quirks instead. He will try to capture you and take your quirk." I pointed at All Might and spoke.

"Which is not that bad because he won't even try to use his quirk to take yours as he thinks it's impossible. That will surely be useful to you if you ever lose to him in a fight."

I smiled at that, Gran Torino and All Might were more clever than I gave them credit for. This is was something useful for sure.

Nezu spoke up, "Is there anything else, Sleeper?"

I shook my head

"Then let's us break for dinner; we are all famished. Plans can wait for after food."

Everybody agreed and filed out while thinking something or the other,

I stopped Naomasa, "Did you detect any lies when Gran Torino was speaking?"

He looked at me, "Senpai, how can I dare to use my quirk willy nilly like that. I only use it on criminals and when we question somebody."

That brought me up short, Wait, this means he hasn't been using his quirk at any meetings at all.

I brought my hand and whacked him on the head, "You fool, that's your quirk and bloody useful one at that. Who gives a damn if you are using it or not, they can't detect its use in the first place."

He looked at me in shock, "But, but how ca-"

I hit him again, "Use your quirk whenever you are talking to anybody. It's a part of you, I don't care how people talk about using quirks responsibly and judiciously or how using your quirk to verify everything shows a lack of trust. That's just stupid, you will use your quirk at all times from now on, is that clear?"

He looked like he wanted to protest but I raised my hand again, "Is that clear?"

He nodded while making a bitter face and I couldn't help but curse about the damn foolishness of people.