Disclaimer: My Hero Academia belongs to Kohei Horikoshi
Life in the city can be quite an ordeal, especially in the quirk-filled world people live in right now. Lotal City, as well as the neighboring cities surrounding it, is no different from this fact.
It's not exactly as popular as Musutafu, or Hosu, or even Deika City deep in the mountains, but Lotal has a rather unique charm to it. Namely being that it's one of the more culturally diverse in the country, as well as one of the more tolerant towards the quirkless population. Kind of like a safe haven for them, as well as for those who have Quirks that are deemed weaker or even considered villainous everywhere else.
The people don't take too kindly to anyone that has a prejudice against those with the above-mentioned statuses. Should anyone with that type of mindset ever even think of harassing people for any quirk discriminatory reason, they might get themselves a very harsh reality check courtesy of the populous as they get pounded to a pulp. That's before getting themselves a ticket to the local jail. And even there the other prisoners will do whatever they can to ensure that the guilty party with the quirkist attitude will be reminded of their little, shall we say, predicament.
You could say that quirkists are not exactly well liked in prisons nowadays. In fact, they happen to be despised in prisons just as much as child abusers and molesters. Any chance they get, prisoners would gang up on the quirkist inside with them and beat them to within an inch from death or in some cases just downright kill them. Reasons for this are based around the fact that most of the time criminals sent to prison have had to deal with quirk discrimination at some point in their life and had to resort to committing crimes just to survive.
There have even been recorded instances in which people with those discriminatory mindsets have been killed out in public. One was a member of a group called the Creature Rejection Clan, which targeted those with heteromorphic quirks. This particular member, Katashi Gōman, was one such person and was known to have been quite irritating and intolerable by his neighbors ever since he moved in. It didn't matter what they what doing, or what time of the day it was, or where they went, as he would always be either spouting whatever ridiculous doctrines he has, or just being a nuisance in whatever way he could. There were instances in which he attacked his heteromorph neighbors for even walking past his front lawn.
One day, a family was at Moriban Municipal Park along with friends. It was a day off for a majority of the people there, so they were going to spend it there. While the kids play in the playground, the adults would talk with each other in a variety of conversation topics. They also make sure that the kids are within sight, in case anything may happen to them.
At first, things are going rather well for the parkgoers. But then, almost out of nowhere, a white and red striped Sedan showed up and drove into the park grounds. The driver, Gōman it turns out, began hurtling towards the children, ramming and killing two boys. One of those boys was a woodpecker mutant, much like his parents, while the other one just simply had the ability to glow in the dark.
Before anyone could comprehend what had just happened, the CRC member resumed his vehicular slaughter and went after the rest of the park goers. The father of the glow in the dark kid barely evaded to the side of the Sedan, while his wife gets hit with the front bumper to the stomach. She was six weeks pregnant when the brunt force of the collision sent her flying into the side of a tree that destroyed her neck.
When the unhinged quirkist left the scene, seven people were injured and three were killed. It was a case of vehicular manslaughter backed up by quirk discrimination. This was guaranteed to get Gōman a lengthy prison sentence for what he's done.
But a prison sentence would be far too lenient for someone like him. Because three days later, at night, the survivors of his unprovoked rampage drove up to his house. They began by banging on his front door, yelling at him to open up. When he didn't, they resorted to using lit gasoline cans which they threw into the windows. Wasn't long before Gōman jumped out the front window, where the mob was waiting for him. The quirkist prick then had to endure getting punched and kicked mercilessly by the mob before having his feet chained to the back bumper of a car before getting dragged along the road while the car was going at 55 miles an hour.
By the time the driver was finished, the CRC member had left a trail of blood about a mile and a half wide. The back of his head was smashed in during the drag, parts of his skull torn out of it and scattered all over the road. His body was then cut up into pieces before they were scattered and buried all throughout the city.
While it may have been a seemingly senseless act of violence, the feeling of anger and grief behind it was only one of several similar attacks that began with a tragic event just 40 or so years prior. That was the death of Hideyoshi Kenja. Kenja was a member of the Japanese National Diet and was known to have been responsible for creating and proposing a series of laws regulating Quirk usage in public that are still in use to this day. During his time in the Diet, people remembered him as this kind, grandfatherly figure who is good with kids and is known to give good and useful advice to those that ask for it.
One of the reasons behind proposing the aforementioned Quirk usage regulation laws was based on the belief that there has to be limits to how a person can use their Quirks, or else a repeat of the events following their emergence would happen. If that were to happen, who knows how many innocent people were to get hurt or killed as a result. The use of logic and common sense in his speeches is what makes him well liked by other members of the Diet as well as by the public.
Although, there were some groups that did not take too kindly to what Kenja was saying. One of those groups was the Meta Liberation Army, who believed in a person's right to use their Quirk (or in their case, Meta-Ability) as much as they wanted and emphasizes liberation over regulation. They thought of the man as a threat to their ideals, and that he had to be dealt with right away.
What they came up with that served as part of the reason behind the group's defeat years later, was something that even the most staunchly loyal of followers thought was going too far.
The plan the leaders have come up with, was planning Kenja's death.
It was the day the usage regulation laws were to be put into place, and hundreds of Kenja's supporters have gathered in the streets leading to the National Diet Building in Chiyoda. One of these supporters is a personal student of his, Takeru Takamoto, who specializes in the medical sciences department. He, along with everyone else, have come to see the motorcade the Diet member is riding in go driving by.
Those that were there can recall seeing him look out from the inside of the motorcade waving at them, smiling a reassuring smile to them all. Almost as if telling them that whatever worries they might have will be washed away with the passage of those laws. But life has a way of derailing whatever hopes and dreams they've got, and what happened next was something that nobody would've ever wanted to see.
About halfway through the block leading to the National Diet building, the motorcade Kenja was riding in exploded. Nobody ever saw it coming or had any idea what just happened, only that it did.
Kenja's grandson, Hideaki, was visiting him along with his parents the day before the assassination. He was just about to witness his grandfather help pass the regulation laws when it happened. As the motorcade was set ablaze, the boy got out and headed over to it so that he could save his beloved grandfather. But by the time he used his telekinetic quirk to pry open the car door, it was already too late. What the boy saw, along with a few of Kenja's colleagues who tried to do the same thing, was the sight of his charred body sitting there in the burning seat of the wreckage.
The assassination of the well-loved diplomat only made the time it took for getting the leaders of the MLA arrested and sent to prison even shorter. The feelings of hatred and anger towards the leaders for what they have done have only gotten even worse upon seeing them smirk in what was most likely satisfaction for what they had done. As they were being escorted into the police cruisers to serve out their prison sentences, people started pelting them with rocks, rotten fruit and anything else that was available around them. One of the leaders ended up having a large bleeding wound on the side of his face from one of the blocks of bricks cutting into it.
If there's one thing that these two incidents have in common, is that bloodshed has been motivated by grief and loss of loved ones. That's what makes the people of Lotal, as well as those of its neighboring cities, quite so frightening. The more painful the loss, the bloodier the killing of those responsible.
But enough talk about the darker side of things inside the city's past. Let's take a small look at how they live day by day then, shall we?
"Okay, that'll be 280 yen please," a cashier says to a customer, who gives her the money. "Have a great day."
It's a typical day in Lotal, with nothing exciting going on aside from the occasional villain attack followed up by a murder at the hands of a certain serial killer. Everyday people are going about their everyday lives 24/7. The interaction above takes place in one of the small convenience stores in the Kantobaito shopping district, right across from the Telosiv Shopping Center. This is where people would go to get the things that they need in the city.
"Phew. Going good so far," the cashier says under her breath. "Hopefully nothing goes wrong by closing time. Wouldn't want that happening."
"Everything okay, Nika?" The one who called out to Nika is her co-worker, a man in his early 30s with a mutation Quirk that has him resembling an armadillo. His neck length onyx hair is tied in a reverse topknot. He appears to be carrying a box containing new stock for one of the empty shelves when he went over to talk to her.
"It's fine, Hiraku," Nika answers, trying her best to reassure him. "Just worried that something might happen by the time our shift ends."
"Worried that someone might rob us?" Hiraku then asks, a teasing smirk on his face.
"Besides that."
The two workers get back to what they're doing, with nothing particularly special happening all throughout.
As soon as they finish up with their work, Nika and Hiraku have their coffee break outside the store.
"Who would be crazy or stupid enough to just up and launch an attack on a school like U.A.?" the cashier asks, looking at the newspaper on the newspaper stand.
"U.A. High Attacked by Villains!" is what the front page of the local newspaper, Lotal News, says. The story then goes into everything that has happened up to when All Might came to rescue the students, before ending with the other teachers coming in to take care of the villains that broke in, all the while two key members of the group calling themselves the 'League of Villains' have managed to escape.
"I hope they catch the bastards," the armadillo heteromorph says, clearly annoyed and flabbergasted at what has happened. "Can you believe that they would just pull off a stunt like that?"
"I know right," Nika replies. "And who would want to go after a bunch of high school kids just to get to All Might? Especially when there were Pro Heroes like Eraserhead and Thirteen there protecting them? Not exactly a well thought out plan if you ask me. And once someone like that homicidal maniac VKX shows and make a bigger mess out of it, that's a recipe for disaster for whoever thought invading a school like U.A. was a good idea."
"My guess is that whoever the so-called mastermind behind was must be either crazy, gutsy, or even stupid," is what she gets from her co-worker. "My bets on a combination of all three."
"What about a certain fat man in charge of the parts needed for the security system at that school?" the cashier asks, playing a game of Sudoku on her phone. "What do you think he's feeling about this?"
"For all we know, the guy could be in there in his office, gazing at the paper, happy as a clam," Hiraku remarks. He points over to the security system store a few buildings to their left.
- Meanwhile, inside the aforementioned building-
"I'm doomed!" Keibi Meirei, a large man in his early 40s with shoulder length black hair, groans in despair. His large hands gripping the front page of the newspaper. "My one chance in getting a perfect streak of fifteen years without any problems with the security system for U.A. and it all goes down the drain the second villains somehow end up on school grounds! Oh, how could something like this have happened?!"
"Sir..." a voice calls to him from behind. Turning around, the man gasps to see Junichi Heisotsu, a worker in his late teens with puffy brown hair, with what looks to be a butcher's knife in his skull.
"I... I..." Heisotsu says, in an agonized tone, before grabbing the knife and showing it to be a fake. "I thought this would be a great prank for when Halloween rolls around. Teehee, I can't wait to see the look on everybody's faces when they see this."
Meirei, however, is not amused by this.
"Will you stop with the games?! I swear you are just like that whiny brat in a grown man's body leading that so called League of Villains." Just then, a thought comes to him the moment his eye is on the gag knife.
"Why do suppose those dastardly villains managed to get past the security system at the USJ facility?"
"Maybe because it has something to do with someone that they have jamming the signals for the alarms to go off," the worker answers.
"That's right. And I think it's either the one that teleported those criminals inside the building that may have a side effect that jams electrical signals or that they had someone with a quirk that does just that. We could try and propose for a quirk detection system that can alert anyone of when one is being used. This could be our ticket out of this mess," Meirei says.
If one were to describe the face that the man is wearing right now, it would be as if he were to have won the lottery. They would be either amused or disturbed at the sight of it, even more so when they see him dancing around like a moron. Heisotsu would look at his employer with a deadpan expression, having seen this before in the few years of his time working under him.
"Really Sir, this is just embarrassing," he mutters. "Do you seriously want somebody like the mayor to see you act like this? You know what kind of person she is."
Meirei stops dead in his tracks at the mention of the mayor, an expression of stunned silence upon his bloated face. Who could blame him for making a face like that? After all, the mayor of Lotal is not exactly a woman to tolerate any kind of stupidity whatsoever. Even the discriminatory kind.
Mayor Toshiko Aiangurippu is known for a lot of things, and being a no-nonsense woman who also takes the discrimination problem very seriously is one of them. Any attempt at quirk discrimination near her would lead to her launching a profanity-filled tirade against whoever would try to do so, with the person on the receiving end getting stunned silent from her rather colorful vocabulary. During her 32-year term there have been about a dozen attempts on her life, and a quarter of them were done by those who were quirkist toward her and some members of her staff. Every single one of them have all ended with the attackers ending up in the hospital after having their bones in their bodies broken due to them being affected by the mayor's quirk.
Mayor Aiangurippu's quirk, Bone Manipulation, allows her to manipulate the structure of the bones in the human body. She can either strengthen them to the point where they're as hard as iron or can weaken them so that they can easily shatter like glass. She can even use the bones in her own body as weapons, as well as regenerate them should they break in any way.
-Lotal City Hall-
Speaking of, the 62-year-old woman with short grey hair and ice blue eyes is having a chat with some of her cabinet members and advisors about the upcoming festival happening near the beginning of July. This particular festival, called the "Sparks of Freedom Festival", is to commemorate the sacrifices made by a group of heroes during the chaotic "Quirk Emergence" period and how they stopped a destructive villain from taking any more innocent lives. The group of six, dubbing themselves "The Specters", have managed to take down and defeat a top lieutenant of a certain quirk-stealing villain ruling from the shadows.
Since then, the people have set up the festival to serve as a reminder of what these six heroes have done to save their home.
"And I don't need to remind you all that we should avoid a repeat of what happened a decade ago," the mayor says to everyone in the room. "It was already bad enough that our plans had to be delayed because of that large fire in the warehouse district, which not only had all of the decorations and some of the supplies for the festivities that year, but also costed us millions of yen in damages. And we still haven't found out what could've caused it in the first place."
Her cabinet members and advisors can only nod their heads in agreement at that, none of them having a clear idea as to what was behind the fire either. Maybe it was due to a loose wire that caused a spark, or perhaps someone was having a smoke but forgot to put out their cigarette, but who knows.
"We are fully aware of that ma'am," one of her advisors said. "The investigation into that is still ongoing, but it won't hinder any of the upcoming festivities much. May I suggest having some of the fire department trucks be on standby when the next possible fire comes?"
The others put in their own ways of agreement to that suggestion, hoping for her response.
"Be sure to have them parked behind some of the larger venues so that any of the customers don't bump into them," Aiangurippu says. "And have the hoses put next to whichever fire hydrants are nearby while you're at it. We need to be ready and prepared for any more potential fires and stop them from causing any chaos during this year's festivities. Am I understood?"
"Yes ma'am," everyone responds simultaneously.
With that said and done, they all now delve into other matters of importance for the day. But before that could be done, however, the office phone rings. Without any show of hesitation on her part, the mayor picks it up and answers the call.
"Hello. Mayor's office, is there something I can help you with?" she says to whoever was calling her during an important meeting like this. She listens to whoever is on the other side of the call, who turns out to be a representative of the EbonHawk Delivery Service, a well-known delivery company operating throughout a major part of Japan.
"I'm calling to talk to you about your mail orders for your upcoming festival," the representative says in a professional tone. "I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time."
"Oh no, you haven't," the mayor replies. "I was talking about the festival with my advisors and was about to talk about other matters for the day when you called."
The representative then sighs in relief on his end before resuming his talk. "That's good to hear, ma'am."
"Thank you," the mayor replies. "And would you please make sure that the boxes the packages are in are kept as far away from anything flammable as possible? We don't want a repeat of what happened a decade ago."
"I understand," the representative replies. "I'll be sure to inform the delivery drivers when they get there. And no need to worry about the warehouse fire. I can assure you that we'll do what we can to avoid a repeat of that unpleasant mess. Thank you for time, ma'am."
With that said, the EbonHawk representative hangs up and the mayor puts the phone back on the receiver.
"Who was that?" a senior advisor then asks.
"Oh, just a representative from EbonHawk talking about some of my mail orders for the festival and what not," the mayor replies. "I told him to have them moved as far from any flammable material as possible. Now then, is there anything else we would like to talk about before that little interruption?"
-Lotal Police Department-
As he examines the case file relating to the recent triple-homicide, Detective Aikawa can't help but feel aggravated at a few things. The first being that the victims were all supposed to have taken part in the attack on the USJ at U.A. High before they were all killed. One piece of evidence backing this up was a small piece of paper with the name of one of the major players in the attack, along with an untraceable phone number. The second revolves around the main suspect behind their murders having found out where they even lived.
When he found out that VKX was the one responsible, the detective immediately had the other officers search the building top to bottom in the hopes of finding and apprehending the masked killer. But despite all efforts made in the search, it was all in vain as there wasn't a single trace of the suspect anywhere near the building.
The question of how the killer found out where his latest victims lived, or even how he managed to get inside without any witnesses, has been going through his mind in the days leading up to the attack at the Hero school.
The third and last thing that has aggravated the experienced detective would be how the killer managed to even sneak onto the school grounds without anyone even noticing until after he started his slaughter. But given how there was someone in the attack that may have a quirk blocking any and all electronic signals coming to and from the building, it is possible that he may have taken advantage of that to sneak inside.
"Hey Aikawa," one of the other officers said to him.
"Yeah," the detective answers. "What is it?"
"We think we may have a lead to where VKX might be hiding," the officer said.
This catches the detective's attention, since he clearly now has a lead that can end this decade-long case once and for all.
"Well, what is it? Where is that killer hiding?" Aikawa asks eagerly.
"We think he might be at the old car factory down at Shinkuhōru Blvd.," the officer says. "Eyewitnesses have been reported seeing someone matching the perp's description walking down the road leading to it. Hopefully, we can finally end this decade-long nightmare."
"I was just thinking the same thing," the detective responds. "Let's go."
With that said, the detective heads out to the scene along with several police officers. Hopefully they can find the masked killer before he takes any more lives. But alas, life has this unfortunate tendency of throwing a metaphorical curveball every now and then.
- Shinkuhōru Blvd., Abandoned car factory-
Instead of finding VKX, what Aikawa and the officers that were with him found was the aftermath of another set of his "handiwork". From the look of the blood and guts strewn all over the walls and floor, it was most likely done recently. Most likely somewhere between forty-five minutes to about an hour at most.
"How many of them did he get this time?" the detective asks one of the coroners.
"From the looks of the number of heads and torsos we managed to find, about five," the coroner answered. "They all have a terrified expression on their faces when they were killed, so it must've been looked like they were being attacked by a monster of some kind."
'Can't blame them for it,' the detective thinks, feeling sympathy for the criminals that have lost their lives not too long ago. They may be criminals, but they're also human beings for crying out loud. They were supposed to be in prison, not cut down into a million pieces and treated like pigs heading to the slaughterhouse.
From what he could see, there was a long table with a white sheet covering the top of it. Most of the sheet was covered in blood, clearly due to the attack on the group. What's on the table are what appears to be an array of equipment used for chemistry purposes or something related to illegal drugs. Most of the tubes were smashed into pieces, and the Bunsen burners were destroyed somehow.
But if it's the latter case, what kind of drugs were being made here when these victims were attacked? What could have possibly been made in this building that would lead to such an extreme reaction from the killer?
"Hey detective," one of the officers calls out. "I found this."
What the officer is holding is a small bottle containing what looks to be a red liquid.
"Trigger. The victims were making Trigger," Aikawa realizes the moment he sees the contents of the bottle.
This catches everyone at the scene by surprise.
"Seriously? I thought production of this stuff stopped after what happened in Naruhata," another one of the officers says in disbelief. "They actually still make this?"
"It looks like they still do," Aikawa answers, a sullen tone in his voice. "But why would they have a base to make it in Lotal of all places? That just doesn't make sense."
Wanting to know more, he and the officers at the scene continue their investigation. They were able to get a clear idea of the situation going on. From what they can see, the victims were in the middle of producing Trigger when at some point the killer showed up and cut them all down. Some of them were armed with knives and even a small handgun for one. But none of them have ever been used because the attack had happened so suddenly.
"Hey Aikawa, you might want to see this," another officer called out to the detective. He walks over to where the officer is, seeing him point at what looked to be a flag of some kind.
On the center of the blood drenched flag was a symbol of a certain yakuza group that every one of the officers at the scene are all too familiar with.
"Oh my god," Aikawa mutters. "These people were with the Shie Hassaikai. But it doesn't make sense, why would they want to come to a place like this and set up shop when there's a deranged maniac like VKX running around?"
None of the other officers have any idea either. As far as they all know, yakuza have been known to avoid places like Lotal due to how highly dedicated the people and police are in bringing criminals to justice. Especially with the one remaining Pro Hero that was born and raised here having been known to take part in raids on the bases they operate in. And the yakuza members that were being arrested during and after the raids were the lucky ones.
The ones that weren't caught, have ended up either getting away or got caught by the Villain Killer and brutally murdered. It may be a bit sad, but it's true.
"Let's find out who each of these poor schmucks were before putting them on the list," the detective orders.
"Yes sir," all the officers respond affirmatively. They immediately get to work right away.
"This is so not my day," Aikawa sighs.
The stories being delved into here are only a small fraction of how life in Lotal City is like. Each and every one of them show how people in the world we live in try to deal with what is currently happening right now. What's next to come, without a shred of a doubt, would rock the entire country down to its very foundations. Either for better, or for worse. It all depends on the outcome.
END OF VOLUME ONE
A/N: Ok. I finally managed to finish the first volume of my MHA story. I have had to deal with writer's block during this whole thing, but it was all well worth in the end. Hopefully by the time the second volume is being done, I won't have to deal with any more delays (aside from having to help with house work with my family come this winter).
Anyways, I hope you all have enjoyed this story so far. I promise that I will try my best to stick to the MHA canon as much as possible. Of course, given that this is an AU I made, there may be some differences I have made.
Hope you all have a Happy Halloween.
