Chapter 2: The Aftermath
Yagi Toshinari watched from shadows as the kid cried over his dead mother. He cursed Death Arms for not listening to the kid. He cursed the kid himself for jumping to his leg. He cursed AFO for the injury he suffered, but the most he cursed himself for not pushing the transformation and rescuing the women himself. He had trusted the heroes on the scene to handle it and save the women. He watched as the villain shout in absolute fury at the kid for taking his new body from him, just after killing for it. He watched as the villain was defeated as suggested by the kid. Backdraft used water to liquify the Slime, Kamui Woods scratched the eyes and block the view of the villain and Death Arms throw a huge block of concrete from the earlier fight and splattered the liquid further. The Heroes collected the liquid Villain in bottles and finally end the threat and the crowd clapped loudly in praise. It seems that the common public and the media had not understood that the women held by the Villain was dead. Yagi started slowly retreating, he had to get to his hero office. He was in Mustaffu only to visit Recovery Girl in UA and was outside when he heard about the Slime Villain through Hero Network and started the chain of events.
As the tears slowly dried up, Izuku heard applause from the crowd for the Heroes and absolute fury arose in him. 'His mother was dead because of their incompetence and the are praise for it'. Even though now was not the time for fury and Izuku didn't said anything. He just kept staring at his mother's face.
After collecting the villain, the heroes were approaching Izuku to process the victim situation. The Media, the police and the crowd was watching as Death Arms approached Izuku and the women. As soon as Death Arms reached Izuku he started shouting at Izuku for jumping to the scene, for using his quirk illegally, and for shouting at professional heroes in a tense situation. Izuku doesn't even turn and respond. "You are a little kid and quirk usage shall be forgiven and now move aside let me check her pulse and carry her to medical ambulance over there, she must have fainted due to inability to breath, move aside kid." Death arms finished and bent down to touch Inko's neck.
"Do not touch her dead body, you absolute failure of a professional hero. Your foul foolish hand is not worth of it. Touch her and you lose your hand." Izuku yelled in absolute fury and hatred. The sound was so loud that the entire street heard it becomes quiet. The crowd and media were surprised that the hostage was dead and even the heroes was surprised. Death Arms was frozen by the declaration and the hatred in the little kids' eyes.
The Media and crowd started murmuring of incompetence, death of a mother, how the villain was defeated as the kid said, how Death Arms shouted at the kid and how Death Arms caused the women's death.
Death Arms was absolutely livid. He was already having a bad day, with it being 3 fights already and suffering 2 burns from earlier. "How dare you? You foolish child, you are no Doctor or nurse to declare a person dead now move aside" Death Arms shouted.
"I am not a little child. I am almost 11 and I know to check pulse. She has none. I hope I am wrong and you are correct. The medical professional behind you can check on her. I only want YOU,not touching her." Izuku replied in a cold emotionless voice.
The Medical Professional approached and confirmed Inko Midoriya has been dead and by drowning. The sludge was in her mouth.
The Crowd again started blaming the heroes for the death and incompetence. The Head Police approached the scene to take the body and confirm the scene.
Death Arms was shocked and afraid. A death under his watch, more over easily avoidable death and to fuck things further the child of the women has said how to save her and I didn't follow it. He looked around and heard the media and crowd slowly turning against himself, if the media reported the incident as it is, then his hero career and extravagant life is over. He needs to change the story. He needs to change the crowds and media attention. He was a Hero and his words has value. If he said something it's the truth for the media. He needs to blame someone else, and who to blame other than the victim's 10-year-old child who used his quirk in front of everyone.
"You Kid, you are under arrest for illegal use of quirk and vigilante charges for interfering in active crime scene" Death Arms exclaimed. Death Arms expected cold shout of fury from the kid as a response like earlier, but only response was a cold apathy and disgust towards him. The Crowd and Media was surprised by the charge, but nothing else. So, looking at Izuku, Death Arms needs more so he continued "kid, also there may be accidental murder charges also, because your mother may have died from the shock of the attraction you used. We can't be sure without the post mortem results, so that charges will also be applied" the moment Death Arms finished, he knew he committed the biggest mistake of his life. A mistake that will shook, the society to the core and change Japan itself.
Even though the public and media started blaming the kid the crowd came to absolute silence in a minute. Hearing the failure blaming him for escaping punishment Izuku absolutely lost it. The void in his heart started expanding and having a pressure like a black hole.
There was a pressure in the air. Many people saw a green wave of pure hatred, fury and killing intent spreading throughout the entire street. Even though the green wave disappeared in a second that many people later assigned it to imagination, the pressure was still there.
Heartbeats started rising. Sweats started to fall down their spines
Fight or flight response was triggering and the only one was flight.
Death was in that street.
The cameras shooting Death Arms and the kid started trembling and world went on watching as a 10-year-old questioned their entire society.
Killing Intent so potent hit Yagi Toshinari as he reached the end of the street that he almost thought that AFO has been resurrected. For the number one hero the pressure was nothing. He has faced Symbol of Fear and won and so he quickly turned around to check who was responsible. The sight before him was astonishing. The killing intent of such fury was aimed at Death Arms by the 10-year-old. As Yagi reached near them, Izuku started talking.
"You absolute piece of shit stain, you scum actually has the courage to blame me for my mother's death caused by your sheer pride and pathetic incompetence. When the crowd and public came to understand you caused her death you want to mislead them and want to blame me so your ranking will not be affected. Don't you have a little kindness? I almost let you and your hero friends off from the murder of my mother as a mistake committed, but you don't care about my mother or me. You don't care about the people you are protecting. So, from now on I don't care about the heroes or hero culture." Izuku turned from Death Arms and looked at the crowd and camera. Every single person's heart flattered a second due to fear. The sheer will through which Izuku spoke to Death Arms was frightening.
"What does it say of our society when you all of the crowd and media started blaming the 10-year-old for the death of his own mother just because a villain under the guise of hero said to you to blame me to escape from his own failure. A society so deep in love with heroes that their words are like from God himself and you all trusted even when you all saw the truth yourself... Foolish and lead through a false reputation of heroes as good people. Today I paid a deep price to understand that heroes don't protect you. They are also human as you and me. Heroes protect their own life, pockets and morality. My Mother is dead because Kamui Woods doesn't want to become a killer, because backdraft was afraid for his life as if diluting the sludge may increase the villain's power or not or villain may spread through the water and kill him too, because Death Arms was afraid for his reputation and strength and wants to wait for hero with appropriate quirk. Until my mother's death, I want to become a hero like All Might to save people with a smile. It was written in my soul, the dream to become a hero for only to help others. Well, viewers, what they say is true. Never meet your heroes unless you want to suffer disappointment and heartbreak. I kept my dream even everyone except my mother told me that a quirk less person couldn't be a hero. I kept it until, All Might himself said I cannot be a hero without power when even he himself has suffered an injury from a fight 2 years ago. Even then I wouldn't give up my dream. I would have applied to UA at 14, I would have passed the entrance test and I would have become the first quirk less hero, not to prove All Might wrong, just to help others, but fate has other plans for me, it seems. So, here I am, only 45 minutes after hearing from All Might himself that the quirk less nobody couldn't be a hero or helpful to others, quirk less no more and helping the whole of Japan to understand the rot that has spread through the very soul of our society, where the teachers encourage the students to use their quirks on useless quirk less Deku's or on weak quirks or on mutant quirks, where the heroes blame the child of the murdered women for inconsequential use of quirks in national television and get away with it. Today I paid the price with my mother's life so that every single one of you can think yourself about the rot in our society and how backwards the laws and culture regarding quirks is. A child is abused for his quirk or for not having one, but the child can't use his quirk unless he is a hero and has a license. Why does it matter, for an average citizen, when you can't use the damn thing even legally in daily life. Think about the lies the society has fed you about the heroes. Today I paid the price for their folly. Tomorrow it maybe you or your loved ones." Izuku finished talking to crowd and the camera.
The sheer impact of the impromptu rant turned speech was humongous. The crowd, heroes, police stood still because of the sheer fear because of the killing intent, but the passion in which the speech was delivered even impacted them through the fear. For the people watching through media, the charisma was over the roof and the impact was life changing for many people.
Izuku calmed down forcefully and the killing intent was released, even though he doesn't know he had it in the first place. Izuku turned to the police and said "Officer, the person called Death Arms with a hero license has accused me of vigilante charges and murder charges. The vigilante charges are bogus since I just manifested the quirk because of the traumatic event and checking the quirk registry will prove my point. As for the murder charges, please release the post mortem report to the public so that the initial report made by the trained medical professional shall be confirmed and the false allegations made by the person holding hero license shall proven a lie and professional misconduct." The crowd, the media and even the police was surprised by the sudden adherence to rules and procedure, but that thought was a bit premature as the next word proved.
"Officer, furthermore, I wish to file a complaint against person's holding Hero License with the names Death Arms, Backdraft and Kamui woods for Wilful murder, abetting a known villain, Professional misconduct, Negligence, Professional License misuse, misuse of public image to incite public violence, emotional, psychological and physical abuse of a child of 10 years old. Additionally, I am also filing a complaint against the person holding professional hero license called All Might for, Professional misconduct, Criminal Negligence, Professional License Misuse and accidental murder." Izuku finished and the cameraman almost dropped the camera hearing the charge against All Might the number one hero. First time in the career of All Might there is a case against him for professional misconduct and murder.
The officer shook himself from the shock and asked "All Might? What has he got to do it?"
"Oh, Sorry officer, you don't hear earlier" Izuku said "I was the first victim of the villain. In an underbridge near my school the villain trapped me. Upon seeing the liquid form, I knew drowning was possible and I took a deep breath just before being trapped and allowed me to stay alive till
All Might arrived. He defeated the villain and collected him in a glass bottle and kept it in his back pocket. He didn't wait for help of my mother to arrive at the scene to take me to a hospital, whom he called there. My wellbeing was his responsibility, until actually the police arrived, whom my mother is not a member of. He left me there and flew of during which, I assume, the Glass bottle fell down, broke and my mother was captured. So, there you have it- Number one blunders and foolishness from the number one hero."
Hearing this Yagi Toshinari was horror stricken what his carelessness has led to. His foolishness has led to a 10-year questioning the hero system itself in national television and worst part was he or the crowd has no answers for the boy except acceptance to what he said.
As Izuku sat frozenly in the medical van, he thought to himself, 'what happened to my stutter? I never stuttered when I was talking in front of the crowd and their frozen reaction is also perplexing. Dhuh whatever... I really don't care' and Izuku got his answer. Now as he doesn't care or fear about being a hero or what other people think or do, he doesn't need to filter his fast thoughts and self-muttering. What does he have to fear, when he faced death itself in the rooftop and walked away with a smile because of his mother.