It's time for Chapter 3 and a bit more of Project Velocity is revealed. We get to meet the man that started it all and is the reason Kaina and Inko were trained to be pro heroes. We see what he's been up to over the last year and what he's had to do to keep Project Velocity alive. Will he see Izuku as a another Lady Nagant or will he see Izuku as opportunity to become something new.
As always I do not own any rights to MY HERO ACADEMIA or any of their character.
With that let's go off with a bang.
Depending on what point you looked at Fumiko Mareo's career, you could easily call it a complete success or an utter failure. When he first joined the Hero Public Safety Public Commission right out of high school he was looking for a job to help through college. It was a low-end job, simple 9 to 5 that let Mareo live a bit in luxury. But he didn't feel like he was making a difference and that was part of the reason why he wanted to further his education. At first, he kept his head down at his job and did what he needed to do, but as he got further and further in college and worked more and more under the Commission he began to notice a gap in the skills of the average pro heroes and the skills that were needed to take down the average villain. Any villain that presented an actual threat to Japan's natural security, only the top 12 or so pro heroes were deemed capable of handling it. Even that was year to year based on which pro heroes were popular at the time.
Seeing this problem and wanting to get ahead of Mareo he began constructing a program, whose purpose was to find young talented kids with powerful quirks and accelerate their training to become pro heroes so by the time they entered high school they were on the level of rookie pro heroes. Then throughout their career, these heroes would be able to handle any kind of situation they came across.
Yet creating Project Velocity on paper and getting it to the hands of the HPSC President was another story. When Mareo first created the program, he was still a 9-5 employee and didn't have much sway in anything, so he had little hope of getting the program greenlit. But as Mareo worked through college and earned his Master's in Criminal behavior, he used his knowledge and charisma to help his co-worker. With all his promotions, and his position keeping him and his wife in Mustafa, Mareo began to lose help hope in his program. So in one last attempt, Mareo decided to try and send a 1,000-page memo to the President of the HPSC. Yet he didn't expect any response so he shelved Project Velocity for years, saving the only other digital copy to a flash drive on his keychain.
And that's where Project Velocity stayed until he received words The HPSC President walked to talk to him. Mareo was flown into Tokyo and given thirty minutes to give a presentation about Project Velocity. Those thirty minutes were the most stressful for Mareo, but after giving his closing remarks, Mareo was surprised the HPSC President began to tap his pen against his desk.
More so when The HPSC President put down his pen and then rolled it away. Mareo was ready to speak when the HPSC President stood up and walked away from his desk. He walked up to the floor-to-ceiling window behind his desk and looked over the city, "Tell Mareo, how long have you been working for the Commission."
"Sir?" Mareo asked.
"It's a simple question, you were able to write a 1,000 page memo abbreviating your program. You could have written it longer, but you knew the longer the memo the less someone was going to read it. So I think you should be able to answer my question. How long have you been working for the Commission?" The HPSC President asked again.
"Since I graduated highschool, Sir. I'm coming up on the 11 year mark." Mareo said as his eyes jumped down the unsigned document that the HPSC President had left behind.
"Even early on you noticed discrepancies on what makes someone a pro hero." The HPSC said, as he put a hand on the window and leaned on it as he looked over Tokyo. The most preposterous city in Japan and one of the most attacked by villains.
"Sir?" Mareo asked.
"I've been in my position for nearly 40 years, and I've never met someone that saw the same problem as I do. In your memo you're brought up that for most pro heroes it takes time for them to stop a villain, whether it's a hostage situation or a burglary."
"Yes sir, it took a bit of factoring since every situation is unique in itself." Mareo said he shifted his weight awkwardly.
"Do you still hold to the belief you wrote for Project Velocity?' The HPSC President suddenly questioned, catching Mareo off guard.
"I might have been a little strong in my wording but yes," Mareo said as he began to tap his right hand against his leg. Had he been closed in because the HPSC president thought that he was an anti-hero?
"On Page 379, you brought up the average cost for property damage, victim comp, and taxpayer dollars used to fix a situation after a pro hero messes up. You were a bit off in your calculation, but you were using information that wasn't the whole truth, but you were right with what you had.' The HPSC President said, causing Mareo to be taken back the President of the HPSC had read his memo, "You see you were using the tuition fees that were from more public hero high schools, but private high schools such as UA or Shiketsu their yearly tuition fee can be upwards to 10,000,000 yen. Remind me what you come up with is the average property damage paid yearly for most pro heroes."
"Um, it was 2.5 million yen at the high end, Sir." Mareo said.
The HPSC President tapped his knuckles against the window and said, "Meaning within just 4 years a pro hero can cause enough property damage that the cost would have covered sending them to UA for one." The HPSC President tapped his knuckles against the window once more then turned to face Mareo, "I'll be frank with you Mareo. The quality of heroes has fallen over the years, in the beginning, it was people fighting for quirks rights, to protect their families and nation. Nowadays most become heroes for fame and fortune, and it shows. Every year the Commission is having to pay more and more for property damage. And 7 out of 10 times property damage is caused by pro heroes, and the 3 it's because the villain was able to run away. Just yesterday one of those instant villains was able to run around because the heroes weren't up to the task.
"They didn't have the skill. You see the new generation of pro heroes, they don't think they want to be better, faster, stronger, more popular. They only care about their next paycheck, so when they're faced with a challenge that's beyond their level, they think they can still win, but then they make mistakes. And who has to pay for it."
"Certainly not the pro heroes, they've only painted in a good light because they 'stopped' the villain. Definitely not the hero school, the ones that failed in training and preparing new hero students for the jobs. No it's the Commission, because it was formed to oversee pro heroes. We have to pay for their failure, for their unpreparedness. Until the point I'm forced to play my hand and demand new training for new heroes, all so they're better prepared, yet I'm told to back off. That's not my position or my job to oversee that part of the heroes."
"Sir." Mareo said as the HPSC President was staring at him so hard his very soul was starting to shake.
The HPSC President took a breath and said, "I'm tired of being handed faulty heroes, having to pay for everyone's mistakes. And when I try to fix the problem, I'm barred. I'm done with political and democratic processes. I'm ready to have the issue fixed and willing to use underhanded means to do so. So we're going to attack the newer generations where they're vulnerable."
"I'm not following sir.." Mareo said
"Competition, new pro heroes all want to be the most popular, it makes their paycheck bigger. And when quality drops at the top it does so at bottom even more. So Mareo I want you to train the best damn hero this world has ever seen. They'll be the most skilled, and when they become more popular, others will have to be better. They'll realize they have to train to be the best, not the most flashy or most charismatic, but the strongest and most skilled. They'll be able to handle any kind of villain that decides to stir up trouble."
"Sir, Project Velocity is greenlit." Mareo said to make sure of what he was hearing.
"Yes, I signed off before you arrived. But understand Mareo, UA and other schools can't learn what your program is or they will retaliate. They'll claim we're undermining the system, just because we're doing their job better than them. Project Velocity won't be off the books, but it will be so deep underground that no one you don't tell will ever learn about it. And this plan of ours will take time, but I'll be keeping an eye on everything. Both of our careers could be put on the line with this, so I expect some kind of result by the end of the year. Am I understood?
"Yes sir." Mareo was ecstatic, his life dream was coming true and he had the chance to train a pro hero. A hero that would show the world what the number 1 hero looked like. Once the meeting was over, Mareo was given access to an old Commission building that was used mainly for storage. He would have preferred the state-of-the-art faculty, but as the program was a secret Mareo was happy for any help. Mareo spent the weekend looking over the building and it did have potential. So after calling in a few favors and working late at night the building was slowly emptied and cleaned.
Once that was all done Mareo had to find things to fill the place. The first and most obvious items were the training machine and turning a floor into a studio to train martial arts. One floor was dedicated to the filing and administration work. Then the building was sectioned off for more specialized training, such as different environments that pro heroes would come across or rooms to train specific types of quirks.
Then came getting workers for the program. Mareo was able to hire some of his co-workers who had climbed the job ladder as well while hiring some fresh minds to the Commission. And while the HPSC President stayed out of the program for the most part, remaining a silent observer, he didn't impress some few employees that Mareo was more than happy to accept as a show of good faith. Then came the trainers, those ranks were mainly filled with older HPSC employees who had once been heroes themselves or had trained in some form of martial arts their entire lives.
Then the final brick to be laid was finding someone who had potential. A kid who had a powerful quirk, and a baseline of skills to work on but more than anything else a kid had a deeply rooted want to become a pro hero. And while Mareo wasn't about to find a kid, he came across a pair of sisters that were closely knit together and could grow to become a pro hero duo.
The older one could form a powerful rifle out of her elbow and the younger sister had a weak form of telekinesis. When their files came across Mareo's desk, at first he thought he had been given them accidentally. Though out of curiosity he looked them over and became interested in the older sister. She could become one of the deadliest sharpshooters in the world, able to take out a villain from far away. But then there is the younger sister, her quirk only allowing her to attract small objects to her, maybe useful to a rescue hero if the object were heavier. Mareo kept the file in thought for a week, and once he found time he met with the older sister.
The older sister was excited, to say the least, she wanted to protect the little guy in her own words. But when Mareo explains that her younger sister would be barred, the older sister threatens to close the door. At the Moment Mareo didn't think he should, but as Project Velocity needed to show results soon, he allowed the younger sister to join in the training.
It didn't take long for Mareo to become grateful he took the deal. Within months of training the pairs of sisters were progressing faster than expected. And while it was a bit lost on him why, his wife happily provided scientific reasoning behind it. She explained they were sisters, that much was obviously what wasn't so clear was what that meant. Mareo's wife explained that they were close to each other in every aspect, and wanted to see each other become the best version of themselves. That's why they trained so heavily because they wanted each to be the best they could be.
And all this pushing made the sisters better every day, until, by the time the young sister was a senior in high school and the older sister only had three years as a pro hero under her belt, they were on the level of many top pro heroes. One perfected long-range encounters while the other became the nation's top closed-quarters fighter, and together there was no challenger, no opponent they couldn't fight against and win.
Yet not everything can last forever.
Though the younger sister happily trained alongside her sister, Mareo noticed she didn't have the same drive to become a pro hero as her older sister. So after graduating high school, the young sister met a charming man and it didn't take long before they were announcing they were getting married and she would be leaving the life of a hero. Mareo would admit the wedding was beautiful, and he was happy for the young sister, but the HPSC wasn't too happy about losing a valuable asset. Luckily for Mareo, the older sister stepped up in her career and became a well-known hero. Her success in the billboard and media proved Project Velocity was a success, the media was covering everything they could about her.
Then the older just had to go and ruin everything, by killing the head of the HPSC. When Mareo received the call that Lady Nagant had killed the president of the HPSC, he knew he had to protect his program at any cost. He worked tirelessly the following week, getting everything ready. Ready for anything that could be thrown at him, then when the time came he stood in front of the board of the HPSC. The worth of Project Velocity was brought into question and whether the success achieved was worth the end results.
Mareo fought hard to keep the program alive and under his command. It was a long seven months, and in the end, Project Velocity was kept alive, but Mareo had to hand control over to a council that was formed to oversee the program. While many wanted to see Mareo barred from the Commission, a deal was made that Mareo would be kept on the program as an acting supervisor if and only if he was able to find a suitable replacement for Lady Nagant by the year's end. Luckily fate was in Mareo's favor and only six months later he was about to find a kid that was about to save over 50 people.
With his career riding on the line, Mareo began to immediately train the kid and his quirk. Everything about the kid's progress was documented and when the evaluations came the kid was on track to become the perfect replacement for Lady Nagant. Takami had even less skill coming into the program, but he was making more than enough headway to keep Project Velocity alive. Yet Mareo knew how easily success could become undermined, so he made sure to keep Takami on pace.
At Takami's year test, he blew all of his records out of the water. So much so that after Mareo thanked his superiors he told a member of his team to buy Takami a gift to keep him in high spirits. Mareo then drove home to celebrate his newfound success alone, as his wife was at a conference in Tokyo. As soon as he got home ordered his favorite take-out and as he waited for the food to arrive he searched his drink rack and found a bottle of Karuizawa Samurai 1-10.
Returning to his dining room just as the food arrived Mareo was about to sit down and enjoy the success of his life's work. Or he planned to if it was not for his phone ringing. Groaning, he stood up from the table and walked up to his couch from his suit jacket. Maybe it was his wife calling and Mareo would be more than happy to talk to her after the long day he had. Yet after fishing his phone out Mareo saw that it was an unknown number.
"Damn it, Henkito, this better not be you. That's your seventh phone in the past four months." Mareo said because who else would have his phone but their contact not be saved. He walked back to the table, and then answered the phone, "What is it, Henkito?'
"Good to hear that you haven't fired Henkito yet." a voice came through. A voice that was the start of his downfall. A voice that he honestly didn't think he would hear ever again nor did he want to.
"Hold on, if I'm going to talk with you then I'm going to need a drink first." Mareo said as he put the phone on the table and he popped the cork on his drink. After pouring a small bit of alcohol and drinking it Mareo looked back at the phone, "Alright who is this?"
"I thought that's what the drink was for, Mareo sir." Inko said, her voice taking a light-hearted tone. She probably didn't like making this phone call any more than Mareo liked getting it, they had gone on their separate paths a long time ago.
"Inko Midoriya, as I live and breathe. What could possibly possess you to call me after what you and your sister did to Project Velocity." Mareo said as he poured himself another glass.
It was a few moments before Inko spoke again. When she did it was soft and controlled, "Sir I did not call you to air out any grievance, but I know my sister and I didn't always show our appreciation for what you did for us. Me leaving the program at such a crucial time was wrong to do and what my sister did by killing those other heroes. Everything you did for us, getting us out of that situation, training us to be heroes, I'm sorry everything ended the way it did."
Mareo shook his head as he had to remember the lie the HPSC had created for the media. Mareo and his team had worked hard and fast to cover that mess up, yet from the way Inko spoke she knew that wasn't the truth. Mareo found that strange but if she knew the truth then why would be calling, she would never trust the HPSC again if she knew the truth.
"Well thank you for that. So what do I owe the pleasure of your call?" Mareo asked, his curiosity piqued by this. He needed to know if Inko knew the truth behind that day. If she knew, then no matter how well Takami did on his test, if Inko released that information Mareo could end up in Tartarus alongside Kaina.
"Sir the day my sister got arrested she called me." Mareo began to panic as there had been no information of Lady Nagant making a call as the HPSC chased her down. Perhaps Inko knew the truth, "I was the last one she talked to before she was captured. Sir, the way she spoke, it sounded like she was being framed for killing those pro heroes. In her final words to me she told me that we trusted the wrong person and now I believe that same person might try to hunt me and my family down."
"I thought we had trained you to protect yourself in this situation and your husband is in America right now," Mareo said, still trying to figure out if Inko knew the truth. It was clear she didn't believe the story told to the media, but she didn't know the actual story. Kaina hadn't revealed any of that information, so perhaps Project Velocity wasn't in danger and Mareo could salvage Inko's potential.
Mareo heard Inko take a deep breath and then say "Sir, Kaina had a son." Mareo almost choked on his own tongue. Kaina had a child, yet she was never married and how did she hide it from the media, let alone Maro and his team, "She did her best to hide it from everyone, including the HPSC. In the end, knowing her job won't allow her to be a proper mom, she gave her son to Hisashi and me to raise. He gained his quirk today and honestly, I don't know how to train him. To teach him how to use my sister's quirk without bringing up our past, I can't do that. I need help and you and Project Velocity are the only people I know that can do so."
Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was wanting to make up for past mistakes, to prove that the first trainees of Project Velocity were not such a big failure as the HPSC council thought they were. Mareo absorbed all this new information, Inko didn't know the truth and because of that she still trusted Project Velocity. Kaina had a son who had the same quirk as her, meaning it would just be if not more powerful. If Mareo could train this kid to be a hero then along with Takami, the HPSC would have two well-trained heroes on their payroll.
"Well Mrs. Midoriya it sounds like your family has many secrets it's kept, but your position sounds troublesome. And though there has been rough terrain between us in the past, what kind of servant would I be to this nation if I turned you and your son away." Mareo said, pouring a third drink. He grabbed it as he stood up from the table and began to pace the room.
"Thank you Mareo Sir." Inko said.
"I'll inform the HPSC council of our conversation and inform you when a time has been set apart for you and …" Mareo said as he swirled the alcohol in the glass.
"Izuku Midoriya." Inko said.
"Izuku to come into the faculty. Oh and Mrs. Midoriya, will there be any baggage this time?" Mareo said as he remembered Kaina's demean that despite Inko's quirk not becoming powerful, Kaina would only train in Project Velocity if her sister could join her. It had turned out to be fruitful, but it was still a risk and a gamble nevertheless and Mareo didn't think his luck would stay positive much longer.
"To keep Izuku from learning of his past, he has not been informed of Kaina being his mother. He has always been registered as a Midoriya and I would like to keep it that way. That is all I ask for." Inko pleaded. She had promised Kaina that her son would never learn the truth and Izuku at the moment was a fragile kid. If he learned their family's dark secret there was no telling how it would destroy him.
"I understand. Your sister might have been framed for her misdoing, but to save your son from the public eye I will grant that request. No one will be informed of your son's actual parents." Mareo said as he raised his drink as if giving a toast. Takemi had kept the program alive, but it was going to be Izuku who showed the nation of Japan the success of Project Velocity.
"Good night Mareo and thank you." Inko said.
"Good Night Mrs Midoriya." Mareo said then ended the call as he downed the rest of his drink. The day was glorious but it was at night when true victory was achieved. Mareo knew he couldn't let his opportunity waste away so he needed to work fast. Switching over to contacts, Mareo pulled up Henkito's number and called it.
After the third ring, the call connected and Henkito opened with, "Good evening Sir, what do you need?"
"Henkito, how would you feel about working some overtime?" Mareo asked as he focused on getting everything ready. The timing of this was critical, he needed everything ready for when he stood in front of the HPSC council. They would find out about his team training Izuku and if they feared the past repeating, then Mareo would most certainly be kicked from the program. And then control would go to someone else, something Mareo couldn't let happen. The program was his dream, his idea, he wouldn't let someone else have the glory of it.
"On what Sir?" Henkito asked.
"Making Project Velocity what it was alway meant to be." Mareo said with the plan of no longer allowing his career to be a laughing stock.
And that's chapter 3. Inko reconnects with Mareo and asks for help training her son, out of fear that someone is hunting her family. Mareo greedily accepted, but know there is still much work to get done if everything is to go smoothly. Rewrite: I add a bit more to the birth of Project Velocity, as I know how I what the program to be viewed as by who. The big chapter of origins will not be for a while, haven't even written it yet as this rewrite, but it's going to be a big chapter.
Next chapter Izuku is brought in and evaluated if he's fit for the project, then Mareo has to convince the HPSC council that over see Project Velocity that training Izuku will not end in a repeat of history.
Next time: Past Promises Made Again.
Review and tell me what you think.
