Chapter Text
Nezu sat in his office, basking in his victory. He wasn’t one to do such trivial things often, but in this case, it was warranted.
Given how his staff was currently partying in the staff room, he wasn’t alone in this feeling.
The reason for the merriment of UA’s heroes was that they had finally stuck one to the quirkist, elitist Hero Public Safety Commission. A recent uptick in vigilantes in recent years had put the HPSC on the backfoot and with much less power as approval shifted away from its sponsored heroes and towards these illegal practitioners, several of whom had villainous quirks or weak quirks. The opinion of these heroes only continued to grow after the HPSC’s attempts to crush the surge failed time and time again and the vigilantes continued to do good.
Even trying to highlight the failures of these vigilantes didn’t work. Either the failure mentioned was an incident blown out of proportion (or even twisted around completely) due to lack of context or the vigilante made a visible effort to make sure it never happened again. In fact, so few vigilantes retired due to these incidents that it seemed that for every one that retired, two more leapt onto the streets. It was enough to drive Eraserhead crazy, because his patrols had turned into him making sure the new guys didn’t get themselves killed by doing something stupid or trying to hit above their weight class.
Finally, after a large series of weakening and humiliation, the HPSC had caved to the thing they had been dreading: the Phoenix Initiative. It had been drafted by Nezu and several other like-minded hero educators during the early days of the spike, but the HPSC had rejected it out of hand due to it running counter to many of their policies. However, after three years of spiking and no signs of the Vigilante Surge slowing down, the Commission finally realized that desperate measures were needed if they wanted to keep any measure of control over Japan’s hero scene. The Initiative basically introduced a counterpart to Ketsubutsu’s Villain Rehabilitation program as a staple of all hero schools: the Vigilante Rehabilitation program. If a vigilante met the standards of a hero school (it varied from school to school), they would be inducted as an add-on to the hero course and receive professional training and eventually a pro license. The basic model required the applicant to have one year of successful vigilante work, no major crimes or collateral damage on their record, and at least 30 solved cases to their name. Also, in order to prevent the rise of more vigilantes, the Initiative required all hero course entrance exams to be more fair towards those without strong or flashy quirks (something that pleased Eraserhead greatly and pissed off the Commission something fierce), in order to encourage people of that quirk status to turn to heroics instead of vigilantism.
However, an exception existed. If somebody, vigilante or civilian, was able to take down a villain of a sufficient rank, without causing major collateral damage, they would be automatically accepted into the school’s program. Several of the smaller, minor schools simply required the capture of an A-Rank villain or higher. The bigger schools like UA, however, required the best students out there, and the vigilantes it accepted were not exceptions to this rule. As such, guaranteed admission at such institutions was given to those who were able to take down an S-Rank villain or higher without major collateral damage. Candidates with anything less would have to get in the normal way.
None of it was something the Commission wanted. If given its way, the vigilantes would be exterminated and those with villainous or weak quirks would either fade into the background or provide villain fodder for their sponsored heroes. In fact, they tried to do so at the beginning. However, the success in this endeavor was minor. The best they were able to do was catch a couple of recent faces when they first popped up and kill several fan favorites, which had the opposite effect of what they wanted, making the dead vigilantes into martyrs and driving public opinion against the HPSC. In fact, with the heroes focusing on the vigilantes and the vigilantes being busy trying to avoid the heroes, villain activity went up due to the lack of oversight. Eventually, the Commission was forced to abandon its manhunts in favor of getting the villain activity back under control. This uptick in villainous happenings was also one of the factors that got them to agree to the Phoenix Initiative.
Nezu couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome if he had planned it. (In a way, he had. He had known from the moment he proposed the plan that, whether or not it was passed then, that it would eventually become public policy. Either the Commission would accept it then, or their own destructive campaign would create a situation where they had no choice but to accept it. And, as usual, he was right.)
So, after finally having a victory in the passive aggressive cold war that UA and the HPSC had been having ever since Nezu took over the school, the staff was inclined to celebrate. Especially considering another facet of the upcoming school year.
Nezu’s sensors chimed as someone passed them by. Nezu looked at his cameras and smiled. Speak of the devil.
He pushed the button to open the door just as his visitor was about to knock, one of the many indulgences he allowed himself to satisfy his… less than pleasant urges. “Ah, All Might!” he chirped with his ever-present smile. “I assume you being here means you’ve already filled out the paperwork?”
The Number 1 Hero, Toshinori Yagi (AKA All Might), nodded with a smile and an affirmative “Yes, sir!”. He was in his depowered state, an occurrence that had unfortunately become more and more common as time had gone on. After his near-fatal duel with All for One five years ago, the man had been growing weaker and weaker as he pushed his body and quirk past their limits again and again. It has taken a lot of convincing on Nezu and Gran Torino’s, All Might’s mentor, part to get him to slow down and train a successor. While the recommendation of Sir Nighteye, Mirio Togata, showed promise, they had realized that Nighteye had basically picked an All Might clone for the next Symbol, which Toshinori didn’t want. He found it creepy, but Nezu simply found it, to quote Aizawa, irrational. Copying All Might exactly would transfer all the same successes and mistakes the man himself had made. That would basically mean a repeat of history, which meant no forward progress or change, and where was the fun or sense in that?
So, while it was disappointing, it was decided that Mirio was off the table. However, All Might did decide to come and teach at UA, not just to instill his legacy in the minds of the next generation of heroes, but also find a potential successor in the first years and train that person. (Nighteye thought this was a horrible idea, but no one was really listening to him at that point.) However, now that he realized his own methods of heroism weren’t the only things he wanted to impart, the other thing being knowledge on how to avoid his failings, Toshinori had decided to enroll the help of the Heroics homeroom teachers, Shouta Aizawa (AKA Eraserhead) and Sekijirou Kan (AKA Vlad King), in his search for a successor. With that, he had informed the two about the history of his quirk and how it could be transferred to another person and grow stronger. Although Aizawa had initially questioned giving such a powerful quirk to a first-year, he had come around eventually. Now, all that was left was for the entrance exams to begin and pick out candidates for the new Rehabilitation program.
“Please, sit,” Nezu invited. “I was just about to go over the applicants for the new Vigilante Rehab program. Would you care to join me?”
The withered man sat down. “Why not?” he said. “Being involved in this process should give me more to work with when I teach them. Besides, the better I make these proper vigilantes into proper heroes , the easier it’ll be to get rid of the showboats and naive kids that are clogging up the streets.”
Nezu nodded at that logic. While it was true that around half of the vigilantes on the streets were veterans of a sort, the other half consisted of either snot-nosed rookies looking for fun or fame, rebellious rich kids with too much time and resources on their hands, children with a romanticized and rose-tinted view of heroics, or showboats who were only still active because vigilantism got them attention and somehow they hadn’t been caught yet. Those groups were the ones that died first on the streets, and the vigilante death toll, both in collateral casualties and actual deaths of the illegal heroes, was a fact the HPSC was all too happy to advertise. Nezu considered it his educational, physical, and moral job to make sure he prevented as many of those deaths as possible. This was the first step.
The principal pulled up the first sheet. “First off, we have the guest instructors, either from parole/surrender deals offered to them by the authorities or early graduates from Ketsubutsu’s Villain Rehabilitation Program. Top marks across the field, extensive combat and/or stealth experience, and no capital crimes to speak of, considering many so-called ‘victims’ ended up being criminals themselves. Only reason they aren’t part of the new Phoenix program itself is because they’re too old.”
All Might nodded as he reviewed the files. “Yes, I heard about these cases. A group of extreme vigilantes at best and a band of minor villains at worst, though everyone agrees they’re eccentric. They called themselves the Oddballs, correct?”
Nezu chuckled. “Indeed. They are a very interesting and spirited bunch, I must say. I feel as though they’ll mesh well with the incoming freshmen, and they’ll definitely get along with the vigilante applicants.”
The blonde gave a ‘hm’ of affirmation. “Then, on that note, you’ll hear no argument from me. I say invite them and see how well they do. If anything, I’m looking forward to the new perspective they might teach these up-and-comers.”
Nezu nodded and got out the list of students. “First on this list, Shuichi Iguchi. A minor with a long history with quirk discrimination, due to his lizard-like appearance. He has decided to model himself after a couple of people, one of which, concerningly, is the Hero Killer: Stain. This idolization has influenced his weapon choice, blades, as well as his choice of targets. He’s known for assaulting corrupt officials and heroes, as well as rampaging villains and drug traffickers.”
Toshinori frowned. Given the Hero Killer’s status as a murderer before he changed tactics and left heroes crippled instead, this could be a problem. “Has he copied anything else from Stain?”
“Thankfully, no,” Nezu affirmed. “While his victims suffer lacerations on various places, they are not so hurt that the damage is permanently debilitating. This is most likely due to his other influence-”
Ding dong
The bell for the gate rang, cutting Nezu off. The animal frowned. “Odd. I wasn’t expecting anyone,” he said.
“Could it be the HPSC wanting another… word about the Initiative?” All Might suggested.
Nezu sighed. “If it is, then said representative is in for a very unpleasant time .” Nezu growled. He then pressed the camera button and put the front gate on display…
…and the two heroes promptly gaped in shock.
“Uh, hi!” said the green-haired boy at the front gate in an old Thirteen hoodie, tattered jeans, and bright red sneakers. “My name’s Izuku Midoriya, but my vigilante name is Verdant! I-I heard about UA’s new Vigilante Rehabilitation program, so… I wanted to apply! Capturing these guys is enough for guaranteed admission, right?”
He then holds up the yakuza boss, Overhaul, in his left hand, who had not only been missing for almost an entire two months , but had apparently been beaten black and blue, cut in various ways, and was covered in dirt. But that wasn’t the shocking thing.
What was shocking was the man Midoriya was holding in his right hand. It was a very large man with a busted up life-support mask and a dark, tarnished suit, covered in bruises and missing his entire face, instead having a covering of scar tissue across his head. He was also groaning painfully.
“...All Might… is that..?”
BOOM
The Greatest Hero in Japan bolted out the door like a city was about to be destroyed, wrecking Nezu’s door in the process.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Nezu sighed as he once again sat down.
He really should’ve expected this, he really should’ve. Given the fact that Verdant was the one that had kickstarted the vigilante craze, it would be weirder if his admittance to the Phoenix Initiative was anything less.