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Witness Transcript: Sato Mayuimi, Former Sidekick “Whipkick”
Interviewing: Det. Tsukauchi
15/10/XX, 15:26
T: Thank you for agreeing to speak to me, Miss Sato.
M: Call me Mayuimi, please. And of course. Is- is Shouto going to be-
T: I’m afraid I can’t reveal anything. Sorry.
M: No, no, it’s- it’s not your fault.
T: What can you tell me about Todoroki Shouto?
M: He was young when I worked for- for Endeavor, his Quirk hadn’t even come in yet. I remember and know- or I suppose knew- Touya better. Shouto was only a year or so old, and Touya loved him, cuddling his baby brother whenever he got the chance.
T: ...What can you tell me about Touya?
M: He was gentle, usually. Sometimes he was super irritable, but only when his father was in the room. Otherwise, he was calm, smart. I only noticed when I accidentally forgot to knock on Endeavor’s door before entering his office. Touya- he-
T: Take your time.
M: He was covered in burns. All up and down his arms, I thought he’d overused his Quirk or something. I wanted to call an ambulance, but Touya refused, just asked me- asked me to get the burns he couldn’t reach easily, on his back.
T: Did you?
M: Yes. I was scared, and Touya’s body wasn’t truly made for his Quirk, so I tried to make excuses, thinking he’d just used it too much. He refused to get other help, and I didn’t want his wounds to get worse.
T: I see. What do you mean, “Wasn’t truly made for his Quirk”?
M: He had skin like his mother, easily burnt. But his Quirk was fire, cremation, if I remember correctly.
T: I know you reported Endeavor, and that your license was stripped because of it. Did you see Touya before he disappeared?
M: I did. I- I-
T: Ma’am?
M: I helped him escape. There was a fire at the agency. I don’t know- I don’t know where he is anymore. But Endeavor- he- I heard Touya screaming, and I managed to get inside and pull him through a window. A friend of mine, who was letting me stay on her couch, helped smuggle him out. We did our best, got his skin at least semi-stitched back together.
T: Why were you back at the agency?
M: I was getting the last of my things, and then the fire broke out. Not a huge deal, not when so many people who went through there had fire Quirks, but it was huge. No one called the fire department for a while.
T: Do you know why no one called?
M: At the time, I thought maybe it was the bystander effect, people figured someone else would call, but now…
T: Yes?
M: Now, I wonder, if someone did try, and couldn’t get through.
~
birb boy @tweettweethoe
ya’ll i swear to god i saw all might but, like, in his twig form at that protest in front of the commission
legend of lonk @iluvzelda
@tweettweethoe oh shit dude i think i’ve got a picture? i was there but i was more focused on the other ppl lol
legend of lonk @iluvzelda
@iluvzelda @tweettweethoe FOUND IT
[A slightly blurry image of a tall, thin man with blond hair surrounded by a large crowd of people. His face isn’t clear, but he’s clearly frowning.]
birb boy @tweettweethoe
@iluvzelda THATS THE BITCH
~
Witness Transcript: Ito Arakan, Former Sidekick “Sidesteps”
Interviewing: Det. Tsukauchi
15/10/XX, 15:52
T: Thank you-
A: Don’t. Please. We should just get this over with.
T: Alright. Tell me about Todoroki Shouto.
A: Endeavor used to beat the shit out of the kid. Got some of the other Sidekicks in on it too, told them it was “training” for the poor kid.
T: And no one else tried to report it at the time?
A: One of them, I don’t remember his name, tried. Two days later, out on patrol, he got… unlucky. Crushed. Doctors couldn’t save him.
T: Do you know how many Sidekicks knew about the abuse and didn’t report it?
A: I wasn’t there for long. But there had to have been, what, forty, fifty sidekicks working there at the time? And it was damn near half when I got invited in. So I’d say a lot of ‘em knew.
T: How old was Shouto?
A: Hmm, maybe five, six? He didn’t have his scar yet, I know that.
T: And Endeavor was already training him?
A: If you can call it that. More like a bunch of adults beating the shit out of a kid. I remember running out the room when I saw it. Couldn’t even help the kid.
T: Do you remember any names of those Sidekicks?
A: A few, yeah. I can see if I can’t identify some of them later.
T: That would be helpful, thank you.
A: ‘course.
T: Is there anything you can tell me about Touya?
A: Not really, no. Poor kid was gone by the time I got there.
T: Thank you for your help.
~
Japan’s entire legal system is thrown into chaos overnight. The Commission is stripped of its legal powers, and a new system for hero licenses is implemented as quickly as humanly possible. The legal requirements to be considered a villain are still being analyzed, but there’s a possibility of hundreds of people being pardoned. People who were unlucky, wrong place, wrong time. Those who used their Quirk in self defense, out of fear or as a natural reaction. People who spoke out against the Commission's corruption. The Hero Commission preferred to funnel people through heroics, because that meant control. That funnel was getting thinner and thinner as Quirk restrictions grew, and people knew it was wrong, wanted to speak out against it, but what could really be said? That heroes shouldn’t be regulated? That people should just use their Quirks without any license, any awareness of what was around them?
What matters was the fact that the Hero Commission had not done their jobs. They had not punished heroes that they should have punished, they would’ve thrown good heroes into the line of fire for no good reason if they felt they were threatened. Files that were marked to be destroyed were found in their offices, suggesting using the former Hero Hawks as a spy into the League of Villains, before they were arrested.
The Hero Commission is stripped of all legal powers by the International Committee of Heroic Affairs in a record amount of time. The Commission can do nothing but burn.
Without them, villains, real ones, who hurt people just to hurt them, apparently see an opportunity. A crime ring starts to form, right outside Musufafu, quickly organizing themselves to try and make a power grab while heroes are in legal limbo.
They barely last a week, taken down through sheer force of at least twenty different Quirks and a brutally effective plan, their leader ending up in Quirk-suppressing handcuffs, tied to a pole outside of a police station. It’s a statement. A brutal one, that screams from the top of it’s lungs, ’Do not think we won’t carry out justice. We will take you down in a heartbeat.’ There’s whispers of who did it, ones that are quickly squashed under the desire to keep it a secret, keep the children who’d fought on the side of justice (but not the law) as safe as they can. There’s no telling what the ICHA might do about them. They pardoned Todoroki Shouto, they pardoned Midoriya Izuku (a formality, at that point) but the statuses of the rest of the class is unknown. At least three heroes are with them, and possibly another three joined them or are complicit.
No one bothers to try and find them. The laws were broken, and yet no crime was committed.
~
Witness Transcript: Saito Asa, Former Sidekick “Wildfire”
Interviewing: Det. Tsukauchi
15/10/XX, 16:08
T: Thank you for agreeing to do this, Miss Saito.
A: No problem. Thank you for getting me a pardon.
T: Of course. What can you tell me about Todoroki Shouto?
A: He was always quiet. Too quiet. I got… suspicious. I chalked it up to him being shy at first, but after a while, I thought something was wrong.
T: How so?
A: He was quiet around some of the Sidekicks who used fire. It was like he was afraid of it. I’ve got fire whips, and so that must’ve been why he didn’t like to talk to me.
T: How many Sidekicks had some sort of fire Quirk.
A: Almost, what, half of them? It was a popular agency for people who had a fire Quirk of some sort. It was one of the few that was made for extreme temperatures, and it made it a lot easier to train there. Besides, a spot with Endeavor pretty much guaranteed some kind of job elsewhere. If you could make it through that, you could make it through anything.
T: What do you mean by that?
A: He was harsh. I thought the way he went through Sidekicks like that was because of how harsh he was. I figured I’d be fine, and I guess I would’ve been. Didn’t realize what was happening until much later.
T: How did you find out?
A: Found Shouto crying in the bathroom. I thought he’d gotten lost or something, but no. He had a burn, a ring around his wrist on his right side. I managed to coax the story out of him once I got him some burn cream. His father pulled him, and when he tried to stay in place…
T: I see. Did you report immediately?
A: I tried to go through the Hero Commission. When they ignored me, I got some of the other Sidekicks who I knew would listen to come forward with me. We all tried to contact the Commission, emails, letters, in-person. We all got ignored.
T: And you were stripped of your license, correct?
A: I was. I lost my patience, and went to the police. Didn’t realize I’d get labeled a villain and thrown in jail. I was lucky, I guess.
T: How so?
A: The others… I don’t think they were quite so lucky. One of them tried to defend himself, and a hero got jumpy and shot him. He didn’t make it. The others shared my fate, but got worse sentences.
T: Do you know why?
A: I think it was because they spoke out for me. They tried to be as vocal as they could about it, to see if they got enough attention about my case that I’d be at least given a fair trial and that someone would follow the trail to the end. They were all silenced, one way or another.
T: ... Thank you for your time.
~
“Are we just gonna be, like, vigilantes now?” Kaminari asked, slightly slurred from the charging cord in his mouth. “Because I’m fine with that, but we should probably find a way to get into contact with our parents or something.”
Momo’s not really sure if that’s what he said, but it sounds right. Close enough, either way. And he raises a good point, actually. No one wanted to talk about it, really, but they weren’t expecting the plan to go so well. Momo was sure something was going to go wrong, that one of her classmates was going to get hurt or caught, that someone would break under pressure or fear and reveal what they were planning to do. And while that hadn’t happened, it did mean that she wasn’t entirely sure what came next. Aizawa and Hawks- who’d insisted everyone just call him Keigo for now- were seemingly content to keep going, and Momo certainly didn’t mind, but between Endeavor’s trial ending yesterday (with great success, the man didn’t stand a chance, not when Todoroki Rei took the stand) and trying to make sure Midoriya wasn’t about to lose his mind completely, it got lost in the chaos. It had taken quite a lot of coaxing from the combined forces of Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and Shinsou to get Midoriya at least somewhat back to who he once was. Momo felt a jolt of anger before letting it go again. They’d done what they had to do to free him, and the Commission was gone. They held no more power, and they couldn’t take Midoriya away again.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think- I don’t think I planned on getting this far.” Kyoka mumbled something from her position, cuddling into Momo’s side, her face buried between her stomach and the old couch. “What?”
Kyoka sat up slightly, hair disheveled, “I said, we should talk to Midoriya. He’s good with plans, isn’t he?” That… was actually an excellent point. Momo could make plans, sure, but Midoriya was fantastic at them. His idea to take down the gang that had tried to rise in the power vacuum from the Commission’s fall was brilliant, and had enough failsafes that no one even got all that hurt. A few bruises and a couple scrapes, but nothing serious on either side.
“I’ll talk to him.” Momo stood, ignoring Kyoka’s soft whine at her absence. “Sorry love, I need to sort this out sooner rather than later.” Kyoka still pouted, but let Momo walk away, trying to find Midoriya.
~
Izuku wasn’t sure how to feel. Okay, his entire class and three pro heroes breaking the law and breaking him out of prison (or at least out of the Hero Commision) was insane enough in itself, but the fact that they looked to him for plans and ideas to try and keep crime at bay while Japan was stabilized almost convinced him it was one gigantic hallucination. Not that it mattered. Even if it were some insane hallucination his mind had made up to cope with being locked up, he’d cling to that feeling of togetherness, and he’d do his best to help his possibly-made-up classmates. If nothing else, it was something to do, something to keep his mind occupied.
He still needed to do something about the Yakuza. He hadn’t brought it up to anyone else yet. “Overhaul” was the name he heard, and if he had a child with him, Izuku was not going to let the man get away easily. They’d slip through the cracks, between the Hero Commission’s fall and the ICHA sending in heroes and officials to try and stabilize Japan. Izuku was not going to let anyone come to harm, not if he had any say about it. Truly, it was just a matter of finding out where Overhaul was. Where Eri was. Izuku was going to destroy the Yakuza if he had to, if that’s what it took.
“Midoriya?” Yaomomo’s voice snapped him to awareness, and Izuku looked up, biting his tongue. He’d probably been mumbling.
“Ah, what’s up?” He asked, tilting his head slightly. They hadn’t heard about another crime ring, had they? Izuku was fine with taking them down, but it wasn’t exactly fun to try and get information on them. Besides, it wasn’t a great idea to attract attention to themselves right now.
“It’s- well, it’s not really your problem, but, do we have another step after this? Are we just going to be vigilantes or something?” Yaomomo bit her lip slightly, worrying it between her teeth.
Izuku wasn’t sure what to say, but, “I guess it depends on what people want to do, and what the ICHA decides about pardoning people. I wouldn’t mind staying as vigilantes, but I know that’s not what anyone wanted.” Izuku stared down at his hands. They were still pale and thin, but he’d regained a lot of weight back. “We’re lucky no one’s been branded a villain.”
“I suppose. Kaminari just wanted to know if we should try to contact our parents.” Yaomomo sat down next to Izuku on the bed, closing her eyes. “I wouldn’t mind, sure, but… this is the happiest I’ve been in years. My parents aren’t breathing down my neck, no one’s asking me how I stay so thin, no reporters, no cameras, nothing.” She stayed silent for a moment. “And I think some of the others feel the same way. No family expectations. I think a lot of us were just… expected to be heroes.”
“There’s twenty of us. Well, twenty-four, I guess, but... “ Izuku shook his head. “People are probably going to want different things. Some of them might want to fight to get pardoned, some of them might be willing to stay in contact with their parents while remaining vigilantes, others might want to cut contact completely.” He thought of his mother for a moment, but his thoughts drifted to his father, and he shut it down quickly. Now was not the time to be thinking about him. “But I need one last favor from Kaminari if he doesn’t want to do this forever.”
“What is it?” She asked, opening her eyes and turning to him.
“I need to take down the Yakuza.”