Chapter Text
With news of the Dragon Head conflict having gotten out of Yokohama, the Pro Heroes had been more insistent than ever that they should be allowed to come in and bring these villains to justice. After all, there were rumors that the city had turned into a battleground, and that there were a lot of casualties. However, Yokohama had continued turning them away, stating that they had the situation under control.
When news came that the conflict had been resolved, the HPSC hadn’t been too pleased. To have solved such a situation without heroes had the potential to make it look as though heroes weren’t truly needed. So they told Yokohama that for any future issues, at least one hero should be present. An argument was that maybe then the conflict wouldn’t last 88 days.
In response, Yokohama had agreed, but only if they could select the hero. With a preference that one of their own should be that hero.
However, in order to become a hero, one needed to take a hero exam. Which, while they could be taken by older people who went through a vigilante recovery program (which had hero and civilian paths), the easier option would be to go to a hero school.
And thus, after more discussion, it was decided that Yokohama would send a student to U.A., in order to have them become the hero that would watch over the city.
After these negotiations, Taneda sighed as he made a few phone calls. One to Fukuzawa Yukichi, and another to Mori Ougai.
Chuuya made his way to Mori’s office, Dazai following behind him.
“I don’t know why you’re insisting on coming along, he only asked for me,” he grumbled.
Dazai shrugged, “Because I want to see your reaction to the mission Mori’s going to send you on.”
“Why do you sound like you already know what this is about? What if it’s promoting me to an executive?”
“It’s not that, after all, I’m an executive, so I’d know about that kind of decision. I’ve just heard some rumors about some things, and if I’m right, then this might be interesting.”
Chuuya just groaned softly, and then tried to resolutely ignore anything else Dazai said.
He opened the door, walked to be roughly 5 feet from Mori’s desk, and then he bowed, “You called for me?”
“I did, thank you for your prompt arrival, despite what must have been quite a distraction,” Mori’s eyes had moved from Chuuya to Dazai as he spoke, and Dazai made a sound of indignation.
After a brief pause, Mori continued, looking at Chuuya as he spoke, “This will be a long term mission. Estimated to last 3 years at most. If you can manage to do it in less, then do so.”
“3 years?!” Chuuya exclaimed, eyes wide, before he took a breath to try to compose himself, “Infiltration?”
“Not exactly. You’ll be attending a school.”
Dazai shook in barely contained laughter, and Chuuya glanced at him, “Shut up.”
“But Chuuya’s never been to school. Imagine you in a school uniform, people might think you stole the uniform from an older sibling. What a naughty primary school kid.”
“Shut Up.”
“Boys.”
They both shut up.
Mori gave them an unimpressed look before continuing, “As I said, you’ll be going to a school. Specifically, you’ll be going to U.A., a hero school in Musutafu. This is because of their reputation and certain programs that they’re unique in holding. Your goal is to obtain a hero license, to act as Yokohama’s observer.”
Chuuya furrowed his brows slightly in thought, “Wouldn’t Dazai be better if it’s about tests and stuff? Like he so wonderfully reminded everyone here, I’ve never been to school. I only started really learning how to read last year.”
“I can’t,” Dazai responded blandly, “Sure, I likely could get into U.A., but by their standards, I’m completely quirkless. The Hero Commission would likely never actually grant me a hero license. They’re too prejudiced."
Chuuya turned slightly to face him, “Quirkless? But what about-”
“No Longer Human doesn’t work on quirks. It only works on abilities. In Yokohama, that’s fine, because we have more people with abilities on average than most of the world. At a hero school that primarily focuses on quirks? I’d likely just be handed to general studies, or perhaps business.” Dazai replied, one arm moving so he could grab his other arm as he spoke.
Mori nodded once, “Precisely. Age-wise and in terms of talent, you’re the only actual candidate that’s within the tripartite system. So you will be going. It’s not just for us here at the Port Mafia, it’s for the entirety of Yokohama. Certainly you must know how important that is.”
Once he was sure that Chuuya had gotten that message, he continued, “During the duration of this mission, you will no longer be a member of the Mafia. If you were to get questioned by someone that can tell if you’re lying, then it’s better if you’re no longer part of our organization. However, there won’t be a kill order, as long as you don’t give away any secrets.”
Chuuya took a slow breath, “Would I still be allowed to call people here?”
“You’ll have to use a new phone with a new number, no transferring data.” That way there wouldn’t be any records on the phone of any previous conversations. “You aren’t allowed to talk about anything related to the Port Mafia in any of your conversations. If you do, then it should only be as much as an ordinary civilian would know.”
A nod.
“Good. Now, the entrance exams are next week. After your acceptance, you have the option between staying in your apartment and traveling to and from school every day, or accepting an apartment in Musutafu that will be privately funded, though it will be lower end than your current living space.”
After a few seconds of absorbing that information, Chuuya replied, “So do I want to spend about 3 hours every day commuting via trains and walking just to get there, let alone get home, or do I want to live in an apartment where I’ll at most have to take a 20 minute walk there? Yeah, I think that’s a no brainer, I’ll take the apartment.”
“I’ll inform my contact of your decision. You’ll be moved in towards the end of March, roughly a week before school starts in early April. I have a folder here with everything you should need to know.” Mori paused briefly before continuing, “Once you leave this office, you will no longer be with the Port, you will be a hopeful student preparing for an entrance exam. Use this week to prepare thoroughly. Upon getting your hero license, if you decide not to come back, then that’s your decision. I only ask that if you don’t, you won’t mess with our business.”
Chuuya nodded once, “Of course I won’t, even if I decide not to rejoin after 3 years of probably sticking pretty close to the law and getting the idea of being good shoved down my throat. Sure what goes on here is shady and illegal as shit, but you don’t usually involve normal citizens in it, and if that does happen on accident then you tend to give compensation in some way. I don’t think 3 years of schooling is going to change my opinion that the Port Mafia is kind of a necessary evil to keep Yokohama ultimately more peaceful.”
A moment later, he left the office, a rather sizable folder in hand that he’d need to read through. Apparently it not only had his enrollment and exam information, but it also had a bunch of study guides. Likely so he’d at least reasonably pass the written portion of the exam.
Dazai had stayed behind, to talk to Mori about who knows what.
When Chuuya got home, he read the first few pages, which were his exam info, as well as some copies of the forms that had been submitted for him. He was fairly sure that “recommended” wasn’t the standard test, and he was concerned that being considered a recommended student would mean he’d get a harder test. However, it looked like he had some accommodation requests that were approved. So maybe it would be easier than he expected?
He’d have someone read him his test, and he’d have an extra 20 minutes. It did say that he’d need to write his responses, but that he wouldn’t be judged for errors in writing, just for how well it seemed he understood the material. He understood numbers far better than words, though he did know quite a few. It was just that most of those words were in relation to what he did in the Mafia. It was all jewels and metals and locations. It was jargon that just didn’t apply in everyday life, and certainly had no place in a hero school.
Kouyou and the Flags had done their best to teach him other stuff, so he had a good few years of elementary kanji down, but thoroughly learning so many in a year was a bit difficult. There were around 1,600 in total that he needed to know to meet the standard for his grade level. Having gone from the roughly 90 that he kind of knew prior to the Mafia to the roughly 810 or so he knew now in only a year was impressive, in his opinion. It was just that it was only slightly over half of what he was expected to know, and he didn’t even know all the common readings of the kanji he did know. It was just somewhat embarrassing that for general kanji fluency, he was about on par with a 4th grader, and the rest was just Mafia stuff.
So when it came to the stack of study guides… He resigned himself to a lot of trying to copy whatever he didn’t understand into his phone to get what the word sounded like, and maybe a definition if he didn’t know that either.
It was going to be a long week.