Chapter 17: Chapter 16: The Butterfly Effect
Classes resumed Monday and students were running around like chickens with their heads cut off during the preparation for the sports festival. As for me, I have another goal for these few weeks. I want to prepare to save Eri. That little girl and the quirk-erasing bullets need to be stopped before they hit the streets. I'm sure that I can pull the 'I was interrogating someone on the street's excuse, but I was hoping that I could just run into her on the street.
I started taking regular patrols in the evening to show a public persona. I wasn't out for long before sunset, but I made some fans just stopping some small robberies and petty crimes. A few little girls had asked for autographs and who am I to turn down children?
It was the middle of the week during the second half of my patrol at night that things took a turn for the worse.
"You have a very public image for a decent hero, Kyuubi." A sword was against my neck that had large chucks cut away from it. I stood there in silence till the sword left my neck and I could turn around to meet my opponent. His hand reached up to the camera on my head and crushed the lens and mic.
I knew this arc was coming soon but turning around was a big surprise. In front of me should have been Stain. The voice was the same as the anime, but his outfit was not the classic red tattered cloth but the vigilante costume of Stendahl.
Stendahl sheathed his sword and leaned against a chimney on the roof we were on. "I'm glad I got to meet you Kyuubi, you are maybe the only reason I haven't taken to killing certain heroes who do not deserve the title."
"It's an honor that I can be that change for you. I can't say that preserving life wasn't the goal of writing the book that I did. We should have a serious conversation about vigilantism though Stendahl."
He chuckled. "I'm still a firm believer that there are only a few true heroes in the world, Kyuubi. I may not want to kill the bad heroes, but I do not believe that just because someone has a hero title that they are doing good work."
"I actually agree with you on that, but I am also a firm believer that some form of government regulation is necessary, I just don't agree with the quirks as weapons ideology. I take it your quirk is something not seen as super heroic Stendahl."
"You would be correct. I won't give you any more though. I mostly approached you because I figured that we could talk like this regularly. I have connections and you are a good hero that isn't very public, and you chose the mostly underground hero route, which I commend. I provide you with heroes and villains and you keep people off my back."
"You are still committing a crime, Stendahl. I am new to this still so I should probably talk to a mentor of mine, it's solely that you haven't done something in front of me yet that you aren't passed out and in police custody."
"Haha. I'm sure that is exactly what would happen, Kyuubi." He gave me a sly smile.
"You laugh like All Might. Did you ever consider actually getting your hero license? You would have been an excellent hero.
"It's good to hear that from someone of the younger generation but sadly many others would not have agreed." He scoffed and turned to jump away. "I've got information on a few groups of villains and heroes if you would like to know. Goodnight Kyuubi. I'll meet you somewhere on your route later to talk again."
Stendahl jumped away. The butterfly effect was showing, and this would be a massive change. I rushed off to Nezu to give my report. I could use this to move on Eri.
________
I returned home that night, got some sleep, and went to class the next day. The students had already had units covering villain motivations and their own heroic motivations, with the meeting from the night before fresh in my mind and permission from Nezu, Vigilantes would be a great place to start the grey area of the motivations we already talked about.
"Alright, I had a very interesting thing happen last night and I would like your opinion on it class. Last night while I was on patrol, I encountered a Vigilante. To be more specific, I found the most prolific Vigilante in Japan who uses his position to catch both Heroes and Villains alike. His name is Stendahl, and he has been around for a long time.
"So, today seems like an appropriate time to have this discussion. So, I have three questions for you today: What do you think motivates Vigilantes? What role do Vigilantes play in our society? And lastly, what regulations on quirk use define vigilantism, and do you believe they are reasonable?
"Let's do it this way in fact, I have a list of questions here, please move your desks to the side of the room."
The squeak of desks moving was quick.
"When I ask a question, you will move across the room to show how much you agree or disagree with the statement. Strongly Disagree is the wall near the door, and Strongly Agree is near the windows. First statement, and make sure you are paying attention:
"I think that vigilantism is immoral. Alright, Move."
All of the students moved toward the window for a moment, but two students stopped in the center while most of the students continued till they stood at the window.
The two students that stopped were Todoroki and Tokoyami. "Would you tell me why you stopped on the neutral?"
Tokoyami spoke up, "You specifically said immoral, not unethical. The premise that someone who wants to be a hero despite not doing it through legal means does not make the idea of vigilantism wrong."
Hitoshi spoke as one who was standing on the wall, "That makes sense, but vigilantism attempts to place that person above the law, they are taking the law into their own hands instead of placing themselves under the law which means the villains they capture, if they don't kill them, could possibly get away due to rules considering admissible evidence."
"I agree, hence why I am in the middle." The bird-headed boy shut his eyes and nodded his head sagely.
The tiny debate ended there. "The definition of Vigilantism in the government is poorly written."
Most people stayed in place on the strongly agree side. Todoroki and Tokoyami joined them, but Midoriya and Aoyama walked across the room. "Midoriya defend your position."
"The current Vigilantism laws require the use of a quirk." He stuttered out not expecting to be chosen. Most of the students in the room were surprised and over half of the class moved over to the other side of the room. The remaining students near the windows were Bakugo and Todoroki.
"Bakugo, defend your position."
"Since only those with quirks can be heroes, it makes sense that only those with quirks can be vigilantes." He was obviously holding himself back, but he made eye contact with Midoriya as he spoke.
Yaoyorozu jumped in this time with an adequate answer, "American hero laws say otherwise to both the quirkless hero statement and the vigilante statement. A citizen should not be taking the law into their own hands."
Most of the class agreed on all the other statements except for the last one. This one was the most important and applicable to me. "Heroes should work with Vigilantes to gather information if necessary."
This was the most diverse answer we had. Students were split in many different directions. A small group of the boys and Mina stood neutral in the middle. Bakugo strongly disagreed, and Tokoyami and Jiro too. Yaoyorozu strongly agreed with the statement which wasn't a surprise along with Ochaco.
"Jiro defend your answer."
"Heroes should not rely on outside-of-the-law sources for information. Even the process of criminal informants needs to be handled carefully within the law. But a Vigilante's source cannot be always trusted."
"Hanta, defend the neutral opinion."
"Hai, I agree with Jiro's reasoning but also think that sometimes they can lead to lives being saved, and am not willing to let it be so black and white."
"Well said, lastly, Uraraka, Defend your position."
"Sure, I think that it's necessary to sometimes interact with vigilantes because they may have some insight into a situation that someone who is more focused on the law won't be attuned to."
With that statement, the classic school bell rang, and the students shuffled out for lunch. I had a lot to think about.
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