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“Come in, come in!” Nedzu beamed as he stepped into the office. “I have another pot of mint going!”
Ooh, yummy.
He settled into the indicated armchair and accepted a cup of tea.
“So. . .what’s the plan for today, Nedzu-sensei?”
Nedzu beamed, his tail wagging behind him.
“I thought we could take care of your notebooks!”
“Take. . .care. . .of them?”
Nedzu pulled a white box out of his desk drawer and handed it over to him. He opened it curiously and his eyebrows raised.
“What’s this?” He lifted out a thick black rectangular prism and turned it over in his hands. Nedzu’s tail wagged faster.
“Put your finger on the blue circle.”
When he did so, he yelped as he felt a sharp prick. Then, before his eyes, the blue circle turned green and the rectangle split in half lengthwise. Within seconds, the rectangle had expanded into a tablet with a HUD touchscreen. His jaw dropped and Nedzu laughed in delight.
“W-what—?!”
“I asked Hatsume-chan to make it,” Nedzu crowed. “It’s synced to your DNA; it’ll only open for you. And it’s almost impossible to hack. This way, you can keep all your notes on you at all times, without worrying about them falling into enemy hands. I still advise keeping them in code, though.”
He opened and closed his mouth wordlessly for a moment before finally finding his voice. Then he immediately stood and bowed deeply.
“T-thank you so much, Nedzu-sensei! I’ll input them right away!”
“Lovely! Do you happen to have the others here at UA, by any chance?”
“Yeah, they’re in my dorm; should I go get them?”
“Yes. That way you can start transferring them to the tablet, and we can find a way to keep the paper copies secure.”
“Sounds good.” He headed for the door, then paused and looked at his new tablet. “Uh—how do I close it?”
“Put your finger on the circle again and say ‘close’.”
“Thanks.” He studiously ignored the blush crawling down his neck as he left the office to find his notebooks.
****
“Now, add in the mix you made already—and make sure you put the plate over the beaker; otherwise we’ll be cleaning foam off of the walls for days.”
“Got it, Nedzu-sensei—um, is it supposed to start shaking like that?”
Nedzu tilted his head and looked at the vibrating beaker.
“No, no it is not. Toss it out the window.”
He grabbed the beaker with the tongs and tossed it out the window. Almost as soon as it was clear of the glass, the beaker exploded, painting the window with drops of chemicals and soot.
There was a moment of silence, then Nedzu shrugged.
“Ah well. Perhaps we should relocate chemical experiments to the Support department; they have more equipment to deal with mistakes—but first, let’s clean the windows, shall we?”
“Yeah. . .then are we trying again once we’re in the Support lab?”
“Oh, absolutely, Midoriya-kun.”
****
He stormed into Nedzu’s office and pulled out his tablet.
“I want to take down Endeavor and get him arrested; do you have any advice?”
Nedzu started cackling madly. When he’d finally calmed down—which took about ten minutes—the mammal folded his paws neatly.
“Well, for all heroes in the top 10, they are legally obligated to publish their records—cases solved and of what type, villains apprehended, civilian and villain casualties, property damage—it’s all in public files. They’re just hard to find. And of course. . .witness testimony helps too.”
He nodded and started searching the web.
“Got it, thanks Sensei.”
With one hand, he continued typing on his tablet, and with the other, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Shoto.
(QuirklessWonder): Hey Sho, if I were to hypothetically start gathering evidence to use against your dad, could I use what you told me at the Sports Festival?
(IcyHot):. . .
(IcyHot): Izuku, are you gathering evidence to use against my father?
(QuirklessWonder): HYPOTHETICALLY
(IcyHot):. . .Sure, knock yourself out
(IcyHot): Wait
(IcyHot): Not literally please
He chuckled and put his phone away, turning back to his research. This was going to be extremely satisfying.
****
Endeavor—Is he truly Number One?
The Flame Hero, Endeavor — civilian name Todoroki Enji — has recently stepped into the role of Number One Hero after All Might’s retirement this past summer. However, is this a title — and responsibility — that he deserves?
The title of Number One Hero has more meaning than simply being top of the rankings. It means that said hero is considered the pinnacle of heroism; a role model for all other heroes and, in a way, society itself. Is Endeavor really someone we want as that role model?
Let’s look at the facts.
Over the past ten years, Endeavor has participated in at least three thousand cases of villain apprehension; but he has only involved himself in twenty rescue scenarios. Of those villain apprehension cases, over 50% ended with the death or severe injury of the perpetrator, and a further 35% ended with significant property damage and civilian casualties. (see here for the data) Overall, Endeavor has caused property damage that amasses to a total of over 861,726,000,000 yen.
And what of the casualties, both villain and civilian? Some might say that the villains deserve it; that it is just punishment for turning to a life of crime — but what are those crimes, exactly? Often, they are very minor felonies, or even misdemeanors. For example, one Kiga Daigo was killed by Endeavor after trying to flee arrest. What was his crime?
He stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving family.
And as for civilians, Endeavor is notorious for letting his flames go wildly towards his opponents. This can end up burning bystanders or victims; or the rogue flames can bring down a building; harming those inside.
And furthermore, if you look at this graph (linked here) it shows a pattern of exponential growth, meaning that the statistics will rise and Endeavor will get worse, not better. It covers Endeavor’s activities from the start of his career to the present day, and the pattern is clearly defined and has been since his debut.
But perhaps Endeavor is simply a reckless hero. High damage levels, a bit too much force — but that doesn’t make him a bad hero, does it?
No — his personality makes him a worse hero.
Endeavor has been documented being callous to fans and extremely Quirkist — one video (find it here ) shows him insulting a reporter after she mentioned a childhood ambition to become a hero; just because her Quirk made her eyes change color. He said, quote-on-quote; “Glad to see you came to your senses. With a Quirk like that, you would have just gotten yourself killed and caused more trouble for everyone.”
With these facts in mind, it is important to consider just how much Endeavor deserves his new ranking. Perhaps it is time to look deeper into our heroes — they are role models for our children, after all. It would be such a shame if there was more hatred and violence in the world, because our children grew up with role models such as Endeavor.
****
(IcyHot): IZUKU MY FATHER WAS JUST ARRESTED WHAT IN NEDZU’S NAME DID YOU DO?!
(PurplePanda): i’m sorry what
(QuirklessWonder): Oh, that.
(IcyHot): WHEN YOU SAID YOU WERE TAKING MY FATHER DOWN, YOU SAID IT WAS HYPOTHETICAL!
(QuirklessWonder): . . .Did you actually believe me, though?
(IcyHot): Not really, but I was not expecting THIS! People are burning Endeavor merch in the streets! Literally!
(IcyHot): *video sent*
(PurplePanda): how did you manage that one, zu?
(QuirklessWonder): I. . .might have posted an article on all the most popular hero forums about why Endeavor shouldn’t be number one
(QuirklessWonder): And emailed the police with a file about all that he did to your family, Sho
(PurplePanda): . . .where is this article?
(QuirklessWonder): *link sent*
(QuirklessWonder): Also, Sho, did you just ask me a question in Nedzu-sensei’s name?
(IcyHot): Yes? Nedzu is the one true god of this dimension?
(PurplePanda): all hail the rat god, long may he reign :)
(QuirklessWonder): . . .What does it say about me that I want to see how he and Aizawa-sensei would react to that?
(PurplePanda): it means that you’ve finally embraced your inner chaos gremlin
(PurplePanda): well done
(IcyHot): . . .Izuku, I have my father’s credit card, what do you want?
(QuirklessWonder): ?
(IcyHot): This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read
(QuirklessWonder): I’m glad you enjoyed it?
(PurplePanda): izu this is actual gold
(PurplePanda): show it to aizawa
****
The next day, Aizawa held him back after class. Bakugo sneered at him as he left the room, and he used every ounce of his willpower to restrain himself from flipping the blond off. Instead, he took a few deep breaths and turned to Aizawa.
“Yes, Sensei?”
Blankly, Aizawa held up his phone—which had his article pulled up. Ah. That’s what this was about.
“What about it, sensei?”
Aizawa broke into his ‘logical ruse’ smile.
“Well done, problem child.”
He smirked back.
“Thank you.” Then he saw the clock and jumped. “Oh my Nedzu, I need to go. Nedzu-sensei’s waiting for me.”
“. . .I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Oh!” He smiled cheekily. “You see, Aizawa-san, Nedzu is the one true God of this dimension. He must be shown the proper respect. All hail the Rat God, long may he reign.” Then he waved and skipped out the door. “Have a nice day, Aizawa-sensei!”
If he listened very hard, he could just hear Aizawa groaning.
His other teacher clearly found it just as amusing as he did, considering the feral grin he was greeted with when he entered the office. So he decided to take it a little farther.
“Oh great Nedzu, god over us mere mortals, I come to learn at your feet. Please instruct me in the ways of manipulating chaos as you do.”
Nedzu laughed so hard he fell out of his chair. He considered it one of his greatest victories to date.