Mamoru was quite excited for class as Mako started her lesson. Mako did a little trick with the ball that even Mamoru knew, though only because Mako was making a lesson about how villains would act. Bad guys didn’t fight fair and used dirty tricks, but so did Mamoru. And she’d hardly consider herself villainous. Reckless, short-sighted, stupid, sure. But not villainous. To Mamoru a villain was someone who’d do whatever it took to get what he wanted, often with means that will harm people or break laws. Someone who’d get things he wants not by working hard and buying it, but just stealing it from others who have it. Someone who has been treated unjustly by someone and resorts by trying to kill them, instead of talking it out or something. Villains were all about the mind, not the method. At least that’s what Mamoru thought Mako was trying to teach.
The important thing was that heroes can use “villain” tactics too. She started handing out newspapers with some heroes Mamoru recognized using some pretty tricky tactics. Tricking the bad guys into an ambush or even just torching the place when there wasn’t anyone else inside. Mamoru would never do these things not because she doesn’t think they’re right, but because she doesn’t have the brains or powers to do so. Though that being said when Mamoru read about Endeavor she could already see how what he did wouldn’t earn him many fans. While Mamoru certainly agreed that heroes can be tricky too, there was still a certain level of self-control that heroes needed to practice. Something which Mamoru knew she wasn’t good at, but she wasn’t going to be as bad as Endeavor. Burn the bad guys, sure, but she wouldn’t torch down the whole estate unless she’s really desperate.
These thoughts were more or less confirmed when Mako continued her lecture, reminding everyone that she isn’t trying to make the students forgo their sense of justice, but make them get rid of the mindset of fighting fairly. Mamoru nodded her head, for some people a fair fight just wasn’t in their advantage. Mamoru had fought many other kids in the past who’s quirk would beat her abilities. Fast people, strong people, tough people. Statistically mamoru was weaker than them. But she still managed to come out on top not by being stronger, faster, or tougher, but because she did something they didn’t expect or even cheap. She’s had a lot of people call her a copout or a cheat, but she won and they lost. And when she lost she’d just try again later until she won. That’s what a hero does.
But then came the horrible part; classwork. Mamoru quietly groaned at the thought of having to write out big essays about what she’d do, because thinking about stuff made her over think about stuff. She wished she could type instead, it was far easier for her to type out her thoughts than to write it down. It took too long and it made Mamoru bored. But class was class, so even if she did take her sweet time she’d still get the paper done. It was a series of five hypothetical situations that Mamoru was in and how’d she react to it. With that in mind Mamoru tried to simplify things for herself; she’d think of a “heroic” way to stop the bad guys, and then a ‘Villainous” way to stop them. Mako said there was no wrong answers, so Mamoru would use that as an excuse to do some rather silly things.
First question: Guy had an old lady at gun point. He wants to escape but he’s scared. Mamoru wrote down her heroic answer first, followed by what she’d do if she was more of a bad guy.
I would try to coax the robber to lower his gun and that he can still get out of here without any bloodshed. Make him realize that he’s about to kill an innocent old woman and that if he does so, he’d ruin any chance at getting out of here safely. I might have to lie to him and tell him somewhere safe he could go but it’ll be a trap where other heroes could capture him.
The robber probably doesn’t want to kill the old lady, so what I’d try to do is make myself seem like a bigger threat. Be scary and try to make him shoot at me instead, and then I’d use my shield to block the bullets while he’s panicking so that I can get closer and save the old lady.
Mamoru felt rather proud of herself for remembering that while the robber is the villain, as a hero she needed to take care of the hostage first. Even if she would let the robber run away as long as the old lady was alive it would be fine. Heroes save people after all.
Next question would pit Mamoru against a swordsman. She felt her chances against one in a fight was pretty good, she’s fought people who’s trained in kendo and such. Assuming this wasn’t some sort of Stain-level samurai, Mamoru could take him on a straight fight. Mamoru thought about this question a little bit, and really wondered if maybe this guy was a samurai. Samurai were venerated in the past for being defenders and honorable warriors, though from what little Mamoru remembered from her history classes and documentaries, Samurais were just soldiers, and did soldier things like kill, rape, and loot. Ideally they followed a code of honor, but honor was much looser back in those ancient times than they are now. Mamoru had to write her answer down quickly before she got distracted thinking about samurai.
Accept his duel but be wary that he’s still a crazy swordsman. If his armor is tough I’ll try to disarm him of his sword using my shield and whatever else is around me, even if I have to get a weapon for myself. If possible I’d try to stall him long enough for everyone else to clear the scene and for backup to arrive.
Or I could taunt him. Make fun of his honor by saying how he’s only good at cutting down defenseless civilians than a real fighter. Get him riled up so that he uses more energy trying to fight me and maybe even chase me. I’ll lead him into an ambush or somewhere where I’d have the advantage, like a muddy location or a construction site. This way he’ll be away from innocent people and I can make him fall for a trap.
Assuming of course anything like that was nearby, but Mamoru could wing it. Again, Mamoru needs to make sure this bad guy is away from anyone else he could hurt that isn’t Mamoru or whoever she could call to help her. She might be taking a huge risk leading him away from wherever he was already, but it was a gamble if Mamoru could lead him somewhere isolated or just somewhere even more crowded. She’d have to take that chance.
Next question had Mamoru tied to a chair. Her usual tactic with her shield isn’t going to work since somehow it’s been nullified. Mamoru wasn’t sure how that happened. She’s only heart of one person who could nullify quirks and that was Eraserhead. Though Mamoru was sure that there was some bad guy working hard trying to make a quirk-erasing drug or something to make it easier for him to take over the world. It was in this instance that Mamoru would have to make up bullshit.
I’d make the bad guy keep talking to me so I can stall for time. He has my at his mercy so he’ll want to use this time to rub it in my face, which would give my allies time to find my tracking beacon and take him out while I distract him.
Not Mamoru’s best plan. She’s really in a bad spot if that happens, so she’d have to rely on others either way. Sure she could try to break out, and probably fail. She could also lie, if she was actually good at doing that. And she could even try to use her shield even if her quirk is nullified through sheer force of will, but that was just wishful thinking.
Next plot was more complicated. No quirk again, and now against brainwashed civilians. There’s a mastermind controlling them who claims that if he goes down, so do the civilians. Thinking about it like that, the civilians are already lost. Unless the bad guy is going to try and guilt trip them later about how we risked civilian lives to stop him or something. Which, thinking about it, Mamoru would actually try and save the civilians. Again, even if Mako is trying to make the students think like villains, Mamoru still had to save the civilians. Though she did have her own trick in mind.
My first save the civilians, even if I have to rough them up. Knock them out, disable their weapons, or just trap them somewhere they can’t escape so I can get them later. Once the civilians are safe then I’ll go after the villain by using someone he loves as a hostage. A friend, family member, or even a pet.
Either that or pretend to be a villain myself who’s after the bad guy for a completely different reasons unrelated to the civilians and make him more worried about saving himself then using the civilians as leverage. Once he releases them to save his own hide get the civilians to safety.
Again lying wasn’t really something Mamoru did well. She’s just too much of a chatter mouth to keep up a deception. At best, someone could feed her lies and she’d buy them enough that she’d still believe them even after the deception is discovered. Mamoru was the type of person who’d believe in their own lies. Though thinking about it, Mamoru wondered if that would make her into a bad guy. There were always villains who thought what they were doing was “the good thing” in their own heads, but results in catastrophe for others. Mamoru didn’t think she was that type of person but did consider that she had the makings of one.
Last questions was certainly a thought provoker. It was the classic train dilemma: two groups of people were in danger, one who had people close to Mamoru and one that had strangers but with a much larger group. Mamoru’s first instinct would be to save her friends and/or family. She loved them and would do anything to help them, even if it meant letting a school bus full of children die. But Mamoru also knew that if she let those children die it would haunt her forever. Once more Mamoru would have to use some bullshit to have any hopes of succeeding this mission perfectly.
I would go save my friend/family member first and tell one of my hero friends about the school bus full of children with the timebomb. If possible I’d also try and capture someone that the villain cares for and use that person as a hostage to free to the kids on the school bus, if the villain is there to arm the bomb.
Much of Mamoru’s answers relied on using others to help her, which Mamoru felt was a fairly villainous tactic to do. What bad guy worth his salt didn’t employ a horde of minions and underlings to do their dirty work? Just as well, Mamoru felt that she too could have a bunch of friends and contacts who can help her with her heroism. One thing that Mako didn’t bring up about heroes and villains fighting was the numbers. Everyone always thought heroes work alone or that they had to be strong enough to take on all the bad guys themselves. However Mamoru wasn’t that type of person; she works best in a group so they could cover her weaknesses, or at least so they can outnumber the bad guys. Sure it wasn’t the most heroic thing to do but this was Villain Psyche. Mamoru was going to learn all about how the bad guys do it.
Eventually once Mamoru finished writing her answers she went to turn the paper in. She wasn’t really paying attention about who else had finished, but she saw a few people writing so she was glad she wasn’t the last one. Mamoru hoped that Mako liked her answers, even if they weren’t really the smartest or most clever way to deal with the bad guys.
@Silver Carrot
More students arrived, most who were strangers, though Donny recognized Hakura. She seemed to have chosen to sit by herself though. Donny understood, somewhat. It can be rather troubling to try and sit with complete strangers. Donny got lucky that everyone he’s met so far is really friendly. He’d have to try to remember to talk with Hakura and see if he couldn’t get her to join him sometimes. Maybe introduce her to Mina and the others.
Soon after Hakura arrived class started. Donny took out his notebook and pen and tried his best to pay attention in class. A lot of what White Hat said was interesting, but stuff that Donny had already kinda knew. Anyone could google when quirks first started appearing and how society was affected by them, that’s why they need superheroes. Sure, there were those who used their quirks productively to help with their jobs or daily lives, but more often than not there were those who used their quirks to get away with crime. Then people started using their quirks to stop those people trying to commit crimes. And eventually things just got regulated and now people use their quirks for everyday life. Granted, most of what Donny uses doesn’t rely on any particular quirk, but chances are something like his cellphone was made not just by a machine, but someone who’s quirk allowed him to put it together faster than a robot could. Or some chinese sweatshop worker.
Donny gulped when he heard that this was going to be a project based class with an end-of-the-year presentation. It wasn’t as if Donny didn’t think he wouldn’t have to present his quirk to class; he knew that eventually his secret would be revealed. He just… Wanted to reveal it at his own pace. Hopefully a year should be long enough for him to be comfortable around everyone. That being said what really caught Donny off guard was when White Hat asked for everyone to introduce themselves, their quirks, and what ideas they had to use their quirks outside of heroism. This was a bit too fast for Donny and worse of all, he was the first student to have to answer.
Nervously Donny stood up stiff as a board. He took a few deep breaths and tried, and failed, to control his stuttering. ”I-I-I-I-I’m Donny Y-Y-Yang! My quirk i-i-i-i-is uh, it uh, it let’s me e-e-e-eat a-a-anything.” Donny gulped and dared not look at all the eyes staring at his back. He could already imagine how a few of them thought; that they already figured that a fatty like him had a power that just let him eat and eat and eat. But what they wouldn't realize was that his ability to eat anything was just a byproduct of what he is, rather than the only thing he could do. But Donny wasn’t in any hurry to explain this.
”I uh, I-I-I-I guess I could uh, use my quirk to… To uh…” While Donny might’ve been fine to tell Mina he was planning on using his quirk to eat garbage, he was much less interested in telling everyone else the same thing. He tried to think of anything else such as tunneling, taste testing, cleaning up disasters, but in the end it still relies on the idea that it goes into Donny’s mouth. His other options involved revealing his true form, where he could try to do something like squeeze into pipes or maybe excavate ore out of the ground, but that was just last second stuff he thought of that sounded more impressive than “waste disposal”. Although they were ideas Donny decided to just play dumb instead. ”I don’t I don’t really k-k-know what to use my q-q-q-q-q-quirk for.” Then Donny sat down and tried his best not to look embarrassed.
Other
As more students arrive White Hat gave them the same condense speech as the others to take their seats, do whatever personal business needs to be done, and that class would be starting soon. Shortly after Donny’s arrival was Kasuke Mina, the daughter of the Seductress. White Hat was aware of the irony of how difficult for a girl with a light-based quirk to escape the shadow of her mother’s legacy. Truth be told White Hat actually didn’t think that Mina would have made it to the hero course, yet here she was. Just goes to show that even for all his experience this old codger could be wrong. While Mina’s quirk didn’t seem very impressive on paper, White Hat hopes he could help draw out Mina’s full potential as she learns from this class.
Next to arrive was Acion Nakamiji, whose sister was actually a former student of White Hat’s. He had a good idea of Acion’s quirk because of that, and had high hopes for him in this class. Flight was a fairly rare quirk for most people even though such an ability is ingrained in the minds of anyone who thinks of heroes, but there was much more to it then that. The agility Acion would have, his keen eyes to see from great heights, and the durability of his feathers were also things to consider if he wishes to pursue businesses aside from heroism.
Announcing her apology for being late was Joann Joruto, or Jojo as she was called. White Hat grinned as he understood the reference. Her quirk allowed her to generate electricity from her body. Always a handy quirk even outside of it’s use as a stun weapon, electricity and energy was something that everyone needed, and anyone with a quirk like Jojo’s could easily find herself a job to utilize it. But at the same time those with quirks like hers tend to have some sort of a drawback, which this class will also help Jojo deal with. After all this class was meant to help students learn and understand their quirks, which can improve performance and handle issues they may have once had.
The last student to arrive before White Hat’s class would start was Haruka Sanegeyama, a very promising student. Her technopathy was very similar to White Hat’s own quirk, if not outright better. It took him the better part of his teenage years just trying to make his quirk into something capable of fighting villains. If he was still a young man, White Hat was certain he wouldn’t have been able to get into Komei with his powers, even if he did fight against robots. So the fact that Hakura did get in with a quirk almost like his gave the old man hope. However she seemed rather unsocial. Not really something that White Hat’s class is suppose to cover, but students are expected to be able to interact with the people too. Even those who don’t want media attention have to work with others. ”Something they’ll learn eventually I hope.”
More students arrived just in time before the next class would begin. Once the last student showed up the door was closed behind them and White Hat started handing out two separate sheets of paper: one was the syllabus of course and another was the class project. ”Please take one and pass it to the next student. Last student with the remaining sheets please bring them to the front desk.” As students received their papers they’d notice that White Hat’s devices for class, such as his laptop and projector, all activated without him doing anything in particular. He was simply standing in front of the classroom as everything was done automatically.
”Welcome to Quirk Application 101. I am your instructor, Futaba Goto, also known as White Hat. For this class you will learn how to apply your quirk in the everyday workforce outside of direct heroism, though not necessarily away from it. Allow me to begin by stating something obvious: Every one of you possess a power that defies typical science. Even if you consider your quirk to be simple or not complex, you are all capable of something that humanity has never had before until the turn of the century.”
On White Hat’s projector was a slideshow timeline of quirks, starting from the first discovery of quirks, starting with the illuminating baby in China, followed by various other quirk empowered individuals both good and evil. ”Each one of you are capable of something that entire scientific fields would be based around, even if it’s something as simple as breathing underwater or seeing in the dark. With the emergence of quirks en masses however the ability to study an individual quirk and all of it’s potential is difficult, more so when there are thousands of other people who vastly different quirks. And it is for that reason that schools like Komei exist. Not only to raise a new generation of heroes to protect our world from those who would harm it, but to educate others how to utilize their quirks in a way that will be productive for our society.”
The slideshow then started showing various superheroes, big names like Best Jeanist, Fat Gum, and even All Might himself participating in jobs that aren’t directly related to fighting villains. Specifically Best Jeanist appeared to be overseeing a clothing factory in a foreign nation, using his quirk to fix a few broken machinery and teaching the workers how to properly design certain fashions. Fat Gum was working as a police officer directing civilians away from a natural disaster. And All Might of course was also at that same natural disaster, using his strength to assist construction workers with clearing the wreckage and repairing damage.
”This class will largely be project based. As each of you have your own unique quirk that must be taken into account much of your lessons will consist of putting you outside of your comfort zone so you can figure out how your quirk can be applied. We will also have practice sessions where you will specifically be testing out the full limits of your quirk and then trying to surpass those limits. Your final exam would consist of amassing all that you have learned from this class, and presenting it to us so that we may see your growth and your potential.” While hardly a life threatening thing to think about, White Hat was well aware how some students may react to this class as something horrifying. Not just presenting themselves in front of everyone, but also having to improve themselves within the year. Everyone says they want to get better, but the ones who will pass White Hat’s class are the ones who do get better.
And as if things weren’t already difficult enough for some people, White Hat still had one more thing he wants everyone to do. ”By no means do I expect all of you do work by yourselves. I endorse cooperation between all of my students and nothing is more powerful than teamwork. But for that to work you’ll have to know more about each other, no? So, I would like for everyone to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about your quirk, such as how you use it and what ideas you have for it.”
@Conscripts@Silver Carrot@Feyblue@Eggs@Noxx
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