—Cole POV, Evening—
Unexpectedly the incident at UA made it onto the news both in Japan and Internationally. Fortunately, they only played snippets of my fight with the robots and my capture of Technomaster, but it was still enough to warrant several calls from my parents. Mom was extremely worried about my safety as the news apparently didn't report on my status, she was concerned that I may have been critically injured in the fight. Dad, on the other hand, praised me for a job well done and said that several news agencies were wanting to have an interview with me.
Promising him that I would consider it, I reminded dad that I had a lot going on at the moment. Not only was still getting used to being a Pro Hero, I told dad that I was now a part-time teacher at UA. The reason I was telling him this now was that if I didn't, grandpa would so it was simpler to get it over with. Congratulating me on the new position, he told me to keep climbing to the top of the popularity charts. Ending the call shortly after that, I spent the rest of the afternoon experimenting with Technomaster's Quirk: Interface.
Coming home just before sunset, grandpa asked me to sit down with him to talk. Figuring Nezu had called him, I braced myself for more pleading with me to take over the agency. Taking a seat in front of him, the first words out of his mouth was an apology to me.
"I am sorry Cole, I have been a failure to you as a grandfather.", he said bowing his head.
Asking him what was going on, he told me he had seen all the security footage from this morning.
"You are right Cole, there are a lot of fake heroes in this line of work. Far too many people are in it for the paycheck, and care little for the people they save/protect.", he explained, "It's clear you know that your father is one of them…that the fame, fortune, and prestige that comes from our family business has corrupted him. Your grandmother and mother tried to keep you out of this, but it fell our deaf ears. Both your father and I pushed this on you, and I am sorry that I had a hand in it."
"Grandpa, I know that grandma, mom, and you care a lot about me. I also know that deep down dad does too, but it's frustrating that you all keep referring to this as a business. Saving a person's life isn't a business…", I told him looking him dead in the eyes, "I didn't jump into that fight today because I got paid to do it, I did it because if I didn't those kids would have gone home in a body bag."
Staring at me, he looked shocked that I would say that.
"Too many Heroes look at a situation and evaluate the worth of involving themselves. Some Heroes may think it's beneath them, while others might think letting a few civilians die will make the bounty on a villain go up thereby giving them a bigger payday.", I continued, "By making it all about business you put a monetary value on everyone's life…that is wrong and you know it! Just because someone may be poor, ill, young, or old doesn't make their life any more or less valuable!"
"I…I am not-", he tried to say but I cut him off.
"You may not realize it, but you do think that way. If you had to choose between saving people or pursuing a perp, what would you do?", I asked him point blank.
"I mean that depends on…", he started to say before he stopped himself, "Oh lord…"
"It depends on the situation, but that shouldn't be the answer. Someone else will help them, is what you would think, and keep going. The problem with that is what if everyone behind you makes that same decision?", I said recalling my second life as a Sage.
The Hero in that world paraded himself around like he was God's Gift to the world and was doing things "For the greater good". I lost count of the number of times he and the rest of the party chased down enemies while leaving injured people behind. He was so stuck on the idea that a Hero has to catch/kill the villain that when it came to being worried about civilians, he completely ignored them when villains were around.
'I was like that too for a while as the Hero, it took a slap from an angry mother holding her dead child for me to wake up. Instead of using my healing magic to close his wounds when I was running by, I pursued a group of bandits believing that they were the higher priority. The problem was I had a Ranger in my group so we could have tracked them down easily after tending to the child.', I thought remembering how angry she was at me for choosing glory over a child.
Realizing that I had just crossed a line by insinuating he was in it for some benefit, I quickly corrected myself.
"I am sorry grandpa, I am not saying everyone is it in for money and fame. Sometimes people get caught up on that title and think they always have to catch the criminal to live up to it. In reality, sometimes being a Hero means just showing up and showing that you care.", I stated placing a hand on his shoulder.
Giving me a smile, he agreed with that statement.
"You are far wiser than a young man your age should be.", he chuckled, "I would have expected this lecture from Gran Torino or even Toshinori, but not my grandson. Cole, I am sorry it took me this long to realize what we have been doing is wrong."
"It's okay grandpa, it's hard to break the cycle. It's been going on now for several generations, I don't hold it against you. I just wish Dad had stuck to his guns as a kid, maybe he would have been a better dad if had.", I said, "Anyways enough with the heavy talking, let's go get some drinks! The legal age is 20 here so let's go enjoy ourselves a bit!"
Giving me a smile, he agreed to it and went out to a bar with me.
—Next Day—
Waking up the next morning at 8 am, I continued messing around with Interface as I tried to master it. The Quirk had two abilities, the first allows the users to physically enter tech like a piece of software. The second function was that once inside, the user had complete and unhindered control of the tech.
'It is limited though by how quickly one can think, that's probably why UA was able to keep Technomaster from taking control of other system functions. That means that Technomaster was actually pretty intelligent even though he acted like a punk.', I thought, 'Either way this really extends my abilities even more. Since I can get almost anywhere via power lines, that means I can get into many isolated networks to retrieve crucial data.'
Having already tested out the Quirk by accessing private files from the Japanese Hero Association Branch, I had gathered quite a lot of useful intel. For example, the organization was well aware of what Endeavor had done to his family yet never acted on it. Since he produced excellent results, they had opted to not make a big deal out of it and let it slide. The fact that they would let Japan's Number 2 Hero get away with that spoke to how bad the organization really was.
"Not only that, they already knew All For One survived his last clash with All Might but never told him. They are even aware of what happened to Shigaraki too…", I muttered looking through the files, "So not only does All For One have a lot of sway in the media, he has allies in the Hero Association too. This is definitely different from the storyline I know, I wonder why it changed."
Either way, All For One has access to Quirk data from the Hero Association which is a terrible thing for everyone. That means he basically can make a shopping list of Quirks to take, and know where to find the Heroes at their place of residence. In addition to that, he knows when powerful Heroes die that he can have made into Nomu. My first step will be to cut off his supply of corpses, the dead deserve to be buried with dignity and not be experimented on like lab rats.
"I will probably want to have some help from local heroes too. Something this big needs people with pull to be involved, Nezu, All Might, and Mirko are all people I can involve but not quite yet. Right now this is all just on paper, and the association will claim they are forged documents. I need physical proof that this is going on, and I will need to get help with that.", I said to myself, "There are just too many places to cover properly, I can't be everywhere at once right now."
There were Quirks I could get that would grant me that ability, but for the moment they were out of reach. I needed people that I could trust, and have them assist me.
'The Wild, Wild Pussycats are probably my best option for this. Ragdoll's Search Quirk would be invaluable in tracking potential henchmen.', I thought with a nod, 'They are up and coming Heroes too so they aren't quite on the association's watchlist yet. Their HQ is here in Musutafu so I should probably get the ball rolling on this.'
Heading downstairs to get breakfast, grandpa was up already and watching the news. As I expected, Technomaster was found dead this morning in his cell. With the number of countries he pissed off, I wasn't the least bit surprised he was killed. They ruled his death a suicide, but I was sure most people knew it really wasn't. In the state I left him in, he wouldn't have been able to move a finger let alone his whole body.
"You seeing this?", grandpa said pointing at the tv.
"Yeah, it's hard to believe that he's dead.", I replied, "I wonder which country did the deed."
"Haha, you are thinking the same thing I am.", he chuckled, "At least they are not pinning his death on you, that's the best outcome here."
Agreeing with him, I poured myself a bowl of cereal. Telling him that I was planning on meeting with some of the local Heroes, he turned back to look at me with a smirk. Asking what was wrong, he point blank asked me if I was going to flirt with the local, single Heroines. Choking on a bite of cereal, I questioned him on why he thought I would be doing that.
"Gran Torino got me up to speed on all the single women here, you should really consider meeting some of them.", he teased me.
"Gramps…we just had a conversation about pushing crap on me last night.", I sighed.
"This is different, whether you do it is your choice. Just know that this geezer won't be around forever, he'd appreciate being able to see you happily married.", he chuckled, "If you don't, that's fine too. It's just there are so many cuties out there."
Holding my face in my hand, I asked him why he was saying it like that.
"I am an old man, I am allowed to say things like that. Your grandmother was my only love, but that doesn't mean I didn't admire other beauties from afar.", he snickered.
"I am surprised she didn't beat you for that.", I said.
"Who says she didn't?", he laughed.
Finishing my bowl of cereal, I headed out to meet the feline-themed team.