Even if Mai had made something of an awkward joke, Max was possibly lucky to not understand it fully, the powers of subtlety being lost in translation for someone who hadn’t learned enough Japanese yet to understand finer details and subtleties.

“Fascinating…” Max remarked softly as Mai spoke of her upbringing and her reasons of being.

In the time he’d been in Tokyo, he’d hear a lot of heroes and would-be heroes talk about family traditions and trying to uphold them, it clearly was something that was different to his own. Perhaps because of the way his father had been, he had felt little in emulating that man.

But even then, it definitely felt unique to Japan for anybody, especially heroes, to feel so beholden to family ideals. But he neither thought it was inherently good or bad, just more reason to do things the same or differently than who came before.

“It’s interesting you say that, I’ve not been here long enough to notice something, but at least my instincts aren’t messed up.” he’d answer her worries about the state of the city, the restlessness.

An outsider like him could easily mistake it as the general pulse of a city, since every place had their own ways of existing. Some cities were constantly busy, even when they had no reason to be, some places seemed like they were devoid of human interaction whilst others you couldn’t go two blocks without something happening.

“As for me, I’m staying for as long as people want me around. It has worked for me in the past, don’t think there’s a reason for me to change that approach now.” he’d say with a swiftness and confidence that would hopefully bury the question as to why anybody wouldn’t want him around in the first place.

Glancing around, he’d nod at someone tending to their yard as they continued down their path.

“Anything specific I need to look out for?” he’d ask, tracking back to his partner’s earlier worries.

Tag: Shirayuki Mai

It wasn’t fair of him to put the student on the spot like that, and he doubted that most of them in the class would be able to give him a coherent answer if they had been put in a similar situation as the young Frenchwoman had been.

But he’d write down some notes anyways, if only to make her ‘failure’ seem more dramatic than it actually was. Childish mindgames, but at least it would help keep everyone focused for the dourly boring lectures that were to come in the future.

“Well yes, I did mention the license. But it’s about more than just the license, ultimately any one of you can get a license once they finish their studies with passing grades, but that doesn’t necessarily make all of you capable heroes from the first day.” he’d explain, flicking through his notebook that was comprised of a messy system of notes that only he somehow could decipher.

Letting in a deep breath and taking another sip of water, he’d look over the class. “A hero is someone who protects others, not just through action, but through example. Acting on emotion rather than rationally causes a hero to make mistakes, or blind themselves to the responsibility they have been given.” he’d say, again continuing the lecture.

“We have a responsibility to use our station correctly, and in the most heated moment make the cool headed decision that protect as many lives as possible, even if sometimes the choice made is not the one that will feel like the right one.” he’d add, taking another sip. “We have to work with law enforcement to uphold public trust, and the laws we are all expected to follow. That includes treating criminals, even if some might not deserve such treatment, a level of respect and care that we give civilians and our fellow heroes… Because even villains deserve a day in court, so that justice can work, and society can thrive.”

“A vigilante, as people call them, does not have to work with police, nor do they need to respect the justice system as it exists. They make their own laws, and mete out justice only in a way that they deem satisfactory. Whether that’s beating up criminals without proof, or even killing when they deem it necessary. Rather than letting society police itself, they merely give themselves the right of judge, jury, and executioner… So whilst there are many vigilantes with the right intentions, without upholding the law they are ultimately equally a problem as the villains they strive to stop. They subvert justice, and diminish people’s trust in the system. Why let a hero take a killer into custody, when a vigilante could simply kill him?” he’d finish, letting another dilemma sit in the room.

It was a heavy and talkative lecture for a first class of the semester, but he hoped it would lead to further philosophizing amongst the students in future days. For them to make their own understanding, rather than a system where one out of four answers was the correct one.

“Enough for now, like I asked at the start of the class, you can take the coming week to deliver to me a short form essay of one page concerning your interpretation of ’what makes a hero different?’. Once again, there are no right and wrong answers, just interpretations.

Tapping a pen on his desk, he’d look over the class and give a nod at the door. “Now go learn how to be heroes some more.” he’d say with the faintest of smiles.

But as the Frenchwoman would pass the desk, he’d aim a look. “Miss Lemieux, quick talk, please?” he’d ask her in their shared native language.

Julienne Lémieux

“Same Time!” one of them would yell, and Max would internally groan a little as they had so quickly reverted to caveman tactics to deal with the heroic problem at hand.

But despite their collective stupidity, he’d know better than to lose his composure or become complacent about the situation. Rather his hud constantly adjusting his rifle’s output, he tried his best to let it do its job by aiming center of mass and letting loose a blast.

One of them would find a way through, or at least had more resiliency than the system had assumed, pushing forward and levelling his pointy horn at Max’s chest looking to gore him. Max stepped back, then adjusted his stance to try and deflect the blow, only working partially as the crook passed him by but would use his hidden knife to slash at Max’s chest where the horn would miss.

His jacket ripped, that annoyed him greatly, but they’d be shocked as his thick skin would cause the knife to harshly bounce off and get flicked out of the crook’s flimsy grip.

“Nice try.” Max would exclaim as he opted for the physical approach and levelled his forearm into the crook’s face, slamming them into the ground harshly.

It was a less than efficient approach, and his rifle would do a better attempt at protecting the criminal than his forearm ever did. But it dropped them like an overripe sack of potatoes.

The third one had picked himself up, but on a third volley his rifle wasn’t guessing anymore, and the next shot landed center of mass and put him to sleep.

[[CIVILIAN IN DANGER]] his hud called out in a harsh tone that couldn’t be ignored.

Max turned around to face the new situation, and a new face that his system hadn’t accounted for thus far.

“Who the hell are you?” he’d say, levelling his rifle as his system frantically tried to access the database and get a respectable firing solution.

Tag: gamelizard

Max should’ve figured as he got closer, there truly was little honour amongst thieves. A singular criminal against a handful of them, someone who snatched a civilians bag and the jackals that were opportunistically looking to steal someone else’s undeserved feast.

Unfortunately for the five of them, Lawbringer would make sure that nobody was going to get away with the bag, but also nobody was going to get hurt…

… Because the four jackals definitely looked like they weren’t interested in simply asking for the other crook to hand over the valuables, and the crook despite their unassuming stature seemed very unimpressed either.

It was going to become a back-alley quirk brawl, and the worst part was that Max knew that he was going to get the brunt of it the moment he jumped in between.

“Ok, the dance is over, kids.” The hero named Lawbringer called out as they appeared and quickly and confidently strode towards the middle. The French accent in his technically sound but stilted Japanese speech undoubtedly causing some momentary confusion.

As an added touch, his head unit had only sparse information on a few of them, mostly just dossiers about minor crimes, not even bad enough for quirks to be written down, so they were crimes without the use of the latter.

“Who the hell are you, old man?!” came from the lips of what Max assumed was the leader of the jackals, their eyes slit like a cat and the ends of their fingers curled into devastatingly sharp claws.

“…I’m the guy that makes sure none of you end up in the hospital, if you’re smart enough to stop right now…” he’d say in a calm but commanding voice. “But you can call me ‘Lawbringer’…” he’d say, his attitude somewhat inspired by old timey cowboys.

Laughs emanated from the jackals, meanwhile the singular crook stayed stoic and unimpressed despite being now cornered by four criminals and a hero.

“Ain’t you tough shit, well none of us ever heard of your bum ass!” they called out with more excess attitude.

The leader nodded at his buddies, each of them spreading out to pounce on him…

Max could only sigh as he tapped some preliminary settings into his rifle. “I gave you all a chance, just remember that when you’re sleeping in a cell tonight.” he’d say as he levelled his rifle at the first target.

All of them some form of animalistic aspect to them, the first one had barely pounced before they had gotten a kinetic blast straight to their center mass to throw them off their feet. Hard enough to make them sprawl, soft enough for it to at best leave a bruise.

It was a warning shot, the first and only one he offered them…

Tag: gamelizard

Max let out a gruff little laugh at his partner being ready much faster than he would’ve been, the merits of equipment with quick readymade outfits, made him feel like an even older man for needing to take all the time to get himself fully set up.

“Nope.” he’d answer dryly, but tapped on his head unit. “But the unit has the route programmed into it, and all extra info we might need.” he’d say confidently.

He wasn’t the only one with expensive equipment, but his own gear choices had always been focused on pure practicality. With his quirk as it was, he could do patrols in a tank top if he wanted to.

The armour was partially aesthetics, and not making it too easy on criminals.

“Besides, it’s a pretty relaxed route from what I heard.” he’d add with stoic confidence.

This patrol was more so about learning his new colleagues.

“It’s different, but I am getting used to it.” he’d reply, at least his Japanese already being good enough albeit with a noticeable French accent. “I’ve been in big places, but Tokyo’s a different beast, yeah?” he’d continue, quickly falling into the ease of aimless banter.

It would make the patrol go by a whole lot quicker, and he had so much experience with the simple intricacies of meeting new people, it was basically a second nature.

Tag: Shirayuki Mai

”Traveling kinda came natural to me, I guess.” he’d lie somewhat stone-facedly.

In truth, it had become as much a necessity in his career than a genuine desire. But eventually he had grown used to the transient nature of his career, ending up in different places also meant that he had learnt how different countries had different heroes, and also different ways of upholding the law.

”As to why I came to Japan, the simple answer is because the headmaster offered me a job to become faculty, and it was the best job offer a hero like me could get.” he’d add, somewhat discounting himself, but still probably a honest assessment of the truth.

U.A. was the cream of the crop, not just the students were some of the best and most talented in the world, the faculty was equally capable and exceptional to go with the state of the art nature of the university.

The hero named Lawbringer was painfully plain compared to all that, the only thing he brought to the table was the experience of traveling the world one burnt bridge at a time.

”But I think the traveling was good for me, it taught me more than I would have had if I had stayed in France.” he’d add.

Glancing back at the hero in training, he figured that the same question was in order. ”I have a good idea why you came to U.A., but what makes you want to be a hero?” he’d ask directly, deciding to immediately start with the live ammo.

He knew why they were becoming one, that was obvious to anybody that had half an idea of how career dynasties worked. But more interesting to him was what pushed her to try to become one, rather than what had pushed her into the door.

Masao Ando