Chapter 120: A New Brand of Hero
Summary: A look at the changes to the Heroics Course!
Chapter 120: A New Brand of Hero
Kyoka relaxed imperceptibly as the familiar clicking of heeled boots proceeded Midnight into the room. She'd thought it likely the professor for their reduce course would be Midnight, not Vlad King. It had made sense to her, at least, given that Vlad was far more of a direct combatant than Midnight was. Which made it likely the Blood Hero had been shifted over to the Guild, given that UA didn't have all that many Heroes that focused on direct combat.
While she'd been fairly confident of the Midnight versus Vald King argument, she been far less able to dismiss the possibility that someone completely unknown to her would be leading the now-smaller Hero Course. It wasn't uncommon for teachers to change between years even in normal circumstances. In their extra-double-fucked case? It would have been totally understandable to stick them with someone new. Possibly even a new teacher from outside UA's previous staff entirely. Thankfully, as the familiar sight of her teacher half-bursting through the door filled her with relief, it was obvious that she'd guessed right about the Dean keeping it simple by sticking with Midnight.
"Good morning, minions~!"
She wanted to laugh at the reactions Midnight's declaration got from the small class, but managed to keep it down to a grin. She, Ida, Shoji, and Mineta were all that remained of Group A for the Hero Course. The majority of those staying in the course had come, instead, from Vlad King's Group B. Every single one of whom looked like a deer caught in headlights at the abrupt entry and suggestive tone Midnight started with. Not to mention the riding crop she was practically fondling as she full-on strutted to the lectern at the front of the room.
"Now, a bare few of you are old friends! Experienced hench-people I can count on to help me thwart villains! The rest of you are more used to Vlad's fuddy-duddy stoicism and no-fun exercises! Luckily, you have me now, to cure you of the complexes you've undoubtedly developed and install entirely new ones that will make you more entertaining~!"
Ida was rubbing his forehead, Mineta was nodding seriously, and Shoji…only Kyoka could tell the big man was practically giggling behind that mask. She had to admit it was pretty fun to watch Midnight inflict her extraness on someone else for a change. Still, the woman had a pattern. She'd get it out of her system and then…ah, there it was, she'd shifted stances subtly.
"That being said! All of you are in for some changes. Welcome, one and all, to the completely revamped Hero Course. Today, we've got some highlights to hit, before we also hit the Gamma Gym to do some tests that four of you will be familiar with. Which we will use to get a new power baseline for your group. First, let's take a look at something important…"
Midnight stepped to one side of the room as she keyed the room's projector to life and the lights dimmed just a tad. On the wall-screen behind where she'd been standing was now an infographic breakdown titled 'The New Hero Course and You.' Labeled on those infographics, in Midnight's stereotypically colorful language, were several categories. Just a few included 'Monster Investigation,' 'Purse Snatcher Bullshit,' and 'Rescuing Kittens from Trees.' Most were broken down farther, and Kyoka was surprised to see that there were red lines through a lot of Rescue work that would have been a staple of Pro Heroics in the past. Did that mean what she thought it did?
"As you can no doubt see, Heroics for the immediate future is going to change quite a bit. Much of what we were previously doing was, to be brutally honest, filler work. Stuff we did not because we were the most suited for it, but because we had to fill the space between dealing with the sort of crime that actually calls for us as specialists. That and optics, of course. After all, do you think a full-blown Pro Hero is really needed to stop the average purse snatcher?"
Midnight had clicked a button on the projector remote, exploding the view of the 'Purse Snatcher Bullshit' segment. As she did, its title changed to something more formal looking, labeling it 'petty crime.'
"Purse snatchers, graffiti artists, drunken idiots causing a scene. While there are occasional cases where the presence of a particularly dangerous or problematic Quirk can cause these situations to get out of hand, the reality is that the vast majority of the time a cop could handle these as easily as a Hero. Given that every major city is quickly building up a militia that can be counted on for emergency backup in the cases where a Quirk is out of hand, the need for us to step in with such small day-to-day crime is shrinking."
Midnight paused to let that sink in, before clarifying slightly. At the same time, she switched the projector back to the original infographic showing all the categories with her own special labels.
"It will never go away entirely. We aren't expecting Heroes to just ignore situations like that if they pop up in front of them. But this ties into a bigger theme. One that has also seen Heroic focus on Urban Rescue slashed. To be blunt, Heroes aren't going to be wasting time on random ass patrols any longer. Prior to now, those patrols served crime deterrent and public reassurance purposes. But with military and militia forces everywhere, along with more serious threats outside the city, patrolling down a random low-crime street is no longer a good use for our time."
That was…honestly a more of a world-shaking blow than Kyoka would have thought before Midnight ripped the band aid off. As busy as she and the other Heroes had been since the Invasion, it was easy to miss just how much the world had shifted. Realistically though, she had to admit that the idea of patrolling a shopping district no longer seemed very…rational. Not when she knew what else was out there, needing dealt with by those capable of more.
"Don't think that patrols are going to vanish entirely. They are, like many things in the new paradigm we find ourselves operating within, simply going to shift. Patrols in relatively safe areas are fine to leave in police and militia hands. But patrols in zones with suspected Monster activity, major criminal or terrorist presence, or which border on unreclaimed zones? Those places still demand a level of patrol from specialists like Pro Heroes. Patrolling will no longer be as much of your career, nor will it be the same sort of duty, but it will still be a present reality for the foreseeable future."
That checked out, yeah. It all sounded reasonable, based on their recent experiences. But it was also a heck of a shift from the pre-invasion ideal. In which patrols had been a pretty major part of all Hero Agency tasking.
"The lower rate of patrol will slash the number of times you are on hand to deal with minor crimes and will equally slash your urban rescue involvement. Frankly, firefighters and paramedics can and will reach most minor rescue cases before you with the reduced regular patrolling. The militia will also be getting barebones basic urban rescue training, allowing them to pick up any slack. Major disasters, natural or otherwise, will still demand a response from Rescue Heroes."
Midnight clicked the projector button again, and this time the Rescue Infographic expanded to fill the screen. Slashed were the expected urban rescue responses, but highlighted as a major priority were Rescue Response Teams.
"Those major disasters have, since the Invasion, been the purview of the new RRTs. This is something that we see continuing forward. The Rescue Response Teams, under Heroes like Thirteen, have proven critical to containing natural, villain, and monster caused disasters. An all-too-recent example of this is what happened in Toyama. Thirteen's RRT was utterly critical in saving the city and everyone in it. The Heroes with her were able to operate in unsecured conditions, with both villains and monsters still running around, to contain the major fire there. This sort of Rescue will keep Rescue Heroics in a prominent position, but will shift Rescue Heroes towards working in fairly large teams."
Yeah, that checked out. Franky, Kyoka thought it was probably how it should have worked under the old Heroics system too. Rescue work had been one of the few areas where Hero Teams like the Wild Wild Pussycats had still been relatively common, but the team sizes had been…anemic. The Pussycats had been pretty typical, with only four members, and had been just enough to expedite things like mountain rescue for lost hikers or rural-area landslides.
Urban Rescue had been even worse, with individuals like Backdraft operating solo, save for a few sidekicks or interns. Expanding those teams and providing them with rapid transport was frankly just good sense to her. Even if it would have been looked down on, in Japan at least, just six months ago. All Might had been a bit too much of guideline, with too many Heroes trying to emulate his solo success without the raw power to pull it off.
While Kyoka had been considering that, Midnight had moved on again. The projector had switched from Rescue to Monster Related and the professor was speaking again.
"Now, of course, the real meat of the change is here. Villains of the Major Crimes sort will still fall under our purview, of course. But you're already familiar with those sorts of actions. What will really change under our new curriculum is the focus given to Anti-Monster duties. Many or most of you will have, by now, either directly encountered or heard about varieties of monsters that don't follow the 'smash and kill everything and everyone in sight' model of dangerous."
A farther click of the remote switched out the Monster infographic to one that showed what looked disturbingly like a manta ray fused with a piece of living shadow. Glowing yellow eyes and a maw of razor-sharp teeth being two of the only giveaways of the things presence in a the dimly lit background of a parking garage. Kyoka, having encountered one herself, knew that it also had two small spikey hands on its wingtips that were surprisingly dexterous.
"Creatures like the Shadow Cloaker aren't made for direct combat. Instead, they are scouts, saboteurs, and in the case of more intelligent creatures in the same vein, Rift creators. You should all be aware that, while the enemy has switched to Rift Bubbles for mass assault, they still semi-frequently open strategically placed smaller Rifts to cause chaos. They rarely attempt to turn them into Gates at this point, instead using them as temporary transit for forces aimed to either cause chaos or harvest what civilians they can before a response team arrives."
There were grim nods at that. While far fewer civilians were at risk now, not all of them could be moved into cities. Rural areas were still needed for food production and the like, despite best efforts to reduce reliance on such with the massive vertical hydroponic farms being built into skyscrapers in major cities. Despite all the militia and response teams could do, Rifts that opened unexpectedly could cause dozens of dead civilian workers before they could react and close them.
"Worse, we've recently discovered that there are apparently ways to open Rifts inside the protection of RADS array fields."
A few gasps and a whole classroom of straightened backs met that statement, none of them having been aware of that fact save Kyoka, who knew what Midnight was about to say.
"This is a vulnerability that can only be exploited by opening a Rift from our side, not the Empire's. This means that stealth units are particularly dangerous, as they can slowly build up the resources within a protected zone to open a Rift. Investigating serial disappearances for monster involvement. Then dealing with the ambush tactics of such monsters if they are around. That is going to be a big priority for Heroes going forward."
Midnight clicked for another slide, and the briefing about the changes to the Heroics paradigm continued onward…
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A/N: So, this and the next several chapters (including those currently in Early Access as of this Author's Note) are serving as a transition. I mentioned in a previous author's note that patrons voted for Momo and Izumi to start focusing on industrial might and science! But that was a major tone shift for the story, and I also promised to continue to include some of the other elements. As such, I needed a series of chapters to smooth out that shift into the new direction and pace...