Of Flames And Quirks And Harmony

[26] Heroes, Villains, and the (in)Justice in Between

Izuku woke up to feeling movement around him and a heavy something over his torso. He opened his eyes to the sight of his Cloud's candy cane hair, seemingly asleep on his bed and his arms slung over him.

(While Ochako went back to her apartment to pack up her stuff because the angel in Nana offered her a room for free, Shoto stayed the night, as part of his rebellion. He eventually met Bianchi, the reason why they did the talk at Takeshi's place. He met the poisons expert, and he was on the more fortunate side of things, being able to see through Bianchi's antics of hospitality at its best.

She was getting better, though, so Shoto had an early night out. Bianchi had slipped something mild, so it made her dish unassuming, thus her prey for the night did fell victim.)

This up close to Shoto, he could see the smooth face and count his long eyelashes. Good thing he knew his Cloud just enough not to be fooled by the delicate features.

Shoto wrinkled his face before the pair of turquois blue and gray eyes opened in a frown. "Izuku-kun," he greeted in question, voice a bit rough from waking up but it was distinctively Shoto's.

He blinked innocently before leaning towards his Cloud and snuggled, lulling the other teen to sleep with their Harmony intertwining and glowing in a dance of orange and purple.

Shoto huffed before pulling him closer.

At times like these, it was impossible for Izuku to get back to sleep, most especially since it was already past 4 in the morning, if the red blinking of his digital clock was anything to go by. All he'd do was stare at the ceiling, and let his mind wander.

And wander his mind did, replaying the night before's conversation.

None had any grand reasons in becoming a hero. Ochako was in for the money. Shoto was in because it was expected of him. At some point in his life, he lost his dream after seeing Endeavor, who prided himself as a hero. Hitoshi lost all hope because of the stereotypical status quo. Don't even get him started on Tsuna and the rest of them - those guys were forced, due to redefining profession. (Isn't it ironic that Tsuna and his Guardians had saved the future world once already, while being a teenage mafia boss in training barely out of middle school, without any hero licenses.)

So no. None had any grandeur reason to become a hero. For it to become something noble, the reason always (it never fails) depends on one's reasoning. So what if Ochako was in for the money? She needed the funds to upend the game of their construction company. In the long run it helps even their employees, so how did it become selfish?

But then again, Izuku doesn't have any right to speak for what's a good reason and what's not. He'd been drenched in gallons of Heroes blood in coldhearted killing, never even thinking if they deserved death or not. So what does he know?

What Izuku does know is that the Hero perceptive, the Villain labelling, the vulgaric generalization of Society, is flawed. It is oh, so flawed, there is no hope - no, not even false hope could salvage it - in the future.

Justice is a fickle, generally grey concept, and "true justice" is an even more broader topic, there is no end to it in sight. Justice is defined by the idealists as "good deeds done for no reward", but then it just seem like some sort of self-satisfaction if there were no greater goal in the end game. In contrast to this, having a goal would mean there is a self interest involved, which debauches the whole point of the "without rewards" part.

In reality, though, justice is nothing more than a convenient tool; a weapon to serve one's own goal. A colorless flag to legitimize violence. As the saying goes, the end justifies the means. One could say purging what they see as the wrong side of the line would serve justice. Take Mukuro for example. He massacred the old Estraneo, who were doing illegal child experimentations. Many would be thankful to be rid of their filthy laboratories and all, but not many - a few may even come from the thankful themselves - would approve of all the blood spilled as a result.

In the end, justice depends on how one would view them. Was the violence necessary, even if it meant complete annihilation of the wrong doers and is a sureway that no other would attempt to do the same thing for fear of risking their own life?

Heroes and villains are the same. Both have their own definition of "good" and "justice" and have their own ways of showing them. Sure, one can have a noble self appointed mission of changing the views about, for example, quirks, but how they carry out that mission is what makes another party label them as villain or hero as they witness how everything unfolds.

So there's no difference at all. Both parties are just 2sides of the same coin, one cannot live without the other; like darkness and light, one is always there for the other to appear. There's no actual line to draw on what makes one different from the other. The 'good' and the 'bad' always at a war wih each other, there always had to be a contrast for one concept to be accepted, or there will be no backbone to prove it.

Ah, the fucking, missing backbone.

It was missing because people are stupid.

Heroes or villains, the lines of society would never allow one to be different, and still fit into the former. The titles were so, so much more defined, and if someone couldn't cram themselves into the stereotype of society, the were forced to become the latter.

Izuku is just radically thinking, but he hates it; the mindset, the expectations, the dictations, the dumb opinion of society on oneself. People will tell what is selfish and what's selfless. They decide on your morality without all of the facts. The public will decide everything based on what the status quo is. For the most part, they're mindless sheep who listen to propaganda and are unable to think critically for themselves.

The status quo says that the child of a villain will have to become a villain, that the child of a hero has to become a hero... That the person with a villainous quirk has to become a villain, someone with a hero's quirk has to become a hero... Status quo says that quirkless means useless. Status quo says that a quirkless person has no place in normal society. Status quo pushes kids with villainous quirks to villainy. Those whose parents are villains, too.

(Huh, what did status quo wanted to say to him, exactly, considering his roots and diagnosis?)

It shouldn't be like that. Villainous quirks shouldn't exist. Because a quirk couldn't be villainous, or heroic. It was the person who made it one or the other, and what one's quirk was shouldn't be what drove them to a specific field.

Sympathy was overrated. It was entangled in the definition of what a human was supposed to be, and yet, so many - heroes and villains alike - disregarded it completely.

Sadly, the world is rotten and it cannot be fixed.

***

I'm going to put this here because I don't know why wattpad doesn't add the photo at the top. It either cancels the youtube video or removes the photo altogether 😓 So I might just start the future chapters with a photo on the writting area instead of on the media panel.

And I'm glad this is getting attention with 1k+ reads here on wattpad and 2.8k hits on ao3, considering this is my first story, like, ever. First time attempting to write a story. I thank y'all🥰