MHA: LAW OF MOTION

CHAPTER SIX

Schoolchildren chattered excitedly as they trooped toward the school grounds. Cherry blossoms bloomed all around, creating a picturesque view heralding the start of spring.

I.A.E was one of the more prestigious schools in this part of town. It didn't compare to the more elite schools in Tokyo, where one could get a recommendation to U.A, but it had solid sports teams as well as a world-class library.

In fact, last year, a senior from our school, Yu Takeyama, got admitted into U.A. High. It was the talk of the whole town for a while, in fact.

My brother walked in tandem with me until we reached the school gates. He immediately shook his hand to wave me off as he made his way toward the school.

I adjusted my backpack and took light steps toward my class. I immediately paused as I saw a middle-aged woman with a warm smile on her face. Beside her stood Hana, wearing a foolish grin as she waved aggressively at me.

I waved back as I walked toward them. "Hey, Hana, how've you been?"

She immediately sprinted into my arms, giving me a fierce hug, squealing all the way. The moment she pulled away, I was met with her mother's curious gaze.

"Good morning, Mama-san. My name is Hayami Rio. Nice to meet you," I said, making a slight bow.

"Ara-ara, what a gentleman we have here. I've heard so much about you. I'll call you Rio-kun, and you can call me Kasumi-san, okay?"

"Hmm, I understand, Kasumi-san." I nodded in agreement, and to that, she just smiled.

"We're going to be late, Rio," Hana grumbled, dragging me away. "Bye-bye, Mama."

"Thank you for always looking out for Hanae, Rio-kun."

Hana just dragged me off impatiently, waving back at her mother.

"Your name's Hanae?"

To that, I received an elbow to the ribs.

Another mundane day at school ended as I packed my things up. Walking out of the classroom, I was met with Hana, who was looking down at me with a pout.

Yes, looking down. Hana stood at an impressive height of four feet six inches. Whatever was in the food she was eating, I don't think I was getting any of it.

With a huff, I looked her in the eyes and asked as straightforwardly as possible, "What is this about again?"

She just puffed her cheeks in indignation, further fueling my confusion. After waiting a couple of moments and seeing that I was genuinely curious about what was wrong, she sighed and told me.

"I told you about the volleyball team tryouts today. You said you'd be cheering me on."

I groaned in frustration. I had easily forgotten, even though I had explicitly promised to be there.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just—I've been really busy recently, and with things at home—"

Hana just harrumphed and walked away immediately, not forgetting to call me a big meanie.

Dealing with her was like dealing with a daughter I didn't have. I'd try to coax and make it up to her tomorrow.

I immediately counted the money I had on hand from extorting the middle school students on the other block during recess. I hummed in satisfaction when I noted it was enough to secure a sizeable meal before dinner.

I walked briskly back home, careful not to accidentally activate my quirk and burn more energy than I was comfortable with.

I left my shoes in the hallway as I walked up to my room, where my brother was putting on a pair of high-tech glasses with data streaming rapidly through them. He worked with two more screens running in the background.

"You were late. Again," Takeru said without even looking up from the screen.

To that, I just threw a pack of food at him, which he caught immediately.

He scrutinized me intensely for a couple of seconds before sighing and opening up the pack of hot noodles. He took a big slurp of the soup and looked at me again.

"I hope you aren't doing something stupid for money anymore. If not for Mr. Miyagi settling the case with that salaryman last time, you could have been in big trouble."

"No, I won't do that anymore. I've learned my lesson. I took a page from your book and persuaded some nice kids from the seventh grade to lend me some cash."

"Those bullies aren't a renewable resource. You just might scare them into being good kids. Look what I've got done. The interface is a little jerky, but it's already working as intended."

Takeru pointed at the screen as I put down my bag and gazed at the display intently.

"This is amazing, man. All we need to do is troubleshoot and sort out some bugs, and then this will be operable."

"It's not that simple. It's only basic reporting features as well as mapping features. The algorithm for accessing security cameras in the neighborhood is currently online, but we'd need permission from every household and store in the community. Or we could get a government contract and be set for life—but that's unlikely."

We just watched in silence as small screens popped up all over the monitor, each one representing a household, a storefront, or a business.

"This is definitely illegal, right? I don't think people will take kindly to such strict monitoring measures," Takeru said worriedly, still unsure if this idea would be profitable.

"Bro, look at the bright side. This will be really helpful for hero agencies working in the area. They'd have as much information as possible on any crime scene. It'd also help with their popularity rankings since information gets directly to the heroes on the app."

Takeru and I had been working on an app that could provide constant surveillance on a designated area, giving immediate and firsthand information on crimes happening.

This was useless on its own, though. Anyone with a smattering of coding knowledge could quickly replicate it. The real kicker was this:

An artificial intelligence program trained on public information about known quirks and the criminal records of known villains. A mini database of all the heroes in the area. The aim was to train it to detect and deploy the heroes most suitable for handling each task.

"It's not going very well, though. We'd need to scale up massively if we want this to work as intended."

I sighed as the command inputted gave an error code. Once again, our efforts had been fruitless. By now, we had hoped to have a working prototype.

I groaned in frustration as I went downstairs to get a drink. On returning upstairs, I offered my brother a can of cold cola.

"Thanks for helping out all the time. I know it's been really hard on you these past couple of months, but still, I appreciate the effort you've been putting in."

"You're amazing, though, Takeru. Machine learning, Kotlin, Python—you make professional programmers look incompetent."

Takeru immediately burst into laughter. "Flattery will get you nowhere, bro. I don't even know if that's a compliment or not."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You can completely keep up with me, and you're only six. I don't know how far ahead you'll be at my age."

"It still took years of effort to get this good. I didn't get here by accident."

To that, Takeru gave a deadpan stare.

"Dude, it's been six months. I don't recall you having years of experience in this. Stop the cap."

"You wouldn't understand. I can stretch a moment into a day. You'd best believe I have years of experience when I say it."

"Ah, shit, my bad, little bro. Still, my head hurts already. Let's take a break for real."

"So, TV or video games today?"

"Video games, obviously, Rio. Is that even a question?"

We immediately turned on the TV and settled comfortably in our seats.

"We interrupt this program to bring you some very unsettling news. By 5 PM today, a group of elementary school students was attacked, with two individuals kidnapped. Sources say this was done by a group of villains clad in white robes. Local heroes are on the scene as they comb the streets of Sapporo to retrieve the missing children."

"We are live at the location of the parents of one of the victims today. She has a statement for the heroes and the police on the scene."

Immediately, the camera panned to the victim's parent, and the remote fell from my hands onto the floor.

There, on the screen, was Fujiwara Kasumi—Hana's mom—crying profusely at the camera.

"PLEASE, PLEASE SAVE MY BABY, PLEASE!"

"Sorry, everyone. There seems to be interference on the channel. A hostile frequency is trying to intercept the program."

With a loud static noise and momentary buzzing on the screen, the image finally settled.

And a rage so blinding it filled his very soul burned [author] [/author]in him.

Strapped to a chair with chains, bruised and battered, was seven-year-old Hanae. Next to her was another child in similar condition, with cow-like features, clearly on her last breath.

A man, decked in a pure white robe and wearing a white conical mask, took to the screen.

He gazed at the screen with a menacing glare, eyes seemingly spitting flames from their intensity.

"The Lord created man in His image. Pure humanity, blessed creatures with His grace, conquered the world. The lands, the seas, the air, and even outer space were ours to claim."

His voice was hypnotic, eerily compelling.

"In His infinite mercy, He gave us even more—a reward for His faithful servants. Quirks are the Lord's affirmation to man, the proof of His great love to the world. But these—"

"These things walk among us. They breathe the same air as us, but they are not us. Imperfections in humanity's great revolution. A caricature. A poor imitation of man."

The priest fumed, a great anger simmering inside him.

"No more will we allow these beasts to taint us. No more will these pests, who continue to produce their deformed offspring, be allowed to go free."

He paused and took a deep breath.

"We are the Creature Rejection Clan. We will keep humanity pure."

And with that, the image switched off, and the screen turned black.