The Venom of Izuku Yagi

39: Trial by trial

Izuku nodded as the next witness was called to the stage and the cycle continued, with the jury showing no bias despite the overwhelming evidence against it. Nezu, Rai, Shota, Izuku and the lawyer understood it almost right away, they were bought out... and the pieces seemed to fit all too perfectly together.

The timing of the trial, the same place but opposite side of the building, the fact the Hatsume's couldn't possibly afford this. The commission was using Mei's freedom trial to get to Izuku by rigging it. Izuku leaned in and whispered it to Mei whose eyes went wide with tears forming before she calmed down. Then she, like her girlfriend leaned over to their lawyer and asked for a favour. His eyes just like Mei's popped out, and his expression caught the attention of the judge who didn't say anything since she too understood what happened to the jury. The man stood up and called his final witness.

'And finally, to the stand I call Mei, no last name.' Gasps across the room could be heard as Rai tried to interject before catching the pink haired girls calm gaze, he calmed down and just watched.

She made her way to the stand, swore to tell the truth and sat down.

'Now I know this may be painful for you Mei but could you recount, in a compressed form, your life from that fateful day when you were four to the day you were kicked out.'

Mei nodded and began.  She started with her being given a weak quirk, her parents annoyed with the lack of monetary potential with it, leading to arguments between the two which only stopped when the my finally came to a conclusion, to beat their daughter. Why shouldn't they it was her fault after all, she recalled them saying.

So Mei said she took it, she didn't want to be a burden and she wanted to make things right. Her parents terrified her and she was scared for her siblings when they were born but when they joined in, Mei broke.

Luckily she'd seen support heroes, ones smart and helpful, some with no quirks at all! It fuelled her and after a year or two of seeing it she started inventing. Nothing changed though, at least in a positive aspect, they actually got worse, her explosions gave more fuel for sibling insults and more reasons for beatings. Until one day they snapped and kicked her out.

'Thank you.' The man said, 'That will be all.'

The judge nodded and he returned to his seat as the opposition rose.

'Now then, you say this happened to you but is there any proof.' She asked as muttering broke out in the stands

'Yes...' Mei said without missing a beat, 'Would you like to see?'

The courtroom fell quiet as the judge too over.

'Please do, but first leave if you are uncomfortable with distressing scenes' A few people further back got up and left, 'Good now you may continue.'

The girl nodded and turned around, pulling up the base of her T-shirt, the area of her back became visible to the room, no words were said but people did gasp and glare at the family who were sweating bullets.

The adults had noticed the bias and were happy with it but they knew at this point they were done for. Physical evidence along with a testimony like that, even buying out the judge wouldn't have helped them.

The judge banged her hammer, 'Order, thank you Mei, please replace your clothing and return to your seat.' Mei nodded and complied as the judge went to address the courtroom, 'Now we will take a short recess while the Ju-'

'Actually your honor, the jury have reached their verdict already.'

She nodded, 'You may continue.'

'We the jury find the defendant ... guilty by unanimous vote.'

The judge nodded, 'As such the I will now pass my verdict' She turned to face the shaking family, 'To the parents I place you both 20 years in jail, no opportunity to parole, the children will be put into juvenile detention until they're of age to go to high school. At which they will be released into the system with a black mark on their records, making it hard to be heroes.' She banged her hammer, 'Court adjourned.'

Screams broke out as police came in to escort the family out, who weren't taking it well, squirming fighting and biting their captors trying to escape and attack Mei.

They were soon dealt with as the now happy group left the room and headed towards Izuku's court room. The same set of formalities occurred before the prosecution opened with their speech against an unrepresented Izuku.

'Now your honor, the hero commission placed a contract between our two entities, they provided support gear for heroes through us, so contracts aren't needed every time and we in turn provided a special hero licence to the individual name Venom. This special license has only been handed out a handful of times and will be the first time its being retracted since they knowingly broke the law bound contract. That is all.'

The man in the podium sighed and gestured for Izuku to start, 'First may I point out the corruption here.'

The other side broke into chaos yelling at the girl covered in the symbiote.

'ORDER ORDER.' The man yelled, 'Please continue.'

'Thank you, now as you may see, I have no legal representation neither was I offered any. This however holds no relevance in this bigger argument of them fixing another trial to be held just before this one, a trial that held significant value to me. The jury was bought out yet we still prevailed.' The hero commission started to sweat, 'But none of that mattered to my final decision, I just thought you should know'

The man nodded, 'The court takes note and will investigate any corruption stated, please continue.'

'I will voluntarily hand back this piece of plastic, the people accusing me made several mistakes. First they assumed I was like them and would hang onto any power by any means possible, second is that I want to be recognised as special as the people who voted and pushed for the branding of quirkless as well as a more recent bill. Would the jury and judge like to hear more?'

'OBJECTION' the lawyer called out, 'THE DEFENDANT IS STRAYING.'

'And you didn't allow them legal council, so overruled, please continue.'

'As of last week, they tried to pass a bill to identify those with quote unquote, villainous quirks. This definition would be solely defined by them with no oversight, so what if to say a quirk removed control from a victims body, evil right? Or maybe it could be used to stop criminals before major casualties occurred, help with counselling, or maybe even villain rehabilitation. These are the reasons I will not be associating with them in such a close manner. That and they brought a personal matter to court that could have easily been settled outside of it.'

The judge nodded, 'The defendant is guilty however the prosecution will pay for all legal fees, including the defendants non existent attorney. Court adjourned' He said smacking his hammer.

The commission walked out a mix of happy and angry, reporters with the luck to be in the unannounced trial were writing up a storm with the new information and Izuku's group were just talking happily.

Talking about the future, of UA, Izuku's company and the hero society as a whole, since if the corruption stayed as it was, everything will soon come to a head and Izuku would be waiting there to meet it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heyo my precious beans, sorry I couldnt do Mei's scars justice, I honestly felt everything I wrote for it was lacklustre. On the other hand Izuku flipping to total badass and calling out corruption, HELL YASSSS.