The Tenth Wielder

Chapter 1

But Evelyn hated it. She knew how corrupt the country had become, and all for the sake of some fake sense of peace. In her father's day, justice had been black and white, but now it was a muddy shade of grey where only the government got a say in whether your actions were justified or not.

Hearing this small snip of gossip however, was the last straw for her. She punched the lens of the camera, smashing it to pieces and crushed the equipment under her foot before storming out of the arena.

The events of the Gladiator Tournament were held in Tokyo Tower, and in a matter of minutes she was back in civilian clothes, descending the speeding elevator to the busy streets below. As the doors opened to the noise of bustling traffic and people, she hitched her gym bag higher on her shoulder and she strode out of the building into the plaza coming face to face with her late father.

The statue of All Might stood grinning down at her with his fist raised in victory, but around his neck remained the sign someone had made many years ago, reading: "I am not here". The plinth at his feet was graffitied with hateful words that no one dared clean off for fear of provoking another riot, and so the likeness of her old man remained a constant reminder of the disgraced hero society; a far cry from the pillar of hope he had once been.

The revelation of Endevour's dastardly treatment of his own family is what triggered the fall in public opinion; no longer placed on an lofty pedestal, the question of pro hero morality raised the question, just what makes a pro hero different from regular citizens? And so sparked the Vigilante movement. Only after admitting that Heroes were fallible creatures just like everyone else, were the public placated and willing to allow the profession to continue, though they no longer held heroes to the same standards they once did.

Evelyn thought it was a joke. Of course heroes were only human, she couldn't understand why people had ever thought otherwise. That said the hero society as it stood today was a far cry from what it should be. Merely a mask for government repression, things really had taken a turn for the worse, especially since the inception of the Gladiator Tournament.

True, heroes still worked to save people from burning buildings and bank robberies, but they no longer cared how they treated anyone seen as a villain. In her eyes the only difference between those who committed heinous crimes and those who brought them to so called "justice", was a stamped piece of paper and a plastic ID card.

It had to stop.

-

When Evelyn got home that night, the lights were on and Raiden's car was in the drive. She was tired from the tournament both mentally and physically, so she didn't have the energy to start an argument with him after what she'd learned today. Knowing the media would tear her to shreds instead of him if she made a scene, it was better to just have a civil conversation with him no matter how much she wanted to yell and punch him in the dick...

Truth is, their relationship was already on the rocks. He was an unabashed flatterer and flirted with everyone; not only that, but she was starting to realise he was one of the offending heroes who treated villains no better than sewer rats. The more she noticed his little habit of kicking a criminal once they were in cuffs, or his comments about them being fodder for the Gladiator Ring, the more she realised he wasn't the man she thought she'd married.

He wasn't a hero at all, he was just another government bully.

She opened the door without bothering to announce herself and heard the confirmation she needed that what she was about to do was justified. Coming from the living room was the sickening slap of skin on skin and a female voice moaning in ecstasy.

Evelyn dropped her gym bag on the kitchen table and cracked her neck and her knuckles before slamming open the door to the front room where her husband was banging a young girl with fairy wings and glittering skin.