The Tenth Wielder

Chapter 2

"Uncle, you can't be serious."

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that at work!?"

"Sorry, Dynamight sir. But this is a joke, right? Our orders are to eliminate the villain's hideout."

Katsuki glared at the dimwit son of his best friend. "Kirishima, look down there." He pointed at the building of the so-called hideout. "Tell me what you see."

The young man with black hair and sickeningly pink skin peered down from their position and said what he saw. "Five women standing outside, holding signs saying, "save our children from the government"".

"So, tell me idiot, where are the villains?"

"Errrm." He faltered, scratching the top of his head with a hardened finger.

"Exactly, there are none. This isn't a hideout, it's a shelter for protesters."

"So, our intel was wrong?" Kirishima asked.

"No acid breath, the intel was right. The orders are wrong."

"I don't get it."

Bakugo sighed. "Of course you don't. So, I'll spell it out for you. The brass sent us here to kill innocent people because they dare protest against the use of the implant and the government's hero recruitment scheme."

"Oh." Said Kirishima looking blank.

Katsuki was really starting to lose his patience. He was supposed to be training new recruits and readying them to be heroes, not shepherding mindless puppets created by the country's leaders. Still, he thought Kirishima at least would have had some brain cells. Eijiro was smarter than this, but perhaps Pinky was to blame for their son's lack of intellect. He seemed to remember she was one of the dunces at the bottom of their class in high school, but still, both the Kirishima's had the instinct needed to protect people and the drive to put their skills to good use, so what the hell happened to their kid?

"Dunce face. Tell me, what does it mean to be a hero?"

Kirishima blinked at him slowly then replied. "My dad always said a hero should be chivalrous and protect everyone. But in class they said we have to be suspicious of people and that even regular civilians can be the bad guys."

Katsuki sighed exasperatedly. "Jesus, what are they teaching these kids?" He muttered to himself. "Look. Ignore what those pencil pushing bastards told you in class. Listen to your instincts. Got it? Yeah, sometimes bad guys disguise themselves as regular people, but most of the time, a normal person is just that, a regular old citizen just going about their day. Never act without thinking, you got that?"

Kirishima nodded slowly as if he was trying to wrap his head around Bakugo's words.

"Bottom line is, if it feels wrong, it probably is. Don't just blindly follow orders, because you'll regret it if you do. If something goes wrong, you'll only become the bad guy by doing as you're told without questioning it." With another weary sigh, Katsuki got to his feet and stepped bravely out of his hiding spot and strode up to the protesting women.

"Oi. Unless you want taking into custody, you best drop those signs and clear on out of here, alright?"

The women looked terrified of him, but nodded and hurriedly did as he said, dropping all their signs into a pile for him to blast with a strong explosion. The boards splintered and burst into flames as the women recoiled and ran away.

"So... We're just going to let them get away?" Kirishima asked as he joined Bakugo by the bonfire.

"They weren't committing a crime. Last I checked, freedom of speech was still a thing, so until the government go and bans that too, they're free to say what they want and go where they please."