Licensed Villains

Bonding

Conium: Growth or Destruction?

Hero Name: Conium
Quirk: Regrowth

Conium is a fitting name for this hero. Like her hero work, few people know the real meaning behind it. Some see it as just a name but those people don't know that Conium is the name of  a genus of plants, all of which are poisonous to humans. The most common of those plants being the famed Hemlock. It can be a surprise that no one has looked into Conium's hero work before given her more than interesting name choice. 

Like many heroes, Conium runs a side business. She owns a logging company that transports wood and turns it into paper. It's an excellent business for her to go in to considering her quirk that allows her to make anything grow at whatever speed she'd like. What most don't know is that Conium is not legally able to use her quirk outside of her hero work. Many well known heroes use their quirks in their daily life. However, this is only allowed if they have a permit. Conium does not have one.

So it's been establish that Conium shouldn't use her quirk but the question is does she and how?

Regrowth Logging has skyrocketed in profits since it started up. All of their wood is reasonably priced and receives high praised reviews. The only issue is all of the wood produced is coming from seemingly no where. In reality, this wood is illegally being cut and transported. 

Conium procures wood from forests she doesn't not lay claim to or have permission to cut from. Her team cuts hundreds of trees a day before selling them to paper companies. One would expect the true owners of the forests in question to realize all of this was going on but that's not the case due to Conium's quirk. She has the capability to regrow trees before anyone can even notice they're gone. 

That alone, could be excused. It would even be acceptable if she was given a permit and permission from the land owners. Of course, why would the owners give her permission to cut their trees when they are rivaling logging companies? In this case, why wouldn't Conium just buy her own land? She likely would have if all the forests hadn't already been privately own or marked as protect wildlife reserves. Instead, she took the low road by sabotaging her competitors and escaping having to pay for land. 

It's clear what Conium is doing isn't as just as everyone would think. 

If anyone watched the news this morning, they'd have found out a wildfire broke out just outside the city of Musutafu. A similar fire occurred not far from a few weeks ago. The fires were deliberately caused by Conium in an attempt to cover her tracks. When Conium cut down trees she would cover her evidence by starting forest fires with the help of a certain flame hero who invests in her company. These fires are then blamed on natural causes after Conium bribes the investigators sent to find the cause. 

What does Conium gain out of starting a fire? 

Who regrows the forest after it's ruined? Who's hero popularity boosts when people see she saved all those trees? Who avoids suspicion by fixing the problem she created? Conium tricks us all, putting on the face of hero when she wreaked the havoc in the first place and she's not the only one. After all, there needs to be someone to put out the fire. 

Backdraft is well known for being efficient in contain fires of all sorts but mainly forest fires. He constantly appears to know when and where a fire's going to happen, always ready to put it out. Not so coincidentally, these all happen to be the same fires that Conium starts. The two work together to increase their popularity and rise in the heroes rankings which earns them more money and fame. 

Conium illegally uses her quirk, she sabotages competitors, she starts fires that kill wildlife and forests, and she lies to everyone about it all. She says she's regrowing everything, making it better but is that right, or is she destroying more than she's fixing?