Now, a lot of crimes actually happen indoors and those were always tricky to get around. Even heroes and police couldn’t just randomly intrude into someone else’s property even if they suspected a crime was happening. Unless there was actual evidence of someone being in distress or a crime has occured, they had to go through the proper procedures and get a warrant first. Sometimes when they finally got the legal paperwork in order, the villains were already long gone!
And daytime heroes, especially the big names, it was harder for them to do certain tasks, like going undercover. So that was where underground heroes came in. They didn’t have as much media presence so it was less likely they would be recognized by the villains or slandered by the press for not fitting the standard heroic image of pearl white smiles and iron fists of justices.
These men and women walked in all sorts of grey areas, taking on jobs that were darker and harsher in nature. They ventured to vicious places, dealt with heinous people...It wasn’t to say that normal heroes had it easy but it was common knowledge that underground heroes usually retire earlier than their colleagues.
Aizawa had been following a case about human trafficking with the police for some time now. They had worked hard in gathering evidence and tonight they were finally going to raid the place during one of their “auction” nights.
It disgusted him to no end that there were people out there who would sell off other human beings as if they were livestocks.
But they were having some issues. This wasn’t the first time they had tried to apprehend this group of human traffickers. However, every time the main culprits always seemed to be able to get away and good men had died in the line of duty...and then they got an anonymous tip saying “curses” might be involved.
Curses.
Aizawa had heard of that before. In the dark corners of bars or between hasty whispers inside police stations...there were rumors and stories about invisible monsters and secret organizations that dealt with them. No one really sat down and explained to him what jujutsu sorcerers did or who they were but he had handled enough cases to know that whenever people wearing buttons with spiral patterns or dressed in black suits showed up on a scene, it was never good.
And god how he hated those encounters. They’d ripe the case right out of his hands and push him out, herding him away with the rest of the civilians as if they were all just annoying obstacles that needed to be cleared. No one bothered explaining more than “leave it to the specialists” and the few of the specialists he had met always had this strange aura around them. They smelled of blood, sometimes they were covered in it (Aizawa never tried to find out if it was their own or someone else’s) and other times the scent was just...there. It was as if that sweet metallic smell had soaked through their cells and took root in their bones. And Aizawa didn’t need to look in their eyes twice to be able to tell there was something missing in their heads.
Before the whole raid, he and the handful of other underground heroes were told to not interfere with Getou’s work. There was a recent rise of crime after the Hosu Hero Killer incident and the League of Villains were still at large...and the hero commission would like to make a big arrest to show the public everything was alright. Since they were also having lots of unexplainable troubles with this case before that was why they decided to rope in outside help.
It was a strange thing. Whatever they have been fighting couldn’t be that dangerous could it? Aizawa heard from a few other underground heroes that they’ve seen children, teens the same age as Aizawa’s students, being sent in to get the job done. That didn’t sit well with him. Stupid teenagers didn’t belong on the front line. It was too soon. And why couldn’t they develop weapons or ways to fight these threats themselves? They were heroes and it was their job to protect. It felt weird to be leaving this to others...to people who just gave off eerie bad vibes nonetheless.
