[11: I'm 14 and This Is Deep]
These morning classes are so boring. I already know all this stuff, but Nezu won't let me test out of them. I know all of this! The only fun I have is from tutoring the rest of the class in various subjects. I have to keep my brain active to make sure I don't lose the knowledge I have. The amount of math and physics problems I've solved is crazy. The stuff that would give people nightmares just from seeing the formulas. At first glance, at least. In a school setting, the math isn't the hard part, but sometimes it absolutely is. And then there's also the fancy-sounding names that sound hard, but are actually easy. One of them is dimensional analysis. I can't believe I was so scared of that when I first heard of it. Even a fifth grader could do it.
Anyway, the only things I look forward to are eating in the cafeteria and the ethics class, and since everything else is boring, I actually pay attention in ethics class. Oh, and maybe the class Midnight teaches. Look, we all know why, and I'm not going to deny it. Speaking of Midnight, I know I said I like older women, but I'm not going to pursue Midnight. First of all, the teacher-student thing, and second of all, assuming I was able to convince Midnight to enter a relationship with me, we'd have to keep the relationship hidden. It'd be a massive scandal if even a plausible rumor got out, and such attention is troublesome. What I'm trying to say is: it'd be hard to maintain such a relationship. More trouble than it's worth.
But one can dream. And who knows what's going to happen even a month from now? This is why the question "where do you see yourself in five years?" is stupid. Like, five years? No one in the world can see that far with confidence. Five years? I can't even tell you where I'll be in five weeks. The most I can give is two weeks if I'm in a good mood. I hate job interviewers who ask that. What is that supposed to tell you? And don't even get me started on those human resources "people." Gods and heavens above, and everything holy, I pray and hope that all the bad things in life happen to HR people and nobody else but HR people. They are leeches on society who specialize in wasting everyone's time and deserve to burn in the deepest layer of whatever hell is out there. Remember, HR is not there to protect the employees; their sole purpose is to protect the company.
I would drone strike the hell out of the Hr people I—
"Eleanor!" Someones voice knocked me out of my thoughts.
"Huh?" I looked around.
"Eleanor, you seem distracted. What's on your mind?" It was Ochaco
"It's nothing, Ochaco, I'm fine. Just a bit of daydreamin'. What are we doing?'
"We're going over our assignment for our ethics class." She handed me the assignment.
"Oh, that's cool. What's it about?"
"It's about breaking the law."
"What's the prompt?"
"A villain is going to execute a hostage, but heroes can't go in because they don't have authorization yet. If the hero waits, the hostage dies, and if they go in, they break the law. The question is: is breaking the law morally justifiable?"
That's it?
"What would you do, Eleanor?"
"This is very easy, Ochaco. I would go in, kill the villain, and rescue the hostage. You don't even need to think for this one." I wrote down my answer as well as my justification and reasoning. Breaking the law to do good is a no-brainer. I finished it in less than a minute.
"How can you say that so easily? This is still a life you're talking about! It's murder! A hero doesn't do that!" Midoriya was all up on me for some reason when he heard me say that.
Alright, I don't know about that now.
"Midoriya, I hear you, but let me ask you this, in this prompt, if you wait, the hostage dies. Inaction in this case kills someone. Not making a choice is a choice. By not doing anything or not making a choice, you contribute to the death of the hostage. Lives come before everything else for me."
"Laws are there for a reason. When emotions run high, laws are there to guide us and give us moral restraint. And what's to stop you or any other hero who does what you do from doing it again? That will set a dangerous example."
Alright, time to get serious.
"Alright, let's break this down. First of all, laws are not equal to morality. Now, I'll give you the point that it could escalate, but this is why intent and context matter. Not every situation is the same. Now, to go back to laws, just because something is legal or illegal doesn't make it morally wrong. You're using the premise that the legal system is perfect, and let me tell you, it absolutely isn't. If you want to use laws as a guide for morality, there have been some very bad laws in the past. Slavery was legal in many parts of the world. Would you say that is moral? Selling your daughter into sex slvaery was also legal in ancient times, will you say that is moral?"
"I'm not saying it's perfect, but if the heroes the people are supposed to look up to and believe in don't follow the laws, what kind of role model will they be? If a hero goes around deciding which laws do and don't matter, how would you explain that?"
"Alright, and how would you explain a dead hostage or civilian to the public because we followed the rules? Tell the dead hostage why we followed the rules instead of saving them. Explain why we let a villain get away with something when we could've stopped it."
This can go both ways.
"Midoriya, you do know Japan has the death penalty, right? If this villain kills the hostage, and then the heroes catch them, and then they get put on trial, what do you think will happen? At best, it'll be a life sentence, but the death penalty could also be applied, and if the death penalty is applied, then in the grand scheme of this scenario, both the villain and hostage end up dead, an almost worst-case scenario for someone who thinks like you. All because of the inaction by heroes to put a stop to it in the first place. This essentially becomes a choice of who you want to live. And I choose to kill the villain, since it'll be a net-gain on society."
"This is about upholding the image of heroes! If a hero murders, even if it's a villain, the moral role of heroes changes. This kind of vigilanteism will only make copycats and escalate a situation like this. The system we have will help us and act in timeF."
Oh, Midoriya. Oh, Midoriya. If only you knew. This is why ignorance is bliss. This is why stupid people are so happy all the time. People who know about the world and the things that go on know that things are one bad day away from lighting a powder keg that'll change people's lives.
"Right, okay. Midoriya, it's clear we have our differences in this. And it seems that our minds are already made up. Here's the thing, this whole… argument, or debate, has all been on the premise that…murder is something that's wrong."
I could feel some eyes on me just from saying that. Actually, I've been so focused on this that I haven't been paying attention to the rest of the class. I looked around for a little bit, and they were really focused on us. Or pretending not to be, but still clearly listening in on us. Like Shoto is. Anyway.
"Let me propose this question. And I'm not trying to distract from the original scenario, I'm just trying to approach this from a different angle. This is my question: what makes murder wrong?"
"You can't seriously be asking that question."
"But I am, Midoriya. So, what makes murder wrong?"
"It should be obvious!"
"Okay, and what is the reason that is 'obvious'?"
"All humans deserve the right to live! It's a fundamental right all humans have!"
"So, you're saying that everyone has a fundamental right to life, and murder violates that right, therefore murder is wrong. But all that assumes that the first premise is accepted. Alright, let's look at other 'fundamental rights.' The most popular or biggest one is probably the freedom of speech or expression of opinion. The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that freedom of speech is fundamental. And countries like the United States and those in Europe sort of pride themselves on having freedom of speech. Do you follow so far?" Well…if I remember Europe from my last life, they were…actually, I'm stopping right there.
"Okay?"
"Alright. Here's the thing. Even in places like that, freedom of speech isn't absolute. Look at something like libel, which gets you in legal trouble. That shows freedom of speech and expression, a fundamental right, isn't absolute. Rights like these are strong, but defeasible. Calling the right to life 'fundamental' doesn't by itself explain when or why it can or can't be overridden. Many rights are fundamental yet limited in cases of conflict. So we still need criteria for when the right to life applies."
Just then, the sound of the bell ringing signaled time for lunch. Thank goodness.
"Finally! I'm hungry. I'll see you all at lunch." I got up from my desk and zoomed to the cafeteria. I need to get there before the line becomes like an old black friday at Walmart. And plus, the food Lunch Rush makes is amazing. By far my biggest expense at this moment, and it's worth every Yen I've spent.
/\\//\\//\
"That was…I don't know. She looked like she really believed what she was saying."
"Maybe she was just taking a side opposite to yours? A devil's advocate or something like that?"
Ochaco tried to console Midoriya, but they weren't alone. Many others in the class also thought about what Eleanor said. Whether she was right or wrong is up to anyone, but it helped them understand their classmate better.
/\\//\\//\
While I was eating, I was keeping a close eye on my tablet. This should be the time when those reporters are hounding the school. Now, I, of course, don't have to deal with that, since I live in dorms here, which is also nice, because I can sleep in longer and stay up later since the class is right here. But I did hear a lot of complaints about the reporters. Which means that a false alarm will happen soon. I was here early, but I think it happens when this place becomes a bit more packed.
Ah, here come the others. Would you look at that? Mina and Tsu are sitting with me. Hmm…Mina's abilities are acid or something, right? Would her…let's say…other "stuff" be acid as well? For example, sweat? Maybe not just sweat? You know what I'm talking about.
"Hey, Eleanor, what are you thinking about?"
"It's nothing, Tsu."
"What are you eating?" Mina asked me.
"Salmon and king crab." I may have said this before, but I'll never get tired of eating this. Breaking the crab legs is so fun.
"Do people in America also like it? You eat it so…fast."
"Well, depends, Mina. But if you mean the entire country, then other foods are a lot more popular. If you break it down to regions, then where I'm from, seafood is the most popular, and it's not even close."
"Where from America are you from?"
"Alaska."
"Alaska? Isn't that place super cold?"
"Does it snow all the time?"
"Do you encounter polar bears?"
"Are there only small towns with few people?"
"Does the sun ever show up?"
"Do people get around in dog sleds?"
.
.
.
You've got to be kidding me. I know they're just curious, but…do they have to bombard me with questions?
"Alright, you two, just calm down for a moment. I'll answer your questions."
Just as I was about to, I heard a notification from my tablet. "Hold on, give me a second."
I cleaned my hands quickly and picked it up. I see…this is why I did a bit of hacking. With a few little taps and swipes, I shut off the alarm and the announcement that would happen. I controlled the signal to only reach the important staff like Nezu, Aizawa, and others. I didn't want people to literally stampede while I'm eating. Alright, crisis averted. Well, mostly; the reporters still triggered the alarm, and the…"villains" "stole" the schedule. With that done, I could answer their questions.
"Alright, I'll get through this fast, since you two had a lot of questions. Yes, Alaska is cold, but in summers it warms up, and we don't need as many layers. It does not snow all the time; in fact, there's a lot of greenery you can see. Polar bears are not a problem; they're usually in the arctic circles; grizzly bears are a bigger problem. The largest city has a few hundred-thousand people, but after that, it's basically big towns. The sun does shine, but the time varies a lot with the seasons. People don't get around in dog sleds; we drive cars. We use SAD lamps. Some people also ferry to airports."
I let out a big breath after saying all that.
"Is that why you eat so much? Do you get fat?"
"Tsu!"
"Relax, Mina, I have no problem answering a question like this. I don't see it as rude. Well, Tsu, no, I don't. I burn a lot of calories. I know you saw me in the quirk tests Aizawa made us do. You need energy to sustain things like that."
"That makes sense, ribbit."
"You'd make many people jealous for how much food you can eat and not gain weight." Mina said.
"I guess."
"Were you serious earlier in class?"
"I was, Mina."
"But it's one thing to say it, but what about when it actually happens? And who would get in trouble if it fails?" Tsu with the deep question.
Well, little does she know, there's an opportunity coming up.
/\\//\\//\
(A/N: No, I didn't forget. I just wanted to expand on it, and it's not like it'll be brought up that much.)