章 117: Chapter 117: Showbiz Lesson
In late December, just a few days before winter break, the students of class A had just watched an interview on Shoto and Katsuki.
While half the class was laughing at the interview, Izuku sat down at his own desk while writing his own notes.
"He's a far cry from All Might...and Mineta-kun, get off the desk!" Izuku spoke while he looked on at the rowdy bunch.
Mineta didn't care about Izuku's request and continued sitting down at his desk and said, "He mad."
As though he had enhanced hearing, Katsuki managed to hear what the duo had said and shouted furiously, "Shut the hell up, Deku and Ballhead!!"
Izuku put down his pen and took out his phone. Going to the news, he watched on as the news presenter carried on with presenting more...well, news.
"This concludes our interview with these new, reliable provisional heroes. We can't wait for them to begin their activities as pro heroes—anything to prevent a repeat of the tragedy which occurred in Deika City.
Today marks the ninth day since the incident. On that day, a sudden reddish-black barrier covered the entire city, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
It lasted for about five minutes, and no one could enter or exit the barrier. After the barrier disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, the heroes stormed in and saw an utter demolition of the city.
Researchers and scientists have not found anything suspicious that the barrier had done to the city to date, claiming that it was 'just there to prevent entry and exit out of the city'. But was that statement really true?
What sort of quirk could possess the ability to cover the entire city easily?
After the barrier disappeared, we found out that it took merely twenty people just fifty minutes to bring Deika City to the brink of annihilation. It seems that the act was organized to illustrate the failure of the heroes, but let's hear what the citizens themselves have to say."
Izuku looked at his screen, showing the reddish-black barrier's picture before it switched to different citizens' interviews.
"It would be foolish to blame Deika city's heroes. Rather, it's time we began discussing restrictions on quirk usage." A man with a bowl-cut and bear-like features spoke.
"The heroes aren't the ones to blame. You can investigate all you want now, but hindsight is 20/20." A woman with a wild hairstyle spoke with irritation visible in her voice.
[A/N: 20/20 means the full knowledge and complete understanding that one has about an event only after it has happened. E.g., With 20/20 hindsight, we now see where our strategy went wrong]
"We want the heroes to keep doing their best! We'll do our best too, you know!" Two teenage girls spoke enthusiastically with a pumped expression before the screen switched to a professional's speech.
A hero expert named Kuraitosu Aorio addressed, "In previous incidents in which the heroes were set up, they were the only ones who accepted the blame. However, in this day and age, we have reached a turning point. Rather than placing 'blame' on the heroes, we have transitioned to giving 'encouragement' instead."
"On to the next news," The screen returned to the news presenter, and she continued speaking, "The number four hero, Best Jeanist, has mysteriously gone-"
[A/N: In the original, Best Jeanist was injured, so he stayed at home to recover. When he was 'killed' by Hawks, no one noticed since it was public knowledge that he was staying at home; no one suspected a thing. But here, he was already healed by Eri, so he continued doing his hero job. But when he went suddenly stopped saving people, people would obviously start questioning him.]
Just as the class reacted to the news and was about to continue listening, the door suddenly slammed open, revealing two women in a skintight bodysuit, revealing their curves.
"Don't be so optimistic!! You might think that the winds are changing in our favor, but if you look deeper down, you'll find a growing sense of urgency and unrest.
Were those really words of encouragement towards heroes? Or were they perhaps just a prayer for victory? Recently, hero society became tainted by showbiz. But now, heroes are back in demand in the truest sense!" Mt. Lady appeared with her hands on her hips, showing off her butt towards the class.
The one who reacted the most was obviously Mineta.
"Since you guys are getting more media exposure now, we've invited a special guest. After seeing Bakugo's and Todoroki's interview, we realized that you guys might need it." Shido announced, entering after the two women along with Aizawa in his sleeping bag.
"I haven't gotten any more exposure!!" Katsuki gritted his teeth and spat out angrily.
"Of course you have! People can easily see that the media has cut you out from their interview, and that would make people wonder 'why was Bakugo cut out from the interview?'"
"Gaahhh!" Katsuki didn't seem to like how he was getting exposure and started spitting out fire.
"I mean, I'm not one to talk, but isn't the showbiz-tainted person right here?" Mineta asked while his hand sneaked towards Mt. Lady's butt.
Not missing the sneaky actions of Mineta, Mt. Lady smacked his hand away and shouted to the class, "Silence!! Today, we'll be doing media training! The beautiful me will teach you how to properly behave as a hero!"
"I don't really get what we're doing, but..."
But before Eijiro could continue, Mt. Lady interrupted him and started to lead the class, "Everyone!! Let's get on with the program! Plus Ultra!!"
Shido also wondered what they would be doing to help teach his students about public exposure, but he suddenly found himself outside, staring at a mini-stage.
There were plenty of reporters and heroes with cameras at the side while taking pictures of Mt. Lady, who was already on the stage, posing.
Without further ado, Shoto was the first one to be selected, and he stepped on stage.
As soon as they started for real, Shido found himself laughing at Shoto's display at the corner where no one could see him. He hurriedly teleported to the infirmary, and seeing that no patients were present, he took along a shocked Eri and returned to the venue.
"Eri, go and watch how my class does their interview..." Shido stuttered a little while laughing in between his words.
Eri wondered why her boyfriend suddenly dragged her out to the open field and saw Shoto on stage.
At this time, Mt. Lady was saying, "But if someone as handsome as you came to my rescue, my heart rate would double!"
Instead of smiling bashfully or smiling happily at the compliment as any other guy would do in front of Mt. Lady, Shoto's expression turned worried, and he asked, "Do you...have heart problems or something...?"
After hearing Shoto's response, Eri couldn't help but giggle along with the rest of the class, catching their attention.
Mina immediately went forward to hug Eri, while the other girls started surrounding her again.
Shido sighed, and he noticed that Aizawa was glaring at him.
"Sorry!" Shido mouthed as he clapped his hands together in front of his chest.
Aizawa just grumbled and turned back to focus on Shoto's performance.
After showing one of his moves that sounded like it came out from a Chinese novel, Mt. Lady started telling what Shoto could improve on.
"Now, I don't want to attack your personality or anything, but if you want to put people at ease, it'd be great if you could smile a bit more! A smile from you and the ladies will drop like flies~!"
When Shoto heard that, his face darkened, and he faltered a little, "If I smile...they'll die?!"
"We're revealing our movesets? In an interview!?" After the small commotion made by Shoto, Koji asked Mt. Lady.
She squatted on stage and bent down to speak towards the students, "Ahh, that's not the right mindset, UA students! Not everyone knows what kind of people you are! Your special attacks symbolize who you are and demonstrate what you are capable of!
To your fellow heroes, they're essential to efficient team building.
To villains, they're a warning of your presence.
To the citizens, they're a signal that they can trust you with their lives. There's a profound reason as to why heroes tell out their attack names."
Hearing Mt. Ladt's words, Shido smiled wryly.
'And here I thought they just wanted to show off...but it seems that they are not entirely stupid to just yell out the names of their movesets just for fun.'
After Shoto's presentation, the rest of the class continued with their own interview.
For each of the students, Mt. Lady asked the questions, and they would reply with what 'symbolizes' them and what 'differentiates' them from others.
Each student went up one by one and said something that showed their uniqueness.
Iida's sincerity; Momo's confidence; Fumikage's chuunibyou. Each one was unique in its own way.
Everything was going well until Katsuki came.
"I don't say half-assed things! Shut the hell up and follow me!"
Hearing his explosive and rough words, Mt. Lady became worried about Katsuki's future in the media.
"There's still one person who doesn't get it, huh...I know you don't really get along well...with the rest of humanity." Without a shred of mercy, Mt. Lady declared him an abnormality amongst the humans.
And of course, as a childhood friend of Katsuki's, Izuku also had the same problem, only on the opposite side of the spectrum.
To Mt. Lady's questions, Izuku could only smile and answer robotically. But when it came to inquiries related to All Might, Izuku started rambling on and on.
The class soon ended after the last student went on stage, and they were dismissed. There was a break after this lesson, so Shido made his way to the teacher's room after dropping Eri back to the infirmary, where he met an angry Chiyo.
*****************
The next day, Shido was called to a meeting.
"Eh?" Shido looked at the piece of paper in front of him and felt surprised.
"Why are the internships starting again so suddenly?" Shido looked at Nezu, who was in Aizawa's scarf and asked.
"Previously, our agreement with the other hero agencies was to conduct internships on an 'on-demand' basis. However, this time around, we've received a direct request from the public safety commission to conduct practical field training for all hero departments students." Nezu replied.
"A request!? You mean they're telling us to force them to do internships!?" Vlad King clenched his fist and asked. His face might not show it, but he was very protective of his students and cared deeply for them. He didn't want his students to exhaust themselves to do internships and study at the same time during their first year.
"Sadly, yes," Nezu replied.
"But this..." Midnight took a closer read at the paper and noticed something important, "Aren't they basically saying they don't have enough manpower? Despite having more heroes than ever?"
"'In response to the recent growth of large-scale villain organizations, we would like students to gain experience...' No doubt something else must have happened at Deika City." Ectoplasm said.
"The league of villains must be involved, but for some reason...they're wording it very vaguely." Snipe stated his own opinion.
"It seems that the Public Safety Commission has reason to suspect some kind of imminent danger. But as Kayama-kun said, they're being vague....most likely because they want to hide the fact that they know this. The 'internships' themselves feel like some sort of message." Nezu replied to their statements and deductions.
"If that's the case, it makes sense that they couldn't tell us directly. Something's not right."
"It's the first time something like this has happened."
"In any case, preparing for danger is the norm for us heroes," Nezu said while looking at Shido, who had remained silent apart from the question at the beginning, "Let's start by reaching out to some of the top heroes."
"After the meeting, please go inform the students they have some 'winter break homework'. Also, Aizawa-kun, on the topic of the public safety commission, the program I was talking to you about earlier has..."
After an hour, the meeting soon ended.
"Alright! That's it for today's meeting. Everyone is dismissed."
Nezu clapped his hand and dismissed everyone. He looked at Shido, and Shido replied with a nod as well before he left as well.
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If you want to support me or/and want 14+ chapters in advance, link:
https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 10 months ahead (aka 40 chapters going by 1 chapter per week release schedule)
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