บท 52: Chapter 51 – Press Conference

After Nezu summoned me, I made my way to U.A., ready to deal with the press and whatever shenanigans they would throw at me.

If I'm being completely honest, I wasn't really surprised that the press had learned about the USJ incident this fast, but it still would've been nice to have a couple of hours to relax…

But no, they had to do a press conference right now…

Still, it shouldn't be too bad, there were no students injured, in fact, there had been no students who had fought villains, they had only watched while Aizawa and I fought those villains.

But the press were really vultures, so I still had to be on guard. Fortunately, I had Emotionnal Control so I wouldn't lose control of my emotions.

I made my way toward the plaza where the conference would take place, verifying that I looked proper while doing so and spotted several heroes once I was there.

"I see I'm not the only one Nezu has tricked into doing this," I snarkily said, directing it particularly to Aizawa who looked like he was in an especially bad mood.

The underground hero looked at me, peaking his head from his sleeping bag, annoyance clearly visible on his face, which was correctly shaven for once. I guess he didn't want to bring shame to U.A.

"Don't get started…I'd rather be anywhere else than here. But I guess they needed us because we were amongst the only ones who were at the USJ when everything happened."

"True. Do you know if Thirteen is here. I didn't see her, but I guess she was injured during the attack, so she might not have recovered yet. Speaking of that, how come you're here, weren't you like, badly injured during the attack as well. Shouldn't you be resting?"

"Coffee, lots and lots of coffee… And I'll rest when I have time, which is never apparently. And yeah, Thirteen's not here, still resting in the hospital."

Our conversation was interrupted when a staff member told us that the press conference would start soon and that we needed to get on stage with Nezu and the few other people who would participate.

I followed him and realized that there were way more journalists than I thought there would be, the plaza we were in, which was just in front of U.A., was completely full, overflowing with people. There were also dozens of cameras a bit everywhere that would be filming us and probably livestreaming this on the news channels.

I sat in my seat, which was between Nezu and Aizawa and waited a minute or two before a cameraman gave us the start signal.

"As you may have heard, there was a villain attack aimed at U.A. this morning targeting a class of students. There were no injuries at all amongst the students, thanks to our staff which, against all odds, and extremely less than the villains, managed to defeat most of them while waiting for the reinforcements to arrive, and most importantly, protecting the students. Again, no students were harmed in any way, they didn't even fight, the teachers took care of everything," Nezu started, his usual chirpy voice sounding graver and more serious.

"The reason for this press conference is to answer and questions or interrogations you may have concerning our establishment following this despicable villain attack. As you are not small in number, please raise your hands, we will answer you in turns."

Following the statement of U.A.'s principal, almost every single reporter raised their hands, burning to speak but knowing they would simply get thrown out if they spoke out of turn.

A tall black journalist was chosen to ask his question first.

"How could villain attack U.A., the most prestigious and secure hero school in Japan? Will you consider augmenting the security of the school so that such incidents won't occur again? Can you guarantee the security of your students?"

"The villains were able to attack us because they obtained a schedule during the media break in at U.A. earlier this week. I'm sure some of you were there and remember it. And yes, we will definitely improve U.A.'s security after this unfortunate incident, so that another attack won't happen again. We always do our best to keep our students as safe as possible," Nezu answered.

"Why did the villains attack U.A.?"What was their motives? Did they have one? Another person asked.

"They wanted to kill All Might."

There was a collective gasp after the bombshell Nezu dropped, before the chimera continued.

"Obviously, their plan wasn't a very good plan as all the villains were neutralized before All Might even arrived at U.S.J by the three staff members that accompanied the students. These villains are nothing more than a delusional bunch that we, the heroes, will do our best arrest as quickly as possible."

Everyone seemed to ease down a bit when they heard that All Might wasn't even close to be killed, in their mind, All Might was invincible, the Symbole of Peace. He couldn't die, certainly not killed by villains.

"How many villains were there? What was their plan to kill All Might, if they had one? Were the staff members that fought them injured?"

This time, I subtly gestured to Nezu that I would be the one answering and spoke for the first time during the conference.

"I was one of the staff members present during the attack, there was a total of fifty villains," (A/N: 47 small fires, Shigaraki, Kurogiri and Nomu) "but most of them were weak and could've been defeated by the students themselves. The last three villains were a bit more troublesome, but nothing we couldn't handle. As for their plan, it was simply to try to overwhelm All Might with numbers, nothing more than a delusion made by their delusional leader, nothing to worry about, as they couldn't even beat us.

This seems to partially convince the media, but I knew that his was a half-truth, the villains were far more powerful than what I had just described. I simply wanted to reassure the people and Knockout would do the rest of the job. He would arrest those villains.

"What happened against those villains? This can't have been an easy fight, you were at an average of 17 against 1, and also had to protect the students. And were there any injuries amongst the staff?"

"I unfortunately can't tell any details, but I can say that staff members at U.A. aren't chosen randomly, we must be qualified, most of the staff here are actually pro-heroes. As for your second question, we received various degrees of injuries, but nothing that will leave permanent damage or that is too serious. Although Thirteen is currently in the hospital, she should get out soon."

The interview continued for a couple of hours, Nezu and I mostly answered the questions coming from the media, with Aizawa chipping in once in a while. I also mostly dodged any questions regarding my identity, as I didn't want to be known too much, but the media was obviously curious about who I was, especially since I was so young.

Fortunately, they didn't make the link between me and a certain child genius from a couple of years ago, and I hoped they wouldn't, but I knew that it was a futile wish.

At some point, the press conference gradually started to change subjects, and we ended up talking about Endeavor, and even a bit about Knockout too, it was mostly us reassuring everyone that, even though Endeavor was gone, All Might and every single other hero was still there.

Finally, after what felt like (and was) hours, I was finally released from this torture and allowed to go home. Sadly, I only could relax for a couple of hours before I needed to be Knockout and stop crime again, especially now that Endeavor had retired.

Speaking of that, it made me think of how crazy my week had been…

First, I started as a teacher at U.A., then I nearly expelled a student from the same school. After that, I had kicked Endeavor's a*s and exposed him to the world and finally, there had been a villain attack at U.S.J. by the most powerful villain of the century who had made a bioengineered weapon to kill All Might….

I guess I signed for this when I became a teacher but...

I hope every week wouldn't be as intense…