Chương 46: CHAPTER 043(Working The Press)
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CHAPTER START---
Walking along the sidewalk in his full uniform Horizon glances down to his wrist, reading the time on his white a blue Rolex, seeing its barely half-seven.
"Right on time," he mutters. The early morning sun beaming down on him, to his right is a massive twenty-meter-tall black wall.
UA's new barrier, reinforced while school was closed for the past five days. Two feet of solid black steel wrapped all around the school's perimeter.
ROOM!
He opens a room for two hundred meters around him, sensing a mob of reporters and other members of the press hounding every student as they enter UA, the first day back since the USJ incident.
These people were the reason he was walking to school instead of warping from his building directly onto campus, his name and face, or at least Horizon and the picture of his visor had been trending for the past few days.
In the midst of more and more attacks on Hero Courses, Pros dying as well as students, by the dozens each time, he was credited with stopping the most powerful of all the Nomus, the USJ Nomu, one that has yet to make a second appearance.
His 'Yay!' profile has been on fire ever since, everyone bombarding him with questions and requests for interviews, but he's ignored them all, until now.
Entering the final stretch he sees the press mob ahead, nearly blocking off the school gates. Delving a bit deeper with his SCAN he senses turrets and other drones in hidden compartments of the school's lawn.
'How do they even build things that fast...' he can't help but wonder, always amazed by the efficiency of Nezu, Cementoss, and Power Loader.
"It's Horizon!" he hears one of the reports yell, a petite dark-haired lady in a blue suit, mic in hand and a cameraman beside her. She excitedly points and breaks into a full sprint.
The entire crowd follows, moving the dozen meters between them so fast that he could feel someone getting trampled at the back.
The entire crowd clears the gateway for the other grateful students to pass and completely blockade Horizon.
"Good morning," he greets politely, his slightly mechanical voice surprising them somewhat.
A chorus of greetings responds to him, and he even hears some murmurs of people wondering about why he wears his visor, everyone who saw the report only saw his class in full costume so they expected it to be part of his costume.
"Horizon, can we please ask you some questions?! The public is in dire need of more information regarding the events of this past week," the same lady takes charge. All cameras raise and turn to him, recorders and notepads rise up and everyone gets quiet.
"Sure," he says, surprising everyone. They've been at UA since last week Monday when All Might was announced as a teacher, and not even students would give a proper statement, they never expected to get information about this war against heroes so easily.
All eyes flicker over to the woman, a single bead of sweat runs down her face as she realizes everyone was suddenly counting on her to ask the right questions and not ruin this golden opportunity.
The biggest story in Japan for the last decade, and they had the main participant in front of them, a clear golden ticket.
"Right, do you feel UA failed in any way to protect you and the other students during the USJ attack, the famed UA Barrier was breached and students were attacked, you could have possibly been hurt, do you put any blame on the school for this security breach?"
"No," he says immediately, surprising everyone. "I've seen some of the time and effort put into keeping the students here safe, UA has the best security of any Hero Course in the world, and it's comparable to most places just short of Tartarus. The only reason it couldn't stop the League Of Villains is because of Kurogiri's Warp Gate Quirk. In our superhuman society, it's virtually impossible to defend against everything, and warping abilities are by far the rarest and most dangerous, especially for matters of infiltration. All the resources in the world can't stop a villain from warping if they really want to."
Much of the crowd nods along as the woman responds, "you say that, yet you were credited with halting any further warping, preventing the villains from regrouping and escaping, do you have any insight on how you did that, sharing such important information could truly limit the usefulness of the villain's Quirk. They've already attacked 37 Hero Courses across Japan and the death toll is well in the hundreds, do you not feel that you have a responsibility to best educate others to protect themselves against these enemies?"
"That's impossible," Horizon says bluntly. "It's unfortunate that so many have died to those monsters, but as far as I can imagine, I'm the only counter to Warp Gate, my Quirk is entirely unique for many individual reasons, far more powerful than even Kurogiri's. But sadly there is only one of me and I'm at UA, this is just the life of a hero, fighting impossible odds to protect others, we don't get to run away just because the villains have an advantage, they almost always have an advantage, the other Hero Courses will endure and rise up even stronger than before I'm sure of it, because that's what heroes do, right?"
They all nod along solemnly, feeling an odd mix of emotions from his somewhat inspirational, but ultimately bittersweet words.
The woman gives a weak smile and lifts the mic up slightly toward him, still looking up at his towering figure. "And how do you feel about the fact that villains are attacking Hero Courses as a whole? Some are blaming the villains while others are blaming the heroes, as someone who helped in thwarting one of these attacks what is your opinion on the matter?"
"It's a completely logical move," Horizon says bluntly, causing everyone to wince. "It's not morally right or a good image, obviously, but villains don't play by the rules of society, that's part of their whole idea. Hero Courses train the people that will likely lock each and every one of them in prison for a long time, why would they ever wait until graduation to fight instead of killing students within days of schools opening? How many villains do you think wish they ran into All Might and Endeavor back when they were students and much weaker than they are now?"
"I see," she says. "And about the Hero side of things?"
"This was an eventuality, but I'm not quite sure why people are so surprised and outraged," he shrugs. "Yes it's unfortunate that you sent your kids to school and they get killed during the first week, but now or after graduation, what's the difference, this is what you sign up for once you enter a Hero Course, and you know the enemy doesn't care about things like rules or ages. If anything the public is to blame for this tragedy..."
"What?! How is the public responsible for this?!" Her question and tone resonated with the mob, with red faces and scowls all around.
"Because, there are 114 Thousand active Pro-Heroes in Japan," Horizons says. "The public is so reliant on Pros to do everything for them that more and more Hero Courses are constantly popping up, it was only a matter of time before they would be attacked when villains are backing into this much of a corner. If the public were less reliant on Hero Courses constantly pumping out Pros there wouldn't be thousands of kids itching to start fighting to the death against villains right now, and this could have been avoided, but, with that being said. In superhuman society, heroes are somewhat of a necessity to keep the peace, so it's a difficult situation for all sides involved."
"I see," she nods along, understanding that this matter was anything but simple. "And do you have any comment on All Might taking the teaching position instead of doing heroics full time as he has for the past decades, some speculate that this is him announcing a soft retirement."
"Hmm," Horizon looks around to see everyone genuinely terrified of that idea, the Symbol Of Peace retiring, not something most citizens in Japan ever wanted. "Well All Might is 49 now, certainly around the age when people in such taxing jobs start to retire," the color drains from a dozen faces. "But, I've spoken to him a bit, and he's still incapable of ignoring anyone who needs help, that spirit is what made him the Symbol Of Peace, and it's just as strong as ever."
They all look relieved to hear those words.
"And speaking of his inability to ignore those in need, how do you feel about All Might not being there during the USJ Incident to stop the villains?"
"It's completely fine," Horizon says, this time the mob expected this answer, already getting a better idea of how he thinks. "All Might is a new teacher, he's clearly still adjusting to his role. The fact that he prefers to teach using battlefield scenarios and training rather than on the chalkboard shows that. I'm sure in time he'll get the hang of it, he was late that day because people elsewhere needed saving and he got sidetracked, but is that really something that we should call getting 'sidetracked'?"
"What do you mean?" A man in the back of the crowd asks.
"Well, on one hand, he was supposed to already be at USJ when class began, and if he was the villains wouldn't have had any hope," much of the crowd smiles at that, always proud of their Symbol Of Peace. "But on the other hand, we signed up to be heroes, right? So even if someone died I still wouldn't blame All Might one bit. We are training to risk our lives to save others, if he abandoned those people who needed saving to come and save us instead, do we really deserve to be called heroes at that point? Is sacrificing ourselves not what we signed up for? Even if we all died, those people he saved would be alive, and that's all that really matters..."
The reporter and many others wipe their tears, moved by the words of a true hero, and Law just rolls his eyes at it all...
"I see," she sniffles quietly and composes herself. "Truly a heroic view on things. And what of the UA Sports Festival in two weeks, do you feel safe attending that, that UA can protect not only the students but also the civilians that will be there?"
"I'm sure Principal Nezu will spare no expense or manpower to ensure the security of everyone, between all the Pros that teach at UA, including All Might, not to mention that Endeavor will likely be there because his son is in my class, we'll be fine," Horizon says casually.
"And speaking of your classmates, did this attack have an adverse effect on them in any way? And what can you tell us about the youngest Todoroki?"
"UA provided counseling and medical treatment, and from what I can tell they've only gotten stronger from this experience," he recalls what he saw while skimming the group chat yesterday. "And Todoroki is quiet and keeps to himself, I haven't really spoken to him much," he shrugs.
"I see, that's very good to hear at least," she gives a sincere smile. "And lastly are you excited about the UA Sports Festival, the entire world will be watching your class especially, and after those short clips of what the USJ Nomu was capable of, people have already been speculating about the overall winner, between you and Todoroki, although we don't know what either of your Quirks are..."
Horizon chuckles at that, "well, winning isn't all that matters at the festival, at least not for me. What matters is that I show the public that they can trust and have confidence in me to protect them in the future, I'd like to show them and the world that everything will be ok, because I am here..."
The entire crowd gets chills at that, his already heroic presence constantly building and building, and now it felt as if they were standing in front of a future top Pro.
No, they knew they were standing in front of a future top Pro.
The reporter wipes another tear, and he rolls his eyes once again, thankful that his visor was one way.
"Such an incredible outlook on this situation! I'm sure you'll do great things to help everyone in the future!" the press mob gives him a round of praise before settling back down. "And how do you plan to show us that this is your time, your era?!" the woman asks.
Horizon shrugs, "there really isn't anything I can do to prove that, that's for all of you to decide for yourselves, right? So, just keep your eyes on me, and I'll show you what I'm capable of...Just watch me..."
They all look at him with stars in their eyes before he checks his watch.
"I'm sorry to cut this short, but it would set a bad example if the Class Rep was late for homeroom," he says apologetically.
"Oh," the woman bows respectfully, and most of the mob copies her, "thank you for speaking to us! We've been here for days without one comment, this truly was a blessing."
Horizon laughs at that, "Heroes are public servants, I don't mind talking to the press, at least to let you know that everything will be alright..."
After some polite and thankful farewells, he quickly walks into UA, for the very first time using the main entrance.
Walking through the halls he sees more than a fair share of people giving him amazed and worried looks.
Some were amazed by those clips of USJ Nomu and knowing that he stopped it, and some worried that a 1st year was that powerful. That'd he'd show them up in the future.
He turned to a group of girls who were in the upper years, quietly murmuring and stealing glances at him as he walks through the halls. He gives a polite wave and half of them start blushing wildly.
'Ok, this is gonna be really damn fun... but I guess I'll have to keep playing up the hero bullshit for the press, whatever, its just for a few more years...'
END CHAPTER---
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