Chapter Text
Izuku’s phone pings with the familiar ring that signals that someone who he is subscribed to on herotube, the ultimate social media app that has about 4 different social media apps mixed together, has posted. It’s about 11 in the afternoon, and he’s already surprisingly gotten all his homework done already. He can’t sleep, so he checks the notification.
He feels like his eyes just popped out like in those pre-quirk cartoons that he used to get the kick out of when he sees a video thumbnail of him, raining down an army of glowing fists on overhaul with Eri on his back.
Just to make sure that the video doesn't have that much information on him, or at least only shows a blurry face, he clicks on the notification. The video starts.
The person filming starts recording when the ground starts rumbling, wondering out loud what is happening and if it's an earthquake or a villain. The filmer, assumedly a female given her voice, turns around when there's an explosion behind her to see a pillar of stone quickly rising, the figures of overhaul and Eri blurry until she zooms in on them and you can clearly see their faces. Something else catches her attention, and she moves the camera to a green figure speeding up the pillar. A faint shout of Eri’s name can be heard just after she grabs a red fabric off a nearby floating rock and she jumps. The recorder has forgotten all about her own safety and is just standing there, probably trying to keep the recording steady, gasps. She zooms in on the falling silhouette of Eri, she is now in the shadow of the pillar. The video clearly captures the moment he catches Eri and wraps his arms around her.
The video pans back to overhaul again when he yells big enough for her to hear the echo of his scream, and he bursts the pillar apart and uses it to attack Izuku. All the viewer can see is Izuku and Eri disappearing before being hit and Overhaul being blasted away before all three of them are resting in the sky for a couple seconds. Overhaul is currently in shock, and Izuku lands and kneels down to Eri. The zoom on the camera the woman is filming on is very good, his mouth can be seen moving for a couple seconds until the fight continues.
When he starts using Eri’s quirk to his advantage, you can hear a muttered, “holy *beep*” before he takes off and the final part of the fight ensues. When Overhaul regenerates his limbs extra large and Izuku takes them out with multiple punches that make the sky full of fists, the woman behind the camera starts uttering multiple strings of curses with very few uncensored words in between the beeps. The camera continues filming as Izuku lands and Eri’s quirk starts taking over his own. The woman stops cursing and starts asking if he is okay before both of their quirks stop at the same time and the woman turns it around, showing her blurred face. “Oh my god, that’s that hero student from UA!”
The video cuts out just after the viewers get a view of his face and are able to find out that it’s him. A reporter from the news station that released this video fades in and starts telling the audience that he is from the UA class 1A, and listing the events they are already known for while showing a photo from the sports festival just before his fight with Shinso.
He pauses the video, and sets down his phone so he can think. After taking a few deep breaths and calming himself, he deduces that the best solution for this would probably be to go to a teacher. The biggest things he’s worried about are One For All, and the fact that he has had little to no guidance in handling the press and media while being a well-known hero. At least, he's probably going to be a well-known hero by the end of this week with how quickly the views are going up.
His best two options are Mr. Aizawa or All Might. Based on the night of the fight with Kacchan, Aizawa might be busy with other things, he remembered catching a few words in his angry mumbling about them interrupting something. And All Might seemed to just be wandering, and because he doesn’t seem too busy after his retirement if him peeking in on classes and recommending books and movies to everyone was anything to go by, Izuku could probably assume that he would welcome a chance to help Izuku with his impending doom that was about to be forcefully graced on him by reporters.
After calling All Might and explaining the situation to him, All Might immediately called Nezu. A few minutes later, he is sitting on the couch, phone in hand, with all the other UA teachers that needed to be present according to Nezu in the same room while All Might explains OFA to them and tries not to be killed by Aizawa for not telling him on the first day.
He ignores Aizawa’s badgering of All Might and scrolls through the comments of the news clip, trying to take stock of the rumors and speculations already spreading about him and his quirk from such a vague video and such a big number of views on that clip alone, not even taking into account how many people who have already seen it from the source of the clip, and looking through the outlandish theories that people have come up with already. Do all heroes have to deal with this? Is this normal or is it specifically only for the heroes no one knows much about. Oh no, what are the theories about Eraserhead like?
He gets pulled out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder, and turns to see All Might next to him on the couch. “Well, My boy, what do you think?”
It takes a moment for Izuku to register. “What? I don’t think I was listening.”
“Ah, well, we were talking about ways to prevent the reporters from crowding around the UA gates again, and for you not to expose the secret of One For All. We both know that we are terrible liars, and the power you displayed in the video is way beyond your current limits, so we need to figure out a way around explaining that too.”
Nezu interrupts. “Not to mention that your classmates are also defeating villains and the media will want answers from them too, but bringing people from news stations in or our students out might cause some troubles. And having online meetings might cause other problems that I'm sure a lot of people would not want to deal with. So I would recommend a herotube channel. I have a feeling that some of your classmates would have fun with it, and if we added it into the school curriculum as a way of training our students for the media the hero commission could hardly complain.”
“I think if we give the class at least 3 classes about how to deal with the media and have a pro or two go along with them during interviews and take the proper precautions, we should be okay and there will be no need for that.” Aizawa countered.
“If we bring the reporters here, and they happened to be a villain, they would be on the ground of UA and if they tried to attack, they would be surrounded by trained hero students and pro heroes alike. We could easily take them down, and if we put enough research into it, we shouldn't even have too.” Mic added his plan.
“I agree with Nezu. Like he already stated, a villain attack could happen in either of your plans and it would both add to the criticism of UA and the trauma of the hero students. And we have counseling available to the students but not therapy because the traumatic events usually happen after hero school, and not during it. And having a herotube channel available to the students would add some interesting possibilities for assignments so they can practice having a big influence with their words.” Midnight shifted in her seat, her usual 18+ act dropped and in civilian clothes.
“I personally think that leaving them alone will quiet them. Look what we did when All Might joined our staff: we ignored them.” Vlad King, who only showed up because Nezu anticipated that class 1B would be a lot to handle because of this situation (cough, cough, Monoma) and Vlad would have to wrangle his class before they got out of control.
“May I remind you that ignoring the media led to the perfect distraction for Shigaraki to steal our school schedule, leading to the USJ attack just a day later? We will find a way to quiet the media so that that does not happen again, Vlad.” Nezu quickly silenced him, holding a paw up and closing his eyes, clearly trying to keep awake. Everyone is fighting against dropping to sleep at the very moment and dealing with everything tomorrow, and Nezu is no exception. “Besides, Midoriya is the one who should decide. It is his problem, afterall. We just happened to have solutions for him to choose from.”
Izuku considered the options while everyone else laid them down. So far, herotube sounded like the best option. There are still people he meets out in public that ask what it’s like having All Might as a teacher, and having a safe way for his classmates to communicate with the outside world would help when they ‘debut’. Any questions that people came up with would be able to be answered if they set up a schedule for a QNA video and having the whole class manage it would mean that people could ask anyone in the class anything they needed to. The best decision for Izuku was the Herotubing, so he waited for everyone to quiet down before announcing his decision. “I think Nezu’s plan is the one I want to use. It has more pros than anyone else’s and the pros outweigh the cons.”
The teachers nodded to him, and Nezu dismissed everyone to bed and told Izuku and Aizawa that he would be coming over during homeroom to explain the situation. He asked for permission to tell Izuku’s classmates before he dismissed them and told Izuku to think about it and give him a yes or no via nodding tomorrow when he came in. He got to his dorm room and sent a quick text to Kacchan that he would wake up too in the morning to inform him about the situation and to text him about his opinions when he was up. Surprisingly, he got a response just as he finally finished getting comfortable.
Deku
Hey, Kacchan. Just wanted to let you know that a video of my last mission got leaked and now Aizawa, Present Mic, Vlad King, and Midnight know about OFA. Nezu already knew apparently, but I didn’t know he knew until tonight. They are going to make a group chat tomorrow for people in the know, so hopefully All Might adds everyone who knows? Anyway, Nezu wants to tell class 1A so that we can set up a herotubing thing instead of risking interveiws, but he warned me that there might be a traitor among our midst? I know for sure you aren’t a traitor, so I need your honest opinion because I’m torn and the pros and cons of both outcomes seem the same. Text me back when you read this.
Kacchan
Tell me when the group chat is made so I can mute it. Probably come up with a lie you can stick with with Nezu, if there is a traitor I wouldn’t want any villains knowing about it and trying to get their grubby little hands on it.
Also, I could still be a traitor. Just because we’ve known each other our whole lives doesn't mean anything. Be careful who you trust. Stop turning every other sentence into questions, dammit.
Deku
Okay, Kacchan. Why are you awake?
Kacchan
That’s none of your business, nerd. See you tomorrow, go to bed. Send me the video or whatever.
Izuku quickly sends the video and checks his notifications before going to bed. It’s currently One, and he’s going to have to get up early if he wants to keep up his routine.