Infectious

ch. 32

Chapter Thirty Two;;- The Press Conference

With every one of the invited reporters in their seats and the news stations with their big cameras were all set up, the four Yuuei faculty took a seat at the table set in front of the audience. Nedzu took the seat on the far left, then [name], then Aizawa, and Vlad sat on the far left. In front of each of them was a microphone and in front of that, little name tag that had their hero names displayed.

By the time they had entered and sat down, [name] was beginning to feel nervous again. She hated that Aizawa's efforts to calm her down had disappeared so quickly, feeling a little guilty for him wasting his time like that.

With the cameras running and submitting live feed to their respective new stations, the reporters started asking questions. The first couple were general questions about the general timeline of how things went down, how many people had been injured exactly, how many villains (and of the ones that were there, how many were apprehended), simple questions to give anyone not completely informed the quick rundown. It also clarified some of the misunderstandings that were already spreading.

[name] swallowed thickly as the first couple questions passed uneventfully. She was glad that none of them were antagonistic yet but... her gut told her something was going to happen and it wasn't going to be fun. Her leg started bouncing again, softly enough that it didn't shake the table, but she still saw Aizawa glance over at her.

Under the table, away from anyone's eyes, Aizawa silently put his hand over [name], putting pressure down with the heel of his hand to stop her leg from shaking. Even after it did though, his hand did not move. Instead, it stayed on top of [name]'s.

She looked over, meeting his eyes. He nodded curtly, obviously trying to not get the attention of any of the reporters. [name] flipped her hand over and gripped Aizawa's in her own. Being able to hold onto something made some of her anxiety diminish, although she was sure that how tightly she was holding it was probably less than comfortable for Aizawa.

[name] looked back up as Nedzu finished explaining the rest of his answer for the last question that had been asked and called on another reporter to ask their own question.

"Mr. Eraserhead: You claim it's for the students' safety, but in the middle of it all, you urged the students themselves to fight. What were your intentions at that point?" The middle-aged reporter asked, reading the question off from his notebook.

Aizawa didn't pull away from [name]'s hand, looking at the man as he leaned into the microphone to speak. "Since we had no way of grasping the full nature of the situation, I made that decision in an attempt to avoid the worst-case scenario." His voice was firm and confident. He may not like the media, but he was damn good at dealing with them.

The reporter furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "Worst case scenario?" He repeated. "How else would you describe a situation where twenty-six were wounded and one kidnapped?"

[name] leaned into the microphone this time. "The worst case scenario would have been any of our students dead," She said, her own voice sounding less commanding than Aizawa's did as it was magnified. "As someone who was there, I was and am currently in complete agreement with Eraser's decision."

"It became clear that the gas responsible for most of the harm was a villain's quirk-- one with a soporific effect. Kendo's and Tetsutetsu's quick thinking was responsible for minimizing the damage. The students have all received psychological evaluations and none seemed to have suffered emotional trauma," Nedzu told the reporter. "We believe the worst has been avoided as long as the students still have their futures."

The reporter stared down the bridge of his prominent nose. "Can you say the same about Bakugou, who was abducted?" His expression was steely and cold. "He won your sports festival, struggled valiantly against a powerful villain during the sludge incident. His unimpressive record implies the making of a tough hero yet... He showed a rather violent side of himself after his festival victory-- an attitude that persisted up through the awards ceremony. We've already caught glimpses here and there of his mental instability. What if those very qualities made him a target?" The reporter caught each of their individual eyes. "What if a skilled manipulator gets to him and sends him down a path of evil. Can you provide proof that, as you say, that boy still has a future?"

[name] new as soon as he started talking about Bakugou's sports festival win that he was trying to rile up Aizawa. She gripped his hand harder, hoping the pressure would keep him here on Earth. The reporter was being aggressive on purpose, hoping that he would lose his composure and yell or do something even more interesting. It was no secret that Aizawa hated the media, so they must've figured it would be easy to goad him on. [name] could only hold his hand tight and pray that Aizawa didn't jump into the reporter's game so eagerly.

Her heart skipped a beat when Aizawa carefully removed his hand from [name]'s grasp, standing up with an intense frown on his face. There's a moment where she's sure he's given in, but then he bows instead.

"Any lapse in his behavior would be mine and Pathogen's failing." Not standing from the perfect ninety degree angle his torso was at, Aizawa lifted only his head to meet the reporter's eyes. "Still, he behaved that way at the sports festival because he had such strong convictions and ideals. More than anyone, he pursues the title of top hero with everything he's got."

[name] stood as well, giving her own bow as well. She didn't usually bow as deeply as this, it was her foreigner way, but the situation obviously called for it. "Bakugou is one of the most strong-willed boys I have ever met. The villains would be hard pressed to find someone as good at manipulating people to somehow lead Bakugou down a path that bore any semblance to evil."

Some of the other reporters murmured among themselves. The reporter asking the question floundered for a moment, but regained his composure quickly. "That doesn't sound like proof of anything. The boy's emotions aside, do you have a concrete counter-strategy?"

"We're hardly approaching this passively. Currently, I am personally cooperating with the police in their ongoing investigation. Make no mistake, we will retrieve the student who was taken from us." As Nedzu told this to the reporters, [name] and Aizawa both returned to their seats.

Almost instinctively, [name] found Aizawa's hand again. She held it gentler this time, having no need to hold it so hard. She (and Aizawa) had said just about everything that she could think of as being useful at this point.

Aizawa didn't shirk away her hand.

a/n: platonic hand holding exists fuck you

ngl this is probably where i'm going to say that they've totally started to develop feelings. can't really say when the confession will come though i havent planned far enough for that yet but!! we're hella fucken close to the backstory soooo)