Learning (HIATUS)

Chapter 6: Press Conference, and a Relationship

Eight days have passed since the incident with Overhaul and his subordinates. Apparently during the fight a news chopper was watching and recording the whole thing. They had recorded Overhaul killing Deku, Eri's quirk evolving, bringing Deku back to life, and then Eri rewinding Overhaul and his group into nothingness. The public was quiet about it the first couple days but after that it was chaos. People were wondering who the little girl with white hair was, why she killed Overhaul and the rest of his crew, did she even mean it? There was a lot of questions that the public demanded answers. Izuku knew that he needed to host a press conference to get everything under wraps. He knew they would want him to bring Eri along but he couldn't risk that right now. He needed to worry about her mental state. So far she was fine. She didn't understand what happened when she first woke up but once she figured out what happened she understood and stood by her decision. Yes she didn't mean to kill Overhaul and his group but now that they were dead they couldn't harm anyone anymore. Izuku agreed with her but he said that she would be going to a therapist to talk about everything. On top of that whenever she had free time she would be doing training with Mr. Aizawa to get her new power under control.

Izuku had woken up in his agency bedroom. He looked around and saw Eri was sleeping and Itsuka had went to the kitchen for something. Itsuka hadn't left his or Eri's side during this entire thing. During this time Itsuka and him had gotten really close. Izuku had wanted to ask her out but he needed to settle with things first before he did that. Inko and Itsuka's parents had come by everyday to check up on them and Inko to also check up on her granddaughter. Izuku got up out of bed and walked towards the kitchen and saw Itsuka making pancakes for breakfast. He yawned while stretching and spoke, "Good morning Itsuka. You sleep well?" She nodded and put some pancakes on a plate, "I slept pretty good. Hey question for you." He looked over at her and nodded, "What is it?" "Has Eri always talked in her sleep?" He nodded, "Kind of. She does it randomly. Sometimes when she does you can understand what she is saying and other times you can't." They continued talking then they heard the bedroom door open and a very tired looking Eri walked out holding onto a Deku doll Momo had made her for a Christmas present last year while she rubbed her eyes, "P-Papa?" Izuku walked over to Eri and picked her up, "Good morning snowball. You sleep well?" She nodded and laid her head on Izuku's shoulder, "Still sweepy." She then nodded off. Izuku and Itsuka chuckled at this but Izuku continued to carry Eri around.

After a little bit Itsuka's mom had showed up to work and talked to them for a bit. She had said she had set up that press conference for Izuku and it was in a hour so he needed to get ready. Izuku had handed Eri off to Itsuka so he could change and prepare what he was gonna say. He had pulled out his new hero suit since the other one was basically damaged beyond repair. When Eri brought him back to life she really only used her quirk on him. Not his suit. Thankfully Mei Hatsume and Melissa Shield were able to get him one put together fairly quickly. Izuku then walked out of his changing room and was writing down notes for the conference. He need to do his best to control everything that was said otherwise they reporters and journalist would get out of control.

After jotting down notes for about fourty five minutes Deku then left to go to the press conference location. By the time he got there he went up to the podium they had set up. There were camera's set up and recording already. The second the conference started he was bombarded with questions. He didn't have a chance to answer them for five minutes before he grabbed the microphone he had, "EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Everyone went dead quiet, "I will only answer one question at a time understood! If you all start trying to bombard me with questions I will be leaving! Understood!?" There was silence for a moment before the reporters and journalists mostly agreed. A female reporter raised there hand and Deku responded, "Go ahead what is your question?" "What is your relationship with that white haired little girl?" He knew this question was gonna come. Best to get it out of the way now then later, "She is my adopted daughter. I adopted her around half a year ago." A male reporter raised their hand. Deku nodded for him to ask and he did, "Why did you adopt a daughter at such a young age?" "I am not answering that. That is a personal question." A journalist raised there hand and asked, "What is her relationship with Overhaul." Deku sighed. Another question he didn't wanna answer, "Around a year and a half ago me and some other heroes went on a mission to rescue Eri. Overhaul was pretending to be her dad and was torturing her and using her own flesh and blood to make quirk erasing bullets." Someone then asked, "What is her quirk?" "Her quirk is the ability to rewind time on anything to a previous state." Someone else asked, "Does she plan on being a hero? If so she could help a lot of people." He shook his head, "As of right now Eri does not have any plans to become a hero." The same reporter asked, "But with her quirk she could save thousands maybe dozens of lives." Deku shrugged, "Look just because she has a quirk that could say lives doesn't mean she has too. She can do whatever she wants." Someone else asked, "Does she wanna become a doctor? She could rewind people that were dying to a state before they were dying." Izuku yet again shrugged, "Look Eri has expressed no interest in any kind of job she wants. And in terms of the saving people from dying part I have asked her a handful of times that exact question. She has said that if someone is 100% going to die she doesn't feel like she has the right to play god and tip the scales. I think that saying works." Another reporter asked, "But she brought you back to life when Overhaul killed you. Didn't she go against her own words?" "Yet again you all are forgetting she is a seven year old. She still wants to follow that rule she set but in that moment she saw her father get murdered by someone. In that moment all she wanted was to bring her father back and she didn't think of the rule. Am I glad I am alive? Yes I am. But Eri is still young. She can change her mind whenever she pleases and I will listen to her." The same reporter spoke, "But she has a duty to society to help people with the power she has." Deku got a little pissed at this statement, "She does not have a duty to anyone. She is a seven year old girl who has been through more shit than anyone in this crowd. If anyone here thinks she should be forced to help people even if she doesn't want to and she was forced to you can leave right this damn instance." After he said this only a couple people left.

Once things calmed down for a bit another reporter spoke, "What about her using her quirk to murder Overhaul and his team? Will she face any punishment?" Izuku shook his head, "After multiple pro heroes saw and we informed police detectives it was decided that Eri was not in her right mind when she did that and thus will not be punished at all." The same reporter asked, "But she killed multiple people." "She did it by accident. She said she didn't mean to do it. And yet again with everything that happened she will not be punished in the slightest bit. And I am gonna state this right now." He then put his hands on the sides of the podium, "I say this next statement as a father and not as a pro hero. If Eri is ever out with me or anyone in public and I see anyone come up to her and try talking shit about her and that she needs to serve time I will deal with you personally. No one will do anything that I consider harm to my little girl." A good handful of people in the crowd said they agreed since they also had kids. A reporter then asked, "Some people have reported seeing you and a orange haired girl around your age being out and hanging out together. Are you all in a relationship with her?" He shook his head, "That is my new secretary's daughter. Me and her have been hanging out whenever we both have free time. We are only friends."

The press conference ended shortly after and Deku patrolled for awhile. Once the time hit about 6:30P.M. he went back to his agency. He headed to the changing room and changed into his normal clothes. He then walked around to find Eri and he saw Eri was drawing on the kitchen table and Itsuka was making dinner for them. Akane had went home by now so it was just the three of them. Izuku walked up to Itsuka, "Itsuka I just wanna say thank you for everything you have helped me with the passed couple days. Especially with Eri." Itsuka nodded and smiled, "It isn't that big of a deal Izuku. Just helping out a good friend." Izuku spoke, "Itsuka can me and you have a serious conversation for a second." She nodded, "What is it?" "I wanna talk to you about us. The past couple weeks have been amazing. I have loved hanging out with you and Eri has too. I wanna ask you a question." Itsuka was blushing. She had a decent idea on where this conversation was going and she couldn't contain the smile on her face and she nodded to Izuku. "Itsuka I wanna say I really like you. Not just as a friend but something more. Itsuka would you maybe wanna go on a date?" Itsuka quickly hugged Izuku close and nodded in his chest, "Of course I would you dummy." They stayed like that for a long time.