Life is Simple, Love is Not (Izuku x Miruko)

Chapter 42: Behind the Scenes

"Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have."

-Thomas Hildern, Fallout: New Vegas

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Rumi yawned as she sat in the sparsely furnished dressing room. It had been a few days since the run-in with Oscar, and so far everything seemed to be fine.

Well, relatively fine.

The day after encountering Oscar, a news report had come out describing the crime scene and Oscar's assertions. Normally stuff like this would have never aired, being based mostly on rumours and a few individuals.

But these were not normal times.

The timing could not have been worse. With all the recent controversy around the pro-heroes, the short news piece simply added more fuel to the burning dumpster fire that was the reputation of the pro-heroes. The internet was not much better, if not even worse. PLF sympathizers were decrying the increase in violent raids, while internet trolls reveled in the discontent and anarchy. Pro-hero society was hemorrhaging supporters and defenders like a bullet-riddled body losing blood, and no end to the problems was in sight.

Alright, maybe everything was not exactly fine.

As a result, Rumi had been invited to be the featured guest of one of the city's most popular evening talk shows. Prior to all the chaos, Rumi's reputation as a spitfire had put her on a list of heroes not suitable for mainstream media. Besides the fact that she cursed like a sailor, major news networks preferred heroes that were a little more classy. But now, Rumi was one of the few heroes that the public still had a positive impression of. Being unaffiliated with any pro-hero agency, as well as being very vocal about her beliefs, meant that Rumi had been mostly unaffected by recent events. On top of that, having lost her arm fighting the PLF meant that Rumi had many sympathizers as well as staunch supporters.

Flipping her long white hair over her shoulder, Rumi idly scrolled through her newsfeed on her phone. Normally, she would have declined the interview offer without a second thought, but Miss Sasaki had already accepted the offer by the time Rumi had heard of it. The stern older woman had informed Rumi that the interview was a good opportunity to help improve the social standing of pro-heroes. At the very least, doing the interview would cement Rumi's position as one of the last "true" pro-heroes.

However, the main point Miss Sasaki had driven into Rumi's skull was that the interviewers were almost certainly going to ask questions about Izuku. A handsome man in a suit who had appeared out of nowhere, and had won Rumi's trust, was almost a newsworthy occurrence in of itself. Miss Sasaki had made it very clear that Rumi should be on her best behavior when it came to talking about Izuku. The interviewers were more than likely going to ask some personal questions, and Miss Sasaki did not want a repeat of Rumi's last disastrous interview.

So what if she had punched a reporter in the mouth? The creep had deserved it. Oddly enough, the altercation had actually improved Rumi's hero rating amongst the general populace.

The rabbit-eared hero was broken out of her musing by the sound of a polite knock on the dressing room door.

"Miss Miruko?" A nervous female voice called out. "We are ready for you."

Putting her phone in one of the hidden pockets in her hero outfit, Rumi stood up and opened the door to reveal a short woman who had long whiskers on her face.

"This way." The assistant squeaked nervously, before leading Rumi to the set of the news show.

In front of a large green screen, two professionally-dressed newscasters sat behind a long metal counter as their assistants tended to their equipment. The taller of the two hosts, a man sat in a blue suit with round glasses perched on his nose. With a bald head that shone like a polished bowling ball, the male host had three ivory horns jutting out from above his eyebrows. The female host wore a stylish red blouse and grey skirt. Her neck was also covered in shiny pink scales that reflected the bright set lights like pink diamonds.