A State of Decay

Chapter 37

Izuku and Katsuki sit in the back of a car as they head to another interview. They'd defeated a water villain the day prior (the whole thing on camera like always), and now they were to appear on live television to talk about it. 

None of the interviews Izuku had done yet were aired live, so he was incredibly nervous. 

While he does have a script, he's worried about what might happen if he screws up or if he says the wrong thing. 

In his head, he's still trying to piece together exactly how this happened. The previous Safety Commission had been completely torn apart during the war. Everyone thought things would get better, but they didn't. The surviving members of the commission rejoined after the war when they started reforming. There were new members, too, and Izuku wondered if this was when all these new changes were implemented. Before, things weren't all that great, but now, it was almost worse. That or things had always been like this, and Izuku wasn't aware of it since he wasn't a pro hero himself. But he also feels like he would have recalled if camera crews had followed him around during his work studies with Nighteye or Endeavor in his first year before the war. Things were different now, and while The Commission gave the public the illusion that things were different and better, it wasn't the case. 

It's like they were using heroes as propaganda puppets now--worse so than before. Of course, there were always modeling campaigns and interviews, but nothing from back then felt as scripted as it does now, and Izuku isn't sure what to do about it. 

"You're muttering again, nerd," Katsuki says beside him, and Izuku whips his head to face him. 

"Oh, sorry, I'm just nervous, is all." Izuku puts his hands in his lap and tries to stop his leg from bouncing. 

"There's no reason to be nervous. You've got your lines memorized, yeah?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

Katsuki leans forward and presses a button, putting up a divider between the back seat and the driver in front of the car. "Look- I know this is some bullshit, but it's what we have to do. If you want to be out there saving people, then you have to put up with this shit. I've tried to work around this shit and get out of doing it, but there isn't a way."

"I thought heroes could always decline interviews and things like that." 

"If The Commission tells your PR team that you're doing an interview, you're doing an interview. I've tried. I fucking hate the press, but even I couldn't get out of it." 

He leans closer and brings his voice down a few notches. 

"If you don't do what they tell you, they'll threaten your hero license, Deku. You don't want that." 

Izuku frowns. "They what?"

"You fucking heard me. So don't do it, Deku, whatever it is you're thinking in that pretty head of yours. Just drop it." His crimson eyes remain trained on Izuku's face. "Just do what they tell you; the smoother it goes, the sooner you can get back out on the streets to do real hero work."

"Kacchan! Even the hero work doesn't feel real. What are we doing anymore? This isn't right, and you know it." 

The car comes to a stop. 

"Look- we have to go. We'll talk about this later, alright?" 

Izuku huffs and follows Katsuki out of the car and into the TV station. As they're ushered back to hair and makeup for their live interview, Izuku feels the tickle of his bond with Tomura in the back of his head. He shoves it down and puts his walls in place. He's already freaking out a little over everything else, and he doesn't need that reminder right now.