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Verdant Revolution Chapter #63 Warriors and Politicians

Midoriya had entered the press conference with a carefully cultivated smile on his face. As expected, there were several reporters unwilling to comply with the simple instructions that were given and were forcibly removed. If Aizawa had been there, he would have appreciated Midoriya's talent in forcing order upon people he considered to be feral.

The media hounds were slowly chipping away at the mask Midoriya wore with a zeal that was beginning to near the intelligence he suspected some of them might have. Underneath the slimy veneer and the fake smiles was a poorly disguised contempt for the people they interrogated, the questions, and themselves, of course.

"This question is for Mr. Midoriya. There has been much controversy surrounding the USJ attack and the lethal force used by both you and your fellow students. But among those discussions, there have been rumors of a new, less lethal alternative ammunition that was field tested at the USJ. Can you comment on these rumors?"

Midoriya blinked, raising an eyebrow at the reporter. He recognized the man, a common sight in Moonlit Industries press conferences. A surprise to be sure, as Midoriya hadn't expected to see any of the same reporters. The news agency must have thought I would be more forthcoming with a friendly face. Midoriya mused for a moment on that before deciding that they probably had a point.

"Hmm. I suppose I can comment on that, yes. For some time now, Moonlit Industries has been working on a less lethal alternative, following the failure of other developers. This ammunition has been developed in conjunction with both our law enforcement and hero partners with the intent of utilizing it as another tool in villain apprehension."

"Can you comment on how it works?"

"Not in detail, no. As I'm sure you understand, the technology is proprietary and is further restricted by the contract we work under to develop such tools. Due to its trial nature, I am unable to comment at this time."

"Why were you carrying such a thing during what was purported to be rescue training?" Midoriya felt his smile twitch as another reporter called out.

"It is standard practice for all hero students to carry all of their gear into training, regardless of what that training might be. If they find they cannot perform their duties while carrying certain aspects of their gear, then they are encouraged to make changes through our support department to remedy the situation. We, as an institution, would rather the students discover these flaws during testing rather than in the field where it matters far more." Nedzu fielded the question as if it was the thousandth time that he'd had to answer it, and, Midoriya supposed, it probably was.

"At some point, it is true that you switched from this less lethal ammunition to live ammunition. How can you justify the damage this has caused?" Midoriya felt his eye twitch but took a deep breath, steeling himself before he answered.

"I switched to live ammunition after I ran out of the trial ammunition. As for the damage inflicted, I believe, and the courts have already ruled this to be true, that these actions were entirely justified, considering the circumstances."

"Do you believe that the use of firearms at the USJ led to a higher death count than if you had not had access to the firearms?"

"How do you justify these deaths at your hands during the battle at the USJ?"

"Is U.A. training future heroes to become murderers?"

Midoriya's mask cracked, and the snarl that he'd been working to keep tamped down erupted from his throat with pure, unadulterated hatred. "Enough." Midoriya felt the president's clawed hand press down on his arm as the room fell silent.

Nedzu leaned in, speaking in quiet tones as he kept his grip on Midoriya. "Do not answer that question. You may leave, Midoriya." Midoriya, on the other hand, made no move to quiet his voice as he spoke.

"I am afraid I would like to answer that question, sir. Who was it that so brazenly came into this press conference and called the students here murderers?" A long moment of silence before a hand raised amidst the crowd. Midoriya immediately zeroed in on the reporter that hand was attached to. The man seemed flustered at being called out in such a manner, his eyes darting, his fingers touching the perfectly knotted tie at the base of his throat reflexively. Regardless, with a haughty breath, he repeated the question.

"I would ask that you refrain from inaccurate, inflammatory comments in the future. It has already been ruled that all criminal deaths pertaining to the USJ resulted from justified uses of lethal force."

"That doesn't change the fact that the students here, at a top-tier school, no less, killed people so easily-"

"Easily? Fact? Let's talk about facts, then. It is a fact that students come to the U.A. hero course to receive four years of training, which consequently entitles them to a degree therefrom. It is a fact that the majority of students in their first-year range from age eighteen to age twenty. A vast majority of the students in this course are still teens during their first year."

"That doesn't-"

"Be quiet, sir, and allow me to answer your question. It is a fact that by the time these students graduate from the program, an average of seventy percent wash out of the training for some reason or another. It is a fact that of the remaining thirty percent of students, a number will inevitably take any plethora of offered positions that make use of such a degree, rather than go into hero work directly."

Midoriya's voice rose in volume as he spoke, fire dancing in his eyes. "The students you are so quick to call murderers, sir, do not possess anything resembling that level of training. They do not have the tools or the knowledge necessary to perform official duties as heroes. Up until the USJ, these teenagers had been going through little more than basic conditioning. The USJ was supposed to be their first foray into protecting innocent people using the knowledge that they had gained during class. Instead, they were met with three S-class villains and over two hundred criminals that had come to the USJ with the express purpose of killing them."

"That- that does not justify the taking of lives-" The reporters sitting closest to the man had begun to subtly scoot away from him. Regardless of their ideas and stances on the subject matter, they didn't want to be in the eyeline of an irate hero student, nor the faculty who would surely remember their faces.

"Do you know how much your chances of survival decrease when faced with more than one attacker? This isn't a movie where one can fight off an army on their own. Five-to-one odds the students faced, worse for our two professors. Students, without training, scattered across a facility designed to train them in the worst possible natural disasters, being hunted by criminals who, through both word and action, intended to kill them. It ceased to be a matter of right or wrong. You kick, you scream, you fight with every single thing you have in you just so that you and the person next to you can make it out alive."

The fire in Midoriya's voice disappeared, leaving cold desolation. "Thirty-nine teenagers, hardly older than children, walked into a training facility to learn how to save lives. Thirty-eight left it alive. Of those alive, countless injuries left many in critical condition and several families wondering if their children were going to make it through the night. Mental, emotional, and physical wounds that may never heal, yet you have the gall to sit there in front of me on national television and call those students murderers?"

"Call me what you want; I have the training, the licenses, and the ability to stand between the other students and the critical threat that we faced. Investigate me and pick apart every scrap of information you can about me. Judge me for my actions, if you will. I did what I had to, cognizant of the weight and severity of what I was doing in order to protect the innocent. But do not," the snarl ripped from Midoriya's throat, and his eyes lit green, from stage lights or fury, the reporters didn't know, "stand there and call my classmates murderers for protecting their lives."

…

Midoriya caught Uraraka's leg with a grunt as it kicked out and into his side. He felt it when the toes of her pseudo boot dug into his back as she leveraged herself towards him to strike at his head. Unfortunately for her, he had no qualms about tucking his shoulder into her chest and ramming her back into the closest wall.

Shoji's arms wrapping around him pulled Midoriya away from Uraraka and bound him up from behind. Midoriya slammed his foot down on the larger man's own before his elbow and head came back, making contact with bone. The coughing fit gave Midoriya enough time to slip from the bind. Not enough time to strike at him again before Uraraka was up and swinging at him.

The kick to the back of Midoriya's knee had him stumbling, and his eyes flicked to where he had been tracking Hagakure. He reached out and grabbed the girl around her arm before flinging her into the charging bull that was their gravity quirk user. Midoriya blinked away the change to his vision as both girls hit the ground with an oomph loud enough to make Midoriya sigh. Hagakure needed to either time that better or get more aggressive after putting him off balance. At the very least, she could have opened up a window for Uraraka to use her quirk. Well, at least their teamwork is improving.

…

"Alright, everyone, gather up." Midoriya clapped his hands as the students began with their self-guided stretches, something that they had thankfully, and unanimously, taken upon themselves when they'd first reached the simulated city that had served as their training grounds for the day.

"You've all worked hard these last couple of weeks. As you all know, we're only a week out from the Sports Festival. Exciting and anxiety-inducing at the same time, I know, but as I mentioned last week, we'll be changing things up again for this segment of your training."

Ashido vibrated in place at the idea of a more enticing exercise than the endless sparring they had been doing. At some point, Aizawa had rejoined them, finally unswaddled from his mummy-esque layers of bandages and insisting that he see how their training was coming along. That, of course, was how they'd ended up with the more exciting, presumably, exercises pushed back by a week with a promise of when you're ready. They were all well and truly ready to do something else.

Midoriya narrowed his eyes at Ashido. Her excited vibrations, combined with her eye-searing outfit, had turned her into a veritable kaleidoscope of colors. It was hard to look at her for any extended period of time without risking the image being burnt into his retinas. Aizawa glared at the costume as if it had personally insulted his family.

"Now, today's training will be a little different from what you are used to." Midoriya raised his voice enough for it to carry. "Hatsume! Bring them out, please." The door to the control room slid open, Nedzu making his way into the room first. The president of the university smiled as he clambered up Aizawa's side to sit on his shoulder. Aizawa grunted as he adjusted to the weight.

Hatsume entered next, accompanied by a teenager and what appeared to be a robot pulled straight out of a classic science fiction novel. Standing somewhere around five and a half feet, the robot, with its thick plating, was dyed a dark blue-gray. All of the features spoke of a humanoid shape, but on the LCD screen, the face was made up entirely of two straight lines and one curved, the emulation of a smile. The simplistic rendering flickered as the students studied it, replaced instead by the chibi-style image of a hen. The original face reappeared after a moment. Both Jiro and Toga blinked in recognition before Jiro stepped back quickly.

"Oh, hell no. Do not tell me that we are fighting those things, Midoriya." Delighted, Midoriya laughed, a sentiment which was echoed by Hatsume's slow, sly smirk. While a majority of the class stared on in a fascinated kind of dread, Yaoyorozu moved closer to examine the bot.

"Yes, you will be fighting them, but you can relax. Athena won't be the one controlling the robots you'll be fighting. Everyone, allow me to introduce this young man first. Nakayama Suto is currently one of U.A.'s wards. Due to the nature of his quirk, he'll be the one piloting the bot you see here and similar bots like it. Say hello."

A chorus of greetings rang out while Midoriya nodded his head. "Good. Now, to explain what we're doing here today, and as All Might so helpfully brought up earlier in the semester, most villain fights take place indoors."

"There is a good reason why we do not start students indoors, however, as can be seen from the first battle trial." Midoriya nodded at Aizawa's comment before continuing.

"Today, we'll be working outside. The only objective is to make it down the assigned street while successfully stopping any crime that may be taking place on it. For that purpose, we have co-opted a program that Hatsume originally developed in partnership with the Ministry of Defense."

Hatsume smiled cheerfully as she wrapped her arms around the robot in a fierce hug before letting it go with a slap on the back. The bot seemed to blink as it processed the gesture, turning its head after a moment to pat Hatsume on the head. Toga shivered, her eyes sliding uneasily between it and her friends. She didn't like the bots. Even if they were useful, they didn't bleed. Toga didn't easily trust things that didn't bleed.

"These bots," Hatsume started, "were a pain in the ass to get approval for. See, while Midoriya and his team worked on the ammunition you've all seen, the engineering team and I developed these to train live combat scenarios for the JSDF. They've got all sorts of sensors inside them." Hatsume rolled her wrist over, adjusting the band there to project the pseudo-biometrics of the bot for the class to see. "This way, we're able to train you all without risk of harm."

Nedzu gave a small chuckle from Aizawa's shoulder. "I was able to make a deal for the trial use of the robots for Class 1-A's training. All of you young students just need to take this opportunity to learn from them!"

Sero raised his hand a bit nervously. "Uh, not to disparage anyone or anything, but Toga and Jiro are two of the best fighters in our class. Why are they so spooked by this robot, and does that mean we don't stand a chance?"

Hatsume smiled. It wasn't a comfortable smile for the class to see, too much tooth. "Ah, yes, well. Back when we were developing them, those two insisted on fighting them to train for the entrance exam here. At that time, we only had the training program that we'd designed for the military. Suffice it to say, you all don't need the bots to perform quite that well yet. Today, the 'civilian' bots will be on simple routine programming, while the 'villain' bots will be controlled directly by Nakayama here. We have a few trial models that can mimic certain quirks, but they won't be involved here. All simple strength enhancers and durability quirks today."

Aizawa sighed. "The idea is that we can introduce you to low-level villain fights before moving onto more difficult battles."

"This exercise, and others like it, will provide you with a rudimentary idea of what patrolling a street is like and introduce you all to some of the key aspects of hero work. That way, you aren't thrown in the deep end without the ability to swim once you begin your internships."

"How are we supposed to identify the villain bots and civilian bots?" Todoroki asked in a neutral tone that had Midoriya side-eyeing Aizawa.

"To begin with, there is no easy way to separate a villain from a civilian if they haven't already committed a crime. It's part of the challenge of law enforcement. You cannot simply arrest someone for being suspicious. Law enforcement officials such as heroes are, by nature, a responsive force, not an offensive one. Unless they are a wanted criminal, which is something we'll get to at a later time, you simply have to remain vigilant. That is part of what we'll be practicing today."

"That being said," Hatsume continued to smirk as she gestured, "once they have committed a crime…" The robot's face gained a set of angry, downturned eyebrows, and when it flipped to its second image, instead of a hen, a chibi fox appeared.

Midoriya looked around. "Any more questions, or should we start pairing off?