Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 3

"Hallucination?" The reporter asked, pulling the microphone back to himself. "Would you mind explaining it? I'm not sure if our viewers have heard of that quirk before!"

"Of course! My quirk lets me make an illusion that only a certain person can see, but it requires a lot of concentration. I need to make myself see things from my opponent's perspective and insert the mental image into their mind," I explained, but decided not to go into too much detail. Revealing too much about my quirk would put me at a disadvantage when fighting villains, but then again, the reporter seemed to be from a less popular television crew, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. "If I focus hard enough, I can completely erase myself from their sight and make them only see the illusion that I create."

"That's quite a quirk you've got there! And would you mind explaining your hero name for us?"

I nervously fiddled with the hilt of one dagger, but forced myself to stay calm. It's just an interview. Stop being so wound up. "Well, uh, it's actually a funny story," I started. Nope. It's not funny at all, so why did I say that?  "We were supposed to be choosing our hero names, but I didn't really have any ideas. Then, my friend suggested Vizion because my quirk affected how a person sees things. They were just joking, but I didn't have any better ideas, so it ended up being Vizion." 

I smiled fondly as I remembered asking Keigo about it. He'd been waiting for me outside U.A. to walk me home, and I'd asked him for ideas. With a laugh, he suggested Vizion, because "the 'z' will make you so cool!" and even though he told me later it was a joke, I'd already submitted the name. I missed those days, when we'd just spend hours fooling around every day after school. It wasn't that I didn't like being a hero, but it just was too much sometimes. Maybe I shouldn't have dedicated my entire life to being a hero. I shook the thought away - it was so stupid, I couldn't even believe I allowed myself to think. 

"What a touching story from our up-and-coming hero Vizion! Now, it seems like our fans would like to know a little bit about today's battle." The reporter's friendly tone immediately disappeared, and I could've sworn I saw a dangerous gleam behind his eyes. "We were told by a few witnesses that you, a pro hero, aren't afraid to fight dirty. Is that true?"

Fight dirty? What does h- I suddenly remembered how I'd continued to beat the life out of Spinner even after he was restrained. Oh. That. I took a calming breath and gave the reporter an icy smile. "Sorry, but I wasn't aware there was a rulebook on how to fight villains that endangered the lives of hundreds of innocent citizens." My voice was dripping with sarcasm. "I did what I had to do in order to get necessary information out of the villains. If I need to get my hands a little dirty in order for others to be safer, then I wouldn't hesitate to do so."

"So you admit that you fight dirty?" The reporter raised an eyebrow, a satisfied smirk on his face. Shit. I walked right into that, didn't I?  "Oh my, wouldn't that be quite the scandal among other heroes?"

"I admit that my style of fighting is different from the typical style of heroes. It requires more brains than brawns, so I'm sorry if you can't quite grasp it's concept," I said with an innocent smile, but my eyes were glaring daggers at the reporter. Keep asking questions like that, and I'll rip your head off,  I seemed to be saying. At this point, I was convinced he was doing his very best to make me look horrible compared to other heroes, and if he kept going, it would probably work. 

"Right, of course, I apologize for the critique," he replied, and I almost sighed in relief that he seemed to be backing off. "But then would you like to explain how the League of Villains managed to slip away from a pro hero as smart as yourself?"

I felt my eye twitch when the reporter put emphasis on the word 'smart', and it took all of my self restraint to not lunge at him right then and there. Instead, I forced myself to stay calm, never breaking eye contact with the reporter, even though he was making me more and more irritated by the second. "The League of Villains was prepared for the attack. They had time to organize every little detail, and make countless amounts of back-up plans for their escapes and formations. We did the best we could, but this time, the heroes were at a disadvantage a lot larger than ever before. We did our best, but now that we know a little more about the quirks they have at their disposal, we'll be able to stop them the next time they attack."

I could tell my answer didn't convince the reporter, but I refused to say anything more. As much as I believed that the public deserved to know the whole truth, I didn't want to send them into a pointless panic. Even if I did want to tell the exact details of the attack, I'd tell them to a more reliable source, not some random television crew that I'd never seen before. 

The reporter turned again to face the camera. "Well, you heard her! If a pro hero says there's no reason to worry, then we'll believe her! Now, if you could just answer one more que-"

"No." I raised up a hand to silence him. "This interview is over."

"But it's about your partne-"

"I said no." With that, I turned my back to the camera and stalked over to where Keigo was still busy with a crowd. I'll get an earful from the agency for that. I pushed through the mass of people, careful to not hurt anyone until I stood right in behind one of the cameras that was still running and pointed at Keigo. I tilted my head to one side, pointing with my chin in the direction of our agency's headquarters, and he gave me a tiny nod in response. I waited as he answered one final question - something about how it felt to be so accomplished at such a young age - and he parted with the cameras. 

"Now, if you'll excuse me, my partner is waiting." Keigo gave the cameras one last smile before following me through the crowd and out onto the more-or-less empty street. As soon as we were out of sight, he slumped his shoulders down a little, his entire body sagging under the pressure. He probably blamed himself for letting the League escape, but really, it was my fault. I'd been too caught up with Spinner to even notice anything was wrong, but combined with the media's attention, the guilt must've been almost enough to crush him. "Thanks for giving me an excuse to leave," he said, smiling as he reached for my hand, our fingers immediately intertwining.

"You know, Keigo, you really should learn how to say no to those reporters sometimes," I brought up after a few minutes of us walking towards the agency hand in hand. 

"I always have you to do that for me, don't I?" He winked, teasing me. "Besides, I don't want to turn out like you. You looked like you were about to murder that poor guy!"

I elbowed Keigo in the rib. "Not my fault he was being an asshole. You'd probably want to punch him, too."

"We really need to work on that attitude of yours, don't we?" Keigo chuckled, and I playfully rolled my eyes. 

As we walked through the streets, most of the pedestrians ignored us, but I spotted a few young children gawking at Keigo. He gave them a small wave with his free hand, and I couldn't help but smile. He was just so open and kind to everyone that it was impossible for anyone to hate him, and just watching him be so carefree and happy helped some of the stress from today disappear into thin air. I hadn't even realized I was staring at him until he met my eye, and I grinned happily. Keigo glanced around, and once he was sure no one was paying attention to us  anymore, he placed a quick kiss on my forehead, and in return, I playfully pushed on the tip of his nose, making us both giggle. 

After no more than five minutes, we got to the front of the agency building, and we climbed the stairs that led to the door. No sooner than I stepped through the automatic sliding doors did the head of the media department charge towards us, an angry look on their face. 

"Hiroko Kira, you are in some serious trouble!"