Apotheosis

CHAPTER 26: THE KNIGHTS

"Uraraka!" Izuku called from his temporary office. "Can you bring me the file 11-C?" He asked politely.

"Sure", Ochako sifted through the folders on her own desk until he found the right one and walked into his office to hand it to him.

"Thank you", Izuku sat there with his jacket off and sleeves rolled up. His gauntlet of course was always on.

"Do you ever take that gauntlet off?" The girl suddenly asked. "Its just I always see you wearing it"

"Of course I don't take it off", Izuku frowned. "Do you realize what they would do to me if I ever removed this", he waved his armored device at her.

"So how do you keep your arm clean?" Izuku sighed at her question.

"There's a hydration and disinfectant mechanism built inside", he told her with complete seriousness. "I thought of everything"

"Alright", Ochako grossed herself out imagining if he didn't have an internal cleaning method built into his invention.

"Damn these people are stubborn", Izuku cursed as he read the forms he submitted. "Rejected again"

"What are you trying to do this time?" The gravity girl asked.

"Well I'm trying to have a ban put on hero merchandise", Izuku replied. "All it does is further glamorize the hero profession and put money in the pockets of their agencies and the corporations that back them"

"That seems appropriate and fair", Uraraka thought about and that would be a good idea. They really shouldn't be encouraging children into these jobs without them fully understanding what they're getting into. It was all part of Izuku's plan to get people to be heroes for the right reason and not become celebrities.

"Yes, because at the end of the day pro heroes are really nothing more than public servants", Izuku scowled. "Where are the firefighter figures, or the police chief t-shirt, or hell where's the action figure of me. This is a job not a marketing platform", he sighed in exasperation. Getting himself worked up again wouldn't help any. "Some people in the senate are obviously in bed financially with some of these companies. I just have to weed them out"

"Well when we get our own office building and more staff this department can get more done", Ochako smiled pleasantly. "Thank you again Izuku for hiring my parent's construction business"

"Its nothing, I needed someone to build our branch office in the city while the fortress was handled by a different more private construction company", Izuku told her.

"Be that as may this job well help my family out immensely, and I um...just wanted to...", Uraraka blushed brightly and stepped around his desk. She quickly leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Izuku's green eyes widened as his own face turned red. He placed a hand on the spot she just kissed. "Thank you"

"Y-Your w-welcome", he cleared his throat quickly and repeated. "Your welcome", that was a little bit of the old him still in there somewhere. "Anyway come look at this", he gestured to another folder on his desk. Ochako opened it up and read it.

"Yeah that's not good", what she was reading was a rather slanderous article that someone wrote condemning Izuku's actions lately.

"Actually I think it's funny", he smirked. "Just a bunch of sad rambling idiots that are afraid of change"

"Well you did take down two popular heroes recently"

"And we're better off without them. Look at this", he pointed to his computers where documents were open. "Look how many heroes are getting their act together just to avoid being publicly humiliated and stripped of their quirk and status", the numbers showed the average of pro heroes that were working harder than ever. "My method is working, yet these fools are acting like I'm committing murder"