Beast Speaker, Monster Tamer

82: Through the Lenses of an Outsider

The morning greeted 1-A's halls with its student's uproarious surprise. "A NEWSPAPER???"

"Yep," Aizawa deadpanned. "They want to do a broadcast on you all."

While most of the class was sent into an excited buzz, Elise shifted nervously.

The news never brings anything good. Blaziken sniffed disdainfully. A buncha Sharpedos. Actually, I think it's a disservice to associate Sharpedos with them.

"Do you think it'll be a female reporter?"

Though, I don't think anybody is bad enough to be subjected to Mineta's actions.

Aizawa cut the class's celebration in half. "Don't get excited. The article's supposed to be about how you students are doing in the dorms you just moved into. The principal thought it'd be good for your parents and guardians, so he gave special permission."

Despite Aizawa's ongoing speech, Elise was aware of Mineta foaming at the mouth as he envisioned something foul. "If you think about it, 'announcer' sounds like 'bouncer,' which sounds like 'bouncy boo—'"

Elise grimaced and stepped away to let Aizawa's capture weapon sweep in to deal with the dirt, wrapping Mineta up into a muffled, squirming cocoon to put a stop to the boy.

"So you better not do anything like that."

"You don't have to be like that, Aizawa-sensei," a new voice interjected, drawing everyone's attention as a lanky man entered. "I want to report on the U.A. students in their natural state in the dorms."

The arrival of the lanky man caught her completely off-guard, no warnings of a stranger in their dorms making alarms blare in her head

"Tokuda-san, I didn't say you could come in yet—"

"I was told I could be here from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's already time."

Rankled at the tone he took toward her teacher, Elise frowned as the reporter introduced himself to the class. Tall, he would've been even taller if he wasn't slouched. Half-lidded eyes and a slight smile were the next things she picked up from him, cementing the slight untrustworthiness in her head. Though, she was respectful enough to follow general greetings as the class bowed to him.

"You don't have to do anything special," Tokuda said after he bowed back. "Please just show the camera how you normally live. I might ask you questions occasionally, so I'll be counting on you then."

The smile he gave sent some of the more romantically inclined girls into a tizzy.

"Iida, if there's a problem, let me know immediately," Aizawa instructed.

Said boy, eager to acknowledge the duty placed upon him, immediately straightened and assumed a militant stance. "Yes sir! As the class representative for Class 1-A, I, Tenya Iida, will carry out my duty—"

"Okay, then, um..." Tokuda quickly added on. "What would you usually be doing now?"

"Breakfast!"

"You don't have to be so nervous," he reassured. "Just pretend I'm not here..."

Elise squinted sullenly at him from the back of the crowd, tugging on her compression sleeve to relieve the itchiness. Despite his attempts to ease the class, she suspected there was something deeper that he wanted to find despite the seemingly harmless, surface-level motivations that he projected.

Hmph.

"Everything alright, Elise?"

Her vision strayed from the man to Shoji, who was waiting for her. Not wanting to hold him up, she gave him a wan smile and cleared her throat. "Hm? Oh, yeah."