This idea is a bit of a strange one, as it's sort of a courtroom drama, which is something that I've never really done before.
On the Air
(Inspired by Oshi No Ko and King by Phantomrose96)
One day, the teachers of U.A. are invited onto a talk show for an extended interview to boost U.A.'s popularity, since recent events, such as the USJ and the Summer Training Camp, have been landing the academy in hot water. They needed a boost to their reputation desperately, and this seems like the best way to do that.
The event is hosted by an idol group known the Saints, composed of their head singer Ayumi Hijiriyama, who's quirk allows her to summon sparkles in the air, Mei Dei, who's quirk allows her to generate sparkles from her fingertips, Miri Sompo, who's quirk allows her to change the colour of her eyes, and Yua Sonno, who's quirk allows her to view and project the dreams of others.
Before the interview, the two sides of the upcoming conversation meet and exchange papers, and U.A.'s teachers are given a list of the questions that they will be asked during the programme. The idols know that U.A. have agreed to this interview just to help in recovering their recently blemished reputation, and they are okay with it. They know what they have to do.
The interview soon begins, with Midnight, Present Mic, and Eraserhead taking the lead on the questions. Ayumi, the one asking the questions, begins with the basics, asking them about U.A.'s courses, their general stance on several ongoing societal issues and topics, and so on.
So far, the interview is going well.
But then, things begin to swerve off course. Ayumi begins to ask questions that aren't on the papers they'd been given earlier. Questions relating to the events that have been transpiring since the beginning of the school year. First, it begins with the entrance exam into U.A., and how it is clearly slated against people with weaker, less flashy quirks such as Shinso, which Aizawa had pointed out himself during the Sports Festival (during this conversation, it is pointed out that Hagakure and Koda were able to make it in despite having quirks that are seemingly impractical against robots like Shinso, only to be countered by the fact that Hagakure had used her invisibility to dodge the robots and press their shutdown button, whilst Koda had been able to communicate with the rats and birds scattered around the entrance exam grounds to find the robots around the area and shut them down as well. It is then pointed out that Midnight and Aizawa's quirks are nowhere near suited for the entrance exam as well, and that they had got into the hero course through the Sports Festival in their respective years).
Then the questions shift to the battle trials, which Ayumi and the other idols know happened due to both their previous investigations and private interviews with graduated students from U.A., as well as the fact that multiple members of Class 1-A have active social media accounts and regularly post on them, particularly about their times in U.A..
Then, they reveal that they've got footage from the CCTV network from within U.A.. Footage that they'd been able to grab from whistle-blowers inside the academy itself.
The teachers are shocked at this, and when the interview reaches its first advertising break, they demand to know what the hell is going on. Ayumi tells them that they're conducting an interview, and Aizawa tells her that U.A. can sue them for defamation, though Ayumi counters that that only applies to statements that are false. All the evidence they have is real and true, unless they want to counter it.
The teachers debate on whether they should cancel the interview now and walk off, but then they are contacted by Nezu, who reluctantly tells them to stay on the interview. U.A. is under attack once more, and this time it is not their students who are at risk, but their reputation. Ayumi and the Saints idol group have effectively declared war against U.A., and it is their mission now to fight back against them.
And so, the three teachers return to the cameras once the adverts finish, and the interview begins once more.
Thus, begins what is essentially a courtroom drama fic, where the entirety of U.A., from its lessons to its teachers to the events surrounding it, are analysed and deconstructed. Many of the common criticisms raised against U.A. by the fandom are levied and put to review within this story, with arguments by both sides being made for and against said criticisms.
Some of the arguments raised centre around the Sports Festival and how soon it is hosted in the year, as well as the ethics of hosting the event so soon after the USJ attack.
Another argument that is raised is Midnight being a teacher, and how she has continually proven to be sexually suggestive even though she is supposed to be teaching children. It is commented that her tendency of being open about her sexual desires, especially when she is supposed to be a teacher, has left others concerned, and has also raised some... disturbing implications amongst some circles.
Another is about Bakugo and how he has continued to act belligerently ever since arriving in U.A., including up to failing his license exam and how U.A. is now irreconcilably linked to him and his reputation thanks to their defending his actions. U.A. is now responsible for Bakugo and his attitude, and the fact that they have made a show of protecting him, on top of All Might sacrificing his own career to save him, means that if Bakugo was to ever make a mistake or come out bad, then it would reflect negatively on U.A. as a whole. And considering how they were doing very little to try and curb his endless outbursts and violent disposition, possibly even enabling it, that negative reflection is already beginning to rear its head.
And another is Aizawa's teaching methods and how he constantly lies to his students, threatens to expel them constantly, and makes it a habit of sleeping in his classes when he is supposed to be teaching them, making him come across as lazy and belligerent. The black mark that is left on various students' records by Aizawa despite their being re-entered into the academy is brought up, as it is revealed that these black marks utterly destroy the future heroes' chances at any kind of career, as no hero employer would ever want to take on a hero who had been expelled from the best academy in the country. As such, many of these potential heroes have been left in poverty, either becoming homeless, vigilantes, or even villains.
The phonelines are also opened several times during the story, and this allows several characters, from Izuku to Mawata Fuwa, to call in and voice their thoughts and opinions on U.A. as an institution, something that they weren't able to do before because of U.A.'s ultimate reputation and the pressure from the teachers and the establishment itself, and they begin to enter two camps, either defending it like Izuku, or condemning it like Mawata eventually does.
One of the biggest themes in this story is the power of social media, and how the internet helps in shaping people's thoughts and opinions on subjects. This is something that Nezu is revealed to have a weakness with, as his latent sadism and lack of ability to relate to humans in general means that he doesn't truly understand the power that social media has in the emotional sense, while the Saints understand it perfectly well and how to exploit it.
Another of the big themes of this story is the difference between Western culture and ideas versus that of Japan, and how our common criticisms may not match with the cultural demands of another people.
The final theme of the story is the cost of U.A.'s reputation as one of the world's greatest hero schools, with the academy having taken great pains, both legal and societal to cover up their own mistakes in the past. A lot of this is due to Japan's conformist nature, as it is generally seen as a negative thing in Japan's society to stand out and differ from the crowd. Picking a fight with U.A. or raising a complaint about it would be standing out and going against the needs of society, so it is heavily frowned upon.
It's not helped that Japan has a history of blaming the victims of any actions taken against them, and when combined with a black mark on their records from U.A., that means that any complaints raised against U.A. are generally ignored and the victims shamed into not speaking out. When combined with a society respect for teachers, more than in the west, as well as a learnt respect for authority and a distain for speaking out against it, this leads to U.A. being able to get away with a lot of things that it wouldn't be able to in the west, such as their controversial teaching methods and having Aizawa and Midnight as teachers and so on.
However, the recent events that have brought criticism to U.A., such as the USJ and the Summer Training Camp fiasco, have given whistle-blowers and previously silenced individuals the courage to break their NDAs and court orders to begin speaking out and voicing their experiences, something that the Saints are quick to pick up on and take advantage of.
Plus, the Saints have already acquired a bit of a reputation for breaking societal norms and encouraging their fans to rebel against the system. They have acquired quite the following of young people and rebellious-minded individuals who all feel confined to the society and system that they have been tied to, and it helps that the Saints also have a keen understanding of social media and how to use it, and so when this interview began, their fans were quick to start spamming it everywhere, getting more people involved, and encouraging others and themselves to begin their own investigations and debates, assisted by the fact that the interview itself is being transmitted to a worldwide audience due to U.A. having the reputation of one of the greatest hero schools across the planet.
The Saints, in this story, are a stand-in for us, the readers, in how they deconstruct and pick apart U.A. as a whole, as well as call out both the teachers and society at large for its failings within the story itself. They reflect the fandom's many complaints and criticisms of U.A., and argue those criticisms against the teachers themselves, highlighting the flaws in U.A. and having the flaws in their own arguments highlighted as well.
It is a form of mutual deconstruction, both of U.A. and of the common criticisms against U.A. as well.
Soon, the interview begins to reach its end, and Aizawa has reached his limit. The HPSC should've already taken this interview off the air by now and Nezu has been quiet recently, so the cameras are all filming for nothing. He's got nothing to fear right now, so he finally tells Ayumi to cut all the crap, and demands to know what all this is about. Why go through all this effort just to get them on cameras when they know that it won't work? U.A. has suffered attacks like this before and they had survived each and every time, and Ayumi had to have known that.
So why go through all this effort for nothing? Why risk it all for this? Why would she ruin her own career for something that she knew was never going to work?
Ayumi is quiet for a moment, but then the ever-present smile drops from her face, and she finally begins to talk.
When she was eleven years old, she was raped by a student at Beacon. A student who went on to be a pro hero, who used his newfound fame and connections to cover up his serial rape and paedophilic activities...
And U.A. had not only known about it, but had helped to cover it up as to now sully their reputation, and plays the recorded conversation between the headmaster of U.A. and the HPSC's president in their agreement to cover up the incident and force the child and her mother not to talk about it.
Ayumi then goes on to explain that a U.A. representative had arrived at her doorstep the next day and made it clear that if they ever spoke about what happened to her, the academy would financially ruin them and slander them into obscurity, something that they have clearly done before. Ayumi, meanwhile, had ended up pregnant from her rape, and the child had ended up a stillborn.
Her mother, meanwhile, had become embroiled with stress and grief from the event, and ended up blaming Ayumi for her own rape, much like the whole of society seemed to blame the victim for the crimes made against them.
And in her shame, she had hung herself, leaving Ayumi all on her own.
It was on that day that her desire for revenge was born.
This has been a plan that has been years in the making. Every path she walked, every alliance that she has made and every deal that she has struck, her role as an idol, a presenter, an actor, a reporter and everything else, all have been leading to this moment. And whether it be through similar experiences or simply loyalty, her friends in the rest of her idol group have stuck with her and joined in her crusade every step of the way, throwing themselves into this plan with abandon.
She knew she couldn't destroy U.A.. Stronger people than her have tried.
But if she could ruin them, ravage and shatter the one thing that mattered most to this academy - its reputation - then everything else would fall into place smoothly. U.A. would fall apart under its own filth.
In the end, U.A. is complicit in the same corruption that they are supposed to stand against. All Ayumi had to do to get her revenge was to reveal it all to the world.
And now she has, and her mother has been avenged.
Aizawa is not sympathetic, and tells her that it didn't work. The cameras aren't rolling.
She simply hands the teachers her phone, and it is revealed that they have been rolling the entire time. She'd accounted for the HPSC trying to pull the plug on the show and stopped it.
Ayumi takes her phone from the three shocked teachers and stands up. She snaps her fingers and the cameras flicker off.
Interview concluded.
In the aftermath. Ayumi and the rest of the Saints are arrested. The HPSC bypasses the trial and gets them thrown in prison on trumped-up charges, but this receives international condemnation from the rest of the world, who see them in a sympathetic light and are able to extradite the four to another country. The Saints can never again step foot on Japan, but they have been taken away to somewhere where they can finally be happy.
Meanwhile, U.A.'s reputation has been dragged through the mud. The school will recover. Multi-million institutions such as U.A. rarely go down with just one event such as this.
However, many of their international sponsors across the world have begun to break off their partnerships, and their reputation has been dragged through the mud. U.A.'s status as a paragon of justice and virtue has been tarnished beyond repair, and now even the students in the school have lost trust in the people that they are supposed to be learning from, with many of them dropping out.
And then, the real blow comes to U.A.: All Might ends his teachership there, and takes Izuku with them.
With the former number one hero pulling out of the school, this begins to deathblow to U.A's reputation.
Perhaps one day it will recover. Institutions such as this refuse to go down easily.
But for now, U.A. will begin its death, not as a dramatic flare, but as a slow, quiet fade into obscurity.
Whether it recovers or not will but up to fate to decide.