Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Aftermath
"All Might!" The students exclaimed, seeing the imposing figure figure appear in front of them.
"Don't worry! You must never fear because I am always ready to prot-" All Might was going to continue speaking when he realised that the entire venue was silent apart from the relaxing music that could be heard.
He stared at the scene down below and, after he took a look at Shota's condition and Shido in the middle of the battle field playing his piano, and understood the whole situation.
"Shido, you can relax now and let me handle the rest." Although he said that, he clearly knew that Shido was as relaxed as he always was in his heart, so he wasn't too worried about him.
He was more worried about the students, but seeing them all relaxed as well, he immediately understood that Shido had helped them to calm their nerves.
Shota had minor scratches here and there, but there weren't any serious injuries while Thirteen also had minor wounds.
"Ugh!! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you..." Tomura just kept mumbling as was forced to his knees by the other heroes who had arrived.
Kurogiri just closed what seemed to his eyes, and before anyone could do anything, he disappeared into ashes.
'Hmmm? My seal didn't work on him? Shido, noticing that Kurogiri had disappeared without a trace, looked at the suit and collar-like object left on the floor and thought for a while before coming to a realisation.
'Oh! I kept thinking he was a human with a space quirk which mutated his body into that gas cloud thingy, but he wasn't a human. So my seal, which was meant for a human's body, didn't work on him.'
"Shido, what is this...thing that is frozen?" After the heroes had finished rounding up all the villains, All Might came to him and pointed at the two frozen pieces of meat which were lying beside Shido.
"They called it a 'nomu'. As stupid the name sounds, it actually is quite powerful. In fact, if you didn't meet me all those years ago, his powers would have equaled yours. Maybe even overpower you by a small margin."
All Might had a serious look as he looked at the frozen blocks.
"Do you want to test your powers against this thing? Even if I split this thing into two, it can't die at all. In fact, once unfrozen, it would immediately try to rejoin and connect back to each other."
"Regeneration?"
"Not only that, it also has super strength and maybe another one. Although I can't confirm it since I used a sharp weapon, the last quirk it has is probably related to absorbing shock. So blunt attacks wouldn't work, like your smashes." Shido thought back about his small clash against the nomu.
Although he made it look easy, with pure brute strength, the nomu was in fact above him. However, due to Camael's sharp edge and burning attribute, it made it easier for Shido to slash it into two.
"What is it made up of though? How does it possess three quirks? Unless..." All Might looked at Shido and noticed that Shido was also staring at him.
"Yep, there is a chance that he is back after all these years. The time for a reunion is near."
"Sigh, we will have a meeting with all the other teachers later on. Make sure to come and share your discoveries. For now, could you bring the students back to the classroom and dismiss them from there?" All Might asked Shido,"And tell them they don't need to come to school to relax at home tomorrow."
"No problem. All right, I'll see you at home. Bye!" Shido replied to All Might before turning to the students.
"All right! Listen up! Was anyone injured?"
Seeing that no one spoke up, Shido confirmed the safety of his students first before ushering them to the bus,"If no one's hurt, that's good. The rescue course is cancelled for now, and it's time to return to the classroom, where I would be dismissing you."
The students did not seem distressed or agitated about what just happened to them. It shouldn't happen, but because of Shido's relaxing music, the students' mentality was strengthened temporarily and allowed them to accept all this rather easily. However, it was only a temporary measure, and that was the reason for the holiday tomorrow - for them to calm themselves down and accept reality.
If they had any problems or trauma from this incident, tomorrow is the day for them to cry, vomit or do anything that they need to get over it. The school didn't want any future heroes with weak mentalities.
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After Shido left with the students, a detective entered the scene and started observing and taking notes of the surroundings.
"Hello Tsukauchi! Long time no see!" All Might greeted him as soon as he spotted him.
"Good afternoon All Might. Indeed, it has been quite a long time. How has your health been?"
"I'm still at my prime thanks to Shido! Hahaha!" All Might laughed out loud as he continued walking with Tsukauchi.
"Good for you, but that's enough of idle talk. What are the casualties and number of assailants?"
"We have zero casualties thanks to Shido. The other teachers have some cuts and bruises here and there, but apart from that, no one else was hurt." All Might was thanking his lucky stars that Shido existed. If it weren't for him, he wouldn't have known what could happen.
Perhaps he would still be injured and only last a few hours each day, causing him to over exert himself today?
Perhaps he didn't arrive in time, the nomu would have destroyed everyone here?
Perhaps the other teachers would have either been seriously injured or even killed in the middle of protecting the students?
He didn't know, but Shido was here. And that was all that mattered.
'Sigh, it seems that I've been depending on Shido a tad too much lately...' All Might thought before shaking himself out of his thoughts.
"Wow, good thing Shido was present here then, huh? For a child, his powers are absurdly strong."
"Sigh, I don't know whether it is a curse or a blessing for him, having a child shoulder so many responsibilities..." All Might sighed and replied to him,"Well, let's not talk about that now. Returning to the topic, there are about seventy villains, give or take. Most of them are small fries that worked in gangs that were destroyed before, while some of them just joined them, probably because of the irresistible temptations or rewards."
"I see."
Tsukauchi kept his reply simple and continued looking around. He spotted that most of the damage done to the environment was contained in one area. Apart from the central area, the other sections weren't affected at all.
"Alright, I have finished inspecting the area. I'll go back now and see what I can deduce from them. I might need to question some of the students later on, so tell them to prepare for it. I'll also require the teachers' statement, so I guess I will be seeing you tomorrow."
"No problem. Thank you for your time, Tsukauchi."
"Alright. Goodbye Toshinori, tell the others I said 'Hi' as well." As soon as he finished saying, he immediately walked back towards the police station.
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The next day, while the students were having a holiday, all the teachers and professors that were involved returned back to UA High School for a meeting.
At a meeting room, there were ten people seated around a rectangular table. Nezu was sitting at the head of the table in his comfortable, cushioned chair while the other nine, including All Might, Shota, Thirteen, Shido and Tsukauchi, seated adjacent to him.
"Shido, can you describe what happened yesterday in detail? Do not miss out even a single bit of detail." As soon as everyone was seated, Nezu immediately started the meeting.
Shido then proceeded to tell Nezu everything that happened, not missing a single detail including his own opinions on the attack. Shota and Thirteen helped to confirm the details, and when Shido was done recounting, Nezu went into deep thoughts.
"You say All for One is behind this?"
"Yes, or at least, someone with the ability to transfer quirks is behind this, but I highly doubt that there are others out there who are as proficient at transferring quirks as All for One."
"I did a thorough search for the name "Shigaraki" and for his quirk that seems to entail disintegrating whatever he touches. I scoured the quirk registration records of every citizen in their twenties and thirties, but I couldn't find anything like it! It's the same story for the man with the "warp-gate' quirk, that 'black mist' character. Either they were never hit by the census, or they're simply aliases..."
"In any case, they are, for all intents and purposes, shadow-people. They never handled in their quirk registration forms."
"So long story short, we've got nothing to go on. The ringleader, the "Shigaraki" was already captured, so can we expect more attacks and assaults? Or will this be the last incident?"
"Oh, before I forget to say it," Shido smirked and said,"The pale blue haired man that we captured yesterday has two names. The one that you guys know, Tomura Shigaraki, and the other..."
"...Tenko Shimura."
"Shimura!!" All Might stood up in shock, slamming his fist on the table,"Master's grandson, judging from his age..."
The rest of them just stayed quiet as they waited patiently for All Might to recover. It wasn't easy for him, hearing that his master's grandson had fallen into the villain's hands. He felt so guilty that he didn't take care of her family better.
"Relax, I'm not finished yet. That Tomura, or Tenko or whatever his name is, he's only just a beginner. It was a fairly daring plan that they had made, and under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have gone through it with all the risks present. My presence, All Might's presence, Aizawa's presence."
"Never mind the meticulousness of their preparation, we're talking about someone who, out of nowhere, rattled some dumb, irrational logic that seemed coherent on the surface, but is utterly messy underneath. He didn't say anything about his own quirk, but he couldn't shut up about that nomu's quirk. And when things aren't going his way, it's like he gets downright sick in the head and just started screaming and scratching his face. It's pretty disturbing if you ask me.
When Shido finished his part, he took a sip of the water that was offered to him before the meeting started before continuing,"Basically, he's like a toddler. Some kind of...'Man-child'?"
"You mean he's just a kid with a 'power' or something?" Vlad King spoke angrily.
"He might not have received the same quirk counselling in elementary school like the other kids..." Midnight said calmly.
"Anyways, that doesn't matter now." Shido interrupted them,"He's now in jail with his quirk sealed, so he wouldn't be able to do anything apart from screaming. So All Might, if you want, you can go visit him later on."
"All right. I will do that." All Might nodded his head and agreed with Shido's proposal. It wouldn't mean much after not caring for his master's family for about two decades, but he planned to set things right.
"As for the other guy, Kurogiri, the reason you couldn't find him in the database is because he's not human."
"What?!?!"
"Or to be more precisely, he was artificially made."
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"Argh..."
In an empty room, a black figure entirely made up of mist appeared out of nowhere and slowly formed a humanoid shape. After a few minutes, he slowly stood up and wobbled towards a nearby closet before choosing a new suit and collar and wearing it.
After checking his appearance in the mirror, he headed towards the television and stood in front of it, seemingly waiting for something.
A few minutes of waiting later, the television that was on the counter suddenly lit up.
"Teacher..."
The television didn't show anything apart from a single horizontal line running through the centre of the screen.
"Kurogiri? Are you alone? Where are the others?"
"Teacher, the assignment didn't go as planned as at all. It was a complete and utter failure. The man you warned us about...was much stronger than expected." Kurogiri bowed to the television and replied guiltily.
Kurogiri's response does not seem to have affected the voice negatively too much. On the contrary, that tone contained surprise more than anything else. After all, the preparations they made were there, and certainly, they cannot be denied.
"Could you tell me why you failed?" He asked with a certain expectation.
"The plan would have worked fine if it wasn't for that person. Shido, the person you summoned five years ago, had a huge variety of quirks at his disposal, including one that we didn't expect at all. We knew about his piano, thus we had earbuds to block out the sound, but he also had a key."
"Oh? A key? Tell me more..."
"His key was as big as his entire body, and I think it's primary ability is to 'seal'. He was able to 'seal' the space we were in, not allowing me to create my gate. He was also able to 'seal' Shigaraki's quirk, causing him to be useless now."
"Hmmm..." The teacher behind the screen had a deep frown on his face, although it wasn't too visible due to the top part of his head being completely destroyed.
"This is a very bad situation for us. All of our plans are going off railings because of him. It seems that Teacher needs to take his quirk soon, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to deal with him any longer." Kurogiri couldn't help but advise his Teacher.
He was very afraid of Shido, and even though he was artificially made, he still had his own emotions and free-will to a certain extent, though he had to follow his Teacher's orders unconditionally.
"Alright. For now, we need to train another successor since Shigaraki is now deemed useless. Too bad, I wanted to use him to deal with All Might, but never mind. Plans have to be adjusted. For now, lay low and train the person I will be sending over to you soon. Support him like you did for Shigaraki, and if he wants to attack, avoid Shido at all costs. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal clear. What about the gang you sent 'him' to infiltrate? Is there any news?"
"That is none of your concern."
"Y-Yes...I'm sorry."
"Very well. I won't be able to contact you for a certain period of time. Take note of my instructions." Immediately afterwards, the screen turned fully black again.
"..." Kurogiri just continued staring at the screen for the next five minutes in his thoughts, before warping to somewhere unknown.
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