55 Chapter 55: Talk

"Not human? What do you mean by that?" Nezu frowned and asked the young boy who was sitting quietly in his chair, not doing anything.

"I mean what I mean, of course. It's not human. Or maybe it was once human, but cannot be considered one anymore."

"So you mean it was artificially created?"

"Yes."

All the other heroes looked at each other and started discussing the problem. Shido, being Shido, did not bother with the boring details and just started chatting with Yoshinon quietly at the corner.

About fifteen minutes later, Shido could not stand the dullness of the discussion anymore and was about to leave when a voice called out to him,"Shido, what do you think we need to do to resolve this situation?"

Hearing the question, Shido revealed a thoughtful expression. The question posed by All Might was about solving the most important problem that UA was currently facing.

There was only one direction in which this situation could go. Thus, looking at the heroes again, Shido said,"The biggest problem now is that UA will be heavily criticised for what happened. The students and the teachers were fine, the building wasn't too damaged and all but one of the villains responsible for the attack had been captured. Everything else is fine, except the school's reputation."

Hearing his words, the other heroes raised their eyes slightly.

Seeing their reaction, Shido continued,"Let me explain better, what do you think would happen when the press found out about this?"

Midnight, without even thinking about it, answered instantly,"UA will be criticised as you said, Shido."

"That's right, if this were to happen, the whole population would turn against UA and the reputation earned by hard work would collapse."

The other teachers sighed at what Shido said. They could only imagine that situation, the teachers in the number one hero school in Japan had allowed their enemies into their 'top' secure places.

As Shido said, the situation would really put the school in a bad light and with it, all its teachers and heroes.

Shido continued,"Of course, if you don't really mind the damaged reputation, we can just sit back down and apologise to the journalists and reporters about this incident."

"No way! This shouldn't happen in the slightest!" Hound Dog growled in displeasure.

"From your little smile on your mouth, I bet you already have a solution, don't you?" Nezu looked at Shido and asked.

"Of course. I knew some of you guys are very hung up on intangible things like 'reputation' and 'fame', so I already prepared this excuse in advance."

Shido smiled and looked at them. Some of them were unabashed while some were blushing a little, but none refuted him.

"Aww, you guys are no fun." Seeing that none of them refuted him, he sighed,"Anyways, if you want to avoid that situation, there is only one thing you need to do. And that is to..."

[A/N: This happened in the morning of the day after the attack]

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"Latest news!"

Early in the morning, Shido was walking in the middle of the street when beside him, a loud announcement blasted. There was a shop selling television right beside him, and when he turned to face the shop, he found himself staring at the many television on display, all showing the same scene - the teachers who taught in UA sitting behind a long table with microphones in front of each of them.

"The attack on UA by a group that goes by the name of League of Villains composed entirely of villains. Apparently, this attack was caused by the confusion that the press had caused in recent days at the entrance to the school. This, according to the institute, has favoured this so-called group to be able to infiltrate the school!"

On the screen, Nezu stood up and spoke to the hundreds of reporters in front of him.

"Our school offers the highest protection for every single student within our school and we would never allow them to be endangered, but this uncomfortable situation caused by the press has seriously endangered the safety of our students.

We don't want to sue the press. After all, it is an essential element of society, and if something should happen between UA High School and the press, we could not forgive ourselves. Collaboration between both of us is essential!"

"These were the words of principal Nezu to the press last evening. What happened was truly shocking; no one would have expected this attitude of the press to have caused this damage. And now, the next news..."

Shido, once he heard this, showed a smile. This was the 'solution' that he had proposed - blame the press for the incident, break the relationships of both groups and reconcile with them at the same time.

After all, he didn't want the country to be split into two sides just because of a simple matter. Now that both sides were in a passive situation, Shido could do more things now.

[A/N: This is during two days after the attack, so the meeting and press conference was yesterday.]

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After everyone had come back from their one day break, the usual lessons that class 1-A had to face everyday continued.

Seeing the class as energetic, lively and cheerful as usual, Shido smiled.

'Good thing that they recovered fast.' But what Shido did not know was that he was underestimating their mentality and determination. Even if they were injured and had a direct fight against the villains, their mentality would still not crumble, and they would have been fine, even if it might take a bit longer than a day to do so.

Their excitement was even higher than usual, and there were students jumping about everywhere. Shota, after all, had told the whole class that UA High School sports festival would be coming soon.

UA High School Sports Festival. A highly anticipated international event which has long since surpassed the fame of the Olympic Games. In fact, the UA High School sports festival is considered by all to be the real and biggest event of the year.

The class, at this news, went into delirium, but Shota didn't try to stop them, in fact, he let them go wild as he retreated back into his sleeping bag. After all, it was an unmissable event that these students can only do three times in their life, which are the three years they are in that school.

All the students immediately started talking about their dreams, their aspirations to become a new symbol of peace for the society, a new hero!

Each has their own different motivations, students who have 'pure and abstract' motivations, while others have a rather more 'physical and concrete' motivations.

Just as Izuku, Ochaco and Tenya were talking about their goals while they were walking towards the cafeteria, a voice reached the ears of the three.

"Izuku-san! I was looking for you."

Turning their gaze towards the source of the voice, they three observed the figure who spoke and immediately greeted him the moment they saw who spoke.

"Itsuka-sensei!"

Izuku, on the other hand, being called in front of his friends by the person he aspired to be along with All Might, was a little embarrassed and, with a face red with shyness, he asked in a shy tone of voice,"Etto, Itsuka-sensei, what...what would you want from me?"

"Stop talking in that shy tone of voice like a girl's please, you are not a maiden in love for god's sake." Shido said exasperatedly.

"You haven't changed at all since I first saw you, you know? Except maybe your strength, but apart from your fighting prowess, your shy attitude has always been there.." Yoshinon said.

"A-Ano..."

"Anyways," Shido interrupted him as he didn't want to hear any more of his gross, shy tone of voice,"do you want to eat lunch with us?"

Tenya wanted to ask something but before he could do so, Yoshinon spoke,"Sorry, Tenya-san and Ochaco-san, we need to talk to Izuku here. Privately. Teacher's business."

"Oh, all right then." Tenya looked a bit disappointed at the fact that he was rejected, but didn't say anything else.

Seeing that Izuku's eyes had become spiral and smoke was coming out of his head, Shido became speechless.

'Doesn't this only happen in manga?!'

"Never mind. So, Izuku-san? Do you want to?" Shido continued, not caring about the reactions of the other students who were looking at him, wondering why a kid was here.

[A/N: In case you're wondering, Shido only worked in the hero department, so the students may have seen him before, but not know who he was.]

Izuku immediately cleared his heads when he heard Shido ask him for the second time, and in a really loud voice, he said,"I'd love to!"

He said it in such a loud voice that many students stopped to look at who it was who yelled so loud.

"..." Shido was speechless at this guy.

Izuku lowered his head in shame under these gazes with his face all red.

"Sigh, follow me."

Like a chick behind the hen, Izuku followed Shido with his face permanently red.

"All Might!?" Izuku exclaimed as he entered the resting area dedicated to teachers. It was a huge white space which included everything a teacher needed for his or her break including but not limited to, a game area filled with darts, a mini refrigerator filled with drinks and snacks, a long sofa in front of a television and desks so that teachers can mark their papers.

"Midoriya-shounen, is there something wrong?" All Might asked with a slightly confused face after hearing his successor's exclamation. He could never figure out what was going through his head, except maybe All Might, All Might, heroes and All Might. Maybe add in a little of Phantom, and that was what Izuku was thinking majority of the time.

Seeing the confused face of the person he admired most, Izuku gave a small laugh, dodging All Might's eyes.

All Might seems to have understood the situation, and therefore, he laughed with a smile. But that only left the boy even more confused than before.

"Midoriya-shounen, I asked Shido to call you here because I wanted to talk to you and, obviously, eat together while we're at it."

The boy straightened his back at the words of the hero, so the latter, seeing this gesture, began,"You must understand that my time is limited now."

"Huh? Weren't you fully healed?" Izuku asked in confusion. He observed All Might's body and facial expression and saw zero signs of discomfort.

"You may not be able to see it, but my muscle mass has been decreasing steadily day after day. A little is lost each day, but as more muscle is lost, more of my strength is lost as well." All Might sighed at his own condition. But it wasn't a very bad situation for them. He still had time to properly groom his successor without rushing it.

At the words of All Might, the boy was shocked.

"Can...can I ask how much muscle mass are you losing per day? And how long more do you have?"

"I'm losing about ten grams now, but it's increasing month by month. In about ten years' time, I will return to become an ordinary human without any quirk. And that's assuming I don't fight at all."

"Which is impossible for him, judging from the attitude he has towards heroes and their duties. He even skipped out on U.S.J just so he could go to the other side of Japan to save the day over there. It's even a miracle he managed to arrive back in the city within the same day..." Yoshinon quickly explained before looking at Shido who had a pack of potato chips open,"Hey! Leave some for me!"

Ignoring the duo who were fighting over snacks, All Might continued,"Anyways, that is a problem that even Shido can't solve."

"Didn't he reverse time on you? Why can't he do that now?" Izuku asked curiously.

"You even told him that? What did you not tell your successor?" Shido was slightly annoyed at All Might's big mouth, but quickly cooled down. It wasn't a big secret, amongst the upper echelon anyways.

"My healing only works when he still has his quirk. Think of quirks as a 'fuel' and humans as 'fire'. Humans use their quirks to do things, like how fire uses fuel to burn. Quirks are there to refuel the fuel for you to use, but some fuels are not environmentally friendly, and may cause some side effects. That's the reason for all the limitations you have, like Shoto's coldness, Ochaco's puke and Yuga's stomach ache whenever they use too much of it. Some have lesser side effects than others, but they are there nonetheless. Even I have my limitations, though not as obvious as others."

Shido saw that Izuku was listening and...writing it down? He ignored the latter part and continued his explanation.

"Anyways, when All Might passed his quirk down to you, he lost his source of 'fuel'. He would still be able to burn for a few more years, but if he stresses himself out, the fires burn faster, and more fuel is used. Unlike you now, his 'fuel' is limited, so..."

[A/N: This is my theory for using a time healing method. Two One for All cannot exist together at the same time. So once the quirk was passed down, the 'fuel' is gone. And this is just me bullshitting about why I don't want to keep healing All Might.]

Izuku understood what Shido was trying to convey, and became slightly worried.

Seeing Izuku's worried look, All Might gave a little laugh and, immediately putting on a severe look, said,"Midoriya-shounen...we can't waste time worrying about the what if's...now your time has come, your time to tell everyone out there 'I'm here, and I'm ready to fight!'."

These words caused a shock in the boy. HIs eyes opened and with an incredulous look, he looked at Al Might and Shido. He couldn't believe his ears, All Might told him that it was now his time to shine...but immediately after, he looked back down.

All Might gave a long sigh at that vision, and shook his head before saying,"I'm already way past my prime, and getting older everyday. Besides, what are you afraid of? You are able to control a bit more of my quirk everyday, and within months, you managed to control up to forty percent of One for All. At this rate, before two or three years passes, you would be as strong as I was in my prime, and at such a young age too! You would continue to improve on the quirk, and bring it to heights none of the other wielders of One for All had ever reached.

Remember, your dream is to become the greatest hero. If you have no confidence at all, whether in yourself or in the quirk, it wouldn't be easy for you to continue treading on this harsh path."

This time, it seemed that the hero's words had some effect. In fact, even if there were still some insecurities present in his eyes, his gaze was mostly of someone who was ready to face the challenge.

Nodding at that look on Izuku, All Might raised up a thumb and said,"This is the spirit, Midoriya-shounen!"

"Izuku, get ready because it won't be so easy to get on the leaderboard during the games~" Yoshinon said in the direction of the boy.

The latter, hearing the puppet, revealed a confused expression. All Might immediately put a hand on his shoulders and said,"What Yoshinon said is true, you have to expect the worst during these competitions. You still don't have a clear idea about your own class, let alone some elements present in other classes..."

Hearing the words of the hero, Izuku revealed a thoughtful air, two of these people in his class, mentioned by All Might, and he already has an idea about them. The field trial lesson showed off the different abilities of his classmates' quirks.

'Kacchan and Todoroki-kun' Izuku thought. These were the two people who could go head to head with him and had a chance to win against him.

"Life is not a game of luck. If you wanna win, work hard."

"Well said, Shido!" All Might applauded,"If you want to win, then work even harder. Don't have a condescending attitude because you have my quirk and was able to be top in class, in terms of pure power. As you may or may not have noticed, there is still a long way to go, and this festival will help you a lot. I'm sure of it!"

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A/N: Don't you think that Golden Darkness from To Love-Ru is OP? I mean, she can turn almost any part of her body into almost any animate objects (preferably weapons or tools used for combat) or reshape the size and figure of her body. Of course, there is a drawback of no being able to use it excessively, but still...

She also has enhanced Strength, durability, agility and reflexes...

Furthermore, she can create wormholes and teleport everywhere, control matter (turn water to ice, control earth, etc...) and she can even slice a planet in half...

Don't you think that's fkin OP?

On the side note, I also want to question myself: Why doesn't this fan fiction become more popular? Not self-praising or anything, but I think this is good or at least above average, no? Some fan fictions with 15 chapters receive more reviews than mine...I'm sad...

On the second side note, I'm wondering how to trigger Shido's inverse form. To get it, you must have strong emotions, but judging by his strength and ability to keep people safe, it's hard for me to actually trigger his inverse form. So some suggestions about how to do so, please?

If you want to support me or/and want 14+ chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patr eon.com/spirits_everywhere