__________ POV Narration__________
The nation was shaken, seeing a villain fight the Symbol of Peace wasn't anything new, many arrogant evildoers challenged All Might.
But, the one that fought the Nr.1 hero this time was by no means the same as the others. His monstrous appearance remained imprinted into the minds of the populace.
But what was more frightening was his strength, he faced down the Symbol of Peace and fought him on equal standing. Something that not many had managed to do in the past.
Not only that, he had survived a powerful attack from All Might, and didn't even appear to be shaken when his arm was turned to mush by the hero.
His appearance and strength lead the media to call him 'The Archnemesis Of The Symbol' many articles sprouted around the subject, aided by the fact that the villain ultimately escaped capture.
There was also quite a lot of confusion regarding his nature, many refusing to believe that he was evil since he saved a life after that fight.
But many decided to conveniently ignore that part, as they believe that All Might would've saved that woman regardless.
That and the fact that the villain fled in the direction of the building, meaning it was likely in his way too.
It was quite the stretch of the imagination, but they wished to advertise the fact that the Symbol of Peace had met his match.
The news emboldened villains momentarily, but it also made a few heroes more active. They saw the appearance of Beru as either a chance to grow stronger or gain more fame.
Endeavor burned down villains with fervour, despising the fact that the distance between him and his rival was so large. He wanted to prove himself by taking down Beru as well.
Then there was Mirko, the rabbit hero, who saw Beru's appearance as a chance to rise in the ranks and become stronger.
Many wanted a chance to fight Beru, but All Might himself saw the situation differently, he considered Beru to be much stronger than what he had shown.
It was to the point where he didn't believe that he would be able to win against him in his current state.
Even if some news articles called All Might the winner of that fight, The Symbol Of Peace didn't see that battle as a win.
Rather, he found it a bit concerning. Well, he didn't think Beru was a threat to society, so he wasn't exactly panicking, but he still didn't like how he had phrased an apology during their fight.
The way he said it made All Might think that the insectoid was planning something. He quickly announced the people he trusted of his doubts.
Mainly, Nezu, the principal of UA, and Nighteye, a clairvoyant detective that used to be All Might's sidekick at some point.
They were both intrigued by this 'villain' that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Nighteye was quick to dig up his identity, there weren't many people with that appearance born in Japan after all...
After finding out his history, they had difficulty piecing together what had happened to him. Nezu was the first out of the three to come to a conclusion on the matter. It was also the one that the police had reached in their initial investigation.
'A child trafficking ring.' All Might winched at those words. First off, he found it odd that his opponent was a child.
A child had been strong enough to fight him on an equal standing. Not only that, he had casually ignored getting severely injured.
It also made him feel disgusted with himself. He had likely disabled a child. He almost vomited when learning of it.
His hands twitched at the thought of injuring a regular 13-year-old child. Even if Beru was anything but normal, it still made him feel like he was trash.
He wasn't wrong for thinking he had disabled Beru, that injury was extremely serious. That hand was rendered unusable.
He had no way of knowing that Beru had an extremely powerful healing factor. One so powerful that it rendered the damage done null.
It was to the point where Beru considered the injury more of an inconvenience than anything. Now, had All Might aimed for the head, things would've been a lot direr.
Beru might've died, or just been captured in a coma. Regardless, it wouldn't have been a great result for the insectoid.
The three of them decided to keep Beru's identity to themselves, as they didn't want to bring more attention to this case.
The police also definitely realised that this was Beru. And since they didn't make any move, neither did Nezu, Nighteye and All Might.
One person, however, was more surprised than everybody else. All for One had sent his most powerful subordinate on an easy mission.
All of the delivery missions he had been sending him on were to test his cognitive abilities. Decision making wasn't something he expected the Nomu to still have.
But he found out that Beru had basic sentience. Although his Loyalty was not altered in any way by it. Still, he saw his creation take on the accursed 'Symbol of Peace'.
It lost, but it was still a close match-up. The fight gave All for One a strange feeling. He hadn't expected Beru to be that powerful. But he didn't consider it a bad thing.
No, he saw it as a positive. Even if the Nomu acted a bit odd at the end. That might've been due to an order that he had given Beru.
'To make sure not to kill anyone.' It was a simple command, he wanted to rouse as little attention as possible after the warehouse disaster.
And Beru saving that woman made All for One think that he was respecting the orders. He took the incident as both a win and a loss.
A win because it proved the strength of his creation, and a loss because now the world knew about it.
Thankfully, Beru didn't use many different quirks in that battle, so the police and heroes wouldn't be able to tell of All for One's involvement in the matter.
Overall, the appearance of this new villain shook Japan. It made people warier and it made heroes more occupied.
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Hope you liked the chapter.
The mc acting sentient won't be that big a turn-off to AFO btw(it just can't be too sudden). He's already got two Nomus(Giganto and Kurogiri) that are sentient and still loyal to him.
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