[SHINJUKU WEST DETENTION FACILITY - 3:47 AM]
The night shift guard, Tanaka Kenji, sat in the central monitoring station, his third cup of coffee growing cold beside him. Six monitors displayed different sections of the prison—cellblocks, corridors, the exercise yard bathed in floodlights.
He checked his phone. The news alert from twenty minutes ago still glowed on the screen:
BREAKING: Mass Hero Casualties Reported in Kamino Ward
"Dear god." he muttered, scrolling through the coverage. Nothing but smoke, rubble and bodies. 'The hell ...'
"Oi, Tanaka." his partner called from across the room. "You seeing this shit?"
"Yeah." Tanaka's voice was hollow. He gestured to the small television mounted in the corner of the station. The same footage playing everywhere. "Hard not to."
"Endeavor's down. Best Jeanist too. Some kind of... what are they calling it? A single villain?"
"That's what they're saying." The other uttered with crease brows as he watched the news. It had been more than a hour since the incident, and he still couldn't believe it. 'To think such a villain exists ...'
The air was uncharacteristically grim. Which was saying something for a detention facility. "This is bad."
"How is that even possible?"
"No clue. It's hard to believe someone that strong has been out there this entire time. If even the top heroes couldn't stop him, then ..." He didn't finish the sentence.
"When do you think that one's gonna get caught?"
"Not sure. Depends when All Might arrives cause After that ... He's probably getting dragged to Tartarus at best."
"Not with the new laws. That's forty heroes."
Tanaka's brows furrowed as he observed the cameras. "Yeah. You're probably ..."
He stopped, words dying in his throat. His eyes, bleary from caffeine and the blue light of the news cycle, locked onto Monitor 1—the high-definition feed of the main perimeter gate.
In the darkness of the 3:48 AM, a pinprick of violet-black mist manifested in the center of the asphalt,
"Yamada," Tanaka said slowly. "You seeing this?"
"Seeing wha—" The distortion exploded outward, expanding until it became a swirling warpgate.
"Is that... a Quirk?"
The mist remained stationary. Two seconds later, a figure stepped out. Dark clothing, white hair, pale complexion and a severed hand covering his face.
Before both could react, multiple similar portals began manifesting on three different camera feeds simultaneously. "What the ..." Tanaka was already moving, hand going to the emergency alarm. "This is central! We have an unauthorized portal manifestation in D-Block! Repeat, CODE BLACK—"
His eyes were fixed on the monitors when something else stepped through the portals. Black skin like exposed muscle, and brains exposed through the crown of its skull.
'Weren't these the villains from Hosu?' Tanaka thought, wide eyed at the uncanny resemblance.
If that was the case, then these could only mean ... The League of villains. 'Shit.'
Tanaka screamed into the speaker. "All units, D-Block is compromised!" he shouted into the radio. "League of Villains confirmed! Repeat, League of Villains confirmed —" Security officers quickly rushed to the armory. The lockdown vegan simultaneously. The alarm blared through the entire prison facility.
'It seems we've been discovered.'
Outside, Shigaraki thought amidst scratching. At the same times a large muscular man with reddish pink hair stepped out of the warpgate.
"Rappa." Shigaraki called out. "You wanted some action right?"
The man didn't answer. His clenched fists however, spoke his mind for him.
"Well, now's your chance." Shigaraki gestured toward the facility entrance. "Don't hold back this time."
Rappa's grin widened. "Finally."
He charged.
_
The sirens in Kamino were the only sound on the television feeds, a rhythmic, high-pitched wail that seemed to drown out the anchors' voices.
In Shinjuku, the massive 3D billboard of the calico cat—usually a whimsical landmark—had been replaced by the emergency broadcast. Thousands of commuters stood perfectly still, their faces illuminated by the harsh, grainy glow of the helicopter footage.
Hundreds of people stood in the street, staring up at the footage of heroes being loaded onto stretchers.
The cameras zoomed in elsewhere as the whole world watched the black-suited silhouette of All For One dragged the limp body of Endeavor across the ash like a bag of laundry.
The nightlife was unbearable suffocating.
"Is he... dead?" a teenager who had snuck out from home to a late night party gulped at the sight, asking her boyfriend beside her.
"... Takeshi ..? ..." Beside her, a blond boy with green eyes mirrored her expression of terror and disbelief.
"No way ... It ... It can't be right? That's ... That's ..."
Mia fell silent, remembering that her boyfriend was a fan of the Flame Hero.
'My god.'. 'Oh god.'. 'Dear god.'. Panic spread like wildfire.
Apartment windows glowed blue with the light of television screens. In building after building, people who had been asleep were now wide awake, gathered around their living rooms.
On the fifth floor of a aging complex, the Yamamoto family sat frozen on their couch.
Father. Mother. Two children—ages seven and ten.
The younger one tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Mama? Why isn't All Might helping?"
"He's... he's probably on his way, sweetheart."
Just then, the father's phone buzzed. A message from his brother in Yokohama: 'It's real. It's actually happened here.'
His face turned dark instantly. 'Leave immediately. If villains are attacking, it isn't safe.'
On the television, the news anchor—a veteran reporter who'd covered every major disaster for the past two decades—was openly crying.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we... we have confirmation that Endeavor, the Number Two Hero, has been... incapacitated. Best Jeanist, Number Four, is in critical condition with what appears to be catastrophic injuries. Edgeshot, Number Five... we have no update on his status."
"Gang Orca, Mt. Lady, Ryukyu... all down. We're receiving reports of eight confirmed hero fatalities. Seventeen in critical condition. The villain responsible has... has left the scene. We
don't know where ..." The father turned off the TV. His children protested immediately.
"Dad! We need to see—"
"No." His voice was quiet but firm. "You don't need to see this. Not anymore. It's early in the morning. Go to your ..."
BOOM.
The sound startled everyone as the children screamed. Yuki, the mother grabbed them both, pulling them close. The father was already on his feet, moving to the window.
"Kenji, don't—" He pulled back the curtain.
Outside, a massive, rolling explosion tore through the silence of West Shinjuku, maybe four or five kilometers away
In the street below, Mia and Takeshi were thrown off balance as the vibration traveled through the asphalt and up their spines.
Thousands of eyes turned away from the 3D billboard and toward the Western skyline as smoke clouded the night skies in the distance.
"Oh my god," someone whispered.
"Hey! What just happened?"
"I think a building just blew up."
Mr Yamamoto's face changed. "That's... that's the detention center."
His wife appeared beside him, children clutched against her. "The prison? But that's—" BOOM!
"THEY'RE BREAKING OUT! THE PRISON IS ON FIRE!"
"MY GOD!"
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?"
"SHIT! COULD THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE?"
The answer to that question presented itself moments later as a every phone in the city received an Emergency News alert.
BREAKING: SHINJUKU WEST DETENTION FACILITY UNDER ATTACK.
LEAGUE OF VILLAINS SUSPECTED. MASS BREAKOUT IN PROGRESS
"Yuki," the father said quietly. "Get the kids. We're leaving. Right now."
_
[SHINJUKU WEST DETENTION FACILITY -3:31 AM]
"This is central to all units! Facility is compromised! Repeat, facility is—"
SQUELCH!
Silence returned as the head of the last guard was squished to a pulp under the Nomu's hand.
The "Sujaku" facility, a monolithic fortress designed to withstand a siege, was a jagged ruin. Rappa stood in the center of what used to be the Main Gatehouse, his knuckles dripping with the dust of pulverised reinforced concrete and the blood of the guards who had tried to stand in his way. Around him, the sounds of hundreds of rowdy footsteps coming to a halt
The yard was a sea of orange jumpsuits. Two hundred of the most violent criminals in the Kanto region—arsonists, killers, and quirk-terrorists—stood amidst the wreckage of the center all staring at the figure standing atop the pile of rubble that used to be the Warden's office. Tomura Shigaraki stood with his arms spread wide, the severed hand on his face casting a grotesque shadow in the firelight. Beside him, a A Mid-End Nomu tore the last functioning security turret from the wall and crushed it like a soda can.
'Well ...' Shigaraki looked out over the crowd of monsters. The fires of the burning facility reflected in his wide, bloodshot eyes. 'This is a good start.'