The thunderous shockwave of Luna Tijeras echoed through the rail yard. Following which, Kendo Rappa's massive frame was driven directly into the earth. Dust and debris flew in all directions, obscuring the battlefield to the law enforcement officers observing in the distance. Eventually the smoke cleared to reveal a wide crater.
At the center of it, Rappa lay completely motionless, his brass-knuckled fists finally hanging limp at the sides.
Mirko landed lightly on her feet just beside his head. She reached up, casually adjusting the wild, white mane of hair that had fallen across her face, before rolling her shoulders to crack her neck.
"Heh. I thought you looked familiar," she muttered, a grin on her lips as she stared at the unconscious brawler. Memories of her reckless middle school years flickered through her mind— of crashing the lawless underground rings of Hiroshima and Osaka as 'Tiger Bunny,' in illegal fight clubs. Within those memories was the massive, bloodthirsty brawler who called himself 'The Rapper,'
"You're the same guy from back then, aren't ya?" Mirko scoffed, leaning her hands on her hips as she looked down at his broken guard. "Traded an underground cage for a bunch of high school rejects and street trash. Talk about a downgrade."
She nudged his shoulder lightly with the tip of her boot. The man didn't so much as twitch
"Guess you never did find out which power was better, huh? And here I thought you'd gotten stronger." Mirko snorted, letting go of the nostalgia and swept her gaze across the ruined rail yard.
Twisted steel, collapsed train cars, and scorch marks from blue flames. The unconscious body of the magician was half-buried beneath shattered gravel.
The knife-thrower was crumpled into a crater several dozen meters away. By the left was the remains of the mud clone she had burst through with one hit. Even the original fire-user was buried under a collapsed shed.
In every direction, the newly assembled League of Villains lay scattered like broken dolls. As for the only girl in the group?
"Honestly," Mirko laughed, raising a hand to wipe her forehead. "I was hoping this would be more exciting. Though one of you seems to have gotten away."
Noting this, she raised her hand to her bunny ears. "Hey? You got that last one?"
"Contained,"
On the other end, X-less replied while looking at the thrashing girl who by her age, should be in middle school yet here struggling against the capture restraints.
"LET ME GO! THIS ISN'T FAIR!"
"Quiet." X-less uttered coldly before returning to his Comms. "Good work Mirko. We wouldn't have been able to subdue them easily without your help.
Mirko grinned.
"Heh." She stretched her arms overhead. "Didn't even break a sweat."
Just then ...
Crack! Her rabbit ears snapped upright.
'Hmm?' The grin on her face faded as she turned her head toward the wreckage of the overturned freight carriage in the distance. Meanwhile,
Inside the pitch-black interior of the ruined freight train, Tomura Shigaraki lay embedded within the fractured wooden floorboards. He had survived getting hit, but his chest felt nearly caved in.
The result was that every breath felt unbearably agonizing. Even the constant, frantic urge to scratch at his neck had completely vanished.
Not because his mind was at peace, but because his body physically refused to obey the command.
'How ...' Shigaraki thought, gaze lowered to the floor. His vision was a hazy, trembling blur of red and black as the harsh reality of his situation settled over the symbol of evil's successor.
The darkness above him swayed in and out of focus. He had been in Garaki's lab for twenty minutes at most. Told the old man he would tear down everything in his way. He had said it and meant it and walked out ... Only to be ambushed merely a minute later.
And now here he was. Embedded in the floor of a freight car that had probably been rotting in this yard since before he was born, blood running freely from the corner of his mouth.
'How did they find us?' He tried, and failed to stand up. Before being warped, they had already scoured the area. Nobody had been here when they left for Garaki's lab, and they had only been gone for a short time.
This didn't look like an accidental run in either. The only explanation was they either followed them, or knew where they would be. The first wasn't possible. That would only mean ...
'.... That could only mean ...' Shigaraki drawled. The answer came not long after. 'Spinner... Magne... They're the only ones who could have known where we were dropping. Did one of them get caught out there?'
This was the only answer. Out of everyone, only two members of the League weren't there. Like twice, they went out to find potential recruits. The location of where they were meeting up had been sent to them.
For heroes to be here, it could only mean that one or both of them had been caught. 'I see. I was too hasty.' Realising this, Shigaraki's agitated mood quickly calmed down. He trusted Giran's ability to screen worthy candidates.
It was unlikely that one of them was a traitor from the start. Rather, it was more likely a deal to escape the harsh reality of what being caught entailed. Either that or the message was intercepted before it reached them. All in all, it was his own fault. The death of his master and Kurogiri's capture had left him feeling insecure.
Hence his unconscious desire to bolster their numbers during the current state of the country. Believing the focus on the League Of Villains had lessened while the heroes were preoccupied.
It was absurdly familiar.
Back then... Rappa had probably been followed back to the hideout just like this. It hadn't been that long and the situation was already repeating itself.
'... In the end, it's the same mistake as last time. Just under different circumstances.' But this time, his master wasn't going to shield him from his failures.
The bitter irony of it settled over him without any particular surprise. His master had destroyed an entire team of Japan's best heroes and stripped them of their quirks. Destroyed the governing body, invoked terror unlike never seen before, all in a single night. Even in death, the chaos he unleashed had nearly collapsed hero society.
And now? Hero society was weaker than ever. All Might was gone and multiple heroes were becoming casualties each day. By every single metric, hero society was at its weakest point in modern history. The world left behind for him to destroy was a fragile, bleeding remnant of what his Master had faced. And yet... here he was. On his last legs, barely holding onto his life.
Compared to the massive strike team led by the Flame Hero, their assailant tonight was just a single woman. A lone hero. Yet even just that was enough to utterly dismantle everything he had built.
His hastily formed League hadn't even managed to hold out for ten minutes before being brutally executed.
'I am... weak.' The thought settled in his head, and refused to leave. 'After all that, Is that it?'
'Will my desire remain unrealised. Is it too strong. Is hero society still too strong?' His fingers trembled. Deep within the recesses of his soul, that suffocating irritation returned from nowhere.
'Why...'
'Why can't I accept that?'
'Why does the thought piss me off this much?'
The mere thought of submission, of accepting this pathetic conclusion, sent his sprawling haziness ablaze.
Raising his hand, he ignored the pain threatening to split his skull and scratched repeatedly.
It happened then. Through the splintered wood, his fading sight caught a glimpse of something lying in the gravel just outside the carriage. It was a pale, plaster hand ... detached from his clothes by the force of the previous impact.
His internal irritation suddenly vanished.
'That's... Hana's hand.'
The thought unlocked a locked door buried deep within his mind, bringing forth the echo of a voice from his early childhood. The words of the man who had pulled him from under that bridge.
"Hate, anger, sadness, misery. These are all emotions that can fade with time, Tomura. Which is why I give you these hands. Your father, your mother, your grandfather, sister, grandmother... Carry them with you at all times, so those emotions will never fade away."
His eyes widened. Walking aimlessly on the streets, being ignored by everyone and everything ... Meeting his master. In the past, those were the earliest memories he could remember.
Nothing else ever clicked ..... Until now. Looking at that hand, numerous memories flooded into his mind as if a backdoor had been opened.
A backyard. A dog. The smell of summer. A house. His sister smiling. His father shouting. The itch. The fear. The blood. The hands. Everything.
Everything.
'...I see. It's all coming back to me.' In his thoughts, two of Shigaraki's twitching fingers scraped against the wooden floorboards of the train car.
CRACK.
A thin fracture spread outward through the wood beneath them, branching like frost, moving further than it should have from such a small contact point. He turned his gaze and stared at it.
'I remember everything.' In that moment, a small click echoed directly beside his ear. The wireless sub-vocal earpiece crackled to life. The stream of static was followed by a familiar voice.
"Tomura."
"Hmm? Doctor?"
".... My My. You seem to have fallen into quite the predicament," Dr. Garaki's voice came through the line, entirely devoid of panic.
Shigaraki remained unresponsive. Countless thoughts flashed through his fading consciousness.
"Yeah," His voice was weak. Barely audible. "However... I don't think I'll last very long." The reality of the situation was that his current condition was unable to move.
"Doctor ... Warp us out of here."
"I'm afraid that's not possible for the time being."
Garaki's voice came through the speaker.
Shigaraki's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"There are currently issues with that method. I am afraid it is currently impossible to give you an escape route. Tch. I can't say whether I should pity or marvel at your luck Tomura."
".."
'Just great.' Shigaraki thought. It seemed there truly was no saving him today.
His consciousness was rapidly slipping away; he could barely make out the shadows dancing through the broken planks of the carriage.
He wasn't sure if his body was finally dying or if he was simply about to pass out from the blood loss.
__
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters by joining my Patreon!
💧 WATER TIER (5$) – Read 3 chapters ahead of public releases
🌍 EARTH TIER ($7) – Read 5 chapters ahead, with bonus lore, author notes, and behind-the-scenes content
🔥 FIRE TIER ($10) – Read 8 chapters ahead, get full access to all extras, and vote in exclusive polls for bonus content
📎 Patreon.com/Future805
Even a small pledge makes a huge difference — thank you for reading