Thinking this, Shigaraki nodded lightly.
"Relax. I already prepared countermeasures for every problem you mentioned."
"First, the situation you described—where the law enforcement officers outside notice everyone inside the mall disappeared—doesn't exist at all."
"I already had Sludge Villain use his Quirk to cover this entire area."
"From the outside, everything still looks completely normal."
"People are still walking around."
"There's absolutely no visible abnormality."
"Second, even if they somehow realize something strange is happening, there's still nothing to worry about."
"Because besides using Sludge Villain's Quirk to conceal the mall, I also had Kūgai add another layer of insurance by overlapping this entire place with an alternate dimension."
"So even if someone enters, it's useless."
"Because the current situation here is simple…"
"People can enter, but they can't leave."
"And once everyone who enters suddenly loses contact, the bizarre nature of the situation will force them to become cautious."
"They won't recklessly send everyone inside at once anymore."
"At the very least, they won't all rush in together."
"And that buys us enough time to retreat."
At this point, a playful smile appeared on Shigaraki's face.
"Besides, nobody would ever imagine that Kurogiri and I would personally appear here."
"So even if they temporarily mobilize other heroes to investigate, they still won't connect this incident to me, Kurogiri, or Kūgai."
"And even if they do dispatch additional heroes, that still takes time."
"Most heroes are currently stationed in other districts."
"And that gives us enough breathing room."
"If the timing works out…"
"We might even catch them completely off guard."
As he spoke, Shigaraki paused briefly and mentally calculated how much time all these preparations would buy them.
"…Yeah."
"Based on my estimates, we still have nearly an hour left."
"And that's more than enough time for us to deal with the heroes trapped inside those alternate dimensions before Kurogiri takes us out of here."
Hearing this, Muscular raised an eyebrow.
"Damn."
"You really prepared everything thoroughly."
"Guess that's what makes you the boss."
"Well, since you already planned our escape route, I don't have anything left to worry about."
"I'll go deal with that denim-wearing pretty boy now."
As he spoke, Muscular stepped directly toward the portal.
But at that exact moment—
a sudden change occurred.
BOOOOM!!!
A massive explosion suddenly erupted beside Shigaraki and the others.
And the source of the sound—
was the screen monitoring All Might.
"All Might?!"
Muscular's expression instantly changed.
He subconsciously stopped mid-step and looked together with Shigaraki toward the screen displaying All Might's alternate dimension.
Then they saw it.
Inside the dimension imprisoning All Might, the hostages that had previously been falling at regular intervals were nowhere to be seen.
Instead—
violent explosions continuously erupted across the sky.
And mixed within those explosions…
was the voice of a teenage boy.
"So the enemies this time are you bastards?!"
"You sure made me work to find you!"
"All Might, just focus on fighting!"
"I'll take care of these trash villains myself!"
The young voice echoed through the air, overflowing with confidence and arrogance.
And the instant those words fell—
BOOM!!!
Another explosion erupted violently.
Immediately afterward came the furious roar of the boy.
"Die, you scum!"
"Who is that?!"
"Kūgai got attacked?!"
"Law enforcement? Another hero?"
"Didn't he isolate everybody already?! Then how did someone get inside?!"
"What the hell is Kūgai doing?!"
"How did someone make it all the way to his base?!"
Hearing the boy's voice, Shigaraki and Muscular instinctively exchanged looks.
All heroes and officers should have already been separated and isolated into different dimensions by Kūgai.
So where exactly had this teenager suddenly come from?
Who was this bastard interfering with their plans?
And yet—
for some reason, Shigaraki felt the voice sounded strangely familiar.
As if he had heard it somewhere before.
While trying to remember where he had heard it, Shigaraki glanced toward All Might on the screen.
At this point, All Might was already visibly exhausted from continuously sprinting across the plains rescuing hostages.
Steam-like smoke faintly rose from his body.
Clearly—
his transformation time was running out.
However, what surprised Shigaraki was that even All Might seemed unable to recognize the owner of the voice.
Or rather—
he could not identify the person through voice alone.
That much was obvious from the stunned expression on his face when he first heard it.
"Wait! Young man!"
"Don't rush in recklessly!"
"Those enemies are extremely dangerous!"
All Might was clearly trying to persuade the mysterious teenager to retreat.
Unfortunately—
Kūgai gave him no such opportunity.
The dimensional passage immediately closed again.
And in the next second—
more hostages once again began raining down across different areas of the plains.
"SHIT!"
All Might cursed loudly.
Then he immediately resumed sprinting wildly across the grasslands.
Compared to the unknown teenager currently fighting the villains—
the hostages already falling toward death were far more urgent.
If he ignored the civilians, they would die instantly.
The mysterious boy, on the other hand, was only potentially in danger.
All Might still understood which side took priority.
Seeing this, the tension in Shigaraki's expression finally eased slightly.
Although he was dissatisfied that Kūgai had nearly allowed a suspicious individual—possibly another hero—to come into contact with All Might…
at least the mistake had been corrected in time.
To Shigaraki, it did not matter who that newcomer was or what his objective might be.
No one could be allowed to meet All Might.
Because All Might had to remain trapped there—
alone.
The fact that Kūgai had nearly failed at that task genuinely displeased Shigaraki.
For a moment, he had even begun doubting the man's competence.
Still—
since the damage control had been fast enough, Shigaraki decided not to pursue the mistake further.
However…
the bastard who nearly ruined their plans?
Shigaraki absolutely intended to deal with him personally.
Otherwise, the irritation building in his chest would never settle.
Thinking this, Shigaraki slowly reached out and tapped a certain location on the screen.
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