The rain had stopped, but the forest was still weeping.
Water dripped from the charred branches of trees incinerated by blue flames, mixing with the mud, ash, and blood on the ground to form a sludge that coated the boots of the rescue teams. The sirens of ambulances and police cruisers wailed in a discordant symphony, cutting through the eerie silence of the mountain, their red and blue lights flashing rhythmically against the dark canopy like the heartbeat of a dying beast.
The Vanguard Action Squad was gone. And they had taken more than just their pride.
In the clearing where the final confrontation had taken place, Midoriya Izuku knelt in the mud. His arms, swollen and purple from the abuse of One For All, hung uselessly at his sides. He stared blankly at the spot where the warp gate had vanished, his wide, green eyes devoid of their usual light. He was screaming, but no sound came out. His throat was raw, his lungs empty. The image of Ryuga being dragged into the darkness, a gun pressed to his head by "Mustard", and Bakugo being compressed into a marble played on an endless loop in his mind.
He had reached out. He had been so close. But his fingers had only grasped the empty, cold air.
"Midoriya..."
Todoroki Shoto stood beside him, his usually stoic face twisted in a grimace of frustration. He gripped his left side, where the ice had failed to stop Dabi's flames. He wanted to say something—anything—to comfort his friend, to say that they tried their best. But the words died in his throat. How could he?
They had failed.
"It's... a disaster," Shoji Mezo murmured, his multiple arms wrapped around his own torso as if trying to hold himself together. "We didn't just lose Bakugo and Onodera."
Those words hung in the air, heavier than the dark clouds above. They hadn't just lost the fight; they had lost their friends. Bakugo Katsuki. Onodera Ryuga. And the entirety of Class 1-B, whose fate remained a terrifying mystery deep within the woods.
...
Meanwhile, near the facility, chaos reigned.
Vlad King, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B, fell to his knees near the treeline. The giant man, usually a pillar of strength and discipline, looked as if he had aged ten years in a single hour. Around him, the forest floor showed signs of a chaotic struggle—or rather, a massacre of will.
"Eighteen..." Vlad King whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and horror. "They took eighteen of them..."
Due to the devastating effects of Cupid's Quirk, Affinity, the students of Class 1-B had been rendered incapable of rational thought or defense. They had been reduced to instinctual animals, gathered up by Mr. Compress like toys in a claw machine. Only Awase Yosetsu and Monoma Neito, who had been separated from the main group by sheer luck, remained. They sat in the back of an ambulance, wrapped in shock blankets, staring at nothing, their minds unable to process why they were the only ones left.
The villains hadn't just raided a school camp. They had decimated an entire generation of hero students.
Aizawa Shota limped onto the scene, his capture weapon frayed, his body covered in scratches. He looked at the empty clearing, and his bloodshot eyes widened in a rare expression of pure horror.
"Sekijiro..." Aizawa whispered. "Where are they?"
"Gone," Vlad King breathed, falling to his knees, clutching a piece of torn fabric—part of Shiozaki Ibara's casual clothes. "They're all gone. Every single one of them."
From the shadows of the trees, a figure emerged. Guren Todoroki walked into the clearing, his pristine white suit now stained with soot and rain. He dragged his massive greatsword behind him, carving a deep furrow in the mud. He looked at the scene, his amber eyes cold and calculating, showing no sympathy for the teachers' despair. Then he took out one of Mr. Compress's marbles—containing Tokoyami Fumikage inside—, gave to Aizawa and muttered.
"Interesting," Guren muttered, more to himself than the others. "A Quirk capable of compressing targets into small, transportable objects. If he had enough time... taking a whole class isn't impossible. And smashing the marble doesn't guarantee the release of the victim inside, so handle it carefully."
"Guren!" Aizawa snapped, turning to the student council president. "Where were you?! You were supposed to—"
"I was dealing with a pest," Guren interrupted, his voice sharp. He sheathed his greatsword with a heavy metallic clang. "Dabi is neutralized for now, though he escaped. But it seems your students were more incompetent than I anticipated. Or rather..." He glanced at the pinkish mist still clinging to the low ground. "...the enemy came prepared with something nasty."
Guren walked over to where Vlad King knelt, picking up a discarded shoe. He examined it, his eyes narrowing.
"There are no bodies. No blood pools indicating a massacre, just a pile of torn clothes along with a few bras and various kinds of underwear," Guren analyzed coldly. "They were taken alive. The League isn't trying to send a message by killing them. They're stockpiling resources. And I bet things weren't pleasant for those students at all."
"Resources?" Vlad King stood up, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white. "Those are my students, damn it!"
"Right now, they are leverage," Guren replied indifferently, turning back toward the facility. "We need to contact U.A. and the Police immediately. The game has changed, Eraser. This isn't a kidnapping anymore. It's a declaration of war."
...
Musutafu General Hospital – Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
The smell of antiseptic was suffocating. It was a sharp, chemical scent that burned the nostrils, a stark contrast to the smell of rain and blood that lingered on the students' clothes.
The waiting room was silent. No one touched their phones. No one spoke. The surviving members of Class 1-A sat in plastic chairs, their bodies cleaned of mud but their spirits stained forever.
Eijiro sat with his head in his hands, his body shaking. Beside him, Momo stared at the floor, her eyes red and puffy. They weren't just mourning the loss of those captured; they were terrified for those behind the glass doors.
Uraraka Ochako and Asui Tsuyu.
The attack by Vault had been brutal, efficient, and merciless.
"Patient Uraraka Ochako," a doctor stepped out, looking exhausted. "She has sustained a severe abdominal puncture wound. The blade missed the major artery by millimeters, but the internal bleeding was extensive. We've managed to stabilize her, but she is in a medically induced coma to aid recovery."
Izuku, who had refused to leave the hallway despite his own injuries being treated, let out a ragged breath. He leaned against the wall, sliding down until he hit the floor. Ochako... the girl who always smiled, who always supported him... she was fighting for her life because she had tried to be brave.
"And Asui?" Tenya asked, his voice cracking. He stood rigid, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles were white. As the class representative, he felt the weight of this failure crushing him.
"Deep laceration to the dorsal muscles and spinal trauma," the doctor replied grimly. "She will live. But her rehabilitation will be long. Whether she can return to hero work... is uncertain."
The silence that followed was heavier than lead.
"We... we weren't strong enough," Mina whispered, tears streaming down her pink cheeks. "We thought we were getting better. We thought we were heroes. But we were just..."
"Victims," Mineta finished, his voice unusually hollow. He wasn't crying. He wasn't panicking. He was just staring at his hands. "Ryuga told us. He told us the world wasn't a game. He told me to find my self-worth... but what is it worth if I couldn't do anything?"
The door to the hallway opened, and Guren walked in.
He was no longer wearing his pristine white suit. It was stained with soot and ash, the only evidence of his clash with Dabi. He carried his greatsword on his back, the weapon wrapped in cloth. His presence usually commanded fear, but tonight, he just looked like a general who had won a battle but lost the war.
He scanned the room, his amber eyes landing on each student.
"Stop crying," Guren said. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the room instantly. "Crying won't bring them back. Regret won't heal those girls in the ICU."
"You...!" Eijiro stood up, anger flaring in his eyes. "How can you be so calm? Onodera is gone! Bakugo is gone! Half of our friends are gone!"
"And I am angry too," Guren replied coolly. "But anger without direction is just a tantrum. Ryuga didn't sacrifice himself so you could sit here and wallow in self-pity."
He walked over to the window, looking out at the city lights.
"This is entirely my fault. If I hadn't kept that brat and his girlfriend together and separately for safety, things wouldn't have turned out this badly..."
Izuku looked up, his eyes widening slightly. "What... what do you mean?"
"I don't know," Guren turned back, a dangerous glint in his eyes, "Nobody here knows. But that bastard definitely has a plan B, and I bet everyone'll be reunited soon.."
...
The atmosphere in Principal Nezu's office was not one of despair, but of cold, calculating fury.
Nezu sat at his desk, his paws clasped together. Opposite him sat All Might, in his skeletal form, looking more frail and ghastly than ever. Tsukauchi Naomasa stood by the door, a phone pressed to his ear, while Midnight and Snipe reviewed the data streams on the monitors.
"Twenty students..." All Might whispered, his voice trembling. "They took... twenty students!?"
"Yes, and the whereabouts of one other student are unknown." Nezu said, his voice losing its usual bounce. "The media... the government... they will eat us alive. But that is not the priority. That kid's prophecy really did come true, but I didn't think things would get this bad."
"I should have been there," All Might whispered, his hands gripping his knees. "If I had been there..."
"You would have been targeted, and we might have lost the Symbol of Peace entirely," Nezu cut him off. "Wolfram was a distraction. This... this was the real blow."
"Principal," Tsukauchi lowered his phone. "We have a lock. The tracking signal from the choker Onodera Ryuga is wearing is still active. It's stationary. It's in Kamino Ward, Yokohama."
"Kamino..." All Might raised his head, blue flames of determination igniting in his sunken sockets. "We know where they are."
"Yes," Nezu nodded. He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers. These weren't official reports. They were handwritten notes, messy scribbles, and coded messages. "But we have more than just a location. We have the keys to the kingdom."
He spread the papers out.
"Ryuga... that boy is terrifying," Nezu admitted, a rare look of pure concerning crossing his face. "During the remedial tutoring sessions with Himiko, before the summer break even started, he was leaving breadcrumbs. Small patterns in his homework answers. 3 Morse code. And all three contain extremely important information."
He then tapped a specific name written on the paper.
"Shigaraki Tomura. Real name: Shimura Tenko."
All Might froze. The air left the room. The name 'Shimura' hit him like a physical blow. "Nana's... grandson?"
"It appears so," Nezu said solemnly. "But there is more. Dabi. The blue-flame user Guren engaged." Nezu pointed to the next line. "Todoroki Toya. And this "bad father" line definitely has something to do with Endeavor."
Silence. Absolute, horrified silence.
"Endeavor's eldest son... the one who supposedly died?" Snipe adjusted his mask, his voice shaking. "If this gets out..."
"Society collapses," Nezu finished. "Endeavor is the Number Two hero. If his son is a mass-murdering villain... the faith in heroes dissolves overnight."
"Ryuga knew all of this," Tsukauchi said, staring at the papers in disbelief. "He knew, and he kept it hidden until the moment we absolutely needed it...."
"He gave us the ammunition to not just win a battle, but to destroy the League's foundations," Nezu stood up, his small stature casting a long shadow. "Perhaps his abduction was also intended to use that tracking device to turn him into a living beacon. He trusted us to come for him."
Nezu looked at the clock.
"Aizawa's report stated that Ryuga requested a raid exactly 30 minutes after the retreat. We are past that window, but not by much. The League thinks they have won. They think they have broken us. They think they have time to break Bakugo and convert Ryuga. Mobilize everyone," Nezu ordered, his voice icy. "Call everyone we can call. We are not just conducting a rescue operation."
He looked at the map of Kamino Ward, his eyes gleaming with a predatory intelligence.
"We are going to war. And we are going to burn the League of Villains to the ground tonight."