The blood on his face had dried into a black crust, hard and cracked like the rotting hide of a desert carcass.
The people around Ryujin stared wide-eyed—not at what he had done, but at what he had become.
One villain tried to flee. Death was not something he could accept so easily. Yet the sound of flesh being stripped from bone rang out behind him, when a barbed chain hooked his ankle and dragged him back like a feral dog.
Ryujin's laughter echoed again.It was not a sound a human should make.It was twisted, warped—like a demon crawling out of a rift in time itself.
His body dripped with blood, his own and that of others. Muscles pulsed as though alive, throbbing like some independent creature struggling to grow.
"Villains, huh?"He whispered while caressing the blade smeared with crushed pink flesh."No… you're ingredients."
He stepped slowly toward a group of villains who had once put on a brave face. Their expressions paled by the second. One of them tried firing a shockwave, but it was deflected by the axe in Ryujin's hands—sent back with such force that his skull burst from within.
The wet sounds did not cease as Kazuma's boots pressed through scattered human remains. He lifted his head to the moon—now an ancient beast's solitary eye staring silently down at him.
He leapt forward. Not to kill with artistry, but to butcher with cruelty. His iron hammer crashed into a giant's skull, the sound like a watermelon hurled against a wall. The crunch of bone and the grind of teeth were drowned only by shrieks of agony.
His knife cut deep enough to slice nerves. Then he reached inside, fingers digging, and ripped the heart out for all to see.
"What's this? The center of fear, is it?""But me… I don't fear anything anymore."
He tossed the heart aside. Footsteps echoed from the far side of the forest—Thud. Thud. Thud.
Something was coming. Bigger than Kazuma. Heavier. But whether it could be more brutal… was uncertain.
Whispers spread from the shadows.
Ryujin turned, unhurried. He crushed a corpse's throat underfoot so that the crack of bones carried through the forest, then rested his hammer on his shoulder.
"If you think you can kill me…"
He grinned, a guttural laugh rising like a fiend from the abyss.
"…then come, beast."
His breath drowned out the world, heavy and feral. Moonlight warped his shadow, twisting it into a nightmare half-man, half-monster. He did not walk—he dragged himself, limbs loose as if torn from their sockets, feet leaving bloody streaks across the ground.
Someone collapsed in terror.Another man dropped to his knees, sobbing.The sound of vomiting repeated in the crowd.Even a girl who once laughed beside him in class could no longer stand—her legs trembling until she crumpled to the earth.
Every eye fixed on him—not as a classmate,but as a beast of hell loosed upon the world.
"He's a demon…""He kills like he's venting rage…""Is that even… a man?"
And then—her voice.Momo's voice.
"…Ryo…"
So soft… like the dying breath of a crushed butterfly.Yet in his world—it was the loudest sound.
Ryujin froze.As if lightning split his chest.Veins bulged at his neck, his bloodshot eyes slowly dimming, retreating from madness back toward humanity.
He turned, slowly.She lay against a shattered trunk, face weary with tears and dust, but her eyes—her eyes were still locked on him.
"Mo…"
His voice was nothing like before. No roar. No manic laughter.Only the voice of a man—returning.
He staggered toward her, bloody feet dragging.Each step like a beast spent of strength.The crowd gawked in silence.Even pro-heroes couldn't move—frozen by the weight of their fear.
When he reached her, he knelt.The hands that once crushed skulls with a hammer now trembled as they brushed her hair gently.His eyes widened—not with frenzy, but with a heart breaking apart.
"You… shouldn't see me like this…""You should only see me smiling at you…""…like the man you loved."
Tears fell—not of regret, but squeezed from the soul of a lonely beastwho had found his princess…and nearly destroyed her along with the world itself.
Around them, silence reigned.No one dared breathe.Even the top pro-heroes wouldn't approach.
The villains left standing… fled.For what stood before them wasn't a "high school student."It was something beyond definition—
"The Beast with a Crown of Flesh."
Amid the hush, his little daughter—who once clung to him—had fallen asleep in another student's arms, her tears spent.
And then, again—Momo's voice, fragile as fading breath:
"…Ryo…"
Ryujin froze.
His palm, which was about to rise again… froze in midair.The eyes that once burned crimson like the flames of hell slowly narrowed.Silent.Still.Like a lost child hearing its mother's call.
Ryojin: "…That's enough. I'm still here… with you."
Ryojin: "You're in so much pain, aren't you…?"
Ryojin: "…It's alright. I'll take you… to a place where no one can ever touch you."
And then he smiled.A smile like that of a madman, when the whole world no longer mattered.
The world itself stopped moving.In an instant — Ryojin's body twisted by the Quirk's distortion, turning into a large, gleaming blue candy in the palm of his hand.
The man caught him, in front of everyone frozen in shock.
The man quickly departed.
Because his mission had ended.
Ended… in rivers of blood.
Momo tried to get up.Her hand moved faintly, like an infant just learning to crawl.Her eyes opened with great effort, her lips quietly murmuring his name.
"…Ryo…"
But her body no longer responded.The wounds were too deep, blood pouring until coldness consumed her entirely.Her body sank to the ground once more.This time… perhaps more than a simple closing of her eyes.
A shout pierced through the fog and blood.
"Bring Kazuma back!!"
It was Midoriya's voice. His face twisted with pain and fury, standing amidst ruin, his face drenched in sweat and dirt.
But the man merely turned back.In his eyes was only scorn and mockery.
"Bring him back?Strange words… He doesn't belong to anyone.He belongs only to himself.You're the selfish ones… We just want them to see that the path you worship isn't the only one in this world."
"You are the shackles… and I've simply come to break them."
Todoroki clenched his fists so tight that blood seeped from his palms.
"Ryojin… will never become a villain!"
Those words made him laugh softly, as if it was tonight's joke.
"Sorry, but trickery and running away… are the only redemption left for me.Ta-ta."
His finger pressed on the communicator — sending the signal.
"Target secured."
He leapt into the trees.His body vanished from sight — leaving only shadow.Each step sounded like bones shattering — the breaking of an old system.
The young heroes shouted orders to chase after him.But the moment they moved forward — the nightmare appeared.
A portal of darkness opened before them.Countless Nomu appeared — grotesquely modified to look like scraps of human flesh still able to walk.Their eyes held not even death, only command — block them all.
And behind them… the killers.Hunters who relished the scent of human flesh.Their laughter was the voice of demons.Their blood, a darkened red, clung to their weapons like dried rust.
As Midoriya and the others fought to break through, the laughter of Twice echoed softly.
"…Goodbye… heroes."
The shadow clone melted into the ground — leaving only emptiness.
And they escaped successfully, leaving people behind.
That night… no hero returned home.
Momo was taken to the hospital in critical condition.A respirator was forced into her mouth, her heartbeat slowing further and further.
Eri suffered severe head trauma.Kota sat crying by her bedside, clutching her hand tightly like a child afraid there would be no tomorrow.
Teachers and other heroes lay lined up in hospital beds.They had lost.And not only in body… but in spirit.
"They could not protect their children."
In the forest — only corpses remained.Flesh unrecognizable as once human… or something else.Some without faces, some without limbs.But all shared one truth — torn to unrecognizable shreds.
Thenarrationdrifts,quietandfaint,likeacurseshroudingtheforest.
"That night… they lost."
The camera zooms in on Mina, sitting beside Momo next to an ambulance.Her hollow eyes stared at a starless sky.Jirou sat slumped against the ambulance door, her hands pressed tightly over her ears, trying to block out the screams she could never forget.Tokoyami stood motionless in the shadows, silent, while his own shadow trembled as if it could no longer be controlled.
Thenarrationrisesslowly.The narration rises slowly.Thenarrationrisesslowly.
"One of them was lost… Ryojin Kazuma."
The UA gym uniform lay in the mud, stained with blood.Only the silhouette of a young man stood with his back to that uniform.No words.No longer a hero.
He had lost the light in his eyes, but gained something far more terrifying in return.His footsteps faded into the gray mist, his figure swallowed by the mountains' shadow…Leaving behind only silence — and a single question no one dared to speak aloud:
"…If we had reached him sooner… would he still be 'one of us'?"
CuttosceneCut to sceneCuttoscenePixie-Bob lay in an ICU bed, eyes closed, her forehead gashed deep, dried blood clinging to her face.Beside her, Mandalay sat silently.Her body carried wounds, but the deepest pain was not physical —It was the crushing truth… that they had failed to protect anyone.
FinalcutFinal cutFinalcutThe campfire, burned out to ash.