City A, Hero Association Headquarters
The jet-black building loomed like a massive tombstone in the city's heart. No windows, no seams, only blood-red warning lights pulsing at its corners, slicing through the metallic exterior.
In the top-floor conference room, the cold alloy table reflected fifteen figures.
Atomic Samurai chewed on a grass stalk, his katana leaning against his chair. Sexy Prisoner propped his chin, eyes fixed on a serious-faced Genos. Vest Venerable sat with arms crossed, muscles bulging.
Metal Bat had his bat slung over his shoulder, feet propped on the table. Child Emperor fiddled with his handheld computer. King's brow furrowed, a faint heartbeat audible around him.
Superalloy Darkshine sat silent as a mountain. Drive Knight's eye emitted a rhythmic red glow. Pig God munched away, his lap buried in snack wrappers. Watchdog Man curled up in his chair, hat pulled low, eyes vacant.
Zombieman polished gun parts. Flashy Flash's knife danced between his fingers like a butterfly. Silver Fang rested with eyes closed. Tornado, with her green hair, grumbled irritably.
And then—the odd one out in a yellow suit. Saitama. Dead-fish eyes staring blankly, red gloves cradling his chin, cheap cape crumpled on the floor.
He let out a silent yawn.
The heavy alloy door slid open a crack, and Sitch hurried in. Sweat beaded on his large nose, his blonde hair disheveled. He rushed to the head of the table, slamming his hands down with a bang, leaning forward.
Sitch took a few deep breaths, his expression grave as he addressed the heroes. "We've gathered you, the pinnacle of heroism, for one reason alone."
His brows knitted tightly. "We need you to protect this world."
Before the heroes could react, he continued, "This incident could claim the lives of even S-Class heroes like you."
"If any of you wish to back out now, the Association won't stop you."
"After all, retreating takes courage too."
He scanned the room, noticing the heroes barely paying attention, each absorbed in their own thing.
Sitch's furrowed brow deepened. "Once you hear what's next, there's no turning back. To avoid chaos, anyone who wants to leave will be temporarily confined here until the incident is resolved."
"Heroes!" Sitch's voice boomed, finally drawing their eyes to him.
"Are you ready to hear this?!"
He glared around the room, trying to make them take his briefing seriously.
But Metal Bat, the delinquent, scoffed. "Hey, hey, hey, all that talk just to drag us here?"
His fierce eyes locked onto Sitch. "I skipped my sister's piano recital for this. If you don't give me a good reason, don't blame me for tearing this place apart."
As Metal Bat geared up for another threat, Sitch cut in, his tone oddly calm, almost flat.
"The Great Prophet, Baba Wawa, is dead."
The conference room fell deathly silent.
All the heroes—except the bald Saitama—stared wide-eyed.
"How could Baba Wawa die? Who did it?" Zombieman shouted, his face still expressionless, like a bad actor reciting lines.
Sitch waved a hand. "No, no, it's not like that. She was predicting major events for the next six months, had a coughing fit, and choked on a throat lozenge."
"Eh?!"
"Huh?!"
"What?!"
The heroes gasped in disbelief. The Association's top focus, dead from such a ridiculous cause?
"Uh… who's Baba Wawa?" a confused voice piped up from the far end of the table.
All eyes turned to Saitama.
"You don't know Baba Wawa? She's on TV all the time—a prophet, a great prophet, always nailing the timing of disasters or monster attacks," Sexy Prisoner explained in his bubbly voice.
Sitch picked up where he left off. "If she were just an ordinary prophet, we wouldn't care this much. But Baba Wawa was different. We had her under maximum security for a reason—her predictions were one hundred percent accurate."
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper. "The critical point is this: the message she risked her life to leave behind."
Sitch placed the paper on the table, and a holographic projection sprang up.
The note was magnified, revealing a few scrawled words:
"The world is in danger!!!!"
The shaky, distorted text hovered above the table.
Immediately, the heroes' faces showed a mix of skepticism, impatience, and even absurdity.
"Huh?" Child Emperor spoke first, his young face unimpressed. He patted his bulging backpack. "That's it? That's a prophecy? Lame. I've got cram school. Can I go?"
Metal Bat snorted, swinging his bat restlessly. "Hey, old man, seriously? The world's always in danger. A monster flipping a breakfast stall counts as danger too?"
Zombieman, still wiping his gun barrel, said flatly, "Oh, another dangerous day, huh?" No sincerity.
Atomic Samurai picked up his grass stalk and stuck it back in his mouth, his eyes lingering on the projection, as if analyzing the handwriting for swordsmanship.
Sexy Prisoner cradled his chin, glancing between Genos and the note. "Oh~ danger? What a thrilling word! My heart's already pounding for the coming destruction~" His face was rapturous.
Even the steady Silver Fang shook his head, sighing softly.
Vest Venerable's arms stayed crossed, his muscles taut, but his eyes held doubt. Pig God kept chewing. Drive Knight's red light blinked steadily. Watchdog Man remained curled up.
Except for the bald guy in the corner. Saitama's dead-fish eyes stared at the words, head tilted, his face a mix of "this seems serious but I don't get it."
Sitch scanned the top heroes' dismissive reactions, a vein pulsing on his forehead.
He took a deep breath, his chest heaving.
"Child Emperor!!!" Sitch's voice roared, the soundwave making the table hum.
Child Emperor flinched, his annoyed expression freezing.
Sitch slammed his hands on the table—BAM!—shaking the projection.
He leaned forward, his forehead nearly touching the holographic text, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Child Emperor, then sweeping over every face, each word deliberate:
"Baba! Wawa! Has! Predicted! Major! Disasters! Before!"
"Be it natural calamities! Or dangerous creatures! Every time her prophecies appeared! They! Came! With! Massive! Deaths!" He practically screamed "massive deaths," spittle visible in the projection's light.
The room went dead silent. Even Pig God stopped chewing.
Sitch's voice rose to a shrill, almost breaking pitch:
"But!!—"
He pointed at the scrawled text, his trembling finger shaking:
"For Baba Wawa to leave a warning like this! Risking her life to write 'the world is in danger'! That's! Never! Happened! Before!!!"
"What! Does! That! Mean?!"
His bloodshot eyes, filled with unprecedented fear and ferocity, scanned the room:
"It means!! Something more terrifying! More horrifying! More unimaginable than any past disaster or Dragon-level monster!! Is coming within the next six months!!!"
"A true cataclysm! A crisis that could end human civilization!!!"
Sitch's roar echoed like a storm in the cold conference room.
Child Emperor's dismissive look vanished, his face paling.
Metal Bat slowly lowered his bat, his fierceness replaced by disbelief and gravity, staring at the projection.
Atomic Samurai's grass stalk fell silently onto the table.
Zombieman stopped wiping his gun, his expressionless face now sharp-eyed.
Silver Fang's closed eyes snapped open, glinting with intensity.
Vest Venerable's muscles tensed to their limit, like forged steel.
Superalloy Darkshine remained silent, but power seemed to surge beneath his bronze skin.
Drive Knight's red light flickered rapidly.
Pig God stopped chewing, his chubby face trembling slightly.
Watchdog Man's eyes focused for the first time.
Sexy Prisoner clutched his chest, his rapturous look gone, replaced by a mix of fear and twisted excitement.
Genos' eyes flashed with data streams, his core engine humming faintly.
King's face tightened, the low, rapid "Emperor Engine" heartbeat growing louder, heavier, like war drums pounding everyone's nerves.
Tornado slammed the table, her petite body floating up, eyes blazing. "Hah?! A cataclysm?! What kind of thing dares?! I'll see how many lives it's got!"
Sitch's roar still echoed off the alloy walls, the air heavy as lead.
He took a few deep breaths, forcing down his surging emotions, his face regaining the sternness of an Association executive. His fingers tapped the cold table.
Buzz—
Holographic images rose, aligning below the blood-red "The world is in danger."
The images showed faces, young and mature: a white-haired, eyepatch-wearing Gojo Satoru with a lazy smile; a weary Okkotsu Yuta with dark circles and a sword; green-haired, bespectacled Maki Zenin; a bitter-faced middle-aged Kusakabe; sunny-smiling Yuji Itadori; and cool, detached Megumi Fushiguro.
"This crisis," Sitch's voice lowered, heavy with gravity, "is unprecedented. We don't know what it is, when it'll strike, or how."
His gaze swept the images. "To boost our chances, the Association's leadership has unanimously decided to seek external aid."
He paused, emphasizing, "We've invited the jujutsu sorcerers from our neighboring island, Neon's mainland, to assist!"
"What?!"
"Outsiders?!"
"Are you kidding?!"
The tense atmosphere, still reeling from the apocalyptic warning, ignited. Discontent, doubt, and anger exploded like sparks in oil!
"Hah?!" Tornado, floating mid-air, erupted first, an invisible storm swirling around her, green eyes glaring at Sitch. "Jujutsu sorcerers? What kind of bottom-feeders are those? The Association thinks we S-Class heroes are trash?! Need some nobodies to fill in?! I can handle it all myself!"
Her slender finger pointed at the holograms, psychic energy glowing at her fingertips.
"Exactly!" Metal Bat slammed his bat down with a clang, his fierce eyes narrowing. "Old man, who're you looking down on? I skipped my sister's recital for this! Bringing in outsiders to clean up? Believe me, I'll knock down this building's support beams right now!"
Zombieman wiped his gun parts, his expressionless face letting out a short, cold scoff. "Heh, outside help? Interesting. Hope they don't drag us down… or become monster bait."
Child Emperor's young face showed clear displeasure. "The Association's judgment is getting absurd. In a crisis of this scale, so-called 'outside help' will barely make a dent and might even cause command chaos. Their ability system is completely different from ours, making coordinated combat unlikely…"
He shook his head, clearly pessimistic.
King's arms tightened, his body rigid, the "Emperor Engine" heartbeat echoing louder, heavier, pounding everyone's nerves.
Sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Uh…" Amid the clamor of doubt and anger, a puzzled voice came from the corner. Saitama scratched his shiny head, turning to the ramrod-straight blonde cyborg beside him. "Er, Genos… what's the jujutsu world? Some Hero Association branch?"
Genos snapped to attention, like a soldier answering a superior, his voice stiff and clear. "Teacher! The jujutsu world is not a branch of the Hero Association. According to my database, they operate on Neon's mainland, across the sea.
"Their primary duty is handling 'cursed spirits,' entities formed from condensed human negative emotions. Their members, called 'jujutsu sorcerers,' wield a unique 'cursed energy' system, distinct from our physical and superpower-based combat!"
Genos explained meticulously.
"Oh… got it." Saitama blinked his dead-fish eyes, half-understanding. "Sounds… kinda normal?"
As the S-Class heroes filled the room with their vehement doubts and disdain for the unknown "outsiders"—
BOOM—!!!
The black Association building lurched violently sideways! The alloy walls groaned!
"What's happening?!"
"Earthquake?!"
"No! An attack!"
The S-Class heroes tensed, reactions varying.
Tornado steadied her floating body, her anger turning to shock.
Metal Bat lowered his bat, shifting his weight.
King's heart pounded, the "Emperor Engine" roaring over all noise.
Atomic Samurai's hand gripped his katana.
Zombieman swiftly reassembled his gun.
Child Emperor's computer screen flashed with warning pop-ups!
Outside the building—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Four blinding energy beams slammed into the tombstone-like Association headquarters.
Four tengu-like monsters hovered in the sky.
The largest, most ferocious one let out a deafening roar, its soundwave rippling the air:
"Follow the great Sky King!! Crush this puny nest! Claim the surface!!!"
Its arrogant declaration echoed across City A.
But before the Sky King's words faded—
Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!
Three chilling sounds of tearing flesh rang out simultaneously!
Foul blood, mixed with shattered feathers and organ fragments, poured down like a filthy waterfall onto the Sky King!
"Urgh?!" The Sky King instinctively raised its claws to block, sticky blood and steaming innards splattering its feathers and bone armor.
It saw what landed on the floating debris before it!
Three massive, grotesque heads—its three offspring, just moments ago brimming with ferocity!
One head's single eye still held abject terror, its mouth struggling to move, whispering faintly:
"F-Father… s-sky… r-run…"
The Sky King froze, terror seizing it! It jerked its head upward—
A shadow!
An endless, sky-swallowing shadow!
Like a black tsunami surging from the depths of space!
It devoured the sunlight, drowned the city's glow, enveloping City A in a suffocating darkness!
This wasn't a cloud—it was deeper, heavier, with a metallic coldness and destructive oppression!
As if the sky had been replaced by the charred remains of a dead star!
"S-Sky…" The Sky King's massive body trembled uncontrollably, its earlier arrogance gone, replaced by sheer horror.
The shadow swallowed City A's last light.
It wasn't a cloud or any natural phenomenon.
Cold metallic sheen flowed in the dim light, a massive geometric structure radiating destructive pressure, like a burned-out star's wreckage dragged into the atmosphere, pressing down on everyone's heads.
The entire sky became its backdrop—a monstrous, indescribable space battleship!
At its base, countless dark cannon muzzles frantically gathered energy—one, two, hundreds, thousands… blinding white light swelled in the barrels!
"No… no, no, no—!!!" In the sky, the lone Sky King let out a gut-wrenching scream, too late to mourn its offspring. Overwhelming fear gripped its heart, feathers bristling, desperate to flee the impending doom!
Too late.
Buzz—!!!
A millisecond of dead silence, then a billion energy shrieks merged into a destructive roar!
From the battleship's underside, thousands of white beams tore through the air, slamming into City A's surface!
BOOM—!!!
The world turned pure white.
Blinding light consumed all vision!
City A's landmarks, towering office buildings, dense residential zones, wide roads, parks, bridges… under the destructive energy beams, they melted and collapsed silently, like wax under a blazing sun!
The earth quaked! The surface groaned as it was scoured away!
Shockwaves spread like a transparent tsunami at unimaginable speed!
Everything not directly hit twisted, shattered, and turned to dust under the invisible force! Glass facades exploded into powder before the shockwave even arrived!
The white light faded, leaving… nothing.
City A was gone.