[CHIBA BORDER – KANTO HIGHWAY – 12:55 PM]
The convoy driver watched his mirrors.
Behind him, the three SDF vehicles held their formation. In the rear SDF vehicle, the officer in the passenger seat had his hand resting on his sidearm without quite drawing it. Ahead, the coastal road stretched clear — industrial docks to the right, the flat grey of Tokyo Bay visible between the warehouse blocks. No traffic.
Upon moving up road, that state of zero interference lasted for another five minutes.
Just as they drove under the overpass, the first figure landed on the roof of the rear vehicle from above.
The impact buckled the roof panel. The vehicle swerved hard, clipping the guardrail before the driver could correct. "Dammit!" The officer in the passenger seat had his weapon out before the vehicle stopped moving. "Villain Attack!"
But the stone-skinned villain had already torn the passenger door off its hinges. Smashing, he jumped off to the next one and caught the front bumper with his bare hands. The screech of tearing metal echoed across the empty bay.
The vehicle was hoisted and tossed aside like a discarded soda can. The vehicles swerved to a halt.
The police team inside the transport truck scrambled, kicking the rear doors open to return fire, but they were outclassed before their boots touched the ground. A flash of lightning from the electrical convict shorted out their equipment; a blur of speed from another sent three officers flying into the guardrails.
The fight that took place after wasn't long.
"Stone head, Black Volt, Hydra, Streaker ..." Not far away, Kurogiri watched the battle, giving an internal assessment of their performances. 'These ones truly are promising.' It was over in seconds.
A brutal, one-sided slaughter that left the convoy smoking and the highway littered with the groaning forms of the "state's finest."
Kurogiri drifted down from the rooftop, his mist trailing behind him like a funeral shroud. He walked past the wreckage, his yellow eyes fixed on the heavy transport truck. "Open it."
The stone skinned convict stepped forward, his bicep orbs bulging as he gripped the reinforced handle. Following which, BANG! He wrenched the door off its hinges and peered into the darkness.
Two seconds later, his face fell.
"Hey... there's nothing here."
Kurogiri's eyes narrowed into sharp, glowing slits as he took two steps forward. The interior of the truck was lined with lead weights and dummy medical equipment.
The containment area of the corpse of the Symbol Of Evil was nowhere to be seen.
"There wasn't a single hero guarding it either."
"I see. A decoy," Kurogiri uttered, his misty hands clenching into fists. "We've been tricked."
His words had barely fallen when, a cracking sound fell into their ears.
From beneath Kurogiri's feet, a crack appeared on the asphalt. The next moment, it broke apart as a pale, gloved hand burst through the solid road, iron-gripping Kurogiri's ankle. "What—!?" Kurogiri gasped. He instinctively tried to warp, but the hand moved faster than he could react to. In a singular, blurred motion, the ground beneath Kurogiri turned to liquid. The mist-man was dragged violently downward, his physical form sucked into the solid earth before the convicts could even register what was going on.
The next moment ... The earth exploded. The explosion wasn't made of fire, but of sheer kinetic force and displaced earth. A shockwave of pulverized asphalt and dust erupted from the hole where Kurogiri had vanished, slamming into the four convicts like the broadside of a ship. The stone-skinned villain, despite his massive weight, was lifted off his feet and shoved back several meters, his boots carving deep furrows into the road. As the dust settled, a figure stood in the center of the crater.
"Guess I was wrong." The stone villain uttered at the sight of a man with silver white hair in a green form-fitting tactical vest over a longer sleeved navy shirt. "Looks like a hero showed up after ..." His voice halted as the figure turned to face him and raised his hands ... 'Huh?'
'Fire style ...'
The next moment, a large plume of fire shot towards him.The stone giant was engulfed in an instant.
Five Minutes later ... The speed villain, Streaker, dropped to the ground, both legs bent at an unnatural angle.
The masked man stood in the middle of the wreckage, the ocean breeze ruffling his silver hair. 'Oh .. I almost forgot.'
He turned his attention back to the patch of road where Kurogiri had been buried. With a casual gesture, the ground churned, spitting the warpgate back to the surface. Kurogiri was pinned vertically, buried up to his chin in the compacted soil.
The villain immediately coughed with heavy breaths the moment he was spat back into the surface. The pressure was so immense that his mist had been squeezed tight, so much so that he had almost thought he had been left to die.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Kurogiri looked up at the voice, seeing a face he was all too familiar with. His eyes flickered with a mixture of agony and disbelief. "You again."
How could he not recognize this man who had crippled Stain and ruined Tomura Shigaraki's plans?
"Yep, me again." The masked man walked towards him, dusting himself off in the process.
"How did you ..."
"Don't ask. The League of Villains is remarkably predictable,"
Kurogiri frowned. "So you were responsible for taking the corpse away." The masked man paused. His gaze moved from Kurogiri to the large empty transport truck in the distance, brows furrowing.
'This wasn't ...' His thoughts paused as he tilted his head to the side.
BANG! A bullet whizzed past his head by millimeters, and sparked against a nearby guardrail in the distance.
The masked man looked at the now useless lead bullet, then turned back to the one who shot it.
Twenty meters away, a surviving SDF officer, one one from the lead vehicle, was leaning against a mangled door for support. His mouth wide open and hands slightly trembling. "Seriously?"
Blood masked half of the man's face, dripping from a jagged gash on his temple. From the looks of it, he looked like a rookie. "Identify... identify yourself!" He said, regaining his composure from seeing a bullet dodged.
"You .. You're under arrest in the name of .."
In the blink of an eye, the space where the silver-haired man stood was empty.
The officer didn't even see the movement. He only felt a sudden, crushing presence in front of him as a hand clamped around his wrist, tilting the barrel of the gun toward the sky, while another gripped his collar and slammed him upward against the side of the transport van.
The officer's feet dangled inches off the pavement.
"Good. One of you is awake," The voice sent a chill down his spine. He looked up and swallowed.
"I .... I .."
"Listen carefully now. I am only going to ask once. What did you guys do with the body?"
"I... I don't..." The man stuttered and closed his eyes. Seconds later, he took a deep breath and reopened, eyes seemingly carrying the resolve to die. "It doesn't matter what you do now ... Villain. It's already been taken away. You ... You won't get a single word out of me."
Silence engulfed the atmosphere for the next few seconds. Then, the hand holding him loosened its grip. "A decoy huh?"
The masked man let out a breath. 'Thank God. It seems these guys aren't unreliable.'
_
[TOKYO BAYSIDE – ROUTE 4 UNDERPASS – 13:10 PM]
A few kilometers away, the atmosphere was a mirror image of the highway—but the outcome was far more grim. A single, unremarkable black van sat idling in the shadows of an underpass.
The rear doors were wide open, and the scent of ozone and salt hung heavy in the stagnant air.
Snatch, the Sand Hero, lay flat on his back on the concrete. His lower body pooled massive amounts of blood as it had been blown off from an angle he least expected. He looked up, his vision blurring, at the man standing over him.
Slidin' Go was dusting off his shoulders, a casual, lighthearted smile on his face. He looked down at the dying Sand Hero with a look of genuine, albeit shallow, pity.
"Truly, Snatch-san... I'm sorry it had to end this way," Slidin' Go said, his tone as breezy as a morning weather report. "But the world is changing. The old order is a sinking ship, and I've always been a fan of the winning side."
"You... traitor..." Snatch wheezed. Slidin' Go didn't answer. He turned to the shadows of the underpass, where several figures were emerging.
Contrary to the decoy area, the coming party weren't dressed in tattered prison jumpsuits.
They wore civilian clothes that conveyed neither wealth nor poverty and left no impression. There were six of them, and at their front walked a man with sharp, icy features and a coat that seemed to radiate a sub-zero chill. Geten.
Slidin' Go snapped a crisp, mocking salute. "The package is secured. No interference from the NPA or the HPSC."
Geten didn't acknowledge the hero. He walked past the dying Snatch and approached the back of the van. He placed a hand on the metal, frost immediately spider-webbing across the surface.
Visible inside, the cryogenic suspension tank sat secured to the floor alongside the sight of the silhouette suspended in green-tinted fluid.
"The Symbol of Evil," Geten murmured, his voice filled with a quiet, fanatic intensity. "The Grand Commander will be pleased. The liberation of the masses continues."
"Everything went right according to plan." Slidin Go reported with a salute. "I believe we should move sir. It would be bad if the league of villains managed to find our location."
Geten ignored him, his gaze fixed on the tank. "Let them come. The Meta Liberation Army fears no one."
__
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