A full year had passed since Junsei's retreat, and Japan had, on the surface, begun to resemble its former self. The streets were no longer filled with panic and grief, the rubble was moved and new buildings started replacing destroyed ones over time, and people returned to routines. Shops reopened, transportation resumed, and human life continued forward.
Yet some things had fundamentally changed and no amount of acting normal or rebuilding could erase. For one, no one dared to look toward the trees anymore.
At the edge of cities where forests stood quietly, people avoided these places as if they were cursed. Their gazes instinctively turned away, their steps quickened, their voices lowered. Instinctive fear had kept them at bay. Everyone knew Junsei was out there somewhere in Japan, living within nature, watching. And no one wanted to draw the attention of the demon.
That unspoken tension lingered over the entire country.
At the same time, a new generation of heroes began to rise, pushed forward by necessity. With the previous era wiped out almost entirely, Japan had no choice but to rely on younger heroes and newly licensed professionals. Some quickly gained recognition, their names spreading through media as symbols of hope in a wounded society.
But even then, no one mistook them for what had been lost.
The gap left behind by the previous generation was far too large to fill in a single year. Heroes like Endeavor had defined an era, and their absence was still felt in every major incident, every strained response, every near failure the new generation went through. Recovery would take years but at least now there was movement forward.
Among the many developments during that year, one stood out more than most.
Togata Mirio had finally awakened.
He opened his eyes to a completely new world. The deaths of heroes, the near collapse of society, the scale of devastation, each revelation shocked him harder than the last. But none of them compared to the loss of his mentor.
Sir Nighteye was gone.
But that did not break down Mirio, the young hero didn't speak much after learning that fact. Instead, he used the pain of loss as a fuel. His usual bright demeanor now had a quiet resolve to work harder than before, to make up for the lost time.
He and the other members of UA's Big Three pushed themselves as if trying to uphold what their mentor had left behind. There was no room to take it easy anymore. The same could be said for the students of Class 1-A and 1-B, now advanced into 2-A and 2-B. They had witnessed too much and worked earlier than they should, and that had forced them to mature far faster than intended.
Ironically, amidst all the devastation Junsei had caused, there was one unintended consequence that slightly balanced the scales. Criminal organizations across Japan had been devastated as well. Many had been wiped out entirely during the chaos, their members slaughtered alongside civilians. In a grim way, the underworld had suffered just as much as hero society.
Still, that "balance" was not enough. There was still far too much work to be done. In the end and despite everything, Japan was steadily healing.
And today was meant to be a special day. A symbolic one.
After months of tension and criticism directed at the United States for their use of a nuclear weapon, an international effort had been made to repair relations. The decision was to send some of their top heroes to Japan, not just to assist, but to show solidarity and that the two nations suffered similarly at the hands of Junsei.
The failure of that operation had proven to the world that Junsei was not a threat any single nation could handle, and Japan had never stood a chance against him alone. The critique USA used against Japan to reason what they had done fell the moment the nuke failed and their own country was devastated in retaliation.
And if anything, it has been Nezu who prevented further global catastrophe.
Now and after a year, that acknowledgment took form in the arrival of foreign heroes.
The streets of Tokyo were filled with people, thousands drawn by the rare sight of international cooperation. Among those arriving were some of the most prominent heroes in the United States. The number one hero, The Sun Warrior, was at the forefront radiating confidence and overwhelming presence, and right behind him The Skycrawler.
The Skycrawler in particular caused excitement among the people, he is originally from Japan and had once been a vigilante. That made his return a significant matter.
At the center of it all stood the figures welcoming them, All Might, a reminder of a fallen era, Nezu with his ever-composed demeanor, and the current head of the Public Safety Commission. Behind them stood professional heroes and the students of UA.
The foreign heroes stepped onto the stage beneath a wave of cheers, cameras flashing from every direction as Japan's representatives moved to greet them. For the first time in a long while, the atmosphere in Tokyo carried something close to festive.
The Sun Warrior approached All Might first and extended his hand with an earnest smile. "It is an honor to meet you, sir. I am a big fan of yours."
All Might returned the handshake warmly. "I have heard a great deal about you," he said. "I am glad to see someone like you step forward to take responsibility."
Similar exchanges unfolded across the stage as Japanese heroes and officials welcomed the foreign guests. There was a deliberate dignity to it all, as if both nations were trying to remind the public that hero society still existed at a broader level, that order and unity didn't know nations. At the back, the students and trainees of U.A. stood watching.
The event was moving to an early good start, but that didn't last long.
The air in the middle of the crowd twisted. A purple swirling gate opened without warning, spinning into existence. The cheering collapsed into screams as civilians stumbled backward in panic, shoving one another in desperate attempts to get away from it.
The foreign heroes reacted instantly, alarm flashing across their faces as they turned toward the disturbance. The Japanese heroes needed even less time. They recognized that gate immediately.
The League of Villains.
One by one, figures stepped out of the portal and onto the street. Himiko Toga, Twice, Mr. Compress, and Kurogiri. But it was the three figures standing at the front that held everyone's attention.
They were cloaked from neck to toe, their bodies hidden beneath long coats, but their heads were fully visible. Shigaraki, Dabi and Spinner.
And all three had changed.
Their eyes were wrong. Entirely black, with sinister red pupils that seemed to glow from within. Shigaraki and Dabi now both had black hair, while Spinner's lizard-like skin became gray, his hair turned bloody red. Even before they moved, their mere presence felt both sinister and ominous.
The heroes who had faced them before noticed it at once. So did the students.
Shigaraki stepped forward first. His voice came out rough and distorted, it was nothing like before, it was like something dragging across broken stone.
"Let's skip to the action," he said. "Kill the heroes."
Dabi lifted a hand casually and pointed forward. Purple flames erupted from his palm in a wide rushing wave toward the stage. Beside him, Spinner threw back his head and roared. The sonic blast that came from his mouth was monstrous, a compressed wall of force many times stronger than anything Present Mic could produce.
The response from the heroes was immediate.
Todoroki's flames surged up to meet Dabi's fire. Nejire raised her hands and unleashed spiraling waves of energy. Present Mic roared into his equipment with everything he had, his sound crashing forward in an attempt to blunt Spinner's attack. Other Japanese heroes joined in without hesitation, and even the foreign heroes, including Skycrawler, leapt into the defense.
For one heartbeat the air became a storm of powers and colors.
Then the attacks collided.
The impact tore through the street like a bomb going off in the center of the city. Even with the combined effort of the heroes, Dabi and Spinner's assault overpowered them. Fire, sound, and force exploded outward in every direction, ripping apart the stage and shattering the street below.
The heroes groaned as the shockwave slammed into them. Dust and smoke burst across the area in a thick wall, swallowing the center of the event almost instantly. At the same time, screams from the crowd rose in frantic panic as civilians ran in every direction.
Some were injured by shockwaves. Others fell and were trampled in the rush to escape.
By the time the dust began to settle, the heroes were already moving again. Some staggered to their feet. Others braced themselves amid the wreckage, eyes fixed on the villains through the smoke. The foreign heroes were no different. Whatever welcome ceremony this had been meant to be, it was gone now.
The first hero to move was the Sun Warrior who had already launched himself upward.
He rose high above the smoke with the force of a missile, golden fire engulfing his entire body. His quirk let him store solar energy and release it as overwhelming strength and heat, and now he meant to show exactly why he had become the new number one hero in the United States. He intended to make an example of them.
To show the world that these villains had made a fatal mistake.
Flames roared around him as he descended, propelling him faster and faster toward the ground. His fist was wrapped in an enormous sphere of golden fire, concentrated until it looked like a miniature sun falling from the sky.
His target was Shigaraki.
The moment he reached him, the Sun Warrior drove his punch downward with all the power he had. The impact should have crushed buildings and reduced a lesser opponent to ash.
Shigaraki merely glanced at him.
Then he raised one hand.
He blocked the punch.
The collision sent a shockwave blasting outward, so violent that even the members of the League were forced to step back. Powerful winds tore through the smoke, and the ground beneath Shigaraki cracked apart under the pressure.
Yet while the area shook, Shigaraki did not move.
Neither did Dabi.
Neither did Spinner.
They remained standing, entirely unaffected by the force that had staggered everyone else.
For a single second, the Sun Warrior's expression changed into confusion before his upper body disintegrated into dust.
It happened a moment after the impact, as though death had been delayed by one heartbeat just so the world could see it. His torso, his arms, his head, everything was gone. The new number one hero in the United States died right there.
Silence and shock spread among those who were watching, they couldn't believe what they just saw.
Shigaraki lowered his hand.
"We didn't come here for insects." he said.
His black-and-red eyes swept across the stunned heroes, past the foreign guests, past the fallen body of the Sun Warrior, until they landed on Midoriya.
A twisted smile spread slowly across his face.
"We are here to make a statement," he said, "and to take something my late teacher always wanted."