"How… how could this happen?"

  Kaminari, Kyoka, and Midnight stared in shock at the grotesque remains of the man who had once beeone Man," now reduced to scattered, bed ks of molten ro the t highway.

  "He was alive not even half an ho… and now this?"

  The sight was hard to process. What was left of the man barely resembled anything human anymore, just steaming fragments of stone and ash littering the ground.

  "But why? Why would someoack him?" Kaminari muttered, struggling to make sense of it all. "He was just a homeless man! Even if someoed him enough to kill him, why would they go this far?"

  Kyoka stood quietly beside him, her expression heavy with sadness. "It's so cruel," she murmured. "For both him and his daughter… it's like fate never gave them a ce."

  "Any leads?"

  Midnight, her facharacteristically grim, turo question a police officer standing nearby.

  "None so far," the officer replied in frustration, shaking his head. "We checked the dashcam from the trailing car, but all we could see was some kind of invisible shockwave. It wiped out the police car in an instant. Then, the vehicle exploded."

  "Show me the footage," Midnight demanded immediately.

  "Uood."

  The officer gave a quiod and sigo a subordinate, whht over a ptop. Midnight leaned in to review the video.

  "…That kind of power…"

  Her pupils narrowed as she watched the se unfold. Even without seeing the perpetrator, the sheer destructive force of the shockwave was undeniable. As a veteran Pro Hero, she could estimate just how devastating that level of attack was.

  "A vilin capable of this… and they're in Saitama City?"

  Her heart sank. This wasn't a case of petty crime or random violehis was the work of someone or something far more dangerous.

  "We o escate this," she said sharply, turning back to the officer. "Send this footage to the Hero Public Safety ission immediately. This is above our pay grade."

  Then, she turo Kaminari and Kyoka, who had been silently watg from behind. Midnight's expression softened slightly, though her tone remained firm.

  "Your part in this is over," she said. "Go home. And don't fet you're expected to be at school tomorrow, business as usual."

  Kaminari and Kyoka exged gnces. Midnight wasn't just being stern; she was worried about them. And given the scale of what they'd just seen, her was uandable.

  "All right," Kaminari said, nodding.

  "Got it," Kyoka added.

  Though Kaminari felt an ache ret over the Stone Man's tragic death and Tomomi's disappearance, he khere was nothing more he could dht now. He wasn't about to recklessly chase after vilins, especially ones capable of wiping out police cars with a siack.

  Even so, the frustration lingered. He'd done everything he could, but the helplessness of the situation g him.

  ---

  Twenty mier, Kaminari and Kyoka stood at the entrao the subway station closest to the highway.

  This time, perhaps because of the events weighing on his mind, Kaminari didn't hesitate to follow Kyoka into the statioayed until her Shinkansen arrived, watg as she boarded and waved goodbye through the window.

  Once her train disappeared into the distance, Kaminari turned a, walking back toward his apartment.

  ---

  As he made his way home, the day's events repyed in Kaminari's mind, a tangled mess of unanswered questions.

  "The whole thing… it's toe," he thought. "None of it makes sense. Could it be that the Stone Man and Tomomi weren't just some random homeless man and orphan?"

  His brow furrowed.

  "And the timing… The atta the police car and Tomomi's abdu happened almost simultaneously. That means this wasn't the work of just one vilin, but a whole group. A team strong enough to pull off both crimes without leaving any obvious traces."

  He sidered the level of skill involved.

  "Whoever attacked the police car must've had overwhelming power. And the one who kidomomi… They mao slip past hospital cameras and patrol Heroes without a trace. Could they have some kind of teleportation Quirk?"

  His thoughts drifted back to the USJ i. Two vilins with teleportation abilities had appeared back then. Could this be ected?

  "The League of Vilins…" Kaminari murmured, stopping in his tracks.

  ---

  He had arrived outside his apartment building. Looking up, he saw the soft glow of the lights in his window.

  "It's not just a ce," he thought grimly. "If I keep moving forward, I'll iably cross paths with these people again."

  g his fists, Kaminari made a silent vow.

  "I o get stronger. Stronger in every possible way. Only then I protect myself and the people I care about."

  ---

  The Specutions of both Nezu and All For One are correct.

  As someone from another world, Kaminari had no innate respect for the rules and norms of this one. Hero society, its systems, and its ideals none of it truly resonated with him.

  But what kept him grounded was the life he had built here. His parents, his home these were the things he cherished.

  It was because he valued his family that he hoped for a stable, peaceful society. And it was because he had that hope that he dreamed of being someone great.

  Nezu and All For One had specuted about whether Kaminari would eventually stray from the Hero's path. But they were missing the point.

  The path he walked didn't matter. What mattered was the bridge itself, the support that kept him moving forward.

  If that support were ever taken from him, if the "bridge" beh him were to colpse… he wouldn't simply fall. He would pluo the abyss without hesitation.

  Because without that bridge, he would have nothio hold onto.

  "Wonderful," he'd once said, describing the kind of life he wao live. But there were many ways to define "wonderful."

  As long as his family was safe, he would seek the kind of "wonderful" life that came with pead stability. But if that was ever taken away… A life of chaos, vengeance, aruight feel just as "wonderful" to him.

  Right now, his family was his single-pnk bridge. And for their sake, he would tinue walking forward.

  Kaminari took a deep breath, f himself to shake off the gloom clouding his thoughts.

  "No point in dragging all this ivity inside," he muttered.

  By the time he reached the elevator, a familiar smile had returo his face a little forced, perhaps, but still undeniably Kaminari.

  He rode the elevator up to the sixteenth floor, stopping in front of door 1604. Pg his finger on the eleic lock, he heard the cheerful sound effect he'd chosen for it.

  "Pika-pika-Chuuu!"

  That weling Pikachu cry had been his test addition.

  "I'm back," he called as he opehe door, stepping into the warm light of his home.