The headquarters of the Hero Association rose in the heart of City A like a massive black structure, so imposing that it looked more like a tombstone than a building.
It had no visible windows or seams, and its metallic surface reflected the sunlight with a dull sheen. Only the red blinking lights on its four corners broke the monotony of the metal, tinting the surroundings with an unsettling glow.
On the top floor, the meeting room stretched under a cold white light. At the center, a long alloy table reflected the silhouettes of the most powerful heroes in the association.
Atomic Samurai chewed on a blade of grass, his katana resting beside his chair. Puri-Puri Prisoner leaned his chin on his hand, casting persistent glances at Genos, who remained completely serious with his arms crossed.
Metal Bat had his feet up on the table, his bat resting on his shoulder, while Child Emperor typed rapidly on his small laptop. King frowned, the rhythmic echo of a pounding heartbeat filling the silence.
Superalloy Darkshine stayed motionless, his skin gleaming under the light. Drive Knight observed everyone, his single red eye flashing intermittently. Pig God devoured food nonstop, plastic wrappers piling up on his knees, and Watchdog Man sat like an actual dog.
Zombie Man disassembled his gun with meticulous precision, while Flashy Flash spun a dagger between his fingers. Bang, also known as Silver Fang, meditated with his eyes closed, detached from the murmurs around him, and Tatsumaki, floating with her arms crossed, didn't bother to hide her irritation.
Among them all, one figure stood out completely.
A bald man dressed in a simple yellow suit, white cape, and red gloves.
Saitama.
He rested his chin on one hand, his eyes void of emotion. He yawned, completely unconcerned with the tense atmosphere surrounding him.
!
Suddenly, the door swung open. Sitch rushed in, sweat running down his forehead and his hair disheveled.
His breathing was ragged as he reached the head of the table. He slammed both hands onto the cold surface with a sharp sound that made the water glasses tremble.
"..."
For a few seconds, only his uneven breathing could be heard. Then, he finally looked up, his expression stern and his brows furrowed.
"This meeting with the most powerful heroes of the Association is not about an ordinary matter."
"I can only hope that this time, you'll be able to protect the world."
"This time," he continued, "even the S-Class heroes might lose their lives."
He paused briefly, scanning each of their faces.
"That's why, before explaining the details, if any of you wish to withdraw now, the Association will not stop you. Running away can also be considered a form of courage."
His tone was grave. However, when he noticed that none of the heroes seemed to take him seriously, his frown deepened.
"What I'm about to say… once you hear it, there will be no turning back. To prevent chaos, anyone who decides to leave before the operation ends will be temporarily confined here."
Despite the seriousness of his words, the heroes still looked uninterested—until he suddenly raised his voice.
"HEROES!" Finally, every gaze turned toward him.
"Are you ready to hear what's coming?" His eyes swept across the table expectantly, searching for even a hint of seriousness on their faces.
A brief silence filled the room before a rough voice broke through it.
"If you called us here just to say that…" Metal Bat growled, his sharp glare cutting through the tension. "You know I had to leave my sister's piano concert to come here, right? If you don't have anything important to say, I'm gonna knock this whole building down, you hear me?"
"..."
Sitch stared at him for a few seconds without responding. When he finally spoke again, his voice had lost all rigidity—it was strangely calm.
"Great Prophet Shibabawa-sama… is dead."
!
The words seemed to freeze the entire room.
Only Saitama remained unchanged, his expression as blank as ever. Everyone else's eyes widened in shock.
"Shibabawa? Was she murdered?" asked Zombie Man, his voice so flat it sounded like he was reading from a script without emotion.
Sitch shook his head. "No. While she was observing the future of the next six months, she suffered a severe coughing fit. She tried to take her medicine, but she choked and… died."
"Eh!?"
"What!?"
"Ah!?"
The disbelief was unanimous. That one of the most important figures in the Association could die in such a ridiculous way felt like a bad joke.
Amid the murmurs, a monotone voice broke through the disbelief.
"Excuse me… who is this Shibabawa? A hero?"
Everyone turned their heads toward the other end of the table, where Saitama raised one hand, looking genuinely curious.
"You don't know who Shibabawa is?" Puri-Puri Prisoner lifted an eyebrow. "She's been on television several times! She was a prophet—and one of the best. She could predict earthquakes, monster attacks… everything, with perfect accuracy."
Sitch nodded solemnly, taking back the floor. "If she were just any fortune teller, we wouldn't be meeting here today. But Shibabawa-sama was different. The reason she was always under maximum protection is simple: her prophecies were one hundred percent accurate."
As he spoke, he reached into his jacket and carefully took out a small folded piece of paper. He placed it on the table and unfolded it with solemnity.
"The crucial point is the message Lady Shibabawa wrote with her last breath…"
He pressed a button on the control panel, and a holographic projection rose above the table. The paper expanded in the air, clearly displaying the inked handwriting:
"THE EARTH IS IN DANGER!!!!"
The enlarged text shone vividly above the table, illuminating the faces of everyone present. Instantly, expressions of confusion, disdain, and even mockery appeared on the heroes' faces.
"Is this some kind of joke?"
That was the first comment to be heard. Child Emperor looked up from his laptop with a frown of disbelief. "This is stupid. I've got school, so can I leave now?"
Metal Bat let out a loud laugh, gripping his bat. "Man, seriously? When has the world ever not been in danger?"
Zombie Man, without taking his eyes off the gun he was meticulously cleaning, muttered in complete monotony, "Seems like today's another dangerous day."
Laughter and side comments began to overlap, filling the room. The atmosphere, tense just minutes ago, now felt almost like a casual chat at a café.
No one seemed to take the warning seriously.
"..."
Only in one corner, Saitama remained silent.
He watched everything with his head slightly tilted, trying to figure out what exactly they were supposed to be worried about.
Sitch's gaze slowly moved across each of them. The disinterested faces, the jokes, the disdain.
!
A vein throbbed on his forehead.
He took a deep breath, then roared in a voice so powerful it made the metal table vibrate.
"CHILD EMPEROR!"
Startled, the boy jumped in his seat.
BANG
Sitch slammed both hands on the table, making the holographic projection above it flicker.
"Shibabawa's predictions are one hundred percent accurate!" he shouted, his tone bordering on desperation. "So far, she's predicted countless disasters—floods, monster invasions, devastating earthquakes… tragedies that would have claimed uncountable lives!"
And suddenly, silence fell like a heavy blow.
Not even Pig God kept chewing.
Sitch's face was covered in sweat, but his eyes burned with an almost feverish intensity. He lifted a trembling finger and pointed it at the holographic projection.
"However!" His voice rose, cracking with emotion. "Until now, Shibabawa-sama had never used the word 'DANGER!'"
"THIS MEANS SOMETHING FAR WORSE THAN ANY EARTHQUAKE, WORSE THAN ANY DRAGON- OR DEMON-LEVEL MONSTER IS APPROACHING!"
"AND IT WILL HAPPEN WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR!"
His roar echoed so powerfully that even the air seemed to tremble.
For an instant, no one spoke, and every trace of carelessness vanished from their faces.
Sitch took several deep breaths, trying to suppress the agitation boiling inside him.
Gradually, he regained his professional composure. With quick fingers, he typed on the surface of the table, and in response, several holographic images rose in a line beneath the red letters projected across the room.
They showed multiple young and adult faces.
The faces floating above the table were clear: Satoru Gojo, Yūta Okkotsu, Maki Zen'in, Atsuya Kusakabe, Yūji Itadori, and Megumi Fushiguro.
"Due to the magnitude of this crisis," Sitch said, weighing every word carefully, "one unprecedented in our history… we don't yet know exactly what it is, nor when or how it will occur."
As he said that, his gaze swept across the projected faces, trying to make his message sink in. "To increase our chances of survival, the Association has reached a unanimous decision: to request external assistance."
!
An incredulous murmur began to spread through the room, but Sitch continued with a sentence that struck an even deeper blow to the pride of the S-Class Heroes. "We have invited the cooperation of the jujutsu world from the neighboring country across the sea—Japan."
"Japanese?!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
The air grew hotter, and the tension that had been hanging by a thread finally burst.
Outrage, doubt, and anger erupted all at once.
"Jujutsu?" Tatsumaki was the first to ignite the room with her psychic energy, lifting the glasses off the table. "Where did those nobodies come from? Does the Association think S-Class Heroes are useless? You had to bring in a bunch of nobodies? I can handle all the problems myself!"
Her words struck the holographic projection like a whip.
Metal Bat slammed his bat down on the table with a loud clang and stood up. "Are you calling us useless? I skipped my sister's recital to come here! And now you're bringing in some random foreigners to clean up the mess?!"
The room filled with shouting voices.
"Uh…"
Amid the uproar, a distracted voice broke through the noise with an innocent tone.
Saitama scratched his head lazily and muttered toward the cyborg next to him. "Genos… what's this jujutsu thing? Is it like another division of the Hero Association or something?"
Genos immediately turned, the light in his eyes flickering with seriousness. "Sensei! The jujutsu world is not affiliated with the Association. According to official records, they operate within Japan's main territory, across the sea."
"Their purpose is to eliminate entities known as 'cursed spirits,' beings born from negative human emotions. Their members are known as sorcerers, and they use a system based on manipulating cursed energy. Their combat style is completely different from ours, which relies on physical strength and special abilities."
"Ah, I see…" Saitama nodded slowly, though his expression remained blank. "Sounds… normal, I guess."
And then, suddenly—
BOOOOM
An explosion shook the entire building.
"What's happening?!"
"An earthquake?!"
"No, it's an attack!" roared Darkshine, standing up with lightning reflexes.
…
Outside the building.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Four beams of energy descended like lightning, striking the Hero Association's tower and shaking its foundations with a violence that made the entire city tremble.
High above, floating among the clouds, loomed four colossal demonic creatures. They were gigantic, with eagle-like wings, blazing eyes, and deformed bodies.
Among them, the one flying in front was the most imposing of all—a winged creature of even more monstrous proportions.
"FOLLOW ME, THE KING OF THE SKY! CRUSH THIS INSIGNIFICANT NEST AND CLAIM THE SURFACE!"
The roar echoed like a divine decree across the entirety of City A. Windows shattered, alarms screamed in a chorus of panic. But before his followers could respond, the sound changed.
Pch Pch Pch
Three wet, grotesque detonations reverberated through the air.
Suddenly, the sky turned red. A thick rain of blood and entrails poured over the Sky King himself, drenching his feathers and bone armor.
"Gah!?" he grunted, raising his arms to shield himself. But when he turned, he saw the remains of three heads slowly falling before him, still smoking, their eyes frozen in a final spasm of horror.
They were his sons.
One of the severed heads still clung to life. Its jaw moved weakly, releasing an agonized murmur. "Fa… ther… above…"
!
The Sky King froze, unable to even breathe for a moment.
Then he looked up.
And he saw the shadow.
A shadow so vast it covered the entire sky, stretching farther than the eye could see.
But it wasn't a cloud, nor a storm. It was a massive, metallic structure descending slowly, as if space itself were folding over the Earth.
The sun vanished.
Day turned to night.
An oppressive darkness fell upon City A.
"The… sky…" the Sky King muttered tremulously, his arrogance dissolving into pure terror.
Above him, suspended in the void, a colossal ship descended. Its size was so immense that the skyscrapers below looked like toys beneath its shadow.
Suddenly, thousands of white lights flared to life across its underside, aligning in perfect rows.
They were cannons—hundreds of them…
"N-No… NO, NO, NO, NO—!"
The Sky King's scream was drowned out by the roar that followed.
The world turned white.
BOOOOOOMMMMM
Thousands of beams rained down simultaneously, striking the surface with inconceivable force. The shockwave swept through everything in its path—buildings melted like wax, cars disintegrated, and entire streets fractured like glass.
The ground split apart, roaring with a sound that didn't seem of this world. Layers of the earth rose and disintegrated in an instant.
A storm of fire engulfed what once was City A.
When the blinding light finally faded, only emptiness remained.
The air was silent.
And where one of the greatest cities in the world had once stood… there was nothing but a crater.
City A had vanished.
________
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