The supermarket was crowded, but the shelves looked desolate. There were barely any fresh products left, and the few cans of preserved food still on the shelves were being snatched up by eager hands. The lights flickered slightly, as if reflecting the tension in the air. People rushed from one side to another, filling their carts with whatever they could find. Amid the chaos, a young man stood out, seemingly unaffected by the frenzy around him.
He was about sixteen years old, with black hair and green eyes that observed everything with a calmness that didn't match the chaos of the place. He wore simple, somewhat worn-out clothes: a dark fabric jacket, jeans, and sneakers that had seen better days.
This young man was Yuto Nishimura. He slowly made his way to the appliance aisle, where a row of televisions caught his attention. The screens displayed images of destruction and chaos, accompanied by a reporter's serious voice.
"After the devastating defeat of the heroes in Japan, the villains, led by an individual known as Tomura Shigaraki, have begun to expand their influence globally. We strongly urge all citizens to shelter in place and remain calm. Remember, safety is the top priority at this time..."
The reporter continued speaking, but Yuto barely heard him. The images on the screen showed collapsed buildings, fallen heroes, and a world on the brink of collapse. Around him, some shoppers paused briefly to watch the news, while others hurried along, heads down and pressed for time.
He clenched his fists as his mind drifted back to the events from eight years ago, when he woke up in this world, in the body of an orphaned child. Without powers. In a place where almost everyone was born with special abilities, he was an anomaly. Doctors had diagnosed him as "quirkless," something rare, but not impossible.
The sound of the reporter's voice pulled his mind back to the moment when he decided to flee Japan and move to the United States a year ago. He knew what was coming. He had read the manga, watched the anime. He understood that Japan would become a lawless zone for a time. Though he trusted that Izuku Midoriya and the other heroes would eventually fix everything, he didn't want to be caught in the middle of the chaos. Escaping was the only logical option. But that had been before everything collapsed. Before Midoriya died and the entire world fell into the hands of the villains.
"What went wrong?" he thought, watching the images on the screen. "Did I interfere with something? Or is this an alternate universe where things were never going to go right?"
A growing murmur pulled him out of his thoughts. People were starting to move faster, aware that they couldn't stay for much longer. Yuto turned his gaze away from the televisions and headed toward the almost empty shelves.
He grabbed what little was left: a couple of cans of soup, a box of cereal, and a bottle of water. As he packed his backpack, his thoughts kept racing. He had been gathering supplies over the past few weeks, but it wasn't enough. His job as a mechanic's assistant barely covered the basics, and with each passing day, things were getting worse.
He paid quickly and left the supermarket. Outside, the street was eerily quiet. The few pedestrians hurried along, avoiding eye contact. A tremor beneath his feet made him stop. He looked up just in time to see a formation of fighter jets zooming by, leaving a roar in the air.
"That's not a good sign," he muttered, adjusting his backpack.
He quickened his pace, his mind focused on getting to his apartment. He needed time to think, to decide what to do. But something told him that time was running out fast.
Once inside his small, worn apartment, Yuto closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a long sigh. He pulled out his phone and started looking for routes out of the city, though he knew it would be pointless. He didn't have the resources to escape, and fewer safe places remained.
The ground shook again, this time harder. A loud crash echoed in the distance, followed by an explosion that shook the windows. He moved toward the window and looked toward the horizon. A cloud of black smoke rose into the air, marking the impact site.
"They're here," he thought, his stomach tightening. Outside, sirens began to wail as heroes rushed toward the disaster zone.
Another explosion in the distance made Yuto cover his ears. The shockwave was so close that the walls of his apartment trembled and the window glass vibrated to the limit. Swearing under his breath, he tried to steady himself. The explosion had been much stronger than the last, and now everything seemed on the verge of collapsing.
He approached the window again, his eyes fixed on the horizon. When his vision refocused on what was happening on the street, his jaw almost dropped. Monstrous creatures were walking among the ruins. They were massive, with empty faces and exposed brains.
"Are those... Nomus?" he muttered, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Yuto swallowed hard, his fingers gripping the edge of the window. The figures of the Nomus were unmistakable. His mind began to work at full speed. He had no training, no Quirk, nothing he could use against those things. But staying there wasn't an option.
Suddenly, a closer explosion caused the entire building to shake. The shockwave shattered his window, sending shards of glass flying inside. Yuto instinctively stepped back, covering his face with his arms.
"Shit!" he shouted as he fell backward onto the floor. The sound of sirens and the screams of panic grew louder.
He struggled to his feet, his heart pounding like a mad drum. He looked around, searching for his backpack. He found it next to the door, where he had left it when he came in. He grabbed it and slung it over his shoulder, feeling the weight of the few supplies he had managed to gather.
Yuto rushed out of his apartment, his heart racing and cold sweat running down his back. He slammed the door shut behind him, and the echo of another explosion rumbled in the distance, pushing him to move faster. He reached the hallway window, the only one that led to the fire escape. When he opened it, a gust of hot air and the smell of smoke hit him.
He peered carefully outside. Below, the streets were in chaos: overturned cars, flames consuming nearby buildings, and people running in every direction in desperation. A Nomu suddenly appeared through the smoke, crushing a vehicle with a brutal swing of its arm. Yuto turned away, feeling a lump form in his throat.
Without thinking twice, he slipped through the window and began to climb down the fire escape, moving slowly to avoid making noise. When he reached the third floor, an explosion rocked the building, forcing him to grip the railing tightly to keep from falling. A concrete block broke loose above him, passing dangerously close before crashing to the ground with a force that left him paralyzed for a moment.
With his heart hammering in his chest, he finally reached the ground. The alley where the fire escape ended was empty, but the roars of the creatures and the screams of the people were too close. He quickly scanned both sides to make sure there was no immediate danger, then ran, not daring to look back.
"This is a damn hell..." Yuto muttered, his voice cracked with fear. He swallowed hard and clenched his fists. "But I'm not dying here. If I have to live like a hermit, I will. Whatever it takes to stay alive."
His plan was simple: get out of the city as fast as possible. He had no intention of seeking refuge. He knew that even if the government set up safe camps, those places wouldn't last long.
Yuto kept moving, his stomach in knots, ignoring the cries and screams around him. Every time he heard a plea for help, his heart tightened, but he couldn't stop. He knew that if he did, he'd become another victim. Still, the images of people trapped under debris, of lifeless bodies, and children calling for their parents haunted him. He couldn't shake those memories. Every time his eyes met a corpse, his stomach churned, and waves of nausea hit him. It was an alien feeling, strange for someone who had lived an ordinary life, but now there was no room for compassion. Fear had taken over, and the need to survive outweighed every other instinct.
The bridge was close. In the distance, the flickering lights of abandoned cars and the wreckage of destroyed buildings blended with the smoke that covered the horizon. Just a few more minutes, and he'd be there. That was his escape, his only hope of getting out of the city turned hell.
But his luck was about to run out.
A deafening roar split the air, a deep and nearby sound that made him stop dead in his tracks. Fear paralyzed him for a moment, and then, before he could react, something lifted him off the ground with inhuman strength.
A pair of massive claws grabbed him by the shoulders, lifting him as if he were a mere ragdoll. In an instant, Yuto was floating in the air, his feet no longer touching the ground. He looked up, his eyes wide with terror.
Before him, a monstrous creature stared back at him with bulging eyes, its giant wings beating the air with force, sending gusts that whipped his hair around. The winged Nomu held him with crushing strength, its claws digging into his shoulders, no matter what he did to try and break free.
"No... please, no!" Yuto screamed, his voice cracked and filled with pure panic. But his pleas went unheard. The Nomu held him firmly, indifferent to his words, with a pressure that seemed to crush him. The creature's empty eyes locked onto him without a trace of emotion, while its wings beat violently, causing the wind to leave him gasping for air.
Suddenly, Yuto heard a scream that wasn't his. To his left, he saw another person fall from great heights. The sound of their body hitting the pavement was so dry and chilling that Yuto felt a knot tighten in his stomach. His gaze turned to the ground, and he saw a dark bloodstain spreading across the road, a horrifying testament to what had just occurred.
More screams began to fill the air, screams of terror, of desperation. Yuto couldn't understand what was happening around him. In the distance, he saw other winged Nomus lifting more people into the air, only to drop them later, as if they were nothing more than toys. That's when he understood. He was next.
The Nomu holding him lifted him even higher, until the ground seemed so far below that Yuto couldn't grasp the height he was at. His legs began to give out, fear enveloping him with every passing second. He couldn't fight, he couldn't escape. He was already too high, too close to death. He couldn't fight, he couldn't escape. All that was left was to wait for the inevitable.
Knowing he was going to die, Yuto could only think of his regrets. His past life, the choices he made, the opportunities he let slip by. He missed his parents, his once ordinary and peaceful life. In that moment, up in the air, all he wished for was to see them again, even if it were just for a second, even if it were only to apologize, to tell them what he had never had the courage to say.
The thoughts consumed him, hitting his mind with force. Every decision he had avoided, every opportunity he had let slip by, everything seemed so clear now, as he was at the mercy of the monster holding him.
He felt the claws that had gripped him so tightly begin to loosen. The pressure on his shoulders suddenly disappeared, and for a moment, it almost felt like he was floating. But then gravity took over.
The ground grew larger with every passing second. His arms moved instinctively, as if he could grab onto something, but there was nothing there, just the void. His life flashed before his eyes: fleeting moments, decisions made, broken dreams.
"Shit... did I really do nothing?" he muttered, almost laughing at the irony of it all.
The ground was getting closer. In his final moments, Yuto closed his eyes, wishing with all his being that things were different. That he could change something, anything. He desperately longed to reverse the irreversible. With all his being, he let out a final scream, one of pure desperation, that seemed to echo in the void.
But something strange began to happen. In his fall, Yuto hadn't noticed that the world around him was changing. The wings of the Nomus, which had previously been flapping frantically, now moved slowly, as if time itself was stretching. An explosion that had started below, near the bridge, spread in slow motion, each piece of debris frozen in the air.
However, the strangest thing of all was what he felt next. Yuto felt a tingling sensation spread throughout his body. He opened his eyes just in time to see his form beginning to flicker, as if he were fading in and out, distorting and then returning to its normal shape.
"What the hell...?" he tried to shout, but couldn't finish. An instant later, his body disappeared into the air.