My Hero Academia: The Break of Dawn

Prologue

Tokyo was in ruins.

Smoke blotted the sun, not a single ray of sunlight reaching the surface. Buildings were toppled, torn from their very foundations and reduced to rubble. Flames consumed entire swaths of land, the inferno leaving behind nothing but brimstone. What was once the greatest megacity in the world had become a wasteland, so lifeless there was no order left behind, yet so quiet not even chaos could take hold.

The city had barely survived the End of Primis, the all-out-clash of Good and Evil taking place in the heart of Japan. But before efforts to rebuild could truly begin in earnest, disaster struck once more, and this time there were no delusions that Tokyo would live to see another day.

Embers fell like snow, the harsh wind dashing the sparks across the ruins. The architect of the carnage stood tall over his handiwork, his tattered cloak fluttering, drenched in the blood of heroes and villains alike. The agents of order and chaos, all that stood in his way, were slaughtered indiscriminately. . .

"I wonder. . . Just how many heroes put on their costumes somehow believing it makes them invincible?" The shadow asked with his collected, charming visage, genuinely curious as he pinned the poor boy beneath his heel. "How many lies were you told to believe you could make any difference here?"

". . . Too many to count, but that isn't why we're here." The hero-to-be let out a pained gasp as the pressure on his chest grew. Yet, even at the enemy's mercy, he met his silver gaze. "If we save one life, just one person. . . then we made a difference." Loud Cloud declared with an unyielding smile.

". . . I suppose so." The umbra began to scale his body, the void grasping at the boy's very being. "It's a shame you've led your friends to their deaths."

You would've been great heroes.

—

With strength she didn't know she had, Nemuri Kayama emerged from the wreckage. The debris fell back to the ground as she stood, her short, indigo hair flowing with the blazing breeze. Her leather jacket was reduced to ash, and the black body-suit she'd worn specifically for this "mission" was shredded, revealing patches and slits of red all over her body. . .

". . . So much for protection." She mumbled, stumbling over the broken mask that doubled as her glasses.

The young heroine picked her steps carefully, her bare feet against the shattered bricks and stones. She winced after one particularly sharp rock scraped her sole, but she bared with the pain and kept on moving forward—

"Oh. I missed one." Nemuri froze, lifting her head. A dark silhouette situated itself against the burning sky, two silver stars twinkling ominously. . .

". . . Where are my friends?!" The girl demanded, eyes teeming with fury but the shade just let out a chuckle.

"Is that not obvious?" He remarked. Before she could retort angrily, her already blurred vision went further out of focus.

Colors began blending together, needles pricking her skin as a high-pitched shriek ruptured her ear-drums. The rancid stench of blood assaulted her nostrils as iron rubbed against her tongue.

Just as quickly as she was taken to the other realm, Nemuri was back in the remnants of Tokyo. The jarring shift sent a pulse of pain through her head, but as she recovered from her stupor, the madman felt the emptiness suddenly coursing through him.