"Catch them properly. The next batch is coming."
"Oh, and All Might…"
"You'd better not think about leaving after this."
"If you do, I'll keep throwing more people in."
"And if they die, that won't be my fault."
"Blame yourself."
"After all, you're the one refusing to obey."
The voice fell silent.
A moment later, several more figures appeared high in the distant sky.
Screams tore through the air.
The hostages flailed helplessly as they fell, their cries filled with panic and despair.
Those bastards!
All Might clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles cracked.
The rage inside him burned so hot it felt as if it might consume him from within.
But he knew what mattered right now.
Saving civilians came first.
Not anger.
Not revenge.
Not even escaping this prison.
With that thought, All Might stopped hesitating and rushed toward the falling hostages.
Deep in his heart, however, that fury continued to build.
Waiting.
Waiting for the moment he could finally gather all of it into one overwhelming punch and drive it straight into his enemy's face.
…
While All Might was busy handling the "gifts" sent to him, Shigaraki was not idle either.
He was thinking about how to eliminate the remaining Pro Heroes.
True, they already held an overwhelming advantage.
Especially now that All Might was trapped by an endless stream of hostages.
But nothing was absolute.
The heroes still had a chance to turn the situation around.
And that chance lay with three people.
The No. 4 Hero, Best Jeanist.
The No. 5 Hero, Edgeshot.
And the No. 7 Hero, Kamui Woods.
As long as even one of those top heroes escaped confinement, they could create problems and disrupt the plan.
So those three had to be dealt with first.
Shigaraki casually accepted a cup of tea from Kurogiri and took a sip before continuing his analysis.
Among the three, Best Jeanist was already receiving treatment similar to All Might.
He had been locked inside an alternate dimension.
Shigaraki had even specifically ordered Kūgai to devote part of his power to reinforcing that space.
Of course, unlike All Might's prison, it had not been reinforced with eighty or ninety percent of Kūgai's output.
But Best Jeanist was not a pure power-type hero like All Might.
He was a technique-oriented hero.
Against a prison that required overwhelming destructive force to break through the spatial walls, he had almost no chance of escaping.
So for now, Shigaraki could leave him there.
Once things settled down here, he could send Muscular over to deal with him directly.
After all, Muscular's raw combat strength completely overwhelmed Best Jeanist's.
As for the No. 7 Hero, Kamui Woods…
Ignoring his Top 10 ranking, his actual combat ability was not especially threatening.
This was not Shigaraki underestimating him.
Kamui Woods had climbed into the Top 10 largely because of excellent marketing, public image, and the fact that he represented the new generation of heroes.
His Quirk itself was useful, but not terrifying.
So Shigaraki did not value him too highly.
There were plenty of people on their side capable of dealing with him.
Even Sludge could probably kill him directly.
Of course, sending Sludge out while he was using Tsuki Sengen's body would be wasteful.
Tsuki Sengen's Quirk, if used properly, was practically a strategic weapon.
Using it on Kamui Woods would be overkill.
So Shigaraki decided to leave Kamui Woods to the subordinates he had recently recruited.
Even if they failed to defeat him, stalling him would be enough.
He could treat it as field training.
That settled Best Jeanist and Kamui Woods.
Which left only one real problem.
The No. 5 Hero, Edgeshot.
A speed-type hero with terrifying mobility.
Rumor had it that when going all out, he was one of the few heroes capable of keeping up with All Might's speed.
On top of that, his Quirk could counter Kurogiri's Warp Gate.
Back during the Kamino incident, Edgeshot had once instantly restrained Kurogiri and prevented him from activating his portals.
Fortunately, Shigaraki's side had moved first.
Kūgai had already used his Quirk to create a labyrinth-like alternate dimension and sealed Edgeshot inside it, robbing him of both his speed advantage and his ability to interfere with Kurogiri.
Under normal circumstances, someone trapped inside a maze and stripped of their speed advantage should have been the easiest target to handle.
Unfortunately, Best Jeanist had sensed something wrong before the operation even began.
He had specifically warned Edgeshot to move ahead independently and operate covertly.
As a result, Edgeshot had activated his Quirk from the very start of the mission and concealed himself completely.
That meant Shigaraki's group still had no idea where he actually was.
Not even Kūgai, the creator of the dimension itself, could locate him.
And that was giving Shigaraki a headache.
They could not leave a hidden threat like that alone forever.
So how exactly were they supposed to lure him out?
As he pondered the problem, Shigaraki turned his gaze toward the screens in the room, searching for inspiration.
And at that moment, he noticed a new development inside the alternate dimension imprisoning the No. 4 Hero, Best Jeanist.
…
An hour earlier.
After the explosion inside the room subsided, Best Jeanist discovered that the room he had originally been standing in had completely disappeared.
In its place was a vast mountain forest.
He looked at the unfamiliar wilderness before him, then at the endless mountain range stretching toward the horizon, and quietly sighed.
The strange environment told him one thing immediately.
He had fallen into the enemy's trap.
Not long after, he realized something even more troubling.
Even earlier than All Might, Best Jeanist concluded that this place was an alternate dimension created specifically to imprison him.
The reason was simple.
Other than himself, there was not a single person nearby.
More accurately, his Quirk could not sense the existence of any fiber products whatsoever.
That was impossible.
Modern society relied on fibers for clothing and countless other products.
Yet here, there was absolutely nothing.
No clothes.
No ropes.
No curtains.
No synthetic threads.
No traces of human life.
Only trees, mountains, soil, and wind.
And that was what convinced him.
This place…
was not reality.
It was an alternate dimension.
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