The vision shifted once again.
Junsei found himself standing in an endless field of blue flowers stretching beyond the horizon. Their petals glowed softly, swaying in a silent wind that did not exist. Above him, the sky was pitch black, a cosmic void filled with countless distant stars.
At the center of that vast sky hung Earth.
The planet floated like a jewel in the darkness, illuminated by the faint glow of the flowers below. From where Junsei stood, the continents and clouds were clearly visible, turning slowly in the void.
For a moment the sight was peaceful.
Then a crack appeared across the surface of Earth. It spread like a fracture across glass.
At the same moment, several flowers near Junsei's feet were crushed. Their blue petals turned red as a grotesque scene unfolded before him: the strange creature that had once walked beneath the tree, the being with four arms and two faces.
It devoured the glowing fruit again and again.
Another crack split across the planet.
More flowers withered and reddened.
Now Junsei saw the first humans, those two who had once been the strange creature, sitting beside the body of one of his ancient selves. They tore into the flesh and ate without restraint, their offspring joining them in the feast.
The Earth fractured again and again.
Soon countless cracks spread across the surface of Earth like a web of wounds. With each new fracture, the field of flowers around Junsei grew more corrupted. Humans appeared everywhere among them, men and women from different ages, different cultures, different eras.
All of them are trapped in the same endless cycle.
They devoured his past selves repeatedly, over and over again, staining the blue field with red.
Junsei's breathing grew ragged as he watched.
The vision continued without mercy.
Then the screams began.
At first they were faint, like distant echoes. But with every passing moment the sound grew louder. Different voices, different tones, different forms of agony, but all of them carried the same meaning.
Pain.
A pain that spoke directly into Junsei's soul.
'It was painful to be torn away from the rest of life.'
Junsei clutched his head and pressed his hands over his ears as if trying to block out the cries. But the sound did not come from outside.
It came from within him.
These were the voices of the countless fragments of himself that had been torn away and consumed by humans. The parts of him that now lived inside their quirks.
The field of flowers trembled.
Junsei slowly lowered his hands as his understanding grew.
Every creature on Earth, every blue stone in that cave, every fragment of stolen life, and himself, were not connected to a whole. They were one entity, they are Life itself. They could feel one another's existence. They could feel the balance of the world.
And they could feel the pain of Life.
Humans had broken their cycle.
Junsei finally understood.
He was not merely another creature within the world.
He was the origin.
The first life.
The soul that had guided evolution forward since the beginning. Every living thing carried a fragment of that same force, making him both the parent of all life and the child born from it.
The heart of the cycle.
The soul of the world.
Memories flooded through his mind, countless lives, countless creatures, countless eras. Each memory carried the same recurring wound.
Humans and their greed, their hunger and their endless desire to take more than they needed.
Junsei whispered quietly.
"I am sorry."
His voice trembled.
"I allowed them to come this far."
Images of forests burned, oceans polluted, animals hunted, and life torn apart to fuel the quirks inside them flashed through his mind.
"I let them hurt all of you."
The flowers around him glowed faintly.
"But no more."
His voice hardened.
"No human shall take from me again."
Junsei slowly raised his head, staring toward the cracked planet hanging above the sky.
"Their evolution ends here."
The words were a promise.
"I will restore what you lost."
His gaze returned to the humans still trapped within the endless cycle, devouring his past selves without understanding what they were doing.
Junsei's eyes burned with rage.
Every ounce of fear he had once felt toward humanity had vanished.
Only anger remained.
Only the desire to correct what had been broken.
Then a voice echoed across the field.
"What is going on…?"
Junsei turned slowly.
"Where am I? What is this place?"
A figure stood several meters away, surrounded by the endless sea of flowers.
"These people…?"
The man looked around in confusion.
"All of these people, what are they eating?"
Junsei immediately recognized him.
Overhaul.
Junsei's gaze moved across the strange armor covering the man's body. The jagged plates of bone streaked with blue light.
His bones.
Overhaul turned and finally noticed him.
"You!" he said sharply. "Was it you who brought me here?"
Junsei felt the realization strike him like lightning. Overhaul was here because he stole from him, just like all these humans.
Junsei's breathing quickened as rage surged through him.
Overhaul frowned at his expression.
"What's wrong with you? I…"
Junsei raised his hand.
The world obeyed.
Instantly the flowers surrounding Overhaul surged upward, their glowing stems twisting and tightening around his body like living ropes.
Overhaul screamed as the plants constricted around him.
Junsei opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came. Instead the flowers began glowing brightly as an inhuman voice filled the world.
"Humans stole pieces of me and used them to hurt me and the world."
His eyes burned with cold fury.
"We should have ended your kind when you were still one."
The flowers tightened further.
"No more."
Junsei's voice carried absolute finality.
"You will not be allowed to ruin us again."
The plants surged upward completely.
Overhaul disappeared beneath the sea of flowers as they closed around him, devouring him entirely.
Junsei closed his eyes for an unknown time and when he opened them again, he was back in the cave, now completely dark. All the glowing blue stones had disappeared
Junsei could feel it, power was surging inside him, they called him here to join him, to fight for their existence along his side.
At the same time, he could feel fearful and pained calls from all around the world asking for help.
——————
Back in Japan.
The heroes were shaken by the end of Overhaul.
The raid itself had been simple and quick. Overhaul had died, the gas bombs destroyed, and the Yakuza operation dismantled. By all appearances it should have been a clean victory.
But the final moments of Overhaul lingered in the minds of everyone who had witnessed it.
Especially the voice.
The entity that had spoken through Overhaul at the end had not sounded human. The words it spoke left a quiet dread in the hearts of the heroes who heard them.
It expressed regret. Regret that humanity had not been destroyed when it first appeared on Earth.
Such a statement carried implications that were far more terrifying than any villain's threat. What kind of being would speak like that? How old would it have to be to say something like that?
Humanity itself has existed for tens of thousands of years. Some scholars argued it might even stretch beyond hundreds of thousands.
And yet whatever spoke through Overhaul had sounded as if it was older than that.
Still, most heroes quickly dismissed the possibility.
It had to be some kind of trick. Perhaps Overhaul had triggered a strange side effect through the bones he had absorbed. Maybe Junsei had somehow interfered remotely through them. No one could explain it clearly, but those explanations were easier to accept than the alternative.
Accepting the implication meant accepting something far worse.
That something ancient had spoken.
That something older than humanity might exist.
But a few of the heroes could not dismiss the thought so easily.
Among them, Sir Nighteye felt the dread more than anyone else.
He still remembered the vision. Junsei, floating in the sky like an eight-winged white demon while the world burned beneath him. Cities reduced to rubble. Corpses scattered across endless red ground.
What if the entity that had spoken through Overhaul was connected to that vision? What if that being would one day lend its power to Junsei to destroy humanity?
The thought had been gnawing at Nighteye since the raid ended.
Hours passed as he sat alone in his office, replaying the events over and over in his mind. But no matter how much he thought, he could not find a logical explanation.
Was it Junsei speaking? Or was it something else entirely?
And what had those words truly meant?
The more he thought about it, the worse the feeling became.
Eventually Nighteye made a decision.
There was only one person he trusted enough to discuss such a possibility.
Later that evening he was sitting across from Nezu inside the principal's office at UA. The principal sat in his chair, his sharp eyes studying Nighteye carefully.
"Thank you for seeing me," Nighteye said after a moment. "I assume you have heard what happened to Overhaul."
Nezu nodded slowly.
"Yes. It is… concerning. Terribly so."
Nighteye asked again "Can you tell what those words meant? Or whether it was Junsei speaking?"
Nezu did not answer immediately. He remained silent for several seconds, deep in thought, before finally shaking his head.
"I don't know," he admitted.
Then he added quietly, "But something has been troubling me for quite some time now."
Nighteye waited.
"Junsei has mentioned a connection to life itself on more than one occasion. At first I assumed it was merely ideology… a philosophical obsession. Later I believe it was related to his quirk."
His expression darkened slightly.
"Now I fear it may be something far more significant than we realized."
Nighteye exhaled slowly.
"Do you think it's possible," he asked carefully, "for an entity to exist that is older than mankind?"
Nezu fell silent again recalling Junsei's description of life.
This time the pause stretched longer.
Finally he answered "Yes."
Nighteye's eyes narrowed slightly.
"It is possible," Nezu continued quietly. "And if Junsei is connected to such an entity, it could provide an explanation of many strange inconsistencies surrounding him."
His gaze drifted toward the window "His abilities and his nature…"
Nighteye clenched his hands.
"I've been thinking," he said after a moment. "Junsei cannot be allowed to live."
Nezu looked back at him and said "What are you suggesting?"
Nighteye met his gaze directly.
"I know it goes against what it means to be a hero," he admitted. "But my instincts are telling me something very clearly."
His voice hardened.
"It's either us… or him."
He paused before adding quietly, "Or whatever is standing behind him."
The room fell silent again. Nezu did not answer.
Nighteye looked down briefly before continuing.
"I don't know what to think anymore," he said. "But I'm afraid of the demon I saw."
His hands trembled slightly.
"And whatever spoke through Overhaul… it will come after us eventually."
He looked up again.
"It's not a question of if. It's when. And I don't think we have much time."
Nezu remained silent long after Nighteye finished speaking.
In truth, he had no answers either.
But there was something he had not told Nighteye.
Earlier that day, Nezu had felt something strange within himself around the time of the raid. For a brief moment an overwhelming hatred toward humanity had surged through his mind.
It had not been his own thought. It was as if his very soul had been calling for humanity to be destroyed.
The feeling had vanished quickly.
But it left behind a lingering fear. Because if that emotion had merely brushed against him for a moment… then what kind of influence might Junsei truly wield upon nature?