The vacation on I-Island ended quietly, the usual laughter and chatter replaced with an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air, brought down by Midoriya's action. So now they are using All Might's private plane to fly back to U.A. to have Recover Girl heal Tsutsumi and Midoriya's wounds.
All Might had retreated to his private room after takeoff, claiming exhaustion. Everyone accepted the excuse.
When they reach U.A., the other all leave while Tsutsumi, All Might, and Midoriya. Recovery Girl was already waiting, her expression as sharp as a scalpel. She didn't hesitate to scold Midoriya for his reckless action after fully healing Tsutsumi.
She didn't even fully heal Midoriya, just half, enough so it won't leave long-lasting injuries, but not enough for him to get out of bed.
This matter was also reported to Nezu, since All Might is disappointed by Midoriya's action, and also because Tsutsumi was a special case, labeled by Nezu himself. What Tsutsumi lacked wasn't strength; he had more powers and skills than even season Pro Heroes.
According to Nezu, Tsutsumi's only downside right now is that his view of the world is a bit twisted, more in line with that of a villain than a hero. The only thing that keeps him from crossing that line between hero and villain is the fact that he still has people he could bond with and care for.
Once he was healed, Tsutsumi decided to travel to a different world.
Tsutsumi blinked, taking in his new surroundings. His old clothes were gone, replaced by a sharp uniform, black slacks, a crisp white shirt, and a dark blue blazer bearing an unfamiliar emblem on the chest.
"Another school life?" he muttered, irritation dripping from his voice. He was getting bored with going to school; he kept skipping one only to end up right in another.
Before he could ponder the situation further, an ear-splitting alarm blared through the city.
"Alert! Alert! A secondary Hollow disaster has occurred near Twelve Street. Relevant personnel have been dispatched to handle the situation. Residents in nearby areas must evacuate immediately! I repeat, all residents must evacuate at once!"
Sirens screamed. Civilians broke into a panic, scattering in all directions as red emergency lights flashed from the surrounding buildings.
"Hey! You there! Didn't you hear the announcement? Get moving!" someone shouted, brushing past him in a rush.
"The Public Security Bureau has taken control of this district! All unauthorized personnel must leave immediately!" another barked, already sprinting away.
Tsutsumi didn't move. His gaze was fixed ahead, where the air itself seemed to distort and twist, forming a swirling black sphere that pulsed like a heartbeat.
"What the hell are you doing?! The Hollow's right in front of you! Do you have a death wish?!" a voice yelled from nearby, belonging to a man in a Public Security Bureau uniform.
More officers arrived, weapons drawn, shouting orders and setting up barriers. They spotted Tsutsumi standing alone in the middle of the street, calm and still amid the chaos.
"Hey, kid! Move it! That's a newly formed Hollow, don't just stand there!"
Tsutsumi tilted his head slightly, his purple eyes reflecting the distortion in the sky. Then, he slowly raised his camera and snapped a picture.
"…Interesting," he murmured.
"What did you just say?! The Hollow's right in front of your face, and you're taking pictures?!" one of the officers barked, face paling.
Tsutsumi turned his gaze toward them, voice calm yet unsettlingly detached. "Tell me… how do I enter that black sphere?"
"The… the Hollow?" the officer stammered. "Kid, are you insane? Those things are pure Ether corruption! No one goes near it without proper gear, hell, even trained agents die inside! Once it swallows you, you're finished!"
The officers exchanged alarmed looks. Tsutsumi's lack of fear, or reason, was unnerving. Deciding to drag him out by force, they rushed in, grabbing his arms.
But Tsutsumi simply flicked his wrists. Their grips shattered like twigs under pressure, and they stumbled back in shock.
"I appreciate your concern," he said, offering a faint smile that somehow carried more weight than comfort. "But you should evacuate while you can."
The officers froze, unsure how to respond. It was backward; they were the trained responders, and yet a civilian was calmly telling them to run.
"Hey! We're the security force here!"
"Stop! Don't take another step! You don't have Ether adaptability, if you go in, you'll turn into one of the Corrupted!"
"He's lost it! This kid's insane! Forget it, don't waste time!"
Their shouts blurred together as the black sphere began to pulse violently. The air grew heavy, waves of distortion rippling outward.
"It's too late! Ether leakage detected, the Hollow's expanding even faster!"
"Evacuate now! Notify headquarters immediately! This might not be a secondary event, it could be a high-level disaster!"
One of the officers looked back one last time. Tsutsumi stood perfectly still, facing the oncoming void, his expression unreadable.
Then the Hollow swallowed him whole.
The tremors subsided moments later, the entire Twelve Street district disappearing beneath the black wave. Only the distorted hum of Ether remained in the air, an eerie stillness that marked the boundary between life and oblivion.
...
Outside the Hollow, the members of the Public Security Bureau finally caught their breath. Their hands were still trembling slightly as they transmitted the initial data back to headquarters. The air was thick with residual Ether, faint distortions flickering in the sky like heat haze.
"Did you guys see that kid earlier?" one of the officers finally spoke, breaking the silence. "When the Hollow appeared, he didn't panic at all. No fear, no hesitation. You think he might be from the Anti-Hollow Division?"
"Not a chance," another replied, shaking his head. "I've been to Section Six before. They don't have anyone like that."
"Yeah," a third officer chimed in. "He looked too young, definitely a student. And did you notice? No weapons, no tactical gear, nothing. If he was with the Anti-Hollow Division, he'd at least have a stabilizer or a weapon."
They exchanged uneasy glances, the memory of Tsutsumi calmly walking into the black sphere still vivid in their minds.
"This Hollow disaster is serious," one muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Shouldn't Section Six have sent someone by now?"
"They probably have," another replied. "We'll know once Section Chief Hoshimi Miyabi shows up. She never misses a high-tier Hollow event. We can ask her directly when she gets here."
They continued to speculate, their voices growing quieter as they tried to piece together the strange phenomenon, completely unaware that two figures had already approached them from behind.
The first was a young woman with foxlike grace, fluffy black ears twitching slightly in the wind. Her dark hair was cut neatly with bangs framing her sharp eyes, and a long sword rested at her waist. Her very presence radiated authority and focus.
Behind her walked a smaller girl with snow-white hair and smooth, vibrant blue skin that shimmered faintly under the sunlight. Two short horns curved from her head, giving her an otherworldly appearance.
"What an interesting conversation," the blue-skinned girl said cheerfully, tilting her head. "Mind sharing it with me?"
The officers nearly jumped out of their boots. Their heads whipped around, hands instinctively reaching for their weapons before realizing who stood before them.
"Section Chief Miyabi! Miss Soukaku!" one of them exclaimed, relief washing over his face. "You're finally here!"
The group straightened instantly, snapping to attention. One of the officers hurried forward, holding out a data tablet. "Here's the first set of readings we collected from the Hollow, Chief Miyabi."
Hoshimi Miyabi accepted the device, her crimson eyes calmly scanning the information while the officers exchanged nervous glances. After a moment's hesitation, one of them cleared his throat.
"Um, Chief Miyabi," he began carefully, "is there anyone in Section Six who dresses… like a student?"
Miyabi's brow arched slightly. "Like a student?" she repeated, her tone mild but curious.
The officer nodded quickly. "Yes, ma'am. When the Hollow expanded, a kid, around sixteen or seventeen, ran straight in. We tried to stop him, but he ignored all warnings. He was wearing a school uniform, and we thought he might be one of your operatives. There were rumors about Section Six testing young Ether users, so…"
Miyabi closed the tablet with a quiet click and shook her head. "You're mistaken," she said simply. "He has no connection to Section Six."
The officers exchanged puzzled looks, their earlier assumptions unraveling.
Meanwhile, Miyabi's gaze turned toward the Hollow in the distance. The sphere still pulsed faintly, distorting the surrounding air like rippling water. Her fox ears twitched as she studied it, silently.
"...How long ago did he run into the Hollow?" she asked at last, her voice calm but laced with quiet interest.
...
At this very moment, deep within the Hollow...
On the empty streets of what used to be Twelve Street, Tsutsumi walked casually down the cracked asphalt, his shoes echoing softly against the silence. The cityscape was eerily distorted: the buildings leaned unnaturally, their edges flickering as if the world itself was struggling to hold form.
He glanced around, hands in his pockets, expression calm and detached. Every few steps, his gaze shifted, observing his surroundings.
The instant he was swallowed by the Hollow, Tsutsumi realized he had stepped into a space that defied logic. The rules of nature here were twisted, warped into something unrecognizable. The air shimmered faintly with a translucent haze, particles of a strange substance that filled every breath.
It was invasive, corrosive, capable of eroding both body and mind. For ordinary humans, just inhaling this miasma would have been fatal.
But Tsutsumi wasn't ordinary.
When he arrived in this world, he had inherited a new identity, along with a special trait, a body perfectly adapted to resist corruption. Whatever this Etheric toxin was, it couldn't touch him. The moment it brushed against his skin, it simply dispersed.
To him, being lost didn't matter. He wasn't the type who needed a destination to begin with. Simply walking, exploring, and observing was enough.
Passing a few abandoned food stalls, he reached into one and pulled out a bag of plain sugar donuts, along with some other snacks. With the donut in his hand, he looked less like a lost traveler and more like a bored tourist.
A sudden crash echoed above him. A chair flew out of a shattered window and clattered onto the street just a few meters ahead.
"Ahhhh! No! Don't turn me into a monster!" A panicked voice shrieked from above.
Tsutsumi tilted his head.
A man came tumbling down, crashing hard against the pavement with a wet thud. His body twisted at wrong angles, but what caught Tsutsumi's attention was the grotesque crystalline growths spreading across his flesh, jagged, glimmering, and pulsing faintly with black light.
Despite his broken limbs, the man staggered upright, trembling violently. His eyes, wide and bloodshot, darted toward Tsutsumi.
"Help… help me…" he rasped, voice shaking. "I… I don't want to turn into a monster…"
The words barely left his lips before the corruption spread further, engulfing his torso and face. The crystals cracked and split, his expression twisting in unnatural pain. Then, like a void devouring itself, his face imploded, turning into a swirling black vortex that swallowed the rest of him.
Tsutsumi simply watched, his donut still in hand.
With a deafening boom, the transformation finished. A wave of pressure rippled outward, toppling trash cans and ripping his donut out of his grasp. When the dust settled, the man was gone, replaced by something far less human.
"…Hmmm. It corrodes the human body, huh?" Tsutsumi muttered, studying the creature that now stood before him. Its body was malformed, jagged with black crystal shards; its head was replaced by a black sphere; its movements twitchy and violent.
Humans turned into inhuman things. It reminded him of the origin of Kamen Rider's power, which came from human experiments turning humans into monsters.
The creature screeched and leapt forward, raising a crude blade made of crystal and Ether energy.
Attack Ride: Explosion!
From Tsutsumi's palm, a blast tore through the street, sending the monster hurtling backward, crashing through a half-collapsed building.
Tsutsumi began walking toward it, dust swirling around his steps.
The monster roared, lunging again. Tsutsumi shifted slightly to the side, avoiding the strike effortlessly, and flicked his wrist. Another explosion followed, launching the creature through a storefront window.
He followed it inside, a half-ruined clothing store, mannequins shattered and clothes strewn across the floor.
The monster was trembling now, its earlier aggression replaced by hesitation. It could feel it, the sheer pressure radiating from the being before it.
"Nice," Tsutsumi murmured, glancing at a few items that had survived the blast. He tapped the device on his wrist, and in a flicker of magenta light, the clothes disassembled into data, stored neatly in his system.
When his gaze returned to the monster, it was trying to crawl away.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting." He pulled out a card and slid it into his Driver.
Final Attack Ride: F-F-F-Faiz!
He spun around, swinging his leg and sending a spiraling red photon drill toward the monster. The spiral energy drill crashed into the creature's chest, freezing it mid-motion. Tsutsumi leapt forward, performing his Rider Kick, his heel connecting with the photon drill.
He landed softly behind the creature as its body disintegrated into ash.
"Hm. Are there more of these things?" he murmured, dusting off his sleeve.
Another card slipped between his fingers.
Attack Ride: Fox Spirit!
In an instant, his human ears vanished, replaced by two large fox ears atop his head. His senses expanded, colors sharpening, and the Hollow's ambient hum became crystal clear. He could see faint white silhouettes forming within the wall, souls, pulsing like flickering lanterns. The ability worked like a spiritual radar, allowing him to pinpoint every nearby being, human or monster.
That's when he heard it, the sharp rhythm of clicking heels behind him.
He turned, and for the first time since entering this Hollow, his expression shifted.
"Miss Miyabi?" Tsutsumi murmured, blinking in mild surprise.
The fox-eared woman stood frozen a few meters away, her eyes wide in shock as she stared at him.