The Villain Group "Demolition Group"

Justice triumphed over evil.

Whether in orthodox literature, comics, or widely circulated stories.

Examples of justice triumphing over evil were countless.

However...

In reality, the side that emerged victorious was not always the side of justice.

Using his Quirk to race through the streets and alleys, Uraraka Shige had successfully reached a vantage point on the roof of a house near the scene. What he saw there was utterly different from what he had imagined.

The street was pocked with craters and scarred by combat, littered with wrecked vehicles that still burned where they lay. All the buildings within range of the fighting had been reduced to collapsed ruins, pouring out thick smoke as fierce flames continued to burn. The air was filled with the smell left by burning gunpowder, like the smoke of a battlefield.

At the center of the battlefield, enclosed by that smoky gunpowder smell, were three "heroes" who had suffered considerable injuries but were still struggling to resist the villains' attacks while protecting the police as they evacuated survivors from the disaster site. Surrounding the three heroes were five "villains" who had also been injured but continued to set off explosions.

"Huh... why are there only three 'heroes'?"

Uraraka Shige's eyes widened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

"And why are the police evacuating people so slowly? Aren't they just holding those three 'heroes' back?"

Under the five villains' relentless bombardment, the three "heroes" could only rely on their Quirks to defend themselves with difficulty as they protected the police evacuating the crowd and rescuing the injured. They could not put up any kind of proper counterattack. Watching them, Uraraka Shige inexplicably felt a little dissatisfied with the police officers rescuing the injured.

"BOOM!!!"

The violent explosion was much clearer and more deafening than it had been from a distance, and Uraraka Shige found himself inexplicably irritated.

"I can't observe anything like this! What I wanted to see was the techniques and ideas the 'heroes' use with their Quirks when they fight 'villains'! But right now they're just relying on defensive Quirks and getting beaten up nonstop! There aren't any techniques or ideas to speak of at all! Classes are still going on at school, so doesn't this mean I skipped class for nothing and didn't gain a thing?!"

Giving in to his irritation, Uraraka Shige vented fiercely, but a bystander below the house, whose Quirk had to do with hearing, happened to hear every word.

The bystander first looked up at the roof with a rather fierce glare, as if he meant to give a stern lesson to the fellow who had climbed onto someone else's roof to watch the show and was speaking so rudely.

But when he saw that the person on the roof who had said those things was a child of about seven, his fierce glare immediately turned into little dot eyes full of disdain. He spoke up, seemingly intending to correct Uraraka Shige's wrong behavior and ideas.

"Hey, that's no place for a kid. Get down, now! Don't make your parents worry! And those police officers are prioritizing the rescue to protect civilians like us! Saying things like that will hurt these officers' feelings. Didn't your parents teach you that?"

Uraraka Shige felt a little embarrassed that someone had actually responded to his offhand venting. He had kept his voice very low when he said it, almost no different from muttering, and violent explosions and rumbles were coming from the nearby battlefield at intervals. Unless someone with exceptionally good hearing happened to be nearby, no one should have heard him... but who could have guessed reality would be so coincidental?

"Whether my parents taught me anything is none of your business. Just watch your own show! You sure talk a lot of nonsense..."

Mortified and angry, Uraraka Shige snapped back almost on instinct.

The bystander was taken aback by Uraraka Shige's words, and then an angry look appeared on his face.

"Why are you so rude, you brat? Where are your parents?!"

But after casually talking back to the bystander, Uraraka Shige immediately felt that his own behavior was really childish. He had no intention of paying the bystander any further attention, or even looking down at him again, which only left the bystander feeling frustrated.

"You!... You little brat, you really don't know any better..."

The bystander remained frustrated for a while. In the end, he too seemed to feel that arguing with a child would be too embarrassing, so he merely said that resentfully before falling silent and turning back to watch where the "heroes" and "villains" were fighting.

Uraraka Shige, who had now calmed down, continued observing the battle and suddenly noticed some details he had missed before.

"Wait... could this be a 'villain group'?"

That was the detail Uraraka Shige had noticed.

As the name implied, a "villain group" was a criminal gang formed by multiple "villains." Unlike ordinary "groups of villains," a "villain group" was generally a Quirk-based criminal organization whose members coordinated with one another to some extent. They were far more troublesome and difficult to deal with than ordinary "groups of villains," who generally did not coordinate and sometimes even hindered one another when their Quirks clashed.

Compared with "villain groups" whose coordination was relatively ordinary, the five members of this "villain group" fighting at the scene worked together with a greater understanding of one another. Their Quirks also seemed to be related, or at least to have similar properties, which made it easier for them to coordinate and allowed them to adapt to a wider variety of situations and environments.

"But what exactly is the connection? If it were me, how should I deal with them and disrupt their coordination?"

Uraraka Shige stopped observing the "heroes," who were "struggling to hold out," and instead began trying to find clues that could help him grow stronger by watching the "villain group" suppressing the three "heroes."

He soon found that clue.

"I see! The guy who keeps pulling explosives out of his pockets and handing them to the other 'villains' is probably the most important member of this 'villain group'! He must have a logistics-type Quirk that's convenient for storage! In other words, if I were one of the three 'heroes' there, all I'd have to do is find a chance to take out the 'villain' in charge of logistics, and the group's suppressive fire would be interrupted. At the very least, it would greatly relieve the pressure on me!"

Unfortunately, the bystander, still feeling frustrated and possessing a scouting-type Quirk related to hearing, heard those words once again.

"If you say you have a way to beat that 'villain group,' then go do it! What are you still doing crouching on someone else's roof?"

And so the frustrated bystander, without thinking, instinctively said those words.