My short, consequential nod was met with a moment of silence from Kirishima and Todoroki. They hadn't expected such a quick agreement. I could see the relief in Kirishima's eyes and a hint of surprise on Todoroki's stoic face. They had gotten their strategist, but they had also just dragged a recovering hospital patient into a suicide mission.
"Are you sure about this, Tatsumi?" Todoroki asked quietly, a note of doubt in his question. "You just..."
"I'd rather be moving than lying here helpless," I cut in, my voice steady. "But if we're going to do this, we do it my way. This is not an assault mission. This is an intelligence and extraction mission. We do not fight. We observe, look for an opening, and only move if there is a one hundred percent safe opportunity. If not, we retreat and give the information we get to the pro heroes. Do you both agree to those terms?"
Kirishima nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, bro! Strategy is your thing!"
Todoroki looked at me for a long moment, then nodded as well. "That is the most logical approach. I agree."
Our crazy plan began to take shape. The first step was the hardest: getting out of this hospital undetected. We couldn't just walk out. Aizawa-sensei and the other heroes had surely told the staff to keep an eye on us, especially me and Midoriya. This was where Momo's role became crucial.
We slipped out of my room and gathered in Midoriya's room, where Iida was also present. I explained the situation to them. Iida, as I expected, immediately objected strongly. "This is a reckless act that violates all the rules! We just saw the consequences of such actions in Hosu! We must trust the pro heroes!"
"I agree with you, Iida-kun," Momo said in a soft but firm voice, surprising us all. "This does violate the rules. But this is also about our friend." She looked at Kirishima and the others with a new resolve shining in her eyes. "I won't stop you. Instead, I will help you succeed in the safest way possible. I will give you everything you need so you won't have to fight."
This was a moment of maturation for Momo. She was no longer just following or hesitating. She was making a difficult decision based on her own convictions, balancing rules and friendship. She used her Quirk, creating a set of small, sophisticated ear communicators, night-vision goggles, and a few small distraction items. Then, she did the most important thing: she created a set of completely tacky and inconspicuous civilian clothes for all of us—outfits that would make us look like a group of awkward teenagers trying too hard to be cool, the perfect disguise.
Our escape from the hospital felt like a scene from a cheap spy movie. Iida, though he disagreed, used his knowledge of the hospital schedule to tell us when the nurses' shifts changed, giving us a narrow window of time. Momo created a small, remote-controlled toy mouse and sent it down the opposite corridor to create a sound diversion. In our ridiculous disguises, we walked awkwardly but successfully through the lobby, holding our breath every time a nurse glanced our way. We managed to get out through a side door undetected. We were free, and we were now fugitives from hero authority.
The train ride to Kamino Ward in Yokohama was the most tense journey of my life. The five of us—me, Midoriya (whose arms were still in casts but who insisted on coming), Todoroki, Kirishima, and Iida (who finally decided to come along to make sure we didn't do anything stupid)—sat in a crowded car, trying to look normal in our ridiculous disguises. I wore a slightly oversized black suit with a white shirt buttoned to the top and sunglasses, looking like a cheap bodyguard.
"Remember," I said in a low voice, repeating the plan for the umpteenth time. "We don't fight. We are ghosts. In, observe, find an opening, then out. The top priority is not to be detected."
As the train sped along, I felt something strange. The Yozakura wooden token I kept in my hoodie pocket began to vibrate very faintly. A cold, subtle vibration, almost imperceptible. It wasn't Akame's echo. This was something else, something older and far greater. My mind immediately went to one name: All For One. Could a Teigu's power sense the energy of a Quirk so ancient and powerful? I didn't know, but it made the hair on my neck stand up.
At the Ryukyu Agency, the dragon hero herself was staring at a screen, displaying a blinking red dot on a map of Japan. The dot was moving quickly along the train line toward Yokohama. It was the signal from a micro-tracker she had secretly attached to the inside of my hospital gown before I left. She had let me go, but she had never truly let me out of her sight.
"He's really doing it," Ryukyu whispered to herself, a strange mixture of annoyance and admiration on her face. "That reckless kid." She picked up her special communicator. "Nezu-san, this is Ryukyu. Our asset is on the move. He's heading to Kamino, most likely following a lead from his source. Yes... yes, I know. I've already placed a covert surveillance team there. We'll watch him from a distance." She hung up, her eyes fixed on the red dot. She had made her own bet on me.
We arrived in Kamino Ward as night began to fall. The atmosphere here was very different from the modern central district. The streets were narrower, the buildings older, and the air felt heavier. Using the tracker from Momo, we quickly found the location. It was exactly as the intelligence had said—an old, grimy-looking bar called "Hideout Bar," squeezed between two dilapidated apartment buildings.
We took up a position in a dark alley across the street, hiding behind a pile of trash. From here, we began our reconnaissance. For almost an hour, we watched. A few low-level thugs went in and out, but there was no sign of the Vanguard Action Squad members.
As we watched, the dragon's heartbeat in my chest began to react. Unlike the cold vibration from the token earlier, this was a different sensation. A restless, erratic pulse. It felt uncomfortable, as if I were near a nest of thousands of different predators, each emitting its own unique aura of threat. I then realized it. Somewhere near here, there was a massive and unnatural concentration of Quirks. The Nomu factory.
"There's something very wrong with this place," I whispered to the others. "The aura... it's suffocating."
Just as I said that, the door of a large warehouse next to the bar opened. Two figures came out, pushing a large cart covered with a tarp. Even from a distance, I could recognize them. Dabi and Mr. Compress. And under the tarp, there was the unmistakable shape of a humanoid. They were moving a Nomu.
We all held our breath. We had found their nest.
"So, that warehouse is also part of their base," Todoroki whispered. "Bakugo is most likely in there, not the bar."
"We can't just rush in," Midoriya said, his voice trembling. "There are too many of them."
I observed both buildings, my mind racing. They wouldn't place a prisoner as important as Bakugo in the same place as an unstable Nomu lab. It was too risky. The bar was likely the main entrance, where the leaders gathered. The warehouse was the lab or storage. Bakugo... he must be somewhere separate but connected.
"We need a plan," I said. "A very crazy plan."
All eyes were on me. I pulled them deeper into the alley. "Alright, listen closely. We're going to split up. Midoriya, Iida, you two are the fastest. You'll create a major diversion at the end of the block. Make some noise, blow something up if you have to, then run immediately. Draw the attention of the guards outside."
I turned to Todoroki. "When they're distracted, you use your ice. Create a large wall that blocks the view from the main street to the alley beside the bar. Give us visual cover for as long as possible."
I looked at Kirishima. "You're with me. When the attention is diverted and the view is blocked, we'll try to get in through the side wall of that warehouse. Your Hardening Quirk should be able to break through that old brick wall without too much noise. We look for Bakugo. If we find him and there's an opening, we get him out. If not, we retreat immediately. This is an intel mission, remember?"
Everyone looked at me, then at each other. The plan was incredibly risky and had a hundred ways to fail. But it was the only plan we had.
"I'm in," Kirishima said, grinning as he hardened his fist. "It's time for a little action."
The others nodded in agreement. We synchronized our communicators. I looked at all of them, my friends, the hero candidates who were risking everything to save one of our own. The fear was still there, but it was now accompanied by a strong sense of camaraderie.
I looked toward the dimly lit bar, feeling the wrong energy pulsing from the warehouse next to it. I took a deep breath. I gave the final signal.
"Alright, team," I whispered into the communicator. "Phase one... begins now."