My words hung in the tense air of the room. "I know... I know where she is."
Ryukyu and Momo looked at me, their expressions a mixture of shock, hope, and deep confusion. I pressed my throbbing temples, trying to process the remnants of the painful vision. The images were still seared into my mind: a cold metal room, a weakened Nejire, and the faint glow of the Humarise symbol on the wall.
"How?" Ryukyu asked, her voice sharp yet controlled. "How could you possibly know?"
I couldn't tell her about my true vision. It was too unstable, too supernatural. I had to frame it in the context of the abilities she already knew about. "The resonance," I said, my voice trembling slightly from the psychic aftershock. "When I focus, when I push it to its limit, I don't just feel her presence. I can... get a brief flash of her location. Like a visual echo. I saw her. I saw the room, and I saw that Humarise symbol."
I pointed to the paper from Akame. "She wasn't framing you or Yaoyorozu. She was warning us. And my vision just confirmed it."
Momo, who had been silent, immediately went to work on her laptop, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "A metal room, a research facility, connected to a Humarise shell company," she muttered, her brilliant mind quickly connecting the dots. "I found it."
She turned her laptop screen toward us. On the screen was a satellite image of an old, abandoned building complex in an industrial district on the outskirts of the city, near the port. "The Kanto Medical Research Facility, now closed," she explained. "Went bankrupt five years ago. Bought by an anonymous shell company six months ago—the same company whose servers are connected to Humarise. Officially, the place is scheduled for demolition, but no construction activity has been recorded. It's the perfect hideout."
We all stared at the image of the foreboding building. That's where Nejire was being held.
The dilemma before Ryukyu was immense. She couldn't launch an official raid based on a student's 'vision' and a hasty data analysis. Reporting it to the Commission would trigger a bureaucratic investigation that would take days, time that Nejire might not have.
"I'm not waiting for their permission," Ryukyu said finally, a dangerous decision forming in her eyes. "I'm going there myself tonight."
"You can't," I said quickly. "You yourself said it's a trap. They might be waiting for you. You need a team."
"My sidekicks are being monitored after the USJ and Hosu incidents. Pulling them for an unofficial mission like this would set off alarms all over the Commission," she replied in frustration.
"Then use us," Momo said firmly, stepping forward. Her newfound confidence, forged in the exam, was now shining brightly. "We just proved we're capable of handling a crisis situation. That exam was supposed to simulate this exact situation. Let us prove we're worthy. We won't let you down. We won't let Nejire-senpai down."
Ryukyu looked at the two of us. A boy with an unstable dragon power and a girl who could create miracles out of thin air. We were the unlikeliest of teams, a covert operations unit born of desperation. She let out a long sigh, a sound that carried the weight of a decision that could end her career.
"Alright," she said. "We do it my way. This is a silent infiltration mission. In, find Hado-senpai, and out. Avoid combat at all costs. If forced, neutralize the enemy quickly and silently. There can be no mistakes. One slip-up, and we'll all end up in a cell worse than any prison."
Deep inside the cold research facility, Nejire Hado awoke on a hard medical bed. Her head was dizzy, and her whole body felt weak, as if all her energy had been drained. She was in a sterile white room, windowless, illuminated by the cold light of fluorescent lamps. She tried to activate her Quirk, tried to feel the spiral energy that was usually always at her fingertips. Nothing. Emptiness. A strange device attached to the ceiling of the room was emitting a frequency that seemed to suppress her Quirk Factor.
The door to her cell opened silently, and a woman in a white lab coat entered. It was The Curator. "Ah, Specimen 73 is awake," she said in a cold, clinical tone. "How are you feeling? A little... empty?"
"Where am I? What do you want from me?" Nejire asked, trying to sit up.
"You are in a place where your true potential will be revealed," The Curator said, checking some data on her tablet. "Your Quirk, Wave Motion, is a biological marvel. The ability to convert pure life energy into kinetic force. We at Humarise believe that a Quirk like yours is the key to understanding the 'disease' that has plagued humanity."
"My Quirk is not a disease!" Nejire snapped angrily.
"Is it not?" The Curator smiled faintly. "It burns you from the inside, doesn't it? The more power you use, the shorter your life becomes. It's the definition of a perfect parasite." She approached, holding a complex-looking medical instrument. "We're not going to hurt you... at first. We just want to 'harvest' a little of that unique energy of yours. To study. To replicate. And ultimately, to cure. The 'extraction' process will begin shortly. Please do not resist."
Nejire looked at her with a mixture of horror and anger. She might be weak, but she would not give up. She was a member of U.A.'s Big Three. She would find a way to fight back.
That night, the three of us moved under the cover of darkness. Dressed in black tactical gear, we approached the abandoned research facility like three ghosts. I could feel my dragon's heartbeat pulsing steadily, a vigilant radar within me.
"There's a patrol. Two men, at the front gate. Four more patrolling the outer perimeter," I whispered, my senses picking up their movements.
"Momo-san, can you take care of the security system?" Ryukyu asked.
"Leave it to me," Momo replied. From her wrist, she created a small device that looked like a mechanical spider. The spider ran silently across the ground, climbed a camera pole, and quickly attached a small chip that looped a video recording, blinding the enemy's electronic eyes.
Ryukyu herself handled the guards. She moved with astonishing speed and silence, even without her dragon form. She was a shadow among shadows, disabling each guard with a precise strike to their nerve points before they could even scream or sound an alarm.
I cleared a path through the fence with my claws, and we managed to enter the complex undetected. The main building loomed before us like a silent fortress.
"The main entrance is too risky," Momo said, checking the layout she had managed to hack. "But there's a service ventilation shaft on the west side."
We slipped into the narrow, dusty ventilation system. Inside, the smell of chemicals and ozone was strong. We moved cautiously, following Momo's map and the guidance of my senses. As we passed a grate above a large laboratory, we paused for a moment. The sight below made us shudder. Not just medical equipment, but also racks of weapons. Some of them had strange designs, as if they were trying to combine technology with organic material. On one of the screens, I saw a diagram of something I knew all too well: the internal structure of the Incursio armor.
My heart felt like it stopped. They weren't just collecting Quirk users. They also knew about Teigu. They knew about me.
We continued on, our sense of urgency now doubled. We had to find Nejire before they did anything to her. Based on my vision and Momo's layout, we arrived at a ventilation grate that we believed was directly above her holding cell.
I peeked through the slit. Below, I saw it. The same white room from my vision. Nejire was lying on the bed, looking weak, and The Curator was preparing a large machine with a giant syringe. Several elite guards stood in the corners of the room.
"We don't have much time," Ryukyu whispered.
She looked at me, then at Momo. "Alright. This is the plan. I'll break in from the ceiling and directly confront the scientist. Momo, as I go in, I want you to throw every smoke and flash grenade you can make to create maximum chaos. Tatsumi, your top priority is Nejire. Ignore everyone else. Go straight for her and get her out of there."
Momo and I nodded in unison.
Ryukyu took her position above the grate. Dragon scales began to appear on her arms, and her claws elongated. "On the count of three," she whispered. "One... Two..."
I felt the heat begin to gather in my arm, ready to manifest my sword blade.
"...THREE!"
With a suppressed roar, Ryukyu smashed through the metal grate and dropped into the middle of the room like an avenging dragon. Momo threw a dozen small grenades that exploded in a blinding flash of light and thick smoke. In the midst of the chaos, I leaped down, landing silently, my eyes fixed on one target: Nejire.
The disoriented guards began to react, but The Curator, with an unnatural speed, was already looking straight at me as if she had known I was coming. "Stop that boy!" she yelled. "Don't let him reach Specimen 73!"
Several guards charged at me. I didn't have time to fight them one by one. I had to break through. I manifested the Incursio blade on my arm.
Just as I was about to slash my way through them, Ryukyu, who was fighting The Curator, roared. The Curator was moving in a strange way, dodging every one of Ryukyu's attacks as if she could read her mind.
I didn't care. I had to get to Nejire. I charged forward, my black blade ready to clear a path. Just as I was about to clash with the guards, and as Ryukyu was about to receive a counter-attack from The Curator, a cheerful yet deadly voice sounded from the same vent we had entered.
"Well, well, it looks like the party started without me!"
A shadowy figure leaped down in the middle of everyone. Akame. She landed between me and the guards, her Murasame sword already drawn. She gave me a quick glance, her red eyes blazing. "You take care of the blue-haired girl," she said curtly. "I'll handle the trash."