My Hero Academia: The Dragon's Quirk

The return journey to the temporary command post was a silent voyage across a wounded sea. Behind them, I-Island was no longer ablaze, but smoldering in an eerie silence, with a strange, pale blue aurora dancing at the top of its main tower like a ghostly crown. The night air, once warm and humid, now felt cold, carrying the scent of ozone and unspoken fear. Inside the speeding inflatable boat, Leone, still in her powerful Lionel form, steered with a predator's instinct, her golden eyes constantly scanning the dark waves for threats. Behind her, wrapped in a seemingly thin thermal blanket, Akame calmly checked the pulse of a newly conscious Tatsumi.

For Tatsumi, waking was a slow, painful process. His consciousness returned piece by piece, like memories from a long nightmare. The first sensation he felt was a cold that pierced to the marrow of his bones, a familiar cold from his fight against Esdeath, but this time it felt more fundamental, more primal. The second sensation was an immense pain, as if every muscle in his body had been stretched to its limit, frozen, and then forced to work even harder. The Incursio armor around him felt like a dead hunk of metal; the usual hum of energy that accompanied it was gone. He felt vulnerable, trapped inside his own now-powerless shell.

He tried to sit up, a groan escaping his lips before he could stop it. "Akame..." he called, his voice hoarse and broken.

"Don't move," Akame whispered, her voice tired but still as sharp as her blade. "Save your energy. Your armor is non-functional."

Tatsumi looked down, seeing his own arm where several plates of armor had cracked or fallen off. Under the tear in his clothes, the silvery spiderweb pattern on his skin—the permanent scar from his draconic backlash—was glowing with a faint, pale green light that pulsed weakly. It was a sign he knew well, a physical manifestation of the Tyrant's regenerative power working overtime, burning through his remaining life energy to repair the internal damage caused by the cryogenic temperatures and the hard impact. He was a living paradox; the power that had nearly killed him was now the only thing keeping him alive.

"Our Dragon Boy is back with us," Leone growled from the front, not turning but clearly hearing their conversation with her superhuman hearing. "Hang on a little longer. We're almost there."

Leone's words gave him a bit of strength. Tatsumi forced himself to look back towards I-Island. The sight was surreal. The battle seemed to have paused. Instead, the eerie pale blue aurora danced gracefully around the top of the main tower, casting its cold light on the surrounding sea. The energy pulse they had felt underwater had fundamentally changed the battlefield.

At the Temporary Command Post

When their boat finally docked on the hidden beach, Hawks was already waiting at the water's edge. His face, usually adorned with a relaxed smile or the sharp gaze of a master strategist, now looked pale and tense under the dim light of their equipment. The sincere worry lines on his forehead were clearly visible as he saw the condition of his team.

"Get him inside, quickly!" he ordered.

Leone, whose transformation had now fully receded, showed her own exhaustion. But with the last of her strength, she helped Akame support Tatsumi out of the boat and into the command tent.

The process of removing the dead Incursio armor was an ordeal in itself. It was no longer the smooth, instant dematerialization Tatsumi was used to. The mechanical locks were jammed with ice and damage. Hawks, with his extensive knowledge of hero costume technology, had to carefully work to open each plate manually with special tools. It felt like performing surgery on an ancient artifact. When the final chest plate came off, Tatsumi could finally breathe with relief, though every breath was painful. His body was covered in bruises and ice burns.

While Akame tended to Tatsumi's wounds, Leone gave her report to Hawks. "The water was freezing, Hawks. Like swimming in liquid nitrogen. And the island... there was a weird blue aurora over the tower after that energy pulse. All the fighting just seemed to stop."

Hawks nodded, his eyes fixed on the data swirling on his main monitor. "I've analyzed it," he said. "The phenomenon was not a deliberate attack by the PLF. It was a massive-scale passive energy release, most likely triggered by the disruption to the cryogenic cooling system that you caused. You essentially poked a hibernating bear with a stick, and now that bear is awake and angry."

Tatsumi, who was now wrapped in several layers of thermal blankets and drinking a high-energy beverage, spoke up. "Not just angry," he said, his voice still weak but clear. "There was... an awareness in it. When the wave washed over us underwater, I could feel it. Not thoughts or words, but a pure emotion. Confusion. Annoyance at having its sleep disturbed. And... curiosity."

His analytical mind—the soul of the earthling within him—immediately went to work, trying to process the illogical sensation. "This isn't just a biological weapon. 'Asset E' is fully conscious, even in a dormant state."

Hawks looked at him with a new expression, a mixture of admiration and horror. Tatsumi's ability to sense such a thing was a variable he had never calculated. "That information... changes everything," he muttered.

The New Chessboard

Hawks switched to the tactical map of I-Island, which now displayed a completely new and strange situation. "And the 'disturbance' you caused, ironically, has given us our greatest stroke of luck."

He pointed to the screen. "Look. The PLF forces have pulled back from the coastline. They're forming a multi-layered defensive perimeter around the main tower. They're no longer trying to fight the heroes; they're trying to contain their own monster. They're panicking."

"On the other side," he continued, pointing to the fleet of HPSC warships surrounding the island. "Endeavor has ordered all units to hold their positions. They think that energy pulse is the PLF's ultimate weapon. They won't charge blindly towards an energy anomaly of that scale. They are now in observation mode."

Leone grinned widely as she understood the implication. "So, the two giant bulldogs are now just staring at each other from across the yard, both scared of what's inside the house?"

"Exactly," Hawks said. "And between them, a vacuum has been created. A vast neutral zone around most of the island—the parks, the shopping areas, the residential sectors—which is now guarded by no one. A buffer zone born from mutual fear."

Tatsumi, despite the pain in his body, got up and walked closer to the map. His green eyes scanned the vacuum, his strategic mind spinning rapidly. "That vacuum..." he whispered. "...that's our way in. Not to sneak anymore, but to walk in if we choose the right path."

"Correct," Hawks said, feeling the shift in momentum. "But the big question remains: once we're in, what do we do? A direct assault on the tower is still impossible, perhaps even more dangerous now."

Silence enveloped the tent as they contemplated the dilemma. They had survived, and they had been given an unexpected second chance. But for what?

Akame, who had been silently cleaning the salt water from Murasame, was the first to speak. "Fear," she said softly, her red eyes reflecting the light from the screen. "Their greatest weapon has now become their greatest fear. And fear... is a weapon we can also use."

The idea hung in the air. Leone and Tatsumi looked at Akame, then at Hawks. A new, insane plan, born from chaos, began to form in their minds. They wouldn't attack the bomb. They would make it tick louder, loud enough that its guardians couldn't hear their footsteps approaching from another direction.

"We don't need to go into the lab again," Tatsumi said, his eyes beginning to sparkle with a strategic glint. "We already planted the malware. What if we use it not to release her, but to 'annoy' her?"

Hawks looked at him, immediately grasping the idea. "Use the malware to cause minor fluctuations in the containment system. Enough to make the scientists panic. Enough to make the guards even more afraid. Enough to force the PLF leadership to focus all their resources on keeping her asleep."

"And while they're busy with their unstable new toy," Leone added with a wide grin, "we can sneak in and achieve our other objectives. Destroy their research data, sabotage their Nomu production facilities, maybe even kidnap a key scientist."

The plan was brilliant. It turned their greatest weakness—their inability to fight Esdeath—into their greatest weapon. They would use the terror of Esdeath as their own personal diversion.

"Alright," Hawks said, his spirit reignited. "The plan has changed. We'll rest for a few hours. Recover your strength, Tatsumi. Because when night falls again, we're going back to that island. Not to fight a great battle, but to dance between the giants and light a fire in their backyard."

Their mission was not over. It had just entered its most dangerous and cunning phase.