Chapter 121 : Journey to the Mountains and a Deceptive Silence

Ryukyu's command hung in the cold air of her office, a silent declaration of war. "We're going to the mountains."

The next two days were a blur of intense and secret preparations. In front of our classmates, the three of us—me, Ryukyu, and Nejire—had to pretend that everything was normal. We attended classes, we ate in the cafeteria, we participated in light training exercises. But at night, we would gather in the agency's strategy room. Uraraka and Tsuyu, now bound in our circle of secrets, also joined, becoming our intelligence and logistics support team.

Momo, through an encrypted video call, helped us from a distance. She analyzed the topographical data of the Gunma mountains, searching for geological anomalies that could hide a large underground facility. She studied weather reports, commercial flight patterns, and publicly available satellite imagery, trying to find the safest and most inconspicuous corridor for us to infiltrate.

"Based on the information from your source, Hawks," Ryukyu said one night, pointing to a large digital map, "the most likely location is around the Deika City area. It's a self-sufficient city founded by a large corporation decades ago, but it's now mostly abandoned. The perfect place to hide an army."

I myself focused on mental training. Under Ryukyu's guidance, I was no longer just trying to summon Incursio. I was learning to feel it, to listen to it. I spent hours in meditation, trying to expand the range of my 'draconic echo.' I learned to distinguish between the 'noise' of ordinary civilian Quirks and the stronger, more regular 'signal' of trained fighters. I was becoming a human radar, though every training session felt like my head was about to split.

Elsewhere, the other players on this giant chessboard were also moving.

In a dimly lit apartment in another city, Akame was carefully cleaning Murasame. The information from the flash drive I had given her had led her to a new trail. She found a connection between several low-level Yozakura operations and a flow of funds that led to the now-destroyed Shie Hassaikai. She knew there was a bigger picture. As she was sifting through data on her stolen laptop, she found a name that kept appearing in secret transactions: 'Re-Destro', the CEO of the Detnerat Company. And Detnerat was the parent company that funded the construction of Deika City. A coincidence? Akame didn't believe in coincidences. She now had a new target to investigate.

Meanwhile, Hawks was playing his dangerous game. He met with Dabi on a dark rooftop, feeding him false information about hero movements, while carefully trying to dig for information about the League's new alliance. "So," Hawks said in a casual tone, "I hear your new boss has a new toy. A big army?"

Dabi just smiled coldly. "You'll see for yourself soon enough, hero. The whole world will see." He gave nothing away, but his arrogant confidence was enough to confirm Hawks' worst suspicions. He knew that the time bomb in the Gunma mountains was real. He could only hope that the small team he was betting on could defuse it before it was too late.

Finally, our day of departure arrived. Under the cover of a pre-dawn darkness, an unmarked stealth helicopter from Ryukyu's agency picked the three of us up from a remote landing pad. As we boarded, I saw Nejire carrying a large suitcase.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Gear!" she replied cheerfully. "Momo-chan helped me design it. A new costume with an external battery support to conserve my stamina, high-energy food, medical equipment, and... a few fashion magazines for if we get bored!"

Even on the most dangerous of missions, Nejire was still Nejire.

The journey to the Gunma mountains was quiet. We flew low, following the valleys to avoid radar. The scenery below us was an endless ocean of trees. The closer we got to our target, the more I could feel it. The dragon's heartbeat in my chest began to pulse with a slow, heavy rhythm, a resonance with the incredibly large concentration of power ahead.

"I feel it," I whispered to Ryukyu. "The energy is everywhere. Like a city, but hidden underground. Thousands... no, tens of thousands."

Ryukyu's eyes hardened. "Hawks' intel was correct."

Our helicopter landed in a hidden valley, several kilometers from Deika City. As the door opened, the cold, clear mountain air was piercing. But there was something wrong with the silence here. There were no bird sounds. No insect noises. Only the sound of the wind rustling through the trees.

"We're on foot from here," Ryukyu said in a low voice. "Make no sound. Leave no trace. From now on, we are ghosts."

We moved through the dense forest for nearly an hour. I walked at the front, acting as the detector. Every time my dragon's heartbeat strengthened slightly, I would give a signal, and we would stop, hiding in the shadows as a patrol of people in civilian clothes but moving with military discipline passed by. They were everywhere. This forest was filled with them.

Finally, we arrived at a ridge that offered a view of the valley below. There, lay Deika City. From a distance, the city looked normal, even a little sad. An old town with most of its buildings looking empty. But my senses told me something different.

"Not in the city," I whispered, my eyes narrowing. "Under it."

Ryukyu took out a pair of high-tech binoculars. She scanned the city, then paused. "You're right," she said, her voice filled with a horrified awe. She handed the binoculars to me.

I looked where she was pointing. An old city hall building in the center of town. On its roof, cleverly hidden among the air conditioning panels, was a large industrial elevator door. I saw a few people going in and out of it, all wearing dark, militaristic uniforms. And around the city, I started to notice small things: windows that looked normal but were actually made of reinforced steel, city parks that were actually camouflaged hangar doors. This entire city... was a fortress. A giant military base disguised as a ghost town.

The scale of this Meta Liberation Army operation was far, far larger than anyone had ever imagined. The three of us—a dragon hero, a girl with spiral energy, and a boy with a dragon in his soul—were standing on the edge of a cliff, looking directly into the nest of an army that could challenge all the heroes in Japan.

"Our mission has changed," Ryukyu whispered, her voice tense. "This is no longer reconnaissance. This is critical data gathering. We have to know what they're planning."

As she said that, the dragon's heartbeat in my chest suddenly pulsed with incredible force, a surge of energy so strong it made me gasp. It wasn't an ordinary danger warning. It was something else. Something massive had just activated deep underground. A Quirk so powerful that I could feel its aura even from this distance. It felt like the pressure of a thousand atmospheres, a collective stress released into power.

In his luxurious office deep underground, Re-Destro felt our presence. His Stress Quirk, which gave him a sixth sense for threats to his organization, was pulsing violently.

"Intruders," he hissed. "The heroes have found us."

He pressed a button on his intercom. "All units, highest combat alert," he commanded, his calm voice echoing throughout the underground facility. "We have guests."

Atop the ridge, I stared at Ryukyu with wide eyes, a cold dread running down my spine. I didn't have to say anything. She could see it on my face.

"He knows," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Somehow, he knows we're here. And he's... he's calling his army."