Chapter 125 : The War Council and the Silence in the Dorms

I didn't know how long I had been in this underground U.A. facility that felt like both a prison and a fortress. Time seemed to lose its meaning, replaced by a cycle of tense briefings, exhausting data analysis, and brutal training sessions until my body screamed. The world outside—the world where my friends worried about upcoming exams or laughed in the dorm's common room—felt like a distant planet. My world was now topographic maps, intelligence reports, and the echo of Ryukyu's final roar.

The briefing room had become my home. In it, a secret war council had been formed. There were only four of us: Principal Nezu, the genius strategist whose brain worked a hundred steps ahead of everyone else; Aizawa-sensei, the pragmatic and no-nonsense field commander; All Might, the legend who was now a wise advisor, his frail presence still radiating an aura of authority; and me, the anomaly, their most unstable secret weapon.

"Based on the latest report from Hawks," Nezu said one morning, his claw tapping a point on the holographic map of the Gunma mountains, "the Meta Liberation Army has not made any major movements since the incident. They seem to be consolidating their forces and assuming they have successfully scared us into a temporary retreat."

"They are gravely mistaken," Aizawa growled, his red eyes burning from lack of sleep and suppressed anger.

"Precisely," Nezu said. "Their arrogance is our advantage. But we cannot attack recklessly." He turned to me. "Tatsumi-kun, you are our only source of intelligence on the abilities of their lieutenants. I want you to tell me again everything you remember from that 'story.' Every detail, no matter how small."

And so I did. For hours, I became a walking encyclopedia from another world. I explained about Re-Destro and his Stress Quirk that could turn frustration into incredible physical power. I explained about Geten and his ice control that could rival Todoroki's. About Skeptic and his ability to create puppets from any object. About Trumpet and his Incitement Quirk that could amplify the morale and power of the soldiers around him. Every detail I gave was met with a serious silence by the legendary heroes around me. They were listening to a fictional story from my world as an intelligence report that would decide the life or death of hundreds of heroes.

"If all this is true," All Might said in a hoarse voice, "then this isn't just an army with large numbers. This is an army with a Quirk synergy designed for full-scale war. Attacking them without a solid plan is suicide."

In the midst of all this war planning, I was also pushed to my absolute limits. Aizawa personally supervised my physical training and hand-to-hand combat, ensuring that I didn't just rely on Incursio. But my real training happened when I was alone. I would enter an empty training room, sit cross-legged, and try to make peace with the dragon within me. I no longer fought it. I tried to understand it. I learned to distinguish between the primal rage of Tyrant and the echo of loyalty from the original Tatsumi. I began to be able to call on partial manifestations with less pain, and I could maintain them for longer. My power was growing, born from grief and the determination to avenge Ryukyu's sacrifice.

While I was isolated in my world of secrets and war preparations, in Alliance Heights, life went on, but with a gaping hole.

Inside Momo's neat and elegant room, four girls were gathered in an anxious silence. "It's been three days," Uraraka whispered, looking at her phone as if expecting a magical message to appear. "No news at all from Tatsumi-kun."

"Aizawa-sensei just said that he's on a 'special training mission' at the request of the Commission," Momo said, though she didn't sound convinced at all. "But that doesn't make sense. Why would they take a first-year student right after such a big incident?"

Tsuyu looked out the window. "You all feel the same way I do, right?" she said quietly. "That night... when we heard the report from Ryukyu-san and Tatsumi-chan. There was something much bigger happening than what they told us. And Tatsumi-chan... he was right in the middle of it."

Nejire, who had spent most of her time at the Class 1-A dorm since the incident, hugged her knees on the sofa. Her overflowing energy had been extinguished, replaced by a quiet sadness. "I shouldn't have let him go," she whispered, blaming herself. "I should have been stronger. I should have been able to protect them both."

"It's not your fault, Nejire-senpai," Uraraka said gently, placing a hand on Nejire's shoulder. "We were all there. And we all felt helpless."

They were a circle of trust that had now lost its center. They shared a secret they couldn't discuss with anyone else, and the only other person who knew that secret had now disappeared from their reach. They could only wait, hope, and fear the worst news.

At the Meta Liberation Army headquarters, the atmosphere was one of triumph. Re-Destro was giving a fiery speech to thousands of his followers via a giant screen.

"The heroes have come to our home!" he exclaimed, his voice amplified by Trumpet's Quirk. "They tried to suppress us, to silence the voice of our freedom! But what did they find? They found an impenetrable wall! They found the power of the liberation spirit!" The crowd underground cheered wildly. "We have defeated the Number Ten Pro Hero! We have shown the world that this era of hypocritical heroes is coming to an end!"

But in his private office after the speech, the atmosphere was much colder. "We lost over three hundred soldiers in that brief confrontation," Skeptic reported through a monitor. "And Lieutenant Geten was severely injured. The dragon put up a much stronger fight than we anticipated."

Re-Destro looked at a blurry image on his screen—an image of me taken by one of the forest security cameras. "And this boy," he said, "'Stress' tells me that he was the greatest threat of that group. Find out everything about him. Who he is, what his Quirk is. I want to know every detail about the U.A. student who calls himself 'Tyrant'."

My enemy now had my name and my face. The hunt had begun, without me even knowing it.

On the fourth day of my isolation, the breakthrough came. After hours of analyzing topographical data and intelligence reports from Hawks, Nezu found a possibility. A network of old caves and tunnels from an abandoned mine, which was not on any official map, but its layout was in the dusty prefectural archives. The tunnel network stretched right under the location of the main MLA villa.

"This is our way in," Nezu said, his beady eyes sparkling with a genius light. "We won't attack from the front. We will emerge from below, right in their heart of operations."

A full-scale raid plan began to form. Dozens of pro heroes from all over Japan were secretly summoned for an "emergency joint training exercise." The date of the raid was set: two days from now.

The night before the mission, I stood alone in the training room, sweat covering my entire body. I had been training non-stop. I was trying to recreate the Neuntote spear from my dream. I focused all my will, all my grief and anger over Ryukyu's sacrifice, into my right arm.

I screamed as the energy surged. The armor formed on my arm, but this time, it didn't stop as a short sword blade. The black metal continued to creep forward, elongating, forming a brutal, serrated spearhead, almost a meter long. It was unstable, crackling with a raw energy that threatened to explode, and the pain was so intense it brought me to my knees. But I did it. I held it for five seconds before it disintegrated.

I lay on the floor, panting, but a smile formed on my lips. It wasn't perfect. But it was a start. This was the weapon I would use to bring her home.

I looked at my reflection in a dark metal panel. For a moment, I didn't see my own face. I saw the face of a young man with brown hair and green eyes filled with the same determination. The face of the original Tatsumi. And I heard a whisper in my mind, an echo of his soul. 'Don't fail.'

As I stood up, ready for a final rest before the biggest battle of my life, the training room door opened. Aizawa stood there. "It's time," he said simply.

I followed him to the main briefing room. There, all the assembled pro heroes were waiting. Faces I knew and faces I didn't, all looking toward me as I entered with Aizawa and Nezu.

Nezu climbed onto the podium. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," he said. "The enemy we will be facing is the greatest threat to our society since the era of All For One. But we have an advantage they do not expect."

He looked at me. "We have someone on the inside who knows their strategies and their abilities."

I stepped forward, standing before the greatest heroes in the country. I took a deep breath. The burden of two worlds was now on my shoulders.

"Allow me to begin the briefing," I said, my voice calm and steady, echoing in the silent room.