Chapter 184 : The Storm in the Room

The silence following the discovery was more deafening than any siren. The Yozakura Clan's crest shone on the holographic screen, a beautiful and deadly night cherry blossom, becoming the center of an unspoken emotional storm in the room. Leone and Hawks looked at Akame, waiting for an explanation, while Tatsumi could only watch his friend grapple with the ghost that had just emerged from her darkest past.

Akame, usually as calm as a frozen lake, now looked like a turbulent ocean beneath a cracked surface. Her breath was short, and her clenched fists trembled violently.

"Akame..." Tatsumi stepped forward, carefully placing a hand on her shoulder.

The touch was as if it broke a dam. "This can't be..." Akame whispered, her voice laden with suffering. "They shouldn't have this kind of reach."

"Who are 'they'?" Leone asked, her usual casual tone gone, replaced by the seriousness of a professional sensing danger. "What does that crest mean?"

Akame took a deep breath, forcing herself to look into the eyes of her new comrades. "Yozakura... is the root of all of this. They are the suppliers for All For One and Dr. Garaki. They are the ones who open the 'Gates' and drag souls from our world to be used as material for Nomu experiments."

The confession hit Hawks and Leone like a physical blow. The conspiracy they were facing was far older and more horrifying than they had ever imagined.

"And now," Akame continued, her voice trembling with anger and fear, "this facility, with Humarise and Nomu technology inside... is protected by their crest. This means it's a joint operation."

"So, the woman in the tube..." Leone said, connecting the dots. "She's one of their 'subjects'? Someone from your world?"

Akame looked back at the screen, at the blurry figure in the tube. "After our fight on the volcanic island, Esdeath disappeared. I thought she retreated. But what if she was too weak... and they found her?" The most horrifying hypothesis was finally spoken. "What if the Yozakura managed to capture her to be studied... or worse, to be controlled?"

Silence fell once more. The idea of Esdeath—a nearly unstoppable force of nature—being in the hands of a PLF-Yozakura alliance was an apocalyptic scenario.

"This is no longer a chess game," Hawks muttered, rubbing his face tiredly. "This is like trying to defuse an active nuclear bomb in the middle of the enemy's headquarters." He began to pace. "The old plan is off. Everything is off. Further infiltration is too risky. If we accidentally trigger a release of her containment field..." He didn't need to finish the sentence.

In another PLF command facility, Re-Destro stared at a screen with a cold expression. Before him, Dr. Garaki looked equally concerned.

"The security breach at the Aokigahara facility is deeply troubling," Garaki said, his hoarse voice crackling through the speaker. "Our 'Asset E' is too valuable to be exposed before we can crack its code."

"Security has been quadrupled," Re-Destro replied. "Slither is now personally overseeing the site. But progress is slow. The power within 'Asset E' resists all of our Quirk scanners. It's as if it's not a Quirk at all."

"Of course, it isn't," Garaki sighed. "It's something far more... pure. Be patient, Re-Destro. It takes time to analyze such alien biology. But when we succeed... when we can replicate the source of its power... even All Might in his prime will look like a firefly."

They had no idea how close their greatest secret was to being exposed.

Back at the safe house, desperation began to creep in. Their plans were in ruins, and the threat before them seemed insurmountable.

"So what? We just back off?" Leone asked, her voice laced with frustration. "We let them create a super-Nomu army with the power of an ice god?"

"We don't know for sure it's her!" Hawks countered. "We only have a hypothesis! Acting on that is suicide!"

"This is a Yozakura facility!" Akame exclaimed, her emotions finally boiling over. "This is my chance to find a clue about Kurome! I have to go in!"

Their heated debate was broken by Tatsumi's calm yet firm voice.

"We're all right," he said, making everyone turn to him. "Hawks is right, we can't charge in blind. Leone is right, we can't just do nothing. And Akame... you're right, we have to go in."

He walked to the holographic table. "We can't get in by force. So, we have to get in with a 'key'."

"What do you mean?" Hawks asked.

"Leone," Tatsumi turned to her. "You said you could lure Commander Kageyama out. What if we don't just lure him... what if we capture him?"

A dangerously insane idea formed in the air.

"We kidnap him," Tatsumi continued, his tone growing more confident. "We bring him here and we interrogate him. We get confirmation about the prisoner, the internal security layout, passwords, and everything else we need directly from the source. We won't be going in blind. We'll be going in with a map he provides."

The silence in the room was now replaced by shock at the audacity of the plan. Kidnapping a PLF commander from his own territory was an act of extreme recklessness.

Leone was the first to smile. Her smile was wide and filled with a wild admiration. "Kidnap that sniffy bastard? Now you're speaking my language, Dragon Boy."

Akame looked at Tatsumi, the fire in her eyes softening slightly, replaced by a glimmer of hope. This was a plan. A viable path.

Hawks looked at the boy before him. He was no longer just an asset or a weapon. He had become a strategist, able to find a way out of an impossible situation. He saw the plan in his mind—the risks were enormous, but the reward... the reward could change everything.

"Kidnapping a PLF field commander..." Hawks murmured, a thin, dangerous smile starting to form on his face.

"...I like this plan."