Chapter 188 : A Line in the Shadows

Hawks' question hung in the cold air of the observation room, heavier than the weight of any mission they had ever faced. "What should we do with him?"

On the monitor screen, Kageyama sat tied to his chair, a broken and defeated figure. He was no longer an arrogant commander, but just a man who had lost everything. To Tatsumi, he was no longer an enemy on the battlefield, but a helpless captive.

The silence was broken by Akame, her voice as cold as steel. "He is an enemy. He is a security risk. He knows this location, he knows our faces, and he knows part of our plan. In war, loose ends must be cut." Her logic was flawless, born from brutal training under the Empire and the Yozakura. It was the cold, pragmatic calculation of an assassin.

"Whoa, hold on there, sharp lady," Leone interjected, crossing her arms. She looked at Kageyama on the screen with an unreadable expression. "Killing him now feels... wasteful. He's already broken. Think about it: he knows how the PLF works from the inside. He knows names, protocols, and maybe other weaknesses we haven't had a chance to ask about. Killing him means throwing away a resource. Maybe we can 'flip' him, make him our asset in the future." Leone's logic was that of a street-wise opportunist—never throw away something that might be useful later.

Hawks listened to both arguments carefully. "Both are valid points," he said, his eyes shifting from Akame to Leone. "Letting him live is a long-term risk. Killing him is a line in the sand. A line that, if we cross it as a team, will be very difficult to come back from."

He then turned and looked directly at Tatsumi. "But this isn't an HPSC agency playing by their gray rules. This is our alliance. And you, kid, are its moral heart. The decision we make tonight will set the precedent for all our future operations. So, I'm asking you. What's your call?"

The weight of the world seemed to be placed on Tatsumi's shoulders. He looked at Kageyama on the screen, then at Akame's hard face, Leone's calculating expression, and Hawks' waiting gaze. A war raged within him.

The hero side of him, forged at U.A. and inspired by All Might, screamed that killing a helpless captive was the act of a villain. It was a line that should not be crossed, no matter the reason.

But the Night Raid soldier side of him, an echo of his past with Akame, understood the cold logic behind his friend's words. He remembered nights where killing was the only way to protect his comrades, to survive. He knew that in a real war, mercy could be a deadly luxury.

And on a deeper level, the instinct of the Tyrant Dragon whispered. It saw Kageyama not as an enemy or a human, but as a weak and defeated creature. A predator doesn't waste energy on vanquished prey. It simply ignores it.

Tatsumi had to find his own path between these three voices. To kill Kageyama now, while he was bound and broken, wasn't an act of war. It was an execution. It would make them the same as the enemies they fought. But letting him go was just as suicidal.

After a moment of silence, Tatsumi finally spoke. His voice was clear and steady, cutting through the doubt in the room.

"We're not going to kill him."

Akame looked at him, a flash of surprise in her eyes, but she didn't argue. Leone smiled faintly.

"But we can't let him go, either," Tatsumi continued. "Leone is right, he could be an asset. And Akame is right, he's a risk." He looked at Hawks. "You have vast resources, right? Can we make him 'disappear'? An unofficial witness protection program. A new identity, a new life in a remote small town on the other side of the world, under the strict surveillance of one of your agents. He'll live, but his life will no longer be his own. He'll be our source of information if we need him."

He paused for a moment, looking at his friends. "We'll give him a choice: cooperate and get a restrained second chance, or spend the rest of his life in an isolation cell of our own making. But... we will not be executioners. Not tonight."

It was a solution that wasn't entirely clean, a compromise in a world of gray. But it was their solution. Leone chuckled softly. "Clever, Dragon Boy. Turning an enemy into a locked-up tool. I like it." Akame gave a single, small nod. It was a middle ground she could accept.

Hawks smiled, this time sincerely. "A difficult, but correct decision. It defines who we are. I can arrange it."

The moral crisis had passed. They had set their own rules of engagement.

Inside the quiet Aokigahara laboratory, a senior Humarise scientist was observing a series of monitors displaying biological data from 'Asset E'. Everything was stable. Too stable.

"Incredible," he muttered to his younger colleague. "Her energy pulse is almost undetectable, suppressed to an impossible degree. But the potential energy stored within her cells... the calculations are beyond anything we've ever seen."

He pointed to a graph. "She's like a sleeping volcano. Every day we should be thankful that the Yozakura's containment seal is working. If that thing were to fail, even for five seconds... this entire facility, maybe even this whole forest, would become an ice crater."

Back at the safe house, with the decision on Kageyama made, their focus returned entirely to the main mission. The atmosphere had changed. Doubt was gone, replaced by a sharp determination.

"Alright, team," Hawks said, displaying the laboratory layout on the holographic table. "We have the key. We have the time window. Tomorrow night, during the cooling system maintenance schedule between 01:00 and 01:30."

He began assigning roles. "Leone, you stay in town. Monitor all PLF and police movements. If there's any sign they've noticed Kageyama's disappearance sooner than we expect, you need to let us know."

"Tatsumi and I will be the infiltration team," Akame said, already taking charge. "Tatsumi will get us in, and I will handle internal security if needed."

"Your objectives are twofold," Hawks explained. "One: get clear visual confirmation of the prisoner's identity inside that tube. Two: if there's an opportunity, plant this malware," he pointed to a small chip, "into the main terminal of the containment system. It won't release her, but it will give us a backdoor, the ability to shut it down remotely in the future if we're forced to."

He looked at all of them, one by one. Four impossible individuals, brought together by fate and a common threat.

"This is the most dangerous mission we have ever undertaken. There is no room for error. Rest while you can."

He turned off the main screen, leaving only the laboratory layout glowing dimly in the center of the room.

"Tomorrow night, we enter the dragon's nest."