"There is a rat in this house. Find it."
Gensei's words were spoken in a calm tone, almost a whisper, but their echo in the vast, dusty warehouse was louder than any shout. For Akame, hiding among the steel beams in the dark ceiling, those words felt like a death knell. Her heart, which usually beat with a slow, controlled rhythm even in the midst of battle, now stopped for an agonizing split second.
How? she thought, her usually clear mind now filled with a single, impossible question. She didn't move. She didn't breathe. She made no sound. She was a ghost, a shadow merged with the darkness. How could this old man have sensed her? Was it an undetectable sensory Quirk? Or was it something older, more primal—a sixth sense possessed only by master assassins?
Atop the cold, wet container crane, Tatsumi heard Gensei's words through Akame's listening device, which was linked to his comms. His entire body tensed. "Hawks, we have a major problem," he reported, his voice urgent yet still controlled. "Mission status: Compromised. I repeat, Akame has been compromised."
Below, Gensei didn't wait. He just gave a nearly imperceptible hand signal. His two elite Yozakura bodyguards immediately moved. They were nothing like the clumsy 'Port Hounds' thugs. Their movements were efficient and purposeful. One, who was smaller and more agile, began to climb one of the warehouse's support pillars with the speed and agility of an insect, his eyes constantly scanning the dark ceiling. The other took out a strange handheld device, a multi-spectrum scanner, and began to aim it upwards, searching for the smallest anomaly in heat, sound, or energy.
They would find Akame in less than a minute. The trap had been turned. The hunter was now the hunted.
The Call for Chaos
At his distant digital command post, Hawks watched his worst nightmare become a reality on his monitor screen. Their precision surgical plan had just turned into a desperate rescue operation. "Leone!" he shouted into the communication channel, his usually calm voice now filled with sharp authority. "Execute emergency plan 'Thunderstorm'! Now! We need the biggest diversion you can create!"
Inside the dimly lit coffee shop, Leone, who was casually stirring her coffee, heard the call in her hidden earpiece. Her golden eyes immediately narrowed, her playful expression vanishing, replaced by the focus of a predator. She calmly placed a few yen bills on the table, stood up, and walked out onto the rain-slicked street.
As she walked away from the coffee shop, her hand went into her jacket pocket. Her finger found the small, cold button of a remote detonator. Without breaking her stride, without looking back, she pressed it.
Inside the coffee shop, the main fuse box near the restroom exploded in a blinding shower of blue and white sparks. It wasn't a destructive explosion, but a catastrophic short circuit. The lights on the entire block flickered wildly then went out completely, plunging the district into a sudden darkness. A few seconds later, thick, acrid black smoke began to pour out of the coffee shop's windows and door.
"FIRE!" someone screamed from inside.
Chaos erupted instantly. The dockworkers and truck drivers who had been relaxing inside scrambled out, shouting in panic. The 'Port Hounds' guards who were on duty outside the warehouse gate, who had been on alert, were now completely distracted. The fear of fire and a sense of duty (or at least curiosity) made them run towards the source of the commotion, abandoning their posts. The enemy's outermost layer of defense had crumbled without a single blow.
The Ghost's Escape
The disturbance from outside gave Akame the opening she needed. As the lights inside the warehouse flickered wildly due to the short circuit Leone caused, and the guards below turned their heads towards the commotion outside, she knew this was her only chance.
She didn't try to fight the Yozakura hunters on their home turf. She chose to escape. From her pouch, she dropped a small black ball into the middle of the warehouse floor, right between Gensei's and the Humarise groups.
PFFF!
The ball exploded, not with fire, but with a plume of incredibly thick and dense black smoke, instantly swallowing the entire central part of the warehouse in an artificial darkness.
"She's on the move!" the Yozakura spotter shouted from above.
In the confusion, Akame leaped. She didn't leap towards the exit. That would be too predictable. Instead, she leaped deeper into the warehouse, towards the labyrinth of shipping containers and old machinery stacked on the other side.
But the Yozakura bodyguards were true professionals. They weren't fooled by the smoke. Both of them immediately leaped down from their positions, chasing Akame into that steel labyrinth. A deadly game of cat and mouse began among the shadows. Akame used her deep knowledge of the warehouse's layout, which she had learned during her reconnaissance, to her advantage. She knocked over empty crates to block their path, used her wires to create simple traps.
As the hunt unfolded, Hawks played his final ace. He hacked into the warehouse's main electrical system itself. With one final command, all the main lights inside the warehouse exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the entire interior into a near-absolute darkness, illuminated only by the dim emergency lights. Then, the emergency fire suppression system activated, spraying water from the ceiling, creating an artificial storm inside the room.
He had turned the enemy's fortress into a chaotic and confusing warzone for everyone inside.
The Dragon's Descent
From the top of his crane, Tatsumi watched it all unfold. He saw the chaos Leone had created. He saw Akame escaping into the warehouse labyrinth. He saw the two Yozakura figures chasing her. And he saw Gensei's group, now protected by their remaining guards, trying to stay calm amidst the artificial storm.
His reconnaissance mission was a complete failure. His new mission was now extraction. He had to get Akame out of there.
With cold determination, he leaped from his high perch.
He didn't glide or fly gracefully. He free-fell for a few moments, before extending his dragon wings with a powerful flap, arresting his fall and turning it into a sharp, controlled dive. He was a silver missile aimed directly at the heart of the chaos.
He didn't aim for the door or for where Akame was hiding. He aimed for the one place that would draw all the attention. The warehouse roof.
With a roar that was a mixture of a mechanical sound and a bestial growl, he slammed into the fragile industrial glass roof in the center of the warehouse.
KRAASSSHHHH!
A rain of glass, metal, and rainwater showered the warehouse floor below. And in the middle of it, Tatsumi landed with a force that cracked the concrete floor beneath him. He landed right between Gensei's group and the direction where Akame had disappeared.
He rose slowly, his silver armor glistening under the flickering emergency lights, the water from the sprinkler system hissing as it touched his slightly hot metal. His helmet's visor lit up with a menacing green glow. He had become a wall, an undeniable diversion.
A shocked silence fell inside the warehouse. The guards, the leaders, and the hunters all stopped, staring at the impossible dragon knight who had just fallen from the sky.
Hidden in the shadows of the container labyrinth, Akame saw her chance. All attention was now on Tatsumi. Her escape route was now open.
Gensei looked at the large, armored figure before him. He didn't look afraid. Instead, there was a glint of cold curiosity in his eyes. He had heard the rumors from the underworld about the heroes' new 'asset,' an unknown power involved in the Hosu and I-Island incidents.
"So," Gensei whispered, his voice barely audible over the roar of the water. "This is the rumored 'Tyrant'."
Tatsumi didn't answer. He just activated his energy claws, which shone brightly in the darkness. The hunt was over. The battle had just begun.