After Tsutsumi silenced Rock Lock, Sir Nighteye looked directly at him for a moment longer without saying anything.
His expression didn't change much, but his eyes stayed on Tsutsumi with a level of focus that made it clear he was weighing far more than just the present situation.
He had heard about Tsutsumi Ryoko before, long before this meeting, long before the yakuza raid discussion ever came up. The name had already reached him after U.A.'s Sports Festival, when Tsutsumi had first shown the public what kind of Quirk he really possessed. A Summoning-type ability that brought out a vehicle, a transformation ability that changed his clothes and granted him new power, and the strange, impossible-seeming ability to transform into other people and draw out their powers as well.
Back then, Nighteye had even tried to invite him for an internship. It made sense at the time. Tsutsumi had already shown enough potential to make anyone interested, and someone with that kind of versatility would have been useful in many fields.
But Tsutsumi had chosen Mirko instead, and later transferred over to Miyabi during the latter half of his internship. Nighteye had accepted that without much complaint, though he remembered it clearly.
At the time, Tsutsumi had still been one of those names that people talked about for a while and then gradually moved on from. The initial hype around him had slowly faded because he kept changing too much for the public to properly hold onto one image of him.
Still, that had made him even more curious. Nighteye had wondered, in particular, whether Tsutsumi could transform into All Might and use One For All.
The thought had stayed with him more than he expected it to. As someone who had once worked closely with All Might, he knew his body's condition better than most. He had seen the injuries, understood the consequences, and eventually that understanding had become part of the reason they had fallen out.
Even so, his respect for All Might had never disappeared. He still cared about him deeply, and if Tsutsumi truly had that kind of transformation ability, then Nighteye wouldn't have minded asking him outright, even begging him if necessary, to take that power and carry it forward as the next Symbol of Peace.
Finally, Sir Nighteye shifted his gaze away from Tsutsumi and returned his attention to the rest of the room. Whatever he had been thinking, he didn't show it outwardly, and the moment passed as naturally as it came.
"We suspect one of the Shie Hassaikai's primary sources of income is the production and distribution of unauthorized drugs," Nighteye said, his tone steady as he resumed control of the discussion. "Because of that, I requested assistance from heroes with experience dealing in that area."
"I crushed tons of guys like that back in the day!" Fat Gum spoke up immediately, his usual easygoing tone carrying through even as he stood there in his yellow tracksuit, a handful of candy resting in his gloved hand. He then clenched his fist, the candy crumbling under pressure as his expression shifted.
"And then, during Red Riot's debut fight the other day…" His voice dropped slightly, the memory clearly still fresh. "We ran into something new."
The room quieted down again.
"A type I've never seen before was used on Tamaki," he continued. "A drug… that destroys Quirks."
That statement hit the room harder than anything else so far.
Miyabi's hand, which had been casually resting on Tsutsumi's head, stopped moving. Tsutsumi himself raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't say anything yet.
"What!?" Mirio shot to his feet instantly, turning toward Tamaki with clear concern. "Tamaki, you're okay, right!?"
"Y-Yeah," Tamaki replied, still looking a bit uneasy even as he raised his hand, which had partially transformed. "I recovered after resting… see? Cow hoof."
Mirio stared at it for a second, then let out a breath. "That's… good. That's really good."
Rock Lock crossed his arms, still frowning but less tense than before. "So it's not permanent?"
"No," Nighteye answered calmly. "We will hear from Eraser Head on the matter."
Aizawa shifted slightly, his tired gaze moving toward the group. "It seems to be a little different from my Erasure. Since I don't attack the Quirk itself directly. My Quirk only temporaroly turn off their Quirk genes, not destroys them."
"Right after Tamaki was hit, we had him examined at a hospital," Fat Gum added, his tone more serious now. "They confirmed that his Quirk genes had actually been damaged. Not just suppressed."
He paused for a moment before continuing. "Thankfully, his body recovered on its own, and everything returned to normal."
Nighteye nodded once. "And the substance itself?"
Fat Gum's expression tightened. "That's the problem. There was no damage to the rest of his body. Only the Quirk was affected. The guy who used it isn't talking, the weapon was destroyed, and the only sample we had was the one that was already used."
Then his face softened slightly, glancing toward Kirishima. "But thanks to Red Riot, we managed to get one intact. One of the bullets bounced off him before it could be used."
Fat Gum clenched his fist again. "We analyzed it."
"And what we found…" he continued, his voice lowering, "was human blood and cells mixed into the compound."
Silence followed. A few of the students visibly stiffened. The implication wasn't hard to understand, even without anyone spelling it out directly.
Nighteye didn't let the focus drift for long.
Some of the heroes in the room still looked unconvinced, their expressions suggesting they weren't fully buying into the conclusion yet, but before any arguments could start, the screen behind Nighteye changed.
A new image appeared. A man with short black hair, his face hidden behind a red and yellow plague doctor mask.
The shift in attention was immediate. Mirio's eyes widened slightly. Midoriya tensed beside him.
"The current head of the Shie Hassaikai, Chisaki," Nighteye said. "His Quirk is called Overhaul."
He let that settle for a second before continuing. "It allows him to disassemble and reconstruct anything he touches."
Tsutsumi's gaze lingered on the screen.
"Disassemble… and restore," Nighteye repeated. "A Quirk capable of breaking things down and putting them back together. Combined with a substance that breaks down Quirks themselves…"
The connection didn't need to be spelled out.
"Chisaki has a daughter," Nighteye continued. "Her name is Eri. There are no official records of her birth or background. However, when Mirio and Midoriya encountered her, she was heavily bandaged."
The dragon hero, Ryukyu's expression tighten slightly. "Don't tell me…"
"They're using her Quirk," Miyabi said calmly, cutting in before the thought could fully form out loud. Her tone didn't waver, though her eyes had sharpened slightly. Cases like this weren't new to her, and that familiarity showed.
The room fell quiet again, this time with a different kind of weight.
Miyabi turned her head slightly.
"Decade," she said, her voice steady. "What are your thoughts on this?"
Surprisingly, Miyabi turned to Tsutsumi for his thoughts, which caused a few people in the room to glance at each other in confusion. Not everyone understood why she would ask a student something like that in the middle of a strategy discussion.
The ones who did know him, however, stayed quiet. They had already seen how he approached things, and when it came to understanding how abilities could be used, pushed, and abused, Tsutsumi was someone you listened to, even if you didn't like what he had to say.
Tsutsumi didn't answer immediately. He leaned back slightly, eyes still on the image of Chisaki displayed on the screen.
"Let's see…" he started, his tone casual, almost like he was thinking out loud rather than addressing the room. "If I had Overhaul, and it works the way you described… breaking something apart and restoring it…"
He paused for a second, then continued without hesitation.
"I could completely dismantle her body, drain most of her blood, harvest whatever I need, and then reconstruct her back to a stable state without leaving any visible scars, stopping just in time to keep her alive."
The room grew noticeably colder.
Several of the students stiffened, their expressions tightening as the image became clearer in their minds. Even some of the pro heroes frowned, not because they didn't understand the logic, but because they did.
"Hm… but…" Tsutsumi added, his voice steady as ever, "Something doesn't line up."
That pulled everyone's attention back in.
"If Overhaul can fully restore her body," he continued, eyes narrowing slightly at the image on the screen, "then those bandages don't make sense. She shouldn't have visible injuries if he's using his Quirk properly."
He shifted slightly in his seat, crossing his arms.
"That means he's not using it to fix everything." he said. "He uses his Quirk to keep her alive, but not to make it painless."
The statement landed quietly, but it carried weight.
"He dresses like a plague doctor," Tsutsumi went on, almost like he was analyzing a case rather than talking about a person. "So he probably sees himself as one. Someone who treats disease... And seeing how his target was Quirk... He most likely saw Quirk as some kind of disease that needs to be cured."
He paused for a moment.
"Which means those cuts probably aren't from his Quirk." he added. "He must have done so manually. Using some kind of tool. Surgical instruments… maybe a scalpel."
Miyabi's expression didn't change, but her eyes sharpened slightly. The other hero's expression darkened further.
"He's deliberately leaving marks," Tsutsumi continued. "Not deep enough to kill her, but enough to hurt. Enough to remind her."
He leaned back slightly, one foot resting against the table leg, his posture relaxed even as the tension in the room kept rising.
"Fear conditioning," he added. "Makes her easier to control, with less resistance and more compliance."
No one spoke for a moment.
Even the air felt heavier.
Then Tsutsumi let out a small breath.
"Tch… I don't get it," he said, his tone shifting just slightly, though still calm. "Overhaul's already a strong Quirk. You could do a lot with it. Medical applications alone would make him valuable anywhere. Remove tumors, repair organs, rebuild tissue…"
He glanced back at the screen.
"And he goes with this instead."
He shook his head lightly. "Waste."
The word hung there, simple and blunt.
Nighteye stepped in after a moment, regaining control of the discussion. "Thank you for your analysis. At this stage, we can't confirm whether the completed bullets are being distributed yet. Their effectiveness is still uncertain."
He adjusted his glasses slightly.
"However, if they are in the testing phase, and he is using these samples to refine the process…"
"…then a completed version could potentially erase a Quirk entirely," he said.
That statement reignited the tension in a different way. The idea alone was enough to unsettle everyone in the room.
"I'm sure there would be countless ways to exploit something like that," Nighteye added.
A few of the heroes clenched their fists.
Rock Lock clicked his tongue and glanced toward Midoriya and Mirio. "This wouldn't even be an issue if those two had just taken the girl when they had the chance."
"I take full responsibility for that decision," Nighteye said immediately, his tone firm. "Do not place the blame on them."
He looked toward the two students working under him.
"They acted with the intent to save her. Midoriya was prepared to take that risk immediately, while Mirio chose to wait for a more favorable situation."
Neither of them looked up.
"The ones most frustrated here right now," Nighteye continued, "are them."
Both Midoriya and Mirio stood up at the same time.
"We'll take her next time," Midoriya said, his voice steady despite the tension in his shoulders.
"…and we'll protect her," Mirio added, matching his tone.
Nighteye gave a small nod. "That is the objective."
The determination in the room rose slightly, but it didn't solve the main problem.
The Shie Hassaikai operated across multiple locations, with several bases spread throughout Japan. Even identifying the correct one would be difficult, especially now that Eri had already come into contact with heroes. There was a high chance they had already moved her.
Which meant rushing in blindly wasn't an option.
Still, not everyone in the room was willing to wait and search.
A few heroes shifted, clearly dissatisfied with the idea of holding back when a child was involved. The urge to act immediately was there, even if the situation didn't support it.
Tsutsumi watched all of this quietly.
While the heroes were still caught in the argument over how to move forward, both Mirko and Miyabi turned toward Tsutsumi at the same time. They did not even need to say anything. The look they gave him was enough.
Tsutsumi sighed lightly. "Fine then, Azu."
The black jacket on his body suddenly broke apart, not falling to the ground, but splitting into a swarm of cluster cells that flowed outward and rapidly gathered behind him.
The cluster of metallic cells reorganized itself in midair, forming a humanoid shape.
Azu stood there quietly once the transformation completed, her presence immediately drawing attention from everyone in the room.
Her eyes glowed a bright crimson.
A few of the heroes stiffened at the sudden appearance. Even the ongoing argument died down as the focus shifted entirely toward her.
Azu didn't react to the attention. She simply raised her hand, and a small USB drive materialized within her palm, holding it out to Tsutsumi with both precision and care.
"Here, Master," she said calmly. "I have located and tracked down the current location of Chisaki Kai and Eri."
That immediately changed the entire room.
Some of the heroes blinked in disbelief, while others leaned forward at once, staring at the USB as if it had just solved every problem in front of them. Those who already knew Tsutsumi and what he could do only smiled slightly, seeing him willing to help.
Tsutsumi took the USB without looking at it for long.
"Glasses No. 2, catch."
Nighteye reacted quickly, reaching out and catching it, though the force behind the throw was strong enough to jolt his arm and nearly knock him off his seat. He adjusted himself immediately, then looked down at the drive in his hand before handing it to Bubble Girl.
"Turn this on," he said.
"R-Right!" she replied, quickly taking the USB and plugging it into the laptop.
The file opened almost immediately.
A moment later, the screen filled with a recording of live footage.
The room went quiet.
On the display was a direct camera recording of Overhaul and Eri, the image clear enough that no one could mistake who they were looking at. The timestamp showed that the recording had been taken today, and the note beside the file listed the exact coordinates of the base they were currently in. It was not a rough estimate, not a partial lead, but a direct location.
Several of the heroes stared at the screen in shock, eyes glued to the massive screen. Others looked back at Tsutsumi.
The information had appeared too cleanly, too quickly, and far too precisely for anyone to process immediately. A few people in the room were clearly trying to figure out how he had done it, while the ones who knew better stayed silent, already understanding that asking would probably not lead anywhere useful.
Nighteye slowly looked up from the screen, then back to Tsutsumi.
"How…" he began, then stopped himself.
Tsutsumi shrugged. "How I got it doesn't matter."
He leaned back slightly, his expression calm, almost bored again.
"So, are you going to take action now or not?"