Beta read by Shigiya, Gamercrusher55 and Paragon of Awesomeness
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-Kyoroch, Path of Peace Headquarters-
Had they been played for fools?
This thought crossed his mind as soon as he saw the body, and Tatsumi couldn't shake it away. The leader of the Path of Peace probably had plenty of enemies from all sides, regardless of his stance on helping people. Or perhaps, were they really just that unlucky? Did they simply happen to stumble onto the scene at the worst possible time? He tried to figure out the truth, but there were no answers to be found, only the chilling sight of the headless corpse on the floor.
While he pondered on what could have happened, Akame made her way to the corpse. Walking over to the body, she casually turned it over with her boot. Blood had pooled on the floor, and her steps sent small ripples across the red surface. She then walked a couple of steps to the right and picked up the man's severed head. His last expression was utterly stoic, as if he hadn't even expected the attack.
"A quick and clean decapitation," Akame stated. "It happened so fast, he wouldn't have felt any pain. From the cut, this was clearly done by a long blade made for slicing."
Tatsumi grumbled back, "Analysing it won't do us any good right now, since we weren't the ones who did it. We should leave now. It doesn't matter if this guy was innocent or not… It's already too late." He grabbed his Imperial Arm firmly; teleporting along with another person would consume far more energy if he tried to get out of the city in one go. Less so if he took several small jumps, though it would take longer. "Akame, we should leave."
Before she answered, the girl stared at the body for several more seconds, clearly hesitating. This confused him. "Is something the matter?"
"Nothing, just need to check something," she turned her attention towards the office desk in the room. Heading over to it, her eyes began scanning the scattered papers for several seconds, and she even began to go through them one by one.
"Akame?"
She shook her head. "Nothing helpful is here, and nothing about people being traded into slavery. We can't consider this a mission accomplished, since the assassination wasn't done by our group and we are left with more questions than answers."
"But our goal was to kill this guy if he was bad, right? Isn't that the same—oof!"
Pa!
Suddenly, Akame's eyes widened, and before he knew it, she rushed towards him at breakneck speed. Her steps broke the wooden plank underneath her foot while he struggled to react in time, by which point she had already crossed the distance between them. Both of her palms pressed against his chest, pushing him back.
"—!"
As the world slowed down to a snail's pace, the brown-haired young man gazed in astonishment as a blade appeared from the corner of his vision, thrusting into the space where his head had just been. The near encounter with death made his mind momentarily go blank.
"Gah!"
With Akame not being able to adjust her strength to save his life, Tatsumi's back ended up getting slammed against the wall rather harshly.
'D-Damn it… What the hell? I didn't notice their presence at all!' he thought, his mind racing, tracing the katana back to its wielder. 'Eh? She's…' It was a small, young woman with black hair. Though the thing that caught him off guard was the uncanny resemblance to Akame, but younger. One who wore similar high school-like clothes and had the same crimson eyes.
"Kurome," Akame called out, the name leaving her lips with a trace of sadness… and pure killing intent. It was not one Tatsumi had ever heard before. The woman drew her sword slowly, the faint scrape of steel carrying through the quiet. "You were here after all."
While having only been with Night Raid for a short while, Tatsumi nonetheless believed to have gotten a decent understanding of most of the members. He had never seen Akame like this. Her face had gone still, only to be replaced with nothing but the desire to kill this person.
Across from them, Kurome's lips curled into a grin that didn't quite sit right on her face. "I'll finally kill you today!" she said, her voice carrying a strange eagerness. "I won't let you escape!"
That was enough.
"Akame… who is she?" He asked, unable to hold off his curiosity.
"My sister."
"Eh?" That was not the answer he thought he'd get. Also, Akame had a sister!? It did explain the similarities. But the way both were looking at each other did not make it feel like a reunion between sisters, but instead like sworn enemies!
"I'll explain later. You need to go, gather the others; I'll handle her."
His body froze, and a dreadful sense of deja vu encompassed him as he looked back at his partner. "You can't be serious. We both have to leave! Hn!"
He stepped forward, reaching for Akame, already planning to grab her and get them both out before things escalated further. His ability kicked in at once, already locking in the location with Shambhala beginning to glow a light white colour.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance to finish.
Something… no, someone crashed into him from the side, hitting hard enough to knock him clean off his feet. "Argh!" The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and broke his focus, the attempt to teleport away falling apart before it could complete.
If his back hadn't been bruised by Akame's prior save, then it certainly did now. Hitting the ground with a rough thud, pain flared along his side as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
The thing that had tackled him was already pushing itself upright, its movements stiff and wrong in a way that made his stomach turn. For a moment, his mind stalled, trying to force the image into something that made sense.
The body standing in front of him had no head.
His eyes widened as recognition hit a second later, the details snapping into place whether he liked it or not. It being none other than the leader of the Path of Peace, still moving.
"What!?" The word was ripped from his throat as the wind was forced from his lungs.
Crash!
His body went crashing through the wooden wall, ending up outside. He rolled across the dirt ground, coming to a stop a distance away. "Cough! Cough! T-That… ?" He hissed in agony, trying to get up, wincing in pain from being sent through a wall.
A groan escaped his lips, intending to rush back inside, but he scrambled backwards as a figure landed in front of him.
"I knew we'd run into you people again. But I didn't expect to see you here as well after what happened last time."
Blue strands of hair, a blue Imperial Navy jacket, and a voice he recognized from the day when Bulat fought Esdeath and the others. Except this time, no blue Teigu covered his face, giving Tatsumi a clear view of the man behind the armor. The latter looked at Tatsumi with confusion before glancing inside and seeing the limp corpse of the Path of Peace's leader.
A look of pure anger filled the newcomer's face.
"When will it be enough for you!? This person was just helping people!" Wave shouted, noticing the corpse nearby and having long since taken out his sword. "Just when will it be enough for you, Night Raid!?"
The outcome he feared was coming to pass; they were being blamed for this kill! "We weren't the ones behind it! He was already dead when we got here! The corpse moved!"
Even when those words were the truth, a part of him already realized that no one would believe him. Heck, he would not even believe himself in such a ridiculous scenario and thus was unsurprised when he saw the look of disbelief on Wave. "Shut up!" Wave screamed back.
Things moved faster than he would have liked; the entire disaster was slipping out of his control before he could properly make any sort of plans. Especially when his opponent caught his sword mid-motion and plunged it into the ground.
"Grand Chariot!"
The Teigu's activation happened instantly, extremely reminiscent of when Bulat once held a similar weapon. "Hn!" Shielding his face from the gust of powerful wind and bright blue light, he watched in awe as his opponent donned himself in a set of heavy blue armor that formed around him piece by piece. A spear weapon materialized in his hands, its tip already aimed at Tatsumi.
"This nonsense ends here today! I won't let Night Raid take more innocent lives!"
Then he moved.
With such a ridiculous speed that it made his figure turn into a blur, Wave rushed ahead with a ridiculous burst of speed, almost equal to Akame's.
But having sparred against Akame numerous times, Tatsumi was prepared.
'Now!' Shambhala activated the moment Wave entered striking range, the brown-haired assassin vanished and reappeared a few feet closer to the wall where he'd first landed, dodging the attack entirely. 'Engaging him is pointless,' he thought. 'Even if I were to be somehow faster, which I'm not, my sword won't go through his armor. I need to prioritize my primary goal: keeping Akame alive.'
"Don't even think about it!" But as he tried to go back inside, Wave reacted just as quickly and attacked again, throwing his spear into the path Tatsumi was about to take, forcing him to teleport away.
Only to realise he'd been had!
As he reappeared in a new location, a fist was already making its way towards him.
"How did you…!" Tatsumi panicked, trying to teleport again, but he couldn't. "Gah!" The punch connected with his head full force. His vision momentarily went black as he ragdolled a few feet away, crashing against a tree. He coughed up blood, a tooth falling from his mouth. He looked ahead and saw Wave standing there, his fist clenched.
"I've been keenly aware of the Teigu you stole from the Prime Minister's son," Wave said, keeping his stance well guarded with his returned spear held ready. "I was briefed about what it can do, and more importantly, what it can't. I know there's a short delay after each teleport before you can activate it again. It's small, but it's there. Most people wouldn't be able to take advantage of it."
He shifted his footing slightly, never taking his eyes off Tatsumi.
"But with my speed, I can. You won't be getting inside to your comrade without going through me. Not until Kurome's done with her."
Tatsumi steadied himself with some effort, one hand pressing against the rough bark of a nearby tree as he pushed himself upright. His breathing hadn't fully settled yet, but he forced himself to stay focused, eyes locked on Wave.
"I know you don't like us and our methods. I also won't deny that I can see where you're coming from. But for this case, we really had nothing to do with this," he said, the sound of steel meeting steel sounding in the background with Akame and Kurome going at each other relentlessly. "That guy was already dead when we arrived. What do I gain from lying to you? I admit, we were sent here to investigate and potentially assassinate him, but that is because of reports we have gotten of the Path of Peace being involved in human trafficking."
"And your tactics are to blindly believe those and just kill him? Don't bother trying to weasel your way out of this, I won't fall for it." Wave said, his grip on the spear tightened slightly, the weapon angled forward as he took a small step closer, closing the distance without rushing in.
"Where are the rest?" he repeated. "I know it's not just you two; there should be more of you assassins around. I'll get rid of every single last one of you myself and put an end to this."
"Looks like talking to you is of no use, huh?" Tatsumi mentioned with a tired tone, having realized that saying more would just be a waste of time.
"Of course not, you're criminals. Every last one of you. You claim you're fixing things, that you're getting rid of the worst parts of the Empire, but all I see is a group that kills whoever they decide is a problem. How is that any different from the tyranny you are mentioning? At the end of the day, the innocent people who just want to survive end up being the ones who suffer from the fallout more than anyone else."
He kept his stance steady, not giving Tatsumi an opening.
"That's not justice. That's not how you fix anything." His eyes narrowed slightly, still fixed on him. "Killing people isn't a solution."
"There is no saving this Empire!" Tatsumi shouted back. "It's already rotten to the core thanks to the Prime Minister! Anyone who isn't corrupt just gets framed or killed! The only way to fix it is to burn it all down! And you're underestimating my Imperial Arm a bit too much!"
With that said, he teleported away just as Wave attacked, his fist punching through the tree he had been using for support and shattering it.
Rather than teleporting a safe distance away, Tatsumi teleported right back inside the building. "You!" Facing Kurome again, the young girl was surprised to see him appear before her, all the while noticing Wave already going through the motion of throwing his weapon as before. He put enough strength into that throw that dodging was practically impossible.
Clang!
Thankfully, he wasn't alone. The spear got knocked aside by a swift slash, sparks flying in the air as Akame made her way between them. Tatsumi had already taken his attention off Wave and swung his sword towards Kurome, who blocked his attack.
The girl glared at him. "Outsiders should just mind their own business!"
"Sorry, can't do that." He then proceeded to kick her in the stomach, pushing her to the side.
"Get away from here and meet up with the others!" Akame, who stood behind him, shouted.
"Shut up!" Tatsumi screamed back at her. "I'm fucking done being the one who has to escape while the rest of the team sacrifices themselves just to save my life! You're coming with me, whether you like it or not!"
Immediately, an intense heat surged from around them. The entire building went up in flames, a masked man standing outside the entrance using a flamethrower and setting the entire place into an inferno.
'Something's not right about this fire, we can't stay here!'
"Let go of me!" Surprisingly, someone ended up grabbing Kurome. A blond guy with angelic wings jutting from his back, pulling the enraged girl away from the flames as they continued to consume the room more and more to the point of cornering both members of Nightraid.
"You'll get consumed by the fire as well! You don't have anything to protect yourself from it!"
"No! No! Let me go! I need to kill her! I have to kill her! I don't have much time left! Let me go!"
"Calm down, Kurome!"
Amongst the flames, he heard Wave coming towards him again. "You won't get away!"
The strange flames, Akame's younger sister, the person who could fly, and Grand Chariot attacking them made any thoughts of victory practically impossible. Realistically, the only individual capable of putting up a fight was just Akame. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, "Seryu's still alive!"
"—!"
The name momentarily stunned Wave, buying him precious seconds. He grabbed Akame.
"No, I cannot leave yet—" she started, but he didn't listen.
A flash of blue light consumed the room and momentarily overpowered the intensity of the flames. Having teleported both of them away, the pair reappeared inside a forest a great distance from the Path of Peace's flaming headquarters.
"Ah!"
Tatsumi fell on his butt and felt the cold, damp earth beneath his hand. They had finally managed to get away from that hellhole!
"Hah… hah… g-gah…"
Teleporting several times in such a short amount of time, not to mention doing such a big jump with someone else, had taken its toll. It wasn't as bad as his fight against Stylish's men, not enough to make him unconscious, but it was still enough to put him out of breath. It felt like a heavy mental toll, draining him like crazy.
"That was close… too close. Damn it, this whole thing was a trap. We need to contact Leone and Chelsea—ah!"
Pa!
A sensation of pain cut him off. His head snapped to the side as Akame's fist struck his face, the impact sudden enough to make him stumble half a step before catching himself. The shock only lasted for a moment before he looked up at the person who struck him. "Ouch! W-What was that for!?"
She stood there, arm still slightly raised, her breathing tighter than usual.
"Why did you do that!?" she demanded, with a louder voice than he had ever heard from her before. "What gave you the right to stop me from accomplishing my goal!? I can't let her suffer more than she already has!"
Tatsumi straightened, the impact of Akame's punch a dull throb compared to the fire in his gut.
"Gah!" He swung back, his fist connecting squarely with her jaw. Her head snapped to the side, and she looked back with utter astonishment that he'd hit her back. He met her stare, his own burning with anger he didn't bother to hide.
"Why did I do that? What a fucking stupid question. It's because I'm your partner for this mission, you idiot," he bit out. "It's my fucking job to make sure you don't get yourself killed! I was useless before, and Bulat nearly died because of it! I'm… I'm not letting that happen again."
"…"
Akame regained her footing, the mask of fury that was her face having cooled down somewhat. She moved to walk past him, but he would not let her, and his hand clamped around her wrist like a steel manacle.
"Let go," whispered the woman ever so silently.
"Where the hell are you going?" he demanded, not budging whatsoever.
"To finish this. To kill Kurome. I might not get another chance, and she's at her limit. I… I am sorry for my outburst earlier, but you don't understand. I can't leave her back there; she will only suffer and live in agony for longer. I already ran away and abandoned her once before… Please don't make me do it again."
It wasn't a surprise that there was a history between the sisters. As to why both of them wanted to kill each other, that remained a mystery that he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Regardless, it changed nothing to his current goals. "I'm not letting you go."
"I will use force if I have to."
She fixed him with a look that could freeze lava. He almost flinched at seeing the woman who would practically become a puppy when begging Emiya for food make a face like that. Still, he didn't back down and just stared right back.
"Then make me," he said, his voice volume matching hers. "If you want to die alone after being ambushed by the entirety of the Jaegers, you're going to have to kill me first. Or knock me out or cut off my hand. Your choice."
"I won't lose."
Tatsumi scoffed, "Good. Neither will I, because we're all coming back to the others alive. And I'm not leaving you behind. As long as I breathe, I will take you back alive."
The silence stretched between them; he could see the battle raging behind her eyes. Both sides were unwilling to back down or take a step back. Even if he knew that she could easily defeat him, he did not care.
"Hah," Finally, her shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. With a quiet sigh, her fingers went slack. Murasame slipped from her grasp, hitting the leafy ground with a soft thud. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"
"Get used to it. Sayo said many times before that I can be unnaturally thickheaded at times."
"You and Mine are the same."
"Mine?" Remember the feisty twin-tailed assassin, he just could not picture that. "I feel like she is more unreasonable than anything else."
"Same thing."
The tension drained out of him, and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"We follow the plan," he said, getting serious after a moment of ease. "We head to the rendezvous point. If the others are there, good. If not, I'll find them. We're done with the Jaegers for tonight, and at no point should we try to engage them. I don't know what's going on with your sister, but reschedule your sibling dispute for another date. I doubt she'll be dying tomorrow; you still have time."
A bit harsh, but she needed to get her head in the game.
Akame gave a single nod. She turned her back to him and began walking into the dark woods.
"Leone and Chelsea must have seen the explosion, but they were already on their way to the second target's building. We need to stop them or find a way to signal them first." She said, a problem he had not considered until now. This was bad; he trusted Leone's capabilities, but fighting against the Jaegers alone was just plain suicide.
Not to mention that he was pretty sure Chelsea's Teigu only allowed her to be disguised, with very little application for direct combat.
Seeing his worried face, Akame patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, Leone is not stupid. She won't rush into the building without checking her surroundings. She may already be on her way to the rendezvous point."
He really hoped that was the case.
{Break}
(Around the same time)
Her earliest memories were of the Imperial Capital's slums. She'd been surrounded by other kids her age, all of them part of an orphanage that barely functioned and barely fed them. She remembered the streets and the schemes they'd cook up to get by. She would be the distraction, crying her eyes out in the middle of a crowded market while the other kids snuck fruits and vegetables from the carts. Life in the slums was tough, even back then, when the old emperor still lived, and Honest hadn't yet taken full control. Before the fat bastard went and turned the Empire into his personal playground. Still, the overall situation wasn't that different for the average slum orphan in the Capital. Each day was a fight for survival, and going to sleep without your stomach trying to eat itself and being free of bruises was a luxury.
But despite that, she hadn't been miserable. Her days weren't filled with despair, for her memories of that time were filled with laughter and mischief. The other kids were always there to cheer her up when she felt down, each having the others' backs. She learned to always smile at challenges and to save her tears for when they'd be useful for something.
'A full belly was worth a few fake tears,' she'd thought back then.
But as the years went by and Honest fully took over as Prime Minister after the previous Emperor died with a young boy as his last direct relative on the throne as the bastard's puppet, those around her disappeared one by one. Some joined the army and died in some pointless battles. Others left the Capital to find better prospects elsewhere. Many died for stupid reasons, getting involved with the wrong crowd, and a few died for tragic reasons involving the famine becoming much worse or an untreatable sickness. Eventually, without realizing how much time had passed, the now young woman found herself working odd jobs here and there, using the skills she'd learned as a kid and refining them. She got better at gathering information, at blending in, and at listening wherever she worked — the girls from the brothels always had a lot to say.
That path eventually led her to the Revolutionary Army, which in turn led her to becoming an assassin for hire and obtaining her Teigu by buying it on the black market. From there, she was quickly recruited into Night Raid.
Now, thinking about it, Leone realized her past wasn't that bad. Not compared to many others who had to scrape by on the streets, even a good number she knew from the Revolutionary Army and Night Raid. It had its challenges, sure, but for the most part, she was happy. She didn't hate her life in the slums.
Slap!
The sharp sting of her own hand against her cheek brought her back to the present.
'What the hell am I doing?' she thought, shaking her head. This was not the time for a trip down memory lane. She wasn't exactly in a position to be getting sentimental about her childhood.
The wall of ice in front of her was still there, a massive, glittering barrier blocking her path. The explosion in the distance had stopped, but an ominous silence had taken its place. Her arms, broken just moments ago, were already knitting themselves back together, the bones setting with a dull ache that was rapidly fading. The rest of her body was a road map of bruises and gashes, but Lionel's regeneration was holding back the worst of the pain.
She needed to get to the others.
Leone immediately took on a defensive position, an awkward smile stretching across her face as she stared at the woman responsible for the wall of ice. Esdeath walked calmly towards her, pushing her hat up ever so slightly, allowing her piercing blue eyes to lock onto Leone's golden orbs.
"It's quite an achievement to have taken out one of the Four Rakshasas," The bluenette stated, her voice smooth as silk, as if this were a regular conversation with an accomplished subordinate. "Najenda is quite a lucky woman to have such a capable subordinate under her command. You have the capabilities of what it takes to be recognized as a Beast."
Leone kept smiling, but her mind was racing.
'Couldn't be in a worse scenario,' she thought. Still, as long as Esdeath was here, that meant she wasn't going after the others. Maybe she could help them by keeping the General distracted.
"I appreciate the compliments," Leone replied with a light chuckle. "But I don't feel like being a Beast is my cup of tea. It's quite ironic, really, given the Imperial Arm I have is one that turns me into the literal King of Beasts."
Esdeath returned the smile, a genuine curve of her lips. "I'm impressed. Your wounds healed very fast. So you also have a regeneration factor." A curious look crossed her face. "I wonder how far this regeneration goes. Would you still regenerate if your heart got pierced?"
A shiver coursed through Leone's body. It wasn't a sensation of cold from the ice, but rather a deep dread, for she knew the woman was being completely serious, and intended to find out. Her hand clenched into a fist so tightly that the claws of her transformed arm dug into her own palm, the sharp pain acting as an anchor to keep her cool.
"It's very strange for all the Jaegers and the Rakshasas to be here, of all places," Leone said, changing the subject. "I was under the impression that the Path of Peace and the Empire didn't get along well. I certainly didn't expect a General like you, regarded as the Empire's Strongest, to be occupied by such things. Aren't you supposed to be waging war against another nation or something?"
Hearing that, Esdeath didn't answer immediately. She just stared at Leone for a few long moments, the silence stretching uncomfortably long, yet Leone dared not move under her gaze. Finally, she spoke, her voice dropping to a cold tone. "Trying to buy time will not change the outcome."
Goosebumps spread across Leone's body at those words.
"Night Raid has been quite active lately," Esdeath continued. "More so than it has ever been in the past. I can guess why. But regardless of whether he is here or not, your mission today has failed. And with me here, I will make sure not to repeat the same mistake as before, and let any of you slip through my grasp."
Despite her trepidation, Leone latched onto the angle the General had just given her. "If Tatsumi of all people, before he even fully mastered his Imperial Arm, could get away from you, then I should be able to do the same."
Though she said that, she understood that Tatsumi's escape had been more so because of his own Imperial Arm's power and Bulat's sacrifice. Without both of those factors, it would have been impossible to get away from this monster. Regardless, Esdeath did not seem to take her words seriously; not once had her expression changed, nor did any of what she said seem to work as bait.
"I would try to convince you to join the Jaegers, but you have made your stance quite clear. So I will just bring you back and see just how far the regeneration that Teigu of yours goes. I'll be able to try out all kinds of torture methods on you, and whatever's left of you by the end should serve as a good enough message for Najenda and the others."
The words had barely left her mouth when a sudden drop in temperature brushed against her skin.
It wasn't the air around her changing. It came from right in front of her.
"—!"
Her body reacted before she could think it through. "Whoa!" A quick step to the side, heels digging slightly into the ground as she shifted her weight. Something passed right by where her face had been, fast enough to stir the air with a faint, high-pitched sound. There was no time to follow it with her eyes. By the time she turned, it was already gone.
The slight sting came a moment later.
Her hand rose to her cheek, fingers brushing over a thin cut. When she pulled them away, there was a small line of blood across her fingertips. The injury itself was shallow and already closing up, but it didn't match what she expected. Immediately, her gaze lifted and settled on the weapon ahead.
The answer was obvious once she focused on it.
A rapier, long and narrow, extended far beyond its normal length. The ice blade had reached her by crossing the distance in a straight line and was only now being pulled back, the tip sliding through the air. At this point, it would be better to just call it a spear!
'I am really starting to hate enemies that use swords. At least against him, it's more fun.'
She adjusted her footing, shifting her stance slightly to keep balance, eyes fixed on the weapon instead of the person holding it. Distance didn't mean much if he could reach her at any moment.
Her mind ran through what she knew so far, comparing her information to what she had just seen, and the gap between the two was obvious.
"I thought you just made ice…" The blonde assassin couldn't help but lament. The only people she'd ever dealt with in combat who boasted such ridiculous speed were Akame and Emiya until now. Then again, with how often the guy kept warning them about this woman, why would she be any different?
Those two monsters grew up together, after all.
Whoosh!
Her musing got cut short when Esdeath was already in front of her, closing the distance before she could settle into a proper stance.
"Shit!"
The rapier came at her quickly, each thrust aimed straight for her face, throat, or chest, while the follow-up cuts came from different angles to catch her as she moved. There was no gap between strikes, no wasted motion, just one attack flowing into the next — which made it all the more difficult to keep up. The more she fought, the more it felt like this was another sparring match against Emiya.
Leone didn't try to match it. She focused on staying out of reach.
Her body shifted and bent as she moved, shoulders dipping, hips turning, feet sliding across the ground to keep balance. A thrust passed right by her eye, close enough to clip a few strands of blonde hair. She tilted her head just in time, feeling the air move as the blade whizzed past her flesh. Before she could fully recover, the next strike came low.
She pushed off the ground and lifted herself over it. The rapier swept under her feet and cut straight through the spot where she had been standing, digging deep into the dirt and leaving a long mark behind. The moment she landed, another thrust was already on its way, forcing her to twist her body again just to keep it from piercing through her side.
"Tch… you don't slow down, do you?"
The attacks didn't lose force even when they missed.
One swing went wide and struck a nearby tree. The blade passed through the trunk without stopping, and a second later, the top half slid off and dropped, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Another thrust drove straight into a rock off to the side, breaking it apart and scattering pieces across the area.
There was no room to counter.
Every second was spent moving, adjusting, avoiding the next strike before it reached her. Her senses were already strained to keep up, tracking the line of the blade, reading the direction of each movement, trying to stay just half a step ahead.
Even then, it was barely enough.
"Stand still!" Esdeath commanded, her voice losing its calm edge.
With a flick of her wrist, several jagged icicle constructs materialized in the air around her. They hovered for a second before launching themselves at Leone like a volley of arrows.
'Shit! Can't dodge all of these!' Leone thought, her mind racing. She weaved and jumped, her body a blur of motion. Two icicles missed, but a third sliced across her shoulder, and another grazed her thigh. The cuts burned, but Lionel's regeneration was already knitting the wounds closed, the enhanced durability of her transformed skin lessening the damage.
"Damn it!" Leone shouted in frustration, her voice tight with effort. As another icicle flew towards her. Instead of dodging, she reached out and snatched it mid-air, the freezing cold searing her palm. "Here, catch!" she yelled, hurling it back at Esdeath with all her might.
The icicle flew through the air, but Esdeath didn't even flinch. She simply raised a hand and caught it, her fingers closing around the projectile. With a casual squeeze, she crushed it into a shower of ice shards, letting them fall to the ground. She looked back at Leone, completely unimpressed.
Leone couldn't help it. "What the hell is up with your reflexes!? They're superhuman! Since when do fucking ice powers give you all that!?"
"Limiting oneself to the basic abilities of an Imperial Arm is a weakling's mindset," Esdeath stated coldly. She rushed forward, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. She sent a fresh flurry of thrusts towards Leone's chest and face.
Leone met her charge, her own movements a blur. She parried a thrust with her forearm, the impact jarring but not breaking her transformed limb. She dodged another, her head snapping back just in time. The fight became a deadly dance, a blur of golden fur and blue ice. Esdeath's attacks were relentless, a storm of cold steel, but Leone's speed and agility allowed her to keep up, deflecting and dodging through sheer experience.
"Is that all you can do? Dodge?" Esdeath's frustration was clear in her voice. "I expected better from one I thought worthy to be a Beast."
A smirk touched Leone's lips. It was an awkward, strained expression. She was right. Trying to get away was impossible. This woman was pinning her here, keeping her from the others. 'Tatsumi and Akame should be able to handle themselves,' she thought, her focus sharpening. 'I need to deal with her.'
The dynamic of the fight shifted. Leone stopped being purely defensive. She exploded forward, her transformed fists leading the way. She threw a powerful right hook, which Esdeath deflected with her rapier, her lips curving into a deadly smile. Leone followed with a left jab, then a spinning backhand, forcing the General to give ground. They traded blows, the sound of Leone's claws striking Esdeath's blade ringing through the alley. Leone was using her Teigu to its full extent, her enhanced strength and speed being pushed to its utmost to contest against Esdeath's.
She saw her opening. Esdeath thrust forward with her rapier, a linear attack. Leone dropped low and swept the General's legs out from under her. As Esdeath stumbled, Leone shot up, her knee driving into Esdeath's gut. At the same time, her elbow came down, aimed at the extended rapier. There was a sharp snap as the blade shattered.
The surprise on Esdeath's face lasted only a second. Leone pressed her advantage, lunging forward and delivering a powerful uppercut with all her strength. A loud boom echoed through the alley as her fist connected.
Leone jumped back, breathing heavily. She looked down at her transformed hand, the one she had used to inflict her hardest hits. Deep cuts marred her fingers, and a sharp pain from broken bones shot up her arm. She winced, then looked ahead.
Esdeath was standing in the exact same spot. She hadn't been pushed back, hadn't flown through the air. Her head was tilted slightly upwards, and a visible layer of ice, like armor, coated her chin and lower mouth. Slowly, Esdeath gave Leone a side-eye glance, touching the lower part of her face. Leone could see cracks spiderwebbing across the ice armor.
"All of that just for a crack? Even an Earth Dragon wouldn't come out of that unharmed…" The blonde assassin really started to believe rumours about this woman being a Danger Beast hybrid. Frankly, such rumors were far more appropriate for her than the leader of the Path of Peace.
Esdeath hummed aloud, a small smirk growing on her face instead of the irritation Leone had expected. "That was quite good," she remarked with a calm voice. "Enough to snap even a Teigu wielder's neck if they weren't careful."
Snap one's neck? She was trying to punch her head off entirely, or hopefully blow it to bits…
"Ah," Leone hissed in pain, closing and opening her injured fists. The bones were already knitting, but she needed a moment for them to be good enough to try something like that again.
"Yeah," she grunted. "That's kind of the point!" Right as she spoke, her good hand shot out, claws digging into a stone pillar at the side of the alley.
"Ha!" With a grunt of effort, she ripped it from the ground and hurled it towards her opponent.
"Throwing rocks? Humph, how disappointing." The General just huffed as two new rapier of ice formed in her hands. She used the first one to slash the incoming boulder into a dozen harmless pieces with ease.
Clang!
The second rapier moved behind her with impossible speed, blocking a sneak claw attack from Leone aimed for her back, the latter having circled around during the distraction. Their weapons locked, the ice rapier pressing against Leone's claws. The latter grunted in dissatisfaction.
'She's matching my strength, even like this!'
The exchange exploded. Esdeath, now dual-wielding, became a storm of steel-like ice. She lunged, her left rapier thrusting towards Leone's heart. Leone twisted her body, the blade grazing her side.
The blue-haired General's right rapier was already there, sweeping horizontally and sending a slash aimed at her neck. "Ha!" Leone dropped low, sweeping a leg out, forcing Esdeath to leap back. She landed a fair distance away and immediately pressed the attack again.
A flurry of thrusts came, one high, one low, one straight ahead. Leone weaved between them, her claws deflecting one, her body dodging the others. Forced back, her retreat felt more like a carefully managed dance than anything else, but she was holding her own.
'This is ridiculous, does she have no openings?' Seeing a pattern, Leone decided to act boldly. As Esdeath performed a lunge with her left sword, she didn't dodge. Taking the hit, her hardened skin absorbed the glancing blow, and she shot her own arm forward.
"Take this!" Her claws didn't aim for Esdeath, but for the rapier in her other hand. With a powerful wrench, she snapped the ice blade. "You're dead!" she snarled, lunging forward, her claws closing in for the kill.
The attack never landed.
"Ah!?"
Esdeath's empty hand moved with blinding speed, catching Leone's wrist midair — nearly snapping her bones with the strength of her grip alone. She twisted, a painful movement that locked the blonde's arm.
"Gugh!"
At the same time, her high-heeled boot shot up, the heel connecting squarely with Leone's stomach while releasing her hold on her wrist. The air burst from Leone's lungs as she was sent flying backwards, crashing hard into the dirt ground.
As the dust soon settled, the woman came to a realization that even unarmed combat proved to be this monster's strong point.
As if she could read her mind, Esdeath chuckled. "Oh my, did you really think I am unable to fight without my weapons or my ice?" She asked, her voice dripping with condescension.
Leone tried to push herself up, but before she could gain her footing, Esdeath tapped her boot on the ground.
A wall of bone-chilling wind struck at the assassin, followed by ice erupting from the earth. It crawled up Leone's legs and torso with terrifying speed.
"Shit!" It soon encased her entire body, leaving only her head exposed in a prison of clear blue ice.
"While it was fun to fight you, I don't plan on letting you distract me for too long," the General mentioned with a bored tone, turning away and walking away as her heels clicked on the now frozen ground. "While it is my duty, I need to see how the Jaegers will apprehend and kill the other members of Night Raid. But as for you… I'll keep you alive. I have all kinds of torture methods to test out on the regenerative factor of your Teigu later on."
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Aaah… Everything hurt like hell. While Leone wanted to believe she had a higher pain tolerance than most, being imprisoned in ice did wonders to challenge that belief. Just breathing proved to be a challenge; the prison alone gave her extremely little space for that. The cold made her mind more hazy and unfocused.
'I… can't… let her… hah… walk away…'
Akame was no easy target, but Esdeath still remained a monster in human skin. She had to keep the General's attention away from the rest somehow and give them some time to escape.
Desperate, a plan formed in her mind as Esdeath began to walk away. Leone suddenly started chuckling. "Ha… hahaha… cough! Haha!" It was a low, strained sound.
"Hm?" Esdeath paused for a second, then continued walking, dismissing it.
"Emiya was right about you," Leone called out. "You're truly nothing more than a monster."
"…"
The sound of footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Blue strands of hair swayed, and cold blue eyes looked right into golden ones with barely any emotions betraying her. "Oh?"
It was working.
"We had a long conversation about you," Leone continued, finding it hard to speak the longer this went on, but forcing air into her chest. "I learned a lot about you, about how you used to be. And the more I listened, the more apparent it became that the Esdeath of back then was a battle-crazy but was altogether happy, while the current you is nothing more than a traumatized child trying to hide her scars by acting all tough."
That didn't seem to faze the General. She rested her wrist on the hilt of her original rapier. "I already mentioned that taunting would not work. You're not very good at it."
'Damn it,' Leone thought, secretly trying to break free. 'This ice is impossibly hard and makes it difficult to think. I need more strength.' She struggled to keep her face neutral, barely a flicker of panic crossing her mind as her words failed to land.
She had to keep going.
"Seriously, I don't get it," Leone said, her tone shifting. "Why would someone like you, after everything I heard, work for the Empire? None of it makes sense. Why would someone who sees herself as the apex predator lower herself to become nothing more than an attack dog for a piece of shit parasite fatass like Honest?"
Hopefully, it did not sound too desperate. Even if it did, she hoped the monster would take the bait. Not her finest work, but she was not exactly in the best headspace to come up with something elaborate at the moment.
"Alright, I'll entertain you. It's a simple matter of mutual partnership," Esdeath explained curtly after shaking her head with amusement. "In return for not getting in my way and wasting the Empire's resources fighting an unwinnable war against me, he builds me a nice playground. I can have all the fun I want by butchering and tormenting his enemies, and he certainly has a way of making them. I… no, we don't actually care about the Empire at all — one of us just likes to pretend he does. If it were all to be destroyed tomorrow, it would either be because of me or because of him."
It was supposed to be an act. A plan to distract her as much as possible from going towards the others. But the more she listened, the more an irksome sensation grew within her.
"You disgust me," Leone answered with a sneer. Seeing the confused look on Esdeath's face, she pressed on. "I really pity Emiya, having to once be associated with someone like you. He's so unfortunate to be chained to someone who doesn't understand him at all. It's no wonder you two are so incompatible, even with all your history. You only crave bloodshed, while he only wants peace. For all the power he has, spending his life fighting and fighting against stronger and stronger enemies was never his goal, nor will it ever be. In the end, you're nothing more than a nuisance to him."
Esdeath's smirk finally vanished, replaced by a deep frown. She turned fully to face Leone. "What would someone like you know about him? You may have spent a short amount of time in his proximity, but that does not mean you understand him at all."
Leone smirked, a genuine, triumphant smirk this time. "I understand him better than anyone," she purred. "Because, unlike you, he trusted me enough to share a level of intimacy that no one else has with him before. And that's a kind of connection that you will never have, least of all with him."
Leone noticed the shift immediately. The predatory energy that had surrounded Esdeath moments before vanished completely, replaced by an unnerving stillness. Leone's lips curled into a satisfied smirk. Her words had hit their mark.
"I even heard about your list of required traits for a lover," Leone continued, her voice dripping with condescension. "Haha, I admit, I almost did not believe it when I first heard about it. None of it makes sense to come from a person like you."
"…"
"Doesn't change the outcome, though; a monster like you will never find a person like that, because no one will ever show you a genuine smile. Emiya may fit all of those criteria, but even if you recognized what he has to offer, he wouldn't pick you. To him, you're nothing more than a rabid animal that needs to be put down. But then again, isn't that what you say you wanted from him?"
Esdeath's face contorted with irritation before she closed her eyes, resuming her blank expression. She approached Leone until she stood just a few feet away, her gaze fixed directly on the blonde woman.
"I may have been a bit too merciful," Esdeath said, her voice devoid of emotion. "You've achieved what you sought. You successfully taunted me. Congratulations."
Leone felt a piercing sensation in her abdomen. Looking down, she saw an icicle had grown from the ground and pierced through her stomach, emerging from the ice prison block that surrounded her. Blood sprayed from her mouth as her eyes widened with pain.
"Calm down. A wound like that won't kill you so easily. Not so long as you have Lionel active," Esdeath stated calmly.
As the ice that imprisoned her began to break, several ice swords formed around Leone, stabbing into her flesh and pinning her to the ground. The hard ice tore through her flesh, creating deep gashes that oozed blood onto the frozen surface.
Esdeath stepped forward, placing her high heel on Leone's arm while holding a new sword. She pressed the pointed tip against Leone's shoulder, carefully applying pressure as it began to cut through her flesh.
"A neat ability of my power is that I could freeze you from the inside, if I wished," Esdeath explained, her voice still unnervingly calm. "Turn your blood into ice slush, make your skin, blood vessels, and flesh brittle enough to shatter at a mere touch. But I'm against the idea because it dulls the pain. That's why I rarely use this power on prisoners, and when I do, I make sure it's in an extremely hot area so it will melt and reveal the frostbite, the necrosis, and all the other fascinating effects of having your body frozen."
The sword continued its descent into the bone, while Leone screamed in agony.
"AAAAARGH!"
"I'm considering whether to turn you into a display for the other members of your little group, or to cut your limbs off one by one and send them as gifts to that man," Esdeath mused, completely unaffected by Leone's cry of pain. "He might appreciate it, given how close the two of you have apparently become. So many options."
With a swift push, the sword cleaved through the remaining flesh and bone, severing Leone's right arm completely.
"Hn! A-a-aaah!"
Esdeath then positioned the same sword above Leone's heart. "Maybe I should just end it here. That should be good enough motivation for that man to stop hiding and come fight me once and for all. I'm tired of chasing him, and have no desire to start this whole cycle again."
She looked down at the woman beneath her. "You're probably thinking this is enough for you to survive, that I'll take you as a prisoner so Emiya can come save you." A smile spread across Esdeath's face. "I would have done so, had you not kept talking."
"—!"
With a swift movement, she plunged the sword into Leone's heart. The cold sensation of the ice making its way into her muscles was something she had never experienced. It was strangely painless at first, but the numbness made it just as frightening. Breathing instantly became difficult, and each heartbeat made the cut worse.
Blood poured from the blonde woman's mouth, yet… she still felt victorious.
This was showcased by the grin on her face. "Heh… I… still wo—!"
Splash!
Eh?
Not even being able to finish her sentence, the blonde found herself completely stunned.
Suddenly, more blood splashed across Esdeath's face, but not Leone's. Blood was coming from the General's own chest. Leone watched in surprise as a sword pierced her heart as well.
"How dare you!"
In a rage, Esdeath turned to freeze whoever was behind her, but found no one there. The icicle jutting from the ground showed the space behind her was empty. Before she could react further, a dagger pierced her neck, followed by a third weapon digging into her stomach.
Three shadows had appeared beside her — the Rakshasa demons, Ibara, Suzuka, and Mez, holding the weapons that had pierced her body. Trying to eliminate them, the blue-haired General suddenly found herself unable to move. As if the blood in her veins had been replaced with thick syrup, making each and every movement so painfully slow. Worst of all, it kept getting worse by the second, until she could barely move an inch.
"Hehehe~! You won't be able to move," Ibara stated with a disturbing grin. "Our weapons are laced with a neurotoxin that paralyzes anyone it touches, much less enters their bloodstream."
"Mission accomplished!" Mez announced with joyful excitement.
"We really expected Esdeath would be too distracted fighting Emiya to give us the opportunity to strike," Ibara continued. "But we never imagined it would be Leone who provided the distraction. Oh?"
As the trio turned their attention to Leone, they found the spot empty, with only a pool of blood remaining.
"Shit!" Mez exclaimed. "That woman was still alive? Didn't she get pierced through the heart as well?"
"That damned bitch, not only getting to become a plaything in the hands of General Esdeath but now having the audacity to escape?" Suzuka cursed Leone with a strange tone of jealousy in her voice.
"It doesn't matter if she ran," Ibara replied with a sigh. "Our primary goal was to kill Esdeath. But you're right; Prime Minister Honest did mention we should kill anyone from Night Raid, too, if we can."
"Then I'll do it!"
Suzuka didn't wait for a response, turning and rushing off, following the faint trail of blood left behind. "Don't burn her corpse yet!" she called back over her shoulder. "Save the head for me! I'll be the one to keep General Esdeath with me forever! Don't you dare ruin it!"
The two remaining assassins exchanged a glance, then gave a small shrug before letting her go.
"By the way… is Sten dead?" Mez asked, letting Esdeath fall to the ground after she removed her dagger from the woman's throat and whipping the blood away with a cloth.
"Yes, just leave it. Others will come to collect his body. He's always been too eager to confront strong opponents, and now he's paid the price. Let's go back to the Capital, we have to report our success to Honest."
"That's kinda funny hearing it from you." Mez said while gazing out at the distance, "Shame, I was hoping to spend some quality time with that Wave fellow. He looked cute!"
…
Meanwhile, Suzuka moved swiftly through the trees, her steps light as she jumped from branch to branch. Leaves shifted slightly under her footing, but she kept her movement silent without a sound betraying her, avoiding unnecessary noise as she advanced.
It didn't take long before she spotted her target.
Leone was ahead, running unevenly, her pace slower than before. Her breathing was rough, shoulders rising and falling harshly as she pushed herself forward. Blood marked her path, fresh enough for even an amateur to follow without effort.
Her right arm was gone.
Or at least, it had been.
Leone held it against her shoulder, pressing it into place. Right in Suzuka's view, the flesh began to reconnect. The skin tightened, the gaps in the flesh closing bit by bit as if being pulled together.
Suzuka narrowed her eyes. "High speed segeneration…?"
It wasn't just the arm.
The wounds all along Leone's body were closing as well, though not as quickly. The movement of her steps faltered slightly, her balance dipping for a moment before she forced herself to keep going.
"Hah…!" Her breathing grew heavier, the strain showing as the regenerative process continued.
Whatever her Teigu was doing to keep her alive was working, but it was clearly taking a toll on her overall energy.
Suzuka smirked and licked the blood from Esdeath off her dagger. "Two targets in one day. Not so bad. I doubt the other one can maintain this state; another attack will be fatal."
Just as she prepared to leap, a grave sensation washed over her. She heard a sharp whistling noise and turned toward the sky, seeing a flash of light.
Thunk!
Before she could react, an arrow flew faster than her eyes could track, piercing her skull and pinning her body to the tree trunk.
It killed her instantly, without Leone ever learning about her would-be pursuer.
{Break}
In the distance, upon the mountains overlooking the area where the arrow came from, Emiya stood with his bow held firm, having shot the arrow, and was observing his target and confirming that she had died. The white cloak around his body billowed in the wind, a peaceful atmosphere compared to what was going on down there. Sheele crouched next to him, holding Extase with both arms, squinting but unable to see anything clearly.
"Did you hit your target?" she asked.
Emiya just nodded.
The spectacled woman stood up and dusted the dirt and sand from her clothes. "Ah… sorry, I couldn't be of much help. The mission was a failure, but at least the others survived," she said. "I was worried there for Leone, but thankfully it all turned out fine. We should leave before the others notice our presence."
Her survival was not a surprise to him, even when she came so very close to death. But using it once pretty much left oneself open to attacks from enemies, with very little capability of fighting back due to the sheer exhaustion it brought with it. Lionel's trump card: Regenerator.
But it would be a lie to say that he did not feel some doubts about this ability, even when Leone told him the details of it on that night they'd shared.
If she were to consume a Danger Beast's flesh, then her healing would quicken even further.
As Sheele walked away, she noticed he wasn't following. Turning around, her gaze fell upon him, still looking into the distance with a strange expression on his face. Not exactly sadness, but also not joy or relief.
The look on his face was difficult to put into words.
In fact, even he did not know how he felt at that moment.
The scene from earlier replayed several times in his head. The same sensation he felt on that day, one that still irked him, for it meant he had not changed after all.
"Are you sad?" she asked, walking next to him and awkwardly trying to comfort him by reaching for his head and patting his hair. "There. There."
Once again, he said nothing, and no clear answer surfaced in his mind. A blank state that had him relive several moments of the past in a split second, where, at that moment, the question of whether or not he could have changed the monstrous nature of a person he thought himself close to.
Had he been more careful…
'It's too late for that now.'
His bow broke apart into motes of light before he turned his face away and walked past Sheele in silence.
"Let's go."
.
.
.
"She hasn't come back yet." Back on the ground, Mez couldn't help but notice Suzuka's continued absence. With Leone not being in the best of conditions, it shouldn't have taken Suzuka, of all people, very long to catch up to her and swiftly end her life. "Man… I really hope she didn't get distracted and begin an extended fight with her opponent to indulge her masochism."
Ibara shrugged. "It's Suzuka, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case."
"Damn, masochist. I really want to go back to the Capital and get my hair done. It's been such a long while~!"
"Can't you just do it yourself right now?"
"You obviously don't understand how relaxing it is to have someone else handle your hair for you. Ah, forget it. Let's just burn the body and leave. If Suzuka really wanted Esdeath's head, she should've been here to collect it herself."
Mez spoke casually as she looked toward the body in the distance. She adjusted her sleeves before taking a few steps forward, boots scraping lightly against the ground.
The other assassin followed, slower, his gaze lingering on the scene for a moment before moving in as well. Neither of them hurried.
Esdeath's body hadn't moved.
She lay where she had fallen, her white uniform stained through, the fabric darkened and clinging where the blood had soaked in. The cuts across her body had long since stopped bleeding, most of it having already pooled beneath her.
Ibara stopped a short distance away. "Go on then," he said to Mez, nodding toward Esdeath.
Mez exhaled and lifted her hand, a faint glow starting to gather. "Yeah, yeah… Are we sure Suzuka didn't die? It's gonna be a pain to explain to Honest how she died after we killed Esdeath. Much less when she was chasing after a target already on the brink of death."
As both of their attention momentarily shifted to the forest Suzuka and Leone had vanished into, neither noticed a small ripple spreading outwards from behind them, followed by the faint sound of a blade being unsheathed.
--------------
The next 5 chapters of Snafu, and my other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters, Steel Eyed Faker soon to be 3 chapters, Taimanin with 3, Hound having 3 and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.