"Wow." Tatsumi said as he gazed up at the large gate of the empire. Zander smacks him in the head as he walked behind him and said. "Come on we have to find Sayo and Ieyasu then start to make money." "Ok." He replies as he rubs the back of his head and they head into the city.
After a while Tatsumi sees an army recruiting office. "Hey let's join the imperial army. We'll make a lot of money there." "No, we already decided to work as bodyguards." "No that's what you decided on the way. I want to be an officer in the army. Come on think about all of the benefits." He says grabbing Zander's arm and dragging him to the recruiting office.
"What!? How could they not give me the position of officer. I've killed tons of danger beasts." Tatsumi yelled as he hit the street after being thrown out of the office. "Stop your bitching Tatsumi," Zander says as he lifts up Tatsumi.
"Hey boys. So you're trying to get into the army. I'll help you out, but I need something." A woman said as she walked over to them. The woman had long blonde hair that matched her golden eyes. She wore a very revealing sexy outfit with a black tube top, scarf, matching desert pants and detachable sleeves. All of her clothes complimented her slender hourglass body on a very athletic frame.
'Let's see what bullshit this girl is going to spout.' Zander thought as he watched Tatsumi fall right for her trap. "Wow really? What do you need?" He said and the girl grins.
-xXx-
Zander watched as the woman stuffed her face with food in the main tavern of the capital. "So you guys want to join the army right." "No, this dumbass Tatsumi wants too." Zander corrects as the waiter gives him the glass of rum he ordered. "We are trying to earn money to send back to our village so me and my friends need to join the army and become a legend," Tatsumi said as he looked around the tavern of the capital. "Well I have a friend that can get you in as an officer but it's not cheap." She says as she wipes her face and scans Zander as he leaned back sipping on his drink.
"Will this be enough?" Tatsumi asked as he dropped a large bag full of gold coins. The girl's mouth dropped as she realized what she saw and she said. "Yes more than enough. I'll be back in an hour with my guy." She picks up the coins with a large smile and begins to leave. "Hopefully we meet again handsome." The girl whispered into Zander's ear as she licked it. He sat unfazed by her seductive trick as many women had tried to seduce him when they first came to the city.
"She is scamming you. How much money did you give her?" He asked after she left. "No, she isn't. I gave her all of the money I've had. I trust her." Zander smacks Tatsumi in the back of the head hard when he heard this. "You fucking idiot! You're lucky that I still have my money." He said as he reached into his jacket pocket to find his money missing. "That fucking bitch," Zander says to himself as he punches the table. "You can stay here to see if that girl really gets you into the army but it's a scam. I'm going to look around." He says as he gets up and walks out.
As he walked onto the street and looks around to see the woman was gone then suddenly a woman screamed. "She is just a child! Please have mercy!" The women's daughter was about to be executed. "This child has committed the crime of theft and has been sentenced to death. This will be a warning to all of you commoners the empire had no mercy for criminals including the rebels and night raid." An officer says who was standing on the execution platform next to the executioner. He gestured to the executioner and he raised his ax.
Suddenly as the axe reaches over the man's head a masked man appears behind the men and shoves knives into their throats sending the whole crowd into a panic. He picked up the child and jumped down from the platform.
"Oh my God thank you." The mother says crying as the masked man hands her child over then vanishes into thin air. Zander walked out of a nearby alley as everyone that gathered to watch the execution runoff.
Late that night Zander walks into the empty bar and sees Tatsumi in shambles over his realization. "It really was a scam. Fuck!" "Hey, I would like to go home tonight." The bartender says as he cleans a table. "Tatsumi get up. I got some money for food." Zander says to Tatsumi.
As midnight came they sat in an alley as they couldn't find anywhere to stay. "I wonder how Sayo and Ieyasu are doing since they weren't at the tavern," Tatsumi says. "They are probably fine. They know how to handle themselves." Zander said lying when he felt something terrible had happened.
"Stop!" Yelled a young feminine voice from a carriage that stopped in the street. "What is it, Miss Aria?" She asked one of the guards on the carriage as she got out and walked over to them.
"We have to help them! You guys must be hungry. If you come with me I can get you some food at my home." Aria said she was short with emerald eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair that looked flawless and shiny.
"Nope! Not this time!" Tatsumi turned away as he wasn't wanting to fall for a scam again. Since he had already fallen for one which put them in their current situation.
"But it's better to be somewhere safe and warm then out here on the dangerous streets. Please, I implore you to stay at my residence just for the night." She said with a cute giddy harmless smile.
"Fine, you make a good point. Achoo!" Tatsumi says as he sneezes. It was still wintertime and it was cold as hell in the capital. Zander looked at the girl and saw her aura it was red and blue.
He gained this ability over his years of training his king's eyes. Red meant to sin and hatred while blue meant calmness and kindness. This caused him to be hesitant about trust her as he had a strong gut feeling not to, but he still ended up at her home with Tatsumi. This is because he knew if they would stay out Tatsumi would become sick. Also, Aria offered to pay them a large sum to become her new bodyguards, so Zander didn't hesitate. If only he had gone with his gut.
As they arrived at Aria's home, Zander asked one of her guards. "Does she take in people from the street all the time?" "Ms.Aria has a soft spot for people in need as does her parents." The soldier answered before they went inside.
"Wow, she is able to pay for imperial guys. Her family must be loaded." Tatsumi whispered into Zander's ear.
'Yeah, why would a rich family even give a shit about people on the street then offer them bodyguard jobs when she has soldiers. Something feels off I should look into this more.' Zander though as he watched Aria's aura shift when they reached a door.
They walked into a room to see a middle-aged woman and man. "Sweetie your home. Oh, you brought people home." The woman said as she saw them walk in. "Hey, Mom and Dad. I found them staying on the street so I brought them home to keep them out of the cold." Aria said with a smile as she sat down in a chair next to her parents. "It's good that you did. It is getting very cold at night. Would you like some tea?" She asked while she nodded to the maid in the room. Who brought some tea.
"No I'm fine," Zander says. 'They most likely drugged the tea. We shouldn't drink any. I'll look around after dark. " He thought then turned to see Tatsumi drinking the tea. 'This fucking idiot.' he said to himself as he lowered his head.
After a while, Zander and Tatsumi were taken to a room so they could sleep.
-xXx-
Tatsumi woke up as he heard noise outside his room. As he stood up he looked to the couch where Zander should have been sleeping. It was empty.
When he stepped out into the hall Tatsumi had his sword drawn. The moonlight washed into the hall. A maid stood in front of the windows frozen from shock. "Miss, what is wrong?" He asked and received no answers but looked at what she was staring at. Five people floating in front of the red moon.
"It's night raid. I don't want to die." The maid said then dropped to her knees crying. 'It's really them.' Tatsumi thought remembering back to wanted posters in saw in the city as he ran off down the hall.
A shadowy figure carrying a large pair of scissors stood over the corpse of Aria's mother as it began to turn to ash.
Tatsumi came outside to see Aria with 2 imperial guards. "Tatsumi! It's night raid." Aria said as he ran over. "Miss we have got you into the storehouse. You will be safe there." One of the guards says as the other asked him. "We will need your help to fight off night raid. Can you fight?" "Yes, I can." He answers as they ran to the storage building.
Suddenly when they got within twenty feet of the building Tatsumi looks back to see the guards both holding their throats as black markings spread across their body with a girl holding a katana standing between them.
The girl looked to be about the same age and height as Tatsumi at 5'7. She wore a black short skirt and shirt with matching gloves that had red armor plating on the back of them also red tie and belt with a matching pouch where her katana sheath hanged onto. "Move out of the way. You aren't a target." She said as she swung her sword sending the blood off the blade staining the pure white snow.
"Why? So you can kill her! She has ddone nothing wrong!" He yells as he lifts his sword ready to fight. 'I won't be able to defeat her but maybe I can keep her busy so Aria can get away.' Tatsumi thought as he scanned the girl's sword.
"Very well then you will die." She says then lunges at him. 'What? Can't we talk about this before killing?!' He thought as he looked down as the blade of the girl's sword almost reached his chest.
Just as the blade began to cut into Tatsumi's shirt, he was jerked back. "Tatsumi stop trying to get yourself kill," Zander says as he held him up with one hand and held the girl's katana blade in the other then tosses the girl sending her flying. She did a flip in the air and landed on her feet. "How are you not poisoned by murasame?" She asked as blood dripped from Zander's hand onto the snow and he looked down to see a cut in his palm with Murasame's curse markings spreading from then the markings and cut disappear from hand.
"So you are Akame the welder of the one cut killer Murasame. Whatever business Night raid has here it has been taken care of." He says as he let's go of Tatsumi and pulled his sword from its sheath turning back to Aria.
"What are you doing bro?" Tatsumi asks as Zander began to walk towards Aria who backs up against the door of the building. Suddenly Zander stabbed Akumano through the gut pining her to the wooden door behind her. "What are you doing?! She is innocent!" He yelled as Aria coughed up blood and the wooden door began to burn because the blade was heated by Zander's demon flame. "The heat isn't enough to kill her but boil her insides slowly. You need to stop being so naive about her innocence." Zander said when he stepped and his brother tried to pull the sword only to feel the heat from the sword before be even touched it.
Suddenly the burning wood gave away revealing a dark room filled with dead bodies either hanging from chains or placed into a pile off to the side. Tatsumi fell to his knees as he saw the forward most hanging body. It was Sayo.
"Tatsumi is that you?" He looked up to see Ieyasu in a cell covered in large red spots all over his body.
He got Ieyasu out of the cell. "What happened?" Tatsumi asked his friend as he laid him down. "The girl she took us in then we drank the tea they gave us then we woke up in here being tortured. Sayo she kept fighting until the end." He said then coughed up blood and his body went limp.
"I had no idea this was happening. Please help me." Aria cried out then starting screaming from Zander heating the blade more and says. "Don't worry I'll make your death slow like you and your family did to so many others." "This family has taken the lives of unknowing travelers that come in from the countryside and torture them for fun." Akame says. "But even if that's the case they don't deserve to suffer." she says as she lunges toward Aria to stab her heart.
"I said you are done here." Zander says as he grabs her collar and throws her back. He grabs his sword and pulls it from Aria's gut igniting her into flames as she starts to scream.
"What is taking Akame so long?" A girl wearing a pink dress that matched her hair with a large rife slung over her shoulder. She was very short compared to the man wearing armor next to her. "Yeah you're right. Let's go check on her." A girl jumps down from a nearby tree. She has large ears and claws on paws like a lion.
When they walked through the tree line near the store house to see Akame fighting Zander. In the doorway of the building Tatsumi sat in shock from what he was forced to believe.
"No not this power. Akame get out of there now!" The man in armor yelled as he sensed Zander's power.
"This has gone on for to long." Zander says before he releases his heat wave ability melting all of the snow within 20 feet with a blast wave of heat. The man dove infront of Akame to protect her.
When the blast dissipate his armor was scorched black. "Bulat!" The pink girl and the lion ran out as he rolled off of Akame who was unconscious. They had been thrown 10 feet from the force of the blast. "That bastard!" The lion girl says launching herself at Zander. He grabs her hands and says. "So your name is Lione how fitting. Where is my money?" Zander says as he tosses her back.
"Lione don't." Bulat said coughing as he was helped up. "You're the same one who destroyed a whole squad 13 years ago. That was tasked with killing a woman." He says deactivating his armor revealing his bruised body. "How do you know about that?" "I was the leader of a squad assign to look for them when I was in the imperial army. The only evidence was the ground had been torched leaving nothing. You're the son of the demon king." He says then all of the girls eyes widen.
"What mom's dead?" Tatsumi asked as he stood up hearing this. "Yes she is. She has been for the last 13 years." Zander says in a monotone voice. "Why didn't you tell me?!" "Yes of course Tatsumi a three year old is going to comprehend the death of his mother coming from his thirteen year old brother!!" Zander yells. "Why do you think I was so against joining the army the same people group ordered by the emperor!"
"I can join and change everything and make the empire right!" Tatsumi says. "Fine. Do what ever you want Tatsumi. I'm not going to stop you." He says as he turns and begins to walk away in the dark.