----When Akashi left the village----
Approximately after a few hours, the Empire found something strange about one of their secret villages since all of them were had to report at regular intervals. When they didn't get any report from one of their villages, Saikyuu was instantly informed about this. He was thinking about sending out Dark Squad that was trained with Bill's help and his enhancing drugs but then he suddenly recalled that in that village was also resting Gozuki's kid so he sent for him and informed him about this, ordering him to go and investigate it.
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"Father, what had happened?" Green asked while they were jumping from one tree to another, speeding towards the village.
There was Akame, Green, Najasho, Poney, Tsukushi, and additional help Natala and Gin who were previously rescued from the tombs. All of them were being led by Gozuki.
Such a deadly group of people would be able to take care of any enemy, even if it was Rebel's army as long as their numbers didn't reach thousands.
"We lost contact with one of the villages and that specific village is also where Gai is currently resting." Gozuki explained without even looking back at them and kept focusing on what's in front of him.
"?! What?! We need to hurry up!" Tsukushi was shocked by such information but she wasn't the only one who was shocked.
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They kept traveling through the forest with uneasy expressions until they reached the village. By the time they reached the village, the sun already rose and started sending peaceful and warm sun rays on the entire village.
"...? Where is everyone?" Akame muttered with a dumbfounded expression while looking around the village.
*Sniff* "I don't see neither I smell any blood in the air...It's as if everyone just disappeared." Gozuki muttered with a thoughtful expression.
Everyone was looking around with cautious expressions while they were nearing the village's center.
"?! There is something unusual there!" Poney said while pointing at a big boulder that shouldn't belong there and started running towards it.
"Wha- Poney, wait!" Akame instantly ran after her because the enemy could still be around.
'I know that enemy can be around but this is the best way how to lure them out, appearing to be off-guard plus you are right after me, Akame, if anyone decides to attack, he won't be able to live for much longer.' Although it looked like Poney just thoughtlessly ran towards the boulder, she actually intended to become bait for potential enemy lurking around.
Everyone quickly followed after Akame and Poney but they were more cautious than them therefore they were slower.
"?!" Poney stopped in front of the boulder while looking at it with wide-open shaky eyes, even Akame wasn't an exception when she caught up to Poney.
"What is wrong, both of you?!" When others caught up to them, Green and Tsukushi instantly asked when they saw Poney and Akame just staring at the boulder in front of them.
[Here lies a brave warrior named Gai. Smiling and laughing in the face of death itself until the end. Struggling despite knowing that it is futile. May he rest in peace despite not knowing that he isn't even fighting for what he believes in. May those who lied to him burn in hell]
Everyone read the sentences craved into the boulder with wide-open eyes.
"No...Wait, we can't be sure until we see his body!" Tsukushi said while tears poured down her cheeks.
"...I will go look for some tools we can use to make sure..." Akame said while holding back tears, she quickly left the group while Gozuki gestured with his hand for Green to follow her since the enemy could still be around.
Gozuki looked at the ground in front of the boulder and saw that soil was just recently excavated and put back, maybe a few hours ago.
'...He is most likely dead but what kind of enemy would bother himself with doing this?' Gozuki thought to himself with closed eyes.
While Akame was looking around for the tools, she has entered the barn to look for tools for digging and she has found them but she also found some documents near it. She decided to have a quick look at them before returning with Green.
[Nare Village exterminated and reduced to ashes: 236 Adults, 64 Children. No survivors, mission well accomplished.]
[Futshi Village...]
[...]
The more Akame read, the more shocked she became and she couldn't stop herself to read even more despite wanting to only cast an eye over them previously.
"Akame?" Green wanted to give her some space even though he had to go with her to protect her in case she would get ambushed but he no longer could take it since everyone was waiting for them so he decided to approach her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Ah?! Green...I am sorry, let's go back." Akame took documents with her and also took some tools for digging while returning back with Green.
'What are those reports?! I have to ask father about it' Akame thought with a complicated expression.
When they got back, they quickly started digging and after a few minutes, they found Gai's lifeless body lying with his eyes closed and a small smile on his face, instead of his arm, he had arm made out of the earth and his cut off arm was lying on top of him. The armor was still around him which normally would automatically disappear in case he would be too exhausted to wear it or dead. This only implicated that his Shingu Rhea Suit was broken or more like unusable right now.
Everyone stood there looking at him in silence for a good few minutes.
"I-I don't understand...What is going on with his Shingu?" Tsukushi wiped away her tears and asked with a confused expression. She didn't ask who did it or other stupid questions since she knew that no one here knows the answer.
"His Shingu combined with him at his last stand. It even created a new arm for him and that's also why his Shingu is still on his body, however, right now it is good as broken. We can't take it back since it fused with his body and since the wearer is already dead, there is nothing we can do to separate them." Gozuki explained his theory when he saw Gai and his Shingu's condition.
They decided to cover him up with the dirt since someone already bothered to make the tombstone for him. Although they had complicated feelings about this person who killed Gai, that person still showed a great amount of respect to him. They were completely confused since this is the first time their enemy bothered to do something like this. They wanted revenge but they were also grateful that this enemy showed respect for their friend.
"Everyone, I found this, behind the boulder" Najasho said and showed a small stone with a few sentences craved on it.
[PS. I am not very versed in these things so sorry if it won't be good enough. Simply said, he stood strong till the end and this earned my respect]
Despite the fact that this could look slightly offending, most of them released a small sad smile while reading this.
'What kind of enemy would apologize for badly written tombstone...If I will ever find out who did this, I will kill that person swiftly without any suffering.' Akame thought with a small smile.
----At the same time somewhere in the forest----
"I didn't expect you to contact me so early. What is it about?" A woman with short silver hair asked while being accompanied by 2 cloaked figures that appeared to be men.
"I don't usually do this...contacting the client by myself but the situation is...delicate I would say." A woman with long black hair and bun on the right side of her head, she had a birthmark under her left eye. This woman was precisely Merraid Oarburgh, the leader of Oarburgh herself.
"Delicate, you say? What happened with that assassination unit that has been running amok for some time? They never actually stopped so what's the deal?" The silver-haired woman asked with a curious expression but her narrowed eyes indicated that she was feeling slightly angered.
"Oh my, no need to be so angry, let me explain first." Mera said with an amused smile while touching her cheek with her index finger. She was completely fearless in front of this woman despite sensing that those 2 cloaked figures next to her were very strong.
"...And that's about it." Mera said with a thoughtful expression when she was done with her explanation.
"You are telling me that you are pulling away from the contract formed between us?" The woman asked with narrowed eyes.
"Yep, that's about it~. Here is your money back and also 2 kids from that unit are dead so despite this being a special situation, we completed part of the contract while giving you your money back so I think it is quite fair from us..." Mera clasped her hands together with a bright smile and replied before explaining further with a bored expression she picked up from Akashi. She threw a big literally backpack full of coins to them.
"However, if you have a problem with this, I believe we can find a different solution" Mera suddenly said with a sinister smile while seductively touching her lips with her long purple nails.
The moment she said it, one cloaked figure took a spear out of nowhere and another one got into a defensive-supporting position while revealing his hands with strange gloves on them.
"...*Swish*" When the atmosphere was getting tense each second, the woman in front suddenly raised her hand to indicate for her companions to stop. They immediately listened to her and relaxed their bodies once again.
"*sigh* That's more than enough, thank you for informing us of this situation even though you didn't have to. It has been a nice cooperation with you." The woman replied with closed eyes after releasing a long sigh.
"Thank you for being so understanding." Mera was getting ready to leave but before she left them, she stopped and looked behind her at that silver-haired woman.
"You should let your hair grow longer, short hair doesn't suit you and only makes you look like a man, at least your breasts are big and nice." Mera said with a playful tone before jumping away, escaping before the woman could attack her out of anger.
"HAH?! Do I look like a man?!" She instantly turned at the figure on her left.
"Wh-what?! O-of course not!!" He replied while stuttering.
"Good...Anyway, looks like we will need to take care of them on our own. They are causing Revolutionary army heavy losses. We are quickly losing our income that comes from villages that are trading with foreign countries, and to make it even worse, they always slaughter the entire villages and reduce it to ashes." The woman said while turning around, intending to leave the place.
"Yes, it looks like we need to act if we don't want our armies to lose morale. Our spies are also getting restless with each day. We need to do something about that assassination unit." The other cloaked figure said with a serious tone.
"Let's go back to the hideout and form some kind of plan" The woman said and gestured for them to follow.
"YES!" Both of them exclaimed with a confident and determined smile across their faces, one of them gripping his spear and other adjusting his gloves while their cloaks were fluttering in the wind.