"Because I am the one who killed Gai, your friend." Akashi said with a serious expression with his hands folded.
"...What?" Poney looked even more confused than before and even Akashi was quite surprised how confused one person can get.
"It's the truth. Why would I lie about that?" Akashi confirmed it once again and waited for Poney to absorb this information.
"...B-But why? You have never met each other so why?" It was unknown if Poney no longer had any energy to raise her voice but she was taking this new information relatively easy.
'Maybe it wasn't the right moment to tell her that, it's hard to say what she is thinking under that a super confused expression' Akashi thought while closely watching Poney's expression and changes in her eyes.
"Wrong, we actually met each other and as for my reason...First, he endangered the life of someone I care about but the second and main reason is your rampage of assassinations of powerful people supporting the Revolutionary Army. I am not with the Revolutionary Army that someone I care about was bound to help them and Gai was a price to pay for them to be free." Akashi explained with his eyes closed and calm expression.
"..." Poney just listened in silence while looking down at the ground with a completely dumbfounded expression.
'What the hell is this situation?! Who can I even trust here?! Akame and Green who were my friends for so long just killed Tsukushi and father while Akashi killed Gai. Why is our group so unfortunate to be targeted from every side?! Was what we were doing really so wrong?' Poney thought while pressing her nails into her palm slowly turning her skin red without her even being aware of it.
"I am not trying to say that thanks to his death you were no longer targeted by that group and neither I am trying to say that it was for the greater good or something. Do you now understand why I don't want you to be close to me?" Akashi asked after waiting a few minutes for Poney to recover a bit.
"Mm...Can I still remain here through this night?" Poney nodded her head and asked with a tired expression.
"Be my guest. You can tell me what you want to do the next morning. I might be able to help you get to Akame and Green so think about it carefully." Akashi said and called for one maid to take Poney to a free guest room.
'That group...Does Akashi mean the group that targeted Cornelia? Taeko and Katsura? What connection do they have? From his words, they must have been indebted to the Revolutionary army or something like that. This is getting more and more confusing and complicated, ugh!' Poney thought while she followed after the maid but before she could close the door behind her...
"IF you will want to remain here despite knowing what I have done, I also have no problem with that."
Poney turned her head back at Akashi and released a small smile.
"Thank you for being honest with me..." She said before closing the door behind her.
Akashi's smile suddenly disappeared from his face when Poney closed the door.
'Go and watch her carefully' Akashi ordered to his Wrigglers and 2 of them flew out of his shadow, flying out of the room through the small gap between door and the frame.
For Akashi, her reaction was quite odd, not yelling at him or anything else was quite a surprise considering that he just told her that he killed one of her friends. But on the other hand, she lost so much today and even got to know the truth behind the Empire so she must have been so overwhelmed that she completely disregarded something that happened way back to the past.
Akashi also thought of her being just a spy but he couldn't really imagine her playing that role after what happened today. Not to mention, her confused expression was very genuine. Nevertheless, he still decided to watch over her with his Wrigglers. If she were to make any suspicious move, he would get to know that immediately.
'I should inform Kurome to keep an eye on her if Poney decides to remain here for the time being. But that comes in the morning since Kurome is sleeping right now.' Akashi thought and stood up from his seat. He was done for today with the reports, he went outside of the mansion to find the guards who had contact with Poney and told them to completely forget about her and never talk about it to anyone.
...That night, Poney couldn't get a wink of sleep due to her constantly thinking about what happened today. And before she knew it, she already noticed a light coming through the windows into her room.
'? It's already early-morning? How is that possible? I don't remember ever falling asleep...but at least I got a few things sorted out in my head.' Poney thought and decided to go out and ask someone where she can take a bath to freshen up herself.
----Outside of the Capital, at the same time----
*chirp* *chirp* The sounds of birds singing were resonating in the vicinity.
"...Huh?...?!" Akame slowly opened her eyes and noticed an unfamiliar wooden ceiling so she quickly sat up but she felt a short but sharp pain under her ribs so her expression distorted in pain. She put her hand on the location where she felt the pain while calmly observing her surroundings.
'Is this some kind of hut in the middle of the forest?' Akame thought and was slightly confused but she quickly began scanning the room for Green's presence.
"Oh?! You are finally awake, Akame!"
Akame snapped her head at the sound just to see Leone walking in the room and approaching her with a big smile.
"Leone...Where are we and where is Green?" Akame asked still with a slightly weak voice.
"You should rest a little bit more before getting up. I fished out both of you from the river, the guy who was with you is inside the next room. I already took care of both of you and your injuries but to be honest, that guy got more injured from the fall itself than from fighting." Leone explained while handing Akame a wooden bowl filled with some kind of soup.
"?! What happened to him?" Akame exclaimed with wide-open eyes in horror.
"Don't worry, don't worry. He most likely just hit his head against the boulder on the bottom of the river, nothing too serious." Leone waved with her hand, trying to reassure Akame who was on the verge of getting up but Leone managed to stop her in time.
"I see. Thank you for the food and for patching us up..." Akame said with a small smile before it turned into depressed smile while she began staring down at the wooden bowl filled with the soup.
"?...Is there something wrong?" Leone asked while taking hold of Akame's hand.
"...I-I wasn't able to convince my sister and to make it even worse, I actually tried to take her with me by the force which only deteriorated our relationship. But the worst thing of all is that I actually never respected her choice, I can't imagine facing Kurome once again after what happened between us..." Akame said while tears finally welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"It's alright, you two are sisters! And it seems that you realized what you did wrong in Kurome's eyes which should be the most important thing, no? Anyway, I have heard that Kurome is quite strong but to think you would still fail while having the advantage of the surprise on your side is quite a surprise...What exactly happened?" Leone sat down next to Akame and hugged her while saying this and then she released her while asking for details.
"...She woke up after my battle with the father but nothing happened between us because Akashi arrived at that time. I had no time to react since I was too injured resulting in him catching me by my neck. Right now, I am quite grateful to him since he prevented me from ruining my relationship with Kurome even more than before." Akame explained with a forced smile.
"...Akashi? What was he doing there?! Was he trying to stop you?!" Leone immediately started bombarding Akame with questions while putting her panicked face as close to her as she could.
"No...He just slapped me and took Kurome back since it could be said that he is her guardian. He completely ignored me and Green and maybe even helped us by giving us some information." Akame quickly replied since she was surprised by Leone's acting.
"Huh?...Hah?!!! Aaaah! He is her guardian and you tried to take her away by the force?!! What will I say to boss?!" Leone at first only looked at Akame in confusion before she fully absorbed what Akame just said and she began panicking and muttering aloud while pulling her own hair.
"Leone?!" Akame exclaimed in worry.
*inhale* *exhale* "Take a deep breath, Leone...Alright, I will somehow deal with this. Anyway, back to the topic, I guess that handprint is from Akashi, right?" Leone referred to herself in the third person before she asked Akaem while pointing at her cheek.
"Huh? It's still there? I can't feel any pain from it anymore..." Akame muttered while touching her cheek in confusion.
"It looks like it's still fresh...Are you sure about that?" Leone asked in suspicion while glaring at Akame in worry.
"I am not lying, I swear." Akame replied with a genuinely confused expression.
"...Weird but I trust you, Akame." Leone said with a smile.
They continued talking for a while and after Akame ate her soup, she began to remember all events from yesterday in great detail.
*clank* The wooden bowl suddenly slipped out of Akame's hands, sliding on the bed until it has fallen on the ground.
"Akame?! Are you alright?!" Leone asked in worry when she noticed Akame's absent-minded expression as she was staring at her shaking hands. with wide-open eyes.
"I-I killed my best friend...I cut her arm off to protect myself and Green..." Akame replied weakly but her expression didn't change a bit and tears slowly began rolling down her cheeks.
"Shh, you didn't do anything wrong. If she stood in your way, she was endangering you and your friend's life. You have done everything you could and look...your friend made it together with you in one piece." Leone hugged Akame once again, putting Akame's head on her shoulder, comforting her.
"I...You are right, Leone. I chose this myself so I have no right to cry." Akame replied while wiping away her tears but her absent-minded expression never changed.
"No, no, I didn't mean it that way. On the contrary, you should cry as much as you want while you still can. You might not get another chance and you should use this chance to completely empty yourself." Leone said while gently rubbing Akame's back.
"...*sniff* Aaagh! *sniff* Waaah!" Akame began uncontrollably crying and even Green who has woken up some time ago heard her.
He started gritting his teeth since he was aware that he can't do anything about this. After all, she killed her best friend with her own hands. Maybe he should have taken that burden in Akame's stead but at that time, his instincts told him to cover her back instead of attacking Tsukushi.