---A few days later---
"...Those are the terms, do you find them acceptable?" Najenda asked Akashi after relaying everything said in the meeting at Revolutionary Army's HQ.
They were at the same place as before and Najenda especially contacted him through Akame who came also to look at Kana and Tetsu, however, she still wasn't brave enough to face them after everything that happened.
"I see...That doesn't sound so bad. They said that they don't mind helping me a bit, right?" Akashi nodded and asked.
"Whew, yes. We are willing to help you as long as it won't be anything too dangerous for the entire organization." Najenda replied with a small relieved smile.
"Then there are some people I want you to take care of. You are pretty good at such things, no?" Akashi asked with a smile.
"Haven't you said that you have your own unit to take care of such things?" Najenda asked, trying to probe for more information.
"Hah, they were already sent to take care of a few Teigu users." Akashi replied with a fake troubled expression.
'A few Teigu users?! ...His group has to be really strong for him to be so confident and carefree.' Najenda thought with a calm expression while inwardly being surprised.
"You must be in possession of many Teigus if you can arm the entire unit..." Najenda muttered with a thoughtful expression.
"Hm? Not at all, none of them have Teigu." Akashi replied with a carefree smile while waving his hand in denial.
"What?!" This time, Najenda failed to hide her amazement.
"What? They are different from normal people, Teigus are only tools, what I look at, are people. They are extraordinary group even without Teigus, they also have a rich history, I am sure that if I were to tell you their name, you would immediately recognize them." Akashi said with a teasing smile and his words only caused Najenda to think really hard about it.
'People who are able to match Teigu users? Plus they are also well-known group? Who could it be?' Najenda thought.
"Anyway, I assume that you know group known as Four Rakshasa Demons, right?" Akashi changed the topic while handing some papers to her.
"Of course, are they the ones you want us to take care of?" Najenda asked while taking the papers and looking at them.
"Yes, they are under the direct control of Honest, however...There are 2 people I want you to capture instead of killing. Mez and Suzuka, on the last page, there is a mention of all of their abilities which will make it much easier for you to fight them." Akashi nodded his head.
"Why do you want to spare them if they are under the direct control of Honest?" Najenda asked while giving him a strange look.
"Sentimental feelings I guess? They are strong so it would be better not to kill them if they can work for the Empire later, however, the true reason is that I can call them...old acquaintances. I want to give them a chance but if you won't be able to capture them despite knowing all about their abilities, I guess there is nothing else to do but kill them. Still, I would be disappointed if I couldn't have at least a word with them." Akashi explained while shrugging his shoulders.
"I will inform others, knowing all their abilities will be very helpful so I think we will be able to capture them alive, however what about other 2 Rakshasa Demons?" Najenda nodded with a serious expression, accepting Akashi's reason, she actually felt complicated about this but at least it showed her that Akashi is perfectly fine in mind and is a normal human who feels something even towards to his old acquaintances, however, on the other hand, she felt that it would be easier to just kill them all.
"I have met them only once but they struck me as sadistic guys...maybe it is because I haven't met them under the same circumstances as Mez and Suzuka but those girls at least have manageable personalities. One doesn't feel much about her allies' deaths so she is a bit apathetic but she is still playful which is nothing bad and the other one is...masochist...I guess there is no need to mention anything else to that. Those 2 other guys have high raw strength and their entire frame is big so all I can say is to not fight them with the strength alone. Also, be careful of their body manipulation but everything I am aware of is already mentioned in those papers..." Akashi explained before he got up to his feet.
"Alright, we are going- wait! What is this?" Najenda was about to agree to everything while looking through the text on the papers before she exclaimed while showing a certain part to Akashi.
"This? Instructions on how to tie Suzuka up...She probably has the greatest manipulation over her body but if you will tie her up in the exact way which is described in the papers, all of her strength will leave her body...Don't look at me like that, it's something I picked up from Mez." Akashi replied with a stoic expression that prompted Najenda to give him a strange look.
"Are you sure they aren't something more than your "old acquaintances"?" Najenda asked while slowly hiding the papers into her bag.
"...For me, yes, they are only old acquaintances." Akashi stopped to think for a while before giving out a suitable answer.
'For you, huh? At least it looks like he will be able to talk some sense into them. Having more people to keep security once Honest is killed will be very helpful.' Najenda thought and didn't question it anymore.
.
.
When she returned to Night Raid's hideout, she informed everyone about their mission.
"So we are taking missions from that guy now?" Mine muttered while pouting a bit.
"Well, it sounds easy enough, they don't even possess any Teigu." Tatsumi said while clenching his fist.
"Don't think so fast...Their group is strong enough to go against Teigu users due to their unpredictable movements. However! We have advantage of knowing most of their abilities beforehand so everyone should look at the information and decide who will take on whom." Najenda calmed Tatsumi down.
After a while...
"Their abilities are certainly interesting and troublesome but it's nothing we can't take care of. What I am concerned about is how are we going to capture two of them alive..." Bulat said while holding his chin.
"I and Lubbock are like made to capture people alive, distract them a little and we will take care of everything else, right?" Green said before turning his head at Lubbock.
"Eh? Well, I don't appreciate you saying it like that but I guess we are the most suitable people for this job..." Lubbock admitted although unwillingly.
----Western's nation----
"Where are we going now?" A lean, muscular man wearing a black outfit with a black hairstyle in a triangular bob-like cut asked a young man with tan skin and an X-shaped scar over his face who was walking in front of the group of people.
"Hm? I guess we can go slowly back to the Capital while creating a bit of chaos on the way, heh." The young man with an X-shaped scar over his face was exactly Syura who replied with an arrogant and bored expression.
The one he just answered is named Enshin.
There were also 4 other people in his group...
A young woman of small height named Dorothea with blonde hair.
A tall man named Izou with black hair worn in a top ponytail, his entire clothing looked like that of samurai's.
A young woman named Cosmina with a bob-style haircut and bunny ears accessory on her head.
An overweight, dark-skinned man named Champ with puffs of dark curly hair above his ears. He was wearing clown make-up and clothing.
"Hm?" Enshin suddenly stopped when he noticed a big group of 9 people walking on the same road, however, what surprised him was none other than the number of beautiful girls in that group.
'Kill that old woman, an old man in butler attire and I can have so many options to pick from!' Enshin thought and licked his lips with his unusually long tongue while looking at Mera, Taeko, Chelsea, Gilberda and Cassandra. He immediately stopped Syura and suggested creating some chaos right now which he himself didn't mind, however, he found that big group slightly suspicious.
Suddenly Babara approached their group all alone.
"Hello, may I ask you for direc-" Before she was able to finish, she was interrupted by Syura.
"Piss off grandma and don't block our pa-!" Syura said with a harsh tone and irritated expression but before he was able to finish, he had to quickly jump to the back as he sensed danger. When he landed on the ground, he touched his neck just to find out a small scratch but blood was still pouring down from it.
"?!" Everyone immediately reacted and wanted to attack Babara but she had already retreated the moment she finished her surprise attack.
"I am really all rusty..." Babara muttered with an irritated tone while holding her hands behind her back. Mera's group already arrived next to her.
"*Gasp* You actually failed with your "kind grandma" act?!" Mera holding an umbrella over her head and faked a gasp while asking with a fake surprised expression and putting her hand in front of her mouth.
"?! YOU-!" Syura shouted while gritting his teeth. His heart was beating so fast that it was about to explode since he just narrowly escaped death.
All of his companions were already prepared to attack Mera's group.
"You fine?" Dorothea asked almost indifferently.
"Don't you care about me, kill them all! No, leave a few girls alive!" Syura ordered.
"Don't kill those adorable kids either!" Champ who was an infamous serial killer was also a very disturbing pedophile.
"Huh?! Just because we are small doesn't mean we are kids! I will gut you, fatso!" Both Loris and Meela snapped at the same time with a vein showing up on their foreheads.
"Now, now. Let me deal with this fatso myself, after all, it seems that he is wielding a Teigu. You girls can help out others, alright?" Mera said with a playful tone while taking their place to face Champ.
"Yes, Mera-sama!" Both of them replied with admiration in their eyes before they decided to go against someone else.
The current setup was looking like this:
Taeko vs Enshin
Loris & Meela vs Dorothea
Mera vs Champ
Daniel vs Syura
Cassandra & Babara vs Izou
Gilberda vs Cosmina
'? Wait, weren't there 9 of them?' Syura thought with a confused expression while glancing around but he couldn't find Chelsea anywhere.
---Takeo vs Enshin---
"You look pretty good, I can't wait to wipe away that stoic expression of yours when you will crawl on the ground like a bitch you are." Enshin said with a perverted smile while sticking out his tongue and checking out Taeko from up to down.
"..." Taeko's expression never changed, she didn't even bother to reply.
--------
While Taeko didn't show much of a reaction, the same couldn't be said about someone else.
Akashi who was currently playing around with one of the bigger Danger Beasts that was looking like a turtle, suddenly felt something unpleasant as he stopped moving for a bit while looking at the ground with wide-open eyes.
'What is this raging feeling? Why so suddenly out of nowhere?' Akashi thought while the feeling inside him was only getting stronger. The enormous danger beast finally saw a chance to stomp down Akashi when he stopped moving around.
[Absolute Dominance- activated] The feeling inside Akashi was enough to even automatically activate his skill.
Suddenly, Akashi saw a shadow over his head so he put his hand above his head without even strengthening his muscles.
*BANG* Upon the impact, the ground all around him was destroyed and the dirt was flying everywhere in the air.
Akashi was completely fine despite blocking an attack supported by numerous tons of weight.
The feeling still kept growing inside Akashi so he gritted his teeth and decided to take it out on the creature in front of him, he pushed its leg away and the Danger beast almost lost its balance. Akashi immediately jumped high up above its back.
"AAAAGH!" When he was falling down at its back shielded by a shell, he punched out while shouting out of frustration to completely vent out.
*BANG!!!* The shell covering its back that usually couldn't be penetrated even by a Teigu got completely crushed and the impact traveled through its entire body, completely pulverizing its bones and organs while the ground under and around it in 200 meters perimeter was completely destroyed.
That casual punch without any technique was so strong that even wind picked up so much that a few older and higher trees got blown away.
---
[+ 10 XP for killing the Danger Beast]
Class: Blade Master (Lv. 9; +16 Str, +16 Agi, +9 Const) 0/2560 XP
[Health: 820/820]
[Energy: 1720/1720]
[Strength: 47 (91)]
[Agility: 50 (92)]
[Intelligence: 50 (84)]
[Constitution: 48 (78)]
[Charisma: 40 (76)]
Free Stat points: 18
---
*huff* *huff* "Much better...what was that?" Akashi muttered while slowly inhaling and exhaling to calm himself down.
Akashi was still unaware that it was all due to a few Wrigglers he left in Taeko's shadow. They can't contact him himself but maybe due to his Beastmaster class and his connection with them, his "intuition" was strengthened up to a women's level.