Akashi retained his changed form for now since it gave him only benefits. When the hugging period ended, Akashi turned at Esdeath who was the entire time quietly standing behind him.
"You probably already realized that Taeko is the one I told you about, right?" Akashi asked while wrapping his arm around Taeko's hips and pulling her close to him.
"I managed to get that much from the way she is looking at me." Esdeath replied with a smile.
"Girls, let's go ahead" Mera said while pushing both Poney and Kurome's back.
"Huh? Why?" Both turned at her with a confused expression but Mera ignored them, only winking at Akashi and he in return nodded his head.
When they left, Akashi once again turned his attention to Esdeath.
"Esdeath, I will be blunt" Akashi said with a serious expression which made Esdeath's smile disappear too.
"You said that you like me however you can't bear to share me. I admit that I also like you despite you behaving a bit...strangely, occasionally. We had a deal and I am the winner which means that I can do whatever I want so I am giving you a choice...You can either accept the fact of "sharing" me with Taeko or we will simply be friends. You can decide if you want to help me with my future plans or not but you can't interfere with them." Akashi said bluntly.
"...I indeed lost. I like you and since you also like me, why remain friends? I can try to cope with the feeling of "sharing" you" Esdeath closed her eyes, recalling their talk before they sealed the deal, and then she opened them, saying this with a stoic expression.
'Well, that's good that she still wants to try it because I am not sure what I would do if she wanted to remain friends...I would have never gained control over her actions.' Akashi thought after hearing her words. He knew that his fight still wasn't over if he wants Esdeath to really behave. She isn't someone who would quiver in front of superior strength.
"Anyway, Taeko is your name, right? Why are you fine with sharing Akashi? Are you perhaps not confident in keeping his attention only on you?" Esdeath asked with a provocative smile.
When Akashi heard her, he frowned but Taeko stepped in front of him before he could say anything.
"...I am but one woman. If you will keep those ideas even after spending a night with him, I am more than willing to leave him to you all alone" Taeko said with a serious expression, making Akashi slightly embarrassed as he began scratching his cheek with his sharp index finger.
"?" Esdeath was slightly confused by Taeko's words and even more by her confidence, giving Esdeath another chance to gain Akashi for herself all alone which made her feel quite suspicious.
She knew what Taeko's words meant, she has done her research and she thought that quelling male's lust was anything but a hard task, however, she was still unaware that Akashi wasn't as other men. Whenever he was in bed with Taeko, they kept going for hours until Taeko felt too tired and sore to continue. Akashi's constitution gave him also disadvantages like a large appetite and also harder suppressing his lust.
Akashi also felt a bit guilty since nights with Taeko were indeed getting harder and harder for her, he was sometimes even pretending to be fully satisfied just to make her rest for a longer time, however unknown to him, Taeko saw through his lies, she knew about it which in return made her love him even more but it also made her feel upset how he was keeping it away from her.
"I have no idea what gives you such confidence but I like it. You are daring, I will give you that, Taeko. I hope you won't go against your words later." Esdeath accepted this challenge since she had nothing to lose, she no longer wanted to be just friends with Akashi. If it was before their first kiss, she might hesitate a bit but ever since their first kiss, she became more obsessive with him.
"*Hey, what about my opinion? Why do you have such confidence in me?*" Akashi whispered to Taeko. Although what Taeko was doing was playing right into his cards, he still had to ask out of curiosity.
"*I know how much you restrained yourself during our times alone. Please vent it all out on her*" Taeko turned her back to Esdeath and whispered to Akashi with a devilish cold smile.
'?!' Akashi was actually caught off guard when he saw this smile since it was his first time seeing Taeko with such a sadistic smile.
"Heh, I guess I couldn't hide it from you in the end." Akashi chuckled and said with a slightly guilty smile.
"I am not upset or anything" Taeko just said shortly while caressing his cheek with a gentle look in her eyes.
"Ehm!" Esdeath was feeling left out when those two started acting all lovey-dovey so she interrupted them.
"Alright, let's go back to the Empire" Akashi smiled at Taeko before turning around with a more serious expression.
Before they left, Akashi made all the magma disappear from the cracks in the ground however he couldn't fix the damage done to the terrain so he just left it to the nature to fix herself up.
Akashi put on the cloak with a hood to hide his appearance. He wanted to keep this appearance as help in the persuasion of some certain people.
When they arrived home, he actually never showed his appearance to anyone and just found out where he is supposed to meet Night Raid. They were done with their job for probably a whole week and in case they managed to do everything as he demanded, then he shouldn't let them wait any longer, he sent a special bird with a message.
After a few hours of relaxing, most of Esdeath's energy was already recovered and it was at that time the same bird Akashi sent out, flew back to them together with a reply from the Night Raid.
.
.
.
---At night, the forest a few kilometers away from the Capital---
"Finally, I already started thinking that he ditched us." Mine complained while their group was waiting for Akashi to arrive.
"He wouldn't do that, he must have had reasons for not replying to us for so long..." Najenda was the only one to reply to Mine's complaints.
"What the hell are you planning, Night Raid?!" Mez growled at them with her hands and legs tied up.
Everyone ignored Mez but at least she was more normal than her partner, Suzuka, who was tied up in very lewd way.
"Ahh~" As if that wasn't enough, Suzuka was even occasionally releasing lewd moans which caused most of the male members to look in opposite direction.
"Who the hell even tied her up in such a way?!" Mine was annoyed by Suzuka's moans so she shouted at boys while pointing with her finger at Suzuka.
"Don't ignore me!" Mez shouted with an upset expression after getting ignored like that however she was also annoyed by Suzuka's moans.
"Looks like you are a very lively bunch."
When everyone heard this voice, they turned its direction just to have their eyes widened in shock.
"Esdeath!" Najenda stood up with a cautious expression while gesturing for other members to get ready for the fight.
"Najenda..." Esdeath released a cold smile while looking at Najenda's metallic arm.
Mez and Suzuka turned at Esdeath with hope in their eyes however when they saw other people around her, they were really confused. They were aware of who was Kurome but that was all.
'If Kurome is here, Akashi must be here too!' Mez thought with a smile.
"Calm down" A cloaked figure stepped forward and said but everyone recognized Akashi's voice even if it was a bit different this time.
"What is the meaning of this?" Najenda asked with a cautious expression.
---
Akame's eyes were attracted to a different person, it was exactly Taeko who was standing next to Akashi.
Taeko sensed Akame's stare so she turned her direction and looked right into her eyes without a single change in her calm expression.
Both of them remembered each other.
---
"I have done what was expected of me but maybe I should have came here alone..." Akashi said and took off his hood.
*Gasp* Some of the Night Raid members gasped when they saw his "mask" together with his changed eyes but instead of asking him for details about his appearance, they wanted to know why Esdeath is here with him.
Akame was obviously also surprised by Akashi's change but her attention was still on Taeko who previously tried to assassinate her friend.
Akame stepped forward.
"Akame?!" Everyone was shocked by her actions, they had no idea what she wants to do, however, they didn't want to start a fight here.
"Akashi...or should I call you Katsura? Which of them is the real you?" Akame frowned and asked with a serious expression.
Hearing her question, Akashi couldn't help but glance at Taeko before turning at Akame with a grin.
"So you haven't forgotten Taeko...I am Akashi however in the past, I was indeed known as Katsura for a few days." Akashi replied with a grin.
"Poney, why are you still following him after knowing that he was the one trying to kill us?" Akame turned to a masked girl and asked with a confused expression.
"He already told me everything...At first, it was a really shocking discovery for me but...Akame, aren't you the one who killed your best friend and adoptive father? At that time, they were just helping the Revolutionary army, we were in wrong, please don't start acting hypocrite right now." Poney said, attacking Akame's weak point.
As expected, Akame's expression winced in pain when she heard Poney's words as she just returned back to her group without saying anything else. While Akashi was slightly surprised how Poney defended him as far as to go harshly convincing Akame.
'Well, what she said is the undeniable truth.' Akashi thought.
"...I see, so the group you mentioned previously is the Oarburgh clan...Now I can see why you were so confident in them." Najenda muttered while tearing her eyes off Esdeath, looking at Mera.
"Hello~ We meet once again~" Mera put down her umbrella and said while winking at Najenda.
'What's up with this situation? They don't look like they are planning to fight...Anyway, what had happened to Akashi's face?' Mez thought while checking everyone's expressions.
"Let's get down to the business. Did everything go smoothly?" Akashi asked.
"As you can see...yes" Najenda took a deep breath before replying while pointing at Suzuka and Mez.
Akashi looked towards the prisoners and couldn't help but massage the bridge of his nose with a blank expression when he saw Suzuka's lewd expression.
"Alright, let me talk to them." Akashi said and took a step forward, letting the cloak around him drop down, revealing his real appearance, of course, he was wearing a shirt to at least mask the hole inside his body.
"?!!!" Everyone's eyes once again widened in shock and Sayo even held her hand in front of her open mouth.
"Y-Your body...is this caused by the fusion with Teigu? However, that shouldn't be possible for you since your Teigu was already absorbed within you, to begin with..." Leone asked with a dumbfounded expression.
'Is this the result of why Esdeath keeps standing there without attacking anyone or releasing her killing intent?' Najenda frowned and thought while observing Esdeath who kept smiling.
Akashi just smiled at Leone before approaching Mez and Suzuka, making them all nervous.