"It appears you snowflakes are finally starting to toughen up! Those 'peasants' easily lapped you snails last week but it turns out you grew some legs after all. Gotta say, took you spoiled city brats long enough!"
The drill instructor stood before his recruits, one half of the batch barely exhausted, the other still breathing a bit heavy. For some reason he kept stressing the word 'peasant' a lot throughout the last week when reviewing the results of their exercise.
"You're dismissed. I expect you at the training grounds at 15:00."
"These cockroaches…if they weren't busy crawling up their rice fields all their pathetic lives long, we'd be outrunning these filthy animals by a long shot." The recruit with the big ears scoffed, throwing up his hands. He didn't bother to keep his voice down one bit, similarly to Ieyasu in the canteen. Rather, he made sure everyone noticed.
Sayo failed to grab Ieyasu's wrist on his march. The recruit's buddy turned his head, pushing his comrade away as they walked.
"Sure, but that's exactly why. They're physically stronger, because they live a life different to ours. I think that's a good thing though, because then we have something to strive towards." He replied while staring back at Ieyasu and his friends.
Sayo gave him a brief nod. 'You idiot' was one of the things that followed before the two disappeared into the barracks.
"Elephant ears ya dirt-eatin' son of a bitch!" Ieyasu shouted through the entire training grounds.
"Calm down, will you?" Sayo grabbed him. "What were you going to do? Beat him up? In front of the drill instructor?"
"Haven't ya heard what that little shit just said?" He returned and pushed her off slowly.
"It's just noise. Like you said last week. Tatsumi?"
He was still staring after his 'comrades' marching off, fist trembling. "Filthy animals…cockroaches…"
"They'll eat their words soon enough. Let. It. Go."
Deep sigh pushed out. Tatsumi turned away and walked with his two friends.
"Hey!" A familiar, slightly squeaky voice shouted.
"Ah, Momo! There ya are." Ieyasu gave the boy a pat on the back but it turned out as a slight shove.
"What was that about just now?"
"Ah, don't mind. Just them leeches from the capital runnin' their foul mouths."
Momo quickly looked left. Then right. "Can you blame 'em after the stuff you said about them in the canteen?" He spoke through a forced, toothy smirk as they casually strolled through the open yard.
"This ain't good. If this keeps up somebody's gonna get beaten up. Or worse." Sayo pointed out.
"Bring it then! I'm gonna deal with 'em all at once. I ain't scared."
"No, she's right. We should all get along. We are comrades. I think we just need to get used to each other and before we know it we'll all be friends."
Sayo just tilted her head, raising an eyebrow before she turned away.
"That would be nice. Training's hard enough as is." Momo sighed. "At the end of the day we're all in this together. We can't be THAT different, can we?"
"I ain't got nothin' in common with them scumbags." Ieyasu sneered. "The only thing they got over us is the food we give them."
"You're being unfair to them, bro. I think most of 'em are good, normal people like us. Or Leone, remember? She showed us around and told us stuff about this whole city." Tatsumi offered, walking with his hands behind his back. His cheekbones raised ever so slightly at the mention of her name.
"You left out the part where we paid for her food." She mentioned. "But to be fair…we've only been here for like what? A week? And the only things we've seen so far are the barracks, so it's hard to pass any reasonable judgment." The young woman went through her black hair, again noticing the absence of her favorite flower.
Ieyasu nodded along, pursing his lips only for them to curl up into a smile. "How 'bout we check out what the city's got to offer once we get done with basic training? I'll be damned if I'm wrong but…then at least we're gonna know what these people are all about."
Momoharu giggled. "I'm on board. Who knows? Maybe the people of the city are really nice and the taxes have us all fooled."
"And let's not forget to party real hard the day we finish up here." Tatsumi added with a soft chuckle as they entered the canteen.
Silent, mischievous giggles filled the gray, montone room as opposed to the pre-existing pleasant silence.
"Here's another one. What do corpses and peasants have in common? If you're not one of them you will have figured it out by now." One of the recruits questioned in an artificially dumbed down tone, flashing Ieyasu and his friends a sardonic smile. He even went out of his way to replicate their accent.
"Oh, I know! I know! It's brain activity and paying taxes!"
Laughter erupted from the group solely consisting of 'citizens'.
"Brain activity? Is he callin' us dumb?" Ieyasu immediately looked towards his comrades.
Sayo closed her eyes, inhaling deeply through the nose. "And poor."
Momo too forced his eyes shut and shook his head. They went to grab their food, staring at their 'comrades' as they passed them by.
"Hey…do you got a problem with us? I'm sure we can work things out." Tatsumi questioned upfront. He even tried to muster up a polite smile to come across as non-hostile as possible.
"No, not in the slightest. Make sure to enjoy your meal. You need to get big and strong, Peasant." 'Elephant ears' denied. He couldn't even degrade himself to look the other young man in the eyes. All these caring words were laced in an undertone of sarcasm like the tip of an arrow coated in venom, his brown eyes shooting hateful poisonous daggers at every single one of these 'filthy animals'.
"We do need meatshields after all." Another one of the city people chuckled behind their backs. "In all seriousness though, a few brain-dead peasants won't cut it against these terrorists. What did they call themselves again? Night Raid?"
"Yeah, something like that. I heard they cut the duration of basic training in half, ever since these maniacs showed up. And meanwhile our parents are being made to stand guard in these boondocks and put their lives on the line for these unappreciative scroungers. Soon enough it will be us taking their places and then our kids, gods forbid!"
"I mean, it would be alright if the people from the countryside just paid their fair share…My father said something about them raising the taxes on us by another 3%! He couldn't keep it together the whole day. I have never seen him this distraught…He kept mumbling 45%..."
"They are never going to pay up, as long as the government doesn't give them any reason to. They need to motivate them."
"Wouldn't that be overdoing it? In addition, how are they going to afford the tax then?"
"True. Don't want these peasants to be more of a nuisance than they already are. I don't know. Something needs to change."
The four recruits from the countryside merely looked at each other after eavesdropping on the conversation.
"What a bunch of-" Ieyasu started with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"No, it makes sense. From their point of view at least." Sayo interjected. "I think they genuinely believe what they just said."
Tatsumi glanced over his shoulder. Apparently the topic had shifted towards locations in the red light district. "That doesn't make them right. Who do they think we are? Their gold mines? And what about the tons of food we send them?"
"Ya heard Elephant ears earlier. That's all ya need to know." Ieyasu grunted with a roll of his eyes, leaning back inside his chair with folded arms.
Tatsumi clutched the edges of their table and leaned over it. "That can't be it, bro! It shouldn't be like this."
For a few moments the table fell silent.
"My mother was sent a big check by the army when she became a widow. Of course, no amount of money will ever bring my old man back from the dead but…Our family can live well now. Gods rest his soul." A recruit from another table nearby explained to his female colleague with a heavy sigh.
During the whole conversation, Momo gave a distant stare. He seemed more invested in whatever was going on around him than what was happening in front of him.
"Momo? Ya there?" Ieyasu stubbed his arm.
"Oh, sorry…I zoned out for a second. I mean yeah…we should be comrades, I suppose. It's already enough that the drill instructor is screaming insults at us all day long." The boy let out a strained sigh and reached down to massage his soles ever so slowly.
"He kept yelling '30 minutes' and threatened us with rejection." The woman in the group yawned as she combed through her black hair. "And he keeps calling you 'the weak link' and stuff. He's just being relentless."
"To be fair, ya seemed to have an off run, so…" Her 'blockhead' commented.
"I know…today's been a struggle for some reason. Like someone tied bricks to my legs. And somehow I'm still too slow on the course…"
Tatsumi took another glance over his shoulder at his condescending comrades. "If they're really that desperate because of these Night Raid folks, they can't reject us. We'll have a job for sure."
"There's many fish in the sea. I doubt they're gonna hold their breath over a few peasants."
The young man leaned back and closed his eyes, hands behind his head. "We've made it this far. Ending up as rejects is the last thing our people need right now. But we're showing what we're made of so I ain't scared."
"Yeah, before 'Elephant ears' comes crawlin' over and 'motivates' us…" Ieyasu dug back into what was left of his sizable platter.
Momo couldn't help but chuckle at that and for the first time today the corners of his lips pointed upwards.
Later…
The recruits were all gathered in line inside the dojo, clad in white Gis instead of their military uniform. Opposite to them their drill instructor stood tall as always, set to announce the next arduous exercise.
"You cowards had your fun running around, but you're not here to learn running from your enemy. You are here to become soldiers. You, alongside your brothers in arms will defend our beloved nation against all of its enemies and fight for its interests. Here you will learn how to disable and kill our enemies with your bare hands. Have you worms understood that?"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
They started with a light warm-up, before they got into stance, rattling off one fist strike after another on the sergeant's command.
"On the chin! Not the neck!" Goutetsu shouted and tore at Momo's fist until it was in the correct position. Already the first few were starting to slow down. "Don't tell me that's all you cockroaches can manage! Keep going!"
Tatsumi bit down and upped his pace, arms growing heavier with each forced strike.
"Now to the body! Hit the solar plexus right here where there are no muscles! Your enemy needs to crumble in front of you. Be relentless!"
They soon moved onto all kinds of kicks and blocks before Goutetsu rounded up his recruits again. Most of them either let out heavy breaths or looked straight past the drill instructor with weary eyes.
"Alright, all that practice is well and good but once you're face to face with the enemy you need to become a killer. You got that, Private Peasant?"
He paused as he was pacing back and forth ever so slowly.
"That's why each of you is going to pair up with the one next to you and start sparring."
Tatsumi turned left to his partner. Of course, it had to be one of the city recruits. With a roll of his eyes his comrade raised his fists. Immediately his opponent swung at Tatsumi with a jab as stiff as a board. Not only was it slow but it was also way off target. He just stepped to the side, landed a careful left hook to the ribs and retreated.
"Relax. You're too tense. Try to hit me a bit faster. I don't think the technique has to be perfect at this point." The young man offered with an encouraging smile. It was not reciprocated whatsoever. His colleague stared at him with wide eyes as if this 'peasant' had just said something wildly outlandish. His bewildered stare quickly turned into a scowl.
"Yeah, yeah. I know what I am doing. Stop lecturing me, peasant."
Tatsumi's fists clenched up before he stepped back slightly. Deep exhale. Again, the same sequence replayed itself.
"Nice shot, Peasant. Seems like you're already turning Pig nose into your battered wife. Keep it up."
Pig nose's scorning eyes snapped wide open, sending his adversary a menacing glare. He rushed forward only for him to do the same as before. If anything, this attempt was even worse. It looked as though he was still doing the drills from the beginning, stubbornly trying to force them into a sparring situation at all cost.
"You f- you are ruining the sparring! You need to let me hit you." The recruit from the city stopped to complain.
The other boy's eyes opened wide and his head snapped back harder from this comment than any blow Pig nose could have landed on him.
"Let me attack for a second, ok?" Tatsumi flicked out a loose jab to which the other recruit could barely react. "See? Try doing it this way."
Pig nose stared down on the dojo mats and gave a short nod. This time Tatsumi actually had to put up his guard to not get hit. "Good and now let's keep it going." And eventually the two entered a steady flow, going back and forth. Although Pig nose was still trying his hardest to knock his opponent out when he thought the chance presented itself.
In the corner of Tatsumi's eyes Sayo and Momo were cautiously feeling each other out but from his position they did well.
"Eat shit, elephant ears! Ya got what's comin' for ya!"
On his way down Ieyasu hammered one and then another fist into the face of the unconscious recruit lying on the floor.
Goutetsu closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "Alright, Blockhead and Peasant, you two go together. The others change partners. Pig nose, take Elephant ears to the infirmary."
Pig nose muttered a shy 'thanks' as Tatsumi passed him by.
The green-eyed teenager was received by his friend's signature grin accompanied by a tiny chuckle as he noticed the small traces of Elephant ears' blood on Ieyasu's knuckles.
Right from the start Blockhead came out swinging. One of these hard straights most likely knocked out poor Elephant ears. Slip, block, counter if lucky. Rinse and repeat otherwise.
"Can we go a bit slower, bro?" Tatsumi asked as he shelled up for the incoming flurry.
"Why though? In real life the dude you're facin' is tryin' to kill ya too, so..." Ieyasu smashed his fist through the opposing guard. The following hook landed on the jaw, earning a small groan.
Tatsumi drilled a short hook into Ieyasu's body and shoved him off. For a second he gave Ieyasu a glare to which the other boy just shrugged. And so he continued his onslaught unperturbed, until Goutetsu called it quits for the day.
The recruits slowly headed for the showers and a well-deserved meal right after. When Sayo exited the shower, three of her male colleagues surrounded her. Sayo looked behind herself.
No way out.
One of them was Elephant ears with his arms folded and a big fat bruise on his temple. Their eyes were trained on her, looking down upon the woman equal to predators cornering their prey. Elephant ears clenched his jaw before he spoke.
"Aren't you Blockhead's girlfriend?" He demanded in an accusatory tone.
"Not really. Does that matter?" Again, Sayo's gaze quickly scanned the room.
"No, because you are sitting together either way."
"Look, the idiot shouldn't have done that today. I apologize on his behalf. Just let me have a word with him."
Elephant ears scoffed. "That won't do. He needs to get the message."
The woman's eyes widened in another fruitless attempt to find an exit to the room. She twitched slightly. Elephant ears slammed her against the wall and grabbed her neck.
The young man leaning over her lowered his voice almost to a whisper. "Here is what is going to happen. You drop that towel, spread your legs, take it and smile. Then you can go back to that retard, whom you call your boyfriend and tell him what happened. Or you can make a fuss about it…Then we are going to beat you like the filthy animal you are, rip that towel off your body, spread your legs apart and make you our bitch for as long as we feel like it. And if your boyfriend gets lucky, we let him watch. But the choice is yours. Am I understood?"
One last time her eyes frantically hurried all across the entire showers. searching for a way out of this situation. Just out of here. But to no avail. She let out a soft breath. Before Sayo could speak, Pig nose pulled his colleague away from her.
"Have you gone nuts?! You can't just violate a girl! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Girl, pfft please…the only thing feminine about her is in between her legs. I wouldn't even be surprised if we found her balls when we ripped that towel off her. My deceased grandfather makes a better girl than any of these dirty, rotten peasants. You have a higher chance ending up gay when you fuck these 'girls'." Elephant ears rebuked with a dismissive wave of his hand accompanied by a roll of his eyes.
Pig nose gave Sayo a wide-eyed glance before he shut his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, you are right…she is a dirty, rotten peasant. That's why we shouldn't do this. She could infest us with whatever disease they bring over from their boondocks!"
The tall third recruit of them merely gazed away from the scenery onto the tiles underneath him.
"I don't care. If she dares, I'll make that filthy animal wish she never did. " His eyes focused back on the target as he closed the distance again.
"And what if the drill sergeant finds out? We can't risk-" The other recruit finally spoke up.
Elephant ears interrupted him with a sardonic smile. "I'll make sure that bitch keeps her mouth shut. Don't you worry." He glanced at Sayo and moved his head to the side.
"You know what? I'm out. Screw it. I am not doing this. You are getting us all in trouble." Pig nose let out several sharp exhales, he himself now frantically looking around the room himself and then back at his colleague.
She made a few slow steps forward. She reached for the hem of her towel covering her torso, when suddenly a high-pitched, utterly annoying voice greeted her.
Her hand fell off her towel and she made sure to move close to the fully graduated soldier.
"Sayo! How's it going?" Seryu asked with a huge grin before it faded into a confused stare. "What's happening here? What are you guys doing here?"
"Err, n-nothing!" Pig nose stuttered. He looked to Elephant ears for answers now.
Seryu's face contorted into a violent grimace. "That does not look like 'nothing' to me. Are you harassing your sisters in arms?"
The hairs on Sayo's back raised upon seeing that twitch in the other girl's face. She gave Pig nose a brief look and put a hand on Seryu's shoulder. "No, they were kind enough to let me know that the drill instructor wanted to have a performance review later." Her stare moved on to the man who nearly raped her and she did not break it. "They just did their duty. Isn't that right?"
"Exactly. We shall be off now." Elephant ears made a lazy salute before he vanished alongside his buddies.
Deep sigh exhaled.
"Sayo? What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. Today's training was just hard." That wasn't even a lie.
"Sometimes it can be like that. Make sure to rest up well and you'll be good to go the next day." Her radiant gaze was all upon the other girl. Sayo cleared her throat.
"I'd like to get dressed."
"Oh, yeah sure thing!" Seryu made a quick turn around with her hand covering her brown eyes.
"What brings you here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be on duty?"
She kept speaking with closed eyes. "I just came off my shift and wanted to check on you. My guts were telling me that the three of you had potential to be great soldiers."
"Oh, that is flattering. We're working on it…" She paused, while she buttoned up her shirt. "I've got a question…what was basic training like for you back then?"
A toothy smile formed below the hand still covering her vision. "It was awesome!"
Sayo sighed and went through her hair. "I figured this much…but did you have these days?"
"What kind of days?"
"When you seriously ask yourself if you can do it."
"Ah! Yeah, but I think everyone has 'em. It's key that you're in good shape even before you enter basic training, so you can actually keep up. But in the face of evil and injustice we have to show perseverance. That's what being a good soldier is all about, ain't it? Some days you just gotta buckle down and keep going, if you want to make it." Seryu elaborated, her innocent smile only growing wider.
"I guess…You can look again."
"It's good to see y'all. Let's have a bite, shall we? I'm starving. Ieyasu and Tatsumi are probably gonna be waiting already."
"Yeah, that sounds good right now."
The two young women continued their talk on their way to the canteen. And after a brief dinner, the dreaded performance review was in order. The recruits were rounded up in two lines facing each other with their field chests in front of them.
The drill instructor spoke up with his hands behind his back, slowly walking down the corridor of fearful recruits. The blinding lights shed light on any deficiency however small.
"I must admit that most of you have proven to be not entirely spastic after all. However, a group is only as strong as its weakest link and that continues to be you, Retarded dwarf." Goutetsu started, approaching the boy ever so slowly.
The drill instructor looked past Momo. "Are you still too stupid to make your own bed? I thought we'd be past shitting the bed. You really are a disappointment to this entire corps."
A faint chuckle resounded in the back.
"Sir, excuse me, sir. I just…"
"I don't care for your excuses. Excuse yourself for your existence being an utter fucking disgrace." He scoffed. He knelt down and picked up the opened lock on his recruit's field chest. "Why the fuck is your chest open, you retarded dwarf? Explain to me, why your fucking chest is open!"
The drill sergeant ripped that blasted box off the ground, emptied it all over the floor and tossed it across the room. Immediately, an adorable teddy bear stuck out from the mess just made. Goutetsu picked it up, glanced at the young recruit then back at the bear and again back to Momo, his ire drilling holes into the boy's soul.
Again, the same chuckle coming from the other line scorned poor Momo under siege. The corners of Tatsumi's mouth dropped as his gaze fixated on the two city recruits having a laugh.
Sharp inhale. He ground his teeth and adjusted his military hat. Goutetsu dragged the boy into the middle of the room, putting him on full display as if he was his own son, who'd just misbehaved massively. And now his spanking was in order.
The man dumped the teddy bear into Momo's hands. He turned to the other teenagers in the room with a raised voice.
"It appears that I have failed. I failed because you did not give Retarded dwarf the proper motivation. Therefore you will bear the responsibility of his failures. Get down on the ground and give me a hundred!"
"1, 2, 3 for the imperial army!" The recruits chanted in unison as they pushed their bodies off the cold floor, Momo in the midst of it all clinging to the teddy. He could only stare ahead towards the gray double door leading outside with empty eyes.
After the performance review, the recruits were sent to bed at 9 pm as per usual. Tatsumi dozed off quickly, until dull noises instead of the drill instructor interrupted his sleep. He could make out at least four or five hazy figures in the moonlight making it past his bed.
Momo's sudden screams beside him ripped Tatsumi's eyes wide open, until someone shoved a pair of wool socks down the boy's throat. With each passing moment, more and more recruits got in on the opportunity to smash him to their heart's content as if he was some cheap training bag.
Tatsumi rose up before he noticed Sayo's stare on him. His glance quickly alternated between her and Momo. She merely shook her head, closed her eyes and turned away, while their comrade was being beaten half dead.
He too turned away ever so slowly, gut already twisting in ways he never thought possible. Like a terrified child Tatsumi held on to the pillow, shut his eyes tight and pressed it against his ears, silencing the pained whimpers of the battered boy.
After minutes of uninterrupted torment, all noise faded leaving Momo to either pass out from countless aches or wail in agony and risk more punishment. It ended up being both.
Tonight Tatsumi would not close an eye.
A/N: Next chapter "Kill the escalation"
And that is the end of this chapter. I know, it took way longer than it should have but you know the drill. I have university, family, killer migraines, other obligations out to get me. Chapter 5 will most likely come around Christmas so you can read something while you wait for your blood sugar levels to come down to a non-lethal dose. The next chapter will also conclude this arc and then we will move on to other things.
Also, did you know that Akame had birthday recently? It was on the 24th of October. So did Ashura (the fictional character I created). Either way, show them some love. I would have written a birthday piece for that occasion but I was dead sick the last two weeks and given Akame's current absence from the story I felt it would be kind of odd anyway sadly. That is all I got for today. Go away now.
P.S. Don't ask me when the next chapter is coming out. This one was a bitch to make. And I had to change the closing scene at the end after publishing because this bastard of a chapter just can't stay down.