Disclaimer: I do not own Akame Ga Kill or any of its characters.

Chapter 1

Kill the Hope

The day was starting off like any other day, a beautiful sunrise and new hope for the day. Tatsumi had just awakened from the sleep he fell into while having been looking at the stars on a grove of branches. He looked down to the clearing Ieyasu and Sayo to see they had gotten a head start on him, with the knowledge that he likes a little bit of competition every now and then. Tatsumi smiled and whispered to himself, "You're on, Ieyasu and Sayo." Tatsumi collected the bag he was using to carry his things from off of the branch above him and climbed down the tree as fast as he could. When he got to the bottom, he looked for tracks to see whether or not they could have thrown him off. They pointed east, toward the capital of the empire. With this in mind, he started running in the direction of the tracks. They turned to the left, returning to the main road that they had set up camp close too. They straightened back out when the tracks reached the road. Tatsumi was excited for the day. He didn't know what, but he knew something was to happen that day, whether it was for better or for worse he didn't know. All that he knew was that something would happen.

"Wow, they really decided to take off early to have covered this much ground without me." Tatsumi said to himself, amazed at how far Ieyasu and Sayo got before he started heading out himself. Tatsumi looked down to look at the tracks again when something caught his eye, tracks of possibly 10 others came from both sides of the road converging upon the tracks left by Ieyasu and Sayo. With this sight, he had a feeling that he needed to find his friends, and find them as soon as possible. Tatsumi started running faster as adrenaline started pumping into his system with the new tracks that he had seen. Tatsumi started to see smoke further up the trail, as if something were burning down. Something's off, I can feel it. I just hope that Ieyasu and Sayo are OK. As he got closer to the fire, the tracks began to diverge again, but they went around to meet again on an opposing side of the road. When he looked up, his heart sunk. He would never be able to forgive himself.

Tatsumi knew what the fire was right then and why it was made. To kill. Tatsumi realized why Ieyasu and Sayo had left so early, to escape bandits that were chasing them without rest. Tatsumi discovered why the tracks had come back together at the fire, it was to finally capture Ieyasu and Sayo, loot them, and then burn them alive. He knew this because he could recognize his friends charred bodies. It was right then that Sayo looked up weakly at Tatsumi and said with a weak and raspy voice, "We were being hunted…" she coughed and continued. "When they caught us, they raped me and tortured Ieyasu, when they had decided they had enough they burned us." Sayo coughed again, but with a heavy grinding sound. "I didn't get burned as much as Ieyasu," she said with a solemn look in her eyes. Tatsumi picked up Sayo and said "I will get you back to health, I promise." Tatsumi couldn't help the tears that started streaming down his face. Sayo smiled weakly and said "Thank you Tatsumi." Tatsumi went straight to work trying to nurse Sayo back to health. He would first make sure that she wasn't bleeding internally or externally, then he would see about cooling the burnt parts of her body, the main parts that were burnt were her cheeks and her abdomen, but her arms weren't spared from the fire either. After he made sure they had been cooled, he bandaged the burns and any wounds that were open. This took a good part of the day to do. After Tatsumi finished with Sayo, he paid his respects to Ieyasu's charred corpse. He was beside himself with grief. He had been lucky enough to save Sayo from death, but not Ieyasu.

Sayo was gradually getting better from when Tatsumi first found her. Tatsumi had finally returned to her side when he asked her, "Do you think with your current condition if you could walk with my help?" Sayo looked at him and said, "I think I can, yes." Tatsumi replied, "Alright, we need to get moving now then, I want to get you to somewhere that's safe before midnight. I don't want to risk another night in which you could be possibly finished off." Sayo only nodded and was got to her feet with the help of Tatsumi. She was in slight agony from the burnt parts of her arm touching him, but she could manage. The two walked on paying their final respect to Ieyasu before moving on. Nothing really happened until the sun reached midway between noon and the time in which it would set. It was then that Tatsumi and Sayo were relieved to see a carriage. Tatsumi flagged the carriage down without problem and asked the carriage driver if he could take them to the capital. Just to be safe, he showed the driver the gold pouch he received from his home village which was just enough to convince him. The driver said, "Climb on, into the back and we'll be on our way." Tatsumi helped Sayo climb into the back of the carriage and then climbed in himself. The driver of the carriage gave a sly smile that was hidden from the two in the back of his carriage as they were on their way.

Tatsumi managed to ask Sayo how they knew when the bandits had started chasing them. Sayo replied, "Ieyasu had been keeping watch that night and he heard branches snapping repeatedly and saw shadows in the light of the fire. He then decided that I needed to get up and be ready to run. He had no idea where you were so he thought you would be safe. The sounds just kept getting closer until it sounded like they were a few yards away, that's when we started running. We kept running until at one point something was blocking the path, that's when they overtook us. We should have diverged and met at the other side." She started to tear up as she remembered the rest of what happened. Tatsumi said, "It's OK, I will always be here for you. I will get vengeance for Ieyasu's death, I promise." He started tearing up as well. The two hugged in grief and in friendship. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He then proceeded to ask with fear in his voice, "What the hell was that?" Sayo turned her head and saw the same shadow. "I think it's a danger beast meaning we need to go faster, NOW!" She screamed as she realized that it was closing in on them.

The driver heard what the two had just said, and with fear and slight hesitation, he made the horses pulling the carriage go as fast as they could. It was to no avail as the Danger Beast simply increased it's own speed to match the carriage. Tatsumi unsheathed his sword. I won't let you or anything else in this world hurt my only other friend, even if it means giving my own life up! Tatsumi told Sayo to go to the other end of the carriage with urgency in his tone. The danger beast was almost upon them, starting to prepare to attack. Tatsumi swung at the danger beast, cutting it's arm. It was at that point infuriated. The next thing that he had known, he saw one of it's arms grab him and then another one extended itself above his head, hitting him hard enough to knock him unconscious. The last thing that he had heard from Sayo was "NOO, TATSUMI!"

Tatsumi woke up in a cabin, screaming. A man came into the room he was in. The man said, "Good you're finally awake. I would like to ask you some things if you wouldn't mind." Tatsumi seemed to get calmer and nodded in agreement. "Splendid! Now my first question is why in the name of hell did we find you with the danger beast Lurker and why were you still alive?"

And so we come to the end of the first chapter. There was a reason why I started writing this story and as the story progresses, you will find out. Until the next chapter, I wanted to see about some possible Constructive Criticism and opinions for this story as it is the very first thing that I have decided to write. I thank you for reading this and for those who will be wondering, the next chapter will be out either today or tomorrow. If you like the story, don't forget to Follow and Favorite it!