Disclaimer: Akame ga Kill is not my property and this story is a non-profit fan work.
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A crowd gathered around a marble building was held back by a dozen members of the Imperial Police, each of them with a rifle in their hands and keeping an eye on the crowd to make sure there would be no trouble behind the yellow tape. Some in the crowd were watching with curiosity, others were crying and sobbing and a few were trying to comfort those who were distressed. Behind those Policemen were dozens more, all of them crouched or behind some form of cover and aiming weapons towards the building's windows and exits.
Near the yellow tape was a tent within which a middle aged man with short auburn hair presided over a table filled with maps and blueprints of the bank they were currently surrounding.
"Damn robber bandits." he muttered under his breath. The fact that they were holding up a centre of economy was bad enough, but there was also the problem that there were people inside. Scared, threatened and very much hostages. The Bandits were regular fare, out of town folks who had gotten into the capital and, unable to find a job for their mercenary habits decided to turn to violence to try and acquire the riches that they thought the capital could provide.
And if that wasn't bad enough, their leader was Boris the One eyed. It wasn't that he was infamous or anything, but it was because he was a known user of the Imperial Arm Double Bladed Axe: Belvaac. A man who was capable of using a legendary weapon created centuries ago which could turn the tide of a battle single handed, and he chose to use it like a common bandit, waving it around to frighten the people of the empire into submission and drenching it with the blood of far morally superior men and women.
Snorting in disgust, the man was left alone with the sounds of the crowd's moderate muttering and the occasional shout of one of his police officers, when a minute later the flap to the tent opened to reveal one of the officers. He was a young one, barely out of his youth, and seemed nervous as he came to attention. Must have been fresh out of training, the man figured. Poor luck to be assigned to help deal with this mess so early.
"Captain Ubiquitous" the officer reported, and the man noticed with a smile that at least his voice wasn't shaking. "Falkenjagd has arrived at the scene!"
"Good." Captain Hiryuu Ubiquitous nodded. "Send them into the tent."
"At once sir." The young officer said with a salute before departing, the tent entrance flapping behind him before seconds later, the flap reopened and the young officer entered, quickly darting to the side to allow four people behind him to come in.
The first to enter, leading the group, was a tall blonde woman wearing an imperial fur coat with a skirt that gave way to white knee-length boots and a hat with a design of eight crystals in a circle on the front. From the way she entered first and ahead of the rest, it was clear to the young officer that she was the leader of the group.
Behind her, flaking her on both sides were two more, one a young man with brown hair and wearing not a police uniform but instead a simple black suit with the jacket unbuttoned, revealing a red dress shirt with an open collar and a sword held in a sheath that was way too thin to hold a contemporary sword by his side. Unlike what one would expect from a man of the law his posture was completely slackened, and had he not been exclusively introduced as a member of of the group the Captain had called for, the young officer would have, without a doubt, believed he was a member of one of the criminal rings that were plaguing the city.
In contrast, the other was a woman who seemed to fit right in with what one would think when they think of a member of the police. Wearing the armour of the imperial police, in contrast to the man's slackened attitude she stood at rapt attention upon stopping. With a determined face and her black hair tied in a ponytail, she would have looked just like any other officer within the police force had it not been for a large gourd behind her back, from which the young officer could hear the swishing of something – some form of liquid, but he was unsure of if it was water or something else entirely.
The last to come in the tent was perhaps the most out of place of them all. Unlike the others in the room who were adults, the last to enter was a young girl who could not possibly be more than just a few years into her teenage years. As if to exemplify how young she was, she was wearing a red blazer and skirt which her shoulder length purple hair brushed against the shoulders of, and on the chest of that uniform was the emblem of the Imperial Youth Academy, one of the many schools for children and young adults throughout the empire. They had, the young officer frowned, brought along someone who was a schoolgirl. Her uneasiness here was evident here too; instead of flanking the woman in front confidently like the other two she stayed definitely behind her back, watching the Captain but never fully exposing herself.
Even more perplexing to the young officer, however, was the... dog? It was a dog? Something that was being carried in the girl's arms. Initially, he had thought that it was some form of canine plushy. After all, although it resembled a white dog its eyes were black dots and its nose was, for all intents and purposes, an oversized black coffee bean. He had been sure it was some form of doll or teddy dog, which was why he had been completely caught off guard when the thing raised a stubby white arm and waved with a noise that just sounded unfairly cute.
"Kyuu~" the dog – plush – thing – waved at Hiryuu, who simply smiled.
"Commander Chouri," he said to the woman leading the front, "thank you for coming. The situation's been getting worse and Boris has been shouting that he would be beginning to kill hostages soon if the demands weren't met soon."
"It's alright, Hiryuu." she nodded, stepping towards the table with the young girl following behind her. "How are thing's looking?"
"We've got the bandits holed up in the gold vault of the bank." Hiryuu informed them, bringing up a blueprint of the bank in question. "We've got hostages too – patrons and staff who happened to come on the wrong day."
"How many bandits are in there?" the commander asked.
"Six, including Boris." Hiryuu grimaced. "All of them are inside and we can't see anything. My guess, however, is that they're probably all gathered around the vault or within shouting distance." However, the young girl behind the commander shook her head.
"I don't think so. I'm sure that some of them would be keeping watch." the girl said softly.
"What do you mean, Mirielle?" the commander asked, turning to her.
"I doubt that Boris is willing to just sit there and wait. He'll want to know what's going on. He'll probably have posted bandits on the windows or the roof within running distance to the vault to warn him if we make a move. Himeko," she asked, surprising the young officer watching with the familiarity the girl spoke of to the commander with, "Could you please check?"
Himeko nodded and headed out of the tent, looking up at the building. Taking off her hat, she pushed back the front of her hair with her hand to reveal a closed third, metallic eye on her forehead. With a snap, the metallic 'eyelids' opened to reveal a green eye. Staring up towards the building for a few moments, she finally nodded and closed the 'third eye', heading back inside the tent.
"You're right." she announced. "There's one with a telescope on the third floor, watching the entrance."
"Then it's simple." The brown haired man in the suit nodded. "We'll get Inoue to take him out from a distance and then storm the place - "
"Are you an idiot, Ahl?" The woman with the gourd behind her back snapped. "Even if I could take him from this distance I'll take half of the floor with him; and if Boris notices something's up then the hostages are a goner. Besides, storming the place? We can't fight him with hostages around!"
"Then you got a better idea!?"
"No, but anything's better than that!"
The young girl – Mirielle – sighed as the two had their brief moment of bickering, simply hugging the dog-plushy-thing tighter and causing it to squirm in her hands. Himeko, however, simply sighed and stepped in.
"That's enough. Ahl, Inoue, both of you, we'll let Mirielle handle the planning." she said sternly, separating the two arguing officers. The young girl sighed, giving Himeko a nod of appreciation before falling silent for a few moments.
"What were his demands?" she finally asked, looking up at Hiryuu.
"A carriage and a sack for him to carry the gold in." he grimaced.
"We'll give that to him." Mirielle said, surprising the others. "Bring them to the courtyard and tell him we'll leave it there for him to pick it up. And then..."
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Boris the One-eyed was a giant of a man. Larger than even some members of the minotaur tribes that existed to the west of the empire, his face and arms bore several scars and signs of injury, the most prominent being the eye-patch that covered the empty socket of his left eye. Stepping out of the bank with Belvaac carried over his right shoulder and confident that, should the pigs try anything, that his watchman on the third floor would yell at his crew to kill the hostages, he grinned and headed towards the head pig himself.
"Well well well." he snorted in his low, growling voice before his face broke into a grin. "Captain Ubiquitous, imperial police."
"Boris, the one eyed." Hiryuu nodded in response, his face impassive. "Wanted for murder, extortion, sexual assault..."
"If you think you can take me today, you've got another thing coming." the armed bandit chuckled. "if you even touch me, my boys will kill the hostages."
"I am fully aware of that, and we won't harm you." Hiryuu promised. "Your cart and sack - "
"The cart and sack can wait." Boris sneered, lifting Belvaac and allowing it to fall to the ground, cratering the pavement with a small, miniature earthquake. "First, I'm going to gut me a pig."
Even as the other police officers reached for or lifted their weapons, Hiryuu stopped them with a wave of his hand.
"Stop! If you move now, the hostages will die!"
"That's right." Boris grinned at the collected officers. "You can't touch little old me. So just stand there and watch while I cleave your captain's head right in two!"
And with that, Belvaac was raised, its ends gleaming in the sunlight, and was brought down half an inch when the movement was suddenly stopped.
"What - "
Boris turned to his side to see his arm gripped by a woman who looked rather puny compared to him. However, despite his bigger size he still froze up when he saw her.
"You!"
"Me." Himeko agreed with a smile. Yanking his arm away from her grip, Boris growled with displeasure.
"A hat with a diamond patter in a circle... blonde hair concealing a third eye... you're from Falkenjagd, aren't you?"
"That's right." Himeko nodded, causing Boris to pale.
Falkenjagdt. A special weapons and tactics team created for the imperial police comprised of Imperial arm users, created with the express purpose of dealing with crimes relating to imperial arms and those who use them. As a criminal using one of the vaunted imperial arms, there was no way he would not have heard of them. After all, he was their speciality.
And now their commander was right in front of him.
"But you can't bring me in." Boris said, the surprise fading and most of his earlier bravado returning. "I have the hostages. If you don't want to see them tragically all die, you'll stay out of this."
"I don't think so." Himeko said, never dropping her smile. "You see, I'm here to bring you in. You and your imperial arm. Belvaac will be wrestled form your grasp and returned to the service of the Empire, and you will be rotting in jail where you belong."
Each word simply made Boris angrier and more furious. Him, rotting in jail? Belvaac torn from him?
"Fine, you brought this upon yourselves!" He finally spat before facing the bank. "Ricky! Tell the boys to kill the hostages! All of them! Paint the bank red with their blood!"
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"Go to the college, pa said... use the smarts you have, pa said... like I'm supposed to know which college he meant." one of the bandits muttered, sword sheathed by his side as he glared at the trembling hostages who were cuddled on the floor beneath him.
Observing the vault from behind a corner, Ahl and Inoue watched carefully. With one of the bandits acting watchmen and Boris out in the courtyard, that left four bandits in the vault with approximately twenty hostages.
"Mirielle was right." Ahl whispered. "They really didn't notice us coming."
"She did say that the watchman would be focused on Boris, after all." Inoue whispered back. "So, how do we wanna do this?"
"We charge in immediately and -"
"Forget it. I was stupid for asking you." Inoue cut him off.
"No, I'm serious!" Ahl insisted in a hushed whisper. "We can get them from the shock value alone!"
"And I'm telling you that won't work!"
"So what do you suggest - "
"Hey," one of the bandits called out, "Who's there? Rick? That you?"
Both members of Falkenjagd froze in place before sighing. "Fine," Inoue sighed, reading a spear as Ahl brought up his sword, sheath and all, "We'll do this your way. Remember, we're here to arrest, not to kill."
And with that, the two charged right into the vault. The bandits, caught completely off guard, barely managed to raise their weapons before two of them were brought down, one of them swept off his feet by the shaft of Inoue's spear and the other having his head smashed in by Ahl's sheath. The other two bandits, instead of taking a hostage, immediately charged at the two officers with swords. One of them got the wind knocked out of him for his trouble by the butt of Inoue's spear, dropping his sword and falling to his knees, and the other had Ahl duck under a wild slash before being headbutted right in the face, causing him to stagger in pain before Ahl brought him down with a kick to the leg.
As Inoue went around handcuffing the pained bandits, both of them heard the sound of descending footsteps. Sighing, Ahl brought his sheathed sword to his shoulder and headed out of the vault to greet the one coming down the stairs.
"Guys guys guys!" A rushing bandit shouted as he literally jumped down the stairs, "Boris said to kill the hostages -"
He stopped when he saw Ahl in front of him and paled. In contrast, Ahl just smiled.
"Falkenjagd." he said simply. "You're under arrest."
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"You didn't have to do that, you know." Hiryuu whispered. "We could have brought this to a peaceful end. You could have just turned yourself in peacefully."
"Well I didn't and you were all stupid." Boris spat. "Now the hostages are gonna die because of you - "
The next thing he knew, the doors to the bank opened, causing everyone's attention to turn towards it. From inside the bank, people began streaming out. Hostages, still in shock at the danger they had been in today, headed towards the crowd and ran towards their loved ones. Those who had been sobbing cried out in relief as their lover, child, parent, sibling, friend joined them in safety. Soon, the only two left on the steps were Ahl and Inoue.
"So," Himeko said, that smile never having left her face, "What was that about the hostages, Boris?"
Enraged, the bandit leader raised Belvaac and attempted to just smash Himeko's head in. Unfortunately for him, the leader of Falkenjagd dodged to the side swiftly.
This, she figured, was just simply too easy. She didn't even need spectator to read his movements. Instead of swinging punches during Boris' moment of instability caused by his reckless attack, she instead poked him with two fingers through various points in his body. The moves were practised, concise and without hesitation, done as if it was completely routine for her.
Pressing in the last point, Himeko stepped away from Boris' standing form and turned her back to him, simply just walking away. Despite her leaving herself completely open, Boris just stood there, transfixed, before he dropped Belvaac and completely collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. Upon seeing the defeat of the leader who had terrorized the day, the crowd broke into cheering.
"Excellent as usual, commander." Ahl said with a grin. "I knew he didn't stand a chance – although I really wish you'd have let me fight him instead. I'd love for the crowd to cheer for me too."
"Really, he wasn't worth the effort. If he didn't have Belvaac the police could have brought him down easily." Himeko sighed. "What happened to the others?"
"The remaining five bandits have been secured with rope. The police can pick them up anytime." Inoue reported.
"Good work." Himeko nodded, turning as Mirielle came out of the tent. Turning to the young girl, she smiled. "Your plan worked flawlessly, Mirielle. As expected."
"There wasn't any possibility of any other outcome." Mirielle muttered, the white dog plushy still squirming in her arms. "Unless, of course, Ahl and Inoue got in another argument in the middle of the plan."
"I assure you no such thing happened." Inoue said immediately, her eyes turned away suspiciously.
"In any case," Himeko said to her team as she clasped her hands, "Everything's taken care of. Let's take the Imperial arm and report to the palace."
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A short distance from them, Hiryuu handcuffed Boris the one eyed as he examined the incapacitated bandit's body.
"That... bitch..." the defeated bandit growled, "What'd she do to me!"
Hiryuu didn't answer, but he knew exactly what had happened. Every single pressure point of the human body that could have collapsed and stopped his movements were pressed. As expected from the commander of Falkenjagd, she managed to press his pressure points swiftly and smoothly without mistakes.
"You're going to be locked up for a long time." Hiryuu growled. "Don't worry about what she did to you, worry about what's coming next."
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Being imperial arms users and general heroes of the populace, Falkenjagd had the privilege of having a headquarters within the palace. As the group marched up the stairs and entered the entrance hall, Himeko found someone waiting for them. Somehow, that man had both a moustache and a beard to compliment silver hair.
"Himeko," Prime Minister Chouri said with a note of relief, "You've returned."
"Of course, dear." she said as the two embraced in a hug. The rest of Falkenjagd watched the brief exchange before a door opened, revealing a young girl, no older than seven, in karate gi.
"Mama!" she called out, making her way towards them.
"Spear!" Himeko called out, bending down with her arms wide open, allowing the young girl to jump into them and lifting her up in the air. "Were you a good girl while I was gone?"
"Yes mommy! The girl said as she laughed at the height Himeko brought her to. "Mommy beat up the bad guys again, right?"
"That's right!" Himeko assured her daughter, causing Ahl to chuckle and for Inoue to whack him on the back of the head.
"Ow!" he hissed. "What was that for!?"
Before the argument could actually escalate, the doors to the throne room opened and a middle aged man with greying blue hair entered the hall, wearing a green cape over a finely decorated military uniform and holding a golden scepter with a blue orb. He was flanked by two guards, and upon noticing him, everyone in the room – save Ahl – promptly got on their knees, with Himeko allowing Spear down so she could imitate her mother and father and bow. Ahl, meanwhile, proceeded to raise a hand to wave a greeting to the man before Inoue promptly grabbed his head and forced him down.
"My lord," Himeko spoke solemnly in large contrast to the loving and playful nature she had just a moment ago, "Falkenjagd reporting, returning from the arrest and capture of Boris the one eyed."
"Please, please," the man chuckled, "Stand up, all of you. It is most awkward for me to offer both congratulations and gratitude when all of you are on your knees like that. Why, I can't even see most of your faces!"
"But my lord," Prime Miniser Chouri began, "You are the emperor, it would be improper - "
"Chouri," the Prime Minister said in a mockingly sad tone, "We have been friends for so long, you are my most trusted adviser. If I cannot even see your face when you speak to me then it is most lonely on the throne indeed."
A moment passed, and everyone stood up. Himeko held up a large suitcase.
"The Imperial Arm Belvaac." The Emperor nodded as he opened the suitcase to inspect the contents. "Finally returned to the service of the Empire at last. Thank you, Himeko. All of you in Falkenjagd." he said with a smile as he stepped back and allowed one of the guards to retrieve the suitcase. "That is one more imperial arm brought back into the fold."
"It is nothing but our duty, my lord." Himeko responded, bowing her head.
"Please, such devotion and a sense of responsibility." The Emperor sighed. "If only my own children would be like you more. Hiroto is trying his best but I feel like there is much he will abuse, Atsuki is always off ignoring her responsibilities. Hopefully that Honest fellow will get Makoto to be unlike his older siblings..."
As the emperor went on about his sons and daughter, Ahl zoned out, thinking back to the day. The Empire's peace was protected, the hostages were safe, the bad guys were defeated and everyone was happy.
Score one for Falkenjagd.
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Before corruption, there were omens. Before violence, there was turmoil. Before Night Raid and the Jaegers, there was Falkenjagd: the Falcon Hunt.
The Azure of the Auspicious Rain Presents:
Akame ga Kill: A Twilight Empire
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