Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless in any way, shape, or form. It all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of this! I DO own Tusumaki Armien, who you'll meet here.

Dedication: Written for "Nisei's Birthday" as on the Facebook account I use. Huzzah.

000

He really didn't like working for Seimei, when it came down to it. Seimei was a psychopathic, sociopathic bastard and it just wasn't good for his always unstable and questionable mental health to be associated so heavily with such a man. At least, that's what Akame Nisei always told himself. Whenever he followed an unsavory order that left him coated in the blood of another man-woman, child, in a few cases-that was what he told himself. He blamed Seimei for it being done in the first place. Hiding behind the excuse of 'it was an order' was what he always did best. He could say that he didn't enjoy it until he was blue in the face. He could pretend that Seimei twisted his arm and threatened him or someone he cared about and left him with no choice but to follow the orders. He could repeat to himself that it was an order time and time again and, maybe, in the end, he'd find it in himself to actually believe it. But no matter what he told himself, no matter what lied he fed to Mimuro that he hoped his sempai would accept as the truth, he knew deep down that it wasn't the truth. Whether anyone else accepted it as the truth or not, he and Seimei both knew that there was no part of Nisei that was against his actions. Seimei always said that he could have made the simple decision to not follow the order; to be a man and tell his Master to piss off and do his own dirty work. But both of them knew that was no option. Nisei was the type of person that had to be controlled, that wanted and needed to be controlled. He couldn't be left to his own devices and made to make his own decisions and control his own body and mind. He needed someone to just take charge. No one had managed to succeed in doing so before. His parents attempted to rein him in, his brother attempted to make him be what his parents wanted, and in the end, they all failed. But Seimei? Seimei was an entirely different matter all together. Nisei wasn't sure if it was the near invisible bond that connected them or if it was just Seimei's natural charisma and the authority he exuded without even trying. Yet there was something about the raven haired teen that kept him in line. As he listened to Seimei drone on about his plan to fake his death, he was pretty certain it was just because Seimei was crazier then he was. Yeah, that had to be it.

"Akame, are you even listening to me?" The Sacrifice of the Beloved pair snapped at his subordinate.

"Huh?" Nisei wondered. "Oh, yeah, I heard everything you said loud and…uh…clear…Seimei…"

Seimei simply stared at him.

Nisei hung his head in defeat. "No, sir."

Seimei groaned, leaning back in the kitchen chair he was seated on. "What the hell am I going to do with you?" He wondered, tone daring Nisei to answer the rhetorical question. "Alright, I'll explain the plan again. This time, pay attention because it's the last time I'm repeating myself. Do I make myself clear?"

The bond between them shimmied as Nisei nodded in response.

"Yeah, clear enough."

Seimei groaned.

000

And that was how Nisei ended up here, in an elementary school classroom, with an unconscious raven haired man that looked a little too similar to his Master for comfort. He could almost imagine that it was Seimei sitting there, tied up with his head hanging over as he was unable to keep it up straight when unconscious. He could almost see Seimei's tail and ears beginning to twitch from a dream or beginning to wake up. Except when the raven haired man tied up to the chair picked up his head, there would be no cold plum eyes glaring back at the Fighter. Instead, there would only be confused…hazel…? No, maybe some form of blue…? Eh, it didn't really matter. He'd be dead soon.

Sitting on the desk nearest the other male, Nisei kicked one of his crossed legs back and forth.

"Tick, tock. Tick, tock." He muttered softly.

He noticed the elder beginning to stir, a light groan spilling easily from his throat.

"Gah, about time." Nisei sneered. "I don't have all day for you to wake up, you know."

He kicked out with his leg that was on top of the other, nudging the man's chair gently to turn him to face him better.

"What…who…?" The older of the ravens shook his head and tried to move his limbs, only to find it impossible to do so from the ropes securing both his body and legs to the chair.

"Don't bother trying to talk. It's going to hurt."

As the man was finally able to look up, and Nisei noticed that his eyes were actually a foggy green color, he smirked at the obvious slice in the other's throat. The other man began to speak but groaned instead. Where Nisei had managed to cut his throat was more or less from him trying to knock the other unconscious through strangulation. When that didn't work, he resorted to letting the other male try to get away before tossing a spell his way that sent him flying to the hardwood floors of his apartment. It was been a little too easy to convince the other male to let him into his apartment, and Nisei had been slightly afraid that it was a set up. However, a few glasses of chardonnay later and it was rather clear that it wasn't an attempt to ambush one of the most hated Fighters in existence. Yeah, Nisei admitted it. He didn't have a great track record in his world, especially with Septimal Moon, let alone in the real world that his was hidden from.

"As I was saying, you'll find speaking to be rather hard right now. Your throat was cut pretty badly in the struggle. If only you hadn't fought me, you'd be able to say…something." Nisei chuckled. "Not that it actually matters at this point, since you're going to die tonight."

The other's eye widened in fear.

"Tusumaki, right?" Nisei questioned. "Tusumaki Armien, no? Loveless' Fighter?"

Armien blinked in confusion.

"Ah, the name rings a bell to you, does it not?" Nisei questioned. "Your true name? As plain as the name on your side." He nodded down towards Armien's side, where the letters 'e-s-s' were peeking out from below the ropes.

"But how…did you…?"

Nisei sighed. He really need to learn how to not cloak himself so well and to turn it off when it was safe to do so.

"I'm a Fighter, myself, clearly." Nisei replied, showing his prisoner the back of his hand. "See? Beloved."

"W-Who…S-Sacrifice…?"

"Save yourself the trouble and the pain and stop talking, would you? How many times do I have to say it?" Nisei groaned, ignoring the question.

He was really losing himself in frustration at this point, and there was still so much he still needed to do.

"I really do apologize that this is happening, you know. It's not my idea." Nisei waved his lighter in front of the elder man's face. "Unfortunately for you, you happen to look just enough like my Master that if you were to…you know…die…it could look like it was his corpse with the untrained eye. No one would know to look for the name on his hand. Not like anyone would see it. Seimei always had a knack for hiding his name from outsiders and only allowing it to be visible when he wanted it to be. Clever bastard." Nisei mused to himself. "Oh, my, would you look at the time? It's nearly ten at night. That doesn't give me much time to finish up here, and I have a lot to accomplish by one am at the latest."

Armien's eyebrow lifted just barely to indicate his questioning. It seemed he'd finally learned to stop attempting to talk and follow the blathering madman's advice.

Nisei reached down for a bag sitting on the floor next to the desk he was perched on top of. Pulling it onto his lap, the unrestrained Fighter began rummaging through the bag for his tools, humming to himself. Armien looked on with mild curiosity as his eyelids began to droop. Nisei looked up from the bag at the other Fighter.

"Oh, come on; don't pass out on me now." Nisei groaned in annoyance. "There's still so much more to do, and it would be best if you were awake! My Master told me to make sure you felt as much pain as possible, you know."

"Why…?"

"I'm sure you've heard of sibling rivalry. Think of this as the reverse. One sibling being so devoted to the other that the mere thought of anyone else having a stronger connection to said sibling then they have, or the ability to take away said sibling, that they'd do anything to prevent that loss. Personally, I don't know how that feels. My siblings? Can't stand either of them. I've got two. One older, one younger." Nisei rambled on. "You have any siblings?"

"I…"

"Nah, don't speak. You'll just bleed out on me." Nisei went on. "Besides, I don't need to know anything about you, honestly. Make this work all too personal if I know things about you. Killing someone I don't know is messy enough. But killing someone I know personally? Well, now, that's something different entirely, like killing my best friend, or a family member, or what's-her-name that I gave those annoying ears of mine to." He shrugged. "I don't think I could do it even if ordered. Well, maybe I could do it to my parents, but that's about it. Controlling, nagging, abusive assholes they were. Never wanted children, let alone me."

Finally, he pulled a pair of pliers and a small black box out of the bag and set the box on the desk. He stood, making his way to Armien with the pliers.

"Now, you know what these are, no?"

"Pl…Pl…"

"That's right. Pliers! Do you know what pliers do? That's right, they pull things." Nisei grinned at him. "You see, I'm not strong enough to pull things on my own." He took the other male's chin in his nimble fingers. "So I have to rely on these babies to do some of the work for me." He wiggled the pliers with one hand and pulled gently on Loveless' bottom lip to show his lower teeth. "My, such pretty teeth you have." Nisei sighed. "It's a shame you won't have them for very long."

Loveless' eyes opened wide and he tried to pull away, but the ropes and Nisei's stern, yet slightly gentle grip on his chin prevented the movement.

"Now, now, no need to fight me. You won't win." Nisei chuckled. "Oh, I do tired of saying I don't enjoy the things my Master orders me to do. To be honest, I enjoy this. Having someone so naïvely innocent as yourself completely at my disposal. Sure, the orders are simple. But the details are entirely left up to me." Nisei practically sang. "Now, do try not to fight me. I don't want to make this any more difficult then it's going to be. Life is so unfair, I know, but just know that your death is going to a great cause. Well, what he decides is a great cause, anyway."

He pulled Loveless' jaw open as wide as he could and grinned wickedly.

"Say 'ah', my dear."

Before his prisoner could fight him off, Nisei plunged the pliers into his mouth and gripped the first tooth he could manage to; the left bicuspid. Armien grunted, groaned, and made pathetic attempts to scream as Nisei pulled and twisted at the tooth. The redheaded Fighter's fingers clenched and unclenched as he attempted to pull free of the ropes securing him.

"Hold." Nisei muttered.

With that simple word, he effortlessly encased the ropes with a spell to make them hold tighter as the other Fighter attempted to break free. It took another quick spell and a few more pulls from the madman's pliers before the tooth finally popped free with a sickening squelch. Blood poured from the hole left by the missing tooth as a scream finally escaped from Armien's throat. Nisei sighed and tapped his left toes on the floor as he dropped the bloody tooth into a pan he had set on the table. The raven spotted red on his left hand and wiped it unceremoniously on Armien's pant leg.

"Yuck." He complained. "Now, are you quite done with all that noise? Do I have to cast a silencing spell on you as well?"

Armien glared, mouth dripping blood.

"Oh, how terrifying." Nisei chuckled, leaning down to the other fighter's ear. "Like a vampire~" He purred. "Now open wide again, would you? I've got thirty-one more of these to yank out. You don't have wisdom teeth, do you? Those will be harder to remove, you know. I don't have mine. Had them taken out a couple years ago. Good thing they had me unconscious. My mouth hurt like you wouldn't believe…oh, wait, you probably would believe that." Nisei laughed at his own joke.

Armien glared, clamping his jaw shut as tight as he could to stop Nisei from pushing his way n and ripping out more teeth.

"Now, now, don't be difficult." Nisei ordered. "I've been ordered to make this as painful as possible, but I won't hesitate to knock you out now and wake you up again if it stops you from fighting so much." He grabbed Armien by the chin and grinned. "Now, be a good boy and open up and say 'ah'."

Armien shook his head, keeping his jaw clenched shut.

"Look, this is going to happen whether or not neither you nor I like it or want it to happen, alright? I don't like having blood on my hands. Not good for my conscience, you know?"

Armien continued to glare.

Nisei sighed and pulled roughly on his bottom jaw. They struggled for control for a few moments before Nisei gave up.

"Sleep!" The raven ordered, tapping Armien on the top of the head.

Armien continued to struggle, his attempts to break free growing weaker and weaker as sleep took over. Finally, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his head lolled backwards to rest on the back of the chair he was attached to.

"Well, now, this will certainly make things more and more difficult for me. Oh well."

He walked around to the back of the chair, practically skipping with joy, to be closer to the unconscious Fighter's head. He gently pulled the jaw open so he wouldn't break it and slipped the pliers inside the bloody mouth. Coppery red liquid was slowly filling the other's open mouth as Nisei latched onto another tooth and struggled for a few minutes to pull it free. It was still taxing on him, but it was still somehow easier with the other man unconscious.

If he had been counting how long it took to free all the teeth from the unconscious man's mouth, Nisei would have been frustrated at the fact that it took about an hour and a half. He knew his spells weren't made to hold up for more then an hour, so it was cutting it close by not reapplying the spell every so often. Still, he was lucky that the other man was still unconscious, though the blood loss probably helped keep him knocked out longer. Nisei's hands were practically covered from fingernail tips to wrists in blood. His once pale, porcelain skin was now stained with the red liquid that made his stomach turn. He hated this part of the job, the part that got him dirty. The part he'd have to spend hours scrubbing clean because he couldn't get the memory of that vibrant, coppery scented red out of his mind or his nose. The part he'd have to spend hours scrubbing and sanitizing himself from because Seimei would kill him if any of the liquid got onto his body or clothing. Seimei didn't allow Nisei to touch him, even so much as a pat on the shoulder could result in Seimei trying to snap his wrist in half, but having blood or even saliva on him anywhere would get him punished worse if he even tried to touch his master. It was unfair to him that even though he was so loyal to Seimei and honestly found the meticulous man to be somewhat attractive, he wasn't allowed to ever touch him in his lifetime or the afterlife; if he were to believe in that.

Armien moaned softly as he began to come to. His head slowly lifted back to its normal position and he shook his head as his vision slowly came back to him and he opened his eyes.

"Good morning, sleepy head." Nisei glanced at his watch. "My, would you look at the time? We better hurry this up, Loveless, or we'll run out of time. And that won't be any fun for anyone involved, now would it?"

Armien groaned, face scrunching up in pain as he did so. He glared at Nisei, eyes angry yet begging for him to end the torture.

"If you're trying to puppy dog stare me into letting you go, you're wasting your time."

Nisei picked up a jar full of bloody teeth with roots still attached. The red was beginning to pool at the bottom of the jar, and the teeth were stained a pale pink from it.

"See, I did all this fun stuff while you were unconscious. You missed every last second of it! I had to knock you out. No other choice."

Armien groaned in pain, keeping up the glare he had pinned onto Nisei.

"Pathetic, Loveless. You should be able to withstand much more pain then that. Then again, you're the Fighter, no? So in order to lessen your pain, you'd have to transfer at least half of it into your Sacrifice…but you're not bonded…though you don't need to be. That's why sometimes people get random severe pain in different places, isn't it? Yet you chose to take one hundred percent of the pain…" Realization hit Nisei like a ton of bricks. "You were protecting your Sacrifice by taking the pain, weren't you?"

Armien shot him a glare of defiance that earned him a long, maniacal laugh from Nisei's lips.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He laughed. "Even I wouldn't spare my Master the pain if I was in as much as you were. I get your Sacrifice is a kid, but come on. Toughen him up a little." His laughter slowly died down as he wiped tears from his eyes. "I'm crying, that's so funny."

While it was true that he'd do anything for Seimei and would protect the sacrifice with his life, he wasn't about to spare his Master any ounce of pain that was caused onto him, especially when he was doing his master's dirty work. While others may call it cowardly to not want to take all the pain, he called it payback for all the hell Seimei had put him through on a daily basis and all the suffering he was forced to endure for the raven haired neko.

"Well, I suppose the humor is gone now. Thank you for the laughs. Makes me forget just what I have to do here."

He set down the jar and grabbed a pair of false teeth from a container of tools. Nisei walked over to his prisoner and forced his jaw open.

"Now, hold still. I have to make this fit you properly." He commented.

Although Armien protested slightly, Nisei managed to slip in the false teeth. Poking around with his surgical gloved fingers, he made sure the teeth were properly in place and didn't need to be cut down to fit better. He gently pulled the gloves off and tossed them into his trash bin.

"Well, now, that was much easier then I thought it would be." Nisei commented, chocolate eyes sparkling. "I do have to admit, your similarities to Seimei are highly unsettling." He gently turned Armien's head back and forth to inspect him. "Right down to that haunted, hateful glimmer in your eyes."

"F-Fu…" Armien began to curse.

"What was that, sweetie? I couldn't hear you?" Nisei cupped a hand around his ear. "Fuck you? Is that what you're trying to say? Aw, how cute." He stood and patted the other teen's raven head. "Well, unfortunately, our time here together is almost up! It's been fun, it really has, and I thank you for the laugh earlier. It's just sad that it has to end so suddenly."

"E-End…?"

"You didn't think I just took you here to rip out your teeth and replace them with fake ones for the fun of it, did you?" Nisei wondered, feigning shock and innocence. "Now, come on, that's just sad if you do believe that." He picked at his nails. "I have one last little thing to do here. You recall how I mused that you look very similar to Seimei? Well, now, anyone who knows either of you would be able to tell that you're not the same person at all. However, there's no way they can tell that from a corpse now, is there?"

Armien's eyes widened.

"That's it! You finally get it!" Nisei practically leapt for joy. "Maybe you're not such a complete moron after all. Although, honestly, I did tell you in the beginning that you were going to die tonight. Ah well, can't win them all, can we?"

He reached down next to the desk and grabbed a red can of gasoline. He held it up for the other man to see.

"Now here comes the really messy part." Nisei informed twisting off the top of the canister. "Oh, ugh, that's disgusting." His nose shriveled as he looked away from the container of foul smelling liquid. "I hate the smell of gasoline. But it's the only accelerant I can legally get a hold of. I got it from the busiest gas station I could find. Paid with cash. No way to trace it back to me specifically. Plus, I intend on using some of it for the old motor scooter my parents got me for Christmas one year. If anyone asks, I can prove that's what it's for. No one will be none the wiser~" He stood next to the elder Fighter. "Now, I do suggest closing your eyes. This shit hurts like hell when it gets something like an eye."

Armien opened his mouth to reply, and Nisei took that opportunity to douse the man in gasoline, pouring it over his head. With a grunt and spitting out the gas that managed to land in his mouth, Armien scrunched up his eyes and closed his mouth tight. He shook his head to try and push off the offending liquid. Nisei scowled and poured the rest of it all over the other male's body. He then led a trail of gasoline to the window, pooling it there as he ran out of it. The brownish liquid was beginning to stain Armien's once mostly clean-other then blood here and there-clothing and plaster his hair down to his forehead. His ears were twitching in annoyance at the liquid as he shook his head to try and get off the excess.

"That won't work." Nisei told him. "I advise you to stop this nonsense."

He packed up everything, other then the gasoline can, into the black bag he had brought with him. He didn't have to worry about the cameras catching him on film, as he had shut them down remotely and dismantled them once he arrived at the school. There weren't that many to begin with, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. He'd put them together and remotely reactivate them later on if he felt like it or if Seimei told him to when he called his Master to tell him the deed was done.

"Now, I really hate to leave like this, but if you can imagine, the smell of rotting flesh is not all that appealing. I can't have you drawing attention by screaming, you know. But I can't exactly come back for anything I may gag you with if I choose to do so, since the fire alarm will probably be triggered shortly after you're set on fire." Nisei replied. "I mean, I turned it off remotely from a dummy laptop that I ditched, so I could, but I don't want to come back here and deal with the stench and risk leaving prints of any kind behind. So, unfortunately, this is where we must part ways." He patted Armien's head with a glove covered hand. "You were quite a lot of fun to play with, Loveless. Too bad you won't live much longer for me to toy with you again. I wonder if your Sacrifice would be as much fun to torture?" He chuckled. "Of course, Seimei will skin me alive if I even think of hurting the amnesiatic brat, so I'll never know. Oh well, I can only guess that he's a lot like you, outside of what Seimei tells me." He sighed. "I'm just dragging this out. It's nearly one am, and that's my curfew for the night, so I really must be going." He tilted Armien's chin up to look him in the eye.

Though his frosty eyes were clouded even further in severe pain, there was no mistaking the angered, pitiful, pleading look in Armien's eyes that was begging Nisei not to do this; to let him go and he wouldn't tell anyone what had happened. Unfortunately for the dead man, Nisei had no intention of disappointing Seimei, and Seimei's plans required a body.

"Tch." Nisei scoffed. "This really is pathetic. At least try and be a man in your last moments alive, would you?" He tipped Armien's chin back and waved at him as he ducked out of the room.

The raven shut the door behind him and pranced outside and around the building to the window that he had subconsciously marked as belonging to the classroom he had been torturing Armien in for the past few hours. Sure enough, when standing on his toes, he could see the pool of gasoline on the floor and the restrained Fighter. Armien was bleeding from his mouth still, and was pulling ferociously at his bonds. Nisei sighed. When was that brat going to learn that it simply was not going to work?

"Hold." Nisei softly cast the spell one more time so he wouldn't he heard.

He fished a match out of his pocket and snapped it to life with his fingernail. The red flames glimmered and danced about in the darkness.

"Yo~" Nisei called into the room.

Armien turned his head to look at him, stopping his attempts to flee for a moment.

"It's time to say goodbye, my friend." Nisei chuckled. "I'll see you in hell, my dear~"

With that, he flicked the lit match over the windowsill and into the pool of gasoline. Nisei jumped back as flames jumped and bit back at him from the pile. Once it died down, he managed to catch a glimpse of the fire spreading down the trail he had left to Armien. The broken, bloody Fighter screamed loudly and thrashed as flames lashed at the chair and his clothing. Nisei watched with a morbid fascination as flames licked up his body and confused him in one big inferno. Knowing it was going to blow up once more, he rushed back a safe distance to a nearby tree. He heard the familiar 'woosh' of flames rushing upwards and smirked, satisfied that he was done. He rushed away and didn't slow his pace until he was a few blocks from the elementary school. Nisei put his bag of tricks in the same hand that held the gasoline container and pulled out his cell phone with his now free hand.

He pressed one for speed dial and put it up to his ear, inspecting his nails as he walked.

"Is it over?" Seimei's slightly groggy voice wondered from the other end of the line.

"Hai, it's done." Nisei nodded, knowing his master couldn't see it. "I'm on my way back to my apartment now."

"Well done." Seimei yawned. "I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me. Oh, and leave the security cameras off. Don't want it to be traced back to us."

"Hai." Nisei agreed. "Oyasumi, Seimei."

"Oyasumi." Seimei hung up on him.

Nisei tossed his phone into his pocket again and stopped at a nearby bus stop, where a silver container for trash was standing. It looked rather empty for a city trash bin. That was the last thought in Nisei's mind before he leaned over the city bin and spewed the contents of his stomach into it. He wiped his mouth with the back of his free hand, which he then rubbed clean on the part of the plastic bag that was hanging over the side of the bin.

He really hated doing Seimei's dirty work.