Chapter 1
…
In this fanfic I want Tatsumi to get a bit stronger faster, not in one massive jump where he becomes OP in one chapter, but I want him to increase in strength a little faster than normal because I am planning on keeping certain people alive and killing some different ones… well, at least in a different order considering basically everyone dies. There will be some romance involved, but I haven't yet decided who am shipping with whom, I might go for a harem route though, I'm not too sure yet.
This story will follow the manga, but will have events from the anime, but I will divert from the route due to the changes in characters for this story.
…
"Dialogue"
"Thoughts"
…
Tatsumi was sitting under a tree, not far from the road, having not long been awake. He had been travelling for weeks and was bored of sleeping on the ground, but he wasn't far from the capital and couldn't wait to sleep in a bed again.
He suddenly heard a loud crashing sound, and immediately ran in the direction that he had heard the sound, taking with him his bag and sword. Fastening the sword around his back and tossing the bag near to the side of the road when he was close enough.
There was a large creature in the road and a cart, drawn by a horse, had swerved to avoid it. It let out a deafening roar, the two men that had been driving the cart were captivated by fearful expression. "Earth Dragon!" one yelled, the other then yelled "I didn't know they attacked highways like this!"
"Run!" they both ran as fast as they could, but the Earth Dragon moved after them, pursuing them.
"VWOOOOOO!"
"GYAAA!"
"Saving people and gaining fame, seems like I'll be able to do both." Tatsumi drew his sword then moved quickly, cutting deeply into the flesh and severing the beast's claws. He then skidded to a stop, kicking up some of the dirt on the ground as he did.
"An Earth Dragon huh? A worthy opponent."
"VWAAAAAAAA!"
The dragon raged forward, Tatsumi noticed the obvious anger in its roar. "I see you're angry."
It struck with is claw, or what was left of it, slamming down on Tatsumi, but he had already moved, jumping onto its arm then began to run up the length of its limb. He moved quickly, wasting no time in slicing through the beast. "It's over" he stated as the chunks he had sliced through slid apart and the blood spilled onto the road.
"A-Amazing…" the two men had stopped and seen the fight, but they didn't believe what they had seen, such a young boy defeating an Earth Dragon, something that they had run from. "Young man, I can't believe you took down that danger beast all by yourself." The two men ran over to him.
His expression changed from serious to that of a child. "But of course! that guy was a piece of cake for someone like me!" he said with an arrogant voice, clearly not hiding the fact that he was proud of himself. "By the way, my name is Tatsumi, you'd better remember it considering I'm going to be famous in the capital soon enough."
"Are you looking to make a name for yourself in the capital then?"
"Yep! I'm going to make it big in the capital. It's the dream of any country boy." The two men shared a look after Tatsumi's response. "What?" he asked with a clueless expression.
"Look kid, the capital isn't the kind of place you think it is. It's lively sure, but it's crawling with monster far more dangerous than that dragon."
"The capital's been infested with danger beasts?!" he said shocked, not understanding the hidden meaning behind what they had said.
"The monsters I'm talking about are people. They have the hearts of monsters, that's all you'll find there." Tatsumi became serious again, he put his sword back in his sheath and looked in the direction of the capital.
"I appreciate the warning, but there's no way I'm turning around now. I… We are going to make money in the capital to save our village." Then he retrieved his bag and continued, with the two men wishing him luck as he met.
…
Tatsumi was sitting in a bat, waiting, having been waiting for several hours already. "I need to close up soon."
"Oh, I'm just waiting for someone."
"Yeah I saw. But she just ran off with your money."
"What?!"
"I can't believe someone would be so trusting in the capital these days, I mean I can't believe you fell for that, it was an obvious lie."
"If she was a fraud then I'll file a complaint!"
"That's a no go. In this situation it's your fault for falling for it." Tatsumi's expression dropped, he lost all the money that he had already earned to help his village because of some big boobed con woman. He didn't know how to deal with the situation, so he left the bar and began yelling out his frustration.
"Ah! That top heavy... I mean that woman! This is what she meant by learning from her!" he clenched his fist while picturing the blonde. "No one would ever lie like that in the country." He hung his head and gave off a depressed aura.
"Oh, a country bumpkin walking down the road with a nice sword on his back. hand it over."
"That's an order" there were two soldiers that stood in front of him blocking his path, they didn't look like the most morally correct people, but Tatsumi pushed past them. "Don't turn your back on us!" then a second later they were piled on top of one another completely unconscious.
"What's wrong with everyone in this town." He then stopped and looked into the sky in a thoughtful manner "I wonder how they're doing… have they already made it to the capital."
He then looked around the area and chose a spot to sit down and did so. "I'll just sleep out in the open tonight, I can sleep anywhere."
He sat there for a while, putting his coat on because he got a little cold. Then he heard a voice and a cart stop, followed by footsteps. "Hm?" he looked up and there was a very pretty blonde girl leaning over him.
"Did you come from the country?" she asked him.
"Huh…? Yeah…"
"Hey, if you don't have a place to sleep you should come and stay at my house" she said joyfully.
"But I don't have any money."
"Obviously, otherwise you wouldn't be sleeping out here."
"Miss Aria can't leave a poor fellow like you out to freeze." One of the guards said as he walked over, the other nodded in agreement.
"What'll it be?" Aria pushed for an answer gently.
"…Well it's better than sleeping out here."
"Then it's settled" she smiled warmly and took him by the hand, he followed her to the carriage and took him to her place.
…
After a few days of living with the family he was relaxed in their environment, he was sleeping soundly when the attack of Night Raid began. First the mother died, then the dad. Aria was taken from the mansion and run to a small building with the appearance of a shed.
Tatsumi had been suddenly woken up, having sensed the bloodlust during the first kill, the mum. "What the?... someone's here for blood." He remarked as he ran from the room he was sleeping in and into the corridor, then he spotted them outside the window. At first, he thought it was his imagination, then he realised they were real. "That's Night Raid!? Are they targeting the family because they're rich?" he tried to reason why a notorious terrorist group would attack, but his mind was taken from those thoughts when he saw five guards run outside.
A girl with long black hair dropped from where the assassin group was waiting, elevated by something, but what it was he couldn't see. She moved incredibly quickly, too fast for Tatsumi to see and with deadly precision cut three of them.
"This… is what I get… for having… a rotten soul." One of the men said as he started to die.
"I don't get it, he wasn't cut badly enough to be dead. Why is he dying like that?" Tatsumi wondered while watching them die.
One of the remaining two ran. "What are these guys?! They're worse than monsters!" he yelled in fear as he ran as fast as his feet would carry him. But another member shot him from her vantage point with some kind of gun, but it was strange, it hadn't fired a bullet but instead fired what looked like energy.
The last was killed by a large man in a cool looking suit of armour. He slammed his polearm into the man's chest with enough force that his torso was ripped from the rest of his body.
'They were massacred in seconds?!... the least… the least I can do is protect her… Miss Aria" he thought after witnessing their attacks, then he ran off to find her.
"Don't worry miss I'll take you to the shed" the one guard with Aria said as he led her by the hand to the small shed. They were both in a panicked state, fearful of what may happen.
"Miss Aria!" Tatsumi called out as he ran into view.
"Tatsumi!?" she seemed happy to see him.
"Perfect timing! We'll seek shelter in the storage shed while you hold off the enemy to buy us time!" the guard that Tatsumi had spent the last few days with ordered. Tatsumi nodded in recognition of his orders and prepared to fight.
*Thud*
He turned to look at the source of the thud, it was the girl with the katana and the black hair and red eyes. She looked right at him with deadly focus, then her gaze moved to Aria. "Guess I don't have a choice!" Tatsumi readied himself as she charged forward.
"Not a target." She ignored him, jumped over him and ran at the guard. "I will send the target to rest." She sliced the man, evading bullets at the same time, through the stomach.
Aria fell back on her butt and looked up at the girl with a fearful expression and a tear in each eye.
"You will be buried" the girl lifted her sword ready to strike.
"Not so fast!" Tatsumi yelled, slashing at the girl and making her dodge, then put himself between Aria and the assassin girl.
"You are not a target… there is no need for me to kill you." The assassin stated bluntly.
"But you want to kill this girl, don't you?!" Tatsumi made no attempt to hide his fear.
She nodded and grunted in response, "Mm-hm. If you get in my way I'll kill you too."
"I can't very well run away now!"
"I see… then I will bury you" her stare became intense, Tatsumi realised that his status to her had been changed, he was no longer a bystander, he was that girls target.
"This girl is tough… there is no denying that… there's no way I can beat her… at least not as I am now, but I… I can't worry about that right now. If I can't save one little girl then there's no way that I could save my village." All he could do was defend against the assassin, she was fast and powerful, he could make out some of her attacks but not all of them.
Then he messed up, she was too fast and struck at his body. "Kah!" the blade stabbed his dropped and rolled onto his front. The assassin remained silent, but he could tell she became confused. "Kuh."
"So, you won't finish me off?" he already knew the answer, but he was trying to mock her by being condescending.
"I didn't feel my sword go through your body."
"Heh, Heh, my friends from the village are looking out for me." He pulled out a statue from his jacket.
"Rest in pieces." The assassin ran at him again.
"Wah! Wait hold it! It's money you guys are after, so let this girl go! This isn't a battlefield, there's no need to kill an innocent girl!" he tried to protest, but he realised that she wasn't listening.
"Hold it!" suddenly a blonde girl, who looked familiar to Tatsumi, pulled the assassin back by the collar of her coat.
"What're you doing?" the assassin girl asked. "We still have time, don't we?"
"I owe this kid. So, let me pay him back, Kay!" she winked at Tatsumi and then it clicked who she was.
"Hey! You're the big boobed chick!"
"That's right I'm the pretty lady from before" she waved playfully at him. Then she became serious before walking toward the shed. "Kid. You were afraid we'd be killing an innocent girl, weren't you? But…" she then kicked in the door.
Tatsumi gulped, not knowing what to expect.
"Let's see if you can still say that after you see this… take a good look." He peered past her and into the room. That was when he saw the horrors contained within. He saw the countless dead hung up like meet from hooks, each of them having severe wounds, he was horrified by what he saw. Then his eyes and his expression froze. There were blood covered tools everyone, the walls and floor, even some of the ceiling was covered in blood. "This is the dark side of the capital."
"What… what the hell… is this?"
"They invite in unidentified people who come from the country with sweet offers and then play with them. The mother uses a variety of poisons to torture her victims while the father beats them to death, even that little girl is involved. They play with the people they bring in by torturing them to death. This is the true nature of the people who live here."
"…Sayo… come on… Sayo…?" Tatsumi took a step forward, a weak step that made it look like he was going to lose balance.
"So, one of them was your friend." The blonde girl mumbled as she watched his pained expression, then she heard Aria try to walk away. She grabbed her and held her by the head close to her face. "Whoa there, you're asking too much if you think you can just walk away little missy."
"That family did this?" Tatsumi asked with a shaky voice. He was then standing perfectly still.
"That's right, and their guards kept silent about it which made them our targets too."
"She's lying! Tatsumi! You have to believe me! I never even knew this place existed, are you going to believe these assassins or me?! I saved you!" Aria was panicked, the desperation clear in her tone.
"Ta… Tatsumi… is that you?" a familiar voice came from behind him.
"Ieyasu!"
"That girl, she tortured Sayo to death. She approached us and we both passed out after the meal they gave us."
Aria pushed herself from the blonde's grip. Her face twisted into a disgusting expression, like that of a monster. "And what's wrong with that? You guys are just useless country bumpkins! You're no different from livestock! I can treat you however I want! And for just a farm animal to have such beautiful hair and so much attitude! While I have to suffer for my kinked hair! I made her pay for it! You should be thanking me for how thorough I was with her!"
"They were just wolves in sheep's clothing. Sorry I stopped you Akame."
The black-haired girl, Akame, lifted her sword. "She's going down."
"Wait…"
"You're kidding. Don't tell me you're still going to defend her?"
"No… I'll be the one to kill her!" he cut through Aria like it as nothing.
"Ah… hmmm" the blonde girl placed her hand on her chin. "She was detestable, but to cut her down without hesitation is impressive."
"Heh Heh, that's my Tatsumi. It's a refreshing sight." Ieyasu commented with a smile, filled with relief. "You should've seen Sayo… she never gave up, not once, no matter how much that girl tortured her."
"He's pretty badly injured, but he should be fine. Even though he's clearly suffered by some kind of poison." The blonde ripped the cages bars that Ieyasu was trapped in.
She then lifted Ieyasu from the ground and put him over her shoulder. "Hey Akame, let's take them both with us."
"Hm?"
"Homebase is always short on hands. Besides he has talent as well as being cute. I bet his friends pretty strong too." She grabbed Tatsumi by the collar.
"Wait! Let me go! We have to bury Sayo!" Tatsumi protested but she was too strong for him.
…
Tatsumi had decided to join them as had his best friend Ieyasu. Ieyasu was still recovering, but he could move properly again, his left arm was covered in scars that reminded him of the reason he was fighting with Night Raid in addition to earning money for their village.
Leone had given them both the tour and introduced them to each member of the team.
Tatsumi had even gone on his first mission in which he killed Ogre earning the respect of Akame, but he wasn't looking forward to his next assignment, which was with Mine, whom he assumed would be even worse.
