(Year 2012; Kuoh)

Mine opened her eyes slowly, feeling sunlight shining directly upon her face. "Mmm, who the hell left my window open…" she mumbled before yawning deeply, stretching her limbs out as she finally sat up. However, as she ran her hand along her pink locks, it began to hit her.

"Wait a second…" she mumbled to herself, touching various parts of her body in order to confirm her suspicions. "What the hell?! Aren't I supposed to be —?!"

With eyes full of disbelief, she began to look around her, quickly noticing that this was nothing like her room at Night Raid HQ; this room was way bigger, it had… a bigger window? Seriously, the bedroom looked like it could register as a living room but what shocked the pinkette the most were the people who were still deep in their sleep.

On the same master bed where she was, there was Sheele, Leone, Chelsea, Akame, her sister Kurome and lastly, former General Esdeath. Her jaw fell open at the other women sleeping on the same bed where she was, until she noticed the two men sleeping on either side of the bed using sleeping mats.

Lubbock was hugging a small pillow snoring audibly, while on the other side, Bulat was simply leaning on his arms behind his head as he slept peacefully.

Woah, woah, woah, wait!

Mine's thoughts were going in circles now. Wasn't Sheele supposed to be dead?! Mine was with her during the mission where she was killed! The same goes for Bulat as well! As far as she could remember, Tatsumi brought his dead body back to HQ, so why was the big guy sleeping here?! Another was Chelsea! She remembered how horrified Tatsumi was when he saw Chelsea dying and most importantly…

WHY WAS SHE HERE?!

On top of all of that, this place was completely different to her room at the Night Raid HQ, which could only mean that she was somewhere else. She didn't even notice the strange new clothes she and the others were wearing. Unable to process her thoughts properly, she decided to do the most logical thing to do at the moment.

"WHERE THE HELL AM I?!"

Akame immediately jolted awake after hearing Mine's loud scream, sitting up like a robot before turning her head towards the pinkette. Esdeath too, yawned and sat up, woken up by a scream that she just heard. She was a well-known morning person back in the Empire, always looking forward to train herself and her soldiers, as well as taking chances to see if someone could be tortured for her amusement.

And right there, Akame and Esdeath's gazes met; they haven't forgotten each other, and they could still very well remember their battle in the capital.

Upon instinct, Akame jumped off the bed and got into a fighting stance, while Esdeath simply narrowed her eyes at the raven-haired girl.

"Esdeath," Akame spat out in cold blood.

"Akame," Esdeath replied with the same cold tone.

"I thought I had finished you off, but it seems that my mission is still not over." Akame continued, unaware of the fact that she didn't even have any weapon in her hands to be able to fight.

"You are going to fight me bare-handed? Why not, I welcome a good challenge from a worthy opponent." Esdeath smirked, preparing to use her ice magic.

"COULD YOU TWO PLEASE TRY NOT TO FIGHT RIGHT NOW?!" the same loud voice from earlier stopped them from going any further, as they turned their heads to where it was coming from.

"Mine?" Akame asked, confused as to why her comrade was here with her. Isn't she supposed to be dead?

Esdeath's smirk widened. "Ah, the pink-haired sniper… it looks like a great day for the Jäegers today… I get to clean up two criminals… yes, a wonderful day indeed…"

"Look, I don't care what's going on in your minds right now, but you two need to look around and please, please, tell me this is just a dream!" Mine said out of desperation, as this was creeping her out. If this was just a dream, she wanted nothing more than to wake up then.

Choosing her comrade over the enemy, Akame complied and indeed took a look at her surroundings. Strange, this place didn't look anything like HQ… not even the walls, the floor, nor the bed could say that they were in Night Raid's headquarters.

Her curiosity now taking over, Akame looked at the people on the bed, finding herself becoming more and more confused upon noticing just who were the people sleeping on it. That was until, her eyes settled on a particular girl who was already awake and yawning tiredly.

"K-Kurome…" Akame said as her eyes widened in shock, seeing her sister alive and well.

Hearing her name being called, Kurome turned her head towards her sister and blinked a few times. "Big sis," she simply said without emotion.

Noticing the shocked look on Akame's face, Esdeath stopped observing her surroundings for a moment and had a good look at the little girl before her.

"Well, well, if it isn't Kurome…" Esdeath smirked evilly and crossed her arms under her bust. "What a surprise finding you here… the last I've heard about you, Wave said you were dead." The smirk on her face remained for a few seconds before she slowly realized her own words, her mouth dropping open afterwards.

Kurome turned her head once again, facing Esdeath with the same emotionless look. "General?" she asked in a quiet tone, her memories before her death slowly coming back to her. Kurome's eyes widened for a moment before she looked at her hand.

"I… died…" she mumbled, now becoming confused over what's going on alongside her sister, Esdeath, and Mine. "But how…"

"Why are you here? I killed you! I know I did!" Akame said with eyes full of disbelief, unable to accept the fact that her own sister was just in front of her.

"So it was Akame who killed you… I guess that makes her an even more worthy opponent." Esdeath smirked again, snapping out of her temporary trance so she could look at the shocked expression on Akame's face.

Leone growled and sat up with a tick mark appearing on her head. "Okay, that's the last straw! Lubbock, if you don't shut your ass up, I'll—!" she was about to raise her fist when she suddenly noticed the green-haired pervert wasn't anywhere. "What the—?" she blurted out upon noticing that this place wasn't anything like their hideout.

That was when she noticed Esdeath, Kurome, Akame, and even Mine around her, all sharing looks of confusion and curiosity. Leone blinked a few times before rubbing her eyes. "Am I still asleep or something? Esdeath is here, Mine and Akame too… and Kurome?" Leone asked herself, finding herself in the presence of four other people whom she knows are already dead. Looking down at her own self, she noticed that she wasn't covered in fur anymore.

"Woah, what the heck?! I'm me again!" As far as she could remember, she fused with her teigu and she had an appearance similar to a lion's before she died, so why was she back to her old self?!

"Urgh, can't you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep…" Chelsea groaned and shifted in bed for a few times before sitting up as well, with her hair covering her face. Her bedhead look made her seem all the more adorable, and managed to go well with her purple shirt and orange pajamas. "Now… tell me what's going on so I can, yawn go back to sleep…"

She waited for someone to answer, but nobody bothered to, causing Chelsea to get irritated. Her eyes glowed red in anger, with her hair finally giving way for her to see around.

"How dare you ignore me! I'm trying to ask a question here!" she growled, before her eyes fell on Leone, who was sitting across from her with a confused look on her face. "L-Leone?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as well.

"Hey… C-Chelsea…" Leone waved her hand weakly, looking as if she was about to go insane at any moment. She weakly pointed at the auburn-haired girl this time, "Y-You… aren't you…"

And just like that, images of Kurome with her three puppets flowed through Chelsea's mind, seeing the last moments of her life in her mind, succumbing to the fatal wounds she had sustained that time. Her eyes widened in fear as she held her head, feeling dizzy upon remembering a disturbing memory.

"I… d-died…" she muttered, looking down on the bed with eyes full of horror, completely different from her usual demeanor. "Then how —" Chelsea cut herself off from her own sentence when she took notice of the girl sitting near the edge of the bed, who turned her head to face her.

"Kurome!" Chelsea quickly reacted, glaring at the younger girl, who simply tilted her head in confusion. "Stay back or I'll kill you!"

"Chelsea!" Mine called out, looking more confused and weirded out than ever.

At the mention of her name, Chelsea turned her head and locked eyes with the pinkette. As she did so, she also caught the sight of Esdeath with a confused look, and it caused Chelsea to shake her head in desperation. Okay, what was going on here? Not only Kurome, but Esdeath as well? They were their enemies, so why were they here? In the same bed with them as well!

"Mine… what's going on here?" she asked, now noticing Akame standing near the bed and a purple-haired girl sleeping beside her, whom she could only deduce as Sheele, based from what she could remember when she was "still" alive. "Two of out enemies are in here, with us! And I'm supposed to be dead, because I remember it clearly! The mission, Kurome, everything!"

"I don't know!" Mine had both her hands on her head, unable to make out what exactly was happening right now. "I'm supposed to be dead too! But here we are, somehow alive! And I don't even know where we are, it doesn't look like our HQ in any way! Please tell me this is just a dream!"

"Mine, I don't think this is a dream at all." Leone said, slowly turning towards the pinkette with the same amount of confusion plastered on her face. "If you were dead, then how can you even dream? Plus, I think we all have the same idea as yours." Mine's eyes widened even more. "Which means there's only one explanation for this."

"You're alive and well."

"But how?! I remember kiss —" Mine suddenly blushed, recalling how she spent her last moments with Tatsumi, ending with her confession and the kiss she shared with him. "A-Anyway, I do remember dying! It was after we dealt with General Budo! Pumpkin got destroyed that time too, believe me!"

"You fought with that old geezer?" Esdeath asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at the pink-haired sniper.

Mine remained silent, unable to answer since she was in no condition to start a battle.

"Hahahahaha! I always knew he was weak." Esdeath laughed, causing the other women who were already awake (except Kurome) to groan at her usual antics. They should be focusing on finding out where they were, damn it!

"Esdeath, can you stop with your games for once and focus at the situation right now?" Akame threatened, narrowing her eyes at the blue-haired woman. "I know I killed you, and don't even deny it. But somehow, you are here with us, who are all supposed to be dead as well! Are we in the palace by some chance, Esdeath? You would know, won't you?" She had learned just earlier from Leone that she also died, right after they won the war against the Empire.

"Who are you to order me?" Esdeath's tone became cold as she crossed her arms, sending a glare towards Akame. The two locked eyes for the next few moments, gaining the attention of the other girls at how intense their gazes were.

Surprisingly, it was Esdeath who gave in; she closed her eyes and sighed before speaking. "Fine. I'll only answer once since we're experiencing the same dilemma. You think we're in the palace, Akame? We're not. This room is too different from any room in the palace. I don't even think that we're in the capital at this moment. As far as I recall, the Revolutionary Army won the war against the Empire anyway."

"Then where do you think are we?" Akame asked, taking another look at this strange room that she was in.

"Ah ah, I only said I'll answer once. You're on your own now." Esdeath waved her finger in front of her.

"You bitch…" Akame glared, and Esdeath only smirked in response.

"This is going nowhere…" Leone shook her head before sighing heavily in frustration. "Anyway, the question right now is how the hell are we alive… where we are can be answered later. We could have been somewhere worse, right?"

"Yeah…" Chelsea agreed, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Seeing Kurome again brought back horrible memories for her, but it wasn't the right time for dwelling in the past. "I know I died, and it seems like all of you died too… but how are we alive? Are we being experimented on or something?"

"I don't think so," Esdeath remarked before turning to her former subordinate. "Kurome, was this your doing? Did you turn us into your puppets with your teigu?"

Kurome turned towards Esdeath and shook her head. "No, General. I died in my fight with Big sis, so I couldn't have turned any of you into my dolls."

"Oh, you are right. How silly of me," Esdeath chuckled slightly, before shaking her head in amusement. "It seems this huge revelation is still affecting my state of mind somehow… but at the very least, we know that our apparent resurrection from the dead is done by another. That person must have used other means to do so, since there is no such teigu that can bring back the dead. Even if we are brought back as Kurome's puppets, we'd obey her orders but it looks like that scenario is impossible to happen since she died."

Mine was about to respond, only for her eyes to widen again when the purple-haired Extase user finally stir awoke, sitting up with her locks getting in her face during her sleep. She started to feel around her for her glasses and luckily, they were just beside her pillow.

Putting her glasses on, she brushed her hair off her face and yawned, before turning her head to the side, immediately noticing Mine instead of Esdeath. "Good morning, Mine." she greeted as if nothing happened to her at all.

"M-Morning…" the pinkette muttered; although she was thoroughly confused with their situation right now, a part of her couldn't help but be happy because Sheele was back. And it wasn't a fluke! If they were alive, then Sheele as well!

"Why is it so loud early in the morning, damn it…" Lubbock sat up from his sleeping mat, while rubbing the top of his head. He turned his head to the right, only to be met with the cold blue eyes of Esdeath. "Uh… uhm… h-hi?" His fear getting the better of himself right now, he began sweating in fear.

Esdeath could sense the fear in him, and she decided to have some fun in light of what was happening right now. "Why, hello there…" she said with a dark smirk, while also releasing some of her aura.

Lubbock could only gulp in fear, only for someone to come to rescue his ass.

"Hey, Lubbock! Good thing you're awake!" Gaining his attention, he turned his head towards Mine, who seemed to have somewhat of a relieved look on her face. "We don't need you scaring anyone here Esdeath, so it's better if you stop with that." She flashed a sour look at the blue-haired general, who only shrugged carelessly.

"Mine… is that you?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Of course, who else could it be, you idiot?" Mine crossed her arms and huffed, not liking the fact that Lubbock didn't know it was already her.

He put his hand on his forehead, feeling a mild headache take over him. "Sorry, I… I'm starting to remember something… I'm trying to make out what it is, hold on…" With that, he began to remember… when he was fighting against somebody from the Empire… Syura, was it? Then he teleported somewhere, and then he was falling from the sky, and then…

"OH GOD!" he screamed all of a sudden, now aware of what became of him during the last moments of his life. Lubbock had to resist the urge to vomit just at the thought of his own death. He quickly turned back towards Mine with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "MINE, I ‒" before he could say anything else, the pinkette already raised her hand to stop him from speaking.

"I know. You died, I know." When she noticed he was about to ask something, Mine pointed to the other women on the bed. "It sounds crazy… everyone here remembers that they died, yet here we are inside this room, including Esdeath and Akame's sister, all alive and well. And we have no idea how we were brought back here!"

With Mine's words, he started to slowly forget about his earlier thoughts as he tried to think of an explanation to all of this. "It couldn't have been a teigu then… it's impossible to bring people back from the dead with just a teigu. This sounds really unlikely to believe, it would be defying death itself! I almost thought I was just dreaming!"

"Esdeath said the same thing, and believe me, I almost thought the same as you…" Mine sighed, looking to the side. "I just want to know how we are all still alive, and where are ‒"

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

One lone scream was enough to prevent Mine from speaking any further as she quickly had her hands covering her ears due to how loud that damn screamwas. Where did it come from anyway?!

Esdeath, Lubbock, and all the other women had their hands covering their ears as well, no thanks to that ear-splitting scream that was still going on.

A few seconds later, the damn scream finally stopped and everyone removed their hands from their ears. Mine was about to lash out at whoever tried to rip her eardrums out, but she was already beaten to it.

"BULAT, YOU FUCKIN' IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE DESTROYED MY EARS!" Leone shrieked, a tick mark appearing on her head before smacking the bigger guy on the back of his neck. "IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER, MY HEARING IS ENHANCED BY LIONELLE!

Bulat, who was already sitting up from his sleeping mat, was starting to shed anime tears at being smacked by Leone. He woke up a few moments after Lubbock did, and like his green-haired friend, he remembered the last moments of his life; when him and Tatsumi were at the Dragon Ship, fighting his former superior, which eventually led to his death.

That was when Leone took his attention and began to explain what their situation was, about how all the people inside this room was already dead, yet somehow became alive right now. That alone was enough for Bulat to reach his critical point as he screamed loudly, much akin to that of a girl, unaware that he was actually causing harm to the others around him.

"I-I'm sorry…" he cried, causing Leone and Chelsea to deadpan.

"Is this guy supposed to be the one feared by many in the capital?" Chelsea muttered.

"Yeah…" Leone replied.

Prying her eyes off of the crying Bulat, she noticed that Lubbock was already awake behind her. "Oh, would you look at that? You're already up, Lubbock. Do you need an explanation for what's going on?" she asked sweetly.

"N-No thanks… Mine already explained everything to me…" Lubbock sweat-dropped, not wanting another explanation. He didn't want to literally vomit if he remembers his death again.

"Well, that makes this easier doesn't it? Now we just have to figure out‒"

The sound of the door opening cut off Leone from her words, getting everyone's attention. Out of instinct, Akame turned around and quickly got into a defensive stance, preparing herself if it was a threat. Esdeath prepared to fire icicles if it was the person who imprisoned them here, and she could torture him afterwards so they could have information on what was going on with them at the moment. The others simply put on a serious face, not in the mood to fight since they had more questions to be answered than that.

A man of average height walked into the room with his hands in his pockets. Nearly all of them raised an eyebrow in curiosity at who could it be, since the dim setting of the room prevented them from knowing. That, and well, the sun was just starting to rise.

As soon as they could finally see him, their eyes widened in shock. He was wearing a black blazer over a white, long-sleeved dress shirt with black highlights and a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. He was also wearing a blue t-shirt underneath his open dress shirt and blazer, highlighted by the smile that formed on his face.

"T-Tatsumi…" Leone muttered in shock.

Tatsumi stopped just in front of Akame and looked at all of his comrades in Night Raid, as well as Esdeath and Kurome, before he flashed the grin that they were all accustomed to seeing back then.

"Morning, everyone. Did you all have a good sleep?" he asked happily.

I guess this should be enough for the second chapter. Sorry if you were expecting the answers here, but my mom is about to take the laptop away for the night. I'll continue this through my phone, so once she gets home tomorrow, I can continue on with the next chapter and possibly be able to update it.

Looks like one fella got it right already! TheFreezerStreets, here's your cookie: ?

To make it easier, here is Tatsumi's peerage!

King: Tatsumi

Queen: Esdeath

Knight: Akame

Knight: Kurome

Rook: Bulat

Rook: Leone

Bishop: Lubbock

Bishop: Mine

Pawn (4x): Sheele

Pawn (4x): Chelsea

Goodbye… and good night! BANG!

-Lance