Okay, I want to know if I should continue this story, and should I keep Nora and Isaac in the story for a while, or should I leave them out. I am thinking of waiting a lot of chapters until I get to the start of the Akame ga Kill storyline or do you want to read that? Should I skip it and begin the normal plot?
All characters © to Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro,
All characters you don't recognise and this story are copyright to me.
Chapter 2
The three friends, Weiss, Isaac and Nora, were standing on a rooftop overlooking a storage shelter. It was easily large enough to house a band of murder's and their equipment while acting as a competent hideout.
"So, how are we getting them out?" Weiss said to herself.
Nora took it upon herself to answer "Why don't I drop in from the roof, smash everything with my hammer and send them running?"
Nora was one of the lucky few to have a Teigu (Imperial Arms) called Magnhild. Hers took the form of a large circular hammer with a long staff attached, it was flat at one end and pointed on the other. When it makes contact, it releases a small explosion that not only adds force to her strikes, but can send the target soaring threw the air. Nora had ingeniously found that she could propel herself a short distance through the air as well.
"Not that we doubt that you would easily break that thing apart, Nora. But we want a quieter and stealthy approach." Weiss told her.
The happy-go-lucky ginger was slightly put out, but was quick to get over it.
"Then why don't I just use my Teigu and cause a huge commotion out here and get them all to attack out in the open?" Isaac questioned.
His Teigu was an armour type called, Impetus. When activated it covered him in a grey and black armour with glowing red eyes. Its ability is a strange one in that, when the user is hit, his power is increased. So if the user has immense endurance and can take multiple strikes, they would be able to kill an ultra-class Danger beast in one blow. Its secret ability or 'Trump Card' is that the user can distort time making them move faster so it appears that the world is moving slower to them. This is a very dangerous ability, as after it is used, the caster can't move for few minutes making them an easy target and causes a huge strain on them as well. Repeated use can and will kill the user.
"Again, too loud and everyone in the street would be able to see us. Subtlety, please." Weiss scolded him tapping him on his armoured helm. "What if we walked inside?"
Both Nora and Isaac scoffed.
"The only one we want is, Grimm. And he won't leave until we are tired out taking out the grunts." She reasoned. "So isn't it better to just get it over with?"
"Every one of these plans are terrible." Isaac said. "But walking in the front door does seem the most fun."
"And I can knock!" Nora exclaimed throwing her arm in the air.
The trio, with a kind of plan in effect, leaped off the roof and landed easily on the ground. Walking over to the large metal door, Isaac and Weiss stood on either side of it and held an arm out as if to say 'After you' to Nora.
Smiling gleefully, Nora pulled her hammer from her back and said 'Knock, Knock." Before swinging her hammer and exploding the door off its hinges sending it flying with great speed inside the building.
Isaac and Weiss used the smoke from the blast and the confusion to their advantage, charging in and attacking the disoriented and confused people inside.
Weiss pulled out her wide bladed short sword and begun slicing everything in sight. Isaac's armour was more for hand to hand contact to he immediately set to work punching, kicking and throwing everyone in sight. One was stupid enough to try and attack head on, Isaac caught the blade in his hand and broke it with ease, then he picked up the culprit and swung him like a hammer thrower into a group standing a short distance away.
When Nora went into battle, she leaped right into the middle of the fray and smashed her hammer onto the ground and sending everyone in the vicinity backwards. When more came at her, she twirled her hammer as one with a flag in a parade would, to both avoid attacks and quickly change the direction of her hammer without looking momentum and twirling it she hit one on the side and sent him into the wall.
It didn't take long to cut everyone down. Weiss was fighting two at once, one charged and swung his sword downwards at an angle. Weiss easily jumped over his head and spun in the air, slicing him in half from his stomach. His partner, enraged at his friend's death, ran forward intending to attack her unprotected back. Sensing this, Weiss ducked, dodging the sword and placed her left hand on his chest.
Releasing her Teigu, Weiss froze the man solid. Leaving a frozen stature behind, complete with surprised expression. She clenched her fist and shattered the ice statue.
Walking away she felt a pulse of cold from a mark on her chest. One that she kept hidden. One that she hated with every fibre of her being. That damned her very existence.
Enraged at the use of her Teigu, Weiss let her guard down, allowing a fighter with a large knife to attack from the side. She saw it from the corner of her eye and quickly flipped backwards, kicking the blade from the assailant's hand at the same time. Weiss quickly thrust her blade and pierced the man's chest.
'This is not the time to be distracted' she told herself.
"Nora!" the girl shouted noticing a wooden table near her, she flipped it through the air toward the hammer user, who knowing this routine already, spun and hit the table with said hammer and sent it spinning toward the back wall, taking out a large amount of people also.
"We have no time! Grimm could be long gone by the time we finish this!" Isaac shouted, bashing two people's skulls together, knocking them out.
Weiss brought her arms together crossing them as she built up her energy, she released it quickly bringing her arms to her side's shouting, "Enough!"
The floor was quickly covered in a thick layer of ice, trapping everyone's feet in the ice as it froze them to the floor and slowly rose up their legs anchoring them more securely. Nora and Isaac quickly leaped in the air and onto a low beam to avoid the ice floor. To add to the destruction, Weiss conjured more ice to rise in large spikes, impaling many and killing them instantly and maiming those unfortunate enough to be caught. One had been stuck threw the back of his chest lifting him off the ground.
Weiss had a deathly aura around her as she easily walked on the slippery ice as if it was normal, she wasn't even bothered by the huge drop in temperature. She approached the impaled man, wanting answers.
"Where is Grimm?" She asked as her breath steamed in the frozen air.
The man coughed a little struggling to breath, blood dribbling down his chin. "Don't…Know…Gone…" He quietly said.
Weiss did not like his answer and hissed "Who would know?"
"Never….Tell…" The man thought himself a comedian and smiled at his own cocky reply. But his eyes betrayed him, as they instinctively darted to the door at the back of the building.
"Fine." Weiss replied, and with no hint of emotion, clenched her fist and more ice spikes stemmed from the one inside the man and pierced him in many directions.
He screamed in agony as he died.
"That was unnecessary." Isaac told her as he and Nora jumped down from the beam and walked with Weiss to the back door.
"I have no time to waste on men like him. I need to find Grimm." Weiss replied, her eyes focused on the door.
Isaac was sick of her avoiding him, so he grabbed her shoulder and forced her to turn and face him. "This isn't you! You're letting rage dictate your actions!"
"This is exactly what I said would happen. What I told you I would do when we came close to ending this." She replied in a voice as cold as the ice she creates.
"But this is too much! You can't be enjoying this!" He shouted, his breath clouding as it escaped his helmet.
"I will decimate anyone and everyone affiliated with Grimm and his gang. You didn't see what he did to my home town. Everything burnt to the ground, people piled in mounds. Women and children raped and tortured, hanging in the square." The room got colder and colder the angrier she became. "And the sick part is, I am enjoying this. I don't want to but I am."
Isaac, sighed. He was at a loss at what to do for his friend. "What will you do when you catch him? Kill him? What happens after? You only live for the hunt, Weiss." He told her narrowing his eyes, "What happens when it is over?"
She had no answer and pushed past him to open the door. It revealed a secondary storage area filed with boxes and crates. It was the perfect spot to hide, or plan an ambush. Weiss, Nora and Isaac carefully traversed the labyrinth and turned to the sound of a box hitting the ground. Turning the corner they came upon a man cowering on the ground, his back against the wall. He was near an overturned table upon which the box one stood, but was now on the floor, its contents scattered all over the floor. It appeared to be some kind of powder. Many papers were also on the floor from the upturned table.
Weiss casually walked over to the poor man about to piss himself and lifted him onto his feet by his shirt collar. She froze him to the wall by making a collar of ice.
"Pl- Please… don't… kill… me! I'll do anything... please!" He sobbed, truly terrified at her ice magic. He thought only General Esdese could control ice.
"Who are you, what do you do here?" Isaac asked, hoping that once he gave up the information, Weiss would leave him alive.
"I'm the accountant. I look after all the money that they bring in from the drug and weapon's trade." He said through his sobbing and frozen collar.
Before any of them could ask more questions there was a shout as a final enemy that had stayed hidden behind a crate, jumped out with a large axe and charged with his arms overhead. Weiss was in no mood for any more distraction's, so calling upon her Teigu, she summoned small ice spears and launched them at the charging axe wielder, they imbedded themselves in his arms and kneecaps. She aimed, not to kill, but halt his movements. He screamed in pain and dropped the axe since the ice lacerated his muscles.
Ignoring the screaming of the accountant, Weiss walked over to the axe wielder and knelt next to him. Gently holding his head in her arms she brought it closer to her own as if to kiss him, the man didn't fight, he was too surprised. Just as their lips were inches apart, Weiss exhaled, as if making a light sigh, letting her breath flow past the man lips into his lungs.
Weiss stood leaving the man on the floor. He felt cold and started coughing. As it got worse he looked up at her.
"Wha-" Cough "-What did you do to me?" he asked as his insides felt both cold and like he was being stabbed repeatedly by needles. He couldn't contain his screams as the pain increased.
She looked down at him, no hint of remorse "I am freezing you from the inside. Turning your body to ice slowly." She struggled to find a good comparison. "Oh I know-" Snapping her fingers as she found one "-You know what happens to a person when they drink alcohol with Liquid Nitrogen? Their stomachs begin to freeze and solidify."
Even though the pain the axe wielder was horrified. His screams turned from agony to fear instantly. He continued to cough and scream until he died.
"Why do you have these Powers!?" The man still frozen to the wall screamed.
"That's exactly what I would like to know." A voice from the door asked.
Everyone turned and met with the angry face of General Esdese. She stood in front of her three 'minions', arms crossed and a killing aura about her. To say she was livid would be a grievous understatement.
Quicker than anything Weiss, Nora or Isaac had seen, Esdese drew her rapier and flew past them, pinning Weiss to the wall by her shoulder.
"AHHHH!" The white haired ice wielder screamed before turning to glare at her, reaching up to grip the blade with her good arm and numbing her shoulder with her ice to avoid more pain.
Esdese leaned close and whispered "Well…Why do you have these powers?" Her eyes darted to her tee shirt and she slowly raised her left arm to the girl's shirt. The blue haired General gripped the collar and pulled it down revealing a 'Y' shaped tattoo on the white haired girls chest, under her collar bone and above her breasts, mirroring Esdese's own.
"That's impossible" Esdese whispered in disbelief as she stared at it, turning her gaze back to the girl still skewered to the wall "How did you get this mark?" When Weiss refused to answer and continued to glare at her.
Becoming impatient the General twisted the knife, something that would have any normal person screaming. But since Weiss had numbed her arm she knew that her skin was tearing, that her blood was flowing down to the ground, pooling on the floor and was twitching, reacting to the action, the pain that should have been felt. She just smiled at the General, without her torture, she was useless.
"I am surprised, you used 'Demon's Extract' to freeze your own nerves, effectively numbing your body. You can't feel any pain." Esdese said. "Fine" turning to the 'Three Beasts' she looked meaningfully at them "Since I can't hurt you, I'll torture them until you give me the information I want."
The smallest one, a blond that appeared as though he was a child with his innocent looks, smiled and drew a large knife.
"I'll enjoy having you in my collection." His voice was soft and as innocent as his looks. He brandished the knife in front of Nora's eyes, his eyes had a strange gleam to them.
Putting the knife against Nora's cheek, she whimpered in fright. It was not something that had ever happened to her before. He was a Danger Beast hunter, things like knifes usually weren't a problem. The way he had brandished the knife, the way he laid it on Nora's cheek, Weiss realised what he was going to do. He was cut off her face.
"Alright!" She shouted, not going to put her friends in danger for something that didn't concern them. "I'll tell you why I have this Teigu. But-" she continued when Esdese had turned back to her. "-I will only tell you if you let them go."
Esdese only looked at her, looking to see if there was any lie to her words. She turned her head to the 'Beasts' and nodded. The smallest with the knife lowered it with a sigh. But her friends were still held by their captures.
Weiss knew that this was the best she was going to get, so taking a breath she began her tale.
"Before you ever had you're Teigu, it was locked up. Well, knowing just how powerful it was, people wanted it, people not affiliated with either the Empire or Revolutionary army… In fact, I think this might have happened before the Rebels formed. So this group tried to steal 'Demon's Extract' from right under the Empire's nose, and while not get everything, they did manage to get a few mouthfuls of the blood.
"That started a race to find someone compatible with it. And you can imagine how well that went. If they didn't die the poor people had their psyches destroyed and went insane from the voices in their head. So after a while they slowed down their frantic search…
"Then you came along." Weiss sighed. "Before I continue, do you mind letting me down, I am afraid I might pass out from blood loss and you won't get to hear the rest of this 'thrilling' tale."
Esdese pulled out the rapier, causing the once captive girl to fall to her feet, she just barely caught herself and stopped herself from falling to the ground.
"Thanks…" She muttered. "Now where was I?"
"You were blaming Esdese for all you problems." Nora answered, surprisingly chipper after nearly having her face cut off.
Weiss smiled "That's right, thanks Nora. As soon as word spread that the great 'General Esdese' was using the Teigu to decimate the growing rebellion only rekindles the fire for my organisation to find a user for their small amount of 'Demons Extract'. So they went to my village and corralled all the children and took them from their parents, back to their lab's. And out of nearly sixty children, no older than six and no younger than four, I was the only one compatible with it." She paused here, looking back at Esdese since her eyes had wandered for into the past, "How did you cope? With the voices?"
The General smiled, "I was strong. I am always the one to dominate…regardless of the enemy. And I act, of my own accord." Looking right into Weiss's steel coloured eyes she asked. "So how about you?"
"I don't hear them when I have an extended period of disuse. But when I use them, they come back, stronger and louder than ever." She explained. "Anyway, getting back on track, after I became the new Teigu user I was put through horrendous and excruciating training to further my abilities. Eventually they pushed me too far. They had no further use for the other children then cannon fodder. I was to kill everyone. If I didn't they were tortured before my eyes. Many I had known from childhood, growing up with them at my village…" She paused in her tale, taking a breath. "I killed them all."
Esdese was surprised at this, she knew the girl was a killer, but to kill people she had grown up with… She was impressed. Nora and Isaac already knew this story and didn't bat an eye.
"I destroyed the entire facility after that. Killing everyone I could see. And I returned to my village, though I found in my ten year absence that my parents had died. I obtained these rings from the village leader along with many stories about them. Two years after that I was hunting danger beasts to sell for furs and whatnot for the village, only to find it completely destroyed, burnt to the ground, its people raped and flayed. Grimm's calling card was left everywhere, and then I began hunting him."
Her tale finished, Weiss looked back at the General. She sheathed her rapier and gazed back at the girl. Their stories were not dissimilar, she too came home to a destroyed village but she had no one to blame, her village was weak and was destroyed because of it.
Esdese could not kill Weiss, she would in time become strong and the Empire would be secured in its future with two users of the 'Demons Extract'.
"Well. I can't kill you now. You have destroyed a threat to the Empire. Grimm has been causing trouble for us here. So I will accompany you in your journey." Esdese told her with a smile.
"No thanks." Weiss replied, frowning. "We like to travel fast and inconspicuous. You attract too much attention."
"Nonsense." The General waves her hand, dismissively. "This is a killer that is plaguing the Empire, he is nearly as bad as Night Raid. It would be a black mark on me if I didn't do anything to stop him."
Weiss snorted "You didn't seem to care before."
"Who's Night Raid?" Nora asked.
The eldest of the Three Beasts, River spoke up "Night Raid is a criminal organisation that is murdering people at night. They don't care who they kill, as long as they get what they want."
"Oh, they are part of the Revolutionary Army then, right?" Nora questioned already knowing the answer.
"Uh, Nora. I think she is dying." Isaac pointed out, nodding his head toward Weiss who had slid down the wall to sit on the floor. She was deathly pale.
"I'm fine. Haven't lost that much." She said, raising her arm to the gash left from Esdese's rapier and creating an ice barrier and sealing the wound. "Besides. I still haven't found where Grimm has gone."
Esdese and the Beasts looked toward the accountant.
"We'll question him outside." The blue haired General ordered. The tallest and biggest of the Beasts, Daidara, pulled the man off the wall and dragged him screaming in fright outside.
Isaac moved to help Weiss, supporting her weight and near carrying her. Esdese looked at the man who was frozen from the inside. His face had turned blue and his hands black from lack of heat.
"You will have to tell me how you did that." She said looking at Weiss.
Once outside Daidara threw the accountant against the wall waiting for his General's orders.
"Where is Grimm?" She asked.
The accountant had fainted sometime between Esdese arriving and the end of Weiss' story and didn't hesitate to answer the question.
"He went North! The drug's shipment usually comes from a village north. It's calle-" But the man never got the chance to finish his sentence. A resounding bang sounded and Daidara jumped back from the wall. The accountant had a large hole through his head where a bullet had broken through his skull.
"Pumpkin…" Esdese muttered recognising the sound and laser like bullet.
Their lead for Grimm vanished as fast as the wind.
"NO!" Weiss shouted, furious at the accountant's death. "We were so CLOSE!"
"That was Night Raid. The weapon that was used was called Pumpkin. An Artillery Teigu that specialises in long range." Esdese told her.
"If I ever find the bastard who did this, I'll beat them to death with their own weapon!" Weiss hissed, the temperature dropping and ice beginning to from on her hands.
Over on the ridge, Mein and Leona were running away from the sight. Mein had managed a clean kill of her target. That accountant was embezzling money and funding the Imperial Army secretly. So they were ordered to take him out.
Mine was disappointed she didn't have a chance to kill Esdese but her orders were to take out the accountant. And ONLY the accountant.
Leona and Mein were going to have to ask the boss about the trio they has seen with Esdese. They might become a problem for Night Raid later on.
Right another end to a second chapter. I can't believe how quick this came out! Hopefully the next chapter will come out soon too.
Review and let me know what you think of the story.