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"People let go to forget, some hold to not forget. Both paths lead to nothing but sorrow and pain."
-Anonymous
Chapter Two: Kill the Defiance
After almost a day of traveling to her hideout, Najenda had finally brought Yasune to the "home" of Night Raid. It was fairly large and it seemed new, but they had arrived on night and Yasune wouldn't be able to see his assassin "colleagues" until next morning. Yasune asked if it was one of many hideouts and Najenda confirmed that. She had explained the battle that happened on one of the hideouts that happened a few weeks ago.
Briefing him of the new Teigu group, named the "Jaegers", Yasune realized that his help was needed in order to "neutralize" this group. While he wasn't fond of head-to-head battle, all he need to know was that they were collaborating with the empire and that was more than enough reasons to kill them.
While Yasune did believe in Najenda's plans and but his faith in them. He hid his own intentions. His true goal, aside from making a new nation, was to find the greedy politicians who were involved in the plan to take out the current Koukenji head and grab the "mysterious Teigu". He knew that there had to be something or someone behind them.
Maybe it was selfish to use Najenda to get close to the politicians, but he didn't care. Perhaps his sins would catch up to him one day.
His only, current target was the Prime Minister. Who else could order such a thing?
The Prime Minister, the one who was draining the life out of the country, was truly a rare but difficult target for Yasune. He saw him as the epitome of the world's trash and wanted nothing more to see him dead, mangled, hanged, executed.
He didn't care much about "justice". To Yasune, the word "justice" was just nothing but a pretty word. He didn't want to see him on trial, he didn't want the Prime Minister to rot.
He wanted him dead. Nothing more, nothing less.
After he escaped from the clutches of death about several years ago, Yasune didn't hear from the temple of Koukenji. However, rumors spread of the students there being converted into the will of the Prime Minister, being forced to become bodyguards for greedy relatives of the Prime Minister or even assassins.
The rest that didn't succumb into the corruption of the Prime Minister were either put to torture or executed.
Yasune could never forgive that, he couldn't.
He wanted him dead so badly, it made him tingle like crazy on the inside.
Yasune, that entire midnight, stayed up. While Najenda insisted that he should rest and prepare to greet himself to his allies tomorrow, Yasune wanted to stay up for the night. Lying that he wanted to not sleep so he can be aware of any threats, he truly said those words only because he had nightmares when he slept.
It was the only thing he was truly feared. It was a weakness that scared him ever since he was in the midst of an incident that occurred when he had opened that box.
When he looked back, he wished he never opened it.
Yasune sat down on the nearby grassy fields near the hideout. He curled up into a ball and putted his arms around his legs against a tree as he felt the warm wind touch the skin of his face. He breathed out a relaxed sigh of exhaustion and began to get drowsy. His eyelids closed and he lost himself in the darkness of his tired mind.
Then he began to see a vision. One of his nightmares he feared.
After being redirected to a major rebel camp in the northeast, Yasune was sent there to be reassigned to another camp that would have him used as a "soldier". Najenda came along with him all the way. As they both resided in a large tent that was recently put up, Yasune put the medium-sized box on the wooden table.
Unsure of what it was, Yasune decided to ask.
"Um, Najenda-san."
"What?" She responded.
"I was hoping if you had any idea of what this box was. You looked at it as if it was of high importance of you." Yasune noticed.
"Well, I'm not sure whether it exists or not.. but all I can tell you is that box is very powerful, but risky." Najenda answered. "If you can't wield it, your mind could go mad."
"Is.. that so..?" Yasune was both astonished and scared of the box. That's why his master didn't want the Imperials to have so much. He stared at the box in curiosity and slight fear.
"That's all I can really tell you, Yasune. Sorry. Maybe someday I'll tell you more about it." Najenda promised. "Don't do anything odd. I'm going to get some things for you to sign."
After Najenda left the tent through it's flap, Yasune was left to himself. With the box. He reached for his coat pocket and held out the cold-iron key that was given to him by his master. Was it truly that dangerous?
"Master.. entrusted the fate of the nation to me. I may not be powerful enough to do so.." Yasune muttered to himself. "But.. he gave me this box to wield it and use it for the good of this country.."
He took a deep breath and held the key by its end.
"I can do this! I will succeed!" Yasune yelled as he dug the key into it's keyhole. He turned the key and heard a loud click. He flinched as he heard the click and began to sweat a little.
Slowly opening the box, what he saw made him extremely confused.
There was nothing. It made his heart sink in disappointment.
But upon further inspection, it was more than nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The bottom of the box showed a dark, blank, pitch-black void. He couldn't see anything in there. Yasune believed that his hand would fall through the box if he put it in there.
Then, a glowing and intimidating white symbol emitted from the center of the black void. Yasune became shocked and afraid.
All the sudden, Yasune saw black, flat tentacles cover the entire area around him. He was being surrounded by absolute darkness. Being consumed by the unknown shadows around him, Yasune braced himself as he was being enveloped by the blackness.
The last vision that he remembered was him screaming in terror. It was such a painful vision that he hated.
He always hated how cowardly he acted back then. As he awoke from his shocking nightmare, his head jolted up as he yelped, ventilating heavily. His body was still curled. He stood up and wiped the sweat off his face.
He noticed the morning sun rising up and knew that it was early in the morning. Hearing the subtle leaves rustling as the wind blew through them made his mind at peace. He felt more calmer in the place he was now in. He breathed in a fresh wisp of air and breathed out. Yasune noticed his shaking and blurred vision and quickly took one of his pills to calm himself.
Yasune rubbed his eyes, quickly regaining his clear vision.
"You're awake." Najenda's voice emitted from behind him. He turned around and saw her with her arms crossed.
"That was obvious." Yasune replied.
"You should come in. Breakfast should be ready."
"Why of course, I'll be right there." He joked.
"Just come on in, I'm serious." Najenda said.
"You absolutely have no sense of humor at all." Yasune pointed out.
"But your "humor" is nothing but mere sarcasm." She countered.
"I still find it enjoyable." Yasune responded and sighed. "Fine then. Lets get this over with."
Yasune walked ahead of Najenda, wanting to get over with the meeting of his allies. Najenda stared at him curiously, wonder whether he was able to get the handle of his "abilities" ever since they departed a few years ago. However, he appeared rather indifferent about it. Uncaring.
She found it a little pitiful.
"Uh, so who's he?" The green haired person, named Rabac pointed at Yasune. He was picking his food and didn't have an appetite for rice and meat in the morning. There were about four people at the table. Hair colors of different types. Yellow, pink, green, brown.
It was so colorful, it disgusted him.
"He must be the new person that boss talked about." The boy, named Tatsumi, answered Rabac's question. "Didn't you hear?"
Yasune, who was still staring at his food, didn't pay attention. He wasn't very enthusiastic about meeting new people. It was a waste of time, complete bullshit to know them at all. However, deep down in his heart, he was truly lonely. Maybe it was depressing for him to come back to safety to see no one waiting for him, but at least no one was suffering because of him.
Why should he make relationships? For team cohesion? He never heard of assassins actually working together. He believed that individual assassins were the most strongest and best assassins there are. Not relying on anyone or worrying made his work much more easier to do.
It was better to not have friends at all than have friends in a world where death is common.
"This is Yasune," Najenda introduced himself. "I managed to snatch him from the western camps. I'm not allowed to take too much, but he was an exception. He may not look much, but he's talented."
"I wasn't told that." Yasune said.
"I don't ever tell you much. You know that." She responded.
"Seems like you're missing a few associates." Yasune noticed that several chairs were empty, indicating that other assassins were missing.
"Akame and Suu are probably out already getting food for lunch." Leone, the yellow-haired woman, answered. "Akame's really hasty on that stuff."
"Hmph, Chelsea's probably in the hot springs too.." The pink-haired girl said. Her name was Mein.
One of those names got Yasune's attention. He couldn't remember clearly due to the side effects of his symptoms, but he was sure he had heard about one of those names before.
It just wasn't very clear. He rubbed his head to help himself remember, but nothing came to. His mind was still muddled and confused.
"Trying to get hold of something?" Najenda asked.
"Yes, I think I've met one of those people mentioned." He replied.
"You've probably heard of us from the wanted papers." Mein explained.
"..." Yasune wasn't sure. Maybe the pink-haired girl was right, but it had to be more than that. Perhaps he would look more into it later, but now, he had to concentrate on the current situation he was in.
"Maybe getting to know your allies can wait, I just remembered that a job just came up." Najenda remembered.
"You're sending me in?" Yasune pointed at himself, putting aside his bowl.
"Yeah, and Tatsumi will come with you too."
"Roger that, boss!" Tatsumi agreed to come along as support for Yasune, grabbing his jacket and Incursio's key.
"I assure you that I can do this by myself." Yasune replied.
"I admire your abilities, but your inability to work with others is bad for communicating and working together. You need to polish on that and doing this mission with Tatsumi should give you a start." Najenda responded, declining Yasune's request to go alone.
Yasune got up from his chair, stretching. "Fine, I don't care. Just give me the coordinates." He held his hand out.
Najenda gave him a slip of paper. "Here. Before you came here, there's been someone or something burning all of the rebel outposts near here, even soldiers have been burned to ashes. I've been informed that the culprit should be coming to the next one written in that paper. Find him and take him out."
"An arsonist, possibly?" Yasune hypothesized.
"More than that. Probably a danger beast. The amount of fire I've told was inhumane. No human could set things on fire so quickly."
"Well, it shouldn't be a problem. We'll get the job done, boss!" Tatsumi assured.
"You should get moving. Good luck you two, be careful out there."
Near the outskirts of the empire, both the general, Esdese and her ally, Hidetsu, a mysterious "human" that was given to Esdese from the Prime Minister to support her in the revolution against the rebels. Esdese saw to it that he took off to one of the nearby outposts that was in control of the Revolutionary army. Hidetsu had been destroying outposts for two weeks and was getting slightly bored, but as long as he didn't come back "empty handed", it was fine with him.
"I suppose you're heading towards the next one?" The female general asked.
"Hey, the Prime Minister wants me to do this." Hidetsu explained. "What the fuck should I do? It'll be a breeze. Just gonna light some stupid-ass rebels here and there, and I'll be back, as fine as usual."
"Fufu, you sound excited."
"As long as there's something there I can salvage, I'm fine going." Hidetsu said, referring to one of his "conditions". "I usually take someone back with me. Human anatomy and psychology can be so easy and fun to learn when you have something to "tinker" on."
"Your babble about working on humans bores me." Esdese pointed out.
"Hey, at least I don't hassle you about how you torture people." Hidetsu countered. "I'm more merciful, you know! Well, kind of."
"You shouldn't be. Don't make yourself more weaker by being soft. I take resentment very highly in those kind of people."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're gonna "escort me to torture room" and stuff." Hidetsu then took off quickly. "Gotta go, bye-bye~!"
As she saw him charge off into the distance, she had an expression of suspicion. The boy wasn't afraid of her at all. There were times where should "threaten" him, but he shrugged it off as an insult. There was no sense of fear at all from her "ally". He feared nothing and was extremely carefree. He could have about ten danger beasts around him, but he would most likely just laugh it off.
There was something wrong with him. It made Esdese lose her trust for him by the second.
Taking half an hour, Yasune and Tatsumi both traveled to the outpost by the side of a mountain. They weren't very close to it yet, but they were both getting there. Since it was very silent, Tatsumi decided to ask Yasune a question. He noticed how Yasune was very quiet and disliked any company that came along with him, but he had to find a way to get along with his new teammate.
"Your name was Yasune, right?"
"What is it?" He sighed.
"So, you said you knew one of us, right? Who is it?"
"If you're wondering, it surely isn't you." Yasune responded harshfully. "What are you going at?"
"N-Nothing! I was just asking." Tatsumi chuckled, a little nervous. He decided to ask something else. "Are you from the west?"
"No, I'm not. I was stationed there, however." Yasune answered. "I was born in the empire; that's all you need to know for now. You shouldn't ask so many questions, it makes you irritating."
"Oh.. okay then." Tatsumi muttered, slightly disappointed that he couldn't get to him at all.
As they traveled further, they made their way down to the grassy fields and into the forests. As her followed the coordinates, Yasune knew that they were getting near to their destination. Then, they noticed there was charred pieces of wood on the ground as they got closer.
"Something isn't right.." Yasune muttered to himself. "Tatsumi, hurry!"
He ran ahead with lightning speed, catching Tatsumi off guard. Tatsumi became surprised and attempted to follow him, but he was surprisingly more agile than him. He couldn't name many people who were as fast as that. Maybe Akame or Leone could match it, but even he wasn't sure.
When Tatsumi caught up to him on top of a hill, he was tired from running. He was surprised how far he had ran that he was out of breath. As he regained his stamina, he saw Yasune, still as a twig. Yasune was surprised from the scene in front of him. He pointed at what he was staring at.
Tatsumi was shocked.
The medium-sized outpost in the distance was charred to a crisp. Parts of it were still lit up with fire. However, that was only the part of it.
Both of them could barely see a skinny, sickly figure in the distance. It wore ragged clothing and walked around the burned place as if nothing had happened.
Then, they saw one of the soldiers in one of the hands of the figure, its right hand surrounded the man's neck with ease.
"We have to go down there! That guy must be it!" Tatsumi ran down ahead of Yasune.
Yasune yelled at him to halt, but it didn't work. "You stupid fool, don't run into a situation you don't know of!"
"Ugh.. please.. no." The burned man pleaded at the shadowy figure above him to spare him.
"All of these subjects are brittle and weak." Hidetsu examined. "There's no reason for you to exist anymore. Be at peace, my pathetic little friend!"
With that, Hidetsu dropped him. He then stomped on his face multiple times and blood splattered all over his clothes. He hated to have no subjects to bring back at all, but everyone that he had gone against were either too young or just physically too weak to be of any use to him.
As he was about to leave, he heard something run from behind him. He turned around and saw a brown haired boy. The boy had an expression of disgust and hate at him. Hidetsu simply smiled and waved at him.
"Why, hello there!" Hidetsu greeted. "Beautiful day today, isn't it? The birds are chirping, the sky is blue, and the season is just perfect for a green day~! If it makes you feel better, I burned everyone. It's quick and painless!"
"Shut up!"
"That wasn't nice at all." Hidetsu pointed out, frowning, feigning a cry. "You're gonna make me cry, you know~!"
"Guh.." Tatsumi was tense, very tense. If this person could burn an entire outpost, he wasn't to be taken lightly, even if he acted like an idiot. "Incursio!"
Tatsumi brought the blade down to the ground, penetrating it. A giant statue of armor surrounded the country boy and covered him. Hidetsu stopped his fake crying and his dark, orange-pupiled eyes glowed at the hindrance before him. He was going to fight with a Teigu user. He had heard about the users on the other side, but didn't expect this.
He was more angered than intimidated.
"All right, come at me!" Tatsumi taunted.
"..." Hidetsu put a finger on his chin. "Nah."
"Eh?!" Tatsumi was confused and shocked.
"I'm a little tired. I just wanna go home and you're not worth my time." Hidetsu put his arms behind his head. "If you don't want anything, I'm.. um, gonna go. Bye."
As he saw the criminal wave at him then walk away, Tatsumi was getting irritated. Tatsumi charged at him as he was looking away, but the culprit turned around and slapped Tatsumi with a backhand. Tatsumi flew to the side and fell on the ground with a loud thump. He was shocked at how the sickly figure knew he was coming at him.
His attack was timed perfectly.
Tatsumi groaned as he got back up to his feet. The figure stared at him with a piercing gaze and hint of intense anger.
"See, this is something I don't understand about you shitty-ass rebels." Hidetsu rubbed the back of his neck. "I give you a chance to freely go away, but you don't. I don't fucking get it! I don't get it at all! You fucking piss me off! You piss me off to hell! Fuck you and fuck your army!"
BOOM!
Tatsumi got out of the way as the person jumped into the air and came down with the heel of his right feet. He quickly dashed to the side as the figure flew into the ground as quick as bullet. Smoke emitted from the location the charge. It seemed that his opponent came at him with all of his might. Tatsumi doubted that Incursio's armor would be able to handle the power of that kick.
As the smoke subsided, he saw the opponent stare at him with bulging eyes. He saw him charge again.
Suddenly, a kick pushed back the enemy from Tatsumi. Hidetsu put his two arms together to block the attack with his forearms. The attack made his feet skid across the rough dirt ground. Tatsumi looked to his left and Yasune appeared from the side. He wasn't sure why it took so long for him to get to the site of the battle, but Tatsumi was just grateful he came.
"Thanks, you saved me there." Tatsumi thanked.
"Don't run ahead of me like that anymore, you idiot." Yasune said.
"O-Oh.. sorry."
"More of these fuckers..? Really..?!" Hidetsu muttered, putting his one of his hands over his right eye. "Hey, asshole! That was pretty good! I didn't see you come at me for a second."
"Then that just means your awareness is below par than I thought." Yasune responded. He wasn't sure if Tatsumi had noticed, but the figure before them looked somewhat similar to him. His face was just more sickly and skinny and his hair was grayish and messy. "I'm not as weak as I look, you know. If you want to fight, how about fighting someone who's just as "big" as you?"
Hidetsu put one of his hands on his forehead, laughing. "I don't give a shit. Both of you can come at me, and the outcome'll be the same!"
"You..!" Tatsumi growled. Yasune put his arm in front of him, halting him. "Yasune, what're you doing?"
"I've always taken the pleasure in showing how weak these dogs truly are." He admitted. "Since this fool thinks so highly of himself, I'll break that pathetic arrogance of his. Besides, this world has no use for animals that don't know how to reason. Allow me to do this by myself, if you would."
"If.. that's what you want." Tatsumi was hesitant, but he had difficulty fighting the thing in front of him. What chance would he have? However, he wanted to see how Yasune fought. If he had a Teigu, it would be a sight to see.
"Hah! You're gonna regret this, dumbass!" Hidetsu insulted. "I've defied death more than you think!"
"That's where you're mistaken," Yasune began, drawing both of his broad, short blades. "You won't defy me."
A/N:
Thank you for reading the second chapter of "Save the Nation". I apologized for the slow making of the chapters, but I have several things that have made me very busy, thus I'm unable to create chapters quickly.
Please be on standby for any new chapters that will come in the meantime. Do review, favorite, or anything that benefits me and my story. Anything helps.
I'll see you all later.