Episode 3: Kill the Allegiance
"What's wrong?"
The Leviathan roared with furious rage, shattering the cold earth beneath it as it approached. Tatsumi lifted the jagged katana in his hand, drawing it closer to his face. Still holding the sheath in his left hand, he extended a lone finger to trace along the bleeding steel. He watched calmly as the thick substance parted from the movement and clogged on the tip of the digit, all while the Ultra-class shambled over to him and continued to regenerate.
"Well, what is it?" Tatsumi smirked, his eyes dull and half-lidded as the Muramasa whispered to him. "Are you going to offer more of your blood?"
The Leviathan exhaled another concentrated burst of wind. Once again the attack was effortlessly deflected when Tatsumi lifted the empty sheath, Masamune, before it reached him.
"Ahh...that's no good," Tatsumi sighed, swinging the blade in his other hand halfheartedly as he walked forward to meet the creature. "What were you expecting to gain from such a half-assed attack?"
Tatsumi jumped high as the Leviathan finally swung at him with its healed appendages, spinning downwards and severing both hands yet again with a spiralling strike that Esdeath herself could hardly follow. In a flash he crouched low with the Muramasa held behind him, and the giant bloody hands fell once again to the ground. Blood gushed from the wounds in torrential amounts and Tatsumi grinned, walking over to drench the blade in the crimson waterfall.
"If my attacks can outpace its regeneration, then such an ability is useless. Don't you think?"
Esdeath swallowed the lump in her throat, watching in plain shock as he talked to the sword. He spoke to it quietly, intimately, as if it were his child.
Or his lover.
"Is that better? I'd be hard-pressed to find an even greater amount for you to feed on."
The Leviathan suddenly opened its cavernous maw wide and reached out to consume him, its efforts instantly quelled as the boy immediately lodged the blade in its gums. The vicious steel dug deep and entrenched itself, ripping and shredding all the way to the hilt. The Leviathan let out a new sound, one Esdeath had heard many times in her various hunts. It was a sound she'd first experienced as a child, back when her father had disemboweled a Danger Beast while it was still alive.
A yelp, a pleading cry of agony. A sign of extreme pain and weakness.
"How's that?" Tatsumi smirked, twisting the hilt as the Leviathan crumpled to its belly and fell perfectly still. "I bet that hurts a lot. Well then, how's this?"
Tatsumi twisted the blade in the opposite direction, and suddenly the creature was twisting and writhing and howling into the sky, wrapped in a new kind of pain that Esdeath found positively exquisite. And to her utter disappointment he ripped the blade free, swinging it against the air a couple of times with a bored expression. In front of him the Leviathan breathed heavily, eyes drooping as its suffering slowly diminished.
"I guess that's enough," he hummed cheerfully, extending his hand to the beast. He took care not to drop the Masamune in his left hand as he did so. "The fight's all gone from you now, isn't it?"
Esdeath watched in astonishment as the Leviathan actually inched itself forward, deliberately placing its snout against Tatsumi's hand. A sign of submission.
Before her very eyes, he had tamed an Ultra-class.
"On some level you get what I'm saying, don't you? So slither back into whatever hole you came from and do it fast, before I carve you into steaks." He withdrew his hand from the beast, the two staring quietly at one another as the moon cast its light upon them.
Satisfied with the quieting whispers, Tatsumi sheathed the Muramasa and walked away from the tortured creature. He didn't need to look back to know it was doing as he bid; the sound of crumbling dirt and snapping trees told him all he needed to know. His fight was over.
His eyelids were heavy. His arms and legs...so heavy.
The two-in-one Teigu vanished from his left hand in a burst of light as he approached her, and Esdeath immediately ran forward to catch the boy as he passed out mid-stride. In a moment of irrational fear she pressed her ear to his chest, heaving a sigh of relief as the familiar thumping calmed her own heart.
"General Esdeath!"
"Commander!"
Wave and Kurome ran into the clearing with all haste, hands on their weapons as they scanned the area for any lingering threats.
"Wave, Kurome!" Esdeath blinked, surprised to see them pop out of nowhere like that. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be waiting for us at the designated meeting area."
"Our apologies," Kurome replied, drawing her Yatsufusa as she placed her back to Wave's. The two of them comically rotated and approached their beloved leader, unwilling to let their guard down.
Esdeath sweatdropped. "The Ultra-class is already gone."
"HEEHHH? You're kidding!" Wave yelled, jaw dropping. "We ran all the way over here for no reason?!"
Internally, the young warrior was relieved. If he and Kurome had been forced to do battle with an Ultra-class, who knows what the outcome would've been? Judging from Esdeath's tired expression, their enemy had been no pushover.
And yet…
"You drove it away?" Wave remarked, watching with interest as the general lifted an unconscious Tatsumi into her arms and approached them.
She smiled.
"No, not I." She glanced at Tatsumi, and Wave's own eyes went wide.
"You mean-?!"
"Ah," Esdeath confirmed, smiling gently. "Something interesting happened. We can talk more about this later, but for now, let us return to the capital. I've had enough hunting for one night."
"Ma'am!" Kurome and Wave shouted obediently, bowing slightly as the woman turned and walked toward the city. The two youths followed closely behind, eyes open for any lingering Danger Beasts as they returned to the safety of the city's walls.
When Tatsumi opened his eyes, he was suddenly overcome by the desire to shut them again. The bed was entirely too comfortable, and the painful protests of his entire body made staying motionless all too easy. Squinting, he could just barely make out the familiar image of Esdeath's chambers as the sunlight nearly burned a hole in his eye sockets.
Honestly. Did the window really have to be positioned in such a way that the sun would greet him immediately upon rising? That just wasn't fair.
Tatsumi struggled to raise his left hand, reaching for the ceiling above. As if Heaven were waiting for him, he raised his hand. He yearned for those who were lost, and extended his hand as he thought of them. Too much had happened too quickly, and already the tears began to fall.
Sayo. Ieyasu. Sheele. Bulat. His dear friends, his cherished companions.
The grief within his soul reached a climax, and a burst of light unveiled the sheathed sword in his hand. Astonished, Tatsumi dropped it and the object landed on the bed, causing him to wince in pain as a new pressure was applied to his battered form. The aches in his body were annoying and hindered his progress, but eventually Tatsumi brought himself into a sitting position and stared at the weapon.
"A Teigu," he muttered, reaching forward to stroke the sleek surface. The hilt was soft, the sheath was smooth and had a beautiful, glossy shine.
"Not just any Teigu," Esdeath interjected, causing Tatsumi to almost leap out of his skin as she entered. "My apologies, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your introspection."
"It's okay," he mumbled, turning his gaze back to the mysterious item before him. "You know what this is?"
Esdeath approached the side of the bed and sat down. She was wearing only a bra that exposed an egregious amount of cleavage, and Tatsumi could plainly see the bandages on her back.
"The forty-seventh Teigu, a combination-type that is among one of the most powerful. The sheath is named Masamune, and possesses incredible magics. The blade held within is named Muramasa, and should have no exceptional qualities apart from its durability and sharpness. Though, perhaps it's unfair to call it anything less than exceptional...it did slice through that Leviathan's hide with little effort."
Tatsumi stared at the blade for a moment, eventually taking it into his own hands. It rested heavily upon his palms, silently brushing against his skin. The whispers that had plagued him the night before were gone, and the Teigu itself no longer weighed upon his mind.
"How do you know all this?" Tatsumi asked.
Esdeath reached out and placed a hand on his back, rubbing in slow and gentle circles. It would tell a lie to say it did not feel good, that it didn't bring him some sort of comfort. He tried to ignore it, of course. To focus on hating her.
What was she doing to him?
"Your idol," Esdeath continued, running her gentle fingers through his hair, "transformed into this Teigu. It appears to have been sealed, awaiting one who could awaken it. Not unlike a biological Teigu, in fact."
"I remember," Tatsumi replied, tightly gripping the katana. "It helped me fight the Ultra-class."
"It helped you?" Esdeath inquired, leaning forward.
Tatsumi blinked, suddenly aware of his situation. And thus he pulled away from her, cautious as before.
"You know that I'm a member of Night Raid," he murmured, sliding further away from the curious woman before him. "So what happens now? Am I going to be executed?"
Esdeath laughed, quickly closing the distance between them and wrapping the boy in a gentle hug.
"Over my own dead body," she hissed, filling his ear with the heat of her breath and his soul with the fire of her own passion. "As far as I'm concerned, those were delirious words brought about by your frightening encounter with the Leviathan. What matters is that you are here, with me, and that you are alive. What happened last night will never happen again."
She pulled away from him, and when his eyes met hers, Tatsumi felt overwhelmed. Her gaze, motherly yet infatuated, seemed to pierce his very soul and leave him vulnerable. Open and utterly exposed.
"It's not that simple," Tatsumi mumbled, looking away. "Wave knows, too."
"Oh, does he?" Esdeath narrowed her eyes, those glowing sapphires darkening from this revelation. "I will speak to him, then. You need not concern yourself with these trivialities. I promised you already that no harm would ever come to you in my care."
He couldn't stop himself. Her words, her tone, all of it was so convincing. It was even comforting him, soothing him until that wretched fear in his gut had slowly withered into nothing.
"Thank you," he blurted out, trying not to look at her. The hand on his back stopped moving in circles, and for a moment, he could feel her eyes boring into him.
Then her head found his shoulder and she let out a heavenly sigh, one that made his heart pound and his pupils dilate. "Tatsumi," she repeated his name, slowly bringing her lips to rest upon his forehead. "For now, you should rest. When your strength has returned, we can talk about where to go from here."
Esdeath rose from the bed and walked across the room, approaching the door leading out into the hallway. Her fingers clenched around the doorknob and pulled it open, right as Tatsumi's plea reached her ears.
"What about my Teigu?"
She looked back at him with that familiar smile, nodding to the dresser next to the bed. "If you're asking about Incursio, it is leaning against my nightstand. I wouldn't begrudge a member of the Jaegers their weaponry. Who knows when those vicious Night Raid assassins will strike?"
She winked at him, and Tatsumi sweatdropped. This woman really was taken by him, wasn't she?
And yet, he couldn't deny it anymore. She was growing on him.
"As for the forty-seventh," Esdeath added, pointing to the item in question, "I would suggest that you learn to prioritize between it and Incursio. Possession of more than one Teigu is exceptional enough, but no amount of training or raw talent will allow you to wield them both at the same time; your stamina would vanish completely upon trying. You should give some thought as to how you can utilize them both in battle. Since you seem to be able to summon and dismiss the forty-seventh at will, you may also want to train yourself to master that ability."
Tatsumi blinked, completely at a loss for words. Did nothing faze this woman? Where were her priorities, exactly?
"I'll check on you again later," Esdeath assured, reaching for her heart. "If you need anything, simply call. I've posted a servant outside the door who will tend to your every need in my absence."
He had countless questions he wanted to ask, but only one came out. "Where are you going?"
"I am meeting with the other Jaegers," she responded, suddenly looking bored. "I'd much rather spend my time with you, but the responsibilities of a general are nothing to scoff at. They're part of our little family too, after all. Rest assured, I will be back for you shortly."
Tatsumi opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted. "I love you."
The boy blinked, suddenly at a loss for words. Had her own completely robbed him of the ability to breathe? His heart was suddenly on fire, and as she left the room, Tatsumi was overwhelmed by the desire to hear her voice again.
"She is my enemy," he told himself, staring at the two-in-one Teigu resting in his lap. "But even so, I like her. I like the Esdeath that I've seen, not the one that the empire sees...not the one who tortures the innocent."
Tatsumi sighed, lifting the blade and yelping with shock as it suddenly vanished in a burst of light. Groaning with frustration, he swiped his hand a few times in order to bring it back. When it didn't return, he simply gave up and fell back against the pillows, staring at the white ceiling.
"I'm a member of the Jaegers," he thought. "I'll prove myself to her, earn her trust, and then make my way back to Night Raid."
It's what he told himself, but even as he repeated his goals over and over again, Tatsumi fell into a deep sleep. And he dreamt only of her.
"Any luck?" Leone called, exhausted. Akame quickly closed in on her and slowed to a walk, her eyes downcast.
"I couldn't find him," she muttered.
Leone sighed. They'd been searching high and low for Tatsumi, anticipating his arrival at Fake Mountain ever since morning. It seemed that Esdeath was fairly confident in her abilities, not even bothering with keeping her hunting trips a secret. The lucky guard chosen to be Leone's victim had caved relatively quickly, as if Esdeath's daily affairs weren't of any great importance. The information had come to them easily.
But was it too easy? Had this simply been bait, something to draw them away from another location? Or was their timing simply off?
Leone grit her teeth, anger rising in her gut. The two of them had searched high and low, yet never encountered anything apart from corpses of Danger Beasts and splintered trees. No matter where they had searched, they'd been too late. Was God himself laughing at them, manipulating their lives and deliberately keeping them away from Tatsumi? Even her advanced senses had borne no fruit, serving only to make the lioness more frustrated than before.
Leone had forced herself to bury her feelings, to fit the mold of Tatsumi's sister-figure, but she couldn't deny her fondness for the boy. And the thought of him being in the Prime Minister's clutches infuriated her just as much as it terrified her. She had grown attached. Judging from Akame's expression, the other girl also shared some level of her despair.
They were all family, no matter what. They cared for Tatsumi, enough to search for him all the way from one morning to the next. Even when it seemed obvious that he had been gone from the area for some time, still they had persisted. Wasn't that enough?
Wasn't it enough for them to finally retrieve him?!
Leone continued to grind her teeth, narrow her eyes, and dig her nails into her palms. Her menacing aura did not go unnoticed by Akame, who appeared to be concerned.
"Leone? Are you okay?"
"Yeah...yeah, everything's fine," the older woman growled, glaring at the dirt.
She had failed. All of them had failed.
They had their chance to rescue Tatsumi, and had missed it by miles. But it wasn't enough to crush her spirit. She would bring him back, and then she would tell him how she felt. No matter what.
"Let's return to base," Leone said in defeat, unable to meet the other girl's eyes. "We need to inform boss of our failure."
The blonde assassin turned and walked in the opposite direction, and Akame simply watched.
"Leone…"
"My name is Tatsumi, and I look forward to working with you all," he said, unable to hide his nervous demeanor. The Jaegers looked upon him with varying expressions, some of them friendly, others disinterested or doubtful. But could he blame them? He'd practically been enslaved!
"Right then," Esdeath added, resting her chin in one hand as all of them turned their attention to the general. Currently they were holding their meeting in the dining room, a fancy setting that did wonders for taking Tatsumi's attention span and throwing it out the window. There was just so much to look at, and so little time.
"Our next order of business will be identifying the location of Night Raid, and eliminating them."
Tatsumi's eyes went wide.
"So, that's your answer?" He grit his teeth, unable to look at the woman. "You're going to exploit me and use me to kill my friends?"
"Tatsumi."
He blinked, and suddenly found himself yanked back into the here-and-now. Everyone was looking at Tatsumi as the general addressed him, and she smiled kindly in his direction.
"Do you have any idea where we might start?"
He gulped nervously, trying to avoid the eyes of his so-called "comrades." Why would she suddenly ask him for his input if she intended to hide his involvement with Night Raid? It didn't make any sense. Unless...
Unless she wanted him to fight back? To refute her theories, fight her plans, preserve his friends? The very idea was madness. And yet…
And yet, he couldn't tear his eyes away from that knowing smile. Clearly, she expected something from him. Tatsumi swallowed the lump in his throat and took a deep breath, focused once more.
"I have no idea."
And just like that she clapped her hands together, seeming oddly pleased with herself. "Well, then. I guess that's that."
"EH?!" Wave leaned across the table, mouth wide open in shock. It seemed that Tatsumi wasn't the only one thrown off by her sudden change in attitude. Esdeath merely shrugged at his reaction, sighing.
"I thought that perhaps Tatsumi would have some information that would prove useful to us, given his natural talents for violence. He's the sort of strapping young man that villains such as Night Raid would seek to recruit, so questioning him about any interesting rumors or acquaintances seemed worthwhile."
Tatsumi blinked, quietly letting go of the breath he'd been holding.
"As it is," Esdeath continued, hands folded, "we're no closer to capturing or killing these assassins than we have been over the past week, so remain vigilant wherever you are. There is strength in numbers, and if they realize that you are serving under me, they may try to eliminate you when you are alone. Don't let your guard down!"
Calls of "Ma'am!" echoed around the table, and Tatsumi forced himself to join in.
Esdeath rose from her seat, crossing her arms. "There are no pressing matters to attend to today, so you may consider this your day off. Rest and engage in recreational activities if you must, but do not forget the importance of honing your skills and staying in shape. That will be all for now."
The Jaegers promptly began to file out of the room, with only Wave and Kurome staying behind as Tatsumi approached the ice queen that held his invisible chain. Wave was currently reaching for her bag of sweets, begging to try one of them as Akame's little sister continued to circle around him and avoid his greedy fingers.
"If I tried that with Akame, she'd cut my hands off," Tatsumi smiled slightly, daydreaming a bit.
As a result of this, he inadvertently walked straight into Esdeath's chest.
The room was dangerously quiet all of a sudden. Out of the corner of his eye, Tatsumi could see that Wave and Kurome were staring at him in surprise.
Esdeath suddenly wrapped her arms around him and shook him around, causing the poor boy to flail about with his limbs. "Oh, Tatsumi," she cooed, shaking him some more as the two onlookers slowly inched out of the room. "I didn't realize you had so much pent-up affection!"
"You're misunderstanding things again!" Tatsumi wailed, but his cries fell on deaf ears as the beautiful woman continued to hold and cuddle him against his will.
"By the way," he continued, barely prying himself out of the general's tender embrace, "you never answered my question from before."
Esdeath tilted her head, pressing a finger to the side of her mouth as she stared thoughtfully up at the ceiling.
"Even that expression is cute!" Tatsumi screamed internally. He cleared his throat, eyes narrowed. This was serious.
"My question," he resumed, "about how you knew the Teigu that was sealed in my memento. The one from the village idol."
Her face lit up with recognition and Esdeath looked down at him, blinking with wide and innocent (as if!) eyes as he spoke.
"How did you know about it?" Tatsumi insisted, grabbing her arm desperately. "Nobody ever told me anything! Even the old man when he gave it to me, he…"
Tatsumi's expression was downcast and his eyes no longer found hers, trailing off to the side. "Even he didn't tell me a single thing. I'm sure he knew about it, so why…?"
"I knew you were destined for great things."
"Eh?" Tatsumi blinked, turning to look at her as Esdeath grabbed his shoulders. And there was such passion in her gaze, such fire from a woman whose very soul was ice.
"I knew you were destined for great things," Esdeath repeated, "and your awakening of that Teigu only serves as further proof. My instincts are never wrong, Tatsumi. The strongest and most notorious of the Teigu have not escaped my scrutiny, and this new weapon of yours is no exception. Yours is the heart of a true warrior, Tatsumi. A true leader."
He blinked, still utterly baffled. "Ehh...what are you talking about, exactly? What's so special about it?"
"The forty-seventh Teigu," Esdeath pressed on, suddenly ecstatic. "The Twins, the Two-In-One, the Balance. The forty-seventh Teigu is comprised of a sheath, the Grand Aegis: Masamune, and a vicious blade, the Demon's Howl: Muramasa. With this Teigu, the second Emperor created the forty-eighth, completing his collection of supreme armaments."
"The second Emperor?" Tatsumi's eyes went wide.
"Emperor Kogen," Esdeath added, stroking his hair and gazing down at him with pride. "The son of the man who founded this Empire, and arguably the greatest warrior who ever lived. And this," she continued, reaching for his left hand and entwining her fingers in his own, "this hand of yours is a conduit to his legacy."
Tatsumi tightened his grip on her hand, swallowing the lump in his throat.
"The blade you now wield was his own, and it is the same blade that eventually ended the great civil war that came hundreds of years after he died. Its history is mired in blood and legend, and even today all that remained of its existence was a few hastily scrawled pages in the Teigu records. Not anymore, of course. Obviously, someone had sealed it away to keep it out of unworthy hands."
Esdeath took both of his hands into hers, then, and placed a chaste kiss against his forehead.
"You have inherited the legacy of an emperor, and the armor of an assassin. You've been busy, Tatsumi."
She was teasing him, and though he could hardly believe it himself, it was pretty flattering. Amusing, even. So of course, he decided to do her one better.
"And the heart of an ice queen?"
Esdeath bit her lip and looked away, blushing profusely. Tatsumi sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his neck in response, unable to diffuse the sudden tension that had formed between them. His own runaway thoughts were not helping the situation, and it took a couple shakes of the head to clear his thoughts of Esdeath wearing that loose-fitting shirt from two nights ago…
"Oi, oi," he muttered, scratching his nose. "What's with that face? It was just a little joke…"
Wasn't it? Tatsumi didn't know anymore.
"Anyway," Esdeath cleared her throat, cheerful all of a sudden, "let's spend the day together! I believe a walk in the Royal Garden would be nice...maybe we could have a picnic there, and afterwards, we could tour the market...I could find you some new clothes, or perhaps we could temper that other sword of yours...oh, and I've been dying to try out some new techniques in the torture chamber…"
Tatsumi was helpless in the evil general's grip, hardly able to voice his complaints as Esdeath suddenly dragged him out of the dining room and deeper into the palace.
As the two "lovers" passed Wave and Kurome, the warrior of the sea gave a silent prayer for his mutually-armored acquaintance. It was a benevolent wish for his health, and a silent plea for the chance to hear all about it in Tatsumi's own words when he returned. Honestly, it was the least he could do.
"Got one," he jeered, swiping a candy from Kurome's bag as though he were lightning incarnate. Dangling the sweet treat over her head with tongue extended and eyes closed, he didn't realize the Yatsufusa was drawn until the cookie in his hand had been cut by it.
"H-hey," Wave stammered, awfully pale as the girl advanced on him. "Hey, Kurome...n-no need to let things get out of hand, right? Here, look! Look!"
And he took the severed pieces of the cookie, desperately slamming them together as if he honestly believed they would become whole again with enough effort. Still, the menacing girl approached, even as he stuffed the pieces into her bag and fell to his knees.
"Oh, come on, come on...you really don't have to...wh-what are you planning to do? Listen, don't...don't hold it over your head like that! K-Kurome, that's dangerous! KUROMEEEE!"
Looking up from his novel, Run watched with a raised eyebrow as the country boy sped right past him and further into the hall, chased relentlessly by a young girl with a bag of treats in one hand and a razor-sharp katana in the other.
"Kids will be kids," the man sighed, unable to suppress a wry smile. "Better to let them be than to steal away their fun."
The elegant man's eyes found one of the windows on the other end of the hall, and he stared wistfully at the blinding sun beyond.
"We can't stay as children forever, after all."
Having finally reached his destination, Dr. Stylish snapped his fingers victoriously and glanced back at his useful companions. His face was twisted into an expression of pure glee, and after giving them a gratified wink, the disturbed man turned back to the massive structure in the horizon.
"Bingo!" He shouted, pointing at the castle beyond. "Totally found Night Raid's hideout."