I stepped into the base following Akame casually, Leone staggering while panting behind me.

"Damn it" Leone cried pitifully "seriously how can you two be perfectly fine after running for 3 hours straight?" she moaned.

I laughed in response " as i said I spend at least 6 hours a day training, keyword, at least." I spoke easily "some days I spend the entire day training if there's nothing else to do" I admitted lazily "There was never much to do at my home village when I was growing up. It was pretty much limited to fighting, training, hunting, gambling and occasionally drinking." I laughed aloud "I personally don't like gambling and drinking much so I pretty much grew up a battle maniac"

At this Akame turned around and gave me an odd look as if she was suspicious of me for some reason.

Quickly coming to a conclusion I spoke in a deadpan "Hey! What's with that look that says 'is this person a psychopath? Maybe I should kill him to be safe'"

Her eyes widened "amazing, are you psychic?" Akame said in awe

Wait! That means she was really thinking that!? "Hey in the first place those kinds of thoughts are more fitting of a psychopath then someone who just likes to fight for fun!" I complained "and it's not like I just go and kill random people, heck I don't even like killing at all!" I griped "I mean I do it but not for fun or anything."

"You love fighting and violence but hate killing?" Leone asked from behind me "isn't that counter intuitive or something?" she asked.

"Kind of I guess, but I'm just weird like that." I admitted at we continued down the hall.


-Pov switch (Akame)-

Looking away from Tatsumi I internally sighed in relief slightly. Despite having only known him for 3 hours or so Tatsumi seemed to be a nice enough person that I could easily see him becoming one of my important comrades in the near future. His initial statement about how he grew up had made me nervous and I had admittedly wondered if he was stable enough to be considered for a position although his words after had quickly reassured me of his stability. After all, the last thing we need is another Esdeath on our hands

Admittedly he may have some quirks that haven't yet been displayed but if his old teachers training methods are as he described them then it wouldn't be really surprising if he had several quirks. Although it was admittedly surprising that he read me almost instantly with just a glance, maybe I should work on keeping my face neutral more effectively, I must be too expressive.

As Akame thought this Tatsumi gained a random urge to face palm heavily which he barely managed to push down.


-Pov switch (Bulat)-

"And so Akame and Leone went after him in order to recruit him if possible" Bulat explained "they should be back in a bit"

"They're already here" Lubbock said lazily "And it looks like they were successful, since there is someone else with them."

"They're back already?" Bulat said surprised "That's pretty quick especially since they apparently succeeded in recruiting that guy."

"Akame might have pushed them to run all the way because she was hungry or something." Mine said "the newbie is probably half-dead" she laughed.

As mine spoke the door to the hall opened revealing 3 people. Without preamble Leone walk forward and promptly collapsed on the couch "So tired" she groaned.

To this Tatsumi just laughed "it wasn't that bad" he admonished "geez if you can't even run at that speed for 3 hours straight you should really train more." He teased her.

"It's true" Akame spoke "after all your weight is notably greater than all the members of night raid except for Bulat." Akame deadpanned "increasing your Training should help reduce the amount of excess weight you currently have" she explained sagely, or as sagely as you can be in a complete deadpan, anyway.

Tatsumi snorted as Leone promptly stood up and heavily bopped Akame on the head before turning to Tatsumi "what are you snorting about?" she spoke dangerously.

Tatsumi gained a shit eating grin and then spoke "what are you talking about Nee-san?" he said innocently, too innocently as it happens.

A tick mark appeared on Leone's face as she activated her teigu and swung her arm down aiming to bop Tatsumi on the head.

Swiftly dodging Tatsumi burst out laughing "too slow!" he teased "is all that 'excess weight' slowing you down?" he laughed.

In response Leone's tick mark pulse and grew slightly larger as she dashed forwards attacking Tatsumi again this time with a barrage of swift punches that would be enough to overwhelm most soldiers. Tatsumi of course is not at the level of a mere soldier and swiftly dodged all of the attacks with casual ease. Leone's tick mark pulsed again and she began attacking at full speed her hands blurring. Tatsumi laughed again as he also increased his speed a bit weaving through her attacks and occasionally blocking one that he couldn't quite dodge at his current speed. Leone's tick mark pulsed ominously as she jump kicked downwards at Tatsumi who easily dodged leaving Leone to hit something just behind him, which is to say the couch which broke in half under the force of her blow.

Najenda who had been watching curiously to see the level of their apparent new recruit gained a tick mark and starting spewing killing intent "Leone" she said ominously

Said lioness promptly froze and turned and slowly gulping and looking at her boss "Y-yes?" she said nervously.

"Did you just break the couch?" she said her face darkening.

"Ahh" Leone said nervously "it's Tatsumi's fault?" she said pointing at an amused looking Tatsumi.

"Oh really?" Najenda said stilling looking at Leone scarily.

"Yeah if he had taken his punishment like a man then the couch wouldn't have broken!" Leone attempted desperately.

"I greatly apologize for not being a masochist who allows people to hit me whenever they want" Tatsumi spoke bowing while holding his hand together with a priest like demeanor.

The other members of night raid save Leone (who was still terrified) and Akame (who was too busy attempting to keep her face even more neutral than it was by default) snorted at this as Najenda took a step towards Leone who took a step backwards in response.

Najenda took another step which Leone again mirrored "what's the matter?" Najenda spoke "you look nervous?" she continued taking another step forward.

Leone took another step back "w-what are you talking about?" Leone laughed nervously "I just suddenly realized I had to go to the bathroom so bye!" she said quickly turning on a dime and sprinting towards the door.

Without missing a beat Najenda's mechanical arm extended grabbing Leone by the back of the collar and yanking her back towards Najenda. Leone landed heavily right at Najenda's feet groaning in pain.

"that was my favorite couch" Najenda deadpanned "and believe me when I tell your it's coming out of your next missions pay two fold." She stated leaving no room for argument.

"The pay for killing Iwokura was pretty high right?" Leone said hopefully as thanks to her drinking habits and tendency to give away money to people in her home town, or rather district of the imperial capital, she was frankly, flat broke.

"Yup although you won't be seeing any of that" Najenda said while smiling ominously "after all our new recruit, -Tatsumi was it? - was the one to kill him" she said "as in he gets all the pay you and the others would have gotten."

"What!" Leone cried "but we still get paid even if we don't get the kill as long as the group succeeds as a whole!"

"Usually yes but Tatsumi wasn't part of night raid and frankly still isn't yet, hence he will get all of it." Najenda grinned evilly at Leone.

"Wow I'm not even technically employed yet and I already got a bonus" Tatsumi said cheerily. "I have to say this career opportunity seems like a godsend." He said laughed "although I wonder what I should do with it considering I already have too much money as it is." He sent a mischievous look at Leone "maybe I should burn it" Tatsumi said airily causing Leone to twitch

"n-now if you're not going to use it maybe I could find someone who might need it?" she said hopefully

"No I wouldn't want you to think I was trying to make you my friend by throwing money at you" he said in a fake sagely voice "after all real friendship isn't based on material wealth"

Leone twitched again.

"Beside if I burn the money it will help lower inflation which would help the overall economy henceforth helping the poor" Tatsumi said well aware of the viciously twitching form of Leone he smiled as if he was the most generous man in the world "it's decided! We'll commemorate my joining of night raid by burning some of my money! About 50 grand should do!" he smiled acting as if he wasn't suggesting burning enough money to buy a mid-sized house for no real reason.

The majority of the night raiders (except for Akame whom was stilling working on her poker face) we're barely holding back their laughter as the boy blatantly pissed of the broke night raider.

Tatsumi smiled before turning to Najenda "joking aside, I would like to join Night Raid if that's not a problem." Tatsumi said seriously.

Najenda smiled in response "sure, welcome to the path of Carnage." She spoke casually. "Based on what I just saw you're a close combat specialist right?"

"Close combat, infiltration and a few other miscellaneous things" Tatsumi corrected.

Mine snorted condescendingly "really now, infiltration? Right that's exactly why Iwokura's base was on full alert after you killed him"

"That was deliberate" Tatsumi said shrugging "While Iwokura was easy enough by himself I realized that many of his men were also just as guilty and decided to deal with them, I stayed stealthy long enough to kill Iwokura before dealing with his men whom, while less important, were just as guilty as he was." Tatsumi explained

"Of course you did" she said scathingly

"Iwokura was my primary target" Tatsumi explained "after making sure that he was dead it no longer mattered if I caused a commotion as there was no longer a risk of him escaping in the ensuing chaos." Tatsumi said "it's elementary stuff really, any skilled assassin would understand the concept instantly," he jabbed back at Mine his voice retaining a casual and non-offensive tone "right Akame." He finished easily.

Akame, as oblivious of the underlying words as ever, nodded "having made sure the primary target is eliminated performing a sudden and ruthless attack on lesser non-priority targets both weakens the enemy's forces and lowers morale due to the low survival rate." She agreed her voice still deadpan "I learned something quite similar early on in my training."

Mine twitched a tick mark fully visible on her face as Tatsumi smiled at her innocently his face giving away nothing.

Najenda snorted 'first Leone, then Mine, he's an interesting one that's for sure, what's next? Maybe he'll make Akame blush like a school girl?' she thought in amusement unaware that he had, in fact, already succeeded in making the assassin blush in such a manner.

I cleared my throat drawing attention back to myself "anyway, Tatsumi what level are you at in general power?" the boy blinked at this.

"Honestly I don't really know" he admitted "I haven't had a chance to fight an opponent strong enough to accurately gauge myself for a while" he continued "if it helps, I slaughtered Ogre in about 2 seconds" Tatsumi said casually "I also dealt with Iwokura's entire elite guard in about 2 minutes, without receiving injuries either time" he concluded.

Najenda raised her eyebrow casually although internally her thoughts were racing 'if that's true he's probably at least at Bulat's level, without his teigu of course, I should have them spar with wooden blades tomorrow to see for sure. Shrugging Najenda began to speak "alright then I'll have you spar Bulat" she gestured to the man in question as she spoke "tomorrow morning so we can get an idea of your level."

"Right" Tatsumi agreed easily.

"Sheele" Najenda spoke again "show him to a spare room"

The purple haired girl nodded "this way" she said to Tatsumi as she put down her book.

As soon as they left Akame spoke suddenly "don't hold back Bulat" she spoke in her usual deadpan

"Tch, why?" Mine interjected "he's probably just all talk" she snarled

"No, I can't say he is" Leone responded having recovered from her bout of depression

"What do you mean?" Mine asked confused

"She means that he's faster than both of us" Akame deadpanned

"urk!?" Mine nearly fell over and stared at Akame "What!?"

"the only reason we caught him when we did is because he stopped and let us catch up" Akame spoke analytically "he also showed the ability to conceal his presence to a level at which Leone was only able to sense him at the last second before he mock ambushed us, displayed enough physical prowess to crater the ground with his bare hands and enough physical endurance to run at high speeds for 3 hours straight without growing tired or even starting to breathe heavily."

Mine eyes widened with each word Akame spoke well aware that Akame wouldn't joke about this kind of thing nor would she misjudge the physical capacity of a person she had observed. "Seriously!?" Mine said still stunned.

"In short" Akame spoke "my Murasame aside he would, what's that phrase Lubbock would use? Ah yes, he would kick my ass" she deadpanned "assuming that his that his combat skills match his physical capabilities"

Bulat looked at Akame for a moment before glancing at the door Tatsumi had left through moments earlier "Thanks for the info although I had already intended to go all-out, while I couldn't be sure of his exact level I could tell rather easily that he wasn't what you'd call normal." Bulat spoke calmly "although to reach such a level at his age is quite impressive, such is the power of the flames of youth I suppose." He finished his last words causing a chill to run down the spines of the other night raiders in the room

"Never say that again" Najenda ordered instantly

Bulat blinked before nodding confused about the random order


-Later that night-

Tatsumi lay down on his newly assigned bed glancing around at the comfortable, albeit rather plain, room he had been given. He exhaled heavily before grinning 'now that I've finally joined up with night raid things are going to start speeding up, since night raid's members are all teigu wielders I assume I'll get my hands on one before too long.' He mused as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

Being too excited to sleep Tatsumi decided to exercise a bit before bed pulling of his shirt as he pulled himself off of his bed Tatsumi quickly placed one hand on the ground performing the equivalent of a one handed hand stand, his legs point straight up. He then lowered himself towards the ground before pushing himself back up and repeating the process "one, two, three" he began continuing to count as he exercised.


-Pov switch (Mine)-

'Stronger than Akame my ass' the pink haired girl though angrily as she walked through the dark hallways of night raids base 'he's probably dead tired and was just faking being fine' she thought to herself 'he's probably already asleep by now, passed out from exhaustion' she grinned suddenly 'I just pop into his room and yank him out of his bed just to prove that I could ambush him at any time, that should keep that stupid newbie's ego down' she thought heading towards his room swiftly

"Sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine" a voice echoes quietly from the Tatsumi's room

Mine blinked 'the hell is he doing' she thought as she approached the partially open door and peeked inside only to find Tatsumi lazily performing a ridiculous exercise. His head was turned away from her as he moved through his exercise with casual ease.

"It's impolite to peep you know." Tatsumi said in a bored manner despite not having glanced in her direction

"Eep" said peeping girl cried out shocked.

Tatsumi sped up his exercise greatly moving rapidly until "99" he spoke "100" he finished before swiftly flipping over and onto his feet, before turning to face Mine and speaking in a bored tone "something up?"

"n-no" she stuttered before recovering "Don't get cocky newbie!" she yelled suddenly "you might have the others thinking your some type of crazy prodigy but I'm not fooled in the slightest!" she shouted "when Bulat kicks your ass tomorrow I'll be the first one laughing!" she finished before leaving the room.

Tatsumi blinked before snorting "so she's that type huh." He said in an amused tone before shaking his head and speaking in a bored tone while flipping back onto one arm "now for the other arm."

"One, two, three….."


Tatsumi stood across from the night raider known as Bulat a small grin on his face. The first spar was going to be unarmed to so Najenda could get a read on his hand to hand combat skills.

"Ready?" Bulat asked calmly

"Whenever you are" Tatsumi agreed readily.

At his word Bulat dashed forward letting loose a swift punch that most captain class fighters would never be able to evade, Tatsumi on the other hand swiftly brought his arm to the side batting his opponents fist away before unleashing his own barrage for once using the almost the full brunt of his physical abilities, in terms of speed at least. His arms blurred as he forced Bulat to retreat landing several rapid hits on the older opponent whose eyes had widened at Tatsumi's speed.

'He hits like a sledge hammer' Bulat thought as he struggled to match his opponent's attacks. Bulat grunted as Tatsumi let loose several rapid blows that broke past his guard easily sending him flying across the field slamming into a tree in the middle of training ground splintering the wood and knocking whatever remained of the air out of his lungs.

Without hesitating Tatsumi blurred across the field swung his fist out at a rapid speed before stopping a centimeter away from Bulat's face.

"Yield" Tatsumi deadpanned.

Bulat blinked once before managing to recover a bit of the air in his lungs "I yield" the older man agreed easily.

Tatsumi just grinned before reaching his hand out to help the man up.


The cigarette had dropped out of Najenda's mouth as she stared at the spectacle in front of her.

"Hey Akame..." Leone said hesitantly "has it occurred to you that the reason he wasn't tired after running for three hours straight is probably because that wasn't really all that fast of a speed to him?"

"I managed to come to a similar conclusion just now" the red eyed assassin agreed her usually stoic face showing a small amount of surprise.

"What the hell was that" Mine asked in a shocked voice

Najenda had recovered enough to reply "that Mine," she spoke hesitantly "was one of our strongest members getting curb stomped by a kid ten years younger than him." She deadpanned. "Okay take two try it with wooden swords this time." She continued raising her voice so Tatsumi and Bulat could hear.


Tatsumi gripped his wooden blade calmly starring at his opponent with the same grin still fixed on his face. It had been awhile since singular opponent had managed to last more than 3 seconds against him granted his opponent had only actually lasted for around 20 seconds but Bulat was supposed to have a teigu that increased his abilities several fold so he wasn't too worried about getting bored. He had to prove that unless this guy used the teigu he wouldn't stand a chance otherwise they might decide that it would be too dangerous for him to fight against one of the legendary weapons.

"Go" Bulat spoke and this time it was Tatsumi who made the first move the ground crumbling below his feet as he dashed forward swinging down, his wooden blade nothing but a blur.

Bulat managed to block the attack the ground indenting beneath his feet as he groaned in exertion. Tatsumi then returned to his style of blazing fast strikes that Bulat could barely manage to block or evade. Bulat managed to keep up for roughly 40 seconds before Tatsumi managed to land a solid his on him on the side of his torso.

Tatsumi's grin widened slightly "I win."

Bulat smiled right back "I guess you do"

While most people would be angered or at least somewhat upset at being defeated so easily Bulat was not most people. Bulat was well aware that if this was Tatsumi's strength then he would be a great asset against the empire and having an extremely strong opponent on a regular basis would help with his own growth.


"The hell" Lubbock spoke in awe "I can barely see the kid's attacks" he continued "how in the hell can anyone move that fast."

"Try seeing it from my end" Najenda deadpanned "to me it feels like I'm watching a younger, less sadistic, male version of Esdeath before she got her teigu." She continued "and it's giving me flashbacks."

The other night raiders looked at their boss it shock.

"When I first met her she was about this level if I recall correctly." Najenda deadpanned "and I'm pretty sure she was a bit older at the time too."

Leone paled slightly "so your saying that Tatsumi is…" she trailed off in shock.

"Stronger than Esdeath was at his age, suggesting he actually has a higher level of potential than her." Najenda confirmed "which is fucking terrifying." She admitted.

"Least he's on our side" Lubbock deadpanned "otherwise, if what you said is true we'd be screwed"

"Well let's see the full extent of his abilities." Najenda mused "Bulat! Use your teigu, although don't use the Neuntote"

At Najenda's words Bulat nodded before manifesting his armor "Incursio!" he roared


Tatsumi took one look at the armor smirked at then tossed his wooden sword to the side dashing at Bulat using the absolute max of his physical capabilities to the close the distance in a heartbeat. Most people would question the sanity of trying to punch supposedly invincible armor but Tatsumi was not most people, his teacher had had him punch an Anvil until it didn't hurt anymore so he assumed he would be fine.

Bulat reacted calmly swinging his fist out at Tatsumi with about half his power (he didn't want to kill the kid after all). He was in for quite a shock when Tatsumi mirroring his earlier action casually smacked his heavily armored fist to the side before unleashing a single punch with the entirety of his physical strength directly at Bulat's stomach. The blow connected sending Bulat back a few meters from the raw force, his feet leaving indents in the ground as he was forced back.

Of course the actual damage he received could be called minuscule but the fact that the boy had managed it despite the nigh indestructible armor he was wearing was ridiculous.


"Hey boss, did he just get faster," Leone deadpanned "and for that matter stronger as well?"

There was no response to her question

"Boss" Leone asked turning to look at Najenda who was frozen with a weird expression on her face. "wha-"

"She's flash-backing" Lubbock spoke easily "she usually gets that kind of expression whenever she's thinking about a bad experience she had in the past"

"Over-powered blue haired bitch" Najenda mumbled causing the rest of the night raiders to sweat drop.

"ah well she did say Tatsumi was giving her Esdeath flashbacks" Leone admitted lazily looking back at the fight "and considering that that kid is fighting a teigu head on without one of his own I imagine that it's quite Esdeath-like." Leone mused "lack of sadism aside anyway"


To say that Bulat was surprised would be like saying Esdeath was simply powerful, which is to say a massive understatement. One didn't simply go head to head with a teigu without one of their own, much less against a teigu like Incursio; it was the type of thing that could be called ridiculous. While it could be said that his physical strength was greater than Tatsumi's the fact was that it was only by a small margin, and that was with his armor increasing his strength several fold. While the boy was fairly muscular he was by no means a bulky individual, the amount of strength the boy held was insane, especially considering his build.

If the boy was only almost as strong as him he could have managed to win this little spar but it was more than that. The boy was considerably faster than him to the extent that he seemed to blur slip through and around his guard landing blow after blow on Incursio with unerring accuracy. Despite that he was only using his bare hands and Bulat could tank a large number of such blows although not as many as he would have expected, judging by the slight stinging pain in his side.

Redoubling his efforts Bulat attempted to land a solid blow on the boy putting all his strength and speed into his attacks. Unfortunately Tatsumi seemed to be able to deal with his attacks easily redirecting or outright blocking blows from his teigu heedless of the continuously indenting ground beneath his feet. it was now that the reality of the situation was beginning to sink in.

Tatsumi's raw physical capability and skill put him on the same level, no a higher level than Bulat, even without a teigu to call his own. It would be accurate to say that at his level the only singular opponents that posed a true threat to Tatsumi were Esdeath and General Budo; of course depending on his ability to deal with multiple opponents a tag team of 2 teigu other users could prove adequate to defeat the teenager.

Of course despite this the two individuals who were above him could be said to be so far above him that it could be deemed ridiculous. Of course both of them were older and much more experienced than the boy in front of him, not to mention they both possessed high level teigu. But it was in this line of thinking that a fact hit Bulat, Tatsumi had the potential to be in the same league as the empires two most monstrous soldiers. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that if not for the existence of Esdeath and Budo the revolutionary army would have won by now based simply on the number of people whose lives had been ruined by the empire.

The concept of having even a single person on the same level of those two increased their odds by a massive margin. It was doubtless that when Tatsumi got his hands on a teigu his strength would grow to a level that he could likely hold off against Esdeath and Budo for a decent span of time and with more training perhaps even defeat one of them. It was on one part heartening and another part terrifying considering the fact that the boy in front of him could potentially surpass the empire's strongest, an individual who was already monstrously strong.

Bulat retreated slightly eyeing his opponent with a careful eye. The boy still had that same exhilarated yet not quite blood thirsty grin on his face and his was reminded of his conversation with Akame this morning about how the boy was apparently a bit of a (self-proclaimed) fight-junky although not to the extent of liking killing. Bulat sweated dropped slightly confirming the claim 'why is that everyone with ridiculous potential seems to be either a sadist or a fight junky?' he wondered, while Budo could be called neither he had a level of talent which could be called understandable and had only reach his level through training since a young age and years and years of experience. The ridiculous ones, Esdeath and now Tatsumi had, in Esdeath's case, blown past everyone else at a very young age surpassing Budo when she was around 20, about a year after attaining a teigu; on the other hand Tatsumi was, even at his young age and with his apparent lack of actual combat experience (at least against teigu wielders) was easily at a level at which he could be called one of the top 10 strongest individuals in the empire and, unless he was mistaken, he was the only person on that list without a teigu.

Deciding to resort to some of the other abilities of Incursio Bulat activated his invisibility before quickly flanking Tatsumi and aiming an attack at the back of his head aiming to knock him out. Bulat was shocked when Tatsumi easily turned and smacked his hand aside apparently ignoring the fact that Bulat was invisible before punching with all his might and then following it up with an earth shattering kick which send Bulat flying into a wall.


"What!?" Leone shouted

"How did…" even Mine was stunned at the apparent ineffectiveness of Bulat's attack.

"Alright Pause!" Najenda shouted having apparently recovered from her short Esdeath flashback induced panic attack.


At her words Tatsumi dropped his combat stance and turned walking over towards her, Bulat dispelled his invisibility and armor and pulled himself out of the indentation he had been punted into.

"What's up?" Tatsumi asked pouting slightly as if he was annoyed that his fight had been interrupted, which frankly he was.

The other members of night raid, Bulat included, shivered, not at how he looked while pouting, no what they were disturbed by was that a person who had been smacking around Bulat could actually pull off a pout without it looking weird.

Shaking her head slightly Najenda spoke out "Sorry kid but how the hell did you see Bulat? Sensing a presence is one thing but being able to so casually adapt to him suddenly going invisible to the extent you can block a specific attack shouldn't be that easy."

The boy blinked "ah that, well I don't actually need my eyes to fight really" he admitted "sure without them my combat efficiency drops a bit but I'm fully capable of fighting at above high captain level, according to my old teacher anyway, with just my sense of hearing." He said casually "I blocked the attack based on the way the air sounded as he was attacking me."

All the members of night raid just starred at the boy who had just casually rejected anything remotely resembling common sense.

"I'm sorry, but I can only barely do that with my Lionelle and your saying you can do it with your own senses?" Leone said looking shocked.

"I've always been a bit of a freak of nature" Tatsumi conceded "ever since the villagers back home found me I've had traits which could be called somewhat inhuman." He laughed.

"Well we've already seen monstrous strength, speed, and stamina so I don't find that hard to believe." Najenda deadpanned "what else you got?"

"I have overtly strong senses, as well as a bit of a healing factor." He admitted easily.

"Healing factor" Leone deadpanned looking almost annoyed.

"it's not huge but I can heal from things that would usually take months in a week or two usually" Tatsumi said "I'm also quite durable" he continued raising his fists, a slight reddening the only thing to display that fact that he had just been punching a suit of borderline indestructible armor for the last 10 or so minutes

"I can see that" Najenda Deadpanned her eye twitching slightly "anyway your close combat skill set is great but do you have any other skills do mention?"

"Well although close combat and infiltration is my specialty I can do most other things decently" Tatsumi said easily.

"And what exactly does that mean Tatsumi?" Najenda said her eye twitching

"My teacher and the villagers from my home town taught me a lot of miscellaneous things" Tatsumi said simply "I'm decent with a musket, know how to make various herbal remedies and a few dozen types of poisons as well as cook, sew, and forge stuff among other things. Although I'm not exactly great at those things" he admitted casually "just decent"

"Right," Najenda deadpanned getting a weird feeling in her stomach that made her question what exactly his idea of decent was. 'I'm thinking about it too much, he probably has all his talent in combat and is just mediocre in all those things,' "well most of those things can be done at the base as since we don't really have any auxiliary members at base those skills should be useful but let's test how good you are first."

"okay"


Trial 1: cooking

"Tatsumi" Akame spoke starring him down with a dangerous look in her eye

"y-yeah?"

"You're cooking all ours meals from now on" she ordered

Tatsumi glanced around the table at the dozens of plates that had not that long ago held a few dishes he knew how to make.

"Alright?" Tatsumi half asked half agreed.

Najenda twitched slightly trying to ignore the amount she had just eaten 'okay so he's good at cooking too,' she internally deadpanned.


Trail 2: Musket rifle

Najenda's eye twitched repetitively watching as the boy easily gunned down targets a kilometer away with annoying accuracy.

While it could be said that Mine was better it could also be said that taking away the advantage from her teigu she was only slightly better, on top of the fact that he had declared himself as 'not great, but decent' resulted in Mine looking somewhat poleaxed and Najenda wouldn't be surprised if the girl started putting even more time into practicing her ranged combat skills.

'The fuck is this kid!' Najenda internally roared


Trail 3: poison making

"So by combining these seven plants you'll get an effect which cuts off the body's ability to nullify poisons like alcohol," Tatsumi explained "that means that if they ever drink enough to get drunk it'll stay in their system for a long period of time doing enough damage to kill someone usually, and since it's not the poison that actually killed them per say it looks like they just drank too much and basically died of alcohol poisoning. Of course the poison will only last for about a week before the body regains its ability to break stuff like that down so it's best used on people who drink often." He finished before gesturing to the next vial he had made up and beginning to speak again "Now this one-" he continued

Najenda on the other hand was twitching 'The fuck, how is this just decent?'


Trial 23: explosives

"So by combining these three chemicals you get a sort of golden ratio which leaves behind only a very small residue while maximizing explosive power" Tatsumi explained easily as Akame listened writing on the note pad she had started carrying around somewhere during the 3rd trial.

"Alright!" Najenda suddenly shouted "That's enough for now, why don't you and Akame go and make dinner now, alright?" she said to Tatsumi.

"Alright," Tatsumi agreed easily "it's a bit early but I don't mind." He started off Akame right behind him no doubt intending to influence the newly initiated night raider into cooking something primarily meat related.

Najenda glanced around at the other members of night raid sans Akame "alright how the fuck was any of that decent?" she said annoyed "I mean Esdeath is Esdeath and her combat prowess is insane but, talent wise, she still a normal person for most other things, what is this kid, some type of Omni-vocational prodigy; And not only that how the fuck does he describe any of those skills as only being decent?"

"I actually have a theory on that," Bulat spoke "I think that he measures everything to scale with his close quarters combat skills." He continued "I mean compared to the normal person his skill in basically everything is quite high but comparing that on the same scale as his combat skills makes them look mediocre in comparison." He finished

Leone blinked at that "on that note I wonder why he's practice so many miscellaneous skills on top of his combat ability?"

"Arrogance" Najenda explained easily

Leone blinked "sorry but I don't follow, he didn't seem that arrogant at all really"

"Exactly," Najenda agreed "he's at level were being quite arrogant would actually be understandable, but he's only somewhat arrogant, why do you think that is?"

"so you got the same feeling" Bulat agreed "I get the feeling his old teacher spent most of his time trying to prevent the kid from becoming arrogant as hell, in fact he probably had the kid taught so many things as a way to try and find something he sucked in to knock his pride down a notch."

"Well that failed" Lubbock deadpanned.

"Yeah, it really seems like it did, didn't it?" Leone deadpanned "I mean really is the kid a freaking superhuman? First he has high enough stealth skills to almost catch me unaware next he has the ability to make Akame blush while bantering with me and then all this shit?"

"He made Akame what!" Lubbock interrupted completely derailing the conversation

"Ah when we first met me and him starting picking on Akame a bit, and he managed to shift the conversation in a way that made Akame shout out and blush." She explained.

Everyone froze starring at Leone in shock and horror

"Oh come on, it's not like that's the most surprising thing he's done" Leone said annoyed

They didn't reply


Smack!

Tatsumi swiftly hit Akame's hand with the back of a spoon as he cooked deflecting her away from the meat she had been attempting to eat.

"Stop trying to eat parts of the meal before I'm done with it Akame else I won't give you any once it's done." He said carelessly before going back to cooking

"Yes sir!" Akame said suddenly serious.

Tatsumi sweat dropped 'is everyone here that bad of a cook that even a mediocre level meal like mine is enough to be considered great?' he thought 'I mean my teacher was always saying how I was a shitty cook for how much time I put into it, and that he only finished eating it because wasting food wasn't allowed in the village.' He mused unaware of the lie his teacher had told.


"Gah, what is this shit?" a certain retired soldier cried out as he frowned at the plate in front of him. As of 1 meal ago he had run out of leftovers from the various things Tatsumi had cooked and had then been forced to make his own meals, for the first time in 4 years I might add. While the food wouldn't be called bad per say the simple fact that he had had Tatsumi making delicious meal after delicious meal resulted in him becoming somewhat of a regrettable person in terms of food.

"Shit" he moaned leaning out his window he shouted pointlessly into the sky "Damn it Tatsumi! Hurry up and collapse the fucking empire and get back here already!" he cried before glancing at his house, which was in somewhat of a state of disarray. Without realizing it he had delegated all of the housework to his young apprentice and now that he was gone the old soldier realized he couldn't properly take care of himself anymore.

"Shit!" he cried pitifully