Invaded
I swallow hard, closing my eyes and trying to will myself to sleep. However, try as I might, my brain won't shut down. Sheele's does. She's asleep within a few seconds, but as the hours tick by, I simply lay awake. Suddenly, as the sky outside is beginning to lighten and the light reaches that point where it's too dark to see, but too bright for your body to use its night vision, I sense a presence appear at our hideout and sit bolt upright, Sheele jerking awake and looking around, seeming disoriented for a moment before she also senses the intruder. We both leap out of bed, pulling our clothes on before grabbing our weapons, which I'm thankful I had with me when I came into Sheele's room, before we both sprint out into the hallway. Almost as soon as we do, we find a dozen men wearing black leather tube tops and G-strings with black shoulder-length gloves bearing metal claws for fingers, and white masks with black hair in various spiked styles waiting in the hallway, all crouched on their hands and knees.
"Gross," I say, drawing my sword as Sheele draws her scissors. "Let's clear the roaches out of our house, shall we?"
Sheele nods and we both charge, the invaders doing the same. They're fast and agile, despite their extremely muscular builds, but Sheele and I quickly slaughter our way through them, repainting the hallway with their blood and corpses. After about three minutes, we're down to one, which leaps at Sheele from behind. She begins to turn, but as she does, she gasps, her legs suddenly giving out.
"Sheele!" I shouted, stepping in front of her, the guy's claws driving themselves into my stomach.
"Jason!" Sheele gasps.
The guy looks up at me and his eyes widen, less than a second before I drive my sword down through his face. I rip it back out and sigh, pulling his hand out of my abdomen. Anger floods me instantly. How dare he invade our home? How dare he attack Sheele, and stab me? I grit my teeth, forcing myself back under control and look down at my abdomen and the distinct lack of injuries there.
"Are you alright?" I ask Sheele, kneeling in front of her.
She stares at my abdomen for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. My legs are just a little sore."
"For the time being, I'm going to assume that's a compliment," I say. "Come on. We need to find the others."
She nods, standing, and we continue down the hallway. However, after a few minutes, as we're nearing the front door, it suddenly bursts open and man with a silver cuirass, black pants, and sword blades for arms from the elbows down walks in, grinning widely.
"What luck, I get to rape someone after all," he grins. "I was afraid all the pretty Night Raid sluts would be taken out by That bastard Stylish, but it looks like I managed to find one that escaped his little trap."
"Trap?" Sheele asks. "What do you mean?"
"Where are the others?" I ask.
"They all went out to the woods somewhere," the man shrugs. "Not that it matters. you're about to die, and then I'm going to chop off your hot friend's arms and legs and fuck her till she dies!"
He streaks forward, slashing across his body with both arms, like a pair of scissors, only for my blade to block both of his. His eyes widen as I grin widely. Then, Sheele flips over me, slashing at him from above. He flips to the side, avoiding the strike and I charge, slashing at him rapidly. He backpedals quickly, grinning as he fends off my blows with both of his blades.
"You caught me off guard for a second there when you blocked that, a lot of people don't," he says, then spins around me, slashing at my back, only for me to pivot, deflecting the slash and slashing back at him. "However, I'll be finishing you off right...now!"
He spins around my blade, stabbing at me. Before it can hit me, however, Sheele steps up against my back, blocking the stab with her scissors, deflecting the blade to the side. The man stumbles and Sheele moves her scissors out of my way. I leap forward instantly, taking the man's head off before stopping, turning and splitting him up the back, cutting his spine in half the long way. Then, Sheele and I sprint out of the hideout, seeing a dust cloud off to the side, in a clearing in the trees. However, when the dust cleared, there was someone standing in a crater. It's too dark and too far away to tell who they are, but they have what looks like a staff for a weapon, one with which they instantly begin to slaughter the enemies that practically fill the clearing. I can make out the others as well, and aside from Tatsumi, the others are all on the ground.
"Let's go," I say. "We need to make sure they're okay."
Sheele nods and we begin to run, reaching the clearing just as all of the now dead enemies erupt into fireballs. The others are safe but the blue-haired guy with the staff is caught up in the explosion. When the smoke clears, however, he's not as wounded as he should be. His left arm is missing, and a chunk from his right side, but they both regenerate instantly. The guy's got a pair of horns on the sides of his head and a white collared gi with a long-sleeved black shirt under it that has a red circle with a square missing on the chest, a black cloth belt with red metal splints hanging from it on the sides, white pants, and black sandals. His staff has several round white segments on one end and a ring on the other that had two white tassels hanging from it. He walks over to Mine and sets his staff on its larger end, reaching down and brushing Mine's messy hair back into place.
"There," he says.
"Excuse me, who are you?" I ask, sword in hand.
"My name is Susanoo," he says. "I am a living Imperial Arms."
"Really?" I ask. "I wouldn't have guessed that after watching your arm regrow."
"I-"
"Susanoo!" the boss's voice suddenly calls out from a flying manta ray above us. "The enemy is on the southeast ledge! Don't let them escape!"
"Got it!" Susanoo calls back, turning and sprinting away.
After a moment, he jumps, the manta ray catching him and carrying him away from the clearing. I sigh, sheathing my sword as Sheele sits down, wincing and beginning to massage her thighs.
"Someone a little sore?" Leone asks, grinning.
"Shut it," I grumble, just as the ground shakes violently and a massive humanoid Danger Beast suddenly begins to grow to the southeast, its head and right arm both mechanical. "What the hell is that thing?"
Tatsumi turns to go and help Susanoo, but Akame catches his cape.
"Tatsumi, if you can move, take me with you," Akame says.
He pauses for a moment before nodding. "Sure."
He kneels, allowing her to climb onto his back with her sword before he takes off, racing toward the massive creature.
"I suppose I could go and help them too," I say, thumb rubbing the inside of my ring. "Nah. They've got it handled."
"Excellent," Leone smiles. "Then you get to stay here and answer all of our questions."
"Wait for me!" I shut, taking a single step before Mine's legs tangle with my own and Lubbock wraps me in his metal wire. "You guys suck."
Just then, the manta ray flies down low to the ground.
"Mine!" the boss calls out.
Mine grabs her gun instantly and points it downward, firing and hurling herself into the air, the manta catching her and speeding off again.
"So, how was it?" Leone asks, completely ignoring the battle going on behind her.
"You know, they really look like they need help," I say.
"You don't care," Leone says. "I bet it was pretty good. You two definitely sounded like it was. It was damn-near impossible to get any sleep thanks to you two."
I groan, setting my forehead on the ground. "When I get out of this, I'm killing both of you."
Leone and Lubbock both laugh and Sheele scoots over to sit beside me, cutting me free but then laying on my back.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Going back to sleep," Sheele says.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because I was up late last night and I'm still tired," she says.
The others laugh again and I sigh, slipping up from under her and standing, brushing the loose grass and dirt off of my blood-splattered clothes. They've been stained with it for about three jobs now, so it's about time to get new ones anyway.
"Let's head back to the hideout," I say. "I'm sure the others are on their way there already."
However, before I can take more than two steps, the manta flies down to circle around the clearing.
"Get up here everyone," the boss calls out. "We're leaving."
I sigh, then jump, landing on the manta, and sitting down near the thing's tail, away from the others, though Sheele sits beside me within a few seconds. The others, including the boss, all shoot us knowing grins, but no one says anything else. So, we all fall silent, riding the manta away from our hideout. After a few hours, we reach an area where the boss says we'll be staying from now on. Then, she begins to introduce out new members. First is a girl named Chelsea, who has long light auburn hair, a black sweater vest over a white blouse, a red plaid skirt, black stockings, and white headphones. She has constantly had a sucker in her mouth since I got on the manta, and she got Akame to accept her instantly by offering her one as well. She seems even more innocent than Tatsumi, but the boss claims she's completed as many missions as Akame. The other is Susanoo, the boss's new Imperial Arms, who apparently is excellent at household chores and at building houses, considering he built them a new very large home within minutes while also cooking and doing laundry.
"What...interesting members we've got," I say as I watch Susanoo flash back and forth between cooking and doing laundry.
"You're right," Sheele nods. "I think it'll be fun to have them around."
I have to disagree, since Chelsea is teasing Mine about having small breasts, and Lubbock is laughing at Susanoo for being an Imperial Arms and gloating that he won't lose to him. I sigh.
"Enough you three," I say, everyone turning to me. "Chelsea, stop picking on Mine. You're not much bigger. Lubbock, stop making fun of Susanoo, he's about the most useful person here. plus, he just saved your life. We're all tired and need to sleep, and if you three can't get along, you're just going to cause more of us to join Bulat, is that what you want?"
Everyone's silent for a long moment.
"Getting laid really made him open up," Leone grins.
I give her a cold stare. "Open your mouth again, and I'll send you to join Bulat."
Sheele sets her hand on my shoulder and I narrow my eyes at Leone, daring her to speak.
"He's right," the boss says. "We have to learn to get along. Come on. Everyone head inside. We'll discuss our next move before going to bed."
We all nod and follow her inside.
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