"I-it's an Earth Dragon!" some voices from the carriage said. The Earth Dragon reached out for the two drivers with its claws, when all of a sudden the claws were severed along with the arm it belonged to. As the arm fell behind the dragon, its attacker traveled along with it.
"Class one dangerbeast," Tatsumi said, looking back at his prey. "This should be fun."
The dragon faced Tatsumi and roared loud at him. "Aw, don't be mad," joked Tatsumi as the dragon's other arm came to meet him. The arm missed where Tatsumi used to be. Instead, he was high above the dragon, blade facing down at it. "We'll take care of ya!" As soon as the last word left his mouth, Tatsumi slashed downward, Orie used Thanatos to slash left and Carmine slashed right. Within seconds, the Earth Dragon fell dead and bloody.
"That was incredible, kids!" one of the drivers remarked. "You three took on a class one dangerbeast all by yourselves!"
Tatsumi turned around with a twinkle in his eye. "Aw, it was nothing!" he gushed. "It was like taking candy from a big scaly baby!" Neither the drivers nor his new friends were impressed by his words. Carmine coughed "loser." "And by the way, the name's Tatsumi. The whole capital's gonna know my name before too long. So you might want to remember it."
"So you're going to the Imperial Capital to seek your fortune…" the driver said, not hiding the doubt in his words.
"Yep! Where I come from, everyone dreams of making it big in the capital!"
The driver sighed. "Listen kid, the Imperial Capital isn't some perfect dreamland. Sure, it's the big city, but it's been overrun with monsters even more dangerous than this dangerbeast."
Tatsumi tilted his head in confusion. "I don't get it. How can the Imperial Capital be overrun by dangerbeasts?"
"Not those monsters. They're humans, but with the hearts of monsters. Damn place is crawling with them." Orie and Carmine exchanged concerned glances.
Tatsumi didn't seem the least bit worried. "Pfft, thanks guys, but I'm not going to turn back now. You see, my friends and I have a mission. A mission to make a fortune and save our village."
The three bid the carriage farewell and continued heading towards the capital. Orie looked over at Tatsumi. "Erm, what do you think they mean by "humans with hearts of monsters, anyways?" she asked.
Carmine rolled his eyes. "Read between the lines, Lady," he said. "They mean there's some scumbags over there and someone needs to smack them around a bit. Every city has them."
Orie muttered something about him not calling her by her name again. "It doesn't matter," Tatsumi replied. "Whatever stands in our way isn't going to stop me from sending money to my village. And it isn't going to stop me from reuniting with Sayo and Ieyasu either."
They reached the capital's gates and walked inside. They were greeted with an amazing sight of the buildings and marketplace. "Aw, man! The capital's even bigger than I thought!" Tatsumi exclaimed. "If things work out here, I could just buy the village!"
Orie was fascinated by the shops in the area. "My, what a wonderful selection of clothes and food!" she said, almost in the same tone as Tatsumi. "I'll have to make a note to stop by here later."
Carmine however, was unamused. "Pah, you see one city, you've seen them all," he said. "Food, clothes, annoying salesmen, it's all the same damn thing."
Tatsumi ignored him. "Alright, it's time to get to the barracks." The three started walking towards Tatsumi's potential enlistment. Unknown to them, someone was watching them from afar.
Carmine and Orie were waiting outside for Tatsumi to get done enlisting, when all of a sudden the man in question was thrown back out into the street. He got back up and faced the enlistment officer who threw him out. "Aw, come on! Can't I just take the test or something!?" he complained.
"There's a depression going on! I already got more applicants than I can handle!" the officer shot back. "I ain't gonna waste a spot on some stupid kid! Now beat it!"
Tatsumi sat on the ground, defeated and unsure of what to do. "Maybe I could stage a kidnapping or something…." he said to himself. Suddenly, he looked at Carmine. "Hey Carmine! You look like a street thug, mind doing me a-"
"Don't even think about it," rejected Carmine.
While Tatsumi continued to think about his options, a blonde woman wearing a black strapless bra and white chaps came over to greet them. "Hellooooooo!" she chirped. "What's with the long face, little guy? It'll be alright, Big Sis is here to cheer you up!"
Tatsumi was more focused on the breasts that were staring in front of his face more than the woman greeting him. Orie was blushing from embarrassment. Carmine was trying to hold back a laugh. The woman took notice of this and pushed his face up to her own. "Try to focus here, buddy." Tatsumi stood up to properly face her. "Soooo, let me guess. You came here from the countryside in search of fame and fortune, didn't ya?"
That took him by surprise. "How'd you know that!?"
She shrugged. "I've lived here a long time. It's easy to spot a new face. Hey, I know the secret to becoming an officer in the army super-quick!"
Tatsumi's face lit up at the sound of "super-quick." "Really!? Tell me!"
The woman smiled. "Weeeeeeell….first you gotta treat me to lunch."
He hung his head and sighed. "I suppose that's fair if you're going to help me," he said. He turned to Carmine and Orie. "Hey, do you two want to join us?"
"I'd be happy to," Orie replied."
Carmine looked around and sighed. "I guess it beats walking around without knowing where I'm at," he resigned.
Five minutes later, the four of them were sitting in a tavern having lunch, with Carmine and the woman consuming a surprising amount of booze. The bartender was about to inquire about Carmine's age, until he was threatened with a broken beer bottle. Tatsumi was starting to get impatient with their drinking and Orie was starting to feel the same way. Carmine was too tipsy to care. "Look, tell me how to become an officer already, will you!?" he demanded.
The woman stopped drinking for a second and put down her glass. She leaned in. "Yeah….about that. First, you're gonna need a lot of money. See, I know someone in the army. He can hook you up if you can make it worth his while."
Tatsumi put a bag of gold on the table. "Will this be enough?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Not bad! This could get you to lieutenant! Where did this come from?"
Tatsumi smiled. "We got rewarded for killing a class one dangerbeast and we all got a cut. But more importantly. What'll I need to get to captain?"
She waved her hand. "That's a lot of dough, but you're gonna need more to hit captain, pal."
Tatsumi turned to Carmine and Orie. "Hey...guys? I hate to ask this, but could I borrow some cash? I really need this."
Carmine waved him off. "Y-yeah r-right," he slurred. "I ain't gonna share m-m-my money with someone t-t-that has more than I-I do."
"Sure." Everyone looked at Orie. "It's only fair since you treated us to lunch and helped us get to the city. I hope this will be enough to assist you." She put her own bag of reward money on the table.
"Goody two-shoes," muttered Carmine.
The woman nodded. "Yep, you're gonna hit captain with that amount!" she said. She got up and took the bag of cash. "I'm gonna go talk to him. You wait right here until I come back, alright?"
"See ya!" gushed Tatsumi.
Orie got up from the table. Carmine crumpled to the floor, still feeling the effects of the drinks he had. "It's been a pleasure meeting you, Tatsumi," said Orie. "I hope you make it big in the army one day."
Tatsumi nodded. "Yeah, thanks for your help as well, Orie," he said. "And you too, Carmine." The latter was still trying to stand up. Orie put his arm around her shoulders. "I hope I'll see you two again someday."
Orie and a drunken Carmine stepped out of the tavern and into the streets to explore. They looked around at the shops and people scattered around the city. More importantly, they were trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. An imperial officer noticed the two and walked to them. Orie, ever the advocate for respecting authority, stood and waited for the officer. "Ma'am, how are you doing today?" he asked in a gruff tone.
"I'm doing well, thank you," she replied. She wasn't sure why he was asking about them, but decided to play along.
The officer looked over at Carmine. "Seems your friend here had one too many today," he said. "Sound about right?"
Orie got nervous. If the two of them ended up in jail over Carmine's underage drinking, they were finished. "N-not at all, Officer," she stammered. "My friend here is just really tired and sore from the travel here, that's all."
"Uh-huh, that's what they all say," he said, clearly not convinced. "Mind telling me how old you two are?"
Orie sighed and did the last thing she wanted to do as a member of Licht Kreis: break the law. She pulled out Carmine's bag of coins. "Would this amount make you believe that we're of age?" she asked, hoping her bribe paid off.
The officer looked at the surprisingly huge amount of coins in the bag. He straightened himself out and tipped his helmet at them. "Y-yes! I can confirm that you're both of legal age to drink! You have a good day now and rest up, understand?"
As he walked away from them, two things crossed Orie's mind:
1: she bribed an officer of the law
2: they were now penniless
"This is going to be an ugly night for us," she sighed.
Hours later, and after Carmine sobered up, the two of them were laid down near a building, trying to find a way to make camp for the night seeing as how they had no money to afford anything. "I would have taken jail over this any day!" complained Carmine. "At least we'd be able to sleep somewhere!"
"Oh give me a break!" retorted Orie. "If we were thrown in jail, there's no telling how long we would be in there for! We have no one but each other to contact and we don't know the rules of this world. What was I supposed to do?"
Carmine laid down and pulled a sheet of cardboard over him for a blanket. Orie huddled into a corner and put her arms around her legs. This world was getting worse for them by the hour. A few minutes later, a carriage pulled up in front of the two. The two guards looked back at the passenger. "These two too, m'lady?" one of them asked. "This would make three tonight."
"Yes, please," a female voice said. The door to the carriage opened up and out came a young girl. She walked up to them. "Excuse me?" she said. "Do you two need some place to rest for the night?"
Orie frowned. "I-I appreciate your generosity, but I'm afraid my friend and I don't have any money to offer."
She giggled. "Well if you did, I'm sure you wouldn't try to sleep in the streets, would you?"
The two guardss walked up behind her. "Lady Aria enjoys helping those with nowhere to go," one of them said. "You should consider taking her offer."
Orie smiled. "Then it would be my pleasure to take you up on your offer. Thank you very much." She looked over at Carmine, who wasn't moving. "Carmine, we've found shelter for the night," she said. "Let's go."
Carmine still didn't move. "I don't know," he said. "After how shitty this day's gone for us, I don't trust anyone here."
One of the guards shrugged. "If you're more comfortable sleeping outside in the cold, then we will not argue with you."
Carmine frowned. He really hated the idea of freeloading off of someone, especially since those tended to come with debts to pay back. He looked at Orie and then Aria and her drivers. He sighed. "Fine, I'll go too."
They got into the carriage with Aria, when suddenly they were met with a friendly face. "T-tatsumi?" they said at the same time.
Tatsumi smiled. "Hey guys, how's it going?" he said with a wave.
Orie was confused. "Wait, weren't you going to get into the army?" she asked. "Why is Lady Aria picking you up as well?"
Tatsumi's smile quickly faded. He hung his head. "The blonde girl robbed me," he admitted. "I should have known it wouldn't be that easy."
Aria smiled at him. "Don't worry," she said. "I'm sure we can help you out."
Some time later, the four of them arrived at Aria's residence and were meeting with her parents. "Oh, looks like Aria brought home three more guests!" her father said.
"Oh my, so it would seem!" her mother added. "How many does this make?"
"Mother!"
As they laughed, Tatsumi and Orie quickly bowed their heads. "Thank you for having us," they said at the same time.
"Yeah, thanks I guess," Carmine said, pretending to care.
Aria's father put his hand up. "Ah, there's no need to be so formal. Aria's generosity is something her mother and I have grown to like. We hate to see people left out on the street to die from the cold."
"That's quite respectable indeed," replied Orie. "I admire your selflessness."
"So, why don't we settle for some tea and you can tell us all about yourselves?" her mother asked.
"Yeah, sounds great!" said Tatsumi.
The six of them sat down and talked about Tatsumi's friends and how Orie and Carmine were simply lost travelers. It wasn't easy to explain how they got lost, but they managed. The next day they were sent to travel the city with Aria…...at the cost of going shopping and carrying all of her numerous purchases.
Tatsumi was struggling with his stack of gifts. "Man, Lady Aria is a pretty serious shopper, isn't she?" he said. "I mean, I don't think I've seen so much stuff before."
"The young lady does enjoy it," replied a guard. "But I feel like all women behave this way."
"I'm inclined to disagree," Orie said through bated breaths. Her own stack of gifts were giving her trouble. "Or at least to this extent! This is madness!"
"Seriously! Who needs this many dresses!?" complained Carmine.
The guard pointed at something. "Oh, and Tatsumi, Orie and Carmine? You see that castle over there?" They turned to it. "That is the center of the entire empire. That's where everything happens." They gawked at the size of the massive structure.
"Woah! I've always wanted to see where the emperor makes decisions for the whole country!" Tatsumi exclaimed.
The guard frowned. He leaned in close to Tatsumi. "Well, not exactly," he said. "You see, the emperor is just a child. This land is plagued by corruption. It's the minister who controls the emperor from the shad-"
"Ministe-!?" Tatsumi's mouth was covered by the guard's hand.
"Do not let yourself be heard!" the guard warned. "Those who oppose are beheaded."
Tatsumi hung his head in anger. "So he's the one who ordered all those heavy taxes on my village…" he said. Both Carmine and Orie shared disgusted glances. Orie, for the corruption and mistreatment of his subjects. Carmine, because the minister sounded like an asshole.
The guard pointed at some posters placed on a wall. "On top of that, we're dealing with this scum." The posters showed the faces of some people along with their names, bounties, and the mutual organization they were affiliated with: Night Raid. "A band of assassins terrorizing the area. As the name implies, they attack at night. High-ranking officials and the upper class make up most of their targets. It's only wise to be very cautious."
Later that night, Tatsumi was sleeping in his room, Orie was sleeping in her bed and Carmine was sleeping on the floor of their room. All three of them woke up from the sound of a body hitting the floor. They bolted out of their rooms and met up. "Did you guys hear that too!?" Tatsumi asked.
"Yes," Orie confirmed. "I don't know what it was, but it doesn't sound like anything good. We need to investigate at once!"
"Hey, you guys wanna hurry up already?" Carmine scolded. They both nodded and started running down the hall. They stopped when they saw shadows resembling people blocking out the moonlight-lit windows. Then they saw them: five members of Night Raid, standing on what looked like string.
"That's them," said Tatsumi. "Night Raid."
Orie's face lit up in alarm. "They're after Aria's family! We have to hurry!"
Carmine smirked. "Let me at 'em," he said. You guys can go save them all you want. I want a crack at these clowns."
Orie smacked him in the back of the head. "Is now really the time to be bloodthirsty?" she chided. "We've got people to save!"
"Ugh, fine! We'll go save the stupid family!" They were about to run when they saw two of the Night Raid members drop down from the string and face three of the guards. Within seconds, they were slaughtered without the assassins breaking a sweat.
"Shit!" cried Tatsumi. "Come on, we have to go protect Miss Aria!" The three of them sprinted to go find Aria. They ran outside, hoping they were taking the right path since the building seemed deserted.
They kept running and heard some voices that belonged to Aria and one of her guards. They caught up to them in front of a storage shed. "There you are!" panted Tatsumi.
"Great, you three made it," the guard said. "I'm going to take the young lady and put her somewhere safe. You do whatever you can to stall the enemy until then, got it?"
Tatsumi and Orie looked concerned. Carmine was ready. "No problem," he said. "Though I think I'm gonna do more than stall them, if you know what I mean." He turned his hair, eyes and arms red and stood between them and whatever was coming.
"Carmine, are you insane!?" Tatsumi yelled. "You saw what they did to the guards, you're not going to stand-"
"Jesus, shut up already, will ya?" Carmine didn't move. "Someone's going to die here today and it sure as hell ain't gonna be me!"
A second later, a girl with black hair, red eyes, red greaves and a black dress dropped down in front of them. She had her sword ready to kill. Carmine smiled. "Right on time," he chuckled. "Bring it on!"
The girl dashed at him, but before Carmine could counter with his blood blades, she jumped in the air and landed on his head. "You're not a target," she said. Using Carmine's head as a launching pad, she jumped off as dashed towards Aria and the guard.
"Damn it!" The guard drew his machine pistol and started shooting at her.
She was too quick for him to read and quickly closed the distance. "You are." She slashed his body in half with her sword and turned her attention to Aria, who was cowering in fear. The girl slowly walked up to her, sword readying its attention on its next victim. "You deserve this."
"Stop right there!" She barely avoided a beheading from Tatsumi's own sword. Carmine stood beside Tatsumi, ready for a fight, while Orie shielded Aria.
The girl was annoyed. "None of you are targets. You don't have to die."
"I'm not gonna let you kill a defenseless little girl!" shouted Tatsumi.
"So you're going to try and stop me?" she asked, her voice terrifyingly calm.
"I'm not gonna back down now."
She flashed her blade at him, which unnerved him. "Then you all have made your choice." She and Tatsumi dashed at each other and clashed swords. Tatsumi swiped at her, only to be met with a kick to the back. He turned to brace himself for another attack, but was quickly stabbed in the heart by her.
"Tatsumi!" Orie and Aria yelled.
"Damn it you suck!" Carmine yelled.
Tatsumi laid motionless on the ground for a few seconds, but then slowly stood back up. The girl never came any closer, but kept her sword trained on him the whole time. He turned to her. "Why'd you back off all of a sudden?" he asked.
"Because it felt like I hit some sort of armor," she replied.
He took out a small statue and looked at where the blade hit it. "I guess the gods were looking out for me after all," he said to no one in particular.
"The hell is that thing?" Carmine asked.
"It's a statue of the god in our village," answered Tatsumi. "They gave it to me before I left. Guess it's a life-saver after all."
The girl ignored the explanation. "She must die," she said.
Tatsumi panicked. "Wait wait wait, you just want to steal this girl's money don't you? You don't have to kill her!"
She wasn't listening. She dashed at him and swung her sword, only to be met by a blade of blood.
"Alright, I'm getting sick of playing second fiddle to this jackass," said Carmine, smirking at the unamused girl in front of him. "If you want to fight, I'd be more than happy to stomp you!"
She backed off. "I see you three are going to be more of a hindrance than I thought. Very well. You sealed your own fate." She dashed at Carmine, but before she could swing, she was pulled back by a hand. She looked up to see who it was, only to see the blonde woman Tatsumi, Carmine and Orie met earlier. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"We've got some time left, and I kind of owe this guy a favor," she said. "I'm pretty sure he'd like to cash it in now." She smiled at Tatsumi, who was still stunned by the reprieve. Carmine was annoyed that his fight was interrupted.
As soon as Tatsumi registered who it was, he immediately got angry. "Hey, you're the girl who robbed me!" he yelled.
She smiled and waved at him. "Yep! How's it going?" She looked back over at Carmine. "Hey pal, good to see you're sober again!" She was met with a middle finger from him. She turned back to Tatsumi. "Listen, earlier you were concerned we were here to kill innocent people." She looked over at the storage shed. "I think you might see things a little differently behind those doors."
The woman kicked the doors open to reveal bodies, decayed and fresh, strewn everywhere in different kinds of torture devices or behind cages. "Wh-what is all this?" Tatsumi asked, horrified.
"We found they like picking up out-of-town newcomers from the countryside and torture them to death for their own sick, twisted form of entertainment." Tatsumi stepped inside, the horror in his eyes growing larger with each step. "That's the reality of this poor, innocent little family."
Tatsumi's eyes went wide when he saw one body in particular hanging from the ceiling. "S-sayo…." he trembled.
"Do you know who that girl is?" the blonde woman asked.
Aria slowly started to walk away, only to be grabbed by Thanatos. "You're not going to run away," warned Orie. "You stay here while we figure this out."
"These guys really did this?" deadpanned Tatsumi.
"Yes they did."
"She's lying!" pleaded Aria. "I had no idea anything like that was going on! Who would you believe? These….these murderers!? Or the one who saved you!?"
"T-tatsumi…." a pained voice said from inside the shed. Tatsumi turned to the sound of the voice to see a body that was alive, but slowly rotting, looking back at him. "I-is that you? I-it's me…"
"I-ieyasu!?" he cried.
"She invited us to stay at her house. She gave us something to eat and everything went black. Then we woke up here!" Ieyasu had tears in his eyes. "Then….that girl tortured Sayo to death!"
Aria had enough. "Fine! Fine, so I did it okay!? These trash are just worthless filth! They're nothing but livestock to use as I see fit! Garbage like her doesn't have the right to have such beautiful hair! She should be lucky that I gave her so much attention! Ungrateful bitch!"
"I'll kill her," the black-haired girl said. She drew her sword, ready for the kill.
"Wait," said Tatsumi.
The blonde woman sighed. "You're kidding. You're still going to defend her?"
He grabbed the hilt of his sword. "No." He swung at Aria and disemboweled her. "I'LL do it."
Orie, Carmine and the other two girls watched Tatsumi with various expressions.
"Th-thank you Tatsumi," said Ieyasu. Tatsumi, Orie and the two other girls walked in. Carmine stayed behind to keep stomping on the guard and Aria, yelling about being treated as livestock. "I needed to see that."
Ieyasu vomited blood everywhere and crumpled to the floor. "N-no…..Ieyasu…" cried Tatsumi.
"It's the Lobola virus," said the blonde woman.
"The mother liked to poison her victims with various medicines," added the black-haired girl.
"T-tatsumi…" choked Ieyasu. "Sayo never broke. She was incredible. So I wanted to…..go out a hero." On that last word, his body went limp.
"His strong will was the only thing keeping him alive," said the black-haired girl. She turned around. "Let's go."
"Hey, don't you think we should bring the three of them with us?" said the woman. "We could use some extra help."
Carmine took a break from beating what was left of the corpses to take notice of what was going on. "Wait, who the hell said I was going anywhere with you freaks?" he protested.
"Yes, why would we go anywhere with assassins?" added Orie.
The woman shrugged. "It's either that or we kill you right now. Your choice."
The two of them looked at each other and then back to the woman. They sighed at the same time and started following them, the woman dragging Tatsumi behind her.
"Hey! Stop dragging me!" whined Tatsumi. "I need to bury my friends!"
"Oh, stop complaining already," she said. "If you want, we'll bring the bodies back with us and bury them later, okay?"
"You're late!" a Night Raid member with pink hair and a matching dress yelled. She turned to Tatsumi, Orie and Carmine. "And who are they?"
The woman looked at them. "They're new recruits!" All three of them looked at her with shock. She smiled. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Starting today, you're part of the team! Congratulations, you just joined Night Raid!"
Carmine was the first to protest. "Why the hell do you get to make that call?"
"Yeah, don't we get a say in this?" added Tatsumi.
"Just give up," the black-haired girl said. "Leone always gets her way."
The woman named Leone looked at her. "Aw, look at that! My best friend knows how it works." She turned to a guy in gray armor. "Bulat, they're all yours!"
The guy in the armor grabbed Tatsumi and Carmine and put them both under his arms, much to their irritation and complaints. Leone turned to Orie. "S-sorry, I could grab you too, but it wouldn't be as fun as going with Bulat."
Orie shook her head. "I'm loathe to being forced to join assassins, but I can travel on my own. Thank you."
The black-haired girl turned away from everyone. "The mission is complete. Let's head back to base." With that, everyone dropped down from the string and into darkness.
"Ugh, how did I get myself into this!?" complained Tatsumi.
