A/N: Well well well look who's finally joining the party? Bout freaking time Tatsumi, where have you been.
"So, have any threes?"
"Nope, go fish."
"Dammit."
The atmosphere had been calm the last few days, with the lack of missions and odd jobs, and Night Raid was deathly bored. No pun intended. Hence the decision for Lubbock to decidedly force everyone not currently in the Capital into playing Go Fish. Which meant Akame, Sheele, Bulat, and Run himself, who had been told to lay low in the base until they were sure his face wouldn't appear on a WANTED poster. Which was based on the buzz in the capital on the fort incident, was extremely unlikely.
Lubbock drew a card. "Geez, today's not my day."
"It's almost never your day Lubba," Bulat said and turned to Run. "Got any twos, beautiful?" Run gave him a look and handed him a card.
"I do, and call me by my name please, if you will Bulat."
"Nope."
Run sighed in defeat, now used to Bulat's attempts.
"Why do I even try anymore? Hopefully Boss will get back with the intel soon, or I'm going to go mad," he turned to Sheele, "Perhaps any sixes?" Sheele perked up and gave him a card.
"Hey, at least with no mission, it gives us time to do quality stuff like this," Lubbock said. Run looked at the card Sheele gave him, and kindly gave it back to her, giving a sympathetic smile.
"Sheele, this is a nine." Sheele blinked.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" She bowed her head in shame. "I should've realized.." Run held up his hands.
"No, really it's okay, many people make that mistake Sheele. It's fine."
Bulat patted her on the back. "Yeah! I can't even count how many times Lubba here's made the mistake!"
"HEY!" Lubbock shouted. "I take that back, I do wish a mission would come up, then I wouldn't have to take the harassment you assholes give me!"
"I don't think that counts as harassment," Akame said, "It was an obversation, wasn't it?" She sounded completely innocent when she asked it, clearly not seeing the bluntness of the statement.
"Like hell! Sure, I've messed up a few times, but I have an excuse, it was dark!"
"Everytime?"
"..." Lubbock stayed quiet. "Nevermind..." He looked to the floor in defeat.
"Really starting to envy the others ability to roam in the capital now," Run said, actually starting to go slightly mad from all the bickering he had been hearing like this the last few weeks. Like seriously, it seemed unnatural, even if most of them were teenagers.
"Hah, I doubt that, Leone would just drag you around again," Bulat joked. Run sighed at the memory.
"Don't remind me, I still haven't replaced all the money she stole."
Speaking of which, the door busted down revealing the devil herself with Mine in tow, who miraculously didn't have any bags or boxes with her.
"Oh come on Leone! I wasn't done yet!"
Leone just promptly pushed her to the others while having a humongous grin on her face. Which quite frankly scared Run.
"Yeah yeah yeah, but I just have to tell everyone this at the same time, okay?" She clapped her hands together as Mine fell on top of Sheele, joining the others on the floor.
"Should we even ask?" Run said. Leone winked.
"Nope! Because everything will be explained soon, Angel." Cue Run's eye roll. "Okay, so two things. One, I found this super gullible guy trying to make it big in the Capital today, and he had a HUGE amount of cash on him, so," she said while hefting a sack over her shoulder,"I swindled him and got the whole batch! Pretty cool, huh!"
"..." Everyone was silent, and Leone made a pout face.
"Geez, tough crowd."
"Leone," Run said,"You do know that's probably all he had on him, right? You probably just screwed up his entire future." Leone waved him off.
"Well, so? Either you gotta learn the hard way or not at all. If he hadn't been so gullible, this wouldn't have happened! I bet he's still at the bar waiting for me to come back too!"
"Anyway," Mine said,"What was the other thing? I was kind of in the middle of something until 'SOMEONE' decided to drag my ass back here."
Leone's already huge grin widened even more, if you could believe. "Ooooh~ That? Well, you see," she said, and pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. "On my way back from stealing all that shit, my eyes came upon a piece of paper nailed to the wall~" She was staring right at Run, whose stomach was subtly starting to drop, despite the calm face and demeanor he wore. Whatever Leone had, it probably wasn't good for him.
She unrolled the paper, revealing a WANTED poster. "Our own resident Angel boy finally got his poster!" Run breathed out a sigh of relief. That was it? Honestly, he had expected more from her-
Wait.
Hold on one goddamn second.
The poster itself seemed perfectly fine, and his picture was fairly accurate, as one would expect from so many people seeing his face. But as his eyes trailed down the poster...
"Oh you have got to be kidding me."
Lubbock bursted out into a laughing fit. "Oh my god! Hahahahahahahaha! That's too good man, too good!" There were legitamate tears in his eyes. Bulat was holding down a chuckle, himself, while the others had no complete clue what was going on.
The thing about the poster was that instead of his name reading Run, it read-
Angel.
It read fucking Angel. To be fair, Run knew that was entirely his fault. He should have picked a better name. Then why did the feeling to murder Leone only get stronger from within?
Not wanting to give her the satisfaction of a reaction, he waved them off. "So?" He tried acting as innocent as possible. Leone was still trying to get over her laughing fit as well.
"So? That's a pretty underwhelming reaction from someone who was like," she put on a dramatic,"'I don't like being called Angel' and 'Trust me, I'm no Angel'. Seriously, that's what you say, but you tell the enemy your name is such?" She went back to practically dying of laughter with Lubbock. Run rolled his eyes.
"Well I probably wouldn't have told them such if you three," he looked to Leone, Lubbock, and Bulat,"hadn't been implanting the word in my brain every five seconds."
Mine looked at them, confused.
"Wait, why does that bother you? Isn't that considered a compliment unless you worship Satan or something?"
Run sighed. "When you hear it all your life, it starts to seem less and less of a compliment, unfortunately." The half-truth, but still the truth.
"Well, I think it's nice!" Sheele said. "It's good that people associate you with a comforting image." Run gave her a slight smile, glad for the effort, but it really didn't change how he felt.
"Glad you think so, Sheele."
Mine's head suddenly perked up, glancing between the two. At Sheele, then to Run, back to Sheele, then again to Run. "When did you two get so close?" She asked suspiciously. Run and Sheele glanced at each other for a second before turning back to Mine, and both then shrugged. Mine narrowed her eyes. "Right..."
They were interrupted however, by the sound of boots clopping into the room. Najenda was back. She stared at the members of Noght Raid, kind of shocked that it looked like Leone and Lubbock were having what it looked to be a stroke on the floor now.
"Do I even want to know?"
Everyone not currently dying on the floor shook their heads.
"Good answer. Also, get ready, all of you are getting debriefed on a mission for later tonight." Bulat raised an eyebrow.
"All of us? And tonight? What, is the world ending or something Boss?"
"Nope, it's just a huge ass estate." Najenda entered the other room, presumably to prepare, leaving the others to slowly pile out of the room themselves. The last ones being the two practically in tears. Run gave them a look as he exited.
"It really isn't that funny."
"Nope! It sure is!" Run sighed and rolled his eyes, as he too, exited.
(((((((())))))))
The crimson moon hung above all of their heads, as they descended upon their targets. Najenda was right, the estate was HUGE. Seriously, it wasn't even funny how much room they had, Run was sure that the estate equaled at least one third of his village. Lubbock strung up his wires, setting up the platform for his non-flying teammates to stand upon. Sheele had already gone off, most likely already in the works of infiltrating the residence. Where did that leave Run though?
In the sky, by himself, where he could see everything. It was kind of funny, he mused. It was almost like he wasn't even there, like he was just watching a show. Of course, the mission hadn't really started yet, but still. He looked to the north, where the Capital was still fairly dark. So far so good, no signs of the Imperial Police yet.
So much for seeing some action.
Run pulled out his book and started to pick up where he left off: the protagonist of that particular short story had just found his friends brutally murdered by a wolf in sheep's clothing, it was finally starting to get good- What? What was he supposed to do, just wait another good twenty minutes doing nothing? Run preferred not actually, he had to do something, he liked using his time efficiently.
Bang bang pop phewp
Speaking of efficiently.
Run looked down to the sound of sudden gunfire. It seemed that the guards had finally taken notice of them.
"About time," Run whispered under his breath. While Akame and Co. slashed/gutted/blasted/ripped apart everything in their way, Run's eyes scanned the battlefield. He couldn't allow cowards to slip by and alert the Imperial Police, it would jeprodize the plan. Sure enough, he spotted a pair running through the woods, but the peculiar thing was that they weren't running toward the city, they were running toward the storehouse. Either these people were trying to throw them off, or they were just goddamn idiots. Run sighed as he closed his book. It was time to go to work.
As he swooped down, closer inspection revealed that one of them was an apparent target: Aria Van-Buskirk. She must have escaped Sheele somehow. Run glided down, and shot two feathers at the pair. Somehow, the guard managed to see his attack coming at the last possible second, and pushed the girl out of the way.
"R-run Lady Aria!" The guard managed as he started to choke on his own blood, the feather originally meant for Aria's head now lodged in his throat. Aria screamed and continued running toward the storehouse, with nowhere else to go.
"Oh no you don't," Run said, and dove between her and the doors, landing in front of them. "He probably just made your already grimm fate worse, at least if you hadn't dodged that you wouldn't have seen your death coming." He flashed his wings, looking menacing. Aria trembled.
"J-JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE! WHAT DID MY FAMILY EVEN DO TO DESERVE THIS?!" Run gave her a tired look, preparing to unleash hell upon her.
"I think you already know that-"
"Lady Aria!" A stranger shouted, and appeared into the clearing, gasping for breath,"What the hell is going on-" The green eyed newcomer looked up, his spiky brown hair bouncing up and down. Aria gave him a terrified look, and ran behind him.
"Tatsumi, help me! He's trying to kill me!" The teen, Tatsumi apparently, drew his sword, and went into a defensive stance.
"Wait, why are these people trying to murder your family- Wait," he said, pausing slightly,"That's a he?"
Silence.
Complete.
Total.
Silence.
Everyone blinked.
"Ex-fucking-scuse me?" Run asked. He had not just done that. He. Had. Not. Tatsumi's eyes widened.
"Ah! Wait a second! I didn't mean it like that-"
Swoosh.
Cue Akame appearing behind him and Aria, Muramase already drawn. "Target: Aria Van-Buskirk confirmed. Eliminate." She charged toward the pair, Muramase in mid-swing.
"Now hold on just a second-!" Tatsumi cried out, and landed a lucky block. How could Run tell it was lucky? The kid had good form, but it was apparent he hadn't mastered it yet, unlike Akame. The red-eyed assassin narrowed her eyes.
"Not a target," she said, and easily countered Tatsumi, somehow managing to pass though his blockade and continue to engage Aria. She was right, Tatsumi wasn't a target. He didn't have the same kind of training or equipment the guards did, so it was safe to assume he was to be the Van-Buskirk's latest victim. Really, the kid should be thanking them right now.
"Wait!" Tatsumi yelled as Aria screamed in the background, and aimed a slash at Akame's back, which she saw and easily dodged. She and Run gave him puzzled looks.
"You're not a target," Akame said,"you don't want to interfere."
"Like hell!" Tatsumi yelled. "I'm not just going to stand back and watch while you kill this innocent girl!"
Wow.
Someone was naivé.
Akame wasn't impressed as well, and turned her blade on him. "If you get in my way again, I won't hold myself back from killing you."
Tatsumi visibly gulped.
"She's serious you know," Run warned. "You should get out of here kid, you don't need to see this." As much as Tatsumi's...comment, had annoyed him, he wasn't guilty of condemning any crime, therefore Run or Night Raid had no reason to kill him (even though a tiny part of him want there to be now).
"A-ah," Tatsumi stammered, obviously confused. He seemed to gather what courage he had left, and tried to remain calm. "Like I said before, I won't let you harm Lady Aria!" Akame's eyes narrowed.
"Then you leave me no choice," she said, and moved faster than humanly possibly, with Muramase's blade suddenly centimeters from piercing his flesh,"Elimina-"
"Hold up."
Leone, seemingly out of nowhere reached out and grabbed Akame, saving Tatsumi's life quite frankly. "I may or may not owe this guy a favor."
"A favor?" Both Akame and Run asked simultaneously. As if planned, Tatsumi suddenly yelled and pointed at Leone.
"Wait! YOU'RE THOSE BOOBS FROM EARLIER!" Leone waved at him.
"Heyo! It's the beautiful lady again!" Run blinked.
"This is the guy you swindled earlier today?" Leone nodded.
"Mmhmm! Sure is!" Run turned to Tatsumi.
"I apologize for her behavior."
Tatsumi, who still seemed to have been in shock, snapped out of it. "Wha-? Uh apology accepted, I guess," he suddenly then backed away from them.
"But I still can't and won't let you hurt Lady Aria! I don't know why you would want to murder such good and innocent people, but I can't allow it!"
Leone's eyes darkened. "Good? Innocent? Let's see if you still think that after seeing what's in that storehouse right there."
Aria let out a small gasp of dismay, but only Run caught it. "I'm sure you wouldn't object to us showing him, Lady Aria was it?" He asked nochalantly. Aria gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but ultimately nodded. Oh that was cute, she actually still thought she had a decision in the matter! Not.
A few kicks and punches later, and the door was plowed down. The scene was exactly how Najenda had described it, unfortunately. Tortured dead corpses strung up all around the room, prisoners in cells dying of disease, and blood everywhere. Leone explained the situation to Tatsumi, as he wide green eyes surveyed the room.
"S-Sayo?" He cried out to one of the more recently tortured dead bodies. Well shit. Was that his friend? That...that probably put a wrench in his weekend plans.
"T-Tatsumi? I-is that you I hear?" Another voice cried out, one of the prisoners this time. Tatsumi, horrified, slowly turned.
"I-Ieyasu?"
Okay...now this was getting awkward. Once Ieyasu cried out to them what had been done, Run took the time to briefly look around the room. Being from the country himself, there was the possibility he could know a few faces. He found none, however, or at least ones he could recognize. Strangely though, that didn't make him happy, nor did it make him sad. He just felt nothing.
Was that a bad sign?
"T-that girl!" Ieyasu continued,"S-she tortured Sayo to death!" He broke down, and started sobbing uncontrollably. Run pitied him.
Aria suddenly slapped Leone's hand away, which she had used to drag the demented girl in with.
"AND WHATS SO WRONG WITH THAT?!" She screamed. "THEY WERE ALL WORTHLESS HICKS FROM THE COUNTRY, THEY SHOULD BE GRATEFUL ANYONE PAID THIS MUCH ATTENTION TO THEM! THATS GIRL... HER HAIR WAS SO SMOOTH, WHILE MINE'S SO UNRULY! SHE DESERVED ALL THE ATTENTION I GAVE HER-"
She kept rambling on and on, causing Leone to sigh. "A family of sadists with the mask of good smaritians." She looked to Run and Akame. "Sorry for getting in your way, I won't stop you two now." Akame and Run gave each other a look, as if to ask 'do you have it, or do I?' Run shrugged.
"Eh, you go ahead, you put out more work than me on this kill." Akame nodded.
"Eliminate-"
"Hold on," Tatsumi said, surprising the trio. Run sighed.
"Tatsumi was it? Please tell me you're not about to defend her again."
"No.." The green-eyed boy said, reaching for his sword. Suddenly he dashed, and cut Aria in two, blood, guts, and all. "I'm going to kill her!" Run blinked.
He squinted, he may have acted on his emotions, but he did kill her without hesitation... He glanced to the other two, Leone seemed to be thinking the same thing, Akame didn't seem to either notice or frankly care.
"Haha," Ieyasu managed to sputter,"That's Tatsumi, God that felt great-" He suddenly covered his mouth as he began to through up blood. Tatsumi quickly turned back to his apparent friend.
"Ieyasu!"
Tatsumi broke down the bars to the cell, and laid his friend on the ground. "It's okay Ieyasu, I'm here! You're safe now!"
Run averted his gaze, that was certainly not the case. Tatsumi didn't realize it, but his friend had already knocked on death's door, who was starting to open it.
"It's the final stage of Lubora," Akame told the boy,"There is no cure." Tatsumi looked at them with wide eyes.
"What?! No, there has to be a way-"
"It's okay Tatsumi..." Ieyasu managed, still choking on his own blood. He raised his hand in the air, as if grasping for something. "Sayo... Sayo never gave into that bitch! She was so cool man, you should have seen it!" He chuckled softly. "I can't disappoint after a performance like that! So I have to have a cool end too..." He smiled up at Tatsumi. "Just live on, for both of us, okay?" His hand dropped, and Tatsumi had tears streaming down his face as he choked back a sob. Run gave him a look of pity before turning to the other two. "Ready?"
Akame nodded. "Mhmm." They both started to head out the door, when Leone stopped them.
"Hey, wait a second," she said,"Why don't we take him with us?" Akame and Run both blinked.
"What?"
"You heard me," she said,"Let's take him with us! He has potential, doesn't he?" Run gave her look, and glanced between her and Tatsumi, who was understandably to busy grieving to hear the conversation.
"That may be true, but..." He trailed off. Did they really want to drag him into this?
"But what?"
Run bit his lip. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Nothing, never mind. Just don't go looking for me when Boss asks why we kidnapped him." Leone waved him off.
"Kidnapping is a harsh way of putting it. More like, re-using him!" She picked Tatsumi up, who recoiled in shock.
"Wha- Wait! What's going on!" He tried to struggle against her grip, but it was no use. "Let me go! I still have to give them their funeral! Stop it!" Run sent him an apologetic look.
"Sorry about that, we'll come back for their bodies for you if you want."
"Wha-? No! Let me go! I want to do it myself, where are you taking me anyway-"
And he just kept rambling on and on and on. If Run was going to live with another noisy meme re he swore he was going to have to invest in ear plugs soon. But he couldn't help but feel a pit sinking in his stomach.
This kid had better learn fast, or he would die.