A/N The Rakshasa Demons have made their entrance, and Lubbock is gonna have a fun time. Yay. However, even though this does follow the manga (anime is some regards too) closely, it's not gonna turn out the same. I'm sure as hell gonna make sure it doesn't end up like that.

Chapter 9 - Moves and Countermoves

- Kyoroch Graveyard -

"According to our data, there should be an underground passageway passing beneath this graveyard, which leaves from the Church to Bolic's mansion." said one of the two Revolutionary Army spies with Akame underneath one of the graveyard's many trees.

She was chowing down hungrily on a large piece of meat, so she was unable to respond until she had swallowed what was already in her mouth. Once all remnants of the food were gone, she cleared her throat and set her sights on the row upon row of gravestones that populated the graveyard.

"If we could find out the location of the passageway's entrance, we could go to Bolic's mansion's basement that way."

A little ways off from where they were, hiding behind one of the graveyard's many mausoleums, was the Rakshasa Demon named Ibara. He was grinning from ear to ear as he got himself ready to interrupt his enemy's discussion, and he could hardly contain himself.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, Akame." he thought as he clenched his fists, popping every one of his fingers as a result.

All of a sudden, before he could leap out from cover, another presence made itself known to the Demon, and he slowly turned around with a look of confusion on his face. What he saw was a visitor who's outfit stood out greatly with the common attire people in the region wear.

"Who are you?" he asked warily, the visitor saying nothing.

Ibara's muscles tensed up in preparation for a possible fight with the visitor. Out of nowhere the color silver flashed before his eyes and he flinched, his mind unsure of what just happened. He gasped when a deep cut appeared at the base of his neck, blood gushing out from the severed arteries and quickly covering his bare chest.

His hands grappled to his throat to try and stop the flow of blood pouring out and he fell to his knees, his eyes glaring at the visitor who had procured the blade.

"W-Why...you…!" he stuttered with a ragged breath before he fell over and struck the grass with his forehead, a large pool of blood beginning to accumulate around his head.

Akame perked up a little when she thought she felt something else other then herself and the two spies she was with, but after a few seconds of silently waiting she shrugged and assumed that it was nothing.

"Must've been a bird."

- Kyoroch Central District -

"Shit! How did they see through me?" thought Lubbock frantically ashes reeled himself along one of Cross Tail's threads through the now empty streets of Kyoroch.

Hot on his tail were the two Rakshasa Demons that had suddenly attack them, and no matter what kind of evasive moves he performed they remained right behind him. They were definitely skilled, and he was worried that he would be unable to escape without a fight.

Mez grinned evilly as she reared her left arm back, the bones cracking several times before she threw her arm forward and extended it over a great length, reaching Lubbock easily even though they were at least over several meters apart from one another. Her hand's outstretched fingers struck him in the ribcage underneath his left armpit, knocking the wind out of him and causing blood to fly out from his mouth.

Lubbock struck the ground hard and slid for a few feet before coming to a stop, Mez and Sten stopping their sprinting to observe their fallen prey. Mez strolled over ands frowned in disappointment when she pressed a finger to his neck and felt no pulse whatsoever, meaning he had died from that one blow.

"This guy's heart already stopped. How weak!" she said with a huff, Sten crossing his arms when she ran off down the street to find more prey.

Thankfully the two Demon's did not check Lubbock's body any further because, in truth, he was actually still alive. He wasn't reputed as the best actor in Night Raid for nothing.

"Mez...sure is late." said Sten as he gazed over his shoulder at Bolic's mansion in the distance.

"No, not "Sure is late…" you damn geezer! Hurry up and leave! Just how long am I supposed to play dead?!" thought Lubbock anxiously as time continued to pass by painfully slow.

He was able to survive te fatal blow thanks to the string armor he had wrapped around his body beforehand, and to make himself appear dead he had put Cross Tail's threads into his body and bound his blood vessels. It had been a risky move, but so far it was paying off.

"If it came to a fight, then there's a chance that the Jaegers would arrive as well. I'd like to sneak by like this at all costs."

Lubbock continued to monitor his surroundings with his other senses, something he had gotten quite good at, until he heard the sound of running come closer and closer to his location, meaning that female Rakshasa Demon had returned.

"Here, Sten. She's coming your way. I'll give you the prey this time!" exclaimed Mez as she chased a young girl, probably just coming out of her teens, right towards her comrade.

Sten grinned evilly and the young girl skid to a halt a few feet away from him, squealing in terror as the large man slowly walked towards her with his arms crossed. She looked back for a way to escape but found out that Mez was standing behind her with her hands on her hips. She was trapped with no way out.

"I guess that's a girl from the spy team. These guys are making this place their hunting ground because it's an alleyway and no one else is around." thought Lubbock before he cracked open one of his eyes to get a glimpse of the girl, quickly closing it a second later to maintain his act. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you. As long as you're a spy...you should've been prepared for this to happen."

Sten now was towering over the girl, his malicious smile causing her to quiver in fear. "You must be another lost child wandering this transient world. Do not be afraid, I shall free that soul of yours. Be happy."

In a flash the Demon rammed the palm of his hand into the girl's throat and picked her up off the ground, slowly choking the life out of her. Tears started to stream down her cheeks as she tried to pry his fingers from around her neck and helplessly kicked her legs this way and that, her vision starting to fill up with blinking lights with each passing second.

"P-Please...Hel…" she gasped, her breaths getting shorter and quicker the tighter Sten's grip got.

Sten could feel her end was near, and he was about to finish her off by snapping her neck before his eyes widened and he stuck out his other hand, catching a knife aimed at his throat in between his index and middle fingers.

"Mez, did you see-"

He stopped mid-sentence when he heard a vicious snapping noise echo from behind him, the hairs on the back of his neck immediately standing on end when his sixth sense kicked in. He looked back over his shoulder and visibly stiffened up when he saw Mez's lifeless body, her head twisted around at least a hundred and twenty degrees and her neck cut open, collapse to the ground. Her neck had been easily broken and the cut had been deep enough to puncture her Aorta, ensuring that she would die.

The person who had killed her was standing right behind her corpse with a blood-stained knife and a smile that caused Sten's anger to explode inside him.

"Catch me if you can."

Sten snarled angrily as he let go of the girl he was previously choking and gave chase after his comrade's killer, leaving her alone with the seemingly dead Lubbock.

He waited for a few more seconds, listening to the young girl cough and hack, to make sure that the Rakshasa Demon was indeed gone before he opened his eyes and pushed himself up off the ground. His sudden resurrection from the dead made the girl squeal again, but he quickly soothed her by going over to her and wrapping an arm around her.

"It's fine, I was playing dead. Are you okay?" asked Lubbock as he helped her to her feet, the girl dusting herself off and coughing again.

"Y-Yeah...it just hurts to talk." she replied whilst rubbing her tender throat.

Lubbock nodded before he motioned down the road away from where they were, saying, "You better get out of here in case he comes back."

She nodded and thanked him again before she ran off, Lubbock watching her go with a concerned expression when his mind drifted back to the unknown voice he had heard after Mez had been killed. He looked back down the road in the direction he heard Sten run and frowned, the identity of the person who had managed to sneak up on them alluding him.

"I'll tell Najenda about this later. Right now I need to find Mine and Leone."

Several streets down from where Mez had been brutally killed, Sten blinked a few times before he fell onto his back with a heavy thud and uttered his final breath, his blood forming a pool around him as a result of the huge gash made into the base of his neck that had severed all of his major arteries.

"Rest easy, for as you put it, I have freed your soul." spoke the killer, the same person who had done in Mez. "Three down...one to go."

- Revolutionary Spy Rendezvous Point -

- Fifteen Minutes Later -

There were five of them there sitting on some rubble within the broken down basement of the building on the outskirts of Kyoroch they had chosen to act as their meeting point. It was perfect for their purposes since it was out of the way and inconspicuous enough to be overlooked.

"Now that we have enough data, we should return back to Night Raid." said one of the spies as he stood up and turned towards the exit down at the opposite end of the room.

All of a sudden the door was kicked in with such force it was reduced to splinters, the wooden projectiles shooting past the spies and striking the wall behind them.

"So this is the hideout of the spies. Found you." said the person who had so barbarically made her entrance with a smile on her face once the dust settled.

Her name was Suzuka, and she was currently the last Rakshasa Demon left alive within the city...a fact she has yet to find out.

"Oh, my. There doesn't seem to be anyone strong in here." she said in utter disappointment, the spies gulping nervously when she stepped towards them with her hands on her hips.

"Actually...there is."

Suzuka's eyes widened and she whirled around in shock, a person she neither knew or recognized entering the room through the busted door and stopping several yards away from her. She hadn't sensed the intrusion, and she tensed up in preparation for a fight.

"Are you from the Empire?" asked Suzuka, the person lowering his head slightly and sighing heavily.

"That's classified. But, unfortunately for you, I am the person who has killed your allies. You are the last Rakshasa Demon alive."

Suzuka's heart skipped a beat and her skin lost a little color. The others were dead? Sten, Mez and Ibara...all dead? There was no way. The Four Rakshasa Demons are the Prime Minister's personal executioners, elite fighters who have been able to take down Teigu users without even using one themselves.

"You're bluffing. There's no way someone like you could've taken them down." she said with a scoff, her sixth sense telling her that this person wasn't really much of a threat.

"Well, you know how the saying goes…looks can be deceiving."

Suzuka narrowed her eyes for a fraction of a second before she threw her arm out at him, her target being the throat. An easy kill, textbook execution. She highly doubted that this person would be able to avoid it.

She was wrong.

It all happened so fast, in a matter of moments. The figure was there one moment, then was gone in the next. The unknown intruder produced a knife out of nowhere and with a single slash, her entire arm from the elbow down was chopped off. Before Suzuka could say or do anything else aside from scream as a result of her arm getting cut off, the figure covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye and rammed the knife through her throat.

She gasped and stared right into her killer's eyes, the image burning itself into her mind while blood began to gush out from the wound and run down her neck and chest.

"Go to sleep…" said the figure in almost a whisper before Suzuka grunted when the knife was pulled out through the side of her neck, partially severing it and putting the final nail into her coffin. She whimpered and wobbled a bit, her legs still trying to support her weight, before finally she collapsed onto the ground, the wound killing her in under a minute.

"Now then…" The figure's gaze rose up from Suzuka's corpse to the Revolutionary Army spies still standing in the room. "Since you all are witnesses...I'm going to have to kill you too."

- Church of the Path of Peace -

- Thirty Minutes Later -

"So this is where members of the Path of Peace come to worship." said Tatsumi in awe of the large church he and Esdeath had come across whilst on their patrol route through the city.

It wasn't as grandiose as the Imperial Palace back in the capital, but it definitely took the top spot for being one of the largest and most well-crafted buildings within Kyoroch.

"Yes, indeed it is."

The two Jaegers turned around quickly and watched as a man with long white hair and priest-like clothing approach them with a group of men and women dressed in white behind him.

"You...you're the Lord, I presume? The founder of the Path of Peace?" asked Esdeath as she took her hand off her rapier, the man nodding.

"Yes, that is I."

Tatsumi looked through the ranks of his followers and found that Bolic wasn't among them, which didn't really surprise him much considering his character and personality. He was probably still back in his mansion enjoying himself while they did all the hard work by patrolling the city and keeping a look out for Night Raid.

The Lord looked at Tatsumi and Esdeath for a few seconds, examining them and the expressions they each wore, before he himself frowned, something obviously concerning him.

"I can clearly see that you two are bound by the red thread of fate, but...there seems to be something troubling the both of you."

Esdeath's eyes widened in surprise and she glanced up at Tatsumi, who gave her the same look of surprise and shrugged.

"Please, allow me to help." pleaded the Lord, Tatsumi meeting his eyes and sighing heavily.

"Tatsumi, are you sure?" questioned Esdeath softly when she realized what he planned on doing just off his face alone, Tatsumi nodding once.

"There is something, actually. Although, I would prefer if we talk in private."

"Of course. Come with me." replied the Lord as he strode past them and opened the doors to the Church and beckoned them inside, his entourage remaining outside while Tatsumi and Esdeath followed him.

He closed the heavy wooden doors and led them to the large altar beneath the feet of the massive stone statue that served as one of the religious symbols for the Path of Peace. Tatsumi of course recognized it since it was the exact same figure depicted on the small wooden talisman his village elder had given to him when he had first left.

"Now, tell me what conflicts you." asked the Lord after turning to face Tatsumi and Esdeath.

"Well, where do I start…" mumbled Tatsumi as he rubbed his chin, unsure of what to say first to the religious leader. "You do know why we are here, correct?"

"Not exactly, no." replied the Lord, Esdeath crossing her arms and staring at him with a soft look.

"We're here to protect your aide, Bolic." she said, the Lord giving her a confused look.

"Why would he need protecting?"

"He's not who he says he is. He's a spy sent here by the Empire, and our job is the protect him because there are plans made by a faction of the Revolutionary Army called Night Raid to assassinate him." explained Tatsumi, the Lord's eyes widening in shock as a result of being presented with the new information.

"A spy? For what reason?"

"We believe that your religion was planning an insurrection. Is that true?" asked Esdeath.

The Lord remained silent and lowered his gaze, his expression morphing from shock to regret. It seemed that what she had said had been true after all, and that the cat was out of the bag now.

"Indeed...I didn't want it to happen, and I still don't want it to." he replied, his eyes shifting to Esdeath again. "And I suppose now that I told you, you're going to have to kill me?"

Esdeath shook her head, and to ease some of the Lord's stress, she removed her rapier's sheath from her belt and placed it on the ground next to her to show that she meant no ill will. "No, of course not."

"Actually, we were planning on allowing Bolic to be killed so that you would continue on and rebel against the Empire." revealed Tatsumi, the Lord becoming surprised once again. "You see...we ourselves plan on killing the Prime Minister ourselves."

"A coup d'etat, essentially." said Esdeath to put it into simpler terms.

The Lord slowly nod his head and recovered his exposure, his gaze going from her and back to Tatsumi. "Why?"

"My feelings about the situation are like yours. I don't want anyone else dying because of the corrupt Empire and the people controlling it, namely the Prime Minister." said Tatsumi with a serious tone, the Lord slowly nodding before he raised a hand up and pondered on the situation for a few moments.

"And you're conflicted because you don't know how your team members will react...right?"

Tatsumi remained silent and closed his eyes to answer his question, the Lord moving from him to Esdeath and seeing the same reaction come from her. They had already decided for themselves to commit to killing the Prime Minister, but how would the other Jaegers react? Wave would probably be swayed easily enough, Bols and Run were also a possibility, Solomon wouldn't care either way, and Chelsea would be all for it, but Kurome...she might end up turning against them.

The Lord smiled and he approached the two of them, placing a hand on one of their shoulders each. "Do what you both think is right."

"What?" asked Esdeath.

"You can either tell them or not, it's up to you. All I can say is for you to follow your hearts." said the Lord as he removed his hands from their shoulders and stepped back. "And, if by some chance, your attempt goes awry...you may return here. I will gladly offer sanctuary for you under protection from the church."

"You would do that for us? We're basically enemies." asked Esdeath, the Lord nodding.

"I don't see enemies before me, only friends. Now go on back to your team and think about what I said."

Tatsumi smiled and he walked back with Esdeath towards the doors of the church, the Lord right behind them. As soon as the doors were opened, however, they were immediately met by Wave with a concerned expression on his face.

"Wave? What's wrong?" asked Esdeath, Wave shoving one hand into his pocket while he ran the other through his hair anxiously.

"You're not gonna like this Captain, but...it's the Four Rakshasa Demons."

"What about them?"

"They're dead. All four of them. You know what this means, right?"

Esdeath glanced at Tatsumi and he developed a hardened look, his fists tightening. "They're here. It's Night Raid."

- Night Raid Kyoroch Hideout -

"You're kidding me, right?"

Lubbock shook his head and flinched when Susanoo finished wrapping the bandages around his waist where he had been hit by Mez earlier. "No, I'm dead serious. Someone else attacked the two Rakshasa Demons that were with me and killed one of them before luring away the other."

"Then it's safe to assume that the other three were killed by the same individual too."

"Gazia!" exclaimed Leone with a grin when their newest member entered the small room and removed his straw hat, waving at her afterwards.

"So, you got whatever business you had to do done?" asked Mine, Gazia nodding.

"Indeed. Now I'm here and ready to help with dealing with the Jaegers." he replied, Lubbock looking back and resting a hand on his knee.

"Well, you pretty much already know what all's gone on while you were gone. The Four Rakshasa Demons, the Prime Minister's personal executioners, were killed by the same person whom we have no information about whatsoever."

Gazia pulled up a chair and rested Isterio in his lap before proceeding to tune the instrument and begin to play it, its soothing music filling up the room and brightening the atmosphere. "That certainly is interesting. This person must've been powerful if he or she was able to take down all of the Rakshasa Demons."

"I just have one concern though…" said Najenda as she pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Is this person a friend or a foe?"

"Like I said, I don't know." replied Lubbock.

"It's safe to assume that they could be an ally and share resentment to the Empire, but we should still tread carefully." stated Akame, the entire group agreeing with her assessment.

- Kyoroch Outskirts -

"All four of the Demons were killed?"

"Yes, all four."

"Good...now Bolic's the only one left."