Bodies have scattered across a frozen wasteland that was once a country. Some of which has been impaled on stakes high in the air to make an example to others. Like many other kingdoms, the Empire's armies lay waste to wherever to sets its sights upon.
The Empire Northern General Army has successfully invade the Kingdom of Bastrania, also known as the northern kingdom. Like many other invasion there was little to no survivors. Standard practice of the Imperial Army was not to take any prisoners upon initiating a full attack if the opposition, be it a city state or kingdom, does not surrender upon time that has given.
The Northern General Army is known for its discipline, loyalty to the empire and its overall prowess. They are also known for their brutality and will hesitate whoever the adversary maybe. Commanding it all was...
"General Esdeath, there has been word from the Capital that requires your attention," a courier handed a scroll containing a message to a tall, slender, beautiful woman wearing a General's uniform sitting on the throne of the Bastranian king while holding dog chain of Numa Seika, the once crown prince of Bastrania and the well known "Hero of the North", already reduced to nothing more than a human dog, naked and lost his pride and sanity.
The general took the scroll and read it.
"General Esdeath,
The Revolutionary Army's intelligence group Night Raid may have infiltrated our ranks and is currently causing chaos from within the ranks of the military and police force. Furthermore, high level imperial officials have been assassinated, compromising the integrity of the institution. Officials such as the Police General Ogre, my nephew Lokal, and others from within the circle.
This requires your immediate attention and your withdrawal from the front. You are to return to the Imperial Capital and transfer command Lieutenant General Miyamoto. You are to create a task force that will find and crush this insurgencies.
With Regards,
Prime Minister Wilbur Honest"
"That fat bastard wants me to return to the Capital to weed a bunch of roaches?" she complained. Numa is licking the general's boot while on his all fours much like a dog.
"'Hero of the North' huh? How disappointing. I got my hopes up for nothing," out of boredom she kicked Numa in the head while he licked her feet. The kick was powerful enough to break his skull enough to kill him. The men around her were appalled by the gruesome and heartless sight of Esdeath killing the fallen prince.
"Is there no one that can satisfy me?" she asked to herself.
Night Raid HQ
Mein was not held responsively for her attack against one of the Empire's research facilities. And was even commended for retrieving valuable information for the Revolutionary Army's disposal, exposing one of the Empire's facilities using human experiments and other grotesque practices against its own people as well as to boaster the Revolutionary Army's propaganda campaign by exposing the Empire to the masses and inspire more revolts. However being part of the covert division of the Revolutionary Army the credit was not given to her but instead to the RA troops who successfully "liberated" the facility.
The facility has been discovered by the second Night Raid to belong to industrialist and scientist Dr. Isaac Stylish, owner of Stylish Industries and is a prominent name within the circle of Prime Minister Wilbur Honest. Stylish Industries is currently one of the largest arms contractors of the Imperial Armed Forces and said that the top tier weapons produced can match class D and C Teigus, but this has yet to be confirmed.
This official victory however felt very unsatisfying and hollow to Mein. She may have helped her comrades in the RA advance their cause to topple the Empire but she did not achieve the true purpose, to avenge Shere.
Her leg was still injured from the gunshot wound that hit her leg that time she feebly attempted to kill Seryuu after her tank was sealed.
For the mean time, Mein used crutches to move around due to her leg injury. She was walking up the stairs when she tripped, "damn," she cussed in pain. Akame was there to help her up.
"Sorry to cause you trouble," she apologized to Akame,
"Please don't worry about it," Akame gently reassured, "we are friends after all,"
"I'm really sorry," suddenly Mein began to sob, by then her usual stoic demeanor is shaken by grief, her attitude has somewhat changed after the death of Shere, "I'm really sorry for causing trouble for everyone!" Mein began to sob. Akame hugged her friend, this took Mein by surprise but did not resist the hug,
"Mein, don't should everything to yourself," Akame told her, "all of us have lost someone important to us. So please don't blame yourself for what happened,"
The friendship of Akame and Mein grew even more.
"Is this the answer you came up with? Tatsumi san?" Shere asked Tatsumi. The Shere that asked him has empty eye sockets with blood oozing from them,
"I did what I had to do," answer Tatsumi,
They sat at a banquet with all of the people that Tatsumi has cared about, has killed or failed to protect are present. All of them has no eyes and bleeding.
"Maybe your not so different," Shere said, "with her being alive she will suffer with you doing terrible things to her,"
"As expected of Tatsumi," an eyeless Sayo followed, "your just as cruel as the people we fight,"
"And for what? You left us to die," an eyeless Ieyasu blamed, "But he does make up for it by brutally killing those who has killed me and Sayo," he jested making light out of the situation.
"Why do I have to deal with you people every time I close my eyes?" Tatsumi asked them, Sayo, Ieyasu, General Ogre, Amon Kirishima, and many others who have died.
"Isn't that obvious?" Sayo asked,
"You are to destroy the Capital and watch it as it crumbles, remember?," continued Sayo's father the last village chief. The half of his body was burned and like the others he too was missing his eyes as blood and water oozes from its sockets
"What are you even doing with Night Raid? With those weaklings who think they can coexist with the strong," an eyeless General Ogre asked. His head was stitched on his neck and it seems like its going to fall off.
"Why are you all asking the same questions?" Tatsumi answered back, "If your saying I should just drop and die all of you are mistaken. I do regret some of you died, some I don't. I am alive because I refuse to die. At least not yet not until I fulfill my last mission. Then I will all join you in hell," Tatsumi grinned as if taunting them. All of them.
"Your not fun at all. Yu know that?" a new voice asked irritatedly. I was a voice of a woman with the sound of the voice of Seryuu, Shere, Sayo and Aria. "Of all those who wielded me you are the hardest to break. But you too are one of the most amusing and possess a heart black enough to wield me,"
A woman appeared behind Tatsumi and latched herself onto him. Just then did Tatsumi awaken from his dream.
Emperor's Sit, Imperial Palace
"Prime Minister, how is war in the north progressing?" sitting on the emperor's thrown was a young boy named Makoto, the 174th descendent of the First Emperor. At a young age he has assumed the throne after the late emperor and empress died in a mysterious accident. Being in a sheltered environment, he is unaware of the true nature of the empire he is tasked to run.
"Favorably you majesty," replied a man kneeling before his master. This man is Wilbur Honest, the current prime minister who oversees the affairs of the empire and is subject to the Emperor. But in reality he has near absolute power with his manipulation of the young emperor.
"General Esdeath has reported from the front and has eradicated hostile Brastranian," he continued, "But your majesty, there are more pressing matters just inside our holy Capital,"
"What that maybe?" the young emperor asked,
"The terror group Night Raid has increased its operation and is terrorizing the population," the minister replied, "but I already have made preparations,"
"I have ordered General Esdeath to return to the Capital to crush Night Raid and its supporters within our vicinity," the minister continued, "I have personally ordered General Esdeath to return to the Capital to eliminate this threat, Your Majesty,"
"But minister, isn't she currently at the front conquering the Northern kingdoms? And isn't Grand General Budo already here for that?" asked the young emperor,
"Your Majesty, ordering the good grand general might affect his sensibilities for such a task. So I took the liberty of having General Esdeath instead to return to the Capital,"
"if that's what you think is best, prime minister," consented the young emperor,
"If that is so then I will not bother you with the details," replied the minister.
A week later
Meeting Hall Night Raid HQ
Everyone has gathered at the meeting hall to discuss the next assignment. However this was not the usual assignments they undertake where the target or targets are ordinary individuals with heavy security or some rouge teigu user who has little to no training on how to us the imperial arms they have stolen and is causing trouble. Night Raids contact inside the imperial palace has relayed information about General Esdeath returning to the Capital to once and for all crush Night Raid's insurgency within the Capital.
Cutting the small talk, Najenda began the meeting and announcement,
"We received word from 'Silver Bird' that General Esdeath and her entourage code named "the Three Beasts" has returned to the Capital to help the eliminate the threat namely us. In fact they have already taken steps to lure us out. Akame? Read through it to have a better understanding.
That was the cue for Akame to hand out a folder to each member about the details of the targets. After five minutes Najenda continued,
"Those are the Three Beasts. A task force created by Esdeath and its members hand picked by her.
The first is Daidara S. Osmond, he comes from the Western tribes. Upon arriving in the Empire has worked as a freelance mercenary and was able to complete all the assignments tasked to him, however the Imperial Police has caught wind of him and was able to capture him. While in prison Esdeath recruited him and made some sort of deal for him to become her subordinate.
Next is Alois Mayer aka Nyau. Not much is known about him and how and why he workers for Gen. Esdeath. But as far as we know he is talented at what he does and is considered a hard hitter. He shows up, the place is covered in blood and he disappears. He out of the three is the most sadistic and has a hobby to skin the faces of young girls while they are still alive
And lastly, ex-General Richard Liver. He commanded the 34th Eastern Army and crushed the Yangdong uprising. He was also the superior of Bulat while still serving in the imperial army. Like Bulat who earned the name the Hundred Man Slayer, he was nicknamed the Silver Dragon of the East. However during the purges, he was dishonorably discharged and was accused of treason after he refused to acknowledge the new prime minister. He is also the reason for Bulat's defection to the revolutionary army,"
Bulat merely sighed at the end of the briefing. He was hoping he did not have to face his former superior like this, on opposing sides.
Najenda continued, "The Three Beast have recently been assassinating the prime minister's political opponents. Just this week they have assassinate 4 prominent figures and at 61 bodyguards. Those guards are not merely someone you find on the street but ex-military or former police officers. And the most interesting they are trying to frame us for the assassinations, spreading our flyers,"
"So it seems they are luring us," Tatsumi interjected, "but isn't that too obvious that they are luring us?"
"That is the idea," Najenda answered, "if they don't succeed in luring us into their trap. They will just continue to eliminate the political opponents of the prime minister,"
"So boss you mean to say that they deliberately are picking high profile targets to really make it look like it was us that cover the hits?" Akame asked,
"Higher ups seem to think so," Najenda answered but before she can continue further Tatsumi interrupted and asked,
"But isn't that a good thing? The prime minister is deliberately weakening his own household. And more over they are practically doing our job for us,"
"Not quite," Najenda puffed from her cigarette and patiently explained further, "You see the one of the targets is sympathetic to the revolutionary army's cause and has been providing funding and weaponry. Now higher ups wants the Three Beasts dead.
But not that's all. All four official that were killed are fairly popular with the people. And they see that somehow we are responsible for the killings we will be head accountable.
As I said before. This is a smear campaign with the purpose to lure us out in the open. Regardless wether or not we are lured they will continue.
Any more questions?"
No one replied indicating that they all have agreed. Before the meeting ended, the crew was divided on two teams.
The first team will do surveillance on General Esdeath if possible the team is allowed to take her out however this is currently not recommended given how dangerous she is. Esdeath is located at a village in Drasden where she will met her subordinates, the Three Beasts. The team consists of Akame, Leone and Labba.
The second team is to take out the Three Beasts. The Three Beasts will be aboard the luxury cruise ship, the Yellow Dragon heading towards Drasden where they will meet the their leader General Esdeath. While aboard they have a target assigned to them. A wealthy land baron who has a dispute with the prime minister. The second team consists of Tatsumi and Bulat. While their primary target is the Three Beasts, the safety of the land baron is the second objective of the team.
The new adversaries has yet to show their true power. However this only another day in the office for Night Raid.