Akame sat at the table, poking at her breakfast. Susanoo somehow managed to rebuild the hideout in 1 night, not needing to sleep. Leone and Lubbock looked at each other nervously, you know something is wrong when Akame pokes at her food, like really, really wrong.

"Akame, are you okay?" Lubbock asked. Akame shook her head.

"It's just, I'm still trying to accept Tatsumi leaving." Chelsea scoffed.

"Tsk, to be honest, he is a failure as an assassin." Akame's head shot up. Lubbock and Leone looked at her in shock, Bulat's eyes narrowed a bit.

"I read about him and you guys, Night Raid before joining. Tatsumi and the one who died in the line of duty, Sheele. I don't know much about Sheele's personality, nor Tatsumi's." She stood up.

"But if you guys don't do something about the naivety, like running off on your own, we will all end up dead." She said before leaving the room.

"Tsk, insulting Tatsumi I can let pass, but insulting Sheele. I'm pissed." Mein said, glaring at where Chelsea was a few moments ago.

The room was silent. Najenda sighed.

"She was very blunt, maybe too upfront. But anyways, that brings us to why we came here." Everyone's attention was on Najenda.

"Other than to move our hideout location, there is another reason. Now that Jaegars are proving to be a problem, I think it is time to up our training. This area is inhabited by multiple groups of strong danger beasts. For the next month or so, I plan on having us stay here, training and fighting danger beasts. After all, we can't let Tatsumi get too ahead of us now can we?" She said with a slight smile. Everyone smiled back, Leone was grinning.

"Starting today, we are going to train our asses off, you hear me?" Everyone cheered.

"Now before we head off on our own, hunting danger beasts, I want to set something up." Najenda said before bringing out several cages. Inside were small sized bird like danger beasts.

"I brought these little guys from the headquarters. They are danger beasts trained to quickly deliver information. But each bird can only track and find one person, I will set each of you up with one of these so I can deliver information and missions to you guys quickly."

There were 7 cages and 7 birds, they are able to track people by tasting a bit of their blood and then able to find where the owner is. We each fed a few drops to our birds and headed out.

- Time Skip - That Night -

I sat with my eyes closed. Listening to the wind whispering to me, teaching me all about it.

I opened my eyes. I was drawn here by the wind, like it was guiding me to the perfect training place. Here, the wind blew 24/7 stronger than anything I have experienced, I can clearly hear the wind speaking to me.

The moon reflected off the water surface. I looked around and watched as small animals sneaked around and between bushed. I can feel the pull, feel myself being attracted towards the large tree on the other side. But at the same time, Shinatsuhiko was whispering to me.

'You are not ready. Patience, you have yet to obtain something that will allow you to wield me at full power.' I closed my eyes again, then they snapped open.

I stood up, turned around.

I walked into the darkness.

There was no point in opening my eyes, there is no difference. Darkness surrounded me, the only thing that guided me was the wind. I found myself at the entrance to what seems like a cave.

"To think something like this lived down here, I guess in the shadow of any paradise, lies a monster." I whispered, I opened my eyes.

In the darkness, an eye opened, glowing the most menacing red. It flared its nostrils and flames spewed. It roared in anger, awoken from its slumber. I smiled, this was indeed the best place to train, I readied myself and dove towards him.

The roar of the dragon was carried away by the wind.

I woke up with an uneasy feeling. I looked out the window, it was around midnight. I shook my head awake and went to get something to eat.

I sat at the table alone, with a bowl of grilled chicken from last night. I stared at my food, and slowly began eating it. I heard some footsteps and looked up.

"Akame?" Bulat asked, standing at the door way.

"You hungry huh?" I nodded.

"Couldn't sleep." He frowned.

"Akame, what's wrong? You've been a bit far out today." I debated whether or not to tell him. It's better to get it off my chest.

"I… I'm worried about Tatsumi. I know he's strong but I just feel uneasy." Bulat nodded.

"It will be okay Akame, Tatsumi grew up in the wild, also with his ability to detect enemies within a huge range he will stay away from danger I'm sure." I nodded. But this feeling inside my chest, like something was stolen from me.

"Bulat… I feel empty." He looked at me.

"I don't know, I haven't had this feeling since I was separated from Kurome, ever since Yoshiro refused to come with me. What is this feeling? Why am I so scared?" He looked at me seriously, as if he was trying to look into my soul.

"Akame, what do you think of Tatsumi?" I looked at him with my head tilted.

"Sorry, let me rephrase that. Akame, can you describe Tatsumi? What do you think of him?"

"He's powerful, serious and only relaxes around us. He is courageous, sometimes naïve, passionate, cares a lot about other, nice, too nice, and not afraid to speak his mind."

"No, that is obvious, I want you to dig deeper. I want you to tell me, what your heart is telling you." I looked at my bowl, closed my eyes, what does he want? Why is he asking me this? What is my heart telling me?

"I… He…" He looked at me, and shook his head.

"I won't ask for the answer now, you probably don't know it either. But Akame, one day you will understand what I'm trying to say, and then it's up to you to make a decision, follow your heart or not."

He turned around and walked out, but stopped at the door. I stared at my chicken.

"Akame, train hard. Tatsumi is training his butt off out there, and we can't let him get ahead. Don't worry, I guarantee, he will come back." He walked away.

I sat in silence, I felt a bit more reassured, but the feeling is still there. I shook my head, I can't dwell on this, I need to act like always, don't let personal interfere with professional. I scarfed down the chicken and headed back to bed.

He will come back, he will.

-Time Skip – 3 Weeks-

We stood in the meeting room. Najenda was sitting on her chair and we stood around her.

"Alright, there is something I need to inform you about." She began.

"Recently, a new group of Danger Beasts appeared. They are humanoid beasts that have been going around terrorizing the southern part of the Capitol. They are physically strong and possess some form of intelligence." We nodded, sounds strong and dangerous.

"So right now we have a decision to make, should we participate in the hunting of these beasts?" Lubbock raised his hand.

"Why shouldn't we participate? It is terrorizing innocents and plus, who else is there to deal with them?" Najenda nodded.

"The creatures have been terrorizing the Capitol and its citizens, the Capitol is bound to send forces to eliminate this threat. Especially the Special Task Force."

"Jaegars." Leone whispered. Najenda nodded. There was a moment of silence.

"I propose we stay out of this." Chelsea said.

"What? So we just watch as people die?" Mein questioned.

"It's our best option. If we happen to cross with the Jaegars while on this mission, there's a chance some of us will die. It is too risky, plus the Jeagars are strong, about our strength, they can easily deal with this situation."

"But it's our responsibility to protect innocents, just because there is a risk doesn't mean we should ignore them." Leone said. Chelsea scoffed and shook her head.

"This is what I was talking about few weeks ago, you guys are naïve. Do you really think we can save everyone? What difference do you think will we make by participating? Fighting now can mean we will lose later, more people will die." Mein narrowed her eyes, Bulat frowned and the air was heavy.

"Alright, we will decide later, right now you are dismissed. Take a break today and calm down." Najenda said.

Chelsea left the room immediately and Bulat followed.

"Tsk, she really pisses me off." I shook my head.

"Don't be, I'm sure she has been through a lot, and her words had some sense in them."

"So you are on her side Akame?" I shook my head.

"I'm on no one's side, I'm hungry."

I walked out the room and turned the corner, but stopped, listening in on the conversation.

"-doing this?"

"What do you mean? I'm just pointing out your flaws."

"No, I don't mean that. As an experienced assassin you should know the importance of teamwork and your actions right now are not helping the others like you. I don't want to dig too deep, but why?"

"…"

"…"

"My old team, the one I was on before this one died. All of them, except me. I was on a different job. I don't want that to happen to the people here."

"… I see." He said before walking back. I stood in the hall way as he passed me.

"There you go. Her reason. Reminds you of someone doesn't it, even though the way they address it is different. One in words, the other by actions." I nodded.

He walked away and I looked out the window. Before walking towards the kitchen.

I walked through the forest, my eyes closed.

"Tsk, these things are everywhere." I said, swinging my sword, which is glowing green and cutting three of the danger beasts down. They were humanoid danger beasts, I probably would have a harder time killing them a few weeks ago, but not now.

I ran forward with the wind boosting my speed, with my eyes closed. I dashed through another hoard and sheathed Shinatsuhiko, leaving behind me a pile of blood and corpses. I clicked my tongue, this guy has been watching me for a while now.

I glared back towards his position, his shadow barely visible to me, and he disappeared.

He's not Yoshiro, that's for sure, Yoshiro would never show himself and he would know hiding from me is useless, who else could it be though. Whatever.

"Time to head back. This should be enough meat for them."

I narrowed my eyes. The target was lurking down there, and eventually it will come out. I concentrated, I saw a ripple in the water, my eyes widened. Now!

A large fish connected to a fishing line came flying out of the water and towards me.

I jumped from the boat and quick drew my sword, Murasame, and the target fell back into the water, now in two pieces.

"Akame… That's the third time in a row you have sabotaged me! How am I supposed to beat Susanoo now?!" I shrugged.

"It's good reaction exercise." Lubbock sighed.

"Whatever. Now stop it or else we won't have lunch today, we can't eat fish infected by a curse." I shook my head and pointed towards Susanoo's boat. Lubbock's jaw fell into the water, Susanoo's boat was sinking because of how much fish there was.

I smiled and looked towards the sky. It's been a month and a half since Tatsumi left, the Danger Beast issue was dealt with by the Jaegars, we decided to listen the Chelsea and not risk it. But there have been reports of a single man killing multiple beasts and saving a few small villages, immediately I knew it was Tatsumi, he's grown for sure.

But our training session is over, today was the day that our fighting re-begins.

Last night we got informed that the Revolutionary Army is preparing to overthrow the Capitol soon because of a certain religious group, the Path of Peace. They are a religious group that are popular among the citizens, and they are planning to revolt.

The revolutionary army will take this chance to invade, along with the help of the western tribe. These three forces will join and take down the Capitol.

We, The Night Raid, our job is to take the chance when a huge part of the Capitols forces are out on the battlefield to assassinate the minister.

But first, we have an issue. The Jaegars. They are a huge and powerful force that will become a huge issue in the war, and that is why, today we plan on taking a few of them down. They are too much of a threat to ignore.

The plan is simple. We have spies in the Capitol, they will report false intel on our movemnets, and also report that our forces split up. No doubt that the Jaegars will respond, we are their priority.

Even though this is a pretty obvious trap, Boss believes Esdeath will take the bait anyways. They will split forces and we will ambush one of them. Simple but effective plan. But there is a huge risk, if we happen to meet and fight Esdeath, Kurome and Yoshiro in one group, it will be a difficult fight, not to mention Tatsumi has yet to return.

A small, bird like danger beast flew by overhead.

This is a do or die operation.

And we only get one chance, Esdeath will not take the same bait twice.

"Akame! Let's go!" I snapped out of my thoughts, we were on shore and Lubbock and Susanoo were already walking away.

I followed.

I sat by the lake, meditating.

The past month and half went by quick, before I even realized it. I sensed something coming towards me from above.

It landed beside me and I took off the paper note, attached to its leg. I read it and smiled.

I took out a whistle from my pockets and blew, a few minutes later a messenger hawk flew down and landed on my shoulders. I rolled up the same paper note and attached it to the hawk.

I stood up as the Hawk flew away and brushed off the dirt from my clothes.

Time to head back.

All of Jaegars had gathered on a dirty crossroad, with two paths heading in opposite directions.

"From the intel, they split into two groups, Najenda leading one, Akame leading the other." Esdeath said.

"This is a little too obvious don't you think? They have been in the shadows for months and suddenly just appear?' Ran questioned. Yoshiro nodded.

"This is obviously a trap. What should we do Lady Esdeath? Do we take the bait?" He said.

"But that's a little risky isn't it?" Wave asked. Esdeath nodded.

"It is risky, they are obviously baiting us. But this is also probably our only opportunity. We will take the bait, and we will kill them." Seryu smiled.

"Yeah! Justice will never lose to evil, we will prevail for sure!"

"Alright, this is how it's going to work. Ran, Seryu and I will pursue Najenda. Bols, Wave, Kurome and Yoshiro, you will pursue Akame."

"Please forgive me, but I disagree." Yoshiro spoke up. Najenda raised an eyebrow.

"Najenda is the leader of Night Raid, milady, you are our leader. There's a higher chance that Najenda is setting a trap for you, and the three of you will have a hard time fighting all of Night Raid. I believe I should go with your group, for safe keeping." Najenda narrowed her eyes. But nodded.

"There is some sense in that. Fine, you will come with us." Yoshiro nodded, but silently smiled inside.

"Alright, today will be the day we wipe out Night Raid. Jaegars! Move out!"

I hid behind the ledge, Leone was behind me.

"Akame, are you ready for this?" She asked. I nodded.

"Of course."

"Are you sure."

"Why?"

"We are either fighting the capitols strongest, your old teammate, or your sister. Are you sure you're ready?" There was a moment of silence.

"Yeah."

"Remember, we are always here with you." I smiled a bit.

"Yeah." I heard the sound of horses echo through the canyon.

"Here they come."