Rescue
"This is an emergency mission," Najenda says, voice wavering as she grips Lubbock's hand tightly in both of hers. "Stop the execution. Save Tatsumi and bring him home. If you can locate Incursio, bring it with you, but that is a secondary objective. Tatsumi is the priority."
We all nod and turn, leaving the room quickly. We get outside in a matter of seconds, and all take off toward the capital. As we travel, I explain my plan to the others. It's desperate. Truly. But it's also our best chance. And it relies almost exclusively on myself and Mine. We reach the capital and Mine makes a beeline for the coliseum where Tatsumi is being held. We're late, and the execution should be starting any minute. As Mine moves to interrupt, Sheele and the others all spread out around the arena. Then, we all move in. When I arrive, it's in time to land in front of Mine, sending out a wave of flames and blocking a wall of ice spikes that Esdeath was sending at her.
"Very impressive," Esdeath grins. "I knew you would be entertaining."
"You don't know the half of it," I snarl, drawing my sword as ice rapidly began to form in the air around me, flames rolling off of me.
Then, she and I are off, both streaking forward and beginning to clash rapidly in a series of slashes, stabs, and strikes with our respective elements. Esdeath is every bit the monster I had heard. Even as I'm pressing her as hard as I can with my sword, she can still rain ice spikes at me. Fortunately, I can block them with flames at the same time as I fight her. She flips away suddenly as a meteor of ice appears over me, only for me to punch upward, a fireball the size of my body shooting up and exploding into it. Esdeath narrows her eyes and charges again, stabbing at me with her rapier, only for me to deflect it and slash upward at her, flames rolling off of my blade. She leaps backward, ice forming over her entire front to block the strike and the flames explode against it, shattering it and hurling her backward, but she escapes the blade itself, along with most of the damage, and flips, landing on her feet and glaring at me. She doesn't look happy. Suddenly, she grins and I suddenly can't move. I can still register what's happening, but I can't move. I realize what's happened as she walks calmly toward me. She's frozen time.
"You're good," she says. "But with this, it's checkmate."
She stops in front of me, raising her sword, but in the time it takes for her to slash, I shift, the demon knocking her sword away with my own and drilling a flaming punch into her gut. The explosion sends her flying, time resuming as the demon hurls my sword into the air, beginning to punch rapidly, raining fireballs at her in a massive cloud. However, Esdeath flips, landing on her hands and feet, snarling in rage as ice explodes out of the ground in massive chunks and spikes, meeting my fireballs in a massive explosion. Then, she dives to the side as a massive blast of energy flashes past her, blasting a massive section of the wall. I glance to the side as I shift back to normal, seeing that Tatsumi's armor has evolved. It's horns are now longer, and its armor plating looks like bones. I grin. It looks pretty good.
"Watch out!" Sheele shouts.
I drop into a low squat as Esdeath's sword flashes over me before jumping over an ice spike that erupted out of the ground. Then, I catch my sword and slash, an arc of flame as wide as my body shooting off of my blade and exploding on the ground, narrowly missing Esdeath. I land on my feet just as a lightning bolt explodes into the ground in front of me, forcing me to leap away. As I land on my feet, three ice spikes fall toward me, only for one of Sheele's blades to block them as it spins past. I catch the handle in time to use the blade to block Esdeath's sword. I slash at her and she flips over the blade, landing a ways away as I toss Sheele's blade back to her. Just then, lightning begins to explode into the ground rapidly, dozens of bolts at a time, all blasting the ground completely at random. I dodge and bolt around the blasts, barely avoiding them. However, as it fades, Budo is floating in the air, glaring down at us.
"This is ridiculous," I growl. "Just how strong is this fucker?"
"He's roughly on level with Esdeath," Akame says, all of us grouped together now.
"He's a pain in the ass," I growl.
Just then, a massive dragon appeared in the sky over the arena. It roars, tail slamming into Budo and blasting him into the ground beside Esdeath.
"It's about goddamn time!" I shout as the dragon begins to spiral down toward the ground.
Just as it lands and Leone and Akame jump on, a dozen massive spikes of ice fly at it, only for me to block it with a wall of flames.
"You're going nowhere!" Esdeath snarls.
However, before she or Budo can do anything else, Tatsumi appears in front of them, his fists slamming into both of them, his right smashing through a layer of ice Esdeath tried to defend herself with and his left shattering the armor on Budo's abdomen. Both shot backward, exploding into the wall before the rest of us scrambled onto the dragon and it took off, speeding away from the arena and away from the capital.
"You were late Chelsea!" I shout, the dragon looking back at me before huffing and turning back to the front. "But thank you for getting us out of there."
Just then, Tatsumi's armor disperses in a cloud of smoke and he coughs up blood, falling forward, only for Mine and Akame to catch him.
"Tatsumi!" Mine shouts.
"It's poison!" Akame says.
"Let me see," Chelsea says, having the most medical treatment beside Najenda. "He'll be okay. Incursio neutralized most of the poison, but he's weak from the evolution. He just needs to rest."
Mine nods and sighed in relief. However, just as she does, the hair all over my body stands on end suddenly and I spin, punching upward and blocking a lightning bolt with a fireball. The resulting explosion sends us crashing to the ground anyway, and Chelsea's transformation breaks, but we're at least alive. I look around. Chelsea's out cold from the landing, Akame and Leone are both in bad shape from their fight with Budo, and Tatsumi's out cold. Mine stands, walking to the front and aiming up at Budo, except Pumpkin's cracked and falling apart.
"Didn't you hear us before?" Budo demands. "You're going nowhere!"
A massive sphere of black lightning began to form in front of his fist.
"All that awaits assassins is death!" Budo shouts.
However, before he can fire, Sheele reaches him, slashing across the front with one of her blades while kicking his arm upward, at the same time, I appear behind him as my demon form, slashing with Sheele's other blade, our blades sparking against each other as they split him in half. Then, I catch Sheele and land heavily in front of Mine, setting Sheele on her feet before shifting back and sighing.
"Mine, you're a goddamn idiot for trying that," I say, tossing her the gun I had confiscated on the way up, pieces of it falling off as she catches it. "You'd have killed yourself."
"Thank you," Mine says. "I just...wanted to protect Tatsumi."
"I know," I say. "Now let's get the fuck out of here before Esdeath finds us."
The others nod and I pick up Tatsumi, Leone picking up Chelsea, as we continue toward the hideout. As we reach it, I carry Tatsumi to his room, setting him on his bed before sighing. I've been too obvious recently. I need to rein myself back in before the others start to catch on. Leone's bad enough.
"Uh, Jason?" Mine says nervously.
"I can't heal him, Mine," I say. "I've already used my other side too much. I'm sorry. It's too risky."
"I see," Mine says, staring at Tatsumi worriedly.
I sigh. "You and Akame. I swear."
"What?" Mine asks.
"You're both in love with Tatsumi, and yet neither of you has the guts to tell him," I say. "He'd probably fall for whichever of you asks him out first. He doesn't seem like he has a lot of experience with women. To be honest, I think I'd prefer to see him with Akame. But if it was you, I'd do my best to keep you two from having to say goodbye."
"What are you saying?" Mine asks.
"I'm saying you should tell him how you feel, both of you," I look over Mine's shoulder where Akame's standing in the doorway. "Let him choose, fight over him, share him. I don't really care." I walk toward the door as I speak. But however you go about dealing with your obvious feelings for him..." I stop, looking back at them both, Akame now standing at Mine's side. "I'll make sure that the three of you survive this war so that you can be together, regardless of who's with who."
Then, I turn, walking out of the room, heading to Lubbock's room, finding Najenda asleep beside Lubbock's bed, her head laying on the bed beside his own, her hands clasping his and Susanoo sitting beside her. He nods to me and I return the gesture before heading to my bedroom, finding Sheele waiting.
"Have I ever mentioned that I hate caring?" I ask, rolling my right shoulder in its socket before dropping onto the bed on my stomach. "I'm always so tired and sore after I fight someone strong because I care."
Sheele smiles and begins to massage my muscles. "That's good. It gives me a reason to massage you."
I groan. "You are exceptionally good with your hands."
"You keep caring, and I'll keep massaging," Sheele says.
I smile, looking up at her out of the corner of my eye before allowing her massage to put me to sleep.
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