Akame ga Kiru
The Imperial Saber
Chapter Twenty
"You really do not know how bored I was with you gone Tatsumi and how much my heart ached to be with you again. I should start refuse our little bets but maybe I am having too much fun, if we end up like this every time."
The Colonel had found himself lying on his back inside the shared chambers with the woman curled against his side, her legs entwining his own to make sure he didn't have any means to escape or try to ease their position. It had been a rather tense walk back to the chambers, Esdeath had wanted no interruptions only until after they were together within their private area and more than once, he had spied the guard escorting Yumi around the Palace on the way back.
Yumi kept true to her word, least from what he could tell.
She was asking questions and following the guard to the letter as are as he could tell from this position.
"Taking risks to gain results isn't bad a choice, it's just what is on the line and how much effort one puts into that choice. May I explain about the Teigu I've gotten and a few other details that have to be addressed, Esdeath?"
The woman exhaled happily not exactly answering his request, the sudden affection of the usually sadistic General threw him off for a better lack of a word. That guarded caution on her motives were all the more prepared to stand against her in defiance and the lack of any, aggression certainly gave him justice to be all the more tense. Questions were burning inside his mind when it came down to her actions.
What was her game now?
Where did she have an angle to exploit him and how did it all fit with this Teigu impaled onto his forearm?
"So you indeed did acquire a Teigu, a shame really. I had so many fun and wonderful activities ready for you if you had returned without it, but go ahead. I can live with lying here until I want more!"
Esdeath's soft laughter and amusement made the younger Colonel feel less than healthy to hear her intentions.
That playful warning made his heart race all the more terrified, knowing whatever the woman had planned for him through whatever means was close on hand. Trying to stem his panic into the more pressing matters, like somehow inducting Yumi into his command and not having a premature heart attack for starters. It'd be a mercy in the works if he ever considered how he'd survive this woman's definitions of fun and try to counter it, somehow.
Dissuading her would be a miracle and a half.
So it was down to conjuring the right words, although finding the right words were going to be interesting enough. In fact he was damned near lost in what to wsay, which made the Colonel slightly anxious. Exhaling sharply he spoke up, "You don't have to plan that please, plus I'm sure we can agree to something we both can enjoy. After all where's the rush when we have plenty of time to be together Esdeath?"
A playful laughter followed up on that suggestion, now really it shook him to his core as his heart raced when the woman shifted her face to lay parallel onto his chest. Considering what could be laughed at and it'd be a matter of how dangerous he could press his luck to understand. To understand what she found to be funny or pathetic, so either way it'd be a pain to learn in some way.
"Indeed. So what would you suggest we do to make up our lost time together? I'm all ears, if you have anything to say."
She was asking him in trying to improve their relationship? That honestly made his mind draw up a blank, but that wasn't the half of it. Really he tried to think of something that didn't involve him dying to a heart attack, or else his blood pumped a bit too quickly around his body to have anything less kill him. So Tatsumi adjusted himself accordingly using his arms to hold the much more powerful woman in his arms comfortably, trying to actually find a coherent sense to what they could do. If this was what required him to get his plans moving along then it was fine.
It'd be all the more easier to find a common ground with his officially proclaimed fiancee.
Although it did bother him the world was well aware of their relationship, it bugged him to not know where the source of that information came from. He expected to deal with it in the future but not this quickly. Not to mention it truly unnerved him to have so many people stare at him in public without having his Imperial Sabers marching on his word. A lot of eyes were on him now and he didn't need to a damned seer to understand how the future was shaping up now.
"Easier said than done, I'd rather be out on the frontier fighting enemies."
Getting his thoughts on track as several ideas came to mind due to previous endeavors. Fortunately these recent ones were successful when keeping Esdeath sated or content in their relationship. But again that word, gave him a mix of a thrilling fright or was it, an excitement pending on what was implicated. He had to say something soon or risk her in deciding on what they could possibly do,
"I'd say we'd have to go another date, really talk more about our personal pasts. To be fair, the more we understand each other and what we both could like, it'd be a start in the right direction. If there's something we can do as a couple, like the last time we decided together." He was trailing off uncertainly even as the blue haired beauty smirk while in the arms of the boy she loved.
She deceptively unwillingly listed off her hobbies out loud.
And it made the said boy pale like a dead corpse.
"Well torturing prisoners together would be ideal, I could teach you the best ways to break a body physically and the mental aspect is more endearing to see your will dominate a weaklings. Oh practicing whipping to strike flesh from bone is also another good way, I'd see you..."
Tatsumi interrupted gently out of sheer desperation to stop this woman from getting unsavory ideas that would make him agonize his soul. Well the pieces left of it anyways and he needed to give her humane ideas to ease her own inhibitions.
"Hobbies that we can share, I believe what suggesting is giving me lessons as a mentor and not as a lover. I'd say we go to a place like a theater, or visit parents or even the graves of loved ones to understand what we've lost. Anything that any other couple or people in our shoes would do and to be fair, shopping like the last time wasn't bad at all. If I recall right."
Esdeath trembled with silent laughter as if remembering an amusing memory, her mouth teasingly kissed his jugular to make the younger Imperial inhale slightly. Her eyes were tracing the way his body responded to her actions, her mind savoring every muscle movement as a means to dominate him beyond what could be done and it'd make this all the more perfect if he'd accept her tutelage as a professional torturer.
But if he wanted to play it slow, so be it.
As her lover had said they had all the time in the world to become perfect.
"Oh really, parents? Interesting you brought that up of all things, Tatsumi."
Tatsumi went wide eyed and bit the inside of his cheek to only realize the full extend of that subject. Basically what physical acts that possibly of them being parents which required more intimate measures. He had to take a moment to understand that sex and this woman, it'd be a terrifying thought to test those waters.
Shuddering while mentally berating himself did the General muse that word while uttering a solemn yet bitter tone that sounded really genuine, "Is there a problem, Esdeath? Would your parents accept me or are they, like you?"
Much to his shock she reacted strangely enough for him to be wary. The woman brought herself upwards to have her eyes stare fully at the younger Colonel's and did her next words send a cold feeling up his spine. Her face literally devoid of all emotion and set into a permanent smirk. A smirk that mocked all of the living and ultimately showed her natural reaction to those who asked questions not meant to be known.
Leaning forward onto his shirt, the Ice Queen almost teased him in a manner that bordered as a warning.
"The dead can not accept those amongst the living Tatsumi. Plus my parents were weak, so they do not matter to me. But I'll tell you of my childhood if you're that interested."
It seemed he got further away from a conversation originally meant for Yumi to be safely inducted into the Palace. It seemingly was derailed as it was met with a human emotion called, curiosity.
He was curious about Esdeath's past in that sense, if she was offering. This situation had literally came out of nowhere and to be honest within the turmoil that was inside his mind to learn of Esdeath's origins, tempted him. It really spoke volumes to how invested he'd become to understand this woman and he couldn't help it. Tatsumi really felt that urge to go on that temptation, for more personal reasons.
Reasons in what he expected to find out to piece together the puzzle that was this woman. The pieces of a puzzle starting with General Esdeath's rise to power and learning of her past. "Can I afford to know more about her? Am I ready to dive deeper to what she is already? I want to get out of this situation but what she offered is that not good enough to listen? There's only one way to find out as much I'm scared all to hell. I have to find out more, I need to find out more."
On some level did his boldness translate to a familiarity towards the blue haired beauty sitting on his chest, though it didn't mean there wouldn't be consequences. The price to pay to know about her origins and what actually made her to be this monster of a soldier, what would the horror be if he had to understand her and ultimately face a danger so great, it'd scar his soul.
Did he dare to know more about her?
To risk understanding her and to potentially develop, feelings?
Feelings for her?
Wincing internally as that risk of genuinely liking her stood out more so than his plans to combat the Evil festering in the Empire and how great that effect his judgment all together. Heart racing to pump blood faster through is veins, the Colonel felt that need to gamble that risk to know answers and to solve the puzzling horror that he had been attached too for a time now. A theory that lead to a potential fact eluded its answer and he had to beg a question on his part.
Did Esdeath feel like a human?
Anything that struck her to be a person was to not consider everything so jarred as what her beliefs voiced out? Was there more to her that he could see? That potentially she'd reveal to him for an unknown risk to be made? All of these questions lingered onto his psyche, they were plaguing him, just taunting the ability to solve in which it was damning the curiosity that drove him forward.
Soon the words unwittingly came forth, "Where were you raised? Can I ask what your childhood was like? Please."
Esdeath grinned bending down to have her trailing chest to grind the flesh of her assets across the firm surface of the Colonel pinned underneath. She did this ever so willingly just to keep his eyes on her face. "I have your complete attention, don't I Tatsumi?"
His face practically were an open book to her and she couldn't help but explain why.
"I don't even need to hear an answer. Your eyes are so curious, so interested in me that I can see it clearly. It's so heart warming to see you care about me but I have to ask, what will you do for me when I tell you my story?"
Tatsumi literally winced when a catch came around, although it was completely different from the bet made about the Teigu on his forearm.
Which had yet to be discussed that reward essentially being placed at risk to be used to counter the price being paid to find out about more about her past. Did he risk a potential reward to negate another dangerous risk? Or did he just save himself the trouble to reject her question. Mentally sighing the Colonel felt that instinct to go further then what he'd knew of this woman to ultimately see her heart thawed out to see a human beneath all that ice and to fight onwards for his own belief.
Did he have hope to see Esdeath become more human? To see if she wasn't just a monster everyone claimed?
"I bet hell has a better chance to freeze over, but I want to find out. God, I must be insane!"
That notion seemed to be beyond anything but hope.
As it stood any hope was hope and nonetheless, it could be possible.
Ideally playing the devil's advocate wasn't the smartest thing to do, but it if it could yield the answers to the questions being asked than why not? As long as the promise wasn't anything beyond what he could do physically, or morally twisted Tatsumi could accept the price to be paid. Consequences lingered in all choices, even the ones promising to a woman whose very whims could decide his life and how he lived for the remainder of his days.
Bold or not.
The young Imperial took that risk to exploit an answer, "As I said that night when we were laying here, I'd accept any price for results. I'll do the same here as a new promise once I hear what you want to say. I'll accept whatever you ask of me, regardless."
Another chuckle came so close within to his ear as the woman gently bit on earlobe to create a tingling sensation crawl up the spinal column. Electric signals flaring his nerves to life as Tatsumi exhaled loudly when the blue haired beauty spoke teasingly in a whispering tone, which served only to make the situation more damning than it had to be.
"How generous of you, Tatsumi."
Her body trembled with laughter, he could feel the tremors while holding her.
"Fine, I'll tell. However don't space off, or I will chain you to the bed to practice my whipping skills. I promise I won't stop until I'm satisfied."
Within a few moments she had adjusted herself to lay at the side of the anxious Colonel, whose eyes were sharp that their emerald occupants were awaiting her words. Sighing contently did the warmth envelop the two Imperials despite her Demon-Extract Teigu's natural ability to cool the air around them in an unforeseen field of ice and nearly tempted woman almost came forth to do more to her fiance. Eventually twisting and wiggling into the best position possible to tell her tale, the pale woman placed her face onto the rising chest of the younger boy while feeling an urge to sleep deeply as she spoke quietly.
One could have pegged her to be remorseful yet resigned to her own beliefs.
"My birth place wasn't within the Capital nor anywhere close to here, my home came to be the Northern regions on the Empire's border before I conquered them. I was raised as a nomadic hunter of my clan the Partas who were the greatest Danger Beast Hunters in the world as I was led to believe. My father was the chief as the strongest amongst the strong and he's the one who taught me all I knew to be as a warrior. I still see his face when he praised me and I enjoyed it. Amusing isn't it?"
Her sudden stop of her tale made Tatsumi briefly comment in a gentle yet arguably an understandable reason to miss her parents, if they weren't dead. Despite her lack of emotional ties save for the bitter amusement, if it could be called such a comparison and that was going on a leap of faith on his part. It came to a small impasse that the Colonel never knew his own birth parents, least in memory anymore and that was what secretly pained him.
To never know his parents.
Never to know what a mother could have been, or never to know to look up to a father.
Quite frankly, it hurt him a lot.
To have no family, to have no past and to never have that slim hope of creating a family.
Now that only made things worse as he bitterly stated,"Amusing? No, I'd say it proves you are your own person. I guess many people picture their parents, well to remember them at least. I can't say the same for myself since I don't remember them anymore. Truthfully I never knew them, it's a uh..." He was Trailing off as age old wounds came back to haunt him.
It made Esdeath twist her face upwards to see his tormented expression and she brought an idle hand to trace the side of his face. Motions of keeping him trained onto her as icy blue glaciers witnessed painfully aware emerald iris's made on their owners emotions on a subject akin to stabbing his heart. Tatsumi never knew his family and it'd always hurt to not know why he was left as an orphan, it never truly was easy to hope to know who his parents were. So unwillingly his body betrayed him to lean into the gentle touch from a normally sadistic General who seemed alien to offer such a feeling.
More so this was a natural feeling of comfort, it washed over him and he didn't shy away from it.
As much as the warnings came to enter his head, Esdeath seemed curious on the subject. She probed curiously due to his reaction, "So you never met them? Your own parents? Now that's odd, since I'd have pegged you to be family person."
A bitter smile crept on Tatsumi's face, it was akin to one she had used when a person assumed too much. His tone reflected that assumption quite clearly, "Nope. Not once have I ever met them or found out. As much I can always try, it's an old subject I've gotten over and had to accept. However I can always ask someone whose had parents to understand what it's like."
He looked over at her gently and offered a smile that seemed slightly forced, "So tell me, what were your folks like? What was it like to have people raise you? To teach you and to love you."
Esdeath snorted prompting a look of interest to replace the pained look, now that was a first for the woman to ever do and it'd got his attention immediately. Tatsumi waited patiently while bringing his arms to wrap around the General, to keep her content and to gradually learn more about what drove her as a powerful soldier of the Empire. These emotional risks were but one step to overcome the obstacle on hand. He had to understand and to know where he stood against the world while at the woman's side.
And he'd be damned to not find out more about her.
"I grew up in a place where it was eaten or be eaten, the daughter of my clan's chief who was my very own father. Hunting beasts with him and my clan certainly were the better days of having a simple life, kill or be killed. I loved that type of environment, hunting great danger beasts like massive lizards, wild tigers and so many others. It always served me a challenge, to take down the supposedly strongest beasts and have my father smile at me, he'd always praise me when I returned which wasn't a bad thing when I look back on it."
Her eyes were somewhat distant as if reliving a fond memory, Tatsumi held her close out of sheer interest to keep the woman content and if needed, happier to explain her origins. Apart of him wanted to comfort her to hear an akin tone that he used when someone asked about his folks but he rejected that motion in earnest as a question formed due to her admission of being happy to her father.
"He must have been a tough man to raise someone like you and somehow to run a clan of danger beast hunters. I can't imagine you were treated easily."
Warily asking about her childhood seemingly didn't make her annoyed, or remotely colder than usual.
Instead the beauty in his arms merely laughed, "Oh no. My father raised a hunter and taught me to become strong. I still remember him teaching me to gut a danger beast, it was one of those great lizards that develop gems inside their bodies and he always taught me the right way. I never failed him, I never stopped enjoying the ways of killing and skinning those weaker than me. It helped me refine my skills when it came down to using a weapon, the Pratas Clan used all sorts of weapons to hunt the beasts and it always paid off."
Actually hearing her enjoy skinning live danger beasts made this all the more unsettling and it certainly got the Colonel to desperately put aside the fact she did this as a hobby. If she had done something like this for her whole life, torture certainly could be amended when it came down to stripping flesh from bone and Esdeath literally lavished all the agony to those she tormented. Shuddering mentally did the Colonel speak up gentle yet wary all the same, he was probing to learn more about this woman's past to understand her in the present.
Already learning more about her, it screamed dangerous.
In more ways than one.
Tatsumi prayed that it wasn't so painful to realize a truth that eluded to yield the facts about Esdeath.
Was she truly a human underneath all the death and despair? Could she have a chance? Was there a choice for her to actually open up to him without the need to spill blood or was she truly just a monster? He couldn't help it but wonder as thoughts lingered within him. Could she feel anything after what she had willingly done? Killing hundreds of thousands of lives under her word and under the orders of a monster behind the throne? It just didn't settle well with him to actually want to pursue this type of path to know more about a woman, whose very being to be drenched in the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
Intrigued to know whether she felt remorse would prove that Esdeath wasn't what other had claimed her to be.
A cold heartless monster in human form.
"Is that were you get that belief, 'the Strong live and the weak die', I'd get that but did your mother have anything to tell you? If it's not too personal, I'm just trying to understand where that all fits in. I can see where you get that determination, to fight an enemy but what got you to notice me? Was that from your mother perhaps? To find people you liked?"
His question made the woman look right at him.
And his blood froze.
This was a gaze of a frozen tundra in its wake as a heart skipped a beat when a line had been crossed. This was not an emotional attachment, this was more so of an old wound that hadn't fully healed or refused to do so! This was the line where a person felt the need to justify their own pain into a sadistic amusement. His body trembled enough to where a small droplet of sweat ran down his neck, she did not look happy at all.
"That look! It scares me more than anything, her expression isn't human. My blood just froze up, oh god I just tripped something lose or else I'm going insane."
Still a rare sardonic smile etched its away across a beautiful yet deadly face.
"I wouldn't know what'd she tell me. She was weak and as such, she didn't survive. She perished when the stronger beasts hunted her down for food."
Tatsumi winced as the woman's hands crushed his own limbs! An icy sensation trickling up through his veins to make breathing all the more difficult to maintain. This sudden shift in her mood indicated a past she hadn't settled or even put to rest to accept the fact! The fact her own birth mother was weak and that possibly effected her in a way to consider herself, weak. That crushing strength certainly proved she had a limited tolerance if that were the case, mentally he screamed as several bones cracked.
Her anger was under control somewhat, but her control over ice wasn't as subtle.
The frozen vapors had manifested itself into his blood stream unconsciously as his breath came out in a short gasp of cold exhales. Esdeath didn't care too much while looking to the outside balcony feeling the warmth transfer into her own body as her story continued. Her eyes holding a glimmer of an emotion that most would find strange or so out of place, it'd be considered an unnatural detail that came to be known as the Demonic-Ice Queen of the Empire. The Colonel understood something about this woman despite her sadism that created her infamy.
The infamy of a sadistic woman who destroyed all and absolutely thrived in battle. These were merely pieces of a puzzle aligned to make Tatsumi realize that something!
Something that shocked him totally to his core about this situation.
Esdeath had regrets!
"I can't mistake that sorrow and pain. After all this she hides so it well that if I didn't experience that type of loss, I'd say she was sarcastic and a monster truly. Oh my god, she's running from her past or I bet, hates it to the point where it doesn't effect her to shed tears. Does she hate herself because her mother was weak? It's an apathetic response to a deeper pain close to the heart, yet everyone would feel anything to see their mother dead before them."
The faces of those he had killed came around.
Those faces he had killed together as woman and children circulated into memory. Bile surged into his throat almost as that amount of loss he had willingly inflicted on people when he was but a foot-soldier of the Empire.
A soldier who obeyed.
Who didn't resist despite having a choice to die a good man.
And he rejected it all, to commit an evil act of sin!
All sense of regret formed similar to a way that Esdeath had perfected her entire life and he was in the same boat regardless of how he justified it! That type of revelation honestly made hell all the more tempting to visit once he died. Living seemed so hard when regret weighed a person down and that guilt suffocated their mind into madness.
Tatsumi witnessed what apart of Esdeath had done to become this twisted representation of a person and it all came down to one emotion.
Regret.
As in the kind that formed the basis for pain in all people who lost their family, that heart numbing regret in seeing themselves unable to do a damned thing to prevent it and to inevitably blame themselves. Did this woman blame herself for having her mother weak? No, Esdeath had gone beyond what her parents were in some form long ago and they weren't weak! Weak people didn't raise a strong behemoth like this woman in his arms, feeling her describe it all amidst this confusion created a forbidding hope for his own heart to beat strongly.
He could have been wrong but that urge was there to hug her close!
"What in the hell is wrong with me!"
While alien to do such a thing to the Strongest Soldier of the Empire, the greatest amongst Generals and to think of her as a...
Grieving person?
Really that insane notion of the blue haired beauty actually harboring grief sent shock-waves into his own heart. As his mind refused to understand when the General continued her explanation and it all became apparent that his theory was, right.
"My mother didn't make it past my fifth birthday, she had been hunted down by the very beasts that we stalked and made us the strongest. I can still remember her corpse, torn apart and her face practically unrecognizable save for the fact I could see a necklace that my clan made by their own hands. I can remember it so clearly, it hardly fazed me when my father spoke to me about why she'd been hunted down. He said, 'She was weak, it can't be helped since the Strong always survive and the weak perish.' I took those words to heart, never believing anything more. Weakness can claim anyone, so my mother was no different from the ones who fell to my strength..."
And it made the truth make him realize a hellish fact.
Tatsumi had developed a kinship to her because of her story.
To have something to have in common with the most dangerous person in the Empire, it felt unreal.
Her words became hollow to his ears, just hollowed enough to fuel a courage that no man in the Empire had ever done and Tatsumi knew that in his own heart, this courage seemed foolhardy. Foolish rushing into an unknown situation was one thing out in the battlefields, but in this type of conflict did the suicidal instinct to question this woman's judgment come forth. It took so much will on his part to say the first sentence alone.
The Colonel's sentence escalated the danger onto a level that endangered his own life.
"I think you're wrong."
Shifting upwards while keeping eye contact with a frigid glare, Tatsumi asked her again while tremors racked her frame as he questioned her on an old wound that had yet to heal. At least in a manner most would be at peace with that influenced them to become who they were in the present. Honestly where did this inner insanity form into that simple statement? He knew not but the young Imperial felt this to be so right and he dared to challenge death lying at his side.
Lying to a person was one thing, but lying to yourself certainly something he knew to pick up on.
Especially when he used the same intentions from that night when he was a child. He almost missed on what she said, though her tone was very close to doing something painful, "Are you questioning me that the weak do not perish at the whims of the strong? Are you saying that the strong do not endure Tatsumi? Are you questioning me when it comes down to who lives, or dies in this world? Do you really want to find out how far I'll go to discipline you to make you understand that my belief, is truth."
Both hands now were being crushed in her grip as Esdeath had frighteningly loomed over him now, her full weight pressing down onto his torso area as she had swung herself to keep him pinned to the bed. Resisting an urge to shrink back, the young Imperial refused to cower in the face of a woman who clearly had more emotions than what she proclaimed to live by. There wasn't any reason to hide a fact behind a threat, without being a lie or truth shielded in the bigger picture here.
Tatsumi stared her right in eye,"No. I'm questioning the fact you felt nothing for your mother's death, I don't believe that. At least you have memories of your own parents and to say to my face your felt nothing is an insult, an insult to what makes you a person! I'll be damned if I see you deflect the question Esdeath and I want you to look me in the eye right now, to say that again!"
Staring at her intently did the woman blink in confusion as to what he said. Tatsumi's glare struck a rare nerve of uneasiness in her body and it showed on face briefly. The General took more than a few minutes to actually process the demand, she could picture her mother's face engrained into her memory with her father telling her that belief of the weak always perishing to the strong.
Wasn't her mother strong?
If she wasn't then why did she as her child, live onwards?
"You really felt nothing Esdeath? Or did you really feel something to actually see your mother's corpse? Why are you taking so long, I'm not going to act superior and know what's it like to remember a parents face, since I hardly understand what it means to have memories of parents. As far as I know I had none as I can remember."
A bitter fact whenever a discussion came to a mention if he ever had to have a family, a concept that seemed almost alien to fathom. Tatsumi honestly regretted a lot of things in his life, more so to never actually experience whenever a son or a daughter returns to their parents to have that sense of love. A loving family to be praised, about their child's accomplishments or to even visit them out of sentimental longing. It hurt to consider that his birth parents were dead, they were long dead to be exact.
That was if he recalled his childhood leading up to his enlistment into the Imperial Military, "I never met my parents, the village elder who took care of me never spoke about them and its always bugged me. I can't accept that Esdeath would willingly and knowingly feel nothing about her mother's death, its impossible for a person regardless of what they are to be that far gone. I won't accept it! I can't accept and I'll find out the truth!"
A hand reached to the side of his neck making the Colonel glance upwards in alarm tensing to expect a crushing force to restrict his breathing.
But Esdeath only looked at him blankly as if trying to find the right answer to his persistent question.
"I don't know. It's something I've never taken the time to care for, but I'll humor you. What should I feel, Tatsumi? Should I feel anything about a weak person who couldn't live and died at the hands of the strong?"
Her admission seemingly didn't mean much but to Tatsumi, she actually considered thinking about the time in her childhood. Granted he knew there would be more to the story on hand but just getting her to think about anything other than torture or killing was a step in the right direction. He didn't want to be at odds end with this woman forever, because sometime in the future he'd have to make a choice that ultimately could get him killed.
However the blue haired beauty did have a point in her question.
What should have she felt?
The Colonel spoke honestly since he couldn't tell her what to feel, mainly it was all on her. She'd have to decide on her own and that alone was worth the effort to deal with the pains in understanding her as a person. Choices were choices and they meant she had to find out, like a person did in their lives. It just didn't seem like he had gotten anywhere and only served to warrant her suspicions on him for doing whatever he needed to earn favors with her.
"I can't tell you in what you should feel for your mother, Esdeath. You don't have to answer me at all, but please just consider thinking about when you were a child. My parents were never around, I'd be damned to allow any child of mine to grow up without knowing their parents and for what it's worth..."
A hesitation admission made Esdeath lightly turn his chin upwards to make him unable to look away, she wanted to hear more on the subject of children. At least her eyes were gleaming in a way that certainly got her interested to know more. The young Imperial bitterly spoke up no longer wishing to hide behind his own fears.
Fear.
Fears that ironically kept him out in the open.
"...I don't even know I'll ever be a good father, I never knew my own and that's why when you said you felt nothing about your own mother. It just doesn't make sense to me, in feeling nothing for your own mother is something I can't explain. Perhaps its something for me to accept, I will never know what having a mother or father is like, so I can't understand why wouldn't anyone feel anything. So I want about you, is why! Why don't you feel something?"
Silence pertained between the two Imperials who stared mainly at each other for minutes, trying to gauge each other in ways that many weren't aware to witness. Esdeath certainly felt herself conflicted on some manner to humor her fiance's questions, however there was still more to her story than what they were discussing. So she'd put the fleeting thoughts aside until a later date.
Her smile grew when she lied against the younger Colonel's chest to continue her tale, "We'll find out eventually, but let us put aside my mothers death for now. I'll continue about when I grew older that I loved to hunt the most vicious of danger beasts. For some time I hunted them, bring their corpses and values to my clan as I gradually loved the thrills in taking down my prey. But tell me Tatsumi, do you remember what my father said to me about the strong living and the weak perishing right?"
Keeping her eyes shut while laying against the Colonel's chest, it was her sudden question made a hesitant answer come forth and it only served to make her tone gleeful. If he wanted to know more about her, then she'd speak about the most ironic thing in her life that struck her as an unfairness. An unexpected event that opened her eyes to the world as it only solidified her beliefs.
The strong endured while the weak perished.
"Yeah I remember what you said, the strong live and the weak die. How can I not forget it, why?"
Esdeath chuckled making the vibrations seem all the more menacing for Tatsumi to withstand .
"One day while returning to my clan, I witnessed smoke and fire on the horizon. Naturally as a child I thought it was one of our own hunters bringing back a good catch, however the fantasies of children often are brought to heel under the reality of the world. It turns out my clan had been attacked by another tribe over the Empire's border, I found everyone I knew dead, raped or half alive with spears impaled in their guts. The entirety of the Pratas Clan had been destroyed without me ever seeing the battle, I wandered into my clan's homes to see faces of those who I knew amongst the dead. An irony struck me as I tried to help one my kinsman to ask where my father was at..."
An urge to hold this woman close almost negated the fact his skin had paled and he felt sick to his stomach, Tatsumi understandably put together the clues as to who the killers were. The Northern Nations who inhabited the more frigid regions on the Empire's border and it brought to light whether those four hundred thousand souls were apart of the Ice Queen's retribution as a child. It honestly brought him to question a simple thing.
Did she wipe out the northerners out of spite?
Out of vengeance for her clan's destruction?
"What do you mean? You realized what?"
A sharp laughter echoed into their chambers as the very air nearly froze when Esdeath revealed a spine numbing truth.
"I realized that even my own home was weak. Even though we were the strongest in our lands. We were still weak, so we perished and my father said to me when I found him impaled on the enemy tribes weapons, he spoke in a way that I knew when he'd been resigned to seeing something weak die."
As she continued Tatsumi felt himself pale all the more akin to a dead corpse. Now really the lack of anything humane in her tone just screamed a lost cause, but he pushed himself to look deeper than what was being said. However he knew that she felt something pertaining to her parents, he knew in his gut this apathetic mask had been made for a reason! There was a reason why, and it got him to gather his courage to not interrupt her tale.
Both hands rubbed her back to forestall lingering rage that would raise its head if he pressed his luck any further.
"Imagine someone casually brushing off their own death, like when they just accept it right then and there. It made myself realize that the only one who could keep myself strong was: myself, I could never become weak like my parents who ceased to be among the living. My father said to me as he laid there in his blood, 'This is nothing, it just means we who lost, were weak. It can't be helped so live Strong Esdeath, guess I won't be worried at all.' He died smiling as I watched in shock, to the last of my family leave this world. Something like that happened, so after wards..."
She trailed off momentarily groaning softly at the gentle actions Tatsumi's hands were doing, his hair shadowing his eyes as he looked to the open balcony to be lost in his thoughts. Her origins weren't kind and it seemed that nothing was ever simple when it involved this woman, really nothing ever was in the world. The Colonel had to consider the whole picture when it came down to facing down this woman who so blatantly disregarded life and he had a reason as for why she was like this.
It was because she had never been given a choice.
Esdeath had grown up in an environment where the only choice was to survive...
Eat or be eaten.
So it made sense as to how she had cared little for people, she believed it to be a weakness where her death could have happened in her childhood. Trying to come to a conclusion on her reasons honestly played out to a difficult contradiction, being strong wasn't weak but being weak definitely didn't mean a person was strong.
Her beliefs weren't right but neither were they wrong...
The same as his own if he compared to it the Empire.
So what was right and what was wrong?
"...so for a time, I hunted danger-beasts until prey had become scarce. I enlisted into the Imperial Military so time later, it just became a slight change of focusing my prey from danger beasts onto humans. It only made it easier for me, at times and I eventually came around to rise through the ranks for being the strongest."
A question nagged onto his consciousness when both eyes trailed onto the tactical map tallying the death count in the Northern Campaigns. That massive loss of life made it all the more imperative to see what she thought about ending half a million lives, even though it seemed obvious. Exhaling slowly the young Imperial asked in a calm yet low tone of voice, he knew it wouldn't end well for her to justify it.
But he had to ask to see how far he'd have to go to understand Esdeath.
"So the Northern Campaigns and having to massacre four hundred thousand people. Is that apart of the reason why you were so tenacious and thorough on the tribes? For your father?"
The woman hummed in thought or in bliss from his gentle rubbing motions, it made him believe that she enjoyed being content in a place she believed to be happiness. It hurt to know he did this out of necessity to keep her own inhibitions in check, to keep her sadistic side sated at the expense of his uneasiness to act around the beauty. The Demonic Ice Queen wasn't a title for kindness, it spoke its piece on what she'd do to her enemies or become enraged to the point of no return.
After a brief moment of silence he felt a shrug of her shoulders, "I suppose you could say that. Although I never took it too personally, it was on the orders of the Capital to bury that lot under a sheet of ice and snow. I'd probably do it anyways but I'll humor you again, it did feel good to see them in pain, to witness that terror when I froze them all once they realized how hopeless it was to fight back. They were weak, so they died while I was the strong one."
A sickening feeling of disgust had been aimed not at Esdeath.
Even she was specifically the one who committed the massacre.
But to the creature of a man called Prime Minister Honest who ordered it.
"I swear I'll kill you, I will do it and feel all the more happier to have someone in pieces. If I can't stop this hell now, then more will die in droves like the Northerners. If I have to do something radical or insane to prevent it, so be it. I'm not a good person but I will try, its all I can do at this rate. I have the means now and all I need are results to have my dream become a reality..."
Still to hear the answers coming from her mouth just clenched his heart into a vice, knowing that it felt a bond of sorts to this sadistic warped person called a human. Hope may been his driving force to help the Empire and all its citizens, but it seemed to be a bitter poison when it came to down to himself. A selfish hope for a happier life didn't seem possible hence he felt that his own death would have been the more likely outcome. It just hurt a lot to know he'd be marching to his death on his own will and it'd couldn't be stopped unless he changed the entire world within a small time frame.
Or perhaps guilt had been injected into his heart years ago.
And it had finally brought him to his knees, nearly.
"I guess your father would've been happier to see his killers dead. And I guess he can rest in peace regardless of how you attained it."
Esdeath smiled with a sense of happiness and pride fluttering in her heart despite having her eyes shut, "My, my my. How sweet of you to say that, but as much as I've enjoyed this moment, I have to ask the inevitable question. Did you manage to get a teigu during your time away from me?"
The mood the young Imperial shifted into a more relived one while edging away from the doubt crawling into his heart throughout the tale of Esdeath's childhood. He needed to focus on the present now and did what he could to regroup his collective practical side to explain the results of his trip to the northern regions of the Empire. Honestly it gave him all the more reason to inhale deeply while eying the armored Teigu impaled on his forearm, the polished metal hardly did anything less than it what it already had done.
Glancing towards the ceiling, the young Colonel eventually began with explaining with the most obvious thing, the Teigu itself and well it certainly provided Esdeath with a means to snort in disappointment. Her plans to have her love chained and whipped ruined for a time, she nearly ignored the younger officer's voice despite her well content position on his chest.
"Yes! Yes I did find the Teigu. The guide I had hired knew the terrain well enough that we made quick progress, but there were complications throughout my journey. In fact I'd been meaning to speak to you about something interesting that I encountered, I want it to be a favor or my reward for obtaining this Teigu."
Inhaling uneasily while keeping his hands performing their massaging motions.
"I'm listening."
Esdeath groaned shifting her body to lean into his limbs as he exhaled briefly while forming the best words to describe exactly what he wanted her to listen too.
"During my journey, I encountered someone unique and I can't describe her more than anything else. Really it's really difficult to..."
He got interrupted when a whipping lash of a single word made him mentally hiss at his idiocy.
"Her?"
The General's tone wasn't exactly happy per say.
"Oh son of a bitch, I knew it. At least with Seryu when said her own feelings, I can understand Esdeath wasn't too hostile since she's going to be on the Jaegers. Hell she just made a point but mentioning a complete stranger? Fucking hell, how do I get Yumi under my command without getting her killed? Come on think, you had the time to do this and you can find a way! One step at a time."
Looking back on previous conversations, Tatsumi went with the honest approach and told her truthfully while keeping out certain details to make her hear what she wanted to hear. The young Colonel did what he could to provide a very clear picture and the potential laced with having a powerful person like Yumi under their command, a practical truth which he hoped sated Esdeath's growing irritation.
"Yes, her. Her name is Yumi, she has the potential to become a very powerful soldier Esdeath. We had a brief scuffle on the way to where I found my Teigu, now granted I defeated her into submission but its how she fought that got my attention. I never turn away potential assets if it makes a mission more efficient to complete but you do realize that my Legion is heading for the Capital now, right?"
Esdeath shut her eyes again after hearing another intriguing aspect of her fiance, his practical need to have assets to make their missions all the more efficient. She could accept his reasoning so far and gave her approval while enjoying the warm rubbing sensations of his hands run up her back.
She exhaled contently while speaking up, "Yes I'm well aware. Do continue, I'm curious."
Tatsumi mentally relived the tension building up as panic almost set it, things would have been violent if he didn't dissuade her from being too irritated to listen to his reasoning. Taking a moment to get himself into a more suitable position while leaning against the soft fabric of the bed, the young Imperial explained further on Yumi's induction to his command.
"As I said she's unique for a better lack of a word, I can't fully explain it. However my Legion is always looking for volunteers and those willing to enlist, its apart of the reason why we were so successful in keeping the Western portion of the Empire peaceful. I want her under my command directly, to by used by you in extension, to keep are forces bolstered to take on Night-Raid or any enemies we may encounter. I never liked being complacent when fighting an enemy regardless of what I knew, but what I'm saying about Yumi is that she's..."
Trailing off very uneasily while debating the truth made it all the more harder for him to place words for her condition.
Now that got Esdeath's attention as she twisted herself to look at the pair of uncertain emerald orbs that got her to smile, encouraging him to continue. She could tell how difficult it was for the young Colonel, really it colored her impressed to hear of such a stranger to have an effect on her lover and it made her all the more curious.
"Is she someone special to you, Tatsumi?"
The implications laced over a threat weren't lost on him.
And he went with the truth.
"She's not human Esdeath."
He explained hastily trying to comprehend what exactly that statement meant.
"At least she's not fully human, I don't have a damned clue. I think she's a danger-beast or hell, again I have no clue as to what she really is! I don't even how the hell it's possible she can exist! It's probably why I want Dr. Stylish to check her out for all the more reasons, to understand her and again she's a potentially strong soldier. Plus she's a good person but I think she's very similar to you in a way, considering her own goals."
Admitting to her own beliefs made the woman laugh as if enjoying a very entertaining joke.
"Oh? How so?"
Tatsumi had to smirk at the General's expression since he could see her feelings were genuine and the interest gave him her full attention. It was a good step forward to maintain the practical edge to get the last of his newly acquired subordinates within the Capital without drawing too many eyes. Mentally prepping himself for the proverbial hook, he played onto her own beliefs to shield Yumi from any potential dangers.
"Yumi wants to become the strongest person, literally in the world I guess. She'd get along with you fine and I highly doubt that you'd be threatened by her. She has a long way to go, both as a soldier and as a person since her vocabulary is a bit minimal. I beat her in combat and she wants to learn from me to become a more powerful predator, I'll assume. I've never had the reasons to lie to you about something like this and I want to help her. I never turn away volunteers or the willing, since my Legion is going to be stationed here for the Jaegers to use, I figured to ask you to have her inducted under my command as a favor."
Esdeath sighed to herself shaking her head while smiling the entire time.
Her fiance had a way of turning a day upside down and to make all the happier to exploit it. She had to ask herself if this was a game he enjoyed, favors for favors and the only risk was their own means to pit their words to follow through. Her mind wandered wondering what favor he'd do for her to accept this request, really it made all the more easier for her to have her ways with him and to learn what made him motivated.
But she being lying if she wasn't curious.
"Oh Tatsumi, I don't think you realize what I could do to you for favors. It seems you always turn a disappointing day into a enjoyable one for me, really you have no idea how often you've done it and makes me smile. I think this is a game and a really fun one for me to win."
Importantly it gave her a sense of achieving her victory to dominate the stubbornness her lover held, so for him to ask her for any go-ahead on his own decisions meant he indeed feared her. Well feared what she'd do to him if he risked getting himself killed or angering herself, so it was very sweet of him to know his place to her.
Not to mention being in his arms provider her a rare feeling of what it was like to experience love on an emotional level.
"The strongest person in the world? I think you're over estimating your new friend Tatsumi, but you would be right to say I'm not intimidated. I'm honestly interested to meet this girl, so I'll tell you what I'll do for you as my favor. Your Teigu's quest has a reward on its own, so put that aside okay?"
Giggling softly at the cautious expression forming on the younger Imperial's face, a nod still nonetheless came agreeing her offer per say and it only served to make Esdeath gleefully excited.
"I'd say that's kind of you but what's the price for Yumi to be under my command? No favor we've agreed upon is never without a catch."
Offering a wary smile in his attempt to hide the anxiety in his blood, it caused Esdeath to lean forward casually kissing the side of his neck while agreeing to her fiance's fact. There favors were mainly a game to her now, a very fun game and like all games, she'd be the one victorious to claim the prize at the end. She clearly had so much amusement in her movements that her voice nearly broke into a consistent laughter on the discussion on hand.
"What if I told you I'd have you go on another date with me, what if I had you accompany me to my torture chambers have you learn my ways and what if I told you something involved showering together..."
"Oh god."
Throughout her potential list of demands Tatsumi's blood froze in place as the suggestions became more mind numbing to warp himself around. But for the sake of getting Yumi under the cover story of being a direct subordinate of his, to be with the rest of the group of Teigu users under his Imperial Saber legion and whatever future he needed her in.
The Colonel had to accept the price no matter how damning it'd be in any amount of time.
"I'd agree regardless of what I have to do, Esdeath. Yumi is a volunteer, someone willing to go through the training to become a very potentially powerful soldier loyal to the Empire and I did promise her to have her grow to become stronger. Plus it'd make the mission to stop Night-Raid all the more efficient and you know I wouldn't lie to your face about this. So I'd do what is required to owe up to the favor you ask."
Feeling the teasing motions of her lips tracing his jugular, the General spoke her positive piece before shifting the conversation away into a more enlightened subject.
"I'll let you know soon enough for what I want, so in the mean time you can have your precious recruit join your little legion. If she proves to be a valuable asset, I'll consider teaching her a practical lesson whenever I'm done with your own. But let us discuss your reward for this weapon that's on your arm, it looks quite intriguing: so do you understand how it works?"
Tatsumi almost cheered out loud and had to pray for a brief instance of success.
So literally nearly laying his back against the bed in relief as the more difficult aspect of convincing Esdeath had sorted itself out and he only had to worry about the repercussions on a later date. To be fair, he had a slight suspicion things could have been worst and a lot more dangers. So all in all this wasn't too damning to deal with.
His heart nearly entered a brief state of content relaxation but he knew that answers had to given, especially to the unknown metallic gauntlet called Strafe impaled onto his forearm. Trying to rationalize what it could do certainly didn't make it any more easier to explain it to Esdeath herself, technically no one knew what in the hell this thing could even do in four hundred plus years.
So it begged a question.
How did he explain a Teigu that hasn't been seen in almost five hundred years?
"If I lie or bluff, I know she'll call me out on it. Best thing to do, tell her the truth and brace for whatever happens. I'll have to learn more about Strafe as time goes on, really can't perform too many miracles in a day."
His thoughts forced him to sigh out loud, a genuine sign of frustration that made Esdeath all the more interested to learn more about his new Teigu.
"I have no idea as how it activates. Hell I only know that the Teigu is called Strafe. Apparently it means 'penance' in the older Imperial literature, I hoped someone could find out more here in the Capital. Although it technically didn't respond to me until after I had locked on my arm, it impaled through my arm and I can't get it off. So I'm stuck with it and I have to learn how to use it, somehow."
Tatsumi knew he shouldn't have realized that shame in using a new weapon wasn't a bad thing, it only meant he was human and had to learn to wield it effectively. Using a new weapon wasn't shameful, it just made him anxious to understand that he knew nothing at all about using a Teigu and what it'd do to him to incorporate it into his style of fighting. But his heart beat painfully when he admitted this truth to a woman who had reached the pinnacle of using a Teigu to its maximum potential and had become the most powerful soldier of his country.
The Empire's strongest wasn't easily attainable but it seemed, so far out of reach at times.
"It'll come naturally to you Tatsumi, so do not worry too much. Like all weapons, its skill is on the user and one day you'll reach my power. We have time and all you need to do is follow my instruction to become the strongest within the Empire. I'm kind of interested as to how it bonds to its user, so I'll have our recently acquired Stylish to take a look at it and furthermore, I believe your reward for this accomplishment must be addressed."
While it seemed like a warm gesture for her to say such an easy assumption, Tatsumi knew he had to go beyond any normal means to attain power required for his plans. Taking on Esdeath potentially wasn't ever going to simple or even easy in any sort of hellish scenario that meant open combat. The Colonel had to push himself even further beyond what it meant to be a human, he had to get stronger and to become powerful in order to get to where he needed to be.
Doubt tore into his mind about whether he had the means to reach that level in where Esdeath made seem so natural, so easy that it really gave her that illusion of being a true monster. No person could reach that level in a such a time frame in what was required of his plans and the costs of reaching that type of level would be unreal to imagine. Feeling the growing shivers slipping up onto his spine, a subtle numbing all nerves leading around his abdomen did Tatsumi ask himself a question.
What would be the price to pay to earn that type of power?
"What reward are you suggesting? I'd be happier to know that I helped a person become a soldier under my watch and to be fair, my Legion is coming soon. So I really wouldn't know what to ask for, Esdeath."
Another small stint of laughter came to be at his questioning of the intended rewards for his quest to obtain Strafe and it honestly confused him as to why she laughed. Did he say something to amuse her or was there something he was ignorant about? In all fairness the Colonel never indulged into excessive rewards of wealth, pleasure or anything akin to his fellow officers in the Empire's Military. Having a large amount of gold in their pockets tended to make many flaunt their status's at times and it showed during ceremonies like his promotional in the Imperial Palace a year ago.
Esdeath had been the odd exception which really seemed ironic to the entirety of the Imperial Military.
The most sadistic, twisted and strongest soldier of the Empire never indulged herself into personal tastes that her fellow generals hadn't done before. So basically she seemed more humane in that sense comparing to the many Imperial Officers who lavished in excess to pertain to their pleasures. Tatsumi had to purge his thoughts on considering Esdeath as a humble yet simple person, her room didn't give truth to that assumption.
Although she didn't make it excessive enough to where it suffocated in wealth, but it wasn't bad.
Their shared chambers held that firm line of practical usage and self-interest as it were.
"Well it's a good thing I prepared to have contingencies if you succeeded. Such a shame, I really like that collar I picked out."
Tatsumi literally deadpanned at her that caused another fit of giggles to escape as the beauty explained further much to her obvious bemusement that effected her fiance's expression. Esdeath knew she discovered a new hobby to tease the younger Imperial in the coming days, it made him proving her wrong all the more fun to witness and it got her excited to think about doing certainly activities as well.
They had time to learn about each other, regardless of the circumstances.
"Do you see that bundle lying on the desk over there? I prepared a special set of gifts that I'd normally hold off but you did return with a Teigu, so as I once said before I do reward those under me Tatsumi. Go on, try them on and Ill determine if my suspicions are correct."
Reluctantly the woman got off up from her comfort zone that was her fiance's chest, she nudged him to go on ahead as the Colonel moved past the open balcony door leading to the outside. Reaching over towards the bundle of clothing and whatever was wrapped. Adjusting several straps to reveal the bundle of clothing, Tatsumi discovered a set of items unique in their own rights.
"What in the hell is this?"
Lifting a coat akin to his own, a new uniform with designs customized from the woman behind him as she smiled despite having his attention on the new clothing. Feeling the texture of the uniform, it seemed nearly leather but had a certain weight added on for a durable usage and it looked reptilian underneath the white exterior.
Slipping into the new coat did he notice that scales were underneath to keep his body warm as other adjustments to his attire came to mind and he had to ask Esdeath, why did she want him wearing this new clothing? Did it really matter in the long to look in whatever fashion she desired? He was still an officer of the Imperial Military as herself.
"A new uniform? What's so different about it?"
His eyes caught the black glinting metal of a black cross on his shoulders and Tatsumi flipped the flaps over his neck line to see miniature emblems as well. They were definitely genuine black rubies or emeralds, basically anything expensive in that sense to really paint a picture of strength. White cloth freshly pressed essentially made is uniform a bright snow like coloration.
Along with his rank just below on his shoulders underneath the black crosses.
"That emblem is apart of my army, the Pratas Clan's to be exact and your going to be apart of my clan despite being the last member myself. After-all your my fiance, the Emperor himself let the news spread. It's to show everyone that you are mine and I do want to get into more hobbies. Designing is not my greatest strength, to be fair and it's a good time as any to get into something constructive when you're away from me."
Tatsumi almost winced since she revealed the source of the news of his engagement to Esdeath.
However he continued to inspect the last bundle while unwrapping the common cloth with his hands and it revealed...
"Wow."
One word spoke many things as the General behind him continued enjoying the stunned look on her lover's face and it made all the more fulfilling to see him wear her colors. She enjoyed the way how he had looked in his clothing, a possessive righteousness came over her as that urge to hold him in her arms became all the more imperative.
Her heart beat strongly as she watched the Colonel lift up a new weapon.
Having the Capital's resources at her disposal, she had upgraded and modified his secondary weapon into the finest blade she imagined to be so. It certainly matched his uniforms coloration and design, leaving him to only grow to become her equal in power into the future. Her gleeful smile didn't settle that urge to dominate his being yet that feeling of happiness crawled into her heart at what he did next.
The young Imperial smiled as he shakily unsheathed the blade.
An unworldly amazement graced itself onto his face to see his childhood weapon.
The blade wasn't normal by any means with the black cross emblem of the Pratas Clan on one side of the hilt and he flipped it over to see his Imperial Saber's Legion marking as well, both were made from emerald giving it a darkened beauty. The hilt itself was a reddish purple coloration that stood out in a smooth yet polished texture that made Tatsumi remember briefly about an ex-soldier who wanted to care for him in his home village.
That old man seemed sad to seem him go at the time but the Colonel knew the beginnings of a blacksmith and he could appreciate a person's efforts into a project like this blade. All in all this blade would have been good but the most definite feature of this new weapon was the very blade itself, a double edged serrated edge.
Black steel reflected his face to see the stunned changes in his old weapon, amazing changes nonetheless that were on display!
"When did you have the time to do this? Thank you! I can't say anything more than..."
The Colonel turned to face the blue haired beauty who shot forward kissing so cavernously that left it him stunned as she pressed him against the wall. A hidden hunger erupting within her body as his arms were nerveless due to her bold actions.
Esdeath pulled away sighing happily, "You're welcome."
The General walked towards the map displaying the territory of the Empire, lost in her thoughts as her fiance tried to recover any coherent thoughts as she explained the brief adventure in forming that blade. It wasn't anything too expensive on her part to pay for and it honestly needed a new look, it really paid off in that sense as her eyes trailed over the younger Imperial's body.
"Your new weapons creation wasn't too much of a hassle, I picked out a few details and had the resources of the Empire's finest weapon-smiths in the Capital to use for trivial projects such as this. I had it ready some time ago and would've used it for whenever you progressed in my lessons, but your Teigu is proof enough you get results whenever you mean it. Still its heart warming to see you smile at my gifts, the only thing left for me to do is train you up. Using a Teigu makes it all the more fun for me to not hold back since your body isn't so frail anymore..."
She laughed mainly as Tatsumi eyed her curiously despite instigating his body was 'frail' and it certainly wasn't in the slightest. He felt thankful to her! Really he felt happier to know that while she wasn't the most emotional person, Esdeath did have a side of her to care for people. It just didn't like to reveal itself whenever outside of her own gruesomer hobbies.
Either way it felt nice for him to experience this kinder personality.
"Thank you. Regardless of what you planned it's still a kind thing for you to do, for me. I guess I have to meet your expectations or simply surpass them to repay this gift, it's beautiful."
Sheathing the blade into its sheath silently as it ended with a prominent 'click' as he walked towards the blue haired woman overlooking the map of the Empire's territory. Her eyes were taking in all the latest details she had marked over the time her lover had been away, the enemies were flourishing! They were ready to be taken down by her to prove time and time again: the Strong survived and the Weak perished!
A rare moment came between them for several minutes.
"She seems so calm yet its her eyes that make me worried. She's fixated on that map now, though for whatever reasons I know not. I can only hope for the best, its the greatest chance to find out more about her and hopefully, understand why she hides behind the mask of a monster..."
Until a loud series of 'knocks' came from their chamber door making the General narrow her eyes in obvious resentment to the interruption. The Colonel had picked up on the growing negativity immediately as he acted quickly to keep the soul alive on the other-side of the wooden frame.
So Tatsumi went to answer before anyone became a frozen corpse just in case.
Opening the door it revealed a guard who was understandingly nervous to interrupt whatever private moments the two Imperial officers had going onwards. Technically he almost became a frozen piece of flesh if the General had answered before the Colonel who warmly addressed the man with a smile in place.
An instant relief surged into the man's face as the younger Imperial waited patiently, "Colonel Saber! I apologize if I disturbed yourself and your fiancee at this time but the Emperor has summoned you to the front of the Imperial Palace! News had been sent ahead towards the Palace and his majesty wished to greet your Legion as it marches towards the gates, sir!"
The sudden summons made both Esdeath and Tatsumi have varying levels of interest.
Immediately he replied kindly and eased the unfortunate Palace guard away from the growing annoyance radiating off the General, she didn't seem happy to have her time removed with him. It'd be best to go the Emperor's side and all the while show the blue haired beauty to see what exactly she had disregarded about his Imperial Sabers when they met.
"I'll be there immediately, the Emperor's will is my own and I shall obey. Be at ease you didn't interrupt anything personal, so you can send word to my guest Yumi if she's around with one of your own and have her meet me at the gates as well. It'd be appreciated if you can get that done."
The guard nodded respectfully and happily as his face regained some of its blood flow, he left saluting to accomplish his task.
And Tatsumi closed the door in the mean time.
So his Legion was finally here after so long of them being away...
"Esdeath can you come with me to meet my Imperial Sabers? I want to show you what you called my soldiers quite some time ago, remember when you called them Glory-Hounds?"
His request even stunned him as his eyes almost widened as the woman tilted her head at him curiously. Regaining control in that sense wasn't easy but he settled on smiling kindly at her in way that didn't mean an ulterior motive in a bad way. He honestly wanted her to know what his Legion had been created too do, what they were loyal too and ultimately what his Legion wanted to fight for in the future that was in his dream.
Tatsumi smiled genuinely as the General walked over to him, "I'd be delighted to see what you have made Tatsumi, although I doubt you're going to succeed in impressing me. My army and my soldiers will still trump over yours, so don't get any ideas."
Her word's weren't too serious in that sense, it honestly just got the Colonel smiling. Her unexpected playful banter made him all the more happier to see if he could prover her wrong, well intentionally for once. He had nothing to lose to impress her with his own soldiers, they were hand picked over a year to become a formidable fighting force.
And he be damned to not at least try to make an impression on her.
"If I wanted to impress you, I'd have taken you on a date as soon as I got back. What if we went to go see a musical or go out shopping again for casual clothes and what no?t Does that sound productive to understand each other more?"
His offer made the woman kiss him hungrily as his back slammed into the door as she got more aggressive to assert her power over him and literally hissed into his ear to remind him of that position.
"Don't be too bold Tatsumi or I will chain you to our bed but a date sounds nice. Just don't get too full of yourself since you have a Teigu now, just remember you're still weak!"
The Colonel only replied with an understanding expression that highlighted his emerald pupils in a warm gaze.
"Not if I have a choice to become strong."
Esdeath didn't reply to his response.
The Imperial Capital didn't realize the full extent of what this garrisoned Legion's presence would do in the future. Many would see these Imperial Sabers and not one wouldn't forget the very strength they radiated marching in through the gates of the city. Not one citizen, corrupt or innocent would forget that change had come to the Empire in that form of soldiers who fought for the very thing that was denied to all who lived under the corrupted system of the Prime Minister.
Hope had come.
And it had arrived armed to the last man under its banner.
End Chapter Twenty
Author's Note: Okay I'm posting this chapter regardless of where I am on Chapter Thirty, due to a couple of reasons. Mainly that fact of the latest Manga chapter and I am furious, well heavily irritated to the point where I've had my inner fanboy crushed. Esdeath and Tatsumi in cannon is never going to happen, I wanted to bite my finger off when I read it. So this is my stubborn unimportant relation to that newest release, or maybe I'm a chapter behind but regardless my intentions are very, very personnel.
So perhaps I'm well aware of how cliche the manga has gone, plus I don't like the whole parring with Mine. It's a minor grievance I have, I enjoyed the manga and I didn't enjoy the anime too much, but we have our little quirks in why we dislike things. My whole point is that, I'm quite motivated to post this chapter as another tender moment with Tatsumi/Esdeath to start having that hope for some people to enjoy the pairing as a whole. Really I boiled down my thoughts and rather assumptions of her character into a simple question.
"How do I get Tatsumi to be interested or invested into Esdeath?"
I really can't decide on whether I'm doing the right thing in doing this, but I have hope most of you are enjoying these conversations between them. I know some are questioning the overall assumption of what I can pull off, but the truth of the matter is: I'm only human. I know for a fact I'm going to be messing up on some things and I can't claim to be all knowing, really I enjoy writing but this brings me to another aspect of my reasons in posting this earlier.
Also I hate to have to address this but when it comes down to anonymous PM's or whatever. Sad to say two of them stuck to me in a negative way. So basically I'll boil it down into a statement of my own words, to save you the trouble.
"Your story is crap. You have like little plot, character's are iffy and the OC's are blah, blah, blah..."
Well to have my first flames after twenty chapters is something proud for me have, I mean damn. It took long enough but hey, it's about time something happened to make me post to tell them to go off themselves somewhere. But apart from that, I'm going to say a very simple thing. I mean really, I wish I could write professionally and earn a living off it, but I can't yet.
I'm getting off track, if people do not like the story or whatever then: do not read it.
That's my only answer to that type of drama/stupidity etc.
Moving onwards, the Imperial Sabers are almost here and I've had several discussions with people as to what they're capable of. I think a few in my readers and review sections can attest to that discussion, or debate technically which was fun by the way. I do enjoy conversing with people about the aspects of this story and where it all entitles too, I find it as stress reliving to know I can inspire such fierce yet warm conversations. Conversations with people across the world, literally as I mean I had discussions with people in different countries.
Point is let's all have a good time.
And I'll see you again when I update.
As always be safe, have a good time and be well wherever you're living at.