They had been called out to a far part of the Capitol, to a lake where aquatic Danger Beasts were.
Due to Wave's own experience, as well as a couple of the others', he'd been called out to deal with them.
As it turned out, these Danger Beasts were especially adept at going about luring fishermen to their deaths by pulling them in.
As such, the only apparent way to lure *them* out was to pretend to be a fisherman innocently going about their routine.
Seryu hadn't been expecting much, but with the thoroughly intense game of cat and mouse that was fishing, she was devoid of anything to pass the time beyond asking about something, anything.
"Is Wave your real name?"
And that was what she chose.
This singular question became the impetus to the soldier learning a number of things that day.
"It is, yeah. Why do you ask Seryu?" Wave asked the brown haired girl next to him, eyebrow raised as he glanced her way.
"I remembered that you were born at the ocean. It seemed... nice."
"Really? It seemed kind of lazy to me." Kurome noted beside them, sitting against a tree trunk.
"Well, they said that they wanted—" Wave looked over to her, before his eyes widened. "! Hey, are you eating the bait?!"
"I'm hungry." Kurome said shamelessly. "This tastes good."
"That's for the Danger Beasts!"
Kurome hummed, then stopped, setting the bucket of bait out of her lap.
"What were you saying?" Seryu asked.
Wave looked at the girl fully now, able to read her boredom in her body language.
"Well... the water's always been associated with dangerous things. I come from a fisher town, so they thought that it'd be best to name me "Wave" for good luck."
"Hm. Your parents seem like the optimistic sort." Seryu hugged her knee to her chest, resting her head against it, her eying Wave curiously.
"The sad thing is that he's the weakest of all of us." Kurome noted, Wave going rigid, before his body became completely white while he hung his head.
"That's nothing to be ashamed of. We're Esdeath's elite guard after all Wave. You must have been quite skilled to have been recommended." Seryu looked forward to the fishing rod. "Even the weakest among us is still great in power."
Wave looked to her, then nodded faintly.
"Oh... thanks, Seryu. What about you? Do you know why your parents named you Seryu?" He asked her.
He had never gotten the chance to truly interact with her prior to then, and now that they were together, it seemed as good a chance as any.
Seryu frowned at his question however.
"I'm not sure. They never said why, exactly."
"Really? Why's that?"
"They were on duty when they died, killed by members of the Resistance, when I was younger."
His eyes widened.
"... sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up."
"It's fine. It's only harmless curiosity on your part." She reached to her Teigu, Coro sitting glumly, and pet him. "I think your parents had high hopes for you. And you certainly delivered. You seem to be a man of good heart and character, and quite strong. Remember to cherish them, Wave."
"Uh, yeah. I will."
As the three of them fell silent once more, Wave spoke up after a moment.
"I'm sure your parents are proud of you."
"You think? They actually wanted a son. When they raised me, they even tried raising me as one."
"Huh?" Wave looked to her, and Seryu chuckled, a nostalgic look in her eyes as she looked to the serene lake.
"I'm honestly glad they did. I never was one for more ladylike things. Combat is where I TRULY feel at home." She smirked, a zealous glint in her hard eyes, her grinning ear to ear in memory of something.
"Oh. Well, would you like to go a few rounds against me when we get back to the Capitol?" Wave offered. "Part of me figured you'd be into that sort of thing when we first met."
She looked to him, before smirking.
"Sorry, but you're not the sort of person I enjoy getting into fights with."
Wave blinked twice.
"Uhh... okay? What sort of person DO you like fighting against?"
"Evildoers, of course!" She sprung up to her feet, clenching her prosthetic fist with passion. "Purging evil as a harbinger of JUSTICE! There's no greater RUSH than giving those Resistance *scum* their just desserts!" She hugged herself at the idea of it. "Oh, wherever could these Danger Beasts BE?! I'll *kill* them, and I'll *gut* them before feeding their corpses to Coro!"
Wave was greatly taken aback by her zealotry — but Kurome had other things in mind.
"Can I join in?" Kurome asked. "If it's edible, I'm all for it."
"*That's* the first thing that comes to mind?!" Wave asked to the young girl, who shrugged.
"I didn't pack enough of my cookies." She pouted.
"Oh, yes, we'll feast upon their entrails! We'll boil their *eyeballs* in a *stew* and feed them to the pigeons at the local park! Let it be done!" Seryu looked to her Imperial Arms. "Coro! Give me the weapons I need to KILL these vermin!"
The animal devoured her arm, and it was replaced by a giant mace on a chain.
As Seryu was about to swing her weapon down at the waters, however, Wave grasped her arm and stopped her.
"Hey, calm down!"
"Why are you STOPPING me?!" Seryu asked, yet even as she looked back at him, the mania of her eyes drove him to flinch back, unnerved.
"Look, the Danger Beasts are just going to swim away if you try going in there to attack! They have to think that you're *defenseless* before they come up!"
Seryu ground her teeth, which somehow looked far sharper than any normal person's all of a sudden, her growling down at the water.
"Spineless COWARDS!" Seryu snarled at the waters. "You've escaped my wrath now, but JUSTICE will claim all of you, without exception!"
"These Danger Beasts ARE usually invertebrate."
They looked behind themselves to find Run and Esdeath behind them.
"Oh, you guys are here. Where's Bols?" Kurome wondered.
"He's coming behind us. He said he'd make you more cookies before he arrived." Run explained.
"Have any of you had any luck in capturing them yet?" Esdeath asked while strolling forward, looking into the tranquil waters that reflected her face back up at her.
"None so far. Wave said they can't feel threatened, or they won't take the bait." Kurome explained.
"Is that so?" She asked the man in question, who let go of Seryu's arm and nodded, Seryu looking to Esdeath as well.
"Yeah, they understand that some people are stronger than other, so they only go for people they think are weak." Wave admitted.
"I see. In that case, it's just a matter of superiority." She looked down to the waters, then smiled a broad, sadistic smile, hand reaching up her jacket. "If they won't come to *us*, then *I'll* just go to *them*."
"H-Huh?" Wave said for the umpteenth time that day, only for him to repeat it again when Esdeath began shedding her clothes. "HUH?!"
Left in what resembled a bikini, the pale skinned woman placed her clothes in the dumbstruck Wave's arms.
"Hold these for me, will you? I wouldn't want them to get dirty."
"You're really going to go down there yourself like that?!"
"Why wouldn't I? If the Danger Beasts seek to assert their superiority, then who am I not to heed their challenge?"
Before he could say anything further on the matter, Esdeath jumped into the waters, disappearing into their depths.
"She's quite the courageous one, isn't she?" Run walked up to his companions.
"She's breathtaking..."
They looked to Seryu, whose eyes were glued to the spot where Esdeath landed inside, cheeks flushed, before she noticed everyone looking at her.
"What's wrong?"
"Are you okay Seryu?" Wave finally asked. "Your nose is bleeding..."
Seryu blinked, then dabbed her finger at her nose to find drops of blood there.
"What— *No*, I have no idea why this is happening!" Seryu looked around at them.
"It's nothing to worry over." Run pulled out a handkerchief for her, which Seryu took with some hesitance and cleaned her nose.
"What about you Run? Did your parents have a reason for naming you that?" Wave found himself asking.
"Oh— well, there really isn't a reason for it." Run answered.
The blonde man wasn't keen on telling them all about how his name was fake, for when he'd forged his papers to move up the military ranks.
"Really? That's a shame."
"Why do you ask?" Run asked, and Wave explained it, how Seryu had asked him where his name came from, he'd asked where hers came from, and he was just curious.
"Really? How did that lead to you screaming at the water and getting your chain mace out?" Run asked the flushing girl.
"We were talking about combat, and my blood started boiling. I wanted to kill the Danger Beasts in the water." Seryu admitted sheepishly.
"None of you are gonna ask me where my name comes from?" Kurome asked.
"Do you know?" Wave asked over his shoulder to her.
"My parents named me after my eye color. "Kuro-" mean black, and "-me" means eyes."
"They named you Black Eye?" Wave have a weird look.
"Akame from Night Raid is your older sister, isn't that right?" Run asked. "They named her "Red Eye"?"
"They weren't very creative." She answered flatly.
"No kidding. Red Eye at least sounds like an assassin name, Black Eye just sounds like you'll punch someone in the face."
"Should I give it a try?" She asked with a light growl.
"No need to be hostile." A man's voice said through a gas filter, the group looking to find the tall, bulky figure of Bols standing there. "I brought more cookies for you Kurome."
"Thank you." Kurome took the bag he plaintively put in her hands.
"Where is Esdeath?" Bols asked the others, before seeing what Wave was carrying. "Are those her clothes?"
"She's uh — fighting with the fish?" Wave tried to explain.
"Everyone, look!" Seryu pointed, them all turning their attention to the dark, humanoid figure zipping rapidly around in the waters, kicking around thoroughly after a much larger, misshapen figure, a bucking kick sending it bursting out of the waters at high speeds, its blurred form zipping up into the air, gaining steam, before it spontaneously exploded above them, the collective group giving a surprised exclamation as they scrambled to get up and jump out of the path of the flaming debris — except Seryu, who called for Coro to act, the small animal Teigu bulking up.
Seeing what Seryu was doing, Run paused in his retreat.
"Mastema!" He invoked his winged Teigu, projectiles stabbing into them, shifting the flaming innards' path of falling to fall towards Coro, who opened his massive maw and let all of them fall into the Teigu's maw.
"Did she really just *kick* a Danger Beast so hard it *exploded*?!" Wave asked, and, as if hearing him, three more of the Danger Beasts burst out of the water, flying to fall towards where the group had been.
Wave and Seryu both looked up at seeing the falling figures, Seryu smirking broadly.
"Run, can you give me a path?" Wave called to his ally.
"Alright!"
"Bols!" Wave turned to the large man.
"Yes Wave?" Bols looked back to him.
"Please hold Esdeath's clothes for me!" Wave said, Bols nodding and taking the clothes up, Wave grasping his sword by the hilt, stabbing it into the ground.
"Grand Chariot!" He roared, arcs of lighting bursting around him as the skeletal form of the creature the Teigu was formed from came to life behind him, its massive hands placing themselves on either side of Wave as it roared in turn, Wave feeling as it shattered apart, body melding to his body to create a form of armor.
Arrows of light forming in the sky from Run's Mastema, Wave tensed his legs, then thrust himself through the air at one, his form whizzing through the air, foot pressed against the side of it, before he kicked himself off of it to get to the next one, him zipping in a zig-zagged path before he found himself before the Danger Beast, a mid-air punch launching it down to Coro's massive maw.
As the Teigu caught it in and chomped on the beast, Seryu gripped the chain on her arm, her hoisting the massive mace up in the air, her chain rattling as it shot up, her catching the chain before tugging it back, the mace changing direction to swing abruptly over the third Danger Beast, Seryu reeling in the chain as it wrapped around its body, a fierce tug swinging it down to ground with a rumble.
"Coro, leave that one for Kurome!" Seryu said, the group looking, with widened eyes, to find ice shards aimed from beneath the water's surface, aimed up at the fourth Danger Beast, stabbing into several places before the ice spread, soon engulfing it in ice.
This preceded Esdeath launching out of the water, up at the fourth of them, delivering a hard kick that sent it hurtling towards the ground, landing roughly against the ground.
Esdeath free falling through the air, she smirked freely before she entered a frontal flip, knees tucked, before she landed in a crouched position, humming as she rose purposefully back to her feet.
"Those were all the Danger Beasts." Esdeath informed her elite guard, Wave, not having calculated a landing strategy, clumsily landing in a tree near her, fumbling through the foliage to land with a thud on the ground. "They put up a decent fight. But that was only because of a handicap I placed on myself."
"Did you freeze the last one so we can eat it too?" Seryu asked excitedly.
"Oh, *heavens* no." Esdeath walked to the frozen over Danger Beast, pressing her hand against the ice, seeing the way the beast's eyes darted to and fro, wriggling in a vain attempt to get to safety. "I'm going to make this my own form of *entertainment* for tonight. I'll see how long this one lasts before I *break* it."
"... General Esdeath?" Seryu spoke without thinking.
"Yes Seryu dear?"
"How did your parents pick YOUR name?"
"My name? Oh, they had high expectations for me." She smiled. "They expected me to be on top, no matter the situation."
Recovering and walking back, armor dispersing from him, Wave looked to his general.
"What do you mean? How do they get "Esdeath" out of that?"
"OH! It's actually a funny story, that. My name is actually pronounced as "Es desu"."
"Es desu?" Everyone repeated in unison, sans Run, who gave a peculiar look at her.
"Yes. It means "I'm an S"." She explained. "But everyone kept mishearing me when I said it, so eventually, people just called me Esdeath."
"What does the "S" stand for though?" Wave gave a baffled expression.
Run's eyes grew wide.
"It *can't* mean...?"
"Have you figured it out Run?" The woman now known as Esdesu smiled at the winged man.
"'S' as in... 'BDSM'?" He asked.
"You hit the nail on the head!"
Everyone fell silent for a long moment.
"What kind of family did you *come from*?!" Wave exclaimed in abject horror and disgust. "Who names their *kid* that?!"
"Some of the people in my village thought it a strange name as well. But no matter. People have learned to fear and respect my name, and I relish the chance to live up to all that people associate with it. Now, where did my clothes go?"
A/N: This was honestly my attempt at writing out for the Jaegars before I wrote my fanfic centered around them.
I'm not sure when it'll be that I get around to writing that fic, but the primary idea for this one is just moments where the Jaegars hung out in their spare time. I know I'm in the minority, but I always sort of preferred the Jaegars over Night Raid, just for the fact that most of them, sans Dr. Stylish, were pretty solid characters to me despite them looking like a stock fantasy hero's party at first glance.
This will just be a dumping ground for ideas I wish I could've gotten to see.
The only ones I have at the moment are just from a Discord rant about what I wished could've happened between the Jaegars at some point. *peruses the list* Including things like Wave, Run and Bols having a guys' night out, Kurome taking part in a hot dog eating contest before taking a group photo of the rest of the Jaegars with the trophy, everyone babysitting Bols' daughter after his wife got sick...
*sees something about yuri fuel between Seryu and Kurome with them innocently snuggling in a bed*
...
I might have found what I'm writing next.