It's strange how the series is named after Akame but she isn't the protagonist, Tatsumi is, while there are those who think otherwise, I still see that Tats is the main focus while Akame Is the secondary character, aka deuteragonist, for this story Daikon is the protagonist and Kurome is the deuteragonist.
3 days later, southwest of a rebel base
It was a starry night as most of the Elite Seven were currently sent on a mission, Gozuki and the team stood on top a small cliff with a good view of the enemy base, he unsheathes his teigu and stares ahead "Alright, when everyone is ready we'll start our attack, we're gonna make sure no one is left standing".
"So uh...what's the main reason for attacking this base?" Green asks curiously, the leader then fills them in "There has been word of bandits working with the revolutionary, we are aiming to kill them and their leader while taking out the enemy base in this region, luckily we have soldiers with us".
Cornelia is already ready to attack "Heh, with most of us this should be easier" she says as she wears crushing king, "Remember not to underestimate the enemy" Natala warns her while carrying his shingu, just then he notices 3 people who stood out near the base, 2 of the blue haired girls and Mudi.
Kurome looks closely before turning back "those 3 don't look like ordinary soldiers, they must be the bandits" she says before unsheathing her sword, Natala agrees with a nod, he looks towards the leader with a question "By the way...where's Daikon and Akame?".
Gozuki responds to his question as he cleans his blade, the sunlight reflecting from the blade a bit "I gave them different missions, I sent Daikon to assassinate the commander of the Mount Hakuba base, the target is currently stationed to a smaller base nearby the capital".
The long haired leader then took out a photo, a photo of Najenda "As for Akame, her mission is to assassinate the leader of Night Raid, it'll be worth a try even if she fails", Kurome held her weapon tightly, feeling very worried for her "Hopefully she'll survive either way...".
Everyone prepares to attack the base, Gozuki then thinks about Akame, remembering a conversation they had 4 nights ago, he glares at his blade with some thoughts "Maybe...she can be the next wielder...", he steps forward with a serious glare "Let's get moving".
Suddenly imperial soldiers from the right side of the base started attacking, giving the rest of the team the signal to attack, the Seven begin charging from the backside, attempting to take out the 3 members of the Retribution group as the soldiers keep the rebels busy.
The 3 bandits were standing on top a part of the building, Mudi watched the battlefield with a grin "This will be a gruesome carnival of blood", afterwards he pulls out a revolver, examining it before putting it away in case he needs it, "You think you should try getting more involved in the fight?" Loris asks him.
He shook his head "You girls should make sure to keep the assassins busy while I try to kill their leader" he says before jumping down, the other sister pulls out 2 knives while detecting the team "This means more fun for us".
Loris smiled and unsheathes her knives as well "Yeah Meela, let's avenge our clan", the blue haired sisters jump off the building and land safely, trying to look for the Seven through all the fighting going on, the Empire and the rebels were fighting a brutal battle.
At the backside of the base there were rebel soldiers guarding a gate, one of them looks down to fire at enemies, but just as he pulls out his rifle Gozuki jumped up to cut his throat, he then swiftly kills the other man and pulls down a lever to open the gate.
Many Imperial soldiers flood through the gate and begin firing, a lot of rebels didn't expect them to come from the back, so as they saw the enemy march in they quickly grab their weaponry and fight back, but a lot of them fell victim to the surprise.
Gozuki watched as a lot of ally forces begin gunning down the enemy, he looks around for any sign of the bandits while holding on tightly to Murasame, suddenly he feels a presence behind him and quickly deflects a bullet, the person behind him was Mudi with his revolver.
"Heh, you must be one of the bandits" Gozuki says with a smirk "And from the looks of it, the leader", the dark skinned man grits his teeth with disappointment "Damnit, missed my opportunity", but then he got an idea, he could use the secrete arts of the his fellow Gravekeepers.
Both leaders have a stare down, Gozuki loses the smirk as he notices Mudi smiling as well, "What could he be planning?" he thought, he then gets into his fighting stance "I won't allow him the opportunity to unleash any attack".
Gozuki runs towards the man and aims a stab to the chest, Mudi is able to dodge the attack quick enough and do hand signs mid-air, after landing he finishes his hand signs, "With this secret ability...i can morph into any danger beast" he thought, now starting to physically change.
Mudi begins groaning as his body starts growing bits of fur and growing in size, his face morphing, his voice becoming monstrous, Gozuki couldn't see what was going on with him clear enough due to the debris covering him, but as soon as he was about to jump down...a stream of fire approaches him.
"What the-" Gozuki shouted before jumping out of the way, he watched as the dust cleared, he now looked extremely surprised, Mudi was now a 7-foot-tall wolfish creature with purplish skin and black fur, he had long ears, sharp claws and completely white eyes, the beast roared as Gozuki thought to himself "It can't be...a Nubis...".
Meanwhile, base near lake Gyogan
The enemy fortress wasn't quite as large as the others, only over 40 rebels stationed, Daikon watched the soldiers patrol from afar, "The old man also wants me to kill any of the bandits if they are there, gotta keep my eyes out" he says to himself.
The spiky haired assassin puts on a grey face mask only covering his mouth and nose before pulling a hood over his head, inside the interior of the base there weren't as many soldiers, as most of them are patrolling the outside, the commander of the Mount Hakuba base sat inside a large room.
"Sir, are you feeling alright?" one of his soldiers asked, the woman was in her late 30's with long brown hair and green eyes, wearing a standard revolutionary uniform, the commander nods his head "I'm fine, just tonight gives me the spooks", he was feeling paranoid as if he was being watched.
The female soldier raised a brow before turning back towards a wall, her expression was more cold than most of the others, before she walks out the man raised his hand "Hey, don't forget to get a good night sleep", the woman briefly turned back with a nod "...Yes".
"Alright captain, your dismissed" the commander says as he sits on a chair near a fireplace, the green eyed woman leaves the room with a quiet sigh, walking past the bandit with a golden right eye and a black left one "You looked bothered" he said calmly.
She faces the young man while holding onto her rifle, it takes her a few seconds before responding "It's nothing, just the past", she takes out a small photo of a man with dark brown hair and blue eyes before quickly putting it back in her pocket, her face looked mournful before reverting back to being cold.
"If you say so" he replied as he walked off, leaving the woman to think to herself, she turned back at the door, having a feeling that something might go wrong, but she ignores the feeling and leaves the area, still thinking about the man in the photo.
The commander stared at his fireplace, feeling the warmth that gives him peace, "Finally, I can rest easy" he thought, but as he was about to close his eyes he feels a light breeze of air, he looks to his right to see that his windows were slightly opened.
"Huh?" he mutters, his face looking confused, he gets up to close the windows again, however after closing it he feels like someone has his eyes on him, he stared closely at the glass to see a dark silhouette, his face starts sweating intensely as he looks behind him.
Daikon with his mask and hood stared into his eyes as he approaches while unsheathing his longsword, "Intruder!" the man shouted before looking for a weapon, he quickly grabbed his sword on the table and tries to defend himself.
But as he was about to swing Daikon was already closer to him, the assassin slashes the man on the chest, the commander shouted in pain as he stumbles backwards, blood began spilling on the floor while he tries to approach his killer.
Daikon steps away carefully, watching the man cough out blood and begin getting dizzy, the commander then falls down on the floor, now dead silent and no sign of breathing, Daikon stared at his bloody blade with a quiet sigh "Target eliminated".
He goes to one of the curtains to clean the blood off his sword, but while doing so he thought to himself "Wait...they might have heard his scream", before he entered the base he saw many soldiers on patrol outside, though that didn't mean the interior was empty.
He hears running footsteps behind the door and quickly turns to the window, but when he was about to open it the female soldier kicks open the door with her rifle ready to fire, Daikon dodges her bullets with ease and pushes her away with his left arm, knocking her against a wall.
"We have an enemy!" one soldier shouted before Daikon kills him with a single slash, "They spotted me, I'll have to leave quickly" he thought, but as he ran he was seen by the blonde bandit, who then unsheathed their sword "The Elite Seven..." he muttered before chasing Daikon.
The assassin was forced to kill any soldier who stood in his way, he sees an exit and shoots the door with a ki blast, killing anyone who stood near it in a small explosion, many of the soldiers outside were frightened and started shooting at him or running away.
Daikon jumped outside, shooting any of them with his blasts while trying to escape, however the bandit catches up to him and attacks with an overhead swing, the 2 clash and begin their fight, however Daikon noticed something about him, remembering Akame describe one of her lost teammates.
"Are you Najasho?" he asked, Najasho didn't respond, only aiming his blade towards him with a cold stare, "I guess you must be one of the bandits" Daikon says as he throws off both his mask and hood, revealing his face to the former member of the Seven.
The bandit recognized his face, it matches the description of what Najenda told him "Daikon..." he muttered, "Huh?" Daikon looked confused "How do you know me?", but Najasho didn't waste any time and attacked the assassin head on.
After dodging the attack, Daikon kicked his stomach with his knee before landing a punch to his face, it sent Najasho flying backwards against a wall, he dashed forward and attempts to slash the bandit from bottom right, Najasho jumped back up, clashing blades once more.
They rapidly attack each other as they move around, their speed making it hard for ordinary untrained people to follow, "So why did you betray your friends?" Daikon asked, the bandit stayed silent, clearly focused on the battle, or just not wanting to answer.
Daikon noticed how his left eye looked very strange, but he had to focus on the fight if he's gonna win, Najasho then punches his face and kicks him further into the forest behind him, their battle eventually moving away from the enemy base.
The green eyed woman awakes from the attack, "How strong is that intruder?" she asked herself while resting her hand on her head, she stood up to see the corpse of her commander, laying on the floor with his blood, the woman wore a saddened look, as if he was a friend to her.
She approached closer to the body to close his eyes, keeping her hand on his back with a moment of silence "If I find that killer again...i'll make sure he doesn't live another day" she thought, grabbing her weapon back from the floor, determined to avenge her fallen comrade.
The fight was no longer at the base, now they were fighting near lake Gyogan, a large lake surrounded by land, Daikon kicked his opponent near the body of water and charges a ki blast, but before he could fire Najasho kicked his arm away then held his blade tightly for a strong swing.
But the swing was quickly evaded, the assassin counters with a light kick to his waist, causing the bandit to stumble to the left, leaving him vulnerable enough for Daikon to throw a strong punch to the right side of his face.
Najasho uses his left arm to punch Daikon's chest, afterwards he tries to swing his blade towards his head, however the swing was slow enough for Daikon to parry easily, he kicked the bandit with his knee before clenching his fist and uppercutting him.
Daikon jumped up and hits his head with his elbow, after Najasho's body bounces up from the ground, Daikon spins down and lands a powerful roundhouse kick to his stomach, making his opponent slide further into the lake, now Najasho was underwater, holding his breath to not drown.
Daikon then successfully fires multiple ki blasts at the lake, making sure he finishes off the bandit, however the lake remained silent afterwards, no bird chirps, no animals nearby, just silence, "He can't be dead that easily" Daikon thought, keeping his guard up for any surprise attack.
His suspicions were correct when Najasho rises from the lake, however something was very different about him, his hair was way longer, now reaching down his back, his shoulder pads were off, and he had snake like pupils, "This is getting interesting" Daikon says to himself.
He gets into his stance with a battle ready smirk, as he wanted to fight the new Najasho "Now I'm excited", suddenly both combatants charged at each other with powerful swings, their clash creating strong winds that blew away leaves off trees, their fight has just begun.
The blonde bandit glared with his snake like eyes, he kicks forward only for Daikon to block with both arms, but the attack still pushes him away, as his feet slides through the body of water the spiky haired assassin decides to jump up and shoot a ki blast towards the ground.
This distracts Najasho enough to stop moving and look up, Daikon spins around and lands a horizontal slash on his chest, causing the bandit to shout, leaving a large slash mark, this pain causes Najasho to get more aggressive, but his opponent was still attacking.
Daikon kept his assault with his swordsmanship, keeping both of them in close quarters combat, Najasho dodges one of his swings with a blink of an eye, kicking him to the middle of the lake, he now began breathing and shaking.
"Have to end this quick" he muttered, with a yell he runs forward, however this was when Daikon slashes at the air 3 times and 3 sharp blue ki attacks appear, he is forced to jump up to avoid them, but little did he know Daikon used those attacks as a distraction.
He was already up in the air with the bandit, landing a solid kick to his face from the right side, Daikon then attempted to cut him in half with his sword with a vertical slash, but Najasho was quick enough to block with his own blade, the attack instead knocked him back down.
The impact caused the water in the radius to rise up from the ground, the bandit looks up as the water was about to fall back down, he takes a deep breath before all the water buries him, Daikon lands on the shore with his back, slowly sitting up and staring ahead.
"Did that get him?" he thought, he breathed as the sound of the lake was gentle once again, he stands back up and gazes at the stars, those shiny lights in the sky soothed the atmosphere, though he turned back to the lake and squinted, wanting to make sure he won.
Daikon steps on the body of water once again, walking around and keeping his eyes on what's below, suddenly Najasho jumps up from the water and dashes ahead with a war cry, Daikon quickly charged up a ki blast and aimed it close to his chest before firing it.
It sent the bandit flying back towards the edge of the lake, Daikon then charged up yet another ball of yellow ki, yet this time he kept charging it as he aimed his arm forward at his opponent, the former member of the Seven was trying to get up, realizing what was behind him, a waterfall.
Yellow lighting surrounded the energy sphere as Daikon runs forward and shouts "Riot Flash!", he throws the ki blast towards him like a grenade, as soon as it makes contact with the ground near the bandit it explodes with powerful lighting, blowing him away while also electrocuting him.
Najasho screamed as he was flying down with the waterfall, now completely out of sight, Daikon breathes heavily once more as he rests his hands on his knees, the battle is now won, "Mission accomplished" he says with a sigh of relief, he had bested the Seven's former leader.
Daikon sheathes his longsword on his back and takes a look around, he gets out of the water to avoid getting more of his clothes wet "Now time to head to the base, everyone else should be there once I get back" he says while walking, wondering how everyone else's mission is going.
Meanwhile, the Seven's battle
Gozuki and the transformed Mudi still had their fight, but it was mostly in Mudi's favor, when Gozuki cuts him the curse was rendered ineffective, "Damnit, I forgot about the Nubi's regenerative abilities!" he thought while he ran from the beast breathing fire.
The fire spread through the area, burning any of the imperial soldiers nearby to crisp, he roared as he chased him through the battlefield, scaring both sides of the fight, "You can't keep running from me!" the beast shouted, it seemed as if Mudi is still in control.
The leader tried to cut one of his arms off, but Mudi is still quick enough to evade, simply countering with a powerful punch, the Empire's soldiers shot at the beast with their weaponry, but his body is able to regenerate the damage, he grabbed one of the nearby soldiers by his legs and threw him into the crowd.
But as he was about to breathe fire, Gozuki stabs him through the back, causing him to roar in pain, even while the curse was ineffective, a sword cutting or stabbing flesh still hurt, he turned around and grabbed the leader, squeezing him with both hands "You and your Empire will fall, Seven!" he yelled.
"I can't take him on alone, I need the others" Gozuki thought while groaning in pain, but then he tried using one of his abilities from being a former Rakshasa Demon, he increases his hair growth to grab his teigu, he gets one of his hands free and uppercuts him.
He grabbed his blade and attempted to stab his heart, but Mudi was still quick enough to grab his arm "I had enough of this, burn in hell!" he yelled, the beast threw Gozuki forward and breathed fire, but the leader was able to barely roll away from the flames.
Another Imperial soldier shoots the enemy with all he's got, but the transformed danger beast really had enough, he grabbed the man and ripped him in half, throwing the body parts at the leader of the Seven as he ran, looking for his team so they can take down the beast for good.
Kurome fought one of the sisters while Natala fought the other, she easily dodges the attacks of Meela's knife, she had already figured out her attacks patterns and now has control of the fight, as the blue haired girl tried her best to kill she is ultimately unsuccessful.
The black eyed assassin saw her lunging for an attack, so she quickly moved out of the way and slit her throat, afterwards when her opponent fell down she stabbed her back, winning the fight with ease, all the training has really paid off, on top of her strengthened body thanks to Daikon.
"This is for the Oarburgh clan!" Loris shouted, but Natala quickly saw an opening and cuts off both her forearms, and with one last finishing move he cuts off her head, but after his victory he stops and takes breaths, all this fighting has fatigued him "Man, I need a break after this" he thought.
He turns back to the battlefield behind him, the Empire seemed to have the upper hand thanks to the Seven's skills, in the distance he can see Green killing enemies with his whip shingu, snapping their necks and using some martial arts, he fixed his glasses afterwards as he walked away from the carnage.
"Hopefully the others are doing fine" Green says to himself, though the thought of Akame's current mission worried him as well, he began wishing for her safety, but the sound of a loud roar was close by, alerting him back into battle mode "A danger beast is here?".
Suddenly he saw Gozuki being chased by the transformed Mudi, breathing fire and throwing dead bodies forward, this shocked him greatly and almost loses his balance, but he is able to keep his cool and catch up to his leader "What's with that beast sir?" he asked.
"That's the leader of the bandits, he has some sort of power that lets him transform into a danger beast" Gozuki replied as he looks back at the monster behind them, "There is no escape!" the beast roared, "Looks like you're gonna need help sir, I'm on it" Green says with determination.
He turns around and swings his whip in the air before aiming towards Mudi's left atm, trying to keep him still, but the bandit leader only faces him with a snarl, but when he was about to pull him closer Natala jumps in, cutting off the beast's left forearm with Trisula.
Natala was aiming for another attack until he was punched away, Mudi now looked more enraged with a wolfish growl, "A beast, I got to help" Kurome muttered, she quickly rushes to their location and held her sword tightly, "Wait Kurome!" Natala yelled.
The black eyed assassin dashes towards the monster, intending to kill as quickly as she could, but Mudi spotted her Immediately, and before her blade reached his neck, the beast bites the blade with his teeth and snaps it, rending the sword useless.
This greatly surprised her, but she then switched to hand to hand, landing a punch to the monster's stomach, causing him to crash against a wall, "Woah" Green says before scratching his head "How strong is she?", Gozuki grinned with pride "That training must have helped".
"Damn Mongrels!" Mudi yelled, rising back up from the ground with a powerful roar "The Seven will die today!", Then Cornelia manages to land a kick to his head before jumping back to her allies "Not on my watch", everyone was gathered together to face this monster.
"Glad you're here Corey" Green said with a smile, sweat forming on his face, Natala held Trisula tightly, standing in the middle of everyone "Kurome and Cornelia will keep him busy, Green will keep him in place and I'll cut off his other arm", that was his strategy.
Gozuki held Murasame with his hair increasing in length "And I'll finish him off", suddenly as the beast ran ahead, Kurome and Cornelia dashed and started punching his torso with rapid speed, they were pushing him back, but Mudi was not done yet.
He attempts to breathe fire upon them, but Green used Sidewinder to keep the beast's mouth closed and tried hanging him up, but the weight was too much to keep him in place "I can't keep this guy still for long" he thought, though this gave Kurome an opening and she lands a powerful kick to Mudi's jaw.
Green quickly pulled his whip back and sees the bandit leader in the air, soon landing back in the ground with a loud crash, with another roar Mudi gets back into action, breathing fire towards everyone.
They all dodged the flames in time, with Cornelia using this opportunity to punch his back with 3 solid hits, cracking his spine, "Now!" Natala shouts, Green runs closer and swings his whip, wrapping it around the beast's other arm, Natala then runs forward, cutting off the other arm.
The bandit roared in pain, both his arms severed, his only form of attack was his fire breath and biting, but before he could try breathing fire again, Kurome rapidly punched his torso, finishing off her combo with a spinning kick to his neck, knocking him into the ground, causing him to slide.
Gozuki uses his lengthened hair to wrap it around Mudi's body, slightly keeping him in place, "One more time Green" he commanded, Green huffs and puffs as he uses Sidewinder once again, using it to hold Mudi by the neck, chocking him in the process.
"He's yours now sir!" he yells, the beast tried to get himself free, but to no avail, "Is this it, is this how my story ends?" Mudi asked himself in his thought, Gozuki ran forward with his cursed blade, and with a shout he uses enough power to sever the monster's head, ending the fight completely.
Blood spilled from the body as it fell down, Gozuki decreases his hair back to normal and breathed heavily, the fight took a lot out of him, "Good work everyone" Natala says with a smile, he was proud of himself for acting as a leader for the others, because of that...they were able to win.
Kurome looked back and grabbed her broken blade, completely snapped, all that was left was the hilt, this was her first ever sword that she used through all her training and all her missions, with a sigh she tossed it back on the ground, hoping to find a replacement for it.
"You all did great" Gozuki says while catching his breath, luckily it wasn't daytime so he wouldn't be sweating as much, then they heard cheering, all the Imperial soldiers cheered them on, the base had completely been taken over by the Empire.
He sighed with relief and stared upwards "I'm getting old" he thought, he then looked towards the crescent moon, happy they were able to complete their mission, "Daikon probably finished his assignment, all that's left is Akame" he thought, wondering if she will be able to complete her job.
Akame's mission
Akame wore a long white coat over her normal clothes, she was walking away with a smile on her face and a definite sparkle in her eye, however...she was walking away from a cabin in the woods, Najenda, Bulat, and Lubbock stood there, she did not finish her job.
"You think she'll join us?" Lubbock asked, Najenda nodded "Yes, I'm certain of it, that's why I let her leave", Akame not only failed her mission, but it looked like she purposely left them alive, after she disappeared completely, the 3 members of Night Raid continued their conversation.
Bulat crossed his arms "You think she'll be tough enough to leave her sister behind if she has to?", the woman smoked her cigar, sitting near the campfire "Hopefully, but there is something I refused to tell her", she glared ahead where the red eyed girl walked.
After crushing her cigar, she stood up and kept her gaze "Daikon is still our target, and I'm sure he won't be defecting as long as Akame's sister still remains with the Empire", Bulat turned his head towards the moonlight "Which leaves me with the job to take him out".
"Precisely" she responded with a smile "Even if something were to happen to the man who put the hit on him...we will continue to hunt him down", "Finally, I can bring happiness to the people" Akame thought as she leaves her target behind, no longer wishing to do her job.
This decision will ultimately affect what happens in the coming days, Akame is defecting from the Empire...and the others have yet to know, is she willing to betray all her friends that she fought alongside for so long, is she willing...to break everyone's heart in order to do what she wants?
To be continued...