Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Akame ga Kill franchise and this fanfiction has not been written for profit!
A/N: We've once again made our way to another new chapter! My apologies about the delay! I realize I broke my once per month deadline folks, but being a criminal defense attorney can be brutal sometimes. I definitely intend to have this fic finished before the year ends though, so no worries. This fic won't get lost in hiatus hell. As always, thanks for the favorites and reviews folks, readers!
Before we get started, just a few points to note:
#1. A big shoutout to the guest reviewers! I'm unable to respond to you guys directly via PM, so I do so here. Thanks for reading guys/gals.
As to NDC, thanks for the detailed review! I have been slowly going back to previous chapters and editing the inexcusable grammatical and syntactical errors I've left behind. I intend to make such corrections for every chapter prior to finishing the fic, so this fic might be worth rereading for some of you. I'm a strong advocate of chekov's gun, so everything I've mentioned throughout the fic serves a purpose and will be addressed by the final chapter! As to Esdeath and Tatsumi's relationship and any related plot resolutions, all I can say is . . . chekov's gun baby! I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I intend to do everything I can to make these final chapters a good read.
#2. This is more of a style point, but I'll clarify in case anyone is confused about it. Anytime I write a flashback, all of the dialogue is in italics. This is to reflect that a character is recalling events in their mind. In other words, I see it no different than when a character is simply in the process of expressing ta thought. There, I also do italics.
And awwwwwwaaaaay we go!
Episode 29: Kill the End Game: Part Two - Updated on 6/29/18 to address grammar/spelling/narrative issues
Esdeath stood in silence as she continued to observe her beloved. Her mind had been racing, attempting to comprehend his latest feat. "I was sure I had him just now. Trapping his legs with my Kaninchenfalle and following up with a Hagelsprung? A foolproof combination that would have made any other battle far too one-sided, with or without Grade Two ice. To think I was just about to chastise myself for getting so carried away."
Unfortunately, there was no more time to reflect on the matter at hand. Like the flash on a camera, Tatsumi was suddenly in front of her with his claymore in a striking posture; he was in the middle of a horizontal swing with both hands firmly clinching the hilt. His sudden speed, his sudden movement, his sudden initiative: These things would have startled any other warrior, but not Esdeath. She was beaming like a madwoman, beaming with sheer excitement at how she was less than a foot away from death. The sheer thrill of it all. But a foot was all the Ice Queen needed. "
"Aufzug!", she said as an ice pillar instantly sprang out from the ground she was standing upon and carried her high into the air. Her ice pillar not only allowed her to narrowly avert Tatsumi's swing, but it also shot her ten stories into the air within mere seconds. But by that time, she just about lost her balance; she felt her ice pillar tumbling over like a tree that had just been chopped down with an axe. She readily leapt into the air while uttering the words "Stratus Wolke." In response to her command, a thin and floating ice platform, no more than two yards in length, was conjured into the air beneath her feet.
Tatsumi was standing next to the ice pillar he had just cut down; he looked up into the air, his eyes locked on the Ice Queen. Holding his blade in another striking posture, he maneuvered another quick and powerful two handed swing in his adversary's vicinity.
Esdeath raised an eyebrow, unsure of what her love was trying to accomplish. "Don't tell me this is your way of showing off.", she chuckled, amused at how he was swinging at nothing but the air in front of him. "I'll be the first to admit that the way you managed to avoid getting crushed by my Hagelsprung was impressive, but this fight is just getting . . . started?" She had paused for a moment before uttering that last word.
The Ice Queen noticed a few strands of her own hair descending to the ground. She grabbed them before they were beyond her reach; she closely scrutinized them while running her free hand through the hair on her scalp. "These strands . . . they aren't just falling out for no reason. They were cut just now." She glanced back down towards Tatsumi, instantly putting two and together. "That last swing of his. It must've been . . ."
Gazing upon Tatsumi as well as the sliced hair stands in her hand served as a catalyst to dredge up thoughts of the distant past. Thoughts of the days she used to spend hunting danger beasts with her father. Thoughts of a time when she was no more than ten years old. Thoughts of one particular night with her father were flashing throughout her mind. They had set up camp like always and she had been fast asleep.
Esdeath remembered waking up in the middle of the night, having heard the cries of a ferocious beast outside. She had looked around her tent; no sign of her father. She promptly ran outside equipped with nothing more than a short sword. But as soon as she stepped out, she stood still in awe. It was all so astounding that she could barely believe what had just transpired.
A wooly mammoth like danger beast had been charging towards the campsite, perhaps feeling that its territory had been intruded upon. Her father boldly and unnervingly stood in front of the tent, eyes focused on the incoming threat. With a longsword in his hands, he swung the blade diagonally in the danger beasts' direction and a sharp a precise gust of air flew towards it. Despite having been well over 20 yards away, the beast suddenly fell down on its side; it was slain in an instant.
"Papa!", she had exclaimed, excitedly tugging on her father's shirt. "How did you do that?!"
To which her old man had answered while sheathing his blade into the scabbard on his side. "Huh. You're awake. That's a shame. I was trying to keep that beast from waking you up. Had I known you would wake up regardless, I would've tried capturing it alive. Class One Alpha mammoths are worth a lot more gold pieces alive than dead."
"Sorry papa", she had said, averting her eyes to the ground to hide the sudden look of guilt and disappointment in her eyes. "If I hadn't insisted on coming along, then . . ."
"You did nothing wrong", he had said, turning around, placing his left hand on her head and gently rubbing it "The mistake was mine. We'll capture the next danger beast together."
She remembered having looked up into her father's eyes, only to be taken aback by the most endearing warm, bright, pure and innocent smile she had ever seen. Just the sight of this caused her to blush; the look on her father's face not only washed away her guilt and disappointment in an instant, but it had also brightened her spirits. "I can't wait! In the meantime, can you teach me that attack you used?"
To which her father had laughed cheerfully at the thought. "You've still got a ways to go before you start using techniques like this one. You don't even know how to control your aura yet. I'll tell you what though: The day you beat me in a sparring match, I'll be glad to show you."
Back in the immediate present, having put these realizations together, the Ice Queen was visibly amused. Not mockingly or denigratingly of course, but perhaps to the sudden sense of nostalgia she was feeling. "That attack just now. There's only one person I've ever seen do something like that. Another one of Incursio's new abilities perhaps?"
Tatsumi recalled the first instance he had laid eyes on this technique back when Klaus had used it to eliminate a pair of class one Ice Wolves in a single stroke. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how I'm doing it, but its got nothing to do with Incursio."
"Fascinating", Esdeath remarked, her eyes now beaming with curiosity. "I don't really understand it either, but there are apparently those in this world who are able to manifest pure willpower into reality and use it enhance their attacks. My father is the only other person I've known to be able to perform this technique without fail. Granted, your accuracy pales in comparison to his as I'm certain he would've been able to lop my head off just now. Unfortunately for you, I have no intention of lowering my guard again. So for your sake, I pray you have other tricks up your sleeve."
"Right back at you", Tatsumi replied,his demeanor continuing to be calm and unnerving. "For someone who has been forced to flee into the air, you sure sound pretty confident."
Perhaps a lesser warrior would stop to consider the merits of such a remark, in turn allowing their confidence to dwindle. The Ice Queen, however, was unfazed; hearing such a comment merely sparked another smirk on her lips. "In all the time you've known me, have I ever been lacking in confidence? You've done pretty well to survive my attacks thus far; I'll give you that much. But I'll have you know that I have never had to use Demon's Extract as anything more than a convenient tool for dispatching annoying pests. You could say I've been improving throughout this contest between you and I; learning the ins and outs of how to use Demon's Extract against an opponent of your caliber."
Suddenly, Tatsumi turned his head towards the large set of double doors Najenda and Lubbock had entered earlier. He heard the pitter and patter of many footsteps drawing near. The doors had burst wide open and a number of armed palace guards had come rushing onto the scene, no doubt having heard the loud crash that had accompanied Esdeath's Haglesprung minutes ago.
"That man is a member of Night Raid! We must protect General Esdeath!", one of guards yelled.
"Fire!", another guard yelled before pointing his rifle at Tatsumi. Four additional guards did the same, all pointing their rifles at the assassin in their midst.
"Weisschnabel!" Razor sharp icicles immediately skewered every guard that had their rifles trained on Tatsumi before they could even pull the trigger, leaving the remaining guards much too fearful to take the same course of action.
The Ice Queen looked down upon this craven bunch, murderous intent in her eyes. "Do NOT interfere! This man is MY prey! I require no assistance."
Having no desire to disobey the general, the remaining guards rushed back through the doors they bursted in through. All the while, their presence had caused a thought to occur to Tatsumi. "Huh. It looks like they've finally realized we're already in the palace. That gives us even less time to pull this off."
"Sorry about that distraction, my love", the Ice Queen said, having set her sights back on her adversary. "Shall we pick up where we left off?"
Tatsumi's calm demeanor remained unchanged. With just his right hand wrapped around the hilt, he pointed his sword up towards Esdeath. "Your move."
"Now who's getting confident?", the Esdeath replied, referencing his earlier remark. Wasting not another moment on idle banter, she maneuvered both of her hands with swift and vicious hand gestures. "Grauhorn Grade 2: Bienenstock."
Large and dark blue horns of ice all sprang out from both the courtyard walls and the ground, flying at Tatsumi from a plethora of directions. Despite the increased size of his weapon, however, he was still perfectly capable of executing quick and precise movements, allowing him to slice and dice every single grauhorn with a few revolving swings as if they had all been cut down simultaneously.
"Seems he's even faster than he was earlier."
Another dark blue grauhorn had sprung out of the ground nearby in a diagonal direction. But unlike every preceding ice horn projectile, this one was accompanied by its own miniature sonic boom. It got dangerously close to blindsiding Tatsumi from the side before he noticed and bisected it with another swing of his fiery blade.
Two additional grauhorns came flying at him, both leaving behind miniature sonic booms in their wake. Tatsumi moved so quickly in cutting them down that an ordinary pair of human eyes wouldn't be able to tell that the back of his neck was scraped in the process, but Esdeath yet again proved herself to be exceptional.
She smirked at the sight, believing she merely needed to continue applying pressure; that her beloved Tatsumi could not keep up this pace forever. And she did just that, firing more and more mach speed ice projectiles, slowly upping the tempo at every interval. "It's only a matter of time."
The dance continued just like this for a full five minutes of no interruptions. And with just a little more effort and concentration, the grauhorns were flying out of the ground and the walls at speeds even she couldn't register with her eyes. However, it was with these very eyes that she noticed something. Despite the time that had passed and despite her best efforts, Tatsumi was still evading her attacks. Not just that, but he appeared to be doing so with even less effort as time progressed. It was quickly becoming a proverbial game of whack-a-mole, with the Ice Queen having no luck whatsoever. "My grauhorns are faster. There's no doubt about that. And yet he continues to move as if . . ."
Esdeath tried her best to tag the Night Raid assassin, but her efforts were gradually showing themselves to be of no use. Showing no signs of strain or exhaustion, he continued shifting from one spot to another, averting each and every grauhorn that sprang his way. Even more curious, however, was that throughout his display of superhuman athleticism and agility was his eyes; those eyes, those damned calm red eyes, had been locked on the Ice Queen throughout this entire affair ". . . as if he knows where the grauhorns will be before they are fired."
No longer content with dodging alone, Tatsumi changed course. Out of the blue, he blitzed his way his way towards the courtyard wall that was closest to where the Ice Queen was hovering. While dodging additional mach paced ice projectiles, he did the unthinkable: He scaled his way up the wall, leaping from ledge to ledge, balcony to balcony, moving so fast that even gravity almost appeared to be a mere afterthought.
"That must be it!", Esdeath thought, still maintaining her constant stream of grauhorns. "It all makes sense now! Those red eyes of his. He's been using them to read and adapt to my movements from the start. That's how he's been anticipating my attacks so well. He must have relied upon the same tactic to anticipated the strikes from my rapier earlier."
The very instant Tatsumi had scaled his way twelve stories up the courtyard wall, he bent his knees, drastically decreased his upward momentum and jumped downward towards the Ice Queen. He had both of his hands wrapped around the hilt and his eyes reflected absolute certainty.
Esdeath responded with another Grade 2 Grauhorn, moving at mach speed like all of the other recent ones, but emitted out of neither the walls or the ground; this one manifested itself out of the thin air next to her.
Tatsumi remained undaunted however. Like the preceding grauhorns, this one was child's play to him at this point. He cleaved it in two, right down the middle with another quick and precise two handed swing, emerging from the debris and descending even closer to Esdeath . . . mere feet away from apparent victory. After all, what else did she have in her arsenal that he hadn't already conquered?
But the next moment occurred so quickly that it could only be measured by the sound that accompanied it. Clang; the sound of one blade colliding against another blade could be heard. Immediately afterwards, both Tatsumi and Esdeath descended towards the ground, the latter no longer standing on her ice platform.
They both landed at the same time, backs facing each other. Tatsumi took a moment to rub one of his cheeks, having noticed blood dripping from a fresh cut there. He turned around, wanting to see for himself what had cut him. It was then that he noticed something irregular; Esdeath was holding a small dagger sized spike of ice in her left hand. Only the ice was unlike any of the ice he had seen thus far. It was devoid of light and color; blackness was all it emanated.
Another ice platform appeared next to the Ice Queen; this one the size of a dinner platter. Her long rapier that had been knocked away earlier was resting on it. She eagerly grabbed her prized weapon before turning around to face her beloved. Though more beads of sweat had accumulated on her forehead, the look on her face was one Tatsumi least expected.
She still looked quite happy, but all of the bloodthirsts and maniacal glee had vanished without a trace. All that remained was a simple smile emanating with fond sincerity. Tatsumi took note of her change in demeanor, having paused to gaze upon her for several moments before finally speaking up. "Something wrong?"
Esdeath nonchalantly shook her head. "It's been a while since I've been able to enjoy myself like this. To have to actually think about my attacks, to have to actually exercise caution with my moves, to be mindful of my limitations . . . concerns I had just about forgotten as being crucial on the battlefield. Honestly, weaklings have no idea how good they have it sometimes."
"Wait a minute. You're now saying it's good to be weak?", Tatsumi asked with the raise of an eyebrow. "What happened to all that stuff about survival of the fittest?"
"Don't get the wrong impression", the Ice Queen replied with nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. "Of course the strong live and the weak die. Even so, they are at least presented with a struggle in life. They aren't cursed with the boredom inherent in being the absolute strongest. To have no one else to compare or relate to; an existence that is almost tiresome. But that's not the case today. Today, I'm actually being forced to fight with every fiber of my being. A feeling I haven't felt since the days of my endless spars with my father. Though alas. All good things must come to an end."
"That so?", Tatsumi asked, as undeterred as he had appeared since the beginning. "I take it you're talking about this black ice of yours. Still, it doesn't look like you can afford to use it for too long. To have saved this until now, I'm guessing it takes a much greater toll on your body than Grade 2 ice."
Esdeath glanced down towards her hands and wrist, noticing fresh trickles of blood dripping to the ground. "Very perceptive of you, but I'm confident that this battle won't drag on that much longer . . . especially now that I have a much better understanding of your new abilities."
"I get it. The real reason you were keeping your distance in the air and forcing me to dodge all of your ice attacks was because you wanted to observe me as much as you could before you decided to take me again directly."
"Something like that", Esdeath said after sporting a coy smirk. "I don't know what exactly you've done since our encounter last week, but I have five deductions."
"Five you say?"
She held her right hand out and raised one finger. "First, you have the ability to camouflage yourself."
"What gave me away?"
"The way you were able to save Najenda at the very last second earlier. I was certain no one else was in here, but I couldn't even see you until you blocked my attack. We both know you don't have the ability to teleport, so it must be some form of camouflage. Najenda must've predicted when and where I would try to apprehend her and instructed you to wait here in courtyard so that you could intercept me at the right moment. Clever of her."
"And clever of you to figure out."
She raised an additional finger. "Second, you've somehow managed to acquire four . . . no five years of additional fighting experience. You've always had natural talent, but raw talent can only take you so far against an opponent of my caliber."
Tatsumi pondered on the amount of memories Incursio had subjected him; he initially found himself unable to count each and every one, but upon hearing Esdeath's estimate taking into account that Incursio had been around throughout all 1000 years of the Grand Empire's history, it made sense that five years would consist of the total amount of time that was spent seeing past wielder's get killed.
She raised an additional finger. "Third, you've somehow enhanced your physical strength and speed far beyond the levels you were at last week; between 290-340% I'd say."
Hearing Esdeath's estimate reminded Tatsumi of a conversation he had had with Najenda the night before he had undergone the Perfect Sync ritual.
"I know I was able beat Budo, but Esdeath is a different story completely!", Tatsumi had told his commander. "You saw the way our fight went the other day. She pulverized me."
"If you can attain Perfect Sync, it WILL be a different story completely.", Najenda had responded. "The research notes Chelsea provided are clear. In its armored state, Incursio draws out about a third of the users latent physical ability. I theorize that when you beat Budo, you were somehow able to draw out at least half. Thus, should you merge with Incursio completely, you'll surely be able to use 100%! What would ordinarily take years of training and discipline, you'll be able to accomplish overnight. And with your latent abilities in particular, I'm certain you'll be able to match Esdeath."
The Ice Queen raised a fourth finger. "Fourth, you no longer have the ability to use Incursio's armor or else you surely would use it as opposed to suffering wounds from my attacks."
"Maybe it was the '5 to 6 years of additional fighting experience' as you call it, but I guess the best way to explain it would be that I me and Incursio evolved beyond the need for that armor."
"Interesting. I would imagine then that the absence of your armor and your new sword are connected somehow", she commented before raising her fifth finger. "Lastly, those red eyes of yours have enhanced your visual acuity by 500%, give or take. That is how you were able to dodge and adapt to my grade 2 ice attacks so quickly; you were able to look for the slightest subtitles in my hand movements and dodge accordingly when anyone else would've been overwhelmed. With an ability like that, figuring out the flaws in my sword techniques so quickly would be a cakewalk for someone of your talent. That sound about right, beloved?"
"We've been fighting for no more than 20 minutes and you've already figured all of that out. You really are a prodigy." Tatsumi replied before letting out a smirk of his own. "Pretty impressive."
"A shame you're unable to use your armor anymore. With the way it boosted your strength and speed, at your current level, you might actually have had a good chance of defeating me otherwise."
"Considering the toll your Grade 2 Ice has had on you, I wouldn't get too cocky. Don't think I haven't noticed how you've been breathing harder ever since you started using those attacks. You're even starting to sweat."
"Make no mistake, beloved. Defeating you will be a challenge, but I will defeat you nonetheless", she declared while assertively pointing her long rapier towards Tatsumi's head. "Dämon Zahn Grade 3."
"Grade 3?"
"Ice so dense and concentrated that even light itself cannot penetrate it." Suddenly, the blade on her rapier become enveloped in black ice and the small dagger like spike she had been holding in her left hand had molded into the form of a small shield shaped very much like a medieval buckler. "Although this is the most I can produce without over-exerting myself, it will suffice."
"I don't understand. You just admitted I know how to anticipate your sword attacks. Knowing that, why would you yet again resort to them?"
"Who knows?", she said with mock coyness. "Feel free to come over here and find out."
Tatsumi slipped into the Ochs stance once more; he horizontally held the hilt besides his head using both of his hands and the tip of his blade was also horizontally pointed towards Esdeath's chest.
And for the next several moments, neither combatant made a move. Neither moved a muscle; both locked in their respective stances. This degree of caution was unusual for the Ice Queen. Perhaps it had something to do with her slight change in demeanor. Or perhaps it was indicative of how dangerous an opponent she believed Tatsumi truly was.
Whatever the case, the flow of the battle had changed once again. And like a black mamba seizing its prey, Esdeath suddenly jotted forward towards her opponent with a powerful thrust from her long rapier. Tatsumi blocked, but without taking a step back as he had when Incursio had been in its short sword form; now that it was in the form of a claymore, Esdeath no longer had the advantage of superior reach.
The Ice Queen pressed onwards with her assault with several additional quick and powerful thrusts. They all moved so quickly, that an ordinary human would be of the impression that it was all one move. Tatsumi, however, knew better. Not just due to his insight eyesight, but his newfound keen intuition.
The nature and purpose of Esdeath's aggressive style was elementary to Tatsumi at this point; she sought to force her opponent to focus on defending themselves so that she could surgically find whatever gap existed in their defenses and rip them apart when they least expected it. Just as he thoroughly understood her swordplay, however, he also knew how to overcome it; merely by anticipating the moment she would seize the gap in his defenses, he could respond with a lethal counter-attack, which is how he had managed to knock her sword out of her hands during their earlier go-around.
As Esdeath pressed onwards with another thrust, Tatsumi prepared to do just that. Having so thoroughly understood her fighting style at this point, he knew what she was about to do. She fully extended her right arm and the tip of her rapier came flying right towards his forehead while the blade glided alongside his burning claymore. He immediately lifted his blade, intent on knocking the Ice Queen's weapon out of her hand and disarming her once more.
But Esdeath was more prepared this time. As he lifted his blade, Esdeath used the buckler on her left hand to obstruct Tatsumi from lifting it as he had before. This gave the Ice Queen just another time to reel her rapier in and take one step back, but not before sneaking in a quick small cut on the Incursio wielder's upper right arm.
Tatsumi glanced down at his arm for a moment to observe the cut. It wasn't a deep wound, much less was it life threatening; it was a glancing blow at best. Rather, he saw the cut as a message. Esdeath had changed her fighting style just enough to make his previous analysis useless. The cut was just her way of confirming this. With a small but brief smile appearing on his own lips, Tatsumi adjusted his stance once more. He held his sword out in front of him with the blade pointed diagonally and both of his hands clenched tightly around the hilt.
[. . . Leaps in Logic . . . ]
At their chess table, Lubbock sat patiently, arms folded across each other and a confident smirk on his lips. Run's posture was identical; both of them looked as if they already knew to how prevail in this battle of wits. The only question was who was right and who was going to die.
"So, just to be clear . . .", said Run. "If I pull one of these gloves, it'll cause your wires to split the floor directly beneath me apart and cause me to fall to my death. On the other hand, the other glove will cause your wires to split the floor directly beneath you apart. In other words, one of these gloves is a death trap and the other is not."
To which Lubbock casually replied. "That's right."
"But it's so simple: Are you the sort of man who would put a death trap in his own glove?", Run said, glancing towards the cross-tail glove closest to his adversary. "Or the glove of his enemy? Now a clever man would place the trap in his own glove, knowing that on some psychological level, only a great fool would be inclined to reach for what he was given. Ergo, that would be reason to pick the glove in front of me."
"Wouldn't I have already known you weren't a great fool? When I asked you whether you were a smart guy, your answer was yes."
"My answer was that I was too modest to boast. Still am."
"That sounds like a yes to me", Lubbock said with a chuckle. "Besides, if I thought you were a great fool, I wouldn't have challenged you to a battle of wits; I would have stuck to conventional battle tactics. So by your own logic, the trap would be in your glove, not mine."
"Not necessarily. All it would indicate is that you took into account what you know about me prior to setting this game up."
"And what do I know about you that could've possibly allowed me to predict which glove you would choose?"
To which Run replied, "Ever since our first encounter in Ali Jinnah, you've known that I'm highly observant to details. That is how I was able to see through your tricks then and it is how I am able to see through them for now. For example, I know the very premise of this game is full of holes."
"Holes such as?"
"Supposing I was to pull the glove that leads to your demise, if you already know which glove is which, you surely wouldn't just sit there and allow yourself to fall to your death. You're not the honorable type; you would immediately get up and try to stop me. On the other hand, were I pull the glove that leads to my demise, I would immediately know which glove was which based on your refusal to stop me. Moreover, even if I do fall, there's nothing stopping me from quickly grabbing my rings, putting them back and using Mastema to fly to safety"
"If that's all your worried about, let me relieve of your concern by doing this." The green haired assassin promptly raised both of his hands straight into the air. "There. Now even if I do try to cheat, if you pull the right glove quick enough, I won't be able to react in time. This should also prevent you from cheating. As long as you're forced to pull one of the gloves quickly, you won't have time to grab and activate your imperial arm either."
"Not bad, but that doesn't address the other holes in this game."
Beaming with indifference, Lubbock shrugged his shoulders. "Mention as many hole you like. We can rectify each and every one of them before you make your decision."
"Hmm", Run muttered, rubbing his chin in an inquisitive fashion. "What's stopping me from getting up and walking away? Seems I would risk nothing in abandoning a game of chance."
"We covered this before the game. The reason we agreed to settle our fight like this was to avoid allowing things like chance and reflexes to determine the winner. If you get up, I'm just going to put my gloves back on and pick up where we left off."
"I see. And how do I even know pulling one of these gloves will lead to your demise? For all I know, you've rigged the game as such that no matter which glove I pull, I will fall and you will sit safely by. How can you assure me that this isn't the case?
"Easy. I'll temporarily lower my right hand and grab the glove closest to me. You'll do the same with your glove We'll lift them both up at a 90-degree angle by precisely one millimeter at the exact same time and see for ourselves what happens."
"Why one millimeter?"
"Because it's the maximum tension cross tail's wires can take in this position without either of us falling into the bottomless pit below. I know you've seen me operate cross-tail enough times to know that I'm not lying."
Run nodded his head before resting one hand on the glove closest to him. "Very well."
And so the two did just that; they both gently tugged their gloves by a millimeter and at the exact same time. Despite the immense restrain they both showed in moving their respective gloves, they both each noticed the floor beneath their respective chairs shift just enough to where it was obvious that pulling both gloves any further would cause both of them to fall to their deaths. Lubbock then promptly let go of his glove and raised his right hand back into the air.
Run let go of his glove of his well, not wishing to risk his own death trifling with it in an unnecessary fashion. "Hmmph, so then the gloves really do function as you say and you really are risking your life in playing this game?"
"That's the plan! So, have you reached your decision?"
"There must be more to this game than meets the eye. What possible information could you have to reasonable deduce which glove I would pull in a scenario like this?"
To which Lubbock responded after letting out another chuckle. "That's for me to know and for you to figure out. So choose already. I've got places to be yah know!"
"The glove in front of me or the glove in front of him? Which could he possibly have chosen and what would be his reason for choosing?"
"Time is a-wastin'. Are you going to choose or is my game too tough for you?"
"Very well", Run replied with a defiant smirk. "I choose . . ."
[ . . . The Fratricidal Descent . . . ]
Akame glanced down towards the earth below, noticing that she was so high up in the air that the entire imperial palace looked like nothing more than a child's dollhouse. Oxygen was becoming more or more limited by the second. She had inhaled as much as she could before holding her breath, realizing that breathing in the conventional sense would surely lead to her passing out just as Kurome intended.
She then continued her climb up towards the dragon's neck, mentally noting to herself that she needed to focus on taking down Kurome and nothing else. Not the height she was at, not her oxygen situation or even the cold air at the current altitude.
Kurome, on the other hand, appeared to be content. She sat on her dragon's neck with one hand clenched around the sheathe of her imperial arm, the thumb firmly pressed against the guard on the hilt. She was clearly waiting on her older sister to approach. Akame's eyes widened as she noticed this. What's more, Kurome didn't appear to be even remotely affected by the drastic change in altitude and temperature.
All of the sudden, the red eyed assassin's eyes had slowly shut; it was as if she had drifted off after a long and hard day's work. Her grip around the dragon's scales loosened considerably by the moment and she slid down to the tip of its tail.
Kurome turned her head, curious to see how her plan to defeat her sister without fighting her had unfolded. To her surprise, however, she saw no sign of her older sister. This prompted her to look away from her puppet's tail and down towards the air below. There, she spotted Akame descending down towards the ground like a lifeless ragdoll. "There you are."
Her dragon swiftly did a vertical u-turn, diving down towards Akame both to save her from her oncoming peril as well as deliver her to its master. It took no more than a few seconds for the beast to reach its falling target. It flew in such a way as to allow Kurome to grab hold of her falling sister as she fell. And so she did. Kurome had stretched out her left hand.
But at that very moment, Akame's eyes flew wide open and Kurome immediately understood that her falling was never more than a clever ruse to get her guard down. The younger sister reached for her sword with her other hand, but Akame's blade was already out and flying towards her jugular. A destination every assassin worth their salt instinctively sought out during an assassination.
Kurome scarcely blocked her sister's swing with the broad side of yatsufusa. No doubt the result of her having telepathically ordered her dragon to veer inches away at the last second. Even so, it wasn't quite enough. She may have blocked, but the force of her older sister's swing sent her tumbling off her puppet and into the air.
Akame was far from finished with her assault however. She temporarily accelerated the momentum of her fall by diving down towards her sister before continuing her attacks with a downward vertical slash. More prepared for her sister's attack this time, Kurome was able to parry and return a slash of her own. To which Akame of course parried with no trouble whatsoever.
It was truly testament to their skills as swordswomen. Just about anyone else would be more concerned about their rapid descent towards the ground, but the two sisters went back and forth with their blades as if they were in no such peril; as if they were standing on the ground; as if they were the two best students squaring off in a dojo.
Perhaps Kurome had justification for her fearlessness. As she had demonstrated back in Ali Jinnah, as long as she had a puppet in play, her trump card permitted her to cheat death at the loss of said puppet. Akame's fearlessness, however, was more perplexing. Had she become so devoted to killing her own sister that even her final mission and death itself were of no consequence?
As moments passed, Akame looked to be getting the best of her younger sister in their exchange. She certainly had the edge in skill, but there was something else that gave her an inherent edge against just about any opponent she faced. One cut; one nick; one scrape. It didn't take much, but that's all it took for her to end a battle when she was wielding Murasame. Kurome's mind may have been deteriorating, but she was still mindful enough to pay extra caution to her sister's blade. Unfortunately, this kept her on the defense and was allowing Akame to gradually overwhelm her with a series of complicated sword strikes.
Like a diver desperate for air, she plunged towards the surface to speak; she telepathically summoned the dragon to catch her and inadvertently her sister, completely breaking the pace of their midair duel. They both tumbled around on the dragon's back for a few moments before regaining their footing, Akame a half-second slower than Kurome due to the latter's experience in riding this beast.
As soon as she was comfortable with her footing, Kurome zeroed in on her older sister, ready to continue their exchange. Akame attempted to do the same, but immediately detected that something was wrong. Her balance! She was having trouble maintaining it. As Kurome swooped in, the red eyed assassin could do nothing more than block; scarcely at that. In a surprising turnabout fashion, it was now Akame who was on the defensive, despite the advantage Murasame offered her.
The older sister quickly took notice of how comfortable and balanced Kurome's movements were. As she continued to block, she wondered why this was the case. Why her sister was not having trouble securing sure footing like she was having. But as she watched the way her sister moved, the answer hit her like a block of cement. Kurome was telepathically controlling her dragon's every move (no matter how slight) in such a way as keep her balance perfectly maintained.
Still narrowly blocking Kurome's swings, Akame gritted her teeth, realizing that she couldn't allow the battle to progress in this fashion; defeating her younger sister was impossible at the rate they were going. After yet another block, the red eyed assassin pivoted herself a few steps backward, bringing the exchange to a temporary impasse.
Kurome took note of her sister's sudden evasive maneuver and a gleeful smile formed on her lips. "Already accepting the inevitable, sis?"
"Hey Kurome, the last time we fought, you said that my poison would not work on your puppets, right?"
To which the younger sister nodded with innocent glee. "Totally useless. Even if you could pierce my dragon's scales, it wouldn't do you any good."
"Poison won't work . . .", Akame replied, before biting the tip of her left thumb hard enough to bleed. She then rested the tip of her left thumb again edge of Murasame's blade. "But how about . . . acid?"
Kurome's eyes widened and she looked rather frantic at her older sister's seemingly bizarre behavior. "Wait a minute, sis! What are you doing? If you're giving up, that's fine, but don't kill yourself! Let me finish you off! It'll just take a second."
Akame shook her head in disagreement of such a notion while slightly pressing the tip of thumb down against her blade. "No one said anything about killing themselves. Instead, I think it's high time I acquainted you with Murasame's trump card: Unholy Curse."
Green ethereal markings appeared all along Mursame's blade, much to Kurome's curiosity. She didn't really understand what was transpiring, but saw no reason for panic given that a mere sword enhancement wouldn't change the flow of the battle. After all, as long as she had absolute control over her dragon, she was the one with all the cards in her hand.
But at the very next movement, that comfort was tossed aside as Akame did something with overwhelming recklessness. She plunged Mursame down into the dragon's back. A clang was heard, indicating that she didn't pierce its scales, much to Kurome's relief. And yet despite this, something uncanny occurred: The same green ethereal markings that had covered her sword had been transferred to the dragon. Within mere moments, the markings had spread across the ultra class' beasts' entire body.
Kurome gritted her teeth in frustration as her puppet was beginning to fly erratically despite her telepathic control. "What did you do?!", she growled.
"Look for yourself", Akame replied, pointing down towards the dragon's scales.
The younger sister gazed upon her pet, shocked to see that its body was . . . melting. It was as if the green ethereal markings were associated with a powerful corrosive of some sort. A pure and otherworldly corrosive perhaps potent enough to melt anything it touches. But Akame had never brandished such a technique in the past. "Why only use this now?", Kurome had wondered.
[. . . . Not So Different . . . .]
Wave arose from the bookcase he had been knocked into, having shaken off the pain of the devastating and consecutive blows Leone had landed despite the durability of his armor. He glared at her through his helmet, not so much concerned with her newfound strength, but rather something else. "This person you said I couldn't handle. It's Tatsumi, isn't it?"
"You didn't think we'd come in here without a way to deal with Esdeath, did you?"
"You're bluffing. I've fought Tatsumi twice now. He's strong, but he's not THAT strong."
Leone chuckled. "You've fought Tatsumi, but up until recently, nobody has fought the real Tatsumi."
"Is that so?", Wave replied, his interest piqued.
"Damn right."
"Huh. Lets say you weren't bluffing. What does any of that have to do with me? Last time I checked, I was fighting you, not him. If he's fighting the commander, then I've got nothing to worry about."
"Because I'm warning you."
"Warning me?", Wave said with indignation. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that what you're doing is pointless. I like you, so it would suck if I had to kill you and even if you were to somehow get past me, you'll never get past Tatsumi once he takes care of Esdeath. So for your own good, leave! Our boss' plan is foolproof, so you're fighting a losing battle no matter how you look at it."
"Even if what you said were true, if I were to run now, it would mean abandoning my friends."
"So take them with you!"
"Neither of them would ever back down to you guys. Besides, I won't abandon the commander either. And I'm definitely not gonna let you guys assassinate anyone else."
Leone narrowed her eyes, visibly annoyed at her opponent's unyielding spirit. "Quit being stupid! Thanks to Chelsea, I'm a hell of a lot different than I was last time! Give up!"
"You're the one who's stupid if you think I'm gonna give up!", Wave exclaimed before jumping into the air towards the ceiling and readying his signature drop kick. "Grand Fall!"
"Fine, you asked for it!" Leone swiftly rotated the buckle on her imperial arm by 180 degree. The moment she did this, she went into a speedy metamorphosis that consisted of her taking on more animalistic characteristics. She now had a pair of vampire like fangs sticking out of her mouth. Her tail had gotten two feet longer and had obtained more girth. Her claws on her paws had increased several inches in length and looked a lot more intimidating. Her boots had been torn asunder due to her feet having become lion-like; claws and everything. Her arms and legs were a bit more muscular. Even her demeanor had taken on a drastic change; She was growling in a feral fashion.
Despite his foe's sudden transformation, Wave remained undeterred and proceeded with his attack; he swooped in for his deadly and infamous drop kick. But still growling like a wild animal, Leone countered him head on, unexpectedly catching his leading foot with her tail and using his own momentum to spin around and send him flying back into another bookcase.
The Grand Chariot wielder sprung back on his feet and bolted right back at his opponent determined not to back down. Leone did the same, only she was now running on her paws and her feet much like a lion in hot pursuit of its prey. As they were within each other's range, Wave opened up with a flying sidekick, but Leone leaped over him to get out of the way.
Before he knew it, Wave realized that she had wrapped her tail around his throat. In spite of the protection his armor offered him, he could feel the pressure growing around his throat; it felt like he had been ensnared by a python, an anaconda or a boa constrictor. He desperately attempted to break free of her vice-like grip, but her tail wouldn't budge.
Wave did the only thing he could think of under the circumstances. He flew into the air and flew straight through the ceiling. Leone immediately released her adversary from her grip, instead opting to grab one of his legs with her paws and throw him down onto the floor; she knew better than to allow him to fly her high into the sky.
The Jaegar had been thrown into the floor with such force that there were large and noticeable hairline cracks all alongside him. As he was about to get back up, Leone landed on top of him and pinned his arms down with her knees much like Tatsumi had done to that goblin-like danger beast a week ago. Then, just like her Night Raid companion, she began to rain down vicious ground & pound MMA styled blows.
From Wave's point of view, he was no longer facing that flirtatious assassin with good intentions, but rather a wild animal ignorant of restraint. Her primal snarls, her ferocious growls and the feral look in her eyes. It was beyond obvious that there was only one thing on Leone's mind at the moment: Kill. And at the rate things were going, the Jaegar knew he would be killed.
Like Incursio's fullbody armor, he knew that his armor only offered so much protection and he could feel the concussive force of her blows through his protective helmet. He even noticed traces of his own blood on Leone's fist, indicating some of his own blood was already leaking out the armor. It was at this point that things started to go black. Complete blackness soon thereafter. That's all there was from his point of view.
Leone pounded his head for a full minute, only to come to a sudden halt afterwards. She noticed something unexpected; Wave was no longer moving. She gently tugged his helmet back and forth, looking for a response, but didn't sense any. She placed one of her feline ears against his chest to listen for a heartbeat, but didn't hear one. "Warned you", she muttered with a frustrated and upset growl. "Stupid. Didn't listen."
Seeing that their battle was over, she got up off of the vanquished Jaegar's lifeless body and began walking towards the door. There was no sign of the emperor, thus no further reason for her to stick around in that room. She took three steps away from Wave's body, only to pause dead in her tracks. Her feline ears had tingled in response to the sound of . . . a heartbeat. She turned around to look back down upon the man she had believed was dead, but there was no sign of him; he was gone. Yet she heard the sound of a heartbeat again, this time near the door.
Suddenly and out of nowhere, Wave was standing in front of the door, blocking the exit. Moreover, the eye slots in his helmet were glowing with an ethereal blue luminosity. Like Tatsumi had that time against Budo, he had just miraculously cheated death somehow.
Leone glared at him, growling once more. She seemed oblivious to his eery blue glowing eyes, instead focused on the fact that he was still standing. "For . . . last . . . time, run away."
The Grand Chariot wielder said nothing. Instead, he simply stood where he was standing, not moving and muscle and practically daring the feral assassin to attack him. Leone did just that; she ran towards him once more on her paws and legs, prepared to pick up where she left off. She was just about ready to pounce him and finish him off, as if having given in completely to her animal instincts.
But the very next moment marked something completely unexpected for Leone; it was the end of the battle. Whatever happened had occurred too quickly for her to see it, but all she knew was that blood was pouring out of her mouth and that Wave's right armored arm was protruding out of her back. Putting two and two together, it didn't take much to realize that he had punched her clean through her chest just then.
Wave then promptly removed his arm from her chest, blood pouring out as she fell to the floor. For whatever reason, the buckle on Leone's belt forcibly reverted back to its upright position and she returned back to the form she usually maintained while transformed.
The pain from that last attack was so great and unbearable that she could hardly move a muscle. Instead, all she could do is look up at the man who had bested her so swiftly just then. Just looking at him, she couldn't help but feel an aura that was cold and robotic. It sent just as many chills up her spine as there were when she had felt Esdeath's murderous aura a while back, but this aura was different.
This encounter wasn't over yet, however, at least as far as Wave was concerned. Without uttering a word, he took a step towards Leone and hovered his right foot above her head. There was no doubt what he had intended to do; he was on the verge of giving the feral assassin a fate just like the one he gave the late Seryu Ubiquitous. Leone tried her best to move, but her body was in so much pain that it just wouldn't listen.
But before Wave could deliver the coup de gras, he noticed something peculiar in the window. A dragon, Kurome's dragon, was rapidly plummeting towards another area in the capital. There was no doubt that it was about to crash into the ground and were Wave familiar with what Akame had done to it, he'd know why. Nevertheless, this distraction completely took his attention away from finishing off Leone. He immediately flew out the hole in the ceiling he had created earlier, no doubt intent on aiding his comrade.
Leone didn't quite understand what had just happened or why Wave had left, but sighed in relief. "Sorry everybody, but I'm gonna need to take a breather here for a minute. Can't do much when I've got a damn hole in my chest."
She closed her eyes as if to momentarily rest, only to hear the sound of a muffled voice coming from beneath the room's floor. Her eyes popped wide open as she heard this voice. This distinct and peculiar voice. Her ears tingled as she heard the words "Sir Wave, is it safe to come out yet?"
[. . . Game Changer . . . ]
In the imperial throne room, Syura stood a few yards across Najenda; he wasn't concerned about the new imperial arm she had in her possession. Rather, he maintained a smug look on his face, as if nothing the Night Raid commander could do would alter the inevitable outcome of their battle. "So, you're the ones who had Adramalech. Seems that fool Esdeath wasted her time leaving that one in the hands of that Rakshasa Demon thug. She may as well have just given it to me since that's where it was going to end up anyway."
Sparks dancing across the blade portion of her new weapon, Najenda aimed the tip straight towards the twisted and sinister man standing across her. Like the recoil on a handgun, he right arm flew back as a bolt of electricity flew out the tip of her hook and straight towards Syura. Unfortunately for the Night Raid commander, he had already vanished by the time she had fired her weapon.
"Now that I think about, Adramalech actually looks quite good on you", Syura said, standing directly behind Najenda and looking over her shoulder. "It fits the whole fake arm look you've got going for you."
She promptly spun around, leaving a visible path of electricity in the air as she tried to slash into her demented adversary with her hook. But as had been the case throughout the battle thus far, Syura was once again one step ahead; he vanished and reappeared 10 feet backward.
"Tsk tsk", Syura uttered mockingly. "Perhaps I was wrong to buy the stories about your alleged tactical brilliance. What part of 'I can read your mind' do you not comprehend?"
Najenda fired another blast of lightning towards her adversary. "Spectator is far from invincible. Akame proved that much upon defeating its previous owner."
"Unlike its previous owner . . .", Syura replied while casually teleporting out of the way. "I'm not a complete moron. And you are certainly no Shinigami Akame."
The Night Raid commander raised her right arm into the air, stretching it towards the ceiling. Upon doing this, additional bolts of electricity were emitted out of from Adramalech's tip. Said bolts were not only many in number, but were zipping out in every direction in the room.
"By sending the electrical bolts in many random directions . . .", Syura said, vanishing and reappearing all around the room as a means of avoiding this wide and encompassing attack. ". . . my mind reading won't matter as I won't be able to predict where your attacks are coming from and will eventually get hit, right?"
He vanished again only to reappear right in front of Najenda. As he reappeared, he backhanded her in face with his right hand, knocking her down with one move. "Wrong. As long as I know where you aren't shooting, I know exactly where I need to be to dodge that little party favor you call an attack."
Syura bent down, grabbed Najenda by her silver hair and lifted her up just enough to look at her face to face. Then with a mocking grin, he said, "That's your problem. You can't help yourself. You need to contemplate every single one of your actions, especially in the heat of battle. Had even that buffoon, Zank the Executioner, fought you instead of Shinigami Akame, he'd still be alive and you'd be missing a head. It's impossible for someone like you to even lay a scratch on me."
Defiant to the bitter end, Najenda mustered up a cluster of saliva with her tongue and spat upon the face of her dark and sadistic adversary. He vanished, of course, before the spit could even reach him, only to reappear two feet to the left of where he had just been standing. "See? Contemplating!"
Free from Syura's grasp, she rose back on her feet, her spirit unbroken. "Bastard! What was the Prime Minister thinking entrusting you with that glove and all of the imperial arms?"
To which Syura laughed. "Entrusted me? That old fool thinks all of the imperial arms were lost during the battle at the Revolutionary Army fortress. He doesn't know that I stole them all while everyone else was distracted."
"I don't understand. Why would you double cross your father like this? Don't you serve him?"
"I, the great Syura, serve no one! And after today, everyone in the Grand Empire, including my father, will be serving me. And it's all thanks to you!"
"What in blazes are you are babbling about, you demented psychopath?"
"I'm talking about my plan to rule the Grand Empire of course. And with Gaea Foundation in my possession, that plan has become a reality."
Najenda's mouth had hung wide agape, as if having instantly pieced together this twisted and sinister man's true intentions. "You don't mean . . ."
"Ah, but I do. That Chelsea girl had no idea the power she had in her possession. The ability to take on the form on any person she chooses. With it, she posed as the late General Budo and no one batted an eye. But my imagination far surpasses hers. I could've easily alerted my father to your little scheme to get into the palace undetected, but why ruin such a perfect opportunity as this?"
"You intentionally allowed us to break in?"
"That's right. I've even assured that the emperor has no protection besides a single one of Esdeath's meddlesome lackeys. In other words, I want you to kill the emperor; I'm counting on it. Once he's dead, I'll kill whoever killed him and take on the form of the emperor as my own. And once that has happened, I'll be the one running the show and I'll tell everyone that the gallant Syura died honorably protecting his majesty from the evils of Night Raid. It's a win-win."
"This is madness even for you! Unless you plan on being as subservient as the real emperor, there's no way someone as power hungry as your father would ever put up with it!"
"Good thing he's hiding below the palace where your little boyfriend was headed. With any luck, they've already run into each other."
"You would have your own father killed for your own personal gain?"
"The old man has always taught me to use whatever opportunity presents itself to get ahead in life. What could make a parent prouder than to know that their child has surpassed them?"
"Enough!", Najenda said, furrowing her eyebrows. "I will hear no more of this madness. It's now clear to me that you are a far greater threat to our chances of restoring this country than even your father. I'll eliminate you myself."
If there were any indication that Syura took the assassin leader's threat seriously, the jovial mocking look on his face certainly wasn't such an indication. Nor was his laughter. "Eliminate me yourself? Good one. I do suppose it's time we wrap up the foreplay. You can't imagine how much I'm looking forward to our main event.'
Najenda wasn't fazed by her adversaries continued perversions. Instead, she firmly pointed the tip of her hook towards him. As she did this, a full stream of electricity could be seen enveloping around her prosthetic weapon, intensifying in light blue voltage. Syura didn't appear intimidated, however. He simply stood where he had been standing, snickering and effectively daring Najenda to attack.
And so she did, firing a bolt of lightning out from the tip of her hook and towards Syura. As expected, however, Syura vanished before her single eye thanks to his handy teleportation powers. He reappeared right behind her, delivering a devastating karate chop to the back of her neck. But for some odd reason, Najenda stood perfectly still despite this maneuver. In fact, it was as if she hadn't even been hit at all. Syura, on the other hand, was feeling the sensation of being electrocuted as millions of miniature volts danced across his body
Najenda smirked with the utmost satisfaction while turning around to face this depraved and sinister man as she heard his cries of agony. It was now Syura who had dropped to the floor, flat on his back and completely defenseless. "Well well, lookie what we have here. I hope this isn't what you had in mind for the main event. I suppose it's to be expected of men who talk an overwhelmingly big game; they're always the ones least able to deliver."
"You . . . bitch", Syura muttered, still trying to cope with the pain of being electrocuted. "How did you do that? Your thoughts should have tipped me off! Whatever you did, you weren't thinking it!"
"Who knows?", Najenda replied ever so coyly and with a shrug of her shoulders. "I guess I just got lucky."
"No, there's no way", Syura replied, gasping and panting. "I would have known."
"That remains to be proven. What you do, however, know, is what it's like to have one billion volts coursing through your body. Or in other words, what's it like to be struck by lightning."
Sensing that their battle had reached its conclusion, Najenda casually bent down with her gaze focused on the brown silk glove in Syura's right hand. "You called it the 'Limit Breaker' I believe. You won't be needing it where you're going."
"Neither will you, General Najenda", said an unknown voice nearby.
Najenda turned to identify this unknown interloper with her own eye, only to heart a gunshot go off and a sudden surging pain in her right side. Pain such that she immediately dropped to the floor, holding herself up by kneeling on one knee. Gritting her teeth, she mustered all of her strength to keep herself from completely falling over; she was that determined to see for herself who it was who had just shot her. Looking towards the throne, she saw the emperor sitting upon it with a smug look on his face and with a magnum in his left hand.
[. . . Esdeath's Mask . . .]
Esdeath and Tatsumi stood in the center of the palace courtyard, engaged in what may very well have been the fight of the century. Tatsumi had completely abandoned his attempt to bait the Ice Queen into putting herself in a position where he could disarm her; instead, he was now operating in a more offensive fashion by actively swinging his mighty blade. Esdeath, on the other hand, was operating in a more defensive fashion; she actively made use of her buckler to parry incoming swings.
Both combatants were moving so quickly that an outside observer would've perceived their movements as being nothing more than blurs. Though they appeared to be even, a mere glance on Tatsumi's person suggested otherwise. He had gained nine additional small cuts since the initial one the Ice Queen had marked on his upper right arm. Four on his legs, three on arms and two on his neck.
The reason for the imbalance in the flow of their battle was clear upon close inspection. A reason Esdeath didn't mind articulating out loud after parrying her way out of their exchange and leaping backwards a few feet. "There are many who dismiss the claymore as an outdated weapon used by musclebound imbeciles with no imagination besides clobbering their foes with something big and strong, but you are living proof that such a weapon does not get enough credit. You make use of its advantages: Its power. But you're are also mindful of its disadvantages: It's speed. In your hands, you've made it seem as if its weakness does not exist. Even so, from what I can tell, although you do appear to have me slightly outmatched in brute strength, I'm slightly faster than you. At this point, all I need to do to win is nip a major artery. In other words, I have you at a serious disadvantage."
"Looks that way", Tatsumi replied.
"Heh. Of course it does. . . and yet . . .", Esdeath looked upon her adversary discerningly. ". . . I feel as if my analysis doesn't shed light on the full picture."
"The full picture?"
"You're far too calm. You've been that way throughout the entire fight. No matter how dire the situation has seemed, I've never sensed any fear, terror or panic from you; just calm. Even now, you don't seem at all concerned about me having the advantage. But as I crossed blades with you just now, I sensed something else; I sensed something that doesn't quite line up with how you're behaving, yet it somehow does. It's as if you're calm, but not calm at all. You could call it a living and breathing contradiction, but I'm not certain how to describe it."
Hearing Esdeath's description, Tatsumi was reminded of Bulat's two most impactful teachings. Teachings he had taken to heart and memory The first was to stay focused and keep his cool no matter what. A lesson that had saved him from certain death time and time again; the second was to let his soul rage and roar. A lesson that enabled him to turn the tables in multiple battles where he had been the underdog. But what if there were a way to combine these teachings? "Tranquil fury."
"Tranquil fury?"
"I first stumbled upon it when I fought General Budo up in Bestimmung. Fighting with everything I had wasn't working against him and simply staying focused nearly got me killed. But somehow, when it looked like he had won, I was able to combine the two together and change my fighting style completely."
"Interesting. So you're the one the did him in? I had been wondering what had truly happened to the old geezer, but now that I know you fought him, I guess I don't need to wonder any longer. In the end, he was weak just like all the rest."
"Weak because he was killed, right? Then what about your father? Was he weak too?"
"Of course he was. Weren't you paying attention when I told you what happened to him? What happened to my father was regrettable, but it doesn't change the fact that he was a weak man."
"You call your father weak, but have had nothing but praise for him throughout this fight. And if I'm not mistaken, you've never beaten him in a fight either, have you?"
"That's all in the past. I'm much stronger now than I was back then. Besides, I'm alive and my father is dead. That is proof enough to confirm who is strong and who is weak."
"Even by your own logic, that doesn't make any sense. Do you really believe that the reason your father died was because he was weak? Or do you think there was another reason?"
"Of course he was weak. There is no . . . other reason" She paused before those last two words uncharacteristically. She noticed her chest tightening as she uttered these words, but didn't understand why. "Enough prattle, Tatsumi. I'd much rather continue our match."
Tatsumi nodded his head before charging towards her and picking up where they left off. The battle continued precisely as before, with neither making any headway beyond Esdeath slipping in the occasional last second small cut with her rapier.
There was something different however. Something off about the Ice Queen. The smile she had been sporting had faded away. Her mind . . . it was no longer completely focused on the fight before her. Instead, memories of the past once again came floating to the surface of her mind. This time, it was a memory much later in her childhood. It was a memory of what had taken place days before her father's untimely end.
Within the Partas clan village, she recalled having overheard her father discussing something of particular interest with another villager one morning.
"I couldn't believe it, but I got a glimpse of it with my own eyes!", the villager had said. "A rainbow eyed cockatrice! I don't know how it got there, but it's wandering the mountains on its own. Just say the word, and I can put together an expedition to hunt it down!"
"No can do", her father had replied while shaking his head. "That storm really did a number on our fortification. For now, we need to focus all of our manpower on making repairs."
"But Chief! You know how much a rainbow eyed cockatrice is worth on the market, dead or alive. We could get a year's supply of grain. There's no telling what'll happen if we don't go hunt it down now. Someone or something else might catch it."
"Priorities. We'll focus on the walls then we'll go look for this cockatrice."
She recalled the villager have promptly walked way, visibly frustrated at his chief's judgment. She had then walked up to her father, curious about what she had overheard. "Father, is it really a good idea to give upon upon catching that rainbow eyed cockatrice? Isn't it worth a lot of gold?"
To which he had responded, "Believe me, Esdeath: I'd love to go hunt it down, but we really don't have time with the village walls being in need of repair and all. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go supervise the repairs on the south wall. Be a dear and bring some firewood down there when you get a chance."
As her father had walked away, Esdeath had smiled to herself as an idea came to mind. "Don't worry, father", she had whispered. "While you focus on the walls, I'll get the cockatrice myself! Just wait! When you see what I've done on my own, you'll be so proud of me!"
And so without hesitation or approval, the young Ice Queen had ventured high into the mountains on her own. Even at that young age, she had been a skilled hunter and thus narrowing down the cockatrice's location had not been all that difficult to her. She had found its tracks, had stumbled upon one of its feathers and had gotten a whiff of its scent. By the evening, she had determined where the beast was likely to appear if she waited long enough. This had prompted her to climb up into a nearby tree and patiently wait for it.
What had become an entire night of waiting had soon become an entire day. The cockatrice was a no-show and yet she was confident in her assessment; she was certain it was going to stumble past her tree sooner or later. She nibbled on what little food she had brought with her while keeping sleep to a minimum. For hours and hours, she remained vigilant. A few thoughts of returning to the village had entered her mind, but she brushed them all aside, determined to please her father.
A full additional two days of this had passed and she still found herself waiting in the tree. She had considered finally heading back to the village empty handed, having considered the possibility that another predator had gotten to the cockatrice before she had. But just as she was about to climb down, she saw the beast casually grazing nearby.
She had wanted to leap for joy, but pinched herself as she realized she might scare her quarry away. Sure enough, the beast had waltzed right under her tree, just as she predicted. And the very moment it did, she swooped down like an eagle intent upon catching an unsuspecting wild rabbit. With one clean slice to the throat, she knew the beast was hers and that her hunt was successful. With a joyous smile on her lips, she grabbed the beast by the neck and began making her way back down the mountains.
At this point, she recalled the part of the tale she had previously revealed to Tatsumi. The part where she had arrived back to her village, only to discover that everyone was dead or dying thanks to an attack from the Northern Tribes. More importantly, she recalled her father's final moments. "Esdeath. Like I told you. We were defeated because we weren't strong enough. This was our fate. Never let yourself be of the weak, Esdeath. Never become the prey."
With these memories weighing on her mind, the Ice Queen continued her battle with the Incursio wielder. She couldn't help but notice that his question kept echoing in her mind; was there another reason her father died? "Nonsense, Tatsumi. This is just more of your naïve views on how the world works. You are just trying to preach more of your weak sense of traditional morality. What my father said is the TRUTH! The STRONG live and the WEAK die."
In that split instant, the Ice Queen was yet again in a position to take advantage of her weapon's superior speed and fish for another small cut. "He died because he was weak! There's no other way that day could have ended. His weakness led to his death, Tatsumi! Just as your weakness will lead to YOURS!" This time, she aimed for his throat, but rather than settle for another glancing blow, she converted her attack into a full-fledged slash.
A mistake on her part. The slash was too wide and Tatsumi, merely by tilting his weapon ever so slightly, caught the tip end of her rapier between the guard on his claymore, effectively parrying her attack away from his throat and into the air besides him. He then followed up with a swift and deadly kick to the Ice Queen's stomach, knocking her away and sending her tumbling to the ground.
She began to arise back on her feet only to notice something off about herself. She was breathing harder all of the sudden. "That blow to the solar plexus was deliberate. He's noticed the physical toll my ice techniques have had on me; he must be trying to wear me down. I can't afford to make a mistake like that again."
"You were sloppy just now", Tatsumi remarked, as if asserting a clear and obvious fact.
Esdeath regained her footing and promptly ceased her panting after taking one deep breath and exhaling. "You give yourself too little, credit. That was a good counter-attack."
He shook his head dismissively of her response "Until now, you haven't been so careless. It has something to do with what I asked you, doesn't it?"
She narrowed her eyes in frustration, "And what if it did?"
With a reluctant sigh, Tatsumi said the following, "I didn't know the man personally, so there's really no way for me to know everything about the kind of man your father was. And maybe I'll never know. However, the one thing I am sure of is that maybe there's a side of you that doesn't actually believe he was weak. Maybe there's a side of you that uses that as an excuse to avoid having to confront another feeling that lies deep in your heart. A feeling I've been feeling for the longest time about each of my friends I wasn't able to save. That's what I'm sensing from you every time our swords clash. The truth is that maybe you're afraid to admit that you blame yourself for what happened to your father."
The Ice Queen stood silently, her eyes widening and her face having taken on a ghostly pallor as she listened to Tatsumi's explanation. "The strong live and the weak die. Those were my father's words and I've followed them every day since his death. But before he died, I . . . I didn't . . . that's right, I didn't tell anyone where I was. I wanted to surprise father. I wanted to see him smile like he did that one time when we were camping. But the truth is that . . . if I hadn't gone up to the mountains, then . . ."
At that very next moment, the image of her father lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood resurfaced in her mind and it was as if a lightbulb had been flicked on and all the truths and realities that had been lying in dark for years had suddenly had a light shined upon them. Startling revelations they were. Soul shaking at that.
Esdeath immediately discarded her sword by thrusting it into the ground before her, only to do something so uncharacteristic that even Tatsumi, despite the consistently calm demeanor he had been displaying up until now, left his mouth hanging wide open in utter shock and confusion. She began screaming to the top of her lungs with her hands pressed against both sides of her head as if a carnivorous earwig were devouring the insides of her skull.
The pain she was experiencing, if literal, appeared to be entirely of the mental variety. It was if she had snapped; as if she had broken down like so many of her tortured victims in the past. She was also moving around erratically, so much to the point that she even dropped down and began beating her head against the ground.
Tatsumi merely stood by, unable to fathom what he was seeing. He had never seen the Ice Queen like this. In fact, it was fairly safe to say that no one had; not even her beloved father. What was going through her mind? What was causing her to experience such psychological trauma? Was this the effect of years of repression? How could someone who conquered an imperial arm like Demon's Extract break down like this? Tatsumi searched his mind for an answer, but couldn't procure one. It was truly baffling.
This outburst lasted for a half a minute, but the Ice Queen was nonetheless able to pull herself back together just enough to focus on the one person who had set her on this frustrating tour down memory lane. "Damn you, Tatsumi. It's because of you that I feel like this. You've been filling my head with all sorts of strange and useless thoughts feelings since the day I met you. Curse you!"
"Esdeath . . .", Tatsumi said, uncertain of how to respond to her strange outbursts.
She got right back on her feet, her eyes full of death and rage. She was once again projecting the dark and murderous aura Leone had come to fear firsthand. "Silence! You are a weakness I can tolerate no longer!" She grabbed her sword and practically ripped it out from the ground she had thrusted it into. "I'll finish you off here and now with a technique that surpasses even Mahapadma. Behold, my second trump card: Dämon Zahn Grade 4."
A/N: Just for the record, I've always viewed Esdeath as bearing some pretty strong similarities to the Rurouni Kenshin villain, Soujiro Seta. In fact, I always believed that her backstory was designed to set up a similar "catharsis moment" like what Soujiro had while battling Kenshin. The way the author set her up, the character was simply never designed to be an evil for the sake of being evil villain and we really could have gotten more out of her in the original story line.
Now there are those who might find my treatment of Esdeath in the last part OOC, but take into account the fact that the author has never actually had anyone press her on her past, much less explore it. There are gaps in this character that I am merely endeavoring to fill. I think the implications I raised here make sense in what we know about the character and certainly give her backstory a little more meaning than merely than what we saw in the original, but that's just me! Hopefully, the next chapter will make the method to my madness very clear!
Anyways, two more chapters to go! I had originally intended for this chapter and the next chapter to be one chapter, but it would've ended up being too long.
Love it? Hate it? Meh? Lemme know what you think! As always, I appreciate your thoughts, both constructive and positive! Trolling too, provided you're at least clever about it! ;) As always, thanks for reading and thanks for the months of support! So glad to break the 200 review barrier!