Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Akame ga Kill franchise and this fanfiction has not been written for profit!

A/N: Aaaaannnd we've once once again made our way to another new chapter! Not just ANY chapter, but one chapter away from the last. I meant to get this out MUCH earlier, but as my law practice expands, so too does my lack of free time. One chapter from the end though. Can you believe that? A whole year of progress is about to pay off. I'll try and get the last chapter out before the new year.

Before we get started, just a few points to note:

#1. A MASSIVE shoutout to the reviewers! It's always great to see your feedback randomly come in to my inbox throughout the day. And it looks as if some of you guys just up and read my mind when it comes to insight. Spectator perhaps? Curses! Thank you VERY MUCH for reading guys/gals. Same shoutout to the favs and follows! You guys are the best.

#2. I plan on commissioning an artist to produce some custom cover art for this fic. It'll hopefully be released when I post the next chapter. If anyone knows of any good AKG artists who'd be willing to take a paid commission, that'd be great. They gotta be credible though. Don't wanna deal with any scammers!

And awwwwwwaaaaay we go!

Episode 30: Kill the End Game: Part Three - Updated on 6/30/18 for grammar/spelling/narrative purposes.

There in the imperial throne room, the emperor sat on his throne with an uncharacteristic sense of smugness on his lips. With a handgun trained on Najenda, he had even begun to chuckle at her situation. "It's been a while, General Najenda. How have you been?"

The Night Raid commander painfully arose back onto her feet, tightly pressing her left hand against the area on her right side where she had been shot. "Emperor Makato. Who would've thought the Prime Minister would ever let you off your leash and even send you to personally do his dirty work."

Syura was still laid out on the floor, still reeling from the pain he had endured as a result of Najenda's lightning. He was nonetheless able to raise his head just enough to see what was happening. "You . . . nitwit", he said, eyes directed towards Najenda. "That's not the emperor. That's . . ." A bullet pierced his right leg before he could utter another word.

"Hush your mouth, boy", said the emperor, his gun now trained on Syura.

Najenda immediately narrowed her eyebrows, as if having pieced every piece of the puzzle together. "Prime Minister Honest."

"Oh dear. And here I had hoped my ruse would last just a little bit longer." At that moment, a smoke cloud had poofed over the emperor's body. As it dispersed, Prime Minister Honest appeared to be the one sitting on the throne with his gun still trained on his own son. "Well General Najenda. You wanted my head on a platter, so here I am. I'd offer you to come and take it, but it doesn't look like you're in any shape to take anything besides a permanent nap."

"How did you get your hands on that imperial arm?"

"You mean Gaea Foundation? Ah, it's a long story, but my foolish son deceived himself into thinking he could hide things from his father. I've known about his particular brand of treachery for quite some time, but was waiting for the opportune moment I'd be able to make use of it."

"Bastard" Syura muttered.

Another bullet pierced the same leg. "I said hush your mouth! You have no one but yourself to blame for your current situation. On the other hand, your plan to make use of Night Raid, let the emperor die and take his place was pretty shrewd. Too shrewd for a foolish ungrateful brat like you. So sit back and watch. I'll show you how a master does it."

To which Najenda responded, "You mean to tell me you would let the emperor die as well?"

"You ask such small questions, General Najenda. It's only a matter of time before Makoto starts gaining a streak of independence; only a matter of time before he realizes he doesn't need a Prime Minister anymore. Just last week, he took one of those pesky Jaegar's suggestions over mine. Honestly, I have no use for power that is hard to control. When I learned of Syura's treachery and intent to commit regicide, it fitted perfectly with my own ambitions. Why settle for being an adviser when I can run this damn empire myself?"

"Run the empire yourself?", the Night Raid commander snorted with indignation. More like run it into the ground. Or has the poverty and suffering throughout villages and cities outside the capital not been brought to your attention?"

"Have you ever concerned yourself with the anthills you kick out of the way? Their lives didn't mean anything before I became the Prime Minister and they don't mean anything now. They are little maggots whose names will never be remembered in history. They should be honored that I've given their meaningless little lives some purpose by making them food for my own ambitions."

"You're even more deranged than your son! If you keep pillaging the country like this, it won't be long before it collapses and you'll have nothing left to satisfy your greed!"

"Thanks to my new imperial arm, that won't happen! Once I've sucked the stupid and pathetic people of this country dry, I'll go to a new country, assume the identity of their leader and repeat the process. Maybe I'll start with Reispan. They may be a bunch of mongrels, but I've always had a taste for their women. And their food too: Absolutely scrumptious."

"Don't get too cocky!", Najenda growled. "Even if I die here, my subordinates are each more than capable than finishing the job."

"The only 'job' those fools will be finishing is the assassination of our dear Emperor Makoto. And with that playmate you've found to occupy General Esdeath's attention, I have no doubt they'll succeed. Once they've done it, I'll have every guard and soldier in the city swarm the palace and flush them out once and for all."

[. . . And the victor is . . . ]

Having reached the climax of grand duel, Esdeath stood across Tatsumi ready to finish things once and for all ; all of her attention was focused on nothing but this young man standing before her. He had more than lived up to being the challenge she had always craved with every fiber of her being. And yet despite having had her dream of a worthy opponent realized, she was anything but pleased.

On the contrary, the Ice Queen was filled with murderous wrath. Just the look in her eyes and the grimace on her face; it was clear that she was angrier than she had ever been. And not as a result from any of her opponent's attacks, but his words. Even at the risk of being driven insane by consuming the entire essence of Demon's Extra, her iron-will persevered. But his words, his troublesome words were a different beast to be trifled with entirely. Such words forcefully dredged up parts of her soul that had been deeply suppressed for years.

Tatsumi stood surprised at the Ice Queen's declaration to end their battle immediately as well as the means by which she assured she would end it, but nevertheless regained his otherworldly calm composure in a heartbeat. "Dämon Zahn Grade 4?", he said, repeating the words that had just left her mouth.

"During our last encounter, you were somehow able to move and blindside me even though I had frozen time and space. Since then, I have devised a technique to utterly decimate even one who could inconceivably resist my Mahapadma."

All of the sudden, she extended her sword arm into the air, pointing her rapier towards the sky as if it were a lightning rod of sorts. As she did this, all of the ice that had been manifested in the courtyard broke down into ice dust, gradually gravitating towards the tip of her rapier and seemingly evaporating upon coming into contact.

As more ice was pulled towards the Ice Queen's rapier, the space around it began to look distorted. And throughout this ritual, more sweat could be seen accumulating on her forehead and more blood began seeping out of her hands; the strain on her body was more than clear, but such trivialities were of no concern to her for the end of this tenuous duel was near.

It didn't take long, but Esdeath had dispersed every trace of ice in the courtyard. And as a result of having done so, the space at the tip of her rapier was bending and folding, almost as if it were an invisible black hole of sorts. She promptly lowered her sword arm, only to ostentatiously slice the air before her in a cross shaped manner. In response, an X-shaped dimensional tear appeared in place of the air she had cut.

"This . . . is Grade 4. Ice concentrated enough to surpass even time and space itself. Think of it as concentrating all of the power of the Mahapadma down into a single nexus. Just one touch from my rapier; it doesn't matter where. One touch and your entire body will be atomized into nothing. In other words, you will be erased."

"Do you really believe that, Esdeath?"

"Of course I do. I've already tested this technique on two prisoners due for execution. Each of them were crushed into a singularity upon being touched by the tip of my sword."

Tatsumi shook his head, obviously having something else in mind. "Do you really believe that if you kill me here, everything I've said will just magically disappear as well? It won't change the truth here. You know your father didn't die because he was weak! You know what he told you was-"

"Silence!", the Ice Queen tersely interrupted. "Every single trace of you shall vanish! I have no need of your thoughts, your words and I most especially have no need of this insipid thing called love. Not anymore! I was a fool to ever embrace it. It is a weakness and most unfitting for someone who embodies strength; someone who possesses the right to live. So die Tatsumi! Die and become further proof of my strength!"

With that, she slipped back into her fencing stance; her knees bent to perfection, her right foot forward, her left foot backward and perpendicular to the former. With her wrist movement alone, she spun the tip of her sword of her blade in a deceptively simple figure-eight fashion and had it pointed it in the direction of Tatsumi's chest.

"Fine", Tatsumi said, slipping back into his own stance, firmly holding his claymore out before him with both hands. "Then let's finish this."

Yet again, both were in their respective postures. Only this time, the tension in the air was thick and intoxicating. They both know that the end of their battle was approaching and that their next exchange would decide the winner. Their temporary impasse was almost poetic. Tatsumi could feel the weight of Esdeath's very soul bearing down on him and Esdeath could feel Tatsumi's bearing down on hers. In a cosmic sense, this was the most intimate moment they had ever shared together.

Just as this moment had passed, however, their finale had begun; both of them pressed towards the other so quickly as to barely even leave behind a blur in the way of their movements. And although they were both moving at a superhuman speed, they were both cognizant of one another's moves, especially Tatsumi with his crimson eyes. He watched as Esdeath came flying at him, lunging her blade with the intensity of a torpedo. The tip end was on a collision course with his chest. A move to which the assassin responded with a quick and well-placed parry; he clashed the middle of his blade into the middle of the Ice Queen's, causing the tip-end to fly past his left shoulder.

With Esdeath seemingly wide open, Tatsumi pressed forward with a straight slash down. The general was far from finished in this exchange, however. She immediately jotted herself forward, into the eye of the hurricane so to speak. Before the flame entrenched claymore could descend any closer, she responded with a well-placed parry of her own, using the Grade 3 Ice fashioned buckler on her left arm to bat away the base end of his sword (without a doubt the area with the least resistance). In one move, she had not only nullified his attack, but had created the opening she needed to end their duel. No doubt her plan all along

It was now Tatsumi who was seemingly wide open and the Ice Queen was already on the verge of slicing into the left side of his throat. Only his head was already in mid-motion; the Incursio wielder was already weaving his head out of the way before Esdeath had begun her attack on his throat. It was a clean dodge. Much too clean for Esdeath's taste considering she didn't even manage to nick her opponent's skin.

But once again, Esdeath was far from finished in this exchange. Rather than recoil her blade back, she followed up by fishing for yet another small cut much the like the nine she had already managed to inflict in their earlier exchanges. Though with the threat the tip of her rapier now posed, this cut would be lethal were it to be inflicted.

She was on the verge on nicking Tatsumi on his right shoulder, but just like with the slice she had attempted on his throat, inflicting this blow had already become a lost cause for Tatsumi was already in the process of avoiding her attack; he had spun his upper body to the right just enough to make her miss. What's more, he had used his own momentum in spinning his upper body to pull off another straight slash down. Unlike the previous one though, this swing carried exponentially more power behind it.

It was at this point that the truth had become more than clear: Tatsumi had anticipated every fraction of the exchange thus far and Esdeath had played right into his hand. He had already learned how to anticipate the adjustments she had made to her sword style. He may have even allowed the Ice Queen to inflict so many small cuts with her rapier in order to lull her into a false sense of security. Regardless, the truth was obvious; this battle was his.

Despite the infinitesimal span of time that was being followed, the image Esdeath could see before her was one she was well familiar with: Death. It was like looking into the eyes of a blood thirsty dragon intent on finishing off its prey. Only Esdeath didn't blink at the sight of the abyss before her. She was radiant with confidence, almost as if the battle were in actuality going the way she had planned it from the start. After all, she had already been fully aware of the powers Tatsumi's had endowed him with and his tenacious ability to adapt to her fighting style.

Wasting no time, she met her adversary head on by recoiling her blade and concentrating just about all of her remaining energy into the buckler on her left arm. It instantly shapeshifted into a thick black and resilient medieval heater shield. A wound had spontaneously manifested on her left shoulder, no doubt in response to her continued creation of Grade 3 ice, but she didn't care. She then promptly held her upgraded shield out just in time to block Tatsumi's incoming attack. And such an attack it was. His claymore had thunderously smashed and rained down upon her shield like an asteroid slamming through the atmosphere, colliding into the earth and instantly sending a powerful gust of hurricanic wind in every direction.

There was a reason Tatsumi was easily able to pierce Esdeath's Grade 2 ice, but put no scratches into Grade 3. Grade 3 was on a completely different level of durability and could absorb much greater amounts of force from opposing weapons. Surely in a heat shield form, it's capacity to do this was well beyond that of its previous buckler form.

But as they clashed, the Ice Queen noticed a burning sensation on her shield arm. She glanced directly at her shield, not having felt this sensation before. It was then that she noticed that the shield was beginning to crack. "Impossible", she thought. It was while glancing in this direction that she noticed something even more uncanny: The flames on Tatsumi's blade were changing in color; the concentrated orange flames were fading away, only to be replaced by divine-like concentrated white flames.

Esdeath immediately knew what was happening. Incursio, the claymore itself, was adapting again and at the worst possible moment. She knew she had to do something quickly before Tatsumi cleaved her arm off. Using all of her strength and body weight, she skillfully shoved her way out of their gridlock, successfully batting Tatsumi's blade away and sending him twirling to his right before his sword could clean through her arm.

In this split instant, the Ice Queen noticed her shield split in two. What's more, her left arm had suddenly gone limp, indicating that it was broken or at very least dislocated. Still, none of that mattered: (1) She still had her sword arm and (2) In that miniscule of miniscule instants, Tatsumi was clearly wide open and clearly had no other tricks up his sleeve. She knew the battle was hers for the taking and threw all of her weight into one last thrust. It made no difference where she pierced him; a single touch from the tip of her rapier would finish him off for good and erase him from her life.

This was the end. This was truly the end. Nothing would stop her. Nothing would take away her claim to be strong. And nothing would remove what she perceived to be a beacon of weakness before her. Her father's words were the truth, Tatsumi's were false and this contest was finally over. It was finally . . . no. Still shifting to the right, Tatsumi still had that accursed calm look in his eyes. The look of a patient fisherman sitting at the docks, waiting for the line on his pole to tug and Esdeath could clearly see this despite being in mid-motion of her thrust.

And yet despite what was clearly the goddess of victory smiling upon her, the tug came. Suddenly, before her blade could go any further, Esdeath felt a sharp and painful shiver go down her spine. Her body stopped listening to her and her movements had come to a sudden halt. Her legs had abandoned her, wobbling like jelly, wobbling like that of a boxer who had just suffered a devastating blow to the chin without falling down. It was in that instant that she realized the full brunt of the power behind Tatsumi's previous attack. She had boasted about being slightly faster than him earlier, but now her speed advantage was meaningless as she couldn't move at all. The strain on her body was too great.

Meanwhile, Tatsumi, who had shifted to his right after the Ice Queen had knocked him away, had converted his movement into a 360-degree spin. He was coming right back around, swinging his blade in an upwards diagonal fashion. Esdeath could do nothing more than watch as the fisherman reeled her in with his fishing line; she had taken the bait that had been deliberately set and was now paying the price.

What was a complex and high level exchange was now coming to a swift end. In that last instant, Tatsumi cleaved the Ice Queen's rapier in two while also landing a slight glancing blow on the upper part of her chest; specifically, a small line across her Demon's Extract tattoo. Given the heat and the flames the claymore was now emitting, the wound was instantly cauterized.

But that wasn't all. Just as he had cut through Esdeath's rapier, he released his left hand from the grip of his own blade hilt and had used it to seize her by her throat. Then, with just that one hand, he promptly slammed her body into the ground. A move the Ice Queen was utterly unable to defend herself against. The duel had finally taken its toll on her and she was completely exhausted; she couldn't do anything but pant and watch as the Incursio wielder was about to administer the coup de grace.

Though alas, the battle looked to have finally taken its toll on Tatsumi as well. He too was panting and showing signs of exhaustion, though obviously not to the degree of his adversary. Even his claymore had reverted back to its dormant short sword state; no doubt was his ability to wield it linked to his stamina just like his fullbody armor was. Still, none of this prevented Tatsumi from finishing the fight once and for all.

Esdeath merely laid there as Tatsumi held her down with one hand, watching as he maneuvered his short sword into a reverse grip and held the blade right above her head. No words were exchanged next. No lectures were given. No confessions were made. There was nothing but silence as Tatsumi plunged his blade down without remorse . . . signifying the end.

[ . . . Shinigami Akame . . . ]

A heavy crash could be heard in the capital's central market area. Panic ridden screams soon followed; pedestrians, shoppers and merchants alike began fleeing in droves. Not a single city guard responded to the scene. In light of the Prime Minister's command to have them monitor the palace walls for signs of Night Raid, it wasn't hard to imagine why.

At the sight of the crash was the remains of Kurome's dragon being consumed by the ethereal corrosive Akame had inflicted upon it. At the rate the acid was moving, the dragon was sure to be dissolved within the minute. Kurome herself was right next to her pet, lying face down on the ground in a pool of her own blood with her body motionless. She had clearly taken the full brunt of the fall.

Akame, on the other hand, was more fortunate. She was lying within hay on the back of an abandoned wagon. Whether it was dumb luck or last second planning, one couldn't be sure, but it was clear that she had survived the fall without injury. Upon making certain that her faculties were in check, she hopped out from the back of the wagon with a steady grip on Murasame's hilt. And with good reason.

Before the acid could completely corrode the beast, it turned into dust much like Kurome's Apeman puppet had back in Ali Jinnah. The implications were clear. The black eyed Jaegar had once again used her trump card to cheat death. A fact that was verified as she suddenly hopped back on her feet like a spring chicken. No sign of an injury whatsoever.

"That was a close one, sis", Kurome said, dusting herself off. "Had I known you would've come up with a way to kill my dragon, I would've spent some time looking for new puppets to add to my reserves. But as of right now, you killed my only one."

"Revealing your hand to your opponent is never a sound strategy", Akame said, walking towards her younger sister.

"You would've figured it out in no time. You always were two steps ahead of me after all."

"Does this mean you're giving up?"

To which Kurome smirked cheekily before dashing towards the fleeing crowd. "Nope!"

The older sister immediately gave chase. But as she pursued her, she noticed that her sister was randomly cutting down people in the fleeing crowd. Men, women and children alike; the Jaegar was very indiscriminate in who she cut down, but she was slaughtering many while running away.

"Stop!", Akame yelled, steadily gaining on her younger sister.

But Kurome paid her older sister no mind, gleefully continuing to run around and commit mayhem as if playing a friendly game of tag. "You'll have to catch me first, sis!" And run she did. From the central market area to the slums, she continued to keep out of her sister's reach.

The chase continued until Akame was but a few meager feet behind the Jaegar. "Enough of this!" She promptly vaulted herself into the air and landed right in front of her younger sister, cutting her off and forcing her to flee into another direction. Kurome immediately made a beeline towards a narrow alleyway to the left of her path, only to realize that she had waltzed right into a dead-end.

"Nowhere else to run", Akame said, standing in the way of the alleyway's entrance.

Kurome looked around for a door, a fire-escape exit or even a window she could jump into, but all those things were many stories up between the two buildings they were between. Down at street level, she was surrounded by nothing beyond concrete walls. "Oh well. Looks like our game is over."

"Game?", Akame said, sporting an incredulous look. "Was killing all of those people in the crowd a game to you?"

Kurome turned around to face her sister, smirking as cheekily as she had been smirking when their little chase had begun. "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A, B, Start!"

Akame saw no further point in attempting to reason with her deranged sibling. Her mind was too far gone and that last response showed. If she had reached a point at which she was willing to senselessly kill random people, there was no telling the things she'd be capable of doing were her mind allowed to continue deteriorating. With no intention of allowing that to happen, Akame dashed towards her sister once more, determined to end her life before her condition grew any worse.

Kurome, having no choice but to fight back, followed suit. She met her sister head on, pouring down a series of aggressive swipes. Too aggressive in fact. The subtlety and grace in her swordsmanship had vanished and she was swinging her blade like a madwoman. It was as if she had thrown away any pretense of defending herself and was solely focused on inflicting a fatal blow no matter what the cost.

Seeing her younger sister's conduct made Akame wonder. Another sign of her deteriorating mental condition? She briefly entertained the thought, but pushed it aside. For it didn't matter. She had already decided that she needed to put Kurome out of her misery. Additional confirmation of the need to do so didn't matter at this point. Instead, she intended to take advantage of her sister's recklessness.

At the very next moment, Kurome had swung her imperial arm like a baseball bat. Akame easily ducked her attack before transitioning her moves into a quick two-handed upwards diagonal slash across her sister's chest, causing her to stumble back a couple of steps.

The younger sibling looked down upon the wound she had just incurred and could already see Murasame's black ethereal markings coursing towards her neck and stomach. "Not too shabby, sis. Looks like you finally beat me."

"Kurome . . .", Akame said, lowering her sword towards the ground.

"Just kidding!", she quipped while following up with another wild and surprise swing. And surprising it was as Akame had already lowered her guard. She managed to step back in the nick of time just enough to avoid harm to any of her vital organs, but Kurome had nonetheless had a clean cut on her side.

The surprised look on Akame's face remained. Not because of her sister's sudden attack, but rather her sister's skin. Murasame's black ethereal markings had disappeared. What's more, the wound she had inflicted across her chest had as well. Putting two and two together, she suddenly understood why her sister had killed so many people in the crowd during their chase.

"Lets see", Kurome said, inquisitively rubbing her chin. "I killed 29 people before you cornered me in this alleyway. 29 plus me equals 30. 30 lives. You just killed me, so now I'm down to 29. I only need to hit one of your vitals once and it's over. You, on the other hand, need to kill me 29 times. See sis? It IS a game! Sorry I didn't explain the rules until now!"

Determined to kill her younger sister, Akame didn't pause to think or inquire into the limitations of Yatsufasa's trump card. Her objective was crystal clear and nothing was going to get in the way of ending this Jaegar's life. She lunged at Kurome like a red eyed demon out from the pits of hell, coming at her with an entire encyclopedia of assassination techniques.

Kurome could not compete; she was completely overwhelmed by her sister's tactics. But that didn't appear to matter to her. Whether it was the result of her acknowledging Akame's superiority or her steadily slipping sanity, she had given up the basics of traditional swordsmanship and was swinging her blade recklessly and without regard. And with her augmented longevity, perhaps defense wasn't really cause for concern. After all, she only needed one slice to prevail and had 29 remaining opportunities.

Though in the blink of an eye, 29 became 28 as Akame landed a devastating slash on Kurome's throat. At the exact same time, Kurome also landed another cut, this time on the arm but in no way significant enough to impair the older sister's attacks. And just like last time, Murasame's black ethereal markings briefly appeared on Kurome's wound before disappearing.

In the span of 3 minutes, 28 went from 27 to 26 to 25 to 24 and the same exact sort of exchange had repeated itself four times. Akame would land a killing blow, Kurome would land a simultaneous cut and expend another puppet to heal herself. "Only a matter of time, sis. Only a matter of time before I – what the . . ."

Akame had lunged towards her once more, completely surpassing her previous level of viciousness by focusing all of her strength and effort into her young sister's right shoulder. With that one blow, she had cleaved Kurome's right arm clean off. A task made simple by her complete disregard for defense.

Kurome glanced down upon the ground, taking note of her severed appendage with Yatsufasa still tightly gripped in its clutches. But she didn't appear remotely concerned even as Murasame's ethereal black markings had once again returned. "I hope that wasn't your big plan, sis. Whether I'm actually holding Yatsufasa has nothing to do with whether I can use it."

Sure enough, Kurome expended another puppet and nullified Murasame's effects again. She then reached down to grab her severed arm, presumably having the ability to reattach it. Only Akame had no intention of allowing this to happen; she floored her by executing a swift leg sweep. Kurome attempted to get back up, but Akame would not allow this to happen either; she planted one foot over her sister's left arm and the other foot over her throat. Then, showing no mercy or hesitation, she plunged her katana right through her younger sister's chest.

Determined to survive, Kurome immediately dispelled Murasame's effects by expending another puppet, but it was to no avail for Akame's blade remained lodged in her chest and Akame herself wasn't budging in inch. 21 . . . 20 . . . 19 . . . 18 . . . 17 . . . 16 . . . 15 . . . 14 . . . 13 . . . 12 . . . 11 . . . 10. Kurome was struggling with all of her might to break free, but it was no use. With Murasame lodged in her chest, she was forced to continue expending puppets. Utterly no use. 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . .

Her assassin instincts having completely taken over, Akame paused for a brief instant before leaping off her younger sister's body and turning around in response to an unfamiliar aura she felt drawing near at a rapid velocity. Just as she did this, an armor clad figure dropped right out of the sky like a free falling meteorite having broken through the earth's atmosphere. The friction brushing against this figure was so great that the figure's entire body was engulfed in flames while descending. This figure landed on the ground in the blink of an eye, causing a miniature crater to form around him.

"Is that . . . Wave?", Akame thought, feeling uneasy about the aura she was sensing. She remembered her last encounter with the armor clad Jaegar at the Revolutionary Army base. There, he proved himself to be a formidable enemy, but with a sense of virtue not too different than the kind she had seen in Tatsumi. It was obvious just based on the way he had been interacting with Leone. Here, however, she couldn't sense such a spirit. Instead, his aura was . . . cold and robotic.

[. . . Lady Luck . . . ]

The emperor, the real Emperor Makoto, had been sitting patiently in a small storage room, evidently one of the palace's panic rooms, waiting for Night Raid's extermination. And yet the sounds coming from the room directly above room made him uneasy. It was obvious that a battle had been going on, but he didn't know how the battle had been unfolding. All he did know was that the Jaegar, Wave, had been charged to stand guard up there.

For some time, he had been listening closely to the sounds coming from above, only to hear them come to an abrupt end. He had continued sitting silently, expecting the noble Jaegar to come down through the hidden trap door above and tell him that everything was okay. That Night Raid had been beaten and that everything was back to normal.

But after a full five minutes of silence, his uneasiness got the better of him. "Sir Wave, is it safe to come out yet?", he said, hoping for a response.

None was heard, so he asked his again, this time more frantic. "Sir Wave, is it safe to come out yet?"

Still no reply. He began to fear the worst. That Night Raid had killed the honorable Jaegar. "Sir Wave, please answer me at once!"

No reply. Not a word. "Sir Wave! Are you alright? Is something wrong?"

Immediately, the trap door from above rushed open. Makoto smiled at the sight of this, relieved that his assigned champion had returned. His smile immediately faded away, however, as someone else dropped through the trap door: Leone; an assassin he didn't recognize given that she never appeared on wanted posters.

Leone was still in a sorry state given the hole in her chest. Just based on her appearance alone, she was in no condition to fight; she could barely stand up straight. In fact, she would surely have been dead if not for her regenerative abilities. "Yo", she said, greeting the emperor in the only way she knew how.

"Are you with Night Raid?"

"Sure am."

"Where is Sir Wave?"

Leone shuddered to think at what had happened to him. She wasn't sure what to make of how their fight had ended. "He's gone . . . I think."

"I see. In that case, I know this is going to sound strange, but could you please hear me out for a moment before you do what you intend to do."

She raised one of her eyebrows, not having expected the boy to be so chatty. "Um . . .sure, I guess."

"Once you've killed me, could you please spare the Prime Minister and the palace? I'm the one you want, so if anyone is going to die, let it be me and no one else."

[. . . Checkmate . . . ]

"Well go on", Lubbock said, eying his adversary on the other end of the chess table. "Weren't you about to make your decision?"

"Indeed", Run replied. Rubbing his chin in a curious fashion, he hovered his left hand over the glove in front of him. "After evaluating the options before me, I choose . . ."

With an unbelievably air tight poker face, Lubbock retorted with "You sure that's the one you want to pull? Remember, we are playing for keeps."

Run casually shifted his hand away from the glove to the left hand side of the table. "Are we, now? Only one way to find out." Holding one hand beneath the edge of the chess table's left side, the Jaegar did the unthinkable; he knocked the table over. And sure enough, Cross Tail's wires were so sensitive that before the table could even fall completely to the side, both Lubbock and Run fell clean through the floor; before they even knew it, they were both plummeting down towards the bottomless pit below. And not just them, but the chess table, their chairs and the center platform of the walkway itself.

Sparing no time to dawdle, Lubbock speedily and instinctively reached for an item he appeared to have stored in one of his sleeves; he pulled out . . . an extra band of wires. Strangely enough, however, these wires weren't attached to either of his Cross Tail gloves, yet looked identical to the wires stored within them; a literal trick up his sleeve. Before he could fall any further, the assassin used this extra set of wires to lasso himself onto what remained of the broken walkway above.

And just like that, Lubbock was in the exact same position he was in at the start of this encounter. Idly dangling from the walkway above. Only this time, he felt the weight of someone else holding onto one of his ankles from below. As he looked down, he saw Run dangling beneath him and holding onto him with one of his arms for dear life.

Though despite the precarious position he was in, Run wasn't the slightest bit unnerved. Instead, he maintained a confident smirk, acting as if he were the one in control of the situation. "Just as I suspected. It didn't matter which glove I pulled; you never had any intention of putting your own life at risk. Not your own life and most certainly not your imperial arm."

Lubbock looked up towards the what remained of the walkway, confirming with his own eyes that his two gloves were now affixed, via their own wires, next to the portion he had lassoed. "Not bad. You saw right through me."

"But the battle of wits isn't over yet, is it? Given that you thought in advance to come up with a contingency to keep your imperial arm from falling, you must have also anticipated that I would knock the table over rather than try and guess which glove would lead to my demise. The only question is: What's your next move?"

"Don't you mean your next move? You were so focused on what I would do that I notice you've neglected to retrieve your imperial arm. Good like finding it now."

"A small sacrifice to pay in putting you in check and cutting off all of your options. Go ahead and climb the both of us to safety."

"So that while I'm focused on climbing, you can stay focused on taking me out at the last possible second?"

To which Run chuckled, "No one ever said check was a desirable position."

Lubbock delivered a swift kick with his free leg down towards his Jaegar adversary, but Run both dodged the blow with zero effort and also used his other hand to grab a hold of said leg. "Don't insult me", he said, dismissing the use of such a primitive tactic. "I'm stronger than I look. Make your next move or do you really intend to end our battle of wits on such a petty note?"

"Says the guy who flipped the board!"

"An assassin complaining about foul play. Now I've seen it all. Can we hurry this up? I have other business to attend to."

"Yeah, lets hurry this along", Lubbock replied, having sported a sudden grin.

To which Run narrowed his eyes, not liking the look on his adversary's face. "What are you up to?"

"What do you think is down there?", Lubbock asked, glancing at the bottomless pit below.

"I haven't a clue. Until today, I wasn't even aware of this part of the palace."

"Guess there's only one way to find out!"

To Run's absolute astonishment, Lubbock released his hands from his extra band of wires. "Are you insane?!"

And just like that, they were both once again plunging down into this seemingly infinite chasm. The Jaegar simply could not believe that his esteemed opponent would resort to such a suicidal tactic, briefly recalling what he said at the beginning of their encounter about the need to go help his teammates. Was all of that talk simply misdirection?

After an additional 500 feet of freefalling, the cavern's dim light was all but snuffed out. Run was at a point where he couldn't even see his own hands in front of him. Nonetheless, he didn't appear to be worried. And his next course of action clarified his lack of concern. In a shocking display, his two floating metal discs reappeared on his back. And out from this discs sprouted two angelic wings. With his mastery over flight and levitation, the Jaegar's fall was broken in no time. "A pity our battle of wits ended in such a distasteful fashion, but I suppose I should not have expected anything else from an assassin."

"Oh really?", said a voice echoing next to the Jaegar's ear. "Something tells me you didn't expect THIS."

Run slightly turned his head, baffled at what had apparently occurred. The fall must've disoriented his senses for a few moments as he didn't realize that someone was holding onto his back and had their arm around his neck until then. "Of course. The light. You anticipated the trajectory at which I would fall and used the lack of light to conceal your movements. But how did you know Mastema was still in my possession?"

"A good friend of mine stole an imperial research notebook from a prick by the name of Syura. I had already encountered you before, so I knew which imperial arm you had. Miss Najenda made us all memorize the available information on each Jaegar's imperial arm before the mission. Those two rings you put down on the table were nothing but a cheap parlor trick at best. Mastema is really that feather pin behind your left ear. You only pretended to lose it so you could launch a surprise attack if necessary and so I wouldn't think of trying something like this."

"I see. Very clever. But you still haven't won."

"Like you, I'm stronger than I look as well. I've got you in a rear naked choke right now. All it takes is the right amount of pressure and you will die within 5 seconds at most."

"And unless you have your own set of wings, if I die, you will fall and die as well. Thus, we are at an bigger impasse than we were before."

"That's okay!", Lubbock said with a hearty laugh. "It gives us a chance to chat!

"You'll forgive me if I'm not as enthusiastic about chatting with someone with an arm wrapped around my throat."

"As you said, we're at an impasse. So it's not like you have anything better to do right now."

"Very true. So what is it you'd like to talk about?"

"Being born into a family of merchants, I've always had a knack for negotiation."

"You can forget it. There can be no negotiation between parties whose interests are mutually exclusive. You all want to assassinate and overthrow the emperor. We want to stop you. It's that simple."

To which Lubbock sighed, "One of the reasons I orchestrated our battle of wits was to buy some time."

"Time for what?"

"Buy some time for Miss Najenda to find Syura. Assuming he is in fact using Spectator and his attention is focused on her now, then maybe . . ."

[ . . . Tatsumi's Greatest Enemy? . . .]

Akame stood still, her eyes trained on the Grand Chariot wielder. With any other adversary, she would have already commenced dealing with them, but there was something about Wave that made him an unknown quantity at that time. Something about him that made Akame cautious. Something about him that made Akame hesitant. Even though he was just standing still across from her, she didn't know what to make of his intentions. Not to mention his eyes. His cold glowing blue eyes sent chills down her spine.

Seeing that her elder sister was preoccupied with her teammate, Kurome used this opportunity to grab her right arm and reattach it back to her body, a feat no doubt made feasible by Yatsufasa's trump card. She then set her gaze on her fellow Jaegar. "This is my fight, Wave. I'm going to have to ask you not to . . ." She wasn't able to finish the sentence, eyes widening as she gazed upon the man on the other end of the alleyway. It most certainly wasn't the man she had come to confide in throughout her time in the Jaegars.

Wave started to walk towards Akame. Being the prodigious assassin that she was, she could tell that even while walking, there were zero openings she could exploit in his movements. She ran through dozens of scenarios in her mind where she lunged towards him with all different manners of attacks; each scenario resulted in her swift and brutal death.

It was this sense of overwhelming power from a single being that then made her immediately understand where all of her hesitation was coming from. Not quite the result of Wave being an unknown quantity, but that she had already faced someone who exuded this sort of strength and impossible fortitude. In fact, she had been training with this person for the last five days: Tatsumi. Tatsumi. Like Leone, she had also trained with her Incursio wielding comrade relentlessly in an effort to help him to acquire complete mastery over his new abilities.

In truth, however, her efforts had only initially been centered around helping Tatsumi. Being bested by him countless times, she began trying in earnest to beat him, inadvertently augmenting her own skills in the process. It was then that she truly came to understand her comrade's new fighting style. "If he's anything like Tatsumi, I can't afford to let this drag out. He'll adapt to any style I throw at him and finish me for sure. Getting careless is also out of the question; he'll exploit any mistake I make and make me pay for it. I've only got one option."

Muscles tensing, Akame gently pressed the tip of her thumb against Murasame's blade as she had done earlier, no doubt intending to settle this with her trump card. As green ethereal markings extended all across her sword, she sheathed her weapon only to then slip straight into a classic iaijutsu posture. Iajutsu was a style focused on using the momentum of drawing the sword with alarming speed to strike a target in one fluid motion. In the hands of an elite swordswoman like Akame, it was usually certain death for whichever unsuspecting opponent was fool enough to challenge her. Even so, Wave didn't cease walking or slip into a more orthodox stance; he continued drawing near like the grim reaper.

"Wave!", Kurome cried out. "Are you listening to me? Stop! I have to save my sister!"

There was no response from the Grand Chariot wielder. There wasn't even indication that he heard what Kurome had just said. He continued drawing closer to Akame, as if she was all that existed. As if killing her was the only thing that mattered. Before Wave could take another step, Akame unsheathed her blade at lightning speed in true Iajutsu fashion. Though just as soon as soon as her blade was unsheathed, Wave was suddenly up close and personal and on the verge of at very least caving in her skull with his right fist.

Wave's fist collided with something alright, but not Akame's skull. Instead, it was the broad side of Murasame. A block; she had relied on iajutsu not as a means to cut her target down as quickly as possible, but to defend herself from an attack she knew she would otherwise not have been quick enough to avoid. "Even if your eyes are just like Tatsumi's, it doesn't look like you've had time to adjust and get used to them just yet and so there's no way you'd know how susceptible they are to unorthodox tactics."

With no intention of letting this temporary opening go to waste, she shifted her weight into a follow-up attack. It didn't matter what she cut; as she had proven with Kurome's dragon, it only took a single cut for her acid to do the job against even the most armored of foes. Just as her slice was about to land, however, a seemingly ordinary bystander who had been fleeing in the crowd earlier, grabbed onto Akame from behind in a full nelson position, stopping her from landing her intended coup de grace. No doubt one of Kurome's new puppets.

Having no allusions of honor or fair play in his current state, Wave clenched his left fist with the intent of finishing off his defenseless adversary. Before he could make another move, however, Kurome grabbed his left hand from behind, pleading with him and with tears in her eyes. "Stop it! Only I can face her! If you do it, one of will die! I want to protect everyone, so please stop. For my sake, don't do anything else! I'm begging you!"

What happened next was something neither sister ever expected. The Grand Chariot wielder promptly raised his left fist and backhanded Kurome hard enough to snap her neck and send her body flying into one of the concrete walls. Akame could hardly believe what had just occurred; it was impossible to fathom that the same person she had encountered back at the Revolutionary Army base was capable of such cruelty.

With no further distractions in place, Wave looked directly upon Akame. He raised his right fist. He no doubt intended to do to her what he had done to Leone. Akame struggled to break free of the bystander's hold, but couldn't budge. While her agility, skill and endurance were each unquestionably superhuman, her raw physical strength was a different story. A limitation that appeared to be her undoing as Wave hurled his fist forward before even another second could pass.

But what he hit was yet again not Akame. It was not the broad side of her sword this time either. This time, it was . . . Kurome. She managed to intercept her comrade's attack at the last possible instant. As a result, she now had another hole in chest. "I won't . . . let anyone . . . take my sister", she weakly said, coughing up blood. "Not even you."

"Kurome . . .", Wave said, having uttered words for the first time since his earlier encounter with Leone. The cold and robotic aura he had been emitting had vanished without a trace and it looked as if he were suddenly more cognizant of his surroundings. As he glanced upon where his fist was buried, he swiftly pulled it out. "Did I . . . do this?"

Kurome fell to the ground in a pool of her own blood, having completely lost consciousness. Having taken in the horrifying sight as much as his mind was able to, he began screaming uncontrollably. His Grand Chariot armor dispersed as he did so. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

At that moment, Akame felt the grip on her arms loosen considerably, giving her the edge she needed to break free of the bystander's hold. And just as she did so, she also noticed it turning into a pile of dust as had been the case with Apeman puppet back in Ali Jinnah when she had fist seen Kurome's trump card in action.

In direct response to this, the hole in Kurome's chest vanished. He immediately rushed down towards his companion and cradled her in his arms. A quick check of the pulse confirmed that she was still amongst the living. "How is this possible?", he thought.

Akame observed the pair with her usual indifference. "I take it this is the first time you've actually seen Yatsufasa's trump card."

"I wasn't aware she could use it without being awake."

"Neither was I", Akame replied before pointing her blade towards her younger sister. "Not that it matters. She's down to her last life."

Wave gritted his teeth, cursing himself for letting his guard down in front of someone he knew to be an enemy. He looked down at Grand Chariot; his imperial arm had been reverted to its dormant cutlass state. Filled with a sudden sense of disgust and self-loathing, he simply couldn't bring himself to use this accursed weapon again, especially after what he had just done.

"Get out of the way or you'll die with her."

"I know I'm in no position to do this, but . . . can we make a deal?"

"A deal?", Akame scoffed. "You're right. You aren't in any position to be making any deals."

"Hear me out. If I . . . if I don't resist and let you kill me right now, can you promise to spare Kurome? Lock her up if you must, but don't kill her."

"No deal. Locking her up won't accomplish anything."

"Won't accomplish anything? Listen to yourself! You're talking about your own sister here. Do you think you'll be able to go on living knowing that you killed her."

"It doesn't matter. What I'm doing is not for my sake, but for her own. I don't want her to keep suffering. You must've noticed by now. She's losing her mind piece by piece. It's only a matter of time until she loses it completely."

"So you're just going to kill her? What kind of solution is that? Have you ever thought of trying to cure her?!"

"None of Yatsufasa's prior users have ever been cured. Believe me, this is not a decision I made overnight. I've done months of research on the experiments the imperial army has been conducting on her. An ordinary person would never be able to use her imperial arm without immediately going insane, but they loaded Kurome up on drugs that have only succeeded in slowing down Yatsufasa's effects."

"So what! If you're determined to kill her, fine, but don't think for a minute that it's being done for her sake. Because if you ask me, I think it's being done for yours!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're acting as if she already lost her mind! Well she hasn't! Not completely! She still loves her big sister and wants nothing more than to be with her. You're really going to deny her that because you don't want to see what might happen eventually?!"

"I don't have a choice!"

"Yes you do! As long as Kurome is still living and breathing, there's a choice! And if you aren't willing to see that, then I'll find a blasted cure myself! Even if I have to search every inch of the planet!

Akame's sword hand was trembling. Where Wave's fists had failed, his words appeared to have succeeded in hitting her. She thought she had made up mind on this matter; she had firmly decided to end her sister's life . . . but these words Wave was expressing . . . "You wouldn't even know where to begin looking."

"I'll start somewhere!"

"You don't know how long the search will take."

"I'll search as long as it takes!"

"You don't even know if a cure exists."

"And you don't know if one doesn't exist!"

Akame shook her head. Such headstrong tenacity. The likes of which she had only seen in Tatsumi. She stood motionless for a few moments, no doubt wavering on what to do next. But before anything else could be said, she noticed a sudden bolt of lightning in the sky. A strange occurrence given the utter lack of clouds in the sky. Even more strange was that the lightning appeared not to have come out from the sky, but up from the ground. Up from the vicinity of the palace.

[. . . Raison D'être . . . ]

Tatsumi had crouched down on one knee next to his short sword. He had yet to remove it from where it had been plunged. Rather, he took this as an opportunity to partake in a brief respite. After all, now that he had done the deed, there was nothing else for him to immediately concern himself with.

The Night Raid assassin aimlessly gazed upon into the sky above the courtyard, mentally deliberating on his next course action, only to hear the words "What are you doing?"

He averted his gaze from the sky; he looked down next to where he was kneeling. There, Esdeath lied, still breathing and still amongst the living. Tatsumi's blade had been plunged into the ground no more than a mere centimeter away from the right side of her head. "The battle isn't over yet", she remarked.

Tatsumi blankly looked upon her for a few moments before looking back towards the sky. "It is for me."

"I don't need your pity Go ahead and finish what you came here to do."

"I've already done what I came here to do."

"You said you were here to kill me."

"No, I said I was here to stop you."

"I'm still alive."

"Alive and beaten."

"After all of this, I was beginning to think you had finally overcome your naïve views on the way the world works. In case you've already forgotten, I am your enemy. I am the reason just about all of the men and women in the Revolutionary Army are dead. Under my command, thousands have been slaughtered, raped and buried alive. Every member of the Revolutionary Army, including Najenda, wouldn't hesitate to do a whole host of unspeakable acts if it meant having the opportunity you have right now."

"I know all about your past, Esdeath. I'm still not going to kill you."

"Can you not see the inherent foolishness in your wretched sense of pity? If I survive today, I'm just going to keep doing everything I just pointed out to you and all of it will be on your hands. Get it over with already."

"I get it. This is about what I told you. This is about you not wanting to face the truth. You'd prefer I killed you instead. You'd prefer to go out believing what your father told you. You'd prefer to believe that I won because I was strong and you lost because you were weak. But that's not going to happen."

Realizing that Tatsumi's mind was made up, all Esdeath could do was let out a reluctant sigh. "The strong shall live and the weak shall die. These past 10 years of my life have been molded by that creed. Those words he repeated to me on the day he died. Since then, I've been constantly going out of my way to live in accordance to that philosophy. It's the real reason I stopped hunting danger beast and started hunting humans. I had to continually prove to myself that it was the truth. As long as I was strong, it didn't matter what I did nor what happened to others. My strength was all that mattered."

"Despite all of the sick and twisted things you've done over the last 10 years, you couldn't completely dispose of your humanity. That is why you still cherish your father's memory. That is why you wanted to be with me. And that is also why you couldn't let go of the guilt in your heart."

Having put her strength to the test, only to lose, the Ice Queen found herself unable to deny the clear and obvious truth any longer. "When I had left to go hunt in the mountains, my father must've been worried about me. Him and a number of other villagers probably put the repairs to the village walls on hold and must've been out looking for me. He must've been caught off guard. Had I stayed in the village, there's no way he would have ever been killed by the likes of the Northern Tribe. Not a chance."

"Take it from someone who knows", Tatsumi replied, having spent a considerable amount of time blaming himself for the deaths of his own comrades. "You had no idea what was going to happen. You were just trying to please your dad."

"No . . . he died because of me.", the growing frustration in her voice ever clear. "As did my clan. I didn't want to accept it earlier, but you were right. Deep down, it's a truth I've been aware of the entire time. And rather than accept the truth, I ran away from it. Like a sniveling coward, I ran away. And so when brought the truth to my attention just now, I couldn't allow it to resonate. Pathetic."

"So then throughout all this time you've been a general, you weren't working for the prime minister because you love fighting. It was really because you couldn't deal with the guilt deep in your heart. You had were trying to prove your father right; prove that his death wasn't your fault."

"10 years have passed and nothing has changed. I'm still the same naive deluded little girl I was back then. How could you possibly expect me to live with myself while knowing that? Don't you understand? A weak and pathetic existence like mine has no reason to continue. Extinguish it already."

He averted his gaze from the sky once while shaking his head. He then glanced back upon the Ice Queen, this time with an inflamed look in his eyes-as if he were disgusted with what had just been said. "So that's it, then? After all of this, you're just going to give up? What happened to all that pride of yours?"

"Weren't you listening? It was a lie. All of it."

His calm and nonchalant battle ready demeanor abandoning him, Tatsumi grabbed one of the cuff's on the Ice Queen's collar and pulled her so that they were face to face. "Maybe everything else was a lie, but your pride was real. Even before I brought up the guilt you were hiding, you sincerely wanted to beat me. And not to prove something about strength and weakness, but because sincerely wanted to have a good fight!"

"Even if you're right, what difference does that make?", Esdeath retorted, her eyes now equally inflamed. "I'm still responsible for what happened to my father and I cannot live with that!"

"You're not the only one who feels guilty about the death of people close to them, you know?! I didn't think I could live with myself either, but here I am. Stop lying to yourself, stop running away and deal with it!"

"I can't!"

"You can!", Tatsumi replied, Klaus Hartmann's words suddenly emanating in the back of his mind. "Because what matters . . . what truly in your life isn't how strong or weak you are, but how you choose to live it! Just as strength and weakness don't define it, your guilt doesn't either. It's how you choose to live that determines what you are."

"How I choose to live?", Esdeath stammered in disbelief. In a split instant, her expression changed to one of confusion. In her mind, the shame and guilt she had consciously come to realize was too great, yet Tatsumi stood before her disagreeing. A part of her was prepared to dismiss his words as pity, something she was defiantly against accepting, but another part wanted to hear him out nonetheless.

"That's why . . . I've chosen not to kill you here despite everything you done. It has nothing to do with pity. Rather . . ." Tatsumi paused, releasing the Ice Queen's collar from his grip and recalling the end of his encounter in the dream like world Incursio had created for him. Specifically, how in the final moments, he had rushed towards the Esdeath manifestation Incursio had created, defining the next several moments purely by the sounds that accompanied them. However, much like the scene here at the climax of his battle with the real Esdeath, Tatsumi did make the effort to deliver the coup de gras against the manifestation. Instead, even in that dream like reality, he had stayed his blade within centimeters of touching its head. A move that left the Esdeath manifestation visibly astonished, but a move Incursio understood the significance of nonetheless. ". . . I decided that I'm done killing others. The life I choose to live is one where nobody has to die; a life where my problems can always be solved without killing."

Esdeath maintained her curious gaze. The confused look in her eyes was replaced by a quizzical one; she stared blankly at Tatsumi for a couple of moments, trying to make certain she didn't mishear what he had just said. "How can you of all people possibly spout such nonsense? You are an assassin. A professional killer. Murder is your creed. What could you possibly hope to achieve by refusing to kill?"

"The life I want to live; the life I had, up until recently, convinced myself was impossible."

"How you can utter such foolishness is beyond belief. This is a kill or be killed world, Tatsumi. There is no place for your naïve ideals."

"Naïve ideals, huh? Didn't you just admit you spent the last 10 years of your life clinging to naïve ideals?"

"That's correct", Esdeath said before laughing in self-defeat. "It would seem we have a lot more in a common than I ever dared to realize. But surely you realize that my own naivety doesn't absolve you of yours."

"What some think of as naivete is in reality a means to accomplish whatever you set your mind to. I'm going to do just that. It's the path I've chosen to live and the only one I'll take with a clear conscience."

"I'll ask one last time. Are you sure you don't wish to finish me off? Who is to say that I don't one day come back to get my revenge? I am a sore loser after all. And the Prime Minister is sure to send me after you after today's little spectacle."

"No, I'm done killing people. As for the Prime Minister, I wouldn't worry about him."

"Oh?", she asked, sporting a whimsical smirk. "Does that mean you're already going to make an exception to your new absurd no-killing agenda?"

Before Tatsumi could answer, he heard and noticed a sudden bolt of lightning in the sky. The same bolt Akame had noticed. Only he was much closer to where the bolt had sprouted out from.

[. . . The Dark Horse Revealed . . .]

Feeling as if he had basked in his victory long enough, the Prime Minister stood up from the emperor's throne and began treading towards the two people currently at his mercy. "This has been an amusing little game, but I'm afraid there are some other matters I need to tend to before the great Prime Minister Honest meets his untimely end heroically saving the emperor from the evils of Night Raid. Who knows? Bards might even sing stories about it. I can hardly wait!"

"The only question now is who to kill first", Honest said before glaring at Najenda. "Perhaps the disgraced ex-general. You've been a thorn in my side for some time now and not just with your petty revolutionary army antics. Don't think I've forgotten how you ordered your minions to assassinate my nephew, Iokal. He was a stupid son of a bitch, but no one is allowed to kill a blood relative of mine without my permission."

Honest then turned his gaze towards Syura. "Speaking of blood relatives, maybe I should start with my worthless son. After all your dear old man has done for you, this is how you repay me?"

"Fat old bastard", Syura grunted, still reeling in the pain from Najenda's last attack as well as the bullet in his leg.

"You're just all sorts of failure, aren't you son? I had a full supply of stimulants made just so you could finally use Shambhala in rapid succession, but even with that advantage and the ability to read minds, you still lost to a crippled woman. It's embarrassing. Still, if not for your treachery, I would never have been on the verge of obtaining the power I'm about to have. So for that, I'll praise you and kill little miss Najenda first."

He walked up to the Night Raid commander before cocking his handgun. "Well General Najenda: Do you have any last words? If you beg for mercy, I just might change my mind about killing you first."

"Sorry, but I don't beg. Though if I'm going to die, I'd at least like to know one thing."

"Interesting", Honest said, inquisitively running the fingers on his free hand through his beard. "And what would the great General Najenda like to know before she dies?"

"It's no secret that Emperor Makoto puts all of his faith and trust in you. It's obvious the boy thinks the world of you. At very least the closest thing to a father. Despite all of this, are you really just going to let him die today without lifting a finger?"

"Damn right I am!", Honest laughed and boasted without a single hint of remorse. "That little brat has served me well over the years, but he's outlived his usefulness. Besides, he's been growing some brain cells as of late. He actually had the nerve to disregard one of my suggestions last week. There's no telling how much harder he'll be to control in the future. Best to toss him aside now and start calling all of the shots directly."

"So then it was just an act all along then, wasn't it? You never once cared about the emperor, did you?"

The Prime Minister could barely contain his laughter. "You're just now figuring this out?! Redeem some dignity before you die, General Najenda, and stop asking stupid questions!"

Surprisingly, Najenda began chuckling herself before sporting a confident smirk on her lips. "Prime Minister Honest, you're finished."

"Finished? You seem to forget who's holding the gun and who is barely standing, woman. Here, let me remind you who's finished as I send you to hell." Honest pulled the trigger on his firearm, but it wouldn't budge for some odd reason. He pressed it repeatedly, but it didn't move. He pressed with all the force he could muster, but nothing happened. "Damn piece of junk! What's going on here?!"

Increasingly frustrated, Honest examined his gun closer, only to detect exceedingly thin wires tied around it in such a way as to obstruct the trigger from being pulled. With some additional scrutiny, he also noticed where the wires were coming from; the source of the wires were coming from an upwards direction. The gluttonous old man looked all the way up, immediately noticing a vent directly above where he was standing. "What . . . in the world?"

At that exact moment, the vent was kicked wide open and Lubbock could be seen looking down waving his hand with a big smile on his face. Panicking, the Prime Minister swiftly dropped his gun, ran to his son and grabbed the silk glove off his right hand. "They must've already killed the emperor. No matter. With Shambahla, I'll just whisk my way to safety."

"Going somewhere, old man?", Lubbock sarcastically asked while descending to the floor and jerking another set of unseen wires.

Honest immediately fell down on his back, only to notice that there were wires wrapped around his ankles. He tried to reach for Syura's Shambahla, but the green haired assassin jerked him away before he could get a hold of his one means of escape.

"Not bad, General Najenda. But I've still got an ace in the hole." Not having given up just yet, the Prime Minister reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small remote with an even smaller button on it. With a cocky look in his eyes, he pushed the button. And just moments after pushing it, armed guards, as if responding to an alamart, busted through the throne room doors. Within less than 30 seconds, hundreds of them had already flooded the room, surrounding both Najenda and Lubbock in no time.

"Wipe this Night Raid scum off the face of the earth once and for all! Gun them down before they have a chance to use their imperial arms!", Honest ordered. "And one of you go fetch General Esdeath!"

Still smirking with the utmost confidence, Najenda raised her left hand straight into the air and snapped her fingers. At the exact moment she did this, Leone appeared; the feral assassin jumped out from the ventilation shaft Lubbock had been perched in. Even more curious, however, was the fact that someone was holding onto her back as she dropped to the floor: None other than Emperor Makoto himself.

"Guards, delay that order!", the emperor commanded.

Each and every guard did just that; they all lowered their guns. Not a single one of them was fool enough to question the commands of their emperor, especially after the barbaric example that had been made of so many others in past. Ironically a lesson Honest was responsible for instilling.

"Y-y-your majesty. What are you doing here?", the Prime Minister asked, his face having gone pale.

Makoto motioned the guards to step aside so that he may look upon his most trusted advisor face to face. "Is it true?", he asked, his eyes full of disappointment.

Honest continued stammering, as if having come to realize the source of Najenda's sudden confidence. "Is w-what true, your majesty?"

"What you said about outliving my usefulness? How you were just using me all along and how you were just going to let me die? Was all that stuff you said really true?"

"Y-your majesty, you have to believe me! I think the world of you, my boy! Can't you see the truth? This . . . is . . . it's all just Night Raid's attempt to confuse you! Yeah, that's right! They're trying to confuse you and turn us against each other. You have to stand strong!"

"Your majesty", Najenda interjected. "I believe there is one way to clear your doubts. That imperial arm on Syura's head gives you the ability to read minds. That glove the Prime Minister took is called the 'Limit Breaker.' It allows you to use an imperial arm regardless of basic compatibility."

Makoto nodded his head and directed his attention towards one of the nearby guards. "Seize that imperial arm off Mr. Syura's head as well as the glove in the Prime Minister Honest's hand and hand them both to me."

To Honest's and Syura's displeasure, the guard did just as he was ordered. And the emperor wasted no time equipping himself with both items. He spent a couple of minutes adjusting to Spectator. Like Tatsumi had done when he attempted to use this imperial arm, he inadvertently ended up peaking at Leone and Najenda's undergarments, blushing in the process.

Nonetheless, as soon as he got the hang of it, he focused his attention on the three Night Raid members present, quickly confirming that they were not trying to deceive him. He then looked to the Prime Minister, becoming visibly angry as he ventured through his mind. It turned out that the treacherous words he had uttered earlier were only the tip of the iceberg. "I don't believe it. This whole time . . . you've just been playing me for the fool. You don't give a damn about this country!

"W-w-wait a minute your majesty! I can explain!", Honest stammered.

"Explain what?! I just read your mind! You were willing to let me die! You were willing to let everyone in the country die! You don't care about anyone but yourself!"

Sensing no way out of his current predicament, the Prime Minister finally began to lose his composure "Damnit", he growled. "This can't be happening!"

"It can and it is", Najenda boldly declared. "Face it. You've lost."

"You damn cow! You couldn't have possibly planned all of this out"

"Oh, but I did. And from the look of things, it all went down like clockwork."

"You're lying", Syura muttered. "I read your mind before we even fought. Your plan was to assassinate the emperor. Talk high and mighty all you want, but you're really no better than us."

The emperor shook his head in disagreement. "If they wanted to kill me, they could've done so. Leone here had me at her mercy earlier, but it doesn't look like it ever crossed her mind."

"But I read her mind", Syura retorted. "I read all of their minds as soon as they entered the palace. Their plan was to find you and then kill you!"

To which Najenda responded, "Poor Syura. It was overreliance on an imperial arm that insured your defeat. I knew all along that you had the ability to use multiple imperial arms just as I knew of the staggeringly likely possibility that Spectator would be one you'd use as your crutch. That is why I devised a contingency just in case."

"A contingency?", Syura growled. "What are you talking about?"

"Scientifically, there's nothing mystical or abstract about human thought. It is the process of electrical signals being generated in a series of electrochemical reactions within the brain. Spectator's mind reading power operates by duplicating the electrical signals transmitted in the target and transmitting them in the user's brain. Fortunately, I had recently come into possession of an imperial arm that enabled me to manipulate electricity. Once I learned how Spectator worked, it was only a matter of figuring out how to keep my own thoughts from being duplicated as well as send false signals to deceive the user. To put it another way, every thought you claim to have read from me or any of my subordinates were all completely fabricated."

Honest suddenly began to chuckle, as if having seen a new ace in the hole he could exploit. "If you can fabricate your thoughts, then how do we know you didn't do so when his majesty read your mind?"

But Najenda didn't appear concerned with the Prime Minister's point. Instead, she merely took the moment to detach Adramalech from her prosthetic arm and hand it to Makoto. "Here. Now if you would, your majesty, feel free to read our minds again."

The emperor did just that, only to shrug his shoulders. "Still the same."

"Now here's where it really gets interesting", Najenda remarked while shifting her gaze back towards Syura. "Right now, you must be wondering a couple of things. How was I able to anticipate that you'd confront me despite never having met you before? How did I know the machinations of Spectator's mind reading power? And how did I know both you and your father would so readily let Emperor Makoto die for your own selfish gain? The truth is that without any of this knowledge, we never would have been able to win today. Or rather, I should say that without your diary and research notebook you kept locked in the strongbox beneath your bed, none of this would have been possible."

The Prime Minister gritted his teeth as he heard this last part. "Syura, you worthless imbecile! What is she talking about?"

Syura gave no answer; he was visibly too frustrated to utter a word. But fortunately for everyone else, Najenda wasn't insistent upon keeping them all in suspense. "Under Syura's bed is a strongbox that had contained his own personal diary as well as a research notebook. The diary gave away just enough hints about his aspirations in order for me to predict that he wanted to get a hold of Gaea Foundation, eventually assassinate the emperor and become the emperor himself. The research notebook, on the other hand, appeared to have been written in the earliest days of this country. Its contents provided exhaustive information on every single imperial arm and revealed secrets I never knew about, much less even suspected. Naturally, it provided detailed information on how Spectator and even Adramalech functioned."

"Don't forget, Tatsumi", Leone added. "If he hadn't mastered Incursio, we would have had no way to contend with Esdeath, much less pull this off."

To which Najenda nodded her head. "That is correct. Tatsumi role today was crucial. Another boon we owe to having to gotten ahold of the research notebook you found, Syura."

Makoto started scratching his head, a sudden thought having occurred to him. "I'm a little confused. Ever since the Revolutionary Army emerged, we've had the palace at maximum security. It's kind of hard to believe that you would have been able to have someone sneak in without getting caught."

"Very true", Lubbock chimed. "But what if we had someone with the ability to change their appearance? Someone with an imperial such as . . . Gaea Foundation?"

Syura's face went pale upon hearing this. Hearing those two words alone, he instantly understood why his entire plan had backfired. "That little bitch", he muttered.

"Looks like you've got it figured out", Najenda replied. "By the way, Chelsea also provided us with a detailed overview of the palace's security protocol. Made it easy for us to narrow down where the emperor would be hidden. She had also tipped off your father about your little schemes with an anonymous letter she had planted prior to leaving the palace. Once we learned that your father had yet to have you seized and executed, it was obvious what he was up to. How does it feel to know you've been beaten by a dead woman? Not so good I imagine."

Syura pounded one of fist into the floor, no longer able to control his anger in the face of such humiliation. "Damn Night Raid scum!"

Feeling as if he had seen all he needed to see, the emperor removed the imperial arm he had affixed to his forehead. Eyes wavering, he was clearly uncertain about what course of action he needed to take. As such, he turned his attention to the one he perceived as being the most trustworthy person in the room. "Um . . . General Najenda, what happens now?"

To which the Night Raid commander bluntly responded, "Your majesty, I am no longer one of your generals, thus you don't need to call me that."

"Oh . . . um . . . sorry."

"As to what happens now, that's up to you."

"Well . . . up till now", he said, stammering and scratching the back of his head in a nervous fashion. "I've always had an advisor to . . . tell me what to do in this kind of situation. But I can no longer trust the Prime Minister. You though . . . you seem so confident and sure of yourself and so I . . ."

"I'm not the emperor though, your majesty. You are. And with all due respect, you have to stop putting so much weight into what other people tell you and learn how to rule this country yourself."

"Then . . . could you teach me how to do it? Up until now, I thought I was doing what was best for the Grand Empire. But . . . after reading Honest's mind, I can see now that I wasn't. That if not for you and Night Raid, the empire would have collapsed from within. Please . . . I don't want to keep hurting my country. Could you teach me what I need to do to protect it?"

"I'll help you your majesty. But only on one condition: That no matter what, you always put the needs of people throughout this country above the needs of your own; that you never EVER become anything like the Prime Minister."

"I promise!", the emperor replied after a cheerful and relieved nod."

"Your majesty . . . if I might have Adramalech back."

Makoto quickly shifted his gaze back to the prosthetic hook in his hands, nearly having forgotten that it had been handed to him. Compliantly shaking his head, he did just as requested. Najenda promptly reattached it to her metal arm. Then, for no overt reason, she charged a powerful surge of electricity into Adramalech's tip and fired off a large and powerful bolt of lightning straight through the ceiling."

"Um . . . Najenda . . what are you doing?"

"My apologies, your majesty. I'll have funds transferred to the palace treasury by tomorrow to pay for the needed repairs. It was important, however, that my other two subordinates immediately receive the message that Night Raid's final mission is complete."

"I see. Then what does this mean?"

Without hesitation, Najenda knelt before him and bowed her head, "It means that from this point forward, I, Najenda, pledge myself to your services."

"Thank you! And I, Emperor Makoto, henceforth strip Honest of his title as Prime Minister and bequeath that title to you. Henceforward, you shall be known throughout the land as Prime Minister Najenda. Moreover, I hereby declare all outstanding bounties against members of Night Raid null and void."

"Hear that, Lubbock?", Leone playfully chimed while nudging her teammate with her elbow. "Looks like you no longer have to worry about people staring at pictures of your mug when they stroll through town. Bummer that the boss is Prime Minister is now though. That excuse about having no time to date is really going to flare up now."

The green haired assassin looked a bit annoyed, especially in light of the move he had made on his commander earlier. All for nothing it seemed. "Don't rub it in!"

"Strip me of my title?!", Honest yelled in defiance, having heard as much he could bare without losing his composure. "Who do you think you are? You'd be nothing without me! I'm the one who made you emperor. I'm the one who has been advising you all these years! You think you can just up and get rid of me? Face it, you wouldn't last a minute without my guidance!"

"Your majesty", Najenda said before clearing her throat in an attention grabbing fashion. "As our first order of business, I suggest you make a decision on how to deal with the former Prime Minister as well as his treasonous son. Remember, whatever your decision is, it needs to be made for the good of the empire. Think hard on what that means and I know you'll choose correctly."

Makoto nodded his head and turned shifted his gaze towards his former chief advisor. Quietness enveloped the room as he ruminated on the matter for a good 30 seconds before finally reaching a decision. "After hearing your own thoughts, I would like nothing more than to have you executed. You and your son. But having thought about what my new Prime Minister has told me, having you executed all of the sudden is not really for the good of empire. Neither of you deserve to get off so easily with a quick death. I want both of you to live as long as possible. So you both can be tried for your crimes in front of the people and so you can live the rest of your lives suffering for what you've done. I want everyone in the empire to see that they no longer have to fear people like you two."

"You wretched child!", Honest snarled. "The people of this country are doomed no matter what happens to me! But don't worry! You'll see it for yourself one day. Yes you will!"

"Guards! Take the former Prime Minister down to the dungeon and see to it that he is given 20 lashes for every public official that has been executed for attempting to warn me about his true nature! And give his son 200 lashes for every woman that had mysteriously disappeared after being taken to his personal chambers!"

"Not so fast!", Syura muttered, revealing a mysterious syringe in his left hand. "You may have beaten my idiot father, but I'm far from done."

"What is that?", the emperor asked, not understanding how this man could think he could still prevail under the current circumstances.

But Honest, on the other hand, knew better. "Syura my boy! You still have a stimulant left? Good! Be a good lad and help your old man out by getting us out of here!"

"I saved one last stimulant just in case things things got really nasty", Syura replied while injecting himself. Within an instant, the drug immediately took effect and it looked as if he had found his second wind; despite the bullet wound in his leg and the millions of volts that had been poured through his body, Syura was pumped full of adrenaline and looked like he was full of energy. "Have fun rotting in some dungeon, old man As to me, I'm off to greener pastures!"

"Seize him!", Najenda ordered the guards.

But Syura was one step ahead of everyone else. He swiftly and nimbly grabbed the handgun his father had tossed to the floor and teleported himself out of sight before anyone could lay a hand on him.

Emperor Makoto looked around the room in a nervous fashion. "Where did he go?!"

"You can relax your majesty", Najenda assured him. "Thirty minutes before we even notified you of our intent to enter the palace, we had Tatsumi infiltrate the interior with Incursio's camouflage ability. Thanks to the report Chelsea wrote, we already knew about the stimulants as well as where Syura's room was located. I told Tatsumi to confiscate any items of interest he could find, including his stimulants and any imperial arms he had stashed away. Syura will learn all of this upon teleporting himself back to his room. Still . . . there is one other tactic he might resort to."

To which the emperor asked, "What other tactic is there?"

[. . . One Final Gambit . . . ]

As he watched the bolt of lightning flicker into the sky, Tatsumi's gaze was then shifted to the courtyard double doors Najenda and Lubbock had entered earlier. A sign of which the meaning was unclear to an outside observer, but more than clear to Tatsumi Having seen confirmation that Najenda's plan had gone off without a hitch, he finally sheathed the dormant Incursio back into its scabbard resting on his back. "It's finally over."

The Ice Queen, still visibly and greatly fatigued, managed to muster up enough strength to get off her back and sit up. Hearing what Tatsumi had just said, however, she instantly deduced what he was implying. "Very clever of Najenda. She must've known you wouldn't kill me, but still managed to come up with a plan to assassinate the Prime Minister that I wouldn't be able to interfere with."

Tatsumi shook his head. "Whatever happens to the Prime Minister from this point on is up to Emperor Makoto."

"Honest's little puppet? Why would Najenda care what he thinks?"

"The plan was to get him to see what Honest truly thinks of him, thus preventing the need for the kind of coup the Revolutionary Army had originally planned."

"I see", she chuckled. "Then it would seem the puppet has merely traded one master for another. Some revolution this turned out to be. And I'm obviously in no position to remain a general under Najenda's rule. Not that I would want to. I'll no doubt get charged with a litany of war crimes."

"I take it you don't intend to stay in the capital."

"No, I don't. That is . . . unless you plan to detain me. Perhaps it's your intention to escort me to the dungeon until I can be made to 'answer for my crimes' by putting on some sham of a trial."

Tatsumi casually turned around and began walking towards the courtyard's entrance. "I came to the capital to save my village and I joined Night Raid to put an end to the Prime Minister's tyranny. As of now, I've met both of those goals so there's no longer a reason for me to be here. If they want to capture you, they'll have to do it themselves."

"Your folly knows no limit. You say you want to solve your problems without killing anyone, so why would you allow someone like me to walk away? Someone who has been responsible for more deaths than you could possibly imagine?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I'll never forgive all of the pain and suffering you've caused. Everything you've done will catch up with you eventually. Just not by my hand. But . . . despite everything you've done, I don't believe you're truly evil and I think I finally understand why."

"It is you who has gotten the wrong idea, Tatsumi", she said, her eyes now full of defiance. "My only regrets are the role are the role I played in my father's death and the cowardice I've been clinging to since that day. Don't think for a moment that I'm just going to suddenly embrace your foolish notions of morality. I reject them. That's all there is to it!"

"What you choose to embrace is up to you, Esdeath. We all get to choose how we want to live. I've made my choice. There's nothing stopping you from making yours."

As if his words were a bucket of water dowsing a campfire, the defiance in the Ice Queen's eyes swiftly smoldered away. Nothing but disappointment was left in its wake. The flame that was her defiance had been sparked by her overwhelming pride. But despite her pride, she had hoped that he would turn around and try to argue with her as he had done in the past. A tendency of his that had annoyed her before, but was now something she suddenly found herself craving for.

She continued to watch Tatsumi from behind; she continued to watch him walk away. And with every step he took, she more and more began to realize that it wasn't quite his headstrong tenacity that she was craving at the moment. No, what truly concerned her wasn't having another pointless argument, but that he was . . . walking away. That he was but a mere 30 yards from leaving the courtyard; that he was but a mere 30 yards from . . . leaving her. And that just like that day her father had perished, she would be alone once more.

Esdeath promptly attempted to stand up, but it was of no use. Her body was still too fatigued. The most she could muster was a crouched position. She nonetheless stretched her right hand out in his direction. "Tatsumi wait!", she shouted in uncharacteristic desperation.

He ceased walking, stopping firm in his tracks and turning his head just enough to gaze directly back upon her. "Yeah?"

"What I said earlier . . . about having no need for you. It was a lie! Please, no matter what I say, it doesn't mean my feelings for you have changed!"

Upon hearing this, Tatsumi paused for a couple of moments, allowing sheer silence to dominate the atmosphere around them. But, as if not being able to control himself, he began chuckling aloud before recreating a sight Esdeath had long burned into her memory. The sight that had caused her to fall in love with him in the first place. Just like that time he had won the tournament she was hosting, a big warm smile appeared on his face. "Mine haven't either."

Like a shy schoolgirl, she was suddenly blushing rather fiercely. She could hardly believe what she had just heard. He had hugged her, kissed her and even slept in the same bed with her on two separate occasions, but she had never heard him utter any words to that effect. Not to mention his warm innocent smile. The one she had longed to see again. ". . . Tatsumi."

This poignant moment was short lived however. In the blink of an eye, the sound of a gunshot could be heard. A sound that ruined and interrupted everything. Whatever the source, Tatsumi had clearly been the target as he was suddenly stumbling around, trying to stay on his feet. But it didn't matter. Blood was trickling down the right side of his head and his consciousness had already faded away, leaving him to fall to the floor facedown.

Esdeath's blush had vanished in that very instant, replaced by sheer and utter horror. "TATSUMI!"

Diabolical laughter could be heard filling the entire courtyard. Said laughter was accompanied by a familiar figure walking towards the scene. "When I heard there was someone with an imperial arm that could actually give even General Esdeath a run for her money, I knew I just had to have it for myself."

The Ice Queen turned her attention towards this intrusive interloper, her eyes filled with hate and murder. "It's you."

"Oh that's right, General Esdeath. I don't believe we've formally met", he said before sardonically taking a polite bow. "The name is Syura. So good to finally make your acquaintance."

"I know exactly who you are, vermin. You're Honest's bastard child."

"You seem a tad bit, upset", Syura said while up to Tatsumi's motionless body and lifting it up by the hair. "Could it have something to do with this little punk here?"

"Get your damn filthy hands off of him!"

"It all makes sense, now!", he said with a sinister cackle. "Now I know the reason I saw the two of you together on Mount Fake a while back. Night Raid's victory could not have possibly been achieved without one of our general's whoring herself out to one of them. You were working with them this whole time, weren't you? I can't believe how much everyone has feared you all these years. You're nothing but a cheap slut!"

"I don't think you heard me. I SAID get your damn filthy hands off of him!"

"Oh yeah?", Syura retorted with another cackle. "And what are you gonna' do about it? You don't look like much in your current state. Did the two of you have a falling out? Looks like you got your ass handed to you. This is too good! In your current state, I bet I could put you down with both hands tied!"

Showing tremendous willpower, the Ice Queen grabbed her broken rapier lying right next to her, forced herself off the ground and stood back onto her legs, both of which were noticeably wobbling. "Get your damn filthy hands off of him. This is your last warning. I WON'T ask again!"

Syura immediately released his hold on Tatsumi's hair and turned his full attention to Esdeath. He didn't look worried in the slightest though. His expression bordered more along the lines of intrigue. He pointed his handgun at her for a couple of moments, knowing how easily he could end this encounter. But at the last second, he decided against it; he shook his head and tossed the weapon away. "What am I thinking? I'd much rather use my hands to knock you off your high horse and put you in your place."

The Ice Queen had never shied away from any challenge and she wasn't about to start, especially since in light of what had just happened to Tatsumi. Step by step, she began pacing towards Syura, her legs still wobbling with every step she took; she was practically limping.

Syura began approaching her as well, barely able to contain his wicked glee. He even started cracking his knuckles in a provocative fashion, openly flaunting his sadism and looking forward to the ensuing violence he was about to dish out. "Once I'm done smacking you around, we'll go someplace a little quieter. Did you like my private island I sent you to a while back? I can send you there again. Just the two of us this time! We'll really have some fun. It's the wild stallions I love breaking in the most!"

As soon as Esdeath got within three feet of him, the dark and sinister man clinched his right fist and hurled out a haymaker with the intent of knocking her lights out in one blow. The smirk on Syura's face quickly departed however upon noticing a strange sensation in his fist. It didn't feel as if he had just bashed it against someone's skull; it felt as if . . . he had not hit anything at all. Not only had he whiffed a perfectly good punch, but there was no sign of the Ice Queen.

On the other hand, Esdeath could be heard. Or rather, her legs could be heard limping across the ground. Syura turned his head to see that she was right behind him, limping towards Tatsumi. A curious site it was. More curious, however, was the blade on her broken rapier; there was blood dripping off the end.

It wasn't until Syura felt another strange sensation that he was able to understand what had just happened. A sudden flaring pain lit up his pelvic area, causing him to look down. There, he noticed blood spilling out from a place no man would ever hope or even imagine to see blood coming out from. He immediately dropped down to his knees before hysterically crying out in pain. "HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME?! YOU WRETCHED BITCH! YOU DISGUSTING BITCH!"

Though Esdeath was unparsed by Syura's cries and vitriol; none of his vile words reached through to her. In fact, she was behaving as if he didn't even exist. At that moment, all she was interested in was Tatsumi. Without hesitation, she tossed away her broken rapier, crouched down next to him and sat his unconscious body up enough to allow her to press one of her ears against his chest. A look of relief appeared in her eyes as she heard a slow but consistent thumping sound emanating from Tatsumi's chest. "Thank goodness. It just grazed you a little.", she said, embracing him with such affection. "I thought I had lost you."

Still on the ground crying out in pain, Syura sharply set his gaze on the woman who had given him what he perceived to have been a fate worse than death. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS YOU BITCH! YOU AND YOUR LITTLE NIGHT RAID ACCOMPLICE!"

As he screamed these words, his signature circular teleportation array appeared directly beneath Esdeath and Tatsumi. "I WON'T BE SO GENEROUS THIS TIME! LET'S SEE HOW WELL THE TWO OF YOU DO IN A VOLCANO!"

Finally hearing something she couldn't simply ignore, the Ice Queen looked around the immediate area in an effort to find a way out of her current predicament. But there wasn't one. She couldn't imagine herself mustering up the strength to get up again. She had already placed far too much strain on her body, especially with the little stunt she had just pulled with Syura.

Alas, there was clearly no way out of Syura's death trap. Realizing this, she did the only thing she could think of. Still holding Tatsumi in her embrace, she leaned her head down against his. Then, with a tender smile on her lips, a thick block of her normal ice formed around them.

At this very moment, Najenda, Leone and Lubbock bursted through one of the courtyard doors. They all saw their comrade frozen in Esdeath's clutches and ran towards him. But before they were even able to get remotely close enough to make a difference, Tatsumi and the Ice Queen vanished without a trace.

"Where did you send them?!", Lubbock growled, his eyes narrowed on the Prime Minister's defeated son.

To which Syura did not answer, instead more concerned about his own survival. His signature teleportation circle immediately appeared under his body as well.

Leone swiftly ran towards him with the intent to pounce upon him before he could escape. "Oh no you don't!" Feeling the pain from her earlier injury resurging, however, the feral assassin fell to the ground before she could get close enough to apprehend him. And just like that, Syura vanished.

Emperor Makoto arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, accompanied by a myriad of guards. He looked left and right, wondering what had become of the Prime Minister's son. Figuring that his new chief advisor, Najenda, would know the answer, he calmly approached her. "Where did he go?"

Najenda briefly looked around the courtyard, hoping to see some something . . . or perhaps anything she could use to base a deduction on. In doing this, she noticed the numerous signs of an epic battle that had taken place between two juggernauts. Numerous signs of a battle, but no indication of what happened after said battle. It was then that she let out an annoyed sigh. "With all due respect, your majesty, I haven't the slightest idea."

A/N: Whoa whoa whoa, that chapter ended up being a LOT longer than I ever intended it to be. My second longest chapter here to date. But, we covered everything we needed to cover. Just a few points to note:

Love it? Hate it? A WRETCHED PIECE OF FICTION YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER LAID EYES UPON? Meh? Feel free to leave a review! Feedback is always appreciated! As are follows and favorites! Thanks again and look forward to the final chapter!