Midday, following the assassinations of 4 political figures by the Three Beasts.

Fuyu once again visited Jast in his private quarters.

The continued on the topic they discussed last night; the planed assassinations of certain politicians whom spoke out against Prime Minister Honest. As of now, 4 political figures along with 80 or so elite guards laid dead.

At each location, obviously fake poster claiming Night Raid executed these victims were scattered all around. At first, most didn't believe the assassin group carried out the crime, but due to the elite soldiers guarding each target, it started to seem that only Night Raid could do such a feat...or some group of similar strength.

Either way, the true objective of this tactic was coming to head as the revolutionary assassins certainly wouldn't take this sitting down.

Fuyu and Jast sat across from one another, so far none of the politicians the forward wished to be saved were targeted. As a precaution, he made sure to station other units by these particular targets in case they did come under attack.

Now they were trying anticipate the next one the Three Beasts would target, and both likely targets were political figures needed for their overall plan.

"There are two likely targets that the Three Beasts will strike next." Fuyu said as he pulled out his copied list of potential targets Honest assigned to Esdeath. The names of the four already killed men, including the former Prime Minister were crossed off.

"The 1st is Senator Gon, who plans on distributing rice rations in a village up North." He said as he pointed at the name. Gon was a generous man, always doing what he could to ease the suffering of the people of the Empire.

You know, what every member of this government SHOULD be doing.

Fuyu moved his hand up towards the second name.

"The 2nd, and more likely in my opinion is Senator Ty, who is attending a party aboard the Ryuusen."

Ty was an man of great audacity. He worked behind the scenes, supplying all who resisted Honest's policies with money, shelter, and other needs. It's even rumored that he supplies the Revolutionary Army, though that remains to be proven.

"We'll send Pyro and Drake to guard the senator up North." Fuyu said as he crossed his arms. "Though its unlikely he'll be targeted, we can't afford not to send someone in case I'm wrong."

"What about Ty?"

"Raryu and Serpentine will guard him." Fuyu leaned back in his chair. "If I'm right, Raryu will get a taste of what we promised him. That will keep him from deserting us for a time."

Joker rested his elbows on the table before him and folded his hands together. "If we can deliver, it'll keep him from from storming off to try and enact his revenge on his own. More than likely getting himself killed in the process."

Fuyu let his head slim to one side. He smiled at his friend. "You know, at this point Night Raid will be making their move. There's a good chance our men will run into them."

"If that happens, they deal with it." Jast said with a sigh. "Besides, our objectives are the same this time. There's no reason not to cooperate."


Two hours later, in the Northern region of the Empire.

Lubbock and Akame watched Senator Gon from afar, in a tree to be more specific. The forward was alert while maintaining his 'net' -a system of wires place strategically across the surrounding area- a by product of his Imperial Arms Cross Tail.

The latter, being the glutton that she is, was munching on Lubbock's ration bar.

It had dawned on the two that the phony assassins most likely weren't targeting this senator some time ago, but decided to remain until the target finished distributing rations to the village.

However, what the two didn't realize was that they were about to encounter members of a infamous group who's destiny will intertwine with theirs.

"It looks like they're going after the other target after all." Lubbock said. "Not that I'm complaining, but I hope the others can handle it."

Akame looked at the sky. 'Tatsumi, Bulant. Please come back save.' She thought.

"Achooo!" An unfamiliar voice rang out beside the two assassins. "Man, it's cold up here."

Lubbock turned his head while Akame sprang to her feet.

They looked at the source: A tall, spiky haired man in his mid-twenties rubbing his nose as he lounged on a tree branch.

Pyro, noting that he's discovered, waved at the two.

"Hey, what's up?"

"H-How long have you been there?!" Lubbock asked.

Pyro looked up as he used his index finger to scratch his cheek. "Huh. Let's see...About 5 minutes? Or was it 10? Defiantly a handful."

Lubbock pointed at the latter. "That's impossible! There's no way you'd be there without tripping one of my wires!"

"Shhhh! Keep your voice down." Pyro held a finger up to his mouth for emphasis. "Besides, if I couldn't I wouldn't be here without you knowing it would there?"

"I mean I don't see how you could."

Pyro shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe I'll show you someday." He turned his gaze to Akame, the latter had her hand firmly on her katana.

He smiled at her. "You look just like your mother, Akame."

This caught the latter of guard, he grip on her sword lessened a bit.

"Do I...know you?"

"You don't remember?" Pryo rolled over, returning his gaze to the sky. "That's too bad."

Before she could press the issue, Lubbock cut in.

"I'm picking up movement. Ten o'clock."

Almost instantly after he finished speaking, they heard the sound of rustling bushes. A moment later, a blue haired man dressed similarly to an Imperial soldier popped out of the thick snow covered bush.

The man cursed as he rumbled about 'finding' and 'losing' something.

"That's one of the guys I work with." Pyro said, remembering that he suddenly left Drake by himself without much explanation. "Hold on I'll talk to him."

He jumped down from the tree, catching his fellow Clockwork member by surprise. "Good god Pyro, I almost electrocuted you!"

"Hehehe, sorry about that."

"Where the hell have you been anyway?"

"Just doin a little recon."

"Ah, that right? Well next time tell me before you go disappearing like that again!"

"Ok, Ok. I got this side handled. Why don't you circle around the village and keep an eye on it from there?"

"What, after I walked through that massive thicket?"

"Just do it."

Drake let out a sigh. "Fine, fine, whatever."

The blue haired deserter disappeared into the bush, cursing as he went.

Pyro waited till his friend was out of hearing range before he turned back to the members of Night Raid.

"There, now we won't have any disturba-"

Akame jumped down and drew her sword. She rushed at the unsuspecting man, hoping to land even a slight blow on the latter.

Pryo say the attack coming and quickly dodged.

"Easy! I only came here to talk!"

She ignored him and continued to slash at the man. Each time narrowly missing his revealed chest.

"You know, if you keep this up those people in the village will notice!" Pyro said between dodges.

"He's got a point Akame." Lubbock added. "It'll be a pain if we're noticed now."

Akame backed off for the moment, readying her next strike.

"That maybe true, but this man saw us. We can't allow him to leave."

"Scary." Pyro said with a smile. "It's funny how much a person can change in a matter of years, huh Akame?"

"Stop pretending that you know me."

"Oh but I do, though we only meet for a short time." Pyro placed his hands in his coat pockets. "So tell me, hows that sister of yours doing?"

Akame lunged forward and cut across the man's chest. "You shouldn't have let you guard down."

"Who said I did any such thing?"

Akame's eyes widened, she quickly jumped away. She looked at Pyro, particularly at the spot she struck. There was no cut or gash, not even as much as a scratch.

"Impossible, I know I hit you."

"Aye, you did." Pyro patted his chest. "But you can't cut what isn't a solid figure."

Fire appeared out of nowhere and started to engulf the man. No it was more like parts of his body were transforming into fire.

"I've heard about your Imperial Arms, One-Hit Killer Murasume." Pyro spoke despite the fact half of his face was now formless fire. "Deadly to any with a beating heart, but fire doesn't exactly have a heart now does it?"

"So that's how he got around my net." Lubbock mumbled.

"My name is Pyro, well not my real name more like my codename. Anyway, this is my Imperial Arm; All To Ashes: Phoenix Flame."

Pyro waited a moment to revert his body back to normal before continuing.

"I belong to a group known as Clockwork, though I doubt you've heard of it since we recently went public."

"What do you want from us?" Lubbock asked.

Pyro looked at him. "Nothing, in fact our mission here is the same as yours."

"If I wanted I could have avoided you all together, but I wanted to see little Akame all grown up." He looked at the latter as he said the last bit.

"Now that I have, and I gotten the introductions out of the way, there's no need for me to remain here."

Suddenly, a whirlwind of fire surged around the Clockwork agent and in the next moment vanish along with him.

"That was...different." Lubbock said before the two fell into an awkward silence.


Meanwhile, on the Ryuusen

'This is a joke.' Raryu thought. 'I'm the most suspicious looking guy here with this stupid thing on.'

The tribesman shifted uncomfortably in the tux he was forced to wear. The thing was barely staying together on his muscular body. A moment earlier, a button snapped off and flew across the room hitting a young woman in the face, knocking her to the ground.

It was a bit embarrassing, and ultimately fruitless as a disguise. Even if the tux fit him perfectly, we still showed the outer appearance of a man from Ban Tribe. So obviously everyone kept an eye on him.

The only other person who seemed out of place was a younger male in a white tux. He had no murderous intent so Raryu ignored him for now.

Raryu cursed under his breath. He was a warrior, the only reason he was playing the fool was thanks to his current partner Serpentine. He brought his host Steven, and that body would make him stand out even more so since it was the son of a noble.

Most people here were nobles, which increased the chance of Serpentine's cover being blown. Instead, he hid in the shadows keeping an eye on thing.

Though he could have taken control of another person's body as he can control multiple bodies at a time, everyone here except for Senator Gon's bodyguards had no combat capabilities.

In order to infect someone and not raise suspension (at best) he'd need to be alone in the first place, and that clearly wasn't going to happen.

Raryu moved over to the punch bow and poured himself a drink. He took a sip before placing the cup on the table before him.

"Too sweet." He said bluntly.

He turned around, about to head back were he once stood when a strange calming music started to play. The Ban Tribe member raised his eyebrow. This music was odd, it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

What happened next was even stranger.

One by one, everyone around Raryu started to fall down. He knelt down to the nearest one, alive but in a trance of some sort. Most likely caused by the music.

Raryu stood up and noticed the suspicious looking teen struggling to stand. 'He's not the cause of this.' He concluded.

The teenager managed to stand up, then slowly stumbled off outside.

Raryu watched him go, noting a blur in the corner of his eye.

"Serpentine," He said without turning his head. "Where is that music coming from?"

"No idea." He replied. "But it's defiantly an Imperial Arm."

"So they're here." A smile formed on Raryu's face. "Finally."

"First things first." Serpentine took a few steps towards the passed out Senator Gon and his entourage. "Let's move Senator Gon to a secure location. Then track down the assassins."

Raryu move towards and lifted the senator over his shoulders. "Understood."


A few minutes later.

Tatsumi felt like crap. His body wasn't responding quite the way he wanted. This was a problem, especially given the situation he got himself in.

Right now he was fighting one of the phony assassin's pretending to be a member of Night Raid, the organization he was apart of.

This man was a brute, on top of that he had an Imperial Arm: Belvaac, A double bladed axe that can split form into two and act like a boomerang.

Tatsumi was a bit out of his league, but he had to try. If not, how the hell could he save his village?

Fortunately, Bulat or as he called him Bro, showed up and saved his dumb ass before he got himself killed.

Now Bulat stood off against the man: A servant of Esdeath named Daidara.

"Tatsumi, its very important that you pay close attention to how I fight ok?" Bulat said to Tatsumi, whom was sitting behind him.

Tatsumi stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what he meant by that.

Bulat gave him a smile, then bent down an placed one hand upon the ground.

"INCURSIO!"

An aura of fire spawning out of nowhere surrounded him. A mirage of the Incursio battle armor appeared above Bulat. A blue whirlwind enveloped the former Imperial Soldier, then the fire as well as the whirlwind around him vanished. Leaving Bulat fully equip in his Imperial Arms.

"Awesome!" Daidara lifted his twin axes up. "I'm gonna get a ton of experience points from killing this guy!"

As he spoke, the other members of the Three Beast -Nyau and Liver- appeared on Bulat's flanks.

Tatsumi's eyes widened. "Behind yo-!"

Without warning, a wooden spear flew past Tatsumi's head a pierced through Daidara's chest. The latter staggered forward, his comrades momentarily took their attention off Bulat.

A mistake on their part.

Bulat took advantage of the opportunity and landed a left hook onto Nyau, then at an alarming speed, delivered a right kick onto Liver. The latter managed to block in time, reducing the damage as he flew into a nearby wall.

The Night Raid member landed, turning his gaze towards or rather past Tatsumi.

Standing in the doorway to the interior of the ship was a brown-skinned, light gray haired man of the Western Tribe, instead of the typical straw skirt he wore a pair of black pants and a tux that seemed ready to explode at any moment.

Daidara slowly walked towards the man, blood flowing from his mouth and the open wound in his chest.

"Bastard...Who the hell are you?" He said with difficulty.

The Westerner ripped off his tux, revealing his muscular built chest. He began to walk towards the dying Beast.

"My name is Raryu. I am a survivor of the Ban Tribe."

He dashed forward, grabbing on to the wooden spear still impaled in Daidara's chest. Using the spear, Raryu hoisted the brute up. Helpless, Daidara could do nothing as the tribesmen slowly spun the tip of his spear further into his chest.

"I have come here to kill you."

Without any warning, Raryu slammed the Beast into the ground, freeing him from the spear. Raryu pounced on the latter, diving his spear into Daidara's right hand causing the latter to let go of the one half of his axe.

The tribesmen stomped his right foot on Daidara's shoulder, the latter yelled, throwing his left hand armed with the other half of his Imperial Arm. Without so much as looking, Raryu caught the blow with his left hand, then firmly grabbed onto Daidara's arm his his right.

With his left foot firmly on the ground, his right pressing into Daidara's shoulder and with his spear pining his right hand, Raryu pulled on Daidara's left arm.

He could feel it popping from its socket, but that wasn't enough. This man had to feel more pain, more agony and helplessness before he died.

Raryu pulled with more strength, this time he could feel flesh taring. Daidara screamed in pain, but that only made the tribesmen pull harder.

Veins pulsed angry on his arms and neck as many agonizing moments passed before Daidara's left arms was ripped from his body.

Blood gushed out as the minion of Esdeath screamed in pain.

Raryu threw the arm aside without a second thought, then pressed his right foot into the man's neck. The latter stopped screaming as Raryu slowly pressed deeper and deeper.

Daidara let out a single chak. Then his body fell limp. He was dead.

Raryu removed his spear, then looked at Bulat and Tatsumi.

"That was brutal." Tatsumi said in shock.

Raryu turned his unemotional gaze to the young teenager. "That was but a merciful death in comparison to what he and his kind did to my people."

"Tatsumi, this guy's one of the survivors of a western tribe Esdeath nearly wiped out a few years ago." Bulat added. "His tribe gave the Empire so much trouble that they had to send her to deal with them."

Raryu closed his eyes. "I will never forget that day. The day Esdeath and her army destroyed my village. Then she had the audacity to let what few of us survived free."

He reopened his eyes. "I shall make her, and everyone that serves under her pay for that mistake."

"So one of the barbarians Master Esdeath let free has come to enact his revenge." Liver said as he started to approached his opponents. He stopped a few feet from both Raryu and Bulat. Liver's gaze turned toward the latter.

"And what a surprise to see you like this Bulat. I see that you still have Incursio after all these years."

Bulat's eyes widened as he finally recognized who was standing before him.

"It's you. General Liver."


And that ends another chapter of Clockwork.

Now, originally I planed on writing this IF ppl commented and wanted me to continue, but now due to the recent English dub of Akame ga Kill causing me to get back into this plus the fact that this will be one of the stories I work on when I lose focus on my main work, I'm continuing it but at a gradual pace.

And this is where it starts to separate from the main track of the anime and leans more towards the manga (as the anime should have continued to, because it is a million times more awesome when they separated.)

Hope you enjoyed and look forward to the next entry!