Chapter 1: Stars of Love

It's been several months after Tatsumi joined the Night Raid. After battles with Ogre the corrupt Imperial Police captain and Zanku the Beheader. The young new Night Raid member became gradually experienced. Thanks to further training, Tatsumi's strength is getting closer to become a qualified Teigu User. However, after he heard the introductions of Teigu from Najenda, the boss of the Night Raid, and was told that there is no Teigu can bring a dead person back to life and his thinking could be exploited by the enemies. At a sad night, Tatsumi came to the tombs of Ieyasu and Sayo with a broken heart. The two village teens were Tatsumi's friends. They were tortured to death by corrupted nobles from the Capital City and sleeping quietly at such a bias corner with nothing but two unremarkable elliptic tombstones to prove that they had been in this world.

"I still have a tiny little hope…" Tatsumi said in tears, "However…it seems that I will never able to see them again…" Suddenly, a voice came behind this village teen, "Tatsumi, are you still awake?"

Tatsumi turned around and saw Sheele was coming to him. "I thought I could bring them back to life ... even if I wanted to…" Tatsumi said sadly.

"Tatsumi…" Sheele came forward gently and kneeling behind Tatsumi. Then she hugged the village boy into her chest. "If you want to cry, just cry." Sheele said to Tatsumi kindly, "I will keep your secret."

"Sheele…" Tatsumi said in tears, "Is this okay to be my superior like that?" He felt a little embarrassed about what Sheele just did. "That's fine." Answered Sheele.

Suddenly, a sharp annoying voice shouted, "Are you old enough to cry?"

Both Tatsumi and Sheele were surprised by the sound and turned around. Then, they saw a girl who was wearing a pink dress made of lace and put both hands on her hips standing not so far behind them. She was also despising at Tatsumi. The girl had long pink hair tied in twin-tails on each side of her head. Her name is Mine, the sniper of Night Raid. Of course, Mine is not alone, beside her there was another girl who is wearing a black school uniform with a red tie in her neck. The girl had long black hair, beautiful pearl-like white skin, and bright red eye pupils that looked like two rubies. The girl looked very gentle but a little murderous. No one knows her name, everything she had that can prove her identity is a calling of Akame.

"You…you!" Tatsumi startled, he stopped his tearing immediately, because he could not dare to reveal his true feeling to any others especially this girl whose name is Mine.

"Bulat has already told you that any of us could die at any moment!" Mine did not give Tatsumi any mercy, "if you are unable to afford this tiny little grief, then how do you think you are qualified to be a Night Raid member?!"

"Oh…." After hearing what Mine said, Tatsumi seems to be overwhelmed and face down his head sadly. Sheele then held Tatsumi quickly and said, "Don't be worry, Mine's bark is worse than her bite, she is in for you." Sheele tried to comfort Tatsumi.

"Hum!" After heard Sheele's words, Mine upset pouted, "it seems I was right. let's go, Akame." Mine said to Akame.

"Oh, but... "Akame answered when looking up at the sky. "The weather is good tonight and the starry sky is so beautiful… I'd like to stay for a while."

After heard Akame's answer, Mine glanced at the sky reluctantly and found the sky was cloudless. The galaxy looked like a giant treasure bowl which contained many kinds of colorful gems and agates, embedded in the dark and mysterious universe. Then she felt relaxed and said: "Well, I cannot sleep at this time either. It's not a bad idea to have a little rest after a busy day." Therefore, Akame, Mine, Tatsumi, and Sheele started lying in a row, and enjoy watching the colorful galaxy.

"Ah…" maybe because of the beautiful night view or the presence of the surroundings, the sadness in Tatsumi's heart was finally blown away. "Tatsumi." Akame suddenly said, "Do you used to love to appreciate the night before?" "Well, yes," Tatsumi answered. "At that time, I was together with Sayo and Ieyasu."

"Hey, you! Why are you talking about Tatsumi's past again? He's just in the mood! You ... " Mine was not happy about this and grumbled Akame.

"Who had just said that Tatsumi is not suitable to be a Night Raid member?" Akame asked in reply with a taunt face. "Uh…" Mine then blushed and slammed her lips.

Tatsumi was not listening to these girls. He just looked at the galaxy. "Hey, Akame. Do you know if the dead people will become the stars in the sky?" Tatsumi suddenly asked Akame. "I don't know." Akame replied, "as an assassin, I have killed countless people before. No matter they are good or bad. However, in my memory, when I sleep at night and accustomed to watching the sky, the number of stars has never changed, always so much." Akame starts looking back upon.

"To talk about the past, there is a lot of pain in the memory. However, there were still times of joy." Said Sheele who began thinking of her previous friends and happy times with everyone after joining the Night Raid. "Well, yeah." Tatsumi agreed. At this time, he seems to see Sayo and Ieyasu stood near the road to the Capital City and wave to him.

"Does Mine ever have happy times before?" Tatsumi suddenly asked Mine, because Mine had told him that she is a half-foreign blood person, which led her to be discriminated by others as a child.

"Of course, I have!" Mine said under her annoying voice," If I did not see the galaxy then I couldn't realize it. It's the first half of a story that often told by my mom who passed many years ago."

"What was the story?" After hearing the answer, all of the people were mobilized. "Ahem, ahem." Mine clears her throat. Then she looked at the galaxy and said, "The story tells that a long time ago, in the center of that galaxy there was a beautiful heaven like country. The protectors of this country were a group of angel-like warriors who are a great talent and have special powers that normal humans do not have or surpass. Instead of Teigu, these warriors' weapon is a kind of sword with a blade that can give out many different colored lights that looks like a rainbow. All of the warriors are well known for their gentleness, kindness, integrity, love peace, and sympathy for the weak. This country has powerful technologies that can let human beings traveling through stars with light speed. The country was under stable and prosperous developing under the protection of these warriors. This is the first half of the story."

"Wow…" All the people in the audience were amazed by the story. "How nice!" Tatsumi's eyes shined when he was listening, "Hey, if we have those the power those warriors have, then we can change the corrupt Empire easily do we?"

"Are you serious? It's just a legend!" Mine felt not happy and said to Tatsumi.

"You are joking," Sheele said to Mine. "To be honest, you must be more than once to hope there is a group of warriors like those to come and change the country when you are in childhood do you?"

"No!" Mine answered strictly. "You will give up thinking like that after you hear the second half of the story."

"Really? What did the second half of the story say? Akame asked. "Oh…" Mine's face suddenly became sad, "I do not like the second half of the story."

"Oh, what is the plot?" Tatsumi asks curiously, but Akame stays quiet because she probably had guessed what came next.

Mine said, "Later, a group of warriors degenerated because they were too indulged to their power. They became greedy, selfish, cunning, and evil. Then they began pulling other warriors to join them and started to rebel against the country." Everyone in the audience frowned when listening to this. Mine keeps saying, "The country and the rest of the warriors cannot tolerate the willful actions of these guys. Finally, a war occurred!"

"Oh no!" After hearing what Mine said, Tatsumi was sad. "The war makes this bright country devastated and lots of people were killed. At last, all of the commenters of this disaster were defeated by the country and the warriors with a conscience. Then, these fallen warriors were charged with treason and were exiled by the country." After hearing this, Tatsumi, Sheele, and Akame temporarily relieved. "It's over, isn't it?" Tatsumi asked.

"No, it isn't!" Mine said sadly, "The country had never thought that in the place where these fallen warriors were exiled, there was a group of races that the country had never noticed before. These races have the same power that those warriors have. For the sake of revenge, this group of fallen warriors made collusion with these races and they built a cruel evil Empire. Then, the Empire restarted wars with the bright country! This is the end of the story." Mine stopped talking.

"Ohhh…" after hearing the story, all these people sighed. It seemed that the end of the story was deeply disappointing. "Fortunately, this is just a legend," Tatsumi said in a sad voice. "If all this are true, then there will be much more innocent people killed by the war." At this time, Sheele asked Mine, "Mine, do you have any other impressions of your parents?"

"I almost forgot everything about them," Mine answered. "I was raised by a very short old man who is a famous watchmaker in Putra since I was still a baby." Then, Mine reached out her right hand and pointed a star in the Mid Rim of the galaxy with her forefinger and said, "Look! That's Jedha."

"Jedha?" Akame said in amazement. "Yes, Jedha is the name of that star which often called by my mom. In my memory, the only thing I can remember about her is that at each summer night, she always looked at Jedha like she was waiting for something…"

"AHA…" Mine then had a yawn, "Well, it's over tonight and I'm going back to bed. Good night, Sheele and Akame." Mine said in her sarcastic tone again. She then swaggered toward the Night Raid base. "Good night, Mine." Tatsumi, Sheele and Akame said to their pink little partner.

"Ah, I can't believe that Mine has such an odd experience before." After Mine left, Sheele but began to empathize with her. "I agree." Akame nodded. Today's society is full of darkness, corruption, and degeneration. Citizens in the Empire are plunged into dire suffering. If they continue to sit back and watch, then none knows how many people will become victims like them.

Tonight, Akame tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. A constriction feeling that she never felt before came around her whole body. Akame felt like she was surrounded by fear, anger, and darkness… Later, she heard a terrified distorted breathing that sounds like a danger beast's breathing sound mixed with some metallic voices…

"Who's there!?" Akame suddenly woke and sat up from the bed. However, she looked around and found none else was in her room. "Er?" Akame was confused. "Maybe I heard it wrong," she said to herself and lied on her bed again. However, after she closed her beautiful red eyes for a few minutes, the constriction feeling restarted.

"Ugh! Ugh!" Akame frowned and gripped her teeth. Sweat drops came out on her forehead and fell on the sheet. Suddenly, she heard that breathing sound again. Akame opened her eyes slowly, and impressively found that she was in a hellish volcanic world! The obsidian ground under her feet was shaking badly under the internal heat's toasting. The surrounding volcanos ejected the lava and frame out of the surface of the land and created many spectacular lava falls. The sky was fully covered by stifling dark clouds, and there was a wide lava river which was only a short distance in front of her. The terrified distorted breathing sound was coming from right above the lava river…

Akame was shocked. She took a careful look at the place where the breathing sound came. What she saw in a dark cloud of ash was a tall black figure. The figure was wearing black armor from head to foot and a long black cape on his back. Akame believed this figure was male according to his outlook. There was a strange panel of many buttons on this man's chest which made Akame unable to understand its use. But what truly disturbed Akame was this man's helmet. The helmet's design reminded Akame those Imperial Incineration Squad she fought before. The murderous looks from the two dead emotionless black eyes on the helmet's mask can make emboldened warriors losing morale quickly. The terrified breathing sound was coming from a triangle ventilator under those eyes. From this man, Akame sensed so many twisted feelings include fear, anger, hate, suffering, and pain. "Who…who are you?" Akame tried to ask this stranger.

Suddenly, Akame woke up and found it was already in the morning. She could hear sounds of Tatsumi training with Bulat from outside. "It's a dream!" Akame understood. She then putted her right hand on her forehead and recalled the strange man she met in the dream. As an assassin, Nightmares were almost routine for Akame. She always had dreams about people she killed in the past. Some of them were fully covered with blood, some came with scattered bodies, others took their heads that cut off by Akame and accused her. Akame was used to it all. She had hardly pay attention to those dreams. But this time, something unstable came into Akame's heart. She felt that the man in this dream must be very important to her or, for everyone in this whole world. One thing Akame known for sure, she should keep this secret before she finds out the truth.

Having thought this far, Akame got off the bed and putted on her clothes. Then she took her Teigu, One-Cut Killer: Murasame and hurried to the front door of the Night Raid base.