A/N: Greetings everybody and thank you all so much for the many favorites/follows/reviews you've left me since my last chapter. They are all much appreciated! We've finally got another chapter out! I meant to post this one yesterday, but got caught up with some real life work I had to address. Before we begin, just a couple of notes I'd like to make:

#1. Someone had some concerns about the way I format the text in this story. Just in case there is any confusion: Bold text - I use this to refer to subheadings, when a character is placing emphasis on a particular word/term or when a character has a unique manner of speech. Italicized text - This is either refers to a character's thoughts or dialogue a character is recalling. Hope that helps!


. . . she didn't know what happened . . .


Several miles away from the campsite Tatsumi and Esdeath had spent the night camping at, there was one particular patch of the forest where most of the trees had been knocked down or otherwise covered in various ice-projectiles. In the middle of this patch of destruction was a sizable circular crater with a radius well over thirty yards. Moreover, the crater was completely coated in dark blue ice. And at the very center of this strange crater was none other than the Ice Queen herself, who appeared to be dressed in her full attire, down on one knee while exhaling and inhaling much like a runner who had just participated in an arduous relay race. Even while nearly out of breath, her hands were postured in the same position she took every time she used her time freezing trump card, Mahapadma.

Upon finally having caught her breath, she stood back up on her feet and scowled at her ungloved hands; they were both laced with her own blood. "Damnit. Why can't I do it? It was so simple before, but now . . ."

"No", she thought, recalling what Demon's Extract had told her the previous night as she absent mindedly gazed towards the clouds. "I could not have grown weaker. I've been training every day since that duel with Tatsumi. If anything, I ought to have grown stronger."

"It's just trying to manipulate me." She began walking out from the ice crater she had created, all the while with the same absent minded expression on her face. "Whatever the reason, I'll just have to make due without Mahapadma for now. As long as I keep getting stronger, I'll be able to protect Tatsumi no matter what happens."

As she began to leave this chaotic site of her own creation, she once again glanced back down towards her injured hands before removing a pair of ebony gloves from one of her jacket pockets. "Better put these back on. The last thing I need is a multitude of tiresome questions from Tatsumi right now."

After trekking a few miles through the woods, she had just about made her way back to the campsite; she was within a few trees of the small clearing her tenacious companion was bound to be waiting at. "I've been thinking, Tatsumi", she said with her usual schoolgirl expression. "We had such a good time together last night. Why don't we spend another night out here? I saw the most magnificent spot near the river bank earlier; I bet the stars are bound to be more breathtaking if viewed across . . . the lake?"

The Ice Queen stopped dead in her tracks, completely taken aback by the scene before her eyes at the campsite; numerous craters in the ground, the campfire and the logs surrounding it completely pulverized into the ground; scattered human remains dashed across the grassland. Eyes filled with sudden panic, she rans towards the very source of what she was dreading. "TATSUMI!"


. . . the goal was to seduce him . . .


"Leone, girl, you've officially hit rock bottom", the feral ex-assassin thought as she walked down the 10th deck of the cruise ship she was on as a dreary overcast coated the sky. Much like she had been on the previous night, she was yet again wearing makeup and some of her hair had been elegantly combed over her right eye. Rather than wearing her evening gown, however, she was dressed in business formal attire; a white dressed shirt, a silver dressed skirt, black satin stockings and a black pair of high heels. "You've gone from getting the sweet sweet pleasure of ripping jerkweeds limb from limb while having all the booze you can handle to the complete and utter bullshit of having to seduce jerkweeds while having no booze whatsoever."

As she began to approach what appeared to be the entrance of one of the cruise ship's many restaurants, she sighed in indignation. "Why did my dumbass have to wreck all of those taverns in the capital?"

As she walked through the restaurant doors, she could immediately hear violinists playing in the background. If that weren't enough to tip her off to the kind of restaurant this was, the high dollar mahogany wood wall paneling, chandelier lighting, Persian carpet rug and a wall consisting entirely a fish tank certainly gave it away. Of course, there was also the well dressed maître d who was approaching her. "My sincerest apologies, mademoiselle", he said with a thick accent. "But I'm afraid Le château is completely booked for the remainder of our voyage to Bestimmung. Without reservations, I'm afraid we cannot serve you."

"What a shame", she giggled with the utmost sarcasm before turning away and nonchalantly giving a wave goodbye. "Guess that means I'll have to eat someplace a little less pretentious. Oh well."

"There's no need for that, dear lioness", said a confident yet familiar voice approaching from the restaurant's dining area.

Leone turned back around, immediately recognizing who it was. "Rokugou."

The maître d turned towards this approaching figure. "Mr. Wolfgang, sir, do you know this young woman?"

"She's with me", the red haired gambler remarked before winking in Leone's direction.

"Just gotta stick to the plan.", she thought while walking towards him as if to accept his invitation.

The two walked through the main dining area, with Rokugou leading the way. Knowing the role Run had commanded her to play, she did her absolute best to maintain her composure, but there was something about the various high class noble-looking people at the various velvet table clothed dinner tables that rubbed her the wrong way. As she had learned firsthand through various prior assassination contracts, their pristine tuxedos, captivating dresses and magnanimous smiles were all too often just a ploy to mask their true nature. She most certainly hadn't forgotten the contract on that Aria girl and the extent to which that little devil had Tatsumi fooled.

"Don't worry. We're not eating with them", the red haired gambler casually remarked as he continued to lead the way.

Leone looked taken aback all of the sudden. The man was not even looking at her. How did he . . .

"Call it a gambler's intuition", he remarked with a playful smirk on his lips while still leading the way.

Not wanting to break character, Leone merely shrugged her shoulders with indifference. "By the way, how did you know I was here?

To which Rokugou chuckled. "Also gambler's intuition."

Leone crossed her arms with an annoyed look on her face. "Okay, that answer is not remotely satisfying."

"In this world, my dear lioness, the truth rarely is."

The two made their way to what appeared to be the restaurant's special dining area; an enclosed room with various paintings adorning its walls, numerous potted plans resting alongside the walls, a grand chandelier hovering on the ceiling and a red velvet tablecloth table in the center of the room.

"We'll have to pick up our meeting at another time, gentlemen", Rokugou said, addressing the two well bussiness looking men already sitting at the table, both of whom had merely been browsing the menu. "Let the host know you're in need of a table out in the main area."

"Always a pleasure, Sir Wolfgang", one of the men said before patting the red haired gambler on the shoulder.

"Till next time", the other one said while nodding his head in a polite fashion.

Ever the charmer, Rokugou took the opportunity to pull one of the seats at the table out, as if to gesture Leone to sit there. "Your throne awaits, mademoiselle."

"My throne?", Leone asked after releasing a soft giggle.

"Ah, so you can laugh?", he smirked as if having secured a small victory. "That's good to know."

"Did I just break character? Shit", she thought while taking sitting at the seat that had been pulled out for her. "Boss is gonna kill me."

Rokugou scootted her towards the table. "Seems there's a lot more to you than meets the eye."

"Don't get too proud of yourself", she scoffed, desperately trying to reassert herself as the indifferent and no-nonsense woman she had portrayed herself as on the previous night. "Even a broken clock can be funny twice a day."

To which the gambler laughed and bellowed before taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. "Now that is funny."

"May I get you something to drink, mademoiselle?", said an approaching waitress with a small notepad and pencil in her hands.

"Something . . . to drink?", Leone asked with her teeth grinding and one of her eyes twitching. She quickly recalled one of the many things Run had instructed her on while assisting her with her hair and makeup earlier that morning. "And remember", he had said as she sat in front of their bathroom mirror as he combed her hair with ample diligence. "Under no circumstances are you to drink ANY alcohol."

The waitress looked somewhat confused. "Mademoiselle, is there something wrong?"

"No no no. Of course not. Everything is fine", the ex-assassin replied, seemingly having regained her composure. She then sighed before adding, "I'll have . . .a virgin piña colada."

"Got it", the waitress nodded before penciling in the order. "And do you two still need time to order?"

To which the gambler answered, "I'm in no hurry to eat. Give my lady friend here the chance to look over the menu."

The waitress nodded again before walking away. "Understood."

Rokugou shifted his attention back to Leone and with an intrigued look in his eyes no less. "Not that I'm complaining, but what made you decide to come to Le château today?

She began thumbing through the menu. "I had a taste for Parisian and this is the only Parisian restaurant on the boat."

"Mm-hmm. This fiancé of yours? I take it he's not a fan of Parisian cuisine."

"He was busy."

"Too busy to spend time with his lovely bride to be?", he shook his head..

Leone once again thought back to the conversation she had with Run in their bathroom earlier. "Also, Rokugou E. Wolfgang is known for being a womanizer, not a fool. If you're going to get close enough to him to get him to divulge his secrets, enticing him is the key. And for a man like that, that means not making things too easy for him." The ex-assassin continued thumbing through her menu, only to say "No, just too busy to be shamelessly flirting with women he knows are in a committed relationship."

Seemingly undaunted, Rokugou continued to smirk. "What's a woman in a committed relationship doing dining alone with another man?"

"What's an eligible bachelor doing flirting with a woman he knows next to nothing about? From the look of all of those floozies you were surrounding yourself with last night, you could have any bimbo up here swooning over you"

"In this world, anything that is merely handed to you is not anything worth fighting for."

"So let me get this straight", she said before setting her menu down and glaring directly into the gambler's eyes with straight look on her face. "Even though you know I'm engaged and even though I've made it clear that I'm not interested in you, you're going to keep hitting on me anyway?"

Still undaunted and still smirking, Rokugou replied. "That's the plan."

Leone desperately tried to control herself, but the laughter prying out of her gut was as sharp as a freshly crafted razor blade; she simply couldn't help herself. "Ah shit. That's two screw ups in a row. The boss is gonna kill me."

"Curiouser and curiouser", he continued to smirk. "As the ice breaks away, more of your true self rises to the surface."

"You're a sleazebag. There's no doubt about that", she remarked, her laughter dying down. "But you might be the first honest sleazebag I've ever come across."

To which Rokugou chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment."


. . . he was given a task . . .


While sipping a freshly brewed cup of tea, Professor Kastigar was sitting in her mansion's den in her favorite lounge chair no less when she heard someone walk through the door. "I trust you had no issues retrieving your imperial arm from Jean."

Wave walked into the room with Kurome still fastened to the harness on his back. He hadn't yet fully wrapped his mind around the discussion he and the good doctor had had about will. ". . . yeah."

"Good. Knowing him, I wouldn't put it past him to treat something like that as collateral for the medical services he rendered the other night. Perhaps he's taken a liking to you", she remarked before finally setting her tea down and looking directly at him. ". . . that outfit."

Having taken up the professor's offer to borrow some clothes out the bedroom he had been sleeping in light of his old clothes having been disposed of, he was outfitted in a different wardrobe entirely. He was donned in a black quilted high collar padded jacket with long sleeve leather strap gambesons; he sported a pair of black ankle banded pants; and he wore a dark navy blue battle ready cloak. "I was initially pissed off about what you did to my old clothes, but then I figured that maybe a new wardrobe wouldn't be so bad."

"Hmm . . . I suppose", she said, briefly averting her gaze away from the former Jaeger for some reason.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head, her eyes making it clear that this was not a subject she cared to pursue. "Let us get down to business. Now that you have your weapon, I assume you remember what I told you last night."

"The first phase of your experiment, right?", he asked as he walked up to her.

"Naturally." She took another sip of her tea with an intrigued look in her eyes. "Are you ready?"

"If it means getting into Babel's Library, then I'm more than ready."

"As I recall, that's just one part of the puzzle. First, you'll need to enter the Steel Festival. Then you'll need to do well enough in the Steel Festival to get Chancellor Eisen to grant you an audience. Then you'll need to convince Chancellor Eisen to let you enter Babel's Library. And there's no telling what you'll find in Babel's Library if you get that far. You realize that your plan requires a great deal of things to go your way, right?"

"Kurome is my friend and if there's even the slightest chance that Babel's Library will have the information to restore her mind back to what it once was, then I'll do whatever it takes."

"I thought you'd say something like that. If nothing else, your resolve appears to be unshakable. ", she smirked, almost with a glint of respect. "There's an old orichalcum deposit to the north of the city. If you go by horseback and don't stop to rest, it should be a little over half a day's journey from here. There's something I need you to do there." The professor stood up from her lounge chair and walked over to one of the trophy shelves nearby.

Wave recalled having dusted these very shelves the other day, but was surprised to see that something new had been placed on one of the shelves. "What's that?"

The professor reached for what appeared to be a medium sized apothecary jar with an unique looking gold lotus flower inside; for some reason, the flower appeared as if its petals were on fire. Yet despite the flames, the petals appeared to be unaffected as the flames constantly danced around them. "When we met at the academy last week, I was expecting you to bring a snow lotus from Mt. Zugspitze. How ironic that will now be in possession of an ember lotus instead. At least temporarily."

"Ember lotus?", the former Jaeger asked while attempting to take a closer look at this strange and uncanny plant.

She handed him the apothecary jar. "Follow my instructions to the letter. You are to go to the old orichalchum deposit I spoke of. I'll give you a map before you leave, but there will be an old cavern at the highest point of the deposit. Go to the deepest part of this cavern and plant the ember lotus in the orichalchum laced soil. If you leave now, you should get there by nightfall. Once you've planted the ember lotus, wait outside the cavern until morning. At that point, retrieve the ember lotus and place it back into the apothecary jar."

"That's it?", Wave asked with a surprised look in his eyes. He had expected some gargantuan challenge, but was surprised to hear that he was merely being asked to do some gardening. "I could've done that last night."

"Hmph. I expect my ember lotus back in perfect condition. If its stem or petal is damaged in any way due to your bungling, then you can forget our deal entirely."

"I'll just have to be extra careful I guess, but what about the part of me waiting outside the cavern until morning? If even a small animal goes inside and nibbles on the lotus, the deal is still off?"

"Naturally", she smirked. "You'll have to keep your wits about."

Wave took another look at the apothecary jar before nodding his head. "I guess I'll just have to be extra careful. But what about Kurome?"

The professor suddenly brandished a syringe full of red liquid much like the one she had used to sedate the ebony eyed girl a few days earlier. "We'll manage just fine. She won't be roaming any halls tonight this time. I've brewed a special batch just for her."

"Well . . .", he uttered with a reluctant sigh. "I guess it's for the best. I just don't like having to treat her like this all the time."

"The sooner you do as I've asked, the sooner you won't have to worry about treating her like this."


. . . the gambler was not quite what she expected . . .


"Needless to say, after that incident, they never let me nor Jason back in that tavern ever again", Rokugou chuckled, as if having just wrapped up a long and amusing anecdote.

"No kidding!" Leone was laughing of course; she was behaving noticeably more consistent with her true self, albeit without all of the quirks Run had identified as being 'bad habits."

The two had just left the Parisian restaurant and appeared to be enjoying each other's company while down the cruise's 10th floor deck.

"Ya know, I don't usually eat in places like that", the ex-assassin remarked, her laughter subsiding. "But that's gotta be some of the best mutton and lamb I've ever had. I'm stuffed."

"That's too bad", the gambler said with a playful shrug. "And here I was about to suggest that we head to the ice cream parlor on the 8th deck."

"That's shockingly too subtle coming from you", she grinned. "I was pretty sure this would be the part where you would ask me if I would like to come back to your room for some quote-unquote coffee."

"Gambler's intuition, lioness", he chuckled. "I already know the answer to that question."

"Ah c'mon, I sat through an entire meal with you. You could at least do me the courtesy of asking."

"Okay okay. Mademoiselle . . .", he said, expressing that last word while imitating the restaurant servers in an overexaggerated fashion. ". . . would you care to come back to my suite and partake in some cheap expresso among other things?"

"Seriously", she bursted into more laughter. "When you put it like that, it takes all of the fun out of rejecting you!"

"Ah ha, but you'll notice in your answer just now that you didn't say no! You thought about it for a moment. Didn't you?"

"In your dreams, Mr. Wolfgang!", she said upon playfully poking him in the chest.

At that very moment, a bolt of lightning could be heard touching down upon the open sea at a distance. The two looked over in the distance before noticing the small drops of rain that were beginning to douse them.

The red haired gambler shrugged his shoulders, this time with slight annoyance. "And here I was hoping to go parasailing today. What a waste."

Leone sighed. "I should get going. Fiancé is probably wondering where I'm at."

"That's too bad. What are your plans this evening?"

"Wow", she giggled. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Guilty as charged", the gambler remarked with a polite yet exaggerated bow. "Donald Hopperfield is doing a show on the 6th floor amphitheater. I just happen to have two balcony seats reserved."

"Donald Hopperfield? The Reispanian magician? Hmm. I'll think about it."

"The show starts at 10:00 pm. If you decide to come, stop by my suite at 9:30 pm. I'm on the 20th floor in suite 20005."

The ex-assassin began making her way towards the deck's stairwell before casually waving goodbye. "Like I said, I'll think about it."

Just as Leone had left the scene, one of the cruise ship's concierges ran up to the gambler in a hurried fashion "Mr. Wolfgang!"

To which Rokugou replied, reassuringly patting the concierge on the shoulder, "Easy now. Where's the fire?"

"Sir, there's no fire. We just received an emergency message from one of your employees in Bestimmung!"


. . . they were one step behind . . .


"That bitch better be out here!", barked an all too familiar villain from the Grand Empire.

Syura was trekking his way through the very forest Tatsumi and Esdeath had spent the previous night camping and just the look on his face made it clear that he was none too pleased. He stopped for a moment to hold his hand out into the air, as if expecting to catch something, only to feel rain drops slowly trinkling down his arm as the sound of thunder soon followed. "That's just great."

"I'm not exactly a fortune teller", Cosmina remarked as she trekked behind her crazed leader. "But rain isn't typically a good indication your day is about to get better."

"Can it, wench", Syura barked before finally making his way to the small clearing the campsite had been at. He eagerly looked around the scene before sighing in disappointment. "Dorothea. Status report."

The short Alice in Wonderland expy approached the scene of the campsite while observing the compass-like device in her eyes; the arrow was pointing directly at the scene for some reason. Without answering her would-be leader, Dorothea casually approached the pile of human remains Tatsumi has sliced and diced in his earlier battle and kneeled down next to them.

"Well?", Syura growled before walking up to his short blonde subordinate. "Were they here or not?"

"Oh they were definitely here", Dorothea replied while rubbing a small fragment of the rotting flesh between her fingers. "It would appear we have a much better sample to go off of this time."

He smirked with a devious grin on his lips. "Is that so?"

"Not only that, but if I had to give an estimate, I would say that we missed them by . . . four . . . no five hours. Judging by the burnt pile of firewood, they likely spent the night camping here."

Syura rubbed his chin in a pondering fashion. "Good. That tells us that wherever they're traveling, they're not exactly being cautious. Not that I would expect them to know we're pursuing them, but there's no way they know we're pursuing them if they're being so carefree."

"It could be that they simply aren't afraid of you", Izou remarked as he approached the scene with his sheathed katana slung over his shoulder and the usual twig hanging out of his mouth.

"Hmph", Syura turned his nose with slight irritation. "I'll teach them true fear soon enough. As for you, you'd better be prepared yourself. Esdeath was our strongest general for a reason and the punk she's traveling with was apparently able to fight her to a standstill. Don't let your dumbass obsession with that scrap of metal on your shoulders get us all killed."

"Scrap of metal, huh", the wanderer said, his otherwise calm and stoic mannerisms contradicted by the sudden blood lust emanating out of him.

"Now now, boys", Cosmina cheerfully interjected while quickly positioning herself in front of the uncanny samurai warrior. "It's been a long day and it's raining all of the sudden. Lets not lose each other's heads over a little spat."

"Our dearest songstress raises a valid point, fearless leader", Champ remarked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere next to Syura and resting a comforting hand on the younger man's shoulder. "We must strive not to squabble amongst each other; not when there remains a more promising prize slightly beyond our reach."

"Keep your grimy hands off me, freakshow", Syura replied while swatting away his would-be subordinate's arm. He then directed his attention back to the short blonde member of the group. "You said something about having a better sample, right? How long will it be before you get another lock on their trail?"

To which Dorothea answered while still scavenging through the remains. "Hmm . . . two hours give or take."

"I suppose that's a slight improvement", he sighed before using his imperial arm to manifest his infamous teleporting array on the ground adjacent to him. "I'm heading back to the lair. We'll reconvene our little search party in two hours sharp."

Within an instant, the Wild Hunt had vanished without a trace, much to Cosmina's relief. "He's even crankier than usual today."

Champ chuckled, not at all appearing offended by the 'freakshow' remark earlier. "If I didn't know better, I'd say something about this Esdeath woman has him twisted up inside. And considering how twisted he is in the first place, that's saying something!"

To which Izou shrugged before sitting down on the ground indian style, "Whatever the case, Kousetsu does not take too kindly to disrespect. He's lucky the way of the samurai prevents us from prematurely breaking an alliance." And just as he sat down, the top halves of five of the forest trees behind him suddenly came crashing down; given the way they fell, it was as if someone executed a clean cut through all five of them simultaneously.

Cosmina shrieked before skittishly taking several steps back whereas Champ simply continued to chuckle, not at all intimidated by his would-be comrade's antics. "Seems our pedestrian samurai really knows how to bring down the house when the mood strikes him."

"Now what do we have here?", Dorothea asked in an intrigued absent minded fashion, completely oblivious to the dispute between the other Wild Hunt members. She removed a pair of surgical pliers from the small handbag she appeared to be carrying with her and used it to pick up one of the discarded tentacles from one of the chenoos that had perished in amidst Tatsumi's earlier battle. "I wonder what would bring one of you all the way out here to them?"


. . . it was trying her patience . . .


Over a hundred miles to the west of the forest the Wild Hunt had just entered, the sky was much darker, the clouds were far more imposing, bolts of lightning were cackling across the plains at a frightening rate and the rain was outright torrential. And in light of Bestimmung's general climate, cold rain at that. Nevertheless, a lone horse drawn stage coach speedily rolled down the countryside roads without even the slightest hint of fear or apprehension.

At a surprising change of pace, the Ice Queen herself was sitting at the driver's seat, steering the reigns and relentlessly having both horses gallop as quickly as possible. Despite the precipitation rolling down her brow and even trickling down into her eyes, she nonetheless maintained a fierce look of determination. Of course, using her ice powers, she could have easily expanded the roofing on the stagecoach just enough to avoid the discomfort of being drenched by the rain; but she was so committed to whatever task at hand was occupying her attention, that said discomfort did not ever appear to cross her mind.

Within the candle-lit stagecoach was an unconscious Tatsumi; his body was laid down across one of the velvet cushion seats; he was wrapped in a spare rustic linen blanket retrieved from the trunk no doubt.

Eyes focused on the road ahead notwithstanding the limited visibility, the Ice Queen's concentration was impenetrable. That is . . . until she heard an all too familiar voice.

"That's some weather we've got here", said . . . Tatsumi? He was suddenly sitting next to Esdeath in the driver's seat and somehow not even remotely drenched by the pouring rain; his clothes were completely dry.

She looked at him surprised at first, but her sudden state of confoundment was quickly replaced with a sharp scowl before she refocused her eyes on the road.

"You'd never see anything like this in the Grand Empire", he said with an uncharacteristically smug look in his eyes. "

"You're trying my patience, demon", she remarked.

"Well done, my precocious host", it responded while giving a quick yet flippant salute. "That brilliant mind of yours was not only able to instantly deduce that we're in the real world, but you're not even remotely perturbed at the fact that I'm now able to confer with you even when you're wide awake."

Esdeath gave no response. Whatever the obstacle, she was determined to focus all of her efforts on the road ahead.

"What does this mean, I wonder?", it said, openly musing aloud. "Have you gotten even weaker since we last spoke? Were all of those exercises you did this morning for nothing? Or has my desire to save you from your foolish attachment to this boy only grown stronger?"

No response.

"Look at you out here", it said gesturing towards the scenery around them. "Racing down the road during a thunderstorm. Out in the flat and open plains no less. I'm no scientist, but I have had ample time to poke around your memories. Didn't you once read about something like this in your studies? That lightning is attracted to the tallest object in the vicinity? That would be this stagecoach."

No response.

"How impressed do you think your father would be had he been around to see the full extent to which you devoted yourself to training your mind just as much as your body. Literature, philosophy, history, mathematics, science, etc. If you applied yourself, there's no telling the amount of accolades you would obtain in any of these subjects. Yet the truth is almost comical. Despite all the knowledge you've acquired over the years, you still have no idea what's wrong with this boy."

No response.

It shrugged its shoulders in a flippant manner. "I suppose extensive experience with all manners of gruesome torture techniques can only carry you so far with respect to making an actual medical diagnosis."

No response.

"And so now here you are racing down the road in a country you aren't familiar with hoping to run across a town where you might find a real doctor. A pity that map you retrieved out of Port Gavin only lists major cities and that the nearest major city is none other than the one you and the boy were already traveling to."

No response.

"Even at the rate you're going, it's still going to be more than a day's journey. Given that you have no idea what's wrong with him, for all you know, he only has a few hours to live. What will you do then I wonder?"

No response.

"And even if he does recover, something like this is only going to happen again. You know that, right?"

No response.

It suddenly leapt off the driver's seat and appeared to whimsically balance itself on the backs of both of the galloping horses much like a traveling circus performer. "How many times has it been now where the boy's life has been in peril? First it was on that pirate ship.[A/N: See Down a Different Branch chapter 2]. Then it was a stray bullet from the brat son of the former Prime Minister. [A/N: See Down a Different Branch chapter 17]. Then it was that insipid chenoo in Port Gavin [A/N: See Akame ga Hunt chapter 1]. You don't even know what happened this time, but it appears to be the handiwork of another weak chenoo [A/N: See Akame ga Hunter chapter 4]."

No response.

This seeming figment of the imagination backflipped itself onto the roof of the stagecoach in an equally whimsical fashion "Do you not see how fruitless this all is?"

Even still . . . no response from the Ice Queen. Her steadfast focus remained on the road in front of her. But as several additional seconds passed, her focus wavered for a short moment. She couldn't help but notice a tingling feeling on her skin, strands of her hair begin to stand, the smell of chlorine begin to manifest and the buckles on her buccaneer's jacket begin to vibrate. Her eyes widened in sudden realization . Within mere seconds, a large bolt of lightning hurled itself out of the sky.


. . . lust and madness . . .


Elsewhere . . . at what appeared to be an undisclosed location, Syura's circular teleportation array manifested on the cobbled floor of what appeared to be a well constructed candlelit underground corridor. True to shambala's powers, the ashen haired madman appeared within an instant. With a cold scowl on his face, he walked down the cobblestoned hallway before reaching a locked thick wood paneled door. Upon unlocking the door with the metal key he appeared to have kept in his pocket, he slammed the door wide open and walked right into an interior candlelit room. A room which appeared to be decorated with various . . . items holstered on the walls; there were chains, there were handcuffs, there were whips and there were ball gags of various shapes and sizes. Perhaps more mundane was the lit fireplace alongside an adjacent wall, but less mundane was the multiple branding irons that appeared to be in the process of getting super heated by this very fireplace. Yet with respect to what Syura was actually interested in at the moment, all of the various trinkets alongside the walls paled in comparison to what was lying on the king sized bed alongside the room's backwall.

It was a scantily clad young woman, undoubtedly in her early 20s and with short black hair; she was tall, slender and well toned. An athlete of sorts perhaps? Someone had tied her hands and feet to all four bed posts and someone had also strapped a muzzle around her mouth to keep her from talking. All she could do was struggle. Syura chuckled. "So sorry about the interruption, my dear. I had some business to take care of with my henchmen, but now you have my full and undivided attention."

The ashen haired madman had reached into the room's closet, only to brandish a dagger and a wig that was colored and styled with long cerulean blue hair. He walked up to his captive and firmly secured this wig on her before cutting the ropes that bound her to the bed. "There. That should do it."

The very moment the ropes had been cut, the young woman jumped up from the bed and desperately tried to make a run for it. But before she could get to the door, Syura grabbed one of her hands and threw her into one of the room's cobble stoned walls. He popped his knuckles with smirking wicked glee. "And just where do you think you're going?"

The young woman hesitantly looked in Syura's direction, tears flooded her eyes as she began sobbing through her muzzle. But as a swift kick to her stomach proved, Syura had no interest in any manner of sympathy. "Pathetic. With the way you carried yourself in that little university fencing tournament I saw you in the other day, I figured you'd have a little more fight than that."

She tried crawling away from the ashen haired madman, but another kick to the stomach made the futility of trying to escape all the more clear. "All that pride I saw in your eyes. Where is it now?"

Holding her sides together in a fetal position, the young woman continued to sob aloud.

"No more fight in you, eh?", he sighed before picking her up by one of her arms and slinging her onto the bed. "Oh well. I guess foreplay is over"

Sensing what was about to happen, the young woman desperately shook her head, practically begging her captor to stop. Though alas, her feeble attempts merely seemed to excite Syura even more as he climbed onto the bed and hovered over her with a wicked grin on his lips. "I guess a stupid mare like you is only good for one thing."

The ashen haired madman instinctively moved to unzip his pants only to feel a searing stinging sensation beneath his undergarments. Suddenly, the smirking, the laughter and the glee he had been taking out of this deranged process disappeared entirely. It was all replaced by pure rage as certain realities began to set in.

Even worse was that due to all of his rage and hatred, all he could then see on this young woman's face was the smirking lips of the arrogant Ice Queen he owed for his current . . . condition. He instantly threw both of his hands around this young woman's throat, crushing her larynx in a method as deliberately slow and painful as he could possibly muster. But even as he squeezed all of the remaining life out of her, the sight of the arrogant Ice Queen exhibiting an aura of superiority over him simply would not vanish, prompting the ashen haired madman to become angrier and angrier as he did the dirty deed.


. . . Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein . . .


Bestimmung weather was truly in a class of its own. Be it rain or snow, it was truly terrifying when at its worst. A fact Esdeath could now attest to first hand; the wind and the rain seemingly undid the ponytail she had tied her hair into for the sake of her Captain Gehrman disguise; in the middle of catching her breath, she stood in the midst of the heavy wind and rain with one of her arms raised in a particular pose as if she had just used one of her ice techniques.

Still masquerading as Tatsumi, Demon's Extract gave an exaggerated yet impressed whistle. "Again, well done . . ."

Not only was the stagecoach positioned face up in a vertical direction, but it appeared to be suspended at least a half-dozen yards in the air and further appeared to be enshrouded by a tall yet disorganized pillar of dark blue grade 2 ice. The two horses, on the other hand, were nearly 50 yards away, but were both trapped in a barn sized cylinder dome of grade 2 ice. And over one hundred yards away was a sizable pillar of ice slanted and coming out of the ground at a sharp 60 degree angle and with a level flat surface at its peak.

"With a lightning bolt coming, you only had a split second to act. You could have jumped out of the way to save yourself, but then what sort of peril would that leave the boy? You could have shielded the stagecoach with an ice barrier of sorts, but you knew that ice was a conduit of electricity and knew that the rain would only serve to amplify that conduit. You could have projected a sheet of ice far enough away from the stagecoach to avoid the channeled electricity entirely, but without knowing how much force the bolt of lightning would generate nor the exact angle at which it would come, you would be leaving everything up to mere chance. The clock is ticking and as if acting by instinct alone, you use your grade 2 ice to launch itself out of the ground you were riding over and catapult into the air and out of the way of the incoming light bolt. The velocity at which grade 2 ice is released caused the reigns on both horses to snap free and the sudden chaos makes them panic. Before they can run away, however, you leap out of the jettisoned stagecoach in midair and seal them both in a makeshift ice chamber. Then, just before the jettisoned stagecoach can be smashed into the ground like a cheap vase, you quickly create the scene we see right now. Truly a work of art and truly yet again proof that you are the only one worthy of my power. I wonder though . . ."

Having regained her composure, the Ice Queen begin to approach the ice structure she had erected around the stagecoach. Removing it from the ice she summoned was undoubtedly child's play, but there was still an additional concern.

". . . do you truly plan on continuing to travel in this storm?"

Esdeath considered her options. Bestimmung's unique weather, as dangerous as it was, didn't inspire any fear in her. Were she traveling alone, journeying onwards would be child's play. But with Tatsumi being in a condition she found herself unable to diagnose, she couldn't afford to endlessly play aerial acrobatics with their most efficient method of transportation. There were certainly multiple esoteric uses of her cryokinetic abilities she had considered that could be employed to stave off this deadly storm, but Demon's Extract's biggest limitation was its reliance on her stamina; as her fight with Tatsumi revealed, more advanced uses of its powers over a long enough period of time would leave her completely fatigued. And even though she had seen very few danger beast on their travels thus far, much less any that would prove a challenge, it was a risk she found herself unwilling to take. Thus, with a reluctant sigh, she decided a less reckless course of action.

Within minutes, a grade 2 ice pillar standing hundreds of feet tall was standing on its own and serving as a 'lightning rod' of sorts due to its sheer height. Hundreds of yards away from this pillar was an ice igloo comprised of her normal grade of ice and the size of a multi-story house no less. With the ice that had previously enshrouded the stagecoach seemingly being mended away, the horse drawn carriage sat idly within as a freshly lit campfire served to help dry several article of drenched clothing hanging on a makeshift ice clothes-rack nearby.

All the while, Esdeath was inside the stagecoach donned in a silk black shirt and a simple pair of black silk pants; no doubt additional clothing found stored alongside the various outfits in the carriage's storage compartment. She sat on one of the booth like seats with Tatsumi still wrapped in a rustic linen blanket, only now with his head resting on her lap. Much to her relief, the Demon's Extract manifestation was no longer in sight, much less whispering in her ears. She spent a few moments wondering if perhaps the stress of not knowing what was wrong with Tatsumi had gotten to her and caused her to hallucinate, but quickly casted the entire chain of thoughts aside upon realizing what she needed to be focused on.

"What happened to you?", she wondered, her eyes lit with concern as she caressed his head and ran her fingers through his hair. "Whatever battle you had gotten in, you were clearly the victor. So why are you unconscious? Why won't you wake up?"

An hour passed and the rain continued to pour down outside with a constant rancorous rhythm. "Such . . . hesitation. It's . . . not like me. I should be out there. We should be out there. We should be well on our way to Hertz right now. Of all the things for me to be reluctant about . . . mere precipitation."

With a single glance towards Tatsumi's unconscious face, however . . . ". . . I've been on my own for so long. Even with the Three Beasts and the Jaegars, there wellbeing did concern me; I did care for them in a way, but their wellbeing never made me hesitate. But with you . . . I . . I feel . . . I feel . . . I feel as if I do not know what I would do without you. I've always mocked others for exhibiting this sort of behavior . . . this sort of weakness, but is this what it's like? This . . . crippling feeling?"

Another hour passed and the only thing that had changed was that the sun had gone down. Not that it made much of a difference outside due to the dark and looming clouds. The more the Ice Queen gazed towards the young man in her lap, the more she started engaging in another behavior she found unbecoming. A particular tune started carrying around in her head. She knew not the reason why this tune was playing, but she found it . . . oddly soothing; oddly peaceful; oddly pleasing. As if somehow relaying the tune in her head would make everything a little bit better It got to the point where she even began humming the tune aloud.

As several minutes of her dulcet humming passed, a radiant glint beamed in the Ice Queen's otherwise concerned eyes. The Incursio wielder had turned his head ever so slightly. He was still otherwise stockstill and unconscious, but this was some improvement over the last several hours. "Tatsumi . . .", she thought as her cheeks blushed solid pink. ". . . it's been ages since I've heard this song. But for you, only for you, I'll try . . ."

"Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein . . ."

"Schäfchen ruhn und Vögelein . . ."

"Garten und Wiese verstummt . . ."

"auch nicht ein Bienchen mehr summt . . ."

"Luna mit silbernem Schein . . ."

"gucket zum Fenster herein . . ."

"schlafe bei silbernem Schein . . ."

"schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein . . ."

"schlaf ein, schlaf ein!"

"Auch in dem Schlosse schon liegt . . ."

"alles in Schlummer gewiegt . . ."

"reget kein Mäuschen sich mehr . . ."

"Keller und Küche sind leer . . ."

"nur in der Zofe Gemach . . ."

"tönet ein schmachtendes Ach!"

"Was für ein Ach mag das sein?"

"Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein . . ."

"schlaf ein, schlaf ein!"

"Wer ist beglückter als du?"

"Nichts als Vergnügen und Ruh!"

"Spielwerk und Zucker vollauf . . ."

"und noch Karossen im Lauf . . ."

"Alles besorgt und bereit . . ."***

"dass nur mein Prinzchen nicht schreit."

"Was wird da künftig erst sein?"

"Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein . . ."

"schlaf ein, schlaf ein!"

[A/N: This is actually a real song. It's a german lullaby by the name of' Schlafe mein Prinzchen']

There was no telling how many times she sang this song from beginning to end. But each time she sang it, as irrational as it may have seemed to her better impulses, she could not deny that everything felt just a little bit better; everything felt as if everything was going to be alright. As additional time passed, the clouds in the sky grew darker, the wind continued to howl, thunder continued to rumble, lightning continued to crack and the rain continued to pound. Yet the Ice Queen somehow found herself at peace enough to finally drift away.


. . . that place . . .


With snow laden trees surrounding him and with the cold night sky hovering over him, Wave embarked towards his destination with great haste. Using just his trusty lantern for visibility, he rode through the the deep and thick forest north of Hertz as his navy blue cloak bellowed in the wind. Just as Professor Kastigar had informed him, it was about a half-days journey and he had been riding non-stop since he left her estate earlier in the day. After ample hours of travel, however, he had finally road up towards what appeared to be a large cave.

He hopped off his steed and removed what appeared to be a heavily marked map from his saddle. Using the lantern to get a clearer look at the map, he carefully glanced over it before glancing back upon the cave before him. "Yep. This is the place."

After securing his horse to a nearby tree, he removed the apothecary jar from the saddle and took a moment to inspect every inch of it as well as the burning contents inside. "Perfect. No sign of any damage."

Upon grabbing a few additional items, he walked into the cavern using the ember lotus itself as a light as he held some other items in his other arm. Due to the time of day, the cavern's interior was pitch black, making the light emanating from the apothecary jar absolutely necessary to navigate forward.

After several minutes of walking, he finally made his way to the deepest part of this cavern and was surprised to see a large and spacious hall; a hall that was well lit, torches lined all along the walls. Moreover, the area was even eerily clear of stalagmites, but contained a plethora of stalactites on the ceiling. And at the far end of the hall was a large stone door, shaped and designed much like the doors to a cathedral. "What is this place?", he thought while treading further inside.

With a look of curiosity brimming in his eye, he walked towards the cathedral looking doors. He reached for one of the door handles only to realize that the door would not budge; it felt as if the door were made of solid stone, as if it were merely part of the cave wall itself. His eyes remained glued to this curious structure, almost as if something was . . . drawing him towards it.

With the flickering light from the apothecary jar catching his attention, however, he was quickly reminded of the reason he entered this strange and mysterious cavern in the first place. "Oh that's right. Almost forgot."

Faithfully following the professor's instructions, he used his rough and sturdy hands to dig a small hole in the orichalcum laced soil near the center of this spacious hall. He then carefully opened the apothecary jar, all the while mindful of the instruction not to bruise and damage the ember lotus in any way, shape or fashion. As his hand drew near the ethereal flower petals, he quickly pulled it away, shrieking in slight pain from the heat of the flower's constant flames. He then took another look at the jar, this time closely accounting for its small size. "Doesn't look like I'm going to be able to safely remove this thing without getting burned."

Gritting his teeth, he carefully postured both of his hands back inside the jar; the lower he submerged his hands, the more he cursed under his breath as the flames danced around his bare flesh. Nonetheless, with determination and persistence, he managed to remove the ember lotus from the jar without bruising the petal, stem or its roots in the slightest. He made sure to plant the ember lotus with equal care, patting some additional soil around the base after safely securing it in the ground.

"Good thing I took the time to buy some supplies", he noted as he laid multiple traps around the ember lotus. Some of the traps were small enough to contend with mice and other traps with large enough to contend with small animals like rabbits. "That should do it. I was initially worried about bugs too, but from the look of things, even the toughest caterpillar would get burned alive if it got within a few inches of this thing."

With a relieved sigh, he began making his way towards the exit. "Doesn't look like there are any larger animals around here. I'm sure if I camp near the entrance, that won't be much of a problem either.


. . . she decided to pay the gambler another visit . . .


"Wish I had known Donald Hopperfield would be performing on this ship tonight", Run remarked as he ironed a white sleeveless evening gown on an ironing board. "I would've secured tickets myself."

Leone emerged from the door of their suite's bathroom donned in nothing but a towel covering her toned midsection and half of her cleavage; based on the droplets of water glistening from head to toe, her semi-damped hair as well as the almost invisible remnants of steam emanating from her, she had undoubtedly just taken a long and hot shower. "If you want, I'm sure I could just snatch some extra tickets off some dumbass noble."

To which Run shrugged his shoulders, "No thanks. You've broken character enough as it is. I would've preferred you had made him work a little harder to get in your good graces, but at least he seems to be fond of you."

"Of course he's fond of me!", she laughed before taking a seat on the couch and making a whimsical peace sign with one of her hands. "When it comes to charm, good ol' Leone has got it in spades."

"Regardless, don't get too cocky. If you just come right out and start asking him about his imperial arm, the whole operation is blown and we might end up having to do this the hard way."

"Yeah yeah, I know", she drawled. "Take it slow. Let him divulge his secrets at his own pace. You worry too much, boss."

"9:00 pm already?", Run commented as the cruise ship's hourly horn sounded off all of the sudden. "He did say meet him at 9:30, right? Guess we'd better go ahead and get you fixed back up."

Within just a little under thirty minutes, Leone was back to having her hair well combed, makeup and eyeliner subtly and effectively applied and her evening gown being pristine and almost poetic. And with 9:30 approaching she left the suite and began making her way to the 20th floor. "For a guy, the boss sure is really good at this domestic shit. He doesn't swing the same way Bulat did, does he? I thought for sure I'd get some kind of reaction out of him after I came out of the shower."

Sure enough, just as the clock hit 9:30, Leone was standing right outside the door of room 20005. "Oh well. Lets just get this date over with."

Upon knocking three times, the door casually opened. "Looks like you lucked out, Mr. Wolfgang!", she giggled in an absent minded fashion while standing in the doorway. "After much consideration, I've decided to go on that date with you . . . after all?"

Rokugou did not look like his usual cheerful confident self. There was no sign of his usual smile; only a frown. His black and white vest was wrinkled and unbottoned; his sharp green tie was in a state of disarray. He also appeared to be holding a bottle of wine in his right hand. "Hey there, lioness."

Leone's demeanor immediately went from cheerful to confused. "What happened to you?"

"Have you heard of the telegraph?"

"Can't say I have."

"It's a technology that was recently uncovered in Bestimmung. Allows people to communicate and exchange messages over incredibly long distances. As of right now, not many people have access to it, but I suspect that once this device is mass produced, it will become more widespread."

"What does that have to do with why you look so depressed?"

"One of my underlings in my organization sent me a telegraph message. Evidently, my younger brother went out to finish up some mercenary business in a forest outside of Hertz a few days ago and hasn't been seen since."

"He is a mercenary right?", she asked in a reassuring fashion. "Maybe he got caught up with another job and hasn't had the chance to report back."

"No, my organization has a very particular way of handling jobs", Rokugou remarked with a sigh brimming with melancholy. "If for some reason something like that had happened, one of the two designated scouts accompanying my brother would have been sent back to headquarters to report this. And in the event both of the scouts had perished, my brother would simply refuse to accept the job until a report had been made. No, gambler's intuition doesn't lie I'm afraid. Jason is dead."

"Rokugou . . . I'm . . . I'm sorry", Leone said, her voice full of empathy. After all, she was certainly no stranger to losing people close to her.

"Don't be. This is not your burden to bare. I'll deal with it once I get back to Bestimmung. In the mean time", he remarked while removing two tickets from his pocket, doing his best to smile. "Why don't you help yourself to these tickets? I'm afraid I won't be able to go with you tonight, but that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy yourself."

Leone looked at the pair of tickets he was holding out in his hands and gazed upon them for several moments. Then, without any warning whatsoever, she grabbed them out of his hands, ripped them both in half and discarded them to the floor. She then gave one long sympathetic look and gaze into Rokugou's eyes before walking into his suite and letting the door close behind her.


. . . Did I wake you? . . .


Leaning against the stagecoach's interior door, the Ice Queen let out a gentle yawn as she slowly peeled her eyes open. Sleeping in that position was not exactly comfortable, but she at least had . . . "Tatsumi?", she asked, having instinctively reached to caress his head only to realize that it was no longer sitting on her lap. Suddenly more alert at this realization, she immediately surveyed her surroundings and saw no sight of her beloved companion.

With her heart racing, the Ice Queen promptly rushed out of the stagecoach only to stop upon taking a gander near the campfire. Tatsumi was standing on the other side, his coat and shirt discarded to the ground and with his bare back turned. He was firmly holding Incursio in both hands and was repeatedly practicing his downward sword swings. What's more, Incursio was in the very same crimson claymore state he had used throughout most of his prior duel with her.

Esdeath simply stood there for a moment, making certain to discern that this wasn't merely another one of Demon Extract's ruses. Nevertheless, the more she watched him swing his blade, the more clear it became who it was. "Tatsumi."

The former assassin stopped mid-swing just as he heard this; he turned around to face her with the exact same cheerful smile on his face he had the day she fell in love with him. "Did I wake you? Sorry about-"

But before he could even finish his sentence, she had already thrown both of her arms around his back, rested her chin on one of his shoulders and pressed herself against him as much as she could.

"H-hey!", he clamored before haphazardly dropping Incursio onto the ground, subsequently causing it to revert back to its dormant short sword state. "Y-you're a l-lot stronger than you l-look! Easy! Easy! Easy on the hugs!"

"You're awake!" With a cheerful blush on her cheeks and her schoolgirl side showing, she lifted her beloved off the ground while prancing around in a jovial circle. "My Tatsumi is okay! My Tatsumi is okay! My Tatsumi is okay!" Perhaps an embarrassing sight for sure and not one the Ice Queen would so quickly flaunt with a crowd of people around, but she didn't care at the moment. The only thing she did care about was safely nestled in her arms, albeit with some protest, but still.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay, but if this keeps up, my ribs my not be! Easy!"

She continued this unique celebration for several minutes before finally setting him down. "You have no idea how relieved I am, my love."

"I think you've given me some idea", Tatsumi remarked while doing multiple standing stretches with his midsection. "What's the special occasion?"

"Oh!", she said with a surprised look on her face, as if suddenly having recalled something. "That's right. I almost forgot."

"Forgot what?"

As if completely out of nowhere, Esdeath quickly gave him an open handed slap across the face.

Tatsumi rubbed his right cheek. "H-hey! You can't just go from being happy to see me to being mad at me all of the sudden. I don't even know what I did this time."

"You don't say?" Every trace of her schoolgirl persona had vanished; with her arms crossed, she suddenly assumed a more disciplinary aura. "In case you haven't noticed, you've been unconscious for over 12 hours now."

"That would explain the change of scenery I guess."

"I was planning on taking you to a doctor, but now that that no longer appears to be necessary, perhaps you can explain to me what happened to you while I was away this morning. When I came back to the campsite, you were passed out and with a dead chenoo several feet away. I demand to know what happened."

Nodding his head in compliance, the former assassin explained just about every element of the story. From the initial stage of his encounter with the six deceased would-be Neo Partas clan mercenaries, to the part of multiple chenoo combining them all into one bizarre monster made of sewed flesh and bone to the part where he passed out after looking into the chenoo's eyes; the Ice Queen listened rather closely to her boyfriend's little tale, impatiently tapping one of her forearms as she heard Tatsumi's explanation. "You say you saw some strange visions. What did you see exactly?"

"That's just it", he shrugged. "I don't know how to explain it, but it was like seeing more than a million different things happen at once. I guess some things stood out more than others, but even though it all happened so quickly, it felt like . . . I guess it felt like I was looking at something I simply wasn't supposed to be looking at."

"Something you're not supposed to be looking at, hmm?", she openly pondered while rubbing her chin. "It's a good thing I preserved the corpse of the chenoo that did this to you. Honestly, the one's I've encountered have never even been capable of basic speech, much less what you're alleging. I had planned on dissecting it after making sure you were alright, but if merely staring into its lifeless eyes can do this to you, I suppose it'd be wise to err on the side of caution for now. Especially when there are more pressing issues to worry about . . ."

"Yeah . . ." Tatsumi looked up towards the dome's ice-clad ceiling; although the night sky was covered in dark clouds, he could nonetheless tell it was still night time. "As late as it is, I guess we should get a move on."

She began to blush again, this time more fervently than before. "No . . . not that . . ."

"The rain seems to be dying down", he remarked, still glaring intently the ceiling. "Now is as good a time as any to-h-hey! What are you doing?!"

Esdeath was standing right in front of him, apparently even caressing his bare chest. "Your muscles . . . I never noticed it until now, but it's as if they're tailor made for combat. Not too big. Not too small. Chiseled to perfection in all the right places. Is this all the result of that ritual you were telling me about?"

He blushed, not used to having his body examined with such scrutiny. "One minute, she's happy to see me; another minute, she's mad at me; another minute, it's like she wants to fool around . . ."

"Do we really have to play it slow with the more . . . physical aspects of our relationship", she said in a seductively hushed tone before wrapping herself around his torso, blowing into his hear and nibbling on his neck.

Tatsumi felt an almost electrical tingling like sensation coarse throughout his entire body as his face continued to blush further red, but he was nonetheless able to take a deep breath, regain his composure and gently push his amorous girlfriend to the side, much to her surprise. "Sorry, I can't. Not yet anyway. The way I was raised, a man and a woman aren't supposed to do that kind of stuff at the start of their relationship. For now, lets just take it slow."

To which the Ice Queen replied with an almost whimsical giggle. "Interesting. Were you also raised to believe that it was okay for a man and a woman to sleep together at the start of their relationship?"

"What?", he asked, blushing further as he was caught off-guard by his girlfriend's counter argument. "N-no, but that's completely different!"

"Very well, darling. Play the celibate hero if you must. That will just make things all the sweeter when you're no longer able to resist me", she shrugged with a playful grin on her lips. "But seeing as how I've nursed you back to health, as your girlfriend, that makes me entitled to some form of compensation."

"Compensation, eh?", he asked with a curious glint in his eyes.

"That's right", she smirked with a conceited expression. "Or does our celibate hero find even that too uncouth and deprav-"

But before she could finish her sentence, the former assassin had already stealthily leaned in, firmly cupped her chin and ear in his hand and vigorously melded his lips up against hers; the way in which he had done so had caught her completely off guard much like she had done the first time she had locked lips with him.

He lingered for several seconds before finally breaking the kiss, winking at her before reaching for his imperial arm and walking away as if he were going to resume his exercises. "Give me another fifteen minutes. I should be ready to go by then."

"S-sure", she uncharacteristically stammered, cheeks still flushing, chest still pounding, mouth hanging open as if she were catching her breath. Tatsumi had been the one to lead by kissing her several times in the past, but never with such . . . vigor. She looked down towards her knees, scarcely able to believe that they were actually . . . buckling. She quickly recalled the day they first met, how she had effortlessly leashed him and declared him her property. Truly an ironic turn of events from her perspective as various emotions swirled around in her head. "Inconceivable. Am I . . . actually submitting to him?"


. . . a familiar foe . . .


As the night sky finally faded away only to be replaced by dawn, Wave appeared to sitting up against a tree near a campfire he had started; he sat with the dormant sheathed Grand Chariot slung over his chest and shoulder and with both of his eyes shut. Despite appearing to be asleep, however, just as a wondering rabbit began hopping near a snow covered bush several yards away from him, his eyes flew wide open and he instinctively thumbed Grand Chariot out of its sheath by a few inches. Needless to say, the rabbit scampered away just as he did this.

"Dawn already?", he thought with a soft yawn before standing upright, stretching his arms and glaring upon the cavern he had entered the previous night . "That was easy. I'll just take the ember lotus and get the heck outta here."

Using a lit match as his 'torch', he proceeded to head back into the cavern, making its way through its dark and linear trenches before finally making his way back into the large and spacious torch-lit hallway he had planted the ember lotus in. "There it is", Wave thought as he observed the ethereal flaming flower resting just where he had left it. From what he could tell, the flower remained unharmed and was in the exact same condition it was when he had planted it.

As the former Jaeger walked within several feet of the mysterious flower, he immediately reached for Grand Chariot's hilt as he noticed a strange purple light briefly enveloping him. Within seconds, he dropped down to his knees and found himself barely able to move. "Ugh . . . why do I feel so heavy all of the sudden?"

To make matters more confusing, he suddenly heard some malevolent yet familiar laughter echoing throughout the cave.

"UP HERE, SHIT BOY!"

Wave promptly looked up towards the cavern's ceiling, only to be startled at what he saw. It was . . . a giant ebony colored scorpion with . . . the upper half of a bare chested grown man's body in place of the head. But not just any man. No, despite now having ebony colored skin identical to the scorpion half's ebony colored shell, the blue ponytailed hair, the youthful looking body and the voice, though much darker than before, was a dead giveaway. "Sir Jason Wolfgang?"

"Well done! You actually remembered my name!", he clapped his hands in an overly obnoxious fashion. "I'm touched!"

"But you're . . ."

The hulking humanoid monster hopped off the ceiling and descended down the cave floor with enough force and speed to shake the immediate area the instant it landed. "Dead? After the way you ripped me apart like some wild animal, I thought so too. Then next thing I know, I wake up in this cave and with a brand new body to boot! I don't know what happened and I frankly don't care! All I know is that I've been given another chance to murder the miserable son of a bitch who killed me in the first place and I'm not gonna let this opportunity go to waste!"

Wave gritted his teeth as he desperately tried to stand back on his feet. "Damnit. He must've did something to me. I can barely move."

"I've picked up a couple of new tricks since our last fight" Jason chuckled before using his scorpion legs to dash towards his handicapped adversary. "Unfortunately, you won't be around long enough to enjoy them! DIE!"


A/N: And we've once again reached the end of another chapter! Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter out by early March. A couple of things I'd like to note though:

#1. For the record, I have updated the wardrobe of multiple characters now and have introduced multiple new characters. Am thinking about getting an artist I can commission some of these characters on. Maybe one commission per chapter! Is that something yall would like to see? If anyone knows of any good Akame ga Kill artist who is talented enough to do something like that, feel free to send me a private message!

#2. I don't believe in power levels per se, but I do prefer to keep track of attributes of the various character so I can take them into account while writing. Am thinking about releasing a HunterxHunter styled list that keeps track of the various attributes. If anyone's interested, am happy to start doing so in the author's notes for every chapter moving forward.

#3. What did you all think of this chapter? Like it? Love it? Worst garbage you've ever had the displeasure of reading? Feel free to let me know with a review and feel free to follow/favorite alternatively. Thanks so much for all of your support ladies and gentleman and I look forward to doing this again next month!