"…For 21 accounts of rape, 356 indirect murders, 73 direct murders, enslavement of 12 people; 3 of whom are below the age of 15, bribery, participation in organized crime and directly supporting the former government by both financial and political means, I hereby sentence Jurio Tonningun to death by beheading." The man in question was brought onto the wooden platform as the speaker finished reading the list. Or rather, he was dragged onto it kicking and screaming into the muzzle that was placed in his mouth. The crowd that was gathered around the execution site immediately started to throw garbage at him. Tomatoes, rocks, empty cans, rotten eggs and such quickly started to hit the fat man's face as he was forcefully placed under the guillotine's blade, crying all the while and hoping that this will somehow overturn his fate. He hoped for the impossible though. "The sentence shall be carried out now. May hell be light upon you."

With a single move of his hand, the executioner pulled the lever at the base of guillotine, bringing the blade down onto the man's neck. His head fell right into a previously prepared crate fight before being unceremoniously picked up by the hair, stabbed onto a metal pike and displayed for the cheering crowd to see. "Now, we will move on to another trail. For numerous war crimes against the people of Norther Tribes that include: rape and murder of civilians, torture of captured soldiers, use of illegal substances to enhance performance of his troops and many more, along with crimes of murder and rape committed against 24 women and 492 boys and girls under the age of 15 and finally, willingly providing military and political support to the former government, I sentence Captain Frono of the Third Imperial Legion to death by beheading." Another man was moved onto the platform, this time not trying to fight his fate. Mostly because he simply had no fight left in him anymore after what he want through while being held in prison. He obediently stepped under the chopping block and waited for the blade to fall. "Sentence will be carried out immediately. May hell be light upon you."

A puff of smoke went past a frame of a window in one of the houses surrounding the area just as Frono's head was separated from his body. Another person- this time an elderly women guilty of human experimentation was led to the platform moments later, but Najenda didn't stay around to watch. She knew exactly what the fate of every single person that waited in line was and why they were going to meet it. She's the one who signed execution orders for all of them after all. Not necessarily after the Empire's downfall, many were on Night Raid's target list for some time now and simply were lucky enough to not die before now.

She put down her already finished cigarette and threw it out of the window before closing it. Turning back she was met with the same room she's spent in most of her time ever since Tatsumi and Leone left for the Imperial Archive. The same room where Akame lied on the bed, occasionally groaning in pain and crying in her sleep. Sometimes she even called out names. All belonged to members of Night Raid and the Elite Seven. 'Blaut', 'Sheele', 'Cornelia', 'Mine', 'Green', 'Chelsea', 'Kurome' and all the others. Even her name came up a few times. Not really surprising, those are the only people she really knew in her life. What was surprising, though not much, was how often she called out to Tatsumi.

It was clear to the women that there was something brewing between these two, but she never saw any clear signs of that before merely half a day back from now. The way Tatsumi looked at her, how he reacted every time he saw even a glimmer of pain on her face… There was no way that they were just friends and fellow warriors for each other now. Or at least she wasn't that for Tatsumi any more.

Not that she minded one bit. They could use some peace after all of this is over. Assuming Akame gets to live to see it end in the first place. At times it was hard to even look at her, she couldn't even begin to comprehend what it was like to actually be going through this. And to make it worse, she couldn't do a thing to help her no matter how much she wanted to. Though she wouldn't admit that to anyone, Akame was the closest thing she had to a daughter and she would not be surprised to find out that the girl herself thinks of her as something akin to a mother. It definitely seemed like that at times, especially in the period shortly after she joined the Revolutionary Army. She did gradually start to get less and less clingy, especially as more and more people started to join Night Raid, but it was still occasionally possible to see her getting somewhat dependable on her.

Najenda herself had at first thought this was simply her looking for some familiarity in the new situation. She was after all raised in the wild with by a murderer that forced her and six other kids to call him their father. It made sense to her at the time to look for some sort of parent figure and at first might have even been true, after all Najenda while hardly a motherly type was the one taking care of her ever since then. The thing is though... She really did come to care for the girl. Before she knew it, taking care of her became less and less about keeping a sword sharp, and more about giving it a sheath to rest in, about keeping it clean and well oiled...

Seeing that she no longer has any cigarettes on her, Nejenda sat down on the chair next to Akame's bed with a sigh. Part of her wanted to go get more, but for some reason she felt almost chained to the small room. She could always get the doctor to bring her more when she comes here again. Slowly, she reached her hand out to Akame's and squeezed it lightly. "You kids just won't let go of me, will you..." The girl's hand twitched at the touch. Najenda only sighed as her head rested on her other hand. Akame's hand twitched again. The crowd outside could be heard again as its angry roar met yet another poor bastard led to the guillotine. If her memory served her right, this one was a woman who enjoyed cannibalizing man she previously tortured and raped. But again, Najenda didn't feel like watching the execution.

She was more concerned with Akame's hand twitching again. This marked the third time it happened since she grabbed her hand, and as far as she knew, Akame was supposed to be almost completely numb to her environment. Having a bad feeling about this, Najenda got up from her chair and moved her head over Akame's, watching carefully for any changes in her expression. At first it didn't seem like anything was out of the ordinary, but before long, she noticed her eyebrows twitch as her breath suddenly picked up.

Girl's face started to slowly move from side to side as her chest continued to rapidly rise and fall and then, suddenly her eyes snapped wide open. Before Najenda could react to the situation, Akame's whole body twisted around as her muscles tensed up. The room was immediately filled with bone-chilling screams of agony that quickly made the noise from outside nothing but quiet whispers. "Dman it!" Najenda was quick to push Akame's body down to the bed but she wasn't making it easy. As her screams continued to ring in General's ears, girl's arms whole body was moving so violently and with such strength that she was almost pushed off the bed by her. Even her metallic arm, though stronger then her real one was barely able to keep up with girl's freakish strength. And by the time she did manage to pin her down, Akame's eyes were oozing some black liquid out of them, quickly covering girl's whole vision. "Akame, calm down!" Her words fell on deaf ears. Her whole body was overtaken with pain to the point where she couldn't even feel it, let alone notice anything that's going on beyond it.

Najenda soon felt Akame's nails dig into her arm just as she started to puke out that black liquid out of her mouth, temporarily stopping her screams as she started to gag on it. It didn't seem like that attack was going to end soon, but Najenda couldn't move. In the state she was in, Akame could hurt herself simply by trashing around, or even actively attempt to to do it if the attack calms down a bit. She needed to wait for the doctor to arrive. He was bound to hear those screams from his room. "Please!" A word made it out between the screams. "Help me!" Just as this plead reached Najenda's ears, doctor stormed into the room with a syringe already in his hand, ready to be used. "It hurts! It hurts!" Her screams only grew louder once the needle pierced skin on her arm. "Make it stop! Please!"

The drug started to kick in fast. Her muscles started to slowly lose strength as her screams turned into weak whimpers. The black thing oozing out of her eyes started to give way, slowly revealing the blank, broken stare it hid until now. "Listen Akame... Listen to me..." General grabbed girl's head in both hands, forcing her eyes to focus on her as she moved her face right over hers. "Tatsumi is on the way. He will help you. Don't give up hope yet, you just need to wait a little longer… Please, I don't want to lose you too… Not like this… Not now..."

Hearing the boy's name lit a small spark somewhere deep behind the despair that overwhelmed her mind. "Tatsu...mi..." Her head fell against the soft bed that felt like it was made of red-hot spikes. "Please..." Her eyes closed just as tears started to roll down her face. "Help..." Her head fell flat against the bed, slowly being submerged back in the hellish nightmare she just emerged from. She fell silent, just as another head was separated from its owner on the stage outside, where an angry crowd cheered.


The door to the control room suddenly swung open as Asako got up on her one leg, using her sword as a cane. "Akira?" She whispered under her breath, almost reaching her hand towards the opening door. To her disappointment though, neither of the two man that entered was not her missing husband. "Dad, what happened?" She asked the barely breathing man as he helped the other one of her subordinates – Gab – walk. Kazuto lied the younger man on the ground, letting him rest against the wall. He was in a bad shape, tired, malnutritioned and hurt, though it didn't seem like he had any serious injuries.

Kazuto turned to her as he got back up. "...Me and Tatsumi… We found him... When we got... All the way down to... The lowest level… There was a... Danger Beast there, a strong one..." He paused to catch his breath. "Boy stayed there so we can get away. The nest isn't down there, we were wrong from the beginning. We must get back to the surface, inform General Najenda about what's going on here." He offered to help her walk with an outstretched hand, but she only took a step back, almost falling over in result. "What is it?"

"Where's Akira?" The man's face immediately turned away from her. She could also see Gab going pale at the same time as she looked between the two. Her heart almost stopped as she thought of the worst." W-What is it?" Neither answered, neither dared to look her in the eyes. She soon got fed up with it and grabbed her father by his shoulders, shaking them violently as she struggled to keep the tears off her face. "Talk to me damn it! Where is he!?" He stopped her, grabbing both of her arms tightly with his own, slowly focusing his gaze back at her.

"Asako..." He breathed in deeply. "I'm sorry." She suddenly felt weak as that word reached her. "He's dead… He gave his life to save Gab..." For moment her eyes turned to the man sitting by the wall. He was crying with his his head held with in both hands as he looked down at the ground, sobbing loudly. She then turned her eyes back to her father, not even realizing that she's crying too. "Asako, I know it hurts, but we both knew this might have-" She suddenly ripped her arms out of his hold.

"Shut up!" She lost her balance and fell straight to the ground. "You're lying! He couldn't just… He wouldn't..." Words left her, leaving her with nothing more then sobs and tears. "No… He has to be alive… He can't be dead…" Her arms started to shake as despair slowly took over her mind. "I don't believe this… I won't believe this!" She felt Kazuto grab her shoulders.

"Asako, listen to me. We-"

"No!" She immediately pushed him away, not even caring about what he had to say. "He's not dead. He's alive, I know it!" Hastily, she pushed herself back up, struggling to not fall over again. "He's alive… He's alive… He's alive..." She thought she was ready to take on this kind of news, that she prepared herself to accept it… But she couldn't predict it would be like this. She couldn't predict how much it would hurt to hear those words. She couldn't ever prepare for this, no matter how much time she had… And she will not accept it. Not until she sees his dead body herself. She will pray for a miracle until that moment arrives and she will keep on holding to the hope even if it means denying all reason. He did it for her when she was just a lost and lonely girl fighting with a stray dog over a piece of old bread.

For some reason that she could never understand even to this day, when he saw her about to become dog food, bleeding out on the ground having completely given up on the life in this broken world where her own parents sold her off for a piece of meat, sold her to a man that raped her over and over again for months until she managed to escape, world where a 10 year old girl has to sell her body on the streets to survive another horrible day, he somehow found it in him to not only help her survive that day, but also to give her hope for a better tomorrow. And he never lost hope in her, no matter how close she was to giving up. No matter how much she wished she was dead, he was always there to keep her alive, even though his life was never any better.

Who would she be if she threw away the hope for the future he gave her? Who would she have to be to give up on the man that never gave up on her?

As soon as she was able to stand straight again, she rushed forward as fast as her one leg and makeshift cane would allow. "Asako!" Kazuto, a father she never thought she deserved, tried to stop her, but with how tired he was all he managed to do was weakly grab her wrist. She escaped his grasp easily, being in a far better shape then him even despite her missing leg, and smacked his head with the handle of her saber, easily knocking him out cold. Gab tried to stop her from leaving too, but only ended up falling over as he tried to get up, while she just continued on to the exit. Once she left the control room, she immediately turned towards the staircase that led to the lower level.

"I'm coming, Akira… I'm coming..." As soon as she started to go down, she started to slowly lose balance. She was only barely able to keep going down for a little over half of the way before completely loosing her footing and falling over. Her hands instinctively moved around her stomach to protect it, leaving her head unprotected as she rolled down on the stairs, eventually stopping once she reached the end of the staircase. "I'm coming… Just wait… For me..." Unsure of how long she lied there motionless and ignoring her bleeding forehead, she started to crawl towards another staircase.

"Please, Asako! Stop!" Gab run down after her. He wanted to stop her, but by the time he grabbed her shoulders so he can drag her back up, she already had her composure back and was more then ready to knock the air out of his lungs first, and consciousness out of his head second. With a well placed punch to the side of the head combined with man already barely able to keep himself standing straight, she had him knocked out cold in a second. She did end up falling on the ground again, and already being aware that trying to run down is not the best solution in her state, she proceeded to simply slide down instead.

Slowly, she made her way lower and lower, crying and holding her stomach as if it carried her biggest treasure. Because that's exactly what it did.


Leone did not like the position she was in. Being surrounded by Danger Beasts and the worst smell she has ever felt she could take, she's been through worse then this more times then she could count. But some creepy voice whispering into her head? Calling for her to 'join' and 'become one with us'? Having the same Danger Beasts she's been smacking around or beating into one bloody pulp after another ignore her as if she was one of them? That's where she drew the line. The way she figured it, she was dealing with some kind of a hive-mind here and the voice she was hearing belonged to something like a queen or joined consciousness. Regardless what it was, since she could hear that voice directly in her head, it meant she must have already inhaled a spore or something like that. Probably around the time she entered inside of the nest.

That bit she liked even less...

She didn't bother answering the voice's calls though. All she did was simply ignore it. It didn't matter what it said, she was here to destroy it after all. And if she could kill a man knowing his children are sleeping in the next room and simply ignoring that fact, she could ignore that too. Didn't mean it wasn't annoying though. Before long, she found herself running through the kilometers long tunnels at speeds that made the Beasts around her fly around like mere rag dolls. At those speeds it would normally take her no more then a couple of minutes to get to her goal, but she quickly ended up hitting a wall.

Literal one.

She may be able to see perfectly well in the dark, but that doesn't mean she can do so just as well wile running almost at the speed of sound. Until that moment it didn't really matter, she was running straight ahead. And then she suddenly smashed head first into a wall of flesh and bones. A sticky, smelly wall of flesh and bones. "Tfu!" She spat out, feeling some of the ooze that covered the wall has entered her mouth. "Oh God, this is disgusting... I'm gonna need a bath after this..." Which is not to say she planned on skipping on that before. She smelled like rotten flesh and blood as it is, that was just an icing on the cake.

The wall she smashed into didn't do any real damage to her, and the little it did was healed almost immediately but the wall itself didn't seem damaged in the slightest. It seemed like it was almost as thick as the muscle she had to break through to get inside in the first place and she had no desire to waste this much time on getting through something like that again. Especially when that meant covering herself in more of... Whatever it was that oozed from that wall. "Let us... Guide you...We'll show you... The way... To us..." And there was that voice again... She wanted to ignore it. She really did, but... She also wanted to avoid running in circles in a labyrinth that the hive turned out to be. The sheer amount of twists and turns she saw on the way here was mind boggling to her. She was never good at stuff like that. A maze of streets? Sure, she could handle that just fine, but running around dark tunnels that went in literally every direction? Not her cup of tea.

Begrudgingly, she ended up accepting the offer after a long sigh. "Alright!" Her hands flew into the air as she turned around and started to make her way to the tunnels she passed by before. "Where the fuck do I go if I want to kick your sorry ass?" She asked, standing in the middle of a crossing of five separate tunnels. And that's discounting the one she came from and the one that just proved itself to be nothing more then a dead end. She didn't have to wait long for a reply. After pointing out that she 'will not do such thing' and instead will accept a better future, the voice started to guide her through the twists and turns of the nest.

It also didn't stop calling for her to join but she never bothered to respond to that or even to being given directions. Going where it told her to was enough of an acknowledgment and if she had more room to maneuver she wouldn't even give it that. She couldn't get rid of a feeling that if she gives an inch in that situation, she'll end up loosing more then a mile. Which was probably a good thing, better safe then sorry when you know that your enemy can speak directly into your head. She was constantly on guard for anything wrong that might be happening to her, any kinds of movements that she didn't plan for, thoughts that were not hers... So far nothing wrong was there, but that didn't stop a feeling that in this fight, she's the one at the disadvantage. A big one.

She was not facing a normal opponent here. This one could literally get into her head and she had no clue just how far its influence could reach. For all she knew talking to her was all, but at the same time she could already be a puppet. With strings just loose enough for her to not notice them.

On her way ahead, she has found less and less of the Danger Beasts she's seen before until eventually she was walking through empty tunnels. She was closing in to her goal, whatever it was, and she couldn't help but feel a shiver run up her spine. "I have a bad feeling about this..." All of her senses were screaming at her to stop, to turn around and get away as soon as possible. She was always very sensitive when it came to sensing danger, more so then the rest of Night Raid, and those skills were only amplified whenever she used Lionel. Furthermore, now that she was outright fused with her Teigu, her ability to detect dangers was brought to a whole new level, one beyond anything she's ever been capable of. And that sense was now flaring up even more so then it did whenever she saw Esdeath.

That wasn't the same kind of danger though. Esdeath was strong, ridiculously so, but she was not the same kind of opponent she is facing now. She was not an enemy one must fight inside of their own head. And that's exactly what Leone is slowly realizing her currant foe to be. Realizing too slow. By the time she decided to listen to her senses and halt... She didn't. One step after another, her legs continued to march froward without a pause despite her protests. Damn it! She couldn't even make a sound, it was as if her mind was locked off from the rest of her body. When has this happened though? She was sure everything was under her control, how did she not realize that this happened?

"You will... Join us..." Through sheer force of will, Leone managed to grab her own arm and break the bone in half. The pain that flowed through her body into her mind proved to be enough of a wake up call for her to snap out of the trance. Groaning and panting, she rested against the wall, holding onto her arm until she felt her regeneration kick in. "You will join... Whether you like it... Or not..." Grinding her sharp teeth together, she looked up at the end of the tunnel she was in with blazing anger in her eyes. She saw a shape there, a feminine one. Probably the queen of the hive. There wasn't much else she could say, it was still too far away, but... Nobody gets away with taking away her will and freedom. Nobody.

Not the pieces of shit that terrorized the streets she grew up on. Not the corrupted nobles that kept her living in the dirt. Not the assholes that worked her to near-death in exchange for the privilege of not becoming their plaything. Not the 'guards' that 'protected' her parents. Not the Empire that made it all possible... And not some wannabe Queen of a Hive.

There could be only one Queen left standing after the approaching battle is over. And the Queen of Beasts was not about to hand over the vicroty to anyone.


Silence filled the atmosphere around Tatsumi as his foe finally fell. The mighty Danger Beast of ancient times was dead and he was its killer. The first hunt of the reborn Tyrant was completed with a success. It was a proof of its survival. Proof that even death is not enough to concur it. Proof that nothing will stop it... And that nothing will stop Tatsumi.

As he stood there he couldn't help but let his thoughts to drift to Akame. He was sure that the girl was going through unimaginable torments now. Ones that he will put an end to. No matter the cost. He made a promise after all... That he will make it all better... He was determined to fulfill that promise too, just like he did the previous one. He survived for her, and he will make sure that she will survive for him...

Looking back at the time he's spent with her he could only scold himself for not realizing he has feelings for her. The countless moments when they bonded, be it over a pot or a dead body, were all precocious to him. Their training sessions, joint hunts, nighttime conversations by the fireplace... Those were all among the best moments of his time with Night Raid, in his life even. Everytime he listened about her life as a young girl he wanted nothing more then to find a way to make it better, to break all of the chains that hold her down, be it ones the Empire has put on her, or the ones she made for herself. All that coupled with them risking their lives together and covering each other's backs made it pretty obvious they would start to fall in love with one another.

But for some reason he didn't realize it. Not until he watched her tears fall on his dead body.

He should have realized sooner, he should have done something before they even set out for the final battle... If he did, then maybe she wouldn't have said what she did back when they kissed... 'I know that no one would feel like that about somebody like me'. She truly believed that. She really thought that she's undeserving of anyone's love, his included... And he didn't want that. He wanted to love her, and he wanted her to feel that love. To know that she can't accept his feelings was painful... But also a motivator. If she believed she can't be loved, then he will prove her wrong. If she believed herself to be a tool meant to be discarded once its used, he will pick her off the ground and carry towards a brighter future. If she thinks what she feels for him is somehow wrong, he will accept all of it. If she-

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his thoughts as a single sound broke the silence around him. It was quiet, but his ears immediately picked up on it and he turned towards it's source – the open corridor from which the Beast he just killed came out from. Then another sound came to him, this one clearer. More followed soon, replacing the dead silence of the archive. Those sounds were rocks hitting one another... Somewhere in that corridor, something was moving. And what that something was, became clear to him once he heard another sound come to him. The source of this one weren't rocks... It was a voice.

A quiet, weak one. Less then a whisper, more like a dying breath. It was a single word... The last cry of defiance against death, made by a man buried under a pile of rocks deep in the darkness of the Imperial Archive. "Asa... ko..."


Song of the day: Bullet for my Valentine You Want a Battle? (Here's a War!)