Fugo woke up in a cold sweat. Gritting his teeth, he sighed.
That dream again...
It was the same nightmare he'd have over and over again. The one where he'd see the deaths of his friends and he'd be powerless to stop it.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead. There was no point in crying over spilled milk. What was done is done. He had something to do today.
But still, he couldn't shake that feeling of guilt even as he got out of the bed. Putting on his hole-filled suit, he got out of the room, only to bump into Sayo.
"Oh, good morning, Fugo." She said.
"Morning. If you'll excuse me."
"Where are you off to?" She asked.
"Sheele's going to be training you three today, so I'm meeting up with her." Fugo explained. "I'll be supporting her."
Sayo had flashbacks to Fugo's harsh education methods with Leone and paled. He just gave her a good-natured and reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, we'll make sure you three become the best of the best."
"Hey, boss." Lubbock asked, after taking a bite out of an apple (Akame had harvested some fruit). "I gotta ask, is it a good idea to put Sheele in charge of those three?"
"I'll be fine." She said. "I think they'll get along fine together."
"What makes you say that?"
"It's good for them to have a more experienced teacher." She answered.
"Fugo's helping out too." Jotaro added. "While he does have a temper, he's down-to-earth, for the most part."
"I got dibs on those three next!" Leone said, raising her hand.
"And see? She also has talent." Najenda said, pointing at Leone.
"Really? Come on!" Lubbock said, feeling a bit insulted.
Najenda paused for a second, before speaking. ""To an assassin, more experience means a better killer." What do you think? I said something cool, didn't I?"
Leone and Lubbock just moved away from her, while Jotaro's eyes were shadowed by his hat.
"...I guess not?"
Tatsumi gasped as he crawled out of the water, breathing heavily. Ieyasu and Sayo followed en-suite.
"Well done, swimming in that armor." Sheele said.
"With this, you'll increase your overall strength and endurance, and getting used to moving faster in the armor will also increase your natural speed." Fugo explained.
"So heavy... this is hard..." Tatsumi said.
"I thought I was gonna drown..." Ieyasu wheezed, collapsing on the rocks.
"The water is deep enough so you can swim, but shallow enough to stand in." Fugo said. "You wouldn't have been in that much danger."
"Thanks. I feel so much better..." Ieyasu said, sarcastically.
"This is the curriculum I came up with for assassin training." Sheele said. "Since I don't have a job at the hideout, I can concentrate on training you three."
That piqued their interest. "Why don't you have a job?" Sayo asked.
Sheele was stricken silent, before speaking.
"Well when I tried cooking, I got the normally cool-headed Akame angry. When I tried to clean, all I did was make a bigger mess for Bulat to clean up. When I did shopping, I mistook salt for sugar and Leone couldn't stop laughing about it."
The others couldn't believe what they were hearing, but she wasn't finished.
"And when I tried to do the laundry, I carelessly washed Mine with the clothes."
"You... did what?" Fugo said, eyes narrowed in disbelief.
"How did you not notice?" Sayo asked.
Tatsumi and Ieyasu did a quick fist bump behind their backs. The former had something else on his mind though.
"By the way, Sheele." Tatsumi said, speaking up. "When we met everyone, you didn't seem to be happy about us joining."
"I was?" Sheele asked, furrowing her brow. "Ehhhh, I get the feeling there was a reason, but I've forgotten."
Not surprising. Everyone thought, now that Sheele had just explained how clumsy she was. Suddenly, the book she was reading back when they first came into the hideout made a lot more sense.
"Allow me to apologize-ah!"
She had bowed her head, but her glasses had fallen off in the process. The other just stared dumbfounded as she felt around for them, before finding and picking them up. Fugo was curious, however.
"If you mind Sheele, can we ask why you're in this line of work?" Fugo asked. "If it's private information, we won't privy into it."
"Oh, it's not an issue." Sheele said. "But it's a bit of a long story."
"Well, we do have some time." Tatsumi noted. "We did finish the swim faster than you expected."
"True. Very well then."
The trio took off their armor, as Sheele started her story. She was raised in a lower district of the capital. Ever since she was young, she was clumsy, always messing up. She was always insulted about it, everyone saying she had a screw loose in her head, but she had one friend that treated her kindly. But one day, her friend's ex had shown up, angry at being dumped and started to choke her. Thinking only "I must save her," Sheele slit the man's throat, killing him. While it was ruled out as self-defense, her problems only started.
Not long after, a group of men confronted her while she was alone. They wanted revenge for the man she killed, who was second in command of a local gang. "We've already killed your parents, and now it's your turn" is what they said to her.
While they were gloating about it, but in that moment, Sheele's mind was clear once more. Killing the first man, she used his corpse as a shield, killer the others one by one.
After killing them, she had finally understood. There really was a screw loose somewhere in her mind. And it made her a very talented killer. She could get rid of society's trash. Killing was the one thing she could do so she wouldn't be considered useless. Not long after, the Revolutionary Army had scouted her, to carry out assassinations in the capital.
"So that's why you came up with this training curriculum, huh?" Tatsumi noted.
"Correct." She said. "Because I didn't have the fighting skills like you three."
So, everyone has their circumstances, huh? Fugo noted.
"What about you, Fugo?" Ieyasu asked. "What did you do before you joined Night Raid?"
"Me?" Fugo said. "I was a former mafioso."
"At that young of an age?" Sayo asked.
"Yeah. I didn't come from the best life before all of this." He said, darkly.
He stood up and left before anyone could ask anything further. Sheele watched him leave in concern.
I hope Fugo will tell us, one day.
Several days had already passed, busying Night Raid with missions. But then came a day where they had a bit of breathing time.
"So all of you are here." Najenda said, sitting on her chair. "Well then, we can try what we were going to do today."
"And that would be...?" Sheele said.
"Well..." Najenda held out the Teigu that they had obtained earlier. "The Teigu we took from Zanku."
"What about it?" Sayo asked.
"We've got 5 people here that lack a Teigu." Najenda said. "Perhaps we can find a person here that can make use of it."
"For real?!" Ieyasu asked.
"For real." Najenda said, smiling.
"But no one else wants it?" Tatsumi asked, looking around.
"It's one Teigu per person." Bulat said.
"Because it takes considerable mental and physical strength to control them." Lubbock explained.
"Quite like a Stand." Fugo noted.
Najenda handed Spectator to Tatsumi, deciding to let him have the first chance. He looked at the Teigu in his hand. "It doesn't look too cool, but it does have some pretty cool abilities." He admitted.
"There was nothing about it in the book, but it is a Teigu after all, so I'm curious to see what it does." Najenda said as Tatsumi put it on his forehead.
"It has the ability to read minds, right?" Akame recalled. "Try reading me."
Tatsumi pretended to concentrate, before speaking. "You... want to eat meat tonight."
"Exactly! Amazing!" Akame clapped, impressed.
"I don't think he activated the ability yet." Leone said with a sweatdrop.
"Don't try it on me." Mine said. "If it really has five different sight abilities, try one of the other ones."
"Alright."
Sitting down, Tatsumi closed his eyes. Concentrating, he activated a different ability of the Teigu.
"Well, do you see anything?" Mine asked.
Opening his eyes, Tatsumi indeed did see something.
That something being his female companions, all in their underwear. Face turning red, he almost fell on his back, but caught himself.
"What's wrong?" Mine asked, going up to him.
Tatsumi didn't answer, instead looking at the amazing view (or lack of view, in Mine's case). Aside from forcing himself to look away from Sayo, he couldn't help but be amazed by the "fantastic" ability of the Teigu. He heavily considered keeping it, but suddenly, blood began to drip down his head. Tatsumi gripped his forhead, suddenly feeling exhausted.
"Oh crap, it's rejecting!" Lubbock yelled, alarmed. "Quick, take it off!"
Akame ran forward and removed the Teigu from her friend.
"Seems like it isn't comparable with you." Najenda said.
"You were thinking about how uncool it looked or something stupid like that, weren't you?" Mine asked him. "The user's first impression of the Teigu is important, you know?"
"Maybe I can try." Ieyasu said, taking it from Akame. Placing it on his forehead, he also closed his eyes and concentrated. "Feels weird."
"But does it work?" Sayo asked, walking up to him.
Ieyasu opened his eyes. "Well I-gck!"
"Ieyasu?" Sayo said in concern. "What is it?"
Her friend did nothing but stare at her for a while until he too started to bleed... though not from the side of his head. Akame quickly took it off of him.
"The compatibility seems to be even less." She noted. "It was as if a fountain of blood was leaking from his nose."
Ieyasu looked at Tatsumi, and both nodded briefly, swearing to never say what they saw.
"Jotaro, why don't you try?" Najenda suggested.
The teen shrugged, before taking the Teigu in his hand. He tried to place it on his forehead, but found he couldn't put it on. The others eyes widened, especially Fugo's.
"What?" Jotaro kept on pushing, but an equally strong force kept pushing back. He gave up and looked at the Teigu. "Why couldn't I-?"
"Jotaro, can you pass it here?" Fugo asked. "Watch me carefully."
He pushed his hair back and attempted to put Spectator on his forehead, but failed. Why?
Because Purple Haze's hand had materialized, blocking the Teigu from being placed. Fugo stopped trying to put it on, and the Stand's hand disappeared.
"Then that means..."
"Yeah." Fugo confirmed. "When we watched you try and put it on, Star Platinum's hand stopped it."
"But why?"
"I have a theory." Fugo said, giving it back to Akame and turning to Najenda. "Just to confirm, Teigu are created from the remains of Danger Beasts, correct?"
"That's correct."
Fugo put a hand on his chin. "Then perhaps that might be why. They're weapons were created from living beings. Our Stands are the physical manifestations of our spirit."
He turned to the others. "Those of you that have Teigu have not awakened your Stands." Fugo remembered. "You said only one Teigu per user, correct? And it takes considerable mental and physical strength to control them?"
Lubbock and Bulat both nodded.
"That's quite similar to a Stand in functionality." Fugo said. "Once a spirit manifests a Stand, the Stand becomes a sort of wall that prevents us from using Teigu because of the fact that it's powers come from a Danger Beast. A Stand and Teigu are both so similar that it's impossible for one to use both."
"Whoa..." Leone said in awe. "How do you know?"
"I don't." Fugo said, bluntly. "It's all simply a theory, but it could explain why Star Platinum and Purple Haze rejected the Teigu entirely."
"A shame." Najenda said. "The idea of combining a Teigu with a Stand could have been quite helpful, but that's how it is, unfortunately."
"Wait, there's one person we haven't tried it with yet." Sheele said.
Akame nodded, before handing the Teigu to Sayo. The girl took a deep breath, before placing it on her forehead like her comrades before her. Closing her eyes and concentrating, she tried to use it.
Her eyes widened, as the little green eye glowed.
"This is... amazing! I can see so much!" Turning her head, she looked around the area. "There's an ant in the corner of the room."
"That's one ability." Leone said. "How about another?"
Sayo closed her eyes and concentrated again. This time, she could see everything that was about to happen. She saw Jotaro raise his arm and fix his cap a few seconds before he actually did. She saw Bulat crossing his arms and Mine tilting her head, all before they actually happened.
"This Teigu is incredible." Sayo said, switching back to normal vision.
"Well, it looks like we've found a winner." Najenda said. "Sayo, that Teigu is yours now."
"I... don't have to keep it on my head at all times, right?" She asked. She doubted a green metal headpiece smack dab on her face would really be fashionable.
"No, of course not." Najenda said. "You'd only have to put it on when entering battle."
Sayo thought to herself, before using the Teigu again. While her reaction wasn't too great, she briefly blushed red, taking her Teigu off a few seconds after that.
Tatsumi and Ieyasu shared a knowing look, realizing what had just happened.
If only I could read her mind. Wonder what she's thinking now? Ieyasu wondered.
Well, if one were to read her mind, the only thing they'd see were the bulges (or lack of, in Lubbock's case) of the male members of the group, as well as hearing "FUGOWEARSATHONGFUGOWEARSATHONG" over and over again.
"It doesn't seem like we'll be sending this one back, huh?" Lubbock commented.
"Sending it back?" Tatsumi asked.
"While we are an assassination group, collecting the lost Teigu is one of our sub-missions." Akame explained. "When we run into enemies who possess a Teigu, we take them. Even the weakest are invaluable. Normally, we would have sent Zanku's Teigu back for analysis so it can become part of the Revolutionary Army's fighting force."
"So the more we have, the stronger the army becomes or something, right?" Tatsumi said.
"Correct." Najenda said, pulling out a book. "This is the book of known Teigu."
She handed it to Tatsumi, who held it out for Sayo and Ieyausu to see.
"Whoa, there's a ton." Ieyasu commented.
"And this is just a small portion?" Sayo asked, her face going back to the original color.
"This ones in the book are only the Teigu we know about." Najenda said.
"Is there a Teigu that's considered the strongest?" Fugo asked.
"The usage and comparability change, but if I had to pick one..."
Najenda put a hand to her eyepatch, as if recalling painful memories. "The ice manipulation Teigu, is what I'd say is the deadliest. Luckily for us, the user is currently busy conquering the Northern Tribes."
"Because the people of the North are really strong." Lubbock chimed in. "They even have their own hero."
"Oh, even we know about him!" Tatsumi said.
"Hero of the North, Numa Seika. Prince of the Northern Tribes." Ieyasu said, speaking and posing dramatically. "With his spear in hand, he's never lost a battle. A brilliant tactical genius who the Northern people have absolute faith in."
"Yeah that sums it up." Lubbock confirmed. "His powerful army uses the country's most fortified city as a base of operations. They've even become strong enough to invade the Empire! So in order to try and keep it from happening, the Empire dispatched an expeditionary force to subjugate the Northern Tribes."
"A smaller force?" Sayo said. "That sounds like a suicide mission, even if this user is that strong."
"But there's no reason to worry yet." Lubbock reassured. "Even with that woman, it'll take at least a year or two to take the North."
Najenda nodded at that comment, though a small frown was on her face. Sayo likewise had a similar expression, but for a different reason.
"Hey, you just got a Teigu of your own." Leone said. "Why are you down all of a sudden?"
"Well... this might sound childish, but I want to know with all the Teigu with unknown abilities out there..."
Sayo looked up.
"Could there be a Teigu that could bring the dead back to life?" She asked.
The other members were all silent. Jotaro and Fugo's eyes were in shadow.
"Why are you asking?" Bulat said, expression serious.
Ieyasu rubbed the back of his head. "She's probably thinking of... that girl that died from torture back when we first met you guys."
"Sayo was always the one that helped parents take care of their kids back at the village." Tatsumi explained. "So yeah! There could be a Teigu out there, and-"
"There isn't." Bulat stated, simply.
"Bro?"
"A Teigu that can resurrect the dead doesn't exist." He said. "In this world, you only get one life."
"Hold on, how can you know that?" Ieyasu said. "You can't until we've found all of them, right?"
"You three." Jotaro said. "Think for a second. If there was a Teigu that could bring back the dead, why do you think we have that shit stain of an Emperor?"
"He's right." Akame said. "If such a Teigu existed, the first Emperor would still rule."
"It was because he knew that he would someday have to die, that he created the Teigu in the first place." Bulat said.
"But-"
"Don't hang your hopes on that." Akame said. "If you do, an enemy will use that weakness of mind against you... and you would be killed."
Sayo could only nod, before leaving the room. Ieyasu followed her.
"That girl... she truly has a kind heart, doesn't she?" Fugo said.
Tatsumi nodded. "She always put everyone in the village before her. She cared for everyone. While we've always protected her... Ieyasu and I also look up to her a lot."
Fugo could understand where she was coming from, and knew Jotaro also felt the same way.
But it seemed that death truly was final in this world.
It was night now, and Sayo was sitting down on the grass outside the base, looking up at the night sky.
"Hey." She looked behind her to see Sheele. "Mind if I join you?"
She nodded, as Sheele sat down next to her. They didn't say anything, but simply looked up at the stars.
"Are you still thinking about it?" She asked her.
Sayo nodded.
"That day... we truly saw the darkness in the Capital." She said, remembering what they had seen. "And seeing those that had suffered were so young..."
The tears began to fall.
"They didn't deserve that. I wanted to give them another chance... if there was any hope-"
Sheele reached over and pulled the girl into a hug. Sayo was surprised at the sudden warm embrace.
"You really do think like a big sister, don't you?" She said. "But let me be yours right now."
Sayo silently cried, and uttered out a small "Thank you."
Though Sheele was the one who was truly thankful, as she had another reason to be useful.
A man was breathing heavily. He limped in the cave and sat down.
Holy shit... what just happened?
The Northern Army were supposed to be the strongest, and but that simple force from the Empire had slaughtered everyone. That insane sadistic blue-haired woman had led the charge, even defeating their hero.
He was the only survivor left of the massacre.
Sighing, he leaned against a wall. He lit a torch as he wondered what to do next.
But when the cave lit up, he saw something quite interesting.
There were stone pillars scattered around. Either broken on the floor or embedded in the walls. Intrigued, he followed the trail until he came to a wall. There was a large stone carving on it, of a tall muscular man.
"What the... what's this?"
He placed a hand on it, unsure of what it was. Shrugging, he turned around, ready to leave.
Until he heard the sound of the stone cracking.
He slowly turned, seeing that the eyes on the face had become animated, and were staring at him. The carving was turning from stone to flesh, and the figure was slowly becoming real. Crying out, he threw his torch in desperation, but the muscular man held up his arm, and a huge tornado of wind blew the torch away and shredded it to pieces, before shredding the unfortunate man soon after.
The muscular man burst off the pillar, stretching.
"Hmm... I feel like I've been asleep for a long time... but what had happened? The last thing I recall was fighting JoJo and his new friend ... no matter. This cave is no place for me to linger. I might as well make my way out."
A/N: Wow, it really has been a long time, huh? I'm really sorry about that, everyone. I'm going to University in a few weeks, the next big step in my life. But I felt that it was only fitting that I give you all one more chapter before I go, even if it's a bit of a filler chapter.
Now, University won't completely stop all FanFiction work, but it will definitely slow it down.
I'm going to be honest, it has been a bit draining, considering this is my most popular work, but I hope that this smaller chapter makes up for it.
But now, let's get to a couple of things that happened in this chapter.
Fugo hiding his backstory for now. Two reasons for that. The first being that it's not something he's too comfortable sharing just yet. That and I feel it would be redundant to do a second backstory right after Sheele's.
Sayo getting Spectator as a Teigu makes sense. As an archer, the ability to read a moving target would undoubtedly be useful. That and it could pull off quite a bit of interesting trickery for Sayo. And while I can't say it would fully fit her (since we know so little of her canon personality), I think it works well. Better than not using Spectator ever again.
And finally, the big important part. The explanation on why Stands can be seen by Teigu users. I hope this sounds reasonable enough, since Teigu are made from Danger Beasts, and I think that the Teigu being empowered by the spirit of the Danger Beast works, since we don't exactly know how they work in canon.
I'd say something about the last scene, but I don't think it's really necessary.
That's all I have to say. In the meantime, I'd recommend you check out my two other fics that are also active, "Nothing, but the Truth" and "Symphogear X2."
With that, I'll see you all next time.