A Black and White Cross
Chapter 3
Exposition
Out of pure habit, Esdese woke up early, while the sun's rays were only just coming up over the eastern horizon. She stretched and yawed, but when she moved to get off the bed something impeded her. She looked down in semi-conscious confusion at the lump of blankets and pillows between her and the edge of the bed. No matter how much she squinted and tilted her head she couldn't think of what it was. She finally just pulled back the sheets.
Alba slept as soundly as any teenager in the morning, and he closed his eyes tighter and rolled away from the pre-dawn light, one hand grasping for the blanket that had been stripped of him. His hand kept wandering until it found Esdese. Still completely unconscious he grabbed her and brought her close nudging his face into her and sighing contentedly.
Esdese giggled and crawled down into him, pulling him even closer. As the fog of sleep lifted from her mind, and she remembered the details of the night before, her smile grew and her blush warmed and blossomed. She never would have guessed when she returned to the Capital that her quest for love would have been so successful. He had shown her a world of joy and happiness she hadn't even known existed. She hugged him even more tightly
Alba felt an unnatural pressure and his heart sped up in fear. He kept his breathing steady and slowly opened his eyes. The only thing there was a wall of pale white skin. The memories of the night before came flooding back to him as he caught her scent and the sounds of her breathing, her heart beating. He closed his eyes again and they simply lay there, basking in each other.
Alba walked into the council room, the same one he had been held in the day before, feeling good. Probably the best he had felt since entering the Capital. He wore the white uniform of an officer in Army Group North Esdese had ordered from the palace tailor the day before, his hair was styled up, and he had had the first opportunity to bathe in a real shower with real soap since leaving his hometown.
"You look well rested." The seamen, Wave, commented as Alba sat down at the table.
"Yea, I guess." He said, trying to sound indifferent, and failing. He felt goddamn great and wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Just for the moment he settled on nibbling a donut from the plate in the middle of the table. Esdese came in looking similarly… refreshed, standing behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder possessively. Seryu, the young Imperial Police member, looked back and forth between the two before smiling and letting out a small giggle under her breath.
"What?" Wave asked, looking from her to Alba and Esdese, completely oblivious.
"Oh… nothing, I'll tell you later." Seryu said, her Imperial Arm Hekatonkheires letting out a slight bleat in her arms.
"We will go on a hunt today, I think." Esdese started, "There are a number of Danger Beasts living outside the city walls; they will prove excellent prey." Alba nodded, he didn't really didn't know where to go from here, the romance novels back home usually ended after what happened the night before. A hunt would be a good time to talk with Esdese, to actually find out what the hell he had gotten himself into.
It didn't turn out exactly the way he wanted. Esdese said that there was a Danger Beast living on a forested hill about fifty klicks west of the Capital. She had taken Seryu to the other side of the hill and left Alba with Wave to flush it out toward them. The two of them began to climb toward the summit to get a glimpse of their surroundings.
Alba had changed into the olive-drab summer weight Imperial Army uniform before leaving, taking with him a standard-issue .33 caliber SA-21 battle rifle instead of a sword. He also carried a number of grenades, satchel charges, and other explosives in order to force the beast into Esdese and Seryu's positions. He chuckled when he remembered how the palace's master-at-arms had balked at giving the teenager high explosives, and how white he had turned when Esdese asked him instead. He didn't particularly like using Esdese' martial prowess like that, as it slightly offset his own manhood, but until he had established a reputation of his own, he'd just have to suck it up.
Wave walked a few meters in front of him. The only difference in his appearance from the council room was that he had a large blue broadsword at the small of his back. It oddly resembled the chrome and red one that the Blacksmith had used a few days before, but he was sure that was just a coincidence. He wondered how his opponent was doing?
While his thoughts wondered he thought he saw a shimmer in the air twenty or so meters in front of Wave. Alba disregarded it, passing it off as a heat wave, but then he saw it again… in the same spot. Heat waves moved with the horizon and did not stay in a fixed position. Completely forgetting about Wave, he fired a burst from the hip and three 1/3 inch pieces of lead went screaming at it.
Wave heard the burp of the rifle and rolled to the side, drawing his sword. Despite his age, Wave was a veteran of the constant battles off the coast between the Empire, pirates, and neighboring kingdoms, and his reaction time showed it. A red mist appeared near the shimmer and it moved off into the trees, rustling them and allowing Wave to see its movement. He rushed off into the brush after it and Alba went to follow. Then Alba stopped cold. He couldn't say why later, but his instincts screamed at him to stop and stay as still as possible. He looked around without moving his head and saw a glimmer of steel in the corner of his eye. He lowered his chin a fraction of an inch and saw what it was. It was a katana, its distinctive shape and watered steel told that much. It was old and worn, but well kept. Its wood handle was wrapped in red-dyed cloth and its cross guard was also blood red. He froze again immediately, a bead of cold sweat running down his temple.
"Murasume? A beautiful piece." He said. If his identification of the sword was correct, he would not win in any type of fight.
"You know this blade?" A female voice said behind him. He would have said it sounded young, except for its complete lack of emotion. It was the voice of a killer.
"Yes…" he said, hesitant to answer, "I have a book on Imperial Arms back home, Murasume was one of my favorites; I could recognize it in the dark."
"Where is your home?" he voice said behind him, what an odd question
"Aachen, a small village not far from Leona." They stood in silence for a moment, the fatal tension growing, before he was violently flung around. He used the momentum to bring up his weapon and found himself facing a girl, no older than him, through the sights. He immediately recognized her from the posters around town. She looked even colder in person, her eyes were dead and her face was stone.
"You're not the owner of this estate?" She asked.
"No, I am not, Ms. Akame." The tip from her weapon was dangerously close to his throat, and he was even afraid to swallow, but he would not show fear to these people, after all, what would Esdese think of him? Akame looked him up and down, analyzing, assessing, or at least he thought that was what she was doing, it was impossible to see past those unseeing eyes. She eventually sheathed her sword. She closed her eyes as she did it and held the pommel in her hand, almost as if it was a religious experience. When she opened her eyes she spoke again.
"Come with me." He wasn't exactly in a position to argue with her, although he still held his weapon, he had no advantages. She was faster, stronger, and more experienced than him, and so he couldn't think of any strategy to stop her. He lowered his weapon and nodded. She walked past him up the hill. He followed.
They continued to walk for an hour in complete silence, which disturbed Alba. It was never truly complete silence, birds chirped, leaves rustled, and small animals skittered, but that was not the case. He could hear his own heart beat before anything else, no birds chirped, nor leaves rustled, nor did animals skitter. He began to grow anxious, gripping his weapon even more tightly and looking around instinctively.
"They can sense the evil here." She said. Her voice startled him in the silence.
"What do you mean?" He asked, his voice was flat, but that didn't stop the fear growing in the back of his throat. She said nothing as they continued on. They reached the summit of the hill in another few moments. There were others there as well, a small pink-haired girl with the Imperial Arm Pumpkin, a massive rifle, stood off to one side, viewing the world around her through a targeting system, which for Alba was somewhat creepy. A wild-looking blonde woman was there as well, in possession of the Imperial Arm Lionelle. The belt Lionelle, while it gave its user the endurance, strength, and ferocity of a wild beast, was also known to enact changes in physical appearance as well, which explained the cat tail, ears and paws. To one edge of the clearing, near a warehouse-type building, sat a young green-haired boy, also no older that Alba, with the Imperial Arm Cross Tails, a device of infinite wires and uses. Right now he was using it to sew up the wounds of a brown haired boy…
"YOU!" Alba nearly screamed before stomping off in that direction, completely forgetting that he was practically a prisoner. "What the hell are you doing out of bed, much less in the field? It's only been two days since I got you! I should…" the blond woman heard the commotion and began to stride forward, who the hell was the kid? Before she got to him Akame put up her hand and stopped her, then the blonde woman actually began to hear what this new kid was saying and smiled, unbeknownst to him they had had much the same conversation with him before coming on this little escapade.
"I couldn't just let them go out alone because I did something stupid!" He said. Alba huffed and frowned.
"So… what's your name again?" He asked.
"Tatsumi." The Blacksmith replied.
"Alba" the Library replied in kind. "What are you doing with this bunch of hooligans?" He asked gesturing to the rest of the people on the hill top. The ones with Lionelle and Crossed Tails seemed bemused by his statement, Akame still looked indifferent, and the girl with Pumpkin simply looked back and scowled before turning back to her sweep. Tatsumi simply gained a deep look. He took a moment before he answered.
"I'm here to save my village, and to destroy the corruption that chokes this nation." He said. He couldn't be serious? That wasn't even a naive novella protagonist line, it was all out manga. In the end Alba could only get out one word.
"What?" Tatsumi looked at him confused for a moment, then a nostalgic yet creepy smile crossed his face.
"That's right, you just got to the Capital, huh? Let me show you." He tried to get up, but the gunshot wounds on his right shoulder started to stretch at the Crossed Tails stitches. The green haired boy came over quickly.
"Dude, you're pushing yourself too far." He said as he grabbed Tatsumi and attempted to push him back down.
"No, Lubbock. He needs to see this." Lubbock seemed to hesitate before letting go. Tatsumi nodded and started to walk toward the outbuilding. Alba tilted his head to one side in a confused expression before following. The others gathered in a half circle around him as Tatsumi threw open the rolling door to the warehouse. It was filled with an eerie red light that seemed to highlight the horrid scene before him. Men and women lie motionless within, the only sound coming from the insects swarming the dead and dying. Elaborate torture instruments that he hadn't even read about littered the walls and tables, some of them still containing the corpses of their victims. Alba had read and seen worse, both in reality and experience. What got him was the smell, an evil smell of decay and death that no written word could convey. Many of the still forms within were in various states of decay, bloated and deformed they gave off a stench unlike any that had ever entered his nostrils. He tried to keep his stomach down and failed, falling to his knees with his breakfast going over the dirt in front of that demented and evil place. When he was done he felt light headed before falling to his side and passing out.
"What do we do with him?" Leone asked, pawed hands on her hips.
"We kill him." Mine said after a moment as she raised Pumpkin to the boy's pale temple.
"No." Akame said as she put her hand on Pumpkin, lowering it.
"Why not? He's an Imperial soldier, and is thus implicated with all the crimes of the Prime Minister and his cronies." She growled, gesturing to his distinctive uniform. Akame shook her head.
"He's not an Imperial soldier, he's from Aachen." She said, voice as flat and serious as it always been. Mine looked at the dark haired girl in astonishment before looking back to the boy, the anger failing in her limbs and her voice becoming small.
"but… there were no survivors." She said, staring at the boy with wide and distant eyes. Leone came over and knelt beside the boy, reverting to normal and quietly removing his armor and load bearing equipment until he was in noting but his fatigues and boots. She picked him up gingerly and began to walk away.
"Where are you taking him?" Mine asked, still carrying on the argument even though the fight had left her.
"Home." Leone growled before leaping away. Mine shook her head, banishing old memories to a dark corner of her mind before following. Akame and Lubbock helped Tatsumi along after them, leaving nothing but blood and emotions behind.
Esdese lay alone in her bed weeping. She berated herself for it but the tears only flowed more freely. She screamed into the empty space around her, the space that should be occupied by warmth and love. She had punished Wave far more lightly than she should have. She had wanted to rip his throat out with her bare hands and watch the life fade from his eyes for losing Alba, but despite that he was her subordinate, and deserved some loyalty, not to mention the resource his skill and experience represented. The tears seemed to flow even faster, wracking sobs from her in the night.
She had never even noticed that Dr. Stylish had never returned from the hunting trip.
Sorry for the wait guys! I got on a manga binge with 'The World God Only Knows' - Worst Post Traumatic Series Disorder I have ever had.
Next chapter will have some back story...
"REVIEWS!" Screamed the wild and starving man.
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