Chapter One

Kurojaki

Recap: In the last chapter, we learned a little about Akame and his personality. He was very calm and peaceful, but still untrained in heart and mind. What is in store for Akame? And what is "that day?"

Akame was, one day, taking his regular everyday romp in the woods. At first, the woods were exactly as they always were: populated with birds, graced by the occasional black squirrel or tawny porcupine. A milk snake wreathed through the leaf litter on the floor, flashing bright colors. A lizard scurried past low shrubs in a streak of neon green.

But as he walked deeper into the forest, he was noticing strange things that hadn't been there yesterday: the trees were bare, looking like nefarious clawed hands snatching at the skies, the chirps lessened from fowl. There was a slight, misty haze hanging low, about neck height. And it was also quiet.

Dead quiet.

Akame slowed his pace a little. He was sure he'd just smelled something disgusting. Rotting. What could something so horrific be doing in the once-beautiful woods that he had ventured so long?

And he stopped. There was a clearing, a circle of the claw trees around a sunny, golden ground. So ironic, he scoffed. Light in a dark place? But he squinted just then, and his eyes made out a big pile of … mass in a far – not corner, for circles don't have corners – reach.

Akame slunk toward it, feeling a suspicious dread. The mass looked very much like a compost pile made of sleeping Dogs. He was in the open, but all he cared about was investigating the pile. Thus, he did not see the two eyes glaring at him from the underbrush, two mischievous but innocent eyes, like those of a pup's.

He sniffed around the pile. It smelled like rotting. So this was the unpleasant smell. And slowly, carefully, he looked up from the ground

AND GASPED because there were two blank, dull eyes boring into his own. Shocked, Akame stepped back and observed the whole of the enormous lump. What was once a compost pile in his eyes, fourteen feet away, was now a heap of rotting corpses, with flies landing on each Dog's nose. The pup, just barely a couple of months, hadn't really needed to see what was in front of him; indeed, he could have gone for a year or two without having to scar his life like he was doing now.

A rustle in the bushes distracted his attention from the pile. Akame waited, puzzled. And then behind him…

"WHEEEEEEEE!"

He spun around too late, and a pup launched onto his back and knocked him into the dirt, shoving some of the earth into his mouth. Akame coughed and spat out the dirt; then he wheeled to face his contender.

"Hello!" said the pup in a friendly way. He was chocolate, tan, and black, with a playful grin and a curled tail. His body was mostly the aforementioned chocolate, with his underbelly a light shade of tan; he had black eyespots, and his round, russet eyes suggested naughtiness or indecent behavior, but his most distinguishing feature was a Mohawk from the top of his head to the nape of his neck, tan like his underbelly. His ears, on either side of the Mohawk, were purely black.

Akame didn't notice most of that though. What he saw was a collar around the pup's neck, but he didn't smell of humans.

"Heyyy," said the pup. Akame's head snapped up to meet his quizzical look. "I've never seen a white Dog before. What's your name? I'm Kurojaki."

"My name is Akame," said Akame, unsure as to whether or not he should make a dash for it or stay.

"Are you a Nīnken also?" asked Kurojaki expectantly, obviously hoping for a fight. Akame didn't want to fight.

"No, I'm a wild dog," he stuttered, and Kurojaki's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Liar," he chuckled, and sprang.

Akame was a Nīnken also, but he hadn't been training in the past few days and was, consequently, out of practice. He dodged just in time.

Kurojaki, however, was not about to let him escape. He flipped his body in order to face Akame, and triumphantly gave a "tsk" before ramming the other Nīnken on the head. Akame fell on the ground with a soft, muffled THUMP. As soon as he'd been able to gather his thoughts, he looked at Kurojaki angrily and growled from deep in his throat.

"I TOLD YOU I DIDN'T WANT TO FIGHT!" he screamed. Kurojaki shook his head.

"You're one pitiful excuse for a Nīnken," he murmured. "You didn't tell me, you just tried lying in the hopes that I wouldn't try to kill you. I'm not killing a weakling like you. What House are you in, to fight so pitifully? It was the Iga, right?"

Akame thought of other Nīnken Villages with white dogs who fought pitifully. He found one. "No, I'm a descendant of the Akaīro," he said, relieved that he had not spent hours in the library for nothing.

"The Akaīro!" scoffed Kurojaki. "No wonder. The Akaīro are even weaker than the Iga, so I'm told…"

Akame growled again, but stopped midway. Liquid was dripping from between his eyes from his forehead.

"About to lose consciousness?" asked Kurojaki, the laugh in his voice barely concealed. "That's blood. It's red. It comes out from gaping wounds. Like the scar I gave you." He paused a moment. "I'll tell you, since you'll probably just end up food for the animals in the woods anyway. I am from the Koga, the elite Nīnken House; I am also next in line to becoming the leader of the Koga. Oh, well. If you live, Akame," he crooned, beginning to step back, "I'll take you out again."

Akame could only glower at Kurojaki's pride.

Kurojaki paused just then. "On second thought, I'll leave you at the Iga House," he said. "So that they can preserve your body, and that I can battle you again, when you're stronger. On fair ground." He giggled, liking his idea, and threw Akame onto his back.

That was the last memory the white Nīnken had before he fainted.

---

"Akame-sama. Akame-sama."

Huh? Arrow-san? With great difficulty, Akame strained to open his eyes and found Arrow above him, with her blue eyes overflowing with worry. He also noted that he was in one of the village's more common medical bamboo-structure houses. A second later she was gushing all over him.

"How do you feel? Do you need more herbs to stem the blood? Does your head ache? What about your body? Can you move at all?"

"Arrow-san," he acknowledged in barely a whisper of a voice; "did you see – Kurojaki…"

"The Koga brat! He did this to you?" Arrow's eyes widened in horror. "I knew it! Cheating scum, stupid idiotic maggots, picking on one of the Iga's noble Nīnken like that! They're cannibals themselves-"

Akame, despite his head injury, was amused to find that the normally reserved Arrow was gawking and panicking over him.

After a moment, he just realized what Arrow had said. "Cannibals?"

"Eaters of Dog meat when they're Dogs themselves," snarled Arrow, pacing back and forth on the bamboo floor, her toenails clicking.

Akame's eyes widened at this revelation. He jumped up, but a pain in his head sent him sprawling back down on his bed.

"Akame-sama!" shouted Arrow, annoyed. "Your skull was almost broken! Right now it is very sore, so don't move!"

The white Nīnken snarled in contempt. "That Kurojaki … how dare he … eat meat from his own clan members … like the pile of Dogs in the forest…"

"Shh," Arrow cooed, coming closer to him. "Sleep now, Akame-sama. Don't worry, it's alright."

Relieved that Arrow had finally calmed down (right when he'd panicked, actually), Akame closed his eyes and listened to the chirping of the night crickets, the rustling of the trees, and the songs of the wind…

Note: Thanks to Nagisha for reviewing. It's not fair that Akame never got any love! It's always the German Shepherds, like John or Jerome! Also, the italics in the prologue were just an introductory par., but okay, no italics or bolds 'cept for flashbacks and really strong feelings!
Second note: The next Ginga fanfic will be Ginga Densetsu Kai.