Hello again everyone and welcome to chapter 21 of The Glacial Ones!
There isn't much in the way of reviews that I can talk about beyond saying that I agree with Imperial warlords comment and a thanks to Bloodline Purger for reviewing.
Anyway, with that all said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
I do not own, in any way, shape, or form Akame Ga Kill or Harry Potter.
-T.G.O-
Chapter 21: Rising Storm
Harry let out a soft sigh from where he was sitting beside a rather sombre Esdeath. Ran stood in the doorway, having just finished giving his report to the Jaegers leader.
Esdeath leaned back with a sigh waving her hand at Ran.
"Ran, you may leave now."
He nodded silently and turned from the room without another word.
She sighed again.
"The Rakshasa Demons are all dead, not that I really care, but Seryu as well? What a waste of potential."
Turning towards the silently listening Harry, Esdeath stood from her chair as he watched her. While he and Seryu had never really interacted much, he knew Esdeath disliked her subordinates, the useful ones anyway, dying on her and she was currently rather annoyed.
"Come on, Harry. I'm in the mood for some combat."
Harry flinched slightly. Training with Esdeath was bad enough without her actually being in the mood for it. Sighing, he stood from his chair without a word and followed after her as she left the room, leaving the mansion they were protecting at a brisk pace as they travel towards an open clearing behind the main building.
Coming to a stop, Esdeath looked around the area before nodding.
"It will have to do for now."
She turned back towards Harry who was already pulling his twin swords out of the sheaths on his back.
"Alright then. No external use of abilities, since we are still in the middle of a protection mission."
Without another word, Harry shot forward, reinforcing his muscles as he ducked low, slashing his two blades up at Esdeath. Her rapier slide from its sheathe, blocking his right hand slash as she moved her body to the side, out of his left hand blades path before flicking her own weapon towards him. He leapt back a step, his right sword flashing upwards to deflect the jarring attack.
Harry ducked low as Esdeath sent another attack sweeping over his head, his left blade stabbing towards her. She slid to the side again as he withdrew from the attack, stabbing out towards him with her rapier once again.
He deflected the attack over his head using his left hand blade, his right sword sweeping in towards her stomach. And so it went on for several long minutes, Esdeath lashing out in lightning fast jabs and slashes, never backing up even a step as Harry deflected her attacks and countered with one of his two swords.
Sending Harry stumbling backwards with another powerful slash that he barely blocked, Esdeath stopped, observing him again with a small smile before sheathing her sword.
"That's enough for now. We are still on a protection mission, so it would be best not to tire you out yet, especially with Seryu gone now."
Harry stood up straight, taking deep breaths as he sheathed his sword on his back and grinned at her.
"Okay, then."
He fell into step beside her as she began the walk back to the mansion, smiling up at her.
"Do we have any idea of when Night Raid might try to attack?"
She grinned back at him, a bloodthirsty tinge to her smile.
"It won't be long now. They will try to eliminate Borick before he can have the Lord assassinated, so they will move in the next few nights."
Harry nodded silently as the two feel into a comfortable silence.
The silence before the storm.
And indeed, a storm was rising.
-T.G.O-
Harry yawn, stretching his hands above his head as he did before turned his gaze towards Esdeath who was standing beside him, whispering to her so that Borick, who was sitting in a chair nearby with two women draped over him, wouldn't hear.
"Do you really think that they'll come tonight?"
She grinned at him.
"Of course. I'm quite certain that they won't want to risk doing it any later in case we move Borick or have the Lord killed early."
Tilting his head to the side, he shot her a quizzical look.
"Would we really do either of those things?"
Esdeath's grin just widened a little more.
"No. But they don't know that do they. Their job is to kill Borick while we have to stop them killing the man, which means they have to try plan for anything we might do, regardless of whether we would actually do it or not."
Harry nodded before glancing over at said man, his grin dipping slightly.
"Are you sure we can't just let Night Raid have him? He really annoys me for some reason."
She shook her head.
"No. This is a mission, so as the Imperial Special Police we have to give it our best attempt, no matter how annoying the client is… Though I do agree that he is rather annoying."
Harry gave her another grin before both turned their attention to the door to the room, both recognizing the sound of footsteps approaching at a sprint. A moment later a guard stumbled into the room, voice panicked as he spoke.
"We have an emergency!"
Borick jerked to attention, fear setting in as he realised what this meant.
"A group of bandits appeared out of nowhere in the courtyard! We can't stop them!"
Shock spread over Borick's face.
"They're right outside?!"
Beside Harry, Esdeath's grin turned bloodthirsty and sadistic for a moment before she supressed it and turned to look down at Harry.
"Good. Just as planned. See, I told you they would attack tonight."
Harry just grinned up at her as she turned towards Kurome, pointing a finger at Borick.
"Kurome, make sure you don't leave his side for even a moment."
Kurome nodded as Borick's eyes widened.
"Roger!"
Realising that Esdeath was about to leave him with Kurome while assassins attacked the cathedral, out for his blood, Borick dived forward, wrapping his arms around Esdeaths leg as he grovelled before her.
"Please, general, stay and protect me yourself!"
Esdeath glared down at him, disgust flashing across her features.
"Why aren't you all high and mighty like you always have been before? Anyway, no matter how much you worry about it, I won't be leaving the cathedral."
She jerked her foot free from his arms as she spoke, slamming her shoes' heel into his left eye and sending him jerking backwards with a yelp of pain while Harry watched, amused. She spun on her heel, her bloodthirsty grin reappearing as she swept towards the door.
"Come on, Harry. This could prove to be a most interesting night, as well as a good test of your power."
Taking his place beside her as they left the room at a measured pace, Harry just nodded in response to her comment. They were both well aware that physically he was no match for any member of Night Raid, but using his abilities was a completely different matter.
The two entered the cathedrals main chapel together, Borick scrambling behind them and Kurome walking leisurely behind him, Natala already walking beside her with his spear out.
Esdeath walked into the centre of the middle isle, watching the door as Harry sat down on the stairs a little back from her, following her gaze with his own as he tugged on his core, activating a neat little ability he had discovered. Behind them Borick, a little calmer now, sat himself down on the throne at the end of the room, Natala and Kurome taking their positions on either side of him.
Silence filled the chapel, only to be shattered by the sound of multiple running feet approaching the large doors of the chapel. Moments later Night Raid, or at least part of it, burst into the room, coming to a stop several metres in front of Esdeath and Harry.
The two sides eyed each other up, Esdeath standing out in the open with her arms crossed as she stared down Najenda with a sadistic grin. She was the first to break the silence.
"It's been a long time, Najenda."
The glare Najenda gave her could have driven nations to ruin.
"Esdeath."
Esdeath smirked, stepping forward as she began to draw her blade.
"You all made a lot of effort to get here, so I'll have to reward you. We can all catch up together, later. In the torture chamber."
Her voice became slightly warped, distorted, as she finished speaking. Across from her, Najenda just gave her a cold smile.
"I apologize but, really, I'd rather not talk to you."
Esdeath just grinned wider.
"You're so cold, Najenda. I even went as far as to prepare a trump card just for you."
Eyes widening slightly, Najenda tensed.
"As far as I am aware you're Teigu, the Demons Extract, doesn't have a trump card."
"I am aware. So I created one of my own. Isn't it amazing? Though, to be honest, I had help."
Behind Najenda, Leone, spoke up as Esdeath smiled chillingly once more.
"Trump cards aren't exactly things that you can just create, are they?"
In front of her, Najenda sighed.
"How like you, Esdeath. Always breaking limits and doing the impossible."
Pointed her rapier at them, Esdeath gave a bloodthirsty, sadistic, grin.
"Of course, I can't use it to often, nor consecutively, because it takes so much energy. I do look forward to fighting anyone who can force me to use it though."
Keeping her rapier pointed at the members Night Raid and her gaze on Najenda, she spoke again.
"Kurome, focus on protecting Borick at all costs. We don't know when their missing members may appear and attack. Harry, you already know the drill."
Behind her Harry stood from where he was sitting on the stairs with a sigh, shattering the small veil he had built over himself with his ability to avoid attention. The eyes of the members of Night Raid jumped to him, surprised to find that the unknown boy had been there the entire time.
He walked over to stand beside Esdeath as the present members of Night Raid observed him wearily. He was small, partially because of his age and partially because he simple had a small build, with half pitch black and half snow white hair. Vivid emerald green eyes looked out from under the perfectly colour divided hair. He didn't look like much of a threat, but they had long learnt not to judge a book by its cover.
The fact that he had been sitting on the steps the entire time and they hadn't noticed him proved that.
Esdeath raised her free hand above her head.
"Now, let us begin, Night Raid!"
She snapped her fingers.
A swarm of metre long ice spears appeared floating above her before rocketing towards the three Night Raid members in front of her. Najenda and Leone leapt backwards as Susanoo moved forwards, his staff spinning in front of him at high speed, deflecting and shattering all the icy spires that came near him.
Pulling himself into a stance as the last of the ice spears shatter or slammed into the surrounding floor, Susanoo leapt forward in a burst of speed.
"Now it's my turn!"
Standing beside Esdeath, Harry reached out his right hand towards the charging biological Teigu, flicking his wrist in an almost dismissive gesture, tugging slightly on his core as he did. It was one of the reasons that concussive waves and what he and Esdeath called 'Banishing,' was among his favourite techniques.
It was endlessly amusing to be able to give a dismissive gesture and send someone flying away.
And that was exactly what happened to Susanoo as Harry flicked his wrist at him, banishing him backwards.
Normally Harry would use a concussive wave of energy to crush whatever was in its path, but oddly enough, banishing actually took less energy for greater effects in this situation, as it wasn't actually a physical force. So rather than a wave of energy picking the charging enemy up and smashing everything in its path, Susanoo simple… moved backwards. There was no external stimuli, nor any warning. One second Susanoo was charging forward, the next he was flying backwards, and he had no idea why.
He flew backwards across the room, slamming his staff into the ground to bring himself skidding to a halt beside Najenda and Leone. Pulling his weapon back up, he dropped into a combat stance, all three members of Night Raid paying a bit more attention to Harry now.
It was one thing to be a possible threat and a completely different one to be a legitimate one.
Especially when Night Raid honestly couldn't afford new threats with Esdeath being capable of taking them all on.
Neither Esdeath, nor Harry moved.
The members of Night Raid charged forward, Susanoo leaping straight towards the two enemies as Najenda and Leone sprinted off to the opposite sides, converging on the two from different directions.
Harry slide his blades off his back.
Najenda pulled back her metal fist, sprinting towards Esdeath.
Leone prepared herself as she charged the boy in front of her.
Susanoo rocketed towards them both.
There was a blur of chaotic movement.
Najenda's metal fist shot forward on its cable, Esdeath sliding out of the way as she spun, rapier flashing out and skewering Leone through the stomach as she went to attack Harry. At the same time Harry flicked his blade at Najenda as her metal fist sailed past him, a concussive wave exploding from his sword and slamming into the older woman, hurling her backwards.
Susanoo appeared before the two, preparing to attack. Esdeath spun, sliding her blade out of Leone, sending her crashing to the floor as Esdeath lashed out in a lightning fast attack, Harry spinning and swinging his other blade at Susanoo's stomach.
Blood splattered the air as Esdeath removed Susanoo's head, Harry slicing across his stomach before he flicking his second blade into the biological Teigu's stomach right above his previous injury, banishing the still regenerating Teigu right across the chapel where he slammed into a wall.
It was all over in a matter of seconds.
Leone pulled herself to her feet, bleeding from the hole in her stomach as Najenda pulled herself painfully from the crater in the stone wall where Harry had sent her. Susanoo came out the best, by a long shot, as he finished regenerating and pulled himself to his feet.
Esdeath just grinned, Harry smiling in his head, though for different reasons. Harry was aware that in a straight out, close up fight with another, well trained Teigu user, he would almost certainly lose. With Esdeath however it was almost impossible for him to be even harmed. Though that wasn't that surprising considering that she could probably have taken them all on without too much trouble.
"Harry, capture Najenda."
Harry nodded, rocketing towards Najenda, blades twin flashes of steel as he lashed out at her. There was a loud clang as she blocked the two swords with her metal arm, her left fist coming up to slam into his stomach. He slide to the side, swinging his right hand blade towards her head, only for her to duck, her metal hand once again stopping a slash from his left hand sword.
Her foot flashed up and Harry, having spent years getting booted in the chest by Esdeath, back flipped away, materializing a chunk of ice around two to three metres squared above her head, dropping it as he landed in a crouch.
Najenda leapt backwards out of the way of the attack, shock written on her face. Harry was already moving, flicking his left wrist towards the ice in a shooing motions, leaping towards Najenda as she was forced to dodge again as the boulder of ice was banished into the wall where she had been moments ago.
Harry slammed an empowered foot into Najenda's, knocking the air from her lungs a she was forced backwards, managing to just barely dodge his next attack.
Across the chapel, Esdeath kick Leone into the opposite wall and slammed a small boulder of ice into Susanoo, who shattered it with his staff and sent a sweeping attack towards Esdeaths legs. She jumped over the attack, slamming her hand into his forehead as she leapt past him and landed behind him, grinning.
"One down."
Behind her, Susanoo was trapped in a large block of ice, unable to move. Across the room, Leone leapt up, cursing in her head at how badly the mission had gone so far as she shot towards Harry, hoping to assist Najenda in eliminating the lesser threat first.
She got half way across the room before Esdeath moved.
Esdeath appeared above Leone, slamming her heeled foot down on the centre of her back in a devastating axe kick that would have killed most other peoples, slamming Leone into the ground with enough force to crater it, paralysing her as her Teigu hurried to repair the damage done to her organs and spin.
Over with Harry, he ducked under a punch from Najenda, slamming the hilt of his right hand sword into her gut and knocking her back. As she staggered back he flicked his right wrist so that the blade was facing her, banishing her into the pillar behind her with crushing force, shattering part of the pillar and causing her to cough up a mouthful of blood as she fell forwards towards the ground, stunned.
Before she could hit the ground Harry appeared beside her, slamming the hilt of his other sword into the back of her head, smashing her into the ground as he did.
Taking a breath as he made sure that she was properly unconscious, Harry looked over at Esdeath, looking away as he she saw her testing Leone's regeneration by hacking parts off her with her rapier. He swallowed the tiny amount of bile that built in his throat.
Killing he could do. Pointless cruelty? Not so much.
He turned back to Esdeath just in time to see her dodge backwards out of the way of some invisible object, noting what looked like an invisible person skidding along the floor. Harry leapt over to Esdeath as she grinned.
"Heh, so I was right, there was another assassin. How naïve to be drawn out by something like that."
Harry decided not to comment on the fact that anyone who had not torn out their own hearts would probably be at least tempted to do the same thing. Esdeath probably wouldn't understand the sentiment.
Gazing forwards beside Esdeath, he watched as a man came into view, their invisibility dropping away to reveal Incursio.
Esdeath gave a bloodthirsty grin as she saw the armour.
"I've always wanted to try fight Incursio. Come at me!"
The two faced off, Harry standing to the side. Across the room, Najenda struggled to her feet, cursing herself for allowing herself to be knocked out by a child, unknown Teigu or not. She was a former general, dammit!
She gazed around, taken in the situation as she staggered over to where Susanoo was frozen. One of their team frozen in a block of ice, another chopped up and slowly regenerating on the ground while the last had abandoned his invisibility and was facing off in a battle he obviously couldn't win. On the other hand both Esdeath and her ally were barely scratched, not to even speak of Kurome and her corpse puppet guarding Borick.
Things weren't looking great for Night Raid.
She intended to change that. Placing her hand against the ice that Susanoo was sealed in, she spoke out loud, catching the attention of all those in the room.
"'Magatama Manifestation!'"
Inside the ice, Susanoo took on his transformation as Esdeath gave Najenda a curious look.
"What are you trying to do now?"
Najenda just smiled rather grimly.
"None of us have died yet, and we're all a pretty stubborn bunch. Don't think you can relax just because you froze one of us."
With that the strength left her body as she toppled backwards. Beside her the ice boulder containing Susanoo exploded, fragments of ice erupting in every direction as he broke free, a snarl on his face. Esdeath just tucked some hair behind her ear and grinned.
"So that's you Trump card. To be able to break from my ice so easily… impressive."
Not bothering to respond to her comment, Susanoo shot forward like a bullet from a gun, appearing in front of Esdeath with a devastating upper cut aimed at her chin. She leaned back out of the way of the attack, bringing up her rapier to block a mid-air spin kick from him, even as Tatsumi charged in from her right, fists pulled back to attack.
He conveniently forgot about Harry who, seeing him charging forward, dropped his right blade, flicking the now empty hand at the armoured teen charging at Esdeath. He knew ice would do little to pierce or even slow Incursio without a lot of power and more time than he had, and a concussive wave did very little against such a heavily armoured foe. While he could just banish the Incursio user, he opted not to.
Instead, he resorted to his second favourite element.
He felt the sharp tug on his core as he felt the attack drain him more than anything he had done today.
There was a flash of light, accompanied by the echoing crack of air being displaced and burnt.
A flash of lightning arced out of Harry's palm, shooting out from between his fingers as it flashed across the room, not giving Tatsumi even a moment to dodge before it struck like, shockingly enough, lightning.
For a second there was stillness, Tatsumi frozen with a bolt of lightning arcing though the air from Harry's hand to his chest like some kind of vivid, yellow crack in the air.
Then the gears of time flew forward once more.
Tatsumi was sent hurtling across the chapel, the crackling bolt of lightning slamming him against the opposite wall before dispersing in a flash of devastating energy, sending the Incursio user through the wall that had already been cratered by his impact.
There was perfect silence for a single, tiny moment before Susanoo tried to slam his hand into Esdeaths head, Esdeath catching his wrist in her left hand and hurling him over her back where he flipped in mid-air and landed, skidding across the ground as Esdeath sent a wave of small ice spears shooting into his armoured body.
He staggered back another step, preparing to attack. Then Esdeath moved.
She seemed to materialize in front of him, blade flashing faster than he could react as she slashed him multiple times across the chest in a matter on moments, easily piercing the armour provided to him by his trump card.
Leaping back in an attempt to escape her, Susanoo reached out a hand, materializing his massively overly long sword in it as he landed and swinging it in a wide arc towards Esdeath, slicing away at the chairs in the way like a hot knife through butter.
Esdeath reacted, throwing up a series of ice wall between her and the blade.
The blade slammed into the walls, half cutting and half melting its way through each of them, Esdeath leaping up above it as it swept past, Harry following suite a moment later.
Landing softly Esdeath gave Susanoo a bloodthirsty grin.
"Impressive strength. But it will never be able to reach me."
Susanoo just smile, dematerializing the blade in his hand as he pointed behind her.
"Maybe not, but what about those behind you?"
Her eyes widened, relaxing slightly when she glance over to her right and saw that Harry was, in fact, still in one piece, before turning her attention to the dust covered platform where Borick and Kurome where.
"Kurome! Are you okay?!"
The dust cleared away to reveal Natala holding Borick and Kurome, one under each arm as Kurome waved at them.
"We're all fine!"
Natala placed the two down before collapsing forward, much to Kurome's alarm as she knelt down next to him.
Esdeath ground her teeth in rage and annoyance as a ball of ice shards began to form above her, pulling her cap low over her eyes.
"So I can't even enjoy myself fighting properly? Harry, remind me never to do guard duty again, no matter what the Prime Minister says."
She glared at Susanoo, thrusting her hands forward and sending out a wave of ice shards from the ball above her head towards him.
"So much for capturing you all. I'll just riddle you full of holes!"
The wave of ice shards flew at Susanoo who thrust his hand in front of him, his massive mirror appearing between him and the projectiles, reflecting them back at Esdeath. She leapt out of the way, Susanoo seeing an opening and leaping around her, rocketing towards Borick.
Harry leapt forward to intercept, vanishing with a loud pop and reappearing in front of Susanoo as he tried to stop him, eyes widening in surprise at the sudden relocation and head swimming slightly from the sensation of being pushed through a tube.
Susanoo's hand swept towards his chest.
Harry threw up his hands in a desperate attempt to block, knowing it was too slow.
Esdeath spun, eyes widening as she realised what was about to happen.
She moved her hands together above her chest, framing the mark of her Teigu as a terrible, incomprehensible, fury filled her.
There was a flash.
Susanoo's hand started to pierce Harry's chest, a trickle of blood starting to form.
Then there was ice.
The world froze, the gears of time grinding to a halt.
And then a furious, raging, blizzard struck with the fury of a demon lord.
-T.G.O-
And that is chapter 21 complete!
I really hope that you all enjoyed it!
Personally I feel like this could be a turning point for Harry and Esdeaths relationship, with Esdeath finally noticing/accepting that she does have feelings for him.
Anyway, I quite like this chapter myself, but as always, any likes, dislikes, advice, ideas or constructive criticism are all welcome and appreciated.
So please review!
Also, did anyone see what I did with the whole lightning pun? I'm not sure whether to be proud or ashamed, to be honest. Actually, I'd rather not be Honest. He's a fat bastard.
…
…
…
…
I know, I was in an odd mood while I wrote this chapter. Sorry.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the story so far!
See you next time and thanks for reading!