Hello guys! :) I got a shorter chapter for you, but a chapter nonetheless. Enjoy ^^


Soul in the Dream

CHAPTER 15

(Hitomi's POV)

A week has passed since I received my awesome new Teigu. Unfortunately, we weren't needed to assassinate anyone, which was kinda sad because I really wanted to try out Spectator in actual combat. So instead, I decided to train my body with the help of everyone else.

This morning, the Boss had said that we had two missions to accomplish. I was really eager to finally go out. Except...

"Tatsumi, Leone. You'll pair up to go after the drug smuggling leaders."

"Alright!" "You got it!"

"Mine, Sheele. I want you two to take care of Chibul."

"D'aww...", I pouted when I learned I wouldn't go today.

When we were dismissed, an idea popped into my head. I quickly looked for Akame and went to see her.

"Hey Akame?" The raven-haired girl turned her head towards me when she heard her name.

"Hmm? Oh, what is it, Hitomi?", she asked me.

"Sorry for the sudden request, but can you help me train today?", I asked her with a polite tone. Better be respectful to our senpai, y'know? She gave me a small smile.

"I don't have anything planned, so sure.", she nodded her head.

"Good, thanks!", I bowed my head a little. "You see, after watching you fight Zank, I realised that I should be very fast and agile if I want to use Spectator well.", I explained as I pointed the closed eye on my forehead. "I figured you would be the best one to help with that." She nodded and asked me to follow her in the training yard, which I obliged.

A few minutes later, Akame and I were standing face to face, wooden swords in our hands. The whole point was to react fast enough to enemy movement, so I kept Spectator on, activating the eye.

"The first lesson would've been to try and predict attacks, but I think your Teigu takes care of that.", Akame said, taking a battle stance, which I did too.

'I'll rush him and aim for his neck while I talk.', the black-haired assassin thought, which didn't go unnoticed by me.

"Therefore,", Akame continued, suddenly rushing towards me at high speeds. But I knew Akame's speed, so I was prepared. Before the wooden blade could touch me, I blocked it with my own.

"Therefore, we'll go straight to the actual practice.", I finished with a smirk. "That's what you were thinking, right?", I comically asked, imitating Zank, Spectator's previous owner.

'I'll spin and aim his legs.', my friend thought. She spun, and before she could hit me, I jumped back, avoiding her attack. I knew she was going easy on me, but I couldn't be more thankful. Starting easy like this helped me adapt myself to my Teigu's abilities.

"I love this Teigu.", I stated with a smile. "Of course, I can't kill people in one cut like Murasame, but powerful nonetheless."

"I'm honestly surprised you managed to get a Teigu in such a short time.", Akame added, taking a combat stance once again. 'Left jab, followed by a kick to the knee. I'll finish with a slash to the throat.', she planned.

My comrade then ran towards me, ready to attack. I quickly moved to my left to avoid her jab and spun my body 90 degrees to the right to dodge her kick. She didn't falter and aimed at my neck, like she planned. I knew I wouldn't have time to block with my sword, so I raised my left hand in hope of catching her arm holding the sword. Unfortunately for me, she saw it coming and raised her blade, aiming at my hand instead. I read it in her mind, but my arm was too slow to react, so I got 'slashed' on the hand by Akame's sword.

"Awww crap.", I pouted, dropping my stance.

"You shouldn't rely on your Teigu's abilities too much.", Akame told me. "You were more focused into reading my next move than to adapt to the situation. I made a split decision to aim at your hand and you were too slow to respond to the changes of the attack plan you saw in my mind.", she explained.

"Yeah, I know that.", I shrugged, not offended in the least by her direct pointing of my weakness. I took an attack stance once again. "But that's why I'm training!", I said as I dashed forward to attack.


The entire day passed and I was, for a lack of a better term, beat up. The moment Akame decided to go all out, this training's level was way passed the 'newbie assassin' level. But I did manage to get a few 'slashes' at her, which surprised her even though I used my Teigu.

"We should stop for today.", Akame breathed. Like me, she was covered in sweat and panting. "I'm impressed by the progress you made.", she told me. "I can already see you're a lot stronger than this morning."

"Hannn... Thanks...", I panted with a smile. She was right, I did feel stronger than I was. This training was really paying off.

"In the mean time, we should be on our way to prepare dinner.", Akame told me.

"We?"

"You're helping me today."

"Oh." Since Tatsumi wasn't here, I figured she needed a cooking buddy. "What're we making?", I asked.

"Beef over rice.", she replied with a thumb up.

"You really are a true meat eater, you know that?", I sighed at Akame's absurd love for meat. Well, I can't blame her; I love it as well.


"Ahhhhhh, that hits the spot!", Leone exclaimed after she finished her plate. She and Tatsumi came early from their job. It seems the mission went well. Mine and Sheele had yet to come back, though...

"You're a better cook than expected.", Akame praised me while swiping her mouth with a handkerchief.

"Awwww, stop, you'll make me blush.", I said while scratching my head.

"Like when you were seeing through everyone's clothes?", Leone joked with a sly smile as she jabbed me on the arm.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me...", I sighed. "I was taken by surprise. That's all!", I defended myself, waving my arms in front of me.

"At least you have the ability to do it, you bastard!", Lubbock yelled from across the table. He was crying anime-style, so I figured he was pretty jealous.

"Oh, come on.", I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I'm gonna abuse it, right?" The stares everyone gave me told me that they didn't trust my statement one bit... "In my defense, it's better that I have Spectator rather than Lubba."

"Hey!"

My... thoughtful argument seemed to convince the others as they dropped their glares and continued to eat while retaking the conversation they had.


Later this night, Lubbock sensed a single person slowly walk their way towards the hideout. Not taking any chances, we all made our way out. It couldn't be Mine and Sheele, because numbers. We could see the person's silhouette coming towards us in a slow pace, but we couldn't identify who it was. Remembering what my Teigu was, I activated it and used the Farsight ability, which allowed me, in this case, to see well in the dark.

"M-Mine!?", I stammered as I saw the identity of the person coming to our hideout. I cringed when I saw that she was badly hurt. Upon hearing me say Mine's name, the others quickly rushed towards her to see if she was okay.

"Mine! What happened!?", Tatsumi asked her, fear and worry evident in his eyes. He looked around the pinkette, looking for- wait, where was Sheele...?

"Where's Sheele...?", I asked in a low tone. I didn't need Spectator to predict what was coming, but I needed to be sure...

The pinkette dropped her head, a few tears pouring out. "Sheele was..." She couldn't finish her sentence.

'No way...', I thought, clenching my fist. 'No fucking way.' I looked around and saw that everyone was devastated by the news.

"Wh-Where is the person who did it...?", Tatsumi asked, a few tears apparent in his eyes. The pinkette didn't respond... "Mine?!", the brown-haired teen repeated with hints of anger.

"Wait.", the Boss interrupted with an emotionless voice. "What do you intend to do, Tatsumi?", she asked.

"It's obvious, isn't it?!", he yelled with rage. "Revenge!"

"Stop.", Najenda told him. "If you go off half-cocked, all you will be doing is increasing the body count.", she told him calmly.

"Hey! Our friend was killed!", the brunette continued his rant. "Do you think I'm just going to sit here and stay silent?!" He was going to continue but we were all surprised when Bulat came up and punched Tatsumi right in the jaw, sending him flying a couple feet.

"Stop acting like a child, Tatsumi!", the man yelled, tears in his eyes. "Compose yourself! When did anyone ever said that we couldn't be harmed or killed?! You knew this could happen when you agreed to join us!"

I turned my head away from the commotion Tatsumi started. Looking at Mine, I saw that her head was still down, deep in thought. Curious, I activated Insight to take a look inside her mind. I knew this was an invasion of privacy, but if she couldn't tell us who did this to our teammate, I would get the information by any means.

'I knew you were doing your duty...', the pinkette thought. 'I know this is our punishment... I know all of that, but... but you killed Sheele. And you will be hunting us from now on...

Seryu Ubiquitous! I will certainly take you down!'

"Seryu, huh... I'll remember that...", I muttered. Mine turned her eyes towards me, seemingly the only one who heard me. I think she knows I invaded her mind, but she didn't say anything.

"Sheele's death was certainly not pointless.", the Boss announced, clenching her fist. "The Empire will now finally understand; it takes a Teigu to fight a Teigu. And now they will bring in more Teigu users to fight for them. But what this means for us... is that the chances to collect more Teigu will increase!"


(Normal POV)

Just outside the Capital, a giant wyvern was perched atop a cliff. It looked extremely powerful, but its more interesting trait was the woman sitting on its back.

"I'm home, Capital.", Esdeath, the Empire's strongest, said from her seat. A smile came to her face, anticipating the fun she would have with whatever enemies she was asked to come fight...


Yeah... Writing the death of a comrade is no fun at all... :/