Out in the practice yard, Tatsumi, Susanoo and Lubbock were sparring with each other in a three-way hand-to-hand battle. In an effort to make it relatively fair for the other two, since they weren't using Imperial Arms, Susanoo pulled some of his punches and focused mainly on defense. However, even without their weapons those two were still strong fighters and he didn't have to hold back too badly. Their match was cut short, however, when they heard a crash above their heads. Tatsumi had just enough time to look up and see debris heading straight for him before he leaped clear. As the debris crashed down where he had been standing, he brought one arm up to ward off the glass pieces that were flying everywhere.
A second crash soon followed, and this time they saw a streak of yellow diving straight for the first pile. Just as it was about to impact, someone leaped out of the pile and moved well back. Neither Lubbock nor Tatsumi had enough time to see who it was before the streak landed, creating a rather large crater and sending debris flying everywhere. When the dust finally settled, it revealed Leone in the middle of the crater she had made and Haru standing well back, looking cautious and pissed off.
Rather than talk with her, Haru just stood there and prepared himself for her next move. He had been lucky to dodge her blows in such a confined space. While his room wasn't really that small, it sure felt that way when someone like Leone was seriously trying to hit you. However, it didn't look like her frustration had burned itself out just yet. And sure enough, at some unknown signal she charged him again with a growl. Sidestepping the blow aimed at his head, Haru didn't see her knee coming up until it was too late. While it didn't break or rupture anything, it freaking hurt and sent him into the wall.
Bracing his hands on the wall to keep himself from sliding down, he had just enough time to register her fist coming for his head again before he ducked to the side. He heard a crash from the impact and could only imagine the hole she had made as he tried to get clear of her. "For crying out loud, Leone! Are you trying to kill me?" he asked as she turned to him again. "Maybe I am," she said, getting ready to attack, "You only have yourself to blame for this, Haru." "What in the hell did I do to deserve this?" Haru asked before he was forced to leap clear of another blow. "I just thought it was about time I tried beating some sense into you," she responded as she continued to throw punches and swipes, "You don't seem willing to accept the truth any other way, so I hope you're ready for some pain!"
"Only if you're ready for some in return. Zündung!" Haru replied as he continued to dodge her blows. At his command, he created fire around his right fist before bracing himself and throwing a punch of his own. She met it with her own fist, and the impact was loud as his fire exploded against her raw strength. While this didn't do much more than singe the fur on her paw, it did give him enough of a buffer so his hand wasn't pulverized on impact. Repeating the process, he surrounded his other hand in fire before fighting back. This just seemed to drive Leone to try harder as she held back less of her strength now that he could take more.
Watching these two fighting, Tatsumi, Lubbock and Susanoo were torn on what to do. On the one hand they wanted to stop the fight before one of them got seriously hurt, but they could also tell that this was a personal matter. "What should we do?" Tatsumi asked, trying to figure out what was wrong. After a bit of thought, Lubbock replied, "We do nothing." "What? But she could kill him," Tatsumi replied, looking at his friend. "Leone has more control than that," Lubbock said, crossing his arms, "I would guess she has a good reason for doing this, and I wouldn't want to interfere. If you want to step between two masters of destruction, then go ahead." Tatsumi just gulped as he imagined himself being pulverized or burned up.
Meanwhile, Haru had been doing fairly well in his fight with Leone. He had figured out by now that she was holding back so she didn't actually kill him, but it wasn't by much. He was sure that the moment he slipped up and gave her an opening, he would feel some kind of impact that would send him flying across the yard. Can't disengage or she'll use that to push me back further. I also can't really push back without risking serious injury. So, I guess I'm stuck in a stale-mate. Deflecting another punch, Haru returned it with a blow of his own only to have Leone catch his fist. At that point, he realized he had fucked up when her grip tightened. "Got you know," she said, her eyes all predatory glee.
Twisting around, she locked her arms around his forearm and flipped him over her shoulder. Haru landed on his back, winded and briefly seeing stars before Leone was standing over him. "Have I beaten the dumbass out of you yet?" she asked as she brought her fist down again. Rolling to the side, Haru placed a hand on the ground and whispered, "thýella." He was quickly surrounded by a ring of fire that he expanded rapidly, forcing Leone to get clear or get burned up. Now that she had been forced back, Haru got up and dusted himself off, still angry with her insistence.
"No, you haven't changed my mind," he replied, "And you're not going to. I'm sorry, Leone, I really am. But this is something you can't fix." Turning back to the building, Haru let the fire go out as he walked back inside. For a moment, Leone considered pressing the issue further and attacking again. But she had seen the look in his eyes, and she could tell that he wasn't going to change his mind over this. After he had walked through the door, Tatsumi and Lubbock walked over only to yelp when Leone growled in frustration and punched another hole into the wall. "That idiot," she muttered, still pissed off.
Walking back to his room, Haru quickly gathered his things before making his way down the hall to one of the empty room. Same kind of set up, minus the two holes in the previous room, for which he was thankful. "I should have just kept my mouth shut," he mumbled as he put his stuff away in the new room. That done, he flopped onto the bed and tried to get some sleep, completely wiped out. He was exhausted after using so much fire and the partial attempt on his life. He was also struggling to regain control over his raging mind, since her attack had caused his previous convictions to be, once again, called into question. I really need a distraction he thought as he drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, they executed their plan to lure the Jaegers out. As it turns out, Najenda's idea was to have Mine and Akame intentionally blow their cover in one of the nearby towns. They would then meet up with Najenda, publicly, and make their way south at a reasonable pace. It wasn't a bad plan, honestly, since all three women were notorious in the capital. Even though that would only be a problem in and around the capital itself, it was inevitable that people loyal to it would report them.
Sure enough, almost a day later they got word from the spies near one of the gates that the Jaegers had left the city and were heading straight for them. "They noticed us a lot faster than I thought they would," Haru commented. They had stopped at a lake a few miles from the most recent town they had stopped in, and the girls had decided to take the time to go swimming. Well, to be more accurate, Leone and Chelsea decided to go swimming. Sheele was too nervous to change outside, while Mine and Akame had to keep their distance from everyone else to avoid blowing the whole thing.
"Well, those two made it pretty obvious," Lubbock replied from his chair, stretching and yawning, "They'd have to be blind not to notice them." "So, how are we going to separate them?" Tatsumi asked, "The boss doesn't expect us to take them all at once, does she?" "What, you don't think you could do it?" Haru asked. "Of course I could!" Tatsumi boasted, "In fact, I bet that I could take them alone." "In your dreams, newbie," Haru said, laughing when Tatsumi shot him a glare, "Actually, I'm not quite sure how she plans to get them to split. Let's just hope that they split in the way we want them to."
"Well, it's too bad you're missing out on seeing Akame in a swim suit," Lubbock said, changing the topic and causing Haru to flinch. "I don't understand why that's important," Susanoo said, looking between the two. "Don't worry, big man, you will soon enough," Lubbock replied, patting his arm. Deciding to remain silent, Haru shifted into a more comfortable position and closed his eyes. He also worked to tune out the outside noise, especially when Leone and Chelsea decided to tease Tatsumi. At which point he began going over his own plans and tried to refine them a bit more. I can't risk asking for help he thought, scowling, they're just as likely to try to stop me as they are to help me, friends or not.
While it was frustrating to admit, he would just have to wait and see how things played out. If he was lucky, then the group they isolated wouldn't include Bols at all. But what about Kurome he wondered, feeling his frustration starting to peak. If he was uncomfortable letting Bols get killed, then he was outright opposed to the idea of killing Kurome. To him, it didn't matter what she had done in the past; she was still Akame's sister, and he would have a very hard time just standing by while she got executed. Which means I may have to step in on her behalf, too he realized, trying to remain calm. This was getting more complicated the more he thought about it, and it was starting to make his head hurt. That is, until he was suddenly drenched in water.
Gasping, his eyes shot open to reveal a laughing Leone as she bent down to splash more water. "You need to stop looking so serious, Haru!" she said as she splashed him again. "Yeah, that scowl isn't attractive at all!" Chelsea added, laughing as he sighed in frustration. "Okay, now you're asking for it," he said as he walked over to the shore. Channeling his power into his boot, he kicked a bit of water back at her and smiled as Leone yelped and jumped back. "Hey, that's hot!" she said, trying to look mad. "Well, of course it is. I'm a fire-wielder, remember?" he replied, grinning. Needless to say, she didn't take that lying down. The next hours was spent seeing which of them could withstand more, and their laughter echoed off the trees and rocks.
A while later, they were dried off, changed and back on the road. The next morning, they came to the place where they would be able to set their trap. Najenda and Chelsea, disguised as Mine, had broken off from their group a little way back and had gone a different way, while Akame had continued on with the rest of Night Raid shadowing her from the trees. Now they were on a canyon road, and Haru was helping Susanoo set up his part of the distraction. How Najenda had come up with this idea, he didn't know, but he admired the…creativity of it as he turned the big man into a large scarecrow.
"I can't believe she actually expects this to work," Haru mumbled as he worked. Leone just grinned as she helped Susanoo put the head on. Their distraction completed, they all made their way to cover behind the nearby trees and rocks. Lubbock fell way back and spread out his wire net, taking up his position to monitor the area. Crouching behind his rock, Haru loosened his sword in its sheath and settled in to wait. They had purposely slowed their pace to give the Jaegers time to catch up, so if they decided to split and go after both parties then someone would arrive within the next hour or two.
Sure enough, almost an hour later they got the signal from Lubbock that several people were approaching their position; three to be precise. Okay, its show time Haru thought as he prepared to move. Not too long after Lubbock warned them, he heard the approach of three horses at a steady gallop. And just as they had planned, the appearance of a random scarecrow brought them to a halt to investigate. Taking a deep breath, he tried to steady his nerves as he waited for the signal.
Almost five seconds after they had stopped, he heard the crack of Pumpkin firing. That was their signal to move, and he could imagine how it looked when Susanoo burst from the scarecrow and charged them. "Kurome!" he heard as he moved, the voice unmistakably Wave's. Haru rounded his rock just as he was sent flying by the larger man, and he saw that their plan had actually worked flawlessly. With Wave out of the picture, they were now facing Kurome and Bols, both of which looked surprised at the ambush as well as when all of Night Raid (minus Chelsea, Lubbock and Mine) came out and faced off with them.
"Well, it's fortunate that we got the bystander out of the way first," Najenda said, "Bols, Kurome, you are our targets in the Jaegers today. I hope you're prepared." Haru didn't miss how they both glanced at him, and he couldn't help but feel like dirt as he brought his sword out. Bols seemed to be the most troubled by it, with Kurome quickly focusing her attention on Akame. "I'm glad you decided to face me rather than run away," she said as she brought her scabbard up, "I was hoping to see you again, so that I could add you to Yatsufusa's collection." "And just what the hell does that mean?" Haru asked. He regretted it a moment later.
Bringing her sword out, Kurome held it over her head and smiled as a sphere of black energy formed at its tip. The ground suddenly began to quake, and he saw several hands burst up behind her. This wasn't nearly as surprising as when a massive skeleton hand emerged from the ground underneath her, lifting her up as the rest of the beast emerged. The creature was massive; easily one of the largest Danger Beasts Haru had ever seen. The fact that it was a skeleton didn't diminish the shock as it stared at them.
"As you can see, I'm much stronger than I used to be," Kurome told them, still smiling, "I can make the body of any creature my puppet now, even if it's a Ultra-class Danger Beast." Pointing her free hand at them, she commanded, "Destaghoul, scatter them!" Opening its jaw, the dragon prepared its attack while the others just stared at her in shock. "She can use something like that?!" Tatsumi asked, trembling slightly even in his armor, "How are we supposed to fight that?" "Start by dodging, newbie!" Haru said as he dashed over and grabbed Akame's wrist. This seemed to shake them all out of their trance as everyone dashed for cover.
Almost two seconds after they began to move, Destaghoul fired off a massive blast from its mouth and pulverized the area where they had stood. Haru and Akame had managed to dash down a side passage in the cliffs, and they cringed as the wind roared past them from the blast. He hadn't had enough time to see if the others had gotten clear in time, but he prayed that they had. "That's one impressive sword to be able to control a monster like that," he said as the wind subsided. "It's impressive to me, too," Akame said as she looked out into the dust cloud, "It wasn't too long ago when controlling a normal Danger Beast was difficult for her."
As the dust had settled, they ventured out and Haru marveled at the crater. He didn't have much time before Bols walked out of the clouds and squared off with them. "Esdeath had told us you had rejected her offer," he said, bringing the business end of his flame thrower out, "But I didn't think you would stoop so low as to resort to black mail." "What are you talking about?" "You went to my home," Bols said, his voice growing cold, "You met with my family. Even if you didn't do anything, that's warning enough. I thought you were a decent person, but clearly I was wrong."
Before Haru could respond, Bols fired. The flames moved quickly, and Haru could feel their strength even at a distance. Moving in front of Akame, he brought his hand up and focused. As the fire hit his palm, he directed it around them in a wide dome. The attack neutralized, Akame moved through the smoke from the blast and leaped at Bols only to be blocked by a bald man. Her blade hit home, slicing into his forearms, but instead of going down from the poison he just stood in front of Bols and brought out the shield he had strapped to his back.
As Kurome talked about her various puppets, Haru toned out all of their descriptions except for the one in front of him. So, he's a former body guard. That should mean he's only specialized in defense Haru reasoned as they stared at each other. "Why, Haru?" Bols asked, "Why would you side with them?" "You know why I chose Night Raid," Haru replied, "Don't act like you haven't seen the evil the Empire has committed. I refuse to be a part of that." "Oh, I know very well what has been done," Bols said, looking down, "I can't say I agree with it, but it is what my job requires of me. I know people would hate me for it, but if it wasn't by me then it would have been another. I accepted a long time ago that someone would try to kill me for it."
"Then I won't feel bad about the next few minutes," Haru said, charging. The body guard was right in his way, however, and his sword just rebounded off the shield. Determined to keep his attention, Haru sent a flurry of attacks at the man, forcing him to remain on the defensive. Using that distraction, Akame moved around him and came at Bols again. He was quicker than she thought, however, and she was forced to dodge another blast of fire before she could get close enough. Leaping back from the body guard, Haru decided to take a different approach. "Akame, switch!" he said as he moved to get past the guard.
She took his meaning and moved to stop him while Haru made for Bols. "I see," Bols said, as he prepared to fire again, "Not a bad strategy. Let's see how well it will work!" Instead of firing directly at Haru, he fired at the ground and spread the fire out into a massive carpet. "Sorry, Bols, but that won't work!" Haru replied as he dashed into the flames. Manipulating his own powers, Haru created a shield against the heat as he moved through the fire. Bols clearly wasn't prepared for this, but the body guard somehow was. Deflecting Akame's latest strike, he turned around and pointed the shield at Haru, firing off several knives from a hidden compartment.
Haru was forced to break off his charge as he turned and deflected the knives. This gave Bols an opening as he prepared to fire at Haru. Using the momentum of his turn, Haru grabbed one of his own knives and whipped back around, crying, "zündung!" Throwing the charged blade, he cursed his rushed aim as the blade flew wide of his mark. Its explosion, however, was enough to throw Bols' aim, causing his blast to miss Haru by inches.
Planting one of his hands on the ground, Haru fed his own power into the diminishing carpet of fire and caused it to grow larger. Bols clearly wasn't prepared for this as he took a step backwards. Freed from Akame, the body guard moved back to protect Bols while Haru gathered the fire around himself. He condensed the energy and let it crawl up his left arm before standing up again, imagining how he must look with an arm on fire. "Thanks for the power, Bols," he said as he pointed that arm at them, "But let me show you why fighting fire with fire is so dangerous. Thýella!"
At his command, the fire leaped from his arm and shot back at the two men. The body guard braced himself for the impact, but Haru knew that under normal circumstances there was no defending against an attack like this. Thankfully for them, he wasn't trying to kill them outright. Instead, he spread the flames out wider, reducing their power on impact. The blast was still rather larger, and convincing enough to anyone that didn't know the full nature of his powers. Unfortunately, Akame was one such person, although she seemed more focused on the battle than whether he was holding back or not.
Still, she seemed surprised when the two men emerged from the blast in one piece, and she briefly glanced at Haru in confusion before her attention returned to their opponents. "Was that all you can manage?" Bols asked, "I got the impression you were much stronger than that." "Well, to be honest, I do have a technique that could blow you both away," Haru admitted, smiling coldly, "But I'd rather not be rendered useless."
Their conversation was cut short by a large explosion behind them, and Haru risked a glance back to see what had happened. He saw what looked like a buffer, flashier version of Susanoo battling against the Destaghoul, and he hoped the big man could handle it. He also heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots in the distance, as well as several other crashes from what was probably Tatsumi's battle. "So, are we going to finish this?" Akame asked, bringing her sword up, "Or are you going to keep hesitating?" "No, I think I got that out of my system now," Haru replied as he summoned fire around his sword blade, "Let's finish this." Hopefully, in the way I intend.
Moving together, Haru and Akame charged straight for the body guard. She went high and he went low, giving him little chance to stop them both. To his credit, he tried. Bringing his shield up to block Akame, he tried to use his other arm to grab Haru's wrist and stop his attack. While Akame's blade was stopped, Haru shifted his attack and let the fire rush down the blade and onto his hand. Shifting his sword to his left hand, he brought his right one up and punched it into the guard's palm, sending the fire up the man's arm.
It worked quickly as it ate through his clothing and flesh. Because of his nature as a puppet, he didn't scream or flail around as others would have. However, it didn't matter as Haru backed off while feeding it more energy. Given enough time, it would consume the man and leave him useless. "Your guard is out of the picture now, Bols," Haru said, turning to the man, "And you know your attacks are useless against me. So, what will you do?" Looking between the two, Bols weighed his options carefully.
"I guess I have no choice, then," he said, reaching up and unclipping the straps holding the turbine to his back. What the heck is he doing Haru wondered. There was no way he was going to try and surrender, he was too smart to assume he could. Instead, he grabbed the thing and threw it into the air before bringing out a remote trigger. "Wait, you're not-?" Haru began before he realized that this guy wasn't bluffing, "Akame, get down!"
There was no way he was going to move fast enough to defend them both from the blast. He would just have to hope she would get to safety in time. As Bols hit the trigger, the last thing Haru saw before the explosion blinded him was Leone grabbing the shield from the guard and moving in front of Akame. At which point, he was forced to focus his power to create a shield as the blast tried to consume him. The sound was intense, to the point where he felt it in his bones as he struggled to keep his footing and his shield of fire up.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, the blast subsided and Haru collapsed to his knees, panting. The moment it fully registered that he was, in fact, still alive, he had the urge to rush over and make sure Akame was okay. But then he remembered seeing Leone, as well as his own mission in all of this. Bols would have used that as a gambit to escape Haru thought as he forced himself onto his feet, I have to find him before the others do. Moving off down the one path he would have used for escape, Haru focused the last of his power into keeping himself standing and alert.
After a while, he heard the sound of crying not too far off, followed by the sound of Bols' voice. There aren't any children around here he thought as he moved faster. As he burst through into the clearing, he watched as Bols was kneeling down to hug a small girl, and it all clicked. Walking forward calmly, he said, "On your feet, Bols." Haru's tone was pure steel, and Bols visibly stiffened as he stood up and turned to face him. Even with his mask on, Haru could tell that he was struggling to keep up a brave face. Without breaking eye contact, Haru said, "Thank you for distracting him, Chelsea. I will take it from here."
The girl stared at him in shock before standing up and changing back into a clearly ticked-off Chelsea. "I could have handled this alone, Haru," she said, puffing her cheeks out in annoyance. "I know, and that's what I'm afraid of," he replied, turning his attention to Bols. "You traded your Imperial Arms for a chance to escape," he summarized, watching as Bols stiffened further, "You're unarmed and completely at our mercy. So, now the question is; what do we do with you?"