Chapter 43 He's Back
As a group of experienced assassins, the members of Night Raid always converse with everyone to determine their best course of action in their respective operations. Normally everything should just fall into place as their Boss, Najenda, commands.
However, something isn't really right at this moment…
Sitting in front of the Black Reaper, Najenda finds herself at a loss of words again.
It should not have been like this…
Najenda has planned for this meeting since the beginning of the day, and she has thoroughly prepared herself with the necessary information, the indispensable courage, and the imperative force of leadership to give an order to Hei. Everything should just fall into their corresponding places, and Najenda herself should be able to host a meeting just like many other ones before.
Yet, seeing Hei enter the room breaks everything apart. It almost as if the Black Reaper contains that invisible force field to prevent everyone else from intervening with his businesses.
Something is not right here…
Reestablishing her breathing patterns, the leader of the young assassins takes a heavy sigh at the situation in front of her, and takes her initiative.
"Hei, before we start, I want to inform you that we are not treating you as an amateur, thus we are not assigning you this following mission as our evaluation of your skills like we did with Tatsumi."
"Continue."
Seeing that the Black Reaper is cooperating, Najenda nods lightly at the masked man, and advances to explain the assignment she had planned.
"Recently, there have been constant murders in the capital at night times, and we are assuming that a Teigu-user is behind those operations. I would like you to confirm our suspicions. Akame will accompany you."
"…"
Calculating something behind his white mask, Hei considers the potential risks silently at his first assignment.
Sure, it would be nice to gather more information regarding the empire, and this information would be beneficial for his own schemes; however, he was, and still is, the empire's most wanted criminal.
Still, when did being the most wanted criminal ever stop Hei from taking risks?
"Understood."
Evaluating his chances, the Black Reaper stands up from his seat and calmly walks out of the room.
Inspecting the masked man in front of her, the crimson-eyed assassin emotionlessly follows the footsteps of the Black Reaper, at the same time thinking about something seemingly important.
Akame can sense it.
Since her encounter with the man a few hours ago, she has felt something about him that is different. Even though his words are strictly analytical, and his actions only are only confined to the rational ones, something inside of him has changed.
Something that she cannot describe.
Perhaps it is her intuition at work?
Blinking a couple of times, the young assassin's heart is once more filled with a strange desire to unmask the Black Reaper.
…
For Hei, it is very fortunate that this is the only mission he has received from the leader of the young assassins since he became their partners. On one hand, the Black Reaper has been dedicating himself into his who-knows-what experimentations in that restricted laboratory, making time the most precious commodity others can offer. On the other hand, he really needs to gather more intelligence over the capital to process forward in his plans with Shion, so this is the chance to do so.
After a few calculated clutches and jumps, the two supposed criminals easily make their way into the eastern side of the capital without any authoritative notices.
Let's not talk about how suspicious the brown coat that Akame is wearing right now is, but that pale mask on Hei's face…
How are people not going to report that if they see it accidentally?
"Take care of the western territory. I will handle the northern territory. Do not let them see your face. The density of wanted posters are well above the mean in that area."
Watching Hei slowly walks toward the north, the katana-wielder also impassively proceeds to the western side.
Maybe that is why there is a tacit understanding between the two assassins.
If they see an objective, they will go and directly fulfill that intention in the most sufficient way possible.
…
Turning quickly into a narrow ally of the city, the Black Reaper takes his speed down, and observes his surroundings to make sure that nobody is within the fifty-meter radius.
"Appliances extremely unusual, can be used to hide, but will attract unwanted attention when blending in the crowd."
Making his judgements on his current customs, the Black Reaper comes to his decision.
Carefully removing his Reaper mask, Hei quietly places it into his inner pocket of the black robe. Within a fraction of a minute, the black robe is taken off and folded neatly on top of his hands. Before he finishes his transformation by hiding his clothes behind a pile of unnoticed bricks, Hei takes out his signature glasses that he used to fool everyone in the Elder Basin and sets them in front of his eyes.
"Data gathering, begin."