"HAAYYYYYA!" Ruby yelled as she delivered a Spin kick which Leone blocked, and then she docked and tried a leg swipe with her other leg which Leone barely managed to dodge.
And while Leone was mid-dodge, Ruby threw an uppercut that connected with Leones chin, throwing the blonde off as she staggers.
"Ouch..." Leone groaned as she rubbed her chin "Nice one! You're getting even better!"
"Thanks. So let's continue." Ruby nodded and got back to her stance.
"You should take a break sweetheart." Leone said "Remember what I said about pushing yourself?"
"Yeah but I can still go. Serious." Ruby said "How about one more round then?"
"Okay, Sure." Leone nodded "One more."
Ruby then Rushed in...not noticing Bulat casually stepped in her way with his fist raised, Causing Ruby to gasp and barely dodging Bulats punch without the use of her Semblance and jumped back.
"Bulat what the heck was that for?!" Ruby yelled.
"Just wanting you to know to be careful when you casually rush in without being aware of your surroundings or enemies." Bulat said "You might unknowingly run straight into your enemies attack without knowing. Be careful on that."
"...Okay, fine." Ruby sighed, wiping some sweat from her forehead.
"And If you're up for it, You, me and Tatsumi all can go to training all together if you wanna!" Bulat said, Unintentionally using his Semblance as always.
"Um, O-Okay! Sure!" Ruby nodded, trying not to be effected by Bulats semblance too much.
"Awww~ Then you're gonna be away?~" Leone wined "That sucks. I wanted to cuddle you all day~~~"
"L-Leone please not right now!" Ruby begged.
"Ha ha ha! aah Young Love." Bulat laughed.
And yes. Ruby and the girls all had told the others about How Ruby was officially a Harem Protag now.
And they all had their own reactions:
Tatsumi was blushing red but congratulated them a ton.
Bulat was on extremely happy for them.
Mine threatened Ruby for the whole day to not break Sheeles heart.
Najenda agreed to it, even if she didn't feel that it was professional of them as assassins.
And Lastly...Lubbock stepped outside and tried to commit VOCAL SUICIDE by screaming his lungs out into the sky out of sheer jealousy. it almost took him 3 hours to finally stop his screaming.
But aside from that, Their Harem relationship wasn't the disaster Ruby thought it'd turn out to be. Akame, Leone and Sheele all were very much good at sharing and not be greedy. And they would even take turns to sleep alongside Ruby for nighttime. While Akame and Sheele would all casually sleep next to her, Leone on the other hand would hug and cuddle her for hours like an oversized cat while half naked. It would make Ruby blush red all night...but she couldn't help but like it non the less.
...Specially when Leone licked her ear a bit too in one of their sleepovers.
"Awwww. Okay sweetie. I'll leave the teasing for our private times~~~" Leone said, while Ruby became Reder than her own hood.
"Whoaaaa...We've never gone this far away from the hideout." Tatsumi said as he walked along a mountain side.
"This place is called 'fake mountain'. It's the most dangerous spot in the Capital Region. So be careful where you all step." Bulat explained "But I gotta say, I'm surprised you decided to come along too Akame!"
"I had my reasons." Akame answered, as She, Ruby and Tatsumi all followed Bulat, all with backpacks.
But with the difference that Akame had her new sheath with her.
"How's it holding up?" Ruby asked Akame.
"It Feels light actually, Despite looking heavier." Akame Answered, Looking down on her Sheath, seeing how well it stored Murasame.
"And did you remember your Ammo clips?" Ruby asked again.
"Mhm. Right here." Akame Nodded as she pointed at her new belt.
In order to carry the Ammo her sheath would need, Ruby managed to make up a new belt for Akame with small pockets around it for ammo storage. And in total, Akames new belt could store up to 7 clips for her sheath. 8 including he one she would already have in the sheath.
"Did you finally choose a name for it?" Ruby asked "It's yours, so you should pick a name for it! Something that goes along with Your Murasame too!"
"...I'm still thinking on that." Akame answered "And if you want, you an choose its name for me_
*CRASH!*
Ruby then gasps as she noticed Tatsumis backpack get destroyed as a giant wooden claw slashes away at his back!
they all looked over to see a giant Tree like Monster with a large Eye suddenly appear, Until Bulat pulled out his spear from his backpack and threw it at the tree like danger beast, Piercing it through it's eye and killing it right away.
"Those are called Tree beasts. If you let your guard down, they'll easily gobble you up." Bulat explained after throwing his spear "They populate fake mountain a lot. Alongside a lot more danger beasts that specialize in mimicry."
As he said that, Ruby noticed some of the trees, now revealed as tree beasts, move out of the fog. and there was even a few rocks and boulders with the same eye as the tree beasts moving out too.
"Battling these many is a good way for training! And let's gather up all the edible meat we can salvage from them!" Bulat said as he pulled his spear out of the first tree beast he killed.
"Right!" Tatsumi nodded as he pulled his sword out!
"Gotcha!" Ruby nodded next as she unfolded Cresent Rose.
"Wait." Akame said as she stepped forward "I was hoping for live targets to finally appear."
"Suit yourself." Bulat said as Akame Dashed forward toward one of the tree beasts!
She jumped up before one of its eyes, with her hand on Murasames hilt, And the other tightly gripping her sheeth and finger on it's trigger!
She took a deep breath, and then!
*BANG!*
*SWING!*
She pulled her sheaths trigger, and Murasame was shot out with so much speed that combined with her Aura, She slashed away at the Tree beast, Cutting it easily and perfectly vertical in half!
"WHOA!" Tatsumi gasped as he watched the Tree beast fall apart dead, and Akame lands down with some steam rising from her blade and some gun smoke coming from the inside of her sheath.
"...It works great." Akame said, looking at her sheath with a cheeky smile.
"See?! I told ya you'll love it!" Ruby happily cheered.
"Now that everyone has gathered," Najenda said, while everyone was in the meeting hall "I have 3 bad news to tell you. First, We've lost contanct with the Regional Team."
"Regional team?" Tatsumi asked.
"The Empire is vast. So while we deal with the capital, there is another assassination team that deal with the rest of the region." Akame explained.
"...And they might be all dead now?" Ruby asked.
"Possibly yes." Najenda bitterly nodded "And with that, We need more security for our own base."
"I'll set up more strings." Lubbock said.
"Good. Also, You all need to get better with your Aura training too." Najenda added.
"Got it." Ruby nodded.
"Alright, For the second bad news...General Esdeath has conquered the north and has returned." After Najenda informed, The entire room went into shock and fear.
"...So I'm willing to take a guess that since they have DEATH in their name, this General is terrifying." Ruby guessed.
"Take Budo and time him by 5 and you get Esdeath." Mine explained to Ruby, Who shuddered at the idea.
"She's always such a pain too." Lubbock sighed.
"...so...VERY TERRIFYING." Ruby guessed again.
"That still barely even describes Esdeath." Leone said.
"worst of all, Torture is her only Hobby." Bulat informed.
"Which has led her to know EVERY form of torture under the sun." Najenda said "So much so that you'd wish she'd kill you instead."
Ruby felt a chill run up her spine as she heard all of this. She just imagined Cinder or Tyrian, Times 5000000, and that should be this Esdeath they talked about.
"Leone, I want you to go to the capital and keep an Eye On Esdeath, See what she's up to." Najenda ordered.
"Got it!" Leone nodded.
"And Be careful." Najneda sternly.
"Alright, Alright." Leone nodded again.
...but Ruby felt extremely worried. Feeling that Leone was going to try something dangerous.
"And finally, There has been a string of murders targeting Civil Servants of the capital. So far, 4 Civil servants alongside their guards." Najenda explained, before pulling out a paper with night raids symbol on it "The Problem is, these papers were left on the scene, saying that it was our work."
"They're obviously imposters trying to pin the blame on us." Bulat said.
"But no one buys that, right?" Tatsumi asked.
"Yeah, everyone should know that We don't advertise our work like this." Ruby pointed out.
"The People figured that out already, but after the latest victim, they believe it's us." Najenda said "The last Victim was Former minister Chouri alongside all of his guards and even his daughter. The only ones strong enough for something like that would be us."
"So that means the imposters are as equally strong as us." Akame said.
"Which means They also might have Teigus." Najenda said.
'That Girl with that dog was bad enough, now we got more to deal with.' Ruby thought.
"All the victims were reasonable men and women who were not a part of the ministers faction. Just the kind of people the minister isn't fond of." Najenda explained as she lit a cigarette "Which means the Minister is clearly behind this."
"So he's trying to lure us out?" Bulat asked.
"Clearly. These civil Servants were very capable and defied the minister. They were concerned for this country. The exact kind of people we needed when the country changed. We can't afford to lose any more of them. These Imposters clearly need to be gone." Najenda explained "Let me hear your thoughts."
"...That should be easy." Ruby spoke up first, as she gave off a very angry glare "We find these copycats, And we rip and tear them Apart for this."
"...Heheheh." Bulat gave off a creepy chuckle "I LOVE the way you think!"
Everyone else gave a nod as they agreed with Ruby.
"Good, Then it's settled." Najenda smirked as well "Let's show these imposters what happens when you use an assassins name without permission! We have 5 more Civil Servant that are likely to be targeted next, but based on when they leave the palace, We've narrowed it down to two candidates. Bulat, Tatsumi and Ruby, You 3 will protect one of them. Akame, Lubbock, Sheele and Mine, You four can watch the other one."
Everyone nodded as the meeting came to an end.
Inside her Room, Ruby was checking on Cresent Rose and was also preparing a suitcase to hide it in since where she was going alongside Tatsumi and Bulat was going to be a party on a cruise ship. But luckily, she didn't have to wear lady stilts for it this time, aside from a red dress she would wear that was also easy to move around it.
"Can I come in?" Leone asked after knocking and slightly opening the door.
"Sure." Ruby said as she was done preparing.
Leone walked in and closed the door behind her.
"Just wanted to check up on you before we all left off." Leone said.
"Thanks." Ruby said "I was just done with preparations anyway."
"Good. Guess that means I can spend some time with you all by myself~" Leone teased as Ruby blushed "By the way, I really liked what you said back there~"
"What I said?" Ruby asked.
"You know, 'Rip and Tear them apart'." Leone reminded "You sounded really badass.~"
"O-Oh, W-Well I was just-I mean- You know, Ahaha..." Ruby stuttered, Too embarrassed and flustered.
"Also a little sexy~ too~" Leone whispered into Ruby's ear.
"WHA-AH-WHAT-YOU-AAH-WHA?!" Ruby stumbled through many words as she blushed beyond comprehension.
"Ahahahaha! Sorry Sorry! I couldn't resist." Leone said, gently patting Ruby's head and ruffling her hair a little.
"Meanie." Ruby grumbled with her cheeks puffed and still red, Which only doubled Leones amusement.
"Awww~ Cutie~" Leone cooed as she squeezed Ruby's puffed and red cheeks.
"Stooooop!" Ruby begged as she managed to push Leones hands away.
After some laughing, Leone noticed that Ruby seemed a little worried. Which was unnatural because she never saw Ruby worried before a mission.
"Hey is there something on your mind little red?" Leone asked.
"...Leone...When you go to the capital to spy on this Esdeath...W-Well You're not gonna try something dangerous are you?" Ruby asked.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm gonna doing." Leone assured "I'll be careful. Promise!"
"...Are you gonna try and attack that General?" Ruby asked.
"Hey come on! Don't you trust me?" Leone asked.
"...You are gonna try and take her out." Ruby deadpanned with a sigh.
"W-Well...Maybe?" Leone said.
"Leone, DO NOT do ANYHING dangerous." Ruby strictly ordered "You're just going to watch her okay?! If you decide to just suddenly attack her and if she ends up catching you...I-I don't even want to think about what she'll do to you."
Leone noticed how worried and sad she sounded at the thought of Her getting tortured by Esdeath.
"Please don't do anything rash?" Ruby asked, Which sounded like begging "F-For me?"
"...Okay, Okay." Leone said as she pulled Ruby into a hug "I promise I won't do anything stupid. You have my word."
"Hehe. Thanks." Ruby smiled as she hugged Leone back.
'...Jeez she's really cute when she's worried.' Leone thought to herself 'She really needs to double down on it. My heart can only handle so much.'
"Okay. I should get going now." Ruby said as they both loosened the hug.
"Me too." Leone nodded "But before that~"
Leone then leaned down and kissed Ruby one more time.
"For good luck~" Leone said as the two broke the hug and walked out of the room together.
"THIS THING IS HUUUUGE!" Tatsumi said with his jaw dropped.
"Y-Yeah! REALLY big." Ruby agreed '...well actually I've seen ships and airships the same size as this one.'
At the moment, Tatsumi, Ruby without her cape and mothers symbol pin, and a invisible Bulat thanks to his Armor had arrived to the harbor to the cruise ship in which the party would take place. And the said ship was truly Huge indeed.
Ruby felt a bit nervous as she gripped onto her suitcase with her Cresent Rose hidden inside it.
"...You think We'll really meet the imposters here?" Tatsumi asked.
"If we do, we need to be careful not to die or let our target get killed." Ruby reminded "So keep an eye out for anyone suspicious."
"Got it." Tatsumi nodded.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But mean while...5 Suspicious hooded figures boarded the cruise as well.
A elderly man.
A child.
A large man.
A slender and feminen figure.
And finally...another Large but more muscular man,
