Akko has seen a huge improvement with the Katana she received from Mako after the whole ordeal, gaining even greater agility and being able to traverse dungeons much more easily, but even with all these friends around to help, she faces a danger she has no idea about, an assassin who has been chasing her the whole time, Louis Blackwell, who has travelled all over Hyrule in pursuit of the girl, so that she doesn't come into Andrew's hands because he considers the search for this girl not only a waste of time, but something that will prevent the kingdom of Appleton from making any progress.
On Louis' way to the capital, the Edo authorities have already spread the word that the shapeshifter's fingerprint has been found with the boy's false identity, and troops of soldiers quickly appear, riding at high speed.
Blackwell hears the high-speed trotting and hides in the middle of the forest, his eyes wide open amidst the trees, just waiting for a group of soldiers to appear.
They do indeed appear, seeing that there were footsteps on the ground of someone who had been walking through the forest, being precisely the suspect
"He thinks he can run away in the middle of the forest, how pathetic" said one of the soldiers.
(Now just wait for one of them to falter and I'll catch them by surprise, kill them and take their disguise, it'll be easy to get out of this, then I'll worry about other issues, but the important thing is to be able to metamorphise into them).
The blond was just waiting for a group of soldiers and they came in, following the boy, walking through the trees and looking around. The man from Appleton even camouflaged himself until he expected one to be alone, throwing himself out of a tree and quickly immobilising him with a cloth that has a liquid in it that makes people pass out if they breathe its air.
The young man then dresses in the soldier's clothes, changes with him and begins to pick up the features of the soldier's face, which turns out to be the clothes the spy was wearing.
Disguised, he leaves the forest and meets up with the others, still pretending to be an ordinary soldier, which didn't cause any suspicion on the part of the soldiers around him, thinking they hadn't found anything.
"Hayato, go back to the forest immediately, we have to find the suspect" said one of the soldiers.
"I found a clue that he might be further along the road to the capital, I'll find him straight away" said Louis pretending to be one of the soldiers.
"All right, find the suspect straight away" said the soldier.
Blackwell began to ride at high speed along the winding road through the snow, already removing the disguise from his face with his soldier's clothes, he could easily be hard to spot, even more so wearing a cloth over his face.
Soon the soldiers found the other soldier who had been thrown in with the blond man's clothes, who they ended up thinking was the suspect, so they took him back to the harbour town, but it was actually the soldier Hayato himself who woke up and started shouting that it wasn't him, but the soldiers didn't believe him.
Louis had already gained a huge amount of distance, mainly because he had got a horse and this gave him a huge gap to ride at high speed, without being seen by other people and perceived as suspicious, which already meant that the capital was getting closer and closer.
In the harbour town, the mistake was soon noticed when Private Hayato's fingerprints didn't match the suspect, but it had already been a couple of hours and by then the suspect was wearing soldier's clothes and riding at high speed, so the news would arrive more slowly and it might even be too late.
Until the news reached the mountain by road, there was Blackwell approaching the capital of Edo, already entering the city and because he was dressed as a soldier he didn't need to go through the fingerprint check, he just went straight through the city, walking into an alleyway just waiting for a random citizen to ar
(By now my disguise will have been compromised, I can't afford to be found in a soldier's outfit, so I'd better wear an ordinary one, all I need to do is find where the target is and execute, that's all I need to do, soon I'll be rid of this place, I just don't know how to escape, my fingerprints are very suspicious and I don't even know if the lord is suspecting me).
Wearing the clothes of an ordinary citizen and also metamorphising, the boy began to wander around the capital and read some of the news about what the city was talking about, so that he could better track down where the girl was, curious to find her whereabouts.
"The legendary heroine is in the capital! Atsuko Kagari better known as Akko, has finally appeared in the capital of Edo, returning to her homeland, the future saviour of Hyrule is under the care of Empress Reiko, being received with due honours, after all she and her wife are the legitimate queens of the throne of Wedinburgh, may the triforce welcome a queen from Edo to save our lands of Hyrule."
(Andrew would be furious about that... The princesses actually got married, they did it behind Andrew's back, great, now he couldn't legitimately take the throne of Hyrule, or be king, unless the youngest one is still single, but that's the least of it, my goal is to get one of them for myself, after I execute the target, you can't rule Hyrule with that Andrew's hands, he's an obsessed nutter).
As he read the news, the young man began to look around the royal castle, noticing that it was a huge structure, just as the soldiers were equally different from those found on the roads, which was already sparking a plan for the blond to think of a way to penetrate inside that castle to gain access, already observing from afar the habits of those men who guarded the entrance.
(Interesting, they even dress in a more intimidating and larger way, they are certainly a way of differentiating, good that with this royal guard I can enter wherever I want later, it is enough that I enter the castle and the execution can be carried out).
In the midst of all this observation, there came a time when a carriage arrived in front of the castle and Diana and Akko got out of it. Blackwell was watching from afar, already analysing how he was going to get inside the castle and smiling since he could do it right there, but he realised that he wouldn't be able to take it by surprise with so many soldiers near the castle entrance.
(They were right in front of me, right there, perfect, one dart in the target's neck and that was the end of it, but it would be very noticeable. I have to go in and assassinate her inside before I start causing anything, for the kingdom of Hyrule, then I'll also think about kidnapping one of the princesses, but that's not a plan for now, I'll wait until everything is safe and I can guarantee an invasion of Edo, I have to think everything through before I act, the mission here is to execute Atsuko Kagari).
And so a good few hours went by, Louis had seen enough, until night fell and news of the shapeshifter spread, to the point of reaching the capital, with searches everywhere for the boy disguised as a soldier, but none of the fingerprints matched and so a fingerprint search began there, which Louis found himself in a plan to act at nightfall.
The boy hid in an alleyway, got close to a royal guard and immediately immobilised him by swapping clothes with the man, since he was spying on him and it was precisely the one who had already put the fingerprints on him, so the clothes were swapped again and the man from Appleton even smiled at being able to carry out yet another mission.
(Great, now I have a mission to go to the castle, it's time, I'm just going to pretend it's dark and go to the soldiers' quarters, but actually I'm going to penetrate the castle to see better where my targets are, I have to understand better, it'll be like Appleton where the soldiers are divided into classes and where they can pass).
Blackwell entered the castle without any problems, passing the royal guard and walking round, passing the throne room where he saw the empress standing there, then following the path, where he saw a garden with some burning lamps and could already see some human activity in the distance.
(Is that child the empress of Edo? I remembered that when Andrew asked me to assassinate her parents. It's incredible that she can still hold on to this kingdom, but come on, I'll find a way to assassinate her too, and then we'll get a proper ruler to take her place, and turn Edo into a puppet state for Appleton).
When he arrived in the garden, the boy could see that some of the girls in the group were walking around, just the whole group, celebrating in the gardens, talking to each other, there were Marianne, Sucy, Lotte, Amanda, Jasminka, Constanze, Hellene, Diana and Akko, the whole group gathered together, and the blond was already analysing their movements from afar, a little of their conversations without arousing suspicion.
(So that's the nine who are in the group, from what I can see it's not just Princess Diana who has got married, Princess Hellene also seems to have got married and precisely to that commoner from Wedinburgh, she's quite different too, they all are, not just because they're older, but there's something, I'd better keep an eye on everything).
The boy was looking at them and keeping an eye on them, without using the metamorphosis magic, but afraid that his face would turn out to be too suspicious, something that one of the girls had already begun to realise, precisely Leclerc, who had noticed the features of one of the soldiers' eyes.
(Edo doesn't have soldiers from the main land of Hyrule, I recognise eyes like that and they don't belong to people from Edo, I'm going to keep a close eye on this guy, there must be a spy around here for sure, let's see what he thinks he's going to do, for now I'm going to keep it as if I'm not raising any suspicions, acting normally).
After a few minutes in disguise, the boy walked to a certain corner of the castle, without realising that he was being followed by the dark-haired girl with the reddish strands, in a stealthy way. He then went to isolate himself in a corner of the castle, going to use some method of metamorphosis, but then a surprise came, the girl simply appeared.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, especially in front of a witness" said the brown-eyed woman.
"What? How? So the plebeian from Wedinburgh found out about my cover" said Louis.
"A Hyllian from the mainland thinks he can fool us, with those eyes and your little way, I've realised you're suspicious to say the least" said the Wedinburgh ninja.
"Then let's see what you can do" said the boy, taking a blade from his hands.
(I'm unarmed now, but it's nothing I can't handle, I'll find a way, come on Marianne, remember the training you did with the Empress with self-defence lessons, all the blows I've learnt can be useful).
Louis goes for the girl with a knife in his hand, which she dodges and quickly uses some kicks and punches to counterattack, which ends up going to the blond's defence, who even manages to defend himself and narrowly misses a cut on the girl, who tries to give him some kind of attack to immobilise him.
(The plebeian fights well, but I can't waste my time here, she'll keep throwing these kicks and punches and could jeopardise my disguise, if I get everything I can disguise myself from her since she's just one of their tallest girls)
Marianne looks around, jumps on a pillar and then kicks a lamp, which leaves the room a little dark. She then kicks the attack, seeing that the boy is resistant to her blows, and many of the shots she tries don't work. Blackwell even throws away the knife that was in his hands, throwing what he was starting to get out in his fists on the ground, and with that comes a more intense exchange of blows between the two
(He's no small feat, this guy knows how to fight well, he can handle himself, what the hell, I swore he was just a bumbler that a few beatings would solve, but apparently I'm wrong, now I have to find a way to get his knife and immobilise him before any blows hit him, I know).
Leclerc throws a smoke firecracker to try to run and catch the blade where she had thought to go, but when she gets close she feels only one hand coming down hard on the back of her head, it was precisely the blond's who landed a precise blow to knock the girl unconscious, surprised by a blow she hadn't expected him to know how to strike back.
"Girl, I have experience with this kind of thing, I'm a spy, I know about sneak attacks, you tried to get past me and take my blade, how pathetic, I could even kill you now, but I don't want to arouse suspicion," said Blackwell.
Louis soon takes her to a darker corner of the castle, where he extinguishes some lamps so that no one will notice. He then begins to change her clothes, leaving Marianne in just her underpants and tied to the floor in the soldier's clothes she was wearing, even metamorphosing with the girl's face so that she can go back to them in disguise.
(Great, now I just have to get out of here and start doing the mission. I just need to find a way round the target, I'll follow her like she's nothing, she'll be taken by surprise, before she goes to sleep or even when she's having a bath, or whatever way I can catch her by surprise and with her guard down).
Disguised as Marianne, he made his way back to the garden and from there the girls made their way out of the place. Hellene soon approached the boy and hugged him, already worried about where her girlfriend had gone.
"I was going to the loo, I felt like it" said the blonde pretending to be Leclerc.
"We're already leaving for our quarters, it's late tonight, tomorrow we're going to Edo's dungeon, we're finally going to do a dungeon mission, we'll discuss it further" said Akko.
"I just want to bathe and be by your side, love, it'll be such a relief" said Diana.
"Me too, that whole fight with Mako got a bit tiring, even in this cold a hot bath would be great, all delicious, even more so with you, love" said Kagari, hugging her wife.
"A bath would be marvellous for you too, love" said McLaren.
(I confess that the opportunity to observe the beautiful bodies of Princess Hellene would delight me, but I need to focus, I have to find a perfect moment to attack the target precisely, if I let myself I could end up lying with her accidentally and she could find out too much, I could even end up dead from all this).
And silently Louis escorted the girls to their room, where they chatted amongst themselves, but when they got there, the purple-eyed girl immediately called her wife, who she believed to be her, to come out for a shower, but the boy pretending to be her was reluctant to go.
"Honey, I'll come round later, I'm just going to check on something, okay? I've got a stomach ache" said Blackwell.
"Oh Mari, you're acting very strange today, did you eat something different?" asks the curious redhead.
"I think so, but I don't remember what I ate, but the time has come, I'd better go out, then I'll go with you in the bath, love" said the boy
(If I manage to kill Akko I might even get a look at that body and maybe I can pretend there's a spell making me different... Who knows, maybe I'll have a bit of luck? Well, come on Louis, focus, don't think about Hellene, this girl has good proportions, but then there will be several women in the brothel waiting for you).
With this gap, the boy began to make his way to the queens' chambers without arousing too much suspicion. He went stealthily, without disguising much, secretly walking through the corridors, since Akko and Diana's chambers are a little apart from the other girls, and he could soon see their shadows as he approached the door.
Elsewhere in the castle, the real Marianne was freeing herself from the ropes she had woken up in, in fact from the clothes they had used to tie her up, and she was already getting a little embarrassed as she realised that she had only been wearing underpants for a considerable time and was feeling pain in the back of her neck
(Damn... Damn it, I've got to get out of here, the girls could be in danger, there's an Appleton spy here, if Andrew finds out Akko's here it could be the end, I've got to run to the girls' quarters, he tied these clothes well, but it wasn't perfect).
The girl struggled as best she could, wriggling her body to make the garments looser, which were used as a rope, even serving a purpose in a very strange way, but it was soon something she wouldn't have time to avoid.
In the royal chambers, there came a perfect gap, the two were getting ready to bathe and Louis was already showing up, he was sneaking in, first Diana went in to go bathe since the bathing room was next to the bedroom, then Akko was going to go, but she wasn't feeling any strange feelings, just as she was going to take off her underpants she looked around.
(There's someone here, I can feel it, a bit of magic is flowing near the door, also footsteps I can hear, I'll just pretend I've got nothing and that my guard is down, without disturbing Diana, since she's naked, I knew there was something strange about this castle).
As soon as the girl is distracted, a knife comes towards her, a very small one that the girl easily dodges and then goes in the direction of where the blade was thrown, which is followed by another that is easily dodged and then Louis decides to show himself.
"Love! You're not coming!" She called Cavendish.
"Love, put some clothes on! Looks like we've got company here!" Atsuko said.
"It seems that the target has its senses sharpened, I'm surprised that it can avoid such a ridiculous and easy death, do you want to go up? I am..." Said the boy, who was soon hit by a volley from Akko that sent him crashing through the door of the room and onto the floor.
(What? I've seen that she has muscles, but not that she's that strong, I wouldn't be able to fight her that way, I'd have to use some means to execute her, brute force won't work, all along I thought it would work, I have to think here, I know, I'll use some poison and get close to her without her knowing).
"Did you really think I'd be such a weakling? I remember you that day you drew my face, you're Blackwell aren't you? Andrew's personal spy, now I'm going to make you swallow every word" said the girl clenching her fists.
She came close walking in an intimidating way, Louis took poison and put it on small knives, which he tried to throw, but the girl simply dodged it with such enormous ease that it was frightening, she was not only strong, but extremely agile and fast to the point of dodging all attempts to hit her with some lethality, so the boy got up and took a sword out of his pocket and doused it in poison.
"Come on then, you think you can beat me, but I still have this trick up my sleeve, you're only wearing underpants, completely unarmed, you can be strong and agile, against a poisoned sword you can't even get close and this is a poison that penetrates even the skin, so if a drop of it drips on you it will already be the end of you hahahaha" said the blond already scaring the girl away.
"So what? You're going to try and hit me with this, come on, why do you want to kill me? You're an Appleton spy, if Andrew finds out about this he'll kill you in the cruelest way, does he know you're cheating on him now?" Kagari said.
"You're quite a layman, aren't you? So I'll give you the luxury of knowing about it while I'm preparing your death here, I came here without Andrew knowing, I was being informed by my father about Andrew's missions, he followed you a few days ago arriving at Hyllia island, then went to Eire island where some people escaped from there, I was going before him to get information from you, I was the shapeshifter who tried to frame you when we still thought you were here, it seems I got ahead of myself, well anyway I want to kill you because you're disrupting the kingdom of Appleton, I came after you to kill you, Andrew is after you to have as a trophy, we're different people" Louis explains.
"What's that? So you basically want to kill me to betrayAndrew and bring something to your pathetic kingdom? All this for power, really? Look Louis you're an idiot, Andrew's power is gigantic, I've witnessed it in my face, no matter how many riots you do, he'll kill everything, he doesn't want progress from Appleton, he doesn't want me as a trophy, he wants me to be alive so I don't end up reincarnated in another anonymous hero who defeats him, he knows I'm the heroine of legend and he's the one with Ganondorf's spirit at the moment, not to mention that he wants people to revolt, he doesn't want to create a kingdom of Hyllians, he wants the creatures of the dark world to invade and occupy Hyrule, he wants to exterminate us all, you're just anticipating what he wants to happen, if you kill me now, another hero will reappear and kill Andrew, if you kill me now, Andrew will find out and he'll kill you, you'll achieve nothing" Akko said, shrugging and the boy immediately became furious.
"That's a lie! You're just forcing yourself on me so I don't kill you, this is pure fear of yours, you're even begging for your life, now get readyAtsuko, you gave me time, take it damn it!" Blackwell said.
He simply throws a vial of poison in the direction of the crimson-eyed girl, who dodges backwards, but notices that his wife has put up a magical barrier protecting her from any droplets of poison that might come into contact with her skin, and throws Katana at the brown-haired girl, who catches it and puts it round her waist, while the boy is surprised by her quick reaction.
"All right, you're going to turn this into a sword fight, with that tiny little sword, hahahahaha, give me a break, you're really going to beat me with that, look at the thickness of Louis' sword..." Something hit Louis on the back of the head and he just fell to the ground, stiff and dead. What he had caught was a kunai right in the back of the head and there was Marianne, panting after having run the whole length of the castle after the girls' rooms
"Ah Mari you took all the fun out of it, I wanted to test my new Katana against an enemy" said the frustrated Akko as she saw the boy's body lying on the ground.
"That was surprising, I didn't expect there to be an Appleton spy here" said Cavendish.
"He's the shapeshifter, it seems he came here to try to frame me and somehow I'd be deported back to Appleton and take over Andrew's domains, but his plan could end up with me being executed here, and it even failed because my innocence was proven" said Atsuko.
"I'm sorry I spoilt the fun Akko, he hit me first, that's a personal matter, I didn't want to dirty the queen's hands with Appleton's blood, well at least we're safe now, let's go to the dungeon, he took my clothes off you fucking bastard, he even widened everything, what the hell? Well at least mission accomplished, the castle is safe and the mystery of the shapeshifter has been solved" said Leclerc smiling.
And soon more and more people were appearing in that place, the nine girls were all together and so was the empress, who was astonished by the boy's body on the floor, which seemed to end all the tension, but already created a new one since it was Andrew who was also in pursuit of the girl, and Louis didn't reveal where he might be, nor if he was close, only that he had betrayed the lord of Appleton.
"That was the shapeshifter all along, then? I knew it was him" said the Empress.
"Him?" Akko asks.
"I remember him coming here to the castle years ago with an entourage from Appleton, then my parents died, it can only have been him, if he was trying to assassinate you by stealth, then it can only have been him who killed my parents too, it really gives me a sense of relief, a shame I couldn't have the opportunity to take revenge on him in combat, but seeing that my best friend did it for me fills me with happiness, thank you for everything Marianne, you have no idea how important you are to Edo, you and Akko are our great heroes - Reiko said.
"What worries me now is where Andrew might be, if he's in pursuit, if Louis lied or not, you told me that he betrayed Andrew, but he might have lied..." Cavendish said.
"He wouldn't kill me with the intention of killing me, Andrew wants me alive, so he really is a traitor to Appleton, what gets me is that he still thinks he's going to save himself from everything, Andrew is going to kill him like a fly, he's still going to make him suffer, we have to go to the dungeon tomorrow, after that we'll leave in the direction of Wedinburgh, we have to risk going through Appleton's lands, then the other dungeons, we'll go as far as we can to disguise ourselves" Kagari said.
"Well this story has at least come to an end, you all came as a gift to my life, as a reward for everything I've been through, I feel grateful that I met you Marianne and was able to save you from the guards catching you that day, it was the smartest decision to pretend to be a friend of mine from Hyrule, at least this way my parents could allow me to stay longer, now let's rest, I'm going girls, the guards will take this body away from here" Said the empress who went to her room.
The girls also head back to their quarters to rest, as the next day will still be a busy one, where Akko will finally be able to test her Katana, since Marianne didn't give her friend a chance to do so.
Far away in Appleton, Andrew had finally arrived in the Appleton-dominated city of Hyrule, after finishing his long journey across the glaciers, with a mission in mind.
(Now those girls will pay dearly for this, Louis too, it's clear that the bastard betrayed me, he must be somewhere chasing her and knowing where Akko went before, I need to get information about him soon, at least I'm in a city now, from here I just have to tell the troops to get together and go out asking around looking for the bastard, he won't get away from me, traitorous bastard, just when I thought I could have Akko in my hands, they simply snatched her away from me, he and Akko's friends will pay dearly, as will the princesses, I'm not going to allow them to live a life of luxury, I'm tired of it, they'll live in rottenness when I can finally declare myself king of all these lands that belong to me and I'll be king of everything and soon I'll bring those who should really live here).
Andrew continued to ride through the town, the inhabitants always bowing to the boy passing by, until he arrived at the very spot where the mayor was, where he was going to communicate to start the search for the traitor Louis Blackwell, spreading throughout all the towns of Appleton with a search that would not end until the boy was arrested and captured, but little did Hanbridge know what had really happened to the spy.
An assassination attempt was made by Louis, who despite chasing hard and trying at all costs to get to the girl, it wasn't a very successful chase, since when he arrived at his destination, he didn't manage to carry out his plan to execute Akko, who ended up being smarter and was also saved by her friend Marianne, who ended up murdering that killer once and for all, which already sets off an alert among the nine girls about all the chasing that went on without them knowing, but at the same time leaves them relieved to know that there really was a chase.
See you, killer witches...