Chapter 17 - Honest Revelations
Pocket Dimension of Scáthach - Akame Ga Kill World - The next morning after the end of the previous chapter
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
Breakfast is a strangely animate affair this morning, with the four members of my Retinue talking amongst themselves with the boy Emperor just watching them from his seat next to me, It's even more amusing due to precisely who is talking to who in this case…
Alicia is talking with Sinon because their canonical primary weapon is some variation of a firearm, albeit both with rather unique circumstances surrounding their design. Initially, Alisa didn't think Sinon would be able to contribute much regarding possible improvement for her God-Arc, but Sinon had proven her wrong due to her in-depth knowledge of firearms despite many of them being from GGO (Gun Gale Online).
I had brought up the idea of giving Sinon a new template to the sky-blunette in question, in order to get a similar power that Alisa herself is benefitting from right now, that being the ability to use magecraft although she won't be getting the red spear of death due to the fact I had a much more interesting Idea in mind
As for the other pair, Rin has been asking questions regarding Esdeath's Ice powers, which she has been answering for now. I can tell that Esdeath is only answering because she sees no reason to hide her abilities from fellow members of my Retinue, although it's not like she isn't benefitting from the discussion as Rin is giving her Ideas…
Very interesting ideas indeed…
Not to mention I have thought over what Improvements I can give Rin as well, as I spent an hour or so before bed just looking through the perk options for Rin and choosing to sleep on the idea, which I have more or less solidified one particular perk in question which would benefit the most from this world after looking through it again on last time to confirm my choice.
"Lady Scáthach, if I may ask you something…?" The Boy Emperor asks, making me turn my head to face him as I can see he's hesitating to get the words out, which must mean it's a question related to Honest.
"Of course your majesty, what is it you wish to know…?" I gently ask the Boy Emperor, and the kid slowly calms himself as he momentarily gathers the courage to ask what he wishes to ask, and in the end, he finally speaks up and asks…
"Lady Scáthach, if it is alright with you, may I be allowed to watch more of those….Episodes…on my own…?" I nod, finding it a simple request to grant to the Boy Emperor as I turn to Alisa and soon say…
"Dear, I hate to interrupt your gun talk with Sinon but I need you to please help the emperor here to watch more of those Episodes we watched yesterday…" Alisa looks at me briefly, then the Boy Emperor before nodding as she quickly wraps up her conversation with Sinon before heading to the Home Theater Room to help him set up the system.
While Alisa is busy helping the Boy Emperor, I decide to go sit next to Sinon who sees me coming over to her and smiles, allowing me to sit next to her as I give her a gentle smile before simply asking…
"Hey Sinon, how are you adjusting to everything…?" Due to Sinon being from a world where only games had all these magical powers, I wanted to make sure she was adjusting okay, especially due to having been given the run-down from Rin herself…
"I'm doing alright Mistress Scáthach, although part of me is still kind of coming to grips with the fact I've been drawn into a much larger world, even more than any MMORPG I ever played…" Sinon says, her smile faltering slightly as I can see she's struggling to wrap her head around the fact magic legitimately exists, although it's more magecraft in my and Rin's case.
"I see…well, I think I'll be doing something about that before long, but I need to wait until Rin isn't busy with Esdeath…" I say while turning to the other blunette in the room, who is progressively starting to grow tired of the discussion, the moment she hears my comment she takes the opportunity to say…
"Rin, I do believe Mistress Scáthach wants your attention, so I do believe it is time you allowed me to eat my delicious pancakes…..in peace…" Esdeath's tone becomes suitably frigid at the end, making Rin nod her head rapidly and swiftly leaves Esdeath to her breakfast and head over to me and Sinon.
"Now then, I have something in mind for both of you in order to best adapt to being a part of my retinue, especially with the world we're currently in…" I say, taking a look at their facial expressions for their reaction, while Rin has but a single eyebrow raised to show her curiosity, Sinon's own eyes widen as she is quick to ask…
"What did you have in mind for us Mistress Scáthach…?" I smirk eagerly as I contemplate how much I intend to reveal about my immediate plan before I decide to merely reveal Sinon's boost so I can enjoy Rin's reaction when she finally gets her boost.
"Well, while I won't be revealing everything, I will be saying that I will be giving you Sinon, a Template stack level 1 and 2 of Kiritsugu Emiya.." I say, almost immediately spotting Rin freeze as she processes what I just said, her head jerking between myself and Sinon before she sighs and finally says…
"Not gonna lie Mistress, it's honestly a good choice despite my apprehension, her affinity with guns would go a rather long way in using the Magus-Killer's infamous abilities…" It's clear that while Rin is indeed apprehensive of the Idea, her pragmatic mind can see the benefits it would have for Sinon.
"Indeed….still, it's Sinon's choice if she's willing to accept the template of Kiritsugu Emiya…" I say as I look right at Sinon, who seems to be contemplating the Idea in her head, as she can guess from the brief discussion that Kiritsugu Emiya's main weapons are some sort of firearm before finally saying…
"If it's ok with you Mistress Scáthach, I would be happy to accept the template boost…" I smile and nod gently at Sinon, glad that she's making the choice herself before I retrieve my company phone from my pocket space and grant Sinon a Kiritsugu Emiya Template Stack I and II…
The moment that I hit the purchase button, Sinon stiffens in her seat as circuit lines that indicate the presence of magical circuits lights up on her body, the full capability of Kiritsugu Emiya now Sinon's own, bringing her Tier from her natural tier of 4 to an Artificial Tier 5 through template stacking.
Excellent, with Sinon now having all of Kiritsugu's firepower through his firearms, his special origin bullets, and the ability of Time Alter, Sinon is now going to be incredibly dangerous despite still being Tier 5 essentially.
"T-that…was quite the rush…." Sinon says, shutting off her new magical circuits as she sweats slightly from having gone through the process in a matter of several seconds, with Rin now incredibly curious about what she is getting herself.
My smirk turns into a mischievous grin as I quickly move over to the specific Waifu perks section of the Waifu Catalog app on my phone, making sure it only shows available perks before buying the Nameless Red Devil perk for Rin.
The moment I do, Rin practically glows bright red all over her body momentarily before the red light fades to reveal Rin, now in a much more, as the perk description literally put it…airier outfit, Rin blinking as she slowly looks down to see she's practically wearing what is basically a female version of Archer EMIYA's clothes…
"Y-You….FIEND!" Rin Screeches as her face goes bright red, instinctively tracing Kanshou and Byakuya as she tries to strike me with them, with me just laughing with amusement as I evade her half-hearted attacks…
Esdeath Herself watching me being chased by Rin in her new outfit with amusement, finding a great deal of entertainment as Sinon just watches on in stunned silence, not exactly sure if she should mention to Rin that her shroud could cover her or not…
At least we can't say this morning was boring by any means~!
Pocket Dimension of Scáthach, the living room - One hour after lunch
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
It took an hour after breakfast for Rin to finally calm down and allow me to explain what she now has at her disposal, the Ravenette was in awe as she realizes that she has the same power and Reality Marble as her once Grail War Servant Archer, although it's clear that she is unsure what to exactly feel about that, considering what she's seen of Archer EMIYA before and having had the chance to look up his actions in other timelines.
Did I mention that Rin seems to be from the UBW timeline?
Either way, I did prod her to look up Sakura Matou and when she did so, I could tell the more she read the Wiki article, the more it seems that her regrets begin to build. This prompted Rin to ask me to bring Sakura Matou over as part of the Retinue, unfortunately, I had to say no due to the fact that right now this world would not do well for a proper reunion.
It takes a moment for Rin to process what I said, but when it finally clicks in her mind on the specific words I had used, she smiles and nods. After all, while this world really is ill-fitting for a reunion between sisters, nothing says that the next world will be the same way…
As things are now, we have solidified the roles each of us will take on in this world, especially due to the way our specialties and augmentations through various perks and templates have turned out.
With Myself and Esdeath are the firm front liners of the group, Sinon has taken the role of ranged support with her sniper rifle and an arsenal of Kiritsugu's guns, all the while both Alisa and Rin are capable of being both front liners and ranged support, so they are the wildcards of my Retinue.
With the roles established, I decided to grant everyone other than Alisa one last boost, one that Alisa herself already has. The moment I grant Esdeath, Rin, and Sinon their Elemental shrouds, their basic Red shrouds glow and form shrouds of Icy mist, hot flame, and surprisingly a Cyber Shroud for the three respectively…
While I was expecting the first two, Sinon's new Cyber shroud came as a surprise, although after thinking about it for a bit, I really shouldn't be as she did come from a world where tech was heavily involved in the events of her world.
The final thing I buy with my credits is the Grand Tapestry perk, forming a sympathetic elemental connection between our shrouds that will allow us to use basic forms of each other's elements.
This will come very much in handy for the purposes of healing each other through Deep Weave, as to heal with it one needs to be able to absorb a manifestation of the element that is not made by them directly.
Anyway, that was all before lunch, as for what everyone is doing right now…?
Rin and Esdeath are fighting in Rin's new Unlimited Blade Works, of course, I made it very clear no battles to the death and no cutting off each other's limbs. As for Alisa and Sinon, they've moved to the Beach in order to test Sinon's arsenal of weapons she got from Kiritsugu.
Leaving me to read a copy of Christie Golden's Warcraft Legends Volume 3 that I found in my manor library, seems that the company really dove deep into my past when filling up my manor with all sorts of tech, comforts, and other niche things like this book.
As I am about to turn another page, I spot the Boy Emperor finally coming out of the Home Theater room, looking as if he's ready to burst into tears, although he seems to have cried multiple times judging by the redness near his eyes.
"You ok Kiddo…?" I ask softly, turning to face the distraught young emperor, the boy's eyes looking right at me as he staggers over as if in a complete daze. He sits down on the Sofa, just looking at the wall as his thoughts are all over the place, struggling to process everything he learned.
"I…..I don't understand….why…why would Uncle Honest do all that…..why would he use me…." The lime-haired young boy just grips his shoulders as he curls up on the Sofa, heart aching in pain of betrayal…
I can tell that didn't stop watching the entire show until there was nothing left to watch, likely learning of his final fate, his actions using the first Teigu, and being practically front seat to Honest's machinations regarding him and the empire at large.
I sigh and gently wrap my arms around the Boy Emperor, hugging him as he begins to cry once more, the pain of betrayal of one who he trusted so greatly to guide him wracking his body and mind with a level of pain and sorrow as his young mind is simply unable to handle the truth laid out for him.
It takes at least an hour before the Boy Emperor finally calms down, during which I continue to soothe him and just allow him to let out his sorrow without needing to bottle it up inside, it's better that way…
Once the young boy is finally calm, several minutes pass as he goes silent, his body still shaking constantly. Eventually, it seems that the Boy Emperor does come to a decision and looks up at me before asking…
"L-lady Scáthach…..can you…take me to see one of the villages please…?" I raise a single eyebrow pondering what he intends to do at the said village, which prompts me to actually ask him the following question…
"While I can certainly do that, your majesty, can you tell me at least why you want to do that first…?" My tone is soft and gentle, knowing that the Boy Emperor is still rather shaken by what he's learned, soon enough the young lime-haired kid slowly nods before saying…
"I….I w-want to see with my own eyes….what Unc…..P-prime minister Honest has d-done to my people…" I take a moment to think about the Boy Emperor's request, considering what exactly I should say in response because if I do take him out to one of the villages this early, It could be very risky….but even so, I decided to respond by saying…
"Very well, although I must state that you need to keep close to me during our time out in the village…" The Boy Emperor nods his head at my response, soon I get up from the couch with the young royal in tow and make my way towards Alisa's room, knocking on her door before saying…
"Alisa, I'm taking our young guest over to one of the villages of his empire, can you let everyone know I'll be gone for a while please…" Alisa doesn't say anything verbally, but I can feel her consent to my request through our conjunction bond…
Now that I've at least got someone who can tell everyone where I've gone, I open a portal out to where I and Alisa first appeared, the road to the imperial capital, and lead the boy emperor through it….
One of the Western Villages of the Empire - One hour later
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
As both myself and the boy emperor get closer and closer to the village, it's clear that the small peasant village has seen better days, from what I can tell there is barely enough food and resources to get through day-to-day life…
Not to mention it's clear that if they call upon this village for their taxes, chances are they may not be able to pay and have to do alternative payments for any of the empire's tax collectors. I glance over to the Boy Emperor for his reaction, his facial features and body hidden by a black cloak made from my own shroud…
Although due to the mission parameters, it cannot bind him, it's still good enough to hide him from any Imperial officials that may visit the village during our time here. As for the Boy Emperor's reaction, I can tell that he's struggling to understand why the village is in such a state due to all that Honest has told him about the empire…
"...Lady Scáthach, this village isn't merely some sort of exception to the other villages in the area….is it….?" The Boy Emperor asks resignation ringing loud and clear in his voice, unable to deny the fact his empire is not the prosperous nation Honest has likely told him it was…
"Unfortunately not Kiddo, as much as anyone here in this village would prefer it otherwise…." I say as I sigh, not exactly liking how barely held together the village looks, both in an economic sense and a military one.
There will be plenty of work to fix the empire even after The Boy Emperor takes full control, meaning I might be here for at least a few years to ensure that when I finally do leave, it won't fall to corruption again within the next generation or two…
It is at that moment I sense movement, a detachment of military forces perhaps, even so, I make sure to bring both myself and The Boy Emperor into the shadows, eyes narrowing as a particularly smug man in armor comes out with a full retinue of men.
"Listen up folks, the empire has decreed a new round of taxes for all villages west of the capital, so I and my men are here to collect!" The smug man in armor, a corrupt tax collector at that, says to the people of the village, the looks of horror from both the villagers and The Boy Emperor both as everyone here can easily tell that the village is in no way ready for any taxes…
"Milord, please give us time to get the funds arranged for this tax, we barely have enough as it is…" One of the male villages, the mayor perhaps, says. This only makes the Tax Collector grin before grabbing one of the female villagers that were close to the Mayor…
"Then perhaps we'll keep this comely lass of yours company while we wait for you to take your sweet time getting your taxes…" The Tax Collector says with a sinister grin, his men have hands on their sheathed swords as if to warn the mayor against doing anything….rash…
It is then that the Boy Emperor finally has had enough with the situation and rushes out with his hood coming off as he looks over to the Tax Collectors, an angry look on the kid's face as the lime green-haired young royal says…
"ENOUGH, AS YOUR EMPEROR I COMMAND YOU TO CEASE THESE CRAVEN ACTS!" The Tax Collector looks shocked before he and his men let out mocking laughs, making the boy emperor even angrier…
"Awww, someone's playing pretend in this village, but alas it is a crime to impersonate royalty boy….men, kill the brat!" The Tax collector says as the men draw their blades with sinister grins and slowly walk over to the Boy Emperor, even while scared for his life he stands his ground…
For he knows that he's not alone in this sentiment….
Two red spears surge out from the shadows and impale two of the men, surprising the Tax Collector and the rest of his cronies as I rush forward from the shadows with two spears ready, one in each hand all while keeping my hood up.
"Your Majesty, these cravens besmirch the name of your empire, do you see now the rot that has seeped into your lands at the behest of the prime minister….?" I ask the Boy Emperor in a firm tone, The Boy Emperor's eyes are hidden by his hair for a moment as he tightens his fist before looking up, a look of regal authority coming over him as he responds by saying…
"Lady Scáthach, I ask of you a royal command, kill these men who would engage in the corruption of my Empire!" The Tax Collector and his men look horrified as due to my sudden appearance, and the fact that the tale of the emperor's kidnapping has likely been heard for some time now, they know that the kid behind me is the real deal…
And that same kid has now given me legal authority to kill….
"By your command, your majesty…" Is all I say before I rush forward, the left-hand spear piercing the heart of the man at my left before I throw the right-hand spear at another's face, killing him instantly it splits the man's head open wide.
A third member of the Tax Collector's cronies tries to stab me in the head from behind but without warning, is impaled by a black tendril with a gleaming red tip as a pair of red eyes glow ominously from my shadow…
I chuckle in amusement as the fourth and final living member of the Tax Collector's men runs out of the village, two shadowy blurs disappearing from my own shadow, knowing that one will be dealt with shortly…
This left the utterly terrified Tax Collector himself alone and slowly backing away as I walked toward him with both lances once more in hand, ready to end him if he tries to run. He soon manages to grab the same girl as before, holding her close with a sword against her neck….
"D-DON'T COME ANY CLOSER, I WILL KILL HER IF YOU DO!" The Tax Collector screams with the village girl whimpering in fear as she is terrified by the sword against her neck. However, I simply chuckle and reply….
"That's fine with me, after all, I don't need to kill you myself…just need to get in the right spot…" The Tax collector looks momentarily puzzled before his back is sliced open by someone who had just arrived in the village…
"Target Eliminated…." Says an emotionless, female voice as the Tax Collector drops his sword and falls down, the girl running away to the mayor who hugs her tightly. The young woman who had cut down looks down at the man she had cut down before looking up at me and then the Boy Emperor….
"So, you're the one who actually kidnapped the Emperor…"The young woman says as she holds her weapon close, although showing no immediate hostility. I chuckle before nodding, keeping my hood up before moving back to stay close to the Emperor as I soon say…
"Indeed I am I very much appreciate your assistance…Akame of Night Raid….!"
Author's notes
I really do need to apologize for the long wait for this chapter, there were multiple IRL things that I had to take care of that persistently kept me from finishing this in time. It didn't help that I am also trying to push through writer's block regarding this fanfic and A Golden Goddess both at the same time…
Now then, I only plan to dive into two plot point discussion this time, abnormal I know, but I prefer to keep some things close to the chest this time.
Rin Toshaka and Sinon's Perk/Template choices
Let's start with Sinons first, since it's the easier of the two to dive into.
I chose to give her Kiritsugu Template at Template Stacking II level (T5 equivalent) because not only would it give her essentially Kiritsugu's entire arsenal, but also grant her access to magecraft, which Rin can easily help teach her as well.
Plus there are two very special things in Sinon's new arsenal of tricks that will come in handy in the future. The first is of course her Time Alter ability, which will help her out in a pinch when she needs it most.
The second is the Origin Bullets, basically the most dangerous bullet conceivable in the Fate Universe, being able to essentially destroy magical circuits which would decimate a magus's craft.
While not useful here, it may end up being relevant later on depending on what the next world ends up being…
Now, Rin's new Perk.
This will make damn sure that Rin isn't as vulnerable as she could be in a world like this, while also giving her something that she could most definitely take full advantage of in a world like Akame Ga Kill.
Who knows how her new Unlimited Blade Works will work regarding Teigu, we'll just have to wait and see…
Also, new elemental shrouds for everyone but Alisa who already had one, and even Sinon got a brand new cyber shroud!
The Village Scene
Now, this one was set up with multiple objectives in mind. The first of which was to expose the emperor to the fact that the corruption of his empire isn't just limited to stuff that's in the anime, but also in real-time in his world.
With this, the emperor has gotten a first-hand, in-person look at all the things that those who are in power in the empire are doing in his name. Plus with the events going as they did in the village, it'll be the first step to repairing the emperor's name…
But now we have to handle Akame, hopefully, for both Scáthach and the Boy Emperor, things can be settled without a fight or hostilities…
Now then, Next time on Wrapped in Shadows: Talks between two women of red eyes, a Test of Lighting, and more Honest Machinations…
Hope to see you all on the 18th of July!