Chapter 9: Mother

Akame's POV

She would experience Rose's life alongside her sister in this place. She at times would attempt to prevent actions but found that she would just phase through them as if they were phantoms. Reluctantly, she would be forced to watch things play out.

The country was called Berli. It was desolate and barren in the outskirts as the impoverished would live as living corpses that were ignored- barely getting by while the middle class, who lived in the central city in the slums was exploited as laborers for the rich who lived laviously at the expense of everyone else while engaging in depraved acts that made her Akame's previous targets seem normal in comparison. They would mine for unrefined Orichalcum, which had lethal effects on the environment, and damaged crops and livestock along with the ecosystem- making it a death world, which is why she never heard of the Empire making contact with them beyond trade. Akame had been taught that the Empire had the means to refine and offered it to other nations, but Berli was stubborn. Despite its achievements in alchemy, it focused on gathering orichalcum for the sake of their avaricious overlords. This was just one reason why they were initially the most despised country prior to the Empire falling to such depravity that Berli came across as pragmatically noble in comparison.

But from what Akame had seen, Berli was worse because, at the very least, the Empire gave its people normalcy while this place was truly a despotic nightmare- One of the eventual needs of ridding the plagues at the top.. Akame reached and attempted to offer solace to a crying, skeletal person of the poor, but was unable to. She also saw people dressed slightly better being tasked by the whip to mine for Orichalcum regardless of their condition.

The other reason was that they secretly aligned themselves with Evil Beings, the natural enemies of Humanity, and the Good Beings from the shadows. They would pose as advisors and political allies in the guise of Humans, much to their chagrin in public while being monsters to be tasked to fight in Kodoku matches or being mercenaries for the highest bidders.

She then spotted some soldiers looking at what appeared to be a monstrous creature with a mouth vertically down its "head" as it lacked a neck and had a burly body. They would kick it and yell orders to eliminate some people, which it gave it with reluctance as it slew some political enemies in the dead of night, with the deaths being pinned on their families- leading them to be executed. The Kaiser and Kaiserin would listen to the demands of elder men that exuded an aura of veteran warriors but seldom heeded their council. It was implied this was a preceding generation to the current rulers. She recognized Elm fighting other Evil Beings in colosseums for the sake of entertaining the elite with some level of scorn from its expressions.

What Rose had been told was that Evil Beings and Good Beings along with a third group were neutral- initially being telepathic animals with powers- just Danger Beasts or Freaks as they were called in the former Empire and Wakoku respectively. According to the ruling body, 5000 years ago, Humans with advanced technology changed these creatures into humanoid beings to use as a labor force till they fought back and began an Empire that was eventually taken down as the survivors became servants to whoever provided them a home.

However, the Elders of the Evil Beings tell an entirely different story than what the younger generation believed- that GOD created them to safeguard nature with Evil Beings being just harsher in going about it and only kill Humans due to them being a disease to be consumed and purged to protect the planet from the relatively new entities that managed to reshape the world in matter of millennia, undoing billions of years of stability- being forced to be slaves due to underhanded nature of humanity. The Good Beings- which neither Rose nor Iris had ever seen personally, were deemed as traitors who sided with Humans despite their faults and gave them the means to create the Teigu, Meihou, and other weapons to deal with the Evil Beings, driving the Evil Beings into hiding. The third group was neutral- not taking sides, and was not treated as harshly by the Evil Beings, but they had never been seen by Rose or Iris personally. The reason that they lived in Berli despite how hazardous it was to live in an unrefined Orichalcum mine, was because of a fight with their king, the Great One of the Center, between the first Teigu users and himself, which led him to lose everything and be banished to the West- Berli to be a glorified freeloader to the West Great One and becoming "pets" at the whims of the rulers of the country for centuries. And it was heavily implied even within their own army, was a faction that undermined them. And everything including Mume's actions had been a means to get back at them and return the Great One to his former power with another purpose only the top brass knew.

Regardless, Rose had done her duty, killing sinners on the behest of the Elders- Sinners that had been decided to be executed in the name of returning the proper order- which often had them going behind the backs of the rulers to do so. They were rotten scumbags so Rose didn't care about their fates, but she noticed her empathy towards Humanity was becoming increasingly reduced as her mind became more Evil Being. Her concern was more towards her fellow Evil Beings. And she had grown a bloodlust in combat, which she had become deeply ashamed by as she was once a kind-hearted woman who only killed in self-defense or to kill an animal to eat. Rose had done her role as a killer, but also a mother to slowly raise her child, and to her surprise, a Queen, being one of Mume's consorts alongside Iris, who had been dragged into the situation.

What Mume told her wasn't a lie and overall, Rose and Iris were able to give criticisms that the other six spouses would be silenced for. The previous spouses were crazed worshippers of the dark arts and by extension the Great One, who had summoned Mume as their demonic master to impregnate and become more than human- as they willingly partook in the Evil Being conversion treatment to bear his offspring. Overall, these sycophants obeyed Mume to leech off of his status while giving varying degrees of nurturing to their many children with him. In comparison, Iris was sharp-tongued and critical of him, having gotten over her fear of Mume in the following decades while Rose herself, was a noble person that visibly attacked him when he went too far, which he relented. This led to implied antagonism from the other wives due to how brazen they acted. Mume himself during the times he was in his Evil Being state, wasn't cruel to her since that incident, but wasn't exactly as warm as his human state. He had his reputation to uphold and there were enemies within who'd take the first sign of weakness to exploit it. So intimate interactions were brief but worth it in the insanity that is her current home.

The children on the other hand, with some notable exceptions, tolerated Rose and Iris as they were taught that their children would be the chosen ones of the clan and thus being vile to them wasn't good in the long run. They were neither cruel nor helpful to them while having their own quirky personalities. The clan from which Mume hailed was very dogmatic, sinister, and ominous- their Elder was an individual who shaped Mume into what he is, while Mume demonstrated traits that were nobler than this Elder at times.

Iris used to be entirely cold-hearted and apathetic, but her brush with the revelation of actual monsters humbled her significantly to finally close the gap with her sister. She was far less close with Mume than Rose, being rightfully upset about upending her life and taking her into a relationship that she felt was Rose's alone. While Rose herself dealt with the situation by accepting it and ignoring the jeers of others, Iris was implied to be a rebel who argued against tradition and stuck it to the unsavory members as much as she could- being a tomboy of sorts.

And there were Evil Beings that were nice to her, far nicer than her village ever was, which made her feel conflicted about their actions in aiding in the corruption of the country along with others. Despite this, she had misgivings about their warmongering nature but felt like she had no choice in the matter. Decades had passed from a human perspective and what little innocence she had was gone. She resigned to her fate. While she traveled, she never went back to the Tenrou nation even as Enji grew up due to the shame of potentially exposing her existence as a monster, mostly going to do her assignments while witnessing history as it unfolded. She would return to the dreary Hell that was her home underneath the mountains.

There was also a significant problem that hampered her life in general.

There were two prominent factions of Evil Beings- the Black Faction, which Rose belonged to, and Iris was forced to join due to her cowardice giving way to resolute cynicism, wearing black bio-mechanical armor. Personality-wise, they live to fight not winning or losing, morality, and goals will ultimately be secondary, or even the glory that drives them so much as it is the opportunity for a good fight to die in battle- a recessive trait of their animal traits. They also have strong camaraderie, cooperative, determined even in the face of death/lethal injuries that would make most balk, being very truthful even if it's unpleasant, surprisingly selfless- willing to die for the next generation, etc. Being noble demons.

The White Faction, which wore white-segmented armor on the other hand, was a newer addition that the Black Faction was initially awkward around before millennia of spending time with them led to feelings of complete anathema towards them as a whole, made even more insufferable with the fact that they had more sway over decisions in dealing with humans and eventually, usurping authority over the Great One, reducing him to a puppet that is not seen except for a select few that won the Kodoku, with all winners being oddly quiet about.

Personality-wise, they have the veneer of friendliness that the Black Faction lacks towards outsiders, but this is just a mask of their true nature. They do needlessly cruel things such as traumatizing an innocent till they're an empty shell or even corrupting them into a vile bastardization of themselves, killing animals for sadism, killing an innocent in front of their loved ones, being completely underhanded in fights by using shields, backstabbing allies frequently, discarding fellow Evil Beings as pawns, manipulating populace to degrade them, violate the minds of their targets, having no honor, etc. on top of being insufferably smug about their advantages. How they came to be differs from perspective- with the younger generation believing that they're Black Faction members that ate Good Beings, but got corrupted, while the Elders say that they're deserters of the Good Beings' side for their hubris- fallen angels. Regardless, they represent the real leading power until something drastic changes this.

Esdeath's POV

The woman that was her mother- Tsurarahime, was previously some sort of big shot in the world of what Esdeath considered a fantasy- a hellhole of demonic, uplifted animals of unknown origin, but lived on her own whims drifting from place to place. Then Mort came along and upended her life. She cut off all contact with that part of life because of the inevitable backlash of having a hybrid child, let alone twins.

She was accepted, but not never truly embraced by the Tribe with other tribes being wary of her due to sensing her innate inhumanity. Mort did care for her, but ultimately he followed the survival of the fittest creed and if she potentially died, she was weak- something to be sad about, but just a fact of life.

She noted that Esdeath had an innate violent inclination, tearing off dolls slowly and picking them apart- taking on typical Evil Being traits. Pacifi in comparison, was a sweet flower too good for the village, being saddened, surrounded by death. Outside of this, they are almost impossible to tell apart aside from the mother, who was a very clumsy and childish person whom Mort seemed to be the only one in the Tribe to tolerate on a personal level.

What was especially worrying was when either the Tribes would eventually use an excuse to kill her and the tribe to fulfill their sense of justice- something she could survive, but at the expense of the village that was her new home or the worst outcome, someone from her old home coming to drag her back with the corpses of her new family in tow. And going anywhere else would alert her fellow Evil Beings. So she waited and raised her twins.

So violence was in my nature. The woman is interesting though., Esdeath thought.

Akame's POV

"Good work, Lady Rose.," noted an undead man whose head was carried in his arm- a Dullahan male. The Undead Army is comprised of "the undead"- corpses of Evil Beings or even humans that are powered by negativity, but are separate from the souls they had in life. While she still held them accountable for their actions years ago, Rose came to tolerate Mume's group.

She nodded as she walked along. The area was currently obscured in Akame's vision, but it seemed immense.

"You've come a long way from the boonies, little country mouse.," said a gray-skinned man, which made Rose turn. It was Ignis along with two others- a tall , lanky yet muscular man with four arms who wore white boxing gloves and white boxing shorts with a segmented pattern. His narrow eyes looked lecherously at her as he licked his lips. The other was a blue-skinned man with white hair standing up and wearing white regal robes. They were the White Faction Warrior Army King- Boxer and the White Faction Divine Army Leader- Divination. None of them were liked by her as were the majority of the White Kings with the sole exception of one.

"Mume's latest pet. A nice rack too.," noted Boxer as Rose looked disgusted at his attempts, inching away from him. This was far from the first time he hit on her despite the backlash it would bring if he took Mume's consort. And both Ignis and himself were truly repulsive in their treatment of women- even fellow Evil Beings.

"Please. Keep that to yourself.," Divination replied with his hand on his brow. While not as morally reprehensible as his associates, his extreme self-righteousness in purging others more than made up for it.

Rose began to walk away, but Boxer got in the way of her path home.

"I'm not in the mood.," she said, which Boxer ignored.

"Boss, Sol-Flor wants you to do something as a favor. Bring your kid too along with your bitch sister. There's an assignment only women can do with men. And no, you won't be coming out of it alive. We can't directly kill you, but we can use indirect means.," Ignis noted as he licked lecherously. The implications being very clear briefly got Rose beyond enraged before she calmed herself.

"Isn't he a hybrid? And ranked lower than most of you? Why listen to him?" the woman remarked, which made them flustered.

"D-Don't let him hear that. I loathe to admit this, but hybrids are stronger than purebreds, and not killing him when we had the chance led to him taking over when the Great One fell was a huge mistake. We won't make the same mistake with a mongrel again. It's either you or us who gets punished by him. You have your fun, but ultimately you pay the price like everyone else. And no Mume's gonna save you this time around because he's detained for the moment. Sol-Flor knows his time of weakness very well. And this upcoming one, he's currently indisposed. When he hears of your fate, it'll be an unfortunate accident.," Divination whispered to her, darting around to see if anyone else listening in.

Rose was aghast.

"When did he get the gall to do this? Doesn't he know it's against the code?! And how does it affect the power structure?" asked Rose with a furious expression. While Sol-Flor was one of the many she considered tolerable scum, this was going far above his authority.

"Recently in the Center Continent, the latest heir is far less competent than his predecessor- a real softie who slaps sinners on the wrist rather than slicing them off. It allowed the new Prime Minister, a fatass to commit atrocities while he's too much of a pansy-ass to do anything about it. It brought forth so much negativity to feed on, which we get by eating Humans, but indirect interaction boosts us as well. And that powered us beyond the Black shitheads, allowing us to overrule them this time around. This reign he's planning is gonna be a buffet of corruption for potentially centuries to come. The Great One has "agreed" to it so you don't have a say in this.," Boxer explained. Akame was very aware of what he was referring to having lived under its malice, but how she took a part in ending it.

"So, you're gonna get fucked, die, and be discarded like a good doll. Good riddance to ya. Maybe next time, Mume will choose an ugly one.," Ignis remarked as he and Boxer laughed maniacally with narrow eyes and wide mouths as they looked down at her. Divination was not amused by it, but neither was he empathetic towards her. They walked away leaving her Rose distraught. Akame almost felt the need to kill them then and there.

As she walked away, Rose was tugged into the dark side of the surroundings.

A cloaked Iris dragged Rose to a back alley, she was carrying an infant Akame and what was heavily implied to be an infant Kurome.

"This is what I told you. They're not nuisances we can brush off now and then. The guys in black- I hate them- but they've got standards and we're in their good graces for now. But, the bastards in white- they don't care if you're a soldier or a top brass- unless you're an heir or a King, you're essentially a pawn for their games. And no one's able to stop them.," Iris explained.

"What're you saying?" asked Rose with concern.

"Come with me.," her sister said as she pulled out a white orb and smashed it, creating a white cloudy flash.

Suddenly, she was in a heavenly space as she saw Iris with winged armored soldiers.

She exposed some of her outfit, an ornate black armor with red motifs rather than the bio-mechanical shell.

"What's going on?," asked Rose.

"Sorry, but I've been in contact with the Big G...," Iris explained.

Esdeath's POV

Esdeath and Pacifi were now toddlers as Tsurarahime was busy watching them. She looked at Mort, waved at him, and he would wave back and go on his hunt.

Being content with her life, she took a deep breath of satisfaction. Suddenly, she sensed a familiar presence and turned around just in time to see Ignis accompanied by a black creature of bestial appearance with red glowing eyes.

"Traitor...," the creature said in a deep voice.

"This is for choosing him over Me.," Ignis said as she had the creature slash her. She went comatose and generated ice around herself, which shattered. Ignis was not shocked as he snapped his fingers as the creature vanished.

Sorry, I hope one day. I can come back to you two..., Tsurarahime thought as she vanished.

Tch, it's gonna take years for her to get back. In the meantime, it's not her, but I can live with it., the man thought before he disappeared in a puff of smoke as Mort arrived. He picked up the girl and attempted to look at his lost love, even attempting a search party for hours.

"She must've been taken down by a Danger Beast. No use in worrying about it. Just means she's weak.," his friend said as Mort reluctantly nodded.

Akame's POV

Rose was being put into a casket of a holy design against her wishes.

"Wait, why does it have to be this way? I can just talk to Mume and the others I'm sure-," she said before Iris knocked her out.

"Sorry, but this is for the sake of the future. Staying there was a death sentence. It's really shitty what I'm gonna do to them. Sorry for always being a pain.," Iris apologized as the door closed and Rose was put into an artificial sleep.

She then turned to see a large and broad man with a bald head, red iris eyes, bushy eyebrows, and a long black beard. He wore white priestly robes, wearing a large set of red prayer beads around his neck. He smiled as he brushed his beard with his right hand. His pointy ears and presence gave off the sense he wasn't entirely human.

"It's never easy to turn on people you spent a long time. But it's for the greater good that you're aiding in undermining them. It's likely the story they'll believe is that she committed suicide along with you while taking the children with them to avoid backlash from our fallen members," the man said with concern as Iris looked guilty.

"I honestly think it's gonna be a matter of time before I'm found out. So it's true. Why don't you do anything about these guys? Smite them? 40 days of darkness?" asked the woman.

"The Lord acts in mysterious ways. It's not our way to act until all hope is lost. Judgment will befall them in shapes that will become clear one day. But your actions were just in seeing the righteous cause over what is convenient.," the large man replied.

"You're right. Just because they're affable with me, doesn't justify how they treat others. So Akame and Kurome... be spared if they work on your side?" asked Iris.

The man then patted her head as his pupils suddenly vanished, leaving pure white eyes.

It will depend on how they live. If they die sinners, they'll just be another addition to the hellish hordes, but hopefully, they be righteous. I understand you won't give them any reason to be attached to you so you can do what's needed.," he said.

Iris gulped as she looked at a young Akame and Kurome, quivering as she bit her lower lip before becoming resolved.

The clouds dissipated as time passed, with Akame remembering it well.

Iris was a very strict and harsh parent who seemed almost heartless who gave them the bare minimum for survival, didn't look out for them in their time of need, and lived with a drunkard of a man in a shack in the boonies who often abused them as she turned a blind eye. It continued for years till one day soldiers came along with a familiar face-

A middle-aged man with blond hair and green eyes. He had a small beard. He wore a white shirt with black pants and a red scarf. The man adopted her during her days as a member of the Elite Seven- Gozuki. Accompanying him was a bald man who wore a monocle over his left eye- dressed in usual Empire attire.

"This is for the peace brought by 16 countries. They'll live a good life under the banner of the Empire.," said Gozuki.

A seemingly disinterested Iris turned away as Akame and Kurome cried and begged to be taken away before Akame gave a look of contempt. The chart filled with other children left, disappearing into the distance.

The man she spent time with- a fat slob who was balding with narrow eyes, stubble, and wearing clothes too small for him, looked on with disinterest.

"So your little bastards are gone? Good riddance. They were a mouthful anyway-"

She then slashed his head off and put on a cloak. Iris poured alcohol on the house and lit a match- burning it. There was a glimmer of tears as she walked away for a few minutes before a giant skeletal hand grabbed her, pulling her down, having realized the trickery she pulled.

Esdeath's POV

Esdeath would remember this part of her life very well, but with additional details that were becoming apparent to her- with her recollections, she told Tatsumi being foggy compared to the truth she forgot about.

After her mother's death, a mysterious man with red hair came into the tribe, claiming to be her mother's brother, having come to atone for his sister's loss. Hypocritically, the tribe openly welcomed him while Mort was skeptical of his story, but was ignored.

"We take out the orb to give to traders. These creatures attack humans, but we ended up as the stronger ones-," Mort said before noticing what the stranger was saying.

"That's it. It needs to suffer for attempting to attack us. Being weak is a sin.," this strange man said as Esdeath gutted out her kill before properly slaying it.

Mort then pulled the man to the side.

"I appreciate how you're improving her skills, but I should be the one to teach her this.," Mort said.

"You're not needed for what she needs to blossom.," the stranger replied as he grinned eerily.

Mort would be concerned but knew being harsh was needed to survive. It was very alarming that this man was treating her so affectionately to an uncomfortable degree and shunning her own father out of her life. Pacifi was deemed a failure and kept outside of most things with Esdeath and Mort being the only ones who treated her differently with some affection, though less on Esdeath's part.

Mort found the man just off. It always seemed like it was unnaturally warmer in his presence, wounds would heal quicker than they would on a normal man, and something about his story seemed fishy. While he did much better at hunting than himself, which earned the stranger more praise, Mort suspected it was a trap of some sort.

One day, a member of the enemy tribe was caught and Mort was about to slay the man, but the Elder shook her head. She turned to the stranger and this man gave Esdeath a blade. Esdeath under his instruction, was becoming something inhuman, and even by their standards, it was looking like it was a horrid path he was intending to put her on.

"Carve him up.," he said before Mort gritted his teeth and took the blade, setting the man's throat himself in a swift move.

"Eh? I wanted to do it.," the girl complained before seeing his solemnly angry face.

"You should go hunting.," Mort said to Esdeath as the latter reluctantly accepted.

"Oi, it's something she's gonna do eventually.," the redhead said before Mort pointed his knife at him.

"She's never talked about a family member like you, but she did bring up some stalker who kept on pursuing her. And I think that's you.," the man said as the stranger's grin vanished.

"Stop making such accusations...," argued a friend of Mort.

"Come to think of it? What's your name?" he added.

The stranger then laughed as his skin turned dark gray.

"You got me. I'm Ignis. Tsu-y was too wild and disobedient for my tastes, but a little mutt...that's easier to groom in more ways than one. I'll discard her once she bares something and repeat the cycle.," Ignis said, which got Mort repulsed on a personal level.

He attempted to attack, but Ignis gave a whistle and in a flurry, the village was covered in flames and everyone had been slain with Ignis personally stabbing Mort, leaving him weakened for a potential second assault.

"Place was too cold anyway.," Ignis said as the same bestial creature from before stood behind him.

"Kill the hybrids...," the creature said as he turned to Pacifi who stood still in fear before Ignis raised his hand.

"We can't have people realize we exist and be hunted. Let's blame this on another tribe we provoked via trickery.," he said as he vanished along with his associate as other tribes came to finish the job. A few hours later, Esdeath came.

"The Northern tribe came and attacked us. Your father fought valiantly.," said one of the villagers.

She then went to her father being stabbed on the ground.

So in spite of everything, I was just a pawn to mold her into what you want to make up for your insecurities flame head. At the very least, the ones who managed to survive...my daughters...the ones you brought into this world with me...will survive..., he thought.

"Live strong.," he said as he died. Ignis appeared in his human form as he comforted her. Esdeath pointed to Pacifi and the man briefly scowled before relenting.

I have her now. And she'll turn out as I want her to be., he thought.

The three left the village behind after the dead were buried. Esdeath almost heard a wail from someone familiar but dismissed it.

Esdeath then quietly reflected-

So everything was determined for me...

Next Chapter: Reflection- Akame and Esdeath reflect on their lives through these visions of their past as things become clearer.

Both Rose and Tsurarahime suffered due to the whims of their society, which led to their children suffering to varying degrees as a result. Iris is also tragic in that she had to hurt her family to save, but it ended up causing pain anyway. Mort was also a character who suffered due to the petty jealousy of a scorned stalker. Overall, it's not very happy with the added context to an already sad backstory.

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