Chapter 1: Kill The Prototype

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit story, I do NOT own Akama ga Kill or the Prototype video games, the former belongs to Takahiro while the latter belongs Activision and Radical Entertainment.

Note: Borrows elements from both games.

Tatsumi X Harem:

Leone

Akame

Mine

Sheele

Chelsea

Esdeath

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Enjoy!

A bright sunny day was usually cause for bright smiles and a bright attitude, but for him it only meant his eyes would sting a little by looking up at the clear blue sky. In the deep forest, a young brown haired teen with bright green eyes walked with an steel look of stoicism, he was wearing a black jacket over a hooded shirt with dark brown jeans, he had been travelling far from his home village to his intended destination: the Empire's Capital. If one were to ask him why he was going there, he would answer that he's going to come up with enough money to help his poor village get by in the economy by joining the imperial army.

But that would be a lie.

No, he had his own motives for going there, but that was his business and his alone, he wasn't looking to involve anyone else in his own affairs, and he sure as hell wasn't going to get sidetracked by trivial distractions. "Run! It's a Danger Beast!" he heard a yell not far from where he was. He ran to see merchants trying to run away from a giant walking cockroach monster.

Otherwise knows as a Danger Beast, very hostile creatures out of someone's worst nightmares, they came in different classes. For this ugly ass monster, it was a class 1, an Earth Dragon. From what he could gather, those idiots must have unknowingly stumbled upon its hiding spot and now it was aiming to kill the for it. "Hmph, look at them run. Like that'll do much to escape from that fucking beast, I can estimate it'll take about 2 minutes tops until they're dead."

"Keep going, it's catching up!"

"I didn't know an Earth Dragon could even some out at places like these!"

They're fearful screams made him consider his options, he could save him like a superhero but that wasn't his style plus he was antsy to get to the capital and didn't have time for this kind of shit, but it looked like those merchants were travelling to said capital, so if he were to save them, they would be grateful as to provide him a means to get to his destination much quicker, he'd do it himself but he didn't want to risk anyone spotting him. Seeing them trip and fall along with closing their eyes, waiting for the end to come gave him the perfect chance to jump in and take care of some business.

But let the record show, he's not doing this because it's the right thing to do but because he's not in the mood to walk the rest of the way.

As the merchants closed their eyes and waited until they reunite wit their departed associates, they became confused as the end never came, in fact all they could hear was the sound of the Earth Dragon screeching in agony along with something making a slicing sound and finally, a large body dropping to the floor. They opened their eyelids to see the amazing sight of the danger beast dead on the ground, blood staining the ground as a young man stood over it.

He casually waved to them in a bored fashion. "Hey, I took care of that fucker for you, mind giving me a ride?"

Needless to say, the merchants could barely believe their eyes as a teenager just showed up an seemingly took down a class 1 danger beast swiftly. "Who-Who are you?!"

The teen rolled his eyes. "That's not important right now. What is important is that I just saved your lives, so your welcome."

Clearing his throat, one merchant addressed his and his friend's savior. "Yes, well thank you for your assistance. But, how? You don't seem to possess any form of weaponry, and knowing your name would be appreciated." he noted.

Sighing in annoyance, he answered. "Fine, the name's Tatsumi and as to how I saved your sorry asses, well..." he lightly smirked. "That's a secret." this made the merchants a little wary of this boy now known as Tatsumi. "Now are you gonna give me a ride or what?"

Looking at each other, the merchants answered. "Well of course, after all you did just shave our lives, but where exactly do you wish to go?"

"Duh, to where you're going, the capital." he replied plainly.

Both looked at him as is he grew a second head. Did he really just say he wanted to go to the capital of all places?!

"Uh, m-might we ask why?"

Tatsumi gave him a cold glare. "That's another secret."

It took a while, but the merchants managed to finally get Tatsumi to the capital, it was like a bright utopia of prosperous peace and serenity, even from a distance he could see the majestic palace and watched as everyone went about their business, some exchanged good natured hellos while giving passing compliments as birds flew by the large imposing building complexes that showed just how powerful it was. Anyone would be lucky to live somewhere like the capital, and for him it was...disgusting. Seeing all these clueless people going on about life without a care in the world, all these building filled with those aristocratic pricks who look down on those less fortunate than him.

But what really pissed him off was the palace, he looked at it with a contemptuous glare of pure hatred, as Tatsumi knew that he was there, probably munching on high-class food that would make the mouths of simple humans water, not caring about all the lives he's ruined. It made him sick to his stomach. And there it was, and yet even when it was so close it still seemed too far for his reach, but as much as he wanted to just storm up there and finally get back at the bastard for all he's done, he knew he needed to be smart around here, there was no room for error or brash decisions as those would cause problems for him.

He needed to figure out a way to get into this den of corruption and destroy it from within, it's fortunate that thanks to his special skills, he can sneak in with no one being the wiser. He looked to the recruitment barracks for any desperate idiot wanting to be one the empire's little puppets, he could perhaps kill one of the soldiers inside or maybe take the place of one recruit that they want in the army. Or maybe he was going at his all wrong, taking them out from within would cause complications plus with his urges, he couldn't control himself.

"Hey there young lad, you look a little troubled~." a cheerful voice called. He turned...and completely froze. She was an attractive and tall older woman with short blonde hair with long bangs that frame the sides of her head and golden eyes. But what really drew his attention was her choice in wardrobe which had no imagination, a simple black tube top that gave him a view of her very ample bosom most would die for to touch, black underwear, white pants that revealed some part of her legs and a long white scarf. "Is there something Onee-San can do to help?"

'What the hell?! Does this place not have fucking dress code laws or something?!" he mentally screamed as he took in her appearance.

She caught him peeking a little and smirked teasingly. "What's the matter? See something you like?"

Tatsumi sputtered a little. "D-Don't be ridiculous!" he barked, turning away with a blush. "I'm just surprised that people actually let you walk around wearing only that." he explained.

"Aw, but there's no shame in being comfortable in your own skin, right?" the blonde cheekily winked. "But enough about me? Let me guess, you're probably one of those that came to the capital looking to join the army."

He snorted with his arms crossed. "Don't make me laugh, I'm not here to become a fucking drone for the damn empire to manipulate. Would rather get eaten by an Earth Dragon than being caught working for scum like them."

The woman was lightly taken back by his answer. Considering his age and appearance, she assumed he was like all newcomers from outside the capital who were looking to make a living in this seemingly perfect empire. "Really? Well, that sure is surprising." she rubbed her chin in thought, she didn't know why, but there was something curious about him. "So what are ya here for then?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Tatsumi said moving past the well-endowed chick but she wasn't done with him as she grabbed his arm.

"That's no way to treat your Onee-San, come on why don't you let me treat you for some lunch? While you're at it, what's your name, cutie?" she asked with a smile.

All the green eyed youth could do was grunt in frustration. "Tatsumi."

She then winked. "Well Tatsumi, say hello to your sexy Onee-San, Leone!" she introduced herself with a pose.

He only gave her a blank look. "Let's just go."

"Woo! Drinks in the daytime sure hits the spot!" Leone, whose cheeks were now red, exclaimed, brining down her umpteenth bottle of alcohol. She brought Tatsumi to a local bar in the town, the young man stared in amazement over the collection of beverages she has drank already in record time, makes him wonder just how hammered she was right now. She noticed he just sat there with a blank expression. "Hey now, what's with the silent act, lad? Come one, take a load off, it's my treat after all."

"Yeah...no." he bluntly said. "Is there a point for you brining me here? Because I have better things to do than waste my time in a place filled with pathetic drunkards." he gestured to the men who were passed out on the floor to prove his point.

She pouted. "Come on, most kids your age are usually more lively." she then smiled. "But I guess I do owe you an explanation, I brought you here because I can't help but wonder what you're after in the capital." he just stayed silent with his eyes closed. "Hey, it's okay, you can trust Onee-San, in fact I can help you."

He raised a skeptical brow. "Oh really?"

She nodded confidently. "Yes sir, see I have certain connections around here that can get you anything you want, no questions ask, there's just the matter of monetary needs."

"Give my money way for something that's almost certainly fake?" Tatsumi summed up with a dry huff. "You must really be drunk if you think I would fall for that scam."

"It's not a scam, honest!" she assured him, yet couldn't help but notice his glare harden at the sound of the last word but decided not to address it. "Just give me enough money to get you in, it doesn't have to be anything too big, just enough to satisfy-" she was cut off once he puled a sack full of a large number of coins and placed it on the table. "W-Woah! her eyes sparkled at the size of the sack. "You got quite the load!"

"I was hunting danger beasts and getting rewards on the way here." he shrugged, nonchalantly.

"Hmm, this is enough but one more thing I have to ask." Leone faced him, having sobered up a bit. "Tell me, why have such little faith in the empire, doesn't it seem so perfect?"

"Maybe to idealistic idiots, but I'm no fool, I've seen first hand just how much of a hell this country-no, this world is really is. And the so-called paradise this empire tried to present itself as, it's nothing but a façade." he declared with a steel hard look of anger. "No one's truly aware of the corrupt higher ups that look down on them and enjoy themselves like they don't give a damn about the little guy, or of the murdering sadistic fucks that infest their daily lives. I won't tell you what I'm after but I will tell you what I'm prepared to do to get it; I'll make anyone who gets in my pay for interfering and I won't stop until every single one of those bastards are dead at my feet." he promised with his fists clenched.

Leone stared at him with an expression of awe and wonder. Here she was thinking he was just some kid who has no idea of the real world, it is now apparent that he's more open-minded than she realized, and she could feel the killer intent radiating off of him, all that talk about taking down his enemies permanently was no joke, this kid meant business. 'Hmm, he already said he was a fighter, and we could always use some new blood. Gonna have to run it by the Boss first.' the busty woman collected herself and picked up the sack and walked away. "Well good luck with that lad, I'll let you know if I find anything you need." she said as she left.

At long last, he was free of that woman. "Hey kid." he looked to the bartender who was looking at him with pity. "You do realize that chick just swindled you out of your money."

For some reason, the kid smirked. Tatsumi then pulled out a second sack full of coins. The real one. "You don't mean this, do you?"

The bartender and a few patrons looked at him in shock. "Wha-?! How did-?!"

Tatsumi feigned a worried look. "Goodness me, I must have mixed up my sack with all my money with my sack that's filled with useless rocks, oh well, guess that's life." he shrugged.

Everyone was amazed by how cunning he was.

"Damn, this kid's good.."

"He actually managed to outwit Leone of all people!"

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Not seeing any point in sticking around, Tatsumi got up and went off. "Well, I'm gonna head off. Have fun drowning in your sorrows through alcohol."

Night soon came as Tatsumi wandered the streets in a bored expression, just a few minutes ago, a couple of dickheads tried jumping him and well, they won't be walking for a few weeks. He stopped to look at the palace again and once again was filled with hatred. "Honest, you son of a bitch...!" he snarled as the image of the prime minister came to mind. "I swear, you will pay for what you did to me!" then another image came to mind, it was two people around his age both dark haired only one was a boy with a headband and the other a girl with long hair. "Hmm, wonder how those two are doing." he mused as he sat down leaning on the edge.

Another reason for his coming to the capital were his friends, Iyesu and Sayo, two of the best friends he's ever had since childhood. Weeks earlier, they left the village to pursue their own dreams in the capital, he tried to stop them but they were too damn stubborn. They promised to write back to keep everyone back home up to date, but they never did and everyone started to get worried. So that's when Tatsumi offered to go look for them, that way he'd settle his score and as always, get those two knuckleheads out of whatever trouble they were in.

Then he felt the presence of another, he looked up and saw a young blonde girl, a rich one by the looks of her clothing not to mention the entourage of guards escorting her with a horse carriage. She looked at him with a sweet smile. "Excuse me, but did you come from the country?"

His eyes narrowed. "So what if I am?"

"Well, do you have a place to stay? You could stay at my house." she graciously offered.

He gave her a blank look. "Okay, how much do you want?"

"Oh no, I don't want anything in return." she chuckled. "I just don't like seeing anyone sleep on the streets, please it's the least I could do."

Yeah, he wasn't buying it, some rich girl offering to help a guy from outside the capital, it smelled all kinds of wrong.

But maybe it could work in his favor.

"Lady Aria won't leave people like you alone." one of the guards told him.

"You should just accept her hospitality."

Finally, he made his decision as he nodded.

She smiled cutely at his answer. "Okay then!"

The mansion belonging to her family was enormous in every sense of the wood, exotic furniture and expensive looking items were placed all around along with doors to various rooms, not to mention plaques of hunted animals as well. Compared to the homes back in the village, this place was like a castle to them. But he hardly cared, he just silently stood there, not bothering to keep any of it in mind, in the kitchen was Aria with her mother and father who had just been told of their daughter's new friend.

"Ah, so Aria brought in another one again, eh?" the father, a bearded fellow with a kind smile gathered with a friendly look.

His wife, a beautiful woman whom Aria takes after chuckled. "What a habit of hers, though he is rather cute."

Tatsumi took notice of the guards, they were silent and focused as expected of men in their profession, yet couldn't help but notice their tense nature, he may need to do some digging. "So, you really have no problem with some random guy being in your house?" he asked the family.

Aria nodded. "Of course not Tatsumi, make yourself at home."

"If we help people out, then the happiness will eventually come back to us." her mother chimed in.

"Mom, that's not the reason at all!" Aria denied with an embarrassed blush.

"So young man, tell me what exactly brought you to this neck of the woods as the kids put it?" the father asked.

He wasn't just going to tell them everything about his intentions, so he decided to just stick to the other reason. "Well you see, a couple of weeks ago, two friends from my village left to go here and join the army so that they could get enough money to support our village, it's been having some financial trouble lately."

"I see, well that's commendable of them."

"Yeah, thing is we haven't heard from them and I decided to come here so that I could see if they're alright, but so far I haven't seen any sign of them." he chuckled a little. "Of course they probably got lost, Ieyasu's always been bad with directions."

"What?!"

"I wouldn't worry Tatsumi, in fact I have some friends in the military I could ask to investigate yours." the father offered. "And maybe you could be my daughter's bodyguard as you wait."

Aria smiled at the notion. "Oh that would be great! Please say yes Tatsumi!"

"Whatever." he shrugged.

"Very well then, Gaurry I'll let you handle it." the father told one of the guards.

"Understood."

"And Tatsumi." Aria addressed him. "Call it my own intuition, but I'm sure it won't be long until you meet your friends again." she gave him the sweetest smile a girl her age could muster.

His response was to cross his arms and look away and thought for a second. 'Hmm, awfully nice to a random country boy, too nice for my taste."

"Ooh, I want go to this shop next!"

As soon as tomorrow came, Aria took Tatsumi and the guards to a shopping spree to the market, and the poor guards could barely handle carrying so many packages all at once as they tried to make the young heiress to wait and stop for a second but it fell to deaf ears. "Amazing isn't it?" Gaurry mused to Tatsumi. "Het shopping amount is just getting silly now. And it's not just her, almost every girl is like that."

"That so?" Tatsumi chuckled. "I can think of one that picks what to wear right away."

"That's because barely have anything to wear!"

He broke out of his musings as he looked up at the palace once more but this time, kept his anger in check as to not arouse any suspicion. "Hey Gauryy, up there in the palace, I hear that some little twerp is emperor, is that really true?"

The guard nodded. "Yes, it is. I know it's unbelievable, but there is indeed a child as emperor, but what you should really know is that he truly isn't the one in power." he whispered. "Someone manipulates the boy from the shadows, a ringleader who pulls all the strings, the one who's truly rotting this country."

"Minister Honest." the guard looked at him in shock. "You don't need to explain it to me, I know full well about that fat bastard, it's his fault my village is going through some tough times after all." that and so much more.

"Yeah well, make sure not to say stuff like that out in the open, and just so you know there are guys like that as well." Gaurry pointed to some wanted posters showing various individuals, but what got his attention was one depicting a girl about his age with long, dark hair and blood red eyed.

He tilted his head a little. "Night Raid?"

Gaurry began to explain. "They're a group of highly skilled and deadly assassins that have the whole capital rattled. As their name implies, their attacks are nocturnal and their targets are mostly high-ranking wealthy individuals in the capital. They are extremely dangerous so it pays to be prepared in case you ever run into them."

"I'll keep that in mind." Tatsumi looked back the posters. Night Raid...well at least some people in this hellhole empire aren't completely clueless. "Gaurry, I actually want to discuss something else but I don't want anyone listening, so let's go in the alleyway."

"Um...sure." despite his better judgment, they entered into an empty alleyway, free from the prying eyes from any citizens or police units. "So what is it you want to-UGH!" Gaurry's eyes widened when he felt a strong puncture in his chest, he slowly looked down and saw that Tatsumi's hands seemed to have shifted into something else and that it was digging deep into his heart. "T-Tatsumi! What the h-hell?!" he choked out, feeling his life fading away.

Tatsumi looked at him with unfeeling eyes. "Nothing personal pal, but I just need to poke around your head, see I'm a bit suspicious about your bosses. Need to see if I'm right." all of a sudden, black tendrils sprouted from his being and made contact with Gaurry, who screamed in horror as he turned into a mess of biomass, Tatsumi allowed the biomass to envelop him and in a split second, he took on the now deceased guard's form and held his head in pain as the memories played out in his head.

Dear God...

Images of the inside of a dark shed were viewed in his mind, and what he saw was the stuff of nightmares, so many people were being tortured by them, all 3 members of the family. The father, the mother, even Aria, this what they do to anyone who was from outside the capital, Aria picks them up and then they lead them into a false sense of security and before they know it, those fuckers lead them to the barn and they subject them to horrific torture until they are dead and gone. And not only that, but they also infect them with a disease just to see what the results would be, and Aria's mother even keeps a fucking journal of it!"

And those guards just follow those orders blindly, he could see one conversation Gaurry had with another.

"Did you see that poor kid lady Aria picked up, dammit they could at least spare the young ones."

"It's no use, with people like them, they might as well take a baby that was born outside of the capital."

"And yet we're supposed to just stand there and do nothing as they introduce all those people to hell."

"We're supposed to follow orders, there's no fighting it."

He couldn't take anymore of this shit, he stopped the memories and shapeshifted back to his natural form, his eyes were now filled with nothing but anger and contempt not just for what they did, but because they were planning to do the same to him. Those miserable pieces of crap thought he would just let them kill him like some animal. Hell no! This kind of inhuman nature, just what expected from the higher ups of the empire and it pissed him off to no end. "Gaurry? Tatsumi? Where did you guys go."

He quickly exited the alleyway and met with Aria. "I'm right here."

She looked around. "Where'd Guarry go?" she inquired, taking note of the guard's absence.

"Uh...he forgot something back in the mansion, I'm sure we'll see him when we return." he told her.

Aria puts her hands on her hips. "Leaving me all alone?" she shook her head. "He should know better, daddy will have to deduct his pay now."

'Dammit, I just want to kill you right now, you psycho bitch!' he screamed in his private thoughts as he clenched his fists. 'It would be so easy to just slice you in half where you stand, but there are too many witnesses rest assured though dear Aria, you will die. You and your fucking family!' he promised.

In the middle of the night, the moon shone over the mansion belonging to Aria's family, in a lone hallway the matriarch of the family was calmly walking down with a book in her hands. "Now then maybe I could make a diary for today as well. Fufu, I just can't stop this obsessive hobby of mine." she then turned thoughtful. "Pretty soon, it'll be Tatsumi's turn. A shame considering how cute he is, maybe I could convince darling if I could have fun with him first." she blushed up a storm at the notion. "If I'm lucky, I could keep him as a pe-huh?" Speak of the devil, there was the aforementioned teen in front of her. "Oh Tatsumi, what are you doing up so late?"

Instead of answering, the young man just remained where he was, unmoving and eerily quiet. "Tatsumi is something the matt-"

*SWOOSH*

...

"...Eh...?"

It all happened so fast she could barely comprehend the feeling of her top and bottom halves being sliced in half as both them and her arms flew in the room and made contact with the ground, her calm smile still plastered on her now dead face as the blood stained the halls. Had she lived long enough, she would have been welcomed to the sight of Tatsumi's right arm which is now a large double ended blade that formed in the base of his right elbow with dark red and black colors, the young man looked at her mutilated corpse with contempt. "One down, two to go." he declared a she walked off to his next target.

Maybe if he had stuck around, he would have heard this:

"Eh, did I kill her already?"

With the mother now lying in pieces, now there was time to go after the rest of this sick family, he was intending on saving Aria for last so the next one to go would be the family patriarch. But as he hurried to wherever he was at dashing speed, he noticed that outside the guards were being scrambled, he was so quick he didn't drag any attention so he couldn't have been the reason. Then he saw them, a group of mysterious individuals, one was a petite young girl with long pink hair tied into pigtails along with wearing a pink high collar dress, she was carrying a big-ass gun. There was also some huge dude wearing some kind of armor that withheld his identity. There was another male but he was as old as Tatsumi with green hair and eyes wearing red goggles, a green coat over a white and blue jeans. And finally, there was a young girl with familiar black hair and red eyes, she wore a black sleeveless mini-dress with a white collar and red tie along with a red skirt, she held a sheathed sword in her left hand.

Tatsumi gasped. "I know that girl..." remembered that face from the wanted posters. "So they're Night Raid." he deduced.

"Hey!" he looked ahead and saw guards running towards him. "Quickly you must get to safety! Night Raid is-NGH!" he never got to finish his sentence as Tatsumi's arms shifted into larger three-fingered one-thumbed knife-like claws and stabbed them through his chest then dropped the body, surprising the guards.

"W-What the fuck?!"

"Is he with Night Raid?!"

How the hell did he do that?!"

Tatsumi didn't give them the chance to ask more questions as he proceeded to shred each and every one of them, he didn't bother to consume them as he had enough memories from Gaurry. The halls were filled with the horrified screams of the unfortunate guards that were unlucky enough to be in the path of the murderous young man, dismembered body parts flew across the room as more bodies begun to drop at the ferocity of this inhuman boy. It was a gruesome display presented by someone who wasn't completely human as he led on, no this young lad was something else entirely and didn't pull back as he gutted all these bastards who sold their souls to the devil. Just as he was going to advance further, he a bullet pierced his chest, even more were shot at him as he was fell against the wall and remained still as if he were dead.

The guard who shot him panted as he was still reeling from the massacre. "Oh thank god." he looked down in relief but when he looked back up, his eyes widened as the corpse had disappeared. "What the he-UGH!" three claws were pushed through his chest from behind.

"Next time, make sure your target's dead." Tatsumi advised from behind.

The guard coughed put blood as he felt the feeling of death overcome him. "So this is the end. Guess I deserve..." his body went limp as Tatsumi let it slide off his claw.

"Now where's that fatass?"

The patriarch of the family was scared shitless, here he was doing some taxes until the alarm went off and his hired guards informed him of the attack caused by the assassin group, Night Raid. He only prayed that his beloved wife and daughter were alright, he would go look for them himself but he didn't want to risk running into those brutes, he was presently hiding in his office room or more precise hiding underneath his desk. He jumped at the sound of a knock on his door. "Who's there?!" he frantically asked, sweat pouring down his head.

"It's me sir." he could tell the voice belonged to Gaurry and hurriedly opened the door, revealing the guard.

"Oh thank god, Gaurry! I was beginning to grow concerned, is my wife with you?! And what about Ari-ACK!" he was unprepared when the guard grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up with ease. "What the hell are you doing, you asshole?!" he demanded as he felt the oxygen depleting, he nearly had a heart attack when he saw the guard's form shapeshift right in front of him into a familiar sight. "You..! You're...that...boy...!"

Tatsumi grit his teeth as he glared hatefully at him. "The name is Tatsumi, you son of a bitch! Or did you forget?! Not surprising, why should an important rich man like you concern yourself with some poor kid like me?!" he snarled. "And let me tell you, I will make you suffer, and it won't be quick like that whore you call a wife!"

His eyes widened as he heard. "You...You killed my darling?! Why...we invited you into our home...showed you hospitality...and this is how you repay us?!"

"Quit acting like you're some innocent life, because we both know you're not!" Tatsumi scowled venomously. "I know what you've been doing all these years, what you and your family have done to all those people! It's guys like you that royally piss me off, thinking you can commit these acts and never thought that you'd pay for your sins! Well I'm here to prove you wrong, it's high time you die, along with everyone associated with you!"

"Please...have mercy!" he begged, sniveling like a little bitch. "I have a daughter...!"

His fear began to increase as he saw the young man grow a manic grin. "Oh don't worry about her, she'll be joining her parents real soon." he told him.

"What?! Even her...have you no sense of mercy or even a soul?!"

Tatsumi kept his manic grin. "Mercy? Don't know the meaning of the word as for a soul, can't say I ever had one since I was a child." he formed a right Claw and stabbed it right through his face, silencing him forever and releasing the fresh corpse. "Now, where's little Aria?" he jumped out the window but what he didn't know was that someone was watching him, nit just him killing the bastard but him killing all the guards, it was all watched by one person. She opened the door revealing herself to be the same woman who attempted to swindle him of his money, only her hands were now lion claws, her hair was longer and had fang-like teeth, not to mention a tail.

She had only one thing to say as she stared at the dead body of her intended target. "Holy. Shit." to think that was the same kid from before, she truly had underestimated him. Her look of awe slowly turned into a wide grin. "He's perfect!"

The minute the guards barged into her room and told her of Night Raid's attack on her home, Aria instantly followed them to try and get to a safe location, she nearly threw up as she saw numerous dead guards littered all over the ground, she only hoped that her mommy and daddy were safe from all of this carnage. "Lady Aria, get to the far-off shed, quickly!"

"Okay!" she replied as the guard led her there, they then heard footsteps.

"Who's there?!"

Aria's initial fear turned into relief as she saw that it was the same boy she picked up from the streets. "Tatsumi."

"You came at just the right moment, we'll run into the shed as we wait for reinforcements, you stall the enemy until they arrived!"

Tatsumi ignored the guard as he kept his eyes fixed on Aria. "Finally I found you, Aria." she didn't know why but the way he said it made her feel uneasy, but before he could, a lone figure landed next to him, he turned to her as he recognized her as the girl from the poster.

Akame...that was her name.

Both shared a tentative look as the black haired assassin rushed at him, he was prepared to counter any of her attacks, but then Akame remembered who her objective was supposed to be. "Not the target." she emotionlessly stated as she hopped on his shoulder and jumped over to the guard and the young girl. The guard tried to shoot at her, but she expertly dodged the bullets and readied her sword. "Target. Eliminate." with one swing, she sliced her blade across the waist, cutting him in half.

Tatsumi blinked. 'Huh. Not bad.' he had to admit, this girl sure knew how take an enemy out swiftly, he then spotted something oozing off of the poison. 'Is that poison? So even if the cut is small, death still awaits the victim. So she has a Teigu.'

He watched as AKame stood over the shivering form of Aria who could only watch in fear as the dark haired assassin raised her blade for the killing blow. "Eliminate." but before she could strike down, Tatsumi jumped in and pushed her back with impressive strength. She landed to the other side as she faced him. "You're not a target. There's no need to kill you." she stated.

"Oh really? I don't know about that." he smirked. "You're an assassin, right? It's your job to kill those you have targeted, if I'm not mistaken." he spreads his arms out. "Well, here I am." he was goading her into even trying to kill him and it confused both girls equally, along with Leone who was watching from the shadows but had a sneaky suspicion on what he's planning. Before he could blink Akame appeared right in front of him and with her sword sliced his chest leaving a fatal wound that made him.

"Interference terminated." she declared before turning to Aria. "Eliminate."

But then..

"Heh, hahahah...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Tatsumi sprang up from the ground cackling like a wild man, stunning both Akama and Aria, the former even more as she saw him stand up despite his chest being sliced open, even more so when she saw the wound close and heal as if it was never even there at all, and for some reason the shirt fixed itself. "Slick move, not a lot of people have managed to pierce me, you're stronger than you look, now it's my turn." he raised his arms as they shapeshifted into Claws.

Akame stepped back, now adopting a more serious expression. "What is that?! Could it be some sort of Teigu, or could he be a humanoid Teigu Boss told us about?! Not just that, but he actually managed to survive Murasame's poisoned curse as well, I underestimated him but that will not happen again!"

Aria stared at his clawed appendages with wide eyes, both out of feat and amazement as she didn't expect this sort of thing from him, but it seemed like he was fighting to save her life. "Get her Tatsumi!" she told him. "Cut hat crazy bitch to pieces and make her regret attacking us just because we're wealthy!"

'Just keep talking bitch." Tatsumi was itching to stain himself with the young blonde's blood, but he wanted to see what this assassin girl was made of plus it's rare for him to fight a Teigu user. This should make for an interesting fight. Jumping up in the air he tried to slam his foot down on her, but Akame moved out of the way as he created a crater upon impact. He attacked her with his Claws, clashing them against her blade, sending sparks out, he swung a kick at her but she dodged it then jabbed part of his chest to see if the effect from before could happen again, and it did. The wound healed and the poison didn't falter him in the slightest. "Use something more original why don't ya?"

From her hiding spot, Leone whistled. "Damn, that kid's actually holding his own against Akame. Now I feel stupid for trying to steal him of his money." she felt annoyed when she learned that a kid like him managed to out-scam her, but seeing him now, she has a newfound respect for this young lad. Guess now was the time to deflate the situation before it escalates even further.

Akame couldn't believe she was having a hard time killing a single interferer, very few have ever managed to fight on par with the someone of her skill and for the first time, she was actually having a hard time, she pushed him back against a tree and tried advancing but he just pulled the tree out of it's roost and lifted up. 'Stronger than he looks...!"

"Here, catch!" he threw the tree at her forcing her to jump. "Come on! That the best the great Night Raid has to offer, thought you guys were supposed to be hardcore killers!"

"We are kid, it's just not a lot of people have managed to give us a hard time before." both Akame and Tatsumi looked to see Leone emerge from her hiding spot. "Yo~." she winked.

Tatsumi gasped a little, the long hair and claws were a bit new, but he recognized that face...and chest. "It's you?"

She placed her hands on her hips with a prideful smile. "That's right, the beautiful Onee-San from before!" she boasted. "So now that we're here, I think we should talk things over before we do something we might regret."

"Leone, he is interfering with the mission. By defending that girl, he made himself a target." Akame told her teammate.

The busty blonde patted the girl's head with a good-natured laugh. "Oh Akame, you really need to keep up. He didn't stop you from killing that little brat because he wanted to save her, he did it because he didn't want you take his kill away from him." Akame's and Aria's eyes widened at this revelation while the youngster in question remained silent. "Isn't that right cutie, I mean why go through so much trouble in killing the guards inside along with the girl's parents if you weren't aiming to take her down yourself?"

Akame looked at the boy in surprise. "He killed the targets?"

Hearing that part about her parents greatly shocked Aria. This boy...the one she picked up from the streets...the one who she's been nothing short of kind to since she met him murdered her family she was brought to fresh tears. "Why?" she faintly asked turning to him. "We-We took you in from the cold streets, we let you sleep in our home, gave you nothing but kindness! Tatsumi, why?! How could you do such an unforgivable thing?!" she demanded.

Tatsumi ran to her at high speeds and lifted her up with his hand squeezing her throat. "You dare?! You dare lecture me about unforgivable?! Enough of all that innocent girl bullshit, Aria! I'm through listening to all that crap!" she squirmed under his hateful gaze and dark tone. "I know what you and your fucking family have done, I know about all the people you've killed!"

"I-I don't know what you-"

"Oh no?! Then why don't we go take a little peak into the shed, shall we?" he gestured to said building that was locked.

Leone cracked her knuckles. "Alright, I know where this is going, so let me-" she was cut off when Tatsumi grabbed the lock and broke it off while crushing it to pieces with his bare hands. "Or you could go ahead and do it yourself, that's cool too." man, this kid keeps getting more interesting by the minute.

Kicking open the doors, they were all treated by a horrific sight, numerous dead bodies were either hung like carpets, strapped to operating tables or even caged like rabid animals. Seeing this shit show through a memory was bad enough, but seeing it for himself was a completely different matter to Tatsumi as he turned to Aria. "Feel like telling the truth now? In all honesty, I had a feeling you wouldn't pick up some random kid from out of town out of the goodness of your heart. That's just what you want them to think isn't it? You lure people who come from the country like me with your sweet words of false kindness then subject them to your usual hobby of torture and just toy with them until they have no fight left and die. That's your true nature, Aria."

But before he could continue, something caught his eye, it was a young dead girl hanging by her hands with black hair...and a familiar hairpiece in it.

No...

Oh god, no...

"Sayo..." he whispered in horror, dropping Aria to the ground. "Hey...Sayo..." he ran to her, begging that it just couldn't be, but he knew that face anywhere. "Sayo!"

Leone adopted a look of sympathy. "So, one of them was someone he knew." she then noticed a certain rich girl trying to sneak way but she grabbed her by the head. "I don't think so. You think you can just run away and be off the hook, little lady?"

"You found them too." Tatsumi whispered, realization washed over his face. "They did make it, but then you found them and you did this...!" he gritted his teeth as anger began to boil inside him.

Aria's eyes shrunk and attempted to deny all this. "No, it's a lie, Tatsumi! I never knew about a place like this! You're mistaken, you haven't heard my side of the story yet!" she begged and she begged for him to give her a chance to explain herself but no words from her disgusting mouth could dissuade the now vengeful young man.

"Spare me your lies!" he growled as tears started swelling up. "They mean nothing to me..."

"Tat..sumi...? Is that...really you...?"

His eyes widened at the familiar voice and looked to his side to see someone trapped in a cage, that unruly hair and bandana, it couldn't be..."Ieyasu!"

Yes, it was indeed another one of his friends, only he's been through hell, around his skin was a red rash and he looked completely weak and frail. "That girl..!" he weakly pointed to Aria. "She invited me and Sayo to her house, then after we ate, we both lost consciousness. And when we wake up..." the sickly young man gritted his teeth. "That bitch tortured Sayo to death!" Ieyasu could still remember his friends screams as he helplessly begged Aria to stop.

All was silent for the most part as Tatsumi took this information in, it seemed like years for him to comprehend what he has learned, all this time while he was travelling to the empire, his best friends were being cruelly tortured as if they didn't have any rights. It was all done by that family, it stayed silent until a certain murderer yelled out.

"What's so wrong about that?!" Aria removed herself from Leone's grasp as she now took on a more crazed look in her eyes. "You're just worthless hicks from the country right?!" she told Tatsumi as her personality did a complete 180, gone was the seemingly sweet and innocent girl, now she was showing everyone her true self. "You're the same as cattle! I should be allowed to treat them however I want! Besides, that girl was so impertinent for having straight hair for a farm animal, while I was cursed with unruly hair! That's why I agonized her until her screams stopped, in fact she should be grateful that I took such good care of her!"

Seeing the girl rave like a lunatic made the busty older blonde snorted in disgust. "A family of sadists who take the guise of good Samaritans. Akame, it's time to take care of business."

Her ally nodded as she took out her sword. "Eliminate."

"No..." before anyone could react, Tatsumi summoned a Blade on his right arm and stabbed Aria through the heart. "Like you said before Leone, she was my kill." he coldly stated, letting the body drop to the floor.

Leone watched this with intrigue. 'She was a hateful person, that's for sure but he killed her without hesitation. Then again, considering what he did to her folks and a handful of guards, it looks like killing another human being isn't foreign to him. And the way his hands turned into weapons, it's not like any Teigu I've ever seen. Just who are you, Tatsumi?"

Ieyasu chuckled as he witnessed the rightful murder of that sadistic bitch. "Nice work, Tatsumi...I told ya, those badass powers of yours would do us good some day." but then he coughed out a lot of blood.

Tatsumi turned to him in alarm. "Ieyasu!" he bent the cage bars open to pull him out of his prison and laid him down on the floor. "What's happening, is it the disease?"

"It's the last stages of Lubora Disease." Akama clarified. "The mistress that you killed enjoyed putting people on drugs and writing down their symptoms in a personal diary." her tone turned apologetic. "I'm sorry, but he can't be saved."

"No.." he breathed.

"Hey, Tatsumi." he looked to his dying friend. "You know our girl, Sayo, she never submitted to that fucking bitch, she stayed strong to the very end, it was so damn awesome. She must have known that if it had been you, you'd never give them the satisfaction of breaking your spirit, you were always the strongest of us." he croaked with a smile.

"Ieyasu..." tears dropped from Tatsumi's eyes as he could practically feel the life fading from his friend.

"Guess I should do the same...if this is the end, then I might as well go out the same way...strong..." his eyelids closed as his body remained still, the effects of the disease having taken its toll on him. He didn't need to be a doctor to know that no matter how much he wished this was just a dream, he knew that this was all too real.

Both of his best friends were dead.

"Damn you Honest!" he cursed with rage. "Why must you take all that I love away from me?!"

Akame stared at him before turning around. "We should go, regroup with the others."

But the blonde stopped her. "Now hold on just a minute Akame, why don't we take him along with us?" she was met with a questionable look. "Come on, we could use some extra hands, plus you saw the way he was. We'd be complete idiots to just leave him!" she grabbed him by the back of his hood and pulled him along. "Now come along kid, your new home awaits you!"

"Hey, let go!" Tatsumi demanded. "At least let me bury my friends first!"

She smiled back at him. "Oh don't worry about that, I'll bring the bodies back to the hideout later."

"Wait, what?! Can you at least let go of me?!"

"Aw, but if I did that, you'd escape Onee-San's loving embrace and I don't want that~?"

Soon, the two female assassins brought Tatsumi to where the rest of Night Raid were to rendezvous once the mission was complete, everyone that he saw before was there from the armored man to the pink-haired gung girl. "Ahh, so they're finally back." the big guy observed.

"We should hurry up and get back to the hideout." the green haired teen said, looking at his pocket watch. "It'd be shit for all of us otherwise."

The pink haired girl put her hands on her hips. "What the hell took you two so long, anyway?" she demanded in an stern tone then noticed the struggling boy being carried bridal style by Leone. "Wait, who the hell is that?"

"He's one of us, of course." Leone answered, as if it were obvious.

This made Tatsumi stop struggling and look at the blonde with wide eyes. "Excuse me?! he landed on his feet once Leone lets go of him and lined up with the others.

"It's your lucky day, kid! Starting from today, you're now one of us, welcome to Night Raid!" Leone announced cheerfully giving him a thumbs up. "Congratulations!"

Tatsumi stared at her as if she were still drunk. "Are you fucking serious right now, don't I at least get a say in this, I mean I don't remember agreeing to anything!"

"Give it up." Akame told him. "Once Leone wants something, there's no stopping her from having her way."

Leone patted her head. "You know me so well. Now who wants to handle him from here."

"Woah, I'm not letting anyone else man-handle me." Tatsumi sighed. "Look I'll listen to what you guys have to say but as long as I'm not treated like some damn prisoner of war. Deal?"

Leone sighed. "Boy, you're a lot of trouble, okay then if it makes you happy."

"The mission is complete." Akame announced. "Time to return to base!"

With that order, the assassin group leaped from building to building alongside their newest recruit, who surprised once he displayed his superhuman-level agility and stamina, though he was left wondering...

Just what did he just get himself into?

Thanks for reading.