Mustang: The Road to Redemption

Chapter 27: Back Together

"W-What the hell, is happening?" Weakly said Alex as he stared at the blood on the palm of his hand.

"When my sword lands a cut on any living being, it inflicts a highly potent poison that spreads through the entire body from the cut." Explained Akame as Alex chuckled a little.

"I-I see. That's why you're named the One-Cut Killer.

"Precisey. You're in luck however. Back when my sword was in peak condition, even the smallest of cuts was able to kill anything within seconds. Now that my sword's gone through a lot of wear and tear, the poison has gradually weakened over time. A little cut like that is nothing more than a minor hindrance. If I wanted to achieve the same resulrs as before, I'd really need to put all my strength into an attack."

'Minor hindrance my ass. This shit still hurts like hell.' Thought Alex as the poison was unbearable.

If this was what Akame considered a minor hindrance, he didn't even wanna imagine how had it was back in its prime.

Despite the pain, Alex would slowly stand back up as he raised his sword.

"You still wanna keep going huh? The more curs I land, the more the poison will stack on. It'll go from inconvenient to unbearable."

"I-I don't care. I'm............not backing down." Said Alex as Akame sighed.

"Fine. So be it."

The two would clash once more as Alex was now being a lot more distant with his attacks.

'If just one cut can poison me this much, then I gotta avoid getting more.' He thought to himself.

The two continued to clash back and forth as Alex was extra careful to not get hit, however this would get him into trouble as the boy kept overthinking his actions allowing Akame to get more slashes in as the poison's toll on him began to strengthen.

Alex still had just enough strength to battle back as he parried her last attack as he managed to land a decent cut on her shoulder.

This caused Akame to stagger a bit as Alex would then deck her right on the side her face, landing a right hook on her as the girl stumbled backwards, nearly losing her footing as she fell onto one knee.

The two took this moment to catch their breathe as Akame slowly stood back up.

Before the two could resume fighting, they heard a shout coming towards them from the forest.

"Alex! Akame! Stop!"

Alex and Akame both turned towards the direction of where the voice came from as they immediately knew who it was.

"Mom?" Said Alex who was confused as to why she was here.

"S-Shit not mom." Muttered Akame.

The girl looked back and forth between Alex and the forest before groaning as she turned around to run away.

"H-Hey Akame wait!" Said Alex as he attempted to chase after her however the poison immediately put a stop to that as Alex quickly feel onto one knee, completely spent of energy.

Right as Akame began running away, Akari arrived as she approached and kneeled beside Alex.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

Alex would respond by pointing ahead of him in the direction Akame ran off to.

"S-She's up ahead. Go.........after her." He said between pants as Akari nodded and ran off.

As Akame ran through the forest, her breathing and pants became heavy as she also was practically on her last legs.

Eventually once she felt she was far enough, she stopped running and hunched over, placing her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breathe.

As she did so, she'd see a bright light flash in front of her for a split second as she looked up and was shocked to see Akari standing in front of her.

"M-Mom!?" She said in shock.

Akari would slowly walk towards Akame as the girl would back away worried about what she was gonna do.

This continued for a bit until Akari grabbed Akame's hand and brought her in for a hug as she gently stroked Akame's hair.

Akame was shocked at this as Akari kept stroking her hair.

"Thank god you're back. Please, stop this fight. We'll explain everything to Alex and go back to the way things were." She said.

Akame would slowly calm down, silently crying as she hugged Akari back and nodded.

The two would remain like this for a few more minutes until Akame was fully calm.

The two went back to get Alex as all three went back to the apartment.

Eventually once they were all back at the apartment, the three sat at the kitchen table with Alex and Akame patched up after their fight.

"I'll start first. I was born six years before you Alex. Life was good with mom and dad. Then suddenly father started getting a little abusive. Then six year pass and you were born. On the day of your birth, father had a really bad abusive episode which horrified me so much that I ran away." Said Akame as Akari resumed the talk.

"Growing up, as you began to become more and more at odds with him, I just couldn't tell you about Akame fearing you would've done something irrational at a young age. Obviously this was before the massacre was ever in consideration." She said.

Alex took both their explanations and kept quiet for a bit before finally speaking.

"I see. So Akame ran away cause of father and mom being fearful that I would've put myself in danger if I knew, never told me to keep me safe." He said as Akame and Akari both nodded.

"I'm sorry for acting up." He said.

"It's perfectly reasonable Alex. I'm just glad I got there in time." Said Akari as she got up. "It's getting late now. You two should go to sleep now."

Alex and Akame nodded as Akame would wave bye and head back to her apartment.

The boy would then head to his room and lay on his bed, quickly falling asleep.

[Next Morning]

Alex wound up being the first one awake somehow which was definitely odd for him as he usually was always last.

He didn't necessarily mind it though as he had some peace and quiet for once so he sat on the couch and began to watch some TV.

After a while, he for some weird reason felt like switching onto the Lastation News.

He didn't know why but he just had a gut feeling that something drastic was happening.

Deciding to listen to it, he switched onto the news as he listened into a news segment.

"In other news, recent reports state that a fight has occurred on the border with Lastation and Kamno. Currently the extent of damage is unknown however the Basilicom has released a statement denying their involvement with the attack. Kamno has yet to make a statement. Stay tuned for updates on this story."

Alex would just sigh upon hearing that as he promptly turned off the tv.

He really didn't wanna know about any national affairs and just hoped that whatever the issue was would eventually die down.

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Chapter 27: Complete