The Shinigamis

Chapter 4

The person I recognized as Akame from the wanted posters; had shed her cloak before jumping over her allies and spinning down quickly on Eiko, clashing swords in the process. This caused a blast of wind and a blaze of fire to erupt from their collision.

Meanwhile Mon activated his teigu, Bast; growing obsidian claws on his hands and feet, a pair of golden wings, tail and ears, with soulless pure black eyes. Just like a cat, Mon would pounce on the Incrusio user letting out a ferocious roar in the process.

"Aggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh" the brown haired guy with green eyes swung his sword at me in a huge arc, giving me plenty of time to dodge with little to no effort. His skill level is so low that I'm unable to comprehend how he became a member of Night Raid. "Why would you want to take these peoples home?"

"Home? What home do they have here?" I deflected his attacks away with my dagger and went on to slashing his face.

"We'll give them one!"

"Didn't you learn to lose your heart? They're useless in the capital"

"Oh shut up!" a pink haired girl, on the roof of the mansion, had yelled over the sound of her gun firing at me.

I spun out the way, just barely, then followed up my movements with a back handed fist to the guys face; knocking him on his butt. "Sun! Up above three o'clock"

"Got it" She spun her spear around quickly releasing a shadowy darkness into the air that blocked all remaining light in the area.

It was now pitch black, visibility was completely gone, but sound was very present. Over the clashing of swords, grunts, and yells; you are able to hear a horrifying scream coming from the direction of pink hair.

"Mine!" The guy screamed for her, telling me his position.

I lunged towards him first grabbing his arms in order to stop him from swinging his sword and before he could react to my advances I sent a hard knee smashing into his jaw. "Submit." I would go on to twisting his arm behind his back, disarming him.

I didn't want to kill him. I could tell the guy was just an innocent country man who wasn't fluent in the ways of the capital, so of course I have to teach him. It's for his own good after all.

"Ugh get off... of me" he struggled to try to hit me with his free arm but due to the way I had held him down he was unable to reach me.

All I could do was watch his body convulse in order to break free from my grasp though I had held a firm grip on him. My eyes glowed golden while rings of the same hue would protrude from them, cutting through the obscurity of the night and passing by him; he was instantly imprisoned within my illusion.

This brown haired bloke would witness visions of himself having fun with his friends; just hanging out, laughing and acting silly under the rich blue summer skies that shed no tears but only greeted them with beautiful rays of sunshine and warmth, as if the world was hugging them with an endless amount of affection. I wanted to show him a life that he could have or once had. But then the vision changed to show a darker than blood red sky raining fiery crimson hell on the world around him. His friends were brutally displayed in a circle around him; whether they were hung, skinned, missing body parts, heads stuck on a pike, or ran through by multiple spears. A murder of crows came to feast on their bodies and despite all his best efforts, no matter how hard Brown hair tried to scare them off his friends; they just kept eating. The gathering of the birds would actually grow bigger along with the sound of their squawking that exponentially enhanced in volume.

"Understand that here you have a decision to make. You either lose your heart or have it taken from you. This how the capital works. No in-between." In the real world I had talked to what I assumed was a slouched body while in the deception I created he was stuck in a loop that continued to show his friends being eaten by screeching crows and their blood stained to his hands. "I'll let you think about that." I walked away slowly, using my feet to feel my way around.

As I walked towards the light coming from the fire of Eiko's sword I had noticed a pair of glowing yellow cat eyes, in my peripheral vision, staring at me, a deep growl originating from the same source, and a livid red voice that said "I would love to take your heart out" before pouncing at me.

She was fast, definitely much more so than her teammate for I had to stay on my toes. Even though her body had soared over mine when I ducked out of the way; she wasn't fazed. Instead she had landed on the ground then bounced back up in my direction with a hand extended for my neck. Quickly I tapped my foot on the ground letting the hidden knife of mine pop out of the shoe's heel subsequently initiating a round house kick, cutting some part of her, and resulting in her moving away from me. But I wasn't going to let up. Continuing my assault I kept kicking and/or slicing my leg in every way imaginable in her direction in order to keep her on the defense, but it all ended when she grabbed my leg with her bare hand and broke my shoe knife; I guess she had adapted to the pattern of my movements.

Afterwards she applied pressure to my leg causing a minor snap within and making me wince in pain; it took a lot of strength to convert my screams into horrifying groans.

Then, with her strength, she picked me up by the leg and swung me to the other side of her, slamming me on the ground, back first, causing me to cough up blood. Next she picked me up again and swung me back to the other side of her, but before my face could get obliterated on the earth I had caught myself with my hands and using my other leg I had grabbed hold of her arm, flipped her over, and with two knives I attempted to stab the only things I could see in the dark; her eyes. However though she kneed me in the stomach and head butted me off her, making me drop my last knives in the process.

After reaching for my head and stomach due to the pain and backing up with a limp I would tap the ground with my other foot causing a knife to pop out of its heel. My right leg wasn't strong enough to hold me up so I kicked my left shoe off up into the air, catching it and throwing it at her. "Did I hit her?"

The sound of a thud followed by a groan had come into existence beside me; while the moon and stars were revealed once again flaunting its light.

"Mine!" I looked back over at the blonde cat woman screaming for her fallen pink haired friend. She had my shoe in her shoulder and cuts along her body and face.

When looking at myself I noticed I had retained more injuries than I thought. Then when looking around I saw my own teammate, Amano, on the ground knocked out; or at least I hope that was all he was.

Eiko and Mon were now tag teaming against Akame and the incrusio user, while Lye was combating with the green haired guy with goggles, but as for Sun she was now in pursuit of their boss, Najenda.

"Wait don..." I was interrupted by my shoe flying past my head. I was trying to warn Sun to not attack her because even though she doesn't have an imperial weapon she was renowned as one of the best generals the capital has had because of her intelligence.

"I'm not done with you" she ran at me while I quickly took out my dagger.

"Hey what's happening over there?"

Me and the blonde cat lady, whom I just recognized to be the girl that I had saw at the bar, had paused in place; with her hand wrapped around my neck and my dagger pressed up against hers. We had both notice the female voice and knew that it didn't originate from either of our teams.

"Let's go" as soon as their boss commanded, they were out; retrieving their fallen comrades first.

"Us too" Eiko ordered and we left as well; also picking up our fallen comrade on our leave.

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After darting down the cliff side and through a forest we would stop at a river bank to take a break. With the injuries we sustained it was hard to move quickly, especially over long periods of time.

"Night Raid are just as good as the rumors claim, maybe even better." Lye wasn't someone to admit someone was stronger than her but I guess her pride was no match for her concern towards the beaten down Amano. I could tell that she was scared and she wasn't the only one. We just met someone as strong as us and we all knew this would not be our last encounter.