Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Nine: A Night With Esdeath

It's late at night and Minazuki has been given his own room to stay in at the palace, thanks to his new position as Esdeath's personal 'Love Adviser.' The boy looks at the bed, but doesn't feel like sleeping in it, since he usually slept on the floor while Leone had the bed. So, he just chose a spot in the corner, facing the door, and labeled that his sleeping area. "I can't risk taking this mask off for even a moment. I have to remain in character for as long as I'm within one hundred feet of one of these Jaeger guys. Good thing Izunaga taught me all this monk stuff, or my ass would be cooked, or probably frozen in this case.", Minazuki thinks to himself as he seats himself in the corner. As Minazuki sits there, looking at the wooden floor, Esdeath's words ring in his mind, "You shouldn't leave this room for any reason tonight. The guards haven't been made aware of your staying here, so they'll likely kill you on sight. I know you're powerful, but these elite guards are likely beyond your level. Please, for your own safety, remain in your room until someone comes to get you in the morning." "I guess Tatsumi's on his own for this one. Hopefully he can at least survive one night with Esdeath.", the boy thinks to himself, praying for his friend's survival.

Up in Esdeath's chambers, Tatsumi sits on the large, queen sized bed as he waits for the General to finish her shower, which she's taking in the nearby bathroom. "How did it turn out like this!? I can't even move, I'm so tense! I need to calm down! I know I can convince her to become an ally if I try hard enough! I need to be a man, like Bulat believed I could be. I need to just go for it!", Tatsumi thinks to himself as he continues to nervously twitch on the bed, trying not to focus on the woman's shadow on the glass door. When he hears the bathroom door slide open, Tatsumi  turns to see General Esdeath in nothing but a slightly unbuttoned dress shirt, revealing her wonderful figure to him. "I'm sorry, I made you wait, didn't I?", Esdeath says with a slight smile aimed at the boy, her gaze focused entirely on him. "No! Not really, you didn't really!", Tatsumi frantically spouts as the blue haired woman sits down next to him. "Would you like anything to drink? Some water? Wine maybe?", Esdeath kindly asks the boy as she looks to a small table holding two glasses and multiple adult drinks. "No! I'm fine, thanks! I'm just fine!", Tatsumi quickly answers as he waves his hands dismissively at the beauty before him. "Are you nervous, Tatsumi?", Esdeath asks the boy as she turns to look at him with a kind smile. "N-no....Not at all...", the panicked brunette replies, clamping his clammy hands together and holding them close to his chest as the woman leans towards him, eyeing him up from head to toe. The woman tilts her head and lets out a slight chuckle at the sight of his now blushing face before saying, "You're so cute." Hearing the General's kind words, Tatsumi loosens his grip and instead starts to only somewhat nervously tap the tips of his fingers together before muttering, "Hey...Esdeath..." The half naked woman turns to him with a curious look and Tatsumi says, "I'm...sorry if I hurt your feelings earlier. I just kind of spook easy sometimes when I zone out. I'm sorry." In turn, Esdeath smiles at her lover's apology and says, "It's fine Tatsumi. I guess that's the price I pay for being, well, me. I scare people. When I walk down the street, I see people walk across the street just to avoid being near me. I'm used to it..." There's a short moment of awkward silence in the room before Tatsumi speaks up and says, "Oh, there was something I'd like to ask you, Esdeath..." "Do you...really like me? Like, you're certain you don't want someone taller or better looki-", the innocent boy begins to ask before Esdeath silences him with a passionate kiss to the lips. As she kisses him, Esdeath pins the powerless boy to the bed with one hand as she runs her fingers on the other through his brown, silky hair. Through the whole kiss, the passionate woman's eyes are peacefully closed while Tatsumi's are wide open and filled with fear. After breaking the kiss, only for a fresh breath of air, Esdeath asks, "If I didn't like you, we wouldn't be in this position, would we?" As she grants the boy a small amount of space, the woman sits down on his legs, warming his lap as she looks to him with loving eyes. "Then I'd like you to hear something! A request!", Tatsumi blurts out in a panic as her bare thighs touch his pant legs. "Hm? What is it? You have my complete, undivided attention.", the General replies as she looks down at Tatsumi's reddened face. With a gulp, Tatsumi swallows the spit welling up in his mouth from the tense situation before remembering the words of advise Minazuki left him after their training. The masked boys voice echoes through Tatsumi's mind as he remembers his friend say, "There are three things you need to remember when you're lying. One, never make a lie too big. If you make some giant lie that you can't back up, it's doomed to fail from the start. Second, the best lies are the ones half full of truths. If you're partially telling the truth, it'll be harder for someone to tell if you're actually lying. And third, and most importantly, never make up a lie that you can't believe. If you can't even believe your own lies, you shouldn't expect anyone else to." "Let's just hope that advice works on one of the Three Elemental Generals, or I'm dead!", Tatsumi thinks to himself before taking a deep breath and letting it all out with a great sigh. "I hate this Empire as it is now! And I want it to change!", Tatsumi passionately proclaims to the woman as she sits in front of him. "Well, of course, many people believe the same thing. What of it?", Esdeath calmly replies with a slightly confused look. "If I'm to fight at your side, I don't want it to be for the Empire! I'd rather not fight in this bloody war, but if I had to choose a side, it'd be with the Revolutionary Army!", Tatsumi shouts, trying to express how he truly feels about the issue to the General without giving away too much. "I've lost a lot to the corruption in this terrible Empire! I lost my friends, my family, everything! I want to change this place for the better, not watch it fall further into the abyss of darkness it's in now! So, would you join me if I were to defect to the Revolutionary Army!? We could save so many!", he passionately continues as he radiates an oddly confident aura, causing Esdeath to believe every word from his mouth. Before he can continue the boy is met with a hot slap to the face as Esdeath shouts, "What are you thinking saying such things to a General of the Empire?! Are you out of your mind!?!" Tatsumi just holds his burning cheek, internally smiling to himself before saying, "I know what I'm saying is stupid, and to a point down right crazy. But, as it is, I can't fight for this. I can't fight for the monster that is this Empire. I'd rather stay home and watch the world burn before I raise a finger in the name of this Empire. And I don't want to lose you in the process. I want a world where you can walk in the streets and people won't try to avoid you. They'd bring their kids up to you and show them the Great General Esdeath, fighter for the People." As she hears those last words, the Ice Queen feels her now warm heart skip a beat. "H-he's worried, about me. He's not worried about the fact that the Empire would have him tortured for years for his crimes.", Esdeath thinks to herself, her face slightly flushed from the thought of Tatsumi thinking of her so passionately. "You don't have to worry about me, love. All you need to do is stay here by my side, and that's all I'll ever need.", the worried woman replies as she embraces him with a hug. "I understand the pain you had to endure to get this far in life. But from now on, I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again.", Esdeath adds as she rubs her cheek against the one she slapped. As she releases Tatsumi from her clutches, Esdeath grant the boy a foot or so of space before sitting on her knees and looking to him as she says, "Also, as my lover and not my property, you are the only one I see as a man. And I'll never let you feel lonely ever again, Tatsumi~" Tatsumi sits back a little after hearing this before putting his knees to his chest as he curls up into a ball and says, "I'm really happy you feel that way about me... Nobody really has before, and it feels nice to hear you say those nice things, but still..I..I just can't. If I were to stop caring now and only care about what I wanted, I'd be no better than the corrupt people of this god forsaken world!" "What is it that troubles you so much, Tatsumi!? Just name who it is you're trying to protect and they'll be placed under my protection!", Esdeath proclaims as she crawls over to him, worried about the sad look coming across his face. "It's not that...I...I had a dream once... A dream of a country where everyone could live happily. Without having to worry about whether or not they'd be thrown in jail for a crime they didn't commit or murdered by some assassins for just having an opinion! And as rotten to the core this damn Empire is, my dream will never come true here....", Tatsumi passionately replies until the end where he slowly becomes cold and distant. "...Tatsumi...", Esdeath mutters under her breath as she tries to gently lift his head from his knees. "Imagine if we met under different circumstances. You were a young woman coming of age in a village and then one day you met me. Our hearts felt for one another, we knew as soon as we met eyes that we were meant to be, but in this society without any real public security, plagued by poverty and hunger... we'd likely never be able to act on those feelings... Too afraid that once we did, it'd all fall apart right from under our feet.", Tatsumi passionately explains as he continues to bury his face in the sanctuary of his knees. "Do you understand now!? That is the Empire I'd love to fight and die for! Not this pile of shit we have now!!!", the distraught boy finishes as he leaves his head in his knees, patiently waiting for her response. "She's not gonna buy it! I'm going to die here, aren't I!?!", Tatsumi thinks to himself as he begins to panic on the inside, but on the outside, he keeps his depressed looking figure. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I still don't understand.", Esdeath replies as her disheartened voice calls out to Tatsumi. The boy lifts his head up to see the desperate woman grabbing at her heart as she says, "For so long, I've believed that the law of the world was always 'Survival of the Fittest,' yet...that monk, he made me question everything in just a few sentences. Now, I don't know what to believe." Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to strike his final blow, Tatsumi quickly takes her cold hands into his and tells her, "Then let's figure this out together! We don't have to join the Revolutionary Army if you don't want to, but if we leave the Empire now, we might have a shot later in helping rebuild! We can help shape this world for the better, for the people who'd find their destined partner and under this cruel Empire, would never be able to share their feelings with one another! Let's leave this evil place and never look back!" Esdeath looks up into his eyes and sees that they're burning with all kinds of emotion while thinking, "That expression is...so nice..but still.." Much to Tatsumi's surprise, Esdeath finally speaks up and says, "That's not going to happen." The icy General gives him a quick glare before growling to the boy, "My duties come first! I may be a woman and I may be your lover, but above all else I'm a General of this Empire. I'm not going to be changed by you, understand? I'm going the one who's going to mold you into becoming a great General like myself one day! Nothing else matters!" Tatsumi releases his hold on the Ice Queen's hands and turns away from her before defiantly growling back, "Fine, say what you want about changing me, but this dream of mine isn't going away so easily! Even if you torture me!" "Wait, why did I say that last part!? Why am I giving her ideas!?!", the panicked boy begins to think without losing his cool, defiant shell. Esdeath lets out a slight snicker as she witnesses his reaction before saying, "You're just so stubborn, just like me. I guess that's just one of the few things that draws me to you, Tatsumi~" "I guess that stubborn attitude of his is also how he can keep that happy smile of his. I want to see that smiling face so bad, these feelings, I want him more than anything. I'll have to keep his opinion in mind from now on...", the woman thinks to herself as she looks at her lover longingly with his back turned toward her. With a heavy yawn, Esdeath stretches her arms into the air and says, "Well, I'm tired after today's events and that conversation. We'll talk more about this another time. But for now, shall we go to sleep?" Slightly baffled by her innocent response to his rebellion, Tatsumi looks at the smiling woman with a confused glance as he thinks, "So, did I win or did I lose? I don't get it. Maybe it's a draw? I don't understand these things." His gaze shifts over to the nearby couch and  as he starts heading toward it he says, "Then I'll go sleep on the couch. You got an extra blanket?" Before Tatsumi can leave her side however, Esdeath grabs his arm and says, "I'm not mad about what you said! I'm...I'm actually taking everything you said into careful consideration, Tatsumi! Now, please, sleep in the bed with me!" Tatsumi's left amazed by what he just heard her say, his eyes widening in complete astonishment as he thinks, "Taking into consideration? Does that mean...I won!?! I won over Esdeath!?! YES!!! That crazy bastard was right!!!" "I just need to take a quick shower first! Then I'll be right out, okay?", Tatsumi say as he gently pats Esdeath on the hand and calmly heads to the bathroom with a smile. As she sees his smile, Esdeath's once frozen heart warms up and starts to beat erratically. "There it is, the smile I love so much! Monk, your advice really did work after all. I just have to listen to what he says and take it into consideration. I'll win Tatsumi's heart!!!", the loving woman thinks to herself as she watches thw man she loves walk into the bathroom and close the door behind him. As the door shuts behind him, Esdeath mutters to herself, "Maybe we should've showered together? Would that have broken the ice a little better? No, I don't need to rush things." Laying flat on her back, Esdeath's gaze falls upon the ceiling as she rests her head on one of her pillows before thinking, "All I need to do is trust in the Monk's advice and I'll find my way through this jumbled maze of love. And at the end, is Tatsumi's heart~"