Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Seventeen: The Battle Begins

It's roughly noon and Najenda is sitting in a chair overlooking a cliff side. A Margue Falcon flies down and lands on her mechanical arm with a note attached to its leg. She reads it and sees that its from her spies back at the Capital and they say that Esdeath is heading in their direction on horseback with all of her Jaegers with her. "I see, so my plan is working.", Najenda says to herself before dismissing the falcon. She stands from her seat and turns around before saying, "Alright, I've received word that our plan is going as we anticipated. You two need to keep nonchalantly attracting attention as we planned, alright?" Standing there are Akame and Sheele, wearing only their swimsuits and their Imperial Arms. Akame nods and Sheele says, "We'll try our best." Down below them, at the bottom of the high up cliff, the other Night Raid members are enjoying themselves. The girls are playing in the lake, splashing water on one another as the guys sit off to the side. Lubbock starts snickering while saying, "Weeeelll, it sure is nice to see all these girls in their bikinis in a place like this." "Could you stop drooling over them for a minute, Lub? We need to focus on the plan.", Tatsumi says, scolding him for being such a perv. "What!? Are you some sort of homo or are you just stupid!?!", Lubbock shouts. "I'm not a-", Tatsumi begins to shout before they hear Chelsea say, "Tatsumi~" They both turn to see Chelsea looking over to him with a smile before saying, "You should come join my team." "Team?", Tatsumi asks with a confused look. "They're trying to see who can overwhelm the other by just splashing water. I don't really see the point.", Minazuki says as he continues to read Shoryu's journal. "Come on, it'll be fun, Tatsumi~", Chelsea says with a wink. Tatsumi's face goes slightly red before saying, "I-I guess it wouldn't hurt..." "Hey, that's no fair! We didn't say we were going to have teams!", Leone shouts in frustration. "Well, you didn't say we couldn't have teams either, so...", Chelsea replies with an smirk. Leone grinds her teeth before getting an idea. "Fine, then you'll be on my team, right partner?", she says before turning to Minazuki to see that he wasn't even paying attention. Minazuki looks up from the journal and says, "I really don't get a say in the matter, do I?" Leone smiles and says, "Nope, now get in here." He reluctantly shuts the journal and puts it back in his bag before heading into the water. Mine sighs and says, "I guess I'm stuck with the weirdos. Now, do I choose Lub or Suu?" Susanoo just stands there, as if he wasn't even paying attention, as Lubbock flails his arms in the air, desperately trying to get Mine to pick him over Susanoo. She looks them both over for a second with her finger to her chin before saying, "Alright, you'll be my partner. You should feel grateful, Suu." As she says that last part, Lubbock's heart shatters and he's left sitting there in a more depressed state than ever before. "Don't worry Lub, you can just sit this one out, like every battle before this.", Leone says mockingly as Lubbock curls up in a ball in his seat. As their competition begins, Sheele and Akame are watching over them from the cliff side. "It's a shame we had to go draw even more attention to ourselves. I would've liked to have a little more fun with them too, down there.", Sheele says with a slight frown. She turns to see a worried look on Akame's face before asking, "What's wrong? Is something troubling you?" "It....It's my sister, Kurome.", Akame replies as she sits down in the grass. "She's chasing after me as a target. Every time I think about it, I just get lost in thought.", she says before going silent again. Sheele moves behind her and wraps her in a caring hug before saying, "Even if Kurome dies, you still have us, right? Night Raid, we're your family too, Akame. Don't forget that." This makes Akame smile before saying, "Yeah, thank you, Sheele."

The next day, Esdeath and her Jaegers stop for a moment to eat and discuss their strategy in a small town called Romari. They're meeting by a large water fountain, which Seryu, Kurome and Phi are sitting along as they eat the snacks Esdeath bought for them. "It seems as if Najenda is continuing east while Akame is moving south! Their party's been witnessed splitting into two groups after coming here.", Esdeath explains as she reads the reports. Koro reaches for Seryu's snack, simply wanting only a nibble, but she refuses to share, even after he gives her his biggest puppy dog eyes. "If you go east, you'll come upon Kyoroch. The headquarters for The Path of Peace is located there. If you go south, you should come upon cities that support the Revolutionary Army. In any case, this is quite suspicious.", Bols says as he feeds Koro some of his snack. "If we hurry, we should be able to catch up to both parties without any trouble, right? Let's go!", Wave says as he tries to rush off. Esdeath stops him and says, "Wait, Night Raid's members are criminals from the Capital. Since the wanted posters haven't properly circulated to these parts of the Empire, they were seen and tracked. On top of that, they were witnessed splitting into two groups." Phi raises an eyebrow and says, "Isn't that a bit too convenient? They're known for being the best of the best when it comes to assassination and stealth, but they were seen, tracked, then observed splitting their party?" "Yes, it's likely that this is in fact a trap for us.", Ran says before taking a bite out of his loaf of bread. "Then they were trying to lure us out then? Do they plan on defeating us?", Seryu asks. "Najenda is tricky like that. She fights calmly, with a burning heart.", Esdeath says before almost getting lost in thought. "So, what you're saying is we shouldn't follow them?", Wave asks hesitantly. "No, we won't waste this opportunity. Night Raid has finally revealed themselves to us. They're serving themselves on a silver platter. We'll prepare for their trap and squash with all our might, trap and all! Seryu, Ran and I will follow Najenda. Kurome, Wave, Phi, and Bols will chase Akame. Be aware of your surrounding at all times. And I don't care if you have to fall back due to the enemy waiting for you with overwhelming numbers. We might all be strong and equipped with Imperial Arms, but I'm not sending you all on a suicide mission. They are the final rats who oppose the Capital. Chase them down and finish them off, without fail!!!", Esdeath says, inspiring her subordinates to do their best. They all nod before quickly heading off to fulfill her orders. Wave, Kurome, Bols and Phi are riding horseback, heading south after Akame. "So our opponents are the infamous Night Raid. I wonder if someone like me can stand a chance...", Bols says nervously. "You'll do fine Bols. I have faith in your abilities and so does General Esdeath.", Phi says with a smile. Bols seems to blush at her complement before Wave says, "Yeah. When I fought one of those Night Raiders before, he was about on my level when it came to skill. If we work together, we'll definitely win! On top of that, your Imperial Arm is suited for fighting crowds, so you might be the perfect guy for this sort of mission." "Really?", Bols says with a hint of insecurity. "You're saying cool things like that, Wave, but I feel like in the end you're going to be the weak link among the four of us!", Kurome says mockingly. "What!?! Are you saying you can't trust in my abilities!?", Wave shouts, offended by her criticism. "Considering who we have, you have me, an elite assassin from the assassination squad, an experienced member of the incendiary squad, General Esdeath's star pupil, then you, some boy from the Imperial Navy with an Imperial Arm. I'm pretty sure we all beat you in skill and power, Wave.", Kurome says, assassinating his confidence as swiftly as she would her normal targets. Wave holds his chest, as if he'd just been shot right in his pride, without any way to come back from that criticism. "If it means anything to you, Wave, I think you're an excellent member of the team and quite strong. General Esdeath also believes this. Kurome's just teasing you is all.", Phi says to him with a smile. "T-thanks, Phi.", Wave replies, as his pride starts to heal. They suddenly see something in the distance! It's a scarecrow in the shape of a hunky man. "What the hell is that thing? A scarecrow?", Kurome asks. "I think so, but why does it look so strange? And who put it here?", Phi asks. "It's quite suspicious, everyone, be on your guard!", Bols shouts as they dismount their horses to investigate. "It could be an enemy trap, we should send Wave over there to investigate. He's the most expendable out of the four of us.", Kurome says mockingly. "Now you're just saying those things to hurt me!", Wave says in a childish tone. "We'll go together. There's strength in numbers.", Phi says as the four of them start to walk toward the scarecrow. Off on a far away cliff however, are Mine and Sheele. Mine is laying flat on the ground as Sheele hides in the shadows of the nearby trees, providing cover for her as she lines up her shot. Mine looks down her scope to see the four Jaegers before thinking, "Targets in sight. Looks like the Boss was right on the money, Esdeath split her group up just like she predicted and went after the Boss herself. Just as planned." She notices that Kurome looks very similar to Akame before thinking, "They really look a lot alike, don't they... I should've expected as much, them being sisters and all... Akame... I'll spare you this pain and end your sister swiftly, with one shot!" Mine lines her shot perfectly with Kurome's chest and holds her breath before pulling the trigger. The shot looks like it's going to hit its mark, but Kurome manages to dodge back out of the way of the shot in a split second! Mine is in complete disbelief at what she just saw and thinks, "She dodged!!! What the hell was that superhuman reaction time!?!" The scarecrow suddenly busts apart to reveal Susanoo was hidden inside. He charges at them with all his might, ready to strike at least one of them down, but Wave sees the attack coming. He jumps in between Susanoo and Kurome before shouting, "Watch out!!" He blocks Susanoo's full on attack with Grand Chariot's key, but it isn't enough and he's sent flying off through the air as if Susanoo had just hit a grand slam! Phi, Bols and Kurome all look up and watch Wave fly off while shouting, "Wave!!" Then they hear a sinister voice say, "We may have failed on the sniping, but we blew away one of you four. And it wasn't one who was a target, this is good." They all look to see the Incursio armor, Lionelle, Akame, General Najenda and a man hidden in a cloak standing before them. "Night Raid!? I see, so this is all of them!?! So the east was a fake then!", Bols shouts as he realizes the situation they're in. "Kurome and Bols, even within the Jaegers, you two are priority targets! Prepare yourselves to be eliminated!", Najenda says as she points to them, ignoring Phi. "Priority targets. I see, I won't let you do that!", Phi says as she steps in between Night Raid and her allies. "I see, because I've burned countless people, I've been targeted. I feel that nothing can be done about it if I'm targeted for such acts, but, I will not die!! I must return to them, alive!!!", Bols shouts as he prepares his Imperial Arm. Kurome and Akame just look at each other with cold, unfeeling eyes before Kurome says, "Sis.", and Akame says, "Kurome." Kurome puts her hands together and smiles before saying, "I've been waiting so long to see you, Big Sis, thank God. If I cut you down now, I can add you to my collection." Kurome draws Yatsuhusa and raises it up in the air before a dark black lightning jumps from the blade and hits the ground in several spots. And from those spots, the dead begin to rise from their graves. The earth begins to tremble as a giant danger beast claw emerges from the ground and Kurome says, "I've gathered quite the collection so far, Sis. I even got my own personal ultra-class danger beasts, one being Destaghoul!" The beast emerges from the ground and its size is enormous. It resembles a giant bone lizard with a giant X shaped scar on its chest. "It was a gamble whether Esdeath would split her forces into two groups, but now I see, if Yatsuhusa is truly this powerful, a little trap like this doesn't mean much!", Najenda thinks as they all see the size of Destaghoul. "Now, let's begin this little dance, shall we? How many of you are going to die, I wonder?", Kurome says in a cold, unfeeling tone.

And before the battle can begin, the chapter ends. I know, cliff hangers suck, right? Well, don't worry, the next chapter will be out soon so you won't be waiting too long. But, how will Night Raid handle such a dangerous enemy that can even summon ultra-class danger beasts? And what other tricks does Kurome have up her sleeves? And what of Phi? We've yet to see her Imperial Arm or its abilities. There's also Bols, who wants to survive and return to his loving wife and daughter. Who will survive this trap Najenda setup and who will die? You'll find out in the next chapter, Chapter Eighteen: A Forgotten Love.