Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Twenty One: Melding

It's been two weeks since Night Raid arrived in Kyoroch and Minazuki is starting to get out of bed. Leone's standing off to the side, waiting to see if he's fully recovered or not. As he walks across the room without any problem, Najenda, who's standing in the doorway, says, "It seems like you've made a full recovery. It might've taken a couple weeks, but we're all glad to see you're better, Minazuki." "It's good to be back in action. I'll need my Imperial Arm back now.", Minazuki says, holding his hand out to Najenda, waiting for her to return Quake. Najenda looks over to Leone and nods, causing her to walk over to the dresser in the room. She opens the bottom drawer and it seems to be filled with nothing but her bras and underwear, but as she pushes them aside, Minazuki sees she was hiding Quake there the whole time! "You hid Quake here this whole time!? And in your underwear drawer no less!?!", Minazuki asks furiously. Leone laughs and says, "I hid them here because I knew that would be the last place you'd look. You're too modest to snoop through a girl's underwear." He lets out a slight chuckle at his own expense and says, "I guess I'll have to keep that in mind." She tosses the gauntlets over to him and as he catches them, he can feel the power that has stored up over the past couple weeks. He looks at the gauntlets to see that the tips of the fingers are no longer curved, instead they now have sharp, dragon like claws at the end of each finger. As soon as he puts them on, he sees the gem in the right gauntlet begin to glow before saying, "It's been a while, Quake." "Mortal...", he hears Quake say in a slightly irritated tone. "I see you've recovered from last time. Though it might've only been just a temporary melding, it was still a melding none the less. If you were to go through with your plan, the boost would be even greater, but there will be side effects. Are you still certain about your plan?", Quake asks in a more serious, straight forward tone. "Just because you've recovered to this point doesn't mean you should go pushing yourself again. I believe you should stay at the base and refrain from going on missions until we're certain that you're fine.", Najenda orders before leaving the room to attend to other business. "What will it be, Mortal? Your 'Boss' seems to believe that you should continue to rest. If you were to attempt this, it could put an even larger burden on your body.", Quake says, causing Minazuki to sigh. He looks over to Leone and asks, "Is that a training room I sense in the basement?" She nods and replies with, "Yeah, there's not a lot down there, just some exercising equipment. Why?" "I just need some space for what I'm planning on doing. If anyone needs me, I'll be down there.", he replies before walking out of the room. Before he can get through the doorway however, Leone grabs him and pulls him into a tight hug from behind. "You better not over do it, I swear to God!", she says as she squeezes him tighter. "I'm not planning on doing anything dangerous. I'm just making sure I didn't get rusty sitting around all this time.", he replies as he looks up at her. She reluctantly lets him go free before saying, "I'm helping Suu dig that tunnel today. I better see you at lunch time, or I'll hunt you down." 

As she walks past him through the doorway and down the hall, Quake says, "Are you ignoring my warnings, Mortal? Or are you just searching for death?" "There's no need to worry them. If we want to complete the plan, we need to be able to meld properly. That way, when the time comes, we can easily beat Esdeath and keep everyone alive.", Minazuki whispers to himself before heading down out into the hallway toward the basement. Once he gets there, he sees it's a nicely lit room with some dumbbells and other training equipment, but nothing he plans on using. More importantly, the walls and floor are all made from stone and dirt. "So, what happened to cause this change?", Minazuki asks as he turns part of the floor into sand. "The temporary melding managed to break some of the magic seals restraining my power. There are multiple seals, but I do believe that we can shatter them all through a natural melding.", Quake replies. "Natural melding only? Would forced not be enough?", Minazuki asks as he turns some of the sand into spears and sends them hurdling into the wall, causing them to bust apart against the stone wall. "Like I told you before, Mortal, forced melding isn't as strong as natural melding.", Quake explains in a slightly irritated tone. "I see, so what do we have to do in order to start a natural melding?", Minazuki asks. "Last time, we were able to meld because I matched your emotional state and performed a mental link so I could control your body, but that put a large strain on your body in the process. Now, we'll need to unite our thoughts into one and try to think as one being rather than two separate entities.", Quake explains. "Then we'll focus on that then.", Minazuki says before sitting on the ground and beginning to meditate. They're both silent for a moment before Quake sighs and asks, "You have no clue what you're doing, do you?" "Perhaps I need some guidance...", Minazuki replies with a slightly defeated look on his face. "Calm your mind and enter my realm, we'll work from there.", Quake says in an irritated tone. "Sounds simple enough.", Minazuki says before shutting his eyes and taking a deep breath. As he slowly exhales, he increases his focus on Quake and enters his world. When he opens his eyes, he sees Quake standing in front of him, looking down at him with a slight glare. "I see you've at least managed to master that technique. I'll give credit where credit is due, Mortal, you're improving much quicker than Shoryu did back then.", Quake says, almost forcing himself to complement Minazuki. Minazuki lets out a slight chuckle before saying, "Is that a complement? From a God? Isn't that a bit out of character for you, Quake? Shouldn't you be scolding me for taking so long to recover?" "Don't push it, Mortal. Like I said, I give credit where it's due and no more. Now, if you're planning on having a melding with me, we'll have to understand one another beyond a reasonable doubt.", Quake replies in a slightly angered tone. "And how do we do that? Story time?", Minazuki asks jokingly. Quake just growls before slamming his right claw down on the ground. Minazuki looks up at him with an unimpressed look before the ground begins to tremble. Quake takes flight as a temple like structure begins to rise up from the ground. "A temple? But-", Minazuki begins to ask before Quake shouts, "Reach the top, Mortal! You will learn more there!" He suddenly sees that the sides seem to have steps that go all the way up to the top before saying, "I guess this is what I get for taking his complements so lightly." As he starts climbing up to the top, Quake watches over him from the sky and thinks, "I really should consider myself lucky. This conduit shows much more promise than the other Mortals he works with. But now, we'll see if he can truly reach my expectations."