Akame Ga Kill - Split The Earth In Two, Quake

Chapter Forty Two: A Sister's Love

Deep in Night Raid's secret home base, Akame and Minazuki are making dinner together. Akame is carving off pieces of a large danger beast while Minazuki is cutting up vegetables. Once she's done, she drops the meat in a ridiculously large pot sitting over an equally large fire on the stove top. As Minazuki adds his vegetables and other ingredients to the mixture, Leone and Sheele sit at the dinner table, waiting for dinner to be served. Leone is drinking sake as Sheele simply reads a book. "You two are sure you aren't over doing it just a little?", Sheele asks as she glances up at the large pot on the stove top. They both shake their heads no and Akame replies with, "A hardy dinner should prepare all of us for the upcoming battle. It only makes sense to make such a large meal." "Not to mention that we have to feed a good amount of people to feed. We'll need to make sure everyone is well fed before sending them into battle.", Minazuki adds as he starts to mix in soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Leone groans before saying, "Sukiyaki? Bleh! You know I hate that stuff!" Minazuki reluctantly rubs the back of his neck before saying, "Don't worry, Leone. I'll make you something else in a moment. But we should probably get everyone down here for dinner." He looks to Sheele and tells her, "Sheele, could you go get Najenda and the others? They should be in the training yard. Leone, Akame and I will go get Tatsumi." Sheele quickly nods before putting down her book and heading out to find Najenda. Akame and Leone both look to Minazuki and Akame says, "Well, let's go upstairs and get Tatsumi. He hasn't left his room all day." Minazuki starts walking out of the room, but instead of walking toward the stairs, he starts going for the front door. This causes both Leone and Akame to become confused. "Minazuki? Weren't we going to get Tatsumi?", Leone asks as she stands from her seat, somewhat wobbling in a drunken stupor. Minazuki glances over at the two confused girls before saying, "Something's wrong. Tatsumi left hours ago, but never came back. He left my range of sense, but I can track him. Follow me." With a worried look on her face, Akame simply mutters, "Tatsumi...", before the two of them rush to follow after Minazuki.

Off deep in the woods, in a dark, damp cave, Tatsumi is down on his knees, holding his stomach as he coughs up blood. As his hacking and wheezing echo through the cave, he eventually recovers his breath. As soon as he can breath, he lets out a pain-filled scream before falling face first into his own blood. "When...when will it stop...? This pain..!", he thinks to himself as he feels the unimaginable pain surging throughout his whole body. He looks at his twitching body before thinking, "My body... It feels like it's being pulled apart...!" As he manages to slowly pull himself off the ground, he hears the sound of rocks shifting. He turns to the entrance to the cave to see three figures standing there looking at him. "There you are, Tatsumi.", he hears one of them say, a seemingly kind male voice. As one of them rushes in, he notices it's Akame as she shouts, "Tatsumi!!", and moves to his side. The other two enter the cave and he sees that they're Leone, in her Lionelle form, and Minazuki. "Akame...Sis...Minazuki...what are you-", he begins to say before falling over in pain and coughing up more blood. As Akame picks him up and helps him sit up, Leone says, "I thought I got a whiff of something dangerous over here... I didn't think it was this bad..." Akame grabs a napkin from her pocket and goes to clean the blood from his mouth, but before she can he shoves her away, saying, "Get back! I can't... I can't control it!" "Tatsumi, what do you-", Akame begins to ask before the three of them see it. His face isn't the same as before, as the right side of his face is covered in scales and a large horn is growing out of his forehead, growing straight behind his head. "The melding is taking a serious tole on your body, Tatsumi.", Minazuki says to him reluctantly. Akame drags Tatsumi over to the wall of the cave, propping him up against it so he can sit up on his own. As she lets go of his body, Tatsumi sadfully says, "Even though the doctor said I'd have it under control for four more transformations....this is the result of having used it only once..." He looks down at his hand to see the tips of his fingers have become like the claws of a dragon. Clenching his fist in pain, he shouts, "It's like my body... is being eaten from the inside out..!!!" Leone and Minazuki sit down next to him, leaning against the wall with a hand on Tatsumi's shoulders, much to his surprise. He's even more surprised when Akame sits on her knees in front of him before taking ahold of his hands, cupping them in hers as she tells him, "It's alright, Tatsumi. We're here." "When you're alone, it's easy to get worked up and anxious, right? Well, how about now? Is your mind a little more at ease now?", Leone says to him with a smile. Minazuki shows Tatsumi his arms, revealing the spots on his arms where Quake fused with his body. "The melding process is different for every person. For some it's filled with unimaginable pain and for others it's coated with endless regret and nightmares. But as long as you keep a leveled head and your will to press forward doesn't waver, you will overcome this and gain incredible power.", Minazuki explains as he feels the point where the scales stop, feeling the combination of the rough and hard scales with the warm and soft feeling of human flesh. "That aside, if you happen to turn into a dragon right in front of us, we wouldn't be in too much danger. We'd just have to have Mine blow you to smithereens~", Leone says to him playfully, earning a slight laugh from Tatsumi and a giggle from Akame. A slight smile comes across Tatsumi's face as he thinks, "My will... It started to waver... Why was I letting myself become so miserable... so pathetic.. over something as minor as this..? I'll endure. And I'll survive and return home to Mine! I swear it!!!"