Akame ga Hunter Chapter 15

Chapter 15 New attackers

Tatsumi was sleeping peacefully with Esdeath wrapped around him until a breeze came through the window causing his eyes to snap open and instantly wake up. Him quickly sitting up in bed caused Esdeath to stir, “Tatsumaki? What’s wrong?” She asked half asleep before seeing his face in the low light. Seeing that he was on high alert caused her to become alert as well and examine her surroundings, “I don’t hear anything?”

Tatsumi took a deep breath through his nose, “It’s not a noise that woke me up,” He said as a scent hit his nostrils, “That smell!” Tatsumi then jumped out of the bed and ran to the balcony and activated his GYO, he saw several birds circling the castle that were being controlled with nen.’This isn’t good.’ Tatsumi then without saying a word ran inside and grabbed his sword before rushing out of the room faster than Esdeath could stop. Seeing her lover run with a look of concern on his face made her know that something was wrong as she gave chase.

~o~

Bulat remained quiet and still he eyed the cloak figure, ‘What should I do here?’ He thought, ‘This guy clearly doesn’t want a fight, or at least a fight with another nen user. I remembered Tatsumi saying something about this, Nen users have a huge advantage over the average person, so they tend to try and not fight or confront other nen users if they can help it.’ Bulat kept his eyes on the cloaked figure who hadn’t moved yet. “I do not wish to fight anyone today, but I have to ask, what is your purpose for being here?”

The cloak figure was silent for a moment, a little long for Bulat’s taste, “I cannot answer that question.”

Bulat raised an eyebrow under his helmet, “Are you here to kill someone or are you just here for information?”

Again another long moment of silence but the cloak figure didn’t move. “I cannot answer that.”

Bulat was now confused, ‘What, not even a simple reply, nothing. They don’t even sound frustrated about answering my questions and aren’t even bothered by me taking there time. Is this some sort of nen puppet?’ He thought about the possibility and decided to give the figure an answer. “Alright then I’ll leave.”

”Very well.” Said the figure, as they took a step away from the doorway making room for Bulat to leave.

Bulat then began to walk to the door, with each step keeping an eye on the figure, waiting for them to move or act in some sort of way, but nothing came. Bulat was safely out the door, when he turned to see the figure still standing in the doorway looking at him, but not acting. ‘I do not like this.’ He thought before disappearing using Incusion’s stealth mode combined with Zetsu. He watched as the cloaked figure turned a little in an attempt to find him but couldn’t before they used their nen to jump away up the castle.

Bulat didn’t move for a moment as he waved his options, ‘I have all the intel I need, but I am bothered by the idea of a group of nen users running around…in enemy territory, I mean if anyone died here i wouldn’t bother me and I doubt Tatsumi would have any problem with them.’ He thought about trying to convince himself but the way the cloaked figure talked bothered him too much that he couldn’t get it out of his head. “Ah screw it.”

~o~

The other members of Night Raid soon found themselves in the city looking up at the royal castle. “Guys I think you all maybe overreacting a bit here,” said Lubbock trying to calm down the girls, “I mean Bulat said he would handle it and Tatsumi is super strong. You guys don’t honestly think they are in any danger here do you?”

”Yes.” Said Sayo quickly. “I Don’t like how long it’s been for Tatsumi to return.”

”Not to mention there's someone else in the country that knows nen, that isn’t a part of our group.” Said Sheele as she pointed out the unknown factor.

”We need to bust in there and get our boys back.” Said Leone as she wanted to go for the assault.

”Whoa slow down there Leone,” said Mine. “Going in guns blazing might not be the best idea, remember nen traps are a thing.”

”What Mine says is true but,” Akame narrowed her eyes on the castle, “We need to move in soon.”

This made Sayo go on alert as she activated her nen, “Do you sense something Akame?”

Akame shook her head, “No, but my instincts are yelling right now, something is going on.”

“Well my instincts would have to agree with you. Something is happening.”

“Oh come on,” said Lubbock sporting a nervous but optimistic smiled, “Were talking about two of our best here, I’m sure they can handle anything-”

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

They all turn to see an explosion from the top part of the castle, but the thing that got their attention the most was the burst of nen coming from the blast.

“Oh shit.” said Lubbock as Night Raid began to move.

~o~

(A few minutes early)

Tatsumi raced through the castle doing his best following his nose, which was for some reason very sensitive all of a sudden. He followed it all the way to the royal chambers.

Two guards turned to Tatsumi, “What the?”

“Isn’t he one of the Jagears?”

“Yeah but he still shouldn’t be here,” said the guard before seeing Tatsumi taking a big whiff of the air. “What is he doing?”

“No idea but he shouldn’t be here.” said the other guard as they readied their weapon, “Hey you need to leave NOW!”

Tatsumi caught the scent again and activated his En to find another source of nen beyond the big shiny door. “Found you.” As he pulled out his sword and dashed forward.

“Whoa whoa, hold it!” yelled the guard.

Tatsumi jumped over them and smashed through the door literally kicking them off their hinges. The child emperor shot up from his sleep only to see his door on the ground and Tatsumi running at him with his sword. “What in the-” was all the child was able to say before Tatsumi began to swing his sword at his head, ‘This is how I’m going to die.’ Though the emperor as time slowed down for him, it was true as they say time really does flash before your eyes when you are about to die. He saw his parents again, each and every lesson his father had given him, every walk with his mother. ‘I haven’t even started living yet.’ he thought as the sword began to near his head, his eyes followed it as it arced above his head, following the sword the emperor saw the spear above his head. It all became clear as the sword forced the spear to narrowly miss the emperor's head, but close enough for him to feel the sparks from the scrapping metal. Tatsumi then used his free hand to grab the emperor by the back of his clothes and pulled him away from the assassin.

Tatsumi then jumped away from the bed and the assassin, “Hey you alright, kid?” he asked the Emperor but kept his eyes on the assassin.

The emperor was breathing hard as he quickly began to catch on to what happened as he sat on the ground, “You…you saved me…” Tatsumi gave the emperor a smile but quickly looked back at the assassin.

“Impressive boy.” said the assassin as he stood up with his back to Tatsumi, he spun his spear before resting it on his shoulder and turning towards Tatsumi. The assassin's face was handsome with a trim five o'clock shadow, tan and his dark hair was in several dreadlocks that had various rings and ornaments in his hair. He was lean but muscular wearing dark black pants and a shirt that was opened revealing his chest. “How did you know?”

‘This guy looks more like a pirate all in all but those rings in his hair definitely belong to that tribe.’ Thought Tatsumi, “The smell of your bird.”

The surprised the assassin, but before he could speak the guards ran into the room, “Halt intruder, put down the weapo-” The guards were unable to finish as a bird swooped into the room using its claws to decapitate the guards before they reacted, it circled the room once before it landed on the end of the assassin’s spear. The bird looked like a hawk with green feathers and long feathers on its tail.

“A Corinan Hawk.” spoke Tatsumi as he saw the bird.

“Holy shit,” spoke the assassin in suprise, “How the fuck do you know that? You’re not from around here are you?”

“I’m from the Rhine mountains.”

“RHINE!” yelled the assassin before laughing, “Holy shit what are you doing this far out, the nearest mountain from that range is easily several countries away, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m kind of passing through,” said Tatsumi, activating his nen slightly.

‘A Nen user,’ Thought the assassin before realizing he wasn’t dealing with a normal person. “Well then if that’s the case, then would you mind stepping aside, I kind of have a job to do here.”

“Not happening.”

”Really, why?” Asked the assassin, “Do you have some sort of attachment to this place or something, cause I’ll tell you right now that whatever paycheck you are getting from this place is not worth it.”

”Oh absolutely not,” said Tatsumi being honest, scaring the child emperor, “I’ve been in this country just for a bit and I can tell it is a shit show, I don’t want to be here at all, these people are absolutely insane…but I guess I’m too much of a good person because I have issues with the idea of you guys killing a kid, a kid who might actually turn this shit of a country around.”

That assassin just began laughing, “Turn this shit around, this shit hole is unsalvagable, I give this country three years before it is destroyed.” He was going to continue when his bird started squawking. “Sora?” The assassin then turned to see some of the Jaegers charging from the hallway, “Oh it looks like we have company.” He then lifted his spear causing the bird to fly away. “Keep an eye on the boy Sora, I’ll handle this.”

Tatsumi eyed the bird and noticed it had an aura itself, ‘The bird can use nen!’

”I’m coming Tatsumi,” yelled Wave before activating Grand Chariot and jumping at the assassin with an armor-covered fist.

”WAVE WAIT!”

The assassin smiled, “That armor ain’t going to help you.” When Wave’s fist was only a few inches away from connecting, the assassin dodged the fist shocking Wave as to him the assassin moved at shocking speeds before kicking Wave in the stomach with enough force for Wave to feel it. The assassin then used his spear to hit Wave, sending him into the wall embedding him into it. “You’re going to need to do better than that against me.”

Suddenly the bed the assassin was standing on was frozen along with his legs, “How about this. Bols, Kurome, Kill him NOW!” Yelled Esdeath.

The assassin calmly looked down at his feet as the two jumped at him, ‘This is interesting, this was definitely a nen ability but I don’t feel much nen backing it, I guess this is what those nen weapons I’ve been hearing about. Though she did freeze the ground fast, I guess she has some talent, maybe a good pet for later, but first…’ He looked up at Bols and Kurome and smiled.

Tatsumi saw as the Assassin built up his nen into his spear and pointed the tip down to the ground. “Oh shit.” As he quickly grabbed the Emperor and quickly dashed to the nearest door that led to the en suite bathroom. He slammed the door shut and hit the deck, covering the emperor as the room exploded around them.

~o~

Bulat had been following the cloaked figure as they walked through the castle, he had made sure to use his Hollow nen armor to get close to the cloaked figure, the odd thing was that the figure had made no indication that it had realized it was being followed, if they did know Bulat was close by they hadn’t responded yet or just didn’t care.

‘Who is this guy and where is everyone else?’ Wonder Bulat as he noticed that the halls were suddenly empty, ‘When I first came here for recon, this place was covered with guards but now he hadn’t seen a single one since he had been following the person in the cloak.

The cloaked figure then turned and tensed for a second before relaxing, Bulat froze for a second has he thought they had noticed them but realized it was something else as he saw two more cloaked figures walking towards the one he had been following. ‘There’s more of them!’

”We have a problem,” said the one he had been following but this time when they spoke their voice was changing, “There are other nen users here.”

”Other nen users?” Said the shorter of the two nen figures that clearly had a feminine voice. “There are no other nen users here, I’m-“

”You have been gone for quite some time,” Said the Taller cloak figure in a masculine voice. “Things have changed and from what our scout had said there are more nen users in the city.”

”What?” asked the female cloak, as she spoke Bulat noticed that the figure he had been following became tense. “Why did- AACK” The female cloak then dropped to her knees as her hands reached out of her cloak and to her neck as something began to choke her.

”I didn’t tell you two because you two had no right or reason to know.” Said the male figure, “Do not question me again, understood. May I remind you that I brought you both back from the brink of death and I can undo that in a second.”

”Yes sir.” Said the first figure in a meek voice.

The female figure then gasped for air, “Yes sir.” She said between breaths but the hatred in her voice was clear.

Bulat quickly realized that this group wasn’t completely voluntary, ‘This guy is using some sort of nen ability to keep these two in check, but what are they doing here?’

”Now both of you come quickly, our path is clear and we will soon meet up with the rest of the group, they should have the emperor with them.” Said the tall cloak figure, “Our job won’t be completed until I have him under my control and we leave with the weapon.”

’Oh shit!’ Thought Bulat.

Suddenly the castle shook as an explosion could be heard from above them. “What was that?

’That’s not good.’

~o~

The dust cleared a bit as Tatsumi quickly got up from the blast, picking up the emperor in one arm, ignoring the child’s protest when suddenly the dust was blown away by a gust of air. Tatsumi quickly looked around and activated his En. The second he did he felt a presence appear behind him.

Tatsumi quickly jumped away as the spear nearly slashed him. As Tatsumi landed he got a good look at the assassin who was nearly invisible, ‘What the hell, he can turn invisible,’ Tatsumi then noticed the dirt swirling at the man’s feet, ‘No he’s manipulating the wind around him, his nen type is manipulator, he’s using his nen to move the air around him, to cover him somehow.’ It was clear to Tatsumi that this man was far from an amateur, “Who the hell are you?”

The man grinned as he got his spear in a thrusting position, “You can call me Sky.” Sky’s men then leapt off of him and into the air causing it to spin, ‘Tornado Thrust.‘

Suddenly the air Tatsumi began to spin as it formed a green tornado with Tatsumi at the center, Tatsumi quickly put his guard up but was confused, ‘This isn’t a strong tornado at all, it’s not even moving me. Wait, I can’t see outside of the tornado the air is swirling green all around me, IT’S A FEINT!’ Tatsumi realizing it wasn’t the real attack as Sky then cut through the Tornado with his spear aiming it right at him, but Tatsumi was faster and jumped up and away from Sky and out of the tornado, ‘I’m not going to fall for that, that attack was probably just to judge me.’

”AAAAAAHHHHH” screamed the emperor. Tatsumi looked down at the boy in his arm to see that blood was coming out of a wound on his arm.

”What?” Tatsumi then landed as he noticed something in the air.

”Nice job Sora.” Said Sky.

”The bird.” Said Tatsumi as he realized what happened, ‘The spear strike was a feint as well, he wanted me to jump so his bird could go in for a strike. I didn’t notice the bird because of Sky and the fact the bird was using Zetsu and attacked from behind while I was focused on its master. Dammit.’

”Alright Sora the next chance you get go for the kill.” Said Sky with a smile on his face, ‘This kid is good, but not good enough, he didn’t notice Sora coming from behind and judge by his mid air movement he’s not used to a fight where you have to move in the air a lot, so a mid air expert like myself should have no problem with him.’ Suddenly his mind stopped as he saw Tatsumi begin to build up his nen. Tatsumi then glared at Sky with his eyes filled with anger making a chill shoot up Sky’s spine, ‘Well I haven’t felt a chill like that since I fought that lava dragon a while back. This is going to be fun.’ Though Sky as he too began to build up his nen, getting ready for Tatsumi’s attack.

Tatsumi then made a quick glance to the other Jaegers and saw as they were picking themselves up from the ground. He then raised his sword up at Sky before unraveling one of his fingers and using his finger to form two words. ‘Not here.’ Sky looked at the words before glancing over at others and saw Esdeath running towards them. Tatsumi then took that moment to turn his heels and run as fast as he could towards the balcony.

The emperor looked up at Tatsumi and saw where they were going, “What are you doing?” Tatsumi ignored the boy as they ran to the edge, “No no NO!”

Tatsumi jumped over the edge of the balcony with the palace garden below, he looked up to see Sky jumping down following with a smile on his face, ‘You might have advantage in air battles but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve.’ Tatsumi used his nen to quickly conger Nen Scales, Tatsumi then with a swing of his blade sent the scales upward at Sky.

Sky simply rotated the spear fast enough to deflect all of the scales. ‘That ain’t going to work, kid.’ His blood then rose as he saw Tatsumi pointing his blade at him and saw the scales stop in mid air. “SHIT!”

”Gotcha,” Tatsumi focused nen into his blade, Nen blade change: Long Blade. The Scales around Sky began to glow along with the sword. ‘My blade is made with Hex eyed dragon scales, the same scales my nen abilities are based off of, to save up on nen I designed my blade to use any of my nen scales that I have already used and aren't currently being used in another ability, they just need to make contact with my sword.’

Sky quickly used his nen to manipulate the air around him as he saw the scales comeback at him, Air Gust, As he used his ability to push him out of the way from the scales, but he wasn’t able to avoid all of them as two scales cut his shoulder during his escape. He then saw as the scales formed together to make a really long and thin blade. ‘Several of those scales would have pierced me if I had stayed put, this guy is good.’ He then noticed as the thin blade was coming at him.

’You ain’t out of the wood yet,’ Thought Tatsumi as he used the long Blade hitting Sky against the castle wall. This caused two things to happen, first breaking the Long Blade and second slowing Tatsumi down long enough to push himself off of the castle wall so that he could land safely on the ground in the garden with a roll, making sure that the emperor was safe. “You alright?”

The emperor looked up at Tatsumi in amazement ignoring his wounds, “How did you do that?”

A sudden crash to the ground caused Tatsumi to pick up the emperor again and jump back away from the new smoking crater, “That was clever,” said Sky as he stepped out of the crater showing a small trail of blood coming from the side of his head, “You put me in a place that I was overconfident in, to score a blow against me with a sneak attack like that, I’m impressed.” Said Sky as he also began to build up his own nen.

‘I can’t move fast enough to keep up with him and protect the Emperor at the sametime.’ Tatsumi then used his nen to switch the scales on his blade again turning it into a double bladed short ax. ‘My next best option at the moment would be to see how durable his spear is against my Scale Blade: Ax Form.’

Sky frowned, ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ as the man activated Gyo, to see Tatsumi building nen in his body. ‘The way he’s building nen is Enhancer 101, but the way he’s making these scales would be a Conjurer, a Transmutter maybe? No this kid is something else, that blade he’s using isn’t entirely made of nen, that blade was built with his nen in mind. A blacksmith who makes shit with his own nen. He’s bound to have a few surprises then. Let’s test them out partner.’ as he sent a wave of nen out.

‘Here it comes,’ As Tatsumi activated his En, he then felt the bird flying towards him from behind while Sky charged in from the front, Tatsumi then felt when the first one was in range and quickly spun around in a full circle. Using his ax to deflect the bird before swinging it around at Sky, striking his spear with the full might of his ax.

Sky felt the power behind the attack and jumped back, “Fuck that had power behind it.” He then noticed the tip of his spear was cracked, “You cracked my spear!”

Tatsumi smiled, “I might not be able to go full 1v1 against you while protecting this kid, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold you off.”

Sky gave Tatsumi a dark look, ‘Damn, I’ve been a nen user for quite sometime now, I’ve been in a few battles where I needed nen but this one might not be one I can win and get away,’ He then stepped to the side as a spear of ice hit where he was standing, ‘Especially not while also trying to get away from these idiots.’

“TATSUMI!” yelled Esdeath riding an ice platform with the other members of the Jagears minus Seryuu.

Tatsumi smiled, “Esdeath.” Tatsumi then paused as he realized he was actually happy to see her. ‘I’ve got to get out of here. This actually might be my perfect chance.’

Sky smiled and built his nen back up again, “You know aside from my partner I don’t work well with teams, so how about we separate them.”

“Huh?” Tatsumi then turned to see several cloaked figures along the edges of the garden. “SHIT!”

“Shit indeed,” Yelled Sky before he pointed his spear downward, “Tornado Thrust!” This tornado was different as it was larger and harder to see through.

‘Dammit this is bad!’ Thought Tatsumi as he covered the Emperor, “How can I save everyone on my own like this?”

“YOU’RE NOT!” Suddenly a powerful force hit past Tatsumi parting the Tornado to see Bulat punching one of the cloaked figures.

“Bulat!” yelled Tatsumi with a smile. “You came to help?”

The Emperor looked up to see the armored clad image of Bulat, “Wait he’s a member of Night Raid!”

“Don’t worry your highness. I’m here to protect you,” as he gave the kid a thumbs up, “Right Tatsumi?”

Tatsumi nodded, “Yeah, this kid might be incharge but I can’t just sit back and watch a kid die, you know.”

Bulat nodded, “I know the feeling. Letting a child die just doesn’t sit right, now does it.” This severely confused the child Emperor and brought up several more questions.

“How sweet,” said the cloak figure as it stood back up. “Though do you both think you can handle all of us, every assassin here is a nen user you know.”

Tatsumi looked up as the Tornado cleared and saw several new holes in the side of the castle, “Shit, they’ve all been separated.”

The clanging of metal got their attention as they all turned to see one of Bulat’s hollow nen armor running towards them. It jumped towards Bulat before deforming into nen and returning to Bulat. Bulat smiled under his helmet, “Don’t worry Tatsumi, we are not alone. Night Raid is here.”

~o~

Kurome slowly opened her eyes and realized someone was holding her, “Wave?”

“Is that the name of your boyfriend?”

Kurome blinked and realized who was holding her. “Akame?”

Akame gave her sister a big smile, “Hello little sister, it’s good to see you.”

Kurome immediately struggled out of Akame hold. Akame did nothing to stop her as she let her sister go, Kurome jumped away and pulled out her own blade. “Have you come to kill me sister?”

Akame shook her head, “No, I no longer wish to kill you, I wish to save you.”

“Save me?” Kurome gave her a weak chuckle, “There is no saving us, the best we can do is die together sister.”

“You don’t believe that anymore do you?” asked Akame which caused Kurome to look at her weapon. “I can save you and I will save you, but first.” Akame drew her weapon and pointed it down the hall at a cloaked figure. “I thank you for letting us talk but I will have to kill you now. “

Kurome was confused for a moment, “These guys aren’t with you?”

“No, in fact they attacked a few of my comrades earlier.” said Akame, still staring down at the new figure, “Why did your people attack us?”

The cloaked figure didn’t move or speak for a moment as the sound of battle could be heard coming from the building. It remained silent until, “Why…” it spoke in a clearly feminine voice.

“Huh?” Akame and Kurome blinked in confusion.

“Why,” asked the woman before grabbing the top of her cloak, “Why?” she asked once more before pulling down her cloak, “Why?”

Akame felt her blood freeze as she saw the woman before her, “That’s impossible.”

Kurome felt her mouth dry, “But…you died!”

Akame looked deep into the woman’s blue eyes, she used her nen to confirm that this wasn’t some sort of illusion, but all it proved was that the blonde haired blue eyed woman in front of her was indeed real, “It’s really you,” spoke Akame on the verge of tears, “Cornelia.”

Tears began to roll down Cornelia’s eyes, “Why didn’t you save me, Akame?”

A/N: Okay I am back, I should be able to upload stories now on a more regular schedule or you know regularly instead of it being so spread out. Hope you enjoy the chapter and yes Akame Ga Kill Zero is here.