5 Chapter 5

The next morning Jack was awoken by a girl screaming and Wolf growling. Surprised by the sudden noise Jack jumped to his feet and grabbed Rinryuu. Looking at the source he saw Wolf standing over a young girl no older than 17 with purple hair and eyes. Seeing that it was only Sheele he barked, "Wolf! Stand down! She is a friend." Wolf let out one last growl before stepping away from Sheele. Seeing that Wolf was for the most part pacified Jack turned his attention to the girl. Extending his hand to help her up, "Sorry about that, Wolf usually doesn't mind others but since you probably just entered without knocking, he thought you were an enemy. If I remember correctly your name is Sheele, and I assume you were sent here to wake me up." Recovering from her fright Sheele nods in a manner resembling a pecking chicken repeating, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" Jack just laughs it off before patting her shoulder in assurance, "It's fine Sheele. I am sorry that I didn't remind Wolf that someone would probably be coming in the morning to wake me up." Hearing this Sheele finally stopped apologizing. "As you said, I was sent by the Boss to wake you up and bring you to her since you came in late, she didn't get to debrief you" Jack was momentarily surprised by her ability to bounce from panicking to focused. Gesturing for her to lead the way she guided him back to the main hall.

When they arrived, Jack saw the Boss sitting on her throne going through some files while Bulat was reading a book, Akame was sharpening her sword, and Lub was getting punished for being a pervert and gawking at Lione. When they noticed his arrival, they all looked at him and stopped their actions. Still in his carefree attitude, "What's up? You guys are looking at me like you're looking at a monster." Almost falling over from his comment, the Boss quickly recovers before saying, "I wanted to congratulate you on a job well done and I see that you delivered on your comment yesterday. Reports say that they found Ogre whining in an ally-way screaming about not being hurt before his body erupted in flames as he screamed out in agony." The rest of the team looked at him with half shock from the report and half terror from the result of his powers. "I did say he would know true terror before he died. Also, I don't know if you hear Sheele's scream earlier but that was due to my partner. He didn't plan on being disturbed and accidentally jumped her, thankfully he knows to await my permission before killing an 'intruder'." Looking at him with curious faces he just gave them a simple smile before whistling. A few seconds latter the team hears a wolf howl that sounded metallic and almost abyssal. Noticing that they were on edge Jack gave another smile before saying, "Calm down, it's just my partner Wolf." Before they could ask what, he meant Wolf came running into the Hall. [You called Jack?] The members of Night Raid were stupefied at Wolf's appearance, an all metal 'wolf' with a sleek frame and a barbed tail, on top of it their instincts were telling them that if we wanted to Wolf could probably kill them all without breaking a sweat. Squatting down to pet Wolf Jack said, "Hey buddy, wanted to introduce you to the team. Wolf meet Najenda, Lione, Bulat, Akame, Sheele, Lubbock, and lastly Mine, they are the team of assassins called Night Raid. Guys meet Wolf." [Nice to meet you. As for you Sheele I must apologize, I was unaware that you were a friend of Jack. It was not my intention to harm you.] Seeing that he wasn't hostile the team eased up a bit. Sheele simply gave a small bow accepting his apology. Since she knew they all wanted to ask the Boss directed her attention to Jack before asking, "Do you mind telling us where you attained such a companion." Jack looked at her before saying, "I met him a little while after I got Rinryuu, on one of my assignments I stumbled upon a hidden research lab where I found them making terrible machines. Among them I found Wolf, he was the only one there that wasn't just a mindless monster. I asked him if he wanted to go with me and leave the lab behind and he said yes. After we made our agreement, I repaired him while removing and tracking and controlling devices before torching the place and destroying the other machines and killing the researchers. It turned out that Wolf used to be a regular animal before the researchers transplanted his mind into the machine and used their abilities to give him proper intelligence. Afterwards he has been following me around ever since. And before you ask, he was outside the capital during your raid on the estate I was waiting in." The team was shocked once again with what Jack said, but what really scared them was the idea of someone making more beings like Wolf. "Sigh* I guess all I can say is welcome to the team Wolf, I suspect you will be staying with Jack?" As always, the Boss was the first to recover. Wolf nodded in confirmation before saying, [I plan to work with Jack but, I am not against helping out the other members on their assignments if Jack does not require my assistance. If that is all I will be going back to rest.] With this he left after getting a nod of acknowledgement from Najenda.

After Wolf left the team seemed to calm down a bit before returning their attention back to the Boss. "Moving on we have a report saying that General Esdeath is returning from her excursion to submit (eradicate) the Northern Tribes. She should be returning in a month. For now, it has also been confirmed that the crazed executioner gone psyco serial killer Zanku is making his way to the capital. We have a request to eliminate him whenever we are able to track him down. Thankfully it shouldn't be to hard as his signature is leaving decapitated heads to mark his presence. In other news, we have received our payment for the contracts completed last night and your payments will be delivered to your quarters later. For now, I suggest you all get in a bit of training and decide who will be helping Akame catch lunch and dinner. That is all, you are dismissed." All of them nodded before heading out to the training area.

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When the team made it to the training area Lione asked Jack, "Jack what do you do for training?" This drew the attention of the others as they were also curious about a training regimen that would let someone at the age of 16 have such immense strength. Jack just shrugged his shoulders replying, "Nothing much just a thousand push-ups, 3 thousand sit-ups, 5 thousand crunches, and a 100-mile run. All while wearing weighted clothing that weighs around a ton." He shrugged it off as nothing impressive while the others were gob smacked, they were all thinking the same thing, 'this kid is a monster'. Jack willed his clothes to weigh 2 tons and began his workout.

After he finished, he was starting to work up a sweat when he heard Bulat ask, "Hey Jack, do you mind sparring with me? I don't have anyone else to ask because they ae physically weaker minus Lione using her IA." Jack just nodded and asked, "You use a staff to practice with, right?" Bulat nods as he is surprised when Jack also grabs a staff. Seeing his questioning look Jack smiles and says, "While I was traveling, I practiced using staffs, swords, daggers, spears, axes, clubs, maces, morning-stars, and various other weapons close and ranged. So that I can always have a weapon just in case Rinryuu is out of reach." Bulat was surprised by his statement but then laughed, happy that he now has a sparring partner that can use different types of weapons for him to gain more combat experience. After calming down he took a battle stance with his staff slightly angled up. Jack smiled at the idea that he could have a good spar without having to kill his opponent. Seeing that Bulat was ready to begin he also took a stance but to anyone but a master they would think it was full of opening because his stance was simply him leaning onto his staff with only one hand loosely holding it. Bulat charged and did a downward swing but right before it hit him, Jack tilted himself using the staff as a means for him to glide across the ground making Bulat miss by a hair's length. Seeing this the others watching were shocked by how fluid Jack's movements were. In response to his attack Jack used his momentum to kick Bulat in the ribs. Since he put a bit of force behind it Bulat was forced to stagger backwards. Bulat, not dissuaded in the slightest rushed Jack again, this time with a horizontal strike. Jack lifted himself up and planted the staff in the ground to resist Bulat's attack while he was on top of the staff holding himself up with only his fingers. However, what really shocked them was that instead of snapping like it should have Jack's staff stopped Bulat's attack. While hopping down Jack twirled around his staff and kicked Bulat in the shoulder making him fly back a bit and fall down. After twirling around his staff once more Jack dislodged it from the ground and leaned against it once more. Seeing this Bulat gave a wry smile before saying, "I give up, your style is too advanced for me to even try to comprehend. At first glance it looks weak and lazy while being full of opening, but in reality, it is in the exact position for you to react to anywhere. With your immense strength and flexibility, you could probably beat me without even moving an inch. Any chance I could ask what you call this stance?" Jack gave a smile and nod before saying, "This is called the Wukong stance, it was made from an old scroll I found about a monkey king that used a staff as his weapon, he was known for using his advanced agility to use his staff for maneuvers without relying on an external platform. With this style I don't even need to touch the ground to counter your movements. But I must admit, your strength is nothing to laugh at. If I hadn't planted, my staff into the ground you probably would have broken the stance. All in all, good spar Bulat. I think if we keep this up, we could learn a lot from each other, especially now that I know how you fight." Bulat nodded his head and Jack could see a raging fire in his eyes to get stronger and Jack was his golden ticket. Jack walked over and gave Bulat a hand to help him up before they headed to the baths to clean up.