Chapter 21

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What the Ghost's scouts had learnt had left Alec in a state of undisguised shock. Although Leon's face hadn't changed, he felt the same emotions. The girl's family members (like herself), he'd noticed when he'd returned home, were sadists who invited villagers to their estate, then put them to sleep, locked them in a barn, and tortured them. The mother of the family was so "kind" that she kept a diary in which she described everything: how poisons worked on people, how many people would die from bleeding, how to cut off body parts with red-hot metal, causing the victim hellish pain. And they did not care about gender or age: the youngest victim was only eleven years old, the oldest was seventy-three.

Curiously enough, when they started to collect information on this family, it was found out that they are engaged in charity - allocate money to orphanages and hospitals. That is why nobody paid attention to them for so long. This is an example of a "demon in human skin".

It was decided to act immediately. Fifteen Imperpol soldiers and one officer were sent to apprehend them. Upon arrival, the squad should disarm and handcuff the guards, as they were recognised as being involved in the kidnappings. It was also made clear: "No ceremony with the family, if they resist, you may use force."

It seemed like everything would be easy... exactly until the squad arrived at the family's mansion.

- Ta~ak... where are the guards? - One of the soldiers asked, looking at the open gate that no one was guarding.

- Get ready! - The officer commanded, taking the safety off his Luger P08M, which the rest of the fighters did with their MPMs. - You three stay here and watch the gate. No one gets in or out. Do you understand me clearly?

- Roger that!

- The rest of you move out.

The rest of the squad went to the mansion. The captain noted that it was suspiciously quiet on the territory of the mansion, only the footsteps of the Imperpolovs could be heard, who were already approaching the house. The door was slightly ajar, and as they got closer, they noticed a hand sticking out of the doorway.

One of the soldiers went to the door and took hold of the handle, the others prepared their automatic rifles. After the soldier opened the door, the body of the guard with a slit throat fell out. The soldiers immediately ran into the house - and what they saw could not but frighten them.

There were about ten dead guards in the hallway, and the whole scene looked like a massacre: rivers of blood, severed pieces of bodies, and absolute devastation.

- What the fuck happened here?

- No idea..." the commander muttered. - Everyone check the house and look for survivors!

Taking six soldiers with him, the captain went up to the first floor. There were fewer corpses here, moreover, their wounds were in the area of the neck and heart, and the places where the dead were lying hinted that they had been killed at the post. And after walking a little further, they saw the first member of the family.

- Here comes the wife. - summarised the fighter, looking at the woman's bloody dress and the cut on her neck.

The officer walked over to the body and took the girl's hand and began groping her.

- Captain, may I point out as a doctor that the lady is dead. - pointing to the wound on her neck, said one of the squad's medics.

- The corpse is still warm. She was killed recently.

At this news the fighters instantly tensed up. It could only mean that the killer could still be here.

After checking the other rooms on the first floor, the commander and his men went downstairs where the others were waiting for them.

- What do you got?

- They found the head of the family. The bodies of the guards were lying nearby, and judging by the weapons lying around, they saw the one who killed them.

- Did they find the daughter?

- Negative.

- Did you check the barn?

- No, commander. Just waiting for you.

- Understood. You check the house again, and we'll go to the barn... And be careful. The killers may still be here.

- Same to you, Commander.

The captain and the six men followed the path to the barn, leaving the others to check the mansion again for anything interesting. On the way they began to encounter dead bodies again, apparently they wanted to detain someone here.

As they stepped over the body of one of the guards, the squad member felt his leg being grabbed by someone's hand, almost causing the soldier to fire a magazine into the "reanimated corpse" out of fright.

- Please... help..." the guard pleaded with his last strength.

- We have a live one here!

A medic immediately ran up to the surviving man and began to provide medical assistance. The wound was deep, but not fatal. The officer got down on one knee and looked the guard in the eyes.

- What's your name?

- Loyd.

- All right, Loyd. Can you tell me as briefly as possible what happened here?

- I was patrolling the grounds of the mansion when I heard a scream. Then I ran with the others to the house, and the young lady came running out. She ordered me to apprehend the murderer, along with a guard and a young brown-haired man.

- "The assassin"? You mean the intruder was alone?

- Alone. Akame. - Loyd said the name as if it were a sentence.

The mention of the assassin's name made the fighters flinch, and some began to look around. The captain was the calmest of all, but even he would never want to cross paths with one of the Empire's best assassins.

- Where did the daughter of the family run to?

- Towards the barn... down the road.

The commander stood up and looked at one of the fighters.

- Sergeant, take him to the others.

- Captain, but Akame's in there. Maybe we shouldn't..." the fighter wanted to object, but was interrupted.

- That's an order. - said the commander reproachfully.

- Yes, sir.

The sergeant put the guard on his shoulder and walked towards the house, while the squad headed towards the barn. They moved quietly, no one was eager to face the Night Raid's best assassin, much less fight her.

- What a barn..." the fighter commented, looking at the stone structure with iron gates.

The captain, meanwhile, was paying more attention to the dead girl with a slit in her stomach. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes and the same colour dress with a white shirt. The girl's face expressed a twisted grimace - apparently she had nothing else to look forward to.

- A dog's death to a dog's death. - summed up the officer.

- Jesus!

The captain turned and looked at the men who were inspecting the barn from the inside. A nauseating picture appeared before their eyes - hanging mutilated bodies, cages with people, all sorts of instruments and torture devices.

"How rotten must a man be to do such a thing?" - went through the commander's mind.

- Commander. - one of the fighters called out. - Was the mission accomplished?

- No. Definitely not. We need to call and wait for the investigators, and before that to cordon off the area.

The Imperials nodded and headed out of the barn, with only one medic remaining inside.

- Doc, are you coming?

- That girl..." the medic said, pointing to the mutilated victim hanging from the chain. - She seemed to be moving.

The commander shifted his gaze to the girl: she looked to be about sixteen years old, long black hair, with numerous marks of agonising torture on her body.

- Doc, you're imagining things.

- No. I definitely saw her take a breath. - the doctor continued to stand his ground. - Can someone help me get her off? - he turned to the others.

Two volunteered to help the doctor and began to carefully remove the girl from her suspended state. Gently placing her on the floor, the medic began to check the victim's pulse.

- She has a pulse! She's alive! She must be taken to the infirmary immediately! - exclaimed the doctor.

The girl was unconscious. A mere breath was an ordeal for her. The number of wounds made her look like a living corpse, and the doctor had one not-so-happy assumption. The girl was in a state of clinical death.

- It's all over now, you hear me. You'll be fine soon. - Smiling beneath the mask, the doctor cheered her up.

***

Several more squads of soldiers along with investigators arrived at the mansion that morning. As they studied the area, the bodies and the information they had received from Loyd, they began to piece together a picture of what had happened. In the meantime, the soldiers cordoned off the area, not letting anyone through, as people began to approach the mansion, curious to see what Imperpol was up to.

Leon had arrived on the scene as well. Though more likely, he had arrived there to find a certain brown-haired man he was interested in.

- Colonel Leon! - Alec called out to him.

- Lieutenant Colonel Alec. Did you find out anything? - Leon asked.

- My men were more or less able to construct a chronology of events. The killer entered the mansion at night, around 3:00. After killing a couple of patrolmen, he got into the house through a window on the first floor, where he killed the wife of the head of the family. After eliminating the guards, he went down to the ground floor. The head, apparently, heard sounds on the first floor and, taking the guards with him, decided to find out what was going on. On the way, the man encountered the assassin and raised the alarm. The rest of the guards rushed to the noise and a massacre ensued, from which the killer emerged victorious. He then went after the final target, the daughter of the head. After killing the guards blocking his path, he caught up with the target at the barn, having dealt with the last of the guards. This is where investigators get confused. Usually the victim before death portrays a face full of fright and fear, but the girl's face had a mad, twisted grimace. Apparently, this reaction is caused by despair and hopelessness. Then the killer checked the barn and killed one of the prisoners - apparently, the poisoned brunette teenager had asked for it himself. From the words of the squad captain that was supposed to make the arrest of the family, the corpses were still warm when they arrived. So the perp escaped just as the squad arrived.

- Did you find out who the killer is?

- Yes and no. The surviving guard says that Akame killed all the guards. But~

- But~?

- Three guards were found dead in the bushes. One had his neck snapped, another had his head smashed, and the last was hit with such force that his bones in the chest area looked like broken branches.

- So... there was someone else.

- There was a third. Most of the corpses that Akame leaves behind have precise wounds in vital points, most often around the neck and heart. Chopping up people's corpses wasn't uncommon either, she could do that too. But the daughter of the head of the family was killed by someone else. It was a blow to the chest area, and it was done more out of emotion. If the unsub was acting with a cool head, he would have hit her in the head. In addition, experts agree that the blow wasn't made with a katana.

- I see your point. Anything else?

- Yes. There was a survivor among the victims of these sadists. She was found in a near-death state and is being treated in the infirmary. There's a chance the girl may recover.

- Let me know if she recovers.

- I will.

Alec said goodbye and went to work on the evidence while Leon began to study the information he'd received. The raid usually operated in groups, but this time it was mostly Akame acting alone.

"Single-handedly taking out the entire guard... apparently someone wants to get stronger. But here's killing the head's daughter... Boy, this better be your first and last time, or else the good ending won't be about you..."

***

Tatsumi was at the base of the Night Raid. One of Aria's guards had managed to tell him about these assassins, and he had been able to see first-hand how the most dangerous of them had single-handedly killed the entire estate's guards. If it wasn't for Leone (who had screwed him over for money not too long ago) who managed to stop Akame before she slit his throat - he would have died too. In the end, he survived and saw the secret that that seemingly hospitable family kept. Sayo, Ieyasu - they tortured and killed them like animals. At that moment, the guy was filled with anger, and he personally killed the thing that did it. Then Leone just grabbed him and brought him back to the base, saying he'd make an excellent assassin. Najenda told him of their goal to cleanse the Capital and build a new nation where people would live in equality. The loss of friends, gratitude for the rescue, and a desire to change the Empire for the better were all the impetus that drove the boy to join the Night Raid.

At night, however, he couldn't sleep. He remembered the general who had originally told him about the situation that was going on in the Empire, and he himself had been so naive that he hadn't even taken the general's warning seriously. But the very thought that they could be just like that family made the guy dismiss it immediately. Tatsumi just didn't have a bad impression of Imperpol. They stopped to help two traders, gave him a lift to the Capital, warned him about the state of the country, and one of them even gave him money when he was left penniless.

Getting out of bed, he went to the kitchen, as his negative thoughts made him thirsty. And going in there, he met the red eyes of the insatiable monster, which almost made him fall down in fear.

- What are you doing here? - Akame asked.

- I was thirsty.

- Mmm...

Tatsumi walked over and poured himself a glass of water while the girl continued to eat the food from the fridge.

- Akame, can I ask you a question?

- Go ahead.

- Do you know anything about Imperpol? - Tatsumi asked.

Akame stopped eating, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to become a little heavier.

- Why would you want to know that?

- I met members of Imperpol on my way to the Capital, and... they didn't seem like rotten people. In my village, news had reached me of how they had arrested rotten nobles and wiped out large bandit groups. That doesn't sound like the actions of people who protect the rotten power of the Empire.

Akame was silent for a moment, but then she replied:

- Tatsumi, there's a lot you don't understand. The secret imperial police can't arrest every rotten aristocrat. They are just like Onest's pawns, their main reason for existence is to benefit him. They've destroyed several revolutionary bases and seriously weakened her influence in the Capital. That's what Onest needs, for the Imperpol to seek out those who fight against the top of the rotten government.

- But... in doing so, they are helping the people.

- We're at war, Tatsumi. I want to fix this country, to make it a better place, and to do that, I need to eradicate the evil that has taken root. And Imperpol will only get in the way of that.

With those words, Akame left the kitchen (taking a piece of meat with her), leaving Tatsumi to ponder what he had just heard from her.