Collectors

Having listened carefully, Kazuma touched his chin. He didn't completely get what the situation was, but clearly, thing's for the village weren't good. 'This seems like a Fantasy world but something is different compared to my world.' It was then that Asami spoke up. "Do you happen to have a map we can look at?"

The man shook from his anger as he nodded. "Of course I have one upstairs, let me go grab it." Turning around and walking to the stairs, both Kazuma and Asami spotted a woman peeking at them. "Um… Honey, who?" Clearly, she was both scared and nervous as she spoke to her husband. "Don't worry it wasn't the collectors. I'll explain upstairs."

The man nodded towards Shirei and the others before heading upstairs. After that, Asami turned to Shirei, who was still in deep contemplation. "So what do you think?" Looking over at her, Shirei hesitated. "I'm pretty sure I know what world we're in and it's pretty bad." Asami's eyes narrowed. "Is it really that bad?"

All For One's city was already a pig pen for criminals. Although Shirei was only there for a bit, he had seen all kinds of things. There was clear usage of drugs, prostitution and even human trafficking. All thing's All For One allowed personally to hold onto his power. But for Shirei to still say this place was bad made her wonder.

"For now let's keep gathering information. It was a good call on the map right now. Unfortunately, I'm relying on the geography scans I got from the Hub and it's not that accurate." It was then that all three of them heard footsteps as three figures came downstairs. "Hello sorry about being so secretive before. And for my husband to attack you like that, my name is Era."

Clearly, he had filled his wife in on what happened. "Right, I never told you our names. My name is Bruton." The two of them gave a polite bow, and Shirei shook his head. "It's fine we didn't know what was happening, it's clear you were doing it for your family. My name is Shirei, this is Asami and behind her is Kazuma."

Asami and Kazuma waved as they spotted a little girl behind Bruton, the husband of the family. "Oh and this is our daughter Alia." The little girl was acting shy as Asami smiled at her. Then, moving to the table, the man opened the map and gave Shirei a clear view. "We don't have a world map but this is a map of the region."

Looking at the map, Shirei's Hud immediately began scanning it and copying it down while listening to Bruton. "Most of the land on the map is under the Control of Lord Fruton Fenrier however it's his son that's handling the collections from our village." Shirei asked basic questions about the area and roads, along with nearby structures and other stuff.

"I see… And all of this is under control of that Lord Fruton guy?" Shirei rubbed the back of his head while thinking as Bruton nodded. "Yes." Era, the wife spoke after him. "The Empire has been conquering more land lately so more is being distributed to the Nobles for expansion." Having listened in on everything, Kazuma looked at Shirei.

"I mean all in all this seems like the type of world that would require us the most." All things considered, he was right in a way even Shirei couldn't argue with that. But the issue was that he was almost positive this was the Akame Ga Kill world. And if it was, then there were some people in this world they simply couldn't fight.

Some of them might even be stronger than All For One, depending on how you look at it. As Kazuma and Shirei talked, Asami glanced down and saw the little girl that was hiding had walked up to her. She was looking at Asami with big clear eyes, and in return, Asami smiled gently. "You're pretty…" The girl said this absent-mindedly as Asami looked surprised and bent down on her knees.

"Well thank you. Your name is Alia right?" The little girl nodded as her mother looked over at them. "Alia dont bother her too much ok?" Alia nodded while still looking at Asami. "It's fine, I like kids although I don't get to see them often." Everything was rather quiet until suddenly, a scream echoed from outside.

It pierced and echoed through the village. "That was a woman's scream right?" Kazuma looked towards the door of the house as Bruton's face turned grim. "It's the collectors… They really did come here today." Shirei could hear the fear in his voice as he gestured towards Asami and Kazuma. "Well check it out, you three stay here."

Bruton nodded as his wife grabbed Alia and picked her up. "Please be careful don't let them see you." Her daughter was still staring at Asami as they made their way out of the house. Shirei ordered the two AAV Androids. "You two are with us to prepare to engage if necessary." Acknowledging the order, the Androids followed behind them while preparing to go into combat.

The Village wasn't that complex to navigate, and the screams of the women were easy to follow. As they carefully made their way down the stone central road, the Shirei and they peered around a corner. "There." Their attention fell on a group of three men dressed in black combat uniforms. For medieval times their clothing was similar to Asami's in a way that explained why Bruton thought she was a collector.

However, the one thing that did stand out was the emblem on their back that was a deep grey. "Let go woman!" One of the men was currently trying to wrestle a little boy out of his mother's hands. She must have been caught out in the open when they saw her. She was struggling to break free as the man reached for her son.

"Stop please!" Seeing her struggling, one of the other men sneered and walked up to her slapping her away. The force caused her to let go of her son and fall onto the ground as the first man looked down at her. "You should know resisting against us is a punishable crime!" The man looked up at them fearfully but also looked at her son as he struggled in their hands.

"Let me go!" He was flopping and swinging his arms which caused the three men to laugh. "Good our Lord likes when you brat's are energetic." The three of them prepared to leave, but the one who was holding the woman's son suddenly felt something grab onto his leg. "Wait! Please don't take my son, I'll do anything!"

At this point, she was begging on her knees as the man looked down at her. "Didn't he just say resistance…" The man kicked the woman away as she slammed into the ground. "Is punishable." The woman was crying silently as she continued to beg meekly. "Please…" Seeing her pathetic demeanor did not invoke sympathy as the man suddenly had a glint appear in his eyes.

"Didn't the Commander say the Young Lord needed a new toy? You think he'd like her?" The two men he was with looked at the woman. "Eh she's alright but a little on the ugly side if you ask me. But then again she said she'd do anything hehe, maybe if she's good enough the Young Lord could let her son go."

The mockery in his voice caused the other two to laugh as the woman's son suddenly shifted his weight and bit the arm of the man holding him. "Gah!" Dropping the boy, he immediately ran to his mom. "Mommy!" Looking at the bite mark, he glared at the boy. "I swear every time we try to leave these brat's parents alive it just causes us trouble."

Reaching for the sword on his side, his gaze fell on the mother as she shook fearfully. "That's enough." A voice suddenly caused the men to turn their heads as they spotted Asami glaring at them with Shirei and Kazuma revealing dark expressions. Originally they wanted to scout things out, but this was unbearable to watch.

"I know you said this world was bad but these guys… Are just scum!" Even Kazuma was angry just looking at them. Having taken the three men's attention, Asami looked at the mother and gestured for her to run. "Thank you…" Seeing a chance, the mother ran with her son, but the three collectors didn't seem to care.

Their eyes were squarely planted on Asami. "Now this is a surprise. Now that's a woman the Young Lord would be able to appreciate." Their gazes were fixed on Asami's body as lustful looks appeared on their faces. The man in front of the other two glanced at the Androids near Asami.

'What the hell are those things? And that guy has a sword on his back.' Taking a closer look at their group, everything about them was weird. They carried strange devices on their bodies, and some of them didn't even look human. "Whatever, I'm not interested in the rest of you. But you little lady caused us to lose our target. We can let your friends go but you will be coming with us."

Shirei's patience had reached its limit as he turned to the two AAV's behind him. "You two take th-" He was prepared to give them an order, but Asami held up her hand. "Let me deal with them." Then, without waiting for a response, Asami walked up to the man who was speaking to them. "Oh no resistance? Finally a woman that doesn't just scream and shout."

His friends continued to watch as Asami walked towards them slowly and were still completely relaxed. They had done this multiple times and never faced much opposition. As Asami got in front of the first man, he smiled and reached his hand out to grab her. "Good now ju-" Before he could finish speaking, his head rocked back as blood flew from his nose.

Not having reacted to the sudden attack, none of them knew what had happened, especially the man who was hit. It was only as Asami released two jab's that cracked the man's nose and caused him to fall to the floor that their expressions changed. "Agh!" Holding his nose, the man rolled on the ground, screaming.

"You bitc-'' Preparing to draw the swords they had to their side, they couldn't finish a sentence as two flashes of blue light followed by pulses silenced them. Asami had already drawn her SZ-Mk 1 from its holster on her waist and shot the two men in the head ruthlessly. Still holding his knows, the man glanced at his comrades as they fell over, clearly dead.

"What the- What did you do!" He was confused as he saw the device in Asami's hand. He couldn't explain what just happened, but at the same time, he was terrified. Asami slammed her foot on his chest, stopping him from moving and pointed her pistol at his face. Watching from afar, the scene reminded Shirei of the first time he met Asami as he sighed.

Kazuma, on the other hand, was surprised and shocked. He had never really seen Asami fight other than that time where she flipped him over. 'She's ruthless… And terrifying.' Asami looked at the man under her with cold eyes but didn't speak. Instead, the silence caused the man's mind to race as he remembered how his comrades died without being able to fight back.

Now the same device that did that was glaring down on him, causing his heart to race. "You- Our Commander and main group are still in the village… If you kill me then they'll hunt you down. But if you let me go..." Of course, Asami and they would be hunted down either way, but this threat was the only thing he could think of.

He was terrified of dying, and seeing that Asami and they were most likely foreigners, he tried to trick them. "I can make sure the Commander never hears of this. It'll just be our little se-" Before he could finish speaking, Asami pulled the trigger on her pistol. Another pulse echoed out as the man stopped talking, and the light slowly left his eyes.

Turning around, she holstered her gun with a grim look on her face. After walking back to Shirei and Kazuma, she had calmed down a bit. "Sorry about that. I should have left the last one alive but..." Shirei didn't say anything at first but just shrugged. "It's fine those bastards deserved it. Besides, apparently, their main group is still somewhere in the village so we can just go after them."

Originally Shirei was cautious, but those three had proven something to him. One was that these collectors were not very on guard and that they severely lacked training. And another was that they had a 'SEVERE' advantage when it came to weaponry. Meanwhile, near the centre of the village, a buff and tall man was standing with his arms crossed. Hidden behind his back was a large Battle Axe with only its handle being shown over his shoulder.

He had a black beard, and he clearly looked a lot more serious than the twenty or so men around him. The most notable thing, however, was his clothes stood out more than the men around him. "Hey, where the hell are those three at? We've been waiting for them for over ten minutes."Hearing that, one of them glanced at the village around them.

It was entirely quiet as everyone was cowering in fear inside of their houses. No one dared come out on the days the collectors would come by. "If they can't even handle taking a few children from cowards like these then they can stay gone for all I care."

Suddenly they heard the sound of dragging as they all turned their heads. Shirei was spotted by them almost immediately with the AAV Androids to his side and Kazuma along with Asami behind him. He was dragging one of the bodies of the men Asami killed. "I'm afraid they're dead already." Shirei threw the body he was dragging in front of them causing the group of men froze.

"You-" Finally, they reacted as their expressions turned hostile, and they drew their weapons. "You're all dead!" Their voices started echoing one by one. "I don't know if you guys are just stupid or have a death wish but either way your not leaving!" The screams from the men caused the villagers who were in their houses to peer through the windows.

The tall man in the back of the group still remained silent, and he watched Shirei with narrowed eyes. "Hya!" Charging forward, four men from the group ran towards Shirei with their swords drawn. Shirei didn't react to their attacks as Kazuma, at his side, reached for the sword on his back. He was still angry, thinking back at how these guys acted.

Pulling the sword completely off his back, he swung it down at full force as Mana burst through it. Seeing Kazuma in their way, the four men attacked him from different angles with their swords. However, suddenly all four of them froze as a burst of wind caused their bodies to rise. The wind was so intense that it was dangerously sharp.

With a single swing, they cut through all four of their bodies as they were blown back. Slamming into the ground at full force, the four of them fell unconscious as blood leaked from their wounds. There was a deafening silence as the group of men stared at Kazuma in shock. "What?" One of them spoke.

"What was that?"

"He took out all four in one swing?"

Even their Commander was looking at Kazuma or, more specifically, his sword with interest as he whispered to himself. "An Imperial Arms?"