#135 Bonding

"Akashi Nii-sama, thank you...I thought that you were sleeping." Kurome thanked him while being carried, for some kind of reason she couldn't bear to look at Akashi's face, maybe she was slightly afraid of making eye contact with him.

"No need to thank me, but you are damn reckless I tell you. And indeed I was sleeping until I heard a commotion inside the mansion about your disappearance." Akashi replied still with his stoic expression.

'To think that those Wrigglers hiding in Kurome's shadow didn't inform other Wrigglers on me just because they didn't sense any danger threatening Kurome's safety...They are really primitive but I don't blame them...' Akashi thought about the weakness of his Wrigglers with furrowed brows.

"I am sorry..." Kurome muttered in a weak voice while burying her head in Akashi's chest.

"..." Akashi looked down at her and thought for a while how to cheer her up.

"Well, it's not necessarily a bad trait. Reckless girls are usually very appealing and high in demand." Akashi said with a smile.

"Huh?" Kurome raised her head and finally looked at Akashi's face with a confused expression.

Akashi looked into Kurome's eyes and released a teasing smile.

"...And now I can say that they are usually also very attractive and cute!" He said and started uncontrollably ruffling Kurome's hair and she could only endure since if she would let go of his neck, she would fall down.

"Awww! Stoop, please!" Kurome started pleading while shaking her head around to get rid of his hand.

Hearing her begging, Akashi finally stopped and left Kurome with messy hair while she was pouting and glaring at him. Seeing her like this, made him unknowingly form a gentle smile.

"Akashi Nii-sama, do you think they will be alright?" Kurome asked after a little silence.

"...The direction where they were running is a cliff with a river at the bottom. There is also a rope bridge but I don't think Akame would like to cut it off since it is used by traders, regular people and it's also guarded anyway. Other than jumping down from the cliff and praying to survive the fall into the river, I don't see any other solution." Akashi honestly spoke out his thoughts.

"I see...Well, both of them are tough so I believe in my sister. Although I am still upset at her, if she will die right now, I won't have a chance to return what she has done to me today!" Kurome said with a positive smile, however, it felt more like she was reassuring herself.

'She must be feeling really complicated right now...She left her blood sister for me. Well, it's not like blood is the strongest bond out there but I should still give her some time and space for her to think about it in peace' Akashi thought with a gentle smile while looking at Kurome before he narrowed his eyes and glanced behind himself.

"There is someone running away!"

"Stop them! Kill them if you must!"

"?! Pursuers?" Kurome muttered with a surprised expression while resting her chin on Akashi's shoulder and looking behind him. She was surprised since Akashi said that he slowed them down and he also knew the location from which they were coming from. He completely masked their trails before escaping from the location where they parted ways with Akame and Green which meant that those people weren't pursuing them right from that location but they must have seen them somewhere in the middle of running.

'...Assassins from the Dark Squad. It looks like they separated themselves from the main group to search the area despite going after Akame and Green's tracks. I can either run away and spare their lives but...The moonlight is pretty intense tonight so they might have seen my hair already. Well, better not risk anything.' Akashi thought and stopped running once he found a small clearing in the middle of the forest.

"Akashi Nii-sama...?" Kurome muttered in a low voice while trying to get down back on her feet but Akashi held her tightly.

"Won't I be in your way staying like this?" Kurome asked with a confused expression.

"Just rest for tonight. If you can, it would be even better if you fall asleep, you have been through a lot today." Akashi said and gave her a quick peck on her forehead.

"...Alright" Kurome replied with a peaceful smile and closed her eyes while burying her head in Akashi's chest once again, completely trusting him with her safety.

"There!" One of 5 assassins pursuing Akashi and Kurome shouted when they finally caught up with them.

"Come with us and no one has to die tonight...Wait- Who are you?" The leader of the group shouted at Akashi before he narrowed his eyes while looking more carefully at him, trying to recall who he is.

"Phew, who knows? Maybe the one you will meet in a minute will know the answer." Akashi replied and cocked his head slightly to the side with a smirk.

"What do yo-" Before the leader could respond to his provocation. The ball of fire was already thrown at him, completely surprising him.

"AAGGH!" The leader was able to dodge but the person behind him was no longer so lucky, however, he managed to scream out only once before he turned to ashes. And the leader despite successfully dodging the attack still sustained light burns on his arm due to the intense temperature of those flames.

*Snap* Akashi snapped his fingers and flames devouring even the ashes of the victim and grass around suddenly disappeared.

"?!! Y- You are Red Devil!! W-Why are you doing this?!" The leader who saw those intense flames just magically disappear snapped his head back at Akashi with a panicked expression while pointing at him with a trembling index finger.

"Because I don't want others to know that I was outside of the Capital right at the moment when traitors escaped." Akashi replied with a slightly bored expression while shrugging his shoulders.

'H-How can he be like this?! He just killed someone and now he is acting as if nothing happened while shrugging his shoulders...Is he accustomed to taking lives so much that he no longer feels anything after killing someone?!' The leader thought with a panicked expression while gritting his teeth. They were indeed trained assassins but no matter how many people they killed, they were unable to just shrug it off as nothing.

"You must be here to catch them, no? If not, we can keep this secret, we understand how much trouble it could cause you if misunderstood." The leader said with a nervous smile.

"Nice try but I practically already told you that's not the case by mentioning that I don't want others to know about my presence here." Akashi said with a stoic expression and appeared once again in front of them, stabbing his sword through one of those remaining assassins, quickly ending his life.

A panicked expression appeared on other's faces and they decided to attack Akashi from both sides while the leader kept his distance and only watched.

Akashi gripped the collar of the man he just killed and put him on his left side to block the attack from that direction while performing a horizontal slash to his right. When his weapon met with the other weapon, assassin's wakizashi broke in half without stopping Akashi weapon's momentum, directly beheading him before he could release any sound.

"Eek!" The leader who saw all of this happen within a few seconds quickly turned around to run away, without caring for the last member of his team who was still alive.

The guy who wanted to attack Akashi from the left side had pierced his sword into the corpse of his colleague instead of Akashi. He clicked his tongue and when he wanted to retract his sword, Akashi caught it with his bare hands.

The quality of these weapons was pretty bad and there was no momentum behind it so the blade was unable to even pierce Akashi's skin. If it would have been the attack with great momentum behind it, it would definitely be able to injure Akashi.

"Huh?!" The guy noticed that his sword was stuck and tried to use his entire body weight to pull it out just to receive a kick from Akashi to his ear but the kick was so strong that his entire head was blown away.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* All 3 bodies of dead assassins dropped on the ground at the same time.

'Try to run away, huh? I don't understand why he is a leader when he is such a coward' Akashi thought and chased after the last guy.

'Quickly, I must return quickly to the main group, he won't attack me there!' The leader of now deceased group thought while jumping from branch to another branch at his top speed without even looking behind him.

"Are you aware that main group is a few kilometers away from here?"

He snapped his head behind him when he heard that chilling voice right behind him.

There, he saw literally a smiling red devil covered in blood, carrying peacefully sleeping maiden without a drop of blood on her body or her clothes.

"AAAAAGH!" He released a high-pitched scream that could be heard kilometers away. Making all birds in the vicinity to fly away

.

.

"Shit..." Akashi muttered when he finally burned all of their bodies to ashes.

'Was he some kind of Danger Beast? How could he release such a scream? Thankfully, I put my hands on Kurome's ears to block the sound but I still had to suffer that...' Akashi thought while massaging his ears with a disgusted expression.

------

The scream was also heard on Akame's side and they were running in the opposite direction so they were quite far away from Akashi. Akame and Green didn't stop running despite heating the scream but it slowed the main group for a few seconds before they a few people to investigate it.

"...Green, how far is it?!" Akame shouted while glancing behind them to see a few assassins slowly catching up to them.

"Only a few minutes of running until we arrive at that cliff. We will have to jump down to the river if we want to get them completely off our backs. Leone will be there to take care of us in case we lose consciousness upon the fall" Green replied while gritting his teeth. He didn't like this idea of jumping from more than 250 meters high cliff down in the river but he was also aware that they didn't have many options.

"Stop where you are, Akame, Green!" The assassins at front pursuing Akame and Green shouted while catching up.

Akame and Green who were constantly running at their top speed suddenly stopped and dashed back at those assassins, completely surprising them. Green broke the neck of 3 assassins while Akame took care of more than 7 of them only by inflicting small scratches on them. By, having such a strong weapon with the ability to kill upon inflicting the smallest wound, Akame was able to focus on taking more of them in one strike which was previously impossible for her.

"Akame, Green! Stop, both of you! Father can still-" Tsukushi caught up to them thanks to them stopping for a moment. She wanted them to stop deserting but her words got stuck in her throat once she saw bloodied Akame holding Gozuki's weapon.

"Akame...why do you have that weapon?" Tsukushi asked while intensively staring at Murasame in disbelief. Her voice was completely devoid of any emotion.

"Tsukushi..." Akame noticed that Green was intensively staring at her and shaking his head but she couldn't just run away from her best friend without saying anything first.

"He didn't give it to you, right?" Tsukushi asked while looking at the ground with a slightly crazy look in her eyes. She was holding onto the last strands of hope before she would completely lose it.

"I-I am sorry, Tsuku-" Before Akame could finish...

*BANG* Tsukushi fired without any warning, aiming at Green's head instead of Akame which surprised both of them.

"TCH!" Green clicked his tongue and tilted his head to the side at such speed that normal people would damage their neck. Despite reacting almost instantly and dodging in a fast way, he was able to dodge the bullet only by a small margin.

'?! Her bullets can change trajectory!' Green thought before he even took a breath after evading death by a small margin.

Green was ready to react to a bullet in case it would come back at him but instead of coming at him, a bullet took turned to left, aiming for Akame's shoulder.

*Clang!* Akame was fast enough to put Murasame in front of the bullet, successfully blocking it. Although she was surprised by this attack since she also thought that the bullet would come back at Green, she was still able to easily block it since bullet's speed slightly decreased after changing the trajectory.

"Tsukushi!!!" Akame said while gritting her teeth, she would have never imagined that her best friend would try to kill Green for something she has done. Green was also Tsukushi's friend and they spent 8 years together.

'I could understand her if she targeted me but why would she go after Green first?!!' Akame thought with upset expression, she was currently extremely angry at Tsukushi, however, she was also angry at herself for once again endangering her friend's life.

Akame was extremely shocked when she saw Tsukushi looking at them as on the strangers.