#136 Cliff

"Green, I am very disappointed in you...How could you let Akame kill our father? And you, Akame...Even if you two didn't see eye to eye, you still didn't have to kill him. You have completely destroyed our group! A group that Gai who died and his murderer is still unknown helped to form. He died without us around and now you have killed father, do you think he would have been proud of you if he was here?" Tsukushi said while still pointing her gun at both of them with a slightly crazy look in her eyes.

"No, you don't undr-"

'Sidewinder!'

Before Akame could explain anything, Green made the first move by attacking Tsukushi with his whip-like Shingu. Tsukushi who already expected this jumped back out of his whip's range.

"Tsk!" Green clicked his tongue when Tsukushi dodged his attack without much difficulty.

"Green?!" Akame knew that Tsukushi was her enemy right now but she was still slightly surprised how Green tried to perform a surprise attack at Tsukushi.

However, Green also had a good reason for attacking her and trying to get rid of her as soon as possible.

"Do you know why I went for you Green first instead of Akame who is the main culprit here?" Tsukushi asked with a cold expression.

'Shit! She is playing for the time and by the looks of it, Akame won't be able to kill Tsukushi unless she is forced to do so. Neither we can run since having someone like Tsukushi behind our backs is basically suicide. What a fucked up situation! Maybe once more assassins arrive to help Tsukushi, Akame will see that our only option is to kill Tsukushi or knock her out but that would be much harder.' Green thought when he glanced at Akame's curious and confused expression.

'Her mind is a total mess, even more than it should be! I get that Tsukushi is your best friend but you are acting like a normal girl who doesn't know anything about the cruelty of this world! Leaving her sister here must have left a bigger impact on her mind than I previously thought...' Green decided to play along with Tsukushi and pray that the group that would arrive won't be the main group that Akashi mentioned. He wasn't sure if he could influence Akame's mind when she was behaving like this.

"Because you have always been a bit more distant from us, even when Gai died, it looked like you weren't exactly sad, maybe a bit of regret but that was all I could see. It was at that moment when I realized that if a situation came up where you would become our enemy, you wouldn't hesitate to attack, well, except for Akame of course. As for the reason why I didn't at least try to convince you to stop deserting since you probably have nothing to do with father's death...Everyone is already aware of your feelings for Akame and despite your weird fetish about her armpit, you truly care for her so you wouldn't let her alone in this situation." Tsukushi said while looking slightly strangely at Green who turned red in shame but his mind was still calm. Even Akame glanced at Green with a slightly strange look in her eyes but a warm smile was visible on her face.

"There they are!" The voices came from behind Tsukushi which made her form a smile.

"Which also brings me to another point. You are realistic and usually calm in any situation which must also be the reason why you attacked me without any warning or even hesitation. You must have been aware right from the beginning that I was just buying time so that's one more reason why I targeted you first." Tsukushi continued talking until more assassins arrived to help her. With their help, she had better chance at winning since her specialty was long-range surprise attacks. Having her bullets able to change trajectory only added to the surprise element.

"Akame...We need to kill her if we want to have a chance to run away!" Green shouted at Akame while swinging his whip at the incoming group of reckless assassins, instantly breaking their bones with only one swing since his whip was moving according to his mind at high speed.

'?! What am I doing?! I am endangering someone's life for my selfishness and sentimental feelings once again!!!' Akame who was until now slightly shaking suddenly stopped shaking and closed her eyes in front of incoming assassins.

"?! Akame?!!" Green who saw that Akame wasn't moving wanted to jump in front of her to take care of her enemies but Tsukushi was once again targeting him with her bullets.

"Kill her and retrieve Murasame!" The assassins that were now only a few meters away from Akame shouted while swinging their swords at her.

"I will bury you!" Akame shouted and suddenly opened her eyes that became completely dull red without any feelings. She performed wide swing, instantly cutting down more than 5 assassins in front of her without them having any chance to react which made Tsukushi raise her eyebrow.

'How does she have so much strength and energy with that ragged and messy appearance of hers?' Tsukushi thought while being slightly shocked by Akame's sudden outburst. In her eyes, Akame's speed might have became even greater than what she was accustomed to seeing.

Akame didn't waste any time and dashed towards Tsukushi while cutting down a few assassins on her way.

When she arrived close to Tsukushi, 2 assassins got in her way so she easily cut them down but when she wanted to pass them, Tsukushi was already hiding behind them while pointing her gun at Akame's head. However, that wasn't the only danger she was facing right now, 2 more assassins were trying to attack her from behind.

Green who already took care of the assassins on his side and Tsukushi finally stopped targeting him obviously saw this situation.

'Those 2 guys!' Green didn't even think and just swung his whip instinctively at those 2 guys attacking Akame's back. If it was before Akame's sudden outburst, he would have targeted Tsukushi since her gun was just a meter away from Akame's head, not to mention her still being Akame's best friend. But right now, he was sure that Akame would be able to deal with what's in front of her so he should cover her back so she can focus on Tsukushi...at least that's what his instincts told him.

Tsukushi who had her gun close to Akame's head just stared coldly at her and was about to pull the trigger.

*Splash* Before the gunfire could resonate through the vicinity, Tsukushi's arms holding a gun flew to the sky while leaving her with a dumbfounded expression. Akame moved without any hesitation and even when she cut Tsukushi's arm, she simply stared at Tsukushi with her dull red eyes and stoic expression.

"A-Akame-" *Thud* Tsukushi could only mutter the name of the person in front of her before she has fallen on the ground with wide-open eyes.

Akame didn't even look behind her despite sensing the danger because only a second after she cut Tsukushi down, that danger disappeared together with loud groans of pain.

Only after Tsukushi has fallen on the ground, Akame's dull eyes turned back to her previous shiny state like ruby itself.

"...?!" Akame continued staring down at Tsukushi who already had a few black marks on her body before she raised her head just to see a larger group of enemies approaching them from the distance.

'I have no time to think about things that just happened. I need to think of escaping together with Green right now!' Akame thought and completely threw aside the fact that she just killed her best friend. Her once messy mind returned to calm state and most likely was also enhanced by everything that happened today. But that doesn't mean that she won't suffer consequences of killing her best friend, it won't just be today and right now.

"We must go, Green!" Akame turned at Green and shouted before she turned around and started running in the direction of the mentioned cliff.

Green was slightly surprised how easily she turned away from still dying Tsukushi but he was happy to see her return to her calm self. He followed right after her.

'What happened to Akame? Somehow, I feel much safer around her, what is this...feeling?' Green though while looking at Akame's back with a thoughtful expression. Even Green himself couldn't figure out what changed in Akame but he was at least sure that it's nothing wrong which is the most important thing.

"They have Murasame, use guns to take them out!"

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* The pursuers started firing at them but they were still some distance away so their accuracy wasn't the best and it also slowed them down.

"Tch, they are catching up to us. We spent too much time fighting, not to mention our bodies aren't in their best state to run at our top speed after so many battles fought in a row." Green informed Akame while doing his best at dodging incoming bullets. Most of them hit trees but some of them went straight at him and Akame.

"How far is it?!" Akame asked while increasing her speed despite her condition wasn't exactly good.

"?! We should be exiting this forest in just a few seconds and there should be that cliff not far away." Green was also surprised how Akame was able to increase her speed so he did the same. His condition was much better than hers so he was just matching her speed.

And as Green said, only after a few seconds, they were finally out of the forest but that would also mean that they have no cover against the guns.

They stopped running just on the edge of the cliff to look down.

'Ugh! This is definitely higher than that woman said!' Green's mind started spinning after seeing the height under him.

"There they are! Stop them!" The one in command of the entire searching group shouted while pointing at Green and Akame.

Akame glanced behind her before she took hold of Green's hand.

"?! A-Akame?!" He was surprised by this act but before he could say anything more, Akame jumped, dragging him along.

"Huh? HUH?!!" Green was dumbfounded when they were still above the cliff but his expression quickly turned to panicked one once he looked down to the abyss with a small river at the bottom.

"Aaaaah!" Green hysterically screamed while they were falling down. Akame only closed her eyes.

The soldiers that came after them came up to the edge to look down before they backed off a few steps away from it.

"Go after them!" The leader ordered.

"But...the nearest point where we can safely descend is a few kilometers away from here...Not to mention they will most likely die." One soldier said with an uncertain expression.

"And what about it?! Yes, they will most likely lost consciousness falling from such height into the river with their wounds but you forgot that they still have Murasame! We must retrieve it, now go!" The leader snapped at him and ordered half of the entire group to go to the point where they can go safely down.

------

"Looks like both of you made it but with some difficulty which was expected" Leone in her transformed form muttered while fishing out both Akame and Green from the river before they would be taken away by the current.

Both of them were currently unconscious and both were bleeding from various spots.

'Better return quickly and treat them immediately.' Leone thought with a serious expression when she saw their state. She put both of them on her shoulders and started running away from the location.