#151 Warehouse

[N/A: A lot of manga/anime oriented chapter, I tried to make it faster by narrating it but it still took a lot of words and time but skipping everything would feel like it wouldn't fit in the story. Important notice inside the Author's thoughts]

---Outside of the Mansion---

"Sheele? What are you doing here?" Lubbock asked with a confused expression.

"There was a man inside that mansion who we didn't expect. He saved one of our targets so I am chasing him down." Sheele replied without even stopping.

'Huh? Our information shouldn't be wrong...but to think that there is someone who was able to get away from Sheele. So that's the reason for that fire inside the mansion.' Lubbock thought with a thoughtful expression while looking at the mansion. He was contemplating whether he should help or not since his mission was to be their lookout and back up but mainly he was responsible for not letting anyone in.

'No...if he got away, that means he doesn't want to fight with her, I should just stay here and make sure no one runs away' Lubbock shook his head before he started vigilantly looking around.

---

While Sheele was looking around for Akashi's tracks, he already sneaked outside with his hostage over his shoulder.

When he was moving to the backyard of the mansion, he noticed one guard leading Aria towards the warehouse, and then after a few seconds, he saw a brown-haired man running after her with a slightly panicked look in his face.

'That must be Tatsumi. Anyway, I should go meet up with the girls' Akashi thought and picked up his pace.

.

.

Kurome and Poney who were observing the warehouse's surroundings from the tree suddenly felt more weight fall down on the branch they were standing on which immediately made them snap their heads at Akashi who just arrived next to them without being discovered.

"*How the hell did you appear here like a ghost?! Do you want to cause us a panic attack?*" Poney whispered but it was evident that she wanted to shout at him. Kurome didn't say anything but she still nodded her head, agreeing with Poney.

"Sorry about that, when I switch into this mode, I simply don't care if it's ally or enemy." Akashi said with a stoic expression while putting Aria's mother down.

'What mode?' Poney thought and rolled her eyes.

"Akashi Nii-sama, why did you save her?" Kurome asked with a curious expression.

"It's more for the formality, she will die but not by our hands. She will end up on the guillotine. After all, the Empire needs to execute someone if we are to disclose what this family has been doing behind everyone's backs." Akashi explained while sitting down and observing the situation.

By now, both Aria and her guard reached the warehouse and Tatsumi also caught up to them but he wasn't alone.

"A-Akame and Green..." Poney muttered when she saw 2 newcomers. Although Kurome haven't said anything, she still had a complicated expression on her face once she saw her sister.

Akame dashed forward, intending to eliminate her targets but Tatsumi stood up between them, ready to intercept her. However, Akame completely ignored him which caught him off guard and she was easily able to get past him.

"W-Wait!" Tatsumi shouted at Akame while running after her but he was obviously slower than her.

Aria's guard who saw that clicked his tongue and prepared his firearm to shoot at Akame from short distance which would be extremely hard to dodge but before he could pull the trigger, Green's whip entangled around his leg and made him slip. Akame just finished the job by cutting his throat and Murasame's curse took care of everything else.

"I don't understand why both of us had to go when there was just one guard" Green said with a tired tone while adjusting his glasses.

'Hm?' Green noticed Tatsumi trying to intercept Akame when she was about to kill Aria but he didn't do anything since he was able to see that Tatsumi was pretty inexperienced when compared to Akame.

However, he was slightly surprised when he saw that Tatsumi forced Akame to jump away from Aria.

'What? Couldn't she just kill him? ...Right, she could but she didn't want to...Still, if he will continue to stay in our way, we will have to kill him even if he isn't on the list of our targets.' Green immediately thought of a reason why Akame decided to retreat a bit instead of finishing the job.

Akashi who was observing everything already had a dagger in his hand, ready to intercept any attack on Aria since he wanted to "torture" her a bit more after experiencing that date. Although it was more like making fun out of her rather than torturing her.

"Stop! Why are you killing innocent people?! What the hell is wrong with you people?!" Tatsumi shouted while standing in front of Aria who was shivering on the ground in fear.

"Please move out of the way or you will become my target too" Akame said with a stoic expression.

Hearing her answer, Tatsumi got into his defensive stance with a nervous expression. Akame understood what was his answer and got ready to attack him.

They exchanged a few moves before Tatsumi finally took a hit and fallen on the ground.

"Shouldn't have we interfered earlier?" Poney asked while glancing at Akashi since she felt it was kinda waste, death of an innocent person trying to protect someone.

"He isn't dead...His fall was very weird, not like the one you would expect from someone who got hit by Murasame's curse. The sword didn't even penetrate his entire body..." Akashi explained but he himself didn't really care if the guy died or not, however, now he was slightly curious how he managed to survive that hit.

As Akashi predicted, Tatsumi survived the hit but Akame didn't take the bait.

She took advantage of him being unarmed and slashed her katana at his throat.

"W-WAIT! You are doing this for money, right?! I can-" Tatsumi started panicking when he saw the katana nearing his throat but Akame wasn't listening to him, however, before her weapon could slash his neck, someone caught her by her nape, dragging her some distance away from Tatsumi.

"What are you doing?" Akame asked with a confused expression while looking at transformed Leone before she looked behind at Green who was standing there while rubbing the top of his head and glaring at Leone.

"Well, it's kinda my fault that this boy got caught up in this situation...Anyway, why didn't you stop her, Green?!" Leone said while giving Tatsumi an apologetic smile before she turned at Green, shouting at him.

"...I wanted to but you dragged me in the same way as her and hit me before I could have done anything" Green rolled his eyes while answering with a slightly annoyed tone.

"...AAAH! You are that boob-" Tatsumi shouted while pointing at Leone with an angry expression.

"That beautiful Onee-san, that's me~! Anyway, lad, you are behaving like you are protecting an innocent girl and if it's really like that, let me correct you." Leone interrupted Tatsumi while winking at him before she turned serious, redirecting her gaze at Aria and the warehouse.

Even Akashi's stoic expression faltered when he heard that she was the one who caused Tatsumi his current situation.

'So righteous Night Raid...I bet she scammed him by using her assets...' Akashi thought with a blank expression.

"W-Wait!" Aria shouted when Leone approached the warehouse's entrance but she didn't listen to Aria and kicked open the door, revealing the shocking sight.

Kurome and Poney's faces winced in disgust and Akashi wasn't much of an exception but he at least quickly recovered his calm expression.

Aria tried to convince Tatsumi that those are "lies" despite the evidence being in plain sight. Tatsumi walked ignored everyone and walked inside where he found his 2 conscious and naked friends completely covered in bruises and cuts.

"Tatsumi?!!" Both of them shouted from the rest of the strength that remained within them with new hope in their eyes.

"Ieyasu, Sayo?! W-What-" Tatsumi immediately let them out of their cells and despite wanting to ask what happened here, he was already aware.

"S-She tortured both us...She was trying her poisons on Ieyasu while she was torturing me while shouting at me that I should blame myself for having this straight hair" Sayo explained with tears in her eyes but it was unknown if it was because she recalled the tortures or because she was happy to see her friend rescue them.

"Tatsumi, k-kill that bitch! She was treating our wounds after each torture just to prolong our suffering!" Ieyasu shouted while gritting his teeth which made Tatsumi's face much colder than before.

'Oops, the cat is out of the bag. Well, no one will believe Aria even if she says that she didn't do it.' Akashi thought when he heard Ieyasu's words.

Aria however didn't care about his words and simply lost it while cursing at everyone, finally showing her true colors.

"I can't believe "that" tried to kiss me" Akashi couldn't help but mutter while his body shivered a bit. Both Poney and Kurome threw him a pitying look while both began rubbing his back like comforting a little kid.

When Akashi saw Tatsumi with extremely cold eyes slowly walk to Aria, he decided it was a time for him to act.

When Tatsumi slashed his sword at Aria, Akashi used his skill [Phantom Strike] and disappeared just to appear in front of Aria who was previously around 50 meters away from him

[Energy: 1680/1700]

*Clang* Akashi blocked his weapon but he was still slightly surprised by the power behind that attack.

'The power of hatred is really big, it can make one's strength exceeds their limits.' Akashi thought while others looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Akashi?!" All present members of Night Raid exclaimed.

"Tsk!" Tatsumi just clicked his tongue while glaring at Aria hiding behind Akashi. She was the only one who was extremely glad to see him but her expression quickly changed when she recalled how she behaved just a few seconds ago, not to mention that warehouse.

Akashi knew what was she worrying about so he just threw her a smile which calmed her a bit.

"Why are you here, Akashi?!" Akame shouted while looking around.

"I can't let you kill my future wife, especially not when our wedding is just in a few days from today." Akashi said but his smile was still twitching a bit which was noticed by everyone, however, only Leone knew the meaning behind it.

'What is he playing? I highly doubt he wants to save her...if what the boss said about him is the truth, he would definitely let her die after seeing contents of that warehouse' Leone thought with furrowed brows.

Kurome and Poney quickly joined Akashi's side.

Akame was at ease once she noticed her sister but when she saw the figure of the other person...

"Poney?" She exclaimed with a disbelieving expression, even Green was slightly surprised how Akame was able to identify the masked figure so easily.

"I guess you would be able to recognize me anytime, Akame" Poney said without taking her mask off while also nodding at Green.

'Hm? Now that I look more carefully, isn't Kurome's weapon a bit different?' Akame also noticed the change of colors on Kurome's weapon but she quickly threw it aside. She wasn't sure how to behave in front of her little sister that she tried to forcefully kidnap but she knew that she mustn't avoid her eyes!

"How can you call that girl your future wife after seeing that?!" Tatsumi shouted at Akashi while pointing his sword at the warehouse. Sayo and Ieyasu finally noticed Akashi's group presence and they had no idea what to think about it.

"You want to kill her, right?" Akashi asked with a calm expression.

"Damn right I want!" Tatsumi shouted while readying his sword.

"A-Akashi" Aria whispered while tugging his coat. He just showed her hand sign that everything will be alright.

"I can't let you do that." Akashi said with a smile and closed eyes.

'Because I want to kill her too~' Akashi kept this part to himself.

Hearing his answer, Tatsumi rushed at him and swung his sword down.

"Wait!" Leone tried to interfere but she was ignored.

Akashi easily deflected his attack but Tatsumi continued in his onslaught of attacks. Every time Akashi deflected Tatsumi's attack, he moved a bit to the side and after a while when Tatsumi performed wide swing aiming at his right side, Akashi used more of his strength in deflecting his attack which made Tatsumi's sword slip out of his hand.

"AAGH!" The sword pinned a few times before piercing Aria's gut which completely surprised everyone.

'W-Was this his intention?' Leone thought while Tatsumi was looking at his empty hand and then at his sword stuck inside Aria's gut with a confused expression.