#132 Escaping 1

Green who was already outside the Capital was being under constant danger of having his location revealed. A few members of Dark Squad sent by Gozuki somehow picked up his trail and were currently searching areas all around him.

'To think that they would send assassins especially after me despite the fact that I have never shown any signs of disobedience. I just hope everything is fine on Akame's side, however, even if my worries are unnecessary, she will still have to pass by here, I need to take care of those assassins myself.' Green thought while hiding on one a branch of one of many trees.

"Green, we know that you are here! Gozuki wants to talk to you so just reveal yourself and come with us. Nothing bad will happen to you as long as you won't resist, we promise you that!" 4 people kept shouting this while looking around inside the bushes.

'Heh, "father" must really underestimate me...To send only 4 people after me...Maybe he thought that they would be able to catch me on an open field but I am the one in advantage here. Let's first play a little psychological game with them, shall we?' Green thought with a small cold smile across his face.

*whoosh* The wing picked up a bit while those assassins continued their search in silence while also keeping quite close to each other.

*Rustle* Suddenly, they heard something moving behind them in the bushes.

"Come out!" All of them snapped their head at the sound but they couldn't find anything wrong with those bushes.

'Hehe, just a little more and wind will do rest of my work' Green thought while sneaking near them behind the bushes.

Green continued creating sounds around them by either throwing stones into puddles or into trees. 3 of them already started to be restless, right now they weren't practically searching for anything or anyone, they were only standing with their backs to each other.

"Calm down! This is what he wants, he wants us to lose our cool. Don't be attracted by each sound you hear! Now, don't be such pussies and make some space between each other, we are a too easy target being so close to each other." The leader of those guys ordered and they calmed down a bit while taking some distance away from each other, their backs were no longer touching each other.

'And now, the final touch!' Green thought and started making sounds with his own body while moving around them between bushes and trees extremely quickly.

"There! I saw a shadow!" One of the guys shouted and pointed at the location while slowly moving back to assume the same position as before.

"...I told you not to be so close to each other and don't lie, I didn't see anything! You must be seeing things due to being so nervous." The leader replied while scanning the area with his eyes.

Green's work was finally done and he could now just relax and wait for a bit until they completely lose it. He only had to wait for 10 minutes and with the help of the wind, they were completely paranoid of every single sound.

Even the leader himself couldn't stand it so he ordered to search area individually which was his biggest mistake. Green just had to travel from branch to branch and silently make his whip wrap around their necks, quickly suffocating them and breaking their necks without them making a single sound.

"*sigh* Finally done" Green dusted off his hands when he was finally done hiding their bodies.

"Hey, you are pretty good, Green, right?" He suddenly heard a voice above him and when he looked up with wide-open eyes in shock, he spotted a woman with long blonde hair and lion ears standing on the branch of the tree and pointing at him with her index finger while winking at him.

"?! Who are you?!" Green jumped some distance back while taking out his weapon and cautiously observing the woman in front of him.

"Don't worry, I am with you and Akame on the same side. Name's Leone! Your fighting style reminds me of my friend a lot!" Leone said with a wide smile while jumping down and approaching him for a handshake.

'Leone...Akame mentioned that name, I guess she is alright.' Green thought and hid his weapon at his belt.

"I am Green, nice to meet you, and thank you for coming here, Leone. By the way, what do you mean by that last sentence?" Green took hold of her hand while introducing himself and then asked with a confused expression.

"Both of you are cowards who prefer to do everything in a safe way instead of risking your neck, haha! You two will be great friends!" Leone said and released a hearty laugh while still holding his hand.

Green could only a blink a few times while looking at her after hearing her words.

"Why do you think so?" Green asked out of curiosity.

"That you have cowardly nature? Because you are much stronger than those guys, you could have taken care of them without any strategies, no?" Leone replied with a teasing smile.

"...T-That's just my habit, I don't usually fight battles head-on." Green replied with a slightly ashamed tone.

"Don't worry about it! As I said, we have a guy similar to you among us so you will be more than welcomed, plus we need to balance things. We have pretty a lot of reckless members so someone cautious as you will be a great help!" Leone said while smacking his back once to encourage him.

"Ouch!" *Cough* Green groaned in pain while almost losing his balance and falling down on his face.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry...I forgot that my strength is enhanced by a little bit right now..." Leone apologized while rubbing Green's back with an apologetic grin.

'A little bit?! That group might even be crazier than ours. What have I gotten myself into?' Green thought while looking at Leone's grinning face with a forced smile.

----

'Finally out of the Capital!' Akame's sour mood suddenly turned to better once she was finally beyond the walls of the Capital.

"?!" However, at the same time when she was beginning to feel better, she stopped running while looking in front of her with narrowed eyes.

"Akame, you are finally here, I was beginning to think that you actually fooled me but it seems that you just took your sweet time with your sister." Gozuki who was waiting for Akame said with a smile.

"..." Akame kept silent and only gently put Kurome on the ground without tearing her eyes away from Gozuki.

"It looks like she didn't want to go together with you...Do you really need to force her to desert the Empire? You are aware of who is her backer, right? I will give you the last chance to be a good girl and return to the Capital with me. If you do so, I will forget about this entire matter and no one has to know anything about it, I promise." Gozuki said with a small smile and despite sounding like a snake, he truly meant his words. He doesn't really want to fight Akame but he is loyal to the Empire so he will correct his own mistakes even if he doesn't want to.

Akame looked behind her at Kurome lying on the ground still unconscious before she snapped her head back at Gozuki with narrowed eyes.

"...I will bury you!" She said with completely emotionless tone while drawing out her katana.

'...Not even a bit of hesitation, huh?' Gozuki thought with dull eyes, maybe slightly disappointed in her reaction.

"I don't have time to fight you honorably. Leone!" Akame said to Gozuki before she shouted while looking at the certain location behind Gozuki right at his blind spot.

"Hm?!" Gozuki snapped his head behind him which made Akame dash towards him, intending to cut him down.

"Just kidding..." He said while smiling and still looking at the same location before all nails on his feet extended, piercing through his boots, aiming to even pierce Akame's gut.

Akame was able to easily dodge his attack due to already expecting it and when she side-stepped his attack, she also slashed his nails so they would be unusable for a short time without losing her momentum.

When she arrived in front of him, she slashed her katana in a horizontal motion, intending to separate Gozuki's upper body from his legs.

"?!" Gozuki was surprised how easily she dodged his attack without losing any speed and before he realized it, she was already in front of him, slashing her katana. He had no time to react with Murasame so he bent the area between his ribs and hips, moving that area to the back in an inhuman way.

*Splash* He was able to dodge a fatal strike from Akame but the tip of her blade still slashed his entire abdomen, creating not too shallow neither too deep horizontal line on his abdomen.

He gritted his teeth and didn't let her continue her attack by using his hair as drills to attack her from above.

*Shatter* *Shatter* The ground upon the impact was slightly destroyed but his hair didn't dig too deep before stopping.

'Body-manipulating skills are really annoying but if everything goes like this, it will be fine.' Akame thought while gritting her teeth.