Part 3. The beginning of the end. Chapter 2: Tears of joy
Advanced chapters:
patreon.com/FanFictionPremium
Give me the stones.
Enjoy reading.
---
14 July 1026 Imperial Calendar.
- It's funny... How many people I know all of a sudden..." I said smiling loudly, turning to the man who was standing five metres away from me. - Yes, Esdes?
- Kaneki... Has anyone ever told you that you're an arsehole? - came from a girl.
- Hmmm... Yes, I did. - I smiled slightly, remembering Touka.
- I'll say it too then. You're a dick. - Esdes, in the meantime, had come close to me, delivering a lightning-fast fist punch to my face.
- I know. - I grinned, clutching the girl's fist in one hand. - How long have you been looking?
- All year..." she growled back, aggressively pressing her lips to mine.
We stood like that for about a minute, and then the girl got off me, breathing in convulsively. I, on the other hand, watched her calmly, smiling.
- I heard that you celebrated New Year's Eve... to perfection.
- What?" Esdes asked incredulously.
- So you don't remember? - I arched an eyebrow, chuckling evilly to myself. - You and Leone broke up so much that I even had to knock you out and take you home.
- W-what? - The ice flake asked, blushing slowly and traitorously.
- Oh..." I sighed fake sigh, turning my back to Esdes. - Come on, I'll tell you on the way.
***
15 July 1026 in the Imperial calendar.
- Ooooh..." Esdes stretched sweetly, giving me a wonderful view of her assets. We were in my house, and upstairs Fela was rustling around. Esdes was phlegmatic about her existence, just taking her for granted. However, maybe she just didn't notice Felicia, hanging on my shoulder and shining with joy.
By the way, yesterday I managed to talk to Leone again, but then she spoke to me. Esdes ran away to the bathroom, and that's when Leone decided to talk to me. Thankfully, Esdes came back in time to spot the lioness and was not exposed. So, I quickly insinuated Leona that she had been drinking with me, then sent her for a walk, and in the evening brought her home to Lubbock.
Except... in the morning, I realised that Akame's entire group was holed up in Lubbock's cabin with Leone, and Shelly and Main were also heading straight there from the other end of the Capital. After lazily contemplating what to do, I settled on the decision to take a walk. After waiting for the bathroom door to close behind Esdes' back, I walked to the exit of the house and shouted:
"I've gone for a walk! I'll be back tonight!" and then I hurriedly retreated.
Skipping across the rooftops to the house across from Lubbock and Shelly's shop, I smirked as I watched Akame actively chase Tatsumi in the backyard. He was circling around a large boulder, and if he got too far away from it, he got a slap from the girl.
- Harsh..." I whispered.
Meanwhile, Shelly and Mein had come out to watch the couple. I glanced over at the sniper, trying to find a change in her behaviour... But when she started beating up Lubbock, who'd said the wrong thing, my doubts were dispelled.
Humming, I jumped outside, contemplating whether or not to stop by for a visit. As a result, I dismissed the idea, deciding that I would only reveal myself if something extraordinary happened.
- Nyaya..." they whispered in my ear, clinging tightly to me from behind.
- Hi, Laura. - I smiled a little. - I hope you're not here on a liquidation mission?
The girl grinned cheerfully as she twisted around me, standing up properly as a result.
- These people are in no danger. You're going to be pissed, aren't you?
I nodded slowly.
- I can't help it, anyway. - Laura shrugged. - Not my area of expertise. Destroying and tracking down criminals, that's not my department's prerogative.
- Yeah," I sighed, "they won't be here long, so you don't have to worry.
- Listen, they opened a new cafe here recently, shall we go there?
- Let's go. - I shrugged, taking one last look at the house, where probably the closest people in the world were.
***
I spent the day... interestingly enough. Laura and I spent the first half of the day walking around the Capital, and then Esdes found us and gave me a hard time about what the fuck you were doing with the one with the ears and the one without ears.
As a result, in order not to attract the attention of the guards, I had to poke around in Esdes's brain and make her take it for granted. However, I thought about doing the same with Laura, but I could only use words. Then, Laura and I, and now Esdes, continued our walk to different places, and at night...
With Laura we had already separated, sending the girl home, but with Esdes, we decided to drive on the rooftops, before reaching home. As a result, I won a landslide victory, which made the girl a little angry, however... it was fun for her, and nothing more was needed.
Suddenly I smelled Kurome and Wade's scent, mixed with something else. And they were about a hundred metres away. My doubts were confirmed when, five seconds later, I heard the clinking of swords from over there.
- Esdes, follow me! - I shouted, instantly crossing the dozen metres separating the houses on the street. I felt a chill behind me, and when I turned around, I saw that Esdes had used her favourite ice paths.
A dozen seconds and the hundred was overcome. I froze on the edge of the roof, watching the couple fight. They were fighting five soldiers... holding ugly swords and spears that looked painfully similar to Quinque's. But that's something the local people couldn't have come up with... Or could they?
If indeed they could create a kuinke, then the Teigoyuzers here would be completely fused. Even the simplest B-class Ghoul kagune, converted into a kuinke, is already a dangerous weapon in the hands of even an inexperienced person. After all, the hand of a man, such things will cut with ease, and if it is a kuinke A class ... then it is generally a haemorrhoid even that. But, if you think of Juzo and the knives he used to shoot at me... It's really unpleasant. A C-ranked Quinque is the weakest, and I was almost killed.
The soldiers were dressed in thick, closed armour, yet they moved easily in spite of that. Or was it...
I inhaled deeply, trying to analyse the faint scent that I didn't understand at first. Well, the smell was remotely reminiscent of those knockoffs Dorothea was riveting, but still a bit off.
Meanwhile, Kurome and Wade were actively crowding me, and I was pondering whether I should show myself, or let Alex Mercer show up? Hmm...
- Stay where you are. - I said quietly, watching Esdes about to jump off with her trademark smile. - You can't beat them anyway. They're too unsuitable opponents.
- Do you want to open up? - The girl arched an eyebrow.
- I don't know... - I shook my head.
- I'm happy with everything, but still, I think they'll be pleased to know that you're alive.
I looked at Esdes in surprise. Such speeches were not at all peculiar to her. More human than she was. Or had she changed so much because of me that her life principles had begun to change?
- I guess you're right. - I grinned. - Let's go.
The girl and I jumped to the ground, while Wade was already lying on the ground with his sword drawn, and Kurome was barely standing, dodging every now and then. I saw a blade flying at her back and flew up in a hurry, striking her in the face with my fist.
Kurome dodged without looking... and then I caught her eye. A smile involuntarily crept onto my face, and I couldn't help but say, waving my hand:
- Hi Kurome!
Meanwhile, Esdes had already thrown punches at two of the attackers, and two more, with the third one coming towards me, had taken the place of my targets. I released the traditional for me kagune, in the form of 12 tentacles, in which, to my surprise with great difficulty, but still entered now definitely kuinke opponents. A moment later, one of the attackers was impaled on a tentacle, and the other two dodged. I grinned, turning two of the tentacles into a small paw, which immediately swung towards one of the opponents. He jumped, scratching the paw a little, but was immediately caught on the tentacle. I let the other one get closer, giving the illusion that I couldn't see him. However, it was already destroyed by the blade that my hand had turned into, and then absorbed.
A few of the most vivid images habitually flashed before my eyes. Ahem... So the Emperor himself continued experimenting, and he even managed to embody some of Raines' blanks, resulting in the creation of the aforementioned Quinque, as well as slightly defective, but still Ghouls, to which the doctor himself was close.
In the meantime, Esdes had successfully dealt with her opponents, and I, to myself, involuntarily praised the girl. I grinned, turning my head to the frozen Kurome sitting on the ground.
- Ahem... I suppose you should say hello too? - I raised an eyebrow, removing my kakugan and kagune. - However... - the sounds of two people running were getting closer, one very quiet, more suited to a killer girl, and the other louder and clumsier, and the smell was quite familiar. - Akame and Tatsumi were on their way, but my participation was no longer required. It was good to see you, and I hope we meet again! - I smiled brightly and then jumped onto the three-storey building we had just jumped from, and Esdes followed me.
***
Morning...
It was already around midnight, when almost everyone in the Capital City was already asleep. However, at Lubbock's Comics and Manga Shop, the residents were still awake, waiting for Akame and their new acquaintance Tatsumi, who had gone in search of Wade and Kurome.
But they didn't return in the condition their former comrades had hoped for. Wade was covered in wounds and cuts, and Kurome wasn't too far behind. But, if the guy was unconscious, the girl was on his edge.
After another couple of hours, most had dispersed to their sleeping places, and Akame was left to sleep near the injured.
I hummed, sitting on the roof of the opposite house, being in the guise of Mercer. Esdes was sitting next to me, looking at me thoughtfully.
- So you can take on ANY form? - She asked with interest.
I didn't bother to answer, simply turning into... an exact copy of her. For a couple of seconds, Esdes stared at me in surprise, after which her gaze dropped to my chest, getting strange, excited sparks, and so I hurriedly changed my appearance to the previous one, out of harm's way. My number of sins, however, is something to be horrified by. Unless I was a glutton.
- Whatever you may think, the answer is no. - I said calmly, turning away, and then I heard a sigh of sorrow.
Suddenly, I heard Akame's "oh," and Kurome seemed to be awake, judging by the change in her breathing rate. Suddenly, a stupid, unnecessary, and even a bit childish idea shot into my head... But to my sick mind, that was no reason to dismiss it.
- Hmm... It's a good time for pathos and panic. - I grinned, looking at the scaffolding of the tower that was being built near the central square, which was a hundred metres away. - Esdes, it's going to be fun.
- What are you up to? - The girl asked interestedly, instantly becoming excited.
- It's time to make myself known more loudly... so that even the dogs would run, looking around in fear of the Tokyo kuroken. - Crunching my finger in the best Jason tradition, while simultaneously sending Shelly a little signal through my RC cells in her, I said.
Meanwhile, Esdes was starting to get wary of the guy, seeing the crazy sparkles in his eyes, and realising that something freakishly crazy was about to happen.
***
Kurome blinked sleepily, shifting her gaze from one long-time member of the Apostates, to the other. Wade was still asleep, as he was far worse injured, but Kurome wasn't sure what had happened last night, and was hesitant to tell the others.
- So?" Leone said impatiently. - What happened?
Kurome hesitated, averting her gaze, which immediately drew the attention of her comrades.
- I..." she began, swallowing. - I'm not sure what's right. I was probably hallucinating because of some kind of poison in the attackers' blades.
- Hmm..." Lubbock frowned. - What were they, if you're not sure?
Kurome lowered her gaze as she considered the answer to the question.
- Wade and I were on our way back..." she began, deciding to tell the whole story first. - But suddenly, five men in closed and heavy armour with spears and swords came at us. They moved very fast, impossibly fast for people in such armour. But worse than that, Yutsufusa could not penetrate the armour. They tore apart two of my puppets (Author's note. If you don't get it, it's about the sword's resurrection abilities), but I went behind one of them and... the sword just bounced off the armour, after a stabbing blow. We started getting crowded, Wade was knocked out, I had multiple wounds... and he came.
- Who? - A worried Shelly asked, which was not lost on the audience, but they didn't interrupt the storyteller.
- Kaneki. - Kurome said in complete silence. The silence lasted for a dozen seconds, and then the girl hesitantly continued. - He appeared when I couldn't dodge a lunge in the back and killed one of the warriors, then said hello without a care in the world. Following him, Esdes jumped down from the roof and joined the fight as well. They killed them all, and then he said that I should have said hello too, that his presence was no longer required, and you were on your way, and went to the roof with Esdes. And then I don't remember anything else.
The silence lasted for another minute or so, after which Myne broke the silence, seeing the very strange behaviour of her bloody glasses-wearing friend.
- 'Shell, what are you doing?
- I..." the girl began shyly, but seeing the looks everyone else was giving her, she waved her hands dramatically. - No, nothing.
- Sheell..." Mein stretched out, keeping a slight frown on her face. - You've never been good at lying. What is it?
- It... wasn't a hallucination. - Shelly said firmly, feeling a strange confidence suddenly come over her. - He asked me not to talk about it, but...
- Who asked? About what? - Maine asked in confusion.
- When we were captured by the bandits from the mine, it was Kaneki who saved us, not me. - she continued. - He said he hadn't fully recovered and that he'd watched you and Wade a couple of times and even talked to you under some kind of disguise. - Shelly nodded her head in the direction of Akame, Kurome, and Tatsumi . - Said he didn't want to interfere with Akame's new life and that Mein and I should go to the Capital where he would meet me this week .
Silence fell upon the room once more.
- It's... - with a colder, emptier than Russian winter (Whoever has read Akame's manga will understand. I was really hung up at that point, to be honest) said Akame. - Bad joke.
Suddenly, there was some shouting outside, and Akame angrily and silently moved towards the exit. Once outside, the assassin gave the fleeing people towards the central square with an annoyed look. Sighing angrily, Akame headed after the crowd. The posters with her were long gone, though she was still wanted.
Climbing onto the roof just before the turn to the square so as not to be in the crowd, the girl glanced glumly at the object of people's terror and fear that was positioned directly in front of her.
The scaffolding of the tower, slightly taller than the building the girl had climbed, and so the inscription that made the blood in her veins almost stop was right in front of her.
"Tokyo Kuroken is back, bitches!" - read the inscription, made as if from human entrails, but still a bit darker.
- I think I'm overdoing it after all..." came a voice so welcome to the girl, a voice. - What do you think, Akame?
The girl slowly turned around to make sure she wasn't imagining things... but there was a white-haired Ghoul standing in front of her, smiling with the edge of his lips.