3Disclaimer: I don't own Akame Ga Kill and any of the related material. They belong to Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro. However, OCs and this story's plot all are mine.
Author Notes/Introduction to story: This is an AU for Akame Ga Kill. As the title of the story may clue you, is an AU for the series that will focus in the concept of putting a better and competent empire at work even with a handful of failures; you know, like a real more historical empire. However, and this I must insist in, this is not a work that tries to transform the Empire and the setting into Paradise. Esdeath is going to be as monstrous as in canon, as well as certain characters are going to be. However, others are going to be far better. As for the rebels, some are going to be the same (especially some Night Raid) but some others are going to be much more ruthless and un-justified in their actions (like some others of Night Raid). Why? I like moral ambiguity, but when it's real. Works like Akame Ga Kill create an illusion of moral ambiguity by using Black and Gray morality in a wrong way. Don't get me wrong, this moral configuration can work pretty well, but Akame Ga Kill feels like one of those works in which it is irrelevant what the 'Rebels' (because they are always rebels) do, because the empire will always be 'Eeeeeeeevil!'; and the rebels' actions never have negative consequences, or if they have, they aren't touched upon and don't affect society as a whole as negative, or can be blamed into someone else. So having said that, let us begin. More notes at the end.
Akame Ga Kill!
A better Empire
Prelude
Manipulators of Causality
If fate is a principle beyond human comprehension which capriciously torments man, then it is karma that man confronts fate by embracing sorcery. Void, from Berserk by Kentaro Miura.
Fate and history are interesting concepts to dialogue about. There are some that believe them to be lines or circles, chains of cause and effect that cannot be changed. Others say 'Screw destiny, I'm a free man!"; and argue that free willed living beings' decisions are not influenced by fate and that we make our own destiny, thus fate and history wouldn't be lines or circles, but arrows pointing in infinite dimensions depending on a man's choices. The truth is… both of those assumptions are wrong and right at the same time. Fate and history are bound by the law of causality, the mathematical law of cause-effect. A certain cause will result in a certain effect, and that effect can also become a cause for yet another one. This cause-effect phenomenon is Truth. However, thinking of the phenomenon as absolute and unchangeable would be a failure. If there was someone, someone powerful enough to intercede and manipulate a cause and change it, or even erase it… then that someone would have successfully manipulated causality and changed fate. However, causality is a stubborn phenomenon, fighting to return to the course it prefers and what you had changed cannot result in what you expected. Thus fate and history are not a line, chain or even a circle. They are a spiral that goes up and down, left and right, onward and backward; all at the same time. And this tale, this tale of an Empire, a War, a Revolution… this tale of friends, enemies, hatred, betrayals, love, laughs and tears… this tale starts with the resolution to manipulate causality and the change of a certain point in time. And now, as two male figures walk across the woods to a peak of an unnamed mountain in the search of a hidden monastery… now you would be surprised, of how much can and cannot change by the simple fact of killing a single man.
Southwestern quadrant of the Great Halosis Empire; year 1006
If someone had to describe the Halosis Empire without knowing pretty much anything about it, he would probably say that it was huge. In truth, Halosis was and had ever been the biggest nation over the continent since its foundation; occupying almost completely the entire eastern quadrant of the continent. Its citizens ranged from nomadic clans to small village communities to world-wizened city dwellers. Its seal, the same as the Royal Family; was the one of a powerful and thick shield that symbolized the Empire's strength, surrounded by a red dragon biting its own tail that symbolized First Emperor's Deus' desire for an eternal realm. 'Heaven in Earth' he used to call it.
However, the Halosis Empire always had to share the land of the continent with other three great nations that had always rivaled it in power. Far at north, in the cold environment that the most north of the Empire shared with it, was the Northern Kingdom of Thundray. It never was a Kingdom per se, more an amalgamation of vastly numbered tribes with their own territory each. But careful, if under a foreigner attack, they would always band together, and their lack of advanced weaponry was supplied by their sheer numbers and warrior spirit. Their sigil was one composed of a three pointed white star descending upon the land, its peaks three pillars of light. Very few understood what it symbolized... but that's what happens when you have tribes to craft your sigils.
At the Empire's west was the Western Kingdom of Anteareis, albeit referring to it as Queen-dom would be more accurate; since it had always been a matriarchy. Anteareis was not very different from the Halosis Empire, with similar social organization and economy. Its seal was even similar, being also a shield. However, this shield was surrounded by wings and a black falcon's head instead of a dragon. Ferocity and progress, that's what that sigil had always represented.
At the south the Southern Kingdom of Galick held power, their seal one representing four black diamonds over a white font; one on top and three below it. Instead of being directed by a monarchy or the sum of some tribes, this country was purely religious, the government directed by the High Priest and the Choir that worshipped the 'Dancing God Azoth'.
And finally, at the east of the Empire, in the sea, there were the Free Isles of the East, the 'Merchant Paradise' or 'Realms of debauchery' as some called them. The Free Isles were the result of colonization from merchant guilds composed by people for over the rest of the countries. They lacked any seal, but they ran with the motto of 'Freedom to sell, Freedom to buy, Freedom to do'. With enough money, anyone could make a living there. With the passing of time and the increasing attacks from pirates, the Isles bought many groups of mercenaries from the distant land of the Far East across the sea, and from the other four countries too. Thus was born the Free Army, the soldiers that fought for 'Men instead of Kings, Queens or Gods'.
Being surrounded by so many nations, the First Emperor Deus thought that his dream of 'Heaven in Earth' couldn't be achieved if his Empire fell. Thus, under his orders and the guidance of his best sorcerers, alchemists and scientists; began the building of a kind of weaponry that could surpass any other. And so were born the Teigu, a series of incredibly powerful weapons born from the biological enginery of the rarest and most powerful of Danger Beasts; weapons that were able to achieve feats in battle that no other weapon could. Raise the dead, kill in one hit, shatter the earth, move oceans, incinerate armies... and what until that moment was believed to be fantasy, was now a reality. It was thanks to these weapons that the Halosis Empire was able to triumph in the numerous wars of the past... but that is a tale for another time.
This tale starts, as it has been said before, with two men travelling across the woods. The youngest of them, a young man that should not be even in his twenties; black spiky hair over his head, a well shaped and trained body with tanned skin adorned with some scars that denoted experience in the battlefield. Black eyes surveyed the woods as he walked and took branched out of his way, dressed in nothing but a pair of trousers, a pair of simple boots and a plain sleeveless and unbuttoned jacket that let his arms and torso to be seen. Over his chest was a horizontal scar, the biggest in his body.
"Are you sure this is the right way, old timer?" the young man, his voice nothing out of the ordinary, asked to his companion.
And what a companion! Not many had ever been seen in the company of someone so bizarre. For starters, he was sitting, legs closed one on top of another, over a flying red carpet, the trinket levitating almost a meter over the ground and marching at the same pace than the scarred youngster. The man over the flying carpet was a thin, tall individual dressed in a black long cloak with white trimming over the end of the sleeves and the neck that covered his whole body from head to toe. Black, elegant shoes in his feet and gloves of the same color covered his hands. He wore a round hat of the same color over his head, and his face was covered in a white, smiling mask with five eyes with black sclera and white pupils. Some that had looked at him didn't know for certain if he was human or not.
"According to my calculations," a raspy voice that sounded almost like a whisper answered to the young man. Due to the white mask, many doubted if the voice was coming from a mouth behind it or from any other place. "We should arrive there in seven minutes and thirty eight seconds. Seven and thirty seven... thirty six... thirty five..."
"Okay, I got it!" the young man protested. He sighed and looked ahead. "Why do you need to be so emphatic in little details?"
"Thirty four… Little details are everything, young Eiji. Especially for a man of science like me;" the masked man answered. "You should know, having already woken both me and Yoshitsune up; and what we intend to here."
"I know, Ashura;" the young man, Eiji, told the masked man. "It's just that..."
"Are you still having reservations?" Ashura asked. "You should not have them, not by this point. You who were bestowed with one of my Conqueror Series..."
"You think I'm feeling doubts about what we're going to do here?!" the man yelled, a couple of scarlet flames escaping his nostrils before he calmed down. "No, not about this; never in a million years. But about what could happen next..."
"Time is a powerful force; causality extends through and is bent within it. What we are about to do here," Ashura explained as he took a tree branch out of his flying carpet's way; "is more than stir the water of a river. We are going to basically artificially change its course. Yet every river's destiny is the ocean, and the waters will fight fiercely in order to regain their course. This dichotomy is enough to make the men with the strongest resolve to doubt; yet our hands must not tremble."
"So... you are basically telling me that it's okay to have doubts... but to not let them to overpower me?" Eiji said with a confused expression.
"Yes," Ashura answered plainly.
"Why didn't you simply said that?!" Eiji asked.
"The details, Eiji. The details are everything;" Ashura said again before raising a hand and pointing onwards. "Visual contact in three... two... one..."
The two men exited the woods at last; and were received by the sight of a hidden temple within the mountains… or more accurately within the mountain itself, as it had been built within the crater of a long dead volcano. Around it was a lake in which a large animal seemed to be moving, and even at such a distance, it could be appreciated how two figures were outside the temple, seemingly training.
"Here we go," Eiji said. "That's him. It has to be him. Do you think it's him?"
"Indeed," the masked man answered. "Calculating best attack option… uhm…"
"Why can't I simply burn them from this distance?!" Eiji asked, while his palm was engulfed in dark crimson flames.
"Control your Wrath," Ashura stated. "If you get loose, you could burn the entire forest and the mountain to ashes. The best and fastest solution is to engage battle directly," Ashura explained while making a movement with his palm. In an instant, his flying carpet had doubled its size. "Come, let us go and greet them politely."
Eiji snorted, but in the end he mounted in the fling carpet, standing still behind Ashura. The trinket took impulse and flew directly into the temple's direction, the figures that were training out of it becoming clearer and clearer to the eyes as they approached. One was a tall, muscular man with a shaved head except for two spikes striking out of each side, and a long, thick, impressive black beard. Dressed in what seemed to be a cross between a monk's garb and a martial artist's gear that exposed completely his torso and arms except for some platting he wore on them; his expression was one of maniacal glee as he trained. If asked who he was, he would answer that his name was Sten and that he was a proud member of the ancient order of the Rakshasa Demons, a subdivision of the Imperial Fist. He would try to murder you, or as he said "free your soul" shortly after. Probably. Certainly.
His training companion, on the other hand, was much more bizarre to the eye. Like Sten, his arms and legs denoted a life dedicated to training… but his stomach was incredibly big, denoting also a life of indulgence in the pleasures of the gluttons. White hair over his head alongside some kind of crown-like trinket, the start of what was supposed to become a beard in the future had started to appear over his jaw. As he jumped and pivoted over his left leg, he threw a punch towards Sten, who answered by doing the same. The two fists collided and stopped each other, and while Sten's expression was one of happiness, the man's wasn't. This man's name was Honest, and everyone that had heard of him being named that had thought that it was ironic to the extreme. For this man was first over all, a glutton. He was also a liar, extortionist, sadist, manipulator, conspirator, briber, killer, and cannibal. For years he had been working a net of corrupt politicians and nobles within the Empire, and in the moment a new heir to the throne was born, he had planned to gain his confidence, kill the current Emperor and then proceed to annihilate every person who could prove a threat to him, and thus rule the country and lead it to ruin using the new and young Emperor as a puppet, while he was Prime Minister. However, none of those matters were important for him in these training sessions.
"Good! Very good, Honest!" Sten said boisterously as he stopped attacking. "You grow stronger and better with each day!"
"Humph, that's only thanks to your training, Sten my dear friend;" Honest answered. Damn this idiot, he thought. If he and his order weren't so damn useful I would have him executed. Fuh… this training is really tiring. If I didn't need it… "And I told you already, my dream if to live to 120 years and taste and consume every type of dish this world has to offer. I cannot achieve that dream without effort."
"Ahahaha!" Sten laughed happily. "A man must follow his dreams, unless…!" Sten grew silent suddenly, glancing to the skies. His face turned into a serious one, and this change in behavior made Honest to grow wary.
"Is there something wrong?" the fat man asked.
"Intruders…" Sten muttered.
In that moment, the flying carpet carrying Eiji and Ashura started to descend from the skies, casting a shadow over the two men. As soon as the caret descended enough for the Rakshasa Demon and the politician to see the newcomers, the two pairs looked at each other.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen;" Ashura said politely, albeit considering the raspy tone of his voice, that made him look even more disturbing.
"Hello!" Sten greeted back. "Get out of my temple!"
"Unfortunately, that's not an option;" the masked man said. "We are here to kill you."
"Then you will die!" Sten proclaimed boisterously.
"Wait a second!" Honest protested, shocked with the fast, blunt and abrupt turn the conversation had taken. "Who are you? Do you have any idea who am I?"
"Yes," the masked man answered. "You are Honest, currently Minister of Coin of the Halosis Empire. You aim to become Prime Minister and reshape this country into your playground. That is something I cannot tolerate. Thus, you must be exterminated. Eiji?"
"Finally!" the young man said, and he jumped out of the carpet. Moving faster than Honest or Sten, he grabbed the crown-like thing over the politician's head with his right hand and proceeded to kick him in the gut, sending him flying and taking the object from his head. Eiji tossed the trinket to Ashura, who caught it in the air. The young man proceeded then to rush towards Honest, who had crashed into the temple.
Meanwhile, Sten was left alone in front of Ashura, who remained in his carpet. The masked man and the Rakshasa Demon wasted several moments just looking at each other, until Sten grew impatient with the situation.
"Descend to the ground so I can free your soul!" the monk declared.
"That is unnecessary," Ashura proclaimed as he inspected the crown-like trinket in his hands. "There is no reason for me to abandon my carpet, that won't make my fighting more efficient."
"Then I suppose I just have to grab you!" Sten said as he jumped towards the flying carpet, and his arms dislocated and extended like whips towards Ashura. In answer, the masked man raised his right hand and, with only index and middle fingers extended, he moved it to the right in a swift and clear movement. He then said one single word.
"Rewind."
Sten felt something, like a small energy field around his body. Then pain came, an enormous amount of pain. His extended arms fell to the ground alongside him, and he couldn't fight a scream down his throat. The monk felt how the majority of bones of his body shattered, his power gone, erased.
"What have you done?!" Sten asked in agony as Ashura made his carpet to descend even more.
"Being a member of the Rakshasa Order entitles pushing your body to the extreme," Ashura explained. "However, you have to pass an innumerable amount of training and trials in order to do that; not counting your body modifications by consuming certain types of Danger Beasts. My power," Ashura said, rising his hand and looking at it; "is called Rewind because it enables me to turn back things to how they were in the past. I'm even able to re-grow limbs, or regenerate bodies if there has not been much time after their death. In your case, I turned your body back to the state it was before becoming a full Rakshasa monk, and the strain you were putting your body under did the rest."
"I… suppose it's my loss then;" Sten admitted humbly. "Go on, finish me, and free my soul. At least I enjoyed the thrill of the battle one last time."
Ashura pointed his index finger to the dying man. "Thrill of battle? How meaningless. Rewind;" Sten's brain was then forced to devolve into the puddle of cells that it was before being born, effectively killing him instantly. Ashura descended from his carpet then, and carefully took the corpse and put it over his trinket, judging that it would be a waste to let it rot. "Battle is a tool to an end, not an end in itself," he told the dead man. "I'm not a wrathful man like Eiji, neither I posses Yoshitsune's prideful honor code. If I can kill you in one hit and return to my investigations, I will do it. Besides…" he said, rubbing the back of his right shoulder. "I hate long battles. Then again, that's the reason I designed something like you, Erastone," he told the crown-like trinket while walking towards the temple.
As Ashura killed his opponent without problems, Eiji was now focused into finding Honest, the corrupted politician having hid himself inside the temple.
"Honest!" Eiji yelled in anger as his body was engulfed in flames. "Come and face me, you coward! Are you nothing without that Teigu?! Come or I'll burn the whole temple! Come and face my WRATH!"
Like hell I'm going to fight that, Honest thought as he cowardly hid behind a pillar of the temple's insides. That's a Teigu, isn't it? That's why he took Erastone from me. But I don't see any object or weapon… Are the flames coming from his body? But that would mean is the same type as the Ice Demon's Extract! That's ridiculous…!
Honest's train of thought was interrupted by a fireball demolishing the pillar he was hiding behind, forcing him to jump. Looking back, he saw Eiji walking towards him, the left upper half of his body completely engulfed in dark crimson flames, giving him a nightmarish appearance.
I have to go! Honest thought as he tried to flee in fear. However, Eiji noticed his intentions and, instead of shooting fire to him, he extended his left palm towards the politician.
"Erase!"
Honest felt an enormous amount of pain in his legs, and fell to the floor without grace. Looking down his body, he saw how the flesh around his legs had disintegrated, leaving his bones to sight.
"What?!" Honest asked in terror.
"You think I can only summon and control fire?!" Eiji asked as he approached Honest. "You idiot, that's nothing but a side effect! I can burn time itself, and bring to the present events of the future! I can erase time, you moron! Now it's time to die!"
"Wait! Please!" Honest begged. "I can give you anything! Money, power, women, men, children! Titles, your own island, anything; but please don't kill me! I still have so many things to eat!"
"I said…" Eiji whispered as he prepared a stream of flames around his arm. "BURN!"
In a terrified and agonizing scream, Honest was burn to a crisp, his body reduced to a scorched mass of flesh. Eiji looked down at the corpse, and in that moment Ashura entered the temple, walking towards his companion. The masked man extended his arm towards Honest in the same vein he had done with Sten.
"Rewind," he said, and in mere seconds, Honest's body was healed, and the manw as conscious once again. His legs were still just bones, though.
"Wha-?" the politician asked confused. "I'm… I'm alive!"
"According to the data Eiji gave me and my own calculations," Ashura explained, not paying much attention to the man's joy. "If you were to become Prime Minister, your hold over power would cost the lives of five thousand seventy hundred and twenty three Empire inhabitants."
"S-so…?" Honest asked.
"So," Ashura explained. "We are going to kill and revive you, kill and revive you… a total of five thousand seventy hundred and twenty three times. And you are going to feel each one of them."
"What?! No!" Honest begged, but Eiji was already charging more flames. There was another scream, and Honest was a crisp once again.
"Rewind"
"No! Please!" Honest begged, but Eiji burned him again.
"Rewind"
Another plea, followed by another scream.
"Rewind"
"Please… please I beg you… ARGH!"
"Rewind"
Silence came next, and it was only broken by the screams afterwards.
"Rewind"
Hours later, another section of the Empire
"That was… therapeutic;" Eiji said as the two men flew over the Empire landscape in Ashura's carpet. "I feel pretty calm now."
"The Wrath that comes with your Eraser should calm down when you satisfy your power's thirst;" Ashura explained. "I wonder if Yoshitsune has been able to do as he was instructed."
"You said he was the best among all of you," Eiji said. "And that means he's the best of all of us to."
"True," Ashura admitted. "Approaching destination. Descending…" the carpet flew down, until it reached an enormous mansion in the outskirts of a city. Night had fallen over the Halosis Empire, and the stars were shinning with power in the night sky. However, the mansion, which in another moment would have been lively to the extreme, now was silent. And as soon as Eiji and Ashura descended from the carpet and started to walk towards the mansion, they noticed several corpses all around. Servants, guards… even some nobles in party dresses; all of them killed by what seemed to have been a sharp blade. These were Honest's guests and servants, the majority of them gathered for this night's party in his mansion. Ah, but the party had been crashed by a man, a man that had been waiting for Eiji and Ashura in the mansion's main hall; sitting over a chair among all the corpses.
This handsome man, dressed in an elegant dark blue suit, with long, black, curly hair that fell graciously over his shoulders, pale skin and a pair of glasses over his grayish green eyes, was patiently waiting with two sheathed katana over his lap. His name was Yoshitsune, and in what entitles physical prowess and swordsmanship, he had no equal. In the past, he had risen beyond his fellow battle-men, standing alone upon a mountain of corpses, the lonely soldier; the Sword of the Empire.
"Yoshitsune," Ashura called for him as he and Eiji entered in the room. "I see you completed your part of the plan."
"Yes," Yoshitsune answered, his voice a deep one. "Many of them tried to beg for their lives or bribe me in order to spare them. Even some of the guards tried either that or fleeing. Is this what Lord Deus' Empire has become while we slept, Ashura? It's disgusting."
"Be glad I woke you up in time to put a stop to Honest's machinations before they started;" Eiji said. "If you had woken up in my time instead…"
"Your time, young Eiji;" Ashura said as he distanced himself from the other two. "Doesn't exist anymore, not with the removal of Honest from the equation. We must be careful in how we proceed from now on. We can't bring Lord Deus' dream to fruition without dirtying our hands a bit, or forming alliances. The possibility of a Revolutionary Army rising is still present, causality won't let us do as we please with total freedom. Yoshitsune, did you find…?"
"All the documents detailing Honest's operations and partners are still in his office," the handsome man answered. "Mostly composed of nobles."
"Good. We shall contact the current Prime Minister and the current Emperor in secret until we can make our move. They will be interested over hearing this, and who we are… Yoshitsune?"
"Yes?"
"Why is this one still alive?"
Eiji and Yoshitsune looked into the direction Ashura was pointing. In the corner of the room, a woman with dark skin was cuddling herself, crying in fear. She was a very curvaceous, beautiful woman, with long, pale lilac hair falling from her head to her waist. She was, understandably, scared. Even in this premature state of her condition, one can surely see how, from the form she clutched her stomach and how it had started to expand without her gaining weight; she was carrying another life.
"Because she is pregnant," Yoshitsune explained. "And she was the only one that didn't outright oppose me, or try to flee. I won't soak my hands in the blood of anyone that hasn't raised a hand against me. My Pride won't allow it."
"Are you nuts?!" Eiji asked in anger. "I can smell Honest in her! That's that motherfucker Syura's mom! I'll kill…!"
Before Eiji could finish his sentence, Yoshitsune unsheathed one of his katana and put it mere millimeters away from the young man's throat.
"Don't push yourself, bearer of Wrath;" Yoshitsune told him. "She won't be harmed, not in my sight."
"Basic logic explains," Ashura interrupted their argument. "That a man's morality and personality is codified by upraising, education and personal experience within the society he has been born in. Yoshitsune, would you take responsibility over this life, and raise it to be a well meaning individual and useful to Lord Deus' dream?"
"Yes," the swordsman answered plainly. "I swear on my Pride."
"Then young Eiji has no logical reason to kill this woman, or her unborn child;" Ashura stated.
"What?!" Eiji said. "But…!"
"Have you the cold in your spirit to kill a pregnant woman?" Ashura asked the young man, eyeing him. "You, of all people?"
Eiji looked at the ground with doubt in his eyes. He then sighed and calmed down. "No. I'm sorry Yoshitsune. I just… lost myself there for a second."
"There is no need to apologize," Yoshitsune told him as he sheathed his katana again. "You, of all men in this world, have every reason to hate each one for them. But I assure you," he said as he walked towards the woman; "that I will do my best to make this child worthy of Lord Deus' Empire. If his mother," he said in a softer tone as he extended his hand towards the woman; "finds that appropriate, of course."
The woman didn't doubt two seconds before taking the man's hand. After all, honest wasn't precisely the best of lovers. She had always the impression that, once the baby had been born, Honest would have killed her, and raised the boy to become a monster like he was. This man had spared her life, and even if he seemed to be a monster too, he was a different type of monster than Honest was. So the woman, Selene, took Yoshitsune's hand.
Ashura turned around as his friend helped the woman to incorporate and calm down. He walked outside and looked up. He then proceeded to do something he usually didn't do, whistle. A melody escaped from behind his mask as he inspected the sky's stars. There was no moon this night, a sign of new beginnings.
Oh the times, they're a'changing…
Halosis Empire's Capital; year 1007
"I cannot believe this," the current Emperor, Shigeru the twelfth; said as he inspected the documents that his Prime Minister, Chouri had given and explained to him in a secret, private meeting between the two and Ashura, of all people. "Honest was… he was… planning to kill me?"
"I found hardly to believe it myself at first, Your Majesty;" Chouri, a bald man with a large moustache and a small beard told his Emperor and friend. He wore a typical uniform of the Empire's officials without any garment that denoted his high status, a symbol of his humbleness. "But the constant and undeniable proof that they presented…" he said gesturing to Ashura, who stood silently, hands closed and hidden within his sleeves, meters away from the table Shigeru and Chouri were sitting at. "It's undeniable. Honest spent all the years since his entrance in the court plotting to gain more and more power. He built alliances with such lowly men within the high nobility… It still disgusts me. Honest's assassination was the best that could have happened to this nation."
"And to whom should I thank for this… intervention?" Shigeru asked of the masked man, who bowed in respect.
"My name is Ashura," the masked man presented himself. "You may have read of me in the Great Library, Your Majesty."
"Wait Ashura… as in Ashura the Philosopher? Ashura the Blacksmith? The creator of the Teigu?"
"I was only in charge of the project Lord Deus entrusted us with," Ashura explained. "I didn't work alone."
"But… but that means you are over…"
"A thousand years old, yes;" Ashura explained.
Shigeru's expression became one of unbelief. "Are you seriously expecting me to believe that?"
"No," Ashura answered, and then approached Shigeru, whispering something in the Emperor's ear. The ruler's face became one of utter shock as he listened, and when Ashura distanced himself from him, Shigeru seemed to be able to believe everything the man said. "That should be enough proof. Yes, I am Ashura, and I am a living relic of the young days of the Empire. My companion Yoshitsune, another member of Lord Deus' inner court, and I were sealed long ago in preservation chambers hidden within the land. In time of need, we were to be woken and protect Lord Deus' dream."
"Heaven in Earth…" Shigeru paraphrased his ancestor's motto.
"Honest's existence was a threat to that goal, and thus he needed to be removed from the equation," Ashura explained. "It was thanks to a young man named Eiji that we could woke up and put a stop to Honest before he could commit treason against the Empire."
"This is still such a shock..." Shigeru said. "Honest was always such a dutiful, friendly man..."
"That friendly man, Your Majesty;" Ashura said; "had specified in his personal 'cooking book' how he was going to consume your wife's womb once she had given birth to the next heir."
"What?" Emperor Shigeru asked weakly as he looked at Chouri, the Prime Minister's expression not denying the statement.
"It was... very graphically detailed," Chouri said. "Written by Honest's hand, no doubt. I read them myself."
"To think such an awful man was under our noses the entire time;" Shigeru muttered, holding his head between his hands.
"Your Majesty, you must know..." Chouri started to say, but he chocked in his words.
"There are more," Ashura was the one to talk. "Honest built a complete net of hedonistic scumbags, most of them of high noble families with influence and power over the Empire."
Shigeru sighed and looked at Ashura, his brown eyes fixated in the quintet the masked man had. He passed a hand over his small moustache, and his expression became serious. "You are asking me to let you kill them."
"Yes, sire;" Ashura answered. "In order to prevent this Empire's ideal from becoming corrupted, the weak links must be severed from the chain."
"I'm not very sure," Shigeru answered. "Chouri, what do you counsel in this kind of situation?"
Chouri debated with his own morality, knowledge and beliefs for a few moments. He knew that this... 'Purge' would surely stir a very bad feeling among the nobility, not only in the high nobility, but also in the low. Yet those monsters had been killing innocents, slipping under the radar thanks to Honest's actions. Decisions, decisions... He remembered one of the cases he had read from Honest's notes, one depicting a nobleman named Koka, who lived near the border with Galick; that apparently took young girls from their families in order to 'serve' him. Chouri made his decision, because at the end of the day, he was a man educated in the belief that family is sacred, something him and the Emperor had in common. And that belief shaped his train of thought. Just like Ashura had planned.
"My Lord," Chouri spoke. "These men and women taint our Empire with extreme vile actions. If we let them run free just to prevent the protests of the rest of the nobility... we wouldn't be better than Honest."
"Then the decision is clear," Shigeru said in a somber tone. "Ashura the Philosopher, you and your companions are authorized to hunt the remnants of Honest's net within the nobility, and only them. Understood?"
Ashura bowed in respect. "Of course, His Majesty. It is all in order to protect Lord Deus' dream and bloodline. But of course, we will be in need of some things."
"Voice them," Shigeru said.
"Founding, a base of operations, and proof that we are at the Emperor's direct service."
"I read that the First Emperor used to have a direct group of advisors during his reign," Chouri explained.
"Both Yoshitsune and I were part of that group, alongside other four members, and Lord Deus himself. We were called Great Imperial Shields, or simply 'The Shields' for abbreviation."
"Then, from this moment onwards I, Shigeru the twelfth, Emperor of Halosis, restore the former Great Imperial Shields into function and I task them with the mission of purging the nobility of the corrupt. Also, I bestow upon them the total patrimony of former Minister of Coin Honest, and I will appoint one of them as his replacement for this position."
"Yoshitsune should be fine for that role," Ashura explained. "He always was the best of us handling economy and politics. My knowledge, if vast, it's rescinded to the scientific field." Plus he looks way better to the eye, he added in his mind.
"Then it is settled," Shigeru said in an authoritative tone. "You are free to go, Ashura the Philosopher. I will make sure that one of my assistants handles you an Imperial Seal that bestows you as an authority that only answers to me."
With a polite bow, the masked man left the scene. Once he was gone, Chouri made a question he had been eager to do since quite a time.
"My Lord," the Prime Minister asked. "What... what did he tell you?"
"Something only my family, and according to history books him, could know;" Shigeru stated. "The activation code of Shikoutazer."
Formerly Honest's manor; now Yoshitsune's
"How did it go?" Eiji asked of Ashura as he returned to the house they had taken from Honest, the young man standing in the main hall while eating an apple. For four months since the politician's assassination they had lived hidden in some small villages, but now they had decided to move to the dead monster's household in order to have a place from which operate.
"We have total permission to proceed," Ashura said while tossing an Imperial Seal (a badge with the Empire's sigil made in gold and ruby) to him. "I have one for Yoshitsune too, and as soon as we find replacements for the other three members of the Shields in the same vein you have been able to take Darlton's place, I will have one for them too."
"The only other guys aside from us with one of these are Budo and Chouri, right?" Eiji asked as he put the badge over his jacket's lapel.
"Indeed," Ashura answered. "Changing to matters more at hand, where is Yoshitsune? How did everything go?"
"He's upstairs," Eiji said, pointing to the staircase. "With the woman and the new baby."
Ashura nodded and headed to the first floor, looking for the room Yoshitsune had chosen for Selene… and eventually for him too. There the masked man found his elegant companion, this time wearing a simple white shirt and a pair of black trousers, kneeled at the side of the bed where Selene was, cuddling a small infant in her arms. The little boy, skin as dark as his mother's and with a small lock of white hair in his head. He was currently sleeping.
"Yoshitsune," Ashura said aloud, gaining his friend's attention. "Was there any complication?"
"No," the man answered. "It was a fairly normal birth. No complications. How did things go in the palace?"
Ashura handed him another one of the Imperial Seals. "You are the new Minister of Coin;" the masked man stated. "And we are going to hunt those nobles down."
"So the plan is starting to unfold," Yoshitsune spoke. "I suppose you still have no access to the lower levels of the palace?"
"No, but all in due time;" Ashura tranquilized him. "We have plenty of spare time to spend. So, how is going the boy to be named?"
Selene, who had been looking at the baby tenderly while listening carefully to what the two men were speaking about, stroke the little boy's cheek with one of her fingers. "This is Syura. My son, my heart."
Halosis Empire; year 1009
During the following two years to Syura's birth, the renovated team known as Great Imperial Shields, composed solely of three men; dedicated themselves to purge the high nobility of Honest partners in crime. While this resulted into a total chaos within the high nobility and the growing tension within the lower nobility (the main difference between the two being how much land they possessed); the fact that 'The Shields' were in possession of direct orders from the Emperor made so the nobles couldn't say a thing in protest if some of his fellow noblemen were killed. It was during these years that Yoshitsune started his administration as Minister of Coin, making the first move that would characterize him as a kind of reformist. He legalized prostitution within the Empire. However, in order to calm some members of the Imperial court that thought that this could transform the Empire into the same thing as the Free Isles, Yoshitsune stated that legalizing prostitution would mean that economical laws to control it would be made. Thus, there would be merchants of flesh forced to offer a good service and to follow those laws, unless they wanted to be arrested or executed. Yoshitsune explained that the Empire would impose taxes upon them, and that their un-payment would result into their arrest too. And thus, the merchants of flesh themselves would engineer control over the prostitution market, because that's what merchants do with the markets they belong to.
And while the Capital and the Empire as a whole started to experience slow but growing changes thanks to the presence of the renovated Great Imperial Shields, in the northern part of the Empire, near the border with Thundray, a girl with icy blue eyes and hair of the same color was born from the wife of the chief of the Partas Clan tribe. His father named her Esdeath.
Year 1010
It was during this year that a girl of low class was born in the Capital, from a family that lived in the slums. Her parents, wanting their girl to grow up and become strong enough to survive in the big, cruel world opted for naming her Leone; after the great hunters of the jungles. In one of the towns in the coastside of the eastern part of the Empire, a boy was born to a family of fishers. He was named Wave.
Thanks to their success purging the nobility from Honest's partners, and the fact that they had contributed to the Empire's improvement, Ashura and Eiji were given positions within the Empire's structure too. Eiji was given a position as general within the army, and Budo would usually refer to him as 'That young man with anger issues', albeit the Grand General, a hulking man with blond hair combed back and with two tufts resembling antennae at the sides, and a very serious demeanor; actually liked him and how he treated the men under his command. Ashura, meanwhile, was given the newest position of Minister of Science and dedicated himself to build a network of scientists at the Empire's service, and they started to manufacture new weaponry for the army, in order to strengthen their ability to enforce the law and protect the Empire's society. It was during this year that Ashura learnt about the existence of the Shingu, weapons similar to the Teigu but that were created around four centuries ago, and clearly poorer in their manufacturing. Ashura referred to them as 'useful, but inferior to his creations'. And thus, plans of creating new Teigu began.
Speaking of the army, Yoshitsune started to direct a bit more of founding each year to them, and he made sure that Chouri approved his and the Minister of War Reule's idea about the creation of new divisions and especial teams within it.
With the following political maneuvers and hard work, very few people complained when Yoshitsune convinced Chouri to give the positions of the nobles him and the rest of the Great Imperial Shields had slaughtered to the high commanders of the army.
Year 1011
During this year, a boy named Lubbock was born to one of the noble families of the low nobility. In the same year, Spear, Chouri's daughter; was born too (albeit her mother died while giving birth), and the Prime Minister decided to abdicate his position in order to concentrate in his daughter's upraising. After some deliberation, the position of Prime Minister was given to Yoshitsune, who promised to work hardly to protect the Empire's well being. His successes as Minister of Coin had earned hima well respected name within the Empire, and as each day passed, more and more Ministers saw him as the best Prime Minister and advisor to the Emperor the Empire had ever had.
Thanks to Yoshitsune being Prime Minister, Ashura gained access to all areas within the castle, including the subterranean levels. Under the chamber of the Shikoutazer, the so-called Ultimate Teigu, was another chamber, a secret one only Ashura knew about, and that only him could access. It had been put there by him, long ago. Opening the gates and entering it, Ashura was presented with an old room powered by a rudimentary system that used the organs of many electrical Danger Beasts in order to function. In the center of said chamber was an enormous pod full of golden liquid, and in its center, was a sphere of black liquid that the golden one held in shape and active. Ashura touched the surface of the pod, feeling the heartbeat of the sphere.
"Greetings," the masked man said. "I hope your dreams were pleasant, Lord Deus. Because soon, it will be time to awake. Your Empire needs you, your dream needs you."
Year 1014
In this year, a girl named Akame due to her unusual eye color, was born.
In the Capital, meanwhile, Ashura was holding an interview to a promising and brilliant scientist that wanted to enroll with his unit and work for him. Ashura noted how the man, named Stylish (or at least that's how he named himself) was in possession of a Teigu named Perfector, and that that Teigu's abilities, in conjunction with the man's knowledge and skill, would make for a great co-worker. Once Ashura asked him for his motivation, however, the weirdness started.
"Motivation?!" Stylish asked as he incorporated dramatically from his seat. "My motivation is… fashion!" he said, throwing his arms up. "And… stile!" he said while rotating over himself and then striking a pose. "I want to discover, know and experiment in order to create and invent new and magnificent creations that are better and much, much more fabulous than the previous ones!"
"Knowledge for the sake of knowledge?" Ashura inquired. "Creation for the sole sake of thriving into the process of creating new and unseen things?"
"Exactly!" Stylish said while making and overacted reverence. "And if there is someone that must understand that, that's the fabulous creator of all Teigu, Ashura the Philosopher himself!
"You now that is nothing but a rumor, right?" Ashura asked him.
"I'm not as stupid as to not be able to discern a rumor that talks reality, from one that doesn't;" Stylish said as a calm expression took over his face.
Ashura let out a dry, cynical laugh. "Well, Mr. Stylish. I think you and I are going to work well together."
Year 1015
It was during this year that a boy with green, emerald-like eyes was born in the countryside, during an unusual cold day of winter, wind blowing furiously from the north. The chief of the village interpreted it as a sign that the boy, given the name of Tatsumi, was destined to do great things. If these were good or bad, that he didn't know.
In the great cities across the Empire, the changes made within the system by Yoshitsune and the rest of the Great Imperial Shields were starting to bear fruits. The commoners, at least in those cities, experienced an improvement over their life quality, and merchants and the army started to become the new leading classes of society. The nobility, meanwhile, had lost more and more power over the years, the final straw being the Emperor's decision to made Honest and his partner's actions public knowledge. It wasn't just that the high nobility had lost power, but their good name within the commoners too. Low nobility, due to ruling over places more distanced from the Capital and the other cities retained more of their power and reputation.
Year 1016
During this year, Akame's little sister Kurome was born, again named after her eye color. Near the border with the Western Kingdom of Anteareis, a girl named Mine, product of a relationship between a man of Anteareis and a woman from Halosis, was born.
The birth that gathered the most attention, however, was the one of the Crowned Imperial Prince; Makoto the third, son of Emperor Shigeru the twelfth and Empress Kiyoko.
Year 1019
"But that is treason!" a lower nobleman told the green haired woman that was sitting across the table he was sitting at. In front of him was a curvaceous woman in her late twenties or early thirties, with smooth skin and a big bust and eyes of a caramel color. She was dressed into a noble's pale dress of thin silk sewed in such a manner that left enough cleavage to be seen for her interlocutor's eyes to look into that direction more than to her face during the conversation.
"I said it was just an idea, Roderick;" the woman, named Lyra; told him. "It's not that I want for the whole nobility to start an uprising against the Empire. Heck, have you seen how much effort they have put into the army's bettering? They would crush us like those three monsters crushed Honest's lackeys. I just said that we should fight for our rights as members of the nobility. In the Capital and the ring of cities around it, and that's not counting the other great cities, the high nobility is now an authority in name only, and the peasantry hates them due to the conspiracy of that Honest pig. Merchants and especially the commanders and generals of the army hold the power these days."
"Be careful with what you say, Lyra;" Roderick told her before rising from his seat. "I have seen men and women executed for saying less. Besides, you are part of the nobility by marriage, no because of birth."
The man left her alone, and Lyra sighed in exasperation. Don't patronize me, you pathetic whelp, she thought bitterly. I understand how this world works better than any of you! She looked down at her two generous and large breasts, and played with the idea of making them bounce. I know I'm a noble just because these girls made that idiot of a husband that I had to fall for me. Well, my ass is pretty generous too… these men, you dance a bit in front of them in the appropriate dress when you have the appropriate body, and they do anything for you. Damn it! I didn't let that lowlife asshole of a husband I had to play with every inch of my body so those men of the Capital can take the power I earned so easily!
"Lady Lyra?" she heard a feminine voice calling for her. Looking in the voice's direction, Lyra was met with the newest, youngest and actually most efficient member of her personal guard. A teenager girl that should be around fourteen years old, with silver hair tied into a braid, dressed into the standard gear of any guard. Najenda, she was called.
"Oh, hello Najenda;" Lyra told her. "How did my son's training go?"
"Pretty well, actually;" Najenda informed her. "The young master has a lot of talent, especially into what refers to agility."
"I'm glad of hearing that," Lyra said. Yes, my cute little Lubbock, the other good thing that came out of this whole marriage. "You know, sometimes I think my son has a crush on you."
"That's ridiculous;" Najenda told her. "He's just glad that I'm training him, and that I spend time with him; that's all."
"Don't say that," Lyra said as she incorporated. "I mean, if he's anything like his father and seeing how you are developing…" she said while focusing in the girl's breasts, making her blush.
"Lady Lyra!" Najenda said while covering her chest with both hands.
"I was just joking!" Lyra said, laughing. "By the way, I think this is for you," the green haired woman said while handing her a paper. "This should be enough to make you into the Imperial Academy next year, I think."
Najenda took the paper and her eyes brightened in delight. "Thank you so much, Lady Lyra!" Najenda said while throwing herself to the woman and hugging her, which she promptly stopped doing. "Sorry… that was improper."
"Ridiculous, there is nothing wrong with doing it;" Lyra told her. "Just let me ask of you that, when you are at the Capital and that when you rise in the ranks of the army… don't forget about us, Najenda."
"I never could," the girl told her as she bowed in respect and turned around to leave to her room.
Lyra started to drum her fingers against the table as she watched Najenda go, letting out a tiring sigh afterwards and throwing her head back a bit, eyes closed in order to let her mind go a little.
"Mom?" she heard the voice of a boy. Her son Lubbock had entered the room. Lyra had never been a religious woman, but she thanked every kind of deity that had been created by the mind of any man for the fact that her son resembled her both in body and in mind instead of his father.
"What's wrong, Lubbock?" she asked to the little eight year old boy.
"Is… is Miss Najenda going to be back?" Lubbock asked as he approached his mother and Lyra took him and sat him over her lap.
"Who knows?" Lyra said, and noticing her son's sadness growing, she kissed his forehead. "Perhaps you should go after her one day."
"Really?" Lubbock asked with hope in his eyes.
"Yes," Lyra answered. "Tell you what, if you train enough, I bet you could be accepted in the academy, become a soldier and serve under her."
Lubbock smiled and let a giggle to escape his mouth. He then descended from his mother's lap and ran out of the room, probably looking after Najenda. Lyra shook her head with a small smile in her lips.
Lyra was left alone in the room she was in, and she directed herself to the window, opening it and letting air in. She breathed it and peeked outside, the sun illuminating the skies of spring, and the aroma of the young flowers travelling through the winds. I won't let those bastards from the Capital to take from my son and I what is ours by right. But I'm not like Honest, she thought. I know that you can't hold power just by letting some hedonists to do as they please. But sooner or later, the Empire will make a part of itself to hate it as much as the merchants and those commoners love it. And when that happens; I will be there to lend them a hand, and unite them. Quite the sinister smile appeared in her face then. And then the power… all the power…
Year 1020; the Capital
The Crowned Prince's fourth birthday had been quite the event, as they had been all his birthdays since his birth. However, this one was special as it was the one in which he could articulate more than a phrase, or at least more words than 'Mom! Dad! Cake!' The boy had grown into a fine young boy in his four years of existence, and many workers had already grown attached to the small, green haired and green eyed boy running around the halls of the palace. Be it noble of commoner, a child will always be a child.
The Emperor and the Empress, happy for his son's birthday and knowing that the Empire was in good hands under Yoshitsune and the rest of the court's command, decided to take their son and travel with him around the Empire in order for the people of Halosis to finally meet him. Thus, as the Emperor and Empress prepared for the travel in their carriage, Makoto was made to wait in his room, as he had been ordered to pick just one of his toys for the trip. Of course, for a four year old this was kind of difficult, especially if you were a Prince and thus have a legion of toys. In the end, he was able to reduce his dilemma to choosing between his teddy bear or his dolphin plushy. He opted for the dolphin, the teddy bear was too cliché even for him.
"Young Prince," a dry and raspy voice called from behind, scaring him. Turning around, young Makoto was met with the sight of Ashura, the masked man standing near one of the corners of the room.
"M-mister Mask," Makoto told the Philosopher, using the nickname he had designed for the black garbed man in order to soften the fear his appearance inspired in the effeminate boy's heart. "I… didn't hear the door."
"Oh, I didn't use the door," Ashura said, taking a small black and curved dagger out of one of his sleeves. "This is Shadowalker: Umbra, one of the few new Teigu I have been able to create. It allows the user to enter and exit shadows a¡, and travel through them in a radium of one kilometer. It's pretty easy to bond with. I cannot use its triumph card, but I can use its basic abilities."
"I… that's kinda cool, Mr. Mask;" Makoto answered. "Are you here to take me to Mom and Dad?"
"Actually," Ashura said before disappearing in a flash and appearing right behind Makoto; pulling a syringe out of his sleeves, a syringe containing the same black liquid that the sphere of that chamber was. "No I'm not." Ashura nailed the syringe's nail in the boy's neck. "I'm sorry for this, I really am;" he said as he covered the Prince's mouth with one hand and used the other to inject him with the syringe's contains. "But there are many trials ahead, and you and your father are both weak, the fact that me and Yoshitsune were able to make it this far is proof of that. I'm sorry kid, really."
The black liquid started to travel through the young boy's blood system, burning his insides. It travelled fast through his veins to his heart, his muscles, his brain. It burned, it burned a lot. His screams would be heard around the whole wing of the palace if Ashura wasn't containing them.
No! I'm scared! Momma! Momma!
Your mother is not here to help you, kid; a voice that was neither his nor Ashura's sounded in his head.
Who… who're you? a terrified Makoto asked, and he noted how his voice sounded weaker.
I am the Empire. And I shall devour you!
Makoto would have protested, whimpered, or maybe yelled at the voice… but his was nothing but a whisper now. In the end, his voice grew silent, and the young Prince Makoto ceased to exist at four years of existence, his spirit absorbed, consumed by another one.
In the room, the Prince's small form had stopped struggling, and the syringe Ashura had been holding was now empty. The Philosopher let the boy out of his grip, and the small individual stretched himself.
"How do you feel?" Ashura asked.
"Small," the Prince, or rather the personality that had taken over his body, stated. "This body is still…"
"The body will grow until it hits its biological peak at twenty one," Ashura explained. "Then it shall stop aging, like it was planned."
"Good," the not-Makoto said. "You should go now, I heard someone coming down the hall to pick the Prince, I mean, me up. Stay close, in the shadows."
Ashura bowed in utmost respect. "Understood," he said as he used Umbra to melt into a puddle of shadows and enter one of the ones that were casted in one of the room's corners. It didn't last long before the room opened and one of the maids of the palace entered, asking the Prince to take her hand so she could guide him to the carriage his parents were in.
Once there, not-Makoto met with the parents of his host. They seemed… nice, he supposed. But Ashura was right, they seemed weak. The man was too kindhearted, the woman too laid back. They treated their son as if he was a normal child, while a Prince should have clear since the beginning that he would never have a normal life. It made not-Makoto's stomach to cringe even more than the clatter of the carriage they were in.
"Makoto, you haven't taken any toy;" the woman, the Empress (he hated to refer to her like that) told him. "Why?"
"Well our son is a big boy now, right?" Shigeru told his wife as he looked at her with nothing but love in his eyes. "Maybe he wants to show the people that he doesn't need a toy, right?"
"Y-yes," not-Makoto answered, trying to fake the personality of the boy he had taken over. He glanced out of the window; the carriage was starting to exit the capital. Good, time to end this before it became even more annoying.
"Seems like we won't be having a pleasant trip under the sun," Shigeru said, glancing out of the window to the sky, where black clouds had started to twirl over them. How strange, storms should appear so suddenly during this time of the year.
"Makoto, are you alright?" Shigeru heard Kiyoko asking their son.
The boy was sitting next to his wife, the current Emperor sitting in front of them. The boy had his eyes closed, and in any other circumstance, Shigeru would have thought that his boy was sleeping. But the child's expression was one of pure concentration. Shigeru heard a thunder cracking in the skies. Yet there was no rain.
"Makoto?" Shigeru asked, reaching for the boy with his hand. "Is something wrong?"
Not-Makoto opened his eyes then, and the Emperor saw, shocked and horrified, how the usual green of the boy's eyes had turned golden.
"You," Makoto told his father. "You are wrong. You are weak, you are useless. If not for my Ashura and my Yoshitsune, this Empire, MY Empire, would be in ruins," Makoto's whole body started to glow golden then.
"Son?" Shigeru asked, confused beyond comprehension.
"No you fool," the person in front of him told him as he glowed. "Your son is dead, I devoured his soul. I am the Conqueror, I am the Unifier. I am Deus. And I am and always shall be, Emperor of Halosis!"
Shigeru the twelfth heard another thunder cracking and then he saw a flashing light descended upon the carriage from the skies. And then, as the carriage was demolished under a golden lightning from the dark clouds upwards, Shigeru understood. And the illusion of comfort and peace that Ashura and Yoshitsune had built around him for so many years was destroyed, crumbling into dust. And it had been in front of him the entire time, just like Honest. 'Protect Lord Deus' dream' they had said. Who said that he was necessary for that? Who said... that his dream was the same? The Emperor directed one last gaze to his wife. There was no time for words, not before the golden lightning hit the carriage, killing both of them.
The only things left after the lightning hit the carriage were the scorched remnants of the vehicle itself, and the corpses of the Emperor and Empress, alongside the carriage's driver. Deus, making his new body to stop glowing and his eyes to return from gold to their usual green, inspected the area. He was the sole survivor. In the distance, he could hear the rushed gallop of the incoming cavalry. The Emperor in a Prince's body clenched his fist.
I'm still too weak, he thought. I needed to concentrate a lot back there just to create a single lightning and a simple thunderstorm…
"Lord Deus," the First Emperor heard Ashura's unmistakable raspy voice. The Philosopher exited a nearby shadow with only the upper half of his body.
"My powers don't fare as they used to, my old friend;" the First Emperor stated.
"My deepest apologies," Ashura said; "but due to this not being your original body, and a pretty young one on top of that, it's fairly normal that you can't access the whole scale of your Generator, sire. Also… you are crying, sire."
Deus took a hand to his cheek, effectively touching a handful of tears rolling down them. He looked at his wet hand with an eyebrow raised on disbelief. "What the hell…?"
"It must be a byproduct of the soul transmission, sire;" Ashura said. "Have in consideration that the nature of your Conqueror is Gluttony, just like mine is Sloth and Yoshitsune's Pride. You consumed that boy's entire individuality, so right now he must still be an echo inside your mind. Everything must be normal again in no more than six months."
"Alright," Deus admitted; "return to my palace, don't let suspicions about your whereabouts during this to rise among the court. These tears should be enough to convince Budo and the rest that I'm still this Makoto boy."
"As you wish," Ashura said and he dissolved into the shadows again.
Budo and the cavalry arrived moments later, the Grand General cursing himself for letting the carriage to go first without any guard around. Foolish, foolish… he called himself in his own head. Once arriving at the scene Budo dismounted his horse and rushed to the Makoto's aid, the boy cuddling himself in the ground, his parents' corpses not very far away from him. Budo kneeled at his side, and hugged him, taking him up and heading back to the palace. He would never forgive himself for being such an idiot. So focused was the noble Grand General in his auto-imposed failure, that he failed to notice the boy's eyes. They were looking at him, at everyone else. Like the ones of a predatory falcon, looking for a prey to swallow.
Year 1021
The Boy Emperor, that's how the commoners had started to call him. And that was not counting what the remnants of the nobility called him. In the following year to his parents dead, Makoto the third had been crowned as the next Emperor, albeit power was in the hands of the Prime Minister, the rest of Ministers and the high military commanding; a power they should held until the Emperor turned eleven, which was, by Halosian law, the minimum age to rule. Or at least, so it was in theory.
"What do you mean we have been suffering attacks?!" Eiji asked as he, Yoshitsune, Ashura, the Minister of War Reule and Budo sat around a small, round table in the palace's main hall.
"From the Free Isles of the East," Reule, a man in his late forties with orange short hair, tanned skin and a very slim built dressed in the usual attire of the ministers, explained; "and from Galick at the South. Mere raids at the borders for now, perpetrated by small factions, but they will end escalating into a full out invasion if left unchecked." The man took some documents and passed each of the attendants a copy. "Our spies have informed us that some of the troops from Galick's main army have started moving towards our border, and that as each day passes, more and more ships from the Free Army go and ravage the coastside towns, thieving, kidnapping children for later sell as slaves in the Free Isles, or even raping any female on sight."
"Despicable," Budo stated.
"Easterners…" Eiji said between gritted teeth in anger, something that Budo caught upon. Did the young man have a shared history with the habitants of the Free Isles? The way he had seen that word… it was dripping with hatred. He rose from his seat. "I ask authorization to put a stop to the raids on the East by myself!"
"Some of the new weaponry I have been developing would take well to be tested against real foes," Ashura explained. "But if Eiji is the one to go East, then who shall go South? Grand General Budo?"
"My duty is to be in the Capital, protecting the palace and His Majesty;" the bulky man explained. "But I will entrust the situation in the South to one of the most prominent generals we have, River."
"Ah yes, I heard of his accomplishments;" Yoshitsune said as he rubbed his chin with his right hand. "I suppose he should handle the situation with Galick quite appropriately. Ashura, entrust General River with your weapons, and Eiji, travel to the East as fast as you can with a battalion and take control of the navy."
"I don't get new weaponry?" Eiji asked with a grin, his heart beating strong due to his craving of wanting to burn those Easterners to ashes.
"No," Yoshitsune explained. "I want for you to show them; show them the power that a user of a Teigu of the Conqueror series can wield. These men of the East and the South, these men of the Free Isles and Galick… they are not only foreigners to the Empire, but have also attacked us, harmed our citizens! We won't let them get out of it unpunished," Yoshitsune's eyes flashed with determination. This kind of situation was also an affront to his Pride. "So crush them, don't let any of them alive. I want you to reduce one of their islands to ashes."
The meeting ended afterwards, each man heading to his destination. In the halls, Budo narrowed his eyes at Yoshitsune's words. Wasn't destroying an entire island like that a bit of an exaggeration? Surely there were innocent lives there, even if from another country. No, he told himself. It's not as if we haven't waged war against any of them in the past, it's just that Emperor Shigeru's reign was kind and peaceful. And now that he's gone, they want to take advantage in order to destroy what he spent so many years building… and none of them would hesitate harming the innocents, and if they get their filthy hands in his majesty… Even if I don't like it, for the sake of His Majesty Makoto, I must endure!
And as the Grand General searched for River, Reule met with Ashura in another hall, handing him a dossier. "As you asked me," the Minister of War said. "This is the information of that girl that joined in the academy this summer. She's a prodigy, I must admit. In the moment we let her to join the army per se; she will rise within the ranks like a balloon in the sky!"
"I know," Ashura said as he checked the dossier, inspecting the photograph of a young girl with blue hair and icy eyes of the same color. Esdeath… "My greatest thanks, Minister Reule. How is Umbra faring in your hands?"
"Very well," the man answered, taking the dagger out for a second. "Its triumph card it's pretty nightmarish, though."
"It was designed that way," Ashura said as they walked. "I also hope that you have been attending to the creation of the new assassination squads since Yoshitsune gave you permission to do so?"
"Of course!" Reule answered politely. "Soon we will have our own Assassin Corps, ready to take out all the menaces to our Empire from the shadows. The serums your scientists have provided have been quite helpful too. If some of your men could create more for…"
"Very well," Ashura said, cutting his petition before it could be voiced. "In fact, I have been working in a new serum. But in exchange, I would like to be informed if you get your hands onto two sisters…"
East Sea, a week later
Eiji breathed deeply and let the air of the sea to enter his lungs. The smell to salt was always pleasant to his nostrils. Once he had reached the East, he had been given control of the naval forces stationed there, a fleet composed of powerful ships ready to sail at his command and reduce the raiders of the Free Army to shreds. Hunting the raiders per se hadn't been troublesome; all of their ships were burning back over the sea, his fleet having long passed them. The advantage that the ships of the Free Army had was that the same ships they used for war were also used as merchant ships during peacetime. That meant that it was normal for them to be armed with weaponry, and the only way of actually discerning a ship with the intentions to trade with the intentions to attack was with the number of people in it. Of course, the Easterners had devised ways in order to hide people into their ships to not be suspicious.
He sighed. He had to remember to ask Yoshitsune and the other Ministers to invest more money and resources in the navy. They were a fearsome fleet, no doubt about that, but he was sure the ships could be modernized. Perhaps he could give some ideas, since he had seen more modern ships first hand. Then again, he wasn't from this time period, so the technology probably was nonexistent…
"Eh… excuse me, general Eiji, sir?" he heard a young voice. As he looked to the owner of the voice and was met with the sight of a small boy with blackish blue hair and deep blue eyes, dressed in the uniform the navy gave to their recruits when they started serving in the ships. The first years were supposed to serve for the recruit to learn how a ship worked, the formal training given by an instructor, normally a ship captain, or one of the fleet admirals if the recruits were lucky. This boy shouldn't be older than ten years. Maybe seven? Eight if he pushed it far enough. He had come to him in the deck, with what seemed to be a… plate with a fish? Yes, it was a fried fish, with small potatoes and cut onions around it. It looked fairly good to the eyes, actually.
"I… admiral Shen told me to bring you this, sir. Since you didn't join with him and the rest to eat, he thought that…" the boy explained. Eiji noted he was quite nervous. His hand almost went reflexively to the badge over his jacket. He sometime forgot that he was one of the big shots now, a Great Imperial Shield, a general of the army.
"Thanks kid," Eiji said as he took the plate, picking a piece of the fish with his bare fingers and tossing it in his mouth. It tasted pretty good. Not the best thing in the world, but pretty good for a ship's kitchen. It also tasted… familiar. "Did you make this?"
"Y-yeah…" he admitted. "Admiral Shen makes us cadets to take turns in the kitchens. He says I'm the best, but that's just because mom taught me how to do it," the boy's expression became a little somber over thinking about his mother. She was probably at home, and the news of the ship her son was in departing had surely gotten to her once it was too late to say goodbye.
"What's your name, kid?" Eiji asked.
"Wave," the boy answered.
Eiji's eyes widened a bit in surprise, his breathing increasing for a few seconds. "You… You're Wave?"
"Yes."
He's… so young; Eiji thought. A warm smile appeared in his face shortly after. "Alright, pleased to meet you, Wave. Thanks for the fish, it's delicious."
"Really?" Wave asked as his mood lightened.
"For real," Eiji told him. "Now I think you should head back inside; we will be arriving at the Free Isles' territory in mostly an hour or so."
"Yes, sir!" the boy said, making an overacted salute with his hand. Eiji chuckled seeing this and how the boy ran back inside. The general spent the next hour sitting in the deck, eating the fish the boy had brought him. Good thing about having fire-based powers, you didn't have to worry about your food getting cold. Once he finished his plate, he headed to the deck's end, arms crossed over his torso as he looked at the horizon. In the distance, he could start discerning a large amount of land over the sea. It was the largest of the Free Isles, Kreith. His spirit started to burn with anger, and as soon as admiral Shen and the rest of the marines were in deck, Eiji directed himself to them.
"Admiral," he addressed Shen, a small and balding old man that had maintained his shape quite well over the years; his skin tanned over many decades in deck under the sun, and rough due to the salt in the sea's air. He dressed in pure red, befitting an Empire Admiral. "I need your men to prepare the ship's frontal cannon."
Shen raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Sir, shooting from this distance will only alert them of our presence, and Kreith has the most numbered population of the Free Isles, and the Free Army under their use should be as numerous. I'm not against about shooting a cannonball as a warning shot, but the orders from the Capital you brought stated that…"
"Oh, you aren't shooting any cannonball;" Eiji said as he headed to the stairs, his intention t go to the ship's secondary deck.
"Then what are we shooting?" Shen asked in confusion.
"Me!"
Kreith
The Island of Kreith was, as many knew, the biggest and most populated one of the Free Isles. Mostly, it had a very peaceful life; its citizens dedicated to trading with the other countries and themselves, be it by selling merchandise, their own bodies, or the bodies of others. Mostly composed of two stories tall buildings that bent well with the natural flora of the island, Kreith was the utmost example of the East in what to their 'Freedom' was supposed to be. However, in the year of 1021; their otherwise anodyne lives were interrupted by the sound of a distant cannon shot; and a flaming ball falling from the sky. The fireball fell over one of the Red Districts, and the resulting explosion reduced it to ashes. On top of the ashes and the crumbled buildings, Eiji stood tall and proud, his body engulfed in the crimson flames product of his Wrath.
"Citizens of Kreith!" the general yelled as he created more flames, condensing them between his palms. "My name's Eiji, of the Halosis Empire! During the past weeks, your men have been raiding our land! Kidnapping our children, raping our women! I! Don't! TOLERATE THAT!"
The man's proclaims were met by the arrival of members of the Free Army, all dressed in armor and carrying long spears and enormous shields. Their idea was to surround Eiji with the shields and attack him with the spears. Meanwhile, other soldiers were heading to the harbors of the island, alerted of the presence of the Halosis Empire. However, Eiji had instructed his ships to maintain their distance.
"Spears and shields?!" Eiji said, a little offended. "You attack me with spears and shields?! Don't make me laugh!"
The flames Eiji had been generating and condensing between his palms created a tiny crimson sphere, which then was released by Eiji and floated away. "Nobody stands against my flames," he said as the sphere started to crack, and his own voice became something animalistic.
"King Crimson!"
Still over the deck of the fleet's main ship, Shen looked to Kreith. The general had instructed him to maintain the position and only move when time to pick him up came. The admiral didn't knew of exactly what the general had been speaking about… until he saw a bright explosion in the distance. It was so bright at first that he and the rest of marines operating the ships had to cover their eyes. When he opened them, he was presented with a sight he would never forget: a tornado of crimson flames the size of Kreith itself engulfing and burning the island. Even the air around him was burning! The flames burnt for fifteen minutes, and when they ceased, he ordered (even if quite reluctantly) to the ships to approach land.
What he was met with was nothing but a scorched wasteland, and Eiji standing over it, him the only survivor. The buildings, flora fauna and people of the island had been reduced to nothing but ashes, and distinguishing them from one another was impossible. The trip back to the Empire's land felt uncomfortable, and Shen decided to not interact with Eiji. Many of his men actually praised the general due to the feat he had accomplished, but not the old admiral. No, Shen kept staring back at the burned Kreith all the way back to land. It was clear that the Free Isles would stop their raids after this, he was sure they would even want to become the Empire's satellite nation.
So much power in a sole individual, Shen thought. No man should have that power… neither should a country.
The Capital, days after that
"We will now proceed to held trial against general River, commander of the 54th and 56th battalions;" Yoshitsune spoke as he, Reule, the new Minister of Coin Schneider, Budo, Ashura, Eiji and the Emperor himself held court over him, sitting in tall chairs and the accused below. "Will the accused defend his case by himself, or solicit defense? In the later case, the trial will be postponed."
"I will defend my own head, sir;" River, a man with long white hair and a moustache of the same color, told the handsome Prime Minister. He was one of the Empire's most prominent generals, and thus had been entrusted with handling the situation in the south. Of course, it hadn't turned out so well, that was the reason he was in this situation.
"Could you retell the events that transpired during your attack over the border with Galick?" Yoshitsune asked.
"Of course," River answered. "As ordered by Grand General Budo, I headed towards the South with the intention of putting an end to Galick's incursions in our land and stop the troops they were sending as reinforcements in order to establish a long term attack. I was given new weaponry by the Ministry of Science, courtesy of Lord Ashura here," River said, pointing to the masked man. "So we exited the Capital and headed south. My second in command, Bulat, insisted into cooking that night, because I'm apparently a very bad chef…"
"Please, focus in the actions that led to this situation," Yoshitsune told him, and River couldn't hide a smile.
"We disposed of the raiders from Galick quite easily, but we knew that the main troops of their army would be a complete different story," River continued. "Even if we counted with Bulat, who has a Teigu called Incursio within our forces, we knew that it couldn't be an easy battle. So we used the new weaponry once we engaged the Galick troopers."
"And?" Ashura spoke next, and River directed a hateful glare towards him.
"It was a massacre!" River yelled, losing his cool as his anger took over. "The weapons, these cannons you handled us… their projectiles exploded and spread gas over the enemy! They… they turned into stone and crumbled into dust! Not only that, but the landscape and farmlands too were affected by the gas! They are useless now, and if we had continued shooting, that whole section of the south border would have been left sterile! What could have happened with the citizens that live from those lands? What will now happen with the citizens that live from the farmlands that had been left wasted?!"
That means that if used within the enemy's territory it will also deprive them of their source of food, Deus thought. Good work, Ashura. A truly fearsome deterrent weapon… yet using it within our borders seems dangerous for the citizens. It will be better if let only to the final stages then.
"Was that the moment you decided to sign peace with the Galick troops?" Yoshitsune asked.
"Of course!" River said. "There was no need for prolonging the conflict, now we are at peace with Galick."
"Incorrect," Ashura stated. "You left those troops to return to their homes with knowledge of our weaponry, and they will immediately start developing countermeasures or try to copy the gas' formula. Your small time of peace now has earned us more problems in the future."
"You don't know that," River said.
"It is the easiest and most logical way of proceeding," the Philosopher cleared. "That was the reason why those troops needed to be disposed of completely and quickly, a task you failed to perform."
"Why you…!" River started to say, but Yoshitsune hit the arm of his chair, silencing both.
"Enough," the Prime Minister said. "Minister of War Reule, what is the current situation with Galick?"
"Thanks to River's actions, peace;" Reule said. "But as Ashura has explained, this doesn't mean that they won't retaliate and attack us again, now that they know what to expect. Neither can we retaliate immediately, since they will be expecting us now. In the long term, the general's decision was the worst one."
"I followed my code," River stated. "As I always have done and I will always do. I did what I thought was the best for the people."
"You had orders, and you disobeyed them," Yoshitsune stated. "This court shall vote now. Innocent?" Yoshitsune asked, and only Budo's hand rose. "Guilty?" the Prime Minister said and the rest did it this time. "This tribunal has judged you guilty. You will be stripped of your title, and sentenced to prison for high insubordination. Commandment of your battalions will be given to another general."
"Can I appeal to the Emperor's Mercy?" River asked.
"State your wish, then;" Yoshitsune ordered.
"I wish to speak with my second in command."
"Bullshit, sir! We did what was right!" Bulat, a young man with imposing musculature, hair that fell over his shoulders, and quite the pleasant face all dressed into a white military uniform with a long coat over it; said to an already caged River, who was waiting for be taken for one of the palace's cells to one of the main prison.
"It's no use Bulat," River told him. "The court has taken a decision. It's still a consolation that Grand General Budo sided with me."
"But sir…!"
"I said it's not use," River said, sitting in the floor of the cell. "At least you and the rest haven't been banned alongside me. Listen Bulat, I can tell that there is something wrong with the Empire. The Ministers hold more power than the Grand General and the Emperor is just a child. The nobility is practically a thing of the past. And those weapons… Ashura has been creating more and more weaponry, and I heard that some new Teigu had been under production."
"War," Bulat said in a whisper. "The Empire is getting ready for war, and no one is able to do a thing, because the nobles don't hold power anymore and the army is under the Ministers' control. But why? Why would the Ministers be preparing for war, and against whom?"
"That I don't know," River said. "I'm a bit sentimental about this, you know? About not being able to see the magnificent soldier you are fated to be, Bulat."
"Sir…" Bulat said, before kneeling and bowing his head. "Sir! Thank you very much for all the years we spent together, and the faith you put on me!"
"Now, Bulat, that's a bit of an exaggeration," River said with a grin. "I mean, you have almost sounded like you are in love with me, or something."
"Don't be stupid, sir;" Bulat said as he raised his head, his lips forming a smile, but his eyes teary. "You're too old for me."
The two men shared a laugh then and Bulat left the place. Shortly after, two imperial guards arrived and took River to the prison where we had to spend the rest of his days. That night, Bulat left the army, fleeing by using his Teigu Incursio, an armor that materialized around him at his command from his sword; in order to put as much distance between the Capital and himself. He headed to the mountains in the northwest, and settled there in order to train. He had a lot to think about.
Months later
"One, two. One, two... don't look pass me, Syura;" Yoshitsune instructed his adopted son as they exchanged blows with wooded swords. "Focus on the now, you know that I'm your only opponent."
Syura, Honest's biological son, and now Yoshitsune's adopted one; nodded on acknowledgement of his father statement and continued his attack. The boy had grown quite well in the past years, the dark of his skin contrasting with the white of his hair; and was now in the middle of his adolescence. Yoshitsune had to admit, he had grown quite fond of the boy, spending more and more time with him, educating him alongside Selene and even accepting to train him; but after all, not doing so would be a taint in his prideful persona. Syura must felt something similar, because truth be told, training under someone like Yoshitsune wasn't a pleasant exercise. Even with simple wooden swords, the Prime Minister was a very strong opponent.
As Syura attacked, carrying his own wooden sword in hand, he jumped and delivered a descending blow towards his head, which the Prime Minister easily blocked. However, the boy let the sword go afterwards, instead delivering a spinning kick to the man's stomach. Yoshitsune stopped it with one hand though, releasing his own wooden sword in the process. The Prime Minister smirked at that.
"Very good Syura," Yoshitsune complimented him. "You were able to disarm me. Do you know what that means?"
"Juice?" the boy asked, panting.
"Juice," the man confirmed, and both of them headed to their house.
But I'm still unable to land a single hit on him, no matter how hard I try; the teenager thought. I suppose I should put more effort on it.
The two headed back inside, where one of the manor's servants gave them the juice that Yoshitsune always drank after each one of their training sessions and that the Prime Minister himself prepared. Syura felt a bit annoyed at the fact that Yoshitsune didn't drink any alcohol or eat anything that could be judged as 'unhealthy meals'. The manor had a wine cellar (Selene enjoyed drinking red wine from time to time, and Eiji always drank beer while visiting. Syura had never seen Ashura drinking or eating, though) but Yoshitsune made very few use of it. He would usually eat vegetables or very pure meat or fish, and drink either his juices (which tasted quite bad) or water.
And thus passed the days of young Syura; the only things that were able to cast a ray of excitement over the routine being the most intense training sessions and some of the escapades that he made to the Red District. There was a part of him which yelled inside his head at times. It yelled at him that this wasn't the life he deserved, that he should just jump out the window with a bag full of gold and leave, leave for distant lands and emotions, strong drinks, lustful and easy women; all at the same time! But then another voice talked, calmer, more logical. This one told him to be patient. Yoshitsune didn't waste any second into something just for the heck of it. No, there was a greater reason. The questions were: What was that reason? And when would it be revealed to him?
As Syura trained swordsmanship with Yoshitsune; Najenda shot down all of the mobile targets of her shooting exam by using a Teigu called Pumpkin, a large rifle-like gun with the ability to shot energy blasts. She had asked if she could choose another name for the gun. The examiners had answered her with a blatant 'No'. Go figure, apparently the name of a Teigu was something sacred. No matter how silly it sounded.
"Congratulations, Najenda;" one of the examiners said as he approached her, surveying the field in which all the destroyed drones were lying motionless. "The highest score I've ever seen. And according to the doctors, your synchronization percentage with the Teigu is over seventy five percent. It's very rare, especially for someone so young."
Najenda narrowed her eyes slightly towards the examiner. Best score, a high synchronization... and she only got that phrase. Should she take it as praise or not? Better to play the submissive card for now.
"Thank you, sir;" she answered. "You honor me."
"Very good then," the examiner said as he handed her a paper, and put a silver medal over her chest, taking too much time to do that. Najenda wanted to punch him, but decided not to. This wasn't the appropriate moment for this kind of thing. Later on, when neither of them was separated by rank… "Congratulations, captain Najenda. You are now in possession of one of the greatest weapons in the Empire. May you serve with loyalty and fierce."
"Yes sir!" Najenda said, taking her right fist to her heart, the sign that the majority of the Empire's soldiers and commander used as salute.
After that, she turned around and left the place, Pumpkin tied at her back. She went directly to the barracks that were near the academy, where she had lived for around a year since her arrival. There, she headed directly to the canteen and asked for chicken and a beer. Once with her plate and her pitcher, she headed for a lonely table in one corner, and ate and drank.
And so begins the great banquet for the new captain Najenda! she thought in her own head with sarcasm. Oh, how much the people cheer her, hooray!
"How did it go?" she heard a voice as she sipped from the pitcher. Looking slowly to the left, she saw a woman that should be around her age, maybe a couple of years younger. Her long blue hair and icy blue eyes highlighted around the whole canteen, and that in tandem with her looks, which she didn't put a lot of effort into hiding, earned her some gazes from the men around.
"Hello to you too, Esdeath;" Najenda told her.
"Oh, hello;" the blue haired woman said as she sat down at Najenda's table. "But seriously, how did it go?"
"Well," Najenda said. "I'm a captain now."
Esdeath's lips formed a grin. However, Najenda already knew it wasn't one of happiness or amusement. That was the same grin a lonely; mad wolf in the woods sported when a new challenge had appeared in front of him. The grin disappeared in the blink of an eye, and it was replaced by a normal smile, just for Esdeath to clap Najenda in her back.
"Magnificent!" Esdeath said cheerfully. "I knew I wasn't misjudging you when I thought you were the strongest person here after me!"
Someone's too full on her ego, Najenda thought, but she knew that Esdeath wasn't exaggerating. Out of all the people she had met during the last year, Esdeath was the fastest, strongest, the most cunning, and the most durable. The only reason Najenda had gotten her hands on Pumpkin was because Esdeath preferred hand to hand combat instead of fighting form a distance. Always enjoying battle, always liking to destroy her opponents, both in body and in mind… if not for the instructors being so hard on her (and some of them had started to be afraid too), she would have killed a lot of people by this point. And the only thing she said about them was that 'they were just weaklings'. And yet she kept coming back. Even when she had graduated a few weeks ago and acquired a position within the army, she kept coming back at the academy's barracks in order to find strong newbie to fight. It was as if she was looking for something in specific, but wasn't able to find it.
"Thank you, Esdeath;" Najenda said.
"It's nothing, Najenda;" Esdeath told her. "You deserve it; you are stronger than many of the officials I have met. I bet that you will make an excellent general in a few years. If what happened to that River guy happens to any of the others, they will need a lot of fresh blood in their ranks. Well, see you later, captain."
Najenda waved at the blue haired girl as she walked away. Oh, she hoped so much that she wouldn't meet with her gain. Or worse, ending under her command in the army. She had met a lot of jerks in her life, but never someone like Esdeath. There was something very wrong inside that woman. Something didn't work well inside her head.
Year 1022
Esdeath walked calmly down the hall, escorted by two of the guards of this strange scientific facility that was built under the palace itself. How old was it? She had always the best in order to measure living beings, but inanimate objects weren't her thing… if it weren't weapons, that's it. And these two guards, tall, thin, clad in a strange armor of a grey color… She closed her eyes and focused for a second. She didn't perceive either breathing or a heartbeat under the metal. Were they real guards of mere machines? Machine-guards then? It was her first time seeing those. Maybe their movement was rescinded to this place? She hoped so. Not that she had anything against technological progress, in fact the torture machines she had practically fallen in love with in the Capital were a product of that progress. But if all the soldiers in a battlefield were to be replaced by automatons… were was the fun on that? These things would not bleed or feel fear, but neither could them feel respect for a worthy opponent's strength, or feel anger due to a fallen comrade. And worst, they couldn't feel the thrill of the fight, they couldn't taste the joy of crushing the enemy's will and body. She hoped that these things never saw anything that weren't the insides of this place.
"Here," one of them said then, pointing to a gate at the end of the hall after the three turned around a corner. "Enter."
Not even able to provide a pleasant conversation, Esdeath complained internally, and without further delay, she crossed the gate. Inside, a mass up of cables and tubes decorated a large, circular room. Could this be a trap? Improbable, and if it was, she could handle it. She walked a around the place, and she saw how there were enormous pods full of greenish liquid, and inside all of them were small creatures that resembled one eyed octopuses, except that the beings 'head' was a human sized brain. Esdeath approached one of them and put her palm against the pod's surface. The eye of the creature inside fixated in her, and Esdeath felt an enormous hatred in that glare.
"Are you interested in them?" a raspy whispering voice asked.
Looking in its direction, Esdeath was met by Ashura, the masked man staring at her from a spot two pods ahead without moving an inch. This was the first time the blue haired woman had let her eyes to fall over the masked man's form, yet she knew that there was more there that what t was seen. She had heard of him, the Minister of Science; yet she had regarded him (as she did with the majority of scientist) as nothing more than a thinker, a man of no action. But now… she recognized a strong opponent when she saw one. This man was strong, but on top of that conscious of his strengths and weaknesses. How… intriguing.
"They are quite the sight, I must say;" Esdeath answered to the previous question. "Even if I don't know exactly what they are."
"A prototype for an armor type Teigu we have been working on," Ashura explained as he approached her. His steps didn't make any noise over the floor. "By eliminating the body of the user and letting only the brain, you also reduce the reaction time between Teigu and human. However, we were met by some difficulties in the process, and in the end we had to make some chemical modifications to the brain; resulting in an immense feeling of hatred of the subjects towards… everything is not them. Regardless, deployed against an enemy army they should be fearsome and efficient without equal. I call them 'Berserkers'."
"Fascinating," Esdeath said, although she was more intrigued about how much they would last against her than by their existence. "But letting the interesting conversation aside, why was I summoned here?"
Ashura turned around and started to walk towards the center of the room, where a metallic table stood. Esdeath followed him, leaving the hateful glares of the octopus-like creatures behind.
"Your accomplishments during the last year within the Imperial Army had been astonishing, from what I have heard," Ashura said. "Undefeated in the battlefield, rising to the rank of general at such an age… the battles of Drechnar in the western border and in Beenet at north were won thanks to you."
"The enemy wasn't really that much," Esdeath said, shrugging. "The men under my command did most of the part."
"There is no need to lessen your accomplishments, general;" Ashura said. "Even if your methods can be judged as unorthodox, even the likes of the grand General have to recognize your strength."
"I have the strange impression that all this talk leads to something," Esdeath interrupted the man, who stopped divagating. "Especially the emphasis you put into the word methods."
"The reports about your activities after capturing some of the enemies indicate," Ashura said, searching something over the table; "that you let and encourage your men rape the women, and that you take personal joy in torturing the other prisoners in very imaginative ways;" Ashura held up a dossier that contained detailed tracing of Esdeath and her battalion's activities. "Did you really force a man to eat another's penis?"
"Yes," Esdeath answered bluntly.
"Uhm," Ashura acknowledged. "Yet there had been other reports indicating that you let some of the enemy's forces to escape and survive, even after all the horrors you have inflicted upon them. Why is that?"
"Sincerely?" Esdeath asked, shrugging a bit. "If I inflict enough time upon a group of persons I have fought, and then I let some of them to escape, then they will regroup, join forces with others and counterattack."
"And so you will be able to feel the thrill of battle once again," Ashura ended for her. "Uhm… Lust for fighting… Is this proof enough, my Lord?"
"Indeed," Esdeath heard a third, childlike voice. Stepping out of the shadows, she saw the guise of the Boy Emperor himself, Makoto. It was the first time since her ascension to being a general that she had seen him, and this time he wasn't sitting on a throne, neither were the Minister and Budo separating them. No, this time Esdeath could look at him eye to eye, and the first thing that she thought was that the Boy Emperor wasn't a boy after all. Those eyes were… too old for a boy. Or for any elder, for that matter. Even for someone like Esdeath, the person in front of her looked just wrong.
"Who are you?" Esdeath asked the newcomer, who was holding some kind of vessel with a strange symbol over it.
"I am the Emperor," the boy answered. "I am Deus, the First Emperor of Halosis."
Esdeath let the words to float in the air for a few moments. Her eyes narrowed at the boy with an elder's eyes, and then she looked at the masked man. She then sighed and shrugged. "Alright," she said while bowing to the Emperor. "I'm honored to meet you."
Deus raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "That's it? No questions, no doubts? I told you I'm a thousand year old man in a boy's body and you just accept it, and run with it?"
"Your eyes and stance," Esdeath said; "are the ones of an experienced warrior. And when I say experience, I mean a lot of experience. You are strong, incredibly so, and I respect that over everything; which leads to my next question. If this isn't a trap or a conspiracy against the Empire… then why am I here?"
"Because I want to make use of you," Deus said, handing Esdeath the vessel he was holding. "You lust for battle, for the thrill of war. I can grant you that, I can grant you the most glorious of battlefields, and the greatest number of enemies you could dream about. Only if you decide to serve me and became my spear by dinking what that vessels contains."
"And what does this contain?"
"An especial type of Teigu belonging to a series of seven called Conqueror;" Ashura broke into the conversation, explaining. "The one you are holding is called Freezer, albeit for years it was only known as Ice Demon's Extract, because the other six were unknown to all of you. Lord Deus, Prime Minister Yoshitsune, general Eiji and I have one of them already injected in ourselves."
"And you want me to drink this?" Esdeath asked the masked man.
"Affirmative," Ashura answered. "Due to your strong Lust for battle, you should be able to withstand its power without being killed by it."
"This thing has killed people before, eh?" Esdeath said, taking the vessel's top and looking at the reddish, blood-like liquid inside. "I wonder if it can get through me," the woman sentenced as she drank it in one gulp. At first she didn't feel anything, but then she felt pain coursing through her body, and she fell to her knees momentarily. A stream of thoughts that weren't her invaded her mind, screaming at her to kill everyone around her, and then to kill herself. Any normal person would have been broken under that. But not Esdeath; Esdeath merely smiled sadistically and in pleasure under the current turn of events. Slowly, she planted one foot on the floor, and then another. She stood up and let a roar to escape her mouth, and the temperature of the chamber decreased significantly. Over her cleavage, an identical symbol to the one that was in the vessel appeared, and her skin grew even paler.
"How do you feel?" Ashura inquired, and Esdeath let out of a feral laugh of pleasure.
"Stronger," was her only answer, and as proof she extended one palm and conjured a bunch of ice that took the form of an icicle. Ah, the feeling of surpassing one's limits… how much had she missed this sensation.
"The ice manipulation is just a side effect," Ashura explained. "Freezer was originally designed to be able to freeze time itself."
"So I can stop time now?" Esdeath said, looking at her palm in delight.
"With enough practice," Deus said. "Now you have been reborn. You are now a full member of the Great Imperial Shields. You will now fight to your heart's content, until this Empire's goal is completed."
"And what could that goal be?" Esdeath asked.
Deus smirked, and his eyes changed to golden. "Heaven on Earth. We won't stop until every nation on this world has been united under a sole banner. No matter what."
The two of them proceeded to open a bottle of wine that was waiting over the table, and toast upon Esdeath's ascension. Ashura remained in silence, since he didn't posses any need for either eating or drinking.
Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Wrath and Lust; he thought. Five ready, two to go. Better to concentrate in the Jericho Project now.
Year 1024
During this year, and having lost both of her parents, Akame and Kurome were taking in by the Empire as part of their program to create their own Assassination Corps. Between tears and yells of impotence and anger, the two sisters were separated, each one sent to a different group in order to train and become living weapons.
During this year and the past one, small conflicts with the Kingdoms of Anteareis and Thundray broke. The Empire deployed the army in order to take action against these threats, but in opposition with its actions against Galick and the Free Isles in the past, they continued their attack once the attackers had been repelled, and their defense became a conquest against their enemies' land. Seeing that war was starting to broke against the other countries, Galick took advantage and restarted its activities in the southern border, attacking villages indiscriminately. Some of the villages and tribes, in order to escape their fate, decided to pledge loyalty to Galick.
However, this wasn't the Empire's sole problem. Having grown quite displeased by the Empire's later actions since Emperor Shigeru's death, many officials and soldiers deserted from the army, and banded together with the low nobility and the remnants of the high one. And thus was born the Halosis Rebel Army, its components made from the soldiers that had grown tired of killing indiscriminately, the men and women that had had enough of paying taxes just for their lands to be burned down just because they lived in the borders with the other nations, and of course the nobles that just wanted to have their former power and position back. In the beginning weak, the rebels decided to hide and not oppose the Empire directly or in an open field. They started to build a spy net, and to contact strong individuals that had grown distasteful with the Empire too. Between those they contacted, was Bulat.
It was during this year that Esdeath visited River in his prison. Upon arriving, the former general raised his head and looked at the woman in front of him. The first thought he had was that she was beautiful beyond anything else.
"Hello," Esdeath said to him. "My, how the mighty have fallen. I read about you once, general River. The feats you accomplished in battle are quite impressing, even for me."
"You flatter me," River said. "And why am I worthy of the presence of a general, if I may ask?"
"Oh, I'm general Esdeath;" the woman said. "I'm one of the Great Imperial Shields, also."
River frowned. "You are with that monster Ashura then. I don't want to be associated with anyone of you."
"Because of what happened years ago, when you lost your title?" Esdeath asked. "Do you know that those very same men that you let be spared… have already returned? That they had been completely destroying the border, you know? Some could say that they had brought more harm than those weapons you once used against them."
"Enough!" River yelled. "I have heard enough of your talking. I did what needed to be done."
"For your irrelevant code of honor?" Esdeath asked, and then proceeded to chuckle. "What a pathetic excuse. You were afraid of doing what really needed to be done. You were afraid of following your instinct, and look were that took you."
"I didn't…!"
"River, you aren't a general anymore;" Esdeath said and lend a hand to the man in the floor of the cell. "What good did that honor code do to you? Nothing, nothing at all. But I know that letting a man like you to rot in this dungeon is just a waste. So what do you say, river? Let me show you the beauty in the reality of this world. Don't let yourself to pass away within this prison just because of a stupid moral code, and take upon your hands the will to leave a real mark upon this world."
River became speechless. The woman kept staring at him, hand extended, eyes bright in power and determination. She… she wasn't joking! There wasn't any doubt in those eyes! The former general started to raise his hand from the floor of that same prison. And as if taken by a mysterious force, he grabbed the one of Esdeath. Perhaps… perhaps he had been wrong. Perhaps this was the moment to change his way of thinking. What harm could that do?
A few weeks later
"I want you all to rape this town to your heart's content! Don't you dare to leave anything undefiled!"
Esdeath's order was met by an overwhelming cheer from the members of her army, who proceeded to cross the river that she had frozen and to attack the village belonging to a tribe of the south known as the Ban Tribe that apparently had been aiding the Galick troopers during their incursions. In order to kill the intruders and set an example of the tribe, Deus and Yoshitsune had deployed Esdeath and her army, and they had entrusted the newly named general Najenda with the task of helping the one that was starting to get known as 'Empire's Strongest Woman'.
And Najenda, strong and intelligent Najenda… she could do little more than nothing while seeing how the men under Esdeath's command completely humiliated the town's population. She had been told that the two generals that were part of the Great Imperial Shields were ruthless; with the rumor of general Eiji and his squads having the custom of burning the enemy alive… but only the enemy. Esdeath had ordered her men to rape this town, and so they were doing. And as Najenda walked among the streets, surrounded by nothing but terrified screams and Lubbock, who had abandoned his mother's side just to follow her; she directed her gaze to Esdeath, who in the center of the village, accompanied by those two crazy men named Daidara and River; had tied the leaders of the Ban Tribe and were forcing them to watch the villagers to be either killed or used by the soldiers.
"Yeeha! What a blast!" Najenda heard one soldier saying while exiting a house.
"Ya' said it, mate!" another soldier said, getting out of the same place. "Hey, ya' think the general will let us to take those?"
"Don't know," the other one told him, and they abandoned the scene.
Najenda rushed into the house, and was met with a sight that almost made her puke. There was the corpse of a man, completely maimed, his entrails over the floor, his stomach cut and his blood coloring the floor. Over a couple of piles of straw in the end of the room, there was a naked woman, unconscious after all the men that had used her. At her side was a girl, this one conscious. She shouldn't be older than a twelve year old. In the moment she saw Najenda, she started to crawl towards her.
"Help me…" the girl whispered. "Help… momma…" the girl pleaded as she approached Najenda's boots.
The general jumped back, getting away from the child. She felt hatred and also revulsion growing inside of her, her teeth gritting so hard that blood started to pour from her gums. A part of her wanted to kick the girl. But then she looked at her boots, stained in the little creature father's blood. And she discovered that the hatred and the revulsion weren't directed towards the girl.
Year 1025
"This is starting to get out of our hands," Eiji proclaimed as he sat in front of Ashura's desk.
"That is an exaggeration," Ashura told him. "We have maintained control of the variables that resulted of Honest's killing, and turned them in our favor. I told you that the river that is causality will try and rectify itself, and now we have to adapt."
"The Revolutionary Army is starting to be born, and you, YOU and your Emperor let Esdeath to do the same thing that resulted in Najenda joining it! And you have Akame and Kurome under the same conditions that resulted in the former joining the Revolution!" Eiji slammed a fiery fist against the desk, shattering it. He calmed afterwards and looked at Ashura, who had kept his calm demeanor. "You... you did it on purpose, didn't you Ashura?"
The masked man nodded. "If the Revolutionary Army will rise regardless of the situation... then I would rather engineer a Night Raid that I know about than another one we don't have data on. And you should not worry about Kurome. Her treatment is being conducted with my formulas, not with that cheap knock off they used in your timeline."
Eiji grunted after Ashura's explanation. "And what about Esdeath?"
"Esdeath is a very useful weapon, but a weapon nonetheless;" the masked man explained. "Once she has played her part, Lord Deus will dispose of her in person. But for now, she's very good to maintain the army's most rotten fruits gathered in one point, and directed against the foreigners."
"Alright," Eiji admitted. "But what about the Revolutionary army? What about Night Raid? Or the Jaegers?"
"We will cross that bridge when we have to," Ashura explained. "I will ask His Majesty to send Esdeath to the campaigns in Thundray. That will be enough to maintain her busy for a handful of years. As for the Revolutionary Army, they won't be as successful as in your time. The inhabitants of the cities in the middle and central ring are loyal to us, thanks to the improvements over their life quality. The Revolutionary Army has only the sympathy of the countryside, especially the western and northern borders. It won't be so long until the other countries start back upping them thinking that they can weaken us, and how many of our own will follow the 'heroic rebels' that are in league with the ones that had raped their women and murdered their children."
"Okay," Eiji said, sighing and letting a couple of flames to escape his nostrils. "And Najenda?"
"If she hasn't already left," Ashura said, moving his hands and making his desk to rebuild itself; "she will soon do it."
Year 1026
"How's the new arm doing, boss?" Lubbock asked to Najenda as she adjusted a robotic prosthetic that occupied the place in where her right arm should be.
"Pretty well," the silver haired woman answered as she took her new robotic hand to the place her right eye used to be, now covered in an eyepatch. "The eye is the thing bothering me most. I suppose I can say goodbye to using Pumpkin after this…" and now doubt that bitch took my eye exactly for that matter.
"I'm… I'm sorry boss;" Lubbock said. "Everyone else's…"
"We have no time to think about that, Lubbock;" Najenda told him. No, I don't have time, not until; she thought as an image of Esdeath flashed before her single eye for a second; not until that woman is dead, not until; she thought as she remembered her appointment as general, when she had stood in the throne room, with the Prime Minister and the rest of Ministers surrounding the young Emperor. Not until I have freed this country and that Emperor boy from those manipulators! "Now let's go, your mother and the others are waiting for us."
As Ashura had predicted one year ago, Najenda had decided to defect from the Empire not much later after the event that was started to be known around the Empire as the 'Slaughter of the Ban Tribe'. Taking advantage of a mission the massive mobilization of troops that the Empire was making towards the north, Najenda and the soldiers under her command took an alternate route and decided to flee to the west, were the main force of the young Revolutionary Army was hiding, according to a letter from Lady Lyra that she had sent to them a few months prior to their escape.
However, as her battalion took a deviation from the course of the rest of the Empire… Esdeath and her soldiers ambushed them. Apparently, the blue haired woman had grown suspicious of Najenda since what had happened in that village. Esdeath had admitted that she felt disappointed, and that she had considered Najenda a good friend of hers. That hadn't stopped the crazy bitch from killing all her men besides Lubbock and taking her right arm and eye. They had survived only because Lubbock had taken her and jumped off a cliff. If his intentions were to safe her or kill them both in order to not fall in Esdeath's hands; that was a mystery. Everyone else, everyone… Was dead, buried in ice. Or maybe they were alive within the ice, and were now being tortured. She didn't know which option was the best. But she was certain... she wanted revenge.
The two of them exited the room they were in and walked through a hall to the meeting chamber they had been called to. Before they could enter, however, they met with another individual
"General Najenda, I presume?" a short old man with very few hair left in the head and a tired expression, greeted her.
"Yes," Najenda answered him. "But I suppose it's just Najenda now. And you are?"
"Former admiral of the Imperial Fleet, Shen;" the man answered, earning a shocked gaze from both the woman and the young teen accompanying her.
"Wait a second, you mean the famous 'Pirate Hunter' Shen?" Lubbock said, quite impressed for meeting someone of such a big name. "The same Shen that, with only a fleet of ten ships at his command was able to defeat a fleet of thrice the number?"
"Oh yes, that was me;" the old man said humbly. "But that was when I was so much younger… I don't even have any fleet anymore."
"Why did someone like you defect?" Najenda asked as the three of them walked towards the main chamber. "If it's not an impudence asking."
"It was during the 'Tragedy of Kreith';" he explained as a somber look took over his face. "I have been in many battlefields, and I understand that the enemy is the enemy… but seeing a whole island obliterated in one simple attack by one single person…"
"General Eiji…" Najenda whispered, and old man Shen just nodded.
"No man should have that kind of power," Shen said as they reached the gate. "So many lives destroyed into an instant… it is time to put a stop to this."
Shen opened the gates and the three of them entered to the room, a huge chamber with a large, circular table in it. At the table many people were sitting, nobles, soldiers and even chiefs of the villages of the outer ring of the Empire; all of them gathered from around the Empire by their shared will to put a stop to the offenses that the Empire had put them through. Lady Lyra was sitting there too, and as soon as her eyes noticed her son and Najenda, she smiled.
"Everyone is here, so let us begin;" Lyra spoke as she stood up. "Not everyone here knows me, and frankly I would lie if I said that I know each one of you. We are strangers to one another, and there exists the possibility that some of us have hated each others in the past. However, all of us understand one thing," she said as she gripped her fist. "The Empire has grown corrupted! That ideal of peace and happiness seen in the great cities is just a cover up for the monstrosities they commit within the borders of our nation! Conquering and killing indiscriminately, treating everyone that has foreigners' blood in them as if they were trash! The Boy Emperor has become a puppet of the Ministers, especially the ones that dare to bear the name of the ancient Great Imperial Shields! So now, now and here I call all of you to take step forward in the name of everything the Empire we lived in under Emperor Shigeru's rule meant to all of you! In the name of everything pure, we will purge this Empire of its corruption! We will stand for something better!"
The woman's proclamation was met with cheers of hope. Finally, each one of these men and women, who had been left behind as the Empire moved on, who have had their homes taken due to the war with the other nations… all of them were now gathered all around the same banner, all fighting for the same cause.
Yes that's true, Lyra thought happily. All of you…
Will fight for my family and for me
Year 1028
"And so the wheel of fate has taken its decision," Ashura said as he stood in the palace's underground laboratory with Eiji, Yoshitsune and Deus. "The revolutionary Army has been finally crafted, and it's apparently being helped by Anteareis, with many of Reule's spies informing that Galick also wants to let them to fight their battles."
"Akame has left us after all that happened," Eiji said then. "She will join the Revolutionary Army, and Najenda will build Night Raid around her." Just like last time. At least Kurome's condition is far better than the one I knew about.
"And we are still two members short, the seats of Greed and Envy still vacant, and we can't proceed without the seven in place;" Yoshitsune spoke. "And with Syura travelling the Western Kingdom in the search of that individual and Esdeath conquering Thundray… Should we focus our attention into disposing of the rebels immediately, Lord Deus?"
"No," the First Emperor answered after a while. "I'm still not at one hundred percent of my abilities; I should be able to destroy just a simple mountain range right now. Ashura must concentrate in the Jericho Project; and you Yoshitsune, you should attend to your duties as Prime Minister, I don't want for my subjects to suffer due to a civil war initiated by some rotten apples. Eiji and Budo will take care of the Revolutionaries' main force within the borders… and as for Night Raid, let them act for the moment. I want to see how people like the ones Eiji described to us move around without people like Honest to oppose them. Also, a warzone will be the ideal place in order to search for the last two members of our group," Deus ordered as he took a lobster from a plate in front of him, biting it and eating its head, shell and everything. "If things get complicated… well, Esdeath should take care of Thundray in a couple of years, and then we can call her back here. But no matter how, my dream will see fruition. My Empire shall consume it all!"
"Yes, Your Majesty; Lord Deus!" the other three men said in unison.
Year 1030; a small village at the Empire's north
"Have you everything, Tatsumi?" a pretty girl with long black hair that fell down to her waist; with pale skin and dark eyes, wearing a white butterfly or flower-like hair accessory, and sported plain cream-colored robes.
"Oi man, get moving!" a boy named Ieyasu with short, somewhat unruly, dark brown hair and brown eyes and that was wearing a white headband; exclaimed as he stood at Sayo's side, carrying a big backpack. "Else we'll leave you behind!"
"On it, on it!" Tatsumi, their closest friend from childhood, a young man of average height with green eyes and medium length brown hair with a cowlick that fell with its weight, answered. "I'm on it, I say! Damn it, wait for me!" the boy said as he rushed towards his two friends.
Thus the trio began their march from their small village to the Capital, in order to gain enough gold for their village to survive and not disappear. And now, now that these three companions decide to march, the wheel of fate turns again, and causality sets for another direction, even if it's similar to the one it had before. And so, can these three individuals stand united in a cruel world were nobody is what at first seems? Can these three companions survive in this turmoil of betrayals, war and tears; even in a better Empire? Can they took control of their own destiny, and direct the course of their lives? Or will they become mere paws in another's greater scheme? Can they?
In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. The Narrator (Void), from Berserk by Kentaro Miura
Author Notes: There we go with a new story. I hope everyone that is reading this has enjoyed it and has understood what I intended to do. You know, Akame Ga Kill hit me as a very good story at first, when I started reading it. But as time progressed, the story just seemed to forget about developing something and just throwing rapes and murders at the fans for the sake of it. As said previously I do like morally ambiguous characters that had to struggle with their morality in a crapsack world… but there is no struggle, there is no conflict, if it's clear that the bad guys are clearly monsters that eat babies and you present your antiheroes as 'Oh, they are so tragic rebels! They stain their hands for everyone's sake!' No, that's not morally ambiguous, I'm sorry. So, this was the first chapter. I hope you all enjoyed, and please let a review to tell me if you liked it, or disliked it; and please tell me if you have any idea for the story and please send me a PM with it. I'm open to constructive criticism like any rational man.
Now, about the OCs:
Ashura's appearance is based on the Masked King for the manga Rosario plus Vampire.
Eiji is a black haired, more pragmatic, villainous and violent version of Natsu, from Fairy Tail. His ability to 'buen time' is based in the power of king crimson, from Vento Aureo, the fifth arc of JJBA
Yoshitsune is based on King Bradley from FMA and in Hijikata Toshizō, from Drifters. His name also comes from a character from Drifters.
Deus is based on… well, Deus, from Ashura's Wrath.
Of course, all the Great Imperial Shields are a take on the whole Homunculi concept from FMA (this is interesting as the author of AGK is also a big fan of FMA)
Shen is a more meek version of Uncle Iroh, from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
And that's it, that's from where I took inspiration. The rest of OC came from my head.
Have a nice day; bye bye!