niybruh: Maybe
NinjaFang1331: Thank you
dragon slayer of death 98: That is kind of the idea I have for the wild hunt, but I am going to spice it up a little so it isn't so plain
thaqiftalip: Kind of.
Chapter 10 After the Snow
Tatsumi walked through the mountains with a giant basket on his back, in the early morning with his mind running wild with everything that happened recently with him, Sayo, and then Akame saying she wanted to be with him. He groaned before rubbing his face, "I volunteered to get the fish for dinner so I could clear my head and not to dwell on this madness."
"Oh I'm sorry, did you want to be alone?"
Tatsumi spun around to see Sheele standing right behind him. "Sheele! How long have you been here?"
Sheele thought for a moment. "I left after you not long after you left, I just thought you were enjoying the nature around you."
"Oh no, I was just lost in thought, maybe too much if I didn't even notice someone was following me." as Tatsumi mentally berated himself for screwing up, 'Sensei would have had my head for screwing up so much.' He then noticed Sheele was looking at him worried. "So why are you here?"
"Oh well since the team is letting me final cook dinner, I thought I should help get the food," Said Sheele somewhat excited to actually do the fishing for once, "I've never been fishing before. I even brought my own bag." as she held up a shopping bag.
Tatsumi laughed a little. "Yeah, we're getting a lot bigger fish than your bag can handle."
"Really?" as Sheele remembered the fish Akame would bring back and then look at her small bag. "Oops."
"It's alright, I got the fish covered."
"Can I still help get the fish?" asked Sheele, giving Tatsumi sad pleading eyes.
Her puppy dog eyes pierced his heart. "Of course, you can come on." They then started walking again side by side. "So what have you been doing lately aside of course being an assassin?"
"Oh I've been learning new recipes and have been doing a lot more chores," she said with a big smile on her face.
Tatsumi looked at her genuine smile. "You really have been enjoying doing the chores around the hideout."
Sheele gave a nod, "Now with Nen, I can do so much I couldn't do before. I really do owe you for giving me this chance, maybe now I can find my friend again." as she remembered her only friend she hadn't seen in such a long time.
Tatsumi could tell there was something there but didn't know if he should pry. "Oh we're here," he said, bringing Sheele out of her thoughts as they made it to Akame's diving spot. "This is where me Akame catches those giant tuna."
As if to emphasize the size of the Tuna one jumped out of the water and was clearly double the size of a regular human. "Wow, those are huge."
"Yep," Tatsumi dropped the basket and started to remove his clothes leaving him in his swim trunks. "And I'm going to catch a lot today."
Sheele nodded as well. "Okay." as she too began to undress but it soon became clear that she wasn't wearing a swimsuit underneath as she took her underwear off.
"Sheele what what are you doing?" said Tatsumi as she put his hands up to hide Sheele's body from his eyes. "Did you not bring a swimsuit?"
"Oh I have that right here," she said as she brought out a purple bikini from her bag. "Was I supposed to put it on beforehand?"
Tatsumi blushed, "Just change, I'll start grabbing the fish." as he jumped into the water. Sheele quickly changed into her bikini and jumped into the water. They both were quickly able to catch several fish, Tatsumi was able to get the most as it took Sheele a few tries to get the hang of it, not to mention she was fishing without her glasses.
They both then got out of the water with a basket full of giant Tuna. "There sure are a lot of them."
"Yeah way more than usual," said Tatsumi. "I wonder if Esdeath's sudden snowstorm had something to do with that?"
"Can we take a small break for a moment," asked Sheele as she sat down on the sand by the river. "This was quite a bit of a workout."
"Yeah of course," as he sat down next to her. "It's always good to take a break."
After a moment of silence, Sheele spoke. "Hey Tatsumi, after you leave will you ever come back and visit?"
"Of course," as he leaned back and lay down on the sand. "I can't wait to see what you guys do with this place, right now it's not so great but I'm sure you guys will make it a proper country, why do you ask?"
"I think after night raid, I may try something new, I don't know yet but I feel like the world is finally open for me, maybe I'll run a bakery or perhaps a clothing shop, I think mine would love that one."
Tatsumi chuckled, "Yeah she would enjoy that one."
"Thank you."
"Huh." Tatsumi then was caught off guard as Sheele pounced on him and forced her lips onto his as she straddled him. Tatsumi's mind fried for a moment before his body started to go along with it. He then grabbed her ass and hips and started to massage them as the makeout session continued.
While they kissed, Sheele lifted her bikini upward letting her breasts out as she pushed them on Tatsumi's bare chest. Tatsumi enjoyed the feeling but a part of his brain yelled at him to stop as he pushed Sheele away slightly. "Tatsumi?"
"Wait a moment, Sheele, this is just going so fast and I and Sayo had sex the other night, not to mention Akame also wants to be with me," Tatsumi said quickly thinking that it was the responsible thing to say.
"I don't care," said Sheele as she brought one hand to massage her breast and nipple, and the other to pull aside her bikini bottom revealing her soaking wet pussy, "I want you. I really do." as she used her hand to start rubbing her pussy, "Please," she said with pleading eyes.
Tatsumi succumbed to his desire as he pulled his trunks down revealing his full erection that slapped against Sheele causing her to moan slightly. "Okay."
Sheele slowly rubbed her pussy against Tatsumi's member, soaking it in her juices before she raised herself and lowered herself onto Tatsumi, moaning in pleasure as she felt him inside her. "This pleasure, I've never felt this before."
Tatsumi then noticed a thin line of red between their connection, "Sheele have you never done this before." She shook her head. "Wow, I would have never imagined that such a gorgeous woman would have never been with someone before."
This caused her to blush even more. "Thank you." She then started lifting herself up again before lowering herself, with each movement she started moving faster and faster. Tatsumi's hands then found her breasts as he massaged and played with her boobs as she bounced on him. "Ta..Tatsumi…I …I think-" Tatsumi then grabbed and rolled over pinning Sheele to the ground with him on top now and still inside. "Tatsumi?"
"Allow me." was all he said before locked lips with her once more dominating as he grabbed her legs and proceeded to start pounding her, making her moan with each thrust.
Sheele moaned loudly as felt herself reach her limit, "Tatsumi!" she yelled as they both came at the same time.
With a grunt, Tatsumi pushed his load deep into her, so much so that it leaked out, more even spilled out as he removed himself from her. They both collapsed next to each other on the sand breathing deeply. "Sheele."
Before he could say another word, she gave him a deep kiss. "That was incredible."
"Uh thanks," said Tatsumi as he pulled her closer to him. "So um Sheele what now?"
She kept smiling at him, "I love you, Tatsumi and I understand that I'm not the only one and I'm okay with that. Just don't forget about me."
"What," Tatsumi looked her right in the eyes. "Sheele I will never forget about you." Sheele had tears form in the corner of her eyes at his words as they kissed once more with even more passion.
"Can we stay like this for a little bit?"
"Sure," said Tatsumi before remembering the others. "But the others."
"You can tell them, I don't mind."
"Okay," said Tatsumi as he did make a mental note to tell Sayo about this later. 'Maybe this sort of relationship won't be so bad.'
~o~
Esdeath opened her eyes with a jolt as she grabbed the throat of the nurse that was standing over her, "Wait Lady Esdeath please stop, that's just a nurse." Yelled the doctor.
Esdeath realized that he was correct and that she was in some sort of infirmary. 'How strange this is the first time I've ever woken up in an infirmary,' she thought as she let go of the nurse's neck. "Sorry about that." Esdeath then quickly got out of the bed and noticed she was in a hospital gown, "Where are my clothes?"
"The ones you were wearing were shredded but your soldiers did bring you some spares ma'am." said the doctor as he handed her a small bag, before taking the nurse outside so she could change.
'My men did well by bringing me my clothes, I'm going to need to thank them.' she thought before her mind wandered to the fight she had, 'Najenda was strong, incredible so. How? Was it all thanks to her Teigu? No that can't be it even in the end Teigu is nothing but weapons and the weapon is only as good as the one who wields it. What Teigu or person could have given her arm and eye back, I need to look into this. Also...' Esdeath stopped changing as she looked into the mirror and looked at the demon mark on her collarbone, 'The demon extract spoke to me, I heard it as if it was truly alive, no it is alive inside me, but that isn't exactly true either, something else brought it to life, was it Nen? What is Nen?' Esdeath put these questions away as she quickly got dressed and left the infirmary, as she left she realized she was indeed back at the castle.
"Lady Esdeath, ma'am." as a Soldier saluted her, "I am happy to see you are up ma'am but that aside I've been ordered to tell you to report to the emperor and the prime minister, ma'am."
"Thank you, soldier, by chance can you tell me how long has it been since I fought Najenda?"
"Your fight with the former general was yesterday ma'am."
"Thank you, soldier, you are dismissed," said Esdeath as she quickly walked towards the throne room as she did her mind wandered back to the fight and everything that happened which left her with more questions than answers. Though she had to put a halt to that line of thought as she entered the throne.
"General Esdeath, can you please explain to us what happened?" demanded Prime Minister Honest, it was clear he was not happy.
Esdeath then looked at the Emperor who looked more worried than anything. Esdeath bowed, "I'm afraid to inform you that we have a problem, it seems the revolutionary army as some sort of doctor that was able to heal the former general Najenda, it is clear from our fight that she is already back to full strength."
"What?" said the emperor as the boy quickly thought of why this is what Esdeath lead with before remembering who Najenda was, "Najenda was a general like you correct, so her strength would be equal to your own."
Esdeath hummed for a moment, "I hate to say it but yes, beforehand I would have said I was far stronger than her but I never truly had the chance to fight her one on one before, when I beat her last time and took her arm and eye it was on the field of war, this was our first one on one fight and I can say now that yes we are equal in terms of power."
Prime Minister Honest felt a slew of emotion, rage at Esdeath for losing, fear that the enemy had someone as strong as her, which just shifted his anger towards the revolutionaries. "Those barbarians must be stopped at once."
The emperor jumped out of his throne, "General Esdeath, usually a failure of this magnitude would not be tolerated but we can't afford to lose such a valuable general. We need to stop these traitors at all cost, tell me what do you need to accomplish such a task."
Esdeath was a bit surprised with the emperor's resolve, she looked at Honest who nodded. "I have already mentioned the squad of Teigu users correct, but I will also need another squad of units dedicated to finding strong candidates of Teigu users and warriors, if we wish to quell this uprising as quickly as possible we will need the best warriors we can find."
"I'll send word to our top generals and my own son," said Prime Minister Honest, "His Teigu will be a great help to our cause."
"Very good," said the Emperor, "In any case, I have already called for all of the other Teigu users for your squad they should be here by now."
"Thank you, my lord," said Esdeath before being dismissed to go see her new squad.
~o~
A young man smiled as he walked through the capitol, "Wow fresh snow, I didn't know it snowed in the capitol, especially not during this time of year." This was the naval officer Wave a Tegiu user making his way to the capitol to introduce himself to his new teammates, he stopped at the gate, "Naval officer Wave reporting for duty." He said to the castle guard holding out his papers.
'This guy is a country kick,' Thought the guards as they noticed his bag of fish over his back.
"So did you just have a snowstorm or something?" asked Wave. "There's a lot of snow around here."
"No," said the guard quickly. "You'll probably hear more about it later but General Esdeath was attacked by the enemy and was forced to make a small blizzard to force them to retreat."
"What a general was attacked in the middle of the city!?" yelped Wave in surprise as he didn't realize things were so bad.
"Yeah you should hurry, we're going to need all the power we can get right now. I just got word that if you arrived that I should point you towards the meeting room Esdeath set up."
With that Wave moved quickly through the halls following the directions the guards had given him to the meeting room, "Greetings," he said as he opened the door only to see a man in a mask sitting at the table. Wave closed the door, 'Was that the right room,' he double-checked his directions, 'This is the right room, I don't have time for this.' as he opened the door and proceeded to take a seat at the table far away from the masked man, 'please tell me this team is not filled with weirdos like him,' suddenly the door opened as a young girl in a school uniform came in, sat down and proceeded to start eating snacks out of her bag. 'Who is she, she's too young to be a soldier right?' wave then noticed her bag. 'Korume's snacks. Is her name Kurumi?'
She then hugged her snacks closer to her, "My snacks."
"Huh, I wasn't going to take your snacks," said Wave trying to defend himself.
"SERYU!"
They all turned to the door as a girl with a few bandages on her body opened the door with a small dog-like creature in tow, "I'm sorry Dr. Stylish but we don't have time for a flashy entrance." said Seryu before noticing the others in the room. She saluted, "Hello I'm special officer Seryu, I look forward to working with all of you."
"Seryu!" said a man in a doctor coat behind her, "You were supposed to help me make a stylish entrance."
"I'm sorry doctor but we don't have time for a stylish entrance," said Seryu. "We need to quickly meet our team and get to work, the enemies of justice are moving and we must strike down those evildoers as quickly as possible."
"There should always be time to be stylish," said the man as he entered the room.
"Well judging from all the excitement outside, I would say we should get right down to business." said a voice right behind them as a rather handsome gentleman walked into the room. "Hello, there my name is Run."
Wave stood up, "Greetings I'm Naval officer wave, I look forward to working with you."
The doctor cleared his throat, "I am the great Doctor stylish, I too look forward with working with you boys." Wave and Run felt a strange gross feeling up their spines.
"Good, you all are getting acquainted," said Esdeath as she entered the room.
"General Esdeath, you're okay," said Seryu with joy.
"Yes, but we have work to do," said the general as she gestured for everyone to take their seats, "Has everyone introduced themselves?"
The masked man raised his hand, "I have not, my name is Bols, uh does anyone want some tea?" offered the masked shirtless man.
The offer stunned a few, but not Esdeath, "That would be lovely, anyone else?"
Kurome while still eating a cookie raised her hand, "I'm Kurome, I like snacks." was all she said as continued to eat her snacks.
"With that out of the way, we must move on to more pressing matters, I have fought the enemy personally and that is only one of the reasons why we are forming this team and this team might expand if I find any more individuals worthy to stand among us. Though new recruits can wait until later, for right now I need to ask all of you something important, have any of you ever heard of an ability called Nen."
"Nen?"Said Wave as he had never heard of such a thing. "What's that?"
"Is it food?" asked Kurome.
"It's a strange power that koro talked about," said Seryu as she held up her Teigu. "I think the assassins of night raid know what it is, it might be the secret to their strange power."
"What do you mean strange power?" asked Run before thanking Bols for the tea.
"Twice when I fought the pinked haired girl who wields the Teigu Pumpkin, she fired off several invisible bullets at me, I couldn't see them at all but Koro could."
Dr. Stylish scoffed, "Invisible bullets, how drab, what an unstylish way to fight."
"It doesn't matter if it's stylish or not," said Esdeath as she remembered speaking with her Teigu. "If it is the key to their power then we must understand it and it seems that this power is also connected to Teigu somehow."
Wave raised his hand, "Is there anyone in the capitol that has heard of Nen?"
Esdeath slowly shook her head. "I really doubt theirs someone like that who would be able to give us any information, so we're going to have to find it, ourselves. We Jaegers have two goals one to be the empire's elite force of teigu users and secondly to figure out what Nen is and what powers it holds."
~o~
Tatsumi walked back to the hideout with the massive hall of fish that he and Sheele got but as they arrived they saw Lubbock doing pushups with several boulders on his back. "Oh, what's going on here?"
"Oh this is Lubbocks punishment for losing to Mine in a manipulator competition," explained Sayo.
"Tatsumi help me," begged Lubbock, "This is so unfair, why isn't Akame getting punished, she couldn't even do the exercise at all."
"She's a transmuter, you nimrod," said Mine. "The exercise was just for me and you."
Tatsumi turned to Akame, "You tried to do a Manipulator exercise?"
"I wanted to give it a shot," said Akame before turning slightly red, "I didn't do good."
Tatsumi laughed a little before reaching his hand out and patting her head, "It's okay, I'm not good at it either." This just caused her face to turn a brighter shade of red, 'She is cute when she blushes.'
"Well no harm in trying something new," said Najenda as she came outside of the hideout will a big bag on her back.
"Whoa, Najenda how long are you planning on going camping?" joked Tatsumi.
"Oh not that long, just long enough to get the new Teigu's back to the revolutionary armies." Said Najenda as she held up her old eye patch, "Even though I don't want to use this, but I'm sure I'd give people a big shock even I came back with two eyes."
"So you're planning on hiding your new arm as well," said Sayo as she understood how jarring it would be to see someone who lost limbs suddenly have them again.
"Yeah, sorry I have to cover your guys' hard work," said Najenda. "But we all agreed that we wouldn't just tell the revolutionary about nen just yet. Even though we're on the same side, I can see a few of them going crazy with it."
"That's just one of the many reasons it's a secret," said Tatsumi. "That and the fact of how much work it needs to work right."
"Indeed," said Najenda as she looked at Lubbock with at least four times his own weight on his back. "It's good to see everything was getting out of it. That aside, while I'm gone, Bulat will be in charge."
"Don't worry," as Bulat pumped his arms in the air for a pose, "I'll make sure everything is okay while you're gone, just make sure you don't anything stupid while you're out."
"You're not going to let that one go, are you?"
"To be fair, for you that was very stupid." said Leone, "I mean you're usually calm and collected one and you just walked right up to Esdeath and punched her in the face, not going to say it wasn't awesome, cause it was, but it was also hella stupid."
Even Najenda couldn't deny that hurt a little but she couldn't deny it. "Okay, okay I get it, I did something incredibly stupid, can we move on now."
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" asked Sayo. "There's more than enough of us if you want some backup."
"No, thanks i'm good." said Najenda.
"Wait," squeaked Lubbock between push-ups. "Take me with you."
Najenda smiled at her arguable most loyal soldier, "Sorry Lubbock but you need to keep working on your nen, and if your gone, who's going to watch the book store?"
"Ah man," muttered Lubbock as he resumed his push-ups.
"Book store?" as Tatsumi looked confused. "Wait you guys have a book store?"
"Oh yeah, I don't think you've been there yet, have you," said Sayo. "Leone brought me there not too long ago to get a book for Sheele."
"Oh right the book, I need to return it, I finished it last night, it was great to read," said Sheele somewhat surprising everyone else, many of the other nightraid members weren't used to Sheele actually doing stuff yet, they were still expecting the same clumsy Sheele that used to burn food and read books the wrong way. "Can one of you that can go to the capitol today return it."
"Oh sure," said Tatsumi as he put the fish down. "I was wanting to stop by the blacksmiths today anyway, so I can drop off the book and check out the book store along the way," Tatsumi stopped when he heard a body hit the ground, and he saw that Lubbock was lying on the ground exhausted, "And I think it would give Lubbock a chance to take a small break."
"Thank... you." squeaked out the man.
"No, problem," as he went to help Lubbock to take the boulders off his back.
"You boys hit the town, I'll help Sheele," said Leone as she grabbed the bag of fish. "I'll make sure that Akame doesn't eat any." making Akame grumble. Though as Leone passed Sheele her nose caught a very familiar scent. 'Wait that's the smell of...' Leone then looked at Sheele and then back to Tatsumi.
He saw the look Leone was giving him and gulped. "Hey everything okay Tatsumi?" asked Lubbock.
Tatsumi thought quickly. "Oh nothing, just wondering how Ieyasu's doing."
~o~
A small wagon being carried by a few horses strode through the countryside as it neared a town, Ieyasu looked around as they saw the town's insight, "So this is your home away from home, huh?"
"Somewhat," said the former prime minister.
"This is the town my mom grew up in," Explained Spear.
"Wait, I thought your mom came from that town near the capital, that's why they gave us this wagon and horses?"
"Oh no, that's where a lot of her family is from, she grew up here, in Latifa," explained Spear. "Grandpa was an excellent merchant and was able to get us the manor near the lake, after my grandparents passed, it's sort of becoming like a summer home for us."
"Huh, I see." Ieyasu stood up in the wagon as he focused his nen, "Well I hate to tell yeah but it seems that this town is being attacked right now." as he pointed in the distance.
"WHAT!" everyone followed where he was pointing and saw several bandits on horseback were rushing the town as the town alarm bells started ringing.
"This is terrible," said Spear before turning to Ieyasu. "Please Mr. Ieyasu-"
Spear never finished as Ieyasu bent down and put a single finger on her lips. "Save your breath, I'm not one to just leave people in danger." Spear's face turned a bright red before he jumped out of the wagon. "I'll handle the bandits, you guys stay safe." Ieyasu then ran off at high speed towards the bandits.
The former prime minister smiled. "That boy will make an excellent son-in-law."
"DAAAAD!" yelled a beat red Spear.
The Bandits were about to make it into the town before a massive line in the dirt appeared with Ieyasu standing in front of the bandits that were in front, "Okay, don't another step if you know what's good for yeah."
"Who the hell are you brat?" asked a bandit.
"A guy who hasn't had a good workout in a while and I doubt you will give me one."
"Wrong," as the bandit jumped off his horse with knives in his hands, "You're dead."
Ieyasu gave him one quick uppercut so fast that none of the bandits saw it coming and only watched at the form of the bandit get launched into the air before hitting the ground hard behind them. They all slowly turned back to Ieyasu who just had a bored expression, okay let's get this over with, I got to get back to my group but please try to put up a bit of a fight please."
~o~
Tatsumi and Lubbock walked through the streets of the capital with snow still covering many of the buildings, "man with all this snow, you wouldn't think it's summer." said Tatsumi.
"I'm just surprised it's not all melted yet," said Lubbock. "Does that have something to do with you know?"
"Yeah it is, just shows that the tools you guys have been using were made with it." As Tatsumi tried to avoid saying keywords directly in the city, you never knew who was listening.
"So Tatsumi I got a question," said Lubbock as he eyed the other. "How do you do it."
"I'm going to need a bit more information than that."
"You know, you and Sayo, how did that happen?" asked Lubbock. "Don't try to hide it, the she was staring at you all day made it pretty obvious."
Tatsumi sighed, "Well for starters we've been friends for years, since childhood, for as long as I can remember she's been a part of my life which is a lot more than I can say for you and Najenda." Lubbock made a surprised face. "Oh don't try and hide it a blind monkey could see it, and I can see just fine."
Lubbock almost fell to the ground. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Dude I'm sure that everyone knows by now," said Tatsumi. "There's no way they are just figuring it out now."
Lubbock sighed, "Yeah I like her, do you think she likes me?"
"How would I know that?" asked Tatsumi.
"I don't know maybe with your experience and specialties."
"My specialty is blacksmithing, I can tell you the difference between every different form of metal but I got nothing to tell you when it comes to the attraction of a loved one." said Tatsumi, 'I still don't know why every girl near me is suddenly into me, unless was that always a thing and I just didn't notice it, WAIT, am I just oblivious and girls have always been into me.'
Lubbock just watched for a moment as Tatsumi seemed to have some sort of universal realization until he noticed that people were now staring at him. "Uh, Tatsumi, Hey Tatsumi," Lubbock powered up some Nen into his fist and punched Tatsumi in the arm. "WAKE UP!"
"Huh? oh sorry." as Tatsumi slightly rubbed his arm. "Nice hit by the way."
"Thanks but what just happened?"
"Uh, nothing," as Tatsumi quickly looked around to find something else. "Hey what's that?" as he pointed to a few guys standing around looking at a wall of posters.
"That's the message board," said Lubbock. "It seems something was just announced, maybe a new bounty?"
"Let's check it out." When they made it to the board the others dispersed to reveal the new giant poster, "A Tournament?"
"Oh yeah, I heard about this, several nobles have been talking about making bets on this, an amateur tournament, for none soldiers. For an average person, the number one prize is defiantly worth a try, that amount of cash is easily enough money to live comfortably for a while," said Lubbock before noticing Tatsumi's eye's glued to the prize list. "Uh, you don't actually need that money do you?"
"Forget the money check out the prize for fourth place, twenty pounds of Badger steel," said Tatsumi with stars in his eyes.
"Badger steel?" Lubbock tried to remember where he had heard that from. "Isn't that the crummy metal that comes from those giant Badger mole danger beasts, I mean sure it's rare but what good is it." Tatsumi turned to him with a looked that screamed dumbass. "You know forget I said that, you can probably turn it into something crazy."
"You bet I am, where do I sign up for this tournament?"
Lubbock felt uneasy about this. "Are you sure that's a smart idea?"
"Oh relax what's the worse that could happen."
Next Time: Demons within | You want to read this now just head over to my page. ~P-A-T-R-E-O-N~ Lorenzo the story teller. There you can read all chapters a head of time and my exclusive stories.
A/N: Now it's time for the tournament, now how do you all think things will play out from here and what do you think about Tatsumi's girls, leave all your thoughts in the comments down below.
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