Chapter 111 - #110 Kuromes decision (1/2)
---(3rd POV)---
*Whoosh* *Whoosh* *Whoosh*
3 Sharp sounds on something tearing through the air could be heard on the training field.
It was Akashi who continued his practice and this time he was practicing with leaves.
...Yes, with leaves. At first, when he started practicing with them, he tried to imbue leaves with his energy but they instantly crumbled down into bits. He spent numerous hours trying to figure out the right amount of energy he can imbue leaves with. He discovered that he can't give even a drop more energy or it would turn slightly ineffective or crumble down. He even tried to give just a bit less than ideal and leaves were no longer sharp enough.
Right now, he was throwing those leaves imbued with his energy at the trunk of the tree as if they were normal daggers. Some of them had only their tip buried inside the trunk but most of them were half-buried inside the trunk.
”Still not good enough, huh?” Akashi muttered when he saw a few of those leaves having only their tip buried inside the trunk.
'I still have entire day before I will finally go back to the Capital. I will try to master giving just the right amount of energy even without focusing on it, after all, it's just about muscle memory' Akashi thought with narrowed eyes.
----In the remote town close to the borders with Northern Tribes a few days ago----
”Hm?!” Gozuki's expression changed to serious when he was done reading the message sent by the bird from the Capital.
'Someone is massacring our spies at such a fast pace...if it will continue like this, we will lose large portion of our spies in most of the towns in the surroundings of Mount Hakuba.' Gozuki thought with a dark expression.
”What happened, father?” Najasho as a leader of the group asked first with his stoic expression.
”...Change of plans kids, we are done here and we are moving out to the Mount Hakuba” Gozuki raised his head from the paper with the message just to look at everyone surrounding him and then he said with a serious tone.
”Mount Hakuba? Isn't it that mountain occupied by the bandits?” Greed asked while holding his chin with a thoughtful expression.
”That's right, shrimp” Najasho replied and nodded his head when he noticed that Gozuki was busy thinking about something instead of answering.
”Are we going to get rid of those bandits?” Akame asked with a curious expression but there was a little doubt in her heart. When she heard Akashi speaking those words at Putolu tombs, she threw it aside in the end. However, when she found out those reports in the village where Gai was killed, she showed them to Gozuki but he said that those were what they have found out at the bandits' bases. There was no sign or anything that could be said that it was written by the Imperial officers but she was still feeling uneasy.
Nevertheless, she accepted Gozuki's explanation without asking more questions because she understood that she wouldn't get anything from him. After they returned to the Capital after Gai's death, she started going out, looking for some evidence or documents that could clear her doubts about the entire Empire, however she never found anything and almost was caught prying inside some offices of the high ranking people. Although she never found anything significant, her doubts were slowly growing, maybe her friends were keeping those doubts from rising at much higher speed but at this rate, she would one day discover the real ugly truth about the Empire.
Akame herself thought that everything went unnoticed however Gozuki, who was already paying close attention to Poney, Akame, and Tsukushi due to them hearing Akashi's words has noticed her strange behavior. Although he didn't catch her sneaking out at nights due to being too busy with his own matters and 3 more girls to look out for, he was still able to notice that her behavior was slightly different from others.
”Most likely, I will explain details on the way.” Gozuki looked at Akame, for a few seconds observing her before he replied with a neutral tone.
'Bandits targeting our spies specifically? I don't think so...Are those Rebels making counterattack since we started massacring their spies and villages that were trading with foreign countries?' Gozuki thought with narrowed eyes.
Akame's group stopped their current mission of smoking out Rebel spies and instead started their journey towards Mount Hakuba. Although they recently lost 2 of their members, there were still 7 of them with Gil and Natala's help. Both of them were given Shingu of their own. Natala got spear resembling Naginata with the special ability to extend its range.
Gin was given a relatively big one-sided blade with a unique handle. Its handle was already incorporated at the beginning of the blade without any crossguard. Its unique ability lied in its sharpness, the blade was much tougher, sharper and lighter than any other Shingu. Although it couldn't be called special ability, it was strong enough weapon to rival Teigu in its toughness and sharpness. Not just any Teigu would be able to break it even if it constantly attacked the same location over and over, therefore it's also good for defense.
However, at this time, the group still didn't know that they would be attacked from more sides.