Chapter 122 - #121 Burning city (1/2)

*Chirp* *Chrip* Kiyomi reported what she saw some distance away from the burning city.

'A battlefield? ...Did they burn the entire city just to force those Rebels out of their fortress? They are nuts and incompetent, so much for the so-called ”glorious and strong Empire”. Just a bunch of good for nothings who can't even penetrate one fortress. ' Akashi thought with furrowed brows.

'I just hope Kurome won't do anything stupid but the way she went after she was done indicated that she won't have time to come here, not until everyone else is dead.' Akashi looked towards the direction where Kurome should be.

His first day and sleep with the blindfold on were the worst since when he woke up he had no sense of direction but after a few days with it, he already got used to it and it wouldn't take long before he would even be able to ”see” without his eyes open. Unfortunately, he can't disturb his training or everything will be for nothing, of course, that doesn't mean that he can't fight with his eyes closed. ”See” refers to actually being able to see everything in its full colors, right now, he can only make outlines of the things around him.

”Kiyomi, find a good spot to land at, you should be able to resist the heat of these flames, right?” Akashi said and Kiyomi instantly followed without any complaints since she knew very well the intensity of the situation.

When they landed, Kiyomi quickly hid inside Akashi's shadow, despite having smoke and flames as a good curtain to hide behind, she was still quite large and someone could see her outlines through the flames.

'This...even if they wanted to massacre everyone, didn't they go a little bit overboard?' Akashi thought while looking around and he couldn't find anything else other than flames and running people who were on fire, constantly screaming in pain.

'Saving everyone or those who can still be saved is out of the question since it will look too suspicious. Plus, like they have a place to go and even if they have, the Empire might even catch them so saving only a few of them is safer for both me and them. Once Akame sees this, she will most likely defect or it will at least leave her on the edge.' Akashi thought while walking through the flames as if it was a walk through the park.

On the street, he stopped flames from eating one of the black cloaks, and then he put it on while putting on the hood just in case someone saw him.

Everywhere he passed by, the flames got weaker but none of them got extinguished.

”Look for survivors! We have our orders, don't let anyone leave this city!” Akashi heard shouting and it was apparent that they belonged to The Incineration Squad.

What he found interesting that he could control those flames and make them move out of his way or slow-burning but there were some flames he couldn't completely extinguish even if he wanted to. Of course, after using his other ability to drain something's temperature, he was able to put it out but he was unable to put it out with only his flame control alone.

'Those aren't ordinary flames at least some of them aren't. Anyway, looks like I have a company running around the burning town...definitely The Incineration Squad since they have flame resistance training. It's time for the distraction.' Akashi thought with a small smirk and summoned his other 2 bigger danger beasts.

”Isuku, Orochi, I want you to cause even bigger chaos by attacking those guys that are running around and burning everything. You also don't have to directly attack them, you can also just keep making a lot of noise for them to come after you and you can also attack them from afar. But don't go overboard, I just need a distraction, try to act as wild as you can so they think that you are just normal Danger Beasts, alright? Therefore you can't be too close to each other.” Akashi explained to a Python-like Danger Beast of violet color with black stripes over its entire body and Gorilla-like Danger Beast with an unusual dark black fur with a few red strange markings over its face.

They quickly take a look around before turning at me and with a small nod, they both dashed in the opposite direction.

”Dad! Dad! Come on!”

”Brother! We can't move it, it's too heavy! Aaah~”

Just when Akashi was planning to go look into another area of the town, he heard a few screams of 2 children. The first one belonged to a boy that was shouting only out of desperation while the second one belonged to a girl who already started crying.

'Well, I need to start somewhere...' Akashi thought and made his way towards the small house but the entrance was barricaded by the flames and fallen wooden pillars.

”*sigh* Ready or not here I come...” Akashi approached the barricaded entrance with his hands in the pockets and said in a low voice before kicking out while hoping that no one is right behind the entrance.

*Bang*

”Wha-?!” The boy got a big scare when the entrance that was blocked until now suddenly got opened while wooden remains flew through the house.

”Please help us!!” The girl immediately ran up to cloaked Akashi who just came in and she hugged his waist.

”Kana! Get back here!” The boy quickly shouted at the girl with tears in his eyes.

Akashi ignored the girl and let her keep hugging him while he approached the boy while dragging the girl with him. He looked at what was the boy doing and he saw the outlines of what's happening.

”...He won't make it, the entire pillar went through his body, his bones are crushed and the only reason why he didn't bleed out yet is that pillar is still inside his body, preventing rapid bleeding.” Akashi said while taking off his hood for the kids to see his blindfold.

”?! Waaah! *sob* *sob*” The girl began crying even more when she heard his words.

”?! How can you say that when you are blind!” On the contrary to the girl, the boy started shouting at Akashi with an angered expression.

”S-Stop Tetsu...H-He is right...I can't feel my...entire body. I love both of you, Tetsu, Kana.” The man pierced by the pillar managed to say a few weak words while looking at the ceiling with an absent look in his eyes.

Both kids started crying when they heard their father's words.

The slowly dying man who suddenly heard his kids cry suddenly lost his absent look in his eyes and managed to look towards Akashi.