Zank the Beheader.
That was the true identity of the criminal who'd been carving a bloody path through the Capital of late.
"They say the Guard mobilized every last man and still came up empty—lost a few of their own in the process, even. This Zank guy is as cunning as he is deranged."
Taeko and Noah sat by the fountain in the plaza.
The girl asked softly, "Can we really just wait here for him to show up?"
"Mm. About a seventy percent chance, I'd say."
Noah kept his left eye shut, his sight threaded through the Black Nightmare, and explained as he watched.
"Zank used to be the Empire's official headsman—the executioner. Day after day, his whole job was taking the heads off condemned criminals."
Since he was observing only through a relay, the intel Noah could gather stayed fairly limited.
"I looked into the Teigu he's using. It's a support-type called Spectator. It originally belonged to the prison warden, but it seems Zank's compatibility with it runs pretty high too—maybe even higher than the warden's own."
A Teigu chose its wielder, yet understood nothing of loyalty.
Anyone would do, so long as they were compatible.
"Spectator..." Taeko murmured. "I wonder what it actually does."
She had confidence in her own skills, but as a professional assassin she would never underestimate a target—least of all one who carried a Teigu.
She'd promised her senpai she'd cut the man down, and she meant to give it everything.
Noah shook his head.
Spectator's abilities were a closely kept secret, set down in no book anywhere. If he could just get a hand on it, the Truthseeker would give him his answer.
There'd be time enough to look into it once Taeko had put the man in the ground.
"Oh?"
All at once Noah caught a few interesting figures appearing nearby, and let out a surprised sound.
"Senpai?"
"It's nothing. Just more hunters showing up."
From Noah's god's-eye vantage, several people he'd tagged stepped onto the stage one after another.
'Akame. Mine. Bulat... and Tatsumi.'
'So the kid really had joined Night Raid after all.'
The four of them broke into pairs and started their sweep.
Akame and Tatsumi drew steadily closer, while Bulat and Mine drifted farther off.
They clearly hadn't pinned down the area with any precision, so they'd split it into two rough directions to search.
Then again, Najenda really did have her heart set on justice.
Zank was plainly a threat and a liability to the Empire.
From the Revolutionary Army's point of view, a man like that should have been actively courted—or, at the very least, offered a hand.
As things stood, thanks to him, the Guard that had been clinging to Night Raid's trail and refusing to let go now had a huge slice of its attention dragged elsewhere.
And Zank had thinned their ranks considerably besides.
If Night Raid didn't step in, well—the Guard had no Teigu user among them, and the damage Zank did would only keep spreading.
That was likely why Najenda had sent them out.
From the standpoint of justice, she wasn't wrong.
But strategically, Najenda's approach was exactly what Esdeath had once called it.
Naive.
Naive Najenda—one of the nicknames she hated most, and once, it had been Esdeath's alone to use.
"Hm... there he is—but?"
Through the Black Nightmare, Noah watched Zank haul himself up out of a manhole.
A white-haired man in a trench coat.
Every time he saw that hulking frame, Noah found himself wondering how the man ever fit through the narrow sewer entrances. He was big enough that you could stuff Tatsumi inside him and hardly notice the difference.
The instant he surfaced, he spotted Akame and Tatsumi darting past through his line of sight.
A touch slower than his partner, Tatsumi had apparently made himself Zank's target.
"Poor unlucky kid..." Noah sighed, more than a little helpless.
He couldn't help thinking of the old line—that when Heaven means to lay a great burden on a man, it first tests him without mercy.
Maybe this boy really did carry a genuinely heavy fate. Why else would the world place so many trials on him?
"Taeko, get to this spot."
With one hand Noah drew in the empty air, shaping the sand and dirt into something like a 3D model, and marked out Zank's position.
The girl nodded, flipped up in a single bound, and shot off.
...
As Tatsumi ran, a thick fog suddenly rolled up in front of his eyes.
Somewhere in it he lost Akame, and he glanced around, bewildered.
"Damn it—what's going on?"
Knowing nothing about Teigu, Tatsumi never once considered that this might be someone's ability at work.
He kept his guard up, scanning the murk—until a blurred figure took shape within it.
"Akame?"
He waved a hand to part the fog and peered toward the shape. But just before it came clear, the figure abruptly bolted.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Tatsumi shouted and pushed his pace to chase it down. As he ran, the fog thinned around him and the moonlight spilled back in.
This time, he saw the figure's face clearly.
He froze. Stood rooted where he was for several long seconds, his heart caught in a tremendous shock.
Because the person in front of him looked exactly like the comrade he'd buried with his own hands.
The girl's face matched the one he mourned down to the last detail.
No—this was her, beyond any doubt!
"Sayo."
Tears welled up in his eyes, like a lost child spotting his mother.
"Is it... really you?"
The girl called Sayo gave a faint smile, hands clasped behind her back, poised and demure.
"Why are you crying, Tatsumi?" she said, unhurried.
Ah—yes, that was her voice!
"Ah... it really is you Sayo." Tatsumi wept for joy, blind to everything about the moment that made no sense.
When he saw her open her arms to him, he cast all caution aside and rushed forward.
"Sayo!"
Wiping at his tears, he ran toward the one he'd ached for.
And just as he was about to reach that precious, lost presence, a figure flashed out from behind her.
It was a very pretty girl, a blade in her grip, radiating killing intent fierce enough to belong to an asura.
Who was she? No—what was she about to do?
That blade—it was coming down!
Was she planning to kill Sayo?
Every trace of feeling on Tatsumi's face collapsed into terror. He stretched out for Sayo, but she was still a stretch too far.
Damn it. He couldn't reach her!
'Am I... about to watch her die right in front of me all over again?'
"STOP!!!"
In the end, all the boy could do was scream himself hoarse.
And that scream tipped "Sayo" off to the attack at her back.
In a flash "she" drew a weapon hidden in her clothes and caught the blade slashing down from behind.
Sparks scattered.
"What are you doing to Sayo?!"
Seeing "Sayo" fend off the strike, Tatsumi let out half a breath of relief even as fury boiled up in him.
He ripped the sword from his back without hesitation and swung it straight at the girl who'd sprung out of nowhere.