Chapter 27: I.S.E.H.T.K.W.T.I.G.

Parc stared silently into the flickering flames before him, its bright glow and crackling of smouldering wood being his only reprieve from the constant, irritating crunching of sweets across from him.

"How did you even find me? I don't leave a trail when I do that. I even ran into the forest." Parc said rubbing his temple as Kurome simply stared at him, the same thing she'd been doing since she found him barely an hour earlier.

"I followed your smell."

'Great, another Leone. Just what I needed.' He groaned, throwing a sideways glance to where he'd laid down Belvaac, Incursio and Scream, all of which he'd covered with a cloak and blanket to keep them hidden. Turning back to Kurome a moment later.

"So let me get this straight, you followed me deep into the forest, tracking me with my smell. And you just expect me to believe your doing it because you can?"

She nodded.

"It doesn't have anything to do with me smelling like your sister?"

She shook her head.

"Oh, so its because I smell like her?"

She nodded.

"Have you lost your voice box or do you just automatically respond with head movements."

She shrugged, "sometimes, I move my shoulders."

Parc pressed his face into his palms, groaning loudly. "Do you even know where I'm going?"

"The Capital." Kurome answered simply.

"Great, you do. Look, Kurome, was it? I'm way too tired to even want to deal with half of you. Don't you have something better to do. Like, I don't know, raiding a bakery for all its worth?"

Kurome nodded, "I'm wanted in the Capital."

With a sigh, Parc muttered, "of course you are." Standing, he walked to his cloak, turning his head to Kurome, "I can see I'm not getting rid of you anytime soon. If you follow me, fine. Just keep that sword on your hip and keep a good distance and we're good." He laid himself atop the ground besides his cloak, not checking for any confirmation from Kurome before he turned his back on her and shutting his eyes,

"Goodnight."

***

'Could this get any more cliché?' Parc thought as he stared up into the warm dawning sky. After he'd shut his eyes he had actually found himself quickly in a short, dreamless slumber.

'I mean, seriously.' He tilted his head to his side where a short, black haired girl had curled up into a ball besides him, clutching onto his shirt while pressing her face into his side. Her expression soft, almost adorable in comparison to her normally neutral one.

Parc tried to lift his arm, but the small feeling of that caused Kurome to whine and pull herself closer to him.

'Let's not tell Akame about this…' he thought, letting his arm fall back to the ground.

Sighing he swivelled his head to take in his surroundings of trees, trees and more trees with a small snuffed out fire a few metres away from the two. Apart from that, it was the emphasis of the word 'forest.'

"hmm?" Parc hummed noticing that set on the ground besides them was Kurome's katana. It looked like a near exact copy of Akame's, Murasame, just instead of the sheathe and handle being red, this one was black.

He looked down to Kurome then back to the blade. His hand slowly reaching out to it, feeling the handle against the tips of his fingers. Just that sending a chilly tingly down his spine. Ignoring that feeling, Parc gripped the handle and lifted the sword from the ground, feeling its light, well balanced weight in his hand.

Turning the side of the blade to him, he trailed his eyes over the writing on it, though, quickly finding it wasn't in any language he knew. Lowering the blade back to the ground, Parc retracted his hand. Even if he tried anything to get what was undoubtedly the sister teigu to Murasame from Kurome, he wasn't sure he would be able to viably get away or deal with her before she could kill him. Which, considering how she was a trained elite assassin for the Empire like Akame was, was a very viable and bloody ending for him.

Flipping through his memories of the book of teigu, he tried to recall this sword and its abilities. Yatsufusa, abilities, unknown. An annoying part of the revolutionary armies information on the teigu, they knew everything about the ones they had and barely anything about what the Empire did.

A sudden chill ran through Parc's body, his head mechanically turning own to Kurome who was staring up at him with cold, emotionless eyes, "morning?" he muttered.

Kurome sat up, looking to Yatsufusa for a from before scooping it off the ground and unsheathing it with the memorable scrapping of metal against wood. Parc quickly bolted upright, hand going up, ready to activate his own new teigu if she tried to attack him, "look, sorry I touched it. Was just curious about the-"

Kurome said nothing, raising to her feet without using her hands to help her. When her legs straightened, she blurred toward the forest, Yatsufusa cutting through the air, neatly cutting through trees with narry a sound of cracking wood.

With another upwards slash, the trees before her were once again severed. Quickly collapsing to the ground.

Parc was left wide eyed and relieved, he could keep up the 'I'm a harmeless traveler,' act for a bit longer.

As the tree fell, Parc couldn't help but let out a hiss of air through his teeth. There, as if frozen in time was a man dressed a cream and grey coloured top and dark pants. Parc's eyes dilated, 'shit, Army spy.' Quickly raising to his feet, Parc using Kurome's distracted state quickly pulled on his cloak, hiding the teigu beneath.

Fastening a belt to Incursio's sheath around his stomach, Parc heard soft footfalls behind him. Turning to them he saw Kurome approaching him, Yatsufusa still unsheathed. While Parc had no idea what it did, if it was anything like Murasame, he wouldn't like getting cut by it.

"Kurome, I apologize for touching it. But that's no reason to kill me." He backed away, a step, Kurome coming closer until she stopped just a few small steps away from him.

She frowned, head tilting to the side, "I'm not going to kill you." She said flaring Yatsufusa and sheathing it in a single swift motion. "Yet." Her eyes shut, leaning towards him once again and breathing in, her shoulders slightly slumping, seeming to calm down slightly.

Pulling back, she opened his eyes to his. Parc could tell she was thinking about something, "mmm…" she hummed something and turned away from him, hand never leaving so much as an inch away from Yatsufusa's handle.

'I don't like this. Not one bit.' He could tell whatever was currently going through her mind would likely not be very good for his health.

***

Another day passed in much a similar manner to the prior. Parc had gone to sleep and awoken with Kurome clenched to his shirt. Normally, one would be glad to have a cute girl happily using them as warmth while they slept. But Parc, he wasn't to fond of the foreboding sense she exuded with every passing breath she followed him with thoughtful eyes.

"You keep looking at me like that and I'm going to start feeling like you want to start something serious with me." He tried to joke just to alleviate some of the ominous pressure she exuded towards him.

But it seemed she wasn't intent on responding, just remaining silently staring like every other hour she wasn't brutally severing danger beasts into chunks while humming to herself about swapping around the body parts for fun.

Just as his foot was about to land on the ground, Parc heard the sharp sound of Kurome unsheathing her weapon. Frowning, Parc lifted his left hand up before his chest, hiding his hand from the girl as he sent a surge of energy into the bracelet, converting it into the scaled gauntlet with the golden orbs inlaid across it.

A rush of wind alerted Parc to Kurome's sudden assault. Leaping to the side and landing with a roll, Parc unsheathed one of his daggers and held it in his right hand, barely raising it fast enough to clash with Kurome's katana his teigu enthralled hand pushing on the blade to keep the lock sturdy. "Didn't think you'd actually try to kill me," he said with sharpened eyes.

"Please don't fight back. I don't want to damage your body." Kurome said, breaking their lock and sending a swift cut to Parc's leg. Once again narrowly avoiding it by kicking his feet off the ground and rushed backwards, covering Kurome's vision in a squall of dark feathers.

Kurome unhesitatingly dove through the feather cloud, chasing after Parc who lifted his left hand to her, three silver chains bursting from his hands, their tips sharpened into fine dagger like points. Something Parc had come to learn was there after playing with it after burying Bulat's body to pass a bit of time.

The silver chains snaked through the air, curving midair, the thickest of the chains going up and curling down, the other two curving to the sides before like the largest chain, shot for Kurome's sides.

If Parc said he was feeling confident she wouldn't be able to dodge, he would be lying through his shiny white teeth.

Because not seconds later did Yatsufusa cut through the air in a crescent pattern, clashing with the three chains to divert them while rushing towards Parc through the pathway they made.

Twisting his wrist and tugging back, the spear tips spun around, flying towards Kurome's back.

She frowned, ducking beneath the largest just as it whizzed past her head. Feet kicking off the ground, sending her into a front flip through the air, cutting away at the chains as they continued their chase of her.

'Too nimble,' Parc scowled, he was still inexperienced in using this teigu. Even so much as distracting Kurome like this was something he complimented himself on. But if this was all he had, then he was as good as dead.

"Come on Kurome. I don't want to fight you. Just let me go, and we can both be on our own ways." He said, left wrist flicking a little to send the first of the smaller chains flying back towards himself. Arriving just moments before Kurome found an opening to charge him, the tip of Yatsufusa raised to pierce through his chest.

Parc himself dodged to the side, cutting his dagger to her belly while the smaller chain shot past her chest.

He hissed as Kurome deftly avoided his dagger, hopping over his chain and landing just a bit away with a frown on her face. Her head tilting down to her shirt, noting a small cut in her top right where Parc's blade had narrowly missed her skin.

Lifting Yatsufusa across her chest, Kurome slashed it diagonally down to the ground. The blade side towards Parc, "please stop fighting. I only want to add you to Yatsufusa's collection." She slowly rose Yatsufusa, pointing it skywards, a dark energy crackling from the tip.

"I'm not a bloody collectable," he grunted, curling the fingers of his left hand into a claws a slashing his hand through the air, like a whip, the three chains went through the air, curling in an arc over Parc's head, soon coming to smash down atop Kurome with an ear piercing 'CRACK!' as the three spear tips broke through the sound barrier from their speed.

But what followed that crack was the clashing of metal as from the ground a long naginata extended, blocking the three chains from striking Kurome.

"Tsk," Parc hissed, retracting the chains back into his gauntlet. Watching as a figure began to climb out from the ground, a tall, blonde haired, blue eyed boy dressed in white military fatigues and a white lower face mask. In his hands a large, red iron naginata like weapon with a particularly large blade.

The new man gave Parc the chills, there was something off about him. He looked human, but something about what Kurome just did with Yatsufusa put that idea on a backburner.

"Guessing he's one of those in your collection?" Parc asked, his grip on his dagger shifting from tight to loose and back again.

"Mnn," she nodded happily, "Natala, a friend. I want you to join him in Yatsufusa's collection." She smiled brightly at him, bobbing her head to the side.

Parc sighed, more an annoyance than frustration, 'I can't fight them both,' he looked between Kurome and this Natala. "Kurome, I really don't want to fight you." An idea formed in Parc's mind. Turning his right side towards Kurome, he hid his left behind his body, sending the smaller chains to the ground, sending the spear tips drilling through the earth with surprising ease.

"Let's just talk for a bit. Figure this out. I don't want this ending with the death of one of us." He could feel the chains snaking beneath the earth, the sensations around them filling his mind with a strange sensation. "How about you send your friend back to wherever he came from and we both put everything down."

"No, this will only end with you becoming mine," she prepped her katana, Natala doing the same with his Naginata.

"Why? We barely know eachother," he pointed his dagger to her, "is this because I smell like your sister? Your trying to kill me because of that?" he guessed.

Kurome nodded, he was on the mark. "It's comforting to me. I don't want to lose it again." She said as her last words before she dug her foot into the ground and tried to dash forwards. Natala doing the same.

Gritting his teeth, Parc clenched his hand into a ball, the claws of his gauntlet scraping against his palm.

A jolt ran through Kurome's as she suddenly found herself unable to move her leg. There, wrapped tightly around her ankle was one of the three chains. Another gripping tight on Natala's leg. Natala struck his naginata against the chains, only for his weapon to be rebounded. Kurome tried to pull her leg free but found her own pitiful strength unable to even cause them to budge even a little.

"Huh, that actually worked." He muttered almost disbelievingly. "So… now what?" he looked down to his hand, the only chain he had left being the one under his wrist, he could send it out to skewer them? But then again, it didn't feel right trying to kill Akame's sister.

"Grrhg…" Kurome grunted, collapsing onto one knee, Natala following soon after. Her free hand rushing to her ankle where stinging pain was beginning to radiate.

Parc blinked rapidly as he noticed the chains around Kurome's ankle began to shimmer a golden light. Her 'doll' not having the same reaction as it seemed that when Kurome got distracted with what was happening to her, had lost his hostility.

Lifting his gauntleted hand before him, he saw the orb on the knuckle of his index was losing its golden radiance, shifting into a darker, onyx black. "Just what are you doing?" he said to no one in particular as the last glint of gold disappeared from, running down the chain and into the ground.

"What are you doing to me?" Kurome asked in much too calm a voice for what was going on to her. She dug her fingers beneath the chains, but only felt electricity course through her body, causing the muscles in her leg to contract, sending agony through her body. "Grrr," she grit her teeth, biting down hard to resist the pain.

"I have no idea." He said with just as much confusion as her. "Hopefully something that will keep you and him…" he cast a sideways glance to Natala who was now looking at him with a calm expression to his eyes, "…from killing me."

Parc could feel the last of the energy collecting around Kurome's ankle, as well as feeling how it separated from the chains, forcing its way into Kurome's leg. When the last drop of it finally emptied from the chains, Kurome's shoulders went limp, Yatsufusa falling from her hand causing Natala's body to go white eyed and slump to the ground.

"Kurome?" he called out after a moment of silence, the same of which greeted him. "Kurome, you there?" he kept his distance sending out the last of the chains towards Kurome, having the tip poke against her shoulder without actually cutting into her.

Yet still she didn't respond. A drop a sweat rand down his cheek, nervously looking down to his gauntlet, "did you just brainwash someone?" he asked not expecting an answer. Looking to Kurome, he couldn't help but curl his lips into a small, twitchy grin.

"Kurome, stand up." He ordered, feeling his heart beat a little faster when she followed that order to the point of even standing like a soldier. Chain still around her ankle because Parc just wasn't ready for that step.

"Uh… pinch your nose and rub your head in circles."

She did exactly that.

"Oh good lord of the heavens above. Please tell me you didn't just grant me a way of enslaving people." If this was a dream, he certainly didn't want to wake up. "Pick up Yatsufusa and send Natala back to where he came from."

Kurome did exactly that. Bending her knees to scoop Yatsufusa into her hand, pointing it into the sky with another shimmer of dark light erupting from the blade as 'life' returned to Natala and he began to sink into the ground.

"This is too much power for one man. You can't be serious," but it was. As he looked down to the gauntlet once again, but flinched after thinking through the repercussion such a thing would entail.

"Great… I've got metal tentacles that can break a girl…" he groaned, letting out a large sigh through his nose, "goddammit…" he didn't want to say it, but he felt he just had to.

Looking to Kurome he couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of disgust at what he was about to say.

"I'm going to regret this, but you know what, screw it."

That is when he said it.

"I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going…"

"..."

"God I hate myself." He face palmed.

***

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***

I've uh, given Parc a bit of a 'brainwashing' Teigu, still figuring out the name of it. Just to explain my whole thought process with him and the teigu, current working name, Chains of Want: Gleipnir. If you have a better name comment, please, i'm not good with naming stuff.

Essentially, in the universe of Akame ga Kill, Teigu are capable of 'choosing' their compatible users. Take Yatsufusa, the only person who can use it, is someone who first sees it and is taken in by its beauty.

In the case of Gleipnir, it also took into account Parc's constitution as someone with the Conquerors system (And a few more... 'cultural' reasons). And because of its nature as something that dominates others, it accepted him as its wielder.

Also working on a background for it with what type of danger beast it came from. Current working theory in my head is that its actually crafted from two S class danger beasts. The first taking the form of the Orbs the second being the actual chains. Something along the lines of the danger beast the orbs came from being particularly small and weak on its own but due to its ability at controlling other danger beasts making it exceedingly dangerous. So when it was turned into a Teigu along with another danger beast, it allows for the control of the chains that were crafted from that other danger beast, as well as the trump card, (Don't have a name, feel free to give it one.) which allows for the control of others.