Their Retreating Figures!

The biting north wind howled and swirled through this small town, like Formless ice blades trying to penetrate every crevice.

The people on the rooftop, however, seemed oblivious to the biting cold and maintained their tense standoff.

Between them, a man dressed in gray winter clothes lay in the snow, clutching his bleeding neck wound with both hands, groaning in pain.

"What are you doing? It's just a cut, stop the bleeding right away!"

Fukui, a current Chunin Sea Ninja Village, kept a close eye on the red-eyed girl who suddenly appeared opposite him while loudly urging his companions on the ground.

He had just seen it clearly: the girl had simply slit the other person's neck with the blade.

This level of injury might have been a life-threatening problem in the past, but now, with the mastery of 'Total Concentration Breathing,' the bleeding can be stopped quickly by controlling the ruptured blood vessels.

"Cough, cough, stop... I can't stop coughing."

Kamehira felt the blood flowing more and more, staring at the Samurai sword in the girl's hand with a face full of despair. Instinctively, he felt that there was something wrong with the sword, but his throat was already blocked by blood, and he could no longer speak.

"The bleeding won't stop?!"

Tomii's heart sank. Just as he was wondering what kind of ability this was, the girl opposite him seemed unwilling to linger any longer and vanished from her spot in an instant.

This made the hairs on his body stand on end, and under a strong sense of crisis, his body automatically activated defensive moves.

"Second Form, Water Wheel!"

Fukui used the Kunai in his hand, combined with a somersault, to draw a circle of clear water around him.

With a clang, the Kunai blocked the attack coming from the right rear, causing the red-eyed girl who launched the attack to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Teigu? Or Shingu?"

Akame quickly retreated a distance; the water that appeared out of nowhere was clearly a supernatural phenomenon.

The other party could be either a user of Teigu or Shingu. Regardless of which one, we must be cautious and observe them carefully.

Just as the two sides were exchanging blows for the first time, Kamehira's body on the ground was gradually stiffening in the red-stained snow, but none of the people present paid any attention to him.

Paise, who had been saved earlier, had already jumped off the roof to check on Littene's condition.

So, only Tomii and Akame remained on the rooftop, facing off in the cold wind.

Oh, right.

And sitting on the former's shoulder, a small Den Den Mushi, also dressed in mini winter clothes, was staring wide-eyed at the red-eyed girl in front of her, who looked to be around twenty years old but was too young to be considered a girl or a mature woman.

However, for Akame...

I thought it was just a low-level, Danger Beasts pet.

"Is it that strange black dagger?"

Akame squinted her beautiful eyes as she examined the Kunai in Fukui's hand, but Kamehira, who was already completely dead on the ground, was also holding the same Kunai.

"Perhaps it's some kind of Shingu that can be mass-produced."

[Swish! Swish! Swish!]

Just then, Fukui, who had blocked the attack, launched a counterattack Chunin hesitation. In his opinion, Kamehira was killed purely because of the sneak attack.

Besides, even if the opponent is stronger than you, so what? If you want to survive, you still have to fight!

He first threw five sharp Shuriken, forcing Akame to use his long sword to defend himself.

At the same time, he took out a second Kunai and held it in his left hand, transforming himself into a continuous, winding stream of blue water as he rushed forward.

"The Third Form, Flowing Dance!"

Fukui's speed became exceptionally fast, even leaving afterimages in the cold air. Combined with the Kamizuru Clan effects, it was difficult to distinguish the real body from the real one with the naked eye.

In an instant.

The sounds of the two sides clashing at high speed could not be concealed even by the howling north wind; the clanging and clattering sounds echoed throughout the snow-covered town.

"The Fourth Form, the Striking Tide!"

"The Eighth Form, the Waterfall Basin!"

As Fukui repeatedly unleashed various "Water Breathing" techniques, Akame quickly realized that the water streams were not real objects at all, but purely optical illusions designed to deceive her eyes.

This made her simply close her eyes.

Really.

In the world of aura in my mind, the opponent's sword path and movements became clearer, and the killing intent emanating from the opponent was as bright as a torch.

[Pfft----]

"Ugh!"

A few minutes later, Akame delivered a clean and decisive diagonal slash without any particular name, slicing through both the Kunai and Fukui's chest amidst screams of agony.

Instantly, warm blood gushed out, steaming up wisps of heat in the cold air.

"So that's what happened! It was your knife that was faulty."

Fukui lay in a pool of blood on the roof, and as he lay dying, he felt a strange force preventing his wounds from healing. As a professional ninja, his first instinct was to reveal this information.

Because he knew that the Den Den Mushi on his shoulder would transmit everything that happened here back to the command center of the Otherworld Strategy Committee on the Sea Star Homeworld.

Just like the previous Kamehira Chunin, the gushing blood was desperately preventing him from speaking.

"Phew, those guys are formidable. If we hadn't taken care of one first, things would have been troublesome if they had teamed up."

Akame relaxed as she watched the gradually lifeless Fukui Chunin. The latter's strength gave her the feeling that she had encountered an elite assassin.

Especially in terms of strength, each time the blades clashed, it would make her hand tremble.

"However, the moves he used seemed more like some kind of sword technique. Why didn't he use a longsword?"

Just as Akame was muttering to herself, another beautiful girl suddenly leaped up from behind.

She looked to be about the same age as her, with two long pink ponytails and a pink dress. She was also holding a large, oddly shaped gun with a blade at the tip.

"Hmph~ What a joke! I didn't even have a chance to make a move. I was thinking of shooting him if he tried to escape!"

The pink-clad girl pouted with a hint of spoiled arrogance.

"This person was very confident in his abilities. During the fight, he showed no fear or tension whatsoever. I even saw the look in his eyes that one would give to a subordinate."

Akame listened to Mine's words and looked thoughtfully at Fukui's corpse.

"Even in his final moments, the last look he gave me revealed a confidence that seemed to come from the depths of his heart, an unwavering certainty."

"Didn't the intelligence say that they might come from the 'Alchemy Kingdom' or the 'Shenwa Island Country'? Perhaps they are elites from there, or even from noble families, so they are born with a fondness for looking down on others."

Mine glanced at the two corpses lying in the pool of blood with disgust.

She suffered discrimination from a young age because she was of mixed Western ethnic minority descent.

He was finally freed from that unpleasant environment when an imperial official inexplicably approached him one day.

Therefore, they naturally harbored a dislike for the aristocracy.

Maybe.

Akame nodded, after all, she couldn't think of a more reasonable explanation, and then walked to the edge of the roof to look down at Paise.

"How is he?"

Paise knelt on the cold snow, tears streaming down his face as he looked at Liste in his arms, blood trickling from his mouth and his eyes closed. He sobbed, "His... his ribs were broken by that kick, and then... then it pierced his lung."

"Yeah."

Akame and Mine both fell silent, letting the cold wind and snow howl past them.

But the tiny Den Den Mushi continued to silently watch their retreating figures.

A huge thank you to Desper of Longing for Sunset for the 500 Qidian Coin! Thank you so much for your support and encouragement!