JANUARY 1ST, COMET YEAR 5000
"You gotta use your legs to help you build up enough force." Eugene training facility for the elite. In all honesty the fact that he put his name in the logo of the school should tell you how much this man loved himself. Currently he was training a few of the finest men, and women in advanced martial arts.
"You're doing it all wrong." He grabbed one of his students wrists and flipped it while also spinning sending the child on to his back. "Like that."
Ha! Ha! Ha!
The class laughed.
"Very funny." The boy attempted to wake up, and Eugene reached out his hand.
"Hup!" He then gave the boy a pat on the back, "But you'll get there, not like me but still."
"Everybody keep practicing!" He yelled, "I'm going to the bathroom."
As soon as the man was out of sight the kids hurried to the window and stared out at the green pasture. And no, it wasn't because they enjoyed the great outdoors or whatever, but rather because everyday for the past year around the same time Akame and Gil would do some physical training.
"Just what are they up to today?" One student asked.
"I bet its something epic and awesome."
"Last time they were hanging upside down from a tree for an entire evening." Said one of the girls.
"Only Mr. Akame, Gil fell flat on his back after 2 hours." Another girl remarked.
"He's really cool, though he's a bit too girly to me."
"But only in the right places."
And today was no different, Akame laid beside Gil. Today's lessons were push-ups or rather seeing who will stay in that position for the longest time possible, they were both on their elbows.
Gil was visibly struggling as sweat began to trickle down his forehead, then his lips and finally falling on the grass like dew in the morning. His breath got heavier and heavier until finally his hands gave in and he fell.
"Damn, I'm burnt out."
"A total time of 6 hours and 14 seconds." Catherine declared, she was the new referee ever since Blake had returned to his solitude below the Cathedral.
"You've done good this time." Akame said still in that position.
"You say that but… you've… gone… longer… than… me." He stopped to catch his breath.
"True but that's just because my muscles have already been soaked in so much fragment energy that they've just been enhanced to a point were my base strength when I'm not using it is higher than most." Akame pushed himself up, "Honestly you're the actual monster, going 6 hours is no joke especially for someone who isn't using any fragment energy."
"Your buff." Catherine flexed her forearm's muscle.
"I didn't get that strong." Gil was obviously oblivious to the amount of muscle he had gained in that one year, he merely saw it as a means to get stronger. Nothing else really mattered in his mind.
"Your really dumb." She remarked.
"Hey, look its Joy." Akame pointed at a girl with chocolate skin running in their direction.
"Hey guys she shouted."
"Oh, you mean Njeri?" Gil wondered.
"Yeah, but she insisted that I call her Joy." Akame walked towards Joy and Gil followed with Catherine not far behind.
"Hey, you guys done training?" She asked with a huge smile.
"Yes!"
"Mh." Akame nodded.
"Great, coz Dr. Blake's been calling for you."
The two boys looked at each other, it had been several weeks since they'd heard from Blake. He just locked himself down in the morgue and never came back up, even for smoke brakes.
"But he has been acting pretty strange ever since you showed up." Gil said.
"Really? How?"
"Well, he's been more cheerful and cracks more jokes than he did."
"Nope, that just sounds like him, he was probably just acting because he was in a new place. His actual character is more laid back and annoying but he still comes up with the craziest plans."
"Agreed." Catherine spoke up, "Like when he ordered poor Gil to go into that haunted house all by himself and he almost died."
"First of all I volunteered, and secondly I wasn't by myself you were also there." Gil corrected.
"Yeah, but its not like I did much." Catherine put her hands behind her head, "So hey, you guys can see my entire body right?"
"Yep, which is why we asked you to put on some clothes." Gil reminded her of that one moment around September when he'd entered his room to find her naked on his bed. "And you just had the audacity to try and say hi."
"Its not my fault I became visible over night."
"Why is that anyway?" Gil stared at Akame as the two of them followed Joy back to the Cathedral, she walked ahead greeting the villagers.
"I thought I already explained."
"I can't remember." Gil honestly said,
"Me neither."
Akame sighed, "Ok, spirits that linger in the overworld for a long time begin attracting fragments from the air. The more the concentration the more visible you'll become."
"But why can't other people see me?" She asked.
"Well, firstly your still a spirit." He explained using his fingers, "And secondly your fragment energy which isn't detectable by everyone, but don't worry if you wanna be seen so badly it'll get to a point where the concentration of fragments around your body will be so dense that you won't be a spirit anymore."
"Really, what will I be?"
Before he could answer this Blake was waiting at the entrance to the morgue.
"C'mon, we don't have all day."
He led them down the dark steps which he had fitted with light bulbs as opposed to using torches. In fact the entire village now had a form of electricity whether that was radios, lamps or even small televisions.
"Wow." And the morgue didn't look like the morgue anymore.
"I moved the bodies to another place and converted this place to an online hub." Blake explained, "It was a pain, I couldn't order all the stuff I wanted so I had to go all the way to the capital."
"Is that why you were missing for all that time?" Gil asked.
"Yep."
The room that used to be the morgue was now transformed the metal walls were painted and pictures were hung on them.
The center of the room had two desks one facing the door while the other one faced the wall. The two desks had two comfortable looking chairs not to mention there was a monitor on both of them.
"Is that a T.V?" Gil asked.
"What a dumb question… can we watch films on it?" Catherine asked.
"You can do a whole lot more than just watch films, right Joy?"
"Yes Dr." Joy sat on one of the chairs in front of the monitor.
"Njeri what are doing in front of the T.V?"
"You idiot!" She banged the table, "Call me Joy, and if you must know I'm Blake's new apprentice." She held her chest with a smug look.
"Its apprentice, and also that's not a T.V" Blake explained.
"It isn't?" Catherine and Gil said in unison.
"Nope, this here is what we call a computer."
"Computer?" They repeated in unison.
"Yep, it's a complicated machine, but I've been teaching it to Joy this entire time. And I must say she might be even of a bigger prodigy than you Akame." He smiled cheekily at Akame who stared back unfazed.
"Um.. I'm jealous I guess."
"You should be, soon she'll catch on and be better than you ever were."
"Yeah, but that's just because I wanted to do other things, not study computers." He reminded Blake.
"True, you can't win 'em all I guess."
"Blake?"
"Yes Akame-Kun?"
"Why did you call us down here, I'm assuming its something important."
Blake's expression changed a bit, "Oh yeah, true. But its more like a question if anything."
"Which is what exactly?" Gil asked a bit curious.
"When are you two leaving the village?"
Joy's ears sprang up the moment she heard this.
"Leaving… Why would we leave?" Gil asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Blake pointed at Gil, "Aren't you the one who said you'll bring justice to your people, by killing all those who did nothing to prevent your suffering?"
Gil was shocked, "I don't remember telling you that."
"You didn't have to, it was rather obvious."
"So I assume you want me to leave so I can help him with that goal." Akame pitched in.
"Kind of, but not really. It's has more to do with what we spoke about last time if you can remember."
Akame nodded immediately.
"But in any case, its not safe for you to stay here, both of you."
"What!" All three of them exclaimed (By three I mean Gil, Catherine and Joy)
"Why not?" Joy asked getting out from her chair.
"It's rather simple." Blake pointed at Gil, "You killed the bishop, and something like that would never go unpunished by the Vatican, in fact I'm surprised they haven't come to take you yet."
"Who? The knights?" Joy asked.
"Nope, the enforcers, they will come its just a matter of time, while we can lie and say your dead its much better for you not to be around when they come." Blake explained, "I hate to say it but you're not strong enough to handle those guys if they were to find you."
Akame gave Gil a pat on the back, "Its ok buddy, not to say that you won't reach their level of skill someday. We're making great progress when it comes to physical training."
"Yeah." Gil smiled, "I guess so."
"We'll make sure to do everything on our part to take care of the village, we've made great leaps in advancement and technology we're growing and people from other villages wanna come together. The Vatican will hear of this and send people here to stop what they'll call, 'the uprising'. But hopefully we'll be able to avoid that."
"True. Wait why does Akame have to come?" Gil asked.
"For the same reason if not worse."
"Seriously? What?" Akame himself seemed to be oblivious of what it is he had done.
"You can't remember?" Blake wondered.
"Not… really."
Blake sighed and got to his desk sitting behind it. "Well I hate to jog your memory but your still the most wanted person on this side of the planet."
On the monitor Blake displayed a picture of Akame, with a caption underneath.
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
A REWARD OF 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 YEN