Chapter 1: The Second Chance

Tatsumi collapsed to the floor, Incursio's armour cracked and disintegrated from him as his last remnants of stamina slowly drained away to nothing. Blood seeped and spurted from the hole in his chest, staining the beautiful locks of hair beneath him a deep red.

It didn't suit her...

His vision blurred by the stream of tears flowing down his cheeks as Tatsumi looked down at the woman beside him. He had barely enough strength left to place a shaking, bloodstained hand on her cheek, prompting a small, shaking smile from her as he brushed aside the hair masking her face.

She's so beautiful. Even now...

"Don't be sad Tatsumi," she smiled weakly, her voice barely a whisper, "I don't regret it, I was simply-"

"No," Tatsumi cut her off, "It's all wrong. This should never have- no, I should have-" he was stopped by her shaking hands reaching up for his face.

She looks so frail...

"That's why I loved you Tatsumi... You never broke, never changed no matter how much I tried... I would never have fallen so in love with you if... If you weren't..." She choked on her own words, and Tatsumi brought her closer into his arms.

Gazing down at her, the world seemed to fade away.

Nothing else mattered anymore as he stared down at her slowly dying body.

He had thought her invincible once, unbreakable. Hell, he wouldn't have been surprised if she turned out to be immortal. Even if Night Raid had succeeded, even if the rebellion won and all the wrongs in the world were put right, he was sure that Esdeath would simply walk away from it all unharmed, still wearing that cold, beautiful smile of hers.

But no longer...

In truth, deep down Tatsumi still hoped even to the end that she would change for the better, that she had agreed with him that night in the palace, which now felt like a lifetime ago.

A storm of emotions raged away in his heart. Tatsumi wished he had never held on to hope, wished he had just accepted reality and moved on with his life, wished that he never held on to hope long enough to realise that he loved her before he realised it was already too late.

It was over, everyone was gone. The Prime Minister had finally decided Esdeath's uses had run their course and turned on her, just as she had expected him to. Expectation alone, however, simply couldn't defend against his sheer cunning. After all, it was him who brought her to her teigu. Knowing exactly what she would do, he had already put in plans to remove her long before even then. The result? There wasn't even a chance to fight, to retaliate or escape before it was already over.

Nobody had even considered it, nobody could have, but her teigu took to the Prime Minister immediately.

Perhaps it was simply glad to be free, no longer overwhelmed and dominated by Esdeath's own unbreakable and insatiable bloodlust. Tatsumi thought about that for a moment, a sad chuckle escaped his lips before quickly dying out as he looked around at it all, and everything that had happened.

Night Raid was destroyed in seconds, only Tatsumi survived, but even his time was running out. The hole in his chest no longer gushed red, there was barely even a trickle. His only solace was the ice clinging to the wound, the cold chill gently numbing the thrumming pain coursing throughout his body.

"I never wanted it to end like this," Tatsumi admitted wistfully, as he continued caressing her cold, pale cheeks in a way which was nothing less than loving.

"All I wanted was to live in peace," he explained, "In a world where the rich don't abuse the poor, where girls in poverty weren't forced out of their home and sold away like toys, but it seems like the rich always get what they want, while the poor suffer for it."

"That isn't your fault Tatsumi, they aren't your burdens to bear," Esdeath said quietly, her voice even less of a whisper than before.

"Isn't it?" Tatsumi choked as his lungs filled with blood, "I should have realised it from the start, I shouldn't ever have left you, I should have been like Run and River, trying to change it all from the inside. The Revolution was always just a pipe-dream, I hate that I couldn't realise it."

"Tatsumi..." Esdeath whispered, and for the first time, Tatsumi saw tears in her cold, blue eyes.

Don't...

"I wish that- I wish I could just go back and make the right decision, because I-" Tatsumi choked on his words, his cheeks flushing slightly even despite the blood loss.

Really Tatsumi? You're getting flustered even now!?

Cursing himself, Tatsumi summoned his courage and whatever strength he had left in his broken and slowly dying body, before leaning forwards until he looked Esdeath in her eyes.

Suddenly, he dropped down to plant a kiss on her cold, pale face.

"I love you Esdeath, and I think I always have..." Tatsumi smiled.

"Th-thank you Tatsu..." Esdeath's tears finally broke from her eyes as they closed for the final time.

She was gone in seconds, but at least she left the world with a peaceful smile on her face, content in the knowledge that she would not pass from this world unloved by anyone.

As he watched her pass away in his arms, Tatsumi's smile faded away, before finally breaking down as a bitter, wrathful howl of rage erupted from him until the last moments of his life were completely spent.

Tatsumi fell silent. His roar dying out into the air until at last, like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsed to the ground beside the only woman he ever loved.

Everyone was gone and nothing would change...

Everything that they had ever fought for would be in vain...

Even his feelings which he had ignored for so long before finally admitting them, all of it would mean nothing, and so Tatsumi died before anything could be done about it.

Life was cruel.

If there was anything after death, Tatsumi hoped it would be a better hell than this...

But after all, life is cruel...

Tatsumi snapped back to reality, immediately noticing that he was no longer in the capital, and Esdeath was nowhere to be seen. Confused, he tried to stand and look around, only to find himself looking at the sky with his back to the ground, he soon realised that he had just managed to throw himself off the ground just from trying to stand. He had somehow regained most of his strength again, but how?

He felt like he was being watched, and so cautiously began looking around at his surroundings, through the trees, amongst the snow, after a few minutes the beginnings of a thought built up inside him. It all looked surprisingly familiar. He knew this place. Tatsumi could only stand there, frozen on the spot, simply trying to remember where this place that felt so familiar was before the realisation finally struck him like a lightning bolt.

"I'm... Home?" Tatsumi asked in disbelief, "How did I get here? When did I get here?"

A thousand questions rushed through his mind, quickly giving way to confusion. He was still alive, but no longer in the capital, instead he had somehow came back to his home village through reasons he couldn't even hope to fathom.

When he had finally came back to his senses again, he found that he was nearing the lake a few miles from his village and so decided it may be best to dress his wound before it became infected.

"I'm not gonna come back from the brink of death just to die from an infection," he said to himself half-jokingly.

What do you mean by "brink" of death?

Without hesitation, Tatsumi began to gingerly take off his shirt to check his chest and clean the wound but fell back in shock when he saw his reflection in the water. There was nothing. No wound, no blood and no pain when he pressed his fingers against the flesh, which had until recently been housing a rather sizeable chunk of ice where his heart used to be, or rather, is? Tatsumi sighed, he was getting confused again. After another few moments of disbelief, he then moved back to the lake to check for the second time, that was when he noticed something else.

"I look... Younger?" He gasped.

No scars marked his body, as if nothing had happened at all since he left the village, and all that remained of it all was the tired, sad expression on his face, which somehow looked younger. It looked as if nothing had happened to him since he left the village.

"WELL, THAT'S BECAUSE IT HASN'T!" An angry voice boomed from behind him.

Tatsumi leapt back into the lake to face whoever was behind him, only to find no-one was there. He couldn't sense the presence of anyone nearby but still felt as if he was being watched very closely. After standing in a lake staring into the tree's for several long moments, that Tatsumi finally took in what the voice had actually said.

"Nothing has happened since I left the village? What about Night Raid, what about Es-" he couldn't say her name, and as he saw the tears streaming down his face at the thought of her, he heard the voice once more.

"Finally, it seems you're actually able to listen! Well, before you get ahead of yourself, literally, why don't you try calling out your teigu? Actually, while you're at it, why don't you get out of that lake too?" The voice cackled.

It felt dark, that was the only way he could think to describe it - not evil or cruel in any particular way - it was just dark as if it didn't belong in the world. It was unnatural, like a demon or something similar perhaps?

Tatsumi stood there for a moment, thinking about whether or not the voice was a trap or an enemy simply mocking him, before finally deciding that he should probably summon Incursio, it felt like the wisest choice either way. Tatsumi took a deep breath.

"INCURSIO!" Tatsumi screamed forth his teigu, the reassuring sensation of it enveloping him with nigh-impenetrable armour spread throughout his body and Tatsumi sighed in relief, at least one thing hadn't...

Tatsumi could only stand there in disbelief as he looked down at his body in the water. The reflection that looked back was like something out of his nightmares. Incursio, his precious teigu, which was given to him from the dying arms of Bulat, was no longer the valiant white he remembered.

Instead, it was black like the void and seemed to absorb all light, leaving only a sickly black sheen in its place. The familiar white coat around his shoulders was gone, replaced by a pitch-black cape that looked ragged and faded. Broken skulls took the form of pauldrons, whilst heavy chains streamed forth from the eyesockets, wrapping tightly around his arms all the way down to his gauntlets, which now ended in almost claw-like fingertips.

Looking up, Tatsumi realised that he couldn't see his face. It was hidden behind a ruined hood through which no light could pass, yet his vision remained clear, in fact, it was better than ever before. Even his weapon had changed, the crimson halberd that saved his life many times over had become a scythe of unbelievable proportions, towering over him even while wearing the armour.

He looked like the reaper himself.

"Pretty awesome right?" The voice seemed to be pleased with something, Tatsumi only felt disgust at this new look however, it wasn't like him in the slightest. Still, a weapon was a weapon, he thought, and so brandished it towards the direction of the voice, only to find a small black cloud hovering in the air in its place.

"Greetings little one," it said, two red lights appearing in the centre as it spoke.

Tatsumi looked back to his reflection, realising the cloud just made a short joke. "So you have a sense of humour then?" Tatsumi remarked, his expression stern and emotionless as he stared coldly down at the cloud of shadows coming towards him.

"Someone has to, I suppose, didn't you have anything important to ask me, rather than just giving me sass?" Its voice seemed strained, like it was holding itself back, even the armour he wore seemed to radiate the same anger. It was then Tatsumi made the connection.

"You did this?" He couldn't help but whisper to himself in disbelief, but it seemed that the cloud-thing had heard him anyway.

"You mean did I send you back in time? Yes, I did. If you're asking about the armour, then yes, that I also did. You're welcome, by the way, there was a nasty fate awaiting you in the next life you know?" The voice casually remarked, and in truth it sounded surprisingly matter-of-fact about his situation.

Well, at least he knew how he got here, Tatsumi mused, the cloud-thing didn't really have a reason to lie to him, other than for its own amusement of course, but he was fairly sure that wasn't the case.

"If that's true, then why? Why would you help me, why didn't you send anyone else back instead? Like Esdeath or Akame? They're much stronger than I am right now!" Tatsumi responded angrily, prepared to strike at the cloud's answer, why didn't it save Esdeath instead of him?

"I don't really care to answer that last question, but as for the first one... Let's be simple and say that the fat man winning is a huge no-no for me, enough for me to rip out your soul and throwing it back into the past." The cloud-creature explained rather casually.

"Now believe me when I say this is stretching my limits a little, so here's a friendly little warning, don't fuck this up! If you do, I will personally guarantee that you'll wish you just died the first time around." The cloud didn't seem like it was going to continue, and it certainly didn't sound intimidated by Tatsumi's threats in the slightest.

"What am I supposed to do then?!" Tatsumi screamed back, he was getting tired of the cloud's glibness, not to mention its infuriatingly half-assed answers and threats.

"Isn't it obvious?" The cloud laughed, "Just get stronger! Don't hang around a weak group like Night Raid for a start, I'm sure you'll figure that one out easy enough, you won't get anywhere with them that's for certain."

Tatsumi winced when the cloud called them weak, but he couldn't bring himself to answer back, it certainly had a point. Most of the time he spent with them was spent cooking in the kitchen or getting food to cook in the kitchen rather than training. None of them were truly serious about destroying the empire. Even if they were, they were too few and far too laid-back to have a chance of success, to win against the might of the empire.

"At least you can get that through your skull, I'm not here to coddle you or inflame your self-righteous ego." The voice informed him, "I didn't bring you back so you can make the same mistake twice, if you do join night raid, I will personally have you massacre them all with your bare hands, that I can promise you." The voice was serious, its previously cocky and jesting nature evaporated away, leaving only a dark tone that scared Tatsumi more than anything he had felt before.

The cloud faded away without another word, leaving Tatsumi alone with his new armour. The armour seemed to have a mind of its own, as Tatsumi found himself walking out the lake and onto dry land. So Night Raid wasn't an option, so where should he go, what should he do? He needed to get stronger before he got to the capital at least. As he reached the shoreline, Tatsumi found himself able to move again. It seemed that the armour wasn't completely under his control like a normal teigu, as it's little stunt of forcing Tatsumi out of the lake had proven, but it still responded when he called for it.

"Hey," Tatsumi called out to his teigu, and a shadow appeared over his hand, like the cloud-thing he spoke to before, just smaller. "Can you talk or something?" He asked, before feeling a presence slowly appear in his mind. It didn't speak exactly, but Tatsumi could understand it well enough to communicate.

"What do I call you?" he asked, "I never caught your name."

Tatsumi awaited for a response, but nothing came, the armour remained silent, the presence in his mind was silent and unresponsive, Tatsumi was puzzled until there was a message that echoed through his mind...

"Mu holds itself coldly aloof from both the intellect and the imagination. Try as it might, reasoning cannot gain even a toehold on Mu. In fact, trying to solve Mu rationally, we are told by the masters, is like 'trying to smash one's fist through an iron wall. "

"Right...So... Your name is Mu?" Tatsumi guessed, completely at a loss for what he just heard.

The presence in his mind simply remained quiet, yet the armour seemed to radiate with power at its mention. It was then Tatsumi noticed that the ground he stood on had turned to sand, the air became silent, and all colour faded out of the world around him. Tatsumi began to panic as the world died around him, the scythe in his hands began to gleam.

"Enough! It's time you told me what you can do!" Tatsumi commanded, snapping back to reality, and the world began to fade back into colour once more. The presence felt different, however, and simply mirrored Tatsumi's image back into his mind. His new teigu seemed to speak in riddles of a sort and it took a while before Tatsumi could grasp the teigu's message.

"So you can do as much as I need you to? Is that it?" Tatsumi asked again, still unable to comprehend the message the presence was trying to send him.

The mysterious teigu simply repeated the same message again, but Tatsumi had already guessed it would do so. It seemed that he wouldn't be given the answers, only conditions and vague hints to guide him for now.

Tatsumi could only sigh to himself, thinking 'this is going to be a pain, I wish I just had Incursio around, then things would be simple'. The presence became impatient, flashing the black cloud that brought him back, with the message "Just get stronger!" Echoing in his mind.

By now the Sun had all but disappeared behind the treeline, leaving Tatsumi in the dark with his thoughts. He remained there for a few moments before deciding that he should try returning to the village for now, as he realised that both his friends were still alive as well, and he should stop them from going to the capital before it's too late.

Esdeath was safe for now at least, so all he had to do was become stronger. Before it was too late.