AN: Hello everybody! I'm back on this story. And man, it seems like not a lot of people liked, or even cared about my Kingdom Hearts fic, but that's ok, I'm planning to put the first chapters of other stories to see what you guys like. Also, bad news people, it seem like is once again having problems with showing Reviews, so after I've read your review, I'll PM you.

"Regular speech"

"This is a 'skill' understand?"

'Thought'

"Demon speaking"

[Game Data]

(Author Note)

Disclaimer: I don't own Gamer by Sung San-Young and Sang-ah, Digital Devil Saga 1&2 by Atlus or Akame Ga Kill by Takahiro and Square Enix(that surprised me a bit). What I do own are my OC's Edward Smith. Please support the Official Releases

"Ah, you're awake." Chouri says, noticing that Edward had entered their tent.

"Yep. And I trust that the showcase was satisfactory?" Edward asks, taking a seat. With the showcase of his abilities, people would get interested in him. Hopefully it's the right kind of people, and not the kind that wants to crack him open and see what makes him tick.

"Putting it mildly, yes." Chouri nods. If Honest caught wind of Edwards abilities, the young man would be strapped to the operating table of that quack Stylish before he even knew what happened. The former Prime minister had heard rumours of what the mad doctor under Honest's employ had done, and he didn't wish anything like that to even the worst of his enemies.

"But, we also discovered something else when Dr. Haus took a look at you." Chouri continues, as Edward's mind leaps to the worst conclusion of what they found. They couldn't have found about his Atma virus, they simply couldn't have, they don't have the tech, and possibly don't even have someone who can transform. But, if it came down to him getting killed, or him killing the entire camp, then so be it.

They were scheduled to perish anyway, the only thing that would be different is that Night Raid wouldn't be framed for the killing. And while it would hamper the process of taking Honest down, it wouldn't stop it.

"And that would be?" Edward asks, his hand slowly going up to his Atma Brand.

"A Slave tattoo on your neck." Chouri clarifies, inadvertently setting Edward's mind at relative ease. So they thought that his Brand was a slave tattoo, which is technically correct if you think about it. But, if they asked something like who was his owner, he could possibly lie about some bastard outside of the Empire's borders being killed by them, and then escaping.

They shouldn't be able to prove otherwise, and if they did, well, he could always go back to the kill and devour plan.

"Oh, that. Well, yeah it's a slave mark, but it's a bit more than that." Edward says, half-lying through his teeth with a straight poker-face. What cover story should he use? Perhaps a mix of the DDS1 story and the Freelancers saga of RvB would fly. Yeah, that should work, it's vague enough and they don't have a reliable way to disprove it.

"Do tell." Chouri says. He guesses that the slave tattoo made them the property of some far-away army that experimented on them, the uniform Edward was wearing implies that he was part of army, the dash of orange possibly serving as a way to differentiate units from one another.

"Well, this brand signifies us as part of an experimental task force, that was shut down, called the Asuras. There were different branches of us, each branch's soldiers going through different experiments." Edward starts telling his lie, careful in avoiding making the story too outlandish.

"The task force was founded when Danger Beasts similar to beings from our folklore started popping up throughout the kingdom. At first, they started out small in number, but soon enough, they started spreading like wildfire."

"Then one of our more controversial religious parties came forward and took the claim for these Demons coming to life, claiming that they were "cleansing" the kingdom in preparations for their Deity's arrival. They also revealed that they kidnapped and transformed civilians into these Demons." Edward adopts a somber look when he says this part.

"Nobody knew how they did it, but the one thing that we did know was the our weapons proved ineffective at dealing with them."

"And when all hope seemed lost, one Dr. Sheffield found a way to give our soldiers a chance at victory." Edward continues explaining.

"Desperate for a solution, our military started taking homeless people off the streets, and recruits who enlisted as test subjects, dividing us into 3 public branches, and exceptional ones from those branches to the fourth one, which was overseen by Dr. Sheffield personally."

"There was Cadmus branch, headed by Dr. Hojo, who specialized in genetically engineering normal everyday animals into monsters that were used as frontline fighters against Demons, until the other branches managed to produce results." Edward continues, hoping that Chouri'll buy the lie.

"Sounds like they planned on fighting fire with fire." Chouri notes, thinking of the similarities between these Demons and these genetically engineered monsters. Could Stylish have come in contact with someone who shared Cadmus files with him?

"Yeah, but here's the bad part. Whenever the demons were killed, they would contaminate the environment around them if they weren't killed in a specific way." Edward explains, creating a fact that he can exploit if these new Danger Beasts do turn out to be Demons.

"Contaminate how exactly?" Chouri asks, wanting to know more of these possible runaway experiments attacking the people he worked so hard to protect. He wasn't about to leave them to the wolves, whether the wolves were Honest or these "Demons"

"They release a virus that has a chance of mutating its host into one of them, if the host comes under a lot of emotional pressure." Edward says, enjoying how easily Chouri is buying his lies, it's like taking a candy from a baby.

"My god..." Chouri whispers to himself, realization hitting him like a cannon.

"But there's a chance that these aren't Demons, just a new breed of Danger Beasts." Edward says, giving the old man some hope, personally hoping that they are.

"Then there's the Hero branch, headed by Dr. Xavier. Their goal was giving people superpowers, while staying human in appearance, and were trained to appeal to the public as heroes." Edward continues.

"Let me guess, Propaganda?" Chouri asks, familiar with the need for having people who could appeal to the public. General Budo was one such figure in his youth, his faith and loyalty to the empire drawing in a lot of new recruits.

"Bingo. Then there's the branch which experimented on me, Gaia, headed by Dr. Lilith. Their aim was similar to that of the Hero branch, but instead of messing around with human DNA, they used Magic to grant us powers based on what our soul judged to be a power suited to our personality." Edward says, wondering if he should stop here, and completely omit the Atma Virus.

"This sounds rather similar to the creation of Teigus." Chouri says, especially intrigued at Edward's mention of Magic. He had heard the stories of how the creation of Teigu and Shingu involved Magic, which did explain the mystical abilities that they possessed, and the thought of another nation having access to magicians was... disturbing to say the least.

"Yeah, some of the mystics at Gaia said the same thing." Edward sheepishly says, scratching the back of his head. He probably should tell a censored and edited version of the events of Digital Devil Saga 1, so that if he ever had to transform into Yaksha, people wouldn't be caught by surprise and come at him with torches and pitchforks.

"But after I got Gamer, they found out that one of it's effects was that my mind was always stable. So, they transferred me to the secret fourth branch, called Asura." Edward says, starting the key part of his tale.

"Their purpose was in a way, all of the other branches fused into one, and a bit of what the enemy was doing, only instead of turning us into mindless monsters, the experiments gave us the ability to transform into a being from folklore that we corresponded to, they called it an Atma transformation." He continues.

"So, they figured that fighting fire with fire was the best option." Chouri solemnly says. What good did winning accomplish if you sunk to such lows that you would need to transform your citizens, the very people who rely on you, into abominations of nature.

"Sadly, yes, and at first, it seemed to be working. We were winning, the enemy was retreating." Edward says with a somewhat cheery expression, hamming it up.

"Of course, during the early stages, some of us couldn't cope with the pressure, and succumbed to the demons personality, and it overwhelmed them, driving them berserk." Edward sighs, pretending to be sad about the lives that were lost. Nothing like a remorseful hero to get on peoples good side.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Spear says, having entered the room just in time to hear Edward's "explanation" of the Asura branch.

"Yeah, we lost some good people, most of them being bums who were forcibly enlisted." Edward says with a faked sad smile on his lips.

"They enlisted the homeless?" Spear says with a confused expression. She couldn't see any good reason to enlist homeless people into a war, neither from a moral or military standpoint. What good could homeless people do in a war, aside from spying and...

"Oh god. T-They used them f-for..." Spear whimpers as she realizes what those homeless people were used for.

"Making sure that the operation works, and after that, they were thrown against the enemy." Edward says, feeling slightly bad for possibly giving Spear nightmares.

"How did they justify these sacrifices." Chouri asks, promising himself that if he ever met the people behind these experiments, he'd throw them into jail for the rest of their lives, throwing away the key for good.

"They said that we shouldn't let their sacrifices go to waste, and keep fighting." Edward says with a disgusted face, but unlike what Chouri and Spear might think, he isn't disgusted by the actions of his "superiors", but with what he's doing. Lying to people who're just trying to save their country from tearing itself to pieces, by essentially making up a tragedy, a whole civil war, all just to hide that he has to eat people once every 2 months.

'Don't get soft now. You're saving them by lying to them.'

Yeah, if he can just get them to take a different route, or get strong enough, they won't perish when Honest sends the Three Beasts.

"Later on, we managed to finally capture the guy who was leading the crazy cult, who told us who exactly gave them the recipe for making their Demons."

"Who was it?" Spear asks, wanting to know what kind of depraved human being would do something like that.

"Who else, but the very man who came to us at our hour of need with a solution that just happened to be oh so similar to what our enemy was using, Dr. Sheffield."

"Hm, seems about right." Chouri nods. He did feel like the timing was a bit too perfect, coming to the military just as they were losing hope.

"After amassing our forces, we confronted the "good doctor", asking why did he do all this. He simply started laughing like a maniac, saying how all of it was to create a weapon that would surpass the Teigu, and how he would take over the world."

"And while he was in the middle of his monologue, we simply shot him." Edward shrugs

"But, as Sheffield was bleeding on the floor, he said that we had no idea of what was coming. And he was right, as the information of the experiments got leaked to the public, and a witch-hunt targeting everyone who was involved with the Asura project, whether they were test subjects, doctors or janitors. They simply burned them down to ashes at the stake."

"And soon enough, all of Mikado was stuck in a civil war, between us, the Asura test subjects, who were fighting for our survival, and the rest of Mikado, who saw us as unnatural abominations, who should be wiped off from the face of the earth."

"It didn't help that the symptoms became more and more common, keeping the flames of hate fueled and roaring. I guess my Gamer saved me from the symptoms." Edward finishes his not-so-little lie, feeling slightly sick of himself.

[Through a specific action, the Passive skill: Silver Tongue has been created.]

Silver Tongue: Lies are a powerful tool, especially in a hostile environment. Thankfully, you seem quite skilled in the art of lying, but you are still a mere bud.
Passive Skill Effect: {+10% chance of people believing you, when you lie to them.}
Class: -
Active Skill LV: 1
EXP: 0/100

And now he's feeling even more sick with himself. Now the Gamer is rewarding him for being an utter bastard. At least he can make up for this later, whether by safely getting Chouri to someone who can actually do something about Honest, or by eating the corrupt people in charge.

"So, why did you come to the Empire?" Chouri asks, feeling that something about Edward's story doesn't add up. Wouldn't it make more sense if he had stayed back in Mikado and attempt to rebuild it?

"Well, aside from Mikado being incapable of supporting life, One of my squad members, who was lucky enough to get a demon form with a limited clairvoyance ability told me that he saw this land facing the same virus that tore our country apart, before being turned to rubble by something called a Shikoutazer." Edward says, remembering the monstrous armour from the anime.

While the manga had only reached Chapter 67 before his untimely death, it did seem like that monstrosity does exist in the Manga-verse as well.

"The Shikoutazer! My god no..." Chouri gasps in shock at the thought of that thing being used within the Empire's borders. He had only seen that behemoth once with Emperor Minato(1) and Empress Mitsuru(1), and that thing still gave him nightmares on occasions, especially when one of the people working on it gave an estimation of what it could do if it fired while in the Empire.

The alchemists and engineers had theorized that even one shot of the Shikoutazer's chest cannon could wipe out a village, leaving behind only a smoking crater.

"Um, excuse me, what is this Shikoutazer exactly?" Spear asks, looking at her father's frightened face. From how they spoke, it seems like this Shikoutazer is bad news, very bad news.

"Simply put, a giant armour capable of shooting better versions of my Mana Bolt, ones that turn whole towns into smoking craters." Edward explains, allowing Spear to catch up.

She doesn't say anything, but the horror-struck look on her face tells more than enough.

"Then we must make haste to the Capital! We must expose Honest before he has a chance of using it." Spear exclaims.

"Honest can't activate it, only those of the first Emperor's bloodline can activate it." Chouri says. But even so, considering how tight the that Honest has strings on Emperor Makoto are, he may as well be the one who controls it.

"Even if we leave now, it wouldn't be a good idea. Honest probably knows that you people can bring him down, so he'll probably send people to kill you." Edward says, making a slicing motion across his neck.

"Hmm... yes, you do have a point. But what are we supposed to do? We must take Honest down as soon as possible." Chouri mumbles, pondering on what would be the best course of action.

"Well, I do have a plan, but I'll need to see the map, and know where these new Danger Beasts have been reported." Edward says, a plan that'll not only keep Spear and Chouri remotely safe, but also allow him to grind some levels before they hit the Capital.

Spear hands him a map."There has been numerous sightings, but the locations with confirmed sightings are here, here, here and here." she reports, pointing to towns that are quite near the Capital. Perfect.

"Ok, good. Why don't we visit each of these locations, see if the sightings are demons, kill them, and then move on, slowly making our way to the Capital." Edward suggests, dragging his finger from one confirmed spot to the other, finally dragging it to the capital.

"Hmm, seems plausible, but wouldn't this give Honest more time to send assassins?" Chouri asks, looking at the map. While making visiting these villages and wiping out a possible threat to his people would warm this old man's heart, he fears that it would give Honest too many opportunities to not only send assassins to halt their journey, but also corrupt the young Emperor even further.

"If we don't move on too quickly, it won't seem like we're making a quick detour before coming to ruin his plans, instead it'll look like we're simply going out and keeping people safe from monsters, nothing that would imply that we're plotting anything." Edward explains, planning his grinding schedule.

During the night, he'll grind levels to his ID's, and after gaining one with monsters, he'll start grinding Exp instead. If he's lucky, the monsters in ID's give Atma Points, but he won't hold his breath on that.

"I see, that does sound like it'll work." Chouri says, stroking his beard. Ideally, it should keep Honest of their back.

"And when we get close enough to the capital, we could have our group split up into two groups, both groups will make their way towards the capital." Edward suggests, earning a pointed look from Spear, and a questioning one from Chouri.

"Mr. Edward, I hope you're not suggesting that we use the soldier under our employ as bait, while we scurry into the Capital like rats." Spear says, stomping over to him. Although she did have Military training and while Edward's suggestion did make sense from a military perspective, using good people as mere decoys didn't sit right with her.

"I'm not suggesting it, I'm simply considering our options." Edward says defensively. It was in all honesty, a sound plan, and if those men were as loyal as they seemed to be, they would agree with the plan.

"Spear, go consult Captain Daisuke about the changes to our journey." Chouri orders, wanting to consult Edward about something about his backstory that troubled the former Prime minister, and he didn't want his daughter to be there in case things went south.

After Spear left the tent, Chouri rounds on Edward. "Edward, if you don't mind, I have a few questions about the story you told." Edward flinches, thinking that Chouri didn't buy his story, but plays it cool, not wanting to jump to conclusions.

"Uh, sure, what questions do you want to ask?" Edward asks casually, feeling a bead of sweat running down his face. Hopefully the old man hadn't seen through his lie, which wouldn't surprise him all that much. No way that old man earned his position by being a kind man, but by being ruthless, just perfect for politics.

"About this prophecy that your dying friend told you, did Spear and I appear in it?" Chouri asks, deciding to start off with a remotely simple question that shouldn't make the young man think that his story wasn't believed.

"To be frank with you sir, you and your daughter..." Edward contemplates whether or not he should tell Chouri that both him and his daughter will die at the hands of the Three beasts. On one hand, it would show that he wants them to survive. But on other hand, the fact that he didn't tell them about it at first could reveal that he has ulterior motives.

"...perished at the hands of Esdeath's Three beasts, and then they framed Night Raid for the killings." Edward settles on telling the truth, as lying wouldn't bring anything but trouble.

"I see, thank you." Chouri says, feeling like that there's more that Edward is hiding from him. But he'll save his question for later, as it curiosity that killed the cat after all. And apparently, both him and his daughter would have perished if they made a straight run for the Capital, so perhaps it would be prudent to send out a small envoy ahead of them.

"I didn't tell you at first, because I don't think you would've believed me. It might still happen, so don't drop your guard." Edward adds, wanting to show that he means well.

"I'll keep that in mind. But, I don't think we have much to fear with an ex-task force member with us." Chouri chuckles lightheartedly.

"Don't give me too much credit. I was just a rookie who blasted enemies from the distance." Edward repudiates, chuckling awkwardly. Maybe he should have gone with a more believable cover story, like his Atma transformation being an ingested Teigu, like Esdeaths.

"Is that so? Does the being you transform into aid your sharpshooting?" Chouri asks, exploiting an opening left by Edward.

"Umm, I'm not sure, I didn't use my Atma all that much, only if the enemy got too close."Edward answers, technically telling the truth. The first and only combat situation where he used Yaksha was when he was surrounded by people he considered as enemies.

"Then you must've been quite effective with a gun." Chouri chuckles, exiting the tent. Edward sighs, wondering how the hell is he going to get through this. Not only is he following a group that's doomed to perish, but now he's made himself out to be some sort of a special forces soldier. And he highly doubts his chances at survival when the Three beasts come for Chouri's head.

But if he does survive that group, what then? Let's assume that everything went without a hitch, and he managed to escort Chouri to the capital without an issue, and they go tattle to Budo, or someone else who can and actually wants to do something to stop this corruption, what'll probably happen is an open civil war with the people who want to save this country, and those who're happy with the current status-quo.

And in the event that Chouri does die, but Edward and Spear manage to escape death, then he should get Spear to someone who'll protect her, most likely Night Raid or the Revolution. Then they'll probably ask him to join them, which honestly, doesn't sound bad, as if these new Danger Beasts do turn out to be Demons, then he doesn't need to worry about Atma points.

But he shouldn't get his hopes up on that, as failure would drive him further into despair.

The worst situation would be that both Spear and Chouri are dead, and he's captured, tortured before being put on a leash or turned into one of Stylish's fetish-clad lab experiments.

A step-up from that situation would be infiltrating Jaegers, possibly through the tournament, all he'd need to do in order to catch Esdeath's attention is do a innocent smile, which might be the hardest part of the plan, and then either persuade some of them to leave, or he'll just assassinate them during missions, finishing the sloppy job that Chelsea did on Kurome, for example.

Honestly, don't assume someone's dead before you've detached their head from their body, and even then, do a double-tap on the head and heart.

And yes, that might break Wave's, Akame's and even a little bit of his own heart, but looking at the big picture, he thinks that he can live with that.

Oh, and if that last scenario does come to be, he also should stop Seryu from going after Mine and Tatsumi, if only to see how she'll react to Wild Hunt and their actions, and if she doesn't listen, then kill that Rakshasha Demon chick that told Honest's son that Tatsumi is with Night Raid.

In a calm situation, Edward might've cared about how casually he is thinking and plotting the murder of some truly good people, but as he considers those thoughts, the part of him that wants to survive shoves those thoughts aside, telling him that in this world, you're either trampled on, or you trample on others.

"I'm going to hell when I die, I just know it." Edward sighs, exiting the tent.

AN: That's all folks, hope you enjoyed! I hope that you won't think too badly of Edward lying to Spear and Chouri. I mean, would you , or rather could you even trust someone who has to eat people in order to survive, and as a side-effect, also gets stronger from it?

1: These are the names of Emperor Makoto's parents that I have come up with. Please don't mistake these as me shipping Minato and Mitsuru of Persona, these are just the names that popped up in my mind, and seemed like they fit.

I don't think that I need to post Edward's status, since he didn't fight or train in this chapter.

Quest reviews of Chapter 3 answered:

Super Guest-Chan(22.4.2016): Thank you

And here's the question of the chapter:
What do you guys say about a Gamer-Atma-SI being put into Tokyo Ghoul? It's something that me and Angel of light darkness came up with. The Atma Avatar of that S-I would be different than this Edward's