A/N: I'm back after a week break (I change my mind during the break) and what better way to make a comeback just by starting this Mini-Arc. So, let's begin then.
Disclaimer: I do not own Akame Ga Kill or SMG4. They belong to their rightful and respectful owners.
Episode 11: A Walk In The Woods
Chapter Synopsis: Mario brings Tatsumi along to their trip to the Fast Food restaurant, White Castle, but they would need to walk into the woods to get there. What could go possibly wrong?
The gust of wind was lightly blowing over the cliff that was near the base of Night Raid on the sundown sky. Tatsumi was walking towards a familiar site that was near the cliff and he was holding two white roses before he placed each one in the two graves and gave a sad smile to them.
"Hey Ieyasu! Hey Sayo!" The assassin greeted his two deceased childhood friends. "Sorry it's been a while, but I didn't forget to visit you two last" He proceeded to sit down and began to talk about the progress he made so far with everyone in Night Raid.
"It has been busy lately. There has been more contracts and more people joining the cause to overthrow the Empire." He started to explain while he proceeded to sit down. "And the jobs are starting to become much easier now. Not only that, but there has been things that had happened in Night Raid."
The assassin continued to smiled sadly. "Lubbock is now going out with boss, and so is Run with Sheele. And also...." He began to think of his fangirl group within Night Raid, "there are some girls that are obsessed over me." He really wanted to say his harem, but could already imagine Ieyasu's spirit just glaring daggers at him.
"So yeah, that's what happened over the past week and the revolution is going to start soon. And after that, I might be visiting your graves one last time before I departure back to our village." He felt a little tear coming out of his right eye when he said those words. Its almost if he was saying his last goodbye to them.
The boy began to stand back out and continued to look at the two graves before walking back to Night Raid's base. That was until a familiar voice soon called out to him. "Hey stinky!"
D
Tatsumi immediately had his eyes opened and he sat up in his bed and was breathing heavily. He also immediately knew that he was sweating and could feel it on his black shirt. His breathing then calmed down after a minute. "What was that dream about?" He didn't know why he started to have these types of dreams but there was one thing that he has been thinking about and that thought was that of his friends which he considered to be family to him and everyone else despite their differences.
"Hey!" A very familiar Italian voice called out to him and the boy turned to his left to see Mario, who had a worried expression on his face, which was rare for the assassin to see since he was an idiot, "Are you okay?"
Tatsumi then nodded at his head before smiling. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just had a dream."
After that, Mario then became his retarded self and his eyes were facing the opposite which the assassin found it to be funny but weird at the same time. "Alrighty, you better get prepared."
The boy just raised his eyebrows. "Wait, what is it for?"
"You and I are going to White Castle." Mario simply started before he had a deformed head which suggested that he was very excited about said place.
"Uh....." The assassin uttered for ten seconds before he let himself get out of his bed, "Sure, just give me five minutes okay."
"Okay," The Italian nodded before he zoomed out of his room.
Well, there was something that the assassin didn't mind, but a realisation soon came out to his mind and he then shouted at Mario as he really wanted him to not do something. "But we're not taking the car, okay?!" That memory of Mario driving was still fresh in his mind and he didn't want Mario to get troubled with the authorities.
Just as Tatsumi removed his shirt before he put on a dark blue shirt that Saiko had given to him, he then looked at Incursio which was still leaning against the side of the table. Almost immediately, he became saddened. "You guys...." He then shook his head to get rid of that thought as he put on his grey leather jacket and put his Imperial Arm in his back.
"Okay Tatsumi, make sure that Mario stays safe." He told himself before he walked out of his room.
C
The clear skies were dimming in the woods as Mario and Tatsumi were making their way through to go to White Castle and he brought Incursio with him in case they run into danger. Tatsumi didn't mind walking whereas Mario was. He huffed at the assassin's suggestion. "Imma tired. Can we have a break?"
The assassin just looked at him with disappointment but it wasn't in a contempt or apathetic way. "Mario, we've been here for about five minutes. Stop complaining our otherwise we're not going to this White Castle place."
"But....." Mario was about to say something.
"I say no Mario," Tatsumi interrupted him as he was like his parent.
It took a moment for the other person to respond to the other person as they were walking down the pathway which was down a hill. "Fine!" He lazily said.
The two continued their path into the woods and it was refreshing for the two to do since there was no one except themselves that were disturbing them. The sound of nature could only be heard. As they were continuing walking for around ten minutes, the Italian decide to ask an obvious question. "Say Tatsumi?
Tatsumi then looked at him with curiosity. "Yeah?"
"So why didn't we take the car?" Mario asked.
Tatsumi began to drift to a little while until he came up with his reason. "Well don't you remember what happened last time?" Mario tried to think of why, but could only think of spaghetti and White Castle. The assassin just sighed. "Well, the reason why..."
A flashback from when Tatsumi was stalking the Italian back from the Friday Night Funkin' chapters suddenly appeared in Mario's mind, where he stole a car off a guy from a gas stop store and ran over a koopa that was in a wheelchair who was just crossing the road.
"Oh yeah...." Mario suddenly laughed nervously as he was scratching the back of his head.
It soon became silent between the two as they continued the pathway towards the other side of the woods. It might take a while but that is alright for the assassin as he hadn't walked around the forest for a long time. An hour had passed and the two were still walking down the pathway but were now in the cliffside which was overseeing the entire forest. The two stopped and the assassin breathed in the fresh air. "Ah, do you smell the air of nature Mario?"
He didn't get a response since he turned around to see Mario pissing in the bushes. Intentionally, he wanted to scold him but logically he figured that he was holding it out during the walk which lasted for two hours. "Done." Mario happily walked back towards where Tatsumi was.
Said boy just looked at him with a calm but irritated facial expression. "Mario, the longer we spend in these woods, the longer this thing you keep mentioning about will soon be over." This made Mario had the same reaction from earlier and pretty much soon he began to walk towards where Tatsumi was, which then allowed the assassin to then follow the pathway that would lead them to the.....wait a minute, am I repeating myself?!
"Huh?" Mario then suddenly heard the narration changing and he looked up in the air and then his surroundings.
This made the assassin stop in his tracks as he saw how Mario reacted. "What's wrong, Mario?"
The Italian then went silent for a few seconds before answering. "I swear that I heard someone talking."
Interesting. Tatsumi didn't seem to notice about what Mario was referring to and after that weird sentence that Mario had just blurted out. The walking continued which was still in the cliffside and the two people remained silent since there was nothing interesting to talk about.....
Wait, nothing interesting? That's it! An idea suddenly popped up in Mario's mind. This was the perfect opportunity for the Italian to ask the boy on what was wrong with him. Not in a direct manner, of course, but maybe indirectly. "Say Tatsumi?"
The other boy just looked at him. "Yeah?"
Mario began to fidget with his fingers for a bit before he decided to ask his question. "You're an assassin right? Then why did you become one though?"
Tatsumi stopped in his tracks and he saw that there was no harm in telling him, but he had to say something first. "Okay Mario, you may have already known about it, but since you're...um...let's say that you have difficulty processing information, I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone except your friends about it, okay?" The idiot nodded at him before he made a curious facial and head expression. "So, before I joined Night Raid back in my world Mario, I left my village with my two friends. Sayo and Ieyasu, which we were all heading off to the Capital to join the Imperial Army in order to make money for the village. However, I was the only one who made it and after....."
"Big Busty Blondie Alcoholic Anime Thot stole your money after you got rejected from the army?" Mario interrupted as he remembered a little about what happened to Tatsumi thanks to the Wiki page on said boy as he first arrived to the city of his world.
Tatsumi just glared at him for insulting Leone, which resulted in Mario's head shrinking in fear before calming down. He was glad that the blonde wasn't here or otherwise she would've pummelled him to death. The assassin then continued. "Anyway, after what you had just said, I had to sleep in the streets. But thankfully this girl arrived from her carriage and offered me to stay at her place. I was glad that happened and her family seemed like good people. However, after a day they took me in was when I first met Akame."
"Akame huh?" Mario thought of her as she had the same obsession with him when it comes to food, which is spaghetti, except in her case it was with meat. He would've guessed that she could eat more than him.
The idiot then broke his thoughts to listen to Tatsumi's explanation. "I knew from that exact moment that she was good and I would've been dead if she hadn't struck the statue that the village elder gave me before I left. She told me the truth behind the family. They would pick up foreigners from the streets and do these twisted experiments on them. To my horror, I found out that among them, Sayo and Ieyasu were their victims too. Sayo was already dead while Ieyasu still held on. He told me Sayo held on without ever giving up to the end and after I killed the girl that saved me from earlier, I saw Ieyasu die right in front of me now that the family was gone. From that day on, I joined Night Raid and I do believe that they can make changes to my world for the better."
That...was horrible. Having two friends that you deeply care for most of your life only to die right in front of you, that was hard to take in. Mario then had a sympathetic face edited on his face and surprisingly, Tatsumi noticed it. "That's rough buddy." His voice clip was that of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. "And I guess you learnt about these Imperial Arms and only to discover that they can't exactly revive dead people, right?"
"Right and I went through seven stages of grief but I was comforted by Sheele." Tatsumi said before looking up towards the Sky. "Night Raid was like family to me. We still do some serious business, but we have some gigs between each other. I just miss them Mario."
That's it! That was the reason why Tatsumi seemed to space out all of the time. Without wasting a second, Mario, who was going off character, then proceeded to write it down on his note pad which he keeps from his cartoon pocket before he put said object back. "Well, you do have me and the rest of my friends watching you for now."
"Yeah, you're right." Tatsumi sighed as the idiot was correct.
Speaking of which, Mario did find Tatsumi's past to be quite similar to one of his friends. "Y'know Tatsumi, from what you've told me. From the twisted experiments to the friends dying right in front of you to even going through the seven stages of grief, you do seemed to have quite similar experience to one of my friends."
That caught the assassin's attention. As the two continued walking, Tatsumi decided to ask Mario on who was this friend of his that went through similar experience. "Who was it then, Mario?"
Said Italian then uttered a name that the assassin had heard before. "Meggy."
The boy was surprised to hear that from Mario. The boy then said to the Italian as he looked back. "Wait, Meggy, as in the girl we talked to through the internet since she was in vacation?"
Mario nodded ay him. "Yep, and she wasn't human at all, well, not when I first met her."
"Then when did you first meet her?" Tatsumi asked as he was starting to get curious.
The idiotic plumber gave a sad smile before he decided to explain to the assassin on the topic. "I first met her when I opened a tin can that was filled with orange paint." Tatsumi was dumbfounded that Mario first met the girl by opening a tin can which was full of orange paint and he was about to ask that question... "She was an Inkling before, which is a species that can produce their own ink," Well, that made much more sense for the assassin to understand and it could be proved to be useful for the Revolutionary Army to have. He then continued to listen to Mario's explanation. "And after I....kinda killed one of her teammate, I had to replace the member and participated in an event in which her team lost. She was sad but I told her that Luigi always tells me 'No matter how much spaghetti you eat...There will always be meatballs left over'" Well that was weird for the assassin to hear but it was understandable since it was similar to the same saying, 'No matter how much you fail, there will always be an opportunity that will help you to succeed.' "After that, we went on many adventures..." He then had flashbacks of the many adventures that they'd been through, including the two T-pose apocalypses and also Bob's rapping Career before returning to the present day. "Everything was well in good, that was..."
Tatsumi noticed that Mario was trailing off. As if he was daydreaming, which the assassin didn't blame Mario for being a complete idiot. "Is everything okay, Mario?"
"Yeah, it's just that that I am about to say is going to be very personal Tatsumi, but you're a good friend to Mario," Tatsumi knew what the idiot meant by that and soon the assassin began to listen to what Mario had to say. "Two years ago, Anime was banned in the Mushroom Kingdom after...an incident..." He still remembered him, Tari, Boopkins, and Bob being the instigators of the ban thanks to their last challenge which resulted in Peach's castle being destroyed, "Which resulted in our group was split in half. One group, which contained SMG4, Boopkins, Bob and Saiko, went to Japan since the angry bitch..." Again, Tatsumi just glared at him for saying that, but this time he didn't get his head shrunken in fear, "I mean Saiko was banned from entering the Mushroom Kingdom due to her being anime and how we met Axol, who used to make anime characters come to real life with his pen. I'm glad you didn't come in that year, Tatsumi." He still remembered what happened to Axol after spending five years, which was basically three weeks in the real world, on the Internet Graveyard. "The other group, well, it was me, Luigi, Tari and Meggy. I had to stay and make money for this group called the anime Cartel led by this freak called Francis, who you're going to hate with a burning passion after what I am going to tell you, since I messed up their smuggling business and Meggy basically put me, Luigi, and Tari through rigorous training. After that, she soon realised how harsh she was and after a little talk, we continued to train for an upcoming event called Splatfest....that was until there was this girl called Desti, who was an Octoling, came by and was basically Meggy's rival who stole her weapons, so we all had to get it back by force. The first attempt didn't go well, but when we decided to ram through Desti's team base with a monster truck, we eventually met up with the other group along with Axol. After that, we basically unban anime and everything was back to normal. But....this is where things soon took a dark turn, Tatsumi."
Said boy didn't make any silly questions to Mario as he nodded his head to let the other person continue. "As the Splatfest event of that year started, we basically were all present with the exception of Meggy. At first, we thought she was late or just overslept, but after one Splatfest round with Bob disguised at Meggy, Desti then realised that it wasn't the real one and she helped us find where Meggy was. We searched through her apartment and found out that it was ransacked, and we also found out that there was clear evidence that Axol may have been the one to kidnaped. A fight seemed to break out and after that, we then again split into two groups. One was to ask for the A.S.S, which is the Anime Secret Service and not as in ass, for help. Whereas the other group still searched around Inkopolis for any clues, just went one of Axol's creation attacked us. It was tough, but we managed to electrocute it and soon left a map which leads to an archipelago which is only accessible via boat called Anime Island. Unfortunately, during the trip, Desti was kidnapped and was sent to that island."
Mario then took a deep breath before he continued but he soon made a sadden expression which was edited on his face. "As we, along with the A.S.S invaded the island, and it turns out that Francis and the Anime Cartel were the ones who kidnapped Meggy, Axol and the Inklings, who really did twisted experiments on them to extract their ink so that he could have an island filled with anime waifus which he was going to make thanks to the pen that he stole it off from Axol."
"That sick bastard...!" Tatsumi growled as his eyes soon had the expression of anger. This was sickening as the Francis person had kidnapped Mario's friend and did all of those things to her and the other inklings to fulfil his selfish desires. He soon let out a sigh to calm himself and he was quite careful to ask what transpired. He knew that the Inklings shouldn't be used for anything. "Then what happened next?"
Now that the assassin brought up that question, Mario's face soon becomes saddened. "When we fought Francis and his creations, we thought we won when all of a sudden, Desti, who soon became a good friend of ours, was then stabbed in the back by a new creation that Francis drew. We were all caught off guard and were all shocked by this. Out of everyone who saw that, Meggy was the one to react the most out of all of us. Just before Desti met her demise, she gave one last wish to her and that was "You better win Splatfest for me, okay?" And after that, well, Francis continued to absorb Meggy's ink to create the ultimate creation, which was a just a God tier version of an anime character."
"Just then, Axol had got his pen back and also created his own version of a God tier version of an anime character. As the two were fighting, Francis attempted to run to save his own skin, but was then cornered by Saiko who proceeded to put him in the same machine that he used to absorbed the inklings. Talk about Karma, huh?"
"I see." Tatsumi responded as he was happy that Francis got what he deserved for doing all of those experiment to the Inklings and also being the one who was responsible in killing one of their close friends. "So, I guess that's when she became human then, right?"
Mario nodded at him. "Right. And we held a funeral to commemorate her. I even comforted her by saying that "Mario will always have your back no matter what.""
This made the assassin chuckled at that saying as this was the first time that he was seeing Mario being quite sympathetic despite being an idiot. "I am actually proud of you Mario. You may be an idiot who doesn't care about anything other than yourself or spaghetti, you actually showed compassion and remorse when one of your friends is in their darkest moments. And I give my condolences and sympathy to Desti." He bowed his head down for a bit before he lifted it back up.
"I don't know what you mean by that." Mario said which only made Tatsumi laugh a little. "Anyway, after going through the seven stages of grief, she along with me, Luigi, and Tari won the last ever Splatfest and manage to go back after I found out that one of the teams were cheating. After that, she had nothing to do for almost a year, so we decided to send her to vacation to discover what she could do with her life, which I and the others are hoping for."
"She would Mario," Mario then looked at Tatsumi who was smiling, "She would."
As the conversation was over, the two eventually looked over the area to see that it was becoming dark. Tatsumi and Mario then looked at each other. "Looks like the talking too long took as to this hour, huh Mario?"
The Italian nodded at him, "Yep, but I think we should rest for a bit. Don't worry, we'll be there on the next day."
Tatsumi was a bit sceptical about it. "Are you are?"
Mario nodded at him as he been through the path through many times before. "I'm sure Tatsumi."
C
Night time had dawned in the forest and Tatsumi and Mario had already set up a campfire with forest trees surrounding them. Mario was just lying down in the forest's ground while Tatsumi was tending the fire by adding more wood into it. Since there was nothing to talk about, he wanted to discuss to Mario to what happened today. "Today has been quite interesting and it's nice to know more about Meggy, thanks Mario."
The Italian just chuckled at him. "Yeah, and it's nice to also know more about you. Although, since the timeline in your world had been heavily altered, it's nice to hear that they're like family to you."
Again, Tatsumi chuckled at him. "Yep. Also, don't forget that your friend group is also like family. After all, from what I heard from you, you may all have some bickering and disagreements, but deep down you will have each other's backs no matter how dire the situation is."
Mario just laughed in response at it was true. From everything that had happened before Tatsumi's arrival did bring the group closer. No wonder that they mostly have faith in each other. Speaking of which, he decided to ask Tatsumi something. "Say Tatsumi. If you every go back to your world, what will you do?"
This time, however, the assassin just let out an awkward chuckle. "Well, to be honest with you Mario, I honestly don't know. But what I will definitely do is to greet everyone and going to tell them about what world I have been to. They may not believe me, but I will provide evidence with anything that I could bring home as a souvenir from this world."
When Tatsumi said souvenir, a thought then popped out of Mario's mind. He suddenly dug through his pocket and soon enough, he pulled out the crimson red and black USB that Tatsumi used to arrive to this world. "I may have gotten this off of SMG4's table without him knowing, but this belongs to you Tatsumi."
Said boy just looked at the device that Mario brought out before he proceed to grab it from his hand. This didn't made the assassin get his hopes up as he kept staring at the device. While he was looking through, Mario decided to ask another question. "Say Tatsumi, I know that you got that USB from doing an errand, but where did that USB come from?"
Tatsumi thought about it and did remember where it came from thanks to it being still fresh in his mind. "Well, from what I remember, one member from the Revolutionary Army told me that Stylish got it off from a merchant which founded the USB that you may call it off from an underwater ruin what was in a river situated near HQ. I was even surprised to hear that from the person."
"Wait.... an...underwater ruin?" Mario said as this was something new to hear.
"Yep." Tatsumi nodded before looking at the device again. "And I am still wondering of who could possibly place it in the—"
Just before he could even finish what he was going to say, the USB hard drive that he was holding suddenly flashed grey. This made the assassin worried as he looked back to Mario. "Mario, the USB is flashing something?"
"Hmmm," Mario pondered for a bit before saying something quite logical. "Try to expand the USB's size?"
The other boy then blink to what Mario had just said. "What?" Without a second of a thought, the Italian then grabbed the USB off of Tatsumi and soon he pressed a button which soon increased it size an....it began to float on its own. The two were shocked at the sight and the idiot already had some flashbacks to the Guardian pod that trapped the Virus back in the Dark Web. Almost Immediately, this made the two worried at how the device was not acting. Just then, a screen immediately popped up and it read out:
'Anti-Virus has expired!'
With that line being said, Mario immediately sweat dropped in panic as the events that unfolded regarding with the Virus Zero soon flashbacked into his mind whereas the assassin the confused. Just before any more reaction could be made, a miniature explosion erupted, which sent Tatsumi and Mario flying back from the device and from where the USB was floating, a giant void was soon present. The two got back up from their feet and could already see. Within the exact moment, Mario was then sucked in and went through the void. The assassin got instantly worried and he just shouted out the idiot's name. "MARIO!"
With the idiot now gone, the assassin almost had a thought back in the castle when SMG4 was telling him to look after the person that went through the portal.
F
"What was that again?" Tatsumi asked the recoloured Mario as he put Incursio on his back.
"Can you keep an eye on Mario for me, please?" SMG4 asked again which only made the assassin have a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Look, I know you babysit Melony before, but that was because it was the request of Axol. Mario, on the other hand, well you know what he will do when he's all alone? And also, they might be some bad people that might come after him." Even though Mario was an idiot, there was one thing that SMG4 did care about the person. He was an 'Avatar' and from what Zero did to Mario, SMG3, and lastly himself on the Dark Web proved that if Mario dies, then he along with his arch nemesis would feel the same effects that the virus had inflicted.
The boy began to think to what SMG4 was trying to say and almost immediately he knew what he meant by that since he made a promise to himself back in his room. "Yeah, I'll keep from making any more damage or if he is in danger." He knew that the recoloured Mario was thinking of something else, but that would be a question for another day.
SMG4 sighed as he was glad that Tatsumi was doing his request. "Okay, thank you Tatsumi." He then sighed before he saw the assassin leaving the castle.
F
Tatsumi gritted his teeth as he was looking at the grey void that the USB has created. "Mario, no matter where you go, I will always keep you safe." That thought made the assassin pull out Incursio from his back and he was going to activate it for the third time. Kowing the effects, the assassin didn't care about it at all. All he cared about was the safety of Mario.
He immediately stabbed his weapon in the ground and immediately summoned his armour. "INCURSIO!" Just then, the Danger Beast that made up his Imperial Arm appeared behind him before it gave a terrifying roar, which sent many beings living in the forest to run off from where the noise could be heard from.
In an instant, Tatsumi was now in the armour of Incursio and immediately he summoned his weapon, Neuntote, was now in his hand. He looked at the portal which was still there. "Just hang in there Mario!" Without wasting a second, the assassin then jumped towards where the void was, before the portal alongside him, Mario and the USB soon disappeared, which only left the sight of the campfire that the two had created while a grey dust was being blown away from the site.
Little did the assassin know was that he was going to experience pure carnage and total destruction when he was going to get Mario.
A/N: It's not in an anime world but rather in a world where there is nothing but chaos and destruction. And don't worry, it will only be three chapters long. And here are two clues. See you next time, which I am no longer going to upload on a weekly basis due to stress and also the lack of people who are actually enjoying the story.
Clues: It's based on a Newgrounds series and the name of the Arc.