193. Akame Ga Kill : Fighting Esdeath and Escape From Imperial Capital.

Realizing that Esdeath was clearly interested in fighting him, Kaito raised his hands to persuade, "Um... General Esdeath, can you ignore me? After all, I just killed a criminal, not a noble or innocent."

"Oh? So you recognized me?"

"I am not ignorant of not recognizing the strongest General of the Empire."

Esdeath then grinned and asked, "A general, letting the enemy run away after making a mess in the Capital city? Do you think it's funny, yellow hair boy?"

"Uh..."

Hearing her question, Kaito was silent because he admitted that asking the General to ignore him, who had caused a commotion and destroyed the Imperial Capital building, sounded stupid.

"Hah!"

*DASH*

...!!!

However, before Kaito was able to answer her back, Esdeath jumped out from the top of the building directly into him. This directly forced Kaito to respond by blocking her rapier using a knife he made on the spot with creation.

"Crap!"

*Clank*

...!!

"A- Are you crazy?!"

"You are really strong, boy!"

Instead of answering him, Esdeath continued to attack him relentlessly and didn't care about his words at all. At the moment, Kaito is also at a disadvantage thanks to the fact that he is using a knife to block her sword (long-range weapon). Fortunately, his haki greatly helps him read Esdeath's relentless attack and forcing the situation to become a stalemate.

*Clank*

"Oii?!"

*Clank*

"Stop it!"

*Clank*

"Damn it!"

...!!

Kaito admitted that although he had fought many enemies, Esdeath is the craziest. This woman didn't hesitate to attack him just because curious about his strength. Not to mention, from her expression, Esdeath seemed to be enjoying this fight, and all of her attacks also aimed to kill him!

Realizing he couldn't make this woman give up on attacking him, Kaito finally decided to fight back. Immediately, Kaito took the varanium sword from his inventory-- because fighting with a knife against Esdeath, who was a very skilled swordsman, was stupid thing to do.

*Clank*

*Clank*

*Clank*

...!!!

After Kaito equips himself with a sword, he is finally able to counter Esdeath's attacks well and gain the advantage. Shortly after, Kaito even overwhelmed her as she was forced to defend. Although Esdeath is a very experienced and skilled swordsman, she is more of a fighter who uses her instincts and superior strength to fight enemies. 

Unfortunately for Esdeath, Kaito suppressed her in all of those aspects after visiting the Fate world. And in terms of skill, Kaito was far better than her right now after rigorous training and with high-level observation haki. Esdeath realized this and wanted to fight back, but no matter how fast her attack became, she quickly admitted that in a swordplay, she's not Kaito's opponent at all.

Eventually, in just a matter of minutes, Kaito managed to knock back Esdeath's sword, unarmed her, and press his varanium sword to her neck-- to force her to surrender.

*Clank*

...!!

"Is this farce over, Strongest General?"

"Kill me!"

"Nah..."

???

Realizing Kaito doesn't have any intention to harm her, Esdeath couldn't help but be interested and asked, "Oh? Why don't you want to kill me?"

"Because my goal is never to kill you." Kaito shook his head and retracted his sword since Esdeath seemed finally able to talk, "And the task of subduing you is left to my comrade."

It's obvious that Kaito could certainly kill Esdeath right now, but doing so would cause unpredictable chaos in this world. Crocodile probably also needs her to stay alive, too, and from Kaito's understanding of her from memories, Esdeath is, in fact, a good general and has a great reputation in the Empire.  If Crocodile manages to subdue Esdeath and make her work for them, she would certainly make things much easier to stabilize the Empire after Team 2 took this world over.

Of course, it's undeniable that what she did over the years to her enemies is evil, but at least she is only evil to her enemies. She also isn't interested in oppressing the weak, hence technically she barely harms any innocent people either. If Kaito could work with someone like Crocodile, then he would also have no problem working with Esdeath.

...

"Interesting. I admit, in sword skill, I am not your opponent." Hearing Kaito's sincere words, Esdeath became interested and asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Kaito. In a way, all the people who build Paradise City are my subordinates."

...?!!??

Hearing Kaito answer, Esdeath didn't expect to meet the leader of the Empire's new enemy. She's become excited and asked, "Are your subordinates also as strong as you?"

"Uh... I'm one of the strongest people, but there are 2 or 3 people that I think are still stronger than I am."

Kaito himself isn't that arrogant to think he could beat Saitama, Yuu, and Manaka in the chat group. Saitama certainly has way more strength and destruction power, Yuu's conceptual control ability is too tricky to deal with, and Manaka... she could summon all top beings in Fate, and Kaito knows that he would be beaten to death!

...

"Interesting! No wonder no one could penetrate that city defense, with you as the leader, and if your subordinate is also as strong as you, it's impossible to sneak into such a formidable city." Esdeath excitedly commented.

"Uh... Crocodile is the one who leads it, but it's not wrong either."

"You haven't gone all out either, right?" 

As an experienced fighter, Esdeath easily guessed based on how leisurely Kaito expressed himself while fighting her, "Also, it seems you can create a weapon whatever you want, since I am sure you are not holding a knife at the beginning."

"You also can pull out a weapon from space... since your sword pretty much appears instantly in mid-combat."

"Also, although I admit you are quite skillful, most of your moves were like anticipating all of my attacks... prediction ability?"

...!!!

"Your ability to analyze your opponent is terrifying."

Just hearing all of her comments and correct analysis, Kaito genuinely thinks that Esdeath's combat instinct talent and her ability to grasp her enemy's abilities are truly terrifying. After all, she almost guessed correctly almost all of his abilities in a single confrontation!

"Thank you, pretty boy~" Esdeath grinned, and then the atmosphere around suddenly became colder as she seemed to become excited, "Now, I know you are the enemy's leader and quite strong, I will surely do my best to capture you."

"...Can we have a truce until war?" Kaito was persuaded, as he doesn't want to deal with her at all.

"No. I need to do my best to capture you and make you my slave!"

"Hah... Stop it. You do realize I don't take you seriously, right?" Hearing Esdeath's provocative words, Kaito only gets a headache and doesn't take her seriously at all, "I told you, you can't capture or defeat me."

"Hah! I haven't been serious either. Don't underestimate me." Esdeath scoffed, "I am the strongest general, not without reason!"

*BLAST*

...!!!

After saying that, Esdeath then released her Teigu power, Demon Extract, which allowed her to manipulate ice and mold it from nothing. Esdeath releases her Teigu full power, forcing Kaito to flee using teleportation to avoid getting frozen!

"This girl is crazy!"

*Blink*

...!!!

Almost instantly, a giant iceberg appeared in the middle of the capital, freezing the entire dilapidated area, and this naturally attracted a lot of people's attention.

Kaito immediately appears a bit far away, but right now, he is considering how to defeat this girl instead of just teleporting away (escaping) from the Imperial Capital. If Kaito just ran away right now, he was afraid this crazy woman would wreak havoc indiscriminately in the Imperial Capital and kill a lot of innocent people in the process!

Thanks to her Teigu, which gives her supreme physical strength and stamina, she is perfectly capable of doing that too!

"Spatial ability?! You made me excited, Kaito!"

Looking at Kaito, who was unscathed despite her surprise attack, Esdeath became even more excited and immediately jumped again at him after picking up her rapier. 

*CLANK*

...!!!

"AHAHAHA! What's wrong, Kaito!?" Esdeath provoked him, with clear craziness in her eyes, "Are you surprised by my power?!"

"Heavy!" After trying to block her attack, Kaito gritted his teeth, realizing this crazy woman needed to be stopped. "I am sorry, but you forced me to put you down!"

After saying that, Kaito immediately teleported behind her and grabbed her neck from behind, which shocked Esdeath again, as she didn't expect Kaito to teleport.

*BLINK*

...!!

Naturally, Esdeath tried to fight back by activating her Teigu to blast Kaito in zero range, except this time she was unable to use it at all because Imagine Breaker directly disabled her Teigu activation, and she could only hear a glass-crashing sound in her ears!

*CRASH*

...!!

"HOW?! WHAT DO YOU DO--"

"Shut up and good fricking night, General!"

...!!

Panicked, Esdeath tried to turn around and punch Kaito, but naturally, Kaito wouldn't give her a chance to do so. Putting armament Haki on his right hand, Kaito directly slammed Esdeath's head to the ground with his overwhelming enhanced strength, creating a shockwave so great that the whole Imperial Capital felt it like a big earthquake had suddenly happened!

*DUARRR*

...!!!!

The shockwave alone demolishes and cracked any building 20 meters around them to a ruin, debris of the destruction fills the area, and Imperial Capital quickly puts in alert. 

At the center of the attack, a deep 5-meter crater was created with Esdeath in the center, in critical condition, and she certainly would die if left alone.

"Fyuh. I almost killed you, crazy woman."

"..."

Unfortunately, as monstrous as her physical condition is thanks to her Teigu, Esdeath is no match for Kaito's devil physique 6* strength, which is multiplied by 30 times by Haki alone. Kaito was also holding back, otherwise, Esdeath would have died as all of her organs would have ruptured and her head would have exploded like a watermelon.

"...Unfortunately, I genuinely think that I can't let you die since there's a chance you will become my subordinate in the future."

...!!

Using the same props he used to heal Anna in Black Bullet World with his touch, Kaito heals Esdeath's condition back to 'stable'. Although Kaito did not restore her condition to normal, at least Esdeath is now not in critical condition and still can be saved as long as she gets medical help within an hour.

Kaito didn't realize that his act of kindness would give her more trouble later on, as Esdeath, now barely conscious (but Kaito didn't realize it), realized Kaito had "mercifully" not taken her life and become more interested in him.

>>>>>

After making sure Esdeath would survive after his attack, Kaito immediately left the slum area. Due to such huge commotion, Imperial Capital Guard certainly noticed it, and Kaito didn't want to harm more people, as it wasn't part of the plan at all.

Kaito then went back to the meeting point with Akame, waiting for her to come back while he also activated the device to detect Est's soul fragment's whereabouts.

"Oh well, at least she is finally down." Kaito sat down, feeling a bit tired mentally after beating Esdeath, "Unfortunately, the device is unable to pick up any signal of Est's soul fragment in this Imperial Capital... but somehow I got a feeling Est's soul fragment must be in this capital city."

"Should I use point to find it...?" Kaito murmured before denying it, "Nah, I believe in my guts I would find it sooner or later."

"I just need to make sure to participate later when Team 2 decides to capture the Imperial Capital," Kaito concluded.

Crocodile already explained his plan to attack the Imperial Capital while their Paradise city itself got attacked, since that would be the perfect time to strike, as there would not be many soldiers to defend the Palace. To make sure it would be successful, Crocodile planned to send all the Night Raid to the Imperial Capital to kill the Prime Minister and Little Emperor-- and Kaito felt he just needed to ride along with them at that point.

He also wanted to see Night Raid using his creation in action, so there's that too.

...

After waiting for a while, he finally saw Akame arrive at the meeting point, and Kaito quickly greeted her kindly, "Akame-san, how is your task?"

"I am okay." Akame answered calmly while adjusting her breath, "I spend too much time running around than killing them off."

Remember how easy it was for Tatsumi to kill Ogre without any Teigu; Kaito does not doubt Akame's words and feels sorry for her. After all, Ogre was quite popular and waiting good time to assassinate him might be difficult.

"Speaking of which, I heard a big explosion and an earthquake in the Imperial Capital earlier... are you okay, Kaito-san?" Akame curiously asked.

"I am okay." Kaito shrugged and explained,  "It's just my fight against Esdeath, but I easily defeated her."

"Esdeath?! You defeated her?!" Akame expressed her disbelief.

"Yeah... don't worry, she might be dangerous for most people, but certainly not for me~" Kaito said with confidence, which made Akame stunned, but then she remembered Kaito is the real leader of a group of monsters who were capable of creating things that even stronger than Teigu by himself.

Kaito wasn't lying to her. For him, taking down Esdeath is much easier than Kaguya or Gilgamesh in the Naruto world, as she can't detect a spatial attack, and Kaito himself is immune to her ultimate skill, Mokobotmo, thanks to Imagine Breaker and props like a golden watch.

Kaito also has a dozen ways to kill Esdeath if he wanted to. For example, if Kaito decides to throw Gungnir at her, what can she do? Esdeath might survive one Gungnir... but at this point, Kaito easily has dozens of Gungnir in his arsenal to use simultaneously, and energy wouldn't be a problem with his status as "third magician".

So, from the beginning, Kaito didn't take Esdeath seriously at all.

...

After finishing their 'mission', Kaito took Akame back to Paradise City to escape the Imperial Capital. At first, Kaito planned to study how Spectator Teigu works and create mental attack props by himself, and stay for another day in this world. Unfortunately, Kaito didn't have time to do that since suddenly, he was informed by Aika to go back to Black Bullet as soon as possible.