I am awoken to the sound of a roaring cloud, I look forward and it seems Ragna is awake as well, he extends his hand to shake me out of respect, I slowly reach for his hand as mine is in so much pain, even though I didn't exactly win this fight, I feel closer to the others because of it and for that I owe him thanks, I shake his hand but as I do, I hear the crowd go quiet *clap clap clap* I hear 3 slow claps approach us in the silence. I look towards the direction of the clap to see a man closer to my size, might be a bit smaller, with blue eyes and blonde hair, rocking a ponytail walking towards me, still clapping.
"Quite impressive" he says to me
"And who might you be?" I reply
"You must forgive me Chinaman" says Ragna
"You can call me Yuki Ragna, and no need for forgiveness a fight is a fight, there is no need for malice" I say to him
"Alright then, nice to meet you Yuki" the blonde man replies
"I believe I was talking to Ragna" I reply the man sounding Irritated
"And I replied you" he says, I stare at him in confusion, has this man gone mad?
"When I said you must forgive me, I meant for deceiving you, I am not Ragna, I'm his brother Roloj, that is Ragna Lodbork" the man whom I thought was Ragna says to me as he points to the blonde man.
I stare at him as I am perplexed.
"I remember, you whispered something to him before he challenged me to a fight, did you tell him to lie to me? How did you know I'd recognise your name?" I say to the real Ragna.
"Walk with me boy, let's have a chat" Ragna says to me as he puts his hand on my shoulder... Just what is up with this man.
Akano's POV
How in the hell did I end up in Africa of all places, my difficulty level just had to be on the highest, how am I supposed to blend in here, hm..... Think I could pass as lightskinned? Nah never mind.
I've spent a few days here hiding in the shadows, I don't speak the language so I just sit and watch them, little by little I'll gather knowledge until I'm able to speak it a bit, the thing about humans is body language can be everything, sometimes you can tell what someone is talking about by the way they move and express themselves, so I'll just watch and wait, really wish I asked Kai for hausa lessons when I had the chance.
From what I've gathered the queen's home isn't far from here, maybe I should just kill her now, waiting 3 years seems like a hassle, I mean how bad can it fuck up the timeline if I just did my job early, I'm kinda tired of hiding in trees like a monk-..... Maybe that's not the best choice of words here.
I make my way to the queen's home and decide to camp out and watch, I need to observe, the guards seem to have shift changes at specific 10 minute intervals, probably to keep them active and from falling asleep, guess there's no waiting for nap time then. During one of those intervals I'll slip into her home and just end it with one strike, as any assassin should. What is it with the others, especially Kai, they claim to be assassin's but we always seem to be in head on fights like some samurai's trying to get a false sense of honour, assassination should be quick and swift and from the shadows, why wait 3 years to kill someone who's right in front of me? So I can have fun fighting and risking my life even more unnecessarily than the school does? Haha yeah not happening, especially Kai he seems to enjoy heading on fights so much, yet I know he's talented at assassination, I wonder how many people he could take out in a mission if he used the shadows as his main weapon rather than fighting like a berserker.
Their moving, oops got lost in thought for a second there. I make my way into her home. The palace is quite beautiful I must admit, the architecture is like nothing I've personally seen a before and it seems to be made of clay, things really are done different in Africa, if I was in America or Japan around this time the homes would have been made of wood.
If I understood right her chambers should be right here. I make my way into her room undetected, I see her laying on the bed peacefully asleep. I begin to approach her with a dagger in hand. Almost feel bad for killing a lady this old, it's like cheating, but I can't lie she looks quite good for someone in her 70's.
I lunge my blade towards her chest but as I do I feel a force push me towards the wall and I crash "Shit! The F was that" I say while getting up, It's obvious I'm not alone in this room, but what is it? Another assassin? Are they here for her head as well? I receive a blow to the gut while trying to think, before I can react I get stomped in the chest and hit the wall "bayyana kisan gillar kasuwancin ku" I hear a voice say from the shadows.
They are asking me to State my business, my Hausa isn't perfect yet but "What does it look like, I'm here to kill your queen dumbass" I say to them in their native tongue.
"You speak our language small eyes?" One of them says to me
"Yeah let's skip the chitchat and get back to killing each other" I say to them as I lunge my hand into the darkness, grabbing one by the neck "Hope  you didn't think I wouldn't be able to see you cause your skin is dark" I slam her to the wall and try to stab her in the eye, but my arm is stopped by a rope.
"Did you think there was only one person gaurding the queen?" a voice says from behind me
"Nope" I say as I tug on the rope forcing her to step on mirror shards I had broken when I fell "Ngh" she makes a slight noise but she doesn't scream, if anything she just looks slightly irritated, as my focus shifts to the one behind me for a second, the one in front of me twists my arm and head butts me in the forehead, my vision doubles and I hear echoes for for a second after she does, but I can't let my guard down, I jump into a split kick on instinct hoping I hit one or at least force them to give me some distance, but I end up hitting both in the face. As my toes drop to the ground I feel a force diving at me from behind tackling me through the wooden door breaking through it.
How on the hell was there another one, I was sure there was only 2 In the room, unless... I turn around to see Queen Amina staring down at me "foolish child, do you think a queen would be so unprotected that 1 amateur assassin could kill her in her sleep? I have fought in wars and lead the most brutal men to victory... Who the hell do you think you are? I am old not frail, bow to the queen so I may consider mercy".
I stare at this old psycho in the eye confused, at her age she should be to frail to jog talk less of tackling an assassin, I try to spring up and fight but she kicks me down faster than I can think to get up "everytime you think about getting up, I will kick you in the head" she says to me staring me in the eye silence fills the air as we enter this unusual game of chicken, we hear a sound from outside and she looks away for a second now's my cha-..... And before I could flinch she had kicked me in the head "fucking hell! You old bastard!" I yell at her, she steps on my ankle as she stares me down and says "Do you not have respect? Bow to your queen" I cannot believe my eyes, is this really Queen Amina of Zaria? Was she really this brutal? I mean you have to be tough to lead African men in war but this is- "Fatima would you please bring me a cane" Queen Amina says
"Excuse me?" I say in disbelief
"You go learn say you be dog today" she replies me in pidgin English.