Najenda

Najenda is the head of the assassin group Night Raid. She was a General of the Empire that defected, along with Lubbock, to the Revolutionary Army sometime after the end of an expedition led by her and Esdeath to eliminate the opposition of the Ban Tribe.

Appearance
Najenda is a woman with short, silver hair and purple eyes. She wears an eyepatch where her right eye used to be. She wears a black suit that shows her cleavage. She has a green and black mechanical right arm.

When she was younger, her hair was longer and she wore it tied and braided.

Personality
Najenda is taciturn, sharp-minded and level-headed, she leads the group with a surprisingly gentle-but-firm air. Her years of experience serving in the Empire as a General have made her a highly capable leader. Najenda is sometimes mistaken for a man due to her boyish appearance, even sometimes being nicknamed "The Hunk of the Rebellion" by her cohorts. She tends to have a habit of telling "cold jokes" and making bad puns.

History
Najenda was once a General of the Empire who decided to defect after realizing how corrupt the current regime was. She was a colleague of Esdeath, accompanying her on a past expedition for the Empire. During a mission to eliminate a Revolutionary army base, Najenda informed her army of her plan to defect from the Empire that they agreed with her. Because of that she and her troops became a target of Imperial troops and eventually Esdeath's army. She lost both her right eye and arm in the short ensuing battle against Esdeath.

Najenda makes her debut in Akame ga Kill Zero when Saikyuu gives Gozuki a new mission to kill her after the operation in Mount Hakuba. Since Gozuki had already his own mission, he passed it to Akame. Before their encounter (including Bulat, who was also Najenda's bodyguard at that time) Akame already had thoughts about The Empire's wrongdoings and questioning her actions. When they met face to face, Najenda revealed before the battle that they lured Akame here, away from The Empire's other spies, to take her down with Bulat because the Revolutionary Army had enough casualities thanks to her actions, making her a brand important target. The battle goes into an endless loop because Najenda's Teigu Pumpkin couldn't hit Akame (because she wasn't giving any openings), Bulat's fighting style wasn't a correct match to take down an assassin like Akame (because he was raised as a soldier) and Akame's Shingu Kiriichimonji couldn't land a critic hit on Incursio (because the armor was a Teigu). When Akame started to think about retreating so she can draw a new strategy to take both of them down, Bulat opens his heart to Akame, confessing that he felt she was already questioning The Empire's wrongdoings by the way she swing her sword. After a long talk, Akame decides to join Revolutionary Army and fake to Gozuki that the mission was unsuccessful because they got away with a secret path leading to the Town.

Najenda passes down her Teigu to Mine due to her being unable to utilize it any longer.

Due to her injury, Najenda usually stays at the base, giving orders to her subordinates. When Tatsumi first arrived, Najenda explained his options to him and as well as who he would be paired up with each time for training. She assigns roles and pairs each member of Night Raid together to help Tatsumi adapt as an assassin.

After losing several members, such as Bulat and Sheele, as well as the increasing threat from the Empire, mainly through the formation of its new faction, the Jaegers, Najenda temporarily leaves the Night Raid base and heads back to the Revolutionary Army's main army to hand in the Teigu they have taken hold on and searching of new members to replenish her team. During the attack on Night Raid's hideout by Team Stylish, Najenda arrives just in time to aid her comrades, bringing with her two new members. Chelsea, and the humanoid Teigu, Susanoo.

During their time leaving the hideout, Najenda and Night Raid train themselves while also introducing Chelsea and Susanoo to the members of Night Raid. They train for around a month until Revolutionary recall her and Night Raid to return to the capital with the others to subjugate new types of Danger Beast. After suppressing all of the Danger Beast, she was later receive new orders from the Command to make Path of Peace allies with Revolutionary Army due to their strong influence at the east and utilizing their uprising for Revolutionaries advantage.

Najenda briefed and explain for three-pronged attack's plan made by Revolutionary Army. During her dispatch outside Night Raid's base, she went to several castles and forts, convincing some Crown Princes of the Empire to defect to smoothen the Revolutionaries advance on the south.

Najenda later explains the plan for assassinating Borick at the Path of Peace which turns out Borick is a spy from the Empire that was assigned to prevent an uprising from inside out. By removing Borick, she can also convince The Lord to start an uprising at East and allies with Revolutionaries. She personally takes command of this operation, utilizing this mission to lure out Jaegers and forming a plan to ambush them. Before reaching the destination target, she split Night Raid into two teams by traveling east and south to weaken Jaegers. The strategy was successful and Najenda uses the trump card, Magatama Manifestation, for the first time to defeat Desta Ghoul.

After the assault, Najenda and the others withdraw to safety while Lubbock arrives. Concerned over Chelsea's decision to pursue Kurome alone, she orders Tatsumi and Akame to reinforce Chelsea. However, her decision was too late and Chelsea has already been killed by Kurome and displayed at the town of Romari.

She and the group arrive at Kyoroch, the headquarters of Path of Peace and observing Borick's mansion from distances. She made a contact with Revolutionary Spy Team to formulate a plan to assassinate Borick. However the plan was delayed due to Jaegers are on high-alert, engagement of Four Rakshasha Demons and many Revolutionary Spies are killed, forcing themselves to enter a stalemate for up to two weeks. During a discussion with Tatsumi, Najenda states that the required amount of soldiers necessary to defeat Esdeath is fifty-thousand Elite soldiers and ten Teigu users, including Akame.

When Najenda is alone with Tatsumi, she tells him about the past, at first she teases him for being lovey-dovey by telling how many men she reject when she was a General. During her mission to subjugate bandits, she announce her defection to Revolutionaries and the Empire dispatch troops but was made a quick work by Najenda. Her biggest miscalculation at that time was Esdeath's Army was also dispatched to intercept her. She herself lost her right eye and right arm in the process but saved in the nick of time because of Revolutionary Main Army that arrives in time to extract her, forcing Esdeath to retreat due to exhaustion but most of her troops are killed. From that day, she vows to purge this trauma by defeating her and The Empire.

The night before the assault, Night Raid made a feast and Najenda once again briefed the mission. She herself will command the distraction unit along with Susanoo, Tatsumi, and Leone while the rest attack from the air with an Air Manta that was requested beforehand.

After the war, Najenda continued to help protect the new kingdom, helping to weed out the remaining members of the former kingdom and to prevent further rebellions. Najenda lived the rest of her life single, but did adopt at least one child. She recovered Lubbock's goggles and held them as a memento to her fallen comrade.

Physical Abilities
She herself has commented that due to the injuries that Esdeath inflicted on her, she is only at 40% her original strength. This may have also rendered her unsuitable to handle her old Teigu, Pumpkin, to it’s fullest power, leading her to pass it on to Mine. She is still, however, a capable fighter, being able to use her prosthetic hand to generate momentum for her kicks and punches that can rip a head off in one blow. She once demonstrated on Leone her ability to fire her prosthetic hand and reel it back in.
 * Reel Assault (リールアサルト Rīruasaruto): She fires her prosthetic hand, reels herself to the arm, and quickly delivers a kick.

Leadership
Najenda is calm and collective, being able to adjust herself to differing situations and giving out orders by adapting to the current situation. She is also able to rally Revolutionary Troops that were attacking the capital, enabling them to hold the line before Night Raid defeated Esdeath and the Emperor. Esdeath state that Najenda always lead her troops and fight with calm and burning heart, knowing her capabilities as a former fellow General of the Empire.

Teigu
Before Najenda defected from Empire, she wielded the Teigu, Pumpkin and showcased sharpshooting and sniping skills. This is seen where she had used Pumpkin in an attempt to defend herself from Esdeath during her defection. Later after her defection, Najenda herself continued to use Pumpkin as her weapon of choice, albeit its been implied that her skill with it had dropped due to her injuries and missing arm and eye, despite that Najenda herself still showcased enough ability to make use of the weapon to provide Bulat with cover fire during his fight against Akame upon first meeting her and nearly shot her down in their duel.

Later, she would became the master to the humanoid Teigu, Susanoo, up until his demise. Until her arrival at HQ, Susanoo was in a state of dormancy and began to react to her presence. Susanoo told the members of Night Raid that it was because Najenda resembled his previous master, who was a great general. Due to Susanoo being able to fight on his own, Najenda has shown to primarily fight with him by providing him with support, such as providing him with her own energy in order to activate his Trump Card.

Trivia

 * Najenda's measurements are 85-58-86.
 * In episode 18 of Akame ga Kill! Theater, Najenda is shown to have a fear of roaches, or katsaridaphobia.
 * Her identical character is her Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest counterpart, Hajime Nagumo.
 * Najenda is the only member of Night Raid aside from Akame to survive in both the anime and manga. Tatsumi and Mine survive in the manga, but die in the anime.

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