Akame

Akame, also known as Akame of the Demon Sword Murasame, is the titular deuteragonist, alongside Tatsumi, and lead anti-heroine of the manga series Akame ga Kill!, as well as the main protagonist of the prequel manga Akame ga Kill! Zero. She also appears as a supporting character in Hinowa ga Yuku!. Originally sold to the Empire along with her sister Kurome to be trained as an assassin, Akame eventually defected to the rebels when she was sent to assassinate General Najenda, the leader of Night Raid and joined them to overthrow the corrupt monarchy.

Appearance
Akame is a young girl with long black hair that reaches down to her knees and red eyes. She wears a dark sleeveless mini dress with a white collar and a red tie; she wears a red belt that has a red side skirt cover. She wears it with long black socks and black shoes. She also wears red gauntlets and black gloves. She sometimes wears a long dark coat in battle. She is often seen carrying her Teigu, Murasame. After activating Murasame's trump card, she has faded red scars all over her body.

Personality
Akame appears to be a very serious and coldhearted person which stems from her hellish training that the Empire forced her and her sister through, but it is eventually revealed that she is just socially awkward. She cares about her comrades very much and she is always worried that one of them may not make it out alive. When Tatsumi fought Ogre, she stripped him of his clothes to check his body for wounds.

She also tends to hide her emotions when it is revealed that a comrade dies, such as seen with Sheele, making Tatsumi mistakenly and incorrectly assume that she deals with it easily, because she is used to it. However, this prompts her to break into tears saying that she can never be fine when she loses a friend, for it is the most horrible thing of which anyone can experience. She is then comforted by a sorry Tatsumi who resolves to not die and never let her experience such pain again, making her smile.

Upon facing her enemies however, she shows absolutely no mercy towards them shouting words such as "eliminate" and "consign" to show the lack of mercy she has and also to strengthen her resolve to kill them.

Akame loves to eat and is surprisingly known to be a big eater (usually meat from danger beasts and fish), much like her sister Kurome. Food is her passion to the point that Sheele noted how the "usually cool" Akame turned mad when she had burned some meat. Additionally, she is usually in charge of cooking the base's meals.

Events of Akame Ga Kill!:Zero
When Akame was a child, her parents sold both her and her sister Kurome to the Empire and they were forced to participate in a cruel exam, being put inside of a forest inhabited by many Danger Beasts, the only goal being to survive and escape the forest. Out of 100 children participating in the exam, Akame and her sister are among the few who manage to survive, but are parted when Gozuki refuses to allow the siblings to join the same group, noting that it would be bad for them to depend on each other. As the stronger of the two sisters, Akame is accepted into Gozuki's new Assassin squad, the Elite Seven, and is trained in the arts of espionage and combat, becoming a highly effective killer.

The seven were given Shingu, weapons in which the Emperor 400 years ago created in order to surpass the Teigu but failed to surpass them. Akame was given Kiriichimonji, a Shingu where wounds inflicted by the katana cannot be healed. After a long unspecified period of time training, the seven were given their first mission. Akame was sent to kill Martha, a person in the nearby village who was a Revolutionary Army spy and also a close friend to Akame. This was done to test her resolve as Gozuki feared that she was far too kind for their purposes.

As the others finished their missions successfully, Akame led Martha to a graveyard with the intention of proving that Martha was innocent. Martha denies the claim and Akame tries to leave, proving to herself that the information that she was given was incorrect. However, Martha uses the moment when Akame turned her back to her to strike at her. Realizing the truth of the information she was given, Akame cuts her down and Martha dies by Akame's blade and this brings tears to Akame's eye.

The story skips ahead at this point, next showing Akame and Tsukushi disguising themselves among a traveling entertainer group. Soon the group are attacked by bandits and the pair help fight off their attackers, defeating all of them. Impressed by Akame and Tsukushi's skill in battle, the Entertainer's group attempt to recruit them both, revealing themselves as Rebels plotting against the Empire. Akame and Tsukushi signaled their comrades from the Imperial Assassin Squad to attack the group after this revelation, having confirmed that their targets are indeed rebels. Akame and her comrades eliminate the members of the entertainer's group, their mission deemed a success and they are both praised by their mentor and leader, Gozuki.

During a trip to Deng Zhi Town, Akame would befriend Taeko. A day or so later Akame is approached by Taeko who says she has a message from Cornelia, Akame is then lead to the outskirts of the town by Taeko who then points to Cornelia's corpse. Taeko attempts to assassinate Akame who dodges and counterattacks. The two fight to a stalemate until one final clash ends with Akame emerging victorious. Akame then runs over to check up on Cornelia only to discover that she was dead. The rest of the team arrive on the scene where they mourn over Cornelia's grave until it's time to escape.

Two weeks later, Akame & her comrades are assigned a new mission. They are told to head to Putra, located in the north-west region of the empire. Before leaving for the mission, the group have a meeting to discuss their plan of action. Once the meeting is complete, Akame & Green step outside where they are approached by three gravekeepers, a battle ensues and Akame knocks out three of them and leaves the last for Green. During the battle, both Green & Akame work in sync in order to defeat and capture the last gravekeeper. Finally the team arrives at the tomb of the king.

As they explore the tomb, the group has to avoid numerous traps set by the gravekeepers as well as dispatch danger beasts & gravekeeper members. The group is later separated due to a huge boulder trap, it is here where Akame encounters Jamo. During a brief scuffle, Akame is ensnared by Jamo's tentacles until she begins to eat him alive which causes him to retreat. She chases him to the tomb's atrium, where Jamo releases a chained down teammate, Nubis. After a quick fight, Akame dispatches Nubis and meets up with Green who has a captured Jamo. The pair are approached by Weneg who declares that he shall take up his deceased relative's fight and they are challenged to a two on two fight.

Akame fights Weneg and during their battle, Green joins in after forcing Jamo to retreat making it two on one fight. During their battle, Green tries to serve as Akame's shield but is taken out quickly, Weneg then tries to choke Akame to death with minor interference from Green proving futile. While on the brink of losing consciousness, Akame spots Kurome in the distance, with newfound strength, she drives Weneg back. Tsukushi is also around and informs Akame of Weneg's secret art ability and that it was responsible for killing Guy. Akame declares that she's the only one that can take out Weneg and their battle resumes.

Over the course of their battle, Akame dodges Weneg's fire and utilizes her shingu's ability and inflicts small unhealable cuts all over his body knowing that the shingu affects won't hurt her once Weneg returns the damage. She continues doing this until Weneg is unable to return the damge and is exhausted from blood loss. After being separated for such a long time, the sisters are finally reunited. The reunion is short because Weneg activates the tomb's self-destruct sequence. The remains of both the group of terror and the elite seven work together to escape the collapsing tomb, they eventually manage to escape however, they lost both Guy & Najasho.

One month later, at the imperial palace, Gozuki is informed that Natala, Gin, & Kurome will be integrated into his team where Akame is temporally made the leader. The next day, the team is assigned a mission to go to the water capital of Sweun. Upon arriving at the town, the team is assigned to work at the Suekuni trade firm, it is here where Akame pairs up Kurome & Tsukushi. Sometime later, during their food hunt in the marshes, Akame's team encounters a danger beast and dispatches it in short notice as well devour all their collected food. During a trip to purchase oil, Akame notices a suspicious merchant and informs Gozuki.

During some down time, Akame learns some craftsmanship from Green. Later, during a meeting with Gozuki, he informs the team that he's learned the location of the rebellion's salt-works, Gappi Marsh. While en route Gozuki mentions that they've identified two locations and decides to take them both out so he splits the team in two. Green, Kurome, & Tsukushi travels with Akame and eventually they arrive to an recently evacuated factory.

Akame & co discuss whether or not if the villages is aiding the rebellion, she's told not to think about it too much. Three weeks later while out on a search mission, Natala, Kurome, and Akame are ambushed by Merraid Oarburgh, Daniel, & Cassandra. Natala is severely injured while Kurome & Akame are taken as hostages.

A while later both Akame & Kurome awaken inside a warehouse and is approached by Merraid who tells them that Natala is alive and that she is going to tell them the truth about the world. Merraid then frees the two and they walk out the room together where they are lead to three men tied in rope. Merraid kills the men and tells Akame & Kurome that she planted insects inside their bodies.

Akame asks about her "truth of the world", Merraid responds by having them sit so she can tell them the story. Merraid explains that prime minister Honest is behind the country's suffering due to manipulating the young emperor. Akame is then taken outside and forced into a race with Merraid, eventually the two go around many towns in the region listening to the citizens dissatisfaction with the empire. Merraid then shows Akame one last surprise, Kurome's drug withdraws. Akame gives Kurome her drugs for the withdrawal sympthoms.

After multiple successful assassinations by the group, the Revolutionary Army eventually turned to assassins as well, hiring the Tengu Mercenaries and the Oarburghs in an attempt to counter the Empire's assassination group.

Before the events of Akame ga Kill!
At some point, after many of her comrades&apos; deaths, she became dissatisfied and resentful towards the government. It was not until she was sent to kill former General Najenda that Akame finally defected to the Rebels, after being swayed by her words. Her defection from the Empire sparked an intense rivalry between fellow assassin and sister Kurome, along with a mutual desire to be the one to end the other.

Events of Akame ga Kill!
Akame first appears with the rest of Night Raid to assassinate Aria & her family. She briefly battles Tatsumi who was under the impression that the family was innocent. The fight stops when Leone interferes. After he sees the truth, Aria is cut down and the mission is complete.

Akame is next seen eating parts of a evil bird species and offers some to Tatsumi. She retracts her offer when she is told Tatsumi is not yet part of Night Raid. Later, when Tatsumi states that Night Raid are assassins of justice, everyone bursts out laughing. She, however, remains silent. After Tatsumi accepts joining Night Raid, they are attacked by several members of the Empire employed tracking clan and Night Raid is sent to dispatch them. Akame is attacked by three men, whom she dispatches with great ease. She later helps deal the killing blow to an enemy that Tatsumi was fighting, telling him to promptly land the killing blow to his enemies.

Najenda tells Tatsumi to train under Akame, which at first seems to be a variety of chores including cooking and fishing. Eager to make Akame accept him, Tatsumi deals with Ogre of the imperial guard whilst Akame and Leone deal with the other target; Gamal. Upon his return, Akame strips Tatsumi of his clothes to check for wounds and expresses concern for Tatsumi's well being, revealing that she is not as coldhearted as she was thought to be. Her training is revealed to have helped Tatsumi in his mission.

When Zanku the Beheader runs loose in the capital, Akame and Tatsumi are sent to kill him. Akame tells Tatsumi about Teigu and how everybody apart from Najenda has one. Tatsumi encounters Zanku and their fight is interrupted by Akame who joins in the fight, making the battle between two teigu users.

Zanku uses his spectator Teigu to accurately predict Akame's moves despite the speed and intensity of her strikes. She attempts to clear her mind in order not to be read but it is useless as spectator picks up the small changes and predicts her moves. Zanku uses spectator's third ability to show illusions of the target's loved ones to Akame. Zanku claims that no one will be able to cut down their most beloved person however Akame sees Kurome and does not hesitate to cut her down. She remarks that the person she loves the most is the person whom she wishes to kill the most. After a brief fight with Zanku again, she manages to destroy his weapon and cuts him down.

Akame does not play a major part of the story until after Sheele's death where she is shown to try to help Mine with eating her food. Later on, Tatsumi sees her get dumplings to use as an offering to the dead as it was Sheele's favorite food. Tatsumi remarks how she must be "used to it" however, Akame grabs him and shouts at him telling him that she will never be able to get use to the kind of pain of losing her friends. Akame agrees to Tatsumi's declaration to change the country without making her experience the pain of losing her friends once more.

When Tatsumi is taken by Esdeath,  Akame is on the verge of ordering a rescue for him. The other members of Night Raid stop her but she declares that they will do anything they can for him.Soon after, Tatsumi escapes from Esdeath and the Jaegers and Akame finds him and stop a danger beast from killing Tatsumi in the nick of time.

They return to the Night Raid base where Tatsumi informs Night Raid of the strength and members of the Jaegers which include Kurome; Akame's sister. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Stylish had followed Akame and Tatsumi and found himself at the Night Raid base preparing an attack with his artificially enhanced troops.

As the attack began, Night Raid was caught with their guard down. Akame saves Lubbock from several enhanced troops only to find herself challenged by the "knight" of Team Stylish; Toby. Akame, after fighting him discovers that he is a cyborg and therefore Muramasa's poison cannot work on him. She decides that she must slowly hack him to pieces.

After she kills Toby, she regroups with the rest of Night Raid. Unfortunately, Dr. Stylish uses his secret poison to paralyze the members of Night Raid. Only Tatsumi manages to move due to Incursio. As they are about to be attacked by the enhanced troops, they are saved by a timely attack by the newest member of Night Raid, Susanoo who came along with Najenda and another new member Chelsea.

Seeing that his enhanced troops will fail to defeat Night Raid with the backup of the Human Teigu, Susanoo, Dr. Stylish undergoes a danger beast transformation. This turns him into a colossal danger beast, with the only hint of his previous self near the danger beast's chest.

The Night Raid members deem this point to be the weak point of the danger beast. Akame requests Tatsumi to carry her to the chest of the Dr. Stylish danger beast. They successfully evade all of his attacks with the help of Susanoo and the others, so that Akame can cut him down. Dr. Stylish is killed by the poison from Akame's Teigu.

Akame and the others are forced to flee from their base for fear of being found out. They temporarily take residence in a unexplored region of the Empire where they train by subjugating danger beasts. They relocate to a new base which is similar to the old one.

They receive word that a new type of danger beast has been terrorizing the citizens of the Empire. Night Raid accepts this request and set off to destroy them.

Najenda informs the group of the revolutionary army's plan to use multiple uprisings to send the Empire into chaos. One of these uprisings is to come from the followers of the path of peace. However it is under threat from a Empire spy named Bolic. It is Night Raid's task to assassinate Bolic and ensure that the plans of the revolutionary army are kept intact.

Night Raid sends false messages that Akame and Mine have left for one Kyoroch and the conflicting reports that Najenda is headed south. Night Raid successfully manages to split the Jaegers into two groups.

She is later seen in her bikini with the other members of Night Raid to provide bait for their trap. Mine assures her that if they do end up fighting Kurome that she will watch Akame's back.

Three month's after Bolic's assassination, Night Raid received a flood of requests from citizens as well as the revolutionary army to destroy Wild Hunt. During the same night, Jaeger members Run & Kurome head to Wild Hunt's headquarters to lure out Champ, Akame assassinates Wild Hunt's Enshin.

On the day of Tatsumi's execution, Night Raid arrives on the scene to rescue him. Pairing up with Mine, they take on Esdeath while Leone & Tatsumi tackle Budo and over the course of the battle, turns her attention to Budo once Esdeath is ejected.

Kurome meets Akame on the outskirts of the capital at Gyou Forest. They briefly talk about the past before engaging in combat. The two sister engage in battle and thanks to a very powerful drug, Kurome is able to land a couple of blows on Akame. Due to being tricked, Kurome then summons her puppets which include Run, Doya, and Natala only for them to be disabled with ease by Akame. Just as Akame spots an opening and goes in for the kill suddenly Run moves in to protect her from the blow.

With the defeat of her puppets, Kurome regains her strength and resolves to fight using her own skills. As the battle continues, Kurome becomes slower due to the drugs wearing off and Yatsufusa taking its toll. Kurome attempts to ingest more drugs just to beat Akame only to be stopped by Wave. He speaks about protecting Kurome and declares his love for her which causes her to be conflicted and so she still tries fighting until Wave snatches her weapon and shatters it stating the she needs closure.

After being kissed by Wave, Kurome tearfully asks for him to take her away. Wave announces their defection from the Empire and the sisters make up with Akame telling Kurome to live a happy life.

The night before Night Raid's final mission, she remembered the groups former members and swore to kill her last targets. She also stated that she would like to go on a boat trip with the remaining members of Night Raid after the revolution. Najenda later told her the names of her last targets. Akame was also given a drug that enhanced her strength to increase her chances of completing her mission, which she has to administer before her battle with Esdeath.

Akame and Leone than infiltrated the Imperial Palace and killed Youkan, their first target. She than confronted her next two targets, Koukei and Dousen, in the palace courtyard. While the targets ran away, an Teigu user appeared to stop them. Akame ordered leone to pursue the targets while she faced the Teigu user. He activated several lethal traps with his teigu, such as projectiles and posionous gas, but was soon eliminated by Akame. Leone reunited with her after killing the targets and both were shocked after seeing Shikoutazer. She separated from Leone and went after Saikyuu, who was hiding in the basement. She swiftly killed him and his bodyguards before they could escape. She took his Teigu, Rongo Rongo, with her as well. Suzuka confronted her and attempted to kill her by destroying the entire basement.

Akame survived the basements destruction and stopped Esdeath from attack Tatsumi. Esdeath noted that Akame's strength had increased by some kind of performance enhancer. Akame told Esdeath that the Empire has fallen after Shikoutazer's destruction. However, Esdeath claimes she didn't really care about the Empire and their battle continued. Ten teigu users and over one hundred thousand soldiers under the command of Najenda came to aid her in her battle with Esdeath.

However, Esdeath used her new trump card, Ice Storm Commander In Chief, to freeze a large part of the Empire and started killing the opposing soldiers and Teigu users. When Tatsumi appeared, now completely transformed into a dragon, Akame pleaded with him to fall back and leave the rest to her. Akame started to circle Esdeath and managed to cut her arm while she is distracted. Esdeath manages to survive the curse by freezing time and amputating of her own arm. She also wounds Tatsumi, who pleads with Akame to kill him before his consciousness fades away completely. Akame proceeds to stab Tatsumi and activates Murasame's trump card.

She again confronts Esdeath and fights her on equal terms thanks to the power of her trump card, even cutting of a few of the general's fingers. Esdeath, who is enjoying the battle, creates a wall that separates both her and Akame from the Revolutionary Army. Realizing that she can't use her trump card for much longer, Akame musters her strength together for a final assault. However, Esdeath encases herself in a giant soldier made of ice. Akame evades Esdeath's attacks and tries to smash through the ice. However, Esdeath reads her moves and catches Murasame between her hands. She than freezes and subsequently shatters its blade. Akame pushes every last ounce of her strength into her final attack and grabs Esdeath's own sword. She then strikes Murasame's handle and stabs Esdeath with its broken blade.

Murasame's trump card deactivates and Akame sees Tatsumi flying towards them. Akame explains to Esdeath that she lost because she is alone and Tatsumi survived because there are people waiting for his return. She watches as a dying Esdeath encases herself in ice and shatters. Her mission now complete, she meets up with Tatsumi and Najenda. She explains that when she stabbed Tatsumi, she targeted Tyrant's life force instead of Tatsumi's and thus only Tyrant died. Akame than remembered Tatsumi promise her that he wouldn't die and was glad that she could help him keep that promise.

Even though Murasame's trump card had ended, faded red scars remained all over Akame's body and caused it to hurt. She eventually found Leone and noticed that she was hurt. Akame wanted to call for a docter but was stopped by Leone, who told Akame that she was fine and explained that she was only alive because she fused with her Teigu. Akame tried to persuade Leone to seek help, but Leone declined again because she wanted to choose how and where she died. Leone told Akame that she was her best friend and said goodbye. Akame is present along with Najenda when Tatsumi and Mine reunite and the latter wakes up from her coma. She told Najenda that she believed love and memories played a significant part in Mine's recovery. When Najenda said she couldn't believe Mine was pregnant with Tatsumi's child, Akame told her that when she went to get a drink of water in the middle of the night, she witnessed Mine trying to make Tatsumi forget about Esdeath. Akame later comforted Kurome when they were lying in bed. Akame told her that she had saved many lives by allowing Wave to go to the capital during the final battle. Akame then hugged her when she was plagued by hallucinations of the people she killed. Akame also occasionally visited Kurome and Wave afterwards.

Najenda later met up with Akame, who informed her that she was mostly used to the pain from Murasame's curse and was ready to go to work once again. Akame then declared to keep working until the chaos and disorder in the new Empire were eradicated. After she had completed her assignments, Akame left the new Empire by boat with Rongo Rongo to hide the fact that the new nation had employed assassins. She sailed to the lands of the east in search of the island nation were Murasame's roots lay. She hoped that there would be a cure for Murasame's curse that still caused her pain. While alone on the ship, Akame thought to herself that she wouldn't want to trade the time spent with her companions for anything. She also decided that she would continue to live and find a way to grow as a person.

Hinowa ga Crush!
Some time after the events in Akame ga Kill, Akame's ship gets caught in a storm. Despite Akame having successfully escaped into a smaller boat that she made as a precaution, the storm still hits her and Akame ends up at Jinwa's shore where she is rescued by Hinata and Tobari. Hinata offers her place to stay and in exchange for rescuing her and giving her place to stay, Akame teaches Hinata swordmanship due to their similar sword styles.

Upon meeting with the Elder of the village under the recommendations of Hinata and Tobari, Akame tells them her real purpose in coming to Jinwa: that Akame is searching for a way to undo Murasame's curse on herself and to find a way to change teigu-transformed humans back to their human form (Mostly Tatsumi who had turned into a Tyrant). Akame also reveals that Murasame's curse is slowly killing her.

Akame was initially advised by the Elder not to participate in battle because of her serious injuries. However she manages to fully recover and heads to Mt. Kageboshi where she arrives in time to assist Hinata, who was about to be killed by Yomihime.

Physical Abilities
Akame is often considered to be one of the strongest members of Night Raid, slaying even the strongest of enemies with minimal effort. Her hellish assassination training allows her combat prowess to be on par with those as powerful as the General rank within the military levels of the Empire, Esdeath herself acknowledging her strength. Akame is a extremely skilled master swordswoman, able to wield her Teigu Murasame with utmost dexterity and precision, able to slay numerous enemies, even highly skilled and powerful enemies with incredible ease. She easily slayed Izou a fellow master swordsman in combat and would have killed Tatsumi, if not for the statue his chief villager gave him before embarking on his journey. At her full strength, Akame managed to hold her own against Esdeath a tremendously powerful master swordswoman and ultimately killed her with single precise thrust, plunging Murasame's shattered blade to stabbed directly into Esdeath's heart. Akame possess tremendous speed, agility and reflexes,being able to dodge and counter-attack with deadly results, and is also skilled in hand to hand combat. She also gives off no killing intent at all when she fights, making it difficult for the enemy to sense her presence. According to Wave, she can run at Mach 1 (velocity of sound in the airflow which is approximately 340 meter per second). Like the other members of the Elite Seven, she is immune to most poisons.

Teigu
She carries the Teigu, One-Cut Killer: Murasame, a katana known for being coated in an immensely deadly poison that can kill those cut by it within seconds, as the poison itself has no antidote. The Teigu's trump card was revealed during the final battles against the empire. It is revealed near the end of the manga that Murasame's poison can target only one life at a time; using this to her advantage, she kills Tyrant without hurting Tatsumi.

Shingu
She was once equipped with the katana-based Shingu, Kiriichimonji before gaining her Teigu. It has the ability to create permanent wounds which cannot be healed or closed.

Trivia

 * Akame is a word play on Aka me, which means "Red Eye" in Japanese. So the title of the manga means The Red Eyed Killer. Akame has red eyes while her sister, Kurome, which means "Black Eye", has black eyes.
 * Her measurements are 81-56-83.
 * The opening theme is performed by Sora Amamiya, who voices Akame.
 * Akame shares some similarities with Imai Nobume from the anime "Gintama" They both were trained as assassins since they were very young, they both left a corrupted Government/Empire to join a rebel army (although Nobume is in the Mimawarigumi who are police officers secretly in alliance with Takasugi), they both would kill their targets without hesitation, both are very skilled swordswomen and both of them have an unhealthy obsession over their favourite foods (donuts for Nobume and meat for Akame).

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