Age of Darkness (19 page)

***

Yuri rolled his eyes as he heaved Keimaro’s
arm around his shoulder, the other arm around Lena’s. Together, the two of them
walked down the hallway toward the nearest open room. Yuri gripped the doorknob
and heaved Keimaro onto his large bed. He didn’t bother turning on the lights
since it might wake him up. Still, the kid must’ve been pretty tired if he was
able to sleep through Yuri and Lena dragging him across the hallway. Yuri had
never seen someone fall asleep faster than this boy had. “He’s had a long day,”
Yuri said, turning to leave the room. “Let’s give him some rest.”

Lena stood in the doorway, looking at Yuri
with worried eyes. “Yuri … do you actually think we can trust him? He’s dangerous,
and … I mean, how do we know that he’s the
one
? Can’t you just defeat
the Bounts like you did at Horux? Wouldn’t that be easier than trusting a
complete stranger?”

Yuri stopped walking forward with one hand
in his pocket and smiled at Lena. “No, I don’t think we can trust him. Quite
frankly, this boy is out of control. He is consumed by hatred to the point
where he would probably kill anyone, even a child, in order to obtain the
revenge he thirsts for. His aura is evil; I can smell it. His eyes represent
the devil, which he seems to resemble with such heinous intentions. In fact, I
wouldn’t be surprised if he turned on all of us and killed us all. However,” his
look became serious in a mere instant, “I can also see good in him. He cares
for his friends and allies. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have come all this way
for his friend, Yata. He wouldn’t have fought us with such fierceness. I feel
that there’s more behind him than just a hateful boy. After all, he’s had the
chance to assassinate the king, being his guard and all. Yet, the king still
lives.”

Lena lowered her head, looking away. “You
really think that he can kill them? That he can accomplish what you can’t? You’re
stronger! So much stronger….”

“Yes,” Yuri said with a chuckle. “For now.
The thing about natural magic is that it reacts with your emotions. I, too,
have natural magic, though it isn’t from a foreign source. Keimaro’s magic is
different. It fuses with his hatred and becomes stronger. It can evolve into a
much stronger form, where mine stays the same. Keimaro has the potential to
become something stronger than even me.” He scratched the back of his neck with
a sigh. “Though, we don’t know if he will live long enough to get there.
Tobimaru Hayashi will be after him; that’s for sure.” He stepped past Lena,
glancing at her over his shoulder. “All we can do is trust that he will become
strong—strong enough to destroy the enemies that we can’t.”

Lena’s eyes watered as memories began to
flow back into her. She sniffed and shut her eyes as she reached for Keimaro’s
doorknob. She was betting everything on a complete stranger. She wasn’t sure
whether to be worried or not. Could she put her trust in Keimaro? Would he
destroy the Bounts in a representation of their revolution? No one could know,
not even Yuri. She opened her eyes and watched the sleeping Keimaro as she
slowly closed the door, the shadows eventually swallowing the young boy in
darkness. All that she could do was hope. 

Keimaro’s eyes opened, finding that the
ceiling was rather blurred.
Hmm? Where am I?
Everything came back into
focus at once. The room was dark and silent, and he was lying on something
extremely comfortable. That was all he knew. He sat up, slowly leaning forward
and rubbing his forehead with a groan. He was on a bed. Where? He didn’t
remember going to an inn.

Memories of the previous night began to
flash back, and he sighed, looking down at the white blanket that covered him.
Everything was much more complicated now that he knew what the Bounts were up
to. World domination using a dragon, a mythical creature. It sounded absurd,
but it was possible. After all, Keimaro hadn’t even seen much of the world yet.
He had to assume that any legends or stories that he had ever heard about were
real after seeing werewolves, magic, and falling stars. He had to assume that
dragons really did exist. But the mere thought of such a majestic, yet
frightening beast, sent shivers through his body.

He reached up and touched the key that
dangled from his neck, feeling the cool metal on his fingertips. Yuri or Z
could’ve stolen this from him and simply left him. But they hadn’t. Instead,
they had just given him a place to stay.
Can I really trust these guys?

The door suddenly flew open, and a burst of
light filled the room, blinding Keimaro. He covered his eyes with his hands and
groaned, leaning back into his pile of soft pillows. The ephemeral light
blinded him for a few seconds, and he saw the outline of a shadow that reminded
him a bit of Aika. But, as his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that it was
only Lena.

She harshly threw a loaf of bread at
Keimaro and crossed her arms over her chest. “Get up and get ready. Z wants to
introduce you and your friends to our plan for today. Hurry up,” she snapped
and turned around, walking out of the room, leaving as abruptly as she had
entered.

Keimaro caught the bread barely, still a
bit drowsy from his sleep. He rubbed his eye with the back of his hand and
sighed. “What’s her deal?” he muttered to himself as he took a swift bite from
the bread and pushed himself out of bed. He didn’t know girls were so harsh.
Whatever.

Stuffing the rest of the bread in his
mouth, he threw his cloak over his body and walked out of the room, giving Lena
a slight nod. He noticed that they were in one of the winding hallways that
went in a circle around the tower, apparently on the very top floor. He glanced
over the railing of the left side of the platform and whistled, looking all the
way down. It looked like a very long fall and a very long climb to get up here.
He blinked and realized that Lena was already ahead of him, opening the door to
a room. He stumbled after her and followed her into the room.

Keimaro smiled when he found himself
walking into a room made completely of wood. It was a rather large room that
contained an impressive array of weapons all along the walls. Some were weapons
Keimaro didn’t even recognize, and each seemed to come in many sizes and
versions.
There’s enough weaponry in here to supply an army,
he thought.
He looked across the room and saw Gavin and Yata standing to the left of Z. To
the right were Yuri, Noah, and Lena.

A wave of relief filled Keimaro when he saw
that his friends were unhurt. “So,” he said simply, “what exactly is your plan
then?”

“Well, we test your abilities today. You
are quite the angry person, I noticed,” Z said with a sly smile, “so why don’t
we allow you to break loose a bit? You go under the name of Riku Hikari,
correct? Well, now I will allow you to reveal yourself as Keimaro Hayashi, the
rebel against the king.”

“You want me to be myself?”

“While wearing a mask.”

“What am I, some kind of masked vigilante?”
Keimaro murmured, crossing his arms.

“Pretty much,” Z said with a smirk. “You
will be yourself underneath a mask while you are an assassin, but you will be
living the day as Riku Hikari, a member of the Royal Guard. They won’t suspect
you. Only when you’re wearing your mask can you let out your wild side.”

“The king or someone from the Royal Guard would
recognize my voice if they ever heard me speak underneath the mask. They could
also recognize my fighting style,” Keimaro said.

“I doubt they will match your fighting
style since they don’t witness your combat often. Anyway, I looked into the
voice problem. I have a mask prepared for you.” Z turned around and revealed several
complete outfits and masks already set up. He reached up, took one of the masks
from the wall, and held it out to Keimaro. “Try it on.”

Keimaro took the mask, feeling that it was
rather hard, like clay. He placed it on his face and blinked as it began to
bind itself to his flesh.
What the hell?
He grunted, suddenly panicking
as the mask became one with his skin. He touched around his neck, only to find
that he could not take it off. “
What is going…?
” The way he spoke had
changed completely. It was filtered somehow so that, when he spoke, it sounded
extremely deep, as if he had put a hollow can over his head and was speaking
into it. How interesting.

“The mask is enchanted with magic that
allows it to bind to you, adjusting to your size. When you speak, it filters
your voice so that you are unrecognizable. Effective, right?” Z said with a clap
of his hands. “The Bounts are currently in hiding, but when they see that you
exist, they’ll come out. That’s when we will strike, do you understand?”

“So, you’re using me as bait.” Keimaro said
after he yanked the mask off of his face, forcing it to detach from him.

“Essentially, yes, while also taking care
of another issue at hand. Somewhat like multitasking, you could say. You teens
are quite good at that, aren’t you?” Z said. “Now, in order to get the Bounts’
attention, we are going to need quite the entrance, aren’t we? Imagine it, the
world finally realizing that the Hayashi clan has yet to be exterminated,
excluding Tobimaru, of course. You’ll make a grand entrance tonight at the
public political speech. The king will be there; everyone will. The Bounts will
see it right away, and we will bring them out of hiding. Understood?”

Keimaro nodded. “So, what’s the plan for
tonight then?”

“I’ll explain….”

***

Tobimaru leaned back into the stony walls
of the cave in which he slept. Reduced to sleeping in caves, pathetic. He toyed
with the small fire lit at his feet with a sigh as the shadows began to recede
to the back of the cave. The sun once again began to take its place in the
morning sky. The clouds seemed rather scattered today; perhaps it wouldn’t snow
like it always did.
Screw that Junko, leaving me here to suffer in the
frozen cold. We could finish the job in a day.

A single gust of wind announced the arrival
of the man’s partner. “Hidan, so? What’s going on outside?” He poked once more
at the blazing fire with his stick before he leaned back to look at the
white-haired Bount beside him.

Hidan shrugged, scratching his head. “Not
particularly sure. Doesn’t seem that Junko wants us to strike quite yet. He
seems quite eager to wait until the opportune moment to strike rather than us
just blowing up half of the city in a fight against Z and his little
apprentices.” He sat down on the ground across the cave from Tobimaru with a
sigh. “I don’t particularly like his orders for us to stay here. There’s
nothing to do.”

Tobimaru leaned his head back against the
cave wall. “I don’t see what’s wrong with killing everyone in the process
anyway. After all, if the goal is to obliterate mankind….”

“In order to destroy humanity, we still
need its help. When Kuro is awakened, I don’t believe that he will be able to
face Sparta and Athens alone, even with that dragon of his,” Hidan muttered. “Either
way, I heard that your little cousin is in town. What do you intend on doing
with him?”

“I intend to kill him.”

“Really now, isn’t he of Hayashi blood?
There isn’t much left. Perhaps it isn’t wise to spill it.”

“He’s lost his way,” Tobimaru muttered. “His
sight is too narrowed, and his idea of revenge is nothing in comparison to what
I want. Keimaro wants the kingdom and the Bounts to suffer. That is all.
However, I want the entire race of humanity to suffer. I want the gods to plead
for forgiveness for what they’ve done to me. I want humanity on the brink of
extinction. The gods’ greatest creation, obliterated because of their single
mistake. I will make them regret their decision of genocide forever,” he
snarled, his head lowered as a dark shadow came over his face.

Hidan chuckled, standing up and stomping on
the fire with a single step. A gust of wind blew the ashes all around in a slow,
swirling vortex until they settled gently on the cave floor. He walked to the
mouth of the cave with a sigh. He looked out across the snow-covered peaks of
mountains and saw Bassada in the far-off distance on a stretching plain,
hundreds of miles away. “You sound just like Kuro. That’s good. Maybe you’d
make a good leader as well. At any rate, killing Keimaro might be beneficial.
Since he is of natural magic, the magic can be transferred to someone else. If
you kill him and touch his chest once he is dead, his powers will transfer to
you. Just as the powers from the meteor transferred to him, they will leap from
host to host. At least, that’s what Junko told me.”

Tobimaru raised an eyebrow as he stood up
from his seat on the ground.
Junko had said that?
“He didn’t tell me
that. Why, does he intend to kill Keimaro himself and take the natural magic
for his own?” His eyes began to glow bright red with annoyance at Junko. He had
hated that man from the very beginning. “Tell me!”

“I…” Hidan was about to speak but saw a
young girl emerging from the shadows behind Tobimaru and immediately stopped
talking. “Ah, good-morning, Mai,” he said with a smile. “Did you have a good
sleep?”

Tobimaru glanced at Mai over his shoulder
and scoffed. “Whatever.”

Hidan sighed when Tobimaru walked past him
and out of the cave. The white-haired man walked up to Mai, who was rubbing her
eyes with the back of her hands and yawning. He knelt down on one knee and
patted her head softly. “Ah, don’t mind him. He’s just a little grumpy. Did you
sleep well?”

Mai, now about eight years old, had her
black hair tied into a single ponytail. She yawned once more and nodded her
head. “Yeah. Why is Tobi always so grumpy? Did I make him mad?”

“No, no, no!” Hidan exclaimed with a
reassuring laugh. “He’s just having some time coping with some memories. All of
us have bad memories. That’s why we need to keep moving forward, right?” He
poked her nose gently and turned around, offering her a piggyback ride. “At any
rate, we are moving again. Do you have everything you need?”

Mai blinked a few times before running off
into the shadows of the cave once more. She returned with a small pack that she
put on. A small teddy bear poked its head out of her bag. The young girl leapt
onto Hidan’s back with a gentle giggle. “Go! Go!” she exclaimed, pointing off
into the distance.

Hidan smiled and began to walk to the
entrance of the cave. He inhaled a deep breath as he stepped outside onto the
edge of the mountain. Mai reminded him so much of his own daughter. He shook
his head with a smile, and with a single gust of wind, they were gone.

***

“So,” Z said with a raised eyebrow, “it
seems that Yata and Keimaro both have magic of natural properties, but Gavin
doesn’t. Perhaps I can interest you in a particular type of artificial magic
then? We have many types.”

“No, thank you,” Gavin said with a slight
shake of his head. “I don’t have much interest in getting magic myself. I’m a
simple soldier of the Faar Empire. I shouldn’t be involved with whatever plans
you have going on—”

“You are a spy then?”

“No!”

“You’re an ally then.”

“Not that either!”

Keimaro sighed as he scratched the back of
his neck, listening to Gavin plead his case. “He’s a soldier that I forced to
work with us in order to get us into the city. I threatened to kill him if he
turned against us. But, he’s not an enemy. He proved himself when he risked his
life to try to help me while I battled Yuri, Lena, and Noah.”

Z raised his eyebrow at Keimaro and smiled
at Gavin, clicking his fingers. In an instant, Lena had twirled a giant
blunderbuss from nowhere and was pointing it straight at Gavin’s face. She cocked
the gun, and the pistol clicked. With her finger on the trigger, her eyes lacked
any emotion.

Z tilted his head at Gavin and slid his
hands into his pockets, inhaling a deep breath of air. “You know, I’m not one
who likes to put people on the spot,” he looked Gavin straight in the eyes, sending
a shiver through the soldier’s body, “but tell me: are you with us, or are you
against us? Don’t lie; I can tell if you’re lying. Give me the honest truth.”

Gavin stared at the pistol that was pointed
at him, his heart skipping a beat. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow,
and he rubbed his fingers together at his side. What should he do? Did he trust
these guys? He remembered that Yata had spared his life despite his refusal to
cooperate. He knew that Keimaro wasn’t a heartless terrorist because he put his
friends above all. Despite the fact that Keimaro had just met the king, he hadn’t
performed the assassination, which meant that there was more to him than met the
eye. But Gavin didn’t agree with their decision to kill the king! He lowered
his head, his throat tightening. He didn’t want to die. He had gone along with
all of this so that he could survive, but he didn’t want to participate in an
assassination.

“Oi, old man!” Yata snapped, taking a step
forward. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t just threaten him!
Whether or not he’s with us is completely irrelevant!” His right hand curled
into a fist, and he continued forward when Noah swiped his hand and created a
magic blue wall between Yata and Gavin that separated them. “Put the gun down,
or I swear to god, I’ll kill you all!” he snarled, his arm transformed into a
chrome metal that gleamed.

Gavin sighed, looking at Yata. These guys
that he had just met were willing to put their lives on the line for him. Why
was that? Killing other strangers seemed so easy for them, though killing
wasn’t something that he believed was ever justified. But, if that were the
case, why was he even in the army? Why was he afraid of death? He liked these
new companions of his, but he didn’t support what they were doing. If he died,
at least he would die with his beliefs. He tilted his head back and closed his
eyes. “I am not with you. I am with Keimaro and Yata. However, I don’t support
their decision to go against the government. The king has done nothing wrong,
and the empire is flourishing. Its people are happy. You would be using
supernatural powers to destroy a peace that took generations to establish and
maintain!” He slammed his fist against his chest in the soldier salute that he had
practiced. “I am still loyal to the government and its order! Kill me if you
wish! I swore my life to protect what I believe is right.” He lowered his head
and fought back tears. He was going to die. At least it would be quick.

Z looked at Gavin incredulously and smiled.
“Very well,” he said, nodding toward Lena.

She pulled the trigger, and the pistol
clicked, firing a single bullet that soared forward, cutting through the air as
it made its way toward Gavin. The soldier stood in his salute, unmoving,
accepting his fate as the projectile flew toward him. A blade came down and
slashed the bullet, cutting the projectile in half and sending the pieces
flying around Gavin.

Silence stretched, and Gavin’s eyes opened.
I’m alive?
He saw Keimaro’s black cloak flapping from the fast movement.
The boy had darted across the room to cut down the bullet and save his life.
His heart was racing, and he watched as Yuri and Noah both stepped forward in
response to Keimaro’s unsheathing his sword.
Is causing trouble for people
all that I’m good for?

Keimaro raised his head and looked at the
assassins before him. He twirled the blade in his hand and lowered it, pointing
it at the ground to show that he meant no harm. “He’s our comrade. Whether or
not you accept that is up to you. But I won’t have you killing him off.”

“And why is that? How long have you known
him?”

“A little over a day.”

“The bond clearly is strong, isn’t it?”
Yuri said with a sarcastic scoff.

“No,” Keimaro said, “but he had many
chances to run away. We gave him the freedom to leave us whenever he wanted,
but his curiosity drove him to stay with us. And his good-natured conscience was
what brought him to tell me that Yata had been kidnapped. He could’ve left and
allowed Yata to be captured without informing me. He also could’ve left after
telling me where Yata was. He could’ve left while I was fighting Yuri, but
instead he risked his life to save mine. You all know that there’s more to me
than meets the eye—and my eyes tell me that there’s more to him than you know.”

“I don’t want you going on an instinct,”
Yuri snarled. “If he messes up a single operation, it could be the end of all
of us. Don’t you see that? And he knows our plans! We can’t just let him go
either.”

“Then we continue the original plan,”
Keimaro said. “He does what I say. If he disobeys, I will kill him.”

Gavin gulped, not particularly favoring
that plan either, but he supposed that it was better than being shot on the
spot without being given a chance at life at all. He closed his eyes and
sighed. At least Keimaro was trying to negotiate to save his life.

“We will let him stay,” Z said. “I
understand why he doesn’t support us. He doesn’t hate Faar. In fact, he
respects the empire as well as its leader. None of us have even given a single
legitimate reason for hating the empire. All that we have stated is that we
hate them for our own reasons. While Keimaro and Yata have a personal drive to
destroy the Faar empire, we have our own reasons for wanting their downfall.”

“Are they true reasons,” Gavin said, “or
are they just personal conflicts that you had?”

“Both, actually … and I’m sure you’ll be
intrigued by both,” Z said, tapping Lena’s arm so that she lowered the pistol. “At
any rate, perhaps I’ll have Noah show Yata and Gavin around the city so that
they know how cruel the Faar government is. As for Keimaro,” he turned to the
boy, “Yuri and Lena will show you how you will execute your entrance tonight so
that we can make it the most effective. We want to draw attention.”

Keimaro nodded and looked at Yata, who nodded
back. “Keep out of trouble,” he said to his friend as Yuri and Lena walked past
him. He turned and began to follow them, glancing back at Gavin and Yata over
his shoulder for a brief moment. This whole plan was to make him like some type
of celebrity. It was well-thought-out if the masks had already been created and
enchanted specifically for the mission. It was as if they had known that he
would be coming to the city. The thought of Z knowing all of his plans was
unsettling—but, then again, perhaps it was just coincidence. He shook his head,
trying not to think of it.

Upon leaving the house and walking down the
pathway that cut through the front lawn of the mansion, he saw that the grass,
which had been singed with fire earlier, was already repaired. It looked good
as new. He raised his eyebrow with amusement at how fast they had fixed the
lawn despite the large-scale fight that had occurred. They began to walk
through the streets, and Yuri pulled a black hood over his head, just as Lena
did. Keimaro blinked, supposing that he should do the same. He wore his black
cloak over his Royal Guard abyssalite armor. He had left the rest of the
uniform in his room. Feeling his sheathed sword clanking at his side, he looked
around and saw that the other people in the streets were not as heavily armed
as they were. Though it made sense, it also made them stand out a lot more—a
few sketchy, cloaked people walking through the streets with enough weapons to
supply a squad. Where were the guards? They didn’t even care that a small group
of armed people were waltzing through the streets without identification?