by Brandon Chen
“It wasn’t to save me or take the land?” Aika asked with a raised eyebrow. She had thought that the entire operation had been in response to her kidnapping.
“No,” a cloaked man said with a light chuckle, suddenly appearing in the center of the room. Darkness curled around his body in a black mist that hissed with life.
Blades were brandished and, within seconds, all of the Royal Guards around the perimeter of the throne room had unsheathed their swords and pointed them at the single man in the center of their formation.
“And why are you threatening the man who has merely come to make a proposition?” the man said with a smile, pulling back his hood to reveal his bald head. His purple eyes lifted and met with the king’s.
“Proposition? I don’t believe that we negotiate with terrorists,” the king muttered. “You told us that you would deliver the chest many years ago. However, you failed to do so. It took us years of scavenging in order to finally find it.”
The Bount reached up and scratched his neck, shrugging as he smirked at the king. “So, what you mean is that you don’t negotiate with terrorists anymore? Since when did you change your mind, milord? So, you hired the world’s best picklock in order to unlock a chest that is sealed with the strongest and darkest magic in existence.”
“If there’s a magic seal, then I’ll get a mage or wizard to dispel it….”
“There are some things that are out of even your reach, milord.”
The king raised his eyebrow and glared at the man before him, tapping his index finger impatiently on the arm of his throne. “What is your name?” the king demanded.
The Bount smiled wickedly, his lips stretching from ear to ear. “My name is Junko of the Bount organization. You see, I’ve traveled quite far today to reach you. At any moment possible, everyone in this entire room could be dead at my feet, so it is clear that I haven’t come to harm you. I have a particular proposition, however, that could possibly interest you.”
“And what is that?”
Junko nodded his head over at the chest, not taking his eyes off of the king for a single moment. “The boy whom I seek is also the one who has the key to this chest that you have before you. I can tell you his name and what he looks like. I can also tell you the name of his clan, which will immediately identify him to any of your men.” He tilted his head back as the dark mist began to rise upward and wrap around his body once more. “I suggest you tell your men to stand down. I do not come to harm any of you.”
The king gave a slight nod, and the Royal Guards lowered their swords and retreated to surround the king, standing between the throne and the foreigner Bount. Their blades were still held up but were no longer directly pointing at Junko.
The king sighed, calling out to the Bount, “Who is the boy that you are looking for, and why is it that you want him?”
“I want his body, his eyes, and his DNA,” Junko said, licking his lips lightly with a chuckle. “His name is Keimaro Hayashi, and he is one of the last of the Hayashi clan. He is age eighteen and perfectly capable of fighting. At the age of fourteen, he obtained power from a meteor that granted him the ability to control flames. The destruction of Bakaara led him to great grief, which thus filled the Shokugan with immense power. The boy was given the key to the chest by his new father but has now been separated from the chest. He is on his way to reclaim what belongs to him.”
“And you believe that we are incapable of handling a simple boy?” A general by the name of Mundo stood tall and began to walk forward through the large door to the room, after watching the series of events unfold before him. He was wearing golden armor that gleamed upon his chest, his armored leggings clanking against his heavy boots. He looked like a shining angel sent from the heavens. His skin was a dark tan, and his eyes were a glistening blue. His hair was black and curled, and he had a shaved goatee that was trimmed at his chin. “If he’s a member of the Hayashi clan, then the gods have already condemned his soul to hell. He is already going to be killed.”
“You see, sir,” Junko said, holding up two fingers as he addressed General Mundo. “This young boy is beyond your human capacities. However, I understand that you want to handle this situation by yourself, correct? That is fine! You are free to call me whenever you would like.” Junko turned away toward the closed doors of the throne room. “However,” he said, stopping and glancing back at the king over his shoulder, “the Bount organization will obtain control over Keimaro. And once we do, we will not give the key to you.”
“Wait,” the king muttered.
“Milord,” General Mundo warned, his head whipping around as shock flashed across his face. “You cannot be considering actually cooperating with these terrorists! It was bad enough that we did it once! We don’t need an entire terrorist organization’s help in order to capture a single boy!”
“Silence,” the king said, holding up his hand as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The general gulped, straightening his back as he looked at Junko. “What is it that you want, Junko?”
Junko raised an eyebrow with a light smile and turned back to face the king. “What is that it that I want? Power. Allow me to be your advisor, and I will ensure your capture of Keimaro Hayashi.”
“That is out of the question!”
“Then we don’t have a deal,” Junko said with a loud laughter that echoed off the walls of the throne room. “Just call if you need me, milord! It won’t be long before you understand the danger that you’re in!” He stepped through the door, his body exploding into a burst of black mist that vanished in a mere instant, leaving the throne room completely silent.
The king put his head in his hands and groaned, leaning back against the golden throne. “Master Locksmith, continue your work on the chest and attempt to open it. General Mundo, I want you to find this boy. He will most likely be coming for the chest. There is no doubt about that. We will intercept him. I don’t care if he’s alive or dead. You need to—”
“Father!” Aika exclaimed, her heart pounding rapidly. All of this talk … Keimaro Hayashi! That was the boy that she had met many years ago, the boy who had saved her life twice. It was because of him that she was still alive. Her hands were tightly wrapped around the ends of the throne arms, gripping them so hard that her knuckles had turned a ghostly white. “There’s no need for more bloodshed! You can—”
“He’s a member of the Hayashi clan. Therefore, he is a demon, a monster, nothing to society at all,” the king said with a shake of his head at his daughter. “He will be either executed or killed on sight. It is preferred that he is brought in for a proper execution. However, in the end it doesn’t matter which way he is killed. The gods have made it quite clear that the Hayashi clan is never to be trusted and that they are to be eliminated. Huh, I thought we killed off the last of them years ago. To think that there were some of them walking amongst us … those sneaky bastards.”
Aika leaned back against her throne and gulped, shaking her head in disbelief. She remembered when she had first told Keimaro about the Hayashi clan. The memory was a bit blurry after four years, but she still remembered seeing the pain in his eyes. He had thought that he was the same as everyone else. What was the difference between him and another human? They looked the same. Only the eyes made him look like a demon, but that wasn’t his fault. What gods would declare the complete eradication of their own creation?
Her eyes lowered, and she sighed, knowing that arguing with her father wouldn’t result in anything but him angry. Aika’s father always wanted things his way and for him to always be right even when he was blatantly wrong. She just wished that she could at least see Keimaro again, just once more.
***
Tobimaru stood on the peak of a mountain, the freezing air biting at his cheeks. His skin was pale, and he felt the heat being sucked from his body, turning him as cold as a corpse. But he stood nevertheless, watching outward over the land with his demonic, glowing red eyes locked onto the massive Faar Empire that stretched ac
ross the land. His black hood was pulled tightly over his head, and he scoffed, his hands pressed heavily into his pockets. With every breath a cool mist gently left his lips. His boots were deep within the several feet of snow that covered the ground, making his toes feel numb from the cold. A strong wind gusted behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder at Junko, who had just appeared. “So? How did it go?” he asked, turning to face his superior.
“They didn’t accept the offer, as was expected.”
“So, we allow Keimaro to wreak havoc on Bassada? The soldiers could kill him,” Tobimaru muttered. “How do we know that Keimaro has the heart to destroy? For all we know, he could be a weak, peaceful man. He might be captured easily by Faar.”
“Peaceful?” Junko almost burst out laughing on the spot. He walked forward to the edge of the peak, looking outward over the land as Tobimaru had been doing. “Why would a man who lost everything he loved be peaceful? Once someone’s soul is tainted to such an extent, he has entered an abyss so dark that he will never find his way out. Keimaro has experienced a taste of pain and intends to cleanse himself through revenge. He is a lot like you, craving vengeance, but he will come to our side with time.”
Tobimaru scoffed, glancing away from Junko and instead looking at the blanketed snow that covered the peak of the mountain. “If he gets attention, then he will be found by him.”
“In the end, none of that matters. We’ll kill everyone who gets in our way and obliterate anything that isn’t of any worth to us,” Junko said with a sigh. “It’s a shame they didn’t take the opportunity right away. That would’ve saved a lot of time. Oh well, let Keimaro mess around in Bassada like the little child he is. They’ll come to us begging for help sooner or later.”
“And what if they don’t?”
Junko turned and smiled at Tobimaru with a small, childish giggle. “The Bount organization contains the world’s strongest individuals who have mastered power beyond belief. Nothing is out of our grasp except numbers. Kuro will be awakened, and our goals will be complete. If the king doesn’t come to us, we will go to him once more—and we will take the crown by force.”
No Plan
The hot sun beat down on the young men as they continued forward across a green field, their boots crushing blades of grass in their wake. Keimaro felt extremely uncomfortable while wearing the restricting armor of the escort soldiers. The armor felt heavy in comparison to his cloak, which had been made out of abyssalite and was given to him by his father. It was supposedly the symbol of a Hayashi clan member, though he didn’t understand why his second father would have such a possession, seeing as he wasn’t a member of the clan. Perhaps it had been passed down, but Keimaro never got to hear the story about what had happened to his real family. In the end, his second father had died with whatever secrets had been locked up within him. No key would be able to unlock those secrets. Still, Keimaro had been given a particular key, which had dangled upon his neck for several years. He wore it in remembrance of that night when he’d lost everything.
His head ached from the heavy helmet clamping down upon his face, and he groaned, walking beside Yata, who wore the same armor. They couldn’t even recognize each other without looking up close to examine each other’s faces. “How the hell do soldiers wear this all of the time?” he muttered, tugging at his collar as he sighed, the heat increasing dramatically within the helmet.
He looked forward at the massive towering walls that looked down on him like an insect, leaving him in their shadow. He whistled as he studied the dirt path before him, which began to wind toward a large opened gate made of some type of stout wood. Perhaps it was from a yew tree; Keimaro had read that those were some of the strongest trees with incredible trunks that would withstand days of lumbermen axes. Or maybe it could be the great oak, which was decently strong as well. His curiosity as a child led him to read about so many different types of trees that existed in the world. It was wonder how there were so many varieties. He wondered where they all came from.
After a long two hours of walking, they finally reached the gate. The caravan’s horses slowed to a stop, and Keimaro raised an eyebrow when Gavin began to engage in some type of silent conversation with the guards at the gate. He couldn’t tell if Gavin was trying to help them get through, or if he was ratting them out. His hand was wrapped tightly around the hilt of his sword in the event that he would need to act. However, only moments later, the guards stepped to the side and let the escort continue through the entrance and into the city.
Keimaro blinked a few times as he walked through the gate. The bright sunlight began to shine down on him once he walked through the gateway. His eyes widened and glistened as he looked at the wonderful sight before him. It was the city—Bassada, the capital of Faar, and therefore one of the busiest, liveliest places on the planet. Everywhere he looked, he saw people busily minding their own business. The crowds surged as if they all had somewhere to be, pushing past each other and talking. Their words melted into a giant rambling sound that Keimaro couldn’t quite make out.
He swiftly took off his helmet, flipping his hair to the side before looking outward and taking in a deep breath of fresh air. “Wow, this is something,” he said in awe.
“Twenty times busier than Bakaara,” Yata whistled. “No, make that a hundred.”
“So, I got you in,” Gavin muttered, folding his arms as he leaned back against the wagon. “I’m assuming you don’t actually intend on delivering this cargo, do you?”
“Nope,” Keimaro said with a sly smile. “We are going to find a place to stay. Meanwhile, we will discuss our plan. But, Gavin, don’t think that you can get away from us,” he muttered, tossing his helmet into the back of the caravan with the rest of the boxed cargo. “A single move that indicates that you’d betray us, and I’ll kill you.”
“Got it,” Gavin said with a sigh as he began to walk forward, holding the reins of both of the horses that pulled the cargo wagon. As he guided them through the streets, the people began to separate around them, letting the animals trot forward on the tiled streets.
The buildings around them were much more complex than the houses in Bakaara. They were built with stronger wood, and some were even made entirely of stone. The rooftops were tiled and looked much more beautiful from their bright red coloring. The street constantly branched off into more walkways that looked nearly the same as the one that they were walking down, making Keimaro believe that perhaps the city was much larger than he’d believed. He imagined that it was like a giant tree and that they were traveling along the trunk. Many branches of streets came off of the main trunk and split off into even more alleys and roads. Is every part of Bassada packed like this?
He noticed the houses began to get more and more advanced as they continued along the main road. Some of the buildings were taller and much larger than others, and others were painted in different ways. Keimaro’s eyes locked onto a rather large curved stone archway with a stone path that led down straight through a lush, beautiful lawn to a massive mansion that towered high above the other buildings. White pillars supported the orange tiled rooftop, and a long cobblestone pathway led to an auburn wood door with a golden knob on it. No doubt that this belonged to someone of royalty or wealth.
Keimaro stopped suddenly when he saw a man with slicked-back red hair, standing there in front of the door of his mansion. He couldn’t help but see that the man was also wearing a black cloak that looked considerably similar to his own. Perhaps he was a Bount? He closed his eyes, tearing his gaze from the man and his house. He shouldn’t have been making assumptions. Right now, he just had to concentrate on the task at hand. Yata touched his shoulder.
“What’s wrong, Kei?”
“Nothing,” Keimaro murmured as they continued forward. The buildings went by quickly, and soon he found that they were walking in a marketing area. The city’s main square was similar to that of Bakaara’s, except on a much larger scale. It was probably thirty times bigger with stalls, tents,
and buildings installed everywhere in order for merchants to maximize the amount of products that they sold and to advertise what they were selling. Men and women yelled and called, bartering with merchants as Gavin led them away from the crowded square. People were everywhere, making it near impossible to walk without bumping into someone.
Keimaro turned and saw a large stone statue of a man in the center of the square on top of a fountain. Glistening water rained down around the majestic, strong man that held a mighty scepter up into the air. The cascading water made his image glimmer, making him look superior to everyone around him from his height and look. As the boy noticed a crown resting upon the statue’s head, his hand slowly tightened into a fist, his knuckles cracking. So, that was the man who was responsible for the massacre of everyone in Bakaara … and the death of his mother. He memorized the face in an instant, and turned away to find that he was walking out of the square and down a street lined with taverns, bars, and inns.
Keimaro’s eyes wandered to the swinging sign that hung from the rooftop of a large building. The sign bore a symbol of a large mug, overflowing with ale beneath a simple name: The Hearth. What a name for a tavern. Surely enough, Gavin decided to lead the horses to the front. By now, people were complaining that they were moving horses through crowds of people.
Keimaro glanced over his shoulder and saw two guards who began to walk in their direction, making him suspicious that leading a wagon and horses through the city was illegal. He glared in Gavin’s direction, knowing the boy had something to do with this. The soldier hadn’t warned them, and their movement surely did attract a lot of attention. Could he have purposely led them through the city in an illegal manner to attract guards? “I’ll deal with you afterward. Yata, stay with Gavin and make sure he doesn’t make any sudden movements.”
