Age of Darkness

by Brandon Chen

  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 w
ith 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?

  That was when Keimaro saw a small group of guards huddled in the corner of an alley, sitting on top of boxes and barrels, playing cards. They were laughing while smoking pipes and cheap cigars. Empty glass bottles of beer were scattered on the ground around them. He winced at the very sight of the men that were supposed to be the protectors of this city. These guards reminded him of the soldiers in Bakaara before it had been invaded—they were all talk and took advantage of their job position. All they did was lounge around all day and drink rather than actually protect the average citizen from danger.

  Keimaro sighed as they pushed onward through the crowds of people. From the looks of it, it didn’t matter if a couple of people died. The population in this city was huge. There was no room to even walk. And every street or two, Keimaro would spot a dead body on the side of the road somewhere. Usually the people seemed to have died from either starvation or
beatings, perhaps from the guards. He looked forward and saw that Yuri and Lena had disappeared into an alleyway, the shadows swallowing up their image in a mere instant. The boy stumbled after them, unable to see them. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the thick darkness, but found it hard to see.

  Keimaro looked up and saw that Yuri and Lena were climbing up the side of a building to get to the rooftops. He frowned, quite astonished at how they climbed the building with such ease. They simply grabbed onto windowsills and cracks in order to haul themselves upward. That definitely took some practice and a huge amount of upper-body strength. Still, it couldn’t be that hard. After all, during his four-year training while in the forest with his father and Yata after the Bakaara massacre, he had climbed many trees in order to stay away from the beasts of the night. Climbing a building couldn’t be much harder; he just needed grip.

  Yuri and Lena sat on the tiled rooftop, looking down at Keimaro and waiting patiently for him. Yuri was emotionless, whereas Lena had cracked a smile, knowing that Keimaro was hesitant in following them. “What’s wrong? You coming?” she teased.

  Keimaro glared at her and took a few steps back from the building. It can’t be that hard. He ran at the wall, planting a single foot on it. He pushed upward and ran two steps up the wall before slamming both of his feet against it. Except, I’ll do things my way. He released a small jet of flame from his feet that shot him backward, flipping through the air. He landed on the other wall with his feet and released another jet of fire that sent him flying upward into the air over Lena and Yuri. His arms flailed, and his legs were mush in the air, but he was smiling nevertheless as he reached the peak of his flight. He had a clear view over the entire city’s rooftops. He landed heavily on the tiled roof and turned to look at Yuri, who stood up, unimpressed.