Age of Darkness (25 page)

“And that would only risk our lives for one
that is already doomed to perish. Not to mention it would kill time and
possibly even resources. If one of us is captured in the process of trying to
rescue
someone who is already going to die, they could give away the location of our
hideout,” Z said. “Noah cannot give us away. He swallowed a magic tag that
makes him incapable of giving away our position. Therefore, we have nothing to
fear.”

Yata, who had been standing beside Gavin,
took a step forward. “It’s not right to leave one of our comrades to die like
that!” he exclaimed. “He’s your son! Don’t you care? I could’ve saved him. But
I didn’t! Allow me to at least—”

“No,” Z said simply, his facial expression
completely emotionless. “You all must prepare for tonight’s mission. Nothing
else must be on your mind. I have already accepted my son’s fate. Perhaps it’s
about time that you all grew up and understood that it’s not worth it to be
wasting your time with a hopeless chore when there are more
important
things
at stake! It’s better to put your time and energy into something that will make
their sacrifice worthwhile. How did my son die?”

“He let himself be captured so that we
could get away, sir,” Gavin reported, his head lowered.

“Precisely. It was his intention to be
captured, so that you may continue his legacy,” Z said. “Don’t let his
sacrifice go to waste. By going in to try to save him, you will be doing
exactly what the enemy wants. They’ll kill you. Or, even worse, they’ll capture
you. And if they capture you, it’ll be the end of every single person in this
mansion. The entire rebellion will be crushed, and everyone will perish.
Thousands of families will be devastated when they find the remains of their
children underneath the debris of this mansion. And this world will be
destroyed when the Bounts gain power. It’s not worth the risk; do you
understand? Get prepared for the mission.” Z walked past them, ignoring the
girl on the bed, and exited through a door on the far side of the stretching
infirmary.

Keimaro watched him go and saw that Yata
was shaking. He could practically see the guilt and weight of Noah’s death upon
his friend’s shoulders. He wanted to go over and comfort him, but Yuri blurted
out, “It’s time to go over the plan. We’re going to the weapons room. You have
ten minutes to get there. We will begin debriefing with or without you,” he
said simply to everyone before he walked away.

Gavin and Yata followed, but Lena stopped
in front of Keimaro before he was able to progress with his friends. “There’s
something bothering you, isn’t there?” she said, putting her hands on her hips
with a small smile. “I can tell.”

Keimaro blinked. “How?”

“I’m a girl. I know everything!” Lena
giggled and walked over to a window beside the unconscious girl’s bed. She
propped herself on the sill, glancing out the window at the gleaming bright sun.
She could see the training fields outside where dozens of rebels and assassins
were engaging in combat to hone their skills with hopes that one day their
aspirations would become a reality. “So? What is it that’s bothering you?”

“It’s nothing, really.”

“You don’t want to talk about it, huh?”
Lena remarked, still watching the training outside. “You know what really
amazes me with this entire
magic
thing? To be honest, I find it quite
unnatural to use these weird artificial powers in order to overpower another
human being. It’s unfair since ninety-nine percent of the population doesn’t
have access to magic. So, the one percent that does … well, they’re usually
considered freaks or supernatural geniuses. Either way, I never really liked
the unfair idea of changing your humanity in order to become stronger. Why not
become stronger as a human being rather than becoming something else? I guess
that’s why I never took up magic myself. Not to mention my father would
kill
me if he found me shooting fire around like you do!” She chuckled softly.

Keimaro smiled at her. “Your father knows
that you’re in a giant rebellion against the king, risking your life every day
for the betterment of the people? That’s not something that he can brag about,
you know.”

“Yeah,” Lena said, kicking her legs slowly,
watching her feet sway forward and back, “but I don’t think he minds. He likes
that I’m fighting for what I believe in. Besides, he thinks that the government
is unjust as well. So many people die every single day. So many people that
really could just be living normal lives if the government didn’t interfere and
tax them to death. It was really the whole lab thing that finally broke the
straw for me and made me join Zylon’s rebellion against the king. I suppose
that’s probably what convinced your friend Gavin as well.”

“I suppose. Do you have your own personal
reason for wanting to go against the king?” Keimaro asked.

“Of course,” Lena said, her voice becoming
small suddenly. “Everyone in this place does. We all have our own stories to
tell. Mine is about how my father wasn’t able to pay the taxes one day, so the
guards took my mother and imprisoned her. They had their way with her, and I
guess that’s how she had my little sister. Then they killed my mother since my
father still wasn’t able to pay off the debt. We got to keep my little sister
at least. I just…,” Lena choked on her words and straightened her back, her
lips quivering a bit, “I don’t know why anyone would ever do that to another
human being. Just for money….”

“Hey,” Keimaro said, putting his hand over
hers, which was shaking furiously. He looked into her eyes and gave her a
reassuring smile. “We can change things. We
will
change things. Don’t
lose hope, ever. You’re extremely strong; I hope you know that. I promised that
I would destroy this disgusting government that they have set up. Today is the
first step to our overthrowing of the king. It’s like Z said, we won’t let
anyone’s deaths be in vain.”

Lena’s face lit up, and she smiled,
revealing a set of perfect white teeth. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know what
I’m being all depressed about. You’re really nice, you know, despite all the
rumors that they have going on about you.”

“Rumors?”

“Well,” Lena said with a shrug, “you know.
There were already rumors about the Hayashi clan still existing. Most of
humanity believes that you guys are demons disguised as humans that are trying
to destroy the human race or something. Overall, some of these idiots think
that you’re evil, but you’re not! I….” Lena saw the look of despair on Keimaro’s
face and knew that she had hit a sore spot. “Oh, so that’s what’s bothering
you. It shouldn’t bother you. You don’t need everyone in the world to love you.
After all, their opinion matters nothing to you.”

“They don’t? It does hurt, you know,”
Keimaro muttered, looking down at his hands, which dangled now between his
legs. “It hurts to be called a monster by everyone and to never have any
friends. It hurts to be an outsider that’s always watching others be happy. All
that I’ve ever endured is pain for being the abomination that I have been since
birth.”

Keimaro suddenly felt her arms around him,
and he blinked, feeling his face turn bright red with embarrassment as she
hugged him. Never once had a girl shown any type of affection toward him like
this. He didn’t know what to do and tensed up a bit. But, when he found that
she still didn’t let go, he relaxed and allowed her to hug him. This wasn’t
affection. It was acceptance.

“I know the other assassins look at you as
an outsider, but it shouldn’t matter! After all, you have us as your friends.
They’ll come to know you as one soon,” Lena said against his shirt. “It’s
always nice to have a friend there when you’re down, isn’t it?”

Keimaro’s expression relaxed, and he couldn’t
help but laugh to himself. He had never felt this way before. A warm feeling
inside radiated throughout his entire body. He felt accepted, something that he
hadn’t felt since four years ago when he’d met Yata. “Yeah, it really is.” He
pushed himself to his feet as Lena pulled away. “Well, hopefully they didn’t
start the debriefing without us. We better get going, huh, Lena? Tonight is the
start of the rebellion.” He slid his hands into his pockets and began to walk
toward the exit of the infirmary.

“You know, I don’t hate magic,” Lena said
with a giggle, and Keimaro stopped to look at her over his shoulder. She was
still sitting on the windowsill. “It’s amazing how, inside of this mansion,
there’s enough magic to create an entire world. Magic fascinates me to the
point where I sometimes wish I embraced it. There’s so much out there in the
world that is unknown. I wonder if there’s different magic out there even more
wonderful than this … being able to create a secret utopia of peace within a
mansion.”

Keimaro smiled at her statement. “I’m sure
that there is. After all, the world is vast. When this is over, we should go
exploring sometime! That was my dream originally when I was a kid, to go see
the whole world.”

“Really?” Lena said as she leapt off of the
windowsill, landed gracefully on the ground, and began to skip toward Keimaro. “That
sounds like fun. I might have to take you up on that offer.”

“It’s settled then! When this is all over,
we can explore as much as we want.”

Aika personally hated speeches. She hated
politics as a whole. Stepping into the world of politics was something she
abhorred to the point that she sometimes slept during discussions. They were
just long arguments that carried on for days with people offering new proposals
that could be put into action. But, no matter how much she despised politics,
her father always felt obligated to bring her to the public government
speeches. So, she went.

She sat on a golden throne with a padded red
cushion beside her father. A small golden crown embedded with beautiful
sapphires and rubies sat upon her head, her long brown hair braided and left to
dangle behind her. Her hands were covered by white gloves that rested upon the
hard arms of her golden chair. Her light blue dress went down past her silver
slippers to the very ground. It was rather tight around her breasts, and she
felt herself being squeezed with scant room to breathe. A necklace with a
silver chain left a diamond locket dangling above her chest. She wore a bored
and sullen look as she leaned her cheek against her fist, but was quickly
scolded by Madame Dyrus, Aika’s womanly advisor, the person who was supposed to
make her act like the princess she was.

Madame Dyrus was a frail old woman, but she
covered any wrinkles or facial features that spoke of age with makeup or
natural remedies. She leaned back in a comfortable red leather seat behind the
princess, making note of every movement that Aika made that wasn’t
princess-like. Her brown hair was tied into a bun behind her long, slender face
that reminded Aika of a horse. Sometimes Aika would call her horse-face in her
mind. Madame Dyrus had a pointy nose with puffy lips that always made it seem
as if she were pouting.

The king was wearing a large, royal blue
robe that was wrapped around his gold-plated armor, which he wore to show off, even
though he was no longer a warrior. His gleaming blue eyes scanned the crowds of
people before him, as his fingers explored the fluffy, snow-white lining of his
robe. It was made of some cloud-like wool that made the robe all the more
comfortable. He wielded a golden scepter in his right hand as a signal of his
power. The scepter was slender with a gold coil around the handle to make it
easy to grasp. Different gems were embedded in it to give the scepter a
beautiful glow in the moonlight; it refracted the silvery light, casting colorful
beams from sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. He stroked his long, fuzzy brown
beard with his left hand and wore a bright smile as he heard the cheers of his
people upon seeing their king. He wore the golden crown of the king upon his
head with spikes that pointed toward the night sky. Diamonds were so scattered
amongst the crown that it looked as if ice itself had frozen the crown in
wealth.

Aika and her father sat on the balcony of a
building high above a large wooden stage. Below the stage, many people had
gathered to hear the public speeches of politicians who were giving their
proposals for the government. There were soldiers everywhere, fully prepared to
guard the king from any assassination attempts. Guards lined every rooftop, and
the entire Royal Guard was hidden amongst the crowd, on the stage, or on the
roofs as well. General Mundo stood beside the king with his hands behind his
back, looking outward, wearing his full suit of armor.

The entrance to the building where the king
was located was heavily guarded with four dozen soldiers and nine Royal Guard
members. Two members stood behind Aika at the doorway with their perfect
straight posture and robotic looks.

Aika watched as the politicians began
speaking, but her mind wandered from the very moment it started. For some
reason, that boy, Riku Hikari, had leapt into her head. He was the newest
member of the Royal Guard and was to be one of her personal bodyguards. She
didn’t know why, but she had felt a thrill when she had been with him. His
clumsiness had made her smile, and he seemed quite adventurous to follow her
into the underground escape without even stopping her. She had not been afraid
while she was with him, safe in the knowledge that he would be able to protect
her. Yet, she had never seen his swordplay. Her father had been blabbering
about how effective a swordsman he was and how killing seemed to be second nature
to him. Her blue eyes lowered at that thought. She couldn’t bear to think of
how a human could kill another so easily unless they had a reason for such
hatred. But, even so, didn’t murder come with a price?

She believed that it did. Haunting images
or nightmares. Constant guilt. One way or the other, killing another human
would come back to haunt them. Why should one kill when they had the ability to
heal another? To comfort rather than to slaughter or injure, that was what she
would like to see.

Four years ago, after she had left the
destroyed Bakaara, Aika had found that she had obtained an odd healing power.
The moment that she touched a wound, the wound would heal. It didn’t matter how
serious the injury was, for she tested it on multiple animals, too afraid to
use it in public. She had tried it on herself as well while doing dangerous
experiments involving cutting herself. Though it seemed rather sick and twisted
at first, she found that it really did help her gather information. And there
wasn’t even a scar left. She had wanted to use this mystical ability on a
particular boy that she had known for quite some time, Aladdin, but her father
had forbidden her from seeing him again, afraid that they would fall in love
and attempt to marry. It was true; perhaps if they were allowed to be together,
they would have wed even at this young age. But, it seemed her father had other
plans regarding who would gain her hand.

A flash of movement caught her attention,
and Aika’s head turned. A rather small, skinny line shot through the air and buried
itself in a building beside the stage. The line was barely visible, but Aika
was sure that she saw it. She noticed that General Mundo had seen it as well.
His hand gripped the sheath of his weapon, and she saw the indecision on his
face: was he seeing things, or was the line actually there? Aika knew that
there was no such thing as assumptions in the Royal Guard. They had to be safe.

Her eyes followed the line and locked onto
the bell tower in the distance. Her heart leapt a beat when she saw multiple
small figures on top of the bell tower, milling about. Something was happening
here; there was no doubt.