Age of Darkness

by Brandon Chen

  “You’re saying they scavenged the dead members of the Hayashi clan in order to perform tests on live humans?” Keimaro said with disbelief, finding more hatred building up in his body. These bastards have gone too far. That isn’t human! How dare they?

  “That is our current hypothesis, yes,” Yuri said. “Tests show that she’s an ordinary human and that these eyes were actually surgically implanted.”

  “Has she awakened yet?”

  “Nope, she’s been asleep for hours now.”

  Keimaro sighed. “Allow me to speak to her when she awakens. What’s the plan with Noah? When are we sending a rescue mission?”

  “Rescue mission?” Z’s voice echoed as Keimaro glanced over his shoulder to find the man sauntering down the infirmary toward them, his hands neatly behind his back. “And why would we do so?”

  “It’s your son….” Keimaro frowned.

  “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 s
he 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.”

  The Grand Entrance

  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.

  ***

  Keimaro had his black cloak wrapped tightly around his body as he felt his part
icles reform at the top of the bell tower. A gust of wind rushed into his face, blowing his spiky black hair back. His eyes squinted as the breeze blew against his face, and he saw the lights of the city focusing on the stage in the distance. He turned to see that Yuri, Yata, and Lena had placed their white masks on their faces, making them look like ghosts and clowns. Each mask was different. Yata’s had a simple line running across the entire white mask with black lines that looked like bars coming down the face. Yuri’s had a bright grin that seemed almost creepily happy. Lena’s mask was the only one that had a color besides black and white; a small red flower upon the forehead made her seem a bit more feminine. However, her mask had no mouth with only a hole at the nose.

  Keimaro’s mask was gripped tightly in his hand. Instead of being pale white like the rest of their masks, it was silver. The eyes stretched a bit like a ghost’s, and the mouth was merely a single black line that went across the entire mask and thickened into a curved smile at the end. He looked at his fellow assassins and saw that the masks seemed to attach to their bodies and morph together with their cloaks, making their skin look black as night. His hands were covered with black gloves, and his dark cape flapped in the wind behind him. Not a single bit of humanity could be seen just from looking at him.

  He lifted the mask to his face and felt it attach. He gasped as the mask latched itself to his face like a leech, small lines of black veins sprouting from the mask and inserting themselves into his flesh, traveling along his skin to meet with the cloak and transforming his entire neck into a black color until not a single inch of skin was exposed. He heard his breathing echoing and realized there was no problem with breathing or seeing. It was as if the mask had become one with him. What an interesting contraption.