Age of Darkness (22 page)

Keimaro was rankled by this noble’s attempt
to get him to speak. Still, he opened up his true intentions. There was no
reason to hide them, not here. “I intend to kill every member of the Bount
organization. Then I shall destroy the entire empire of Faar. Every soldier who
opposes me will be turned into ash in the face of my hate-filled flames. I’ll
eradicate every bit of opposition against the Hayashi clan and take my revenge
for the deaths of my family and village.”

“Ah,” Aladdin said with a laugh, “so you’re
Keimaro Hayashi.”

“You’ve heard of me?”

“We all have.” Aladdin grinned. “You’re a
celebrity around here. Your name, at least. The boy who killed his first man at
the age of fourteen and obtained natural fire magic from some meteor from
space. Lucky chap, aren’t you? Not to mention you’ve already earned a spot on
the Royal Guard after being inside of the city walls for less than twenty-four
hours. Now that’s either impressive or just damn lucky.”

Keimaro shrugged. “That happened not a day
ago. I’m surprised that word spread so fast.”

“Not much to hear about except for the
successes or failures of our members,” Aladdin said, leaning back into his
chair with a sigh. “You’ve got a nasty bruise on your face; what’s that from?”

“You’ve got a nasty scar on yours. Why don’t
you intrigue me with your story, and I’ll amuse you with mine?”

Aladdin’s face paled a bit at the mention
of his scar, but he gathered back his smile within a few moments and guffawed
loudly, his voice echoing through the halls but dying quickly in the noise of
the rebels around them. His face grew serious, and he shrugged, taking a long
gulp of beer before speaking. “Fine, I’ll tell you. As a noble, I was usually
untouched and treated well because of my position. As a young boy, my skin was
perfect, and I was undoubtedly the most handsome boy amongst all of the nobles—even
more handsome than the prince himself.”

“There’s a prince?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know? He’s been gone for
a while now, off fighting some barbarians with his army, but I’m sure he will
be back before you decide to destroy the entire empire single-handedly,”
Aladdin joked, and Keimaro rolled his eyes with annoyance. “At any rate, the
king didn’t seem to like me very much. When Aika began to favor me at a rather
young age, the king said something about me and called me filth. Interestingly
enough, Aika still took a liking to me.”

The mention of Aika made Keimaro awaken
even more to his story. Aika had taken a liking to this boy? Keimaro looked at
Aladdin and could see that indeed his face and hair were matched close to
perfection when he took away the scar. “And what happened?”

“Ah, we were so young that it didn’t
particularly mean anything,” Aladdin said, “but the king had a man cut me when
I was only twelve so that my face would be ruined. He wanted to separate Aika
and me. In fact, it was to set the example that Aika wasn’t allowed to be
attracted to any males for a while. It was quite painful and scarred quite a
bit across my eye. Luckily enough, I still have vision in both eyes,” he said
with a smile. “At any rate, I have hated that man ever since. A man as
disgusting as him shouldn’t be upon the throne. I want him off, and I want
myself as king. I want him punished for what he did to me and everyone else
that he’s hurt.”

Keimaro lowered his eyes at Aladdin’s
story. His face had been cut by a blade for his natural beauty? That was a
terrible reason. No doubt the noble’s family shared a hatred for the king as
well. “My story is just that Yuri decided to punch me in the face for being
disobedient.”

“You don’t seem like the obeying type.”

“I’m not.”

Aladdin smiled at him and leaned back in
his chair, inhaling deeply. “So, you’re taking place in tonight’s show, huh?”

“You know about it already?”

“I heard a few birds chirp here and there.”

Keimaro shrugged.

“Are you nervous?”

“Should I be?

Aladdin leaned his elbow against the table
and sighed, spinning his empty mug on the table, bored with Keimaro’s responses.
“Well, you’ve got to assassinate a few politicians in front of the king, who is
the most heavily guarded person in the entire empire. No doubt there’ll be
dozens, maybe hundreds, of guards against such a small number of you. A large
number of the Royal Guard will be there as well. I heard they have a strong
reputation for being able to cut down enemies quickly. They eliminate our
assassins before we are even able to reach the throne room. I heard a couple of
us died last week; they’ve been strengthening their security, no doubt.”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Keimaro said
boldly and sighed, standing up. “I need another drink.”

“As do I,” Aladdin said with a smirk, “but
before we do get a drink, might I ask something quickly?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know someone by the name of Buu?”

Keimaro’s eye twitched at the mere mention
of his name, and he turned to face Aladdin fully. The bully from Bakaara? How
did this guy know his name?
Don’t tell me….
His face grew serious. “Yeah.
Why, is he alive?”

“He’s very much alive and incredibly
strong, one of the finest warriors out of all of our assassins. Well, maybe not
the finest, but definitely the most aggressive and daring. Ironically, you’re
from the same village, are you not?” Aladdin said with a sly smirk. “The two of
you come from the same place and take your spots at the top of the assassins.
What’s your secret?”

“We both lost everything,” Keimaro
muttered. “Not just a cut to the face. Our families were killed before our eyes,
and every human we had ever known was left burned to ash or slaughtered on the
roads of our own homes. Babes were dashed against walls, and children were left
to hang. Everyone else met the brandished steel of Faar,” he paused, coughing
awkwardly. “So, Buu is eager to see me?”
Do I really want to see that
bastard?

“Quite,” Aladdin said. “In fact, overly
excited, really. He’s been fighting triple the amount that he usually does in
the sparring ring. The original amount was already a lot, but now he just
fights and fights and fights. Undefeated, he is. I think someone ought to bring
him down, you know? I figure he’s trying to get your attention.”

Keimaro scoffed, sitting back down at the
table with Aladdin with a disbelieving shake of his head. “So, that’s why you
came to me, to find someone to defeat this incredible, undefeated champion of
yours?” He looked forward, fire blazing in his eyes. He wanted to fight Buu
badly. He wanted to show that bully that he no longer needed Yata as his
bodyguard. He wanted to show Buu that he was stronger than he was before.
Much
stronger. Wroth heat shot through his veins, and a smile spread across his
face. “I could use a fight. A good one, at least. I have to blow off some steam
after Yuri gave me a good whack to the face.”

Aladdin’s expression brightened as he stood
up, patting Keimaro on the back with a grin. “That’s it! Show him. I’ve already
bet money on you!”

“What?”

“Oh, well…,” Aladdin said with a nervous
smile, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s a bit of a rumor that you’re a
hot-head, so we kind of knew that you would go after Buu. So, there’s a bit of
a pool of betting going on….”

“How much?”

“Enough to make you rich.”

“I get half of your profit if I win.”

“Rather greedy, aren’t you?” Aladdin
murmured with a pout.

Keimaro thought about Aika—and buying her
some flowers, but he blinked the thought out of his head. She was royalty; this
wasn’t his place. Nevertheless, he figured that sooner or later he would need
some money. He might as well scrape some of it off of this noble while
obtaining some pay from the king for being his Royal Guard. “Quite so.
Otherwise, there won’t be a fight to see.”

Aladdin rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Whatever,
fine, fine. Just make sure that you put your maximum effort into this fight. I
won’t be losing my weekly allowance because you decide to mess around.”

Keimaro stood up, cracking his neck. He
exhaled air. “I don’t mess around. I don’t make jokes. I always do my best. And
I always win.”

***

Darkness. Noah’s glasses were cracked on
his face and dirtied to the point where he could hardly see anything except
shards of images. His hands were stretched into the air and bound by heavy
metal clamps like those on his ankles. He was in an empty cell with nothing but
rats and disease-infested blankets. Not a single bit of light could be found.
Some liquid dripped down from the ceiling; whether it was clean or not couldn’t
be known, but Noah found himself catching the liquid on his tongue regardless,
so parched that he thought he would die from dehydration without any
nourishment. He had been beaten relentlessly by the soldiers of Faar and tossed
into this cell with no food or water. It had been only a few hours, but his
uncomfortable position combined with his broken ribs and injuries to make it
feel like an eternity. He wondered when someone would come and just kill him
already.

Footsteps sounded nearby, echoing through
the underground jail. Perhaps the guards were taking him away for questioning
or an execution. Noah closed his eyes and sighed with regret. Why hadn’t he
taken Yata’s hand in that split-second when he could’ve been saved? Why had he
just given up and accepted his fate? The look in Yata’s eyes had been so filled
with hope.

He yanked on his chains, trying to move
forward. They were heavy and ponderous, allowing him to make no progress in
moving across his cell to at least touch the iron bars that confined him.
Seldom had he ever felt this defeated.

The footsteps grew louder and echoed
through the dark recesses of Bassada’s underground cells. A light flickered in
the distance, a blazing torch that blinded Noah. He turned his head away and
winced, writhing against the light. He looked past the torch and saw a large,
burly man with heavy, gold-plated armor clamped over a layer of chainmail. At
his side, his hand gripped a caged knight’s helmet with a red feather hanging
loosely from the top. His other steel, gold-rimmed gauntlet was wrapped around
a large, thick torch with blazing flames. The man’s face was shadowed by the
darkness around him, and he was unfamiliar to Noah’s eyes.

He walked over to a brazier that had been
so encased in the darkness that Noah hadn’t noticed it. He lit the brazier, and
the area brightened. The shadows retreated back to their corners, and soon Noah
felt relieved to be around any sort of human company at all.

Noah saw that the man had a black beard
that had recently been trimmed to smooth stubble. His dark eyes wandered over Noah
near the fire, and he smiled, showing a golden tooth. His sword was sheathed at
his side, the blazing steel hidden. He stood there for a moment in complete
silence and sighed when he spoke, “What did you see?”

The question was utterly idiotic. The man knew
everything that Noah had seen, yet he still asked the question. Noah knew that
this would lead to more beatings, and he closed his eyes, shaking his head. “We
didn’t see anything,” he lied straight to the man’s face.

“My name is General Mundo,” the man said
simply, reaching out and grabbing one of the rusty iron bars with his large
gauntlets, squeezing the metal. “I command three of the king’s largest armies
alone. I am a legend among legends, and you break into a laboratory that is
under my supervision and think that you can simply lie to my face?”

“You shouldn’t leave entrances to your
secret laboratories in a public area then,” Noah snapped.

General Mundo raised an eyebrow in
amusement at Noah’s tenacity and clicked his tongue, pacing back and forth. “Well,
well, how do you think we get our experiments? Since there’s no reason to hide
anything anymore, I figured that I might as well tell you. I capture curious
cats that go down there and perform tests on them so that perhaps, one day,
Faar can become the ultimate superpower of this planet. A god amongst humans.
And the rest of the humans in the world will bow down before our almighty king—or,
rather, the genius that created such an invincible army.” He smiled at Noah. “The
only reason you aren’t in a tube like the rest of those poor slum children is
that you know specific information regarding Keimaro Hayashi’s whereabouts, don’t
you?”

Noah blinked a few times in disbelief. How
the hell did this guy know about Keimaro? Had they already performed the
assassination? No, it couldn’t be night already. Could it? Then again, who knew
the time in a place as dark as this? He lowered his head, a shadow looming over
his face. Keimaro hadn’t even been with them, and no one else had been caught.
How could they even know that he was associated with Z’s group? “I don’t know
who that is,” he said simply.

“You’re lying again,” General Mundo growled.
“My intelligence tells me that he has been spending time with your band of
blubbering buffoons and that he was spotted last infiltrating the clock tower
near the central square this morning while you were off exploring my
laboratory.” The general was pacing back and forth as if in deep thought with a
sly crack of a smile across his face. “And each time I hear his name, the
people seem to say it in fear—as if, by some chance, he might actually be a
threat to our empire. The guards themselves couldn’t confirm him. They could
only recognize his voice since they heard him speak, but with that black cloak
that he wore, no one can be sure if it was him. Though, some spectators seem to
believe that the boy had red eyes. A black cloak … that could be only one of
two things, the Bount organization or your group of assassins. Shall I question
everyone in this city until I find him? My guards will recognize his voice. Tell
me, do you know him?”