Age of Darkness (40 page)

“Edward Jones, too,” Hidan said, holding
out his hand, where a red staff formed from the wind. He tapped the staff to
his shoulder and sighed. “Oi, Tobimaru, don’t get too hasty now. This is
dangerous.”

Kuro scoffed as he took a step forward to
look at Aoi and smiled. “Aoi, my old friend, it’s been a while. Too long,
perhaps. I assume that you’ll be helping Zylon and his band of fools to stop
me, then? You won’t take up this final offer to assist me?”

“As much as I would love to become a god,”
Aoi said, pulling back her hood to reveal flowing blonde hair. She tossed her
hair playfully and gave a sly smile. “I don’t think it would be much fun if I
already had all of the power in the palm of my hand, aye? So, I suppose I’ll
help Zylon this once with his stupid affairs.”

Kuro sighed and waved for Tobimaru and
Hidan to follow him. “Then do so by fleeing. You will have an hour before Danzo
activates the Chains of Memories. This is the only warning that I will give you,”
he said with a smile. “For old times’ sake, hmm? After all, Aoi, I know how
much you like your freedom. If I were you, I’d get out of this empire as soon
as you can. And you, Keimaro,” he said, turning to face the young man, “I
expect you to ponder the offer I have made you. If you refuse, I will order
your execution. I cannot have a member of the Hayashi clan rashly running loose
in my new world.”

“Kuro, stop this sick plan of yours,” Aoi
said as the Bounts began to walk away. “I don’t want to have to result to
violence and—”

“And what?” Kuro said, stopping to glance
at the woman over his shoulder. “Fight me? Who do you think is currently the
strongest being in this world? Do you truly believe that your armada of pirates
will be able to defeat me? Or that your own personal strength will even make a
tiny enough contribution in your efforts to actually stop me? I can sink your
ships and kill all your men with a single glance. I can obliterate entire
cities with a simple wave of my hand. Armies run at the sight of me walking
alone down a battlefield. I am the perfect weapon. I am my own army. In fact, I’m
invincible now that I have awakened with my dragon at my side. Make all the
threats you want, woman,” he said, continuing to walk away. “In the end, anyone
who opposes me will feel the full wrath of my hatred.”

“Stop!” Aoi commanded, drawing a pistol from
her holster and pointing it at Kuro’s back. She stepped forward slowly. Hidan
and Tobimaru cringed at the sight of the weapon, but Kuro simply turned around,
his look completely devoid of emotion. “You won’t get away. Your plan from the
very beginning has endangered everyone in the world. Don’t you see how selfish
it is?”

“This lady is a bit crazy…,” Yuri muttered,
transforming back into his human form. “Pointing a gun at Kuro Hayashi … that’s
a death sentence.”

Keimaro watched with interest from a distance,
taking a few steps off of the pile of rubble to get a closer look at this
stranger who was threatening Kuro. Her bravery was commendable, but did she
have the guts to follow through with pulling that trigger?

Kuro walked toward Aoi with his arms open
and raised his eyebrows. “Go on then. Shoot me,” he said, walking up to the
woman and grabbing the end of the gun. He placed the barrel against his
forehead and looked straight into Aoi’s eyes. “Pull the trigger and put an end
to this sick plan of mine then, if you’re so sure that you want it all to end.”

“Oi, Kuro…,” Hidan murmured, “you—”

“Shut up,” Kuro snapped and smiled at Aoi. “Go
on; pull the trigger. Kill me. If you’re going to do it, do it.”

Aoi’s eyes were wide with incredulity, her
face pale with disbelief. Her hands were shaking, and the pistol rattled in
Kuro’s hands. Her finger twitched on the trigger, unsure whether or not she
wanted to pull it. Sweat began to stream down her face, and she gulped, sighing
as she lowered the weapon.

“As I thought,” Kuro said, spinning around
and sweeping her off her feet with a swift kick to the legs. The woman left the
ground and flew parallel to the earth as Kuro brought his fist down toward her
stomach, ready to tear out her insides with his bare hands. “That will be your
downfall.”

Keimaro was suddenly upon him with
frightening speed, prying his sword from the debris in the ground. He held it
tightly by the hilt as he slashed it upward at Kuro’s throat with deadly
accuracy.

The Bount leader tilted his head back as
the blade cut through open air. He took several steps back with a scoff. “You
fleas keep interfering,” he muttered and glanced to see the other pirate’s
pistol trained on him.

Edward’s eyes were trained on Kuro with his
wrist completely still, the pistol not shaking at all. He was perfectly ready
to shoot to kill. “I’m not weak like the Queen over here, mate.” He pulled the
trigger, and gunpowder erupted from the pistol in a loud explosion, sending a
spiraling ball of lead flying at Kuro at blinding speed.

Kuro’s hand shot up, and the bullet hit his
palm, stopping in its tracks. “That’s enough of that,” he said. He turned away
and began to walk with his fellow Bounts through the holes in Z’s mansion’s
wall, making their way casually back to the castle. “I intend to see you soon,
Keimaro,” he called over his shoulder, flicking the bullet onto the ground.

Keimaro stared in disbelief at the Bounts
and looked at the bullet that rolled uselessly on the ground. He turned to
Edward, recognizing the man. He had broken into Edward’s house and taken refuge
there after he had assassinated that politician. He turned to Aoi, who was
lying on the ground. He held out his hand to her. She had spoken of working
with Z, which meant that they had to be on the same side. “Are you all right?” he
asked.

“Yeah,” Aoi said with a brief nod to Edward.
She sighed as she brushed off her white cloak. “Reckon he’d do that. I also
thought I was strong enough to actually pull that trigger, not that it would’ve
done much anyway.” She sighed. Keimaro remembered that Tobimaru mentioned that
she was the Third Immortal, so she was like Zylon and Kuro, ancient. But she
looked to be thirty at the maximum. “At any rate, we need to get out of here.
We found your friend taking quite the nap in dangerous territory. Lena, I
believe Edward said. Did you leave her there, mate?”

“Yeah,” Keimaro said, motioning to the
destruction around them. “That was before all of this happened. It was safer to
have her there than have her with me.”

“Aye,” Aoi said, glancing at Yuri with a
smile. “Ah, if it isn’t the werewolf. And how is your friend faring?”

“She seems all right,” Yuri said, nodding
to Aika. “Just a few scratches and bruises.”

“Good, so the only one in poor condition is
this girl that Edward is holding. But first, we need to get out of here,” Aoi
said. “We will get her fed and tended to once we are outside of the empire.”

“Are we really in that much of a rush?”
Yuri asked. “I mean, Lena needs medical attention. Aika should be able to heal
her. If we just give her—”

“You realize that the Bounts still have
Danzo, correct?” Aoi interrupted. “That means that if we don’t get out of here
in the next hour, we are all doomed.”

“Why is that?” Yuri frowned. He wanted to
get Lena help as soon as possible. But at the rate things were happening, that
didn’t seem too likely.

“Because Danzo is planning on activating
the Chains of Memories.”

“What do you mean by that?” Keimaro
intervened.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Danzo is
a memory specialist with magical capabilities that no one seems to understand.
It’s too strong to be deemed artificial magic, but it takes too much of a toll
on him when it is used to be natural,” Aoi said. “Danzo is a member of the
Bount organization, but you probably haven’t seen him. He is a wise old man who
has lived for several centuries. He typically uses his magic on a large scale,
which leaves him at a weak stage for a long period of time.”

“Then why don’t we just cut him down while
he’s weak? That’s one less Bount to worry about,” Keimaro observed.

“If only it were that easy. You see, the
reason that Danzo is a member of the Bount organization is because of his magic
and wisdom. Members of the organization are able to fight on their own, but
Danzo cannot fight. In fact, an ordinary soldier could probably kill him in a
battle. However, his ability to manipulate others as if they are mere chess
pieces is the reason he is dangerous. With his magic, he can enter someone’s
mind and change their memories entirely. He can make things that never
happened, happen. He can make a person meet someone whom they have never met
before,” Aoi explained. “That’s the issue of what is going on here. Kuro is the
brute force in all of this, but the real mastermind behind their plan is going
to be Danzo. When he unleashes the Chains of Memories, he will change the
memories of every single human in the Faar Empire, and they will all work for
Kuro permanently. In other words, the empire of Faar will be under Bount
control, and the fate of mankind will be dominated by the largest army in the
world.”

Keimaro said nothing while the rest of his
comrades began to panic.

“Sparta is already on the brink of
destruction.” Edward offered. “Faar will easily bring them down unless they
have assistance. Even with us there, the Faar army stands at over a hundred
million soldiers strong. The Spartans have only ten thousand at their maximum. We
should—”

“We aren’t running away, if that’s what you’re
implying,” Yuri growled at the pirate. “If the Spartans collapse, so does
Athens. It’ll be like dominoes. Once Sparta falls, everything in this world is
going down with it. We need to stop them. You damned pirates just love running
away, don’t you?”

“Then what the hell do you propose we do,
eh?” Edward snapped at the werewolf. “Mate, I don’t want to risk my life for a
damned lost cause! The chances of survival and victory are zero! Zero!”

Everyone began to argue, but their words
were drowned out by Keimaro’s mind as he stared forward through the ashes and
destruction and locked his eyes onto Yata’s peaceful body. He bit down on his
lip, his hands balling into fists at his side. “
Enough,
” he said, and
everyone was silenced immediately. Keimaro stared forward, his heart throbbing.
“It is not a lost cause.” His voice broke the silence as he closed his eyes.

“When I joined you guys as an assassin, I
thought of all of you as tools for my vengeance. I see now that I was foolish.
I want to thank all of you for changing me,” Keimaro said with a small smile as
he looked at Aika. “I used to want to destroy this world, but right now … right
now I want to save it.

“Kuro has been awakened. A dragon along
with him! The entire Faar Empire is about to be mind-controlled, and we’ve lost
many comrades.” He spoke softly, watching as a gentle breeze blew Yata’s hair
from his closed eyes. “But don’t let that discourage you. This is still our
world. This is still our fight! If we turn around now and run, we won’t be
escaping anything. We’ll still perish. So now, it’s a matter of whether we
decide to die fighting or die running.” Keimaro glanced at Edward. “I’m not
exactly a fan of running, I might add.”

The pirate raised an eyebrow and sighed. “Aye,
I see what yer saying.”

Aoi grinned, giving Keimaro a big slap on
the back. “I like you already! Brave and fierce. You’re exactly what we need to
bring down Kuro, but there’s a lot that we need to do before we head to take
him down. Right now, we need to focus on fleeing the empire. Edward’s house has
a teleporter, similar to the one that was in Zylon’s mansion. We’ll port
ourselves to Sparta where we’ll discuss our next step. We’re going to have to
somehow find a way to slay Kuro’s dragon. That is the first step to bringing
down this tyrant.” As the pirate spoke, she began to step over piles of rubble,
making her way toward the cracked streets of Bassada. “Quickly, follow me! If
we’re going to get anything done, we need to get out of here before Danzo’s
chains are activated.”

Keimaro watched as everyone began to follow
Aoi, eager to get out of Bassada as soon as possible. But he didn’t move. Aika noticed
and turned to look at him with worried eyes. “Are you coming?” she asked with a
sincere tilt of her head.

Keimaro looked at the princess for a
moment, his lips quivering before he shook his head. “Yeah. Just go on without
me. I’ll be right there,” he said as rain fell from the sky. What seemed like a
light shower turned into a downpour, and Aika nodded, leaving without another
word. Keimaro turned to Yata’s body, which still lay in the mud. He looked
peaceful.

Yata’s blood was washed away with the rain,
and he lay amongst dozens of lifeless teenage bodies that were punctured with
wounds. The destroyed remains of Zylon’s mansion were reduced to piles of
charred wood and cracked stone debris, the rest of the ashes washed away.
Keimaro walked to Yata’s body and stood there, watching his old friend.

A part of him wasn’t able to accept the
fact that his best friend had died. Another part accepted reality. Before he
knew it, tears were mixing with the streams of rain that streaked down his
cheeks. His wet hair came down over his face. “Why wasn’t I here for you like
all of the times that you were for me?” he murmured, grinding his teeth. He
tried desperately to hold back his sobbing. “In the end, I wasn’t strong enough
to stop all of them.”