Chapter 3 - The Power Of Darkness
As the black sword-like weapon raced towards his arms, Takami had though that he was done for, various images flashed before his eyes. Memories filled with happiness, his first few birthdays, time spent with his family and his grandparents, all gone to waste... . A mysterious black mist started to gather around his arms, solidifying quickly and formed two short swords made of a silky black material. A voice was emitted from within his mind, "God damn it kid. Couldn't you just mind your own business?" complained the voice. A ball of the previously seen silky black material had slowly started to materialise in front of Takami.
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April 19 - 2043 - Tokyo
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The cries of a child rang throughout the medical ward; a child had been born, one with a tuff of blonde hair and two eyes, one black and one white. "It's a boy, Madame!" cried a nurse with excitement present in her smooth relaxing voice.
There were multiple people surrounding the boy: his mother , his father, his sister, his godmother and grandfather, Kiozuma . After congratulating his daughter on the healthy birth of his first grandson who was promptly named Takami, after a large debate which had occurred right after the birth on subject of what his name should be, Takami's mother's representative being his godmother due to Takami's mother passing out from exhaustion.
Koizuma had excused himself from the room using the excuse of having to go to the restroom urgently, instead he had walked into a vacant room, his eyes turned a deep black, whilst he spoke, "Yuki" .
"Yes master?" something replied, "I will give you a new mission, protect my grandson without letting him discover you, although his latent talent is of an incredible magnitude, I do not wish for him to suffer due to the celestial war."
"Of course master." something replied. "If you are found, suggest the idea of bringing him to a friend of mine, Tobias, he will be able to teach Takami how to protect himself." Koizuma demanded.
'The only thing I am worried about is that Tobias may see Takami's latent potential and try to attempt to make him join the celestial war as a dark combatant.' he whispered to himself.
The cries of a child rang throughout the medical ward, the day where the fate of the world had been displaced, for better or for worse, had come.
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Back to present day
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"You just had to be a hero didn't you, couldn't just mind your own business like a normal person." the small ball of black had created a mouth, then a raspy voice was emitted from it. "There is no time for introductions, just know that I am helping your harness your latent potential to manipulate dark energy, if you lose focus, as you aren't ready to wield dark energy due to your *ahem* unprepared body you will perish if this battle is prolonged to much. The name's Yuki"
Many different thoughts and questions had flooded Takami's brain, "I know what your thinkin' kid but leave it for later." advised Yuki . Takami had decided to agree with this mysterious voice and look towards the man who had been possessed by a dark entity. Black mist was seeping out from his mouth, "The dark entity inhabiting that human is using the human's lifespan in order to manipulate the dark energy in the surroundings, the longer this battle takes the shorter this man's life expectancy will be, so lets hurry up and take him out!"
Takami nodded, in the side of his peripheral vision he noticed a small shine, it was a metallic ring with a small diamond embedded within, it looked like a wedding ring . Takami grimaced, his expression turning serious, he noticed that the man's arm blade was shaking, thinking of the girl behind him who had fainted whilst he had been conversing with Yuki, Takami used all the strength in his arms to repel the sword which had been caught within Takami's two short swords.
"Try to hit his chest, more specifically the middle of his abdomen, that should be where his dark energy core is located. " Yuki commented. The man possessed by darkness had been thrown back by Takami's parry, he was falling backwards on one foot. 'A perfect chance to take him out', Takami thought. Takami changed forward and thrusted both short swords towards the abdomen of the possessed man. CLANG. Sparks of yellow and red where emitted, What? I didn't hit him? , Takami was puzzled.
"He moved the dark energy from his arm and used it to protect his abdomen, Takami use both of your swords to quickly pierce his darkness when you have another chance so the entity won't be able to react in time!" Yuki yelled, Takami had lost the golden opportunity due to a lack of information, a cold sweat crawled down from his forehead.
The opposition gathered dark energy around forming a set of black boots atop his legs. The man then lowered his centre of mass and sprinted towards Takami with unfathomable speed, the ground below where the man has taken of from had been smashed. Takami attempted to parry the incoming kicks; the first kick was blocked but resulted in Takami being launched backwards due to the power of the kick, his arms had gone numb and as soon as he had realised he had to put up his guard again the second kick made direct contact with his lower abdomen, a disturbing snapping sound erupted from his chest as he coughed up blood.
Takami was catapulted into the wall behind him, cracking due to the pressure exerted from his body, creating a web of destruction. A cloud of dust erupted from the wall, disrupting Takami's vision, a second kick came speeding towards him, but all Takami could do was hold his swords in the direction where he thought a kick would come from. WHAM. The force of the third kick landed on Takami's left cheek launching him towards the end of the ally, his glasses being thrown off his head. The impact of the landing was not the most pleasant feeling that Takami had ever felt resulting in multiple bruises and most likely a few broken bones.
"Look kid, the only reason you are still alive is that because I've been manipulating a thin shield of dark energy on top of your skin to dull the blows, I can't do that anymore due to the strain on your body resulting in your death." Yuki remarked.
A frightened look of shear terror crawled up onto Takami's face, the dark entity noticed this and sprinted over to Takami, who was splayed crawling away from the man, on the floor with a grin on his face. Dark mist gathered around the possessed man arm's forming a long, sharp, rapier, "That's it for you kid." he cackled thrusting the blade down towards Takami's heart.
Takami scoffed as a small small surfaced on his lips. As he was about to get stabbed Takami rolled to his left and thrusted his two short swords into the man's abdomen. Takami made a plan after observing how quickly the possessed man could manipulate darkness and form a shield to protect his "core". He had to be able to stab the man's "core" before he could form a shield of dark energy to protect it. 'Please let this be fast enough' , Takami prayed.
Resistance could be felt as his short swords pierced his skin, Takami could feel the swords hit a soft material, he grimaced at the feeling of his swords cutting flesh. Then he felt his swords hit another material; it was harder than the man's flesh and as soon as Takami had cut halfway through the object the black cloud of dark energy around the possessed man swirled around his body and dropped to the floor with the man, the tip of his short swords were stained in blood, slowly dripping onto his shoes turning them incarnadine.
"Don't worry Kid, you ain't killed him yet, it's only a small stab wound since the core faced the brunt of the damage." Yuki clarified.
Takami felt exhausted, he grimaced due the rancid metallic smell of blood, it was a smell similar to rust. After carefully positioning the injured man to the left of him against a wall, so he could breath properly, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialled for an ambulance for the man. Takami took of the man's jacket and tied it around his chest to stop the bleeding and then laid on the ground due to exhaustion.
As he was laying on the ground, the darkness that had fell to the floor where the man had first fallen after Takami had destroyed the dark core inside the possessed man, started to move towards Takami and seep into his body. Takami could feel his fatigue dissipating, his energy being replenished more and more with every passing second.
"When a dark entity is defeated, which can be done through various methods, their dark energy core will decompress and turning into dark essence which can be consumed in order for a dark being to become more powerful or used for other purposes." Yuki declared.
Takami, after waiting for all of the dark essence to enter his body, stood up and walked over to the girl who had fainted before the fight, ensuring she had not been harmed. The fight had taken approximately 30 seconds, but to Takami it had felt like hours. The overbearing and familiar whining of ambulance sirens become audible to Takami as he fled the seen. His shoes were dyed with blood and there was a injured man with a stab wound in his abdomen, that wouldn't be easy to explain to the authorities.
Whilst walking back home, Takami ignored the frightened looks which where being sent his way. Takami had yet to realise that his eyes were still pitch black, a scary sight for sure. " Ya know kid, your pretty good for a beginner, not to mention it was your first time manipulating darkness, normal dark apprentices would have collapsed due to moving dark energy around their body..." Yuki thought.
"I thought you were a goner there for a second, kid" laughed Yuki with an amused voice. "What are you doing out in the open! Quickly hide in my backpack! Otherwise people will see you!" whispered Takami a stressed expression was evident on his face.
"Don't worry about it, only people with void eyes can see me in my materialised form, however I can also talk to you in your mind." replied Yuki with a relaxed voice, as if this had happened once before.
"Kid, you really remind me of someone." Yuki spoke with a small nostalgic smile on his lips, which had been barely visible. "Whatever, just get back into my backpack, if other darkness users see you I won't be able to fight them, just like you had said, "When a dark entity is defeated, their dark core will turn into dark essence", I have one of those don't I? Which other dark entities will want, right?" queried Takami.
"Correct, somebody's a fast learner." Yuki smiled with a warm smile and flew into Takami's body. "Woah! What was that? You have to tell me when your about to do something weird!" Takami exclaimed with an exasperated sigh.
"Don't worry about it kid. Let's just focus on getting you home. I can read your thoughts so you can communicate with me via this method instead of verbally speaking." said Yuki. "All my thoughts? That's kind of embarrassing..." thought Takami. "Tough luck, you're gonna have to get used to it." rebuked Yuki
After walking through a few streets, Takami found himself in front of his house. A four bedroom house equipped with: cream white walls mixed with red bricks, a small neat garden could be seen in front of the humble abode, obviously someone had taken gardening as a hobby in the household.
As Takami looked at the nameplate embedded into the brick fence which read 'Shinso Household' he smiled and opened the iron gate, no sounds where emitted, the gate was well oiled and clearly looked after.
"Kid, stop manipulating dark energy within your eyes, visualise sending the dark energy towards your core. I have no idea how you learnt to use a pseudo version of the [Void Eyes] technique on yourself." barked Yuki. After following Yuki's instructions, Takami's eyes had turned back to their usual colour, "Well done kid." praised Yuki.
The red door had a rhombus shaped glass window embedded into the upper half of the door built with functionality as a main focus. Below the silver door handle was a small keyhole where a key could be entered; Takami fished around in his chest pocket of his shirt and then grabbed a pair of keys, they were enveloped in a silver sheen due to the sun's rays reflecting off the key.
Takami picked the middle key, entered it into the hole and twisted it, the door make a clicking sound signifying that the door was unlocked. Then he took the key out and pushed down on the door handle, the door make a clicking sound as it opened. He then pushed the door open and walked into house.
Takami took of his shoes and put them towards the right side of the door, where two pairs of shoes where housed. In front of the door to the left were a set of stairs which lead to the house's second floor whilst to the right was a hallway which lead to a kitchen, a lounge, a toilet and a garage.
"Welcome home Taki!" exclaimed Takami's Mother, Charlotte, with a soothing voice. Takami had guessed that his father had yet to come home yet and thus replied, "Thanks mum, when do you think dad will be back by?".
"Around about in an hour or so" responded Takami's Mother followed by telling Takami that dinner would be read in a bit. After thanking his mother, Takami had ascend the flight of stairs, he could see his sister coming down the stairs and thus stood to one side to allow her passage. Akari had blonde hair with pure white eyes, she scowled at Takami as she went down the stairs, "I heard you got into a fight Sato-kun's group." she remarked.
Akari was athletic, smart and sociable. Takami, on the other hand, was only smart, not sociable or athletic and thus was a blemish on Akari's perfect social status. Being related to someone so unsociable had lead to her being made fun of a few times, of which she easy dealt with and rebuked them with a smile on her face. Nevertheless she did not enjoy having weaknesses, and Takami was a weakness.
Takami confirmed the allegation he made his way up the stairs and moved towards his room, passing his parent's master bedroom and Akari's room in the process. Upon reaching the door of his room, he put his hand on the handle of the door and entered the room. A tidy space revealed itself in front of his eyes, a single bed in the corner of the room, accompanied with a small bedside table and two shelves chalk full of books of various genres. Takami was an avid reader of all books from study materials to light novels.
Takami undressed himself, took a shower, blow dried his hair and brushed his teeth. He then equipped himself with some pyjamas and then flopped onto his bed, his eyes slowly closed with fatigue laced on them completely forgetting that he had to eat dinner, the last thoughts he could remember himself thinking were about The Power of Darkness.