Chapter 01: Ahmya Yamato

City of Fubuki, Yamato Mansion, Dark Council

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"Don't you think that the Light have enjoyed for far too long now? A century is a very long time but I can still remember the day they banished us to this cursed place like they're throwing used ragdolls, while they enjoy the beauty and warmth of the City of Light," Zuriel Princeton said, an amused expression evident on his face as he surveyed his Dark Council.

"Well what do you reckon should we do about it?" Mikhail Alvarez asked his superior as he leaned back on his seat. Zuriel looked at him with his cold mismatched eyes and smiled.

"It's time for them to step down don't you think? It's time to take back what was originally ours," he said.

"And how exactly will we do that?" One of elders asked.

"Yeah, what's your plan?" Another elder asked.

"Well, just casually walking in and attacking them won't be good for us, especially because they put up barriers around the city. But I already sent scouts there to try and determine which parts of the barrier are the weakest, it's not a problem getting in now," Zuriel said and snapped his fingers, two of the servants that were standing at the sides came to him and handed two scrolls. Once Zuriel has picked them up, the two servants bowed at him and made their way back to their original positions. "We'll slowly infiltrate the city, using the advantage of magical cores being unidentifiable and start killing them one by one in their City of Light," he added and unrolled one of the scrolls. 

It was a detailed illustration of a magical core. Magical cores are the strings of magic that settles in the bottomest part of a Yoza's heart. They usually determine if a Yoza is Light or Dark. There are rare instances of a Yoza being Grey, that means that they are neutral, they are neither Light nor Dark, in short, they are the freewill. Whereas Light Yozas can never turn Dark and vice versa, Grey Yozas can choose whichever side they want to be in. They also usually possess the rarest and most unimaginable types of magical powers or Mahos.

Magical cores cannot be seen nor felt, but by the time of a Yoza's birth, they will glow a certain light that will determine their core. Pure white light determines Light Yozas, pure darkness determines Dark Yozas, amd a beautiful ash gray color determines Grey Yozas. It only lasts for a few seconds, and will never be seen again. 

As technology advanced however, Yozas eventually found a way to determine a Yoza's magical core through an in-depth exam where they dissect a Yoza's heart. But that take too long and there is no way they could examine everyone in the City of Light quickly. It serves as a perfect advantage to the plan Zuriel had in mind.

"And as we go and attack them discreetly in their very own comfort zones, each one of us will be given a tracker, so that we could recognize fellow Dark Yozas," Zuriel said and unrolled the other scroll, it was a blueprint of the whole city, he pointed at various locations on the blueprint. "These are blindspots to most people there and also where the weakest points if the barrier lies, we can come in through these pathways without passing through mundane police officers and the ever annoying magical police," he said.

"Won't they become suspicious if Light Yozas suddenly start dying?" An elder asked.

"That's why we're gonna have an opening act, a suitable reason, someone from our side will have to get killed in the Light territory," Zuriel answered. "Somebody important, enough to stir our anger," he added.

"Who would we send for that? If it's somebody important then can we really bear losing them?" Inei Yamato, the head of the Yamato clan asked.

"That's the hard part, finding a suitable candidate who could sacrifice themselves for our cause," Zuriel said. 

The council silenced for a moment, and for that moment, only the tapping of someone's shoes u der the table and the faint crashes from a distance can be heard, though they are quite sure that those sounds came from the training grounds where the younger warriors are training. 

The silence however, was broken when the door suddenly opened. And in came, Ahmya Yamato, sitting on a wheelchair pushed by her younger brother. Everyone in the council knew that the eldest Yamato child suffers from an incurable magical disease, her father have already done everything in his power and sought powerful magical Healers to try and put an extension to his daughter's life. Everything has limits, however, and Ahmya's body won't take any treatment anymore, and the family Healer told them that she only has a few months left to live. 

But if you could see Ahmya right now, aside from the fact that she's sitting on a wheelchair, you wouldn't mistake her for someone who's dying. Even from when she was a kid, Ahmya was beautiful, her hair was as dark as night and her forest green eyes have a strange twinkle on them unmatched by any gem and would make anyone who sees her smile. She looked just as beautiful and her eyes twinkled just like the stars as before, if they didn't know the fact that she has a disease, they would think that she was just playing around.

"Good evening everyone," her melodious voice rang throughout the Conference Room.

"Yohan, why did you bring your sister here?" Inei Yamato asked.

"She used her dying card again, who am I to say no?" Yohan Yamato rolled his eyes and scowled, his thick eyebrows almost touching each other as he frowned upon the council before looking away.

"Ahmya? We're in the middle of a meeting, we can talk later okay?" Inei Yamato told his daughter.

"Aozaki-sensei has told me everything about my condition dad, and I would like to spend my last days being useful," Ahmya Yamato started, both her father and brother frowned at her as she spoke. "I know of your plan, don't ask me how, but I know of it. Send me," she said and looked the council, she spotted a ladybug perched on the table and it fluttered towards her and sat on her shoulder instead.

"Oneechan," Yohan muttered, his grip tightening on the handle of the wheelchair to the extent of his knuckles turning white.

"What the hell are you saying Ahmya?" Her father asked lowly. Ahmya did not answer, instead, she looked up to her father and smiled.

"All my life, there was always someone on the sidelines ready to do everything for me, I lived an easy life. I want to do something for others dad, and I want to help our cause. The Light have ruled the world for so long, forcing us to hide in this cold and dark place. I want to do something for our people, as my last request, send me there." Ahmya said.

"You sure have a lot of last requests," Yohan muttered and scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous Ahmya-chan, you can't even walk on your own," he added.

Ahmya chuckled and stood up from the wheelchair and walked towards where her brother stood and reached up to ruffle his hair.

"Oh I can walk, it's just fun ordering you around," she told her brother who was speechless, sporting a betrayed facial expression. "And I'm pretty strong too and good at undercover and acting as I have exhibited just now, let me be the opening act for your big plan."

"No, what you would do, is walk out of this room and we'll all pretend like this conversation never happened," Inei Yamato interrupted and stood up, a fierce look evident in his eyes as he looked at his daughter.

"Dad, I'm gonna die anyway, let my death be honorable, not just because of some stupid disease," Ahmya said, the smile on her lips gone, as well as the usual twinkle of her eyes. She stared seriously at her father.

"Yamato-san, your daughter has a point," Zuriel said, grinning. Inei visibly tensed. "Ahmya," the leader of the Dark Council called.

"Yes, Zuriel-san," Ahmya answered.

"You will be the opening act of our plan, do your best and do not disappoint your people," the head of the Dark Council said.

"I understand sir." Ahmya said and bowed her head a little, glancing at her father and smiled once again before exiting the room. Yohan followed her out, completely abandoning the wheelchair and grabbed her shoulders in rage.

"I won't let you go there!" He screamed at her.

"You don't have a say in this little bro, and don't worry, as soon as I finish my part, you'll be on the stage soon too," Ahmya said, her eyes twinkling once again as she looked at her brother. "Now come on, get the wheelchair, let's go annoy Mio-kun and the others." Yohan glared at her and stomped back into the Conference Room, he grabbed the wheelchair and brought it out. Ahmya sat on it and made herself comfortable and pointed out.

"Let's go!" She shouted, the ladybug flew from her shoulder and went out of the mansion through a slightly opened window. Yohan groaned and rolled his eyes before pushing the wheelchair. The stairs immediately transformed into a rough ice slide as they walked down. The Conference Room was located in the second floor of the mansion while the training grounds is located more than 500 meters from the mansion. All the rough patches on the road was smoothened with ice as they walked past and turned back to how it was once they have passed.

"Why would you do that?" Sahara Cruz immediately asked when they arrived at the grounds.

"Do what exactly?" Ahmya asked back. All their friends stopped training and walked over to them.

"Don't play dumb Ahmya, I think you know certainly well what we mean," Mio Alvarez said.

Ahmya frowned for a while before her eyes darted towards Freyya Johnson and she chuckled. "Oh, Freyya you nosy little bug." Freyya raised an eyebrow at her and crossed her arms.

"You don't need to do that," Freyya said.

"Yeah, I don't need to," Ahmya started and gestured for Yohan to push the wheelchair. "But I want to, look, I'm gonna die anyway, and I don't want my tombstone to say that I died just because of some disease," she added.

"So you're just gonna kill yourself first before your illness kills you?" Sahara asked.

"I won't be killing myself, I'm pretty sure they would hire someone who woud be the one to kill me," Ahmya said cheerfully.

"Why are you so comfortable talking about your own death?" Mio asked exasperatedly.

"Mio-kun, I suffered for about fifteen years because of this disease, you don't even know the pain that I'm experiencing every single day, you think I'm afraid of death? Think again," Ahmya replied and looked around. "Where's Leala-san and Reiki-kun?" She asked.

"They're - " Freyya said and looked around at the training grounds, trying to find Leala and Reiki. "Well, they were here, I don't know where they could be now."

"Do you guys think that they're dating?" Ahmya asked lowly.

"Leala? Dating? Oh nah-uh, those two words don't sit well together dude," Sahara said.

"Well, Reiki-kun's the only person who's not afraid of Leala-san so," Yohan stopped his sentence short.

"Yeah, now that you mentioned it, they are pretty close," Freyya said thoughtfully.

"They knew each other from childhood aren't they? They came here together, I actually heard they were both orphans," Yohan said.

"Where'd you hear that?" Ahmya asked.

"Yeah, where'd you hear that Yohan?" Yohan visibly tensed when he heard Leala Quintin's voice behind him, and so did the others.

"Lea-chan, you're scaring them," Reiki Fujimori chuckled.

"I just asked where they heard that rumor Reiki," Leala said monotonously. Reiki patted her shoulder and walked towards Ahmya.

"How are you doing today Ahmya-chan?" He asked.

"I'm doing great Rei-kun, where did you both come from by the way?" Ahmya asked.

"Oh, Zuriel-san called us in, we'll be scouting the pathways that we'll be using to infiltrate the city to make sure they're safe and find a building to be our temporary headquarters there," Reiki replied.

"You two?" Mio asked, pointing at Reiki and Leala.

"Yeah," Leala answered and unsheathed her sword. "He said that all of you are susceptible to anger and are impulsive so we're the better choice," she added while still studying the intricate edges of her sword.

"Ouch," Sahara muttered. "But wait, you guys knew about the plan?" She asked.

"You guys do too don't you?" Reiki asked.

"Yeah but we have to spy on them to find out! That is totally unfair!" Freyya stomped her feet.

"I told y'all, Zuriel's playing favorites," Mio said and shrugged.

"When are you guys leaving?" Yohan asked Leala and Reiki.

"Tomorrow, and we won't come back here anymore, since we'll be taking care of our temporary headquarters there as well, we're just gonna wait for you guys there," Reiki answered.

"Who wants to duel?" Leala asked, raising her sword.

"Nope."

"Not me."

"We're good."

Were there replies. Reiki chuckled at the dumbfounded expression on Leala's face and patted her shoulder.

"Come on, let's go rest, we all have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," he said and turned Leala towards the gates of the grounds.

"But I still want to train," Leala said. "You guys go on, I'll follow you out in about 30 minutes," she added looking at her wristwatch.

"Alright then, be careful," Reiki said, all their friends said goodbye to Leala before walking out of the grounds. 

Leala took off her scrunchie and let her braided hair unbraid itself. She activated one of the training dummies there and made her stance, if there's gonna be a war, then she had to get better, lest she can't protect the only person she truly cares for in this world.

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;)

✒moonlytte

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