For a while, the boy kept rambling on and on about various stores and rare gems of the mall. It bore Yuma to great lengths; his attention was on all the strange looking people who seemed they might be a conduit. Each time he checked, he was met with disappointment of them being normal people. By the time the boy had finally stopped talking, he noticed the time on his phone had already been 2 pm... 10 minutes ago... Yuma's eyes widened at the sight of his screen, and he immediately needed to meet up with Keisuke and Akira. Taking a look around, he noticed he genuinely had no clue where he was. For a moment, he thought he'd have to get lost again to find his way, but a certain short, strange looking kid who knew the mall like the back of his hand was there. Turning back to the boy, Yuma flashed a smile at him.
"Hey... I appreciate the tour... but do you know how to get to the middle of the mall?" Yuma asked just as softly as he did the first time.
The boy looked at him with wide eyes and smiled. He nodded his head vigorously and walked past him, expecting him to follow. Yuma hesitated at first since he didn't say anything, but followed along once he started getting too far for comfort. The boy led him to a fountain, where Akira and Keisuke were sitting on the ledge waiting for him. Once he was close enough, Yuma tapped the boy's shoulder and thanked him before closing the small gap between him and the others. Akira was the first to notice him and immediately asked him questions.
"Did you find Aymar?" Akira asked, hope hidden in his stoic tone.
"Nope..." Yuma returned, knowing that if that's what he asked, he didn't find him either.
Keisuke, however, didn't say a word and stared at the boy; the boy himself had been staring back at them, too. Nudging Akira's arm with his shoulder, Keisuke pointed out the boy subtly. Yuma turned and followed their gaze towards the boy, too.
"Oh, him? He gave me a "tour"... of course, didn't find who I was looking for..." Yuma clarified without anyone asking.
Keisuke, however, had an entirely different reason for pointing out the boy.
"Yeah, well... I'm pretty sure you found him... He's been staring ever since you mentioned Aymar's name," Keisuke whispered to the other two.
Yuma took a closer look at the boy, squinting his eyes. Suddenly, that didn't look like some naive, sticky fingered, peacemaking tour guide he met a couple of hours ago... His eyes were sharp, sharp enough to show intent to hurt someone. The boy didn't even seem like a boy anymore... he seemed to have shapeshifted into something deadly. The boy turned fully facing them, his arms were twitching as if he was preparing for the worst case scenario. Yuma hadn't noticed the first time, but his eyes were pitch black, like light was eaten by his eyes instead of being reflected at any degree. They were just endless pitch black wells surrounded by white. Under his eyes were dark, as if he hadn't slept well the night before.
"How do you know my name?" Aymar coldly said with practiced finality.
"We went to search for you," Akira responded with the same coldness in his tone.
"Tryna kill me?" Aymar immediately assumed.
Despite it being asked as a question, he had no intentions of trusting a word from them. Akira, on the other hand, didn't want to convince him. Something set off the alarms in his head that told him something wasn't right about him. He was immediately prepared to handle him, but before anything could happen, Keisuke cut in as the voice of reason.
"No! We're here for the opposite, actually, we want to save you!" Keisuke tried desperately to convince him of the truth.
Aymar's eyes bounced between the boy's still very unconvinced, and Akira's stance only solidified his suspicions. Not wanting to fight, however, calmed down and walked away.
The boys stared, a little thrown off by his sudden change of mood.
"Where are you going?" Keisuke called out.
"You may as well follow me; I'd rather we didn't do this so publicly." Aymar pointed out, gesturing to the small crowd forming.
Without much choice, the boys followed him to a section of the mall under construction after a brief pause. Lifting the tape, Aymar walked through, darkness immediately swallowing him whole. Akira, pulling on Yuma and Keisuke's shoulders, stopped them from blindly following him.
"Wait," he calmly whispered.
Yuma and Keisuke looked at him, confused. This was the guy they wanted, so why did Akira stop them?
"Something's off about him... I can't detect his presence whatsoever and his eyes... something about them..." Akira muttered, his eyes trained on the spot where Aymar disappeared.
Yuma did notice his eyes, and so did Keisuke. Akira was making some valid points of suspicion, but Yuma's urge to get Killian overrode any logic he had trusted in Akira and simply walked into the dark. Keisuke followed him, not wanting to leave Yuma alone. Akira simply sighed and accepted Yuma's silent rejection of his suspicions and followed along. He kept his hands prepared with a light flow of ice, prepared to fight. Once they crossed the tape, the darkness ate them whole, too. Yuma squinted as blinding light flooded his vision, despite the pitch black. Coming into the place was well furnished and set up like a camp. There was a food court table with two chairs, unfinished food from fast food restaurants at the mall left on top of the table. A random couch from a furniture store outside the mall was placed to the side against the wall. It still had its tag of sale attached to the arm. In front of it was a TV resting on top of its box as if being used as a TV stand. Aside those everything else was unremarkable. Two sleeping bags laid next to each other for beds, a few bean bags laid around the empty spaces between the couch and TV on the side. Yuma inspected some of the bean bags, while Keisuke walked around the small space, astonished by its existence. Akira stood quietly, eyeing every corner, looking for any exit outside the darkness that cloaked the space from others. As the boys were doing what they wanted, a cough caught their attention, making them all turn around.
"A bit rude to analyze someone's living space... don't cha think?" Aymar cut in.
Akira turned around and saw Aymar standing behind him. Aymar walked past him, placing himself in the centre of them.
"How.. How's this possible?" Keisuke asked immediately.
Aymar looked at him, his sharpened eyes softening at Keisuke's face.
"My ability..." Aymar paused, unsure how to continue with these strangers.
"You're a conduit like us?" Yuma asked as soon as he paused.
Aymar turned to Yuma with wide eyes, shocked that they were like him.
"Uh, yeah... I'm the darkness conduit..." Aymar stumbled out in his shock.
Akira scrunched his face at that.
"That doesn't exist..." Akira pointed out, his suspicions growing rapidly as they continued to talk.
"Actually, no! There are two new ones formed." Aymar waved his hands frantically, trying to explain.
Akira couldn't help but form a knife in his hand, taking his stance. Aymar was beyond suspicious. Aymar looked at the ground in the direction of the knife and immediately began rambling. It was a stark contrast from the killer eyes he had a moment ago.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT! IM BEING HONEST! TEN YEARS AGO, THE FIRE CONDUIT FOUGHT THE AIR CONDUIT, AND TWO WERE FORGED! ME AND THE LIGHT CONDUIT!" Aymar shouted, trying to convince him not to fight.
Akira's guard was already up, but the mention of the royals seemed to give him a little less reason to suspect him. Lowering his arms, he kept his knife visible and his eyes trained on Aymar. Yuma and Keisuke were panicked during the standoff but quickly came down with a synchronized sigh. Yuma looked at Akira, wondering why he let himself believe it so quickly despite his previous stubbornness. Akira looked back at Yuma, practically reading his question on his face.
"He wouldn't know about the royals if he were lying... meaning something is true," Akire explained unprovoked.
Yuma switched his view to Aymar, seeing him catch his breath with his hand on his chest. He was clearly relieved the potential conflict was averted so quickly.
"Wait, you mentioned the light conduit?" Yuma remembered during his desperate rambling.
"Yeah... Daya... th-" Just as Aymar was about to finish, blinding lights flashed before Aymar was sent to the other side of the space.
As Yuma's vision began to clear, a girl stood in the middle, replacing where Aymar had stood. She was beautiful with a lean, strong physique. Her chestnut brown hair flows just past her shoulders. Her piercing yellow eyes stared directly at Akira, who was still reeling from the blinding lights of her entrance. She seemed just barely taller than Akira, and her stance only made her look bigger. Taking a couple of steps closer to Akira, she finally spoke. Her voice was calm but sounded rehearsed to hide her anger at these strangers in her home.
"Aymar. Who are these people?" She questioned sharply.
Groaning quietly in a dark corner, Aymar responded, annoyed.
"Why'd you hit me if we had intruders?" He moaned in pain.
The girl didn't entertain his question and simply waited for him to answer. Catching the memo, Aymar answered.
"They're like us... Conduits..." He replied, still reeling from the impact of her hit. "God, you need to stop punching me out of nowhere..." he muttered under his breath.
The girl didn't take her eyes off Akira; however, her eyes were locked onto his hands. Akira finally straightened out and returned her gaze with his eyes. The two were at a stalemate born from equal suspicion of one another. Keisuke rubbed his eyes and looked at the two before noticing where she was looking.
"Akira the knife...." He weakly pointed out.
Looking at his hand, Akira dismissed the blade, bursting into ice flakes as it disappeared. The moment it did, she stepped back and walked towards Aymar. Once she closed the distance, she looked down at him, forcing him to look up at her.
"What did I tell you about bringing people here?" She pressed.
Aymar waved her off and tried walking past her, only for the back of his head to be punched by her, this time softer in a scolding manner. Grabbing the back of his head, Aymar immediately whined.
"YOU VIOLENT GIANT!" Aymar insulted while over exaggerating the pain.
She rolled her eyes before settling down on a bean bag nearby.
"That gorilla is Daya..." Aymar sighed, coming down from his dramatics, clearly not getting the reaction he wanted from her.
Yuma, Akira, and Keisuke simply stared at the duo. A single thought is shared unanimously between them unconsciously.
'This is what Killian is afraid of?'