Takahiro, January 11th
Wow, when's the last time I returned to the Royal Koizumi Palace?' Takahiro thought to himself as he teleported near the Black Kingdom's palace. As the darkness cleared from his shadow magic, he stood in the street beside the palace entrance. City-goers froze and paused their conversation. Takahiro paused before he walked past them to the palace gates. He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows at the guards.
"Shadow: Coverage." Takahiro said as his shadow magic began to surround his hands, and slowly, the rest of the surrounding area.
The guards eyed each other warily, as they opened the doors with shaky hands.
Takahiro said, "Shadow: Disintegrate," and the shadows faded away rapidly, like they were never even there.
Takahiro stepped inside the palace and took in the scenery. A beautiful yet unfamiliar chandelier hung overhead. He glanced down to find a red carpet at his feet over the purple floor ending at the throne. He frowned at the sight.
'What have you done to my lovely palace?' He thought to himself as he wandered around, trying to find someone.
As Takahiro paced from room to room, startled servants seemed to stop and stare until he finally encountered a familiar face.
"Hello... great-grandpa. You've never visited me like this before." Greeted Yami, one of his descendants. Takahiro's eyes were immediately drawn to the dark circles underneath his eyes, and his clothes, which were very much comfortable over fancy.
"I know, I'm sorry," Takahiro apologized. "But I have a proposition for you. You've been ruling for about 20 years, yes?"
"Get to the point."
"Well... what if you let me rule again? You wouldn't have to worry about the ruling, and I'd take care of everything. Plus I know how awful ruling Black has been for your mental health, and you don't have an heir either now, do you?" Takahiro proposed.
Yami's face scrunched up into furrowed eyebrows and a frown. "No. End of story," Yami conjured a ball of darkness in his hands, "I don't know what you're up to, but I want no part of this. Get out."
The darkness swallowed Takahiro, and with no proper light elemental counterattacks on hand, he found himself back right where he started.
'Alright then, if asking didn't work, maybe something else could've. It's a shame though, I really thought with everything Yami's been through, he'd say yes.' He thought as he ran his hands through his hair and adjusted his glasses before taking out his phone.
Takahiro
Ughhh
Motherfucker wouldn't even consider the proposal
I thought he'd jump at the chance to give up the throne!
Now I have to come up with another plan
2:49 PM
Kathy <3
im surprised too
well i guess we go to force next
ok spitballing the first idea out of my head
make up a reason they all need to leave, and then fire all the servants and replace them with your own
2:50 PM
Takahiro
What if it was literal fire instead?
2:51 PM
Kathy <3
fuck it why not
go hard or go home
good luck
2:50 PM
He turned off his phone and wandered around to begin formulating a more thought out plan. As he passed by a garbage, he saw gasoline and matches sticking out of it.
'Perfect!' Takahiro thought as he raced over and grabbed them. 'I'm definitely gonna look suspicious with these, so I have to be careful. Maybe if I try teleporting into random rooms I'll find a way inside, somehow?'
Still with the matches and gas in hand, Takahiro activated his magic again, saying, 'Shadow: Teleport!' in his head. He circled the palace, and tried to enter from the windows. Over and over again, he'd approach a window, but would bump up against a seal. As the number of windows to attempt entry in dwindled, he started sweating. Finally though, he accelerated towards a window, and felt shards of glass pierce his skin and heard the sounds of shattered glass.
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'Shadow: Teleport stop!' Takahiro said to himself, as he rolled on the ground before coming to a stop. He sat up and looked at his bare forearms and fingers, covered in cuts and blood.
'Fuck, I'll deal with that later,' Takahiro rolled up the sleeves of his button-up shirt. He cringed as he saw the blood seep into his shirt.
'What was that seal? Something from Yami? Guess he didn't do a good enough job at keeping me out.' Takahiro thought as he began dumping the gas can onto the floor and lit a match. The smoke detector blared as soon as he landed it. He jumped, a little startled, then turned himself into pure shadows and slipped into hiding, close enough to watch. Mere seconds passed, panicked shouting and screaming filled the halls and rooms as the fire spread, along with the seeds of chaos. Chaos from the fire gave the palace a liveliness that it hadn't in decades. Takahiro reveled in it. Takahiro smirked at his doings, but the joke was on him when he realized the fire headed his way.
He checked over his shoulder quickly as the adrenaline pumped through his veins.
'Oh thank the goddess of shadows and darkness herself, the fire's not too tall so I won't be burning myself today!' Takahiro thought as he teleported carefully to the lowest room of the palace. He looked at the map, carefully scanning around him to ensure no one else was there. Finally, his finger stopped at the security room and teleported himself with his shadow magic to the room.
Checking the cameras, he saw some people still inside. He carelessly teleported them out of the palace fast enough that they fell. Takahiro raced to the palace roof, pulling out a potion.
'I've never done this before, stupidly. This better work!' He thought, 'Shadow: Dome! Shadow: electric potion combine!' Darkness surrounded his hands, until it grow to a large patch of darkness in the sky. The shadows quickly blanketing the castle in a shield-like dome.
'Shadow dome: allow Katherina Astraia and Takahiro Koizumi to enter!' He finished off. Takahiro quickly teleported through the dome, and he passed through it like it was a bubble on his arm.
Coming back down to the palace roof, he pulled out his phone and called Katherina. "I did it, Kathy!" He exclaimed.
"Okay good. Wait, why does the news talk about a fire smell?"
"Wait, the news is on this already? Fuck, I forgot to put out the fire, I'll call back!"
Takahiro rushed towards the kitchen, somehow untouched by the fire. He grabbed some giant jugs and filled them up with water. As one was all filled up, he swapped another in, as he took it towards the fire. After monotonously switching out the jugs, throwing water at the fire, and panicking, finally, he took out the fire.
Takahiro slumped on the floor as he took out his phone. "Okay, I did it."
"Maybe next time we can do without the fire."
"Yeah, what the hell was I thinking? I built this palace too, and I almost burnt the thing down because I was so caught up in the moment. Argh!"
"It happens sometimes."
"I think this is all I'll do for the day. Were you going to do anything?"
"Well, I still need you to send an official request to be allied with Fuschia, and then I can deal with that in Fuschia.."
"Oh, right! I'll get started on that."
"I also have to deal with the other kings and queens that rule kingdoms on the Tempest continent. Since they're such hardasses on who can be allied with who because of the time gods, I'll have to argue with them because all five of the kingdoms have to agree to an allyship."
"Geez. Have fun!"
"Thank you, I won't. When you get the document lined out, can you just teleport it over? It'll make things easier than some official mailperson loosing it or something."
"Of course! I'll see you later, hopefully?"
"Hopefully. If not I'll probably just fight the other rulers in Tempest."
"Maybe then you'll have genuine fun."
"I hope so. Bye."
"Bye."
***
Katherina, January 11th
Katherina stared at the document right in front of her.
'Dear rulers of the Tempest continent,
I, Takahiro Koizumi, hereby request for an alliance with your kingdoms so we may do business with one another. Should you accept my request, sign your names below and send it back to me. If not, return the document untouched.
Signed, Takahiro Koizumi.'
Katherina pulled out her pen and ink, ones she hated yet had to use on business documents. She quickly signed her name on the line designated for the ruler of Fuschia, and blanked out upon seeing the rest of the lines.
'Shit, I haven't forged their signature in awhile. I know there's some official document from each of us though, let me go find it.' Katherina thought as she raced out of her office, down the hallway and stairs towards the storage.
Upon opening the door, she began coughing on the dust and cobwebs. She waved her one hand in the air as she pounded against her chest. After she stopped, she shook her head and began opening random chests and documents, until finally, she found a recent document with all of the rulers of Tempest's names at the bottom. She smirked as she raced back to her office.
Once she sat down, she placed the document next to the one from Takahiro. Carefully referencing their signatures, she forged their signatures, enough so they looked like the real thing. After the last stroke of her pen, she put away her pen and ink and stared at the document as it dried.
'Perfect! After it dries and it's sealed all I need to do is find someone to teleport it over, which shouldn't be hard, unless apparently all the servants in today are fairies without magic. God how I wish my fairy lineage was actually helpful sometimes!' Katherina thought as she tugged on her ears, which functioned like a normal human's ear, just shaped and colored exactly like ears of a butterfly. Katherina always thought they were pretty, but functionally useless otherwise.
A sudden knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. 'Oh, here comes the tradition squad. Can't wait,' Katherina thought as she hesitated to get up. She opened the door to her allies, the rulers and consorts of Lime, Brown, Light Grey and White.
"Katherina Astraia. Or should I say Conmara, would that expose your wrongdoings to the public better?" the Lime king spat.
"First off, how the hell did you find out? Nobody even said anything about this to you. Second off, you guys are overreacting. Just because I allied with the Black Kingdom doesn't mean we also can't remain allies." Katherina refuted.
"I had a hunch, and it turns out that I was right. This alliance would displease the time gods. They would take away our powers. Do you want to ruin our ways of life just for a man that no one in the entirety of Ayuzuma can trust, and screw over our descendants?"
"Our traditions are bullshit. Don't you see what the time gods have done to everyone? You've never even met Takahiro anyway. Why do you have such a firm opinion of him?" Katherina yelled back. Their four faces all fell, and the Lime king turned to look at the rest with wide eyes.
"Because the time gods are smart enough to know he has bad motives!"
"I don't care! The Black Kingdom has plenty of things to offer to me you'll never be able to!" Katherina exclaimed.
The lime king sighed, "You are making a grave mistake." He and the other rulers exited, as Katherina locked the palace gate and called Takahiro.
It was time.