A Realm of Sorrow

By Daniel Tokoro Smith

Chapter One: The Kingdom of Hearts

. Three shadows darted across the city streets. The three of them stopped by the door to the apartement. Shado spoke first.

"We have thirty seconds to disable the alarm," He told them synchronizing his watch. "Go." A small flash went off and the three of them appeared by the door. "You did that in fifteen seconds." He said looking at the watch. The three of them darted up the stairs and by a room on the second floor. Xaniov knelt down by the door and pulled out a large black gun, and set up a small device on top of it.

"Heat signature acquired. Target mark. The Pharaoh is awake... Fire." Said Akoro. The small infa-titanium bullet shot through the wooden door and hit the target, which fell to the floor. The three of them walked in through the door and walked about the room. Shado walked over to the body.

"Somebody set us up! It is a decoy! They must have known we were coming..." Shado said standing up and quickly appearing by the others. Akoro's eyes widened.

"Somebody's armed a bomb. Run!" He said, and the three of them dashed out of the building as quickly as possible. But it was too late.

"Get down!" Yelled Shado pulling the other two to the ground. The building blew up and bricks and metal flew everywhere. Shado gasped for air as a piece of it shot through his neck. Akoro and Xaniov helped him up. From the flames emerged the Pharaoh, his dueldisk was strapped around his wrist.

"You dare to challenge me?" He sneered looking at the three of them. Shado's eyes narrowed. Then without warning, he grabbed the gun out of Xeniov's hands, and fired. One of the wild bullets hit The Pharaoh in the shoulder. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground holding his bleeding shoulder. "Agh...You! You will pay dearly for this!" He gasped. Suddenly a swirl of shadows surrounded him and he disappeared. Shado sighed and felt at the metal in his throat. Then he quickly pulled it out. His dark jacket stained with blood. Then he fell to the ground and passed out.

Three Months Later...

Shado looked up at the man in front of him.

"Surely you realize how much I have had to pay to arrange this little get together. A lot of prison pay offs... a lot of dead meat. I want you to join our hit team." He said looking at Shado. Shado looked down at the hand cuffs in front of him and then looked back up, raising one eyebrow. He coughed a little then spoke.

"Could I have some water?" He asked. The man motioned to another man and he gave him a glass with the water in it. He looked down at it then smashed the edge of it on the table so the shattered glass was sticking out. He then stabbed the man to his left, took out his gun, and shot three of the other men so the first was the last one there. Shado laughed slightly, and then spoke again. "I'm going to need... something to wear." He said looking down at his prison clothes. "And a big truck." He said. The man looked at him.

"Anything else?" He asked. Shado smiled again.

"Yeah. I am also going to need some guys... Not these guys 'cause well their kind of dead." He said laughing more.

Shado, Xeniov, and Akoro stood on top of the truck surrounded by the police of the City. The chief of police looked up at them.

"Hold your fire until I give the order." He said. Shado held a can of gasoline over the hole in the truck. The man and his allies were locked in the truck tied up and gagged. The man who had freed them was able to work his way out of the gag and jerked his head up towards Shado.

"THIS WASN'T PART OF THE DAMN DEAL YOU FREAK!" He yelled. Shado bowed slightly and poured the gasoline out onto the rest of the men inside of the truck.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your entire mafia taken down by three men. This is just a message, and if you don't want this to be every one of the people in this city, stay out of my way." He finished then lit a match on one of his gloves and through it inside and watched them burn. The police inspector gave the order to fire and bullets filled the air, but as they were about to hit them the three of them disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.