Daiamondo

By Maya Seeker

A December 2025 Monthly Story Challenge Winner 

Prolog

“Come down, Daiamondo,” Mom called.

I stopped reading and walked down stairs. “Mom, what's for dinner?” I asked.

“The usual. Mushroom soup,”  Mom replied. I sat down at the table and Mom poured me a bowl. We ate a silent dinner. Just as I was about to eat another spoon full of soup I felt a poking in my leg. 

“Ruko stop that!” I laughed as a 2-year-old golden retriever was stabbing a toy into my leg.

“振る舞う,” Mom said, it was Japanese for behave and it was pronounced (fu-ru-mau.)  I have no idea why Mom talks Japanese with Ruko.

“ご飯を食べに行きなさい、 (Go-han-o-ta-be-ni-ki-na-sa-i).” mom said. This one means: “Go eat your food.” 

“Thanks for the food Mom,” I said as I stood up bringing my empty bowl away. 

“Any time,” she said,

“Are you heading off to bed?”

“Mmhhm,” I said as I went to my room and flopped into bed. *It was peaceful as the last November air of 2025 rushed through my room. Tomorrow is December first. And with that happy thought in mind I closed my window and collapsed into a dreamless slumber.

*Dont worry I did all the getting ready for bed things including brushing my teeth.

Not the prolog (story)

I woke up to something stabbing my leg. I first thought it was Ruko so I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep but then a male voice said:

“Wake up, Daiamondo.” I looked up but I was so sleepy I couldn’t see. I needed to blink to see better.

“How…*blink*...do you…*blink*...know my…*blink*...name.”

“That doesn't matter,” the man said, who I could see was an elderly man with a long white beard and cloak. He also had a wooden staff and a bamboo hat that looked like a shield.

“What time is it?” I asked, getting annoyed that a man in his 60’s was rude enough to wake me up at…well some time at night.

“It’s 11:30. Which gives me enough time to tell you why you're in my house,” he replied. I was startled and quickly sat up. Sure enough, I was in an unfamiliar home. The walls were painted beige with a teal like roof. I was sitting on a round carpet painted with red and green strips circling around it. To my right was a giant flat screen that looked like it could flip over and to my left was some black chairs and a yellow sofa with fluffy red and blue cushions.

“Have a seat,” the man said. I started walking over to the chairs and sofa but then decided to ask:

“Hey, what's your name?”

The man hesitated but then said: “Kyoshi. My name is Kyoshi.” I sat down and stared at the blank flat screen. 

“The reason you are here is because your name is 'diamond' in Japanese written out in an English way,” Kyoshi said.

“Cool, but what does my name have to do with me being here?” I asked.

“The museum's diamond was stolen yesterday at 10:59 sharp and I want you to steal it back,” Kyoshi said with a depressed expression on his face.

“STEAL IT BACK?” I shouted throwing my hands up in the air,

“ARE YOU CRAZZY! HOW COULD A 10 YEAR OLD STEAL A 1 AND A HALF CM DIAMOND?” Despite my total break out Kyoshi stayed surprisingly calm. 

“Do not be angry. I have my reasons to pick you,” Kyoshi said,

“Daiamondo, you have been chosen to be the ninja to steal the diamond back.” I was speechless. How was I a chosen one? 

 “Your trayning begins at 12:00 am sharp,” Kyoshi said.

“And what time is it now?” I said.

“Here,” Kyoshi said, tossing me what looked like an old leather watch. The watch said it was 11:50.

“So in 10 min?” I asked.

“Yes,” Kyoshi said.

***

After 10 minutes where up, Kyoshi flipped the TV and said:

“Ready?” I nodded and then a wall slid away revealing a super cool awesome ninja training ground. There were dummies, spiky balls on chains, daggers, nunchucks, katanas, throwing stars, and a grapple gun. There was also a part that simulated different storms like sandstorms, blizzards, hail, thunder, pourdowns, tornadoes, tsunami meteors, hard rain and wind! It was amazing. I looked at my watch and it said it was 11:59. I watched with excitement as the minute hand went up a minute to 12:00 am. As soon as the watch hit 12:00 am it gave off a ring noise.  

“Your watch will ring every midnight on a mission. Now you have 24 hours to complete your mission if you don’t you fail,” Kyoshi explained.

“So 12 hours to train and 12 hours to steal the diamond?” I asked.

“No,” Kyoshi said,

“4 hours to train and 20 hours to get the diamond.”

“Okay,” I said.

Kyoshi tossed me a katana and said: “Hold your katana over your right shoulder and…”

“Chop! Chop!” He sliced the bamboo pillar in front of him in two perfect diagonal slices. 

“Now you,” Kyoshi said. I walked over to the other bamboo piller and raised my katana over my right shoulder and…

“Chop! Chop! Chop!” I sliced my piller into 3 diagonal slices. I could tell that Kyoshi was impressed. Not only did I do the actions correctly but I also did 3 chops instead of 2.

“My, you learn fast,” Kyoshi said. So that's how it went for the next hour. I learned how to use most of the weapons in the training room. Kyoshi also gave me a ninja suit with a pocket or slot for each weapon. After I got the suit I was led to the natural disaster area and told to stand on a balance beam.

“We are going to test you against strong wind and all you need to do is to stand on the beam for a minute,” Kyoshi said. I nodded and stood on the beam that was fairly flat. Kyoshi told me to stand on the beam like a skateboard or surfboard. After I was positioned correctly the wind came. It was hard to keep my balance. The wind felt like a flame when it was being blown out. After 20 seconds I fell off. It was just too much pressure. I’m actually embarrassed to admit that it took me 1 ½ hours to complete this training but I still fell off once in a while and I never got to a minute exactly. It was more like 45 seconds. I only stopped at 1½ hours because Kyoshi said we didn’t have time anymore.

“When are you going to show me how to steal the diamond? I still have no idea how,” I said.

“Right now,” Kyoshi said and led me to what looked like a big black room. Kyoshi came over and put white goggles on my head and suddenly I was in a room made with steel and a locked door with a number combination pad. 

“You must find the number code to the door before the timer runs out. Good luck,” came Kyoshi’s voice from somewhere. A big red timer appeared above the door saying 3 minutes left. I quickly ran over to the door furiously typing in any number I touched. Then as soon as I touched the numbers 487083 the door gave off a click and I was in. In the next room was the diamond on a scale and a bag of sand beside it. I thought that the thing that I needed to do was to swap the diamond and sand perfectly so that the scale below the diamond does not go down. I ran over to the sand bag and snatched it. Then I ran over to the diamond and spun, making the sand bag knock the diamond off the scale and the sand bag perfectly behind.

“Trayning complet” said a robotic voice and then I felt Kyoshi pull the goggles off my head.

“What was that?” I asked. 

“It's a simulation, the VR goggles that I’m holding right now allow you to go into the simulation,” Kyoshi explained.

“Cool,” I said,

“Can I go in again?”

“Yes, but the code to the door will change every time,” Kyoshi said. I kept going into the simulation over and over and over again. After an hour Kyoshi said that we had 30 minutes left until 4:00 am which is the time we start the mission. 

“We need to review your weapons and resistance power,” Kyoshi said.

“Fine,” I said and took out my katana and walked over to the bamboo pole. I raised my katana over my right shoulder and chopped the bamboo pole into 7 pieces. I ripped them to shreds one by one. I managed to chop 6 poles in 5 minutes. 4 of them were chopped into 7 pieces and 2 of them were chopped into 8. I also used the nunchucks, swinging them round and round over my head and then swung them to the side, snapping the pole in half. For the throwing stars I threw them like a frisbee and hit the pole, slicing it. I took out the daggers and threw them one by one onto the pole making the wood shatter in splinters. When I went through my ninja suit to search for another weapon, I found my hands touched something metal. It was the spiked ball thingy that was attached to chains. I never used it because I thought it was too dangerous but Kyoshi encouraged me to do it when we were training over 2 hours ago. I told him, maybe later back then but right now I wanted to try it. So, I pulled them out and started swinging them in circles. Like with the nun-chucks, I swung them to the side also shattering the next pole. Kyoshi was standing nearby observing what I was doing and was surprised when I pulled out the chainball-thingy. I grinned to myself. I shattered a pole on my first attempt at using this weapon after all. For the next 10 minutes, I rotated between weapons destroying one pole after the other. I also spent another 5 minutes practicing at the natural disaster area. 

“You really sure you want to try the wind again,” Kyoshi said.

“Yes, my goal is 50 seconds,” I said as I stepped on to the beam. When Kyoshi turned the wind machine on I stumbled slightly but managed to keep my balance. I actually did get 47 seconds but not 50. It was close enough but even if it wasn’t, it didn’t matter because it was 4:00 am. Time to start the mission. Kyoshi handed me an old map and a compass and pointed to where the thief was. It looked like he was at the really old houses that some people go to to see the history of Japan. 

“How do you know he is there?” I asked. 

“We sent some ninja’s there but none of them returned.” Kyoshi explained. 

“Uuuuhm,” I said, scared as I might ever be. 

“But don’t worry,” Kyoshi said. “They only had one hour of training.” That was still not reassuring, because even though he said they only had one hour of training, I only had four. I don’t think it makes that much of a difference. Anyway, I’ve come this far, no time to chicken out now. Kyoshi said he would rent us a taxi to go there and say we would go on a sightseeing trip. 

“Won’t the driver think this is a little early for this trip at 4 am?” I asked. 

“Not at all,” Kyoshi said. “There are some people here that go at 1 am!”

Anyway, once the driver came we drove to the really old buildings. Kyoshi said I needed to enter alone. So, I walked to the door, seeing the same keypad I saw in the simulation. I typed in the codes I remembered from the simulation. Turns out, the first code was correct: 487083. Once the door was unlocked, I went inside. What I didn’t know was that someone followed. I saw a bridge connecting to another room across from me. So, I walked a little further down the bridge and at the end of the bridge I saw what seemed to be a locked door. I looked for a keypad but there was none around me. So I tried opening the door and it worked. Inside the room was the diamond with a sand bag beside it. Exactly what I saw in the simulation. But when I took a closer look at the diamond, it was made of plastic and was a little bigger than it should be. 

“So you actually came,” a voice said behind me. I turned around and saw the thief holding the diamond. 

“I wasn’t expecting another ninja. Do you know how many I imprisoned, how many didn’t return?”

“N…n…no,” I stammered, trying to sound brave but acting more like a wimp instead. 

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” he continued. “Beecause soon enough you will be captured too and I’ll…” He was interrupted in the middle of his sentence because suddenly the diamond slipped from his hands. I slid after it, desperately trying to get a grasp on it. But I just pushed it off over the edge of the bridge. 

“No!” I shouted as it plummeted down, down, down. It would shatter if it hit the ground. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a man with a long white beard and a robe, a bamboo hat that looked like a shield and a wooden staff. 

“Kyoshi!” I exclaimed. What was he doing here? I thought he said I had to enter the building by myself. But right now, I didn’t care, because what Kyoshi did was slide under the diamond and in perfect succession catching it in his hands. 

“Catch!” Kyoshi said as he threw the diamond back up at me for reasons I will never understand. But anyhow I was grateful that he had come. If he hadn’t, the diamond would already be lying on the ground, shattered in pieces. I jumped on the railing of the bridge to catch the diamond, but almost slipped and fell in the process. I had to get out my grapple gun and wrap it around the bridge to make sure I wouldn’t fall. I caught the diamond in my hands and slid it in my pocket. When I finally got back onto the bridge, I pulled out my katana, ready for battle. The thief pulled out his katana and we fought like wild cats fighting over the smallest bit of food. Just in our case, it was a diamond. I imagined that the thief was just a moving wooden pole with a sword. So, I pulled out my ninja stars and threw them at him, one by one. Two of them missed, but one of them hit him in his hand and he pulled it out frustrated. I pulled out my nunchucks and started using them against him like crazy. But he blocked all my attacks. So, I decided to switch to a bigger weapon and pulled out the spikey chain ball thingies and started swinging them like I would with the nunchucks. I hit the thief once right on his head and he was knocked out cold. I dragged him over to the end of the bridge and found a ninja handcuffed in a prison. 

“Oh my god,” I said. “Are you ok?” I rushed over to the helpless ninja and freed him, taking the handcuffs to cuff the thief.

“I’m fine now,” the ninja said. “By the way my name is Max. What's yours?”

“Daiamondo,” I answered, helping Max to get up.

“Max?” said an astonished voice from behind me. I turned around to see Kyoshi crying. I was a little confused as Kyoshi and Max ran over to each other saying prayers to the sky that they were both alive. 

“How do you two know each other?” I asked. 

“Max is one of my former students. He also was assigned to do the mission but failed,” Kyoshi explained. 

“Anyway,” I said. “Now that this reunion is over, could we get the diamond back to the museum? I think I only have one hour left.” Seeing my point, Kyoshi and Max walked with me to the museum and handed back the diamond. It was beautiful seeing the diamond back where it belongs. 

“By the way, Daiamondo.” Kyoshi said. “Because of your success on the mission, you are now assigned to be a ninja for 24 hours on the first day of every month.”

“OK!” I said feeling happy, because this adventure was fun. I took one last look at the diamond and then called a taxi and took a ride right home. When I got home, mum was very happy to see me.  She said I was only out for an hour, but I knew it was more. I was happy to see my dog Ruko again and laughed as he licked my face, happy to see me back. 

The End

Photo: Evie S. on Unsplash