Ch.1- New Worlds
(Yoshihiro POV)
"I can't wait to get to Kyoto."
"Seriously, this is going to be so much fun."
I stare out the window of the bus that's taking us on this school trip.
"It's just an old town."
This came from Murata who blankly looks at his phone.
"I agree. Didn't we go there enough as kids, why is our last trip before we graduate going to Kyoto?"
Murata looks up at me real quick not believing I'm agreeing with him apparently.
I decide not to take it offensively and instead continue staring out the window.
Bright light strikes up ahead and a second later breaks propel us forward. Looking forward I see the two buses ahead of us vanish. We finally come to a stop. The back half of the bus is still on the one-way street, the front, however, is in what seems like a desert. How is this possible?
Murata jumps up from his seat screaming, "Gas! Now!"
Apparently, it's taking the driver way too long to step on it because Murata runs to the front, jumping over bags and legs in the process. He slams his foot on the accelerator effectively stepping on the driver's foot as the bus rushes forward.
Not a second later I see whatever we just went through zipping closed, leaving the final bus behind. The emergency exit door in the back someone opened in this mess is now gone. Someone cries out in surprise that there are no remains of the door surrounding us. I can't believe what my eyes are seeing and neither does anyone else as they swarm toward the back. They all run out except the driver, Kaito, Akio, Murata and three others who look as shocked as I am.
I slowly get my senses back. I look at Murata who didn't look shocked or hurt, just… frustrated. The driver gets out and I can hear him asking if everyone is alright and the professors doing head counts. With a sigh, Murata shakes his head and turns to leave. I catch his eyes, he stops and holds a finger to his lips like I know a secret of his. He calmly walks past me and jumps out the back of the bus. Kaito and Akio and the three other students follow, not seeing his silent gesture.
Stepping out I see only desert surrounds us. Wait, no… to the left I can see a town in the distance. Maybe a mile on foot. We have no choice but to walk there.
It took forever to get there and as we get into town, the townspeople step out and around us to gawk at us.
They start saying things in a language I have never heard of. Murata nods like he understands and replies back in this language. The townspeople gasps and bows at Murata. He just politely smiles, timidly gesturing them to rise and says nothing.
"What language is that?" I growl at him.
"The Shinma Kingdom's language." He still has the timid smile on and doesn't directly say this sentence to me just observes the crowd looking for something. He asks something of them and they nod and point, saying something in that weird language in response.
"What's that?"
"This kingdoms name."
"And where on earth is that?"
Murata stares at me for a second then turns and heads north to where they were pointing.
"Not on earth."
He was so quiet I barely heard him. The class trails after him realizing he was the only one who knew where we are.
I run to catch up to him. "What are you talking about? Where are we really? What continent? That wasn't English, French, German, Swedish, Spanish or any language I know of, so what language is it really?"
"Shinma Kingdom's language."
"Fuck you. What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know," he looks frustrated again but worried too, "Something isn't right, the lady back there said…" He stops walking as he trails off in thought.
Every one of the kids and adults from the three busloads is now starting to get antsy with this abrupt halt for no apparent reason. Not to mention they are in an unknown land when they were only supposed to be a few hours at the most from home.
"What did she say? And why did she bow to you?"
"I'm their former Great Sage." He starts walking again.
"What?"
Sighing he stays quiet until we round the corner and come across a big crowd of people.
"Stay here."
He walks to the center and starts to talk to this guy on a horse. The kids and the few teachers start to talk. I hear some teachers ask if they should follow Murata and see what he is up to but since no one speaks this strange language they agree to keep an eye on us kids until he returns. Since they are adults that are in charge of us right now, I doubt that they will let him go out of sight but they are out of their element currently so who knows what'll happen.
After a few minutes two other men on horses come riding in, one I recognize immediately. Everyone including Murata bow to Yuuri Shibuya. There are a handful of people who don't, instead opting to look around confused and wearily like us. Yuuri hasn't been to school in about half a year now, he just vanished. The teachers whisper more vigorously now and so do the students. Some in their surprise yell out Yuuri's name. Which earned sharp glares from the townspeople and the men on horseback with Yuuri. Yuuri, on the other hand, looks shocked for a second and then smiles in greeting.
The three horsemen jump off their steeds and start walking over to us with Murata.
They all wear soft smiles except for the blonde who glares daggers at everyone.
"Welcome. Sorry, I don't know Japanese, I only lived in America for a few years while I was on earth. I'm also sorry that this tear in space caused you to come here unprepared." The brown-haired man says in English.
"What's going on? Who are these people? Is this where you've been for the past six months?" I receive a special furious glare from the blonde now. But I don't think he knows what I am saying, he's probably an angry person by nature.
Yuuri just nervously laughs. Well, the last time we talked I did swirly him. "Ugh, yeah, let's head to my castle and I can tell you everything."
"Castle? What are you their King?" I say sarcastically.
"Yes."
I stare at him blankly. I reach back to punch him but blondie is there and before I know it I'm on my butt. Yuuri winces and says something to the blonde kid, putting his hand on his shoulder to steer him away.
"Sorry, Wolf can be a little…"
"Overprotective, hot-headed, childish, rude, insecure, a pain, a great general yet totally abusive towards his men."
The blonde kid hottily says something to Murata, maybe chewing him out for saying all those negative things about him, but since his voice is defensive and calm I don't think he understood. Neither does Murata because he smiles smugly at the blonde.
"I was going to say 'much'," Yuuri says to Murata.
"You're welcome."
Yuuri just shakes his head after giving Murata a pointed look that got him laughing.
Yuuri says something to the brown hair that seems to be the more peaceful of the two strangers. After a nod, he goes back to his horse and rides off.
"Conrad is going to get a caged wagon for you all to ride in. Those fissures that connected our two worlds are not supposed to be there. Yet they've been popping up all over Shin Makoku for the last two weeks. People from all over the world have been stranded here. We have been trying to locate them and bring them to the castle but it's hard because we don't speak the same language, we don't even know when and where they will come. And then there's trust. If they don't trust that we will lead them to safety, well, there is no stopping them from running away. I am not going to corral them like animals, they aren't slaves or prisoners."
"Why a caged wagon?" A teacher asks.
"We don't have technology that Earth does here. We have carriages and wagons, the reason for the cage wagon is originally for criminals but right now there are many dangers from here to the castle so that's why we are using it now."
Many people shout their questions.
"What dangers?"
"What do you mean this place not as advanced as us?"
"You say Earth like we're not on Earth anymore?"
Fifty more questions at the same time cause Blondie to snap at us in that stupid language. Yuuri whispers something to him and he huffs but remains quiet.
"Sorry again he's just tired, we all are." He rubs the back of his head and I can see it now that I'm taking a good look at them, they are physically exhausted and I am sure mentally too. "Let's see if I can answer your questions as we wait."
But before he can answer someone from the crowd calls to him. "Ah, sorry Murata can answer those questions." He then says something in that language to Murata who nods with a wicked smile before responding with a flippant tone. The blonde says something to Murata which causes him to laugh and agree. Blondie rolls his eyes and the two banter for a minute which leads to an embarrassed Yuuri desperately pulling blondie away while Murata cracks up.
"Okay," Murata says after he calms down. "So let's see this place isn't on earth its a world called Shin Makoku, also known as The Great Demon Kingdom, New Makoku or Shinma Kingdom, it has a longer name but even Yuuri thought that it was its national anthem instead of just it's name." He cracks up at this while rolling his eyes, "There are humans here, but like Yuuri and I, we're demons. Yuuri is the 27th Maou of Shin Makoku. There was a war going on before Yuuri came, actually," He looks at me, "When you swirled him is the first time he came. He's a water demon so he comes here through the water.
There are numerous dangers like Sandpandas that are not on earth but is of this land that has acid saliva and is lethal if you do not know how to handle them. That is why the cage wagon is the best bet to protect you all."
This sparks countless other questions.
"Demon? Did I hear that correctly?"
"Is this a joke?"
"It's not like Yuuri to joke like this, Murata maybe but not really, not about important things."
"This is important? More like we're on a T.V. Show or something."
"Did anyone else miss the part about Sandpandas and that they have acidic spit?"
Murata doesn't answer just lets them talk themselves either to a frenzy or to silent contemplation. A few minutes later brown hair arrives with a literal cage with wheels. Not a carriage like they said, a giant rolling cage. It looks like it can hold a hundred people. Like fuck, why the hell would we climb into that? I ain't a wild animal or a slave heading toward auction, which I think is the closest approximation to this situation.
Obviously many other people are thinking the same thing as they start to back away.
"Listen!" Yuuri speaks sits on his horse now to look over everyone, "I promise you this is for your protection until we get to my castle where you will be honored guests until you can return home."
Sighing I climb in, Akio and Kaito come after me, which I am thankful for, they are good friends. Slowly everyone gets in. A couple of people stay behind but everyone from our school gets in, mostly because the teachers made them after resigning to trusting Yuuri. We're off.
ꬸ
It takes; ten days, stops at four towns, thirty more people from England, Africa and France, two Sandpanda traps, and a league of skeletal creatures that Murata-who is riding horseback behind Conrad- calls Kotsuhizoku which Blondie commands, we finally arrive.
Throughout this journey, the blond, whose name is Wolfram, stoically and, of course, angrily, protects us from dangers along with his soldiers that we met up within two of the four towns. There are three cages of people; the one with us, one with about twenty people, the other around thirty before we finally make it to this illustrious castle. That, to be honest, we were all glad to get to, also the cages they brought us in for us to ride in was after all another silent grace.
As we all file out of the cages we admire the castle that stands before us. It's luxurious and grand like any other castle. I hear the doors of the castle open and a girl in her preteens comes running out. "Pa! Daddy!" She flings herself at Yuuri and Wolf who were talking to each other. They take her into their arms, hugging like they haven't seen each other in forever.
They speak to each other again in that language. Yuuri looks amused and pleased to see her, Wolfram does too but also looks worryingly at her.
Wolfram takes her into the castle while Yuuri turns to face the crowd. "This is Blood Pledge Castle. Don't worry that's just the name, I didn't name it. Anyways, the servants will take you to your rooms before dinner. But first please form three lines so we can get your identification."
We do and quickly file in. We are lead by the groups we arrived with. Yuuri decided to group us based on nationality. We are taken to a part of the castle that I recognize the language as my own. That calms me for some reason. About seventy people mingle around the corridors. We are escorted into a room the size of a ballroom. The males sleep here. Is what the servant seems to say because he points the all the guys then the room, then points to the girls and did a come with me gesture.
The girls file out as we settle down. Cots liter the room, some have belongings on it, and even people chatting and laughing or sleeping around the room.
"Who was that cute girl you think?" Akio asks as he, Kaito, and I claim some cots toward the back.
I growl as I drop down on my cot, "Who knows, that Wolfram guy is a little terrifying, I wouldn't even talk to the girl if I were you."
"True." He lays down and stares at the ceiling. "This is just so mindboggling. What do you think will happen now? Will we get home? Do you believe everything that Murata says?"
"I don't know what I think. I do think we need to trust Yuuri and Murata though. They are the only ones who know what's going on, can speak the language, and has some idea how to get back home." They nod, we stay there until bells ring throughout the castle.
"Whats the bell for?"
"Dinner." A man who was listening in on us newcomers and introducing himself to the older ones says as he leads us to the dining hall.
"How long have you been here?"
"Two weeks and four days. My family was the first through. There were two other families that got swallowed up by the hole in the ground with us but they decided to not get into the cage. We luckily landed in a town and we stayed there for a few days until the King came and told us to come with him."
"Why did you trust him when you don't know who he is or where we are or what's going on?"
"Gotta protect my family. It seemed the less dangerous option, to either live in a place where you don't know the language, don't have a way to get food and water, or go with a King you don't know is lying but speaks your language and offers free food and shelter. It's a no brainer. Why did you trust him?"
"Ah, he went to our school. I honestly don't know what's going on, he disappears sometimes from school, his mother calls him in sick, but around six months ago he disappeared again. This time his mother pulled him out of school. No one knew where he went. No one talked, not his family or even his best friend Murata."
"The guy that says he's a Great Sage?"
"Yeah, that's what he said I guess. We're not friends, just know all this through rumors. I am ashamed to say just last year I was giving them swirlies, now they're some big shots- I don't know what to think about this. Just got to trust the guy I was bullying."
"Wow, yeah, I don't know what to make of that either. He seems like a good guy though, why you bully him?"
I shrug, "It was originally Murata. I saw him and I don't know, I thought he'd be a great target, but Yuuri stepped in and so I flushed him. Murata came back with people so we ran and they ran after us. Since Murata stayed to help Yuuri that's the last we had anything to do with them."
We step into the room and I am immediately amazed by the brilliance of it. The table in the middle was set for maybe five hundred people and almost every seat is taken. The man goes to his wife, two boys, and daughter. Surveying the room I realize my group isn't here. A servant comes up and gestures for me to follow. With a 'good luck' from the man, I follow the servant to another smaller room.
Going in I see my schoolmates sitting at a considerably smaller table that sat about fifty along with a few other strangers. I sit beside Kaito and Akio.
"Finally, time to eat." Kaito says.
Yuuri speaks up then, "Since we all know each other I thought it'll be best to eat here and let you ask your questions. By the way, let me introduce you guys to everyone."
He gestures to a beautiful blonde women who raises a wine glass, "Cäcilie von Spitzweg," points to a white-haired man who seems very... energetic if not gay, "Günter von Christ," then indicates the opposite side of the table to a stoic man and a very laid back man with orange hair, "Gwendal von Voltaire and lastly Josak Gurrier. These two you've already met." He indicates Wolfram and Conrad.
We began to eat and talk about school and life on 'earth'(still believe this is earth and everyone here is crazy), and then the topic switches to here, what it's like to live here, what will happen until we can go home, and we're handed blue ribbons to tack onto our shirts and told that we can go to places others can't with the ribbon on.
Thirty minutes in, the doors open again and the girl from before skips in with a guard. The guard bends down and whispers something in Wolfram's ear. He frowns a bit but doesn't show anything else wrong. He nods, getting up he apologizes to the room in broken English and whispers something to Yuuri who looks worried but nods his consent anyway.
The girl takes Wolfram's spot beside Yuuri and eats his leftovers. Yuuri scolds her for doing so and a servant brings in a new plate. She politely eats but simmers down at her plate. I wonder what the relationship is. Are they dating? Is she someone's important daughter? I glance at Yuuri, he looks tired and disheveled. I glance at his hand and see a ring on his ring finger. Married? To who? I look back to the girl. No ring.
Another twenty minutes and we are excused. I decide to walk around the grounds. I find this all too intense for a day worth of information. I walk around the outside first. No one but guards is out and about. I didn't even reach the halfway mark around the way too large castle before I get too exhausted and sweaty. I start to make my way through the castle instead.
I round my way through what seems like a hall full of bedchambers (there are no other words to describe these rooms, bedrooms seem too poor, normal and unclassy compared to these rooms elegance). I realize that they might be in bed considering the light from the windows has been extinguished. Lighting the hall in a dim light instead are rows of candles. They really don't have today's technology here.
I slink past one bedchamber than another. I slow down once I see one bedchamber with two guards standing by. I consider doubling back but continue forward. I am stopped by one guard with a semi-loud word that was obviously "Halt."
The guard looks down at my shirt and sees the blue ribbon. He steps back and starts apologizing in his language. I could tell because he went back into his position and he also looks down with an apologetic face. I wave my hand at him trying to stop him and shake my head. He must have taken it that he wasn't forgiven because he started speaking louder and faster. The other soldier just looked at us like we were idiots but kept his position guarding the door, one eye on the halls, the other on us.
The door they are protecting whips open all of a sudden and the blonde soldier pokes his head out glaring at the guards first than him. With a snarl, he rolls his eyes then slams the door shut again. A second later the guard I was talking to before getting interrupted push me along while pointing down the hall. I took it that I should go in that direction.
Before I can take a step the girl from dinner comes skipping around the corner. She stops as she sees me and cocks her head to the side. "May I help you? Are you here to see the king? Or are you lost? Your Japanese right?" She gestures to his ribbon, "since you have the ribbon you must be one of Pa's friends." Her English was perfect. I wonder if she's American or if she learned it.
"Hm, well then, I'm not sure you understand me but if you want to see Pa just knock but if your lost then your room is that direction to the right, straight down the stairs, then keep going straight until the orange doors but don't go through them, go to the right and take the first left. Your room should be on the right." She chuckles to herself, "But then again if you can't understand me that would be a lot of instruction that you can't follow. Maybe I should take you?" She mutters the last to herself while looking sideways to Wolfram's door. Maybe she's his boyfriend?
"Um, no I understand you… it's just… this is all hard to wrap my head around. Just yesterday I was going to school as normal. Just six months ago Yuuri was in class goofing off like any normal kid then… this?" I shake my head. "I just don't know anything anymore."
She nods that she understands.
"Ahm. Anyway, I was just wondering around the castle. Never been in one before. But yeah… I might be lost. I'm not here to see Yuuri. Don't even know where his room is."
She tilts her head toward the door. "His room is right here."
"Isn't this the blonde's room? Ahm, Wolfram's room?"
"Yes, it is his and Pa's room. Pa and Dad tend to stay away from the other's bedrooms because it's closer to the painting room and my room."
"Wait… did you say Pa? Who is Pa? And your Dad is… Wolfram?"
"Precisely. Pa, my father, The King of Shin Makoku and Dad, my other father, Pa's husband and the other king of Makoku."
I stare at her. Her father… is Yuuri? What. The. Actual. Fuck. How is that even possible? She's like a few years younger than us. She must be adopted. But why would he adopt a kid that is almost our age? Why not a baby or toddler? I remember the ring but if this is also Wolframs room then they are married? Is that even legal? They're both guys. They did say this is a different place so maybe it's fine here? This is one of the most hardest things to wrap my head around all day.
"Um, um…Ah, I… I don't… what?"
She laughs a bright sort of laugh, it is sweet sounding like some chimes in the wind. I try again, "When did this all start?" I kind of say this wonderingly to myself but she takes the initiative to answer anyway.
"Almost three years ago. Our time is slower than yours but not by much- maybe six to ten months? I don't know, I've been to earth a few times to see my uncle and grandparents but we only stayed a couple of days, the first time was almost a week though. When we came back it wasn't even a day that went by, only about fourteen hours."
"Three years ago? When we started high school?"
She nods, "Yes I believe Pa said that he was a few months into school when he rescued the great sage from being… what did he call it? Bullied? Yeah, that's it, and in the process got flushed down the lavatory and ended up here since he is a water Demon." she looks confused again, "Hm, we don't really have a name for bullying here, when we have a problem with someone we dual or we confront them. If we don't want to be confronted or duel we don't take up a knife or sword, or we just walk away. It is seen as weak if you don't fight back if you accept being confronted."
"What if they corner you and you can't walk away?"
"That doesn't happen, that's seen as weak on their part because they are ganging up on them. But maybe you mean…"
A click and woosh of a door opening stops us from continuing the conversation. It scared me so much I jumped back landing right in front of the door. Wolfram once again angrily says something to me (probably angry at me being so close to his daughter) (nope still not used to saying it) and the guards gesturing to them to lead me away, but once his eyes land on the girl he stops. They exchange words. Huffing he steps to the side to lean on the doorway. When he does that I can see into the room. It is as luxurious as the rest of the castle. I feel the blondes glare on me but as my eyes land on him my eyes go wide and I have to bite my lips together. He's wearing a pink nightgown. Seeing me almost break out in a fit of laughter his glare at me intensifies.
"Wolf…" A voice continues talking from inside which I can't understand to the boy in front of me and I see it is Yuuri. We make eye contact and he smiles at me. The girl rushes past and jumps into his arms. Wolfram turns and walks over to them. I feel uncomfortable watching them be all lovey-dovey- family like, I turn to go.
"Wait, did you need something?" Yuuri asks stopping at the door.
"Um, no. Just got lost but she helped me out." I indicate the girl.
He smiles larger, "Yeah, our Greta is good at that. She's even going to school to be a nurse, WHICH SHE SHOULD BE THERE RIGHT NOW." he says the last part loud over his shoulder at the girl, Greta, who looks sheepish at Yuuri. He laughs at her sheepishly pleading look. She starts to beg to stay after tomorrow which Yuuri and Wolfram say no to stating it's too dangerous and crowded here.
This goes on for another minute while I stand awkwardly just outside the door with the two guards conveniently on both sides. All of a sudden there is a shrieking cry. A baby was crying… from inside the room. Wolfram goes into the corner of the room out of my sight to where the crying is coming from. Greta flops onto the bed.
Yuuri looks back at me apologetically. I look at him confused. "Um, yeah, you better come in here to explain, it'll take a while to grasp."
This makes me even more confused but I do as I am asked. He shuts the door and indicated a chair made out of some fabric of an animal I've never seen before. "So you adopted this girl, Greta and her baby brother? What's so mind-blowing about that? I mean I think you two are too young to be married much less having two kids- one a few years younger than you are. But since you're both guys adopting is the only choice so that's fine. Oh, how did you bypass the laws though? Since you're both guys it's still illegal in most of the world to marry. Wait what about school and your family? And what about-"
"Whoa, too many questions at a time." Yuuri cuts me off. "Let's see. It seems you still don't believe this isn't earth. Which is reasonable. But trust me it isn't. I am not human, nor is Wolf or anyone else besides Greta in the royal sect. We do have human servants that works here because they want to. What else, our genetics are different than that of humans. We can have powers like water and fire." When he said that he took the water right out of the cup on the nightstand and it floated around the room before going back into the cup.
"We also um, well, it's not just genes, our bodies are different. Males are um, able to give birth too." He blushed at this.
I, of course, do the obvious. I blink rapidly, look confused at them and the baby in Wolfram's arms, scream, curse and repeat in order to try to process this new bit of information. Actually, I took it pretty great if I say so myself.
The two boys in front of me look as though I am not taking it that great and also seem very disdainful once the colorful words start to leak out of my mouth. Yuuri even tries to shut me up so that Greta won't learn these French delicacies, I persevere through and win.
Thirty minutes later I finally calm down a bit to try to make sense of this without the much-deserved dramatics. Throughout the thirty minutes, we went back and forth and I think I have a clear, but insane, picture of what's happening.
"Okay, let's get this straight. This isn't earth. This is a demon planet dimension thing. You two are Demons. Yuuri has been going back and forth between these two dimensions, one of which he is King of. Somewhere along the line you get engaged and adopt a human daughter that tried to kill you and is only four years younger than us. And you," I point at Wolfram, "Is a fire demon that is pretty damn old, along with all the other royals here. You two finally get married after a few years of being engaged with a kid and had a child yourself since your demons and demons have both sex parts… Am I missing something?"
"Nope."
"Great."
The baby stopped crying during this time so Wolfram and Greta got into bed and are now fast asleep. We both quietly stare at them, Yuuri lovingly and me wonderingly. "How did life get this freakin weird."
Yuuri barks out a laugh. "Man I don't know but I'm glad about it. I wouldn't have this family if not." He checks on his baby boy before sitting on the bed and caressing Greta's head. Once again I feel uninvited in this touching moment.
"This is all too weird so I'll accept this. Do you want anyone else to find out?"
"Not if it's not necessary."
"Fine. I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
He hums his consent while switching between caressing Greta's and Wolfram's hair.
I start to leave but realize I forgot how to get back. I turn but decide not to ask, I'll find it myself rather than break up this touching moment. I'm not that terrible. I walk out to get lost in the maze of the castle.
A/N: Honestly I don't know where exactly I am going with this- this just popped into my head while I was reading it. I Just read the 7 manga that was published and not the LN but I do intend to read that. Hopefully I'll come up with a storyline for this that lasts more than 2 chapters. Or maybe I should make this a two-shot. If you have any ideas message me. Thanks for reading!
-Fwgaltx-
