Authors comment: I wrote this late 2007 for my autumn English exam and received a 6 [highest possible Norwegian grade, pretty much an A+]. The idea behind it came from the fact that I'd write about Kyou Kara Maou in all my essays. Thomas was my English teacher and Svein my Norwegian. I've changed Svein's last name and made up my own due to privacy. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yuuri Shibuya and Wolfram von Bielefeld both belong to Tomo Takabayashi.
It was a lovely day for Thomas, in the end of January 2008. It was Friday, and it had snowed during the night. The sun was shining, brightening up his day. He was sitting in his office, drinking coffee while looking through grade 10th's English exams from before Christmas. He was just done with the second last, and he smiled seeing there was only one exam left for him to correct. Tommy Larsson's.
A dark cloud crept over the beautiful, sunny day. The smile erased from Thomas's face as he slowly started reading part B of the exam. He only read a few lines, before almost blowing up with anger. He had written about them again. The English teacher got up, rushing out from his office leaving the text unread. He was hoping Svein Hansen, 10th grade's Norwegian teacher who was going through the same thing, was working today. And he was.
"Svein," Thomas greeted spotting him in the cafeteria. He was happily reading the newspaper, with a cup of coffee in his hand. Thomas scanned his colleague, his gray hair hung like a cloud from his head, he was wearing the usual clothes, jacket and tired jeans.
"Thomas," he greeted back, nodding friendly towards him. Thomas sat down by the table, leaning over it. He made a hand sign that told Svein to put down the newspaper, and listen to what he had to say.
"This morning when I arrived, I sat down in the most comfortable position I could think of, looking through 10th grade's English exams from last year and guess what happened." Svein shook his head; he had a slight clue as to what his colleague was talking about.
"Tommy Larsson has written about those cartoon characters again," he whispered. Svein's eyes widened, he was more than interested to hear what Thomas intended to do with the essay.
"You know what it's like," Thomas continued. "I mean 10th grade wrote Norwegian essays last year, didn't they? And what did he write about?"
"Them," Svein whispered.
"This is what we have to do," said Thomas. "You have to go to Cartoon Land and eliminate their existence." Svein's mouth dropped wide open. He shook his head, over and over again.
"No, no, no, no, no," he said. "It's wrong to kill, no matter the reason. May be he will write about something different this year, if we're lucky. You can't just kill-"
"You'll get money, more than your monthly salary," Thomas replied, interrupting his colleague. Svein sighed, nodded in agreement and shook hands with the man sitting across the table.
"Good," he smiled. "You'll be leaving for Cartoon Land immediately."
In New Makoku, the land where Yuuri Shibuya and Wolfram von Bielefeld ruled, a mystical, dark creature arrived. With a map in his hand, dyed hair and black contacts, Svein was guaranteed immediate contact with the king. From what he and Thomas had been reading from Tommy's texts, so called 'Double Blacks' were valued in the country. Double Blacks were, from what he had told them, people with black hair and eyes, just like His Majesty Yuuri himself.
He got up from the hard ground, noticing how everything was drawn. Well of course, he was in Cartoon Land after all. His eyes wandered from where he had been sitting, to his own body. Even though it was quite obvious, he was shocked to see that also he was made of tiny black lines and photoshopped colours.
"So this is what it looks like," he said, to himself mostly, looking down the empty street. It was dark and the stars were shining, he'd arrived at night for sure. Luckily, the direction of Yuuri and Wolfram's home wasn't hard to find, guard towers were sat upon the tallest hill he could see and Blood Pledge Castle couldn't possibly be elsewhere than behind the thick bricked walls. He started walking, planning in his mind how to murder the two most important members of the royal family in New Makoku.
When arriving at the castle, the guards surprisingly let him in, surely because of the black hair dye and contacts. He grinned to himself, even with a fake appearance it hadn't once crossed his mind that it would be that easy to penetrate the castle gates. He waved at one of the guards who immediately came towards him.
"I want to speak with the head of the castle," Svein whispered to the man.
"That would be the king," the young guard whispered back. "But he's asleep with his husband, Sir von Bielefeld-Shibuya. I'll take you to Günter von Christ, who will send your request directly to His Majesty in the morning." Svein regretfully gritted teeth, trying to concentrate on how he was fortunate enough to understand the language in this unfamiliar world due to Thomas's language invention which he'd plugged in his ear. Maybe that would cheer him up, considering he was the least patient person ever.
He followed the guard inside. It looked like an old castle, like the ones they had during the age of the Vikings. Red carpets with lots of black and yellow-like patterns were spread on walls and floors throughout the big, empty, dark halls. They suddenly stopped by a door, where someone seemed to be busy declaring their eternal love for the king.
"Ah, if only Your Majes- uh?" someone said, when the guard opened the door. Inside the room sat a lilac eyed man, holding something that Svein guessed to be a diary. He wore a white gown and glasses, and his silver-white hair was sat up in a pony tail.
"This man just arrived, Your Excellency," the guard said. He nodded towards Svein, pushing him inside the room before leaving the spot, closing the door behind him. Svein looked at the silver haired man, who's smile became bigger and bigger by the minute.
"Sir von Christ..?" Svein tried. Günter ran over to Svein, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Ah, another double black," he screamed happily. "What is your purpose here in Blood Pledge Castle?"
"To speak with His Majesty Yuuri as soon as possible," he replied, feeling somewhat uncomfortable being in Günter's tight embrace. He finally let go of him, studying his black hair and eyes. A moment of silence passed by, before Günter opened his mouth to speak.
"Request approved. You may speak with the king in the morning."
Back in the real world, Thomas was happily getting ready for a bath. When the tub was full, he went to the kitchen to get something to drink. When he opened the fridge, the power went out. He sighed, looking out of the window to see whether it was only his house or not that had lost electricity. But outside could nothing but darkness be seen and not only could he see no lights, there weren't even signs of life out there. He swallowed a lump, where had the neighborhood gone? Before he could think any further, his cell phone started ringing. He looked up, towards where the stairs would be. He'd left it in the bathroom.
He held onto the rail when walking up the stairs, he could see nothing but the light from his cell phone, ringing in the bathroom. It was probably his wife, calling to see if he was alright, Thomas's guess was that the entire city was without electricity.
When he finally reached the bathroom, the phone stopped ringing. He picked it up, getting ready to call his wife, but the screen said 'no data.' Thomas raised an eyebrow, what was this? Some kind of sick joke? He was surprised that he could see now that the cell had stopped ringing and there was no light other than a green, weak glow, lighting up the room. He didn't dare looking into the dark water filling the tub, but he was brave enough to admit to himself that he was scared to death.
A couple of bubbles were popping in turn, the noise came from behind and Thomas knew what that meant. When he finally dared turning around, a dark creature came up from the water. He couldn't scream, he couldn't move, he could only stare at the frightening appearance in front of him.
"You were planning to kill me and my husband, weren't you?" a dark voice said. For Thomas, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere, the sound of it wasn't only gloomy, it was also wet, cold, hard, all the frightening expressions he could think of.
"N-no," he managed to stutter. "Svein was the one going to your world, I had nothing to do with it." A long finger came from the black clothing surrounding the creature, pointing at him. Thomas's guess was that this was none other than Yuuri Shibuya, it surely wasn't the blonde prince Wolfram.
"But you planned it, didn't you?" he asked. Thomas swallowed a lump, realizing that he couldn't lie to the young king.
"I see everything," he continued. "I even know of the amount of money that you gave the poor teacher before sending him on the mission. What did you honestly think you could accomplish by committing such an action?"
"I.. I- I was just so tired off the essays," Thomas admitted, more frightened than ever. "Please, if you just let me go- I'll never lay a hand on you or your husband. You can keep Svein for your satisfaction." Yuuri smirked.
"I do have one obsession," he said. "Grant me the money you were going to give the assassin you sent to my country, and I will let you go." Thomas didn't hesitate, and whispered his bank card number to the boy in front of him.
"Very well," he said. "However, it's not in my nature to let villains like you off the hook so easily, especially since you were planning to kill my beautiful husband along with myself."
"B-but you said- Please, spare me," Thomas begged, falling onto his knees. Yuuri grinned widely when calling his element, using the water in the tub.
"Punishment!"
After the weekend, no one saw Thomas or Svein. They had both just disappeared, no one knew where they had gone and people didn't even have clues. When Thomas's wife came home, water was splashed all over the bathroom floor and there were blood tracks all over the house. The tub had been filled with paper that the police assumed to be money, torn apart. They had also come to a conclusion: Thomas was dead, and the assassin had deleted his bank account along with him. His body was never found, and no one knew what happened to his colleague, Svein, who lived happily in Cartoon Land, or New Makoku, as one of the ten, now eleven nobles. Money does make the world go 'round, doesn't it?
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