Deep in the shrine of the first king the shrine-maiden Urilke went about her daily meditation. It had been a while since the spirit of the long dead Maou Shinou had contacted her, but after over eight hundred years she performed the rituals and duties of the head shrine maiden out of long ingrained habit as much as devotion to the temple. Her long silver hair pooled around her as she knelt before the waterfall in the hall of oracles. Small droplets misted her perpetually youthful features as she sought any word from Shinou. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and a gasp escaped her tiny mouth.
"Shinou has a message for the great sage."
A call went out amongst the shrine maidens as they looked around, trying to find the only male permitted to have even a semi-permanent residence in the temple itself.
"He is fixing the plumbing in the west hall," one maiden called out.
Another answered, "He did that earlier; he is fixing the tiles in the kitchen now."
Eventually they were able to track him down, oiling squeaky hinges in the little used basement store rooms.
"Urilke wants you; there is a message from Shinou," a maiden told him quickly as she prepared herself to enter the inner chambers. The great sage of course needed no preparation and was always welcome as is. Still, he would have preferred to at least dust the cobwebs out of his dark hair and put on some cleaner clothes, but this sounded like it might be urgent, so off he went to see what kind of mischief Shinou was cooking up this time. One of the advantages of remembering every lifetime you have lived for the last few thousand years, is that you don't get flustered about much, even talking to a minor deity who was your closest friend way back when.
Not too much later, Josak Grie came knocking on the temple door. The tall redhead had been on assignment, spying for the kingdom, when he was given an urgent message by pigeon to go to the temple and inquire about the whereabouts of the king. So there he stood, still wearing his famous Miss Biceps blue dress with extra chest padding, chatting up the door guard at the temple.
"The brat seems to have gotten himself lost again," he was saying, when he spotted Ken Murata exiting the temple. "Oy! Gieka!" he hollered, waving for attention.
Ken looked up and waved back, walking over to greet him. Inwardly he marveled at how the stout muscular redhead could be one of their better spies, but then again, rather than fooling people into thinking he was a woman, he actually was making them ignore him as a cross dressing man out to grab a bit too much attention and certainly not capable of being a spy in that get up. It was surprisingly effective. Ken walked over to lean against the doorway, smiling amiably. "Let me guess, Yuuri has disappeared?" Ken asked.
"Yes, that is what I heard and Wolfram too." Josak confirmed with a nod.
"You won't find him anywhere in Shin Makoku, he seems to have ended up traveling to Earth somehow," Murata said. "Shinou was nice enough to inform us of this development just now, and he also says there is esoteric majutsu involved, so you need to send someone who has done research on the subject."
"He also says he still owes them both a favor so he will lend enough power to send five people, but to choose wisely who goes," Urilke added quietly.
000ooo000
"Moshi moshi, this is the headquarters of the elect Shibuya Shori committee, campaign coordinator Masumoto speaking. Are you calling to give a donation today?" a sonorous voice rang out on the other end of the line.
"No, this is Shibuya Yuuri, I need to speak with my brother, Shori please," Yuuri said tiredly.
"Mr Shibuya is a very busy man and cannot come to the phone right now; I can transfer you to his voicemail if you want," Masumoto offered helpfully.
"No! I need to speak to him now! It's an emergency!!" Yuuri bristled.
"I am sorry, but he is on stage giving a debate on nationwide television, there isn't an emergency important enough that he would leave here tonight. Perhaps if you call him back in the morning..."
"He will for this, tell him his little brother is asking for his help."
"If you insist on wasting my time with…"
"NO!! Don't hang up!! Please, I need to speak to him as soon as possible! I'll hold if you want, just go tell him that I'm on the phone, please it is really important."
"All right," he sighed. "What was your name again?"
"Yuuri, Yuuri Shibuya," Yuuri said hopefully.
"Please hold." Bad music ensued... the theme song from Shori's favorite dating sim actually.
Yuuri fumed on the other end for what seems like days. 'The guy must be waiting for the debate to end. Come on hurry up! Where could Wolfram be? I didn't let go of his hand; I couldn't have. So, why didn't we end up here together?' he thought while he waited. Finally the music died out to be replaced by a dial tone. 'Damn!' Yuuri thought as he redialed the number, only to have it go to Shori's voicemail.
Quickly hanging up the phone, and dialing again, Yuuri started muttering things into the phone line in frustration. Next he called his own home, but also got the answering machine, so he left a quick message and tried his brother once more.
Getting his voicemail again, Yuuri decided to leave a message, perhaps if he filled the mailbox it would go back to ringing.
"Shori, its Yuuri. Your campaign coordinator hung up on me." The anger and frustration he felt was starting to boil over and Yuuri's voice began to deepen as he continued with his message, "It is not right that he did that, my need to talk to you is urgent and he should pay for preventing me from getting in touch with you." As he talked, Haruhi noticed Yuuri seemed to stand up straighter, his hair seemed to be getting a bit longer, or maybe it was just a trick of the light. "Justice will be served if anything happens to Wolfram because of the delay. I will find him and when I do…"
"There are more strangers in the fountain," Hunny said, rushing out the door along with Mori.
"Haruhi, Hikaru, Kaoru, Tamaki, you stay here and entertain our guests while we go check this out. Ladies, stay here in case the new intruders are unfriendly," Kyouya said as he followed Hunny and Mori.
Yuuri ran over to the window to see Conrad, Ken Murata, Josak, Günter, and Gwendal standing next to the fountain, exchanging words with Tamaki and Kyouya. 'I hope we don't all get arrested for trespassing now. I can't afford to waste time when I don't know where Wolfram is. What am I going to tell his brothers?' Yuuri thought nervously.
"Yuuri, what is going on? Are you all right?!" the unmistakable voice of his older brother startled him from his thoughts. The call had actually gone through this time.
"Wolfram is gone!! I can't find him anywhere. Something weird happened and I wound up back in Japan I think he's here too somewhere and I need to find him. Murata and Conrad just got here. Do you know if Bob has a way to find out where Wolfram is? He is the Maou of the Mazoku on Earth. If he could even just allow Wolfram his element at least he could protect himself." Yuuri finally had to pause for breath.
"What...? Wolfram is missing?" Shori asked.
"Yes!! Aren't you listening, Shori?!" Yuuri was trying not to strangle the phone in frustration.
"Where are you, you did say Japan right?" Shori asked.
"Ummm, yes...a place called Ouran High school...Don't ask me where that is... Just help me find Wolfram!" Yuuri pleaded.
"I will be right there," Shori said, ending the call.
000ooo000
Yuuri flipped the phone shut and realized he was being stared at by more than a couple of students. He quietly handed the phone to Haruhi with a few words of thanks.
"Are you ok, Yuuri? Did you hit your head on the fountain? I can walk you to the school nurse if you want," Haruhi said softly as she took the phone from him.
Yuuri blushed red in embarrassment. "Yeah. Well, I know I don't sound alright, but I am just really worried about Wolfram." He flinched a bit when a loud thump behind him had him looking for the blond to burst through the door and berate him for being in a room full of pretty girls. With a crestfallen look, he realized someone had just knocked a silver coffee urn over on their table. "Yeah, so a trip to the nurse wouldn't really help much, but thanks."
Haruhi nodded. "Okay, but if you feel the need to go later, I can show you."
"I think I will just go help my friends in the fountain," Yuuri told her.
Just then the Mogee! Mogeeta ring tone the twins had programmed into the phone before giving it to Haruhi went off. "Hello?" she said, after fumbling to get it open because the cartoonish battle cry had startled her. "This is Haruhi Fujioka… yes, he is here… oh thank you… yes…. No … all right… Jennifer."
"Yuuri, it's for you," she said, holding the phone out for him.
After explaining the situation to his mother, who was overjoyed that he was back on Earth and insisted he come over for a home cooked curry dinner, he learned that his big brother had walked out on a big political debate of some sort. He really hoped Shori would contact Bob for him. It could take a while to track down where the old Mazoku leader was. Shori might just have to start out calling Switzerland and hope he was in touch with the corporate office there.
000ooo000
AN: Thanks for the reveiws, alerts and faves. It may slow down a bit after the next post because I am up to where I left off writing and I have been kinda busy lately. I entered this story in mediaminer's fanfic contest, wish me luck.
Duo-chan Maxwell: Thanks for catching that, I can be a little dyslexic and got those transposed somehow, and I even had it right in my notres my bad. I will go correct it now.
LaDYViL: I don't think Wolfram has made a pact with the fire element on earth…yet. I am glad you are enjoying the story. The chant Nekoazawa was doing was actually the Latin names of several varieties of catmint and/ or cat nip. I figure he threw it in for whatever he couldn't decipher because it sounded good.
crizzy-chan: your patience will be rewarded, after all what "golden haired demon" would the Hikari have written a book about.
Mrs. Suou: I think you will like the scene I have planned with Satoshi, Kyouya, Murata and Shori in the same room.
Morena Eversong: Thanks for the kind words. I do see Gunter as a huge Maou fanboy so I write him a little silly. Glad you are enjoying this.
Lithiumxx, Ranchi Blade, Dai-chan87, Mizuki hikari : thanks for the nice reviews guys.