Yuri had a migraine as he laid back in bed, the only bits of comfort being allowed to his exhausted body were the presence of his life-sized Conrad pillow and body-warmer, and the knowledge that he was that much closer to being done with this taxing endeavor.
Swallowing hard, Yuri decided he was sick of having something over his mouth as he took off the oxygen mask. He groaned as he rolled in closer to Conrad's body, expressing his general achiness. "…Tomorrow, I'll have to…"
"You're staying in bed even if I have to be here to pin you to it." Conrad said firmly, well that caught the maoh's attention, he wasn't even sure if Conrad had fallen asleep. He actually was rather impressed that Conrad hadn't saying how groggy he felt, he always assumed things like that were contagious, tiredness that is.
Yuri gave Conrad an implicating love-stare. "Oh really, when you say it like that it doesn't sound so bad…" Yuri shook his head, "wait, no that's not what I mean to say…"
Conrad's eyebrow arched to auto-correct Yuri to say, no really you mean you'll tolerate being in bed without resistance. He could tell the deathly-serious glare coming from his protective fiancé.
"This time was far too close, Yuri. You are in no shape to continue this sort of over-exertion, you have to stop for now."
Yuri nodded, "I know that this is really tiring me out, I'm absolutely exhausted but that doesn't change the facts…"
"Facts?" Conrad obviously wanted Yuri to elaborate, and distract him from escape efforts.
"Belal. He found out about their sacrifice and had a body-double take its place. He killed one of his own to make it look like aggression." Yuri sighed, "Not like that lets them off the hook for murdering someone, but it wouldn't have been an international issue if Belal had just stayed out of it." Yuri groaned, "Murata's been so busy working with all of this, and Gwendel is currently working the peace-circuits though right now, with Belal being exposed they're playing it as if he manipulated a situation to manufacture a war. It doesn't help the countries leery of our peace though… He's trying to make this a catalyst to start a war and the others are…" Yuri grabbed his head, he was getting a …larger… migraine.
Conrad rubbed concentric circles up and down Yuri's back, the teenager leaning over in his seated position on the futon.
"Sending more people over right now won't necessarily help, right now you need to regain your strength. What good would it be to return to Shin Makoku on your death-bed?"
Yuri blushed, "I know that… but, but there are some things only I can do over there."
"That's all the more reason to go back in full strength."
"I get it, I get it. I'll stay in bed and rest up before we make another trip."
The look in Conrad's eyes wasn't that of victory so much as of a look asking for elaboration, it read clearly as 'and that would be…?'
"Hopefully that will be in two days."
Conrad petted the side of Yuri's head, pulling him to his chest. "I'm glad to hear it."
Yuri blushed, embarrassed about this turn of events, he never thought of himself as the delicate flower-sort. "I just wish I knew how Belal knew about it. I don't really see him running with a group of Mazoku on mahjong-night, so for him to know what they were doing…"
"If I may make a suggestion, though remember you plan on staying in bed for at least two days."
Yuri nodded, knowing he'd need to take whatever he heard with a grain of salt.
"Don't you think there is a potential that Sousho is involved somehow?"
Yuri's eyes went wide, he flung the covers off and was on his feet before a hand on his wrist and his own body swaying pulled him back to the futon with a thwump! His head was spinning, and he was sure a large sum of blood was going there, he highly doubted from blushing either.
He shook his head, Conrad had just warned him about that, no less. "I have to message Murata about that, then."
"I'm sure he's already realized."
"Are you implying I'm just slow?" Yuri gave Conrad a wounded look.
"Not slow so much as preoccupied. You're working on a completely different set of information, I only noticed because of how Kiyosuke was acting." Conrad knew the importance of nursing Yuri's pride, he was an adolescent after all, and it was very easy to damage the ego in that age-bracket.
His eyes were growing wide, "So you knew that but thought it was okay to send reinforcements to Shin Makoku for Sousho to use? Or were you thinking something else? Tell me you were thinking something else…"
"The reason they are going over is similar to why we went to the chiasm. Please recall that within Shin Makoku they will be able to counter-balance themselves and fortify themselves against Sousho."
Yuri let out a sigh, "I guess that makes sense…" his head slumped into Conrad's shoulder, "Sousho is fear, so if you counter-act that major fear, you take out the ground from under his feet, right?" Yuri more explained then asked, but all the same it got the point across.
"By the looks of it; though, heika would know best about it. You did, after all, defeat Sousho single-handedly." Conrad smiled with eyes closed as he continued to bolster Yuri's sense of self.
Yuri sighed adding in an annoyed looked at Conrad, "I really don't think I'd say it like that." He looked down, "I feel even more exhausted now." His body slumped down, trailing Conrad's chest before he landed in his lover's lap, head resting on his thigh.
A strong, comforting hand laced through Yuri's black hair, gently avoiding the right side.
"Why is it always so much to do? It's not fair." Yuri whined. Conrad merely kept his sympathetic look plastered on his face, genuinely apologetic that so much had to fall on Yuri's shoulders.
That said, however, it only strengthened his resolve to not allow Yuri to take on any more, he had advisors and friends to help him with these other tasks that the young maoh was trying to keep to himself, if only the maoh came to that realization, too.
"Acknowledging your own limitations is important, Yuri."
"Why's that? It doesn't make the work go away." Yuri grumbled, thinking about it further, though, he did find that sometimes that actually did make it go away. Usually all the way over to Gwendel's desk; though, he wasn't very fond of just dumping things on others.
"Why? You can rely on others to help you, of course." Conrad put his hand on Yuri's shoulder, his other hand moving up and down Yuri's side as he laid on his lap. "In this instance, for example, we could talk about possible strategies to deal with this."
Yuri turned to face Conrad, "You're too good for me." Yuri muttered sleepily, his eyes flickering closed. "Well, what would you suggest?"
Watching Yuri stave off sleep, his eyes closed as he continued the conversation, Conrad carefully chose his words and tones to be the softest, most soothing to allow Yuri to be coaxed into sleep.
After half an hour, Yuri did seem determined to come to grips with the problem, Conrad finally won out and the younger man gave in to his body's wants and needs, curled like a cat fast asleep on Conrad's lap. Conrad pulled up the blanket over Yuri's figure, draping it over him careful not to disturb his position, not wanting to awaken him.
What Belal did was to inspire a war, would that mean as the aggressor he could legitimately be punished in a world-court and dealt with, or if not a world-court, the court of public opinion? The cry-wolf theory of assassinations? Conrad really couldn't see anything negative about the world being rid of the tyrant, though he really didn't want that sort of instance to taint Yuri's hands.
A heated knock on the door left Conrad thoroughly annoyed. He could only think of so many people with the personality type to assault the door, but neither of the two would, given the circumstances. He gingerly reached for his sword, if it wasn't a friendly source that only left so many other options. He slipped out from under Yuri, pulling the cover over his features.
Stirring, Yuri's eyes opened to spot Conrad pulling the cover over his face. "Ne… Conrad what's going on…?"
Conrad put a finger tip to his lips signaling for Yuri to be quiet, smiling gently. Yuri never felt comfortable with that look, sure it made him feel safe but only at Conrad's expense and he really hated the idea of harm coming to his beloved knight. That look brought him around faster than smelling salts ever could. He sat up indignantly, giving Conrad a concerned look.
"It's alright, I'm just going to go check, please wait here, I'll be right back."
Yuri's hand palmed at the fabric of the plush comforter as he sat up in the bed, legs fully extended and pointed out at 45-degree angles.
His reassuring smile did only so much to dissuade the discomfort etching Yuri's brow, he approached the door, looking through the eye-piece. His eyes narrowed, seemingly displeased at what he saw on the other side of the door.
"Stay here! Don't move, do you understand me?"
Yuri swallowed back hard, now shaken quite extensively as Conrad grabbed a bag of what looked like purifying salts drawing an outline along the bed's border with it.
Yuri nodded once.
"Good, I'll take care of everything, so don't worry." Conrad said, softening his tone, he saw how the teenager hid his tremble at the sudden shock.
"Conrad, what's going on?!"
Yuri looked into the brunette's eyes, oh gods, they did summon something didn't they?
He pushed himself upward only to fall back into the bed, he couldn't believe how totally weak he was. He felt useless at that exact instance.
Seemingly pleased with Yuri's forced compliance, Conrad exited the room, Yuri able to catch a glimpse from the doorway the array of what he would have described as a demon-parade, warped looking skeletons some with skin, muscle and blood still dangling from the carcasses.
He covered his mouth, that really was a hell-on-earth vision behind that door, so what was Conrad thinking going INTO that willingly?! Yuri tried a third time to force himself upright and out of the bed, again failing miserably.
He wanted so much to be able to be useful to Conrad, he didn't even know why the others would be using their maryoku, until a set of dead birds came crashing through the window, as they flew themselves at the bed they his an invisible barrier surrounding the bed then fall to the ground truly lifeless again. He saw a growing pile of corpses, his arm shielded his face, horrified at the level of effort those pitiable beasts were putting in.
He slid further from the center of the bed, trying to distance himself from the window and growing mound of birds.
Several other dead animals, including a very spritely looking bear entered through the same window causing Yuri to quickly whip around from the border of the bed he had been coming closer to, upon feeling the proximity of the horns of a breed of deer he wasn't familiar with, it looked like an antelope for crying out loud, those weren't even indigenous to Japan!
As the bear threw itself at the barrier, the corpse dropped on the opposite side, still unable to cross the salt obstruction. Yuri glared to see if he could spot the charms or tiles that had to be controlling them. He saw a snake crawling through, next, he shuddered, he wasn't particularly fond of snakes. Especially albino pythons The snake butted its head in vain against the invisible barricade.
When a person began to make his way through the window, Yuri swallowed hard. Not another corpse, this was getting too much for his heart to take, he'd never seen so much death before!
This opponent didn't seem to have the same problems with the barricade, however, to Yuri's utmost dismay. The figure walked up to the line of salt. Yuri's pupils shrank to pin-pricks in size when he spotted something he hadn't expected at all, this person's chest was rising and falling, this person was still alive!
As he noticed this, the man seemed to smirk, enjoying Yuri's horrified face. With two fingers, he reached inside the salt line and pulled toward himself, breaking the barricade.
A crashing wave of psychic energy crashed over Yuri, it was overwhelming, the strength of this resentment and bitterness. It made Yuri's lungs constrict, the way the force was crushing into him. Yuri's eyes began to roll under, and as he fell forward into the man's expectant arm he could see a faint trace of an over-extended shadow. No, something like that wasn't normal even with the necromancers, this was something else entirely…
The leering smile, he'd seen that smile before, but where? His mind landed upon it just as he went completely under. Sousho.
Yuri was pulled out from the window being carried through a pathway becoming ever-shrouded in fog making everything around him grow darker. As his eyes began to loll open, all he knew was he had no clue where he was, and that he felt completely alone, isolated and powerless. In short, Yuri felt exactly what Sousho wanted, he felt afraid.
As the last of the dead animals dropped, Conrad began to look around for any of the typical marks of the necromancers, however, no talismans of any sort were apparent, and even Minami seemed to be at a complete loss, shaking her head.
"This isn't the work of any of our own." Her eyes narrowed, "It does bear an awful lot like the works of certain forbidden elements however." She muttered under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. To her, forbidden element was synonymous to Shinigami, to Conrad it was Sousho. "This is why you're not supposed to summon Shinigami, normal people, well- necromancers, don't have the power to put them back."
Conrad turned to face her, "Shinigami… you said that last time, but what are they? I know it means gods of death or grim-reaper, but if you have literature… it isn't like a shroud of dark smoke that…"
"Emcompasses the body, darkening and devouring it to do the dark design laid out for it in exchange for its freedom, hence why you have to have a sacrificial offering to use as a vessel."
Conrad's eyes narrowed, why that DID sound familiar, didn't it. "Yuri!" Conrad turned around; sprinting toward the chamber he had left Yuri in he arrived to find it in disarray.
Broken glass and layers of stacked corpses were the first clue of something horribly wrong, well, after the missing Yuri clue. When he spotted the break in the purification circle, though…
Minami entered the room in time to see Conrad hovering over the broken circle. "Only a shinigami would have the power to break a purification circle when summoned…"
"…We have to find Yuri-heika at once."
"Why would the shinigami want him though?" She contemplated the over-all use of power, however, an all-powerful being like a shinigami didn't seem the likely candidate to confess it's own weakness to try to accrue more.
"Because Yuri has defeated Sousho before, right now, though… Right now he's in no shape to do it. This would be Sousho's only chance." He said, while scouring for any indications of where it would have taken him.
Seeming to pick up on this, Minami offered, "These waters are purified, so it would want to go where it is strongest and Shibuya-kun is weakest. The further from water and purified land, the better for it, in that case."
"Do you have any idea where that might be?"
She nodded once, "Where Kiyosuke had kept the others that we suspected would go berserk. Necromancers don't exactly tend to like 'holy' lands or shrines, so they have polluted, tainted grounds."
Shori panted as he rushed through the room, catching the tail-end of the conversation, "So this Sousho's been using you all to get at Yuu-chan…" He glared at no one in particular, the rage in full boil, and yet Conrad's anger seemed to be just as fierce if not more driven.
"It seems he was using the others as a tool to get this opportunity." She shook her head, "I'll take you to where he's most likely headed, but the problem with that is… if Shibuya-kun was the only one able to defeat him, for the record he'd be the only one ever to do so. In his state, it isn't like he'll be able to, and I guarantee you none of us can, either."
"We don't need to defeat it, necessarily. We just need to get Yuri back and somewhere safe for him to recover."
"That is true."
"Wait, you called it a shinigami before, didn't you?" Shori asked.
Nodding once, Minami added, "Before, they summoned a shinigami to try to summon a force to be of service to keep open the portal. It's a forbidden element."
"Then if it's a forbidden element there must be a reason why it was forbidden."
"Of course, because it can't be sealed…"
"…No, I mean for you to know that means that someone eventually found a way to stop it!"
"…Not exactly." Minami sighed, "While it's true it eventually stopped it wasn't because anyone could stop it. The only thing able to do it was severing it from the source of power and waiting for it to starve… to die on it's own."
"Well, that's something doable…"
"…It took fifteen years after being cornered and hundreds of thousands of lives. It's not doable."
Shori's eyebrow twitched. "How did it get severed though? That might be enough for us to get Yuu-chan back."
Minami shook her head, "I'm not that familiar with it, no more than that it happened on Shin Makoku, and not on Earth. We don't even know who summoned it, or if it was summoned at that time. It was forbidden because it was never tamed."
"Shori, we need to get in touch with the others in Shin Makoku. You're the only one able to create a portal. We need the council of the Great Sage and Shinou."
Shori's eyebrow rose, "You mean friend of my little brother Murata Ken and the creep who tried to steal Yuu-chan's body for his own?"
"…Sousho tried to steal Yuri's body, he was possessing Shinou's spirit before-hand. He wanted Yuri for his power and physical being." Conrad corrected, "Which, at the moment he is very near in acquiring, so I suggest you hurry, Shori."
Shori glowered, "You want us to figure out how defeat Sousho before even worrying about getting Yuri back, don't you think it would be better to do this the other way around, before he has the potential to hurt him?"
Conrad's face was dark, "I don't think we'll have two chances. If we botch a rescue mission it might be too late to try again, if you set up a meeting with them in Shin Makoku, the time variance will give us enough of an opportunity to formulate a plan and then have the means to seal Sousho immediately thereafter. This is the most realistic way to surmount it."
Shori's eyes held back the contempt as he gave a defeated sigh, "Fine. I'll be back in fifteen minutes, in that time I expect you to have the location Yuu-chan's being kept."
"I will." Conrad stated staunchly.
With that, Shori moved with purpose toward the sink, leaving Conrad to discuss strategy with Minami.
To Be Continued.