Yuri's eyes fluttered open. Again.
"You know, I'm really getting sick of this. Your father never did this to me. After all, I was worshipped as a god at one stage. Now look at me! Babysitting a Hyuga too stupid to survive on his own."
"Now would be a really good time to shut up you know," Yuri whispered back. "After all, if you hadn't decided to take up residence in my skull, I wouldn't be here."
"No," conceded Death Emperor. "You'd be dead. And that would leave me high and dry. I need someone of the Hyuga blood to release me from that graveyard of yours. Sanity…that's another thing altogether."
"Thanks," Yuri said dryly. "Nice to know that your friendly neighbourhood demon is watching out for you."
"Ungrateful wretch! If you haven't noticed, your arm's been set, and we need an escape plan. Unless you like being the newest attraction at the circus."
Yuri looked around his cage. Like the last time he looked, there weren't a lot of objects that screamed 'Escape Object.' He stood up to examine his cage more closely, took two steps and was stopped short by a length of chain. Yuri, struck by an idea, sat down and looked at his handcuffs.
"Ah, Death Emperor, want to make yourself useful for once?" Yuri asked softly.
"And what plan does the imbecile have today? Could it be…we stand still again while people throw rocks at us again? No? Okay, what then?" Death Emperor replied sardonically.
"Your hands are smaller then mine, right? So, if I allow you to come out, you could slip the chains off my wrists, break the bars and run like hell. Am I right?" Yuri continued on, not allowing Death Emperor a chance to answer. Experience told him that leaving a gap in his soliloquy would just leave him open to scathing comments. "You and I both want the same thing; to get the hell out of here. So, I will only allow you to take over on one condition. When I tell you to leave again, you will. No questions."
"And if I don't, how do you propose to remove me?" Death Emperor asked.
"Don't you learn? I kicked you out once; I'll do it again. Trust me on that. So, do you agree?" After a few minutes of silence, Yuri leaned back into the hay, resting on one elbow, eyebrows raised.
"Fine! I will relinquish control when you say." Death Emperor said desperately. "Is that what you wanted?"
Yuri nodded, unconcerned about how stupid that looked. After all, he was never going to see these people again, so who cared?
Let's see how you do this he thought to himself. He tried to recapture the feeling he had after he sealed the mirror, the wellspring of bright, dancing amber-brown on his fingers, filling his mind. He closed his eyes and mentally reached inward. His hand skimmed over the surface, coating his fingers with the liquid.
Death Emperor, I call you forth! Nothing happened. He repeated himself, then feeling rather stupid, yelled Hey Death Emperor, you mind? Get out here now! Death Emperor sighed at the lack of showmanship in that statement, then metaphysically stepped out of the shadows.
"Right. After this, we need to have a talk." Death Emperor said wearily, shaking his head.
That we do. Yuri replied calmly. So, shall we?
To an outside observer, it appeared as though Yuri's body was engulfed in white light momentarily, then an entirely different entity was there, as if the boy had disappeared. Death Emperor blinked, and swore. It appeared as though Yuri/his partially healed left arm had just rebroken. He shrugged, then ripped the chains off his arms and legs, and then threw them down in disdain. Two quick strides, and he was at the edge of the cage, where the bars posed no barrier to an annoyed ex-god. The bending of the bars was a relatively easy task, even with a broken arm. With that done, Death Emperor followed the last aspect of their plan, the run like hell part.
Death Emperor, I want in now. Yuri called in the recesses of his skull.
"I'm busy right now. Can you wait a couple of minutes?" came a hasty reply. Yuri, annoyed at the betrayal, stuck his hands into the wellspring and concentrated. His body metamorphosed, and Yuri, in control, tumbled into the long grass. A sharp pain in his arm demonstrated that fusing with Death Emperor might be a bad idea for the moment.
"You seem to have forgotten to tell me things like my arm being rebroken a lot," Yuri ground out through his teeth.
"I was about to tell you when you took matters into your own hands." Yuri didn't dignify this with a comment.
"Fine, I'll reset it for you. Will that make it better?" Death Emperor replied sarcastically.
"It would be a start," Yuri answered, deliberately ignoring the tone. Death Emperor took control over Yuri's right arm, and reset the left.
"Do you have any idea how much that hurts?!" demanded Yuri.
"Actually, yes. It is my arm after all. Or ours, if you want to be precise. May I recommend that we move the hell out of here, and find a deserted cave or something? I have not just escaped from the circus to be eaten by some wild animal!"
Yuri shook his head wryly. "Nice to know that you're concerned with my welfare. Fine, cave it is."
The trek through the bush was quite boring. After you've seen one tree, you've seen them all. In an attempt to occupy himself, Yuri kept a running dialogue with Death Emperor.
"You, boy, need to learn some showmanship. Yelling 'Get out here now' is not all that classy. You need something with a bit of sparkle or something."
"Riiiight. So what did previous harmonixers use then?" Yuri panted.
"'Scourge of the Dead, defeat my foes' was quite popular."
"I am not saying that! That's stupid!"
"What about 'Death of Souls, release thy fate!'"
Yuri grimaced. "That's worse. How about 'Ruler of Dead, Death Emperor!"
"Is that the best you can do? Oh well, at least it's better then 'Hey You! Now!'"
Curiosity piqued, Yuri asked, "Who said that?"
"Your great-grandmother, if you must know. She was one scary lady. Oh, and by the way, there's a cave on your left." Yuri's head whipped around, causing him to fall over. He stuck his arm out to stop his fall. Pity it was the left one. Yuri demonstrated that Death Emperor's education in the most appropriate words to assert your feelings had been well heeded.
"Are you quite finished?" Death Emperor asked sardonically.
Yuri stood up and staggered over to the cave. It was relatively small as caves go and thankfully free of stalactites and stalagmites. Those things are really unpleasant early in the mornings. It had obviously been used as shelter from the elements before, with a burnt out campfire near the entrance, and a pile of dried out wood stacked away from the wind. Yuri looked around into the gloom and said, "Cool."
"Use that word again, and I will be forced to kill you."
Yuri shrugged. "You get that," he commented, and began to build a fire.
Ten minutes later, the fire was a roaring success. Literally. Yuri was sitting close to it, basking in the radiated heat. Gazing into the flames, he said lazily "What should we do now?"
Death Emperor shrugged. "Don't look at me. Normally, harmonixers have jobs and all by the time I come in. You're the first child I've ever had to deal with."
"I'm hardly a child," Yuri replied coolly. "Find me another child who's had to put up with as much as I have and I'll worship you."
"Anyway, you need to find yourself a job."
"I don't think a paper run will pay all that much somehow."
"Come on, you can do better then that. You're trained to fight, and have a fusion soul. Bound to no-one, no worries in the world."
"Are you suggesting that I become a monster hunter? I'm 13 for Christ's sake."
"Fourteen. Your birthday was yesterday."
Yuri blinked, mind blank. He then recovered, and replied "No-one in their right mind is going to hire a fourteen year old to hunt monsters."
"I guarantee you that someone will, once. After that, it's up to you."
Authors Note: Sorry this took so long, but was enjoying lack of assessment. Now, only 2 weeks until I find out how I went overall and whether I get into the uni course I want! J
In case you're wondering, Death Emperor is very similar to someone I know. Aenea, take a bow.