10. Strange and Stranger
While still at Bob's classy living room, Muarata realized he didn't feel like himself. He was smart enough to detect something was changing, a constant and almost imperceptible current that ran deep within himself. Like a weak rill that little by little dragged the bigger rocks, not by strength but by sheer perseverance.
So little by little the funds of his personality were being redirected by that feeble rill.
Murata sighed, knowing that just out of the corner of his eye, there was that tendril of awareness on the change of balance in the universe, the play of forces, the rearranging of destinies.
It should be a more unsettling presumption, he thought detachedly, while looking up and fixing his eyes on Yuuri. And wasn't that intriguing, how recently his eyes seem to be drawn to the young king so much more than usual. And that almost-kiss…
Unknowing of Murata's internal line of thought, Yuuri was pacing the room, his hands in his pocket and a deep frown on his face.
"Why can't we just…?"
"Bob told you why" said Murata, who had heard this question at least five times today. "The metaphysical rules of portals between dimensions are not just something you can force away, Yuuri".
"I know that" said Yuuri with a tired sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly "I know that".
Yuuri started pacing again, and Murata kept on looking at him contemplatively.
"How can you be so calm?" asked Yuuri, his voice half a growl. He could feel Murata's eyes on him, and he wasn't sure how to react to that. It was unnerving, for sure. He only knew of one man who looked at him like that, and he was making his biggest effort to keep that name out of his mind for now.
"I know Shin Makoku is in no immediate danger, I explained that to you already"
"Then, if you and Shinou are connected, why hasn't he told you why we can't go through the portal?" asked Yuuri in a rush.
"Whatever is blocking the portal, must be blocking our connection… I haven't heard anything from him since we came to Earth".
Yuuri frowned "Doesn't that mean that if there was something actually wrong going on, he wouldn't be able to tell you?"
Murata opened his mouth, then closed it. "Maybe"
Yuuri did growl then, throwing his hands to the air "So the whole kingdom could be on ruins right now and we wouldn't know!"
"I… must admit I didn't think of that possibility"
Yuuri stared at Muarata. Just stared at him for a couple of seconds in shock, before he rushed to his side and made him stand up, pulling him up by the lapels of his jacket furiously. Murata gasped and suddenly he was face to face with a livid looking monarch.
"What is wrong with you?!"
"Yuuri…" Murata blinked, lost in those black eyes. He could understand the reason Yuuri was so angry, and in the back of his mind, he realized that maybe, yes, he should be more worried too.
He could be, if Yuuri needed him to be, supplied his brain quickly.
Murata put his hands over Yuuri's arms, trying to channel his anchor abilities towards Yuuri's conflicted emotions, but the second Yuuri realized Murata's intentions, he pushed him back forcefully, rising his hands, then pointing at him.
"Don't you dare do that!" said Yuuri accusingly.
Murata gulped, feeling his mouth go dry.
There was a moment of heavy silence between them. Murata closed up, confused by the fact that all his emotions seemed to be focused on his Maou. Yuuri's confusion was shadowed by the shocking knowledge, suddenly very clear, that something was indeed wrong with Murata. With that thought, Yuuri's anger went down like a rock into a lake. Murata was his friend, and there was definitely something off about him now.
"What is wrong with you?" asked Yuuri again, concerned, his voice going deeper and softer. He took a step closer.
Murata hunched down, rising a hand between them: "Wait…"
Yuuri nodded.
When Murata looked up, everything he could see were Yuuri's deep black eyes, pools of enticing power that were focused only on him. It gave him a heady feeling, his pulse still slow, but strong, as if his veins were filled with molten lava. He kept his lips resolutely closed, abruptly sure that if he were to try and talk, he would say something wrong.
A whole minute passed, Yuuri on edge, and just when he couldn't take it anymore and was about to reach and try to force Murata to say something, Shori came into the room.
Shori had spent the last two days with Rodriguez and his team at one of Bob's buildings. They called that one the 'headquarters', and he had called earlier to make sure both Yuuri and Murata were rested enough to go there today.
The plan Bob had suggested was simple enough, for their standards. They were going to focus their energy into an artificial portal, that alone would never work to create a passage, but Rodriguez could manipulate said energy to mold the equivalent of a multidimensional key.
At the sight of Shori, Murata actually huffed in relief.
But then he saw his face, and knew their troubles had just begun.
"Run" gasped the older Shibuya, holding on Murata's hand and pulling him away from the wall he had been leaning against, while pushing Yuuri away and out of the room.
"What-?"
"Shut up and run!" groaned Shori, who keep pushing them to the back of the building. "Not the front door, they are too close, go to the kitchen, there is a secret door in there that will take you through a tunnel to the sewers. Do-not-stop!"
"Shori please tell me what's going on!" begged Yuuri, fully running now, Shori's strong hand on his back. They were now in the little storeroom behind the kitchen.
Murata looked into the corridor they just came from, and could hear the distant sound of strange cars at the front of the house.
"They followed me" whispered Shori quickly, out of breath. "Just after I left Bob's headquarters… my cellphone doesn't work anymore, I couldn't alert them, but you can and you will if you go now… they want you both, I know it and-"
"Who?" interrupted Murata, staring at Shori.
"I don't know, but when I realized I was begin followed it was too late, they were already too close to this house and there's no time, you both have to go, I will stay here and try to stop them"
Yuuri shook his head, unable to speak.
Murata wanted to argue, wanted to point out how stupid that would be. But it wasn't, not really. The cars at the front had turn off their engines, and someone kicked at the front door. Yet again time was not their friend. They wanted Yuuri, of course they would, whoever they were. Yuuri was the powerless Maou here. Yuuri was the perfect victim and Shori was his older brother, who once more was about to prove how much he loved him.
Murata locked eyes with Shori for a second before turning and pulling on Yuuri's hand, towards the storeroom.
"No!" shouted Yuuri, too wide eyes fixed on his older brother's.
Another kick at the door, and quick footsteps could be heard outside the corridor's window.
Shori gulped, leaned forward and hugged his little brother tightly, and then with the same inertia, pushed him back into the room, and the door right after him.
The heavy sound of the wooded door closing on Yuuri's face was strangely conclusive. Yuuri called for his brother and pushed and pulled on the door desperately.
Murata could feel his heart kicking his ribs from inside, fear blossoming freely within. They wanted Yuuri, and Yuuri would never leave his brother behind.
Without thinking, Murata reached out and pulled on Yuuri's arm again, but this time his power flowed raw and unintentional, with no a single one of Murata's usual filters to moderate his energy. The balancing intention of Murata's anchoring was such a blow that Yuuri staggered back, dazed and disoriented.
Promising himself to feel guilty about taking advantage of Yuuri like this later, Murata pulled him behind himself, opened the trapdoor on the floor and went down into the dark.
He would think about Shori later too.
Murata did not let himself stumble till they reached the sewers, and even then, only doubted for a second before taking a smaller tunnel, hoping that if anyone were to follow them, they would take the main tunnel instead. The hot, stinky humidity of the tunnels wrapped itself around their bodies like an instant second skin.
Murata never let go of Yuuri's hand, and the only reason he ever looked back, was to check on his Maou.
At first they ran, but after some time they just walked. Never stopping, they walked, and walked, and walked. The silence was oppressive and strange, if only because it lacked words, but not the sound of their heavy steps on dirty concrete and the occasional calling of rats.
After a little more than an hour, the silence was suddenly filled with the soft, quiet crying of the Maou. Murata didn't look back, and kept on walking, leading Yuuri away from the danger.