7-A Reason To Carry On

Conrad walked briskly up 65th street toward Central Park, enjoying the warm spring air in spite of the traffic roaring past. Living in New York for more than a year and a half had cemented the changes in him that had begun at that September baseball game. At least, he hoped it had cemented them. That was what he meant to find out this afternoon.

He'd been to several more baseball games with Shibuya – and quite a few without him – but except for sharing a cab with Miko on the day of the baby's birth, he'd kept his distance from the rest of the Shibuya family. He had duties waiting in Shin Makoku, and it would be hard enough to go back to them without creating additional ties to this world. Though he couldn't help hoping that Ulrike would let him know how the Red Sox were doing from time to time. They'd only been third in the league the previous year, but this year looked more hopeful...

Conrad shook his head. Yuri Shibuya, the next Demon King, was nine months old and, by all accounts, thriving. He'd received word yesterday that everything had been prepared for his return. His mission here was finished.

He could have simply filled the bathtub in the apartment Bob had provided for him and stepped into it, but that hadn't felt like a fitting way to end his time here. Besides, he wanted to see the child for himself, just once.

It was foolish to expect anything more than babble and a cute baby smile from an infant. Conrad knew that. Still, he couldn't help hoping for...something. A whisper of hope, a dream, a hint of the king the child would become – anything he could use to keep cold despair at bay for all the long years of the boy's growing up.

For Conrad might have changed over these many months, but he knew that Shin Makoku would be the same when he returned. He also knew that he did not possess the strength to face it alone. The sneers and slurs, the hatred, the tension, the constant threat of war – they had almost broken him, after Lutenberg. If not for this mission, he would have broken.

Now that he was going back, he was...afraid. For months, he had been deliberately storing up images of the men and mazoku of this world, hoping that the memory of their easygoing cooperation would be a shield against what he knew waited for him at home. And it wasn't going to be enough. He could feel it in his bones.

Ahead he could see Miko Shibuya dozing on a park bench, the sun bright on her brown hair. He waited until he was certain she was asleep and her eldest son was chasing his ball down the walking path. Then he approached the baby carriage.

The round-faced infant smiled up at Conrad, showing off a single tooth. He was squinting, but Conrad could still see that both his eyes and hair were black. Double black. It was a good omen. "Your Highness," Conrad whispered softly.

The baby gurgled and waved his arms. Stay well, little one, Conrad thought. May the coming years be wonderful and happy for you, until you come into your kingdom. He looked at the baby again. He could find no trace of Julia there, but that was as it should be. This child, this happy, innocent baby, was himself, and Conrad's future king. It wasn't enough, it still wasn't enough, but perhaps he could make it be enough. Perhaps if...

Black eyes opened wide, meeting Conrad's gaze with the force of a sword blow. Conrad's own eyes widened. A faint shout echoed in the back of his mind, as if coming from a great distance in space or time – a grown man's voice, angry and immeasurably determined...but the words it spoke were not a threat.

I will protect the mazoku, this world, and everyone on it! Do you hear me? EVERYONE!

"Wha—"

"Glah glurb," said the infant Demon King, and held out his little yellow duck.

Conrad stared. As if mesmerized, he reached down and took the toy. The baby did not resist, as Conrad might have expected. An infant of nine months was surely too young to give away a toy...but that voice...

A gentle warmth flowed into his fingers from the little duck, like and yet not like Julia's healing power. Not Julia; Yuri. His fingers tightened, and the duck squeaked. The baby laughed and waved. Conrad smiled shakily in return and backed away from the perambulator.

He had the reassurance he needed, his talisman against hatred and despair. He could return to Shin Makoku and wait for his king; perhaps he could even find ways to help the ordinary people who had lost so much in the war. He was certain Yuri would approve of that.

Everyone, the voice had said. I will protect everyone.

A few minutes later, three children and a man selling ice cream bars saw a tall, brown-haired man holding a bright yellow rubber duck step into the duck pond and disappear. The ice cream vendor said nothing to anyone else. Who would have believed him? But the children's mother was very unhappy when the three of them returned home muddy and soaked to the skin from trying to dive to "somewhere else" through the duck pond.

Next: 8-Epilog