"Captain! Captain!" panted a running and paled face solider coming up to Conrad. "Yes?" the kind faced half Mazoku inquired of the panicked looking man. "There was an urgent request for your presences at the temple" the man got out between breaths. "I was told it was an extreme emergency and I should get you right away. It had something to do with the Maou." If Conrad had been slightly concerned by the soldier's rapid reply, he was downright worried now. "Pass the news to the others, tell them I'll head out first" and with he was almost running to the stables to get his horse.
"You do realize that I can't give you any more help than this and that you might well never be able again to be the man you are now don't you?"
"Yes" came Conrad's reply with unwavering conviction.
"Then so be it, I leave the fate of the Maou in your hands." That was the final statement of the Great Spirit as he used the last of his still diminished powers to open a portal to earth.
By the time Gwendal and Wolfram made it to the temple, Conrad was nowhere to be seen.
On the edge of a park pond, a sopping wet brown dog could be seen by the early morning park goers. Unfortunately for Conrad, they weren't your typical park visitors. He had swum out of the pond only to find himself in the mists of what looked to be a mugging. Three thugs all had their knives drawn on a hopelessly out of shape middle aged jogger. The man's back was to the water and he had no clear exit to run to, and even if he did, he wouldn't have been fast enough to get away. Conrad had come up from the water on the man's left side and had yet to be noticed by the man. The three would be muggers had though.
One of the muggers shouted. "Hell that's one big dog!" Conrad finally took the time to notice his changes upon coming out of the water. Just as the man said, he was indeed a dog of some size he thought. He was mostly brown but in varying degrees. He stood up to full height and came up to the man's waist. The jogger and the other muggers took notice at the man's cry and had various reactions. The jogger nearly fainted at the site while the other thugs were more than a little intimidated.
Conrad noticed the nervousness his new form was causing and decided to use it to his advantage. He tried to growl deep in his throat and was pleased it sounded menacing even to himself. Two of the men stared to back up, but the third that had first noticed him was not so easily scared. "What are you pansies scared for? It's just a big dog, nothing we can't handle!" The other two still looked doubtful. "That ain't no dog, that's a freaking wolf!" the one furthers away yelled back. Conrad started to bear his teeth, it was an impressive site.
"Ahh to hell with it, we just found some easy pickings and I'm not going to back off just because of some overgrown mutt!" The closest thug brandished his switch knife and lunged. Conrad, who was still adjusting to the new body, barely got out of the way in time from the knife that would have gone straight through his right eye. The force of the missed lunge cased the man to head for the stunned jogger. Conrad turned around and sank his unforgiving teeth into the hand with the knife before it could strike. The man hollered in pain and dropped the knife in favor of trying to beat the large dog off. At the man's scream and the site of all the blood, his two friends ran off. Conrad let go of his hand and kicked the knife into the water to prevent him from trying anything like that again. The jogger saw he had an opening to get away and he also ran for it. The one thug that was still alone noticed his companions had left without him and decided to get away.
Conrad now found himself alone and covered in mud from the pond with his face covered in the man's blood. He reminded himself that he still had a job to do and set out to find Yuuri before anything dangerous got to the boy first.
Conrad had problems trying to get to Yuuri's house, every time someone saw him they would start to make a commotion. When he heard someone finally call for the pound, he decided discretion was the better part of valor and look to the allies to make his way. When he took another alley to hide in while people were passing, he knew he wouldn't be hidden from the people passing by, so he hid in a large cardboard box he saw by some trash cans. Then he heard voices.
"Can't we talk this over, you know, maybe work something out?"
That voice, it was Yuuri! Conrad was happy to hear the young boy he had been worried so much about, but he wasn't happy with tone in his voice or with what he was saying. He sounded nervous, like he was in trouble. He crouched lower in the box to get a look without being seen. Yuuri was being cornered into the alley he was in by three bigger boys.
"Oh, we'll work something out alright" Said the biggest of them still approaching Yuuri. When Yuuri finally pressed into the wall Conrad had had enough. No one threatens his Yuuri and gets away with it! Conrad stared to deeply growl. He saw one of the bullies spot him and started to pail at the site. He was immensely pleased by the reaction, and even more so when all three slowly stared to back out of the ally. They were still too close to Yuuri for his comfort so he stared to come out of the box he was in. When his face could be seen from his hiding place, the boys ran full out to get away. Conrad felt like smiling, but the only thing that happened was the showing of more large white teeth.
As he moved fully out of the box, he saw Yuuri sitting on the ground with his back to the stone wall and was clinching his eyes shut. He didn't like that Yuuri was still scared, or worse, scared of him, so he slowly stared to approach the boy. He had gotten all the way to Yuuri and he still hadn't opened his eyes. He knew he couldn't speak, if he so much as even tried he would scare the boy witless. He also no longer had arms that he could gently wrap around him to reassure him either. He was staring Yuuri in the face and couldn't really do anything. He could only think of one other thing he could try to do to help him calm down. He gently started to nuzzle the boy's cheek with his noise. It worked, Yuuri's eyes started open at the contact and he looked at Conrad.
He could see that Yuuri was still a little unsure of him, so he tried to look as peaceful as possible. He decided that smiling would most definitely not help right now. Yuuri slowly brought up his hand to pet him on the head and he found he rather liked the way it felt to finally have those nimble fingers running through his hair. When Yuuri started to smile at him, he didn't even notice that his tail had started to wag back and forth in a slow rhythm.
When Yuuri got off the floor and started to head out of the ally, Conrad followed. He tried to stay close to him just in case the boys from before were still around, that and he still had to protect him from other things that might come his way. When Conrad heard the school bell ring, he saw Yuuri looked a little undecided about something. Yuuri then looked at him in such a way he found he was unable to move. The look in his wide black eyes was almost pleading. Then he ran towards his school. Yuuri didn't want to leave him? That was a good sign. He followed after him all the way to the schools doors and sat to wait for him.
When the bell sounded for the end of school, Conrad found himself surrounded by students that were not who he was looking for. He let the children that were brave enough to approach him to pet him, but he still kept an eye out for Yuuri. When he finally saw the boy, he started to make his way to him; he had to keep himself from running over to him. When Yuuri started to leave, he followed him all the way to his house.