III. Chemistry

Shibuya Yuuri remembers very little besides his name when he wakes up.

He can vaguely recall tumult and explosions, the icy thrill of water and the skin of his arms burning. But these memories are much more like sensations and do very little in explaining to him his predicament.

Consciousness returns to him in very slow degrees. When, after a decent struggle, he is able to open his eyes, his confusion is hardly quelled.

The room he's in in sterile and white, along with the rather comfortable bed he's in. It looks sleeker and more chrome than the hospitals he's been in before, but he recognizes its function nonetheless.

A pretty nurse in well-fitted, well-cut scrubs sees him wake and smiles sunnily. "Hold on a moment, I'll get-."

She is interrupted when a very tall and very grumpy looking man walks into the room. He slams the door open but his footsteps are silent.

"Thank you, Anna. I'll take it from here."

"It's Adela…" Yuuri hears her snicker as she makes her way out the room. She shuts the door behind.

A pair of very tired eyes assess him.

"Hello, MaOH user." The man bows deep and long, shocking Yuuri into embarrassment. "Welcome to Shin Makoko."

"Eh – I don't, I think-."

"We apologize that your arrival was…ill received. We generally do not respond lightly to an interdimensional tear in the-."

The man pauses midsentence, and glances up. He waves his hand and seems to be looking into midair, though Yuuri can make out the faint traces of light emanating in front of him.

"Level 2. Send Johnston. File report with Suki." He waves his hand again and looks back down.

"Barrier. Please understand our reaction was purely based on ignorance and we mean you no harm"

"I…uh…what?"

"Your highness, do you not remember arriving in Shin Makoko?"

"…Is this some sort of joke?"

The man takes a deep breath. "What do you mean?"

"Haha, this isn't really funny anymore. Um, where am I? Who are you? How did I get here?"

"I am Gwendal von Voltaire, General of the Shin Makoko armed forces and keeper of the barrier. You are in Shin Makoko – Level 1, no response at this moment – sometimes, better known to humans as the demon territory. We do not – Thank you, Johnston, but please report anything under a level 4 to Suki – know how you arrived here. In fact, I was rather hoping you would know how you arrived here."

"I understood maybe a tenth of what you just said."

"Conrad's always better at this sort of thing…" the man grumbles. He squints his already squinty eyes.

"My apologies, your highness,"

"What's with the 'your highness' thing?"

"I am going to send in the Lieutenant General to explain more. He was at the scene of your – No, no response needed Johnston – Suki, how does Johnston keep getting through? – arrival. I believe he may better elucidate the situation. Good day." Gwendal von Voltaire bows deeply again, and makes his way out the door with silent feet and a loud door slam.

Yuuri's pleased that it isn't the Liuentenant General that makes his way through the door. Instead, the sunny nurse comes back.

"Adela!"

"Haha, you heard?"

"Yeah…" Yuuri scratches his head, "…so…what's going on?"

Adela approaches and takes a seat by his cot. She motions for him to hand her his arm, which he does whilst noticing that they are bandaged tightly.

She talks as she begins to undo bandages.

"It's good Lord Voltaire is sending in Conra- I mean Lord Weller. He's much easier to understand, and his face is much less scary."

"That's good." Yuuri agrees absentmindedly.

"You gave us a scare! Wolfram burned you pretty well, you know. Not that you didn't return the favor, mind."

"He…what?" Memories begin to crystallize now, though they're still filtered through a haze of detachment. He remembers overwhelming rage. He remembers this rage becoming real, somehow, malleable, and he remembers tearing into the earth like digging his hands into sand.

"When you arrived, Lord Voltaire had no idea you were the real MaOH user. He sent Wolfram von Bielefield to go suppress you. Both of you are such little spitfires! You got into quite a fight. He burned you, you flung him around a little bit, everyone had a good romp. But look!"

Yuuri looks down and sees his arm. The same as it's always looked.

"You healed yourself! It's been a long time since we've seen a healer with such fine control."

"I…uh…that's great?"

"It sure is!"

"What's so great?"

A different man stands at the door now, easily as huge as the previous but much less squinty. He's smiling in a reassuring, to-nice-to-hurt-a-fly sort of way.

"His highness healed himself well! The bandages were a formality, really."

"The whole 'your highness' thing is getting a little weird, guys."

"Gwendal sent me in here to explain, your highness. It might help."

"Please!"

"I'm Conrad." Conrad walks into the room and takes the chair on the other side of Yuuri's cot. His eyes are half warm and half dead, a lot like his smile.

"We're not sure how, but you've managed to land yourself in the demon kingdom."

"Okay," Yuuri says skeptically (and a little shittily), "then where are the demons?"

Conrad laughs, and his haunted smile grows a little more genuine. "We're the demons, Yuuri. At least, most of us are. At least part demon anyway. As are you."

"No, no. I don't think I am."

"The signs are unmistakeable, your highness –"

"Could you call me Yuuri?"

"Your highness Yuuri, besides, a human would not be able to be a MaOH user. You are a half demon, just as I am."

"This is really just making me more confused, really. What is MaOH? And what are, like, full demons like?"

Conrad smiles again, broader and with more mirth. "I'll tell you everything I know, your highness. And after that, I think we should go meet Wolfram."

…

This – Wolfram – is sitting up in his hospital cot, tablet in hands. He's holding the device at an awkward distance, squinting his one un-bandaged eye slightly to see the words. Yuuri thinks he looks more like a mummy than a demon right now, all tuckered away in white bandages and white sheets.

He looks up as Conrad and Yuuri enter the room, and even though only one of Wolfram's blown-wide eyes is visible, the power of his hate is undiminished. Yuuri flinches.

"You're a- you're Wolfram!" He says hurriedly, looking at a bruised foot nestled amongst the sheets, "I'm very sorry for -."

"Shut up."

Conrad frowns a little, and takes a step forward, "Wolfram."

Wolfram keeps his gaze fixed on the MAOH user.

"Why are you still here?"

Yuuri fidgets a little with a sleeve, before finally raising his eyes to look Wolfram in the face.

"Well, I'm stuck. And I'm supposed to be here."

"Thanks for the life story. I meant in this room, cretin."

The little depression of a frown on Conrad's forehead turns into a valley. Even Yuuri's face takes on more steel.

"Look, I'm sorry that I injured you, okay? That's all I came here for."

Wolfram turns his nose up with a sad huff of a noise that is probably supposed to be a snort.

"You think I'd accept an apology from you?"

"Well,,,yeah…actually. And don't act all high and mighty –" Yuuri's voice begins to grow as he throws his hands up in the air, " you burned me!"

"Well looks like you got better, champ!" Wolfram snaps condescendingly, "And I don't accept apologies from humans. Ever."

"I'm half-human, thanks! And maybe I don't care if you accept my apology."

Wolfram rolls his eye and looks at the wall instead. "Half-human, even worse. Son of a filthy fucking bitch-"

"What did you say?" Yuuri's voice grows low and distant. Wolfram is so intent on staring down the wall he doesn't even hear Yuuri approach.

"Oh, is your retention really that poor-"

Wolfram is interrupted by a sharp slap across his left cheek. Yuuri stands fuming above him.

"Don't you ever speak that way about my mother. Again."

Wolfram holds his face, too stunned to reply. Even Conrad, the steady ship, looks surprised.

"Your majesty," he says, "We should go -"

"Take it back." Wolfram demands in a high pitched voice. The temperature in the room begins a steady rise. "Take it back you FUCKING-"

"You're bleeding!" Yuuri exclaims, too startled to do much else than point at the bandages around his left eye.

"Well no shit!" Wolfram is shouting now.

"Wolfram. That's enough." Conrad's unflappable voice halts the demon and with him the heat wave.

"His highness has-."

"It's Yuuri!"

"His highness Yuuri has come to apologize for injuring you." Wolfram curls a hand around his injured eye and looks down at his hands. "Whether or not you accept it is up to you. What is not up to you, however, is how you will now speak to your King. Especially since Gwendal and I have decided that you will be his retainer."

"I…what?" Wolfram growls.

"You are to serve as his Highness' personal knight and retainer from your hospital release forward."

The room begins to boil again.

"I will absolutely NOT-."

The door to the room slams open with a terrific snap behind Conrad and Yuuri. As an expression of apprehensive hope begins to dawn on Wolfram's face, Yuuri loses the will to turn around and assess the latest guest.

"Hello, boys!" A chillingly chipper female voice drawls from behind them.

"A-ah! Gisela! How are you today?" Conrad asks unconvincingly.

"I don't remember giving you two permission to visit my patient, do I?"

A silence settles, but Yuuri can't ever let silences last. "Ah. Well. You see. I, uh. We needed to visit and uh, talk -."

"No Ma'am. You didn't." Conrad concludes.

"And I'm just so disappointed when treated wounds re-open, you know? Such a hassle, and it sets back the healing process considerably."

"Isn't that right, your highness?"

"Uh…yeah…"

Conrad takes advantage in the lapse of conversation to grab Yuuri by the shoulders and spin him around. He bows low – taking Yuuri with him briefly, before quickly pulling them around Gisela and out the door. As he gets tugged along, Yuuri catches a quick glimpse of grass-green hair and a stony face. If there's someone around with more power than a king, Yuuri thinks, it is probably that lady.