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Title: A Day Late
Summary: Yuri arrives in the other world late, and the race for the Boxes has already begun.
Notes: Yuri wakes up at a castle and proves his qualifications as a plucky heroine.
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Part II, Chapter 1
Where are you going?
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"There is no doubt. This person is indeed the Great Wiseman of Double-black," the tiny girl declared, immediately bowing to the figure kneeling in front of her. "I truly apologize for this disrespect, Your Eminence."
"It's fine, Ulrike," Murata assured her, rising from where he crouched to put himself eye-level with her. "It's best you make sure. And if it hadn't been for you, Shibuya and I wouldn't have even been able to make it here, to this world."
Ulrike blushed, pleased with his praise. "Truly, Your Eminence? I was afraid that my powers had been disrupted by the Forbidden Box..."
"I definitely felt you, if just for a moment," Murata said, nodding firmly. "It's because you continued praying, day and night, right? Traveling between worlds really needs to be done from both sides. If that connection can't be made, it's almost impossible to get through. Even with the ritual we used, Shibuya and I would have probably failed by ourselves. Or we might have ended up in the past, the future, or in another dimension altogether. It's thanks to you that we made it safely." The light glinted off his glasses ominously, even as he smiled.
An older man stepped out of the shadows behind the pair, his expression forbidding. "It's all well and good to have that confirmed, but we have other pressing matters to address," he stated coolly.
"I told you there was no doubt of His Majesty's identity, Gwendal," his companion insisted, his pale hair and clothes almost glowing in the faint light. "I witnessed our king's power for myself in Caloria. It was only with the Demon King's amazing magic that we were able to retrieve the Forbidden Box, Ends of the Earth." He sighed dramatically, the luminous blush spreading across his face visible even in the half-light of the Tomb of the Great One. "Oh, Your Majesty~!"
"Control yourself, Lord Von Crist," Gwendal muttered, looking faintly pained. How had a man previously so competent and cool come to this?
"That was pretty close too," Murata said. "Even when I lent him my power, Shibuya was barely able to pull it off. It's been two weeks, and he still hasn't woken up."
"The power of the Originators is truly terrifying," Ulrike murmured. "Even for the Demon King." She and the two men glanced at the deceptively simple wooden box now situated on the altar below the Great One's emblem. Nothing about it suggested the malevolent energy that had destroyed Caloria.
"That wasn't even a fraction of their power," Murata muttered to himself. But in the silence of the dark chamber, his words carried easily, and the three Demon Tribesmen turned to stare at him in shock. Murata shook his head. "This Box is the Ends of the Earth. The key to it is the left eye of an individual born in the designated bloodline. The Key Small Cimaron used was a left arm, which should go with the End of the Wind. If the right Key had been used, not even Shibuya would have been able to reseal the Box."
Ulrike had raised her tiny hands over her mouth, her already pale skin losing all color. For his part, Lord Gunter Von Crist looked more serious than Murata had seen since the man had led the Demon Tribe contingent in Caloria to retrieve him and Yuri. He exchanged a meaningful look with Gwendal, making Murata narrow his eyes thoughtfully.
"It has been several lifetimes since I was last in this world, but if I remember correctly, the bloodline of the Key of the End of the Wind was based in Big Cimaron," Murata mused, his glasses glinting ominously. "I wonder what happened for the Key to end up in Small Cimaron hands. Well, since it came from a Big Cimaron man, I doubt his fate was pleasant."
His smile remained steady, even as Gunter looked away uncomfortably, and the frown on Gwendal's face deepened. Even Ulrike, standing to one side, seemed to curl into herself.
"We think... this Key... the man this arm belonged to... was not from Big Cimaron," Gunter finally admitted, almost stumbling over his words. "There was an incident at the border. A traitor to the Demon Tribe attacked one of our patrols and... cut off the arm of... a soldier in the patrol."
"And you think this is that same arm?" Murata asked. He could tell they were hiding something, but he also suspected that they wouldn't reveal this secret so simply.
"There is no doubt," Gwendal said quietly, his expression hidden.
'How can you be so sure? Why would you be so familiar with some soldier, Lord Von Voltaire?' Murata wondered privately.
"And what happened to that soldier? Did he die?" Murata asked instead. "If I could study the body..."
"It vanished," Gwendal stated. But somehow, Murata couldn't imagine that was the end of the story.
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Yuri woke up slowly. He was warm. He was lying on something soft and smooth. His body felt a little weak. The light was actually pretty bright, and not in an early morning kind of way. Had he overslept?
No, wait. It was summer break. He didn't have school.
No, wait. That wasn't right either...
Yuri's eyes snapped open as memories came rushing back.
He and Murata had gone to the other world. But instead of the Demon Kingdom, they had ended up in a land had been ruined by a cursed box. They had gone to stop it - well, Yuri had gone and dragged Murata along, like usual - and then...
Yuri sat up, putting a hand to his head. Faint impressions drifted through his head, refusing to solidify. He remembered getting so angry at the people who had opened the Box. He had reached out and... used elemental magic. He'd never been able to do that before.
But what happened after that? Yuri had the impression of seeing the Box, touching it. He shivered, remembering the phantom pain. Had he been able to close it? He thought so. Murata had helped him, hadn't he?
So where was he now? Looking around, Yuri could see what looked like a very opulent bedroom. The giant bed alone, with its draping curtains, myriad pillows and ornate bedspread, redefined Yuri's perceptions of extravagance. The rest of the furniture matched that level. The room itself appeared to be roughly the size of his entire house back in Japan.
Slipping out of bed, Yuri slowly made his way to the large double doors. He winced as his body protested. Everything felt sore. He paused in front of the doors, listening carefully. On the other side, he could hear the muffled sounds of armor clinking together and what he thought might have been spear ends tapping against the floor.
'I'm in a super luxurious room, in some castle, with guards posted outside,' Yuri thought. 'Did I... get kidnapped?'
Yuri had perhaps, however grudgingly, spent too much time with his mother.
He scowled. 'Well, I'm not going to sit here and wait to be rescued! I need to get out of this room, find out what's going on, get Murata and get to the Demon Kingdom!'
The only questions was how he would accomplish any of that. His sore muscles twinged again as he backed away from the double doors. His magic was also still drained. There was no way he would be able to do much of anything to the guards. Instead, Yuri glanced speculatively at one of the large windows.
Seeing his reflection in the glass reminded Yuri about what Murata had said regarding black hair and eyes. He easily wove an illusion that shifted his coloring to a more plain brown, then grimaced as even that drained his limited magic.
'I better not spend too long running around this place, or I won't be able to keep this up,' Yuri thought, opening the window and leaning out for a good look.
He was too far up to even think about climbing down. In fact, he appeared to be in a tower, with the rest of the castle spread out below. There was a large courtyard as well, a flowerbed and a fountain, all surrounded by towering dark stone walls. Beyond them, Yuri could see a colorful town at the bottom of a cliff. It too was surrounded by walls.
'It's really like something out of European fairy tale,' Yuri thought. 'Mom would love this.' Jennifer had always loved fantasy and adventure, while Yuri himself prefered historical dramas, so they had compromised with European medieval adventure stories.
Before going any further, Yuri made of a change of clothes that had obviously been left for him. The pants and undershirt were fine, but the ornate jacket and cravat were entirely too much. Snorting, Yuri left them behind.
The bed's long, showy drapes came in quite handy. Yuri made short work of securing them to a heavy wardrobe next to a window and letting them hang down like a rope. They wouldn't be nearly long enough to reach the ground, but he could easily climb down to the next floor down.
The whole thing went rather well, except for a few tense moments when a skeleton with wings flew by. Yuri watched it pass by with wide eyes, and he supposed it watched him in return, though it was a little hard to tell, given its lack of eyeballs.
Carefully levering open the window he hung beside, Yuri slipped into the empty room. It was quite a bit smaller and less impressive than the one he had just left, Yuri noted as he made his way to the door. 'Who would put me in a room that nice and leave me clothes like that?' he wondered.
'Well, at least I got out, pretty handily if I do say so myself,' Yuri mentally congratulated himself, only to freeze, one hand on the door handle, as he realized why he had thought of a way out so easily. 'I'm like one of those plucky heroines from Mom's shows!'
It was a terrifying thought. This was exactly the kind of situation a heroine in one of the shows Jennifer liked to watch would find herself in - a simple girl with a mysterious past or destiny or bloodline, kidnapped by mysterious unknown individuals, put into a gilded cage, dressed up like a French doll, to be m-m-married off to some handsome but creepy guy...
Of course, Jennifer of Yokohama prefered her heroines to be brave and capable, so they always found a way to turn the situation around, including sneaking out through the window.
Yuri shook his head furiously. 'No way! This is nothing like that!' Trying to shove the thought away, he quickly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. He only realized a moment too late that he should have at least checked if there was someone else there.
In that moment, he eyes met those of a startled young woman carrying a basket of laundry down the same hall.
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Yuri and the young woman regarded each other in surprise. Yuri could feel himself break out in cold sweat. He needed to say something to move suspicion away from himself. He really hoped the room he had just stepped out of wasn't some lord's private study.
For her part, the young woman let her grip on the laundry basket slip in her surprise and had to scramble to catch it again.
Before he knew what he was doing, Yuri was moving to help her. "Let me get that," he said smiling. "You look like you're..." He trailed off, staring at the large bump that had been revealed when he took the basket from here.
"Pregnant?" the woman suggested, smiling wryly.
"And you're still working? Don't you get maternity leave?" She looked quite far along, though Yuri was far from an expert.
"I like to help out," she told him. Her brown eyes studied him thoughtfully. "I haven't see you around before. I guess you're new here."
"Um, yeah," Yuri agreed. "I... got lost."
"Oh, I know what you mean!" she laughed. "Covenant Castle is so big! It's okay, but make sure you don't go up past this floor. The next floor is forbidden to all the staff, remember?"
"Sorry, I forgot. Did something happen up there?" Yuri inquired, quite sneakily he thought, as the woman began to herd him along.
"Well, I heard that someone very special arrived and has been staying there," she confided, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "There's rumors that it might even be the new Demon King!"
Yuri fumbled with the basked in surprise. "O-oh? The Demon King?"
"Yes! Isn't it exciting?" the woman exclaimed, then blushed faintly. "Of course, I'm not from here, but even I can tell how excited everyone is."
"You're not from here?" Yuri repeated. He hadn't actually seen anyone else, so he didn't know whether she stood out or not. To him, she looked like an ordinary woman.
She nodded slowly, looking away. "I'm not from the Demon Tribe. I... well, I fell in love with a man from the Demon Tribe, and we..." Her hands curled around her full stomach. "Everyone has been very kind, letting me stay here until my baby is born."
'So here is the Demon Kingdom?' Yuri thought. 'That's... That's really good, actually! Everything makes sense. I guess I didn't need to sneak out after all. Oh well.'
He could sort out that particular issue later, after he found Murata.
"Have you decided on a name?" Yuri asked instead, beaming at the woman. She seemed surprised by his reaction, and Yuri hoped he hadn't said something weird. Was there some
tradition in this world about naming babies?
"Name? Well, not... Oh! I'm so sorry!" the woman apologized suddenly. "I just realized I never introduced myself. I'm Nicola."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Yuri," he replied. "I guess choosing a baby's name isn't that easy. My mom's favorite story is about how she chose my name. A man who helped her when she was getting ready to give birth suggested it. It's from the word for July, since I was born at the end of the seventh month."
"The seventh month? Oh, 'Juli', of course!" Nicola laughed. "That's lovely."
Jennifer, or rather Miko Shibuya, had of course change the name a little to suit Japanese phonetics. "Juli" became "Yuri", complete with banking-themed kanji. So Yuri hadn't been sure Nicola would be able to make the connection. It was nice to come to the place where his name actually made sense.
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Guys. Guys, I don't remember a single thing that happened in Season 3. The end of Season 2 is pretty hazy, so I'm rewatching it right now, but I've got absolutely no recollection of Season 3 at all. I think I might have never watched it. ... Oh well! It's fanfiction! Who cares about the little details?