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Title: Maoh, A Day Late
Summary: Yuri arrives in the other world late, and the race for the Boxes has already begun. Season 2.
Notes: A familiar but unwelcome face returns. Yuri and Flynn talk about justice.
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Part IV, Chapter 5
Echo of the misty city II
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"We should head back and tell Gwendal what we learned," Conrart told Yuri, getting a distracted nod in return.
Truthfully, Yuri couldn't quite pull himself away from Pochi. This was a real, live dragon, after all. Pochi himself preened under the attention, tilting his great head to let Yuri better scratch under his chin and comb his hands through the white mane.
Smiling, Conrart shook his head and decided to let the two of them be for a little while longer. Yuri's simple, sincere fascination was somehow endearing.
"He's going to get spoiled with all this attention," Alford huffed.
"You sounds like a fussing parent," Flynn couldn't help teasing him a little. Her remark made Alford flush, the deep red visible even through his tan.
Yuri ignored the by-play in favor of hugging Pochi again. "Who's a good boy? You're a good boy, Pochi!" Yuri insisted, rubbing his cheek against the warm, smooth scales. "I know! I'll come see you at the preserve. How about that? Will you introduce me to your mom?"
Pochi growled happily, sticking out his tongue to lick Yuri when the boy finally let go. It was actually kind of gross, but Yuri just laughed at the slightly rough, scrubbing texture against his cheek.
He looked up in surprise as Pochi suddenly froze. The dragon smoothly lifted his head, turning his face toward the mountain slope. A low growl rumbled in his throat.
"What is it?" Yuri inquired softly.
"He hears something," Alford interpreted, his expression wary and grim. His hand reflexively reached over his shoulder to his sword. "There's someone nearby. ...They smell like an enemy."
"Why would anybody be out here? ...Let's check it out," Yuri decided, taking a step forward before Conrart held him back.
"It might be dangerous, Your Majesty," he cautioned.
"Yeah, Flynn and Alford might be in danger," Yuri agreed, looking at Conrart stubbornly. "We have to make sure they'll be okay."
Flynn shook her head. "No, don't place yourself in danger on my account," she said. "I trust Alford to protect me, and you've already been targeted once on this island." Blushing faintly at her faith in him, Alford nodded.
"That just means they might be after me," Yuri countered. "You might be in danger in the first place because of me. Alford can stay with you, and Conrad and I will check it out."
Conrart's eyes flickered to Alford, taking his measure again. "I think it would be better if you remained here as well, Your Majesty," he said, nodding to the younger swordsman.
"Not a chance," Yuri told him stubbornly. Watching Conrart consider the situation, Yuri added in an annoyingly helpful tone, "And just so you know, if you try to leave me behind, I'll sneak off by myself."
Although Conrart's expression remained carefully bland, Yuri could tell he wasn't enjoying his introduction to the Yuri Shibuya method - suddenly, he was beginning to understand Wolfram and Murata's frustration.
He felt caught between his desire to keep Yuri away from danger and to keep Yuri close, since danger seemed to inevitably find him anyway. There would be no changing Yuri's mind - that stubbornness was both his strength and his weakness - so wouldn't it be better for Conrart to be by Yuri's side?
"...Stay close. If there is a fight, let me handle it," Conrart instructed finally.
"Don't worry," Yuri beamed. "I won't try to fight. I probably wouldn't be any help at all."
Somehow, that didn't seem to make Conrart feel any better.
"They're further down the mountain, between the two peaks," Alford relayed, taking some hidden cue from Pochi. "There's a stream down there. They're probably using the trees there for cover."
Leaving Alfred and Flynn behind, tense and waiting, while Pochi hid once more, Yuri and Conrart set off. A trail had once led down the slope, from the inn to the stream Alford had mentioned, but it had long since been abandoned, now little more than a faint suggestion. The entire mountainside appeared desolate, and they saw no sign of human presence.
Trees and bushes appeared as they neared the stream, first in clumps, and finally densely enough to provide cover. As they stepped into the shade of the treeline, Conrart paused, his eyes narrowing.
"Yes, there's definitely someone here," he said quietly to Yuri. "Stay on your guard."
Reaching out, Yuri laid one hand gently against the middle of Conrart's back. "I'm going to use an illusion to cover us a little," he remembered to whisper at the last moment.
Unfortunately, he didn't remember that no one had quite gotten around to explaining to Conrart how his illusion magic worked.
Like Wolfram, Conrart jumped as the concealment illusion washed over him. The way his senses were obscured clearly made him uneasy, and he shot a startled look over his shoulder at Yuri.
"Oops," Yuri muttered. "I guess you haven't had a chance to adjust. You'll become able to see through it in just a bit. This illusion should keep us pretty well hidden as long as we don't make any sudden moves or noises. You could say it's like a 'don't notice me' charm."
"...I see," Conrart finally said, mostly because there was no time to inquire about Yuri's exact abilities. It was too easy to just assume that Yuri was an ordinary boy, who had only lived a peaceful life - he didn't have even Wolfram's bearing of military training if not experience. But that didn't mean Yuri had no useful skills, especially given the show he had put on in Francia... and when arriving in at Covenant Castle.
He should have thought to ask, Conrart berated himself silently. He should have realized how much there was that he didn't know about Yuri.
Both of them instantly fell silent as the sound of voices reached them. Someone was coming toward them, moving through the underbrush with more speed than stealth.
"-find him quickly!" one of the approaching men barked.
Yuri and Conrart had moved to hide behind a cluster of thick bushes, and peering around it carefully, they could see a trio of Big Cimaron soldiers advancing quickly, their swords drawn and ready.
"He can't have gotten far," another soldier reasoned. "He only managed to escape because of the commotion that demon scum caused."
"He got this far," the third said grimly. "We can't let him reach the village. King Belar will not forgive that kind of failure."
The two Demon Tribesmen exchanged a look. The soldiers' conversation raised many questions, to which they could only guess the answers. 'We have to find whoever it is first,' Yuri thought. 'This could be our big chance to find out what's going on!'
The trio of soldiers passed by their hiding place without a second glance and continued to advance. The leader's gaze was darting along the ground, and Yuri realized suddenly that he was following some kind of trail.
They had to do something. Yuri took an unthinking step forward, but Conrart held him back, shaking his head. His eyes narrowed as he followed the same signs of passage through the underbrush and noticed something the soldiers had missed in their haste.
A trap.
The next step the soldiers took was their last. The three of them had drawn together to pass between two clusters of trees, and as the leader stepped forward, his foot caught a hidden wire stretched across their path.
The trap was sprung. Loops hidden in the dirt coiled around the soldiers' feet, and a web of glistening wires burst from the brush around them. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the soldiers were completely restrained, crashing into each other as the net pulled tightly around all three. They crumpled to the ground, groaning.
Dark laughter echoed through the forest in the aftermath.
Slowly, a ragged figure staggered into view, emerging from its hiding place nearby. Yuri's brow furrowed as he stared at the man with a niggling sense of familiarity. His eyes widened in realization.
"It's him! The mullet guy from Caloria!" Yuri hissed, clutching at Conrart's jacket.
"A Small Cimaron soldier?" Conrart muttered, his eyes narrowing.
It was, indeed, Maxine. But his appearance was vastly different than it had been when Yuri saw him in Caloria, now months ago. The ponytail Yuri most clearly remembered about him had been harshly abbreviated, not just a ragged shadow of its former length. His clothes were no longer an immaculate uniform, but simply rags, through which numerous wounds could be seen.
Staggering up to the three men he had captured, Maxine laughed again, a cruel, mad cackling. When one of the soldiers groaned, beginning to come to, Maxine sneered and casually kicked him the face.
"You trash," he growled, expression suddenly becoming coldly hateful. "Trash, trash, trash!" Each exclamation was punctuated with another kick. His shoulders shook, and he began to laugh crazedly again.
The scene was chilling to Yuri. Even Caloria, there had been a touch of madness behind Maxine's arrogance, but this wreck of a man appeared to be simply cracking apart. Swallowing, Yuri hesitated.
Conrart didn't. He dashed forward, taking Maxine completely in surprise, and slammed the hilt of his sword into the back of the other man's head before Maxine had even had a chance to turn to face him. Like a true ambush, the result was almost anti-climactic, as Maxine simply crumpled, unconscious.
Grabbing him by the back of his ragged shirt, Conrart easily hauled Maxine over his shoulder and said, "We should leave quickly, Your Majesty, before more Big Cimaron soldiers arrive. We can question him at our leisure in a safer location."
"R-right," Yuri agreed quickly, sparing only a glance at the three unconscious soldiers before hurrying after Conrart as the man set out back the way they had come.
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It wasn't until they had climbed the slope back to the overgrown garden, the back porch of the inn drawing into view, that Yuri realized he had once again failed to consider the reactions of the people around him.
Alford had sent Pochi off to hide, but the hero himself was waiting for them in the garden, while Flynn lingered just inside the inn, ready to run or hide if necessary.
Relief showed on her face as she saw them, before she noticed the figure draped over Conrart's shoulder.
"Big Cimaron soldiers are canvassing the area," Conrart explained to Alford. "They are looking for this man, a Small Cimaron soldier, I believe. Apparently, he was held prisoner. We're going to ask him some questions about what has been going on here."
He dropped Maxine's body to the ground without much care. Beginning to come around, Maxine groaned and rolled over.
Flynn drew a sharp breath.
"I'll get some rope," Alford said. He turned to head into the inn, only to stop abruptly as he saw the look on Flynn's face.
Shock was quickly being subsumed by deep, cold rage. Hatred twisted Flynn's lovely, gentle features into something forbidding.
"Him... It's him..." she muttered, shaking with the force of the dark emotions welling up inside. "It's him... He's the one who destroyed Caloria! The one who opened the Box!"
Alford's eyes widened, his hand reflexively reaching for his sword. Even Conrart appeared momentarily stunned by the revelation.
Flynn laughed, a demented echo of Maxine's own mad cackling in the woods. "This must be fate," she mused, taking a step toward him. "This is what I hoped for from the start, that you would be here. The chance to bring justice upon you..."
"This man... opened the Box in Caloria?" Alford repeated, his worried gaze shifting into something cold and hard as it moved from Flynn to Maxine.
"That's right. I'll never forget his face," Flynn stated, staring down at Maxine. He was slowly coming to, his narrow eyes slitting open as he looked up at her. "It's because of him that Caloria was ruined. He knew what the cost might be, but he carried through with it, to punish us! Because we refused to support Small Cimaron's warmongering any longer!"
Her voice had risen, the pain in it spurring Alford into action. He pulled out his greatsword in a single smooth stroke and pointed toward Maxine.
"Is this true?!" he demanded.
The blade gleamed, even in the overcast afternoon light. But Maxine seemed unafraid as he looked up at it. He sat up slowly, a faint smirk twisting his lips.
"That's right, I opened the Box," he said, with no shame or regret. Maxine sneered as Alford shook with anger. "You should be honored! It would have been the beginning of a glorious new age for Small Cimaron!" His eyes slid to Yuri, narrowing with hatred. "If it wasn't for you..."
Conrart shifted to put himself between them, hand on his sword. Having such raw spite directed at him caught Yuri off guard, and he flustered, uncertain.
"Glorious age?! Honored?! How dare you!?" Flynn shouted. She stalked toward Maxine, her hands reaching as if to wrap around his throat.
Alford held her back.
"Lady Flynn," he said, his voice halting, "let me act as your sword, in this. I will enact his punishment."
Letting out a shaky breath, Flynn nodded. "Yes," she murmured. "There can be only one suitable penalty. For Caloria, for my people..."
Alford raised his sword.
"Stop!"
Darting past Conrart, Yuri stood in Alford's way.
"What are you doing?" Alford demanded. "Stand aside!"
"You can't do this!" Yuri insisted. "I won't let you just kill him like that!"
Alford seemed startled by Yuri's protests, his brow furrowing in confusion, but Flynn gestured furiously. "You'd spare his life?! After what he did?" she yelled. "You... You can't begin to understand the magnitude of his crime! He doesn't even show a shred of remorse..."
That was true. This wasn't like Hube's situation - Hube had honestly repented and spent twenty years trying to find a way to atone. Punishing him further would have been simple cruelty, benefiting no one.
"Is it because you want to questions him?" Alford suggested. He glanced at Flynn. "If that is the case, then perhaps..."
"That's not it!" Yuri exclaimed. "That's got nothing to do with it! It's true that what he did was wrong, and that he should be punished... But you can't just decide to kill him without a trial or anything!"
"A trial?" Flynn repeated. "By whom? Under whose authority? Do you really think Small Cimaron would allow such a thing?" Her eyes narrowed. "Or... is that why he was sent here? Is this Small Cimaron's way of dealing with what they did?"
Yuri's eyes widened as he remembered his earlier observation - the Small Cimaron ship had departed, leaving those sent to Van Da Via without a way back. Could they have really been abandoned here?
"It's barely a fraction of what we are owed, but I'll gladly accept this payment," Flynn continued. "As Caloria's ruler, I judge his crimes deserving of only one possible punishment - death."
"Wait!" Yuri tried again, spreading his arms wide. "Lady Flynn, Alford! This isn't the way to do things!"
Caught up in the debate, all eyes had turned to him. Trying to buy just a little more time, Yuri had moved to stand between Caloria's delegation and what remained of the Small Cimaron contingent, but Maxine was not a man to show your back to.
Without warning, he sprang at Yuri, bringing the boy down in a tangle of limbs. With the enemy so close to Yuri, Conrart hesitated for a moment. In the next instance, Maxine had recovered, rising to his feet and hauling Yuri up with him. The same thin wire he had used for his earlier trap was wound tightly around Yuri's neck, trapping and choking him.
Maxine laughed, looking around at the three furious faces of his enemies. "So naive! You brat, I have you right where I want you now," he chuckled.
"Let him go," Conrart ordered, his sword already drawn in his hand.
"Careful now," Maxine taunted, pulling the garrote around Yuri's neck a little tighter.
"You won't get away with this!" Alford hissed, shaking with anger.
"Heh," Maxine chuckled, his expression almost serene. "It doesn't matter. You're right. We were never meant to come back from this last mission. King Saralegui does not abide by failure. Because of this brat, I was humiliated! If not for him, I could have still retrieved the Box, but instead..." He gritted his teeth, his hands trembling.
Glancing at Flynn, he sneered. "But you're wrong too. I wasn't sent as some token to appease your pathetic little land. My mission was far more meaningful, something to advance Small Cimaron's standing..." His eyes closed for a moment in reverent contemplation. "It might have been under the guise of making reparations and cooperating with the worthless little lands gathered here... But that was simply the pretext for using this perfect opportunity... to get rid of Small Cimaron's greatest foe..."
"So you were sent to assassinate Belar," Conrart concluded. "But he saw through your plan and took you prisoner instead."
"He didn't realize anything!" Maxine raged. "He knew nothing! And he still dared to attack Small Cimaron's representatives! That worthless trash!"
'Even though you weren't really representing Small Cimaron,' Conrart thought. 'By casting him out, Small Cimaron is able to deny all ties and responsibility for his actions. And getting rid of Big Cimaron's king would be a huge boon to them.'
"But," Maxine continued, calming himself again, "I suppose King Saralegui will accept the Demon King's head instead. With this, my standing is restored..."
The Demon King objected - by firmly kicking back, the way Miko Shibuya had learned at a self-defense seminar and shared with her son. He scored a direct hit between Maxine's legs, causing the man to fold over with a groan.
This time, Conrart didn't hesitate. He dashed forward and swung his sword neatly through the space between Yuri and Maxine, cutting apart the wire that had held Yuri prisoner. Taking the opportunity, Yuri scrambled away. As he collapsed to the ground next to Flynn and Alford, he coughed harshly, one hand clutching at his cut up throat.
"W-Wait!" Yuri barely managed to force out, holding a hand out to stop Conrart, who had knocked Maxine down with a heavy blow and raised his sword again, with deadly intent.
The effort it took for Conrart to obey that command was plainly visible as he strained to hold himself back from simply cutting Maxine down. But he could feel Yuri's eyes on him, and that was something he didn't want Yuri to bear witness to.
"He tried to kill you, Your Majesty," Conrart said lowly, keeping his gaze on Maxine's prone form. No matter what, he would not let the man near Yuri again. "Furthermore, he has already admitted to coming here as an assassin."
Yuri coughed again, swallowing heavily before speaking. "That doesn't matter! We don't have the right to just decide to kill him like this. We have to do this right," Yuri insisted.
"Your Majesty, execution is a common practice, even here on this island," Conrart tried to reason.
Shaking his head, Yuri said, "...Even if that the case... it's not up to us to just decide that."
"...Then who should decide?" Flynn asked quietly. She was watching Yuri with an unreadable look in her eyes. "Who has that right, if not you, whom he tried to kill, if not my people, who lost so much because of his actions?"
"It's because we're so close to it that we can't decide," Yuri said. "If we decided his punishment, would it really be justice or just revenge? I know..." Yuri swallowed heavily. "I know you're hurt and angry. I know you want to see him d-dead for that. But... Lady Flynn, I don't think that would make anything better. None of your grief or pain would disappear from that. It won't benefit anyone. And I don't want you to carry that weight."
Alford glanced at Flynn, hearing something in Yuri's words that made him hesitate. But as Yuri met Flynn's eyes evenly, he knew that just words wouldn't be enough to change her heart.
Closing his eyes, Yuri slowly breathed out. What could he do? Even if Yuri forced her to leave Maxine alive now, her feelings wouldn't change at all.
'I don't want people to go along with my wishes just because I'm the Demon King,' he thought, the same way he had the night before his coronation. 'But I guess in the end, they have to make their own choices...'
It was inevitable that those choices would not always be the ones he would like.
'All I can do it believe in them,' Yuri mused, smiling faintly. 'That's right. I'll believe in them.'
"Lady Flynn, Alford," Yuri spoke up, opening his eyes to meet Flynn's gaze again, "I have a favor to ask you. Please take this man to the other delegates and tell everyone what we found out. They should know what Small Cimaron and Big Cimaron have been doing."
Flynn's brow furrowed as she stared at him in surprise, while Alford nodded, startled. "Yes, of course," he said. "But... what about you?"
"When Big Cimaron finds out we know this much, they'll definitely cover everything up, right?" Yuri said, smiling. "So we're going to have to find out what they've been doing before that can happen. He escaped from somewhere, and it seems like there's someone else who is being held there too. We have to find that place."
"Your Majesty, that's..." Conrart tried, before giving up. With just a glance, he could see that Yuri had already made up his mind.
"Don't worry, sneaking around is something I'm pretty good at," Yuri assured him. "I've gotten a lot of practice, actually."
"Do you understand what you're suggesting?" Flynn asked, staring at him with confusion and some emotion Yuri couldn't read. She smiled humorlessly. "It's a long way down to the village. He might try to attack us or escape. We could have an accident. I could..."
"I know," Yuri interrupted. He smiled at her, trying to convey the decision he had come to. "But it's alright. I know you're a good person, Flynn. Alford too. I believe you'll make the right decision... for yourself. That's what really matters. Whatever choice you make, I'll stand by you."
Hesitating for just a moment, Alford laid a hand on Flynn's shoulder. When she glanced at him, he offered her a smile. Something about that warm support seemed almost too much for Flynn, and her eyes glistened with tears as she ducked her head.
Turning to Yuri, Alford said, "There isn't really much on the island except the port town and the village. The only other places we saw from the sky were a couple of hot spring inns on the other mountain. That's where you should check first."
Lifting his face to the sky, he whistled quietly. Moments later, Pochi's blue bulk slithered closer from his hiding place further up the mountain.
Alford patted him on the snout, leaning close to communicate something.
"He'll take you to the other mountain," Alford said, turning to them again. "Speed's of essence, right? So there's no time to be climbing up and down. He can let you off just out of sight."
"Thank you, Alford," Yuri said, smiling sincerely. "And you too, Pochi. Will you be okay without him?"
Alford smiled faintly, glancing at Flynn, who stood lost in her own thoughts. "We'll be okay," he said. "One way or another."
There wasn't anything to but believe in his words.
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((Once again, I stupidly backed myself into a corner, narratively-speaking. There's not much that can be done about Maxine. The anime just sort of wrote him off after a while, but... here, he's an unrepentant mass-murderer. What can you do with someone like that? It's all well and good to forgive, but that doesn't mean crimes should go unpunished. What is justice, really?
((I decided to settle for a compromise. I can't imagine Maxine not being executed... so all that can be done is give him a proper trial. Well, he'll probably confess anyway.
((It's not as if there is no killing ever in KKM. I'm watching season 3 right now, and plenty of the White Crows get killed, by Yuri's party no less, and it's not as if Yuri vocally opposes that. No, I don't think Conrart hit them all "with the flat of his sword" or whatever. There are limits. I like to think that Yuri's got some measure of pragmatism going, if a small and situational one.))
Special thanks to issm, for all those reviews!