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Title: Maoh, A Day Late

Summary: Yuri and his brother have a heart-warming family reunion, which is unfortunately cut short.

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Part VI, Chapter 3

Fluctuation

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"Again, I deeply apologize for my people's rudeness," Ondine repeated, bowing deeply to the assembled Demon Tribesmen. They had all been gathered in the main plaza of the forest village, after clarifying that Josak was, indeed, part of their group.

"It's okay, really," Yuri insisted. "We're all fine, so don't worry about it." He glanced back at his party as if for confirmation. Josak and Murata smiled, like usual, but Conrart still looked wary and Wolfram mutinous.

Shori snorted. "It's their fault in the first place, for sending a spy sneaking around like that."

"This is part of the Demon Kingdom!" Wolfram growled. "If the Demon King decides to dispatch someone, they have no right to stop him!"

"Oh? And did my little brother decide that?" Shori asked, his eyes narrowing.

Wolfram scowled furiously, uncertain how to answer that. "And just who do you think you are, to question the king's will?" he demanded instead. "Are you really his brother? You might be just some impostor!"

"I can vouch that Lord Shori came from the other world," Ondine said quietly. Her entire bearing, graceful and calm, was at odds with her child-like appearance. Even Ulrike still retained something girlish, but Ondine seemed almost like a spirit that had taken human form. However, she was also pale and drawn, some kind of exhausting marring her delicate features.

"That's right. This is my older brother Shori," Yuri said, gesturing to the man. "But I don't get it. How did you end up here? And why did you come to the Demon Kingdom?"

"What do you mean, why?" Shori asked irritably, his lips pursing. "You disappeared! Do you know how worried Mom and Dad have been?"

'Oh yes, it's because your parents were worried, not because of your raging brother complex,' Murata thought, pushing up his glasses to hide his mocking eyeroll.

"I left a note!" Yuri protested. "And it's not like you guys don't know about the Demon Kingdom."

Shori's expression darkened. He seemed to bite back something before finally saying, "It's too early. You're still just a kid!"

"We didn't have time to wait! And I can manage fine!" Yuri shot back. "I can-"

"Alright, let's not go there now," Murata broke in quickly. He knew an argument between the two wouldn't lead anywhere good. "Time doesn't always pass at the same rate in the two worlds, so I was hoping that we'd be able to return without anyone noticing," he said. "But I guess in this case the timelines must have synched too closely. How long has it been in on Earth?"

'I suppose it's only natural,' Murata mused. 'He's not in any position to keep the timeflow disparate.'

"About the same as it's been here," Shori said shortly. "And it was foolish of you to assume I wouldn't notice Yuu-chan's absence immediately."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yuri wondered. "I told Mom not to worry and everything. How could you notice before the month was up?" His expression turned suspicious. "You didn't put a tracking chip in my phone or something, did you?"

Shori met his glare unrepentantly, his expression conveying that the answer should be obvious.

"Did you?!" Yuri demanded.

"...I didn't," Shori finally admitted, though his tone suggested that considered it to be an oversight on his part. "But I could tell you were hiding something. So..."

"So you went to check up on us," Murata concluded.

"But your stupid perception magic doesn't work on me!" Yuri protested.

"Of course it doesn't work, same as your illusions don't work on me," Shori agreed irritably. "But I'm still your older brother, and I know you better than anyone. You think you could really fool me, Yuu-chan?"

Seeing others' confused looks, Murata explained quietly, "He specializes in a branch of magic that deals with seeing things that are hidden. It has a lot of different names, but I guess you could call it a sixth sense. So he can always tell when someone is lying or hiding something, or even just perceive something that's beyond normal limits. It's actually really useful... or really annoying, depending."

"So that's how he saw through my perfect disguise - cheating with magic," Josak said, nodding thoughtfully.

"And how he found His Majesty through the fog," Conrart added.

Murata nodded. "Of course, since he and Shibuya know each other so well," he said, "neither of them is able to make their magic on the other. They both subconsciously counter each other's abilities."

"Still, how did they end up like that? I mean, isn't hiding things and seeing things that are hidden the complete opposite?" Josak pointed out.

"Shibuya's older brother takes after their father," Murata said, shrugging. "Mr. Shibuya actually uses it for his work, to tell if people are being honest about their accounts. But Shibuya decided he wanted to learn the opposite, illusions, instead. I didn't ask why."

Wolfram elbowed Murata, cutting their conversation short. "Hey... Shouldn't you do something about that?" he said, jerking his head toward the double-black brothers.

While Murata had been distracted, they had deteriorated into their usual argument.

"Call me Big Brother, Yuu-chan!"

"No way! And stop calling me Yuu-chan!"

"Listen to what Big Brother tells you, Yuu-chan!"

"Quit ordering me around! I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"You're still my little brother!"

"Okay, that's enough of that," Murata declared, moving to stand between the two. They weren't prone to physical violence, but sometimes just shouting at them wasn't enough.

"Don't interfere," Shori ordered. "I'll deal with you later."

"You don't need to deal with him. Murata hasn't done anything wrong," Yuri said hotly. "And it's none of your business anyway."

"If you two need a timeout, we can wait," Murata said, his tone pleasant, but louder than it strictly needed to be. "Just make sure you go to separate corners, okay?" Ignoring their matched glares, he continued, "Now that we've got that heartwarming family reunion out of the way, let's get down to business. There is one pressing question here: how did you come to this world?"

His expression had shifted as he shed his falsely pleasant demeanor, into the features of the Great Wiseman. Shori met Murata's gaze evenly, refusing to back down.

"When I realized what had happened, I went to Bob for answers," Shori said. "He told me even he hadn't been able to contact the other side for a while. So we devised a method similar to what you did."

Murata watched him thoughtfully. "You mean using a weakspot in the fabric of the world?" he said.

"I guess even you don't know," Shori mused, looking down on Murata in that annoyingly judging, calculating way. "This lake is where our ancestors took the Bottom of the Mirror to Earth."

Murata's eyes widened, and he glanced at Ondine in surprise. The former Oracle nodded, having watched their entire conversation silently. "I hadn't known that. I only heard about it afterwards," Murata said, trying to hide his frown. "Taking the Box to Earth was something Earhart and Crystel decided on their own, without telling anyone else."

"This lake is still connected to the place where they arrived, in modern Switzerland," Shori continued, crossing his arms. "That is where the Box has been kept all this time, watched over by us, their descendants, the Demon Tribe of Earth."

"Wait, you saw it? The Bottom of the Mirror?" Yuri asked, leaning forward in nervous anticipation.

Shori nodded, his lips twisting into a frown. "I didn't just see it," he said. His usual composure wavered, his hands clenching as something like fear passed over his face. However, he shook away his unease and added shortly, "I brought it here."

His pronouncement was so unexpected that those listening could only stare in silent shock.

They had been forced to set aside the issue of the Boxes for so long, with so many seemingly insurmountable obstacles standing in their way, that they had almost put it out of their minds. Even Yuri and Murata, who had been searching for some way to progress toward finding the last Box, had known that any resolution was still far off.

They hadn't expected to have that issue so suddenly settled.

"It's here?!" Yuri burst out, recovering first.

Murata's eyes narrowed, calculatingly. "...Is that what Ondine has been dealing with? The reason she's so exhausted?" he asked, glancing at the tiny priestess.

"...No. The miasma leaking from the Box has been temporarily drained off," Ondine said quietly. "I have been dealing with another matter." She shared an unreadable look with Shori. "It has to do with an order given to me by the Great One."

"It was related to traveling between worlds, wasn't it?" Murata said, trying to remember that particular lifetime. It had been right before his soul had reincarnated on the other side... 'It's obvious she was the one who guided Shori to this world, but what could she be doing now?' he wondered.

"Long ago, traveling to other worlds was something random, uncontrolled. People stumbled into the gap between and fell out elsewhere. But Lord Wincott changed that," Ondine told them quietly. "To send something like a Forbidden Box to the other side, he had to stabilize the connection. He tied the two worlds together... And that has consequences."

"I'm sure he was only doing what he believed to be necessary," Murata murmured.

Ondine didn't disagreed. "It created a new danger. The Originators are not bound by the same limits as living beings. Even sealed, their gaze is still upon this world... and now upon the other world as well. They can seep easily through the boundary between worlds and follow that connection to the other side."

'That must be why Stoffel could make a puppet look like Mom,' Yuri thought, his brow furrowing. 'The Originators... can see even Earth...'

Ducking his head, Murata tried to hide his frown. 'That could complicate things,' he thought. 'Now Earth is also in danger?'

His eyes darted to Yuri, and the two exchanged a quick look. Yuri shook his head, quickly regaining his determination. 'It doesn't matter,' he thought. 'We'll just have to beat the Originators, so they can't harm this world or Earth!'

Ondine had been watching them pensively. She nodded. "It's just as you have realized," she said. "The other world is also in danger from the Originators. The Great One... deeply regretted that. Thus, he charged me and my sister Seraphine with the task of ensuring that the Originators would not be able to leave this world to threaten any other."

Though she didn't say it, letting them instead absorb what she had said, Ondine thought sadly, 'She was so honored to be able to serve the Great One, despite not being chosen as the Oracle...'

Looking up, Ondine continued, "The Great One gave us some of his power, and, according to the plan we devised, my sister traveled to the other world through the gate in our lake. Working together from both sides, over the course of eight hundred years, we set up a far-reaching seal that will, once activated, completely sever the connection between the two worlds."

Her eyes met Yuri's, and the sympathy in her gaze made his breath catch. Slowly, unwillingly, the full implication of her words hit him.

Ondine's gaze dropped, pained and apologetic. "Seraphine and I... we didn't know when the time would come. We didn't know... if we would see it for ourselves. So we built the ritual to activate without us... As soon as the Forbidden Box was brought through to this world..."

Slowly, her meaning dawned on the others as well, and their eyes darted to Yuri, who could only sit frozen, stunned.

"I'm sorry," Ondine said quietly. "The seal has already activated. It's all Seraphine and I can do to hold it from closing, even with Lord Shori's help. I... can't promise more than another day, before traveling to the other world becomes impossible."

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Leaving the visitors in stunned, heavy silence, Ondine had returned to the lakeshore. With the mist gone, the golden radiance of the water shone almost blindingly.

The portal was wavering, destabilized by the time she had been away.

"I'm sorry, sister," Ondine murmured, kneeling beside the lake and reaching for her dwindling powers, "for making you hold it up alone. It'll be over soon..."

The glow of the lake's gateway flared as she added her power to it. They'd had no choice but to keep it perpetually open, to stop the world seal from taking full effect. Even with Ondine, Seraphine and the people on the other side lending their strength, they were at their limit.

Ondine swayed, her magic dangerously exhausted, but a large warm hand steadied her, pressing against her small shoulders. Glancing back, she saw Shori's calm features regarding her with a rare kindness and concern. Ondine smiled tiredly.

"Lord Shori, you should be with your brother. I'm sorry... I can only offer you a short time together," she said. Biting her lip, she murmured, "You mustn't waste it, not even a second..."

"He's still in shock. I'll go talk to him soon," Shori said, his gaze sympathetic. "For now, I wanted to thank you, for everything you've done. I forced you to keep the portal open, on the slim chance that I might be able to see Yuri again before it was closed forever. Thank you for giving me this chance."

Ondine smiled, bittersweet and melancholy, and shook her head. "We're the ones who have forced a terrible fate upon you both," she said quietly.

Shori met her gaze evenly. "No," he said, "you've done everything in your power to protect this world and even Earth. Thank you, for that as well. For everything that you sacrificed, you and your sister both." Ondine flinched, looking away. "For giving up eight hundred years together and never being able to meet again."

Her shoulders shook as she tried to stifle a sob. "...What kind of person did she become?" Ondine asked quietly, almost plaintively. "What kind of person is my sister?"

"The kind that doesn't hesitate to help a fool trying to reach his little brother," Shori told her, smiling gently. "I'd say... she's just like you."

"...Of course. We're twins after all," Ondine whispered, smiling through her tears.

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((Do-ramaaaaa.))

((How time passes between Earth and the other world is a mysterious thing. When Yuri goes there, no time passes on Earth at all until very late in the series, and while he's on Earth, longer periods pass in the Demon Kingdom, though not on a consistent ratio. However, this hasn't always been so. Keep in mind that the time while Yuri was growing up on Earth passed the same in the Demon Kingdom - Conrad spend fifteen years waiting for a fifteen-year-old to arrive.))