Necromancer, by Vanessa S. Quest

A/N: Hey all, it's time for yet another story-arch! This one takes place as a sequel to Self-Restraint, basically that means, if you haven't read that yet (or to recap, or if you never plan to read it…) Conrad and Yuri are engaged, Ken and Wolfram are …together ambiguously (screw-bunnies) and so that no one's left out, Gwendel and Gunter round out the set.

Please R & R. Really now, please? I hope you enjoy it.

-The Management

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He was stunned when it happened, and it was so quick he hardly realized he had closed his eyes.

Suddenly, his eyes shot back open, wide with an emotion that he knew was neither panic nor horror, but somewhere between, he knitted his black eyebrows into a tense knot as his eyelids grew closer, wincing over his black eyes. His lips opened as he panted, cold sweat over his whole body, though only that which was exposed to the elements seemed to register.

His hands and face stung after another strong gust of wind. Forcibly sitting up, his hand moved up to the side of his head, pulling it away to reveal, in no great surprise, a sizable dab of red. To say he was pained would be untrue, he was injured, but right now he couldn't feel it, how could he? He had to think, and the buzz in his ear was making it rather hard to do just that much.

He had to think of how to get out of this, he looked around to spot the source of his injury, grimacing as it came to blurred view.

There before him, a soldier, a horse, a bloody horse shoe, more-over there was Ken, hands up as he was trying to talk the soldier out of running the wet teenager through, and then what he saw made him know what he had to do.

To his own accord, Yuri closed his eyes, opening them back up with his hair long, pupils slits, eyes slighted and over-all displeased to have been summoned.

Illuminated by a blue glow, Yuri walked to the horse, the animal knowing better than to try to move, not daring to escape, which seemed to trigger the soldier's survival mechanism as he stammered and pointed his sword at the bigger threat, Yuri.

The maoh somehow preferred that; instead of his friends being in danger, if it was himself he knew someone competent could come to their aid, he himself knowing he didn't count as that.

The soldier stumbled from the horse to have at least some chance with his swordsmanship than a stationary horse.

"Put it down." Ken mentioned; his voice was calm and steady, like a parent disciplining a child.

The soldier turned back to look at him, then back at the encroaching maoh. Ken also glanced at the maoh, well aware of the steady trickle of red collecting to the right side of his brow and cheek. The maoh didn't seem to particularly care, or notice.

It seemed as though Yuri was about to open his mouth to speak, but Ken somehow doubted it. This didn't seem right. It didn't seem like Yuri at all. Something this small, Yuri would have preferred to handle on his own.

"You're in my way. Move." Yuri's deep voice stimulated the man to run to higher grounds.

"Good job Shibuya, you really outdid yourself in making a coward run away slightly faster than he, oi, Shibuya? Oi!"

Ken waved his hand in front of his good friend; he noticed the maoh was continuing forward, to the horse. The king got onto it. Signaling with his eyes to his companion, Yuri took up the reins.

Ken hopped on, deciding that walking to wherever they were going, versus riding a horse, well, the horse just seemed like a better idea, really. "Shibuya, your head, are you really alright?"

He kicked the horse, driving the beast to move faster than it ever had before.

As black eyes protected by glass cast upward, looking through the lenses, he understood. The village was on fire and he could see the distinct marks of at least a semi-organized band of marauders.

Apparently they skipped the day where they were taught to loot first, burn second.

Yuri's palm went out straight ahead as he began to summon a burst of water, it shot off with the pressure of a fire hydrant with the head struck clear off, though aesthetically it had extra ribbons of water-dragons coiling around the blast, directing it up then over the fires, some of the dragons branching off to find some of the more visible bandits to detain them.

Ken looked at his friend, unsure of something. This really wasn't like Yuri, it seemed so urgent, he leaned forward to look the maoh in the eyes, seeing something very bizarre indeed.

One pupil had converted to a large oval, the other remaining the tight slit. As the large oval just happened to coincide with the side caked in blood, Ken thought best to catalog that information in the 'oh shit' pile.

Scanning the horizon, Ken could only hope Ulrich had sent the militant retainers promptly to collect them, he added to his hopes that Conrad and Yozak would also be visiting, after all, a rather large wave of bandits seemed to be pouring forward to crash against the tide of the maoh Yuri's wrath.

Yuri's head slumped then snapped back upright, as one hand clutched at the rein as tightly as he could, concentrating his maryoku on the other hand as it pointed forward.

Ken was making a head-count, finding the results perturbing. No, not so much the numbers, so much as the faces. The faces were bizarre, contorted, and strangely inhuman, and not Mazoku either.

Upon entering the center of the village it made a bit of sense, suddenly, the soldier aiming his sword at them, the presence of a soldier, and only a soldier. There was a fleeting pile of bodies, but as he noticed one fall, and then get back up moments later, he started to piece it together. Hmm, so that could explain it.

He was intellectually curious, now. It had been a very long time since he last saw a necromancer, seeing one work with paper talismans and a casting circle, and a small horde of men obviously benefiting from the skill through looting, well, gee, wasn't that just special.

Cracking his neck and back he mentioned to the maoh telepathically, "That man is raising the dead, he's a necromancer."

The maoh nodded, still focusing on keeping on the horse, keeping the horse moving forward, and putting the fire out. "I see."

"You know they aren't easy to stop. And these aren't like the dolls. These are still fused with souls."

Yuri looked forward at the man chanting, now near enough for Ken to hear, Yuri's ear buzzing so much that he could hardly keep up his own concentration let alone be bothered trying to split it in such a way. "Wait here, I'll go."

With that, the maoh dismounted the horse, leaving Ken sitting alone in the saddle, still scanning for Shin Makoku military presence. To his utmost pleasure, he could see the flags in the distance; he also could see the state of Yuri. He fixed his glasses, continuing to internally converse with the 27th maoh, all while drawing up his yellow aura, transferring some to the teenager as he did so. "Necromancers use very ancient, complex spells, the spirits are being held by those papers to the bodies of the dead."

Yuri nodded, his step seemed strange, walking heavy on the right side; he staggered as he formed orbs of water around the paper charms, destroying them while pulling the shields upward, away from the again lifeless bodies.

The necromancer cast his eyes to the interloper. "Ah, the maoh himself? I'm honored. And this aura, it's as fierce as I've imagined it would be." The necromancer bowed, drawing his sleeved arm to his chest.

He thrust it outward, at Yuri, sending the double black back a full two steps, a watery force-field ahead of him, now stopping a marble tile similar in design to those found in mahjong. Yuri covered his right eye then pushed his hand forward, sending a wave of angry water-dragons past the shield, pulling the tile with it. As it hit the necromancer dead even, the body went limp then collapsed into a heap, revealing a kohi.

Yuri relaxed his grip; the kohi began chattering away, seemingly oblivious to Yuri's deafness; then stood to fly off.

The maoh smeared his hand downward, from his face to his chest, holding the fabric over his chest. He turned to take in the panoramic view in time to see the necromancer approach as yet another manipulated creature.

To the maoh's shock, it was a sweet little girl that looked frighteningly similar to Greta. So much so, that at first glance Yuri's heart writhed, "Maoh-sama, ne, Maoh-sama you'll lend us some of your dark destructive power, won't you? To your faithful servants who wish to bring glory to Shin Makoku and all that is evil… Won't you?"

Yuri's hand reached forward, grabbing the girl's shoulder, shaking her once, her face tilted up so he had a clear vision of her eyes that were fogged over, and even though the maoh mode did not cry, the boy inside was trembling, she couldn't be dead, and this couldn't be Greta, not his sweet little daughter! Now much closer, he could see a slight difference in the face, the nose wrong… why hadn't he noticed that at once? No, that didn't matter, this was still horrific enough. He petted her hair, eyebrows knit with remorse.

A tile fell from her hair sending the body crashing to the ground, she became yet another kohi. He grabbed the tile, reading it aloud, "Girl…" he looked at the other tile, reading it he could see a word that did not have a direct translation to Japanese, instead the elegant word was more of a string of ideas, "A man who knows no limits…"

His hearing picked up, mayhap out of necessity, turning he heard a cascade of tiles hitting something hard, just like shuffling mahjong tiles, or extra-crisp leaves as they blew in piles through the wind. It seemed the man had borrowed a page from Yuri's book, using the tiles to spell out a message in his familiars' form. The tiles read an eerie, threatening message to Yuri, a challenge to the maoh, "I'll have your power."

Yuri picked up one of the tiles, inspecting it coldly, the maoh's energy was fading fast, he was pushing himself too much, "Recover."

He turned to face his friend, as he spun around his hair receded to the short-medium length the teenager was more familiar to, his eyes changing, though the two were distinguishable if compared closely, his right ankle curling in as he fell onto his side. The blood mixed with dusty earth torn up by so much motion.

Ken glanced around, when the tiles had fallen all the bodies turned into kohi. This was bizarre, even he had never seen a necromancer like that, and upon looking around he couldn't see any corpses, except for soldiers. Upon inspecting the uniforms, he noticed these weren't friendly arms, either.

"Shibuya!" Ken mentioned, dismounting the horse, he divided his strategic mind, as it took in every little detail to scour for meaning later, and to a concerned friend.

As the small band of troops arrived, Conrad dismounted and rushed to the fallen youth, "Yuri!"

Conrad bowed to his side, petting his face, wiping at the dirt, blood smearing. His concerned eyes were constantly fixed on Yuri.

Yuri batted his eyes open half-wide, his eyebrows wincing, contorting his face to a weary grimace as his lips parted, "Conrad…" He smiled faintly, "…you're …a little late."

Conrad smiled back at Yuri, the sorrow and concern heavy in his eyes, he laughed slightly at that, "Ah, I'm sorry Yuri-heika, but we had to escort some villagers to safety, we came as soon as we saw your grand showing."

"You mean… the villagers… they're all okay?"

Conrad nodded, "Yes."

"…but the bodies, and the fire…?"

Ken spoke up, "Yuri, the soldiers are dead, but there aren't any bodies besides those. Everything else turned into kohi when those tiles dropped." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, signaling that maybe Conrad should take a look, maybe. When he was good and ready.

Conrad knelt beside Yuri, instinctively in the pose as he had swooped down to his side, now though, as he held one of Yuri's wrists, secretly checking a pulse, the other contacting the side of Yuri's face, he let his eyes trace from Yuri's two obsidian orbs to see the warning left. His eyes cast back to Yuri's eyes, oh he noticed the differences; one eye held a focus, the other was glazed over.

"Yuri, can you see out of your right eye?" His voice was steady, calculated. Yuri's eyes averted from his own.

"You're too sharp sometimes, Conrad." Yuri mentioned. "I can, but not very well at all." He tried to force himself to a standing position, Conrad instantly pulling him to his side bracing him.

Yuri was too weak to muster a flustered response, right now, just being in Conrad's arms was all he wanted, well that and answers.

"Why were there army-men of Big Chimeron in Shin Makoku?" Ken said, though his voice was level it was threatening in its own right.

"Those were scouts that slipped in through the borders, they were trying to stir up trouble in some of the smaller villages, hoping to cause upset." Conrad reported. "Yuri, let's get you back to Covenant Castle, Yuri?"

Yuri clutched the fabric of Conrad's shirt, tapping his head into Conrad's arm. His legs giving in; he made a slow-motion fall.

Conrad's arm snaked around, catching the over-exerted Yuri in what would have looked like a dramatic dip if they had been on a ballroom floor.

Ken spotted the colors of Gwendel's men amongst the military presence, "Is Gwendel here with you?"

"He is with the villagers, as is Gunter and Wolfram."

Ken smiled, "Well, that's good to hear. I would like to speak with the others, Shibuya, you don't get to walk off the field, sorry."

Yuri groaned, feeling dizzy. He held his right ear; the pressure was making his equilibrium tilt, a lot. Conrad lifted him into his arms.

"You definitely pushed yourself, Yuri. You were like that before even riding over here, weren't you?"

"Aha ha, well, it wasn't as bad then. Gh… I feel nauseous." Yuri whined, wincing his head, he leaned his left side of his face to Conrad's chest, smooshing his cheek into a cooler tempered fold of the uniform, upset that he'd probably gotten Conrad's typically pristine uniform dirtied with his blood.

"…" Conrad looked at Yuri, waiting, at the sign of no eminent response, he repeated. "…" Hetapped his shoulder, "…!"

Yuri blinked his eyes as Conrad, focusing in, finally picking up the comment, now that his left side wasn't pinned to the warm pillow that was Conrad.

"Yuri! Yuri, you really shouldn't sleep, Gisela will meet up with us at the castle. There's a carriage waiting."

"…Carriage?" Yuri held his stomach; he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness making him shove past Conrad to roll away from his body. Conrad touched his head, pulling Yuri's bangs back, pretty sure where this was heading. And rightly so, Yuri vomited, moving his hand back to his chest, he flopped back against Conrad's chest spent.

"…This is bad." Conrad muttered, luckily to Yuri's right side, thus not worrying as the black-haired youth didn't hear a word of it.

"Sorry Conrad… that was so lame… just…" his eyes were growing heavy, "I'm exhausted, why can't I just sleep, ne Conrad?"

"Because you have a nasty, nasty concussion." Ken mentioned, from seemingly nowhere. "I finished talking with the others and figured I'd keep you company." He smiled innocently at Yuri, he gave Conrad a knowing look, a look that said once Yuri was leaning on Conrad's lap, occluding the happy little hearing Yuri had from his left side they'd get to chat, and Conrad would get to know what was happening, well, as much of an update as what everyone else had.

Conrad nodded, looking back at Yuri, smiling warmly, "You're handling the circumstances very well, Yuri. Better than most. Here, let's get you settled in." He mentioned, fixing Yuri within the carriage, lying on his left side, preventing his blood from getting on anything as Conrad dabbed a chilled cloth over the wound itself, gently, knowing how sore that spot had to be.

"Sorry…" Yuri mentioned. He audibly groaned, curling in on his side, clamping his hand to his mouth as he winced, "I don't know why I'm sea-sick! I don't get it at all! I'm not like Wolfram so why then…"

"Yuri," Conrad fished Julia's necklace out from around Yuri's neck, he put it in Yuri's hand, "look into that, keep looking, and tell me what you see."

Ken smiled, that was sweet, in a creepy pining-for-your-ex way, well if he wasn't just calling the pot double-black. He supposed Conrad had better be sweet, if he was with Yuri like that it was entitled that Yuri got extra perks of the Conrad treatment. He did have to say Conrad was slick sometimes. A way to stop sea-sickness, not like Wolfram would ever be accommodating enough to try, is point-focus. Ken only wondered how much that could really work, on the one hand Yuri's equilibrium was off, shifted to the left so if he used his predominant left eye to focus on it, that would shift it in his favor, but he also knew he had internal bleeding to the right side, causing pressure on that spot in the inner ear that was making his equilibrium go for the loop-de-loop.

It was disheartening, though. Knowing that Yuri was already in that state, he needed medical treatment immediately, that brought to mind the second bit of cunning inside Conrad's statement, keeping Yuri talking would mean that they would know if he was awake and what his mental state would be at by time they reached Gisela.

"…It's like looking at the ocean reflecting stars, the cobalt ocean, you know, from tropical islands, how the brochures look…" Yuri began; content to do what Conrad asked of him.

"I don't think he can hear us now, not like I think he'd understand much of what we're talking about anyway." Ken started, Conrad nodded, not particularly keen on breaking his stare on Yuri to make polite eye-contact.

"No, he's babbling now, this is bad. Very bad, actually, I'm a bit worried. So this necromancer was soliciting Yuri for his power?"

Ken nodded.

"And sheep and rainbow-flavored sherbet inside a gigantic marshmallow, mama's curry…"

Ken smiled faintly at Yuri, he was such a good guy, if only Shibuya's mother had gotten to hear it she'd have been tickled pink. Conrad's soft face didn't go amiss, but that tension and unease were knitted tighter than Gwendel's sweaters of cute bear-bees that he secretly made for Elle and Greta. His eyes held such a sad look.

"He'll pull through, it is Shibuya. If I thought otherwise I'd have pulled him back to Earth as fast as you could spit… though, truthfully I do prefer a nice, clean fountain."

"Teriyaki, bear-bees, oh goalas are at the picnic too. Though, they're still in the trees. I think they're happier there… I'm happier they're there. Mean goalas." Yuri's eyes began to flicker shut, a bump jarred the carriage, "bumble-bee flavored bubble gum!"

Yuri's dialog wasn't helping his betrothed's sanity, which seemed about as intact as Yuri's own inane babbling.

"Love you, Conrad…" Yuri mentioned, and then the one-way conversation halted.

Conrad's eyes shot wide, "Yuri?" He tapped Yuri's shoulder, "Yuri… Yuri, wake up!"

Yuri took in soft, shallow, gentle breaths; Conrad counted about 19 within the minute.

Gisela rushed toward the carriage, "I received the message…"

"He was kicked in the head by a horse, he just lost consciousness, it's a concussion, he must be bleeding still though, he was getting worse feeling dizzy, nauseous and even threw up."

"Alright, please carry him to his bed."

Conrad lifted him, somehow he felt light, as if his spritely energy was dancing around him, Conrad watched the necklace Yuri still clutched in his hand and let out a slight sigh of relief knowing the device would protect his beloved as it had so many times before.

And where it would fall short, he would make sure to pick up where it left off. He promised that to himself.

Upon the deposition of Yuri onto crisp-clean soft sheets, Conrad began removing Yuri's shoes, unbuttoning his over-shirt, he moved to Yuri's left side as Gisela hovered in on the right. Her hand glowed an aquamarine-green tone as she soothed Yuri.

"Heika, keep it up, you're doing great."

Yuri turned his head leftward, shifting as his eyes began to flicker open, his hands felt warm and his curiosity had gotten the best of him as he had to find out how his hands could feel so warm. It was the sort of infectious warmth that even though it was intense and irradiating, it was not overbearing or uncomfortably hot, it was like sitting by the window on a sunny winter day, the rays making up for the chill outside. How could he feel that way?

"C… Conrad?" Yuri's black eyes focused in on Conrad's earthy browns, his chestnut hair, his chocolate eyes, his delicious, sweet Conrad. He felt his face warm with blush only to feel it and his hand chill as one of Conrad's moved away to dab a cool cloth on Yuri's face.

He smiled faintly. His eyelashes seemed so full as he batted them at Conrad; each moment more, Yuri was becoming more aware, his head still throbbing at him in annoyance.

"Ow, my head hurts." He sighed. Flopping his head back, turning toward the right. "Oh… good… good morning Gisela, I'm sorry for being such a trouble…"

"Not at all, Heika." She smiled at Yuri, who smiled back, then winced as his head throbbed. Gisela took out a set of clean, stark-white bandages. Setting out the wrap the wound, she then smiled, covering Yuri's left eye; she closed her eyes and asked warmly, "Yuri, how many fingers is Conrad holding up?"

She peeked one eye open. Yuri turned his head to look at Conrad, having to focus through on his right eye, "Ah, uh, one…?"

Conrad smiled at Yuri apologetically, though Yuri couldn't see that fine of a detail. Conrad had propped up two fingers, touching each other, using his other hand to conceal his remaining fingers.

Yuri sighed, "No good, then?" He scanned through the room, "Wow everything really is blurry." He pulled Gisela's hand off his left eye. "Come on, I want to see again. Don't tease me, Gisela."

She moved her hand to Yuri's other eye, he could see the blurry outline of a glowing light, but the more he watched it, the more tired he became until he finally gave out and rolled his eyes over, asleep. Taking the opportunity, she pulled open his eyelid to add in a clear liquid then put a gauze pad and patch over it.

"That was a local muscle relaxer; that way the strain in his eye should reduce, it should also help with some of the headache and eye pain, but his eye will be sensitive to light, he should probably keep it covered for a few days. Three should be enough, I'm sure there won't be permanent damage, but until the brain-swelling goes down… make sure he doesn't bump into anything, alright Conrad?"

Conrad nodded, "Of course. How long do you expect him to sleep for?"

"You should wake him up in an hour or so, try to keep him active for at least ten minutes."

"Is he going to be permitted to sleep through the night or does he need to be woken up on a schedule?"

"Two hour intervals, wake him up, get him talking and cognitive for ten to twenty minutes then go back to bed. He'll have to be watched like that for the next seven days."

"He… is going to hate that." Conrad smiled at Yuri, looking over his figure.

"Oh, if you're the one to do it, I highly doubt he'll mind it half as much."

"Half huh? I'd like to think I could reduce the complaints to at least just one-tenth." Conrad smirked, challenge hanging the air. His fingers raked through Yuri's bangs enjoying the silky feel. "However, I need time to consult members of the security and the castle guards."

His hand traced down to Yuri's petal-soft lips, "Please stay with him until I return. I'll have some guards posted outside the door."

Gisela nodded, "Alright."

"I swear; I'm going to make that son of a bitch pay for hurting him like this."

Ken looked in from the door, "Those are my sentiments, but the question at hand is just who is our villain. That necromancer only harmed foreign military, sure that led to Yuri's unfortunate injury, as much as him landing right in front of a spooked horse's hoof, that is." Ken sighed, fixing his glasses, "I spoke with Gwendel and Gunter on the subject, he doesn't seem to be using techniques from Shin Makoku, and though he seems to be interested in Shibuya… I'm also concerned with Big Chimeron and what, exactly, they are up to. Aren't you?"

"Yes. There are a few too many questions. I'll contact Yozak to find out what he's heard."

Ken smirked, "That's good to hear. Wolfram and I are going to investigate a bit at the temple."

Conrad's eyes widened for a moment, hoping that investigating did not mean fucking, especially if fucking involved channeling the spirit of another feisty blond that seems to get his jollies bullying his beloved Yuri.

"Oh don't look like that, Ulrich is there. See, supervision, mister-over-protective big-brother. Though, my regards are with you, with him laid up like that, well, don't bang his head into the headboards if you can avoid it."

"Why thank you for your concern, I'm sure Yuri would love that sentiment." Conrad said a bit bitterly, "However, as I seem to have some form of self-restraint that won't be a problem for me." Conrad smirked carnally.

His eyes traced their edges as they stole a sideway glance at the figure back on the bed, his tongue raking the hind-side of his teeth, "We should reconvene tonight, midnight or one would probably be best, it gives you two… adequate time, and would allow me to tend to Yuri in the proper intervals."

"Alright then, we'll see you at one. For the record, you should have Greta visit her papa, I'm sure Shibuya would love it. Oh Conrad, do you play Mahjong?"

Conrad gave him a strange look, "Isn't that a board-game on Earth?"

"Yes. It is. Interesting how he knew about it too, isn't it? His rituals also seemed very similar to some sects of Shintoism, too. Funny, huh?" Ken suggested.

"How would that be possible?"

"And that would be the point of my research. He may be strong enough to astral-project, but to do that so far as from another dimension… seems we may get to go on a triple-date to Earth. Gunter and Gwendel would probably enjoy joining in on it, huh? Oh, and then you could tell mama the happy news, oh I'm sure she'd be elated. She might even help you plan the ceremony."

"…That or challenge me with a duel to the death." Conrad contemplated.

Ken smirked, "Oh, like she'd think of you like a cradle-robber. She'd be too busy drooling over her son's luck and future grandkids… Besides, big-brother Shori would be more likely to issue such a challenge, and he isn't any good with a sword, so you'd be able to take him out fine. Hmm, well, we have work to do, so I'll be going."

And with that, they went to their assignments.

TBC.