~.~.~

Title: A Day Late

Summary: Yuri arrives in the other world late, and the race for the Boxes has already begun.

Notes: An incident three years ago changed the course of fate. Yuri and Murata are forced to make their own way to the other world, but what greets them is a scene of devastation.

~.~.~

Part I, Chapter 1

Separated and searching

~.~.~

Stepping out into the hallway, Jose Rodriguez sighed and cracked his neck. "What a mess," he muttered. "No one saw this coming, I'm sure of it."

Lost in his own thoughts, he almost ran into a short figure standing outside the hospital room. Looking down at the boy, Jose stared in surprise.

"Oh, Ken," he said slowly, "I didn't expect to see you here. Are you... hurt?"

"...That's not it," Ken Murata replied after a moment, a familiar smile covering his concern and unease. "Shibuya's my classmate. He got hurt because of me. He was trying to help me with some bullies, and they tossed him into the river..." He looked pensive before turning his gaze to Jose. "I'm really surprised to see you. I didn't know you had come to Japan. What a coincidence..."

They both knew it wasn't.

"Well, your friend should be alright," Jose said. "It looks like there was no permanent damage. Were you the one who pulled him out and called the ambulance? You saved his life."

"No, it wasn't me. I couldn't anything," Murata muttered, too quietly for Rodriguez to hear.

Instead, he smiled and waved as Jose excused himself. Turning to the hospital room the doctor had been inside, he hesitated. Through the partially open doorway, he could see Yuri's form, sitting in the hospital bed. His usually upbeat and energetic classmate was oddly still and pensive. Murata felt guilt pool in his stomach.

This wasn't supposed to happen, he thought. And... he was sure he had felt a familiar magic power, when he scrambled desperately into the river after Shibuya.

'We're only in middle school. It's too early, but... did he go to the other side?' Murata wondered. 'Or...'

There was only one way to find out. Steeling himself, Murata forced a bright smile on his face and energetically shoved the hospital room door open.

"Hey, Shibuya!" he greeted, stepping inside. "Glad to see you're okay! I was really worried there for a moment! The ambulance guys said you hit your head and swallowed half the river. But it looks like you're on the mend." Yuri had turned to face him, but it took a moment for the other boy to assemble his expression into even a vague semblance of a smile. He was clearly unsettled, which in turn made Murata's unease grow.

"...Did you see something?" Murata wondered, before forcing a more upbeat tone. "You know, the pearly gates, an out of body experience, things like that! So how about it?"

But Yuri didn't so much as laugh uncomfortably. "...Kind of," he muttered, looking down at his clasped hands. Slowly, Murata moved closer to the bed and perched on the edge, listening without comment. "I thought I saw another world. I had a dream... about who I was, before I was born..."

~.~.~

"Yes, Mom. A part-time job. … It's fine! But we'll be busy, so I might not answer. … Murata's with me! … I'm not going looking for a girl-! Oh, forget it. … Bye, Mom. Love you."

Smiling, Yuri ended the call and snapped his cell phone shut. Shoving the phone into one of the pockets of his bag, he tucked the entire thing between two rocks, well above the high water mark. Hopefully, he would be able to come back for his things, but a cell phone wouldn't do any good where they were going anyway.

"So how Mama?" Murata asked, smirking.

"You're so familiar with my mom," Yuri muttered. "Maybe you should've been the one to call her."

Of course, he hadn't called Miko just to make sure she wouldn't look for them if they went missing for a while. In truth, there was no telling when or if Yuri would be able to talk to his mother again. He wouldn't have missed this call for anything.

"Are you sure about this?" Murata asked, his unusually serious eyes meeting Yuri's. "Last chance to back out. I've prepared everything, but there's no guarantee what'll happen. You don't have to do this, you know."

Yuri huffed. "I'm not backing out," he insisted. "I've already made up my mind. We're going to the Demon Kingdom. I'm going to become Demon King. So quit being so wishy-washy."

"Right," Murata murmured, smiling. As he turned to face the sea, the rising sun shone off his glasses, hiding his expression. "Then let's get started. With the special magic in this place, we should be able to reach the other world even on our own."

"Doesn't look like much," Yuri commented, glancing aorund. The mostly barren rocky cove seemed unremarkable, just a half-moon of jutting rocks, like two arms reaching into the sea. Only a lone torii gate marked the unique nature of the site, rising out of the water directly in front of them.

At their feet, waves crashed against the rocky shore, swirling angrily and hinting at the hidden depth of the pool.

Murata shrugged. "Legends say that this is a gateway to other worlds. That's not exactly right, but it's not wrong either. If we both combine our magic, we'll be able to leave this world..."

"Don't think I didn't notice how you haven't said anything about coming out on the other side," Yuri grumbled, still staring down into the dark water.

"Just think of it as a leap of faith, both literal and figurative!" Murata suggested brightly.

Yuri sighed, then nodded firmly. "Let's do this," he declared, holding out his hand to Murata.

Clasping hands, the two seemed to glow in the light of the rising sun, still except for the soft fluttering of their hair. Then, together, they stepped forward and dropped into the sea.

~.~.~

Yuri reached the surface first, gasping as he thrust his head out of the dark water. He pulled Murata up next to him, the other boy somehow managing to keep his glasses firmly in place.

Bobbing slowly among the waves, the two glanced around before sharing a thoughtful look. Whether they had made it to the other side or not, they certainly weren't where they had been before. The rocky shore was gone, and thick mist coiled above the sea around them. Dark shapes loomed in the distance, suggesting land, but no details could be made out.

"Did we make it?" Yuri wondered. "It feels... different."

It was darker, and colder, in this new place. The faint light of dawn had barely begun to filter through the fog. Both of them shivered.

Murata shook his head. "It feels like we're late," he said quietly.

"Come on," Yuri muttered, pulling Murata along toward what he hoped was land.

The wharf had risen out of the mist, the building behind it slowly taking shaping, when they heard a bell begin to toll somewhere further inland. It rang only once, then twice before fading away.

"Why are they ringing it like that?" Yuri wondered. "Did something-"

Suddenly, the sea heaved around them. The waters drew back for a moment as if at low tide, and Yuri felt a growing sense of panic, before the sea surged back, rising into a tidal wave that recklessly dragged both boys forward as it gained speed and rose higher.

It - and they - crashed onto the shore, leaving the boys coughing and groaning, but fortunately only bruised otherwise.

"What was that?" Yuri wondered, still sputtering.

"An earthquake. It made the bell ring and the sea surge," Murata replied, trying to clean off his glasses. His expression was troubled.

"At least it was only a small one," Yuri said, ruffling water out of his hair.

Next to him, Murata had straightened and was looking around slowly, his expression hidden. The mist had receded enough to make out the buildings along the wharf - or rather, what remained of them. Roofs were caved in, walls partially collapsed. Rubble littered the streets. There was no one in sight.

"That's because it was just an aftershock," Murata muttered.

~.~.~

The mist began to dissipate, letting through the faint light of the morning sun. More of the devastation was revealed as Yuri and Murata made their way through the deserted, ruined city.

"It feels like one of those Tokyo earthquake movies," Yuri said quietly, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm up. "There's no one here at all. I guess they must have evacuated."

Murata glanced at him in surprise, as if coming out of deep thought. "We should get ready just in case. I don't think this is the Demon Kingdom, so your double-black will really stand out, and not in a good way."

"Double-black?" Yuri repeated.

"Black hair and black eyes," Murata said absently. "I guess you wouldn't know about it... It's a sign of Demon Tribe blood and very rare in this world. You're a prize animal, Shibuya!" That last was added with entirely too much cheer.

"You're the same!" Yuri protested. His eyes narrowed, eyeing Murata's artificial gold coloring. "So that's why you bleached your hair? You could have warned me."

"Don't be like that. Look, I even brought you a nice hat," Murata wheedled, pulling a wet, rumpled baseball cap out of his shorts' large side pocket. He waved it in front of Yuri as if presenting a new toy to a pet.

Yuri growled under his breath and turned his nose away. "I don't need it," he declared. "I can just use an illusion to change my hair and eye color."

"Oh? Did you get that far?" Murata said, annoyingly disbelieving. "I thought you'd just started learning magic. That's really good, Shibuya!"

"It's really basic stuff," Yuri mumbled. "Even a beginner can do it easily." Holding up one hand in a seal gesture, he concentrated for a moment. The last of the water in his hair drained away, leaving a far lighter brown color behind. As he blinked, his eyes took on a matching hue.

Murata nodded in approval. "Okay, just hold it like that. Man, Earth magic can be really convenient."

"Yeah, yeah," Yuri muttered. "But what did you mean about this not being the Demon Kingdom? I thought that's where we were going."

"Well, we weren't exactly doing precision work," Murata replied, shrugging as it wasn't a big deal at all. "It wouldn't be much of a surprise if we missed a bit. Though, it almost felt like I made a connection after all..."

"So where are we?" Yuri wondered.

"No clue," Murata said blithely, then grinned in a way that made Yuri shudder reflexively. "Let's ask!"

Without further warning, he turned suddenly toward a shadowed figure that had been creeping toward them from among the destroyed buildings.

"Excuse me!" Murata called out, waving. "Ma'am! Could you tell us where we are?"

The figure froze for a moment as Murata ran up to them, Yuri following more slowly. It appeared to be an old woman, a dirty brown cloak swathed around her hunched body. Long strands of hair curled from within the hood, hiding most of her face.

"We just kind of washed up on the shore," Murata continued, still smiling disarmingly.

"This is Caloria," the woman replied in a hoarse voice. "Or rather, what's left of it."

"Caloria?" Murata repeated, frowning. 'But Caloria isn't on any fault lines. They hadn't experienced a single earthquake in thousands of years.' The uneasiness he had felt was only growing.

"We need to move away from the sea, or you'll get swept away again," the old woman said quietly, already moving further into the ruined city.

"Are aftershocks really common?" Yuri wondered as he and Murata followed her. He glanced around at the deserted streets, many of them completely blocked by rubble or by ravines that had suddenly opened across the city as teh ground was pulled apart. In some places, entire buildings had been swallowed up. There wasn't a single other person in sight. "The earthquake must have really been something else."

"It wasn't an earthquake," the woman said, her voice growing deeper and harsher. Murata's eyes narrowed. "It was one of the four things that must never be touched..."

Murata flinched, a surprisingly strong reaction that immediately drew Yuri's attention. "A Forbidden Box?" he muttered to himself. "I can't believe it. Something like that, and we weren't called here?"

He had suspected that something had gone wrong, that they had fallen behind schedule somehow, but it had been just a feeling. Maybe he had misunderstood that man's intentions or maybe the situation had changed somehow. But if things had gone this badly, they should have both been called to the other world. Instead, he and Yuri had been forced to make their own way there, which had only really had a small chance of working to start with.

'What's going on? What happened to you?' Murata wondered.

"What? What does that mean?" Yuri demanded, glancing between his friend and the old woman.

"Soldiers from Small Cimaron came. They brought a Box with them. When they opened it, the earth was torn apart, and this land became cursed. Everyone who could fled further inland. There's no one left here. No one dares to remain in this cursed place," the woman explained, making Murata's frown deepen. Yuri shot his friend a questioning look, but Murata only shook his head shortly.

Yuri felt a shudder go down his spine, a moment before the bell began to toll again in the distance. The ground shuddered, knocking all three off balance, though the tremor lasted only for a few seconds.

Murata's eyes met the woman's, shockingly bright blue in the shadow of her hood. "It wasn't an earthquake, and these aren't aftershocks," he muttered, the pieces lining up in his mind. "Don't tell me... the Box is still open..."

~.~.~

"I'm back," Wolfram called out, making his way across the opulent room and onto the large balcony. His mother, Cecilie von Spitzweg, stood at the railing, looking out across the Covenant Castle grounds and the town beyond. Wolfram ignored the view, instead studying Celi's visage. His eyes narrowed at the clear signs of strain in her expression.

'Damn him, that idiot...' Wolfram thought bitterly, before forcing a more neutral expression. Noticing her son's presence, Celi covered her feelings with a smile, though it still looked brittle around the edges.

"Welcome back, Wolfie," Celi said. "How was your trip to the Tomb of the Great One? Did you learn anything?"

Wolfram frowned, even such an irritated expression appearing handsome and distinguished on his features. "Lady Ulrike thought she felt something in Caloria," he said.

"Is it the Box? Is it becoming active again?" Celi wondered, worry clear in her deep green eyes. She, like most in the Demon Kingdom, could scarcely believe that one of the Forbidden Boxes had been opened in the first place. They had been charged with keeping the world safe from that terrible power, and they had failed. Now, every effort was being made to correct that oversight, to disturbingly little effect.

"She wasn't sure. Lady Ulrike thought she sensed... something else. But the Box's aura is clouding her vision," Wolfram explained. "I sent the information to Lord Von Crist and the rest of our contingent in Caloria."

Celi sighed, studying the angry features of her youngest son. "Are you still mad you couldn't go with them?" she asked. "Don't be like that, Wolfie. You know you get terribly seasick. And since your poor mother has been confined to this dreary old castle while all the handsome men are gone, the least you can do is keep her company."

"Mother! Take this a little more seriously!" Wolfram protested. "You're the former Demon Queen, and since your much-vaunted successor never showed up, you're still the leader of our people! You can't afford to be so... so carefree."

Celi smiled faintly. "Don't give up already, Wolfie," she said. "The Great One said the king of double-black will come, so he will. Who knows, maybe this crisis will draw him to our world."

Wolfram snorted, shaking his head. "Or we could just end up with another baseless rumor. I'm not going to put my faith in some unknown quantity from another world."

No, he wouldn't trust that easily. No one could be depended on. Not even...

'He was never family,' Wolfram reminded himself harshly. 'We don't need him. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if he's gone.'

~.~.~

((Things take a while to get going, so please be patient, since I didn't realize until I was deep in planning that the explanations don't come until quite late.))

I'm also playing fast and loose with some details, mostly because I don't want things to get depressing without Yuri there to fix them or I can't fit them in properly.

Finally, romance is not my strong point. This'll be pretty gen all around. Main characters are Yuri, Murata, Wolfram and Conrad.