Kyo Kara Ficcage - a Fic Dump
Possession
Fandom: KKM
Genre: angst, I guess.
Word Count: ~1000
Pairings: None
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own, never will
A/N: Because I haven't done an expansion on a canon scene with the character's thoughts for this fandom yet. So here we go. I don't think I've seen this particular glimpse done before either...
Warnings: Spoilers for last ten or so episodes (Soushu arc). Dialogue taken from the #Animeone@irc.rizon.net subs.
-
"Limitless mediocrity... That's all there is to you."
His smile is cold.
"Would it have been better for you not to know?"
And the darkness closes in as cold blue locks on numb black, creeping over everything around them and drowning it in night.
"Mediocre and childish," the one who was once Shinou says, and it's distant and strange, quiet against the ringing in his ears, "and whatever you did, you only did it halfway."
The darkness slides seductive arms around him.
"You would regret your decisions and feel lost."
The old king lifts his baseball, studies it, and a soft, almost scornful laugh escapes him. "This is also one of those regrets, is it not?"
And all Yuuri can do is stare, frozen in place, whole body ringing with the sound of Shinou's words. He can't escape them, and he cannot escape this place, because in his heart, where they are, he knows it to be true. He's nothing special. If he hadn't been chosen to be the Maou, wouldn't he have lived out his life on Earth, oblivious and normal? He would not have Julia's soul in him, the pure thing that is the only thing that has made him special. He himself - Shibuya Yuuri - is nothing. A kid, one who would probably end up failing high school, who would spend the rest of his life trying to find something that would never be found.
And darkness engulfs him. The light dies, and in the ache in his chest, a little star of hope that had always glowed there winks out, asphyxiated in the dark.
Shinou keeps speaking, calm and relentless, that strange cold smile still touching his lips. "Your emotions were influenced by small bouts of happiness and unhappiness. You haven't accomplished anything on your own. That mediocre quality blended with the pure soul... finally yielding a comfortable vessel."
Vessel. Is that all he was ever worthy to be? First a vessel to carry Julia's shining soul, now something to hold this... this... ?
"It is quite an honour, don't you think? You will become my body, after all."
"No," he whispers, though his heart is failing him.
"What?" Shinou's eyes pierce him like two shards of ice.
"I said no!" Yuuri lashes out, but he cannot bring up the righteous indignation, the surge of power, the volume he needs to make this convincing. It's because he is no longer sure, this time, that he has the right to refuse, to right what may not actually be an injustice.
"Oh?"
He cannot say anything to that awful word, that half-amused sound that the king makes in his throat, and suddenly he knows how everyone must see him: childish, childish, a little boy throwing a tantrum when things don't go the way he thinks they should. He feels a shame so deep he wishes he could die.
"Shibuya Yuuri," Shinou says, and Yuuri feels himself flinch before the sound of his own name. "You have no right to refuse."
He can't breathe. He's not sure if he even has the right to do that any more.
"After all, you can't even expel me out of your heart."
Shinou begins to move, his steps slow, steady as he comes towards Yuuri, and Yuuri is still frozen to the spot, too mediocre, too helpless, too little and useless and insignificant to dare move.
"Or do you perhaps believe that someone will come and rescue you?"
He used to believe that. He used to believe that he had some power to change the hearts of those around him, but that was only Julia, wasn't it, working through him. He used to trust that if he ever got in trouble, someone would come and get him out. He used to believe that if he believed and tried his hardest, everything would be all right in the end.
But no one's going to come get him out of the depths of his heart. Murata's not on his side any more, he doesn't know what happened to Conrad and Gwendal and the others, and anyone else would have to ride from the castle, or further. He's here alone with something infinitely greater than himself, and Shinou was right. He doesn't have the power to do anything by himself. Not even to save his soul and the lives of the people he loves.
But he has to try...
"Might I just add that majutsu is of no use here...for this place is within your heart," Shinou adds, off-handedly, and Yuuri's last hope shatters. The blackness grows thicker.
"Now, relax," he says, soothingly. "Just give up, and you will feel better."
"Stop," Yuuri pleads, the ache rising up through his chest and into his throat. And then pain, followed swiftly by a deep numbness, shatters his heart, and he looks down to see Shinou's arm buried past the wrist in his chest. He gasps, but he can no more stop this than he could stop Shinou from entering his heart in the first place.
"No..." he whispers, blackness curling around his vision.
"If you were not the Maou..." Shinou says, an even colder smile clinging to his lips, "no one would have needed you."
He truly is nobody. All the friendships, the alliances, the love... all that was built on the lie of a person he'd been forced into becoming. On his own, with no one but himself, he would have never accomplished even this.
"I am the one who chose you to be the Maou," he whispers, and pushes his arm deeper into Yuuri's chest. He is the only one who ever truly needed him. "Now, give me that body of yours."
The pain spreads, numbness following in a crashing wave, and darkness presses in, wrapping fingers around his body, pulling him back into it, drowning him in nothing.
He doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to believe, but the truth rings through him, and he is nothing to anyone, he is just a vessel that can be shattered if this man so wills it, and he's still frozen.
He's gone.
Happily-Ever-After? The Amphibious Tale of Prince Wolfram
Fandom: KKM
Genre: Humour/fluff
Word Count: ~3500
Pairing: Wolf/Yuu
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own, never will
Warnings: AU, Anissina, some minor PG-rated nudity because frogs don't wear clothes. No real spoilers to speak of unless you had no idea that Wolfram and Yuuri are engaged, in which case you should read/watch more because that happens in the second episode and the first manga volume.
-
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, where all was peaceful and good, there lived a handsome demon prince. He was fair and bright, and the whole world shone in the wake of his smile; armies fell enchanted under his mesmerizing green gaze. He had a family who loved him, dysfunctional though they were, an adoring kingdom, men who would fight to the death under his command, and a peace that had lasted for centuries. Unfortunately for this demon prince - Wolfram was his name - he was also very lonely, for though he had family and subordinates, he had no friends, no one to confide in, and certainly no one to love.
It grew so that this gnawed at his thoughts and darkened his mind, until his smile grew rare and his enchanting gaze more likely to slay than swoon. People began to whisper that he was cursed with loneliness, doomed to push everyone away so that he might only be worshipped from afar. Wolfram knew this to be a lie; he had never been cursed, he was sure of it, but still no one would come near him, and he began to wonder, and as he wondered thus he fell deeper and deeper into brooding. He grew prone to fits of temper so fiery that his native magic element, that of the flame, burned out of control with the ferocity of a blazing forest. Soon everyone came to fear him, and in that way he grew even more alone.
One day it came to pass that Wolfram was travelling between villages in his kingdom, and along the roadside he met a strange woman. She was cloaked in maroon, and her eyes peeking out from the shadows of her hood were a piercing, brilliant sky blue.
"Stop!" she cried, rising to her feet from where she had been sitting beside a strange, bulky contraption. "Would you not assist a lady in need?"
Wolfram was tempted to ride on by, but his mother Cecilie and his middle brother Conrad had told him to always be kind to strange women, for one never knew when it could be the trickster Yozak in disguise. So he halted his horse and dismounted, saying, "What is it that I can do for you?"
The eyes of the strange woman gleamed, and he found himself being a little afraid. "Put this on your head, Prince Wolfram," she said, handing him a strange, vaguely hat-shaped object. "I need the maryoku of someone powerful in order to test the effects of my newest invention. Do not be alarmed; it will do you no harm, and if it does I will test and experiment until I find out how to fix it. Now, Prince, put this on while I charge up my invention."
He was unsure of the wisdom of this course of action, but he had promised his aid as a gentleman, and so he put it on his head. The machine buzzed and whirred and sparked, glowing ominously. Wolfram wanted to back away, but he was attached to the strange contraption by a cord and the thing upon his head, and the strange woman was watching him with a hunter's gleam in her eyes that he found most disturbing.
"It should be ready now," she said. "Now I must test it. Hold very still; stay right where you are."
"What are you doing?" Wolfram asked, and he could not help but show his fear.
"You should feel nothing but a tiny static shock," said the strange woman, "And it should not hurt at all. Hold still. Stiller, or it will not work."
Wolfram barely dared to breathe while the strange woman fiddled with sparking dials and knobs; he was beginning to fear his decision had been a terribly, terribly wrong one. This was surely not the trickster Yozak, whom Wolfram knew, and his elder brother Conrad had met in his journeys at times, and who gave off no aura of such fearsomeness. Thinking back on the legends he had heard at his mother's knee, he was now certain that he had fallen into a trap laid out for innocent travellers by the great demon-witch Anissina.
Something sparked hugely, leaping down the cord, and connected with the object upon Wolfram's head; light filled his vision, and then all was black.
When he awoke, the terrifying specter of Anissina was kneeling over him, examining him curiously. She appeared both taller and much larger than before.
"That was unexpected," she said. "You must not have held still enough, my Prince."
"What did you do to me?" he demanded of her.
"By all common definitions of that phrase," Anissina replied, going back to fiddling with her hell-machine, "I myself did not do anything directly to you. You accepted the connector and therefore accepted the consequences of anything that my invention might do to you. It appears to be faulty," she added, plucking a screwdriver from some hidden pocket and beginning to dismantle it. "Another failure. Even my super-brilliant mind cannot be one hundred percent correct all the time."
"Wait!" he cried as she got up to leave. "What's happened to me?"
"Oh, yes, the side effects," said Anissina. "My faulty invention appears to have turned you into a frog - a most unusual result. I will take this machine back to my Lab where I will attempt to decipher what went wrong."
"But - am I stuck like this? You can't mean to leave me like this in this slimy, terrible form! I'm a Prince! I have duties! Responsibilities! What am I supposed to do if I'm a frog? No one will take me seriously!"
"I hear that dwelling in a lily pond is a marvellous way to re-evaluate yourself and everything in your life," Anissina said cheerfully. "Fear not, Prince, I will research a solution and I will come back to test it on you once more."
"No," moaned Wolfram, but Anissina had already disappeared down the road, leaving only a frightening chuckle to remain behind.
-
He was left alone in the wilderness with little idea of how to return home; his perspective from the eyes of a frog changed the world about him in dramatic fashion, and Prince Wolfram was lost. When it grew dark, he slid into the nearest stream to soak his parched skin, for fear he would die if he did not, but the cold of the water was too much for him. He spent the rest of the night huddled miserably beneath an overhang on the bank.
Many weeks passed thus, and Wolfram found himself able to hop the distance to a pond that was not far off, and had lily pads of suitable size and importance. To be a frog was a loathsome fate, especially to feed upon the insects that flew through the air, and every night was cold and frightening, full of things far bigger and crueller than he.
He was sitting upon a lily pad one day thence, pondering his fate, when he felt it shift beneath him. Water and lily pads cascaded down as he rose, perched, terrified, on the head of some black monster that had suddenly risen up out of the water beneath him.
"Wh-where am I?" the black monster said, and then Wolfram peered down from his perch to discover that the monster was a boy, not much younger than himself, and his heart ceased its frantic pounding in the surge of relief that followed. "What just happened? This isn't the city, is it? Is this the Alps then?"
Wolfram, amphibian or human, was known for being unable to abide stupidity or ignorance in others, and it was then only a matter of course that he reply to this. "I have never heard of these 'Alps' you speak of," he said. "What manner of place are you from? I was not aware that there were mermen living in my pond."
The boy beneath him cried out like a little girl, throwing Wolfram violently into the water. Sputtering and angry, Wolfram managed to scramble up onto an undisturbed lily pad while the strange person was staring wildly around him.
"Who are you? Where are you?" he cried.
"Right here," Wolfram said, and he found himself to be the subject of intense surprised scrutiny. Wide black eyes blinked down at him.
"But you're a frog," said the boy blankly.
"That is something I am quite aware of," Wolfram snapped.
"But you talk," the boy said.
"So do you," said Wolfram, "And I show no amazement at that fact."
"But you're a frog," the boy repeated. "Frogs don't talk."
"I am cursed," Wolfram said. "I used to be as you are. An evil woman used a devilish invention to turn me thus, and I am waiting here for her to return with a possible solution."
"Oh," said the boy.
"What are you?" Wolfram demanded.
"I'm a squire," the boy said. "Training to become a knight to uphold justice in the land. I don't understand. I fell into a puddle and I came out in a lily pond..."
"Perhaps you were sent here through divine providence," Wolfram suggested drily.
The boy brightened. "Or perhaps it's because I'm meant to rescue you!" He beamed, and Wolfram found himself dazzled in the light of the dark boy's smile.
"Perhaps," agreed Wolfram cautiously, "Although what a child like you would know about lifting evil curses remains to be seen."
"I am not a child!"
"Nevertheless, how can you believe you were sent to rescue me if you know nothing of lifting curses?"
"But I do know something," said the boy. "It's traditional that if someone has been cursed with the shape of a frog, that the curse can be lifted with a kiss."
"Simply because something is traditional does not mean there is truth in it," said Wolfram, exasperated that such a solution would be the best thing the boy could come up with. "Do you have any proof that such a ridiculous thing works?"
"No," said the boy. "But for someone like you, who needs help..." He leaned forward, holding forth his cupped hands for Wolfram to hop on to, a kind, gentle look in his eyes. "It can't hurt to try," he said softly.
"Hmmph," said Wolfram, fidgeting uncomfortably at the way that look made him feel warm inside for the first time in decades. "You are aware of course of the custom of this country that the one your give your first kiss to is the one you must marry?"
"No," said the boy, pausing. "I didn't know that. I've never been to this country before." But Wolfram could see that his eyes shone with an idealistic optimism, and his face hardened in determination only a moment later. "Will this be...?" he asked, softly.
"Yes," said Wolfram.
"Are you all right with that?"
Wolfram had never heard of a boy like this one. Wolfram had never known a friend, and he would not have thought that meeting this new person would result in the sense that he had known this young squire for years beyond count. But still, this person was a stranger to him. There were no guarantees with a first impression, after all.
And yet no matter what was to come, surely it had to be better than facing off against Anissina time and time again.
"Yes," said Wolfram, hopping forward onto his hands. The boy lifted him to his face and pressed a careful, chaste kiss to Wolfram's lips.
He barely noticed when he transformed back into a human, perhaps because he was still kissing the other boy.
The other boy pulled back, eyes half-opening as he looked at Wolfram with a gentle smile. "I'm glad it worked," he said, and his hands slid off his shoulders to encircle Wolfram and pull him closer. "You're -"
Wolfram's heart was beating fast with anticipation - why, he was not sure - and then without any warning the other boy had shoved away, crying out in dismay.
"You're naked!" he squeaked, going bright red. "I - I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look, I didn't realize that you were -" His eyes opened wider, and he gawked, face draining of all colour. "Wait, you're a boy?!"
"What did you think I was?" snapped Wolfram, insulted and incensed. "I told you I was once the same as you."
"But - but - but - it's always a beautiful princess in the stories who is cursed by the evil witch to turn into a frog, and can only be changed back by true love's first kiss -" babbled the boy.
"I have no idea what stories you are squawking about," Wolfram said, "but in all the versions of that story that I have heard, the frog is a handsome prince who must be changed back by the kiss of his princess." He gave the other boy a pointed look that said, and clearly, you are no princess, but you don't see me being strange about it.
"But - but - but - we're engaged now?!" the boy squeaked again.
"If that was your first kiss as well, then yes," said Wolfram. "It is a small price to pay to not have to deal with Anissina again," he added under his breath to himself, shuddering.
"No way," moaned the boy.
"Don't be such a wimp about this," said Wolfram.
"I am not a wimp! It's just really, really weird!"
Wolfram got to his feet, exasperated with his recently betrothed. A dangerous fire must have gleamed in his eyes, or perhaps it was from mere embarrassment that the other boy scrambled away from, his pale colour suddenly flaming to a brilliant red. "I need to return to the capital," Wolfram said, ignoring him. "It has been many weeks since I have been home and I have left my duties wanting. My family will be worried, also."
"But - you have no clothes...?" the boy said weakly.
"What is your name?" Wolfram asked.
"What? It's... It's Yuuri. Shibuya Yuuri."
"Then, Yuuri, as a gentleman and a fiance, go steal me some clothes."
-
Once decent and clothed in the garb of a peasant that Yuuri had promised repeatedly would be returned, the two boys made their way to the capital, on foot. Though the way was long at first in awkwardness and silence, Wolfram's curiosity at travelling with someone neither family nor subordinate demanded answers, and Yuuri was of a perpetually friendly nature. By the time they had reached the gates of the city, they were speaking to each other on cautious but friendly terms, though more often than not they would dissolve their conversations in a blistering fight or argument.
The guards recognized Wolfram in spite of his plain garb and rough appearance, and let him in with a bow and the words, "Welcome back, your Highness."
"...Highness?" Yuuri looked uneasy as they walked up the street into the city.
"Did I not mention?" said Wolfram.
"You're a prince?!"
"Consider yourself lucky to have unwittingly engaged yourself to royalty," he said, put off by Yuuri's ungratifying reaction. The young squire found himself speechless until they had entered the courtyard of the palace.
A tall, fair woman came running towards them. "Wolf! You are back! You are safe!" Upon reaching them, she crushed him to her in a mighty embrace, and it was in this manner that Yuuri met the Queen of Demons.
"Er?"
"And who is this handsome young man you have brought with you?" said the Queen of Demons, mother of Prince Wolfram.
"Ah," said Yuuri, speechless and fumbling before her beauty.
"My fiance," said Wolfram, speaking of it as though it were most normal. "He ended the curse that I found myself under. Mother, this is Shibuya Yuuri. Yuuri, this is my mother, Queen Cecilie."
"....Oh," said Yuuri weakly.
"A fiance!" Next she bestowed upon Yuuri her mighty embrace. "How wonderful! As my future son in law, you may call me Cheri-sama."
"....... OK?" said Yuuri.
"Prince Wolfram has returned?" said a terrible voice, and Wolfram fell back in fear as the demon-witch Anissina appeared out of the shadows.
"Who is that?" Yuuri whispered to Wolfram, who shivered but responded.
"That is the woman who cursed me. What she is doing here I do not know."
"Lady Anissina is working for us now," Cecilie said. "She appeared a few weeks ago, around the time that you disappeared."
"I see you found a way to get rid of the side-effects on your own," said Anissina. "Pity. I was on the verge of a great breakthrough, as well. It seems that the easiest way to remove the curse is to bestow a kiss upon the cursed victim. Is that how the two of you also happen to be engaged?"
"You're the one who cursed Wolfram?" Yuuri's fists clenched, and the air around him seemed to grow darker. "Do you know how much trouble you've caused?! He was alone in the wilderness for weeks, unable to defend himself, lucky not to have been eaten. Did you ever think of what might happen if he'd been killed? And how long have you known how to remove that curse?! Did it never occur to you that some vagrant knight, on finding a talking frog, might think that he was a princess? He could have ended up engaged to anyone, a rogue, or a peasant, or a scoundrel! And what about the person who ended up breaking the curse?"
Something in the air changed, and the witch, the queen, and the prince found themselves staring as Yuuri's hair lengthened, his eyes narrowing, power crackling around him with unmistakeable fury.
"You don't think before you act!" he shouted, and even his voice was deeper. Wolfram felt chills run down his spine at the sight of his fiance thus. "You needlessly endanger the lives of innocents by involving them in your experiments! You put self-interest and the pursuit of knowledge above human life! I cannot forgive this. It is not in my nature to spill blood, but I have no choice!"
"Yuuri!" cried Wolfram, stunned at the transformation.
"Punishment!"
Water dragons rose out of the ground around Yuuri, rising and twining higher and higher in the air, and then swooped down to trap Anissina in their coils.
"This is most interesting," said Anissina. "What else can you do with these constructs?"
"That is none of your concern," said Yuuri, eyes blazing, and the dragons raised her higher, twisting tighter and trying to drown her in their depths.
Cecilie suddenly gave an excited squeal. "Oh! The prophecy!"
"What about the prophecy?" said Wolfram.
From the grip of the water dragon's coils, Anissina said, "You mean the prophecy of the Demon King? The one that says the greatest king of the land will appear and we will know him for his ability to control water dragons, and for his black hair and black eyes?"
"What?" said Wolfram.
"I believe something was also mentioned about his consort being a frog prince," she added with a smirk. "You can let me go, Your Majesty. I bow before your powers and promise not to do it again, or at least not so often, and I will keep my hands off your fiance in the future."
"...... What?" said Wolfram.
"That's wonderful!" cheered the (former) Queen of Demons.
"Very well," said Yuuri. "But I will be watching to make sure you improve your behaviour." The dragons released her; she dropped to the ground, and landed on her feet.
"... Yuuri?" Wolfram said in disbelief.
Yuuri smiled, slitted eyes softening ever so slightly. "Consider yourself lucky to have unwittingly engaged yourself to royalty," he said. "This case is closed."
And then the great demon king, Shibuya Yuuri, squire of justice, passed out in a limp heap on the ground.
"Yuuri! Are you all right?" Wolfram ran over to kneel beside the other boy.
"I do so love a happy ending," Cecilie sighed, watching as her youngest son carefully lifted his unconscious fiance and carried him towards the palace, at least until Yuuri came to and found himself being carried like a princess, and then he proceeded to splutter and struggle until Wolfram let him down and kissed him to shut him up. At which point Yuuri passed out again.
Anissina smiled to herself, because she knew better; something like this was only a story waiting to happen.
Fandom: KKM
Genre: angst, I guess.
Word Count: ~1000
Pairings: None
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own, never will
A/N: Because I haven't done an expansion on a canon scene with the character's thoughts for this fandom yet. So here we go. I don't think I've seen this particular glimpse done before either...
Warnings: Spoilers for last ten or so episodes (Soushu arc). Dialogue taken from the #Animeone@irc.rizon.net subs.
-
"Limitless mediocrity... That's all there is to you."
His smile is cold.
"Would it have been better for you not to know?"
And the darkness closes in as cold blue locks on numb black, creeping over everything around them and drowning it in night.
"Mediocre and childish," the one who was once Shinou says, and it's distant and strange, quiet against the ringing in his ears, "and whatever you did, you only did it halfway."
The darkness slides seductive arms around him.
"You would regret your decisions and feel lost."
The old king lifts his baseball, studies it, and a soft, almost scornful laugh escapes him. "This is also one of those regrets, is it not?"
And all Yuuri can do is stare, frozen in place, whole body ringing with the sound of Shinou's words. He can't escape them, and he cannot escape this place, because in his heart, where they are, he knows it to be true. He's nothing special. If he hadn't been chosen to be the Maou, wouldn't he have lived out his life on Earth, oblivious and normal? He would not have Julia's soul in him, the pure thing that is the only thing that has made him special. He himself - Shibuya Yuuri - is nothing. A kid, one who would probably end up failing high school, who would spend the rest of his life trying to find something that would never be found.
And darkness engulfs him. The light dies, and in the ache in his chest, a little star of hope that had always glowed there winks out, asphyxiated in the dark.
Shinou keeps speaking, calm and relentless, that strange cold smile still touching his lips. "Your emotions were influenced by small bouts of happiness and unhappiness. You haven't accomplished anything on your own. That mediocre quality blended with the pure soul... finally yielding a comfortable vessel."
Vessel. Is that all he was ever worthy to be? First a vessel to carry Julia's shining soul, now something to hold this... this... ?
"It is quite an honour, don't you think? You will become my body, after all."
"No," he whispers, though his heart is failing him.
"What?" Shinou's eyes pierce him like two shards of ice.
"I said no!" Yuuri lashes out, but he cannot bring up the righteous indignation, the surge of power, the volume he needs to make this convincing. It's because he is no longer sure, this time, that he has the right to refuse, to right what may not actually be an injustice.
"Oh?"
He cannot say anything to that awful word, that half-amused sound that the king makes in his throat, and suddenly he knows how everyone must see him: childish, childish, a little boy throwing a tantrum when things don't go the way he thinks they should. He feels a shame so deep he wishes he could die.
"Shibuya Yuuri," Shinou says, and Yuuri feels himself flinch before the sound of his own name. "You have no right to refuse."
He can't breathe. He's not sure if he even has the right to do that any more.
"After all, you can't even expel me out of your heart."
Shinou begins to move, his steps slow, steady as he comes towards Yuuri, and Yuuri is still frozen to the spot, too mediocre, too helpless, too little and useless and insignificant to dare move.
"Or do you perhaps believe that someone will come and rescue you?"
He used to believe that. He used to believe that he had some power to change the hearts of those around him, but that was only Julia, wasn't it, working through him. He used to trust that if he ever got in trouble, someone would come and get him out. He used to believe that if he believed and tried his hardest, everything would be all right in the end.
But no one's going to come get him out of the depths of his heart. Murata's not on his side any more, he doesn't know what happened to Conrad and Gwendal and the others, and anyone else would have to ride from the castle, or further. He's here alone with something infinitely greater than himself, and Shinou was right. He doesn't have the power to do anything by himself. Not even to save his soul and the lives of the people he loves.
But he has to try...
"Might I just add that majutsu is of no use here...for this place is within your heart," Shinou adds, off-handedly, and Yuuri's last hope shatters. The blackness grows thicker.
"Now, relax," he says, soothingly. "Just give up, and you will feel better."
"Stop," Yuuri pleads, the ache rising up through his chest and into his throat. And then pain, followed swiftly by a deep numbness, shatters his heart, and he looks down to see Shinou's arm buried past the wrist in his chest. He gasps, but he can no more stop this than he could stop Shinou from entering his heart in the first place.
"No..." he whispers, blackness curling around his vision.
"If you were not the Maou..." Shinou says, an even colder smile clinging to his lips, "no one would have needed you."
He truly is nobody. All the friendships, the alliances, the love... all that was built on the lie of a person he'd been forced into becoming. On his own, with no one but himself, he would have never accomplished even this.
"I am the one who chose you to be the Maou," he whispers, and pushes his arm deeper into Yuuri's chest. He is the only one who ever truly needed him. "Now, give me that body of yours."
The pain spreads, numbness following in a crashing wave, and darkness presses in, wrapping fingers around his body, pulling him back into it, drowning him in nothing.
He doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to believe, but the truth rings through him, and he is nothing to anyone, he is just a vessel that can be shattered if this man so wills it, and he's still frozen.
He's gone.
Happily-Ever-After? The Amphibious Tale of Prince Wolfram
Fandom: KKM
Genre: Humour/fluff
Word Count: ~3500
Pairing: Wolf/Yuu
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own, never will
Warnings: AU, Anissina, some minor PG-rated nudity because frogs don't wear clothes. No real spoilers to speak of unless you had no idea that Wolfram and Yuuri are engaged, in which case you should read/watch more because that happens in the second episode and the first manga volume.
-
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, where all was peaceful and good, there lived a handsome demon prince. He was fair and bright, and the whole world shone in the wake of his smile; armies fell enchanted under his mesmerizing green gaze. He had a family who loved him, dysfunctional though they were, an adoring kingdom, men who would fight to the death under his command, and a peace that had lasted for centuries. Unfortunately for this demon prince - Wolfram was his name - he was also very lonely, for though he had family and subordinates, he had no friends, no one to confide in, and certainly no one to love.
It grew so that this gnawed at his thoughts and darkened his mind, until his smile grew rare and his enchanting gaze more likely to slay than swoon. People began to whisper that he was cursed with loneliness, doomed to push everyone away so that he might only be worshipped from afar. Wolfram knew this to be a lie; he had never been cursed, he was sure of it, but still no one would come near him, and he began to wonder, and as he wondered thus he fell deeper and deeper into brooding. He grew prone to fits of temper so fiery that his native magic element, that of the flame, burned out of control with the ferocity of a blazing forest. Soon everyone came to fear him, and in that way he grew even more alone.
One day it came to pass that Wolfram was travelling between villages in his kingdom, and along the roadside he met a strange woman. She was cloaked in maroon, and her eyes peeking out from the shadows of her hood were a piercing, brilliant sky blue.
"Stop!" she cried, rising to her feet from where she had been sitting beside a strange, bulky contraption. "Would you not assist a lady in need?"
Wolfram was tempted to ride on by, but his mother Cecilie and his middle brother Conrad had told him to always be kind to strange women, for one never knew when it could be the trickster Yozak in disguise. So he halted his horse and dismounted, saying, "What is it that I can do for you?"
The eyes of the strange woman gleamed, and he found himself being a little afraid. "Put this on your head, Prince Wolfram," she said, handing him a strange, vaguely hat-shaped object. "I need the maryoku of someone powerful in order to test the effects of my newest invention. Do not be alarmed; it will do you no harm, and if it does I will test and experiment until I find out how to fix it. Now, Prince, put this on while I charge up my invention."
He was unsure of the wisdom of this course of action, but he had promised his aid as a gentleman, and so he put it on his head. The machine buzzed and whirred and sparked, glowing ominously. Wolfram wanted to back away, but he was attached to the strange contraption by a cord and the thing upon his head, and the strange woman was watching him with a hunter's gleam in her eyes that he found most disturbing.
"It should be ready now," she said. "Now I must test it. Hold very still; stay right where you are."
"What are you doing?" Wolfram asked, and he could not help but show his fear.
"You should feel nothing but a tiny static shock," said the strange woman, "And it should not hurt at all. Hold still. Stiller, or it will not work."
Wolfram barely dared to breathe while the strange woman fiddled with sparking dials and knobs; he was beginning to fear his decision had been a terribly, terribly wrong one. This was surely not the trickster Yozak, whom Wolfram knew, and his elder brother Conrad had met in his journeys at times, and who gave off no aura of such fearsomeness. Thinking back on the legends he had heard at his mother's knee, he was now certain that he had fallen into a trap laid out for innocent travellers by the great demon-witch Anissina.
Something sparked hugely, leaping down the cord, and connected with the object upon Wolfram's head; light filled his vision, and then all was black.
When he awoke, the terrifying specter of Anissina was kneeling over him, examining him curiously. She appeared both taller and much larger than before.
"That was unexpected," she said. "You must not have held still enough, my Prince."
"What did you do to me?" he demanded of her.
"By all common definitions of that phrase," Anissina replied, going back to fiddling with her hell-machine, "I myself did not do anything directly to you. You accepted the connector and therefore accepted the consequences of anything that my invention might do to you. It appears to be faulty," she added, plucking a screwdriver from some hidden pocket and beginning to dismantle it. "Another failure. Even my super-brilliant mind cannot be one hundred percent correct all the time."
"Wait!" he cried as she got up to leave. "What's happened to me?"
"Oh, yes, the side effects," said Anissina. "My faulty invention appears to have turned you into a frog - a most unusual result. I will take this machine back to my Lab where I will attempt to decipher what went wrong."
"But - am I stuck like this? You can't mean to leave me like this in this slimy, terrible form! I'm a Prince! I have duties! Responsibilities! What am I supposed to do if I'm a frog? No one will take me seriously!"
"I hear that dwelling in a lily pond is a marvellous way to re-evaluate yourself and everything in your life," Anissina said cheerfully. "Fear not, Prince, I will research a solution and I will come back to test it on you once more."
"No," moaned Wolfram, but Anissina had already disappeared down the road, leaving only a frightening chuckle to remain behind.
-
He was left alone in the wilderness with little idea of how to return home; his perspective from the eyes of a frog changed the world about him in dramatic fashion, and Prince Wolfram was lost. When it grew dark, he slid into the nearest stream to soak his parched skin, for fear he would die if he did not, but the cold of the water was too much for him. He spent the rest of the night huddled miserably beneath an overhang on the bank.
Many weeks passed thus, and Wolfram found himself able to hop the distance to a pond that was not far off, and had lily pads of suitable size and importance. To be a frog was a loathsome fate, especially to feed upon the insects that flew through the air, and every night was cold and frightening, full of things far bigger and crueller than he.
He was sitting upon a lily pad one day thence, pondering his fate, when he felt it shift beneath him. Water and lily pads cascaded down as he rose, perched, terrified, on the head of some black monster that had suddenly risen up out of the water beneath him.
"Wh-where am I?" the black monster said, and then Wolfram peered down from his perch to discover that the monster was a boy, not much younger than himself, and his heart ceased its frantic pounding in the surge of relief that followed. "What just happened? This isn't the city, is it? Is this the Alps then?"
Wolfram, amphibian or human, was known for being unable to abide stupidity or ignorance in others, and it was then only a matter of course that he reply to this. "I have never heard of these 'Alps' you speak of," he said. "What manner of place are you from? I was not aware that there were mermen living in my pond."
The boy beneath him cried out like a little girl, throwing Wolfram violently into the water. Sputtering and angry, Wolfram managed to scramble up onto an undisturbed lily pad while the strange person was staring wildly around him.
"Who are you? Where are you?" he cried.
"Right here," Wolfram said, and he found himself to be the subject of intense surprised scrutiny. Wide black eyes blinked down at him.
"But you're a frog," said the boy blankly.
"That is something I am quite aware of," Wolfram snapped.
"But you talk," the boy said.
"So do you," said Wolfram, "And I show no amazement at that fact."
"But you're a frog," the boy repeated. "Frogs don't talk."
"I am cursed," Wolfram said. "I used to be as you are. An evil woman used a devilish invention to turn me thus, and I am waiting here for her to return with a possible solution."
"Oh," said the boy.
"What are you?" Wolfram demanded.
"I'm a squire," the boy said. "Training to become a knight to uphold justice in the land. I don't understand. I fell into a puddle and I came out in a lily pond..."
"Perhaps you were sent here through divine providence," Wolfram suggested drily.
The boy brightened. "Or perhaps it's because I'm meant to rescue you!" He beamed, and Wolfram found himself dazzled in the light of the dark boy's smile.
"Perhaps," agreed Wolfram cautiously, "Although what a child like you would know about lifting evil curses remains to be seen."
"I am not a child!"
"Nevertheless, how can you believe you were sent to rescue me if you know nothing of lifting curses?"
"But I do know something," said the boy. "It's traditional that if someone has been cursed with the shape of a frog, that the curse can be lifted with a kiss."
"Simply because something is traditional does not mean there is truth in it," said Wolfram, exasperated that such a solution would be the best thing the boy could come up with. "Do you have any proof that such a ridiculous thing works?"
"No," said the boy. "But for someone like you, who needs help..." He leaned forward, holding forth his cupped hands for Wolfram to hop on to, a kind, gentle look in his eyes. "It can't hurt to try," he said softly.
"Hmmph," said Wolfram, fidgeting uncomfortably at the way that look made him feel warm inside for the first time in decades. "You are aware of course of the custom of this country that the one your give your first kiss to is the one you must marry?"
"No," said the boy, pausing. "I didn't know that. I've never been to this country before." But Wolfram could see that his eyes shone with an idealistic optimism, and his face hardened in determination only a moment later. "Will this be...?" he asked, softly.
"Yes," said Wolfram.
"Are you all right with that?"
Wolfram had never heard of a boy like this one. Wolfram had never known a friend, and he would not have thought that meeting this new person would result in the sense that he had known this young squire for years beyond count. But still, this person was a stranger to him. There were no guarantees with a first impression, after all.
And yet no matter what was to come, surely it had to be better than facing off against Anissina time and time again.
"Yes," said Wolfram, hopping forward onto his hands. The boy lifted him to his face and pressed a careful, chaste kiss to Wolfram's lips.
He barely noticed when he transformed back into a human, perhaps because he was still kissing the other boy.
The other boy pulled back, eyes half-opening as he looked at Wolfram with a gentle smile. "I'm glad it worked," he said, and his hands slid off his shoulders to encircle Wolfram and pull him closer. "You're -"
Wolfram's heart was beating fast with anticipation - why, he was not sure - and then without any warning the other boy had shoved away, crying out in dismay.
"You're naked!" he squeaked, going bright red. "I - I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look, I didn't realize that you were -" His eyes opened wider, and he gawked, face draining of all colour. "Wait, you're a boy?!"
"What did you think I was?" snapped Wolfram, insulted and incensed. "I told you I was once the same as you."
"But - but - but - it's always a beautiful princess in the stories who is cursed by the evil witch to turn into a frog, and can only be changed back by true love's first kiss -" babbled the boy.
"I have no idea what stories you are squawking about," Wolfram said, "but in all the versions of that story that I have heard, the frog is a handsome prince who must be changed back by the kiss of his princess." He gave the other boy a pointed look that said, and clearly, you are no princess, but you don't see me being strange about it.
"But - but - but - we're engaged now?!" the boy squeaked again.
"If that was your first kiss as well, then yes," said Wolfram. "It is a small price to pay to not have to deal with Anissina again," he added under his breath to himself, shuddering.
"No way," moaned the boy.
"Don't be such a wimp about this," said Wolfram.
"I am not a wimp! It's just really, really weird!"
Wolfram got to his feet, exasperated with his recently betrothed. A dangerous fire must have gleamed in his eyes, or perhaps it was from mere embarrassment that the other boy scrambled away from, his pale colour suddenly flaming to a brilliant red. "I need to return to the capital," Wolfram said, ignoring him. "It has been many weeks since I have been home and I have left my duties wanting. My family will be worried, also."
"But - you have no clothes...?" the boy said weakly.
"What is your name?" Wolfram asked.
"What? It's... It's Yuuri. Shibuya Yuuri."
"Then, Yuuri, as a gentleman and a fiance, go steal me some clothes."
-
Once decent and clothed in the garb of a peasant that Yuuri had promised repeatedly would be returned, the two boys made their way to the capital, on foot. Though the way was long at first in awkwardness and silence, Wolfram's curiosity at travelling with someone neither family nor subordinate demanded answers, and Yuuri was of a perpetually friendly nature. By the time they had reached the gates of the city, they were speaking to each other on cautious but friendly terms, though more often than not they would dissolve their conversations in a blistering fight or argument.
The guards recognized Wolfram in spite of his plain garb and rough appearance, and let him in with a bow and the words, "Welcome back, your Highness."
"...Highness?" Yuuri looked uneasy as they walked up the street into the city.
"Did I not mention?" said Wolfram.
"You're a prince?!"
"Consider yourself lucky to have unwittingly engaged yourself to royalty," he said, put off by Yuuri's ungratifying reaction. The young squire found himself speechless until they had entered the courtyard of the palace.
A tall, fair woman came running towards them. "Wolf! You are back! You are safe!" Upon reaching them, she crushed him to her in a mighty embrace, and it was in this manner that Yuuri met the Queen of Demons.
"Er?"
"And who is this handsome young man you have brought with you?" said the Queen of Demons, mother of Prince Wolfram.
"Ah," said Yuuri, speechless and fumbling before her beauty.
"My fiance," said Wolfram, speaking of it as though it were most normal. "He ended the curse that I found myself under. Mother, this is Shibuya Yuuri. Yuuri, this is my mother, Queen Cecilie."
"....Oh," said Yuuri weakly.
"A fiance!" Next she bestowed upon Yuuri her mighty embrace. "How wonderful! As my future son in law, you may call me Cheri-sama."
"....... OK?" said Yuuri.
"Prince Wolfram has returned?" said a terrible voice, and Wolfram fell back in fear as the demon-witch Anissina appeared out of the shadows.
"Who is that?" Yuuri whispered to Wolfram, who shivered but responded.
"That is the woman who cursed me. What she is doing here I do not know."
"Lady Anissina is working for us now," Cecilie said. "She appeared a few weeks ago, around the time that you disappeared."
"I see you found a way to get rid of the side-effects on your own," said Anissina. "Pity. I was on the verge of a great breakthrough, as well. It seems that the easiest way to remove the curse is to bestow a kiss upon the cursed victim. Is that how the two of you also happen to be engaged?"
"You're the one who cursed Wolfram?" Yuuri's fists clenched, and the air around him seemed to grow darker. "Do you know how much trouble you've caused?! He was alone in the wilderness for weeks, unable to defend himself, lucky not to have been eaten. Did you ever think of what might happen if he'd been killed? And how long have you known how to remove that curse?! Did it never occur to you that some vagrant knight, on finding a talking frog, might think that he was a princess? He could have ended up engaged to anyone, a rogue, or a peasant, or a scoundrel! And what about the person who ended up breaking the curse?"
Something in the air changed, and the witch, the queen, and the prince found themselves staring as Yuuri's hair lengthened, his eyes narrowing, power crackling around him with unmistakeable fury.
"You don't think before you act!" he shouted, and even his voice was deeper. Wolfram felt chills run down his spine at the sight of his fiance thus. "You needlessly endanger the lives of innocents by involving them in your experiments! You put self-interest and the pursuit of knowledge above human life! I cannot forgive this. It is not in my nature to spill blood, but I have no choice!"
"Yuuri!" cried Wolfram, stunned at the transformation.
"Punishment!"
Water dragons rose out of the ground around Yuuri, rising and twining higher and higher in the air, and then swooped down to trap Anissina in their coils.
"This is most interesting," said Anissina. "What else can you do with these constructs?"
"That is none of your concern," said Yuuri, eyes blazing, and the dragons raised her higher, twisting tighter and trying to drown her in their depths.
Cecilie suddenly gave an excited squeal. "Oh! The prophecy!"
"What about the prophecy?" said Wolfram.
From the grip of the water dragon's coils, Anissina said, "You mean the prophecy of the Demon King? The one that says the greatest king of the land will appear and we will know him for his ability to control water dragons, and for his black hair and black eyes?"
"What?" said Wolfram.
"I believe something was also mentioned about his consort being a frog prince," she added with a smirk. "You can let me go, Your Majesty. I bow before your powers and promise not to do it again, or at least not so often, and I will keep my hands off your fiance in the future."
"...... What?" said Wolfram.
"That's wonderful!" cheered the (former) Queen of Demons.
"Very well," said Yuuri. "But I will be watching to make sure you improve your behaviour." The dragons released her; she dropped to the ground, and landed on her feet.
"... Yuuri?" Wolfram said in disbelief.
Yuuri smiled, slitted eyes softening ever so slightly. "Consider yourself lucky to have unwittingly engaged yourself to royalty," he said. "This case is closed."
And then the great demon king, Shibuya Yuuri, squire of justice, passed out in a limp heap on the ground.
"Yuuri! Are you all right?" Wolfram ran over to kneel beside the other boy.
"I do so love a happy ending," Cecilie sighed, watching as her youngest son carefully lifted his unconscious fiance and carried him towards the palace, at least until Yuuri came to and found himself being carried like a princess, and then he proceeded to splutter and struggle until Wolfram let him down and kissed him to shut him up. At which point Yuuri passed out again.
Anissina smiled to herself, because she knew better; something like this was only a story waiting to happen.