Chapter 10

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Last chapter! I made it!! Yay!

Oh, and quick note, when a j.a.panese person says "western movie" they mean an American/European movie, not a cowboy movie~ I was proofreading this chapter and came across that and thought "Oh, that might cause some momentary confusion" XD Fun language note: the word for "western" in this sense is actually "ocean" since the culture/people came from across the ocean. Yay language!

Chapter 10

      So in the end, how did my sprain turn out?
      I spent the next three days in Hildyard’s resort town staying in the hot springs from morning to night whenever I had free time. By the end, I had gotten used to those scandalous bikini thongs and was in the dangerous frame of mind of being weirded out by normal swim trunks.       That’s so embarra.s.sing I can’t tell anyone.
      When I had to part ways with Greta I was wailing in front of everyone, but no one laughed at me. Anyway, Hyscliff promised that he’d make her visit after a month. Now that I think about it, it’s been less than ten days since that child appeared before me. When I turned to comment on the fact that it hasn’t really been long enough for me to properly develop the emotions of a parent, I found Wolfram fiercely crying. (1)
      Anissina stayed behind in the resort town. It seems like she’s going to open a huge knitting and inventing goods shopping mall. Once they’re healed, there will be around 100 young girls who knit and have delicate lady"s fingers – as opposed to men’s fingers. At night, she’ll teach them how to read and about business practices and have them work in the afternoon so they can get an education and a steady income. Izura and Nina are also going to be a part of that facility.
      “The only thing that will save these unfortunate women is an education.” I can understand that much. It’s very commendable. However, this came after: “And, when they’re strong and intelligent, these women will rule over the foolish men and give birth to a wonderful new world!”
      That speech is just a little bit s.e.xist.
      “I would also like to be granted with parting words from Your Majesty!”
      “… Go… Good luck.”
      I didn’t have the courage to disobey her.
      The hinomokou shop is being placed in a corner of the shopping mall and it seems as if the preparation of the palace food of the lost country of Zoras.h.i.+a is being carried on with precise attention to detail. I’d also like instruction on the unique eating method of noisily slurping up one single noodle.
      Possibly because I put in a good word for him, the old macho man with the twisted headband gave me the bowl that was his family heirloom. It’s got a Chinese design and there’s a dragon twisted up on the bottom. It’s said to be priceless, but from what I can see, it’s just a normal bowl.
      “Apparently, you can see the future in the soup.”
      “No way. Maybe the past or even a past life, but how is it supposed to show you what hasn’t even happened yet?” Wolfram said.
      “That’s right. I thought so too. Maybe if it showed a ghost standing behind you, right?”
      The boat ride home was very relaxing and we weren’t troubled by pirates or giant squid. However, the young crewman from the way here was on the s.h.i.+p again and it was a bit awkward in the beginning. On top of that, we didn’t have my hidden child that we’d had on the way here, but instead we brought a completely unconscious man onboard. I wouldn’t blame him for being suspicious.
      Gegenhuber’s life was saved, but at the moment he’s simply ‘alive.’ His heart and lungs are both working, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll regain consciousness. It sounded like he said something once, but that was probably just my imagination. Especially since what I heard was:
      “I am in your debt.”
      And that was it. Is he a samurai or something!? It was definitely my imagination. If only there had been some old-timey nuance to the way he said it and it would have been hilarious.
      I wonder how sad Nicola is going to be. But if I carelessly ask that question, Conrad will be troubled. So, I do as I’m told and stay away from Hube’s cabin. The middle-aged nurse we hire in Schildkraut takes care of him around the clock.
      It was around noon, just when the temperature was rising, that I got back to my castle.
      Because I had abandoned my work and escaped after leaving just a short note and figure that Günter must be in a really bad mood, I prepare myself as I enter the main room.
      “Uh, Günter, no, Mr. Günter?”
      “Your Majesty!”
      He opened his arms as wide as possible making his already tall height even more towering and comes running at me… or not. Under his arms, he’s wearing a strange, fluttering outfit that is completely wrapped around him.
      “Ah, Your Majesty, welcome back. I, Günter von Christ, was looking forward to the day when I would be able to see you again.”
      “You’re not mad? And, you’re not even crying?”

      There were no tears or snot running down his face. And on top of that, he immediately releases me and takes a step back before speaking.
      “Mad? Why would you think I’d have that worldly emotion? Your Majesty, I’ve attained enlightenment. Love is to accept everything and to change yourself for the person you love. And, the hards.h.i.+ps that come along with love are all according to His will.”
      “Uh, yeah.”
      “So Your Majesty, the days that I was unable to see you were a test of my faith given to me by His Majesty the True King.”
      Clasping his hands together in prayer, he gazes up at the sky. It might be my imagination, but there seems to be a refres.h.i.+ng light coming from behind him. And I can swear I can faintly hear some soul-cleansing Healing Music coming from somewhere. Did he have some kind of twist of fate worthy of a ‘DUN-DUN-DUN-DUUUUN!’ while I was gone and now his values have taken a full 180?
      “… What are you doing, Dacascos?” Conrad suddenly asks.
      “Ah!”
      Conrad lifts the huge box behind Günter. Inside, there was a completely hairless, middle-aged soldier operating a spotlight and a music box.
      “Ah, Dacascos! Didn’t I tell you to not attract any attention!? Now my horrible trial period with the monks was all for nothing! What do I tell His Majesty!?”
      “… I don’t really get it, but you aren’t enlightened at all… ah... I, I feel like I’m being glared at.”
      Feeling a gaze that was almost painful, I turn around and see that Gwendal was standing there with unkempt hair and having lost so much weight it looked like he was cursed. The shadows under his eyes were telling a story.
      “… All of you… do… your work!” (2)
      I discover a pen callus on a finger on his right hand.

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(1)    The word for crying here that is used is a word that implies that you’re crying simply because someone else is crying. So, Wolfram is crying here because Yuuri was crying, not because he’s actually sad to see Greta go. I didn’t know how to convey that without making that sentence into something strange ^-^;;
(2)    Another language related footnote. Actually, I’m surprised there weren’t more of these in the other chapters. ANYWAY, the word for ‘you’ that Gwendal uses is a derogatory way of saying ‘you’ in j.a.panese. In fact, it can also be translated as ‘you b.a.s.t.a.r.d/son of a b.i.t.c.h,’ if you were so inclined. It’s also written in katakana for extra emphasis (which is kind of like putting something in italics), so you can tell he’s REALLY p.i.s.sed here. I left it as just ‘you’ because that’s what it is and I just can’t imagine him saying ‘you b.a.s.t.a.r.d/son of a b.i.t.c.h’ to the king. Although, the man has kicked a child before so I guess it wouldn’t be so unbelievable o.O;;

      Wanting to see how my ankle was doing, we went out on a walk. I haven’t run at all since the Hildyard incident, however.
      Going off of our usual course a little bit, we climb up a gentle slope. At the bottom of the short hill, there’s a carpet of green despite it being winter.
      Conrad, not even the least bit out of breath, points to the end of the slope.
      “Can you see it?
      There’s no way I couldn’t see it. It was huge and wide and right in front of me.
      From under the green cut up in five places, a dark brown is peeking out. There is a coa.r.s.e net attached to evenly s.p.a.ced, wooden pillars. Several muscular young men were making a set of stands. The stands were about ten levels high.
      On both sides of the fan shaped sidelines, there are benches for each team.
      “… Wow.”
      “It’s supposed to be a ball park, but since it’s from my memory the shape seems a bit strange.”
      “Not at all. It’s absolutely not strange at all. It’s fine, there’s definitely a hundred meters on each side.”
      Perhaps noticing us, one of the young men straightens up and salutes. The other two take off their hats and wave them around and call out to the other workers.
      I unconsciously move my feet forward. Or rather, I started to run forward and failed and my whole body fell right on the hard winter gra.s.s and I tumbled down the low slope.
      “Your Majesty, please be careful.”
      “I’m fine.”
      Whatever happens now, I’ll be fine. Scolding my sluggish and tangled legs, I arrive at the stadium gate. It’s not a dome or artificial gra.s.s that I’m used to seeing and there aren’t any light stands or box screens anywhere. What’s there is natural turf that little leaguers in western movies run around on and stands where the whole family would come and cheer on boisterously.
      “… What do I do?”
      What do I do now that this awesome baseball field has been built?
      The young men who were working come running over. They all have the same serious look.
      “Your Majesty, please forgive us for appearing before you in our personal clothes. Well, it’s because we are off duty.”
      “Off duty? What are you doing if you’re off duty?”
      “Ah, we’re making something called a ‘ball park’…”
      Lord Weller finally catches up to me and lets me off the hook by sending the soldiers back to their work.
      “Why are they working so hard on their day off..?”
      “It’s because they want to make Your Majesty happy.”
      Faced with this truth I’m moved and my comprehension slows down. The organized green and brown was the start of something beautiful and natural.
      “But why are they making something so awesome?”
      “For your birthday, your 16th. I’d planned on keeping it a secret until you announced it yourself, but… a lot has happened recently so I figured it would cheer you up.”
      Right field, center field, left field, third base, second base, first base. A mound not quite high enough and a home base that hasn’t been put in place yet.
      I felt like I could hear the sounds. I could almost see the blue summer sky come to life.
      “They worked so hard because they want you to like this country.”
      “Why!? I like it, and for a long time too. I haven’t said I hate it, right!?”
      Conrad smiles a smile that pierces my heart and moves towards the batter’s box.
      “Yes, that’s right.”
      I slowly move to stand behind home base and look out over the field. I can see everything from here. The mental state of the pitcher, the s.h.i.+fts of the fielders, the runner’s starts, even the inside of the mind of the batter who is so close I could touch their shoulder.
      This is my position. This is my place.
      I carefully kneel on the ground, ready my palm and bend my elbow. From there, I lie down and press one cheek and ear to the ground. It was cold at first, but after a moment, the heat from the ground came through. The sunlight that lights this country is radiating from above and below the earth.
      “What are you doing,” Lord Weller asks in a laughing, cheerful tone as he pinches my left ear, “getting all muddy?”
      “… Hey, can I say something boring?”
      “Of course.”
      “I think, you know, that it’s okay.”
      If I say something irresponsible like this, the demons would all definitely be displeased. But this is the answer I’ve come up with after thinking every night for four months. Anything more than this would be too much for me and even if I put it into words, it would be a lie.
      “... I think it’s okay. You can’t have a visitor all the time. It’s okay to have two headquarters and to have both Sapporo Dome and Seibu Dome as your homes. Although you probably… don’t know what I’m talking about.”
      “I get the gist.”
      “Yeah, so… I might never be able to go back anymore, but…”
      Even so I won’t ever give up on my friends and family in modern-day j.a.pan. Since I’ve become the king of this country in this world, I should sever myself from my past and think only of the demons. But that’s not the kind of person I am and I can’t throw away Earth or my family or my friends. I can’t even throw away baseball.
      “Besides, I came here because you wanted me, right?”
      “That’s right.”
      “Then…”
      I have a place in two worlds.
      There’s no happier life than this.

      The effects of the hot springs appeared in a strange way. After coming back to Blood Pledge Castle, I was unable to forget those horrible three days at the hot springs and I got in the bath at every opportunity completely becoming a bathing fanatic. I even make do with the bathroom in the next bedroom when my large baths are being cleaned in the afternoon.
      Because it’s awkward to bathe alone in that huge bath, at night I make Wolfram come with me for bath time. I feel like if I spend time with him naked in the huge baths, we can form a friends.h.i.+p as men instead of he and his flirty fiancé. The problem is that as we’re deepening our friends.h.i.+p as two bros, he’s getting discouraged. (1)
      Why, Wolfram von Bielefelt, are you so dissatisfied with friends.h.i.+p?
      After I woke up paralyzed twice tonight, my eyes open and I can’t sleep anymore.
      “Ah, it’s no use. I can’t go to sleep without taking a bath. Wolf, I’m going to take a bath.”
      “Whadd’re ya sayin, you know whatime it is? Stop bein’ so annoying.”
      “This is kind of off topic, but your face looks like Kunie Tanaka.” (2)
And you’re completely rude by just ignoring the fact that you’re living in my bed and saying whatever you want.
      Reluctantly leaving my room by myself, I sneak down the late-night hallway. In this completely quiet castle where there’s only the occasional sentry here and there, I’m a bit scared that there’s something not of this world roaming around. This is basically a country of demons so monsters and evil spirits don’t qualify as supernatural phenomena, but not so with ghosts.
      When I finally got to the dressing room, I jumped at the faint noise of water.
      From the bath where there shouldn’t be anyone at all, I can hear the low sound of splas.h.i.+ng water.
      “That splas.h.i.+ng noise is obviously not very adult so the chances of it being Lady Celi are small. If I had to say, it’s someone with a light build…”
      A child? A child’s… ghost!?
      A child’s ghost just isn’t funny! Or maybe it’s a zas.h.i.+ki waras.h.i.+ from a private house. Or maybe a j.a.panese doll whose hair grows!? Or maybe a Hina doll whose head comes off!? As I go through the possibilities, they get less and less scary. (3)
      But if a child really is drowning, I have to help them as soon as possible or it will be too late. I steel myself and open the door and run into the gorgeous bathroom. With only the few flames lit in the walls, I can’t see the child anywhere.
      “… um… ah! A doggy!?”
      In the middle of the nonsensically huge bathtub, a there’s a shape that resembles a small, whitish animal. ‘Hold on doggy, I’m gonna save you,’ I think to myself as I heroically dive into the huge bath tub in my pajamas – which is actually just a t-s.h.i.+rt and shorts. My target: the 12 meter line.
      I swim up to the small animal with a painstaking doggie-paddle and finally my fingertips meet fur. It’s not moving so does that mean it’s already used all of its energy!? Oh no puppy!
      “Uh… this is… knitted!?”
      It was too late by the time I noticed.
      Something grabbed hold of my completely healed sprained ankle with a familiar force. Without even time to think ‘No way, my feet don’t touch down here!’ I’m sucked down into the center of the whirlpool.
      By any chance is this that thing that I’m used to that always happens!? Is this that well-known attraction that has become easier for me to use since that one was made at Tokyo Disney Sea!?
      I wonder if that white knitted animal is just sinking to the bottom now that I disappeared. That’s a very scary, surreal scene that I have no time to be imagining.
      After this, it’s just the Star Tours I haven’t seen in a long time.

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(1) I realize the whole "getting naked together to deepen our friends.h.i.+p instead of s.e.xy feelings" runs counterintuitive to western thinking, but it"s totally legit in j.a.panese culture and this wasn"t meant to be funny or a "Yuuri, you dumba.s.s" moment :)
(2)    Kunie Tanaka is an actor that’s been in a bunch of movies including some of Akira Kurosawa’s films. Fun fact: the character Kizaru from One Piece is based on him. This is what Kunie Tanaka looks like: ([Pic])
(3)    Yuuri is pretty much listing all the creepy dolls he can think of XD A zas.h.i.+ki waras.h.i.+ is a childish spirit that lives in houses and plays little pranks, but it also brings the house good fortune. You have to care for it or it will leave. The doll with the hair growing is a reference to the Okiku doll, which is a real doll whose hair supposedly keeps growing because it’s haunted by the spirit of the girl, named Okiku, who owned it. Apparently, they trim the hair and it grows back. As for the Hina doll, well, a Hina doll is a doll which is part of a set of dolls that are displayed during the Hina Festival, or Girl’s Day. They’re said to collect bad spirits and at the end of the festival are set adrift to get rid of said bad spirits. As for the head popping off, that’s just Yuuri being Yuuri.

      Suddenly, there’s ultra-violet rays that instantly dry my wet skin and might even be able to burn some peach fuzz.
      It’s painful to breathe in the hot air and for a few moments while I got used to it, I was completely without oxygen. When my throat and nose finally get used to the temperature, I start breathing frantically.
      “… buya… buya!”
      What’s buya? My cheek is getting slapped over and over again and my shoulders are being shaken roughly.
      “s.h.i.+buya!”
      “… ugh, Wolf, cut it out…”
      “That’s great! You’re alive, he’s alive!”
      There’s instantaneous applause. Startled, I open my eyes and the blue sky and the white gold of the sun a.s.saulted my pupils. This deep and tall sky blue is a color that’s only found in summer. Among the three faces peering down at me, I only recognize one. It’s been so many months since I’ve seen him, but why is Murata here?
      “s.h.i.+buya, do you know who you are!?”
      “… Yuuri s.h.i.+buya.”
      “That’s right, Harajuku Furi! Then what about me? Don’t call me a weird name like you did before.”
      “Um… Ken Murata.”
      Again there’s that cheering and applause. And on top of that, I hear some jeering whistling.
      Struggling and turning my head, I see that I’m flopped on the Sea World stage like a tuna. The thoroughly amused parents and children who are here on their summer vacation are rejoicing like this is all their personal affair. Did I go on a Star Tours in front of this big of an audience!?
      “… Is this kind of like ‘tonight you are the eye-witness?’”
      “Ah, but I’m really glad, s.h.i.+buya. You kept sinking farther and farther into the water and since we couldn’t see any shadows or shapes, for a while it looked like you had been washed out to the sea wall.”
      Looking like he’s about to start crying all over his gla.s.ses, Murata clings to my neck.
      “I was so worried that the worst had happened since it was me who asked you out on a date!”
      “Please stop saying such easily misinterpreted things.”
      In other words, I came back. I came home to my original world. It’s not ‘original’ or ‘coming home’ anymore.
      Yuuri s.h.i.+buya is now in modern day j.a.pan. And in the future, I might go to The Great Demon Kingdom.
      An older girl in a wetsuit grabs my belt in order to help me get to my feet and keep steady.
      “Ew, what’s that!?”
      d.a.m.n! Today I’m wearing the demon’s normal use, black silk thong!
      “Ah, I’m sorry. That’s kinda his thing. There’s really no harm in it.”
      “Stop it, Murata! Don’t give an embarra.s.sing explanation in public! Miss, miss, don’t be scared by this underwear, no, please don’t be scared!”
      But, the girls have already branded me with the label of ‘pervert.’ They’re slowly backing away.
      “Well that’s okay. The value of a human isn’t determined by their underwear.”
      “Murata, that’s not helping!”
      There would be so many people to help me out if I was over there. Ah, I’m really starting to miss it.
      For as long as I’m here in j.a.pan.

      Like I think of my family when I’m far away, I’ll think of the demons while I’m here.
      If I do that, then just by a little, my kingdom will be closer to me.

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