……
When King Ayumu arrived at the Division, he noticed that the atmosphere was quite peaceful. The last time his son had been here, the left wing of the building had totally collapsed because Prince Yuri had gotten p.i.s.sed off and released his magic without care. But now that Tachibana was in his stead, things seemed to be a little bit calmer.
"I wonder what he"s up to." The King mumbled to himself, Takahiko beside him with a straight face. Ever since Tachibana had arrived here, he found it a bit strange that the two boys were polar opposites of each other. They were the same person, born from the same parents and yet, they"re nothing alike. Here, his mind started to drift, thinking on the dreadful event that occurred six years ago.
⎾If that hadn"t happened to Prince Yuri, would he have been like Yuri of j.a.pan?⏌Takahiko couldn"t help but wonder.
Briskly, the two men made their way up to the door; King Ayumu using his entrée card to access the building. The first thing they noticed ―the Mages of the Division were in a peaceful and cheerful mood albeit they were darting to and fro in great haste. This was never the case before, being that Yuri had completely disregarded his division.
"Someone"s getting busy." Takahiko half-joked as he looked around. He was a bit surprised that no one noticed the King"s presence, and he was a man impossible to ignore.
"So it seems." King Ayumu whistled in surprise. But, they didn"t dilly-dally. As soon as they entered hallway leading to Yuri"s office, the two ran into a female Mage who had just exited the Prince"s office.
"Your Majesty! Sir Mochizuki! What are you doing here?" The Mage asked, surprised to see them at this time of the day.
"Kaori, where"s Yuri?" The King asked. "Is he in his office?"
The female Mage ―Kaori grinned. "Yes, he is. And I must say Your Majesty, Yuri should get attacked more often." She chuckled. Of course she didn"t mean it, but she only wanted to get her point across. "This new side of the Prince is the greatest!"
With that, she skipped off to do whatever it is that Tachibana had instructed. Quickly, the King opened the office door and saw Tachibana and the other two Princes, along with Hiroki, Kohaku, Takahiko and Mamoru. They all surrounded Tachibana, whose lips were moving so fast that neither of the men could read what he was saying. But what they didn"t notice was the small ball of ice that rested on top of the table.
"Yuri? What are you doing?"
At the sound of the King"s voice, the occupants of the room stopped what they were doing and looked in the Monarch"s direction. Neither of them expected to see the King,
"Your Majesty! What are you doing here?!" Hiroki gasped out, slightly frightened that he hadn"t noticed when the King had entered.
"I"m just here to see my little punk."
"I just got dragged along against my will." Takahiko added to make his presence known.
"So, what"s going on here?"
Wordlessly, Hiroki took up the ball of ice and held it out to the King. Both he and Takahiko rose their eyebrows at the action when Seiya started, "Yuri has thought up something that will change how we use Magic from this point onwards."
"How so?" Takahiko asked, gazing at the Ice ball. "Do you mean that this was created from Magic?" Everyone nodded. "But Ice Magic doesn"t exist. How"d you get this…?"
Tachibana grinned like a maniac. Seeing that expression, everyone was reminded of the real Prince, who was known to psychopathic tendencies. "It"s called "Elemental Combinations", where you"d combine two or more elements to form another." The j.a.panese started. "In this case, to make Ice, one would need two elements ―Water and Air. However, the proportion of Air to Water should be greater, whereas with Snow, the reverse is applicable."
King Ayumu and Takahiko exchanged glances before gawking at the silver-haired j.a.panese. No words could come out of either their mouths, as something like this has never been done before.
For Tachibana, he found it strange that Ningen hadn"t thought of this before. They were unbelievably smart, far smarter than Humans were and yet, something as simple as combining two elements hadn"t been thought of. But, a part of him was extremely glad. Since the things in his world"s fiction can come true over here, Tachibana couldn"t wait to experiment some more.
For the second time, Tachibana realized that this country can become his playground.
x.x.xx
[Meanwhile in j.a.pan…]
[While Tachibana was studying Engineering etc...]
Yuri dedicated himself to learn more about Martial Arts. And this time, it wasn"t because he"s impersonating Tachibana ―the ace of their school and dojo, but he was genuinely fascinated with the sport. Since he had been expelled, he had all the time in the world to get his skills to the pa.s.sable stage. At first, he was a bit peeved about not being able to play volleyball, but once he saw exactly what the Arts entailed, Yuri had gotten fascinated.
And thanks to Ayumu lying to the Master that his son was ill, Prince Yuri had nothing to worry about at the moment. So, every day after school and club activities, Mochizuki had to "train" the rash Prince in the Arts so as to prevent anyone from noticing the discrepancy between the two boys.
[Monday]
Prince Yuri was taught the basics of Martial Arts ―Karate― starting off with the kicks. Mochizuki thought that since Yuri was already fit and well-built, he could skip everything and go head-first into katas. And frighteningly enough, the Prince caught on pretty well, too well. Mochizuki didn"t even know what to think. The Prince was like a sponge, soaking up every bit of information thrown at him.
[Tuesday]
This time, Mochizuki taught Prince Yuri the various Punches of Karate. And once again, the raven-haired teen felt like the weight of the world was off his shoulders. At the outset, Mochizuki thought that he"d be stressed out in teaching Yuri Karate, but on he was wrong. It was then he figured that maybe Ningen learned things pretty quick.
[Wednesday]
Yuri thought this day was going to be normal, but instead, Mochizuki didn"t show up after school. It turned out, the j.a.panese had practice at his dojo which meant, he would be unable to teach the Prince.
So, Yuri studied the history of Martial Arts and ended up stumbling into the other variants like Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, and even Kyūshojutsu, otherwise known as "Pressure Point Fighting". This delighted the young Prince, being able to strike down people by hitting their pressure points is simply the best.
Here, his mind wandered to his j.a.panese counterpart. With Tachibana being a Karate pract.i.tioner and maybe that lethal Pressure Point Fighting Style, Yuri thought of the various ways in which Tachibana could improve the Self-Defence Force. Martial Arts didn"t exist in Sekai, but the Prince could imagine what terror could emerge if Ningen were to learn these combat techniques.
"They"d be a force to reckon with." He grinned.
The rest of the week ran off pretty smoothly, apart from learning Martial Arts, Yuri faced his new families tasting sessions, which was conducted to know which foods the Prince found tolerable from those he didn"t. It was a terrible event, both Ayumu and Azusa realizing that for a Prince, he ate a ton.
…
…
At long last, another week began, and since the transfer had been approved, Prince Yuri was excited to finally leave the house and head back to school. To make things even better, he would be attending the same school as Mochizuki.
Yuri shone brighter than the sun that morning.
The happy Prince bounced on his feet, awaiting Mochizuki"s arrival, which in his opinion was taking too long. The boy lived four houses down the street from him, and yet, he took forever to arrive.
But soon, the doorbell rang, and immediately Yuri dashed towards the door. Swinging it open, a big grin formed onto his face. Mochizuki stood before him, holding a huge box like thing wrapped in a green cloth.
"The h.e.l.l is that?" Yuri asked.
"Obento." Mochizuki deadpanned.
"Hoh? For me?" the Prince was beaming.
"No, for us. You can"t possibly eat off all of this ―" Mochizuki broke himself off. He knew for a fact that his best friend was a heavy eater despite being a martial artist. "Well, it"s for both of us. Don"t let me starve."
Ayumu walked up to the two boys. "Why did you make a bento?"
"Because I"m not sure if Yuri"s taste buds will like what"s in the cafeteria. I mean, he"s still getting acclimated to j.a.pan"s food." Mochizuki replied. "There are things in the cafeteria that tastes like s.h.i.t, you know?"
"I think you should have made more Takahiro." Yuri joked, throwing an arm over Mochizuki"s shoulder.
"Enough chit-chat. Let"s go." Ayumu started with a light chuckle. "I can"t have His Highness late on his first day." He joked.
"Yes! I"m finally going to see what kind of school you go to!" The Prince shrieked in happiness. He then took the bento from Mochizuki and stored in it his spatial ring. "And yes, I know that I"m not supposed to use my ring in public." Yuri said quickly as if he could sense the oncoming warning.
Once the boys were seated in the car and buckled their seatbelts, Ayumu drove off, heading to Omori High School.
…
…
Reaching Omori"s gates, Yuri and Mochizuki exited the car and made their way to the shoe lockers. Ayumu watched the two until they disappeared into the building, praying that the Prince will behave himself. But then again, he felt sorry for Mochizuki who know had the responsibility to keep the tempestuous Prince under control. Will he able to do it? Ayumu didn"t want to take anything to chance, so he drove off to the nearest Shrine.
Instead of going to their cla.s.sroom, Mochizuki led the two to the rooftop until it was time to head back down.
"Why are we up here?" Yuri asked.
"To ease your mind." The raven-haired teen replied, gazing at the railing. "I mean, we aren"t in the same cla.s.s, so people would stare at you." He said. "And I wouldn"t want you to get provoked and end up ma.s.sacring everyone in the cla.s.s."
The Prince gasped in shock. "Who do you take me for? A murderer?! I"m a Prince! I can behave myself you know!"
"I take you for a loose cannon that"ll go off at any time." Mochizuki deadpanned.
"Well! I"m hurt by that Takahiro! Don"t you have any faith in me!?" The Prince pouted.
"No, I don"t."
Yuri turned his face away and sulked. "You"ve hurt me, Takahiro. I"ll get you back for this."
"I won"t take you to Akiba then."
"f.u.c.k." Yuri cursed. "I can"t believe that even in this world you still manage to p.i.s.s me off."
"I do?" Here, Mochizuki was interested. "Tell me, what am I like in your world?"
"First, you"re a gorgeous female, but not my type."
Mochizuki paused. "I"m a female!? With the name Takahiro?!"
"Yeah, she―you―s.h.i.t, this is so confusing." Yuri sighed. "Your counterpart was named after her great-grandfather who was a bada.s.s General."
"Oh. But still…Couldn"t Dad name her "Takahina" or some feminine variation? Doesn"t she feel a bit…odd with a male"s name? Doesn"t she get teased?"
Yuri laughed. "Of course not! Anyone who dared to tease her would feel the wrath of her overprotective brothers!"
"I only have one older brother, Takayuki."
Yuri sighed. "In Saishi, your parents have four children ―the oldest is Takan.o.bu, followed by Takaharu, then Takayuki, lastly, you, Takahiro."
"So, how old are the first two?" Mochizuki asked. Takayuki was only four years older being twenty, but he was curious of the first two.
"Well, n.o.bu is about forty-one, and Haru is thirty-nine if my memory serves me right."
Mochizuki was taken aback. "Excuse me? Then how old are my parents?! How the h.e.l.l…?"
"Your parents are still pretty young, they"re about one-hundred and ninety something."
"One-hundred and ninety?! And that"s "pretty young"? How long do you live for?!" He shrieked.
"Four hundred years if we aren"t killed in battle or die of some mysterious disease that we don"t know about and can"t cure." Yuri said with nonchalance. "What? Humans don"t live that long?"
"No we do not! We barely live until eighty!"
Prince Yuri froze on the spot. Hearing this new information didn"t sit right with him. Minus the technology, Prince Yuri never had any intention of ever going back home, but to hear that Humans have significantly shorter life-spans than Ningen was disconcerting.
"Eighty…? s.h.i.t." Yuri raked a hand through his silver hair in distress. "What am I going to do now?" He bit his thumb nail anxiously. Yuri wracked his brain for a solution but sadly, there was none at the moment. And it seems, there wasn"t going to be.
"You get your a.s.s back home and bring Tacchi back here." Mochizuki"s voice took him out of his thoughts. "That"s what you should do."
"Takahiro, that"s not possible." The Prince blatantly lied.
"Your people can make the impossible, possible, right?" Mochizuki countered. "So do it."
"Come back to me with that argument when Earth has a permanent, inexhaustible Mana source." Yuri countered. "I"ll wait." He sa.s.sed.
"You little ―"
But before he could"ve finished that sentence, the school bell rang, signalling the start of the day. So quickly, they made their way to their cla.s.srooms.
…
…
"Alright students, today we"ll be having a transfer student join us." The teacher announced. Yuri was standing beside the teacher, his red eyes darting all over the place. With his hearing, he could decipher the mumbling of the students to be along the lines of "is he a foreigner?" and "his hair is so pretty and glossy" and the comment from the boys "why couldn"t he be a female?"
The Prince chuckled to himself. Boys will be boys no matter the dimension.
"Be nice to him." The teacher"s voice brought him out his thoughts, "You may introduce yourself."
"h.e.l.lo, my name is Yu―Tachibana Yuri," the Prince started, nearly forgetting that he should say his name backwards. "I hope we get along."
That said, the Prince was directed to his seat, which happened to be in the middle of the cla.s.sroom. Already, Yuri was p.i.s.sed. He wasn"t by the window like back in Saishi, and he wasn"t around the back like when he was in Sohgoh. He sat right in the middle, where everyone could see him. The Prince was so not pleased. In addition, Mochizuki was in the cla.s.s next door, so even though they were in the same school, they weren"t in the same cla.s.s.
⎾Who am I going to talk to now?⏌Yuri let out a whimper at this horrid set-up. There was one thing other than water and closed s.p.a.ces that scared him ―loneliness.
Just then, he felt a poke on his upper arm. He looked to the left to meet the bright eyes of a male student, one who seemed to be all too happy.
"Hi, I"m Watanabe Yuuki."
"Hi. I"m pretty sure you remember my name." Yuri replied. He didn"t see the need to reintroduce himself.
Watanabe chuckled, "I know. Tachibana, right?" Yuri nodded. "So, let"s be friends, ne? I can show you around, if you want." He said, extending his hand towards the Prince. Yuri"s eyes narrowed at the boy. But, in order to avoid hostilities and giving Ayumu another headache, Yuri reluctantly shook the boy"s hand and returned the smile.
"Sure." But deep down, Yuri didn"t trust the boy. Back in his Kingdom, no one was so quick to make friends ―especially with transfer students―unless they were up to something.
A few minutes later, form-time was over and the teacher left. In that time, Watanabe stood up and made his way to the front of the cla.s.s.
"Everyone! Can I have your attention?" he started. Yuri leaned back in his chair and watched the expressions of the other students. He noticed, in the left hand corner of the cla.s.s, one student looked down and out of it while the others looked at Watanabe with their undivided attention. Yuri"s suspicions rose.
"Tachibana here has just transferred so I"d like if you all made him feel comfortable okay?"
And as soon as Watanabe finished, students were flocking around Yuri like moths to a flame. Inwardly the Prince shook his head. He knew these "types" quite well.
⎾Let"s see how long you can play your game for.⏌ Yuri thought with a wicked smile.