16. When fire does not burn

*6

Wolfram was leaning against a wall, trying to ignore the confused looks of the people who were walking by. He supposed he made a strange figure, what appear to be a human teenager in purple shorts and an orange t-shirt, just standing there. But it was alright, ignoring looks wasn't hard. Besides, he had years of experience doing it.

He signed deeply when a nondescript gray car stopped in front of him. With no other prompt than the door opening a fraction, Wolfram hurried to get inside.

It had been strange, that one call he had done earlier. He had said his name, his location, and then the call had been dropped, with no one answering any of his questions.

But he had trusted it was the right number, the right thing to do. It had to be because it was his last option.

There was a man on the back seat with him, he looked in his mid-thirties, wearing dark jeans and a green button-up. He looked at Wolfram and without saying a word, handed him a cell-phone right after clicking the green 'dial' button.

*5

Yuuri nodded to the pilot in greeting, knowing that talking would be useless with the deafening sound of the helicopter's rotor blades. His hair was over his eyes and when he sat down, Bob pointed out a pair of headphones that hang over his head. He took them and put them over his ears.

"…be there in no time, sir" he could hear.

"Make sure of that, Tanaka" answered Bob, and Yuuri could hear him perfectly fine through the headphones.

Murata sat next to him, and shook his head before leaning closer to Yuuri, who tensed up, but Murata didn't stop and made sure to secure Yuuri's safety belt. Yuuri could feel the 'click' of it against his body. Without looking at him, Murata sat straight on his own place and did the same, before putting on a similar pair of headphones on. Rodríguez, who was sitting next to Bob, and in front of the young mazokus, looked intrigued by their short interaction.

One of the men who had accompanied them to the heliport closed the door behind them, and gave a thumbs-up signal to the pilot, who nodded. Yuuri looked at him, and nervously turned towards the window, to see the many low hills around the miles and miles of open space. The small, private heliport was well hidden in its simplicity. Yuuri started fumbling with his ring, rub, twist, rub.

Suddenly, Bob looked irritated and reached for his cellphone, inside the inner pocket of his jacket. He looked at the number with suspicion.

"Wait, stop the engine" he said into the microphone of his headset.

The pilot looked started but obeyed immediately.

Yuuri opened his mouth, ready to argue, but Bob just hold up his hand and took the call.

"What's happening? We have to leave!" he said anyway, hands in fists.

"I am not sure" answered Murata, while Rodríguez shrugged.

And then a look of surprise crossed Bob's face, the usually stoic mazoku looking bewildered for all of a second, before shaking his head.

"Where are you?"

Silence.

"You will be brought here immediately. Yes. Yes, he's here"

Bob looked up at Yuuri, and after a few seconds, handed his phone to him.

"Here"

They exchanged a look before Yuuri took the phone from his hand. The sound of the engine was low enough by now that talking on the phone was not as challenging.

"Yuuri?" asked a voice he knew well, and even though it sounded altered by the phone, he immediately knew who was on the other end of the line.

*4

The call had been short. Wolfram was not used to phone calls and Yuuri felt a knot in his throat that made talking difficult. His heart was beating too fast, and his mind felt light because Wolfram was alive. Wolfram was here. Wolfram was coming.

After finishing the call, Yuuri leaned over his knees, his head in his hands and laughed breathlessly.

"What does this mean? How could he do it?" asked Murata.

"I told him to not give details over the phone, he will be here in 35 minutes. We should get back in the building and wait for him there" answered Bob, giving a signal to the guards outside who quickly came back and opened the doors of the helicopter, standing back to let them get out.

After jumping out of the helicopter, Yuuri looked up at the quickly darkening sky and could hardly contain the energy coursing through his veins. They got out and walked a couple meters, then he turned to Murata to tell him to hurry up, when it all exploded.

*3

It had been quick.

It had been devastating.

There were shouts and Yuuri could feel someone pulling him up and dragging him away from the fire. Through half-lidded eyes he could see the helicopter was in flames. There was a body next to it.

He looked up to see the guard from before, the one who had opened the door, shouting something to the rest of the guards, while taking him into the building. There were shots and more shouting.

"Ugh!" he huffed, when he was put down against a wall inside the building. He groaned, rubbing his eyes, and dazedly looked outside through the open door. The helicopter was an enormous ball of fire, and half the guards seem to have gone out, shooting at something in the dark.

Someone grumbled some half-formed words next to him and Yuuri could see that Murata had just been brought in.

"Are you ok?" he asked, his voice sounded far away to his own ears, while moving closer.

Murata nodded out of habit, but looked disoriented, not able to fix his sight on anything yet.

"Bob?" he asked.

Yuuri looked to the other side of the room and could see that Rodriguez was kneeling in front of Bob, holding his head between his hands in a medical manner. Bob seemed very irritated, obviously hurt, but he seemed to be responding to Rodriguez questions. As soon as it was obvious that Bob was more furious than hurt, the Brazilian man moved to Yuuri.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

Yuuri looked at Rodriguez and nodded.

"Follow my finger"

"I am alright, I am fine" groaned Yuuri, slapping Rodriguez hand away from his face.

"Maous" groaned Rodriguez, moving to Murata and checking on him.

*2

There was a second explosion outside, it was not as strong as the one in the helicopter but it made Yuuri gasp and cover his ears.

"Inform!" shouted Bob, and one of the guards who was at the door came in. He had been talking to someone else though a little microphone in his wrist.

"There have been three casualties sir. We lost Tanaka, Ito, and Sato. We don't know yet if there was a bomb in the helicopter or if someone used a launcher. We know there is a group of at least seven individuals outside who started shooting when it was clear you had survived the helicopter's explosion. Their positions have already been identified and we're about to close in on them"

"We need one of them alive, kill the rest" ordered Bob.

Yuuri shook his head, opened his mouth to speak and Bob pointed a bloody finger in his direction.

"Do not presume to tell me how to run things on Earth, not now Shibuya!"

The guard pressed his hand against his ear, obviously trying to hear something through his communication device.

"Code: Wolf, sir" he informed.

Yuuri paled. Wolfram was here. Then there was a third explosion.

*1

Wolfram closed his eyes and leaned back, his head on the headrest. He could feel tension of days, weeks, leaving his body. The man next to him still wouldn't talk, and he hadn't even seen the face of the driver, but what did that matter? It all was so inconsequential, so trivial. He was minutes away from being by Yuuri's side, his rightful place. It had been so long, too long, and his soul sang with need. He found himself smiling and didn't fight it.

He opened his eyes and looked out the window. He could see they were out of the city, some small hills on the horizon had already hidden the low sun. He could already see some bright stars in the deep violet of the sky.

The car moved fast, that much he could tell. Soon, he could see a two stories building ahead. It did not look luxurious, not the kind of place where you would expect to see both maous. That was smart.

But then the path they were on took a turn and they could see that the helicopter was being consumed by tall, powerful flames. The brightness of the orange blaze was reflected on the glass of Wolfram's window, making his face glow. His eyes widened in shock, and he turned to look at the man by his side only to see him already speaking on his cellphone.

"Yes sir, yes. Understood" the man turned to Wolfram and spoke to him directly for the first time. "We are ordered to go back"

"What? No! No… no, no. We have to keep going"

"That is not-"

But Wolfram would not hear another world. Was this human under the impression that Wolfram was under their command? How foolish. How ridiculous and how suicidal would they have to be, to try and stand between Wolfram and his maou.

Wolfram opened the door, got out of the car, and ran towards the fire. Both the man of the cellphone and the driver got out of the car too, shouting at him. When they realized Wolfram wouldn't stop, they start running and tried to reach him. Just seconds later, and out of nowhere, something made the car explode at their backs. The explosion was so strong it made the earth tremble and Wolfram's footing wavered, but he did not fall, and he certainly did not stop.

*0

"Wait!" shouted Murata, but Yuuri did not even turn to look at him, and ran past the guard at the door. He crunched down but did not stop moving, looking around. He knew it was dangerous, he was not stupid, but if Wolfram was here, if he was out in this chaos, then he would be too. No question about it.

He ran towards the low block fence that acted more as decoration than protection around the building. Once there, he hunched down and tried to look over it. It was dark already, and he could see the guards had taken down a couple of shooters already. They were efficient killers, and that turned his stomach, but this was Bob's call.

And just then, on the other side of the flaming helicopter, Yuuri could see a familiar figure. Wolfram's blond hair stood out of the darkness, reflecting the light of the fire like a beacon for trouble.

"Wolf!" Yuuri shouted.

Wolfram stopped, and looked at him, but he wasn't the only one. Once Yuuri had shouted, there was another man who heard his voice and aimed the grenade launcher over his shoulder at him. It was a matter of seconds. Wolfram shouted back, one of the guards finally saw the man with the launcher who had manage to keep himself hidden till then, and shot him in the chest. But the guard shot a moment too late, a moment long enough for the other man to shot the launcher a last time. Only this time, the target was Yuuri himself.

Wolfram saw Yuuri and then saw the weapon fired towards him, and felt this world dissolve around him. Without stopping to think how impossible it would be, how much it would cost, the reached out towards the fire with his hands and his maryoku. There was no finesse or technique in it, there was no art and no soul connection to control the flow of the raw punch of power that left Wolfram sagging in place, taking one, two steps before falling on his knees.

His power was a vortex of intent that took the flames from the helicopter, sucking them into a whirlpool of fire that turned orange to blue, a cocoon of heat that wrapped around the grenade while it was still in midair, still on its way towards the black-haired man. The grenade never stood a chance, exploding before reaching its destination in a thunderous flare-up of destruction and heat.

The wave of the explosion pushes Yuuri on his back, and rocked the building from where Bob, Murata, and Rodriguez saw the scene in shocked awe.

When Yuuri opened his eyes again, it was to see two familiar emerald orbs looking back at him.

"Wimp" half growled, half sobbed Wolfram, before wrapping his arms around Yuuri in a tight, desperate embrace.