Hyde frowned as he stared down at his feet, wriggling his toes that were now free of his regular orange boots. Oh those boots, he missed those. It's not that he had an obsession with wearing his shoes or that they comforted him or anything. No, he simply felt that there was no reason for him to remove them in the first place. The boy should be out there training, fighting, and uncovering new spells to help in the fight to become king, but instead he was at this strange place where attendants demanded that all footwear be removed. His cold feet just reminded himself that he was wasting time, and Hyde still couldn't figure out how he was goaded into this stupid trip.
'Oh, that's right,' Hyde thought to himself, 'That Eido heard a girl that he likes to obsess over saying that she was going to a water park with her friends and decided to crash. And he dragged me along because 'as long as I keep my mouth shut I can be a cute kid'. What a load.' He wanted to grumble and try again to convince Eido that they shouldn't be here, but the older boy was already gone, off to search for that girl. Turns out Hyde was too much of a drag to be dragged along any further.
The young boy sighed, eyeing the large crowd around and trying to figure out just where to go. His chest tightened with anxiety of being separated from his book keeper, even if Hyde did his best to deny this fact and even crush these emotions. Try as he might, he didn't want to be left alone. It was as his thoughts had been heard because just when Hyde was turning in the direction that he thought Eido had gone in, his ears pricked up at the sound of a familiar voice. He froze, shoulders tensing and praying to whatever powers that could possibly be prayed to that his ears were mistaken.
But of course they weren't, that would be way too perfect. He turned to look for them, and what he saw almost made him laugh. It was Zatch and his book keeper, and they were hanging out with two girls, one of them being the one that Eido had been talking his ears off. The other almost warranted their own response of laughter as the boy recognized them to be a mamodo, Tia the strangler to be exact. What luck, to run into two teams in such a situation.
'At least they haven't spotted me yet,' Hyde thought, slipping through the crowd in the opposite direction. He was so intent in moving the opposite direction, that he never even noticed that he had joined in on one of the rides. Hyde looked up to see what ride it was, and he gulped, eyes widening. In his childish eyes, the ride was a giant, stretching impossibly high into the sky. Normally, heights wouldn't be a problem for him being that the boy was a wind mamodo and often spent his time high in the sky, but this was different. This ride was a thin, enclosed tube cork screwing its way to a long pool at the bottom.
He gulped, and made to turn around and leave, but instead found himself sandwiched between a crowd of much larger kids and adults, pushing him forward and allowing no escape. Hyde shivered as he was forced to climb higher and higher up the concrete steps and wondered if it would be out of place for him to jump over the rails once he reached the top.
However, it was hard for him to think, and all too soon the boy reached the top of the tower. There was there an attendant there checking heights and Hyde wanted to cry with relief knowing that he must be too short for this one. He wasn't the only one who took relief in this. When the voices picked up, he was dumbfounded that Zatch and his partner had managed to get ahead of them and had never noticed the other mamodo.
"K-Kiyo, I don't think I want to go down this slide anymore."
Kiyo sighed, "Zatch, you've been bugging me about this ride all day and we already waited in that long line. We're going down one way or another. Look, it's not even that bad. The slide down is fast, and it's dark so you can't even see anything."
"B-but," Zatch looked around frantically for a excuse, and grinned when he found one, "The sign says that I'm too short, so that means I can't ride it! That settles it."
Zatch turned to walk away, but the attendant's response stopped him short, "Actually, you can go down as long as you're with another rider who is tall enough." The worker shrugged, his tone of voice hinting that this was a regular occurrence for him.
"See? You can go down no problem. Now let's get this over with already."
Kiyo reached to grab Zatch's hand, and the younger boy backed away nervously. Hyde felt a twinge of pity or some other emotion that he couldn't quite place, and shoved aside the few kids standing in front of him so that he could reach the pair. The boy grabbed Zatch's hand and moved to drag him away from the whole debacle, scoffing, "Not even an idiot like you deserves this."
As Hyde attempted to get away from the slide entrance, Zatch's eyes widened and he jerked back in shock. Zatch's mouth opened to say something, but the sudden movement set Hyde off balance and sent both of the boys tumbling over the divider and down the slide. Shouts could be heard from up top from Kiyo who had recognized Hyde and the attendant for letting the young boys down, but it no longer mattered because Hyde was no longer listening. The poor boy's mind had already blanked as he clung to Zatch in fear. Only the thought of, 'why me?' managed to survive.