This anime/manga really needs more love. My favorite anime of all time! It makes me mad that I can't read Japanese...

So, this is my wacko idea of Alba becoming Demon King. I'm surprised this idea hasn't been done yet (edit: Actually it has, but it's in a different language and Google Translate sucks so I don't understand the majority of it). Not sure where I'll be going with this, the story writes itself. Maybe some Albatross? I don't know, why don't you guys decide.

I'll try to include some comedy, but Haruhara's humor is unmatched...

Disclaimer: If I owned Senyuu, I would have made Albatross canon already.

Chapter 1: The Hero, Gone

No one moved, no one even dared to loosen a single muscle. The tension was so thick they could have cut it with a butter knife. Ross and Lake just arrived, Alba appeared soon after (for no apparent reason) still dressed in his prison wear that he oh-so-adores ("I don't adore it!"). Alba, Ross, and Crea stood at the front protecting everyone behind them. Lake, Salt, Lym, and Lake's mother Cecily were also standing tense and ready for anything. Well, all of them except Cecily who was just staring at Ross like he was an alien. In fact, it was her that broke the awkward atmosphere.

"Shion?" Next thing they knew, Cecily was in between Ross and Alba still staring at Ross. It was rather creepy, the face she was making and how she got next to them so fast, that Alba jumped away out of reflex. She appeared so suddenly that it even made Ross sweat, "Who are you?!"

Elf smirked across from them, "Shion-kun, don't you recognize your own mother?"

"Mother?" Shion stood stiff as the lady wrapped her now serpent-like body around him. He glanced down at Lake next to him and used the arm that wasn't trapped by his mother to point at him, "What about this guy?"

Dezember began ranting; something about disrespect and Lord Lake, but Elf pushed him down. The shadow guy didn't stay down for long and quickly got up to start yelling at Elf, course the tanned guy didn't care and just shrugged it off. "I already told you, we've done that bloodline already. It's time for someone new."

Just the way he said it sent shivers down Alba's spine. He knew something bad was coming and tensed his body even more that it hurt. "Alba." The brunet braced himself. He was prepared for anything that came at him. "You'll be our new Demon King." Anything except that…

The silence returned, but this time it was due to incomprehensible words. Alba stood dumbfounded, slouched, and utterly confused, "Huh?" What could he be talking about? Him? Demon King? It was ridiculous, he wasn't even a demon. Then again, Rchimedes wasn't a demon either. But still, suddenly declaring him Demon King was insane, but Elf was always weird. Besides, isn't Ruki still alive? She's already Demon King so they can't have another until she died or retired...and she was only 10.

Not reading the atmosphere at all, Elf struck a pose, "So what d'ya say, Alba? Come join us!" Hand outstretched, wink in place, a big grin, all completed with the glitter effect. Yep, he didn't understand the situation at all. Alba just continued to stand there trying to figure out what was happening. Being the logical one had its downsides and this was one of them.

Ross chuckled, and then gave Elf his famous dark smirk, "Like Hero would ever join you idiots. He's got us already."

"Didn't you just call yourself an idiot?" Alba deadpanned. He was right though, he was already surrounded by idiots, but they were his friends too and he'd never leave them. He took out this sword, the one Ross gave him as a gift (that he also stabbed him with) and took on a battle stance, "I won't join you guys, no matter what you do."

Elf sighed, but it wasn't in defeat, "Ya just gotta make it harder for us, don't ya?" He turned to Dezember, "Keep 'em busy. I'll be back." Dezember just scoffed. He didn't know what Elf was planning, no one ever did. He didn't even like the idea of putting Alba as the new Demon King. He'd much rather have Lord Lake take over, but Elf was in charge at the moment. Why? Because he was scared of the tanned guy's strength. Dezember was no match for him and they both knew that. So, he'd just have to suck it up and go along with everything.

Actually, now that Elf is gone, he doesn't need to listen to him anymore, which means he can get Lord Lake to be the new Demon King instead. "But how?"

Crap, was he thinking out loud? "Yes." Dammit! He should really stop doing that. "You should. It's creepy." Dezember threw his arms up. Okay, so they heard him and his plan, so what? He was still going to make Lord Lake the new Demon King. "But how?"

He looked at the little girl with the black cap. She had a good point, how was he going to accomplish that? The truth of the matter is…he had no idea. It just seemed like a good idea. Caught up in the stupid show before him, Alba nearly missed the large mana behind him. He quickly jumped away and brandished his sword at Elf. The tanned guy pouted, "Darn, so close too."

There was something in his hand, a small black orb that looked strangely familiar. Alba could feel the bad aura radiating from it. That little orb was powerful, but what was Elf trying to do with it? Alba gulped, "What...what were you trying to do?"

Elf just shrugged, "Oh, nothin' much. Just tryin' ta get this little thing inside ya." A black blur was suddenly on a course for his head, but Elf ducked before snickering, "Now, now, Shion-kun. Why ya so rowdy?"

Ross didn't answer him. Instead, he yelled at Alba, "Run!" The brunet didn't know what was going on or why Ross was suddenly so fearful, but he didn't listen to his command, "What are you talking about?! We can take this gu-"

"I said run, you idiot!" Alba froze. Ross was never like this. It was strange seeing that desperate look on his face. It wasn't just anger; there was actual fear and desperation in his usually sadistic red eyes. They were glaring at him now, but he still couldn't move. Elf chuckled darkly, "Shion-kun, ya'd better stay outta this."

Again, Ross ignored him, "Run, Alba!" That broke whatever stupor Alba was in. Ross never used his real name, mocking him by using 'Hero' or 'Rib Guy', but that one died off a long time ago. If Ross was actually using his name, it meant the situation was dire and Alba really needed to listen to him. As much as he didn't want to leave Ross and Crea to fight Elf without him, Elf was too strong, Ross was telling him to run. He tightened the grip on his sword, gritted his teeth and spun on his heel to turn and leave.

Dezember tried to block him, but Alba quickly slashed through his shadows and ran past the guy. He looked back at him feeling kind of sorry that the guy never seemed to catch a break. Still looking back, he didn't notice the black portal that opened up right in front of him. A tanned arm stretched out, but Alba turned back around just in time. He reeled back in surprise, effectively avoiding the hand with the orb again and sliding under the gate.

He stood back up and readied his sword as Elf stepped out of the portal. He got ready to charge at the tanned guy, but Ross blocked him and hissed, "Go!"

"But where?! He has Ruki's portal! It's impossible for me to run anywhere!"

"He's right, ya know?" Both their eyes widened; one in surprise, the other in horror. Everything was in slow motion for Ross: Alba's sudden jerk, him falling, and Elf's smirk appearing as Alba fell into Ross' arms. Ross stood completely frozen, Alba unconscious in his arms, as Elf swung his arm to release tension in it, "Phew, it took a while, but as they say, 'third time's the charm.'"

He stopped swinging his arm, all humor gone, "Now, give Alba-san here, Shion-kun." The dark glint in his eye caused Ross to twitch before he finally regained control of his body. He wrapped his arms around the brunet, pulling him closer, and glared defiantly at Elf. His smirk darkened, almost to the point where it would have made Ross' smirks look friendly, "There's no use holding on ta him. When he wakes up, he won't be the same Alba-san ya know anymore."

"What do you mean?" A groan made him look down. Ross loosened his hold to let Alba rub his tired eyes. Alba didn't give him one look when he walked out of his hold and past Elf. He just rubbed the back of his head and walked on, slouching all the way. Ross stood there, his reaction timing completely off today, as he watched Alba trot away.

Elf's eyes followed the brunet, "Well, ya woke up earlier than I thought." Alba stopped walking and turned his head to look at Elf. Could he even see? He had his eyes closed, but they were upturned, not like a sleeping face. Everyone waited, no one moved, seriously there were too many awkward silences today.

Alba let out a big yawn and scratched his head, still not opening his eyes. He slumped down even further, "I wanna go to sleep."

Ross was still paralyzed, but his mind was in turmoil. This wasn't Alba. But, it looked like him. It was definitely Alba's body, but this wasn't his soul. That black orb Elf had, that was Rchimedes' soul, he knew it was, but this wasn't Rchimedes either. Who is this new character? What happened to Alba?

"My work here is done. Dezember! The new Demon Lord is countin' on ya!" Not-Alba turned the other way to look at Dezember's sorry form on the ground immediately displeased. He was like one of those anime characters who never opened their eyes, but they could still see perfectly fine, "You mean this weird black thing?" He turned around again, but Elf was gone. Not-Alba scratched his head and hummed, "Mmm, well, I guess it'll hafta do."

To get to Dezember, Not-Alba had to walk past Ross. Even as he was doing that, hands in his pockets and totally nonchalant, the brunet didn't so much as even open his eyes let alone look at the raven. But when he walked by, Ross was engulfed in fear. This guy, for some reason, was really strong, scarily so that it even frightened the great Creashion into wanting to curl up in a corner and shiver in fear. The brunet stared down at Dezember before kicking him, "Oi, get up. You dead or something?" He gave a few more kicks before giving up.

He sighed and looked around, eyes still closed, finally noticing Ross. He smiled, "Hey, you look useful. Wanna help me out?" Alba stalked toward him. No, it wasn't Alba; he had to keep reminding himself that. But it looked so much like him; it was his body after all. But the expression, the posture, the way he spoke, it was all wrong. What happened to Alba? Hell, what happened to Rchimedes? Rchimedes was supposed to take over Alba's body like he had done to Crea, but how did this other guy show up? Maybe it wasn't Rchimedes' soul after all. No, Ross was sure that orb was Rchimedes' soul.

He could have dealt with Rchimedes again, he knew how to fight him this time, but he had no answers now. There was no way to tell if Alba's soul was still there, and that scared him. For the second time in his life, his heart wrenched with pain at the thought of losing another precious person. Both times were to the title of Demon King. Oh how he loathed that title, the name that started his life of misfortune and the rest that came after. He hated it, hated how it had stolen the only two people special to him away, hated how it had taken his father from him, hated how it had ruined his life completely.

He was sporting a scorching glare now as he watched Not-Alba calmly walk toward him. The brunet stopped about a foot away from where he was and grinned showing off long fangs that hadn't been there before, "That's a nice look on your face. It really suits you." He opened his eyes just a crack, but it was enough. The blood red eyes drove fear right through Ross' soul, it was that terrifying. The cross pupils confirmed it was Rchimedes' soul that was put into him. It probably would have been more intimidating if the brunet were taller, but Ross still had a good 2 inches on him.

They stared into each other's eyes, Ross wanting to flee but finding he was unable to. Soon, all that malicious aura was gone, replaced by Not-Alba's foxy grin, "So, you with me or what?"

They heard a groan and turned to see Dezember waking up. Wow, Ross didn't think the guy was that weak, but apparently he was. A few slashes of Hero's sword and he was down for the count. The shadow guy looked around before locking his eyes onto Not-Alba, "Where did Elf go? And you…" He paused, taking in Alba's posture and the funny look on his face and was completely un Alba-like before coming to a realization, "New Demon King-sama, is that you?" Not-Alba scratched the back of head, a habit they were all becoming aware of, "That's too long, just call me Timid."

"But that's a horrible name!"

"Hmm," Not-Alba wrapped his fingers around his chin. Dezember stared at him, "Can he really not think of a better name?"

Not a moment later, Not-Alba snapped his fingers, "I got it! Call me Maou." Dezember tested it, "Maou...sama…." He had to admit it didn't sound bad and it rolled of the tongue quite easily. Maou. The Japanese word for Demon King. Not a bad name at all. He shook his head furiously. What was he thinking? The only Demon Lord he would accept was the Demon Lord's son himself, Lord Lake and no one else, "I do not approve of this new Demon King."

Maou just continued to smile as he slowly drawn-out his next words, "Oh? Well then, I guess…" He was suddenly gone from Ross' side and next to Dezember in a flash, "...you have no place in my world." A slash sounded, and then a spray of blood, everyone could only watch as Dezember's body fell to the ground never getting up this time. Maou gave everyone a side glance and lifted his bloody hand up to his mouth. He licked up a thick drop of blood off the tip of his finger and grinned.

He suddenly crouched down and was shaking his head, "Bleh that was horrible! Ewewewewew!" He stuck his tongue out and continued shaking his head as he waved the blood soaked hand away from him. Salt was fearful at first, seeing how Ross reacted to the guy that wasn't Alba-san, but was stupefied at the odd antics of the new Demon King, "That's the new Demon Lord?"

"Well, he was scary for a while," Lake replied. Ruki looked up in thought, "If you think about it, grandpa had always been weird, so I guess we should have expected something like this to happen."

While they talked amongst themselves, Ross took the chance to get in a sneak attack. He landed a good kick that sent the brunet flying at least a couple meters drawing up dust as he skidded across the ground. He waited for the dust to clear, but he didn't need to. "Hey now, that wasn't very nice."

Ross' heart skipped a beat. He directed his eyes to his right finding Maou there completely unscathed. How is he not hurt? Ross felt his leg connect and yet the guy was right next to him grinning like a...a creeper...like the Cheshire Cat, yeah, that kind of grin. "You got spunk. I like you." Ross put some distance between them, "Crea, get everyone as far away as possible. I'll try to lead him away." Crea nodded and quickly got to work with a lot of protesting on the children's part.

Ross and Maou stared each other down as Crea got everyone to leave. Actually, Ross was doing all the staring, Maou was just standing there, hands in his pockets and smiling like an idiot with his eyes still closed. A bead of sweat ran down the side of Ross' face. What was he supposed to do? He didn't have a maker-kun; he stood no chance against this guy. That was another thing to take into consideration, how is he so powerful?

No, Alba had always been strong; he just didn't know how to use his mana. Rchimedes was also horrible at using his own mana, but he knew everything about it. Take that knowledge and combine it with Alba's quick learning and field smarts and you have an unstoppable monster on your hands. That monster was what he was glaring at right now and soon, he was going to be staring down its throat, the mouth of the beast he had willingly given his life to and had once been his friend.

He clenched his fists, his body shaking under all the pressure. No, he couldn't think like that, he wouldn't. He will get Alba back, at any means necessary. "Who's Alba?" Every organ in Ross' body froze before he began to shake anew. He dug his nails into his palms making his knuckles turn white as his red eyes blazed with rage.

He knew it was wrong and it would only be fuel for the maker-kun inside Alba's body, but he couldn't stop. He was so angry, so full of rage and anguish that he couldn't control it. He rushed at Maou and sent a punch at him, but the brunet simply leaned back to let the fist fly over his grinning face. He kept dodging Ross poor attempts to hit him, "What's wrong? All I asked was a simple question. Why are you so mad all of a sudden? Not that I don't enjoy it."

He snickered and that made Ross want to punch him all the more. He wanted to wipe that stupid expression off of Alba's face, it didn't belong there, and it shouldn't ever belong there. "C'mon, we don't have to fight. Just become my servant. We'll have fun, I promise."

Ross huffed. Hah, him, a servant? Never. Especially not to this guy. But he had to admit the guy was strong and knew a lot about battles. Taking him lightly could mean the end for Ross. He couldn't continue randomly punching; it was just going to deplete the mana he had left. He calmed himself, put a hand to his chest and took some deep breaths. All anger gone, he readied himself for another round.

Maou pouted, "What happened? Get angry again, you were better like that." Seeing Ross glare at him, Maou opened his eyes just a bit and smirked, "Oh well, you gave me more than enough mana to finish you off." He disappeared in a red blur and reappeared not a moment later right in front of Ross with that happy-go-lucky look back on his face. Now that he thought about it, it kind of looked like the expression Ruki's mom is always wearing.

He was prepared for some kind of attack, but he definitely was not expecting Maou to wrap both his arms around him and squeeze him into a bear hug. "Haha, but I won't ever do that. You're too cool." He let go and took the raven's hands in his own, "Come on, let's have fun together."

That look on his face… it was Alba. The Cheshire Cat grin was replaced with a smaller version, making the fangs less noticeable. He couldn't quite place it, but there was something different about him. It was too cute to say no to, in fact, Ross couldn't say anything to it. He was too flabbergasted to move his lips. He was just dragged along, mindlessly following Maou's lead with their hands linked. Maou came to a stop not a minute later and scratched the back of his head, "Now, how do I get to the Demon World?"

Ross blinked himself awake. This guy wasn't Alba; he had to drill that into his head. As much as he looked like the cute brunet, it wasn't him. He pulled his hand back and jumped away drawing Maou's attention. "Yo!"

They both looked to Maou's side to see the tanned guy in a weird train getup. Ross was less than amused. Maou looked down at the new arrival, "Oh, green guy, you're back."

The costume restricted all his limbs, only his face was visible to them, "I am not 'green guy', I am the super ultra awesome Chocotrain Express!"

"Choco? Like chocolate?" Maou tilted his head at the thought. "No! I'm a train!"

"Ahh! A stranger!" Maou kicked him away. Elf had some trouble getting back upright, since his stupid costume didn't have any holes for his limbs, and it was kind of funny watching him struggle. He finally had enough, "Arg! Enough of this!" He wiggled some more, but then stopped, "I can't get out."

Maou fell to the ground laughing as Ross stood there not knowing what to do. Elf tilted his head to try and find Maou, but he found Dezember's bloody body first, "Dezember? Oh, you got beat up again, didn't you? Ah, no matter." A gate opened underneath Dezember and his body fell through. "Anyway, it's time for us to go." Another opened underneath Elf and his body slipped in. Maou got up off the ground, "Hai, hai." He jumped up, higher than necessary, and fell through the gate before it closed.

And that was that, Alba was gone

His personality (and later on appearance) is from Haruhara's other character Timid from Gakumon. I had to change the personality a bit and since they never showed the eyes in Gakumon, I made them like Rchimedes' eyes. If you haven't seen Gakumon yet, I suggest you give it a try.

Edit 9/7/14: I realized that some of the things said in this chapter don't really make sense with the later ones. Why? Because I wrote this without any planning! I foreshadowed the new world Maou was going to shoot for before he even resolved to do it (this chapter has been changed to make this a little better) and his character didn't make any sense at all. I'm a logistic person who always questions how or why, so if what I wrote makes no sense to me I'm sure as hell going to change it. When he woke up, he should have had no memories of anything, and yet he went willingly with Elf like they already knew each other... -.-

I'm probably going to come back and rewrite this entire chapter. Thank you for reading my story and staying with me for my rambling. I'm very sorry and hope you have a nice rest of the day.