Chapter one
Makai
The stories tell of some glorious thing, and extoll the virtues of one who can overcome all of his peers. The stories make legends out of the winners. But the stories don't tell you that this battle pits friend against friend, brother against brother...they don't tell you what it's like to meet a complete stranger, and know that you might have to kill him to survive.
Yes, the reality is much harsher then the stories. So much blood, so many tears have been shed over the course of these battles. So many cruel people have prospered at the expense of the good...
But despite all of the evils that take place, this battle is still an honorable thing.
"My Lord, the enemy are at the gates! They have started a siege, and are demanding that you step down from your throne!" A young Mamodo in silvery armor exclaimed as he rushed into the open, white-stone throne-room.
The king looked at him for a moment, as if waking from a trance, and then nodded. "Unu. I understand. Inform my advisers; it is time. Begin the battle!" He said with a regal, commanding voice.
The guard hurried off to do his duty, leaving Zatch alone again. "100 years...only 100 years." He looked over to his left, where a massive painting of his father's victory over 1,000 years ago hung upon a wall. The scene was a rugged, mountainous passage, dawn creeping up on the horizon, as his father faced a young woman with beautiful copper hair. Between them, two dragons clashed; on the left, his father's Bao Zakeruga, glowing with a fierce, silvery light, and to the right, a nearly identical dragon, black as midnight, and radiating an aura of darkness.
This battle is an honorable thing...because to counter that evil, the good must stand up and fight!
~OOO~
"Good morning children, and may I be the first to congratulate you on your successful entry into the tournament! The device that this communication is being broad-casted from is called a 'locket', and with it, we shall monitor your progress, as well as offer some special perks, but we'll get into that later. As you've most likely noticed, this is no normal tournament! We shall not simply have you battling one another; that will be part of it yes, but we, the administrative board, shall test other aspects that are necessary for a good king, or queen, to have! And now, the most important test of all! In one week's time, you must find, and bond with your partner, and cast at least one spell. Otherwise, there shall be no use of spells until everyone has either failed or passed; all 500 of you! Good luck, and may the best Mamodo win!
~OOO~
Watervliet, NY, 6 and a half days later.
Deep in the greenish, murky waters of the Hudson river, amidst piles of whirling, water-swept debris and muck, sat a curious sight-the figure of a lone teenaged boy, sitting on the floor of the river.
He was tall, lean and muscular, with lightly tanned skin, dirty, golden-blond hair in a high ponytail, wearing a sleeveless blue kimono top with a white rope belt, white broad shorts, and Japanese wooden sandals. He rubbed his hands over a deep gash in his left upper arm, and grimaced.
"Damn-it...how could I let a set-back like this happen so early? I gotta keep in the game.
He exhaled deeply, causing bubbles to erupt from his nose, and closed his eyes as he focused. Slowly, the deep gash on his arm began closing. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
"He's here..."
~OOO~
Walking down an old, weathered road beside the river, was a teenaged boy, about 16 years old, with shortish, wavy brown hair; he was average sized, lean, and had sea-green eyes, and a handsome face, which still had a boyish charm, but was beginning to look more and more masculine. He sighed contentedly as he looked around at the just-turning leaves of early October, as he put his hands into the pocket of his dark green hoodie. He smiled lightly, despite the tired look on his face.
"It's good to finally be free...no more school today, no more work...just me and nature. And the Hudson River...there is nothing natural about that thing."
He found an old oak tree by the end of the road, which stopped into what was once a parking lot, and now a dirt mound, due to years of neglect. No one came by here, and that's why he liked it. He propped himself up beside the tree and basically let gravity drop him into a sitting position, as he looked over beyond the river, glistening in the the sunlight, towards the wooded area on the other side. The way the sunlight reflected off of the ow yellowish leaves, the way it warmed his face, the sound of gently running water, and the feel of a cool breeze around him...it was perfect.
"This is the way life should be, Bryant." He thought to himself. "Peaceful."
He didn't even really notice it, but soon he nodded off into what would have been a nice nap, if he didn't hear...
WHOOSH!
Bryant instinctively opened his eyes to insepct the noise (hoping that it would be nothing), and saw a blue blur shoot up out of the water. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating, but just a second later, the boy from the river landed in front of him with a thud.
"HOLY SHIT!" Bryant said, startled, as he backed up further into the tree, and began shakily standing up. The boy looked intently at Bryant with his deep blue eyes, which had a spiraling pattern to them, similar to a whirl-pool. "D...did you just jump out of the river?!" Bryant asked. The boy simply looked him up and down, as if sizing him up. He tossed Bryant a deep blue book, with the strange double-triangle symbol on the front. Bryant looked at it cautiously. It wasn't even wet after coming out of the river...and it felt like it was...radiating something.
"Read that. First line. And uh...hurry." The boy said as he looked off to the left, over a hill.
"Uh...suuure." Bryant said, trying to appease the crazy guy. He flipped it open to the first page, which started glowing a bright golden light. "...Oh my...God..." Bryant said as he looked in awe at the thing in his hand. "Who are you?" Bryant asked cautiously as he stood up, and stepped to the side, trying to get distance from the other boy in case...he didn't know what he was afraid would happen, but he was afraid of something.
The other boy simply looked at the lit book and beamed. He then smiled at Bryant, and said.
"Call me Agu. Now read the first line, we don't have much time!" Agu said with a sense of urgency in his voice.
This is crazy.
Bryant looked down at the book, and felt the sudden urge to drop it, run like hell, and never speak of this day ever again.
Totally crazy...
He looked at the first words, which he could inexplicably read, and then back to Agu, who waited eagerly, and impatiently...almost desperately.
Damnit...
"Suisu!" Bryant yelled, forcing himself to read the words. He then felt a sudden fatigue, like his energy was sapped into the book, and Agu's eyes started glowing a bright blue, as placed his hands on the ground. There was a moment of quiet rumbling, and then, out of nowhere, a massive surge of water flooded the area around them up to waist height almost instantly.
This isn't happening...
Bryant was nearly knocked over; he would have been if he hadn't grabbed onto the tree beside him. Agu simply stood in the water, grinning like a kid on Christmas. Then, as suddenly as it came, a ripple went through the waters, and they disappeared; even everything it touched became dry.
This can't be happening...
Bryant stood there dumb-founded, while Agu simply smiled proudly. "I knew I was right about you." He said plainly. Next to Agu's head, a cloudy glass sphere appeared with a bronze band around the middle of it came apparently out of thin air. It glowed faintly with a dark blue light, and then emitted a sound similar to static. "Congratulations," it said sarcastically. "You're the five-hundredth Mamodo to complete the test. Which means you're an idiot." said a voice coming from the sphere.
"W...what the hell!?" Bryant yelled. Agu apparently ignored him, and held his hand out to the river.
"Setsu-jin, come!" he yelled, as a blurry metallic object sped towards him. He caught it with his right hand, stopping it suddenly; it was a long, bronze trident, with a straight shaft, a brilliant sapphire in the guard, with two squared outer blades, while the middle blade was straight, needle-like, and slightly longer. The outer blades were about six inches long, two inches wide; the bottom half of the blades were serrated, while the tops of them were plain. At the bottom of the shaft was a hexagonal rod, which seemed to act as a counter-weight.
Oh...my...God...
Agu held the trident in a relaxed grip and lowered it. "From now on, you're-"
WHAP!
Agu was interrupted by a book to the face.
He backed up a bit, stunned, and saw Bryant brandishing the book, and stepping back a few feet.
"What the hell man!? Are you trying to kill me!?" Bryant shouted at him. Agu rubbed his jaw, where Bryant hit him, and smiled thinly.
"You got a pretty good arm on ya...listen, I'll explain everything later, but right now, I just need you to read that spell when I tell you, ok?"
SPELL? Well...I guess that's what it was...
"I..." Before Bryant had time to protest, to figures appeared at the top of the hill. One was a little boy in all black clothes, with spiky black hair, who had pale skin, yellow eyes, and a lightning shaped scar under his left eye. Beside him was a punk guy with a green Mohawk, with a yellow book just like Agu's in his right hand.
"Heh heh, now that some idiot has finally found his partner, we can start this thing for real. Get ready with the spell, human." The boy said to the punk, who smiled, eager to see some action.
Agu glared angrily at the boy for his comment about the idiot who finished last, and looked over to Bryant. "Go stand on that tall rock over there so you don't get hit." He said seriously.
Bryant had many questions that he needed answers to, but he got a very bad feeling from the two on the hill, so he decided to listen to Agu's advice; he looked like he knew what he was doing.
Bryant quickly climbed up the rock and opened the book to the first page, which was still glowing, but less brightly.
"We'll finish this quickly! Get the spell ready!" said the boy on the hill.
Spell? What are they gonna do, kill each-other? I...can't let that happen!
"Suisu!" Bryant yelled, unsure what else to do. Agu slammed the bottom of his trident onto the ground, and the area around them, just a few inches below the other team, and Bryant's footing, flooded with water.
Agu grimaced, but readied Setsu-jin at his side, widened his stance and prepared to charge. The punk with the yellow book smiled widely.
Wow, we're reeeeally lucky if that's their only spell! RAIZU!" He yelled as the other boy lifted his right hand. Agu charged forward with incredible speed, leaving a wake in the water around him, but it wasn't fast enough. The boy's hands glowed with yellow electrical tendrils, before a large beam of lightning shot out from it at Agu.
Agu jumped to the side with split-second timing, getting well out of the way of the attack, but it wasn't enough. The electricity simply conducted itself through the pool, and electrocuted him.
"AAAGH!" He screamed as he arched his back in pain. As the two at the at the top of the hill started laughing, and Bryant looked on in horror, Agu simply gritted his teeth, fought the pain and continued charging, making his way up the hill. The other team stopped laughing, and even backed up a bit at the shock of seeing Agu still charging.
"AGAIN! DON'T STOP USING THE SPELL!"
"RAIZU!" the punk yelled, as the other Mamodo shot another bolt from his hands. This one Agu simply took head on, and kept charging despite the pain.
Oh my God...they're gonna kill him!
"AGAIN!"
"RAIZU! RAIZU! RAIZU!" The punk yelled as Agu stood within a few feet of them; the first spell slowed him down, and caused some burns, the second spell stopped him in his tracks, nearly paralyzing him with pain. At that point, a ripple went through the waters, and they disappeared. Then the third one hit.
"AAAUGHHH!" Agu cried out in agony, before falling over, severely burned, bleeding, and smoking.
"AGU!" Bryant yelled.
The two on the top of the hill stood panting, with a frightened, and disturbed look on their faces, before realizing they had won. Then the boy started chuckling.
"Heh, one more, just to make sure we finished the job!" He said to his partner, grinning wickedly and raising a hand towards Agu.
"Rai-" The punk began saying the spell, but was suddenly cut off by a rock to the face. "AHH!" He yelled in pain as he fell to his knees and clutched a hand to his now bleeding mouth. The boy with him looked at him wide eyed, and then looked back at Bryant, who was glaring at them with tears welling up in his eyes.
"You son of a BITCH!" He screamed as he threw a rock at the boy, who simply caught it with one hand, and crushed it.
"Heh...got a little fire in your belly, eh? I'll take care of you." He said confidently as he walked towards Bryant, who stood his ground. The boy raised an eyebrow curiously as Bryant began smiling thinly, but was struck with realization as a shadow loomed over him. He quickly turned around to see Agu, bloody and battered, glaring down at him with blood-shot eyes, as he lifted Setsu-jin in the air.
"SHIT!" The boy screamed as he jumped to the side, dodging a massive downward swing, which tore up chunks of earth.
Agu simply lunged towards him, and began swinging his trident in large figure eight patterns, forcing his opponent to continue backing up, and preventing him from dodging to the sides without being hit. As the other boy started stumbling backwards, about to fall, Agu came in with more deliberate slashes, with much more momentum and power to them. The boy kept dodging, but having lost his balance, several of the slashes hit his arms or legs, leaving shallow cuts, and further preventing him from moving well.
"HUMAN! THE SPELL!" He yelled in a last-ditch effort at victory, as he kept backing up. He felt his back against something solid, and saw Agu smirk, with a look of crazed battle-lust in his eyes. "...Shit..."
Agu held the trident out to his right side, and gave it a quarter turn, so that the blade were all lined up verticallyand then slashed, raking all three of them across the other boys chest; the needle-like tips of each blade left thin, but painful cuts on the boy, whose cries of pain were cut short when Agu carried the momentum of the strike, and hit him on the jaw with the rod-like weight at the other end, knocking him out cold.
Incredible...
The punk looked at Agu, petrified; the battle between him and the other boy had only taken a few seconds. Agu glared at the punk, threw Setsu-jin up, and caught it reverse handed with his right hand, lifted it high, and hurled it at the punk, who screamed, and lifted the book to his face as some form of protection.
"HALT!" Agu yelled. Bryant and the punk both looked in slack-jawed disbelief as Setsu-jin stood suspended in mid-air, mere centimeters away from the punks face...and surrounded by the burning ashes of the other boys book.
"Pathetic..." Agu said queitly as the punk ran away. The unconscious boy's body started fading away with the book, until both were gone. Agu held out his hand, and Setsu-jin came back to it, just in time for him to prop himself up with it, to keep from falling over.
"Agu!" Bryant yelled as he ran up the hill to help the strange young man.
What the hell is going on!?
Just as Bryant arrived, Agu's strength gave out, and he began falling; Bryant shot his arms forward, and caught him, laying him down gently. Agu looked up at him with a weak smile.
"We won..." He said quietly, before his eyes started closing, and he slipped towards unconsciousness.
"Heh...yeah, yeah we won buddy. Don't worry, I'm gonna help you out." Bryant said, trying to hide his fear, and put on a brave face as tears began streaming down his face. Agu smiled weakly at him and sighed before closing his eyes.
Oh God...don't die on me!
Bryant quickly checked Agu's pulse; he was still alive, but only just barely. He looked around frantically, seeing if anyone nearby could help.
Of course not...I come out here to get away from people. Oh God, please don't let him die on me!
Suddenly, the glass sphere appeared again, and sent another message.
"Congratulations! For becoming the first to send back another Mamodo, winning the fight quickly, and only using one spell, we have decided to overlook your catastrophic failure of the first test, and allow you to remain in the top ten! Good luck!" The sphere said overly cheerily.
What? He's dying and all this thing cares about is his rank!?
Bryant gritted his teeth, and nodded decisively; he needed to get Agu to help. His mom should be home from her night shift; she'd be tired, but she was a nurse, and a damn good one, so she could help him.
He lifted Agu, who still clutched Setsu-jin to his chest, even while unconscious, and as quickly as he could, ran in the direction of home.
I don't know who he is, or what he wants with me...I know he's dangerous, and he's targeted by other dangerous people...part of me wishes that I hadn't taken my walk today, and that I'd never met him...but none of that is important right now. Right now he needs my help, and I'm not gonna let him down. God, please let him be ok.
~OOO~
"MOM! I NEED SOME HELP! NOW!" Bryant screamed as he kicked in the door.
A startled, short plump woman, with a pretty face and brown hair, dressed in a robe and slippers walked towards him from another room.
"Jesus Bryant ya don't have ta shout. You know I'm tired from...Jesus Mary and Joseph..." She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw her son, bedraggled, covered in sweat, holding another boy about his age, singed and burnt, and if she was any judge, near death.
"Please...we have to help him..."
Notes: I want to dedicate this story to God.
I will change narrative perspective throughout the story, meaning, you will see it from different people's point of view, to offer a wider perspective, and give an interesting reading experience. I'll start off slow, and gradually branch out, giving you time to really understand characters, and giving me time to plan everything out. Hopefully, this story will become rather cinematic!
Character note: Agu and Bryant started as very simple, minimalistic characters, but as I began to really develop them, and grow a fondness for them, I realized that they reminded me of myself (Bryant in particular) and my best friend, The mighty Yake (Agu in particular. And the mighty Yake is just a nickname...) I'll get into that more deeply. In any case, good luck, and have fun!
Mime out.
