"The only way to beat these guys," the boy, Dante, explained, "is to burn the book that that older guy's holding. That will send the guy firing the lasers back to the Mamodo World."

Nat had a lot of questions to ask. For example, what the heck was the Mamodo World? Who was this kid? What was this book he was holding, the book only he could read?

"I'll explain everything later," Dante said, as if reading his mind. He nodded towards Raijo. "Right now, we have to burn that other boy's spell book!"

Nat was silent for a moment. Then, he nodded.

"Gotcha." The book in his hand started glowing again as he concentrated. "Let's do this!"

"Tch," Raijo exhaled, in an annoyed tone, "So he's going to fight now, eh?"

But the voice in his mind was playing a very different tune: panic. He knew that this kid's first spell outclassed his in terms of raw power, and added to that, he had the target's strange power on his side, although he wasn't using it now.

Normally, on equal footing, we'd stand no chance, he thought grimly, but this is their first battle. We have experience on our side. We still have a chance…

"Uri."

Uri turned to look at his partner.

"This kid's just found his book owner now, so we have a slight advantage in that we've got more experience. But I get the feeling that experience isn't gonna do shit. We're gonna have to press 'em, give them no room to attack. Hopefully, they have only one spell, so we should have another thing in our favour. But this is gonna be real tight, so we have to use all our power. We can't underestimate 'em."

"Got it," Uri said, his face taking on a serious expression. He saw the fear in Raijo's expression, heard it in his voice. He knew that Raijo was scared. And that was serious.

"Biraitsu!" he chanted, and Raijo fired his laser beam. Dante waved, and the star blocked it again.

"Farga!" Dante aimed, and the star fired another light beam. Raijo picked up the trash can lid and held it up in an attempt to block it.

First rule about mamodo spells: Farga cannot be deflected. Raijo learned this the hard way. The lid was blasted out of his hand, and he was knocked off balance by the sheer force of the beam, landing butt-first on the ground and cradling his hand.

"Ow!" he cried. He quickly got up, in an attempt to move before he left an opening, but the kid was standing right in front of him. Dante planted a powerful punch in Raijo's stomach, making him cough up some blood, and throwing him back even further. Raijo landed on his back, but quickly sat up. Not even bothering to stand this time, he aimed at Dante, who was rushing at him.

"URI!" he yelled.

"Biraitsu!" The beam got Dante square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him back, but he flipped and landed on his feet.

"Dante!" Nat yelled.

"I'm OK!" Dante replied.

Don't worry about me! Just concentrate on the battle!

Did he just hear the kid's voice in his head?

Blasting Dante back had given Raijo enough time to get up. He wiped the small trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

This kid's strong! he thought. Hand-to-hand's a no-go, then.

"Uri, let's use the second spell!" he yelled, aiming at Nat. Uri nodded and proceeded to unleash the second spell.

"Ganzu Biraitsu!"

Raijo started to fire loads of laser beams at near-submachine speed. Dante jumped back in front of Nat and started to block them with his star, waving his arms in a frenzied way, a look of intense concentration on his face.

Raijo grinned. "Hmph! One of those things is nowhere near enough to block my attack!"

"Yeah," Dante said, "you're right." Suddenly, two more stars appeared out of thin air and started deflecting the beams.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Raijo cried, pissed off and also freaked out. He was pissed because this stupid mamodo shrimp had managed to block his second spell without using a spell of his own. And he was scared because…

If the beam from one star is so powerful, he thought anxiously, what am I supposed to do against three?

Suddenly Nat spoke. "Dante."

You go on ahead. I'll be fine.

Dante nodded and sprang forward at lightning-quick speed, the stars disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.

"AAAGH!" Raijo yelled, panicked. "GET AWAY!"

"Ganzu Biraitsu!"

Dante dodged all the laser beams neatly and homed in on Raijo. He went for a kick to the head, but the older mamodo managed to block it with both hands. Raijo pushed off Dante's leg, making him almost lose his balance, and put some distance between them.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Raijo said. "You managed to get through without getting hit, but what about your partner?"

Dante had been worried about that too, but he just closed his eyes and smiled.

"He said he'd be fine. I trust him."

Nat felt a small pang of fear as the lasers got closer. He wasn't even sure that he could do this. But before, he'd felt it when they fired at his back. A feeling warning of danger, and where it was coming from.

Concentrate, he thought to himself, taking a deep breath. Don't panic. It won't work if there's a trace of doubt or hesitation in your mind.

He then proceeded to sidestep all of the beams without missing a beat.

Uri's jaw hit the ground. Raijo just stood there, speechless. Dante took the opportunity and rushed at Raijo. The older mamodo cringed and covered his head, but Dante just rushed past him, going straight for Uri. Raijo realised this and quickly threw himself after him. He tried a leg sweeper, but Dante jumped over it, somersaulted and landed behind him. He quickly turned around and aimed at Dante.

"Biraitsu!"

The beam pushed Dante back, but he managed to keep his feet on the ground.

I can't get close enough to the book! Dante thought.

Then we need a plan, his book owner's voice echoed inside his head. And I think I've got one…

Dante suddenly rushed at Raijo, going in for an uppercut, but Raijo flipped back, narrowly avoiding it. As he landed, Dante tried to trip him up with a leg sweeper, which he caught in his hands, drawing himself back to negate the impact. He grinned.

He left himself wide open! he thought. Holding onto Dante's leg, he swung him round and round, and then threw him. Hard.

"WAAAAAAAAHH!" Dante screamed. He flew and landed hard on the ground a few feet away. Raijo dusted his hands off and grinned confidently.

"I knew it!" he cried, triumphantly. "That punch was a lucky shot! There's no way a noob like you would be able to –"

He stopped when he saw the smile on Dante's face.

What the…

He was dumbfounded. Why was this kid grinning like he'd just won the lottery?

"What's so funny, dammit!" he yelled, stamping his foot in annoyance. "I just threw you like a sack of feathers, you nitwit! Don't you realise that you're now at my –"

He stopped again.

"Ah," he said with a horrified yet comical look of discovery on his face, realising that he'd just done the worst thing possible.

He'd just thrown the kid towards Uri.

"You see it now, don't you?" Nat said, smiling. "But it's too late!"

Uri started as Dante sprung up and knocked the book out of his hand. It flew into the sky, too high to reach in time. A star appeared out of thin air in front of it.

"I guess I don't lose after all," Nat said. The yellow book glowed in his hands.

"Farga!"

The light beam from the star put a hole neatly through the middle of Raijo's book, the circumference (the line around the circle) of which went up in flames. Raijo faded away, head hung and shoulders hunched, as the book burned to a cinder.

Dante leaned in close to Uri's face.

"Boo."

"AAUGH!" Uri cried, running away as fast as his legs could carry him.

As soon as he disappeared from view, Dante physically relaxed.

He sighed heavily, relieved, and sank to his knees. "Phew!" Nat limped over to him.

"Hey, are you all right?" Nat asked. Dante looked up and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, standing up. "I was just really nervous. This was my very first battle. I didn't know if we were gonna win." He grinned up at Nat. "Thanks."

"No problem," Nat replied. Then Dante noticed the funny way Nat was standing.

"Ah! What about your leg?" he said, in a worried, agitated tone. "Does it still hurt? You want me to carry you to the hospital?"

"What? No, I'm fine," Nat said, waving his hands and sweat-dropping. "This is nothing! It'll be better by tomorrow. You should be more worried about yourself." The battle had taken its toll on the child. His cloak and clothes were in tatters, and he was badly bruised.

"Oh, this?" Dante said dismissively. "It'll heal up in a few hours."

"What…" Nat was dumbstruck. "You're not human, are you?" He knew it was a dumb question, but he was still trying to come to grips with what was happening.

"No," Dante replied, shaking his head; apparently he didn't find the question stupid at all. "I'm a mamodo, a creature from a different world than yours. It's gonna take a while to explain everything…"

"Right," Nat said. "Well then, follow me and we can talk at my place."

Dante nodded. Then he remembered something.

"Ah, that's right," he said, "I told you my name, but I forgot to ask for yours…"

"Hmm? My name's Nat," Nat replied. "Nat Anamura."

"Nat… So you're my book owner…" Dante mused. Then he smiled.

"I'm happy to finally meet you!" he said happily, looking up at Nat. "I hope that we get along well!"

Nat was a bit surprised by that. He wasn't used to someone actually acting nice to him. But it wasn't a bad feeling.

He looked at the book that he was carrying in his hand, remembered the battle that just taken place, and although he didn't know much about it, he had to admit that what had just happened was better than being at home with nothing to do after a miserable and eventless day. He was going to remember this one for a while, that was for sure.

Besides which, he reasoned, Dante had saved him. He'd probably be dead if Dante didn't show up when he did. Anything from here on out could only be a bonus.

A smile crossed his face, a genuinely happy one. He had his life, and he'd found someone who was being nice to him, like he wasn't some unwanted menace. Not too bad, considering the previous highlight of the day had been feeling like a monster.

"Yeah," he said, as they walked side by side under a sunset sky, "Pissing you off would be a really bad idea."

Yeah, so as you may have noticed, I've made a few corrections, and I forgot to replace the author's note in Chapter 1 and this chapter. I'm not going to replace them now, because I'm too lazy :P I will remember to replace the others, though.

Cyaz