Chapter 11: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
It was another day at school for the mamodo and book keepers. Joe was busy at work in class, bored to death in his reading, while Dusk was struggling to escape the evil wrath of his self-proclaimed girlfriend. Joe often heard the faint screaming of his new partner from the 'Mamodo Room', but luckily, it was muffled enough that no one else heard it or thought much of it, but it often distracted him from his reading.
Soon enough, though, the day had come to a close with the mighty ringing of the school bell. Joe quickly picked up his things, and set out to the mamodo room.
He pulled the door open with one hand, only to find his mamodo tied up with silver, metal chains, lying on the ground and being smothered with affection by his new girlfriend. Rifenno, Edward and Lily (the flower girl) had already been taken home for the day, as Joe had spent 15 minutes talking to his teacher after class.
"Amanda… please get off of Dusk, he needs to come home with me…" Joe sighed, realizing there was little hope that he would get his partner free.
"But we're playing! Can't you come back later?" Amanda pleaded, holding Dusk tightly.
"What are you playing that's so important?" Joe asked, still with a tone in his voice of already decided defeat.
"We're playing husband and wife. I'm the wife, and he's my husband." She smiled, still holding tightly to Dusk.
"I didn't agree to this, I want a divorce!" Dusk shook wildly to try and free himself, but, once again, finding himself unsuccessful.
"Aww, aren't you just cute!! I love you so much, Duskie-poo!" Amanda kept her arms around her 'husband', suffocating him gently through her chains. Joe sighed again, and grabbed the chain-ridden Dusk from her arms, and slinged him over his shoulder by his feet, so he dangled upside-down. He left silently, but his exit was made loud by the protesting of Amanda, kicking her feet and screaming while being dragged across the floor holding onto Joe's pants.
"You two can play lovey-dovey tomorrow. Just let us go home…" Joe kicked his foot back and snapped Amanda's hands from his pants, after which she got up, dusted herself off, and ran off smiling, as if she had gotten exactly what she wanted. Joe left the school and headed off for his home, with Dusk still pulled over his shoulder, not protesting as he did save him from Amanda.
"Can you get these chains off me? I hate not being able to move my arms… feels weird." Dusk asked, trying to sound as nice as he could so Joe would return the favour.
"When we get home, Dusk." Joe replied, still feeling worn out.
"But… but, I really need to move my arms. Now."
"When we get home!"
"AHH! FREAKING OUT, FREAKING OUT, NEED TO MOVE MY ARMS!! LEMME GO, LEMME GO!" Dusk started yelling, shaking wildly and pulling himself from Joe's grip, falling onto the pavement and writhing around wildly as if he was having a seizure.
"Alright, alright! I'll get it off of you..." Joe sighed once more, hoisting his little friend upright, knelt down and tried to find a place on the chains where he could loosen it up. "Geez, you kids are such a pain."
"Just hurry up, I wanna get home too. I'm freakin' hungry!" Dusk kept complaining, as if he had a never-ending source of things to whine about.
"Shut up, and let me work…" Joe kept inspecting the chains, when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Kofaru." Said a grizzly voice, as if the person talking had a sore throat. Joe turned his head to see who was there, but was immediately struck by a fast moving, strong projectile before he could see who was speaking, knocking him up into the air a little bit and sending him sliding across the pavement a bit further back, falling on his stomach. Dusk, however, was sent flying into the air, spinning rapidly in flips and twists, and landed not far from Joe, landing perfectly upright.
"Oh yeah, ten points for the landing!" Dusk exclaimed excitedly. Joe, on the other hand, had been hurt and saw a little blood rubbed into the pavement. He felt the cuts on his face, and flinched a little as his finger laid across them. Joe quickly whipped his head back to see his attacker.
Behind him were a scruffy man, in his late 30s, and a small little girl, dressed in a princess outfit decorated with jewels. The older man held a glowing saffron book, and Joe quickly put the pieces together.
"Dusk, it's another mamodo! We have to fight back!" Joe exclaimed, as he ran behind Dusk for cover, just like his opponent was.
"Uh, kinda tied up here at the moment. Can you get these off of me first?" Dusk complained, not particularly caring about his moderately injured book keeper.
"Hah! I see you two aren't very prepared for a battle… this will be too easy." Cackled the little girl, holding the back of her hand against her cheek. "Leo, another spell! Shoot them down!" The older man held the book close to his face and read directly from its texts.
"Right, Mirudio…" He groaned, and held the book tight as it shone brightly. "Kofaru!" He shouted, as a second crystal, about the size of a baseball or so, was launched from her hands at Dusk and Joe. Joe quickly weaved out of the way as he reached into his bag to retrieve his own book. Dusk, still tied up, managed to flop over onto his face, but in doing so was able to dodge the crystal, as it hurled through the air behind them, slowing in speed until it hit the ground and shattered into glitter.
Joe quickly ran back to his partner and put him right-side up again, and flipped the lime-green book open to his own spell page. "Okay… Alex said that in order for this to work, I gotta say whatever's in here with all my soul!" Joe quickly halted the moving of the pages as he came to the page with glowing text, and held the book tight. "MIGISU!"
Dusk's eyes rolled back into his head, giving a blank stare, as his mouth popped open, and a ball of light began to gather in front of his face, then suddenly, a beam of dark blue light shot from his mouth, directly at his opponent, although simultaneously, the force of his own attack sent him backward, falling on his backside.
The attack shot straight and true, right at Leo and Mirudio, but with enough time to see it coming, they dodged to the side and let the beam continue its travel until it died out.
"Hah! Is that all you two have? More, fire again!" Mirudio took her fighting stance again, knees stretched, one arm pointing out and hand wide open, as her partner spoke a third time.
"Kofaru!"
Another shot of crystal was launched from the palm of her hand, as Joe pulled Dusk from the ground just in time to counter-attack.
"MIGISU!"
Dusk's mouth fired a second beam of dark blue light, firing perfectly straight once again, but Dusk didn't fall over this time, as Joe was supporting him with one hand as he held the book in the other.
The crystal collided head on with the beam of light, but instead of struggling against one another, the beam went right through into the crystal, where it reflected off in a multitude of different directions, hitting the fences of nearby houses, the pavement and some shooting off into the sky before dying out. However, one beam continued straight for Mirudio, and struck her in the chest, knocking her backwards and taking the wind from her chest, as she wheezed from the ground. Mirudio's crystal, however, kept flying and struck Dusk directly in the face, where it pushed him and Joe backwards along the ground, drilling into Dusk's head before slowing down and stopping, where it fell into the ground and shattered once more, into sparkling powder.
"Oowwww… t-that hurt…" Dusk grunted, his right eye closed in pain as he tried to bare it, still trying to balance. Mirudio had already gotten back to her feet, and she was very displeased on the outcome of the last confrontation of attacks.
"How DARE you strike me! Do you not know who I am?! I am Mirudio, and I am a princess!!" She shouted, her eyes glaring viciously, her hands clenched in a fist, and her tiara beginning to slip from her hair.
"Stuff it, Goldilocks…" Dusk grumbled, still wincing a little bit.
"HOW DARE YOU!!" She screamed, as she took her battle stance again and called loudly for her partner. "Leo, end him NOW!" Leo took the book again, but the book began to shine extremely bright, much brighter than it had been in its previous attacks.
"Ganzu Kofaru!" He shouted, as Mirudio launched an entire group of crystals, all still the same size, at Dusk and Joe. Joe quickly reacted again, hoping that something would save them.
"Migisu!" He shouted, as another beam of light poured from Dusk's mouth, shooting for the crystal leading the pack. It went right to its core and shot of in a large variety of different directions once again, flying into the ground, the walls and the sky.
But some shots instead travelled into other crystals, where they redirected into groups of light again, and again, and again, until hundreds of beams of light were bouncing everywhere, and Mirudio was hit by a large number of them, one to her left arm, two to her right arm, two to the head and four to her torso. Her dress was torn in the places where the light made contact with, and she was flung a great distance until she made contact with the ground again, tumbling and rolling until coming to a complete stop at a face-down position.
The fired crystal group still went forwards and struck the chains that bound Dusk in several places, breaking them and shielding the attack. Many of the crystals simply flew past them, or hit walls as they flew and broke. Dusk was now able to move himself, and quickly took aim at the now weakened Mirudio. Leo had already run back and was trying to support her up; she was badly hurt and barely able to stand without assistance. Joe clutched his book tight, the spine supported over his arm, and Joe gave a mighty cry.
"MIIIGIIISUUU!!" Beams of light swarmed in from all around, gathering in the ball of energy just resting in front of Dusk's mouth until it swelled to the size of Dusk's head, and an incredible beam of dark blue light burst forth, and completely engulfed Leo and Mirudio with its power. The beam came to a stop, and Leo was on the ground with his partner beside him. Their saffron book was engulfed in blue flames, and Mirudio began to disappear into the air with little sparkles around her dissolving into the sky.
Mirudio pulled her head up just enough to see that her book was burning. She looked sad, but had no strength of her own to try and put out the fires. She simply let her face hit the ground and disappear. There was a faint whimpering sound, as if she was crying. The last corner of the book burned up, and Mirudio vanished, and returned to the mamodo world. Her book keeper lay motionless. He was not dead, just exhausted from their battle. Joe quickly ran to him and propped him up against a nearby lamppost and hoped that he would be okay. Joe and Dusk quickly left together, and made for home, which was very close by. Their walk was silent, as Dusk was half-injured and Joe was stunned by the recent events.
They arrived, took their shoes off at the front door, and Dusk sat down at the kitchen table, while Joe fetched a little food for himself and his partner. He noticed that his face was scratched up, and Dusk's was as well. He decided he would bathe that night.
"That was… quite something, Dusk." Joe told his mamodo partner, drinking a can of soda while sliding Dusk a spare tub of ice cream that Joe had bought for him previously. Dusk grabbed it and devoured it happily, yet almost in a scary way.
"Yeah… well, you'd better get used to it, 'cause there's gonna be tons more of this just yet." Dusk said in between spoonfuls of chocolate ice cream.
"I'll try… but it'll take some time to adjust." Joe sighed, and simply relaxed. Dusk quickly cleaned out the entire tub and started licking the insides. The two of them slept rather well that night.
But, during the night, Joe hadn't been awake to see his book begin to shine a bright lime green…
