Chapter 11: Bedtime and Breakfast-time

Nihao! That's Chinese for 'hello'. I felt like saying it. My chess team qualified for the state competition! I'm so happy! (As you can guess from my penname, I really like chess, though I'm not too good.) But I may have to go to England during that time… At times, I hate travels. No… Now that that useless information's out of the way, I can actually begin to write the story,

Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own Konjiki no Gash Bell or the Mushrooms of Time! Big surprise! I don't own anything at all here except for my OCs.

Now, on to the story!

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Sherry had given Amaya the name and address of the hotel they were staying at and told her to meet outside of it at six-thirty the next morning. Though Hyphae had protested such an early meeting time, Amaya agreed after hitting her partner with the notebook. The Japanese teenager dragged the squealing demon away by her red cloak, much to the relief of Brago.

"So that's the mushroom team…" Brago muttered. He already disliked Hyphae.

"She seemed nice," Sherry absently voiced aloud, referring to Amaya. Her mind was elsewhere, as she was wondering how Amaya cast spells, anyway, and what sort of spells they would have. Sherry was also asking herself what to do with the rest of the day. She honestly didn't expect to find the other team so quickly.

"You better be referring to the human," said Brago, rubbing his cheek where Hyphae had punched him.

…………..

Somehow, Sherry had managed to kill the rest of the day in an art museum without Brago complaining too much. After taking a taxi cab back to the hotel, Sherry decided to get into her pajamas and read in the hotel bed.

The air conditioner wouldn't turn off. It was busted. Sherry had already called the concierge-they said they'd get a repairman up there in the morning. Though it was warm summertime outside, in the room it was most certainly not. Sherry quickly made her way to the bed and opened up a novel.

Brago, who was sitting on the foot of the bed, apparently staring into space, let out a tiny yawn as Sherry turned one of the pages of her book.

"Tired?" she asked as Brago got off the foot of the bed to rest in the armchair on the opposite side of the room. The demon didn't answer; he just closed his eyes and lay back on the cushion. Apparently he was. Sherry went back to reading her novel.

Sherry heard the demon stir several times. When she finally looked up from her book, he was curled up on the seat, but he soon turned in other directions, and he didn't look very comfortable in any of them. Before she could think about it, Sherry blurted, "You need more rest than you're going to get there. How about you sleep here in the bed?"

Sherry immediately felt incredibly stupid for asking this, remembering Brago was indeed fourteen, not six…

Brago, who had developed a great dislike for the armchair, however, did not refuse the offer, but went over to the very opposite edge of the mattress, almost to a place where he could fall off the edge, which he soon did.

Sherry couldn't help but suppress a small laugh as he stood back up, slightly shaken.

"That was not funny," Brago muttered as he climbed back onto the bed, this time not so far from the edge, and closer to Sherry.

"You're right, it wasn't," said Sherry, the traces of a smile still lingering on her face.

Sherry shut her book, set it on the bed stand and turned the lamp she had been reading by out.

"Don't sleep late like yesterday," said Brago coldly as he shut his eyes, and curled up under the covers as refuge from the evil that was the broken A/C.

"Goodnight," Sherry responded, somewhat irritably, closing her own eyes.

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It was six thirty-two.

"They're late," said the small girl, crossing her arms. "We could have slept two more minutes, but no, we just had to come this early," said Hyphae, looking at the clock through the window of the hotel.

A whack in the nose with a notebook stopped the whining about the two-minute delay, but started Hyphae on a 'why-did-you-hit-me-Amaya?' tirade.

Amaya's attention turned away from her partner and towards the rotating door of the hotel as a woman in a pink dress and a small boy clad in black walked out.

Amaya tapped rather loudly on the hotel glass to draw Sherry's attention, and waved as she noticed the noise and turned to them. She opened up her notebook to write, "How about breakfast? Hyphae and I haven't eaten."

"We haven't eaten, either," said Sherry.

"Do you know any good places around here?" Amaya scribbled.

"I'm not from around here, so I wouldn't know any. Why don't we eat at the restaurant at the hotel?"

Amaya nodded, and then turned to Hyphae, almost glaring.

"What?" The demon looked up at her bookkeeper with innocent-looking eyes, an expression Amaya had learned not to trust.

"I'll be good if you take us to a buffet for lunch…" Hyphae said, smiling a little. This earned a harsh glare in her direction.

"The hotel restaurant it is," said Sherry, turning around and going back through the rotating door, shortly followed by Brago and the mushroom team.

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As the waiter cleared the plates, Amaya opened her notebook on the table. "What first?" she wrote, tilting the notebook to where Sherry could read it.

"We are going to fight a battle together, right? We should probably know about each other's spells, and maybe practice some of them," Sherry answered.

Brago, narrowed his eyes. When Sherry finally decided she wanted to train, it just had to be with that stupid mushroom-girl…

"Where do we go to practice spells? Do we head out to the Dunes, or get a driver and find a field out in the suburban hell of Northwest Indiana?" Sherry figured the girl had been doing her research about the surrounding area, but what did Amaya have against Northwest Indiana? After a short pause, Amaya added, "I don't care for the suburbs much. They're pretty dull and not very scenic."

"What?" asked Brago, who could not read.

"Nothing, just something about saving your relationship with Sherry," said Hyphae.

"I understand that making out might be uncomfortable due to your age difference," she finished, crossing her arms under the spotted red cloak.

Amaya picked up the notebook and whacked Hyphae on the cheek as hard as she could. Brago, who was certain that Amaya's note had not had anything to do with matters such as that, glared at the girl in the strange hat.

"I'm so sorry," Amaya wrote. "I should have never let her look through the cheap romance novels at the bookstore in the airport."

"It's… no problem, really," Sherry said, though it sounded as if there was.

"So, to the Dunes!" cheered Hyphae happily.

The others sitting at the table had not recovered from her previous statement.

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Yeah, this chapter pretty much just served to move the story along. Nothing actually happened…. Sorry. Something will happen in a few next-times, I swear!

Review or you'll contract smallpox! ... What?! It's been eliminated from the world?! … Oh, I see… Well, there are imaginary donuts for the reviewers… So review!