Dante stared closely at Nat's sleeping face, bored out of his mind.
"Nat," he said. "Nat, wake up." When Nat didn't respond, Dante started poking him.
"Hey." Poke. "Wake up." Poke. "Hey, wake up." Poke, poke. "Nat, wake up." Poke, poke, poke. "Nat." Nudge. "Naaaat." Shove. "Naaaaaat." Dante took a hold of Nat's arm and started shaking him vigorously from side to side. "Naaaaaaaaaaaaaat!"
Suddenly, Dante was bonked rather sharply on the head, and he let go of Nat immediately.
"What the hell are you doing to an injured person, dumbass..."
Dante rubbed his head, which now had a bump on it, and turned to see Kira standing behind him, looking slightly irritated.
"I was bored..." Dante replied.
"Well, that isn't his fault, now, is it?" Kira said. "Leave him alone. He and Jo need their rest."
"But..."
"No buts!" Kira pulled Dante away from the side of Nat's bed, spun him around so he was facing the door and pushed him towards it. When Dante looked back at her with big puppy dog eyes, Kira simply waved him off with both hands. "Shoo."
When she was sure Dante had left, Kira turned around and snuck over to the area between Nat's bed and Jo's. She checked both of them to make sure they were properly asleep. When she had satisfied herself, a mischievous grin spread across her face. She dug into her pocket, pulled out a black permanent marker, and leaned over Jo. Uncapping the marker, she carefully brought it down to Jo's face.
"What you're doing is even worse!" Dante exclaimed, standing right behind her. She jumped at the sudden loud sound, and the marker slipped and drew a squiggly line across Jo's face. Kira and Dante stared at Kira's handiwork with comical horrified expressions.
"N-Now see what you've done!" Kira whispered furiously, turning on Dante.
"I didn't do anything!" Dante quietly exclaimed. "You were the one with the marker!"
"If you didn't yell so suddenly –" Kira sighed and turned back to Jo. "Look it doesn't matter who did what. If she sees this when she wakes up, we're both dead!"
"What do you mean, we? You're the only one at fault here!"
"That only happened because you yelled into my ear, dumbass!"
"Ahem!" They turned to see a nurse standing right behind them, looking down at them crossly. "And just what do you think you're doing to these patients?"
Dante and Kira immediately pointed at each other accusingly. "She/He did it!"
"I don't care who did it! You're both coming with me!" The nurse grabbed at both of them, but the mamodo ducked under her arms and ran past her.
"Run for it!" Kira yelled, and sprinted out of the room, Dante right beside her. The nurse chased after them, but they left her behind in a matter of seconds. They ducked into a room and hid there, pressing themselves against the wall until the nurse ran past. Kira peeked out to make sure she was gone and then leaned back against the wall.
"Phew!" she exhaled, and wiped her brow. "That was close..."
Dante looked up and spotted a clock on the wall opposite – it was almost 2:30.
"Ah!" he exclaimed. "If we don't head down now, we're gonna be late! Come on!" He pulled Kira out into the hallway and the two hurried to the culinary wing of the hospital.
The two stopped in front of a woman in a hairnet and an apron when they arrived, and she looked down at them.
"Dante and Kira reporting for duty, miss!" Dante said, saluting her.
"Just in time, too," the woman said, glancing at the clock on the wall. She walked away and came back with a pair of aprons and hairnets. "Here you go."
"Ugh, do we always have to wear these?" Kira complained, taking the larger apron and hairnet. "They're really fucking nasty." Dante flinched slightly, then took the other set and quickly put them on.
"Yes, you do," the woman said, choosing to ignore Kira's colourful choice of words. "Now put them on quickly and follow me." She walked off, and the two mamodo followed, Kira grudgingly putting on her hairnet and apron. The woman led them to one of many sinks piled high up with dirty dishes.
"You'll be working here today," the woman informed them, turning to them. "Make sure not to break anything this time." She looked pointedly at Kira, who made a face and held her arms out in a way that said, 'What?'
"Understood," Dante said, nodding. The woman nodded curtly and walked off, and Dante and Kira started on the dishes.
Two days had passed since the battle with Ranjit and since Nat and Jo were brought to the hospital. Because Jo couldn't pay for the treatment given by the hospital, and Nat and Dante's trip didn't cover medical finances, Dante and Kira had volunteered to help out each day to pay back the debt. This usually just involved washing dishes, but they could do anything else within reason. Kira made a point of making sure they were thought of as just normal kids, so that they didn't have to do anything too ridiculous.
"I still don't understand why your free holiday didn't come with medical insurance," Kira grumbled. She was washing today, and Dante was rinsing off the cleaned dishes and cutlery. "Did they think that you wouldn't be injured here or something? Fucking idiots..."
Dante flinched again and sweat-dropped. "W-well, at least we can pay off the debt this way. It's a good thing that Nat and Jo weren't seriously hurt, or we'd be in trouble."
"I guess..." Kira muttered. The two washed in silence for a while.
"... Hey..." Kira said suddenly. Dante looked at her. "I just realised I haven't thanked you guys properly yet for what you did."
"Ah, well, you don't have to –"
"Yes, I do. If it wasn't for you guys, that son of a bitch would have killed Jo, and I wouldn't be here right now. And it's not like you even had to help – we gave you no reason to do so – but you did anyway. So..." She looked down at the dishes. "Thank you."
Dante grinned. "Any time!"
"Hopefully there won't be another time," Kira said flatly. "I'd rather not get beaten almost to death twice, thanks."
"You kinda deserved it for holding back so much..."
"How many times do I have to tell you? We were fighting with our full power! You're just stupidly powerful!"
Dante shook his head. "I just can't believe that. No one could be that weak."
"Fuck's sake..." Kira muttered. Dante flinched again at Kira's swearing, and Kira noticed. She raised an eyebrow.
"You flinch an awful lot whenever I swear," she noticed. "Does it bother you or somethin'?"
"Ah, n-no, it's not that..." Dante replied, sweat-dropping. A smirk came across Kira's face.
"Oh, really?" she said. "So I guess you wouldn't mind if I was to fire off a fuck-bomb right now, right?" Dante flinched again.
"W-well, actually –" he hastily replied, but he was too late.
"Fuuuuck, fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck," Kira went, flapping her arms like a chicken. Dante flinched each time she swore.
"K-Kira!"
"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Kira continued, grinning as Dante flinched each time she swore. "Fuck-fuck-fuckity, fuck-fuck-fuckity-fuck!" Dante almost dropped the dish that he was rinsing off multiple times.
"Q-quit it!" he exclaimed. Kira ignored him and continued dropping F-bombs for another half-hour, with Dante pleading for her to stop. It finally stopped when some of the other staff came over and asked her to stop after she started warbling the word to the tune of "Asshole!"
Jo woke up earlier than Nat for once. She yawned, blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then glanced over at Nat, who was still asleep. A strangely sad expression crossed her face as she took in all his bandaging.
To think... He took all that damage because he was protecting us... she thought. I still can't imagine it...
Suddenly, Nat's eyes opened.
"Oh, good morning, Jo," he greeted. Jo blushed a bit and quickly turned away as Nat yawned and sat up. "Are you just waking up as well?"
"U-um, no," Jo replied, looking down into her lap. "Actually, I woke up a few minutes before."
"Ah," Nat said. "How're you feeling?"
"I'm doing alright, actually. It doesn't hurt that much to move my arm any more, and my side only really hurts if I try to stretch it out as far as I can, which is more than I usually do, anyway," Jo said. "What about you?"
"Oh, I'm fine!" Nat replied, grinning. "It's more like a dull ache all over my body now, instead of spikes of pain. So I can move normally without too much trouble."
"That's great!" Jo said, beaming.
"Yeah –" Nat stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the squiggly line across Jo's face. Jo raised an eyebrow at his expression.
"What?"
"Ah, n-nothing," Nat said, quickly turning away in order to stop himself from laughing out loud. Jo frowned.
"Whaaaat?" she prompted, trying to get a glimpse of Nat's face. "What is it?"
"I-it's nothing, really!" Nat blurted out, avoiding Jo's gaze.
"Seriously, Nat, what's wrong?" Jo asked. "Do I have something on my face or what?"
Nat stiffened. Realisation crossed Jo's face.
"Is that it?" she prompted. "I have something on my face, don't I?"
"Well, sort of..." Nat said. He handed her the mirror on the table in between their beds, and she looked in it and saw Kira's handiwork. A low groan escaped her lips.
"Kira!" she groaned. Nat let out a chuckle, but went silent when Jo shot him a look.
In a remote location, the winged mamodo sat in a large study, studying something intently, when her subordinate walked in.
"Um, ma'am?" he said questioningly.
"Sshhh!" the winged mamodo hissed. "I've almost found the location of the place we need to go to next!"
"Oh!" Her subordinate's eyes widened. "Amazing!"
"SSHHHH!" The winged mamodo shushed him again. "I need to concentrate. The answer we've been looking for is right here somewhere... I've almost got it..."
"Oh, well..." her subordinate said quietly. "I just came to tell you that BlackRose went out on a scouting mission, and I was just wondering –"
"Wait, what?" The winged mamodo sharply turned around and stared at her subordinate. "What did you just say?"
"U-um, BlackRose went out... on a scouting mission –"
"No!" the winged mamodo yelled. "No, no, no! Tell her to come back! Tell her to come back right now!"
"B-but she's already in Japan, and she said she found a potential recruit–"
"I don't care! Tell her to come back here right this instant! She has to come back as soon as possible! It's really important that everyone's here, otherwise –" She stopped and let out a low groan. "Aw, DAMMIT!" She slammed her fist down on the table in front of her, breaking it cleanly in half.
"Wh-what happened...?"
"I've lost it! The answer was on the tip of my tongue, and now I've lost it!" The winged mamodo's subordinate looked on, slightly terrified. "God damn it, BlackRose!"
"U-um... Can I help somehow...?"
The winged mamodo let out a sigh. "No. Look, just go and get BlackRose back to base." Her subordinate hesitated. "GO!" Her subordinate jumped.
"Y-yes, ma'am!" he replied, bowing quickly and rushing out of the room. The winged mamodo held her head in her hands and let out another small groan.
Why do things always get in the way, damn it all... Well, I guess I just have to start over.
Back in Japan, Austin and Jiko were sitting in the sandbox in the park, building a sandcastle.
"Jiko! Austin! Come on, time to go!"
The two looked over to the gate to see Kyle standing there. Jiko grinned and waved.
"Hi, Kyle!" she called. She got to her feet and dusted herself off, then turned to Austin. "Come on, Kyle's here to pick us up."
"Awww, but... Sandcastle..." Austin whined.
"We can always finish it later," Jiko said. "As long as Ritchie doesn't kick it down again..."
"Heh." Austin grinned. "Ritchie won't come anywhere near this box if he sees I've been working on it." He got to his feet and dusted off his mantle. "Okay, we'll finish it tomorrow. Let's go."
Jiko nodded, and the two mamodo children walked over to the gate to meet Kyle, who greeted them with a grin.
"Sup, guys!" he said. "That's a pretty cool castle you're building there. You want I should wait so you can finish it?"
"No, it's fine," Jiko said. "We can finish it tomorrow."
"Okay, if you're sure," Kyle said, shrugging. "How're you doing, Austin? Mizuno treating you humanely?"
"Well, actually, he's been better than I thought he would," Austin said. "He's just been sleeping in all week, so he's pretty much just left me alone to do what I want. Of course, that means I won't have anything to do when I get home..."
Jiko suddenly had an idea. "Hey, Austin, do you wanna come over to Kyle's house? We could always drop you off later."
Austin's eyes widened. "Oh, could I do that?" He and Jiko looked up at Kyle, who shrugged.
"Don't see the harm," he said. "I'm sure Mizuno wouldn't mind!"
"Yes!" Austin punched the air, and he and Jiko high-fived.
"Thanks, Kyle!" Jiko squealed, and hugged Kyle's legs.
Kyle grinned. "No problem. Now come on, let's go. It's getting late."
"Yessir!" the two mamodo said, saluting. Kyle chuckled, and the three started off down the street.
"I can't wait to show you all the cool stuff at our house!" Jiko said excitedly, as they walked. "This is gonna be so awesome!"
"Yeah!" Austin grinned. "Can't wait!"
He suddenly froze, eyes widened. Jiko and Kyle stopped and looked back at him, puzzled.
"Um, Austin...?" Jiko called. "Is something wrong?"
Austin snapped out of his trance and shook his head. "N-no, it's nothing." Jiko frowned, but decided to leave the matter.
"Okay, if you say so..." she said. "Well, then, come on!" She and Kyle started off again, and Austin hastily followed.
On a nearby rooftop, a small figure stood and watched Austin as he walked off. It was a cute girl about ten years old, with darkly tanned skin, short red hair styled into pigtails with her bangs parted sideways with a rose hairclip, as well as lines on her face, three for each side, starting at the bottom of her black eyes and running down to her cheekbones. She wore a long, bell-sleeved red shirt under a black, rose-patterned vest, black shorts, and black and red knee-high boots.
"Hmm~," she hummed. "I wonder if you still remember your old friend, Austin... Well, of course he would. How could he forget me, of all people? Will you be happy to see me, I wonder?"
The transmitter in her ear suddenly crackled to life.
'BlackRose? BlackRose, can you hear me?' a voice called.
"Yeah, yeah, I can hear," the girl replied. "What do you want?"
'Look, you have to come back right now. Ma'am's orders.'
"Wait, what?" BlackRose cried. "But I'm already tracking the recruit! Gimme five minutes."
'No, BlackRose, you need to get back here RIGHT NOW. Ma'am is in a bad mood, and you really don't want to make it worse.'
BlackRose sighed. "FIIIIINE. I get it. I'm on my way." She switched off the transmitter and looked down at Austin, who was now much further down the street.
"Tch," she exhaled. "You got lucky this time, blacky-boy. I'll come after you and your friends some other time." She quickly leaped off the rooftop, onto another one, and started moving in the opposite direction.
And just as I predicted... -_- Not even 24 hours has passed, and I've already got out a new chapter. Oh, well. *shrugs* I hope you liked it!
Thanks to the people who've reviewed: Seto-Yami Lord of Darkness(XD I think you've knocked him out... Keep him. Now he reeks of mackerel. XP), thatguy3331(I'm reading your story as soon as I can, I promise! And thanks!), Bren Tenkage(you can say that again. XD), and shadowdawg96(you think so? :D)! I realise I'm not being very fair, as I haven't given enough time for everyone else to review, but blame my lack of writer's block. :P Thanks to the readers as well!
STILL ON SEMI-HIATUS, DAMMIT. DX Oh, and Asshole! is an actual song. XD It's pretty good. You can listen to it here: new grounds . com /audio/listen/106777(no spaces)
Mamodo debut: BlackRose
Submitted by: DeathySophia
Well, signing off, since the internet's almost dead now, so,
Cyaz!