Chapter XXXIV: The Secret Books

Tsuine couldn't forget Byron's words before he vanished at the hands of his own sister. He had, with much determination, tried to open the books, but they wouldn't share their secrets with him. Oftentimes hours flew over his head as he tried to puzzle out the mysteries that rested in the pages of those books. Nothing he tried worked. The blue and silver book looked like it should have been able to open. There was nothing that looked like it could be a lock on it. The red book, however, had an old-style keyhole dead center. The odd thing was, this didn't appear until he touched the cover. That meant that it probably had something to do with his element being Fire. He needed Ranmyaku to touch the other one before he could try and figure out the way to open them both.

One night, thoroughly frustrated after not getting this after a couple weeks of trying, he grabbed the red book and shook it, one loose scrap of paper floating out from between the pages. He'd been sitting in Quinton's library, in a soft chintz armchair hunched over the book, just staring at it. Curiosity burning, he picked up the page and read it.

How would you rearrange the letters in "new door" to make one word?

The fire demon's head hit the table with a very audible thud. Not more riddles! He couldn't deal with anymore of those. But he had to learn the secrets of these books. If they were important enough that Byron would take them from his family's library, there had to be something to be learned here. So he wrote New Door on a piece of paper and rearranged them a thousand ways, but didn't create a word--not one that actually existed in any language anyway. But he was a Faian, and Faians were not quitters. They didn't know what it meant to give up.

It wasn't until the sun was rising that he thought he should give up. He hadn't made any progress. Maybe he should just give up. He rested his head on the table and drifted off to sleep. He'd deal with this after some much needed shut eye.

Of course, his bookkeeper came in with a loud hoopla as soon as his consciousness slipped away.

"Good morning my faithful companion!" He said brightly, leaning on the demon's head as he regarded the work he'd been up all night doing. Tsuine wondered, for perhaps the millionth time since he came to earth, why he had been paired up with such an unreasonable partner. Sure he listened to him on the field of battle, but when they were alone, Quinton acted like a total child.

"I've been up all night trying to make new door into one word. I haven't been successful so far."

Although it was certainly not what the demon wanted to hear at that moment, his bookkeeper began to laugh and he got an odd idea. Could he know the answer? Could he know what bizarre word could be made from new door?

He wished though, that the older human wouldn't lean on him while he answered the question. When his weight finally lifted he saw the two words new door and lines drawn from each letter, until they had created the phase one word. Whoa. He totally didn't see that one coming. But now that the fire demon had the answer, he was going to sleep this all off and figure it out that night.

With that, Tsuine passed out and became dead to the world as we know it.

Quinton gave a weak chuckle and left his partner to sleep in the library. All the deities real or fake knew that he deserved it after all that's happened. Now they could just sit back and relax, if only for a little while.

As soon as he thought this, the phone rang and the caller ID said that it was Asuru, Ranmyaku's bookkeeper. If they were calling them, then there was no way what was going on here could be good. If it was good, then the ice demon would persuade her human partner to keep it a secret from them. The Aisu girl was surprisingly petty like that.

It was Ranmyaku herself talking, when he picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Quinton, can I talk to Tsuine?"

"He's sleeping. I can take a message if you want." He responded to her, staring at the door to his library and imagining what Tsuine would say if he was on the phone. They'd probably argue each other into submission. Their family's rage towards each other had long since seeped into their skin. Even though they were working together, it was pbvious that they would turn on each other at the drop of a hat.

There was silence on the other end of the phone as Rammy contemplated this. "Alright then. Are you sitting down for this one? You might wanna grab a chair."

With that the ice demon explained what had happened. She explained about the ghost that had begun to haunt her and how it was actual Zanna's deceased boyfriend whom she killed. He was named Bo. The Ice demon went on to explain that she wanted to go and confront Zanna about it, but no one else wanted to go along with the plan. Shun would meet them in London, where Zanna was supposedly stationed, but if it was just the two of them there was no way they would survive. They needed more help.

"Alright. Count us in. I'm sure Tsuine would love to go with you guys. He especially wants to defeat the Nikomonsuta inside of Zanna."

Ranmyaku thanked Quinton for agreeing to come. Of course, he just needed to get Tsuine to go along with it. His guess was that his partner would be Gung Ho about the entire idea. Why not? It was a chance for revenge. It was also a chance to rush in blindly and get all their asses sent back to the mamodo world, but still.

Why shouldn't he go along with it?

BAM! New chapter. I'm going to put up a new poll soon... and update my other Zatch Bell Story...