Home Sweet Home

XII.

I watched Sherry run away, seeing her slip on the wet ground a few times. My eyes gazed over at my book that was in the puddle. Slowly, I walked toward it. I wasn't too worried about it; a little rain would do no harm. Fire was its enemy, not water. I glanced to where Zophise's book had fallen out of Koko's hands. Zophise knew that well now.

I picked up my book, resting it at my side. My eyes turned to Sherry's fallen friend. Sherry had been through a lot in her life, and this was probably one of the worst. I didn't blame her for feeling angry, but I wasn't about to run after her and apologize for something I didn't do.

I began walking in the direction she ran. I didn't care if she said she never wanted to see me again. I was going to find her and demand that she help me finish this battle. We were so far into the game that finding another bookkeeper was out of the question. I might as well give up before doing that.

I sensed that Sherry didn't get too far. She was probably too exhausted to run the distance she wanted to. I wasn't in any big rush to get to her, so I slowed down my pace, allowing myself to heal along the way. It would give her time to cool off, also.

I never imagined the battle would turn out like it did. I thought about it often, but I always had full confidence I could get rid of Zophise without harming the human. That's what I promised Sherry, after all.

But it would have been impossible for me to save myself, my book, Sherry, and Koko in the situation I was in. Things were happening faster and sooner than I had anticipated. The battle did drag on longer than most, but I wasn't expecting them to get my book so soon. I hated to admit it, but they had us beat. I believed that Sherry and I had failed each other and we were going to pay the consequences. I would be sent back to the mamodo world without being king and she wouldn't get her friend back.

As it turned out, they were their own worst enemy. There was no way for me to predict that she would be in the line of fire after I moved my book. If I would have allowed Sherry to stay where she was…or if she didn't pull me with her…one of us would have been toast.

Better the opposing side than us. That was my opinion.

I didn't have time to dwell on it long, however, before I heard an agonizing scream. It belonged to a male, and I recognized it as sounding oddly familiar. Raising a brow when I heard another scream, I stopped and faced the woods that were to my right.

Out of curiosity, I dismissed my earlier destination and entered through the trees. I saw lightening somewhere above the treetops, but paid no attention. Listening intently, I heard fast footsteps and heavy breathing. Sensing that it was coming from my left, I turned and began running also.

I don't know why I was so curious to see what was going on, but my instincts told me it was something worth witnessing. I caught a flash of red before it disappeared behind a group of trees.

Running faster also, I began dodging trees and bushes left and right, keeping my footing away from many leaves to avoid slipping and slowing down.

I heard whoever it was turn right. I stopped. I remembered being in these woods plenty of times. I assumed the heavy breather would stay in the woods, and would only be going in a large circle. I turned right and ran straight before turning again, estimating that I should run into him in about two minutes.

Sure enough, I was almost right on top of him in a few moments. I waited before jumping out of the brush that separated us. My presence came as such a shock, he fell backward to avoid collision.

My eyes widened when I saw who it was.

The Fire Mamodo.

I raised a brow when I saw how out of breath he was. He was glaring at me, still trying to put up a tough front. But I've seen these situations millions of times before. For whatever reason he had, the last thing he wanted to do was fight with me.

He stood up, his fiery eyes ablaze. He looked around, "Your bookkeeper's not here." Even though he tried to hide it, he couldn't conceal the fact that he was relieved.

"Neither is yours," I noticed. I glanced at his hands, "But I also don't see your book. Someone steal it?"

His glare deepened, "No. And it's none of your business what's going on anyway."

"No?" I questioned before shrugging and turning, "You're right. It's not my business, so I'll let you lose in peace."

Even though it was more of a joke than anything, I was surprised when I heard him scream again. Turning back around, I saw that he was looking at his hands. I was about to mock him and say something about a thorn in his paw, but became amazed when I realized his fingers were no longer there.

"Damn, they found him…damn them!" He grumbled, his arms now disappearing as well.

This can't be possible! I yelled to myself, wanting the Fire Mamodo to go as much as the Fire Mamodo himself did.

He can't…but how! I was supposed to be the one to destroy him! His final fight was supposed to be with me! …And some other team beat him?

I me!

"Who did this?" I asked him. Obviously, whoever it was, was stronger than him. But for so long, everyone was fearing the big, powerful Fire Mamodo. Why have I not heard of a stronger team that everyone fears? Has no one run into them? Were they a team from across the country?

The Fire Mamodo looked up at me when he knew the rest of his body would be going soon as well. Lightening lit up the sky. The mamodo seemed to find this amusing, "Maybe he gets his extra power from the sky on days like this."

"Who?" I asked more urgently. I stepped forward, wishing for him to speak before he was sent back to our world.

He gave me a smirk that said I was oblivious, "Why…the Lightening Mamodo, of course. The owner of the bright red book."

I stared at him blankly for a moment, before my eyes widened in realization.

No…it couldn't be…it just couldn't be!

He made it this far?

The Fire Mamodo disappeared without another word. I continued to stare where he had been, still having a hard time believing the Fire Mamodo was beaten by…

Zatch Bell.

I heard a twig crack behind me. I spun around quickly, spotting none other than Zatch himself with his bookkeeper.

"Huh?" The small mamodo asked, his face still as stupid looking as before. It had been a little over a year since I had spotted him. He grew a little, but I had a feeling he would remain a runt.

He pointed at me, his eyes narrowing and his voice raising with recognition, "Hey, I remember you! You're the one with the black book!" After he said it, he pointed downward to where I was holding my book.

"Good guess…" I said under my breath. I thought about walking away, for at the moment I was mostly defenseless. I couldn't do anything against him without Sherry. However, I found it wiser to not turn my back on them.

"Wow, you're still wandering around, too, huh?" His bookkeeper asked, putting a hand on his hip, "Seems like we made one big circle, doesn't it, Zatch? We ran into one of the very first mamodo's we ever met."

Although I saw nothing amusing about it, Zatch's face broke into a wide smile, his eyes lighting up with fascination, "Yeah, that's right! But…" he began to look around. He looked behind bushes, searched up in trees, and sniffed in a circle around me. He ended up right in front of me after all that, "That girl's not with you! Where is she? Did you guys run in different directions like the Fire Mamodo did?"

"Not exactly," I responded, looking down at him in disgust. How could such a pathetic little thing still be here…and defeat the Fire Mamodo at that? It just didn't make sense.

"Not exactly?" Zatch frowned when he didn't quite understand, "Well, you guys couldn't have run in the same direction. She would be standing in front of me too, if you did."

I didn't feel like explaining what happened to him, so I didn't say anything at all.

He frowned deeper when I didn't answer, "Either way, she's not here right now. That means we can't fight you."

"That's right," his bookkeeper stepped forward, "That wouldn't be fair. I remember when you and…" he stopped to think of her name, "Sherry first came to my house. She explained everything that was going on. You guys had us beat, but decided to give us another chance to get stronger."

I looked away. Remembering that made me regret allowing Sherry to not burn their book even more. I always knew the past would come back to bite us in the ass. Now we were stuck with fighting one of the best teams.

"You didn't take advantage of our weakness then, so we're not going to take advantage of your weakness now." He ended, smiling from his benevolence.

It only made me angry, "I have no weakness! I'll take you on right now," though I was saying it with confidence, I was shaken up inside. I knew I had no chance against them at the moment.

They knew it, too. Zatch blinked before smiling again, "That's really brave of you to challenge us like that. But I don't like unfair fights." He leaned forward, sticking a finger in the air, "Here's an idea. How about you come find us after you find Sherry." Instead of going further into this plan of his, he simply put his hands on his hips and looked up at his bookkeeper proudly, "Pretty good idea, right Kiyo?"

Kiyo rolled his eyes, "Brilliant."

"Ha! I thought so," he turned back to me, "Did you want us to help you find her?"

I gritted my teeth, "I'm capable of doing that myself."

Zatch shrugged, turning away now, "Okay, just asking. Should I set a time limit?"

"I don't think that's necessary, Zatch," Kiyo commented dryly.

"I think it sounds like fun, too! Okay, I'll give you…exactly one day before our fight. That should give you enough time to run," he began to run in place, "look for her," he raised his hand over his eyes to pretend he was looking for something, "and then come back to us!" He raised his arms out to his sides like he was a present popping out of a box.

Kiyo and I stared at him, wondering how far his inanity could go.

"Whatever," I finally said. I wasn't about to ask for more time…that would make me seem weak and desperate for more time to prepare.

"Great! Umm…we'll be around this same place…somewhere. I'm sure you'll be able to find us. See you then!" With that, he waved behind him before they disappeared around some trees.

I didn't realize it until after they left, but from the moment I spotted them, the rain had stopped.

I was back on the street again, continuing my search for Sherry. I walked past the place where our battle had been, noticing many of those cars and people I saw helping others before. I believe Sherry called them ambulances and police. They were taking care of the dead body, also looking around to see if they could determine the cause of death.

Good luck with that.

I walked a couple miles before I came to the bridge. I looked under it, not surprised to see the river water flowing rapidly and raised a good five feet. I'm not sure what made me look on the other side of the bridge, but what I saw at first confused me. Sherry was looking down into the water…but she was on the opposite side of the railing.

She stretched her arms out behind her. Her hands were still supporting her, but her body weight was leaning over the side.

Instantly, I began to run toward her, knowing full well what her intentions were.

Damn you, Sherry. Why must you be so suicidal?

Her right hand lost its grip on the railing. Her fingers on her left hand were slowly slipping. As soon as she had nothing supporting her and was about to fall forward and down into the icy waters, I grabbed her wrist.

She gasped and looked up, her body swaying dangerously against the cement siding.

"Brago?" She asked, almost not believing I was there with her life, literally, in my hands. Suddenly, though, her eyes narrowed and she began shaking her body violently in an attempt to break my grasp, "Let go! This is something I should have done a long time ago!"

I sighed and pulled her arm up with ease, "You know what I'm going to say, don't you?" I asked rhetorically. Before long, I was raising my own arm above my head so we were face to face. I glared at her harder than I ever did before and simply said, "You're an idiot."

With that, I swung my arm back roughly. Her legs banged heavily off the railing before she flew down onto the bridge.

She groaned when she sat up, not sure whether to hold her broken wrist or rub her bruised shins. She glared up at me when she couldn't make up her mind, "Why did you do that! I was so close…"

"I saved you because you still have a purpose in life," I said bluntly.

Sherry put her hand to her forehead before running it back through her hair, "Right. My purpose in life is to help you become king, right?"

I stared down at her blankly. We watched each other for a long moment before I finally spoke, "If you believe that is your only purpose in life, then you're an even bigger idiot than I originally thought." She clicked her tongue at my honesty, "Nonetheless, it is a purpose that deals with me. You're going to fulfill it whether you like it or not."

"That sounds like a threat," she shot back, anger emitting from her eyes.

"No," I disagreed, walking toward her. I bent down when I was in front of her, staring directly into her eyes, "It's called a promise."

Her eyes widened when she realized I had undoubtedly led her in a circle. I thought she was about to relent when she gave me the last of her fight, "You didn't keep your promise!"

I narrowed my eyes and answered immediately, "Didn't I? I said I would free your friend from the evil Zophise placed in her. Death was the way it was supposed to happen." I turned away from her, trusting myself to drop my book beside her, "You should be happy your friend's out of her misery. How do you think she would have felt about herself if she survived after all she's done?" She didn't say anything, so I began walking in the direction of her mansion, "You should think about that before accusing me of breaking my promise."

I was gaining distance from her, my heart pounding in my chest wildly. With everything that had happened today and the day before, I was beginning to question where I was heading.

During the end of this Mamodo Battle, Sherry and I were becoming more than just partners. I could admit that much to myself. What we were becoming, I wasn't yet sure. Somewhere along the way, we began formulating a bond. It was a silent bond between us, one that was so well hidden, we didn't even see it ourselves.

Before long, I heard her beginning to walk behind me. There was no doubt in my mind that she was holding my book close to her chest once again.

We spoke no more words to each other, for all that needed to be said at the moment, was said. I would allow her to return to her mansion and rest again before our battle with the obviously powerful Lightening Mamodo tomorrow.

If she wanted to talk when we got there, I would listen. Though it was strange, I couldn't help but think how out of place Sherry was, here in her home world. Why couldn't she fit in?

Glancing back at her for a quick moment, I couldn't help but notice how depressed she looked. There was little doubt in my mind that she may try to take her life again after I left her world.

That is…unless I granted her a more fulfilling purpose.

Hello everyone! Wow, umm… :rubs back of head: Sorry for killing Koko. I didn't know so many of you would be against it. Most of you said something like "The chapter was good (except the whole Koko dying part)." I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. But don't let it bother you too much. She wouldn't have been in the rest of the story anyway.

In case any of you are wondering, there's gonna be about 3 more chapters.

Enula