Freaking Disclaimer: I do not own any theme/characters from Zatch Bell

What I do own/did create: Blake, Senjei, Alicia, and Keigo

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- I woke up a half an hour later propped up against a tree. My first thought was the cliché, It all must've been a dream, and of course upon further analysis ((the fact I was still holding the book, and that Senjei was asleep against the tree across from me)) it wasn't. Typical cliché ((groan)). Anyways, I stood up, instinctively brushing off my butt of any dirt or twigs or whatnot. Pointlessly, I leafed through the book a bit. Pointless considering all I could read was "Cresca" and I still didn't know what really happened when I did.

- I shut the book and took a minute to decipher what my next move would be. Well, I thought, I'm here in the woods with a punk-rock ninja kid who is also a musician, who can use his music skills to do crazy stuff… I glanced down at the book …depending on what I read here from the book, which is currently only one thing. I took a mental deep breath, since that's what I would have done if I had been talking aloud, stupid I know, but that's me. So now there are two questions: What, in fact, is Senjei… I had concluded by this point that he was not human …and why is he here? Ok, two questions without answers and not a clue as to where to start from to find the answers. I tapped my index finger on the old White cover of the strange book I had in thought. I can be stupid sometimes can't I? "The book." I thought out loud and smacked my head with it. These answers just had to be in the book, the problem was, I couldn't read it.

- My talking and banging had woken Senjei, who got up and stood close to my leg, staring out into nothing ((wow, light sleeper)). He, next to me, made me feel something; it wasn't as much as a physical feeling more than it was a…different feeling. The sensation was like recognizing someone you haven't seen for a while, except I wasn't looking at him, and I just met him. It's something you have to experience yourself to understand. Anyways, that wasn't really on my mind. What I was thinking about was the thaumaturgy that had happened just moments ago. The tree that appeared to have been hit by a miniature hurricane had failed to, and probably won't ever again, erect into its original state. I pictured the musical magic that happened moments ago and wondered yet again about the two questions that I have stated above. I placed the book in front of Senjei. "You can't read this can you?" The pink-haired Senjei shook his head. "Do you know anything about what you are? And why you're here?"

- The big blue eyes stared back at me, hinting no sign of any emotion whatsoever as he said, "I've been trying to remember things like that since you had me cast that spell. All I can remember is that I should be fighting. I don't know why that is, but it's what I'm supposed to do." I pondered a second and realized that it made sense. His power did seem offensive, so I could imagine him being a fighter. But still the question lingered, "Why was he here?"

- Well, I wasn't going to figure out the answer in the next 15 minutes just standing here in the woods. Procrastination was definitely the best bet in this situation. Putting off the problem for a later time, I grabbed my clarinet and said to Senjei. "Come on, since you're my new partner, and you don't seem to have a home, you can stay at my house." I beckoned the Bihawked kid to follow me, he obliged. Ten minutes later, we approached the front steps of my house. It hadn't occurred to me until this time that I would have to explain Senjei to the parents. I debated in my mind whether it was better to tell the truth, or to land a big lie. Opting that it would quite a chore to think up an untrue story behind Senjei, I was going to tell the truth. Oh boy, this one will be good.

- I pushed the door open quietly, trying to buy some time for thinking up how I was going to say this. I packed up my clarinet and put it back in the closet, and after letting Senjei in, closed the door to find my Mother standing behind it. I yelped in surprise at the sight of her cross face just beyond the wooden structure. "Oh, hi Mom." I said with a shaking voice.

- I was scolded with a, "Where have you been? I was worried sick."

- For god's sake, I'm 17; I can't go out without Mom having to worry? I thought. Hesitantly, I replied, "Oh, sorry Mom, I got caught up in a thing with a friend I met up with along the way." Now that was a lie.

- She didn't care though, "I told you to be home by supper, and I had to throw it away because it got cold!" She fumed. "And who's this you've got here? Why are you bringing strange kids in the house?"

- I felt kind of strange because she was talking as if Senjei wasn't right there in front of her, which he was, but I could tell he didn't care. I sighed; I didn't want to get in to that so fast and abruptly. "Mom, come and sit down and I'll tell you." I beckoned her into the kitchen and Senjei as well. Mom and I sat at the counter in stools as I told her everything about the woods as Senjei looked around the house from the huge rocking chair in the corner which made him look even smaller than he was already, with exception of his hair of course.

- "So you see," I concluded, "I need to find out what Senjei is really all about, cuz no one wants a reckless, ninja-musician who can blow things into oblivion running amuck." I tried to say with a straight face. "Which means," here was the big one, "I'll have to skip the rest of the school year." That was a mistake.

- For the next 15 minutes, I was yelled at and lectured about how important my education was for me and all that crap mothers lecture about when you tell them you want to skip school. For another 15 minutes after that, I was having a rough time arguing and convincing her that I was the best Pianist in the school's history and that I could probably get into any college without ever even having gone to High School.

- In the end, she got mad at me and stormed off saying, "Whatever, I don't care, do whatever the hell you want with your life. Since you've proven to me that what your Mother thinks doesn't matter to you, I don't care. To hell with it." She ran off to her room. I knew she'd get over it eventually, and she would have to, because I was going no matter what she said.

- You know, I don't know why, but at this point, I felt like this was going to be some big quest that would take me to far away places. For all I knew, the answers to my questions could be in my front yard. I checked to see if my anticipations were correct. They weren't. All there was in my front yard was…grass…and other front-yardly things. But that's not important. Senjei was still sitting in the big rocking chair in the corner. Patient little bugger he was. My thoughts about my "mission" I felt were semi-true. I ruled out the idea that I'd have to travel to the four corners of the earth and figured I could stay generally close to home, maybe I'd have to go a few towns over, or maybe a region or two, but nothing too far. But I did know that this would take up my school time. I didn't know why I felt this, but I knew that school would definitely have to go if I wanted to find out about Senjei.

- Half an hour later, I've packed my backpack with some clothes, my clarinet, all the money I could find to bring with me, and a bag of beef jerky. I mean, come on, its beef jerky man! And I have left the house and was on my way to…um…wherever it was I was going. I wasn't too sure really. I cursed myself for being so spontaneous, never planning anything. After thinking a while, I had decided to go to the Library; maybe there were answers there to what language this book was in. So that's just where I had gone to. Some strange things happened in the next hour, so I'll pick up with me already there.

- I had asked the librarian if she recognized the language, she said no but told me to check the "World Books" section of the Library, so I had. I was now sitting at a desk with many books I had pulled from the shelves that looked promising in front of me. So far, none of them had helped; I couldn't find anything that resembled the book or the writing in any of them. Senjei, like his usual self, was just sitting there not helping, but I didn't care too much, by this time I was practically done anyways, I knew I wasn't going to find any information on the abnormal book. I closed several books and stacked them on top of each other ready to put them away, when someone addressed me.

- "Doin' some research or somethin'?" said a girl's voice. I looked up to see an attractive young woman who seemed to be 18 or 19-ish with blonde hair, very cute freckles, an embarrassingly tight shirt, carrying a messenger bag and a cowboy-er-girl hat on.

- "Wha-? Oh yeah, just some research." I said, and glanced over to Senjei who looked up at me. I was just about to come up with a lie to what I was "researching" but whoever the girl was cut me off.

- "S'got anythin' to do with that white book you got there?" She pointed to Senjei's book.

- Well that caught me off guard. I stuttered, "I- uh…uh, I." Then without even thinking I blurted, "How did you know that?"

- She smiled and said, "We'll get to that soon enough. Righ' now I'm goin' to the diner, you wanna come with? It'll be worth yer while, I can guarantee that." She winked and giggled. I wasn't sure how to take that, but dumbstruck, all I did was nod. Much to the later librarian's dismay, I grabbed my book, leaving the others where they were and called for Senjei to follow. The girl also called for someone to follow us, a kid named Keigo. The Keigo kid also had a cowboy hat on and was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. Together, we exited the Library.

- Outside, I asked her how she knew about my book, and she replied, "Patience, hun, patience. You don't want to rush things that fast now do you?" She gave me a sweet simper.

- It was introduction time as we walked to the diner that was down quite a few blocks. "My name is Alicia Abbot, and this here is Keigo." Keigo smiled up at me. I quietly gasped; there was something about Keigo that I recognized, sort of. Something that just seemed familiar, it was like having a déjà vu feeling. He turned away and looked forward, anticipating the diner.

- It took me a while to respond because I was deciphering the connection between Keigo and whatever it was seemed familiar. Alicia coughed and I said, "Oh, sorry, I'm Blake, Blake Kinlion, and this is Senjei." Senjei made no sign of salutations, he merely kept walking. "So, again, how do you know about my book? Do you know what it's for?" I queried.

- Alicia laughed, "You're a feisty one, aren't you, Blake?" She paused to laugh again, "You will know soon enough, look, here's the diner."

- The four of us entered the diner and obliged to the sign that read, "Please seat yourself." Almost instantly a waitress came over, "What can I get ya'll today?" She asked ((Man, what's up with the southerners?)).

- I took the initiative and ordered my meal first, "Um, the Grilled Chicken Hamburger please? No tomatoes." I looked over at Senjei who said simply, not looking up, "A Lemon." The waitress and I exchanged glances and she wrote it down on her pad.

- "I'll have the same Grilled Chicken Hamburger, if ya please." Keigo looked up and told the waitress, "Can I get a Waffle with Vanilla Ice Cream on it?" The waitress nodded and swept off to get our orders.

- Impatiently, I shot a look at Alicia which said "Now!" she giggled again and gave in. "Fine already, so here's the deal. Senjei, there, is what's called a Mamodo." Her accent was cute and made the word sound like Mah-mow-doe, but I wasn't paying attention to that, I was too busy trying to decipher the word rather than how she said it. Before I had time to say "A what?" She chimed in saying, "A Mamodo is a being from a different world, the Mamodo World." Well, that made sense…sorta. "And as you may or may not have already found out, they have special powers." She explained to me the book, the battle, and the King and all that stuff we've all heard before. If you haven't heard it before, please consult "Zatch Bell!" Episode 4: The Great Mamodo Battle.

- So, to summarize it, I said, "So, a hundred of these guys are running around with human partners battling haplessly to gain the throne for the Mamodo King?"

- She smiled and nodded. "Yup, in a nutshell." We had received our food halfway through Alicia's story, and I was having trouble keeping the contents of my Hamburger in between the buns as I listened. Senjei looked like a reclusive punk weirdo who no one talked to as he ate lemons in the corner by himself. He showed no sign of reaction to the sour acids in the lemon, which made him look tough, the effect added by the Balaclava and his bright blue eyes which seemed to see everything around him even though he was staring in one direction.

- I looked over to Keigo, who was happily relishing the savory flavor of his Vanilla Ice Cream, which had, to his delight, come with a couple strawberries with it. Then it hit me; I realized why Keigo looked so familiar. His eyes had the same visage as Senjei's, the same huge deepness only substituted with a bright orange instead of a neon cyan to compliment his jeans.

- Now I got it, Keigo was also a Mamodo; Alicia had failed to recount this. Inferring that Alicia figured out that I figured out what was going on, I asked her, kinda stupidly, "What color's you're book." I scrunched my face at my own stupidity.

- Alicia laughed, she had noticed my reaction to myself ((durn it)) but she replied bubbly, "Pumpkin Orange." Ever notice how some girls can label colors to the very last hue? Crazy girls.

- "So," I said, "Does this mean that you're going to battle me now, take advantage of my inexperience, defeat my Mamodo so that Keigo can become King?" I said this with an expression that showed both a smirk and a frown, I'm not sure how I did this, and I'll never be able to do it again.

- Chuckling, she said, "Naw, I'm not that mean, neither do I wanna fight you, you seem too…nice for me to do that."

- My face got hot when she said this. She giggled again to show that she noticed my blush ((durn it again)). "So…what? Are we friends then? Partners? Are we a team or something?"

- She smiled her southern simper and said, "Or somethin'."

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