Kasek: Alright, here's the third chapter for anyone who might be reading. Peerin, just the disclaimer, please.

Peerin: Kasek does not own Zatch Bell. I wish he did though; I would've been cool in the series.

Nathan: Peerin, that's enough; he said just the disclaimer, he didn't tell you to ramble on and on and…

Kasek: Nathan, that's enough.

Nathan: Yes, sir…

Kasek: By the way, italics represent thoughts, the telephone, and IMing

Chapter 3: Discussion

It was getting dark outside as Kiyo and Zatch sat in the Takamine living room. Kiyo was just sitting on the couch while Zatch watched an old rerun of Kamikiri/Praying Mantis Joe. Kiyo was so deep in thought he wasn't even remotely annoyed by the childish show that was on. So deep in thought, he didn't even realize Zatch was trying to ask him a question. It took him a minute to actually hear Zatch.

"What did you say, Zatch?"

Zatch, with all seriousness in his eyes, asked, "How come Joe's doing the exact same things he did last time he fought this guy?" Kiyo thought for a second before replying.

"Because the television not only let's you see what Joe's doing now, it also let's you see what happened to him in the past, too."

Zatch's eyes sparkled at the news. "THAT'S SO COOL! I can really see Joe's past adventures on the television! I'll be able to witness all of his greatest battles again and again!"

Kiyo returned to his thoughts. He needed a strategy to beat these guys. The nature of their spells was obvious; Peerin would shoot arrows, and Nathan would alter them with his spells. Just what kind of alterations the spells would make, however, Kiyo did not know…

Mrs. Takamine walked into the room, their new wireless phone in her hand. "Kiyo, that Megumi girl is on the phone and wants to talk to you." Kiyo was surprised. He hadn't even heard the phone ring. Had he really been that deep in thought?

"H-hello Megumi, what's up?"

"Hey, Kiyo, I heard an interesting bit of information today; apparently you're getting into a Mamodo battle tomorrow."

"Wait, you met those guys today, too? What were they like? Did they use any of their spells?"

"Hold your horses, Kiyo. One question at a time. We bumped into them in the shopping district. Apparently the Mamodo, Peerin, knew Tia; and not in a good way either. She tried to strangle him on sight! Peerin seemed a little… odd. He kind of reminds me of Tia. But if she heard me say that, I'd probably end up on her hit-list, too."

"Yeah, he kinda did remind me of her. He certainly has the same "anger" face that she does."

"He does, huh? He seemed more scared of Tia than he was anything else. Tia said that none of his spells even work. But to have survived this long, he has to have some kind of power. I'm guessing they have something to do with the arrows."

"That's the conclusion I reached. But Tia said his spells didn't work, right? Maybe they don't have arrows in the Mamodo world. That might explain it. Did you notice anything else about him?"

"Not really, unless you count the fact that he doesn't seem to be an evil Mamodo."

"Yeah, he didn't seem to be that bad to me, either. What did you think of his partner, Nathan? He seemed like a pretty nice guy to me."

"Pretty nice? When he bumped into me, he got on his hands and knees and begged for forgiveness. I'm going to have to go with nice and overtly polite."

"Wow. I'll agree with that. He seems kind of familiar, though. I can't quite place it. Nathan, Nathan… Maybe I'll try the Internet. You never know what you can find on the World Wide Web."

"Hey, Kiyo, you said Peerin's angry face looked like Tia's, right? What did you two say to make him that mad?"

"Well, Zatch asked if Peerin knew him. Zatch got the response he got from other Mamodo; Peerin went into a berserk rage. Luckily, he was held back by Nathan."

"Huh, I see. Well maybe you should go see what you can find on those two on the Net. I'll be cheering for you tomorrow! See ya!"

"Oh, er, goodbye, Megumi!"

Kiyo immediately went up to his room to get online. He decided a good approach would be to look up Peerin first. However, all he got was a bunch of Scottish websites that never used "g" in the spelling of "peering". Kiyo abandoned that trail and decided to go after Nathan instead. Since Peerin was an archer here, and not in the Mamodo world, that meant that Nathan had to be into archery, as well. Kiyo typed in "Nathan" and "archery" into the picture search box. He came up with a bunch of pictures of a boy named Nathan Fletcher, standing with a lot of archery awards. Kiyo looked at all of them, noticing that the most recent looked just like the Nathan he met. He had found a match. Just then, an IM box popped up, with Megumi's name on it.

Have you found anything yet? she asked.

Just did, Kiyo typed. His name is Nathan Fletcher, champion archer. I remember why he seems so familiar, now; He was all over the news once because he defeated the world champion in an unofficial match. People wanted to make him the new world champ, but he wouldn't take it, saying the match didn't count

Huh, polite and modest. I wonder if he'll become one of us.

Us? Kiyo looked slightly confused.

You know, me and Tia, you and Zatch, Kafka and Ponygon, Folgore and Kanchome, etc.

Oh, you mean a part of our team. We can always try. But Peerin might have his own reasons for being king, and we might end up being enemies.

Well, you currently are enemies, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. If Peerin has evil intentions, than we'll just have to send him back, right?

You make it sound so easy. If only it were so simple, Megumi.

Mrs. Takamine walked into the room. "Kiyo, it's time for bed. Go get ready."

Kiyo sighed. "Alright Mom, just give me a minute."

Great. Ever since Zatch got here, my Mom's been making me go to bed earlier. Goodnight.

Goodnight, Kiyo.

Sorry this one was even longer than the other two. I also apologize to Megumi fans if she seems OoC. I further apologize to the world champion archer, in case he reads this. The next chapter: The Battle Begins!