Chapter 3 - The Presence of an Enemy

"MERU MERU MEI!" Ponygon shouted suddenly, as he and Zatch were playing at the park.

"AHHH! NAOMI!" Zatch yelled as he began to run, assuming thats what Ponygon was indicating.

Zatch hid under the slide, while Ponygon stood there, his nose facing a certain direction in town. Zatch sat there contemplating what he was doing, as well as dodging Naomi's path of vision. That was when suddenly he felt something. He couldn't explain it. Zatch knew what this feeling was, he had felt it before...he had felt it when a Mamodo's spell had been cast.

"Ponygon! We need to find Kiyo! I have a feeling whoever it is they're going to come after us soon!" Zatch shouted to Ponygon

Ponygon exited his motionless state and nodded. Zatch jumped on his back and they made their way back to the house, where Kiyo was standing on the front steps, spell book in hand, and Tia at his side.

"Kiyo! Ponygon and I sensed that -"

"I know Zatch, Tia had just shown up looking for you when she told me," Kiyo explained.

Zatch bore his 'serious' face; the one which only existed when he was in the middle of a battle, "We have to fight them!"

Kiyo gripped the spell book, sighed then said, "I know..."

In a stroke of luck, who better to appear looking for her own Mamodo, Megumi stood at the gate.

"Megumi! Another Mamodo has appeared!" Tia cried, running to her book keeper

Megumi looked at Kiyo, he nodded. She looked down at Tia, and removed her book from her backpack.

"Where?" She asked.

"Ponygon was staring that way!" Zatch said pointing in the direction the horse Mamodo has been looking, "We can sniff it out!"

Zatch got on all fours (Ponygon was already a step ahead of him in that department) and the two began to sniff and running towards what they sensed to bea strong Mamodo. Tia, Megumi, and Kiyo chased after them.

The group wasn't halfway to their destination when they ran into Runaiko; Ponygon growled at him (If you read the other stories you would automatically assume why).

"Kiyo! Just the man I wanted to see!" Runaiko said, patting his back. Kiyo was still not used to his nice behaviour.

"Runaiko, were kind of in a hurry, Zatch sensed another Mamodo and -"

"Well that's exactly why I wanted to come over..."

Kiyo stood petrafied, then his mouth began to move, "Synaku?" he asked slowly.

Runaiko shook his head, "No, my roomate...I have a new roommate, he's part of a student exchange program. I saw him come home with one of those books about 5 minutes ago, he had a kid with him, one similar to your lot."
"I told him I wanted to go for a walk but I figured I would find you and let you know, I didn't know if that kid, er, Mamodo of his was anything like Synaku. If he is, it's best you exterminate him now."

"Did you catch his name?" Tia asked.

"I think it was Kouta," Runaiko replied.

"This is bad..."

Zatch gulped, "I can defeat him!"