Hello peeps, sorry for the long wait. I've just been busy (as usual for when i don't update) and working on school stuff... we've already gone through 2 tests this week. And tommorow is the computer test thing that we have to pass before we graduate high school... (sigh) Great...
Well, here's the next chappy! Read on, my friends, read on!

Disclaimer: I don't own Zatch Bell. If i did certain characters would have appeared by now on the show AND they would appear more often. CoughBragocoughSherrycoughZeoncoughothers... -.-


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Chapter 6

When You Fail to Succeed

By morning the rain was still pouring. Sherry was asleep in her room with my book, of all damn places, wrapped in her arms. I watched her as she slept blissfully unaware of everything in the world.

I couldn't believe that all of the spells we gained were gone. We had four spells – and I knew, I knew that we would have reached the fifth by now if it wasn't for this fiasco.

Damn it!

Leaving the doorway of Sherry's room, I walked back downstairs to find something to do. I would allow the ningen to sleep in just a little longer…. Yesterday when I woke her up early (which was the usual time she usually woke up before this mess) she threw a complete fit. The woman started shrieking at me to leave her alone so I just left her there for about an hour and a half. Then after she woke up she wouldn't let me out of her sight.

And this was my bookkeeper we were talking about…

Seeing the front door in sight, I walked up to it and then outside, slamming the door behind me. Who cares if it woke up Sherry; she needed to be awake anyway. This excess slumber would cause her to become weaker.

Just what I needed…

There was a bench beside me so I sat down on it as I listened to the soft rhythm of the rain around me. This was a good time to meditate, so I closed my eyes and brought my knees up to me, resting my hands atop them. My mind was left blank as I began to relax.

"Brago?"

My eyes snapped open and I turned to look at the blonde next to me. I had sensed her coming but did nothing about it. She stared down at me with that same moody look about her as the night before as she held my spell book.

I said nothing to her, so she continued, tightening her grip around my book. "Uh… I was, err… wondering what we were doing today?" She looked down at me with curiosity.

"We're going to train," I said, putting it bluntly, "You need to get stronger. I can't have you fighting like you did last night" With that I closed my eyes and turned my head away again.

"Train? We're going to train?"

One of my eyes opened to look at the blonde and I glared. "Got a problem with that?"

Immediately the apparent moodiness left and was replaced by anger. "Yes I do!" she said as she tightened her fists.

"Just deal with it."

"What?"

"You heard me."

She huffed. "Why you rude thing you!" The woman raised her right hand into the air and swung it down towards my face. Quickly I snagged her hand and slammed her to the ground. She glared back up at me with those vibrant blue eyes.

"Don't try to attack me again, understand that, Sherry?" I hissed. I loosened the grip around her arm and let her go. She quickly stood up, brushed the dirt off of her dress, and huffed again.

"You're rude, you know that?"

I made no comment to this dull remark, but instead said, "Come on, we should go and get started now." I began to walk in a different direction, Sherry hesitantly followed.

"So, where are we going?" she inquired. This question I ignored, too. "Hellooooo?" she nagged. I didn't want to speak with her after the… strange feelings I had last night (and I was still feeling them, too, and slight guilt for throwing her on the ground).

She continued to pester me about where we were headed so I quickly shot her a glare and she quieted down. "Just follow me and shut up."

-o-o-o-o-o-

We had walked for quite a while now… I wondered how far away from the mansion we were. Suddenly there was an odd gurgling sound and I turned my head around only to see a blushing Sherry.

"Uh… I'm hungry,"

Great, I had completely forgotten about her being fed. Didn't she go get something while we were back at her manor? Humans… they're always forgetting things…

I turned to look in the other direction. Sherry and I had been down this way many times before – though I'm quite positive she doesn't remember that – so I knew there was a river somewhere in that direction. "Sherry," I said, now facing her, "There's a river down that way. We can find you something there."

"Fine. Just as long as it's cooked food I'm happy!" The ningen began to march towards where I motioned to and seemed to completely forget about me. I stared from my spot and soon followed. Why did she want cooked food? That'd just make her even weaker than she already was.

After I muttered under my breath some I caught up with Sherry and led her down to where the water was. There were fish swimming all through the water- I could see them. Quickly my arm bolted down into the river and grabbed one of the squirming creatures. Sherry stared at me with amazement.

"How'd you do that?" she asked, pointing a finger at me. It wasn't that big of a deal…

"If you train," I began, "then I'm sure you could do the same."

"Really?" Her eyes were wide and full of gullibility. "Cool! I wanna try some time!" After that she just stood there as she stared at me as if waiting for something. My eye started to twitch after a minute and she finally spoke, "Well?"

"Well what?" I snapped back.

"Aren't you going to find me a fork, a knife and a plate?"

"Find you what?"

She gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean! GO FIND ME SOMETHING TO EAT THIS WITH!" she roared. As if she really expected all her needs to be met? I hardly got all of mine!

"Just eat it with what you've got," I replied back, "You always did that in the past. But I bet you don't remember that either," I sneered.

She pouted. "I can't help it if I have short term memory."

Since when did she have that?

I growled to myself and ripped off a small portion of the fish for her to eat and started a small fire to place it over and cook it. After doing so I went onto my own part of the fish that I saved for myself. Turns out I was a little hungry, too. I would need all the strength I could get if I had to deal with her.

That's when that damn guilty feeling rose up again. Couldn't it just leave me alone?

Eventually we both finished eating (it took Sherry longer to eat because she was also staring at me oddly while I ate for some reason. I'll never understand her…) and headed out into the forest again. I led her to a clear spot and turned to her.

"Alright, Sherry," I began, "Let's begin the training. Now do as I say and you won't get hurt."

Again, she pouted and crossed her arms. "But what if I don't want to train? I wanna take a nap."

"Do as I say, woman!" my voice slightly raised and she flinched.

"Fine," she said as she sighed. I nodded my head and began to search for a good target we could practice on when suddenly I heard… "Ooh what does this say? Let's see… Reis!"

Damn it she read the spell!

Unfortunate for Sherry I was still facing her direction when my hand flung into the air, gathering energy. I managed to turn around quickly before it launched out at her – by doing so I managed to hit a nearby tree instead.

As soon as the ball of gravity collided with the plant I jerked my head towards the blonde and yelled, "What the hell were you doing?"

"I was just reading the words in the book!" she cried, "Books are meant to be read! That's all I was doing!" That was her excuse? Pathetic…

As I made my way towards my bookkeeper I snatched her hand tightly, causing her to drop my book, and glared. "These spells aren't something to play around with. One thing's for sure- I don't want to be sent back to the Mamodo World so watch what you're doing. And I highly doubt you want to get hurt, either."

She quickly shook her head. "N-no, I'm sorry! Brago I really am!" A tear trickled down from her eye and quickly I let go of her wrist. As soon as I did so she grasped her hand and looked up at me with a flushed look.

Sighing, I turned around to face the opposite direction. "Just watch what you're doing," I said and walked forward. There was a tree off to the side that we could use as a target... it wasn't too far from where my previous Reis spell hit earlier. At least Sherry knew how to use the spells now...

How many times she would mess up like this, I had no idea. But she better get the grip on this soon… she did last time, and I was positive she could do it again.

Hopefully.

I hated that word.

But if you fail to succeed… try, try again. I had heard that phrase, too… It reminded me of how I trained myself back in my own world. If I ever failed at something I would try again and again until I got it right. Now it was Sherry's turn to do so.

Get prepared Sherry, I mused to myself as I turned to look at her, you have a lot of requirements to meet. Your lost memories won't be any excuse to not meet my goals set for you. And they won't be easy to pass... nor will I go easy on you.


We've been making dragsters (wooden cars) in Technology class for a while and we finally got to race them today! Mine was the fastest :) Over 60 feet i got 1.002 seconds! Whoohoo! n.n

Geez... the Zatch Bell section is getting bigger. It's now 10 pages long (Uh-huh, yep, i just noticed that)...I remember when the first story came out! o.o Yeesh... now it's like... a ton of months later and there's 9 extra pages longer. (sigh) Wonder how many there'll be when the new year comes. Heh.

Yeah! Christmas is comin' soon! I absolutely KNOW i am getting a nano iPod. I hope it's black...
At least i think i'm getting one...

Well, there's the next chapter! RandR y'all!