Finding You Can Change: Chapter 04
Chikorita-Trainer1
T
Disclaimer: I don't own Zatch Bell!
Author's Note: This chapter will deviate from the lore of the manga, because I have not read all of it. I just know that there are three other mamodo prodigies in the manga. I know that at the end of the story, Zatch says that everyone in the mamodo world is living happy lives, which would include the villains. I have merely changed it for the sake of this story.
Day two in the mamodo world.
Things are really pleasant here. I'm well looked-after, provided for, and appreciated. If I had stayed in the human world, and married one of Mother's insufferable suitors, I would be well provided for, but that's it. I know I could never find happiness back home. Coming here seems to be what's best for me.
Sherry closed her journal and left it on her nightstand and went into the bathroom.
So Brago likes to read, thought Sherry as she emerged from her bath. Kolulu had provided her with many new outfits since yesterday, and Sherry donned a light blue wrap-dress, and exited her room to go to the dining hall for breakfast.
Zatch sat at the head of a long fancy table, Tia seated at his right, Ponygon seated at his left.
"Good morning, Zatch," said Sherry as she approached the table. "What's for breakfast?" she asked.
"Yellowtail, of course!" Zatch exclaimed. Suddenly, dozens of chefs paraded single-file out of the kitchen, carrying plates with huge, whole, yellowtail tuna, and set them all on the table.
"Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha-ha!" laughed Zatch as he and Tia and Ponygon dove onto the table. Sherry had to cover her mouth for disgust as the three mamodo went into a vicious feeding-frenzy, until there was nothing left but fish skeletons on the table.
"What's the matter, Sherry? Didn't you get enough to eat?" asked Zatch.
"Um…" Sherry began.
"Oh, that's right! Humans don't eat raw meat!" said Zatch. "Gosh Sherry, I forgot. I'm sorry. It's been so long since I was in the human world—"
"It's alright, Zatch," said Sherry. "Um, is there any fruit in this world? Do mamodo eat fruits and vegetables?"
"Sure we do!" said Zatch. "Mamodo need meat for strength, but we can digest all kinds of food. CHEF?!" he called over his shoulder. A momodo came out of the kitchen.
"Yes, your majesty?"
"Could you please bring Sherry a plate of fruit and bread? She's a human, and a special guest here at the castle."
"At once, my liege," said the chef as he bowed.
"Thank you, Zatch," said Sherry.
"You're welcome," Zatch said with a huge smile. "So how are things going with Brago?"
"Well, I've made a little progress," said Sherry. "I found out he enjoys reading. Which reminds me, does this castle have a library?"
"Yeah, a big library!" said Zatch. "It's on the first floor on the north end of the castle. You can see the outside of it from here."
The little blonde mamodo hopped out of his chair and ran over to the window to point to another part of the castle.
"See? That part over there, that's the library!"
"Thank you, Zatch. After breakfast, I'll go over there and look around. Brago said he likes to read about…conquest. I'm sure I'll be able to find something he'll appreciate."
Soon, the chef brought out a platter of people-food for Sherry, and she gratefully ate and drank. The experience was so pleasant that it came as quite a surprise when the four occupants of the dining room heard a huge THUD from above them.
They all looked up towards the ceiling.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
A scraping sound.
Some more thumping.
A shriek, a guttural snarl, and then they saw, out the window, a huge eagle fall to the ground. Then they saw a furry black shape hop down on top of it.
"What in the hell—?" Sherry started to say. Then, they heard the all-too-familiar sounds of a vicious mamodo tearing into the flesh of a newly killed meal.
Oh, for God's sake, thought Sherry. It was Brago. He had been up on the roof of the dining room, hunting an eagle, and now that he had killed it, he was going to town on it.
Blood and feathers flew up in the air as Brago just tore into its flesh, eating everything but the bones.
So gross! thought Sherry.
"Well, I guess Brago's had his breakfast," she said, standing up. "Send him to my room when you can. Tell him I'll be back soon."
"Meru meru me!" said Ponygon. Zatch and Tia just giggled as Sherry left the dining room and went to the library.
Brago, after finishing his meal, wiped the blood from his jaw and resumed wandering around the castle grounds.
Happiness, he pontificated. What a stupid, useless notion. And what business does the human girl have teaching it to me? It's not like she's such a shining example of satisfaction herself!
He looked at the ground as he thought to himself.
She didn't even know what happiness was until that Koko girl showed her. She was miserable for most of her childhood, too. The dumb bitch tried to commit suicide because she was so unhappy. So who is she to tell me what I need?
For some reason, however, Brago couldn't seem to muster up the contempt for Sherry that he wanted to. He wanted to hate her, but he couldn't find the hatred within him anymore.
She deserves to be happy. Why is she here, wasting her time on me? It's dangerous for her to be here.
Brago decided to just go back to Sherry's room and wait for her there. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the décor. All these fancy items, silk sheets and marble floors just weren't his style at all. Nevertheless, he made himself comfortable on Sherry's bed. He glanced at her nightstand and saw her journal.
"Hello?" Sherry called as she opened the huge doors to the castle library. "Anyone here?" No answer, so she stepped inside and began to explore for herself.
She wandered past the hundreds of shelves, searching for any label of genre or category, but there were none. Thinking there must be a legend or index somewhere, she began to search for a front desk or a large tome that might contain the information she needed.
The spines of the books had titles on them, but they were all written in the mamodo language. And a human could only understand that language if their heart was connected to it. So even if someone could tell her where the Adventure books were, how would she find them?
Sure wish there was a librarian here, she thought. How am I supposed to find any books for Brago?
Just the thought of his name now gave her butterflies. She found herself smiling when she thought of him. Even with all his flaws, she couldn't deny the impact he'd had on her life, and how grateful to him she was.
"Hey—human! What are you doing here?!"
"AAAAHHHH!" she shrieked.
"Who are you?" asked a voice.
"Don't scare me like that! Who's there?!" Sherry demanded. She could hear a voice echoing through the library, but she didn't see anyone.
"Up here," said the voice. Sherry looked up and saw a small boy floating in the air. He had turquoise eyes and orange hair, and kind-of looked like Astro Boy. "I'm Hyde. Who are you?"
"Sherry Belmont, of the human world," said Sherry. "I'm here on a mission from the king."
"Huh. Why would the king invite a human to our world?" the boy asked smugly.
"Rehabilitation of one of his subjects," said Sherry. She didn't know why she was speaking like this to Hyde—it's not like she had anything to conceal. Or did she? Why was she suddenly all embarrassed and self-conscious when it came to Brago?
"Huh. Rehabilitation of whom?"
"Brago, if you must know. I was his bookkeeper."
"No way! Brago's a dick."
Sherry sighed. "I know."
"Well, what are you doing in the library?"
"It's a long story, but I'm looking for some books to check out. Do you have an action/adventure section?" she asked.
"I could find you all the adventure stories you want, but how'd you read them? Humans can only read—"
"I know! They're not for me, they're for Brago!" Sherry complained. She wasn't happy having to explain herself to a kid half her height—even if he could fly.
"Ha. Wait here," said Hyde. He zoomed around the library faster than Sherry could watch him, and returned with a stack full of books. "This enough?"
"This is fine, thank you," said Sherry, holding out her hands for the stack of books. "Can I have them?"
"You know, humans really shouldn't be in this world," said Hyde. "It's not safe."
"Yeah, I'm aware," snapped Sherry. "The books, please?"
Hyde just rolled his eyes and handed the human the stack of books.
'Not safe.' I 'shouldn't be here.' What aren't these mamodo telling me? The king himself brought me here. Of course I should be here. Sherry thought as she carried the books back to her room.
When she returned to her room, she was happy to find Brago waiting for her. He was lying on her bed with his hands behind his head, one leg propped up on the bed and one leg lying flat.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," he answered.
"Little help?" she asked, gesturing to the load she was carrying. Brago grinned and sat up, then came over to help her.
"What are all these for?" asked Brago, setting the books down on the bed and going through them.
"You said you liked reading stories about conquest, so I—"
"What? You bring me homework?!" Brago snapped.
"What…?" asked Sherry. Brago was looking at the cover of each book and then angrily slamming them down on the bed.
"These are children's stories, Sherry! Do I look like a child to you?!" he snarled.
"Excuse me, I went to the library to get these books just for you! The least you could do is—"
"YOU KNOW NOTHING, HUMAN!" Brago roared, throwing several of the books into the fireplace.
"BRAGO!" Sherry yelled. She wanted to run to the fireplace and rescue the books, but Brago was already in full-rampage mode.
"YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT I LIKE?! YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING! YOU'RE A WORTHLESS, WEAK HUMAN! YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!" he ranted as he ran across the room and started breaking everything.
He punched the armoire into splinters. He smacked the modesty screen against the wall. He karate-chopped the writing desk in half.
"BRAGO—STOP IT!" cried Sherry, running to him and grabbing his wrist in her hands. He turned to her and lifted her off the ground simply by lifting his arm. Panting and growling, the mamodo clenched his teeth and stared directly into his bookkeeper's blue eyes. Sherry did not look afraid. She never looked afraid when dealing with him. "Put. Me. Down," she demanded.
Brago took a few deep breaths and did as he was told.
He looked around at what he had done. The room was in shambles. He knew he was wrong. He knew he had a problem, but he just didn't know any other way to express himself.
"I'm…sorry, Sherry," he whispered.
"It's alright. This is why I'm here."
"But you really, really shouldn't be," said Brago. He knew he was going to get angry again, so he stepped away from her.
"Why? Why shouldn't I be here?" Sherry demanded.
"Because our world is inhospitable for humans!" Brago growled. "You will not survive here!"
"Well, I've survived being in the same room with you for the past couple days, so I'd say I'm doing pretty well," Sherry shot back.
"You stupid girl. I know what you're thinking!"
"What? What am I thinking?" Sherry challenged.
"You think you can stay here forever! You think this world can be your home! Well, it can't be! You won't live long enough to stay here!"
"What are you talking about?"
"No human has ever lived longer than 120 years. Mamodo live for over a thousand!" he shouted.
Sherry was silent.
"Did it ever occur to you that's how there's only a mamodo battle in the human world once every THOUSAND years?! How could the time between contests be so long if we only lived as long as humans do?"
More silence from Sherry.
"I don't want you here, Sherry, because if you stay, I will have to watch you die. I refuse to go through that!"
Sherry looked confused and hurt for a second, but then her eyebrows leaped up to the top of her forehead as she came to a realization.
"You read my journal!" she shrieked.
"Oh please. Like there's anything embarrassing in there. Two measly entries," scoffed Brago.
"It's none of your business! How dare you?!" yelled Sherry.
"You're pathetic. You can't face your own problems in the human world so you ran away here? You have no interest in helping me. You were just looking for an escape!"
"GET OUT!" cried Sherry, picking up a piece of the broken armoire and hurling it at him. "GET OUT, YOU UNGRATEFUL MONSTER!"
Sherry kept throwing pieces of things at Brago and he just stood there and deflected them like Wonder Woman.
"You humans have so much rage, but no power to back it up!" Brago laughed. His pupils had disappeared and his eyes were glowing white. "You want me to get out? FINE." And he turned, ran down the hall, jumped through a stained-glass window, fell down at least twenty feet, landed on his feet and hand, in a super-hero-landing-pose, and ran off into the forest.
Sherry stood, trying to regain her composure. She had tears streaming down her face, but she wasn't sad—she was angry and embarrassed.
He can't leave the castle grounds, she thought. He's my responsibility. I was supposed to keep him under control. I KNEW I would fail at this! I failed at this like I fail at EVERYTHING ELSE!
Sherry's knees buckled and she sank to the floor. She allowed herself a few moments of crying, but all too soon, the strength that Brago had helped her find rose up inside her.
No. No, I am NOT a failure. Mother was wrong. I CAN accomplish things. I will change Brago for the better! I just have to go get him back!
Meanwhile, Brago was running through the forest like a madman. He knew that Zatch had probably already sent the guards after him. Brago was strong, but of course, so were other mamodo. And the king's royal guard could overpower him.
I've got to get away from her. That girl will be the death of me! he told himself as he tore through thick trees and vines.
"Hey, look who it is!" came a voice from behind the trees.
"It's that upstart, stuck-up, goth bitch, Brago," said another.
"Mister Second Place," laughed another. Soon, Brago found himself surrounded by three mamodo; Zeno, Elzador, and Ashuron.
"Heh. You guys still pissed you lost the battle for king?" Brago smiled.
"You didn't exactly win, either, punk," said Zeno.
"What're you doing out here, all alone?" asked Elzador, knocking over several trees as he moved towards Brago.
The three other mamodo prodigies had Brago surrounded, but Brago wasn't scared. He just smiled smugly and said
"You really want to do this? 'cause I'm totally fine doing this."
"You'll regret those words, bitch," said Ashuron.
Sherry hadn't told anyone that Brago had escaped. She was too ashamed that she couldn't keep him under control like she could in the human world. But of course, in the human world she was in control of his spell book. Here, mamodo needed no spell book to use their powers. She was certain Brago was getting into a stupid fight right at this moment.
She ran out of the castle. It was dark. She stood at the sight of the broken stained-glass window that Brago had breached, and tried to look for footprints, but there were none. She just had to go by instinct, so she headed towards the forest. If you wanted to disappear and never be found, that would be a good place to go, right?
She ran through the forest as well as her attire would allow, but it wasn't easy; her dress kept getting snagged on branches, her high-heeled boots weren't the best for running, either. But she kept going, and was soon drawn to a calamity further ahead.
She stopped stock-still when she saw what was going on.
In a clearing, two enormous dragons, and what looked like an albino version of Zatch, were just savagely beating on Brago. Brago, of course, was holding his own, but it still looked like he was going to be overpowered.
Zeno cackled as he launched a powerful lightning blast at Brago, who cried out in pain, and the two dragons, Ashuron and Elzador began batting him around in their claws like a tennis ball.
Sherry's eyes widened.
How dare they do that to her partner? How dare they do that to her student? Her Brago. Her friend. The man she…
Sherry's heart burned with fury, and she didn't know what came over her. She had no spell book—if everything made sense, Brago could just launch one of his own gravity-based spells and save his own ass, so why wasn't he doing it?
Didn't matter. Before she even knew what she was doing, a deep, angry voice boiled inside of Sherry and echoed through the forest
"DIOGA GRAVIDON!"
A ball of dark energy swelled up inside of Brago, and a flash of light covered the forest, almost blinding Sherry.
When the dust settled, Brago lay in a clearing, the three other mamodo bruised and unconscious.
"Wha—what the-?" Brago panted as he picked himself up and dusted himself off. He looked up and saw Sherry, standing a few meters away, her skin pale and drained of life. She looked almost skeletal.
"How did you-? You don't even have a spell book, how did you channel that atta—SHERRY!" Brago rushed over to catch the blonde woman as her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed.
What on earth had happened? Humans could bring out the powers of their mamodo partners in the human world, but this was the mamodo world. Brago didn't need Sherry's help to launch one of his attacks, right?
Then again, no human had ever come to the mamodo world before. Maybe the rules were different.
It didn't matter. That one attack had taken all of Sherry's strength and then some. Brago knelt down on the ground with her in his arms.
She didn't have to do that. She could have just let him go. Let him die. Why did she run after him?
Brago looked down on the withered body in his arms. He had never seen Sherry so drained of inner strength. She looked as if she were already dead, were she not still breathing. He cradled her closely for a moment before deciding what to do.
He set her body down on the ground, and then, just as he had done when she'd passed out in the Amazon, Brago took off his cloak, laid it upon her, and picked her up piggy-back style, and carried her back to the castle.
END OF CHAPTER 04
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