Zatch Bell: Kolulu Story
By:CleruSonofShintetsu
[Chapter 20: A Salty End]
Evil Kolulu and Robnos were busy in hand to hand combat, Robnos dealing slower and more meticulous blocks and blows, while Evil Kolulu was ripping at him wildly with her claws. The two eventually separate, jumping back as the boat continued to sink. Another burst of flames from one of the windows rings out nearby and nearly hits a lifeboat.
"You imbecile! You absolute freak! You can't touch me! I was hoping you'd be better than this but it turns out I was wrong! You're nothing but another experiment by his majesty, pressed into the battle with a crutch that would rather eat it's own hair than spend even another second with a weakling like you!" Robnos said, targeting Kolulu herself, not her evil half, with that comment.
Evil Kolulu grit her teeth, "Shut up, trash can! I don't fall for petty mind games, I just slash, thrash, and throw you in the...well, you get it." she said, grinning wickedly as Lori prepared another spell.
Ruku would cast a spell first, however, and yelled out "GANZU BIRAITSU!", Robnos unleashing a barrage of energy blasts once again.
Lori then cast, "ZERURUDO!", causing Evil Kolulu to light up with that pink globular aura and zip around every projectile before landing a headbutt straight into Robnoss' eyes, causing a serious dent in his face while also starting to bleed slightly from the force.
"Gah!" Robnos cried out, shocked that she dented his face metal like that. The impact blurred his vision briefly as white noise rang out slightly. It wasn't a major wound, but a disorienting one, and he staggered back and gripped his face.
Ruku looked down at him with concern, kicking Evil Kolulu away, only for her to jump back to Lori's side. "Robnos! Are you okay!?" he asked.
Robnos shook his head and huffed. "I'm fine...just not used to such...disorienting hits. Still, a lucky blow isn't enough to take me down, my desert-dwelling family was graced with the ability to survive anything after all. So let's put the kibosh on this battle and unleash our newest and greatest spell yet." he said with his own wild grin.
Ruku was surprised, but nodded, taking a deep breath and focusing his power from within. "You girls are doomed, your spell book will burn with this boat, and it will be a display more beautiful than the Northern Lights!" he declared, brimming with confidence.
Lori braced herself, feeling tension wash over her as she readied her own spell. "You won't win...you may escape, but you won't take us down! You ruined what should have been a beautiful break from the chaos and misery of this awful blood sport, and made it dramatic and life-threatening for everyone involved! I'm tired of dealing with people like you! Just leave us ALONE!" Lori vented briefly, her power from within soaring in this moment.
Ruku then cast his most powerful spell. "TRY THIS! DAIBARA...BIRANGAAAAAAA!"
Robnos would hover slightly above the ground as a powerful projection of light beamed out from his eyes, generating a giant angelic creature with simple arms and wings, a lion-like hairstyle, and a dull and creepy face to go with it. It let out a haunting chant as it was summoned and prepared to unleash it's own attack on Lori and Kolulu.
Hyde and Eido, hovering nearby, saw this with shock and concern, hoping internally that the girls would be okay.
"H-holy crap!' Eido said as they flew past Lori and Evil Kolulu.
"Is that it? We can overcome this, RAJA ZERUSEN!" Lori yelled, Evil Kolulu's fists enlarging greatly as she laughed maniacally.
"YES, THIS IS THE KIND OF MAGIC I WANT TO USE MORE OF! THANK YOU, LORI!" Evil Kolulu said, the giant fists rocketing out to intercept the angel's attack.
The light angel unleashed a beam from it's face, the two attacks clashing with each other and shaking the already collapsing boat further.
Both teams were tensing up, physically and emotionally, their bodies straining as the spells grind against each other. Soon enough, they burst and send both teams flying back. While Lori was able to catch Kolulu easily enough (despite the sharp hair digging into her chest slightly, much to her chagrin), Robnos was a heavy mechanical lad who sent Ruku crashing overboard. By the luck of the Devil, they managed to crash down onto the last free life boat, though their impact would cause a bit of water to splash into it and swish around.
Evil Kolulu was starting to revert back to normal Kolulu rapidly, the Power From Within being thoroughly spent by now. Eido whistled and pointed to another lifeboat behind Lori and Kolulu.
"JUMP, DUDES!" Eido urged.
Lori turned around and hugged her little sister close, gulping and preparing to make the jump. She stepped back four steps, took a deep breath, and then ran, jumping over with a mild hail-mary scream, landing on the life boat below, the Life Boat having Folgore on it.
Folgore shook in his seat. "M-Mama-mia! I think-a you killed Kanchome!" he said in exaggerated concern.
Lori blinked twice, looking down, and noticing she was sitting right on top of Kanchome. She yelped, scrambling back and getting off of him, seeing the nearly-splat Mamodo twitching slightly before leaping to his feat and huffing at her.
"CAREFUL WHERE YOU JUMP, LORI!" He said, nearly crying in pain.
Lori frowned, "S-sorry...Kanchome...wait, where's Tia? Where's Megumi?" she asked, looking left, right, behind her and behind Folgore, checking the adjacent lifeboats as much as she could.
Folgore shook his head, "Don't worry, those two will be here any second! They should be-" but before Folgore could finish, they heard a window shatter nearby as Rembrant landed in the water nearby, splashing around frantically for a life boat.
The group spun around and looked at him, notably without his book or Mamodo partner. He stared at them nervously. "I-I lost okay!? I give up, I won't hurt anybody! Just don't let me drown!" he begged.
In all of his heroic glory, Iron Man Folgore himself offered a hand out. "You can sit next to me, bambino, and you get to apologize to-a the fair lady and her sister. I would make-a you do so to Tia and Megumi, but they probably taught you-" but he was again cut off as Rembrant took his hand.
"I GET IT I GET IT JUST HELP ME UP I'M FREEZING IN THE DAMN WATER AND THE BOAT FIRE AIN'T HELPING!" Rembrant yelled out.
In a neighboring life boat, Kiyo, Hyde and Eido (the latter two having just landed in it) were looking around frantically for Tia and Megumi. Right on time, the two would crash through another window and landing on the life boat with the other three. Soot and battle wounds covered Tia's body, a sign of her struggle in the battle and the difficulties in escaping the burning boat. Megumi had soot all over her dress, but was less scuffed up.
"Oh goodness...they really did a number on you two huh...?" said Kiyo, looking Megumi straight in the eye.
Megumi took off the crown and swung her hair left and right. "Yeah...but, at least Tia can stop worrying about Maruss now. I'm happy for her...though I do hope this doesn't give her a traumatic fear of boats." she said, making obvious note of the...coincidental circumstances involving Tia and Maruss.
Kiyo nodded. "Mhm...just sick, man. I can't believe the battle makes these kids resort to such extreme garbage..."
Hyde piped up with his own words on it. "That's the battle for ya...lose your morals and you might have an easier time. Sadly, not all Mamodo are sad cases like Maruss, some of them, from what I hear, were able to get very far on tyrannical power-grabbing alone. It's...really sad, man." he mused, folding his hands and resting his chin on them, staring at the floor of the life boat in thought.
Eido yawned, "I'm exhausted...especially having to spend so much power on firing off Jikir constantly."
"Shut up, Eido, I still had to physically cast it." Hyde said dryly.
Eido, too tired to bite back, nodded with a smirk and offered a hand out to Megumi. "You know, Megumi...I AM your biggest fan. Is there anything I can do to alleviate your worries tonight?" he said flirtatiously.
Megumi stifled a laugh and shook her head. "No thank you, Eido was it? You seem nice, and you helped us out in your own way tonight. Maybe I can reward you?" she counter-offered.
Blinking in surprise, Eido looked up at the starry night sky, the sound of the boat bursting one more time with flames as it finally finished sinking into the sea, down to only a quarter of it being above-water at this point.
"Well...I would LOVE a free pass to all of your concerts for a year!" he requested.
Kiyo rolled his eyes, "Like I didn't see that one coming..."
Megumi gave Eido a wink, "Done, I'll get you a pass as soon as possible, if not tonight, then tomorrow before I leave town!"
Eido internally fanboyed again and fist pumped to himself. "Score!"
And so...after only an hour of organized rowing and a few key phone calls, the small fleet of lifeboats made their way to shore safely. When they arrived, law enforcement and journalists were already on standby, as well as a few other figures like friends, family, parents, and Kiyo's mom, also being present.
After a series of relieved exchanges between the many people from the fallen boat, Megumi whistled to everyone and stood on a soap box near by, announcing that she and Folgore were still going to perform their special song together.
The crowd formed up, gathering around to listen as Kanchome and Tia prepared the song on the radio that the former carried with him. They hit play, and the instrumental to Happy Tomorrow began to play. When the song began, it turned out to be a most glorious combination of their two most popular songs!
Megumi: Work hard every day, but that's not enough
And you don't know why...
Megumi: Come home and feel like you've done so much
That you want to cry...
Folgore: Keep-a thinking you're a macho-macho soul!
But that's not true...
Folgore: You roam around with vinegar and a mood,
as you always do...
Megumi: Time to get yourself back on track
And remember how to have fun!
Megumi:You may feel alone
but you are not alone
Folgore: Come on, let's boogie nooooooow!
Megumi: Hey, hey hey
Let's dance all day until we drop
let's have some fun, until the day is done!
Folgore: Hey, hey hey
let's boogie-woogie-woogie
till the sun goes down, let's rock the town!
Megumi: When tomorrow comes,
Folgore: We'll tell everyone:
Both: Yes we partied hard! We boogied togeeeeeeether!
And so the crowd erupted, even the most stone-faced and serious were in awe of the simplistic remix the two came up with. Even Ruku and Robnos, who were just floating off in the distance, watching from afar, were humming along. Robnos had a can of soda, as did Ruku, and as they looked back to each other, Robnos said but one thing...
"You know...I'm honestly enjoying my time with you, Ruku."
Ruku smiled warmly, "Tch...you mean you're enjoying the part where you drag me around and watch me whine about every choice you make?"
Robnos snorted. "Look, we did some crazy stuff on that boat, but I'm just happy knowing I can pull off a heist like that. In truth...there's something big I have planned now that I was able to pull that crazy stunt off..."
Ruku tilted his head, "Oh?"
Robnos shook his head, "We'll save it for later...right now, we can enjoy suffering exactly ZERO consequences for losing our shot at burning some books tonight, weeeeee!" he said goofily.
"But what about Maruss?" Ruku asked, "His book got burned, didn't it?"
Robnos shrugged, "The guy was a zealous fanboy turned pawn, who gives a crap? Besides, the dude was WAY too sadistic for my taste..." he said, sipping his soda.
Ruku could barely contain his laughter, "Like you didnt just burn a boat down- I know that's not you talking, boy!" he said with a smirk.
"Ahhh stuff it!" Robnos said casually, finishing his can and crushing it in his hand.
Overall, while the two villains weren't brought to any instant justice for what they did, the group was at least able to have a good time by the end to make up for what happened during the boat ride. Closure was brought to Tia, Kolulu and Hyde bonded, the human partners got closer together over the experience, plus Kiyo, and a fiery night turned into a cozy one by the concert's end.
With this last hurdle out of the way...the group can now look forward, into the true beginning of their adventure. The Rivers of Fate had already opened themselves to the group before back in England, and now that they've crossed into them, their metaphorical ferry, along with their last chance to turn back on this adventure, has burned to ash. What new foes will await Lori, Kolulu, and their dear companions? Find out next time on the Rivers of Fate arc, where the story finally kicks off with a true bang!