Chapter Text
It's been only what? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? Half a hour? I lost track of time as we fought this damn mamodo cat-like bastard!
I'm out of breath and I barely can keep myself off the ground and that damned feline KNOWS it! In fact, he looks so much better than I am, it's like he was planning for me and Koko to use all of our powers while he was just toying with us.
"You know, if you give up, I wion't beat you up too badly, nya!" The cat chuckles as it's bookkeeper sighs.
"Myango." He said tiredly and sternly, his book however open and his pose tell me he's more than ready for round two.
I take a quick glance at the other side of the field, where Kiyomaro and Zatch are fighting their own battle.
Both the young mamodo and his bookkeeper are on the ground, lying, their book lies on the grass, closed.
I gasp from shock. Oh no. Oh no no. This is bad, this is very bad. They need help, right now!
| KATOUSEN |
A sudden cat projectile grazes my cheek and redirects my attention back to my own battle.
"Hey, I am right here! Nya! How rude!" The feline growls as he prepares to lunge another attack.
I feel something hot and wet sliding down my face and dripping onto the ground. The new wound isn't deep but it sure as heck hurts.
This is so bad, not me nor Koko can take our attention off our opponents.
Think, Zofis, think, you need to figure out what to do. I need to somehow finish this fght as fast as possible! Too much is on my shoulders now! I can't… Oh god I can't do anything!
Need help?
"No, go away, go away to where you've been hiding for the past day. Disappear, cease to exist…"
"Nyah! Are you out of your mind? Muttering to yourself like that? Did I hit you too hard?" The feline mamodo chuckles and tilts it's head.
I can help.
"I don't need it. I know what you're planning and I won't let you have it." just in time I barely dodge another cat head projectile.
Tsk, why are you so stubborn? My way is so much easier, so much smarter, faster too.
"I said no." I dash out of the way of sharp clawed hand but lose my balance and fall onto the ground.
Think, idiot, think! If you won't do as I tell you, we both going to lose!
Maybe he's right? Maybe, just a little bit? This fight drags on too long, Kiyomaro and Zatch already look like they've lost it, Koko is on her knees, breathing like she ran a marathon and I'm not that far behind. I can't even levitate anymore! So tired…
Maybe… Just… Just this once?
There has to be something… What could they do?!
Kiyomaro was lying on the ground, at first glance it looked like he was defeated but his emotions inside him were anything but docile. He was filled with determination to finish this fight already! This takes too damn long!
Before he got knocked down by an icicle, he saw that Zofis and Koko didn't have it easy either. Maybe they're already fallen just like him and Zatch.
No, he won't let them get hurt! Get it all together Kiyomaro! Your friends count on you!
He cannot run away, not only because he is in no state to do so but because he's not alone. If he was alone he might've taken his chance BUT this time he has others who depend on him winning this fight.
But his opponents are on a brand new level, way above their league… Another level… The book!
"Are you out of tricks, boy?" The guy in a suit speaks nonchalantly. "It's time to end this."
| GIKORU |
He didn't know if what he was about to do was simply stupid or would save their lives. But he tried it anyway.
"Shut your trap!"
| RASHIRUDO |
A giant rectangular shield appeared from thin air right before the ice projectiles were about to tear his and Zatch's bodies to shreds. It held on it's own as the shards suddenly sprangs out from it and started flying to a direction where they came from, bouncing off the shield.
It was a counterspell.
"What?!" All the man could say before the icicles flung themselves his and his mamodo kid's way, tearing their clothes and damaging their skin.
"Imp… os.. ib…le…" The man tried to speak as he was lying on the grass surrounded by ice shards before he lost his consciousness.
Kiyomaro and Zatch stayed silent for a few seconds, even after the shield disappeared.
Was that… They?... They won?!
They won!
"It bounced their attacks… back at them. What a spell." The teenager spoke quietly still not fully believing that they'd won.
The boy quickly snapped out of his confusion as he saw the ice wielding powers boy reach out to his burning book.
"No! Wait! You'll burn your hands!" He yelled as he suddenly ran up to him but the boy ignored him, trying to subdue the flames with his own hands… It didn't helped. His book was slowly disappearing from this plane of existence…
…And so was the boy.
"What?! Hey wait a second! What?!" Kiyomaro fallen into yet another confused stupor as the child was here a second ago and then… Was no more.
"You imbecile!" The man groaned as he gained back his bearings. "Look what you've done! You've killed him!" He yelled as he tried to get up but failed due his muscles still being sore and tired.
"Don't pretend you cared about him." Kiyomaro shot down at the man a look of disgusted disapproval. Yet he returned his eyes to the place the boy and his book were just a few seconds ago.
Of course he knew that the boy wasn't Dead, he was simply sent back into Mamodo World, thanks to Zofis's explanation back at his home… Yet this whole ordeal tastes sour in his mouth.
"Kiyomaro! Look! Look!" Someone tugged at his pants and small hand was pointing in the direction Koko and Zofis were still fighting… Or just ended the fight, it seemed.
Koko was looking at the sight before her. The man and the feline mamodo were lying on the ground while their book was burning not too far away from them.
She wasn't… Sure how it all happened. One moment she was tired and almost at the end of her wits and then the other she was angry, she was filled with hate and malice and she used-
She used a new spell in the book that wasn't even there anymore. It was like she used it and then it was... Erased from her memories with the last few minutes of the fight.
It felt like a dream.
What just happened?
She looked at Zofis who was standing on the ground, his face turned away from her as if he was hiding it.
But that was ridiculous, why would he act that way? Did he know what just happened? Could he be held accountable for it?
Don't be silly, Koko, he's just a child.
Maybe this is what so-called "Second wind" feels like? It feels you with negative emotions that make it enough for you to break thru and get adrenaline pumping? Maybe she was just…
Ah, it's not the time for her to think about… whatever just happened. She will ask Zofis about it later, perhaps he experienced the same thing just like her? Ah, later, later.
"Zofis, you okay?" She asked before her legs gave up from under her and she fell onto the ground with a slight yelp.
"I should be the one asking you that." Her companion said as he finally turned her way.
His eyes.
His eyes were yellow and red, cat-like. It was the first time she saw them like that. It scared her which was weird in itself. Why would she be scared of Zofis? He was her friend! Snap out of it, Koko, Zofis is Zofis, you know him!
"I uh…" Still, finding words was hard after the fight. "I'm fine." She finally said, releasing a long tired sigh and closing her eyes for a moment.
"Just… This is too much for one day." She said as she heard someone stepping closer to her on the grass. She smiled, realizing who it was. Too tired to float yourself, ey?
"I agree." Zofis voice rang out. "Too much fighting for one day."
There was something… Off… about him.
But Koko decided that he was simply tired after battle or under adrenaline rush.
Right?
I stared at my hands, barely holding it together.
There was brand new fear living in my heart, sending small doses of anxiety into my brain.
Wasn't that bad, was it?
My "neighbor" in the head chimed in.
I didn't want to even acknowledge him.
I hid my face in my hands and leaned with my back against the bathroom.
Good gods, what the hell was that. What the hell have I done?!
Stop being so dramatic.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up." I mumbled those words like mantra, hoping they would make him go away, disappear. But no, he was still here, in the back of my mind.
I pulled my knees together and hugged them, feeling completely hopeless and terrified.
What happened out there showed a glimpse of what true Zofis wanted, what he would do to Koko if I wasn't in his way.
And it's scary.
Sure, I knew from the private diary of this monster that he was anything but sunshine and rainbows kind of guy… But seeing him manipulate the human heart like that?
Just for a minute but he turned Koko into another, unrecognizable version of herself. She took 180 degrees and from her soft and kind self she became the villainous, the antagonistic, the malevolent person.
It shouldn't shock me as much as it did… But maybe I'm just a soft core? Let me have my moment of weakness after what I just witnessed.
Yes, it helped. Somehow. Somehow this… switch… helped Koko open a new spell in the book, just for those few minutes, but it did.
But feeling her heart was like biting into a rotten apple. Disgusting.
I take a deep breath, trying to stop myself from returning to that moment. It wasn't… I mean, yes, it was MY fault but… But Koko doesn't need to know that.
What will she think of me if she found out I manipulated her heart like that? That I let a nastier part of my being out, that I let it change her?
She would hate me.
And I am not ready to lose a friend like her… Not yet.
I get up from the floor and look at my reflection in the mirror, giving myself a small scare.
Yellow and red eyes stare back at me.
Oh right, okay… Relax. Just relax.
The small line of a pupil in the middle of the eye started getting bigger and bigger, slowly covering the whole iris until my eye looked just like it did almost 90% of the time.
I need to control myself better. She probably saw me like this and now she has questions about it too!
At least THIS phenomenon can be explained with my emotions and how much my eyes turn into cat-like when I feel terrified.
I take another breath to finally calm down completely.
Okay, alright.
What's done is done and there's no way to undo it. Just keep moving forward.
I give my face a rinse with cold water before I leave the bathroom. Koko is sitting on the sofa watching news, a plate of cold fish with rice in her arms. Her heart is not calm however, despite how calm she looks. She still worries about what happened in that fight? Maybe. Or maybe she worries about what Sherry will say once she sees us all bruised and scratched.
I pray for her to just shout our ears off.
"Oh, hello Zofis. Want some?" She asks as she puts the rice onto the coffee table and pushes it slightly to the other side of the sofa. I take the hint and without fuss join her on the opposite sit.
"It appears our fight didn't make it into the news." She muses as I dig into the leftovers with renewed hunger. That fight was taken a toll on me.
Ew, no, stop, ew, what are you… NO STOP PUTTING IT INTO YOUR MOUTH IT'S DISGUSTING! THIS FOOD IS NOT EVEN HEATED! And she ate it just a second ago! Stop!
I cannot help but smile at the misery of my darker self. Enjoy that, sucker. Revenge makes the dish even tastier.