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After the entire Legend Stone debacle, Enjyu decides he’s off to a life on the road.
Certain catty elements don’t agree with his decision.
Enjyu decides against sticking around, after all is said and done and Yamato is left figuring out his living arrangements with his parents—all three of them! Lucky jerk—and the twins. Celebratory B-dabattles taper off and people start to sleepily talk about getting back to Cowtoon, which he takes as his signal to slip out, hop on his bike, and make a break for it.
He’s somewhere on the long dusty road between Cowtoon and the next town when a tall purple cat in a lab coat materializes before him.
Oh no, oh no. He’s not getting caught up in anything more today, not after everything that’s just gone down with Yamato and he’s tired as heck and just wants some rest. Enjyu keeps driving, swerving to avoid the cat, and he’s sure he’s lost him—
The cat just materializes in front of him again and this time, Enjyu stops.
“Ababa mentioned you were a stubborn one, but this is no time for that,” says the cat. “Quickly now, back the way you came.”
“What,” Enjyu says.
The cat strides over and hops on without much ado. “I am Ababa’s partner, Marda-B, and I desperately need your help. Please, take me to where Biarce was defeated, and I shall explain on the way.”
Enjyu isn’t sure why he turns the bike around and starts on the way back as asked, but he supposes there’s something in Marda-B’s plea that makes him cave—and even with everything that’s happened tonight, what’s one more crazy thing?
“Thank you,” says Marda-B calmly once they’re on their way. “I know I’m asking a lot but this is important to both Ababa and I.”
“If you’re just out to get Yamato too, I swear I’ll…”
“Oh no, I don’t care about that.” Marda-B laughs. “No, there is something I must retrieve from the site.”
Enjyu supposes he can just wait and see. If Marda-B turns out to be an enemy, he’ll make quick work of him. If this turns out to be nothing, then it’ll all be fine.
When they arrive at the ancient arena, they find it empty. Yamato and the others must have gone on home already, Enjyu muses as he follows Marda-B back inside. He lingers at the entrance, ready to jump into action if Marda-B pulls any tricks.
“I know you’re still here, I can sense you,” Marda-B calls out as he strides confidently to the middle of the room. “Come out, Biarce.”
What? Enjyu frowns, coming closer so he doesn’t miss a thing. Was Biarce still alive?
The answer is a shadow appearing before Marda-B, a tiny dark figure hovering before him.
“Tsk, this is worse than I thought.” Marda-B shakes his head. “Enjyu, I’m afraid I must ask a big favor of you…”
The shadow frantically starts to move up and down. Enjyu doesn’t like where this is going, but he comes even closer anyway. “What do you want me to do?”
“Stop your tantrum at once,” Marda-B tells the shadow, which does indeed stop moving so erratically. He turns to Enjyu. “Enjyu, the truth is…I am here to save Biarce. He has gone too far this time with his spells and if nothing is done, he will be…lost forever.”
A chill runs down Enjyu’s spine, but he suppresses the shudder that would accompany it. He stares at the shadow, at Biarce in his most pathetic state yet. It is…satisfying to see this terrible, evil enemy reduced to this, but at the same time…strangely sad as well. “What’s that got to do with me?”
“He will need a host body until we return to our home,” replies Marda-B. “I can reconstruct his body there…Enjyu, will you please carry Biarce until we make it back?”
Enjyu’s eyes widen. “Oh, hell no,” he snaps immediately. “That evil little prick is just going to use me to go after Yamato again if I let him do that.”
“He is in no condition to take control of you.” Marda-B frowns at the shadow. “But if he tries, he will be in very big trouble with both Ababa and myself.”
“Uh.” This is such a strange situation to be in, Enjyu doesn’t even know how to start making a decision here. He’s seen what Biarce can do in someone else’s body, the way he’d taken hold of Aquras, but on the other hand, Marda-B actually seemed quite genuine and sincere and seemed to have some control over Biarce.
Would it be so bad, to just let Biarce die? Enjyu’s no stranger to death and the harsher realities of life, but…what would Yamato do?
Save Biarce, no questions asked.
Dammit Yamato!
Enjyu breathes in deeply. Having morals again sucks.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll do it,” he says.
It’s a strange sensation to know there’s someone else occupying his body too, but Biarce for the most part makes himself as small and unintrusive in Enjyu’s mind the entire ride to Marda-B’s home. If anything, Enjyu gets a strong sense of sulking from what remains of the boy.
An elderly human woman comes out to greet them when they arrive. Enjyu takes a moment to stare at the strangely…nice and normal house that Marda-B claims is his and Ababa’s. In the nicest part of grassy little Saitoon, no less.
Where’s all the…spooky evil magic lair stuff?
Biarce laughs in his head, and finally says something to him after all this time. Aw, you were his favorite but it turns out you know so little about Master Ababa.
Shut up, Enjyu thinks back.
“Did you find him?” asks the elderly woman in hushed tones once Marda-B and Enjyu both have their feet on the pavement.
“Enjyu’s carrying him for now,” replies Marda-B in equally quiet tones. He glances up at the house. “Granny, did the twins suspect anything?”
“No, they’re quite excited to be out of the house.”
“And has Alice gotten in contact?”
Granny shakes her head solemnly, and Marda-B sighs. He turns to Enjyu and gestures up at the house. “I’ll perform the spell in the living room.”
“Uh…sure,” is all Enjyu can manage as he starts up the path with after both adults. I misheard that right? He said secret magic basement right?
Your foolish preconceptions of my house and attendants are so entertaining! comes Biarce’s smug voice. Haha!
Do you ever shut up?
Inside the house is just as frighteningly normal as out. Enjyu nervously sits on the couch when instructed, fully expecting that when Granny opens the door nearby, it’ll be a gate to hell. But no, it is only a door to the kitchen.
Marda-B comes back down the stairs with a bundle of things that he spreads out on the coffee table, shoving aside several large well-worn books in the process. Enjyu tries to pick out what all the materials Marda-B has brought with him are, but he can’t even start to identify half of the…strangely colored and shaped…plants (?) laying there.
Even a novice could tell you what those are, scoffs Biarce.
Okay wiseguy, shoots back Enjyu. Name them all.
There’s silence in his head for a moment, marked only by Marda-B saying some nonsense words and doing some kind of waving with his arms.
…Herbology wasn’t my strong suit, admits Biarce.
“Now then.” Marda-B comes over to them, placing a gloved hand on Enjyu’s forehead so suddenly he has no time to dodge. “This may feel uncomfortable.”
“What—”
Uncomfortable is an understatement, as he feels something being torn away from him in what feels like both a physical and a mental sense. He grits his teeth, enduring the strange sensation, because he’s gone through worse after all, and then—
Biarce plops onto the couch beside him, naked and already grumbling angrily to himself. Marda-B staggers away just long enough to throw an oversized shirt at him before crashing onto the couch as well on Enjyu’s other side. Enjyu slumps back in his seat, wondering why that took so much out of him.
“Tea and cookies for those nature-defying-spell dizzies?” Granny asks from the entrance to the kitchen, where she stands with a trayful of exactly that.
“Don’t think I didn’t watch everything you did on TV,” barks Marda-B.
Enjyu feels like he’s intruding on a private moment, but he also feels trapped on the couch with Biarce next to him and the cookies on the table in front of him are so, so nice. He reaches for another one as Marda-B starts up on another tirade.
“Aligning yourself with Team Junk! Blowing up those arenas! Zero subtlety at all,” continues Marda-B. “Not to mention your awful behavior on the battlefield…and then losing the tablet to some ruffian…! After how long it took me to find that for your papa. That was a gift from me, you know?”
“And Master Ababa gifted it to me when he decided I could take over the Legend Stone project,” snaps Biarce, arms crossed and stubbornly leaning on the couch, away from the cookies, despite how Enjyu can hear his stomach growling angrily.
“Biarce Romadik,” says Marda-B, tone somehow growing even sterner. “We may be your teachers, but we are also your parents!”
Enjyu chokes on the cookie he’s stuffing into his mouth.
Parents? Marda-B and…Ababa…
Biarce’s parents!?
Enjyu thinks he’s dissociating.
There’s got to be a perfectly rational reason behind all this, right? Enjyu racks his brain, even though it’s increasingly difficult since his brain has started down the path of so if Ababa and Marda-B are “partners” and “parents” together does this mean they—
“Wait,” he blurts out, interrupting Biarce who has started to raise his voice and talk back to Marda-B. “You’re adopted?”
The look both Marda-B and Biarce give him makes him sure he’s overstayed his welcome. He quickly stands.
“Uh, guess I should get going,” he says. He pauses, grabs a handful of cookies, and starts to move.
His words seem to break something in the air, as Marda-B’s expression calms into something far more serene. He sighs and shakes his head at Enjyu.
“You have nowhere to go, am I correct?”
“What—oh no, I’ll be fine,” Enjyu replies, once he realizes what Marda-B is about to suggest. “I’m serious, I’ve got places to be. Time to hit the road—”
“Oh no you don’t,” Marda-B is faster than him, blocking his way to the front door with his unfair advantage of having catlike speed due to being an actual cat. “Ababa told me all about you. I’m not letting a child go out on the streets so he can end up asleep in some alleyway somewhere, not when Biarce’s room is large enough for two of you.”
“What!?” Biarce yells, jumping up to his feet. “Absolutely not! Enjyu is not allowed in my lair—”
“Biarce.” This time, Marda-B’s tone makes it clear the boy is on very thin ice. Biarce manages to grow even paler, but he seems to relent, as he throws his hands in the air, shouts “Fine!” and stomps off up the stairs.
“That boy, I swear.” Marda-B makes an equally exasperated noise, before turning to Enjyu again. “Well, make yourself comfortable, and I’ll show you up to his room once he’s calmed down.”
Enjyu is absolutely sure he’s lost complete control of his life at this point, so the best thing he can do is nod and sigh and eat another cookie.
Granny, who has settled into one of the armchairs and has just been quietly watching, speaks up once more. “It’s so nice that our Biarce’s made such a nice friend.”
“Do not touch anything,” commands Biarce as he lets Enjyu through his door. It’s immediately slammed shut behind him.
“Or you’ll send me to hell, right?” Enjyu looks around. Biarce’s room is…not what he expected. For starters, it’s not as dark as he expected given the nice yellow and flowery wallpaper, and there isn’t even a pentagon with random runes drawn in chalk on the floor. “So, where do you keep the bodies and the blood of your enemies?”
“Shut up,” grumbles Biarce. He pushes past Enjyu, standing in the middle of the room, then turns to face him with a big, nasty grin. “Enjyu! Now that you’re in my lair…I declare you my newest minion and the first member of the Neo-Shadow Alliance!”
Enjyu rolls his eyes and makes for the couch propped up against one wall.
“Okay, like, you’re probably serious and you’re probably going to put me in a bottle in my sleep so you can annoy Yamato in the morning or whatever,” he says, and he’s kind of glad he got that all out in one breath. “But one, I’m tired as all heck. Two—Biarce, I just watched your dad scold you as if setting up a sadistic tournament, blowing up three arenas, and trying to kill Yamato and my friends was you like…I don’t know, breaking curfew or something. Some trivial normal kid trash like that. Finally, I have a feeling when Ababa gets out of jail—again—he’s not going to like you plagiarizing him.”
“Shut up, you don’t know what plagiarizing means,” hisses Biarce.
“Yes, I do, you jerkface,” snaps Enjyu. “Now buzz off and goodnight or something.” He flops down and makes himself comfortable on the…really nice cushions. Why did Biarce even have his own couch in here? Come to think of it, the fact that this house was in the nicer part of Saitoon…Ugh, Enjyu leans back and shuts his eyes.
Sleep thankfully claims him as quickly as it can.
Granny manages to stop him from sneaking out before breakfast early the next morning, which is how Enjyu ends up sitting beside Biarce eating the best pancakes he’s ever had in his life. Marda-B is nowhere to be seen, and asking only has Biarce grumpily reply that Marda-B never wakes before noon.
Enjyu is still trying to think of ways to escape when he hears the front door opening and closing, and a pair of near-identical voices shouting “We’re home!”
Biarce immediately shovels the rest of his plate into his mouth and makes a run for it.
Enjyu watches as he barely makes it out the kitchen before two tiny figures tackle him. He blinks, staring as a pair of tinier Biarces cling to the one tiny (but no longer the tiniest) child.
“Brother, I saw you on TV!” says one of them. “What were you thinking?”
“You got hurt, didn’t you?” says the other. “And father got your body back?”
“Yes! I’m fine!” shouts Biarce, trying to shake off both of them. Enjyu leans against the breakfast table, watching this with an eyebrow raised. He watches Biarce battle the pair for his personal space, until they drop off him and flounce on upstairs.
“Twins?” asks Enjyu, once Biarce returns, looking most defeated.
“Sacha and Arche,” replies Biarce, glaring at Enjyu. “Why are you still here? Don’t you have some small children to bully?”
“Uh, like you?”
“Argh,” grumbles Biarce.
Enjyu’s pretty sure that he’s technically free to go now that it’s after breakfast, but he finds himself wanting to stick around.
(It’s for the food, he tells himself. Granny’s cooking is the best.)
He doesn’t see the twins again for the rest of the day, and Biarce refuses to let him back into his room, so he’s left to his own devices. Late in the afternoon, Marda-B comes downstairs, dodges all questions, heads for the kitchen, and goes back upstairs with a big mug of what looks like milk.
With nothing to do, he ends up on the couch doing some overdue maintenance on Blazing Kahn. Granny sits in her armchair nearby, watching him and providing some background chatter about something she watched or read recently. Though Enjyu’s focus is on his B-daman, he can’t help but appreciate the company. Something about this all feels surreal, even…unattainable…
He doesn’t hear the door this time, and Granny’s chatter has long faded into the background, so it’s only when a shadow falls across Blazing Kahn and his tools that he looks up.
It’s an older girl this time, long dark hair tied back in a ponytail, bright red eyes gazing down at him with surprise.
“Oh, you’re the runner-up of the previous Winners Tournament,” she says with a smile. “Last person I’d expect to find in my living room.”
Enjyu, for his part, finds himself staring. She is, by far, the prettiest person he’s encountered in this house. “Uhh,” he starts, “Yeah, that’s me…”
“Great,” she says, then turns to Granny. “Is Biarce back?”
“In his room, dear,” replies Granny, who is smirking knowingly.
“Thank you. I’ve got a bone to pick with the brat.” The girl turns and marches upstairs, and Enjyu has a distinct feeling that Biarce is very much in trouble again.
Enjyu looks over at Granny, who laughs.
“Oh, don’t worry about Alice,” she tells him, “She was just the most worried out of us all.”
Enjyu sits back and looks down at Blazing Kahn. The longer he stays here and learns more about Biarce, the more everything just seems…wrong. He frowns as he starts to put Blazing Kahn back together, and his thoughts are a jumbled mess about everything Biarce did and everything Yamato went through in light of what he’s seen here.
“Listen here, you jerk,” starts Enjyu as he barges into Biarce’s room again. The boy leaps up from his desk, on which Enjyu can spot several large sheets of paper labeled ‘PLANS TO STEAL YAMATO’S B-DAMAN.’ Enjyu has to pause for a moment to process this.
“I told you not to come in here again,” hisses Biarce.
“Right,” Enjyu finds his composure again, and starts advancing toward Biarce. He decides he doesn’t care anymore, if Biarce decides to just use some of his spooky magic powers on him. “Look, I just want some answers before I leave. What gives?”
“What?”
“You want the legendary B-daman,” states Enjyu, scowling at Biarce. “You went out of your way to make people miserable and nearly killed half the B-daplayers I know.”
“Your point?” Biarce narrows his eyes, annoyance plain on his face.
“What was your plan?” asks Enjyu. “You were, what, going to take over the world with the legendary B-daman? Show off how powerful you are? And then what? You were going to come home…to your happy little family that cares about you and pretend it’s lonely at the top?”
“Enjyu—”
“No, shut up,” snarls Enjyu, getting angrier and angrier the more he spoke. “You have three sisters who worry about you, a grandma who makes the best food ever, and even if they’re both creepy and kinda obviously evil too…you have parents who care about you!”
“Quiet!” shouts Biarce, hands curling into fists as he starts toward Enjyu. “You really think you understand me just from spending a little bit of time here? Hah! You don’t know anything about how alone I—”
“I’m a fucking orphan!”
That shuts Biarce up.
“You think you have it bad in your nice little house in Saitoon where Granny makes you milk and cookies whenever you want?” Enjyu continues with a snarl, “Is that it? You’ve got no excuse you big stupid jerk! You’re just a whiny, spoiled, annoying, wannabe—”
Biarce deals the first blow, fist coming out of nowhere and catching Enjyu in the face. “I will not have you insult me in my own room!”
“Okay, that’s it,” hisses Enjyu, rubbing his cheek.
The door to Biarce’s room opens, and in walks Marda-B. He gazes down at the two of them laying on the floor, both groaning and clutching parts of themselves that just hurt as the result of their inconclusive fistfight.
“Are you two friends yet?” asks Marda-B. “Or do I need to take you both to the battlefield in the yard and let you shoot it out?”
Enjyu sits up with a grunt. “No, I just want cookies and I never want to see Biarce’s face ever again.”
“I second this sentiment,” says Biarce, voice muffled from his laying face flat on his rug. “Enjyu doesn’t belong here.”
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to get used to the sight of each other’s face for a little longer,” says Marda-B, and the smug smirk on his face signals to Enjyu he’s about to say something truly evil. “Enjyu, Ababa has requested you stay with us until he’s free from B-Prison. It appears he has a lot he wants to discuss with you.”
“What!?” shout both Enjyu and Biarce in unison.
“Well,” says Marda-B cheerfully, “Welcome to the family, Enjyu!”
The cat steps back, shutting the door after him. Enjyu leans back down onto the floor, and he hears Biarce shuffling, rolling over so he can be heard better.
“I say my masters have gone too far this time,” says Biarce, barely hiding the annoyance in his voice. “I can’t start on my new plans if you’re here.”
“You know I’m morally obligated to stick around and stop you?” Enjyu shuts his eyes. “I’m like, a good guy now. Even if I really don’t wanna hang around you all the time, it’d be all bad and stuff if I just let you do whatever you wanted. Besides, your Granny’s got great cooking.”
“Oh curse you!”
“Yeah, you too.”