"Genki! I bought you something!" Genki's mother's voice bounced of the walls accompanied by the disturbing crackle of paper bags hitting the tile floor. As she passed his room a large blur landed on his bed. It was the box for the new Monster Rancher- Shi’s Reign game he had wanted since January. At the first sight of it he bounced down the hall pulling off acrobatics that were too complex for such a small place. "Thank you so much!!!!" his arms gripped around his mother then he cart-wheeled back into his room. In one swift movement the plastic wrapping was gone and he was trying to pry open the box. With the new game in hand he approached his Playstation. He hesitated before putting it in as he remembered what happened last time. "Something wrong?" his mother’s voice cooed. "No, just uhh…inspecting the disk." His mother left and he put the disk in. A smile smeared itself across his face, there on the game was Holly, Suezo, Golem, and Mocchi. Hare and Tiger were nowhere in sight but it was nice to see most of them. Suddenly the screen flipped to a man who was carrying a bunch of mystery disks. Genki’s controller slipped from his hand, the man dropped a disk, as it shattered the controller hit the floor landing on a button. Genki held his breath as the noise of glass breaking pierced the air. The lid of the Playstation automatically flipped open revealing that his disk was destroyed. He let out a heavy sigh but then the remains of the disk glowed as they pulled themselves back together. The restored disk floated in mid air and began to spin rapidly, letting out a blinding shimmer. "Oh my god! Genki!" Holly’s voice awakened him. He found himself lying amidst shards of what was left of the man’s mystery disk. "Gomen." Genki tried to piece two pieces back together but the attempt was futile. "It’s okay. I was the one that dropped it." The man gathered the pieces into a brown leather bag and went about his business. "Genki-chan!" Holly’s arms pulled him close and they hugged. "It’s so great to see you! How did you get here?" Holly let go and Mocchi hopped into Genki’s arms. "I just put in the disk. When that guy’s disk broke my controller hit the ground and pressed a button and I ended up here. It’s great to finally see you all again!" He hugged Mocchi. "Good to see you." Golem said. "Yeah, it was getting a little boring not having you around." Suezo bounced up to Genki. "Is Moo back?" Genki’s eyes grew dim, expecting a yes. "No, thankfully. But I have heard of a new evil. I don’t know if it’s true but some people have reported of some strange things. No one’s sure if it’s true but what makes it so believable is that no one has been able to contact anyone else on the other side of Heaven’s Canyon and the people that went over to the other side haven’t been seen since." Holly’s eyes seemed to drift off into her thoughts. "It’s true!" a shrill human cry gained the attention of everyone. A man barely able to keep his balance and possessing a ragged, tortured appearance limped his way near the five. "I have just come from over the other side. It’s worse than when Moo existed. If they see you stop working, even for just a second, it means death or torture. Almost everyone on the other side is enslaved. I got away through a once in a lifetime miracle." He panted, falling to his knees. "They are known as the Evils 6 and their leader is the mysterious and hard core Master Shi. From the way we are treated it seems as though he is aiming at global devastation or domination. He’s worse than any evil before." The man was helped to his feet by Holly and Genki. "The only way to stop him is to find the Midnight Phoenix. It has the only power to stop him. Princess Charity keeps him hidden. The- the legend." the man fainted from exhaustion.

"Here. This is the legend." The elderly woman put a dusty, old, gray book down in front of them. "That’ll be 5 golds, please." Holly gave her the amount and they left the store. "Read it, Holly-chan!" Genki shuffled through the pages, finally stopping halfway through the book and handed it to Holly. She cleared her throat and began to read. "The Legend of Princess Charity. Long ago when the world was young before the creation of the destructive Moo, before any monster, humans lived with all kinds of super natural creatures like Fairies, Sprites, Centaurs, and so on. The world was a peaceful place and all things lived in harmony. The most kind and giving of them all was gentle Charity. She was supposedly the very first monster to ever exist. Her body was composed of parts of many monsters and she was beautiful. The people loved her so much that she was made a princess. Yet, later as technology advanced and monsters came to exist she became less of an influence on the people and finally the war began. As the scientist released Moo she saw his intentions at first glance and took her few remaining followers and a minority of monsters and left. Later Moo was "defeated" but a new fiercer evil. As the masses grew afraid they looked for her guidance but she was gone. Many searched high and low for her. Five were known to travel all across the globe in search of her but wound up empty handed. Except for one. He claimed he had seen her standing high atop a cliff crying for the people. She was sad because of what they had done to themselves. He said he followed her and she went to a valley and walked through a portal. The man said he got a quick glance at the mystic place beyond as the portal opened. It was a paradise where the former peaceful state that the world had once had was regained and all creatures lived in a peaceful harmony. He also said that when she finally noticed him she told him to tell what was left of the populous that if there was a time when they needed more than the Phoenix’s help to send the destined ones to find her and she would help. They would know who they were. Before he could give the location, though, he died." Holly closed the book. "That’s it, chi?" Mocchi grabbed the book and started flipping through it. "Yes, many have forgotten so much about her that there isn’t much to the legend but it is one of the most famous of all legends.

"So I guess we go and find the valley where she lives. We can use your magic stone, right?" Genki turned south and began to walk. "No," Holly’s words stopped him dead in his tracks, "You can’t use a stone or anything when trying to find her. If you truly are one of the destined then you will be led on instinct. You won’t know which way to go or if your on the right track but you will know when your near the Hidden Valley. So we just have to walk and hope were going the right way." Holly opened the book. "Some people speculated that it was this way but no one knows." She pointed to a valley in the book’s map. "Come on, Holly-chan. That’s too depressing." Suezo closed his eye and sighed. "Depressing." Golem echoed. "Well, we have to try! Come on! Monsters Rule!….uhhh are the good guys still called goodies?" Genki was in mid pose. "Yes." Holly simply answered. "Alright! Goodies Rule!" Genki was his old energy spouting self.

To be continued…………………..

(Konnichi wa, minna! Okay, I admit this was incredibly short for one of my Fanfictions but there will be plenty more to come. This is just the start. The start of a long story. The start of a series. Hope you like it! Please tell me what you think. Mandakaye@twave.net. Arigatou. Ja ne!

Ryan)

"So your going on another journey to find this Charity-hime person so we can save the world from Shi-sama? That sounds like what happened last time!" Tiger sat sipping at a bowl of soup and talking to Genki. "Tiger-kun! This is different! Shi-sama is worse than Moo-sama and we have no idea where to go." Genki advanced in their argument. "So were just walking around?" Tiger shoved his soup on Genki’s foot. Genki growled and bent down to where he was eye level with Tiger. "When Shi-sama kills you and your brother don’t gripe to me!" Genki sat up triumphantly. "I won’t be able to. I’ll be dead." Tiger retorted sarcastically. Genki let out a defiant snarl and got up and went and sat beside Hare. "Hare-kun, you agree with me don’t you? Of course you do! You and your sister, and Captain Evil Hare-kun want to come on our journey don’t you? Of course you do!" Genki gave Hare, nor Dante, nor Captain Evil Hare any time to speak their opinion. Captain Evil Hare was now a goodie after being turned good by the Phoenix. He had joined up with Dante and Hare and ended up here. Dante had joined Hare after having no alternative because of the ranch being destroyed. Hare had just traveled around. Tiger had been reunited with his brother and was pretty happy and didn’t want to go on another wild journey to save the world or that’s what he made people think but Tiger had to admit that Genki had a point. Gray Wolf could care less what happened as long as he and Tiger weren’t separated again. "Fine Genki-kun, we’ll go on this little journey." Tiger gave in hiding the fact that he was happy to be reunited with Genki and his friends, even Hare. Tiger didn’t want to admit that he would be more than happy to journey with them. Gray Wolf snickered quietly, knowing exactly what his brother was hiding. "Great then! Let’s go!" Genki leaped into the air and flung on his roller blade before landing. He grabbed Mocchi and dashed off in a cloud of dust. "Genki-chan! Wait for us!" Holly cried as the eight ran after the hyperactive boy.

With barely any strength left from running and walking everyone rested inside a spooky cave. It was shaped like a Zilla. It’s horn formed a good place to look over everything, it’s mouth made a roomy entrance and below it was a waterfall. This was why it was called Zilla-falls. The humid fog and mist from the cascading waters shrouded the cave in a blanket of dim haze. It was hard to determine the surroundings and hard to start a fire. "Well, this is just great! We’re in some spooky cave and we can’t start a fire. We’re doomed." Suezo tried to keep a spark alive but failed. More sparks came and died as Holly and Genki tried to start a fire with some rocks. "Let me give you a hand." Tiger blasted the sticks and charred them into a blazing fire. "Arigatou, Tiger-chan." Dante grabbed her box of odangos and held it a little ways above the fire, heating the meal perfectly. "Show off." Genki grumbled under his breath, eyeing Tiger evilly. Finally letting it go, Genki turned his attention to the grouchy Suezo who was trying to steal some of Dante’s odangos. "Suezo-kun, sa-shi nani?" Genki grinned wickedly.

"Nani?"

"Yurei."

"Yurei?!"

"Hai! This cave is full of ‘em." Genki bent down and pointed into the cave. "Your not serious." Suezo bounced back from the shadows. "Dead serious." Genki turned around to face Suezo, a scary face replacing his normal expression. Suezo screamed and darted off to hide behind Holly. The others laughed as Suezo shook. "No Yurei, Suezo-kun." Golem comforted Suezo. "Genki-chan! How dare you scare him. Apologize!" Holly scolded. "Gomen, Suezo-kun." Genki apologized like he was a five year-old. "We had better get some rest. It’ll be another long walk tomorrow." Hare instructed.

As everyone slept a small figure crept around them. Examining each. It was a Mocchi. It looked at each of them closely. It tripped and hesitated as it watched Captain Evil Hare’s ears twitch at the sudden movement. When he didn’t awaken it realized it was in the clear and moved on. Gray Wolf sneezed as the petite monster looked at him. He continued sleeping giving the Mocchi a clear passageway. It finally reached its destination. Mocchi slept peacefully with his head on top of Genki’s knee. "Chi." The curious Mocchi poked him. No response. "Chi!" it shoved him this time. Still nothing. As the pale monster was about to scream a small, pale pink hand beckoned him back. Obeying the order the Mocchi left. "Another, slightly taller Mocchi came from out of the shadows. It threw a white sheet over it’s body and tiptoed up to Suezo. "Chiiiii! Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" it mimicked a ghost loudly. Suezo twitched and opened his eye. He mumbled as his blurred vision came back to focus. "Yurei!!!!" Suezo screamed and began frantically running around waking everyone up. "Nani, Suezo-kun?" Holly scratched her head and groaned. "Yurei!" Suezo screamed, this time about collapsing the cave. Commotion arose and nine ran from the cave in fear. "Huh? Mocchi-kun? Mocchi-kun?! Where is Mocchi-kun?!" Genki called after his lost monster. Realizing Mocchi was still in the cave Genki dashed back to the collapsing structure.

"Bammmmmm!" The cave exploded in a burst of fireworks. Destroying everything within five feet of it. Genki a full six feet away, pulled himself off the ground but fell to his knees in horror. The cave was nothing but dust. No Mocchi, no nothing. "Mocchi-kun." Genki could hardly manage a word as tears began to flood from his eyes.

To be continued……………….

(Konnichi wa! Now how’s that for an attention getter. Mocchi dead? Wait until the next chapter to find out. You wouldnd’t believe the trouble I had writing this chapter. I hate writer’s block! Anywho, tell me what you think! mandakaye@twave.net Also, Yurei means ghost and Nani means what. Sa-shi nani means guess what(I think) and Hai means yes. Arigatou!