Bunnyloverforever: I don't own Disgaea and I'm just trying to rewrite: Guardians of the Netherworld because I wasn't very happy with how it was first written. Enjoy, R&R!
Chapter 1: The Netherworld
It was another boring and uneventful day that came across the Overlord all too often now. Nothing was being accomplished while enemies still lurked somewhere out in the Netherworld. As long as they weren't attacking, then Laharl honestly didn't have anything to worry about. Besides, he was all powerful anyways… at least, that's what he told himself. He still had his father's Guardians that took care of the Netherworld citizens and such. Basically… it had been a while before Laharl had even lifted a finger. Of course, his seemingly endless flow of boredom and eventfulness stooped to an abrupt low after today.
It was a regular afternoon and Laharl was sitting in his throne, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Flonne was perky; Etna was indescribable and usually off doing some kind of business, and Jennifer spent most of her days with Etna or in the kitchen. So, Laharl attempted to busy himself with the Netherworld news each day. He wondered why he even bothered to read articles if he hadn't stepped out of his castle in ages and didn't plan to do so any time soon. Nothing he did made much sense anymore. As long as it kept him out of the face of boredom, he didn't mind doing pointless activities. This pointless activity would soon be disrupted by his father's Guardians.
"Hello… Laharl?" kindly asked a low toned voice.
"Laharl, put down that stupid news paper!" roared Lisa, a fire mage, and one of Laharl's father's guardians. She was standing alongside with Gaws, a male warrior, Delta, a sword master, Cotton, an archer, and Pleinair.
With a grunt, Laharl lowered the newspaper and placed it in his lap when he received Lisa's glare. "What is it? Don't you all have anything else better to do?"
"Look who's talking! You don't go out at all and when was the last time you even trained? You're lucky I don't burn your tongue to ashes every time you walk around claiming to be the best!" Lisa's eyes bugged out and her brows slanted when she began to scold the young Overlord.
Laharl simply propped his elbow up on the arm of his fancy chair and rested his chin on his palm. It's not like it was actually the first time he'd heard Lisa go off on him like this. It was almost considered an activity for another uneventful and boring day. He finally decided to glance at their faces and found nothing, but anger.
"What did you guys want again?" he requested to know why they were interrupting his boring and uneventful activity of reading the Netherworld newspaper.
"We're going to quit being Guardians. We want to retire," Pleinair firmly stated. She folded her arms across her chest.
Gaws nodded while Lisa, Delta, and Cotton looked as though they would jump at Laharl any moment now. Laharl's crimson eyes widened as he heard the words. Would that mean that he would have to go out and step foot in his kingdom? It was a hard fact to believe. He didn't know what to say. His mouth hung open and no sounds were made from the once mouthy teenager.
"Yeah, I'm going to retire, and I'm going to be the director of the Dark Assembly!" Lisa announced and twirled a strain of her red hair with her index finger. She added a conceited giggle at the end of her statement.
"What? If you think you're going to become the director of the dark assembly, then you have another thing coming, girlfriend!" Delta faced the mage and snapped her fingers in an exaggerated Z formation. Gaws and Pleinair could barely stifle their laughter. Cotton jumped into the argument and proclaimed that she was going to be the director of… everything. That came across as an interesting statement to Laharl, but the more serious thoughts that ran thought his head. Like, what in the world was he going to do without the five of them around to protect the Netherworld?!
"Laharl, can you settle this, please?" Gaws interrupted Laharl's deep thinking. The male who didn't look a day older than twenty five. He found it quite witty that the Overlord was thinking intently on something. Although he settled on the fact that Laharl was more or so surprised than actually thinking.
"Right, uh…" Laharl jumped off of his throne and approached the bickering three, retired guardians. "Okay, stop for a few seconds!" He raised his hands and his eyes gathered a serious appeal.
"What are you going to do?" Delta asked curiously.
"Yeah, I really want to be the director, Laharl!" Cotton made it clear with the whiney tone she used in her voice.
"Oh, c'mon, just pick me, damn it!" Lisa yelled out, crossed her arms, and shifted her weight to one leg.
Laharl raised a brow at their behavior. They all seemed to be on their period every time he watched them interact with each other. "Well, actually, I'm going to pick a number through one to ten. Whoever is closest to the number I pick will be the director of the dark assembly. Simple enough for the three of you?"
"Are we allowed to pick more than one number?" Cotton asked, finding herself dumbfounded.
"The hell? Of course not! You can only pick one number!" Laharl sighed and then took another deep breath. Maybe the guardians retiring would be a good thing after all. No more fights would be heard from all the way on the other side of the castle. "Okay, pick your numbers."
"Four!" Delta guessed first.
"Six!" Cotton sang.
"I'm going with two!" Lisa said with determination.
Laharl turned his head towards Gaws and Pleinair. "Are you two going to guess?" he asked flatly.
Gaws and Pleinair took a glance at each other and then back at the Overlord. "Sure," they both said in unison.
"I'm going to go with nine." Pleinair said and then laced her fingers together timidly.
"Five here," Gaws answered.
Laharl took a deep sigh of relief, knowing that the winner of this job lottery wasn't going to be the bickering three. "The person who directs the dark assembly will be: Pleinair! Delta will be the nurse, Sasha the item world gate keeper, Cotton the weapon shop, and Gaws will take the armor shop." He closed his eyes when he assigned everyone their jobs, hoping they would take it as it is. Opening up one eye, he braced himself.
'Damn, I'm glad that's over… I'm surprised I didn't go deaf when the three of them started yelling and screaming.' Laharl was sure that the rest of his day wouldn't be interrupted anymore. The only thing that lingered in his mind tauntingly was the fact that he would have to go out himself with Jennifer, Etna, and Flonne to protect the Netherworld against foes. It had been months since the last time he did this. And it was easy to forget about fighting and fantasize about sitting around all day every day. Before finishing the last paragraph of an article, Etna had literally ripped the newspaper from Laharl's hands and crumbled it up into a ball, kicking it off to a corner. The Overlord sucked in air and wondered how he winded up with Etna in the first place. It seethed him.
"What is it?" he inquired blankly, counting to ten in his mind.
"What do you mean, 'what is it'?" She countered and planted her hands on her hip.
"Exactly what I mean. What do you want?" Laharl asked again and then watched Jennifer and Flonne walk up next to Etna with brimming smiles.
"We're going to hire new guardians!" Flonne cheered in her naturally high pitched voice.
Laharl's face dropped. More annoying pests running around trying to kill each other instead of the foes at hand?! Images of potential guardians, in replace of the already bickering three, squabbling around filled his mind. This didn't make sense. The four of them could fight foes perfectly fine. Why did they need other children? "Why?" he finally managed to squeak out.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Laharl!" Jennifer teased and giggled along with Etna.
"We need new guardians, Prince!" Etna made her reason unknown and she leaned her torso over.
"You can't be serious? What's wrong with the four of us?" he queried defensively.
"Wouldn't it be fun to have new faces around the castle, Laharl?" Flonne chirped happily and held her hands behind her back.
Laharl grimaced and looked up at the ceiling. What was happening today? It was as if he was catching up with all the eventfulness his days were suppose to be filled up all in one shot. "Fine!" he grumbled and hopped off of his throne with a glower.
"Wow! That was easier than I thought it was going to be!" Jennifer giggled again and the girls led the way toward the dark assembly.
Laharl was still contemplating the worse outcomes of hiring more guardians. More personalities he would be forced to deal with. At least yelling and releasing his anger on someone that would obey and protect him at all costs would be something entertaining to do. Now he was beginning to like the idea of having guardians around. If he was mad, and someone was there, may god have mercy on their soul. Besides, how much negativity could come out of having one or two extra people around?
"All right, Laharl. We have swordsmen, space pirates, battlers, space marines, archers-"
"Yeah, you have every class. I get it. Just let me choose a few people," Laharl interrupted Pleinair without a second thought. He folded his arms and rested his unforgiving gaze on a few swordsmen before finally choosing one.
"Wait a second Laharl, when you pick someone, you should try asking to see if they have anyone they would like to recommend. It would be easier to have guardians that already know each other, right?" Flonne gave her suggestion and waited to see what Laharl had to say about it.
"Yeah, that would make things a lot easier on me." Laharl grinned at himself and continued ogling the swordsman he picked sternly.
"Wait a second, Prince. Who said we were only picking a few people? I was thinking like… well… maybe four or five?" Etna smiled toothily at the end of her question. She waited for approval anxiously.
"Are you serious? Who do you think I am? A baby-sitter?" Laharl dropped his arms and his eyes broadened at Etna's question. He couldn't believe she would want that many new faces around the castle! Who would be taking care of all of them?!
"Look, let's just see and find out. I know you're going to find a few people you'll like, Laharl!" Jennifer said and bent over to pet the Overlord.
It didn't matter to Laharl. He continued to grumble and he mulled over the topic of having guardians in his mind again. What would he do with all of them? What would they do with him? Was this really for the Netherworld's sake or for Laharl's torment and Etna's pleasure?