Author's note: Minna-san, konnichiwa! K-chan here! I've decided to try my hand at a Slayers alternative universe fic, so this should turn out to be fun. ^_^ Let me know what you think! Remember: questions, comments, suggestion, and/or constructive criticism are all welcome! Here it goes!
Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers. I just like to write. ^_^
Cast of Characters:
Lina Inverse – a brilliant but troublesome dual enrollment student at Saillune University, she decided to skip school on a rainy day and found herself in a world of trouble
Xellos Metallium – a Mazoku, or in layman's terms monster, who made a pledge with the Red Priest but didn't exactly keep his bargain. He finds Miss Inverse to be an interesting new subject
Zelgadis Greywers – a stoic young man trapped in an old building, he was placed under a curse by the Red Priest for an act of betrayal, and is startled to find a certain redhead wandering around
Rezo – Known as a miracle-worker by his peers and coworkers, his identity as the Red Priest in the occult faction of Saillune over 100 years ago is what led to him making a pledge with one of the higher-level cult members and he delved deeper into his search for a cure for his blindness
Pokota – Formerly Posel Korba Taforashia, he was the son of the head of the founding family in Taforashia. Like Zelgadis, he was place under a curse by the Red Priest after discovering that the deal made by a friend of his didn't go exactly as planned
Jiima – A hyperactive, but nevertheless clever Astral Sprite whose deal with a demon led to more than she'd bargained for
Filia Ul Copt – A Knight from the Order of Ceipheid 100 years prior to this tale, she too is trapped in the complex, and is easily riled up when one certain purple-haired priest comes around
Valgaav – another cursed being in the haunted complex, he was trapped here by Xellos after his former master was killed
Mimsy Borogoves – a little girl who follows Valgaav around, she is actually half Mazoku and is a certain General Priest's apprentice
Spectres
By Kuroneko
Chapter 1: Boredom
Lina Inverse was a nonconformist. Anyone who knew her could tell you that. When quilted handbags were in fashion, she wore an old cross body. When the other girls wore designer coats and sweaters in the winter, Lina would go about in an old baggy zip-up hoodie she'd found in a rummage, which was usually zipped up to hide the fact she had a dozen sweaters under it to keep warm. She kept her fiery red hair long and wild in sharp contrast to the lovely blondes and brunettes she went to school with. Whenever she was asked why she did all this, she would simply reply, "I hate being like everyone else."
Given this description, the average person would most likely conclude that Lina Inverse was a problem child. If you were to ask her sister and her sister's friends, they would wholeheartedly agree. If you asked her friends, they'd laugh it off without really answering. If you asked her teachers… well, they weren't so readily inclined to comment (although they would have liked to).
Lina was a brilliant young woman; there was no doubt about that. In comparison to most of her peers, she was practically a genius. She was top in her classes and she was even top in her college dual-enrollment courses, which came as little shock to anyone. She would have been in the running for Valedictorian if it wasn't for all the other things…
By "all the other things", they really only meant one thing: Lina Inverse would have been destined to be Valedictorian if she hadn't been Lina Inverse. Despite her brilliance, Lina was a handful. She was quick-witted to be sure, but she had a quick tongue to boot and it came laced with venom if anyone ever crossed her. Unfortunately for just about everyone, she had a fiery temper to match her hair and there were many days when it was all too easy get on her bad side. For this reason alone, Lina had been suspended several times, reprimanded even more than that, and on the days that she wasn't at home waiting out her suspension, she was usually skipping school.
No one could quite put a finger on why Lina acted the way she did. Some people blamed it on her home life – after all, her mother had died only two years ago after fighting a losing battle to a long-term illness, leaving Lina and her older sister, Luna, on their own. It was seldom that the sisters got along, Lina being the way she was and Luna having become more of an authoritarian in recent years. Others blamed it on her somewhat crazed social life. She had some friends, of course, but they were a motley group, and one not easily understood at that. Sometimes she would hang out with them, but other times she ignored them completely. No one seemed to mind; it seemed as though they were relatively happy with each other. There were a few people who marveled at the fact such a girl could even have friends – Lina already had problems dealing with other people. Because she was rather underdeveloped for her age, she was often a source of ridicule, something that was usually remedied by actions stemming from her notoriously short temper. What no one cared to notice, though, was that she tended to become nervous in large crowds, and classroom settings often left her feeling slightly claustrophobic. That and, despite her excellent exam scores, she always suffered from test anxiety and answered the questions as quickly as she could. Like her mother always said, she was a free spirit, and free spirits don't need their wings clipped.
These were not always the reasons why she would often find herself skipping school and bailing out on her "friends". More often than not, it was because she was bored with the curriculum and, worse of all, bored with them. As far as she was concerned, the work was too easy and therefore a complete waste of her time. In her mind, it was better to stay home than to waste an entire day.
It came as no surprise when Lina woke up that Wednesday morning to discover that she didn't want to go to school. It was a cloudy morning in Saillune and Lina grumbled as she pulled the covers over her head. She could already hear the sort of comments everyone was going to make about the weather and she wasn't looking forward to any of it.
One crimson eye opened to glare at the blaring alarm clock, which told her it was 6:15 AM in bright red digital numbers. She had to refrain from smashing this one – the last time she'd annihilated her alarm clock with the small bat at her bedside, and was later met with swift and memorable punishment from her older sister.
Speaking of whom…
Lina cautiously peered over the comforter, eyes darting around hesitantly. Where was Luna? She was usually throwing things around in the kitchen at six, and now was about the time she'd fling the random pot or pan through the door to wake the redhead up.
Today, however, the apartment was eerily silent.
"Luna?" she called out a bit hesitantly. No one answered.
She slipped out from under the covers and crept out of her room, waiting for an oncoming projectile in case Luna was still around. To her relief and slight bewilderment, none came.
Lina found this to be a bit strange. Luna was never gone this early in the morning. Wondering briefly if her older sister was ill, Lina stepped out into the hallway and walked down to Luna's bedroom door.
"Luna?" she called out a bit more quietly, knocking lightly on the closed door. If Luna had been in there she would've yelled out various obscenities, but Lina was once again met with utter silence. 'That's odd…'
She made her way into the kitchen, finding that the apartment wasn't as silent as she'd thought as the radio statically crooned out some old romance song. On the counter she found an assortment of very large muffins piled into a sort of small pyramid sitting next to a small sheet of paper. Plucking the top muffin off the pile and biting into it, Lina picked up the note and read the familiar loopy handwriting.
Lina –
Sorry I had to rush out so early, but it couldn't be avoided. Helmina called in sick at the last minute so Martina and I are pulling double-shifts today. I already made breakfast. Make sure you've got your lunch money and don't forget to lock the door when you leave for school. I'd better not get another phone call from the high school today.
Don't try to unplug the answering machine again. I'll be making random test calls to see if it's working.
Take care. I'll see you tonight.
Love,
Luna
Lina finished off the muffin as she put the note back down on the counter and began to think. Helmina Ul Court getting sick was a rare occasion; Luna being called in with Martina was even rarer. This was practically a godsend: with Luna out this early, Lina didn't have to rush out of the house. She could take her time and be late if she wanted.
"But I really don't want to go to school today," she said to herself in the empty apartment. The radio in the kitchen now playing some old rock song was the only other sound. She knew what today would bring: boredom. It would be another normal, boring day at the high school; her college courses only met on Tuesdays and Thursdays. "But there's no way in hell that I'm just going to sit around here all day."
Staying home and babysitting the answering machine was the best way to be rid any evidence of truancy – just rewind the tape and the next message would record right over it, simple as that. She'd seen her mother do it a hundred times just to save money on buying new tapes. But even if she did that and erased the history on her computer after booting it up, sitting down on the Internet was just plain boring. Staying indoors all day was boring.
Gloomy weather or not, Lina wanted to go out.
"Oh, what the hell!" she said at last, walking back into her room and quickly changing her clothes while stuffing another muffin in her mouth. She'd take Luna's wrath when she got home. It would definitely be more interesting than anything her friends would have had to say, anyway.
As much as she hated to admit it, Lina found most of her friends to be about as enlightening as her textbooks, and that was a comparison that made her frown. She really did like them, she could hardly deny it, but none of them provided what she would call "stimulating conversation". Sylphiel Nels Rahda was sweet, but she a bit foolish and her boyfriend, Gourry Gabriev, was an even bigger fool. He hadn't earned the nickname "Jellyfish Brains" for nothing. Good-looking or not, he was lucky his father was the football coach and he hadn't kicked his son off the team after he'd failed twice. Lina was sure there were some brains in the guy, but he never really acted like it. Then there was Amelia. She loved the Junior to bits, but once that girl started off on her "purveyor of justice" streak and her plans for going into law and politics, Lina just wanted clobber her (and usually did).
That was her whole problem: she was surrounded by loving, if somewhat dim-witted, companions, a curriculum that bored her to death and a sister who, although highly intelligent herself and very knowledgeable about her sister's dilemma, would kill Lina if she ever so much as breathed a complaint. That was one of the reasons why she did what she did: beat 'em up and don't get caught, and if you need a break, take it when you can because they don't come around often. That's what their mom used to say, and not even Luna could have argued with her mother.
…
A few minutes, fifteen more muffins, and two glasses of milk later, Lina looked around the apartment for a moment and wondered if there was anything she was forgetting, but smiled when she realized that she wasn't. With having to pull a double-shift, Luna wouldn't get off her job as a waitress at Merle's until seven-thirty that night, and then she was still going out to see a movie with her friends, which meant she wouldn't be back until ten or so. Aside from school and homework, Sylphiel had that date with Gourry to look forward to that evening, which effectively eliminated either her or that football player boyfriend of hers from being a nuisance; Amelia had come down with the stomach flu two days ago, and she was still at home, recovering. Lina found herself wishing that Amelia had given it to her older sister, Gracia (or Naga, as liked to call herself), but she supposed that it was more of a blessing that Amelia's loud and obnoxious sister had the stamina of a horse.
'Because if she didn't, Luna wouldn't be going out tonight,' she thought smugly. It was too perfect of an opportunity: Naga would get drunk and Luna would have to take her home, which would set her back a good half-hour before returning to the apartment that night. But if Helmina was sick, then Luna would check on her first, setting her back a good deal further. If everything went well, she'd never realize what Lina had done until the next morning. Or not, depending on how well Lina could fix the tape on the answering machine.
That settled it. Grabbing the keys from the peg by the door, Lina smirked. She was going out, but she wasn't going to school.