Ghost Slayers
Chapter Fifty-four
By Relm
Sylphiel was more than relieved when she pulled into the Ghost Slayers HQ parking lot. It meant that she could get out of the car and away from the nearly naked and newest member of the evil book victims club.
Just like a dog waiting for its master to come through the front door Slimer was waiting and hovering not too far from where Sylphiel intended to park. Seeing the bright green gooey smile of the strange legless apparition brought a smile to Amelia and Sylphiel's faces.
To Val and Naga's it brought confusion.
"What the hell is that?!" Val exclaimed as Sylphiel pulled the car into park.
"It's Slimer, the ghost I was warning you about." Amelia explained. "Don't worry he's friendly."
"Do all ghosts look like that Ame? He looks... slimy." Naga shuddered.
"I told you that he likes to slime people. That's why we call him Slimer? Honestly... I swear no one listens to me." Amelia grumbled getting out of the car. "And no not all ghosts look like him. Slimer is Slimer, special and unique."
"Unique yes, but I wouldn't call that... special..." Naga shuddered once more. "He better not come anywhere near me!"
"Not something I can control Gracia. In fact Slimer will definitely want to greet you in his own slimy way." Amelia warned her.
"Then I'm not leaving this car!" Naga declared.
"If she's not leaving then neither am I." Val added crossing his arms.
Amelia looked at Sylphiel with a look of tired exasperation. She knew that her sister could be childish but she didn't expect that Val would adopt a similar mindset. Amelia didn't know how she was going to get them both out of the car. It wasn't really necessary for Amelia to bring them upstairs to see Lina and the others but Amelia knew that having them just sitting in the car for hours upon end wouldn't be good either.
Thankfully Slimer took matters into his own hands and entered the car to meet his new friends. He wasn't one to like having to wait.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
Sylphiel stifled a giggle. "Slimer get out of there!"
Slimer flew right out through the car's roof and floated right next to the raven haired.
Both Val and Naga stepped out of the car with green slim dripping off of them.
"Yuck..." Val flung the slim off his hands and grabbed the only thing he could use to clean himself off with... the towel wrapped around his waist.
"MISTER VAL!" Both Sylphiel and Amelia shrieked as they looked away their faces bright red with a deep blush. They both turned around to avoid looking at the scandalous sight.
"What?" Val shrugged as if what he wasn't doing anything out of ordinary. It was like he didn't even realize at all that he was naked.
"You're naked!" Sylphiel shrieked.
"So? I need to clean myself off and I happen to have a towel. Is it wrong to use it?" Val said quite simply as he shook the towel in the air and was amazed by how quickly the goo seemed to disappear.
"But you're naked!" Sylphiel protested again.
"If you don't want see it then don't look. It's as simple as that." Val stated as he wrapped his towel around his waist again.
"You don't give us much of an option when you suddenly flash us like that!" Amelia hissed in annoyance.
"Well the towel is back on." Val shrugged as he strutted his way past to the two blushing Ghost Slayers forcing them to check out his towel clad butt.
"It's a shame you two are such prudes." Naga sighed in annoyance. "Because that sight would be much better if there wasn't a towel in the way."
...
It wasn't uncommon for Mayor Philonel Sailune to spend his morning going everywhere in city hall besides his own office. Most mayors would spend their time locked away in their offices making people come to them with the daily business. But Mayor Philonel Sailune wasn't like that at all. It was one of the reasons why Philonel was such a popular choice as mayor. He wasn't one to pass off things to someone else to do. If he needed to contact someone Philonel went to them personally. He always felt it gave things more of human touch and made people more productive and feel valued. If you were important enough for the mayor to come talk to you about an issue then that meant that issue was important that you had the privilege to take care off.
So as Mayor Sailune came into city hall with coffee in hand his office was going to be the last place he was going to be visiting during his morning rounds. Good thing too since there was something waiting in there that he wasn't prepared to meet. An impatient visitor that was getting more and more anxious by the minute.
...
The Ghost Slayers HQ office room was quiet as everyone sat around the table. It was awkward for most of the women in the room as they were not used to seeing the Sailune University professor in such a state of dress. For the men in the room it was uncomfortable for a completely different reason.
Looking at the compact and well defined muscles of the confident half naked aqua haired man was enough to make anyone feel inadequate by comparison. Val looked good, damn good and he knew it. It was enough to make any man feel jealous.
Zelgadis, Xellos and Gourry shifted uncomfortably in their seats thinking about how they probably wouldn't look half as good if they took their own shirts off. Silly to think as each man had something about them that was appealing in their physiques but with their memories lacking their confidences weren't at a normal level.
"OHOHOHOH! Are these men gay?" Naga spoke out breaking the spell of silence with her usual brashness.
"WHAT?!" Zelgadis and Gourry exclaimed in shock while Xellos just raised a curious eyebrow.
"Why would you ask that for?!" Lina barked annoyed with Naga being there let alone hearing the stupid comments coming out of her mouth.
"Here I am a beautiful and voluptuous woman and what are the men looking at? Why my Val of course! He is a delicious specimen after all so I can see a gay man unable to resist him but straight men?"
"Maybe they just don't find you all that appealing with all that green goo all over you." Lina shot back just a bit offended by Naga's suggestion.
"She does have big boobs." Gourry finally noticed. "Bigger than yours," He said referring to Lina's modest bust.
Lina glared and would have thrown something at the blond police detective but instead she looked to Zelgadis.
Zelgadis nodded and then hit Gourry upside the head.
"Oww..." Gourry mumbled rubbed the now sore spot on his noggin.
"So we really can hurt each other can't we?" Val exclaimed with glee. And with that Val got up and slapped Xellos in the face. "Oooh that felt good!"
"Mister Val you can't go around hurting Mister Xellos!" Amelia cried outrage.
"Sure he can. Go ahead Val hit and maim that idiot all you want." Filia motioned for Val to continue on.
"Miss Filia!" Sylphiel exclaimed. "You can't mean that! Miss Lina tell her that it's wrong!"
Lina shrugged. "Nah. I agree with Filia. Val can beat up Xellos all he wants. It saves me from making Zelgadis do it all the time."
"Why does Val want to hit Xellos right from the start for?" Zelgadis wondered in obvious confusion. "You all just got here."
"Well Mister Xellos did harass Mister Val a lot at the university before he got attacked. Almost as much as Miss Filia in fact. So that probably is the reason why Mister Val would want to hurt Mister Xellos." Amelia explained.
"So does that mean that Val remembers Xellos then?" Zelgadis questioned. "Because I didn't remember anything when I first got attacked. So do you remember Xellos?"
Val shook his head. "Nope. I don't remember anything."
"Then why did you want to hit Xellos for?"
Val shrugged. "I don't know. Something about the idea of hitting him just seemed... satisfying somehow."
"But that doesn't make any sense!" Zelgadis exclaimed in irritation.
"I guess there's just some things that transcend normal things like logic and memory." Lina said sagely. "Be honest Zel, didn't you think to yourself at some point when you first saw Xellos how nice it would be to hit him?"
"Hmm..." Zelgadis thought about it for a moment. "Alright I'll shut up."
"OHOHOHOHOH! This pretty one's name is Zelgadis isn't it?" Naga belted out. "And yet Lina calls him 'Zel'. Could it be that little dateless loser Lina finally has a boyfriend? Not surprising that he's practically imaginary."
"Imaginary?! Look at your boyfriend! I can see right through him!" Lina countered back without thinking. Had she been thinking then she would have just as red in the face as Zelgadis was.
"OHOHOHOHOH! So 'Zel' is your boyfriend then?"
"Wha-I-I-I didn't even know Zelgadis before he was attacked and turned into this!" Lina stammered both flustered and embarrassed.
"So you made him your boyfriend after meeting him like this? OHOHOHOHOH!" Naga belted out in her usual annoying fashion.
"ZELGADIS IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Lina screamed. "I HAVE NO BOYFRIEND I'M DATING NO ONE!"
"So then Lina is still a dateless loser." Naga declared smugly.
"GAH! You are so annoying!" Lina screamed. "Forget all your nonsense! We have other problems to deal with. So let's get out the map and figure out this issue."
Sylphiel grabbed her measuring utensils and the map from the wall and placed them on the table for all to see.
Lina had since numbered the locations based on which one was reportedly hit first. It didn't seem to be much of a pattern except that it was more a circular pattern. Each point on the circle didn't line up clockwise or counter clockwise still making the pattern strange.
"Okay so if we put in Mister Val's attack location, the theatre, making location number four then..." Sylphiel mumbled as she marked on the map and measured. With a pencil Sylphiel then made a circle around the point. "Then the next spot should be within this radius."
Everyone looked closely at the map while frowning. Even Slimer though the green ghost was looking not because he was trying to figure what spot would be next but more of the reasoning why this piece of paper was so interesting to everyone.
"Well it looks like the book is making a circle with its attacks so I'd say these sections are completely out." Zelgadis was quick to point out two thirds of the circle Sylphiel had drawn.
"Hmmm... that makes me wonder..." Lina grabbed the pencil from Sylphiel and started to connect the dots in the order of attacks. Right away it became clear that the dots were more than just a circular pattern. By guessing the rough area of the next attack and connecting with the first attack point the pattern became a star. Drawing the circle around the star where all the points met completed the picture for everyone.
"That's a magic square!" Amelia exclaimed.
"Not only that but if we have the map with north being the top of the page then the magic square is upside down." Lina pointed out.
Right away Sylphiel, Filia and Amelia let out an unhappy sigh.
"What's wrong with an upside down star?" Gourry wondered.
"It's an inversion of power. Rather than promote good energy and repel bad energy it does the opposite. If something was bad and evil like a demonic spirit or an angry poltergeist and it was in the center of this inverted magic square it would increase their evil energy considerably." Lina explained.
"Lina isn't that the location of that ghost magnet house?" Zelgadis pointed to the very middle of the star in the square.
"Oh gods! It is! This is bad!" Lina exclaimed clenching her fists tightly in agitation till they turned her knuckles turned white.
"Could that be the book's endgame? To use all that spiritual power from that house?" Filia wondered.
"I don't know." Lina admitted. "But I don't want to find out. We need to get to that book before it attacks anyone else! What are the important locations in the area radius?"
"The firehouse, a community center... and... city hall..." Sylphiel said that last one almost too softly as it was the most worrying location of all.
"Daddy!" Amelia exclaimed. "The book could be after Daddy! We have to warn him!"
"Yes we'll warn him Amelia but it might not be him the book is targeting. It could be anyone in city hall," Lina reminded her, "or in that community center or the firehouse. In order to make sure no one gets attacked all three locations will need to be evacuated."
"Miss Lina what are we going to do?!" Amelia shrieked. "The book could already be attacking someone right at this minute! What if my father... what if he's..."
"Amelia get a hold of yourself! The worst thing we can do at this moment is panic." Lina shook her youngest employee to snap her out it.
"But what are we going to do Miss Lina?"
"We're going to call police." Lina said while pulling out her phone. "Officer Zoanna knows our situation so I'm sure he can help us."
