Sad Reflections
"Where did you go?" Zelgadis demanded, as Xellos reappeared at the inn. The other four slayers had gathered in the common room, which they had apparently confiscated as a funeral home, nobody dared say anything against it. Lina's body, the cuts and stabs repaired completely by magic to give her body a semblance of life.
"I had to give my report," Xellos answered. Then his smile tightened, "And apparently pick up a tagalong." He glanced behind himself at the door to the inn.
"A tagalong?"
"Being a bit shy aren't you?" Xellos called back. A pale skinned young woman with dark hair peaked inside. He turned his cheerful face to everybody else a gestured broadly, if mockingly at the young huntress. "My new sister, Xenith."
"Umm hello," she said nervously. Xellos was too irritated to being proper attention to the new mazoku's actions and emotions. So he missed the fact that she was staring at Lina's corpse with a strange fascination.
"Why are you starring at her?" Gourry demanded. "What do you think you're doing?" Xenith recoiled as if struck.
"Go.." she restrained herself, though she did want to scream at who she was out the top of her lungs. ~Gourry, its me, can't you tell? It's me!!~
"Probably has some filthy game she wants to play," Filia added, and Xenith winced again. Amelia, of course noticed this.
"Come on everybody," she chided. "You're making her feel unwelcome."
"She is unwelcome," Zelgadis muttered. "Just another mazoku to cause problems." She couldn't take it anymore, it wasn't like it was possible that this was her fault.
"Just WHAT did I do to you!?! In case you haven't noticed Ze...errr..whoever, I'm ...new around here, excuse me if I've never actually seen a corpse before! Let's just get on with hunting down that....err...this Tes person that has Juuou-sama so pissed off!" She hmphed and turned her back on them.
"Yes, this is hardly her fault," Amelia supported. Xellos sat down, annoyed, his new sister seemed to be feeling an immense loss. Xellos wondered what she had experienced to deserve such an emotion. She couldn't have been more than an hour old, if that.
~Sister, indeed,~ he growled. He looked over at the lifeless corpse of Lina Inverse. ~She must be feeding extraordinarily well for her first day.~
"Okay, that's it!" Xenith snapped, falling into old habits. "Juuou-sama wants you to investigate....her death. I'm supposed to tag along, and I can taste the desire for revenge off most of the rest of you. So let's stop fighting and deal with it!" What followed was a wave of resentment that she had to bring these facts up. This confirmed her current position as an outsider.
"She's right," Filia admitted.
"But what about Lina," Gourry asked. Xenith whispered something, but even Zelgadis didn't quite here it.
"What did you say?"
"Are we going to be travelling today at all?"
"Somehow I doubt it," Xellos said.
"Well, can I have a room then! While you...do whatever."
"You don't want to watch the funeral and have a good meal?" Filia asked suspiciously. Xellos also watched her curiously, but he could no longer feel anything but a layer of calm.
"Excuse me, Xenith-san," Amelia asked. "But what will you be doing?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu," Xenith said as she walked upstairs. "I'll find my own room." The only who seemed at all concerned was Amelia, but that made sense. Amelia was always concerned about everybody. The young mazoku heard and felt them all leave, waiting until she was alone, before dropping her facade.
"I was happy! I was happy!" she shouted. Huddling in a little ball knees to her chest and rocking. Then she roared in rage. "I'll rip her heart out! I told her I would! I'll rip her heart out!"
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