Slayers! Yoyutchi
by Leaf-Chan (leaf_chan@excite.com)

Sore wa himitsu desu. I love those four words, don't you?

"Rolling thunder, crashing ocean... I'm not calling on your piddly-ass
powers! MOCKERY! Be with me... OYAJI FLARE!!!"

Episode IV: Battle of the Weenies

[-----]

The shadowy figure was currently a victim of a repetitive set of active-tone
sentences. The shadowy figure beat the crap out of his writer and began to
regain consciousness after Nevv had beaten the crap out of him.

"All right, buddy, let's hear the story," Lina demanded, smiling easily. The
guy didn't look too threatening, but then again, neither had Xelloss, and
look what he had done. No harm in being too careful.

"He made me get pee all over my shining white armor!" Jeffrey whined,
quickly zipping his pants back up and wiping off the spots with a rag from
his pocket. "I really hope it doesn't rust or anything, 'cause then mommy's
going to get really mad..."

The shadowy figure who wasn't in the shadows anymore carefully extricated
himself from the mess that was Jeffrey and his armor and dusted himself off
slowly, making sure to comb his long blue hair carefully. After fifteen
seconds or so of combing, he noticed that neither the blond one with the
round bosom or the redhead with... absolutely nothing were paying any
particular attention, so he decided to go ahead with his normal routine.

"*ahem*... well, greetings, fair magi of the female intent. As you can see,
I had been hiding behind the trees in ambush, but when I chose to strike, I
had the misfortune of not seeing the green-haired one in front of me trying
to relieve himself. So... I rammed directly into him and--"

"Yes, we know this," Nevv interrupted. "Why were you going to ambush us? And
for that matter, how could you *not* have seen Jeffrey in front of you?"

The man looked off to the side slightly. "Erm... that is a secret?"

Lina's eyebrow twitched. "*What* was that?"

"Uh... yeah! 'That is a secret!'" the man said triumphantly, plastering a
smug grin across his face.

"... yeah," Lina muttered. "C'mon, Nevv, let's get out of her and find a
nearby town or something."

"Hey now, wait a second!" the man protested, flailing his arms about in a
way that made his robes and his hair fly about in a most attractive manner--
it almost seemed as if sparkling light was cascading down with each
movement. "You can't just ignore me like that! I'm a student of the
trickster priest himself, Xelloss!"

*kaboom*

"WWAAAaaaggghhh..." the man said as he went in a textbook-perfect parabola
over the edge of the forest and towards somewhere else.

Lina dusted her hands off. "Whatever," she said. "As long as they're not in
my face, I'm fine with little Xelloss wanna-be's."

"Who's this Xelloss?" Nevv asked her, following along as they walked into
the forest, Jeffrey straggling behind.

"Long, long story," Lina groaned. "I... *really* don't wanna get into it.
And speaking stories, aren't you gonna tell me more about the Ilyuum?"

Nevv looked at her, and smiled awkwardly. "Sure, I guess... but first, I
think we should find a place to stay for the night and get some lunch... you
know, food?"

"Yeah!" Lina agreed, nodding quickly. She quickly sobered up. "Hmm... and I
never found out what Luna would want with you..."

"Ah, that's fine," Nevv said offhandedly. "As long as those two Mazoku don't
come back or something..."

A spark of dark energy appeared in front of them.

"AGGGHH!! My armor!" Jeffrey screamed, clawing for Lina's backpack. The
sorceress took one step forward and he stumbled forward to the ground on his
face.

"You just *had* to go and curse it, didn't you, Nevv?!" Lina fumed.

"Sorry, sorry! I'll just Vearian Wrath those two again, all right?"

As they spoke, the energy began to take shape... into that of a blue-haired,
blue-eyed mage with a chestpiece that veered off to the left...

"... whoohoo! Kiseki!" Nevv cheered. "You're only three hours or so too
late!"

Kiseki didn't reply, and turned towards her and Lina, raising one hand that
flared with dark power. Wait... dark power?

"All right, buddy, *now* you're gonna get it! FIIIIIREBAAALL!!" Lina
shouted, sending a blast of fire at the Saikyou mage.

Without so much as a word, Kiseki raised one arm and flexed it at the elbow.
The Fireball seemed to glance off a pinkish field of energy... then sent
itself straight back at Lina.

"ACK!" she yelped, and managed to dodge aside. "What the hell?!"

"You two would prevent the spread of Saikyouism," Kiseki muttered, her voice
cold and drained. "For this, I will have to destroy you in the name of
Hibiki-sensei (may he live forever)."

"Not if I can help it!" Jeffrey yelled, leaping up, now garbed once more in
his Armor o' Doom (TM). "For I am the White Knight of Flaming Justice, Jeffrey-kun!"

Kiseki sent a blast of black and pink energy at him. Nevv had a moment to
marvel at the sheer ugliness of the spell--what righteous mage used *such* a
horrid color combination?!--before the expected happened: Jeffrey moved
aside easily, and brought his sword out to slash at Kiseki. The girl moved
away from the blow, and brought one hand out to point at Jeffrey's forehead,
sending a small piece of pretty-looking paper touching on his armor.

Jeffrey looked down at the paper in amusement, then back up at Kiseki. "Mere
scraps of paper shall not stop the White Knight of Flaming Justice!" he
declared, and lifted his sword back up. Tried to, at any rate, since the
sword was now a full eighty pounds or so instead of its former
weightlessness, and Jeffrey collapsed to the ground, struggling to lift the
heavy blade.

Smirking slightly, Kiseki flexed her forearm once more. "Chouhatsu Brand."

With that, a column of pink energy laced with black flared up from beneath
Jeffrey, sending him spinning into the air. He landed hard in front of Lina
and Nevv, who were currently playing cards beneath the shade of a tall oak
tree.

The shadows were momentarily disturbed as a glimmer of light shone above.

"Oh, bugger," Lina said. "Looks like I'll have to take care of this. Oh, and
gin, by the way."

"Damn it..." Nevv muttered, turning to watch Lina do her stuff.

Kiseki turned to her, and smiled in an eerily-vapid fashion. "Lina
Inverse... the one who destroyed my hometown... you're going to pay the
piper."

"Wha? I don't owe the piper, whoever the hell that is... look, enough of
this. I still owe you for that damn curse you slapped on me, and--"

She was cut off in midsentence as a large, screeching form dropped straight
down from the branches; a large, screeching form wearing an apron, a black
mask over her face, and holding a mutant frying pan in both hands. With a
cry that *had* to have come from the damned (or the local sound effects
studio, whichever was easier), she swung the pan at Kiseki's face.

Kiseki barely dodged the blow, the pan grazing her face, and struck back
with another flare of pink energy laced with black. The masked figure was
struck by the blast, but she seemed hardly fazed as she barrelled at Kiseki,
one meaty hand reaching for her face.

"Parcheesi!" Nevv declared. "Hah!"

Lina grumbled.

"NOOObody hurts my *precious* Jeffrey!" the masked figure rumbled ominously,
standing up to her full height of... well, next to Kiseki she was about ten
feet taller than her, give or take a mile. "Now you will PAAAAY!"

"MOM!" Jeffrey protested, getting up from the sizable dent he'd left in the
ground. "I can fight for myself now, geez--OW! Wow, this sword's a lot
heavier..."

Jeffrey's mom looked over at him, then turned back to Kiseki, who was
smirking lightly.

"*You* destroyed his armor... how *dare* you take away my little boy's only
chance at greatness?!" the irate mother rumbled. "You will die now!"

"No. Not before I spread the might of--"

A shadowy figure leapt between the trees, silently drawing a bead on both
Kiseki and mother from hell. The shadowy figure paused, biding its time. The
shadowy figure was struck in the face with a playing card as Lina flipped
the card table over, pissed.

"*How* did you have those two aces?!" she demanded.

"Luck," Nevv said easily. "Another game?"

Grumbling yet again, Lina dug out a pouch of coins and tossed it onto the
ground, kicking the card table aside. The shadowy figure yelped in pain as
the table struck him in the crotch.

In the mean time, Jeffrey's mother had swung a mace the size of something
incredibly huge and large at Kiseki. The mage evaded the blow once more,
then flung both hands out and sent another Chouhatsu Brand out... beneath
herself. Jeffrey and his masked maternal unit blinked as Kiseki flew upwards
in at beautiful angle, to disappear from sight.

"Mom..." Jeffrey groaned.

"Wha? Who?" his mother said, feigning ignorance and doing a completely
inadequate job of it. "Oh, look at the time, gotta go! Ta ta!" With that,
she leapt into the trees and was simply gone.

Jeffrey managed to place his head in his hands for a few seconds before he
was interrupted from his reverie by the high-pitched voice of someone.
Someone shadowy.

"Halt, White Knight of Flaming Justice!" he squeaked. "In the name of the
trickster priest Xelloss, I order you to cease and desist!"

The White Knight of Flaming Justice was currently sniffling and trying to
hold back a deluge of tears that threatened to create an entirely-new system
of waterways in the forest. "I... *sniff*... l-lost my arm-armor..." he
sobbed. "WAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

Blinking, the shadowy figure recoiled in surprise. For once, he was the
victim.

Of an oddly-structured sentence. And a fragment. And two. And three. Ad
infinitum.

"Wh-what's wrong?" he said, extending one shadowy hand out.

"You can't beat a king with a three," Lina pointed out. "*That's* what's
wrong."

"Really, now?" Nevv smiled. "Then how about this ace?"

"I'm in big trouble," Jeffrey whimpered, taking the shadow's proffered hand
shakily. "My mom's gonna pitch a *fit* when she finds out that I messed up
the suit of armor she got me... and now I can't even be a superhero!"

"One's equipment does not make one's position," the shadowy figure
proclaimed, easing Jeffrey to his feet. "Relax, green-haired youth... you
are in good hands now."

"You call that a good hand?!" Lina smirked. "Read 'em and weep, Nevvie:
*full* *house*!"

"... urk," was Nevv's witty response.

"Who are you?" Jeffrey said, his voice now full of awe, mystery, and other
such things. "Are you... Xelloss himself?"

"No, my son... otherwise I would not have ordered you to cease and desist in
his name. Instead, I would have tossed a banana peel underfoot and watch you
throw your back out as you try to lift your sword." The man took a brief
moment to brush his long blue hair out of his eyes. "My name is..."

"... MUD!" Nevv shouted triumphantly. "You are *dead*, Lina Inverse! GO
FISH!"

"MONO VOLT!"

Nevv coughed. "That wasn't nice," she muttered, brushing back a strand of
blond hair that was waving like an antenna in the breeze.

"Neither was taking my jack of hearts," Lina replied, smiling coolly.

"... my name is..." the blue-haired man repeated, trailing off once more in
thought.

"Hmm?" Jeffrey mused. "What's wrong?"

"My name is..." he said once more. "My name is..."

"You don't know?" Jeffrey blinked. "That's weird... do you have amnesia or
something?"

"... mmm." The blue-haired man rubbed his chin. "Mmm... hmmm.... mmm hmmm."

"You do!" Jeffrey cried triumphantly. "But... I know. Since you're going
'hmm' and 'mmm' all the time... we can call you..."

"Hmm?"

"Emmanem."

"Hmmm!!!" Emmanem said, brightening up. "What an ingenious idea!"

"Yeah!" Jeffrey chimed in. "And now... eh? Lina? Nevv?"

"DRAGON SLAAAAAAAwhat *now*?" "VEARIAN WRAAAAAaaaah?" Energy fizzled and
popped in the air, and dissipated entirely. The ace of clubs flitted to the
ground, one of its edges slightly singed.

"Uh... I think we should go find that town now... hey, meet Emmanem, he's a
student of Xelloss with a case of amnesia!"

Lina blinked. "Xelloss? *Really* now..."

"And who's Xelloss?" Nevv asked, kicking the remnants of the card table
aside with one foot. "Is he some sort of mad wizard bent on world domination
or something?"

"You can say that," Lina answered, looking over at Emmanem (who wasn't so
shadowy anymore, being out in sunlight and all). "But he's a bit scrawny to
be megalomaniacal."

"I take offense to that," Emmanem sulked.

"Aw, c'mon, Lina, be nice... how about we head over to town and grab some
lunch? Sounds good?"

Jeffrey found himself talking to a space of air that formerly was occupied
by Lina Inverse.

"I think that's a 'yes'," Nevv said blandly, and hoisted her belt up, to the
amazement of the other two. "Quit gawking. Let's get a move on, people."

[-----]

"You *failed*?!"

Kiseki bowed her head as she gently sank to one knee, her eyes beginning to
well up with tears. "Forgive me, Master Gary... I have left your desires
incomplete."

"You have, Kiseki Umi Rendahl... and for this, we must--"

"Hold, Ace."

"I am."

"Not there."

Ace released Gary, then turned on the mewling Kiseki. "She has failed, Gary.
We cannot trust her to be of further use to us. The..."

Even the Mazoku are prone to bursts of lights and puffs of smoke. This was
one of those moments. "Disturbingly Ambiguous Mazoku!" the two chimed in
a simultaneous choir of all things nice-smelling.

"... do not allow many subservients," Ace continued.

"Those that are accepted are honored followers and devoted worshippers of
the Mazoku, and our glorious teamwork," Gary agreed. "Explain your failure,
Kiseki Rendahl."

"It... it was some mysterious woman!" Kiseki wailed. "She was fat... with a
huge bosom... and a mask over her face, and a frying pan over her heaving
chest! I don't know how she..."

Ace glanced over at Gary. "An interloper," he murmured. "This could mean
trouble, Gary."

"We shall deal with it in our own way, Ace."

"... could walk with breasts that big!" Kiseki continued on, oblivious. "She
came in, and just--just *ruined* everything! I... I was trying to look cool,
and she just *ruined* it! My outfit... my hair... and the windblower I'd set
up in advance to ruffle my cape... everything...!"

Gary placed a soothing, polished hand on Kiseki's shoulder, calming her with
what amounted to as the Mazoku version of Prozac: a jolt of electricity. The
girl reeled back, blinking a few times.

"I... I'm sorry," she said, crying freely now--a detail that won't be
detailed because it makes her all-the-more incoherent. "Look... give me
another chance. I *swear* upon the name of Hibiki-sensei (may he live
forever) that I *will* enlighten the magi who walk in the darkness... Lina
Inverse, Nevv Swanson, and that blue-haired hunk--"

"... blue-haired hunk?" Ace said, perking up in more ways than one. Gary
nudged him hard and nudged his hard.

"I didn't get his name," Kiseki said. "But I will... before I *enlighten*
him."

The two Mazoku smiled simultaneously; a devious, cultured smile. "Excellent,
Kiseki," Gary said. "Then be off. But remember this: we will allow you no
more chances."

"Your next attempt shall succeed, or you will not survive," Ace added. "You
will do good to remember this."

"I will remember," Kiseki said firmly, her tears running down her cheeks.
She felt so *worthless*, so inadequate... and not because she was in the
presence of Ace and Gary, too. Ever since that day she'd agreed to let them
help her, she had been under the adamant belief that, with her newly-added
Mazoku powers, she would be able to enlighten those untrained in the ways of
Saikyouism. Instead, she had faced another defeat. The experience had not
been humiliating nor humbling--being a mage of Saikyouism excluded being
able to feel shame--but it was frustrating. And frustration was something
she had not wanted to deal with.

No matter. *This* time she will succeed.

Standing up, Kiseki bowed her head clumsily once more to the two smiling
Mazoku (they were smiling at each other now, which was more than a bit
unsettling), then made her way out of their lavish home. Once she was sure
that they were out of eyesight, she tossed the onion she'd been hiding under
her robe aside.

That trick got them every time.

[-----]

"Amnesia, hm?" Nevv said, cutting her roast-beef flank into bite-sized
chunks with her knife. "I suppose it'd be too much to ask you where you got
it from."

"Um... yes," Emmanem said, his glass of water firmly poised between his
clasped hands. Sip. "All I know is that I am Xelloss' protege, and that I am
to aid him in his goals, whatever they may be."

They had actually managed to get a good look at him once he had stopped
skulking in the shadows. Emmanem wore blue all over his body: his hair,
his long-sleeve jacket, the shirt he wore underneath, his trousers, his
shoes... the only thing that *wasn't* blue were his eyes, which were an
incongrous hazel.

Lina had taken a full two seconds to appreciate his handsomeness before
sinking back into her meal. "That's pretty vague," she said around a chicken
leg in her mouth. "So, you're gonna follow Xelloss'--and he's pretty damn
shifty--orders, even though you don't know what they are?"

Emmanem nodded, his blue hair waving about his face. Another glimmer of
light flashed across his profile, although it could have just been the kid
on the other side of the room messing around with his LCD crystal. "I
suppose you can say this," he agreed slowly. "But I do know his goals."

"Wow, cool!" Jeffrey barged in. His plate was still heaped with food; the
guy hadn't touched a bite since he'd set foot in the restaurant. He was
excited to talk to Emmanem; for whatever reasons, it wasn't quite clear yet.
"So, what are they?"

The man smiled, and wagged his finger. "That... is a secret."

Pause.

"Did I say it right?" Emmanem asked quickly.

Lina chose to ignore him completely, turning to Jeffrey instead. "Jeffrey,
you shouldn't ask such things," she chided. "The *last* thing I want right
now is to have to deal with that purple-haired priest."

"Oh yeah, Lina... you never told me what happened to your friends. Where's
Naga?"

The redhead managed not to spit bits of filet au sole all over the table.
"Naga... guh," she muttered. "We, uh... had our differences and went our
separate ways."

"So you sent her packing through the roof again?" Jeffrey said, sounding as
if that was something done daily and twice on Sundays--which, in the case of
Lina Inverse, was probably true.

"Yep!" she said brightly, tearing into a basket of french fries--ew, stray
piece of twitching, uncooked snail--with reckless abandon. "She could really
fly for a white serpent."

"Did you have any other companions?" Nevv asked, before popping a nicely-cut
piece of flank into her mouth. "Surely you would. I mean, being Lina Inverse
and all..."

"Yep. Lessee... Gourry Gabriev, this blond swordsman who had a legendary
sword that I'm *still* *trying* *to* *get*--ahem, he's back in Testabourne
with his family..."

"Swordsman?" Jeffrey looked up, then back down. "Yeah, probably better than
me, huh..."

Emmanem patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. "There there, young
Jeffrey. Kiseki's heinous deed will be avenged, and avenged soon," he said.

"There's Naga... she and a Dill Brand eloped somewhere... and Zelgadis
Greywords, this rocky chimera guy who's got absolutely no sense of humor--"
Lina took a long moment to gorge herself on the buttered rolls. "*Damn*,
these are good! --Zel, and... hm... oh yeah, Amelia Sailoon: she's this
really hyper Princess who's always going off about justice and falling on
her face, etc. etc."

"... justice?" Nevv hesitated, then rolled another piece of beef flank in
Ehwon sauce. "I see... who else? Sounds like a party."

"Oh, you have no idea," Lina said, munching on a corn-on-the-cob. "We got
Filia ul Copt--she's this really nice dragon lady, and she's probably off
doing other dragonly stuff now--MMM, damn, I *love* this--Martina, who's
a really irritating little--"

"I get the idea," Nevv said, waving her fork around like a flag of peace.
Brown sauce flicked about in tiny droplets. "Basically, they're not here,
right?"

"Nope. Ditched them to get some time off... Gourry an' I will probably get
back together and--WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE!"

Nevv put one napkin-holding hand over her mouth to cover her grin. "You made
it sound as if you're his girlfriend," she pointed out.

"I am *not* his girlfriend!" she bellowed, tossing the now-kernelless cob at
Nevv. The blond weaved aside. "We're just treasure-hunter partners and
stuff. And I want that sword of his!"

"... I'm sure you do," Nevv hazarded, and broke into a gallop straight out
of the restaurant.

Lina growled and decided to toast her later. For now, she turned to Jeffrey
and Emmanem, who were chatting away--more accurately, Jeffrey was doing the
chatting and Emmanem was nodding in time with his words.

"And so, that's how I met Lina," Jeffrey said, wrapping up what was
essentially his life story in five hundred words or less. "And now here we
are! We just met you today, and I bet you'll be a lot of help when we go
against the evil of evils, the Saikyou Master Kiseki Rendahl!"

"Saikyou Master--" Lina blanched, and turned away to take a quick sip of
water before dumping the rest of the contents over Jeffrey's green hair.

"HEY!" Jeffrey dripped. "What was that for?!"

"What the hell are you going off and calling Kiseki a 'Saikyou Master'
for?!" Lina demanded. "She's just some poser who uses weird magic and flexes
her forearm a lot!"

"But she *did* curse you, Lina," Jeffrey pointed out.

"And we did not fare well at all against her powers in the earlier brawl,"
Emmanem added.

"Gnnnn... yeah," she finally admitted. "But I've got an idea. Look:
originally I was--"

"*We* were!" Jeffrey corrected.

"--*I* was going to go look for this new form of magic, Saikyouism," Lina
continued. "After finding out just how powerful it was, I decided that it
wasn't worth it and went to go treasure-hunting. And then I run into Nevv--"

"You ran into *me* first, Lina!" Jeffrey interrupted again.

"--after I ran into Nevv I find out she's using this weird power that comes
from something called 'Ilyuum'," she said. "Got no idea what this is, but it
sounds and looks damned cool. I'm gonna check it out." She got up, and
dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "See ya!"

"... hey, wait!" Jeffrey protested. "What about us?"

"Lina Inverse, I cannot allow you to elude me once more!" Emmanem said,
standing up as well. "And the very least you can do is to foot the bill for
this extravagant meal!"

Oblivious to the protests, Lina darted by the bouncers and the maitre'd and
out the door, glancing around for Nevv. "Yo, Nevv! Gotta talk to ya for a
bit, and--uh... h-h-hi, sis..."

Luna Inverse grinned. "Hiya. C'mere." With that, she flicked one finger--her
index one--out, and Lina collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The finger
curled back, and both sisters winked out in a flash of azure.

A hand floated out from thin air and made a single, complex wave, revealing
the form of Nevv Swanson. She blinked at the space where both Inverses had
just been a few seconds ago.

"She's good," Nevv marvelled, and walked back into the restaurant. Jeffrey
and Emmanem were currently arguing with someone who appeared to be the head
cook or something--dangit, they *shouldn't* have to wash dishes just because
they were short a few hundred gold pieces. She quietly made her way up
behind the two men--*ahem*, 'men'--and smiled at them easily.

"Just let us get Lina back!" Jeffrey was yelping. "She'll pay for all this!
I promise!"

"Sure, sure, buddy," the cook said, slapping a meaty paw in his shoulder and
dragging him towards the kitchen. "You know how to use a scrubbing sponge,
right?"

Emmanem, who had been standing there in silence, suddenly spoke. "If it
would please you, sir cook, I have the amount of money in my possession," he
said quickly.

"You do." He turned around. "Why th' hell didn't cha tell me earlier?"

"I was... merely biding my time, sir cook," Emmanem said rather-defensively.
"And now... the sum of money."

Nevv blinked, and huddled close as Jeffrey drew her and Emmanem in a small
ring. "Where's the money, Emmanem?" Jeffrey said.

"I... uh, do not have such extravagant fees," he replied slowly.

"So... why did you said you did?"

"He wanted to stall for time while I did this," Nevv said, and opened her
hand, engulfing the room in an intense white light. Glasses shattered and
trays went flying as the waiters and waitresses were blinded. Patrons began
yelling in confusion. There was a moo.

Emmanem glanced around; Nevv had aimed whatever spell she'd cast the other
way, so they had been spared from most of the light. He could see the cook,
the bouncer, and the maitre'd rubbing their eyes in pain, and Jeffrey trying
to hightail it out of there. He paused once more--the active-tone sentences
were coming back--then was dragged out of the restaurant by Nevv.

Outside, they ran for a good while before coming to a rest. Jeffrey was out
of breath and wheezing, sounding like a dead caribou in heat. Emmanem was
remarkably unaffected--skulking in shadows took a lot of exercise. And as
for Nevv... she had been Raywinging her merry way along, and now touched
down next to them.

"Nevv Swanson... thank you," Emmanem said graciously.

"Think nothing of it. Although we just committed a crime, I'm sure we can
get away with it given enough running," she said, winking. "At any rate...
where's Lina?"

"*wheeze*... *cough*... *pant*..." Jeffrey said.

"She left us when confronted with the tab," Emmanem said in mild contempt.
"I was under the impression you knew of her whereabouts."

"Nope," Nevv shrugged. "I'm a mage, not a Knight of Ceipheed or something.
So this means we're stuck without a leader, right?"

Jeffrey managed a nod, then pointed weakly at her. "*coughcough*... *pant*,"
he nominated.

"Yes, this would be a wise decision," Emmanem agreed. "I suggest you act as
leader for the time being, Nevv Swanson."

"Me? Leader?" Nevv laughed. "As *if*! I didn't come here to help you two,
you know. My mission was to help Lina find Kiseki... and now that she's
gone, I have to go find *her*. New mission, people, and that means new
people to work with. Sorry, Jeffrey, but you do *not* fit the bill--look at
you, you're drooling all over the grass--and as for you, Emmanem..."

Emmanem folded his arms over his chest. "I believe myself to be of a
competent nature, Nevv Swanson, despite our initial meeting in the forest
glade. And as a student of Xelloss--"

"I have no proof of that, you know," Nevv said sardonically.

"I really am, dangit!" Emmanem protested angrily. "Look, even though I'm
just an amnesiac, I *know* this one thing to be true, all right? So why
don't you trust me, and we can go find Lina together?"

She considered that. The guy had demonstrated nothing but his mad pervert
skills so far, but... there was *something* about him that he hadn't
revealed yet. Something that was really, really powerful... and borderline-
dangerous in its intent. She'd have to divine that out from him one of these
days.

"All right, fine," she finally relented. "But first, I think we'd better
take poor Jeffrey home... the guy's worn out."

Jeffrey managed a weak, raspy protest.

"See? So... first things first. Return Jeffrey, then find where Lina is,
then we can go bash Kiseki's face in like the good little vengeance-riddled
magi we are. Sound good?"

"An excellent plan," Emmanem said, returning to his more-refined tone. "May
I suggest we commence immediately?"

"B-but... I don't *wanna* go home!" Jeffrey whined. "I gotta help you guys!
Mommy's gonna pitch a fit if I don't do good in the world!"

"Relax, Jeffrey... and trust me: you'd do the world a lot of good by staying
away from the action," Nevv said, lifting him up gently with a gust of
magic. "Now there's a good boy."

Despite his continued protests, Jeffrey was carted up and dragged along as
the two proceeded to travel along the path until nightfall. His protests
lasted well into the night, until Nevv clocked him with a right cross.

[-----]

Lina wasn't pissed this time... she was downright confused. Of all the
places to meet sis again... what the hell did she want this time?! It wasn't
as if she'd actually *intended* to go through with her plans of selling nude
photos of her...

... okay, she *had* intended to do that, but damn it, she'd gone straight!
She wasn't leading a life of crime anymore--okay, she *was*, but only
against other criminals! Surely two negatives cancelled into a positive!
Wasn't that how it worked in arithimetic?!

And then *she* showed up.

Lina really had no idea where the hell they were--hell, maybe--but it was
dark. And swirly. And foggy. And ugly. Many one-lettered words and
disjointed--

"Hey," Luna said, tilting her chin upwards to look her lil' sis over.

[-----]

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