Slayers Labyrinth
A Slayers/Labyrinth Crossover
By Sakura
Chapter Seven
A New Friend
The two of them
continued to walk backwards through the hedge maze, but made no progress at
all. They came across several dead ends and somehow always ended up at the only
visible exit, which had been the urn from where they entered. "You know,
maybe that 'Auntie Aqua' wasn't exactly all there," said the red haired
girl.
"You're just
figuring that out NOW?" retorted her chimeric companion.
"Shut up,
Stone Boy. I don't hear you coming up with any great ideas."
"Oh? I
suppose you have lots?" he shot back.
Lina was livid.
It was just like that fruitcake mazoku to create a maze with no other exit than
the entrance. As they walked along, the castle remained in view, just out of
reach. To the petite sorceress, it was like a carrot dangled in front of a
stubborn donkey to make it move, and she was the donkey.
Any respect she
might have had for the purple haired mazoku king dwindled away with each and
every step she took. She clenched her fists at her sides as she continued walk
with Zelgadis. She mentally berated herself for even considering respecting a
fruitcake like him.
There she
admitted it. She did have faint feelings for him. She had even thought he was
handsome when he first appeared in her house. But good looks alone didn't go
far with Lina once she saw what a guy was like. To tell the truth she was
really beginning to regret ever making that stupid wish.
"Why did you
do that?" Zelgadis said, breaking the silence and her train of thought.
"Do
what?"
"Say I was
your friend."
"Because you
are," she said blushing slightly, "You're no exactly best friend material, but you're the
only one I've got in this crazy place."
The chimera was
about to shoot back a sarcastic retort, but decided to ponder on what Lina
said. In fact, he was blushing and turned his head not wanting her to see.
"I've never had a friend before."
The girl felt a
stab of pity and was about to say something when a loud yell sounded from up
ahead, causing them to freeze in their tracks. Thinking it was Xellos come to
torment them some more, Zelgadis decided to give up on ever getting his
money back and ran off in the opposite
direction. "Keep the money, I'm not going to risk my life for it!",
he said not bothering to look back.
"Hey! I
thought you were my friend!" Lina yelled back at the quickly retreating
chimera.
"I'm not!
I'm only interested in one person, ME! I'm the only friend I need!" With
that, Zelgadis disappeared around the corner they had turned earlier.
"Oh yeah?!
Well, who the hell needs ya?! I'm fine by myself!" she yelled back not
caring he heard her or not.
The petite
sorceress strode off boldly towards the direction of the yell. Then the sound
came again making her crack her thin veneer of bravado. "C'mon Lina,"
she said to herself in an attempt to
get her courage back. "You should know by now that nothing's what it seems
here. So maybe whoever or whatever's making that racket isn't as big as it
sounds."
Once she regained
the ability to walk, she went along the path until she came to a stone
courtyard. In the center of the courtyard a young man was hanging upside down
from a tree while a group of mazoku soldiers were poking at him with sticks and
swords. Some of the sticks had a tiny mazoku clinging to one end and they were
biting him whenever they came close. Those with the nipping sticks, held them
against his body as long as they could until they were forced to dodge one of
the man's wildly swinging arms.
Lina quickly
ducked out of sight. 'No sense getting caught,' she thought. She was incensed.
"Those namagomi!" she muttered. She couldn't bear to watch a
defenseless man being tortured like that. Searching desperately for a weapon,
she discovered a few loose rocks and a strange glowing sword made of light.
Taking hold of the sword in one hand, she picked up a rock and aimed.
The stone hit the
helmet of one of the soldiers with a loud clang. Lina winced, but sighed in
relief when none of the others made any move toward her. The unfortunate
mazoku's visor fell onto his face, completely blinding it. "Oi! Where'd
everybody go?" he cried as he ran around like a chicken with its head cut
off. His nipping stick not caring who was who bit whatever and whoever it brushed
against. Soon the soldiers began to fight each other as more and more helmet
visors were knocked down.
Taking advantage
of the chaos, Lina charged and managed to slay a few of the mazoku with the
glowing sword before the rest ran off screaming and gibbering something about a
glowing monster of death. "Cowards," Lina said wiping a hand across
her forehead.
"You poor
guy," she said coming up to the hanging man. She made to cut him down, but
he swatted at her causing Lina to lose her balance and land on her rear.
"Hey, is that how you treat someone who's trying to help?" she
scolded, brushing herself off.
The man eyed her
suspiciously still not ready to trust anyone. He growled then made another
swipe at her. Lina quickly stepped out of the way then glared at him.
"Fine. If you wanna stay there, it's fine with me," she spat, totally
annoyed.
He regarded the
girl for a few more moments then went over his choices. "Um... could you
get me down?" he pleaded.
Lina regarded the
hanging man carefully. Experience taught her that most of the people in the
labyrinth couldn't be trusted. 'I hope I can trust you, ' she thought as she
twisted her head to look in his face. He had long blond hair, which was hanging
upside down as well. He was dressed in bright blue armor and his blue eyes had
the vacant and innocent expression of the village idiot. "Listen you'd
better not attack me if I let you down," she warned.
"Please get
me down," he begged not liking the feeling of all his blood rushing to his
head.
"Well you
don't look dangerous. I hope I'm right this time," she said. Taking the
sword, she chanted a levitation spell and floated to where the rope was
attached to a branch, cutting through with one clean stroke.
The man landed
with a shout. The girl eyed him warily and he brushed himself off.
"Itai," he said as he rubbed his head. "Thanks... um -" he
looked at her, not remembering if she'd introduced herself or not.
"You're
welcome. I'm Lina," she said floating down again but stayed a bit away
still unsure of his true nature.
"Lina,"
he said, his brow crossing as he did his best to commit it to memory. He was
terrible with names. "I'm..." He sat down and began to think again.
Suddenly he punched his hand and shot back up startling her. "I'm Gourry!"
he said sticking a hand out.
'Poor guy really
must have hit his head bad,' she thought as she shook his hand. "Nice to
meet you, Gourry." She returned to looking around and saw that the
courtyard she'd been led to was yet another dead end. Sighing she turned back
to her latest companion. "I hate to sound rude here, but I've really gotta
be going."
"Oh where
are you going, Lina?" he asked completely curious.
"Wouldn't
you like to know?" she muttered. "I don't suppose you know how to get
to the castle do you?"
"What
castle?" he asked with all the innocence of a child.
Grabbing the
blond, she sighed exasperatedly and pointed. "THAT castle! The one that's
right in front of us baka! Don't tell me you never heard of the mazoku
king!"
"There's a
mazoku king? I didn't know that? Is he rich?"
Completely
stressed out now, Lina let go of him
only to fireball the unfortunate Gourry. 'It must be that time of the month,'
he thought forgetting that a sorceress lost her magic when their time showed
up. "I'm really sorry Lina, but I really didn't know there was a castle
here until you told me," he said extremely sorry. After all both his
mother and grandmother INSISTED that he be nice to girls no matter how mean
they were.
Seeing the
fearful look on her new friend's face, Lina put the sword down, which he
grabbed and put it away in its sheath. "It's okay, Gourry. I'm just having
a REALLY bad day. Anyway, I doubt ANYONE knows how to get to the castle."
She then looked around the courtyard again and noticed that where there was a
dead end, two doors now stood. "Why am I not surprised?" she muttered
more to herself than the man beside her who was now examining them with equal
curiosity.
Going up to one
she saw that the knocker was in the shape of a human head with a ring for
knocking stuck in its ears. What surprised her about the knocker was that it
had spiky purple hair that stuck out at the sides and its eyes were not the
same color. One was purple while the other was gold and was a mazoku eye. A red
jewel was embedded in its forehead. "It's very rude to stare,
oujo-san," it said startling her.
"Um, sorry.
I didn't know you were alive," she said.
"What? Speak
up!" he said, being deaf from having a ring thrust into his ears.
A mumbling came
from the other door and they now turned to look at it. As with the previous
door, this one had a knocker, but unlike the other it was a head of a young
woman with short black hair and blue eyes. A ring was in her mouth and she
mumbled again, trying to talk while having the huge thing in her mouth. Pulling
the ring from her mouth, Lina asked the knocker, "What did you say?"
Letting out a sigh of relief,
the knocker licked her lips before replying. "You can't talk to him, he
can't hear you. WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! My poor Rezo-sama!!" She began to
wail uncontrollably.
"What? What
are you talking about over there? Speak up!" shouted the Rezo knocker.
"You'd better not be insulting Eris," he warned, but none of them
paid any attention.
Taking out a
hanky, Gourry held it to Eris' nose. "Um, here," he said not wanting
to see a girl cry.
"Arigatou,"
said the knocker and blew her nose into the hanky, causing various birds and
creatures to scamper away at the loud trumpeting sound. The blond took back his
hanky and wrung it out before putting it back in his armor.
Once the knocker
had composed herself, Lina asked Eris the burning question that was on her
mind. "Where do these doors go?"
"Gee, I have
no idea," Eris replied. "I only wanted to be with Rezo-sama so I
didn't ask about the details of the job. We're only the knockers."
"Oh,"
the red haired girl said crestfallen. She tried to open the door by turning the
knob, but it wouldn't budge. It seemed to be locked. "How do you open
these things?"
"Mumble,
mumble, mumble," complained Rezo. "Doesn't anyone know how to speak
clearly anymore?"
Seeing the Eris
knocker was about to cry again, Lina quickly repeated her question. "Look,
I've really gotta get out of here, how do you open the doors?"
"Knock and
the door will open," Eris replied on the verge of tears. Meanwhile,
Gourry, being bored, had stuck the ring into his mouth and was now happily
grinning away.
"Gimme
that!" Lina said. "Yeesh what a moron!" She then promptly
attempted to replace the ring back in its owner's mouth. Distracted by the
impending doom of having a ring thrust into her mouth, the knocker clamped it
shut as tight as she could. "Aw c'mon! I wanna knock!" said the
sorceress.
A slight chuckle
came from the other knocker. "Doesn't want that ring back in her mouth,
eh? Can't say I blame her," he said.
"We'll see
about that," Lina said, smiling evilly and making not only Gourry, but the
Eris knocker nervous as well.
"Um, what
are you going to do, Lina?" asked the blond.
"This."
Lina held the ring in front of the knocker's mouth as she promptly pinched her
nose, blocking off the air. Eris held her breath as long as she could and was
beginning to turn as purple as Rezo's hair. Not wanting to die of asphyxiation,
the knocker finally opened her mouth and let out her breath. Seizing the
chance, the petite sorceress quickly shoved the ring back in place and knocked. "Sorry about
that," she said as the door opened.
"Don wuwy
I'm used do id," said Eris, the ring muffling her voice.
"Well see ya
around Gourry," Lina said going through the doorway not noticing the blond
was now following her like a little lost puppy dog. She saw she was now in a
forest and the castle seemed to be a bit closer, but still loomed out of reach.
"Well I hope it's all downhill from here," she said.
As if on cue, the
ground beneath Gourry opened up and he disappeared just as he was about to yell
for help. Hearing something behind her, Lina spun around. "Gourry?"
she asked, looking to see if the blond man had followed her. There was no one
there. Only trees and no sign of the door she'd come from. "All right, if
that's the way you wanna play, Xellos," she said and began her trek
through the forest.
*****
Sakura: Well, here's chapter seven folks. I had to combine two
chapters again so it looks like I'll finish this sooner than I thought.
Xel: Aw and I was hoping I could have some more fun with
Lina-chan. ;_;
Sakura: Poor baby. (does the dub Zoisite laugh)
Xel: Been watching the dubs again miko-sama?
Sakura: Only the S season. Anyhoo I finally got Gourry in here.
Whoo-hoo!
Gourry: Um, excuse me who are you again?
Sylphiel: Gourry dear I need to help with the cooking.
Gourry: Oh, ok Sylphiel.
Xel: Gourry dear?
Sakura: Don't ask. I can't wait to get the next chapter out. It's
gonna be soooooo much fun to write. (eg)
Xel: Oh? Do I finally get some?
Sakura: (whacks him with Firia's mace) Xellos no Hentai!!!! Let's
say that a VERY special friend of Lina shows up to torture, um I mean visit.
Xel: Hm... I wonder who that could be.
Sakura: Sore wa himitsu desu. ^_^ (VERY eg) (does her best Naga
laugh) Oooh I soooo excited!! Stay tuned. I should have the next part up next
month (L-sama willing). 'Til then kiddies, same bat time, same bat channel.
C&C always welcome at Firia@linainverse.net. Come on minna!
You guys haven't been writing much. So pleeeeeeaaaaaaase tell me what you
think! I'd looooooove to hear from you. ^_^