Questions for Questions! What Good are the Answers?
Sonjia looked back and forth between Jadarin, Lina, and Zelgadis. "Whoa, wait a minute! You don't actually believe him, do you?"
"I'd say the story is rather credible," said Zelgadis. "It looks like it was a wise choice to not completely trust you. You were suspicious from the start."
"If he didn't reveal you, your intentions were becoming rather obvious, anyway," added Lina. "We would have found you out sooner or later on our own. With all your secrecy and general bad attitude, you were an obvious double-agent, although not a very good one."
"I'm not working for him!" Sonjia shouted. "He's probably trying to create some sort of diversion by pretending some random bystander is on his side!"
"I find it interesting that he chose you," observed Zelgadis.
Sonjia lowered her head and muttered to herself, "What other 'bystanders' do you see here, nitwit?"
Jadarin wagged a finger. "Oh, stop denying it. Why, you killed everyone in this town with your own power."
Sonjia smacked her forehead. "Your first story was better. I wasn't anywhere near this town, stupid!"
"Magical power can work from a distance," Jadarin reasoned. "Face it, your power just wiped out an entire population."
"Did not!" Sonjia retorted.
"Did too," Jadarin taunted back.
"Did not! And I've got an alibi, too. It just so happens that I can't even use magic! Not even a lowly light spell." To demonstrate, she raised her hand with the palm outstretched. She then cast a short, worried glance at the ribbon tied to that arm and whispered, "Please don't work." She cleared her throat and commanded, "Lumin!"
Lina blinked. What the heck was "Lumin"? The only lighting spell she'd ever heard of was, well, Lighting. Curious as to what this unknown spell was, Lina watched intently.
Which, of course, was not the most intelligent thing to do considering this was supposed to be a light spell. Sure enough, a giant ball of light erupted from Sonjia's hand, illuminating the entire town. Everyone covered their eyes, momentarily blinded by the powerful flash. Sonjia quickly waved her hand to cancel the light spell, which had equally surprised (and blinded) her.
"Fascinating," said Jadarin, rubbing his chin. "That sure looked like using magic to me."
Lina shook her head, trying to relieve herself of the little spots of color dancing in front of her vision. She looked over at Gourry and noted that he was standing around trying to catch the little spots floating around. It would have been funny, under different circumstances. Lina stalked over to Sonjia and grabbed her by the collar. "What the heck was that for?!" she demanded, not really admitting that her now distorted vision was partially her own fault for staring.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the view, Sonjia didn't even have a snide remark for that. In fact, she didn't appear to even react to Lina's presence. Her expression was rather interesting, and Lina could practically tell she was madly trying to decide whether her ability to use magic constituted as a Very Good Thing or Very Bad Thing.
"Hey!" said Lina, shaking the shaken girl. "Don't zone out on me! I know you know something about what happened here, and I'll at least sleep better at night if I know why everyone around me is dropping dead." Still no response. Lina sighed and tightened her grip. "C'mon, don't make this hard on everyone! Just tell us about the spell!"
Lina didn't really consider her request very poignant. However, upon hearing it, Sonjia did appear to snap out of it. Or maybe just snap. Because the next thing she knew, Lina had a fist in her face, and the last thing she saw before she flew backwards through the air was a glare of bloody murder that looked downright demonic.
Gourry, being quicker of reaction than he was of wit, caught Lina before she hit the ground. He released her once she had gotten even footing again. Lina looked back at her assailant, rubbing her bruised cheek. "I think someone's just asking to get blown up," she commented. "Popular thing today. Gotta put another butt to kick on my queue."
"What exactly did you say to her?" asked Gourry, warily. His experience with Lina had taught him that girls must be born with a specific topic to avoid when talking to them. With Lina, he'd eventually learned that this topic was her chest size. Maybe Lina had called Sonjia flat-chested.
Meanwhile, back in the air, Jadarin seemed to find this whole event a laughing riot. Even Xellos, although on a mission of destruction, seemed amused by this. Well, they were Mazoku after all.
"Bravo, bravo, my dear!" cheered Jadarin, clapping. "I certainly didn't expect anything to illicit that sort of response out of you. You must've become quite sensitive to the topic over the ages," he mused. But then, to himself, he added, "Must've been one hellish nightmare of an ordeal to break you so. I can relate."
"Sonjia.... san?" ventured Amelia, looking at the girl who seemed an almost tangible aura of rage surrounding her. True, from the moment they met, Sonjia had always been pissy, bossy, arrogant, and rude. But she had never been angry. Not like this.
"One way or another, she knows what happened here," said Lina. "I don't really care about what qualms she has with divulging information. They say that what you don't know can't hurt you, but," she paused, pointing a finger at the ebony-haired girl in blue, "if it's something that could potentially threaten me, you'd better be darned sure I've got a right to know!"
Jadarin laughed from behind her. "Why stop there, little sorceress girl? Why not have her just teach you the spell, like she did for me?"
"No thanks!" retorted Lina, without a second thought. "If this is all it's good for," she said, indicating the scattered bodies around town, "then you two can keep your stupid spell! I don't play games just to cheat," she finished, confidently.
"Well said, Lina-san!" said Amelia, coming to stand beside her. "Those who murder innocent people without a thought are those whom followers of Justice call evil! We may not know the reasons, but what you are doing isn't right!" she stated, eyes ablaze at the floating Mazoku.
"You've got that right," said Gourry, also coming to stand with them. "I dunno what's going on here, but if people are dead because of it, then you've become our enemy."
Zelgadis sighed and stood with them as well. He didn't have anything inspirational to say, but he knew that Lina would beat him silly later if he didn't allow her to have this dramatic moment.
Sonjia, in the meantime, was being ignored. She wasn't too terribly used to this sensation, and wasn't sure if she really liked it or not. Her eyebrow twitched at the group's speeches. It was difficult for her to remain angry when she no longer had anyone to direct her rage at. She snorted and punched the wall next to her to release the built-up energy. She immediately bit her tongue as the recoil vibrated up her arm and into her head. If she had expected it to hurt, she wouldn't have hit the wall quite that hard.
Jadarin seemed quite amused at Lina's group. "Such conviction from you humans! Rushing in blindly to face something you have no knowledge of." He raised his hand in the air and smiled wickedly. "Quite foolish, though. But if you want to know what you're up against, allow me to demonstrate by killing you all!"
He snapped his fingers and the four on the ground took defensive stances, not quite sure what this would do to them. After a few seconds, it appeared that it did nothing to them. Lina looked back up at Jadarin and saw him curiously examining his hand. He then looked around frantically and noticed Sonjia pounding her head against one of the buildings.
"That little..." he began, but couldn't finish as a Fireball caught him in the face.
"Sorry we didn't call your bluff, but I think we've done enough playing around," shouted Lina.
Jadarin wiped the ash out of his face and yelled, "Hey, Sonjia, if you're going to beat yourself up, why not do us all a favor and just knock yourself out?" Sonjia removed her head from the dent in the wall and gave him a Death Glare.
Lina looked back and forth between the two. "'Hey, Sonjia'?" she repeated, curiously. She looked back at the annoying girl and wondered, "If you two aren't working together, why does he know your name?" This was getting way too suspicious to be just a coincidence.
"He's a Mazoku," said Sonjia. "That means there are a lot of reasons he could know who I am."
Lina raised an eyebrow. That cinched it. She'd had her suspicions as soon as she'd met the girl. And she'd met enough Mazoku recently to begin to develop a "feel" for their presence. And although part of Sonjia's "feel" was completely the opposite of, say, Xellos's, she figured it was just the personality. But because of this, Lina concluded, "You're a Mazoku, too, aren't you?"
Sonjia's eyes widened. "What?! I..."
She was cut off by Jadarin practically rolling over in the air laughing. "This is just too funny!" he crowed. "Human intuition never ceases to amuse me."
"I have to commend her in the fact that I did not realize her identity, either," said Xellos, floating down beside Sonjia. She backed away, fearful of what he just said. After a few seconds of examining her, Xellos mockingly mimicked her initial observation of him, stating, "She sure doesn't look like a Mazoku." Everyone present fell over, also mimicking their reactions to the first time this observation was made.
"And here I was afraid that anyone here was capable of figuring anything out," muttered Sonjia from the ground.
Xellos pointed his staff at her. "However, orders are orders. 'Destroy the renegade and any cohorts,'" he stated.
"Heh?" was Sonjia's eloquent reaction.
"Do you realize what would happen if you destroyed her?" warned Jadarin from the air. "Zelas Metallium never told you why she wanted me dead, did she? And I've got the feeling that her orders to you were pretty urgent. Urgent enough to pull you away from your work tracking down Maryuuou Gaav's remaining minions." He sniffled dramatically. "I feel so special."
Xellos shrugged. "I do not question my orders, nor the reason I was given them. But, in time, I'm sure it will all be clear."
"You're funny," said Jadarin. "Imagine Zelas Metallium's excitement when I suddenly had a coherent thought. Being the caring little prick that she is, the very first thing she said to me was 'Where is she?!'. Can you believe that, even after thousands of years, she still hasn't given up on it? I'm sure if the other Mazoku lords were aware of what was going on, they'd be after us as well."
Sonjia stood up. "You can chase him to your heart's content. As for me, I'm downright sick of being chased. Now, if you'll excuse me." With that, she turned and ran out of town.
Lina smacked her forehead. "She wouldn't be chased if she didn't run," she reasoned to herself.
"Are we gonna go after her?" asked Gourry.
Lina waved her hand. "Leave her be. She's obviously not going to help us any. If we coincidentally meet up with her again, I'll be sure to kick her butt, but I'm not going to go out of my way to be in her presence. Besides," she said, looking back to the figure floating in the air, "we've got someone more important to deal with."
"In that case, you keep the renegade busy while I track down the cohort!" suggested Xellos cheerily.
Lina sweatdropped. "You sure like letting us do your work for you. But it doesn't matter. I've got a bone to pick with this guy, anyway."
"You will do no such thing!" Jadarin yelled to Xellos. He snapped his fingers, which everyone minus Gourry recognized as his "Bluff Snap". However, if it was supposed to do anything, Xellos vanished before it could.
Jadarin cursed, and looked like he was about to pursue, when a Flare Arrow caught him in the arm. This time, it did some damage.
Lina brought her arm down. "Looks like you forgot to keep your shield up!" she said. "I'm finishing this right here, right now!"
"Go away," said Jadarin, pulling one of his chopsticks from before out of his pocket. "Xellos probably won't be able to kill the girl, but I can't take that chance."
"Oh, I've been around Xellos long enough to know that, although he's a goof-off, he always gets the job done," said Lina, throwing a fireball at the annoying cat Mazoku thing. He wielded his chopstick like a bat, and swatted at the fireball in midair. The ball of flame dissipated on contact.
"Really," he said. "You can stop that now."
Lina realized that this was probably true. From what she'd seen before, there was no way to hit the guy while his shield was up. Sonjia obviously knew something about it, even though she wouldn't tell. Well, being in league with him, of course she wouldn't give away her partner's weakness. Lina realized that the only way to have a chance against this Mazoku was to track down Sonjia and throttle the information out of her before Xellos blew her to bits. How annoying.
"Come on, guys!" Lina called to them. "We're getting out of here!" Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia nodded and ran after her as she hurried out of the city. Once they had gotten about halfway up the hill to the forest, Lina stopped and looked back at the town. Jadarin was still hovering slightly above it, laughing at them. She smirked and began chanting a spell. Everyone around her immediately recognized it and took off towards the forest.
"Oh, Jadarin!" Lina called. "Here's a 'Thank You' Dragon Slave for that wonderful battle!" She let loose the glowing red beam at the town. If this worked, it would destroy the stupid Mazoku and burn all the bodies, perhaps giving them a slightly more dignified burial. Plus, she wouldn't have to go find Sonjia, which was another big plus. The Dragon Slave struck the city...
...And evaporated into nothingness, leaving the town completely unscathed. Lina dropped to the ground, dumbfounded.
Gourry peeked out from behind a tree. "Hey, doesn't the Dragon Slave usually go 'boom' or something?" he asked.
Lina scratched her head in bewilderment. "Who is this guy?"
Sonjia ran through the forest, trying to get as much distance between herself and everyone else as possible. It was obvious that they didn't trust her, but she trusted them even less, if that was at all conceivable.
"If it isn't one thing, it's another," she muttered to herself. "But my sister's dead, so there's no point in chasing after me anymore. The world is nothing but idiots. The don't even care or realize what they're asking of me."
She trotted to a stop momentarily, vaguely remembering something Lina said while she was overcome with anger. "If this is all it's good for, then you two can keep your stupid spell. I don't play games just to cheat. " Was she... really sincere about that? If only there were some way to tell...
She turned around to continue running, but a staff caught her by the shins, tripping her. Sonjia fell on her stomach, right at the feet of Xellos. "Going somewhere?" he asked. He jabbed the end of his staff down on her back, preventing her from getting up.
Sonjia sighed. "I guess you people are going to hound me for information no matter what. And you won't stop until I tell, or you kill me, right?"
"Killing you would be easier," said Xellos. "But I also love to know secrets. So, do you want to tell me something interesting before I kill you?"
"Depends," said Sonjia, trying to get out from under his staff. "Only if you tell me something first."
Xellos shook a finger. "Ah, I believe that anything you ask me would be considered a secret. I can't tell you anything."
"You don't even know my question," she said.
"But whatever it is, I'm not answering it."
Sonjia let out a huff and grabbed Xellos by the ankle, yanking his foot out from under him. "You jerk!" It was just enough to lessen the pressure of the staff to her back, allowing her to get up.
"You've definitely got the temper of some Mazoku I know," Xellos observed. Sonjia ignored that remark.
"Anyway," she said, brushing herself off. "My question is..."
Xellos covered his ears and wandered around in circles. "Hmm hmm hmm, I'm not listening! It's a secret! It's a secret! No matter what you want to know." Sonjia grabbed him by the back of the cape, but he vanished and reappeared sitting on a tree branch, still holding his ears.
"Get down here! Do you have a death wish or something?" she yelled at him.
"Not for myself, no. But what makes you think I do?" Xellos asked.
"You tell me what I want to know, and I'll tell you what you want to know," she bargained with him.
"No deal!" said Xellos, jumping down from the tree, then vanishing again before Sonjia had the chance to grab him. He reappeared behind her back and flipped her hair. She turned and grabbed him by the neck, but he teleported to safety just like before. "You can't catch me like this," he taunted.
Sonjia realized he was right. And there was really only one way she could think of that she could possibly catch him. And if it worked, one of her suspicions would be confirmed. She wandered over to a bush and picked off a single burr, examining it. She then turned back to Xellos.
"New deal. If I can catch you, then you tell me what I want to know. If not, then you can kill me or something." She waited for a reply.
Xellos clapped his hands. "Sounds rather sporting! Why not?" He teleported in front of her and grinned. "But what exactly can you do against Astral manipulation?"
Sonjia shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe.... this!" She lunged at him and got him into a headlock. She victoriously snapped her fingers and ruffled his hair. "Ha! Looks like I win!"
"Oh really?" said Xellos. "Then what would you say if I tried this?" The two sat in silence a moment, Sonjia's arm still around Xellos's neck, and neither of them having moved. Finally, Sonjia spoke.
"Do what?"
Xellos opened his eyes in surprise and tried to teleport again. Nothing happened. He went through his entire repertoire of spells, finding them all ineffective and disabled. What the heck did she do?
"Like I said before," said Sonjia. "I win. Now tell me what I want to know."
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," said Xellos. "So, what's your question?"
"I have three, actually," replied Sonjia. She felt Xellos's shoulders slump a little at that. Obviously it was a little more than the original bargain.
"My name is Xellos Metallium, my quest is to destroy renegade Mazoku, and my favorite color is black," he answered. Sonjia hit him on the side of the head. Xellos flinched at that. It... hurt? A physical blow?
"Okay, real question one. How old are you?"
This time, Xellos fell completely over, sweatdropping. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry, my dear, but I believe I may be a little old for you. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship."
Sonjia blinked, and it took a moment for her to figure out what the heck that was supposed to mean. Once she realized it, she bonked him on the back of the head again. "You dork! Truthfully, I just want to know how old you are!"
"One thousand and twelve.... or so..." he answered cautiously, unsure as to how exactly that information would be of any use to anyone.
"Sounds about right," said Sonjia. "Just making sure you're telling the truth here. Now for the next question: What is your relationship with Lina and the rest of her group?" Realizing that that was just asking for a perverted comment, she quickly added, "From a business standpoint."
Xellos scratched his head. "Well, they're just fun to play around with, really. I wouldn't call us allies or anything. They're hardly followers of the Mazoku, although I sometimes wish they were." What the heck was she trying to get at by asking these questions? She had let him go some time before, but he hadn't turned around to face her, so he couldn't tell if she was busy processing the answers. Plus, he still couldn't use his Mazoku powers.
"And lastly," she began, "From a militaristic standpoint, who is the Mazoku's greatest enemy? Or perhaps just the group that they wouldn't mind obliterating."
Well, that question was slightly more along the lines of what he had expected, but it still didn't ask anything particularly secret. Especially if she was a Mazoku herself. "The Gods, obviously," he said. "They've always been the enemies of the Mazoku. That and their physical counterparts, the Dragons. I personally wiped out a good number of Gold Dragons in my youth," he said proudly.
"Good for you," Sonjia commented absently. "So, basically what I'm summarizing from this is, in all the years you've been around, humans have stayed out of the conflicts between the Mazoku and the Gods. Right?"
Xellos lazily put his arms behind his head. "Well, what exactly could they do? Even though Lina has the power to destroy a Dark Lord, she usually stays out of our business, unless it directly affects her. That's just how humans are. They're not battling for life or death, they're just trying to exist." He turned to face her, but realized that she had gone off to hide somewhere. "So what have you deduced from this, o great detective?" he called out into the forest.
"If anything," she said, sneaking up behind him, "I think I finally realize why my sister was right." With that, she tackled him into a headlock again. Xellos struggled, simply because without his powers, he was more or less defenseless. It was not the most pleasant feeling for a Mazoku. However, after a moment, she released him, and he spun around to face her.
"What was that for?" he asked, slightly shaken, but trying not to show it.
"Just wanted to retrieve this," Sonjia said, holding up a burr that she had pulled from his hair. "You have your powers back now, and are free to go." She casually flicked the burr away. "I have no more business with the likes of you."
Xellos blinked and checked himself. Indeed, he had access to all his powers once again. "Well, what about my questions?" he asked.
"I said, 'I have no more business with the likes of you.'" retorted Sonjia. "Go look for your Mazoku pal and beat up on him some more or something. Just leave me be."
"He won't have to go far to find me!" Sonjia and Xellos looked upward to see Jadarin perched on a branch above them. "However, beating me up will be much more difficult." He leapt down and held Xellos at knifepoint. Um, actually, he was at chopstick-point. What was with this guy and his stupid chopsticks? "I'll take it from here, my dear. Thank you for detaining him for me, though."
Xellos didn't feel the least bit threatened by the chopstick point jabbed into his throat. He casually began charging up another ball of dark energy. Well, he tried to, but realized that his powers were once again disabled. This was, what, the third time now she'd done this to him? It was getting old.
"So, she truly is working with you?" Xellos observed.
"No," Sonjia stated firmly.
"Yes," Jadarin corrected. "She is truly my partner in this escapade." Receiving a stern look from her, he added, "Although whether she actually realizes it or not is another matter."