Disclaimer: Neither Slayers nor Ranma are mine. If they were, I would not
be writing this thing, I would most likely be somewhere nice, like Hawaii.
If you wish to attempt and sue, feel free as I'm pretty sure you can't find
me. So nyah!
Key; Speech - "Text." Thought - Text.
~ ~ ~
Lina looked back over the full story. After she had let out her anger via a few fireballs, and worked her way through a lot of the boy's nervous stuttering, she had gotten a full account of what happened from his perspective and pieced that together with what she knew. First, she had gone searching for treasure through a forgotten crypt. Apparently, she must have activated one of the traps, and got transported somewhere else without her clothes or weapons, where he picked her up. She'd been unconscious for about a day. Unfortunately, there wasn't any sign of any underground tomb.
In fact, her and the guy, who she'd found out was named Ryouga, were in the middle of a forest somewhere. "Now look," she began, as calmly as she could. "First off, I need some clothes. A cloak doesn't fit the needs of modesty very well. Next, we need to get back to that ruin so I can study that pattern. After that, maybe we can hit a restaraunt somewhere. Got anything to add?"
"Er, well, let's see... You can borrow some of my clothes. But, y'see, I have this tiny problem with... directions..." He seemed to be blushing again just thinking about her lack of attire, and he looked everywhere but at her. Which is actually kind of flattering, Lina thought, considering the reaction I normally get in these kinds of situations, but this is not the time.
Ryouga dug through his pack and before pulling out a pair of dark green pants and yellow shirt identical to his and tossed it to her, his face still very red. Both items were quite a bit too large for her, but both pants and shirt had drawstrings, and those odd laces on the bottoms of the pants worked well enough. She also got one of his bandanas to make up for the one she lost, though she didn't even bother to try and figure out why he seemed to have more than one on at a time.
"So," she said expectantly, "Lead on, big guy."
Ryoga nodded authoratively, and set off in a direction chosen completely at random, Lina following faithfully after. He felt that maybe he should have mentioned the whole 'Lost Boy' thing, but those fireballs of hers had really hurt, and he was rather hoping to avoid a repeat performance anytime soon. That, and after he helped Ukyo, he usually got fed. Maybe it would be the same with Lina?
~ ~ ~
Lina's eyebrow was twitching. Ryoga had learned to recognize this as a bad sign. He and Ranma, in one of the more dull times in Nerima (Read: Only one or two instances of kidnapping, fiancee plans, evil threats, Akane's escaped cooking, or high-powered martial artists with a grudge coming to town in a week.) had gotten together with Mousse and catalogued a general chart on how angry one of the female species was according to how many eyebrow twitches were recorded within a given time.
Ryoga counted it off. Three eyebrow twitches in ten seconds. Angry, possibly jealous, but not at an explosive level yet. Recommendation: Find the source of the irritation and pound it into the ground, before great bodily harm is visited upon your body. Having had some experience with this, Ryoga opted on an easy conversation starter in a calm and moderate voice to begin with.
"So, Lina, is anything bothering you right now? Perhaps I can help."
The eyebrow twitching seemed to increase in frequency. Ryoga berated himself. Wrong thing to say, Ryoga, you blockhead. What are you, Ranma? It always seems to work with Akane. Okay, give her a moment. She'll either speak, attack, or remain silent. In Ryoga's experience, most women seemed to alternate between those three moods. At least the ones he was familiar with did.
"Ryoga," she growled, "It has been a day. Are you sure we're going in the right direction?"
Danger, danger. Threat to self increased. Options? Lie, tell the truth, or change the subject. Possibility of each? Lie: 20%, you're as bad as Ranma when uttering falsehoods. Truth: 10%, attempted before, mallet/spatula/bonbori almost instant. Change of subject: 50%, worth a shot.
Ryoga searched about frantically for something else to talk about while trying to seem not to do so.
"Not entirely. Hey, is that a restaraunt? Maybe we could stop for lunch."
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than Lina had sped by in a cloud of dust. He blinked. The technique wasn't usually that effective.
~ ~ ~
Ryoga, one of the foremost martial artists in the world and tough enough to eat the youngest Tendo sister's cooking and come back for more, almost whimpered at the state of his finances. True, he had hung around Ranma and his old man for several years, and thus was familiar with the technique of speed-eating. However, he had never actually been a participant in the battle before, or had to foot the bill. His already high respect (Coupled with a healthy dose of wariness) for the middle Tendo sister increased several fold.
Lina smiled widely and leaned back after everything that might have been food within several feet of the table had been demolished, including some parsely which Ryoga was pretty sure was there for decoration, and the sukiyaki he had ordered for himself. The potted plant nearby showed suspicious signs of being nibbled on during the feeding frenzy.
Ryoga was currently wondering if Ranma had any sisters he had forgotten to mention.
"Wow, that was excellent. Thanks, Ryoga." Ryoga acquired a light flush and a rather silly fanged grin. No one besides Akane and, more rarely, Ukyo, had ever thanked him before. Then, Lina's eyes got wide and cute enough to induce cavities at ten feet. The Lost Boy began to feel rather nervous. With Ukyo, who was really his only model to go by (though perhaps a girl who had given up her femininity for ten years, practiced a form of Okonomiyaki Martial Arts, and was blindly in love with an aquatransexual wasn't the best example), this only happened when she was in trouble or she wanted something.
And Lina didn't seem to be in trouble.
Ryoga did his best to firm up his spine. It didn't help much.
"Ryoga," she began in a voice that was too cute for words. "Is that an ice cream parlor over there?"
Ryoga, like Zelgadis before him, was realizing exactly how difficult it was to say 'no' to Lina where food was concerned, or much else, for that matter. Ryoga, however, was determined to remain firm. He drew upon a decade of training and discipline in an effort to weather the onslaught. Ranma-chan and Ukyo have done this to me before. I will not break this time, though. I will be strong. Besides, I'm not entirely sure my wallet can take another pounding like this one. But.. so cute... can't... resist...
Lina was cute to begin with, though her tough and take-no-prisoners exterior sometimes hid the fact, and the 'SD' transformation multiplied that cuteness several times. Noticing that her companion was weakening, she upped the cuteness factor into chibi levels.
Ryoga held on for another few seconds before his heart melted like a snowball in a blast furnace and he admitted defeat. "Sure Lina, let's go."
~ ~ ~
It had been another yen-draining hour before Lina was satisfied with desert and they could move on. Now, Ryoga looked around and groaned. He decided that it was his karma at work. Ryoga's karma, like the aforementioned Zelgadis, was a sort of Murphy's Law. If something could go wrong, it would. Either that, or Fate just wanted to look in on its favorite whipping boy, Ryoga. he thought to himself sourly.
For, rather than the minute chance of arriving at the place where he had found the sorceress, he had, instead, found himself on the outskirts of, you guessed it, Tokyo.
Lina watched the Lost Boy proceed to bash his head against a sign that said, 'Welcome to Nerima!' in amusement.
~ ~ ~
A/N: Hello again, all. A second installment. The third should be up reasonably quickly, or at least, more quickly than this one was from the first. Again, feel free to comment, or flame, or whatever. Ciao!
Key; Speech - "Text." Thought - Text.
~ ~ ~
Lina looked back over the full story. After she had let out her anger via a few fireballs, and worked her way through a lot of the boy's nervous stuttering, she had gotten a full account of what happened from his perspective and pieced that together with what she knew. First, she had gone searching for treasure through a forgotten crypt. Apparently, she must have activated one of the traps, and got transported somewhere else without her clothes or weapons, where he picked her up. She'd been unconscious for about a day. Unfortunately, there wasn't any sign of any underground tomb.
In fact, her and the guy, who she'd found out was named Ryouga, were in the middle of a forest somewhere. "Now look," she began, as calmly as she could. "First off, I need some clothes. A cloak doesn't fit the needs of modesty very well. Next, we need to get back to that ruin so I can study that pattern. After that, maybe we can hit a restaraunt somewhere. Got anything to add?"
"Er, well, let's see... You can borrow some of my clothes. But, y'see, I have this tiny problem with... directions..." He seemed to be blushing again just thinking about her lack of attire, and he looked everywhere but at her. Which is actually kind of flattering, Lina thought, considering the reaction I normally get in these kinds of situations, but this is not the time.
Ryouga dug through his pack and before pulling out a pair of dark green pants and yellow shirt identical to his and tossed it to her, his face still very red. Both items were quite a bit too large for her, but both pants and shirt had drawstrings, and those odd laces on the bottoms of the pants worked well enough. She also got one of his bandanas to make up for the one she lost, though she didn't even bother to try and figure out why he seemed to have more than one on at a time.
"So," she said expectantly, "Lead on, big guy."
Ryoga nodded authoratively, and set off in a direction chosen completely at random, Lina following faithfully after. He felt that maybe he should have mentioned the whole 'Lost Boy' thing, but those fireballs of hers had really hurt, and he was rather hoping to avoid a repeat performance anytime soon. That, and after he helped Ukyo, he usually got fed. Maybe it would be the same with Lina?
~ ~ ~
Lina's eyebrow was twitching. Ryoga had learned to recognize this as a bad sign. He and Ranma, in one of the more dull times in Nerima (Read: Only one or two instances of kidnapping, fiancee plans, evil threats, Akane's escaped cooking, or high-powered martial artists with a grudge coming to town in a week.) had gotten together with Mousse and catalogued a general chart on how angry one of the female species was according to how many eyebrow twitches were recorded within a given time.
Ryoga counted it off. Three eyebrow twitches in ten seconds. Angry, possibly jealous, but not at an explosive level yet. Recommendation: Find the source of the irritation and pound it into the ground, before great bodily harm is visited upon your body. Having had some experience with this, Ryoga opted on an easy conversation starter in a calm and moderate voice to begin with.
"So, Lina, is anything bothering you right now? Perhaps I can help."
The eyebrow twitching seemed to increase in frequency. Ryoga berated himself. Wrong thing to say, Ryoga, you blockhead. What are you, Ranma? It always seems to work with Akane. Okay, give her a moment. She'll either speak, attack, or remain silent. In Ryoga's experience, most women seemed to alternate between those three moods. At least the ones he was familiar with did.
"Ryoga," she growled, "It has been a day. Are you sure we're going in the right direction?"
Danger, danger. Threat to self increased. Options? Lie, tell the truth, or change the subject. Possibility of each? Lie: 20%, you're as bad as Ranma when uttering falsehoods. Truth: 10%, attempted before, mallet/spatula/bonbori almost instant. Change of subject: 50%, worth a shot.
Ryoga searched about frantically for something else to talk about while trying to seem not to do so.
"Not entirely. Hey, is that a restaraunt? Maybe we could stop for lunch."
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than Lina had sped by in a cloud of dust. He blinked. The technique wasn't usually that effective.
~ ~ ~
Ryoga, one of the foremost martial artists in the world and tough enough to eat the youngest Tendo sister's cooking and come back for more, almost whimpered at the state of his finances. True, he had hung around Ranma and his old man for several years, and thus was familiar with the technique of speed-eating. However, he had never actually been a participant in the battle before, or had to foot the bill. His already high respect (Coupled with a healthy dose of wariness) for the middle Tendo sister increased several fold.
Lina smiled widely and leaned back after everything that might have been food within several feet of the table had been demolished, including some parsely which Ryoga was pretty sure was there for decoration, and the sukiyaki he had ordered for himself. The potted plant nearby showed suspicious signs of being nibbled on during the feeding frenzy.
Ryoga was currently wondering if Ranma had any sisters he had forgotten to mention.
"Wow, that was excellent. Thanks, Ryoga." Ryoga acquired a light flush and a rather silly fanged grin. No one besides Akane and, more rarely, Ukyo, had ever thanked him before. Then, Lina's eyes got wide and cute enough to induce cavities at ten feet. The Lost Boy began to feel rather nervous. With Ukyo, who was really his only model to go by (though perhaps a girl who had given up her femininity for ten years, practiced a form of Okonomiyaki Martial Arts, and was blindly in love with an aquatransexual wasn't the best example), this only happened when she was in trouble or she wanted something.
And Lina didn't seem to be in trouble.
Ryoga did his best to firm up his spine. It didn't help much.
"Ryoga," she began in a voice that was too cute for words. "Is that an ice cream parlor over there?"
Ryoga, like Zelgadis before him, was realizing exactly how difficult it was to say 'no' to Lina where food was concerned, or much else, for that matter. Ryoga, however, was determined to remain firm. He drew upon a decade of training and discipline in an effort to weather the onslaught. Ranma-chan and Ukyo have done this to me before. I will not break this time, though. I will be strong. Besides, I'm not entirely sure my wallet can take another pounding like this one. But.. so cute... can't... resist...
Lina was cute to begin with, though her tough and take-no-prisoners exterior sometimes hid the fact, and the 'SD' transformation multiplied that cuteness several times. Noticing that her companion was weakening, she upped the cuteness factor into chibi levels.
Ryoga held on for another few seconds before his heart melted like a snowball in a blast furnace and he admitted defeat. "Sure Lina, let's go."
~ ~ ~
It had been another yen-draining hour before Lina was satisfied with desert and they could move on. Now, Ryoga looked around and groaned. He decided that it was his karma at work. Ryoga's karma, like the aforementioned Zelgadis, was a sort of Murphy's Law. If something could go wrong, it would. Either that, or Fate just wanted to look in on its favorite whipping boy, Ryoga. he thought to himself sourly.
For, rather than the minute chance of arriving at the place where he had found the sorceress, he had, instead, found himself on the outskirts of, you guessed it, Tokyo.
Lina watched the Lost Boy proceed to bash his head against a sign that said, 'Welcome to Nerima!' in amusement.
~ ~ ~
A/N: Hello again, all. A second installment. The third should be up reasonably quickly, or at least, more quickly than this one was from the first. Again, feel free to comment, or flame, or whatever. Ciao!
