Recap: Lina, Gourry, and Filia are all in the same town, and while Filia went out shopping, Lina was supposed to watch over the shop. Well... when someone tries to steal your food, it's only reasonable that you blow them and your entire surrounding environment up, right? Xelloss, who'd really rather not be caught in a fireball, skipped out and decided to visit a little ryuuzoku friend...
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Filia walked into an herb shop and looked around. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the mingled scents of cinnamon, thyme, and rosemary. She walked around, picking up packets of herbs she would use to scent her shop. She spotted a packet of orange peels and some white petals, she read off the label. "For innocence, good life, and getting rid of negative or evil energy."
Just then, Xelloss crept up behind Filia, making sure she wouldn't notice. When he stood right behind her, he shouted, "Hello Filia!" and took a peek at what she was holding.
She yelped and threw the bag up. It opened slightly and its contents sprinkled down around her... "You. you namagomi!" she yelled, her tail popping out.
A tick mark appeared on his forehead. "Well at least I'm not some overgrown, short-tempered, slimy excuse for a lizard," he shot back. "Oh and you're scaring the villagers with that tail of yours. Or maybe it's just you." He pulled on the bottom of his eyelid and stuck his tongue out at her.
Her eyes closed as she twitched. Suddenly she whipped her mace out and whipped it at him. "How... dare... you, you stupid, cheating, selfish mazoku!!!"
Easily dodging her attacks, he waggled his finger in a 'tsk tsk' manner and commented, "No self control at all. How did you ever qualify as a priestess?"
Stopping instantly, the blonde's eyes started to water. "I... I..." she started, sniffing. Her tail tucked back under her and her mace disappeared beneath her dress, and she dropped to the ground. Her hand landed on one of the white petals and the other on an orange peel. An idea popped into her head, and she smiled to herself. She bent over, cradling her head in her arms, crying.
Xelloss stared at her. He would have been blinking if his eyes were open, but they weren't. "Anou... Filia..." he began, not believing that this was happening.
"Why... why are they all so mean to me?" she sobbed. "All I did was ask them to fulfill a prophecy, and I get mixed in with all these things! I'm trying to lead a stable life with little Val, but no one seems to want me to!" She sniffed.
"Filia... are you really crying?" He bent over to see her lowered face.
"Hah!" Filia reached up and rubbed the combined herbs into his face.
It took a couple moments, but Xelloss's face turned a very fine shade of blue before he sank to the floor. "That... was really low..." he said quietly.
"Hmph," the ryuuzoku said, waiting for him to stand up. "I wasn't completely sure that it would work, but I guess it did." Raising her voice, she said, "Mister, how much for this innocence herb combination? I'll take two boxes!"
He grabbed a nearby cloth and rubbed the 'pureness' off of him. He glared at Filia, thinking of something to do in revenge later.
"Well, if you don't mind, I have shopping to do," Filia told him, putting the boxes in her basket. She turned and exited the shop, walking down the road to find the tea shop.
Xelloss clamped his mouth shut to keep from shouting useless flames. Instead, he teleported to the only tea shop in town and started replacing all the bags with pepper and awaited Filia's arrival.
~*~*~*~
Lina brushed off her hands from where she stood. Amidst all the ash, there was a small circle of cleanliness around her, the chicken, and the merchandise. She grinned at her handiwork and started chewing on the drumstick.
Zelgadiss sat up, rubbing his stomach where a blow had hit him. He looked up, searching for whatever had hit him. His facial expression changed slightly when he saw a bundle of yellow hair that could only belong to one person.
Laying on his back, Gourry murmured slightly in pain. "Why does she do that?" he asked himself, staring at the trail of smoke coming from the blasted building.
"Gourry? Why are you burned?" the chimera asked the swordsman.
"Huh?" Gourry turned towards the familiar voice. "Oh! Zelgadiss... burned? Oh, Lina set off a fireball."
With a sigh, Zelgadiss said, "I should have known."
The blonde jumped up quickly. "Lina has the chicken! Come on, Zelgadiss, we have to hurry before she eats it all!"
"Why should I care if she's eating a chi---" Zel had no time to finish his sentence before Gourry dragged him away towards the building.
The sorceress was, however, lounging in a surviving chair downstairs, tossing the chewed bone in her hand up and down. "Hmm... I wonder how long it'll take Gourry to get back this time." she pondered aloud to herself. She sneezed. "Stupid ashes." Suddenly, she heard what sounded like a stampede outside. She glanced out the window to see what looked like a huge, moving dust cloud.
"Lina! Don't eat all of the chicken!" cried Gourry. He still held Zel's foot, dragging the rest of the chimera on the ground. When he had reached the shop, gone through the door, and stopped in front of Lina, he finally dropped Zel. "Lina! Where's my chicken?!"
"Your chicken?" Lina asked. "Oh, you mean this chicken!" She tossed him the remaining bones and a small piece of chicken left from the thigh. She then noticed Zel lying on the floor behind Gourry. "Zel! How've ya' been?" She waved at him.
"I was just dragged all the way over here. how do you think I've been." He replied a little too coldly. He glanced over to see Gourry cradling the chicken bones in his arms with misty eyes. He sighed with regret, thinking, 'Why did he have to bump into me...?'
"Lina, why couldn't you save just a little?"
"I did save you a little!" Lina protested, pointing to the small chunk of meat hanging off one of the bones. She looked at Zel, noticed he was just as grumpy as usual, and sighed.
Gourry cried of joy and attempted to get at the meat, but for some nasty reason it was attached to the bone that was surrounded by the rib cage. Zel watched the swordsman.
"Lina... isn't Filia with you?"
Just then, Filia, finally through shopping, came back down the road. When she neared, all she saw was rubble where her shop used to be. "Lina-san!" she called out, running over to the three people. Her anger showed slightly in her voice. "You were supposed to look after my shop! Where's Val, and what happened to my shop?!"
The red head laughed nervously and put her hands together in front of her in a pleading position. "Gomen nasai?" she said, though unaccustomed to apologizing.
"Your Val is over there," Xelloss informed the ryuuzoku, appearing out of nowhere. He was pointing at the basket sitting in a corner of the rubble, unharmed, and it seemed as though the aqua glow was the reason for it. He gestured towards the merchandise, also covered in the same glow.
Filia didn't even take time to glare at the mazoku before rushing over to Val. He wasn't crying or hurt, and hadn't seemed to have even noticed that the building he'd been in had collapsed.
"See? Lina-san didn't demolish your shop like she did this restaurant, a friend's place, and entire town."
"Fireball!"
Xelloss tapped his staff on the oncoming fireball, diminishing it just inches away. "Need to be quicker, Lina-san," he commented, eyeing her with amusement with an eye open."
Needless to say, she fumed.
"Lina-san, what happened?"
"Lina blew it up," Gourry said.
Lina's eye twitched. "You tried to steal my chicken. I blew YOU up out of self defense," she said, knocking him to the ground with one punch to his head.
'They never change, do they?' Zel thought as he watched Lina slam Gourry to the ground.
Xelloss glanced over at Zel, finding nothing new out of Lina and Gourry. A secretive grin crossed his lips as he inched his way over. "Still no cure?"
Zel jumped at the voice behind him. Turning, he found himself face to face with Xelloss. "What are you doing here?" he asked in an annoyed voice.
"Blew...?! Lina-san, you were supposed to watch over it, NOT BLOW IT UP!!!" A tick mark appeared on her forehead. "What if someone had gotten hurt? What if baby Val had gotten hurt?!" She got tiny fangs in her mouth.
"Well, it was still his fault!" Lina protested, pointing at Gourry. "Why don't you yell at him?" she suggested, trying to pass the blame.
Filia narrowed her eyes at Lina. "His fault, hmm...?"
"You're too shy, Zel-chan ^_^," Xelloss said, smiling right into the chimera's face. Zel was just too easy to tease, and it was so much fun to do!
"Shy??" Zel replied forcefully. His hand was on the hilt of his sword.
"There's no need to do that, Zelgadiss," Gourry noted in a kind of side thought voice. He had finally managed to get the meat and was now looking through Filia's shopping bags, not really paying attention to Filia and Lina's argument.
The mazoku held both hands up defensively. "No need to get so angry, Zelgadiss-san. I was just playing." he explained, thought he didn't move away.
"Don't look through my bags!" With a flurry of her skirt, Filia pulled out her mace and whapped Gourry on the head, then turned to Lina. "Well, if you didn't have such a temper, my shop would still be intact!"
"What temper?" Lina snapped, glaring at Filia for even daring to imply such a thing. She bared her fangs and restated, "It was because jellyfish- brains here wanted to steal MY chicken."
Filia glared back, intent on an all out glaring contest.
~*~*~*~
Amelia walked down the road, somewhat sulking to herself. Prince Phil, her father, had sent her on another 'mission of Justice.' She was glad to oblige, but she had hoped she would have encountered a familiar person by now. She hadn't seen the others since she had gone back to her city after the defeat of Dark Star. She sighed, and looked up ahead. She could see some rubble in the near distance.
"If Lina-san was here, she would want to investigate. So would Zelgadiss- san. I wonder if he's found his cure...?" As she neared, she could see a group of people standing in the center of the rubble, and thought she recognized them...
"Lina-san! Gourry-san! Filia-san! Zelgadiss-san! Xelloss-san!" She started running towards them.
Lina blinked at the sound of her name and turned in the direction of the voice. "A-Ameria?" she blurted out, surprised to see 'Little Miss Justice' as well.
Xelloss pouted. He thought they really had lost the princess. Oh well, it was just a slight annoyance. Not that Zelgadiss would really care...
Filia turned. "Amelia-san?"
The said princess ran up to them, out of breath by the time she reached them "I'm... so glad... to see you... minna-san!"
Lina sighed, then remembered something---Ameria had always been their prime source of money. She quickly smiled and replied, "Me too, me too! Ne, why don't we get something to eat after your long journey?"
In the background, Xelloss facefaulted.
"I'm getting hungry too!" Amelia smiled. "Let's go! Anou... Filia-san, do you know any good shops around here?"
"Hai," Filia replied. "But let me get Val and my merchandise to store somewhere..." She easily hefted both, one in a large bag and one in her arms.
"Yatta!" Lina cried out happily. She tapped the unconscious Gourry on the ground. "Did you hear that? Real food! Meshi do! Gohan yo!" she chirped, suddenly in high spirits again.
Xelloss did a doubletake.
Gourry, some now off the ground and now standing up, yelled a whoop of excitement.
Zelgadiss opened his mouth to say a remark, but found himself in an empty--- save for Xelloss---and destroyed building. He looked around and saw everyone else in the distance, walking off. "Oi," he muttered, following them.
"Yare, yare..." Xelloss rubbed the back of his head at the sudden turn of events, kicked some loose gravel, and teleported to catch up with them.
"So what should we have?" Gourry asked dreamily. He had gone off into his little world of food and was trying to determine what he should have first.
Lina turned to Filia and asked, "Hey, do they by any chance have dragon cuisine here?" After she realized who... or what she just said that to, she merely sputterd, "Oops."
The ryuuzoku, however, ignored the question and simply disappeared into a building. A few moments later, she reappeared with only Val. "Okay... what would you like to eat?"
"All you can eat buffet," Amelia suggested.
"Yeah, yeah, an all you can eat buffet! And I'm up for seafood right now!" Lina agreed, nodding enthusiastically and grinning from ear to ear.
"There's a really nice one up here," Filia told them. "Here it is." She stopped in front of an expansive restaurant with large glass windows. Inside were several people eating and a loooong buffet table.
"All right!" Amelia said happily.
"Yosh'a!" Lina yelled, then took off towards the buffet, leaving everyone else in the dust she kicked up. She pushed her way through the majority of the crowd and right up to the buffet table.
"What should we start with first?" Gourry asked, this time to the rest of the group, while looking down the table.
"I'll have... thisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthis..." the sorceress announced, going down the table and picking up a serving of each item. She emerged from the crowd carrying multiple plates and smiling widely. She put them all down on a table near Xelloss, who'd arrived before them and had sat in the corner watching, and said, "Itadakimasu~!" before digging in.
The mazoku took a sip of water and sighed. Lina was Lina, always.
Gourry had helped himself to just about everything as well and had joined Lina at the table, eating as he sat. "This... is... really... great!" he said, chewing and swallowing.
Zelgadiss, who was too impatient to stand in the crowd of people, headed over to the capuccino machine.
Amelia took a few plates before seating herself. She ate in a more... refined... manner and watched Lina and Gourry out of the corner of her eye with a large sweatdrop.
Filia sat, watching her friends eat. Lina looked happier with Zel and Amelia back, and even seemed glad to have Xelloss around. Now that they were all in one place, with luck... something was just bound to happen.
"Yup yup yup! Good going Filia! Knew we could count on you!" Lina said gleefully as she stuffed her mouth with pork, buns, shrimp, beef, celery, water, crab, lobster, fish, crawfish, ham, fish balls, dumplings, gelatin...
"Still pigging out I see..."
A tick mark appeared on her head as she turned around, reader to spit fire at whoever it was, eyes red and shooting daggers. The entire atmosphere vanished in an instant as she swallowed the flames and slowly sank to the ground, shrinking in size and hiding under the table.
Xelloss literally dropped his cup to the floor, letting it shatter into a million pieces. He started at their unexpected visitor. "L-L-L-L-L..."
Amelia's eyes widened as she saw the person standing there. "Are you...? She had to be... she was the only one who could scare Lina like that. She was the only one who could scare Lina, period.
"GYAHHHHHHH!!! #&^*@#!" Lina screamed, and took cover behind the person farthest away from her, who happened to be Xelloss at the time. She crouched down and cowered, a dark blue cloud surrounding her head to add to the atmosphere. "Tasukete..." she cried in a whiney voice.
The purple-haired mazoku sweatdropped at her, then faced the visitor who was smirking at Lina's actions. He nodded his head in politeness and said, "It's been a while, Luna-san."
"Lina?" Gourry said uncertainly, looking at the figure that had scared the sorceress off.
Zelgadiss looked from Lina to her older sister continuously, unsure of the tense silence that had occurred.
"Lina-san..." Filia murmured.
"Luna-san, is it? You're Lina-san's sister, right?" Amelia asked.
"Sister?" Gourry racked his brains for the information, then remembered Lina mentioning something about a sister to him before.
"Yup. I'm that brat's sister," Luna answered, tossing a sharp knife up and down. She glanced over at Lina, who was cowering on the floor with her back turned. "Mom and dad asked me to give this to you." She caught the knife by the handle and sent it flying in Lina's direction, piercing a note to the ground beside her.
See Lina scream. See Lina scream very loud. See Lina shoot up through the ceiling in fright. See Lina land on Zelgadiss. See Lina unconscious to the world around her.
"Lina-san?"
"Lina-san!" Amelia and Filia went over to the sorceress.
A bubble cloud with the phrase "..." appeared above Xelloss's head. He swatted it away, then picked up the note and started reading it. "Come home. Now." He gave it a question mark and turned to Luna. "What's this all about?" he asked.
Luna folded her arms. "Well, mom and dad said they had something to discuss with her. You all had better get going," she told them.
Lina twitched a few times, but the spirals didn't disappear from her eyes.
Zelgadiss sat a bit stiffly with Lina in his lap. "Oi... Lina?" He poked her. "Lina!" He attempted to shake her awake. He stopped shaking her after awhile, since it showed no signs of waking her. Suddenly, he had an idea. Motioning for Gourry, he whispered in his ear.
"Why?"
"Just go get it..."
"Hai... hai..." replied the blonde swordsman as he turned. He returned a minute later with two small things in his palm. He followed Zel's motions and slipped them into Lina's mouth.
Using his left hand, Zel moved Lina's jaw up and down to chew the red chili peppers, then tilted her chin up to allow generous amounts of spicy juice to slide down her throat.
Lina's mouth twisted a bit. A second later, her eyes shot open and she was on herfeet, hopping around and breathing flames at everyone. "ATSUI!!!"
Luna stepped aside just as fire flew by her head. She was laughing, highly amused by the scene before her. "And you criticize ME for doing things to her," she said before falling to the floor in giggles.
Xelloss sat on the floor with his legs crossed and head on the palm of his hand. He had an eyebrow raised as he looked up, watching the lines of fire pass by overhead repeatedly. He sighed, "Now what can I do in this situation...?
Amelia made her way over to Xelloss while dodging the flames. She leaned down and whispered something in his ear, smiling.
He sweatdropped and blinked at her in disbelief. "You're joking, right?' He glanced at the others and wondered what their reactions would be. He swallowed his pride for a moment, stood up, and while dodging the flames, walked over to the fire-breathing sorceress. He tapped her on the shoulder. "Lina-san?"
She turned to him, teary-eyed, and asked, "Water?"
He shook his head, placed a finger to her lips to stop the coming outburst, then replaced that with his lips.
Behind them, Luna whistled.
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What do you think now, hmm? ^-^ Yes, we are having too much fun with this. Want to correct any spelling/grammar? Want to ask the authoresses some questions? Review! Click...
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Filia walked into an herb shop and looked around. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the mingled scents of cinnamon, thyme, and rosemary. She walked around, picking up packets of herbs she would use to scent her shop. She spotted a packet of orange peels and some white petals, she read off the label. "For innocence, good life, and getting rid of negative or evil energy."
Just then, Xelloss crept up behind Filia, making sure she wouldn't notice. When he stood right behind her, he shouted, "Hello Filia!" and took a peek at what she was holding.
She yelped and threw the bag up. It opened slightly and its contents sprinkled down around her... "You. you namagomi!" she yelled, her tail popping out.
A tick mark appeared on his forehead. "Well at least I'm not some overgrown, short-tempered, slimy excuse for a lizard," he shot back. "Oh and you're scaring the villagers with that tail of yours. Or maybe it's just you." He pulled on the bottom of his eyelid and stuck his tongue out at her.
Her eyes closed as she twitched. Suddenly she whipped her mace out and whipped it at him. "How... dare... you, you stupid, cheating, selfish mazoku!!!"
Easily dodging her attacks, he waggled his finger in a 'tsk tsk' manner and commented, "No self control at all. How did you ever qualify as a priestess?"
Stopping instantly, the blonde's eyes started to water. "I... I..." she started, sniffing. Her tail tucked back under her and her mace disappeared beneath her dress, and she dropped to the ground. Her hand landed on one of the white petals and the other on an orange peel. An idea popped into her head, and she smiled to herself. She bent over, cradling her head in her arms, crying.
Xelloss stared at her. He would have been blinking if his eyes were open, but they weren't. "Anou... Filia..." he began, not believing that this was happening.
"Why... why are they all so mean to me?" she sobbed. "All I did was ask them to fulfill a prophecy, and I get mixed in with all these things! I'm trying to lead a stable life with little Val, but no one seems to want me to!" She sniffed.
"Filia... are you really crying?" He bent over to see her lowered face.
"Hah!" Filia reached up and rubbed the combined herbs into his face.
It took a couple moments, but Xelloss's face turned a very fine shade of blue before he sank to the floor. "That... was really low..." he said quietly.
"Hmph," the ryuuzoku said, waiting for him to stand up. "I wasn't completely sure that it would work, but I guess it did." Raising her voice, she said, "Mister, how much for this innocence herb combination? I'll take two boxes!"
He grabbed a nearby cloth and rubbed the 'pureness' off of him. He glared at Filia, thinking of something to do in revenge later.
"Well, if you don't mind, I have shopping to do," Filia told him, putting the boxes in her basket. She turned and exited the shop, walking down the road to find the tea shop.
Xelloss clamped his mouth shut to keep from shouting useless flames. Instead, he teleported to the only tea shop in town and started replacing all the bags with pepper and awaited Filia's arrival.
~*~*~*~
Lina brushed off her hands from where she stood. Amidst all the ash, there was a small circle of cleanliness around her, the chicken, and the merchandise. She grinned at her handiwork and started chewing on the drumstick.
Zelgadiss sat up, rubbing his stomach where a blow had hit him. He looked up, searching for whatever had hit him. His facial expression changed slightly when he saw a bundle of yellow hair that could only belong to one person.
Laying on his back, Gourry murmured slightly in pain. "Why does she do that?" he asked himself, staring at the trail of smoke coming from the blasted building.
"Gourry? Why are you burned?" the chimera asked the swordsman.
"Huh?" Gourry turned towards the familiar voice. "Oh! Zelgadiss... burned? Oh, Lina set off a fireball."
With a sigh, Zelgadiss said, "I should have known."
The blonde jumped up quickly. "Lina has the chicken! Come on, Zelgadiss, we have to hurry before she eats it all!"
"Why should I care if she's eating a chi---" Zel had no time to finish his sentence before Gourry dragged him away towards the building.
The sorceress was, however, lounging in a surviving chair downstairs, tossing the chewed bone in her hand up and down. "Hmm... I wonder how long it'll take Gourry to get back this time." she pondered aloud to herself. She sneezed. "Stupid ashes." Suddenly, she heard what sounded like a stampede outside. She glanced out the window to see what looked like a huge, moving dust cloud.
"Lina! Don't eat all of the chicken!" cried Gourry. He still held Zel's foot, dragging the rest of the chimera on the ground. When he had reached the shop, gone through the door, and stopped in front of Lina, he finally dropped Zel. "Lina! Where's my chicken?!"
"Your chicken?" Lina asked. "Oh, you mean this chicken!" She tossed him the remaining bones and a small piece of chicken left from the thigh. She then noticed Zel lying on the floor behind Gourry. "Zel! How've ya' been?" She waved at him.
"I was just dragged all the way over here. how do you think I've been." He replied a little too coldly. He glanced over to see Gourry cradling the chicken bones in his arms with misty eyes. He sighed with regret, thinking, 'Why did he have to bump into me...?'
"Lina, why couldn't you save just a little?"
"I did save you a little!" Lina protested, pointing to the small chunk of meat hanging off one of the bones. She looked at Zel, noticed he was just as grumpy as usual, and sighed.
Gourry cried of joy and attempted to get at the meat, but for some nasty reason it was attached to the bone that was surrounded by the rib cage. Zel watched the swordsman.
"Lina... isn't Filia with you?"
Just then, Filia, finally through shopping, came back down the road. When she neared, all she saw was rubble where her shop used to be. "Lina-san!" she called out, running over to the three people. Her anger showed slightly in her voice. "You were supposed to look after my shop! Where's Val, and what happened to my shop?!"
The red head laughed nervously and put her hands together in front of her in a pleading position. "Gomen nasai?" she said, though unaccustomed to apologizing.
"Your Val is over there," Xelloss informed the ryuuzoku, appearing out of nowhere. He was pointing at the basket sitting in a corner of the rubble, unharmed, and it seemed as though the aqua glow was the reason for it. He gestured towards the merchandise, also covered in the same glow.
Filia didn't even take time to glare at the mazoku before rushing over to Val. He wasn't crying or hurt, and hadn't seemed to have even noticed that the building he'd been in had collapsed.
"See? Lina-san didn't demolish your shop like she did this restaurant, a friend's place, and entire town."
"Fireball!"
Xelloss tapped his staff on the oncoming fireball, diminishing it just inches away. "Need to be quicker, Lina-san," he commented, eyeing her with amusement with an eye open."
Needless to say, she fumed.
"Lina-san, what happened?"
"Lina blew it up," Gourry said.
Lina's eye twitched. "You tried to steal my chicken. I blew YOU up out of self defense," she said, knocking him to the ground with one punch to his head.
'They never change, do they?' Zel thought as he watched Lina slam Gourry to the ground.
Xelloss glanced over at Zel, finding nothing new out of Lina and Gourry. A secretive grin crossed his lips as he inched his way over. "Still no cure?"
Zel jumped at the voice behind him. Turning, he found himself face to face with Xelloss. "What are you doing here?" he asked in an annoyed voice.
"Blew...?! Lina-san, you were supposed to watch over it, NOT BLOW IT UP!!!" A tick mark appeared on her forehead. "What if someone had gotten hurt? What if baby Val had gotten hurt?!" She got tiny fangs in her mouth.
"Well, it was still his fault!" Lina protested, pointing at Gourry. "Why don't you yell at him?" she suggested, trying to pass the blame.
Filia narrowed her eyes at Lina. "His fault, hmm...?"
"You're too shy, Zel-chan ^_^," Xelloss said, smiling right into the chimera's face. Zel was just too easy to tease, and it was so much fun to do!
"Shy??" Zel replied forcefully. His hand was on the hilt of his sword.
"There's no need to do that, Zelgadiss," Gourry noted in a kind of side thought voice. He had finally managed to get the meat and was now looking through Filia's shopping bags, not really paying attention to Filia and Lina's argument.
The mazoku held both hands up defensively. "No need to get so angry, Zelgadiss-san. I was just playing." he explained, thought he didn't move away.
"Don't look through my bags!" With a flurry of her skirt, Filia pulled out her mace and whapped Gourry on the head, then turned to Lina. "Well, if you didn't have such a temper, my shop would still be intact!"
"What temper?" Lina snapped, glaring at Filia for even daring to imply such a thing. She bared her fangs and restated, "It was because jellyfish- brains here wanted to steal MY chicken."
Filia glared back, intent on an all out glaring contest.
~*~*~*~
Amelia walked down the road, somewhat sulking to herself. Prince Phil, her father, had sent her on another 'mission of Justice.' She was glad to oblige, but she had hoped she would have encountered a familiar person by now. She hadn't seen the others since she had gone back to her city after the defeat of Dark Star. She sighed, and looked up ahead. She could see some rubble in the near distance.
"If Lina-san was here, she would want to investigate. So would Zelgadiss- san. I wonder if he's found his cure...?" As she neared, she could see a group of people standing in the center of the rubble, and thought she recognized them...
"Lina-san! Gourry-san! Filia-san! Zelgadiss-san! Xelloss-san!" She started running towards them.
Lina blinked at the sound of her name and turned in the direction of the voice. "A-Ameria?" she blurted out, surprised to see 'Little Miss Justice' as well.
Xelloss pouted. He thought they really had lost the princess. Oh well, it was just a slight annoyance. Not that Zelgadiss would really care...
Filia turned. "Amelia-san?"
The said princess ran up to them, out of breath by the time she reached them "I'm... so glad... to see you... minna-san!"
Lina sighed, then remembered something---Ameria had always been their prime source of money. She quickly smiled and replied, "Me too, me too! Ne, why don't we get something to eat after your long journey?"
In the background, Xelloss facefaulted.
"I'm getting hungry too!" Amelia smiled. "Let's go! Anou... Filia-san, do you know any good shops around here?"
"Hai," Filia replied. "But let me get Val and my merchandise to store somewhere..." She easily hefted both, one in a large bag and one in her arms.
"Yatta!" Lina cried out happily. She tapped the unconscious Gourry on the ground. "Did you hear that? Real food! Meshi do! Gohan yo!" she chirped, suddenly in high spirits again.
Xelloss did a doubletake.
Gourry, some now off the ground and now standing up, yelled a whoop of excitement.
Zelgadiss opened his mouth to say a remark, but found himself in an empty--- save for Xelloss---and destroyed building. He looked around and saw everyone else in the distance, walking off. "Oi," he muttered, following them.
"Yare, yare..." Xelloss rubbed the back of his head at the sudden turn of events, kicked some loose gravel, and teleported to catch up with them.
"So what should we have?" Gourry asked dreamily. He had gone off into his little world of food and was trying to determine what he should have first.
Lina turned to Filia and asked, "Hey, do they by any chance have dragon cuisine here?" After she realized who... or what she just said that to, she merely sputterd, "Oops."
The ryuuzoku, however, ignored the question and simply disappeared into a building. A few moments later, she reappeared with only Val. "Okay... what would you like to eat?"
"All you can eat buffet," Amelia suggested.
"Yeah, yeah, an all you can eat buffet! And I'm up for seafood right now!" Lina agreed, nodding enthusiastically and grinning from ear to ear.
"There's a really nice one up here," Filia told them. "Here it is." She stopped in front of an expansive restaurant with large glass windows. Inside were several people eating and a loooong buffet table.
"All right!" Amelia said happily.
"Yosh'a!" Lina yelled, then took off towards the buffet, leaving everyone else in the dust she kicked up. She pushed her way through the majority of the crowd and right up to the buffet table.
"What should we start with first?" Gourry asked, this time to the rest of the group, while looking down the table.
"I'll have... thisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthisandthis..." the sorceress announced, going down the table and picking up a serving of each item. She emerged from the crowd carrying multiple plates and smiling widely. She put them all down on a table near Xelloss, who'd arrived before them and had sat in the corner watching, and said, "Itadakimasu~!" before digging in.
The mazoku took a sip of water and sighed. Lina was Lina, always.
Gourry had helped himself to just about everything as well and had joined Lina at the table, eating as he sat. "This... is... really... great!" he said, chewing and swallowing.
Zelgadiss, who was too impatient to stand in the crowd of people, headed over to the capuccino machine.
Amelia took a few plates before seating herself. She ate in a more... refined... manner and watched Lina and Gourry out of the corner of her eye with a large sweatdrop.
Filia sat, watching her friends eat. Lina looked happier with Zel and Amelia back, and even seemed glad to have Xelloss around. Now that they were all in one place, with luck... something was just bound to happen.
"Yup yup yup! Good going Filia! Knew we could count on you!" Lina said gleefully as she stuffed her mouth with pork, buns, shrimp, beef, celery, water, crab, lobster, fish, crawfish, ham, fish balls, dumplings, gelatin...
"Still pigging out I see..."
A tick mark appeared on her head as she turned around, reader to spit fire at whoever it was, eyes red and shooting daggers. The entire atmosphere vanished in an instant as she swallowed the flames and slowly sank to the ground, shrinking in size and hiding under the table.
Xelloss literally dropped his cup to the floor, letting it shatter into a million pieces. He started at their unexpected visitor. "L-L-L-L-L..."
Amelia's eyes widened as she saw the person standing there. "Are you...? She had to be... she was the only one who could scare Lina like that. She was the only one who could scare Lina, period.
"GYAHHHHHHH!!! #&^*@#!" Lina screamed, and took cover behind the person farthest away from her, who happened to be Xelloss at the time. She crouched down and cowered, a dark blue cloud surrounding her head to add to the atmosphere. "Tasukete..." she cried in a whiney voice.
The purple-haired mazoku sweatdropped at her, then faced the visitor who was smirking at Lina's actions. He nodded his head in politeness and said, "It's been a while, Luna-san."
"Lina?" Gourry said uncertainly, looking at the figure that had scared the sorceress off.
Zelgadiss looked from Lina to her older sister continuously, unsure of the tense silence that had occurred.
"Lina-san..." Filia murmured.
"Luna-san, is it? You're Lina-san's sister, right?" Amelia asked.
"Sister?" Gourry racked his brains for the information, then remembered Lina mentioning something about a sister to him before.
"Yup. I'm that brat's sister," Luna answered, tossing a sharp knife up and down. She glanced over at Lina, who was cowering on the floor with her back turned. "Mom and dad asked me to give this to you." She caught the knife by the handle and sent it flying in Lina's direction, piercing a note to the ground beside her.
See Lina scream. See Lina scream very loud. See Lina shoot up through the ceiling in fright. See Lina land on Zelgadiss. See Lina unconscious to the world around her.
"Lina-san?"
"Lina-san!" Amelia and Filia went over to the sorceress.
A bubble cloud with the phrase "..." appeared above Xelloss's head. He swatted it away, then picked up the note and started reading it. "Come home. Now." He gave it a question mark and turned to Luna. "What's this all about?" he asked.
Luna folded her arms. "Well, mom and dad said they had something to discuss with her. You all had better get going," she told them.
Lina twitched a few times, but the spirals didn't disappear from her eyes.
Zelgadiss sat a bit stiffly with Lina in his lap. "Oi... Lina?" He poked her. "Lina!" He attempted to shake her awake. He stopped shaking her after awhile, since it showed no signs of waking her. Suddenly, he had an idea. Motioning for Gourry, he whispered in his ear.
"Why?"
"Just go get it..."
"Hai... hai..." replied the blonde swordsman as he turned. He returned a minute later with two small things in his palm. He followed Zel's motions and slipped them into Lina's mouth.
Using his left hand, Zel moved Lina's jaw up and down to chew the red chili peppers, then tilted her chin up to allow generous amounts of spicy juice to slide down her throat.
Lina's mouth twisted a bit. A second later, her eyes shot open and she was on herfeet, hopping around and breathing flames at everyone. "ATSUI!!!"
Luna stepped aside just as fire flew by her head. She was laughing, highly amused by the scene before her. "And you criticize ME for doing things to her," she said before falling to the floor in giggles.
Xelloss sat on the floor with his legs crossed and head on the palm of his hand. He had an eyebrow raised as he looked up, watching the lines of fire pass by overhead repeatedly. He sighed, "Now what can I do in this situation...?
Amelia made her way over to Xelloss while dodging the flames. She leaned down and whispered something in his ear, smiling.
He sweatdropped and blinked at her in disbelief. "You're joking, right?' He glanced at the others and wondered what their reactions would be. He swallowed his pride for a moment, stood up, and while dodging the flames, walked over to the fire-breathing sorceress. He tapped her on the shoulder. "Lina-san?"
She turned to him, teary-eyed, and asked, "Water?"
He shook his head, placed a finger to her lips to stop the coming outburst, then replaced that with his lips.
Behind them, Luna whistled.
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What do you think now, hmm? ^-^ Yes, we are having too much fun with this. Want to correct any spelling/grammar? Want to ask the authoresses some questions? Review! Click...