SLAYERS TRINITY

A fan fiction by OceanLord, JRaiKetchum, and Shin

Chapter 1: Meatballs, Pyros, and Lina Inverse.

It was a place many described as peaceful and boring, the perfect place to retire to and live out your life without a care in the world. Where people got along and there was no strife. This was the town of 'Ethil.' Being the smallest of three cities, all settled in the middle of nowhere, it was a utopia for the calm and relaxed by day and by night a haven for late night, into the early morning, parties and binge drinking. Perhaps the reason it was so quite during the daylight hours was that most of the populace was in bed with a hangover from the previous night's selection of unique and potent alcoholic beverages. Either way, a place most adventurers avoided, like their in-laws.

It came as quite a shock when the fighting broke out, especially so early in the morning. No one knew how or why it had started, just that it was disturbing their sleep and aggravating their already angry headaches. A juvenile female's voice was having a shouting match with a young man. Both of their voices rang clear and precise down the sleepy town's nearly empty streets. This event was such that a large mob of mostly irate villagers, some still in their pajamas gathered outside the source of the commotion, a small run down inn. This was the towns only inn, sufficient enough for the nearly nonexistence trickle of travelers that 'occasionally' passed by.

"Don't delude yourself into thinking your right, Gourry!" said the pissed off female.

"But Lina, that one was mine!" the man whinned.

"Then buy your own plate!"

"That WAS my plate!"

Inside the inn, the two combatants, Lina and Gourry, were locked in a fork-to-fork death match struggle over a single meatball sitting, almost oblivious, in the very middle of a plate, which sat in the very middle of the table.

"I'll prove it's mine," Lina announced before pointing dramatically at the meatball with her free hand, "It's on MY side of the table."

"It is not!"

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"Yes" This served to make Lina even more upset, because in her eyes she was telling the truth.

So the argument progressed. The two were so wrapped up in their squabble they failed to notice the gathering mob of increasingly pissed off peasants, swaying to and fro. The mob was about 100 people strong equipped with pitchforks, clubs, crude swords, and various broken brown bottles. They had hoped that the shouting and complaining would've died down by now and they could've gone back to their beds. That had been fifteen minutes ago and now they were set to kill somebody to get their peace and quiet back.

Without warning, the first of the mob burst through the door weapons up and ready. This didn't go unnoticed by a certain loud-mouthed sorceress, namely Lina, who almost imperceptibly turned her head to acknowledge this new threat. But that was all the opportunity Gourry needed. With the swiftest of strokes he speared the fork upon the meat he sought and consumed it greedily.

"My meatball…" Lina sounded as if someone had died.

"Nope it's mine now." Gourry replied with the happiest of faces.

On the other hand Lina looked as if she had just lost her best friend. Her lower lip was curled up in an adolescent display of sulking and misery, while Gourry chewed with eager abandon. Both of them still hadn't noticed the angry mob that now flanked them from all sides.

A large muscle of a man, beastly in appearance, with eyes squinting like the sun was dead center on his face, and smelling of day old alcohol, was the first to approach the table and speak.

"Oy," a sound of sandpaper grating your eardrum, breathed from the man's massive maw. If the man's voice weren't so 'distinctive', Lina and Gourry probably wouldn't have noticed that he had spoken. Gourry, with a look of childish innocence, looked upon the man's grisly form. Lina didn't turn; she only acknowledged his existence by staying quiet, waiting for him to state his business.

"Do you all, know where you be?" the man obviously looked as educated as he sounded. "These are de quiet times. All people here do not like your loudmouths and kiddy behaviors." He indicated the mob with a sweeping gesture of his beefy hand.

Lina jumped from the chair like a newly released jack-in-the-box, turning around with death in her crimson eyes. Having lost her meatball and being called both a loudmouth and kid really did not rub her the right way. In addition the man's lack of educated speech added extra fuel to an already raging inferno.

"You have two choices," she held up two fingers in case the man couldn't count that high. "One, you can retreat now or, two, you suffer the consequences."

The man looked Lina over with amused eyes, and laughed, "What can you do flat-chest little girl?"

"You've chosen number 2." Lina smiled a most twisted grin. Gourry jumped under the dinning table quicker than an ostrich plants its head in the dirt.

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Arthan, despite his position as the head mage of the city of Ethil, was still young, not even of legal age to drink. This was a common habit of his; morning walks through the city, on the watch for anything requiring a person of his high position. In a crowd it was easy to spot him, which wasn't saying much since only a handful of people were awake at this time, but it wasn't due to his stick like body, or the large golden crest he wore on the left of his chest that would give him away. But assuming there was a crowd, his red hair, with orange tips, would reveal his position in no time.

As he walked the dirt road, in the same way he had the previous 765 days out of his total of 767 days as head mage, he sighed like a burst tire.

God he was bored.

But just as he was about to give up there was the sound of a riot, this caught his attention. A large group of people, about 50 feet away, were storming into the town's sole inn; with them, they carried pitchforks and shovels. A warm feeling of euphoria spread through his chest, traveling up his spine, and saturating his mind. He started getting excited,

"Finally some action," he smiled to himself.

No sooner had he spoken, did the inn explode in a fury of glass shards and wooden splinters, mostly splinters.

"Oooh pretty…" Like a deer staring into car headlights, Arthan cooed at the startling display of early morning fireworks. "I could've done better, but would you look at that."

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The few people lucky enough to survive, mostly unharmed, fled the scene of destruction like a heard of stampeding cattle. The stupid man, who had been belittling the underdeveloped Lina, twitched on the floor looking like an overcooked, and still burning, piece of meat jerky.

"Let me educate you," Lina stood, hands on hips, like a judge passing sentence, "Never call the genius sorceress, Lina Inverse, flat chested or a kid."

"Wow Lina," Gourry extracted himself from beneath the table, "don't you think you were a little rough on them?"

"Listen Gourry, these people were rude and interrupted our meal, I had to show them proper manners."

Lina and Gourry grabbed their personal belongings and were on their way, when a young man, with bright red and orange hair stopped them.

"Oh my you must be the infamous Lina Inverse." The boy said.

"Hey buddy, who you calling infamous!" Lina nearly bit his head off.

"I'm sorry I meant no offense. Allow me to introduce myself," he made a low sweeping bow, "I'm Arthan, the head mage of the city of Ethil, and I would like to offer you a job."

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End Chapter 1

Coming up next: Slayers Trinity: Chapter 2 – Enter Gokudo 'Swordsman Extraordinaire'

Slayers are copyright Hajime Kanazaka, Rui Arazumi, and Software-Sculptors
Arthan and the city of Ethil is copyright OceanLord, JRaiKetchum, and Shin.