A New Overlord
The fourth chapter in my New Overlord series. I just thought that I should let the readers know that I haven't played the game in a while so if I get the terminology wrong, please forgive me. Now then, the fourth installment of my Disgaea fan fiction. Enjoy. And as always, if you have any questions or comments, leave them in a review and I'll address them as quickly as possible.
Chapter 4: The Mana Index
The bell rang loudly, signaling the end of Chiaki's school day. She shot out of her final classroom and into the fourth floor stairwell. She headed down the stairs quickly and out the door where Miroku stood, waiting for her as he had promised. She headed towards him eagerly, holding her camera in her hand.
"So, you ready to go get your money back?"
"Yeah, but first, I have something really important to show you."
"Important?" Miroku echoed. It was a bad habit he had picked up earlier on in life. He can't exactly remember when but he's been doing it for as long as he's known Chiaki.
"Yeah. I finally have proof that the prinnies exist!" Chiaki beamed brightly.
"Prinnies? What are those? Oh! You're talking about the purple penguins again. What did you find this time? A talon or something?" Miroku teased.
"Shows how much you know. Prinnies don't have talons. They have peg legs. But no, that's not what I wanted to show you. I wanted to show you these." Chiaki held the screen up to Miroku's face and scrolled through the pictures. Miroku stared on wide eyed in disbelief. He couldn't believe that Chiaki actually got a picture of a prinny.
"Now do you believe prinnies exist?" Chiaki asked forcefully.
Miroku, being stuck in his ways when it came to this sort of stuff, looked at Chiaki and then just gave a slight grunt and a shoulder shrug.
"It doesn't really prove anything. You could have just photographed a doll or something. I could swear I saw one at the toy store." Miroku said with an air of coolness.
"Even after I got all these pictures and stuff, you still don't believe me?" Chiaki yelled. She didn't like that fact that Miroku thought she was just an obsessed fan girl. She began to cry. Not quietly but in loud wailing sobs. Miroku's face turned a shade of bright red as people began to stare at him with disapproving looks.
"What are you doing you idiot? Stop crying! You're drawing attention to yourself…and me!" Miroku sputtered.
"And now I'm an idiot too? I hate you!" Chiaki screamed. Everyone in the vicinity was now focused heavily on Miroku.
"No! I didn't mean it like that! She's not serious! Honest, I didn't call her an idiot." Miroku spoke to no one in particular.
Murmurs came from the crowd as the spoke to one another discreetly.
"Look at that, he made her cry." One person whispered
"He must have a problem with women." Another lady murmured.
"He should be in military school." An old man said in a gruff voice.
Miroku looked around quickly. He knew that everyone was staring. And with Chiaki continuing to cry, he couldn't honestly say that it didn't look bad. He figured there was only one way to quiet her now. He'd seen it in a lot of animes and TV shows. He couldn't believe it was his only option, but it didn't seem like there was any way to stop her crying with his words. He would have to send her into a state of shock and then quickly drag her out of there. Miroku swallowed his pride and kissed Chiaki. He pulled away quickly and examined her for a minute, hoping that his idea had worked. Chiaki stared on at him for a moment, obviously in shock. Miroku took this as a sign that his idea had worked. Somehow though, it seemed to simple to him, too easy. Sure enough, he was right.
"What are you doing?" Chiaki wailed. She slammed her bag against Miroku as hard as she could, knocking him off his feet.
"But…I…wait a minute, Chiaki! Let me explain!" Miroku yelled. His pleas fell on deaf ears as Chiaki ran at full pace down the block and out of view. Miroku had never done this much damage, and now he wasn't sure if he could fix it. But that was the least of his problems at the moment. Miroku turned his head to the sight of hundreds of glaring eyes.
"You're scum!" One person shouted.
"The death penalty is too good for you." A high school girl snapped.
"You should be put away for life." An old man bellowed.
Miroku figured that things couldn't get any worse. Everyone already witnessed what had happened and couldn't hate him anymore. He climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. Upon looking up, he had found that the worse was yet to come. The one person he had hoped was never around was now right in front of him. Kaname stood there with nothing but pure hatred in her eyes. Hatred and malice. She was brandishing a kendo stick that she borrowed from the kendo club.
"Now wait a minute, Kaname. It's not what you think. If you just give me a chance to explain, I'm sure…." Miroku didn't get a chance to finish. Kaname took a step towards him and swatted the kendo stick against her hand.
"You hurt Ms. Hyafumi. You defiled her. You forced yourself on her. Now you have to deal with me. You know the old saying: "You summon the thunder, now get ready for the lightning?" Well you're in for one hell of a storm!" Kaname said with murderous intent.
Miroku swallowed hard. He wasn't necessarily afraid of Kaname. He had an 8th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a 10th degree black belt in Jujitsu. The only thing was that Miroku took a vow to never hit a female. He was at a disadvantage here. Not only would he have to deal with the murderous officer Kaname, but he knew the crowd wasn't going to let him leave that easily. His only chance would be to somehow force his way past Kaname and run down the same path that Chiaki took.
"Never in all my life have I been so infuriated! You should be thrown in a dark pit, never to see the light of day again!" Kaname screeched as she swung the kendo stick with immense force.
"Ah! Strike stopper 13!" Miroku clasped his hands together just as the kendo stick came near his face. He stopped it with complete efficiency. The crowd, although still quite angry with Miroku's actions, couldn't help but be impressed with Miroku's level of skill.
Miroku turned his arms to the side, jerking Kaname out of the way. He leapfrogged over her and headed down the block, desperately trying to catch up with Chiaki. The only reason he even tried was because he knew he had a slight chance. Chiaki was a pretty fast runner, but she was the slowest on the girl's track team. Miroku was able to at least keep up with the team captain in a race so he saw a faint glimmer of hope at catching Chiaki. Meanwhile, back at the Overlord's Castle, Jennifer had just about finished with the talk.
"And that's where babies come from. You understand now, Harlie?" Jennifer asked gingerly.
"Yes! I understand! Just don't tell me anymore! It's too much!" Laharl pleaded, curled up in the fetal position.
"I know it's a lot to process at one time, but you should know these things. As a growing boy, you have to know how to deal with these situations."
"Alright! Just don't go on with this anymore!"
"Oh, Harlie. Come on now, it wasn't that bad. Besides, there's still more to know. I mean, you should know how to please a woman. If you want, I can tell you about that too."
"No! I'll read a book or something! Just stop talking!" Laharl yelled.
"I know more than a book. Being a woman myself, I can tell you way more than…." Jennifer was cut short by Laharl, who had finally snapped.
"I don't wanna know any of this! Especially not coming from you! It was a giant misunderstanding! Now get away from me!"
"I understand. You just need time to let all of this sink in. I'll go for now. But if you want to know anything else, just come find me. Ok, Harlie?" Jennifer inquired.
"Yes. Thank you. Now would you go away?" Laharl retorted. His patience and mental capacity had already worn thin.
Jennifer smiled and walked away. She stopped and looked back at Laharl. She smiled as she thought about Laharl, and how he had acted the entire time she had known him. She thought about how he was prone to these outbursts but she thought that deep down, he harbored the same kind of love for her that she held for him. Laharl was her little brother, nothing could change that. Laharl, after a few minutes, came out of the fetal position and returned to his feet. Flonne and Etna had just entered the throne room hall at that point.
"Well? Don't you have anything you wanna say to Flonne, Prince?" Etna focused her eyes intently on Laharl.
"Not really. Why?" Laharl asked. He didn't think that this entire situation was his fault so he felt he had nothing to apologize for.
"Well how about an apology for starters? You did violate the poor girl." Etna snapped. She didn't expect Laharl to extend an apology that easily but she was rather displeased at the manner he was taking to the situation.
"I didn't do it on purpose. I was trying to explain that but you wouldn't give me a chance. And besides, if anyone owes anyone an apology, it's you guys who owe me one. Do you have any idea what I had to sit through because of you?" Laharl said with disgust. It was no secret that Laharl believed apologizing to a vassal was beneath an overlord. Even though Flonne was no longer his vassal, he still treated her as such.
"We owe you an apology? How do you figure that?" Etna fired back.
"I don't need to explain myself to you. You shouldn't even be questioning my judgment. I'm an overlord and you're my vassal. You should faithfully abide by my judgment and serve me loyally." Laharl didn't want to experience the talk with Jennifer again, even if he would be the one saying it. He had an air of confidence about him as he spoke. His ability as a competent overlord was exposed a bit.
"But…but…." Tears gathered in the corners of Flonne's eyes. The tears choked the sentence in her throat. She was on the verge of crying. Laharl took notice to this. He had experience something that he rarely did when he was looking at her. Regret. Indeed, the mighty overlord Laharl had felt regret. Laharl swallowed his pride (which was seemingly impossible) and delivered an apology.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I did what I did. And I also apologize for what I said." Laharl delivered the line deadpan. He didn't even believe his own apology. But for Flonne, it was enough. She smiled meekly and opened her arms.
"Thank you, Laharl. Come here." Flonne's arms remained open.
"Why? And why do you have your arms open?" Laharl was confused as to how Flonne was acting. He couldn't understand her.
"To give you a hug." Flonne said cheerily.
"A hug? What are you talking about?" Laharl questioned. He had probably been given a hug in times past but hasn't really remembered it because affection wasn't something he was used to.
"You don't know what a hug is?" Flonne put her arms back at her said and thought about how she would explain this to Laharl.
"Well, usually, when people have a fight and make up, they embrace each other as a show of good will. It's a sign of affection."
Laharl stared at Flonne for a minute. He looked her up and down before responding.
"Affection, huh? Well thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll pass." Laharl replied.
"You mean…you don't want to hug me? Now I feel sad…." Flonne wasn't really upset this time. She expected resistance from Laharl but she was determined to make him show affection. She figured that the only way it would be possible is to guilt him into it. It was something she had picked up in her time being in the demon world. She covered her face and made quiet sobbing noises.
"Are you crying? Why? Cut it out!" Laharl snapped. Flonne responded by sobbing even louder.
"It's not gonna work, Flonne. You're not going to guilt me into hugging you. So you can stop now." Laharl said coldly.
Flonne wasn't the type to give up. She decided to take it up another level. She dropped to her knees and placed her face on the floor and made herself cry so that the tears began to spread across the floor. She figured that if this didn't get him to hug her, nothing would. Even she thought she looked pitiful right now. She felt like giving herself a hug.
"Why are you making this such a big deal? Demons don't do affection. So stop crying already." Laharl watched for a minute as Flonne continued to cry.
"Flonne? I said you can stop. Really, stop. It's annoying. Come on!" Laharl shouted. He watched as Flonne still continued to make herself cry. She was about to give up since she could only fake so many tears.
"Alright, already! Give it a rest! I'll give you a hug!" Laharl screamed. If there was one sound that annoyed him the most, it was the sound of Flonne crying.
Flonne shot up from the floor and the tears immediately stopped. She outstretched her arms and grinned widely. Laharl walked over and gave her a weak, half-hearted embrace, hoping that would be enough. She squeezed him tightly as she felt warmth in her chest. She never experienced something like this before. She felt happy just to have Laharl holding her. She was always happy when Laharl showed compassion, but not like this.
"Aww, isn't the wittle pwince so cute?" Etna said with condescending baby talk.
Laharl snapped out of the embrace quickly and crossed his arms.
"I am not cute! I just did that so she could stop crying! And who are you to speak to me like that anyway?" Laharl shouted. His pride had, once again, gotten in the way of his softer side. Flonne stood there, somewhat awe-struck, trying to figure out why she just felt the way she did.
"Geez, calm down, Prince. I was only playing with you." Etna laughed.
"How about we focus on the matter at hand here? Like that photo of the prinny?" Laharl snapped defensively.
"Well, what do you expect to do about it? You're the overlord, so you should be making these decisions." Etna retorted.
"You think I don't know that? I just figured I'd get your opinions first. Any overlord with half a brain would do the same."
"Yep, you've got a half a brain all right, Prince." Etna replied cattily.
"Thank y-HEY! That was a cheap shot!" Laharl shouted.
Flonne chuckled quietly at Etna's joke. She was amused more so by Laharl's reaction, rather than the joke itself.
"Just having a little more fun with you is all, Prince. You really need to lighten up." Etna smiled widely. She always treated Laharl like this, knowing that he wouldn't waste his most loyal vassal. At least in her mind anyway.
"You're not supposed to be having fun! You're supposed to be helping me!"
"So what exactly are you thinking about doing anyway?" Flonne inquired. She used her good-idea-per-month already. From here on out, her ideas were essentially useless.
"I don't know. I'm coming up blank. Any ideas, Etna?" Laharl rubbed his temples as he spoke.
"Well, we can't use a prinny again. Probably end up making the same stupid mistake anyway…..I got it!" Etna exclaimed gleefully.
"Well? Spill it." Laharl demanded impatiently.
"We can use a scout! They're supposed to be good at finding stuff anyway. I wonder why we didn't do that in the first place…." Etna explained.
"Good idea. But just for the record, it was you're idea to use the prinnies in the first place. "They need the exercise" you said. Now anyway, go tell one of the scouts what's going on. If you need me, I'll be trying to regain my high score that someone hastily destroyed." Laharl was clearly focused on Etna. And with that, he walked off to his room.
Meanwhile, in the human world, Miroku had begun to see Chiaki's form appear in the distance. He was already out of breath but he forced himself to hold it together a little longer so that he would catch up to her.
"Chiaki! Wait a minute! Hold on, dammit!" Miroku yelled out as he closed in on her.
Chiaki slowed to a stop, her back still turned to Miroku. She didn't say or do anything. She just stopped and waited. Miroku ran up alongside her and stopped for a minute to catch his breath.
"I finally caught up to you. You run pretty fast." Miroku joked, trying to break the ice.
"What do you want? I have nothing else to say to you." Chiaki spoke coldly.
"Look, I'm sorry that I didn't believe you about the penguin…."
"Prinny. It's called a prinny." Chiaki interrupted.
"Alright. I'm sorry I didn't believe you about the prinny. I just find it hard to believe in stuff like that. But I am sorry." Miroku apologized sincerely.
"And? What else are you sorry for?" Chiaki waited impatiently.
Miroku sighed a deep sigh. He couldn't believe that he expected something he saw on TV to work. He hung his head and spoke indirectly to Chiaki.
"I'm really sorry that I….kissed you like that. I just needed you to stop crying for two seconds." Miroku explained.
"I don't know. I don't think I can forgive you for that right away." Chiaki began to lower her guard.
"I'm not asking you to. I just want you to know that I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Miroku said as he looked up at Chiaki.
"I can tell. But I guess, with time I can forgive you. But there are a few things that need to be addressed." Chiaki said with authority.
"Addressed? Like what?" Miroku asked, seeming somewhat confused.
"First off, you can't make fun of me anymore. Secondly, you have to at least hear me out when I talk to you. Don't just assume that it's a bunch of junk that I came up with off the top of my head. And lastly, you have to promise that you'll at least take my feelings into consideration next time."
Miroku ran her requests back and forth through his head for a minute. He thought for a minute and then responded to Chiaki.
"Alright. I accept your terms." Miroku said seriously.
"Okay. Then you're forgiven."
Chiaki extended her hand as a sign of goodwill. Miroku looked at her hand and then extended his own and shook her hand firmly.
"So, what are you gonna do now." Miroku asked.
"Well, you're coming with me aren't you?" Chiaki replied.
"Coming with you where? Were we supposed to be going somewhere?"
"You said you'd take me back to the occult shop to get my money back."
"Oh right! I completely forgot about that." Miroku exclaimed.
"But we have to hurry. The store closes in an hour and you know how the buses are." Chiaki smiled as she spoke.
Miroku returned her smile and stood erect. He and Chiaki headed off in a brisk pace towards the bus stop. The bus arrived shortly (which was a surprise to the both of them since that bus in particular took forever to show up) and they were on their way to the occult shop near the mall where Chiaki had purchased the mana power indicator. Back at the Overlord's Castle, Etna had just finished briefing one of the scouts on his mission.
"Now, do you have any questions or anything you want me to repeat?" Etna asked with concern.
"No, not really." The scout responded.
"Good, because I wasn't gonna repeat myself anyway. Now get moving." Etna pointed toward the dimensional gate which already contained the approximate coordinates of the mana indicator.
The scout stepped forward, turned around and saluted Etna, and headed into the dimensional gate. Etna walked out of the room and into the conjoining hallway which joined the main walkways of the Overlord's Castle with each other. She took a left and headed around the corner and back into the throne room hall where Laharl was sitting on his throne, awaiting Etna's progress. Etna approached the throne and stared at Laharl for a minute.
"You know, usually, a loyal vassal bows to their overlord when coming in his presence." Laharl explained flatly.
"Oh well, you're out of luck. I don't feel like bowing. I didn't do it when your father was overlord and I'm not going to do it for you." Etna explained.
"And that's probably why you are the way you are. My old man was too lenient. But he's not the overlord anymore, so the next time I say bow, you will bow." Laharl responded pompously.
"Yeah, right away, Prince. Now, I just sent the scout to the last known coordinates of the mana index. Anything else you need done while I'm out here? Because once I go back to my room to lie down, I'm not coming back out for a while." Etna inquired impatiently.
"No. But I do think you should work on that attitude of yours. I've killed demons for less, you know. But, you may go now. There's nothing else I need." Laharl waved his hand and Etna walked off to her room. Laharl picked himself up from his throne and surveyed the room for a minute. Although he was the overlord and was allowed to do whatever he pleased, he sometimes found himself very bored. He walked out towards his room when Flonne called out for him.
"Laharl! Wait, Laharl!" Flonne called out. She made her way towards him.
"Oh god. What could she want from me now?" Laharl said under his breath. He turned around and waited for her.
"Hi, Laharl! What are you going to do now?" Flonne asked cheerily.
"I don't know. I'm pretty bored and I can't think of anything to do. Why do you wanna know anyway?" Laharl asked suspiciously. Flonne had never asked him what he was doing before, so why start now.
"Just asking. I came down here for a visit and Etna just went to take a nap so I thought we could spend some time together." Flonne explained happily.
"And why would you want to spend time with me anyway? You never wanted to before." Laharl said flatly.
"Yes I did! I just didn't want to bother you when you were doing important overlord stuff. But you're not busy now." Flonne responded.
"Who says I'm not busy? I didn't." Laharl fired back.
"But you did. You said you can't think of anything to do. So that means that you're not busy." Flonne trapped Laharl right where she wanted him. Now he had no plausible excuse as to why he couldn't spend time with her.
"But I….I mean….I have to…." Laharl sputtered frantically. He realized he had been caught in his own lie.
"Then it's settled. You're going to spend the day with me since Etna's not around." Flonne smiled widely. She was very happy to be spending the day with Laharl.
"But I never said yes!" Laharl yelled.
"But you never said no either." Flonne replied.
"Now you're just twisting the situation!" Laharl whined.
"Why are you fighting me so much? Don't you want to spend time with me? I came all this way just to see you." Flonne said sadly as her voice began to crack. It was obvious that she was about to cry again. The only difference is that this time it was genuine.
"All what way? It only takes a few minutes to get here by dimensional gate!"
"But…but…I just wanted to spend time with you." Flonne sobbed loudly.
"Why are you crying again? What's wrong now?" Laharl demanded.
"You don't wanna spend time with me!" Flonne cried out.
Some of Laharl's vassals were walking about and witnessed the scene. They began to mutter under their breath and amongst each other.
"Oooh, he made her cry." A nekotama pointed out.
"Again? That's three times already, isn't it?" Dratti questioned rhetorically.
"He's not too good with the ladies, huh?" Zommie asked to no one in particular.
Laharl looked around and saw all his vassals questioning his actions. He didn't take too kindly to this either.
"What are you all doing standing around? Don't you have something to be doing? Every one of you, get back to work right now or I'll beat you all to death!" Laharl shouted.
The vassals scattered quickly. Soon, the entire throne room hall was empty except for the flustered Laharl and despaired Flonne. Laharl watched as Flonne fell to her knees and buried her hands in her face. He listened to her sobs and gasps for air every now and again. He felt somewhat sad, but he shrugged it off as annoyance. He didn't believe that a demon could experience sadness. Or shouldn't for that matter. He grabbed Flonne by the wrist and led her into his room.
"Now look! You have to cut this out! You can't cry every time you feel sad! You just have to suck it up and go on with your day! You can't come around here and disturb me and my vassals just because you feel like it!" Laharl yelled cruelly. This didn't serve much purpose since all he succeeded in doing was making Flonne cry harder. (Which was seemingly impossible by any standards.)
Flonne climbed to her feet. She looked at Laharl hatefully with tears in her eyes.
"Why are you being so cruel? I did nothing to deserve this kind of treatment! I just wanted to spend a little time with you since I hadn't seen you in a while! But you haven't changed at all! You still hate me!" Flonne screamed. She shoved Laharl hard, knocking him off his feet and ran out of his room, leaving Laharl awestruck. He had never seen Flonne that angry and hurt before. He didn't think she had it in her to yell at him that way.
"Well, she's out of my hair now. Good riddance I say. She was a nuisance anyway." Laharl thought aloud as he stood up and dusted himself off. He sat down on his couch and pulled out a small box from underneath it. He opened the box and picked up a small picture that was inside of it. It was a picture that He and the rest of his "friends" took before Flonne left. He stared at himself and realized something that horrified him and made him happy at the same time. He was smiling. Laharl had never taken a picture where he was smiling before. He gazed over the picture. Flonne was standing right next to him, giving him one of her "hugs". He threw the picture to the ground and ran out of his room. He ran out of the throne room and into the conjoining hallway. He passed Longinus as he ran up the second set of stairs and into the common room which held the Rosenqueen shops and the hospital and item world as well as the dark assembly and the dimensional gate.
"Why do I even care what happens to her? It shouldn't even matter to me but yet, here I am, chasing her down." He thought to himself. He ran up to the dimensional gatekeeper.
"Did you see Flonne run through here?" Laharl asked urgently.
"Yes. She wanted to go to Jotunheim. She looked pretty sad, so I let her go through." The dimensional gatekeeper said in a monotone manner.
"Why did you do that for?" Laharl snapped.
"She made it seem like it was important, so I let her go through." The gatekeeper responded.
"That stupid girl! She's going to get herself killed! And I actually care!" Laharl shot past the gatekeeper and into the gate. He was taken to Jotunheim and saw footprints in the snow. He figured that she wouldn't be too far away if they hadn't already been covered with the falling snow already. As he was examining the tracks, he heard a feminine scream.
"Help! Help me!" The voice cried out urgently.
Laharl recognized the voice immediately and ran off in the direction it came from. He arrived in time to see Flonne being assailed by a group of zombies and a Fafnir. She didn't have her bow on her or any other weapon for that matter. She must have left her stuff in Etna's room when she was taken in there. Laharl drew his sword and addressed Flonne's assailants loud and clearly.
"You lowlifes back away from the girl! This is a direct order from the current reigning overlord! Should you refuse to obey my command, you will be eradicated!" Laharl yelled triumphantly.
"We don't give a damn if you're the current overlord or not. You're going to be a pile of ash when I'm done with you!" The Fafnir shouted.
"You have the audacity to oppose your overlord? Then you'll receive proper punishment!" Laharl raised his sword and jumped into the air.
"Dimension Sword!" Laharl shouted as he swung the sword with everything he had in him. A large shockwave emanated from the edge of his sword and cut the Fafnir, as well as the ground it was standing on, clear in half. The zombies faced one another before focusing on Laharl. They all leapt out at him at once.
"You should know when you're overstepping your boundaries, boy." One of the zombies snapped.
"And you should know how to properly address your overlord." Laharl retorted before slaying the three of them in one motion. The zombies fell to the ground and laid motionless. Laharl holstered his sword and walked forward.
Flonne watched on as Laharl walked towards her. She wanted to stay mad at him but she found that she couldn't. She was too happy to see that he came back for her. Tears began to fall silently down her cheeks. Laharl ran a hand across her face and dried her tears.
"If you don't wanna freeze your face off, you'd better stop crying. Three times is enough for one day." Laharl said coolly.
"Why did you come back for me?" Flonne said timidly.
"I don't know. I didn't want to at first but the next thing I knew, I found myself killing those weaklings." Laharl indicated the corpses of the demons he just slayed.
"So you didn't come here because…." Flonne stopped short of a full sentence.
"Because what? What were you gonna say?" Laharl asked.
Flonne stared at Laharl for a minute. She looked deeply into his eyes and saw a slight glimmer of compassion. She leaned forward and kissed him softly.
"It's nothing. Can you take me back now? It's cold here." Flonne said quietly.
Laharl stood silent, stunned by Flonne's kiss. He took her by the hand and brought her back to the dimensional gate and returned to the overlord's castle. The two walked in silence. Laharl had not spoken since the two returned from Jotunheim. Upon arrival, Laharl released Flonne's hand and walked back to his room. Etna had awakened shortly before Laharl's return and encountered him in the hallway near his room.
"Hey, Prince. Did something happen? You look kinda…out of it." Etna noticed.
"Could I get back to you later? I don't really feel like talking right now." Without waiting for a response, Laharl walked past Etna and into his room. He shut the door tightly and locked it.
"What's up with him? He's normally not like that." Etna thought to herself. She turned around to head towards the Rosenqueen shops when she noticed Flonne was walking around in a haze of sorts. Etna approached her and tapped her on the shoulder to gain her attention.
"Umm, Flonne? Are you alright? You seem more dazed than usual." Etna inquired suspiciously. She thought to herself about how strange Laharl was acting and tried to compare it to the way Flonne was acting right now.
"It's nothing. I'm just…really happy is all." Flonne replied dreamily. She played the image of her kissing Laharl over and over in her head.
"Is it me, or has everyone but me gone through a major mood swing?" Etna thought.
"Is there anything else you want?" Flonne asked innocently.
"Well there is one small thing. Did something happen to the prince? He seemed kinda out of it. He just went and locked himself in his room." Etna explained.
"Really?" Flonne snapped out of her daze and focused on Etna clearly now.
"Yeah. I went to sleep for a few minutes and when I woke up, he looked kind of…I don't know how to explain it."
"Well…." Flonne went on to explain the whole thing to Etna, omitting the part about the kiss.
"Wow. So the prince went through the trouble of saving you? That's…not like him. But right now, we can't be concerned with that. I wonder how the scout's progress is going…" Etna said as she headed towards the recently added communications room. It had been created from the technology that the EDF left behind. The door slid open and Etna stepped inside and equipped a headset. She tuned into frequency 141.92 and opened a communication line.
"Scout 1, do you read? Repeat, scout 1, do you read me?" Etna spoke into the headset.
"Scout 1 here. What is it OC?" The scout replied. OC was short of Overlord's Castle.
"How's progress on finding the index going?"
"I spotted the individuals holding the index. One male and one female. They're headed towards a shop of some sort." The scout responded.
"Two people? According to the prinny, it was one person." Etna mumbled under her breath.
"What was that, OC? The transmission sounded kind of muffled."
"It's nothing. Continue watching the individuals but do not take action as of yet. Keep me informed." Etna closed the communication line and removed the headset.
During this time, Miroku and Chiaki entered the occult shop and looked around the strange store. Miroku turned around and eyed the building across the street.
"Is something wrong?" Chiaki asked.
"No, not really. I could just swear that we're being watched." Miroku said uneasily.
"You're probably just being paranoid. Calm down and help me find the shop owner." Chiaki replied.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Miroku said with a laugh.
Chiaki walked further to the back of the store. Miroku followed closely behind her. He didn't particularly care for shops like these although many of them covered the small area around the mall. Chiaki pushed past a beaded curtain to a small desk in the back. Miroku walked up beside her and eyed a small orb on the desk with a sign underneath it which read "Place hand on orb to summon shopkeeper." He tapped Chiaki and pointed to the sign. Chiaki placed a hand over the orb and it quickly changed color from blue to yellow and emitted a chorus of ethereal chimes. Light flooded the room, causing Miroku and Chiaki to close their eyes. The light slowly died down and disappeared as a young woman with long blonde hair and a flowing blue dress appeared in front of them.
"You summoned me?" The young lady asked.
"Are you the owner of this store by any chance?" Miroku asked.
"Yes I am. Well I am now anyway." The young woman replied.
"Chiaki, you told me that the owner of the store was an old woman, not this charming young lady." Miroku said with a certain charm.
"Put your tongue back inside your head, Miroku." Chiaki scolded.
"You're quite a handsome young man. I haven't seen you here before." The young woman spoke as she eyed Miroku up and down.
"Well, this is my first time in this shop." Miroku replied.
"Well, what is it that you require?"
"I bought this indicator yesterday, but it doesn't work." Chiaki said as she pushed past Miroku.
"Well, do you know what the problem is?" The young woman asked as she took the indicator from Chiaki and inspected it.
"If I did, I wouldn't be here. Now what happened to the previous owner of the store, and just who exactly are you?" Chiaki inquired.
"My name is Mimiru. The last owner of the store was my mother. She left the store in my care while she travels the world in search of new valuables for the shop." Mimiru explained.
"Well, maybe you can tell me what's wrong with this thing then."
"Hmm…." Mimiru looked the indicator over and finally found the root of the problem.
"Well?" Chiaki asked impatiently. The only reason she was in such a mood was because she looked back and saw that Miroku hadn't taken his eyes off of Mimiru since she showed up.
"The indicator has no arc crystal. It's just like mother to forget to give you one when she sold you this. I think I have another one around here somewhere." Mimiru stated as she turned and looked at the shelves behind her.
"An arc crystal? What exactly is an Arc Crystal?" Chiaki asked of Mimiru.
"An Arc Crystal is essential for a netherworld tool such as this one to work in the human world. Ah-ha!" Mimiru exclaimed as she located the spare arc crystal she had on the top shelf. She reached for it but wasn't quite tall enough to get it down without assistance.
"You found a spare?" Chiaki asked hopefully.
"Yes, but…I can't quite reach it." Mimiru said, embarrassed.
"I can get it down for you if you'd like." Miroku said.
"Could you? That'd be great." Mimiru requested sincerely.
Miroku stepped behind the counter and reached up to the shelf. He pulled down a small black box with small blue gems embedded in it. Mimiru watched Miroku from behind as he pulled the box down.
"You could put your eyes back in your head now." Chiaki thought to herself as she glanced at Mimiru who was examining Miroku.
Miroku turned and handed the box to Mimiru.
"Is this what you were talking about?" Miroku asked.
"Yes, that's it. Thank you." Mimiru responded as she opened the box. Inside the box was a crystal which glowed with a semi-florescent purple glow.
"So how is this supposed to get the indicator to work?" Chiaki asked, now intrigued by the crystal.
"Well, you just place the crystal in this chamber here and it works almost like a battery." Mimiru explained as she placed the arc crystal into the small chamber in the center of the indicator.
The indicator hummed a low pitch as it came to life. The hum slowly died down as the indicator began to run at top efficiency.
"Try it now." Mimiru said as she handed the indicator to Chiaki.
"Well, since you were going to be the first one to try it anyway, come here, Miroku." Chiaki beckoned Miroku to her side. He walked over to her and held his wrist out knowingly. Chiaki placed the indicator on his wrist and secured the strap. The needle again made a full circle, but this time, a screen rolled out of the side of the indicator and gave a number representation of Miroku's mana power as well as his place in a netherworld. Chiaki, Mimiru and Miroku stared in amazement at the results of Miroku's scan.
"I don't believe this. The indicator says that you have over 22 million mana points. Your placement in a netherworld would be at the rank of an overlord." Mimiru exclaimed.
"If he's got that much mana power, I wonder how I would rank." Chiaki said aloud as she removed the indicator from his wrist. She placed it on herself as the indicator went through the usual sequence before revealing her mana power. Miroku's jaw dropped and Chiaki's eyes widened as her results came in.
"Why, this is unprecedented! There has never been anything like this before. It says here that you have over 25 million mana points and that you would fall under the role of an overlord as well." Mimiru exclaimed in an awestruck manner.
And that's the end of chapter four. So far, this is my longest chapter to date. I tried to work really hard on this one. My .Hack/Sign soundtrack really helped my focus. So, I'll be taking a brief period to rest before working on the next chapter. And because I didn't get around to it in this chapter, I'll be releasing a full profile on the original characters in the next chapter. And like I said at the top as well as in the rest of my chapters, if you have any questions or comments, leave it in a review and I'll address it ASAP.