"Lina-san!" Shrine Mother Sylphiel quickly descended the steps of the newly-built shrine to greet her old friend. "Thank you for coming! I was afraid you would not get my message!"

"Actually I didn't get your message," Lina said, ignoring the twinge in her stomach. "We came here to see if you could help him," she finished, gesturing to the man beside her.

"What is your name, sir?"

For some reason, Gadget felt suddenly at ease around this girl. "I am Inspector Gadget."

Sylphiel pondered his response for a moment. "May I assume that Inspector is your title and Gadget is your name?"

He nodded.

"What is troubling you?"

Before Gadget could reply, Lina answered, "We think it's amnesia. But first things first: Is that Flagoon?"

Sylphiel's face brightened. "Yes, it is! After Phibrizzo was defeated, the town reverted back to its previous state. Shortly after that, a sapling appeared where his dome had been." She spread her hands, gesturing in the direction of the tree. "Within four months, Flagoon grew to the size you now see!"

Lina felt relieved. After all this town's been through, I guess she sighed.

"Now, we need to look into your friend's trouble." Sylphiel returned her eyes to the inspector. "But we cannot do that here. If it is amnesia, I will need time to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" asked Lina and Gadget in unison.

The shrine mother turned toward the inspector. "Well, I will need to examine your consciousness, and that takes such a toll on me."

Gadget's eyes widened. "You're going to read my mind?"

Sylphiel giggled softly. "No, no. What I do is search your consciousness for any blockages, walls if you wish, and remove them."

Lina stood dumfounded for the third time that day. "But how do you do that without reading his thoughts?"

"One does not have to stand in the river to see that there is an obstruction." She giggled. "One could actually become an obstruction. Simply observing the flow of the water will suffice."

Lina found herself respecting the former shrine maiden more than before. I guess she does deserve Gourry more than I do. She's smart, can heal…all I ever really did was hit him…

Sylphiel turned back toward the man in gray. "Please forgive me Inspector, but I must speak with Lina-san alone. Would you excuse us for a few minutes?"

Gadget blinked. "Certainly, ma'am."

Sylphiel gestured to a long hallway nearby. "The kitchen is through the first door on the left, if you are hungry, and a small flower garden with benches just outside the doors at the end of the hall." She giggled softly. "Or, you could just look around like everyone else does."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Please, if you are a friend of Lina-san's, please call me Sylphiel."

"Thank you, Sylphiel," the inspector amended. He pinched the brim of his hat with his thumb and index finger, tilted his head slightly, then made his way down the hall toward the garden.

The women watched his departing form until Lina commented, "He didn't eat much on the way here. I'm surprised he didn't head for the kitchen."

"He seems like a real gentleman. Just like Gourry-sam-" Sylphiel cut herself off as she saw Lina suddenly go rigid, and guilt washed over her. Hoping to defuse a potential bomb, she quickly gestured down another hallway and said, "Shall we talk in my office?"

"Fine with me," the sorceress' blank voice replied.

"Wowsers! When she said flower garden…"

He found himself standing among what seemed like miles upon miles of flowers. In reality, the garden couldn't have been more than 30 feet square, but with the way that the flowers were arranged, their colors, and their general health (he couldn't find a weed anywhere), the garden seemed much larger.

Coming upon an unusual flower, he said "Go-Go Gadget Magnifying Glass." A segmented arm with a hand wielding a magnifying lens unfolded from the top of his hat. "Hmm." He peered closely. "I've never seen anything like this before…"

He finished examining the flower, straightened while retracting the extra hand, and headed toward the south end of the garden. As he neared the southern-bordering hedges, several small metal plates extended to encircle his ear as he heard several grunts of exertion. Curious, he peered over the brush.

A tall blond-haired man clad in blue was busy swinging his sword at empty air. After several swings, he sat down on a nearby bench and started wiping his face with a towel.

Very interesting. Gadget hyperextended his legs to step over the hedge as he withdrew his hearing amplifier, then walked over to the…swordsman, that's what they're called. Trying to effect a British accent, he said, "Hello, my good man!"

The man gave Gadget a once-over before responding. "Hey. How's it going?"

The inspector, momentarily caught off-guard, recovered. "It's…going quite well, thank you. I am Inspector Gadget."

"Gourry Gabriev." Gourry smiled and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Gadget smiled and accepted the proffered hand. A firm grip welcomed him. "I hope I'm not intruding, Mr. Gabriev, but I heard you …working out and thought I'd introduce myself."

"S'okay, but if you're here to see Sylphiel, you'll need to go through the front door," Gourry said while gesturing at the building.

"Actually, I've already seen her. She said that she'd help me with my amnesia, but needed time to prepare."

Gourry worked a stiff shoulder. "Yeah, fixing heads usually takes a lot out of her. When's she gonna help you?"

"I don't know yet," Gadget replied. "She asked me to come outside while she talked to Lina about some-"

The swordsman suddenly jumped up from his seat. "Lina? Lina Inverse?"

Gadget was puzzled. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

Gourry bolted for the access door at the rear of the shrine, leaving Gadget alone in the training yard.

Left to his own thoughts, Gadget could only come up with Maybe he knows her…

"Tea, Lina-san?"

"Thank you."

Two lumps of sugar later, the shrine mother and the sorceress sat across from each other, awkwardly trying to decide who should speak first.

Sylphiel was the first to bite her lip, so she started. "Lina-san, please understand, I never meant to cause you any pain."

Lina faked an almost-convincing smile. "Pain? What do you mean?"

The shrine mother tilted her head, a mildly irritated expression marring her otherwise flawless features. "Lina, I am nowhere near as naïve as I used to be, nor as stupid as you seem to think I am. You are still angry with me for marrying Gourry, how angry I may never know. Your anger is as plain as day." She paused, closing her eyes and regaining her composure. "Forgive me. I vowed to not lose my temper with you."

The young sorceress sighed while waving a hand. "Forget it, I had it coming."

Sylphiel took that as acceptance. "Thank you." She looked down at her twiddling thumbs for a moment before meeting Lina's eyes. "And please forgive me for taking Gourry-sama away from you."

"What's to forgive? You love him, he loves you…I…I was just in the way." Lina could not believe the words coming out of her own mouth.

Sylphiel wrung her hands as though to restore circulation. "Lina, do…I mean have you ever…wondered how I know…" For the first time since becoming Shrine Mother, Sylphiel could not finish a sentence.

"No." Lina honestly never thought of anything beyond herself. Until Phibrizzo, at least. "But now that you mention it, how do you know him?"

The shrine mother sighed, relieved that the redhead's legendary temper had decided to take a break. "I would guess that it happened shortly before he met you," she started. "A well-organized group of ruffians had decided to make us their victims. They set up a camp near Sairaag and began terrorizing us."

Sylphiel's hands balled up on her thighs. "We sent out a request for any mercenaries in the area to come and protect us. Unfortunately…"

"…None of the messages got very far," Lina finished, dread forming in her stomach. "I remember hearing about this."

The shrine mother could only nod in response. One deep breath later, she continued. "Flagoon smiled on us that day, however. A young man, a mercenary, happened to be in our town at the time, doing housework for an elderly widow." Sylphiel smiled slightly at the memory.

The expression on Sylphiel's face caused Lina's stomach to begin some light aerobics. "It was Gourry, wasn't it?"

"Hmm?" Jarred from her memories, Sylphiel's eyes snapped up to meet Lina's. "Oh! Yes, it was Gourry-sama."

Lina's stomach decided that light aerobics was for wimps and graduated to heavy. "How did he take care of the bandits?" she managed.

Lina sat dumbstruck as a hint of…desire?... started to glow within the shrine mother's eyes. Lina believed that this was the closest to lust she would ever see in Sylphiel's expression.

"He…" Sylphiel had to swallow before continuing. "He snuck into the camp dressed as one of them and killed the leader. Then he attacked the surprised ruffians and, after a long battle, drove them off." Now Sylphiel's eyes started to glisten. "However, Gourry-sama did not get away 'scot-free', as they say. He suffered all sorts of sword-related injuries; Cuts, slashes, punctures…"

Lina had to swallow, sending the lump in her throat to the disco party in her stomach at the images the shrine mother's descriptions evoked. "And…" She cleared her throat one last time as she saw where this was leading. "And you took care of him?"

Sylphiel nodded wordlessly. "At the time, I was technically an initiate. But because I seemed to have a natural aptitude for healing, and all the full-fledged priests and priestesses had been drained from caring for victims, townsfolk and otherwise, he was left in my hands." She held up her hands, which were shaking slightly. "In my nervous hands. While I took care of him, I developed an…attraction toward him."

Lina knew she was jumping ahead, but didn't care as her facade began to fracture. "So why'd you do it, Sylphiel? You knew how he and I felt about each other, didn't you?" Tears threatened to form, as she also began trembling slightly. "He and I…were supposed to travel…"

The shrine mother matched her tear for tear. "I know, Lina, I know…but he needs someone who can appreciate him." The rest of Sylphiel's body started to visibly shake as her face took on interesting shades of red. "All…All…All you could seem to do is hit him!" she shouted, before catching herself, her face starting to turn green.

But not as green as the red Lina was becoming. "HIT HIM?" Break time had ended, as previously shed tears evaporated under the heat of blossoming fury. "YOU WANNA SEE HITTIN', SISTER?"

The door opened just as Lina threw her punch, and Gourry dashed in just in time to intercept her fist with his stomach. "OOOFFF!" He reflexively doubled over, but still fell onto his backside at his wife's feet. "That hurt…" Sylphiel quickly knelt beside him to tend to any injuries as Lina stared at her fist, nausea replacing anger.

Lina had taken the first step of three needed to reach the couple when a gray mass suddenly blocked her way. "What happened?" she heard the inspector demand.

The shrine mother turned angry eyes on Lina Inverse. "Inspector, would you please take Miss Lina outside for some fresh air?"

Gadget, while not knowing exactly what was going on, nonetheless obliged. "Very well." He turned to the distraught sorceress. "Please come with me, Lina."

Sylphiel could swear she saw the words I'm sorry form on the sorceress' lips paired with eyes of regret before leaving with the inspector, but it was lost in the caring for and cooing over her husband.