Ghost Slayers

Chapter Eighteen

By Relm

Xellos had a bit of trouble tracking down Professor Phibrizzo. As it turned out the little professor had a spare period before lunch as well.

Phibrizzo was an odd little man. He suffered from a rare medical condition that severely stunted his growth. Though he was most definitely an adult he had the body of a young child. His voice also sounded quite young as though he stopped aging when he hit the age of ten.

Many people usually mistook Phibrizzo for a young kid. And Phibrizzo didn't help matters because he usually acted like a little child. Especially when he was getting blamed for bad things he did. All Phibrizzo had to do was put on the fake tears and upset child charm and he would get everyone against the person accusing him of wrongdoing.

For that reason he wasn't well liked or respected amongst his peers. Most people didn't like to talk or associate with the little professor. Which suited Phibrizzo fine since his favourite pastime was irritating and terrorizing people.

Thankfully for Xellos Phibrizzo was up to one of his little pranks. When Xellos found the little professor he as dumping live frogs into the women's washroom in the teacher's lounge.

"Thos aren't the frogs slated to be dissected by the biology class are they?" Xellos peered over Phibrizzo's shoulder.

"I'm setting free to live happily."

"In the women's washroom?"

"Yes they seem to like swimming in the toilets." Phibrizzo said with an evil smirk.

Xellos let out a chuckle. "Well I can't argue with that. Now could you go wash your hands? I have something I'd like you to look at and I don't want to get frog slime all over it."

Phibrizzo did as he was told and the two of them sat down at the table. Since Phibrizzo was so short he sat on a stack of phonebooks sitting on top of the chair. "So what is it that you'd like me to look at?"

"This book." Xellos placed the book in front of Phibrizzo on the table. "I found this in my cabinet. I don't know who put it there or what it is for. But I can't read it."

Phibrizzo frowned as he flipped through the pages of the book. He felt a strange sort of energy flowing through him as his fingers touched the letters of the book.

"Val thinks it wasn't written with ink, but fruit juices or blood." Xellos added.

"I'd wager it's blood. And the writing is definitely old. Too old for the look of this book..." Phibrizzo mused.

"So you can read it?"

Phibrizzo shook his head. "I can't read it. Though from the look of it I'd say it's probably Mglahan."

"Mglahan?" Xellos had trouble saying the name, it was one hadn't heard of before.

"Mglahan was the primary language spoken by the Mglahan people of the Talini islands. This looks like it's one of the books from the Mglah book collection written during the Kol era that had recently been discovered." Phibrizzo explained.

"So it's from the Mglah book collection?"

"I doubt that. Those books are priceless and the likelihood that someone would steal it and place it into your classroom seems ridiculous. I'd say it's probably just a good reproduction. Given the time it was supposed to be written this book doesn't look old enough to be part of that collection."

"I wonder if anyone could translate it..."

"The books are currently in possession of the Sailune Library. One of their guys is working on translating them. Maybe you should contact them." Phibrizzo suggested.

"Thank you Professor Phibrizzo you've been uncharacteristically helpful."

"Well I try." Phibrizzo flashed Xellos a smile tainted with mischief.

Xellos regarded him suspiciously as he went to get out of his chair. Which decided to go with him. "Did you put super glue on all the chairs?" Xellos muttered as he tried to free himself of the chair stuck to his butt.

"The only way you're getting the chair off is to rip it off or take off your pants." Phibrizzo chuckled.

Considering his options Xellos wasn't sure what to do. Either way the pants couldn't be saved. Should he walk around with a chair stuck to his butt or let everyone see his underwear?

Xellos did the only thing he do and still keep his pride. Off went his pants and he strutted his way back to his class clad in just his boxers.

Normally being stuck walking around in just your underwear was embarrassing, especially when said underwear had the words 'Sexy Beast' written across the butt. But Xellos wasn't embarrassed. He just strutted around winking and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at anyone who stared regardless of their genders.

...

Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia and Sylphiel all sat around the Ghost Slayers office's phone watching it. Filia was still in her lab making more containment boxes but the other four had nothing to do but wait. They were at a dead end with their investigation of Zelgadis' missing body and they had done all the prepping they could for the job later that day. So that left them all sitting around watching the phone. Getting two job calls in one day was like Christmas for the Ghost Slayers but that wasn't the case that day.

"I'm bored." Lina mumbled.

"We could go look to see where Slimer is." Amelia suggested. Since they all left Sylphiel's lab Slimer just wandered off still wearing that dress of his.

"He's probably just bothering Filia." Lina idly poked the phone. 'Ring damn you! I want more jobs.' She willed the phone to ring with her mind.

"I wonder where Slimer got that dress." Sylphiel mused. It was obviously not one of theirs given the size and length.

"Why was Slimer dressed up like that?" Amelia wondered.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "I think he was trying to prove that he had a better figure than Lina."

Lina's brow crinkled into a frown. "That cross dressing ghost does not have a better figure than me!"

"Well he was pretty curving looking Miss Lina." Amelia joked. She got a magazine to her head for that comment.

"I'm bored." Lina whined again.

"Well it is almost lunch time, why don't we look through our take out menus and order something?" Sylphiel suggested.

"Now you're talking!" Lina pulled out about a hundred menus. "What should we pick today?"

...

Xellos let out a loud sigh as he sat on a park bench in the park near Sailune University. There he was spending his lunch calling the Sailune library and he had been on kept on hold the whole time. Since it was lunch time there was no one at the desk to answer calls so Xellos was put on hold by the automated service. He would have hung up and tried again by the voice on the automated service kept promising that someone would be on the line shortly. So stupidly Xellos believed this.

One thing Xellos hated about his cell phone was that it didn't warn him when the battery was getting low. It was supposed to, and he had gone into the phone settings to set so that it would alert him. But it never did especially when Xellos needed to most of all. When he was in the middle of a conversation.

So as Xellos' call finally got through all Xellos got as a warning that his cell phone battery was dead was a little click and then it was dead. At first Xellos thought the person the other end had hung up on him.

"Stupid phone!" Xellos screamed at his phone and almost threw it on the ground. Instead he took his anger out on his sandwich crewing it with a fury like a mad beast ripping apart a fresh kill.

...

"So what am I going to be doing when you guys all go to the job?" Amelia asked Lina after lunch was finished.

"Make sure that Slimer doesn't cause any trouble." Lina answered as she attempted to make a card castle. Of course that was proving to be hard for Lina as Zelgadis kept putting his hands in and out of the cards trying to distract Lina.

"Easier said than done."

"You could clean the building with Slimer." Lina suggested as the card castle fell down. She glared at Zelgadis who just looked back all innocent.

"Miss Lina I'm not a maid!" Amelia protested.

"Well you wanted something to do."

Amelia shook her head still scoffing at the idea. "Miss Lina could I have this friday off?"

"Why?"

"My older sister just got back from Zelphilia today and she wants to spend the day with me this friday." Amelia explained.

"If she just got back today why would she wait until Friday to want to see you?" Sylphiel asked in curiosity.

"Because it will probably take her that long to sober up." Lina joked.

"Miss Lina my sister isn't perpetually drunk." Amelia huffed.

"Was she drunk when she called you?" Lina narrowed her eyes at her youngest employee.

"Well she had just gotten back from Zelphilia! That's the wine capital of the world." Amelia countered back.

"I know, I grew up there." Lina said dryly.

"What's your sister like Amelia?" Zelgadis interjected. Obviously everyone at Ghost Slayers knew who Amelia's older sister was like but he didn't know anything. Up until now Zelgadis had thought that Lina was from Sailune. He didn't even know she was from Zelphilia. Which just goes to show how little he knew. 'Am I from Sailune? Or am I from somewhere else?'

"Well my sister is very tall-" Amelia started to explain.

But Lina interjected. "Busty, annoying and loves to drink. And even though her name is Gracia she goes around calling herself Naga."

"She's an actress, that's her stage name!" Amelia protested.

"She may as well call herself goldfish poo." Lina's face scrunched up thinking about Amelia's sister.

"I take it you don't like 'Naga'?" Zelgadis prompted.

"Back when I was in school Naga was part of this exchange program so she ended up going to my school. I found her extremely irritating so I usually stayed clear of her. But then we both auditioned for the same role in the school play. I got the part and she was so angry about it that she decided that she was my 'greatest rival'. She followed me everywhere like a crazed stalker. It wasn't until I ended up teaching in Sailune that I lost her. Of course when I hired Amelia for my company I had no idea Naga was her older sister." Lina explained.

"Really Miss Lina, Gracia isn't so bad." Amelia insisted.

"Tell that to the wine glasses she's broken by the sheer annoyingly shrillness of her laugh. A person laughing shouldn't break glass."

"So Amelia what is your sister doing now?" Sylphiel ever the peace keeper tried to change the subject.

"She's acting at the Sailune Theatre as the starring role of their newest play. It will be going on for the next two months. I should see if Gracia can get us free tickets! I'll ask her on Friday!"

"Assuming I give you the day off."

"C'mon Miss Lina please?" Amelia whined.

"Fine but you're definitely cleaning tonight."

Amelia sighed in defeat.

...

Xellos kept staring at the clock in his class. Since his phone died on his break he didn't have time to call the library back. And since the university tended to frown on teachers making personal calls while teaching Xellos had to wait till all his classes were over.

Xellos knew staring at the clock wouldn't make time go any faster but he couldn't help it. He was anxious.

A part of him questioned why he was so obsessed with trying to get information on the book. Of course Xellos loved solving mysteries, but the truth was he was bored.

Xellos looked around at his students of his last class of the day. Like his others they also had an exam to do. At present Xellos had many stacks of exams waiting to be marked from his previous classes. Grading papers would probably have been a better use of his time rather than sitting around and glaring at things and people.

At five minutes left of the class Xellos got up and walked around anxiously. A student was free to go once they finished their exam but not a single student had left their seat. Either Xellos made the test too hard or they were just being thorough. Whatever the case it was irritating Xellos.

RING! The bell sounded officially ending the class.

But no one got up to hand in their exams. They were still checking them over.

"Class is over, stop your exams and hand them in now!" Xellos yelled while sitting back at his desk.

The students groaned as they handed in their exams before leaving the room.

When the last student left Xellos immediately picked up his phone and called the Sailune Library.

"Hellos this is the Sailune Library, Dawn speaking how may I help you?" The female voice on the line was soft and proper; exactly what you'd expect a librarian to sound like.

"Hello I'm a professor at Sailune University and I was wondering if someone from your establishment could help me. Someone has mysteriously left a book in my classroom that may be a reproduction of one of your books. I was wondering if I could set up an appointment with one of your translators."

"What sort of book is it?"

"I've been told it's Mglahan. And I've been told you have someone translating a book series of the same origin."

The line went very silent.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yes." Dawn's voice was quite odd.

"Could I set up an appointment with your translator?"

"He's not available..."

"Is there anyone else then?"

"No, Mister Greywars was the only one we had that could translate them."

"Had?"

Xellos heard the lady gasp at her unintentional slip up. "Listen you didn't hear this from me, but I think Mister Zelgadis Greywars is dead. He disappeared a while back with word as to where he went. And then yesterday two people from Ghost Slayers came by asking about him and the books he was researching. So if you want to find out what happened to him I'd go ask the people at Ghost Slayers. I'm sorry I have to go, sorry I couldn't help you more."

"Thank you anyway." When Xellos hung up his phone he frowned at what he learned. 'Should I or shouldn't I call Ghost Slayers?' He mentally mused while staring at the phone. 'What to do what to do?'