Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Slayers Despair! ❯ Episode 2:: Nani! Bad feelings?!? ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Notes: Hi all


Robert S Coyle
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Robert S Coyle
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4 .5 pt
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A uthor's Notes: Hi
all! Well, here's the next
chapter. Redid the first chapter after
my post-post-prereader Dragonkitty decided to review it, and this one will
prolly get the same treatment somewhere down the line. BTW, GOURRY ISN'T DEAD. I also welcome you to take my work apart
piece by piece, provided it's constructive.
Also, while this chapter doesn't develop many of the characters much, it
sorta sets the stage for later development, please bear with me. I can't force you to watch three episodes at
once, like ADV does. Anyway, thank you for reading, and hope it doesn't
suck to bad. Personally, I don't like
this episode as much as I liked the prologue, and I didn't like that one,
either :P Gomen, ne?



And oh yeah, a weapon called a Zanabato is used in this
Episode. For those of you who have
never seen the Kenshin Series, a Zanabato is a type of sword meant to be used
by a Calvary soldier. Its massive size
and weight makes it a lethal weapon from the saddle, but next to impossible to
use on foot. Literal translation is
'Horse Slayer'.





Episode::2

Nani?! Bad Feelings!



"
Sylphiel-sama, Lady Sai has arrived, and is awaiting an audience. What should I tell her?"

The black
haired priestess looked up from her studies, surprised at the title. While it was true that she was the High
Priestess of Neo Sairaag, a city beneath Seyruun only in it's renown for holy
magic, it was still something she didn't encourage.

"Lady
Sai is here? I thought she wasn't
supposed to arrive for another day."

Her
attendant, a small, red headed shrine maiden, nodded.

"She
seems rushed, your holiness. She came
through the gates at a full gallop; she must have outrun her own guards, for
they were not with her."

The senior
priestess sighed, and nodded.
"Please show her in, Yumi-chan."

Yumi bowed
and moved to exit, but before she could leave the room, a small, black figure
with fiery red hair dropped from the shadows of the arched ceiling, and landed
on poor girl.

"Aiieeeeeeee!" Yumi
shrieked, threw the small ninja off her, and bolted through the door and down
the hallway, screaming something about mazoku falling from the ceiling.

The figure in question got up,
sporting a chagrinned smile.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare her like that. I didn't think she'd
move that way . . ."

Sylphiel smiled, chuckling at the
girl's actions. "No, don't worry
about it, Sai-chan. Good to see you're
still the same rambunctious little spark you were the last time I saw you. But what brings you here early? And where are Shiredo and Rouku?"

Sylphiel looked around, expecting
to see the two retainers somewhere in the vicinity. While Shiredo liked the shadows, Rouku was like a walking wall;
something that was hard to miss, but when you hit it, it hurt. A lot.

Sai frowned, and for the first
Slyphiel noticed exactly how the younger girl looked. While it was normal for the princess to wear the black and olive
green ninja suit, it was usually neatly worn, with all the edges squared and
weapons in appropriate places, gleaming blades hidden inside their black
leather sheaths. While it wasn't
exactly what a standard princess wore, when you're a descendent from a line of
warrior kings, it's not really THAT far out of line, either.

Now, however, that finely made suit
was torn and smeared with mud, and the weapons, which usually were concealed
were fastened to her belt and back; her hand even held a gunpai. Even though they're court resembled more of
a barracks than a gathering of nobles . . . regardless, this was odd, even for
her.

"Well,
it's a long story." She started,
her voice lacking the bubbly tone it usually carried. "Shiredo and Rouku . . . they're back in Hachi. Everyone is inside the walled portion of the
city, and we burnt the port and buildings outside."

"You
burnt the port!? Why?"

She gave a
sad smile as she continued, "
That's the reason I'm here. Deep
Sea Dolphin's forces jumped us the other day, and we didn't have much of a
choice. We heard that Zellas and Dolphin were clashing a hundred miles or so up
the coast, but we didn't expect them to travel so far. If it weren't for the fact that Hachi is a
fortress city by nature, and our people have a history rich in warfare, I don't
think I'd be around right now. I
managed to sneak out through the sewers, but still ran into a couple of
berserkers; I had to seal the tunnels behind me to keep them from getting
inside. But we can't hold out much
longer, so far the attackers have been pretty weak . . . only one or two full
fledge mazoku, But I'm pretty sure that'll change, so I kinda came to ask . .
."

For a girl
who must have torn her way through several dozen slavering beasts in the darkness
and sludge of a sewer system, she looked remarkably flustered asking for
help. Now Sylphiel thought about it,
though, the princess didn't smell too good, either.

The
priestess smiled, and hesitantly put her hand on the padded shoulder of Sai's
suit. "Don't worry. I'll get in touch with Seyruun right away,
and send some of our priests to your city as soon as possible. IN fact, I'll go myself with Gourry-sama."

"We should be okay for awhile,
yet, I'm not to worried, so if it's an inconvenience . . ."

Sylphiel waved her hand dismissively. "We owe you this much; if you hadn't
helped us rebuild . . ."

Sai smiled,
her cheerfulness returned as help was guaranteed. "My cousin said if I didn't, I'd have to answer to her. So it wasn't much of my choice,
either."

"Cousin? Why would your cousin . . ."

Sai smile
widened. "You didn't know? You spent over a year traveling with
her! My father wasn't always Raiko
Hachi, ya know . . . before that, he was Raiko Inverse. Speaking of which, I gotta go find Lina,
anyway. I heard something about her being
up on the Northern Shores of the Demon Sea.
Sorry to leave in a dramatic flash; I need the practice . . .anyway,
thanks!"

With a
flick of her wrist and a puff of smoke, the princess vanished much the way she
came; a second after the smoke cleared,
Sylphiel heard Yumi scream.



***

Zelgadis
raised a stone hand to shield his eyes against the glare, and looked out over
the forest expanse below. From his
perch atop the ridge, he could see for miles ahead to where the green blanket
of trees eventually giving way to the crystal waters of the Demon Sea. Steadying himself against the winds which
swept up from the base, he made quick, precise leap, landing lightly (for a
stone) on a prominence, still scanning the horizon for his goal.

Near a week
had passed since he and Milgasia had been in that last library, where, Zelgadis
though, they had spent entirely too much time.
Milgasia insisted they stay until he had finished his book, and as
Zelgadis had no real argument (his cure wasn't exactly running away; at least,
he HOPED it wasn't . . . ) the grumpy chimera had no choice in the matter. Arguing with a golden dragon is never a
smart move, except, perhaps, if your name is Inverse .

At any rate, the chimera in
question was trekking toward a town of mercs, where yet another mystical
library of runes was located, complete with a while
not-incredibly-evil-but-certainly-mis-directed creature guarding the entrance. Of course, the creature would try and kill
them. And they'd prolly run afoul of
the locals. And maybe destroy a few
eons old monuments. Lina seemed to have
influenced him that way.

"Find
what you're looking for?"

Zelgadis turned and shot a grin at
the white robed dragon lord. "Of
course. I knew we were on the right track.. You can see the signal fires for the ships,
and the bay. Just like the guy
said."

He motioned out towards the junction
of land and sea, where thin, black tendrils of smoke wafted up into the air,
till the high winds swept them away.

Milgasia
shook his head. "Hachi isn't some
underdeveloped little burg. It's one of
the most powerful city states on the continent. They wouldn't use signal fires; besides, there aren't any reefs
around. So if that's Hachi . . ."

"But
what else could produce that much smoke . . ." Zelgadis raised an eyebrow, then frowned.

Milgasia
nodded, looking out towards where the black clouds drifted on the horizon.

"Perhaps
it's time we speed up our pace a little."

Zelgadis
nodded.

***

Amelia
Seyruun looked at the gnarled elder with arched eyebrows, the skepticism
clearly displayed. "You mean to say
that the only reason your village is still standing is because . . ."

The elder nodded, and bringing
himself up to his full, generic-wizened-old-elder height (which, mind you, is
roughly the size of a short elf), looked up at the white and pink clad princess,
and said, while clearly missing the objective of the question, "Yes,
Zellas's forces intervened. Oh, we were
putting up a good fight alright, and of course, we gave them a lot of trouble,
in fact, my third son's daughter's cousin's roommate . . . or was it my fourth
cousin's stock boy, well, regardless, he got up on the ramparts and . . .
"

The princess began to tune him out,
deciding that trying to interrupt his self glorifying monologue would be more
trouble than it was worth. Two weeks
had past since her envoy had left the last town, yet they were supposed to have
been staying at an in as close as yesterday; all the seaports, burgs, and
city-states in a hundred mile radius seemed to have been leveled with a
ruthless efficiency. What was supposed
to be a diplomatic mission to the outlying cities around Seyruun had turned
into a flop . . . not because of any fault of her own, but because a complete
lack of life. The towns hadn't just been destroyed, they had been annihilated. Nothing left in the least, not so much as a
dog or even rats. The only sign that
the villages even existed were the burnt out hulks of buildings.

Yet here was a town dead center in a circle of decimation, which
appeared to have weathered multiple attacks without so much as a scratch.

'But why would Zellas, a lady of
darkness, defend a human settlement?
Against another mazoku, no less?' Ameria wondered

In her past experience with the
devil race, she had found them to be an evil, despicable lot, bent on causing
and enjoying the suffering of the humans they harassed, and on occasion, the
small, fury animal that stumbled into their path. They were the epitome of malice, creating pain for the sake of
pleasure.

'Maybe a split between the mazoku hierarchies,
then. It was the only way she could
explain this in any rational manner.
The forces of the Ruby Eye had to be grasping at straws, with Phibrizo,
Gaav, and a piece of their lord destroyed, all in the past five years. It wouldn't surprise her in the least if the
cruel beasts turned on one another if it suited personal gain. In fact . . .'

A stray bit
of conversation broke through her thoughts.

Amelia eyed the elder suspiciously,
hardly believing what she had heard. Or
thought she heard. Or possibly could of
heard. But she was really sure she
hadn't heard what she had heard. Yeah.

"Umm…excuse
me…did you just say…" She raised
her finger, sweatdropping every so slightly.

"They
part about my cousin's brother's nephew's great uncle twice removed fighting
off that were-shrew? Why yes, he
certainly was a brave lad, wasn't . . ."

Amelia
sighed, and shook her head. "No
no, you said something about a priest . . ."

The man paused. "Yes, I said that too; now what was his
name? Zero? Zelo?
Jello? Umm . . ."

"Xellos?"

The old man's eyes lit up.
"Yes, that's it! He lead forces
against Dolph before they even got neat
our defenses! Great man . . . I had a
lovely cup of tea with him . . . but then, most of Zellas-sama's troops were
remarkably nice to us. Not a single
fight during their entire occupation."

"Don't you find it the least
bit strange that these . . . creatures would just up and help you after
spending years trying to destroy you?"

The elder
shook his head. "No, Zellas-sama
has never made an aggressive move towards us.
Not that she would, as we have nothing here that she would want, but as
it went, Dolphin's forces attacked us, Zellas intervened. Simple as that!"

"But .
. . but . . . Mazoku are evil! Even Mr.
Xellos! He wouldn't help!" she
protested.

The guard next
to the elder shook his head. "Nay,
I'm afraid thou art incorrect, your highness.
Lord Xellos here resided neigh constantly during any battles. If it were not for his gallant actions, we
would have fallen before Deep Sea many a night ago. As it remains, Zellas-sama hath managed to push Dolphin's forces
back unto the Demon Sea."

Amelia
sweatdropped at the strange guard, and nodded.
"Thank you, then . . . you may go.
Umm . . . I guess I'll call you if I need anything."

The elder
and guard nodded. "You'll relay
our message to Seyruun, then? They'll
send help?"

Amelia
smiled reassuringly. This was familiar
territory. "Of course. Don't worry about a thing, as long as
Seyruun exists, justice will triumph over the dark mazoku!", she cried,
striking her traditional Sugar Princess of Justice ™ pose, complete with
Sparkle Action ™ eyes.

Inside, a
small, but very loud voice was screaming that something wasn't right; that her
world was about to come crashing down.



****



The heat,
bad enough alone, was made all the worse by the remnants of battle. The parched and cracking earth around the
fortress city had become the base of a hellish scene, upon which blue-red
flames and thick, black smoke of burning debris played, scorching the air and
the throat. Any poor soldier still
standing was sucking down mouthful after mouthful of hot, oppressive hell; to
live was a struggle, to say nothing of actually fighting. If there was hell to be found, it was
here. Phibby had nothing on this
landscape.

The soldier grunted, wiping sweat
away from his tan face, and tossing back his short, bowl cut black hair. With casual, practiced ease, he hefted an
ash black zanabato over his muscled shoulder, letting the hot metal rest
on the black material of his
uniform. The massive sword slid on the
loose cloth till it knocked against a metal shaft, causing the other
implement fastened to his back, a
rather large yare, to shift.
Readjusting the pole arm with his free hand, he continued on.

"Well, this just sucks, ya know?" He muttered to himself as he stepped
forward. "Sure, Shiredo gets to
skip out on this . . .namby pamby ninja boy . . ." he coughed slightly, but took another step.
"Not even a squad to go out with me . . . wimps. Make me do the perimeter run . . .but ya know what they say, ya
know . . ."

His conversation was cut short as a
blast of scorching air nearly swept all 6" foot 8' of him off his feet,
his loose, kimono like uniform whipping back and forth in the gust. Leaning against the gale and closing his
eyes, he continued to press forward, raising a large, callused hand to shield
his face. As the air around him cleared
of smoke, and the wind died, he suddenly wished he had let the maelstrom carry
him back.

"Well shit."

The cause of the flurry was waiting
about two and a half meters away, eyeing him from its perch on an ash streaked
anvil. Glittering golden scales, white, leathery wings, and silver, razor sharp
claws were all in harsh contrast to the dark metals and crumbling, blackened
walls of what must have been a forge.

It wasn't big as dragons come, not much more than twice a horse.

'A wyvern', he thought.
'Shouldn't be too much trouble . . .'


But it was still a dragon, and its ear piercing shriek at his
arrival showed a decided anti-human bias.

"Damn, ya know!"
The black haired man shifted his weight and sent the Calvary sword
swinging in a wide arc, hoping to catch the creature before it finished its
cry, thus ending a rather nasty confrontation quickly, if not messily.

The wyvern, however, had different
ideas. It leapt upward, trying to take
flight before the whistling blade reached it.
At this, it was only partially successful, as the horse slayer took the
last foot or so off the reptile's tail.

Unbalanced, the creature plummeted,
unable to maintain flight with the lose of equilibrium. The guard, startled at
both his success and failure, was forced to dive out of the way, dropping the
massive Calvary sword in order to avoid being crushed under the two ton falling
reptile.

'Aww shit. Now it's pissed . . .'

Regaining its footing, the golden
creature reared back on its talons before striking out with it's head, razor
sharp jaws snapping at the soldier, screaming like banshee the entire
time.

The soldier saw the jaws coming,
and sidestepped and spun, grabbing the creature's extended neck as it
passed. He gave a yank, his muscles
taunted . . .

And had to let go almost
immediately as the rest of the body followed the head, razor sharp talons eking
furrows where he had stood a moment earlier.
It spun around, its formable bulk moving as lithely as a snake, jaws
open and heading straight for him . . .

The creature gave one final scream as
the guard shoved his yare through the open maw, ducking out of the creature's
last dash as momentum carried the great beast forward, till it came to a rest
with an earthshaking thud.

"Heh. Dumb bitch." He gave a broad grin as he pulled the spear from the dragon's
mouth, wiping whatever passed as blood in this particular nasty on its golden
scales.

"Shouldn'ta tried, ya
know?" He gloated, and stepped
away from the creature. The heat
radiating from the dead body was just to much; while the thing didn't breath
fire, the day was oppressive enough as it was, and the glare from the golden
body wasn't helping things, either.

As he turned to pick up the
Zanabato, he realized two more of the creatures had arrived, perched and
watching him curiously, their eyes narrowing to slits as he stared at them.

"Ya know . . . this sucks . .
. how the hell did I miss you guys, anyway?" Smiling grimly, he hefted the yare . . .

As the one closest to him moved to
lunge forward, another cry shook his already rattled head. He glanced up to see another flash of gold
several hundred feet up.

"Shit, not more of ya . .
."

Now he was
starting to get worried. He had beaten
two at once before, but three would really be pushing it. And under these conditions . . . 'Yep', he
reasoned, 'No dishonor in retreating now .'

He moved to run . . .

A small
beige blur seemed to launch itself from the flying wyvern's back, plummeting
towards Earth, rapidly resolving into a human form. It twisted in air as it fell, and the soldier caught a flash of
metal as it angled to land by the wyvern.
Well, the free faller didn't exactly land by the wyvern; it more landed on the unfortunate beast, which was cleaved in equal halves by the
gravity powered swordfighter.

Before he could move to help the sky
diver (who most certainly would need it; he had to have fallen at least a hundred
feet) or go after the other wyvern, the third golden creature dive bombed the
second, and he realized that what he had first mistook for another undersized
dragon was, in fact, a full grown Golden Ryu, which promptly tore into the
lesser reptile.

As he watched the larger creature
shred the hapless wyvern with grim fascination, a rough, cold hand was placed
on his shoulder.

He spun to face the beige clad
skydiver, who apparently hadn't been hurt at all in the fall. Bluish locks poked out form under a cowl and
mask, and a wickedly sharp sword was held loosely in the man's left hand.

"Are
you okay?"

The guard
chuckled nervously. "Should be
askin you that, ya know? After all, you
were the one that just fell a couple hundred feet . . ."

The man
shook his head. "I'm used to
it. My partner over their, that golden
dragon . . . he's done it a couple times before. Mind telling me what's going on?"

The guard
smiled, ill at ease with the plummeting Wyvern slayer, but answered anyway.

"Names Rouku, Imperial Guard
to her Highness Lady Sai Hachi. As for
what's goin on . . . ya seemed to have just stumbled into a little fight
between the City of Hachi and Deep Sea's army."

The hooded man nodded. "Well, least I got here before they
destroyed the library . . ."



****



At first glance, one would see
nothing strange with the small, white and black bird perched quietly in a bell
tower above the smoke and haze of battle, looking down upon the walled city of
Hachi.

But this
falcon, in particular, was a little too interested in the goings on around him,
as he hopped down to a lower balcony, and assessed the situation.

The battle, it appeared, was at a
standstill. For now, at least, Dolph's
forces seemed content staying close to shore or digging in all around the
walled city. A fewer structures still
smoldered outside the stone gates; the humans had burnt everything they could
before retreating. Now, it was simply a
waiting game. Save for that brief flash
of fighting between that one guard, the two newcomers, and those wyverns,
nothing had happened in almost two days.

'Mostly
lesser demons', the observer noted. 'A
few big ones…nothing my masters couldn't handle. The dragon, though . . .'

The Golden Ryu gave him a moment's hesitation,
not so much because it was a dragon . . . no, his master and his mistress were
more than capable of dispatching a dragon.
But this particular dragon . . . and it's rider . . . he hoped the end result
would be beneficial. If it wasn't . . .
well, then it wasn't.

Overall,
though, he thought this reconnaissance was a waste of time. But his master had insisted he determine
exactly what was going on; Dolph had
let up on the Northern Front after fighting constantly for over a year. "Anything to cause her to divert
forces", they had said, " Had to be something big".

He hopped
down from his perch, letting the winds catch his outspread wings, allowing them
to carry him higher. Regardless of what
he thought, his goal had been reached.
If his beak had allowed, a small, self satisfied smile would have been
displayed, as he streaked upward before vanishing into the clouds.



***

"Xellos!"

The melodic
call reverberated through the empty chamber, bouncing off marble and crystal
walls, and echoing down deserted corridors.
But the caller needn't wait long.
Distance, like so many things, mattered little to the one she sought.

"You
called, Zellas-sama?" The purple haired priest chirped, as he phased into
existence, dropping to one knee and bowing his head to the women that reclined
on the plush, red sofa.

The Greater
Beast smiled. "Stand up,
Xellos. You should know what I called
you here for."

"Yaah
. . .should I, Zellas-sama? I'm afraid
I don't know . . ." he raised his
hand behind his head, giving her that 'I'm to cute to be real' look.

Zellas
shook her head and laughed. "Don't
play the innocent child with me, Xellos.
You know why you're here."

"Anoo
. . . your priestess?"

"My my, Xellos, do I detect a
note of hesitation in your voice?"
the Beastmaster's voice lilted, teasing her priest ever so
slightly. "No, never mind. Yes, her.
How has she been doing?"

"Admirably. She lead your Fifth Pack to victory at New
Cape, and is en route to North Ridge. Minimal
loses on are side." He reported,
smiling brightly.

Zellas gave
a cheerful laugh. "Is that
so? So well done . . . very well,
Xellos. You may return. I assume our defenses are almost
complete?"

Xellos
nodded slightly. "Of course. The 3rd Pack has already sealed off the
better part of the coast . . . in another month, if Dolph tries to get across .
. . the results will be . . . most enjoyable."

Zellas
laughed again. "Good. Now. . . I assume you having work . . . or
perhaps, something, to attend to?"

"Of
course. I was going to check up on the
5th pack ." He turned to leave.

"And
Xellos?"

The
trickster turned.
"Zellas-sama?"

"Give
my regards to Lina, and don't stay to long . . . you do have your own work to
do. And as you've pointed out . . .
she's more than capable of handling herself . . ."

Zellas
laughed as her flustered priest blinked out of her chambers.