Chapter 4


Xelloss woke up slowly to the sound of talking. He was vaguely aware of two familiar presences. The last thing he remembered was having an informal meeting with Mace-Sama's twin, Mace-Sama II. Oh yeah, and Filia and Jirasu were getting married - Married? That certainly got him to wake up in a hurry.

He sat up, momentarily winching at the pain in his forehead that he could find no happiness in, and looked around.

"I'm glad to see you conscious already," said a familiar female voice sarcasticaly. Two faces peered at him. One curious and one in an angry huff. He focused on the angry huff first.

"Filia?" he murmured groggily. He looked at the angry priestess kneeling beside him to the right. To his left - Jirasu!

I thought for sure it was a dream! his mind cried. Ugh, well that does it. I'm not waking up until everything returns to normal and I'm actually back on the hotel roof he vowed. He fell back onto the ground with an audible thud, never noticing the sweat drop that the two gave him. Blackness.

That's much better was his last thought before going to sleep.


Filia sighed, applying a makeshift compress to Xelloss' head, consisting of her hanki, even though the Mazoku Priest might not of needed it.

Despite his insensitivity to her fear, she was sort of worried about him. It's not every day that she saw him lying on the ground, unconcious and bleeding from the head with her mace implanted in his stomach. Then again, maybe it wasn't enough.

She hefted up the mace, glad to feel it back in her hands, and began to lovingly polish the blackish metal. Jirasu sat near a camp fire, poking idealy at the fire wood. She sat down across from him.

"You were saying something before we were interupted?" she asked. He nodded.

"I'm having girl troubles..." he said quietly. A blush spreading over his face. He began to figit. Filia nodded in encouragement.

"You see, there's this girl and I-I - " Nod from Filia. He stopped in embarrassment and idealy poked his pointer fingers together.

"Really like her?" Filia filled in. Jirasu nodded vigerously.

"Yes! It's just that I can't - I can't - "

"Say it to her face?" Jirasu nodded again in relief.

"You understand!" Filia smiled.

"I know how it feels," she said, slightly sweat dropping at his excitement. "So, what's her name?"

"Usagino Tenshi," he said, blushing even further. Instead of just turning red, he had started to glow.

"That's such a lovely name!" Filia said. She saw his downcast look. "Isn't it?"

"It's just that she's a...rabbit," he whispered, bending his head down with silent tears flowing down his face.

"A rabbit?" Filia repeated, her eyebrow twitching. I really should of known

"I've only met her once, but she was like my other half. Curse the kami that has done this to us, now we can never be together!" he ended in a wail. She handed him a towel.

"I found out that she was staying in the same hotel as you were and I sent her a love letter saying she was cute. I haven't heard from her since!!!"

"Love letter?" she repeated, her insides starting to boil. Masaka! The chances are so slim... demo...

"Room 2-5?" He looked up, surprised.

"Yes! How did you know?" he wondered, scratching his chin. Filia was quiet prepared to explode now. Her tail popped out.

"That's because 2-5 is MY room!" she yelled. Jirasu looked thgouthful for a moment. Something short of embarrassment dawned across his face.

"That's right! Her room number is 5-2. 25 is how old she is." Filia couldn't help collapsing on the ground.

"But that still doesn't help my problem..."

"And what is that?" Filia asked a bit warily.

"That she and I can never be together!" he sobbed.

"Don't say that!" Filia ordered, hopping to her feet and pointing her mace at Jirasu. She went into dramatic speach mode.

"Love holds no boundries that people - er, that is to say Mazoku cannot surpass! If you truely love her, then say it to her face. No one, but no one, can get in the way or destroy true love! Not even L-sama herself!" She finished her speach by striking a dramatic pose, mace pointing to the heavens.

Jirasu looked at her with teary eyes shining adoration. Waves crashed in the scenary behind the dragon. So what if it was from the stream? Too bad Amelia wasn't here. She would of been immensly proud.

"Now, go tell her!" she ordered, pointing towards the city. He nodded eagerly and left at a mad run. Filia sat back down and smiled in relief. That letter wasn't for her. She couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment. She really wanted it to be -

"Xelloss?" she called. She looked to where she had left her infurior to see the ground empty of Mazoku, the ground slightly flatened where Xelloss had lain for a brief time. She shrugged. If the idiot Namagomi wanted to go walking around with head trauma than that was his problem.


Xelloss popped back into town, the roof of city hall to be exact, fresh as a daisy. That had been wilted from lack of water. Or sunshine. Or carbon dioxide. The cold compress was still pressed across his head. He watched Jirasu run to the hotel. The fox zoomed past a relatively large crowd of men in front of a shabby tent.

Even from up that high, he could hear the unmistakable ring of Lina's voice. Oh, there was that thing where a fireball burst out of the tent, followed by screaming. Mostly by the guy that just got fire balled.

"I wonder what Lina-chan is up to?" he said to nobody in particular. He tucked the compress into his demensional pocket and disappeared.


"NEXT!" Lina roared. She rubbed her temples tiredly, casting a recovery spell in the process. So far she only had to do this five times.

"Oh, Filia-san's going to have to be grateful to me when this is over," she said. Amelia looked up from where she was sitting. Yes, still tied up.

"That is if we don't get kick out of town first," she muttered.

"What did you say?!" Lina snapped, her hands forming into the stance to make a fireball. Her nerves were already fried as it is and most likely, anything could set her off.

"Nothing. NOTHING!" Amelia cried in self defense. Lina relaxed slightly, the small fireball she had prepared dispersing. Amelia sighed in relief.

"I thought so." She got up and took a deep breath.

"WILL THE NEXT PERSON PLEASE COME IN HERE NOW!!!" she yodeled, slamming her hands down on the makeshift desk. When no one answered her she got up and went to the door. She looked left. Then right. Then back left again. She let out an uncustomary squeak.

No one was there.

The courtyard that was momentarily full of men was now deserted.

"Lina-san?" Amelia wondered, she trieds to unsuccessfully look past her companions shoulders but being still tied up, that was a very difficult task to accomplish.

"They're all gone!" Lina cried in dismay, turning to Amelia as she tugged at her hair in stress.

"Gone?" Amelia echoed. Lina started to turn red.

"This is all your fault!" she accussed. The princess' eyes grew large.

"Me?! You wanted to get Filia a boyfriend," she countered.

"But you had to go and agree with me!" Lina argued.

"Zelgadiss-san was right, we shouldn't of tried to tamper with Filia's life," said Amelia tearily.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! We are not tampering with Filia's life, we're just trying to boost it along," Lina argued. She crossed her hands over her chest stubbornly.

"Yare, yare. What have we here?" questioned an amused Xelloss as he brushed back the curtain and entered the pathetically made hut.

"Xelloss!" cried Lina, immediately grabbing the Trickster Priest in a choak hold. "What did you do to all the guys outside?!"

"What (gasp) makes you (choak) think I (cough) did (wheeze) something?" he managed.

"'Cause of your timely entrance!" Lina pointed out. Xelloss rapped her on the head with the red ball on his staff. This made her both let go and get even madder.

"Oww! Whaddya do that for?" she cried in indignation as she rubbed her sore head.

"You were going to strangle me," he replied. She glared at him.

"One last time now, what did you do to guys standing outside?" She made the move to use a fire ball. Xelloss held up his hand and grinned somewhat panickly.

"I did nothing really. I was going to see what you were doing and when they saw me they ran away. Not really my fault."

"You're forgetting about that fact that you're a Mazoku."

"Hey, I can't help that my rank is so widely known as it is."

"But your modesty sure isn't," she shot back. Xelloss chose to ignore her last remark. He walked over to Amelia and began to undo her bonds.

"So what do you think you're doing, Lina-chan?" he asked.

"None of your buisness!" The purpled haired Trickster Priest turned to look at Lina with eyes open, much to Amelia's chagrin. He had yet to finish untying the bonds at her hands.

"If you feel that way, then consider me gone. I don't want to be here when Filia-san finds out about you two trying to set her up on a date." With that done, he disappeared. Lina scratched her head.

"What's with him? If he already knew then why did he ask?" Lina wondered. She left the tent in search of for more guys. She froze when she heard a distintly familiar sound. She was hungry.

"Filia's boyfriend can wait, I'm hungry now!" she cried, bolting out the door, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

"Wait! Xelloss-san! Lina-san! Please untie me!" Amelia called, tears streaming down her face.


"Sugoi! I win again!"

"Another game!"


Filia teleported to the edge of the city, surprised at realizing how much distance she had managed to cover that morning.

She couldn't believe how much better she felt after finding out that she never really was supose to get a love letter. It turned out to be a nice day too so she decided to walk the rest of the way back to the hotel.

She noted that the towns people seemed to be in an excited rush today. Here and there, people drapped decorations outside their houses.

"I wonder if theirs some sort of local festival or something?" she pondered out loud.

She stopped short when someone suddenly appeared infront of her. Her anger from that morning came rushing back to her and she pulled out her mace once more.

Xelloss just smiled.

He held out her spare hanki as a small peace offering.

"Keep it, it has too many Mazoku germs on it," she said in what she hoped was her most bitting voice. Xelloss went unfazed.

"It had Ryuzoku germs on it first which you gave to me. It's only fair that you get Mazoku germs on you," he replied cheekily. She took a whack at him with Mace-Sama. When he moved to dodge the spiked iron end, she stepped past him.

He retaliated by walking beside her no matter how fast she went.

"Isn't this nice," he sighed for the second time that day. He threw a casual wave at the other pedestrians. They smiled back at him. That, and also threw a curious stare at the angry girl trying to walk faster than him that she was almost running now.

Xelloss gave up running and was now keeping an easy pase with her via floating. Now the other pedestrians were staring at him also.

"What do you want Xelloss?!" she exploded, hefting up her mace again. Xelloss, in turn, did a back flip in the air.

"I just wanted to return your hankerchief," was his reply, he glanced around to see almost everyone was now staring at him. Ugh, mortals! Haven't they ever seen a man talk to a woman in public before?

"But maybe this is not the right place. Shall we go?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, he duck down behind her and disappeared, taking her with him and scaring the bystandard.


"Wow, this guy's good," whispered one man. His friend nodded in agreement. Another guy shushed them. They all continued to watch the game in progress.

Lina and Amelia walked up to a group of people in the dining hall. Even though it was lunch, no one was eating, they had all formed around two people playing shogi.

"Hey, what's going on?" Lina asked a guy on her right, putting off her hunger out of curiousity.

"Two guys have been playing shogi all morning," the guy whispered back, not bothering to look at her.

"Oh?" said Lina, only half interrested. "Who's winning?"

The man beside her shrugged, focused on the game at hand.

"I think it's the blond guy that's winning..."

"Is he cute?" Ameria asked. The man looked at her like she was insane.

"How am I suppose to know?!" he cried, slowly inching away.

Tall blond? Hey! If he can play shogi that well, maybe this guy would be the perfect guy for Filia! I wish I could see him though Lina and Amelia both thought.

Lina got up on one of the chairs. Nope, still too short. She began to jump up and down. With each jump, slowly getting higher. She momentarily forgot that she could of just cast a levitation spell. Hunger can do that to you.

"Lina-san, what do you see?" Amelia asked.

"Just jump a jump minute." Big jump. "There - WHA? GOURRY?!" When she saw her co-hort sitting in the chair, she missed the chair completely and landed on Amelia.

The crowd parted, and sure enough, there was Gourry sitting at the shogi board. He gave her a wave and turned back to the board. He seemed to be concentrating the hardest Lina or Amelia had ever seen him do outside of battle.

"Maybe Gourry-san is playing with some kid or something," suggested Amelia. The crowd parted again. "Zelgadiss-san?!"

Zelgadiss ducked his head in embarrasement, hoping that the floor would somehow swallow him up to end his misery

"Hey, Lina, Ameria. Why are you too on the floor? Is it more comfortable sitting there?" Gourry asked. The two sorceress' sweat dropped.

"Of course it's not comfortable sitting on the floor, Jelly-fish brains!" Lina screamed. The crowd took one look at the outraged red-headed sorceress and decided that they had better places to be or incase they didn't, then they'll find one.

"Ano, what's wrong?" Gourry asked, scratching his head as if that would help him sort out this mess. The guy could play shogi but couldn't understand why Lina and Amelia were sitting on the floor. The answer shall come in due time...

"You were winning?!" asked Lina. Meanwhile, Zelgadiss sunk lower and lower into his seat.

"Yup!" he said proudly.

"I never thought you'd have the brain power to do so," Lina commented. Amelia placed her hand on Zelgadiss' forehead to checked his temperature, much to his chagrin.

"Seems normal enough," she said. He turned an interesting shade of red that Max Factor would just of loved to get their hands on.

"Actually," said Gourry, standing up, "I thought it was pretty nice of Zelgadiss to let me win a few times." He grinned at them.

"You let him win?" Lina inquired to Zelgadiss who's colour was slowly turning back to it's normal shade of blue.

"Of course. You don't think I could of played against Zelgadiss and win do you?" he asked. Lina and Amelia blew out a relieved breath. Everything was back to more or less normal.

"Well, since that's over with, let's eat! I'm starved!" Lina declaired, rushing to the food buffet with Amelia in hot persuit. Gourry made a more to follow them before everything was gone.

"Hey, Gourry?" The swords man stopped and turned.

"Yeah, Zel?"

"Thanks for the games," Zelgadiss said, holding out his hand. Gourry shook it and grinned his doofy, loveable grin. "You played very well."

"You too, hope the next hotel has a checker board like this one," he said, with that he left to try to get what was left of the food before Hurricane-Lina rushed in and claimed it all.

"Che-checker board?" Zelgadiss choaked, collapsing on the ground. "He thought he was playing a game of checkers all this time?!?!?!?"


Notes

Heh, heh. I just had to do that. ~_^ Sorry to all the Zelgadiss lovers out there, but Gourry is Gourry.


Chapter 5   |   Fanfiction