This takes place in an alternate reality to our own. So there is no magic, no goblins trolls, mythical creatures, etc. Only humans. It is in a world were there are many ruins around filled with the remains of technology from a once prosperous world. Some character examples are: "Lina Inverse - high explosives and incendiary weapons expert" "Xellos - Mazoku priest and assassin." and so one. The first chapter is a first person narrative told from Xellos's point of view. Later chapters will be third or maybe 1st person, I've still to decide that.
One last note. I'm not sure if my plot line will allow it, but I was considering making this fanfic a crossover, but I'm not sure yet, maybe Ruin Explorers since that would kinda work, but Fam would have to be a genetic creature due to radiation, or something like that. Well, that's it.
As I checked my watch, one more time, I noticed that it was about 2 minutes to midnight. The air was dry and heavy, and my body shivered as a slight night breeze blew by. I was walking down one of the many stone paved streets that led through the city of Sailoon. As I walked down the abandoned streets, I happened to come across the City Theater. The theater was titled the "Austoria Theater." I had been to that theater once before. At the time it was showing the Mel Brooks version of "The Crucible," very funny stuff. Needless to say the Austoria Theater became famous for it's comedy plays, and considering how close the theater was to the Sailoon city castle, it was often visited by the royal family. However, one thing the Austoria Theater was not known for, was to stay open late. Which made it all the more surprising to walk by in the middle of the night to find it was open.
True, it was midnight and I had much more important things to do, but I was curious as to what was going on. I could hear music coming out from the theater, and it sounded like dance music. Within a couple seconds I had come up to the entrance to the theater. The sign up above the doorway indicated the theater was showing "West Side Story." Entering the theater was no problem, since the doors weren't locked. Down the multi colored hallway, following the signs that showed how to get to the main auditorium. Upon entering the auditorium I instantly spotted an old friend of mine leaning upon a banister, with her back facing towards me. I suppose I really couldn't call her and old friend, since we had only known each other for about 2 years and given the fact that she was only 16. She was short, a little more than 2/3rds my height, her jet black hair shined in the light and, even though I could only see her back, I knew that she also had deep blue eyes. She was dressed in a formal outfit with a white shirt and red pants. She, apparently, was watching all of the people that were on the theater stage. They all were dancing to the music that I had heard earlier. There was also people serving appetizers to the people not dancing. Everyone in the auditorium was dressed in rich, colorful, and expensive clothing. Obviously it wasn't a play but a party.
"Welcome friend." I heard a deep voice address me from behind. I turned and found myself face to face with a troll. Actually, it wasn't a troll but something far worse. It was King Phillionel of Sailoon. King Phil, although human, was occasionally referred to as the troll king due to his horrendous looks and hairy features.
"Hey Amelia, I found you a dance partner." He called out to my friend that was up against the banister. Amelia turned, she looked absolutely gorgeous in her formal gown.
"You did daddy?" Amelia asked Phil. Yes, King Phil was the father of Amelia, royal princess of Sailoon. Strangely enough, while Phil was "a little less than ravishing," his daughter, on the other hand, was rather pretty, and a bit cute.
"So much for genetics." I though to myself. In my opinion, it wasn't surprising to find that Amelia was without a dance partner. You only messed around with the princess of Sailoon, if you had a definite route of escape and were in peak physical condition. Of which I had both, and besides I had nothing important going on at the moment, that would change soon however, but I decided to have some fun before I became too busy later on.
At first when Amelia turned to face her father she had a big smile on her face. She was wondering who her dance partner was. That was until she discovered that her father was indicating me. The smile dropped to a small, but friendly grin as she took one step backwards.
"Mr. Xellos, what're you doing here." She asked me. I promptly brought up my right hand, and waved my index finger.
"Sore wa himitsu desu." I replied. That was Japanese for, "That is a secret." Actually I didn't have a reason to be here, but why not keep her guessing at my purpose.
What was left of her smile then disappeared to form a slight frown. While her father continued to smile. Judging from Phil's reaction, it was obvious that Amelia hadn't told her father that I was a member of the Mazoku clan. Mazoku had a variety of different meanings. One was "Race of Evil," or "Demon Family," or just simply "Monster." Mazoku also used hellish term to describe one's rank in the great Mazoku hierarchy, names like hellmaster, lesser demon, etc. Needless to say, It was a good thing that Phil didn't know; otherwise I would have a whole kingdom dedicated to my destruction. For you see, King Phil was, what we Mazoku call, a justice fiend. Always believing in good triumphs over evil, chivalry, honor and such stuff like that. The kingdom Sailoon itself was termed the White kingdom, due to the fact that Mazoku, bandits, thieves, etc were not allowed inside. Also, amazingly enough, crime almost didn't exist within the city walls. However, you're probably wondering how I got to be friends with a royal princess in such a noble and respectable kingdom, despite my less than chivalric background, well that is a long story and one that is meant for another day.
Moving on ahead a bit, eventually Phil convinced Amelia to dance with me for awhile. Amelia was kind of a softy and didn't want her father to worry about her. So we headed for the stage. As soon as we climbed the miniscule stairs and stepped upon the stage I spotted two more friends of mine: the redhead Lina and the blonde haired, jelly-for-brains, Gourry. They were dancing together on the stage and Lina spotted me as soon as I had spotted her. She tried to stop dancing to come over and greet me, but Gourry hadn't spotted me so he kept on dancing. Gourry was way stronger than Lina, so she couldn't get away from his grip. Consequently, it went from dancing to dragging, with Lina in tow. I just smiled and chuckled at Lina's misfortune.
Moving ahead a bit more. Eventually the dancing died down and dinner was served. Phil invited me to join them, seating me at the same table that Lina and Gourry were sitting at. Phil invited me because I was a friend with Lina and Gourry. He also went on to say, "Friends of my friends are my friends." I smiled, gave a small bow of respect, and thanked him. Phil went to seat himself at the head of the dinning room. Amelia sat next to her father on a big table that was decorated with gold, silver, and gems, the king's table. A few toasts were offered to the health of the king, princess, and so on. Then the feast was served, before I had even touched my food, Lina and Gourry were scoffing down fork fulls of food faster than humanly possible. I hadn't eaten for awhile so I eventually cleaned my plate.
While we ate Lina and I got talking, though Lina tended to shoot chunks of food at me while we talked.
"So Xellos, how did you get here?" Lina asked me.
I smiled at her, "Oh, I was only walking by and saw that the theater was opened at such a late time. So, I investigated."
"Not that," Lina continued, "HOW did you get here? You know that Mazoku are forbidden to enter the country!" That last part was a statement not a question.
"I was only on my way home and passing though Sailoon was the quickest way to get there."
"Why were you heading home?" Gourry asked, stepping into the conversation.
"That is a secret." I replied.
Lina sighed, "I should've known you wouldn't tell us."
"I can tell you this Lina." I said, "you may want to watch your step, for your own well being."
"Why is that?" Lina asked.
I was surprised, to say the least. Lina didn't know what I was talking about, that was odd. She normally kept on top of things like this.
"Oh I thought you knew." I answered her.
"Knew what?" she asked again.
"About the threat of war." I said.
"WAR!" Gourry jumped to his feet. Unfortunately he had shouted the last part and had gotten the attention of everyone in the room, including Kind Phil.
"War you say?" Phil said in alarm as he bounded over to my table. Before I realized it, my entire view was clogged with black coarse hair and a foul breath, that could cut through bank vaults.
"Uh the war," I said nervously between gasps for air, "between the Americans and the Mazoku."
"What, I've never heard of this." Phil then turned and headed for the exit of the theater.
"Where are you going daddy?" Amelia called after her father.
"To my council room, I need to find out more." He said and with that he was gone.
"What war, Mr. Xellos?" Amelia turned to ask me.
I figured I should explain, "I'm sure you all know about Shabranigdo's death." I stated.
"Shabranigdo, who's that?" Gourry asked before he was clubbed over the head by Lina's fist.
"How could you forget Gourry?" Lina shouted at him, "Shabranigdo the leader of the Mazoku clan. Ruby eyed Shabranigdo, the destroyer of countless towns and cities."
"Ohh, I see." Gourry said in a dazed sort of fashion.
"I don't see why I try." Lina gave up, "So what about Shabranigdo?" Lina continued on, "I heard that he had died 3 months ago due to old age."
"Bingo, as sharp as ever, Lina" I said, "and ever since Shabranigdo's death the Mazoku clan has been divided into two factions."
"I know," Lina interrupted me as she prepared to give us a lecture. "The Mazoku clan has been divided in two," Lina explained, "On one side is Gavv, also known as the Demon Dragon King, on the other side is Phabrizo, also known as Hellmaster. Gavv loves war the most and is probably the one that is attacking the Americans. Hellmaster Phabrizo is not so fond of war, but is just as ruthless as Gavv is. Am I right Xellos."
"I must say I'm impressed Lina." I complimented her. "Yes Gavv has declared war on the Americans, and yet the Americans are at an advantage over Gavv. But, you see the longer and the bloodier a war is; the more ecstatic Gavv gets. It's like he's a true demon feeding off of hate and death. Besides, I know Gavv, he wouldn't do such a thing unless he had an Ace-in-the-hole somewhere." I finished off. Then I hailed one of the waitresses to bring me a refill of my drink.
"What a horrible man." Amelia whined.
"He's just like any other Mazoku you may meet, except Gavv is in a position of power." I told Amelia.
"I suppose that applies to you too Xellos." Lina said mockingly.
"Of course I'm an exception." I told her.
"Yeah right, since when?" She shot back.
"Now, now Lina is that any way to treat a friend." I smiled back.
"Your not my friend Xellos," Lina replied, "and even saying acquaintance is practically pushing it too far. Now why don't you go back to what ever it was you were doing before I flame your ass."
"Civilian weapon's aren't allowed in the theater Miss Lina. Not even inside the city" Amelia warned.
"Then wait for me out by the front gate while I get it from the guards." Lina said as she got up from the table and left the dinning room.
"Hey, where's Lina going." Gourry said with a mouth full. Amelia sighed and started to explain the whole thing to Gourry. "
I believe I've been challenged to a duel." I said with an amused smile. Lina was an expert with high explosives and incendiary weapons, "This should prove to be a rather interesting spectacle." I said as I turned and left the dinning room. I then headed for the Sailoon city's front gate and leaned up against a nearby tree to wait for Lina.
Sure enough a few minutes later Lina came by the front gate. No longer was she in her formal wear, now she was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a white shirt and a black trench coat. I knew that underneath the trench coat there was a whole horde of ammo. As if to emphasize this she pulled a small, portable, grenade launcher out of her coat. I could tell that she had already loaded the launcher, probably with just paint balls. We had dueled before in the past and we never tried to kill each other. We tended to get into duels quite a lot. Sometimes Lina won, and most times I won. The only weapon I had with me was my staff, but that was enough, besides I also had speed on my side. For you see I was a full-fledged Mazoku assassin.
We went up to each other and shook hands, then we turned to walk 20 paces away from each other. Amelia and Gourry were sitting outside of the main gate and were watching us. When we reached 20 paces we turned to face each other and then brought our weapons up, to show each other that we were armed. Finally we were ready to begin. Lina brought her weapon to bear on me. She then fired a round. I easily dodged it; Lina then pointed her weapon and shot a round in the opposite direction. Two explosions rocked the silent night and instantly the pitch darkness was destroyed as the entire area was smitten with light.
"Lina," I called, "You didn't tell me your were armed with live ammo."
"The first two rounds," Lina explained, "were only Flares, now I can see you perfectly." I was in trouble, without the night to cover my movement I was fair game to Lina's weapon. She fired again, this time it was a green paintball round. I could tell because the flare light was almost as bright as the sun. The round missed, only to be followed by more paintball rounds. Again she missed, due to my agility, but I couldn't keep it up forever. Lina would eventually run out of ammo, but how long would that take.
Another round hit the ground next to my foot in a spray of color. I managed to jump back before the paint leaped on me.
"Damn it, stand still!" Lina cursed at me. I only smiled back at her. I saw her fire another shot; I dodged that one too. It wasn't until I felt the paintball whiz by; that I realized that if hadn't moved Lina would've hit me straight on the mouth. I rolled on the ground, and tried to stand up. As soon as I did, a paintball struck me right between the eyes. Needless to say, it hurt incredibly. I sank to my knees with my face in my hands. I wanted to shout cries of revenge at Lina, but I knew that she had won fair and square. Besides I could always get her next time. A few tears ran out of my eyes, the pain on my face was incredible. When I withdrew my hands from my face I saw that I had been hit with a pink paintball. I noticed Amelia kneeling next to me, first aid kit in hand. At first she looked worried, but then she saw my face, which was covered in pink paint.
"Oh," Amelia said with affection, "doesn't Mr. Xellos look cute in pink."
"He sure does," Lina teased.
"I don't know," Gourry said pointlessly. I only scowled, and started to wipe my face clean.