The Slayers sat around the breakfast table. Gourry was shoving the food into his mouth as fast as he could. Zelgadiss was attempting to peacefully drink his coffee/tea, or whatever it was. The only one unusually absent was Lina.
However, that oversight was quickly fixed as a fiery hurricane came rushing through the door and to the table where everyone, but Zelgadiss, promptly hid under the table in fear of their lives.
"I found it!" she declared, delighted.
Zel looked up from his beverage, "Found what?"
"I found a possible answer to all our problems," she declared, throwing an old manuscript down on the table and then staring at them, as if they knew what she was talking about.
"What is this?" Zel asked dryly.
Lina grabbed him by the collar to plant his nose nearly on the manuscript. "Can't you see, it's a map. It's suppose to be a map to a treasure that will grant wishes."
"Really?" was all the dumb swordsman could say as Zel pulled his nose away from the manuscript and examined it closely.
"Where did you find it, Lina-san?"
"I got it from a old traveling man." Lina smiled wickedly, "I had to convince him to give it to me."
"Lina, you didn't steal it from him after fireballing him did you?"
"NO!" Lina nearly yelled. "I fireballed him, then paid for the map," she added sheepishly.
Zel calmly rolled his eyes. "So, what do you know about this treasure."
Lina turned back to Zel, eyes gleaming in anticipation. "There are five pieces to the treasure. We have to find all five and when we do, we put them together, and we can make a wish."
Zel held his breath, "I could have my cure."
"Yeah, and I could have riches, a castle, and a handsome prince fall in love with my beauty."
"Beauty, what beauty?"
The other customers of the inn decided to make a quick retreat, when a tall, blond, and slightly toasted man went flying through the ceiling.
Lina glowered at the map. "Where are we?"
"Lina why don't you let me see the map?" Zel asked, trying to take the manuscript from the red head and was rewarded with an elbow in the gut.
After rubbing her sore elbow, Lina looked back at the map. "Oh, here we are. The hidden cave should be over that hill."
"Didn't you say that before?"
Again, a blond swordsman went flying. This time he went over the hill and disappeared. The group quickly ran over the hill, but no swordsman.
"Baka, where did he go?" stormed Lina.
Zelgadiss calmly walked around, carefully analyzing the stone wall.
"Zel, what are you doing?"
"Shhh," Zel calmly tapped the walls, until, instead of the thump of rock knuckles against stone, came the resounding crack of rock knuckles against metal. Zel lightly brushed the small metal panel and stood back as the wall quickly disappeared to reveal a passage. The swordsman lay on the floor, eyes still swirling from the head trauma (if there is such a thing for the thickheaded blond).
"Yatta, we found it! Let's go!" and she rushed into the passage, grabbing the swordsman by the hair and dragging him along.
Zel sighed, and followed the hotheaded sorceress and her dim-witted flunky.
He walked in to find Lina, light spell in hand, staring around at the cavern.
"Metal, the whole room is metal. You would think they would leave it stone and not cover it with all this." Lina declared, aghast.
Zel carefully walked around the room, staring at the runes that littered the walls. He stared at them, not being able to comprehend their meaning.
"Can you read them Zel?" asked the sorceress.
"No, they're too old, I don't know what...Huh, matte..."
They all stared in amazement as the metal melted and reformed, the letters changing to form a total different set of glyphs.
"Zel, can you...?"
"Yes, I can read these. Maybe they sensed my need for a translation."
"What do they say?"
"It says that L-sama, traveler of time, took from another world's future, five items, enhanced their abilities, and took them to the creation of this world. There she hid them throughout the world. They each have individual powers of their own, but together they have powers that link together to change reality to whatever the person who finds them wishes."
"All right! Let's find them."
The group quickly turned around and walked down the only tunnel from the cavern. However, this immediately led them to a floor trap.
They descended down a long narrow tunnel to stop at the bottom with a resounding thud.
"Itai"
Lina picked herself up to look around the room. Her eyes widened. The entire room was coated with gold, more runes covering its expanse. In the center stood a column that was obviously meant to stand out.
"What? Is this all?"
Zelgadiss looked at the runes. He couldn't read them, but he had a feeling they just said what he'd read before. However, his eyes wondered to the one rune he knew.
"Zel, what are you doing?"
Zel calmly walked up to the center column, staring at the large rune that was relieved in the metal surface. It seemed odd to have this one rune here.
"Zel, what does it mean?" Lina snapped impatiently, foot tapping the ground.
"It means... metal."
Zel ran a finger over the rune, wondering if it held any significance or if it was just an ingredient list for this strange cavern.
But, suddenly the rune sunk into the wall of the column, startling Zel as he jumped back. Lina, Gourry, and him quickly took fighting stances as they watched the column slide open, revealing a compartment inside and...
"A kid!"
The group just stared in shock as the kid, who had to be thirteen, walked out of the capsule. He stared at the group, a gold weapon balanced over his shoulder, then suddenly he closed his eyes and smiled, two kawaii fangs sticking out.
"Ya found me."
"WHAT?"
"Hai, Koganei Kaoru desu! Metal!"
Part 2 | Fanfiction