Once all the shouting died down, and the subject of clothing was finished, the feasting commenced. I.E. Tenchi, Aeyka, Washu, and Mihoshi watched in amazement as Lina, Gourry and Amelia fought over the food, eating at warp nine. There was a brief battle over a boiled fish, allowing Zel, with the air of long practice, to snag food from the melee for the ones who hadn't eaten yet. Ryoko, watching curiously, floated up from the couch to hover over the table. Firia, Rezo and Zel simply stared at her in amazement, while the food battle continued, not noticing Ryoko's elevated state to above the table. Rezo waved his staff below her. "Hmm . . . interesting."
Washu looked at Rezo. "She's not using any stage tricks, if that's what you're thinking."
"No, I was thinking that she's not using any magic."
"Magic?! You mean, magic exists on your world?"
"My world . . ?" In her attempt to explain, Washu's and Rezo's conversation degenerated into a high-level discussion of magic, science and planenar theory. Their conversation, after being deemed not understandable, was ignored by everyone else at the table except Zel, who somehow managed to follow the conversation.
"So, your dimensional doorways, act as gates between places?" He asked. "Yes, but they're far more stable than gates are, which is why I don't understand why the new one I was building dumped out you six before crashing down. It's almost as if . . . someone or something had deliberately interfered with the doorway." Washu put her chin on her hand and leaned on the table.
"Ryoko dear, could you please float a little higher? I can't see him with you in the way." After Ryoko obligingly drifted about a foot higher, Washu leaned forward, looking straight into Rezo's blue eyes. "And if something or someone did interfere with the doorway, you either have a very powerful friend, enemy or bored godling playing with your lives."
"FIREBALL!" Ryoko was propelled past Washu and Rezo, nearly clipping Zel's head on her way into the wall, very crisp. Amelia was being pinned to the floor by Gourry and Lina, shouting something about justice. Zel teardropped. Rezo asked, "Is she always like that?"
Lina answered, "Yep, unfortunately."
"Ryoko, are you still being a space pirate?" Kagato asked her.
She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Don't you remember?"
"No."
Before Ryoko could say anything, Amelia managed to squirm free of Gourry and Lina. Screaming about the 'truth of justice' she launched herself at Ryoko. Ryoko dodged easily, which means Amelia landed on Kagato, who promptly booted her back across the table. This time she hit Ryoko, and giving it all her best, tried to subdue the 'evil-doer' for the law. This did not work very well, as both Lina and Aeyka decided to help. Lina to pull Amelia off Ryoko, Aeyka to help Amelia capture Ryoko.
During the fight, which grew to involve various destructive spells, Juraian powers, Ryoko's sword and natural bad luck, Gourry hid under the table with Ryo-Ohki and Mihoshi, with Kagato, Zel, Washu, Rezo, Sasami and Tenchi ending up on the rafters and mostly out of range. Looking at Tenchi, who seemed remarkably used to the fighting, Zel asked him, "Does this happen a lot here?"
"Well, I don't know about Amelia and Lina, but Aeyka and Ryoko get into fights quite often." Tenchi replied, scratching his head, looking a bit embarrassed.
Zel ducked a flying piece of the couch. The piece of couch was on fire. "Hmm . . I can see this happening again, often, as neither Lina nor Amelia will ever change. Amelia wants to be a champion of justice, and Lina . . . she's gree-OW!" Lina had just hit him on the head, having managed to escape the general brawl for a moment. As Zel rubbed the bump on his head, she descended back down, landing on Amelia's head and knocking her out. Once Amelia was taken out the brawl slowly screeched to a halt. Then Zel, finding a chunk of table besides him, dropped it on Lina's head.
"DIEM WING!" She screeched, and the spell lifted him out and into the lake, where he swiftly sank to the bottom.
Lina paled, remembering how much trouble Zel had with swimming because of his body. She raced outside and dove into the water through the hole in the ice left by Zel's passage. Gourry, whom she had grabbed by the hair, was dragged along with her. A puzzled Ryoko followed, finding the lack of air no problem. She found Lina and Gourry trying to help a drowning Zel to the surface. Still not quite understanding what the problem was, she grabbed Zel around the waist and pulled him out of the water and onto the deck. While Lina and Gourry were swimming to the surface, Washu had Zel on his stomach and began pushing the water out of his lungs. Soon, after bringing up a surprising amount of water, Zel coughed and started breathing again. Lina quickly reached the surface and was on the dock in flash, supporting his head while his breathing slowly became less ragged. Tenchi and Mihoshi raced out of the house carrying blankets, kicking up the snow in their haste. Gourry, blue with cold, climbed up onto the dock, shivering badly, just in time to help everyone carry Zel and Lina, who had collapsed, into the house. Sasami had hot soup waiting for them and orchestrated the rest of the rescue, ordering them over to the bathhouse and into a hot bath.
Lina slowly woke, squinting against the gentle light of the floating bathhouse, her head pounding. Sasami, seeing that she was awake, came over with a cup of hot soup and a second cup of a bitter-smelling tea. "Here, the tea will make your head feel better."
Willing to do anything to make her head stop pounding, she drank down the tea, making disgusted noises at the taste. Once her head cleared up a bit, she looked around, worried. "How is Zel doing?"
"He hasn't woken up yet, though Washu says that his body's fine. Rezo's taking care of him, along with Tenchi- what did I say?"
Lina, upon hearing that Rezo was taking care of Zel, had promptly stood up, utterly disregarding her naked state and went off looking for Zel. She didn't have run long, for she found them, and Gourry, just two pools around the curve of the round bathhouse. Rezo was keeping Zel's head out of the water while Tenchi poured the hot water over Zel, hoping to rouse him soon. Relief flooded Lina, or at least until she noticed she had nothing on. Before she could do little other than turn red and take a deep breath in preparation for a scream, Sasami ran up and wrapped a bath wrap around her. Blushing furiously, Lina sank into the pool. "Thank you, Sasami. Has Zel shown any sign of waking yet?"
Rezo, tactfully deciding not to say anything about her previous nudity, answered, "He stirred a bit a few minutes ago, but nothing before and since then."
Gourry was nowhere near a tactful as Rezo. "Gee Lina, do you normally run around naked after a bath? You might give an old man a heart attack." She whacked Gourry on the head, which knocked him into the bottom of the pool. Sasami, Tenchi and Rezo teardropped, surprised by what just happened. At that moment, Zel began to wake up. Quickly releasing Zel to Tenchi, Rezo moved to the opposite side of the pool, well away from Lina, who rushed to Zel's side, and climbed out. Rezo soon dried off and left, Tenchi following him out as soon as Zel could sit on his own.
"What . . happened?" Zel asked, moving a hand up to his painful head.
"I cast Diem Wing and it dumped you in the lake. I'm sorry Zel, I never intended to half drown you."
"It's . . all right . . ohhh . . my head."
Both of his hands came up to the sides of his head, as if to press his aching head as Zel hunched over in pain. Sasami, suddenly realizing something, ran back to the pool Lina had woken up in. She soon returned with the soup and a new cup of the tea. Lina took the tea from Sasami and offered it to Zel. "It'll take care of the headache."
Zel quickly drank the tea down, then sagged against the side of the pool, clearly exhausted. In a few minutes, as the other watched anxiously, his color began to improve and he was able look around without pain.
Sasami silently handed the soup to both Lina and Zel, motioning for them to drink it. Quietly they did so, slowly sipping it, warming themselves from the inside out. Gourry watched them drink their soup enviously until Sasami poured him a second cup from the thermos she had with her. Gulping it down greedily, Gourry finished it in record time.
"Can I have more Sasami? Please?" He asked.
"Sure! As soon as the next batch is finished, because the rest of this batch goes to Lina and Zelgadis." She smiled cheerfully at Gourry, who was looking at the thermos hopefully, wondering if she would leave it unguarded long enough for him to get some more of the soup. No such luck, as she walked around the edge of the pool to place it between Zel and Lina on the pool rim.
"There you two go. Now, be sure to not get out of the water until Washu can check on you, and drink lots of the soup! I'll be right back, okay?"
"Thank you, Sasami, we will." Lina reassured Sasami as she walked out, as Zel seemed to be pretty preoccupied by his soup. Gourry, the ever-hopeful, began trying to figure out how to part them from their soup without getting fried or kicked out. He had to stop soon, as his brain began to overheat. No one said anything for a while, until Zel and Lina had finished most of the soup. Then Lina said,"Zel, I'm worried, how in hell did we ever end up here?"
"Well, you got in a fight with Amel - " Gourry was hit on the head for stating the obvious.
"You numbskull! I meant in this house, world whatever this is! Is that so very hard to understand!?!" Lina yelled at him.
Zel said, quite calmly, well-used to the abuse needed to keep Gourry on track with the rest of the group,"I'm not sure, but before I blacked out in that fight we were in I saw Valgarb, reaching for something on the ground."
"Hmm . . Did you see what he was reaching for?" Lina asked, concerned and a little worried, as the last time a Mazoku other than Xeros interfered with her life, she had ended up being posessed by a Dark Lord. And that had been unpleasant enough! Zel answered, after yanking the rest of the soup out of Gourry's reach,"No, but the fact he was after something is worrisome on it's own."
Zel quickly finished off the soup, gulping it down. "That's good soup, who made it?
"Sasami did, she a good cook, isn't she?" Lina grinned at Gourry's downcast face, who was looking mournfully at the empty thermos. "I think Gourry agrees with me."
Zel looked thoughtful for moment, then said,"Lina, did you see anything odd when you woke up? Other than being surrounded in green fluid?"
"Well . . . other than Rezo's being alive? Very little, in fact, the only thing odd was this woman, standing off to one side of Kagato's cylinder."
"I saw her as well, though I lost sight of her once out that blasted column. I wonder who she was."
"Hmm . . definitely no one I know, but her hair was a deep green or blue, that I could tell- GOURRY!!"
Lina promptly hit Gourry, who was looking mournfully into the thermos, trying to get a last few drops out. Unfortunately he hadn't been watching where he was swimming and swam right into Lina. Gourry drifted to the bottom of the pool while Lina blushed bright red. Zel simply looked at an array of buttons on the side of the pool. Curious, he pushed one. A wooden tray slid out of the wall, with chess pieces in a small box on the side. He looked at Lina. "A game of chess, Lina?"
She looked at him innocently. "Sure, but you're gonna have to teach me how to play."
Zel grinned. "Still trying that after you beat me three times in a row?"
"Can't blame a girl for trying, can you?"
"No. Do you want white or black?"
"White."
"Ok."
After setting up the board, Lina promptly beat Zel again, only to be trounced by him in the next two games. They were on their fifth game when Sasami came back with more soup.