The morning was fairly peaceful .... until Firia woke up that is. It wasn't so much that Firia was in a bad mood when she woke up, it was just that she had reverted to her normal form upon waking. And a rather large gold dragon does not fit easily into a normal room.
"FIRIA!!" Lina shrieked, before being shoved out the window by Firia's increased mass.
"Raywing!"
Lina hovered in midair, watching as the mass of golden skin that was Firia shrink back down into her human form.
"Good morning!"
Lina nearly fell out of the sky in surprise, whirling around to find the voice behind her was Ryoko. "Don't do that!"
Ryoko giggled mischievously.
"Well, you can't expect anything better from someone who was raised with no manners." Aeyka said from her spot on the balcony.
"Better no manners than a spoiled brat." Ryoko stuck out her tongue at Aeyka.
"What was that Miss Ryoko!?!" Aeyka nearly growled, glaring at Ryoko.
"You heard me Aeyka." Ryoko growled back, glaring with a type of gleeful malice.
Lina just barely made it out of the way before the fireballs began to fly in earnest, and managed to stay out of the way of the most serious of the explosions. She perched on the windowsill, watching the fight with interest. Ryoko and Aeyka didn't seem to be using any spells ...
"That's normal for them, I'm afraid." Lina jumped, nearly falling off the windowsill. Washu leaned against the other side of the window frame from Lina. She waited until Lina had re-settled herself before saying anything more. "And their powers are to them, in the way that your magic is to you, an utterly natural ability."
Washu made a sweeping gesture towards the two combatants, ignoring the sounds of Firia grumbling in a rather embarrassed tone as she got dressed. "My daughter has several abilities that cannot be found in any species, or, for the ones that can be, definitely no two of them from the same species. Aeyka, on the other hand, while untrained, is undoubtedly the most powerful female on Jurai. These fights force both of them to improve, to train, so to speak, in ways to defeat an opponent with a very different fighting style."
Lina looked at Washu, noting the similarities between her and Ryoko. "Why are you telling me this? Not that I mind, but why?"
Washu smiled faintly. "You have much in common with them." She turned back to the fight, saying nothing more. Lina watched for a bit longer, before becoming bored with it and ... "FIREBALL!"
Rezo groaned, wondering why his head felt like there were several ogres in there trying to stomp his mind into jelly. An answering groan from across the room gave him a clue, as memories of the last night began to come back.
Did I really get that drunk?
He rubbed a hand across his face clumsily, wondering. He decided to not open his eyes, as it would probably be more painful to his head than it was worth.
"Rezo? You awake?" Rezo winced, despite the fact that Yosho had been speaking in a whisper, that had hurt! Rezo gave a faint grunt in reply, wincing and covering his ears when Yosho chuckled softly. He felt a cup pressed against his lip gently, as Yosho supported his head.
"Drink this down, it will help with the headache."
Rezo drank willingly, anything was better than the headache he had. In a remarkably short amount of time, he found that the pain in his head had receded enough for him to sit up, and shortly after that, to open his eyes without too much pain. The first sight to greet his eyes was Kagato, drenched in cold sweat and shaking badly, leaning against the opposite wall with his head thrown back. Kagato did not look good, his skin having taken on a ashy-purple hue and become paler than normal, as well as the often violent shudders that shook his body. Maybe ...
Kagato flinched back, looking wide-eyed and out of focus at Rezo, who had placed a single hand on Kagato's forehead.
"Hold still." Rezo said softly, his eyes closing and a look of concentration appearing on his face. As Kagato watched the blur that was Rezo's face, he could tell when Rezo's hand began to glow, and a feeling of cold, sweet, pain-freeing cold, followed by a soothing warmth began to flow from that glowing hand.
"Interesting." Yosho murmured, watching as Kagato's color improved, and the shivering slowed, then stopped. Kagato watched Rezo, a puzzled frown crossing his face. "How did you do that?"
Rezo sat back, laying his hands in his lap and opening his eyes. "The spell is a simple focus of power upon someone, primarily for healing, but occasionally for a banishment of a possessing spirit or demon." Rezo blinked, wondering why the other two looked so confused.
Tenchi glanced over at Zelgadis, who was walking next to him on the path up to the temple. For some reason, they felt comfortable around each other, though Zel showed signs of being just as amoral as Ryoko and that did bug Tenchi, as did Tenchi's lack of guts around the females bothered Zel. But for now, they were ignoring that and just trying to understand the strange things that were going on in both their lives.
"So, Yosho runs a shrine up there?" Zel gestured with the sake bottle he had in one hand towards the top of the stairs they were going up.
"Yup, he's been running it longer than my father's been alive." Tenchi eyed the sake bottle, wondering if Zel had the tendency Ryoko had towards singing when drunk.
Zel stopped on the stairs, turning to look closely at Tenchi. "Hmmm ... interesting."
"What?" Tenchi blinked, surprised and a tad nervous.
"You resemble your grandfather about as much as I resemble mine ... though with you the resemblance will probably grow stronger as you get older."
"What brought that on?"
Zel shrugged, slinging the bottle over his shoulder after taking a quick swig from it. A single jump from the step he was standing on had Zel on a step about twenty up from Tenchi, who went absolutely bug-eyed. Zel smirked as Tenchi ran up the stairs to where he was standing. The smirk faded as he noticed how easily Tenchi could clear four or five stairs at once.
"You're definitely more than what you seem to be, Zel."
"I could say the same about you."
They continues the climb in silence, wrapped in their own thoughts, until they reached the shrine grounds. There they stopped dead in their tracks, jaws dropped in shock, at the three-way battle going on in front of them.
Kagato grunted, barely deflecting the jab of Rezo's staff towards his ribs. Rezo, in turn, used the motion from the block to get the staff into a position to block Yosho's overhead swing with the bokken he was using. The three leaped back from each other, assessing and calculating each other's abilities.
Rezo was the first to attack, a quick feint at Yosho with his staff that swung him around into a low swipe at Kagato's legs. Kagato easily jumped out of the way of the staff, an underhand swing of his bokken nearly connecting with Rezo's head. Both of them managed to avoid a stab from Yosho, albeit not easily. Again they broke off from each other, as silent as before, considering. A slow grin spread across Kagato's face. Though it had been Yosho who suggested this sparring match, he was glad he had, as many memories and instincts were floating around his head and body, most of which he did not know the reason why he had them.... And this fight, this training, just may be the key to understanding them.
"Hey! Sasami has had breakfast ready for an hour now! Just what is taking so .... long ... ?" Lina's jaw dropped, as did Gourry's, Aeyka's, Sasami's, Firia's, and Washu's.
"Whoa . . " Gourry murmured, never taking his eyes of the display of fighting ability being done by Kagato, Yosho, and to their surprise, Rezo.
"Brother?!?" Aeyka sounded utterly stunned, her voice breaking the plateau of silence that had encompassed the fighters. Yosho looked up from the fight, his body relaxing from his crouched defensive position. "What is it .. Aeyka .... Ooops." Yosho, while concentrating on the sparring match, had forgotten to maintain the disguise of being older than he was. He scratched the back of his head, looking sheepishly at Aeyka.
Aeyka, on the other hand, was obviously very upset ... wooden blocks appeared around her, crackles of electricity sparking between them and her.... Everyone in the immediate area promptly ran.
Washu clicked her tongue in a chiding manner, pushing a button on her computer keyboard to start the healing cycle. Everyone had come in to be healed after Aeyka's little ... discovery ... and resultant reaction. "Really, Aeyka should learn to control her temper."