El Hazard, Untitled
by Key

Chapter 2, eat your heart out :P  Of course, comments appreciated.
This chapter hasn't been edited yet and not completed either.  The
stuff mentioned in the teaser is going to happen in the next chapter.


Chapter 2: An Unfounded Solution

    Walking down the silent hall - apparently everyone was 
already at the party and having fun - she sighed, a bit 
disappointed with the ease Fatora had been forced by her 
sister.  

    However, with all those thoughts simmering in her head, 
she blatantly walked into Makoto, who seemed to be 
conveniently waiting outside of the priestesses' quarters.  
She giggled as Makoto reacted quite unusually to their 
close encounter by turning beet red.  Her choice of dress 
did nothing to help him at all.

    "Hi Alielle," muttered Makoto as he buried his hands 
into his pockets.  "What are you doing here?"

    Immediately, Alielle groveled, as she thought jealously 
about Fatora dancing with the prince, causing Makoto to 
take a step back in fear and amazement.  He really had 
never seen Alielle exhibit such a negative mood before.  
"Princess Rune doesn't want me around Fatora tonight, so 
Fatora told me that I shouldn't be with her."

    She sighed, "And now I'm missing all the fun."

    "Well it could be a lot worse," said Makoto with a weak 
smile.  "At least you don't have to be around that annoying 
prince."  He shuffled his feet and looked up at the ceiling.  
"I have this feeling that the instant I walk in there, he's 
going to drop Fatora and start picking on me."

    "Even you're going?" asked Alielle.

    "Yes, with Shayla," answered Makoto who was 
beginning to wonder how long it was going to take for 
Shayla to finish changing.  Fortunately for him, he seemed 
to have this habit to wear his school uniform day after day, 
so he looked presentable.

    Alielle's mouth opened slightly as she obviously 
dreamed about a date with Shayla.  She'd show Fatora.

* * *

    Shayla stood in front of the mirror staring at outfit 
number twenty-three.  She carefully turned to get a good 
look at the profile.  "Not bad, if I must say."  Making the 
final adjustments, righting her dress and such, she walked 
quickly to the door, eager to go.

    But even as she reached the door, Afura shook her head.  
"No no no Shayla.  When I said to dress nicely, I don't 
mean wearing barely anything.  What are you trying to do?  
Scare poor Makoto.  Just wear something decent."

    Shayla glanced over at the mirror and sighed loudly.  
What Afura had said was true.  By dressing up like this, she 
would be giving Makoto a completely invalid impression of 
her.  Reluctantly, she started to take off the dress, and 
tossed it onto the burgeoning pile in the middle of the 
room.

* * *

    "Shayla's going with you!" exclaimed Alielle with a 
touch of envy in her eyes.  She looked at Makoto, and gave 
him a completely innocent smile.

    "I guess so," said Makoto.

    "Good," she said with a smile, then becoming silent.

    But silence was short as the door opened, and out came 
Shayla dressed nicely in outfit number 47.  It truly had been 
a difficult task finding something decent to wear.  Alielle 
was delighted to see Shayla dressed so. conservatively.  
Even Makoto had a hard time trying not to stare at her.

    "Well," said Shayla, ignoring Alielle who had that 
familiar, hungry look on her face.  "Let's go Makoto."  He 
nodded, and sticking his hands into his pockets, he walked 
off.  Shayla followed as well, albeit with the Alielle stuck 
to her side.

    The threesome reached the Great Hall in no time and 
carefully walked into the crowd of the royal folk and other 
important guests.

    Fujisawa was already drinking his fill with Miz, who 
seemed to be keeping up with him, down to the last drop.  
Nanami was in the corner, as if she had been waiting for 
someone.  As soon as she saw Makoto walk in with Shayla, 
her face darkened, however only a moment.  Seeing Alielle 
with them seemed to have defused the danger that Shayla 
Shayla posed.

    "So, what took you so long?" she asked, as she 
approached the threesome who didn't seem quite at place 
with the royal folk.

* * *

    "Come on Makoto, you should try some," said Shayla as 
she grabbed Makoto's cup and topped it off with some 
wine.  

    He looked warily at the purple liquid in the cup, some 
what unsure.  "I don't know, Shayla.  I think I'm a bit too 
young to."

    "Aw, quit using excuses.  Just a sip," said Shayla.

    Nanami grabbed the cup away from Makoto's hands.  
"He says if he doesn't want to drink it, then he doesn't have 
to drink it."

    Alielle sighed.  "Not again!"

    Shayla grabbed the cup from Nanami.  "So, he didn't say 
that he didn't want to drink it."

    "He doesn't like to drink," said Nanami as she grabbed 
the cup back from Shayla.

    "How would you know?  He didn't even get a chance to 
try the wine at all!"  The cup transferred hands again.

    "Well, maybe Makoto prefers not to have his brain cells 
fried by wine.  Just look at you!"  The cup moved again.

    Makoto looked back and forth, worried that his neck 
would get stiff tomorrow.  "How about this, I'll just try a 
sip, and you two can stop arguing about this, ok?"

    Shayla grabbed the cup from Nanami, and somewhat 
blinded by her rage, she stuck it into his face and poured a 
quantity considerably more than a sip down his throat.  
Poor Makoto coughed as he felt the aromatic liquid rush 
down his throat and into his belly.

    Alielle, who was already tired with the fighting between 
Shayla and Nanami, glanced over at Fatora, who seemed to 
be still dancing with the prince, no doubt an infuriating 
thing as Alielle wanted to be the only person in her lover's 
life.  Watching the two like a hawk, as she hugged Shayla's 
firm waist, she shuddered as Fatora didn't seem to be 
putting a great deal of effort to pushing the snobby prince 
away.

     A twisted plot, born of alcohol and jealously, formed in 
her mind, and she disengaged from Shayla only to grab 
Makoto.  "If this doesn't get Fatora jealous, nothing will," 
she thought to herself, as she dragged her partner away 
from the protesting Shayla.

    Turning around, she pulled Makoto close, and by some 
weird reflex of the mind, whether it be the wine, or just 
pure strangeness, both of them kissed.

    The reaction was immediate, as Fatora stumbled, falling 
into the prince.  Shayla screamed, scaring the other guests 
who seemed to be having a good time.  Nanami, well, she 
was simply strangling Makoto for all he was worth.

    "Serves him right," thought Fatora to herself, suddenly 
wishing that she was in Makoto's position right now.  Then 
in that instant a brilliant idea struck her, one that involved 
poor Makoto who seemed to be turning an interesting 
shade of blue.

* * *

    "Makoto," roared Fatora who couldn't get the image of 
him, a guy, kissing her lover.  The idea was just 
preposterous, but it had happened.  Still, she kenw that she 
could get some satisfaction from giving Makoto her usual 
tirade.  He was nice in that he usually didn't talk back.  
"How could you done such a thing!  How come you kissed 
Alielle!"

    He sighed as he leaned away from her.  "I thought I saw 
her, Ifurita," he mumbled, hoping that the princess would 
just shut up for once and quite making it a point to crush 
someone else.  And how he managed to see Ifurita was 
strange.  Perhaps it was the liberal amount of wine he had 
drank?

    Fatora looked at Makoto critically.  "Well, you think 
you're all that important, saving El Hazard.  Well, think of 
this. if you don't do what I tell you to do, I'll kick you out 
of the castle."

    Makoto stepped up to Fatora.  "Now, what makes you 
think, by intimidating me,  I will do whatever you say?" his 
voice was wavering as if frustrated, not angry.  That was a 
good thing about Makoto, he did have a level head and was 
nearly impossible to piss off.

    The princess sighed, as she really didn't like to resort to 
brute force.  Grabbing Makoto's shoulder, she rotated him 
in such a way that in a moment, he was stuck in a 
submission hold.  "Ok, Makoto, how about this, you just do 
what I tell you, and I'll try to be nicer to you."  She applied 
enough pressure to make him grit his teeth together.  "Like 
for one thing, I might be really nice and not break your 
arm."

    Makoto simply nodded.  Fatora sighed, and released the 
hold.  She even straightened out his jacket.  "Ok, I want 
you to do a convincing job as my lover."

    He recoiled backwards.  "Have you gone insane!"  He 
tried to back away from him.  "You've just tried to break 
my arm, and you now expect me to willingly help you!"

    "Yes," said Fatora as her eyes watered up.  "You can't 
believe how he's driving me crazy!" she cried out, her tears 
of torment streaming down her face like a flooded river.  
"You're the only person who can even help me!  Please!"

    Makoto didn't know what more depressing to think 
about, the fact that a girl had subdued him or that the same 
"tough" girl was bawling like a little girl in front of him.  
But then again, it wasn't like him to walk away from 
someone who needed his help.  "Ok, I'll help."

    Fatora brought her sleeve in front of her face, wiping 
away all of the tears, and in moments, she looked as normal 
as ever.  "Great!  Now I want you to come with me."  
Hell, even her voice didn't sound as if she had been crying 
at all.

    "You've just pulled a fast one on me, didn't you?" asked 
Makoto who knew that there was nothing he could do, he 
had already made his promise.

    Fatora nodded earnestly.  "Don't worry, give me a week 
with that idiot prince, and I'll be really crying."  She 
clenched her fist as he body shook with agony.  "He's so 
close to driving me insane!" she cried out.  "That I want to 
do this!"  Her fist smashed into the wall with resounding 
force.  "to his ugly face."

    "Why didn't you just tell him that you're not interested 
in him?" asked Makoto who found it amazing that he felt 
some sympathy for her.

    "Oh yeah," said  Fatora who was holding her bruised 
hand.  "As if he'd care.  If he finds out that I'm a lesbian, 
he'll try even hard to win my love because it will only 
prove how desirable he is."

     "Really?"

    Fatora nodded.  "He'll go to any length to prove how 
desirable he is.  He's the only person more vain than I in 
this part of El Hazard."

    "And you pride yourself on being vain?" mumbled 
Makoto who was beginning to wonder whether he was 
simply dreaming.  

* * *

    Makoto sat across from Alielle and Fatora who were 
eyeing him in a strange way that scared him.  "Um, what 
are you thinking?" he asked tentatively.

    Alielle looked at Fatora.  "I don't know, he looks a bit 
too restricted.  I think we need to makeover Makoto right 
now."  Her eyes literally glimmered as she thought about 
the fun of dressing up the doll that was Makoto Mizuhara.

    "Girls?  Alielle?  Fatora?"

    Fatora nodded her head.  "Ok, I guess we have to raid my 
closet.  I think I have a few dresses that'll look decent on 
him."

     "Oh, Fatora!" giggled Alielle as she slapped her lovers 
hand gently.  "We don't want to make Makoto look like a 
girl.  Maybe just turn him into a bishounen."  Alielle 
yanked open a drawer filled to the rim with makeup: blush, 
lipstick, nailpolish, powder, and the like.

    "You're right," Fatora said thoughtfully, as she took 
some eyeliner and applied it to Makoto.  "Alielle, why 
don't you go get the tailor, and I'll work on Makoto here."

    Makoto stood up, somewhat getting close to "barely 
frustrated" as it seemed the two girls were not going to 
even acknowledge his existence.  "Are you two going to 
listen to me at all?" his voice was a bit strained, as if 
holding back from the urge to shout.  He had worn makeup 
before, once in his life, and he didn't like it at all.

    Fatora looked at him impishly.  "Of course not, if we 
even listened to you, then my plan would fall apart."

* * *