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Slayers! Yoyutchi
by Leaf-Chan (leaf_chan@excite.com)

If you haven't cried at least once to the name puns in this story, you are
truly a stoic one.

"Earth, succumb to my MAD SKILLZ! CHOUHATSU BRAND!"

Episode III: Strobe Lights Aren't What They're Cracked Up To Be

			[-----]

"AGH! Damn it, you pervs, let me *go*!" Nevv screamed, flailing out with one
hand full of fire and brimstone and the like. It wouldn't do anything, she
knew, but she wasn't going to sit here and *let* Ace and Gary touch--

--the hem of her robe?

Ace looked up and got a blast of flames in the face. Adjusting his superhero
mask carefully, he regarded Nevv with a look of wary resignation. "I assure
you, dear Nevv, that we have no intent of harming you. I was merely taking 
the opportunity to adjust your robes, for they seem slightly askew."

"... yeah," Nevv said, kicking her foot backwards and jerking away from the
sir in spandex. "I suppose next you'll want to adjust my underwear next,
too, because my bra happens to be slipping off my left shoulder and I've got
a really painful wedgie."

The two of them looked amused and horrified at the same time. "Really, dear
Nevv, please refrain from such vulgarities. Shall we continue on?" Gary
offered.

"But it's *true*, you dingbats--oh, never *mind*," she sighed, and managed
to pop up the left strap with a semi-suggestive gesture. To her surprise,
neither one of them affected to notice. Again. She wasn't getting annoyed
now so much as she was formulating a small plan of action...

They continued on their path: a small, gravelly dirt road that was leading
to some place which Nevv wasn't familiar with. She hadn't gone out of Scriim
much in her life, all nineteen years of it; only once or twice when she had
to run an errand or five for her parents. She had always taken the road to
the left, and this time, she was going down on the right side. It wasn't as
if she was afraid or anything: if it was one thing Nevv was, it was brazenly
courageous in the face of looming danger. If it was another thing, it was to
ruminate on how brazenly courageous she was while a green-haired man in 
front of her was waving a sword at the Mazoku escorting her.

"Halt!" the green-haired man yelled. He was dressed in this curious white
armor that glinted heroically even in the dull moonlight. "Release this fair
maiden from your clutches, tight-clothed ones!"

"Oh, dear..." Gary said, gathering darkish energy in one manicured hand. "I
do believe this may be a spot of trouble."

"Yes," Ace agreed, letting darkness crackle into his own hand. "But let us
make that double. For we are..."

The night was split in two as strobe lights cut across the inky-black sky.
The duo's pants would have also split in two had they not been made out of
*very* elastic spandex as they struck a pose of much flexibility. "The 
Disturbingly Ambiguous MazokAAAAAAGHHH!!!"

Jeffrey had darted forward with blinding speed, and slashed his Sword of
Coolness ($29.95, Heroes 'R' Us) across Ace's beautiful face. Long, limp
strands of hair flew. The White Knight of Flaming Justice reeled backwards, 
as if he was flailing to keep up with his own body, and smirked. "So... you 
believe that a set of mere strobe lights can stop the might of *Jeffrey-
kun*?!" he demanded.

"No..." Gary muttered darkly, firing off a blast of energy at him. "But
perhaps the power of the Mazoku can--what?"

Jeffrey simply wasn't there the next moment, and Gary blinked in confusion
before a stream of cold steel slashed his back open. Curiously enough, the
spandex outfit didn't come apart at all.

Gary staggered forward, and managed to turn around in time to receive 
another slash, this one directed at his throat. The Mazoku reeled back,
gurgling, and collapsed to the ground, his head tumbling after him. Jeffrey
grinned, then turned on Ace, promptly getting a face full of sticky white
fluid.

"Behold," Ace said, smiling deviously, one hand dripping the remnants of the
fluid he'd used to blind Jeffrey. "Such is the power of... The Disturbingly
Ambiguous MaAAAAAHHHH!!"

A Fireball was the last thing he'd expected. Wiping the fluid off his face,
Jeffrey turned to see who it was...

"That's what you *get* for wrecking my sleep," Lina growled. "Now hand over
grnk grnk grnk--grnk..." She peeled off yet another piece of tape over her
mouth, this one considerably more painful. "OWWW--hand over the treasure,
let the girl free, blah blah grnk."

"That is not an option," Gary's head said, as his body seemed to flow along
the ground and slowly meld to it. The Mazoku stood up, and dusted his none-
the-worse-for-the-wear-miracle-outfit off. "Nevv Swanson is ours, Miss
Inverse. Accept this truth and let us proceed on our separate paths."

"Oh yeah?" Jeffrey shot back. "Well--well--I'm going to rescue her! Hyaaaa!"

"Grnk," Lina moaned, slapping her forehead in despair. She chose to look at
the girl--who was running like all hell away from the scene. "GRNK! Grnk
grnk!"

The girl--Nevv, or something--glanced back at Lina, waved and smiled, and
continued on her merry path.

*Riiiiiiip*. "OWWWWWWwwwwwraywing!!" Lina called out, and rocketed into the
air in pursuit. She could see Nevv below her, running--she was pretty fast,
but no match for a Raywing. Until, that is, she cast her own Raywing and
flew up into the sky.

/Who the hell was this one?/ Nevv mused to herself, twisting around a tree
and looping below a branch in hopes of evading her pursuer. /Probably some
random nut out trying to make a name for herself--either that, or she's with
those two Mazoku./

Either way, she was gaining on her. Nevv wasn't weak by any stretch of the
imagination, but this girl's obviously had more experience flying than she
did, and in a few seconds, she would be directly behind her.

Nevv decided to loop downwards and back towards the scene of the fight,
farce, whatever it was. She and the green-haired gink seemed to be in 
cahoots, and since there was a good chance the gink was getting the crap
beaten out of him, she would be forced to give up the chase and help her
friend.

The gink *was* getting the crap beaten out of him--if dodging black magic of
many assorted flavors counted as getting the crap beaten out of someone. She
blinked. /How the *hell* did anyone manage to dodge black magic like that?/
she wondered, before looking back, expecting to see the red-haired mage 
touch down and help her nimble-footed friend.

She hadn't, and it looked as if she wasn't. In fact, Nevv could see her...
laughing her head off--which was odd, since she had a large piece of tape
stuck over her mouth.

Deciding that this was getting nowhere, Nevv touched down herself a ways off
from the battle and drew her weapon from her robes: a short, thin-bladed
sword with a secondary blade protruding at an angle from the long handle.
"All right, you," Nevv announced. "I don't know who the hell you are or what
you want from me or those Mazoku, but you're going to explain yourself. 
*Now*."

"Grnk grnk--" the redhead began, then ripped off the piece of tape from her
mouth with a shout. "AGH!!! I'm Lina Inverse, blah blah titles yadda de dah.
Fork over your money and I'll go back to sleep and we can each be happy--
grnk."

Nevv looked at Lina incredulously. "As *if*," she said. "You expect me to
take a redheaded little kid with breasts smaller than mine seriously?
Especially when you've got that weird piece of tape over your mouth?"

Lina growled, and her hands flared with red energy. "GRRNK GRRNK!!!" she
yelled, and Nevv was struck with a large wave of absolutely nothing.

"Looks like you've got a mute spell," Nevv said easily, smiling at her. "I
can take care of that for you, provided you don't blow me up with a Dragon
Slave or something."

"Grnk?" Lina looked at her hopefully, and let the red energy die down from
her hands. "Grnk grnk grnk... *grnk* grnk."

Nevv nodded. "Sure, I believe you. At any rate, you'd better give your 
friend a hand." She gestured to the fight, where Jeffrey was cutting down 
Ace in the crotch after having dodged a blast of magic that ripped out a 
good chunk of ground next to them.

"Grnk?" Lina looked over at Jeffrey, and shrugged. "Grnk."

"... he's not your friend, then."

"Grnk," she replied, turning around to look at the battle as well. It really
was an impressive sight, seeing the former champion of the World Wuss Title
take on two Mazoku singlehandedly. Of course, he was getting absolutely
nowhere in actually damaging either one of them, but the thought was what 
counted.

"Here," Nevv said, flicking a gold coin at Lina. "That's for bailing me out.
Thanks, lady."

The muted mage grabbed the coin from the air, and looked at it--yep, it was
real. And maybe there was more from where this came from. With a mighty
effort, she peeled off the tape from her mouth, stifling a yell of pain.
"Where ya from?" she said.

"Me? That town there," Nevv answered, pointing at Scriim. "I'm Nevv Swanson.
Up-and-coming mage of Scriim. And you are...?"

"I *told* you, I'm the lovely sorceress Lina Inverse!" Lina nearly-bellowed 
out. Another piece of tape fluttered to the ground, accompanied by a shriek. 
"Dragon slayer, bandit hunter, and heretic genius!"

"... you're still going off about that?" Nevv mused. "Fine. Then you can
tell me what the hell these Mazoku wanted with me."

"Huh?"

Nevv crossed her arms over her ample (but not absurdly-so) chest. "They said
they were under the orders of Luna Inverse. Your sister, right?"

"L-l-l-l-lu-grnk?!" Lina eeped, stumbling back into the hole in the ground.
"Grnk grnk *grnk*?!"

Nevv looked around. Jeffrey was still battling the Disturbingly Ambiguous
Mazoku with an unearthly amount of vigor; more precisely, his armor was,
since Jeffrey was stone-cold unconscious. Here was a chance.

"Look. Lina, right? Let's get the hell out of here and talk. And before we
do, let's get that curse off of you, since it's pissing both of us off.
Sounds good?"

"Grnk," Lina mumbled, nodding. "Grnk grnk *grnk*." She pointed at Jeffrey.

"Sure thing. Hold on," Nevv said, drawing both hands back and beginning a
chant.

"Light of ages, energy from that which breathes power,
Reveal to me, your true nature!
>From forth the tides of time and now across the span of space...
I summon thee, Ilyuum... I beckon thee, Ilyuum...
Let the blow fly from my hands, and strike true in the hearts of all!
VEARIAN WRATH!"

Energy, which had been gathering in the skies above her, suddenly flared to
life in a blinding flash of white. The two Mazoku and their combatant looked 
up in surprise--and were greeted with a bolt of jagged power lancing down
from a gigantic vortex in the sky.

"Oh dear," Gary said.

Jeffrey--or actually, his suit of armor--was quick enough to narrowly dodge
aside and towards safety. As for Ace and Gary... both were struck head-on
with a blast of white power that slammed into the ground with enough force
to carve out a sizable hemisphere in the dirt. The explosion was brief, and
surprisingly clean. A speck of dirt spun into the air, and came to rest as
the light of impact faded away.

"Grnk grnk *grnk*?!" Lina exclaimed, looking at Nevv, who was staggering on
her feet. "Grnk."

"Vearian... Wrath..." Nevv smirked, managing to stay upright. "Heh, I knew I 
could do it."

"Grnk grnk grnk," Lina advised, ripping the tape off her mouth again. "OW--
Raywing." With that, Lina picked up the comatose Jeffrey and lifted him up
into the air, Nevv trailing close behind.

A few minutes later, two dark but colorful forms of blobby energy began
reforming themselves in the giant hemisphere in the ground.

			[-----]

Kiseki awoke in darkness. It wasn't anything new--being a student of Saikyou
had long taught her to become accustomed to one's own state of 
unconsciousness. *This* darkness, however, was different. It was thick... it
was pervading... it was...

... wearing spandex tights.

She screamed in panic and attempted to twist her forearm up in an Oyaji
Flare, failing miserably when she discovered that she was bound in sturdy
but crude ropes at the wrists and ankles, with a rag tied around her mouth. 
Kinky... *wait* a minute!!

After thoroughly beating up her author for continually writing her as a
sex-deprived maniac--

--and after discovering that the BACKSPACE button didn't seem to work for 
her, Kiseki took a look around and up. The form of a spandex-clad Mazoku was
standing in front of her; whether it was Ace or Gary, it was impossible to
tell. They pretty much acted the same, anyways, and spent all their time
with each other, apparently, so Kiseki could care less.

She elicited a small groan to try and get their attention. The blob of
darkness in front of her didn't budge.

"Mmmph! MMMMPH!" Kiseki yelled. Still, the blob remained motionless.

Kiseki managed to shift her feet out and deliver a solid but weak kick to
the Mazoku's backside. That finally generated some effect, as the colorful
form of Ace stood up and faced Kiseki. It was then that she noticed that
Ace's face--or what was left of it--was a mass of disfigured tissue and
energy, a horrid sight that belied his usual appearance.

She would've screamed, but the rag was in place.

"I apologize, my dear Kiseki, for being of such an unmannerly appearance,"
Ace said, his curiously-sweet voice floating from the mass of flesh that was
currently his visage. "Would you like me to free you?"

Kiseki nodded quickly, and the Mazoku shambled over behind her and cut the
ropes free with a flick of his finger. The girl immediately made her way to
her feet, and glanced warily around.

"You are in our abode, dear Kiseki," Ace said, hobbling away from her. "I
suggest you get some rest. Gary and I have been... quite exhausted tonight."

Her eyes flew wide. "You--you mean you two--" she stammered.

"Yes," Ace said, nodding gravely. "We were..."

"In the throes of passion?" Kiseki finished.

It was Ace's turn do the eye-widening thing. "*No*!" he retorted. "Dear
Kiseki, how could you even *think* such a thing? We are not... not..."

"Uh huh," Kiseki nodded, and began powering up a spell. "Look, I got a lot
of things to do, so can you just let me out of here? Please?"

"I am afraid we cannot," Ace said, stumbling over to a couch lined with the
fur of many an unfortunate spotted leopard. "We have our reasons to keep you
here."

"And... what are those?" Just give it a few more seconds...

Ace looked ponderously back up at her, and waved a hand--a claw, rather--
lazily. "It is quite a complex story involving the balance of the world, an
ancient Flare Dragon, and pride," he said vaguely. "I am sure you would not
want to hear it."

"Probably not," Kiseki agreed. "I mean, all I want to do is to spread the
glory of Hibiki-sensei (may he live forever) throughout the world. That
doesn't mean I have to know every little detail about the world, right?"

"Ah, but this is part of the problem," the Mazoku said. "We are going to
help you."

"Y-you... *are*?!" she exclaimed, feeling herself blush. This was going to
be cool! And here she thought Luna had tossed her into some sort of death-
trap, when she was merely redirecting her to the right people!

Ace nodded sagely, ignoring the drip of black fluid that was part of his
face fall onto his leg. "But first, please allow us to recuperate. I am
afraid that we are in no condition to help anyone but ourselves at this
moment."

"Sure--of course!" Kiseki said, and began grinning. Soon; very soon, she
will be heralded as the one who spread Saikyou throughout the world! The
sheer excitement of the situation was tangible. It was almost unreal in its 
proportions. Lil' ol' Kiseki had never had much of a chance to accomplish 
anything, and now was her first and most magnificent opportunity. She didn't 
even have to talk to Ruby-Eye Shaburanigdo or Flare Dragon Ceipheed, either!

Sitting in anticipation, she allowed herself to calm down slightly, managing
to only squeal in delight one or two times. Meanwhile, Ace sat there in
silence, his face an odd mixture of drippiness and coagulation.

"Are you done yet?" Kiseki said after a moment.

"No."

"Oh... all right."

Another pause.

"Are you done yet?"

"No."

"But it's been..." She checked the clock over the large fireplace. "... two
minutes."

"I await the return of my companion from his errands," Ace said, his tone
bordering from the edge of apologetic to insulted.

"Where is he, anyways?" Kiseki muttered.

			[-----]

Gary wasn't terribly far, as a matter of fact. His errands--the one of most
pressing urgency, anyways--consisted of finding out more about Lina, Nevv,
and Jeffrey. After the little debacle outside Scriim, he had found them
sitting around a small fire, with a makeshift tent behind them. Silently, he
lowered himself behind a bush and began to watch.

The redheaded one had stopped bothering with trying to deal with whatever
half-assed curse had been placed on her and was now employing a pencil and a
pad of paper to get her message across. There was a veritable mountain of
crumpled-up wads aside her, from the sheer number of times she had used one
slip of paper for one very large letter in rather-short words; words that
were usually of the four-letter variety.

There were two others with her: a blond-haired one and a green-haired one,
the one who had singlehandedly managed to fend off both of their magnificent
attacks. The green-haired one interested them. Not only was he powerful...
but he was the only male of the group, and the females were simply so...
so... *common*. The redhead looked like your run-of-the-mill mage, and she
barely had a bosom to speak of. The blond was more ample, but she had a
certain air about her that simply spoke one word:

"Frigid," Nevv muttered, glancing momentarily over at Jeffrey. "That's what
he called me. The nerve!"

Lina nodded distractedly, and proceeded to write a message on the slip of
paper, handing it to Nevv after she finished.

"'Get this damn curse off of me!'?" Nevv read. "Oh, yes... hold on."

She gathered whitish energy in her hand, and arched one finger at Lina.
"Flow Break!"

Predictably enough, a small pentagram of power appeared beneath Lina and
shone its light upwards, centering at her mouth. There was a brief flash,
and Nevv smiled. "There. All better."

Lina began furiously scribbling one-page-high letters again and proceeded to
fling them at her.

"'Y-O-U I-D-I-O-T D-O-N-T Y-O-U T-H-I-N-K I-V-E T-R-I-E-D T-H-A-T A-L-R-E-A-
D-Y exclamation, exclamation, exclamation, question mark, question mark,
exclamation..." Nevv read off. "Well, *sorry*, but I didn't think you were
really a mage, what with you wandering around with a piece of tape--whoa!"

Lina drew her fist back and made a mental note to swing higher next time.
She wrote another note and tossed it at Nevv.

-Listen, Nevv, or whoever, I'm really Lina Inverse, and I got this curse put
on me by some weird girl named Kiseki. I'm going after her to get this thing
lifted, and if you're not going to help me, then just get the hell out. I've
had a really bad week so far, and I don't need a smug little mage like you
in my life. I've had enough of that to last me---

"How *did* you write all that so fast?" Nevv wondered, looking at the slip
of paper in awe. "All right... I believe you--you're shaking your head no,
but I really *do* believe you--c'mon, Lina, trust me here! All right, look.
Even if you are Lina Inverse--which you are, I have no doubt of that!--it
won't do you a whit of good if you're completely incapacitated by that one
spell from some practitioner of a form of magic none of us have never heard
of. And from the looks of your friend Jeffrey, I think you need someone a
bit more... uh, competent on your side. Not that I'm bragging or anything,
but I believe I can be of some use to you--yes, I promise, I'll tell you all
about the Vearian Wrath and other nifty Ilyuum-related matters once we get
this curse off--so if I may, could I accompany you on your journey?"

/It's not as if I had anything else to do,/ Nevv thought acerbically to
herself. /This way, I can actually do some research on my own about this one
who calls herself Lina Inverse.../

Lina nodded, and flashed Nevv a brilliant look of shining, glittering eyes.
It was probably the mention of the Vearian Wrath--something that she'd been
bugging Nevv about ever since a few hours ago when she'd cast it. So far
she'd been very careful to avoid the topic, but there really wasn't any
reason to--even if she *was* the legendary Lina Inverse, the one responsible
for the downfall of Shaburanigdo himself and the destruction of countless
cities and dragons alike, she would never be able to use the powers of the
Ilyuum. The irony of it was more than a bit amusing.

"Then it's set!" Nevv said, smiling brightly. "We'll set off in the morning,
and--uh, say, *do* you know where this Kiseki girl is?"

The redhead shook her head in frustration. To think that twenty-six hours
ago, she'd been actively avoiding the Saikyou girl, and now she was tearing
her hair off (in a purely figurative sense, of course) trying to find out
where the hell she was.

Ah, hell. For Lina, it would only be a matter of time before she *did* find
out--and when she did, there will be hell to pay, and my *God*, the tab was
huge.

Having used up her completely lame and trite expression for the night, Lina
fell asleep. Next to her, Nevv silently pondered her situation for a few
minutes before dropping off as well. And off in the distance, the form of
a spandex-clad Mazoku silently stalked away to report to his compadre.

			[-----]

/Hiya. You rang?/

/Yes, my Knight... I did. I wish to speak with you./

/G'wan, dude./

/I have discovered him./

/Yeah? Coo'. Anythin' else?/

/Yes. He is here./

/*Really*... lay it on./

A new voice came in the midst of the rolling mists--not so much a voice, but
a presence, a state of mind and an identity. It was not something Luna was
acquainted with, and it made her uncomfortable. She didn't like being
uncomfortable. It was a familiar-enough feeling, but the ways of Order 
didn't care for wildcards, for variables--which was completely hypocritical,
since her current plans involved nothing *but* variables. Still, there was
an element of order above all of them, a feeling that, despite all the
scurrying-about, things would fall into place of their own accord.

This new voice sounded gentle, but imposing; the slice of a heated knife
which strikes the flesh as cold before its searing heat sets in.

/Greetings, Luna Inverse./

/Hey there. You with Ceiphey?/

/Yes... I am. I have been sent here to vouch for my intentions, and to
inform you of our change in plans./

/Change... hm./ Luna's mental presence paused for a second, and the other
two--Ceipheed and his friend--could almost *see*, with an eye that beheld
the thoughts of a person rather than their appearance, the stream of 
consciousness that Luna was experiencing. It was mostly as glib as she was,
full of random mentions of foodstuffs and tips she'd received, but a few
words were easily filtered out.

Plans. Change. Consider. Approach. Lina. Mazoku. Xellos. Ah.

/Do tell,/ she finally said after a grand pause of a millisecond or so.

Ceipheed's friend began to.

			[-----]

The next morning, everyone in question was feeling remarkably better, with
the sole exception of Jeffrey-kun, who was still out like a light. In light
of that, Lina took the opportunity to strip the armor from his body and 
stash it into her own little inventory of supplies. The suit had been hard
to remove, but a bit of elbow grease from Nevv and a Flow Break here and 
there had helped greatly.

Lina found herself in a strange sort of bind concerning the billowy-clothed
mage next to her--she was currently toiling away at packing the makeshift
tent into a small bundle. For one, she had no idea what she really wanted. 
It was obvious that it was for reasons other than her pat excuse of wanting
to help her out just in order to find out if Lina was really who she claimed
to be, but Lina had no idea exactly *what* else lay beyond that. And adding
to the whole mystery of the situation was the strange spell she'd called
upon to defeat the Mazoku last night--Vearian Wrath, or something. It 
sounded much like a Giga Slave in its recitation, but the effects were
completely different; and Lina wanted to find out what type of magic it was.
Having deduced in the span of one and a half seconds that Saikyouism was
utterly useless, she was now focused on finding out who this 'Ilyuum' was.

/Ilyuum,/ she thought. /Probably some demon lord somewhere that I hadn't
taken care of yet. Ah, well, no harm in learning his magic before I blast
his butt off with a Dragon Slave or three./

"Lina? We ready to go yet?" Nevv called out, stowing the last of the tent in
her backpack that had mysteriously appeared from somewhere.

"Grnk," Lina acquiesced, nodding. She jabbed her head towards the snoozing
Jeffrey's direction. "Grnk grnk grnk?"

"We probably should," Nevv said. "I mean... he could always make good cannon
fodder, right?"

Lina nodded, and managed to convey the distinct impression of a wide grin
from beneath the forearm-decorated piece of pink tape on her mouth. "Grnk!"

"All right!" Nevv gushed out, pumping both arms in victory. The two things
bounced slightly. "Let's goooo!"

Ripping off the piece of tape without so much as a squeak, Lina Raywinged 
herself up, and was quickly followed by Nevv, who was carrying Jeffrey this
time. The two magi and one gink flew serenely through the sky, and faded 
off into the distance, leaving a plume of magical energy as they passed.

			[-----]

Thirty minutes later, Nevv turned to Lina.

"Say, Lina, where are we going?" she said.

"... grnk?" Lina responded. "Grnk grnk grnk grnk..."

"No... you said you had no idea where Kiseki was, so... uh..."

Lina's eyebrow began twitching.

"All right, hold up," Nevv muttered, setting herself on the ground in the
midst of--

--a completely unremarkable field of grass and daisies. What, you were
expecting some sort of battle?

By this time, Jeffrey had been wakened by the constant stream of cold air
against his body. He had found out, firsthand, the unpleasant sensation of
wearing a frazzled white suit that had the tendency to ride up one's rear
end about five hundred feet or so up in the sky. Then again, Nevv did find
it much easier to hold onto him like that.

"Where are we?!" he cried out. "And what happened to my armor? I can't be
the White Knight of Flaming Justice without it... aaaaaagghhhh!!"

The other two paid no attention to him, and began to argue over little,
unimportant details, such as where they were, and what they were going to
do, and the meaning of life... etc. etc. And as they did so, a shadowed
figure made itself visible from behind a convenient tree.

"Look, if you really want to get this curse lifted, maybe we should ask
around a local village. Maybe they've seen Kiseki around," Nevv offered.

Lina looked around. There wasn't a village in sight. They seemed to have
landed in the midst of a large forest clearing, or something... Jeffrey
began occupying himself by going weewee in the treetrees, much to Nevv's
disgust.

"Grnk, grnk the village, eh?" Lina said.

"Well, I'm sure we can find one--eh? You talked." Nevv looked at Lina
curiously, then at the ground to see if she'd actually managed to peel off
the tape without a loud scream as background music.

"Yeah... yeah, I did," Lina marvelled, and gently pressed her hand against
her mouth in mild disbelief. Sure enough, no horrifyingly-sticky piece of
tape rematerialized. There *was* a short poof of pinkish energy, and a small
slip of paper fluttered to the grass.

Blinking, she bent down and picked it up.

It said: "Congratulations for being the recipient of a Saikyou Style Curse!
Your warranty period of [ twenty four (24)  hours ] has expired. Please
renew your curse with the mage who cast this spell, identity tag [ Kiseki
Umi Rendahl ] . Thank you, and may you have a chou yoyutchi for many minutes
to come! =D"

"There's even a little pink smiley," Lina muttered. "Oi, this sucks...
anyways, let's be heading off."

The shadowy figure chose that time to leap into the open. The shadowy figure
instead leapt straight into Jeffrey, who was still going on a small patch of
saffron next to the tree he had been hiding behind. The shadowy figure and
Jeffrey went down in a tangled heap of limbs and robes and a yellow spray.
The shadowy figure cursed, looked up, and saw two female sorcer--sorceror--
sorceress--sorceress--*two* *female* *magi* standing over him. One of them
had a billowy robe that lended a nice view of her two smooth legs and...

"Bastard!" *wham*

... okay, four smooth legs and a few fluffy clouds and birds chirping... he
fell unconscious.

			[-----]

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