***

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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: tsw03.txt

The Slayers: Wild
By Troy Thomas

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the creations and property 
of Rumiko Takahashi. Slayers and its characters are the 
creations and properties of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. 
Excepting flames, if you have any comments or criticisms, 
feel free to send them my way.

***

I can be found at the following addresses:
URL: http://ca.geocities.com/therealsilentnova/entrance.html
Email: Silentnova@go.com

***

Chapter Three

The city of Bateweary, hidden under a blanket of night, 
silently greeted Lina Inverse and the people who were 
currently following her around.

"I'm tired, stiff, sore, and dirty, not to mention hungry," 
Lina announced. "All good reasons for finding an inn as soon 
as possible."

"This is sort of dark," Ranma commented, looking about seeing 
only occasional candle lamps lighting the area directly 
beneath. "Where I'm from, cities and towns are really lit up 
during the night. But I guess here there's no electricity..."

"Bateweary Inn," Lina said, after listening to Ranma. "We 
stayed here before, and I really liked their food. So... 
we'll stay here again! Any objections?" she asked, content in 
the knowledge there'd be none.

As Lina opened the entrance, Zelgadis, to her annoyance, 
raised a point, "Yes. The girl who attacked us wouldn't have 
any trouble finding us here, since it's likely people know 
our faces. We would be better off finding another inn, where 
nobody knows us."

Taking a moment to ponder Zelgadis' point, Lina then 
responded, "The food's worth it, even if there is trouble! 
Besides, my feet are tired, and that, in the end, makes it 
two to one, so we'll stay here."

Directly inside was a dining room, where two men, one old, 
the other young, were residing. The innkeeper, easily 
recognised, since he wasn't red cheeked and jolly fat, stood 
behind the bar. The young man seemed to want no one to look 
at him, coldly minding his own business off in a dark corner 
of the room.

"Four beds, four rooms, four menus!" Lina ordered, walking to 
the innkeeper, digging about herself for her coins.

Grinning, the innkeeper asked, "How was that old tower, huh? 
Filled to the very top with countless magical artefacts, 
right? Told ya' it'd be so. Bought my grand inn with what I 
took!"

"Actually, it was only filled with trouble and a couple of 
bad guys... Most of the treasure you talked about was gone. 
Probably taken by thieves," answered Lina. "You can never 
trust 'em!"

"Well that's too bad..." The innkeeper brought onto the 
counter a mug, and quickly filled it with a foamy liquid, and 
then pushed the mug towards Lina. "But I was hoping you'd 
come back this way, Miss Inverse. That strange guy over there 
was asking about the tower too, but I told 'im not to go that 
way since you were there..."

"That's very considerate of you, sir," Gourry cut in. "If I 
was you, I'd also make sure innocent people stayed away from 
her." He leaned towards the innkeeper, and conspiratorially 
whispered, "She's dangerous!"

After swiftly smacking Gourry atop the head, Lina contentedly 
listened to Gourry's head hit the counter, creating a 
coconut-like sound.

The young man, no older than Zelgadis, quietly approached 
Lina. "At this tower, did you meet a man called Golbez 
Undover? If so, tell me, because the man is a criminal."

"Who are you?" Lina asked, purposely ignoring the man's 
question. "I really don't like talking to strangers... 
Especially ones that listen to conversations that are 
supposed to be private."

"My name is Hunter. I'm a bounty hunter. Now, was Golbez 
Undover at the tower to the East?"

Strangely, Lina noticed Hunter's voice neither raised nor 
lowered in emotion.

Deciding speaking with him any longer was a bad idea, she 
answered, "Yeah, there was a guy named Golbez there. And a 
woman named Maria too. And they were up to something, but I 
couldn't figure out exactly what they were doing... They left 
in a hurry after we got there. And that's all I know." She 
mentally added, 'So far.'

Without responding to anything Lina said, Hunter left the 
inn.

"Humph, what kind of name is Hunter?" Lina wondered.

"The kind when you don't want anyone to know your name," 
Zelgadis responded, walking towards the inn stairs, which led 
to the rooms.

"Oh, Zel! You just don't trust anyone!" Lina shouted after 
him.

"Neither do you Lina," Gourry said, slowly digesting a menu 
the innkeeper had just handed him.

"That's completely different! Zel distrusts everyone on 
principle, while I distrust people because people are always 
trying to put one over on you!" Lina pointed out a particular 
dish on the menu to the innkeeper. "I'd like everything, 
except this... Well, actually..."

***

'It's late... But what kind of late? Definitely not the kind 
of late I'm used to,' Ranma mused, staring at the ceiling, 
which was barely lit up from a candle outside the inn window. 
'I hate thinking... But I can't help it, I guess. Being 
pulled away from your home and...' He thought about the next 
word, trying to understand how it applied to himself, 
'Dimension... Ranma Saotome, dimension traveller... Sounds 
too weird.'

He forcefully finished his thought, 'I guess being pulled 
from your dimension makes you think...'

'What to do?'

'I hate the night. It makes you think even more. And the more 
you think, the more you get depressed...'

'Damn...'

'Akane... You shouted my name, but how did I hear you?'

Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine Akane Tendo, smiling.

***

Opening his eyes, he saw again the light of... didn't the 
voice say everything?

He couldn't exactly remember.

He waited for the same voice, but heard nothing.

'Or maybe, I'm hearing everything... But I don't know. I 
think that might be stretching it a little. You can see 
everything, but can you hear everything?' he thought, 
sullenly wishing he could have normal dreams in his new 
world.

'Wait, I hear something...'

Was it a song? Someone was humming?

He wasn't sure of anything, except of the image in his mind, 
inspired by the melody... A mother cradling a child in her 
arms.

It was not his mother. He knew the child wasn't himself.

However, it was a strange feeling he had in his heart, a 
feeling of belonging in the mother's tender and strong arms.

He knew, 'The whole world belongs in the mother's cradle. The 
child is the world.'

Darkness crept over the back of the mother, reaching for the 
child.

The tears of the mother fell upon the child.

There was a hope though, when a sphere of light opened above 
the mother.

She brought the child to the sphere, and moments later, it 
disappeared with a sudden silence.

***

He again opened his eyes, and saw a hand. 'A real hand!' he 
thought, before it clamped down on his forehead. 'What now?' 
he wondered, as he felt something in his mind slip away.

***

His professional name was Hunter. Until he could reclaim his 
past, he would no longer live by any other name.

"They'll kill themselves," he said, looking about the tower's 
second-top floor, seeing the remains of a golem. "If Golbez's 
been there, then that means he doesn't care if he's seen... 
Damn! I won't be able to kill them if that happens."

He quickly took to the top of tower, sensing something he 
needed to see.

He stepped outside, in time to see an explosion in the 
distance... Where the city of Bateweary was...

"Her name was Lina Inverse..."

It may be noted his hair and cape appropriately billowed in 
the wind.

***

"Hey Gourry! Can you see anything in this mess?" Lina asked, 
holding her sword in hand, covering her face with a cloth, 
trying to wade her way through the smoke.

"I can see the smoke!"

"I mean besides the smoke!"

"I see... that girl! And Ranma!"

The smoke was irritating, worse than a fog, since it also 
dried the eyes and tormented the throat. Lina tried to walk 
towards where she thought she last heard Gourry. "Who's 
closer?" she shouted.

"They're together, and Ranma's not looking very good..."

Finding Gourry, who was crouching under the smoke, watching 
Ranma and the masked girl, Lina took a spot beside him. She 
watched as Maria's servant led Ranma along side a building, 
as though Ranma were a clumsy child. "She must've set the inn 
on fire..." she muttered. "She put Ranma under a Puppet 
spell, and then set the inn on fire!" A menacing expression 
on her face slowly turned mischievious. "That really burns me 
up!" she said to Gourry. However, the joke went over his 
head. 'Actually, it probably went through his head, but 
didn't find any brain to hit, so it just went right on 
through...' she thought, slightly annoyed.

"Should we do something to help Ranma?" Gourry asked, 
readying to unsheath his sword.

"Of course, but we can't fight here. We can't see anything," 
Lina responded. "Lets just follow her."

"Lina, why don't you just use some of your magic?" Gourry 
asked. "Like that Dum Wind, so that you can blow away all 
this smoke?"

"Diem Wind, stupid!" Lina said. "But if I used that, then I 
wouldn't be able to do anything else. Besides, it's late, I'm 
tired, I'm supposed to be asleep, and I don't want to fight, 
unless I can win in one hit! So, we follow her and attack her 
when we can see her. Now lets go, before we lose her."

***

The mask was made of wood, but the tree used to create the 
mask was only one of a kind. One of a kind is often 
considered special, usually by those who have the time to 
consider such things.

The girl behind the mask could consider such things, because 
she could do nothing else. Not even scream.

***

"Rain?" Lina asked, feeling a miniscule drop of cold on her 
face. "Well, that should put out the fire, at least..."

The town had been left behind, the scenery replaced by 
forest. However, it seemed the weather wanted the world's 
whole attention, since the rain began to heavily fall turning 
the road in a slippery path of mud.

"Lina... Where's Ranma?" Gourry asked.

"He should just ahead of us, right where he was the last time 
we saw him," Lina replied. Despite her words, she peered at 
the two figures, barely visible due to the rain falling onto 
her own face distracting her eyes, and saw two girls. "You're 
right! Where the hell is he?" She looked at the familiar 
figure of Maria's servant. "She's still there, but Ranma's 
gone... But that girl's following her just like Ranma was... 
Still human when "

"What do you mean?" Gourry asked.

"Remember when Ranma was talking about Jusenkyou?"

"No."

Sighing in resignation, Lina started to speak, "Ranma said 
something about a place called Jusenkyou where he had come 
from. At this place were pools, and if you fell into a pool, 
you'd be cursed as whatever fell into the pool last." She 
pointed to the other girl, who had stopped walking, since 
Maria's servant noticed it was no longer a male following 
her. "I think Ranma must be cursed to be a girl."

"Wow," Gourry intelligently added.

"Only, that girl doesn't know that, and now, that girl's 
noticed us, and we're going to rumble now!"

"Whoa, how can you tell that?" Gourry asked.

"She's just thrown a fireball at us!" Lina shouted, jumping 
off of the path, followed by a wall of heat and fire. Landing 
hard on the ground, she slowly stood up. "You okay Gourry?"

"I hit my head."

"I'll take that as a yes." Forcefully, she turned to face the 
nearing masked girl. "What's the big idea?" she asked.

The masked girl didn't answer. The mask itself seemed to emit 
a sense of confusion, as though it was breaking down due to 
an error in its programming. The hands of the girl glowed 
with a fiery heat, giving a message to the observers, which 
metaphorically said, "When the situation is beyond the mental 
capacity of the mask, destroy every moving thing in sight.

"Okay, you've got the advantage on us..." Lina said. "Now, 
you might be wondering what's wrong. You're only a... puppet 
after all, and what you've thought as being the correct Ranma 
is wrong, so you're malfunctioning. Breaking down."

The eyes concentrated on Lina, whose every move almost became 
a trigger for the masked girl to release the Fireball she 
held in her hands. Strangely enough, Lina felt as though 
somehow Gourry was also being monitored, by the eyes, 
perhaps.

'Steady, Lina... I don't think you want to know how hot that 
fireball is, do you?' Lina thought, keeping her every move to 
a minimum. 'No, I don't.' She said to the masked girl, "Now, 
that spell that you're using, Fireball. It's something that I 
myself occasionally like to use, so I know what'll happen if 
you use it here... It would really..."

"Burn us up?" Gourry asked.

"That jokes already been done, Gourry," Lina replied. 'Oh 
man, I thought that by now, at least, Zelgadis might've rode 
in and saved the day... But maybe that's hoping for just a 
little too much.'

The rain fell onto the Fireball, becoming steam, which 
floated into the dark sky.

'Makes it kind of pointless for those rain drops to fall, 
actually,' Lina mused. 'Wait, I hear... there's someone 
coming! I'm saved!' The masked girl's Fireball passed over 
top her shoulder, narrowly missing her head. Unfortunately, 
her hair was slightly brushed, and it slightly singed from 
the heat. "What?"

"I don't think that look really suits you..." Gourry 
appraisingly said, stroking his chin, as he peered closely at 
Lina's burnt ends.

"Why that..." Lina growled, before trying to lunge forward. 
However, Gourry from behind held her by her stomach stopping 
her wrath from rushing forward. "Let me at her! She doesn't 
deserve hair! Why I'll rip each out strand, one by one!"

Another Fireball was lobbed, causing the sorceress and 
swordsman to duck. A second later, an explosion rocketed the 
two forward, with Gourry landing on top of Lina. He pushed 
himself up by finding the hardest and least slippery object 
on the ground, Lina's head.

Struggling to get her face out of the mud, Lina eventually 
tossed Gourry off her back. "Was it really necessary to do 
that?"

"I didn't want to get my hands all dirty..."

"I'll show you dirty!" Lina snarled, lunging at Gourry, with 
on her face an expression showing both unbridled anger and a 
prediction of how she was going to enjoy releasing all her 
pent up anger on Gourry.

***

"What was the point of trying to save the inn?" Zelgadis 
asked, as he studied the inn's ruins, which sent a damp and 
black smoke into the air. "I wonder where Lina and Gourry 
are?" he eventually wondered. At once, he felt as though 
someone was watching him. Looking over his shoulder, he 
noticed a powerful looking thief staring at him. "What now?" 
he asked, his voice pained.

"Name Gerim! Tell Lina Inverse to come West to old 
laboratory!" Gerim patted on the head a young girl, who 
looked terribly frightened. "I and her will fight or else kid 
get smeared!"

Before Zelgadis could charge at Gerim, the thief released 
surprisingly strong Flare Arrows into the surrounding houses.

"Damn it!" Zelgadis growled, the flames surrounding him. 
Considering his strength, his stone skin, he thought about 
running through the flames and catching the strange magic 
wielding thief. However, he quickly realised his clothes 
mightn't survive if he ran through the flames. "You certainly 
wouldn't want that..." he glumly said, before shouting out a 
spell and ending it with, "Diem Wind!"

After charging into the roaring heat, which was centred on 
the street between all the burning houses, he said as almost 
a curse what he found on the other side, "Nothing!"

***

"Ice Arrow!" Lina shouted, releasing the spell at the 
retreating servant of Maria, which met with an opposing Flare 
Arrow, resulting in both spells being cancelled. "Hey you, 
Hunter! Help him... her... I mean, help Ranma get away from 
the wacko!" she ordered, warily backing away from the 
encroaching servant. "I have my hands full here!"

"If you mean the girl who is with her..." he growled, 
pointing at the servant. He brought his horse beside Lina. 
"Use your Dragon Slave. Kill both of them."

"Hey! Do I look like that kind of person?" Lina roared, 
grabbing Hunter by the collar, pulling him off the horse. 
Bringing the bounty hunter face to face, she began to feel a 
bit nervous looking at Hunter's expression, which said to 
her, 'Yes you do.' Loosening her grip, she then patted Hunter 
on the head. "Well, I'm just not that kind of girl. I'm kind, 
gentle..."

Deciding to attack while Lina and Hunter were preoccupied, 
the servant wasted no time, unsheathing a slim sword. She 
stabbed at Hunter, who deflected the girl's attack to the 
side with his own sword. She then with a free hand grabbed 
for his throat, growling, "Mono Volt!"

However, Hunter almost instantly punched the girl in the 
face, knocking her down to the ground.

Landing in a sitting position, the girl seemed fazed.

Gourry, who had been sneaking his way towards Ranma, managed 
to catch her as she fell. "Why'd she just fall over like 
that?" he asked Lina.

"The Puppet spell's been broken," Lina replied. "I think we 
should get out of here..." Looking distrustfully at Hunter, 
she shouted, "You're coming with us!"

Coldly, Hunter slowly began to follow Lina and Gourry. 
Bringing his horse to trot aside Gourry, when he caught up to 
the two, he said, "Put the girl on the horse."

***

The masked girl, alone on the trail, sat, dazed from Hunter's 
punch. A small crack visibly scarred the mask, under the 
right eye.

The right hand reached to the crack, and traced it from its 
top to its bottom. She then tried to speak, but her voice was 
too quiet and broken to hear, had anyone nearby bothered to 
listen, "Al... most... free... Fa... ther... help... me..."

She was alone on the forest path, sitting in the cold rain.

To her surprise, her body suddenly wobbled, and then stood 
up. "No..." she said, her voice weak. "Fa... ther..."

She walked on the trail, as a puppet with a broken string, on 
the trail of the retreating four.

End Chapter Three

***



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