Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Da Capo of Love: Lina's Unlucky Days ❯ A Glimmer of Hope ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: "Slayers" and all of the associated characters belong to Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi and the companies that represent them. This story is loosely based off the movie, "Lupin III - Da Capo of Love: Fujiko's Unlucky Days" (known in the U.S. as "Lupin III - The Columbus Files") and some scenes will be similiar to that film. "Lupin III" was originally created by Monkey Punch.

Other notes: This story is set following the anime version of Slayers and Slayers NEXT, then novels 9-15. Therefore there will be references to events that took place in Slayers and Slayers NEXT and to certain novel events that took place post-NEXT. This story is dark and does contain sexual situations, living up to the M rating.

-----

 

Da Capo of Love: Lina's Unlucky Days

Chapter 3: A Glimmer of Hope

City of Nazca - Sorcerer's Guild

Three days after the disappearance of Lina Inverse

The assembled sorcerers barely spared a glance at the newcomer to their guild, most of their discussions still centering around the strange blond swordsman who'd arrived there looking to contact a princess a few days earlier. At first glance, the man appeared to be similarly dressed to the rest of them, in a linen tunic, trousers and cloak that had seen much better days. A hood covered his head and a scarf hid the rest of the features that the hood didn't cover.

The man approached the table of sorcerers and took the empty chair. One of them spared the newcomer a quick glance. “It's rather hot for this sort of covering, isn't it, chimera?”

Zelgadiss narrowed his eyes at the sorcerer, then slowly lowered his scarf. The other sorcerers stopped talking and turned their attention to him as he pushed back his hood to reveal his wire hair. Zelgadiss glowered at all of them. Idiots.

“Before you can ask, I could tell because of your eyes. Not even your covering could hide it,” the first sorcerer said. He inclined his head. “Alan.”

“Zelgadiss.”

“Coffee, Zelgadiss-san?” Alan picked up a pot and an empty, mostly clean mug. Zelgadiss nodded and accepted the drink. He didn't want to feel offended that his normal disguise had been seen through so easily, but Nazca was a city of sage sorcerers. He glanced around and saw that most of them had returned to whatever they were doing. It was strange. Normally, he was deemed an object of immense curiosity, especially from those who wanted to create more like him.

“You wouldn't happen to be the grandson of Rezo, are you?”

Zelgadiss snapped his head back toward Alan. “Excuse me?”

Alan smiled and took a sip from his mug. “Pardon the intrusion, but your name is familiar. That, combined with your affliction, helped me put the pieces together. What your grandfather did to you is known to several circles, as I'm sure you are aware of, Zelgadiss-san.”

“What I seem to be aware of is the fact that you know a little too much about me for my personal tastes,” Zelgadiss bit out.

Alan chuckled, lifted an eyebrow. “No, the one who knows everything is Gary over there.”

Zelgadiss flicked a glance at one of the other sorcerers. “Not me,” the man replied. “I'm Stu. That's Gary,” he said pointing to the man next to him. “It's not a crime to be well-informed.”

“Unless you're being too nosy for your own good.”

“Being nosy is our job here, Zelgadiss-san,” Alan said calmly and drew Zel's attention back to him. He indicated the room with a sweep of his hand. “As you can see, there isn't much to this guild or to this city. We're keepers of knowledge, information that you wouldn't be able to get in places like Saillune City and Atlas City.”

Zelgadiss stifled the urge to make a smart remark in response. It was exactly this sort of random information that brought him to Nazca in the first place. He didn't like it, but he would have to talk to these men about what Rezo did. “Part of that knowledge includes keeping tabs on Rezo.”

“Rezo was of particular interest to us, especially since there were rumors that he was hosting a piece of Shabranigdu inside of him. He passed away around four years ago.” Alan leaned forward slightly. “I've always wondered if those rumors were true.”

Zelgadiss frowned. It was still not general knowledge how Rezo had died. Lina never went out of her way to take credit for what had happened and he admired her for that. She told him that she still respected what Rezo had once been, and it would be too much trouble to refute the public beliefs surrounding him.

He decided on a more neutral response. “What makes you believe that?”

Alan folded his hands before him and considered Zelgadiss for a moment. “It's no secret that as one of the Great Sages, Rezo had a much longer life-span than ordinary humans. However, even for his considerable wealth of knowledge, he lived much longer than he should. Then, there was the nature of his experiments. Around six years ago, an emissary from him came to Nazca to do some research. A very well-endowed woman, though her clothing seemed to be rather skimpy. Her name was Eris.”

Zelgadiss leaned forward. Six years ago. It'd been around the same time Rezo had initially cursed him. “Yes, Eris was his assistant.”

“The research that Rezo wanted surrounded the Magnus Eye. I'm sure you are aware of it, Zelgadiss-san.”

“My...,” Zelgadiss hesitated on the use of the word “grandfather.” “Rezo taught me how to read the rune language used to write the Magnus Papers. I wasn't aware that he was intending to search for the Magnus Eye himself.” But, it makes sense. Rezo wouldn't put all of his eggs in one basket. Have Eris find the papers and get me to translate them, but neither of us would know what the other was doing. I would simply had thought the papers were among his possessions.

“Did she find them?” Zelgadiss asked. “The Magnus Papers?”

“No.” Alan placed his mug back on the table. “What do you know regarding the papers, Zelgadiss-san?”

“As much as anyone who's bothered to do research knows. It's needed to decipher the rune code that Lei Magnus invented to code all of his secrets, including his theories on how Ceiphied broke apart the pieces of Shabranigdu and sealed them into people.”

Alan tapped the rim of his mug. “Before he traveled to the north, Lei Magnus did much of his research here in the desert. You are aware of the results of his research, with spells such as the Blast Bomb and Dragon Slave. This was prior to the Kouma Sensou, where he then became a nihilist.”

Zelgadiss nodded. He knew the story well. The war had shaken Lei Magnus to the point the the Great Sage had rejected all of his previously held moral values and provided the opening for the piece of Shabranigdu sealed within him to take over.

“There's a theory that unlike Rezo, Lei Magnus was fully aware of the sealed piece of the Dark Lord within him. He always considered himself, and those other six with sealed pieces, to be a sort of chimera themselves,” Alan continued. “The reason why he created the Magnus Eye and the papers leading to it is because he not only discovered how the piece was sealed into him, but how to undo it.”

Zelgadiss' mind reeled. It made perfect sense. There was plenty of reasons to provide so many layers to hide different aspects of research. But if Lei Magnus had figured out how to undo the seal... That's why Rezo was interested. He was on his quest to summon Shabranigdu at the time. He wasn't aware that the sealed piece was within himself until the end, but it certainly fits with the research that he was doing.

If Lei Magnus discovered how to force the piece of Shabranigdu from his body, why didn't he do it? Would the same sort of process cure me of my affliction?

“Zelgadiss?”

His head snapped up. That voice. Zelgadiss turned in his chair, then chuckled. “Gourry. It figures, I'd find you and Lina in a place like this.” He stood and clasped Gourry's hand. “You're looking...” He trailed off and noted the circles beneath Gourry's eyes and the pale, gaunt look on his face. “You look like you haven't slept in a few days. Lina's keeping you up, isn't she?”

Another sorcerer stood slightly behind Gourry. Zelgadiss scanned the room, but there seemed to be no sight of Lina, or the destruction she normally brought with her.

Gourry pushed his hand through his hair, not really wanting to go through the whole story again. The more he said it aloud, the more realit became. “Zel, there's something I need to tell you.”

“You might want a bit of privacy,” the sorcerer who came in with Gourry spoke up. “There's a room just off this one you can you.”

Gourry nodded his thanks and the two men separated from the rest of the sorcerers. Once alone, Gourry told Zelgadiss the same story he had told Amelia, adding in the parts where the princess was currently on her way to Nazca.

Zelgadiss didn't say anything at first. He wasn't quite of what to say. The thought of Lina possibly being dead seemed too strange to comprehend. Even after the Lord of Nightmares had taken her into the Sea of Chaos and when Lina faked her death fighting against Kanzel, Zelgadiss couldn't believe that Lina was actually gone. The rational part of his mind knew that there was no way someone could survive a fall like that.

“You've been looking for her?” Zelgadiss asked carefully, not quite sure how close to the edge Gourry was riding.

“Yeah. I went down to the base of the cliff and there was nothing there.” And there should had been, even if just... Gourry's throat began to swell. Even if there was just a body or a few pieces of clothes.

“If her magic's gone like you said, there's no way she could had cast Levitation.”

“I know.”

Zelgadiss sank into a chair and clasped his hands together. His heart ached, and it surprised him that it was still able to do so. “So, she wants us to find the Magnus Eye. That's just like her. Though, based on what you're saying, it looks like the Mazoku are also after it. It's going to be a pain and a half to do so, considering that Lina took the papers out with her.”

Everything inside of Gourry screamed to grab Zelgadiss and keep searching for Lina, or whatever was left of her. But this was part of his mission as well and he wasn't going to fail Lina. He took the chair opposite Zelgadiss'. “Where do we begin?”

-----

City of Nazca - Sorcerer's Guild

Seven days after the disappearance of Lina Inverse

Zelgadiss didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. He really didn't feel like taking that task on, especially considering who he had to talk to.

It'd been a week since Lina's disappearance and four days since Zelgadiss had joined Gourry. They'd split their day evenly - looking for Lina in the mornings and part of the afternoon, then spending the rest of the day doing library research. Okay, he was doing of the library research. Gourry had put a commendable effort into helping, but reading books on magic simply went over his head. When Zelgadiss replaced the magic books with general history, Gourry started to devour more of the research. Even then, the swordsman wasn't a huge reader and had a tendency to nod off over his book and forget where he'd stopped.

Then again, Zelgadiss didn't blame Gourry for falling asleep. The sorcerer he'd seen with Gourry, Randall Cummings, had also invited Zelgadiss to stay in the other spare room that he and his wife had. While trying to cram in some research before sleep, Zelgadiss would hear Gourry either pacing in his room or tossing and turning in bed. He was willing to bet Gourry hadn't had a full night's sleep since Lina fell from the cliff, if not before.

They searched the top and bottom of the cliff at least three times and a good bit of the surrounding area. They didn't say it, but hope dwindled as each day passed. Even if Lina had survived the fall, her injuries and a lack of water would had done her in after a few days in the brutal heat. After trudging back through the midday sun to Nazca on their fourth day of searching, Zelgadiss knew that he had to get Gourry to face the truth.

Lina was gone. This time, there was no bringing her back.

Zelgadiss wanted to wait for Amelia to get there and from what Gourry had told him, she was due to arrive any day now. She was better at handling the touchier emotions that went along with grieving people. She would comfort Gourry and help him focus on the mission. It was a role that Zelgadiss wasn't quite comfortable at playing, especially since he wasn't quite sure of how to deal with Lina's death himself.

Zelgadiss sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose while Gourry devoured about half the lunch menu at one of the remaining taverns in the city. He's just like Lina. Grief doesn't diminish his appetite.

“I was thinking that we'll start in the libraries first today,” Zelgadiss began, hoping to put off another fruitless search for as long as possible. “We were making good headway yesterday regarding Lei Magnus' research. It's amazing what the man accomplished in his life.”

“Well, he has to be called a Great Sage for a reason, right?” Gourry dug into a plate of fried liver and onions.

Zelgadiss winced. How can he eat that stuff? “Yes, the five men who were the Great Sages accomplished many things.” Even Rezo did, and it was a point that always left a sour taste in Zelgadiss' mouth. Half of the advances in white magic came directly from his research.

“What about on the stuff that'll turn you back into a human?”

“Hopefully, we'll find something. But, it doesn't seem to be a theory that Lei Magnus made public. Chimeras, while a part of our society, are not highly thought of. We're not sure how long before his sealing that Lei Magnus knew about the piece of Shabranigdu in his body - if at all. The information we were given at the Sorcerer's Guild is just a theory. The Magnus Eye could be just a decorative piece of rock for all we know.”

“But not so many people would want it if it was just a hunk of rock.”

Zelgadiss smiled. “I think just the legends surrounding it are enough to lure people to it. We've gone after treasure that's turned out to be a dud many times.”

“True.” Gourry's eyes lit up as the waitress slid two pieces of chocolate cake in front of him. “Wow, thanks! This looks great!” He grabbed his fork. “And it's all mine! None for you, Li...,” his voice trailed off as he stabbed his fork at the empty chair between his and Zel's. The laughter faded from his eyes, replaced with shock as he remembered why she wasn't sitting there to begin with.

Zelgadiss carefully lowered his cup, memories of when the exact situation had happened when Phibrizzo had kidnapped Gourry. His heart had ached for Lina then, but they all knew that Gourry had been alive. They knew Phibrizzo wouldn't kill Gourry because he had been worth more alive. But now... Zelgadiss swallowed. It's time.

He placed his cup on the table. “I was hoping to avoid this until later. Gourry...”

“Zelgadiss-san! Gourry-san!”

Zelgadiss snapped his head around and saw an exhausted-looking Amelia framed in the tavern entrance. Relief flowed through him as she stepped toward them.

Amelia beamed at the two men, her heart aching when she saw how tired and gaunt Gourry looked. Her gaze flickered to Zelgadiss, who was smiling at her. Her heart tripped a little, then resumed its normal rhythm. Both men stood as she approached the table. She hesitated for a moment, then ran to Zelgadiss. Before he had time to guess at what she was doing, she threw her arms around him, giving him a brief hug. Then she turned to Gourry and leaped at him.

“I'm so so sorry,” Amelia sobbed, her arms wrapped so tightly Gourry's neck that she was strangling him. “I hurried as fast as I can, but I know this has been horrible for you. Don't worry, Gourry-san. We'll find Lina-san, I promise!”

Zelgadiss cleared his throat. “Amelia, I don't think Gourry can hear you at the moment.”

“Huh?” Amelia pulled back and saw that Gourry's face had turned blue due to lack of oxygen. She yelped and grabbed his shirt instead. “Oh, my goodness! I'm sorry! Gourry-san, are you all right?”

Gourry's head lolled to the side for a moment as Amelia shook him. “I'm fine, Amelia,” he wheezed after a moment.

“Amelia,” Zelgadiss said quietly, “I was just about to talk to Gourry about Lina.”

Amelia looked at Zelgadiss and he silently cursed when he saw the hope in her eyes. “Did you find anything about her?”

“No. We've been searching for a few days now.” Zelgadiss took a deep breath and decided to get it over with. “Gourry, I don't think we're going to find Lina. If we were, we would had done so by now. The terrain's flat and there's not a lot of places to hide.”

Gourry stared at Zelgadiss as his friend listed all the reasons why Lina wouldn't had survived the accident. The food he had just eaten started churning uncomfortably in his stomach. They were all things he'd thought of himself. As Zelgadiss finished, Gourry placed his hands on the table and closed his eyes. Tears stung at the back of them as he forced his brain to process what everyone else knew. But the moment he acknowledged it, it would be true - and he wasn't quite sure how he was going to survive once that happened.

“You don't know that, Zelgadiss-san,” Amelia turned to him, hands on her hips.

Zelgadiss fought the urge to roll his eyes. “I'm sure she hasn't just suddenly disappeared into thin air.”

“She could had been kidnapped! Maybe she's somewhere here in the city and she's hurt!”

“You're not helping, Amelia!” Zelgadiss faced her. “Look, the longer we refuse to acknowledge this, the harder it will be for all of us. Lina is dead.”

His last sentence was said at nearly a shout and other patrons in the tavern craned their heads to watch the fight. Amelia took a deep breath and grabbed Zelgadiss' arm. She pulled him a few feet away from Gourry. “Look, you're not being sensitive about this, Zelgadiss-san.”

“Grief is grief. He's got to go on, Amelia. The first thing he needs to do is accept it. Once he does, we can help him with the rest.”

“But...”

“I think I can accept it.” Gourry's voice was hoarse, but strong. Zelgadiss and Amelia looked at him and saw unshed tears in his eyes as he stared at the table and slight gouges in the wood from where he gripped it. “I think I can, but I don't want to.”

Amelia's throat started to swell and she walked back to his side, placed her hand on his arm. “Before you do, though, I want to check something. There's one thing left, something that you may not know about. Did Lina-san ever tell you about your wedding ring?”

“No?” Gourry tried not to hold onto the little bubble of hope that was beginning to develop. “What about it?”

“I need to see it. Can you take it off?”

Gourry quickly jerked his glove off and dropped it to the ground before tugging at the thick wedding band, his hands shaking.

"Here, twist it a little." Amelia took over the operation and twisted the ring firmly. It finally wiggled loose and she pulled it off. She held it up to the light and squinted at it.

"What are you looking for?" Gourry tried to look over Amelia's shoulder as Zelgadiss rejoined them.

"Gourry-san, you're crowding me. Stand back a little." She stepped away from him and studied the inside of the ring once more. After a moment, a tear rolled down her cheek, then two.

Gourry's heart froze. "Amelia?"

Amelia stepped back to him. "Look at this," she said, tapping an odd-looking pattern inside of the ring. "This spell is to let one member of the couple know if the other is still alive or not. It's handy in cases like this. If she was gone or if she wasn't wearing the ring, the engraving would be gone as well. The ring wouldn't have any markings on it.

The little bubble of hope began to swell and Gourry had to try to speak twice before he could get any words out. "You mean...she's alive?"

Amelia nodded, unable to say anything. Instead, she threw her arms around Gourry and started to sob. He returned the embrace, hugging his friend tightly as he gave into the tears that he managed to keep at bay since the right after Lina fell from the cliff. A moment later, he felt a warm, solid pat on his back as Zelgadiss joined them.

She was alive. Lina was alive.

From there, everything else was negotiable.

-----

Desert of Destruction

Seven days after the disappearance of Lina Inverse

Gracia ul Naga Saillune had long ago left the trappings that was life as third-in-line to Saillune's prosperous throne. Now in her role as Naga the White Serpent, she really didn't miss life as a princess. Whatever she wanted, she received. Then again, she had a more normal upbringing that most young princesses. Her parents were considered to be extremely unorthodox and Naga had never been more grateful for their unconditional love the morning she walked into her mother's bedroom and found her the victim of an assassin's knife. Her father understood her need to go wandering the world, especially after her mother's death.

But right now, at this very moment, she wanted nothing more than to be curled up in a parlor at the Saillune royal palace, nibbling on food and drinking all the water she could hold.

Naga turned her canteen upside down and sighed when not even a drop of water came out of the spout.

This royally stinks. Naga jammed the cork back into the canteen and scanned the terrain. She knew it had been a bad idea to come out into the Desert of Destruction. But no, she had to be enticed by the stories of a hidden cache of pearls that really turned out to be smooth rocks painted white by some bored escaped convict. The convict had tried to convince Naga that she really belonged with him, but Naga knew that meant he really wanted her in his bed. When the convict had lunged at her, Naga quickly disposed of him with a Burst Rondo and had taken the rest of his water.

Even that was gone now. She sighed. She was at least a half day's hike from Nazca and who knew what she would find there. If rumors were true, it was all but an abandoned city. Then she'd really be in a bind.

Even so, Naga continued her trek across the desert. It was better than nothing. She pulled her cloak tighter around her and wished she hadn't run out of lotion that protected her from the sun. Her mother's costume kept her cool in the extreme heat, but also exposed her to sunburn. She ignored her thirst and kept plowing on with a tenacity that would make her father proud.

Not for the first time, she thought about heading back to Saillune. She'd been on the road for years now and surely the “training” excuse was wearing thin. She'd accomplished most of what she wanted to do, but it still irked her to no end that she hadn't been able to track down Lina Inverse after the younger sorceress had given her the slip one last time about four years earlier.

A small form took shape on the horizon and at first, Naga thought that it was part of the city. As she grew closer, she realized that the object was much closer than the city. In fact, it almost looked like a...

“House!” Naga was so surprised that she didn't realize she said it aloud. Then she took off at a run. A house. A house. Where there was a house, there was people. Or if not people, then a well. Water!

It took her about a half hour to reach the house. Naga worried her lip when she noticed the shabby condition that it was in. Some of the tiles were missing from the roof and the stucco wall was starting to crumble due to a lack of upkeeping. Even so, it could just mean that the owners didn't know much about basic maintenance. Naga set her shoulders and strode up to the door.

“Excuse me!” She knocked on it three times. “Anyone here?”

When no sound came from inside, she pushed on the door and it opened. Naga stuck her head in, closed her eyes and nearly purred with pleasure. Most of the roof was still intact and the result was that the sun wasn't beating down on her the way it had been for the past few days. She opened her eyes and headed into the house, closing the door behind her.

It was sparsely furnished. A pitcher sat on the table with a couple of cups next to it. It was the first place she headed. Naga nearly wept when she saw it was filled to the brim and immediately drank two cups of water before she slowed down enough to actually enjoy the taste. It was clean, cold water and it surprised her. Whoever lived here had tapped into a fantastic source.

She put the cup down and scanned the room. The only other piece of furniture was a bed and there was a lump of blankets on it. Frowning, Naga approached it. Someone does live here after all. They didn't hear me come in. She placed a hand on her hip and sighed. Watch it be some old geezer who'll get a stick up his butt once he wakes up over my borrowing a few measly drops of water.

“Ah, look, sorry about that.” Naga bent over the lump and waved her hand absently. “But, what's a cup of water or two between friends? Thanks for the hospitality though. I'll be on my way.”

When no response came from the lump, she frowned. “You are a sound sleeper. Hey, anyone in there?”

Naga briefly debated just leaving the house, but her sense of curiosity quickly defeated what common sense she had. She grabbed the covers and yanked them back with a flourish.

Naga dropped the blankets and gaped at the figure curled up on the bed. She never expected...this was the last person she'd ever expect to see in a place like this.

“Lina Inverse!”

-----

Author's Note: Surprise, surprise! Lina isn't dead and Naga has entered the story. This is my first time writing Naga, and she's been pretty interesting thus far. I worry that she sounds a bit too coarse, but I wanted to retain her "devil may care" attitude. Right now, she sounds a lot like Lina and as I get used to writing her, I'll find my own style with her.

Note to readers of Pairaka's fics: A pre-reader pointed out to me that the spell I had placed on Lina and Gourry's wedding rings was similar to one utilized in her stories after Lina and Gourry are married and he buys her a ring. This wasn't taken from that. I had read the story, but had forgotten about that plot device until the reader brought it up. The use of the rings in this story came around because I needed to work around a plot device in the original "Da Capo" movie. In the movie, when Fujiko is thrown over the cliff, Lupin latches onto her with a bracelet that's attached to a thin rope. When the next attack severs the rope and Fujiko falls, she keeps the bracelet. Lupin, being a master of gadgets, had implanted a homing device in the bracelet and was keeping track of Fujiko using a computer. That's how he knew that she survived the fall. Granted, none of that technology is available in Slayers, nor would Gourry had even thought of something like that. So, I decided on something that would sound in character for Lina - having her enchant their wedding rings before they marry. It happens to be coincidence.