Shock!

Taiitsukun's Lengthy Explanations!

Episode 9

"So spill," said Lina. "Why doesn't my magic work in this place?"

Taiitsukun floated up a foot. "Tell me, Suzaku no Miko. How does your magic work?"

"Um." Lina scratched her chin. "Well, there's three different kinds of magic: Black, White, and Shamanist. I usually use Black Magic, but I do know a few White Magic Spells and some Shamanist Magic, too. But I've seen a couple of people use a type of magic here that I've never seen before."

Taiitsukun nodded. "How do you cast your spells?"

"Black Magic draws upon the power of Mazoku, and it also involves a lot of incantation and gestures," answered Lina readily, dredging up memories of old lessons. "White Magic is usually used by priests and such, and draws on the power of holiness, and some say the power of the dragons, since they're the opposite of the Mazoku and 'cause dragons also use White Magic, but I don't quite believe in that. And Shamanist Magic summons spirits and elementals and deals with stuff about the Astral plane and Astral projections and what-all else."

"Therein lies your problem," said Taiitsukun sagely.

"Wha?" wondered Lina, missing the point by several miles.

"Where do you draw your power from?"

"From Mazoku and ..." Lina's jaw dropped as several pieces of the puzzle clicked together. "Na-nani? You mean..."

"What?" asked the Shichi Seishi in unison.

"You can't be serious! You mean I can't cast my magic because there's nothing to draw power on from in this world? That there's no Mazoku and no Dragons and ... that's crazy!"

Taiitsukun shook her head. "It is not. Your world is very different from ours. The beings you know as Mazoku and Dragons do not exist here; therefore, your magic does not work the way you are used to."

Lina felt faint. She felt extremely faint and flopped down into a sitting position before she fell. "You can't be serious," she repeated for her own benefit. "So ...what about other people's magic? Like that fox-faced monk-guy."

"My name's Chichiri, not Fox-face or monk-guy. Even though I am a monk, no da..."

"Yeah, yeah. How come you can do magic?"

"His magic is not the same as your magic," said Taiitsukun. "I have been training Chichiri intensively, and he has learned a lot. In this world, people with a strong ki can concentrate their energy and make do certain things which seem like magic to you. This would include things like teleportation, attacks and shields, which you have probably seen Chichiri using. However, only people of exceptional ability such as a Shichi Seishi have enough power."

The ground seemed be to spinning around Lina. This was a wee bit too much to handle in one fell swoop. It's one thing to not be able to use your magic. It's another to be told you can't use your magic because everything you know about it doesn't apply anymore. "I feel...faint..." she mumbled.

"Cure! Cure! Fix! Fix!" chorused several Nyan-Nyans. "Don't worry! We'll make you feel better! Cure, cure, fix, fix!"

"Kyaaa!" said Lina, frantically waving them off.

Taiitsukun popped a vein. Fed up with their behavior, she ordered all the Nyan-Nyans to leave them alone for the time being. The Nyan-Nyans sulked at these orders, but accepted them readily enough. After annoyed Creators and Shichi Seishi had sent two of them into orbit, they were a little more cautious. The Nyan-Nyans departed for places unknown, probably some hyper-dimension where a Nyan-Nyan could stock up on sugar/caffeine/energy/genkiness/whatever else to make them so energetically bouncy. The room seemed a lot emptier and quieter with the Nyan-Nyans gone. It was also a lot calmer, and Lina felt slightly better.

She sighed. "I guess that explains a lot," she admitted slowly. "I can't cast anything because I have no power, and there's no power because there are no Mazoku, which throws everything for a loop. At least, everything I'm used to."

"I hope that answers your first question," said Taiitsukun. "But I suspect the second one also has you worried."

"Yeah, well. Since Black Magic doesn't work here, Naga can't use any of her spells, so ...I'm kind of worried about what happened to her." She added very quietly, "Not like I'd admit that to her, but..."

A large mirror appeared out of nowhere, possibly the hyper-dimension the Nyan-Nyans possibly called home, possibly just from some old and musty storage closet. As Lina and the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi leaned closer, the mirror's surface clouded over.

"Show us Naga the White Serpent when she arrived in this world for the second time," intoned the Creator. She rattled off a long list of complicated-sounding words.

The fogginess cleared away and the mirror glowed, forming an image of a quaint village. A bee buzzed by the image as it focused on a tall figure.

Lina was not surprised to see it was Naga. The first thing she noticed was that Naga had not changed into her usual outfit. It was probably still wet in an inn room somewhere in Rand McNally. At least she didn't stand out quite as much in the village, but that wasn't saying much. She was the red salmon in a pond of gray trout. Sticking out was Naga's specialty.

Naga-through-the-looking-glass paused and looked around herself confusedly. "Ano, this isn't the place we ended up the first time," she said out loud to no one in particular or in general.

The mirror followed Naga as she turned around a corner. "Ne, where am I?" she continued to speak out loud, as if for Lina's benefit. "Lina, why didn't you tell me this would happen? What kind of book did you buy?"

Lina raised an eyebrow. "Trying to blame me for this, are you?" she said in a dangerously low voice. "How in the world was I supposed to know this was going on? Blame that stupid shopkeeper in the antiques shop, not me!"

"This is your friend?" asked Hotohori critically, raising an eyebrow. He was obviously Not Impressed.

Nuriko let out a sound of disgust. "Such a weird person! And such terrible fashion sense!"

"Yeah. Actually, on her good days she's a lot worse, if that makes any sense. You kind of get used to it after a while."

"Look!" said Tamahome, pointed at a group of men behind Naga. They were slowly following her with a sneaky look in their eyes.

Naga turned another corner into a dead end. "Great," she grumbled, "Now I'm totally lost in a place I've never even been to. And Lina and Gourry had the gall to leave me behind when they went to that buffet lunch! Hmph, some friends."

"Wasn't my fault you decided to read the book instead of followed us to lunch," commented Lina to herself.

Naga started to turn around but was stopped by the thugs. They looked very familiar to Lina, but then, she had already encountered two other groups of thugs. After a career of bandit-hunting, all thugs look vaguely familiar. There were several burly men with tattoos and one man with a scar on his cheek. All of them had surly expressions and large, blunt weapons.

Naga laughed. The thugs winced. So did Lina and everyone else in the room, except for Taiitsukun.

"Ohohohohohoooo! I suppose you're going to attack me and all that other stuff, right?" grinned Naga. "Men! You never change, do you? Ohohooo! Demona Crystal!" She flung her hand out in an elaborate gesture.

Nothing flew forth.

"Na-naani?" said Naga. She paused a moment and tapped her chin, thinking things over while the thugs watched in confusion. They drew back a cautious step.

Naga shrugged. "Alright then. Fireball!"

Instead of a large and massive and highly-over-destructive spell flying forth to envelope the intruders (and probably a good two blocks of the village while it was at it), a bumblebee buzzed ponderously between Naga and the thugs.

There was a moment of silence in one of those supposedly meaningful pauses. Then the storm broke as the group of unruly thugs charged Naga.

She drew her own sword, yelling, "Levitation!" When nothing happened, Naga dropped the subject of magic altogether and started fighting her way through, cursing all the way.

"Dammit, Lina! Where in Philbrizo's Hell are you? We're supposed to be working as a team! K'so!" she swore as a thug slashed at her leg. "Now's a good time to show up and take care of these idiots! Lina? Lina! LINA!"

The thugs closed in.

"Dammit, Lina! LINA?!"

Suddenly, the mirror clouded over. That, it seemed, was that.

Lina stared at her shocked reflection in the oversized mirror, stunned at what she had seen. "When...when did that happen?"

"Three months ago," Taiitsukun supplied.

"Three months?" Lina rubbed her eyes. "That's when she and I came the first, time, right? Why did she return the same time and I came here later?"

Taiitsukun made a motion with her hands and the mirror disappeared. "Time runs differently in the book than in your world. You must have spent some time in your world doing something else while Naga returned almost immediately."

Lina remembered the gorging at the buffet lunch. "Um...What happened to her?"

"Unfortunately, someone or something prevented my powers from working. A barrier went up around her and I was unable to keep track of Seiryuu no Miko." Taiitsukun frowned. "It was most disturbing..."

"Uhhh..." said Lina.

"Lina-chan, what's wrong?" asked Tamahome as Lina swayed dizzily.

"I think I need to rest," she answered, and did just that.

She woke up alone in a soft bed. As she opened her eyes, two floating and curious Nyan-Nyans looked back at her.

So much for being alone.

It took several seconds for Lina's tired mind to register this little fact. "YAAAAAGH!" she screamed in fright.

"Cure, cure! Fix, Fix!" said the Nyan-Nyans in harmony. "All better!"

Lina sucked air into her lungs, attempting to slow down the rapid pace of her heart. "Don't scare me like that!" she growled. "Nearly frightened me out of a year's growth! I'm small enough as it is! And I'm NOT all better if you keep doing stuff like that! Why, I oughta..."

She continued ranting on a similar vein for several minutes until she ran out of insulting things to say. Unfortunately, the Nyan-Nyans took it all in good cheer, bouncing around happily in the air and giggling to themselves. Hyper chibi-goddesses are incredibly hard to annoy, as Lina discovered. Finally, sick of the Nyan-Nyans' genkiness, she demanded to know, "Where's Taiitsukun at right now? I need to talk with her."

"This way, this way!" said Nyan-Nyan A. (Lina couldn't quite tell them apart.)

"Follow me, follow me!" said Nyan-Nyan B. (Lina still couldn't tell them apart.)

Reluctantly, the sorceress followed the Nyan-Nyan pair down the hallway into a smaller room, where Taiitsukun was.

"Yes, Suzaku no Miko?"

"We bring Suzaku no Miko here!" cried Nyan-Nyan B happily.

"Just like Taiitsukun told us!" agreed Nyan-Nyan A joyfully.

"Good, good!" exulted Nyan-Nyan B.

"Great, great!" exclaimed Nyan-Nyan A.

Lina felt a headache coming on, although she wasn't about to mention it while certain hyper-active chibi-goddesses were within hearing distance.

"No problem!" continued Nyan-Nyan B.

"Not at all!" grinned Nyan-Nyan A.

Taiitsukun did her patented up-close-and-personal-stare.

The Nyan-Nyans stopped talking.

"Bye, bye!" said Nyan-Nyan A.

"Ja ne! Ja ne!" echoed Nyan-Nyan B.

Both of them high-tailed out of the room.

Lina coughed a few times. "Um, are they always like that?"

"Yes."

"Gee," said Lina contritely. "Sorry."

"Suzaku no Miko, the only reason why you sought me out alone is because you have a personal request. Is this not true?"

"Whoa. Not much gets by you, does it?" Lina laughed nervously, "Anyways... I was hoping you could send me ahead to Kutoukoku."

"You wish to see Seiryuu no Miko."

"Well, yeah."

"Without the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi?"

"Yes!" Lina's fangs started showing. "Okay, can you just do it? I've got my own reasons and I don't need the Shichi Seishi mucking things up! It's a personal matter."

Taiitsukun turned her patented up-close-and-personal-stare on Lina. "Hmmmm," she said as she considered the request. "You know you will have to be careful. Your magic does not work here. You do not know any of the local customs nor almost anything at all about this world. Is this a wise choice?"

"Will you or won't you?!" Lina popped a vein, fed up with this questioning.

A pause.

Lina gulped. Not good to tick off Creators of worlds, even if they weren't Creators of her own world.

"Very well," Taiitsukun sighed. "I will send you in to the capital of Kutoukoku. But you are on your own from then. I nor the Suzaku no Shichi Seishi can help you."

"Yosh! Let's go!"

Taiitsukun closed her eyes and concentrated her powers.

Lina found herself surrounded by a bright yellow light.

Poof! She was gone in, well, another flash.

Continue: Episode 10: Danger! Lina and Naga's Reunion in Kutoukoku!