Expected!

A Parting of Old Pals!

Epilogue

A bell rang overhead as Lina Inverse and Naga the White Serpent entered the Antiques shop. After confirming that a mere two days had passed since they had gone into the Shijintenchiso, Lina and Naga were fuming mad, and ready to make somebody pay.

Finding the Antiques Shop had been easy. It was located directly across from the boarded-up storefront near the fabric shop. The worn sign with the letter "A" creaked softly as it shifted in the gentle wind, no doubt rusty after several days' rain.

The congenial shopkeeper greeted, "Welcome! How may I help yo - urk!" He was cut off as Lina grabbed him in a headlock.

"We want some answers, Mr. Shopkeeper," Naga smiled, regarding the poor man like she would regard a steak dinner. "It regards a little book called the 'Shijintenchiso' which you sold to Lina here the other day for seven gold coins."

"Urguggkle," choked the purple-haired man, still held fast in Lina's iron grip.

"WHY didn't you tell us what was up with that stupid book?!" demanded the girl, throttling the shopkeeper in the same way she throttled Chichiri. "WHAT in the world was up with that 'Sore wa himitsu desu' crap you gave me when I bought it? You KNOW something, don't you? You sold it to me because you KNEW that was going to happen! I want my money back PLUS INTEREST!"

"Ano... Lina, I don't think he can answer you if you're cutting off his air," Naga felt impelled to remark.

"Chichiri was able to, why can't he?"

A large sweatdrop rolled down the back of Naga's head. "Right..."

"But Chichiri was a monk," spluttered the man, "so he had special powers. Besides, you were shaking him this hard."

The shopkeeper fell to the floor, gasping for air as Lina stared at him in shock. Oddly, his smile had never left his face, and he actually seemed to be smiling wider as he zipped behind the counter and folded his arms on the wooden countertop.

Lina slammed the red book down on the countertop, missing his hands by atoms. "Explain," she said in a voice that would have frozen nitrogen.

"Very well," said the man after a moment. "I'll tell you everything. It's a bit of a story, so I hope you're suitably comfortable."

Two nods.

"You're right, Lina-san. I gave you the book because I knew something very special about it."

Lina glared.

"I had read about the legend of the story. Unfortunately, only young human females are allowed within the book, so I was a bit out of luck."

Naga glared.

"I noticed you two and thought, 'What a coincidence! Just when I need a strong sorceress or two to do my dirty work for me, I find you perfectly suited for the job!' Therefore, I arranged for you to meet and come to this shop and buy the book from me."

Lina blinked, caught up a few sentences back. "Wait a second, pops. This is insane. What do you mean by ' human females'? And just how did you manipulate us so easily? I'd think you were a Mazo... Oh L-sama..."

The man smiled widely (or rather, wider than previously noted) as he nodded. "You've hit the nail on the head, Lina-san. My name is Xelloss, the Trickster Priest, and I am a full-fledged Mazoku."

Lina and Naga froze.

"Of course," Xelloss continued, "I couldn't just let you into the book unsupervised. Although I could not personally enter, I sent in my spy. That way I could keep tabs on things and also slightly influence events in the book world as well. I don't believe Taiitsukun was too pleased with me, but she was unable to stop me."

"What spy?" asked Lina dangerously.

A fat little bumblebee buzzed laboriously and landed on the book. "Why, this spy, of course," Xelloss winked.

Naga stared.

"You see, my mistress, Beastmaster Zelas-Metallum had felt an energy growing. She could feel the rise of a new Mazoku, of a power that possibly equaled her own. But we couldn't find the source. That is, until I stumbled onto this book after a bit of searching. I was ordered to either make this new Mazoku one of our allies or to destroy him." The shopkeeper-cum-priest clapped his hands together. "And poof! You went in and destroyed him for me, for which I am very grateful. Thanks a lot, you - gurk!!"

This time, Naga held Xelloss in a headlock. "I don't care if you're Shaburanigdo yourself! What right did you have to go messing with our minds like that?"

"Why... why are you telling us this?"

"Sore wa himitsu desu!" Xelloss winked before Naga choked off his air again.

Veins popped on Lina's forehead. Puffs of fume sprouted from her hair. "That's not an answer," she said, shaking with the effort of keeping her considerable rage under control.

In a blurring of black light, Xelloss disappeared out of Naga's grip and reappeared behind the counter. His eyes opened as he said, "Actually, in a minute you won't remember a single thing that's happened, so I don't feel at all bad about revealing this."

"What?"

Black disks of light shot forth from Xelloss' hands and wrapped themselves around the two sorceresses. "Forget," intoned the Mazoku, grinning all the while.

Lina stared at the rows of crap in the store. "Ne, Naga, what sort of Magic Shop is this, anyway?"

The White Serpent was examining herself in an ornately decorated mirror which had little tags on it proclaiming to be a glamour enhancement. "You were the one who suggested finding one in the first place," she retorted.

She picked up a 'lava lamp' and turned it upside down, watching blobs of red wax congeal in the conical tube. "Right. But you were the one who found this place."

Behind the counter and paying them no attention was a smiling purple-haired shopkeeper, busy at work polishing a ruby-tipped staff.

"Ne, what shop is this?" Naga asked.

He looked up and grinned. "This is the Everything-for-a-gold-coin Antiques shop!"

WHAM. Two sorceresses fell face-first onto the ground.

"ANTIQUES SHOP?" Lina demanded angrily of both the shopkeeper and of Naga. "What the hell are we doing in here?"

"Ohohohoho!" Naga laughed. "You just don't appreciate a good bargin! I'll take this one, please!" She set down the mirror she was looking in before. Lina noticed a blue dragon design coiled on the back. She felt a headache coming on.

"One gold coin, please!"

"Done!" And hands were shaken as the transaction was completed.

Lina marched up to the counter and regarded the smiling man for a second before plunking down a gold coin of her own. "Very well, I want some advice."

"Advice?"

"Job tips, information, whatever. I'm a sorceress and I'm traveling with a mercenary, and we're looking for a good job since we finished our last one recently."

He looked at the coin for a moment before sliding it back to her. "I don't charge for information," he explained. "However, I hear the Prince of Saillune is traveling incognito and according to my reports, he should be in the area."

"Prince?" Lina's eyes grew wide and sparkled with excessive amounts of glitter. Images of handsome young men on beautiful white horses pranced in her mind.

"Thank you," said Naga simply as she dragged a daydreaming Lina out of the store.

"Oh no, thank you," said the shopkeeper mysteriously as they left.

"Ne, Lina, where are we going again?" asked Gourry. "And why isn't Naga here?"

"Naga went her own way. I don't blame her, and I'm actually quite glad."

"Eh? How come?"

"Things have... well, changed between us. It's better this way."

"Okay," Gourry nodded, not understanding but not bothered at all. "So where are we going again?"

"The Prince of Saillune is traveling down this way. Maybe we can meet up with him and..." Lina sighed at her little daydream of shining princes. She tossed the coin in her hand that the shopkeeper had refused to take a few times before pausing.

She stared at the golden surface for a second.

"Ne, Gourry? What country uses ryou for currency?"

"Gee, I don't know, Lina," came Gourry's honest, but unenlightened, reply.

Lina turned the coin over and looked at the embossed image of a beautiful phoenix in flight. Something...

She shrugged and pocketed the coin. There were other things to worry about now.

"Onward Gourry! Onwards towards fame and fortune and lots and lots of food!"

"YOSH!"

High above, a purple-haired priest sat on the lowest branch of a tree, his ruby-tipped staff leaning on his shoulder. He watched as the two travelers walked off into the noon (as no traveler is stupid enough to walk off into the sunset unless he's being chased and has to flee by moonlight) and chuckled.

His eyes opened as he said, "Thank you for a very amusing time. Great fun was had by almost all."

A pause.

"But don't think you've seen the last of me, Lina Inverse."

And he smiled.

~ owari ~

Continue: Author's Afterword.