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"Miss Inverse! Mail for you!"
"Thanks!"
Lina took her mail up to the apartment she and her friends had rented. "Hmm..." she said to herself. "Junk, junk, junk...ooo!!!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of an envelope with the words 'You may have won 1,000,000 gold pieces!' "Cool!!" She stuffed that one into a pocket. "Hmm, hmm, hmm. More junk, junk, junk..." she discarded the junk mail right and left. "Huh? What's this??" Tossing the rest of her junk mail away, she turned the envelope over in her hands. It was featureless, except for her name, written in flowing, calligraphed letters. She walked over to her room, ignoring Xel and Zel snuggled up on the couch, watching Terminator 2 and feeding each other popcorn. Or well, maybe not quite ignoring, as she glanced at them before opening the door to her bedroom, and going inside. Closing the door behind her, Lina walked over to her bed and sat down. 'Now for that letter', she thought. Lina opened the letter and began to read.She grew pale. Her hands started to shake. She began to sweat cold sweat. Then she passed out.
"Disgusting," she said.
"I know," replied Ameila. "Who'd have ever thought those two......" she sniffled and began to tear up. "It's not fair. I love Zelgadis!"
Filia clamped her hand over Amelia's mouth. "Just leave the 'lovebirds' alone," she said contemptuously, and huffed into the kitchen. Amelia followed at a more sedate pace, sniffleing, and throwing an occasional mournful glance towards the couch, and just generally feeling sorry for herself. Gourry just blinked stupidly and followed them.
"Hey Amelia," said Gourry as they were putting the groceries away. "Where's Lina?"
"Huh?" Amelia blinked and snapped out of her sulking reverie. "Why do you ask?" she said.
"Um, well, there's food here, lots of it, but Lina's not in here," he said. "Do you think something's wrong with her?" he asked, Gourry's simple logic dictating that if there was food someplace, and Lina wasn't there, then she must be sick, or something.
"No," Filia said, rather sourly. "I doubt it." Then seeing Gourry's genuinely concerned expression (or rather, the closest thing he could come to) she said, "Why don't you ask them?" she gestured in the direction of the living room, where the movie could be heard, masking any other sounds that might have come through otherwise.
"Okay, I will," said Gourry. He walked out of the kitchen, and into the living room. "Um, hey, guys....." he said to Xel and Zel.
"Mmrrmph....yes what is it Gourry?," said Zel. "Um, well, Lina's missing, and we don't know where she is...." Gourry said.
Xelloss looked at Gourry. "Oh, she went into her room a few minutes ago. Maybe she's taking a nap," he offered helpfully. Gourry blinked for a few seconds. "Um, okay, I'll see." He walked over to Lina's door. Now, because of the incredibly long time it takes Gourry to process even the slightest bit of information, by this time Amelia and Filia had finished putting away the groceries and had come out into the living room.
"Well? Do you know where she is?," asked Amelia.
Gourry nodded. "Xelloss told me she's in her room," he said.
Filia snorted. "You shouldn't trust that namagomi Mazoku," she said.
Xelloss looked up from Zel. "Oh? Really?" he said. "In case you've forgotten I have never been caught in a lie, whereas you ....." he trailed off.
Filia's face grew red with anger. Steam began to come out of her ears. "Why you....."
Xelloss blinked innocently. "What?"
Filia completely lost her temper. "NAMAGOMI!!!!" she pulled out her mace and repeatedly smashed Xel with it. "RRRAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!"
Xel just continued to smile. "Ahhhh.....arigatou Filia-chan!" ||^_^||
Amelia pulled Filia back. "Urk...Filia...gak...s..stop..."
Filia stoppd beating Xel. "Grr...huff...huff...grr..nama...namagomi...."
Gourry, meanwhile--although he has the brain of a jellyfish, or, some other lower lifeform, does have good survival instincts sometimes--had taken cover behind a piece of furniture. And, when his primitive brain realized that the fighting had stopped, he stuck his head out from his hiding place. "Um....," was his brilliant remark. Everyone turned their heads simultaneously to face him.
"WHAT?" Filia snapped.
"Uh...can we check on Lina now?" he asked.
"Of course!" Xel said. "We can check her now." Gourry got up out of his hiding place and made as if to open the door to Lina's bedroom.
"Wait," said Zel, grabbing Gourry's wrist.
"Huh?" Gourry blinked confusedly. "Why? I thought we were going to check on her."
Zel sighed. "Gourry....don't you think it would be a good idea to knock, first?"
Gourry blinked. "Oh, yeah!" Zel sighed again, and knocked on Lina's door. There was no response. Zel knocked again. Still no response. Crickets chirped. Zel sighed in exasperation.
"Okay, now you can open it," he said to Gourry.
"Okay," Gourry replied. Gourry opened Lina's door. "Lina?" he called, softly, just in case. "Are you there?"
"Oh, look," said Xelloss, who, at this point had already teleported into the room. "She's all passed out."
Zel walked over to Lina's bed. "Yes, it would seem so," he said. Then he noticed the letter in Lina's hand. "What's this?" He picked the letter up and began reading it. Everyone watched his face as he read it. A few minutes later, he looked up from the letter. "Well," he said.
"Well what?" asked Amelia.
"Well now I know why she fainted," Zel replied.
"Why'd she faint, then?" asked Filia. Wordlessly, Zel displayed the letter for them to see. What they saw there was this:
'To my Dearest Daughter,
Hello, Lina-chan, it's me. I just thought I'd say 'hi' and send you this invitation to the bi-millenial family reunion. Everyone will be there, even your goody-goody uncle, even the out-of-town family will be there. I'm looking forward to seeing you. Oh and, your boyfriend Rezo says hi.
Your loving Father,
The Dark Lord Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo
P.S. Bring a couple of friends!!!
"WHAT?!?!?!?!" Amelia exclaimed. "Li....Lina-san's the daughter of SHABRANIGDO!?!?!?!?! I thought she was a Champion of Justice!!!!!"
Filia stood there, with a look on her face that was slowly going from shock to rage. "I...I don't believe it!!!!! She never even told us!!!! Why that little...she's as bad as that namagomi Xelloss!!!! Worse, she's probably relate to him!!!"
Gourry had a puzzled expression on his face. "Uh...who's Shabdingo again? And why is it bad that he's Lina's uncle?" Amelia, Filia, and Zel face-faulted.
"Are you stupid?" said Zel. "Oh, wait, don't answer that. It's Shabranigdo, and he's her father, and it's bad because he's EVIL!!! Do you get it? We stopped his ressurection a few years ago, remember?"
Gourry tried to remember. "Uh, no...I don't think I do..." he said stupidly.
Zel face-faulted, and then covered his eyes with his hand. "Why doesn't this surprise me? And REZO!!!! She's been dating REZO!!! And he's not dead!! I do not believe this!!"
Xelloss just smiled happily. "Oh, she got her letter!!! I have mine here too!!" ||^_^|| Xelloss produces a letter similar to Lina's. "See? This is what I was telling you about, Zel!" At this point, Zel looked just a tad bit bamboozled, Amelia sat on the floor weeping, Filia was speechless, trying to figure out how the sister of Cepheid's Knight could be the daughter of Shabranigdo, and Gourry....well....Gourry still wasn't able to comprehend what was going on.
Just then, Lina came to. "Uhh.....I had the strangest dream....." Lina looked around the room, at all her friend's expressions, Xelloss' ||^_^||ing, and finally rested on the letter. She groaned. "Oh, man....it wasn't a dream...." she said, and then she fell back onto the bed.