“Favorite food?”

“That’s information for the fans,” Cornelius said from behind a stack of papers

“Fans?”

“Yes it is a public event, you may become VERY popular, we get some information about you to put into magazine profiles.”

“Sweet” Xellos said grinning

Amelia sat for a moment thinking of what her favorite food is.

“Shabu-shabu?” Xellos asked

Amelia nodded, he was reading her mind - through their seal caused by her being his master. The man continued scribbling behind the stack of papers until Amelia set hers down in front of him.

“Is that all?” she asked

He nodded.

“Thank you Mr. Massoto, I shall see you tomorrow at two” she said as she stood at the door, then briskly walked out.

Her long hair swishing from side to side, taking long graceful strides she walked down the hall next to Xellos.

“Lunch time” she said

“No kidding”

“You gonna eat human food?”

“Sure, why not?”

<“Where do you want to go?”

Xellos took her hand and led her outside. He pointed to a restaurant, Amelia nodded, “We’ll get take out and eat in my room”

They went in the direction of the restaurant Xellos had pointed to.

“What do you want?’ Amelia asked him.

“You’ll see, I’ve got an idea”

Xellos went into the restaurant and to the bar.

“Sake, sake, sake” he said “Oh and gohan, naruto15, shabu-shabu, ramen, and nigirimeshi16. Take out”

Amelia chuckled, and got an idea also.

After they had gotten their orders, placed in bento boxes, and wrapped in furoshiki. Along with their sake, they went back to the inn.

At the inn they went to Amelia’s room and placed the bottles of sake on the table. Xellos sat down on the bed with the bento, and motioned for Amelia to join him. He opened up the bento and said “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a plan”

Amelia giggled and unwrapped her hashi17, “Me too”

“Oh I hope yours is as fiendish as mine, here.” he said handing her a box with shabu-shabu meat in it.

Amelia nodded and took her share of meat, handing him some nigirimeshi.

“First, we eat lunch, then we lounge around downstairs, and later tonight, after Lina wakes up for dinner, we break out the sake and celebrate.” He chuckled

“My idea was about the same, but I though while we celebrate, we all play…” she leaned in closer and said “Strip poker!”

Xellos laughed and almost choked on his ramen.

They sat together on Amelia’s bed and ate gohan, nigirimeshi, senbei, ramen, shabu-shabu, and naruto.

Together, that is the key word, no they didn’t do sappy things like feed each other, but they sat together, talking, and being friends. Unlike what you usually see happening, they had a peaceful moment together.

Amelia heard loud footsteps and figured Lina was awake, and had smelled the food they were eating. She was right. Lina walked straight through Amelia’s door and went after the food. Amelia and Xellos grabbed it all and took off, out of the room and downstairs.

They chose a table to rest the food on for a moment and ordered some tea, then burned rubber out of the inn, and into the realm Amelia had made for herself. (More astral attributes…) Then once they were in the ‘grassy field’ realm, they remembered about the sake on the table in Amelia’s room.

“SNAP!” Amelia and Xellos wailed in unison. “I’ll be right back, gotta hide the sake!”

Amelia transported back into the reality realm and hightailed it to her room and back. With a jingle of the bells in her hair, Amelia snapped back into her realm.

“Smooth going, and in record time, way to go princess, that’s another point to you”

Amelia laughed and sat down next to Xellos under a tree. Amelia snapped her fingers and they resumed their lunch.

“You really are getting the hang of those talismans, aren’t you?”

Amelia nodded and unwrapped the bento again.

They, once again, sat together and ate, talking about the competition and about their plans for later that night.

“Are you going to be able to stay with me?” Amelia asked after they finished eating

Xellos opened his eyes and looked at her “Do you want me to?”

Amelia nodded

Xellos smiled and thought to himself, “Just as planned, perfect.” then he spoke aloud, “What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Hmm? About what?”

“What your father said”

Amelia looked down and suddenly seemed fascinated by the tips of her boots.

“I-I don’t know what to do”

“By the end of the year?”

“Yes, I- I wish…” she trailed off

“What?” he asked, although he knew what she meant.

Amelia kept looking at the ground, he put his hand on the side of her face, and she looked up at him, his eyes open with concern. A single tear ran down her face, she pulled close to him, and buried her face in his chest.

Zellas sat in an overstuffed chair (as usual) with a glass of wine and a cigarette. She sighed and looked up at the image of Xellos, and Amelia together. She laughed and took a long drag off her cigarette, then a swig of wine. She listened to the music playing in the background, trying to decide whether the plan would work out as planned.

She chuckled again and took another long drag off her cigarette. She blew the smoke out her nose and struck a flame from her thumb, it was a silly mortal’s spell, but it amused her so much that she would often use it to light up one of her cigarettes, which was very often.

She swished the wine around in its glass. The wine’s deep red color reminded her of the past, when the world was filled with chaos, and blood flowed like rivers.

“Such a feast” she said aloud “Humans hate us, but they, themselves were our creators - their hatred, anger and pain borne us into this world. It was of their own doing, now all that we wish to do is return the world to it’s past state of chaos.”

With another drag off her cigarette, she found something better to do than think - scare the wits out of the mailman on wolf pack island. Though it was hard enough getting him there in the first place…past incidents with the wolves - shredded mailman shorts and a lot of arguing.

Xellos and Amelia still sat under the tree in her realm, until she stopped crying and looked up at him. Her eyes told him that she loved him dearly, but his head told him otherwise.

“How could a Sailluune princess ever love a mazoku? How could we mazoku ever truly love?” he kept telling himself.

Amelia still held close to him and looked into his deep purple eyes.

“Xellos… I - I think I’m in love with you.” She said quietly.

He pulled her even closer to him, and said nothing.

They sat together not saying a word for the longest time, until she said that they should be getting back or their plan wouldn’t have a chance. She got up slowly and went over to where she had placed the bottles of sake, and placed them in her bag. Then returned to Xellos’ side and vaporized back into the real world.

Amelia pulled the sake bottles out of their hiding place in her bag and set them on the table where the awakened Lina and Gourry along with Zelgadis sat devouring plate after plate of helpless yakisoba20 and not paying any attention to the three bottles sitting in front of them.

“So I see you guys woke up,” Amelia said over Lina’s constant slurping

The three seemed to nod their heads but kept eating not saying a word.

Amelia slumped and leaned on Xellos’ shoulder slightly, waiting for them to finish. After Lina slurped down the last bit of yakisoba on the fifteenth plate in front of her, she finally spoke.

“Yep. Where did you two go off to after you took off with the food?”

“To my realm” Amelia answered “It was very peaceful there, unlike here, so we stayed a little longer”

Gourry finished his yakisoba and burped, loudly.

“Oh for Pete’s sake Gourry!” Lina screamed in his ear.

Zelgadis pulled himself away from his dark-roast, and noticed the three bottles of sake. He pointed to them and said, “What do you plan to do with those?”

Amelia picked one up and said, “Celebrate!!! Today I entered in a ‘multiple-skills’ competition, I want to wish for victory!”

“Since when do you drink!?” Lina wailed

“Since you left me, but I’m not addicted to it, like someone else in the room!”

Everyone looked at Zel, he threw his arms up. “What?! It’s only coffee!”

“C’mon Lina, loosen up and have some fun” Xellos cheered

“There’s no way I’m going to get drunk with a mazoku.” Zelgadis replied

“WHO ASKED YOU?!” Amelia and Xellos yelled in unison

“What do ya say, Inverse?” Amelia asked

“I’m in” Gourry replied.

“WHAT?” Lina screamed at Gourry

“I’m in for it, I’m a man! I can take a few bottles of sake”

All four imagined a drunken Gourry and cringed.

“A-Alright, I’ll do it” Lina replied

Amelia grabbed a bottle, and popped it open.

“Okay waitress, I do believe some choko21 are in order.” Xellos said

The waitress brought out five choko and sat them on the table. Xellos rubbed his hands together, and smiled devilishly. Amelia picked up the choko and took them into another part of the inn - the lounge room she had reserved for them only that night. They all sat down on the floor and Amelia filled the first round of sake for each of them, even Zelgadis, though he wouldn’t drink any. Xellos didn’t sit, he floated in an Indian-style position three inches off the floor, so did Amelia.

“Showoff” Lina muttered under her breath.

“Cheers” Amelia said as she raised her choko, and the others did the same,

“Cheers”

The first round was down, on to the second, then the third, by then Lina was becoming tipsy. Amelia was yuking it up, Lina threw back her sake and hit herself in the nose. Then, Amelia remembered the plan, “Hey, who wans to play Schtripp *hic* poker?” she slurred on her third round.

“MEEE” Gourry said “What- *hic* is schtrip poker?”

“Guess what I’m going to say - Sore wa himitsu desu! Ha ha!” Xellos said in his trademark pose.

“Lina? You wanna play”

Lina nodded her head uncontrollably.

“Zelch?”

“Excuse me?” Zel replied

“Do yous wanna play some strip poka’?” Xellos replied

“I believe not” he answered, since he hadn’t had any sake.

“To bad - whata sight!” Amelia wailed, “Break out dem cards!”

Xellos, still being half-sober, passed out the cards…

Amelia held her cards upside down, while Gourry had them in his hair, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Lina was scratching her head and squinting, trying to understand what all the flames were doing on Xel’s head (she was hallucinating). Xel simply smiled and held his cards backwards, so the other drunken fools could see them, even though they could care less.

They were all so fascinated by their own hallucinations they almost forgot what they were doing. Gourry pulled one card from his hair, then gasped, jumped up and began running around the room screaming, “Come back Shqueen” (queen [as in the queen jumped off his card and was now running around the room]).

Amelia, who was on the borderline of being drunk or toasted, but still live and awake, began trying to catch the air with her hands. Then shove them in her mouth if she thought that she had caught suitable air.

Lina looked around mischievously and leaned over to the side, and screamed, “OUT DEMON SPIRITS!” She farted and thought that it would cause an explosion because of all the ‘flames’ on Xellos’ head.

Gourry was currently sitting on the floor struggling with an invisible being in his hands. Amelia had one whole hand in her mouth, then pulled it out and made a ‘raspberry’ sound (pffffffft) with her lips and put on a gas mask, then punched herself in the face to see if it would hurt. Xellos was holding up a match and waving the soiled air away from him. Lina was rolling around on her behind and waving victory signs.

Zelgadis sat quietly, watching Gourry argue with one of his cards, Amelia wrestling with the gas mask she had just taken off, Lina bend over and do somersaults, and Xellos knock back a bottle of biru22, getting drunker and drunker.

Then they all grouped back together, took out their cards and showed them. They all had a mish-mash of cards that mixed together in a sloppy pile, to their eyes at least. Xellos leaned in over the pile of cards, squinted, scratched his head, and said,

“ Ahhh…we all lose”

“STRIP!” Amelia yelled

“One piece of clothing” Xellos advised.

Amelia shed her tunic, Gourry dropped his pants, Lina took off one of her shirts, and Xellos took off his cape.

“Heeeey, Xellos you play no fair, you gotta drop sumthin vital or doesn’t count” Lina wailed

“You didn’t, you’ve got layers of shirts, and anyway, it’s one piece of clothing”

The next game was about the same, but this time Amelia was playing with her hair and chewing on it, Gourry pulled his hair into a high ponytail, like Amelia’s and made poses with his sword. Lina took the cork from the bottle of sake and set it afire with a fire spell. Then summoned another fire spell and looked at it closely, which resulted in setting her hair afire.

Xellos dug around in his cape and pulled out a book (though he could do less than read at the time, being totally hashed from the sake), it’s title was “101 things to do with an Elmekia lance”. Xellos smiled and announced, “Look I got the illustrated version!” showing it to the rest of the group.

Once again, at the end of the game all of them lost, Amelia took off her boots, Gourry shed his shoulder and thigh guards, Lina took off running, hair full of flames - now she was the ‘flame-haired’ sorceress…literally. Xellos took off his shirt, and watched Lina curse and swear, running around the room. The next game came with them sucking back the sake instead of hallucinating, by then it was wearing off.

At the end of that game, guess what, they all lost again. Amelia took off her belt, Gourry took off his shirt, and Lina took off her shoulder-guards (after she put out her hair), while Xellos took off his shoes, and played with his toes.

Then, during their next game Amelia had Xellos’ shirt wrapped around her head and was looking much like Gourry, (looking dumb, in other words). On the other hand Gourry and Lina were going on about some huge chicken in the room, which supposedly, was hiding behind Zelgadis.

“Did you see the size of that chicken?” Lina wailed

“The world is a flower, and I’m it’s butterfly” Amelia said in a daze, fluttering around the room.

“CARDS!” Xellos said falling flat on his face.

“I know, I know! We all lost right?” Amelia yelled, “STRIP”

Amelia was hopping around the room on one foot trying to get her tights off, but fell over instead. Lina was sitting next to Gourry with a rope, ready to strike - Zelgadis that is.

“Get the chicken!”

“What?!” Zel screamed as they jumped on him, and tied him up.

Amelia pulled herself up off the floor, adjusted her tights, and saw Xellos, then saw his staff. She ran over to it and grabbed it, slung it up over her head, and chanted, “Ooo-ga-cha-ka, Ooo-ga-cha-ka” Then went around the room doing a Spanish dance and singing “Cuban Pete”.

…After a few minutes of that she stopped and held the staff in front of her. Lina and Gourry had Zelgadis tied up and strapped to a wooden beam over a fire. Xellos lay on the floor, with a bottle of sake.

Lina and Gourry got drowsy and curled up on the floor. Zelgadis breathed a sigh of relief and began untying himself. Amelia slowly fell to the floor and crawled over to Xellos, then cuddled up next to him.

When Zelgadis was loose of the beam and tried to sneak away, Lina’s fist flew up and popped him between the eyes, knocking him out instantly.

The next morning they all awoke to a hangover from hell. Amelia cast recovery for herself, and found that she was sitting on the floor, in Xellos’ arms. Zelgadis sat against the wall with a bump on his head, Lina and Gourry with snot bubbles, and Xellos holding Amelia.

“Die, you evil, dirty old man…and give me all your chicken too!” Lina mumbled in her sleep.

Amelia smiled as her headache eased away, and pulled closer to Xellos. Lina and the others came out of it soon after, all moaning and groaning with pain other than Xellos, who cast recovery too. Their eyes widened at the sight of Amelia and Xellos like that.

“What are you bozos looking at?” Amelia asked from the security of Xel’s arms.

“Ah… I don’t know what to think, or say” Lina said over the pounding of Zel’s heart.

“There’s nothing wrong with us holding each other, I love him.” Amelia announced

“WHAT?!” they all gasped “L-LOVE?”

Amelia nodded.

“She’s bewitched!”

Zelgadis almost hurled, turned purple, then fainted. Lina dropped back against the floor, and Gourry simply said, “Oh, how sweeet”

Lina’s arm then stretched up and hit Gourry on the back of the head. Amelia and Xellos smiled, giggled, and took a deep breath.

“Ahhhh!” The both said in unison “Breakfast”

Amelia’s powers were growing more and more, her normal senses, and ‘astral’ senses were modified; she gained a mazoku trait - feasting on emotions. They both stood up, still holding on to each other’s waist, and left the three sitting alone in the lounge room. Then, Amelia noticed a few articles of her clothing were missing, and turned around to retrieve them.

“Do you think last night turned out to be as good a plan as we thought it would be?’ Amelia asked

“You’re darn tootin’ it was!”

She laughed and picked up her clothes, “I have to work out, want to be my sparring partner?”

“Sure, why not?”

“First I have to change”

Amelia crept up the stairs, to her room, while Xellos stayed downstairs. He turned around and saw Zellas, in human garb, taking a long drag off her cigarette.

“Welcome.”

The room became hazy and all the mortals fell into a hypnotized sleep. Zellas raised her head to look at him.

“Hello son, what have you been up to? How have things been going?”

“She doesn’t expect a thing.”

“Is she the incarnate yet?”

“Not yet, not entirely at least. Are we sure that it is actually Occoreah?”

“Absolutely. Keep things as they are, or at least until I give you the plan through the seal.”

Zellas returned to her island, just as Amelia came from her room. She felt weak in the knees and fell to the floor. Xellos ran to her side, and took her hands. He helped her stand back up and turned to see the rest of the group, at the foot of the stairs, coming up.

“After this contest, we’re going back to Sailluune.” Amelia announced.

“Well when’s it start?” Lina asked

“Next week, it lasts for a week and a half, then we spring our testimony on dad.” Amelia replied

“That long?” Lina groaned

“Today is Thursday, I have to see the comp’s advisor today at two”

“What is this “multi-skill” competition?” Lina asked

“I consider it training, but it is what it’s name says”

“Hmmm”

“Go figure it out on your own, I’m going to get some rest” Amelia said, turning back, to return to her room.

“Man, She looks totally drained” Gourry said watching go back into her room.

Xellos went with her, while the others did the same

“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?” Xellos asked

“Whaaat?” Lina asked innocently

Amelia sat down on the bed and laid back, “I just want to lie here and rest, I’m not going to sleep, and no we aren’t going to fool around.”

Lina blushed, “I didn’t think you were either”

“I have three hours before the meeting”, Amelia said rolling on her side, curling into a ball.

“Damn she’s pretty” Xellos and Zelgadis both thought at the same time.

Xellos sat down next to her and leaned over to see her face. She opened her eyes and looked at him, she smiled and sighed. She mouthed “I love you” and closed her eyes again. Xellos did the same. All of the sudden the sky went dark, then into a pink version of the night sky.

“What the!” Xellos wailed

Amelia’s body went rigid, she didn’t move one bit. Xellos nudged her, but she didn’t respond, he told her to get up, nothing. Then he shouted at her, shaking her, still nothing.

“Wake up, please wake up Amelia… please.” he pleaded.

Lina ran up next to him and checked Amelia’s pulse; she shook her head and held back tears. Amelia was in Xellos’ arms, tears running down her cheeks.

“Welcome, to our realm”

“What?” Amelia said, but nothing came out.

She was floating, with no clothes on, but nothing was visible, it was as if her body was made pure white light. Swirls of blue, red, and green flames surrounded her in a flaming whirlwind. A form came out of the shadows and into view. It was a woman, dressed in a gown with white gems all over the luxurious material.

“My name is Occoreah.”

“Where have I heard that name?”

Occoreah nodded and pointed behind Amelia, there was a huge liquid mirror, rippling like a pool of water. There was an image of her suspended in mid-air, unconscious.

“Are you a the one?” Occoreah asked

“What?”

“You are strong enough to be one, but you must learn how to use the powers without the instinct. You are here to be told; you are now a being of the astro plane. You are to be my incarnate in the human world.”

Amelia looked around and looked at herself, she was still bare.

“Would you wish to be clothed?” Occoreah asked

“I wouldn’t mind”

“Well, imagine the clothing you want, and biff, you’re wearing them”

Amelia closed her eyes and imagined a white tunic style dress, coming to her ankles, with white tights underneath. She opened her eyes and began spinning in mid air; the dress conformed around her body, along with the tights. The dress had a ribbed texture, and was trimmed with tan on the edges, along with a tan colored belt around her waist.

“Now look, you will be mine whether you wish it or not, you were born to be the one, to bring balance.”

Occoreah once again pointed to the mirror, an image of Xellos holding Amelia’s earthbound body tightly in his arms appeared, replacing the suspended Amelia.

Amelia gasped, “What’s happening to me!?”

She ran up to the mirror and put her fingers on it.

“A-Am I dead?” Amelia asked, then thought to herself, “My soul is here, how can a body live without a soul?”

“No, but on Earth you seem to be. I put a sleep spell over you, see this is a dream.”

Amelia stared at the image of Xellos, holding her, and it only heightened her feelings for him.

“Take care, Amelia, you are the only hope, things are not as they seem.”

Then, with that, she stepped into the mirror and felt as if she were being hurled through time and space, in which, she was.

“Farewell”, Occoreah replied, vanishing

In Amelia’s room a tear materialized on the mirror and widened into a large swirling mass of red mercury. The space on the wall was filled with mirrors of all sizes; there was a fairly large one in the middle, where Amelia was suspended inside. Xellos looked up from Amelia’s still body and saw her image in the large mirror in the dimensional tear. Her torso came first, then her whole body entirely. Her eyes tightly shut, she came floating through the dimension gap, and opened her eyes. Amelia looked at her lifeless, Earthen body and blinked. Her aura, which was in the dream, went back into her body, bringing life to it once again. The sky returned to it’s original color.

“Amelia?” he asked.

“Xellos!” she said as she threw her arms around him. He too, did the same, holding her into oblivion.

Amelia slowly descended back down to the floor, still holding Xellos.

“Oh, it’s just one gushy moment after another with you two” Lina wailed.

“I just had the freakiest dream!”

“You scared the living crap out of me!” Xellos wailed

“Sorry, hey! You should know that I wouldn’t die without a fight, silly. ”

Lina eyed Amelia, not just a freaky dream.

“I though I had lost you.” Xellos said, keeping up the drama.

Amelia gazed into his open eyes and smiled, and kissed him.

There was a knock on the door, “Miss Amelia! I have a message for you!”

Amelia released her grip on Xellos and motioned for Zelgadis to open the door, since he was closest to it. He opened the door, revealing a small boy gasping for breath.

“The…contest…has…been…canceled…another…contestant…forfeit…”

“DARNIT!” Lina wailed, “Now I won’t be able to sign up and win!”

“For Pete’s sake Lina! You wanted to try and beat me! Didn’t you?”

The boy’s eyes rolled back, and he passed out. He hit the floor with a thud, as the girls argued. Zelgadis and Gourry freaked out, expecting wild ‘fits of fire’ to erupt at any moment. Xellos hovered near the window cheering Amelia on.

“TRY!? What do you mean TRY, I would have beaten you with one hand behind my back! And I wouldn’t get in trouble because it was a contest! So na na na na na!” Lina taunted.

“Listen here, ‘stands with a flat chest’! You can’t beat me as easily as you did before, like in that stupid tennis, badminton tournament with the brass rackets! You’d have to resort to using the Giga slave to beat me! And I could even cast that better than you ever could!”

Sparks flew and the two broke out into a fistfight. Lina tried a punch, but was kicked in the gut sharply by Amelia’s strong legs. She tried to launch another punch, but Amelia’s reflexes prevented it. She caught Lina’s fist and moved faster than sight, to slam her between the shoulder blades with a deadly punch. Lina fell to the floor and pulled Amelia’s feet out from under her, she fell but pushed herself off the floor and spinning into the air. She let her legs out, into a ‘split’ as she span in mid-air. Her multiple, spin kicks, knocked Lina to the window, where she began a fireball.

“Not inside ding-dong, unless you want to pay for repairs!” Amelia said, pointing outside.

“Don’t call me a ding-dong, you’re just trying to spare time.”

Something came over Amelia, something evil. All the anger built up into something deadly. She flashed past her and out the window, faster than even Zelgadis’ chimeric speed. She flung open the window and jumped out, with no levitation spell to ensure a safe landing. Lina followed screaming her head off, for Amelia to not run away like a coward, but was suddenly shut up by a mass of blue, electrical, mono bolts smashing her right in the face. Lina then fell to the ground, right at Amelia’s feet, flat on her face. Amelia held her hands to her forehead. Her tunic disappeared, and was replaced by a catsuit, made out of black cloth, with a belt strapped to her waist, and two small silver bands of metal around each of her arms, wrapped loosely around her biceps. Thick, heavy bands formed around her ankles, and wrists, her hair was up in an ornate, braided ponytail, with the bells, now braided in. Lina looked up and saw the new, “heavy metal” Amelia. Turn the page!