The Champion By: Tokki-Chan
WHAM!
"Wahoo!" Gourry cheered as Zangulus' hand slammed onto
the table.
"Gourry-sama, congratulations!" Slyphiel
squealed in delight, latching onto his
arm, her eyes glowing with pride. Gourry
looked proudly at her.
"Cheater!" Martina wailed.
Gourry, elated off his victory looked around for
another challenger and his eyes
lighted on a certain someone clad in white, putting
his mask on and getting
ready to leave the inn.
"Hey, Zel!" Zelgadis pretended to
not hear the swordsman and put on his hood.
"Zel!" Still ignoring. "ZEL!!!"
"What?" snapped the chimera, irritated.
"Let's arm wrestle!"
Zelgadis blinked in surprise. Of all the
random things. "What?"
"C'mon," Gourry said challengingly,
"I'll take ya."
Zelgadis scoffed. "I've got better
things to do with my time."
Gourry gave him a sly look. "Don't think
you can win?" He nodded
understandingly. "You're probably
right."
Zelgadis was halfway out the door when he stopped
abruptly. "What did you say?"
"You probably couldn't beat me."
The chimera stood in his stony silence for a few
minutes. Then he wordlessly
came back to where Gourry was sitting.
Throwing his cape and sword over his
chair, he slammed his arm on the table.
"Let's go."
WHAM! Zelgadis gave the shocked swordsman a
triumphant smirk.
"Hey," Zangulus said, very impressed,
"let me try."
WHAM! "Next," the chimera said.
Xellos materialized. "Hmmm. I
think I'll give it a go."
Zelgadis eyed him warily. "None of your
mazoku tricks."
Xellos crossed his heart. "Very well,
then. For once I will play it…as you
mortals say, 'straight'." And with that
he rested his arm challengingly on the
table.
The battle was long and fierce. Sweat coursed
down their faces. Teeth ground,
and lips pulled back in fierce grimaces. When
it looked like Xellos would win,
Zelgadis would use some secret reserve of strength
he seemed to possess that
brought them back to square one. The battle
was so long that by the time Lina,
Filia, and Amelia walked down the stairs, they were
still at it.
The girls looked at the taunt faces of the
competitors and asked, "What's going
on?"
No one even turned to answer them. "Shhh,"
they said, their eyes still glued to
the competition. Shrugging, they also stopped
to watch.
After watching for a few minutes, Filia had enough
of this testosterone loaded
display. "Oh, c'mon, boys!" she
shouted. "Be done with it all ready!"
Xellos, being Xellos, could not let Filia say
anything without giving a response
to annoy her. So, he started to turn toward
her when he realized that he let
his concentration slip and he hastily turned back
to his opponent. But that
second was all that Zelgadis needed to press his
advantage and Xellos' hand
wound up on the table.
Xellos turned angrily to the golden dragon.
"Filia-san," he said through
strained courtesy, "you distracted me."
"I did not," she returned angrily,
"you mazoku just can't admit defeat."
"If you hadn't…"
"Take it into the other room, guys," Lina
said impatiently. The two left,
arguing all the way.
Zelgadis started to get up. "Well, I
guess that's that," he said triumphantly.
"Wait," Lina said. "I'm gonna
be your next challenger."
Zelgadis blinked. "You?"
Lina bristled. "What's the matter?
Afraid to take on a girl?"
Zelgadis found himself on dangerous ground.
"N-no, it's not that-"
"Then let's go." Lina seated
herself at the end of the table and rested her arm
challengingly in position. "And no going
easy on me because I'm a 'girl'."
Despite himself, Zelgadis smiled. It was this
fire that made him admire her the
most. "I wouldn't dream of
it." He joined her at the table and the contest
began.
Lina gasped in surprise. She had always known
Zelgadis was strong, but she
never exactly tested it. At this rate, she
was going to lose!
Sure enough, her hand was wavering dangerously
close to the tabletop. She
gritted her teeth in frustration and glared at
him. He wasn't even breaking
into sweat. In fact, was he...smiling?
Lina realized with a shock that he was
toying with her, not ending this battle as quickly
as he could. Well, fine! If
he toyed with her, then she would have to give him
sufficient payback. If
there's one thing Lina Inverse can't stand is
losing!
Zelgadis noted with worry the smile spreading
across Lina's face. Her eyes got
that glint that he sometimes saw, usually before
she made someone's life
miserable. She's got an ace up her sleeve, I
just know it, he thought
worriedly. Better end this now. He
started to push her hand toward the table.
Suddenly, Lina leaned over the table.
Zelgadis felt something pleasant on his
lips, soft, warm. He blinked in
surprise. Was Lina…? All action in his
brained stalled as he stared at what was going on
right in front of his face.
Everyone blinked. It couldn't be. But
it was. One minute they're arm
wrestling and then….
Amelia gasped in shock. "LINA-SAN!?!"
Lina pulled away and slammed his hand onto the
table. She shot him a V sign
before dancing away, singing, "I am the
champion…" with Amelia chasing after
her, demanding an explanation.
The gang watched her leave before turning back to
the chimera still frozen in
position at the table.
"Please breathe, Zelgadis-san," Slyphiel
said worriedly. She sighed in relief,
as his respiratory system appeared to function
again.
"What happened, Zel?" asked Gourry.
Zelgadis could only continue to look
stunned. "At any rate," the
swordsman continued, "I guess you lost."
Zelgadis placed his fingers lightly on his own
lips, where they still tingled.
"No…" Zelgadis said dazedly,
"I...I think…I think I won."
