The night sent a shiver down Lord Gasper as he shivered under his heavy blanket sheets as the flickering candle on his nightstand played tricks with the shadows. He was certain that something was out there hiding in the darkness, kept at bay by the singular light from his candle. His friends would laugh at his current state of hysteria, but he knew better then any of them. What they had done had now come back to haunt them and it was drawing close to him.
"G...A...S...P...E...R..."
Beads of sweat glossed down his chin as the low wailing came at him like a breath of cold winter. His eyes frantically scanned his surroundings for the source of the voice. Beneath the thick silk sheets of his blanket, he clutched the hidden dagger that he kept there in order to protect himself against any nighttime visitor.
Satisfied after a brief survey of the room that there was no one else here, he gave a sigh of relief relaxing against the multitude of cushions. I must be getting nervous or something. Perhaps he should listen to his colleagues and taken a vacation like they had all said. They are probably right. I should take a vacation to get away from all of this. Tomorrow then.
Gasper eased himself back into his bed and blew out the candle, dreaming of the places that he would visit and the worries that he'd leave behind. He gripped at the blankets and wrapped them tightly around himself, though his hazy mind wondered as he drifted off into slumber why he had a thin rugged blanket on his bed.
Two glowing green eyes pierced the darkness over Gasper's sleeping bed.
He never awoke the following day.
Lord Nick sat in his plush chair as he tapped his hand on the desk as he surveyed the two people that had accepted his proposal. Though he had given out a generous sum of money for the service, ugly rumors floating around the city had scared away most of the other possible candidates. This left the ones that had taken the offer as either exceptionally brave or stupid; though in adventurers this was a hard comparison to make.
"Please forgive me if I had forgotten your names," Lord Nick apologized as he rubbed his temples.
"Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev," Lina introduced as she watched the merchant lord's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"You're Lina Inverse?" Nick stuttered.
"The one and only," Lina responded.
Sweatdrops appeared on his head as his mouth hung open, his finger twitching a bit in the air.
"Looks like he's in shock," Gourry commented waving his hand in front of the merchant's face. "You've got to do something about your reputation."
"You think I like being feared by common people?" Lina asked.
Gourry nodded.
Lord Nick came out of his shock as he found Lina beating Gourry senseless with the chair that she had been sitting on, which happened to be made out of pure Mahogany. Nick quickly pulled it out of Lina's grasp before she could bruise the expensive furniture on her cohort's head.
"Miss Lina," Nick cried as he placed the chair back on the floor, "I would appreciate it if you pay a bit more respect to my furniture."
"Sorry," Lina remarked, "but anyway, what of this job offer that you've been proposing. I heard that there is a substantial reward for seeing its completion."
"Which would be good, since Lina used up all of our money." Gourry commented before Lina's elbow accidentally found itself buried into his face.
"The Lord Nick doesn't need to hear about our little problems." Lina reminded Gourry in a harsh tone.
Clearing his throat, Nick offered, "If you are done with the theatrics, I'd like to go straight to business."
"That's fine with me," Lina replied taking Gourry's seat.
"I am part of a collection of merchants that control an organization of businesses that reside in this city. Recently, some of my colleagues have been strangely killed. The authorities have no leads or suspects, but they have proven to be nothing but ineffective in solving many of the other crimes in this city."
"So you decided to look for outside assistance," Lina finished for him as he nodded grudgingly.
"What about those rumors that the ghost of their old boss was doing all of the killing?" Gourry questioned.
"I thought I told you not bring that up." Lina hissed seizing the blonde swordsman by the collar and shaking him violently.
"There is nothing to it," Lord Nick stated to them flatly freezing them both by the iciness of his voice. "Many crazy rumors have been flying around ever since that old miser of a merchant Humphrey died less then a month ago. Yes, he was the head of our group and we all despised him greatly for the great stash of money that he circumvented away for his own personal greediness. But the old man is buried six feet under and I doubt he has arisen himself from the grave to haunt us."
"So who do you think is behind these murders then?" Lina asked.
"I would suspect one of our own could be responsible for this," Lord Nick suggested.
Pondering for a moment, Gourry said, "So you think that one of your colleagues is responsible for the deaths in order to cement his control of the organization now that the iron handed boss is out of the picture. He is using his wealth to pay off the city officials and his spreading rumors of a ghost is to scare possible sleuths away?"
"Exactly." Lord Nick remarked in astonishment.
"Gourry, how did you come up with that?" Lina demanded.
"It's just like this murder mystery novel I'm reading," Gourry explained holding up the novel.
Lina and Nick went crashing to the ground.
"Baka," Lina cried as she popped back up and commenced with her "Slipper Slash" on Gourry.
"Is he...going to be okay," Lord Nick inquired looking at the mangled form of Gourry from the repeated blow from the slipper that Lina had pulled out of her pocket.
"He'll be fine," Lina said as she put the slipper away. "Now about the pay," she inquired greedily as she rubbed her palm together.
"A thousand up front and another thousand upon completion. You'll also be paid an additional twenty five gold piece per day service fee, but that is subject to change if the evidence that you turn over to me at the end of the day doesn't justify payment." Lord Nick explained holding out the contract.
Scanning the contract briefly, Lina stated, "Well everything seems in order. Though I believe you could be a bit more generous in payment."
"I'm a merchant and the price I'm offering is as good as it is." Lord Nick stated with a harsh glare.
Sighing as she scratched the back of her head, Lina replied, "Fine, we'll take your commission. I'll have this whole case blown up for the whole world to see."
"You aren't going to blow up the town with a Dragu Slave are you?" Gourry hesitated as Lina gave him a harsh glare.
"We'll be going now," Lina smiled as she dragged Gourry out of the office by his collar.
Watching them leave, Lord Nick gave a sigh as he reclined back against his chair as he pondered the merits of hiring someone with an infamous reputation such as Lina Inverse. Of course, he was certain that she would be able to handle the case or at least her presence should cause the real culprit to make a mistake. Reaching into the drawer of his desk, he pulled out his pipe and lit it up taking a few puffs.
Two glowing green eyes watch him from the shadows of the drapes.
"I can't believe no one is willing to talk about this whole incident," Lina complained. "We've been up and down this entire city and anyone that is even remotely associated with the victims are too frightened by a rumored ghost to even talk to us.
"Maybe there really is a ghost?" Gourry suggested.
"Doubtful, ghosts require a lot of malevolent energy or a complicated emotional death in order to appear." Lina lectured.
Gourry on the other hand was off looking at one of the stalls in the market place they were walking through. Most of the people in the city had heard about the two's job and made a point in avoiding them. Gourry seemed to be looking at a particular vendor that specialized in animals.
Looking at the numerous animals that were in the cages, Gourry's eye fell upon a small cage in the front that appeared to hold what looked to be a hamster. The small creature sat in its cage casually as it looked back up at Gourry with its small beady eyes and twitched its nose a bit.
"So I see that your eyes has been caught by one of my special wares," the heavily robed and harsh breath merchant of the stand hissed due to the numerous teeth he was missing.
"Huh?"
"Don't try to deny it, you have an eye for Boo." the merchant cackled.
"Why would you name a hamster Boo?" Gourry asked.
"Because it isn't just an ordinary hamster, it is actually a miniature giant space hamster(MGSH)? Probably one of the few remaining ones of his kind."
"Whoa."
"And you can have him for a mere 15gp."
Looking at his coin purse, Gourry wondered, "Well, I barely have enough money. But Lina might get upset if I waste the money on buying a hamster, even if he is a miniature giant space hamster."
Gourry pondered on the matter for a good long while.
"You aren't going to ask for Lina's wrath again are you?"
Gourry turned his head to his right shoulder to see a little angel version of himself complete with harp and halo.
"Who are you?" Gourry asked.
"I'm your shoulder angel." Gourry's shoulder angel explained.
"Hey you aren't going to start the party without me, are you?"
Gourry turned to his left shoulder to see a little devil version of himself appear in a puff of smoke with twisted pitchfork in hand.
"Oh great, the shoulder devil is here." the shoulder angel complained.
"Trying to get to him before I show up," the shoulder devil sneered as he glared at the angel. "Well, listen here Gourry. I'm the one whose advice you are suppose to be listening to."
"Oh please, you know as well as I do that Lina is going to go ballistic when she finds out about this." the shoulder angel retorted.
"Um..." Gourry tried to interrupt.
"Anyway, I can give you three good reasons for why you should purchase Boo," shoulder devil explained as he popped out a little list. "One, are you really going to listen to someone wearing a dress?"
"This is a robe," shoulder angel pointed out.
"Sure," shoulder devil mocked rolling his eye. "Reason two. I can do this!"
Shoulder devil hopped off of Gourry's shoulder and landed on top of Boo's cage, where he proceeded to do one finger push ups for several reps. Gourry and shoulder angel look at each other before turning their gaze back on to shoulder devil who was already past twenty.
"Uh...I don't see how this has anything to do with the hamster..." Gourry said.
"Actually now that you look at it, he's got a point there." shoulder angel responded. "We'll I guess it is okay to buy Boo. Besides he looks cute."
The two little versions of Gourry's subconscious went out in a puff of smoke.
"Oh sir, who are you talking to?" the merchant inquired as it seems that Gourry had finished his conversation with some invisible things.
"My devil and angel," Gourry explained as the merchant just blinked. "I think I'll buy Boo."
The merchant face lit up to reveal his nearly toothless mouth. "Wise choice."
Handing the merchant the money, the merchant in turn opened up the cage and handed the miniature giant space hamster to Gourry. Packing all of his stuff, the merchant quickly hightailed it away, leaving Gourry behind in the dust holding Boo in his hand as they watched the disappearing merchant.
"Gourry!" Lina yelled.
Gourry turned as he saw Lina come marching through the market place toward him with a flaming aurora around her. The crowd was quickly giving a wide berth to her as some of the closer merchant huddled behind their wares. Boo just glared suspiciously at Lina as she approached.
"Hi Lina -- " Gourry smiled just before Lina pulled out a giant rock out of nowhere and wonked him on the head with it.
"Idiot! Why in the world did you waste money on a furry vermin!" she roared as she was prepared to give him another wonk.
Boo sensing its master was in danger leaped out of Gourry's hand and went for Lina's eyes. The sudden leap by the MGSH at her face was enough time for Lina to forget the rock she was holding, allowing it to come crashing down on her head. Sweatdrops sprouted on the onlookers as Lina went collapsing to the ground out cold with a triumphant MGSH standing over her. Gourry just looked at Boo in sheer astonishment.
"Wow, that MGSH is pretty tough." Gourry commented as Boo hopped back onto Gourry's shoulder. "He went straight for your eyes there Lina."
Lina's moan was her only response.
Boo made a squeaking noise as Gourry looked behind him to notice a hooded figure standing behind him, he had completely missed her presence. The hood hide the person's figure, but Gourry could tell that person was obviously female even as he also saw the bastard sword she had strapped to her back. She seemed to be sizing him up a bit before she looked over to Lina and then sighed out loud.
"I suspect you seek information on the matter of the murdered merchant lords?" she asked.
"How did you know?" Gourry asked.
"This is not the place to talk about this. Seek me out in the Five Shields Tavern if you desire to find out more." She stated before she turned and walked off, disappearing into the crowds.
"What do you make of that?" Gourry asked Boo.
The MGSH merely twitched its nose as it looked back at Gourry.
"I thought so."
Two glowing green eyes glared angrily from the shadows of the alley as it retreated deeper into the darkness away from the populace.
"My...money..."
"Oh Lina, isn't the Five Shield Tavern the other direction?" Gourry asked as Boo gave a squeak of support.
Lina had woken up with a nasty headache from having the rock dropped on her and had threatened to toast the furball, but Gourry managed to convince her that they should be spending their searching for the culprit instead of toasting woodland creatures. After explaining to Lina about the mysterious girl that offered to meet them at the tavern, Lina merely snorted and walked off.
"We aren't going to chase some weirdo girl that wants us to meet at a tavern. I got a lead from some ruffians that Lord George has underground connections to the local thieves guild." Lina explained.
"So you think he might be the culprit?" Gourry asked.
"Only one way to find out," Lina smiled as she cracked her knuckles.
It took them the better half of the day to track down Lord George to his manor, the sun had already sunk below the horizon and the stars were coming out. The mansion stood out from all the other in the district with the numerous guards that were posted all around the premises, all decked out in half plate armor with spears in hand, along with numerous lanterns placed around the mansion to prevent anyone from trying to sneak in under the cover of darkness.
"Guess, we can't go through the front door." Gourry muttered as he looked at the patrolling guards.
"I'm not going to let a few guards stop me from meeting Lord George," Lina said as she prepared a spell.
A scream interrupted everything, drawing everyone's eyes to one of the lighted windows on the second floor where the shadows of two struggling figures could be seen. The struggle was short as one of the figures lifted the other one up and hurled him through the window. A fat pompous man screamed as his arms and legs flail in the empty air. The screams came to an abrupt end when he hit the pavement with a sickly splat.
The identity of the victim quickly became apparent as one of the guards gasped, "Lord George,"
Several of the guards frantically ran to their dead master as other charged into the house hoping to catch the assassin before it fled. Lina and Gourry just stood in the shrubbery they were hiding in as they looked at the whole incident before them with complete shock. And Boo was rubbing his face. Screams of rage could be heard from inside the mansion as it was apparent the culprit had eluded their search.
"Well that was a scene stealer if I ever saw one." Gourry said.
"Looks like Lord George wasn't the culprit, which leaves only two remaining merchant lords now." Lina complained biting her thumb a bit. "I'm beginning to not like this. And Gourry can you get that freaking hamster to stop squeaking?"
Lina turned her head, her mouth almost dropped at the sight that greeted her. Towering over her was a tall figure with glowing green eyes. It looked like someone was wearing a huge white sheet over themselves to look like a ghost, but she could clearly see from its hovering that there was nothing underneath. The indention of a twisted face was visible on the surface of the sheet where the head would be and the glowing green eyes narrowed as it looked at her. The ends of the sheet had twisted and wrapped themselves to resemble claws as it twitched them in anticipation.
Oh and Boo was going for the apparition's eyes. To no avail of course.
"What in..."
"The world am I?" the phantom answered as it swatted Boo away.
"What did you do with Gourry?" Lina demanded as the phantom chuckled at her demands.
"That pathetic excuse for a warrior?" it laughed. "He's over there?" It gestured to the crumpled form of Gourry a block distance away.
"You can really throw far," Lina muttered looking at the distance.
"Enough chit-chat," the Phantom roared as it spreads its arms out wide to engulf her.
"Time out." Lina called as the Phantom froze.
"What?"
"You can't attack me just yet. As a villain it is your task to explain exactly what it going on to me." Lina demanded.
The Phantom dropped its arm in defeat and muttered, "Very well then. Take a seat if you must and I will get on with telling the story. Oh do you want the long or short version?"
"Short one," Lina said.
"Fine then," the Phantom said, "My real name is Lord Humphrey-"
"Wait a moment," Lina interrupted, "the same Lord Humphrey that was the boss of all those merchants that were killed?"
"Yes and who is telling the story here?" Lord Humphrey hissed as Lina shut up. "Now anyway, I would be as you consider a miser of sorts, constantly hoarding my wealth away. I was the ideal miser always swindling away at any expenses and accumulating large amounts of coins. Of course, this brought the envy of my little merchant lord workers."
"So they decided to kill you and steal all your money?" Lina guessed.
"No, they were all too yellow to even consider that. I died on a cold winter night with only this blanket that you see before you for warmth."
"Wait a moment, if you are so rich, how come you didn't pay to have your house heated?"
"Because I'm a miser and that would cost money."
"Point made. So what does this have to do with killing off all the merchants then?"
"Quite simple, when I died there was no heir to my fortune. So those bastards agreed to split the wealth among them and never tell a soul. In anger, I apparently possessed my blanket and became the instrument of vengeance upon those sleazy bastards."
"You possessed your blanket in order to get revenge?" Lina muttered.
"It felt right at the moment," the sheet shrugged.
"This is too silly to be a serious ghost tale," Lina groaned to herself as Boo squeaked.
"Now that you have heard my tale you must die. All that have touched my money shall perish in my...sheets."
"If it didn't sound silly I would be scared." Lina muttered as she stepped back from the approaching sheets.
Glaring at her with his glowing green eyes, Humphrey proclaimed, "Lord Nick has paid you in my money so you will now suffer their fate and also because I'm a cranky old miser that hates young girls."
"Thanks, but no thanks." Lina smiled as magical energy streamed into her hand. "Megido Flare!" she blasted at the approaching ghost possessed sheets.
Humphrey let out a soul-chilling roar of agony as the magic coursed through his linen form causing it to crumple to the ground lifeless. Lina stood there for a few silent moments as she waited for any reaction from the sheets before she walked up to it and probed it with a foot.
"It takes more than some ghostly animated blanket to kill Lina Inverse," she proclaimed triumphantly.
"Is that so?" Humphrey inquired as his face appeared on the sheets again and part of it quickly enveloped Lina, binding her tightly in its grip.
"What? How could you survive that spell? It should have disintegrated a low-level ghost such as you." Lina cursed as Humphrey started to strangle.
"Guess you aren't as good as you think?" Humphrey laughed before his face moved to the "backside" of his form. "Don't think I didn't notice you?" he laughed as his sheets entangled Gourry as well.
"Boo, get help." Gourry called to the MGSH as it quickly ran off.
"You honestly expect a measly hamster to get help?" Humphrey muttered as Lina shook her head sadly.
Gourry didn't get the chance to say anything else as a cloaked figure slowly dropped into their midst holding a golden bastard sword in her hands. With two quick strikes, she managed to slice Humphrey's grip on both Lina and Gourry causing them to crash back to the ground. Humphrey roared in pain from the attack as he staggered back in agony focusing his anger on his attacker.
"Are you okay?" she asked Gourry as she tossed him Boo.
"Boo you got help," Gourry replied as the MGSH squeaked. Looking at his rescuer, he said, "Aren't you that girl that asked us to meet you at the tavern."
"Yes," she said as she tossed back her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "If you had come like I asked all of this could had been avoided."
"I think I'm entitled to an explanation," Lina interrupted coming up between the two. "What is your involvement in all of this?" she accused as the other girl merely snorted.
"For the time being, my name is Terisa and we should worry more about our ghostly visitant," Terisa gestured to Humphrey.
"Fools," Humphrey bellowed, "You will suffer. You will all suffer."
"Get ready," Terisa warned.
Humphrey stretched out his remaining sheet body before them and made a really scary face on it with glowing green eyes. Sweatdrops came down on the three as Humphrey added in a "boo" for effort causing them to go crashing to the ground in an awful heap.
"What kind of stupid ghost is this?" Lina screamed popping back up. "Fireball!" she hurled sending Humphrey on fire.
"AARGGHHHH!!! I'm on fire," the ghost cried running in frantic circles.
"Obviously a really stupid one." Terisa groaned to herself.
Humphrey screamed waved his sheet arms around before the fire finally consume every last part of his linen form, leaving only black ash waste behind. Boo crawled up and sniffed the pile of ash before sneezing violently sending the ash flying off into the wind. Gourry picked up Boo as Lina and Terisa watched the remaining ashes fly off.
"Is he gone?" Lina asked folding her arms.
"Not likely," Terisa stated looking off into the city, "the blanket was only a medium that he used to affect this world. In order to be rid of him completely we have to destroy his spirit. More then likely he already found himself another medium to use."
"What would work as medium?"
"Something that he was very close to or had a lot of contact with," Terisa suggested.
Terisa, Gourry, Lina, and Boo paused to think of it for a moment.
A sagebrush rolled by them.
"What about his money?" Gourry suggested.
"Now that is just silly, Gourry." Lina snapped back. "What makes you say that?" she inquired.
"That." Gourry pointed at a small figure made entirely of gold pieces who was running away from them.
"What?" Lina gasped before she noticed a hole in her cape. "My commission is gone!" she screamed looking at the hole.
"So he's using his money as his new medium then. This is bad," Terisa muttered scratching her chin in thought.
"Of course it's bad," Lina interrupted, "that means I broke again."
"I don't think that was what Terisa was thinking about." Gourry commented.
Nodding her head, Terisa stated, "If he is using his fortune as a focus for his form then his power would increase with the more of it he absorbs into himself. Considering how much wealth he is supposed to have, this could be very bad. He was already enough trouble as a blanket."
"How bad could it possibly be?" Lina asked.
A massive explosion answered her question as they turned their heads to look at the now burning city around them with a massive figure stepping out of the smoke of the fire. It was a huge dragon composed entirely of gold coins as large as the Black Dragon that belonged to the Dragon Fang. The massive coin dragon gave a loud roar before it breathed a stream of coin from its mouth that tore into the city before flying back to be absorbed by the coin dragon.
"That bad," Terisa pointed out.
"LINA!"
Lina cringed at the sound of the voice as Lord Nick came running toward her followed by a sickly thin noble in tow.
"Lord Henry," Terisa commented recognizing the other man.
"You know him?" Gourry asked.
"He hired me to take of the ghost, rather superstitious bloke." Terisa explained.
"This is all your fault!" Lord Nick yelled pointing an accusing finger at Lina. "And yours!" he added pointing at Gourry. "Yours!" Pointing at Lord Henry. "Yours too!" Pointing at Terisa. "What the heck are you?" he inquired at Boo.
"Go for the eyes," Lina told Boo as it pounced on Lord Nick.
Ignoring Lord Nick screaming, Lord Henry begged, "Please you have to save us from the Miser Dragon Humphrey."
"It's going to cost you," Lina smiled.
"Anything," Henry begged bowing his head down.
"Okay," Lina said as she cracked her knuckled as the massive coin dragon continue its rampage of destruction through the city.
"Oh Lina you aren't going to do what I think you are going to do?" Gourry muttered as her chanting answer his question. "Duck," he warned Terisa as he pulled on some shades for himself and Boo.
"You already know the chant. Dragu Slave!" Lina cast her signature black spell.
Humphrey paused in his destruction as he noticed a blast of magic coming straight at him. He didn't even have time to dodge as the full force of the spell engulfed his form. The coins were instantly disintegrated in an amazing flash as the Dragu Slave expanded and continued its destructive path. As the smoke cleared the entire city laid in ruins as much of the land was reduced to nothing more then a huge crater. Lord Henry fainted dead away from the power of the spell and Lord Nick was mangled by Boo.
"Scratch one evil spirit ghost," Lina snapped her finger.
"And one town to boot," Terisa added looking at the city.
"Who cares, I filled the quota for the job," Lina said as looked down at the unconscious Lord Henry. "Hey! Wake up!" Lina yelled kicking his body.
"Oh Lina." Gourry said tapping his shoulder.
"What Gourry?" Lina demanded as Gourry grabbed her head and turned her around. "What...?"
"Looks like your stereotypical angry mob," Terisa commented sheathing her sword. "I think it is time for me to go," she saluted as she broke out into a run.
"Wait for me," Lina cried as she ran off as well followed by Gourry holding Boo.
"Kill them!" the mob cried as they gave chase.