There were four high schools on the Slayers HS campus except that Eastern was currently rubble so there were now only three. Each high school served four class years. Each class year had three classes. That comes out to...
"A lot of people here."
"Remarkable grasp of the obvious."
"Shut up."
To be exact, there were twenty-seven pairs of representatives. Yes, three times four times three does not equal twenty-seven but thirty-six. But that's easily explained. None of the first year classes were allowed to participate in the tournament because they have only just started their magic and weapon studies. So wait, then wouldn't that mean that a fourth year class pair always wins? No but this really isn't the time to be going over that.
"Attention all contestants!" Amelia yelled through the megaphone. "I am one of your judges, Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. Welcome all of you to this brilliant display of heroism!"
"What has that girl been drinking?" Lina muttered.
"Everyone is assembled with their partner correct? So now I will - " Amelia stopped as a tall blond student wandered on to the judges' platform. "Excuse me, you aren't supposed to be up here."
"Where's here?" The student looked around amidst titters from the crowd.
"This is for contestants only!"
"Contes-what?"
"Entries for the Sword & Sorcery Tournament!"
"Hey, I was looking for that. Do you know where it is?"
Amelia slapped her forehead as the collected students laughed.
"Gourry-sama!"
Lina couldn't see who it was calling. She could barely even see Amelia among all of the taller people around her. Zelgadiss watched amusedly as Lina jumped up and down trying to see what was going on.
"Hey, Sylphiel. Did you find out where the thing we're supposed to go to is being held?"
"Sylphiel?" Zelgadiss murmured.
"You know her?" Lina asked, still trying to get a glimpse at what was going on.
"Heard of her. She was voted this year's school idol."
"School idol?"
"Basically the girl nearly every guy in the four campuses will drool over and all of the girls will be outwardly admiring and inwardly jealous. See?" Zelgadiss gestured to all of the glazed eye male contestants.
"Don't see you losing it."
"She isn't my type."
"That's right. You're - "
"DON'T even think about saying it."
Everyone around the two took two large steps and a hop away from the crackling tension. You'd hardly peg those two as partners with all of the bad vibes they were throwing at each other. Opposites did attract...lots of trouble.
"Anyway, we'll be getting on to the first event of the tournament!" Amelia announced after succeeding in booting Gourry rather politely off of the podium.
"And that first event is..." Lina muttered impatiently.
"The Dungeon Crawl!"
"You have got to be kidding me. Where are they going to find a dungeon?" Lina snorted.
"You were saying?"
The destruction of Eastern revealed an old forgotten catacomb riddling the ground beneath Slayers HS. Naturally, the coordinators of this year's festival decided that they just had to use an authentic dungeon as part of the tournament. If you asked Lina, it was the product of a mentally impaired mind. What she said though was something relating to Zel's ancestors, a satyr, dryads, lots of wine, and what went on between all of them.
"Are you even old enough to know about that kind of stuff?" Zel asked blandly, waiting for Lina to slip her way through the small opening at the top of a rock pile that nearly blocked off the corridor they were in. Lina slipped on a loose stone and tumbled down to Zel's feet.
"Don't say it."
"It."
She grabbed the nearest rock and threw it at him. Easily dodging it, Zelgadiss continued down the underground hallway not at all hindered by the lack of light. Lina ran after him, using the enchanted gemstone on her short sword to allow her to see.
"Night vision?"
Zelgadiss nodded curtly.
"So what are we looking for?" Lina asked, taking two steps for every one of Zel's. He was setting the fast pace on purpose.
Zelgadiss seemed to carelessly toss a piece of paper behind him but it fell neatly into her outstretched hand. She hated how he could do things so effortlessly. Well, there were a lot of things she could effortlessly too like finish off five normal portions of lunch or something. But it always irked her at what he could do.
"What is this? Some kind of list?" Lina looked over the items. "We're supposed to find all of this?!"
"No, just ours. Weren't you listening to the rules for this event?"
Lina had, at the time, been more interested in judging the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. She had the utmost confidence that she could top all of them in experience. It was just habit to check out what everyone else could do. Surprises on the road were often fatal.
"Of course I was listening."
"Liar."
Lina bristled. "So we're supposed to find...?"
"...plushies."
"Plushies? What are those?"
"What are...You don't know?"
"No," she said crossly glaring at him. "I know every type of naturally occurring monster. I know magic lore dating back to the Kouma War. I know twenty ways to get a bandit to talk by threatening his life. I have never in all of my travels or studies heard of 'plushies'."
"Have you heard of this enigmatic thing called 'childhood'?"
Lina stuck out her tongue.
"Okay, so you somehow jumped straight to adult and are now going back," Zelgadiss sighed. "Plushies, for the childhood deprived, are these very very cute stuffed toys that can be anything under the sun. And ones of people you really like seem to be in big demand."
"What's so special about toys?" Lina muttered.
"I have no idea."
"How do you know about them? Doesn't seem like something you're interested in."
"I have two younger siblings," Zel answered as if that fact alone explained everything.
"And why do you say that people really like the ones of the people they like?" Lina looked over what she just said. "That was certainly vague."
"I wouldn't know."
"Unless, the ZFC has been making a fortune off of selling your plushies..."
Zelgadiss was silent.
"Come to think of it. There were some girls with these stuffed something or other on their school bags. And they were always cuddling them." Lina looked at Zel. "As if somehow making up for the real thing..."
He abruptly turned away, hiding his face in shadows. "Let's get going. First one out with the assigned 'treasure' gets the most points."
"You're blushing aren't you?" Lina teased.
"I thought you wanted to win."
"Zelgadiss is blushing. Zelgadiss is blushing."
"Will you be quiet!"
"Have a nice run?"
"...shut...up..." Lina gasped, trying to catch her breath.
With Zelgadiss's speed they were the first to come out of the underground maze. There was a bit of bickering about unfair advantages until Lina pointed out it was the acceptable thing to do out on the field. So they reluctantly let Lina and Zel get the points for first place in that event but expressly forbade Zel from using his speed in another other events.
Lina decided that this tournament was weird. The bag of plushies they brought back out of the dungeon had instructions sewn into the fabric about their next task. It was called Chase the Mysterious Black Fox. They had some guy in a fancy outfit and a black mask steal something and then the contestants had to chase him and retrieve the stolen item.
"Not fair...you using magic..." Lina pouted, giving the arrogant thief who reminded her way too much of a certain person of her recent acquaintance. "And all of this running. It isn't very nice for cute little girls."
"Hmmm." Black Fox looked right into Lina's face. He looked at her from one side and then another. He looked her over from head to toe so slowly that if his expression wasn't so serious, she would have blasted him for being a pervert. But it wasn't as if she hadn't blasted people for lesser offenses. But there a something she needed from him and blasting him would earn penalties.
Black Fox smiled. "Yes. You are most definitely very cute."
"..." Lina was speechless. And red. But definitely speechless. To consider yourself cute or pretty was one thing. To actually hear someone else say it and really mean it was another. Especially since she usually got a comment on the other end of the spectrum on the appearance meter.
"How about this? You give me a kiss and I'll give you the item."
"What?!" Lina shrieked. This was NOT part of the plan.
Actually, part of her mind told her. It is.
How so?
You're supposed to be the distraction, remember?
This doesn't count as a distraction!
He's not paying attention is he?
You're saying I should kiss this...this...dandified bandit?!
You wanted to win this tournament.
...You sound like Zel.
I'm you. How can I sound like that really cute -
I am not listening to you anymore. Boy-crazy loon.
Magic-obsessed witch.
Is that the best you can do?
Nope and you know it. But this is a general audience level talk. Why don't you deal with lover boy?
Good idea.
"Just what do you think you're doing?!" Lina screamed, punching the Black Fox into the other wall when she returned to reality to find him only inches away.
"A love tap from my beloved."
Lina wondered if she hit him a bit too hard. But he was also still carrying that item she and Zel had to retrieve from him. What was taking that stone hide, vain, self-centered boy so long?! Did he really expect her to kiss this over amorous and certainly very delusional would-be thief?
"You think some plain old thief can get the heart of the great Lina Inverse?" she snorted, tapping her foot.
"Ah, but I am no ordinary thief. My skill in magic you have already seen."
"You can levitate. You can fly. Parlor tricks. Not run of the mill but hardly noteworthy."
"Why, the exploits of the Black Fox are world renown!"
"Never heard of you." And Lina has seen a lot of the world.
"No one has ever taken back what I've stolen!" boasted the vain thief.
"If so, then why are you working for a high school festival?" Lina asked, keeping her expression strictly bored to not let Black Fox catch on to their little scheme.
"Community service. My mother isn't convinced that I steal from only bad people so a little good deed here and there don't hurt. Besides which I graduated from here."
Lina sweatdropped.
"Then perhaps you should go back for a refresher course," Zelgadiss smirked, tossing the item of their troubles up and down in one hand. "You've just been pick-pocketed."
"So much for the great Black Fox," Lina grinned. "On to the next challenge and the first prize!"
"Really. Guess you won't be needing this then," sighed the Black Fox mournfully, pulling out another bag-wrapped item looking exactly like what Zelgadiss was holding.
"Which one is real?" Lina demanded.
"That's part of the challenge," winked the roguish thief. "Though I could tell you...for a kiss."
"Not in this lifetime!"
"If you had kissed him, this could have gone along much more quickly." Zelgadiss looked up after looking over the battered form of Black Fox and finding four duplicate bags.
"Kiss him?! How can you speak so calmly about that? I'm not getting my first kiss from a jerk like that!" The petite sorceress crossed her arms and fumed. "So which one is the real thing?"
"Be patient. Weren't you willing to do anything to win?"
"Some things can't be compromised!"
"Hardly thought you were a romantic."
"Hurry up." Lina emphasized her words by kicking Black Fox again.
"Alright alright. I have it."
"Good," Lina grinned. "So what's the next trial?"
Zelgadiss pulled out a small rolled up piece of paper from the secret pocket of the bag containing the 'stolen' item. It was part of the event that the correct bag and item were found to get the instructions to the next portion of the tournament.
"Dragonspeak."
"You've got to be kidding me. We aren't anywhere near the Kataart Mountains!"
Zelgadiss rapped her lightly on the head. "You've got gray matter up here so use it. There's obviously another meaning."
"And what is it, oh wise and learned one?"
"Not Dragon's Peak but Dragon Speak. As Filia is the only Dragon I know of in the city, we have to go to her for the next challenge."
"You think we can find her when she's still chasing Xelloss?"
"How hard can it be?" Zelgadiss shrugged, starting to walk back toward the school campus.
"NA-MA-GO-MI!!!"
A large golden dragon suddenly reared its angry head up into the sky. Zelgadiss and a lot of other people froze where they were. It was the first time any had ever seen a real dragon. Lina only yawned.
"You want to ask her something? Be my guest," she smirked.