Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 7

Slayers: Alive - Episode 019: Avoidance! Dancing Around The Issues

Filia, Lina and Amelia retreated to their room and Zelgadis and Gourry to theirs. Gourry slept soundly as he was too dense to worry about anything. Zelgadis stared at the dark ceiling for a while, but soon allowed sleep to overtake him while listening to the sounds of Gourry's snoring. It was business as usual, Zelgadis mused, when was he not in the middle of something troublesome? There was no need to make a fuss over such an almost common occurrence.

Amelia stayed positive and allowed sleep to fall upon her, attracting pleasant dreams with the power of positive thinking. Lina was too tired to have any encounters with insomnia, thus she was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow. Filia was the first to have changed out of her ruined dress, gotten cleaned up and into her comfy night gown, but she was by far the last to fall asleep. She tossed and turned in worry, until finally, exhaustion led to a restless slumber.

The sun came up, morning invading the resort lacking its usual brightness. Heavy rain fell upon the land even if the streets were just as busy with a rainbow of umbrellas all around. The rain made the atmosphere cold and further zapped away the motivation from those who were already lacking the desire to get up.

It wasn't until mid-day when Amelia got out of bed and started singing loudly and cheerfully to balance out the gloomy mood in the air. The action woke Lina, who was positively starving, and Filia, who was plagued by tiredness and bloodshot eyes. With Amelia ready to face a new day with the power of justice on her side, Lina rushed to get ready and hurried downstairs for brunch, a meal that would combined the breakfast she missed with the lunch which was about time to eat, no way was she skipping on either one.

Filia was the last of the women to drag herself out of bed like a zombie and get herself somewhat ready to face a new day. She peeked into Phythan's room and found that he was still fast asleep, then headed downstairs. She hoped some food would give her a little much needed energy.

As usual, Lina and Gourry were stuffing their faces at their own table that no one dared to invade for fear of losing a limb. That left Amelia and Zelgadis at the next table beside them, with Amelia giving a cheerful speech to lighten the mood, while Zelgadis and Filia half listened.

After the rather normal and uneventful brunch, during the entirety of which Xellos didn't show up, the group went to check on Phythan again, with an extra set of footsteps joining them as they went up the stairs. They turned to see a familiar purple haired man, who returned their gazes with a squinty eyes smile.

There was a collective pause until Lina, who was walking at the front of the group, turned her head forward and continued towards Phythan's room without a word. It would be a waste of time to try to get information out of Xellos anyway. Once the group was back at Phythan's room with a collective silence upon them, they stood around him and peeked over him as if he were a very strange sight.

A few seconds passed and the group ceased their collective staring with Lina adopting a pose that hinted that she was about to explain her plan of action to the group, or rather remind them about the plan of inaction that she had suggested the previous night. However, before she could say anything, Phythan's eyes opened and he looked curiously at the people around him with chocolate brown eyes.

"Phythan?" Filia stared at his face perplexed, she noticed now the change in his eye color, but couldn't explain it. He was the same person, she had no doubts. Maybe she had been distracted before, maybe it had been a trick of the light.

"You know my name," his voice was the same but his words made no sense. "Who are you? What happened to me? This room..." He sat up slowly on the bed and tried to look beyond the group at the room he was in. "Where am I?"