Okay, she'd been defending the Promenade and there had been a big battle. As usual in a battle of that side with monsters and spells and shapeshifters and such, things got confusing.
Still, getting devoured by a slime was something she was pretty sure about. It was actually a memory that she could do without, thank you very much.
Then had come the judgement area where the souls of the dead went to be claimed or sentenced by their patron deity. She'd been ready to meet her goddess, whom she'd served for all her days since leaving the typical drow society. Her only regret at that point was that there weren't going to be any humans to "dally with" as the ones who bathed regularly and didn't have a metaphorical stick up their behinds could be all sorts of fun. Contrary to some rumors, she didn't have a dozen knicks on the scabbard of her sword from all the humans she'd tumbled to a quick and enjoyable session. That would be terribly crude and inelegant.
She'd kept a list with their names, the really fun or talented ones at least. And rated them. The one who'd gotten her a teddy bear that had a Protection From Interplanar Intrusions enchanted on it got four stars. Not a lot of stamina, but you had to love thoughtfulness and raw magical power.
Ahem.
In any case, she'd been ready for that elven afterlife. Except it hadn't happened quite like that. Eilistraee died. Their patron goddess died. Lolth was still around.
The afterlife wasn't SUPPOSED to have bureaucratic red tape, Iljrene was pretty sure that was a recent development. Right?
At which point some boy had cast a powerful spell and gotten her yanked out of a fate worse than death (really - it looked like Lolth might have gotten her in which case things were going to get REALLY bad) and into a reconstituted body.
Since then she'd aged from her littler form, almost as if she were human. She still looked considerably younger, and she REALLY didn't like the fact that she was just on the wrong side of adolescence.
So she'd adapted. One lived, one adapted.
She'd trained and learned and developed her abilities in order to adapt from sword dancer to ninja. No Eilistraee so no clerical spells, but she'd retained the discipline and will from her training and applied it to learning this new stuff.
She could do their Henge, Kawarimi, Bunshin stuff. She could also do Suiton: Teppodama. Being able to spit water bullets that hit hard enough to break wood was something she thought had potential uses.
Being put on a team with the one who'd summoned her back to life meant that the chance to repay him was much increased.
Yukikaze Panettone was known to her and she sized up the foxgirl as they waited for their instructor. The foxgirl had some powerful magic of her own, and was skilled in taijutsu. Her preferred weapons were bow, dagger, and shuriken.
Brioche d'Arquien was their jonin, if she'd just show up, and was a sword-specialist like herself. Except that Iljrene favored longswords, not the massive sort of sword that Brioche did.
Finally the older woman showed up, nodding to Yukikaze as an old associate. They were of the same summoning, so it wasn't surprising they shared some history.
Their new jonin-sensei sat down and considered the three of them before reaching some decision. "Okay. Here's the deal. Every team of Academy graduates has to pass some final test decided on by their jonin in order to make it to full genin status."
"Why do ninja feel the need to sneak something into everything?" asked Iljrene.
"Ninja," responded Brioche.
"Point," admitted Iljrene. "Though I think being sneaky against one's opponents should be more the issue than doing the same against one's subordinates and allies."
"Agreed," said Brioche with a nod. "Which is why tomorrow morning's test will be a timed obstacle course. Only the first two who finish will graduate, the third being sent back to the Academy for remedial training."
Silence met that.
"Yeah, I wouldn't have bought that either," said Brioche. "Nonetheless, that's the script we have to follow."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:50)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.