Now that I think of it.... Slayers TsuBun (kids') novel vol 1, chapter 1
The most recent post over at the Slayers community totally reminded me I hadn't posted this anywhere yet... Woops.
Anywho, for those interested, a full translation of Slayers - Lina and the Magic Chimera Swordsman ch. 1.
Slayers (Tsubasa Bunko) Volume 1, chapter one (rough draft)
Lina and the Magic Chimera Swordsman
Written by Nanbou Hidehisa
Translated by Rebmastu (who retains intellectual property of the translation, not the original work.)
Chapter 1
"The gifted beautiful sorceress. Her name: Lina Inverse."
"Fireball!"
KA-BOOM!
The flame spell I released from my fingers hurdled towards the bandits standing before me and exploded, blasting the villains sky-high. Deep in the mountains, situated among ancient boulders that looked to be several centuries old, I had tracked down a rogue band of thieves at the behest of the mayor of a nearby village which had recently fallen prey to their pillaging. Even finding the lair would be a matter of sheer impossibility for any ordinary person... So it's a good thing I'M not a normal person, and the word "impossible" doesn't exist in my vocabulary!
After all, MY name just so happens to be Lina. Lina Inverse. I'm sure you've heard of me somewhere, since I'm a pretty famous sorceress, if I do say so myself - I'm a genius in my own right, and cute to boot! Anyway, saying that finding the bandit's lair was a "walk in the park" would be giving it way more credit than it really deserved.
"Oh~hohohoho!"
KA-BLAM!
"Hah! Bandit scum! You have some nerve trying to defy the almighty Naga, the White Serpent!"
Crackle!
"You're 8 quadrillion years ahead of your time!"
Incidentally, the black-haired girl standing at my side and hurling blasts of attack magic every which-way was Naga, the White Serpent. If you took one glance at her pitch-black mantle and dark clothes, not to mention the skull pendant hanging around her neck, you'd be hard-pressed not to see her as anything other than an evil sorceress... But in reality, her biggest crime is making enemies of the people around her, and bringing despair upon her allies - and having fun with it, too. In short, she's nothing more than an exceptional idiot.
Now, as for why a gifted sorceress such as myself has joined forces to fight alongside such an explosion-loving blockhead.... Uuuh, to be honest, I just went with the flow of things, and this is how it turned out. After all, no matter where my travels take me, Naga is always hell-bent and determined to chase right after me! Seriously, how am I supposed to help that?
"How rude! I'm not chasing after you at all! The only reason I'm spending all of my time traveling with YOU is so I can strike at your weak spot when you're least expecting it, and when that time comes, I, the almighty Naga, the White Serpent, shall assume the throne of the world's most beautiful, gifted sorceress! Oh~ ho ho ho ho ho!" Naga cut me off in mid-thought, almost as though she could read my mind, and laughed loudly.
......Wait, wait, she's totally convinced herself to do it, too! Oh, wow, that's just low.
But in any case, that's all beside the point. The lair we had infiltrated originally hid about 100 bandits, but thanks to my and Naga's sneak attack, we rendered the vast majority of them unconscious in one blow. Doing a quick head-count over the fallen bandits' surviving comrades, I figured all we had to take care of now was about sixteen or seventeen stragglers, give or take.
Turning to Naga, I yelled, "Let's finish off the rest of these guys already and claim their treasure!" Uh, but before we go any further, I'd like to state for the record that we didn't accept this job JUST because we were after the bandits hidden treasure, or anything like that, but there's nothing wrong with giving ourselves a teeeeny-tiny reward for doing a good deed, right? Right.
"I hear you!" Naga called out her affirmative, and we both began to incant spells powerful enough to wipe out the rest of the bandits in one fell swoop - Naga preparing a "Freeze Arrow" spell, and I began to cast a "Mega Brand," when suddenly....
"Hold it right there!"
A tall, blond man, the source of the cry, I thought, appeared out of nowhere and leapt between us and the bandits. By the looks of him, I figured he was a wandering swordsman, maybe somewhere around 18 years old? He probably thought we were being assaulted by bandit thugs and decided to come to our "rescue."
"That's as far as you go," the blond swordsman proclaimed as he strode to stand before Naga and me, facing the bandits as he drew his sword. "Now tuck your tails between your legs and run home, you dirty thieves, and I'll spare your lives!"
....Uh.
Sorry, pal, but you totally just wasted a bad-ass entrance.
But just as I was about to turn to the swordsman to tell him that....
"....Hey, Lina."
Naga crept over to my side. She leaned close to my ear, tugging on my sleeve.
"This guy looks pretty capable. let's leave these small-fries to him and book it."
My eyes wandered to the swordsman's back. "Him?" I asked.
"Listen," Naga explained, "You want to get your hands on that treasure just as much as I do, right? If he handles the riff-raff, we can grab the gold and scram before they even know what hit 'em."
Hmmm. Can't argue with that logic. With my mind set, I quickly brought a few tears to my eyes and gazed up at "My savior, the great swordsman."
"Pleeease, mister!" I called up to him in an adorable voice, clinging to his chest. "These bad, bad people captured us, and now they want to sell us as slaaaaves!"
It worked. The swordsman practically ripped his sword out of its sheath and brandished it at the bandits. "You bastards!" he cried out. "You won't get away with this!" And with that, he rushed into their midst, holding his weapon high over his head.
One thing was for sure, this guy was good with a sword. It seems like things would be a piece of cake from here-on-out, just like Naga said.
Slash!
Clang!
Almost as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the remaining bandits had fallen.
Which led to our next problem.
The bandits lay scattered about haphazardly, their eyes rolled back into their sockets so only the whites were visable.
"Oh, thank you sooooooooo much, Mr. Swordman~!" I daintily dashed to the swordsman, and called out in my sweetest, most adorable voice. Prepare for the beautiful Lina-chan's charming bomb~
"Don't sweat it, kid." The swordsman slid his weapon back into its sheath with a clean clink. "I couldn't just stand by when I saw a bunch of bandits attacking a frail little boy like yourself and his mother. That goes against my code, y'know?"
"Uh... huh?" Without thinking, I froze on the spot and my jaw dropped.
A... A boy and his mother?
When you look at me, a prime example of beauty, where do you see a boy in that? Huh?
......Well, sure, I've always been a little on the short side, and I might not have much of a figure yet, but I'm a growing girl, darn it! I'll get there!
"W-What part of me looks like I'm Lina's mother!?" Naga swung her head around, looking anxiously around her own body.
In Naga's case, I couldn't blame the guy for thinking she was older than she actually was, though.
If you don't want people to mistake you for an older person, get rid of those stupid, evil-looking clothes, why don't you?
"But still," the swordsman scratched his head as he glanced us over again, "It's dangerous for a lady and her little boy to be traveling all by yourselves. Were you with anyone else?"
"No." Bravely keeping my anger at being called a "little boy" yet AGAIN in check, I shook my head.
"Well, that's not good.... Alright, I've got it!" The swordsman tapped his fist in the palm of his hand. "I'll take the two of you home. Where do you live?"
My face stiffened. ".........Er.....No.....Well, we're on a wandering journey for our own reasons right now, and it's not like we have a solid destination in mind.... But I guess we were kind of heading towards Atlas City in the meantime, or something like that..."
By the way, Atlas City is a huge metropolis that was in this general area.
".....Lina... Do you think I could beat the living snot out of him?" Through all that talk of "the boy and his mother," Naga's face had been twisted by the pulsing vein on her forehead.
"Alright, we'll go with that!" Either this guy was ignoring our rage, or he was completely oblivious to it; either way, resolve showed on his face. "I'll escort you two to Atlas City myself, how about that? I'm Gourry, by the way, a swordsman."
"...Th-thank you for the offer, Gourry-san, but there's no way we could possibly impose on you so much...." I began.
You gotta be kidding me. There's no way I'd willingly go wandering around with a rude guy like him.
Gourry patted me on the head with a smile. "Come on, you're just a kid! Don't go turning me down now!"
J-Just a kid~!?
"Th-thanks, but we'll pass," I insisted.
"Come on, don't say that," Gourry said.
"Thanks, but..."
"Now, now."
"No, no."
"Now, now, now."
"No, no, NO."
Well, this isn't good.
Gourry looked like the stubborn type - he wasn't caving.
Naga looked on in obvious annoyance. ".....Whatever," she finally sighed, rolling her shoulders, "Just make up your minds already."
And in the end....
******************
Naga and I walked down the main path, a few paces behind Gourry, towards Atlas City. A small mountain range loomed far off in the distance, and the only audible noise among the endless fields of grass was the sound of our feet crunching on the dirt road.
Naga sighed and flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder. "If only he were a bad guy," she griped, "We could just BLAST him off into those mountains..." Part of me agreed with her, but Gourry seemed to be following us out of genuine concerned for our safety. I mean, we couldn't just ditch him by the side of the road and scram, could we? Ahh, I can't think about this any more. My head's killing me...
Gourry turned around to face us with a smile. "It's starting to get dark out, little boy!" he called. "Be sure to hold your mother's hand!" And to top it all off, he winked at us. He WINKED.
....Geeze, when is this guy gonna wake up and realize I'm a girl!?
Aaarg! This is making me so angry! I can't take it any more!
Chapter 1, end
Un-proofed or beta'd, so I'm not sure how well it reads, but hey. Feel free to comment with corrections 'n stuff, if you'd like.
Oh! On an unrelated note, if any of my FListers follow, say, Barajou or Evangelion Datenroku, keep an eye on spoiler_tag. (AWESOME NAME, RIGHT?) I'll be posting spoiler summaries/partial translations of those and a few other series (Like Gurren Lagann: Spiral Boy, or whatever it is, and Da Capo: Girl's Symphony), so... I dunno, friend it preemptively? XD
Anywho, for those interested, a full translation of Slayers - Lina and the Magic Chimera Swordsman ch. 1.
Slayers (Tsubasa Bunko) Volume 1, chapter one (rough draft)
Lina and the Magic Chimera Swordsman
Written by Nanbou Hidehisa
Translated by Rebmastu (who retains intellectual property of the translation, not the original work.)
Chapter 1
"The gifted beautiful sorceress. Her name: Lina Inverse."
"Fireball!"
KA-BOOM!
The flame spell I released from my fingers hurdled towards the bandits standing before me and exploded, blasting the villains sky-high. Deep in the mountains, situated among ancient boulders that looked to be several centuries old, I had tracked down a rogue band of thieves at the behest of the mayor of a nearby village which had recently fallen prey to their pillaging. Even finding the lair would be a matter of sheer impossibility for any ordinary person... So it's a good thing I'M not a normal person, and the word "impossible" doesn't exist in my vocabulary!
After all, MY name just so happens to be Lina. Lina Inverse. I'm sure you've heard of me somewhere, since I'm a pretty famous sorceress, if I do say so myself - I'm a genius in my own right, and cute to boot! Anyway, saying that finding the bandit's lair was a "walk in the park" would be giving it way more credit than it really deserved.
"Oh~hohohoho!"
KA-BLAM!
"Hah! Bandit scum! You have some nerve trying to defy the almighty Naga, the White Serpent!"
Crackle!
"You're 8 quadrillion years ahead of your time!"
Incidentally, the black-haired girl standing at my side and hurling blasts of attack magic every which-way was Naga, the White Serpent. If you took one glance at her pitch-black mantle and dark clothes, not to mention the skull pendant hanging around her neck, you'd be hard-pressed not to see her as anything other than an evil sorceress... But in reality, her biggest crime is making enemies of the people around her, and bringing despair upon her allies - and having fun with it, too. In short, she's nothing more than an exceptional idiot.
Now, as for why a gifted sorceress such as myself has joined forces to fight alongside such an explosion-loving blockhead.... Uuuh, to be honest, I just went with the flow of things, and this is how it turned out. After all, no matter where my travels take me, Naga is always hell-bent and determined to chase right after me! Seriously, how am I supposed to help that?
"How rude! I'm not chasing after you at all! The only reason I'm spending all of my time traveling with YOU is so I can strike at your weak spot when you're least expecting it, and when that time comes, I, the almighty Naga, the White Serpent, shall assume the throne of the world's most beautiful, gifted sorceress! Oh~ ho ho ho ho ho!" Naga cut me off in mid-thought, almost as though she could read my mind, and laughed loudly.
......Wait, wait, she's totally convinced herself to do it, too! Oh, wow, that's just low.
But in any case, that's all beside the point. The lair we had infiltrated originally hid about 100 bandits, but thanks to my and Naga's sneak attack, we rendered the vast majority of them unconscious in one blow. Doing a quick head-count over the fallen bandits' surviving comrades, I figured all we had to take care of now was about sixteen or seventeen stragglers, give or take.
Turning to Naga, I yelled, "Let's finish off the rest of these guys already and claim their treasure!" Uh, but before we go any further, I'd like to state for the record that we didn't accept this job JUST because we were after the bandits hidden treasure, or anything like that, but there's nothing wrong with giving ourselves a teeeeny-tiny reward for doing a good deed, right? Right.
"I hear you!" Naga called out her affirmative, and we both began to incant spells powerful enough to wipe out the rest of the bandits in one fell swoop - Naga preparing a "Freeze Arrow" spell, and I began to cast a "Mega Brand," when suddenly....
"Hold it right there!"
A tall, blond man, the source of the cry, I thought, appeared out of nowhere and leapt between us and the bandits. By the looks of him, I figured he was a wandering swordsman, maybe somewhere around 18 years old? He probably thought we were being assaulted by bandit thugs and decided to come to our "rescue."
"That's as far as you go," the blond swordsman proclaimed as he strode to stand before Naga and me, facing the bandits as he drew his sword. "Now tuck your tails between your legs and run home, you dirty thieves, and I'll spare your lives!"
....Uh.
Sorry, pal, but you totally just wasted a bad-ass entrance.
But just as I was about to turn to the swordsman to tell him that....
"....Hey, Lina."
Naga crept over to my side. She leaned close to my ear, tugging on my sleeve.
"This guy looks pretty capable. let's leave these small-fries to him and book it."
My eyes wandered to the swordsman's back. "Him?" I asked.
"Listen," Naga explained, "You want to get your hands on that treasure just as much as I do, right? If he handles the riff-raff, we can grab the gold and scram before they even know what hit 'em."
Hmmm. Can't argue with that logic. With my mind set, I quickly brought a few tears to my eyes and gazed up at "My savior, the great swordsman."
"Pleeease, mister!" I called up to him in an adorable voice, clinging to his chest. "These bad, bad people captured us, and now they want to sell us as slaaaaves!"
It worked. The swordsman practically ripped his sword out of its sheath and brandished it at the bandits. "You bastards!" he cried out. "You won't get away with this!" And with that, he rushed into their midst, holding his weapon high over his head.
One thing was for sure, this guy was good with a sword. It seems like things would be a piece of cake from here-on-out, just like Naga said.
Slash!
Clang!
Almost as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the remaining bandits had fallen.
Which led to our next problem.
The bandits lay scattered about haphazardly, their eyes rolled back into their sockets so only the whites were visable.
"Oh, thank you sooooooooo much, Mr. Swordman~!" I daintily dashed to the swordsman, and called out in my sweetest, most adorable voice. Prepare for the beautiful Lina-chan's charming bomb~
"Don't sweat it, kid." The swordsman slid his weapon back into its sheath with a clean clink. "I couldn't just stand by when I saw a bunch of bandits attacking a frail little boy like yourself and his mother. That goes against my code, y'know?"
"Uh... huh?" Without thinking, I froze on the spot and my jaw dropped.
A... A boy and his mother?
When you look at me, a prime example of beauty, where do you see a boy in that? Huh?
......Well, sure, I've always been a little on the short side, and I might not have much of a figure yet, but I'm a growing girl, darn it! I'll get there!
"W-What part of me looks like I'm Lina's mother!?" Naga swung her head around, looking anxiously around her own body.
In Naga's case, I couldn't blame the guy for thinking she was older than she actually was, though.
If you don't want people to mistake you for an older person, get rid of those stupid, evil-looking clothes, why don't you?
"But still," the swordsman scratched his head as he glanced us over again, "It's dangerous for a lady and her little boy to be traveling all by yourselves. Were you with anyone else?"
"No." Bravely keeping my anger at being called a "little boy" yet AGAIN in check, I shook my head.
"Well, that's not good.... Alright, I've got it!" The swordsman tapped his fist in the palm of his hand. "I'll take the two of you home. Where do you live?"
My face stiffened. ".........Er.....No.....Well, we're on a wandering journey for our own reasons right now, and it's not like we have a solid destination in mind.... But I guess we were kind of heading towards Atlas City in the meantime, or something like that..."
By the way, Atlas City is a huge metropolis that was in this general area.
".....Lina... Do you think I could beat the living snot out of him?" Through all that talk of "the boy and his mother," Naga's face had been twisted by the pulsing vein on her forehead.
"Alright, we'll go with that!" Either this guy was ignoring our rage, or he was completely oblivious to it; either way, resolve showed on his face. "I'll escort you two to Atlas City myself, how about that? I'm Gourry, by the way, a swordsman."
"...Th-thank you for the offer, Gourry-san, but there's no way we could possibly impose on you so much...." I began.
You gotta be kidding me. There's no way I'd willingly go wandering around with a rude guy like him.
Gourry patted me on the head with a smile. "Come on, you're just a kid! Don't go turning me down now!"
J-Just a kid~!?
"Th-thanks, but we'll pass," I insisted.
"Come on, don't say that," Gourry said.
"Thanks, but..."
"Now, now."
"No, no."
"Now, now, now."
"No, no, NO."
Well, this isn't good.
Gourry looked like the stubborn type - he wasn't caving.
Naga looked on in obvious annoyance. ".....Whatever," she finally sighed, rolling her shoulders, "Just make up your minds already."
And in the end....
******************
Naga and I walked down the main path, a few paces behind Gourry, towards Atlas City. A small mountain range loomed far off in the distance, and the only audible noise among the endless fields of grass was the sound of our feet crunching on the dirt road.
Naga sighed and flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder. "If only he were a bad guy," she griped, "We could just BLAST him off into those mountains..." Part of me agreed with her, but Gourry seemed to be following us out of genuine concerned for our safety. I mean, we couldn't just ditch him by the side of the road and scram, could we? Ahh, I can't think about this any more. My head's killing me...
Gourry turned around to face us with a smile. "It's starting to get dark out, little boy!" he called. "Be sure to hold your mother's hand!" And to top it all off, he winked at us. He WINKED.
....Geeze, when is this guy gonna wake up and realize I'm a girl!?
Aaarg! This is making me so angry! I can't take it any more!
Chapter 1, end
Un-proofed or beta'd, so I'm not sure how well it reads, but hey. Feel free to comment with corrections 'n stuff, if you'd like.
Oh! On an unrelated note, if any of my FListers follow, say, Barajou or Evangelion Datenroku, keep an eye on spoiler_tag. (AWESOME NAME, RIGHT?) I'll be posting spoiler summaries/partial translations of those and a few other series (Like Gurren Lagann: Spiral Boy, or whatever it is, and Da Capo: Girl's Symphony), so... I dunno, friend it preemptively? XD