A/N: Hello people! This story has been sitting on my harddrive for waaaay too long. Check it out and if you like it leave a review telling me so that I'll know that people want it to be continued.

Chapter 1 – A Town of Chimeras?!

"Another day another quiet town. It's so peaceful here." Short, flat-chested sorcerous Lina Inverse stood, shielding her eyes from the sun, out on a grassy hill overlooking a large port city. Her long strawberry blonde hair whipped around her from the wind. "Well you guys know what this means right!" She yelled throwing her gloved fist into the air.

"I hope you're not going to say what I think you are.." The blue stone-skined part-human chimera Zelgadis stood just behind the sorceress. His arms crossed in annoyance.

"Well when it comes to Miss Lina it's not like it could be anything else," Amelia stepped up next to Zelgadis with her usual smile. Her short hair barely moved from the wind but her cape flapped behind her.

"Oh Yeah! Ready Goury?!" Lina jumped up and wrapped her arm around the shoulder of the tall, blonde haired, swordsman.

Goury looked at her as if he were about to go into battle, "Right behind you Lina!" he said. Zelgadis sighed and pressed his hand to his face wishing he could say he didn't know the two smiling idiots that were running down the hill into town yelling, "FOOOOOOOOOOD!" at the top of their lungs.

"Let's go Amelia." He said following after the cloud of dust. The Seirun princess simply nodded and followed along.

XXX

As soon as Lina reached the town she noticed something strange. The town was like any other port town. The docks, where fisherman sold their latest catch… a market place full of traders… even the usual delicious restraunts…! "JACKPOT!" The girl completely forgot that she had just a moment ago thought something was strange, "Goury! This One!" She yelled then ran and burst through the door, the wonderful smells from the kitchen reached her nose. "Waiter I'll take two of everything!" She yelled as she sat at an open table.

"And I'll have the special, Quadruple portions!" Goury added as he took up the seat next to her. The waiter looked at the two of them shocked but nodded and hurried to the kitchen.

Lina was patting her belly as Zelgais and Amelia entered the resturaunt. "Honestly, do you two ever do anything other than eat?" Zelgadis scoffed as he went to sit down

"Zel! Amelia! You guys gotta try this stuff. This place has some great food!" The table where they sat was covered with a mountain of empty plates, as evidence of the delicious food. Lina yelled for the waiter to hurry up with the next round of plates. The rumpled little man ran out balancing plates all up and down his arms and even one on his head. He hurriedly placed his burden on the table then turned to the two new guests for their orders.

He wrote down Amelia's small order of beef stew, business as usual, but when his eyes ran over Zelgadis the pencil fell from his hand. Zelgadis twitched when he noted the man's shocked expression. Amelia jumped up and shoved her menu in the man's face and ordered a second beef stew before Zelgadis could get upset as he always did when someone stared at him.

Zelgadis muttered under his breath, cursing his fate to be stuck with such a monstrous body. Before the waiter had even brought back the beef stews, Zelgadis stood and walked out of the restaurant. There were just too many people staring at him and no matter how much Lina told him that it didn't matter what others thought, he just couldn't stay there any longer. He pulled the tan hood over his head, and some of the loose fabric over his mouth and nose trying to obscure his face, then headed out to look around the town.

"Poor Mr. Zelgadis…" Amelia sighed.

"Aww relax. Zel just needs to stop worrying about other people." Lina said as she continued shoveling food in her mouth. She paused only for a moment to look around at the remaining restaurant patrons. "Though there do seem to be a larger number of people than normal staring at us." All around, everyone in the main dining room was sneaking curious glances in their direction. A few people leaned in to whisper to one another. The hot-headed sorcerous stood abruptly slamming her hand down on the table. "You people got a problem!?" All eyes quickly turned away.

The waiter came out with two beef stews, as he placed them on the table he glanced around the restaurant, "What happened to your friend with the blue hair?" All of them, other than Goury who was still stuffing his face, looked up at the man in curious surprise.

Lina shoved her finger in the man's face. "For your information our friend doesn't like when people stare, and everyone in this place seems to do nothing But stare." The man ducked his head and muttered a small apology.

"I've just never seen one quite like him. It was a bit of a surprise to be honest."

Amelia put down her spoon, "One like him? One what?"

The man looked surprised by the question. He gripped the tray in front of him nervously. "Well… a chimera, of course. That's what he is, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is. But how'd a simple barkeep know that just from looking at him?" Lina shifted her weight on her chair leaning towards the man.

Before the man could respond, Amelia jumped out of her seat. "I'm going to find Mr. Zelgadis!" She rushed out of the restaurant into the crowd.

XXX

Zelgadis wandered through town. With his hood up people weren't staring as much but he noticed the few people that he had stopped to ask about the town had become far too curious, and one was even following him. "Can I help you?" he growled turning around.

The small child he found behind him looked up under the hood and smiled happily. "Wow mister! You're so cool!"

Zelgadis froze. This was never the reaction he received. Cool? Him? He looked like a monster! When the boy saw he was about to get yelled at he put his hands up over his head, causing Zelgadis to be shocked into silence once again. One of the boy's hands was green and scaly.

"What's wrong with your hand?"

The boy slowly peaked past his fingers. He stared curiously at his hands for a moment then held them up to show Zelgadis. "Well nuthin's wrong with em. Why? Do they look funny?"

Before Zelgadis could answer, the boy's mother ran up to them. "I told you not to wander off like that!" she scolded.

"But momma I wanted to see this guy. He's really neat!"

The woman looked up at Zelgadis and did a double take. She said nothing and turned back to her son. "That's no excuse for making me worry. Now get back to the house, right now." She pushed him off towards a row of houses. The boy looked like he was too afraid to protest and ran off. As she stood up and brushed herself off, she turned to Zelgadis to apologize. "I hope he didn't bother you. He's always running after anyone new that comes to town."

Zelgadis simply nodded to the apology. He turned away slightly to hide his face. The woman bowed politely and walked toward her home. Zelgadis spoke softly, "If I may ask… What happened to his left hand?"

She looked back surprised, but smiled kindly, "He was born without one. Master Tochiro was the one who granted him that one. He was only a baby at the time so he really doesn't know any different."

"You let someone warp your son's body into a monster?! What kind of mother would allow something like that?"

The woman whirled back around enraged by Zelgadis' comment, "I don't know who you are but don't you dare insult my son or any of the chimera's of this town like that! You think you're so special because you were able to afford a full body augmentation well good for you! But not everyone is lucky enough for that! How dare you come in here acting all high and mighty!" She advanced on him and her shouts began to draw a crowd of onlookers. It was all Zelgadis could do to back away. "Just because they're not fully one thing doesn't make them any less of a chimera than you!"

The crowd began to form a half circle around them. Zelgadis had been stunned far too many times already, but even the woman's shouts didn't keep him from seeing the muscular man with red scales on his face and a claw for a arm, or the woman carrying a basket, balancing herself on what looked like dragon legs, or the elderly man with a tail curled around his legs.

Zelgadis took another step back, right into a wall. The moment his back touched the wall he leapt skyward, grabbed the edge of the roofing and flipped himself around to land on it. From there he jumped from rooftop to rooftop to get away from the defensive mother. He finally stopped on the roof of a shrine. "Crazy woman…"

He stood overlooking the town thinking, and letting his frustration ebb away into more useful thoughts. "she said chimera… And all those people were…" He thought back to her first explanation for her son's appearance. "Master Tochiro huh?"

"Heeey Zel!"

Zelgadis looked down to see Lina waving at him, Goury by her side. He jumped down and landed easily next to them. True it was something that he wouldn't have been able to do if he were only human but that didn't lessen his irritation at having such a body. "Finished eating already?"

"As a matter of fact, we are. We're headed to an inn now. You coming?"

He shrugged, "I suppose." He walked along just behind them, "hey Lina… Have you noticed anything strange in this town?"

Lina looked back at him with a smirk. "You mean the unusual number of chimeras here? Yeah. After Amelia ran off to find you I asked the people at the restaurant for more information. It was weird the way even common people knew a word from such high level magic."

"Hey, speaking of Amelia," Goury spoke, "You sure she'll be able to find us?"

Lina smiled and waved her hand playfully, "Oh don't worry. I left her a note back at the restaurant telling her which inn we were headed to."

It was all well and good to know his friends were safe, but Zelgadis was anxious to know what Lina had learned, "So… Did you find out who Master Tochiro is?"

"Yeah, he's a sorcerer who lives in that large mansion on the hill. The towns folk said that most of the building is a lab where he studies different chimera combinations while another part is the town's hospital. They said this Tochiro guy is the very best when it comes to information about chimeras."

"...I'll catch up with you two later."

"Whoa hang on there, Zel. It's already late, why don't we head there tomorrow?" Lina had stepped in front of him and patted his chest like a friendly gesture, but he could barely feel the fabric of his clothing press down against his skin. The dulled senses that couldn't feel the warmth of a person's touch… it only confirmed his need to return to being human.

"Maybe you can wait but I can't. I've done enough waiting." He pushed past her without a second thought.

Goury readjusted the bag on his shoulder. "Hey Lina, why don't we all go. You can signal Amelia with a spell or something."

She looked up at him surpised, "That's actually not a bad idea. Surprising coming from you."

"Hey now…"

Zelgadis waited as patiently as he could while Lina threw a light spell into the air. It wasn't that he needed his friends to come with him, but rather that Lina would probably get upset if he went on his own after they'd decided to go with. It was five minutes before Amelia few down to them, and the sky was already dark.

"Sorry I took so long." She looked nervously at Zelgadis. He just scoffed and turned away.

"Great. Now that she's here can we get going?" He walked down the street without a second glance.

Amelia sighed and Lina gave her a light pat on the shoulder, "Don't mind him. He's just anxious about getting his body back to normal." When Amelia looked at her curiously, she said, "I'll explain on the way. Come on."

The lights slowly flickered out in the town as people went to bed, until the lights of the chimera mansion were the only ones left to light their way.