#slayers novels

[cantheywinthehungergames]

Submitted anonymously

Tribute Name: Lina Inverse

Age: 14-18 (throughout series)

Restrictions: No magic or magical abilities of any kind

Propaganda: "She’s scrappy, I think she’d find a way to make it through even without her big world ending spells"

If you would like to see your favorite character either as a tribute or as a mentor, please fill out this Google Form. Just keep in mind that for mentor polls, they will be posted every Saturday so chances are it could take a long time before they are posted.

Please also look at my pinned post for submission rules as well as a list of previously submitted characters prior to submitting your character.

[scrik]

More slayers pics

[lovingastory]

Sakura collaboration story

Back in 2020, Kadokawa published a volume titled Sakura collaboration, which included a number of short stories (more like drabbles, really) related to several light novel series, including The Slayers. "Cherry blossoms" (sakura) was the common theme.

I recently got my hands on one copy of the volume, and the story Hajime Kanzaka wrote for The Slayers (set sometime after novel 17 and paired with a lovely illustration by Araizumi of Lina and Gourry under a cherry tree, which has been circulating on its own for a while) is so cute and quietly poetic that I thought it was a shame not to share it with everyone. So under the cut you can find my tentative translation.

It looked like falling snow.

It filled up the sky, filled up our field of vision – swaying, drifting white, white, white.

Except, it wasn’t cold. If anything, it reminded of warmth, perhaps simply because it was warm, or perhaps because there was also some red among all the dancing, falling white.

The open blossoms fell among the lined trees, splendid, and ephemeral at the same time.  

“Wow,” I couldn’t help but say in admiration, unconsciously stopping as soon as I fixed my eyes on that spectacle.  

“Amazing,” commented Gourry, my travel companion. He stopped too, enthralled by the dancing blossoms. “Say, Lina, what kind of flowers are those?”

“Dunno. I’ve never seen them back where we come from,” I replied.

A little while before, for a number of reasons, Gourry and I had been sent away to an unknown, faraway land. We’d found ourselves under this sky as we were trying and get back where we came from, on a clueless and unsuccessful journey.

I’d travelled here and there in the land I used to live in before, but I’d never seen those flowers. Meaning they probably only blossomed here.

“Cherry blossoms!” The girl called Ran, who’d become our travel companion ever since we got here, suddenly blurted out, in a strange voice.

She often used weird expressions, which, according to her, were in her hometown’s dialect.

“Huh? What, now?”

“The name of the flowers – cherry blossoms.”

“Ah. They are called ‘cherry blossoms’.” I looked at them again.

The mountains stretching out in front of us were green. However, at their foot, the colors of what appeared to be ‘cherry blossoms’ trees lining along the highway formed a long streak of white, continuing as far as we could see.

The fact that they were only along the highway and not on the mountains made me think that they hadn’t grown naturally, and had been planted. But why on earth were hundreds – heck, thousands of trees planted like that?

“To have grown so many trees… must have been some sophisticated and eccentric king or lord!”

“Wrong!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It wasn’t a king who grew them, just one common person.”

“Huh?!” As the meaning of her words struck me, I couldn’t help but raise my voice. “Wait, wait, wait! A single person, growing these many trees on their own? That shouldn’t be possible!”

“They were not on their own.”

“Didn’t you just say it was just one person?”

“After they’d started working hard to grow them, the people around here came to help too.”

“… Right.” Her way of expressing things was always a bit confusing.   

“Still, why did those people feel the need to grow that many trees? Are their fruits edible, by any chance?”

It wasn’t elegant of Gourry to ask, but truth is, it did happen sometimes that trees that bore edible fruits were planted along highways, in order to lower the chance of travelers collapsing from hunger or thirst.

When asked that, Ran furrowed her brow. “Mmm… they do bear fruits and those fruits are edible, but… they are not that good?”

Judging by her words, she had tried them before. Perhaps, they were extremely bitter or sour.

Gourry, probably anticipating that he, too, wouldn’t enjoy the taste, wore a dejected expression. “Not good? Why, getting plenty of delicious fruit like that would have been perfect…”

“What are you talking about?” I said, still enthralled by the white. “This scene itself is perfect, isn’t it?” A particularly strong gust of wind made the petals dance.

“Perhaps, the person who started to plant the trees did it because he wanted to see something like this, too.”

That one scope. Perhaps, he’d kept on with that one scope in mind. Perhaps, that person had seen something like this in his past, and burned with desire for seeing it again.

Perhaps, the people around that person had been moved by that love and enthusiasm, and decided to lend a hand.

The earth-moving passion and effort of one person, stirring up other people… that wasn’t common, but it did happen, sometimes. And as a result…

… as a result, now, we were in that place, surrounded by blooming white.

Perhaps, one day, Gourry and I would be back where we came from, far away from there. And still, we wouldn’t forget the scene we’d seen that day.

The three of us stopped there for a while yet, surrounded by dancing flowers.

[why-its-kai]

literally me

[ziongateau]

So to be completely honest, I had no idea the novels were continuing. How did I miss this!!! My old Tokyopop ones are falling apart 😢 Are the new ones any good compared to them?

[tooth-with-eyes]

[thegoddamnhat]

there's nothing quite like a random piece of media you consumed ages ago and loved at the time but kinda forgot about after coming back to you years later absolutely out of nowhere like "you thought you could forget about me? don't worry! i'm here to be the only thing you care about yet again" and then the cycle repeats

it's fun but also painful because the intensity of the obsession revived makes it hard to focus on anything else like someone get these fictional people out of my head please

[madeleinelovescolours]

Buffy fans can have a little gaslighting

As a treat

[kazueisaloser]

Back with sol and luna as obamitsu <33

Will I make more of them in ds? maybe...

[spkyart]

It's their time to shine now

[90sfantasyanimestuff]

slayers light novel cover

[painyrainy]

your daily reminder that they did, in fact, get salmon stewed with daikon together.

[kitty-katt]

THIS THE MOST REALIST SHIT EVER IF Y'ALL CAN SIMP FOR THEM THEN I CAN SIMP FOR A GODDAMN PUPPET & VISUAL NOVEL YANDERE MEN + GYUTARO AND ALSO IDIA SHROUD OKAY!!

[wavy-arms]

Help, please, I'm dying! 🤣 In one of the Demon Slayer light novel "Kimetsu Academy" chapters, it's mentioned that they once did a school-wide survey to find out who everyone's favorite teachers were. Rengoku Kyōjurō was voted the most popular teacher in the school (because of course), but just look at what some of the survey participants said (direct quotes):

"I hope he's always so young, hot, and strong."

"Those muscular arms bursting from the rolled-up sleeves of his button-up shirt slay me."

"I want to be the pin on his necktie."

These kids need to calm down! 🤣 Out here in broad daylight, for everyone to see, in a 9 AM history class... 😭

[yu2ki]

🎀🧺🩰