To celebrate the one year anniversary of its first release, the first
fic, actually my first post of anything, I sent to the FFML.
	There's been a few changes.... What do you think?

El Hazard is the rightful property of Pioneer and AIC. This was done 
without their express permission, and no attempt for profit (on my
part or yours) should be made. If you wish to archive it somewhere, 
just tell me where. I would also ask that you do leave it intact,
and don't take credit for it. 


			On the Creation of Demon Gods

	Makoto kept the Power-key Staff on his person these days. He spent 
his time in the Royal Library, searching through ancient tomes about the 
Eye of God, or staring up at the giant weapon. Makoto stalked through 
the halls of the palace at night, as if he spent so much time looking 
for something, he did not know what to do when he stopped. 
	Shayla Shayla and Nanami knew what Makoto was looking for, and 
they knew he was killing himself trying to figure out how the Eye of God 
worked. The two of them confronted Makoto in the garden, after the third 
hour of night. Makoto just looked past Nanami and around Shayla Shayla, 
staring at the Eye of God with blank eyes as they harangued him.
 	Something had to be done. Mr. Fujisawa was currently running away 
from Mizu and her advances, and he was just about the only one who 
Makoto might listen to. Just about the only one, that is.

	"Princess, you have to help us. Just look at him. Makoto is 
wasting away, pining for her and trying to figure out a way to use the 
Eye of God to go after her," said a red-headed Priestess of Mt. Muldoon 
and a young Earth girl in perfect synchronisation, to elder princess, 
Lune Venus.

	"I am aware of Mr. Mizuhara's condition, but what can I do? I 
forbade him from actual experimentation with the Eye until he figures 
out some other way how to control it; the Eye is just too powerful to 
let him try without understanding it. I cannot command him to sleep, and 
I will not take away his access to the Library. In any case, I doubt I 
could, he would sneak in and look there anyway."

	"All we are asking is that you talk to him Princess. Makoto 
respects you. He will listen to you, and to your advice. Just talk with 
him, we ask you," asked the desperate duo.

	"We will do as you ask, because he is dear to us, and it pains us 
to see him so," the princess spoke. 

	Late in the afternoon, Makoto Mizuhara was summoned for an 
audience with Her Royal Highness, the princess Lune Venus. "You wished 
to speak with me, princess?" Makoto asked dully.

	"Makoto Mizuhara, earlier today Shayla Shayla and Nanami Jinnai 
came to me for help. They are worried about you." Lune paused, giving 
Makoto a sympathetic look. "How will you find her if you kill yourself 
to do so? We cannot order you to take care of yourself, but we ask you 
on behalf of your friends, and as a friend: give yourself a rest. What 
would Ifurita say if she saw you like this?"

	Makoto leaned on the Power-key staff as he listened impassively to 
Lune Venus. When she finished, he said heavily, "May I go now? There was 
a promising book I wanted to see in the Royal Library." 

	The princess nodded and half-heartedly waved Mizuhara off. Makoto 
blinked slowly then left as he realised he had been dismissed. Lune 
Venus sighed as she saw Makoto's slumped back leave the audience 
chamber. After Makoto left, the princess summoned Dr. Schtalubaugh.

					***

	Makoto made his morning pilgrimage from his chambers to the Royal 
Library, but this time he ran into Dr. Schtalubaugh. The doctor spoke 
excitedly. "Makoto, you must help me with this. It is an artefact we 
have just unearthed. We believe it to be a recording device from the 
ancient El Hazard culture, and it came with several storage devises, or 
so we theorise. With your special abilities, you could help us find out 
much about the Ancients. Please Makoto, please."

	Mizuhara broke out of his private thoughts long enough to listen 
to Schtalubaugh. Makoto was about to dismiss the request when 'ancient 
El Hazard culture' and 'records' hit him. There was a possibility that 
some of these records might contain something about the Eye of God, 
something that might give him enough of a hint on how it worked to allow 
Makoto to use it. A slim chance, but better than what he had now. 

	"Okay doctor, I'll help you. Where is it?"

 	"Not now boy. The way you look now you would be no help to us. Go 
and get some rest today. We will start tomorrow morning, and if you 
don't rest, then I will bar you from the Library." Makoto looked shocked 
at this. Schtalubaugh frowned angrily at him and continued, "I will 
not have you jeopardising this because you are tired, and right now you 
look ready to drop. Now go back to bed! If I send somebody to check on 
you, and they don't see you there sleeping, do not think for one second 
that I will hesitate to ban you from my books!"

	Makoto knew Schtalubaugh had him beat, and he also knew that the 
Dean was right, so Makoto acquiesced and trudged slowly back to his 
room. Schtalubaugh nodded to himself with a satisfied air, turned 
around, and went to give a report to the princess, Lune Venus.

					***

	There was something different about Makoto this morning. Maybe it 
was a certain life in his step, or a spark of brightness in his eyes. 
Quite possibly it was the day and the night of solid sleep, but Shayla-
Shayla and Nanami believed it was a step towards healing.

	Makoto arrived at the Dean's workshop. On top of the table in the 
centre or the room cluttered with papers was an empty spot. In the 
middle of this spot lay a device which looked similar to the device 
Makoto thought was an Ancient El Hazard CD player. Beside the device was 
a stack of thin disks. Schtalunbaugh merely gestured for Makoto to use 
his power on the device, and Makoto did, first putting one of the disks 
into the small machine.
	The machine came to life, spinning the disk around quickly as 
Makoto kept his hand touching the player. The translucent image of a man 
appeared above the player, facing Makoto. The image was thirty 
centimetres tall, and dressed in cream pantaloons, and matching turban; 
a shirt of purest white, and a deep royal blue vest with intricate gold 
trim along the edges. The cuffs of the pantaloons matched the colour of 
the vest, down to the pattern of the trim. On the image's feet were a 
pair of sandals, deep brown, and of fine quality. 

	The image bowed, touching its forehead, mouth, and heart with a 
single flourishing motion, while saying something. Makoto frowned 
momentarily, and then there was sound to accompany the image. "...-kum. 
In the name of Amir Amalik ibn Musa the seventh, who rules most 
benevolently under Allah the Merciful, I, Ammar ibn Imfari do give 
you this record of our greatest achievements, and something of their 
histories. 

	"I begin with the jin, artificial, roughly humanoid constructs 
used to free us from dangerous jobs, such as deep mining operations, 
undersea exploration, and such. New areas both on and off El Hazard can 
be explored with no loss of human life."

	The image of Ammar flickers and is replaced by that of humanoid 
shapes with arms ending in tools, or pincers, and weird sensory 
apparatus instead of eyes or ears, performing various tasks, such as 
mapping the ocean floor, or refueling a craft outside of a space 
station.
	Ammar reappears, and begins to talk again, the former images 
having disappeared.

	"Of course, the models you have just seen were relatively simple, 
single-purpose ones; we are now several generations away from these, 
having made more life-like ones."

	Images of handsome men and beautiful women flash by, dressed in 
clothes which are both revealing and covering at the same time.

	"These jin have more interaction with people, so it was decided 
that we try to make them look more human. We have found that this makes 
them easier to be around, and by making them beautiful," Ammar smiles, 
"it makes them much easier to be around.
	"The previous models were unable to speak. Instead, they had modem 
ports." Ammar chuckles quietly. "There are stories, modern myths, that 
talk of people communicating and giving orders to jin by whistling. 
Impossible, of course. For one, the sounds are above the human range of 
hearing (for close range, in an atmosphere environment. Long range 
communication or out of atmosphere environments use specially reserved 
wavelengths on the EM spectrum).
	"The stories persist, and few people whistle around the jin 
anymore. Why takes chances? is the logic," Ammar shrugs.

	The image of Ammar flickers again. He is still wearing the same 
clothes, but lines are starting to mark his once youthful face. 
Obviously, this part of the recording has been made several years after 
the original.

	"Salaam aleikum, my friend. Ten years have passed since my last 
entry on the jin. Now, I am wazir to his most gracious Amir Amalik 
ibn Musa, whose slightest frown causes his enemies to quail in fear, 
and his smallest smile his friends and subjects to rejoice for one full 
seven-day. Enough of me though, for I have the job of recording our 
greatest technologies. 

	"The uprising of the Northern Quarter in the last five years has 
caused us to make many new generations of jin. The latest generation 
now have the ability to make creative decisions to effectively complete 
their tasks, not relying totally upon programmed instructions anymore. 
As such, these newer models are often used for covert missions instead 
of humans. The success rate of these missions have increased five-fold, 
as the new generations now learn from their past actions.

	"The latest model jin is the Ifrit class, currently a prototype, 
developed at the Ahriman testing grounds and laboratories."

	A three dimensional representation of Ifurita, with her Power-key 
Staff, appeared and began to slowly rotate in a full circle. Makoto 
shook at the sight, almost losing contact with the player. Makoto's eyes 
became more intense as he looked upon the Ifurita's form. The image was 
quickly replaced by Ammar, who began to talk again.

	"The Ifrit class is meant to be our elite force in our armies. In 
terms of raw power, the Ifrit is one of the most powerful of jin, but 
its ability to duplicate any force which acts upon it means that each 
unit will only become more powerful in time. The Ifrit is the first to 
use a new type of processor, largely organic in nature; traditional 
processor types do not have the flexibility needed to utilise this 
class' unique abilities."

	Ammar flickers in and out of vision, and then reappears, perhaps 
three years older. 

	"Further addendum to the notes on the Ifrit class. The Ifrit 
prototype performed beyond all expectations, and was more powerful than 
we were prepared for. The prototype Ifrit is single-handedly responsible 
for taking out two major rebel cities, along with many bases and such. 
Mention of her coming was enough to cause seven different cities to 
surrender before she arrived; I say her because the prototype's form was 
female, I really should say it. A failing of mine that I often refer to 
them as I would a human. 

	"There is a problem with the Ifrit however. Near the end of the 
quelling, the jin began to develop some glitches. The opinion of the 
developers that the prototype began to develop some form of emotional 
response. The Ifrit will still obey orders, that was hardwired into her, 
but this emotional response may hinder its effectiveness. 

	"Maybe it is not a failing of mine to refer to her as a human.... 
I digress though. A decision was reached to place the prototype Ifrit 
into storage until such a time as our researchers find a way to control 
the emotional response side-effect. Further units are not to be made 
prior to solution of this problem. Instead, we will continue to use the 
traditional inorganic processors for our jin."

	The player stopped, the disk was finished. Makoto looked up at Dr. 
Schtalubaugh, who was brimming over with delight. 

	"Marvelous! Simply marvelous! Oh, fortune has smiled on us today 
Makoto Mizuhara!" Dr. Schtalubaugh ended up dancing a little jig, 
unable to contain the joy of recovering this storehouse of knowledge.

	"Let's see what the next disk has on it doctor," said Makoto 
eagerly. Quite possibly there was information on the Eye of God, 
especially after what Ammar had said at the beginning of this disk.

	"No," said the Dean simply. "We have to record this knowledge 
ourselves, and make sure we do not overlook anything. I made a few 
cursory notes," Schtalubaugh waved a sheaf of about twenty pages, then 
continued, "but they were rather brief. Now, take a break, and when you 
return, I will have a few artists here to take sketches, and a scribe to 
transcribe what Ammar dictates; and Makoto, I want no arguments from 
you, you gave your word after all. Tomorrow we will try another disk."
Schtalubaugh waggled his index finger at Makoto in admonishment.

	"We don't want to overload ourselves after all, and we must be 
thorough. Now run along, before I have to call Shayla and Nanami to drag 
you out of my workshop!"

	Makoto actually barked a short laugh as he left the workshop, 
heading for the gardens. Dr. Schtalubaugh chuckled to himself as he 
watched Makoto's retreating form, then he looked at the player and 
laughed out loud at the find. The doctor, after Makoto had left his 
sight, went to get the artists, and the scribe; more importantly though, 
he went to tell Princess Lune what had happened.

========================================================================

	Well, it's been about a year since I first wrote and posted this, 
and here's a real, honest-to-God revision. I've even added a little 
bit.... Scary, no?

You may notice some of the names seem familiar, that's because they are. 
Just changing them back to the original, thus Ifurita maps to Ifrit (I 
previously used Efreet, but have decided to go to use this spelling, it 
being closer to the original).
	An ifrit is an evil spirit or jin. That thing about whistling? The 
language of jin was thought to sound like whistling, and so whistling in 
the desert was not encouraged, just in case.
	Arliman translates itslef to Ahriman (Ahriman is the evil 
force/god in the Zoroastrianism, which is a dualistic religion still 
practiced by the Guebres in Iran and the Parsees in India. The good side 
is known as Ormuzd or Ormazd, formerly called Ahura-Mazda. Does this 
mean that there should be another set of springs or something for the 
priestesses to go to? Perhaps a treasure trove of ancient technology is 
just sitting there at the companion site. An idea one might want to use, 
nothing more).

	I plan to have Makoto read/do two more disks, on the Bugrom, and 
on the Eye of God; most likely this is a three part story (although the 
story really just links the disks together, and is, as such, a fairly 
background thing). 
	Good news is that I've actually started writing the second disk, I 
was in fact hoping to put it out at about this time, actually. Bad news 
is that it is not going to happen. Too many other projects, too many 
commitments. Still, it is something (one of the delays was my losing of 
the outline for the second disk, which I have found).

Just out of curiosity, why are you still reading this? Why not go on to 
the next message, and/or reply to this one? My e-mail address you say? 
You want to know where I can be reached so you can comment on this? Why, 
aren't you just the nicest of souls! Of course I'll give it to you. 



Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis
Maybeso on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
Warped, in Real Life
Member of:
FFML, FFIRCML, El Hazard ML
	maybeso@ican.net
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Change is inevitable, especially if you pay with
large bills.
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