One of three OAVs released as part of the VHS and subsequently DVD collection Slayers: EXCELLENT.
A Frightening Future opens as a group of bandits makes the misfortune of attempting to waylay Lina Inverse, who defeats them all with a single Explosion Array spell. Once the dust clears, a laughing figure steps on the head of the bandits' leader and laughs obnoxiously bragging about her triumph over them. But this figure who so exasperates Lina isn't Naga, but instead a redhaired noblewoman named Sirine Fitzmeier. Gritting her teeth, Lina curses herself for being lured into this job of bodyguarding Sirine as she travels from the home of her wealthy merchant father to their vacation villa, especially because she didn't realize until after she'd taken the job that not only was it "half upfront, half on arrival", but also that all travel expenses would be coming out of her pocket.
This would be bad enough with Sirine's Naga-like personality, but she compounds it by also dawdling along leisurely, as well as spending money like water. On the first day alone, she buys an entirely new wardrobe, making Lina pay for it, before discarding her original clothes. That evening, she decides to relax at a hot spring, forcing the insecure Lina to bathe with her for protection; when a peeping tom makes the mistake of revealing himself to be spying on the girls, it provides Lina with a momentary outlet for her aggression... but that too fades as Sirine once again tramples on the semi-conscious pervert and laughingly boasts about her conquest of him.
Two days later, and Lina is losing it; the journey should have only taken three days, but they're only halfway there. And Sirine has spent every last gold coin from the advance payment that her father gave Lina. Sirine berating Lina that this is all her fault is the last straw, although when she jokingly suggests they fake having her be kidnapped in order to trick her father into paying them more money to "play" with gives Lina an idea. She sneaks out of the inn and goes into the forest, where she waylays a band of bandits and demands they stage a kidnapping, paying them what little gold she has left in exchange for their cooperation.
The next evening, Lina and Sirine are accosted by bandits. Sirine demands that Lina protect them, but Lina instead literally throws her into their arms and leaves. She settles in to enjoy a meal at the nearest inn, and is rudely surprised when Naga suddenly arrives, sits down at her table, and starts pinching food from Lina's plate. She momentarily warms up to Naga when the irritating sorceress offers to pay for dinner... but loses that good will when Naga reveals how she obtained the funds. She actually encountered and beat up the bandits Lina hired earlier, and it was an entirely different band of bandits who took Sirine!
Realizing she has to save Sirine, Lina travels to the den of the bandits, who Naga warns her serve at the behest of a notoriously perverted sorcerer named Alphonse. After being suitably bribed, Naga distracts the bandits with a frontal attack, giving Lina a chance to penetrate the cave. She defeats skeleton warriors and lupine beastmen, before finally finding Sirine and Alphone in a makeshift throne-room. She is repulsed to realize that Alphonse is the pervert who was peeping on her and Sirine in the hot spring... and gets more repulsed when Sirine regains consciousness and she learns the truth of their relationship. Alphonse didn't kidnap Sirine for money, or even revenge; he kidnapped her to satiate his perverse desires for a dominatrix!
Naga, who has finished off the other grunts and caught up to Lina, silently watches as Sirine berates Lina for her betrayal and then sets her new minion on her. As the two sorcerers duel, Sirine starts to laugh in triumph, only for Naga to begin laughing herself before she calls Sirine pathetic, denouncing her laugh as weak and feeble. The two women exchange verbal barbs, but Sirine's roll off of Naga's delusional confidence as if it were an impenetrable armor. Enraged by her inability to verbally cow the sorceress, Sirine attempts to slap her, only for Naga to strike her first.
The blow awakens something in Sirine, who begins simpering at Naga's feet in adoration. This distracts Alphonse, who is delighted to see that Sirine has awakened to the same understanding of masochism and submissiveness as himself. Whilst Lina watches in increasing disgust, Naga takes this in stride, gleefully accepting it as her due and offering to take the two under her wing.
The OAV ends with Naga, Sirine and Alphonse, all dressed in copies of Naga's outfit, standing on a ledge and facing the rising sun, laughing maniacally as Naga attempts to teach them how to mimic her laugh exactly. A repulsed Lina can only shudder in fear at the idea of Naga's dress sense and laughing style becoming fashionable.
This OAV includes examples of:
- Casual Kink: Alphonse has literally no shame, flaunting his crossdressing and masochism brazenly in front of Lina and Naga in the OAV's final ten minutes.
- The Dreaded: When the leader of the bandit gang that Lina goes to "hire" recognizes her, he falls to all fours and scrambles away, pleading for her to have mercy on his children. The display actually seems to embarrass Lina.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Lina is actually outwitted by Mr. Fitzmeier in bargaining for her services and doesn't have the nerve to stand up to him. She also is much more submissive around Sirine than she would be in later parts of the anime.
- Expy: Lina notes in-universe that Sirine is practically the spitting image of Naga in looks and personality, and she does not mean that as a compliment.
- Handsome Lech: Alphonse is actually very attractive looking and could easily get girls... but he's also a raging pervert, being exposed as a shameless voyeur, crossdresser and masochist by the OAV's climax.
- Love at First Punch: Played for laughs. Alphonse falls in love with Sirine when she stamps on his head and laughs after Lina fireballs him at the hot spring. Sirine falls in love with Naga when Naga slaps her.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Sirine has her own distinctive laugh, which causes her and Naga to get into a brief argument over whose is superior.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Sirine's spending is incredibly frivolous; she reveals that she never wears any clothing twice, but instead throws it away and buys something new to take its place, and she does this at least twice a day. She actually considers it to be a great sacrifice on her part to only do so once per day whilst she and Lina are traveling.
- Wizard Duel: The climactic battle is a duel of hostile magic between Lina and Alphonse.
