Gourry remains Lina's closest, most consistent companion throughout the series, traveling with her even when their other two friends, Zelgadis and Amelia, are off somewhere else. Though Lina once claimed she only let him tag along because she wanted his family heirloom, the legendary Sword of Light, they continued to travel together long after the weapon was no longer in Gourry's possession, with Lina instead saying she stayed with him so she could help "find" him a new sword. Despite her frustrations with Gourry's seemingly apparent lack of mental agility, among his other habits such as making frequent blunt observation about Lina's less-than-favorable traits (which usually results in Lina abusing him with objects and nasty spells), Lina eventually falls in love with him, and he apparently falls in love with her. Despite this, their relationship never blossoms fully within either the manga, light novels or the anime. However, this lack of a developing relationship is partly because Lina, as an excitable, whimsical but not fully emotionally matured teenager, is not adept at expressing affectionate or romantic feelings. Instead, their relationship is referred to and makes presence in the series through slightly more subtle ways other than blatant public affection. The two have proven to be a highly effective pair in battle, and often can sense what the other is thinking. They get a sort of closure when they share a kiss at the end of the anime series "Slayers Next" when Gourry came to rescue Lina from the Lord of Nightmares, but they did not remember it afterwards. In the anime series "Slayers Evolution-R", a character inquires "You love Lina, don't you?" out loud to Gourry; while Lina stumbles through a denial in embarrassment, Gourry does not vocalize a denial at all. At the end of the fifteenth volume of the original novel series when Gourry asks Lina to visit back her hometown in Zephillia, Lina thinks that he is proposing to her and that is the reason he wants to visit her family.