Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ The Dream Catcher ❯ The Dream Catcher ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3 - The Dream Catcher

Urd walked the same route she had not an hour earlier, but the total opposite of what she was before. That chance meeting made her feel wanted, even though if it had only been a rather short conversation. Still the same, Miki meant something to her already. Urd usually wasn't so lovey-dovey when it came to herself, preferring to play matchmaker for others.

In her romantic stupor, she barely noticed the familiar Morisato home as she passed by it. She did a double take and finally realized she had reached her destination. Looking at the home she had come to know very well, she suddenly didn't want to go in. Not right now at least. But where did she want to go? All she knew for sure was that she was sick of walking. But how could she get anywhere otherwise?

Then she saw it. The thought only danced across her mind for a second before she immediately squelched it as out of the question. However her eyes just couldn't avert from it: Keiichi's motorcycle, parked in the driveway. She knew it had to be off-limits, but, then again, Keiichi never actually said never drive it. Besides, this was an emergency…of sorts.

Urd walked over to the bike, which must have recently been cleaned as it shone impressively in the morning sun.

She looked to the front door and back to the motorcycle, going over in her head how much she didn't want to go home. She felt like her great day would just be ending by stepping through the door, which she had no logical reason to believe but she did all the same.

Finally she got up the courage to step into the driver's seat. Luckily, Keiichi had left his helmet in the seat, which fit her head surprisingly well. She put the helmet on quite intentionally. Normally, she wouldn't. It would mess up her hair. But her only previous driving experience was when she borrowed Megumi's bike and had to run from the police for not wearing one. He had also, conveniently, left his keys in the ignition, which Urd knew wasn't all that odd. Keiichi wasn't so much forgetful as comfortable with his surroundings. Comfortable enough to believe he didn't have to practice much security precautions. Which may have partly been due to the fact three Goddesses lived with him. Something about that would make anyone a little lax on such things.

She breathed in and out. She had ridden a motorcycle so long ago, or at least it seemed that way, but still, she wasn't all that worried about being able to handle herself. She was more so worried about Keiichi getting mad at her, but on second thought, she realized how funny that sounded. Being afraid of Keiichi. She laughed to herself.

Now totally sure she was ready, she turned the ignition on, fastened her seat belt, and pulled out. She was on the road now and going fast. Really really fast. She maneuvered all the turns, but knew she would surely have gotten in an accident if it weren't for her powers keeping the motorcycle from veering to anywhere perilous.

Soon she was in the city limits, marked by the tall buildings and onslaught of advertisement. She turned quickly down a street and decided on a parking spot, again relying on her powers to guide her safely into the parallel parking spot.

She stepped both her long legs onto the sidewalk and got completely out. Her silvery mane billowed behind her when she released it from her helmet, placing it on the driver's seat.

She took in her surroundings. She seemed to have picked a rather swanky street. All the store windows were filled with exquisite mannequins dressed in gowns Urd had seen in fashion magazines Megumi sometimes bought. She could also quickly tell she didn't belong. Passerby, dressed extremely similarly to the mannequins, were all giving her strange looks, some even snickering to each other.

Urd decided maybe the sweat suit did give them reason, but she was never one to accept being made the butt of jokes, especially for her looks. Perhaps a wardrobe change was in order.

Scanning the area, she quickly found an alley she could change in, away from the scrutiny of the shoppers.

She made her way there, the shoppers making an exaggerated effort to stay out of her way. When she reached it she found it was much longer and wider than she expected from the vantage point of the road.

She shrugged it off and made her way to the fence that was its end point, so as to stay completely out of view. If these women gave her a strange look for wearing a sweat suit, she could only imagine their reaction to seeing her magically change out of it.

Near the fence she, however, completely forgot about that. It seemed this alley held more surprises than just its size. She was standing in front of a storefront. But not like the ones on the street she had just come from.

The sign on the top read "New Age", which meant nothing to Urd. In the window she could see strange objects of all kinds of which she didn't know their purposes. But curiosity finally got the better of her, and she went in.

A bell on the door chimed when she walked in. There was a girl with lots of piercings and spiked, pitch black hair sitting at the register. She had her feet propped on the counter and was leisurely sitting back on a stool and listening to headphones, which Urd could hear from the door. She didn't even glance at Urd.

Urd rather liked the change of pace, from being gawked at. She definitely preferred the latter. She decided to take a look around. The store was even stranger inside. The walls were covered with books and the middle was filled with strange objects similar to those in the window. The store itself was pretty small.

She walked through, looking at all the oddities with curiosity. She found some of the products rather amusing. Like the array of love potions, which encompassed a whole shelf to themselves. She knew they couldn't work. They were, after all, human concoctions.

She had now reached the back of the store. Strangely enough, there was another shopper looking at a book. It was strange because Urd didn't think anyone else was in there, she hadn't seen anyone when she walked in. He was a man, a little shorter than she was. He had dark hair, a little unkempt. He actually looked a lot like Keiichi from the back.

She shrugged his presence off and moved toward a display, next to the man, of circular objects that had weavings inside them. They looked rather like spider webs made out of thread.

There were about ten of them, all different colors and patterns. Urd couldn't see what their purpose was, but did anything else in the store really have much use?

"They're dream catchers," a voice told her. It was the man next to her.

"Dream catcher?" Urd asked, looking at him curiously. He kind of looked like Keiichi even from the front. He was wearing jeans and long-sleeved navy shirt. He had a very youthful look, but something told Urd he was older than his face let on.

He nodded. "You put them outside your bedroom window and they're supposed to bring good dreams, and ward off bad ones."

Urd scoffed slightly. "I don't believe in that sort of thing," she stated.

The man smiled. "You never know what can be real or not real."

Urd looked at the book he was reading. It was called "Goddesses and Angels". This was a strange coincidence.

"Interesting topic for a book," Urd said nonchalantly.

The man nodded happily. "Very. I've already read it a few times. But it's always an interesting read, even now."

"So you believe in that sort of thing?" Urd asked.

The man smiled again. "What is your name anyway? Mine's Keiji."

"Urd," she replied, wondering why he didn't answer her question.

"Planning on buying one of those catchers Urd?" he asked, nodding toward them.

"Maybe," she said, noticing some were rather pretty. They may look good in her bedroom, but they wouldn't be going there to "catch" any dreams, that's for sure.

"You should," he said, putting the book back with its fellows. "I must be going Urd. I hope we meet each other again." And he walked away and the bell chimed to signal his exit. The cashier didn't look up.

Urd took the book he had been reading back out and opened it. She was interested to see what the author had to say about goddesses.

A card fell out of the page she opened to. On it was Keiji's name and his address and phone number. Other than that the card was completely blank.

She read it over and pocketed the card. She wasn't even sure why. She had been going on impulse all day and she wasn't about to stop now.

She turned to the dream catchers and picked out the first one to catch her eye. It was purple and white thread in a star design. She walked over to the cashier to buy it.

****

Walking up the path to the front door, she couldn't help but smile widely. She opened the door and walked through and into the Morisato home.

She heard talking in the next room, the dining area, and slid open the door only enough so she could see who was there. She saw they were all having green tea and what looked like cake. She saw Megumi, Keiichi, Belldandy, and Skuld. Someone else was also there. A man. But she could only see the back of his head. "Who could that be?" she wondered.

She slid the door open fully, creating a great deal more noise than was needed in order to draw attention to her arrival.

They all turned their heads. "Oh, hello Urd," Belldandy said, smiling. "Where did you get off to?"

"I went for a walk," Urd said, looking at them all. The mysterious man had yet to turn his head.

"Oh, yeah, almost forgot," Megumi said, looking at the man. "This is Miki Sagara, one of my friends from school. Miki, this is Belldandy's older sister, Urd."

"Actually, Megumi," Miki began. Urd recognized the voice instantly. She positively gasped. "Urd and I have met already," he finished, turning his head to Urd.

He smiled. Urd almost fell over in surprise.

"You have?" Megumi asked, looking at the two with a confused expression.

"Yes, we have," Urd answered, regaining her composure. "We…erm-ran into each other just this morning."

"How interesting," Megumi said, still looking at the two, a tad confused.

"I suppose," Urd said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Well I'm in need of a shower," she said, walking back into the hall and sliding the door closed behind her.

She fell back against the door, breathing heavily. She wasn't even sure why she was reacting like this. All she knew was she wanted a shower. And she didn't want to see Miki…right now at least.

Walking toward the bathroom, she thought about how crazy today really had been. She met Miki in the most unconventional of ways, and now they were meeting again. And then there was Keiji at that New Age store. That was even stranger…much stranger. She took the card out of her pocket and looked it over again. She then looked over at the phone, sitting on the stand. She picked it up and began dialing.

A/N: What did you think? The next chapter will feature some more Miki at the Morisato Temple. I'm not sure how much Keiji…but all will be explained with him soon enough.

Sorry this took so long!