Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 17 - Convolutions ( Chapter 17 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Part 17: Convolutions
The summer breeze hinted of the nearby ocean as it filled my lungs. This would be my final meeting with Dr. Kintaro before departing for China. He astutely provided me with a dossier of scheduled contacts; contacts that were now very necessary. Everyone who had ever met me in the past had their memories purged of my existence, courtesy of the Ultimate Force. Dr. Kintaro was actually animated about the whole trip, much to my relief. I felt disapprobation towards his cheerless, dour moods, which seemed to be conceits designed solely to reinforce his position as the school 'shacho'.
I decided to amble randomly through the N.I.T. campus. As I passed Watanabe Hall, I recalled that my request for a second floor office would be granted contingent upon my return from China with a Ph.D. and a reciprocity agreement with BeiDa. Dr. Kintaro grudgingly promised to transfer me out of the TA office I shared with several N.I.T. engineering grad students.
"As a full Ph.D., you would contribute to the academic prestige of N.I.T., so I guess we'll have to accommodate you," he had noted. Not that the basement office was bad--I had grown to like it. In its own way, the cozy, cramped office was almost inviting. But its damp environment wasn't good for my growing text and monograph collection.
Yesterday, we had received a call from Sayoko. She said that she was doing well, but added that the initial detoxing was trialsome for her. She mentioned having hallucinations and several days of flu-like nausea before her head started to clear. I reminded her that detoxing was the result of her body reestablishing its homeostatic balance...if she viewed it as the painful last gasp of her drug addiction, then she would have additional motivation to keep clean. She told Keiichi that Okinawa was very hot right now and complained that I didn't find her a place in northern Honshu.
"I guess some things never change about a person," I heard him tease her over the phone. She told me that Tamiya had been wrote her three times in the past 10 days, much to her surprise. She already had a growing collection of well-wishing support cards in her room, mine included.
The early July air was humid, with a thunderstorm brewing on the horizon. Today was one of the worst days on the mugginess scale since I had found myself in Japan. I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve dress shirt because of my meeting with the N.I.T. school president. Needless to say, I was soaking with sweat. During my stroll, I visited several faculty members who were working on personal research projects. Then I relaxed at the campus center. Normally bustling with students, the center was quiet and peaceful during the summer break. I counted all the trees in eyesight as a relaxation practice. Any time I spent with Dr. Kintaro was stressful...I didn't want to take my tension home.
After my stroll through the N.I.T. campus, I returned home. As I approached the street in front of our temple compound, I saw a black stretch limousine parked opposite the entrance. Stretch limos were common in the tourist-land of Honolulu...but what was it doing *here*?
"This is strange," I mused aloud. The limousine was totally out of place here in the outskirts of Makuhari. Especially near what the rest of the community considered an *abandoned* temple that had become a student hangout. The late afternoon sun glowed on its carefully polished lines. As I walked in, it pulled away.
I felt like we were being spied upon...that pullaway was *too* coincidental!
I stepped out of my shoes and entered, only to see Belldandy and Keiichi sprawled out on the living room floor with a series of maps and papers filled with jotted notes, ambitiously discussing something.
"What's up with you two? You guys look like you're planning something."
"Hi, Cevn-san. Keiichi and I are planning to go on a vacation," Belldandy said excitedly. She was beaming with a happy-go-lucky joy while Keiichi was engrossed in guidebooks and calculations.
"Right on! Where to?"
"Shikoku," Keiichi answered. I told them how lucky they were to be going to the place where Kobo Daishi lived. I envied them...any place they would go, boring or not, would be happily brightened by their intense love for each other. Keiichi and Belldandy smiled at me in affirmation, then resumed their whispered conversation.
I walked down the hallway to my room. I could hear Urd watching her Korean dramas and Skuld testing her latest upgrades to mini-Banpei when Megumi walked out and said "hi".
Since the magical enhancing of her beauty a few days ago, the house had been besieged by male callers asking after her. Both Keiichi and I were slowly becoming accustomed to the powerful surge of allurement we felt whenever every morning when we first laid eyes on her. She had an overpowering sensual effect, like the Deltan chick from the first Star Trek Movie. Every time I saw her, I was enraptured by her lovely face. This feeling of attraction made me extremely uncomfortable.
Keiichi had been pressuring Belldandy to disclose to Megumi about the 'enhanced beauty' thing, but without success. Megumi, for her part, had confided in me that she was put off by all the male attention she was drawing.
"It's like I've suddenly become some kind of testosterone magnet...all these guys are after me!" she said in frustration. I almost told her about what Belldandy had done when she 'healed' her face. But I was too overwhelmed with Megumi's charm to do anything but stare at her with an entranced expression.
* * * * * * * *
Later in the day, Belldandy and Megumi departed on a shopping trip. Maybe that was a cover for Belldandy to tell Megumi *why* she was being hounded by all these guys. At least I hoped so, for everyone's sanity.
I sat by Keiichi as he detailed the vacation plans he and Belldandy had drawn up. They would leave on the weekend and go to Tokyo by train for two nights, checking out the city's celebration of Tanabata. Then they would take the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka and spend two days there. After riding the ferry across the Inland Sea to Shikoku, Keiichi would rent a car and they would drive into Takematsu and see the famous gardens there, then travel south through Naruto to Cape Muroto. From there, they would drive west to Kochi, generally following the pilgrimage route as they circumnavigated the island. They would return to Osaka for the Tenjin Matsuri, one of Japan's largest festivals. After the two-day spectacle, they would return home. It would be two and a half weeks of worry-free vacationing.
"Leisure's the emphasis," he said happily.
"Look what I did to Mini-Banpei-kun!" I heard Skuld happily announce as she entered the room followed by a 1-meter-tall replica of the 'outdoors' Banpei. She carried a small toolkit as she stood behind mini-Banpei, stroking his metallic exterior with an almost sensual relish.
"I increased the sensitivity of his visual monitors, added new anti-Demon charm cannons to him and designed a faster traction for his motive gearing treads. Check it out...it's cool!" In response, Banpei whirred around the living room rapidly, running over Keiichi's maps.
"Skuld!" he reacted with a shout of dismay.
"Oops!" Skuld peeped in a small voice as she put a gloved hand over her mouth.
"If you weren't Bell-chan's sister...I would..." he groused, then elected to bounce an eraser off of Skuld's forehead.
"I'm sorry already!" she shouted to him and everyone else in the world. I could see the faintest hint of a smile behind her hand. She was holding back giggles, just barely.
"That's okay...it was just an accident, wasn't it?" Urd said with a sneer, pulled away from her Korean dramas by the ruckus in the living room. She gave Skuld a maternal pat on the head.
"Live drama better than the televised kind, Urd?" I teased.
She ignored me as we watched Skuld pull out a mecha I recognized as the Shinseisensor Mk II.
"This must be Skuld's show-n-tell day," I reflected. With Banpei and Sigel outside, she must be lonely...
"I'm going to use this divine power sensor to calibrate Mini-Banpei-kun to distinguish all emanations besides mortal ones. That way, anything that isn't mortal, like a God or Demon, will be detected by him."
I was happy that Skuld had devised a way around the dilemma that I had brought to her attention when I suggested that Banpei couldn't detect Demons because there were no Demons to 'field test' either robot's sensors. Her use of the logic of exclusive particular discrimination made sense, as the only Gods around were the three sisters which Banpei already knew. The three Ninjettes...well they didn't classify as gods or mortals. Anything else would be fair game to activate a defense subroutine.
Skuld pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at Keiichi and I to get a baseline for mortal emanations. She set it down on a nearby table and pulled out a notepad and jotted something down while the rest of us lazed about, waiting for the cooler night air to refresh us.
* * * * * * * *
"Where's the guys from N.I.T.? The teacher and the engineering student?" someone shouted.
I heard several gruff voices indiscreetly talking in the doorway. I looked up and saw four ominous-looking men standing inside the house. They had just walked in, unannounced and uninvited. I looked over to Keiichi and he shook his head to indicate that he didn't know who they were. They looked like thugs, out of place in our neighborhood. I looked at Keiichi and asked if he knew them.
"You think I would hang out with *those* kind of guys?" he said in a low voice as he gathered his maps and travel brochures into a stack of paper.
"Check 'em out, they look like gangsters or something!" he added. I nodded my head in assent. They looked like the Blues Brothers in their black suits, white shirts and shades.
"Where's the guy named Keiichi? Where's the other guy named Cevn? We know they're here!" another man said in a voice well-suited to intimidation and threats. It worked. I felt fear running laps up and down my backbone at the tough-sounding voice.
I looked at the men more closely. They all wore expensive-looking moddish narrow sunglasses and gold chains. The leader was big, about 6'3", with slicked back hair in a ponytail. He had a scar on the side of his face and a wispy fu-Manchu mustache. The other three men were brutish Neanderthal-types with crewcuts. Two were several inches taller than Tamiya...with weightlifter builds. The zorii on their bare feet contrasted with their mock-formal attire.
"No...wait, he isn't the leader," I whispered to Keiichi as a squat heavyset man emerged from between them. During my time in the drug world, I had encountered the denizens of the underworld. These guys reeked of gangsterism. Suddenly, I recalled Sayoko's comment about yakuza. The leader was dressed in a loud light blue pinstripe suit and navy blue polyester slacks. He was puffing away at a foul-smelling cigar. His hands were bejeweled with expensive-looking bulky gold rings. His smile was practiced and his manner was both casual and menacing.
"Now Kenzo, it won't do to threaten these nice people...yet." the fat man said in a snake-charmer's voice.
"Shit! Yakuza! And Belldandy's gone with Megumi!" Keiichi whispered to me in a low voice. My chill sense of fear hit a new level of anxiety when I heard *that*. I didn't seriously think that they would come here. She must have been more deeply involved than I had assumed. We exchanged a panicked look, then I turned to see Urd and Skuld measuring each yakuza with a cautious gaze. I secretly hoped that Urd would zap them.
How did they find out about where I live? Then I reluctantly remembered my promise to Sayoko that I would deal with any yakuza threats. I felt disappointed in myself, as my braggadocio had literally placed the house in dire danger. Actually, I suspected that my comment had nothing to do with their presence here...but it's easy for me to create a mythology of explanation when I'm scared shitless. Just like many of my human ancestors did in the distant past.
"Why can't I think before saying things like that?" I admonished myself out loud. The old gangster guy spied Skuld and grinned deviously.
"What a cute little girl... maybe you can tell me where these guys are. We want to have a little 'talk' with them, sweetie."
Skuld made an angry face when he called her a 'little girl'. She looked at the man with obvious distaste.
"Bug off, you creep!" she answered snidely. Keiichi gasped as two men on either side of the ringleader walked towards Skuld threateningly.
Urd stepped in front of Skuld protectively.
"Leave my little sister alone, you big goons!" she shouted. The fatman waved his cigar and the two thugs backed off.
"Ahhh, you're a very sexy gaijin woman, y'know. You would look good as a hostess in my nightclub. Maybe we could 'convince' you to work for me. I could make a lot of money off of you," the fatman said greasily. "Maybe you and me could even have a..."
"The only club I want to see is the one I'll break over your balding head, you chubby little shit..." Urd shot back without a hint of self-consciousness.
"Boss, you want me to tear her clothes off or something?" one of the big goons casually said in a dullard's voice, greedily eyeing Urd. "Man, this is escalating rapidly into a potentially explosive situation!" I told myself as I saw Urd's face. Her normally carefree nature fell away as she noticed how nonchalantly the goon threatened to disrobe her. She crossed her hands over her bosom protectively and backed up two paces.
"Ahem...hey, over here...I'm Cevn. Who are you? What do you want?" I said. They all turned towards me as I stood up on tiptoe off of the floor. I noticed that Keiichi stood up right next to me with a protective stance.
"And I'm Keiichi! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?" he added, trying to project a tough confidence.
"Who we are doesn't concern you!" the ponytail guy said. Suddenly I felt embarrassed that I had my hair tied back in a ponytail...I didn't want to resemble this guy at all. There's a difference between long hair on a sensitive guy and long hair on a punk.
Fatty spoke.
"Ahhh. A gaijin? Figures. The teacher at N.I.T...Sayoko's teacher. And you...Sayoko's close friend. You two big guys, back away from the little ladies," the head yakuza ordered his lieutenants.
The young guy with the scar and the ponytail pulled a revolver out and started playing with it, posing while pointing it back and forth between me then the others. The tension rose to an even higher level. The guy must be a Jackie Chan or Takeshi Kitano fanatic, the way he's goofing off with that gun. I watched as Urd tried to use her limited Earth Spirit powers to disarm him. She waved her hands frantically...with no result. She had a look of total surprise on her face.
"Ha ha ha...what're you, some kinda female magician?" the fat greaseball in the pinstripe suit said derisively. This remark drew mocking laughter from his four underlings. Urd's face reflected surprise at her inability to summon her powers. She grinned sheepishly, her embarrassment out of context with the seriousness of this situation.
"We want to have a little chat with you about what you did with Sayoko. Come outside to our car," one of the underlings said to me.
"We're not going anywhere with you!" Keiichi yelled. I looked at him with total amazement on my face.
"What are you doing, Keiichi?" I said to him in a near-whisper.
The boss nodded and two of the big guys walked up and grabbed me by the arms. I struggled against them as they dragged me towards the door. Keiichi was quicker on his feet than me, as he dodged the hood rushing him. He tried to pull one of guys restraining me, and the other two gangster punks were on him in an instant. One guy grabbed him by the shirt and easily lifted him off the ground, then threw him on the floor. The other guy calmly walked over and kicked him in the ribs, hard. I heard Keiichi gasp "whoof" as the air was knocked out of him.
"Leave them alone!" Skuld shouted shrilly.
"Leave us alone!" Urd shouted angrily.
Keiichi got up to his hands and knees, shaking his head to try to get his bearings back. Then I felt the wind get knocked out of me as the goon with the ponytail punched me several times in the chest and stomach. He grabbed me by the jaw and yelled a rash of threatening remarks. His breath stank of sour sake. Urd rushed at him and he easily flung her off to the side as she tried to tackle him. Skuld edged in front of Urd and swung her mallet threateningly as the remaining punk advanced on her sister.
"You think you're going to hurt me with that tiny little thing?" the yakuza said with aloof ridicule. In response, Skuld swung low and expertly whacked him on the kneecap with her Mjolnir, surprising everyone in the room.
*Crack!!!*
"EEEAAAYAAAAHH!!!" the goon screamed as he held his kneecap, jumping up and down on one leg. The others laughed while he cursed Skuld. I was too out of breath to laugh, but I managed to gasp, "*Right on, Skuld*!" before getting punched again.
"Why you little...my knee's *broken*!" the unfortunate goon gasped, clearly in agony.
"It looks like she, heh heh, taught you! Now leave them alone! We're not interested in them, we already got the two we came to get," the pinstriped leader said.
"Take them to the car. We're going to take 'em on a one-way trip to Tokyo Bay."
My vision was beginning to fade into a red mist of anger. I felt my knees give as the punk guy hit me in the face three times. I spat up blood. The head yakuza lectured me.
"Do you know how much you've cost me! Sayoko was giving us *ten million* yen a week for our drug operation! And now she's gone somewhere for rehab because of your meddling! And I'm left holding the bag for my boss. He said that *heads will roll* for this!" The punk guy hit me again and I doubled over. He continued lecturing.
"So I thinks to myself...if I bring him the guys who cost him all this yen...then I'll be redeemed. My head won't roll...but yours will instead, hahha cough wheeze!"
There were three guys on me and one standing in front of Keiichi, Urd and Skuld. The big boss man stood in front of me, grinning. I looked and saw that he had his little finger chopped off at the first joint. A hardcore yakuza gangster. A 'middle' boss.
"I'm impressed...that's smalltime stuff. How do you get off saying Sayoko gave you that money when actually you were milking her by extortion? Some tough guys you are, using a girl who's a college senior with rich parents to finance your deals. Feh! You ain't shit!" I looked at Keiichi, wide-eyed as he confronted the boss guy angrily. His words were so brazen with challenge, I thought I was going shit my pants in fear that we were *really* going to get it now. If we were going to get fucked over, Keiichi had made it well worth it by giving me the joy of seeing him railing harsh-on against the boss, whose lips were quivering with rage.
The boss slapped me hard while the guy in front of Keiichi punched him in the stomach and threw him to the ground. The scarface punk punched me down, and then I was curling up into myself, feeling a flurry of blows and kicks...and my dizziness somehow transformed into clarity.
"I should be unconscious..." I thought to myself.
Then I felt an incredible surge of energy.
* * * * * * * *
"You didn't need to hit him! Get the hell out of our house!" I heard Urd and Skuld screaming, angry at the punks for mistreating Keiichi. They were just plain being cruel. Dammit, if they just had their Goddess powers back for five seconds, they'd take these assholes and mop the house with their faces.
"So the mouse can speak, ha ha haha!" they all taunted. I guess I had told one of them, "*eat shit!!!*" but my hearing was uncertain, as my head seemed half deadened by the blows. I was dizzy...but I was also feeling clear...
...and very fucking pissed off.
My nerves felt like barbed wire. All of my fear of a moment earlier had dissipated. It was as if I had suddenly been gripped by some kind of 'second wind' of courage. I felt a rising cascade of enthusiasm and power as I struggled against the hold of the two weightlifter punks.
Seconds later, I noticed that I was loose and the two big goons were on the floor, looking at me with shock. The punk stared at me with a mixture of rage and fear. The wild look in his eyes resembled someone who was about to have a psychotic break.
"Get away from my friends!" I shouted angrily. The fourth guy warily backed away from Keiichi and the two sisters, sensing that he needed to be near his boss instead. The fifth guy was still on the floor, holding his crushed knee.
"Go get'em, Cevn!" I heard Urd shout through cupped hands. I looked at her with a "what the hell?" expression; none of this was making sense. The punk made his decision and pointed his revolver right at my face. He seemed to move in very slow motion. I heard two shrill female screams as I reached out and slapped his gun out of his hand.
"Shit!" Keiichi yelled. The scarface punk that I'd just disarmed looked at me in wide-eyed utter disbelief.
"Damn you, Kenzo, can't you even do this right!" the fat man yelled as he shoved the ponytail thug aside roughly. He reached inside of his tacky pinstripe suit. He had a strap-on gun holster underneath it from which he withdrew a 45 Magnum. He walked up and leveled it at my chest. I heard Skuld scream, "Oh my Lord!"
"So you think you're a tough guy...let's see how you handle this, baby!" he threatened, tightening his finger on the trigger as he ritualistically said "make my day" in poor stilted English.
Without a thought, my hand blurred. I grabbed his gun by the frame and barrel and squeezed it. To my incredulity, it smashed in my hand like a brittle plastic toy and fell onto the floor. The greasy mob boss held only part of the stock handgrip in his hand. He was shaking with surprise and fear as he stared in incredulity back and forth at his hand, then me. I was finished with these guys and their toughman intimidation crap.
"You guys *suck*!" I shouted with ireful distaste. They looked at me with strident disorientation.
I suggested insanity to them; I just spoke from my heart.
"Sayoko is no longer your concern. You will forget that you ever met her. You will forget this place and never, *ever* come back here. You will leave our home and refrain from all criminal activities henceforth...by turning yourselves into the Tokyo Central Police Station. You have hurt me and my friends...you have invaded our house and tainted it with your corruption. You will leave NOW!"
I felt like I was frozen...a statue. Everything turned gray...the last thing I heard was Mini-Banpei-kun whirring somewhere in the room.
* * * * * * * *
Belldandy and Megumi were in the ped-mall shopping for shoes. Bell had invited Megumi to come along and help her pick out some new shoes and a couple outfits for her trip to Shikoku with Keiichi. She had reflected on Keiichi's suggestion...about telling Megumi.
Earlier that day, in the Zebra Girl handbag store, a man shopping for a fifth anniversary present for his wife hit on Megumi. Belldandy couldn't believe it...a *married* man chasing after a college girl!
"This is inconceivable!" she thought. She noticed that her picnic bag had worn out after three years of carrying tea and bento to N.I.T. for lunchtime with Keiichi. Megumi suggested that they check out the World Party shop for a new one.
In the World Party outdoors shop, a salesclerk hit on Megumi while Belldandy was shopping for a new bookbag for the fall semester. At the Curry House fast food restaurant, Bell and Megumi stopped for a couple canned teas. One of the cooks actually left the kitchen line behind the counter to ask for Megumi's phone number.
"Ouch!"
The crackling pain on her foot brought her back to the here and now. The shoe salesman had pinched Belldandy's toes while he was putting a shoe on her foot. She looked at him...and noticed that his eyes were all over Megumi, who was standing next to her. He wasn't paying any attention to the task of putting the shoe on her foot.
"That does it!" Belldandy decided out loud.
"Dear Keiichi, you were right...I have to talk to her," she admitted to herself. The salesman seemed intent on breaking her toes...she could hear her bones popping as he mauled her foot.
"Ouch! Okay, I'll buy it! Just take it off...wait, let *me* take the shoe off," she instructed the bedazzled salesman.
After she bought two pairs of shoes--she just *had* to buy the new style of sandals--Belldandy suggested that the she and Megumi go for some lunch. She had a foreboding sense that something was wrong at the house, but it seemed to pass quickly. She was curious, but her apprehension towards the matter at hand took precedence.
"How do I explain *this* to Megumi?" she wondered.
They chose an Italian-style bistro and sat down. It was a nice enough place for a mall, clean and well-lit. The waiter promptly came and took their order. Belldandy had to repeat her request thrice because the young high school waiter was gawking at Megumi. Finally, Megumi broke his attentive stare by pointing at Belldandy and the waiter took her order.
"What is it with all the men in world lately? Everywhere I go, I seem to hypnotize them...it's as if I was walking around in a see-through blouse or something." Megumi asked Belldandy.
Belldandy smiled innocently at Megumi. She *is* beautiful, Belldandy thought. Even as a woman and a Goddess, she was struck by Megumi's beauty. Her hair was just the right color and her chin was shaped just like Keiichi's, her brown eyes were just like Keiichi's, only a shade lighter, her smile was both innocent and sagacious...
"Belldandy? Don't tell me that I'm distracting you too?"
"Oh, ha heheh! I was just thinking how much you look like your brother," she replied with a blush, withdrawing out of her reverie.
Megumi looked at Belldandy with narrowed eyes.
"Belldandy dear, don't you think that something's...*funny*...about all of this?" Megumi inquired, then rapidly rattled off several points in a lawyer-like fashion.
"One: during the arcade game race, my face got all cut up with glass shards. I come to two days later without a single cut or scar on my body. Two: after which...all the men around me start bugging out. Even my own brother and Cevn! Three: I'm not doing anything different with my clothing or makeup. Ergo, what...*did* you do?"
Belldandy looked at Megumi, trying to formulate an explanation. She smiled innocently across the table.
"You see, your face was severely injured after the race. Urd and Skuld kept you in a state of unconsciousness...just like we did with Cevn with his eye problem. So it fell to me to provide a healing spell to take care of your wounds. Truthfully, a mortal hospital couldn't have possibly healed all the injuries to your face. You would have been hideously scarred for life, Megumi," she explained matter-of-factly. Megumi shuddered when she heard this--she didn't think that her injuries were *that* bad! Belldandy continued, her face blushing, steadily gaining a guilty mien.
"So I thought about how wonderful it was that you did everything possible to save Keiichi. When I saw how hurt you were, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and I decided to make your face more beautiful once I finished healing you," Belldandy finished, looking anxiously across the table at Megumi.
"Ha ha ha haw! That's a good one, Belldandy. Please, just tell me the truth," Megumi said in between chuckles. She didn't believe a word...in fact she thought that Mara had exacted some kind of weird revenge for losing to her in the race.
Belldandy felt awkward, as she had *really* told the truth. She repeated her story, only this time she tried to make it utterly convincing. Megumi looked at her thoughtfully.
"Hmmm. So now you made me more beautiful. Every girl wants to shine...BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" she shouted, turning every face within ten meters in their direction. She noticed this and toned down her voice. She grabbed Belldandy by the hand.
"Y..you don't understand! I feel like the queen bee in a nest of hungry...er...horny drones. It's totally getting on my nerves! I'm actually beginning to dread leaving the house. I get stared at everywhere I go! I'm going nuts!" Megumi was almost in tears as she related the numerous incidences of the past two days. Belldandy listened sympathetically as she related incident after incident of male obsession. It was clear to her that something was wrong.
The waiter arrived with their food. With a distracted grin, he set both plates and drinks in front of Megumi...leaving Belldandy's side of the table empty. Belldandy wanted to confront him about the rude table service, but his silly grin informed her that it would be useless to reason with him.
"See what I mean?" Megumi said with a shrug of her shoulders.
* * * * * * * *
Cevn came out of his unconscious state to find himself sitting against a couch in the living room. The others were talking animatedly. Keiichi was still in shock after seeing what had transpired. At the time of the craziness with the yakuza gangsters, his ribcage throbbed with pain from being kicked; in fact, his whole chest felt raw. But when Cevn had chased out the yakuza, any hint of injury or pain disappeared. Then he saw Cevn *crush* a metal 45mm gun held by the fat old gangster.
He looked at the others. Urd had a big smile on her face and Skuld looked mystified.
"You really told them where to put it!" Urd said proudly to Cevn, noticing he was waking from his trance-like state. Unlike Skuld, she thought the whole conclusion to the 'yakuza incident' was incredibly funny...and unremarkable.
"God, I had no idea they would come *here*," Keiichi said, his curiosity broken momentarily by Urd's remark. His disbelief was suspended by Bell's older sister's nonchalant approach to what just happened.
"What happened? Where's the goons?" Cevn asked.
"You're not going to believe this, but at the end...you chased them off," Keiichi answered. Cevn looked at him with a mystified expression.
"Huh? They left?" Cevn looked at Skuld, whose sober face broke into giggles for a moment.
"Yeah...tee hee. They even apologized to us," Skuld said, giggling at the memory of the five gangsters deeply bowing in humility in front of them.
"The guy whose knee I...haha...clocked with Mjolnir couldn't kneel, so he just sat and bowed. It...heheh...was so weird!"
"What?" Cevn said in amazement.
"I am so sorry, you guys. I'm the one who is responsible for them coming here. I should be the one bowing to you. It's all my fault," he said guiltily. Keiichi stopped in mid-laugh. He wanted to assure Cevn that it wasn't his fault.
"It's okay...but I don't know if *you* are okay, Cevn. You did some really bizarre stuff at the end. You can't remember *anything*?" he asked. Keiichi went on to describe the last few minutes of the 'yakuza invasion'. Cevn dismissed Keiichi's comment about weirdness. His story seemed outrageous as well.
"*Everything* is weird in my life nowadays," he thought. But he did remember some kind of change coming over him right before he blacked out.
"I don't recall very much of what happened. It could be retrograde amnesia...considering how many times I got clocked in the head by those goons. But what worries me is how did they find out that we live here? Someone must have informed them about our intervention on Sayoko."
"I bet they trailed you, just like in those TV shows!" Urd said, as if she was stating the obvious. Skuld could only shake her head at her sister's blaise observation. Keiichi looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I wonder if they *were* trailing Sayoko all along, 'protecting' their cash source? They would have seen her walk downstairs into Watanabe Hall and then watched us as we took her to the airport. They got a good look at all of us, then guessed that it was her teacher, Cevn, who talked her into going."
"That's gotta be it!" Cevn said. "Skuld, why are you looking at me so funny?" he added after seeing the expression on her face. The mirth she projected earlier was now replaced by a querimonic mien.
"Oh...nothing."
At that moment, Belldandy and Megumi came flying into the living room, the embodiment of excitement. The sound of crinkly shopping bags and the aroma of new store-bought goodies brightened the atmosphere of the room.
"Hi guys!" Megumi said cheerily. Belldandy winked at Keiichi...and Keiichi knew in an instant that she had talked to Megumi. "At least this time, I looked at Bell-chan first," he thought with relief, feeling let off the hook. The last few times he had looked at his sister first, drawing a disapproving look from the love of his life.
Belldandy surveyed the room and realized that something had happened. Both Urd and Skuld looked at her insistently.
Belldandy and Megumi, like any good shoppers, wanted to show off the goods they had bought. Urd and Skuld sat by them as they opened shopping boxes.
"Women," Keiichi said to Cevn as everything was put on hold by the female 2/3 of the house. Indeed, all four were engrossed in 'fashion' talk. Even Skuld, much to his surprise.
Megumi had chosen a really nice summer outfit, with a blue and white sleeveless top with a metallic knit design and a matching miniskirt. She also showed them the new summer handbag she bought and the designer denim and leather jacket for fall. Belldandy had bought several skirts, two pairs of shoes, a picnic box and a bookbag.
"Did you tell her?" Urd said, floating alongside Belldandy. Belldandy nodded.
"I told her that I increased her beauty with a special spell."
"What spell did you use, Bell? I can't remember what you did...I was really tired that morning."
"The Aura of Delight Enhancer # 11," she answered Urd. Then she recited the words of the spell to her sisters. Skuld dropped the tool she had in her hands in shock. Belldandy looked at her melodramatic reaction with a face that said, "you're being silly, Skuld!"
"Elder Sister, say that again please?" Belldandy repeated her recitation of the spell at Skuld's request. Skuld raised her finger to make a point.
"You said sanhyaku instead of san-ko!" A silent moment passed as a invisible pause passed like a web between the three. With a hoot, Urd started to laugh maniacally at her sister's mistake, rolling onto the floor and kicking her heels.
"That's *not* funny, Big Sister Urd!" Skuld said in a scolding voice.
"What!!!" a flustered Keiichi said, overhearing the conversation. This mistake was seemingly too obvious for his girlfriend to make.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Megumi asked, red-faced with shock. She was still just barely coming to grips with the fact that Belldandy had altered her appearance...or some invisible attribute that was inexorably linked to her appearance. Discomfort settled on her like a first winter's snowfall settling on stiffened grass.
"What did I do?" Belldandy asked, her interest piqued by the consternation around her.
"You increased her beauty 300 times, not three times! No wonder she's become a 'male vacuum'. It's a miracle that the two men that live in our house haven't ravished her by now!" Urd stated.
"Oh...my!!!" Belldandy said in astonishment, her hand delicately poised over her chin. She looked at Keiichi, who was wringing his hands.
"So...what are you going to *do* about it?" Megumi shouted above the din. "I'm the one stuck with this little 'mistake'!" It was hard for her to be angry at Belldandy because of the her kind-hearted nature. But she was also resentful at the error itself.
"This is just as bad as when Mara changed me into a car!" Megumi near-shouted, accenting her mounting sense of powerlessness and frustration.
"Well, why don't you just recast the # 11 spell on her, sis?" Urd offered...then immediately caught her error. Too late.
"Baka...that would mean that Megumi would have to have a faceful of glass! She said it in during the middle of her healing spell," Skuld replied. Urd stuck her tongue out at Skuld.
Megumi recounted all the mishaps of her and Bell's shopping trip, drawing laughter mixed with surprise at the part where the waiter gave her both orders of food. Keiichi realized that this was very serious, as nothing less than her sister's sanity was at stake.
"Can't you give her some pills to counteract it, Urd?" he suggested.
"So he comes to me, wanting me to fix everything with one of my pills," she said haughtily, teasing him. Keiichi gave her a squinting stinkeye...he was not amused.
"Well, I could always try," she said as she bounded off to her "Urd's Castle" room.
Skuld pulled at Belldandy's skirt, indicating that she wanted to talk in private. The two smiled and left. Cevn went back to his "Cevn's Studio", very uncomfortable about what Keiichi had related about the confrontation with the yakuza. Left alone in the living room, Megumi turned to look at Keiichi, her face knit with frustration.
"I can't believe she's *your girlfriend*! Look what she's *done* to me!"
"Uhhh, what, Megumi?"
"Keiichi, stop staring at me like that! Keiichiii! Stop staring!!!"
* * * * * * * *
In the sister's bedroom, Skuld excitedly narrated everything that had occurred during with the yakuza visit. Belldandy was very uneasy when she heard that mortal thugs had visited while she and Megumi were gone. Then she raised an eyebrow when Skuld mentioned about how Cevn had crushed a metal gun and then *ordered* the men to leave.
"They just sat and listened to what he told them to do, then they just...did it. I've never seen anything like it since I've been here on the Earthrealm! Ever! Right after he finished telling them off, he simply fell down on the floor. It was like he was controlling them like Bunraku puppets. They even begged our forgiveness...they were groveling on the floor, Elder Sister!" she said, putting a gloved hand to her cheek as she giggled.
"What is it with Cevn? Another unusual incident...I wonder if the Lord knows about this one? He certainly is an enigma, isn't he, Skuld," she commented, at a loss for words.
"It's more than that, Belldandy." Skuld said as she readied herself to tell Belldandy the *big* shocker.
"My Shinseisensor Mk II was on when those bad guys were here. I was just toying with it...but right when Cevn seemed to change, I glanced at it. It was off the scale for God *and* Demon powers!" she said. Belldandy let *that* one sink in, silently looking at Skuld.
"What does that mean, Skuld?"
"Here...look," she said as she turned on the handheld mecha. "Each scale measures divine power. A mortal is under .0001. You measure .4 at the moment. If you broke open your seal, you would measure around 400. The scale goes up to 10000. Theoretically, Kami-sama measures 8000. We've been told that His power is twenty times that of an unsealed First Class Unrestricted Licensee."
"And Cevn...he was off the scale?"
"Yep...the display maxed out *past* 10000!"
Belldandy looked tenderly at her sister. She didn't want to inform her younger sister that one of her mechas wasn't working like it should. Every time she had done this, the sensitive Skuld had pouted angrily; sometimes isolating away for decades somewhere in Yggdrasil.
"But there *must* be a mistake," she convinced herself, feeling resolved at the impossibility that Skuld had described.
"Skuld, you should check it out and see if...it recorded accurately. Maybe it was...shook up by all the craziness this afternoon with our unwanted guests," she said diplomatically. Skuld frowned at her elder sister's attempt to tell her that her Shinseisensor Mk II was wrong.
"If it didn't work, it wouldn't be measuring *your* powers right now. But it is...therefore it *works*!" Skuld argued. Urd walked in the room and Skuld pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at her. It registered .008.
"Hey, isn't that a little low for an Earth Spirit Grade? Shouldn't Urd have one twentieth of my resting powers?" Belldandy asked.
"Huh, lemme see that!" Urd said, looking with interest at the measuring device. After Skuld explained it to her, she commented; "That toy of yours must be messed up. I *have* more power than that thing says," she exclaimed. Proudly shaking her head, she tousled her hair.
Skuld scrunched up her face.
"No you don't Urd! You couldn't even do anything today when those mean guys came by!" Skuld retorted angrily. By degrees, her angry face softened with the sad realization that her sisters just didn't believe her. Then a circuit switched on in her heart; the circuit that responded whenever Skuld was confronted with too much criticism.
"Waaaah! You *both* think it's broken! You *both* think it doesn't work! No one understands all the hard work that goes into my inventions! After all, they *are* inventions...nobody's thought of them before!" Her pride was dashed by Urd's callous remarks about her divine power sensor, coupled with Belldandy's comment about how it might "have been shook up."
Belldandy looked at Urd with accusing eyes, her face ruefully saying "now you've done it!" Urd rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders as Skuld scampered out of the room tearfully.
* * * * * * * *
Urd looked at her sister with a serious expression. A silent air of resentment passed between her and Bell. She didn't *mean* to get Skuld all riled up; but the look on Belldandy's face made it clear to her that, in Bell's mind, she was thinking that Urd had screwed up again.
"Belldandy, my powers are almost gone!" she finally said, breaking the staredown between her and her younger sister.
"Urd, you go and upset Skuld like that...then you come to me and complain that your powers are almost gone. Have you no sympathy for your little sister?"
"I do! I really do. But when those uglies came here, they beat up Keiichi and pulled a gun on Cevn. I tried to call on some lightning to zap the guy with the gun. *Nothing* happened."
Belldandy grew red in the face at the mention of Keiichi getting beaten up. Urd saw her sister's wrathful mien and cringed, thinking she was the source of Belldandy's ire.
"Skuld didn't tell me that. Neither did Keiichi," Belldandy said angrily, light around her fingertips deforming to a shade of electric blue.
"Bell, it's been taken care of. They'll never come here again!"
"How could they do that to Keiichi?" she said, her resolute anger diminishing only slightly.
"They're jerks. Human scumbags. They actually called Skuld a 'cute little girl' and they threatened me. The ugly fat guy who was their boss wanted me to become a...a...prostitute, of all things." She grew angry at the remembrance of the fat gangster.
Belldandy relaxed a little. Smiling faintly, she imagined Skuld's reaction. One of the things Skuld hated most in the known universe was to be called a "kid." Her face remained stern at the idea of someone invading her house.
"But Keiichi stood up for all of us! I didn't think he had it in him!" she added, still reeling from her inability to thwart their encounter with the dark side of human nature.
"You just don't know my Keiichi very well. *I* know that he's brave and sincere. But..how is it that Keiichi isn't hurt?" she asked Urd.
"Somehow, when Cevn confronted them and they left, all of his pain left too," Urd guessed. It was the only plausible explanation. Urd glanced at her two hands as she splayed her fingers wide.
"But what about my powers? They are only a part of what they should be. Hmmm....Skuld's mecha could be right. After all, I wasn't able to conjure up any lightning earlier..." Urd thought out loud. She abruptly dashed out of the room before Belldandy could get a word in edgewise.
"She's *so* impulsive," Belldandy thought, still wanting to find out more about the chaos that ensued earlier in the day. Of course, that didn't matter to Urd; Bell's curiosity seldom stood in the way of one of Urd's hair-brained schemes.
Urd slid open Skuld's door and saw the youngest Goddess sitting on a futon, crying into a pillow.
"Snfff, don't bother me, leave me alone!" she stated, not even looking up in reaction to the intrusion.
"Skuld I'm sorry. I think your device *works*. But I need you to try it once more on Bell and me...and the mortals," Urd said in a rapid-fire diction. Skuld only heard the "I'm sorry" part...she slowly stood up and pointed her finger at Urd with righteous anger.
"You *better* be sorry! My Shinseisensor Mk II was able to detect Mara's aura before. It's the only device of its kind that can detect Demons, Gods and Mortals," she proudly said as she stroked the lines of the handheld sensor lovingly.
"Okay okay okay! Let's get a move on, Skuld!"
They stopped in front of the sister's bedroom and pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at Keiichi and Megumi, who were arguing in the living room. It registered .00009 for both of them.
Skuld tossed it to Urd and said, "Here, you measure me."
Urd tried to find the 'on' button, then pressed it and pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II square on Skuld's chest. The digital display read .005. Urd gulped as she realized that her first reading was so low that it was almost at Skuld's level--a Skuld with no powers due to her license revocation.
"I'll do you!" Skuld said as she grabbed the Shinseisensor Mk II deftly from Urd. She scanned Urd and the display read .008. Urd looked sad as she noticed there was no increase in her powers.
They both rushed into their bedroom excitedly. Belldandy noticed that Urd and Skuld were not fighting, much to her surprise. Then Skuld waved her Shinseisensor Mk II in front of Belldandy. Her power reading was .4, the same as before.
"Hey, I got an idea! Let's summon the Ninjettes. They're of supernatural origin...so if your mecha works, Skuld, it would read them as different than any of us or the mortals."
Things were happening too fast for Belldandy. Skuld seemed intent on proving her Shinseisensor Mk II. Bell shrugged and used the silent signal she carried on one of her bracelets to summon the three.
* * * * * * * *
"Yes, Mistress!" Kodama said two seconds later. The three Goddesses were surprised. It was as if the Ninjettes appeared out of thin air...no one saw them enter the bedroom.
"How can we serve you?" Hikari said.
"We need to scan you with this," Skuld said intently as she brandished the Shinseisensor Mk II. Senrigan looked at it warily.
"Is that a new kind of weapon? If it is, it looks totally inconspicuous," Senrigan observed. Skuld rolled her eyes as she explained that it wasn't a weapon.
Skuld scanned the three. The display read .002, roughly twenty times that of the mortals. She reflected for a moment, then concluded that it was just about right for the Ninjettes.
The three Ninja girls remained. Belldandy noticed that Kodama seemed uncomfortable about something. She was shuffling around, but not moving, her hands held behind her back. Normally, they would have left as soon as their task with Skuld was finished.
"Something's wrong here," Belldandy worriedly noted. The other two Ninjettes were also fidgeting.
"M..Mistress, we have a boon to ask of you," Kodama said, as if she had anticipated Belldandy's question.
"I thought you already had some kind of those smoky ninja grenades for that," Belldandy replied as Skuld made a face.
"A boon! They said a boon! That means they want you to do a big favor for them," Urd said, turning to her sister and yelling.
"Ohhhhh...that's so sweet. What can I do for you, Kodama?"
"Well, we...we've been alone for the past year here, mistress."
"Not really, you have all of us and Banpei for company," Skuld said cheerily, setting down her Shinseisensor Mk II to listen. Urd sighed at her younger sister's naivety...she immediately knew what Kodama meant by "alone". Skuld was just too young to pick up on such womanly topics of discussion.
"This is embarrassing to say...but we have no mates. In all of Japan, there are no men like us."
"Maybe Megumi could find some...her being a guy magnet and all," Urd suggested flippantly. "So, they want to have boyfriends," she thought. "This could be *very* interesting!"
"Urd, that was rude!" Belldandy interrupted as Kodama continued. "We talked to Cevn and he told us that we should...ask you to..." Kodama held her arm up over her face so that her sleeve concealed her feelings of shame. This was a serious breach of giri...she was embarrassed that her heart had dominated her feelings so strongly that she was actually going to ask her Mistress to do something for *her*. To Kodama, this was a complete reversal of the Ninja bushido...the code of honor that dictated that she should serve her master, not the other way around. She sighed, clenched her teeth, and said it.
"That we should ask you to find us some male ninjas or create them the way evil Mara created us," she asked in a shaky voice.
After a brief pause, the three girls broke into animated descriptions about how lonely they were and how much they wanted male companionship. Skuld reacted to this with indifference, while Belldandy listened intently. Urd, however, was reduced to tears when she heard their plaints. She knew all too well the effects of "impossible loneliness"...their situation struck her to the quick.
Belldandy raised a blanket to her eyes as she also succumbed to tears. Finally the romantically imperturbable Skuld started crying too. Even she could recognize a woman's loneliness.
"Those three really like to talk," Urd noted as they continued describing how their martial exploits which would be more challenging, more complete with male ninja.
"If we make some men for you, you'll be marital artists instead of martial artists," Urd said.
"I want mine to look like Mifune Toshiro!" Kodama exclaimed.
Belldandy decided in her mind to help them. With Megumi's situation, her upcoming vacation with Keiichi and who knows whatever else, she would be too busy to do anything before they left. She looked at the three, then assumed the dignity appropriate to a Lady of the House.
"Kodama, Hikari, Senrigan. I have decided to grant your boon. I cannot do it until Keiichi and I arrive back from our...mission to the south. So you must continue to bravely defend our house. Especially during our upcoming 'mission'."
"Speaking of defending our house, where were you guys about two hours ago?" Urd asked.
"We were training in the hills."
"Well, we could have used you...mmmph!" Belldandy put a hand over Urd's mouth and dismissed the three girls before Urd could tell them about the gangster problem they had earlier.
"What'd you do that for, sis? They are supposed to defend our house, aren't they?"
"Yes, Urd, but did..." Belldandy started to say.
"Of course you didn't see how guilty they felt about asking Elder Sister for help. Just think how totally wrecked they would feel if they knew that those big ugly creeps came by while they were gone!" Skuld said excitedly.
"And what if they would have been *here*? Those sickening men would have been filleted like fresh trout!" With this, the three Goddesses argued for a half hour about the hows-and-whys of granting the Ninjette's request.
"But what about my lost powers?" Urd broke in, redirected the debate.
"What about them? You're more trouble with them than without them!" Skuld said sharply.
"And *who* stood in front of you to defend you against those bad men earlier today?" Urd sharply chastised her sister. This took the wind out of the counter that Skuld was preparing. Skuld looked at Urd, suddenly ashamed of her fighting attitude towards her eldest sibling.
"I know how we can find out about your waning powers," Belldandy said with a finger pointing up at the sky.
"We should call Yggdrasil and find out. They would know. At least Peorth would know."
Skuld and Urd nodded their heads at this. They retired to the dining room while Belldandy dialed the GRO number. Skuld of course didn't want to go anywhere near a phone after her recent experience with the Almighty and her license suspension.
"Hello, Goddess...zzzzzt...Relief Office."
"Peorth! How are things up there in Yggdrasil?"
"Belldandy! Why are you...zzzt...hear from you. It's total chaos up here!" Belldandy could hear the rapidfire shouting of consternated voices in the background.
"A short while ago, we had a series of blackouts. All the power from Yggdrasil simply...zzzzt...on and off for a few moments. It's back on now, barely. But *everything* is off-line. I'm surprised the phone works! The computer system...zzzt...down, so you guys will have...zzzt...conserve your power. We don't...zzzt...know when the Mainframe Sysops will be able to reboot it. Even Kami-sama's floating chair...zzzt...it's *all* crashed!"
Belldandy staggered backwards with this news and crumpled to a seated position on the floor. Skuld and Urd looked at her with anxious faces bordering on panic. Seeing their sister react so strongly...they expected some really bad news.
"We have no idea what happened, something...bzzt...draining power...zzzztzzzzt"
"Peorth! Peorth!" Belldandy shouted into the phone. The line was dead.
Looking at her sisters, Belldandy tried to explain what Peorth had told her. Urd and Skuld reacted with disbelief when Belldandy told them about the blackout.
"That's...incredible. Do you think that was another one of Peorth's lies?" Urd finally said after the shock wore off.
"No. I could hear all sorts of yelling in the background. The line kept going out. They were shouting about Yggdrasil being off-line."
"Oh no...not those *moon bracelets* again!" Urd said, her voice tinged with misery.
* * * * * * * *
We saw Keiichi and Belldandy off with fanfare this beautiful Saturday morning. It was Tanabata...the festival days of mid-summer. This was obviously going to be a big chapter in their lives. Despite all of the changes, this would be the first time that they would be alone, just the two of them for two whole weeks. I felt happy for both my friends. Tanabata was indeed an auspicious time to go. Based on the ancient Chinese legend, Tanabata was traditionally the one time during the year where two lovers could meet. A mid-summer's night dream for the romantically inclined. Tanabata honored the myth of the Weaver Maiden and the Shepherd Boy; lovers who were doomed to be apart except for one day in the year...where they would use the Milky Way as a sort of 'star-bridge' and see each other. It was an Asian version of the Persephone/Calliope legend.
Keiichi informed me that Tanabata, besides being a big summer festival holiday, was something of the equivalent of Valentine's Day. It was a holiday for lovers in Japan.
Last night, Urd announced that she had concocted pills for Megumi that would counteract the 'beauty spell' that Belldandy had put her under. All good intentions aside, Megumi received the news with relief. The past two days, she had been a virtual shut-in in the house, after receiving dozens of "goddess of love" letters from men she had briefly met on the street. Urd informed us that she had tried the pills on herself...with the result that she couldn't stand to look at herself in the mirror for more than a glance without being repulsed. We all laughed at her description of the self-test.
Genji was going to move in with us the week after Sayoko went to treatment in Okinawa, but due to the recent events, Megumi had thought it wise that he remain at his parent's house until she got 'better'. She had reluctantly called him after her recovery from the facial injuries, inventing the fiction that she had a case of the summer flu and needed to rest up. After I left for China, he would use my room...Sayoko would be back before I returned if she completed her treatment as scheduled.
Megumi took two pills and asked the resident male observers--Keiichi and myself--to see if Urd's potion made a difference. I had been avoiding Megumi out of sheer desperation...every time I saw her, I would develop an instant attraction to her and then my abuse issues would kick in and send everything into an insane frenzy. Keiichi had it equally bad...he already had a girlfriend; so whenever he saw Megumi, he had to fight to avoid forgetting Belldandy...who would shoot him a look of displeasure when he ignored her due to Megumi's influence. To make matters worse, Urd used Megumi's 'hyper beauty' as an excuse to play all sorts of pranks on Keiichi and I. We both decided that we were going to gang up on Urd and totally humiliate her after this all blew over.
Anyway, last night I saw a complete change come over Megumi. She was still a beautiful young woman, but I didn't feel the fanatic need to absorb myself in her. Urd's medicine was working...thank God.
In the present moment, I felt a sad stirring in my heart. Keiichi and Belldandy had grown to be my fond friends over the past several months I had lived here in Japan. I was going to China in a few days, so this was the last time I would see them for a while. I had bought both of them several presents for their vacation, a clumsy attempt to say "thank you".
"Thanks, Cevn," Keiichi said as he unwrapped the package and examined the electronic compass. I had found it in an electronics store: it was a clock, radio, mini-TV, weather forecaster, satellite geo-locator, radar sensor and several other things. Belldandy smiled as she opened up her present...a white novelty jacket with a stylized Kobo Daishi on the back. I had bought a matching jacket for Keiichi as well. I also grabbed them some imported incense for the hotel rooms and outdoors, which required some explaining as Keiichi didn't understand the concept of aromatic incense.
They gave me a gift as well. Belldandy had knitted a red scarf with a picture of Tiananmen on it. Keiichi looked at me and snickered as I beheld the scarf with a mixed expression. It was very nicely knit, but the 34-degree heat reminded me that it wasn't necessary. It would even be hotter in Beijing.
"A winter scarf in the summer?" I asked. She told me that it was a scarf that would keep me cool at night, working in the opposite manner from a real scarf. I tried it on and felt immediate relief from the heat. Then everyone had to try it on to examine its effect. Keiichi gave me a new camera to take pictures. He had noticed that the camera I had bought when I first came to Makuhari was defective...it had a hairline crack in the lens.
We cheerfully said our goodbyes at the Chiba Minato station as they boarded the Keiyo railcar. Megumi drove us back to Makuhari. The rest of the weekend for me would mean packing and confirming travel arrangements. Monday, I would meet with Dr. Ogawa for a final session before leaving Tuesday for Beijing.
* * * * * * * *
"Are you excited about your trip to China? I know I would be, if I were in your place," Dr. Ogawa said to me.
"Yes, it's the third time I've been there to study. I really liked it the first time I studied at BeiDa."
"Hmm...how do you think you'll handle your depression there? You've told me that you were depressed several times in the past few weeks and a little bit around the weekend."
"Yes...I just felt bad that my two roommates were going off on a vacation. I'm going to miss them. I was also a little envious of their loving relationship. Sometimes, despite my happiness for them...it reminds me just how lonely I am. See, here they are going to Shikoku with each other while I'm going to China by myself," I replied, feeling bittersweet.
"Do you think you'll meet anyone there? I mean, meet a woman?"
"I don't plan on it. I have to finish a dissertation and defend it...in Chinese. Not to mention establishing the reciprocity agreement between N.I.T. and BeiDa. You know how hard a dissertation is, Dr. Ogawa." I noticed a lack of empathy on her face regarding the rigors of completing and defending a dissertation.
"How have you been coping with the loneliness, lately?"
"It's utterly hopeless. I am convinced that I will never fall in love again. Or at least to the degree I did with my ex-wife."
"We've talked about you and her. I've known many people that have lost a spouse and have recovered their romantic life, after a period of grief. You lost her nine years ago...isn't it time you stopped grieving?"
"Dr. Ogawa, I don't think anyone ever moves beyond grieving that kind of loss. Besides, I've still have all these sexual abuse issues, not to mention so many other pressures."
"So what? Why won't you let go of her?"
"Because she is the only woman I ever truly loved. You have to see it from my perspective...I had never been in a relationship before. I was in early recovery and I had begun to address the pain of my abuse. Then, by some miracle, I was able to let her in...or maybe she forced her way in; I could never figure that one out. I used to think to myself that love is some kind of incredible coincidence...I mean here we were moving in random directions. Somehow our lives intersected out of the millions of possible choices. Then we were able to deal with the changes. I meet many people everyday, but not *the one*. Then I met her. She was the one.
"She was the kind of woman I would drop everything for, go fetch a banana split at a moment's notice...and if she didn't like it, I would apologize and go back to get her the chocolate croissant she really wanted. And I wouldn't regret making the second trip at all."
"So you don't think there's another 'one'?" Dr. Ogawa asked.
The memories came back to me in a flood. All the good times. The many times I wanted to talk to her about my abuse...and when I summoned my courage and told her, she *still stayed with me*. Watching the sunset side by side. Pillow fights. Getting married. It was truly a happy period in my life. But it ended horribly.
Dr. Ogawa saw the tears in my eyes and asked what was causing me so much pain.
"At the end...she stopped talking to me. Our sex life was nonexistent; she kept going out late at night while I was studying hard in school. She stopped attending recovery meetings...she didn't do anything about her own addiction. I pleaded with her to work on herself. Then I found out she was seeing another man. Actually, several other men. I was crushed. But then it got worse. The next week I found a needle, spoon and drugs in our apartment. It was if my whole life was a fresh, crisp sheet of paper at that point--then this one event crumpled it.
"I knew that she was gone...that she was lost to me. The only woman I could ever truly love. Taken away by her own drug addiction. And I couldn't do a thing. So I moved out and buried myself in school to avoid the pain. A few months later, I got a call from her parents. She had died of a heroin overdose.
"Her parents actually *blamed me* for their daughter's death. I couldn't even go to the funeral, I was so upset. It was as if I had searched through the entire Gobi desert for a single delicate bloom. Then I found a beautiful flower...and while I soaked my eyes in its beauty and aroma, someone poured gasoline over it and set it aflame. I...snfff...watched it burn into cinders right before my own eyes. It...killed a part of me," I said, gasping and choking on my tears.
Dr. Ogawa was crying, her hand held over her face.
"So you see, Dr. Ogawa...that's it. I'm screwed. I grew up with such traumatic abuse in my childhood that it causes me to repress all my feelings towards women...towards love. I developed a cold, hardened heart while I was actively using drugs. Then I get clean, and somehow I met a wonderful woman. My one chance at being in love. I finally break through all the pain and fear and say that I'm in love with her...and through another miracle, she is able to stay with me despite all my pain. Then the woman I fall in love with relapses and dies. So I'm left with no love, no heart, no hope and all this pain. End of story. When I think of ever loving another woman, I only feel dead on the inside. My heart is dead!"
"That's horrible!" she sniffled out between sobs.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm sick and tired of hearing 'oh, how terrible' from everyone! No wonder I'm depressed...why can't anything help? I'm scared of women...actually *scared*. I live in a house with several women; I have an incredibly difficult time trying to simply be their friend. My head is filled with anxiety and paranoia. Yet they like me. The youngest one views me as an older brother figure sometimes. The rambunctious older sister actually apologized to me one day. I *know* they like me. One of them knitted me something to take to China with me. But I just can't accept my life this way...I can't go on like this!"
I looked up and saw a shimmering effect in the office, like the kind that occurs on a flat surface in the summer. Dr. Ogawa and the air around her seemed to deform; the wrinkles smoothing out into her face, her eyes becoming brighter and her hair filling out and growing long. She was shedding years before my eyes...and beginning to resemble someone I knew...
I stared wordlessly at the person sitting in front of me in Dr. Ogawa's chair. I couldn't believe what had just happened.
"WHAT THE F...!"
* * * * * * * *
Urd had found the abandoned office months ago. She created some furniture based on the doctor's offices she saw on her soaps. Then she put up the storefront ad, hoping that Cevn would see it and respond. No one else would, she guessed. From what little she knew of him from his life in Hawaii, she was able to determine that he was depressed, had lived through lots of trauma and was in need of someone to confide in. He had told her so much, back in Hawaii when she first met him and once again when he newly arrived in Japan.
She was actually surprised when he showed up in her office. Posing as an elderly gaijin woman, she would appear completely innocuous. He wouldn't suspect a thing. Not to mention that this would make him feel more comfortable to talk about himself. It was thrilling, offering her an almost seductive-like excitement. Drawing him in. Making him comfortable enough to disclose his past. Learning about all his secrets. Without him knowing who he was *really* talking with.
Urd was definitely interested in finding out what made this guy tick. The part of her that relished human drama was totally engaged in this diversion. Besides, she wanted to find out *why he was afraid of being attracted to women*. The way he reacted to her the first day she met him was incredible--absolutely bizarre. Morbid curiosity compelled her to find out why. What was his secret?
And when he started talking about those secrets, Urd felt something inside of her change. She remembered the first time he told her about the abuse in detail. Urd found herself choking back tears. Her heartstrings were not only pulled, they were yanked. Then it got more intense. He told her about living alone on the streets at *Skuld's* age with no one to protect him or care for him. It was utterly unbelievable. One night, he spent over five hours taking her along into the depths of the deep pain he felt in his life. Urd found herself wanting to shut up her ears...she couldn't stand hearing what he was describing. Her heart felt like it almost pounded out of her chest that night.
She felt sympathy for him...and something else. He was so strong, yet so fragile. He was a good-looking guy--in fact, he looked years younger than his 29 years of age. But inside, despite the pain, he was so *good*. Urd felt an unspoken but deep admiration for him.
Urd was no longer motivated by the desire to probe his secrets...he had willingly exposed them to her view. She felt an emerging feeling that she herself had repressed for eons. As he continued meeting with her, Urd began to feel a strong desire to help him conquer his fears and his pain. Perhaps this was why Kami-sama had assigned Cevn to her.
It amazed her to see both sides of him. Cevn could be one way at home, while here in the place where he laid bare his soul...it didn't seem conceivable that he was the same person she knew back at the compound. The night she stood with him on the porch in the rain, she decided that she had to try and understand him, not out of curiosity, but out of caring.
Urd began to feel a sisterly love for him. Maybe even more...she just didn't know. She sensed a growing empathy with him. Like her, his chances of finding love were dashed. But unlike her, he was able to create so much good around him and not even recognize it.
Then there was the weird stuff. The Enigma Book and his ability to read the God's *and* the Demon's Language. She was speechless with shock the first night she heard the God's Music coming from the studio of instruments he had set up in their house. His ability to resist Mara's possession *twice*. Standing up to the Almighty and confronting Him about Skuld's license suspension. Now, just a few days ago, if what Skuld had said was true, then he may well be the most powerful being in the universe. It was inconceivable. All of this...the result of one phone call...one assignment from the Goddess Relief Office.
An assignment that should have been agented by a GRO Goddess...but instead was directed to her!
She remembered his wish...the wish for balance and serenity...and then how that wish seemed to flower in their lives. He was going to *give away* the God's Music, instead of making a fortune on it. He had several times exhibited a dogged selflessness in the face of adversity. Urd *knew* that he belonged there, in Makuhari, as part of their family. Because of Cevn, Skuld was no longer a wedge between Belldandy and Keiichi. What was most perplexing to Urd was the fact that Cevn didn't set out to try and change anything between Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld. The simple fact of his presence in their lives had done this...
And now today...Urd had heard the crushing bitterness in his voice as he related how he lost his first wife. She *died*! Urd remembered Belldandy's scream of pain when she thought Keiichi had died. Her stomach knotted when she realized that Cevn had actually *lived* through that kind of loss...the loss of the love of his life.
Urd felt an explosion of deep pain when she witnessed the despair he felt. She knew now, that her heart and his were in some ways...parallel.
Then to her shock, her powers faded completely. As Peorth had warned, her power had run out...and she was no longer able to maintain her disguise. With a fearful helplessness, she could only watch as she resumed her natural form. She knew what he would think, but she had to look at him once more. She saw cruel shock and betrayal register on his face...and felt a crushing feeling in her chest as she realized that she had caused it. It was her fault. She'd screwed up again.
* * * * * * * *
"URD, WHAT THE F...!"
"W..WHY???" he screamed in a voice wracked with anguish. Cevn got up out of his chair and backed away from her. Momentarily speechless, Urd got up and went after him, not knowing what else to do. She was filled with shame.
"I...I can explain! I didn't mean it! I didn't want it to turn out this way. I only wanted to help! I wanted to help you...you have so much..." she cried out.
"So much what?...so much pain...so that you can take a morbid interest in? So much abuse...so that you can experience it vicariously? So much wasted potential? Wanted to find out how a mortal loser ticks?"
"No, no no no! Cevn, you have to try to understand..."
Cevn wheeled on her.
"Understand what? Do you have any idea of what you've done! You have utterly destroyed me. If I didn't care about you and the rest, it would be no big deal. But I *do* care. And now any trust that I have in you...is *gone*. It's as gone as a piece of glass dashed into a running train. How can I trust any of you now? Why should I? For all I know, you could have been telling them everything I've told you here."
"I wouldn't ever do a thing like that to you!"
"Yeah, like I'd believe that after you did *this*. I shared my deepest pain and hardship...with you. I came here because I need help. I desperately need help. Instead of getting any help...you betrayed me completely. You've ruined any chance I have of being friends with the others. Why in God's name did you do this? I don't ever, EVER want to see you again. I'm moving out of the house tonight. I can't live with you or any of my friends any more. You...I can't even think of what to say. I'm totally disappointed in you, Urd!"
"NOOOO! Don't leave me. Don't leave us!" Urd shrieked. She tried to grab Cevn from behind as he kicked open the office door with a crash. He pushed her away firmly; she fell back against the wall softly.
"CEVNNN! NO!" she cried out. "You can't walk out on me, on all the people that care about you."
"*Nobody* cares about me. I'm already dead to the world. If what you did is 'caring', I don't want it! Urd, I promise you this...you will never, ever see me again. None of you will."
He started down the hallway as Urd grabbed him around the waist with a desperate grip. With forced steps, he dragged her as she clung on to him futilely.
"It was a mistake. A mistake! Please understand, it was a mistake! I just wanted to know...to help," she shouted over and over. Cevn reached down and pried her fingers loose from his waist. He turned to face Urd, seeing her slumped on the floor in the hallway.
"People don't care about how much you know...they want to know about how much you care."
He slammed the hallway door shut as Urd collapsed to the floor, her face in her hands. Reality was brutal, caving in her usual self-confidence.
"I didn't mean to hurt you..." she said weakly, over and over, long after the wooden floor stopped sounding his footsteps.
* * * * * * * *
Megumi was listening to some music in the living room when Cevn walked in. After the kinetically-charged events of the past week, all she wanted was some down time. The house seemed to be strange without Belldandy and Keiichi brightening it with their love. She was so excited about Genji's coming to stay with them during the summer. A little while ago, Skuld had come out her 'Skuld Lab's' room to argue with her about whether the skyscrapers in Shinjuku could withstand an 8.0 Richter Scale earthquake.
"Where did *that* idea come from," Megumi wondered. The argument was friendly, but fraught with technical jargon and theory. At times, she was grateful to have Skuld to argue with...it helped to keep her mind's edge sharp. She noticed Cevn enter the house and decided to enjoin him in their little discussion/argument.
"Hey Cevn, Skuld and I were wondering what would happen if Tokyo got hit by an earthquake? What do you think?" He walked right past them without even acknowledging their presence. Skuld and Megumi exchanged a startled glance.
Megumi was instantly worried. Cevn seemed very upset about something. It felt as if a dark storm had entered the house in the form of a human being. They went to his room and heard the sounds of drawers opening and closing. She opened his shoji door a crack and peeked inside. Skuld was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder.
"What's the matter with Cevn?" Skuld asked.
Megumi couldn't answer...she was too upset at what she saw.
Cevn was packing.
* * * * * * * *
Megumi and Skuld held each other and cried after he left. Skuld was devastated. Cevn had never said a word to either of them the whole time. He just ignored them as if he didn't even know them. What really got to Megumi was his face. He was pale with shock and his eyes lidded with pain. He was shut down...completely shut down. Except for the tears wetting his cheeks.
They both stood in the doorway to his room as he filled his suitcase with random piles of clothes. She asked him repeatedly if she could help him, what was the matter, what was he doing? After he finished packing, he refused to answer her when she asked him where he was going. He wouldn't even look at Megumi or Skuld as he walked by them.
"You're not leaving until you tell us what is the matter, Cevn!" Megumi said as she stood in front of the living room door to block his exit. He simply turned around walked out through the sunroom door instead. Megumi shook with sobs as she watched him walk down the street and disappear into the night.
"Is...is he never going to come back?" Skuld asked.
"I don't know, Skuld," she answered between sobs.
"Where is Urd?" she wondered. "Why isn't she here...her little sister is going to lose it. *I'm* going to lose it..."
She walked back into the house, emotionally shocked to the hilt. Skuld kept to her like a shadow, anxiously stroking her long black hair. Megumi sat down on the couch and tried to pull herself together. Her mind raced as she considered the options. Missing persons report. Call the police. Find Urd and see if she knew anything. Look in his room to see if there was anything to be learned. Call N.I.T. to see if he had gotten in trouble there. Call Keiichi.
She stood up and went into the dining room and pulled down the itinerary Keiichi had left.
"Hmm, third night...that would place them in Osaka if they kept to their plan," she said to herself.
* * * * * * * *
Keiichi was sitting on the hotel bed playing mahjongg with Bell-chan. Megumi had given them a beautiful mahjongg set before they left and Keiichi was enjoying teaching Belldandy how to play. He knew that she could beat him in an instant if she wanted to, but long ago she had promised not to use her divine powers to manipulate any games, after that insane Life Sugoroku incident with Urd.
He looked out the window and saw the city lights of Osaka stretching towards the horizon. They had rented a room almost at the top of the hotel. The lights seemed out of place in comparison to the sites they visited earlier.
They had toured Osaka castle, as well as the Sumiyoshi Shrine and the Shitenno-ji Temple. All three were layered with the heaviness of history. Occasionally, Belldandy would relate some little known anecdote from the historical past, puzzling the tour guide while intriguing their tour group. But late in the afternoon, Keiichi's feet began to demand his attention...they were feeling a little sore from all the walking.
The previous night after arriving from Tokyo, they had gone dancing at Luna, a huge dance club in downtown Osaka with several live bands on venue. The disco was packed with salarymen and OLs. The office ladies all looked very animated in the midst of the dance club with their brightly revealing designer clothes; Belldandy seemed to know all of the name brands, pointing them out to Keiichi excitedly. They sat in a booth after dancing themselves sweaty and played a guessing game; which OL would go home with which salaryman. They danced almost until closing time, then walked back to the hotel. Hence his sore feet this evening.
Keiichi returned his attention to the game board. From their hotel room in the Dotombori district, they could see the beautiful lights of the advertisements reflecting off of the canal and the other tall buildings. It was a lovely urban landscape.
Keiichi was tossing down a set of tiles when the phone rang. He looked at Belldandy with a faceful of curiosity. She shook her head, indicating that she didn't order room service.
"Hello" he said.
"Keiichi..." was all he heard before Megumi broke down into sobs.
"Megumi, are you all right?" he said, suddenly forgetting about mahjongg. His little sister was brokenhearted about something...he could tell by the unsteady waver in her voice.
"She's *really* upset... Oh no, not Mom or Dad!" he thought with dire panic.
Belldandy saw Keiichi's expression change the moment he picked up the phone. In an instant, she was standing next to him, stroking his hair.
"Keiichi...Cevn just moved out...snfff...he just packed his bags and left without a word."
"Wha..what? He left? He moved out? Where's Skuld and Urd?"
Belldandy grabbed him lightly on the shoulders and relaxed his tension as he gasped loudly. Her eyebrows pulled down as she listened.
"Skuld's right here with me. She's very upset. Urd hasn't come home yet from wherever she is," the emotion swelled voice said through the phone. Keiichi thought it was extremely odd that Urd was out by herself; especially since Skuld was at home. He had noted that she seemed to be gone between 4 and 7 p.m. every Monday. This was a Monday, so maybe she would be home soon.
"Keiichi...you don't think *we* did anything to make him want to leave?" Megumi asked.
"No...no way! He really likes living with all of us. Something dreadful must have happened to make him pack up and leave. Are *you* going to be all right, sis?"
There was a brief pause.
"Yeah...as good as I can be under the circumstances. Thanks for asking, Keiichi! I'm really worried about Skuld...she's taking this really hard."
"Right...put her on. I'll get Bell-chan on the phone here," He handed the phone to Belldandy, who cradled it to her ear.
"Waaahhh..huh..snff. He left without even a word, without saying..snff..goodbye!" Belldandy heard the pain in Skuld's voice as she cried out her frustration to her older sister.
"I didn't do anything wrong! He just came in the house and packed his things and walked out. He *never* said a word about anything. Banpei didn't act like anything was wrong either. I'm really scared. What if Demoness Mara possessed him again?" Skuld's anxiety-driven voice fired through the phoneline.
"Skuld, it's going to be all right. Just stay there with Megumi and keep her company. She's upset too. We'll see what we can do from here," she offered, trying to comfort her younger sister. After exchanging good-byes, she slowly hung up the hotel phone.
"Keiichi, you're not going to want to hear this, but we need to go back home. Skuld is about ready to..." Keiichi smiled at her with his incomparable eyes and gently held her hand.
"Of course we should return home. After talking to Megumi, I'd already made up my mind. We can always go on a vacation later. They need us," Keiichi said. He was so happy that his thoughts were in concord with Bell-chan's. The synergy between he and his divine girlfriend once more astounded him. She was willing to curtail a long awaited and much-deserved vacation, so she could be with her sister and Megumi.
"I love you so much, my dear Belldandy," he thought.
"And *that* is why I need you...my love," Belldandy said to him, then kissed him lightly on the lips. Once more, Keiichi was willing to step aside from his personal interests and act for the good of everyone. He was such a wonderful man. Belldandy knew how excited he was at the prospect of spending two weeks alone with her. Now he had to give that up...and not a hint of remorse or bitterness tinged his voice. She pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him lingeringly on the lips.
"I...totally love you, Keiichi!"
* * * * * * * *
Megumi could only think of one more thing she could do. Talking to Keiichi seemed to reassure her a little. Skuld seemed much less shocked after talking to Belldandy. She picked up the phone and dialed.
"Please be there, Genji," she hoped.
The summer breeze hinted of the nearby ocean as it filled my lungs. This would be my final meeting with Dr. Kintaro before departing for China. He astutely provided me with a dossier of scheduled contacts; contacts that were now very necessary. Everyone who had ever met me in the past had their memories purged of my existence, courtesy of the Ultimate Force. Dr. Kintaro was actually animated about the whole trip, much to my relief. I felt disapprobation towards his cheerless, dour moods, which seemed to be conceits designed solely to reinforce his position as the school 'shacho'.
I decided to amble randomly through the N.I.T. campus. As I passed Watanabe Hall, I recalled that my request for a second floor office would be granted contingent upon my return from China with a Ph.D. and a reciprocity agreement with BeiDa. Dr. Kintaro grudgingly promised to transfer me out of the TA office I shared with several N.I.T. engineering grad students.
"As a full Ph.D., you would contribute to the academic prestige of N.I.T., so I guess we'll have to accommodate you," he had noted. Not that the basement office was bad--I had grown to like it. In its own way, the cozy, cramped office was almost inviting. But its damp environment wasn't good for my growing text and monograph collection.
Yesterday, we had received a call from Sayoko. She said that she was doing well, but added that the initial detoxing was trialsome for her. She mentioned having hallucinations and several days of flu-like nausea before her head started to clear. I reminded her that detoxing was the result of her body reestablishing its homeostatic balance...if she viewed it as the painful last gasp of her drug addiction, then she would have additional motivation to keep clean. She told Keiichi that Okinawa was very hot right now and complained that I didn't find her a place in northern Honshu.
"I guess some things never change about a person," I heard him tease her over the phone. She told me that Tamiya had been wrote her three times in the past 10 days, much to her surprise. She already had a growing collection of well-wishing support cards in her room, mine included.
The early July air was humid, with a thunderstorm brewing on the horizon. Today was one of the worst days on the mugginess scale since I had found myself in Japan. I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve dress shirt because of my meeting with the N.I.T. school president. Needless to say, I was soaking with sweat. During my stroll, I visited several faculty members who were working on personal research projects. Then I relaxed at the campus center. Normally bustling with students, the center was quiet and peaceful during the summer break. I counted all the trees in eyesight as a relaxation practice. Any time I spent with Dr. Kintaro was stressful...I didn't want to take my tension home.
After my stroll through the N.I.T. campus, I returned home. As I approached the street in front of our temple compound, I saw a black stretch limousine parked opposite the entrance. Stretch limos were common in the tourist-land of Honolulu...but what was it doing *here*?
"This is strange," I mused aloud. The limousine was totally out of place here in the outskirts of Makuhari. Especially near what the rest of the community considered an *abandoned* temple that had become a student hangout. The late afternoon sun glowed on its carefully polished lines. As I walked in, it pulled away.
I felt like we were being spied upon...that pullaway was *too* coincidental!
I stepped out of my shoes and entered, only to see Belldandy and Keiichi sprawled out on the living room floor with a series of maps and papers filled with jotted notes, ambitiously discussing something.
"What's up with you two? You guys look like you're planning something."
"Hi, Cevn-san. Keiichi and I are planning to go on a vacation," Belldandy said excitedly. She was beaming with a happy-go-lucky joy while Keiichi was engrossed in guidebooks and calculations.
"Right on! Where to?"
"Shikoku," Keiichi answered. I told them how lucky they were to be going to the place where Kobo Daishi lived. I envied them...any place they would go, boring or not, would be happily brightened by their intense love for each other. Keiichi and Belldandy smiled at me in affirmation, then resumed their whispered conversation.
I walked down the hallway to my room. I could hear Urd watching her Korean dramas and Skuld testing her latest upgrades to mini-Banpei when Megumi walked out and said "hi".
Since the magical enhancing of her beauty a few days ago, the house had been besieged by male callers asking after her. Both Keiichi and I were slowly becoming accustomed to the powerful surge of allurement we felt whenever every morning when we first laid eyes on her. She had an overpowering sensual effect, like the Deltan chick from the first Star Trek Movie. Every time I saw her, I was enraptured by her lovely face. This feeling of attraction made me extremely uncomfortable.
Keiichi had been pressuring Belldandy to disclose to Megumi about the 'enhanced beauty' thing, but without success. Megumi, for her part, had confided in me that she was put off by all the male attention she was drawing.
"It's like I've suddenly become some kind of testosterone magnet...all these guys are after me!" she said in frustration. I almost told her about what Belldandy had done when she 'healed' her face. But I was too overwhelmed with Megumi's charm to do anything but stare at her with an entranced expression.
* * * * * * * *
Later in the day, Belldandy and Megumi departed on a shopping trip. Maybe that was a cover for Belldandy to tell Megumi *why* she was being hounded by all these guys. At least I hoped so, for everyone's sanity.
I sat by Keiichi as he detailed the vacation plans he and Belldandy had drawn up. They would leave on the weekend and go to Tokyo by train for two nights, checking out the city's celebration of Tanabata. Then they would take the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka and spend two days there. After riding the ferry across the Inland Sea to Shikoku, Keiichi would rent a car and they would drive into Takematsu and see the famous gardens there, then travel south through Naruto to Cape Muroto. From there, they would drive west to Kochi, generally following the pilgrimage route as they circumnavigated the island. They would return to Osaka for the Tenjin Matsuri, one of Japan's largest festivals. After the two-day spectacle, they would return home. It would be two and a half weeks of worry-free vacationing.
"Leisure's the emphasis," he said happily.
"Look what I did to Mini-Banpei-kun!" I heard Skuld happily announce as she entered the room followed by a 1-meter-tall replica of the 'outdoors' Banpei. She carried a small toolkit as she stood behind mini-Banpei, stroking his metallic exterior with an almost sensual relish.
"I increased the sensitivity of his visual monitors, added new anti-Demon charm cannons to him and designed a faster traction for his motive gearing treads. Check it out...it's cool!" In response, Banpei whirred around the living room rapidly, running over Keiichi's maps.
"Skuld!" he reacted with a shout of dismay.
"Oops!" Skuld peeped in a small voice as she put a gloved hand over her mouth.
"If you weren't Bell-chan's sister...I would..." he groused, then elected to bounce an eraser off of Skuld's forehead.
"I'm sorry already!" she shouted to him and everyone else in the world. I could see the faintest hint of a smile behind her hand. She was holding back giggles, just barely.
"That's okay...it was just an accident, wasn't it?" Urd said with a sneer, pulled away from her Korean dramas by the ruckus in the living room. She gave Skuld a maternal pat on the head.
"Live drama better than the televised kind, Urd?" I teased.
She ignored me as we watched Skuld pull out a mecha I recognized as the Shinseisensor Mk II.
"This must be Skuld's show-n-tell day," I reflected. With Banpei and Sigel outside, she must be lonely...
"I'm going to use this divine power sensor to calibrate Mini-Banpei-kun to distinguish all emanations besides mortal ones. That way, anything that isn't mortal, like a God or Demon, will be detected by him."
I was happy that Skuld had devised a way around the dilemma that I had brought to her attention when I suggested that Banpei couldn't detect Demons because there were no Demons to 'field test' either robot's sensors. Her use of the logic of exclusive particular discrimination made sense, as the only Gods around were the three sisters which Banpei already knew. The three Ninjettes...well they didn't classify as gods or mortals. Anything else would be fair game to activate a defense subroutine.
Skuld pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at Keiichi and I to get a baseline for mortal emanations. She set it down on a nearby table and pulled out a notepad and jotted something down while the rest of us lazed about, waiting for the cooler night air to refresh us.
* * * * * * * *
"Where's the guys from N.I.T.? The teacher and the engineering student?" someone shouted.
I heard several gruff voices indiscreetly talking in the doorway. I looked up and saw four ominous-looking men standing inside the house. They had just walked in, unannounced and uninvited. I looked over to Keiichi and he shook his head to indicate that he didn't know who they were. They looked like thugs, out of place in our neighborhood. I looked at Keiichi and asked if he knew them.
"You think I would hang out with *those* kind of guys?" he said in a low voice as he gathered his maps and travel brochures into a stack of paper.
"Check 'em out, they look like gangsters or something!" he added. I nodded my head in assent. They looked like the Blues Brothers in their black suits, white shirts and shades.
"Where's the guy named Keiichi? Where's the other guy named Cevn? We know they're here!" another man said in a voice well-suited to intimidation and threats. It worked. I felt fear running laps up and down my backbone at the tough-sounding voice.
I looked at the men more closely. They all wore expensive-looking moddish narrow sunglasses and gold chains. The leader was big, about 6'3", with slicked back hair in a ponytail. He had a scar on the side of his face and a wispy fu-Manchu mustache. The other three men were brutish Neanderthal-types with crewcuts. Two were several inches taller than Tamiya...with weightlifter builds. The zorii on their bare feet contrasted with their mock-formal attire.
"No...wait, he isn't the leader," I whispered to Keiichi as a squat heavyset man emerged from between them. During my time in the drug world, I had encountered the denizens of the underworld. These guys reeked of gangsterism. Suddenly, I recalled Sayoko's comment about yakuza. The leader was dressed in a loud light blue pinstripe suit and navy blue polyester slacks. He was puffing away at a foul-smelling cigar. His hands were bejeweled with expensive-looking bulky gold rings. His smile was practiced and his manner was both casual and menacing.
"Now Kenzo, it won't do to threaten these nice people...yet." the fat man said in a snake-charmer's voice.
"Shit! Yakuza! And Belldandy's gone with Megumi!" Keiichi whispered to me in a low voice. My chill sense of fear hit a new level of anxiety when I heard *that*. I didn't seriously think that they would come here. She must have been more deeply involved than I had assumed. We exchanged a panicked look, then I turned to see Urd and Skuld measuring each yakuza with a cautious gaze. I secretly hoped that Urd would zap them.
How did they find out about where I live? Then I reluctantly remembered my promise to Sayoko that I would deal with any yakuza threats. I felt disappointed in myself, as my braggadocio had literally placed the house in dire danger. Actually, I suspected that my comment had nothing to do with their presence here...but it's easy for me to create a mythology of explanation when I'm scared shitless. Just like many of my human ancestors did in the distant past.
"Why can't I think before saying things like that?" I admonished myself out loud. The old gangster guy spied Skuld and grinned deviously.
"What a cute little girl... maybe you can tell me where these guys are. We want to have a little 'talk' with them, sweetie."
Skuld made an angry face when he called her a 'little girl'. She looked at the man with obvious distaste.
"Bug off, you creep!" she answered snidely. Keiichi gasped as two men on either side of the ringleader walked towards Skuld threateningly.
Urd stepped in front of Skuld protectively.
"Leave my little sister alone, you big goons!" she shouted. The fatman waved his cigar and the two thugs backed off.
"Ahhh, you're a very sexy gaijin woman, y'know. You would look good as a hostess in my nightclub. Maybe we could 'convince' you to work for me. I could make a lot of money off of you," the fatman said greasily. "Maybe you and me could even have a..."
"The only club I want to see is the one I'll break over your balding head, you chubby little shit..." Urd shot back without a hint of self-consciousness.
"Boss, you want me to tear her clothes off or something?" one of the big goons casually said in a dullard's voice, greedily eyeing Urd. "Man, this is escalating rapidly into a potentially explosive situation!" I told myself as I saw Urd's face. Her normally carefree nature fell away as she noticed how nonchalantly the goon threatened to disrobe her. She crossed her hands over her bosom protectively and backed up two paces.
"Ahem...hey, over here...I'm Cevn. Who are you? What do you want?" I said. They all turned towards me as I stood up on tiptoe off of the floor. I noticed that Keiichi stood up right next to me with a protective stance.
"And I'm Keiichi! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?" he added, trying to project a tough confidence.
"Who we are doesn't concern you!" the ponytail guy said. Suddenly I felt embarrassed that I had my hair tied back in a ponytail...I didn't want to resemble this guy at all. There's a difference between long hair on a sensitive guy and long hair on a punk.
Fatty spoke.
"Ahhh. A gaijin? Figures. The teacher at N.I.T...Sayoko's teacher. And you...Sayoko's close friend. You two big guys, back away from the little ladies," the head yakuza ordered his lieutenants.
The young guy with the scar and the ponytail pulled a revolver out and started playing with it, posing while pointing it back and forth between me then the others. The tension rose to an even higher level. The guy must be a Jackie Chan or Takeshi Kitano fanatic, the way he's goofing off with that gun. I watched as Urd tried to use her limited Earth Spirit powers to disarm him. She waved her hands frantically...with no result. She had a look of total surprise on her face.
"Ha ha ha...what're you, some kinda female magician?" the fat greaseball in the pinstripe suit said derisively. This remark drew mocking laughter from his four underlings. Urd's face reflected surprise at her inability to summon her powers. She grinned sheepishly, her embarrassment out of context with the seriousness of this situation.
"We want to have a little chat with you about what you did with Sayoko. Come outside to our car," one of the underlings said to me.
"We're not going anywhere with you!" Keiichi yelled. I looked at him with total amazement on my face.
"What are you doing, Keiichi?" I said to him in a near-whisper.
The boss nodded and two of the big guys walked up and grabbed me by the arms. I struggled against them as they dragged me towards the door. Keiichi was quicker on his feet than me, as he dodged the hood rushing him. He tried to pull one of guys restraining me, and the other two gangster punks were on him in an instant. One guy grabbed him by the shirt and easily lifted him off the ground, then threw him on the floor. The other guy calmly walked over and kicked him in the ribs, hard. I heard Keiichi gasp "whoof" as the air was knocked out of him.
"Leave them alone!" Skuld shouted shrilly.
"Leave us alone!" Urd shouted angrily.
Keiichi got up to his hands and knees, shaking his head to try to get his bearings back. Then I felt the wind get knocked out of me as the goon with the ponytail punched me several times in the chest and stomach. He grabbed me by the jaw and yelled a rash of threatening remarks. His breath stank of sour sake. Urd rushed at him and he easily flung her off to the side as she tried to tackle him. Skuld edged in front of Urd and swung her mallet threateningly as the remaining punk advanced on her sister.
"You think you're going to hurt me with that tiny little thing?" the yakuza said with aloof ridicule. In response, Skuld swung low and expertly whacked him on the kneecap with her Mjolnir, surprising everyone in the room.
*Crack!!!*
"EEEAAAYAAAAHH!!!" the goon screamed as he held his kneecap, jumping up and down on one leg. The others laughed while he cursed Skuld. I was too out of breath to laugh, but I managed to gasp, "*Right on, Skuld*!" before getting punched again.
"Why you little...my knee's *broken*!" the unfortunate goon gasped, clearly in agony.
"It looks like she, heh heh, taught you! Now leave them alone! We're not interested in them, we already got the two we came to get," the pinstriped leader said.
"Take them to the car. We're going to take 'em on a one-way trip to Tokyo Bay."
My vision was beginning to fade into a red mist of anger. I felt my knees give as the punk guy hit me in the face three times. I spat up blood. The head yakuza lectured me.
"Do you know how much you've cost me! Sayoko was giving us *ten million* yen a week for our drug operation! And now she's gone somewhere for rehab because of your meddling! And I'm left holding the bag for my boss. He said that *heads will roll* for this!" The punk guy hit me again and I doubled over. He continued lecturing.
"So I thinks to myself...if I bring him the guys who cost him all this yen...then I'll be redeemed. My head won't roll...but yours will instead, hahha cough wheeze!"
There were three guys on me and one standing in front of Keiichi, Urd and Skuld. The big boss man stood in front of me, grinning. I looked and saw that he had his little finger chopped off at the first joint. A hardcore yakuza gangster. A 'middle' boss.
"I'm impressed...that's smalltime stuff. How do you get off saying Sayoko gave you that money when actually you were milking her by extortion? Some tough guys you are, using a girl who's a college senior with rich parents to finance your deals. Feh! You ain't shit!" I looked at Keiichi, wide-eyed as he confronted the boss guy angrily. His words were so brazen with challenge, I thought I was going shit my pants in fear that we were *really* going to get it now. If we were going to get fucked over, Keiichi had made it well worth it by giving me the joy of seeing him railing harsh-on against the boss, whose lips were quivering with rage.
The boss slapped me hard while the guy in front of Keiichi punched him in the stomach and threw him to the ground. The scarface punk punched me down, and then I was curling up into myself, feeling a flurry of blows and kicks...and my dizziness somehow transformed into clarity.
"I should be unconscious..." I thought to myself.
Then I felt an incredible surge of energy.
* * * * * * * *
"You didn't need to hit him! Get the hell out of our house!" I heard Urd and Skuld screaming, angry at the punks for mistreating Keiichi. They were just plain being cruel. Dammit, if they just had their Goddess powers back for five seconds, they'd take these assholes and mop the house with their faces.
"So the mouse can speak, ha ha haha!" they all taunted. I guess I had told one of them, "*eat shit!!!*" but my hearing was uncertain, as my head seemed half deadened by the blows. I was dizzy...but I was also feeling clear...
...and very fucking pissed off.
My nerves felt like barbed wire. All of my fear of a moment earlier had dissipated. It was as if I had suddenly been gripped by some kind of 'second wind' of courage. I felt a rising cascade of enthusiasm and power as I struggled against the hold of the two weightlifter punks.
Seconds later, I noticed that I was loose and the two big goons were on the floor, looking at me with shock. The punk stared at me with a mixture of rage and fear. The wild look in his eyes resembled someone who was about to have a psychotic break.
"Get away from my friends!" I shouted angrily. The fourth guy warily backed away from Keiichi and the two sisters, sensing that he needed to be near his boss instead. The fifth guy was still on the floor, holding his crushed knee.
"Go get'em, Cevn!" I heard Urd shout through cupped hands. I looked at her with a "what the hell?" expression; none of this was making sense. The punk made his decision and pointed his revolver right at my face. He seemed to move in very slow motion. I heard two shrill female screams as I reached out and slapped his gun out of his hand.
"Shit!" Keiichi yelled. The scarface punk that I'd just disarmed looked at me in wide-eyed utter disbelief.
"Damn you, Kenzo, can't you even do this right!" the fat man yelled as he shoved the ponytail thug aside roughly. He reached inside of his tacky pinstripe suit. He had a strap-on gun holster underneath it from which he withdrew a 45 Magnum. He walked up and leveled it at my chest. I heard Skuld scream, "Oh my Lord!"
"So you think you're a tough guy...let's see how you handle this, baby!" he threatened, tightening his finger on the trigger as he ritualistically said "make my day" in poor stilted English.
Without a thought, my hand blurred. I grabbed his gun by the frame and barrel and squeezed it. To my incredulity, it smashed in my hand like a brittle plastic toy and fell onto the floor. The greasy mob boss held only part of the stock handgrip in his hand. He was shaking with surprise and fear as he stared in incredulity back and forth at his hand, then me. I was finished with these guys and their toughman intimidation crap.
"You guys *suck*!" I shouted with ireful distaste. They looked at me with strident disorientation.
I suggested insanity to them; I just spoke from my heart.
"Sayoko is no longer your concern. You will forget that you ever met her. You will forget this place and never, *ever* come back here. You will leave our home and refrain from all criminal activities henceforth...by turning yourselves into the Tokyo Central Police Station. You have hurt me and my friends...you have invaded our house and tainted it with your corruption. You will leave NOW!"
I felt like I was frozen...a statue. Everything turned gray...the last thing I heard was Mini-Banpei-kun whirring somewhere in the room.
* * * * * * * *
Belldandy and Megumi were in the ped-mall shopping for shoes. Bell had invited Megumi to come along and help her pick out some new shoes and a couple outfits for her trip to Shikoku with Keiichi. She had reflected on Keiichi's suggestion...about telling Megumi.
Earlier that day, in the Zebra Girl handbag store, a man shopping for a fifth anniversary present for his wife hit on Megumi. Belldandy couldn't believe it...a *married* man chasing after a college girl!
"This is inconceivable!" she thought. She noticed that her picnic bag had worn out after three years of carrying tea and bento to N.I.T. for lunchtime with Keiichi. Megumi suggested that they check out the World Party shop for a new one.
In the World Party outdoors shop, a salesclerk hit on Megumi while Belldandy was shopping for a new bookbag for the fall semester. At the Curry House fast food restaurant, Bell and Megumi stopped for a couple canned teas. One of the cooks actually left the kitchen line behind the counter to ask for Megumi's phone number.
"Ouch!"
The crackling pain on her foot brought her back to the here and now. The shoe salesman had pinched Belldandy's toes while he was putting a shoe on her foot. She looked at him...and noticed that his eyes were all over Megumi, who was standing next to her. He wasn't paying any attention to the task of putting the shoe on her foot.
"That does it!" Belldandy decided out loud.
"Dear Keiichi, you were right...I have to talk to her," she admitted to herself. The salesman seemed intent on breaking her toes...she could hear her bones popping as he mauled her foot.
"Ouch! Okay, I'll buy it! Just take it off...wait, let *me* take the shoe off," she instructed the bedazzled salesman.
After she bought two pairs of shoes--she just *had* to buy the new style of sandals--Belldandy suggested that the she and Megumi go for some lunch. She had a foreboding sense that something was wrong at the house, but it seemed to pass quickly. She was curious, but her apprehension towards the matter at hand took precedence.
"How do I explain *this* to Megumi?" she wondered.
They chose an Italian-style bistro and sat down. It was a nice enough place for a mall, clean and well-lit. The waiter promptly came and took their order. Belldandy had to repeat her request thrice because the young high school waiter was gawking at Megumi. Finally, Megumi broke his attentive stare by pointing at Belldandy and the waiter took her order.
"What is it with all the men in world lately? Everywhere I go, I seem to hypnotize them...it's as if I was walking around in a see-through blouse or something." Megumi asked Belldandy.
Belldandy smiled innocently at Megumi. She *is* beautiful, Belldandy thought. Even as a woman and a Goddess, she was struck by Megumi's beauty. Her hair was just the right color and her chin was shaped just like Keiichi's, her brown eyes were just like Keiichi's, only a shade lighter, her smile was both innocent and sagacious...
"Belldandy? Don't tell me that I'm distracting you too?"
"Oh, ha heheh! I was just thinking how much you look like your brother," she replied with a blush, withdrawing out of her reverie.
Megumi looked at Belldandy with narrowed eyes.
"Belldandy dear, don't you think that something's...*funny*...about all of this?" Megumi inquired, then rapidly rattled off several points in a lawyer-like fashion.
"One: during the arcade game race, my face got all cut up with glass shards. I come to two days later without a single cut or scar on my body. Two: after which...all the men around me start bugging out. Even my own brother and Cevn! Three: I'm not doing anything different with my clothing or makeup. Ergo, what...*did* you do?"
Belldandy looked at Megumi, trying to formulate an explanation. She smiled innocently across the table.
"You see, your face was severely injured after the race. Urd and Skuld kept you in a state of unconsciousness...just like we did with Cevn with his eye problem. So it fell to me to provide a healing spell to take care of your wounds. Truthfully, a mortal hospital couldn't have possibly healed all the injuries to your face. You would have been hideously scarred for life, Megumi," she explained matter-of-factly. Megumi shuddered when she heard this--she didn't think that her injuries were *that* bad! Belldandy continued, her face blushing, steadily gaining a guilty mien.
"So I thought about how wonderful it was that you did everything possible to save Keiichi. When I saw how hurt you were, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and I decided to make your face more beautiful once I finished healing you," Belldandy finished, looking anxiously across the table at Megumi.
"Ha ha ha haw! That's a good one, Belldandy. Please, just tell me the truth," Megumi said in between chuckles. She didn't believe a word...in fact she thought that Mara had exacted some kind of weird revenge for losing to her in the race.
Belldandy felt awkward, as she had *really* told the truth. She repeated her story, only this time she tried to make it utterly convincing. Megumi looked at her thoughtfully.
"Hmmm. So now you made me more beautiful. Every girl wants to shine...BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" she shouted, turning every face within ten meters in their direction. She noticed this and toned down her voice. She grabbed Belldandy by the hand.
"Y..you don't understand! I feel like the queen bee in a nest of hungry...er...horny drones. It's totally getting on my nerves! I'm actually beginning to dread leaving the house. I get stared at everywhere I go! I'm going nuts!" Megumi was almost in tears as she related the numerous incidences of the past two days. Belldandy listened sympathetically as she related incident after incident of male obsession. It was clear to her that something was wrong.
The waiter arrived with their food. With a distracted grin, he set both plates and drinks in front of Megumi...leaving Belldandy's side of the table empty. Belldandy wanted to confront him about the rude table service, but his silly grin informed her that it would be useless to reason with him.
"See what I mean?" Megumi said with a shrug of her shoulders.
* * * * * * * *
Cevn came out of his unconscious state to find himself sitting against a couch in the living room. The others were talking animatedly. Keiichi was still in shock after seeing what had transpired. At the time of the craziness with the yakuza gangsters, his ribcage throbbed with pain from being kicked; in fact, his whole chest felt raw. But when Cevn had chased out the yakuza, any hint of injury or pain disappeared. Then he saw Cevn *crush* a metal 45mm gun held by the fat old gangster.
He looked at the others. Urd had a big smile on her face and Skuld looked mystified.
"You really told them where to put it!" Urd said proudly to Cevn, noticing he was waking from his trance-like state. Unlike Skuld, she thought the whole conclusion to the 'yakuza incident' was incredibly funny...and unremarkable.
"God, I had no idea they would come *here*," Keiichi said, his curiosity broken momentarily by Urd's remark. His disbelief was suspended by Bell's older sister's nonchalant approach to what just happened.
"What happened? Where's the goons?" Cevn asked.
"You're not going to believe this, but at the end...you chased them off," Keiichi answered. Cevn looked at him with a mystified expression.
"Huh? They left?" Cevn looked at Skuld, whose sober face broke into giggles for a moment.
"Yeah...tee hee. They even apologized to us," Skuld said, giggling at the memory of the five gangsters deeply bowing in humility in front of them.
"The guy whose knee I...haha...clocked with Mjolnir couldn't kneel, so he just sat and bowed. It...heheh...was so weird!"
"What?" Cevn said in amazement.
"I am so sorry, you guys. I'm the one who is responsible for them coming here. I should be the one bowing to you. It's all my fault," he said guiltily. Keiichi stopped in mid-laugh. He wanted to assure Cevn that it wasn't his fault.
"It's okay...but I don't know if *you* are okay, Cevn. You did some really bizarre stuff at the end. You can't remember *anything*?" he asked. Keiichi went on to describe the last few minutes of the 'yakuza invasion'. Cevn dismissed Keiichi's comment about weirdness. His story seemed outrageous as well.
"*Everything* is weird in my life nowadays," he thought. But he did remember some kind of change coming over him right before he blacked out.
"I don't recall very much of what happened. It could be retrograde amnesia...considering how many times I got clocked in the head by those goons. But what worries me is how did they find out that we live here? Someone must have informed them about our intervention on Sayoko."
"I bet they trailed you, just like in those TV shows!" Urd said, as if she was stating the obvious. Skuld could only shake her head at her sister's blaise observation. Keiichi looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I wonder if they *were* trailing Sayoko all along, 'protecting' their cash source? They would have seen her walk downstairs into Watanabe Hall and then watched us as we took her to the airport. They got a good look at all of us, then guessed that it was her teacher, Cevn, who talked her into going."
"That's gotta be it!" Cevn said. "Skuld, why are you looking at me so funny?" he added after seeing the expression on her face. The mirth she projected earlier was now replaced by a querimonic mien.
"Oh...nothing."
At that moment, Belldandy and Megumi came flying into the living room, the embodiment of excitement. The sound of crinkly shopping bags and the aroma of new store-bought goodies brightened the atmosphere of the room.
"Hi guys!" Megumi said cheerily. Belldandy winked at Keiichi...and Keiichi knew in an instant that she had talked to Megumi. "At least this time, I looked at Bell-chan first," he thought with relief, feeling let off the hook. The last few times he had looked at his sister first, drawing a disapproving look from the love of his life.
Belldandy surveyed the room and realized that something had happened. Both Urd and Skuld looked at her insistently.
Belldandy and Megumi, like any good shoppers, wanted to show off the goods they had bought. Urd and Skuld sat by them as they opened shopping boxes.
"Women," Keiichi said to Cevn as everything was put on hold by the female 2/3 of the house. Indeed, all four were engrossed in 'fashion' talk. Even Skuld, much to his surprise.
Megumi had chosen a really nice summer outfit, with a blue and white sleeveless top with a metallic knit design and a matching miniskirt. She also showed them the new summer handbag she bought and the designer denim and leather jacket for fall. Belldandy had bought several skirts, two pairs of shoes, a picnic box and a bookbag.
"Did you tell her?" Urd said, floating alongside Belldandy. Belldandy nodded.
"I told her that I increased her beauty with a special spell."
"What spell did you use, Bell? I can't remember what you did...I was really tired that morning."
"The Aura of Delight Enhancer # 11," she answered Urd. Then she recited the words of the spell to her sisters. Skuld dropped the tool she had in her hands in shock. Belldandy looked at her melodramatic reaction with a face that said, "you're being silly, Skuld!"
"Elder Sister, say that again please?" Belldandy repeated her recitation of the spell at Skuld's request. Skuld raised her finger to make a point.
"You said sanhyaku instead of san-ko!" A silent moment passed as a invisible pause passed like a web between the three. With a hoot, Urd started to laugh maniacally at her sister's mistake, rolling onto the floor and kicking her heels.
"That's *not* funny, Big Sister Urd!" Skuld said in a scolding voice.
"What!!!" a flustered Keiichi said, overhearing the conversation. This mistake was seemingly too obvious for his girlfriend to make.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Megumi asked, red-faced with shock. She was still just barely coming to grips with the fact that Belldandy had altered her appearance...or some invisible attribute that was inexorably linked to her appearance. Discomfort settled on her like a first winter's snowfall settling on stiffened grass.
"What did I do?" Belldandy asked, her interest piqued by the consternation around her.
"You increased her beauty 300 times, not three times! No wonder she's become a 'male vacuum'. It's a miracle that the two men that live in our house haven't ravished her by now!" Urd stated.
"Oh...my!!!" Belldandy said in astonishment, her hand delicately poised over her chin. She looked at Keiichi, who was wringing his hands.
"So...what are you going to *do* about it?" Megumi shouted above the din. "I'm the one stuck with this little 'mistake'!" It was hard for her to be angry at Belldandy because of the her kind-hearted nature. But she was also resentful at the error itself.
"This is just as bad as when Mara changed me into a car!" Megumi near-shouted, accenting her mounting sense of powerlessness and frustration.
"Well, why don't you just recast the # 11 spell on her, sis?" Urd offered...then immediately caught her error. Too late.
"Baka...that would mean that Megumi would have to have a faceful of glass! She said it in during the middle of her healing spell," Skuld replied. Urd stuck her tongue out at Skuld.
Megumi recounted all the mishaps of her and Bell's shopping trip, drawing laughter mixed with surprise at the part where the waiter gave her both orders of food. Keiichi realized that this was very serious, as nothing less than her sister's sanity was at stake.
"Can't you give her some pills to counteract it, Urd?" he suggested.
"So he comes to me, wanting me to fix everything with one of my pills," she said haughtily, teasing him. Keiichi gave her a squinting stinkeye...he was not amused.
"Well, I could always try," she said as she bounded off to her "Urd's Castle" room.
Skuld pulled at Belldandy's skirt, indicating that she wanted to talk in private. The two smiled and left. Cevn went back to his "Cevn's Studio", very uncomfortable about what Keiichi had related about the confrontation with the yakuza. Left alone in the living room, Megumi turned to look at Keiichi, her face knit with frustration.
"I can't believe she's *your girlfriend*! Look what she's *done* to me!"
"Uhhh, what, Megumi?"
"Keiichi, stop staring at me like that! Keiichiii! Stop staring!!!"
* * * * * * * *
In the sister's bedroom, Skuld excitedly narrated everything that had occurred during with the yakuza visit. Belldandy was very uneasy when she heard that mortal thugs had visited while she and Megumi were gone. Then she raised an eyebrow when Skuld mentioned about how Cevn had crushed a metal gun and then *ordered* the men to leave.
"They just sat and listened to what he told them to do, then they just...did it. I've never seen anything like it since I've been here on the Earthrealm! Ever! Right after he finished telling them off, he simply fell down on the floor. It was like he was controlling them like Bunraku puppets. They even begged our forgiveness...they were groveling on the floor, Elder Sister!" she said, putting a gloved hand to her cheek as she giggled.
"What is it with Cevn? Another unusual incident...I wonder if the Lord knows about this one? He certainly is an enigma, isn't he, Skuld," she commented, at a loss for words.
"It's more than that, Belldandy." Skuld said as she readied herself to tell Belldandy the *big* shocker.
"My Shinseisensor Mk II was on when those bad guys were here. I was just toying with it...but right when Cevn seemed to change, I glanced at it. It was off the scale for God *and* Demon powers!" she said. Belldandy let *that* one sink in, silently looking at Skuld.
"What does that mean, Skuld?"
"Here...look," she said as she turned on the handheld mecha. "Each scale measures divine power. A mortal is under .0001. You measure .4 at the moment. If you broke open your seal, you would measure around 400. The scale goes up to 10000. Theoretically, Kami-sama measures 8000. We've been told that His power is twenty times that of an unsealed First Class Unrestricted Licensee."
"And Cevn...he was off the scale?"
"Yep...the display maxed out *past* 10000!"
Belldandy looked tenderly at her sister. She didn't want to inform her younger sister that one of her mechas wasn't working like it should. Every time she had done this, the sensitive Skuld had pouted angrily; sometimes isolating away for decades somewhere in Yggdrasil.
"But there *must* be a mistake," she convinced herself, feeling resolved at the impossibility that Skuld had described.
"Skuld, you should check it out and see if...it recorded accurately. Maybe it was...shook up by all the craziness this afternoon with our unwanted guests," she said diplomatically. Skuld frowned at her elder sister's attempt to tell her that her Shinseisensor Mk II was wrong.
"If it didn't work, it wouldn't be measuring *your* powers right now. But it is...therefore it *works*!" Skuld argued. Urd walked in the room and Skuld pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at her. It registered .008.
"Hey, isn't that a little low for an Earth Spirit Grade? Shouldn't Urd have one twentieth of my resting powers?" Belldandy asked.
"Huh, lemme see that!" Urd said, looking with interest at the measuring device. After Skuld explained it to her, she commented; "That toy of yours must be messed up. I *have* more power than that thing says," she exclaimed. Proudly shaking her head, she tousled her hair.
Skuld scrunched up her face.
"No you don't Urd! You couldn't even do anything today when those mean guys came by!" Skuld retorted angrily. By degrees, her angry face softened with the sad realization that her sisters just didn't believe her. Then a circuit switched on in her heart; the circuit that responded whenever Skuld was confronted with too much criticism.
"Waaaah! You *both* think it's broken! You *both* think it doesn't work! No one understands all the hard work that goes into my inventions! After all, they *are* inventions...nobody's thought of them before!" Her pride was dashed by Urd's callous remarks about her divine power sensor, coupled with Belldandy's comment about how it might "have been shook up."
Belldandy looked at Urd with accusing eyes, her face ruefully saying "now you've done it!" Urd rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders as Skuld scampered out of the room tearfully.
* * * * * * * *
Urd looked at her sister with a serious expression. A silent air of resentment passed between her and Bell. She didn't *mean* to get Skuld all riled up; but the look on Belldandy's face made it clear to her that, in Bell's mind, she was thinking that Urd had screwed up again.
"Belldandy, my powers are almost gone!" she finally said, breaking the staredown between her and her younger sister.
"Urd, you go and upset Skuld like that...then you come to me and complain that your powers are almost gone. Have you no sympathy for your little sister?"
"I do! I really do. But when those uglies came here, they beat up Keiichi and pulled a gun on Cevn. I tried to call on some lightning to zap the guy with the gun. *Nothing* happened."
Belldandy grew red in the face at the mention of Keiichi getting beaten up. Urd saw her sister's wrathful mien and cringed, thinking she was the source of Belldandy's ire.
"Skuld didn't tell me that. Neither did Keiichi," Belldandy said angrily, light around her fingertips deforming to a shade of electric blue.
"Bell, it's been taken care of. They'll never come here again!"
"How could they do that to Keiichi?" she said, her resolute anger diminishing only slightly.
"They're jerks. Human scumbags. They actually called Skuld a 'cute little girl' and they threatened me. The ugly fat guy who was their boss wanted me to become a...a...prostitute, of all things." She grew angry at the remembrance of the fat gangster.
Belldandy relaxed a little. Smiling faintly, she imagined Skuld's reaction. One of the things Skuld hated most in the known universe was to be called a "kid." Her face remained stern at the idea of someone invading her house.
"But Keiichi stood up for all of us! I didn't think he had it in him!" she added, still reeling from her inability to thwart their encounter with the dark side of human nature.
"You just don't know my Keiichi very well. *I* know that he's brave and sincere. But..how is it that Keiichi isn't hurt?" she asked Urd.
"Somehow, when Cevn confronted them and they left, all of his pain left too," Urd guessed. It was the only plausible explanation. Urd glanced at her two hands as she splayed her fingers wide.
"But what about my powers? They are only a part of what they should be. Hmmm....Skuld's mecha could be right. After all, I wasn't able to conjure up any lightning earlier..." Urd thought out loud. She abruptly dashed out of the room before Belldandy could get a word in edgewise.
"She's *so* impulsive," Belldandy thought, still wanting to find out more about the chaos that ensued earlier in the day. Of course, that didn't matter to Urd; Bell's curiosity seldom stood in the way of one of Urd's hair-brained schemes.
Urd slid open Skuld's door and saw the youngest Goddess sitting on a futon, crying into a pillow.
"Snfff, don't bother me, leave me alone!" she stated, not even looking up in reaction to the intrusion.
"Skuld I'm sorry. I think your device *works*. But I need you to try it once more on Bell and me...and the mortals," Urd said in a rapid-fire diction. Skuld only heard the "I'm sorry" part...she slowly stood up and pointed her finger at Urd with righteous anger.
"You *better* be sorry! My Shinseisensor Mk II was able to detect Mara's aura before. It's the only device of its kind that can detect Demons, Gods and Mortals," she proudly said as she stroked the lines of the handheld sensor lovingly.
"Okay okay okay! Let's get a move on, Skuld!"
They stopped in front of the sister's bedroom and pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II at Keiichi and Megumi, who were arguing in the living room. It registered .00009 for both of them.
Skuld tossed it to Urd and said, "Here, you measure me."
Urd tried to find the 'on' button, then pressed it and pointed the Shinseisensor Mk II square on Skuld's chest. The digital display read .005. Urd gulped as she realized that her first reading was so low that it was almost at Skuld's level--a Skuld with no powers due to her license revocation.
"I'll do you!" Skuld said as she grabbed the Shinseisensor Mk II deftly from Urd. She scanned Urd and the display read .008. Urd looked sad as she noticed there was no increase in her powers.
They both rushed into their bedroom excitedly. Belldandy noticed that Urd and Skuld were not fighting, much to her surprise. Then Skuld waved her Shinseisensor Mk II in front of Belldandy. Her power reading was .4, the same as before.
"Hey, I got an idea! Let's summon the Ninjettes. They're of supernatural origin...so if your mecha works, Skuld, it would read them as different than any of us or the mortals."
Things were happening too fast for Belldandy. Skuld seemed intent on proving her Shinseisensor Mk II. Bell shrugged and used the silent signal she carried on one of her bracelets to summon the three.
* * * * * * * *
"Yes, Mistress!" Kodama said two seconds later. The three Goddesses were surprised. It was as if the Ninjettes appeared out of thin air...no one saw them enter the bedroom.
"How can we serve you?" Hikari said.
"We need to scan you with this," Skuld said intently as she brandished the Shinseisensor Mk II. Senrigan looked at it warily.
"Is that a new kind of weapon? If it is, it looks totally inconspicuous," Senrigan observed. Skuld rolled her eyes as she explained that it wasn't a weapon.
Skuld scanned the three. The display read .002, roughly twenty times that of the mortals. She reflected for a moment, then concluded that it was just about right for the Ninjettes.
The three Ninja girls remained. Belldandy noticed that Kodama seemed uncomfortable about something. She was shuffling around, but not moving, her hands held behind her back. Normally, they would have left as soon as their task with Skuld was finished.
"Something's wrong here," Belldandy worriedly noted. The other two Ninjettes were also fidgeting.
"M..Mistress, we have a boon to ask of you," Kodama said, as if she had anticipated Belldandy's question.
"I thought you already had some kind of those smoky ninja grenades for that," Belldandy replied as Skuld made a face.
"A boon! They said a boon! That means they want you to do a big favor for them," Urd said, turning to her sister and yelling.
"Ohhhhh...that's so sweet. What can I do for you, Kodama?"
"Well, we...we've been alone for the past year here, mistress."
"Not really, you have all of us and Banpei for company," Skuld said cheerily, setting down her Shinseisensor Mk II to listen. Urd sighed at her younger sister's naivety...she immediately knew what Kodama meant by "alone". Skuld was just too young to pick up on such womanly topics of discussion.
"This is embarrassing to say...but we have no mates. In all of Japan, there are no men like us."
"Maybe Megumi could find some...her being a guy magnet and all," Urd suggested flippantly. "So, they want to have boyfriends," she thought. "This could be *very* interesting!"
"Urd, that was rude!" Belldandy interrupted as Kodama continued. "We talked to Cevn and he told us that we should...ask you to..." Kodama held her arm up over her face so that her sleeve concealed her feelings of shame. This was a serious breach of giri...she was embarrassed that her heart had dominated her feelings so strongly that she was actually going to ask her Mistress to do something for *her*. To Kodama, this was a complete reversal of the Ninja bushido...the code of honor that dictated that she should serve her master, not the other way around. She sighed, clenched her teeth, and said it.
"That we should ask you to find us some male ninjas or create them the way evil Mara created us," she asked in a shaky voice.
After a brief pause, the three girls broke into animated descriptions about how lonely they were and how much they wanted male companionship. Skuld reacted to this with indifference, while Belldandy listened intently. Urd, however, was reduced to tears when she heard their plaints. She knew all too well the effects of "impossible loneliness"...their situation struck her to the quick.
Belldandy raised a blanket to her eyes as she also succumbed to tears. Finally the romantically imperturbable Skuld started crying too. Even she could recognize a woman's loneliness.
"Those three really like to talk," Urd noted as they continued describing how their martial exploits which would be more challenging, more complete with male ninja.
"If we make some men for you, you'll be marital artists instead of martial artists," Urd said.
"I want mine to look like Mifune Toshiro!" Kodama exclaimed.
Belldandy decided in her mind to help them. With Megumi's situation, her upcoming vacation with Keiichi and who knows whatever else, she would be too busy to do anything before they left. She looked at the three, then assumed the dignity appropriate to a Lady of the House.
"Kodama, Hikari, Senrigan. I have decided to grant your boon. I cannot do it until Keiichi and I arrive back from our...mission to the south. So you must continue to bravely defend our house. Especially during our upcoming 'mission'."
"Speaking of defending our house, where were you guys about two hours ago?" Urd asked.
"We were training in the hills."
"Well, we could have used you...mmmph!" Belldandy put a hand over Urd's mouth and dismissed the three girls before Urd could tell them about the gangster problem they had earlier.
"What'd you do that for, sis? They are supposed to defend our house, aren't they?"
"Yes, Urd, but did..." Belldandy started to say.
"Of course you didn't see how guilty they felt about asking Elder Sister for help. Just think how totally wrecked they would feel if they knew that those big ugly creeps came by while they were gone!" Skuld said excitedly.
"And what if they would have been *here*? Those sickening men would have been filleted like fresh trout!" With this, the three Goddesses argued for a half hour about the hows-and-whys of granting the Ninjette's request.
"But what about my lost powers?" Urd broke in, redirected the debate.
"What about them? You're more trouble with them than without them!" Skuld said sharply.
"And *who* stood in front of you to defend you against those bad men earlier today?" Urd sharply chastised her sister. This took the wind out of the counter that Skuld was preparing. Skuld looked at Urd, suddenly ashamed of her fighting attitude towards her eldest sibling.
"I know how we can find out about your waning powers," Belldandy said with a finger pointing up at the sky.
"We should call Yggdrasil and find out. They would know. At least Peorth would know."
Skuld and Urd nodded their heads at this. They retired to the dining room while Belldandy dialed the GRO number. Skuld of course didn't want to go anywhere near a phone after her recent experience with the Almighty and her license suspension.
"Hello, Goddess...zzzzzt...Relief Office."
"Peorth! How are things up there in Yggdrasil?"
"Belldandy! Why are you...zzzt...hear from you. It's total chaos up here!" Belldandy could hear the rapidfire shouting of consternated voices in the background.
"A short while ago, we had a series of blackouts. All the power from Yggdrasil simply...zzzzt...on and off for a few moments. It's back on now, barely. But *everything* is off-line. I'm surprised the phone works! The computer system...zzzt...down, so you guys will have...zzzt...conserve your power. We don't...zzzt...know when the Mainframe Sysops will be able to reboot it. Even Kami-sama's floating chair...zzzt...it's *all* crashed!"
Belldandy staggered backwards with this news and crumpled to a seated position on the floor. Skuld and Urd looked at her with anxious faces bordering on panic. Seeing their sister react so strongly...they expected some really bad news.
"We have no idea what happened, something...bzzt...draining power...zzzztzzzzt"
"Peorth! Peorth!" Belldandy shouted into the phone. The line was dead.
Looking at her sisters, Belldandy tried to explain what Peorth had told her. Urd and Skuld reacted with disbelief when Belldandy told them about the blackout.
"That's...incredible. Do you think that was another one of Peorth's lies?" Urd finally said after the shock wore off.
"No. I could hear all sorts of yelling in the background. The line kept going out. They were shouting about Yggdrasil being off-line."
"Oh no...not those *moon bracelets* again!" Urd said, her voice tinged with misery.
* * * * * * * *
We saw Keiichi and Belldandy off with fanfare this beautiful Saturday morning. It was Tanabata...the festival days of mid-summer. This was obviously going to be a big chapter in their lives. Despite all of the changes, this would be the first time that they would be alone, just the two of them for two whole weeks. I felt happy for both my friends. Tanabata was indeed an auspicious time to go. Based on the ancient Chinese legend, Tanabata was traditionally the one time during the year where two lovers could meet. A mid-summer's night dream for the romantically inclined. Tanabata honored the myth of the Weaver Maiden and the Shepherd Boy; lovers who were doomed to be apart except for one day in the year...where they would use the Milky Way as a sort of 'star-bridge' and see each other. It was an Asian version of the Persephone/Calliope legend.
Keiichi informed me that Tanabata, besides being a big summer festival holiday, was something of the equivalent of Valentine's Day. It was a holiday for lovers in Japan.
Last night, Urd announced that she had concocted pills for Megumi that would counteract the 'beauty spell' that Belldandy had put her under. All good intentions aside, Megumi received the news with relief. The past two days, she had been a virtual shut-in in the house, after receiving dozens of "goddess of love" letters from men she had briefly met on the street. Urd informed us that she had tried the pills on herself...with the result that she couldn't stand to look at herself in the mirror for more than a glance without being repulsed. We all laughed at her description of the self-test.
Genji was going to move in with us the week after Sayoko went to treatment in Okinawa, but due to the recent events, Megumi had thought it wise that he remain at his parent's house until she got 'better'. She had reluctantly called him after her recovery from the facial injuries, inventing the fiction that she had a case of the summer flu and needed to rest up. After I left for China, he would use my room...Sayoko would be back before I returned if she completed her treatment as scheduled.
Megumi took two pills and asked the resident male observers--Keiichi and myself--to see if Urd's potion made a difference. I had been avoiding Megumi out of sheer desperation...every time I saw her, I would develop an instant attraction to her and then my abuse issues would kick in and send everything into an insane frenzy. Keiichi had it equally bad...he already had a girlfriend; so whenever he saw Megumi, he had to fight to avoid forgetting Belldandy...who would shoot him a look of displeasure when he ignored her due to Megumi's influence. To make matters worse, Urd used Megumi's 'hyper beauty' as an excuse to play all sorts of pranks on Keiichi and I. We both decided that we were going to gang up on Urd and totally humiliate her after this all blew over.
Anyway, last night I saw a complete change come over Megumi. She was still a beautiful young woman, but I didn't feel the fanatic need to absorb myself in her. Urd's medicine was working...thank God.
In the present moment, I felt a sad stirring in my heart. Keiichi and Belldandy had grown to be my fond friends over the past several months I had lived here in Japan. I was going to China in a few days, so this was the last time I would see them for a while. I had bought both of them several presents for their vacation, a clumsy attempt to say "thank you".
"Thanks, Cevn," Keiichi said as he unwrapped the package and examined the electronic compass. I had found it in an electronics store: it was a clock, radio, mini-TV, weather forecaster, satellite geo-locator, radar sensor and several other things. Belldandy smiled as she opened up her present...a white novelty jacket with a stylized Kobo Daishi on the back. I had bought a matching jacket for Keiichi as well. I also grabbed them some imported incense for the hotel rooms and outdoors, which required some explaining as Keiichi didn't understand the concept of aromatic incense.
They gave me a gift as well. Belldandy had knitted a red scarf with a picture of Tiananmen on it. Keiichi looked at me and snickered as I beheld the scarf with a mixed expression. It was very nicely knit, but the 34-degree heat reminded me that it wasn't necessary. It would even be hotter in Beijing.
"A winter scarf in the summer?" I asked. She told me that it was a scarf that would keep me cool at night, working in the opposite manner from a real scarf. I tried it on and felt immediate relief from the heat. Then everyone had to try it on to examine its effect. Keiichi gave me a new camera to take pictures. He had noticed that the camera I had bought when I first came to Makuhari was defective...it had a hairline crack in the lens.
We cheerfully said our goodbyes at the Chiba Minato station as they boarded the Keiyo railcar. Megumi drove us back to Makuhari. The rest of the weekend for me would mean packing and confirming travel arrangements. Monday, I would meet with Dr. Ogawa for a final session before leaving Tuesday for Beijing.
* * * * * * * *
"Are you excited about your trip to China? I know I would be, if I were in your place," Dr. Ogawa said to me.
"Yes, it's the third time I've been there to study. I really liked it the first time I studied at BeiDa."
"Hmm...how do you think you'll handle your depression there? You've told me that you were depressed several times in the past few weeks and a little bit around the weekend."
"Yes...I just felt bad that my two roommates were going off on a vacation. I'm going to miss them. I was also a little envious of their loving relationship. Sometimes, despite my happiness for them...it reminds me just how lonely I am. See, here they are going to Shikoku with each other while I'm going to China by myself," I replied, feeling bittersweet.
"Do you think you'll meet anyone there? I mean, meet a woman?"
"I don't plan on it. I have to finish a dissertation and defend it...in Chinese. Not to mention establishing the reciprocity agreement between N.I.T. and BeiDa. You know how hard a dissertation is, Dr. Ogawa." I noticed a lack of empathy on her face regarding the rigors of completing and defending a dissertation.
"How have you been coping with the loneliness, lately?"
"It's utterly hopeless. I am convinced that I will never fall in love again. Or at least to the degree I did with my ex-wife."
"We've talked about you and her. I've known many people that have lost a spouse and have recovered their romantic life, after a period of grief. You lost her nine years ago...isn't it time you stopped grieving?"
"Dr. Ogawa, I don't think anyone ever moves beyond grieving that kind of loss. Besides, I've still have all these sexual abuse issues, not to mention so many other pressures."
"So what? Why won't you let go of her?"
"Because she is the only woman I ever truly loved. You have to see it from my perspective...I had never been in a relationship before. I was in early recovery and I had begun to address the pain of my abuse. Then, by some miracle, I was able to let her in...or maybe she forced her way in; I could never figure that one out. I used to think to myself that love is some kind of incredible coincidence...I mean here we were moving in random directions. Somehow our lives intersected out of the millions of possible choices. Then we were able to deal with the changes. I meet many people everyday, but not *the one*. Then I met her. She was the one.
"She was the kind of woman I would drop everything for, go fetch a banana split at a moment's notice...and if she didn't like it, I would apologize and go back to get her the chocolate croissant she really wanted. And I wouldn't regret making the second trip at all."
"So you don't think there's another 'one'?" Dr. Ogawa asked.
The memories came back to me in a flood. All the good times. The many times I wanted to talk to her about my abuse...and when I summoned my courage and told her, she *still stayed with me*. Watching the sunset side by side. Pillow fights. Getting married. It was truly a happy period in my life. But it ended horribly.
Dr. Ogawa saw the tears in my eyes and asked what was causing me so much pain.
"At the end...she stopped talking to me. Our sex life was nonexistent; she kept going out late at night while I was studying hard in school. She stopped attending recovery meetings...she didn't do anything about her own addiction. I pleaded with her to work on herself. Then I found out she was seeing another man. Actually, several other men. I was crushed. But then it got worse. The next week I found a needle, spoon and drugs in our apartment. It was if my whole life was a fresh, crisp sheet of paper at that point--then this one event crumpled it.
"I knew that she was gone...that she was lost to me. The only woman I could ever truly love. Taken away by her own drug addiction. And I couldn't do a thing. So I moved out and buried myself in school to avoid the pain. A few months later, I got a call from her parents. She had died of a heroin overdose.
"Her parents actually *blamed me* for their daughter's death. I couldn't even go to the funeral, I was so upset. It was as if I had searched through the entire Gobi desert for a single delicate bloom. Then I found a beautiful flower...and while I soaked my eyes in its beauty and aroma, someone poured gasoline over it and set it aflame. I...snfff...watched it burn into cinders right before my own eyes. It...killed a part of me," I said, gasping and choking on my tears.
Dr. Ogawa was crying, her hand held over her face.
"So you see, Dr. Ogawa...that's it. I'm screwed. I grew up with such traumatic abuse in my childhood that it causes me to repress all my feelings towards women...towards love. I developed a cold, hardened heart while I was actively using drugs. Then I get clean, and somehow I met a wonderful woman. My one chance at being in love. I finally break through all the pain and fear and say that I'm in love with her...and through another miracle, she is able to stay with me despite all my pain. Then the woman I fall in love with relapses and dies. So I'm left with no love, no heart, no hope and all this pain. End of story. When I think of ever loving another woman, I only feel dead on the inside. My heart is dead!"
"That's horrible!" she sniffled out between sobs.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm sick and tired of hearing 'oh, how terrible' from everyone! No wonder I'm depressed...why can't anything help? I'm scared of women...actually *scared*. I live in a house with several women; I have an incredibly difficult time trying to simply be their friend. My head is filled with anxiety and paranoia. Yet they like me. The youngest one views me as an older brother figure sometimes. The rambunctious older sister actually apologized to me one day. I *know* they like me. One of them knitted me something to take to China with me. But I just can't accept my life this way...I can't go on like this!"
I looked up and saw a shimmering effect in the office, like the kind that occurs on a flat surface in the summer. Dr. Ogawa and the air around her seemed to deform; the wrinkles smoothing out into her face, her eyes becoming brighter and her hair filling out and growing long. She was shedding years before my eyes...and beginning to resemble someone I knew...
I stared wordlessly at the person sitting in front of me in Dr. Ogawa's chair. I couldn't believe what had just happened.
"WHAT THE F...!"
* * * * * * * *
Urd had found the abandoned office months ago. She created some furniture based on the doctor's offices she saw on her soaps. Then she put up the storefront ad, hoping that Cevn would see it and respond. No one else would, she guessed. From what little she knew of him from his life in Hawaii, she was able to determine that he was depressed, had lived through lots of trauma and was in need of someone to confide in. He had told her so much, back in Hawaii when she first met him and once again when he newly arrived in Japan.
She was actually surprised when he showed up in her office. Posing as an elderly gaijin woman, she would appear completely innocuous. He wouldn't suspect a thing. Not to mention that this would make him feel more comfortable to talk about himself. It was thrilling, offering her an almost seductive-like excitement. Drawing him in. Making him comfortable enough to disclose his past. Learning about all his secrets. Without him knowing who he was *really* talking with.
Urd was definitely interested in finding out what made this guy tick. The part of her that relished human drama was totally engaged in this diversion. Besides, she wanted to find out *why he was afraid of being attracted to women*. The way he reacted to her the first day she met him was incredible--absolutely bizarre. Morbid curiosity compelled her to find out why. What was his secret?
And when he started talking about those secrets, Urd felt something inside of her change. She remembered the first time he told her about the abuse in detail. Urd found herself choking back tears. Her heartstrings were not only pulled, they were yanked. Then it got more intense. He told her about living alone on the streets at *Skuld's* age with no one to protect him or care for him. It was utterly unbelievable. One night, he spent over five hours taking her along into the depths of the deep pain he felt in his life. Urd found herself wanting to shut up her ears...she couldn't stand hearing what he was describing. Her heart felt like it almost pounded out of her chest that night.
She felt sympathy for him...and something else. He was so strong, yet so fragile. He was a good-looking guy--in fact, he looked years younger than his 29 years of age. But inside, despite the pain, he was so *good*. Urd felt an unspoken but deep admiration for him.
Urd was no longer motivated by the desire to probe his secrets...he had willingly exposed them to her view. She felt an emerging feeling that she herself had repressed for eons. As he continued meeting with her, Urd began to feel a strong desire to help him conquer his fears and his pain. Perhaps this was why Kami-sama had assigned Cevn to her.
It amazed her to see both sides of him. Cevn could be one way at home, while here in the place where he laid bare his soul...it didn't seem conceivable that he was the same person she knew back at the compound. The night she stood with him on the porch in the rain, she decided that she had to try and understand him, not out of curiosity, but out of caring.
Urd began to feel a sisterly love for him. Maybe even more...she just didn't know. She sensed a growing empathy with him. Like her, his chances of finding love were dashed. But unlike her, he was able to create so much good around him and not even recognize it.
Then there was the weird stuff. The Enigma Book and his ability to read the God's *and* the Demon's Language. She was speechless with shock the first night she heard the God's Music coming from the studio of instruments he had set up in their house. His ability to resist Mara's possession *twice*. Standing up to the Almighty and confronting Him about Skuld's license suspension. Now, just a few days ago, if what Skuld had said was true, then he may well be the most powerful being in the universe. It was inconceivable. All of this...the result of one phone call...one assignment from the Goddess Relief Office.
An assignment that should have been agented by a GRO Goddess...but instead was directed to her!
She remembered his wish...the wish for balance and serenity...and then how that wish seemed to flower in their lives. He was going to *give away* the God's Music, instead of making a fortune on it. He had several times exhibited a dogged selflessness in the face of adversity. Urd *knew* that he belonged there, in Makuhari, as part of their family. Because of Cevn, Skuld was no longer a wedge between Belldandy and Keiichi. What was most perplexing to Urd was the fact that Cevn didn't set out to try and change anything between Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld. The simple fact of his presence in their lives had done this...
And now today...Urd had heard the crushing bitterness in his voice as he related how he lost his first wife. She *died*! Urd remembered Belldandy's scream of pain when she thought Keiichi had died. Her stomach knotted when she realized that Cevn had actually *lived* through that kind of loss...the loss of the love of his life.
Urd felt an explosion of deep pain when she witnessed the despair he felt. She knew now, that her heart and his were in some ways...parallel.
Then to her shock, her powers faded completely. As Peorth had warned, her power had run out...and she was no longer able to maintain her disguise. With a fearful helplessness, she could only watch as she resumed her natural form. She knew what he would think, but she had to look at him once more. She saw cruel shock and betrayal register on his face...and felt a crushing feeling in her chest as she realized that she had caused it. It was her fault. She'd screwed up again.
* * * * * * * *
"URD, WHAT THE F...!"
"W..WHY???" he screamed in a voice wracked with anguish. Cevn got up out of his chair and backed away from her. Momentarily speechless, Urd got up and went after him, not knowing what else to do. She was filled with shame.
"I...I can explain! I didn't mean it! I didn't want it to turn out this way. I only wanted to help! I wanted to help you...you have so much..." she cried out.
"So much what?...so much pain...so that you can take a morbid interest in? So much abuse...so that you can experience it vicariously? So much wasted potential? Wanted to find out how a mortal loser ticks?"
"No, no no no! Cevn, you have to try to understand..."
Cevn wheeled on her.
"Understand what? Do you have any idea of what you've done! You have utterly destroyed me. If I didn't care about you and the rest, it would be no big deal. But I *do* care. And now any trust that I have in you...is *gone*. It's as gone as a piece of glass dashed into a running train. How can I trust any of you now? Why should I? For all I know, you could have been telling them everything I've told you here."
"I wouldn't ever do a thing like that to you!"
"Yeah, like I'd believe that after you did *this*. I shared my deepest pain and hardship...with you. I came here because I need help. I desperately need help. Instead of getting any help...you betrayed me completely. You've ruined any chance I have of being friends with the others. Why in God's name did you do this? I don't ever, EVER want to see you again. I'm moving out of the house tonight. I can't live with you or any of my friends any more. You...I can't even think of what to say. I'm totally disappointed in you, Urd!"
"NOOOO! Don't leave me. Don't leave us!" Urd shrieked. She tried to grab Cevn from behind as he kicked open the office door with a crash. He pushed her away firmly; she fell back against the wall softly.
"CEVNNN! NO!" she cried out. "You can't walk out on me, on all the people that care about you."
"*Nobody* cares about me. I'm already dead to the world. If what you did is 'caring', I don't want it! Urd, I promise you this...you will never, ever see me again. None of you will."
He started down the hallway as Urd grabbed him around the waist with a desperate grip. With forced steps, he dragged her as she clung on to him futilely.
"It was a mistake. A mistake! Please understand, it was a mistake! I just wanted to know...to help," she shouted over and over. Cevn reached down and pried her fingers loose from his waist. He turned to face Urd, seeing her slumped on the floor in the hallway.
"People don't care about how much you know...they want to know about how much you care."
He slammed the hallway door shut as Urd collapsed to the floor, her face in her hands. Reality was brutal, caving in her usual self-confidence.
"I didn't mean to hurt you..." she said weakly, over and over, long after the wooden floor stopped sounding his footsteps.
* * * * * * * *
Megumi was listening to some music in the living room when Cevn walked in. After the kinetically-charged events of the past week, all she wanted was some down time. The house seemed to be strange without Belldandy and Keiichi brightening it with their love. She was so excited about Genji's coming to stay with them during the summer. A little while ago, Skuld had come out her 'Skuld Lab's' room to argue with her about whether the skyscrapers in Shinjuku could withstand an 8.0 Richter Scale earthquake.
"Where did *that* idea come from," Megumi wondered. The argument was friendly, but fraught with technical jargon and theory. At times, she was grateful to have Skuld to argue with...it helped to keep her mind's edge sharp. She noticed Cevn enter the house and decided to enjoin him in their little discussion/argument.
"Hey Cevn, Skuld and I were wondering what would happen if Tokyo got hit by an earthquake? What do you think?" He walked right past them without even acknowledging their presence. Skuld and Megumi exchanged a startled glance.
Megumi was instantly worried. Cevn seemed very upset about something. It felt as if a dark storm had entered the house in the form of a human being. They went to his room and heard the sounds of drawers opening and closing. She opened his shoji door a crack and peeked inside. Skuld was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder.
"What's the matter with Cevn?" Skuld asked.
Megumi couldn't answer...she was too upset at what she saw.
Cevn was packing.
* * * * * * * *
Megumi and Skuld held each other and cried after he left. Skuld was devastated. Cevn had never said a word to either of them the whole time. He just ignored them as if he didn't even know them. What really got to Megumi was his face. He was pale with shock and his eyes lidded with pain. He was shut down...completely shut down. Except for the tears wetting his cheeks.
They both stood in the doorway to his room as he filled his suitcase with random piles of clothes. She asked him repeatedly if she could help him, what was the matter, what was he doing? After he finished packing, he refused to answer her when she asked him where he was going. He wouldn't even look at Megumi or Skuld as he walked by them.
"You're not leaving until you tell us what is the matter, Cevn!" Megumi said as she stood in front of the living room door to block his exit. He simply turned around walked out through the sunroom door instead. Megumi shook with sobs as she watched him walk down the street and disappear into the night.
"Is...is he never going to come back?" Skuld asked.
"I don't know, Skuld," she answered between sobs.
"Where is Urd?" she wondered. "Why isn't she here...her little sister is going to lose it. *I'm* going to lose it..."
She walked back into the house, emotionally shocked to the hilt. Skuld kept to her like a shadow, anxiously stroking her long black hair. Megumi sat down on the couch and tried to pull herself together. Her mind raced as she considered the options. Missing persons report. Call the police. Find Urd and see if she knew anything. Look in his room to see if there was anything to be learned. Call N.I.T. to see if he had gotten in trouble there. Call Keiichi.
She stood up and went into the dining room and pulled down the itinerary Keiichi had left.
"Hmm, third night...that would place them in Osaka if they kept to their plan," she said to herself.
* * * * * * * *
Keiichi was sitting on the hotel bed playing mahjongg with Bell-chan. Megumi had given them a beautiful mahjongg set before they left and Keiichi was enjoying teaching Belldandy how to play. He knew that she could beat him in an instant if she wanted to, but long ago she had promised not to use her divine powers to manipulate any games, after that insane Life Sugoroku incident with Urd.
He looked out the window and saw the city lights of Osaka stretching towards the horizon. They had rented a room almost at the top of the hotel. The lights seemed out of place in comparison to the sites they visited earlier.
They had toured Osaka castle, as well as the Sumiyoshi Shrine and the Shitenno-ji Temple. All three were layered with the heaviness of history. Occasionally, Belldandy would relate some little known anecdote from the historical past, puzzling the tour guide while intriguing their tour group. But late in the afternoon, Keiichi's feet began to demand his attention...they were feeling a little sore from all the walking.
The previous night after arriving from Tokyo, they had gone dancing at Luna, a huge dance club in downtown Osaka with several live bands on venue. The disco was packed with salarymen and OLs. The office ladies all looked very animated in the midst of the dance club with their brightly revealing designer clothes; Belldandy seemed to know all of the name brands, pointing them out to Keiichi excitedly. They sat in a booth after dancing themselves sweaty and played a guessing game; which OL would go home with which salaryman. They danced almost until closing time, then walked back to the hotel. Hence his sore feet this evening.
Keiichi returned his attention to the game board. From their hotel room in the Dotombori district, they could see the beautiful lights of the advertisements reflecting off of the canal and the other tall buildings. It was a lovely urban landscape.
Keiichi was tossing down a set of tiles when the phone rang. He looked at Belldandy with a faceful of curiosity. She shook her head, indicating that she didn't order room service.
"Hello" he said.
"Keiichi..." was all he heard before Megumi broke down into sobs.
"Megumi, are you all right?" he said, suddenly forgetting about mahjongg. His little sister was brokenhearted about something...he could tell by the unsteady waver in her voice.
"She's *really* upset... Oh no, not Mom or Dad!" he thought with dire panic.
Belldandy saw Keiichi's expression change the moment he picked up the phone. In an instant, she was standing next to him, stroking his hair.
"Keiichi...Cevn just moved out...snfff...he just packed his bags and left without a word."
"Wha..what? He left? He moved out? Where's Skuld and Urd?"
Belldandy grabbed him lightly on the shoulders and relaxed his tension as he gasped loudly. Her eyebrows pulled down as she listened.
"Skuld's right here with me. She's very upset. Urd hasn't come home yet from wherever she is," the emotion swelled voice said through the phone. Keiichi thought it was extremely odd that Urd was out by herself; especially since Skuld was at home. He had noted that she seemed to be gone between 4 and 7 p.m. every Monday. This was a Monday, so maybe she would be home soon.
"Keiichi...you don't think *we* did anything to make him want to leave?" Megumi asked.
"No...no way! He really likes living with all of us. Something dreadful must have happened to make him pack up and leave. Are *you* going to be all right, sis?"
There was a brief pause.
"Yeah...as good as I can be under the circumstances. Thanks for asking, Keiichi! I'm really worried about Skuld...she's taking this really hard."
"Right...put her on. I'll get Bell-chan on the phone here," He handed the phone to Belldandy, who cradled it to her ear.
"Waaahhh..huh..snff. He left without even a word, without saying..snff..goodbye!" Belldandy heard the pain in Skuld's voice as she cried out her frustration to her older sister.
"I didn't do anything wrong! He just came in the house and packed his things and walked out. He *never* said a word about anything. Banpei didn't act like anything was wrong either. I'm really scared. What if Demoness Mara possessed him again?" Skuld's anxiety-driven voice fired through the phoneline.
"Skuld, it's going to be all right. Just stay there with Megumi and keep her company. She's upset too. We'll see what we can do from here," she offered, trying to comfort her younger sister. After exchanging good-byes, she slowly hung up the hotel phone.
"Keiichi, you're not going to want to hear this, but we need to go back home. Skuld is about ready to..." Keiichi smiled at her with his incomparable eyes and gently held her hand.
"Of course we should return home. After talking to Megumi, I'd already made up my mind. We can always go on a vacation later. They need us," Keiichi said. He was so happy that his thoughts were in concord with Bell-chan's. The synergy between he and his divine girlfriend once more astounded him. She was willing to curtail a long awaited and much-deserved vacation, so she could be with her sister and Megumi.
"I love you so much, my dear Belldandy," he thought.
"And *that* is why I need you...my love," Belldandy said to him, then kissed him lightly on the lips. Once more, Keiichi was willing to step aside from his personal interests and act for the good of everyone. He was such a wonderful man. Belldandy knew how excited he was at the prospect of spending two weeks alone with her. Now he had to give that up...and not a hint of remorse or bitterness tinged his voice. She pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him lingeringly on the lips.
"I...totally love you, Keiichi!"
* * * * * * * *
Megumi could only think of one more thing she could do. Talking to Keiichi seemed to reassure her a little. Skuld seemed much less shocked after talking to Belldandy. She picked up the phone and dialed.
"Please be there, Genji," she hoped.