Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 30 - Arrangements ( Chapter 30 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Part 30 Arrangements



Keiichi watched as the softness of Bell-chan's beauty retreated, replaced by a hard-edged bladekeen chill which overlaid her gentle disposition. His emotions swirled with fear, anger and wariness.
"First, this bodyswitch between Skuld and Bell-chan, then this thing with Urd and Cevn...and now *this*!" he thought in mounting panic. He regarded his divine girlfriend, her facial expression suggesting that his panic had mirrored itself in her soul.
All Belldandy could do was look at Keiichi with wide-mouthed shock.
Her emotions shifted into overdrive in reaction...
"Could it really be Mother? What would she want? She usually doesn't check on us all that often...maybe once every three hundred mortal years or so. And she *knows* that we three sisters have been assigned here. Why is Mother calling *now*, using the phone like Kami-sama?" Belldandy wondered, bested by her flurrying anxiety.
The prospect of mounting the inevitable...painted even more brushstrokes of apprehension on her face.
Keiichi was caught up in the fact that all three Goddesses had initially reacted with a fugue-like silence when he mentioned that their mother was on the phone. He could sense that they were *majorly* caught off guard by this news! Which only made him feel more upset as well. Urd's 'mom' Hild had spread chaos in their lives every time she dropped by for what she called a "friendly visit". If Hild hadn't made it clear that Urd was her only daughter, Keiichi was have reason to be afraid, very afraid. Imagining Belldandy with a mother like Hild was akin to trying to imagining udon soup with worms instead of noodles. Hild was a maniac...and yet Bell-chan and her sisters seemed to react with just as much agitation with the news of this phone call as they did when Hild showed up out of the blue.
A moment of tense silence dampened the suddenly chill air like a wet rag on a stove. The sister's bedroom felt like quicksand...no one wanted to bridge it with an effort at conversation, for fear of being caught in a whirlspin and dragged under.
"Keiichi, when she said that she was our mother, did she give you her name?" Urd finally asked, speaking the Goddesses' unvoiced query.
"She said her name was Freiija, Urd."
Keiichi startled forward from his wheelchair as all three Goddesses simultaneously went ashen-faced. Three loud gasps floated in the air, suspended like dead leaves in the wind.
Skuld looked bewildered. Belldandy felt a lump forming in her throat, while Urd sighed with relief.
"At least it wasn't the *other* She on the phone!" Urd said quietly, referring to *her* other She. The maniacal Demon Queen part of the family.
"Mother hasn't called after any of us since we all came here to Earth," Belldandy fretted. She looked at Skuld and Urd with mystification and dread. Now that she knew for sure that it was Mother on the phone, her heart generated a whole new set of worries.
"What if something's wrong? What if we have to go back home? No, if we had to go back...wouldn't Mother tell all three of us at the same time? Actually, wouldn't the Almighty be the one to tell us? Why does she want to talk to me, *alone*?" she said, swiftly covering her mouth as she realized that she was voicing her private concerns out loud.
"*OH NO*!!! I never told Keiichi about Mother!" she realized, her mind ajar with a flourish of discomfort. This thought brought on another torrent of plague-like insecurity and fear to the young Goddess. She looked at Keiichi with a penitent expression...no wonder he was filled with dismay!
"Bell...you never told me that you have parents!" Keiichi said in an exasperated voice, practically reading her mind. A moment earlier, he had responded with rapt disbelief when the voice on the other side of the phoneline said she was Belldandy's mother. Now that his divine girlfriend had confirmed this fact, he felt suddenly inadequate. Beyond this, an attitude was wavering raven-like at the edge of his awareness. An uncomfortable, swarming attitude of betrayal.
Belldandy had *kept a secret* from him! Not just any secret, but the existence of her parents!
"Does this mean that she didn't trust me? Or even worse, that she doesn't love me fully?" his mind seesawed back-and-forth. Her inability to confide in him about the existence of her mother was messing up his emotions...totally. It was like a pleasant dream suddenly cut short, as reality crashed in on him like an avalanche.
"Keiichi, just like we had to keep our relationship secret from your parents...I needed to keep my parent's existence secret from you. I'll explain it to you later; right now I need to find out why Mother is calling," Belldandy said evenly, trying to assure him.
"She asked for you, specifically," Keiichi added, visibly shaken with this new development.
Urd grimaced. Her intuition informed her that Mother's calling for Bell was *definitely* not a good thing.
"Expect the worst, Bell. After all, it's Mom," Urd warned soberly as Belldandy left for to the dining room and the phone.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy regarded the phone with reluctance for a few seconds, then gathered her wits and picked it up. Unheralded conversations with Mother often made her feel like she was 'walking the plank' over the gaping plunge of Urd's Well.
"Hello, Mother," she said mock-cheerfully.
"Oh, B'dandy dahling! I bet *this* is a surprise...your Mother calling you all the way from Yggdrasil! By the way, your good friend Peorth says 'Hi'," her mother said gaily. Belldandy frowned at the mention of Peorth.
Peorth meant trouble.
"It *has* been a long time since we last chatted, hasn't it my dear child? How are you managing on that horrid dusty mortal plane you're living on?" Belldandy could almost taste the sourcream condescending tone of Mother's voice regarding her presence on Earth.
"I'm doing fine, Mother. Urd and Skuld both say 'Hi' and send their love. Actually, living here on the Earthrealm with the mortals has really been rather...refreshing...for me. It has brought me some unexpected pleasures," she answered, thinking of her love for Keiichi.
"Ah...yes. We've been following your reports regularly here, especially your daily updates on your interactions with that mortal...what's his name, dear?
"His name is *Keiichi*, Mother," she corrected, bristling at her mother's little conceit. Mother *knew* Keiichi's name, but feigned ignorance because she just didn't want to say it.
"Ahh yes... Him. The 'test mortal', eh? Actually, I think it's a waste of time, myself. How could he make such a awful wish...forcing you to be posted for so long on that savage planet, alongside all those uncouth, primitive, coarse, mortal barbarians? How utterly *dreadful*! I cannot fathom how can they live in such squalor...they're literally polluting their world to death! You know what I think? I think our Lord should have just done away with all the mortals with a flood or something. They proved their unworthiness when they dropped that dreadful weapon of theirs during their last little global squabble. You know, that bomb...what did they call it, B'dandy?"
"The atomic bomb, Mother. And *you* know that I strongly disagree with you about the mortals!" (But you never listen to me...) "They have *so* much potential yet to be realized." (And one of them is proving this is true...my dear Keiichi!) "It is our duty as divine beings to nurture and encourage their growth towards the Next Level." (And you *know* this, Mom, even if you don't want to admit it!)
"Well, you were always so stubborn in your views, my dear! Almost as bad as your older sister. Ahhh, it must be your Father's influence!"
"Motherrrr..!"
"...and yet...a strong will does not experience make. You're only...240,000 of their mortal years old. Still much too young to know the ways of the Multiverse. I personally think that they'll *never* reach the Next Level," her mother stated bluntly. Belldandy shook her head in resignation as Mother continued to pontificate.
"I just hope that my daughter isn't getting *too* attached to the lowly mortal worms...while she's got bigger and better things to do. Being amongst the mortals has been known to taint us, since we *are* their betters. They're little more than pets; and even as pets, they're only slightly amusing," her Mother continued. Belldandy was getting more flustered at her mother's comments and blatant opinion-making. It almost seemed that Mother was trying to goad her.
"Yes, Mother." (Enough already!) "But you know from my reports that I am just as much of a Goddess now as I was when I came here almost four mortal years ago." (You would really be surprised at how close I *am* to one of the mortals...and I am still every bit a Goddess!)
"Yes, I must admit that you have done well, considering what you have to work with. But consider *my* position for a moment, B'dandy dahling. All the neighbors are gossiping about you! I hear them actually questioning that you're becoming *too* 'mortal' for the shame of it! Some are even saying worse...that you might have even developed a friendship with one of *them*. Blights, the very thought of my friends in society thinking *my own daughter* is a Goddess who actually *likes* living with mortals. How utterly uncapital! You do have a charitable streak in you, my dear, but you're wasting it by being among the mortal world."
"Mother sure does go on," Belldandy thought. Her patience was being taxed to the limit by her mother's tritisms.
"Right about here is when Mom gives the rundown on all the Yggdrasilian Society functions," she recalled from past conversations. "First the guilt trip, then the social scene report, then finally she'll get around to what she wants to talk about."
"Do you know the Valkyries, Belldandy dear? They threw the most mahvelous party recently! It took everybody by surprise, and it was the event of the millennium, let me assure you..." her mother continued. Belldandy was almost falling asleep as her mother shifted into gossip mode, keeping her abreast of all the latest parties, fashions and fads.
"Am I boring you dear? You haven't said a single word! Has living among the mortals made you less talkative? Why...I simply *knew* it would! How could anyone have a sensible conversation with those gauche mudslingers..."
"No Mother, you're not boring me." (Mom, I love you, but I *don't* care to hear every little bit of gossip!) "In fact, I wanted to tell you that..." Her mother interrupted her.
"Actually, you may not have to live in sufferance with the mortals much longer, dear! Mother has a surprise in mind for you! I have the most wonderful news to share with you!"
Belldandy felt a chill run up and down her spine. Her knees went wobbly as she absorbed the impact of her Mother's statement.
"This 'news' was obviously something major...and probably something I *don't* want to hear. I've got to try to sound cheerful," she reminded herself.
"Oh that's great, Mother! (I'm scared that whatever you're going to tell me...will not bode well.) "What is it?" (*How* are you trying to meddle in my life now, Mom?), she asked.
"Why, B'dandy dear, I've arranged a omiai for you! Isn't that absolutely wonderful, dahling?"

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy dropped the phone onto the floor, bundled in a complete rigor of shock. She turned, emotionally bleached by what her mother had just said...and then saw Keiichi, sitting in his wheelchair with his face drawn with anxiety, deeply concerned for her. Focusing on him, she bravely fought back tears.
"Don't cry in front of him...then he'll never guess, he'll never know," she thought furtively. Seeing Keiichi's wonderful face just made things worse. Belldandy had often heard the expression "broken heart" over the millennia...but *now* she finally knew what it meant, in all its brutality and forlornness. Tragedy had been brunted onto her heart, shattering it like a comet smashing a geodesic dome...
She wished that it wasn't so. That Mother had never told her about the omiai.
Her romance with Keiichi hadn't been exactly seamless; with Skuld's jealous possessiveness, Mara's perfidy and Urd's cupidity. Not to mention her own lapses of naivety and occasional 'jealousy storms' as her sisters termed it. And Keiichi's occasional differences of opinion. But the seams were coming unraveled right before her eyes. Suddenly, the highest aspirations of her heart seemed as fluid as ice splinters melting in a spring stream. Her life felt mercurial; water flowing through her fingers, spilling her dreams onto the ground.
Her heart was shattered. If it had been glass, the force of this blow would have pulverized it.
"The Ultimate Force...the Ultimate Force...shouldn't it have prevented this? How could she do this?" Belldandy argued with herself.
"WHY????" her mind screamed in outrage as she staggerwalked past Keiichi, her hands clenched so tight that her nails were biting into the palms of her hands. Numb with shock, Belldandy took a last look at her handsome boyfriend...her *bewildered* boyfriend...and realized an even more horrible thought.
"I've got to *tell him* about what Mother has done," she reluctantly admitted. A churning whirlpool of internal grief emerged in her already fragile heart. Overwrought with emotional agony, she couldn't bear to look at her beloved Keiichi's face again.
She rushed to the safety of her bedroom, barely restraining her tears.

* * * * * * * *

**Slam**

"Elder sister?" Skuld asked, her face filled with apprehension. Her older sister had charged into the bedroom, crashing the shoji door open and shut, seemingly enraged. Both Skuld and Urd flinched at the sound, thinking that their sister was simply angry after talking with Mother. They looked up to see their Belldandy in utter distress, tears running down her face. A few seconds later, Keiichi shouted through the closed door to see if Belldandy was okay. Belldandy looked at Urd and silently motioned for her *not* to let Keiichi in. Urd saw the desperation on her sister's face...she looked like she was being banished to Vanagdrasil or some other horrible place!
"What the hell did Mother say?" Urd wondered as she slid open the door a bit and peeked at a worried-looking Keiichi sitting in his wheelchair.
"Sorry, Keiichi...but this is family business. If it were me, I would invite you to come in, but..." Urd told him with a sylym attempt at diplomacy. Keiichi's worried face turned ireful at her refusal.
"Oh, I get it! Now that Bell's mom is in the picture, I'm not! I think this really sucks...you guys acting all secretive all of a sudden!" he angrily replied, wheeling backwards. Urd thought he was over-reacting, way over-reacting. Idiotic for most mortals, but in Keiichi's case it was his strong love for her sister rendered visible.
"Damn this fuckin' wheelchair!" she heard him yell as he tried to turn around in the hallway and banged the wall with his cast-covered left foot. Urd winced as he gasped from the dull shots of pain running up and down his leg. It didn't take a Goddess to sense the mounting angst drawing to the forefront of his thoughts.

* * * * * * * *

It had been extremely awkward, having both his legs in stationary casts. He couldn't soak for long in the bathtub...it was a trying struggle for him just to clean himself on the bathstool with soap and rinsewater. He couldn't turn his chair around in the hallway at all, a fact that he frequently forgot. He couldn't drive *anything*; he was pretty much stranded in the house since he returned from the hospital.
Cevn had been retrieving his homework assignments and PowerPoint lecture notes from N.I.T., generously provided by his sensei since some of the engineering labs weren't handicap accessible. He missed Tamiya and Ootaki and Sora and the other Motor Club members. They had visited him often in the hospital and signed his casts. Everyone was doing two jobs now; working at their jobs or school, and then performing volunteer service to help clean up their community. Poor Sora had three jobs: school, work at her folk's noodle shop, and working as a dispatcher for the cleanup crews.
He would have given anything to join them in the extra work. Instead, he had his own extra work to contend with, which was frustrating to no end. Completing the simplest daily tasks was one ordeal after another. Getting dressed initially was a thirty-minute chore; now he had it down so he could dress in half that time. Brushing his teeth was a hassle when his wheelchair was only level with the sink. If he wanted something out of the fridge, he had to be careful he didn't bang his foot when he opened the door. Consequently, he had to learn a give-and-take on daily activities, such as resigned himself to wearing shorts around the house so he didn't have to deal with pulling his jeans over his casts. The list of hassles went on and on.
"And now, to top it off...something really major is going on with *my* girlfriend...and she won't tell me what it is!" he thought resentfully.
He tried to calm himself by thinking about how Belldandy had attended him with a nurse-like devotion, caring for his every need these past few days. She had helped him get dressed the first couple of days until he could get the hang of it. She somehow found a backscrubber for him to use, despite the fact that most of the stores in Chiba Prefecture were trashed by Supertyphoon Akira. Whenever he needed something, she would bring it to him. It was almost as if she could read his thoughts. She also was giving him frequent massages since the leg casts were causing an inordinate amount of lower back tightening and pain. Twice a day, or more if he felt like it, she would knead his tightly knotted sore muscles with the expertise of a shiatsu masseur, and then gently rub his skin with light loving caresses to soothe him...
"What could be up with her?" he wondered as he rolled circles into the living room, wishing he could understand Yggdrasilian so he could figure out what their conversation was about.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy reached out and furtively grabbed each of her sister's hands for comfort as soon as she sat down on her futon bed. Both Urd and Skuld covered her hands with theirs as she cried silently, nonstop for an entire hour. Urd and Skuld were terrified...something Mother had said to her over the phone must have *really* rocked her world in the worst way.
Urd felt guilty for sending Keiichi away. She knew he must be terribly worried about his girlfriend; but she had to respect her younger sister's wish for privacy. It dawned on Urd that she had *never* seen Belldandy so upset in her entire existence. Absolutely never. The Belldandy whose hand she was clutching was *empty*! She could feel only a vacuum in the place where her sister's happy disposition should have been.
Skuld was in a panic. Seeing her older sister so upset, so vulnerable, had prompted her to feel very intimidated. This just added to her desperate confusion. When Belldandy's crying became less intense, Skuld jumped to the conclusion all on her own that Keiichi shouldn't be left alone. So she volunteered to go sit with him. Actually, she just wanted to get away from the sight of her distraught sister. Once she informed her two older sisters of her intent, Belldandy seemed to compose herself just enough to say a few words.
"Mother...has...arranged...an...omiai...for...me," she uttered weakly in a pitiful voice of dejection.
"WHAT?" Urd and Skuld yelled, stunned by what they had just heard.
"B..but I'm older than you by at least 20,000 years! I'm the Eldest Norn...*I* should be the first one Mother should have picked!" Urd added, instantly jealous and indignant.
"Big Sister Urd!!! How could you even think about yourself at a time like this?" Skuld interrupted angrily. Skuld couldn't believe what she had just heard from her middle sister.
"Belldandy. Omiai. Belldandy. Omiai," kept looping through Skuld's mind like a bleak refrain from some symphony gone badly.
Urd looked at her enraged and frightened youngest sister, then back to Belldandy, who was hanging her head in sheer despondency. Urd felt disconcerted every time she saw that empty look in Bell's eyes. She felt overwhelmed; when her mind was unsettled, she would have instinctively sought a sensible explanation from Belldandy. But Bell was like a vacant cave; soundless, lightless, dark and empty.
"My sister must have somehow become deranged...she must be only imagining such things," Urd concluded, unwilling to accept what Bell had just said. She half-expected to see a mischievous grin emerge on Belldandy's face; a grin that would confess to them that this was all a tearup practical joke. But no smile came...Belldandy continued to hang her head as tears dripped off her reddened cheeks onto the futon blanket.
Skuld felt an immense blast of *something horrid* as she saw the sadness in Belldandy's eyes. This was a feeling like she had never felt before. It was horrible, smothering...and inescapable. Mara at her worst was frightening, especially in her evil lair. But *this* made the horror of their Demoness adversary look like creamy croissants. *This* was horror of the worst kind...a bleak, empty, *untouchable* terror.
"Whatever Mom told Elder Sis, it's utterly crushed her," Skuld whispered to Urd. She was uneasy, as she was faced with the difficult task of choosing sides. On one side was her Mother and on the other side was her beloved Elder Sister. She felt a flash of resentment at her Mother, followed by a feeling approaching homesickness. She wanted to be safe and sound, resting in Mother's bosom again, just like she did when she was a little girl. Mother would take the pain away.
"Why is life always so full of choices?" Skuld agonized to herself. "And what about Keiichi? Even though I'm not fully convinced that he's right for my sister...he still is very nice to her. If he finds out, he'll be utterly crushed!"
Skuld looked at Belldandy and felt crushed herself by the weight of her sister's glazed-eye depression. Urd's suntanned skin blanched as she realized that *this was for real*!
"You mean...did I hear you right, Bell? Mother has arranged for you...to be engaged to be *married*," she said, barely able to force the words out for want of belief. Belldandy reacted to Urd's inquiry with even deeper sobs.
"B..but *how*? You have a wish contract with Keiichi that requires you to be *here*!" Urd erupted in anguished disbelief.
"It's something that has to do with Mother being the Goddess of Marriages. Something that allows her to overrule or somehow void my wish contract with my dearest Keiichi..." Belldandy answered in a hollow, tinythin voice.

* * * * * * * *

If he hadn't been confined to a wheelchair with two broken legs, Keiichi knew that he would be pacing through the house in grave anxiety. As it was, he was wheeling in circles around the living room, weaving between the two sets of couches. It had been several hours...and not so much as a word from the Goddesses! His patience was wearing veneer-thin as he hoped against hope that the circumstances surrounding her mother's call would not affect Bell-chan too adversely.
Finally, Keiichi sighed with relief as the shoji door slid open and a haggard-looking Belldandy emerged from the sister's bedroom, wearing a tear-soaked nightgown and robe. She walked over to him with measured steps, as if she was trying too hard to appear composed. Keiichi could tell in an instant that she was in *huge* emotional pain. It reminded him uncannily of Gramps when Great-grandma died. "Could it be something like a death in the family?" he wondered to himself, prompted by memories of the funeral from wayback kid days.
Belldandy fell to her knees on the floor next to his wheelchair and started sobbing on his arm. Keiichi found himself stroking her long brunette tresses with his other hand, trying to soothe her.
"Keiichi...I..I," was all she could gasp out between heaving sobs. Belldandy would have given the world...even the Multiverse...to escape from telling Keiichi what she needed to tell him. What she *had* to tell him. The most awful words he will probably ever hear in his life. She felt her throat constricting as she choked on the grief she was feeling in her heart.
"I *can't* tell him!" she realized with mounting horror. Each time she stole a glance at his gentle brown eyes, she found her reluctance increasing. A battle of conflicted emotions raged inside of her, causing her to tremble violently. The last thing she wanted to do was share the news that had crushed all her hopes and dreams. This whole situation was too macabre, too surreal. Her heart felt suffocated by the task ahead of her.
"Bell-chan...what is it, my dear love?" Keiichi asked with deep uncertainty, still soothing her hair. She was shaking so hard that he became scared-worried.
Belldandy lifted her head up to look at him, her mellow azure eyes framed with red. Keiichi almost recoiled from the sight; he had only seen her look so distraught only once before. That time, she had been recalled to Yggdrasil, almost three years ago. It seemed like her fear arced across the short distance and charged him with an almost-electric shock. He looked in her eyes...and felt a doomsday feeling.
"This is *bad*!" he sensed.
"K..Keiichi...I have to..snff..go back to Yggdrasil. My mother has arranged a..snff..marriage interview. A..an...Omiai."
There. It was done. It was only a few words hanging in the air. Belldandy let go of Keiichi and collapsed to the floor as she realized that she had just snuffed her entire love life with Keiichi with two short sentences. Even worse, she had dashed the heart of her closest friend...and only lover.
The love of her life.
Keiichi-san had been the only man to ever touch her heart and make it fully flower forth with romance and tenderness. For the first time, she had failed at providing relief in the form of a wish. The words she spoke seemed to echo in the chambers of her mind.
"I've just caused the most intense pain in Keiichi's life by telling him. I've just had to hurt the person that I care about more than anyone else in existence," she acknowledged with terrible insight. "I can't look at him...I can't look at him...I can't look at him after what I just told him!" she thought, and then she dashed out of the room, unable to bear another moment.
Keiichi felt a hellborne scream tear itself from his lungs...from his heart...as he howled, ejecting his frustration with unconscious force.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

* * * * * * * *

Urd heard the agonized scream from the living room. She wanted to collapse into a black hole; to hide within herself and never come out.
"This is not happening...Mother never really called and told Belldandy that she had arranged a marriage for her. It never occurred," she told herself, trying to ignore the piercing shouts of anguish. Footfalls raced past her bedroom door.
Skuld peeked out the shoji door and looked at her oldest sister with a sad-eyed expression. Belldandy was standing in the hallway, her forehead resting against the wall as her whole body shook with deep sobs. She felt a wall of sadness threatening to break in her heart. It was being assaulted by the throes of two shattered hearts, two shattered lives.
"She must have told him," was all Skuld could say in a soft voice, strangely discordant with the screams from the other room.
"Skuld-sama...feeling empathy for Keiichi?" Urd teased her, more out of frustration than sarcastic intent. Her taunt flew by the youngest Goddess.
"Yes! He *loves* her, Big Sister! I don't think he has ever loved somebody as much as he loves Belldandy. How could Mother do such a thing? She's so unreasonable!"
"From the mouth of a child," Urd thought to herself. Skuld's words had rung a bell of honor in her mind. Urd heard Keiichi scream again, this time more hoarsely. Belldandy's pain was overwhelming, but *this* was ridiculous! Rage coursed upon rage as Urd jumped to her feet, arms rigid against her sides.
"That does it! I'm going to call Mother! She can't get away with this!"

* * * * * * * *

Five minutes later, a blue lightning bolt lashed down from the sky, blasting Urd to the floor and burning the fringes of her robe.
Mother was a *Senior* First Class Goddess, Unlimited License.
The loud report of cannon-like lightning burst almost caused Megumi to jump out of her skin. She and Genji were desperately trying to comfort Keiichi. Belldandy was too distraught to do anything. Three meters separated her brother and his Goddess girlfriend, but the gap might as well have been as wide as the Pacific Ocean. Her brother was in meltdown mode, and Belldandy was already meltdowned, Megumi noted sadly as she saw the middle Goddess sitting in the middle of the floor, holding onto Skuld for dear life.

* * * * * * * *

Once more, I had to work late at N.I.T. This time, the reason was the upcoming National Culture Day activities at the college. National Culture Day, November 3rd, was just a couple days away. Already, the night air was rapidly changing from the humid heat of summer to the chill aridity of winter. In some ways, the cool air was reassuring...no cyclonic storm could threaten Makuhari while the air was this cold.
Dr. Kintaro had insisted that the school put on an extra-special Culture Day in the wake of Supertyphoon Akira.
"N.I.T. has the responsibility to serve as a cultural center for our community. With the disastrous events of this year, a strong display of culture is greatly needed. Culture plays an extremely important role towards lending the appearance of normalcy to our city of Makuhari," he told us in pep-talk terms. I couldn't agree with him more; in fact, I felt a cheerful enthusiasm towards this project. Genji and I had volunteered for debris and demo duty every Sunday since Akira, and I welcomed the idea of doing something else besides making small piles out of big piles. Not to mention all the shots for tetanus and other contagious and communicable diseases that tended to be endemic to disaster zones.
When I arrived home, it felt like the house had burned down. Urd was lying unconscious on the floor, burnt. Keiichi had wheeled his wheelchair into a corner of the living room and was staring into the corner. Belldandy was sitting with Skuld in the middle of the floor, a look of complete sufferance on her face. Megumi and Genji were sitting next to Keiichi, looking miserable.
My cheerfulness fled away like geese migrating south.

* * * * * * * *

"I don't want to live anymore," Keiichi said in a distant voice. I remembered his earlier admission...that he had developed suicidal leanings in high school because of his short stature. My fears escalated as he started talking gibberish again.
"He's detaching from his sanity," I told myself once Megumi and Genji filled me in on what had just transpired. "After what he's been through, that's quite understandable. He breaks his legs in the storm, and now his heart just got broken." I realized that someone was going to have to keep a 24-hour lookout for him. Some of the stuff that had driven me towards suicidal think was minor compared to the kind of loss he was dealing with. I was worried about Urd as well...she hadn't budged since I returned home. Something had given her the mother of all knockout punches.
"I can't live without Belldandy!" he wailed, then launched into another mantra of disconsolance.
A few minutes later, Urd stirred, much to my relief. I excused myself to ask her how she was. Once more, I wanted to hold her, to comfort her with my presence...but the Ultimate Force barrier held fast and prevented me from even hugging her.
"I tried to talk some sense into Mother, and she zapped me. I couldn't tell her about Bell and Keiichi, so she thought I was just being dipwad daughter. She got furious with me, and you already know the result," she told me, running her fingers along the burnt fringes of her dress and robe I thought I wasn't hearing right...Urd had said, "Mother"? She noticed the confused look on my face and launched into a woozy explanation.
"Yes, all Gods and Goddesses have parents, just like you Earthborn mortals. I guess that you haven't gotten to that part of the Enigma Book, otherwise you'd know already," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. She sat up off of the floor and examined her robe and hair for burns.
"This is awful, I must look horrible," she commented on her frazzed hair. My face must have registered a dozen emotions at once, because she settled into an almost lecturing voice.
"My half-Mother on the God side...her name is Freiija. Your ancient Nordic people called her Frigga in the Edda legends. Mom was married to Odeyn when she was about Belldandy's age. Mom was the apprentice Goddess of Love at that time, while Odeyn was the apprentice head of the Yggdrasil Energy Guild.
I remembered a section in the Enigma Book that documented the Energy Guild. The Energy Guild was basically responsible for maintaining atrophy/entropy balance in the Multiverse, plus powering Yggdrasil. Thus, the head of the Energy Guild was one of the most prominent Gods in Yggdrasil, wielding great influence. Urd looked at me with beautiful aqua-green eyes, I was struck once more by her ardour, even though she was burned and blistered.
"Anyway, since Mother married so well, she immediately became one of the pillars of the Yggdrasilian social scene, what you might call a 'jet setter'. Odeyn was on the fast track to become one of the most powerful Gods in all of Yggdrasil. Besides the Almighty, there are only three other Gods as powerful: Thord, Lokii and Hel. Also, because of her high status, Mother is one of only a handful of Senior First Class Goddesses. She is much more powerful than all three of us combined," she added, referring to her and her sisters.
"So why would she want to arrange a marriage for Belldandy?" I asked with more than a hint of irritation.
"Because, she's the former Goddess of Love. When she turned over that responsibility to me, she was promoted to Goddess of Marriages. I have a sneaky suspicion that her society friends put her up to it! Between her and Father, Belldandy simply cannot refuse to attend the omiai," she explained, smoothing her singed eyebrows with her little finger.
"Mother is very strong-willed when she wants something to go her way. You just saw how she treated me when I argued with her about Belldandy. Mother is very crafty as well. One time, she managed to steal Father's precious statue jewels and make them into a necklace for herself. Father was going to cast a spell to make the statue talk so he could find out what happened to its jewels, but Mom was able to convince a friend to smash it before it could inform him. So she got over on him until he caught her with necklace. The funny thing is, he told her she could have the jewels for the asking. Mother could easily compete with Mara in the shrewdness department. On top of that, she is addicted to jewelry and ornaments. I'm pretty sure that I got my scheming mind from her," Urd added with pride. I stifled a laugh at this; Urd's schemes usually backfired. All I had to do was say "Mama Bear" and Urd would get the picture.
"If Belldandy goes back, then what can she do? Surely, someone up there knows that she and Keiichi are in love?"
"Keiichi's status as Test Mortal for the Earthrealm pretty much prevents everyone else from knowing, because there's a kind of 'privacy filter' that censors any indication of love between he and Bell, at least to Yggdrasilian minds. Peorth knows, of course. But Peorth can't say anything about it, because Belldandy humiliated her last year when she had a crush on Keiichi. If Peorth said anything, she would be the laughing stock of the Relief Office. Besides her, the only other one who knows of it is we sisters and Kami-sama," Urd explained, laughing weakly when she got to the part about Peorth. Shen halted in mid-chuckle as Keiichi started to wail in grief again.
"What's the matter, Cevn?" Urd asked, noticing my sudden dip into sullenness.
Keiichi's near-insane screams were triggering a very painful sequence of memories. My heart felt sick. About two years into my recovery, I had married a wonderful woman. She was in recovery as well. I was sure that she would be my life's soulmate. Within a year, she had returned to using heroin and died from a drug overdose. Nine years ago...nine years of pain. It was bad at first, but it eventually lessened. In his loudly-shouted emotional agony, I heard revisiting echoes of my past. I remembered screaming like he was when I left the coroner's office.
"Oh my Lord...your ex-wife!" Urd said, a look of recognition on her face. I felt more long-embraced pain; tears formed in my eyes. I struggled to fight them. For some reason, I was grateful for her impersonation of Dr. Ogawa; it meant that she knew me in a way most people didn't. I had expected her to use it against me, for them to banish me from their lives because of my past. Instead, Urd had known why I was struggling.
"Urd, you know that I've been through the loss of a loved one. It wasn't as sudden, as unexpected as Keiichi's...but I *know* the kind of pain that's going through his heart right now. We've got to keep a tight rein on him. If he's anything like me, he'll try to kill himself," I concluded, saying the last in a whisper. Urd shuddered at my intimation of a possible suicide attempt on Keiichi's part.
"Besides Megumi, Skuld and I are the closest to Keiichi. We'll keep a clock-close watch on him. I think that the rest of you guys should try and go on...keep the routines running around here. Keep him busy with schoolwork, go to school yourselves...act like yourselves," she suggested.
"Yeah, you're right! A pattern of normalcy will help offset the disruption in his life. Shit...he's been through the wringer with his broken legs. I don't know if he can take any more," I added, knowing deep inside that Urd was right on target. Then a crazy inspiration filled me. It was contrary to my convictions, but...
"Urd, if there is ever a reason for you to get drunk, it's just popped in your lap!" I said brightly. Urd looked at me and tipped her head in confusion, as if I had lost my mind.
"Think! Keiichi is probably going to do what any other guy would do under the circumstances...get really obliviated."
"Huh?"
"Get plastered. Get sake'd out. Get rip-roaring drunk. And since you're the village inebriate, you can keep him company. Take him bar-hopping, and then make sure he gets back in one piece."
"You dope, he's in a *wheelchair*, if you haven't forgotten! And I'm *not* the village inebriate...in fact I think I've been doing pretty well since you and I got together!"
"That's up for debate...but regardless, you can be his drinking buddy. Sayoko's clean, so she can't take up her former role as 'female party pal' for Keiichi. So it's got to be you! Just get him out of the house, even if it's on the porch...or better yet on that hill behind our temple. You can wheel him up there and sing until your drunken hearts are delighted. And no hanky panky!"
"What? You think that I would take advantage of poor 'ol Keiichi in his time of need. Well, I *ought* to, just because you said that. Don't you trust me?" she asked, a hurt expression on her face. I knew that I had gone too far with that one. Why couldn't I trust that Urd could wear her love like heaven? I needed to apologize...and quick.
"Look, Urd, all that stuff about my ex-wife has really unsettled me...I'm sorry I came off like I didn't trust you. I *do*...it's just that love for me has always been a disaster. There's gonna be times when I stick my head so far up my ass, it'll be impossible to put my foot in my mouth. Sorry for being an idiot. Just try to remember that idiocy is temporary in my case," I offered.
"You too, huh? Did I ever tell you about Troubadour? He cheated on me bunches of times..." She cut herself off, and I sensed that she was feeling uncomfortably resentful at the past.
"Keiichi and I...getting plastered. Hmmmm, sounds like it should be interesting. And *you* have nothing to worry about...I *love* you!" Urd noted.
"S'fair enough. I don't want to be quoting tragic poems from Sung Dynasty to myself," Cevn quipped back.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy decided to leave the next day. Every time she saw Keiichi, a stabbing pain in her heart squeezed the breath away from her. She surrendered to the fact that staying any longer would simply protract and intensify the misery that she was feeling. She and Keiichi were feeding into each other...emotionally commiserate. She could tell by looking at him that, despite his own agony of the spirit, he was empathizing with *her* pain, taking it on as well.
Skuld and Urd had begged her to stay and strategize; perhaps they could devise a means to thwart Mother's will. But Belldandy was resigned to the fact that she had to attend the omiai. The divine conduct of filial piety demanded that she heed her parent's will in this matter.
Since tomorrow was Saturday, everybody would be home. She doubted that any of her mortal housemates was in good enough emotional shape to show up for their volunteer disaster efforts. Belldandy dreaded leaving, but she felt a slight comfort in the fact that her departure would be well attended by the people that care about her the most. Also, they would be immediately available to console Keiichi after she left. She was worried sick that he might die from a broken heart.
Try as she might, she couldn't stop seeing his face in the deepmost part of her heart, a face full of disappointment and grief the last time she saw it. She wanted to cast a mental image of a smiling Keiichi...but was unable to.
"Love is like an ocean...it can buoy one up...it can wash ashore majestically...and it could drown one's heart," she thought poetically.
"I'm drowning," she said aloud. There would be no sleep for her tonight. She looked at Urd and Skuld sleeping on either side of her...she had taken Skuld's middle futon tonight so she could be surrounded by the presence of her sisters.
So much would be unknown...
Without her powers, she couldn't even leave the Earthrealm. She would even have to rely on Mother to transit her back to Yggdrasil. In the middle of the night, she called and arranged her return for the coming morning.
"If Mother can tell that I'm upset...she isn't letting on," she thought in deep anguish.
Skuld nestled next to her as she lay back down in her futon. She wanted to spend this last night with Keiichi: being held by him, looking into his infinite brown eyes with passion, telling him her innermost thoughts, making love to him, sharing her heart with him... But she couldn't. The pain was too acute...the gulf between she and he too overwhelming.
"I'm *alone*," Belldandy realized morosely. With two sisters, a boyfriend, several mortal friends and three Ninjettes, plus a cast of acquaintances both on Earth and on Yggdrasil...and she felt like the lone keeper of an isolated lighthouse.
"So...alone," she said as the tears streamed off her cheeks, making a paddering noise as they splashed on her futon blanket.

* * * * * * * *

Keiichi couldn't believe she was going. Even when the cylinder of light sparkled around her. Even when she lifted off the ground and floated up through the hole in the temple roof created by her irate mother the previous night. He craned his head upwards, watching her form dwindle to a speck...then his eyes played tricks on him as he saw the speck remain...
"Keiichi, she's gone," Megumi stated.
He rolled his wheelchair to the right, to try and steal a last glimpse of her departing form. Seeing nothing but a late October blue sky, he felt his heart empty itself out like a broken jar.
Megumi watched as her brother slumped in his chair. Everybody stood around him...he forced his way through the circle with his chair.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screamed, and then wheeled down the hall to his room.

* * * * * * * *

In my room, I felt an emptiness. I looked around...things were still the same. There was leftover mud in the windowsills from Akira. Piles of books and student papers littered the floor. The Enigma Book was setting on an endtable. My blacklight was on, even though it was daytime. Outside, I could hear autumn sounds...the chilly crisp of the wind, the wispy crackle of leaves brushing against the house. But it felt *different*. Like a breeze-borne candlelight that was snuffed out suddenly. The heart of the house was gone...actually both hearts. One heart was dissolved in grief. The other was up in Yggdrasil somewhere.
My room was no longer my room. It was a painful reminder of love torn apart. Belldandy and Keiichi would no longer brighten my room with the radiance of their affections for each other. I heard a knocking on the door. Urd came in and sat down next to me. She was about ready to burst into tears. It seemed like everyone had been crying *a lot* in the past month.
"She's gone. And it didn't even hit me until I turned on the TV!" Urd said quietly. "Belldandy used to give me grief when I would play the TV too loud...now, she's not here..snff..to tell me to turn it down!" Funny, how the little things can cue up the biggest senses of loss. I felt my heart going out to her.
"What if she has to marry some...damned God! And if she does, what if *we* have to leave. Belldandy's the reason we're all here, Skuld and I. If she's gone..."
I felt my spine snapping rigid with the implication. No Belldandy...no Urd. No Urd...no love for me.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT!" I shouted. My reaction was quick and decisive. I didn't want to visit those realms of thought. But it was evident that Urd had already traveled down that road of conjecture.
"I..snff..don't want to lose you, Cevn. What if the phone rings and it's Mother calling for *me*? What if the Lord calls and summons Skuld and I back to Yggdrasil?"
I was speechless. There was nothing I could say in response to her voiced fears. With one phone call, the genuine love Belldandy had for Keiichi was swept aside; rendered powerless by the sweep of tradition. It could happen again.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy greeted her mother with downcast eyes.
"Oh, honey! It's so good to *see* you after all this time. Are you okay? Well, you must be nervous; that's why you're acting so quiet. I should have known that you would be a little overwhelmed by the prospect of getting married. It'll be the social event of the season...I'll *make sure* of it!"
Belldandy started crying.
"There...there. You shouldn't cry like that on the eve of the biggest adventure in your existence! I've picked the very best for you. I spent a long time poring over his family credentials. He's very qualified...a member of the Warlord Guild."
Belldandy was startled towards numbness. Of all the offices and guilds in Yggdrasil, she absolutely *hated* the Warlord Guild most of all! They were a vainglorious group of Gods (and a few deserters from the Valkyries) who reveled in attacking Vanagdrasil. Of course, they couldn't inflict any significant damage on their Demonic counterparts unless War had been declared, since the Rule allowed for a very minimum of interaction between Gods and Demons. So instead, they attacked the workings of the Demons, such as destroying Demonic strongholds on various planets in the universe. Belldandy didn't like militancy in any form. But the worst part of the Warlord Guild by far was the *attitude*. Martial pride was disgusting to her...beyond which the WarGods were impeccably organized to a fault...beyond which the WarGods were vicious, cruel and arrogant. Everything about them was the opposite of dear Keiichi.
They represented everything that Belldandy stood against.
The WarGods had actually petitioned the Almighty to allow them to smite all the mortals after Hiroshima! If the Almighty would have favored extinction, the WarGods would have swarmed on the mortals in a final, orgasmic bloodbath.
"How could Mother possibly pick a WarGod for me?" she thought helplessly, too overpowered by the situation to feel angry or indignant. This whole thing reeked of a political alliance that Mother, or maybe even Father, was trying to establish.
"I *know* that you're probably a bit nervous, sweetie...I was too, the day before my omiai. I really wanted to impress your father with my beauty and my cultured manners. I think once our future son-in-law he sees you, he'll fall in love with you on the instant. Then we can look at arranging the particulars of the wedding."
This was too much for Belldandy. She levitated and floated out of the room...anywhere where she could be away from her Mother and her schemes.

* * * * * * * *

Once again, Keiichi was sitting alone next to one of the indoor trees in the sunroom. He'd been isolating ever since yesterday when Belldandy left. Every time one of us would try to strike up a conversation with him, he would simply ignore us and roll his wheelchair into another part of the house. Trying to gain his attention and interest was like the proverbial 'piercing the veil' challenge that served as a philosophical and psychological topic in the writings of medieval Muslim authors, such as Ibn Tufayl in his "Hayy Ibn Yaqzan". In Keiichi’s case, the veil was an impenetrable wall of grief. Despite his rebuffs, I had to keep trying to reach him, somehow. His withdrawal did not bode well for any of us.
Last night, Megumi had practically begged me to try and counsel her older brother. As if she would have to actually ask for me to help her. If anything, I owed her; Megumi was the first friend I made when I was brought here to this temple and the new life which awaited me. This woman, whom I had only known for a few months, with whom I shared so little in common...was crying on my shoulder with desperate nail-biting pain. My 'adopted sister'...the sister that I never had. I felt my own inadequacies, because she was the one who needed consoling, she was so distraught. How do I brother a younger sister when I had lived my entire life without siblings? How do I brother a younger brother who had just lost his one true love? Maybe the answer in all this was to try and step up and be that brother-figure for Keiichi. With all the assumed resolve of a strong older brother, I walked into the sunroom to confront him; feeling an anything-but-sunny vibe in the air.
"Hey...Keiichi, wanna talk about it?"
"Shut up!!! Just leave me alone, like I've been asking you and everyone else. My life is screwed! You couldn't' possibly understand what I'm going through. Talking won't help, I'm going to feel wretched anyway..." he said in a hoarse voice. Standard 'leave-me-alone' cries for help.
"When are you going to stop feeling sorry for yourself?" I asked, hoping to gain his attention by pushing him towards anger. After a moment, he wheeled around to face me, a dour rage written all over his face.
"What the hell do you know about it? Or about me? Belldandy...was my life. MY LIFE!!! And now she's gone..." He wheeled his chair back around, signifying the our conversation was over.
"You're right, I don't know what it's like for you, Keiichi. But I do know what it was like for me. About ten years ago, I married a very wonderful woman whom I felt strongly in love with. Every fiber in my being told me that she was my soulmate. Within a year, she was dead. She died from a 'bomb'...a cut of heroin that didn't get stepped on," I said angrily. Keiichi looked at me with an unfathomable expression.
"She didn't even tell me that she had parents..."
Keiichi was tuned out. I stepped in front of his wheelchair, reached over his legs and gripped the rails.
"Leave me alone, Cevn!"
"That's exactly what you *don't* want and certainly what you don't need. To be alone. Being alone is at the center of this, isn't it?"
"You can try and do all your psychology crap to me all you want...it isn't going to take away the fact that Belldandy is *gone*! She's probably going to marry some God up there in Yggdrasil...and I'll be stuck here with nothing but emptiness where my heart used to be. I LOVED her!! We've been together almost four whole years! What really sucks is..snff..a couple weeks from now would have been our four-year anniversary. She came to me in mid-November of my freshman year..."
I felt a horrid reaction in my gut, like a wet towel being snapped inside of me. Once more, I silently cursed Belldandy's mother for doing this to Keiichi...and her.
"Please, Keiichi, don't hang on to it. Tell me more..."
"When I first met her, I was calling around for someone to deliver food to the dorm...all the guys were gone. This wonderful voice answers and offers me a wish. I thought it was a joke," he narrated.
"I can relate...I thought it was some kind of prank or hallucination myself when Urd answered my prayers," I empathized. Keiichi offered only the briefest of nods, then continued.
"The first time I saw Bell-chan, she just appeared *out of the mirror*! Like someone walking into a room through an open doorway. I was totally freaked out. She offered me a wish...and I remembered that I really hadn't ever had a girlfriend. Not in high school...not in college prep school. It was hard not to think about girls when I have this totally gorgeous, beautiful Goddess floating right in front of my nose! So I wished that she could stay with me forever. But my *unspoken* wish was that, somehow, she could be my girlfriend...that she could fall in love with me. That's what I was really thinking when I told her about my wish.
"Then I got kicked out of the dorm and spent weeks bouncing around from one friend to another trying to find a place to live. We stayed with this friend of mine, a real otaku sorta guy. He gets all obsessed about Bell-chan, and I ended up having to deck him over the head with his VCR. That seemed to happen with every friend I stayed with. Looking back on it, I was such an idiot…I could have just asked her to help me find a place. Then we stayed at a Buddhist temple...this temple. Bell-chan really freaked out the abbot there. We shuffled around to several other places, then we ended up here.
"Belldandy created this place. This temple was a total dump before she enchanted it. It was overrun with weeds, and the locals had been disposing their trash on the grounds. The temple itself was all rotted wood and broken windows. People even thought it was haunted. But Bell-chan *fixed* it and said this was going to be our home. So it was just her and I for a few months, which was really wonderful. But at the same time, it scared me to death. I never had a girlfriend before in my life, and now I was living alone with a Goddess! Then Spring Break rolls around, and Urd pops up. By that time, I knew I wanted Bell-chan to be in love with me...and with Urd's 'help' I realized that she already was in love with me. Then Spring Break comes, and Urd pops up. By that time, I knew I wanted Bell to be in love with me...and with Urd's 'help' I realized that she already *was* in love with me.
"The time we went out to the beach resort at Kujukurihama, she saved me from nearly drowning...and then she was *upset* when Urd's 'love pills' backfired and got me in love with Sayoko. So I knew then that she had feelings for me. Not just that, but all the other little hints here and there, like her getting so into my races," he continued, clearly breasted by a sentimental spirit.
"Then Skuld comes along...and you can imagine what that was like. Suddenly I had to *prove* my love for Belldandy to her little sister. I worked myself until I was totally exhausted in order to buy her a ring. It was only 45K yen, but that's a fortune for a college freshman. So I worked my ass off to get her the ring for Christmas. Shortly afterwards, she gets called back. It was then that I started to wonder about her statement about the 'Ultimate Force' not allowing us to be separated.
"So here I am, almost four years together with her...and she ends up leaving. I feel like I gave my heart away...FOR NOTHING!" Keiichi screamed the last two words like an oath, and I flinched at the intensity of his anger.
"So...how can you say anything that could make me feel better?" he asked.
I don't know why, but I talked about the last days of my marriage...how my wife was cheating on me, how she started using drugs again, how she returned to prostitution...and how she died. The quality of heroin is very inconsistent on the streets, and she got an extra-pure balloon of junk that didn't get cut. Junkies die by the hundreds every year because of this. She shot up a large load, which should have only gotten her high. Instead of a 10-20 heroin mix, she ended up with an almost pure dose. It would have been enough to kill anyone. She overdosed because it shut her body down. Permanently. When I found out, I was numb for a long time. Revisiting that chapter in my life was very painful, but perhaps it might be something that could resonate with Keiichi's profound sense of loss.
"Keiichi, you're treating this loss like it's a permanent one. But you don't have a crystal ball or the insight of Skuld to predict the future with 100 percent accuracy. So how do you really know what's going to happen? I *know* that my ex-wife is gone...that she'll never come back. But, at least you have a chance that Belldandy will come back to you! If she loves you as much as you love her, she's going to find a way to get through all this and come back where she belongs. She knows she belongs with you. She, like everyone else, is simply looking to go to where the love is. And the love she's found…is within you. Is with you," I said, letting out a long sigh to signal him that I was finished. I was emotionally exhausted.
Keiichi looked at me with tears of confusion in his eyes. I could sense that somewhere inside of him, a small flame of hope was still brightly burning. I only wished that he could see the darkness in its role of providing contrast, so that the radiance of his faith in Belldandy could be more visible. Otherwise, the darkness would smother his heart and extinguish his trust.
Rocks, paper, scissors...life must go on, fair or not.
"I..I'll think about what you said, Cevn. I don't know if it'll make me feel any better, but thanks for trying," he said with watery words.

* * * * * * * *

"Ah, B'dandy dear! Could you come here please?" Belldandy was seated atop one of the crystalclouds, watching the pink rains float upward towards the skysland dream matrix, hovering overhead. Reluctantly, she flew over and settled onto the bench her Mother was sitting on.
"I wanted to brief you on your fiance. His name is Tyyr, son of Friijda."
An orange puff of air formed and coalesced into a statue-like simulacrum of her intended future husband.
"He comes from a *very* good family; they have an extensive background in directly serving the Almighty in all sorts of capacities. His mother is in charge of the Dream Creation Guild, his father is in charge of the Deliberate Chaos Office."
"Lokii!" Belldandy thought with fear. Lokii was one of the most feared Gods in Yggdrasil. His divine nature tended towards cunning manipulation; qualities that were necessary for anyone in charge of the Deliberate Chaos Office. He had to be cunning, because his office was the counterpart to the Demon's Random Chaos Office. Belldandy had placed all her hopes on the slim chance that she might be able to convince her parents to call off the omiai. But with Lokii and Friijda involved...it would be impossible. Once more, she felt tears welling up inside of her.
She looked at the hologram of Tyyr. In a split-second, she was repulsed. He was partly balding, with short red hair in a crew-cut. His eyes were hooded by thick brown-red eyebrows and narrowed in a cold stare. He had a long braided warbeard and an ugly length of scar running down one cheek. He was muscular to a fault; his mesomorphic qualities were intimidating, even frightening. Belldandy had thought that Tamiya was soldierly...but Tyyr made Tamiya look like a beagle puppy in comparison. One of his arms was artificial; but instead of having a hand, he had a horrible gutting blade at the end of his arm. Even though this was a reproduction, his fierce nature was very evident to the young Goddess. With a chill, she envisioned his hands touching her, his lips kissing her...
"Isn't he a handsome one, sweetie? He's the *Marshall* of the WarGods...just like your father was! He's as tough as solar radiation, that one. Remember when that horrible Demon unleashed Fenrir recently by using the Ultimate Destruction Program? Well, after Fenrir was banished from your mortal plane, he came here and wrecked havoc. Tyyr not only subdued him, but he bound him by Urd's Well. So...we all owe him for saving us from another Ragnarok. You'll be marrying a hero, dahling!"
"I'm *already* in love with a hero, Mother," Belldandy thought. She had to be extra-cautious in shielding her thoughtforms; otherwise Mother would become more suspicious. She did have one advantage; Mother seemed to interpret her crying spells as the routines of pre-nuptial tension. But Belldandy was firmly convinced that in her mind, Mother already had her married to Tyyr.
She was already calling him "future son-in-law".

* * * * * * * *