Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 41 - Unspun ( Chapter 41 )

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

Part 41 Unspun


"Isn't there a way you guys can make it right?" Abbess Sora asked. "Can't you find Keiichi and the others?"
"As if *that's* the worst of it," Belldandy thought glumly. S," Belldandy thought glumly. She was certain that the threadline of love between her and Keiichi had been severed on his end, which could only mean that he was dead. There would be no finding Keiichi. There would be no making it right. She felt so crippled inside, she no longer knew what was right or wrong.
She wanted desperately to tell the two Abbesses about her premonition or sensing of Keiichi's death. *She* needed comforting now; she needed to receive because she didn't feel that she had any more of herself to give. Despite the newness of it all, Belldandy felt an immediate trust for Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro. Perhaps they could say the words to sooth away part of her self-agonizing…
"Skuld, why don't you get on Abbess Chihiro's computer network and start searching for Keiichi. Look *everywhere* for them! Past and present historical records. They couldn't have just disappeared!" Belldandy urged, wanting to keep her younger sister occupied. Skuld's hyperness level was approaching the roof of the sky, as she was used to action rather than the contemplative environment of a convent.
"Well..duh! I *know* that, sis! But it would take me at least a month to search all of the Earthrealm's knowledge bases using these retarded computers. Couldn't I speed them up a bit? Please?" the youngest Goddess asked, hands on her hips. Abbess Chihiro reacted to her pleading with the matronly mirthful admiration she usually reserved for the rawest of novice nuns, and nodded her head.
"Yahooo!!! I could speed up their mainframe a thousandfold by tomorrow...then I could really do a good search!" Skuld promised with a twinkle in her eye.
"Good," Belldandy thought to herself. "Skuld is undertaking this like a challenge...which would keep her mind engaged so she isn't too caught up in what's wrong with me." She felt relieved...until Urd opened her mouth.
"Yeah...anything for an excuse to take something apart, huh?" Urd teased.
"Oh yeah? Let's see you do better, Big Sister!" Skuld groused.
"Who's the Sysop and who's the Earthrealm Trainee in this room?" Urd shot back. "I was Sysoping while you were still in..."
"My aptitude for engineering computers is so far beyond your..."
Sensing that a prolonged argument could ensue, Abbess Sora excused herself and swiftly led Skuld away to the computer network room in the scriptorium basement. The last thing the temple needed was two Goddesses bickering in such a way as to totally devour the pious image they were *supposed* to represent. Abbess Chihiro was grateful for the fact that, of the three, Belldandy was at least demure in her demeanor. Urd and Skuld were behaving like spoiled teenagers at times.
Belldandy was comforted by her sister's bickering; a sign that there was a status quo at work in her life. The last few days were the worst days of her life, for she had lost the constant love of her life and the constant goal of her life, within hours of each other.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy braced herself for the coming phone call she had to make to Kami-sama. Strange...a couple of days ago, she was adamant about refraining from using her powers; as a measure to avoid detection by Him. Now she was going to contact him personally and try to convince Him to spare the mortals.
"Abbess Sora? Is there a place that's private where Urd and I can make a phone call?" Abbess Sora looked at her and raised an eyebrow, surprised by Belldandy's request for a phone.
"Belldandy, we don't have phones anymore. Phones went out the way of the dinosaurs in the 2010s. You can use my videx. It's in my office, so no one will disturb you there," she offered. Belldandy smiled at her while feeling a slight awkwardness in face of the changes in this world.
Belldandy took a deep breath. The videx was a handheld device that sat in a station like a traditional phone. It looked out of place in the traditional trappings of Abbess Sora's office. Abbess Sora explained that the handset would broadcast to the station, which was actually a holograph projector. Once the videx handheld was connected, the image of the person called would appear above the videx station. Belldandy thought it was bad enough to hear His stern voice over the telephone, but now she might have to see His face as well.
With a throat-clearing gulp to anchor herself against the whirlpool of dread accumulating in her stomach, she dialed the Goddess Hotline number and punched in the extension to Kami-sama. Silently, she hoped that He wouldn't answer...but then she heard the 'click'.
"It is I," He answered.
"M..my Lord," was all that Belldandy could say. She watched as His dignified visage appeared in a holoscreen above the videx. His face immediately gathered into an angry mien.
"Belldandy, Norn of the Present. I expected as much. You have displeased Me immensely. Our disappointment is profound," He announced with a torrid dudgeon.
"But..."
"Do not thresh words with Me. You lost the 'Test Mortal' over 40 earth years ago! This is an extreme case of failing in your assignment to provide relief by fulfilling his wish. Not only that, but shortly afterwards you *vanish* along with both your sisters. For forty years, you failed to report in to the Goddess Relief Office. All of Yggdrasil was caught off guard by your disappearance. Your parents were deeply worried. Naturally, in your absence, the 'Test Mortal' monitoring project had to be suspended for lack of viable candidate Earthrealm mortals. As you know, this was an integral part of the evaluative process concerning the Earthrealm mortal's probation. As a result of your irresponsibility, the Assembly was denied the opportunity to observe how a mortal responds to the presence of a Goddess in his life. Then, suddenly you reappear without explanation. Immediately after killing Tyyr and eleven thousand mortals."
"My Lord, I don't understand why we all..." Belldandy pleaded, falling to her knees in a gesture of submission and respect, holding one of her hands over her head.
"Silence! Killing a fellow God is one of our gravest offenses. I cannot fathom why you allowed your contentiousness towards Tyyr to gather to such an extreme...that you struck him down in a final act of retribution. All of Yggdrasil is shocked by his death. I'm expecting a call any time from the Dark Lord demanding an explanation as to why one of His Demons died. You know how much I despise any and all contact with Oni-sama when the appearance is cast that I or Yggdrasil is at fault," the Lord exclaimed ruefully.
"My Lord...Tyyr had a SoulGun. It exploded when I tried to..."
"A SoulGun? Hmph! Enough excuses! I will not be lied to. You know very well that a SoulGun cannot be used without My express permission. The very idea that someone smuggled a SoulGun to the Earthrealm...is an insult to Me and ludicrous beyond the pale," He angrily confronted Belldandy.
"You will return to Yggdrasil after the Earthrealm is depopulated."
"D..depopulated???" Belldandy said in shock. The Almighty was describing the coming destruction with an almost clinical detachment. He also seemed to forget that Tyyr had smuggled a SoulGun to the Earthrealm during her omiai ordeal.
"How could He forget?" she wondered.
"Yes. Your sisters are to return to Yggdrasil within the next two mortal weeks. You will remain behind."
"You intend to d..destroy me?" Belldandy asked incredulously.
"No. I simply intend for you to witness the obliteration of the mortals as the result of your misdeeds. That is the first didactic action *I* will take against you. The rest will be decided by the Assembly," He stated bluntly. Belldandy wanted to drop the videx, but somehow found the strength to grip the handset even tighter. She glanced at Urd, her eyes crying 'please help me!" Urd was looking at her with deep concern...and fear. Her middle sister was in an intractable bind, and it was getting more dire with each sentence the Lord uttered.
"Why? Why are You destroying the mortals, my Lord? I don't care what You do to me...but You mustn't destroy them!" Urd's concern took on a facefallen shock at Belldandy's directness. She looked to see the Lord's face floating above the videx unit. He paused for a moment as if to gather an explanation...or blast Belldandy for being impertinent.
Urd winced as the seconds dragged on...
"Isn't it obvious, My errant daughter? The Earthrealm mortals have evolved into an avaricious, violent race. They are consumed with amusing themselves and seeking dominion over others of their kind. They fail to practice charity...despite the fact that over eight of ten live in abject poverty. Their wars no longer only involve weapons...they war against themselves psychologically and economically. Information that should be freely shared is concealed or sold. Their political system yields leaders who are unequivocally corrupt. The harmonic relations between the sexes has degraded to the point where family structures primarily serve to nurture new strains of violence. In their naivete, they have wreaked total environmental havoc on the natural resources of their planet, destroying untold plant and animal species in the midst of their squandering of the Earthrealm. The realm that *I gave them to steward*," He explained.
Belldandy had encountered these arguments before; they were all indictable. But these facts were true *then*, a century ago when the mortals were put on probation. What could have added to them...to the point where Kami-sama and the Assembly had changed their minds and decided to destroy mankind? She knew that she couldn't argue against these truths, so she attempted a different tact.
"But Lord, *we* shouldn't be here! And how can You destroy the Earthrealm without consulting the Dark Lord? Something is really amiss..." she tried to explain. The Almighty ignored her protests.
"And the most telling indication of their fall into corruption is demonstrated by *your* own actions, Belldandy. You were the one Goddess who lived on the Earthrealm in the closest proximity with the mortals. You even resided with a mortal. With all this exposure to mortal ways...you ended up committing deicide and mass homicide. Yes, *you*!!! A *Goddess*! You became so tainted by the mortal's evolutionary decline that you murdered other beings for selfish reasons. Yea, even as the mortals did a century ago with their nuclear weapons. Any race that could turn a GRO Goddess into a killer...is well deserving of extinction. They have written their own Ragnarok."
"My Lord...please let me explain..." Belldandy stammered.
"Desist! Furthermore, your action was unforgivable, Belldandy. It was the concluding factor which influenced My and the Assembly's decision. You have yourself greatly to blame...for the mortal's demise," the Lord concluded.
Belldandy was seized with an urge to scream...and then everything fuzzed out.
Urd watched as Belldandy silently collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. Angrily, she picked up the videx.
"*What* did You say to her? How can You say it's her fault?" she accused.
"Do not assume that tone of voice when addressing Me, Urd, Norn of the Past."
Urd blanched as she realized what she had just done. She had been literally shot down in flames for much less. Before she could apologize, the Lord spoke to her.
"In two Earthrealm weeks, every one of the 2372 Toshishima fusion nuclear reactors on this planet will experience a simultaneous meltdown. Belldandy's misguided destruction of the Toshishima central core computer complex in Tokyo has created an irrevocable chain of events that will result in the meltdown of each fusion nuclear reaction. The result will render the entire surface of the Earthrealm into an uninhabitable irradiated wasteland for several hundred millions of Earthrealm years, should the planet's crust remain intact. You and Skuld are to return to Yggdrasil within the next two weeks. Belldandy is to remain behind to witness firsthand the tragic dance of Death in its most truest form; this punishment is in keeping with her actions, which demonstrate how lightly she values Life. Then she is to return to Yggdrasil to be tried in full Assembly at Urd's Well for the crime of Tyyr's murder. You and Skuld are to ensure that she does not disclose any information to the mortals concerning their fate. Do you understand clearly?"
"Y..yes," Urd said weakly, overwhelmed by what He just told her.
"I will have no further contact with you until the Trial."

* * * * * * * *

Urd put the videx set down in its cradle and slid down to the floor next to Belldandy. She sensed that Bell's attempt to call the Almighty would result in frustration for her sister.
But this...this was too...
"Insane," she muttered. Belldandy had literally passed out...from emotional shock, no doubt. This was the first time Urd had ever seen her sister faint so abruptly. Anyone would faint if they were told that they were responsible for the deaths of billions. The Lord had certainly doused her sister with the biggest guilt trip imaginable.
She remembered the time when Cevn confronted the Almighty on His lack of balance, back when He suspended Skuld's license. Cevn was right...Kami-sama was out of touch with certain matters of principle.
"So He's going to destroy all the mortals with their own nuclear power plants?" she said to herself in a low voice filled with disbelief. It possessed a macabre irony...in a deeply warped way. The mortal's use of atomic weapons had caused them to be placed on this century of probation...now their nuclear technology would be their gruesome undoing.
"Everything is so *wrong* here!"...she recalled Skuld clearly stating after she traveled within the web of Future TimeStreams. Ever since they arrived in this crazy future age, reality was like a knot, a noose that was ever tightening, ever strangling them. After being suffocated in Aoshima's observation cell, Urd felt no better off here. Here, the feeling of suffocation was close to the soul...having to live with the knowledge of the coming apocalypse without telling a single being. To walk amongst the doomed denizens of the Earthrealm.
"*This* is far worse a prison for me than that place Aoshima cooked up!" Urd concluded. She looked at Belldandy, slumped unconscious against the wall. Perhaps it was merciful that her sister's consciousness had fled her. She herself was electric with discomfort, and she knew that she would be the only one who could comfort her middle sister. Bell would be a handful when she came to.
"My poor, poor sister," she said sadly, stroking Bell's auburn hair gently. At least she would a brief reprieve from having to...
"My fault..," Belldandy muttered under her breath, still in a dead faint.

* * * * * * * *

The woodblocks clapped together shortly after 4am, signaling the start of a new day. Usually, the convent day began at 3:30am in the summer session, and 4:00am in the winter session. The annual course of training at the Temple consisted of two six-month long sessions, with a two-week break in between each. Abbess Sora was already awake, having engaged in her private meditations an hour earlier. As she had done for almost thirty years, she would go to the Nun's Hall where their community of Sisters would practice two periods of zazen and chanting.
Yesterday was a troubling day.
After breakfast, Abbess Chihiro had asked Megumi and Sayoko to sit for her, so she could paint their portraits. Abbess Sora sensed that perhaps Abbess Chihiro was trying to recapture the days of her youth. She reminded herself to ask her fellow Abbess how the sumiye session went.
In the afternoon during her rounds, Abbess Sora checked up on Skuld's activities in the temple's computer center. Skuld had torn apart their server and was reconfiguring several components on the mainboards. Whether it was a bicycle or a holographic imager, Skuld knew how to *improve* it. In one sense, she was the ultimate engineer. Her engineering skills coupled with her child-like curiosity allowed for Skuld to do almost anything she wanted to with technology. She noticed that Abbess Chihiro had kept her promise; Skuld was happily enjoying several pints of ice cream and fruitcups she worked. Rather prompt, that, as the convent had no means of making ice cream.
Megumi and Sayoko had both requested that they be allowed to room with the Goddesses. Abbess Chihiro had arranged for all five to room in one of the large tangaryo; the rooms where prospective nuns would meditate for a week nonstop before being considered for admission to the Temple.
That evening, Belldandy looked extremely troubled when Abbess Sora checked on the three Goddesses. After the videx call, Belldandy had remained in the room for the rest of the day. Along with Urd.
Looking at one of her scrolls, Abbess Sora knew that it would take nothing less than a miracle for the three Goddesses to be reunited with the others. It struck her as odd...that the missing men were nowhere to be accounted for while the women were all present at the same time and place.
"I wonder. If the women went 40 years into the future as they claim...could the men have gone into the past?" During her meditation, she felt a vivid intuition pushing gently into her conscious; that the men were somehow in the distant past.
Still, Abbess Sora was very concerned about Belldandy. She had taken a long time to make that videx call. Abbess Sora noticed that she had a high level of apprehension right before calling. And afterwards, Belldandy was almost in a daze, leaning on Urd for support like a salaryman returning home from his company's bonnenkai party. Her face had the flushed look that followed the 'forget-the-year' parties that were traditionally held in December. And there was no soda on the temple grounds for her to imbibe.
Despite her concerns, Abbess Sora smiled as she realized that there were probably quite a few salarymen staggering around right at this moment, a train ride away from an angry housewife who had waited up all night for them. The masses would be celebrating Christmas in a couple of weeks...and then the New Year.
"In two weeks, a lot of children will be very happy," Abbess Sora thought.
Tomorrow, the Sisters would be very happy as well. Urd had promised her and Chihiro that the Goddesses would 'perform' another glimpse of the Divine for them during the evening sesshin session. To their credit, none of the Sisters save a few novices had requested another 'show'. But Sora knew in her heart that many desired of it…even as she herself thirsted for the comforting embrace of Proof.

* * * * * * * *

Never before had Belldandy experienced such a state of raw hopelessness. She felt destitute...*really* destitute...for the first time in her existence. Her heart felt like it was smeared with a tar of darkness. Despite being surrounded by those who cared deeply for her, she felt afloat without purpose in an ocean of indifference. Everything she had stood for, the precious one she whom had loved, had been lofted beyond her reach. There was nothing to find joy in any more, since life itself seemed a dim abyss.
Yet...despite her inner angst, she and her sisters had honored the gathering yesterday by revealing another glimpse of Eternity in the temple's Great Buddha Hall. After the first demonstration, the nuns naturally thirsted for more. Not because of the SFX aspect; rather because they were experiencing Divinity and Mystery firsthand. Worthy of their choice to follow the spiritual path of Buddhism.
Knowing that every person in the room was doomed by the impending destruction of the Earthrealm...it was the least she could do. Although the Lord had promised that He would "spare" the Butsudankyoji nuns and students, they would still undergo the trauma of having the Earthrealm be destroyed. Hopefully, their spiritual work would brace them to deal with the inevitable survivor's guilt.
"How do I go on when nothing makes any sense anymore?" she questioned herself over and over as she watched the convent run out its daily routines.
Belldandy never suspected that the strengths she relied upon foremost...Keiichi, the Earthrealm, even her own Goddess status...were at their cores, tenuous hollow shadows of themselves. The love she had given to Keiichi had returned only ashes and haunting memories. The light of her desires would not pierce the fog gathering around her and her sisters.
She *knew* that her beloved Keiichi had died. *How* she knew wasn't of any significance, as she repeatedly explained to the others. Her feelings of grief turned over and again, like a froth-gale see possessed by dark storms.
Belldandy was certain that he had left the mortal plane. She knew the passages in her heart better than anyone: the mountains and valleys; the contours of its benign geography; the vistas of wide prairies whose soothing confidence to the eye brought satisfaction and joy. Since she felt that dread spike of intuition, her heart was disturbed like a sullied pond surrounded by jagged cliffs.
Keiichi had awakened a radiance inside of her that she never knew existed. But now when she looked inside, it was gone. She, who had Stars in her necklace, Time rushing like grains of sand in her hands, Harmony that accompanied every graceful motion...now had Loss.
The present was only a beclouded mirror of its former self.
Yet, a different form of tragedy was enveloping her as well, playing itself out inexorably around her. She possessed the certain knowledge that Kami-sama had decided to obliterate mankind. It had been a century since the mortals unleashed their atomic terror on the two cities in Japan, in 1945. Regardless of the motives held by one group or another of mortals, such an event always sets off alarm bells in Yggdrasil. The Earthrealm mortals had been weighed and found lacking in the types of survival instinct that would propel them towards the Next Level. She had steadfastly asserted that the mortals were worthy of preservation...that they *could* be cultivated towards the Next Level.
Belldandy had a major role to play in Kami-sama's decision making process, as she was linked with the "Test Mortal." Now, Keiichi was dead, and she had transgressed all sensibilities by her actions in the recent past. She shuddered as she remembered the Atomic Museum in Hiroshima...soon the entire Earthrealm would resemble the blasted horror of Hiroshima. Or worse.
Finally, her own future was uncertain, as she had murdered a fellow God. She had taken the lives of thousands of sentient Earthrealm mortals. Somehow, she had found the resources of rage in the depths of her Being which condoned to act with murderous fury. The knowledge that she had killed Aoshima and Tyyr in a fit of vengeful anger tasted bitter by itself. But, she would have to face an examination by her peers in the Assembly...and certain punishment.
"What *is* wrong with me? I made a promise, a vow, long ago when I joined the Goddess Relief Office. I vowed to never harm sentient life. For millennia, I've lived up to the promise. But now..." she sighed to herself. A GRO Goddess can create wishes that harm others, but the harm is couched within the desires of the wish grantee, not the executor of the wish. Often, it was necessary to counsel the mortals with who she was wish-contracted, so that their wish wouldn't prove harmful. But she had never experienced a burst of volition that would cause her to take the lives of any other sentient beings.
Now...it really didn't matter anymore. It was over and done with. After the loss of Keiichi and the Earthrealm, Belldandy knew that she would really not have anything left to live for. Her actions would ensure that she probably wouldn't survive to see the emptiness of her future unfold. Kami-sama would spare no mercy for her. Neither would her fellow Gods. She felt a wash of guilt as she pictured Lokii and Friijda mourning over the death of their son. Because of the Doublet System, Tyyr's death implied that she had killed his counterpart Demon as well. Her fear churned in her heart, mingling with her grief and self-blame.
"It was all my doing. I loved and lost Keiichi. I actually *killed* other sentient beings. And my actions have reflected poorly on the mortal's chances of passing the probation. My own shortcomings...have brought on such horrible consequences!" Belldandy cried out in her mind, desperate with hope that some miracle would rescue her from her despair. She sat up abruptly on her futon with a burst of heavy energy and stared at the dark shadows playing with the moonlight on the ceiling and walls. Everything seemed hopeless.
"Why does everything have to be so bleak?" she whispered to herself. A moment later, she felt a pair of arms enfold her from behind...a chin was resting on her shoulder. She leaned back into the embrace; Belldandy knew that her older sister Urd was trying to comfort her. Urd softly rocked her, just she used to do in their younger days.
They sat together, a universe encompassed within the two of them, wordlessly sharing the tragic flow of reality.

* * * * * * * *

"Skuld, can you take a break? I really need to talk something over with you," Urd asked.
Skuld was seated in the middle of the floor, surrounded by coiled wires, tools, various pieces of circuit boards, and several containers of ice cream. Urd was often amazed that Skuld could eat ice cream while she worked...how she avoided gumming up the delicate parts with ice cream, she would never know. She *did* knew that one of Skuld's worst pet peeves was being interrupted while she was in the middle of a project. But for this, she was willing to risk the worst tantrum Skuld could pitch. Fortunately, the Abbesses had made the computer room off-limits to all the nuns so they wouldn't be exposed to Skuld's genius.
After seeing Belldandy's haunted face this morning while everyone else had left for breakfast, Urd had decided to tell her youngest sister *everything*. It was for their own sakes. Skuld had a right to know what her older sister would be facing. Belldandy had tried her best to appear composed around the others, but Urd knew that Skuld wasn't fooled. Belldandy was acting very withdrawn...and perhaps Skuld could cheer up Belldandy if she knew why.
"Aiyyyah! I can't get anything done here! It's bad enough that I have to put up with these junk tools instead of my own. And whenever I leave, all these old bolohead nuns are always pestering me with questions! Now...I think I hear my obnoxious older sister..." she monologued to herself, ignoring Urd.
"Obnoxious...older...sister?!! SKULD! Stop acting like the world revolves around you! I have something *really* important to tell you...and I'm *not* going to take 'no' for an answer. Give me your full attention *right now*, brat!" Urd said angrily, stepping right up next to Skuld.
Skuld looked up from her work to see Big Sister standing over her with her arms crossed, a teed-off expression on her reddened face.
"So what makes *you* so important that you have to interrupt *me*?" Skuld argued back with a frown, and then returned to the motherboard she was adjusting. She knew that she could really get to Urd by ignoring her; one of Urd's pet peeves was being ignored.
"Child!" Urd exclaimed. At wits end she reached down and yanked Skuld up to her feet by her ear.
"Owwwwooooh! That *hurts*!" Skuld complained, scrambling to her feet. Skuld complained, scrambling to her feet. Urd realized immediately that she was misdirecting her own frustrations onto her youngest sister.
"I'm sorry, Skuld. But we need to talk. Now!" she said apologetically, yet insistently. Skuld made like she would going to return to her projects.
"NOW!!!" Urd shouted. Skuld looked at her sister with a bewildered expression, and then let herself be led out of the computer lab.
They went outside of the library hall and strolled over to a small grove. Sitting down in the grass, Urd noticed again that Skuld was sloppily dressed in one of the extra novices' habits that they had all been given. Urd was already secretly disappointed that the convent didn't have *any* other outfits to wear. Both Abbesses had insisted that the sisters dress like nuns. As honored guests, she knew it would be wrong to even question this condition. But on her younger sister's small frame, the gray robes hung loosely. Skuld had to roll the sleeves up past her elbows because they were too long...they were getting in the way
Urd hesitated for a moment, trying to form an explanation that would make sense to Skuld.
"Skuld...do you remember what happened a hundred years ago?"
"Yeah! They invented packaged ice cream and the Neapolitan flavor!"
Urd winced. This was going nowhere fast.
"Skuld, we have to return in a couple of weeks to home!" Urd blurted out.
"Goodies!!! It's about time! I don't like being here! Will Keiichi and the others meet us there? How did you figure out the way to go back in time to our home?" Skuld said with rapid-fire sweetness, almost clapping her hands in excitement.
"It's not *that* home. I mean, we've been recalled back to *Yggdrasil*," Urd corrected, watching Skuld keenly for a reaction. Skuld's burst of animation was somewhat subdued by this news. Urd briefly considered the possibility that Skuld was beginning to prefer living in the Earthrealm over living in Yggdrasil. After all, being on the Earthrealm mean no work for her as a sysop trainee...
"Does that mean that we're taking a vacation? Is Belldandy coming too?" Urd looked at Skuld with a poker face, mulling over in her mind whether she should tell her. *How* she should tell her. It would be hard to shatter her dreams.
"Should I tell her the truth, or lie? She's going to find out anyway in a few days. 'In for a penny, in for a pound,' as the mortals would say," Urd reflected, sighing deeply for dramatic effect.
"Skuld, I want you to listen to everything I say. First, we are to go back within two weeks. Second, Belldandy is to stay behind and come later. Third, Kami-sama has decided to destroy the Earthrealm. Finally...our sister is to watch the destruction of the mortals and then return to Yggdrasil to stand trial by the Assembly," Urd said in a grave tone of voice.
There. It was done.
She felt a sharp stab of empathy as she saw all color drain from her little sister's face. Skuld just stared ahead, almost sightlessly. Several hummingbirds flew low and swarmed a nearby flush of orchids. Skuld continued to stare, her face expressionless.
*Splash*
*Kerplosh*
Skuld was sullenly throwing pebbles into the nearby koi pond. The fish were startled; a reflection of Skuld's sense of dismay.
"Why?" she finally asked Urd after a long brooding mood, her voice filled with confusion and anguish.
"Kami-sama believes that our sister killed Tyyr. And she did kill Aoshima, which was pretty bad."
"But he *deserved* it!" Skuld argued.
"No, Skuld. No matter how angry Belldandy was, she should have never taken a mortal's life. Deep inside, you and I know this is true. Yet...the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that there's something really *bizarre* going on here! None of us have been acting like ourselves. We actually cheered her on...so we're as much at fault as she is. Wouldn't you think that the Lord would know that, and make *us* assume responsibility as well, because we were accomplices to the act?" Urd mused aloud, her explanation shifting to befuddlement.
"Big Sister Urd, I've had the feeling ever since we got here *that we don't belong here*," Skuld said.
"What do you mean?" Urd asked. Skuld struggled to justify to herself what she was saying.
"I mean...somehow we mysteriously ended up here. In the Earthrealm's future. But I don't feel that this is the 'right' future. If this were the future that is supposed to be...then I would know. Right here," she added as she tapped her chest.
"Eh?"
"I don't feel comfortable in this future. It's as if we are in the future...but aren't in the future at the same time," Skuld tried to clarify.
The entranced look on her face revealed to Urd that Skuld didn't have a clue about what she was saying. And now Urd found herself solidly grounded in her own confusion.
A future...that isn't a future?
"We...aren't supposed to be here. *Here*...isn't supposed to be," Skuld ventured, her face filled with sudden resolve.
"What do you mean?" Urd asked, her brow furrowing.
"Yeah...that's it!!!" Skuld avowed.
Urd was totally confused now. She had thought that Skuld would fall apart emotionally at the news about the Earthrealm and Belldandy. Instead, she was babbling something about "the future isn't the future."
"Great...I have one sister who's an emotional riot case waiting to break out, and another sister who's a space case stranded in orbit," Urd thought as she watched Skuld walk back to the main hall, seemingly abandoning her work on the computer.

* * * * * * * *

Megumi and Sayoko were waiting on Belldandy. Despite her best efforts, Belldandy couldn't conceal the fact that she was obviously ill. When she looked in the mirror, her face was flushed and she was weakened. She couldn't get out of her futon and barely touched her food. It was no wonder...she hadn't slept a wink the past two nights. Since sleep was her primary powerup source, her unrest had made her 'sick' due to lack of energy.
Sayoko tried to cheer her up with the story of the time she had been 'bugged' by one of Urd's supernatural creations...and she *still* didn't believe that Belldandy was a Goddess. She was talking about another 'Queen of N.I.T.' episode when the shoji door slid open and Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro walked in.
"How are you?" they asked.
"I'm feeling better," Belldandy replied, veiling the truth. "It's just that I really miss Keiichi and the others."
"I don't believe you for a moment, Belldandy. There's something you aren't telling us, isn't there?" Abbess Sora challenged. "I have a funny feeling...and this perhaps is the silliness of a weak old woman. To offer my conjectures as a suggestion, I feel that somehow the men have wound up somewhere in the past, since all of you women skipped forward forty years to this future."
"That really sounds like a possibility, Sora," Abbess Chihiro affirmed.
"What do you two do here?" Belldandy asked weakly, trying to avoid the topic of her missing Keiichi...and her secret.
"Well, Abbess Sora is the one that is the 'guru' here, while I run the place and make crazy Zen leaps once in a while," Abbess Chihiro answered in simple terms.
"I'm not a 'guru'!" Abbess Sora teased. "If anyone fulfills that role, it's *you*!"
"Well, you're the one who thinks deep thoughts all the time," Abbess Chihiro exclaimed.
"And you're the one who finds them. What about you? The nun who had the gall to revise the Oxherding Sequence...and then pulled it off," Abbess Sora amiably countered.
"Besides, Abbess Sora couldn't even begin to run the day-to-day stuff of this temple," Abbess Chihiro stated, feigning ignorance of Abbess Sora's remark.
"I perform many tasks in complete anonymity," the small nun replied.
"And she *still* can't cook! That's why *I* administer the kitchen duties directly!" Abbess Chihiro teased back. Abbess Sora grinned sheepishly at this, while Belldandy managed a slight chuckle at the two Abbesses' friendly rapport. It was clear from their exchange that they had been close friends for many years, for their teasing was filled with love, not spite.
"Wait a minute! I think Abbess Sora's on to something major!" Megumi broke in suddenly, her face aglow with enthusiasm.
"Just think for a moment. We women were in the bathhouse when we disappeared. We don't know whether the guys disappeared, because they were in another bath. It was just us. But then, we find out that our temple home is destroyed," she theorized.
"And..?" Sayoko injected impatiently. Megumi was stating the obvious.
"I *know* my brother. He would rebuild the temple and wait, forty years if necessary, so that he could be with you again, Belldandy. There's no evidence that the men remained back in 20XX, because we would *know*. And there's no evidence that they were transported into the future like Sayoko and I," Megumi added. Sayoko regarded her own brother in the light of this.
"That's right! Had he remained in 20XX with the others, my brother Genji would have certainly taken care of preventing Toshiyuki and his stupid Imperium from ever happening. Genji may be shy, but he can run circles around our cousin when it comes to business administration. Our cousin is a playboy, while Genji is solid, dedicated and a good-decision maker. I would know, because he decided on Megumi, who loves him so much. I would even say that he wouldn't just wait forty years for Megumi, he'd do something about it. But since the guys haven't had any impact on the present...*this* present, they must have traveled backwards in time," Sayoko concluded. Megumi looked at her and nodded sharply, pleased at Sayoko's confidence in Genji...and her love for him.
"That's all piecework and supposition," Urd said. "How can we confirm any of it?"
"That's why I'm working on the computer, you guys!" Skuld said, poking her head in the doorway. Urd was glad that Skuld had pulled out of her funk, but she still couldn't avoid the bait...
"So why are you here instead of working on it?" Urd said icily. Skuld shot her a stinkeye glance.
"Well, gee whiz. Get on my case for being concerned about how my sister is doing. I'm just coming back here to check on her, if it's okay with you! I suppose you think you're the only one who's all freaked out about the destruction of the Earth in the next couple of...ulp!!"

* * * * * * * *

SYSOP NODE 3X-2994-0E-034, LOGICRINTH HUB 2997, YGGDRASIL:

"Skuld and her big mouth.
I just couldn't believe it. I *knew* in the back of my mind that I shouldn't have told her about the Lord's decision. But I let my senses get thwarted by my heart once again.
Leave it to the Brat...
It was an ugly scene, watching how all of the mortals in the room reacted that afternoon. To say that they were shocked senseless would be an understatement.
Once Kami-sama has destroyed the Earthrealm, I know that I really going to catch it for telling Skuld. After all, He emphasized that I was supposed to prevent the mortals from knowing about their fate. I might as well resign myself to the fact that I'll be on Sysop mop duty for the rest of my days.
After that little incident with Skuld, we searched for two weeks for any sign of the guys. We couldn't find a single mention *anywhere*.
My other sister looked so bitter all the time I was with her. Not the bitterness that *I* feel...because when the Lord destroys the Earthrealm, I'll never be able to see Cevn again. Belldandy's bitterness is like mine, only multiplied a hundredfold. She kept telling me that it was her fault that the mortals were going to be destroyed. I wish I could kidnap her...she's in serious need of counseling at the Ethiopsylogic Clinic But what use would that be? She's on the Almighty's shitlist here.
I still can't accept the fact that I'm going to lose one of my sisters.
Of course, our search would have been better if Skuld had remained to help. But I can't blame her for returning to Yggdrasil. She was so upset with herself after letting slip the little 'secret' about the final oblivion, she couldn't remain on the Earthrealm. If she was a little older, I would call her a coward...but she's just a kid. Just an Earthrealm Trainee. Well, there'll be no more Earthrealm for her to train on. She even seemed to act as if it was *her* fault that the Lord was going to rain death upon the mortals. Guilt is such a strange emotion, especially the way my sisters experience it. They should try to be more like me...capricious and carefree.
But it's hard to be carefree in this moment...
It was so difficult to leave Belldandy and the mortals. I've really become attached to the mortals I met while I was on the Earthrealm. I wanted to take them all with me, but of course that was impossible.
I wonder what Skuld is up to.
My little sister really is hard on herself sometimes. But she's just a kid. Anybody can make mistakes. She just happens to make *huge* ones!
I think that Sora, Chihiro, Megumi and Sayoko made the right decision by not telling anyone else. Sora and Chihiro told all the nuns, of course, but they could handle it. After all, they're Zen practitioners; impermanence is no big deal to them. Besides, that email from the Lord did mention something about them being "spared".
What would I do if I knew I had a few days to live? How could I set my affairs in order? What about...
Cevn.
I never did find out where he was, or is. Or even who he was. I had just begun to know him when we were separated. My only chance at being loved by a man...and it is going to be snuffed out very shortly. In a couple of mortal days, it will be as if there never was an Earthrealm.
Oh...*we'll* know about its history, its existence. The whole passage of time that the Earthrealm filled will be stored on a single crystalmatrix in the Yggdrasil Mainframe. But Earth itself will be no more. The talk here at the Sysop Control Complex is that the total force of the nuclear plant meltdowns will shatter the planet.
All my friends...and the man I love...
None of them deserve to die in the upcoming destruction of the Earthrealm..."


Urd couldn't write any more. She looked at the small floating waveform pad; the words she had thought onto it seemed to come from another place, another time. She had reluctantly parted company with everyone yesterday, knowing full well that she would never see any of them again, except her sister. She still hadn't seen or heard of Skuld.
Floating in front of her Sysop console, she felt a winnowy remorse pass through her. She was forever severed from her brief stay on the Earthrealm. But what a stay it had been. Far more than she ever expected.
Well, at least Belldandy and Keiichi were able to experience each other's love. She was only beginning to experience hers...
Seeking solace, she had spoken with her parents yesterday. They were greatly relieved to see that their daughter was safe. But Urd couldn't avoid noticing the significant hollowing of their energies. Mother and Father were really shook up about Belldandy's upcoming Trial.
After dinner, she and her father had a long talk. He was very concerned about the fact that the destruction of the Earthrealm would incite a war with the Demons. He and Mother had both voted against destroying the Earthrealm during the Assembly. Urd was surprised to hear that Mother had voted *against* destroying the Earthrealm. Keiichi's tenaciousness in the face of overwhelming odds during that stupid omiai incident must have really touched her at the heart level. Yet, the majority of the Gods had voted for termination of the Earthrealm.
Then Kami-sama decided to obliterate the Earthrealm, unilaterally...without contacting the Dark Lord. Ignoring the ballot of the entire Assembly of Gods.
"Farbeit for me to criticize the Almighty...but *what is wrong with Him*? Dammit, He's acting as if He is ignorant of the Rules! Our Lord, powerful as He is...He can't just sally forth and destroy a realm that is jointly populated with Demons without the assent of the Dark One. And vice versa. Everyone I've spoken with is gravely troubled by the fact that the Almighty has completely disregarded the active status of the Demon Grief Office in Earthrealm affairs! The DGO is deeply involved in their own cultivation of the Earthrealm mortals towards demi-Demon evolution. To wipe the all the mortals out...will be a grievous insult to the Demons. Not to mention it would besmirch their honor...as a huge loss of face for their Dark Lord," Odeyn had explained to her.
Enough to start another War, he had asserted with a glimmer of sad resignation in his one eye.
Remembering Father's expression of frustration, Urd chewed on her lightbeam...and then decided to footnote the entry in her personal journal.
"Could all of this turmoil have occurred simply because we were all were transported away from 2006?"

* * * * * * * *

BUTSUDANKYOJI ZEN TEMPLE - DEC 2050:

Belldandy bit her lip, hard. The permeating gloom that shrouded her heart was like a waterfall of pure pitch black futility. She stared at the immaculately cleaned and polished floorboards of her guest quarters...in the candlelight, the brown wood shimmered like waves of water. Her hurt kept spreading as the deathwatch drew inexorably closer.
Tomorrow, Kami-sama was going to destroy the Earthrealm. "Depopulate it," He had said.
She watched with detached curiosity as the mortals arranged their affairs. Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro had informed the convent about the upcoming destruction. They offered to excuse any nuns who wished to leave the convent to be with family or friends. None of the Sisters or the university students asked to leave. The cloister of nuns decided jointly to hold a marathon sesshin session tonight. They would greet Death with Life: meditating and chanting until the end came. They had a lot to pray for...the welfare of the billions who would perish. Even now, she could hear their coloratura chanting of the Lotus Sutra sifting through the air, calming her with its regular rhythm.
Megumi and Sayoko had shadowed each other every day since Skuld let slip the news. Belldandy was overjoyed to see that they had developed such a close friendship. They used to be bosom enemies in a sense, because of Keiichi and Genji. Now, they were fast friends. The two girls asked if they could be in the presence of the nuns at the end. Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro readily agreed to this.
It was 3am.
Belldandy would wake the pair up at 4am, and they would all go together to the Nun's Hall to join in the spiritual observances.
Belldandy was apprehensive...she had seen the results of the Flood that Kami-sama inflicted on the mortals many millennia ago. This would be much worse. She hoped that it would be over in an instant...a 'flash' and everything would perish. Unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where so many people died in agony in the days following the bombings.
She was angry with the mortals as well, despite herself. It was their foolishness that caused them to be in this situation in the first place. All the platitudes of peace that she had ushered to the vibrations of the mortals over the millennia were as ephemeral as the passage of clouds...once past the horizon of perception, they would never return.
Belldandy had wanted to live out her 'mortal' days with Keiichi. She had planned for them to grow old together; she would change her mortal manifestation to age apace with him. She had already been subtly altering her manifestation during the four years she had spent with Keiichi. Oddly enough, he had never noticed. Or if he did, he never mentioned it to her. When her heart has chosen Keiichi, Belldandy had realized that a seventy-year-old Keiichi with a young Belldandy just wouldn't work. After he died, she would return to the GRO in Yggdrasil and carry on with Goddess Relief Office work. She had hoped that she could nurture the mortals towards the Next Level...that she would be able to see them evolve into demi-Gods, then perhaps Gods. This would have been a fitting memorial for Keiichi, to have his humankind ascend to heights they couldn't even imagine.
If only Keiichi had been born ten millennia hence...he could have had a shot at immortality. If he had turned towards spiritual matters more, he may have be Preserved...like Onna no Komachi or many others.
"But there will be no redemption for my dear Keiichi...or myself," she said in a whispered voice. The only consolation she could muster was the fact that Keiichi would never know of her fate. He would be spared the experience of her suffering.
It would all be over soon.
The candle burned down as Belldandy left to wake up Megumi and Sayoko for their final morning.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld looked nervously at the long winding stairway going up to the clouds. Past the clouds. The steps radiated crystalline rainbow colors, each sounding a note as she stepped on them. The steps led to the one of the highest places in Yggdrasil, veiled as it was by clouds. If she were an adult Goddess, she could just float upwards until she reached her destination. But since she was still young, she had to use the stairs.
It took her several days in mortal terms to ascend the stairs. But at last she could sense a nearness. She was approaching the apex of her journey.
Where He is.

* * * * * * * *

Megumi startled when Belldandy gently nudged her awake. She had been in the midst of a nightmare...probably because of the upcoming devastation. Now, a different kind of fear gripped her. She knew that this morning was her last dawning. She wanted to enjoy every moment of it. The sun was beautiful as she walked outside and observed the scene from the wooden gallery. Of course, it was just a holophotic image...but it was lovely nonetheless.
Sayoko accompanied her as she watched the orange glow of the sunrise. Megumi looked at her sempai and friend, wondering what she was thinking.
A moment later, Belldandy stood between them and held their hands. The wordless communion of touch calmed the racing hearts of all three. At 6am, the nuns would break from their vespers and have communal tea in the dining hall. At 7am, they would begin their final meditations.
It was comforting to see Belldandy. Megumi knew all about what was going to happen. Belldandy would have to witness the destruction of the planet as some sort of 'lesson', and then she would return to Yggdrasil and stand trial for Tyyr's death.
It was so unfair.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld was admitted to the Presence after a short wait. She had only seen Kami-sama a few times in the past; several times during school trips and twice when He summoned her to discuss her status as Norn of the Future. Each time that she visited she was awed by His countenance. Yet, she was frightened as well; the last time she talked with Him was when He suspended her license. Skuld was deathly afraid that He would be wroth with her for being so impertinent; that she had visited and requested admission to the Presence without being summoned...taking up His precious time. After all, He had a Multiverse to rule. She knelt down on one knee to pay her respects, waiting with lowered head until He called her forward.
"Come, my child," He summoned kindly. Skuld was thrilled and slightly disoriented when she heard His voice in its gentler aspect. The Almighty's voice seemed to draw her into a higher cast of being, a more refined plenum of divinity. His voice was unlike anything she had ever heard before...just to hear that voice once was enough to imprint its memory indelibly on her. Besides her parents, the Almighty was the only one who could call her "child" without igniting that part of her which sensed insult and reacted with anger. She really did feel like a child in His presence.
She could hear the God's Music in the background; it made her feel a little homesick for the Earthrealm because now it would be forever associated with Cevn and the temple home.
Skuld approached His floating throne. Kami-sama had long hair flowing over his shoulders, pure white in its sheen. White as snow. He wore a gray and blue outfit, framed by a generous long black cape draped over his shoulders like a cloak. His throne was made of pearls, diamonds, and other precious metals and stones from all over the Multiverse. All were set in Ixodenum, the metallic substance that served as a conductor for divine power. Several consoles floated near His armrests, monitoring Yggdrasil and the Multiverse.
He stepped down from His throne and took her by the hand.
"Let us walk together," He said. Skuld was completely taken aback by His request. She had expected that He would only grant her a few moments. She had planned to ask Him about a certain bit of information. Now, all she felt was a powerful intimidation as He stood beside her, towering over her. She rued at herself...she was shivering like a willow in a wind gust.
Kami-sama reached down and took her hand gently in His and floated her off the cloudground. Skuld realized that He was levitating them amidst the cloudnet.
"What can I do for you, Skuld, Norn of the Future?" He asked gently. "You have certainly taken great efforts to reach Me, so you musthaps need My help in some matter."
Skuld gathered her courage.
"W..when are You going to destroy the Earthrealm tomorrow?" she asked timidly. In response, the Lord's face gathered into a stern expression.
"It will be after their sunset. I will allow the entire planet to witness one final nightfall before I destroy it. Does this trouble you Skuld, my decision to destroy the Earthrealm?"
"Y..yes, my Lord. I..I thought that..."
"I understand your heart, my child. You were assigned by Me to serve as an Earthrealm Trainee, so that you may learn about mortal life firsthand. Therefore, pray tell Me...what *did* you learn about them?"
She had an immediate answer in mind, but then she checked herself. Kami-sama's question was much more than a simple query. And He wouldn't expect a casual reply. He would want nothing less than her deepest conviction.
Skuld looked at Him silently, reflecting on her short time on the Earthrealm with her sisters. She reviewed all of her memories of the temple home, the fights with Big Sister Urd, her rivalry with Megumi, her anger at Keiichi for taking away her Elder Sister. Then she kept visualizing how happy Elder Sister was with her human boyfriend. Their love had withstood *everything*.
Mara's Demonic attacks. Banpei and Mini-Banpei's vigilant guard. Urd's perverted romantic manipulations. Keiichi and the Goddesses' parents. Sayoko's jealousy. Aoshima's jealousy. Tyyr's violent intimidation. Keiichi's sempai. And her own...foolish pride.
The list went on...but one fact rang true.
Keiichi loved her sister no matter what. Irrevocably. Which is why she had eventually turned from hatred to love for him. His genuine love for her sister had softened *her* heart, Skuld realized.
"Love," she heard herself say. "They love like we love."
The Lord looked upwards, His face a mixpool of thoughts and feelings.
"Yes, Skuld...I must agree with your observation. They do love like we do. It was a difficult decision for Me to make. As you know, the Assembly voted for termination of the Earthrealm. I wanted to preserve them, despite the Assembly's voice. Yet I cast Myself in the guise of defying the Assembly by lending the impression that I was acting on My own, regardless of their decision. I acted thusly, so that the guilt would not be theirs." Skuld hung onto every word, as if the Lord was telling her a secret. Which he was, in a sense. Not often did a Goddess on the cusp of her teen years have an opportunity to hear the inner thoughts of the Almighty Himself, from His own lips.
"It's a pity, really. Despite their strong love, their hatred is even worse. It has even affected you and your sisters. But for Belldandy to kill a fellow God...that is more than mere resentment. I had dearly hoped that the mortals would complete their evolution over time and become like us. Perhaps even join us. But, we also have a responsibility to maintain, my child. Simply put...when a race evolves to Godhood, they have to manifest constant foreverlove. If they cannot...then we cannot let them continue. Do you understand?"
"You mean that we cannot let them evolve into Godhood?"
"Yes. We must be guides to them. But they have chosen not to follow our guidance. They have drifted away from spiritual concerns. At best, they would become candidates for Demonhood if they were allowed to continue. But the Demons probably wouldn't have them either. Demons rely on seething resentments, not ignorant hatred like the mortals possess. Either way, the Earthrealm mortals are a pollution...they cannot be cultivated by us or our Demonic counterparts. Beyond this is My concern that, should they become starfaring, they could spread their pollution to other mortal planetrealms...thus jeopardizing other's chances at becoming candidates to evolve towards Godhood."
"So You're going to kill them all, despite the fact that they love so strongly?" Skuld asked.
"Yes. With great reluctance and disappointment. My time runs away...what brings you to visit Me, My daughter?"
"I want to be there with them when the Earthrealm is destroyed," Skuld stated.
"My child, this is a curious request. Why would you desire to bear witness to this oblivion of the Earthrealm?"
"Because...I want to learn as much as I can before they're gone. Also, because I want to be with my sister so she isn't alone. Finally...because I have come to respect the mortals while living with them. My presence would offer some dignity to their deaths. And as Norn of the Future, I will never get to see how they would have turned out," Skuld explained.
"Your sentiments are rather...mature...for your years. Yet, this is not possible. You still have your Goddess license revoked, Skuld, Norn of the Future. And I intend for Belldandy to see the fruition of the mortal's folly...as well as her own," He said gently.
"My Lord...I don't know how to explain it. But this time that we all share...seems wrong."
"What do you mean, Skuld?" He inquired.
"We Norns disappeared for *forty mortal years*. Then we find ourselves in the 'now'. But this now...shouldn't *be*. We're Norns, aren't we? Time is our domain, right? So...how can we *not* be in touch with the TimeStream? How could we have moved through time without doing so deliberately?" The Lord smiled at her.
"If this was the case, then *I* wouldn't Be either," the Almighty patiently observed. "I am in all places and times at once."
"Y..yes, my Lord. But I want to see if it's real. And the only way to do that...is to witness the destruction of the Earthrealm," Skuld said.
"You are confused, Norn of the Future. If you are going to continue in your responsibilities as a Norn, Skuld, you need to gain the skill to become aware of *all* possible futures. You must practice more at TimeStream travel," He admonished.
"I try really hard! I really do! So.....*please* help me by letting me return to the Earthrealm! Belldandy doesn't have her license revoked. Isn't it possible that she can..?"
"Skuld. Belldandy doesn't have enough power to protect you. She barely has enough to protect herself. This is why I didn't suspend her license from the start. I have left her with only the necessary Goddess power to preserve herself during the Earthrealm's devastation. In your current status, you would be consumed by the destruction I have planned for the Earthrealm," the Lord explained.
Skuld became very nervous...the whole plan hinged on the next few moments.
"My Lord...isn't it possible for a license transfer? I..I mean, can't my Elder Sister transfer part of her powers to me so I can shield myself? After all, I *do* have enough skills to manifest a protection spell. I spent a whole week Inculcating it. I..it could only be for the time it takes for the destruction of the Earthrealm to complete itself. Then I can return with my sister. I promise I won't misbehave!"
The Lord regarded Skuld with a keen eye.
"Pleeeassseee?" Skuld looked at the Lord. She had played her ultimate hand, using all of her little-girl charm to accent her request. It was all up to Him. It always was...but this was important.
Really important.
"As you are in earnest Skuld, I will grant you a boon," the Almighty said in reply with a smile. The Lord waved His hands in the air and an amulet formed.
"This will allow you to exchange or transfer Goddess powers between you and Belldandy. Use it very prudently," He cautioned.
Skuld's heart sang as he gave her the amulet. Tears formed in her eyes. Kami-sama reached around her with His cape and hugged her to his chest.
"There...there My child. I know that this is a trying day..."
A few moments later, the Lord transported Skuld back to the ground level Sysop Trainee Center.

* * * * * * * *

"URD!"
Urd's whole body shook in reaction to the shout. It sounded like...
"SKULD! Where have you been? What are you doing here, just popping in out of nowhere?" Urd asked with a mixture of concern and anger.
"I just visited the Lord! We have to leave for the Earthrealm NOW!!!" she shouted. Other sysops turned from their consoles and looked at the two sisters, their concentration disturbed by Skuld's outburst.
"Skuld! Do you know where you *are*? This isn't the place for trainees! The work we do here...is actual work, not trainee stuff!" Urd said, vexed by the scene her youngest sister was making in the Sysop Control Room. The giggling had already started up.
"And what's this about you seeing the Lord? He doesn't have time to deal with visits from little girls like you!" Urd asked, glancing sheepishly at her fellow sysops, her face reddened with an apologetic expression.
"I was *there*! With Him. You gotta believe me..." Skuld shouted desperately. As Urd looked around the office; her fellow sysop's irrated faces shouted "get her out of her *now*!" Her little sister's presence had moved from amusing to irritating. Urd floated up from her workstation, pulled on Skuld's sleeve and marched her right out of the room.
In the entryway to the Sysop Control Room, Urd hovered in front of Skuld, trembling with irritation. She was both embarrassed and pissed off at her younger sister; and she didn't know which emotion she would bubble up first...
"What *is* the matter with you? Do you know how much trouble you just got me in, Skuld?" Urd asked, hands on hips.
Urd watched as Skuld smiled enigmatically and pulled a strangely designed amulet from her jacket. She dangled it in front of her, as if it was the answer to her objections.
Something was familiar about it...
"Holy shit!!! That's a *Temporary License Transfer Token*!" Urd said incredulously as she identified the object in Skuld's hand. "Where did you get it?"
Then it dawned on Urd that there was only *one* place where she could have been given the amulet.
Her jaw almost dropped.
"You *did* visit with Him? How?" Urd asked, stunned.
"I'll explain everything later...but we gotta leave *now*!!"
"Skuld, I just can't up and leave my workstation unattended! I have responsibilities! What if something happens?" Urd whined.
"As if you haven't done *that* a few thousand times, Big Sister," Skuld teased. Urd couldn't help but smile at her little sister's wisecrack.
"So you want me to go with you on some nonsensical journey. I'll have to think about it..." Urd said with a sly smile.
"Even if it's to save the Earthrealm?" Skuld asked with a twinkle in her eye.

* * * * * * * *

BUTSUDANKYOJI ZEN TEMPLE - DEC 2050:

Skuld arrived to find the convent in the midst of deep prayer. The computer room was abandoned...in fact they didn't see a single nun as they made their way to the room.
"Where is everyone?" Urd asked. "Did they *all* go to the Nun's Hall?" Urd watched as Skuld slid into a seat and typed out a complicated series of commands.
"Here. Aren't you glad I fixed the server before I left? Look at this," Skuld said as she turned the holomonitor on 'project'. An image formed in mid-air in front of the two Goddesses.

"NHK Newswire-- December 24, 2050

For Immediate Release:

Archeologists in Kyushu recently discovered a cave that was
uncovered by a recent avalanche during the heavy snows
last week. Reports say that several thrillseeking skiers
from a nearby village were caught in the deep snowdrifts.
They managed to shelter in the cave for safety, where they
found some unusual artifacts.
Experts from Rekihaku, the National Museum of Japanese
History in Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, were dispatched
to the site to investigate earlier this week.
This cave, which is located near the summit of Mt. Unzendake
near Nagasaki City, proved to be a treasure trove of ancient
artifacts dating from the mid-14th century.
However, an important discovery was unearthed in the cave by
an excavation team two days ago. According to Prof. Susamu
Nakohima of Rekihaku, this find "is of the first importance
to Japanese history and archeology in general. It is
absolutely stunning."
Preserved in the cave for seven centuries is what appears to
be a self-powered vehicle, using a primitive means of coal
and steam compression. A crudely molded engine was found,
along with the remains of a wooden chassis. It appears to
have been deliberately buried in the back of the cave.
If this find is genuine, then it establishes that some past
thinkers in Japan developed a working version of the world's
first automobile. *Centuries* before it was invented by the
Europeans.
An enigmatic message was found engraved on one of the wooden
pieces of the so-called 'war chariot'..."

"Freeze, hyperlink, enhance!" Skuld commanded excitedly. A series of thumbnailed photos appeared in midair. Skuld reached out and touched one with a pointer. It expanded to full size.
"Oh...my...God!" Urd exclaimed. She walked up close to the floating holographic image and traced the letters with her fingers.

"May 15th, 1385

My dear Belldandy...I will always love you.

K1"

"That *has* to be him...because it's written in *English*," Skuld remarked, still overwhelmed by the eerie timeliness of the discovery.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy was sitting in a zazen position in the center of the nuns. Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro were seated on either side of her; both dressed in the full regalia of their Zen Abbess vestments. The chanting was hauntingly beautiful to her ears...patient and expectant, yet resigned and dignified.
Megumi and Sayoko were seated alongside a group of novices off to the side. Belldandy could tell that they were nervously unfamiliar with the proceedings of the Sangha, but she admired them for choosing to be here with all the nuns. It amused her somewhat that, on this final day, the two women had chosen to wear the white robes of convent novices. Against the sea of bald heads of thousands of women and men, they were like two flecks of black.
The deep level of devotion and spirituality that Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro manifested amazed Belldandy. Both Abbesses were deep into their meditation; their faces were composed with serene miens. She knew that their expressions weren't the kind of masks of expression that so many mortals wore; their serenity was genuine and it just simply *showed*.
She felt a tapping on her shoulder.
Turning around, she saw Skuld and Urd. Skuld's face was all lit up, the way her little sister looked when something *big* was going on.
"We found Keiichi!" she whispered into Bell's ear.

* * * * * * * *

Urd had resorted to threats to make sure that Skuld didn't burst into the roomful of nuns shouting her discovery. Somehow, the three Goddesses had made it out of the hall without disturbing any of the 10,500 or so meditating nuns. Megumi and Sayoko had also silently crept out of the main hall to join them.
Urd watched as her sister reacted ecstatically about finding Keiichi. As soon as they left the meditation hall, Belldandy's face turned pink with relief. Maybe also because of the huge smile she had. Megumi and Sayoko also skipped and bounded with joy as they made their way to the convent's computer room.
Skuld explained in detail how she found Keiichi. After mulling around Yggdrasil for several days, she decided that self-pity and guilt just weren't getting her anywhere. So she checked on the computers used by Yggdrasil and hacked into the Mainframe. This was enough to make Urd feel totally proud of her little sister.
But Skuld went much further than this. She traversed the TimeStream repeatedly, exhausting herself in her search for any clues for the whereabouts of Keiichi and the others. She eventually stumbled on a TimeWeave where someone had built a vehicle of some sort during the Ashikaga Shogunate.
Then she did a probability index on that particular history using fuzzy logic, historiographic benchmarks and all sorts of math that Urd barely understood. As Urd listened, she was stunned...her little sister Skuld had *formulated* the higher mathematics! Skuld had *discovered* some of the formulas she was describing, formulas normally taught in ThirdTier and Transcend Inculcations! Employing the Yggdrasil Mainframe to search the TimeWeave, Skuld was able to determine that the inventors of the wooden war chariot in that TimeWeave were either Keiichi or Genji. Then she hacked into the Earthrealm computers and searched out the recent archeological find in Kyushu.
Urd was amazed at the ingenuity of her youngest sister. Skuld had then designed a mandala that would invert the temporary license transfer token so that the *entire* power output of a Goddess could be reassigned...with no time limit. Finally, she went to the Almighty Himself and convinced him to part with one amulet.
"What do we do now?" Urd asked.
"That's where you come in, Big Sister. You're the Norn of the Past, so you're the only one who can travel the TimeStream backwards to fetch Tomohisa and the others!"
Urd smiled to herself at this innocent disclosure; she knew who was foremost on Skuld's mind...but she let it slide without teasing her sister. Once more, she had revealed the hidden feelings in her heart by accident. Skuld was so animated, she probably didn't even notice that she had said his name. Urd vowed to herself that she would tease Skuld about it...later.
"So...you're going to expect me to get them?" Urd said, pondering the inevitable. Traveling the TimeStream was always tricky, but this would be much more difficult. The departure point was from *this* future...a future which Skuld had termed "alinear". As Skuld had explained it, this future shouldn't have happened; it was torn out of the continuity of Time and cast adrift in the TimeStream like a shipwreck. Skuld was absolutely certain that if Urd was able to retrieve the four men, then this future would become linear again, like a child rejoining her parents after being lost.
Urd's mind was preoccupied for a moment...her Cevn would be safe, along with Keiichi and the others.
This version of the Earthrealm would be spared Kami-sama's destruction.
Bell's outburst, which killed Aoshima and Tyyr, would have never happened.
The Toshishima Imperium would never exist.
Everything would be all right.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy interrupted the sesshin, somewhat reluctantly. At first, Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro were indignant at the intrusion, until Belldandy explained that it was absolutely necessary.
She explained that the Goddesses needed divine strength to complete an important task. In order to effect the power transfer, they would have to 'borrow' the spiritual cultivation of entire sangha of nuns and students. The meditation hall was crowded, accommodating 2500 students alongside the 8600+ nuns and postulants.
If Skuld could tap into that resource of divine power...
Belldandy knew that her Goddess power output was approximately .4 on Skuld's Shinseisensor scale. Most mortals averaged slightly under .0001. But more spiritually attuned mortals could go as high as .0003 or .0004. With over ten thousand mortals adding their measures to the total available divine power, the available power for Urd could actually double. Belldandy felt confident that many of these women would fall into the upper realm of human divine power, probably in the .0004s.
"We're going to need all the divine energy we can channel," Belldandy thought to herself. She had considered breaking open her seal, but Skuld insisted that the amulet couldn't channel that much divine energy.
Her older sister looked apprehensive, with good reason; because Urd knew that she only had one shot at doing this. She had to travel backwards, locate Keiichi and the others, and then return them to 2006 unharmed. They decided since the vehicle was found in Kyushu, the men would be somewhere on that island.
It was risky. The TimeStream was meant to be looked at...not 'touched' so directly. In other words, traveling the TimeStream normally meant a Norn would only observe its maze of TimeWeaves. But Urd was going to *actually travel* on the TimeStream, and then jump from this TimeWeave to the correct one in the TimeStream. Time was designed as a webworks, sometimes referred to as the TimeWeb. The Norns were the weavers of the web, but only passively, simply by virtue of their existence. The TimeWeb, filled with design by TimeStreams, was navigable to Norns and a few others. Each TimeStream is comprised of a 'bundle' of TimeWeaves; each TimeWeave is a single 'strand' of Time...a single continuum of time-reality. Belldandy knew full well that the last three Norns had died the Real Death because they dared to physically travel backwards, inwards, and forwards within the TimeStream. And all three were Goddess First Class Unrestricted licensees.
But there was another factor of risk. Urd could only travel backwards in time, not forwards. In order to return the men to 2006, she would have to borrow two Angels. Belldandy's Holy Bell and Skuld's Noble Scarlet.
Skuld's angel would guide her as she moved forward in the TimeStream, while her own Angel...Holy Bell...would serve as a homing beacon for the present in 2006. After all, who else could recognize the exact point in time when they disappeared except the Angel of the Norn of the Present.
It was her turn to comfort her anxiety-ridden Elder Sister.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld finished the mandala in the middle of the Nun's Hall, and then placed the amulet in the middle. Belldandy had explained the process involved with Urd's journey, emphasizing the participation of the Sisterhood.
Finally, everything was in place. The sun was setting in the hall, which meant that outside the temple, it was twilight. Every nun was meditating with intensity.
If this worked, then Belldandy, Skuld and the rest would be pulled back into their rightful timeline, back to 20XX...which would spare the Earthrealm its doom.
Skuld activated the mandala. A whirlwind of lights arose from the outer circle and spun into a convex column over the amulet. From Belldandy, a blue light emerged. Her Angel, Holy Bell, emerged and floated over Belldandy, her wings glowing with blue divine power. Skuld felt her own Angel, Noble Scarlet, floating over her; her wings tipped with an aura of orange-pink energy. Finally, Urd's half-Angel half-Devil World of Elegance appeared, framed with a light green glow. A vortex of blue energy flowed from Belldandy and Holy Bell to the amulet. The room filled with golden sparkles as divine energy collected in the middle of the hall. Skuld knew that this was the total energy output from the nuns. She felt her own Angel, Noble Scarlet, moving towards the amulet.
The amulet was charged with a rainbow of energy. Urd walked over and put it on...
And with a flash of light, she disappeared. To Skuld's eyes, it looked like she was sucked into an aperture that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.

* * * * * * * *

Urd arrived in 1385.
The emotional emanations were so rife with despair, uncertainty and violence...that she had to pause and gather her wits. Kyushu was in the midst of total chaos. She observed that the island was heavily forested with cedars and paulownia trees. Urd reflected on how to begin her search, then intuitively extended her senses into the densest gatherings of mortal turmoil. Extending her senses even further, she noticed that several wars were being fought in different parts of the island, leaving her with a morose feeling in the pit of her stomach. The energy here was so tumultuous, so gray. She could see large fires dotting the island.
She paused for a moment, feeling exhilarated to possess a fastness of strength that approached her full Goddess powers. It was much more than the *nothing* that she had for Goddess powers since her license was suspended. For a moment, Urd considered extorting this power...never letting Belldandy have it back. She tested herself by casting forth a lightning bolt, which shattered a large boulder with a satisfying crackle.
Then she turned red with embarrassment when she realized that she had cast her bolt in an unintentional mimicry of Lum from Urusei Yatsura. It often amused Urd to see her anime counterpart zapping her 'husband' on the anime rerun channel. Skuld used to compare Keiichi to Moroboshi Ataru...a bit unfairly too, according to Urd. Keiichi was anything but a girl-obsessed teenager. But to Skuld in *those* days...Keiichi was the "pervert of perverts."
"Aahhhhhhh..." Urd sighed as divine energy coursed through her.
Now to the task of locating Cevn, Keiichi and the others. Urd looked for a vantage point where she could attune herself to the aura of the island. With several hundred thousand mortal Souls to search through, she needed a place where she could establish a sensorium matrix. To her west was a huge mountain, at least 1700 meters tall. Possibly one of the tallest on Kyushu. Converting to her stealth form, she flew over it...then settled down on an outcropping at its summit. She recalled that it was called Mt. Kujuyama.
"If necessary, I'll hop across every single mountain on this island to find them!" Urd vowed to herself. She looked west, then southwards. She could see a pillar of smoke rising above a huge volcanic cone to the southwest. Urd recognized the peak as Mt. Aso, the largest conic volcano in the world. She didn't want to hop on that volcanic peak...as it looked like it could erupt at any moment. Despite her enhanced powers, she would have to conserve her energy to the utmost...saving it for the homeward journey through this TimeWeave in the TimeStream. Further southward, the mountain chain carved into the horizon as she extended her view. Then she looked eastwards, towards the ocean. She could see a castle burning in the distance. Attracted by the fire, Urd flew towards it.
For some inconsequential reason, she intuited that Keiichi was involved in a battle.
"War chariot?" she said to herself as she flew in on the conflagration. Below her, the springtime wildflowers carpeted the grassy plains with bursts of colors.

* * * * * * * *

BUTSUDANKYOJI ZEN TEMPLE - DEC 2050:

Megumi looked at the huge hall filled with nuns. On each face was a fervent expression. Megumi didn't know the words, so she tried to just hum along with the chanting. Some of the refrains began to lodge in her memory, so she repeated what little she could.
"It'll all be over soon...unless Urd can come through for us," she hoped silently.
Urd had disappeared in a flash, leaving Belldandy and Skuld. Megumi thought that Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro looked magnificent in all their vestments. They really looked like Abbesses.
Something she heard Cevn say came back to her mind. Cevn told her once that every NA meeting ended with a prayer or meditation of some kind. Instead of bowing his head in supplication, he would look up into the faces of the others in the circle. He explained to Megumi that he saw God in their faces.
Megumi could see God in the faces of the ten thousand nuns around her. An image came to her mind; the pictures of a number of caves and temples in China and Japan that had 'one thousand Buddhas'. She remembered the school trip to Kyoto...the visit to the Sanjusangen-do temple with its thousand images of Kannon. Looking around her, she felt a wave of security. The hall was filled with ten thousand living Buddhas...

* * * * * * * *

Urd paused and hovered above the castle, the billows of smoke fanning past her in the wind. Inside the partially collapsed stone walls, flaming embers illuminated a killing ground littered with dozens of corpses. In the distance, she observed a large army marching northward in the twilight.
"No!" Urd said to herself as she surveyed the carnage. She had seen thousands of battles during her existence; but none of them involved people she loved. There was no detachment of concern here, in this battle.
Her guide sense informed her that Cevn and the others were here. Out of curiosity, she had watched a couple of historical genre dramas on the TV...but this was too horrid. The smell of roasting flesh mingled with the woodburne smoke...
Urd floated downwards, facing the terrible task of going through the dead to try and find the living.
"Please, let them be alive," she hoped aloud. There were at least a hundred dead warriors densely packed in the center of the castle grounds.
She saw four corpses in the middle of the military charnel field. The four men that she had looked for. Her heart literally halted itself in mid-beat. If she had been a mortal, she would have been dead within a few minutes.
Each looked at least ten years older than she remembered.
Each was dead...their fragile lives ripped away by swordpoint and arrowpoint...
"They fought to the very last..." Urd said sadly, her heart torn by the sight. She was too late. She saw Cevn's corpse and floated down besides it, fighting back tears.
"Noooooooo!" she screamed into the hazy air. She felt her heart and mind dancing on the precipice of delirium as she stroked the hair on his blood-soaked brow. She felt angry for a moment; now that Cevn was dead, the damned Ultimate Force no longer prevented her from touching him. Nearby, Keiichi and Genji had fallen, apparently fighting back-to-back at the last.Nearby, Keiichi and Genji had fallen, apparently fighting back-to-back at the last. She saw an adult Tomohisa, his face drawn into a warrior's scowl where he lay cold, arrows bristling out of his armor.
Urd cut herself short before she screamed herself hoarse. She had never expected to see this. Belldandy was right...Keiichi was dead.
And so was Cevn.
"Failure is a state of attitude in which one alienates themselves from the path of love," she remembered Kami-sama instructing her, back in happier times. She was young then, but she recalled the words clearly. Sometimes, Urd wanted to give up too soon; this was almost a recurring theme in her childhood. Either gung-ho or hide-her-head-in-the-ground.
The Lord had observed this trait...and had instructed her accordingly.
"Keiichi carved that message with his last breath, and Genji defended him to buy him time," she realized, unable to remain near Cevn's corpse. Genji and Keiichi were back-to-back in death, Keiichi with a short blade in his hand, small wood chips all around him, Genji pierced with at least twenty sword wounds. Urd was riveted with emotion at the display of raw courage. She floated over each of the four in turn, and kissed him on the forehead.
The carving on the 'war chariot' had been their last gasp chance to convey a message, one that they hoped would be discovered in the future. The odds were ridiculously unfavorable, but they had tried anyway.
Now, their courage had become her courage.
"So it's just a matter of going back a little further..."

* * * * * * * *

The Imagawa-Shibuya warriors were closing in on their position, having mounted the castle keep. Keiichi's collapsing offense was working as planned; their suicide defense of the castle would provide a cover for the escape of the two Lords in the war chariot. As long as both Lords survived, there was a chance that they could be rescued, or Belldandy could prevent the events that placed them in this past era before they actually occurred. In his peripheral vision, he could see Cevn and Tomohisa battling with their spears. A few feet away, Genji covered him, his katana flashing silvered in bright arcs as Keiichi started the war chariot. An insane idea formed in his mind...
"Tomohisa, Genji, Cevn...hold them off for another minute! Do *anything* to hold them!" he yelled. Pulling his shortsword out, he began carving on the chassis of the war chariot with the point of his sword. He could hear the sounds of screaming, dying men all around them.
Just...another...minute...
The war chariot coughed to a rumble and streaked out through the front gate of the castle unimpeded. They were packed against each other, the four of them surrounded by hundreds...
"*Back off...all of you*!!" he heard someone shout angrily. The voice was vaguely familiar...it sounded like someone he hadn't heard in years. A woman's voice, full of energy and fury...
Jagged streaking bolts of lightning exploded all around him. All the Imagawa troops nearby were struck with the blasts. Amazed, Keiichi saw hordes of the enemy collapsing unconscious after being touched by the deliberately aimed lance-like levin flashes. He traced the electrical storm to its source.
"Urd!!!" he gasped, his mind meandering at the site of the Goddess discharging flashes of energy. Urd was dressed in the full Yggdrasil 'militant Goddess' attire. Three angels hovered over her. The enemy soldiers were awestruck at the apparition. Between Urd, the angels, and the lightning bolts, the Imagawa forces were paralyzed with fright. Which made them easy pickings for a pissed-off Goddess.
Bell-chan, Skuld and Urd had read his message.
"Kwai-sama...Kwai-sama!" their attackers shouted witlessly as they began to flee from the wrathful Goddess.
"Finally," Keiichi gasped as he was struck by the realization that the Goddesses had somehow mounted a rescue effort. Urd was firing lightning bolts like a machine gun, picking off Imagawa and Mori-Shimazu troops indiscriminately.
"Over here!" he screamed, waving his spear. Urd spied him, and then pointed a finger at him...
"NO! Not *me*...!" he yelled.

* * * * * * * *

Urd enclosed all four unconscious mortals in a stasis bubble. She decided that it would be best to 'anesthetize' them with Urd-bolts before attempting to travel forward in Time. Having four totally freaked out mortals would only serve to impair her concentration. For good measure, she had struck everyone in the vicinity unconscious with lashes of thunderbolts, so she wouldn't be seen kidnapping the four. She had nearly perished on the journey here on the TimeStream. Going backwards into the Past was the easy part for the Norn of the Past. Now she had to relinquish all control and trust that Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet could guide her home.
Holding the amulet tightly, she encanted:

"Dynamic treadmill of mazework, a web-like TimeStream uncertain,
Pray guide us to FutureNow, atold by triarch angelic communion,
Let portals denied to the Past become Future's mission gates,
As we ascend to the Present where all that Loves us awaits."

The fabric of Time began to course through her as she saw the battle scene wrap itself around itself and then form a glowing channel of light...

* * * * * * * *

BUTSUDANKYOJI ZEN TEMPLE - DEC 2050:

Abbess Sora and Abbess Chihiro were jarred from their chanting when all the Temple's bells started gonging. The deeply resonant sound of the bell's pealing was almost carillon-like; a sacred refrain that filled the air with chimes and percussive solemnity.
"Who could be ringing the bells?" Abbess Chihiro asked Abbess Sora, who was wide-eyed with surprise. All of the Sisters were here in the hall. Sora searched the Buddha Hall with her eyes and saw that the three Norns were gone.
Apparently they had succeeded at preventing Apocalypse.
"Look!" several excited nuns shouted. Soon the Nun's Hall was abuzz with exclamations as a thousand questioning voices pointed at the altar. Abbess Sora reached into her robes and put on her glasses. She felt her Dharma sister, Chihiro, put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
Above the holy images was a plaque, with a series of words burned into it. Abbess Sora broke into a grin at its clumsy, yet appropriate message, which Abbess Chihiro read aloud in a booming, clear voice. Soon, the huge throng of nuns, monks and students were embracing each other with joy, so caught up in the Dharma victory they momentarily forgot their vows...

The meditation and chanting session had finished in triumph!


*************************************************
* *
* "Sisters, Brothers, and Students *
* of Butsudankyoji Temple, *
* *
* Your desire to seek out the Truth has *
* extinguished the Burning World. *
* Merry Christmas, Life goes on... *
* *
* 25 December 2050. *
* *
* Urd *
* Belldandy *
* Skuld *
* *
*************************************************

A few minutes later, Abbess Chihiro decided to call for a celebratory feast for the entire convent.
"What else can I do?" she told Abbess Sora, overwhelmed by what had just transpired.

* * * * * * * *

After things had settled down, Abbess Sora retreated to her office to do a reality check. Was it a dream, that the world was going to be destroyed? She distinctly remembered the Goddesses asking the Sangha to meditate, so they could 'borrow' some type of energy to do something. Chuang-zi's ancient analogy of the dreamer and the butterfly kept flittering in her mind...

**Rzzzt**

"Hello?" Abbess Sora said into the videx.
"Abbess Sora? Did you hear what happened? Everywhere on the world, there was a sunset, followed by a sunrise an hour later! We just wanted to call and let you know that we're all alright."
Abbess Sora looked at the holograph and blinked her eyes in surprise. Her former husband, now Abbott Aoshima of the Shofuku-ji Temple, was on the videx. Shofuku-ji was the first Zen center in Japan, as it was located near Fukuoka in Kyushu. Long ago, they had ended their marriage amicably, so that they could devote their lives to the pursuit of Enlightenment...as each was driven with a deep desire to seek spiritual enlightenment through Zen. They still remained lovers and friends in a sense...their love now expressed solely in the spiritual realm.
A modern day Abelard and Heloise.
Another window opened up in the videx holodisplay and she saw her twins, Kenji and Megami. They were outside of Kenji's condo...the dawning sun surrounding them with a backglow.
Kenji was with his wife, Tamiya and Sayoko's daughter Elle. Elle's jetblack hair was accented by a white streak that she combed back from her forehead. She looked the spitting image of her mother, Sayoko. Elle was affectionately cradling Abbess Sora's infant great-grandson, little Gaku-chan. Megami was leaning cozily against her husband, Genji Jr., son of Megumi and Genji. Their little four-year-old granddaughter Sayoko-chan was nervously sucking her thumb. Genji looked tired and a little gaunt...he had just inherited the CEO and President's positions in the giant Mishima Zaibatsu from his father, who had just retired last month. His father and Megumi were on an extended world tour vacation...
"How..could..I..know..this?" Sora mouthed silently as she watched her brood on the videx, filled with the miracle of everyday life. She had never met most of these people...but yet she *knew* who they were. She knew their histories. And yet...her children had died over 30 years ago, in a bunker in France.
But here they were!
She almost collapsed with shock as she realized that they were *alive*! And on the heels of this realization was another...
The Goddesses had chosen to let her remember her losses of the past...so she could even more fully appreciate her gains in the present!
"Mom! Are *you* alright?" her daughter Megami asked. Abbess Sora saw the expression of concern on everyone's face.
For some reason, Abbess Sora could only nod that she was okay, as the tears started.
"I'll call back later...I can see that you need some time for yourself," Priest Aoshima said kindly, rubbing his shaved head with a practiced motion.
"Mother...I'm glad to see you again. Elle and I decided that it's been too long since we visited you. Now that the kids are old enough, we're going to arrange for both our families to come visit you over New Years, if you can tear yourself away from the Temple for a few days. Maybe we can convince Hizzoner the Mayor of Sapporo and Ms. Sayoko to come with us...Elle's been badgering him to take a break from his political duties and pay his respects! We'll talk more about it in a couple days. I..I don't know what happened with the sun, but it is definitely going to give a lot of people pause for reflection upon more spiritual matters. I love you...bye," she heard Kenji say as they all waved to her.

* * * * * * * *

Abbess Chihiro stared at the videx unit.
She had just talked with her former husband and children. It was so strange...they had chatted with her as if it was a routine thing to simply be talking. Yet, she felt like a deep part of her soul was being drenched with joy and gratitude. As if she hadn't talked with them for a *long* time...
They were all okay.
"I've *really* missed them," she thought before she burst into tears. She had remembered it all. How she lost them in the auto accident.
The life that could have been...was now being in *being*!
The Goddesses had come to their temple and had saved the world from certain disaster. Yet, it seemed that a lifetime of regrets had just faded away. She decided to compose herself and visit Abbess Sora. Abbess Sora would be able to comfort her...and listen to the weird tale of how she had 'missed' her family for 30 years.
"Or had they missed *me*?" Abbess Chihiro wondered.
Later that morning, both nuns skipped the banquet and enjoyed tea together in the temple's tearoom, so that they could share in each other's tears. And the miracle of the momentary "blinking" of the Sun that had pulled all of humanity to a standstill...and then pushed humanity towards a higher goal...
Each shared a bounty of poignant maternal joy, because they were finally reunited with their families.

* * * * * * * *