Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 43 - Mythos ( Chapter 43 )

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

Part 43 Mythos



"Peorth, you told us that you were placed on limited duty by the Proctors; meaning you weren't supposed to undertake difficult wish calls. They allowed you to only take one wish request for this year, so you could rest and recuperate. While at on duty at the GRO Earth Otasuke Division, you then received an authorized wish contact *from here*? A wish request which was made by phone?" Belldandy asked again, trying to speak lightly so as to not wake Skuld.
"Yes...I did. And yes, I got contacted for a wish. The funny thing is..." Peorth explained.
"Do tell," Urd groused, still drunk with an oncoming hangover.
"Even though the wish was originated using Earthrealm telephonic technology, the request wasn't voice transmitted over the phone," Peorth answered, secretly enjoying the fact that Urd was nursing a headache from tonight's party.
"That's...curious, to say the least. Was it sent using an encryption, as in some kind of code?"
"Pas meme! That was the first thought I had when I replayed the recorded wish request. So I cross-referenced it with all known nonverbal and transmitted Earthrealm code matrices. There was no match! Why couldn't it have been simple, like Morse code or something?" Peorth explained herself into a lament. It was bad enough that this wish was enigmatic; but now she was beginning to feel like she was being made into a fool. What kind of mortal makes a wish request over the phone without using vocalization or some recognizable language or mathematics?
"Peorth dear...is there something you aren't telling us?" Urd asked suspiciously.
"Moi? O..oh, of course not!" Peorth answered, trying to look appreciably innocent as she crossed her hands over her heart and fluttered her eyelashes.
"Au contraire! I don't believe you for a minute!" Urd retorted, lampooning Peorth's penchant for French cliches.
"Now Urd...Peorth *did* say that she went to the Ethiopsylogic Clinic to get help. She also mentioned that the Proctors there have placed her on reduced duty for her own good. And she's been successfully treated for her Wishout. Haven't you, Peorth?" Belldandy countered, not knowing that each word felt like a hammer blow to the proud Goddess from the rival GRO office.
Poised within embarrassment and resentment, Peorth was silently amused at how Belldandy could handle her older sister so well at times. Urd looked thoroughly chastened; yet no one had yelled a single shout. Now she herself was feeling chastened, and Belldandy probably wasn't even aware of it. All Goddesses go through Wishout and Washout; the Proctors told her that this was an 'occupational hazard' common to GRO workers due to their frequent exposure to mortal sentient species. But hearing Belldandy discuss her recent Wishout rehab and the resulting restrictions imposed by the Proctors made her feel irritated.
"The person who made the wish wasn't ID'd by the Ygg Mainframe for some reason. So I was wondering...uh, could you guys help me?" Peorth asked with an edge of reluctance to her voice. It was true that she needed help on this one, because it didn't make sense. Plus it had come from here, which was even more bizarre; her recent misadventures while struggling with Wishout had occurred at this very locale. So why would the Ygg computer assign *her* to this wish request?
"Oh...we'd be glad to, Peorth! Because you've been ill recently, you probably can't do things very well on your own. Dear me! I should have anticipated this and offered my assistance from the start! Of course, you'll require our help in making *whoever's* wish come true, since you're on limited duty," Belldandy said cheerily, beaming with smiles that were oblivious to Peorth's low-in-the-throat growling.
Urd tapped her forehead in frustration at her sister's unconscious gaffe. The Fourth Goddess was always a nutcase; but she felt some sympathy for Peorth, who was being tongue-lashed by her younger sister. Belldandy was in a half-buzzed chatterbox la-la-land, and the faux-pas were double the usual amount.
"Merd..erm...gee, thanks, Belldandy," Peorth said resentfully, feeling imaginary roils of steam floating off her forehead.
"Yes! And even better...this can our gift to *you*! Your very own Christmas present, Peorth!" Belldandy added amiably, still a little tipsy.
Skuld rolled over in her futon bed and buried her face in her pillow to smother the giggles.

* * * * * * * *

We delayed opening our Christmas presents until evening in deference to the hangovers several household members were sporting. In fact, it was nooners for many. Having served as designated driver last night, now I had become designated lunch chef. So I ended up cooking a clumsy lunch.
Tomohisa looked like he got the worst of it. Being de-aged from a man of 30 to a 15-year-old high-school teenager was a huge transition, not only in terms of size and strength, but also in capacity to metabolize alcohol. In Oita, I had seen him drink many times the amount he had consumed at the Karaoke party, but this morning he looked harsh. Of course, Urd wasn't too not far behind him in the 'wasted away' dept. Megumi had only consumed a little, and Genji had done pretty well by not getting blitzed. Keiichi was his usual self, wisely slowing down his drinking a couple hours before the party exploded. They were pretty quiet when I drove them home at 4am in the morning, with the exception of an occasional resentful glance and remark from Urd.
Once more, Urd's drinking had formed a wedge between us. Once more, I had to ask myself if it was all worth it. Could I truly live within the bounds of an intimate emotional relationship with a Goddess who parties like a hedgehog in a cheese factory. Once more...is it love, or just an emotional mirage?
Relationships -- aren't they supposed to be freeing, rather than confining? I've observed so many people who seem to live their lives in accord with the motto "Live each day as if it was your last". I couldn't understand why one would choose to live at death. I already had enough fears in my life without being caught up in that kind of attachment dictating my daily life. My goal was to learn to live each day as if my life had only just begun. This orientation seemed to be less motivated by the fear of missing out on something. But my reality for the past several years of depression had made this a cumbersome task. For months at a time, I was pressured by a lack of *something*...an emotional horizon that seemed to always linger just out of reach. But somehow, I managed to keep trudging ahead. Even if "ahead" felt like "behind". Now, for the first time in years, I was finally feeling free from disability of mood and mind, to some degree. And I was involved with someone I felt attracted to.
Yet that *something* still lapsed away from my grasp.
I've often regarded relationships as suspect, as it often seemed easier to reserve one's feelings rather than be open. I'm sure that this is irrational, but yet it was fueled by my fear of women…and of being close to one. Even more confusing was the truth; that my suspicions often blew up in my face for the fictions of assumption that they were.
If only I could do something about Urd and her drinking. It felt like I was involved in a romantic triangle...Urd, myself and Urd-when-drunk. I didn't know who would show up when. In fact, it was more of a wobbly rectangle, since my personality seemed to be split between 20XX and the 14th century. So we both had issues to cope with.
On the other hand, I hoped that my Christmas present would go over with her. If it didn't...well perhaps that would be a strong hint that I should call it quits. After all, my *real* gift to her was my heart...the present was only a representation of my feelings towards her. I just hoped that she kept to her promise not to snoop around my room or use any divine method to figure out what I had bought her. Besides, the main gift *was* obvious...because I was wearing it.

* * * * * * * *

Last year Keiichi received a handknit sweater from Belldandy, so he already had a good idea about one of his presents. Every Christmas since they met, she had built him a treasured knitted sweater and scarf. Each sweater was knitted with an Yggdrasilian motif that depicted a very personal chapter of Bell's life story. As a child, almost drowning in the FireLake while burning in the OceanAir. A cloud cathedral that she ascended as a little girl, seeking to be closer to Kami-sama. A vista from the Earthrealm with hills and a pattern of rounded stones; the site where Belldandy had fulfilled her first wish as a GRO Goddess. And last year's sweater, a rainbow knit Dali-esque portrait of Holy Bell. Once, when Belldandy was a teenager, Holy Bell got lost...this sweater represented the joy and relief Belldandy felt when she was reunited with her Angel.
Despite everything, his heart was always in accord with her, even if his mind wasn't. So, on Christmas Day, Keiichi had devised a little ritual of his own: he would wear last year's sweater. And enjoy Belldandy's smile of joyful recognition. Taking the gift she had loving crafted for him and using it as a gifting back to her
A little earlier, Genji excitedly confided in him about the skiing trip he was going to surprise Megumi with. Keiichi imagined the look of surprised delight that would brighten his sister's face like Amaterasu. Younger Sis *loved* skiing; hopefully her upcoming trip to Hokkaido wouldn't result in an injury this time.
In contrast, Tomohisa wanted to avoid Christmas entirely. Several days earlier, Keiichi had sat to sit his young cousin down and reminded him about a certain young Goddess who seemed to adore him from a distance. Tomohisa grudgingly agreed that it was "the right thing to do" despite that fact that "Skuld was just a child, with a child's bearing." Keiichi regretted the fact that Tomohisa had grown up so much...his serious, principled demeanor seemed so *odd* in a first year high schooler.
Keiichi put down the book he was reading. Rather, he had been absentmindedly flickering through its pages. A nebulous thought was nagging him, like a flickering lightbulb in the night. It seemed that Urd and Skuld were up to something. Even with the arrival of Peorth, his finely honed awareness of Goddess play and intrigue informed him that something unusual was afoot.
"What the hell can they be up to?" he said to himself. Hopefully, the end of 2006 wouldn't be like the end of 2003...with Urd's crazy rigged game of Life Sugoroku and his unexpected kiss with Belldandy. He smiled dreamily as once more he wondered if his shivering that New Years Day was because of the frigid temperature...or because of the jack-in-the-box burst of his own passions.

* * * * * * * *

So Christmas came and went. Urd and Skuld made a big scene because I got Urd a gold necklace instead of a ring. Skuld had reacted pretty much the same way she did when Keiichi got Belldandy her first ring...the ring that still graced her slender middle finger. She didn't spare any effort in chastising me. Empathy let me know that her ire was motivated by a protective feeling towards her older sister.
But Urd was clearly disappointed. It took no reach of comprehension to see that she was all downers about my gifts to her. Did she expect more? Or, as a Goddess, maybe my mortal gestures of love were ineffective? Or uninterpretable?
But, was it really me? The necklace was a symbol, a nexus of sorts. Yet...what did it symbolize? Were my feelings and thoughts engaged when I offered this gift? I *had* considered a ring...but decided that our relationship was still too fragile, too premature for that kind of thing. I intended the necklace to represent something we couldn't do.
Touch.
Obviously, Urd didn't agree. It was evident in the sadness visible in the recesses of her eyes...*almost* hidden away from view. A private place, just like the cave which I played in when I was a kid. My cave. Her cave. Her cave was dark with melancholy shadows...and I hadn't provided much illumination. Her reality: being alone for some many thousands of years. My reality: fear of being close to women. As we opened presents, her spirits were buoyed by false cheerfulness. Had I made a mistake by not getting her a ring? Or...were my feelings for Urd far less potent than what I sensed?
This whole mess is getting worse. The next day after Christmas, we didn't even talk.
So now, here I am in my music room. I'm trying to compose music, but nothing is fermenting as far as creative juices are concerned. I played around with several voltage regulators and MIDI-morph samples...bending sounds. Before being sucked back in time, I had drawn a computerized chart of the GodDemon's Music Symphony using Bryce. I felt better with three-dimensional visual aids than with traditional musical notation...especially where electronics were concerned. I had gotten the idea from Urd, who had told me about ThoughtPainters; Yggdrasilian artisians who used poetry to create visual dynamics. So why not sound-painting? To me, traditional musical charting didn't capture the incredible amount of effects that were available to composers today.
Yet, even the music was a source of frustration for me. Anyone could take a couple synthis, a mixer, a sequencer, a drum machine, a computer and a couple turntables...and come up with something ..decent. But this was like laying a slab of sidewalk concrete. What I hoped to do was unlock the entire spectrum of electronic music; to paint a sound tapestry with the articulation of a Sistine Chapel or a Nara Buddha. And let the God's Music flow through me, unprofaned by my own self-being.
Velsper came into my room and yowled his disapproval at the kinterwerk discordance coming from my keyboards. I was worried that he would pee on one of my synthesizers in a blatant act of feline frustration. I could take a hint.
Silent headphones...so I can hear myself think.
In relationships, one of the most important factors in my mind is whether or not she can accompany me towards a higher spiritual plane. Not that I was going to make Urd my personal Higher Power...I just hoped that she would encourage the process of personal spiritual growth. Women possess an innate moral acumen that seems to be generally absent in men. A Nobel Laureate author, Doris Lessing, had once observed that one of the main sources of confusion between men and women is that men are concerned with the current generation, while women are concerned with the next generation. In a nutshell, women are nurturing while men are selfish. Alongside these lines, during the times that I was living selflessly, a window of opportunity existed within which I could be spiritual. I had hoped that Urd could increase the quality of those times...somehow. Like the time under the awning during the rain. Or in an anonymous park outside Municipal Jail 37 in Beijing.
In the past, I had allowed people to become a wedge between God and me. Now that I was involved with a Goddess...she was making me feel miserable.
"Actually, I'm making myself feel miserable," I corrected myself. It was as if my former feelings of loneliness had clung to me like a pair of worn out shoes. When I got together with Urd, I discarded them for a long-anticipated new pair of shoes. However, the new shoes were very painful as my feet were used to the footcrappy shoes...I was completely unaccustomed to being in love again.
Am I in love? Can I be in love without going insane?
Love was supposed to be about little dates and pillow fights. Not misunderstandings and walking on eggshells. So many of my fellow addicts had coupled up in these crazymaking hare-brained relationships. Everyone but the couple themselves could see that their pairing was an abortive effort at avoiding the difficulties of being single. Being a single guy for so long, I felt like I was living with an emotional cancer; a gnawing loneliness inside that drained away my vivace.
Yet, as a recovering addict, I know that relationships could conceal a special danger...the danger of relapse. I've gone to the funerals of men and women whose relationships devolved into dysfunctional morasses of guilt, shame and anger. Emotionally overwhelmed because they weren't practicing principled behavior, they returned to active drug use. Not that the relationship itself was at fault; the problem existed in the individual's inability to cope with powerful emotions without the use of drugs. Often too, the inability to let go. And the desire to encage their lover...to take a hostage.
It's love...Panic!
I know that whatever happens, I won't get loaded. I *do* have that much confidence in my recovery. If Urd only had Sayoko's sense of recovery...
Wishful thinking on my part. One of my deepest problems, at least as far as relationships have been concerned, was manifesting itself in my relationship with Urd. I was definitely following a pattern; viewing Urd as a composite of qualities drawn from my memories. Somehow, I can't avoid enmeshing the attributes of past girlfriends in my attempts to understand Urd's actions. Especially my departed ex-wife. When I see Urd getting loaded...I feel a chill spectre of death over my shoulder. As if I was seeing my ex-wife dying all over again. But this has nothing to do with Urd.
But the feeling is there.
Butbutbutbut. If only the "buts" would butt out!
Yes, Urd certainly is a creature of contrasts...sugar and spice. Lots of spice.
I've gotta decide.
"What the hell am I thinking? I don't know anything about love!" I sounded my frustration, ripping the headphones off and tossing them angrily into the corner of the room, almost clobbering one of the cats by accident.
So where do I get off trying to convince myself that I have a set of convictions that are meaningful in any sense? All I know is that a part of me died with my ex-wife. And now...
I can't let Urd get between me and my heart much longer. But she's in my heart. *I* let her in.
Do I rip her out?
Can I survive?

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy was curled under the blanket with Keiichi, watching the wispy curls of snowflakes dancing silver fleece trails against the window. Once more, Keiichi had guessed her secret wish for Christmas. She looked at the tree and sighed happily. He had crafted an ingenious set of metal and glass Christmas tree ornaments out of cycle parts from the various stockboxes at Whirlwind. Each uniquely designed piece enframed a photo of a loved one in her life. She had met and loved so many friends since she came to Earthrealm for this adventure. Belldandy loved Christmas; these special ornaments would make each holiday henceforth even more precious.
She was genuinely surprised when she opened one package which contained a complete set of tickets and travel coupons. Keiichi had booked a tour to Kyushu for spring break. Belldandy knew that it was probably very therapeutic for him to go back to the place where he lived for so many years. Perhaps visiting modern Kyushu would help put to rest his past life there in some way, so that he could be more *here*. Belldandy was so happy that Keiichi was taking care of himself, in his own manner. She also wanted to go so that she could experience in some way those lost years with the man she loved. Since their return to 20XX, she felt uneasy with the reality that Keiichi had lived a whole epoch of his life *without her*. She wanted to share in everything with her Keiichi...and yet he had 13 years inside of him that she couldn't reach. The one year she spent in Aoshima's 'holding cell' was a fraction of her life, but Keiichi's time in Kyushu was a significant part of his. She wanted to bridge and heal this rift, this hidden 'him', so they could be even closer. Even if the memories would fade away, as their physical bodies had returned to normal, she didn't want to miss out on who he was.
She looked at the ornament with Urd's photo. Her older sister was trying to find some kind of medicinal cure that would make the men totally forget their past experiences in the 14th century. Belldandy doubted that Urd could successfully concoct a mystical substance that could selectively wipe out their memories. An inner wisdom told her that only time would erase the ravages of Time; the guys would just have to bear up with this 'butterfly holocaust' of the mind. Besides, Keiichi was doing better...he wasn't so snappy and demanding as he was last week.
Resting her head against Keiichi's shoulder, she basked in the total comfort of being warmed by him, body-next-to-body. It was a good thing that everyone else was in bed, because she and Keiichi were naked under the fluffly blankets.
Keiichi said that he wanted to cuddle tonight...to appreciate her warmth while gazing languidly at the wintry snowscape. The many trees that they could view were layered with crystalline ice branches. In the moonlight, the radiance of reflected light off of the trees seemed to tickle the dark night air...making it laugh joyfully.
At least tonight, she could forget about Peorth and that mysterious wish.
She felt Keiichi nuzzle her neck with soft kisses, and wondered if cuddling was all they were going to do...with the moonglowing sweeps of snow as their witness...

* * * * * * * *

"It was traced by Yggdrasil Mainframe...to *this* house!" Peorth said as she absent-mindedly flitted with her hair during breakfast. "Whoever made the wish called from here. Nowhere else. I've checked and double-checked," she added.
"But the Yggdrasil Mainframe has been known to be buggy from time to time. I should know, after the thousands of years I've Sysoped there!" Urd reminded her.
"Well, it's only as good as its programmers and sysops, right?" Peorth half-heartedly sassed at Urd.
"Oooo, aren't you owly this morning! Sorry, you can't pin that one on me or Skuld, since we're both down *here*, Peorth!" Urd retorted crisply.
"Hmm...well answer me this. A call *was* placed and logged on the system, but there was no voice. Could the caller be a ghost?" Peorth watched as Skuld shrunk back a little at the reference to the supernatural. Which always surprised her, because by mortal standards, Skuld *was* the supernatural.
"No...I think it might have been a snow tengu. Or a possibly a winter oni from Hokkaido. What about a kappa, or maybe even a bowl-ghost..." Urd said, onto the game.
"S..stop it! Y..you're both scaring me!" Skuld shouted, pushing her bowl of sweet kanten jelly away. Urd and Peorth both laughed at her typified paranoid response.
"Quit picking on Skuld!" Keiichi chastened the two as he walked past them towards the kitchen. Skuld looked at him with a flicker of grateful hazel eyes, and then rescowled at the two older Goddesses.
"Actually, it's all your fault she's this way! You were the one who suggested she read some books by Lafcadio Hearn in order to learn about Japan. She wasn't this way before she came to Earthrealm..." Urd argued.
"Yes, I suppose it is my fault. You know how impressionable children are," Peorth added.
"AM NOT!" Skuld shouted.
"By the way, did you and Belldandy have fun under the blankets?" Urd asked loudly, just to see Keiichi's face turn red. His blush proved her guess was right. *This* was a good sign that things were slowly getting back to normal in the household! Hopefully, she would have that new Lustmuster formula ready by New Year's. Skuld's face turned even redder with anger.
"Keiichi...you're so *cute* when you blush!" Peorth teased as she floated up and wrapped herself around him, hugging him from behind and then reaching out and playfully tousling his hair. Keiichi pushed her away and made a double-time exit down the hall, followed by echoing giggles. Two flirtatious Goddesses were too much for him. Especially with the *glow* he felt this morning.
"So anyway, who do you think made the call, Peorth?" Urd asked, suddenly serious.
"I think...it was either the boy, Tomohisa...or Cevn," she said, attempting to get a rise out of Skuld and Urd.
"Nice try, but they were both at the party," Urd said. "And Cevn already made his wish."
"Yeah. Even Banpei-kun showed up at the beginning," Skuld added.
"You mean that rolling trashpile that you call a 'robot'...visited the Karaoke party? That's utterly ridiculous!" Peorth observed bluntly. Skuld glowered at Peorth's deliberate insult towards her mechanical ally and friend. At that moment, she wished that her amber brown eyes could trap Peorth...like the insect fossil she had seen in a magazine that had been preserved for hundreds of millions of years.
"Banpei's got far more compassion than you!" Skuld near-shouted.
"Mon enfant, *no one* has more compassion than I! After all, didn't I help Belldandy out of that awful omiai mess? I could have just let things be...and then, wouldn't *I* have wound up with Keiichi-chan all to myself?" Skuld had to reluctantly concede this point.
"Excuse me...this conversation is exceeding the level of sappiness that I can tolerate," Urd said as she dismissed herself.

* * * * * * * *

Urd returned to her lab in Urd's Castle to work on the Lustmuster syrup. She wanted to make it into a liquid, so that she could slip it in everyone's tea on New Year's Eve. After cleaning the temple from top to bottom, they would all be *very* thirsty. So thirsty...that they wouldn't hazard any suspicions.
Of course, she would skip out on the annual year-end temple cleaning, just like every other year since she arrived to Earthrealm. Regardless of how much Belldandy pouted or Skuld remonstrated.
It would be her way to get back at Cevn for not getting her a ring. Urd just didn't understand why he was so reserved about such a simple expression of gratitude and love.
"Keiichi got Belldandy a ring for their first Christmas together...so why couldn't Cevn do the same for me?" she mumbled to herself as she added another ingredient to the brew. Urd's sadness seemed to deconstruct itself like a melting sandcastle...melted by a sea of salty anger. After a hundred thousand years, she felt love for a man again...only to be spurned.
It was only a ring. One single band of gold or silver metal with a gemstone fitted onto it. But he chose against it...chose against *her*.
Urd imagined Cevn embroiled in his own uncontrollable lusts after taking her 'medicine'...and not being able to do anything to relieve it. Then she could tease and torment him to no end until the effects wore off.
That would teach him.
"All of them...to amuse me," Urd smiled as she mixed arcane compounds, glancing at the formula in one of her advanced textbooks.

* * * * * * * *

"Banpei! That's it!!!" Skuld shouted, snapping her fingers. Peorth looked askance at the young girl-Goddess, curious about her sudden outburst.
"Don't you see? Banpei-kun was *here*, so he must know who made the call, since everyone else was at the party!" Skuld was miffed at the simple answer that they had overlooked. The sooner they could figure out who made the wish and send Peorth on her way, the better.
"Summon him," Peorth said haughtily.
"Don't order me around. Just because you're a First Class Goddess and I'm a..."
"Yeah, yeah... Just have him come, okay, Earth Trainee with a suspended license?" Skuld shook at that one, and then checked herself because she almost stuck her tongue out at Peorth.
"I'll do it because someone somewhere made a wish and they deserve to have it granted. But *not* for you!" she responded with a hasty rue. Angrily ruffling back one of her sleeves, she pressed a button that was cleverly inset into one of her bracelets. Almost immediately, she could hear the approaching whirring from outside.
"Banpei-kun must be sweeping the driveway free of last night's snow," she guessed aloud. They met Banpei on the porch. He vibrated his metallic frame for a few seconds, dislodging the snow that was attached to his armor. This was a feature Belldandy had insisted upon after Banpei had repeatedly tracked snow and mud into the house several years ago when Skuld had first created him. Skuld had upgraded his wheels to a material that *nothing* could adhere to, while installing the Vibroframe Mark III feature so that he could shake loose any dust or moisture.
The memory of a smashed Banpei in 2050 still echoed in her mind with its haunting images. Because of this, Skuld felt an extra sense of relief every time Banpei responded to her summons. She squatted on her haunches in front of him and eyed him levelly.
"Banpei...on Christmas Eve, did someone make a call from here to Yggdrasil? Do you have any idea who it was?"
Her mechanical friend shifted into a syncopated symphony of buzzes and breeps. Then he looked longingly into Skuld's eyes. Skuld examined his metallic face, her suspicions mounting as she scaled the meanings of his expression. She was one of five who could read Banpei's 'face'...and she was by far more accurate than her sisters or Keiichi and Megumi. She saw indecision, indicated by a slight tipping of Banpei's cap.
Suddenly, Banpei-kun broke away from Skuld and Peorth. He spun on his wheels, excitedly making three complete circles...and rolled over to the kitchen. The two Goddesses followed. Extending his frame upward to its full height, he reached on the counter with one of his servo arms and picked up the phone.
"Yeah...that's right Banpei. Someone did just what you're doing. Do you know who?" Skuld asked. She looked at Peorth, who wore a funny expression on her face...wide-eyed as she was biting her lower lip in a half-grin.
"What's so funny, Peorth?" Skuld asked suspiciously.
The moment the mecha had grabbed the phone, it all came together in Peorth's mind like a flash of quicksilver. The elements of this mystery had just molded themselves into a singularly incredible scenario. One that would poise Peorth for unparalleled fame amongst her GRO peers. Absolute renown...*if* she could pull it off.
"Well...I'll be damned!" Peorth exclaimed.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld looked at Banpei, her mouth a wide oval of shock.
"Does this m..mean that *you* called?" she sputtered.
Banpei nodded his head. Skuld felt her heart leap with pride and amazement. Banpei, the robot that *she* had designed, created, and built...was displaying a degree of sentience that she considered to be impossibly beyond his means. Banpei was Skuld's labor of love...she had tinkered with him for years, constantly improving him with a host of upgrades to his AI and his mecha functioning. He was much closer than a pet...and much more than a friend. He was *her* Banpei-kun!
A couple years back, Banpei had fallen in love with a simply designed mechanical mannequin. He had discovered Sigel the Robot Girl in front of an ancient roadside godown convenience store in one of the rural Chiba towns, greeting customers with a bow and a hello. Sigel was a simple half-doll, half automaton...crudely designed and constructed by Skuld's standards. Yet, Banpei was infatuated with her in a most human-like fashion. Then the owner discarded her...and she ended up repaired and repainted by Chihiro for Whirlwind. After seeing Banpei's enraptured attentions to her, Skuld acquired her from Chihiro...then modified Sigel with 'special' circuitry. But yet, there he was...saving her life, pursuing her like Keiichi sometimes chased after Belldandy. But the whole thing had turned out badly despite everyone's best efforts; his affections weren't reciprocated by Sigel.
And now, Banpei had called Yggdrasil.
"How could he have done it? He doesn't have a voice, per se. He's just a machine..." Peorth wondered aloud.
"Now hold it right there! Banpei-kun is so much more than a machine! He has *real* feelings! He's fallen in love with my sister, acted the part of a hero, has bruised Keiichi's shin dozens of times, and absolutely despises Mara. You can't get away with saying that he's only a machine! After all, what kind of machine calls the Goddess Relief Office, Earth Otasuke Division?!" Peorth could sense Skuld's vehemence even as she searched her own mind to try and understand how Banpei had made the call.
"Can you have him demonstrate how he did it?" Peorth suggested, her voice deliberately skeptical.
"Banpei...how did you make the call?" Skuld watched as Banpei disassembled the phone, pulling several wires out. He opened up a small box on his 'neck' and inserted the wires. Immediately, a blistering cacophony of dial pulses started...
"STOP!" Peorth shouted, realizing that Banpei could end up calling Yggdrasil again during his demonstration. To make sure, she pulled the plug on the phoneset.
"Chill *out*, Peorth!" Skuld asserted. Peorth looked at her with an amused smile.
"You don't want him calling the GRO again, do you Skuld?"
"Ohhh no!" she exclaimed. If Banpei-kun called before, he could do it again. Peorth nodded at her as recognition dawned in her mind.
"Yes, that would create a lot of trouble, wouldn't it? They might even want to take your mechanical friend to Yggdrasil to disassemble him...take him apart...to see what makes him tick," she said with feigned concern, savoring how Skuld fidgeted in harmony to her darkling predictions.
"N..no way! They wouldn't dare!" Skuld whispered fearfully.
Peorth paused to reflect. It would be important for her to seize this opportunity before the three sisters could foul her chances. This meant that she had to find out what Banpei wanted, than make him communicate his wish. Since he couldn't talk...this might pose a problem.
"Aha!!" Peorth said. She opened one of the drawers in the kitchen and withdrew a piece of paper and a black magic marker. She set them down on the counter and then turned to Banpei.
"Write!"
Both Skuld and Banpei looked at her with confused faces.
"I want you to write down what you want, robot! Then I can make your wish come true."
Banpei looked at her, and then shook his head "no".

* * * * * * * *

"Ewyaaaahhhhrrgghhh!"
Keiichi sighed as he heard someone scream in frustration. Just another normal day in the temple house.
"Put Urd, Peorth and Skuld in one dining room and *this* is what happens," he grumbled. He reached for the whiteout to cover the ripjagged line that rued the symmetry of the motorbike chassis schematic he was working on...the pen seeming to live a two-second panic adventure in reaction to the shouting. Unfortunately, Belldandy and Megumi had taken advantage of the break in the snowfall to go to the grocery store.
"How long until this one blows over? And during my year-end break as well! Cripes...I just wanted to *relax*!" he said to one of the posters as if it was alive and listening to him.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld watched in amazement while Banpei went NBA all over the living room, traversing all over in random patterns. Yet, he carefully avoided knocking anything over...which allayed Skuld's initial fear that his circuitry was frying out. But it was like...like he was on Big Sister's 'speedy pills' or something! She had never seen Banpei so hyper before, except when Dr. Morrow was torturing Sigel. If Banpei-kun was a mortal, it would be as if he was fraught with anxiety. Nervous pacing, it resembled.
It was hilarious, the way her Banpei had shot down Peorth's request with point-blank bluntness. Peorth was acting all uppity, and then he owned her to the max! Skuld remembered how he shook his head "No!" and Peorth's face erupted into a reddened clench of rage while Banpei firmly stood his ground. It was so funny, she almost bit her tongue laughing.
And then Banpei-kun shot off towards her bedroom.
"What does he think he's doing?" Peorth shouted above the din that Banpei was creating.
"I...don't know! I just can't understand why he's acting this way!" Skuld shouted back, her mirth tasked into serious caution.
They followed Banpei as he slid open the shoji door and entered the sister's bedroom. He rolled to a stop in front of Skuld's stuffed animal collection.
Peorth noticed something that had missed her attention all the times she had visited. Skuld and Belldandy each had a wall in their bedroom. Belldandy's wall sported a number of framed photographs of her, Keiichi and all the other members of their clique. Skuld's wall had a couple of idol star posters, a poster of a Corvette, an Escaflowne poster series, and almost fifty stuffed animals of all types and sizes lined up on the floor.
Banpei was gesturing towards the stuffed animals.
"What?" Skuld asked with sincere concern. She checked his programming circuitry...which was locked. Once more, Skuld was led to wonder how Banpei could protect his programming even from *her*.
Banpei reached for a pen on top of the dresser and then wrote:

"Banpei wants friends like mortals have!"

A split-second later, Peorth felt the familiar sensation as she floated upward in the air, a slender focused stream of light ascending from the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead.

* * * * * * * *

*Crash*

Urd looked at the ruins of the beaker. All of her Lustmuster potion was dripping down the sides of her sink.
A sudden shift in gravity had pulled the beaker right out of her hand. She looked at the fragments of glass floating amidst the light green goo. Somehow, a powerful signal was being broadcast to Yggdrasil from somewhere in the house.
"Shit!" she cursed, right before her sink blew up.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld flinched as she saw the thin wooden wall that separated her mecha lab from Urd's room splinter into a pile of matchwood. Through the smoke, she could see Urd stumblefloating in confusion. Before she could even begin to think about what just happened, she noticed that the feedback signal from Yggdrasil was being deflected. Peorth had been displaced by an explosion of some kind, and she wasn't hovering in the floating position necessary to receive the signal. It angled around the room like a living thing, seeking her out for conduit. But instead, it struck her obliquely.
As a result, the transmission signal was reflected, like a light passing through a prism. Towards her stuffed animals.
Showered with rainbow light and a thin green smoke, the stuffed animals began to move...

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy could sense that the house was in an uproar as soon as Megumi pulled into the driveway. Megumi was due to leave with Genji tomorrow to go skiing, so she was in a happy-go-lucky mood. Belldandy appreciated her very pleasant company, for Megumi was one of two mortals she could confide in about the nightmare of 2050. She hoped that the vacation for Genji and her would be very healing to them both; Megumi had discussed her difficulty adapting to the occasional bursts of 14th Century brusqueness and chauvinism her boyfriend got caught up in. Keiichi was a handful for her; she could only imagine what Megumi was going through. Also, it seemed that the guys did their attitudinal flip-flops at random, something Megumi confirmed while discussing her and Genji. But now the temple house was permeated with strife vibes that she couldn’t ignore.
"This means total chaos," she thought to herself as she read the aura around the temple.
Not to mention that a light was flowing downwards, piercing the clouds and the roof of the temple.
A light which Belldandy all too easily recognized.

* * * * * * * *

Megumi had intended to stay just long enough to drop off the groceries, and then she was off to Genji's to spend the night at his parent's house. Keiichi was much more relaxed towards her relationship with Genji after they all returned from their time travels. Perhaps, after spending 13 years living with Genji, Keiichi had learned to trust him more. Enough to allow his little sister to stay overnight with him.
When she entered the living room, Megumi pulled to a halt, gasped, and dropped her two bags of groceries on the floor.
"W..what...is *that*!"
Urd was stumbling around, looking like Wile E. Coyote after getting blown up by a bomb. Megumi immediately assumed that Skuld had bombed her. But what snatched her breath away were the *animals*.
A stuffed rabbit hopped across the living room, circling around Urd. Another stuffed animal, a Pokeman, was walking towards the kitchen. A clothwork gorilla was climbing up a lamp with powerful pulls of its arms.
"This...is...*crazy*!" Megumi shouted to no one in particular.

* * * * * * * *

At first, Belldandy was concerned that her sisters and Peorth were okay. As she surveyed the damage to the two Goddess's hobby rooms, she was grateful that Keiichi had been in his own hobby room. On the other side of the hall, it was separated and fairly well insulated from the blastzone by the hallway. Since Urd and Skuld had lost their Goddess licenses, they didn't have enough latent power to create adequate seals for their hobby rooms. Belldandy had suspected that something like this might happen. At least the explosion part.
She didn't expect the other part, however.
She bravely tried to keep from laughing as a stuffed tiger crouched and then leapt onto Skuld's shoulder, giving her little sister a start. Megumi was right...this was loony-times-ten crazy.
Her house was filled with fifty or so of Skuld's stuffed animals.
Peorth wasn't making sense...which made sense. Skuld explained what happened., because Urd was in a daze. In the midst of a transmission exchange to the GRO and Yggdrasil Mainframe, Peorth had been buffeted by an explosion. During this critical period, the Goddess needed to be precisely aligned with the carrier light signal from Yggdrasil. Once out of alignment with the signal, the signal tried to reach her by its own means. This was every GRO Goddess's nightmare; an interrupted or deflected signal meant wish-incompletion and a few days of migraine headaches and delirium. Not the stark-raving-mad type of disorientation, but bouting with it was bothersome enough. No wonder Peorth was babbling about the tulip festivals of Holland.
All three cats were freaking out. Velsper was pouncing on a stuffed bird, while Pho and Xue Shizi were stalking a stuffed Dalmatian. It was playtime for the cats.
Nobody had any idea how this had happened.

* * * * * * * *

"Urd, what were you making when the explosion occurred?" Belldandy asked calmly. Unexpectedly, Urd turned several flashes of crimson, her blush showing through her suntanned skin. Skuld grinned...she knew that her sister was onto something. Urd was squirming like a worm on a hot sidewalk.
"Urd's downfall is afoot," Skuld thought, ready for anything.
"Err, ahem. I was making a potion!" Urd announced.
"*What* kind of potion, Big Sister?" Skuld asked with false innocence. The veiled threat in her voice wasn't missed by anyone in the living room.
"Well, ya see, a couple of days ago, I was working on a potion t..to make the guys less caught up in their memories of the 14th century. But I spilled it down the drain..."
"WHAT KIND OF POTION, URD!" Skuld yelled. Belldandy almost wanted to chide her younger sister for being so insensitive that she had shouted rudely, but the guilt she noticed washing over Urd's face forestalled her.
Urd felt like she was going to perish. Everyone was here. Belldandy. Skuld. Peorth. Keiichi. Cevn. Tomohisa.
"I..I can't tell you. You guys would kill me! It's better that you don't know. Really!" she pleaded. Belldandy shook her head in resignation, her face saying "here we go again with another one of Urd's antics!"
"Urd, I'm not convinced. And now that you're so adamant about not telling us, you've pretty much admitted that you're up to some kind of mischief," Keiichi interjected, echoing what Belldandy was thinking.
Urd looked to Cevn for help, but Cevn just shook his head and stared at her. She looked at Peorth, whose smile indicated that she was eating this up. Tomohisa resembled a soap opera junior lawyer with his grave mien.
"Oh...all right! I'll tell you. But promise that you won't do anything to me, Bell. My dear, *dear* sister. *Please*!" Urd bowed to her, almost groveling. Belldandy rolled her eyes and then nodded, feeling like she was her Elder Sister's elder sister. What could Urd have done which made her so evasive...and so ashamed, she wondered.
"Well, I was working on a Lustmuster potion. J..just to see if I could do it, of course," Urd admitted sheepishly. Belldandy looked at her with a gripping expression of shock.
"Sacre Dei! I can see it now! You were making the Lustmuster potion in order to increase everyone's libido...Gods and Earthrealmers! And knowing you, Urd...you were probably going to sneak it into everybody's tea or something, then sit back and enjoy the results of your labors," Peorth explained.
Urd's tan face went pallid.
"URD! How could you? You know that a Lustmuster potion is one of the strongest potions known to the Gods. It overstimulates the divine drive to Share, not to mention mortal sexual stamina and o...o...o..."
"Orgasm," Peorth said, finishing the word that Belldandy was too embarrassed to say in front of the others.
"I just wanted to make the New Year's more enjoyable for everyone! Besides, I was really thinking about you and Keiichi..."
"Keiichi is just fine the way he is. He already has enough for me. Why, just the night after Christmas, he and I..."
"BELL-CHAN! I think we get the picture!" Keiichi exclaimed his face ruddy with reactive shamefastness.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! This is *great*!" Peorth laughed, seeing Urd and Keiichi reduced to shame-ridden ashes.
"This is *your* fault, Peorth!" Belldandy said sternly, turning her attention to the Goddess of Forever.
"Huh?"
"You were placed on *limited duty*, as prescribed by the Proctors of the Ethiopsylogic Clinic. You should have never taken on this wish case. Didn't you think that an artificial intelligence making a wish was just a *little* extraordinary? You *had* to know that this GRO Hotline call wasn't made by a mortal," Belldandy confronted in logic-chain fashion.
"Well, I would've granted his wish, if Little Miss Alchemist here hadn't blown up the place!"
"Well, if you weren't granting his wish, I wouldn't have dropped my Lustmuster potion in the sink and blown up my lab..."
"What about Banpei...it was *his* wish you screwed up..." Skuld interjected.
Cevn walked out of the room. This was just too much arguing for his tastes. Besides, once again, Urd had disappointed him.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy woke up the next day with a fluffy cotton bear curled up in ursine bliss on her chest. She had wanted to sleep in Keiichi's bedroom, but decided that she needed to keep an eye on Peorth. And Urd, for that matter.
She looked over at Skuld, sleeping between her and Urd. Peorth was sleeping by the wall where Skuld's polyester pets used to reside.
Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she got up and put a houserobe on, then went to the kitchen and poured herself a tea and heated it in the fridge's microwave. She had a six-door refrigerator with a wooden set of replacement doors that Keiichi built, so it would blend inconspicuously into the kitchen decor. It was the latest model: with quick and slow freezers, a vegetable crisper with a self-regulating humidity control; a small microwave for beverages and quick warmups; a chill area for beverages and cooling zone area for leftovers. A sliding panel revealed a set of temperature controls for each compartment. It even had an odor remover and dispensers for water and mixed beverages. The mixed beverage dispenser was another adjustment engineered by Keiichi; with it, Belldandy had a tap supply for tea or peach drink mix.
*Bump*
Belldandy looked down and smiled at a small elephant that just bumped into her shin. She recalled that it was based on some long-ago Disney movie. Suddenly, it began to flap its ears and slowly lifted off the floor. Belldandy wondered just how far Skuld's vivified menagerie could imitate real-life animals. But this was a cartoon character...and yet there it was, floating in front of her in all its improbable glory like a jumbo-sized hummingbird.
She went into the dining room and tucked her legs under the kosatsu to warm them up. It wasn't very cold in the house, but the electric blanket offered a cozy warmth that soothed her nerves. Sipping her warm tea, she noticed the elephant again, only this time in the living room.
"How could you have slipped by me into the living room without my noticing," she said sweetly to the stuffed toy, as if it was alive and could understand her.
"Hmm...*is* it alive?" she asked herself. Having a house full of animated toys could present all sorts of problems. If they somehow left the temple grounds, it could cause chaos. Not to mention breaking every child's heart...because they would want a 'living' stuffed toy.
Kodama and her sister Ninjettes were off Winter training in the hills of the Snow Country...what would happen if they came back and saw *this*?
She smiled again as a slender rabbit bunny hopped onto the tabletop.
"You guys *are* cute," she admitted.

* * * * * * * *

Skuld woke up and immediately missed the familiar sight of her stuffed animals along the wall. Sleep had robbed her of the awareness that her collection of stuffed animals had come to life. She gradually remembered the events of yesterday, including her wrecked mecha lab. Well, not exactly wrecked. But it was worthless, because Urd could see everything she did because of the missing wall between their hobby rooms. *That* was an intolerable situation that needed to be remedied! She made a mental note to ask Keiichi to put up a wall post-haste, so Urd couldn't spy on her.
"Hey, sleepyhead," Urd greeted her as she sat down for breakfast. Urd was into 'loving Big Sister' mode today, Skuld realized. Probably out of guilt. Urd floated up behind her and massaged her shoulders as she drank some chocolate milk.
Skuld regretted her paranoia of a moment ago. Despite the fact that she and Urd tended to confound each other on a regular basis, their sibling rivalry was only a small axis of their relationship. Urd and she had made for a good team on countless occasions, especially when it came to rescuing Belldandy or Keiichi from some disaster.
"Or rescuing the Earthrealm and the Multiverse," Skuld realized as she recounted the superstring mishap several years ago.
"This is strange...there seems to be *more* of them," she thought to herself as she grabbed a breakfast roll. She began to count off the felt and cotton toys. This was difficult, as the rabbits were hopping around swiftly while the tortoises lumbered across the floor. The Pokeman doll kept changing shapes, the birds were flying, and the monkeys and gorillas were climbing all over the furniture.
"Gorillas?" she mouthed the word out loud.
"What did you say, Skuld?" Belldandy asked. Urd set down her morning bottle of Four Hearts sake and looked quizzilly at her.
"I thought...in fact I *know*...that I only have one stuffed gorilla. But there's *two* in the living room!"

* * * * * * * *

By the next day, December 28th, the extent of our dilemma was self evident, surrounding us with a net of filament-like strands of reality. The fear of being choked hung opiate-like over the household, like some lightly sensed Gothic horror in a Walpole novel. The air was charged with apprehension.
Keiichi, Tomohisa and I had braved subzero Celsius weather, freezing ourselves out while we hammered out a makeshift planked wooden door-cum-gate underneath the torii. Just in case. The neighbors must have thought that we were up to our usual craziness. We thought that we were being industrious, inspired by a driving necessity.
Everyone who entered or left the temple house had to do so *quickly*. In and out as fast as one could squeeze through the door. Slipping through the slenderest gap in the doorway...
It required a group effort to keep the stuffed animals from bursting out of the house.
Yesterday, when Skuld noticed the duplicate gorillas, we thought it was funny. I went along with the levity, humming the harmony bit from "Wot Gorilla", a song on an old Genesis album. Keiichi remarked about that there would be a banana shortage in the house. We were relieved by the fact that Skuld's stuffed animals didn't need to eat, so we went on with our day's routines.
A couple of hours after lunch, Skuld was dashing around the house fitfully. When Belldandy calmed her down enough so she could talk, she pointed towards the living room and started shouting "Hentai! Hentai!" Her face was almost comic with its expression of shock and disgust, her long silken tresses hanging over one of her eyes like a pirate girl.
A stuffed rabbit was humping another stuffed animal...one of the spotted Dalmatians that the cats were hunting earlier.
But then they started reproducing. Every eight hours, the number doubled. According to Skuld, right now there are 1600 frolicking stuffed toys in the house.
Now we had spotted rabbits with dog ears.
By the end of January, according to Skuld...the entire surface of the planet would be covered by a five-kilometer high pile of plush, huggable, soft, smiley, cuddlycute stuffed animals.
Skuld had offered to make an expanding room to contain them. But the last time she had created her Space Doubler Mk. II, which was basically a 'space-cuber'...it had basically turned the storage room into an infinite space. Attracting the attention of the Transdimensional Schrodinger's Whales. Skuld didn't know that the term she used for 'space' also meant 'infinite' in Japanese.
That idea was immediately nixed.
I wondered about the possibilities...an infinite room with an ever-expanding corpus of stuffed animals. Descartes would have loved this quandary. Of course, my 'metallect' knew the answer to that one. Which was frightening. It was in the Enigma Book...under Yggdrasilian Metatanic Calculus.
What was really strange was the fact that the animals coupled abhorrently. That evening, I saw a gorilla and a giraffe producing offspring which shared the physiognomic qualities of both. Presto! A 'goraffilla' with a bulky body, elongated neck and climbing arms with opposable hooves.
Our home was turning into a menagerie of the absurd.
The Pokemans were especially disturbing...because they would transfigure themselves at a moment's notice.
In the end, we capitulated to the fact that there was no possible resolution in sight.
Skuld, Urd and Peorth packed it up and headed for Yggdrasil. Right before she left, Peorth had a frightened aspect...like she was going to catch hell from the GRO for her mishap. But our best bet was to bring the best minds in the GRO to task...or life as we know it would cease to exist.
Not with a bang...but with a fur muffled meow.
I felt sorry for Peorth.

* * * * * * *

"But I can't feel sorry for Urd. I still can't believe that she intended to dose all of us with some kind of super-aphrodisiac. I mean, isn't this the act of someone who isn't wired very tight?" Cevn said.
"Well...that's our Urd," Keiichi replied. He noticed the sad, drawn look on Cevn's face. Cevn had insisted that he needed to talk to him, after the Goddesses left. Keiichi was upset at first, as this was an ideal time for he and Bell-chan to have some quality time. But Cevn's serious demeanor convinced him that he didn't just want to have a casual chat.
"What's up? You look miserable," Keiichi observed.
"I...just made a decision, Keiichi. And since you know me pretty well, I wanted to get your perspective."
"Having Peorth here has made things pretty insane, hasn't it?"
"The funny thing is...she *did* grant Banpei's wish. Remember when he showed up at the Karaoke party? He saw us all having fun together? I'm convinced that he figured out that he was feeling lonely. All he has is mini-Banpei...he doesn't even have Sigel anymore. She doesn't want him. So...he wanted some friends. Peorth just happened to animate Skuld's toys to keep him company. Fulfilling his wish."
"But something really is screwed up, if you haven't noticed! Just look anywhere in the house to see," Keiichi said sarcastically. "By tomorrow, we'll be waist deep in stuffed toys."
"Yeah...yeah. I know. But what I really wanted to talk to you about is Urd."
"May I come in?" Belldandy asked, standing in the doorway. She had overheard Cevn mentioning her sister. Her intuition informed her that this wasn't going to be a happy discussion, so she wanted to sit in on behalf of her sister and Keiichi.
"Well, since it involves your sister...you might as well hear it too," Cevn said. Belldandy sat down next to Keiichi, her face deep in thought.
"I hate to say this...but I have to end it between us. Between Urd and I. It's not working."
"WHAT?" both Keiichi and Belldandy chorused.
"She'll be...shattered! How could you?" Belldandy said gravely.
"Look, there *is* a place in my heart for her. But after this last bit of 'Urd sabotage', I can't take any more. Love is supposed to be noble and secure..."
"Love is supposed to hurt," Keiichi said bluntly. "That's something Bell taught me. Not that she intends to hurt me...but there are times when emotions confine something that should be released. Like when I hold in sadness, which I should express. Or when my fear challenges my love for her. Not to mention the thousands of times that I didn't think I was good enough for a Goddess. *That* always hurts!"
"Love is an exchange of the deepest emotions, Cevn. It's obvious that you feel deeply about my sister, otherwise you wouldn't be so strongly affected by her actions. It's so clear to me that you're simply afraid! So was Keiichi, at first..."
"But I got over it," Keiichi said, exchanging a knowing smile with Belldandy.
"I know that Urd was upset that you didn't get her a ring for Christmas. She may have overreacted, but it goes much deeper than this. Consider my sister's position..."
"Don't you think that I have? I mean, it's tearing me apart. I know that my guts will grind themselves into pools of tears. I can't begin to imagine what *she's* going to have to endure. But I have to do it. It's never going to work between us. And it will just get worse if I try to make it work! Don't you understand?"
"You're a fool! You're an idiot! *Don't you know what you're giving up?* How many mortals even have a chance to be with a Goddess? Remember when you were telling me about how much you wanted to be with Urd? What happened to that?" Keiichi said angrily.
"Maybe. I can see the potential, you guys, but..."
"But nothing! Potentials? Ideals? You need to be grounded in reality, not fantasy. The reality is...you're being totally *selfish*, Cevn!" Belldandy argued. "Urd is a wonderful Goddess! I know my older sister better than anyone! She doesn't mean to harm you or any of us. She's just a little eccentric. And you want to know the secret as to why she acts so wild? Urd is half-Goddess, half-Demoness, as you know. Which means that her heart is twice as big; in a sense, she has two hearts. When she feels...she feels *intensely*. I know that she really loves you; she's confided so much to me about how she feels."
"Look at things realistically, like Bell-chan just said," Keiichi added. "I know that it's been hard on all of us to readjust to life back here in the 21st century. Speaking for myself, I've had moments where I was staring over the yawning cliffs of sheer insanity. Something simple like the television...scares the crap out of me sometimes, because part of me thinks that it's *real*. It's been a struggle between Bell and I. I spent so much time back in Kyushu, in what seems like a whole other world. Remember? We tried to create something wonderful by allying Lord Mori and Lord Shimazu...and then watched helplessly as it was devoured by Imagawa's armies. Remember when we almost got killed, there at the end? It was like living in some kind of myth gone badly. I *know* that you're going through the same difficulties. We are ourselves, and yet we can't be ourselves... All I'm asking you to do is reconsider. After all, Urd went through some crazy times in the future. And it was *Urd* who risked everything to rescue us!!! Just take a moment to pause and reflect."
"I *don't* love her! I *can't* love her!" Cevn shouted in anguish, and then walked his frustration out of the room. He felt like nobody was listening to him or *hearing* him.
After the roaring silence folded its cold arms, Keiichi looked at Belldandy and shook his head.
"He's lying to himself, my love. It hurts me to see him deny his feelings like this," Belldandy said, feeling anguished at the thought of his loss.
Her sister's upcoming loss.
"He's the biggest idiot I know!" Keiichi answered, filled with disappointment.

* * * * * * * *