Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 45 - Blue Malors ( Chapter 45 )

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

Part 45 Blue Malors




This morning, Skuld had generous created breakfast in her stead, telling her "it's not fair for you to be in the kitchen doing stuff on the day after your birthday party. Big Sister Urd is in no shape to be of any help, so I'll do it!" She was grateful for her younger sis's thoughtfulness, even though she always enjoyed getting up early for her usual start-the-house routines. After breakfast, she and Skuld sent the overnighters back home with bento boxes and snacks. Keiichi looked troubled all through breakfast, not to mention red-eyed and tongue-tied exhausted. She suggested they a nap on the living room couch to catch up on some sleep and calm their nerves after the overload of guests and parents and friends.
When they woke up, Keiichi told her that Urd, in a drunken display of bellicosity, had broken a bottle of tequila over Cevn's head because he hadn't gotten her a ring for Christmas. Belldandy could hear the disappointment in his voice...Urd usually wasn't so violent. But then again, Keiichi suspected that Urd was in a blackout.
Her boyfriend then had to drive Cevn to the hospital, where he received 26 stitches to his forehead, all while she and everyone else was sleeping soundly. Bell was startled at her sister's viciousness; Urd's outburst had proven itself calamitous...completely narrowing her chances at redeeming her relationship with Cevn.
Urd had once again proven that she was decidedly unstable. Belldandy was full of appreciation for the birthday party Urd had orchestrated on New Year's Day. But her gratitude was tempered by genuine concern about Urd's actions. What if it had been Keiichi instead of Cevn who was injured by her outburst?
"I really don't remember a thing!" Urd said as she nursed the Goddess of All Headaches. It was well into the afternoon before Belldandy finally decided to urge her older sister to wakefulness of the hungover kind. Urd had really gotten wasted last night after the parents had left...and then had caused another 'incident' with Cevn.
She decided to roundly accost Urd.
"Urd, what has gotten into you as of late? You hit him over the head with a hard glass bottle! You must have had a reason! But then again, knowing you, you probably *didn't* have a reason. How could you do such a thing? Didn't you stop to consider your actions? Admittedly, Cevn was very shortsighted by ignoring the obvious and not buying you what you wanted for Christmas...but does this justify your attack on him?" Belldandy watched as Urd shook her head.
"I didn't mean to do anything wrong!" Urd announced.
"Saaa! You always say that, as if it excuses everything. You went ahead and acted on an impulse, again! Now look at what's happened. You really hurt him...not only physically, but emotionally as well. You say you are in love with him. Well, I think you should at least act like it! I would never even think of physically harming Keiichi, no matter how angry I was at him. And believe me, there had been a few times when I've been close, especially since he returned from the Japan of the past. But all the anger in the world isn't going to help him in his readjustment! I've learned that one of the foundations of love is patience. I just...don't understand why you do such crazy things, Urd. Especially now. Don't you know that Cevn has been thinking about breaking up with you..." she said, her breath trailing off with the last sentence.
*gulp!*
"Urd, I didn't mean that literally, I was just worried..." It was too late. Belldandy had let slip the confidence. The effect was instantaneous. Urd's face blanched as her eyes seemed to widen to a stark piercing gaze.
"Urd...I didn't mean to say it!" Belldandy said sadly as Urd elevated up in the air and flew out of the sister's bedroom.

* * * * * * * *

"Cevn, we need to talk! *Now*!" Urd shouted as she floated into his bedroom without knocking. This would have normally sent him scampering with fear...but he didn't budge an inch out of surprise or fear. Then she was taken aback just for a moment as she saw the white roll of bandaging around his head.
"Damn! I must have really clobbered him," she realized with vivid frustration. Even more prickly was the fact that she *didn't remember a thing* about any fight she had with him last night. The last thing she recalled was her folks leaving the birthday party to go to Megumi's room for their sleepover lodgings, about an hour after she explained the Goddess Birthday System to a bewildered Keiichi.
"I don't want to discuss it!" he said ruefully.
"You *are* going to talk about it, young mortal man...because my sister just told me that you said you were thinking about ending things between us!" Urd bellowed cagily. She didn't mean to speak so loud, but her blood was boiling with a cobra's tongue worth of emotions. Cevn's posture visibly slumped down.
"Oh...no! Bell was *right*!" Urd realized fearfully when she saw his resigned reaction. She hadn't truly believed her sister's words...until now.
"He *can't* be thinking about breaking up with me! He's said that he *loves* me, hundreds of times since we got back from China. It just isn't real," she reassured herself. Yet she didn't want to hear what was going to come out of his mouth. It was just an illusion, just a fantasy gone awreck between discordant cages of thought. Nothing really happened last night. Nothing was going to happen today. Urd told herself to calm down. The love dream she was living...wasn't going to end after all.
"Urd. I..I don't know how to say this. I wanted to wait until your parents left before I told you. But I guess I can't do that now, can I? I..I can't be with you anymore. How you act when you're drunk...is just too much for me to handle. Its not you, really. It's me. I'm just not strong enough to keep my end of this relationship afloat anymore."
There. It was said. Urd felt a vacuum forming in her breast at his words. It was as if a whole wingful of smiles has just hurdled down the fast-moving river of Time. Out of reach, and all she could do is watch the unformed futures. Futures floating away like doves and balloons. Usually quick to reply, Urd's frustrated words cloyed in her larynx.
"But I can change! I *promise* I can change!" Urd protested. A sickening wrenching in her stomach gripped her attention as her mind inhaled the wormwood sourness of what he was saying. She was like a circus performer who had mastered the stilts...and then suddenly tumbled out. Fear stumbled her with a delirium of forfending.
"No...you can't. Believe me, I *know*. Because if you were capable of stopping, you would have by now. After all we've been through, you *have* to know that this is a problem. You can't just deal with it...and I just can't deal with *that*," he said, pointing at his bandages for emphasis.
Urd remembered all the hurts she had put this man through because of her drinking. All the hurts he put her through as well, because of his irrational fears and assumptions. Was an index of clumsiness all that existed between she and him? Why do the bad times always seem to be most prominent in her mind? Reluctantly, she realized that she was embroiled in the stupid reality that she *needed* sake as a powerup source. Granted, she drank more liquor at times than was needed to restore her powers. But she always kept herself in control.
"I can't stop drinking sake and you know it! You knew this when we got together in Beijing! It's not like this is some big surprise or mystery between the two of us! For me to stop drinking...is like you having to stop eating food. It's totally impossible! It's absolutely out of the question!" she protested. Urd knew that she had him on that account; she had been upfront with Cevn from the start about her need to consume alcohol. He *knew*.
"No, it's not. There is such a thing as responsible moderation. But you don't know..." he said, clutching his hands into frustrated fists. To Urd, it looked like Cevn was going to punch out at thin air.
"What did I do that was *that* bad?" she asked calmly, trying to salvage the delicate situation to her favor.
"Last night, you screamed bloody murder at me because I didn't get you a ring for Christmas. Again. I tried to explain that maybe I should have bought you one, that I had obviously made a mistake, and that you should wait a couple months until Valentine's Day. My birthday. But then you got even angrier. So I tried to go to my room and chill, just to create some space between us, because all the vicious 14-century retainer stuff was welling up inside of me. You kept blocking the hallway, yelling at me the whole time. Then you picked up an empty bottle of tequila and falsecracked me on the head with it. Keiichi had to drive me to the *hospital* so I could get stitched up! So he didn't get any sleep at all last night. Now I have a concussion and a stupidass Harry Potteresque deep cut on my forehead that will scar me for the rest of my life."
"I..I'm really sorry, Cevn. Really. And you know Belldandy can take care of your injury! It'll be just like it never happened..." she begged off, becoming frustrated as Cevn slowly shook his head.
"That's part of the problem! You can't smooth over what happened last night with a 'just like it never happened', Urd. *You're the Norn of the Past!* You know that there's no do-overs. What you did...should have never happened in the first place."
"I didn't mean to do anything... How can you say that I did something wrong, when it was just an accident?" Urd stammered. This was really bad. She remembered when she was discovered out as impersonating his therapist in order to get at his private secrets; familiar feelings of shame and guilt reemerged.
"What's the point of trying to explain? It's over between us. There's no other choice. It's over already!" he said in agonized frustration and then broke into gasping sobs. Urd couldn't believe that he declaring an end to their romance. Her love dream.
"Nooo..." she said in a weary voice.
"Urd...I forgive you. Really. I know it's not your fault. I can accept that there is nothing you can do about your drinking. Face it, you're *addicted*! I can't even begin to understand how this can be, since you're a Goddess. But as long as you keep it up, your drinking will only broaden the distance between us. And you're too good of a person...of a Goddess...to have someone like me hang resentments on the frameworks of your heart. I don't want to *really* lose you, to the point where I start avoiding you or hating you."
"I can change!" Urd shouted. This was going very badly. She doubted for a moment the webspans of reality. The boyfriend she had waited for nearly a hundred thousand years...was going to break up with her. *Had* broken up with her. Her entreaties were only bringing tears of frustration to his face and hers.
"You don't understand. I..snff..really love you...and *this* is what is making it so..snff..hard to stay with you. My feelings are torn up. Surely, you must have an idea..snff..about what I'm describing? Hasn't your sister ever been assigned to grant the wish of an abused child or spouse?" he asked, gathering his words between typewriter-fast gasping breaths.
Urd felt herself turn to an icepick chill at that. Belldandy had told her heartrending stories about granting the wishes of many of society's victims. Fulfillment of their wishes still didn't gut the cruel realities of their harsh lives. Then Urd remembered Cevn's past, and realized sadly that she was dealing with an injured soul...
"Cevn...I don't know what to say," Urd said, reluctantly admitting defeat. Her mind was swimming in a whirlpool of confusion, like discordant organ chords echoing amidst jackhammer bursts of her heart going berserk.
"Urd, I'm going to move out of the temple this weekend, before the next term starts. I think that it's best for everyone involved that I don't live here anymore..." His voice seemed to fade to a stillness as Urd heard herself crying softly. She had fought with herself to keep from crying. She tried to keep her face from wrinkling with sadness, but the tears flooded her eyes.
"Y..you can't just leave! You can't..snff..leave me! *It'll kill me*! Don't you understand? You are my *only hope* at ever being in love. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Urd said in a thin, agonized voice. She laid it all on the line. Her pain was threatening to smother her with a feathery dolor.
"I know it hurts, Urd. All I can do is say I'm sorry. I still want to be your friend. But things cannot go on between us like they have been. Sometimes, one has to release...what they don't possess. I don't possess the ability to live with you right now. Please try to understand..."
"UNDERSTAND WHAT?!" Urd shrieked, interrupting him as her sorrow began to blade. "When we got together, you knew about me...about how I like to party. About how I just am a crazy Goddess sometimes. Belldandy even told you that my Demonic half makes my heart almost double with feelings. YOU KNEW!!! This is as much your fault as it is mine, Cevn! You *promised* that you would never leave me. Remember? Remember saying that you would never let anything get between us!" She could see his face flushing with guilt.
"Don't you think I know this? I thought...I could live with your capricious nature. I knew that you were as wild as a mustang mare at times. I was willing to accept you, just as you are, Urd. B..but I'm just not strong enough. I know that's cheap to say..." he said weakly, staring at the tatami.
"You're a liar!" she cried out, then collapsed to the floor. It always came down to the fact the Cevn thought he was too weak. She buried her face in her hands and cried. And cried and cried, until her eyelids swelled. Her tears dizzied her until she felt like she would fall upwards into the uncaring bowl of sky.
Eventually the numbing shock crept forth. Urd silently sat within herself, feeling like she was going to melt into the floor. This was so nightmarishly unexpected. She could hear Cevn crying softly...and she wanted to comfort him. Wanted to be comforted by him.
"But it's never going to happen, is it?" she realized. After a long stretch of time, she heard Cevn say something softly.
"What?" Urd said between small gasping sobs.
"Friends?" Cevn asked, his arms outstretched.
"Yeah...I guess," Urd said sullenly. Cevn leaned over to hug her, and she found herself sharing a cry against his shoulder as he shuddered with deep sadness.
"It's over," she realized. The Ultimate Force wasn't preventing them from touching anymore. Which meant that there was no more love between them.
"But how could this be?" she thought. Urd knew that she still loved him. That he still loved her. The depth of his hurt...the half-hour he cried just now...it proved that he still was filled with love for her. Somehow, she just knew. Unable to bear being around him anymore, she got up wordlessly and left him. Left her dream behind.
There was always Belldandy and Skuld to comfort her.

* * * * * * * *

Keiichi had woken up late, because he had spent almost all night at the hospital with Cevn. During the holidays, the emergency room ran on a skeleton staff...so it took almost four hours. Waiting in the reception area, Keiichi strode through the quarry of his thoughts, trying to decide on a gem of a birthday present for Bell-chan. When he came home, he was exhausted. The nap yesterday afternoon only strung him along the flight wire of weariness.
Looking at his alarm clock, he appreciated the fact that Belldandy had let him sleep in. They had so much to talk about, because this was the first time that their parents had met. Of course, this meant that they had to sleep in their own rooms last night.
He was anxious to hear what Belldandy's take was on the first meeting of their parents. Excited already when he woke up, he searched the house for his beloved Goddess. Seeing that she was nowhere in the house, he figured that she was taking a nap. Bell-chan had really put a lot of work into the extra cooking and cleaning that New Year's demanded of the lady of the house. The unexpected birthday party had piled stress upon exhaustion for her.
He could hear someone crying piteously in the sister's bedroom.
"Bell, are you okay?" he asked as he slid the door open partway. One glance told him all he needed to know. Belldandy looked up at him sadly, then returned her attention to Urd. She was cradling her older sister in a sisterly hug, kissing Urd's disheveled platinum locks. Skuld was looking on, her mouth agape with sadness.
"The skin has been torn off the wound," Keiichi realized sadly.

* * * * * * * *

Last weekend, I rented a one-room flat near N.I.T. for a reasonable price. Actually, I suspected that the landlord had raised the 'reasonable price' several thousand yen a month because of my gaijin status. From what I had read in the many reports American students wrote about Japan, this was customary. The irony of many Japanese tourists facing the same kind of economic oppression in holiday-crazy Hawaii wasn't lost on me.
As for my musical instruments, I packed them into a storage unit. I never wanted to touch them again. My muse was had withered away.
Life touched as gray as the sky during a late afternoon snowfall.
I taught my first day's classes with feigned enthusiasm. When I got home, I lowered the 'pro' facade and let the crushing grief sound itself out, screaming frustration into my pillows. My life felt empty without Urd. It threatened to break my manhood into little children. She had become an anchor for me when I came to Japan. A Japan she had brought me into.
I had made a torturous decision, for me and against Urd. But my choice was no different than the decision faced every day by thousands of men and women. It was simply an Alanon moment of clarity. One can only put up so much shit; I had been through this pathway once before with my ex. Breaking up with Urd didn't do much for that old wound, either. Again, I felt guilty for her death by drug overdose. Her death was *real*, and I would never escape it.
What do you do when the person you love is consumed by their addiction? Do you hang on, brace up and ignore the hurt? Do you treasure the moments of loving lucidity, like pearl beads...until another drunken episode wounds your emotions? Can you watch helplessly while your efforts to love the one you're with...dissolves like water on bamboo sprays during an arid spell? How long do you decide to live in the dark, not wanting to believe it's dark all around you? Remain in the smothering dark of a loved one's addiction until it becomes so pitch-dark that you can't even see your own hands…or your own self?
I love her, but I cannot possibly pierce the addiction that obscures her heart. She cannot even pierce it...which is even more tragic. I wouldn't be surprised that Urd was probably sitting at home blaming herself, thinking that our breakup was her fault. Actually, the culprit is her fucking addiction, not her. Urd would probably never realize this, leaving her to always wonder "why?" and either blame me or herself.
*That* hurt too.
And then there's addicts like me…the out-of-control, hope-to-die-dope fiend, fuck-everyone-else-and-what-they-think kind of addicts. Nothing stopped me from getting loaded; I wasn't carrying a gun just look tough to my high school friends. I never went to high school. The big difference between Urd and I was that I would drive people away from me within a month, while she took the slow route to despair.
Addiction sucks. It causes chaos all around us, and then binds us to the irrational conclusion that *we* are the ones who pissed away our lives. Runaway alcohol consumption causes 60,000 deaths and $400 billion in property damages in the US every year...and yet Americans still allow it to be sold in grocery stores next to the milk cooler, as if nothing was happening.
The crushing weight of denial.
"These are the real truths of life," I reminded myself angrily. It was always 'someone else' who suffered losses because of addiction. The real insult lay in the fact that I had struggled to get clean, facing my addiction and its consequences...only to be wounded anew by addiction as it manifested in Urd's life. Now I was belonged to that elite group of 'someone elses'.
My thoughts were casting me into dangerous reaches of suicidal self-pity. My depression was back in full force. I felt like I had lost the only family I ever had. Not only Urd, but Belldandy, Keiichi, Skuld and the rest. My life felt like a cellular anaconda of poisoned Time...
A quark of strangeness possessed me to study the Enigma Book, to see if there *was* a way to alleviate Urd of her addiction to booze.

* * * * * * * *

Two weeks into the winter term, Megumi watched helplessly as Cevn broke down right in the middle her class...and then dashed out of the room. She knew that he was in absolute emotional agony. This just piled another worry on the N.I.T. junior's shoulders, as she was even more worried about Urd. Urd had left for Yggdrasil the next day after the split without nary a word to anybody save her sisters. She could only imagine how devastated the Norn of the Past was.
Megumi *knew* that these two belonged together. Sitting silently with Sora in the lunchroom, she pondered whether or not she should visit Cevn at his flat after school was out.
"...what a lamer! Did you hear what he did? He just walked out the class he was teaching! A true man wouldn't let his feelings control him like that! It's probably over some ugly woman that he's dating. Stupid gaijin teacher! Yeah, this is just another example of the fact that they'd let anyone teach at this dump..."
The table next to theirs was filled with freshmen guys commenting about today's 'drama'. Megumi became enraged when their comments turned to abuse and mockery. She threw down her hashi chopstix and stood up abruptly.
"Megumi...sit down. Restraint..." Sora said, putting a guiding grip on her friend's wrist.
"Ooooh, they're such *dickheads*!" she said angrily as she resumed her seat, causing a wave of laughter amongst the group in the next table. Now they were taunting her...and then a loud voice joined them.
""Whaddaya guys laughin' at? Mebbe yuh should tell me, an let me in on your little joke? Mebbe ah would think it's funny too. Wanna tell me what's so funny, huh?" she heard a deep voice growl, yakuza-like. A hush drew over the table, and most of the cafeteria. Silently and swiftly the kids packed up and cleared away.
Tamiya sat down on the now empty table and looked at Megumi and Sora. The two girls allowed themselves a brief giggle.
"Bastards were makin' fun of yuh. An' him! Us club members gotta watch out for each other, neh?" Tamiya said with a smile. "Ah heard what happened. Is Urd gonna to be okay? Is he gonna be okay?"
"He'll be okay. He's just letting it out, because he can't hold his sadness in. Hey, what about Urd? Any news, Megs?" Sora said, trying to shift the subject.
"Not a word. If Belldandy and Skuld know anything, they aren't letting on," Megumi answered, taking a bite out of her cutlet sandwich.
"This sucks! It's like a member of the family just died, not having Urd around. And Cevn-sensei...well, I've been too afraid to just go visit him and talk to him," she added.
"Why don't yuh go visit him?" Tamiya half asked, half suggested. The twinkle in his eye told the two coeds that he *knew* he was right.
"Well, he's not Japanese. He doesn't know about amae. I mean, he told me he touched on it in his dissertation...but he just doesn't know it *here*," Sora said, tapping over her heart. "It's just like how he's kinda become a faculty sponsor for Club, and he doesn't even know it."
"He's not an outsider any more. Which means that he thinks that his shame over deciding to leave Urd has made him less powerful, thus...less important to us," Megumi observed.
"An cuz of this, he can't see that he's 'melted into' our group...and ah for one thinks he needs to be straightened out," Tamiya finished.
"Amae. Ahhh, I can see where this would be a problem. Cevn-sensei is American. Americans just don't identify as strongly with a group as we do," Sora said, straining to remember her high school psychology classes.
"Yes. So he thinks that simply because of the fact that he moved out...that he's no longer part of us. No longer depends on us. But what he's missing out on is that we are depending on him. He's got to get back together with Urd!" Megumi said, armed with conviction.
"I don't think it's possible. You know why they broke up, Megumi," Sora said cautiously. The last thing she wanted was for her best friend to become involved in some futile project...especially since midterms were coming up soon.
"Yeah...well ah feel that he's an *idiot*!" Tamiya added.
"Sora, Megumi, Tamiya dear...I think they both overreacted. They've *always* done this! Don't you see? It's a sign that they belong together," a sharply dressed Sayoko said, as she rested her chin on Tamiya's shoulder. She had arrived just a minute earlier to meet up with her new boyfriend, so they could have lunch in their usual cafe.
"So yuh're gonna tuh play little-Miss-matchmaker?" Tamiya asked her, raising his eyebrow.
"Why not? Cevn did it for me and Genji," Megumi noted.
"And he was just a little involved in getting me to treatment, then advising me to go to where the love is," Sayoko added. Everybody knew that this was inarguably true. Tamiya reflected on the fact that Cevn had helped Sayoko get clean...which resulted in a *big* change in his life. Now he was going out with the #1 coed at N.I.T.
"You're asking the impossible, methinks. But if you're willing to try, then I'll do everything I can to help," Sora said with a wink.
"Me too. After all, he helped Sayoko...and now look who she's with," Tamiya said, puffing his chest out for effect.
Megumi and Sora both giggled at this...and Sayoko's peachflush of embarrassment.

* * * * * * * *

Urd threaded the shimmering nanocrystal-fiber tiger stripe cape through the looplets in her collar, and then carefully tied it into an intricate knotting. Placing a glowing mother-of-pearl clasp on the foreknot, she stole a glance into the holomirror cloud and observed her reflection. Despite her stunning attire, her face betrayed a soul-sadness; the usual sparkle of emerald glimmerick in her eyes was dulled to grassy gloam-like green. Her eyes revealed how lifeless she had felt since *that day*.
Her life felt like a stolid morass of pathos.
She fancied that she was a pariah amidst her own existence. In the distant past, Urd had dumped both the Troubadour and the Cherry Blossom Spirit; the former because he was too self-obsessed with his muse and other Goddesses, the latter because he was too fickle and lackwitted. But this time, *she* had been dumped. Rejected, by an impossible lover. She had never in her wildest imaginings envisioned that a mortal would capture her heart.
After Cevn had hammered her glass heart with his appalling dismissal, Urd had instinctively ran home to her parents...the safest place in the Multiverse. Both Freiija and Odeyn were worried about their daughter's sudden 'homesickness' and her depression. But she couldn't reveal to Mother the true cause of her afflicted melancholy. Mother was already deeply wrapped up anew in the affairs of one of her other daughters on the Earthrealm.
Urd couldn't bear being around "B'dandy dahling" or "Skuld honey-child" as Mother termed her two younger sisters. Seeing them just brought more pain, because she knew they felt her hurt too. She was emotionally exiled from the Earthrealm home she had lived in for the past three-plus years.
"It's terrible when one's own heart becomes mean lodging for her romantic aspirations," she whispered to the image in the cloud.
Despite her better judgment, Urd had spied on Cevn, using the surveillance resources of the GRO Technical Center. It was a simple task for a Sysop such as she. She quickly discovered that he was as tormentedly lovelorn as she was. To her, this was a bittersweet consolation.
But today's outing was going to be special. Urd was going to visit the August Presence Himself. So she preened herself to look her best; anything to increase her chances of being admitted to gaze upon Kami-sama and perhaps have a brief audience with Him. Her formal dress was most officious in this regard.
Today, The Lord was in His rainbowed cloudpalace, high about the Asgardian Zone. Urd had never visited Him there, in one of his Keeps. But in her childhood, during one of the times she had stolen onto the palace grounds and took one of the Sleipnirs for a surreptitious evening excursion, she had checked the place out from a distance. She remembered the magnificent spires of glistening cloudworks...
She gathered the hem of her dress and shook it out. She was in top form...but yet this really didn't hold the kind of significance that she was wont to desire. An appreciator was needed, but the man she wanted to impress would only contemn her.
She summoned a floating palanquin and mounted it. Pressing a few keys in the autopilot, she ascended the Rainbow Bridge towards the Rainbow CloudPalace.

* * * * * * * *

"You may enter," He said gently. Urd swallowed the lump in her throat and hovered through the luminous portal. Once inside, she gazed at the vaulted ceiling, which arched so high that the hardened cloud peakstones were obscured by haze or mist. A series of rainbow mists circulated within the walls, which were made of some kind of solid wisps of cirrus material captured in crystal. The entire palace was floating in the center of a sphere of liquid air.
"The Rainbow CloudPalace is much more appealing during the daylight, wouldn't you agree, My child?" Urd was stunned for a moment. He *knew* about her childhood adventure. But then again, He was The Lord. Of course He'd know that she had snuck herself in all those millennia ago.
"You may approach Me. I do not hold guile against you for a single nocturnal visitation to My palace grounds during your juvenile years. You were not the first, nor will you be the last. After all, one of your younger sisters did likewise," His voice echoed gently. Urd still was enraptured with His voice. If only all men and Gods spoke as sweetly, as profoundly, as Kami-sama. Then she fell to wondering ..whether it was Bell or Skuld who had trespassed His palace demesne. She intuited that it was Belldandy. Skuld was just too afraid of the Sleipnirs...
"My Lord," she said as she curtsied before His floating throne. She wore a golden diadem atop her silken silver-white locks...which almost slipped off as she dipped low after her curtsy.
"Urd, My child. Try as you may to conceal it, it is obvious to Me that your heart is conflicted, perhaps even tormented. Pray tell Me about how this has come about."
"Kami-sama, indeed I am afflicted with a matter of the heart. I have fallen in love with a mortal. He has spurned me, because of what he terms 'arrogant' behavior. There is nothing I can do about the fact that my regenerative energies are transmitted within the Earthrealm zone via their alcoholic beverages. But he insists that there is something *wrong* with me...with the manner in which I consume such beverages. I..I do not know what to think of this. All I want...is to have him back!" she explained. Urd didn't want to present herself as undignified by crying in front of the Lord, but she couldn't stifle her emotions in the telling. She raised a hand and knuckled the corners of her eyes.
"Urd, Norn of the Past, well do you know that it full nigh impossible for you to experience romantic love. Nay, even yet loved by a God or mortal...especially a mere mortal man. Verily you claim that you are in love with him, despite the bound limitations of your office as Norn. Could it be that you are mistaken?"
"My lord, I deceive You not! He has admitted as much to me! I trust his words...and I know my heart. Since he has turned from me, my heart feels as empty as a soap bubble. This is why I have arrived with this plaint, direct to Your chambers, desperate for Your guidance! I..I don't know what to do. I *really* need Your wisdom at this time in my life, if You will but grant it," Urd confessed, rawly candid.
She saw His wonderful face break into a gentle smile.
"Urd, My daughter. *This* is a rarity, indeed! Admitting that you cannot find the answers all by yourself?" He said with a chuckle.
Urd found it within herself to giggle at the irony of this...and then halted herself as she realized that the Lord *had just made a joke*!
"It is obvious that you have become enamored of an elegant fantasy, composed by the thoughtstrands of your own imaginings. You know that what you claim...is beyond the realm of possibilities. Even *I* cannot adjucate the Ultimate Force, for I was co-created with It," He opined.
"Please, My Lord! My life is nothing but grief now! I do not know what to do about my forlorn feelings...they seem to be spiraling out of control," Urd related.
"Then let them," Urd heard Him say with a hint of dispassion. Urd looked at The Presence with an uncomprehending expression.
"With all accounted respect, My Lord...how can You say that? You do not know what has happened between he and I," Urd challenged His answer. She instantly fretted that she had said too much. She eyed Him warily to see how he would field her reaction.
The Almighty paused, looking up at some unseen thoughtform, then fixed her with His eyes.
"I know *everything*, Urd, save the evil designs that birth themselves in the dark recesses of the Realms of Vanagdrasil. But this doesn't imply that I can *explain* everything I know. Even to you," He said patiently. To Urd, this was just an acknowledgment of the fact that He didn't have a clue.
"Then how is it that You are unaware of the Book that Cevn has? How is it that You didn't strike him down when he challenged You...the day You suspended Skuld's license? How do You explain how and why *I* was assigned to grant his wish..." The Lord waved her questions to silence with a swift motion of His hand.
"Desist in your insulting flights of fancy. I will forgive you to a point, as they are the product of a confused mind and conflicted heart. But I will hear no more of your brooding claims. So *this* is the mortal you claim to feel a heartfelt attachment to? The insolent one who actually presumed to question Me? The mortal who has been disrupting your sister's tasks on the Earthrealm?" Urd felt herself shaking with panic. His face was beginning to form dark thunderclouds.
"It is impossible for you to be in love with him. You were *only* supposed to grant his wish. Nothing more," the Lord declared wrothly.
"It is obvious to Me that the source of this wild whimsy rests with your younger sister's relationship with the 'Test Mortal'. Somehow, you feel that her affection for her charge is appropriate for *you* and your charge. So you are emulating Belldandy's behavior by artifice, in an attempt to avoid facing the truth of your own situation," the Lord explained. She felt Him piercing her soul with His stern expression, sizing her up with definite scrutiny. Then, unexpectedly His face softened to an almost paternal expression.
"Come with me, My child, and let us walk together a span," He said, stepping down from His throne and extending His hand. Urd remembered Skuld telling him that He had behaved just like this with her.
"Evidently, being a Norn has some prestige with the Lord," Urd observed to herself.
"Your surmise is correct, Norn of the Past. It is essential that all three Norns remain healthy, so that their presence will balance the TimeWeb and its Streams. Otherwise, the task falls to *Me*. And I would rather not deal with Time. I have much more important matters to attend my will towards," He answered her thoughts.
"Your predecessors were fated to throw their lives away because I didn't heed them the necessary attention. I will not repeat this mistake with you and your sisters, Urd. You are obviously troubled by your time on the Earthrealm, My daughter. You may feel free to unshroud your heart and dissemble with Me."
So Urd told Him everything.
Smiles and tears highlighted her vivid description. At times it seemed childish, telling the Lord about her affairs with one mortal. Yet, she saw Him listen with keen interest; Urd could almost sense occasional surprise in His wise visage. Emotionally drained by the time she finished, she looked to her Lord for an answer.
"The only reasonable sensing that I can make is that perhaps this has occurred because of your half-Demon heritage. Troth...it belies the explaining. Perhaps the known Rules that regulate Gods fail to hold sway on your life in this one instance, Urd. You travel a difficult path because of your twinned nature. *If* your heart hearkens to him, than all I can suggest is that you practice patience. His free will is not accounted within your possessions. His actions fail to be accounted even within My knowledge. Two enigmas...one solution."
"Why am I part Demon?" Urd asked again. Each time she had met with Him, she had asked the same question.
"You will learn what you will know...in Time," He replied. The same cryptic reply He had offered at each asking.
"You must utilize the myth of the mortal Valentine's Day as a context. Go to him then. Allow him time to feel his grief to its fullest vale. Then he can fully hearken to your radiance in his life. Tho' I cannot ken how a mortal man can turn stonehearted when faced with the joyous prospect of loving a Goddess. Especially a Norn. Especially *you*, My dear child," He said.
"I must attend to My other duties now. Give My regards to your parents and sisters," He said. Then He did something totally out of character. The Lord leaned over and kissed her on the forehead with paternal solicitude.
"On the path to the Garden of Destiny...may it be that your dreams become your realities, My Dear One."

* * * * * * * *

Keiichi adjusted his hachimaki, as it was riding low on his forehead. The headband symbolized the fact that he was bearing down on his studies. A major battery of tests were approaching...the tests which would decide if he was a likely candidate for grad school. He recalled his years in Lord Mori's court, where the entire clan would don hachimaki when discussing military campaign strategies. To do less would cast the appearance of indifference; an attitude swiftly remedies by dismissal or the sword.
Keiichi still couldn't believe that both Tamiya and Ootaki had passed these very same tests that he was facing. In addition to the classwork he busied himself with, in this, his last term of his senior year...now he had to prepare for the grueling graduate engineering aptitude test.
He looked across the table at Sayoko. As a senior, she was also preparing for the grad exams. In fact, she had suggested that they study the practice exams together. Sweat beaded on her brow, which made him grateful once again for the hachimaki. Far more than traditional symbol, it was keeping the sweat out of his eyes. Unfortunately, hachimaki weren't part of the fashion vocabulary of the style-conscious vogue of his study partner.
"Funny...a year ago, this would have been impossible. Sayoko was still obsessed with me, in that headstrong 'never-admit-defeat' pride of hers. Now, she's become a damned good study partner. And a friend," he observed. He also observed that his flights of memory to 14th Century Kyushu were becoming more infrequent. His cellphone vibed on the desktop with an silent urgency. Checking its display, he excused himself to phone Bell-chan.

* * * * * * * *

Belldandy was overjoyed when Urd popped out of the TV, immediately signaling Keiichi via his cellphone. Her older sister had returned! She was filled with questions as Urd walked over and sat down at the kosatsu. She looked a little peaked, as she often did when she was caught up in a delicate alchemical project.
Urd described how she had spoken with the Lord, who offered the possibility that she might win Cevn back. She then decided that her place was with her two sisters.
Belldandy sipped her tea, hoping that Urd hadn't put words in the Lord's mouth. Several times in the past, Urd had misunderstood a few words that Kami-sama had spoken...with disastrous results and more than one license suspension.
"Well, speaking with Him does have that effect on us," Belldandy thought to herself. She imagined that He had told Urd something really uplifting. Hopefully, it wasn't all in Urd's head.
"How's Keiichi?" Urd asked, a lilting pepper-sweetness in her voice.
"He's been studying really hard. We don't get to spend much time together right now. He's over at the N.I.T. library with Sayoko," Belldandy answered with a misty-sad expression. She really regretted her limited time with Keiichi, but it was a necessary sacrifice she was more than willing to make for him. For his pursuit of his education. Keiichi really wanted to join his two sempai in grad school. And Belldandy knew that passing the exams would increase his self-confidence.
"Why should he waste his time studying with *her*? A couple days with me and he'd get a perfect score on that silly simple test!" Skuld said from somewhere in the hallway.
"Big Sister!" she shouted as she rounded the corner and saw Urd sitting with Belldandy in the dining room. She dashed into Urd's arms and ended up tackling her, pinning Urd down on the floor and causing Belldandy to spill her tea for the hundredth time since her two sisters had arrived.
"I've got a great idea!" Skuld said with a sparkle in her eye.
"Ooff, alright already. Just get offa me," Urd said with big-sisterly patience.

* * * * * * * *

Dr, Kintaro had called me into his office after I had taken a three day emergency leave of absence. I expected as much, since my sudden walkout had put the technical institute in an awkward position. He informed me that I needed to rein in my feelings, otherwise I would be facing a possible reprimand in the form of a suspension without pay.
He added that I had exceeded everyone's expectations, except for the fact that I had been absent more than usual during my first two terms. When he pressed me to explain, I almost spilled out the whole truth. Instead, I just told him that I was in the midst of a breakup with a girlfriend, and left it at that. My explanation seemed to satisfy him, and he dismissed me with another warning.
Sitting in my studio apartment, I probed the mysteries of the Enigma Book. I found all sorts of references to addiction in the Demon's sections of the tome, but nothing in the God's portion. Reading the Enigma Book only made me homesick, as it ushered memories of Urd's patient tutoring sessions with me. Well, she was *mostly* patient with me. Perhaps it was during these times that my affection for her had become unbound, without me even knowing it. This set off another round of reminisces of the happy times I had with her.
"This is no good," I muttered.
Returning my attention to the Enigma Book, I saw the bubbled paper in the pages where my tears had fallen...

* * * * * * * *

Isilblius was crouched on the edge of the glowing sitting cube in his room. He held a small framed photo in his hands. He had smuggled the portrait past Mara. Every time he looked at the photo in the metal shell, he was taken aback by her delicate features.
He *wanted* her.
Since Mara had made it clear that she had no inclination towards being with him sexually or otherwise, Isilblius had felt the press of his youth drawing him into confused circles. Mara had dismissed his moodiness, explaining that it was just part of being 'adolescent'. But Isilblius didn't want to hear this, especially from *her*. Despite the fact that Mara had been a surrogate mother to him, he was really starting to resent her with every fibre of his being.
A few days ago, he enclosed his room in a ShieldCurse, in order to prevent Mara from invading his privacy. *That* really pissed her off, much to his amusement. He was certain that she had searched his room several times recently. He definitely didn't want her to find his precious picture.
He looked at the portrait again. Isilblius had learned that the object of his adoration was single, single, single. Not that it mattered whether he had a rival or not...he would simply kill the rival. But this made it more interesting, because he would have to win her heart.
Much more of a challenge than simply killing her.
But how?
"How could a Demoness be clothed in the aspect of a Goddess?" he wondered aloud.

* * * * * * * *

"Keiichi, look! Try this. The Electro-Intellihancer Mk IV. I designed it just for *you*!" Skuld announced proudly.
"I..I don't know about this," Keiichi said with franklin doubt as he examined the helmet-like apparatus cradled in Skuld's daintily gloved hands. It looked like an ordinary bicycle helmet. But here the resemblance ended. A number of volutes poised themselves rib-like around the three ridges at the top, pulsing with a glowing liquid. Interlaced wires created a multihued grid along the 'rim' of the helmet. Keiichi realized with a gnawing apprehension that this was the part that would come in contact with his scalp. It didn't look very safe.
He remembered one of the times he had put a Skuld device on his head. He was trying for "the look", the hairstyle which would land him a much-needed job. With Skuld's 'assistance', his hair had become coiffed in a series of outlandish, ridiculous hairstyles. Samurai. Idol Queen. SDF soldier. Grade school girl. And even worse. Everyone had laughed at the gyrations his follicles were subjected too. The school-girl braids were just too much. Despite his suffering, in the end the finished product was a haircut that he could live with...plus it had an unexpected side-effect. Bell-chan *adored* it. So he had kept the shorter hairstyle.
He reevaluated his situation...perhaps Skuld's new 'toy' could help him. She seemed very anxious that he try it on.
"How does it work, Skuld?" he asked, bracing himself for the coming long-winded explanation.
"My work of genius monitors your brain's neurochemical matrix, using it as a baseline while it synthesizes a more efficient set of chemicals. When you practice 'intelligence', the chemistry of your brain interacts with electrical fields on a microcosmic level. This manifests in a constituent cognitive process...each process or 'thought' is mediated by changes in certain sections of the brain. The Electro-Intellihancer maps these sequences, and then calculates a more 'centralized' series of chemical reactions. You Earthrealm mortals…your brains have a very clumsy chemistry. The cellular interfaces are like cars weaving all over the road. My Electro-Intellihancer optimizes these modalities...uh, forcing the 'car' to drive straight down the middle of the road. Faster chemical reactions means faster thinking. Faster thinking means faster learning. Faster learning equals Keiichi passing tests," she said, flourishing her arms at the finish.
Keiichi thought that her reply sounded halfway sane. He reached out and took the 'helmet' from her. It felt light in his hands, about the weight of a motorcycle helmet.
"If you use this, then you'll only have to study a fraction of the time. That will give you more time to spend with Elder Sister doing those disgusting things you two like to do together," she urged with a smile-turned-grimace.
"Still not down with sex, huh, Skuld?" he taunted. He pulled his hands away when Skuld tried to grab the helmet back. "Just teasing," he admitted when he saw Skuld's scowl.
Still, the idea was attractive. He had been doing very little but studying in his evenings. The practice exams were very difficult...Keiichi knew that the real thing would be ever more of a challenge.
He rested Skuld's invention on his head. A cooling sensation gripped him around the temples, almost relaxing him. Then, without a word, he took the Electro-Intellihancer off and handed back to Skuld.
"No. Sorry Skuld, I just can't use it," he said bluntly. Skuld's expression of joy turned into disbelief.
"W..WHY? I worked so *hard* on it!" she stammered, almost in tears. Keiichi had expected her to react with outrage, but her sad visage pulled on his heartstrings.
"It has nothing to do with you, or your offer to help. I know that your invention would work; that's not an issue here. I just want to do this on *my own*. Using your wonderful invention would be...kinda like cheating, wouldn't it?" He gripped Skuld's shoulder lightly as he continued to explain.
"Skuld, you want me to be the best I can be for your sister, right?" Skuld nodded her head at this.
"So, if I always rely on you or your sisters to help me out of a fix, then eventually I'll become dependent on your help. I won't look to myself for answers; instead I'll expect your assistance. And then...I'll become weak. Of course, you would be the first one I'd ask for help in a situation where I knew I couldn't do what's necessary. But this isn't one of those times. I *know* that I have the ability to pass the graduate exams. Skuld, the last thing I want to do is spend so much time away from Bell-chan. But I would rather make that sacrifice then give up on myself. Your sister also wishes me to do this on my own efforts. She's bearing with it as well. Do you understand?"
Skuld looked at Keiichi, still feeling the sting of rejection.
"Uh-huh," she sighed reluctantly, nodding her head slowly.
"Hey! Why don't you go keep Bell-chan company, so she doesn't feel all alone without me?" Keiichi suggested with a cheerful smile.
"Okay!" Skuld replied enthusiastically. Keiichi thought it was odd that Skuld had recovered so rapidly from her downcast mood. He returned his attention to the thick book he was reading.
He didn't notice when Skuld left his room that she still had her fingers crossed behind her back.

* * * * * * * *

"Eeek!" Skuld squealed as she returned to her bedroom. The objects of her fear turned to face her for a moment, then resumed their conversation with mini-Belldandy and mini-Urd. She noticed Mini-Urd and Ganjin merrily sharing a bottlecap filled with sake.
"What's going on here with the mice?" Skuld blurted out after regaining her center. She didn't like mice...they reminded her of system bugs. Small, furry and liable to do all sorts of mischief.
"Mice? We're *rats*! And damned proud of it!" Ganjin corrected her in a surly voice. "Hurry up and shut that door before them damned cats come in!"
Skuld obeyed and shut the shoji door. Rarely did Ratty emerge from under the temple, especially since Velsper and Cevn's cats took their abode here. The last time Skuld had spent much time around him was during the mini-rock band adventure. Ganjin *still* gave her the creeps, especially with that ratty leather jacket he sported.
But now there were three more mice, sitting with super-deformed versions of her sisters. Neither of her sisters seemed threatened by their presence.
"SD on!" Skuld shouted...and a moment later, she reappeared as a six-inch tall mini-Skuld. She really didn't have to resort to any such dramatic expressions, but it was more fun this way; she felt like she was imitating one of her fave TV heros...the almighty Ultraman.

* * * * * * * *

"So you got wasted on New Year's with the Ninjettes, and then what?" mini-Urd inquired of her oft-times drinking partner. She was insatiably curious about what occurred the night she saw Ratty and the Ninjettes taking off with a bottle of sake. She had never seen the Ninjettes party before.
"And then," Ganjin began. "Naturally, we drained the whole bottle. Well, mostly *I* drank the whole bottle. The three shinobi girls got so drunk...that they started crying about the fact that they didn't have boyfriends. In the midst of their tearful chatter, they told me that they had asked your sister a long time ago if you could create mates for them. Then I was shocked to find out that they were rodents in their prior lives! So I decided to become a matchmaker.
"After searching far and wide, I found three willing victims...er candidates. Meet Toshiro, Yoshi and Musashi," he said with a gesture. Three young rats bowed low from their formal kneeling position. Ratty chuckled, remembering that Kodama almost beheaded him during their little 'party' because he had argued with her about some Jackie Chan trivia. Yep, these three were going to have their empty little heads on the chopping block for the rest of their lives. Which might be short, knowing what little he knew about the Ninjettes.
"These guys have no idea what they are volunteering for..." he thought with a smirk.
"So what's so special about these three?" mini-Skuld asked.
"They're all stalwart young rats. They passed the supreme challenge...with flying pennants," Ratty emphasized.
"Which is?" mini-Urd asked sarcastically.
"They outdrank me in three timed bouts," Ganjin said with open admiration. "Any rat that can outparty the 'ol Ratty here...is richly deserving of the...ahem...honor."
"Or richly stupid. I supposed you asked them while they were drunk," mini-Skuld said, as she drank her vanilla milk mix.
"Umm...well the important thing is that that they accepted my offer! Anyway, they are also qualified in martial arts as well. Theft of snacks, mousetrap evasion, attic invisibility, cat immobilization and other various and sundry skills we of the Rodentia kingdom pride ourselves with," Ganjin added, causing the three junior male rats to become red-faced at his abundance of praise.
Mini-Urd shook her head at his deceit. She knew Ganjin's tactics too well. He was a rat, in *every* sense of the word. No doubt he had plied them with liquor and then made them agree while they were besotted with rice wine.
"Do you three know what you're getting into?" mini-Belldandy asked. She wasn't going to brook any reservations that they might hold. If she changed them to male mini-Ninjas, it would be *permanent*. She didn't want to go to the trouble of transforming them, only to have them become disappointed in their new forms. *That* would only hurt the Ninjettes...and Belldandy didn't want to see her three boon companions become abandoned by their new boyfriends. The memory of Kodama sacrificing herself to save Urd in 2050 still burned afresh in her mind.
"Yes," all three answered. "We are already skilled fighters, and once you change us, we were told that we would have abundant ninjitsu skills in addition to our new forms."
"This is true. However, you must remember that you are each intended to become life partners of the Ninjettes. This means that you will be reborn with love in your heart for them. You must not fail in your duties as mates," mini-Belldandy cautioned. She heard a sniffling, sighing sound. Urd was crying; the talk of lifelong partners and love must have struck a bitter chord in her older sister, one which resonated with her sense of loss.
"Urd...he'll come back to you, I know it," she reassured her sister.
"Just get on with it, Bell. At least *someone* will have someone in their life to love," mini-Urd said jealously as her tearful state passed.
Mini-Belldandy closed her eyes and encanted:

Spirits of anima, spirits of lightning fair,
Transform with wind, reform with air,
Reimage this trio with thy profound caress,
Fashion forth humanity from rodent,
Pour forth thy store of bless,

A blue-white glow circled the three rats, enveloping them even tighter as it spun more rapidly, tornado-like. Finally it collapsed unto itself with a final flash...
In the place of three large male rodents were three male Ninja.
The leader, Toshiro, was a spitting image of Toshiro Mifune in his prime, circa "Seven Samurai". Toshiro was dressed in black-hooded ninja coveralls with a jitte in his belt and a staff strapped overback. Yoshi was the master of 'weaponless weapons'; he was dressed in a loose hakata with a straw hat covering most of his face. His wild red locks burst out from under his hat, every bit like the hero from Rurouni Kenshin. Musashi, the 'mini-sword-demon' was dressed in a formal retainer's dress with three swords and a dirk under his belt; his brown hair gathered into a rogish topknot that resembled Keiichi's when he first returned from the Japan of the past.
Mini-Belldandy was well pleased with the results, especially so with Toshiro. Kodama had regaled her numerous times with daydreamings about her cinematic hero, the late Mifune-san.
"This is my gift back to you, my dear Kodama," she whispered. Both mini-Skuld and mini-Urd nodded their heads gravely in accord.
Despite her appreciative smile, Mini-Urd was totally saddened by the touching scene. Here were three men...for three Ninjettes. But there was no man for her. At least until she followed through with Kami-sama's suggestion. But her sadness was sublimated by the comic scene of the three former rodents examining themselves with surprise.
Ganjin was rolling on the floor holding his ribs, his eyes teary with the exertion of his loud guffaws.
"Quick, pass me some booze before I break a rib!" he snorted. The three former rats were mystified by the transformation.
"Where are my dew claws? My whiskers? How am I going to walk on two legs...if I don't have a tail?" mini-Urd heard them wonder aloud. It was almost too much, and when mini-Skuld started giggling, mini-Urd couldn't help but join in...

* * * * * * * *

Skuld watched the shadows play on the ceiling of her bedroom. The Ninjettes weren't going to be back for a few more days. She smiled to herself, trying to imagine their epiphanous reactions to their male counterparts. They seemed so 'macho' for girls...how would they behave with men in their lives?
She had watched Belldandy go through a lot of changes in her time with Keiichi. Skuld disapproved of a number of these shifts in behavior; yet, she had to admit that sometimes her sister appeared to be ever *more* of a Goddess than ever before.
"How would *I* change if I had a boyfriend? Will I become all girlish and dainty? *Not*!" Skuld promised herself. There was no way that a boyfriend was going to cause her to change...not one bit. The very thought was yucky...
Making sure her sisters were asleep, Skuld shimmied out from under the covers of her futon and tiptoed out of the room.
Quietly, so as to avoid stirring a cricketing creak out of the old wooden floor, she stole into her lab. Finding what she wanted, she tiptoed across the hall to Keiichi's bedroom. She worked the shoji door open a crack and saw him lying on his back in his futon, snoring softly.
Skuld was glad it was dark...she didn't want to see any of the dirty magazines that she *knew* Keiichi had lying about in his room. She crept over to the side of his futon.
"Ouch!" she whispered, desperately trying to stifle a cry of pain as she stubbed her toe on something which felt like a large book. She held her breath and her motion for a full minute while Keiichi shifted restlessly under his bedcovers...
Slowly crouching down, she gingerly placed the Electro-Intellihancer Mk. IV on Keiichi's head. Once she was assured that it was attached snugly, she pulled a remote control out of the pocket of her pajamas and pressed a button.
The helmet-like mecha started to hum quietly.
"What he doesn't know...won't hurt him. Cheating only is cheating if you *know* that you're cheating!" she said, pointing her finger upwards as if to assert her point to an invisible audience.
"I'm such the total genius!" she appraised herself as she walked back to the sister's bedroom.

* * * * * * * *

"Ahhhhhhgggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!"