"Born Again"
Chapter 1
"Through the Looking Glass"
By Brian Welch
bwelchz7@yahoo.com
For the loneliest goddess.
Based on the manga Aa! Megami-sama
(Ah! My Goddess!/Oh My Goddess!)
The wonderful world of Aa! Megami-sama was created by Kosuke
Fujishima. Aa! Megami-sama/Oh My Goddess! characters are copyright
Kodansha Ltd. Tokyo, Studio Proteus, and Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
-----
In the beginning there was no Heaven or Hell, no gods or demons. In
all of Wyrd's creation there was only Ginnungagap, the dark abyss of
Chaos, bordered to the North by cold, dark Nifelheim and to the
South by hot, fiery Muspelheim. Cold mists held sway in lifeless
Nifelheim, while Muspelheim was ruled by Surt, swathed in fire and
wielding his flaming sword. Rising out of the Ginnungagap stood
Yggdrasil, the world tree, tended by the three Norns, Urd, Verdandi
and Skuld.
In the fullness of time within Ginnungagap mists from the icy rivers
of Nifelheim and sparks thrown from the fires of Muspelheim met and
combined to form two giant beings, the cow Audhumbla and the giant
Ymer. From Audhumbla was created Bure, the ancestor of Odin and the
other gods who came to be known as the Aesir. From Ymer sprang the
race of the frost giants.
Yggdrasil had three roots ending in three wells. These were Urd's
well guarded by the Norns, Mimer's well guarded by the giant Mimer
the Wise, and Hvergelmir in Nifelheim, where the great worm Nidhog
gnawed upon the root, sending poisons throughout the world tree.
For long ages the gods ruled over the affairs of humanity,
protecting them from the frost giants to the North and teaching them
many things. But in time the gods forgot their place in creation,
becoming proud and breaking their promises. So, the three who
tended Yggdrasil were sent to counsel the gods, but the gods
listened not to the prophets of Wyrd. Then Wyrd regretted the
making of the gods and resolved to destroy them and remake creation.
This saddened the Norns for they loved all of creation, and they
warned the gods of the approach of Ragnaroc. Yet, still the gods
did not repent of their ways.
As the time for Ragnaroc drew near the three who tended Yggdrasil
prayed that Wyrd would have mercy upon creation, and the maker's
heart was softened, for truly Wyrd loved creation as much as they.
So it was that the final battle never came. Humanity, as had been
foretold, turned from worshipping the gods and began to worship the
one god. The gods and demons were destroyed, for such was the
nature of their sin, but were then reborn, for such is the nature of
forgiveness. The prophets of Wyrd were reborn as well, for the
memory of the old times rested heavily upon their hearts. The gods
were given dominion over Yggdrasil and a new, more peaceful order
established.
Yet not all was well with creation, for the worm Nidhog still chewed
upon the root of Yggdrasil. The World Tree was still dying. And
all the while, on earth, the humans were growing in knowledge and
experience.
Aa! Megami-sama
"Born Again"
CHAPTER 1
"Through the Looking Glass"
-----
Yggdrasil Maintenance Facility, Heaven circa 2150 A.D.
-----
A lone chair floats above a ring of harried computer operators. In
the chair sits a tanned, platinum haired woman apparently in her mid
twenties. The beauty of her face is currently disfigured by a
scowl.
"What a waste of time!" Urd muttered under her breath as she
concentrated on the status panels which floated around her. "This
has got to be the dumbest thing we've ever been told to do. It
isn't like we don't already have our hands full just trying to hold
Yggdrasil together these days." With a flick of her fingers she
tweaked a parameter. For the next few hours she would have to be on
her toes. She couldn't afford to overlook anything.
"Why couldn't the Almighty have decided to send Peorth or some other
goddess from one of the other goddess offices?" Urd stabbed at
another panel of the ailing system. One minor oversight, nothing
serious enough to get her into real trouble, and Peorth could be
sent to an alternate dimension filled with slime molds the size of
houses. Ho ho, now wouldn't that be fun! Urd closed her eyes for a
moment, imagining the scene. But no, the Almighty had decided to
send Belldandy, and that meant absolutely nothing could go wrong.
Urd's eyes flashed again across the screens, checking and rechecking
system status.
Belldandy waited in the Relief Goddess Office, her head bowed in
prayer. Only one long accustomed to her normally serene state would
have noticed the lines of strain upon her face. After a minute, she
ended her prayer and dialed the phone at her side.
In Yggdrasil maintenance, the phone was answered by an annoyed Urd.
"Yeah, who is it?"
"Urd, do you have the gateway stabilized, yet?" Belldandy asked her
elder sister.
Urd relaxed at her sister's voice. "It'll be ready in a minute,
Bell. I'm running the final status checks right now."
Within the Yggdrasil mainframe complex a small white creature
appeared and began to scamper merrily across the surface of the
ultimate computer. It looked for all the world like a cute cartoon
bunny rabbit, except it had eight legs.
Back in the Yggdrasil Maintenance, Urd's attention snapped to one of
the panels. "Damn it, not another one!"
A hammer came crashing down upon the odd creature, which gave a
startled look and promptly vanished. Keiichi Morisato stepped back
to survey the surface of Yggdrasil. "I don't see any others, Skuld,
it must have been a stray," he called to a raven-haired girl
apparently in her late teens.
The youngest Norn gave an exhausted sigh of relief, then walked over
to her brother-in-law. "That should be the last of them for a
while, then. The bug zappers are reset and the new debugging
routines are all up and running. I'll let Urd know." She tapped a
floating panel.
"Everything looks stable, Urd"
"Then let's get this show on the road," Urd grumbled. "Belldandy,
the resolution's terrible, but I can tell he's in close proximity to
a couple of mirrors. I'm locking onto the nearest one. Remember,
we'll re- stabilize the gateway in four terrestrial hours. You have
that long to convince him."
"I'll remember," came the reply.
"Good luck, Sis! Be careful!" Skuld added.
"I will."
"I love you, Belldandy."
"I love you too, Keiichi."
"OK, guys, keep the bugs out of the gate control for a few more
seconds," Urd said.
"You got it," Skuld went back to scanning.
"She's on her way." Keiichi said to no one in particular.
Skuld placed a hand on his shoulder, her attention still on the
system. "Don't worry, Sis is the best there is."
"Yes, she is. Thanks."
From her chair in the Maintenance Facility, Urd concentrated on her
consoles. The portal was holding up fine. In four hours, assuming
things held together that long, this charade would be over.
The phone rang.
Urd cursed as she picked up the phone. "Yeah, who is it?" she
snapped in her customary greeting these days.
"It is I," came the last voice she had expected to hear.
Aack! "A-Almighty One!"
-----
Blacktail Bed and Breakfast Inn, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
-----
The data feed to his implanted AI relayed the news of some
monumental natural disaster.
Again.
Just another sound bite in an endless string of bad news about a
planet going berserk.
None of that bothered him right now, though. He had more immediate
worries. "Easy, easy..." he coached himself through clenched teeth.
"Ouch! Darn, nicked myself again." Eric Donovan raised his free
hand to his face. He was standing in a quaint, centuries old claw
foot bathtub. In his right hand was an old- fashioned twin-bladed
razor with which he was, with only partial success, shaving. The
rain from the shower head washed the blood from his fingertips as he
analyzed the situation. "Eric," he muttered to himself, "this has
got to be something of a record for dumb ideas. Even if you don't
bleed to death, you will never make it to breakfast at this rate."
It wasn't as if several less potentially painful solutions to the
problem of facial hair didn't exist these days, but there was
something about the barbarity of dragging a sharp sliver of metal
across ones face which had appealed to him when he had found the
ancient razor. "Oh, well, I'd better finish. Starvation can be my
penance for such a shameful waste of hot water, not to mention
abusing this antique." Not that he really cared much about energy
conservation or antique razors right now. What he did care about
was the fact that the steam from the shower fogged his shaving
mirror terribly, making the task that much harder. He reached up to
wipe it for the umpteenth time.
The mirror's surface rippled.
"Eyaaaaa!" Eric snatched back his hand, checked to see if all his
fingers were still there (they were), and turned his attention back
to the mirror, which at the moment was obscured by... somebody's
head coming through it!?
A wide-eyed Eric did what any young, red-blooded male would have
done in a similar circumstance. Unfortunately, he forgot to open the
shower curtain first.
The sound of a body crashing to the ancient pine floor was followed
by a loud "Ouch!" as the falling curtain stand careened off his
head. As Eric scrambled to his feet to continue his sprint from the
bathroom, he heard what was probably the last sound he had expected,
a very feminine "Eeek!"
Skidding to a halt, he turned in time to see a very beautiful, very
wet girl in an elaborate costume and strange makeup standing in what
had been the shower. The water had stopped somehow, and a moment
later she was... dry?
"How in Heaven's name did I end up in a running shower?" Belldandy
said, turning to look at the small shaving mirror still dangling
from its hook. "Oh, my!" Making the best of a bad situation, she
turned towards the object of her mission. "Good morning," she said
cheerfully, stepping daintily from the tub. "I am the goddess
Belldandy. Are you Eric Donovan?"
Eric blinked, nodded dumbly, then noticed her bare feet weren't
quite touching the floor. He sprang backwards, only to be reminded
of something as a rush of cool air met wet flesh.
"Waaa!"
Eric snatched a towel and began wrapping it around himself. "I must
be a hallucinating," he reasoned. "Yeah, the blow from the shower
rod, that must be it!"
[Negative,] his AI informed him. [Brain patterns are normal.
Sensory records match recent memory.]
While Eric was being lectured by his AI, Belldandy studied the young
man. Nearly two meters tall, his features were distinctly African.
He might have been taken for such if it weren't for his eyes, a
strikingly clear blue. He was also visibly trembling and radiating
an almost palpable level of fear and confusion.
"Please don't be afraid, I won't harm you," she assured him as her
feet settled upon solid ground. "I must apologize for appearing in
your shower, but our systems aren't functioning correctly, and...
oh, you're bleeding!"
Eric put a hand to his face. His fingers came away with a mixture
of blood and soap. "Oh yeah, forgot about that." When he looked
up, Belldandy was standing in front of him.
"Here," she said, touching his face.
"Hey!" Eric jumped back, but not before he felt a tingling
sensation. He slapped a hand to the spot Belldandy had touched and
felt smooth, dry skin. "What the..." he said as he ran his hand
across his jaw. There was no trace of blood, soap or stubble. "How
did you do that!?" Lasers? Sonics? For the moment, fear had been
swept away by curiosity.
[Insufficient data,] his AI informed him.
"I sped up your metabolism to heal the cuts, then rearranged the
atomic structure of everything else to form harmless gasses,"
Belldandy stated matter-of- factly as she turned her attention to
what had once been a shower curtain.
"Uh-huh." Rearranged the atoms? Does she expect me to believe
that, or am I imagining all this? Either way, I wonder how far I'd
get if I started running now?
[Given the abilities she has demonstrated so far, not far enough.]
I was afraid of that, Eric mentally sighed.
Belldandy muttered something in a language Eric didn't understand
and made a few motions in the air. The curtain and rod sprang back
into place as if nothing had happened.
"Oh my god." Eric whispered as beads of sweat began to form on his
brow. "You're not human, are you?"
"No, of course not," Belldandy replied. "As I said before, I'm a
goddess. Here's my card."
Eric stared at the apparently normal business card as if Belldandy
were offering him a live rattlesnake, but after a long moment's
hesitation he took it anyway.
The card seemed surprisingly ordinary for someone claiming to be a
goddess. So maybe she was a goddess, or just a really smart alien.
The human race certainly didn't posses the technology to pull off
what he had just seen. Not outside of a laboratory, at least.
"Oh, but I am a goddess," Belldandy insisted. "As a goddess first
class, I'm not allowed to lie."
Eric froze. "Did you just..." Nah, she couldn't have read my mind,
must have been a coincidence. Get a grip on yourself, buddy.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to upset you. I can't normally read
someone's mind, only when I'm acting in official capacity like I am
now."
The card fluttered to the floor. Eric stared, sweated some more,
and contemplated escape scenarios.
I don't have much time to convince him, and I dare not fail,
Belldandy worried. If only this were as simple as granting a wish.
"Perhaps you will feel better once you've dressed," she offered, and
turner her back.
As he pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, Eric considered his options.
Make an emergency call to the police? It'd take too long for them to
arrive. Try to hide? How do you hide from someone who can read your
mind? In fact, that nixes just about all escape ideas. That was
when it hit him. Seeing this, whatever it was, through to the end
was somehow very important. But why?
Any further thought was preempted by the sound of footsteps in the
hallway and a knock on the door. An elderly woman's voice, faintly
accented with German, came from out in the hallway. "Eric, are you
all right? I heard a noise a few minutes ago."
Eric jumped. Oh, no! I should have known all that noise would
attract attention! He shot a terrified glance towards the door,
then remembered with relief that it was still locked.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he answered as calmly as
possible. "Yes, Mrs. Scheffler, I just slipped coming out of the
shower. Everything's OK." Not the whole truth, but not entirely a
lie, either.
"All right, then, I'll see you at breakfast," came the voice, and
the sound of footsteps faded down the hall.
"Whew, that was close." Eric turned back to Belldandy. Say
something nice, Eric, he counseled himself. "So, um, what brought
you to my bathroom?" Oh, yeah, that was really intelligent.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Belldandy apologized. "I'm here to ask for your
help. I can explain more thoroughly, but I know my arrival has put
you under a lot of strain. I also know it might be difficult
explaining the presence of a strange woman in your room." Belldandy
recalled when she had first met Keiichi. "Would it be better if I
left now and came to the front door in, say, five minutes?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, that'd be fine!" Wow, she's certainly polite,
whatever she is.
"I'll wait outside," Belldandy said, smiling.
"OK, um, do you want to use the win--" Eric blinked as Belldandy
was suddenly standing on thin air outside his window. "...dow?"
Belldandy waved and settled to the ground.
Eric backed from the window and sat down on his bed.
Outside, Belldandy closed her eyes and breathed deeply, reveling in
the feel of cool grass beneath her bare feet, the crisp air, the
smell of pine trees, the sounds of birds singing and leaves
rustling. I had forgotten how much I missed the Earth, she sighed.
Heaven had all these things, but the grass there was perfectly cool
and green, the birds all sang lovely tunes, the leaves rarely piled
up on the ground. She suddenly realized how much she had missed the
variety implicit in an imperfect world, even one as tinged with
melancholy as the Earth now was. Despite our best efforts, the
System's troubles are being felt here, she realized.
Belldandy turned to examine the building from which she had emerged.
It was a rustic log structure, centuries old. What memories must be
in this place, she thought as her hand stroked along the grain of a
log. If she was successful, it would be given the chance to exist
for centuries more.
Eric lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. "She calls herself
the goddess Belldandy. OK, any ideas on who or what she really is?"
[Belldandy matches no known mythology. Insufficient data for
further analysis.]
"What you mean is we have plenty of data, it just doesn't make
sense. OK, let's assume for argument that she has been truthful so
far. The obvious question, of course, is why someone who can do
things like teleport and rearrange matter would need the help of
someone like me. The obvious answer is 'She wouldn't.' So, is she
lying? Only one way to tell for sure."
The smell of pancakes and sausage floating from the dining room and
across the foyer greeted Eric as he hurried downstairs. He was
dressed in well-worn blue jeans, a red chamois shirt and sneakers.
Someone knocked at the front door.
"I'll get it!" Eric said, sprinting the last few steps to the door.
"Hello, Eric," Belldandy said when the door opened. "It's good to
see you, again. May I come in?"
She had exchanged her goddess uniform for a conventional dress and
jacket combination which gave her a relaxed, businesslike
appearance. Her feet were now in shoes and firmly in contact with
the floor, Eric noticed. He forced a smile.
"Ah, certainly, come right in!" he said in what he hoped was a
cheerful voice. Boy, she even changed clothes! I hadn't thought of
that. She certainly seems to be trying hard to make this easy on
me.
"Thank you. I always try to be helpful," Belldandy beamed. She
breathed in the aromas which filled the foyer and sighed. "How I
miss cooking."
"You're just in time for breakfast," Eric offered, taking note of
her interest. "Are you hungry?" I'm starving, but can she even eat
human food?
"Thank you. I would love to join you for breakfast," Belldandy
reassured him. It's been so long. This will be a treat!
Eric led her to a small table off to one side of the dining room,
attempting to appear nonchalant. He needn't have bothered. Every
eye in the room was riveted to the young lady at his side.
"What can I get for you?" Eric asked Belldandy once he had seated
her.
"I'll have some tea, please, and one of those muffins if it's not
too much trouble," Belldandy said, looking at what was set out on
the serving table. He's dealing with this much better now, she
noted.
"Coming right up. Um, what kind of tea do you prefer?"
"Darjeeling, if you have it."
What's Darjeeling tea? Eric wondered as his eyes scanned the
serving table.
[A tea produced at high elevation in the Himalayan mountains, in the
Darjeeling region of India. It has a delicate, light flavor--]
"Looks like all we have is lemon, apple and that regular black pekoe
stuff," Eric said, interrupting his AI's exposition.
"Black will be fine, thank you."
In a couple of minutes they were both settled with their breakfasts.
Eric sat with his back to the kitchen, steadfastly ignoring the
intensely curious glances being directed his way.
Belldandy sipped her tea and nibbled her muffin while Eric dove into
eggs, sausage and pancakes, washing it all down with a large glass
of orange juice.
After a few minutes, he noticed Belldandy watching him. "Is
something wrong?"
"Not at all, I like watching someone enjoying their food as much as
you do."
"Oh, yeah." Eric looked down at his plate, which was almost half
devoured yet still held what most people would consider a full
breakfast. "I guess I'm making a pig of myself."
"Nonsense. Enjoy your meal." He certainly must have an active
lifestyle to maintain his current physical condition while ingesting
so many calories. Belldandy smiled. He reminds me of Tamiya and
Ootaki. For a moment, she allowed her mind to drift back to
memories of friends long gone.
When they had finished, Eric gathered their dishes and then
hesitated. If I go back to the kitchen, Mrs. Scheffler will ambush
me for sure.
"I'll take those, Eric," a deep, German accented voice said from
behind him. Eric spun in a panic to find a large, powerfully built
man who matter-of-factly took the dishes from him. With a curt nod
to Belldandy, Mr. Scheffler strode off with the dishes towards the
kitchen.
"What a saint!" Eric sighed in relief. He hadn't even noticed the
big man's approach. I must really be distracted for him to have
sneaked up on me like that.
Eric turned to Belldandy. "Would you like to go outside for a
walk?" he suggested. Got to get out of here ASAP!
"That would be wonderful," Belldandy replied. "Then, I can explain
why I'm here." And none too soon. My time is running out.
They crossed the stream which ran beside the inn and started up out
of the small valley it formed, towards the plain called Antelope
Flats. The air held an uncharacteristic nip for this early in the
Fall. Another record-breaking cold winter on the way, Eric
suspected.
"We need your help, Eric," Belldandy said.
"Yeah, I remember you said that. What kind of help?" He attempted
to appear nonchalant.
"To put it simply, we need you to help us save Yggdrasil."
"Yggdrasil? Yggdrasil..." Now, where have I heard that name?
[Yggdrasil was the world tree in Norse mythology.]
Yeah, that's right, it was a huge ash tree. Wait a minute, they
want me to save a tree!?
"Yes, in a sense. The Almighty One has sent me..."
Huh!? Ah, what the heck if she can read my mind.
"...to convince you to come back with me to heaven."
Eric stopped. "Hold on a minute. 'Heaven', 'goddesses', the
'Almighty One'? You're going a little bit fast here for me."
"I know this may be hard to take in all at once, but all that exists
will be in grave danger should Yggdrasil continue to fail,"
Belldandy continued. "This planet has felt the effects, but all of
the universe and beyond is at stake, here."
"Whoa, wait a minute! I'm not a tree surgeon, I'm a computer
programmer! I'm having a hard time believing that the fate of the
universe is really depending upon me."
Belldandy smiled sweetly. "Yggdrasil is a computer. It is the
computer that runs reality. My sisters maintain it."
"Sisters?" Now I remember. I used to love this stuff. Let's see,
now. Yggdrasil was tended by the Norns, and the Norns were Urd,
Verdandi... Belldandy. Whoa.
"That would be Urd and Skuld?" Eric's voice was suddenly hoarse.
Belldandy brightened considerably at this. "Yes."
"And you're telling me that you are Verdandi."
"Not the Verdandi you're thinking of, but yes, I am her."
"Huh?"
"Though I prefer Belldandy, now."
She's not that her, but she's still her... ah, forget it. I'll go
crazy trying to figure it out.
A look of deep concern filled Belldandy's eyes. "I know this must
be hard for you, Eric, but you must believe me. The fate of Earth,
the universe, even Heaven depends upon it."
Eric laughed nervously. "Nothing like having the fate of the
universe hanging on your willingness to believe the impossible."
Belldandy didn't answer.
"Look," he turned to her, "you have to admit all this sounds
crazy..." his voice faltered as something in her eyes captured him.
He tore his gaze away and began walking. She followed.
Wow, Eric thought, she looks so sincere I feel like a bastard just
questioning her. "You know, young man meets beautiful girl, gets
chance to save the universe. That's a very old cliche."
"That doesn't mean it isn't true."
"Look, Belldandy, you don't know how much a part of me would love to
believe you. Heck, I've felt from the beginning that I belong on
this mission of yours. I mean it's obvious you're not from this
solar system, and it seems you've gone to a lot of trouble to find
me, but... I really don't believe in Norns, Yggdrasil, any of it."
"That's all right, I won't disappear just because you don't believe
in me," Belldandy smiled warmly.
Eric sighed. "Touche'." He found himself lost again in those eyes.
A warm feeling of joy at her presence was enveloping him.
"So," he asked, trying to sound more in control of himself than he
felt, "do I have a choice about this?"
"We need your cooperation, Eric," Belldandy eyes were pleading. "I
won't force you."
Then please don't look at me like that again! Eric once more
diverted his gaze away from the sincerity in her face. What is it
about her? I've never felt this way around anyone before.
"Eric, please believe how important this is to us. The Almighty
wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you were able to help
us."
"Yeah, that's another thing," Eric faced her again. "About this
'Almighty' stuff. God shouldn't need my help. For that matter, God
shouldn't need a computer to run the universe. What does the
'Almighty' need with an ordinary computer programmer? Why doesn't
he just wave his hand and fix the darn thing himself?"
"There are several things you don't understand now, but by helping
us you will have the chance to learn things you would never know
otherwise."
"That's hardly an answer to my question." Eric pretended to ignore
the offer. "And besides, aren't you mixing religions? I mean, what
does God have to do with the Norns and Yggdrasil?" Why am I
fighting her? I should just give in now, but I wish I knew why it's
so important that I go with her. I hate being railroaded, even when
I'm helping to railroad myself.
"I'm sorry you don't believe me, but I don't have time to convince
you here."
"Oh? Exactly how much time do you have?"
"Two hours, twenty-three minutes."
"Until the end of the universe!!?" Eric's eyes grew wide.
"No, until I have to return to heaven."
Eric let out a sigh of relief. "OK, then... well, I give. If the
universe really is hanging in the balance, what does my opinion
count for?"
"Every being, no matter how small, counts."
"You say the nicest things, you know that?" They started walking
again through the knee high sage brush.
"You have to wonder at the names some places have," Eric suddenly
felt the need to change the subject. "Sometime, centuries ago, there
must have been a lot of antelope here on Antelope Flats, but I've
rarely seen one anywhere near the place. Still, it's a convenient
spot to gather your thoughts. No distractions, just miles of sage
brush." A dry, twisted branch scratched against Eric's pant leg.
"Oh, geez, I forgot you're wearing a skirt!" Eric suddenly realized
as the spiky limbs of another sage brush whipped his jeans.
"Oh, I don't mind," Belldandy replied.
"We can turn around now. You aren't dressed for this."
"The sage brush don't usually welcome strangers, but they don't mind
me."
"Uh, are you saying that sage brush can think?" Eric looked
doubtfully at the scraggly grey bushes.
"Everything has its spirit."
"Uh, yeah." They're just sage brush, for heaven's sake!
"It's beautiful, here," Belldandy said, wistfully. Her hands were
clasped behind her back as they continued strolling through the
brush.
Eric noticed that, indeed, the light weight material of her skirt
seemed to catch on nothing. Maybe there was something to what she
said, after all. Snapping back to reality, he replied "Uh, yeah,
well, it certainly is beautiful in the summer with the mountains and
the river. You should spend a winter here, though, then tell me how
beautiful it is."
"I'm sure the snow is wonderful."
"For the first three or four months, sure, then it gets a little
monotonous. There's only so much skiing and snowshoeing you can do.
Then, in April it all melts and you have a month of mud."
"You can't tell me you don't love it, though."
"Yeah, well, I guess it's home, after all. So, tell me what it is
exactly that I'm supposed to do?"
"I don't know. The Almighty didn't give us any information other
than that we were to find you."
"Well, I hope it doesn't disappoint you when I say I have no idea
what I might be able to do, either."
"I'm sure you wouldn't have been selected if you weren't capable of
helping us."
"Yeah, I seem to remember you saying that before. OK, then, I know
getting to save the universe is its own reward, but do I get some
kind of fee? Sorry, but I'm a contractor."
"Yes, you get a wish."
"A wish?"
"Yes, you are to be granted one wish in exchange for your services."
"A wish. So, what if I fail?"
"Yggdrasil will fail and won't be able to grant your wish."
Eric chuckled. "That's worse than being paid in stock options!"
"I suppose." Was it? Corporate finance was something Belldandy had
never paid much attention to.
"Not that it matters much, but what can I wish for?"
"Almost anything," Belldandy replied. There was, of course, one
wish which she wasn't about to let anyone make again! Not that the
System had ever approved such a wish before or since that one time,
but still. "Why do you say it doesn't matter much?"
"Well, I don't know what I'd ask for, really. Like, say, could I
wish for a billion dollars?"
"Yes."
"The state of North Dakota?"
"Yes, I suppose, but why?" Why would he want one of the states?
"Hehe, just kidding about North Dakota." She can't think I was
serious!? "How about wishing for more wishes?"
"Sorry, but that wouldn't be accepted."
"OK, then, how long do I have to decide?"
"You must choose before we leave."
"Fair enough." How long is that?
[One hour, fifty-eight minutes.]
"OK, then let's get down to business," Eric said. "Whom would I be
working for?"
"Well, the Almighty One, of course, but I suspect you will be under
the supervision of my sisters."
"Urd and Skuld?"
"Yes."
"Why not you?"
"I don't usually work in system administration. I'm only helping
now because of the emergency. I'm usually in what you could call a
field support office."
"Oh, so that's why you were the one to come here."
"Yes."
"Hmm." OK, Skuld was the dark, moody one. Working with her is
going to be no cake walk, I can tell already. It might not be so
bad with Urd there, though. She was wise and more or less kind, a
real grandmotherly type, and I usually do OK with grandmotherly
types. Besides, wasn't it Urd who thwarted the worst of Skuld's
plans? I'll need to make sure I'm in good with her.
He glanced at Belldandy who was staring at the Teton mountains, lost
in her own thoughts. Yes, she could definitely be the beautiful,
golden-haired Verdandi, the loyal and brave one.
"This is such a wild, beautiful place," Belldandy said. "The
mountains rise up like a wall to guard this valley. Such memories
they must hold."
"Yeah, they've been there a while."
"The air is so thin, here. How high are we?"
"About 2100 meters above sea level."
"These mountains have such small foothills."
"They aren't foothills, they're glacial moraines. The dirt pushed
ahead of the glaciers as they came down from the mountains in the
last ice age. When the glaciers retreated, they left the moraines."
Why are we talking geology?
"Then Blacktail Butte is a moraine? It's so much bigger than the
others."
"No, it's a fault block, like the mountains themselves. Why all the
questions?"
"I miss it. I lived here on the earth, once. It was such a happy
time for us! Eric, may I ask you a personal question?"
"Uh, sure, why not?" 'Us?' Does she mean her sisters? No, she's
wearing a ring. Why would a Norn be married?
"Why does such a skeptical person trust so much in intuition?"
"Oh? Ah, yeah, well... caught me off guard, there!" She must have
noticed my interest in her ring. Well, if I can't trust her, this
whole project is doomed. "OK, this is going to sound silly, but I
trust my hunches because they almost always work out. I don't
always have them, but when I do they're right on the money."
Belldandy looked up at Eric again. "Oh? Like clairvoyance,
precognition?"
"Nothing that specific. Just hunches, intuitions, ideas."
"Hmm. That seems very strange."
"I've always thought so. Being such a skeptical sort, you know."
"Oh, I hope I didn't hurt your feelings!"
"Nah, you're right, after all. Besides, my ego is solid enough to
take lots of abuse!"
"You are very self-assured, but you also seem caring to me."
"Oh? That must be my caring, belligerent side."
"Really?"
"Uh, that was supposed to be a joke."
"Oh, now I understand. May I ask you another personal question?"
"Sure."
"Is your intuition telling you something right now?" she asked.
"Yeah," Eric paused. "It's telling me that I'd better let you lead
me on this wild goose chase."
Belldandy's face lit up with a delighted smile.
Eric smiled back. How could I have ever done anything to darken
that face with doubt?
[It is time to return if you are going to pack,] his AI reminded
him.
"I really hate to spoil this walk," Eric said, "but if I'm going to
get ready it's time we headed back."
A few minutes later, they had crossed back over the creek and were
heading up to the inn.
"So, do you have much experience with computers?" Belldandy asked.
Eric frowned slightly. "Yes, but I doubt that's going to help much,
here. If your computers are much like ours, I'm going to be
terribly disappointed. The key to this, I think, is that I have yet
to meet a computer I couldn't program within a couple of hours."
"Even systems you've never seen before?"
"Yeah. Don't ask me how it works, but that's the only reason I can
think of why I'd be picked for something like this."
"You mean this intuition you have?"
"Uh huh. Solutions just pop into my head and they work. I'm sorry,
but I really can't explain it."
"Still, I would have been surprised if Almighty had chosen an
ordinary mortal."
"Yeah, I've never considered myself ordinary. Just curious,
Belldandy, but does Yggdrasil look at all like a tree?"
"In a way, I suppose. We could make it appear to you as a tree if
you prefer. Your interaction with the system will likely have to be
through 3-dimensional representations. Yggdrasil is multi-
dimensional so you can't perceive it directly in 3-space. Skuld is
building an interface device which will allow a 3- dimensional being
such as yourself to access system functions."
"Is that really necessary?" The thought of working with a device
created by the enigmatic Skuld, prone to destroy her sisters' and
even her own creations, made Eric more than a little anxious.
"Skuld is very talented at making devices."
"OK, I'll take your word for it."
"Please don't be afraid, you will be perfectly safe. There is much
you don't know, yet. On the other hand, you yourself are something
of an enigma, Eric Donovan."
"You're saying I'm strange?"
"I mean no offense."
"None taken. I've been the strangest person I know for as long as I
can remember."
"Yet you have confidence in yourself."
"Well," Eric blushed a little in embarrassment, "maybe I'm cocky
right now, but honestly I suspect I'll be way out of my league
working on the kind of computer system you must have."
"I have faith in you."
"Thanks. I wish I shared your sentiment deep down."
They approached the lodge.
"Tell me about yourself, your family," Belldandy suggested.
Eric chuckled. "This'll be short, because I don't have any. I've
never been able to find my biological parents, and believe me I've
tried. The Schefflers don't have any children of their own, so they
sort of adopted me. I have an apartment in Berkeley, but you're
right about this old lodge being 'Home' to me."
-----
"You're sure she won't mind?" Belldandy asked.
"Mind!?" Eric said in an exaggerated tone as they walked around to
the front porch. "Why, my dear lady, Mrs. Scheffler will be
overjoyed to see me eating two meals in a row in the company of a
beautiful young woman, even a married one."
Belldandy looked down at the ring on her left hand. The memories it
evoked brought a wistful look of joy to her face. Closing her eyes
for a moment, she uttered a silent prayer that her life with Keiichi
might some day return to simpler times like those.
While Belldandy was involved in her memories, Eric began concocting
what he hoped was a reasonable story to explain this morning.
When Belldandy had returned to the present, he began explaining it
to her.
"Oh, but I couldn't lie!" Belldandy suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" Great, a goddess with a hyperactive conscience! "Well,
don't worry, I can do all the talking. Besides, we won't really be
lying, we just won't be giving out all of the details."
"Now you're beginning to sound like my sister, Urd."
"Oh? I always figured Urd would be the straight arrow type."
Belldandy gave him a surprised look.
With all the guests gone upon the day's excursions, lunches were a
much quieter affair than breakfasts at the Blacktail B&B.
"Ah, Eric, you're back!" Mrs. Scheffler greeted them as they came
in the front door. "Is this is the young lady who joined us for
breakfast and whose voice I heard from your room this morning?"
Aack! "Y-yes, yes, she is. I, uh, had her on speakerphone! Mrs.
Scheffler, this is Belldandy. She has a systems project I'll be
working on."
"Oh? Well, I'm very pleased to meet you, Belldandy" Mrs. Scheffler
said. "Won't you join us for lunch?"
"Thank you, you are very kind," Belldandy replied.
"Oh, nothing of the sort! A friend of Eric's is a friend of ours.
Why don't you come into the kitchen and wash up for the meal? Eric,
could you help me with setting the table?"
"I would be glad to help also," Belldandy offered, starting for the
kitchen.
Eric's protest was drowned out by a "Well, thank you, dear," from
Mrs. Scheffler.
Uh-oh, I'd hoped to keep the two of them apart, Eric worried. He
needn't have.
"What a lovely kitchen!" Belldandy exclaimed in joyful surprise as
she entered. "It's so large and airy, and what a wonderful view!"
With that, Belldandy and Mrs. Scheffler immediately launched into
animated conversation about the finer points of cooking, leaving
Eric to play busboy.
Well, I guess that's a safe enough subject, Eric decided, but where
had someone like Belldandy learned so much about cooking?
Lunch progressed more smoothly than Eric could have hoped for.
Belldandy had an encyclopedic knowledge of cooking as well as life
in Japan, though some of her information seemed dated. She was also
very curious about life here. Eric exchanged several glances with
Mr. Scheffler who, as usual, had given thanks and then remained
quiet throughout the meal.
Toward the end Mrs. Scheffler gave Eric an approving look, one he
had no trouble guessing the meaning of.
"She's married, mother." Eric hoped a preemptive strike would
deflect most of the more embarrassing questions which were sure to
follow.
Belldandy smiled as she looked from Eric to Mrs. Scheffler.
"He only calls me that when he thinks I'm being too nosy," Mrs.
Scheffler replied as she fixed Eric with another of _those_ looks
accompanied by a knowing smile.
Eric jumped into the conversation. "To get this discussion back on
track, Belldandy is here to offer me a consulting job, nothing more.
Isn't that correct, Belldandy?"
Belldandy nodded, but Eric knew he wasn't getting away that easily.
Mrs. Scheffler turned her attention back to Belldandy. "Still, he's
spent more time with you this morning than I've ever seen him spend
in the presence of an attractive young woman. It's an encouraging
sign."
Belldandy gave Eric a puzzled look. "Surely you don't have trouble
getting a girlfriend?" she asked. This was too much like deja vu.
Eric blushed furiously. "Well, not exactly..." I'm doomed.
"What he means is that he runs whenever a beautiful girl gets near
him," Mrs. Scheffler explained. "He really is a nice young man,
though, even if he is lacking somewhat in social graces."
"I have plenty of friends who are girls," Eric protested. "I'm just
not ready to get married, yet."
"Who said anything about marriage? If you would just ask one of
them out on a date..."
"Tallea, leave Eric alone," Mr. Scheffler uttered his first
conversational words of the meal, then began to get up. "Now,
please excuse me. I must get back to work on the furnace." As he
turned to leave, he shot Eric a glance that said 'Good luck!'
'Coward!' Eric shot at the retreating back.
Fortunately, the conversation changed topic and nothing catastrophic
occurred for the rest of the meal.
Afterwards, Eric brought Belldandy back to his room.
"Well, what should I pack?"
"There is no need. We can make you any items you want."
"Oh, yeah, the shower curtain. Can you really manipulate matter on
a molecular level?"
"Of course. I am a goddess, after all."
"I'm beginning to believe it. OK, I'll still need a toilet kit,
though, unless you know how to make shavers and stuff." He noticed
the razor he had used that morning. Never again!
"Skuld is wonderful at making mechanical devices."
"Oh, yeah." Maybe it's time I started growing a beard?
That reminded him of the shaving mirror which had started this whole
adventure. "Do you need a mirror to get us back to Heaven?"
"It's easier if I have a medium, especially since I'll have a
passenger."
"There's a full-length one on the back side of the closet door."
"That will be perfect. Before we go, though, remember that you
still haven't made your wish."
"Oh yeah, right!" Eric thought for a moment. "What should I wish
for? I have or can make all the money I need, I have plenty of
friends, my life certainly isn't boring - especially not lately."
He smiled at Belldandy. "This is going to take some thought."
He pulled a suitcase from under the bed and began to fill it. "Even
if I'm not going to take anything, I'll still need to put all this
away so the Schefflers can rent the room."
When everything was packed, he turned to Belldandy again. "I need
to stick this in the car. You want to come with me?"
"Yes, of course."
Eric led them out into the parking lot. "It just occurred to me
that it's going to look strange if we disappear from my room. Can
you take us through the mirror on the car, here?"
"Yes, of course. The size of the mirror doesn't really matter."
Tell the car to return to Berkeley once we're gone, Eric told his
AI.
[Done.]
Eric looked past the garage and out over the stream, in the
direction in which they had walked that morning. "I really can't
think of anything I need," he said.
"Surely you must earnestly desire something. Try to think of what
would make you happy." Belldandy suggested.
"You always cut right to the heart of the matter, don't you? I have
or can get almost anything I want, but I'm still not really
satisfied. Most guys would trade places with me in a heartbeat.
Why aren't I happy?" He shut the lid on the car's trunk.
"I'm afraid I can't grant you happiness."
"Yeah, I didn't think so. Well, I could wish for world peace, but
one person's peace is another person's oppression or anarchy."
"Wisely said."
"We've been having lots of natural disasters, lately..."
"Those are largely a result of Yggdrasil's current condition. If
you are successful in restoring Yggdrasil, that will take care of
the natural disasters. Try wishing for something from your heart."
"So, it has to be something personal, but nothing too earth-
shattering." Bad pun, Eric. "There's always been that thing about
finding who my blood kin are, or at least finding out who they were,
if there aren't any left. Hmm, you know, now that I think about it,
that's it."
Eric turned to Belldandy. "OK, I've decided."
"Good! What do you wish for?"
"I wish I knew who I was. That shouldn't be too difficult to...
hey, are you all right?"
Belldandy's eyes had become glowing pools of light. A low, ominous
hum began building from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Uh oh." What happened? Did I just send her into overload? Cause
a divide-by-zero error in that computer, Yggdrasil? Am I about to
die?
That's when all heck broke loose. Belldandy's body was rigid as she
rose off of the parking lot. Her face inclined to the heavens and
the mark on her forehead shone incredibly bright. An instant later,
a brilliant beam shot skyward from the mark.
"That's not a tattoo, that's some kind of I/O device!" Eric's voice
was drowned out as his eyes followed the beam up into a sky which
had suddenly taken on a very ominous look.
Should I be running for cover? Eric wondered as leaves, twigs, and
anything else lying about began to swirl around.
A moment later, an answering pulse rode down the beam and things
returned more or less to normal.
"Are you all right?" Eric asked, catching the goddess as she
collapsed.
Belldandy had a radiant look in her eyes. "Your wish has been
approved."
"Really?" Eric looked skyward. "Was all that normal? I mean, I
hope I didn't make this much of a mess up there, too," he said,
trying for a little levity as he turned his attention to the debris
strewn around them.
At that moment, Mr. Scheffler came running around the corner of the
building. "Ah, Eric, what was that? I was in the furnace room, and
suddenly it sounds like a thunder storm out here!"
"Yeah, it was kind of wild for a minute or so."
"So, what was it? Was she hurt?"
"She's fine, just dazed a little. Things just started swirling
around. Probably just a dust devil or something."
"That is fortunate that nobody was injured. I must check on
Tallea," he said then began running back to the lodge.
Eric looked at Belldandy. "Is it always this spectacular when you
grant a wish?"
"It's even more so when I'm indoors," Belldandy replied.
Eric looked up into the heavens which now appeared perfectly normal.
"Yeah, I can imagine it is."
-----
End of Chapter 1
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This fic is a fusion of Norse mythology and OMG. "But wait," you
say, "isn't OMG already based on Norse mythology?" Well yes, it is,
but the degree of that connection is debatable. This fic assumes
that they occupy the same timeline, which is certainly possible
canonically. Unlike most Norse/OMG fusions, though, in instances
where OMG canon is applicable this fic will remain true to OMG. The
tone of this fic will stay as close as possible to Fujishima's
original.
If the synopsis of Norse mythology at the beginning of the chapter
seems a little strange, that's because it is. While the first 4
paragraphs follow one of the major interpretations of Norse
mythology, the last 2 are a possible mechanism to get from Norse
mythology to AMG. Reincarnation of gods/demons with consequent
suppression of memory and personality is mentioned in manga chapter
134.
Why is Skuld still in her teens? Since this fic is based on the
manga rather than the OAV, the goddesses do age but are for all
intents and purposes immortal. I assume that the rebirth of the
pantheon began about the time that worship of the Norse gods ceased,
about 1,000AD. Using Urd's age as a ruler and assuming she was
reborn immediately, we see that Urd has apparently aged 25 years in
the past 1,000 of our years, a ratio of 1 to 40. This is, I admit,
an arbitrary figure, but it has the advantage of being the least
arbitrary one. Anyway, given the approx. 160 years between Keiichi's
college years and the time of this story, the goddesses should
appear 4 years older than they did at the beginning of OMG. That
puts Belldandy at 25 and Skuld at 16. Urd remains apparently 25
because Norse gods had the ability, through the apples of Idunn, to
effectively cease aging when they reached adulthood. Deity aging in
OMG is controlled by Yggdrasil, but I'm assuming a similar effect as
with Idunn's apples.
Chapter 1
"Through the Looking Glass"
By Brian Welch
bwelchz7@yahoo.com
For the loneliest goddess.
Based on the manga Aa! Megami-sama
(Ah! My Goddess!/Oh My Goddess!)
The wonderful world of Aa! Megami-sama was created by Kosuke
Fujishima. Aa! Megami-sama/Oh My Goddess! characters are copyright
Kodansha Ltd. Tokyo, Studio Proteus, and Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
-----
In the beginning there was no Heaven or Hell, no gods or demons. In
all of Wyrd's creation there was only Ginnungagap, the dark abyss of
Chaos, bordered to the North by cold, dark Nifelheim and to the
South by hot, fiery Muspelheim. Cold mists held sway in lifeless
Nifelheim, while Muspelheim was ruled by Surt, swathed in fire and
wielding his flaming sword. Rising out of the Ginnungagap stood
Yggdrasil, the world tree, tended by the three Norns, Urd, Verdandi
and Skuld.
In the fullness of time within Ginnungagap mists from the icy rivers
of Nifelheim and sparks thrown from the fires of Muspelheim met and
combined to form two giant beings, the cow Audhumbla and the giant
Ymer. From Audhumbla was created Bure, the ancestor of Odin and the
other gods who came to be known as the Aesir. From Ymer sprang the
race of the frost giants.
Yggdrasil had three roots ending in three wells. These were Urd's
well guarded by the Norns, Mimer's well guarded by the giant Mimer
the Wise, and Hvergelmir in Nifelheim, where the great worm Nidhog
gnawed upon the root, sending poisons throughout the world tree.
For long ages the gods ruled over the affairs of humanity,
protecting them from the frost giants to the North and teaching them
many things. But in time the gods forgot their place in creation,
becoming proud and breaking their promises. So, the three who
tended Yggdrasil were sent to counsel the gods, but the gods
listened not to the prophets of Wyrd. Then Wyrd regretted the
making of the gods and resolved to destroy them and remake creation.
This saddened the Norns for they loved all of creation, and they
warned the gods of the approach of Ragnaroc. Yet, still the gods
did not repent of their ways.
As the time for Ragnaroc drew near the three who tended Yggdrasil
prayed that Wyrd would have mercy upon creation, and the maker's
heart was softened, for truly Wyrd loved creation as much as they.
So it was that the final battle never came. Humanity, as had been
foretold, turned from worshipping the gods and began to worship the
one god. The gods and demons were destroyed, for such was the
nature of their sin, but were then reborn, for such is the nature of
forgiveness. The prophets of Wyrd were reborn as well, for the
memory of the old times rested heavily upon their hearts. The gods
were given dominion over Yggdrasil and a new, more peaceful order
established.
Yet not all was well with creation, for the worm Nidhog still chewed
upon the root of Yggdrasil. The World Tree was still dying. And
all the while, on earth, the humans were growing in knowledge and
experience.
Aa! Megami-sama
"Born Again"
CHAPTER 1
"Through the Looking Glass"
-----
Yggdrasil Maintenance Facility, Heaven circa 2150 A.D.
-----
A lone chair floats above a ring of harried computer operators. In
the chair sits a tanned, platinum haired woman apparently in her mid
twenties. The beauty of her face is currently disfigured by a
scowl.
"What a waste of time!" Urd muttered under her breath as she
concentrated on the status panels which floated around her. "This
has got to be the dumbest thing we've ever been told to do. It
isn't like we don't already have our hands full just trying to hold
Yggdrasil together these days." With a flick of her fingers she
tweaked a parameter. For the next few hours she would have to be on
her toes. She couldn't afford to overlook anything.
"Why couldn't the Almighty have decided to send Peorth or some other
goddess from one of the other goddess offices?" Urd stabbed at
another panel of the ailing system. One minor oversight, nothing
serious enough to get her into real trouble, and Peorth could be
sent to an alternate dimension filled with slime molds the size of
houses. Ho ho, now wouldn't that be fun! Urd closed her eyes for a
moment, imagining the scene. But no, the Almighty had decided to
send Belldandy, and that meant absolutely nothing could go wrong.
Urd's eyes flashed again across the screens, checking and rechecking
system status.
Belldandy waited in the Relief Goddess Office, her head bowed in
prayer. Only one long accustomed to her normally serene state would
have noticed the lines of strain upon her face. After a minute, she
ended her prayer and dialed the phone at her side.
In Yggdrasil maintenance, the phone was answered by an annoyed Urd.
"Yeah, who is it?"
"Urd, do you have the gateway stabilized, yet?" Belldandy asked her
elder sister.
Urd relaxed at her sister's voice. "It'll be ready in a minute,
Bell. I'm running the final status checks right now."
Within the Yggdrasil mainframe complex a small white creature
appeared and began to scamper merrily across the surface of the
ultimate computer. It looked for all the world like a cute cartoon
bunny rabbit, except it had eight legs.
Back in the Yggdrasil Maintenance, Urd's attention snapped to one of
the panels. "Damn it, not another one!"
A hammer came crashing down upon the odd creature, which gave a
startled look and promptly vanished. Keiichi Morisato stepped back
to survey the surface of Yggdrasil. "I don't see any others, Skuld,
it must have been a stray," he called to a raven-haired girl
apparently in her late teens.
The youngest Norn gave an exhausted sigh of relief, then walked over
to her brother-in-law. "That should be the last of them for a
while, then. The bug zappers are reset and the new debugging
routines are all up and running. I'll let Urd know." She tapped a
floating panel.
"Everything looks stable, Urd"
"Then let's get this show on the road," Urd grumbled. "Belldandy,
the resolution's terrible, but I can tell he's in close proximity to
a couple of mirrors. I'm locking onto the nearest one. Remember,
we'll re- stabilize the gateway in four terrestrial hours. You have
that long to convince him."
"I'll remember," came the reply.
"Good luck, Sis! Be careful!" Skuld added.
"I will."
"I love you, Belldandy."
"I love you too, Keiichi."
"OK, guys, keep the bugs out of the gate control for a few more
seconds," Urd said.
"You got it," Skuld went back to scanning.
"She's on her way." Keiichi said to no one in particular.
Skuld placed a hand on his shoulder, her attention still on the
system. "Don't worry, Sis is the best there is."
"Yes, she is. Thanks."
From her chair in the Maintenance Facility, Urd concentrated on her
consoles. The portal was holding up fine. In four hours, assuming
things held together that long, this charade would be over.
The phone rang.
Urd cursed as she picked up the phone. "Yeah, who is it?" she
snapped in her customary greeting these days.
"It is I," came the last voice she had expected to hear.
Aack! "A-Almighty One!"
-----
Blacktail Bed and Breakfast Inn, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
-----
The data feed to his implanted AI relayed the news of some
monumental natural disaster.
Again.
Just another sound bite in an endless string of bad news about a
planet going berserk.
None of that bothered him right now, though. He had more immediate
worries. "Easy, easy..." he coached himself through clenched teeth.
"Ouch! Darn, nicked myself again." Eric Donovan raised his free
hand to his face. He was standing in a quaint, centuries old claw
foot bathtub. In his right hand was an old- fashioned twin-bladed
razor with which he was, with only partial success, shaving. The
rain from the shower head washed the blood from his fingertips as he
analyzed the situation. "Eric," he muttered to himself, "this has
got to be something of a record for dumb ideas. Even if you don't
bleed to death, you will never make it to breakfast at this rate."
It wasn't as if several less potentially painful solutions to the
problem of facial hair didn't exist these days, but there was
something about the barbarity of dragging a sharp sliver of metal
across ones face which had appealed to him when he had found the
ancient razor. "Oh, well, I'd better finish. Starvation can be my
penance for such a shameful waste of hot water, not to mention
abusing this antique." Not that he really cared much about energy
conservation or antique razors right now. What he did care about
was the fact that the steam from the shower fogged his shaving
mirror terribly, making the task that much harder. He reached up to
wipe it for the umpteenth time.
The mirror's surface rippled.
"Eyaaaaa!" Eric snatched back his hand, checked to see if all his
fingers were still there (they were), and turned his attention back
to the mirror, which at the moment was obscured by... somebody's
head coming through it!?
A wide-eyed Eric did what any young, red-blooded male would have
done in a similar circumstance. Unfortunately, he forgot to open the
shower curtain first.
The sound of a body crashing to the ancient pine floor was followed
by a loud "Ouch!" as the falling curtain stand careened off his
head. As Eric scrambled to his feet to continue his sprint from the
bathroom, he heard what was probably the last sound he had expected,
a very feminine "Eeek!"
Skidding to a halt, he turned in time to see a very beautiful, very
wet girl in an elaborate costume and strange makeup standing in what
had been the shower. The water had stopped somehow, and a moment
later she was... dry?
"How in Heaven's name did I end up in a running shower?" Belldandy
said, turning to look at the small shaving mirror still dangling
from its hook. "Oh, my!" Making the best of a bad situation, she
turned towards the object of her mission. "Good morning," she said
cheerfully, stepping daintily from the tub. "I am the goddess
Belldandy. Are you Eric Donovan?"
Eric blinked, nodded dumbly, then noticed her bare feet weren't
quite touching the floor. He sprang backwards, only to be reminded
of something as a rush of cool air met wet flesh.
"Waaa!"
Eric snatched a towel and began wrapping it around himself. "I must
be a hallucinating," he reasoned. "Yeah, the blow from the shower
rod, that must be it!"
[Negative,] his AI informed him. [Brain patterns are normal.
Sensory records match recent memory.]
While Eric was being lectured by his AI, Belldandy studied the young
man. Nearly two meters tall, his features were distinctly African.
He might have been taken for such if it weren't for his eyes, a
strikingly clear blue. He was also visibly trembling and radiating
an almost palpable level of fear and confusion.
"Please don't be afraid, I won't harm you," she assured him as her
feet settled upon solid ground. "I must apologize for appearing in
your shower, but our systems aren't functioning correctly, and...
oh, you're bleeding!"
Eric put a hand to his face. His fingers came away with a mixture
of blood and soap. "Oh yeah, forgot about that." When he looked
up, Belldandy was standing in front of him.
"Here," she said, touching his face.
"Hey!" Eric jumped back, but not before he felt a tingling
sensation. He slapped a hand to the spot Belldandy had touched and
felt smooth, dry skin. "What the..." he said as he ran his hand
across his jaw. There was no trace of blood, soap or stubble. "How
did you do that!?" Lasers? Sonics? For the moment, fear had been
swept away by curiosity.
[Insufficient data,] his AI informed him.
"I sped up your metabolism to heal the cuts, then rearranged the
atomic structure of everything else to form harmless gasses,"
Belldandy stated matter-of- factly as she turned her attention to
what had once been a shower curtain.
"Uh-huh." Rearranged the atoms? Does she expect me to believe
that, or am I imagining all this? Either way, I wonder how far I'd
get if I started running now?
[Given the abilities she has demonstrated so far, not far enough.]
I was afraid of that, Eric mentally sighed.
Belldandy muttered something in a language Eric didn't understand
and made a few motions in the air. The curtain and rod sprang back
into place as if nothing had happened.
"Oh my god." Eric whispered as beads of sweat began to form on his
brow. "You're not human, are you?"
"No, of course not," Belldandy replied. "As I said before, I'm a
goddess. Here's my card."
Eric stared at the apparently normal business card as if Belldandy
were offering him a live rattlesnake, but after a long moment's
hesitation he took it anyway.
The card seemed surprisingly ordinary for someone claiming to be a
goddess. So maybe she was a goddess, or just a really smart alien.
The human race certainly didn't posses the technology to pull off
what he had just seen. Not outside of a laboratory, at least.
"Oh, but I am a goddess," Belldandy insisted. "As a goddess first
class, I'm not allowed to lie."
Eric froze. "Did you just..." Nah, she couldn't have read my mind,
must have been a coincidence. Get a grip on yourself, buddy.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to upset you. I can't normally read
someone's mind, only when I'm acting in official capacity like I am
now."
The card fluttered to the floor. Eric stared, sweated some more,
and contemplated escape scenarios.
I don't have much time to convince him, and I dare not fail,
Belldandy worried. If only this were as simple as granting a wish.
"Perhaps you will feel better once you've dressed," she offered, and
turner her back.
As he pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, Eric considered his options.
Make an emergency call to the police? It'd take too long for them to
arrive. Try to hide? How do you hide from someone who can read your
mind? In fact, that nixes just about all escape ideas. That was
when it hit him. Seeing this, whatever it was, through to the end
was somehow very important. But why?
Any further thought was preempted by the sound of footsteps in the
hallway and a knock on the door. An elderly woman's voice, faintly
accented with German, came from out in the hallway. "Eric, are you
all right? I heard a noise a few minutes ago."
Eric jumped. Oh, no! I should have known all that noise would
attract attention! He shot a terrified glance towards the door,
then remembered with relief that it was still locked.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he answered as calmly as
possible. "Yes, Mrs. Scheffler, I just slipped coming out of the
shower. Everything's OK." Not the whole truth, but not entirely a
lie, either.
"All right, then, I'll see you at breakfast," came the voice, and
the sound of footsteps faded down the hall.
"Whew, that was close." Eric turned back to Belldandy. Say
something nice, Eric, he counseled himself. "So, um, what brought
you to my bathroom?" Oh, yeah, that was really intelligent.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Belldandy apologized. "I'm here to ask for your
help. I can explain more thoroughly, but I know my arrival has put
you under a lot of strain. I also know it might be difficult
explaining the presence of a strange woman in your room." Belldandy
recalled when she had first met Keiichi. "Would it be better if I
left now and came to the front door in, say, five minutes?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, that'd be fine!" Wow, she's certainly polite,
whatever she is.
"I'll wait outside," Belldandy said, smiling.
"OK, um, do you want to use the win--" Eric blinked as Belldandy
was suddenly standing on thin air outside his window. "...dow?"
Belldandy waved and settled to the ground.
Eric backed from the window and sat down on his bed.
Outside, Belldandy closed her eyes and breathed deeply, reveling in
the feel of cool grass beneath her bare feet, the crisp air, the
smell of pine trees, the sounds of birds singing and leaves
rustling. I had forgotten how much I missed the Earth, she sighed.
Heaven had all these things, but the grass there was perfectly cool
and green, the birds all sang lovely tunes, the leaves rarely piled
up on the ground. She suddenly realized how much she had missed the
variety implicit in an imperfect world, even one as tinged with
melancholy as the Earth now was. Despite our best efforts, the
System's troubles are being felt here, she realized.
Belldandy turned to examine the building from which she had emerged.
It was a rustic log structure, centuries old. What memories must be
in this place, she thought as her hand stroked along the grain of a
log. If she was successful, it would be given the chance to exist
for centuries more.
Eric lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. "She calls herself
the goddess Belldandy. OK, any ideas on who or what she really is?"
[Belldandy matches no known mythology. Insufficient data for
further analysis.]
"What you mean is we have plenty of data, it just doesn't make
sense. OK, let's assume for argument that she has been truthful so
far. The obvious question, of course, is why someone who can do
things like teleport and rearrange matter would need the help of
someone like me. The obvious answer is 'She wouldn't.' So, is she
lying? Only one way to tell for sure."
The smell of pancakes and sausage floating from the dining room and
across the foyer greeted Eric as he hurried downstairs. He was
dressed in well-worn blue jeans, a red chamois shirt and sneakers.
Someone knocked at the front door.
"I'll get it!" Eric said, sprinting the last few steps to the door.
"Hello, Eric," Belldandy said when the door opened. "It's good to
see you, again. May I come in?"
She had exchanged her goddess uniform for a conventional dress and
jacket combination which gave her a relaxed, businesslike
appearance. Her feet were now in shoes and firmly in contact with
the floor, Eric noticed. He forced a smile.
"Ah, certainly, come right in!" he said in what he hoped was a
cheerful voice. Boy, she even changed clothes! I hadn't thought of
that. She certainly seems to be trying hard to make this easy on
me.
"Thank you. I always try to be helpful," Belldandy beamed. She
breathed in the aromas which filled the foyer and sighed. "How I
miss cooking."
"You're just in time for breakfast," Eric offered, taking note of
her interest. "Are you hungry?" I'm starving, but can she even eat
human food?
"Thank you. I would love to join you for breakfast," Belldandy
reassured him. It's been so long. This will be a treat!
Eric led her to a small table off to one side of the dining room,
attempting to appear nonchalant. He needn't have bothered. Every
eye in the room was riveted to the young lady at his side.
"What can I get for you?" Eric asked Belldandy once he had seated
her.
"I'll have some tea, please, and one of those muffins if it's not
too much trouble," Belldandy said, looking at what was set out on
the serving table. He's dealing with this much better now, she
noted.
"Coming right up. Um, what kind of tea do you prefer?"
"Darjeeling, if you have it."
What's Darjeeling tea? Eric wondered as his eyes scanned the
serving table.
[A tea produced at high elevation in the Himalayan mountains, in the
Darjeeling region of India. It has a delicate, light flavor--]
"Looks like all we have is lemon, apple and that regular black pekoe
stuff," Eric said, interrupting his AI's exposition.
"Black will be fine, thank you."
In a couple of minutes they were both settled with their breakfasts.
Eric sat with his back to the kitchen, steadfastly ignoring the
intensely curious glances being directed his way.
Belldandy sipped her tea and nibbled her muffin while Eric dove into
eggs, sausage and pancakes, washing it all down with a large glass
of orange juice.
After a few minutes, he noticed Belldandy watching him. "Is
something wrong?"
"Not at all, I like watching someone enjoying their food as much as
you do."
"Oh, yeah." Eric looked down at his plate, which was almost half
devoured yet still held what most people would consider a full
breakfast. "I guess I'm making a pig of myself."
"Nonsense. Enjoy your meal." He certainly must have an active
lifestyle to maintain his current physical condition while ingesting
so many calories. Belldandy smiled. He reminds me of Tamiya and
Ootaki. For a moment, she allowed her mind to drift back to
memories of friends long gone.
When they had finished, Eric gathered their dishes and then
hesitated. If I go back to the kitchen, Mrs. Scheffler will ambush
me for sure.
"I'll take those, Eric," a deep, German accented voice said from
behind him. Eric spun in a panic to find a large, powerfully built
man who matter-of-factly took the dishes from him. With a curt nod
to Belldandy, Mr. Scheffler strode off with the dishes towards the
kitchen.
"What a saint!" Eric sighed in relief. He hadn't even noticed the
big man's approach. I must really be distracted for him to have
sneaked up on me like that.
Eric turned to Belldandy. "Would you like to go outside for a
walk?" he suggested. Got to get out of here ASAP!
"That would be wonderful," Belldandy replied. "Then, I can explain
why I'm here." And none too soon. My time is running out.
They crossed the stream which ran beside the inn and started up out
of the small valley it formed, towards the plain called Antelope
Flats. The air held an uncharacteristic nip for this early in the
Fall. Another record-breaking cold winter on the way, Eric
suspected.
"We need your help, Eric," Belldandy said.
"Yeah, I remember you said that. What kind of help?" He attempted
to appear nonchalant.
"To put it simply, we need you to help us save Yggdrasil."
"Yggdrasil? Yggdrasil..." Now, where have I heard that name?
[Yggdrasil was the world tree in Norse mythology.]
Yeah, that's right, it was a huge ash tree. Wait a minute, they
want me to save a tree!?
"Yes, in a sense. The Almighty One has sent me..."
Huh!? Ah, what the heck if she can read my mind.
"...to convince you to come back with me to heaven."
Eric stopped. "Hold on a minute. 'Heaven', 'goddesses', the
'Almighty One'? You're going a little bit fast here for me."
"I know this may be hard to take in all at once, but all that exists
will be in grave danger should Yggdrasil continue to fail,"
Belldandy continued. "This planet has felt the effects, but all of
the universe and beyond is at stake, here."
"Whoa, wait a minute! I'm not a tree surgeon, I'm a computer
programmer! I'm having a hard time believing that the fate of the
universe is really depending upon me."
Belldandy smiled sweetly. "Yggdrasil is a computer. It is the
computer that runs reality. My sisters maintain it."
"Sisters?" Now I remember. I used to love this stuff. Let's see,
now. Yggdrasil was tended by the Norns, and the Norns were Urd,
Verdandi... Belldandy. Whoa.
"That would be Urd and Skuld?" Eric's voice was suddenly hoarse.
Belldandy brightened considerably at this. "Yes."
"And you're telling me that you are Verdandi."
"Not the Verdandi you're thinking of, but yes, I am her."
"Huh?"
"Though I prefer Belldandy, now."
She's not that her, but she's still her... ah, forget it. I'll go
crazy trying to figure it out.
A look of deep concern filled Belldandy's eyes. "I know this must
be hard for you, Eric, but you must believe me. The fate of Earth,
the universe, even Heaven depends upon it."
Eric laughed nervously. "Nothing like having the fate of the
universe hanging on your willingness to believe the impossible."
Belldandy didn't answer.
"Look," he turned to her, "you have to admit all this sounds
crazy..." his voice faltered as something in her eyes captured him.
He tore his gaze away and began walking. She followed.
Wow, Eric thought, she looks so sincere I feel like a bastard just
questioning her. "You know, young man meets beautiful girl, gets
chance to save the universe. That's a very old cliche."
"That doesn't mean it isn't true."
"Look, Belldandy, you don't know how much a part of me would love to
believe you. Heck, I've felt from the beginning that I belong on
this mission of yours. I mean it's obvious you're not from this
solar system, and it seems you've gone to a lot of trouble to find
me, but... I really don't believe in Norns, Yggdrasil, any of it."
"That's all right, I won't disappear just because you don't believe
in me," Belldandy smiled warmly.
Eric sighed. "Touche'." He found himself lost again in those eyes.
A warm feeling of joy at her presence was enveloping him.
"So," he asked, trying to sound more in control of himself than he
felt, "do I have a choice about this?"
"We need your cooperation, Eric," Belldandy eyes were pleading. "I
won't force you."
Then please don't look at me like that again! Eric once more
diverted his gaze away from the sincerity in her face. What is it
about her? I've never felt this way around anyone before.
"Eric, please believe how important this is to us. The Almighty
wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you were able to help
us."
"Yeah, that's another thing," Eric faced her again. "About this
'Almighty' stuff. God shouldn't need my help. For that matter, God
shouldn't need a computer to run the universe. What does the
'Almighty' need with an ordinary computer programmer? Why doesn't
he just wave his hand and fix the darn thing himself?"
"There are several things you don't understand now, but by helping
us you will have the chance to learn things you would never know
otherwise."
"That's hardly an answer to my question." Eric pretended to ignore
the offer. "And besides, aren't you mixing religions? I mean, what
does God have to do with the Norns and Yggdrasil?" Why am I
fighting her? I should just give in now, but I wish I knew why it's
so important that I go with her. I hate being railroaded, even when
I'm helping to railroad myself.
"I'm sorry you don't believe me, but I don't have time to convince
you here."
"Oh? Exactly how much time do you have?"
"Two hours, twenty-three minutes."
"Until the end of the universe!!?" Eric's eyes grew wide.
"No, until I have to return to heaven."
Eric let out a sigh of relief. "OK, then... well, I give. If the
universe really is hanging in the balance, what does my opinion
count for?"
"Every being, no matter how small, counts."
"You say the nicest things, you know that?" They started walking
again through the knee high sage brush.
"You have to wonder at the names some places have," Eric suddenly
felt the need to change the subject. "Sometime, centuries ago, there
must have been a lot of antelope here on Antelope Flats, but I've
rarely seen one anywhere near the place. Still, it's a convenient
spot to gather your thoughts. No distractions, just miles of sage
brush." A dry, twisted branch scratched against Eric's pant leg.
"Oh, geez, I forgot you're wearing a skirt!" Eric suddenly realized
as the spiky limbs of another sage brush whipped his jeans.
"Oh, I don't mind," Belldandy replied.
"We can turn around now. You aren't dressed for this."
"The sage brush don't usually welcome strangers, but they don't mind
me."
"Uh, are you saying that sage brush can think?" Eric looked
doubtfully at the scraggly grey bushes.
"Everything has its spirit."
"Uh, yeah." They're just sage brush, for heaven's sake!
"It's beautiful, here," Belldandy said, wistfully. Her hands were
clasped behind her back as they continued strolling through the
brush.
Eric noticed that, indeed, the light weight material of her skirt
seemed to catch on nothing. Maybe there was something to what she
said, after all. Snapping back to reality, he replied "Uh, yeah,
well, it certainly is beautiful in the summer with the mountains and
the river. You should spend a winter here, though, then tell me how
beautiful it is."
"I'm sure the snow is wonderful."
"For the first three or four months, sure, then it gets a little
monotonous. There's only so much skiing and snowshoeing you can do.
Then, in April it all melts and you have a month of mud."
"You can't tell me you don't love it, though."
"Yeah, well, I guess it's home, after all. So, tell me what it is
exactly that I'm supposed to do?"
"I don't know. The Almighty didn't give us any information other
than that we were to find you."
"Well, I hope it doesn't disappoint you when I say I have no idea
what I might be able to do, either."
"I'm sure you wouldn't have been selected if you weren't capable of
helping us."
"Yeah, I seem to remember you saying that before. OK, then, I know
getting to save the universe is its own reward, but do I get some
kind of fee? Sorry, but I'm a contractor."
"Yes, you get a wish."
"A wish?"
"Yes, you are to be granted one wish in exchange for your services."
"A wish. So, what if I fail?"
"Yggdrasil will fail and won't be able to grant your wish."
Eric chuckled. "That's worse than being paid in stock options!"
"I suppose." Was it? Corporate finance was something Belldandy had
never paid much attention to.
"Not that it matters much, but what can I wish for?"
"Almost anything," Belldandy replied. There was, of course, one
wish which she wasn't about to let anyone make again! Not that the
System had ever approved such a wish before or since that one time,
but still. "Why do you say it doesn't matter much?"
"Well, I don't know what I'd ask for, really. Like, say, could I
wish for a billion dollars?"
"Yes."
"The state of North Dakota?"
"Yes, I suppose, but why?" Why would he want one of the states?
"Hehe, just kidding about North Dakota." She can't think I was
serious!? "How about wishing for more wishes?"
"Sorry, but that wouldn't be accepted."
"OK, then, how long do I have to decide?"
"You must choose before we leave."
"Fair enough." How long is that?
[One hour, fifty-eight minutes.]
"OK, then let's get down to business," Eric said. "Whom would I be
working for?"
"Well, the Almighty One, of course, but I suspect you will be under
the supervision of my sisters."
"Urd and Skuld?"
"Yes."
"Why not you?"
"I don't usually work in system administration. I'm only helping
now because of the emergency. I'm usually in what you could call a
field support office."
"Oh, so that's why you were the one to come here."
"Yes."
"Hmm." OK, Skuld was the dark, moody one. Working with her is
going to be no cake walk, I can tell already. It might not be so
bad with Urd there, though. She was wise and more or less kind, a
real grandmotherly type, and I usually do OK with grandmotherly
types. Besides, wasn't it Urd who thwarted the worst of Skuld's
plans? I'll need to make sure I'm in good with her.
He glanced at Belldandy who was staring at the Teton mountains, lost
in her own thoughts. Yes, she could definitely be the beautiful,
golden-haired Verdandi, the loyal and brave one.
"This is such a wild, beautiful place," Belldandy said. "The
mountains rise up like a wall to guard this valley. Such memories
they must hold."
"Yeah, they've been there a while."
"The air is so thin, here. How high are we?"
"About 2100 meters above sea level."
"These mountains have such small foothills."
"They aren't foothills, they're glacial moraines. The dirt pushed
ahead of the glaciers as they came down from the mountains in the
last ice age. When the glaciers retreated, they left the moraines."
Why are we talking geology?
"Then Blacktail Butte is a moraine? It's so much bigger than the
others."
"No, it's a fault block, like the mountains themselves. Why all the
questions?"
"I miss it. I lived here on the earth, once. It was such a happy
time for us! Eric, may I ask you a personal question?"
"Uh, sure, why not?" 'Us?' Does she mean her sisters? No, she's
wearing a ring. Why would a Norn be married?
"Why does such a skeptical person trust so much in intuition?"
"Oh? Ah, yeah, well... caught me off guard, there!" She must have
noticed my interest in her ring. Well, if I can't trust her, this
whole project is doomed. "OK, this is going to sound silly, but I
trust my hunches because they almost always work out. I don't
always have them, but when I do they're right on the money."
Belldandy looked up at Eric again. "Oh? Like clairvoyance,
precognition?"
"Nothing that specific. Just hunches, intuitions, ideas."
"Hmm. That seems very strange."
"I've always thought so. Being such a skeptical sort, you know."
"Oh, I hope I didn't hurt your feelings!"
"Nah, you're right, after all. Besides, my ego is solid enough to
take lots of abuse!"
"You are very self-assured, but you also seem caring to me."
"Oh? That must be my caring, belligerent side."
"Really?"
"Uh, that was supposed to be a joke."
"Oh, now I understand. May I ask you another personal question?"
"Sure."
"Is your intuition telling you something right now?" she asked.
"Yeah," Eric paused. "It's telling me that I'd better let you lead
me on this wild goose chase."
Belldandy's face lit up with a delighted smile.
Eric smiled back. How could I have ever done anything to darken
that face with doubt?
[It is time to return if you are going to pack,] his AI reminded
him.
"I really hate to spoil this walk," Eric said, "but if I'm going to
get ready it's time we headed back."
A few minutes later, they had crossed back over the creek and were
heading up to the inn.
"So, do you have much experience with computers?" Belldandy asked.
Eric frowned slightly. "Yes, but I doubt that's going to help much,
here. If your computers are much like ours, I'm going to be
terribly disappointed. The key to this, I think, is that I have yet
to meet a computer I couldn't program within a couple of hours."
"Even systems you've never seen before?"
"Yeah. Don't ask me how it works, but that's the only reason I can
think of why I'd be picked for something like this."
"You mean this intuition you have?"
"Uh huh. Solutions just pop into my head and they work. I'm sorry,
but I really can't explain it."
"Still, I would have been surprised if Almighty had chosen an
ordinary mortal."
"Yeah, I've never considered myself ordinary. Just curious,
Belldandy, but does Yggdrasil look at all like a tree?"
"In a way, I suppose. We could make it appear to you as a tree if
you prefer. Your interaction with the system will likely have to be
through 3-dimensional representations. Yggdrasil is multi-
dimensional so you can't perceive it directly in 3-space. Skuld is
building an interface device which will allow a 3- dimensional being
such as yourself to access system functions."
"Is that really necessary?" The thought of working with a device
created by the enigmatic Skuld, prone to destroy her sisters' and
even her own creations, made Eric more than a little anxious.
"Skuld is very talented at making devices."
"OK, I'll take your word for it."
"Please don't be afraid, you will be perfectly safe. There is much
you don't know, yet. On the other hand, you yourself are something
of an enigma, Eric Donovan."
"You're saying I'm strange?"
"I mean no offense."
"None taken. I've been the strangest person I know for as long as I
can remember."
"Yet you have confidence in yourself."
"Well," Eric blushed a little in embarrassment, "maybe I'm cocky
right now, but honestly I suspect I'll be way out of my league
working on the kind of computer system you must have."
"I have faith in you."
"Thanks. I wish I shared your sentiment deep down."
They approached the lodge.
"Tell me about yourself, your family," Belldandy suggested.
Eric chuckled. "This'll be short, because I don't have any. I've
never been able to find my biological parents, and believe me I've
tried. The Schefflers don't have any children of their own, so they
sort of adopted me. I have an apartment in Berkeley, but you're
right about this old lodge being 'Home' to me."
-----
"You're sure she won't mind?" Belldandy asked.
"Mind!?" Eric said in an exaggerated tone as they walked around to
the front porch. "Why, my dear lady, Mrs. Scheffler will be
overjoyed to see me eating two meals in a row in the company of a
beautiful young woman, even a married one."
Belldandy looked down at the ring on her left hand. The memories it
evoked brought a wistful look of joy to her face. Closing her eyes
for a moment, she uttered a silent prayer that her life with Keiichi
might some day return to simpler times like those.
While Belldandy was involved in her memories, Eric began concocting
what he hoped was a reasonable story to explain this morning.
When Belldandy had returned to the present, he began explaining it
to her.
"Oh, but I couldn't lie!" Belldandy suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" Great, a goddess with a hyperactive conscience! "Well,
don't worry, I can do all the talking. Besides, we won't really be
lying, we just won't be giving out all of the details."
"Now you're beginning to sound like my sister, Urd."
"Oh? I always figured Urd would be the straight arrow type."
Belldandy gave him a surprised look.
With all the guests gone upon the day's excursions, lunches were a
much quieter affair than breakfasts at the Blacktail B&B.
"Ah, Eric, you're back!" Mrs. Scheffler greeted them as they came
in the front door. "Is this is the young lady who joined us for
breakfast and whose voice I heard from your room this morning?"
Aack! "Y-yes, yes, she is. I, uh, had her on speakerphone! Mrs.
Scheffler, this is Belldandy. She has a systems project I'll be
working on."
"Oh? Well, I'm very pleased to meet you, Belldandy" Mrs. Scheffler
said. "Won't you join us for lunch?"
"Thank you, you are very kind," Belldandy replied.
"Oh, nothing of the sort! A friend of Eric's is a friend of ours.
Why don't you come into the kitchen and wash up for the meal? Eric,
could you help me with setting the table?"
"I would be glad to help also," Belldandy offered, starting for the
kitchen.
Eric's protest was drowned out by a "Well, thank you, dear," from
Mrs. Scheffler.
Uh-oh, I'd hoped to keep the two of them apart, Eric worried. He
needn't have.
"What a lovely kitchen!" Belldandy exclaimed in joyful surprise as
she entered. "It's so large and airy, and what a wonderful view!"
With that, Belldandy and Mrs. Scheffler immediately launched into
animated conversation about the finer points of cooking, leaving
Eric to play busboy.
Well, I guess that's a safe enough subject, Eric decided, but where
had someone like Belldandy learned so much about cooking?
Lunch progressed more smoothly than Eric could have hoped for.
Belldandy had an encyclopedic knowledge of cooking as well as life
in Japan, though some of her information seemed dated. She was also
very curious about life here. Eric exchanged several glances with
Mr. Scheffler who, as usual, had given thanks and then remained
quiet throughout the meal.
Toward the end Mrs. Scheffler gave Eric an approving look, one he
had no trouble guessing the meaning of.
"She's married, mother." Eric hoped a preemptive strike would
deflect most of the more embarrassing questions which were sure to
follow.
Belldandy smiled as she looked from Eric to Mrs. Scheffler.
"He only calls me that when he thinks I'm being too nosy," Mrs.
Scheffler replied as she fixed Eric with another of _those_ looks
accompanied by a knowing smile.
Eric jumped into the conversation. "To get this discussion back on
track, Belldandy is here to offer me a consulting job, nothing more.
Isn't that correct, Belldandy?"
Belldandy nodded, but Eric knew he wasn't getting away that easily.
Mrs. Scheffler turned her attention back to Belldandy. "Still, he's
spent more time with you this morning than I've ever seen him spend
in the presence of an attractive young woman. It's an encouraging
sign."
Belldandy gave Eric a puzzled look. "Surely you don't have trouble
getting a girlfriend?" she asked. This was too much like deja vu.
Eric blushed furiously. "Well, not exactly..." I'm doomed.
"What he means is that he runs whenever a beautiful girl gets near
him," Mrs. Scheffler explained. "He really is a nice young man,
though, even if he is lacking somewhat in social graces."
"I have plenty of friends who are girls," Eric protested. "I'm just
not ready to get married, yet."
"Who said anything about marriage? If you would just ask one of
them out on a date..."
"Tallea, leave Eric alone," Mr. Scheffler uttered his first
conversational words of the meal, then began to get up. "Now,
please excuse me. I must get back to work on the furnace." As he
turned to leave, he shot Eric a glance that said 'Good luck!'
'Coward!' Eric shot at the retreating back.
Fortunately, the conversation changed topic and nothing catastrophic
occurred for the rest of the meal.
Afterwards, Eric brought Belldandy back to his room.
"Well, what should I pack?"
"There is no need. We can make you any items you want."
"Oh, yeah, the shower curtain. Can you really manipulate matter on
a molecular level?"
"Of course. I am a goddess, after all."
"I'm beginning to believe it. OK, I'll still need a toilet kit,
though, unless you know how to make shavers and stuff." He noticed
the razor he had used that morning. Never again!
"Skuld is wonderful at making mechanical devices."
"Oh, yeah." Maybe it's time I started growing a beard?
That reminded him of the shaving mirror which had started this whole
adventure. "Do you need a mirror to get us back to Heaven?"
"It's easier if I have a medium, especially since I'll have a
passenger."
"There's a full-length one on the back side of the closet door."
"That will be perfect. Before we go, though, remember that you
still haven't made your wish."
"Oh yeah, right!" Eric thought for a moment. "What should I wish
for? I have or can make all the money I need, I have plenty of
friends, my life certainly isn't boring - especially not lately."
He smiled at Belldandy. "This is going to take some thought."
He pulled a suitcase from under the bed and began to fill it. "Even
if I'm not going to take anything, I'll still need to put all this
away so the Schefflers can rent the room."
When everything was packed, he turned to Belldandy again. "I need
to stick this in the car. You want to come with me?"
"Yes, of course."
Eric led them out into the parking lot. "It just occurred to me
that it's going to look strange if we disappear from my room. Can
you take us through the mirror on the car, here?"
"Yes, of course. The size of the mirror doesn't really matter."
Tell the car to return to Berkeley once we're gone, Eric told his
AI.
[Done.]
Eric looked past the garage and out over the stream, in the
direction in which they had walked that morning. "I really can't
think of anything I need," he said.
"Surely you must earnestly desire something. Try to think of what
would make you happy." Belldandy suggested.
"You always cut right to the heart of the matter, don't you? I have
or can get almost anything I want, but I'm still not really
satisfied. Most guys would trade places with me in a heartbeat.
Why aren't I happy?" He shut the lid on the car's trunk.
"I'm afraid I can't grant you happiness."
"Yeah, I didn't think so. Well, I could wish for world peace, but
one person's peace is another person's oppression or anarchy."
"Wisely said."
"We've been having lots of natural disasters, lately..."
"Those are largely a result of Yggdrasil's current condition. If
you are successful in restoring Yggdrasil, that will take care of
the natural disasters. Try wishing for something from your heart."
"So, it has to be something personal, but nothing too earth-
shattering." Bad pun, Eric. "There's always been that thing about
finding who my blood kin are, or at least finding out who they were,
if there aren't any left. Hmm, you know, now that I think about it,
that's it."
Eric turned to Belldandy. "OK, I've decided."
"Good! What do you wish for?"
"I wish I knew who I was. That shouldn't be too difficult to...
hey, are you all right?"
Belldandy's eyes had become glowing pools of light. A low, ominous
hum began building from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Uh oh." What happened? Did I just send her into overload? Cause
a divide-by-zero error in that computer, Yggdrasil? Am I about to
die?
That's when all heck broke loose. Belldandy's body was rigid as she
rose off of the parking lot. Her face inclined to the heavens and
the mark on her forehead shone incredibly bright. An instant later,
a brilliant beam shot skyward from the mark.
"That's not a tattoo, that's some kind of I/O device!" Eric's voice
was drowned out as his eyes followed the beam up into a sky which
had suddenly taken on a very ominous look.
Should I be running for cover? Eric wondered as leaves, twigs, and
anything else lying about began to swirl around.
A moment later, an answering pulse rode down the beam and things
returned more or less to normal.
"Are you all right?" Eric asked, catching the goddess as she
collapsed.
Belldandy had a radiant look in her eyes. "Your wish has been
approved."
"Really?" Eric looked skyward. "Was all that normal? I mean, I
hope I didn't make this much of a mess up there, too," he said,
trying for a little levity as he turned his attention to the debris
strewn around them.
At that moment, Mr. Scheffler came running around the corner of the
building. "Ah, Eric, what was that? I was in the furnace room, and
suddenly it sounds like a thunder storm out here!"
"Yeah, it was kind of wild for a minute or so."
"So, what was it? Was she hurt?"
"She's fine, just dazed a little. Things just started swirling
around. Probably just a dust devil or something."
"That is fortunate that nobody was injured. I must check on
Tallea," he said then began running back to the lodge.
Eric looked at Belldandy. "Is it always this spectacular when you
grant a wish?"
"It's even more so when I'm indoors," Belldandy replied.
Eric looked up into the heavens which now appeared perfectly normal.
"Yeah, I can imagine it is."
-----
End of Chapter 1
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This fic is a fusion of Norse mythology and OMG. "But wait," you
say, "isn't OMG already based on Norse mythology?" Well yes, it is,
but the degree of that connection is debatable. This fic assumes
that they occupy the same timeline, which is certainly possible
canonically. Unlike most Norse/OMG fusions, though, in instances
where OMG canon is applicable this fic will remain true to OMG. The
tone of this fic will stay as close as possible to Fujishima's
original.
If the synopsis of Norse mythology at the beginning of the chapter
seems a little strange, that's because it is. While the first 4
paragraphs follow one of the major interpretations of Norse
mythology, the last 2 are a possible mechanism to get from Norse
mythology to AMG. Reincarnation of gods/demons with consequent
suppression of memory and personality is mentioned in manga chapter
134.
Why is Skuld still in her teens? Since this fic is based on the
manga rather than the OAV, the goddesses do age but are for all
intents and purposes immortal. I assume that the rebirth of the
pantheon began about the time that worship of the Norse gods ceased,
about 1,000AD. Using Urd's age as a ruler and assuming she was
reborn immediately, we see that Urd has apparently aged 25 years in
the past 1,000 of our years, a ratio of 1 to 40. This is, I admit,
an arbitrary figure, but it has the advantage of being the least
arbitrary one. Anyway, given the approx. 160 years between Keiichi's
college years and the time of this story, the goddesses should
appear 4 years older than they did at the beginning of OMG. That
puts Belldandy at 25 and Skuld at 16. Urd remains apparently 25
because Norse gods had the ability, through the apples of Idunn, to
effectively cease aging when they reached adulthood. Deity aging in
OMG is controlled by Yggdrasil, but I'm assuming a similar effect as
with Idunn's apples.