Chapter 1: Life Today
He turned on the television, sitting down on the floor by his tea table. He had thrown his jacket to the side of the room once he got in the doorway, his boots to the side of the door. He rubbed his chin roughly, groaning at the sharp pain in his back. He really needed to shave, he hadn't in three days, and his stubble has definitely lengthened. "I feel like I got hit by two trains." He groaned out.
At the age of 25, this isn't where Sentaro Kawanishi thought he'd be now. Sitting on the floor of a little crummy old apartment near Tokyo with nothing in your stomach wasn't exactly fancy living. He worked from sunrise to sunset nowadays, and it was grueling work for him, but it got him by.
He worked in construction, as a laborer, not a very nice job with horrible pay. Around 1,500 yen an hour and he was left with what felt like a machete of pain in his back. He was very muscular for his age, but he wasn't extremely smart. He was able to finish high school, but university was not his cup of tea. He preferred racing over anything else, and because of it, he had grown distant with his parents, who put all their money into him going to university, and he walked away from it.
He went over to the sink, took a cup, and filled it up with tap water. He drank about half of it and set down on the table.
He walked over into the kitchen and opened his refrigerator. A carton of eggs, a half empty carton of milk, a stick of butter, some fruit, a few bottles of salad dressing, and a 12-pack of beer. "At least I remembered that last night." Sentaro said, getting a can. "Beer and delivery food for supper again. Living the dream."
He went over to the table and opened the can up. He pulled out his cell phone, a basic flip phone, and looked for his phonebook. After finding it, he started flipping through the pages, trying to find a place that delivers, taking a swig of beer. He dialed the first number. Too busy. Dialed another number. Not open. Dialed yet another number. Busy.
"Is there any place where a guy can get food now?" Sentaro said. He flipped through a few more pages. "A soup restaurant? Why not?" He said, putting the number in and dialing. And after a second or two, a voice was heard.
She stared at the holographic screen in frustration, twirling her hair in her finger. The day Yggdrasil doesn't have a problem is the day pigs develop wings. "Are you kidding me? The piece of junk bugs out every time I approach this screen! This supercomputer is as unstable as wet dynamite!" She yelled. System bugs, program errors, freezes, it was insane.
At the age of 24, Skuld, norn of the Future, was not a happy camper at this point in her life. Now a first class goddess and going from Heaven and Earth back and forth for work, she worked as a Technician for Yggdrasil and as a wish granter in the Goddess Assistance Agency, following in the footsteps of her big sister, Belldandy, norn of the present, and leaving her oldest sister, Urd, norn of the past, as Yggdrasil's sole system administrator while they found a replacement.
Deciding to put most of her time into the Agency, she was only called over for strange problems with Yggdrasil. So she was called over a lot. But she soon found out that both jobs were incredibly boring. Fixing the bugs in Yggdrasil was not exciting work, and the requests made by humans calling in were almost all the same. Make me rich, make this person fall in love with me, give me good luck for the rest of my life. It was always the same. Oh, there was the obvious wish made by men, and sometimes women, who wanted her to take part in some 'indecent activities' with them. She just wanted to bash them in the face whenever that came up, but of course, she had to politely saw they couldn't make such a wish.
She began to wonder how Belldandy could take being a wish granter. You got to meet lots of new people, but they were all the same. And so demanding and not caring.
'Can't take a moment to thank Skuld, can't ask her how her day was going. Nope, million dollars, and bye-bye.'
Her telephone started ringing, and the person's profile came up on the screen. One problem. Yggdrasil couldn't load up the name, picture, or bio of the caller. "Seriously?" Skuld said. "Ah screw it. 25-years-old, lives in Tokyo, good-hearted but in bad shape. Easy."
"Thank you for calling the Goddess Technical Help Line! Please wait a moment, and I'll be there to handle your request." The voice said. "What? Sorry I think you have the wrong nu-" Sentaro started to speak, but the person on the other end had already hung up. "What the hell? Goddess Technical Help Line? Did I accidently dial a sex hotline?" He said, checking his phone.
As he was looking at the number he just dialed, the cup of water had started shaking by itself, yet he barely noticed it. Only until it started shaking violently did he turn to look at it. Then, to his amazement and slight fright, a torrent of water lept out of the cup, and after a moment, a girl clad in pink and red robes appeared as the water died down around her, and Sentaro stared in bewilderment. "Good evening. What is your wish, mister?" The girl said. Sentaro rubbed his eyes hard, not believing what he just saw happen.
"Excuse me, who are you now, and why did you just come out of my cup of water?" Sentaro said. "Oh my bad, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Skuld, Goddess first class, unlimited license, and I am here to grant you one single wish." She said, handing Sentaro her card. But all he did was stare at her in shock. The raven black hair, the brown eyes, the round triangle markings on the face. Skuld was...a goddess?
"Sk-...Skuld?" Sentaro said. "That's my name." Skuld said. She looked at him, confused on why he was so shocked. He looked so different, she didn't recognize him. "Don't you remember me at all?" He asked. "What? Well, I do sense a familiarity in you with someone else I used to know." Skuld said. "Try to imagine me without my beard." He said, smirking. Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face closely, then they widened in realization. "Oh my goodness..." She whispered. She dropped down to her knees, memories flooding back to her. "Sentaro. Is...is that you?" She said. He smiled warmly, even though he didn't really know how he should be reacting to this.
"You look disgusting." She said, as his expression changed from happy to irritated.
"Nice to see you too." He said, through gritted teeth. "What happened to you? You look like you've been stranded on an island for a week." Skuld said, taking in the sight of the apartment. As soon as she laid eyes on the can of beer, she gasped. "You drink beer now? Are you nuts?! You know what alcohol does to someone?" Skuld exclaimed, throwing the beer across the room. "Hey!" He said. "Look at all the dirt and trash in this place! Hoarder much?" She said, picking up a candy bar wrapper with the tips of her fingernails, and throwing it to the side. "And have you ever heard of a vaccuum? You should probably buy one, your apartment looks gross!" She added.
"Did you come here just to chew me out on my situation? I should be chewing you out on the fact that you never told me you're a freaking deity!" Sentaro said, coming back to focus. "Yeah? Well maybe I've would've told you if I didn't lose contact with you for ten years! Where were you?!" Skuld yelled.
"My family moved away, alright! I'm sorry!" Sentaro said. "Sorry? Sorry's the best you can say? I didn't know where you moved to. I saw that for sale sign and almost cried! You didn't give me a phone number, no calls, no visits, no contact at all!" Skuld said. "Listen, me and my parents moved unexpectedly. I wasn't informed, I was at a friend's house. They packed up our stuff, and straight up told me we were leaving as soon as we left my friend's house. We moved to the Kanagawa prefecture and...I had to get used to it, cause I knew we wouldn't move again." Sentaro explained, while Skuld stared at the ground in sadness.
"I...I missed you, Sentaro." Skuld said, his eyes coming to meet with hers in surprise. She continued on.
"When you left, I had no one to really hang around with. I started acting the same as when I first came to Earth, obsessing over my sister and inventing things that always backfire. It was still a while before I let Keiichi actually get close to Belldandy. It just wasn't fun for me without you around." She said, wiping a tear away.
She suddenly dove into Sentaro's arms, hugging him tightly as his eyes widened. It was so long since he felt that feeling. The feeling he got whenever Skuld was around. Like a ocean of comfort washed over his heart. It eased him. It made him feel relaxed. He thought back to the time she kissed him. It was on the cheek, probably no big deal with other people, but to him, it was a huge deal. He drove back home, embarrassed and shocked. He probably made her feel sad for taking off like that on his bicycle.
He had never been kissed by a girl before, however. It was a weird albeit pleasant sensation when her lips touched his cheek. He was only thirteen, and never really thought about anything aside from racing back then. Now, he was more mature, but seeing her for the first time in a decade was extremely strange.
"I'm an absolute wreck now, I'm supposed to grant you a wish without trouble." She said, sobbing. He slowly stroked her back, as she tightened her grip on him.
"I'm sorry, Skuld. I just...sometimes I just wish I could we could stay together forever." He said, sighing.
Suddenly, Skuld's eyes widened and started glowing brightly. Sentaro let go of her in confusion. "Skuld? What are you doing?" Sentaro said. Suddenly, a beam of energy shot out of her head and went through the ceiling. Sentaro jumped back in shock as everything in the room started flying around uncontrollably.
Sentaro dodged a drinking glass that flew past him, as he tried to stand but couldn't. "Skuld!" Sentaro said. As he turned his head, he saw a saucepan fly toward his face.
And that was the last thing he saw before he was knocked out by it.