This is an Ah, My Goddess Fan Fiction Only.
I need to wash my face, I got up and went to the nearest source of water I could find, I needed to clear my head, that dream didn't help me do that one bit. As I splashed water on my face and head I tried very hard to eliminate those images from my head. The last thing I need is for Belldandy to think I want to take our relationship and progress it a lot faster than she is willing.
"Keiichi, what is the matter?" I somehow knew she was standing right behind me, it didn't take a genius to figure it out, her scent was in the air, "I am trying to figure how am I going to find us a place to live and where can I gain a job that will pay me enough money for both of us to live on."
She looked at me and she looked a little confused for some odd reason, "What is this thing you mentioned? Money?" Oh, that's right, she is a goddess, unlike me, she never had to earn or use the money before.
I took a bill from my wallet, "Money is what you use to obtain what you want or need, they can come in the form of paper or metal, this is the only money I have and believe me it is not much. If I was your typical demon, however, I could use my skills and powers to make a little thing like this become millions, but since it would hurt a lot of innocent people, I could never do that."
I put the bill in my wallet and decided to pick up a newspaper that someone left on a nearby bench, I began to look at the section for rentals and saw that there were quite a few rental locator agencies in the area.
We actually stopped in on several of them, and at first, they were happy to help us, but as soon as we told them our financial situation and our requirements that soured their attitude towards us considerably.
Five agencies, ten apartments, and five houses later we were sitting on a bench near a fast food restaurant. "I see, so money is that vital?" I told her without money you could not do anything, you could not have a place to live, most people could not have clothes, or even be able to have food. Funny thing that when I said that my stomach began to growl, guess with everything that happened I forgot that I had not eaten since yesterday morning.
That is when I see her place her hands together, "Spirits of Nature, heed my call, provide the man next to me with the substance that he so desperately requires." Well if we are asking for things also provide me with enough patience to tell Belldandy I am a demon, a little hunger might be a little painful, but nothing I could not survive if anything I am more worried about her.
Just as she said that I heard a voice I recognized, wouldn't you know it, it was the little girl who I helped find her wallet, and if I was not mistaken her mother was with her. It turns out that the little girl told her mother and since she saw us, she decided to invite buy us a burger, fries and a soda as a thank you for helping her little girl.
I wanted to tell her I needed no reward for helping someone, but as soon as they all heard my stomach growl, I felt so embarrassed, for her that was it, she was not going to take no for an answer.
She ordered the big double-patty burgers, I guess my hunger made her decided what to order. "I will not accept a no for an answer, you have helped my child, and maybe you could even help me. Mind telling me what you do as a profession?"
I decided to tell her what I call the sugar-coated version, "I was in corrections, my agency was pretty much a company that had bounty hunters to pursue criminals and people who owe money, they tend to be rather cruel and so I was not the most productive of their employees. I decided to go back to college and I work part-time as a mechanic in odd jobs."
She suddenly she began to smile at me like she found the fountain of youth. "Perfect, my car has been acting up, and if you actually manage to repair it, I shall give you some money and even contact a friend that helps people locate apartments."
I decided why not, the lady was nice to us. Might as well put my mechanic skills to work. As I went to the car I began to feel something that made me frown, and as soon as I got near the car and opened the hood, I knew exactly what was going on, the stench I was getting us unmistakable, greed and cruelty in ample measure.
"Belldandy could you please talk to them for a second, I need some privacy to do my work, and before you ask, yes I am using some none conventional skills to do my work, so I don't really want to scare the lady and her daughter."
She smiled and told them that I needed some space to work and that maybe they can tell them a little bit about any recipes they could share with them. They loved the idea of sharing recipes and talking about cooking, this was exactly what I needed.
I looked at the car and with as much demonic power as I could muster I began to look at the memories imprinted on the car, basically memories from the people that touched it that were not of the owner or anyone related to that lady.
The memories could make anyone feel sick, the mechanics were supposed to do a standard oil change, what they did was they did do an oil change but the oil they used was used oil, and then they unscrewed some nuts and bolts, they even put in an old oil filter. It was your standard greedy scheme do the work but leave enough things that something else will break so that the client brings in the vehicle for another repair.
I used my demonic power to turn back time on the components that were used to make them new and tightened and repaired all the parts those crooks had messed up, amazing what you can do with a little time manipulation.
I felt dizzy after my work was done and had to sit down to catch my breath, never knew a little thing like that could affect me so much, guess I got used to being able to use my powers without limitations when I still had my license.
"Something the matter young man? Are you feeling alright?" I couldn't help but smile as she said that, those crooks were willing to harm such a nice lady.
"Did you get an oil change in the past month?" She told me she did, that someone told her that a repair shop was giving amazing prices for an oil change. It was probably one of the crooks that told her this, pretending to be caring people, to scam them, honestly they are more crooked than some demons I know.
"Well that is the cause of the problem, more than likely these guys are not certified and are not trained properly, they used substandard parts and oil, I somehow managed to repair the damage they did and your car should be running fine now, but please from now on, check that they are certified, mechanics. Sometimes a cheap deal can end up costing more in the end."
She gave a nice 100 dollar bill and she gave me an address of the apartment locator, the note had a nice recommendation from her. "You are right, I will be careful, I don't want to have an accident. My daughter could be hurt or someone else, I promise I will be careful."
They both got in the car and the car was purring like it was really happy, and they drove off. Belldandy looked at me with such a radiant smile I could feel myself blushing. "You did an awful lot for those two, who would have thought that a demon would do so many things for them, Keiichi you probably already told me but would you tell me what kind of license did you once have?"
I had no problem in answering that at all, "Like I told that lady, I lost that license because I was not as productive as the other people with the same license, but I have to tell you, I still feel a little dizzy, I never had this sort of problem before."
She began to nod her head, "That is why you appear to be exhausted, after hearing what you told me I understand why, I am also class one, unlimited license, and after someone loses their license they have severe restrictions placed on their power. What exactly did you do to that car?"
I told her it was some basic time manipulation, all demons can do it, when I told her that she turned pale and began to hug me rather tightly, as soon as she did, I began to feel a little better, our foreheads were touching and I swear if I moved my head even a little, I could have kissed her lips.
I, of course, wouldn't do that sort of thing without knowing she would want me to, but still, I could. "There I replenish some of your power by transferring some of my power into you, the power consumption that time manipulation is quite high, I can do it, but without a license it could have ended killing you, please don't do that again, unless it is a life or death situation, use your least powerful skills from now on, if only for my sake."
I was not happy to find this out, the only powers that were easy were combat-related powers, in fact, they were some that could even be called passive since I developed them to the point that I didn't need to even do anything at all, they were purely instinctual. I only managed to pass my class one exams because I focused a lot of effort on skills that were not combat related, that took a large amount of effort by me, and those are the skills thanks to me losing my license it seems I can no longer use.
"Belldandy, I never realized how useful were those skills before. I often consider them nothing but a means to train and better myself, now that I see the effects of losing my license, and that I can't use them as much, I begin to wonder about a few things."
She smiled and that is something I will never get tired of, "Sometimes you never know what you had till after you lose it, one of these days I will tell you about my sister Urd. I think you would find that interesting."
That made me shake my head, "No need, I know about Urd from two people that talked to me about her extensively even when I didn't ask any questions or wanted to hear about her, those people, of course, was Mara who has an unhealthy rivalry against her, and of course her mother."
She looked at me and for a second she looked a bit angry but she hid it pretty fast under another dazzling smile, "Didn't know Hild spent so much talking with you, did you have any sort of romantic relationship with her Keiichi? Anything I should be aware of?"
She might be a goddess, but the green beast did affect her too it seems. "She was my superior, my leader, and my boss to put it in common terms, I did tell you I was one of her more unproductive employees, so trust me she talked to me about my poor performance and sometimes how proud she was of her daughter. I think she said something along the lines of why can't you be as successful as Urd."
"I don't think Hild ever harbored any other feeling towards me other than anger and disappointment. We can talk about this after we find a new place to live. Again if I could use all my powers, I could have constructed a home, complete with a garden and fountain in less than a minute, but knowing the extent of my limits well that is not possible."
We both began to walk towards the place written on the reference letter, "So Time manipulation and Matter Manipulation were the skills that you can't use anymore, anything else I should know about?"
I told her I had a weak skill in Mind Reading and my weakest of all was precognition. Seeing the future to me always seemed like a skill that would do me more harm than good, destroy any enjoyment in my work, and it was never completely accurate. I told her that in my university studies I found out why, the act of seeing actually changed the future so if I saw it, it was constantly changing.
As we entered the broker was actually happy that we came in, until we gave him the letter. That man went from willing to help to almost looking like we were a bother in less than a second after he read that letter. It was not my fault that the lady I helped was his ex-wife. That didn't exactly help us since he was looking at me with a look of utter hate.
I guess he didn't like the fact that his ex-wife was willing to write us this shining recommendation, or it could be that Belldandy was with me, and let's face it, she is a radiant beauty that puts most supermodels to shame.
"So what exactly are you looking for?" I told him a two bedroom apartment, full kitchen and bathroom, close to the university, and within driving distance of the nearest supermarket. It would also help if the utilities were not that high, for about a two hundred a month."
For a second there I felt him look at me like I had grown a second head, "Very well, since she asked me to help you I will see what I can do." After half an hour he looked at every book, every listing he had, and found nothing.
Seeing that he could not find any place, he referred us to someone else, honestly, I feel like he just wanted to get rid of us. Each place we went to did exactly the same thing, and it was noon before someone told us that I needed to see a psychiatrist first, that such a place did not or could not possibly exist or be available to quit wasting her time on something so foolish.
I sat on an old bus stop bench thinking on how our morning had gone, and I could not help but to worry about the fact that I could find no place for us to live in. Some of those places actually asked us to pay an application fee, so in the end, I had one bill.
"Oh thing that is called money, help this man find a place to live and free him from the stress and negative emotions he now suffers." You might call them spells, you could also call them prayers, either way, a strong gust of air blew that one bill out of my hands and went flying into the air, I, of course, had to follow it to try and catch it, what else could go wrong today?
