On this one I actually included two different sequences, as neither of them were particularly long. Please remember that they don't have a continuity on their own, but as part of the bigger thing.


I woke up again . . . somewhere.

Yes, I'm perfectly conscious how stupid that sounds, but now my head was throbbing again, so I didn't care. There were few things I could tell for certain without moving my head:

A. My internal clock reed 'around ten in the morning', but the sunlight reeds either 'dusk' or 'dawn'.

B. I was very comfortable while my back was very strait, so I was either on a very good sleeping bag, or on a Japanese futon.

C. My stomach was all right, and so much that it was growling.

D. My migraine wasn't coming from me, but from a shooting match somewhere nearby.

E. From that same point came a feeling of like a build-up of energy that was promising to rise my headache to unusual proportions.

I brought my hands to my head and pressed on it, and using an impressive mental voice I didn't know I had, I mentally shouted 'Silence!'. Not very comfortably, I noticed that the conversation had stopped dead, and indeed I could hear or feel nothing. Even the air felt cooler. Before I started to get frightened, I heard some calm steps in my direction, and it was THEN when some of my memories returned. I hardly remembered anything but 'A Goddess came to you and reconstructed your body, and you promised her something'. The continuing footsteps kept getting closer and had been joined by some quicker ones, so I rocketed out of the futon and tried to find where they were going to emerge from, and finding that a certain part of the Japanese-looking wall just seemed odd, I quickly went to prostrate myself in front of the would-be doorway, and just as I saw a shadow thru the paper panels of the door, I kneeled, put my forehead in the ground, and extended my arms forward with my open palms facing the floor. I heard the door slid open, and from my position I started to mutter.

"Oh divine Entity, please accept me as your humble slave, that I promise upon the gift . . . "

A soft and embarrassed voice spoke up.

"Oh please, stop it!"

I didn't listen to the instruction, but to the word 'Please'.

"You don't need to say 'please' and 'thank you' to me because . . . "

The next voice was equally embarrassed, but wasn't soft.

"STOP that, Idiot!"

I shut up and waited for some instructions, until I noticed that I had actually been addressed as 'Ignatius', which is the Latin form of my first name, which also happens to literally mean 'idiot'. I was startled that my mind had picked the meaning so quickly, but I was even more startled when I felt a pair of soft hands picking up my hands from the ground and pull me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw a very beautiful honey-blond lady, looking hardly older than myself, and looking awfully embarrassed. She spoke again with her very soft voice.

"Please, don't humble yourself before us."

"Do you have any idea how humiliating that is, specially coming from another god?"

THAT got all the way up to my brain. I looked in disbelief at the source of the comment, who happened to be a cute, black-haired preteen girl, from whom I could have seen, in normal circumstances, that was used to channel embarrassment as anger. At the moment I just managed to look back between the older (who was looking expectant) and the younger (who was starting to look plainly annoyed), and tried to speak.

"G. . . G. . . Go . . . "

" Gee-O-Dee: god!"

That was shouted at ten centimetres from my right ear by a very annoyed voice, which I recognised as the voice which I thought had labelled me 'idiot', and then recognised the owner as the very s . . . s . . . well-developed goddess who had worked my miracle. I tried to say something intelligent, but my mind was on the verge on a self-annihilation.

"So now I am a god." --I spoke rhetorically. I received an energetic nod from her, and blacked out.


I woke up again after feeling a light hand resting on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to the gentle face of a lady just about my age, but with an . . . I didn't know what, but a

feeling of tranquillity which permeated air itself. I felt comfortable and unshaken even as my memories returned, and felt a little embarrassed at the way I had reacted the last time. From her sitting position besides my futon, she spoke up; even before I had time to ponder any further.

"Rest, Mr. Ramirez."

Wow! Finally I had met somebody who can address me by my father's surname without making me shudder. Anyway, I could not be so rude to let the lady just hanging without an answer; besides, I had a little matter nagging me. I gave her a shy smile, slowly sat up in the futon, and spoke.

"Sorry if my actions offended you, Ma'am."

"Don't worry, Ramirez-san." -- There was the name again. -- "We understand you had a religious education, and that was an ingrained response."

When 'she' said "we," I contemplated whether I was speaking with more than a single goddess, but the meaning of her words wasn't lost. I blushed, and she carried on.

"And by the way, please call me just Belldandy."

The name didn't bring on any lights, but the word 'me' was a reassurance by itself. At that moment, I decided to put the cards on the table. I sighed, and spoke.

"So now I am a god, Miss Belldandy." -- I know I could have been less blunt, but to that moment I still didn't feel like a conversationalist.

"Yes you are, and very soon we'll need to go. You have an appointment."

I muttered an "OK, Miss Belldandy," imitated her as she stood up, and looked down. I was looking down to ponder on where was I going and whom I was going to meet, but I also took notice that I was still wearing nothing but my pajamas' pants, which had been reduced to nothing but charred rags clinging to my waist. I quickly pulled the sheet from inside the futon and covered my waist with it.

"Eh sorry, Belldandy-san . . . " -- I started, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh sorry, Ramirez-san. I had forgotten." -- She interrupted, with an apologetic smile. She then started to chant, and with her hands started to make strange gestures toward me. I didn't know what to think of it, so I just watched without moving a muscle. About the end of her chanting I thanked not having moved, since I started feeling an energy buildup around me, and by the time she was done, the sheet I was wearing and, in fact, the entire futon started to revolve around me. It suddenly clung to my skin and started shining, and by the time I could look again at it, it had become a luxurious and extensive roman looking toga, one of those you expect to see in depictions and paintings of the roman senate, while around me laid the futon's stuffing.

I had already promised myself to not be awed in the Goddesses presence, but to be able to take such an act with a strait face would have been a severe overstatement of my self control. Anyway, I had enough left for me to see that my hostess had paled and was wavering on her feet. I closed the gap in a second, position myself on her side, and easily kept her from falling by passing my hands below her armpits and keeping her raised (after all, my grandmother gave me lots of practice). I could have carried her on a more 'manly' way, but I decided that for self preservation's sake, I should carry her just like this. After all, who else than a god might be the boyfriend, or husband, of such a lovely goddess?

Answers came soon enough. I was turning towards the nearest door when it burst open, and saw enter thru it the two other Goddesses and a. . . kid not older than 15, judging by his appearance. It was the boy who rushed the most when he saw me almost carrying a hardly conscious Belldandy, and it was him the one who took her on his arms, muttered something along 'not again', directed a silent 'thank you' toward me, and with great exertion carried her out, sound asleep. I watched them disappear in the hall, and mentally asked an important question: 'Does this happen very often?'

"More than you would im. . ." -- The two other Goddesses started, but didn't finish. First they eyed each other, and then starting staring at me. The older one spoke.

"How did you used telepathy?"

Did I use telepathy? I was a bit confused.

"Yes, you did." -- The small one answered. Then added "Yes, you are!"

I opted for utter confusion at that moment. It helped, since neither of them seemed to react to the flood of disarrayed flash thoughts that were shuffling in my mind like an industrial washing machine.

'Thank God they aren't making me responsible.'

'Thank what God?'

'Will this telepathy be useful in my quizzes and test?'

'My mother will be thrilled.'

'Is this lady Belldandy alright?'

'Is she available, or does she have a boyfriend?'

'I'm running low on spices. I'll need to run to Chinatown.'

'Who was that guy? Her little brother?'

'I think I'm also low on vegetables. I'll buy carrots and eggplant.'

'Where am I going with them?'

'Is white the natural hair colour of this Urd lady?'

'She's most definitely heavenly!'

'Am I still wearing anything below this. . . toga?'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'What are those markings on all their faces? Do I have. . .? Oh, yes I do!'

'Am I really a god? Do I have powers or something like it?'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'What time is it? Could be noon or midnight for all I know.'

'Who am I going to meet?'

'Who am I going. . .'

My little brainstorm ended abruptly when I heard a distant female voice, apparently from another pre- puber girl. And by looking around me, I saw that I was not the only one that had gone offline: the two of them were looking like just awoken.

"Urd! Skuld! Belldandy says you can leave without her! I'll stay here with her and Keiichi."

"Ok. . . Thanks, Terai!" -- The small one, who by elimination must have been Skuld, answered after a second. Then she and Urd took me by my arms and started pulling me, even as I was giving no opposition whatsoever. I decided that I could process belief later, and at least for a while I should work in blind trust. . . which wasn't exactly a deterrent from keeping up the questions.

"Err. . . sorry, where are we going?"

"To Heaven, where the Almighty wants to talk to you." Skuld, the little one, said. Then she gave me a warm and reassuring smile, which made me feel confident and pushed me to smile back. But the confidence quickly gave way to a feeling of dread, which I could feel coming from my opposite side. I turned toward Urd, who had a look that could poach an egg.

"But just don't even think on prostrating yourself in front of Him!"

I could feel I was blushing furiously, as I hadn't blushed in perhaps a few years. In fact I could feel my blush going down my arms; and then I felt Skuld letting go of my right arm. I looked at her and saw that she too had gone as red as the crimson jewels at back of her gloves, which were covering the cheeks of a terribly embarrassed face. And then I felt Urd letting go of my left arm, and as I turned around I could see that she too had blushed, and her now red cheeks were framing a very self-conscious demeanor. She spoke up, hardly looking at me.

"Er. . . well, here we are." -- There we were, indeed. I had hardly noticed, but from the hallway we had entered a kitchen, we had crossed it, and now we were standing in front of an exterior door. -- "The portal will open out there."

Urd pushed the door open and stepped out, followed by Skuld and me. As I stepped out of the lights, I instantly became aware of the night. Not aware in the sense of noticing night itself, but in the sense of noticing everything under it: I could sense the roof of clouds being moved by the wind, and a few cars moving thru distant avenues, and a few stray cats fighting over a few craps of food over a mile away, and even that above us it was starting to snow, we wouldn't receive any of it for at least another hour. I was tugged out of my newfound awareness by a hand on my forearm, and Skuld's voice saying 'Come on! We don't have all night.' I followed her to the point were Urd was standing. In front of her, golden letters were imbedded to the frozen ground, and that the letters seemed to be glowing, even though they looked like cool metal.

'To the Norns:

Bring the new risen mortal to my presence, as soon as he regains consciousness.

Right in this place I will open a portal leading directly to the antechamber to my office.

I"

And just as I reed the 'I', the golden letters banished, and a point of light appeared like a metre over where they had been resting. This point of light quickly expanded, and in fact opened a bit like an iris, until it was a two metre wide circular white wall, hovering an inch from the ground. Once it stopped opening, Skuld spoke up.

"Come on, Ramirez-san, we can't keep Kami-Sama waiting."

Then she hoped in, and I could not see her anymore. Anyway, I could hardly see a thing because the light was just too bright to stand. I think Urd thought that I was frightened, because she took a firm grip on one of my forearms, and spoke reassuringly.

"Don't worry. Nothing bad is going to happen to you."

At the next moment she was stepping thru, and pulling me in.