Disclaimer: I don't own Ah! My Goddess or any of the characters therein. Please don't use without permission. Many thanks to Davner for helping me sort out some of the annoying bits that were driving me nuts. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome. And now, WillZ presents:
The Goddess and the Sky
Chapter Nine
Aoshima
Keiichi stood in front of Sora's apartment, rubbing his arm in annoyance. Urd had dragged him all the way there without letting go, and between the rub mark and the numbness, he was just getting some life back into his fingers. The Goddess stood in front of the door, sizing it up.
She had a look as if she were going to blast the door down. Considering how hard she was staring at it, Keiichi believed she could. Suddenly, she raised her hand high in a dramatic way, causing Keiichi to flinch. Just as suddenly, she brought her hand towards the door.
Keiichi winced and braced for the impact of the blast, but when he looked back at the door, Urd was still standing there, her knuckles mere millimeters from the door. She was grinning evilly as she tapped lightly at the door.
"Coming!" a muffled cry from inside answered. There was a crash followed by some cursing before the door opened. Sora peeked out the door, saw him, and opened it further.
"Hi!" She said, stepping out to the landing. She looked rather ruffled in several places, and seemed to realize it herself as she readjusted her shirt and hair. He looked over at Urd, who was smiling as if she knew what had been going on behind the closed door.
"Sorry." Sora said, blushing, "Come on in. Would you like some tea?" She must have been flustered, because she didn't offer a greeting to Urd at all.
"Sure," Keiichi said, "That would be great." Keiichi waved Urd to follow, and she complied, taking in the room as she entered.
It was Keiichi's first time seeing the apartment as well. He noticed that it was roomier than Sora's dorm room, and that the natural light really gave the place warmth.
It was then that Sora turned to ask him about sugar, that she saw Urd. She started a little, but bowed, not only to be polite, but to hide the embarrassment she must be feeling.
"I'm sorry," she said, still bowed, "Welcome to my home. My name is Sora Hasegawa."
"She is-" Keiichi began, but before he could finish, Urd reached out and took Sora's hand.
"I'm Urd, Keiichi's girlfriend!" The Goddess replied, "We just started dating… I'd say about an hour ago!"
Keiichi was about to protest, but Urd winked at him and shook her head slightly. Sora was looking at him with utter disbelief plain on her face.
"Um," she began, but decided not to finish; she instead gave Urd a skeptical glance before offering them seats at the table. She served Urd first, and both Keiichi and Sora were surprised at how many spoonfuls of sugar she put into her green tea. Sora reached Keiichi as Urd began sipping from her cup.
"Keiichi," She whispered as she put the cup on the table, "How much are you paying her to be your girlfriend?"
Urd must have heard, because she spit out the tea in a fine spray across the table. Keiichi felt his face going red from the embarrassment from both the comment and the reaction.
"I mean really, Keiichi," Sora continued, either not realizing or ignoring the fact that she had been heard, "I know you don't have money, and she might be cheap but…"
"Okay!" Urd growled, standing up, "That's it!"
Keiichi felt the blood drain from his face, and watched Urd cup her hands together while crackling blue ball start to coalesce.
"R-Really," Keiichi said, eying Urd. Sora hadn't seen Urd's reaction because she was too focused on Keiichi, "It isn't like that. I don't have any money!"
"Ah," Sora said, nodding, "She must be paying you," Sora frowned at him, "I know you want to fix the Beemer badly, but to become a gigolo…"
"I am not a gigolo!" He said, the same moment Urd said "I am NOT his Sugar Momma!" and blew apart the table with the blast, causing Sora to jump with a squeak.
Before the scene could become mayhem, Belldandy came out of the bathroom.
"What was that noise?" Bell's concerned voice asked from the bathroom doorway. She looked over at Urd, "Neesan? What are you doing here? What in Heaven's name happened to the table?"
"Neesan?" Keiichi thought, Urd is the older sister?
"Damnit, Sis," Urd sighed, "Why are you so good at adapting to cultures? I had him believing that I was your younger sister!" Keiichi just looked at Urd with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"Neesan," Bell said again in a firmer voice, not letting Urd change the subject. Urd sighed, acknowledging defeat. To Keiichi, Urd did seem to be the younger of the two.
"Sorry, Sis," She said, looking embarrassed, "I got a little carried away."
"Why are you here on Earth anyway?" Belldandy asked, "If you're not monitoring Yggdrasil…"
"It's fine," Urd countered a bit nervously, waving the comment away, "It's fine. The squirt can handle it here for a day or two without supervision. I just wanted to take a break and come see my cute younger sister."
Belldandy didn't seem convinced; Keiichi watched the younger Goddess give her sister a look, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. Urd visibly paled, then seemed to be looking for an escape. The elder sister caught sight of him from the corner of her eye and visibly brightened.
"I see you already know my boyfriend!" Urd said, taking hold of her sister and pushing her towards him, "He's such a cutie, isn't he?"
Belldandy glanced at him from the corner of her eye, looking a bit sad for some reason. Suddenly, her face flushed and she clasped her hands in front of her while beaming happily.
"Oh!" She said closing her eyes as if in a quick prayer, "I'm so happy for the two of you!"
He could see Urd release a sigh. Sora still hadn't caught on, because she was still giving him a suspicious look. Belldandy had hugged her sister, and was now making her way over to him. He gulped nervously, afraid of how either Sora or Urd would take the hug: The last thing he needed was to stir up some kind of trouble by accepting such an honest gesture.
"Well, then," Belldandy said, still smiling "I guess we should have a meal to celebrate!"
"Sounds good to me," Urd said, holding her stomach, as if she were containing a fierce animal, "I'm starving!"
"Wonderful!" Belldandy beamed, "Sora, would you please go get some supplies?"
"Yeah," Sora said. She had been staring so intently at Keiichi that she had practically jumped when the Goddess had spoken her name, "Sure thing."
"Wonderful!" Belldandy repeated, scribbling a list of things she would need on a piece of paper, "It won't take long to make the list!"
"Maybe Keiichi should go with her," Urd suggested. Belldandy nodded, and Keiichi had found himself conscripted for the job before he could even offer to help.
Keiichi gave Urd a questioning look, but she merely just made a "shooing" motion, basically dismissing him.
"Yeah, I'll go," He said, rolling his eyes, "Not that my opinion really matters." He added as a mumble. Sora gave him a sympathetic look as she grabbed her coat.
"Great. Thanks." Urd said, smiling as Keiichi put on his jacket, "Be sure to bring back some saké as well!"
With that, Keiichi closed the door, following Sora towards the street.
"Ok," Sora said, stopping in the alley to look at him, "Spill it."
"What?" Keiichi said, perplexed, "I'm not sure what you mean."
"She's not your girlfriend," Sora said pointedly, "She seems closer to someone who likes to joke around than to do something serious."
Keiichi blinked. Sora had Urd pegged.
"Come on, Keiichi," Sora said, "Just tell me the truth. I know you've been pining for Sayoko for forever."
"She's not my girlfriend," he sighed. Something Sora said hit him, though.
"Wait," Keiichi said, staring at Sora with disbelief, "You knew I had a thing for Sayoko?"
It was Sora's turn to look at him disbelievingly.
"Keiichi," She said slowly, "I was there when you showed up in that green 'monstrosity' of yours and asked her to go to the museum!"
"You were?" He asked, surprised.
"The FREAKING MUSEUM, Keiichi!" She emphasized, jamming her finger into her palm pointedly with each word, "Add in the way you sigh about her any time the other guys in the Motor Club even mention her family's company, and it was like reading a MAP THROUGH TRACING PAPER!"
Keiichi blushed, "That obvious?"
"Yes," she said, regaining her composure a bit, "'that obvious!'"
"Oh."
--
When they returned, neither Goddess was speaking to each other; they both sat at the table, staring pensively at their teas. They had barely looked up at Sora as she opened the door.
Sora thought it was completely different than the atmosphere before they had left.
"I got the stuff," Sora said, half-heartedly, "And here is your saké, Urd."
"Thanks," Urd replied, taking the bottle, uncorking it, and downing a third of it as if it were water, "I needed this." She finished with a slight hiccup. Belldandy had taken the supplies into the Kitchen area and began preparing food.
"What's gotten into them?" Keiichi asked. All Sora could do was shrug in ignorance.
The silence as they ate was deafening. Sora was looking at Keiichi, who was glaring at Urd, who seemed to be puzzling out her sister, while Bell looked puzzlingly at Keiichi.
Somehow,
the boy was at the middle of whatever it was that upset the two
women.
Before she could say anything, Keiichi began to speak.
"I'm really digging the vibe in here." Keiichi said, poking Sora with his elbow, "It's almost as if Grandpa just yelled ad Mom for making crappy meatloaf during Christmas KFC, don't you think?"
"Yeah." Sora agreed, putting her fists on her hips, "Did ErdGuy try to scare the crap out of Urd? If so, I'll give him a piece of my mind!"
"No," Belldandy said, putting both hands up, as if she were at gunpoint, "He didn't do anything."
"Wait," Keiichi said, looking at Sora with curiosity before pointing a thumb at Urd, "UrdGuy? Does she cross-dress?"
"No!" Both Urd and Sora said. Sora could see Belldandy restraining her sister, so Sora explained about the Earth Spirit in the house, all while Urd said "I'll kill him quick, Sis! Let me go!" and similar threats.
After her quick summation, Keiichi nodded in understanding. Sora looked at the sisters. She saw that Urd had finally calmed down and Belldandy was pouring some more tea. When she looked at Keiichi, he had his hands in his pockets in a casual, confident manner that seemed to annoy Urd.
She decided that she had to find out what was going on before Urd killed him.
"Well," she said, trying to smile reassuringly, "now that that's been cleared up, would one of you please explain to us what is happening?"
"Well, you see," Belldandy said, first glancing at her sister and fidgeting a little before looking back at Sora, "It's, well…"
"Your wish is going to make things go 'blooey.'" Urd said, looking at her sister, "Geez, Bell! You can't sugar-coat everything!"
Sora was nonplussed. The wish she had made was a major problem?
"This is great!" Sora beamed while the others looking at her as if she had grown an extra head, "Since it's going to cause problems, we can void the wish, and everything goes back to normal!"
"It doesn't work that way," Urd said, shaking her head sadly, "because the problem lies not in the wish itself, but because it was an unauthorized wish, it is active, but inaccessible."
"The System Force has glitched." Belldandy said, smoothing her dress, so she wouldn't have to look at Sora, "The wish has gone 'rogue.'"
--
Sayoko Mishima got out of her green Mercedes, tossing the keys to the valet that had opened the door. She could have kept the keys in, but she so wanted the guy to earn his keep trying to get it up and running; the car's controls were all in German, and the best part was the key didn't turn the ignition over – it just gave you the ability to start the vehicle. He deserved it, after all, considering that she had found out that he had taken her yellow baby out for a ride, instead of parking it.
She was hoping he would put a dent in it, just so she could tell her Aunt Sawako to fire the low-class moron.
As she entered, the wait staff bowed to her and greeted her properly. She all but ignored everyone, only acknowledging the butler that offered to take her coat. Ignoring the butler's bow, she made her way to the grand parlor to meet her cousin.
She really didn't like her cousin in the least. He believed that every beautiful woman was his to play with, almost as if they were toys: He either wooed them, bought them or both.
The thought sickened her; how could anyone tolerate him to be won over by him?
But that was why she was here. She needed his particular talent with women.
The new girl, the foreigner was too much of a threat to her position as Nekomi Tech's Queen, especially after Sayoko had heard how the woman had garnered a crowd so quickly from just sitting on a bench.
And the boy she had been with? He was intriguing, too. She wanted to learn more about how he could attract such beautiful women when he was so incredibly "common."
But the boy could wait; her throne was on the line, and she wanted to squash the opposition like a grape in a wine press. She now had knowledge that this foreign girl was nearby, so it was very likely that she would return to campus, especially as a student.
If her information was correct, this girl was now officially living nearby. She might be able to work two birds with one stone, if everything worked to plan.
She would put Aoshima on the foreigner's scent, and she would most likely succumb to either his money or his "charms." Either would separate the boy from her.
And Sayoko would be there for the boy to pick up the pieces.
It was a plan so delicious and simple that Sayoko could almost taste the twofold victory.
"Good evening, cousin." Aoshima said as she entered the grand parlor, "Are you here to see Mother tonight?"
"Actually," Sayoko said, an evil glint in her eye, "I've come to see you."
--
It had been three days since Urd came to visit, and Keiichi wondered how he got dragged into ushering the Goddess around town in his free time. She clung to his arm tightly, and the way she dressed made him feel as if he had hired a female escort for the night.
It was made worse by the fact that she was taller than him and she had decided to wear four-inch heels today, along with one of the most revealing outfits he had ever seen and still been legal. Even her jacket somehow managed to emphasize the assets that were now at eye level.
He looked back on his arrival at Sora's, seeing her invite him in with a huge grin on her face as she said that he'd be enjoying the view tonight.
Keiichi now wished he hadn't offered to play tour guide to the Goddess.
It wasn't how she was dressed – okay, it was, but not for the reason someone would think; she had also decided that her new favorite color was pink.
It was like he was walking with a giant ad for a love hotel. Keiichi wondered if they could use this outfit to bring in some cash in this manner, before pushing the thought away.
"So, darling," Urd said in a nasally, syrupy voice, "can we stop to get something to eat? I haven't had anything to eat all day!"
Keiichi gritted his teeth. Before leaving, Urd had finished off a bag of chips, and a box of takoyaki. She was really putting on the theatrics to go with her obvious visual attempts to embarrass him.
"We have someplace to be 'Dear'," he sighed, trying not to make any more of a scene, "If we aren't on time, we'll get in trouble."
Urd's grin widened as if she were going to say something, but Keiichi pulled her a bit closer, so nobody else could hear.
"Not now Urd," Keiichi hissed through smiling teeth, "I just want to get you back to Sora's so I can make it to my job on time."
The Goddess pouted playfully, and was about to say something, but Keiichi forestalled her by talking first.
"I promise," Keiichi said, patting her hand while still smiling at the people that were staring at them walking down the sidewalk, "we'll go to your favorite place after we're done. Can you hold on for that long, 'Dear?'"
"Oh, Darling!" Urd said, gripping him harder, pressing her breasts into his arm in an embarrassing way, "I can't wait!" Whispering, Urd added, "You had better follow through with it, too."
He didn't know how much more of this he could take. Between Sora's teasing and Urd's retaliation, he wondered if the two were conspiring against him. He guessed that it was most likely that it would be a while before life returned to any sort of normalcy.
It wasn't very likely to happen, though.
The first reason was because Urd had some personal vendetta against him where she was going to do her best to either humiliate him or push his buttons to the point that he would snap.
The second reason was what the Goddesses had said about Sora's wish. They both explained what could happen in detail, losing both himself and Sora until he asked them to put it in the simplest terms possible. What they came up with between them, was that the wish screwed up part of the System Force, the System Force was now returning odd parameters, and the odd parameters would start making things on Earth far from normal.
He had commented that he felt as if he was in a Twilight Zone episode. They both commented that they wished they would have used that analogy in the first place.
The final thing pulling him further from reality was his roommate. Hoshi had seen Labyrinth, and now catered to singing and dancing while wearing a codpiece before settling down to write fan fiction or to review the other fan fiction writers' work. There had been several times in the past night alone that he had woken Keiichi from a nice dream of walking hand-in-hand with Sayoko on the beach, right before he could make a move to kiss the woman.
Keiichi almost shuddered, thinking about having to deal with the guy when he returned to his dorm room.
Somehow, they made it back to Sora's place with no further teasing from Urd.
"Hey," Keiichi said to Erdgeist, who merely bowed his head slightly. The Earth Spirit was more like a butler than a resident. The girls formally introduced Erdgeist after their commentary on the System Force anomaly that was Sora's wish. With how much trouble it had caused, he's surprised that nobody had started calling it "Wish-chan" as if it were a typhoon.
"Is Bell around?" Keiichi asked, noting the usual greeting from the third resident of the apartment, "I was wondering if she needed anything from the store before my shift."
"Well, aren't you nice," Sora said, grinning slyly, "First Sayoko, then Urd and now Belldandy. You know that she's a married woman."
"Yeah, yeah," Keiichi replied, rolling his eyes, "Whatever. I just owed her for when she fixed that bump on my head when Urd clobbered me with the Sake' bottle."
"I said that was an accident!" Urd cried from the other room, where she was hopefully changing into something less pink. Keiichi rolled his eyes again, causing Sora to stifle a giggle in her hand.
"Anyway," Keiichi said to Sora, choosing not to reply to Urd's continuing protest of innocence, "It's time for work, so I'll probably see you at the next club meeting.
"Okay." Sora said, waving to him, "Be sure to have fun digging!"
With a wave, he was off to work. Fortunately, he had a locker to keep his uniform in there, so he didn't even have to go back to the dorm. He didn't think he could handle any more of Hoshi's "Lord Roberto" routine at this moment.
He was halfway to work when he saw Aoshima's car zip by. He didn't think anything about it at first, until he saw the car take a corner.
Belldandy was in the passenger side. What was she doing with such an unsavory guy like that? He decided to see if he could get an idea of where they were going. He trotted to the end of the street to see Aoshima's red car standing out of all the drab white and black cars on the road. He saw the car pull over near a building. Aoshima had exited the car, came around the other side, and opened the door.
Keiichi started walking towards the building. He saw Aoshima grab hold of Belldandy's hand or wrist – it was too hard to tell at this distance – and start pulling her into the building.
He started to run towards them. He knew he wasn't going to catch up to them, but he could do his best to prevent the bastard from doing anything.
He got to the place the red car was parked, gasping for breath. The valet there was looking at him oddly.
He didn't even talk to the valet; he proceeded as quickly and calmly as he could towards the building. Now that he caught his breath, he realized that this was the most expensive hotel in the area.
Was he really doing the right thing? The way that Aoshima had taken her hand made him really nervous about the rich man's motive. It didn't help that his reputation as a womanizer was the best-known thing about him. He entered the building, slightly bowing to the bellboy that held open the door.
What was he going to say when he got up to the counter? There had to be something he could use as an excuse to discover which room they went to.
He went to the counter aside the door. It looked snazzier and more "personal" then the desk against the wall. The woman there was tall; she dwarfed the man she was now bowing to by half a head. Keiichi swallowed nervously, and went over to the woman.
"May I help you?" The lady asked before seating herself behind the desk.
"Yes," Keiichi said a bit nervously, "It seems a classmate of mine came in here."
She looked at him skeptically. He wasn't sure how he was going to pull this off.
He swallowed, and put his hand in his pants' pocket, looking for his college ID. He also felt the twenty that he was going to use for lunches as his fingers grasped the small booklet.
Should he do it? He'd starve while working, but it beat losing any more precious time getting Belldandy away from that creep.
He pulled out the booklet and the twenty, making the twenty conspicuously visible to the lady.
"His name is Aoshima," Keiichi said, handing over his ID and the bill, "Toshiuki Aoshima. He's in one of my classes, and he didn't come in today, so he didn't hear when the midterm would be."
She looked at the ID before casually taking the twenty.
"I really hate to ask," Keiichi said nervously, "but he needs to know, and I need to get to my job really soon."
The woman eyed him a moment, then typed on her computer. She gave him the floor and room number, as well as pointed him to the elevators. He bowed and made his way to them, trying to count off the minutes he had lost.
Would he reach her in time? Would she fry Aoshima with her power? For some reason, he feared that Bell's naiveté would give Aoshima the chance he needed to overwhelm her.
He got to the elevator, and pressed the button. The indicator showed that three of the elevators were stopped on floors, while the remaining one crawled up from one floor to another at an incredibly snail-like pace. It also appeared to have finally reached halfway up the building.
He might still have a shot, then: Belldandy might be either stuck on one of those floors, or she might be slowly ascending up to the top. He looked to his left and saw the stairwell, and decided to just climb the stairs instead. He looked at the floor indicator once more before taking off for the stairwell.
Keiichi took the stairs two at a time to try to beat the elevator to the topmost floor. As he ascended, he thought about the situation
Come on, Keiichi, he thought to himself, you can do this.
But would his efforts be wasted? What if all they were doing was having a nice chat?
Get real, a part of his mind countered as he gulped in air, This is Aoshima we're talking about! You've heard the stories about his conquests!
Still, those stories could be over exaggerated. The guy might be all talk and no action.
He's filthy rich, came the response, somewhat angrily, and he has bought his way to better grades, just because he could!
And yet, part of him still felt as if he were David going against Goliath. The fact that they had started and didn't finish the story due to the bell ringing didn't do much for his confidence.
You work out every day with the Motor Club members, he thought, still taking the stairs as fast as he could, you should have better endurance than this. He passed a sign indicating the twelfth floor. He was making rapid progress.
As slow as that elevator was going, the thought danced through his head, you're still going to make it in time.
He hoped so. He didn't want to have to explain to Sora and Urd why he couldn't do anything to help Belldandy.
She's going to need help. Aoshima won't let her gain any kind of footing before he-
Keiichi stopped that line of thought: He was now about two-thirds of the way up the stairs. His legs ached and his breathing was heavy, but not as bad as he had feared. Whether it was true or not, he attributed his additional strength to his giving up smoking, and pushed on, trying to get more speed out of his limbs. Keiichi hoped that he wouldn't collapse form a heart attack once he reached the top.
You're fine, he thought, wiping sweat from his face as he continued his climb, and you'll be able to make it. You'll most likely beat the snot out of him too; you work on engines daily, manually tightening bolts to high torque and what does he do all day? Sit on his ass, eating tea and crumpets!
The thought helped him to continue. He would make it, especially now that he was about three quarters of the way up. If his guess was right, the elevator was now just arriving at the top floor, unless anyone else in the car had stopped it at a floor.
But Aoshima could have a key. Even though it wasn't the penthouse, the top floor most likely meant that the clientele had such perks available to them. He passed a sign that indicated twentieth floor and became hopeful: He only had four more to go to his destination.
Would he be able to get in with no problem? It didn't matter. If worse came to worst, he could always just kick the door in like they do on television.
Part of him though still wished he had been able to get a sledgehammer from work to "knock" on the door a few times.
He was finally at the top floor. After this, you needed a special key to get to the penthouse, so he was glad that Aoshima didn't have that kind of clout to his name. He opened the door to the stairwell and proceeded to look at the hallway.
The hall itself was not like the usual halls in the hotels he had stayed at. There was room enough to walk five abreast without touching shoulders before you even touched the first branch of any of the miniature trees lining the hallway. There were numerous paintings and he saw a couple urns and sculptures of varying sizes near each room. He could use one of the statues as a battering ram, if need be.
To his inner relief, it wasn't needed: He came to the door indicated by the Concierge and, off intuition, turned the knob.
The door opened inwardly. He was glad that it had not made any sounds.
Keiichi looked in. He didn't see Aoshima or Belldandy, but he did hear them.
"Relax," Aoshima's voice seemed to drip honey as he spoke, "I won't bite… Unless you want me to."
There was no reply. Was she really okay? There was something in him that made him doubt what he was doing.
Am I really helping her?
If not you, then who?
But I could have misinterpreted the situation.
That's a lie, and you know it!
And what if I am wrong?
Well, what if that was your sister? Would you still be flouncing like this as Aoshima makes his move?
The thought was like a slap to his face. He wouldn't even be hesitating if this was his sister. Why should Bell be any different?
Mad at himself and Aoshima, he charged into the bedroom.
What he saw was not as bad as he had feared. Aoshima had Belldandy's mouth covered with his, while one hand held her hands, and the other worked on opening her shirt. He could see tears in her eyes.
She must have been taken by surprise; else she would have fried him to a crisp.
"Let her go!" Keiichi yelled as he raced over to the bed, grabbed Aoshima by his collar, and pulled him off the Goddess.
"What the-" Aoshima started to say, before Keiichi decked him full in the mouth. The force of the hit pushed Bell's assailant into the wall.
Aoshima wiped his mouth with his hand, looked at it and nearly freaked out at the sight of his own blood.
"I can't believe you hit me!" Aoshima said in disbelief. Aoshima clenched his fist, looking ready to fight back.
Keiichi put up his guard, but Aoshima's eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out, crumpling to the floor pathetically. With the other man unconscious, Keiichi turned his attention to Belldandy.
"Are you-"Keiichi began, but was interrupted by the Goddess's arms wrapping around him.
"Thank the Almighty!" Bell said, crying into his shoulder. Keiichi hesitated before returning the hug.
After a few moments, he helped her up, and they both exited the hotel room. Not wanting to be seen, they took the stairs back down.
"You could have been hurt," Belldandy said as they descended the stairs, not looking at him.
"It was better than the alternative," He said, rubbing his knuckles. They felt sore now.
They were silent for a few floors before Bell spoke again.
"I could have used my power on him." Belldandy said, "Then you wouldn't have needed to put yourself in danger."
"Then why didn't you?" He said, stopping on a step to look at her. She stopped as well, but didn't look back.
"Well," Keiichi urged, "why didn't you stop him with your powers?"
Still the Goddess didn't answer. She just kept looking down the stairwell.
"I don't know," She said, her voice was shaking, "I had the chance but I-"
"He knew," Keiichi said, coming down to her step. She took another step forward to prevent him from seeing her expression, "Aoshima knew about your marriage, didn't he?"
Belldandy nodded before continuing down the stairs. Keiichi followed.
"I don't understand," Belldandy said, "He seemed so nice."
"Well," Keiichi replied, "Some people only act nice, whether they are or not, is another thing altogether."
"I see," Belldandy said.
"So," Keiichi said after a moment's silence, "why did you go with him in the first place?
"Sora," Bell replied, trying to regain her composure, "Sora had always talked too lovingly about him, so when I got lost…"
"You asked him for help." Keiichi finished. "How did you know it was him?"
He couldn't see her face, but Belldandy's ears reddened. She must be completely embarrassed for him to be able to see it so visibly.
"She has a picture in her purse," the Goddess answered, "so after she had been telling me all about him, I got curious, so I took a peek."
It was what anyone in Bell's situation would have done, but since the thought of peering like that at other people's personal belongings might seem normal to a human under those circumstances, it might have a completely different meaning altogether to a Goddess.
"Ah," Keiichi replied noncommittally.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Belldandy asked as they continued their descent.
"Yeah," he answered. His knuckles did smart a little, but the more he flexed his fingers, the more the pain subsided "Thanks for asking, though."
"Thank goodness," she said, "I was worried you'd been hurt."
For some reason, Keiichi got annoyed. He quickly moved ahead a few steps, turned and looked at Belldandy.
"And you don't think other people don't worry about you?" he asked, a frown deepening on his face, "I was almost in a state of panic when I saw him pulling you by the wrist up to this 'love nest' of his!
"Don't you get it?" Keiichi continued, "He had you in the palm of his hand! He could have threatened you through Sora if he wanted to! Aoshima is that type of person! He would as soon as take pleasure in ruining your life and Sora's at the same time if he didn't get what he wanted from you, and you would have been powerless to stop him!"
"What about you?" Belldandy asked as Keiichi glared at her, "He could have used his clout on your family!"
"It's not the same," Keiichi said, calming down a little at the sight of the tears forming on the Goddess's face, "My mother and father have stable jobs in an out-of-the way town nobody cares about. My sister isn't in college yet, so she is in no danger, either.
"And as for me," he continued, "I could just go back to that small town and work for the mechanic there. I had worked for him part time, and he'd be thrilled to have me work for him on a full time basis. Aoshima's family influence doesn't reach that far, by any stretch of the imagination."
Suddenly, the adrenaline rush that had been sustaining him wore off. His legs felt wobbly and he tried his hardest to prevent his legs and arms from shaking violently. He clutched the rail and tried to look casual as he waited for her to respond.
After an awkward silence, she stepped down to the same step he was on, reached out and took his head tenderly in her hands and smiled.
"You are a good man, Keiichi Moristo," She said, pulling his face towards him, "May Fortune always smile on you." He felt her lips touch his forehead and a warm, gentle sensation flowed through his body.
After a moment, the sensation faded and she released him. It sounded like she said something else, but the sound of her footsteps on the stairs drowned it out. He unconsciously touched his forehead, and rubbed it slightly before catching up to her.
He didn't know it then, but that sign of affection was the herald of better things to come…
