Chapter 2
"Wake up!"
Mara moaned as Urd nudged her rather hard. "I just want
to sleep. Leave me alone."
"Get your lazy ass out of bed. Belldandy never
oversleeps." Urd grabbed a hold of Mara and dragged the
neo-goddess out of bed and onto the floor.
"You didn't have to pull me out of bed," muttered Mara
as she summoned a gown.
"Awww, in a bad mood? Some sake?" Urd held up a
half-empty bottle.
Mara sighed, and silently cursed her lack of power.
"Drinking this early?"
Urd shrugged her shoulders. "It's just you and me
babe. Skuld took off with Keiichi. I'm bored." She handed
a overflowing glass of sake to Mara.
* * *
Keiichi sighed as he heard some whispers from various
classmates who eyed him and Skuld.
"What happened with Mara? He's after her little sister
now? What a pervert!"
"Maybe he hitched up with Mara so he could play
hanky-panky with her younger sister!"
"Wow, what a beautiful, little girl..."
"You're just as messed up as Morisato!"
Apparently, allowing Skuld to go to school with him was
a bad idea, and he buried his head into a book, a weak
attempt to fade away.
* * *
Mara sniffed the glass of sake and satisfied that Urd
hadn't spiked it, she downed it.
"Come on, let's drink up like old times," said Urd as
she left. Mara, she shrugged her shoulders and followed.
The two of them simultaneously downed a few glasses,
eventually finishing a bottle in complete silence.
Mara gazed at the empty glass in her hand and then at
Urd, who was visibly affected by the sake, to say the least.
"Is everyday as boring as this?"
Urd yawned and then nodded. "It's ususally like this,
but it's fun as hell to watch Keiichi and Belldandy. I just
don't understand the two of them, so slow, so timid. If I
were Belldandy, I would have made my move by now."
But there was something that bothered Mara, the way that
Urd responded, there seemed to be a gleam in her eyes. "You
don't want to return to Asgard, do you?"
"What gave you that idea?" Urd readjusted herself so
she was comfortably lying in the couch. "Besides, without
me, Belldandy and Keiichi would never get anywhere at all."
"If I were Belldandy, I would have blown this joint a
long time ago," muttered Mara as she downed another glass.
"But you're not Belldandy. You don't know what it means
to love someone."
"As if you're an authority on love. How many boyfriends
have you gone through so far? More than twenty?"
Urd shakily waved off Mara's retort. "Big deal, you
learn a lot more from mistakes than successes." She pointed
at her eye. "I can see true love. Nothing quite like it."
* * *
"Hey! Keiichi! Skuld! Wait up!"
Keiichi looked behind and found his sister. "Megumi,
what do you want?"
Skuld planted her hands on her hips. "Hey lady, what
are you doing here!"
"What's this I hear about you hitting on little girl?"
"I'm not hitting on a little girl!"
"I'm not a little girl!" exclaimed Skuld.
"That's not what Tamiya and Otaki are saying. They say
that you have this thing for little girls."
Keiichi sighed and bowed this head. "Those two... that
would explain all of the strange looks that I've been
getting all day." His head bowed even lower. "Not to
mention telephone numbers from a few sex crazed women
dressed in sailor suits."
But Megumi wasn't listening to him, she was far too
intimidated by the aura of anger that eminated from Skuld.
Skuld unsheathed her divine hammer and brandished it
menacingly. "Keiichi, you will help me find Tamiya and
Otaki and I will show them that I'm not a little girl!"
* * *
Urd squinted at the clock. "It's almost noon. Why
don't you make yourself useful and bring some lunch for
Keiichi and Skuld."
Mara downed the glass of sake and placed an empty bottle
into the burgeoning pile next to her. "I see you don't hold
up as well as you used to."
"What do you mean?" slurred Urd. "I'm telling you, you
better grub for points because Belldandy's going to nail
your ass to the... Zzzzzzzz" Urd slumped back and fell
asleep on the couch.
Mara shook her head, but she realized that Urd had a
point. She wasn't going to win by doing nothing.
Painfully, she gathered the empty bottles into her arms and
she walked to the kitchen.
She hesitated before entering, remembering last night's
fiasco, but she entered, dumped the trash, and tried to make
something edible.
* * *
Megumi suddenly laughed, and patted Skuld on the head.
"Don't worry, I'll show you where those two morons are."
"Are you insane, Megumi?"
"You like Tamiya and Otaki spreading rumors?" asked
Megumi as she took Skuld by the hand and walked in the
direction of Motor Club.
"No!" started Keiichi, and he leaned in close and
whispered. "But do Tamiya and Otaki deserve death? It's
only rumors."
Megumi cocked her head. "Are you trying to hide
something from me? Like maybe you really do have a thing
for Skuld?"
"No no no!"
"Well then, that's settled. Let's go Skuld. Time for
some divine retribution."
"Right!" said Skuld as she hefted her hammer.
* * *
Mara finally arrived at Nekomi Tech, two bento boxes in
her hand. She looked up at the building and then around at
the spacious campus.
"Where on Earth can I find Keiichi?"
At that moment, two crying men ran past, one with
ridiculous hair and dressed in leather, the other, a huge
looking oaf. And sure enough, behind them was Skuld waving
her hammer around like a maniac.
And behind her, was Keiichi who finally caught up to
Skuld and grabbed a hold of her hammer and shouted. "Skuld,
killing them is not the solution!"
"Keiichi..."
Both Skuld and Keiichi stopped struggling, both
surprised.
Skuld squeaked, forgetting about Tamiya and Otaki who
had long since completed another lap around the campus. She
jumped behind Keiichi and hugged him.
"It's the demon!" cried Skuld.
"Mara, what are you doing here?" Keiichi saw the bento
boxes. "You didn't have to..."
"Here." Mara handed the boxes over to him. She forced
a smile that could curdle milk, break glass, and all that.
"Let me talk with my sister for a moment." She grabbed a
hold of Skuld, who screamed and pushed Keiichi in the
direction of "danger."
Mara tried getting closer to Skuld, but found Keiichi
pushed right up against her.
He blushed, and tried to voice an apology.
She growled.
* * *
Urd snickered as she watched Keiichi nurse his bruised
face. "Say Keiichi, love's painful, eh?"
"You're not helping, Urd. I don't know what I'm doing
to make Mara feel so uncomfortable." He leaned his face
against the icepack.
"Well, from what I heard from Skuld, you felt her up at
lunch."
"I did not feel her up!" He sighed again. "Can you ask
her for me or something? I can't stand seeing her like
this. She just seems so unhappy."
Urd repressed an evil smile. "Maybe you should try
really hard to make her feel better."
"You're right. Why should I just sulk around and depend
on Mara? Maybe Mara's just tired and maybe this is a chance
where she can finally depend on me..." His voice trailed
off.
Urd flinched slightly. He was actually taking her words
seriously. "Whoa wait a moment. No need to go overboard
here."
Keiichi smiled. "Why is this going overboard? Ever
since Mara's been here, she's been slaving away for all of
us. She deserves more. Maybe a nice, long break."
Urd blanched as Keiichi fetched his jacket and left.
She leaned backwards and moaned. "Belldandy is not going to
like this."
As soon as Keiichi left home, whatever enthusiasm he had
shown Urd deflated. A seemingly impossible task lay before
him, he had to somehow justify to Mara his worth.
He sighed and mounted his bike. "Man, whatever gave me
this idea? She's a goddess and I'm just..." He revved the
engine and sped off.
* * *
"This place again?" Kami-sama stared at his less
illustrious brother.
"Yeah, why not? I really like the selection here," said
the Devil and the two of them seated themselves. "You have
got to try their cafe au lait."
The two of them ordered and prompty received their cafe
au lait.
Kami-sama started. "Well, I guess we should make the
most of this visit and discuss the status of our little
bet."
The Devil nodded as he carefully sipped. "Yes. Well, I
am quite impressed by Belldandy's performance a couple
nights ago. I was unaware that even the purest of goddesses
can have a bit of a mean streak."
"Jealousy is a very powerful emotion."
"Whatever. And at the same time, I am somewhat
disappointed by Mara's repeated failures. What motivated
you to choose her as my representative?"
"The same line of reasoning that you used to choose
Belldandy."
The Devil sighed. "Come on here. We're brothers. No
need to give me that cryptic crap you give to mortals."
"You are concerned about Mara's performance. Have you
given any thought as to what will happen eventually?"
"What do you mean?"
"She grew up in Hell. She's probably going to have to
take a while to cleanse herself of its corruption."
The Devil laughed. "You seriously believe that she is
capable of good? Have you even tried browsing her thoughts?
She's hating every moment of this experience."
"She certainly is capable. With a little nurturing..."
The Devil frowned. "There is only so far one can
achieve with nurturing."
"Obviously you are quite disappointed with this
exercise?"
"Disappointed is an understatement. How did you ever
manage to convince me to take part in this twisted scheme?"
* * *
"Where's Keiichi?" Mara yawned as she sat next to Urd.
Urd shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. What's with the
yawns? I've never seen you tired."
"You'd be tired if I ripped your emblem off your head.
I'm not used to this trickle of power. I don't know how
Belldandy ever managed to stay awake."
"It's called conservation. You know how Belldandy
doesn't really rely on her powers."
Mara shuddered. "I can't imagine doing anything by
hand."
"You never know. When you're in love, practically
anything is possible."
* * *
Mara sat down alone and echoed the words that Urd had
said, "When you're in love, practically anything is
possible."
She gave it a moment's thought when a truly devious idea
came to her. "Of course! I'll just help myself to some of
Urd's stuff and make myself totally infatuated with
Keiichi!"
Peeking out of her room, she carefully tiptoed down the
hall and listened carefully at the door to Urd's room. It
was satisfactorily silent.
Ever so slowly, she twisted the doorknob slowly, wincing
each time she felt the scrape of steel against steel.
"Ok," she whispered herself as she carefully eyed the
contents of various jars and bottles, and randomly flipping
through a spellbook, she grab ingredients and dumped them
into a convenient beaker.
Having reached the bottom of the ingrediants list, she
turned her attention to the beaker. It was filled with a
frothing, bubbling sludge that seemed to pulse randomly
every few seconds.
"Oh well, whatever it takes to win," and she forced
herself to swallow the concoction.
* * *
Urd was mildly distressed when she heard a loud poof and
watched pinkish smoke waft into the living room. She
grumbled as she hated being pulled from her favorite soap.
Waving her hands, she slowly made her way through the
smoke to her room, the door carelessly left open, indicated
the nature of the transgression.
"Whoever did this is going to be introduced to a world
of pain!" cried Urd, as a broken flask rolled out and came
to a rest against her foot.
"Mmmm, hi there, sexy." Urd felt arms, breasts, and
tongue.
She immediately pulled away from the kiss, and responded
with a resolute slap. "I should have known it would be
you. No one touches my stuff!" She intoned a spell of
purification, and the smoke suddenly vanished.
Mara pouted. "Well, if you love to play rough, I will
too." She grabbed Urd's hand, and handcuffed it to the
table as her outfit phased out and was replaced with tight
leather.
She even had a whip to boot.
* * *
Fortunately, Keiichi had just arrived him moments
earlier, and was somewhat surprised by the sounds of
activity coming from Urd's room. He chanced a peek, and
nearly fainted from blood loss.
Luckily, Skuld was there to catch him, but in doing so,
she finally saw what had caused Keiichi such distress. Urd
was trying to scream for help, but was properly gagged. And
Mara was testing out a whip.
Keiichi looked at the mess of bottles on the table, and
formulated his own conclusion. "Urd, why do you have to be
such a pain? Only you would drugging your own..."
He never finished as he found an amorous and aggressive
Mara trying to strip him down.
"Mara, no! I'm to young for this! Urd drugged you!
Please, someone help me!"
The weight of the situation was just too much, and
Keiichi did the most sensible thing and fainted. Mara
looked down at Keiichi, confused.
She hadn't expected her man to behave like that.
That was when an armload of Skuld bombs landed in the
room.
* * *
"Gosh, you would be the last demon that I know who would
resort to such a stupid plan." Urd was not happy at all.
Not only did Mara handcuff her and almost whipped her, Skuld
took advantage of the situation by destroying her room.
Mara shrugged her shoulders. "I can't do anything
right."
"And what makes you think that you artificially lusting
for Keiichi will help?"
"You did say that love made anything possible."
Urd groaned. "Lust is not the same as love, you dolt.
Besides, no Goddess would ever resort to such
underhanded..."
"I didn't drug him at all. Just myself."
She still felt obligated to chew out Mara. "Well, you
still were cheating. Besides, if I were you, I would have
tried Formula X39 instead. Much milder, believe me."
* * *
Keiichi sighed as he sat alone against a tree in the
park. He was unwilling to admit it, but whatever love
existed between he and Mara was dying painfully. Whatever
he tried, he would always disappoint her.
"Someone's looking a bit down today."
He looked up. "Oh hi Sayoko."
"You're not as spunky as usual. Trouble on the
homefront?"
"You said it." He shook his head. "I don't know what
I'm doing wrong, but I just feel so separated from Mara.
It's like she's a completely new person, overnight."
"Really? You know there is nothing as changeable as a
woman."
"Like I should trust you," said Keiichi, who had the
slightest hint of a smile. He looked around, suddenly self
conscious. "I don't know, it feels weird dumping all of
these feelings on you."
Sayoko smiled, as she scooted closer to him. "No
trouble, no trouble at all."
Belldandy squinted as she zoomed in on Keiichi and
Sayoko sitting together, and she smiled, somewhat. At
least, Keiichi hopelessly in love with Sayoko would be a big
improvement over Keiichi hopelessly in love with Mara.
She ran over quickly in her mind the basics of invoking
demonic magic. She then carefully wove a spell and planted
seeds of love in her beloved.
She took a step back and dissolved into the air, not
willing to admire the deviousness and perfection of her
handiwork, for it hurt to think that she would resort to
using Keiichi to get to Mara.
* * *
Mara sighed as she laid down, boredom and lack of divine
energy wore her out. But she still couldn't sleep. Perhaps
it was the fact that Keiichi wasn't home, and according to a
nonchalant Urd, he was never late for dinner.
Perhaps it was a certain, particular feeling she felt
today, feelings of embarrassment and guilt over having to
stoop so low to try to win. The very same feeling that had
driven her, motivated her to try to make dinner.
Dinner had been a silent affair. A threesome of
immortals, carefully poking at bland, but passeable food,
staring at the clock. A strange joke at best, because none
of them required sustainence as a mortal does.
But unknown to them, the seeds of love within Keiichi
slowly cracked open and bloomed as the he and Sayako talked
and talked the evening away.
The two just talked endlessly, as they sat and stared at
the setting sun and the waking moon. They kept talking as
they walked about the city.
Even as the couple shared drinks in the bar, their
banter continued.
* * *
It was midnight, when the front door creaking stirred
Mara from unsettling dreams. Her eyes snapped open as she
heard muffled whispered and giggling.
"Oh, Sayako, I never thought..."
Mara sat straight up, got out of bed, and opened the
door to her room to find Sayako and Keiichi, the two of
them, stinking like a couple of drunks, stripping, walking,
kissing.
They stumbled and landed against the wall, the light
from Mara's room disconcerting to their unfocused eyes. His
eyes met Mara's.
Her lips curled into a snarl, a vicious look of anger, a
look which quickly passed as she saw the tiny, ethereal
signature of a demonic spell.
Something ate away at Keiichi as he looked between
Sayako, who was midway between a state of dress and Mara,
who stared at him.
Despite his drunkness, a sudden fit of lucidity washed
over him as he realized what he and Sayako were probably
going to do.
He blinked his eyes a couple time and he carefully let
go of Sayako and tried to button up her dress. "I'm really
sorry," he slurred. "But I think the two of us had a little
too much to drink..."
He failed miserably, his drunken fingers unable to
complete the task.
Mara spoke quietly as she saw the remnant ashes of a
demonic spell blowing away. "Let me help." She buttoned up
the dress, and led Sayako away.
* * *
Keiichi woke up to find Mara perched on the edge of the
bed. With a groan, he fell back, the hangover hammering
home the events of the previous night.
He recalled meeting Sayako, going to a bar to get
wasted, staggering home with her, Sayako stripping as they
walked to his room...
He sat up. "Sayako! Did I? Did she?"
Mara shook her head. "You didn't." She stood up. "You
were under the effects of a demonic charm spell, a strong
one may I add."
"What happened?" Keiichi rubbed his face a few times
and groaned. "Last night was just one mess of a blur..."
"You resisted the spell."
And without another word, Mara walked out of the room.
* * *
Belldandy glared at the globe, which revealed Mara
closing the door behind her. Mara smiled and walked away.
Belldandy was not happy.
With a snarl, she blinked out of existence and blinked
into Urd's room.
"What's the big deal with Mara?"
Urd looked up from a spellbook. "Oh her? Well, she's
sort of accepting loving Keiichi and all that."
Belldandy stamped her foot. "How can he still love her,
I casted a charm spell on Keiichi!"
"You do remember that those spells only work on those
whose love is not pure."
She grabbed Urd. "And why should that demon deserve
pure love from my Keiichi?"