By: Sam D.
Laughter. Nothing but laughter all around. Poor Professor Piro Sakai was being laughed at by his co-workers, again. Only a few minutes ago he was talking about his proposal for a new study, and its reply was his audience filing out of the conference room with laughter.
A while after that embarrassment, Piro, with his briefcase in hand, walked up the street to his apartment building from the bus stop. He was depressed, as usual, because no one took him seriously. He approached the building's entrance and reached out to open the glass door with his free hand. He heard a small "mew" come from nearby. Suspiciously, he glanced to his left, and then to his right. The nearby bushes rustled, and a small kitten jumped out meowing softly. Giving a sigh of relief, Piro crouched down in front of the kitten and smiled.
"You startled me, kitty," he laughed. The kitten gave a little smile and jumped up into his arms.
"You're such a cutie," Piro said, while stroking the animal's soft cinnamon colored fur. "How about I take you upstairs?"
The kitten, a small tabby, gave a happy reply.
With that, Piro Sakai entered the building and took the elevator up to the tenth floor with his briefcase in one hand, and his new friend in the other.
As the elevator doors parted, Piro was laughing and talking to the kitten. He strolled down the narrow corridor lined with doors until he came to one with the number 146 on its surface. He unlocked the door, and he closed it behind him after crossing the threshold.
For the evening, Piro and the tabby, whom he had named Neko, had dinner together and relaxed. Tiredly, Piro fell back into his recliner, and Neko jumped up into his lap. Piro, while stroking Neko, the most darling kitten he had ever met, started talking about all his problems. He mentioned his unpopularity at the labs, his loneliness, and why no one took him seriously. Finally, with a sigh, he said, "It's hopeless. No one likes my ideas because they think they're too, well, out there."
Out on the balcony, two figures peered in through the window while floating in mid-air. They whispered to each other, and then they disappeared.
It was late, and Piro decided that it was time to retire for the night. He brushed his teeth, changed into his pajamas, and went into bed. Playfully, Neko jumped up on the bed, and then curled up next to him. They both drifted off to sleep as the silvery moonlight struggled to shine into the room through the closed blinds.
Two figures, the same from earlier that evening, appeared in the living room. One of them tripped over the coffee table with a loud "THUD".
"SSSH!" the one female scolded with her pointer finger over her lips. "You'll wake the entire neighborhood, you klutz!"
"Sorry..." the fallen female apologized while getting up off the floor.
A startled Piro, who had heard the commotion, peered out from the bedroom. He blinked, not believing what he saw before him. There stood two women: One with long golden hair that shone like the sun, tanned skin, and sparkling cerulean eyes, clad in the most gorgeous orange dress. The other, who was straightening her antique-like glasses, had flowing hair as dark as the night sky, with eyes to match, and pale, but beautiful, skin, and was clad in a dark purple gown. They both looked like...goddesses. He blinked again and then crept into the room.
"Umm...Excuse me," he nervously said.
"Oh, there you are, Piro!" the blonde exclaimed.
"We came to help you," the dark-haired one stated.
"Help me with what? And who are you?"
The two women went into poses.
"Why, I'm Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love!"
"And I'm Biologia, the Goddess of Science!"
Piro blinked again, fixed his glasses, and analyzed all that was just thrown at him. He finally asked skeptically, "What are you doing here?"
"Well," Aphrodite started, "since we eaves-, I mean, heard, you say how lonely you are, I-, I mean, we, came to give you some advice."
"Advice?" Piro replied.
"Yes, advice," Biologia assured.
Piro shrugged helplessly, "Nothing can help me."
"Now don't say that!" Biologia exclaimed.
"Don't be so negative about things like this because I-, I mean, WE, can help," Aphrodite reassured. "Now, being that you ARE a professor in the field of science, you can create things, right?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So," Biologia interrupted, "you should create someone, for the sake of science!"
"No," Aphrodite protested while crossing her arms, "for the sake of love!"
"Science!"
"Love!"
"Science!"
"Love!"
"SCIENCE!"
"LOVE!"
They both couldn't bicker any longer, and began to brawl instead. As the dust began to rise, the commotion began to grow louder. Piro, who still stood frozen in place, surveyed the scene. Then an idea struck him.
"Yeah...I could create someone..."
He glanced down at Aphrodite and Biologia, two very disgruntled Olympians, who were still beating the living daylights out of each other, and exclaimed, "Thank you so much!"
They halted, and the dust slowly settled.
"Huh? What'd we do?" they asked quizzically.
But by then, Piro had already dashed out of the room into his bedroom.
The goddesses blinked.
"Okay..." Aphrodite said, while fixing her hair.
"Wanna go get some sukiyaki?" Biologia suggested while smoothing out her dress.
"Sounds like a plan..."
They both disappeared from sight. At his desk, inside his bedroom, Piro was scribbling down ideas on his loose-leaf pad excitedly.
***
The next morning, Piro lay asleep at his desk, with papers strew across the its surface. The digital alarm clock on his nightstand read 9:47 AM in big, red digital numbers. Neko, who was meowing happily as always, sat on the floor next to the sleeping scientist. Piro stirred, lifted his head up, and looked over at the clock.
"Huh...OH NO! I OVERSLEPT! This isn't good!" he screamed.
Then, the two goddesses, tinier than they were last night, appeared on his desk and waved.
"OHAYO, sleepyhead!" Aphrodite announced happily.
"Just wanted to come back and check on you!" Biologia called.
"It wasn't a dream..." Piro whispered, while pushing his rectangular glasses up on the bridge of his nose.
"Hey," he confessed to the two, "I'm late for work. I gotta go. Sorry about this."
He began to get up out of the chair.
"Piro! You're staying right here!" Aphrodite yelled as loud as she could, while stamping her tiny foot down on the desk.
"Yes ma'am," Piro stuttered. He then sat back down in his seat.
"Aphrodite, dear, you don't have to let the whole neighborhood hear you," Biologia said, mimicking her from the night before.
"Oh shush up, you," Aphrodite retorted. She then turned around to face Piro and said, "Now, from the looks of it, you stayed up pretty late last night working on something."
She gestured to all the papers on his desk.
"Yeah, I was," Piro answered. "After getting an idea from you two, I decided to plan out something."
"For science, right?" an anxious Biologia asked.
"For love, right?" an annoyed Aphrodite asked.
"Well, for both, actually," Piro stated.
The two goddess glared at him.
"How could you take HER SIDE?" they both screamed while pointing at each other.
"Sorry..."
Biologia cleared her throat and finally said what Aphrodite, her current rival, wanted to hear, "Well, I guess it could be for both science and love..."
"I knew you'd see it my way," the Goddess of Love replied complacently.
"Now, Piro," she said, turning her attention back to him, "Tonight, after the labs are closed, we'll help you sneak in so you can start getting to work."
"But...Breaking in isn't such a good idea..."
"We're goddesses, silly, we can do anything," Biologia told him with a wink.
So, later that night, Piro, the two goddesses, and of course, Neko, trekked downtown to the labs. The two goddesses, as they promised, got him inside without being caught. He sneaked down to the basement floor, and there he stayed until way past midnight, working on his most complex project yet. He stayed there until the early morning for work, and figured that he could nap secretly in his office. This routine was kept for the next week, but he took a break on the weekend to catch up on his sleep. The next week, he did the same exact thing, with all the people at his job not suspecting anything.
On early Tuesday morning of the third week, at precisely twenty minutes after two, it was complete.
"EUREKA!" Piro yelled happily.
The two goddesses, who were asleep nearby, bolted awake.
"Huh? You're finished?" Aphrodite asked while rubbing her eyes.
Piro nodded happily.
"Well, let us see! Let us see!" Biologia goaded.
Piro, a now happy scientist, slid the cover off something on the lab table. There lay a girl, but it couldn't be a real one, because it looked as if it wasn't breathing, clad in a blouse and pleated skirt.
"Well done, Piro!" Biologia congratulated him, clapping in delight. She then examined it and took notice of its dark-as-night hair, sparkling cerulean eyes, framed with glasses, and tanned skin.
"Why, she's beautiful! Come here Aphrodite and take a look!"
Aphrodite walked over and looked at the inanimate girl.
"It looks...Just like..." she started.
"The both of you," Piro finished. "I decided to make it in the likeness of the two goddesses who gave me the idea in the first place...You two."
"I feel like I'm going to cry..." Aphrodite wept.
"That was...So nice of you...Piro," Biologia wept along with the other goddess.
Then they both burst out crying from happiness.
"Aw, shucks," Piro said while blushing.
A small meow came from below him, and he glanced down. Neko was sitting there smiling and meowing at him. Another idea hit him. He picked up the kitten and raised her into the air.
"Hey, Aphrodite, Biologia, I have a favor of you to ask," Piro asked the two crying goddesses while smiling thoughtfully at his kitten.
"Yes?" the two goddesses asked while sniffing.
"Since...You two helped me solve my problem...I have something to ask you..."
"Go on," Aphrodite prompted.
"Well, this might sound stupid...But, can she be real?" he asked while gesturing to his creation which lay serenely on the table.
"Of course!" Biologia exclaimed. "After all you did for us, you deserve a little special reward."
"Who would you like her to be like?" Aphrodite asked.
"My kitty, of course," Piro replied while stroking the tabby's fur.
"We'll try our best," Biologia said.
"But for now, you better go home and get some rest. You look like you need it," Aphrodite said.
"Okay...But make sure not to let anything happen to her..."
"You can trust us, " the two women replied. "We swear to Zeus."
A husky voice came from above, "Ahem...No you don't. You're not allowed to do that, remember?"
"Ehehehe...Sorry!" Aphrodite apologized.
"We didn't mean it!" Biologia assured him.
Piro stood there, blinking.
***
Piro looked into the bathroom mirror, straightening his tie. It was almost time for him to leave for work. He was so excited because of what had happened only a few hours earlier, he couldn't contain himself. (The coffee he had drank earlier helped him get into this mood, too.) He smiled at his reflection and said, "I'm so proud of you, Piro ol' boy."
The door bell rang and he yelled, "Coming!"
"Who could that be at this hour of the morning?" he wondered.
He approached the front door, unlocked it, and swung it open. There stood a petite-sized girl, with dark hair, cerulean eyes, and tanned skin.
"Hi!" she greeted him, with a big smile.
Down the hall, behind a potted fern, two women stood giggling to themselves as they saw Piro and his visitor saunter down the hall to the elevator conversing.
"Mission..." one woman started.
"Completed!" the other finished.
The both gave each other a high five and disappeared.