Author's Foreword and Standard Disclaimer: Wow... you've got no idea how stunned i am that so many people remember this humble little fic; so many responses for just the prologue! @_@;... Thanks so much to everyone for your support! A few notes: The Chapter 5 that apparently appeared on a few websites over the years was actually a prereader copy, and thus not edited or complete. The actual finished chapter 5, which is a little longer ^_^, is also a teensy bit more polished. I've been working on chapter 6 too, which will hopefully lighten the tone of this series a bit. As usual, Takahashi-sama and Fujishima-sama's characters and stories are owned by the creators and whomever else paid for the rights, which doesn't include yours truly. ^_^; Please don't sue me! To my prereaders for this story, Jim Nutley, T.H. Tiger, and everyone else that i'm surely forgetting: You guys are great! I couldn't have done any of this without you! To everyone else: Despite its age, i'd never pass up a chance to make this story better, so any C&C, reviews, or small rabid marsupial predators you might like to send my way would be appreciated! Well... perhaps not that last one so much, but i'm sure i'd be able to find something to so with them... Thanks for reading!
~Eimii
SHATTERED HEARTS ON THE ROAD
CHAPTER ONE
THE EIGHTH DAY...
SUNDAY
JUNE 30th, 1996
9:53 AM
There are many places that are considered "holy" by the human race; the city of Jerusalem, the Great Pyramid, and the Temple of the Sun, to name just a few. One of the lesser-known places of divinity, however, can be found just a short trip from the campus of NIT, in the greater Tokyo Bay area: a particular temple, with a beautiful cherry tree in the yard and a small auto shop in the back. Within this domicile reside three Goddesses, the Norns, and one mortal, otherwise known as Keiichi.
Keiichi was presently in the auto shop reassembling, piece by piece, a drag racing bike. He was rather absorbed in his work, and not of any particular mystical interest, so we'll just switch back to the Goddesses.
Skuld was hunched over a workbench in her room. She was wearing thick, darkened goggles and grinning widely to herself. Sparks flew erratically from the tortured-looking device that she was working on. Several feet of wire connected the object to half a dozen test machines on her desk. One of them looked disturbingly similar to an EKG. This one indicated what would normally be read as a weak but steady pulse.
The device itself was very roughly oblong in shape. Several dials and switches dotted the unopened side of its outer surface. It rested approximately one foot off of the workbench, supported by four multi-jointed stalks affixed to what could probably be considered its "bottom." A gristly crown of "appendages" ringed the "top" of the device, surrounding two eerily glowing slots. Skuld peered into an access panel on the side of the device, manipulating something best left un-described with pair of forceps and a Phillips-head screwdriver.
"This is gonna be great."
--RRIING--
"Hello, Morisato residence... Oh, Good morning sir. How are you today? ... I'm sorry to hear that. Yes, she is. Just a moment, I'll call her."
Belldandy set down the phone and walked out of the kitchen into the living room. Urd was lounging on the couch channel surfing, an expression of utter boredom on her face.
"Urd, could you go tell Skuld that she has a call from the office?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure," Urd sighed, as her mind revived itself from a near-catatonic state. Dragging herself off of the couch, she turned and walked down the hall.
"Thank you Urd. Oh! One more thing: Could you ask her if she's finished fixing the toaster?"
Nodding, Urd continued down the hall towards the bedrooms.
Stopping in front of one particular door and, and completely ignoring the numerous signs posted admonishing to knock first and warning of extreme danger, Urd barged in to the room.
-SLAM- "SKULD!! PHONE CALL!!!"
Skuld, still hunched over her workbench, flinched violently, emitting a strangled cry. A small explosion echoed through the room, and a malevolent looking basketball sized mushroom cloud rose from the workbench.
After a few moments of absolute silence Skuld straightened and, back still to the door, removed the goggles.
"The office needs to speak with you," prodded Urd, poorly concealing the rising mirth in her voice.
Turning around, Skuld favored her sister with a glare of unmasked fury, eyes narrowed and face flushed crimson, the latter evident only by the rings around her eyes, as the rest of her face was thoroughly blackened.
Completely unimpressed, Urd was now clearly struggling to maintain her composure.
As her fuming sister stalked past her, Urd turned and added, "By the way, Belldandy wanted to know if you're done with the toaster yet."
Skuld seemed to deflate a bit, then glanced back at the workbench. The EKG had flat-lined and several of the other test machines were emitting thin wisps of smoke.
"Yes, I suppose you could say that..."
"Yes sir. We'll be there right away. Goodbye."
Hanging up the telephone, Skuld's expression was very worried.
"Well?" asked Urd expectantly.
"Early this morning, someone tried to destroy the Yggdrasil system."
"WHAT??! Who would even consider such a thing? It's stupid! They'd never get past security." Urd's expression changed from shock to irritation. No one should be able to do that.
"Well, apparently they did. An explosive device of some sort was detonated inside the system archives. Yggdrasil has been offline from about one this morning until just two hours ago." Skuld's worry had deepened slightly as she repeated this.
An expression of disbelief played across Urd's face. "Seven hours offline just for losing part of the Archives? That doesn't make sense."
"I know. Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal, but something strange happened right after the bomb went off. For some reason, right after it detonated, several new varieties of bugs were spawned from the central processing core. They've been running rampant in there for the last nine hours. The system had to be shut down to prevent it from spawning progressively more virulent varieties as they eliminated the previous ones. Cutting off the affected archives seems to have helped, but there's still a ton of them up there."
Urd peered quizzically at her sister. "You're the 'system debugger.' Why didn't they call you earlier?"
"They couldn't. They had to shut down all external lines to make sure that the bugs didn't escape. That was a local call. One of the system administrators came down to earth to make that call, then went right back to heaven. We all have to go back too."
"All of us? Why? Isn't getting rid of the bugs your job?"
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Skuld continued. "The personnel archives were at the center of the explosion. They're gone. All available deities are being summoned back to heaven to fill in some paperwork and help with the containment."
"Can I help?"
Both goddesses turned to see Keiichi standing on the porch, Belldandy at his back with a small frown on her face.
"Bug-busting is hard work Keiichi! Are you sure you're up to it?" Skuld said with a stern expression on her face. Unfortunately, she still hadn't washed her face, so whatever dramatic effect she was attempting was completely ruined.
"I'll do all I can. It sounds like you need all the help you can get."
The worried expression returned with reinforcements. Sighing, Skuld conceded. "Fine, but don't come whining to me if you get in over your head."
SUNDAY
JUNE 30th
3:00 PM
'CLASS:'
"Second."
'CATEGORY:'
"Two."
'LIMITED/UNLIMITED'
"Limited."
Urd sighed from the tedium. She'd been waiting in line all afternoon for a terminal to open. That, compounded by the monotony of the questioning, was quickly souring her opinion of the Yggdrasil Interface System. Well, at least with the personnel archive gone, they can't say that I'm suspended anymore! Urd thought happily.
URD
"Huh?"
URD, YOU'RE HOLDING UP THE LINE. PROCEED TO BRIEFING ROOM THREE.
"But Kami-sama, I'm not finished filling in the form yet."
I WILL FILL IN YOUR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND DUTY STATUS PERSONALLY. NOW GO TO BRIEFING ROOM 3.
(Sigh) "Yes Lord." Well, it was worth a try.
YOU KNOW THAT IT WASN'T.
(Groan)
A terrible racket could be heard from briefing room three. The room was crowded with all manner of deities, all of them either milling about or trying to get comfortable in those awkward, lecture room style desk-seats. Sitting near the front were Belldandy, Keiichi, and Urd. Each one was wearing a pair of protective goggles, and had a long handled mallet laid across his or her shoulder. The other deities were, for the most part, similarly armed. At the moment, Skuld was nowhere in sight. Then the room quieted as Skuld stepped in from the wings and took her place behind the podium at the front of the room.
"Ahem. My fellow deities..." she paused here for a moment. "And Keiichi," she continued, casting said mortal a sour glance. Several heads turned towards Keiichi, causing him to shift uncomfortably in his seat. "I'm sure you're all aware of the reason why we're here. Early this morning there was an explosion in the central data archives. While normally not a critical situation, for some reason a massive bug outbreak coincided with the explosion. The bugs have corrupted several systems already, thus necessitating all the paperwork you've been doing lately." Skuld paused purely for dramatic effect, savoring the feeling that everyone in the room was hanging on her next word.
"At first we had no idea why this would occur. Then we did a better analysis of the area affected by the explosion. It was not a chemical, nuclear, or mystical device that caused the damage. Instead, it was some sort of Ki bomb." Murmurs of confusion and disbelief filled the room.
"Ahem." The murmurs ceased. "As I was saying, a Ki bomb releases a blast of highly concentrated spiritual energy. The archives near the epicenter of the explosion were destroyed, but this was not the real problem. The problem arose from the archives near the blast that had not been destroyed. These archives had been charged and corrupted by the energy of the explosion. It was in this state that the central processors found them while they were trying to assess the extent of the damage. When the CPU tried to access the archives, the energy and corrupted data was taken into the central processing core. Now, as you know, bugs are spontaneously created spiritual beings. When the spiritual energy was taken into the processor core, it was transformed into several new varieties of bugs. These bugs multiplied rapidly in the processor core, thus necessitating the shut down of the Yggdrasil system." Skuld stopped and faced the crowd.
"Now, the system cannot be brought fully online until the bugs are eliminated. The bugs have been contained, but completely eradicating them will take time and work. We are here to launch the first assault wave upon the bugs in the central processor core. It is vital that this area is cleared first, as the Yggdrasil system will not function properly until it is."
The lights dimmed, and a projection appeared on the wall at the front of the room. It appeared to be a picture of a rather silly looking, eight legged rabbit creature.
"While at least a dozen new types of bugs have been catalogued in the last two hours, this seems to be the most common type. It is much slower than most of the other types, but it takes more effort to kill."
The picture switched to a grainy color video of a young red haired goddess sneaking up on a bug quite similar in appearance to the one in the picture. Crying loudly, the goddess pounced on the unsuspecting bug, mallet swinging in a long downward arc to impact with the bug's skull. The cry changed to one of surprise as the mallet's head snapped off, and the goddess went tumbling forward to land on her face. The bug, on the other hand, looked thoroughly unimpressed. The scene then cut to a different angle. The same bug was shown. This time, however, the goddess was dragging behind her a very large, long handled mallet. Its head was almost two feet in diameter.
"It should be noted at this point that there is one more unusual trait that this particular type of bug exhibits. Please watch closely."
The goddess leaned back. Then, with a grunt of exertion, she brought the mallet up over her head and down onto the bug. Upon impact with the bug there was a bright flash of green light and a deafening roar. When the light faded, only a small crater remained where the bug used to be. The mallet was nowhere in sight, but the goddess now lay on her back at the opposite end of the room, scorched and groaning loudly. The image blinked out as Skuld stepped forward again.
"Good luck. Try not to destroy any of them on or near the processor units. Dismissed."
A collective groan of dread escaped from the crowd.
MONDAY
JULY 1st
11:42 AM
Urd collapsed upon the couch in exhaustion.
"Ohh... It shouldn't be possible to feel this bad without being mortally wounded..." She turned over and closes her eyes. Two whole days...
The battle against the bugs in her sector had been a stalemate for the entire first day. The things kept springing up as fast as they could destroy them. Taking into account the wallop those suckers packed when you actually did kill them, and... well, it was safe to say that the deities in processor bank 243D7X34 were in less than high spirits by the day's end.
Then that psycho with the umbrella shows up and starts bashing the things left and right. Must've been some sort of war god, though I've never heard of any war god who 'effortlessly crushes his foes, mightily swinging his holy transuranic umbrella.'
The bug population in sector 243D7X34 had declined sharply on the second day of operation "Hammer Time," until late that evening, when the sector had been declared "clean." The responsible deities had then been allowed to go about their own business, which usually involved immediately finding somewhere to curl up and hibernate.
The system administrators had not been terribly pleased with the amount of damage the sector had suffered. But, as no one could locate the umbrella-wielding god responsible, the rest were let off with only a minor reprimand.
I wonder when Belldandy and Keiichi are going to get back. They had been assigned to a much larger group of deities in one of the inner processor banks. When last Urd had checked the score, they had been doing only slightly better than her group had been on the first day.
--|--
Belldandy quietly waved for Keiichi to come closer. The motorcycle mechanic, who was peering around a corner to their left, tiptoed to her.
"Keiichi, there's one over there," Belldandy whispered to him, pointing to an alcove down the hall and to the right. Keiichi nodded, and readied his mallet.
Keiichi's present weapon differed markedly from the mallet he had in the briefing room. First, there was a small blast shield affixed near the middle of the handle. Second, the rear end of the head seemed to be hollowed out, the cavity glowing slightly red. Finally, near Keiichi's hands the mallet handle had a single, trigger-like button on the grip.
I hope this works better than some of Skuld's inventions, prayed Keiichi as he crept up to the alcove. Just as he was about to round the corner, a loud explosion echoed through the hall, bits of wall and computer flying out of the alcove. Keiichi ducked for cover as a young man came bounding out of the alcove, followed by a swarm of bugs.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!!" the man bellowed, turning on his pursuers.
Raising his arm, he swung an umbrella? down into the massed crowd of bugs. Frantically, Keiichi tackled Belldandy to the ground, shielding her with his body just as one of the bugs exploded. When the flash dissipated, they turned to see the young man, who appeared to be completely unfazed, glaring at the remaining bugs, which were now scattered around the room. With a final glance, he took off down the corridor. The bugs quickly regrouped to resume the chase, leaving behind a stunned Belldandy and Keiichi.
"What do you suppose that was?" asked Keiichi, after he finally succeeded in finding his voice.
Belldandy, unable to formulate any kind of explanation, just shook her head in bewilderment.
--|--
Urd sighed sullenly. Well, they'll get back when they do, I suppose.
TUESDAY
JULY 2nd
5:00 PM
"We're home! Urd, are you here?"
Urd woke suddenly from her peaceful slumber, and turned in the direction of Keiichi's voice. This was a mistake, as several sore muscles she hadn't previously been aware that she had immediately decided to make their presence known.
"Urgh...In here," she called from the living room.
Keiichi and Belldandy looked terribly haggard as they entered the room. Keiichi's eyes were bloodshot and underlined with dark rings. His hair and clothes were a mess, and he listed slightly to his left side. Belldandy, though not as disheveled, also seemed to be having trouble standing.
Lord, I hope I don't look as bad as those two.
"So, what took you?" she said, trying to keep Belldandy awake long enough for Keiichi to lead her to her room.
"What took us? We were the second group to finish!" declared Keiichi. "Actually it would have taken much longer, but something weird happened last night, about the time your group finished."
"Let me guess. Some insane god swinging an umbrella stormed through your sector bashing the hell out of everything in sight," quipped Urd, sounding like she had repeated this statement several times before.
"Something like that," Keiichi replied, examining Urd closely. "How did you know?"
"He was probably on his way out of my sector when you met him."
"Really?" asked Belldandy faintly. "Do you know his name? The system administrators would like to have some words with him."
"Sorry, sis. He never told us, and he disappeared right after the job was done."
"Sounds familiar," Keiichi muttered. " Well, it looks like I'd better get Belldandy here to bed."
As he turned them towards the hall, Keiichi suddenly paused and started digging in his pockets. He fished out a computer disk and set it on the table. "I almost forgot. This is for you from one of the administrators." With that, he turned back to Belldandy and began slowly guiding her down the hall.
Urd, against her better judgement, attempted to sit up so that she could examine the disk. One hundred million nerves throughout her body decided to light bonfires of protest.
She paused for almost a minute, waiting for the ache to subside, then continued in increments, until she was standing stiffly with the disk in hand. "This had better be good," she growled, tottering unsteadily towards Skuld's room.
She paused at the door, smirking slightly at the mess. Then, giving the "toaster" a wide berth, she made her way to the computer.
After opening the only file on the disk, Urd carefully read over the simple text message. Urd read it over twice, trying hard not to laugh out loud in self-pity.
"They got me out of bed for THIS??!"
She read it over once more, just to be sure.
'To: Urd
Norn: Goddess of the Past
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
It has come to our attention that you are presently unassigned, and thus are free to assist us in a very important matter. We are presently unable to locate one:
Hibiki Ryouga
God of Unrequited Love
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
We believe him to be somewhere on earth. His name suggests that he is perhaps based in Japan, although his current assignment is also unknown. It would be a great help to us if you would endeavor to locate our Mr. Hibiki at the earliest possible convenience, and direct him back to the processing office so that we might update our files on him. We thank you in advance for your cooperation. Have a nice day.
From: Mihrna
System Administrator
Goddess of Messengers
Class: 2 Category:1
Limited'
They have got to be kidding, Urd thought to herself. They didn't even include a picture of the guy! "How do they expect me to find this guy if they haven't got any real idea where he is, and they won't even tell me what he looks like? This is a joke; that's what it is. One of those jerks in sys-admin is making fun of me because I'm stuck here on suspension." She snarled at the screen. "Well, I'm not buying it! They're just going to have to find some other way to amuse themselves."
Urd popped the disk out of the drive and stalked off towards her room. Or, at least she started to stalk off. At this point her muscles declared, under no uncertain terms, that they weren't going anywhere without a fight. The net effect was a rather painful lurch that truly wanted to stalk. And so Urd, mission received, acknowledged, and ignored, collapsed on her bed, bruised but triumphant. I'm not leaving this spot for the rest of the week, no matter what anybody says.
SATURDAY
JUNE 30th
7:17 AM
A dirty, bedraggled figure shambled down a well-worn cobblestone street. Joggers and the like skirted around the stranger, making warding gestures and hurrying along. From time to time his tattered, dusty cloak would flap in the wind, seeming to writhe and lash out with a life of its own. The hood of the cloak was pulled over the stranger's head, shielding his features from the rising sun.
Stopping for a moment, the stranger peered intently at his surroundings. I know this place. The stranger unlimbered his heavy pack and dropped it roughly to the ground, mindless of the cloud of dust this raised.
This is the resort town where the Inn of the Vengeful Spirit Doll is. The stranger's stomach growled loudly. Maybe they'll let me chop wood for food again. A soak in one of the hot springs would be nice too...
The stranger pulled back his hood, revealing the dirty, tired face of Hibiki Ryouga. He sighed morosely. "No. I have to find the Tendo Dojo. I still might have time to stop them. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to postpone the wedding. Things can happen. Heck, knowing Ranma, they almost have to happen." Still, a small voice chimed in the back of Ryouga's mind, Eight days is a long time. Ryouga quashed the voice immediately.
"Well, at least I'm in Japan."
"RYOUGA-KUN!!"
Ryouga stopped, for a moment not being able to believe his good fortune. He turned in the direction of the voice.
Akane was standing there, wearing a flowing yellow sundress and a smile. She raised her hand, waving to get his attention.
"Akane-san!"
She's here! I'm not too late! Ryouga rushed across the street to meet her.
"Akane-san. I'm so glad I found you." I've got to tell her my feelings so that she can call off the wedding. Ryouga looked deep into Akane's shining brown eyes, trying to summon the courage to open his heart to her. For a moment his consciousness swam in those twin pools of warmth, unwilling to ruin the moment with words.
"We were all worried about you Ryouga. We missed you at the wedding," Akane answered.
Ryouga's reverie shattered as a swirling vortex threatened to pull him under. "Wedding...?" he said weakly, unable to summon much more than a whisper.
"Of course!" Akane replied cheerily. "Didn't you get an invitation?"
"But...but you're here. How...?" Ryouga managed, frantically grasping at anything he could find as his hopes and dreams crumbled around him, each jagged shard cutting away part of his soul.
"The wedding was eight days ago Ryouga. We're on our honeymoon now!" Akane's smile widened as she held up her hand for Ryouga to see.
Numbly looking down, Ryouga noticed a gold ring on Akane's finger. Two interlaced bands of white gold, worked to flow around a single small, perfect diamond. Tiny leaves and thorns were etched into the surface of the bands, all seeming to lead towards the diamond in the center.
"Yo! Mr. P! Long time no see buddy."
A hand clapped down on Ryouga's shoulder.
"You shouldn't tease him like that Ranma!" Akane said as she lowered her hand, none of the usual venom in her voice.
Ranma circled around him, his hands behind his back. "He deserves it. He was supposed to be the best man, but what does he do? He doesn't even bother to show up. Where the hell did you go this time, P-chan?"
"It's not his fault Ranma," Akane admonished. Then she seemed to realize something. "What did you just call him?"
"P-chan! You know! Little, black side of bacon with a bandanna and no sense of direction?"
"I know my P-chan. But why are you calling Ryouga that?"
"Because of this!" Ranma suddenly brought his right hand around in a wide arc, passing it a foot front of Ryouga's face.
Ryouga, still stunned and broken, failed to dodge the ice water that splashed from the glass in Ranma's hand. The cold shock brought him back to his senses, and he looked up from his new position at the quickly changing expression on Akane's face.
"P... P-chan?" Akane stuttered, confusion and horror warring across her features.
Ranma whipped around to the side, producing a kettle from somewhere. Ryouga squealed in terror as the stream of hot water hit, his cry quickly becoming more human in tone before dying in his throat.
Akane stood stock still as Ryouga quickly re-clothed himself. He licked his lips.
"Akane, I can explain..." he said, not looking up.
"EXPLAIN?!?!" came the reply. Ryouga raised his head to see Akane's face. The confusion and horror had been replaced by a mask of pure rage.
"HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN?!?!" Ryouga shrank back from the onslaught. "I treated you as a friend! And you used me!! You betrayed my trust and my privacy! What kind of sicko are you?!" Then a thought seemed to occur to her. If Ryouga could have screamed, he would have, as Akane's expression suddenly darkened in hate.
"You listened to my most private thoughts. And I brought you to bed with me. Every time I held P-chan, I was holding you. And you never tried to resist, never once tried to tell me. You're not a man. You're not even a pig. You're a monster." Akane's voice had been getting steadily louder as Ryouga felt every last shred of his humanity being stripped away.
"I HATE YOU!" Ryouga flinched as if struck, but Akane never moved a hair. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN!" With that, she spun on her heel and stormed off.
Ranma favored him with an amused smirk before following. When he caught up with Akane, he placed an arm around her shoulders. Akane, rather than hitting him, responded by wrapping her arm around his waist. They walked quickly down the street, neither of them ever looking back.
Ryouga didn't notice. Akane hates me. He was too drained to cry. He felt as though his chest was going to cave in, nothing left inside to support it any longer. Her words echoed through his mind, reverberating and redoubling themselves until the words "I HATE YOU" rang out clear and deafening, blasting away his last vestige of conscious thought.
"AKANE!!!!"
An animal cry shattered the windows of the shops up and down the street. What followed was a sound that would make the denizens of the darkest pits of hell cringe; a soul chilling wail of pure despair that no beast of this or any other earth should ever have been able to produce. A seven-kilometer high column of white flame lanced towards the heavens from the center of town. The denizens of the town were thankfully blasted to ash instantaneously. Not so lucky were those in the outlying countryside. There, the people watched helpless as a new sun strove to escape the bonds of gravity, and failed. They survived several moments longer as it fell, brilliant and unstoppable, the wrath of the gods unleashed upon the earth.
"AKANE!!"
Ryouga sat up violently, knocking over the small hooded lantern that he had set beside his sleeping bag. His breathing was quick and ragged, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. He looked frantically back and forth, searching for the blasted town. Searching for Akane. Then he remembered where he was.
It was only a dream. He breathed a sigh of relief, still badly shaken. "It was only a dream." Repeating it aloud seemed to help a bit. Akane doesn't hate me. I still have time. After repeating this to himself several times, Ryouga looked around his campsite. In the early light of the morning, Ryouga could tell that something was definitely wrong.
He was still in the humid, swampy region that he had set up camp in. But he had set up camp in an old growth region. His campsite had been surrounded by large, ancient trees. While the trees around him now were certainly not saplings, they were clearly not the same. Sometime in the night, somebody must have moved him to a new growth region.
The natives? He had not seen any in the last day, but it was not impossible. At least it looks like they left me all my gear, he thought uneasily. But it was a matter for another time. Right now, the need to get to Tokyo overrode all other concerns. So, with his gear packed and the rising sun at his back, a determined Ryouga set off for Japan.
FRIDAY
JULY 5th
11:30 AM
"Skuld-san."
Skuld, who was lounging tiredly in a chair in the administrative lobby, looked up to see Mihrna, one of the system administration goddesses, running up to her.
"Don't tell me they broke into sector 001C1A24 again." A pained expression crossed Skuld's face. "I don't think I could move another inch if I wanted to."
"No, sector 001C1A24 is fine," Mihrna conceded, but her violet eyes reflected deep concern.
"What is it then?"
"Some of the guys in records think they've found a match for the energy pattern in the explosion and in these new bugs." Mihrna took a seat next to Skuld and handed her a data pad.
Accepting it, Skuld noted that Mihrna's expression was anything but pleased. While it was not unusual for the Goddess of Messengers to be depressed, as she tended to be the bearer of bad news, Mihrna was looking especially uncomfortable just now. "What's wrong? You look like your mother just died."
"Just look at the file."
Intrigued, Skuld scanned down the information on the data pad. It was a historical record taken from the Ultimate Force System archives.
' At precisely 7:17:24 am, earth relative time, on Saturday June 30th, 1908, the Ultimate Force System was engaged without authorization by an unknown party. The access point was in the Earth realm, 101 E by 62 N, in the Central Siberian Peninsula. The area is known as the Tunguska region. A column of spiritual energy was projected to an altitude of 7.6 kilometers, where it stopped and collected for 1.7 seconds. A barrier was erected around the resultant sphere of force, in the hopes of containing it. The barrier fell .02 seconds after it was erected, when the sphere moved into contact with it and destabilized.
The resultant explosion created a wave of superheated plasma, which expanded outward with an estimated explosive force of 40 megatons. A 26- kilometer radius was affected by the blast. Everything in that area was effectively leveled. A 10-kilometer radius near the epicenter of the blast immediately flashed into flame due to the intense heat. In total, 1000km^2 of forest was consumed by the fires.
Since that time, plant species growing in the 2150km^2 affected region have displayed increased growth rates and incidence of genetic mutation. No Deitic or Demonic force has ever been implicated in the incident. No trace of the perpetrator was ever found, though an analysis of temporal flux at location of the incident suggests that the perpetrator may have fled the era some time during or after the incident.'
Skuld looked up from the printout. "I'd never heard of this before. What does this have to do with our present dilemma?"
"The archives are temporally aligned with the mortal plane. Relative to us, this incident occurred less than five hours ago. The energy signature of the Tunguska incident matches perfectly with the energy traces found both in the archives and in the new bugs."
Skuld felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
"You don't think it could be...?"
Fear painted Mihrna's face. Skuld suspected that she looked about the same. Mihrna nodded solemnly.
"This is very bad..." whispered Skuld, voicing their mutual thoughts.
FRIDAY
JULY 5th
11:47 AM
A terrible keening sound emitted from Skuld's room. It easily penetrated throughout the temple grounds, scaring off the birds in the yard and roughly waking the temple's single slumbering occupant.
Urd pressed the pillows harder to the sides of her head. It didn't help.
"AARGH!!" When I get through with whatever is making that noise it will wish it had been the toaster, Urd thought crossly as she stumbled out of her room in her nightgown and hurried down the hall.
Skuld's room was still in its previous state of disarray. Urd immediately stubbed her toe on something and growled several rather unprintable imprecations. I'm going to have a talk with that brat as soon as she gets back.
The culprit turned out to be Skuld's computer, which was, in addition to producing the horrible noise, constantly flashing a bright yellow 'EMERGENCY' sign on its screen.
Urd roughly pounded the keyboard and the keening ceased. The emergency sign was replaced by a message marked 'URGENT' and printed in bright red letters.
'ATTENTION ALL EARTH BOUND DEITIES. A STATE OF EXTREME EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED. THE PERPETRATOR OF THE RECENT ATTACK UPON THE YGGDRASIL COMPUTER SYSTEM IS BELIEVED TO BE A ROGUE DEITY.'
Urd paled noticeably at this, but continued reading.
'THIS PERSON, WHO HAS ON AT LEAST ONE OCCASION ACCESSED THE ULTIMATE FORCE SYSTEM WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, IS BELIEVED TO SOMEWHERE ON EARTH, TIME PERIOD JULY 1996. ALL AVAILABLE DEITIES ARE ORDERED TO CONDUCT A BLANKET SEARCH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GEOGRAPHIC AREAS. AN ENERGY TRACE SIGNATURE IS INCLUDED WITH THIS MESSAGE TO ALLOW FOR IDENTIFICATION. ALL DEITIES ARE ORDERED TO REPORT IN AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS IMMEDIATELY UPON LOCATION. CONTACT IS TO BE USED ONLY AS A LAST RESORT. CLASS THREE OR LESSER ENTITIES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO RETREAT SHOULD CONTACT SEEM IMMANENT. THIS PERSON IS TO BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. S/HE IS SUSPECTED TO BE CAPABLE OF SPIRITUAL PROJECTION, TEMPORAL SHIFTING, AND UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS OF THE ULTIMATE FORCE. WE AGAIN ENCOURAGE THE UTMOST CAUTION. THIS IS A CRITICAL SITUATION, AND MUST BE ATTENDED TO IMMEDIATELY. GOOD LUCK TO YOU, AND GODSPEED.'
Urd slumped into the chair as she finished the message.A rogue god...The very idea was abhorrent. And one that could summon the Ultimate Force at will! No. Mustn't think like that. They didn't say that.
Slowly walking down the hall, Urd cast a worried glance at Belldandy's room as she proceeded towards her own. Belldandy and Keiichi went to the beach for the weekend. And Skuld's still in heaven...
She sat on her bed for several minutes, mulling over the situation at hand. Then, standing and summoning her clothes, she marched towards the living room. "Alright. Let's see that rogue god just try to destroy my city."
Kami-sama, I wish I was as confident as that sounded.
Mara clicked off her small laptop computer and leaned back on the bench, contemplating.Heaven net is being really sloppy with their transmission encrypting lately. I wonder what's going on.
The demoness's computer vanished in a puff of acrid smoke, much to the surprise of several park-goers. But Mara was too deep in thought to notice their looks.
A rogue god, huh? That could prove very useful. She smiled to herself then, a smile of the truly wicked; the sort of smile that suddenly erupts into maniacal laughter. But Mara really wasn't mad enough to get it right, so she just smiled as she stood up and walked out of the park.
And when I bring him to Hell after I deal with those goddesses, I'll bet they give me a raise and a promotion to boot. She was tempted to laugh, but held it in for later. Gotta find `im first...