Where Fate Exists

(CHAPTER V)

The sensation was something that felt vaguely familiar, but no matter how many times I felt it I would never get completely used to it. I had attempted to grab the book that might have held the answers to all my questions. Yet, when my fingers reached the cover, instead of feeling the cool leather that I expected, I felt a surge of power rush though my arm and up to my forehead. Before I could react, the ground where I had been sitting disappeared beneath my feet, and my body felt like it was moving at immeasurable high speeds.

A bright light blinded my sight and so I had no choice but to wait to find out where I ended up. A few seconds later, I felt my body hit solid ground again.

I stood up quickly. I didn't want to let my guard down, having no idea where I was, and feeling scared.

It was then that I realized that letting my guard down was the last of my worries. As I looked around, I saw that there was nothing around me, literally nothing. As far as the eye could see there was just space. It was an empty point in the universe. Yet as indescribable as it seems, there was light. It didn't seem like there was nothing, even when there was nothing. I could see for miles, I just couldn't see anything.

"Where am I…" I asked no one. The answer I feared the most came immediately.

Silence

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"WHAT THE **** JUST HAPPENED!!!" Yelled Urd, speaking for everyone else in the room.

Urd's overreaction would have been dismissed as normal, weren't it for the severity of the problem. Given the circumstances at hand, she merely echoed Skuld's and Belldandy's feelings.

A few minutes ago everything had been going to plan. Belldandy, Skuld and Urd had been navigating through time, looking for any remnants of Steve. Then suddenly, time seemed to almost repel them. In complete unison all three Goddesses lost control of the time stream. This wouldn't have been much of a problem, if it weren't for the absence of Laura.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" asked a worried and disturbed Skuld.

"I'm afraid it does, Steve is not the only one lost in time." replied Belldandy.

In the midst of this, no one seemed to notice the lack of Keiichi Morisato.

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"This is just too perfect!!" a gleeful demon exclaimed. "Not only did they lose Laura in time, but Keiichi is gone too! Belldandy will be mortified when she finds out."

Taking pleasure in such misfortune is what a demon is best suited for. However, causing problems for earth realm mortals is just a benefit of their job. A demon's entire existence is dedicated to one thing, separating people from Kami-sama. A demon cannot live without tempting people to perform evil acts and offering them perishables for their souls. Despite all the work that demons put into tempting people to the dark side so to speak, people still have free will. Free will – fate's twin brother. Gods and Demons alike knew that fate existed, yet even they couldn't explain how people are both dictated by fate and have free will. Humans tend to believe in one or the other, not usually having the divine ties to confirm or deny either. To the Gods and Demons, it was another story. Not a lot was known about fate, Kami-sama refused to give a lot of information on the subject to anyone who inquired. Many thought this was because it was all part of his "master plan". Others thought that even he didn't know what fate was. At the end of the day, people still convinced themselves that the choices they made were a decision they made themselves.

Even with the unseen restrictions fate put on the Gods, Demons, and mortals, it didn't stop bad things happening to good people, which is why many people reject the existence of the divine.

Igor started to laugh maniacally. Fate had smiled upon him and he was relishing it. He knew at once he would have to report the status to Oni-sama. The first class Demon smiled at the thought, perhaps the serpent of old would give him a promotion for work well done.

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Laura had not been having a good week. First her boyfriend ends up lost in time, and now she had a head ache that caused enormous discomfort. She stood up slowly trying to keep her balance, she reached out to grab a hold of something, anything, but found nothing.

She shook her head and opened her eyes slowly, the second she did so she wished had hadn't. Around her was nothing, space, mile and miles of empty space, with one exception.

"LAURA!" a familiar voice shouted.

It was Steve!

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Belldandy, Urd and Skuld had fallen asleep almost immediately after the search through time. Despite losing Laura, all three had spent a great deal of energy trying to navigate through time. Even Urd's sake and Skuld's ice cream could not keep them awake.

It was Urd who awoke first, sighing to herself and beginning to contemplate the situation that had arisen out of earlier, she began to wonder. Why did they use Laura in the first place? They are the three norns of the past, present and future, they don't need the help of a mortal.

Try as she might, she could not figure out why they had used Laura. Entering the kitchen she noticed the book left carelessly on the table.

"You! You were the one that started all this" Urd stated to accuse the book. She reached over to grab it, only to have it crumble into a million pieces in her hands. "A FAKE!" she thought wildly.

Urd's head began to spin. Everything was flashing back to her. She had no memory of getting the book, all she knew is that when she had arrived back from granting Steve's wish, it was there. The Norns didn't need mortals to travel and search though time. It was all a setup. "But what powerful magic!" Urd thought as she ran into the bedroom to awake her sisters.

"BELL!" "SKULD!" "Wake up!" Urd shouted.

Belldandy sighed sleepily and rolled over, attempting to ignore her sister. Urd liked this, it meant that Belldandy was only sleeping, instead of being passed out from magic exhaustion. Skuld mentioned something about ice cream as well as dumb big sister and followed Belldandy's example.

Urd had neither the patience nor mood to deal with this. Importing a glass of water from the kitchen, she promptly dumped it on both Skuld and Belldandy, who promptly awoke.

"AACCCK, IT'S COLD, WHO…" Skuld looked at her elder sister who was holding the now empty glass of water. "YOU! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT." Skuld produced a Skuld-bomb and was up on her feet before Urd had time to blink.

"Skuld! Settle down." Her other soaked sister said sternly but not shouting either. "Clearly Urd has something important to discuss with us." Belldandy was a remarkable person, despite being soaked in her nightshirt, she remained attentive to the situation at hand and knew that Urd had important things to discuss with them. "So go ahead Urd, what do you need to tell us." Her voice sounded impatient, as if saying. "This had better be good, or you'll be sorry."

Urd started to talk so fast that many words became one long word, and a new language was born. Belldandy stepped in and told her sister to slow down.

Urd took a deep breath and nodded.

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Keiichi had been through many dangerous and weird things since Belldandy had arrived about 3 years ago. There was the whole "Lord of Terror", as well as Celeste causing Belldandy to lose her memory. Despite all of this, Keiichi and Belldandy always made it through, and they were happy. They rarely fought, and if they did, the issues were quickly resolved. Most people would say that if you never fight with your mate then it's a sign of your relationship being in trouble. Of course the opposite it true as well, constant disagreements are not good either.

While the Goddesses had been trying to navigate through time, Keiichi had busied himself in the garage working on his motorbike, he remembered reaching to grab a wench when it suddenly disappeared. There was a bright flash and he found himself flying through space, traveling at many times the speed of light, yet it didn't seem to phase him. He seemed to be just standing there, watching space and time

fly by him.

Another bright flashed occurred and Keiichi found himself lying on a cool wet surface. Sitting up slowly and holding his head, he looked around. He did not recognize the area, it seemed to resemble something out of the history books, while at the same time everything seemed to be new.

He stood up completely and brushed himself off, unsure of where to go in this foreign land he started to walk. There was a strange tone in the air, a tone of fear. It was then that he noticed there were very few people around, the area resembled that of a busy downtown area, but the population didn't resemble the structures.

Walking past a discarded newspaper left on carelessly on a park bench, he felt his knees become weak when he saw the title and date of the newspaper. "The Hiroshima Times". August 6th 1945.

Now for someone who doesn't know their Japanese history, they would most likely be put off by the fact that they were 58 years in the past, but that was secondary of Keiichi's concerns at the moment. Every Japanese student knew exactly what happened on August 6th and 9th of the year 1945 in Japan. Millions were killed instantly by the atomic weapons possessed by the U.S.A It was this day that the first bomb was dropped. It was a horrible piece of Japanese history, and a hard lessoned learned by every nation who knew of the awesome destructive power of the atomic bomb.

It was at this moment that Keiichi's worst fears came true. He heard the air raid sirens screech over the sky and the sound of planes flying over the city.

"Oh…****" Keiichi stuttered.

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Sitting in the void of space creates an interesting mix of emotions for the unfortunate who end up there. First, it's boring. There was simply nothing for Steve and Laura to do besides sit around and wait. Both had already recounted their individual timelines that ended in their arrival to this location. Laura was fascinated at Steve receiving this wish, while Steve was touched by the sincere concern that his girlfriend emulated for him.

Steve was just about to speak when a noise similar to that of nails on a chalkboard at the volume of a jet airplane screeched across the very fabric of space and time.

Both Steve and Laura shielded their ears as best they could, but it was useless. The noise was just too great. Neither had to suffer long however, they both passed out quickly.

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Urd watched the eyes grow wide on her sisters as she explained the revelation that she had come to. Both seemed to be shocked beyond belief, and as they should be. For someone to possess the magic to manipulate the minds and souls of three goddesses, two mortals and forge official Yggdrasil documents, the concept was beyond approach. Let alone someone who was using it, and possibly had more power at their disposal.

Skuld was clearly more frightened than Belldandy was, despite her constant attempts to act older and convince everyone she was an adult. Her eyes showed the fear only a child could emulate.

Belldandy on the other hand seemed to be rather calm about the whole ordeal, after her initial shock had worn off she accepted it as fact and was clearly in deep thought.

"The question is why." Belldandy said, breaking the silence. "Why would someone want to make us lose Steve and Laura in time?"

Urd broke Belldandy's train of thought with a question Belldandy would later hate herself for not asking. "Um….where is Keiichi?"

Belldandy sprang to attention, extending her senses to the surrounding area, she could find no trace of her lover. "Oh…my" she whispered. The words didn't do just as to the severity of the situation. "He's not here!" Belldandy's eyes grew wide and her lip started to tremble.

Urd knew this look, and she knew she had to do something before it got out of hand. "Belldandy, calm down, you're only going to be able to do something if you're calm." Urd said this while grabbing her sister's shoulders, as to close the lid and keep any sense left in her body from escaping.

Belldandy nodded and started to breathe deeply. It wasn't as if she needed to breathe, as a Goddess she could keep her human form alive without the necessary breathing for humans. Over the past few years however, while living on the mortal plane. She had learned to imitate lots of things that humans do that Gods and Goddesses didn't need to. The steady breathing helped her to calm down so she could think clearly.

With Keiichi's need for speed and Belldandy's bad habit of over reacting, Belldandy was often caught getting overworked for no reason. Yet at the moment, she knew something was terribly wrong. With all that had happened recently, Belldandy knew she had reason for concern.

It is not always clear why certain people fall in love and others don't. For a pair like Keiichi and Belldandy, to transcend the Heavens and mortal laws, and willing to do anything to protect their love. Some people would call them soul mates, others would say it was good luck. Nevertheless Keiichi and Belldandy were connected, perhaps long before they existed they were connected. Such things could never be proven. Belldandy and Keiichi knew that their love consisted of something special, something that could never be described with words. Love so powerful, fate itself might have had a hand in it.

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Keiichi wasn't sure what to do, he heard people scream and run in every direction. He also heard the plane engines roaring across the sky. The entire scene seemed to play out in slow motion. He started to run, he was running as fast as he could yet he seemed to be moving incredibly slow. Lost in the crowd of confusion, he was knocked down by another man of equal size to himself. He caught the young man's eyes as he fell and saw nothing but terror. The young man ran off hardly noticing Keiichi. A massive force shook the earth and Keiichi turned to see what only could be described as hell on earth. A massive mushroom cloud formed in the distance, it's fire engulfing everything that stood in its path. Keiichi knew he had no chance, he stood up slowly and stared at the approaching inferno.

"Bell…" Was all me managed to whisper before he was consumed by the flames.

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Belldandy's eyes grew wide as she shouted an ear piercing scream. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Urd and Skuld covered their ears and exchanged glances. They both watched as Belldandy collapsed onto the ground and broke down into tears. Gasping half formed sentences like "Kei…dead." and "…gone".

Urd was totally taken aback at the situation that had formed in front of her eyes. She knelt down and tried to console Belldandy.

"Belldandy, he's not dead…we just can't find him." Urd spoke softly.

"HE IS DEAD, I CAN FEEL IT." Belldandy shouted and then resumed to cry.

Urd looked at Skuld for help and recived nothing but a shrug. Urd started to think of what else to say to calm her sister when an ear piercing screech echoed across the very fabric of time and space. All three Goddesses fell victim to the sound and fainted without objection.

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"DON'T EVER CALL ME A …." Skuld broke off her sentence in a heartbeat.

My feelings also changed instantly and from the look on Belldandy's face, so did hers.

"How the…what…why are we here?" I started to sputter. Confusion was rampant in the room as both Belldandy and Skuld looked at each other. It was at that moment Belldandy ran from the room shouting something about Keiichi.

I was left there with Skuld with many unanswered questions. Just seconds before I had been in the void of space with my girlfriend. Now I was in a situation that had happened yesterday. Skuld's eyes presented an equal amount of confusion. So I thought I'd get right to the point.

"What just happened?" I asked, partly knowing that Skuld had no more of an idea that I did.

"I'm not sure." She replied. She then continued to explain what she had been doing before we ended up here, she explained all the way back to my disappearance and then asked where I had been. I then started to explain as best I could where I had been and what I had been doing.

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Keiichi almost fainted when he realized where he was. The last thing he remembered was being hit with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Now he was back in his garage working on his bike. "Is this heaven?" He asked himself.

He stood up slowly, taking in all that was around him. "Was I dreaming?" he wondered to himself. He didn't have much time to think about the subject further, as just then his Girlfriend burst through the doors and wrapped her arms around him.

"Keiichi!" Belldandy exclaimed as she held him tightly. His throat started to sting with the emotional enormity of the situation. He returned the hold and sat there simply existing in the moment. Belldandy's voice broke the silence. "I thought….I thought you were dead…" Her eyes started to stream tears of joy and she held him tighter.

Keiichi was unsure of how to respond to that statement, he sat there in silence for a moment before taking a bold move. He locked his lips with hers in a passionate kiss. In a moment like this, both knew that no words could describe what they wanted to say.