Chapter 9
One month later.
"HE'S WHAT?!?!"
"Geez Asuka you don't need to shout."
Asuka glared at Sayoko. Sayoko ignored the glare and continued to pack various items from her room at her parent's house in boxes and in her suitcase.
"He's become the Head of Security for the Shogun in Japoness, thanks to Lorelei."
"I thought he was going to stay on Earth?" asked Asuka.
"He was thinking about it." Sayoko replied, "But after seeing Earth." She shook her head. "He said it was like living in the movie 'Blade Runner'."
Asuka looked at the assembled piles of boxes. "So you're going with him, back to Terra 2."
Sayoko nodded. "Yes."
"You know what Hikari would say?" Asuka asked with a smile.
Sayoko stopped for a moment.
"She'd say 'OH MY GOD! YOU'RE LIVING IN SIN!'" She then went back to packing.
"She's right."
"I already told you, I'm not that kind of Goddess. Besides, in a couple of weeks, we'll be married."
"What does your mother say?"
Sayoko stopped packing.
"She said to follow my heart." She looked at Asuka. "And it's with Kensuke on Terra 2."
Asuka smiled, then grabbed Sayoko in a hug.
"Even if it's with that stooge, I'm happy for you."
Sayoko returned the hug.
"Thank you."
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"You and the goddess. Who would've thought it." muttered Touji, "Almost like Shinji ending up with the demon."
Shinji glared at Touji, then turned to Kensuke.
"So," Shinji asked, "What are your plans?"
The two guardians and their friend were in a bar in Japoness.
"Sayoko and I are going to live here." He said, "In fact, she's up in heaven packing her stuff."
"All of it?" Shinji asked.
Kensuke frowned. "What do you mean all of it?"
"Ken, she's a girl……."
"I think I figured that part out by now."
Shinji shook his head. "No you don't understand. It's been five hundred years since you last saw her."
"I'm aware of that."
Touji spoke up. "What Shinji is trying to say, is that Sayoko has had five hundred years to do a girls favorite pastime."
Kensuke frowned. "What?"
"Touji, Kensuke hasn't been dating long enough to know." Shinji said.
"Sorry, I forgot." Touji looked at Kensuke. "Woman love to shop Ken."
"What's that have to do with Sayoko?" Kensuke asked.
"Ken," Shinji said, "She's never dated anyone else. She's been waiting for you. As a result, she had a lot of free time."
"So she went shopping?" Touji and Shinji nodded at him. "How much stuff could a girl buy?"
"She's just not any girl Ken, she's a goddess. And she's had 500 years."
Kensuke thought about that for a second, then looked back at his two friends. "I'm in trouble aren't I?"
"Big trouble."
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Earth
Neo-Tokyo
One day later.
It was raining.
Hard.
Celes pulled her jacket tighter to her body, trying to keep the rain out and the warmth in. Not that she'd catch a cold or anything. It was more from the point of comfort.
She hated the cold.
She also hated being alone, but that couldn't be helped. After five hundred years, she'd given up on making friends with mortals.
Well that wasn't entirely true. She'd met every Suzuhara since Touji on down. All of them had considered her family.
Then there was her unusual relationship with the Goddess. She'd lived with Sayoko in Lake Kizaki for almost 60 years. Since then, she and the Goddess had kept in constant touch. Sayoko would also come and spend two weeks with her at her apartment in Neo-Tokyo, always right around Christmas, when her lover had disappeared. She'd heard from Sayoko three weeks before. Somehow, her lover had returned. Celes was happy for her friend. His loss had weighed heavily on the Goddess for a long time.
Celes had reached a street corner and was waiting for the light to change when she felt as if someone was watching her. She turned and slowly looked to her right. Her blood froze. There standing on next to her was a Priest. But not just any Priest, it was Father Alexander Anderson, Member of Division 13 of the Vatican Special Forces, the Iscariot Order.
Celes looked around. There were too many people for her to open fire. She couldn't run either, the sidewalk was too packed with people.
"Hello Abomination." He said.
The voice sent chills down her spine.
"What do you want?" she asked, though she knew the answer.
"To send you to hell where you belong." He replied, "I've spent almost 550 years searching for you and your demonic master." He glared at her. "I may not have found him, but I have found you."
"This is a public place." She said, "You can't do anything here."
"Perhaps." Anderson said, "But know this. You can't hide amongst these……heathens forever. At some point, you will be alone, and my blade will get more then your neck this time."
Celes' hand moved quickly to her throat, were so many years before it had been pierced.
"Until we meet again, Abomination." Anderson turned and walked away.
Celes didn't even wait for Anderson to vanish from her sight. She turned and moved as quickly as she could in the opposite direction. Her hand that had been on her throat moved down into her jacket. When it reappeared, there was necklace in her hand, at the end of it a stone. But not just any stone, a Maxwell Demon's stone, given to her by a certain Goddess. She wrapped her hand around the stone and squeezed it.
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Terra 2
"He's only 10." Kensuke said, "And they expect him to be Shogun?"
"It's the way it's always been here." Lime (the mortal) said. She was busy helping to unpack the boxes Sayoko had brought down from the heavens "Every Shogun is a clone of the original."
Kensuke shrugged and opened another box. "I'm not saying it's bad. It's just………..well to me the whole clone thing is slightly weird. An entire planet of men?"
"Now with women." Lime said, "Don't forget that."
"And he'd better keep his eyes off those women." Sayoko said as she walked into the living room.
With a loud pop. Keima suddenly appeared in the midst of boxes, carrying another box.
"Geez Onee-chan," he muttered, "Did you pack the entire house?"
"Of course not!" Sayoko then smiled, "Mom's clothes don't look good on me."
"Right." He hefted the box. "Where do you want this?"
Sayoko glanced at the box. "Oh, that goes in the bedroom. And whatever you do, don't open it."
Keima frowned. "Why? What's in it?"
"Something for Kensuke's eyes only." Sayoko said with a sultry smile.
Keima turned deep red. "Oh." He then shuddered. "Oh man I did not need to know that. Oh heck." He dropped the box and started shaking his head. "Darn it, bad pictures of Onee-chan, get out of head. ARGHHH!!!" he ran from the room holding his head. He ran past Yui and Arael who had just entered the house.
"What happened to him?" Yui asked.
"Nothing." Sayoko replied as she lifted the box Keima had dropped. "Nothing at all."
She began to walk towards the bedroom, humming to herself. Suddenly she stopped and dropped the box. Her hand went to her earring. She then whirled about, a look of surprise on her face.
"What is it?" asked Kensuke.
"Celes." Came her reply.
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Earth
Neo-Tokyo
Celes paced back and forth in her apartment, the gun her master had given her never straying far from her grasp. Any second she expected to see Father Anderson burst through her door. It had been over twenty minutes since she had signaled for Sayoko, and the goddess had yet to make any attempt at communication. The sound of footsteps outside her door caused her to freeze. She slowly raised her weapon and pointed it at the door. Then the footsteps retreated, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing further up the hall. Celes leaned back against the wall with a sigh.
"Celes?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Ceres turned and fired.
When the smoke cleared, Celes could see a wide-eyed Sayoko leaning out of her mirror. She was in her battle outfit, though her helmet was now sporting a bullet shaped groove down it's left side. Sayoko's eyes slowly shifted to the left as if she could see the groove while wearing the helmet. She then looked back at Celes.
"Have I come at a bad time?"
Celes dropped her hand with the gun.
"I'm sorry." Celes rubbed her face. "I'm a little jumpy."
Sayoko floated out of the mirror and landed on the floor beside Celes. She then removed her helmet and stared at the new 'marking'.
"I'll say you're jumpy." Sayoko tossed the helmet onto the couch then looked at Celes. "What happened?"
"I ran into Father Anderson." Celes gave a weak smile. "We had a very 'pleasant' discussion."
"I see."
"It was the usual stuff." Celes said, "I'm an abomination before god that he must send to hell."
"Well in a way, he's right." Celes looked up at Sayoko confused. "You ARE an abomination. But you don't need to be sent to hell."
"Thanks. I think."
Celes dropped onto her couch. Sayoko moved her helmet to the floor and sat next to her.
"So what do I do?" asked Celes, "I can't fight him, I'll lose."
"You are not going to do anything." Sayoko said. "What I am going to do is make a phone call and bring in another friend. Then WE are going to decide what to do." Sayoko shrugged. "Worst case, we move you to Terra 2. He can't get you there."
"And where am I going to live?" Celes asked.
"With me and Kensuke." Sayoko said, "We have a nice house by the lake."
"Just what I need," Celes muttered, "to hear you two going at it like rabbits."
Sayoko blushed.
"We're not that bad. Besides, we'll be gone for a week on our honeymoon."
Celes raised an eyebrow. "A wedding?"
"Yep." Sayoko nodded, "And you're invited of course."
Celes smiled. "Thanks."
"Now lets make sure your still around to come to it." Sayoko stood up and walked over to the phone.
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Terra 2
Yui stood up and stretched.
"Geez! Where did Aunt Sayoko get all this stuff?"
"She's had a lifetime and then some to get it all." Kensuke said. He held up a picture showing Sayoko, Asuka, Shinji, Hikari, Touji, Rei, and himself. "This was taken back when we were in high school. In fact………" He dug around in the box a bit. "Ah ha!" He pulled out a patch that had Unit-04s image on it. "These were on our uniforms during the school competition, and………" He pulled out a trophy. "She got to keep this because she was driving."
"I remember her telling me about that." Keima said.
"Oh?" Kensuke looked at his soon-to-be brother in-law. "What else did she tell you?"
Keima thought for a moment. "She told me ever single thing that you did in High School."
Kensuke paled. "Everything?"
Keima nodded. "I personally enjoyed how you tried to find out if she had any other distinguishing marks on her body."
"YOU WHAT!?!?" shouted Yui, Lime, and Arael.
Kensuke got even whiter. "I was a teenager! Immature!"
"Yet you were still able to get a camera set up in the shower of the girl's locker room." Keima said, "To bad the camera lenses got steamed up before it took any pictures."
Yui, Lime, and Arael were now glaring at Kensuke. Kensuke slowly began to back away from the enraged females.
"I told you! I was a teenager!" he cried, "Besides, Sayoko forgave me for that!"
"Did she?" Yui asked.
"She did! She really did!" Kensuke looked at Keima. "I'm telling the truth! You know that!"
Keima looked thoughtful for a second, enjoying the look of desperation on Kensuke's face. He then turned to the girls.
"He is telling the truth."
Kensuke let out a sigh of relief as the girls calmed down. He did jump when a loud beep went off in the room. Arael frowned and pulled out the god's communicator. She walked over and placed it on the table. No image came up, but someone rattled away at her in the god's language. Arael responded and then put the device away.
"I am needed." She said. She crossed arms and lowered her head. She vanished in a bright flash.
"Wonder who needed her?" Lime said.
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Earth
Neo-Tokyo
Father Anderson waited.
It had been over 500 years, but now he had finally tracked down one of only two Vampires that had ever eluded him. He now stood in an alley, across the street from the female abomination's apartment. She had tried to hide herself among the thousands of heathens that lived in this country, living like one of them. But she could not deny her urge to feed on blood. He had known those Hellsing dogs had to feed their pets. Only after much research did he find that the Protestant organization had requisitioned more medicinal blood then most small hospitals. Since the Hellsing troops had few operational casualties until just before they were disbanded, he knew it had to be for the Vampires. In the years afterward, he poured over hospital reports. At one point he thought he had them, but it turned out to be just the girl. Arucard had slipped through his finger, but he wasn't about to let the girl do the same.
Then she too vanished. It infuriated Anderson. How could a Vampire just vanish? He spent the next several hundred years doing the work of God, removing the vampire threat. But when he wasn't working, he was searching, trying to find that one piece of information that would lead him to those two Vampires. Then he found it. A report from a Neo-Tokyo hospital about mysterious shortages of medicinal blood. It was a slim chance that it was them, but he took it.
And he found her. He had gone to the church that day simply to pray. On his way he discovered a Vampire and eliminated it. After meditating, he had been walking out from the tombs below when he spotted the girl. She was with another, he could only assume she was a Vampire as well. Both had then vanished. For weeks he had searched and then he found her again.
Across the street the door opened. Anderson watched as the female abomination stepped out on to the street. She adjusted her jacket as she glanced about, then took off down the street. Anderson stepped out from the alley and followed.
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"I still don't like this." muttered Celes.
"Hey I've got your back." came the reply.
Celes tried to glance over her shoulder into her hood. Inside of it, a pint-sized Sayoko sat in her battle outfit, looking out from the hood for the regenerator. Celes grumbled and looked forward again.
"Stop grumbling." Sayoko said, "It will all be over soon."
"That has kind of an ominous tone to it." Celes replied.
Sayoko didn't reply.
After several moments of silence, Celes began to get worried.
"Why so quiet?" she finally asked.
"He's behind us."
Celes stumbled slightly, but continued walking.
"Where?" she asked.
"Across the street to your left and behind." Sayoko said. "Remember, we have to find an empty alley."
"I know." Celes replied.
",,,,otherwise we can't help you."
Celes turned her head. "I kno…."
Celes slammed into a pedestrian. The impact knocked her off balance and she fell backwards to the ground. She looked up at the person she had run into.
"Oh I'm sorry Miss." the man said, "Here let me help you up."
Celes took the offered hand and stood up.
"You alright Miss?" the man asked.
"Yes I'm fine. Thank-you."
"No problem Miss." The man turned and continued on his way.
"Sayoko?" Celes muttered. There was no reply. "Sayoko this isn't funny, say something!" Still no reply. Celes reached around and grabbed at her hood. It felt light, like it was………empty.
"Oh Crap!" Celes exclaimed in English, causing several confused glances from passerby's. Celes turned about her, looking on the ground. She didn't see any sign of the pint-sized goddess though. Something did catch her attention. Father Anderson was no longer on the opposite side of the street. He was now on her side and rapidly approaching.
"Shit shit shit!" She quickly rose to her feet and began to run. Behind her she could hear another set of footprints. A quick glance back showed they belonged to Anderson. Celes looked about. The plan had been for her to find an alley out of view from the public were Anderson could be handled. Unfortunately, the plan depended on Sayoko being with her to call in whatever help she had sent for from the apartment. Now, without Sayoko, Celes was on her own. Celes turned down a side street. She stopped for a second and looked around, then slammed into a nearby door. The door opened allowing Celes to enter. She then turned around and slammed the door shut, leaning against it. She heard Anderson's footsteps stop outside the door for a moment, then continued. Celes sighed and took in her surroundings.
It was an old shop, long since abandoned. Water stains on the walls gave the reason. Celes stood up and walked deeper into the shop. She walked through a doorway, entering what used to be a large storeroom. More importantly, the storeroom had a back door. Celes started towards the door when something flew past her head and slammed into the door. Celes froze. Still shaking slightly from its sudden stop was a sword, holding a paper, covered in prayers, tightly against the door.
"I told you Abomination, you couldn't hide forever."
Celes whipped around, bringing up her gun in her right hand. Before she could take aim something pierced her right shoulder, slamming her into the wall behind her. Her gun also went off, just before she dropped the weapon. She looked downward to see one of the Priest's holy water covered swords stuck in her shoulder. She also spotted the gun just out of reach of her hand. She started to reach for it when another sword slammed into the gun, knocking the gun away.
"Now now," Anderson said, "You've already had your chance with your pop gun." He grinned. Anderson pulled out a sword. "Now it's my turn. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost." He flung the sword with all his strength aiming right at Celes' head.
"Amen."