Onegai, Megami-sama!

Part 1-3: Tea Makes Everything Better

Mizuho Kazami sat on the back porch of the temple, looking out over the hills that surrounded the old building. An open box of pocky sat next to her, and she chewed idly on one stick of it as she leaned against the wall. She sighed, and looked down at the box for what she was sure was the tenth time since Kei had given it to her. There was something about it, she knew that, something very familiar. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of what it could be.

What, she thought, could be the problem at all? Kei and Belldandy seemed like good people; less rowdy than Keiichi-kun's friends in the Motor Club and overall very nice. Kei seemed to have some of the same traits she loved so much about Keiichi-kun, she had to admit that. But this bizarre story of his, her being half-extraterrestrial and being a teacher in some small town she'd never even heard of . . . it was so strange, she didn't want to believe it. And then there was the claim that Urd and Keiichi were making, that Belldandy was some kind of goddess, just as Urd and Peorth and Skuld were. She'd never known Urd to be anything like that, the same with Skuld.

Mizuho bit off the end of her pocky and sighed. There had to be some way to work this out, they only had to find it. That was priority one.

"Would you like some tea?"

Mizuho blinked and sat up. She hadn't even heard Belldandy come out of the temple, but there she was, holding a tray with two teacups and a kettle. For all the strange things that had been happening since this morning, the other woman seemed remarkably at ease.

"Ah - yes, thank you," Mizuho said, trying not to sound nervous. She turned slightly away from Belldandy as the other woman sat down next to her and poured tea for both of them. After a moment of silence, Mizuho glanced over at her.

Belldandy was looking off into the distance, holding her tea in her lap with a small smile on her face. She looked so peaceful, Mizuho thought, like nothing that's happened today had any effect on her. Wasn't she concerned about what any of this could mean? Mizuho sighed deeply, then sipped at her tea. She blinked.

"It's very good," she said, and Belldandy smiled at her. "Did you find everything you needed?"

"Of course," Belldandy said brightly. "I remembered from earlier, and I can always find my way around a kitchen."

Mizuho couldn't help smiling at that. "You seem like that type," she said. "You and Kei must be very happy together."

"Oh, I'm sure we are," Belldandy said. She looked back off toward the mountains. "I know our time together hasn't been all that long, but it feels like I've known him forever. We married so quickly, but there was never a doubt in our hearts."

"You're lucky," Mizuho said, joining Belldandy in staring off into the distance. "I've thought about marriage, I'm sure Keiichi-kun has also, but he gets so nervous about things like that." She brushed a lock of magenta hair over her shoulder. "How long have you and Kei been together?"

"Less than a year, but we knew we were right for each other as soon as we met," Belldandy said wistfully. "He wished for me to be with him always, and I could see what kind of man he was, so it was a wish I had no trouble granting."

"He does seem like a good boy," Mizuho agreed. She looked down at the box of pocky again, and pulled out another one. She studied it for a moment before biting off the top. "But still," she said quietly, "I have to wonder."

"I know," Belldandy said after a moment's pause. "Kei-san isn't the type to lie, I know that. But I can't lie; I'm forbidden from it as a goddess. So I don't know what's right. I have so many memories of my time with Kei-san, it doesn't seem right that they'd all be false."

"What do you remember?" Mizuho asked, then sipped her tea again.

"We went to the beach for our honeymoon," Belldandy said, a dreamy note coming into her voice.

Mizuho giggled. "Keiichi-kun and I went to the beach on our first date," she said.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Belldandy said. "It was a bit difficult for us, as we ran into some of Kei-san's friends there, and we had to hide that we were staying in the honeymoon suite. One of them, Shido-san in fact, nearly found out."

"That's almost like my date with Keiichi-kun!" Mizuho said, starting to laugh out loud. "Some people from our school were at the beach as well, so we had to pretend that we just ran into each other there, like it was a coincidence."

"That must have been so hard, but I'm sure you laughed about it later," Belldandy said. "Did they try to pull him away from you?"

"At first, yes, as one of them - Aoshima, a boy who thinks too much of himself and has been flirting with me since the first day of classes - he had his father's speedboat, so we were both invited onto that."

Belldandy blinked. "Oh, no," she said. "I can see where this is going."

"Of course," Mizuho said, "Keiichi-kun fell off--"

"Which could have led to such trouble--"

"Because Keiichi can't swim!" both women said at once.

The two of them paused, and stared at each other. Their eyes were wide in surprise. Mizuho started to say something, but nothing came out. Belldandy had gone completely pale, and held her hand over her mouth, as though she was afraid of what might come out.

"How . . . how did you know that?" Mizuho whispered.

"I don't know," Belldandy said. "I'm so sorry, but I just don't know. I don't think I even knew it before you started telling your story."

"Do you think this means they're right?" Mizuho asked. She felt herself starting to grow frantic, and remembered the time she and Keiichi had nearly been discovered, hidden in one of the sports equipment shacks at Nekomi. But, she thought, if Keiichi-kun and Kei and Urd were right, then had that even happened?

"It - it could," Belldandy said, looking as though it was hard to admit it. "I don't know." She paused, and sighed, then looked at Mizuho with tears brimming in her eyes. "I know that Kei-san loves you," she said quietly. "I can feel it when he looks at you. And I feel something much the same from Keiichi. But I also know that you love Keiichi, and I love Kei-san!"

Mizuho pushed the tray aside, and the two women embraced, sharing tears as they wondered about what the rest of the night would hold and who they were truly meant to love.

Back in the temple, behind the door tastefully marked 'Castle Urd,' two goddesses also wondered what else the night would hold, though for an entirely different reason.

"I swear," Urd said, sitting beneath an illusory display that looked like a pretzel shaped by someone with a dozen personalities and seventeen fingers, "you picked the worst possible night to have something bad happen to you, Peorth."

"You say that as though it's my fault," Peorth said, waving a hand at Urd from where she lay on the floor, leaning up against Matagu. "I was simply there to grant a wish."

Urd peered closer at the tangled mess, and tugged on one of the red strings, making it disappear. "I know, I know. And if we can find that wish, we can find out what happened." She ducked down under the tangle, and quirked an eyebrow at Peorth and Matagu. "So, did you get your wish?" she asked, giving him a look that suggested she knew exactly what he wanted to wish for.

Matagu blinked a few times, then rubbed his hand behind his head, embarrassed. "No, not really . . . something happened to Peorth before I could finish." He could feel himself blushing again, and wished he could stop doing that. "That, and my wish isn't really valid anymore."

"Oh, really?" Urd asked, then tugged at another strand on the illusion.

"Yeah, I wished that Mizuho-sensei and I could go out on a date," he said, then grinned sheepishly. "I didn't know she was married to Kei."

"Neither did she," Peorth said flatly. "But that's not how it's supposed to be, oui, Urd?"

"Oui is right," Urd said. She pulled away two strands, orange and white this time. "You know, this'd be a lot easier if you hadn't lost your connection with Yggdrasil. It's hard to trace which path of energy is yours when it's not with you right now."

"But you can do it, right?" Matagu asked eagerly. He'd seen the look on Peorth's face; she didn't like being told she was at fault for anything, even if it wasn't really her fault.

"Of course!" Urd said. "I am, after all, a genius!" Urd threw her head back and laughed in a way that made Matagu wish for the pleasant tones of nails on a blackboard. He winced.

"It could be worse, cheri," Peorth whispered up to Matagu as Urd continued laughing. "She could be making one of us take a potion."

"I heard that," Urd said flatly. She yanked a purple strand out of the illusion and whipped at the two of them with it. Matagu yelped.

"Ah, Urd, you'll never change," Peorth said with a dark smile. "How long will it take you to trace my energy lines?"

"Shouldn't take me too long," Urd said, tugging out another half-dozen colored streams and banishing them into puffs of smoke. She pulled on a bright blue one, and suddenly the entire tangled mess contracted in on itself, looking like a ball of yarn that had spent a year as the toy of a schizophrenic cat. Urd blinked at it, then scowled dramatically and started to growl.

"That's not good, is it?" Matagu asked Peorth.

"Non," Peorth said quietly. "Definitely not."

Urd cursed under her breath. "All right, that's it! Time to call in reinforcements."

The dark-skinned goddess held up one hand, and a puff of smoke appeared in her palm. When it faded, a chibi-Urd sat there, sitting in lotus position as though meditating. It turned to look at Urd and blinked, then jumped back at the expression on her face.

"Go find Skuld," the full-grown Urd growled. "I know she's somewhere with Sentaro, so tell her to get back here without letting him see you." She paused, then snatched the tiny version of herself as it was about to dash away. "And tell her to pick me up some saké on the way back."

The chibi-Urd glowered at her, then disappeared in an overly cute puff of smoke. Urd looked over at Peorth and Matagu to see that he was staring at her like she'd just grown another head. She supposed she had, in a way, but there'd been a body attached to it, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

"I'm a goddess, kid," she said. "Don't worry about it."

Matagu blinked again, then shook his head violently. "I won't worry, I won't worry," he said. "I won't go insane either, I swear."

Urd grinned at that. "Oh, I could whip up something for you if that happened," she said.

He went pale, and wondered if Peorth's descriptions of Urd's potions was exaggerated or not. He then saw that Urd was starting at him, and suddenly wanted to blush again.

"Peorth, what have you been telling him about me anyway?"

"Why," Peorth said, somehow looking innocent with her head in Matagu's lap, "only the truth, dear Urd!"

Urd glared at her for a moment, then leaned back and started pulling strings in the illusion again. "Right, right. You're still giving this one the full service package, right? Just like you did for Keiichi?"

Peorth jerked her head up. "What?"

"What?" Matagu echoed.

"Oh, come on, it hasn't been that long," Urd said, starting to smile as she focused on her work. "You were all over Keiichi when you were here, when he called you by mistake. You insisted it was part of the service package."

"It's just . . . the service?" Matagu asked, slowly starting to move away from Peorth. "You'd do this for anyone?"

"It's a matter of pride for her," Urd said before Peorth could get a word in. "What, didn't she give you her speech about 'having a reputation for the very best of service'?"

"Urd!" Peorth hissed. "I'll thank you to refrain from--"

"From what," Urd said, finally looking her in the eye. "Telling the truth?"

By now, Matagu had risen to his feet and was walking toward the door. He turned back to look at Peorth. "I wish you'd said something," he said, a touch of bitterness in his voice. "You said you had the best of service, but I really didn't think that you meant it like that."

"Matagu-kun. . . ." Peorth started to sit up, but he was already out of the room. She turned and glared at Urd. If she hadn't been out of touch with Yggdrasil, sparks would have been flying around her eyes. "What was that for?"

"Just making sure you know what you're doing," Urd said. She went back to working her fingers through the tangled mass. "Matagu seems like a good kid, and it already looks like he's into you. He also seems like the kind who'd get hurt real bad if you just flew off once you have your connection to Yggdrasil back."

Peorth folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. It was a while before she spoke. "You've granted wishes, right, Urd?"

"A few," Urd said. "I worked for the Goddess Technical Helpline for a few weeks before Belldandy did. Not really my kind of work. Most of the men I showed up for just started drooling."

"I've seen the same thing, of course," Peorth said. "Matagu was much like that when I first came to him, simply staggered. I wasn't surprised. But," she continued, lowering her head a bit, "when I lost my connection, I wasn't worried about being there with him. Does that make sense?"

"More than you know," Urd said with a small smile, "more than you know."

"So, you met Belldandy when you dialed a wrong number?"

Kei and Keiichi sat across from each other at the kitchen table, both with glasses in hand. After Kei's question, they both drained their glasses in one swig, then he refilled them.

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "It was the strangest thing, but I've never had anything better happen to me." He heaved a sigh. "And you and Mizuho, you found out she's half-alien?"

"It was complicated," Kei said, leaning forward and resting his chin on the table. "But I found out, and we got caught when we were talking in private, and I said I was married to her to cover it all. So we ended up getting married."

Keiichi nodded, then started laughing. "Life's really strange like that sometimes," he said.

"Really strange," Kei agreed, and the two of them clinked their glasses together and drank again. "We really should reheat this tea," Kei said when they were both done. "It's not as good cold."

Keiichi nodded, then chuckled. "I was about to look for Belldandy, I know she'd have taken care of it as soon as you said something."

"Mizuho would have gone through too much pocky to notice it was cold," Kei said with his own chuckle. He looked at Keiichi, and sighed. "We're pretty hopeless, aren't we?"

"Yeah, definitely," Keiichi said. "But Urd'll figure it out, I'm sure about that. She's kind of bizarre sometimes, but she's calmed down a lot since she first showed up. She and Skuld will come up with something."

"I hope so." Kei paused, then glanced around a bit. "You live here with all three of them? What's that like?"

"It's crazy," Keiichi said, putting his hand to his forehead. "Bell and I never get any time alone. Skuld keeps saying that she'll kill me if I touch Belldandy, and Urd keeps saying she'll kill me if I don't touch Belldandy. . . ."

Kei drew back, and blinked. "I'm sorry for you," he said, sounding surprised. "Of course," he continued, "that's almost as bad as having to hide that I'm married to Mizuho. And then there were rumors that she and I were having an affair. . . ." He trailed off, and rested his chin on the table again.

"But you could say that you weren't, and it wouldn't be a lie," Keiichi said with a smile.

Kei raised his head. "I didn't think of that," he said.

The kitchen door slid open, and Matagu walked in, looking like he'd just had a bus dropped on his head. He slumped down at the table, and reached for a glass.

"The tea's cold," Kei said.

"I don't care," Matagu mumbled. He sipped his tea, but didn't say anything more.

"What's wrong, Matagu?" Kei asked after a moment.

Matagu stared down into his teacup. "Keiichi?"

"Yeah?"

"When you called Peorth before, whenever it was, how'd she act?"

"What - what do you mean?" Keiichi asked, scratching the back of his head and smiling nervously. "It's been a long time, I--"

"She was all over you, wasn't she?" Matagu asked, more forcefully than he'd meant to. Keiichi drew back from him, but he continued. "She went on about good service and being known for it. Right?"

"R-right," Keiichi managed. He glanced over at Kei, who was looking at Matagu as though he hadn't expected such an outburst from his friend. "Why?"

Matagu drank more of his cold tea, and seemed to calm down a bit. "Because I'm an idiot," he said quietly, "and I fell for it."

"Matagu. . . ." Kei gave his friend a concerned look. "What happened?"

"She showed up, and I really thought I'd gone to heaven," Matagu said, then gave a pained laugh. "I was all set to ask her for a date with Mizuho, but even then I was thinking about wishing for more time with her. She was the only girl who'd ever . . . you know. . . ."

"Acted like she liked you?" Keiichi asked. He nodded along with Matagu. "I know what you mean. There's this girl at Nekomi, Sayoko, and she's been known to prey on guys like you."

"Really?" Matagu asked.

"Mm-hmm," Keiichi said. "She used to be campus queen before Belldandy came here, so she's done a lot of things to try to get that back. If she thought you could help, she'd treat you like you were the only guy she'd ever liked. She tried it on me once or twice, trying to get me to break up with Belldandy."

Kei nodded along with Matagu. He was starting to see that there might be some things that weren't so bad about having a secret love, then remembered all that had happened with Herikawa, and shrugged. Either way had its problems.

"I don't know if Peorth would do that, though," Keiichi continued. "She's overly affectionate, I know that, and it's kind of hard to deal with. I bet she tried to share your bed, right?"

"No," Matagu said, "but she woke me up in a way that made me glad my parents were out of town. And she tried to bathe with me." He paused. "What's that look for, Kei?"

"I'm surprised you're being so open about it," Kei said. "Usually, you can hardly even talk to Mizuho, or talk about this kind of thing with all of us."

Matagu smiled sheepishly. "I guess it's different now that something's actually happening," he said. "I don't know if I want it to, though." He folded his arms on the table and hung his head.

"I guess. . . ." Keiichi looked up at the ceiling, pondering. "Try not to worry about it too much. When I wished for Belldandy to be with me always, I didn't think I'd actually get that wish, and I was worried about what would happen afterward. But she's a goddess, and so is Peorth. Things just work out around them sometimes."

"Even if Peorth doesn't have her powers or whatever right now?" Matagu asked without raising his head.

"Maybe even more," Keiichi said. "I'm still not sure about how they work and everything that goes with it, but I do know they can't lie. At least, Peorth and Belldandy can't, I'm not sure about Urd and Skuld."

"I heard that!" Urd yelled from her room.

Kei and Matagu laughed while Keiichi glowered. After a moment, the three of them looked at each other and nodded.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about this," Matagu said, "but thanks, Keiichi. I'm glad that you know what you're talking about."

"I'm not that much of an expert," Keiichi said with a shrug, "especially with women. Bell's the only girlfriend I've ever had. But I've learned that you really need to talk with the one you like, that's the only way it's going to work out."

"He's right," Kei added. "Mizuho and I have our fights, we always have. It's far from perfect, but being married to her. . . ." He trailed off with a dreamy look on his face.

"I'm sorry I was going to wish for a date with her," Matagu said after a moment.

"It's okay," Kei said with a small grin. "You didn't know, and I know you have feelings for her, even if you couldn't confess them."

"Right, but I could have messed up your marriage," Matagu said, "and I didn't even know it." He hung his head again. "Maybe I should just become a monk."

"C'mon, it's not that bad," Keiichi said, putting a hand on Matagu's shoulder. "Listen. Peorth's probably going to try to share your bed tonight, that's just how she is. Talk to her, see if she's just treating you like this 'cause you called her or if she really likes you. It couldn't hurt."

"Maybe," Matagu said. "But what if she doesn't? What if it's just part of the service, and she's just going to disappear when this is all over?"

Keiichi and Kei looked at each other for a moment. "Then you steal some of Urd's saké," Keiichi said with a grin.

From outside, there was the sound of tires coming to a screeching halt. Kei and Matagu jumped, Keiichi didn't even move. The front door flew open with a slam, and footsteps pounded on the floor, heading toward the kitchen.

"Welcome back, Skuld," Keiichi said calmly as the young goddess skidded to a halt at the doorway.

Skuld, clad in a black tank top with her 'Skuld Power' logo on the front and cargo pants, looked at each of the young men in turn. "Hey, Keiichi. Who're these guys?"

"Oh, good, she doesn't know me," Kei said, relieved. "After Mizuho and Belldandy--"

"What about my sister?" Skuld asked forcefully, grabbing the back of Kei's collar and pulling him back so she could stare down at him.

"Skuld . . . please. . . ." Kei struggled for breath.

"She's the other goddess?" Matagu asked Keiichi, giving him an incredulous look.

"Of course!" Skuld said, letting go of Kei's shirt. He gasped, leaning forward over the table. "Now," she said, looking at Keiichi again, "what's going on here?"

Keiichi explained, slowly, with Kei and Matagu putting in their parts as they came around. By the time they were finished, Skuld was sitting at the fourth place at the table with her own cup of tea. She had an expression on her face that Keiichi recognized, one that showed she was concerned about what was happening but dead-set on finding some way to figure it out and build the device that would take care of it.

Skuld finished her tea, then stood. "All right," she said, "I'm gonna go talk to Urd. We'll get this straightened out. I know," she said, looking at Keiichi, "oneesan's happy with you, even if she thinks she doesn't even know you right now."

Kei blinked up at her. "Thank you for your help, but . . . that doesn't really make much sense."

She leaned close and glared at Kei. "You want your wife back, don't you?" He nodded, barely, and she stood and folded her arms across her chest. "Then let me get to work!" She leaped over the table, heading toward Urd's room.

Matagu watched her leave, looking quite worried, then turned back to Keiichi. "How do you live with all three of them?"

Keiichi grinned, and put a hand to the back of his head. "It's not easy. . . ."