Battle Field: Earth

Chapter Nine: Gabriel-Sensei

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

I'm telling you in advance that the only reason I'm using the nametags in this chapter is because it didn't sound correct to me to just say the person's name in the cases where I used the Japanese tags.

Nekomi, Japan

Early October 2002

A Local Park:

The bright sunlight had finally glared enough through her eyelids enough to force Skuld to wake up. Birds were twittering nearby while a bunch of people walked past, some giving strange looks at her. She looked around, and found that she was at a park.

What am I doing here? Skuld wondered, rubbing her eyes. She felt something warm under her and looked to find Gab sleeping peacefully under her. Oh yeah… she thought, remembering the previous night. She looked at her timepiece and saw that it was a little past nine in the morning.

"Gab," she said, trying to wake the man under her up.

"Mmm…" he moaned, grabbing her hand and stroking it on his face. Skuld giggled, but drew her hand back quickly when he was about to bite her fingers.

"Watermelon?" Gab grumbled, sitting up. He blushed when he registered that there was a girl sitting on his lap.

"Not watermelon, you baka," Skuld, tapping his forehead lightly. "Those were my fingers!"

"Heh, gomen…" Gab apologized. He stretched his arms and yawned. "Do you know what time it is?"

Skuld answered, "It's a little past nine."

"Nine, huh?" he said, letting it sink in. "Crap!" he suddenly said, smacking himself in the face.

"What happened?" Skuld said, alarmed.

"I'm gonna be late for my job!" he all but screamed.

"Oh, that's gonna suck…" Skuld said unemotionally. "You'll probably get fired and have to look for another job then." And then you can actually get a decent one, too! She thought, getting off of him.

"You're mean," he whined and ran as fast as he could to the parking lot. "I'll see you this afternoon, same time, k?"

"Yeah," she said, giggling at how cute he could be.

Nekomi, Japan

Early October 2002

NIT, Professor Kakuta's Lab:

"The assistant is late again," Keiichi whispered to Belldandy. Even though Keiichi only had to take a language to fulfill his graduation requirements, he still went to some of the classes Belldandy had.

"How unfortunate," Belldandy said. "Wasn't today his last day? I would feel so bad if I ended something on this kind of note."

"Yeah," Keiichi agreed. He didn't go on any further since the assistant all but stumbled in that moment.

The assistant was an odd one. He came in with his green jacket, military style camouflaged pants and red shades, just like every other day. They didn't look right for his light skin and hair. No one could really see the color of his eyes since the shades were the one-way type. But most peculiar was that he seemed to be about 17-18 years old. How he managed to get where he was, was beyond Keiichi, but he had nothing but respect for him.

"And why are we late, once again Mr. Gabriel?" professor Kakuta asked impatiently.

"Well… um…" he stuttered.

"This is your last day. Maybe you should explain to the class why our time is being cut short?"

"Um… well… you see…" he started, but blushed. He walked up to the professor and whispered something to him, blushing even more as he continued. When he was done, the professor stepped back in contemplation. Then he cracked up and needed a few minutes to calm down.

"I (snicker) see… I guess I'll let it slide (snicker) for today," he said, getting the rest of it out. The he turned to address the class. "Okay class, turn to page 476 and we can continue the section of vortexes that was so rudely interrupted by my assistant."

"Sorry," he bowed and went to the board and started writing the notes for the section the class was in the middle of.

"As I was saying, vortexes are the results of high turbulence…"

(At the end of the class)

The bell had rung and everyone packed up to go home. The assistant, Gabriel, was fumbling around with his stuff. Belldandy looked back and noticed that he was kind of lonely.

"Keiichi…" she said. He got the point.

"I'll ask him to come with us," he said, admiring her goodhearted nature. He walked up to him.

"Um… Gabriel, right? You want to have lunch with us, since it's your last day teaching this class and all?"

"Um… sure," he said and picked up one more article. The three made their way to the parking lot.

"I'm sorry," Keiichi said, as they reached his bike. "But my motorcycle only has enough room for me and Bell."

"It's alright, I have my own ride. I'll just follow you two."

"Great!" Belldandy said in sudden enthusiasm. The two guys gave her a strange look. "Heh, heh…"

As they put on their safety gear, Belldandy realized something. "Keiichi, did you notice that the first three letters of Gabriel-sama are the same as the nickname Skuld uses for her boyfriend?"

"Hey, I never noticed that till now. Isn't that a strange coincidence?"

Keiichi and Belldandy were waiting at the parking lot's exit for Gabriel to arrive. Keiichi expected him to have something cheap like an 86, since he knew that assistant teachers had it tough when it came to money. But what he had really took him by surprise.

He was on a green Kawasaki Ninja ZX010R and had a green helmet with a black visor. Another strange coincidence? Keiichi thought, remembering the race that was held nearby the university not too long ago and the Ninja rider that gave Skuld the winner's trophy (which was displayed prominently in the TV room, much to Urd's dismay).

Keiichi signaled into the road and made his way to the temple. Gabriel stayed close to him the whole way and they safely made their way to the temple without Gabriel getting lost.

"Tadaima," Keiichi and Belldandy said as they entered the temple. Gabriel quietly followed them in. Why did those streets feel familiar, he thought.

"Yo," Urd said as they walked past the TV room and headed to the eating room (dining room maybe? I don't really know what it's called).

"Who're you?" Urd asked when she noticed the stranger with red shades come in.

"I'm Gabriel, how do you do?" he replied pleasantly.

"Gabriel huh?" she answered, going into thought. "Sounds familiar… Nice to meet you, Gabriel."

"You too," he said and followed Keiichi into the dining room.

"If you wait a little bit, lunch will be ready," Belldandy said, went to the kitchen.

The two guys just sat there, the silence deafening. Keiichi finally thought of something to say.

"Gabriel-sama, why were you late to class today?" he asked. Gabriel blushed and thought a little before he replied.

"The least embarrassing way to explain it is to say that I was up late talking to a girl and my alarm wasn't available to wake me up…" he said, his voice quieting. Keiichi had a few ideas of what he meant.

"So you scored?" he said mischievously.

"No!" Gabriel said, even more embarrassed. "We just talked. Nothing happened."

Keiichi moved next to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, saying, "I feel for you, man."

"Lunch is ready!" Belldandy said enthusiastically, and entered the room with three plates. Each had a sandwich, a pastry and fortune cookie. She went back to the kitchen and brought a drink for everyone.

"Lets dig in," Keiichi said and started eating. Everyone else followed. While they ate, they made some small talk, Keiichi trying to probe Gabriel about who this girl was. He noticed that Gabriel kept checking his watch once in a while and Keiichi asked him about it.

"I have to meet someone later at the park," he replied.

"Who, your lady friend?" Keiichi said sinisterly.

"No! I mean yes, but not like how you're thinking!"

"And how am I thinking?" he said with and even sharper edge sinisterness in his voice. Being that Belldandy was around he didn't answer, just turned red as a beet.

"Well then, I have to go off and do some shopping," Belldandy said, getting up, after all the food was finished and dishes done.

"Thank you for the meal, it was exquisite," Gabriel added, also getting up.

"I'll go with you," Keiichi volunteered enthusiastically, the last one to get up.

"But what about Gabriel-sama?" Belldandy asked.

"I'll just go home," he replied. "I'm kinda tired."

"If you like, you can rest here, since the park isn't so far away. Urd will wake you if you want."

Gabriel thought about it for a moment and replied, "I'll take your offer. My home is a little bit farther away then the Temple is." (Map: a yellow point where the park is, a red point where the temple is. A line is draw starting from the park and headed toward the temple. The line goes a little bit farther past the temple and a blue dot appears with a note saying Gabriel's house.)

"When should I tell Urd to wake you up?" Belldandy asked.

"Around four would be okay," he said. Keiichi led him to a room where he could sleep and Belldandy asked her sister for the request. She grunted, meaning that she would.

As soon as the two left, Urd went into the room he was in and found him fast asleep. The better to use you, my pretty! She thought wickedly. It had been some time since she messed around with a human. What shall it be today? A dream? A nightmare? When she decided what she wanted to do, she activated the spell. But something went wrong.

Horribly wrong.

Something shocked her and she collapsed next to him. Some of her memory was erased, and the last thing she remembered doing was grunting to Belldandy.