.hackGODDESS
by SmkViper
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene
Copyright
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.
Author's notes:
Text in are a character's thoughts.
Chapter 5: The Demon in the Aquarium
A short while later Mara arrived outside the house that Keiichi and the goddesses were staying at. One glance at the house showed the wards that had been put up around the building, not as powerful as the ones back at the temple and the house here wasn't holy ground, but it would hurt to try to pass through them unaided.
"Hmm… now to figure out what their plans are for tomorrow…" Mara muttered to herself.
The little camcorder demon that Mara had sent on ahead flittered up to her and twittered something.
"Oh, so they're going to the aquarium for a little sightseeing huh? There should be plenty of fun things there to mess with," she said, with a slightly disturbing smile on her face. She then flew off to the aquarium to "scout out the terrain" as she put it.
A few minutes later Mara arrived at the aquarium, which was closed for the night. After phasing through the front door she started looking around for any information on probable tours that Keiichi and the goddesses would take tomorrow. After a quick search she came to the security room which had a map of the entire building along with a list of tour guides on duty tomorrow and their routes. She reached into her pocket dimension and took several pictures of the map and schedule with a digital camera and then left the room to walk through the building and see if any opportunities presented themselves.
"Well, it appears that there are two main tours, one of the outside tanks with the large fish and one of the inside tanks with the smaller animals. Messing with the large tanks would be fun but there is a lot of open ground out there where I could be seen so probably not the best idea. I wonder what the ceiling crawlspaces in here look like…"
Mara floated up and stuck her head through the ceiling to take a look around.
"Aaaachooo! Don't they ever clean up here? The dust must be centuries old." Mara muttered to herself. "Looks like there are several pipes and catwalks going all over the place up here though, and it's plenty dark with lots of places to hide and sneak around in. Looks like I'll have to work with the inside tanks."
After a quick look around and noting the location of a few specific tanks Mara left the aquarium and went back to the local video arcade where she had set up her temporary lair in the basement for the weekend to plan tomorrow's excitement.
The next day after a leisurely breakfast, Keiichi and the goddesses left for the aquarium with a lunch packed by Belldandy. As soon as they were gone, the camcorder demon flew back to its master's lair and told Mara of their departure. Mara quickly left and flew toward the house where they were staying. After inspecting the wards that had been placed on the house, she opened a small portal and rummaged around inside for a few seconds.
"Hey, where are you…" Mara said after rummaging around for a few minutes. She stuck her head into the portal and quickly found what she was looking for. "There you are, come here you're going to help me with something."
Mara pulled out what looked like an octopus with large eyes and set it down on the ground next to her.
"Well, my little booster-demon, you're going to help me get inside," Mara said as she shrunk down to mini size and hopped on top of the little demon. "Now fly me inside!"
The little demon flew through the wall and past the wards protecting the house, boosting Mara's power so she was unharmed by the wards. Once inside, Mara returned to full size and quickly began searching the house. After a few minutes she found what she was looking for – Urd and Skuld's room. She quickly inspected the potion ingredients that Urd had stacked along the wall and swapped a few of the contents around, "To liven thing up" she said.
After mixing things up for Urd she went over to the partially disassembled Deep Six and looked for anything she could do to mess it up. After a quick inspection she spotted a few wires that she could swap around without being too obvious.
Mara then went back to Urd's stash of potions and started sorting through them looking for something that would be useful at the aquarium.
"Hmm…love potion, love potion, love potion…geeze, how many love potions does that goddess have anyway? What else is in here…ooh, a hate potion and…an indifference potion? Why would she make one of those? I will never understand that goddess…Hey look! There's even one for increasing your bust size, I'll definitely take that one with me."
She quickly grabbed a few select potions and put them into her pockets before shrinking back down the mini size and riding the booster demon out through the wards again. Once outside and back to her full size, she flew off towards the aquarium. Once there, she shifted back to mini form and made herself invisible to the mortals visiting the place. She quickly located the goddesses as they had made no effort to hide themselves and their strong aura indicated that they were looking at the outside exhibits.
Satisfied that they were currently occupied she floated up through the ceiling and went around to a few of the tanks indoors and rigged them with the potions she had taken from Urd's stash to release the potion into the water when one of the goddesses walked close by.
"Heh heh, this should cause quite a bit of mayhem. Now to sit back and watch the fireworks!" Mara muttered to herself with a wide grin plastered on her face. She quickly cloaked herself in her best shielding spells and kept an eye on her targets from a distance.
Urd paused for a split second as she was eating lunch. She thought she felt something…off, but it was so slight that it was probably nothing.
"What is it?" asked Belldandy, who had noticed her sister's slight pause.
"Oh, nothing, thought I felt something, but it's gone now," Urd replied.
They finished eating a few minutes later and went indoors to look at the tanks inside that contained the smaller marine life. As they looked through the tanks, Belldandy was busy trying to thaw out the various animals without anyone noticing after Shinobu accidentally deep froze anything she got excited over.
As they approached the baby shark tank a small vial broke unnoticed above the tank and its contents fell into the water and quickly dissipated. Shortly thereafter the sharks in the tank started chasing after each other.
"That's funny, I don't remember sharks ever being that viscous or ever going after their own kind…I wonder if some blood accidentally got into the tank?" muttered Keiichi when he saw the odd behavior of the sharks.
"You're right," said Belldandy, "there is something odd in the way they're behaving. But I suppose the aquarium workers know what's wrong and will fix it shortly."
Suddenly, one of the sharks broke away and swam hard towards Keiichi, smacking against the glass loudly, but not enough to crack it. Keiichi stumbled back, startled as someone in an aquarium uniform rushed up.
"Hey, the sharks in tank 12 are acting up, send someone over to check on them," said the man into a hand-held radio.
"Roger, we have someone on the way," the radio squawked back.
"Head along to the next exhibit please," said the man as he motioned the onlookers off.
Keiichi and the deities walked off to look at another exhibit, assuming that it was just an isolated incident. But when they approached the octopus tank, another small vial broke and deposited its contents into the tank.
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say this octopus had a love-struck look on his face," said Urd.
"How the heck would you know that Urd? It's just an octopus, they don't have facial expressions," replied Keiichi. Then he looked at the octopus. "Oh," he said, "I think you're right, though I've never seen an octopus look like that before."
"Something's fishy going on around here," Urd said as she cast a spell to make herself invisible before floating up through the ceiling to check on the tank.
"Hey, there's a small broken vial up here, looks like one of mine. And there's what feels like the remnants of a small spell cast on it." Urd's eyes narrowed as she realized who was behind this. "Mara…"
Urd quickly turned to the sound of laughter behind her. Mara was in mini form rolling around in the ceiling, laughing hard. She also noticed that Mara was rather close to the octopus tank she had drugged and that she had not noticed her arrival yet.
Urd quietly snuck over and gave Mara a little push towards the tank.
"Eeep!" Mara exclaimed as she rolled into the tank. The octopus, seeing a new occupant to go after that was more readily accessible then the people outside the glass, changed targets and started swimming towards Mara.
Mara's eyes got large as she saw the animal swim towards her and frantically swam to the top of the tank and levitated back into the ceiling crawlspace where she saw Urd doubled over with laughter. Annoyed, Mara sent a small force bolt towards Urd which zapped her in the middle of her back.
"That's what you get for pushing me into the tank!" said Mara.
"You deserved it after what you tried to do with the animals here. Just what were you trying to do anyway? And how did you get a hold of my potions?" Urd retorted.
"Well…I was hoping one of the animals would get out or break the glass or something and cause general mayhem. Looks like I underestimated how strong the glass on those tanks is. You know, just the usual make trouble for Keiichi stuff," Mara replied with an innocent-looking grin on her face.
"That is one of the lamest stunts you've pulled recently, are you sure you're not loosing your touch?" Urd sighed. "Mara, Keiichi and Belldandy have been married for 3 years now, when are you going to get it into your head that you can't separate those two?"
"Who said I was trying to separate them?" Mara replied with a smirk on her face. "Well, it's been nice talking to you and all, but I have things to do, mortals to trick, goddesses to annoy, oh wait, did I say that last one out loud? Sorry," Mara said with a smile on her face as she faded from view and flew out of the aquarium back to her lair.
After Mara left, Urd scanned the broken vial she held and determined what set off the vial. After masking her aura so she wouldn't set off any more of the little devices, she examined each tank in the aquarium and removed the remaining vials. Fortunately the potions Mara had picked were temporary ones and the effects would wear off in an hour or so. She safely disposed of the vials and then flew back to the group before canceling her invisibility spell.
"What was that all about Urd?" asked Belldandy.
"Nothing major, just Mara up to her usual stunts. I sent her off and removed the remaining stuff that she had set up," replied Urd. "Shall we look at some more exhibits here? There shouldn't be anymore sharks trying to attack you," she said with a grin at Keiichi.
After touring the remaining parts of the aquarium with no more incidents, the group headed home as it was getting late in the afternoon. Once they arrived, Belldandy started preparing dinner and Skuld dragged the Deep Six out from her room to the back deck where she and Kenaz started working on it again.
After a few minutes there was a muffled explosion and Urd rushed out to see what had happened. She found Skuld and Kenaz, slightly singed among the remains of the Deep Six's engine, which had apparently exploded, taking out a nice sized chunk of deck with it.
"You know you should always double check your work Skuld," Urd said with a grin. "Or it might blow up on you like everything else you make."
"I did check my work! And my stuff doesn't always blow up! Besides, my inventions work more reliably then your potions!" Skuld retorted.
"Um…break it up guys," said a nervous Kenaz, trying to break up the sibling fight before it began.
Urd and Skuld both gave him the glare of death.
"I'll be over here if you need me…" said Kenaz with a thin smile on his face. He quickly left the area and took a few of the parts with him in hopes to fix what had gone wrong.
After Kenaz left, Urd and Skuld continued to glare at each other for a few more minutes and would have probably started tossing bombs and bolts around if Belldandy hadn't come out to repair the damage to the house and prevent things from getting too violent. Urd then left to continue to work on something in her room while Skuld found Kenaz and brought him back to help repair the damage done and fix the Deep Six.
A minute or two later, a second explosion occurred, but this one was inside the house. Skuld looked over and saw that her and Urd's room had a much bigger window then she remembered. It was also minus any glass. In fact, they had quite a nice hole where the outside wall used to be. With a slight grin on her face she looked through the new hole and saw a slightly blackened Urd lying in the midst of potion ingredients and broken vials.
"Don't…say…anything," said Urd with a look that could kill.
Skuld just returned to her work on the sub, trying to suppress the large grin on her face, and not completely succeeding.
After Urd had cleaned up the mess she examined the remains of her lab.
"That's odd, some of these ingredients are in the wrong bottles." Urd growled as she realized who was responsible. "That's it, I'm calling mother and getting her to take get Mara off of our back. I've had enough of her meddling!"
Urd left her room and went to the closest phone to dial hell, which interestingly enough had almost the same number as heaven, except that the last digit was a 6, not a 7.
"Hello? Put me through to Hild please…yes I know she requires an appointment, but she'll make an exception for me…this is Urd…yes I know she'll be happy to talk to me…just put me through ok?" Urd winced a second later as a loud, feminine, and not-at-all demon-like, squeal came through the headset.
"Hello mother…yes, I know I should call you more…we're fine…look the reason…yes I promise to call you more…the reason I was call…that's great, I'm sure your happy with the new demon…look, mother…mother…MOTHER…thank you. The reason I was calling was because Mara has been bothering us again…yes I know it's her job, I'm just sick and tired of it…look just take care of her ok?...Thank you…good bye mother…good bye…yes I'll call you soon…good bye…" Urd hung up the phone quickly before her mother could get another word in. "I hate talking to her," she muttered to herself before going back to her room to fix the mess that was a result of Mara's meddling.
A few miles away, in the basement of a certain video arcade, a phone rang. Mara glanced over at it with an annoyed expression before answering.
"Hello? Oh hello Hild, so nice to hear from you," she said while trying to cover up her wince at finding out who was calling. "Oh, so Urd called you…yes I know she never calls you…well why do you think I mess with her so much…yes I know you appreciate it…oh, you want me to stop for a while…but I thought you liked hearing from her…yes, I understand…ok…yes…YOU'RE WHAT? But you can't move the schedule up! Yes I know there is a new god living with them, but…alright…whatever you say…good bye."
Mara slammed down the handset. "Dammit! We're already running on a tight schedule and she wants to shorten it. Guess I'll have to go back to my lair and get back to work."
Mara quickly packed up her stuff and flew out of the arcade, heading back to the one the usually stayed in while making things difficult for the goddesses.
The following day Keiichi and the deities went down to the beach for the last time before heading back home. Skuld and Kenaz took the newly fixed Deep Six out for a spin in the coral reefs again while Keiichi, Belldandy, and Shinobu built a sandcastle near the water's edge. Urd was off somewhere on the beach again, testing out some new potions she had made the night before.
At around lunch time the group packed up their stuff on the beach and loaded the car with the things they had brought. They quickly ate a light lunch before heading back to the temple so that Keiichi could get ready for work the following day. After arriving back at the temple, Skuld and Kenaz logged into The World to see if they could locate either Bear or Mimiru and find out the results of their meeting with Tsukasa. Bear responded to their mail and agrees to meet them in Mac Anu, the root town for theta server.
"So, about this Tsukasa guy," began Kenaz, "he can't log out right?"
"Yeah, that's what I've heard," replied Skuld.
"Is he linked to the comas that we are investigating?"
"I don't know, it's possible since from what I understand he hasn't been able to log out since this mess started a few days ago," said Skuld.
"Hey!" called Bear as he spotted them. "How was your trip to the beach?"
"It was fun, we went to the aquarium nearby too," replied Skuld.
"So did you find anything out when you met with Tsukasa yesterday?" asked Kenaz.
"Not much, Mimiru didn't really want to go, so I went in her stead and found Tsukasa where he said he would be. He seemed disappointed that Mimiru didn't show up but then showed me that his Guardian was tame, though I didn't really believe him. It usually takes a long time to tame something like that, even in The World. Unfortunately I must have scared him off because he left before I could ask him anything. I did meet Mimiru as I was leaving though, said she changed her mind, but I wish she would have done so earlier. Tsukasa may not have run off then."
"Hmm…that's not too much help," said Skuld. "Do you know if he could be connected to the coma victims mentioned on the forums?"
"I'm not sure, I did a little digging and Tsukasa hasn't been able to log out since about the time a couple of people went into a coma, so he may be someone who was a victim, though I don't know how he could possibly be in The World if he's unconscious," replied Bear.
"Even so, we should probably check it out. Do you know if Mimiru might know when he started being unable to log out?" asked Kenaz.
"She might, she was the one that informed me, let me see if she's online," replied Bear.
A few moments later, Mimiru came running up.
"Hey Bear, what's up? Oh hi Skuld and Kenaz, how was your trip?" asked Mimiru.
"It was fine, you wouldn't happen to know when Tsukasa was first unable to log out do you?" asked Skuld.
"Hmm…I can't say for sure, but the first day I met him it looked like he tried to log out at one point, and seemed surprised that he was unable to. If I had to guess, I would say that's when he was first unable to log out."
"Well, it's something to go on, could you give us the date and time?" said Skuld.
"Sure, I'll e-mail it to you so you don't have to write it down." Mimiru paused for a second, and a new mail notice appeared on Skuld's console. "There you go, I have to get to bed, my mom's bugging me about staying on too late. See you guys tomorrow if you're online!" said Mimiru as she logged out for the evening.
"Well, now that I have the date and time, I'll forward the message to you Bear and you can check out any hospitals for coma patients admitted around that time in your area. Kenaz and I will check things out at our end. Hopefully we'll find someone who matches," said Skuld.
"Sounds like a good idea, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow and we'll compare notes. Have a nice evening," replied Bear as he logged out.
Skuld and Kenaz logged out as well shortly thereafter. After removing their headsets, Skuld brought up a list of local hospitals.
"This shouldn't be too bad, there are only two that would handle patients from this town, we can check them out tomorrow, we should also check Yggdrasil's database for anything odd that may have happened around that time," said Skuld.
"Ok, and I'm going to start working on a program that can help trace down the terminal he was using at the time. Shouldn't be too difficult with Yggdrasil's help. Not exactly legal, but I'll just have to make sure I don't get caught," Kenaz said with a grin.
Skuld and Kenaz went to bed shortly thereafter and slept dreamlessly.
by SmkViper
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Eponine, Cholene
Copyright
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.
Author's notes:
Text in are a character's thoughts.
Chapter 5: The Demon in the Aquarium
A short while later Mara arrived outside the house that Keiichi and the goddesses were staying at. One glance at the house showed the wards that had been put up around the building, not as powerful as the ones back at the temple and the house here wasn't holy ground, but it would hurt to try to pass through them unaided.
"Hmm… now to figure out what their plans are for tomorrow…" Mara muttered to herself.
The little camcorder demon that Mara had sent on ahead flittered up to her and twittered something.
"Oh, so they're going to the aquarium for a little sightseeing huh? There should be plenty of fun things there to mess with," she said, with a slightly disturbing smile on her face. She then flew off to the aquarium to "scout out the terrain" as she put it.
A few minutes later Mara arrived at the aquarium, which was closed for the night. After phasing through the front door she started looking around for any information on probable tours that Keiichi and the goddesses would take tomorrow. After a quick search she came to the security room which had a map of the entire building along with a list of tour guides on duty tomorrow and their routes. She reached into her pocket dimension and took several pictures of the map and schedule with a digital camera and then left the room to walk through the building and see if any opportunities presented themselves.
"Well, it appears that there are two main tours, one of the outside tanks with the large fish and one of the inside tanks with the smaller animals. Messing with the large tanks would be fun but there is a lot of open ground out there where I could be seen so probably not the best idea. I wonder what the ceiling crawlspaces in here look like…"
Mara floated up and stuck her head through the ceiling to take a look around.
"Aaaachooo! Don't they ever clean up here? The dust must be centuries old." Mara muttered to herself. "Looks like there are several pipes and catwalks going all over the place up here though, and it's plenty dark with lots of places to hide and sneak around in. Looks like I'll have to work with the inside tanks."
After a quick look around and noting the location of a few specific tanks Mara left the aquarium and went back to the local video arcade where she had set up her temporary lair in the basement for the weekend to plan tomorrow's excitement.
The next day after a leisurely breakfast, Keiichi and the goddesses left for the aquarium with a lunch packed by Belldandy. As soon as they were gone, the camcorder demon flew back to its master's lair and told Mara of their departure. Mara quickly left and flew toward the house where they were staying. After inspecting the wards that had been placed on the house, she opened a small portal and rummaged around inside for a few seconds.
"Hey, where are you…" Mara said after rummaging around for a few minutes. She stuck her head into the portal and quickly found what she was looking for. "There you are, come here you're going to help me with something."
Mara pulled out what looked like an octopus with large eyes and set it down on the ground next to her.
"Well, my little booster-demon, you're going to help me get inside," Mara said as she shrunk down to mini size and hopped on top of the little demon. "Now fly me inside!"
The little demon flew through the wall and past the wards protecting the house, boosting Mara's power so she was unharmed by the wards. Once inside, Mara returned to full size and quickly began searching the house. After a few minutes she found what she was looking for – Urd and Skuld's room. She quickly inspected the potion ingredients that Urd had stacked along the wall and swapped a few of the contents around, "To liven thing up" she said.
After mixing things up for Urd she went over to the partially disassembled Deep Six and looked for anything she could do to mess it up. After a quick inspection she spotted a few wires that she could swap around without being too obvious.
Mara then went back to Urd's stash of potions and started sorting through them looking for something that would be useful at the aquarium.
"Hmm…love potion, love potion, love potion…geeze, how many love potions does that goddess have anyway? What else is in here…ooh, a hate potion and…an indifference potion? Why would she make one of those? I will never understand that goddess…Hey look! There's even one for increasing your bust size, I'll definitely take that one with me."
She quickly grabbed a few select potions and put them into her pockets before shrinking back down the mini size and riding the booster demon out through the wards again. Once outside and back to her full size, she flew off towards the aquarium. Once there, she shifted back to mini form and made herself invisible to the mortals visiting the place. She quickly located the goddesses as they had made no effort to hide themselves and their strong aura indicated that they were looking at the outside exhibits.
Satisfied that they were currently occupied she floated up through the ceiling and went around to a few of the tanks indoors and rigged them with the potions she had taken from Urd's stash to release the potion into the water when one of the goddesses walked close by.
"Heh heh, this should cause quite a bit of mayhem. Now to sit back and watch the fireworks!" Mara muttered to herself with a wide grin plastered on her face. She quickly cloaked herself in her best shielding spells and kept an eye on her targets from a distance.
Urd paused for a split second as she was eating lunch. She thought she felt something…off, but it was so slight that it was probably nothing.
"What is it?" asked Belldandy, who had noticed her sister's slight pause.
"Oh, nothing, thought I felt something, but it's gone now," Urd replied.
They finished eating a few minutes later and went indoors to look at the tanks inside that contained the smaller marine life. As they looked through the tanks, Belldandy was busy trying to thaw out the various animals without anyone noticing after Shinobu accidentally deep froze anything she got excited over.
As they approached the baby shark tank a small vial broke unnoticed above the tank and its contents fell into the water and quickly dissipated. Shortly thereafter the sharks in the tank started chasing after each other.
"That's funny, I don't remember sharks ever being that viscous or ever going after their own kind…I wonder if some blood accidentally got into the tank?" muttered Keiichi when he saw the odd behavior of the sharks.
"You're right," said Belldandy, "there is something odd in the way they're behaving. But I suppose the aquarium workers know what's wrong and will fix it shortly."
Suddenly, one of the sharks broke away and swam hard towards Keiichi, smacking against the glass loudly, but not enough to crack it. Keiichi stumbled back, startled as someone in an aquarium uniform rushed up.
"Hey, the sharks in tank 12 are acting up, send someone over to check on them," said the man into a hand-held radio.
"Roger, we have someone on the way," the radio squawked back.
"Head along to the next exhibit please," said the man as he motioned the onlookers off.
Keiichi and the deities walked off to look at another exhibit, assuming that it was just an isolated incident. But when they approached the octopus tank, another small vial broke and deposited its contents into the tank.
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say this octopus had a love-struck look on his face," said Urd.
"How the heck would you know that Urd? It's just an octopus, they don't have facial expressions," replied Keiichi. Then he looked at the octopus. "Oh," he said, "I think you're right, though I've never seen an octopus look like that before."
"Something's fishy going on around here," Urd said as she cast a spell to make herself invisible before floating up through the ceiling to check on the tank.
"Hey, there's a small broken vial up here, looks like one of mine. And there's what feels like the remnants of a small spell cast on it." Urd's eyes narrowed as she realized who was behind this. "Mara…"
Urd quickly turned to the sound of laughter behind her. Mara was in mini form rolling around in the ceiling, laughing hard. She also noticed that Mara was rather close to the octopus tank she had drugged and that she had not noticed her arrival yet.
Urd quietly snuck over and gave Mara a little push towards the tank.
"Eeep!" Mara exclaimed as she rolled into the tank. The octopus, seeing a new occupant to go after that was more readily accessible then the people outside the glass, changed targets and started swimming towards Mara.
Mara's eyes got large as she saw the animal swim towards her and frantically swam to the top of the tank and levitated back into the ceiling crawlspace where she saw Urd doubled over with laughter. Annoyed, Mara sent a small force bolt towards Urd which zapped her in the middle of her back.
"That's what you get for pushing me into the tank!" said Mara.
"You deserved it after what you tried to do with the animals here. Just what were you trying to do anyway? And how did you get a hold of my potions?" Urd retorted.
"Well…I was hoping one of the animals would get out or break the glass or something and cause general mayhem. Looks like I underestimated how strong the glass on those tanks is. You know, just the usual make trouble for Keiichi stuff," Mara replied with an innocent-looking grin on her face.
"That is one of the lamest stunts you've pulled recently, are you sure you're not loosing your touch?" Urd sighed. "Mara, Keiichi and Belldandy have been married for 3 years now, when are you going to get it into your head that you can't separate those two?"
"Who said I was trying to separate them?" Mara replied with a smirk on her face. "Well, it's been nice talking to you and all, but I have things to do, mortals to trick, goddesses to annoy, oh wait, did I say that last one out loud? Sorry," Mara said with a smile on her face as she faded from view and flew out of the aquarium back to her lair.
After Mara left, Urd scanned the broken vial she held and determined what set off the vial. After masking her aura so she wouldn't set off any more of the little devices, she examined each tank in the aquarium and removed the remaining vials. Fortunately the potions Mara had picked were temporary ones and the effects would wear off in an hour or so. She safely disposed of the vials and then flew back to the group before canceling her invisibility spell.
"What was that all about Urd?" asked Belldandy.
"Nothing major, just Mara up to her usual stunts. I sent her off and removed the remaining stuff that she had set up," replied Urd. "Shall we look at some more exhibits here? There shouldn't be anymore sharks trying to attack you," she said with a grin at Keiichi.
After touring the remaining parts of the aquarium with no more incidents, the group headed home as it was getting late in the afternoon. Once they arrived, Belldandy started preparing dinner and Skuld dragged the Deep Six out from her room to the back deck where she and Kenaz started working on it again.
After a few minutes there was a muffled explosion and Urd rushed out to see what had happened. She found Skuld and Kenaz, slightly singed among the remains of the Deep Six's engine, which had apparently exploded, taking out a nice sized chunk of deck with it.
"You know you should always double check your work Skuld," Urd said with a grin. "Or it might blow up on you like everything else you make."
"I did check my work! And my stuff doesn't always blow up! Besides, my inventions work more reliably then your potions!" Skuld retorted.
"Um…break it up guys," said a nervous Kenaz, trying to break up the sibling fight before it began.
Urd and Skuld both gave him the glare of death.
"I'll be over here if you need me…" said Kenaz with a thin smile on his face. He quickly left the area and took a few of the parts with him in hopes to fix what had gone wrong.
After Kenaz left, Urd and Skuld continued to glare at each other for a few more minutes and would have probably started tossing bombs and bolts around if Belldandy hadn't come out to repair the damage to the house and prevent things from getting too violent. Urd then left to continue to work on something in her room while Skuld found Kenaz and brought him back to help repair the damage done and fix the Deep Six.
A minute or two later, a second explosion occurred, but this one was inside the house. Skuld looked over and saw that her and Urd's room had a much bigger window then she remembered. It was also minus any glass. In fact, they had quite a nice hole where the outside wall used to be. With a slight grin on her face she looked through the new hole and saw a slightly blackened Urd lying in the midst of potion ingredients and broken vials.
"Don't…say…anything," said Urd with a look that could kill.
Skuld just returned to her work on the sub, trying to suppress the large grin on her face, and not completely succeeding.
After Urd had cleaned up the mess she examined the remains of her lab.
"That's odd, some of these ingredients are in the wrong bottles." Urd growled as she realized who was responsible. "That's it, I'm calling mother and getting her to take get Mara off of our back. I've had enough of her meddling!"
Urd left her room and went to the closest phone to dial hell, which interestingly enough had almost the same number as heaven, except that the last digit was a 6, not a 7.
"Hello? Put me through to Hild please…yes I know she requires an appointment, but she'll make an exception for me…this is Urd…yes I know she'll be happy to talk to me…just put me through ok?" Urd winced a second later as a loud, feminine, and not-at-all demon-like, squeal came through the headset.
"Hello mother…yes, I know I should call you more…we're fine…look the reason…yes I promise to call you more…the reason I was call…that's great, I'm sure your happy with the new demon…look, mother…mother…MOTHER…thank you. The reason I was calling was because Mara has been bothering us again…yes I know it's her job, I'm just sick and tired of it…look just take care of her ok?...Thank you…good bye mother…good bye…yes I'll call you soon…good bye…" Urd hung up the phone quickly before her mother could get another word in. "I hate talking to her," she muttered to herself before going back to her room to fix the mess that was a result of Mara's meddling.
A few miles away, in the basement of a certain video arcade, a phone rang. Mara glanced over at it with an annoyed expression before answering.
"Hello? Oh hello Hild, so nice to hear from you," she said while trying to cover up her wince at finding out who was calling. "Oh, so Urd called you…yes I know she never calls you…well why do you think I mess with her so much…yes I know you appreciate it…oh, you want me to stop for a while…but I thought you liked hearing from her…yes, I understand…ok…yes…YOU'RE WHAT? But you can't move the schedule up! Yes I know there is a new god living with them, but…alright…whatever you say…good bye."
Mara slammed down the handset. "Dammit! We're already running on a tight schedule and she wants to shorten it. Guess I'll have to go back to my lair and get back to work."
Mara quickly packed up her stuff and flew out of the arcade, heading back to the one the usually stayed in while making things difficult for the goddesses.
The following day Keiichi and the deities went down to the beach for the last time before heading back home. Skuld and Kenaz took the newly fixed Deep Six out for a spin in the coral reefs again while Keiichi, Belldandy, and Shinobu built a sandcastle near the water's edge. Urd was off somewhere on the beach again, testing out some new potions she had made the night before.
At around lunch time the group packed up their stuff on the beach and loaded the car with the things they had brought. They quickly ate a light lunch before heading back to the temple so that Keiichi could get ready for work the following day. After arriving back at the temple, Skuld and Kenaz logged into The World to see if they could locate either Bear or Mimiru and find out the results of their meeting with Tsukasa. Bear responded to their mail and agrees to meet them in Mac Anu, the root town for theta server.
"So, about this Tsukasa guy," began Kenaz, "he can't log out right?"
"Yeah, that's what I've heard," replied Skuld.
"Is he linked to the comas that we are investigating?"
"I don't know, it's possible since from what I understand he hasn't been able to log out since this mess started a few days ago," said Skuld.
"Hey!" called Bear as he spotted them. "How was your trip to the beach?"
"It was fun, we went to the aquarium nearby too," replied Skuld.
"So did you find anything out when you met with Tsukasa yesterday?" asked Kenaz.
"Not much, Mimiru didn't really want to go, so I went in her stead and found Tsukasa where he said he would be. He seemed disappointed that Mimiru didn't show up but then showed me that his Guardian was tame, though I didn't really believe him. It usually takes a long time to tame something like that, even in The World. Unfortunately I must have scared him off because he left before I could ask him anything. I did meet Mimiru as I was leaving though, said she changed her mind, but I wish she would have done so earlier. Tsukasa may not have run off then."
"Hmm…that's not too much help," said Skuld. "Do you know if he could be connected to the coma victims mentioned on the forums?"
"I'm not sure, I did a little digging and Tsukasa hasn't been able to log out since about the time a couple of people went into a coma, so he may be someone who was a victim, though I don't know how he could possibly be in The World if he's unconscious," replied Bear.
"Even so, we should probably check it out. Do you know if Mimiru might know when he started being unable to log out?" asked Kenaz.
"She might, she was the one that informed me, let me see if she's online," replied Bear.
A few moments later, Mimiru came running up.
"Hey Bear, what's up? Oh hi Skuld and Kenaz, how was your trip?" asked Mimiru.
"It was fine, you wouldn't happen to know when Tsukasa was first unable to log out do you?" asked Skuld.
"Hmm…I can't say for sure, but the first day I met him it looked like he tried to log out at one point, and seemed surprised that he was unable to. If I had to guess, I would say that's when he was first unable to log out."
"Well, it's something to go on, could you give us the date and time?" said Skuld.
"Sure, I'll e-mail it to you so you don't have to write it down." Mimiru paused for a second, and a new mail notice appeared on Skuld's console. "There you go, I have to get to bed, my mom's bugging me about staying on too late. See you guys tomorrow if you're online!" said Mimiru as she logged out for the evening.
"Well, now that I have the date and time, I'll forward the message to you Bear and you can check out any hospitals for coma patients admitted around that time in your area. Kenaz and I will check things out at our end. Hopefully we'll find someone who matches," said Skuld.
"Sounds like a good idea, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow and we'll compare notes. Have a nice evening," replied Bear as he logged out.
Skuld and Kenaz logged out as well shortly thereafter. After removing their headsets, Skuld brought up a list of local hospitals.
"This shouldn't be too bad, there are only two that would handle patients from this town, we can check them out tomorrow, we should also check Yggdrasil's database for anything odd that may have happened around that time," said Skuld.
"Ok, and I'm going to start working on a program that can help trace down the terminal he was using at the time. Shouldn't be too difficult with Yggdrasil's help. Not exactly legal, but I'll just have to make sure I don't get caught," Kenaz said with a grin.
Skuld and Kenaz went to bed shortly thereafter and slept dreamlessly.