All major characters © 1996 Kosuke Fujishima, meaning Urd, Skuld, Belldandy and K1 are not mine, just the situations they are thrown in.
The character Xerangref was created and copyrighted by myself. If anyone wishes to use him in the future in any fanfic, you have permission to do so as long as credit is given.
A/N: This is my first shot at an AMG related fic. Although the story line follows fairly closely to the manga at first that is all that will really be related to it. Certain plots and such may be hinted at or explained, but that is all.
Further notes that should be noted are that if you HAVE NOT read the manga past volume 19, you should NOT read this story, as it is a tangent off a major plot line in volumes 19 and 20, but involve different situations and ideas that didn't happen in the manga.
I honestly have no idea how long this fic will be, it depends on whether or not I believe it's finished, which may be soon.
Classes and essays and fun, oh my.
Happiness' End
End of Chapter 17:
He could tell that she was intrigued by his passion that was building in each of their kisses. He had told her that he wanted to take it slow, and maybe work up to being more and more physical, but his resolve to that thought was getting weaker.
Keiichi put his hand on his forehead and squeezed lightly. He needed to stop thinking about these things, lest they get him into trouble. He already had enough problems with Urd always on his tail about getting it on with Belldandy.
Keiichi looked to his side and saw his sleeping goddess. She wore a smile and had one hand clutched to her chest while her other was draped over his chest. He smiled and looked back to the ceiling, waiting only a few more minutes before sleep finally took a firm grip on his consciousness.
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Chapter 18: Action?
It had been only two days after the incident at work when Keiichi got notice of a big project that the company was supposed to be working on.
His boss wanted to speak with him next week on Sunday about being the project manager, as he had the most racing experience and graduated from Nekomi Tech with outstanding grade marks in all of his engineering and mathematical classes. He was the prime candidate for being the supervisor over all the others, despite only working at Wyvern for about a year.
The only details he got from his boss were that the motorcycle they were being contracted to design and build was a top of the line pro-stock drag racing bike. Of course, before the conversation ensued about the details and the meeting in a week, his boss chewed him out for being reckless in the shop and quoted safety regulations to Keiichi and made sure he knew not to screw up again, lest someone get seriously injured.
Unknown to both parties, a certain demoness was cloaked in the office listened to the lecture and then the details about the meeting and bike. She allowed herself a quick feral grin and then vanished from the store to quickly relate her findings to Xerangref.
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Keiichi arrived home later that day to inform Belldandy about the meeting that was scheduled for next Sunday afternoon. He knew she wouldn't mind, but she would be slightly depressed. Sundays were usually his only break from work and the days that they spent some alone time together without many interruptions.
He was still getting babied by Belldandy, but it was toned down from the original treatment he got two days ago.
He sighed and slid the shoji door open, "I'm home."
Belldandy was waiting for him with her usual smile and kiss. She noticed almost immediately that he was a bit tense. Even after work was over, he wasn't this tense unless he had something to share with her.
"What is the matter, Keiichi-san?"
"You know me too well Belldandy. Well…let's go sit down and I'll tell you about it," he replied while putting his arm around her waist and leading her to the kitchen table.
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While Keiichi was disclosing his information to Belldandy, Mara was also explaining the situation to Xerangref.
"Most excellent Mara, most excellent," he replied, "We shall strike when he begins to return from that meeting."
"Yes, lord. But how are we going to get the fool Aoshima to play with this willingly?" Mara asked while looking at her demon superior.
"Why Mara, whoever said he was going to do this willingly? A little mind manipulation won't hurt anyone, especially in revenge. The ends justify the means," he replied while looking somewhat bored.
"Until then Mara, we will go over all the spells, moves and fighting routines you have been taught over the next week and three days. This way, things will be fresh in your mind and the chance for failure will be naught."
"Yes, lord," Mara replied with a slight bow.
"And there will be no holding back. The last two days will be only half the load; use it to regain your strength, because you will need it. You'll be pushed to the brink of your ability and back thrice over. Be prepared for a great deal of hard work, more than you've ever faced in your life."
Mara paled slightly, but nodded in return to show that she understood his commands. He was expecting nothing less than perfection from her. She'd have to give it everything she had just to satisfy him. If not, the punishments would be severe.
Xerangref's punishments were nothing like the playful annoyances that Urd forced upon the kid when she either upset her or screwed with her alchemy crap. These were much worse. Physical and mental beatings of the worst kind; use of ancient traditional Chinese torture instruments included. His punishments were borderline sadistic and satanic. Only something a true master of evil would conceive of.
Mara had received some of his lighter and heavier punishments. She doubted that even the Dark One would use a punishment technique so vile and bloody. Even though few demons knew of the Dark One, his legacy and powers were the things of mystery. It is said he possesses the powers equal to those of the Gods Kami-sama. His wife was Hild, the Daimakaicho and Queen of the Underworld.
Few 1st class demons knew of him, yet some were privileged with the knowledge. She was one of maybe a dozen that knew of the Dark One. Only Class 0 demons, the council and Hild knew of him; the information they possessed was far greater than she would ever know. Since there were only eight council members, three dozen or so Class 0 demons and Hild, that put the total count at just over or at 50 demons in the entire underworld that knew of his existence. They all believed Hild was the ruler and supreme commander, but few knew that she was just a figure head to a far greater power.
Mara had never been punished by Hild or the Dark One before, so she had to previous experience with just how disgusting true torture and discipline methods could be. After all, Class 0 demons were known to be quite ruthless. Xerangref proved that to be true to the letter. Hild was known for her cunning and deviousness with certain plans and actions. Although she was, at one time, very soft hearted towards the gods and Kami-sama, that had changed when she was forced to give up her daughter Urd to their side. Mara knew that she wasn't really forced, that Urd had gone willingly, but no one could really convince her of that; not even the Dark One.
Hild, in a way, was like Belldandy in Mara's mind. You could never tell what she was planning or what was on her mind. That made the Daimakaicho a very dangerous woman. No one knew her true motives until they were revealed. And only when she wanted them to be revealed did someone know.
Mara shivered slightly as she recalled some of the plans she had seen Hild whip up on a whim. Xerangref was just as bad in certain aspects, but paled in comparison to Hild in others.
A deep voice interrupted her thoughts, "Rest before the harder times descend upon you Mara, you'll need all the time to relax and rest that you can get."
Mara nodded again before turning away and continuing to the back of the run down arcade.
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Belldandy could sense that something was quite right. She knew everything appeared just as it normally would, but something just didn't feel right.
She could sense small and almost unnoticeable bursts of demonic energy coming from a certain area in town. She was worried about Keiichi, her number one concern being his safety and well being.
Yet, the small bursts didn't seem to be anywhere near where she sensed him. It was either Mara getting upset over some failed plan or her being punished by a stronger force and trying to fight it off.
She turned her head in the general direction she felt the periodic bursts, but shook her head and sighed. Things were starting to get complicated around the house. Urd and Skuld had resumed their random bouts of bickering and arguments for some odd reason. They had both been so good until recently.
On the other side, was the odd feeling she was getting from Keiichi the past few weeks. He seemed to be a bit more passionate and possibly daring with her than in the past. Although she had rather enjoyed some parts of the experience, she was worried that something might be wrong with him. She understood that he wanted to take things a bit slowly, but the way he was acting now, it was as if he was disregarding his own words.
Getting more physical with Keiichi was something she had always wondered and, dare she say, dreamed about. She simply wanted Keiichi to be happy instead of trying to break him out of his comfort zone. It seemed he was slowly expanding his horizons, in a sense.
Belldandy sighed and looked in the direction of Wyvern hoping to catch a glimpse of the object of her thoughts.
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On the opposite end of town, Keiichi's mind was also wandering elsewhere; somewhere no where near where his current thought train was supposed to be.
His chin was resting on his palm as he looked in the general position of the temple. In recent days, he couldn't seem to get Belldandy out of his mind. She was already a permanent resident of his unconscious thoughts, but it seemed she now reigned of his conscious thoughts as well.
He wanted to progress to the 'next stage' of things, but he wasn't completely sure how far that stage meant going.
Keiichi sighed and rubbed his shoulder and worked out a few kinks from his neck before looking back at his current project. The owner of the bike wanted a total haul-over of the six year old bike. He was glad that some people still kept older bike models and just updated them with the times. Most others would've already sold their old bikes and bought newer models.
That train of thought got him thinking about checking on his BMW before heading home. He hadn't performed basic maintenance on his ancient bike in almost a month and a half.
He lost his train of thought with a sudden burst of loud heavy metal music that came from a stereo on the back counter. Most of the time, the stereo was off or had at least a j-pop station on. Keiichi had never considered heavy metal a type of music. All it was, was a person strumming out seemingly random chords on an amped up guitar and screaming over the loud noise. The music reminded him of Tamiya's attempts at karaoke, a bunch of howling banter.
Keiichi shook his head as he turned back to his work. It was going to be a long day yet, especially if the music kept playing.
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Xerangref looked at the tired and worn Mara.
They had been training full out for the past three days since she had informed him of the meeting that Keiichi's superior had requested his presence at last Friday. He had run her ragged over the past three days, and it was now beginning to show. Her resilience was dying out and she seemed to drag around wherever she went.
While he was a tough instructor and ran a tight and flawless schedule, he was also wise enough to notice that he was far overworking Mara. He informed her that they would only run the simulations and bouts till mid afternoon before stopping.
Now, as the both sat back to relax, he could see that she was visibly picking up. She seemed to regain a little more strength by having a short rest period in the afternoons. He figured it would be better to run everything until about 5 pm then give her a breather in the evenings instead of working her late into the night. This way, she would at least be rested enough to do something useful during the actions this next weekend.
After their sessions together, both of them went and looked in on the temple house environment. Mara had little worry about with Xerangref there to cancel out the ward; she would've been toast if he wasn't there. Even the stupid robot Banpei couldn't detect them when both of them were using the higher level cloaking spells.
Mara could tell that something was wrong with both Belldandy and Keiichi. They seemed to be looking at each other a lot differently and acting like school children who had crushes on each other. She figured that both of them were trying to sort out how to move on.
This current course was almost too perfect for what would be happening in exactly a week. Both of them would be crushed even worse than she imagined.
Mara smiled. Soon, very soon, revenge would be hers at last. A grand finale to all her problems and struggles in the ultimate form of revenge. Success was only assured with Xerangref here.
Mara couldn't wait until next week. Then, the suffering would begin. If Senbei was still with her, he would be ecstatic.
Yes, soon all the damned goddesses and the mortal would pay dearly.
A/N: Against my better judgment, I wrote another chapter while procrastinating on my mid terms. Oh well. I completed this chapter while listening to the FMA 3rd OST and all of the openings and endings in full. It was quite nice. The story will soon continue!