Pangs of regret and loneliness followed Rind as she sped away from Earth, never able to bore far enough through her discipline to give her pause. Duty ahead, friends behind. She had always believed she would never find herself in that situation and thus had kept her socializing, such as it had been, within the ranks of the Valkyries. Friends were impediments to any warrior unless she could put them from her mind when duty called. Though capable, Rind still could not do this. She had promised Keiichi that she would return and breaking a promise to a new lifelong friend was no way to begin, or end.

How long might it be until she had a break, when she could return? Would her duties outlast Keiichi's anticipation? No, the question was could they? Making friends may have been a mistake, but her choice of friends was not. Should it take fifty years, Keiichi would greet as though she had only been gone a day. He was that kind of person.

And Belldandy, now a sister in the test of strength and character inherent in having two angels. Rind believed the young goddess had the necessary strength to support both Holy Bell and the former devil with her own power. And she had enough emotional support and love. It was true that Belldandy could offer a rare form of companionship because of her new condition, but what Rind wanted most was to be there and guide her in ways the goddess might not be versed in. A powerful discipline was needed, almost ruthless in its extent and design. Without this, Belldandy would find even casual intent escaping her control. Rind knew the goddess's nature alone had no place for heartless dedication, but at least there was little risk of anyone coming to harm because of Belldandy's unintentional excesses. Of further consolation was that while trying to host two angels might not end well, Belldandy was not alone.

Rind pushed her concerns aside as she drew near the Valkyrie's hall. It was a busy time: She landed, reviewed the next entry on her long mission queue, and departed without once seeing another.

It was another rampaging beast, a shapeshifter, that had for days been terrorizing a crew installing security systems on a remote network node, and then giving Yggdrasil security a hard time when they responded to the menace. Within three minutes of her arrival Rind had relieved the beast of four of its limbs, two of its eyes, and what seemed to be its only tail. Within four minutes it was sealed. Its next stop would be a containment facility where it would await proper identification from the Mystic Beast Research Lab after which it would be tagged and returned to its natural habitat if it proved to be an ordinary monster. As missions went, it was routine and unchallenging, better suited for trainees

Perhaps that was for the best. Rind wanted time to rest and reflect after her experiences during the tenshikui mission. Though not yet feeling fatigued, before many more missions she knew she would feel the drain.

The goddesses on Yggdrasil security thanked her profusely, all the while looking uneasy in their uniforms now that they stood in the presence of a warrior. She nodded in response to their gratitude, offered an assurance about the strength of the seal on the shapeshifter, and departed.

Back at the hall, standing at a tree-shaped kiosk at which any Valkyrie could review her list of assignments, Rind found that she had a three-hour break. It was not enough time to return to her quarters and sleep or make good on a promise, but enough to meditate on a quiet, grassy slope somewhere, or perhaps in one of the many forested parks where many gods and goddesses went while on break from their duties. Even there she would remain undisturbed, her station and reputation creating a buffer between herself and the others. She was a Valkyrie, one that enjoyed fighting. A few gods looked upon her kind with plain gratitude; they appreciated the Valkyrie's violent work and that they stood between them and aggression of any kind. But most saw a different class from themselves, or worse, they equated a Valkyrie with the reason for her duty, as though her training in combat created situations in which combat was necessary. Rind had met it all: envy, pity, dutiful respect, mistrust, and apathy. The latter was the worst. It was as though most denizens of the heavens saw no other way to deal with the distasteful issue of aggression and counter-aggression than to look upon those who must fight as machines designed for that only task, built, trained, and set free to do their work; out of sight and out of mind.

Rind turned away from these thoughts and the consequent memories of solitude and loneliness. She reminded herself that she would take every opportunity to replace those memories with far more pleasant ones through visits to Earth, where there were people who understood that one's purpose, even if violent, was not all there was to know about her.

Before she could decide on a place to meditate the screen flickered and her job queue changed. Her break was replaced by another assignment, at another node, more remote than the last. There were few details save for the one that indicated that this would be an ongoing assignment. It consisted of a week of what amounted to little more than guard duty, a watch for a threat that never appeared.

The one break in the monotony was a communiqué from Peorth on Earth. Belldandy had not been able to control the second angel at all and somehow Keiichi had taken over as host, which had proved even more problematic. The others had realized they had asolution in their midst, but Rind had left the cat sealed. Since it was relatively harmless, and Rind agreedit was best in lieu of being there herself to guide Belldandy, she sent her access codes for thecat'sreleasewithout reservation

Returning, Rind felt as fatigued then as she might have had she actually battled with something the entire time. Again a break was on her schedule, twelve hours this time, and again, it was not to be. Before she could change into her standard dress she saw a younger Valkyrie, a trainee, standing in a short distance away, waiting to be noticed. Rind remembered her name after a second.

"Mist."

"Forgive my intrusion, Rind, but Brunhilde requests to see you at once."

Rind frowned, annoyed but not surprised. It would have been a far simpler matter to leave her a message in her mission queue, but instead the leader of the Valkyries had seen fit to send a trainee, one who had just been through a brutal training session by the looks of her charred and torn uniform. For Mist, this was what Brunhilde called "supplemental training", a means of maintaining readiness and testing stamina even when all one wanted to do was go back to her quarters and collapse into bed. This was, of course, a much smaller nuisance than, say, walking into one's quarters and finding that a simple act as turning on the light has activated a bomb with a five-second timer. Rind recalled every time this had happened to her. A wholehearted devotion to duty wasn't the only reason most Valkyries led such Spartan lives. Brunhilde's occasional surprise "supplemental" sessions necessitated an ascetic lifestyle; more often than not the bomb's were not meant to be defused. Material possessions never lasted long.

"Thank you," she said, moving past Mist, who fell in step behind.

Rind knew that Mist had yet to have the pleasure of entering her own quarters only to be greeted by a serene voice counting backward from five, but having to track someone down after several hours of dodging (not always with success) bolts, axes, and all manner of projectiles wielded and hurled by as many as four trainers was enough of a trial. She glanced back at the trainee.

"Go on to your duties or rest. I am familiar with the location our captain's office."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

The younger goddess bowed once and disappeared down an adjoining corridor. Rind did not watch her go.

"Sit."

"I believe I will stand."

Brunhilde looked up from her desk as Rind eyed the chair before her. "As you wish," she said.

Rind moved up behind the chair and stood, arms clasped behind her back. From the Valkyrie leader's mild acquiescence she knew at once this was no social call, no performance review (official or otherwise) or supplemental training with an armed chair, and it certainly was not a conference. There were more serious matters here than the propriety of a subordinate when offered a chair.

"I wish to discuss a recent mission of yours. Involving the Tenshikui," Brunhilde began, her attention on a display built into her desk.

"I will make a full report at the earliest posssible—"

"No need. I've gathered all I need to know from Yggdrasil."

On the surface, Rind was expressionless, but inside she frowned. Brunhilde obeyed protocol as closely as her warriors, but this time she had eschewed routine. Rind stood ready in her mind.

"Undserstood."

Now Brunhilde looked up. "Given the Daimakaicho's appearance, you are to be commended for a successful resolution to the crisis."

Rind did not stir despite the temptation to redirect some of the recognition towards those that had stood with her against Hild and her pet. Brunhilde's words did not sound like positive recognition anyway. They had the sound of neutral description, of common occurrence, and of something veiled.

"Furthermore you met this challenge without earning an unmanageable notice from the mortals. As it is, these events occurred at the residence of Keiichi Morisato. Unusual happenings there seem to be the norm for the locals."

The Valkyrie chief smiled. It was humorless and concealing.

Where is this going? Rind thought.

"And bereft of your angels you managed to remain active. Well done." Still Brunhilde's voice was flat, her intent elusive.

I did what was necessary, Rind thought.

"However."

There it is. Disdain. Contempt. Impatience. Rind could not discern which.

Brunhilde leaned forward. "There are a few important points we need to address. First: the whereabouts of the Tenshikui. Mystic Beast would like to know where their specimen is. More accurately, they want to know why it was sent to Hell instead of being returned to them."

Rind did not reply. She was not expected to.

"Second:" Brunhilde tapped a button on her console and a screen identical to the one before her rose, facing Rind. "Read the third-to-last entry."

It was a list of mission summaries. Rind did as she was bid though both knew the contents of the list.

"Investigate Tenshikui's disappearance from the Mystic Beast Research Lab. Ascertain whereabouts. Report whereabouts and await further instructions and reinforcements."

"Correct. Now, I, and those I delegate command tasks to, yourself included, are quite diligent in recording communications that occur while missions are in progress. Yet nowhere is there record of instructions to travel to Earth, an act that endangered four goddesses and their angels."

Rind looked straight ahead now, waiting for the time, brief as it may be, when she would be allowed to defend her actions.

"Unfortunately the situation at the Morisato residence did not end with the Tenshikui's unauthorized return to Hell. But that is not our concern."

Rind knew better now. That situation was resolved so she did not let her captain's callousness reach her.

"This breach of protocol is uncharacteristic of any Valkyrie, and while a plausible explanation for it may exist in Mystic's visual archives covering the events surrounding the Tenshikui's escape, Mystic has no qualms about laying responsibility for the loss of a valuable specimen on the Valkyries."

"I accept all responsibility and will face disciplinary—" Rind stopped when Brunhilde gave her a dismissive wave.

"I've reviewed the visual record of Mystic. Suffice it to say that you may very well have had little or no say in the proper execution of your mission following your violation by the Tenshikui."

Something stirred inside Rind. A glimmer of forgotten events or perhaps a shudder of emotion from Spearmint's otherwise quiet mind. Outrage. Revulsion. Shame. Rind turned away from those feelings. She remembered well that the thing had been inside her. What she wasn't ready for yet was the memory of how it had gotten inside.

"I will not add to the embarassment of the Valkyries by admitting such weakness," she said.

Another wave of the hand, another cold smile. "Mystic will spin this in whatever way they see fit and will seek disciplinary action against you, that is, if they do not think I have reprimanded you myself."

"Then I await your reprimand."

Brunhilde tapped a few buttons and a thin sheet rose from the desk at a point within reach of anyone sitting across from her. Rind rounded the chair and picked it up. It was a wasteful hardcopy. She would have committed to memory anything appearing on a display, no matter how heavily worded

She glanced at it once. It was a list. She eyed Brunhilde after reading the first entry: 'Travel to Earth to latitude of 33.7724495 North, latitude 112.1338196 West.' The Valkyrie chief was still smiling her cold smile.

"Mystic's suggestion. They thought it important that I be explicit and thorough so that there is not another breach of conduct."

There was something expectant in Brunhilde's face, a barely contained delight. Rind filed it away and decided to save the list for later, when every reaction, no matter how subtle, would be unobserved.

"I request an informal briefing."

"Of course." Brunhilde stood. "You are familiar with the so-called Voice of Earth?"

"Have they begun executing their plans?"

Brunhilde stood and moved to one of the many windows in her office. "No. However, one of their chosen has come to the attention of the demons, specifically one named Izumishita, high-ranking in Hell and rumored to have designs on the position of Daimakaicho."

Rind guessed that this mission had nothing to do with a dead human, so she waited.

"Izumishita believes in most of the Voice of Earth's dire predictions and would like very much to make sure they come to pass. A member of the Voice contacted the aforementioned chosen for reasons unknown. As I said, the Voice has not initiated the 'apotheosis.' From what the Voice has leaked to us via 'anonymous' hacks into Yggdrasil, one of which you dealt with a distraction for following your return form Earth, the informant was a neophyte alarmed by the present Daimakaicho's preoccupation with Earth, and Itzumishita's notice of the same. What transpired between the neophyte and the chosen has not been released, but it appears to be a problem for Itzumishita. The chosen has been targeted by what has been described as a hitokui."

Rind did not flinch, but inside she recoiled. The leader of the Valkyries would claim that this new mission was only an ersatz punishment meant to appease Mystic, but the more she knew of it, the more she was coming to believe that Brunhilde was not merely posturing for Mystic. Still, she forced herself to be calm and reserve judgment for later, when she knew all there was to know.

"The chosen is a mortal," Rind said.

"They all are. This one just had the misfortune of being met by a panicky neophyte."

"Has this hitokui been released?"

"Yes. It will acquire its target within twenty-four hours."

Rind's suspicions stirred again. A hitokui, a man-eater, was already on the loose. And only one mortal was of concern? Something told Rind that the hitokui's tastes were going to be specific.

Brunhilde seemed to have read her thoughts. "We know that the hitokui has been spelled against running rampant amongst the mortals and gorging until it explodes. Izumishita would not wish to call attention to it. It will eat only its intended victim and, given its requirements, recently deceased humans and the occasional animal.

A judgment slipped through. Brunhilde had all but said what came to Rind's mind next.

"I am not to terminate this creature then?" How else would this mission look like a punishment if Rind were not to protect the human?

"Correct. We do not know the full nature of this beast, nor what other methods Izumishita will employ should we simply destroy the hitokui."

Oh? Will it not perturb the demon to have a valkyrie standing between his monster and the target? Rind thought.

"You will remain with the human until we ascertain the extent of Izumishita's interest in this one mortals destruction."

For a moment Rind considered voicing her skepticism about the nature of the mission and her doubts as to the importance of this one human that a valkyrie be sent to protect rather than destroy one threat. But she remained silent. She was not being given a choice. The mission was already hers, and to object now would not only be insubordinate, but it would likely play into whatever game Brunhilde was playing with her.

"Understood."

"Review the mission brief. It contains further information on the hitokui as well as certain crucial mission parameters, which I insist be followed lest we be embarrassed again."

Tight-lipped, Rind said, "Understood."

"Any questions."

Why are you doing this to me?

"No."

"Dismissed."

Rind turned and left. She did not realize the extent of her anger until she reached her quarters. Upon opening her door she heard a soft voice come from the farthest corner of her small room.

"Five..."

Spearmint and Cool Mint exploded from her.

"Four..."

Energy was ripped from the room, condensing, then freezing the air within, as well as that which blew in past Rind to fill the resulting vacuum. A shield formed between Rind and her angels, and the source of the voice.

"Three..."

The wall of frozen air surged forward, toward the corner, splintering into jagged projectiles the size of a fist. They struck the walls and floor.

"Tw—"

Silence. No explosion. The angels withdrew. Rind walked forward and stood amongst the rapidly sublimating pieces of ice, nudging a few to one side with her foot to expose the mangled remains of Brunhilde's bomb. She knelt and examined it. It was not a significant charge. Unshielded, she might have been thrown back against the opposite corridor wall, singed but unhurt. Without her angel's intervention, Rind would have easily formed a barrier around the bomb, containing the blast.

This was not a supplement to training, not a simple device to remind her to be ever alert. This was the punctuation to what had transpired in Brunhilde's office.

Rind turned and sat on her bunk to read the mission brief, convinced that there would be no information about the hitokui that she'd be able to use against it. She was mostly right. The scarcity of information about the beast gave her a clear message: do not engage the creature. Or perhaps worded in a way more true to Brunhilde's intentions: prolong this "mission" for as long as possible.

There was more, limitations placed on her, superfluous details about conduct, even instructions on how to use certain powers in the event of an emergency; all things one would brief a cadet on, or perhaps a goddess with a probationary license. Unofficial punishment indeed. The brief began to frost over.

"Cool mint, Spearmint, be at rest."

As for herself, Rind knew she had no time to reflect or meditate, to direct her anger into venues more appropriate of a valkyrie and goddess. That would have to come later, when the human was safe, and the hitokui miles behind them. "Within twenty-four hours," Brunhilde had said.

She left the hall and raced to Earth.