Kyoko laid on her plush bed, wasting away the summer break. she had her college lined up, and pretest studied for and now she enjoyed the greatest of luxuries, time.

flopping over to her side, she pulled out her phone and check her messages for the hundredth time. still no word from Shohei. Despite being the same age, she had seen him as a little brother. he was so serious in school, so studious. so boring, and kinda geeky. she worried about him, it was unlike him to go so long without even so much as a 'hello' message.

Kyoko's phone lit up just as those thoughts rolled through her head. snatching up the phone traces of worry creased her face as she saw the number. just one of her friends. sighing as she answered the phone, she listened to her friend rattle on about some party she was being invited to. she agreed then hung up.
still no word from Shohei. a Goddess? was he really he really that crazy?

Shohei was always so serious, it was unlike him. and to keep this from her for the years they spent in high school... Maybe he really was in love. but what kind of woman would toy with a child's feelings like that?

it just made her worry all the more for him. Making up her mind, she dialed in the Yoshida residence and waited.

"Hello?" a mans voice answered that she remembered as Shohei's father.

"Hello, Mr Yoshida? i am looking for Shohei? is he okay? It's been a while since-"

"There is no Shohei that lives here." Mr Yoshida cut her off.

"Oh, so he moved. do you know where i can contact you son?" she asked cheerfully, despite the cold shiver running down her back.

"I have no son by that name. good day." he said gruffly as he hung up. Kyoko sat there, slack jawed. he really did it, the son of a bitch really disowned his own son. "Bastard!" she yelled out in anger and frustration slamming her fists into the soft bedding. That meant Shohei was all alone probably homeless.
grabbing her shoes and jacket she ran down stairs to look for him on her own. passing the maid, she simply told her she was going out for a bit. running to the park were they had last spoke, she looked for him. where else would he go?

the day passed on as the sun hung lower and lower on the horizon, until night prevailed against the daylight and the stars showed themselves for all to see. grunting as she picked herself up off the bench, she started walking home vowing to find him at all cost.

she had more money than she knew what to do with. should be simple to higher an agency to find him. "Hold on Shohei." she muttered as she started back to her home.

OoOoO

Shohei walked home in the dark, the starlight being drowned out by the lights of the city as he walked the final leg to his home.

Home? he thought, no not his home. he had no home. It was the Morisato residence.

where Urd lived.

and he stayed, at least until he could afford a place of his own. tho it was not looking very good for him. the work was back breaking, he was more the smart guy than the strong one. the pay was not that great, and he was falling behind the rest of the crew.

he might not have that job soon. maybe he could get a job washing dishes. the computer design job he was aiming for after college was gone now. even the local shops had been warned off by his father.

his father seems to be rich and powerful, but in reality their debt was sky high, and their power and influence was dependent on how people saw the facade the Yoshida clan put up. it was all lies, really.

but even lies held sway over those smaller. by the time he got home, his meager earnings secure in his pocket, managed to enter quietly enough to not wake anyone and made his way to the bathroom. stripping of his cloths, he showered and dried off, dressed then off to bed, not even having the energy to soak in the tub. Stumbling back to the room with his bed laid out on the floor, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

OoOoO

Dreams were a funny thing for Shohei these days. it was like his life was split in two. the real world were he toiled to exhaustion, hoping to get a glace of Urd, and the dream world, where her angel would visit him. would she show up tonight? he wondered as he sat in his class at school, dimly aware that he was once again dreaming.

he looked out the window and doubted his decision again. who was he, really to be worthy of the attention of a goddess, or her angel for that matter?

"Doubt will make your soul ugly, you know." came a voice he knew well.

"Hello Ele." he said as he looked up to see World of Elegance walk in, pencil skirt and top with glasses matching the ideal hot teacher look.

"Stand, bow." he heard the class president say, the shuffling of seat breaking his stare.

"Mr Yoshida? are you forgetting something?" Ele said from the front of the class.

"What?" he asked.

"Stand, bow." she said gently with a smile.

"Oh, right." he said as he did as instructed and took his seat again. was she real, or just a dream of his?

"Yes, i am real, Mr Yoshida." Ele said from the front of the class before lowering her voice to a more conspiratorial tone, "I just wanted to play 'teacher.'" she said as she bent low enough to show off her cleavage much to the notice of the males in the class room.

"Hey this is supposed to be my dream." he grumbled as he watched the stares Ele was getting from his 'classmates'. wondering what she was up to, he watched as Ele started writing some complex formula on the board. he stared out the window in frustration until his name was called.

"Mr Yoshida? please solve this problem for the class." Ele said, beckoning him to the chalk board.

shifting in his seat before getting up, he tried to understand the problem on the board. half of it was algebra, the other half was a series of logic gate diagrams. his curiosity getting the better of him, he grabbed the chalk out of her hand, brushing aside Ele's wings as he started working the problem, lining up the math with the diagrams on the chalk board, erasing here, adding there, until it felt right.

"See? so what is it?" Ele asked him, looking at him through her glasses, shuffling her wings in anticipation.

"Its... i don't know what it is yet." he said with a frown. "This is like next generation stuff."

"Actually, its next, next generation." she said as she warped her left hand around his shoulder, her wing ever so soft against his cheek as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Shh, don't tell anyone where you got this from. its kinda against the rules." she said, then brushed her lips against his cheek. "So, does it still feel wrong?" she asked him.

"Yes, kinda." he answered, his cheeks burning.

"Well, okay then." she said withdrawing from him to stand a few feet away. "So, tell me, how are you going to seduce Urd?"

"S-Seduce?!" he all but yelled.

"Well, yes. you are in her heart, our hearts. she just wont accept it. she needs a push. you should get her a gift, then make you move."

"but wont she know about this conversation?" he asked.

"well, she may know about it, but actually being able to recall it is another matter." she said slyly.

"I don't know if i can do that." he said.

"You have to. she wants a man, not a little boy. she still has feeling for you, but they are the feelings of a little girl for a little boy. she needs some one to be aggressive. you need to be aggressive, or you might lose her." she said, her wings drooping, "and me too." she said in a tiny voice.

"I-I understand." he said as he held the chalk in his hands looking at her as she toyed with her wings looking out the windows with a bit of a sad look on her face. He knew part of her act was just that, be he also knew she was hiding behind the pouty act to hide her fear.

"I will make it happen." he said, striding up to her, taking her in his arms. "I won't let you be sad like this, okay?" he asked as he held her, her wings slowly encircling them. Glancing back to the board, he again wondered how much trouble she could get into for giving him computer technology from the future.
"this is going to take some time to put together." he said, looking again at the layout of the diagram on the board.

"Oh, wait, it gets better." Ele said from with in his arms.

"Better?" he asked, looking down at her as eyes glowed in excitement.

"Yeah, better. This is just the start." she said smiling devlisihly at him. "We should... crap, never mind. Its almost time for you to get up." she said, releasing him from her arms, drawing her wings back to her.

"but I just fell asleep." he complained.

"Well, to you, you just fell asleep, but to me, this is the sixth conversation we've had. I had to save the best for last."

"But why don't I remember it?" he asked, as the dream started to fade.

"Its the nature of the human mind. This is the second time tonight you've asked me that." she said, as the dream faded and the real world called him.
"Ele..." he said, as he sat up in his futon on the floor, the daylight streaming in.

"still here." a voice said from behind him.

"Hey." he said happily as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"hey your self. You look pretty cute in the morning."

"So do you." he said, getting a good look at her for the first time. She sat there, wearing only his shirt, her legs crossed as she blushed lightly as she looked away.

"How did you fit your wings into my shirt?" was all he could think to ask.

"A bit of magic." was all she said as she got up, tugging down on the front of the shirt, not so subtly suggesting that the shirt was all she was wearing.
"WORLD OF ELEGANCE!" came the earth shattering yell from Urd's room.

"Oops, got to go." she said with a guilty smile as she flew out the window briefly flashing Shohei as she flew out the window before Urd came storming in.
"YOU!" she yelled leveling her finger at him, "This is all your fault!"

"Ah, trouble with your angel?" he asked meekly with a smile.

"Of all the stupid stuff she could pull..." she muttered as she stopped to fix him with a stare that was anything but pleasant "Hmm, I wonder if I can make a potion to erase your memory."

"I though angels were the reflection of their goddess's souls?" he asked, trying to redirect her anger.

"Yeah, well..." she said, turning to look out the window. "This still you fault!" she yelled, her face still turned away.

"You can understand why, right?" he asked her.

"Yeah, well..."

"And after all," said belldandy as she walked in the room, "she was not the one who left her former boss in a crater and got banished to earth." she said with a smile and a soft giggle.

"Your not helping belldandy. You don't seem to have this problem with your angel." she said sourly.

"Maybe we should talk about this elsewhere and let Shohei get ready for work." Belldandy said, gently leading her sister out of the room.

Shohei sagged in relief as Urd left the room. He maybe in love with her, but damn, she could be down right scary sometimes. Getting up and ready for work, he got dressed and grabbed a bite of belldandy's heavenly food before heading out the door.

When lunchtime came around, he decided to forgo his meal and instead went to a near by store and bought a notebook and a pen. Sitting down during his lunch hour while is workmates ate and made lewd jokes, Shohei was all student as he wrote down the math and diagrams from his dream last night. It was some kind of math processor, but exactly what kind of math it was processing was still beyond him. This was something really big, and he had only the first bits of the puzzle. Pretty soon lunch was over and he want back to his job hauling concrete and other debris.

OoOoO

across town, Kyoko had just got off the train and was heading downtown. Through her fathers contacts, she found the name of some one who had a reputation for finding things, no questions asked. It was a little scary for her, but this was Shohei she was talking about. What would he do without his family's support? The thought of him jobless and homeless was too much for her. It had been too long since they had last spoke, she was long past worried.

The fear drove her to a less that gleaming part of town and and raced up the aging apartment building to find the door she was looking for. Gathering her courage, she knocked, once, twice. Then waited.

Hearing no answer, she knocked again, harder this time. Still no answer, she flat out pounded the door and kept pounding until she heard a mans voice yell something incoherent from inside.

Kyoko stepped back as a angry, hung over and shirtless man opened the door. "This had better be good." he said, one eye closed.

"I-I'm looking for Mr Razor." she said, hoping she had the wrong apartment.

"That's me. What do you want?" he said gruffly, as a womanly voice complained in the background.

Kyoko gathered what was left of her courage. "I am hear about a job. I need to find some one."

"Yeah, so?"

"I hear from people that you are the man for the job." she said stiffly, unsure of what to expect.

"yeah, what kind of people?" he said, eye still closed.

"the kind who don't want questions asked." she said simply. He eyed her for a minute, before opening both eyes and opening the door farther.

"Come in." he said. Kyoko followed him inside, noting the reek of alcohol and something else she could not identify Something vaguely human, sweat, mixed with something else.

Ignoring the mess, she sat in the stained couch he indicated to her. "So, what kind of job is this?" he asked, taking a business tone with her.

"I need to find some one. A classmate of mine. His father disowned him, and I have not heard from him in a while."

"Oh, lost your boyfriend?" came a sultry voice that match an equally sultry body wearing a scandalously short china dress cut low enough for Kyoko to realize she was wearing nothing underneath.

"N-No, not my boyfriend. Just a friend. A good one." she said, tearing her eyes from the rampant display of womanliness that left Kyoko feeling inferior.

"So who are we talking about? I need something." the man said, ignoring the woman who walked over to him, leaning on his back, her breast pressed against the back of his head, with her staring at Kyoko.

"Shohei Yoshida. He was having family trouble, his father disowned him, and im afraid of what happened to him. He should have called me if things went bad, but he never did."

"Yeah, I heard of him. Sucks for him. Last I heard, he was kicked out of his apartment and no one would higher him."

"So you know where he is?" she asked hopefully.

"Eh, no. sorry."

"but you can find him, right?"

"Yeah, I can. For a price." Kyoko didn't answer him, just pulled off her backpack and unzipped it and dumped several bundles of cash onto the table. She could have bought a nice car for the amount of money. Between her savings, borrowing, and maxing out her credit cards, she managed to rack up an impressive amount.

"Will this suffice?" she asked, praying it was enough.

"Well some one seem to really miss their boyfriend." the woman smiled and laugh, still laying all over Razor.

"I told you he is not my boyfriend. Were just, close." was all she could say.

"Well, I understand."

"So you will do it?" she asked, looking at Razor hopefully.

"Yeah, ill take the job. Mind you, I have other work, but I can promise you I will find him, or no charge." he said, then gestured to the woman behind him. "Walk her out."

"Sure thing." she said her voice rich and sexy. As the two walked towards the nearest train station, Kyoko could not stand the silence any longer. "How?" she asked the woman next to her.

"Excuse me?"

"How can you live in the dump? Let that man order you around? How can you walk around almost naked?" Kyoko asked, frustrated.

"Well, not everyone was born a princess, like you. As for me and Razor, lets just say I owe him one, and I always repay my debt. I owe him big." she said, her smile turning into something darker. "And as for the clothes, well, what can I say, in a nation of prudes, I like the attention. Everyone knows im off limits. Tell me something, do you ever think of when your old?"

"old?" Kyoko said, confused at the change in subjects.

"Yeah, take that old man across the street."

"the one running the food stand? What about him?"

"He has been eyeing my discreetly since he first laid eyes on me."

"That's just gross, hes like, ninety."

"97 actually. I let him, its a game we play. He tries not to get caught, and I try to give him an eyeful"

"but why, that just makes you sound like a-" Kyoko shut her mouth, the words left unsaid.

"A slut?" she finished

"Well, yes." Kyoko said, looking down in embarrassment

"You know, he was a real badass in his day. A real man. Not these sissies we got today."

"him?" Kyoko asked, confused even more.

"Its true. He was IJA, Imperial Army. He jumped out of planes and into combat in WW2. You would never know it from the kind old closet pervert, but he was a real killing machine. The first in and the last out. Wounded five times, came back swinging every time. Proud, fierce A warrior defending his home. Then we lost the war, and he became nothing but an unwanted memory of a people who wanted to forget he ever lived. All that blood he bled, all his comrades he watched die in the hell of that war. And who cares? No one. We don't want him. We want to pretend his kind never existed. And so you ask why I dress like this? Because of people like him. He gave all, and lost it all. So if the highlight of his day is grabbing an eyeful of my ass as I walk by, then that's my way of saying thanks. Because no one else will."

Kyoko just walked in silence, trying to understand the woman next to her. She dressed like a slut, acted like one too, but then showed her a side that held a twisted sense of honor and justice. She looked at her, as If for the first time, trying to understand this woman.

"And that is why you dress like that?" Kyoko said, trying to understand this women next to her.

"Yeah, I guess. If it makes their life a bit easier, then that's fine with me. My way of saying thanks to a great generation. We need more like them now."

Kyoko was about to reply, but found her self standing in front of the train station. She looked at the station, then back to say thanks, but the woman was already gone. Kyoko boarded the train, thinking of what the woman had said to her. One thing was for sure, she was not a cheap slut and she was not someone to be taken lightly. She boarded the train and tried to make sense of the conversation.