Help came ratter quickly. Three seconds had hardly passed before Terai
appeared on the door. After depositing Belldandy's upper body on the table,
I stood up and pulled Terai from where she stood.
"Terai, please help her! You know how to, don't you?"
"Well yeah, but. . ."
"Then do it!"
"Eh . . . well, could you pick up her face?"
"Of course, of course!"
I pulled Belldandy's upper body off the table, and sat her against my own body. With one hand I pulled her face upward, while with the other cleared her hair off her face. Then I looked up at Terai, very nervous after feeling that Belldandy was cold.
"Well Terai, just do it!"
She kneeled by us and extended a finger toward Belldandy's forehead mark, but then stopped.
"Hey Terai, what are you waiting for?!"
"No, I can't do this. If I do it, I will overload Belldandy." - She looked up to me. - "Remember I told you I'm a proto-star?"
"Well, I guess you might have a point." - . . . - "Hey, let me check something."
"Uh. . ."
Since the Almighty told me that many previous Dark Gods were used as power plants down on Hell, I thought that I might as well try to power her up. I placed my index and middle finger of my free hand in front of Belldandy's forehead mark, and concentrated on putting all my strength on the tip of my fingers. After a moment my entire skin had been covered in blackness, but after a bit more focussing I concentrated the energy on my arm, then on my hand, and then on my fingertips. Then I touched her mark with my fingers, and the energy flowed into her.
Her eyes spun open. She took off the floor, looking around like about to panic, and after looking like she wanted to go in two directions at a time, she stopped and literally popped into a dozen full-sized versions of herself. One of them took Terai and sat with her across the table, two more took my bed cloths and disappeared out a door, one sat at the table by me, and the rest ran into the kitchen. She seemed quite unfazed.
I was quite fazed. Specially when I saw that the eyes of this Belldandy were jet-black, even on their sclerotia.* Her goddess marks were also that same black, and heck, even her lips looked a few shades darker. It was kind of scary to see her in the eye and not see anything. Apparently she noticed my state.
[* The sclerotia is the white of the eye, or what is visible as white around the iris.]
"Don't worry, Ramirez-san. Apparently you gave me far too much power, and I had to break down into doppelgangers in order to dissipate the excess energy."
Well, that answers to the why. . .
"But how did you . . . well, how did Belldandy broke down?'
"I am Belldandy, even if now I am twelve. And as a god you will be able to break down one day, once you achieve enough power." - She stopped, looked me up-down, and giggled. - "Well, once you learn how to, as power you already have."
I kind of smiled. She smiled openly at me, and I lost my smile again. I looked down.
"Well. . . do you know why did your eyes black out?"
"Sure. As a goddess of Light, my own system doesn't normally process Dark energy, and in fact is trying to spend it the quickest way possible. In this case, besides normal spending I am also letting it evaporate out off my goddess markings, my eyes, and to a lesser extent by the rest of my skin." - . . . - "Oh, tea is coming."
I didn't know what to make of the last she said, until I looked at the door. Another Belldandy came from the kitchen carrying two trays loaded with tea and cookies. She first left one by Terai and her Belldandy, and then rounded the table and put the tray by my Belldandy and me.
"How much sugar with your tea, Ramirez-san?"
"Please only two, Miss Belldandy."
She turned at the tray, served me a cup, prepared her own, positioned it by the place where the other Belldandy sat, and sat on top of her. So suddenly there was only a perfectly normal-looking one where two had been, sitting in the exact same position as had sat the one I had been talking to. I would have jumped off my skin if I hadn't caught myself.
"Er. . . sorry, Miss Belldandy. What did I just saw?"
"Oh, I had to partially reintegrate to control the energy expenditure ratio, and from twelve I am now only nine. This way I will remain subdivided long enough to brief you, chat with Terai, and still have made breakfast on time."
"Well, let me start from the beginning: it was my idea to resuscitate you, so I should face the consequences. Terai didn't even tell me how to do things."
"I know, Ramirez-san. Terai already told me so; and no, there aren't going to be consequences for either of you. She already told me that you were nearby panic, not to say that you have no experience." - . . . - "Passing to other businesses, she already told me you two already met, around midnight; therefore, I won't need to introduce you to her. . ."
Then she started to brief me, and answer my questions. Of all the stuff she told me, this is what I remember right away:
1) Terai, even after actually being millions of years old, had in fact a mental age of around thirteen. It wasn't only that stars were extremely long living compared to mortals, but also that the Almighty had put them on a different time frame, just so they wouldn't get too bored. Also, Terai would comparatively have a mental age around eighteen once she matured and ignited.
2)Terai wasn't actually among us. What we saw of her was actually a projection of her consciousness projected through a subatomic wormhole inside her projected body.
3) The reason why Terai had been reluctant to energize Belldandy had been that last time she tried to energize a goddess, they had ended with 12,786,737 Skulds. And even so, it took an entire night for Skuld to use all the energy.
3.1) I had given Belldandy enough power to create about three dozen regular (metre-high) doppelgangers, but she decided to break down into regular- sized ones so she would minimize the risk of having her personality broken down among her doppelgangers. Not to say that this way she was consuming the energy much faster.
4) The reason why Belldandy kept fainting was that she had raised a energy shield around the temple (and surroundings) that was of far higher security than she normally did. And because of the higher security, it took her a lot more energy than normal to set it up, and until she really adapted to setting it up, it would be draining up to three quarters of her energy.
5) As I already knew, I was an unusual god; nevertheless, it surprised even her to see the magnitude of the power I was able to conjure. It takes a mayor energy load to overload a First Class Goddess such as herself, and the fact that it took me just a few seconds to call enough power, suggested that the power scale on which I was standing was out of the roof.
6) I would need to have my power limited, even if just for my own sake. My uniform would include limiters, so it wouldn't be a problem.
7) Keeping myself in an illuminated environment would prove useless as a power limitation method. Apparently one of my instinctive powers was to create darkness around me, not to say that during the night I would have power wether or not I was standing in the dark.
8) The list of my known powers so far included Dark vision, Dark Energy conversion, creation of darkness, a never seen before kind of telepathy, and focussed emotional feedback. The first one was just that my godly eyes were adapted to see in the dark at uncannily low levels of light, the second and third ones marked me as God of Darkness, the fort one was that I could effortlessly tap and link the minds of individuals, even if they were heavily fire-walled(e.g. gods), and the last one was derived from my telepathy, and meant that I was able to amplify, and would be able to manipulate, emotions. None of this powers were common, specially all together. Besides the last one, from which I could receive orientation from any number of love goddesses, most of my learning would be trial and error.
8.1) By the way, for now my telepathy would be under my voluntary control, instead of being free to tap everyone around me.
9) The ball of energy I had made wasn't actually something to do with powers. It was actually a technique I had picked up through the telepathic link.
9.1) This property of my telepathy might make my learning process an extremely fast one.
10) Just as I was starting to suspect, brawling was part of everyday life up in Heaven. After all, property damage could be repaired shiftily, healing was easy, everyone had more or less power to back up their words, and in fact many gods took it as a form of exercise. On the other hand, mayor fights were extremely rare, to the point that non had occurred for the last nine centuries, after an old Pharaoh and a newly ascended Christian crusader (the Early Medieval Angel of European Martial Arts) decided that they didn't like each other. After the Almighty deranged the two into fifth class Gods (a class created for the two of them), and commissioned them as office boys for an indefinite period, no more real fights had ever erupted.
10.1) As Christianity doesn't accept more gods than the Almighty himself, all Christian divine entities were called Angels, Archangels, Saints, the Virgin Mary, and Ladies. None of them liked to be called Gods.
11) Besides demons and Evils, not all gods were good guys. For instance, there was the Modern God of War, who although didn't specially liked having all-out monsters and genocides like Hitler hailing up at him, didn't mind to see millions of soldiers die during WWII.
12) As soon as we were done with breakfast, I would have to go back to Heaven and receive my official assignment. And now she was accompanying me, so it would be unlikely that past incidents would repeat.
13) She explained me that she was on Earth because of Keiichi, that short guy I had seen earlier yesterday. Apparently he wished for her to stay with him forever, she very much approved the wish, and later on her sisters came down to Earth to be with her. Terai was just a friend of Skuld that was staying on Earth on a short, ten year visit. Short from a star's perceptive, that is.
By the way, Urd was half-demon.
14) Breakfast was ready and the entire household was up and about by now. We would continue our discussion later.
As on cue, four other copies of Belldandy came out from the kitchen, and both the one with me and the one with Terai stood up, took rags from two of the newcomers, and started to clean the table. As soon as they were finished the others placed the food on the table, and while three of them returned to the kitchen, the other three aligned and joined. Meanwhile, another Belldandy came in from the opposite door, guiding in the half- asleep image of the guy who had taken her yesterday, and that now I knew as Keiichi.
"Good morning, there!" - I said. He looked at my general direction and waved his free hand.
"Gur morning. Keiichi, here." - I (and Terai behind me) snickered. His Belldandy guided him to the table, were he stumbled, and then she joined with the one present and sat by him. Then another Belldandy came guiding an Urd looking worse than Keiichi, as she was also caddling her head.
"Hey there, good morning!"
"Goo' morning there."
After leaving Urd at the table, that Belldandy went to the kitchen. Meanwhile the three ones that had previously gone to the kitchen, arrived back at the dinning room. One was carrying two pitchers of juice, another a large jar of thea and a pitcher of milk, and the last one was carrying a pile of plates, with a large ceramic liquor bottle on top. After setting the table, they joined in the one sitting with Keiichi (something that Keiichi took easily, not even putting down his just served cup of thea). Then, another Belldandy came holding hands with a radiant Skuld, who lost her smile (and most of her colour) as soon as she saw me. She clung to Belldandy's hand for support, and still keeping an eye on me, looked up her eyes. Belldandy directed her a reassuring look (even as her eyes were still all-round black), patted her head, and gently pushed her ahead. Skuld took a bit of initiative and finally sat down nearby Terai, although she was still on the further corner of the table. She gave me a small, but true, smile.
'She still fears me, but she has decided to give me a chance." - I thought, while giving her a smile back. I mouthed a 'thanks' on my lips, and her smile grew.
Man, I would wish I knew more people as open-hearted as this little girl.
Time for introspection was now up, as people had started to attack the food. Apparently the last two copies of Belldandy had reintegrated and sat down, cue on which Urd started stuffing her plate, and everyone followed. It took me half a second to notice that I had a suspicious-looking omelette in front of me, which also had a suspicious taste.
"Er. . . Sorry, Miss Belldandy: would this happen to be Mexican Omelette?"
"Oh yeah, Ramirez-san. I thought you would appreciate it."
"Ma'am, I don't appreciate it, but love it! I don't think I have eaten one so good since my grandma stopped cooking."
That was true. The tomato indeed had the distinctive taste of a subtle griddling before being pureed and fried, while the green hot peppers were fresh, and had been lightly griddled before being sliced and fried with the tomato. Then, after adding the right balance of herbs, onion, and garlic cloves, the eggs had been added on the boiling sauce, and had been lightly mixed right on the fire, instead of being blended beforehand. The mixture looked speckled in green, white, yellow and red, while none of the ingredients had a taste truly dominant*, and was clearly far superior than anything served north of Rio Grande**. I was nearly speechless.
[*Sounds easy? Its easy to get an edible result, but getting the perfect taste is as easy as balancing a pizza without spinning it.]
[**Mexican cuisine with anything resembling quality is almost unheard of anywhere in the world (except of Mexico, of course). Besides, Yanks have popularized the belief that Taco Bell and such business serve Mexican food, while they actually serve Texan, or some north-Mexican that isn't even fairly representative of Mexican cuisine.]
"I'm happy you like it, Ramirez-san."
Another matter that had been nagging me.
"Oh, and please call me just Nacho. All of you, please. Nobody ever addresses me by my last name."
"And why's that?" - Asked Urd.
"Well, firstly because. . ." - Wait. I wouldn't tell them about the thing with my father! - ". . . 'Ramirez' is quite a common last name back in Mexico, although it might be just to contrast my actual name."
"And what might that be?" - asked Keiichi, intrigued.
"It is 'Ignacio Alejandro Ramirez Martin del Campo'".
Call it 'stupid show-off', but I have always loved to see the variety of reactions my complete name gets from people; however, I wouldn't get much amusement this time. Keiichi was the only one who chocked, and I only got a raised eyebrow from Skuld, and a curios look from Terai.
"And what was that?" - Keiichi asked, after sipping some orange juice. I repeated it to him, pointing my first (Ignacio), second (Alejandro), first surname (Ramirez), and second surname (Martin del Campo), and then I had a good time trying to teach him the pronunciation, with the help of Skuld. I better left it in 'just Nacho' as soon as Belldandy stepped in to help.
Something curios I later thought about, is that I hadn't as much as twitched the first time he said 'Igunaashio', while I normally would have jerked at the mispronunciation of my name. The calmness of the place might had already started to permeate into me.
The rest of the breakfast went quietly, as we all concentrated in the food. Although I didn't forget my table manners, I was quite hungry, so I did eat lots, and was the last to finish.
"Satisfied?" - Asked Urd, quite amused, as I pushed my plate away.
"Quite. Everything was delicious."
Then I actually tried to make memory of how much I had gone thru. If I was right, I had eaten at least the equivalent to five eggs from the omelette, and at least one serving from each of the other six platters on the table, and had drank two glasses of milk and at least one of orange juice. Joined that with the fact that I had eaten the rice balls not so far ago, I was surprised to not feel anywhere full, and actually having thought that I could take something for the road.
'So I did indeed eat like a vacuum cleaner. . .' I thought, feeling embarrassed.
"Er. . . sorry. I just couldn't stop eating this food."
It wasn't entirely a lie, although I thought it might have been nicer to actually watch the quantity I was eating.
"Do not feel embarrassed, Nacho-san." -Started Belldandy.- "So far we do not know what is your secondary energy source, and it might be food."
"Er. . . Sorry, but what is a secondary energy source?"
"Well, it is a different way from which gods get power, besides of System Energy, or in your case Dark one." - Belldandy answered. - "Although it is hardly as powerful as our primaries, it still supplements us, or keeps us alive whenever the System goes down. . ."
If I had still being stuffing my mouth, half of the table would have received food when I stood up and shrieked.
"WHAT!? System Energy going down? As on turning down a switch!"
"Well, actually is more like a computer crashing and having to be reset, but the result is the same." - Intervened Skuld.
Belldandy gave me a bit of an explanation. Up in Earth's Heaven there is a supercomputer that controls Earth, and gods are more or less technicians dedicated to keep it running (although they would be many other things on their free time). By all accounts, every now and then when something really wrong would happen, the computer would crash, and would need to be turned- off for repairs. In the time being Earth would run in inertia, and all gods would be left to power themselves by their secondary energy sources. Since Belldandy's S.E.S. was sleep, Urd's was alcohol, and Skuld's was ice cream; whenever the System came down Belldandy would sleep all day, Urd would drown on sake, and Skuld would process ice-cream like there was no tomorrow.
"Not that Urd wouldn't drink herself under the table under normal circumstances." - Said Skuld, from her side of the table.
"Oh, shut up, underdeveloped annoyance!" - shot back Urd. - "It isn't like you didn't raid the freezer every time we get distracted."
"Yeah Urd, shut me up, you drunk good for nothing!" - Skuld shot back, and jumped to her feet.
"Why, you!" - Urd jumped on her feet, and faced her sister. I felt energy starting to crackle in the air, and recognized the feeling as the same I had felt the first time I woke up at the temple. I was even starting to feel the same headache as last time, and I was feeling like joining the fight. I tried to contain myself but just couldn't take it. The discussion above me continued escalating, and the energy kept rising up, but I wouldn't hear a thing of it: I was just trying to keep myself under control, and with my butt in the ground. My hands were busy massaging my shins, and my eyes were shut tight to keep them from tempting me into trouble. I was so absorbed in keeping calm that I didn't notice that the argument had ended, or that my body was feeling cold as ice. I didn't listen to a thing either, until I heard a very concerned Belldandy speaking to me.
"Nacho-san, please open your eyes!"
I complied, quite confused. First thing I saw was that Belldandy had moved beside me and was eyeing me looking concerned, and Keiichi behind her was looking at me with his eyes open like platters. To the other side of the table, I found Terai eyeing me curiously, and Urd trying to calm down a very frightened Skuld behind her. I gulped at the sight of Skuld. Then I finally looked down at me: My body had gone into such a matte-black that my hands were nothing but dark outlines against the wooden table, and even the robes I was wearing there nothing but outlines against the floor. I would have freaked out if this had not had happened earlier. I wasn't swimming in tranquillity, though.
"Please don't panic, Nacho-san. Just try to relax." - I heard Belldandy saying by me. I tried my best to comply. I lowered my hands to the table, and just tried to breath and concentrate in nothing. Slowly, but the blackness seemed to boil off my skin in wisps of black smoke, and I finally regained my colours.
Think about "regainig my colours" as a figure of speech, as I was terribly pale. Belldandy looked proud of me, though.
"You did well, Nacho-san." . . . "If you are ready, we'll go as soon as I've washed the dishes."
"Well, Miss Belldandy, I wanted to ask something. How is that I became a god?"
"Frankly, that's exactly one of the thinks we are going up to find out. Moreover, we don't want to tell you about our own preliminary conclusions because, as we don't know to what degree they are correct, they would only confuse you in the long run."
For a moment I pondered whether I had just been insulted or not, but after a second became sure that Belldandy hadn't meant it on a bad way. It took me another second to come out with an answer that wouldn't make me sound either stupid or sarcastic . . .
"Thanks . . . I think."
Not too stupid, anyway.
She beamed a smile at me, stood up, and picked up my plate. I looked around the table and saw the size of the work she had ahead, and I quickly stood up and picked up two platters before me.
"Oh, don't worry, Nacho-san."
"Please let me help you . . ."
"If you want to help, then help to carry the platters into the kitchen, and then stand out of the way." - Urd cut me. Then she lifted her own (with the ceramic bottle on top), and walked into the kitchen, followed by Terai and the rest of the household. So I picked up the mostly empty platter in front of me and followed everyone into the kitchen.
Belldandy was just standing in the middle of the kitchen, while everyone left their plates on the countertops around. I thought it to be a weird disposition to start washing, until I began feeling how the air around Belldandy was slightly shimmering with Energy. Just with a gesture of her hands, some counters opened and from them Tuppers flew, while the platters that still held some food slowly flew to intercept Tuppers of assorted sizes, and the food transfered itself into them, and then lids flew and capped the Tuppers, and then they slowly glided toward the now open fridge, and in they went. As the fridge's door closed itself, I noticed that now all the plates and platters there slowly parading in front of Belldandy's view, and that she was ocasionally gesturing one or another to tip itself into one that was just levitating to a side, receiving the food scraps. And once the last plate had passed in front of her, this plate with the scraps went into a counter under the sink, and returned empty.
I just guessed that under the sink was hidden the garbage can, or compost box, or whatever they did with the garbage.
Next, Belldandy gestured toward the faucet, and it opened wide, but the water didn't fall into the sink. It instead snaked in mid air, and began gathering into a steaming, turbulent blob. I sideways noted that now all the plates and platters were forming a big stack in the air, slightly spaced, and noted that now the blob of water was positively steaming, and spinning like a top. I saw that the spinning blob had just opened up in the middle, and was slowly transforming itself into a wide, tall, and thin- walled drum, which only seemed to be spinning faster and faster as it closed up to the stacked plates, and just so smoodly began squidding the surface of the stack of plates, until it swallowed it. Once the plates were inside the drum, it began throwing off some really thick steam, and I could only guess that it would be doing something with the plates inside, as every now and then it could be heard a slight clatter coming from the column of water. Soon the show was over, as the column of water became again a blob, now pretty dirty, and the plates were now flying into a counter, shinny white and not even steaming. I was awed, and only taking the spectacle, as the water was now washing the glasses and cutlery, still in mid air. These last dishes went on their way, as now the water just flew and settled in the sink.
And Belldandy, in the center of everything, nonchalantly smiled at me.
I hadn't noticed it, but my jaw was open. I quickly shut it up and tried to look nonplussed, but failed by miles. Still, no one else, not even Keiichi, had any other reaction than either smiling proudly at Belldandy, like Keiichi and Skuld, or amusedly at me, like Urd and Terai. I was feeling a bit embarrased on my reaction, and since nobody seemed likely to start speaking, I did.
"Er. . . Well, who am I going to meet now, anyway?"
"The Chief System Administrator, Urd's former boss." - Belldandy promptly answered me. - "He is a very bussy god, but today he allocated you the entire morning since the moment we arrive."
"The entire morning?" - I asked, embarrased.
"Nah, don't worry." - Urd answered. - "That place is normally as bussy as a stock exchange, so I bet he will love to take an unscheduled break." - Then she walked up to me and patted my shoulder, said "Good luck," and left the kitchen.
"Now Nacho-san, we should better go now." - Belldandy said, while gesturing toward the door. I took the hint, and followed her out of the kitchen, around the hall, up the stairs, and into a modest bedroom. She extended her hand for me to take, and as I did so, she moved toward the full body mirror, and began walking into it, pulling me behind.
'Now it would be really funny if my Secondary Energy Source happens to be food', I thought. I could already imagine myself looking like a sumo wrestler.
Evidently, Irony wanted some fun at my stake . . .
"Terai, please help her! You know how to, don't you?"
"Well yeah, but. . ."
"Then do it!"
"Eh . . . well, could you pick up her face?"
"Of course, of course!"
I pulled Belldandy's upper body off the table, and sat her against my own body. With one hand I pulled her face upward, while with the other cleared her hair off her face. Then I looked up at Terai, very nervous after feeling that Belldandy was cold.
"Well Terai, just do it!"
She kneeled by us and extended a finger toward Belldandy's forehead mark, but then stopped.
"Hey Terai, what are you waiting for?!"
"No, I can't do this. If I do it, I will overload Belldandy." - She looked up to me. - "Remember I told you I'm a proto-star?"
"Well, I guess you might have a point." - . . . - "Hey, let me check something."
"Uh. . ."
Since the Almighty told me that many previous Dark Gods were used as power plants down on Hell, I thought that I might as well try to power her up. I placed my index and middle finger of my free hand in front of Belldandy's forehead mark, and concentrated on putting all my strength on the tip of my fingers. After a moment my entire skin had been covered in blackness, but after a bit more focussing I concentrated the energy on my arm, then on my hand, and then on my fingertips. Then I touched her mark with my fingers, and the energy flowed into her.
Her eyes spun open. She took off the floor, looking around like about to panic, and after looking like she wanted to go in two directions at a time, she stopped and literally popped into a dozen full-sized versions of herself. One of them took Terai and sat with her across the table, two more took my bed cloths and disappeared out a door, one sat at the table by me, and the rest ran into the kitchen. She seemed quite unfazed.
I was quite fazed. Specially when I saw that the eyes of this Belldandy were jet-black, even on their sclerotia.* Her goddess marks were also that same black, and heck, even her lips looked a few shades darker. It was kind of scary to see her in the eye and not see anything. Apparently she noticed my state.
[* The sclerotia is the white of the eye, or what is visible as white around the iris.]
"Don't worry, Ramirez-san. Apparently you gave me far too much power, and I had to break down into doppelgangers in order to dissipate the excess energy."
Well, that answers to the why. . .
"But how did you . . . well, how did Belldandy broke down?'
"I am Belldandy, even if now I am twelve. And as a god you will be able to break down one day, once you achieve enough power." - She stopped, looked me up-down, and giggled. - "Well, once you learn how to, as power you already have."
I kind of smiled. She smiled openly at me, and I lost my smile again. I looked down.
"Well. . . do you know why did your eyes black out?"
"Sure. As a goddess of Light, my own system doesn't normally process Dark energy, and in fact is trying to spend it the quickest way possible. In this case, besides normal spending I am also letting it evaporate out off my goddess markings, my eyes, and to a lesser extent by the rest of my skin." - . . . - "Oh, tea is coming."
I didn't know what to make of the last she said, until I looked at the door. Another Belldandy came from the kitchen carrying two trays loaded with tea and cookies. She first left one by Terai and her Belldandy, and then rounded the table and put the tray by my Belldandy and me.
"How much sugar with your tea, Ramirez-san?"
"Please only two, Miss Belldandy."
She turned at the tray, served me a cup, prepared her own, positioned it by the place where the other Belldandy sat, and sat on top of her. So suddenly there was only a perfectly normal-looking one where two had been, sitting in the exact same position as had sat the one I had been talking to. I would have jumped off my skin if I hadn't caught myself.
"Er. . . sorry, Miss Belldandy. What did I just saw?"
"Oh, I had to partially reintegrate to control the energy expenditure ratio, and from twelve I am now only nine. This way I will remain subdivided long enough to brief you, chat with Terai, and still have made breakfast on time."
"Well, let me start from the beginning: it was my idea to resuscitate you, so I should face the consequences. Terai didn't even tell me how to do things."
"I know, Ramirez-san. Terai already told me so; and no, there aren't going to be consequences for either of you. She already told me that you were nearby panic, not to say that you have no experience." - . . . - "Passing to other businesses, she already told me you two already met, around midnight; therefore, I won't need to introduce you to her. . ."
Then she started to brief me, and answer my questions. Of all the stuff she told me, this is what I remember right away:
1) Terai, even after actually being millions of years old, had in fact a mental age of around thirteen. It wasn't only that stars were extremely long living compared to mortals, but also that the Almighty had put them on a different time frame, just so they wouldn't get too bored. Also, Terai would comparatively have a mental age around eighteen once she matured and ignited.
2)Terai wasn't actually among us. What we saw of her was actually a projection of her consciousness projected through a subatomic wormhole inside her projected body.
3) The reason why Terai had been reluctant to energize Belldandy had been that last time she tried to energize a goddess, they had ended with 12,786,737 Skulds. And even so, it took an entire night for Skuld to use all the energy.
3.1) I had given Belldandy enough power to create about three dozen regular (metre-high) doppelgangers, but she decided to break down into regular- sized ones so she would minimize the risk of having her personality broken down among her doppelgangers. Not to say that this way she was consuming the energy much faster.
4) The reason why Belldandy kept fainting was that she had raised a energy shield around the temple (and surroundings) that was of far higher security than she normally did. And because of the higher security, it took her a lot more energy than normal to set it up, and until she really adapted to setting it up, it would be draining up to three quarters of her energy.
5) As I already knew, I was an unusual god; nevertheless, it surprised even her to see the magnitude of the power I was able to conjure. It takes a mayor energy load to overload a First Class Goddess such as herself, and the fact that it took me just a few seconds to call enough power, suggested that the power scale on which I was standing was out of the roof.
6) I would need to have my power limited, even if just for my own sake. My uniform would include limiters, so it wouldn't be a problem.
7) Keeping myself in an illuminated environment would prove useless as a power limitation method. Apparently one of my instinctive powers was to create darkness around me, not to say that during the night I would have power wether or not I was standing in the dark.
8) The list of my known powers so far included Dark vision, Dark Energy conversion, creation of darkness, a never seen before kind of telepathy, and focussed emotional feedback. The first one was just that my godly eyes were adapted to see in the dark at uncannily low levels of light, the second and third ones marked me as God of Darkness, the fort one was that I could effortlessly tap and link the minds of individuals, even if they were heavily fire-walled(e.g. gods), and the last one was derived from my telepathy, and meant that I was able to amplify, and would be able to manipulate, emotions. None of this powers were common, specially all together. Besides the last one, from which I could receive orientation from any number of love goddesses, most of my learning would be trial and error.
8.1) By the way, for now my telepathy would be under my voluntary control, instead of being free to tap everyone around me.
9) The ball of energy I had made wasn't actually something to do with powers. It was actually a technique I had picked up through the telepathic link.
9.1) This property of my telepathy might make my learning process an extremely fast one.
10) Just as I was starting to suspect, brawling was part of everyday life up in Heaven. After all, property damage could be repaired shiftily, healing was easy, everyone had more or less power to back up their words, and in fact many gods took it as a form of exercise. On the other hand, mayor fights were extremely rare, to the point that non had occurred for the last nine centuries, after an old Pharaoh and a newly ascended Christian crusader (the Early Medieval Angel of European Martial Arts) decided that they didn't like each other. After the Almighty deranged the two into fifth class Gods (a class created for the two of them), and commissioned them as office boys for an indefinite period, no more real fights had ever erupted.
10.1) As Christianity doesn't accept more gods than the Almighty himself, all Christian divine entities were called Angels, Archangels, Saints, the Virgin Mary, and Ladies. None of them liked to be called Gods.
11) Besides demons and Evils, not all gods were good guys. For instance, there was the Modern God of War, who although didn't specially liked having all-out monsters and genocides like Hitler hailing up at him, didn't mind to see millions of soldiers die during WWII.
12) As soon as we were done with breakfast, I would have to go back to Heaven and receive my official assignment. And now she was accompanying me, so it would be unlikely that past incidents would repeat.
13) She explained me that she was on Earth because of Keiichi, that short guy I had seen earlier yesterday. Apparently he wished for her to stay with him forever, she very much approved the wish, and later on her sisters came down to Earth to be with her. Terai was just a friend of Skuld that was staying on Earth on a short, ten year visit. Short from a star's perceptive, that is.
By the way, Urd was half-demon.
14) Breakfast was ready and the entire household was up and about by now. We would continue our discussion later.
As on cue, four other copies of Belldandy came out from the kitchen, and both the one with me and the one with Terai stood up, took rags from two of the newcomers, and started to clean the table. As soon as they were finished the others placed the food on the table, and while three of them returned to the kitchen, the other three aligned and joined. Meanwhile, another Belldandy came in from the opposite door, guiding in the half- asleep image of the guy who had taken her yesterday, and that now I knew as Keiichi.
"Good morning, there!" - I said. He looked at my general direction and waved his free hand.
"Gur morning. Keiichi, here." - I (and Terai behind me) snickered. His Belldandy guided him to the table, were he stumbled, and then she joined with the one present and sat by him. Then another Belldandy came guiding an Urd looking worse than Keiichi, as she was also caddling her head.
"Hey there, good morning!"
"Goo' morning there."
After leaving Urd at the table, that Belldandy went to the kitchen. Meanwhile the three ones that had previously gone to the kitchen, arrived back at the dinning room. One was carrying two pitchers of juice, another a large jar of thea and a pitcher of milk, and the last one was carrying a pile of plates, with a large ceramic liquor bottle on top. After setting the table, they joined in the one sitting with Keiichi (something that Keiichi took easily, not even putting down his just served cup of thea). Then, another Belldandy came holding hands with a radiant Skuld, who lost her smile (and most of her colour) as soon as she saw me. She clung to Belldandy's hand for support, and still keeping an eye on me, looked up her eyes. Belldandy directed her a reassuring look (even as her eyes were still all-round black), patted her head, and gently pushed her ahead. Skuld took a bit of initiative and finally sat down nearby Terai, although she was still on the further corner of the table. She gave me a small, but true, smile.
'She still fears me, but she has decided to give me a chance." - I thought, while giving her a smile back. I mouthed a 'thanks' on my lips, and her smile grew.
Man, I would wish I knew more people as open-hearted as this little girl.
Time for introspection was now up, as people had started to attack the food. Apparently the last two copies of Belldandy had reintegrated and sat down, cue on which Urd started stuffing her plate, and everyone followed. It took me half a second to notice that I had a suspicious-looking omelette in front of me, which also had a suspicious taste.
"Er. . . Sorry, Miss Belldandy: would this happen to be Mexican Omelette?"
"Oh yeah, Ramirez-san. I thought you would appreciate it."
"Ma'am, I don't appreciate it, but love it! I don't think I have eaten one so good since my grandma stopped cooking."
That was true. The tomato indeed had the distinctive taste of a subtle griddling before being pureed and fried, while the green hot peppers were fresh, and had been lightly griddled before being sliced and fried with the tomato. Then, after adding the right balance of herbs, onion, and garlic cloves, the eggs had been added on the boiling sauce, and had been lightly mixed right on the fire, instead of being blended beforehand. The mixture looked speckled in green, white, yellow and red, while none of the ingredients had a taste truly dominant*, and was clearly far superior than anything served north of Rio Grande**. I was nearly speechless.
[*Sounds easy? Its easy to get an edible result, but getting the perfect taste is as easy as balancing a pizza without spinning it.]
[**Mexican cuisine with anything resembling quality is almost unheard of anywhere in the world (except of Mexico, of course). Besides, Yanks have popularized the belief that Taco Bell and such business serve Mexican food, while they actually serve Texan, or some north-Mexican that isn't even fairly representative of Mexican cuisine.]
"I'm happy you like it, Ramirez-san."
Another matter that had been nagging me.
"Oh, and please call me just Nacho. All of you, please. Nobody ever addresses me by my last name."
"And why's that?" - Asked Urd.
"Well, firstly because. . ." - Wait. I wouldn't tell them about the thing with my father! - ". . . 'Ramirez' is quite a common last name back in Mexico, although it might be just to contrast my actual name."
"And what might that be?" - asked Keiichi, intrigued.
"It is 'Ignacio Alejandro Ramirez Martin del Campo'".
Call it 'stupid show-off', but I have always loved to see the variety of reactions my complete name gets from people; however, I wouldn't get much amusement this time. Keiichi was the only one who chocked, and I only got a raised eyebrow from Skuld, and a curios look from Terai.
"And what was that?" - Keiichi asked, after sipping some orange juice. I repeated it to him, pointing my first (Ignacio), second (Alejandro), first surname (Ramirez), and second surname (Martin del Campo), and then I had a good time trying to teach him the pronunciation, with the help of Skuld. I better left it in 'just Nacho' as soon as Belldandy stepped in to help.
Something curios I later thought about, is that I hadn't as much as twitched the first time he said 'Igunaashio', while I normally would have jerked at the mispronunciation of my name. The calmness of the place might had already started to permeate into me.
The rest of the breakfast went quietly, as we all concentrated in the food. Although I didn't forget my table manners, I was quite hungry, so I did eat lots, and was the last to finish.
"Satisfied?" - Asked Urd, quite amused, as I pushed my plate away.
"Quite. Everything was delicious."
Then I actually tried to make memory of how much I had gone thru. If I was right, I had eaten at least the equivalent to five eggs from the omelette, and at least one serving from each of the other six platters on the table, and had drank two glasses of milk and at least one of orange juice. Joined that with the fact that I had eaten the rice balls not so far ago, I was surprised to not feel anywhere full, and actually having thought that I could take something for the road.
'So I did indeed eat like a vacuum cleaner. . .' I thought, feeling embarrassed.
"Er. . . sorry. I just couldn't stop eating this food."
It wasn't entirely a lie, although I thought it might have been nicer to actually watch the quantity I was eating.
"Do not feel embarrassed, Nacho-san." -Started Belldandy.- "So far we do not know what is your secondary energy source, and it might be food."
"Er. . . Sorry, but what is a secondary energy source?"
"Well, it is a different way from which gods get power, besides of System Energy, or in your case Dark one." - Belldandy answered. - "Although it is hardly as powerful as our primaries, it still supplements us, or keeps us alive whenever the System goes down. . ."
If I had still being stuffing my mouth, half of the table would have received food when I stood up and shrieked.
"WHAT!? System Energy going down? As on turning down a switch!"
"Well, actually is more like a computer crashing and having to be reset, but the result is the same." - Intervened Skuld.
Belldandy gave me a bit of an explanation. Up in Earth's Heaven there is a supercomputer that controls Earth, and gods are more or less technicians dedicated to keep it running (although they would be many other things on their free time). By all accounts, every now and then when something really wrong would happen, the computer would crash, and would need to be turned- off for repairs. In the time being Earth would run in inertia, and all gods would be left to power themselves by their secondary energy sources. Since Belldandy's S.E.S. was sleep, Urd's was alcohol, and Skuld's was ice cream; whenever the System came down Belldandy would sleep all day, Urd would drown on sake, and Skuld would process ice-cream like there was no tomorrow.
"Not that Urd wouldn't drink herself under the table under normal circumstances." - Said Skuld, from her side of the table.
"Oh, shut up, underdeveloped annoyance!" - shot back Urd. - "It isn't like you didn't raid the freezer every time we get distracted."
"Yeah Urd, shut me up, you drunk good for nothing!" - Skuld shot back, and jumped to her feet.
"Why, you!" - Urd jumped on her feet, and faced her sister. I felt energy starting to crackle in the air, and recognized the feeling as the same I had felt the first time I woke up at the temple. I was even starting to feel the same headache as last time, and I was feeling like joining the fight. I tried to contain myself but just couldn't take it. The discussion above me continued escalating, and the energy kept rising up, but I wouldn't hear a thing of it: I was just trying to keep myself under control, and with my butt in the ground. My hands were busy massaging my shins, and my eyes were shut tight to keep them from tempting me into trouble. I was so absorbed in keeping calm that I didn't notice that the argument had ended, or that my body was feeling cold as ice. I didn't listen to a thing either, until I heard a very concerned Belldandy speaking to me.
"Nacho-san, please open your eyes!"
I complied, quite confused. First thing I saw was that Belldandy had moved beside me and was eyeing me looking concerned, and Keiichi behind her was looking at me with his eyes open like platters. To the other side of the table, I found Terai eyeing me curiously, and Urd trying to calm down a very frightened Skuld behind her. I gulped at the sight of Skuld. Then I finally looked down at me: My body had gone into such a matte-black that my hands were nothing but dark outlines against the wooden table, and even the robes I was wearing there nothing but outlines against the floor. I would have freaked out if this had not had happened earlier. I wasn't swimming in tranquillity, though.
"Please don't panic, Nacho-san. Just try to relax." - I heard Belldandy saying by me. I tried my best to comply. I lowered my hands to the table, and just tried to breath and concentrate in nothing. Slowly, but the blackness seemed to boil off my skin in wisps of black smoke, and I finally regained my colours.
Think about "regainig my colours" as a figure of speech, as I was terribly pale. Belldandy looked proud of me, though.
"You did well, Nacho-san." . . . "If you are ready, we'll go as soon as I've washed the dishes."
"Well, Miss Belldandy, I wanted to ask something. How is that I became a god?"
"Frankly, that's exactly one of the thinks we are going up to find out. Moreover, we don't want to tell you about our own preliminary conclusions because, as we don't know to what degree they are correct, they would only confuse you in the long run."
For a moment I pondered whether I had just been insulted or not, but after a second became sure that Belldandy hadn't meant it on a bad way. It took me another second to come out with an answer that wouldn't make me sound either stupid or sarcastic . . .
"Thanks . . . I think."
Not too stupid, anyway.
She beamed a smile at me, stood up, and picked up my plate. I looked around the table and saw the size of the work she had ahead, and I quickly stood up and picked up two platters before me.
"Oh, don't worry, Nacho-san."
"Please let me help you . . ."
"If you want to help, then help to carry the platters into the kitchen, and then stand out of the way." - Urd cut me. Then she lifted her own (with the ceramic bottle on top), and walked into the kitchen, followed by Terai and the rest of the household. So I picked up the mostly empty platter in front of me and followed everyone into the kitchen.
Belldandy was just standing in the middle of the kitchen, while everyone left their plates on the countertops around. I thought it to be a weird disposition to start washing, until I began feeling how the air around Belldandy was slightly shimmering with Energy. Just with a gesture of her hands, some counters opened and from them Tuppers flew, while the platters that still held some food slowly flew to intercept Tuppers of assorted sizes, and the food transfered itself into them, and then lids flew and capped the Tuppers, and then they slowly glided toward the now open fridge, and in they went. As the fridge's door closed itself, I noticed that now all the plates and platters there slowly parading in front of Belldandy's view, and that she was ocasionally gesturing one or another to tip itself into one that was just levitating to a side, receiving the food scraps. And once the last plate had passed in front of her, this plate with the scraps went into a counter under the sink, and returned empty.
I just guessed that under the sink was hidden the garbage can, or compost box, or whatever they did with the garbage.
Next, Belldandy gestured toward the faucet, and it opened wide, but the water didn't fall into the sink. It instead snaked in mid air, and began gathering into a steaming, turbulent blob. I sideways noted that now all the plates and platters were forming a big stack in the air, slightly spaced, and noted that now the blob of water was positively steaming, and spinning like a top. I saw that the spinning blob had just opened up in the middle, and was slowly transforming itself into a wide, tall, and thin- walled drum, which only seemed to be spinning faster and faster as it closed up to the stacked plates, and just so smoodly began squidding the surface of the stack of plates, until it swallowed it. Once the plates were inside the drum, it began throwing off some really thick steam, and I could only guess that it would be doing something with the plates inside, as every now and then it could be heard a slight clatter coming from the column of water. Soon the show was over, as the column of water became again a blob, now pretty dirty, and the plates were now flying into a counter, shinny white and not even steaming. I was awed, and only taking the spectacle, as the water was now washing the glasses and cutlery, still in mid air. These last dishes went on their way, as now the water just flew and settled in the sink.
And Belldandy, in the center of everything, nonchalantly smiled at me.
I hadn't noticed it, but my jaw was open. I quickly shut it up and tried to look nonplussed, but failed by miles. Still, no one else, not even Keiichi, had any other reaction than either smiling proudly at Belldandy, like Keiichi and Skuld, or amusedly at me, like Urd and Terai. I was feeling a bit embarrased on my reaction, and since nobody seemed likely to start speaking, I did.
"Er. . . Well, who am I going to meet now, anyway?"
"The Chief System Administrator, Urd's former boss." - Belldandy promptly answered me. - "He is a very bussy god, but today he allocated you the entire morning since the moment we arrive."
"The entire morning?" - I asked, embarrased.
"Nah, don't worry." - Urd answered. - "That place is normally as bussy as a stock exchange, so I bet he will love to take an unscheduled break." - Then she walked up to me and patted my shoulder, said "Good luck," and left the kitchen.
"Now Nacho-san, we should better go now." - Belldandy said, while gesturing toward the door. I took the hint, and followed her out of the kitchen, around the hall, up the stairs, and into a modest bedroom. She extended her hand for me to take, and as I did so, she moved toward the full body mirror, and began walking into it, pulling me behind.
'Now it would be really funny if my Secondary Energy Source happens to be food', I thought. I could already imagine myself looking like a sumo wrestler.
Evidently, Irony wanted some fun at my stake . . .