First off, thanks for the reviews and encouragement! I hope whatever I come up with lives up to your expectations! Second, I'd like to apologize for taking so long updating. I had restarted the story from what it was going to be, as it was a dead end. That left me with nothing. The prologue was an on-the-spot thing, so I've had to start from scratch. School is also a factor. Senior year takes a bit of getting used to. The internet is distracting. Fallout, Assassins Creed II, Prototype 2. Take your pick of excuse. My muse is a slippery bastard, with an attention span like a squirrel who used Red Bull instead of water for his morning coffee.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Oh! My Goddess! or Bleach. They belong to their respective creators. I am not making any money off of this at all. Which leaves me broke. No lawyers, please. It'll cost you more to sue me than what you'll win.
With that out of the way, on to the story!
Chapter 1:
"Hello, you've reached the Goddess Help Line!"
That sentence marked the beginning of his new life. When he met Belldandy. When he made his wish. When all the crazy, impossible stuff began happening. And, when he really thought about it, that was the point where his life changed for the better. He moved out of his crappy dorm, became head of the Auto Club after the seniors graduated, he got a job he loved.
He was graced with a Goddess as his girlfriend.
"Keiichi! Lunch is ready!" A melodious voice rang out through the temple courtyard.
"Okay, I'll be right there!" Belldandys' cooking was not something to be missed.
"You must become a Soul Reaper."
Those six words changed his existence permanently. Mo longer was his view limited to spirits. Hollows, the Soul Society, Soul Reapers. He became aware of a world, unseen by others, and filled with strange and downright lethal beings. Yet, now, he was no longer a part of that world. With the loss of his power, came the loss of the right to exist in that world. No longer did he have the power to protect his family and friends. There was nothing he could do anymore.
So, he moved on.
A voice crackled to life over the trains' PA system.
"Next stop, Nekomi City. Next stop, Nekomi City."
Nekomi City. A rather peaceful place, for a college city. It was neither the biggest, nor smallest city. It housed a decent population, but wasn't overcrowded. The sun was shining, the clouds rolled lazily across the sapphire sky. A slight breeze blew gently, making it a perfect day to go outside and do something.
Something, say, mischievous?
"MARA! I swear to the ALMIGHTY! IF YOU DON'T FIX THIS, SO HELP ME I WILL END YOU!"
Flying through the air like a bat out of hell, a blond streak shot across the sky like the devil herself was on its tail. The woman, for she was indeed a lady, rocketed above the city. Following the aforementioned woman was another woman, also flying. This one, her silver hair whipping in the wind, was furious. One could tell, perhaps by the aura of rage that was almost palpable, maybe the anger in her voice, or maybe it was the lack of concern with which she threw bolts of supercharged lightning.
Let's take a moment and look briefly on the chain of events leading to this point.
It had been a normal day at the Kairiki Hongan Temple. Well, as normal as it could be with three high class Goddesses residing there. Belldandy had awoken at her usual time to make breakfast. Keichi and Skuld were next, attracted by the enticing scent of Belldandy's cooking. The last, as usual, was a hungover Urd. If there was one thing that could rouse a smashed Urd, it was Belldandy's cooking.
Greetings were traded and the dinging room fell into companionable silence, everyone too preoccupied with the amazing food. Once breakfast was finished, everyone went about their business. Keichi and Belldandy got ready for school and Skuld went to her room to finish Banpei's new upgrade set (entitled "Anti-Demon Defense Set 1.5"). Urd decided to have a mid-morning drink, and went off to raid her stick.
Unfortunately there was none, as it seemed as though she had finished off the last of it the previous night. Grumbling, she fished her broom out from underneath her bed. On her way out, she ran into Belldandy and Keichi.
"Oh, Urd! Are you headed out too?", the motherly norn asked.
"Yeah, my sake supply is out, so I gotta restock.", replied Urd with a shrug.
Belldandy smiled. "Be safe, sister."
Urd mounted her broom and began to rise. "You know I will."
She reached the edge of the city in minutes. Landing in an empty lot, she quickly made her way to her favorite sake store. To her dismay, it was closed.
'Closed due to unforeseen circumstances? Ugh, damn it. Just my luck'
With a huff, she turned and set off to her next target.
Which was also closed.
'Family issues? Hmm.'
The following destination, a small, out-of-the-way bar, suffered the same fate. As well as the bar down the block.
And the store three streets over.
And the bar downtown.
And the nightclub.
Even the vending machines were out-of-order.
Urd was dumbstruck. Every single purveyor of alcohol, her sweet, sweet spirits was closed or shut down. The entire city had become dry. Overnight.
To say that Urd was distressed was like saying water is damp, that the sky is a little blue, that grass is kind of green. In short, a massive understatement.
She was in a bind. Her Earth Approval license only pertained to Nekomi. Unless she was accompanied by Belldandy, whose contract served as an unlimited travel license, or putting in a request for an upgraded license, she couldn't just leave the city. A city with no booze.
What had she done to deserve this?
No alcohol? No booze? Nothing to get wasted on? (Yeah, losing a power source was bad, but getting drunk took precedence.)
Why was she being put through this hell?!
. . .
Wait.
Hell.
*click*
HELL!
"MARA!"
Which leads us to the present. One half-Goddess half-Demon wildly hurling bolts of lightning at the fleeing Demon. Now lightning on its own is dangerous enough in a storm, striking randomly. Now, imagine it has a dedicated target. A moving target.
One stray bolt, deflected by Maras shield, impacted a pile of garbage in an alleyway. Now, normally, on its own, the bolt would dissipate upon contact with an object. This time, though, it struck a piece of metal in the pile. This rebar was close enough to another bar that the electricity coursing through it arced, causing a spark.
Said pile of garbage just happened to belong to the Lucky Paw Liquor Store, behind the Nekoten Apartments. The garbage being soaked in alcohol due to a cracked bottle of high-proof absinthe. Which resulted in an extremely flammable mess.
A taxi pulled up to the crowd in front of the burning building. Exiting the vehicle, and orange haired teen stood, gawking at the fiery spectacle.
The driver stuck his head out the window. "Jeez. Tough break kid. That's your place, the Nekoten Apartments."
Silence
"Look, I can give you a ride to a motel for free, if you'd like."
The teen sighed. "Thanks, but I'm gonna walk around a bit, stretch my legs. How much do I owe you?"
"Normally, this would have cost you 1600 yen, but in light of the circumstances, I'll give you a discount. 800 yen."
The teen pulled out his wallet and paid the driver, thanking him for the ride. Slinging his duffle bag over his shoulder, Ichigo Kurosaki set off to find a place to stay.
Hey! High Treason here! Now before you attack me for not updating, please listen to me first. With the advent of Senior year in high school, my time has been occupied. On top of that, I'm taking extra classes off campus in 3D Animation and Design. So I've been kinda busy. And another thing. This may not make too much sense, but I don't like writing. Not on my top 10 things to do list. It's just, I have ideas that I feel need to be on paper. Which is what you see here. I don't hate writing like I used to, and in the future, I might come to enjoy it more.
That being said, my update schedule will be kind of disappointing. It would be safe to consider all my stories on permanent pseudo-hiatus. Not on break, but not constant/reliable updates. I will try for once a month, but I can't promise anything. If you've read the authors note up top, you'll see the description of my muses attention span. I'm not kidding about that. I'm getting a laptop for Christmas, so I predict a slightly higher rate of updates, but only a small increase. On a related note, the next update will be Christmas. I've got it all written out, it just needs some typing and tweaking, and it's ready for the web!
With all that depressing hooey out of the way, tell me what you think! How is it so far? Is there anything I could do better? Are there massive grammar mistakes that I didn't notice? Where do you think this story his headed? Shoot me a review, so I can see what to do from here!
