-04-

In an apartment complex in Tokyo, a frantic woman flits to and fro, gathering up what she needs for a trip and stuffing it into a day bag. Chitose Hibyia, the manager of the building, pauses and takes a deep breath in search of calm. Her usual morning routine consists of preparing a small meal for herself and then immediately starting the day's duties. She had originally started waking up early that she could see off Hideki and Chi while he was going to the Seki cram school. Since they had left for Nekomi Tech, she got up early more out of habit.

Unfortunately, this morning has so far been anything but routine. Chitose knew Chi was in good hands while she was with Hideki. The blonde persocom was originally created to be a daughter to her, so she still felt the need to look in on the couple every now and then from her basement computer lab. It was comforting when the familiar signal would come up on the screen in its usual place in one of the men's dorms at the university. However, on this particular morning, the signal was nowhere to be found.

The implications of such a change in status worried her greatly. The worst case scenarios were swimming through her head when she called Hideki to find out what was going on. Unfortunately, he was less than helpful. "I'm sorry Ms. Hibiya, its way too hard to explain. The best way is for you to see for yourself." That only served to heighten her anxiety. Fortunately, he gave her a place to meet.

A ring on her cell phone startles her back to the present. "Hello?" she says in the receiver after opening and bringing it to her ear.

"This is Chin from the driving service, I am outside waiting."

"Yes, thank you Mister Chin," replies Ms. Hibiya. "I will be out shortly." Closing her phone, she sticks it into the pocket of her skirt, then straightens out a wrinkle on her tan turtleneck. Glancing in a mirror as she grabs her day bag, she sighs. Her hair is still damp because she didn't enough time to dry it. There is nothing she can do about it now, so she walks out the door apartment, locking it behind as she goes. Upon leaving the building, she can see the car at the end of the path and hurries to it, opening the rear passenger door and tossing her bag inside without bothering to wait for the driver to get out and do it for her.

"I need to go to the Tariki Hongan temple in Nekomi with all do haste," says Chitose as she slides into the seat. Only then does she chance a glimpse at the driver. She draws in a surprised gasp as recognizes who it is. "Zima!"

Looking at her through the rearview mirror, the tall persocom adjusts his glasses down so that she can see his eyes over the rim and smiles. "Hello Ms Hibiya, it's been a while."

Panic rises up inside of her, and she forces it down. The last time she had seen him was when Hideki professed his love for her daughter on the roof of the apartment building. She knew that he and his companion had been sent to stop Chi's program from activating. However, instead of physically intervening when it seemed like it might happen, Zima stood back and watched. She could only guess that he knew the parameters that would cause the program to finally execute, and had recognized that Hideki's love would prevent it from happening. Still, she had no reason to trust him, even though he had been created by her husband before her daughters. He had been sent at the behest of the government to harm her daughter, so she had no reason to trust him.

"W-w-w-where is Mr. Chin?" she stammers out as she tries to think of a way out of this.

A woman with black hair suddenly pops up from the front passenger seat and smiles at her. "We gave him a break," replies Dita menacingly.

A sense of dread permeates her soul, but before Chitose can respond, Zima speaks up. "Now Dita, my queen, we should not frighten our dear step-mother." His admonishment of the smaller persocom elicits a backhand across his face. Dita childishly turns around in the seat in a huff and crosses her arms across her chest. Zima can only smile at her. "I love you too, dearest."

Readjusting his glasses, Zima turns in the seat to face his passenger. "What do you want?" demands Chitose. "Has the government sent you to gloat about whats happened to Chi?"

"On the contrary, Ms. Hibiya, I am here purely out of my own curiosity," replies the tall persocom. "I admit that in the past, I was duty bound to harm your precious daughter. Trust me, it was with never ending satisfaction on my part that I defied those who passed down that edict when I allowed the process to complete."

Zima removes his glasses and looks at her with his dark eyes. "Of course, the irony is that by allowing the process to complete, nothing happened."

Chitose can see no deception, but then again, she of all people knows what kind of programming can be done on a persocom. Dispite her misgivings, she calms down as the truth of what he said sinks in. In truth, if it had not been for the tall persocom, her daughter would probably have been destroyed, leaving her to pick up the pieces of a devestated Hideki Motosuwa. "What do you want?" she asks.

Zima smiles and puts his glasses back on. "I want to help," he says as he turns back to the steeringwheel. "Where to, ma'am," he says as he looks back at her through the rearview mirror.

XXX

Opening his eyes, Hideki finds himself standing in a field of small plants with fluffy white tops. He puzzles over this for a moment, trying to recall what they are called before remembering that they are dandilions. The small weeds are in the final stage of their lives, having produced the cotton like parachutes that will transport the next generation. All that is needed now is some wind to begin the process.

As if on queue, a light gust blows across the field, causing a cloud of white to burst forth from the ground. It begins to swirl around, picking up more of the seeds as it progresses. Hideki stands in place, fixated on the small tornado as it begins to approach him. When it gets near, it begins to dissipate. As if by magic, something begins the coalesce as the small parachutes start to disperse.

As the form takes shape, Hideki begins to recognize some of its features; A familiar frilly dress with long sleeves that is short in the front and long in the back, long platinum blonde hair that reaches just to the ground. Hideki's heart skips a beat as it dawns on him who is now standing in front of him. As the tornado dissipates, Chi steps forward with her arms raised, beckoning him to come to her. At first, he does not approach; still ashamed at how he had acted before. Chi has been changed irrevocably by a magical process that he has no hope of ever understanding, and he said some things that he wishes he could erase from existence.

"It is OK, my love," she says, waving her hands in encouragement. "Chi forgives you."

Relief floods his being, spurring him to step towards his beloved. To his surprise, she floats up to meet him face to face, her chocolate colored eyes peering lovingly into his. Her arms encircle his neck as she leans in close and catches his lips in her own. Light at first, the kiss deepens as Hideki begins to lose himself in the moment. His eyes close and his arms go round her waist as he pulls her in close as their tongues begin to explore each other. This was a sensation that Hideki was not used to, as Chi did not originally have a tongue. This Chi does, and she is being very adventurous with it.

As she presses in closer to him, he realizes that he needs air, and breaks the connection.

Hideki's eyes open to find a small red and white persocom sitting on his face, staring at him with an annoyed look on her face. He feels her remove her hands from either side of his nose. As the fog of sleep slowly lifts from him, he resists the urge to snatch the tiny laptop off for breaking such a pleasant dream. He elects instead to be polite. "Kotoko, what are you doing?"

"Waking you up," replies the small persocom as she shifts to extricate herself from her position on his face.

"Why?" he asks as he turns his head to follow her as she jumps down.

She turns and scowls at him. "Because Lady Belldandy has been calling for you to join them for breakfast."

From outside his room, he hears the now familiar voice of the resident goddess call out. "Nanna! Please hurry, your breakfast is getting cold!"

"I know mom! I need to finish my hair!" comes the reply from the opposite direction.

Hideki furrows his brow in confusion, wondering how long he had been asleep. Ms. Hibiya had called at 6:30 this morning. The only reason he remembers that is because Kotoko sounded her alarm for him to start the wakey-wakey exercises, which he had declined. She called immediately after that on Kotoko's line. He remembered the conversation quite well, just not much after that with the exception of the dream he had just been roused from. "Kotoko, what time is it?"

The red and white persocom turns around in a huff. "The time is now seven forty-two AM," she replies with a little indignation in her voice.

"WAAHH!" cries Hideki as he bolts upright on the futon. "How could I have slept so late?!" He looks down and realizes he is not wearing what he was wearing when he arrived last night. Instead, he has on brown and white striped pajamas that were a size and a half to small for his tall frame. These must be Kei's. Looking around frantically, he sees his clothes neatly folded in the corner. He lunges for them and starts to get dressed, nearly tearing the seams out of the too small nightclothes in the process.

As he puts his right foot into his trousers, he starts hopping towards the door, finishing just in time to throw it open and stumble out. As he passes the threshold, he runs straight into someone else and together, they begin to fall. On the way down, Hideki has the presence of mind to twist as he falls so that he does not land on top of whomever he has run it to. His back hits the ground and the unknown person lands on top, causing the wind to get knocked out of him.

As he gasps for breathe, he looks up and instantly recognizes the mop of chestnut brown hair lying on his chest. OH MY GOD! I RAN OVER THE GODDESS! Instantly having visions of being struck down by lightning, he does his best to calm himself. "Are you ok?!" he blurts out as her head starts to move. Two hands press against his chest as the one on top lifts them self up.

"Oh my," she says as she leans back and straddles his hips. Hideki swallows as the woman pushes her hair out of her eyes. She looks down at him as he raises himself off the ground onto his elbows, giving him a smile that instantly reminds him of the goddess he met last night. "Well, hello handsome!" she says, giving him a wink with her brown eyes.

Hideki's face flushes four shades of red and the girl lifts herself off of him, then offers a hand to help him up. He takes it, and she surprises him by effortlessly lifting him to his feet and then latching onto his arm. "What's your name?" she asks.

"Um…..Hideki," he stammers as he tries briefly to separate himself from her. It is futile, though, as he finds her grip is like iron.

"You must be one of my older brother's friends," she says as she smiles up at him with a twinkle in her eye.

Before he can say anything else, Kei brushes past them, giving his sister and exasperated look as he goes. "Nanna, let him go, he's already taken."

"Ah, pooh," pouts the girl. She does not release him, though, half dragging Hideki as they follow Kei into the dining room.

When they step through the door, Hideki's eyes bug out when he lays eyes on the spread that has been laid out on the table. A large pot of miso soup dominates the middle. Each place setting has an empty bowl as well as a bowl of rice and a small plate with what looks like dried mackerel. Upon seeing the food and smelling the delicious aroma, Hideki's stomach lets out a loud growl.

Nanna giggles as the noise subsides. "Sounds like you're hungry! Here, you can sit next to me!"

Looking to his friend for support, Hideki only gets a 'you're on your own with this one' look as Kei sits down and ladles some soup into his bowl. He lets out a yip as Nanna jerks on his arm, causing him to half fall, half sit next to her. She promptly leans in to him and starts rubbing his arm with both her hands.

"Wow, you're strong," she says suggestively. "You must work out."

Hideki's face flushes again at the attention he is getting. Years of laboring on the family farm had left him in excellent shape. After a year in Tokyo going to the cram school and working, he had gone 'soft', as his father would say. Fortunately, the daily workouts at the dorms with Tamiya and the rest of the residents had helped him regain a lot of the strength he had lost after coming to the city. He obviously did not mind getting compliments of course, but he was feeling quit uneasy about the situation. Kei's sister was quite a bit younger than they were.

"Uhg, kill me please," exclaims Kei as he picks up a piece of his fish. "I told you, he's already got a girlfriend," he says as he pops the morsel into his mouth.

"And?" replies Nanna innocently as she looks up at Hideki and flutters her eyes, causing quite a bit of consternation in the older man.

Kei rolls his eyes as he finishes chewing and swallows. "You're too much like Aunt Urd and Peorth for your own good."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" retorts the girl as she snaps her attention to her brother and releases her quarry. She folds her arms across her chest in a huff. "They are perfectly good role models!"

Kei's snickers are cut short as Belldandy enters the room, causing the siblings to clamp their mouths shut while continuing the glare at each other. She was still showing the same youthful appearance she changed to after he arrived. The goddess glances around and instantly discerns what is going on. "Please be civil, children, we do have company with us," she says evenly and without a bit of anger.

"Mrs. Morisato, could you…." starts Hideki, but is interrupted.

"Please, call me Belldandy!"

"…..um, Belldandy, when do you think your sister will get here with Chi?" he asks.

"Not long, I think," replies the goddess. "She has two daughters of her own to get off to school." She hums to herself as she circles the table, kissing Kei on the top of his head as she goes. As she passes the door behind Nanna and Hideki, she is surprised as a man with seemingly unkept salt and pepper hair grabs her and bends her backwards as if completing a waltz. "Keiichi!" she gasps before her husband plants a kiss on her lips.

The kiss is a quick one, and he pulls her back up. "Good morning, my goddess!" he says as he releases her.

Belldandy giggles a bit. "Dear, we mustn't embarrass the children when we have company!"

"That was the idea," he replies with a little mirth. He then glances at Nanna and can see from her frozen expression that the display had its desired effect. He then notices Hideki for the first time, and his expression darkens a bit as he notices the man's proximity to his daughter. "And you are?"

His eye twitches as he tries to think of an escape route. "Hideki Motosuwa," he replies as he starts to stand, only to stop mid-way as Keiichi motions for him to stop.

"Ah, ok, you're Kei's friend. I thought you might be someone else," says the elder Morisato as he sits down across the table from Hideki. "So, let me guess," he says as he puts a finger on his chin and looks away in concentration. "Your girlfriend got a wish, then you said something stupid that messed up the wish, and now you are here to get help to fix the wish?"

"Um, yeah….." says Hideki, not understanding how he would know. "But how…..? Are you a…..?"

"God?" replies Keiichi as he leans over to spoon some soup into his bowl. "Heavens no, I'm as human as they come," he continues as he leans back. He then gives Hideki a wink as his wife steps around and sits next to him. "Bell told me about it this morning."

"Oh," sighs Hideki, instantly relieved. Settling in to finally start eating, he suddenly gets the feeling he is being watched. He glances around the table only to see the other Morisatos were busy with their own conversations or meals. Gradually, he turns around and finds a small boy standing beside him on his left. "Hello," says Hideki after swallowing the morsel he had put into his mouth.

With his unruly mop of black hair and rounded features, the small boy looks almost exactly like his father. The only difference Hideki can discern between this boy and a seven or eight year old Keiichi are his piercing, sapphire blue eyes. "Mommy says I should not talk to strangers," replies the boy.

The college student looks at the boy in confusion, then steals a glance at Belldandy, who he finds has now focused her attention on him as well. She smiles, and somehow all the nervousness he was feeling drains away. Returning his attention back to its original place, he finds the blue eyes have not left him. After a moment of staring quietly at each other, it finally dawns on him what the boy wants. "My name is Hideki Motosuwa," he says as he holds out his hand.

"My name is Keigo, Keigo Morisato," replies the boy happily as he shakes the older man's hand. He then walks past Hideki and takes a place at the table beside him. As he sits, he continues to study the older man. Having gotten the formalities out of the way, Hideki returns his attention to his meal.

"You were loud this morning," says the small boy matter-of-factly. Hideki turns back to the boy to apologize, but is cut off. "Louder than mommy and daddy after they go to bed."

Hideki feels something wet hit him in the side of the face while at the same time the sound of someone spitting in surprise fills the room. He glances over to Keiichi to find the family patriarch's eyes are bugged out in embarrassment. Beside him, Belldandy is blushing and finding things on the walls more interesting than this conversation. The two older Morisato children snicker at their parents' discomfort as Keigo sits, not quite understanding the reactions of those around him.

Keiichi stands abruptly and gulps down the beverage that had been waiting for him when he sat down. "And on that note," he says as he steps around the table, his face still blazing red.

"But dear, you have not finished your breakfast!" complains Belldandy, to no avail.

"I'll be ok," he assures her as he approaches the door. He then motions to his daughter. "Come on Nanna, I'll take you to school."

"But Dad! I was going to call Kazuma and have him pick me up!"

Keiichi stops at the threshold and furrows his brow, trying to remember who that is. "Kazuma Tokia?" he asks after a moment.

Nanna nods excitedly, then looks up at him with huge, saucer shaped puppy dog eyes that seem to ask 'pretty please with sugar on top'?

Her father looks down at her with a skeptical look. "Yeah…no. You're coming with me."

"But DAAAAD!" cries Nanna as she gets up to follow. As she does, she glances over to her mother for a little support.

Belldandy jumps up, causing Nanna to brighten as the intervention she was looking for seems to be about to happen. "Oh! You forgot your lunches!"

The Morisato girl visibly deflates. "MOOOOOM!

As Nanna stomps off after her father followed by Belldandy with two bento boxes. Hideki turns back to his breakfast, doing his best to tune out the squabbling that was still going on down the hall. A soft chuckle draws his attention to his friend. Kei is happily eating with a slight smile on his face. "That was classic," he laughs to himself. He clams up again as Belldandy reenters the room.

She stops for a moment, taking a cleansing breath, then looks down at Hideki. "Mr. Motosuwa, would you like some more tea?"

"Yes ma'am," he replies, and the goddess steps away to go to the kitchen. A few moments later, she returns with a fresh pot and cup. She puts the container in front of him and pours the steaming beverage in to it.

Putting the teapot on the table, Belldandy looks down at Hideki again. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

The tall man ponders asking about Chi again, but sets it aside. "No, thank you," he replies. Patience, Hideki. If there was a problem, she would tell me. He watches a she leaves. Wouldn't she? His doubts cloud his mind as he can't help but think that another goddess like her is the one that caused this in the first place. Would she cover for the other is something was not right? Worried to distraction, he fails to notice that his tea has started to fizz.

"Um, you might want to step back!" yells Kei.

His thoughts coming back to reality, he looks down to see his tea is now starting to boil over. His friend's warning falls on deaf ears as Hideki is mesmerized by it, wondering what in the world could cause such a thing to happen. Suddenly, a light bursts forth. Falling back in surprise, he is immediately set upon by a woman with raven hair as she seemingly materializes from the cup.

"OW OW OW!" she screams as she lands on the floor, her feet on either side of Hideki as he falls back. "Belldandy! Why in the Almighty's name do you have to give people such hot beverages!" she yells as she shakes her hands to rid herself of the feeling. From his position on the floor, Hideki gets quite the eye-full up the skirt the woman is wearing, including the color of her underpants, which are blue.

"Hi Auntie Skuld!" greets Keigo from beside Hideki.

Skuld looks down at the boy and smiles. "Hey-ya squirt!" she replies. She is about to reach down and ruffle the boys hair when she notices that he is pointing to something. Following his finger down, she finds the man lying underneath where she is standing. A cloud of anger crosses her face as she sees where his eyes are focused on, totally missing the look of terror on his face.

"How's the view down there, you PERVERT!" she screams. Hideki feels something slam into his face, but does not have time to register what happened as she reaches down and grabs him by the scruff of his collar. In a show of strength that belies her diminutive size, Skuld hauls the taller man up to his feet, then tosses him towards the door.

Hideki lands on his backside with a thud. Is she a goddess too?! He raises up on his elbows to see the raven haired woman wave her arms, then bring her hands close in front of her, about twelve inches apart. A shimmering blue sphere forms in front of her, nearly filling the void between. In a panic, he scrambles up to his feet to run. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his friend Kei attempt to intervene, but it's too late.

"SKULD COLD WATER BLASTER ATTACK!"

The blue orb flies at Hideki with incredible speed, smashing into his face and sending him careening onto the floor. The water from the orb covers his body as well as the floor, and he slides down the hall from the momentum of the impact. As he comes to a stop, he squints his eyes and shakes his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from the hit he just took.

"Well, hello handsome!"

Hideki's heart freezes when he hears this. Tentatively, he opens his eyes and finds himself looking up a pair of long, tan legs. A black skirt is the only cover for the nether regions for this individual, and the result is a crimson gush from his nose. The woman takes a step back and squats above him, looking down at him with her violet eyes. A mane of silver white hair frames her face. As his vision starts to blur, he notices three triangles that adorn her forehead and checks, as well as a huge smile.

The last thing Hideki hears before his world goes dark from blood loss is a sweet, familiar voice. One that he has been yearning to hear all morning.

"Chi?"