-5-
"Urd! Skuld! Welcome!" exclaims Belldandy happily as she walks into the hall after the disturbance. She then looks down and sees Hideki passed out on the floor. "Um, what happened to Mr. Motosuwa?"
"That pervert peeked up my skirt, then Urd's!" exclaims Skuld as she marches into the hall and passes Bell. Kei and Keigo follow her in hot pursuit. "But I took care of him," she says smugly as she stops over the unconscious man, crossing her arms in triumph.
Keigo steps up next to Skuld and points. "Pervvvvvert!" he says, causing Kei to snicker at the expense of his stricken friend, who now has the word written across his face.
Belldandy sighs as she comes up behind the group. "Keigo, run along and brush your teeth, your bus will be here any moment." Keigo nods and scampers off to the bathroom. She looks down at Hideki, then up to her younger sister. "Skuld, please remove that from his face and help Urd take him to the guest room."
"But Big Sis! He was looking up my skirt!" complains Skuld.
Kie steps up and gives his dark haired aunt a grin. "In his defense, you did materialize out of his teacup."
Skuld deflates a little as she realizes she may have overreacted, if only just a little. She leans down and waves her hand over Hideki, causing the word to disappear from his face. She then glares up at Urd, who has not moved a muscle. "Well?"
"Why do I have to help?!" asks the silver haired goddess incredulously while placing her hands on her hips. "I wasn't the one that sent him skidding across the floor!"
"No, you weren't," replies Belldandy evenly. She then glances down at Urd's black miniskirt, then looks back into her violet eyes. "But, you were the one that caused him to pass out."
Urd's face turns red, and she sticks a finger out as if she is going to respond. Her retort fails to materialize as she stares at the serious face of the middle Norn. Letting out a long sigh, she steps around to the opposite side of Hideki and starts to help Skuld.
"Chi?"
Belldandy's attention is turned to the originator of that sound. Standing off to the side is a diminutive girl with long, platinum blond hair. Directly behind her with one hand on the girl's shoulder is Peorth. Kei comes up beside his mother, his eyes wide, clearly amazed at what they are seeing.
"Wow, Peorth!" he exclaims. He had met the small persocom a number of times in the past, and is quite shocked by the change. "Hideki told me what happened, but I am not sure I really believed him until now."
Peorth conjures a rose petal in her hand. She holds it up to her mouth and blows, causing it to fly out and smack Kie in the forehead. "I told you to call me Aunty," she replies in a menacing tone and a smile in her face. As Kei rubs his head where the petal impacted, she turns more serious. "She has a problem."
XXX
Hideki wakes up, but does not open his eyes. He hears some voices close by, but is not sure who they are. Not really caring, there are two thoughts on his mind. The first is whether or not he had heard Chi before he passed out. Hope welled up in him at the prospect. It's been almost half a day since she went missing. While it was comforting that she was in what was supposed to be a safe place at Belldandy's sister's house, it still did not alleviate his guilt over what he had said to her. He needed to see her now and make things right.
The second was the dream he just had about being chased by a black haired woman in a hockey mask wielding a machete. Following closely behind her was a silver haired woman with nearly no clothes on, trying to kiss him. Not knowing what to think about that, Hideki turns towards one of the voices.
The same raven haired woman from his dreams is sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Wearing a peach colored dress and white blouse, she is turned slightly away, but her attention is squarely on him. He recalls the angry twenty-something year old woman that appeared magically from his teacup and his subsequent escape attempt, fall, and skid down the hall. As his memories return to him, Hideki pushes up and tries to scramble away from her.
Turning as he gets up, he smashes head first into the buxom chest of another. He looks up and sees the silver white hair and purple irises of the woman he saw before passing out before. Her eyes narrow in annoyance at his current predicament. Panicking and unable to breath, Hideki reaches up and pushes away from the bronze skinned woman. Unfortunately, he cups the mounds on either side of his face in doing so. As he falls again, he hears a howl of laughter from the black haired lady he was originally trying to get away from.
Landing on his rump, he looks up at the silver haired woman, who is staring back at him in open-mouthed shock. "I'm sorry!" he screams.
"You…..you…." she starts but is seemingly unable to put together a coherent sentence.
"It was an accident!"
As the raven haired woman continues to laugh, the silver haired one's face contorts in rage. "You ARE a pervert!" she screams. "My girls are reserved for one man and one man only!" She raises her right hand over her head. He sees electricity start to spark from her fingertips. "And you ain't him!"
"Oh crap!" yells Hideki. Frantically, he looks around for an escape route. Unfortunately, there is none.
"I SUMMON…"
"Stop it!" yells the raven haired woman as she streaks past Hideki. Snatching the electrically charged hand down, she expertly twists it behind the bronze woman's back and holds it there with her arm. As she completes that, she wraps her other arm around the neck of Hideki's would be attacker, causing purple eyes to bug out a little and a raspy wheeze to escape her throat. "Jeez Urd, and you call me the unbalanced one?"
As Urd continues to struggle against her assailant, the raven haired woman looks and smiles down at Hideki, reminding him somewhat of the resident goddess. "Hi, I'm Skuld, Belldandy's younger sister," she says calmly, still maintaining her hold against the flailing arms of the silver haired woman with seemingly little effort. "Sorry for trying to kill you back there. Old habits die hard."
Hideki relaxes a little as he realizes that he is not actually about to die. He watches on as Skuld maintains her arm bar, headlock combination on the silver haired woman. Slowly, she starts to calm down, either because she is turning blue, or because she has realizes that resistance is futile. A moment later, she stops all together.
"And this idiot is my older sister, Urd," says Skuld without releasing her quarry. "She apologizes too. Right?"
Urd raises her free hand and sticks up her middle finger.
"I guess that will have to do," says Skuld as she releases her.
"You guys are goddesses!" exclaims Hideki, still in a little shock.
"Well, DUH!" replies Urd, finally able to breath. She finishes it off by sticking out her tongue. Rubbing her neck, she turns to her younger sister. "How the hell did you do that?"
"Oh, I've been taking some lessons from Lind!" exclaims Skuld with a smug looks on her face.
Before Urd can offer a retort, the room's shoji screen door slides open to reveal Belldandy. She looks at her two sisters and frowns slightly, then notices Hideki. "Oh, you're awake! Please come this way, we have things to discuss."
Hideki holds back, waiting for the goddesses to go before him. Urd glares at Hideki for a second before walking past Belldandy into the hall. Skuld smiles and waves him forward. A brief moment of indecision occurs between the two as they both motion for the other to proceed. Finally, she relents and follows her sister. The tall man is not far behind. As he enters the hall, he notices another woman standing in front of a door. She has short black hair, a black swimsuit, and brown leather that drapes over her shoulders. Hideki cannot decide if they were shoulder pads or wings. He pauses in front of the new person. "Are you a goddess too?"
The woman smiles at him. "Handsome AND perceptive. I like him already!" she purrs.
"Peorth, now is not the time," scolds Belldandy.
"Right," she says. "As Belldandy indicated, my name is Peorth, Goddess First Class, Unlimited License, Second Category." She reaches out her hand, and he grasps it and gives it a good shake. "And if you ever qualify for a wish, I will make sure that I am the one to grant it."
The rose goddess winks, and Hideki blushes furiously at her flirtations. Before he can say anything, he is cut off by an exasperated sigh from behind him.
"Almighty in heaven, you're incorrigible, Peorth!" yells Skuld, obviously annoyed.
Hideki again tries to interject, but is cut off again. "What?" cries Peorth. "Just because I'm not monogamous like you thr…."
"Oh, ho ho!" exclaims Urd from Hideki's left, cutting her off. "So then you won't mind if I tell Tamiya about your little dalliances, hmmmm?"
Hideki cannot help but think that they are getting off track. Being flanked on all sides by four goddesses was not helping matters. So much has happened just in the last few minutes. He has a burning question he needs to ask, but cannot seem to get a word in edgewise. He is interrupted again by Peorth. "You wouldn't dare!" she exclaims, suddenly defensive as she shoots an icy glare at the silver haired goddess, who just smiles mischievously in return.
Urd's response is cut short as Belldandy coughs to get everyone's attention. She then turns to Hideki. "Mr. Motosuwa, I believe you were going to ask about Chi?"
"YES!" he exclaims excitedly as he grabs the blue eyed goddess' shoulders. "Where is she? Is she ok? Can I see her?"
Belldandy smiles, taking Hideki's excitement in stride. "She is in here," she says and motions to the door behind Peorth. The black haired goddess hesitates for a second, as if not wanting to let him in, then relents. Sitting on the floor staring out the window and stroking a small black cat sitting in her lap is his beloved Chobit. "I have to warn you, she is not herself."
Hideki does not hear the last part as he rushes into the room. He lands on his knees and throws his arms around her. "Chi! I was so worried!" he exclaims as he pulls her to him. The cat in her lap hisses and bolts away from them. "I'm so sorry! I won't ever say anything like that to you again!"
"Chi….yi….yi…..yi?" is the only response he gets from her as he rocks her back and forth vigorously.
Realizing something is amiss, Hideki stops glomping her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he holds her at arm's length and looks her over with a critical eye. Physically, she seems fine. There are subtle differences for sure, but those can be attributed to the radical change she has gone through. Looking into her eyes, though, they are vacant and expressionless. He thinks back to when she may have ever looked like this, and the only thing he can come up with is right after he activated her. But even then, there was something there. Now she almost seems lifeless. "Chi, speak to me!" he implores to her.
The platinum blonde girl blinks, but otherwise does nothing.
"Oh my god, her memory has been erased!" he yells. Hideki angrily whirls around on the goddesses, forgetting that they are powerful omnipotent beings. "Which one of you did this!"
Peorth is the first one to speak up. "All I did was change her, she was fine when I left her," she says nonchalantly while shrugging her shoulders.
"This one played around with her memories," says the cat as it rubs up against the silver haired goddess' leg.
Now too angry to even register the fact that felines cannot speak, he turns to Urd. "What did you do?!"
The bronze goddess stares angrily at the black cat. "I. Didn't. Do. Anything!" she grinds out through clenched teeth before kicking at it.
"You had to have, the cat said…"
Turning to Hideki, Urd's violet eyes flash in annoyance. "All I did was playback her memories!"
Becoming desperate, he turns to Skuld. "Then you had to have done something!"
"Don't look at me, bub," replies the raven haired goddess. "I've just been pulled in on a consult."
He turns back to Peorth. "Then it has to be a symptom, a reaction to what you did!"
"Non non non!" exclaims the rose goddess, waving him off with both her hands. "My spell was perfectly executed. It was this second class that had to have done something," she says, motioning back to Urd.
Nearly ready to explode, Urd's face contorts in anger. "How many frakking times do I have to say it! All I did…"
"STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"
Hideki and the three goddesses he is bickering with immediately fall to the floor, compelled to cover their ears by the sheer volume of Belldandy's command spell. Kei, who is standing next to his mother, uses his pinky finger to clear out the ear closest to her. "Thanks, mom," he deadpans.
Ignoring the comment, Belldandy stares down at the four combatants. The three goddesses shy away from her, while Hideki still looks back in shock. "This arguing is getting us no where!"
The first to snap out of the funk, Urd moves to stand up. "Your right!" she exclaims as she reaches over and grabs Hideki by the collar. Before he can react, she pulls him past the shocked Belldandy. Finally coming to his senses, he struggles in futility as the bronze skinned goddess drags him out of the temple, down the steps, and across the courtyard. Belldandy trails behind, pleading with her sister to let the man go. When they get to the main gate, Urd hauls him up by the collar, then deposits him at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the main entrance. "Since this is mostly YOUR fault, this is what you are going to do!" she yells from the top of the steps, pointing down at him menacingly. A black orb, crackling with electrical power forms on the end of her finger for added emphasis.
Afraid of what might happen next, Hideki jumps up and snaps to attention, not wanting to anger the goddess any more than he apparently already has.
"I can make a potion to cure all of this," says Urd, still pointing at him. "The only thing I am missing are purple and gold snapdragons with rectangular shaped leaves."
"Purple and gold snapdragons with rectangular leaves, GOT IT!"
Urd's eyes go wide with surprise as Hideki starts running down the road faster than she thought possible, the breeze from his departure ruffling her hair. Belldandy steps up to stand next to her, and they watch his flight down the hill.
"Sister," starts Belldandy as he finally disappears from sight. "You do realize that a potion is not what is required to solve this?"
"Yep."
"And that snapdragons are not native to Japan?" continues the blue eyed goddess.
"Mmm-hmmm."
"And that they do not come in purple and gold?"
"Uh-huh," replies Urd. "I wanted to get him out of the way for a while so that there are no more distractions while we help the girl."
"Ah," is all Belldandy can think of to say as she cannot refute her sister's logic. They are about to return to the temple when they notice a car coming up the road that leads to the entrance they are standing at. Before it comes to a stop at the bottom of the steps, the rear passenger door opens, and a middle aged woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a brown and white dress jumps out and rushes up to the goddesses.
"Where is my daughter Chi?! Where is Mr. Motosuwa?" she pleads, her hands clasped in front of her.
"Oh my!" exclaims Belldandy as she glances to Urd, then back to the panicky woman. "Um, Chi is inside, and I am afraid you just missed Mr. Motosuwa."
From behind the woman, a tall man with black hair follows her up the steps. He is wearing a black trench coat and pants, and black sunglasses with a single lens that stretches from temple to temple. The goddesses immediately recognize him as a persocom when they see he has a trapezoidal box on either side of his head instead of ears. "I believe we passed him, Miss Hibiya," he quips upon reaching the top of the stairs. Beside him is a petite woman with short brown hair and a long, black, sleeveless trench coat with two brown belts, one across her waist and one across her chest. She has tight fitting black shorts on underneath, below which, black straps circle her legs at random intervals.
Miss Hibiya steps closer to the goddesses, her hands still clasped in front of her as if she were praying. "Please, I need to see her, is she alright?" The worry is evident in her voice.
Belldandy's heart breaks a little at seeing the woman like this. No stranger to tragedy herself, she steps up and puts her arm around Miss Hibiya's shoulders. "Please, come with us, we will show you," she says as she starts to lead her to the front door of the temple.
As they walk off, Zima looks down at his companion and smiles. "Dita love, be a dear and get Miss Hibiya's tools."
The smaller persocom looks up at him and frowns. "What do I look like to you, a porter?"
XXX
After they reach the entrance of the temple, the group pauses to allow the stragglers to catch up. When they enter, they are greeted by two other women in the central hallway. Ms. Hibiya notes the state of dress of one of the women, but says nothing. A young man, who identifies himself as Kie and the son of the woman called Belldandy, excuses himself to leave for school.
Belldandy leads her to a room, opens the door and allows Chitose to enter. Ms. Hibiya gasps upon seeing her daughter, then rushes up and hugs her in a similar fashion as Hideki, but less enthusiastic. It is then that she, like Chi's boyfriend before, notices something is wrong. The girl barely reacts to her. The apartment manager breaks the hug to look into her daughter's chocolate brown eyes. Her expression is as blank as if she had been… Chitose banishes that thought out of her mind. She cannot bare to think of how Hideki would react if her memory has been wiped. She turns to Dita and asks for her tools.
"Um, Ms. Hibiya," says Zima, pointing to the small boxes on the side of his head that take the place of a persocom's ears.
The woman stares at him for a second, not comprehending what he is referring to, then looks back to her daughter. It is only then that she realizes that the small pink and white port covers that should be on either side of Chi's head, are missing. Chitose immediately grabs the blonde girl's face and turns it to the side so that she can get a good look at it. There, impossible as it may seem to her, is a perfectly formed human ear. Turning her to the other side, she sees another. "Oh my god!" she exclaims looking to the other four women in shock. "Who modified her like this?"
"That would be this one," replies the silver haired woman who had introduced herself as Urd while se surreptitiously points at the scantily clad woman next to her.
Ms. Hibiya stares at the one named Peorth with more than a little indignation. "Why?" is the only thing that she can think to say, unable to come up with any logical reason that someone would modify a persocom to look human.
"Well," starts the black haired woman, "it is what she wished."
"To look like a person?"
"Non, to be a person," replies Peorth evenly.
At first, Chitose frowns at what to her seems like a non sequitor. What does she mean 'be a person'? Her eyes go wide at the implication. She turns to Chi, who stares blankly at nothing in particular. She grabs the girl's face again and opens her mouth, then gasps at what she sees. Throwing a worried look over her shoulder at Peorth, she then gently pushes her daughter gently onto her back. Before anyone can react, she checks for the power switch, and finds something completely different.
A thread of disbelief forms in her mind as she looks down at the girl. She looks back at the Peorth. "Is this some form of sick joke?" she says angrily. "Where is my daughter!"
The four women look at each other, then back to the angry mother. "Ms. Hibiya, this is very difficult to explain," says Belldandy after a moment.
"Ladies," starts Zima. "I expect that you will explain to our satisfaction, or my companion and I will have to use force." Chitose sees the look of determination on the tall persocom's face.
"That would be a huge mistake on your part," replies Urd, the threat in her voice is unmistakable.
"Urd, please," chides Belldandy. Urd shoots her an angry look, but backs off. The brunette turns her attention to the angry mother in front of her. "Ms. Hibiya, before I explain, I need you to understand that there are powers at work here that are beyond your's and your companion's comprehension." She motions to the other three women, then back to herself. "The four of us are goddesses. I am Goddess First Class Belldandy." She then motions to the other three again in turn. "This is Goddess First Class Peorth, my older sister, Goddess Second Class Urd, and my younger sister, Goddess Second Class Skuld."
Chitose sits back on her haunches, not sure what to say. After a moment, it is Zima that verbalizes what she was thinking.
"Ok, what kind of drugs are the four of you on?"
"I can assure you, I am not lying. As a first class goddess, I am incapable of that." Belldandy then looks at the other three, then holds her hands up. Chanting something under her breath that Chitose cannot understand, an orb of light appears and floats above them. She looks to the others, who follow her lead.
Chi's mother scrambles backwards towards Zima and Dita. "A magic trick?" she says, half accusing, half trying to convince herself.
"Yes, it is magic, but I can assure you that it is not a trick," replies Belldandy.
Chitose looks up to Zima, who seems to be transfixed by the display. He breaks away after a moment and looks down at her. "I have done a cursory search in the archives, I cannot find any known magic trick that explains what they have just done."
Ms. Hibiya looks back at the so called goddesses. Belldandy, seeming to pick up on the doubt and fear in her eyes, smiles. "I can assure you, we mean you no harm," she says. "On the contrary, one of our purposes is to grant wishes to those that deserve them." The chestnut haired goddess motions to Chi. "It was determined that she was to receive a wish, and Peorth was summoned to grant it."
"When I appeared to her, her greatest wish was to become human," continues Peorth, picking up where Belldandy left off.
Chitose considers this for a moment. Would Chi ask for something like this? After a moment, the answer came to her; if she felt it would improve her relationship with Hideki, she would. While Chi, and Elda before her, did not have quite as much of an independent streak as her older sister, when she did show it, the platinum blonde had it in spades. The worried mother looks back to her daughter, who still is just sitting there with no expression on her face. She decides to go along with the charade a little longer. "So, if this is my daughter, why is she catatonic like this?"
"Heh, about that," stammers Peorth. She then begins to explain to Chitose her experience with entering her soul.
It was all fantastical to the woman. A shrinking valley with a seemingly out of place building in the middle, a server room with nothing connected. As the story continues, it becomes more and more unbelievable. Right up until the black haired woman relates to her about the black clad version of Chi that attacked her. Ms. Hibiya listens intently as the goddess relates details about the doppelganger that very few knew. After a moment, any doubt she had to the validity of the story are gone.
"Freya," breaths Chitose.
"Come again?" replies Peorth.
"Before Chi became Chi, she was known as Elda," says Ms. Hibiya. "She had a twin sister, who died. Her name was Freya." Chitose chokes a little on the unpleasant memory. "Before Freya died, Elda took her memories inside of her. Even though Elda's memories were erased, Freya's survived inside of Chi."
Peorth's eyes go wide at the revelation. She glances over to Belldandy. "Do you think it's possible?"
"It would certainly make sense, considering what you say when you entered her soul," replies the blue eyed goddess with a nod. "Ms. Hibiya, for what purpose were Chi and Freya created for?"
"They were built by my husband to be our daughters," replies Chitose.
The two first class goddesses look at each other again. "It fits," says Peorth.
"What? What fits?" asks the increasingly worried mother, a concerned look on her face.
Belldandy turns to her. "I believe both girls had souls of their own. When Freya was sick, Elda did not take in her memories, she took in her soul. Both souls survived to this day."
"So Freya's soul was changed as well?"
"Yes," replies Belldandy.
"When we enter someone's soul, what we see is a representation of them," says Peorth. "Because of her origin, I believe that the building and the servers literally represent the sum of what Chi has become."
"Mon cheri, the situation could be quite dire," continues Peorth. "Freya told me that she was protecting her sister when she disconnected anything. If we were to say that the computers inside of the building are Chi's memories, then they have been disconnected from her soul." Peorth motions to the former persocom. "If we leave her like this much longer, we may never get her back. We will need to go back in and fix her while also keeping Freya at bay. I fear that she will not understand what we are doing and attack us again."
"Ah ha!" exclaims Skuld. "Now I know why you asked me here! You need help with the servers in her soul!"
Urd rolls her eyes. "Took you long enough," she quips.
"Quiet, you!" exclaims the raven haired goddess. "If it weren't for you, Freya would not have disconnected everything!"
A flash of anger mares the silver hair goddess' features, but is tempered by a glance from her middle sister. She leans back and stews as Belldandy speaks up. "Ms. Hibiya, we believe that you can assist us. Before you came, Skuld was the only one who could possibly make any headway with the machinery."
Without even waiting to understand how such a thing can be accomplished, Chitose readily agrees. When it comes to her daughter, there is nothing she would not do to help.
"After hearing you description, I believe that Dita and I can help," chimes Zima, causing everyone's attention to be directed to him.
"How so?" inquires Belldanday.
The tall persocom smiles, and gestures to his companion. "She is programmed with the ability to hack in to almost any persocom, including Chi and Freya. Based on what you have said, Freya still exhibits persocom like abilities. My lovely companion would be the perfect choice to distract her." He then gestures to himself. "I can assist with identifying what cables go where by directly interfacing with the systems and deciphering how the connections should be made to properly put her back together."
Peorth frowns at the suggestion. "But how would we do that? You are persocoms."
"And you are goddesses," replies Zima. "Can you not figure it out?"
"Hold on one sec," interrupts Urd, who turns to her youngest sister. "This is the part where Skuld whips up some doohickey that she invented that does exactly what we need."
"Huh? Me?" replies Skuld, suddenly acting very sheepish. "Well, I don't know, I've been trying to use my magic more often than not."
"WHAT?!" exclaim Peorth and Urd in unison.
Skuld looks back to the two goddesses with an almost guilty expression on her face. "It's something Lind and Belldandy want me to do."
Urd lets out a long sigh. "Well, there goes that idea."
"But I did just happen to have this!" exclaims a much more excited Skuld as she jumps up and seemingly conjures a device out of thin air, causing the oldest sister to facefault. She raises it over her head as if it were a trophy she just won. "The PersaConnect Express 3000! It allows for a persocom to be connected to almost anything!"
"Oh, how cliché," quips Zima.
Skuld ignores the comment. "We can use it to connect you to me, and then I can be the medium to bring you into Chi's soul with me."
Belldandy visibly brightens, and looks to Zima. "So you will help as well, then?"
"Yes, under one condition," replies the tall persocom. "The goddesses have to make Dita and myself human as well."
XXX
His heart pounding in his ears, his face blushing furiously, Hideki stares at the shop in front of him. It isn't the flowers or the chocolates that are eliciting this reaction. It's something much more menacing. Who puts lingerie in a flower shop?! He had visited at least twenty shops so far today since leaving the temple. None of them had what he was looking for. Some of them even went so far as to laugh. There was no such thing as purple and gold snapdragons, they said.
"Well, a goddess needs them to help Chi, and by Kami, I'm going to find them." Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he tries to calm himself. "It's no big deal, just go in and ask about the flowers, then go!" he says to no one in particular. As he steels himself for the inevitable, he pumps his fist in the air. "Just one step at a time!"
"Mommy, he's scary!"
"Don't stare, just keep walking, honey!"
Dammit, I'm doing it again! Clenching his fist, he makes his decision. Building his nerve, he picks up his right foot and starts to lean towards his destination. As he does, he sees something that causes him to freeze. Inside the shop, the female clerk is on the phone and... Oh my god she's looking right at me! She probably thinks I'm some kind of deviant and has called the police! Pivoting on his left foot, he frantically turns to walk away.
As he takes his first step, he trips due to the sudden change in direction. Stumbling forward, Hideki falls face first into a woman. In his panic, he pushes off of her, not realizing that he has done so by placing his hands on the soft mounds on either side of her chest. "I'm so..."
"YOU PERVERT!"
Before Hideki can react, he feels a vicious uppercut connect with his chin, followed by the sensation of flying.
XXX
As the brunette rubs her now sore knuckles, a dark haired man with narrow, rectangular glasses and a white lab coat comes up behind her. "Wow Naru, you really got some air with that one!"
"Well, my finely tuned reflexes come from years of practice, Keitaro."
XXX
"Surely you can't be serious," exclaims Urd.
"I am serious," replies Zima evenly. "And don't….."
Peorth interrupts him with a wave of her hand. "Just….don't." She stands and steps over to the two persocoms and places a hand on each of their shoulders. She closes her eyes, and a soft glow begins to emanate from them. After a moment, she steps back with a sad look on her face.
"I'm sorry, but it's just not possible, mon ami. Chi had something that you do not as yet possess."
Zima eyes her suspiciously. "What is that?"
"A soul," replies the goddess.
Zima frowns at this. Chitose can see that he is irritated at the proclamation. "How is it that she has one and we do not?" he says, gesturing to Chi.
Peorth shrugs her shoulders. "I don't have an explanation for that," she says as she returns to her spot next to Belldandy.
"I might," replies Skuld. "Ms Hibiya, you mentioned that Chi and her sister were created to be children for you?"
"Yes," replies Chitose.
"Then that's the answer!" proclaims the raven haired goddess, crossing her arms in self-satisfaction.
The irritated look on Zima's face is unmistakable. "What are you talking about?"
"I think I know," says Belldandy as she turns to Ms. Hibiya. "What my sister is saying is that your husband….."
"Ichiro Mihara," says Chitose, filling in the blank that the goddess was looking for.
"….Mr. Hihara poured all of his love into their creation," continues the blue eyed goddess. "Just as in the creation of a new biological life, his love planted the seed that later became Chi's soul." She glances over to her younger sister with a smile. "Skuld did the same thing with her robots."
Zima's face turns from irritation to an approximation of sadness. "So, you are saying that Dita and I, since he did not love us, cannot ever reach the same level she did?"
Chitose's heart breaks seeing Zima so downcast. She turns around to fully face him. "Don't ever think that your father did not love you any more or less than any of his other creations!" she exclaims forcefully. Zima looks at her in surprise as she reaches over and puts her hands on his shoulders. "From his littlest Angel, to his precious Chobits, to you and Dita, he loved you all more than life itself." She looks into his eyes and sees the sadness subside, but not completely go away. She could only imagine what it is like to reach that brick wall that you can never get past, only to see others like you sprint ahead.
"Zima, have you ever heard of the phrase 'The Ghost in the Machine'?" inquires Chitose.
"No," he replies.
"It was something that your father once talked about before he died," she says, placing a hand on his cheek. "He believed whole-heartedly that persocoms would develop certain aspects of being human that were not programmed into them. He said that as your code gets more complex, it could start to mutate in a similar manner as DNA does in humans. Eventually, persocoms will become sentient, and start having dreams and aspirations of their own."
The persocom sighs. "I already have dreams and aspirations of my own."
"I know, perhaps the seed is there for you as well," replies Chitose. "Perhaps you just need to be patient."
From behind her, Skuld clears her throat to get everyone's attention. "If I may, I think have an alternative!"
A/N: Hoping to have a quick turn around on the next chapter (already 9 pages into it). Was planning to release 5 and 6 together, but that didn't happen.
Just a reminder that when I write stories, I try to post in my profile my progress about every 2 weeks (or less if I remember). If you are curious as to what my progress is or what I may have coming up, it will be there.
And here is the obligatory reminder that if you have read this far, leave a review! It helps keep authors motivated!
