We are finally ourselves again. Able to laugh together, able to talk, able to love. Now, we are saying our goodbyes on our terms. It is kind of like our first two years in that even though I am suffering physically, I am mostly unaware of my suffering because she is with me.
We are saying almost everything we want to each other now, but there are still things that we can't talk about. It's always been that way actually. Most of these have been things she knows that she cannot tell me. I know it bothers her too, how I can just give her and tell her everything but she is forbidden to do the same to me.
For example, the holographic principle. I've worked and taught in Engineering for decades now and have learned about quantum gravity and how our universe might actually be a hologram of sorts. I have studied this topic as a hobby and read interesting reports. What I have seen is so much more evident though: Belldandy transports herself through mirrors, Urd travels through televisions, and Peorth travels through lenses. Just knowing that lets me know there is something to our universe actually being a hologram. No matter how interesting it is, I can't ask Belldandy. She can't tell me more because the Almighty has decidednot to let mortals know about this. There are times when I have not been able to help myself and told her all about something interesting I was reading. She can only smile, and I never know why.
I mention this because the holographic principle is related to something we have always called "year three". That being the period of time starting when I was unexpectedly snatched into another reality and ending with our wedding and the Almighty's blessing. Many things changed for us then. I changed and grew up a bit too. There was great danger, the full maturity of our love, and the worst tragedy of our lives.
The day started quietly. Belldandy was doing the laundry and singing and I was just listening to it as I looked at the grounds by our temple. She was so happy then. The next minute, I woke up in a bed not my own in a strange place. I got up from the bed and naturally starting looking for Belldandy.
I saw no one I knew as I rushed through the place. Nothing but strangers everywhere in this big house. Some laughed, some looked sympathetic, and others just stared blankly. One of the statues starting moving and slowly told me "Welcome sir, please do not be alarmed." I thought about trying to talk to it, but then caught the smell of food cooking. My thought was that if Belldandy woke up in a strange place the first thing she would do if she felt good will there might be pass the time cooking for them. I know this was foolish now, but it seemed right at the time. I followed the scent that didn't even smell like Belldandy's cooking all the way to the kitchen. In my own defense, the food was Japanese cooking. Just not Belldandy's cooking. Not at all.
The people I met there were friendly, but they were all fighters. Not soldiers, but a collection of different people with different skills. They took some time to calm me down and gave me a little bit of food. They had not seen my goddess at all, but were interested when the topic came up. They were very interested in stories. Each others, those of other people, and mine. Their stories were all really exciting. When I told me story, they were surprised to find out that I never fought much and that my goddess loved to stay at home and cook food.
We had about an hour to talk, and then a sound and a general movement within the mansion. The two men I was eating with told me to come with them to the meeting to meet Azumi. Feeling certain that Belldandy would be there if she was anywhere in the mansion at all, I went along with them.
It was a planning meeting. Azumi intended to send all of us to go to a world and free it from the control of somebody named Masuyo the collector. I felt very far out of place, and eventually cut in to introduce myself, feeling that maybe they had taken me when they meant to take Belldandy. Initially, Azumi would not address this. Instead, she handed me a ring with an enchantment and told me to use it on the mission.
Some of you may know that I have hosted angels before, but very few people know about the time in my life when I actually had powers of my own. They were really just the powers of the ring, but for a little while I was actually something like the goddesses. The ring let me kind of absorb magic and then use it myself. I didn't have any idea what to do with it most of the time, so I mostly did things that I saw Belldandy and Urd do. I learned more as I went, but never got the hang of what to use when.
That was the beginng of year three. In just a few minutes, my whole life changed. Instead of living in the temple with Belldandy, I was out adventuring in other world with friends but without her for a while. I lived a couple months like that.
And that is one of the pictures we have but never talk about, the mansion outside of time and space where I learned more than a mortal should know about reality. I still don't have the answers. Sometimes I think there might even be another Keiichi and Belldandy. I hope there is. I hope they found each other too, and that in their case they just lived happily ever after and didn't have to go through year three. Because that way when they got married, Belldandy's younger sister would still be with them. Oh! My goddess would be so happy if only that could have happened for us.