He held the egg in his hands, seemingly in a dream. Keiichi didn't know which frightened him more, the prospect of immortality, or the thought that if he ever made Belldandy unhappy, the divine favor he seemed to enjoy would turn into something far more sinister. On the surface of it, Kami seemed to be a gentle deity, but there was a hardness under that surface. Keiichi didn't even want to think on what might have made the Almighty himself into such.
"Keiichi-san..." Belldandy whispered. "This doesn't make you happy?"
"It isn't that, Bell. It's just that... if I accept this gift... someday I'll watch my friends die. My family... And why do I get this gift and they don't? It's not fair, I'm just a guy who made a weird wish." Keiichi explained, but he held on to the egg anyway.
Skuld had already skulked off to her room, angry that Keiichi would be with her sister forever. Or, perhaps, she was just jealous that Keiichi got an angel so quickly. Either way, he knew better than to bother her.
"It takes a lot to support an angel, Keiichi-san." Belldandy explained, wrapping her fingers around his hand, and closing them tightly around the egg. "A purity of spirit, a goddess's love. Even if He wanted to, only a man like you could even support that angel." Yet, there was a sadness in her voice, too. She knew what worried him.
"What happens when a mortal dies?" Keiichi asked. It was a question he had deliberately avoided since his wish. It seemed terribly self-serving, somehow. Or maybe he was just afraid of the answer.
"The spirit lives on." Belldandy closed her eyes for a moment. "Sometimes the soul finds its way to a new body. Sometimes it wanders awhile. But the memories are lost."
"Would you find me, then, if I died?" Keiichi said. Belldandy's eyes opened again, and the look there said everything he would ever need to know on the subject.
"I would never stop searching." She said. "But... just this once, Keiichi..." Her tone had a strange sort of desperation in it, and he knew how much this meant to her. For her, he would bear the burden, and the gift.
"What do I do?" He asked, looking at the angel egg with a puzzled expression.
"You swallow it." Belldandy answered quickly, smiling again.
"Okay.. here goes..." He muttered. It definitely felt strange swallowing an angel's egg to gain some kind of strange immortality. But then, nothing in his life had been simple or easy since Belldandy had come into his life. He popped the egg into his mouth and swallowed...
...The explosions from outside nearly caused him to vomit it back up, and he fell to the ground choking for a moment. The egg came back up a little, and the gagging stopped. Somehow he got control of himself again, and the egg finally went down.
"What is going on?" Keiichi coughed.
"Ugghhhh." A familiar voice managed, and the door slid open to reveal a smoking, charred Mara on the doorstep.
"Mara!" Keiichi yelled, and almost immediately, Urd was hovering beside him, and Belldandy's eyes were focused on the intruder. Banpei was behind the demon, loud rock music blaring, but Mara was simply too exhausted to dance.
"Help... me..." She managed, before passing out.
Banpei went in for the kill.
"No, Banpei!" Skuld yelled, clutching her hammer. It was the only thing that saved the demon's life.
"Heh. Should have let her finish." Urd frowned, but despite her words, she tended to the wounded demon, ensuring her injuries weren't life-threatening. "She almost got herself blown up. What an idiot."
"What should we do with her?" Keiichi wondered, looking at Belldandy. But even as he asked the question, he knew the answer. Belldandy had a concern for all living creatures, even ones as twisted as demons...
Child-Hild was bored. Maybe it came from her child-like form, or perhaps that was just Earth in general. So she tinkered with the stoplight wiring, hidden from prying eyes behind the control box.
In some ways she was separate from her full-self, but in other ways, she could commune, hear those thoughts. Unlike her daughter Urd, this sort of thing wasn't something she did regularly. Even 1/1000th of her power was too much to part with for all but the most urgent of reasons.
Still, she knew, this reason was urgent. She needed a child to to woo her daughter back, to bring her back into the demonic fold. Urd would not be able to resist family, Hild knew that just from her reactions during the usurpation. It had warmed her heart to hear the word mother again, but she wanted much more. Urd should have been with the demons, she had all the mischievous talent of her mother, and none of the self-righteous arrogance of her father.
Or, at least, she liked to think so. It was difficult to tell sometimes.
Either way, she was presented with a problem. She certainly couldn't bear another child from a God, that was out of the question. And allowing a demon to father the child was a terrible idea. Hild didn't want to create a rival for the throne. Her control of Hell had solidified, and she had loyal subordinates, but she had no desire to give them the temptation to become disloyal.
That left the mortal realm, much as it pained her to let some human sire the heir to the Daimakaicho's throne. She had nothing against the Humans, they were a power source for her, and they had their inventiveness. They were much more like demons, most of them, although the occasional Keiichi popped up here and there to annoy her. But they didn't enjoy the powers that came with a higher dimensional awareness, and human blood might weaken her child some.
Still, there was no choice in the matter. It had to be done. Now she just needed to find a suitor, and summon her full-self to complete the deed.
Child-Hild rewired the stoplight so drivers wouldn't know to stop, chuckling to herself as several cars crashed into each other. She hummed lightly to herself and continued on. There were ways to relieve the boredom after all.
As she walked near Nekomi Tech, Keiichi's school, she wondered if she might seduce someone he knew. It would be quite delicious to see the reaction on his face if one of his friends had sired a demon. But Otaki was already taken, and it would be difficult to pry him from his girl. That left Tamiya, and Mara had informed her about his fascination with Peorth.
Tamiya had graduated some time prior, but he still hung out around the old Auto Club, and sure enough, the grandstanding man showed up. Child-Hild smiled and called the summoning spell...
Mara's head ached. She woke up on a mattress, and wondered why the Goddesses had bothered to show her that kindness. Of course, she had known she was going to get hurt when she approached the temple. Three Goddesses, a strange mortal and a pair of robots meant that she was essentially walking into a fortress. But she was alive, and in the temple, and that was a start.
"What's your mission this time?" Urd asked, a sadistic smile on her face. She looks so much like her mother when she does that, Mara winced. Some of the Daimakaicho's immense power was within Urd too, she knew.
Mara decided truth was her best weapon, for once. "Hild sent me to apologize to you. I'm supposed to serve you in any capacity needed."
"Okay, so tell me your real plan." Urd shook her head. "Come on, you can't expect we'd actually believe that."
"You were going to hurt my sister." Skuld hovered near by, glaring angrily at the demon.
"No. Believe me, I didn't want to come here. She told me to anyway, said she'd turn me into furniture for her throne room if I didn't." Mara rubbed her temples, trying to banish the headache. She cursed the human-like form she had taken. With it, came sensations of immense pleasure... and immense pain.
"I don't detect any deception from Mara." Belldandy mused softly.
"Oh, you're not actually thinking of letting her STAY here, are you sis?" Annoyance seeped into Urd's voice. "After all she's done to us in the past? Come on, it's stupid!"
"I could build a super-demon-prison!" Skuld offered. "Lasers combined with a quantum field generator that could hold the higher dimensions to..." Her voice droned off, and everyone else had already stopped listening.
"Look, I'll make a contract, Urd." Mara offered. "Full blood contract and all. I was sent here to help you and told to behave myself. If I don't go back I will probably become a decoration in her antechamber." She sat up, and Belldandy offered her some water. She is always so kind... what an idiot, Mara thought. But she had a hard time not admiring Belldandy's attitude anyway. Mara cut into her palm and began to sing the contractual binding spell.
"Probably?" Urd arched her eyebrow.
"It's Hild. She said probably, you know how she is. I really don't want to find out, okay?" Mara said. "Please, just let me stay. I'll keep out of the way and do whatever you ask."
"You are not here to harm Keiichi?" Belldandy asked, probing the effectiveness of the contractual binding.
"She didn't say anything about harming Keiichi. Actually I don't think she even cares about him one way or another." Mara added.
"And you aren't to hurt my friends, either." Keiichi added, the demon nodded. "Or anyone else."
"Hey now, I'm a demon. Hild said to leave you guys alone, she didn't say to be nicey-nice to the entire planet." Mara complained.
"No deal unless you agree." Urd smiled and once again, Mara was reminded of the predatory look on her boss's face when she got this mission.
"Fine fine. I'll stay away from the other mortals. That's it though, if any come looking for trouble, I'll give it to them." She practically spat that out, but still, the binding magic accepted it, and the spell was completed.
"We have a contract, then, Mara." Urd stood up. "You know what happens if you breach it."
"I'm not an idiot." Mara said.
"That remains to be seen." Urd said as she sauntered out of the room. Soon the others were gone, too, and Mara was left alone with her thoughts. Just because they had decided to let her stay didn't mean they were going to provide her with company. It was going to be very boring, indeed.
The egg took a lot longer to hatch than Keiichi thought it would. With Skuld, it had been near-instantaneous. But, apparently the process took a lot longer on a human, even one who ostensibly had the love of three Goddesses.
Belldandy was there with him, and her voice kept him sane as the power grew within. Keiichi understood, now, why so few mortals could ever do this. Just as he had caught a glimpse of Belldandy's true form, in the battles in Hell, so did this angel transcend some boundary that humans just weren't meant to cross. Only his determination and Belldandy's love carried him through it.
It had been one thing to temporarily host an angel for Lind, it was quite another to actually support his own. At least they hadn't made him into a God, or anything like that. That would probably drive him mad. This angel was a higher-dimensional reflection of himself, and that scared the hell out of him.
Don't be scared of me. The voice came from within. I am you.
Easy for you to say. But Keiichi had to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Yes, it is. A human with an angel. Well at least you'll have another set of hands to help next time your bike breaks down. The angel offered.
Sure. But promise me you won't go berserk. Belldandy seemed worried that I couldn't... Keiichi wondered.
Couldn't control me? Not to worry! You'll like me, I know you will. The angel's voice seemed to be smiling. I'll prove myself!
Heh, it's me who should be proving myself. Keiichi mused.
Exactly! The angel said triumphantly. We're the same person!
That wasn't exactly what I meant... but good point. Urd calls me a spineless wimp all the time, how bad can you really be? Keiichi laughed.
Oh, we're not THAT bad. Urd is just mean sometimes. Maybe we should spike one of her potions... The angel offered.
You're supposed to be the voice of good! But he was feeling better about this already.
That's a myth. Angels are an internal voice, a reflection of yourself. The angel said. So you were the one thinking it, I just brought into your conscious mind! Like there's this desire rolling around in here about Belldandy, let's see, you want to kiss her and then take her into your bedroom to...
Knock it off! Keiichi suddenly demanded, knowing exactly what the angel was about to say. He wasn't ready to confront that issue just yet.
Sorry. The angel apologized, and obeyed. That was a good sign, at least. You still have to name me though!
You want to help me fix motorcycles, huh? Keiichi knew it was lame, but at least he could be reasonably sure nobody else had named an angel something like this.
Sure do! Can't wait! They seem so interesting in your mind. The angel's voice was excited.
Okay... MotorHead. Keiichi named him, and with that, the angel finally broke out from his body, and floated in the air. Much like Noble Scarlet had been when she first came out, MotorHead was tiny, far under-sized for a typical angel. But Belldandy didn't seem to mind, and the angel floated over to her almost immediately.
"Pleased to meet you MotorHead!" She smiled. Keiichi didn't even bother to ask how she knew the angel's name already. The workings of his Goddess were beyond comprehension sometimes. The tiny being smiled back up at her, then planted a long kiss on her cheek. MotorHead winked at Keiichi, who turned nearly scarlet. Heaven might have unlocked his desire, but even with an angel... Keiichi still had no idea what to do next.
I'll help! MotorHead offered.
That's what I'm afraid of. Keiichi thought.