It all happened in less than five seconds, but it played as if time slowed down to a crawl. From the Kitchen, Keiichi and Megumi saw their mother at the entryway of the temple grounds, and beast heading right at her, both letting out a started cry. Lind was retrieving her axe from her tree when she heard the two mortals cry out. She spun around to see a woman she did not know standing at the temple Torii and the bull racing towards her. Chasing the bull, Peorth was in the middle of casting another spell to bring more vines to entangle her escaping quarry when she caught sight of Takano. At the same time Belldandy and her sisters were coming around the temple, returning from sealing their bull, they too saw Keiichi's and Megumi's mother. And the Hell Bull itself saw the human, saw its path to freedom beyond, and saw her as something small and easily trampled.
In a tick of clock everyone reacted, the goddesses far faster the Morisato siblings. Lind was the closest, axe in hand she was racing to intercept the bull. Peorth had thrown out her vines, hoping to slow the beast before it could harm Takano. Belldandy was already reaching out with her magic to blow the beast away. But it was Takano herself who reacted fastest, rushing forward she met the bull and jumped...coming down right on its lowered head. With a startled bellow the bull slowed its charge with Takano riding atop it, but the woman was hardly done. With expert grace she charged down the length of the bull's body and leapt clear off the end of its tail. Takano expertly flipped in the air to land right back on her feet. The bull itself stopped, stunned at the audacity of the human riding it, and how she had jumped off so easily. It slowly turned to stare at Takano, and she glared right back, hands on her hips.
"Aren't you big one" barked Takano.
The bull bellowed.
Takano was clad in sleek black pants and a rugged leather jacket, a sheath strapped across her back. From which she pulled a long, curved Kanata blade. With a flip, she twirled the sword to point at the bull. "Listen here, you overgrown farm animal. I've got a lot going on today, and I have no time for you."
The bull snorted and stomped its hooves, rearing up to charge the mortal woman.
"Have it your way," snapped Takano, and with a flourish she charged forward.
The Hell Bull thundered towards Takano as well, this time determined to crush this arrogant mortal under its hooves. This time it did not lower its head, not wanting Takano to repeat leaping upon it. Yet Takano was not charging head on. She was angling her charge to the bull's right side, and at the last moment when the beast would be upon her, she dodged to the right, dropping to her knees, and swung her blade, precisely aimed at the front right leg of rampaging bull.
The Kanata struck true.
While the blade did penetrate the creature's thick skin, it was enough to cause it to stumble and trip. With all its weight on the foot and with it's speed, the beast tumbled forward crashing to the ground. It rolled once, twice, and came to a stop on its side, injured leg twisted awkwardly. Takano circled back to stand over the bull as it snorted in pain.
Takano studied the bull for long seconds, her hand still tight around her blade's handle, judging where the flesh was the thinnest, where best to strike.
"Are you alright?" asked a soft voice behind her. She turned to see Keima standing there, his face pensive and worried. Takano looked down at the battered bull and then back to her husband.
"It didn't hurt me," she replied simply.
Keima's voice was gentle. "That's not what I'm concerned about, Takano."
She looked back down and the injured bull one last time and then sheathed her sword. "I'm fine."
Keima was not convinced, but he knew Takano, when she decided she was fine, arguing would only make it worse. Instead, he came to stand next to her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She patted his hand with her own and turned from the injured beast to the temple grounds and the stunned audience she had gained.
Keiichi and Megumi were on the porch of the wrecked house. Belldandy, her sisters, and Peorth had stopped dead in their tracks as they watched Takano take down the Hell Bull. Lind was closest, her axe ready, but no longer needed.
Seeing the Valkyrie carrying the axe, Takano called to her, "You, can you deal with this thing?"
Lind, still somewhat wary of these two new arrivals and their abilities, nodded. "Who are you?"
"Takano and Keima Morisato, Keiichi's and Megumi's parents."
Lind took this answer in stride. "You had excellent form," she complimented Takano.
"Thank you."
Lind's brow furrowed, "Keiichi never mentioned his mother was a warrior."
Takano glanced at where her son stood on the porch of the temple house. He was still gapping, open mouthed at her. Takano looked back to Lind. "Up until a minute ago, he did not know."
Not giving Lind a chance to respond, Takano headed towards the house, Keima following. But as he approached Lind, the older man abruptly veered around her, keeping his distance, and then scurrying past. Only adding to the Valkyrie's confusion.
As Takano came up to the porch, Keiichi came down the steps. Belldandy and the others gathered with him. There was a moment of awkward silence as Takano stood there wordlessly staring at the group.
Keiichi was about to say something when the words died in his throat. He saw the look in his mother's eyes. It was the very same look when he was seven years old and he had been racing through the house, play acting as his favorite anime character 'Rocket-Man' and had broken Takano's very old and very expensive vase. That he was in a lot of trouble.
He was trying to convey this warning to Belldandy in some way, but it came too late.
"Hello, Mrs Morisato," greeted Belldandy warmly. "I'm so gl-"
Takano cut her off like a whip crack. "How dare you! It is bad enough you have repeatedly put Keiichi's life in danger while you've lived here. But yesterday you dragged him along to whatever hell dimension you and your sisters ran off to. You could have gotten him killed! And now, not even twenty-four hours later you have this!" she gestured to the ruined section of the temple house.
Now she turned to Keiichi, her fury still burning. "And you! Do you think so little of me and Keima that will just run off and get married and not say anything to us? Do we deserve such disrespect?"
As much as Keiichi could hear the anger in his mother's words, he also felt the hurt. A measure of betrayal. Takano felt robbed of the chance to be part of his marriage ceremony to Belldandy last night. And she knew about the marriage from yesterday. The one that was in the sky with the goddesses. And that he had gone to Niflheim. And she had taken down a rampaging Hell Bull single handedly. A lot of questions were suddenly piling up in his head.
"Okaasan," Belldandy began humbly with her head bowed, "please let me ex-"
"None of that," snapped his mother, "I am Takano and will be addressed as such."
"Takano," pleaded Keiichi. He wanted to at least defend his wife from his mother's anger. "Belldandy did not make me go with her. I volunteered." He smiled at Belldandy and took her hand. "She really didn't want me to go, and I know she worried about me the entire time." She squeezed his hand back reassuringly.
Takano took in the sight of the happy couple and threw up her hands and let out a frustrated groan. "Just like your father."
Keima, who had been silent through Takano's tirade, tenderly placed a hand on his wife's arm and said mildly, "As I said, we should get their side of the story before we fly off the handle."
"Bah," grumbled Takano, "you always have to be the calm one." She crossed her arms and huffed.
Keima smiled, "Someone has to be."
Takano let out a tired breath and bit unconvincingly gave her son and her new daughter-in-law her approval. "Well, congratulations you two."
Among the many growing questions Keiichi had, he decided he needed to start somewhere. "How?" he asked. "How did you know about everything that happened yesterday?"
Takano gave him a faintly amused smile. "Little bird told me."
"Okay, okay," interrupted Megumi as she came off the porch, her hands waving in the air, "time out. Just time right out. I need a moment." She began walking around in a circle. "Keiichi and Belldandy are married. And goddesses are real. And people just pop out of Belldandy's back."
"Oh, that's my angel Holy Bell," explained Belldandy. She took a moment and with a bright smile called, "Holy Bell."
With a shimmer Holy Bell separated from Belldandy and manifested before her. Keima responded in amazement to the sight. Takano did not react at all.
Megumi stopped in her circling to stare at the angel. "Oh, good, an angel, cool." Her right eye was twitching again.
Her circling began again as well as her rambling. "And then there's Valkyries," she pointed at Lind who simply shrugged. "And bulls from hell, cause why not. And Takano can take one down."
"Merely a matter of using an opponent's strength against them," explained Takano.
"Right!" agreed Megumi with more eye twitching. Her circling was growing ever tighter. She was about to begin a new round when Keima came over and put his arm around his daughter.
"Just take a deep breath and let it out," soothed Keima.
Megumi did as her father told her, inhaling and exhaling, several times. Her eye stopped twitching and she managed a shaky smile. He returned her smile. "I know it's some crazy stuff. And feel like you have no idea what is going on. But you've got to keep your head. Don't let the madness throw you."
Takano still wore the mildly amused grin. "You threw up the first time you ran into the so called 'crazy stuff' as I recall."
It was Keima's turn to let out a deep sigh.
Megumi looked to her father and then back to where Keiichi and to the other goddesses stood. "You know all about this?"
"Some, " admitted Keima. "There is ... a lot. And to be honest I try to keep out of most of it." He looked at his wife with a tired smile. "Takano, I know you did not want to bring the children into your past, but..." and he made a helpless shrug towards Keiichi, Belldandy and the other goddesses, and wreckage of the house. "...it is unavoidable."
Takano's amusement faded. "I know," she relented.
Turning to Keiichi and the others, she saw she had drawn their full attention. "The little bird in question," she began, "is a multimillion-dollar military spy satellite." She pointed straight up in air and then around the temple grounds for effect. "It routinely monitors the goings on of this place."
Takano then pointed towards the direction where the gate to Niflheim was located. "Now the Research Department had suspected there was something over there. Even if they couldn't see it. Gravity anomaly or such. Then it turned visible and was a portal or a wormhole or..."
"Gate," supplied Urd. She was now watching Takano intently.
"Gate, yes, thank you," replied Takano as she started to slowly pace before the goddesses.
"And it was visible for hours, so the research department boys had a field day running all sorts of tests and measurements from the satellite. They are all incredibly happy, helped them prove some quatumy-stringy thing. Don't ask me the details, not my subject. But among all that, it of course, has a high-resolution camera." Spinning around she pointed at Belldandy, "So when you came out of it, photos of you my dear, in your wedding gown." Then she pointed to Keiichi, "And you my boy, in your fancy wedding outfit." She stood in front of them. "That's how I know."
Keiichi felt utterly flabbergasted, on the same level as meeting Belldandy's father yesterday. "The government knows?"
"Silly boy," chided Takano, "of course they do."
Spreading her arms wide, Takano turned in a slow circle, gesturing first at the temple grounds, then to Belldandy and the other goddesses, and then to the city beyond. "Who do you think keeps you and all your friends here and all your shenanigans hidden from the rest of populace?"
Walking up to Peorth and Lind and gave them a crafty grin, "Big hole in reality, open for hours. And nobody came by. No one walked past. No one to gawk at it. Or take photos. Or call a tv station to report it. Odd, huh? There was no reason there wouldn't be. Houses and apartments all around." Putting her fingers up, Takano made air quotes. "'Gas leak.' Had to evacuate the area, real fast."
She came back to Keiichi and the others. "In the many, many explosions and other destruction around here, have you once had the fire department, police, or any emergency services show up?"
"No," conceded Keiichi.
"Why do you think that is?"
"Because my big sister's magic keeps everyone from noticing," answered Skuld with a confident nod.
"Hmm, you sure about that?" questioned Takano as she looked the youngest Norn in the eye. "Because we sure noticed. Funny thing when you try to blanket cover up everything for long enough. Kinda starts falling apart after a while. Holes start showing through."
Skuld's confidence began to falter, her eyes widened a little.
"Oh, sure," continued Takano, "your magic covers up the big things. Like, oh I don't know, goddesses flying around. Or giant bulls showing up. Even the many explosions around here are hidden. Sight and sound. Very clever. But details get missed. Like say, the echo."
"Echo?" questioned Belldandy.
"Your magic makes people not see or hear the explosions or something to that effect. But it doesn't actually stop the vibration in the air from the explosion. They travel out, bounce off something, and then people do hear that as an echo. Explosions! But where? Happens enough times, questions get asked, calls get made, people start investigating. And not some silly university kids snooping around. Serious people who know what they are doing.
"Oh," replied Belldandy sheepishly.
"Oh, indeed," agreed Takano. "And that lovely magic of yours has failed from time to time, no?"
Belldandy could only nod.
"Or another problem, trash."
"Trash?" repeated Keiichi.
Takano sighed. "Yes, trash. You haven't had Nekomi Waste Disposal empty your garbage bins in well over a year. Cause you," Takano pointed to Urd," like to dispose of many types of very unusual chemical compounds. Including an acid that eats through nearly anything and possibly a living form of mercury."
Keiichi groaned and gave Urd an ugly look. "I told you not to throw your left-over potions in the trash bin."
Urd guiltily shrugged, "I cleaned it up."
"And you," Takano pointed to Skuld, "various pieces of technology scraps, a few of them defying the laws of known physics. And that self-replicating little bug bot. Eats anything and produces more of itself. Lovely thing to take care of."
"Oh, is that where it got to?", replied the youngest Norn, looking a little nervous. "I was wondering. Well...it self-limits after a hundred generations."
"Yes," agreed Takano dryly. "Exponential growth after only one hundred generations left all the little bug bots with just about half the mass of Mount Fuji."
"Skuld," admonished Belldandy. "You should take better care of your things."
"Am I in trouble? Am I going to jail? Is the government going try to dissect me?" stammered Skuld.
Takano looked mildly surprised at Skuld's worries. "No," she answered with a shake of her head. "After disabling them, we dumped them all into the Mariana Trench. It's fine."
Going back to her pacing, Takano continued, "So, we intercede. We cover things up. We keep things under control and quiet."
"You keep saying 'We' a lot," pointed out Urd. "Who exactly is 'We'? CIA? FBI? MI6? PSIA? ACME? CONTROL? FLAG? Earth Defense Force? Tell me if I'm getting close."
"Nope. None of the above," replied Takano. "The Agency."
"Oh, sounds so mysterious," scoffed Urd.
Takano leaned closer to Urd, her voice dropping lower towards a conspiratorial whisper, "Well their full name is The International Agency for Paranormal and Parapsychology Research and Containment and that doesn't really roll off the tongue." Then she gave Urd a cheeky grin, "And you're right, they love all the cloak and dagger stuff."
Megumi who had been listening off to the side while Takano, her brother, and the others had gone back and forth over one revelation after another, finally spoke up, "Takano when did you get involved with this...Agency? When did you learn all these things? Keima and you act like you've known about stuff like this all along. But when?"
Holding up her hands, almost pleading, Takano voice was apologetic, "Megumi, Keiichi, there is much of my life you do not know. I... I never wanted to hide it from you, but some of it is... not pleasant. Difficult for me to talk about. And some of it could even be dangerous for you to know." She stopped and looked at Belldandy, her sisters, Lind and Peorth. "Although at this point, I suppose you have more than adequate protection."
"Is it this Agency?" asked Keiichi.
"No, they're just part, and you need the full story," replied Takano. She paused and then let out a heavy sigh. "But let's not do this here. Out in the open. This will take a while for my story to be told." Looking over the destroyed section of the house, she wandered over to the demolished wall. "Okay, which one of you does it? You know magics it all back together? I've seen the pictures, but I want to see it up close."
"Belldandy, can do it," answered Keiichi as he joined his mother, and pointed to where the wall had been. "Watch." Belldandy was right behind him, and she held out her hand over the debris, closing her eyes, concentrating. A wind began swirling around her and Keiichi. Dust and wood and plaster began to rise up, reforming themselves into the wall. And within a matter of a minute, the section was repaired. Belldandy let out a satisfied breath and opened her eyes.
Takano examined the wall, knocking on it, and ran her hands along the edges. "Nice work," she complemented.
Belldandy was happy to receive the praise. "Thank you, Takano."
Megumi haven also watched Belldandy's magic, asked her brother, "Does this happen a lot?"
"More than I would like," admitted Keiichi.
While Takano, Megumi, and the others headed back into the house, Keima approached Keiichi and Belldandy. He smiled broadly at his son. "I am very happy for the two of you." Then turning to Belldandy, he bowed to her, "Welcome to the family, Belldandy."
"Keima," she replied happily. "Thank you so much."
"Is Takano really that upset, we didn't mean to insult her. Everything just happened so fast. And yesterday..." Keiichi voice trailed off, uncertain of how to explain the Judgement Gate, or Tyr, or everything else that happened.
Keima took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily. "She did not take out a weapon which she hasn't touched in nearly twenty-five years and while driving down here repeatedly mutter about 'that interdimensional hussy'" He stopped and turned to Belldandy and added, "my apologies. She is angry. But I know her, and she will also get over her anger. Just give her...some time."
"I understand," assured Belldandy.
Keima replaced his glasses and started toward the doorway to the house. "But first, you need to listen to Takano and about her life."
"Keima," asked Belldandy, "Takano once told me how you and she met was quiet the amazing tale."
The old man's smile turned to an outright laugh at the goddess's question. "It is indeed, and she will tell it."
As the followed, Keiichi leaned into Belldandy, "All I've ever heard about how they met, is Keima found and returned a locket to Takano. That's it."
"Well, then I would very much like to hear the rest of the story," replied Belldandy.
Inside, everyone was jockeying for space in the living room, spreading out into the hallway and into the kitchen. A few pulled pillows and blankets to make everyone comfortable. Keima sat next to Takano who had taken up a centered spot near the TV, while Keiichi and Belldandy sat down across from them. With Skuld sitting behind them. Megumi found herself sitting against the wall, uncertain over everything and wanting to sit away from the goddesses. Lind chose to stand near the doorway into the kitchen, while Peorth settled herself on the couch, and Urd leaned up against the wall next to Megumi.
"I think I could use a drink," said Megumi to herself.
"Gotcha covered," replied Urd as she pulled a flask from a pocket and handed it to Megumi. But Megumi recoiled away from the tan goddess and the offered bottle, clearly leery of the offer. Urd's face turned sad. "Don't do that. Don't treat me like something dangerous. That's not fair."
Megumi had no reply and Urd sighed, tucked the flask away, and leaned back against the wall.
Takano cleared her throat. As much as she had a larger audience, her focus was on her two children. "What do you two think you know of my life? Before meeting your father?"
Keiichi and Megumi looked at each other. Keiichi spoke first, "Not much, you said grew up in a remote village in the Kiso mountains. You never talk about your family. Your childhood. Nothing."
"I mean I guess there isn't much to talk about," added Megumi.
Takano nodded. "True. I mean what could I have been doing before I met Keima?"
"Well..umm...I mean you did marry dad pretty young...didn't you," answered Megumi.
Keima looked uncomfortable and Takano lightly shook her head, seemingly amused. "Always with the assumptions." Leaning forward and growing serious, she said, "My little girl, look at me. Really look at me. From the time you were a child to the woman you are now. Have I changed? At all? One wrinkle? One grey hair?"
"Well...I mean you look good for your age," stammered Megumi, not able to process what her mother was saying.
However, Keiichi had grown used to the unusual and things not being what they seemed. Still, he realized once he asked the question, the way he saw his mother would never be the same. So, it took him more than a few moments to gather his courage to ask.
"How old are you?"
Takano nodded once, satisfied with his question, and answered.
"I am one hundred and fifty-two years old."