Part 110  Snow Riders




     "Ha ha, Cevn-sensei!  You lose!" Megumi shouted triumphantly.  I
could feel the heat from her body as she held my head tight against
her ribcage.  Damn, that girl was strong!  She had wrestled me into
one of those awkward positions, her arm tightly crocked across the
back of my head and neck, pinning me with a vise-lock in a half-
crouching position against her side.  I felt my face tingling with a
rouge of embarrassment as I felt a soft bulbous pressure against my
forehead and realized that it was one of her breasts.
     In front of me was a drunken Sora Hasegawa.  A wobbly, silly-
grinned Sora Hasegawa.  I didn't remember her showing up to my class
drunk, ever.  But here she was, and she looked worse for wear.
Keiichi had often warned me about the combustible mixture of Sora and
sake.  Diminutive Sora had a diminutive tolerance for any type of
alcohol.  True to form, Sora was looking at me with her head cocked to
the side, her largish round glasses lopsided and low on her nose.
Reaching a decision, she snapped her head up straight.
     "I'm gonna..hic..prove to you onesh and for all tha I have
breashtsh, senshei!  Becaushe I kn..kn..know in your perverted mind
that..hiccup!..you've alwaysh wondered if I did," she shouted at the
top of her voice, as if she was hailing someone halfway across the
campus.  She weaving as she stood in place, merely a meter or so in
front of me.  The way Megumi had me positioned in a wrestler's side-
arm hold, I couldn't look away from her.  Sora's taunt only served to
escalate Megumi's crazy giggling; she tightened her armlock to ensure
that I couldn't turn my head away.  I tried to shift my weight against
her, struggling to get her off-balance...but she barely moved.  I knew
that, at 72 kilograms, I must have outweighed her by at least 20 kilos
or more.  I had always pegged Megumi as weighing around 55 kilos, but
obviously I had never asked her about her weight.  Some taboos should
never be tampered with.  Steadfast against my efforts to budge her,
Megumi might as well have been a sumo yokozuna; it felt like she
weighed 200 kilos.
     I couldn't shunt her a single centimeter in any direction.
     Sora started lifting her white blouse, not even trying to undress
in some semblance of a sexy striptease.  Which was good, as far as I
was concerned...
     Instinctively, I clenched my jaw and my eyes shut, hearing the
smooth-breeze sound of a blouse being taken off.  Megumi was still
laughing; which only seemed to tighten her grip around my head in
pulses.  How did she get so strong all of a sudden?

     *Crack!!!*

     I felt a searing pain across my ass.  Gasping with surprise and
pain, I opened my eyes in reaction, and closed them just as quickly,
not wanting to see the afterimage of a half-dressed Sora in my
'interior eyes'.  Fortunately, I was able to shut my eyes quick enough
to keep from seeing anything.
     Sora had accused me of being a perv, and here I was trying to
keep a grip on myself.  Besides, she was Aoshima's girlfriend.  What
had gotten into her, beside a bottle or two of sake?
     Where was Aoshima when I needed him the most?
     "Ho ho ho ho!" one of those bone-shivering wicked Japanese-girl
type laughs echoed in my ears.  It might as well be Kodachi from Ranma
1/2, or Kirabayashi-sempai from RealBout Samurai Girl.  Dominatrix to
the max, with more than a subtle shading of menace and taunt mixed
in...
     But I was already certain who the voice belonged to.
     She should have been one of my star students, but instead she was
hitting me in the butt with something that snapped through the air.  A
whip, a lash, a branch...I didn't care.  All I sensed was a stinging
sensation, as if a dozen bees suddenly decided to sting me in the
ass...
     What the fuck?!
     "I'm going to make you worship me, Cevn-sensei!  I am your Queen,
and you are going to grovel underneath my high-heeled spikes!  Bwah ha
ah ha!  You're never going to escape from Mistress Sayoko!  You've
caught my attention, and just like a black widow, I'm going to poison
you!  And when I'm done with you, you're going to crawl into a hole
for a month, like the worm you are..." she shouted in a hooting,
shrill voice.
     Too much information.
     Sayoko was clean from drugs, last I remembered.  And she wasn't
in that newcomer phase any more, so there wasn't that whole
adrenaline-junky trip going on with her.  Yet, here she was, a self-
proclaimed "Mistress Sayoko".  I felt my knees shudder as I realized
that I'd be dead meat if her boyfriend, Tamiya, showed up.
Fortunately, my back was to her...so I couldn't see what she was
wearing.  I tried to imagine shiny black leather and fishnet, but
failed to keep my imagination from dwelling on her description of her
shoes.
     What the hell's the matter with me?
     Normally, I could shift my attention away when it was drifting
into the sordid zone.  And I was *still* scared of sexual situations
with women, or anything approaching them.  Not frightened to death
like before, but noticeably uneasy due to the pervasive sense of
threat such situations brought on.  Two years ago, I would have had a
total emotional meltdown if this would have happened.  But now, I was
just freaked out.
     Urd.
     It must have been Urd!  This whole thing reeked of one of her
'interferences'.
     Unfortunately, my backside faced Sayoko...

     *Snapck!!!*

     Another searing lash.  Sayoko wasn't holding back, she was
actually whipping me *hard* across the buttocks!  How did I get into
this compromising position, in my own faculty office?
     "Sempai!  Look at my breashts!  They're righ here, righ in fron
of your noshe!" I heard Sora demand in a slurred, coquettish voice.
She was so intoxicated that she had forgotten that I was her college
professor.  Instead, she was calling me with the ubiquitous 'sempai'
word...which could mean a thousand things...
     I was scared to death that she might press herself against my
face!
     "Hee hee hee hee!  Let's wrestle some more, teach!!!" Megumi
laughed hungrily, her choke-hold arm around my neck literally doing
just that; choking me.  What the hell was she trying to do, kill me?
My breath was cut off as my Adam's apple felt like it was being yanked
into the back of my skull.
     "Yes!  Gaze upon her breasts, slave!" Sayoko shouted, accenting
her command with two lashes of her whip.  "And then when she's done
playing with you, you can lick the laces of my corset before I take
you on a journey into the world of exquisite agony!  Ho ho ho ho!"
     Drilled with sharp needles of whip-lashed pain, hazy with
asphyxiation, my eyes blinked open of their own accord...

     "Waaaaaaahhhhhh!"

     I was in my room.
     It was just a nightmare.  One of those crazy dreams that can jerk
a person into wakefulness with their eyes blinking *fast*...
     Or was it?
     I could hear the sound of feminine giggling down towards the
entryway of the hallway.
     "URD, GODDAMMIT!!!" I shouted as I stormed out of my room,
flinging the shoji door open so hard it nearly snapped.
     I get to sleep in one morning of the week, and she had just
totally messed it up!

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     I groaned with a sigh, watching the snow flurries just outside
the veranda.  After being thoroughly scolded by both Skuld and
Urd...Urd resolutely claiming that she did nothing to influence my
dreams last night...I pulled on a parka, stuffed the hood over my head
and sat myself down on the wooden veranda near the front door.
     A few minutes later, Keiichi joined me.
     Two glumps in a field of white.
     I felt defeated both ways.  Urd was always getting the best of
me, no matter what I did to defend myself.  And whenever I tried to
impress her, I ended up making a fool of myself.  I knew that I was
totally in love with her, but I was beginning to lose track of *why*
it mattered so much.  I felt like I was banging my head against an
invisible wall.
     At one time, Urd had meant the world to me.  Not figuratively,
because I never got that obsessed over her.  But spiritually...where
it counts...she was able to brighten my days just a little bit.  All
she had to do was offer me a special smile.  But some days, she was
the only person who could give me warmth; especially during those days
where the chill of the routine gripped me.  As a teenager, I vowed to
never get caught up in the day-to-day rhythm of life; I viewed any
full-time job or schoolwork as a means of freezing one's self in
place.  Trapped in ice.
     Now, I was freed in snowfall.
     True, the snow had always excited my daydreams; I seemed to be
replacing the grayness outside with indulgent colorful flights of
fancy.  The snow was bright in the mid-morning sun, but it's
brightness only reminded me of the sheen, the ice-light of Urd's hair.
The heavy, silken strands of silver-white hair that mysteriously faded
into light lilac-purple two third of the way down her back.  Urd was a
free-spirit, but fate had blended our hearts together, knitting our
disbelief into shared affection.  I remembered the treasures of
admiration I had for her, a dawning of sentiment that seemed to have
been defrauded by my earlier life as a drug addict.  I wanted to make
her mine, but with a jealous care, so that I could gather her
innermost thoughts and guard them with my life...
     Silence could be the repose of serenity...or the crushing
sentinel of loneliness.
     "Keiichi, I'm completely at a loss here.  I don't know what got
into me, but being around Urd is really getting difficult.  I'm
definitely lacking in the 'clue what to do' dept.  You have any
suggestions?" I asked.
     "Urd's...Urd," Keiichi answered me.  "It's hard enough figuring
out mortal women; but Urd and Skuld are Goddesses, which makes the
unfathomable female mind even more unfathomable.  I would suggest that
you stop trying to analyze her behavior.  And yours."
     "But what do I do then?  I don't exactly feel like I belong here
any more.  I absolutely pissed off Urd this morning by accusing her of
invading my sleep with nightmares, just because I overheard her and
Skuld giggling.  It turned out they were laughing about something
Tomohisa had said when he visited us during New Year's break..."
     "What kind of nightmares?"
     "The Urd kind," I said, feeling sleepy.
     "You mean the sexy, wet-dream-run-amok, scary *inappropriate*
kind," he answered with a chuckle.
     "Yep!" I shot back.  He had definitely hit that one on the head.
Now, I was beginning to doubt Urd's claims of innocence.
     "Urd's been acting so weird since her sister's been put away in
that pool of ice.  I imagine that she's just stressing it," he noted.
     "Actually, *I'm* stressing it much worse.  I feel like I'm
walking on eggshells at times when I'm here at the temple.  Teaching
at N.I.T. isn't exactly a cakewalk, either.  When I come home, I need
to unwind a bit.  But relaxation seems to be a fleeting luxury around
here."
     "Heh heh.  Cevn, I've lived with the three of them for a good
three years before you arrived on the scene," Keiichi noted.  "So I
know all about 'household' stress.  I almost miss Belldandy...she
seemed to be able to take the edge off of Urd and Skuld.  Quite easily
most of the time.  In fact, Belldandy was something like a referee
between the two.  And for a while, she was more powerful than either
of them, which kept their little squabbles at bay for the most part.
Especially Urd's tendency to play pranks.  But now that Belldandy's
gone...I find myself feeling really sad.  I really miss her..."
     "Keiichi?  Don't you remember anything?  Anything about Urd and I
being in love?"
     "Nah!" he answered too quickly.  "Urd's never been in love as
long as I've known her...except with herself.  She likes you...as a
friend...otherwise, she wouldn't get so upset.  And she doesn't play
pranks on people she doesn't care about.  I used to think she *hated*
me, because she always kept pestering me to try and get together with
Belldandy, for some whimsical reason or another.  And when she didn't
succeed in getting her way, she'd get all mad at me.  Or she'd try and
seduce me, out of spite.  A few of those times turned out quite
disastrous, as I recall.  But Urd has her good side too.  She can have
these bouts of kindness sometimes, like when I went and got Bell a
ring during...the...Christmas..."
     Keiichi's voice suddenly trailed off, as if he had held a thought
in his mind and then it had flowed out through his forgetfulness, like
water being strained through a mesh.  He returned his attention to the
grounds, staring silently at the snowfall decorating the temple's
garage.  But my mind was racing with excitement, because he had half-
remembered an event that was important in his romantic life with
Belldandy!
     If Belldandy was only a friend, as Keiichi had claimed, then he
wouldn't have borne the trials he undertaken in order to buy her an
inexpensive ring for a present.  A ring purchased by the commodity of
the fullness of his caring nature, a product of what was clearly his
blossoming love for her.  He was remembering!  Somehow, he was
recalling an event which *proved* that he had been in love with
Belldandy!
     "Keiichi!" I interrupted urgently.  "I remember what you're
talking about!  During the last couple weeks of the Fall term, you
worked overtime at a variety of temp agency jobs along with Tamiya and
Ootaki.  On top of studying for finals, you wanted to save up money to
buy something!  And then when you collapsed from exhaustion, Urd
healed you with some mystic incense she put in your room."
     "How do you know all that?!" Keiichi blurted out warily.
     "Everybody in the house knows that," I quickly answered.  "But do
you remember *why* you worked so hard, Keiichi?  What was so important
that you worked yourself until you were punch-drunk wore out?
Remember what you gave Belldandy that Christmas?"
     "She's not here, so I can't ask her what it was.  Who could
possibly remember all the presents they gave away for Christmas a year
ago, let alone five years ago," he answered, shrugging his shoulders.
     "Dammit!" I swore loudly.
     "Hey, what'd I say?" Keiichi asked, not understanding why I was
frustrated.
     It was another near miss.  Obviously, Keiichi didn't remember
about the ring at all!  The 'old' Keiichi...the one who was in love
with Belldandy, had told me on several occasions that the ring he gave
her that Christmas was one of the most important things he had ever
done.  And Belldandy had often told him how much she cherished that
ring, since it was Keiichi's first real gift to her.  Once again, I
had the strong sense that his memories seemed tied up in Belldandy's
mind somehow.  Whenever we managed to corner him on one of his 'half-
remembered' events, he always protested with a "Belldandy isn't here
to confirm what you guys are saying", or words to that effect.  His
memories seemed just below the surface, just far enough to be
invisible to him.  A moment ago, he was remembering everything about
the first Christmas season with Belldandy...but then his memory seemed
to dissipate like smoke clouds against a fan.
     "Lunch's ready!" Urd announced through the front door.
     "Who's cooking tonight?" Keiichi asked.
     "Skuld," she answered.  "Although I could say that one of the two
of you doesn't deserve lunch!"
     "Bleech!" Keiichi exclaimed, intentionally audibly.
     "Make that *two* of you that don't deserve lunch!" Urd scowled,
shutting the front door.
     "Uh-oh!" Keiichi said, looking at me with a worried expression.
We alternated the cooking chores: Keiichi and I one day; Urd and Skuld
the next.  Since Skuld was cooking dinner, it meant that Urd had made
lunch.  Keiichi had slyly asked who was making dinner, in order to
find out who had made lunch.  And he had just insulted the lunch
chef...
     I read his mind; in a flurry, we both sprang to our feet and
tried the front door.
     Stuck.
     Urd must have been really pissed off, because she had locked us
out of the house!
     I slumped back down on the cold floor of the veranda, which only
caused my stomach to growl.  I knew that Urd didn't care if it was
bitter-crisp cold and snowy outside at all.  She was fully into Divine
Witch-Bitch mode, meaning that she was raw-nerved in her resentment
towards me.  Keiichi's little comment about her cooking had evidently
pushed her over the edge.
     What a unfair trade!  Being stuck out in the cold versus a single
expression of distaste.  Once again, I felt like I was getting the
short end of the stick.
     "Might as well surrender," I joked with Keiichi.  "We'll probably
be out here all afternoon."
     "Yeah," he agreed, sitting down on the wooden flooring of the
veranda a couple meters away from me.  "I doubt that Skuld will let us
miss out on dinner..."
     "For God's sake, don't let either of us make a bad remark about
her cooking!" I said, semi-jesting, semi-serious.
     "Hey!  You know what?  We should head over to the garage.  I've
got a space heater there...and maybe a couple sandwiches stashed away
in the mini-fridge.  They're old, but at least it's something..."
Keiichi offered.
     "Cool!  You're a life-saver, dude!" I exclaimed happily.  Eating
a not-so-fresh, probably freezer-burned, sandwich was almost an
absolute victory in my mind.  At least Urd's impulsivity wasn't going
to make us go hungry all afternoon!
     "Hurrah for the mortals!" I thought as we tramped through the
crisp drifts of snow towards the garage.  Once inside, Keiichi fired
up the small space heater...and within a few minutes, it was warm
enough for me to take off my gloves.  Trying to eat a microwaved
sandwich with thick winter gloves intended for January's worst wasn't
my idea of fun.
     "Why does everyone keep thinking that I'm supposed to be in love
with Belldandy?" Keiichi asked me, after he pulled two sandwiches out
of the nuker.  "My sister keeps pecking at me about it.  Sayoko is all
moody whenever I'm around her.  You keep trying to draw something out
of me that simply isn't there..."
     "Look, Keiichi...I'm sorry about that.  At least partly sorry.
You have to understand that there seems to be this weirdness in our
minds, because we *remember* you being in love with her.  I can
picture you and her being an item from the moment I arrived in Japan.
In fact, if you two hadn't gotten together, I wouldn't even be here.
You and Belldandy became a couple, then Urd and Skuld came to the
Earthrealm because of that.  Then Urd got dispatched to grant my wish,
and she brought me here.  Remember?  I know that somewhere inside of
your heart, you love Belldandy.  It was more than just a wish.  You
two were a *couple*...lovers, friends, confidants...the whole works!
I can see it as clearly as yesterday; and so can every one else.  Just
like I can clearly picture another couple being in love..."
     "Is that why you keep fawning over Urd?" he asked.

     Ulp!

     I was so caught off guard by his random remark, I almost dropped
my sandwich and the folded 'napkin' of oil wipes that it was sitting
on.  Up to this point, my flights of attentiveness towards Urd had
been viewed any which way but true by those around me.  Urd, of
course, had been steadily irritated by my attentions.  Skuld seemed to
be alternately amused and irritated by them; amused when it
embarrassed Urd, irritated when I seemed to be gaining ground on Urd's
standoffishness.  Both Megumi and Sayoko interpreted my actions as
being awkward and unenlightened.  Keiichi thought I was nuts, trying
to be coy around someone as ballistic as Urd.
     But now, he was guessing the truth of the matter.
     "You talk about me being in love with Belldandy...but it's
because *you're* the one in love!  You're projecting your own little
head-games about Urd onto me, because she won't have anything to do
with you," Keiichi stated, putting down his sandwich.  I couldn't tell
if he was angry at me, because he was wearing one of those enigmatic
'Japanese smiles' while he was speaking.
     "Look, I know that my feelings about Urd are not an accident.
And it frustrates me to no end that she cannot return them.  What am I
supposed to do?  Use a 'magic emotional eraser' to expediently conceal
how I feel?  And the cursed, rotten irony of all this is that while
you've completely forgotten that you loved Belldandy, the person I
love will never remember her love for me.  It's almost far more than
anyone's fair share of adversity to bear!  But the main difference is
that my solitude is built of regret, while yours is built of
ignorance," I answered.
     "So you're calling me ignorant?" Keiichi asked testily.
     "No, not the way you're taking it.  I'm just saying that you've
*forgotten* about Belldandy; so the 'ignorance' is the result of an
irrecoverable quondam...not the result of stupidity or baseness."
     "Quondam?"
     "Yes, it's a Latin term meaning 'that which was'.  That which
was...was that you and Belldandy were engaged to be married later this
year.  Something happened in the interim, and then Belldandy was
imprisoned in the frozen koi pond, and you forgot about how you felt
towards her."
     "I've been hearing that for the last couple months!" Keiichi
protested, his voice acrid with frustration.  "Tell me something
different, something that makes sense!"
     "I can't.  Nobody can!" I answered.
     "Just like nobody can make Urd remember how she felt about you,"
Keiichi stated.
     "Hmmn!"
     My agreement was too ready, too quick to slip off the tongue.  It
was almost embarrassing the way Keiichi and I were arguing, our
sandwiches forgotten.  This was getting to be an old row between us.
Not that we were fighting, but we were definitely coming from
different hemispheres of awareness and memory.
     Both of us possessed inspirations so big that our heads could
barely hold them, but events always seemed to flay our ambition,
preventing us from touching our dreams.  I remembered all the
struggles along the way, especially on Keiichi's part.  The omiai with
Tyyr.  The fights with Skuld.  Having to ward off a jealous Peorth.
Urd's blundering attempts at 'assistance'.
     Urd...
     Urd had interfered in my life to the max.  Her impersonation of
my therapist had caused me to hate her guts, but in Love's vocabulary,
my disgust was miraculously rendered into affection once we gainsayed
the feelings nestled in our hearts.
     And now, Keiichi couldn't remember any of it.  Belldandy
represented his highest aspiration; lacking this, he seemed like a
mere shell of himself.
     "Hey, you need a hobby!" Keiichi announced.
     "I already have a bunch of hobbies.  Remember that room filled
with synthesizers and keyboards next to my bedroom?"
     "I mean something different!  Something fun!" Keiichi insisted.
     "Making music is fun..."
     "But it's only an outlet for your creativity.  You need an outlet
for your *adrenaline*!" he argued.  "Your music is really cool, and
everyone likes it, even if it's a bit weird.  It certainly isn't pop
music!  But does it give you a rush?"
     "I'm not exactly in the mood for a 'rush' right now!"
     "That's the point!" he declared smugly.  I wondered what I had
just said; obviously I had played right into his plan in some way...
     "You've been going off on Urd because you've got a bunch of pent-
up energy.  It's even gotten to the point where you're getting snappy.
I know you, Cevn...you usually keep a pretty level profile.  Like me,
it takes a lot to ruffle you.  But do you ever indulge your radical
streak?  Let go of your mind...and simply be?"
     "You're confusing me, Keiichi!"
     "Let's go for a ride!" he said, slapping the side of one of the
several motorcycles in the garage.
     "Are you crazy?!  It's *January* outside!" I blurted out.
"Besides, I don't know how to ride one of those things..."
     "They're motorbikes!" Keiichi said with a grimace.
     "So, your idea to deal with this situation with me and Urd, you
and Belldandy...is to take one of these bad boys out on the road,
braving snow in the air and ice on the roads?"
     "I'll teach you!" he promised.  A little too readily.
     "Have you been sniffing glue or something?" I joked.  "I can't
ride anything bigger that one of those ratata mopeds you see on the
N.I.T. campus.  Which you *don't* see on the campus right now, because
sane people take the bus to school in winter instead of riding
mopeds..."
     "I know just the place!  Shopping mall!" he said, ignoring my
harps of reason.  "Girls like to go to malls for shopping...but malls
have another important, vital function in society for us guys."
     "Which is?"
     "Covered parking lots!  As in dry, heated concrete type surfaces
where one can learn to ride a motorbike in relative safety, even in
the middle of winter," he explained, folding his arms across his chest
and looking at me with a triumphant expression.
     Only Keiichi could come up with an explanation like that and make
it stick.  Therefore, against my better judgment, I agreed to his
suggestion.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "Now look what you've done, Big Sister!  You locked those two
idiots out of the house...and now they're going for a ride on
Keiichi's motorcycle!" Skuld observed as she heard the declining buzz
of a motorcycle pulling out of the driveway.
     "Who cares?" Urd snapped back.
     "They're mortals...and this isn't exactly the middle of summer.
This isn't like that time you went on a spin on Keiichi's bike wearing
nothing more than a floral print cheongsam!"
     At least I was wearing panties then!" Urd said defensively.
     "Is that all you care about?  If you would have gotten in a wreck
that time, you wouldn't have been hurt one bit.  But if they get in a
wreck, they could really get messed up!  One of us has to go, so we
can keep an eye on them!" Skuld demanded.  "What if they get in an
accident?"  Who's going to take care to keep that from happening..."
     "You go!  I don't want to talk to either of them for the rest of
the day!  They insulted me once again!"
     "Big Sister Urd, I'm supposed to cook dinner tonight.  So you
should be the one to go!" Skuld insisted.
     "I can't...and I won't!" Urd offered, her insistent manner
indicating to Skuld that she was not going to back down.  Skuld
thought quickly...
     "Okay, I'll go on one condition!  *You* take over my dinner
chores, and you cook exactly what I was planning to cook for dinner.
Okay?"
     "Yeah, whatever!" Urd agreed flippantly.
     "Promise?"
     "Yah, yah...I promise!"
     "Alright.  I'll go.  Here's the list of ingredients!" Skuld said,
handing a list to Urd and then shifting into stealth form.  A second
later, she was gone...
     Urd absentmindedly held the list, her attention focused on why
Skuld was so hasty to go check up on Keiichi and Cevn.  Knowing her
little sister, Urd sensed all the warning signals...the alarms going
off in her head that would lead her to suspect that Skuld was trying
to pull one over on her.  But all they did was switch who was going to
cook dinner tonight.
     Then Urd remembered the smirk on Skuld's face right before she
turned herself invisible.
     With a deep exhalation, Urd read the meal plan for dinner that
Skuld had handed her.
     "WHAT!  Kiratampo!?  Th..that's *difficult*!  Pounded ricecakes
on cedarwood sticks, lightly browned over a fire, and then added to a
nage hotpot with chicken, onions, taro, burdock root and all sorts of
spices...and sake?  And beef tripe champon noodles for the main dish?
And what's this?  Cheese croquettes?  And for desert...vanilla-mint
nama-gashi sweetcakes with coconut tapioca as a side snack?!  What was
she thinking?!  This ain't one of her meal plans!  This is like one of
those full-on New Year's Day feasts...and New Year's was three weeks
ago!"
     Urd lit the tip of one of her fingers on fire and held it next to
the offending paper.
     "THAT BRAT!!!  I'm gonna wring her ears out when she gets
bake...er, back!" Urd screamed angrily in the direction of the
kitchen.  She realized that she couldn't burn the paper, because she
had promised to make *exactly* what Skuld had been planning to cook.
Of course, Urd knew that Skuld wasn't planning anything so complex as
this!  Her little sister couldn't even boil hotdogs right!  This was
obviously the petulant teenager's idea of a revenge scheme for some
perceived slight.  Naturally, Urd was bound by her word; the last
thing she wanted earn some sanction from the Lord because she had
broken a promise with her sister.  Resigned to such baneful
circumstances, she re-read the list of ingredients and the recipe,
fuming with resentment.  Then Urd noticed something...
     "Sake?  Sake!!!  That shouldn't be here...Cevn doesn't drink!
Hmmm...  What to do, what to do?  Should I add it to the nage, or
not?" she asked aloud, resting a finger on her chin.
     "Well, I probably shouldn't.  Which means..heh hee!..that I'll
just have to drink it, so it won't go to waste!"

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     The roads were well-plowed, unlike the winter right after
SuperTyphoon Akira when all the snowplows had been smashed up by the
storm.  I was impressed with Keiichi's experience; this trip into the
winter wasn't just some random bit of craziness on his part.  He
clearly had done this before.  The two of us rode on his large
Rennesport BMW, sans side-car, several blocks until we found a
snowplow...and then we simply followed it until it passed by one of
the major malls.  No doubt, Keiichi wasn't the type to keep put during
the winter months.  I was surprised he didn't have a snowmobile in the
garage, so he could get his 'racing jive' during winter.  Racing and
speed sports was in his blood, and this trip reminded me of how hard-
core he and his Unified Club teammates were when it came to
performance riding...
     "Here we are!" he shouted through his helmet as we pulled into
the Anagawa Clock Mall.  I recognized the place because one of Skuld's
pet ice cream shoppes was located here, right next to a pastry store
that sold specialty Akita Prefecture cakes.  A double-slam for Skuld,
who was impervious to sugar overloads unlike the rest of the human
mortal race.
     After I got off the bike from the rearmost part of the seat,
Keiichi hopped off the BMW and kick-pedaled the stand down to park the
bike.  Patting on the seat, he said "Now it's your turn!"
     The last time someone had tried to teach me to ride a motorcycle,
it was a 250cc bike...and I had promptly rode it into a telephone pole
because I mixed up the brake grip with the accelerator grip-throttle.
I hoped that, since this motorbike was British, that the speed grip
and the brakes would be reversed, so I wouldn't wreck Keiichi's prize.
     I slowly climbed over the seat and rested my legs around the
bike.  It was *big*, larger than I expected.  Nothing like Megumi's
moped.  Without even moving, I could feel the power underneath me.
Keiichi explained the controls to me twice; I sensed that he was a bit
worried that I might get mixed up.
     "So why are you doing this?" I asked him.  "I mean,
truthfully..."
     "Because I like to teach people how to ride bikes.  And because
I'm sick of you getting all mopey around Urd.  And maybe, this will
build some trust between us that's been lost, since you claim that I'm
some kind of different person because I'm not in love with Belldandy."
     At least he was being truthful.
     "So why are *you* doing this?" he asked back.
     "Because I wanna push the envelope.  You know, something like
'I'd rather do what no one has done, rather than not do what everyone
is doing...'"
     "That's so bullshitty!" he exclaimed with a grin.  "Where'd you
get that crazy idea?"
     "Because I'm an American?" I said, laughing.  The old
tongue...joke around to cover up my nervousness.
     "You ever thought about getting a Japanese citizenship?" Keiichi
asked, suddenly serious.
     "Of course I have.  But then I'd have to marry someone who is
Japanese, and..." I started to answer, until the words dipped out of
me.  The reality slammed me in the face; I doubted if I could marry
anyone but Urd...
     "Oops...ha ha!  Wrong question!" Keiichi stammered
apologetically, as we both rubbed the back of our heads in the midst
of the awkward moment.
     A million airplanes droning on the roof.
     I nodded to him, and gave him the pilot's "thumbs-up"...and then
kickstarted his BMW.  The bike thundered to life underneath me; the
engine rumbling a deep basso caterwaul of puffet-sounds.  The well-
tuned bike didn't emit the trademark bluish-cloud of oil-smoke, thanks
to Keiichi's loving devotion and frequent tune-ups.  I tested the
brake handles, and then lightly turned the accelerator grip.  This
beast was much more powerful than I...there would be no 'foot braking'
if it got away from me.
     Okay.
     I turned the accelerator grip just a notch, and then the bike
picked up speed.  The fluidity of motion took over, and I felt a bit
of confidence as Keiichi's BMW moved into glide.  Already, I was going
15 kph...and the ride was silk-smooth.  I had to be careful, because
this was a shopping mall in mid-afternoon on a Sunday.  We were on the
third floor of the four-floor parking lot next to the mall, which
meant that there wasn't too many cars.  Most of them were clustered
around the elevators anyway, which meant that the parking lot had a
couple stretches of ample space.  Still, I cautioned myself that I
should be very alert, just in case someone starts driving their car
outside of the painted traffic lanes.
     Just like I was doing.
     I sped up to the ramp and then slowed the bike down to a near-
halt.  The slower I took it, the more I had to exert my balance.
Keiichi's motorcycle was of a vintage; a product of the post-WW II
boom in mid-50s Great Britain, back when vehicles were made of real
metal, rather than polymer designer-frames like today's sports bikes.
It was solid...and it was heavy.
     Turning slowly in a semi-arc...
     "Put your foot down!" Keiichi shouted urgently.  "You're turning
too narrowly!"
     I heeded his advice, right before I felt the bike tipping to the
side.  I didn't have an idea what constituted a 'tight curve' on a
large motorbike such as this.  It was designed for a side-car
option...so it wasn't exactly as maneuverable as I had assumed.  I
briefly flared a resentment; why didn't Keiichi take one of the
smaller bikes for my first lesson?
     Duh!  The two of us wouldn't fit on his BMX, or either of the
other two motorbikes!  And since Belldandy wasn't here to ride with
him, he had detached the side car.
     "Good thing you know what you're doing!" I shouted as I pulled
out of the turn.  Keiichi's quick observation had saved me from
canning his bike.  If I could almost wipe-out at a mere 20 kph, how
the hell could I deal with normal street-traffic speeds, like 50-60
kph?  My respect for Keiichi jumped a quantum leap when I realized
that he routine took these motorbikes over 120 kph on the race track.
And it wasn't a straight shot, like the parking lot!
     I pulled up next to him, and he thumped me on the helmet and
chided me for "almost getting in a wreck!".  Totally embarrassing.
But then he flicked the faceshield of my helmet down and challenged me
to take the next trip around the parking lot a little faster.
     "What are you trying to do, get me ready for the spring races?!"
I shouted through the helmet.
     "Don't be a chicken, Cevn!  Brace up!  You're doing okay!"
     That was a relief.  The Master had just told me that my first
foray around the lot was acceptable, even though I had almost dumped
his bike on the first turn!  Keiichi must have nerves of steel...and a
patience to match, if he was actually encouraging me to go a little
faster on the next go-round.
     Hmm, I did 20 kph last time.  Maybe I should shoot for 25?
     I did two laps around the perimeter of the parking lot, and then
Keiichi waved me over...
     "You're being too cautious!" he observed.  "Cautiousness is okay
when you're taking a final exam, but when you're just starting to
learn how to ride a motorbike, it can cause more problems than good.
Remember driver's ed?"
     "Keiichi, you forget that I was living on the streets shooting
heroin when most kids my age were in a high school taking driver's ed.
I never took it!" I answered.
     "And I'm letting you ride my BMW!?" he said in mock-dismay.
     "I'll get off it if you want me to," I suggested with a modest
amount of sincerity.  True, the first lap was like being hooked by
stress, but the second lap wasn't as bad.  And the third lap was kinda
fun.
     "No, you're doing fine!  I want you to try and take it to 35 on
the straight lanes this time, just to see if you can handle it,"
Keiichi instructed me.
     "Yo kai!" I replied, trying not to sound too worried.  After all,
I was getting a personal lesson on riding a motorbike by a guy who won
the Le Mans last year.  What could possibly go wrong?  On his part,
not a single thing in the world.  On my part, any one of a million
things...
     I rode slowly into the straight lane that bisected the parking
lot, and then I turned the accelerator grip a little further this
time.  My eyes seemed to dance their attention between the pavement
and the speedometer as I took it past 35...
     I felt an enthusiasm break the vital chain of my composure, as
fear was replaced by thrill.  As I reached the end of the parking lot,
I pulled to a halt and thumped both my feet down to steady the
motorcycle.  I had only gone a very short distance, but I had gone
*fast*.  Maybe not at all fast in terms of how Keiichi would see it;
but to me, I felt like I had just broke the sound barrier!
     "WAY COOL!" I shouted to the chill January air.
     Keiichi clapped his hand gleefully.  "You see?!  You're getting
it!  Word up an' all that!  This is what I'm taking about when I say
*adrenaline*, man!  Isn't it fun?"
     I turned the bike around in a wide semi-circle and rode it up to
where he was standing.  Mentally, I was already speeding down the
freeway on Keiichi's bike, the wind ruffling my long hair, a bandana
across my forehead...
     "Hey!  Quit daydreaming!" he confronted me, alert to the fact
that my mind was racing.  I looked at him questioningly, and then
recognized that he probably could see right through me at the moment.
Keiichi had the need for speed; it wouldn't be too remarkable if he
sensed the 'rush' gripping another person.  Especially a beginner like
myself.
     "Let's find a *bigger* parking lot!" I shouted, taking off my
helmet.
     Keiichi grinned like a co-conspirator...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Skuld was sitting in the Hakibars Ice Cream Shoppe, eagerly
plundering a banana split showered with fudge and white chocolate
shavings.
     Earlier, she had followed Keiichi and Cevn to the mall, remaining
incognito.  She was curious as to why they were coming *here*...which
just happened to be the place where one of her fave ice cream shoppes
was located.  They obviously weren't visiting the mall for the food;
so it soon became clear to Skuld that she had nothing to worry about.
It wasn't like they were going to go all the way across town, just to
brave the frosty weather.  To her surprise, they didn't go into the
mall at all.  Wondering why they had come to the Clock Mall in the
first place, she eavesdropped on their conversation...and overheard
Keiichi coaching Cevn about motorcycle riding techniques.
     "So that's why they left!" she thought to herself.  "This is
critically bad!"
     Now she had something to really worry about.  Cevn was quite open
with the fact that he had 'bad vehicle karma', and she knew about his
various mishaps with trying to learn how to ride a motorbike.  The guy
was practically allergic to cars, bikes, bicycles!  It went hand-in-
hand with the fact that he didn't know squat about engine mechanics...
     Then, Keiichi had let Cevn ride his BMW solo...and Skuld realized
that she had *a lot* to worry about.
     So she hovered close to him and Keiichi while he tried out his
hand at trying to ride the BMW down a short length of the parking lot.
Skuld almost panicked when he nearly dropped Keiichi's bike during his
first practice lap.  But after a few laps, he seemed to gain some
confidence.  She could sense that he was getting the hang of it.
     And then he started getting cocky.
     "Wheee hee hee!" Skuld thought, humored by his bravado.  He was
only going 35 kilos an hour, and he was acting like he had broken some
kind of speed record!  She had to bite her invisible lip to keep from
breaking into giggles as Cevn was all "let's go faster, Keiichi!"
after that.  Twenty minutes earlier, he was scared to death...now, he
was overconfident.
     Typical mortal.
     But she didn't want to get caught out loud laughing at his show
of enthusiasm.  Keiichi seemed to be sincere in his effort to teach
Cevn how to ride...if she made of fun of his student, he'd probably be
upset with her.  As for Cevn, having his best performance laughed at
wouldn't do him any good.  His spirits were already into the sink
because of this stupid infatuation with her older sister.  Of course,
it had made for some funny moments...
     But getting yelled at by him this morning because he suspected
Urd of "plaguing his dreams with nightmares" or something like that
certainly wasn't too pleasant.  Even though he was accusing Big
Sister, Skuld was almost certain that he was secretly accusing her as
well.  As if she was in on some big conspiracy to disrupt his sleep
cycle or something.
     She watched as Cevn got even more blustered as he learned to ride
Keiichi's bike.  He was making such a big deal out of it...and he
wasn't even going the speed limit!  Finally, it was either burst into
giggles, or go somewhere else.  Deciding to spare Cevn a dose of
shame, Skuld opted to visit the mall and have a treat...
     By now, Urd was probably halfway done with dinner.
     Skuld snickered at the image of her older sister trying to
prepare the elaborate meal that she had outlined.  Once again, she was
thankful for her 'word-projection' powers...she had planned to boil
some spaghetti and pour a pre-made sauce over it for dinner.  But in
the split seconds after Urd agreed to sub for dinner, Skuld had
written out an elaborate multi-course meal recipe on a blank piece of
paper she had in her pocket.
     "Hee heh hee!" she giggled, visualizing Urd slaving away in the
kitchen.  Of course, Skuld knew that her older sister could simply use
her Goddess powers to 'instant prepare' the meal, but Urd would
probably worry out that such an action would be cheating.
     A half-hour later, armed with a bag of chocolate petit-fours from
the baked sweets shop, Skuld walked out the side door of the mall and
took the elevator to the third floor...
     And realized that Keiichi and Cevn were gone.
     "Uh oh!" she exclaimed to herself as she extended her Goddess
senses to try and locate their auras...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     We were in one of Chiba's biggest malls, a monster by Japanese
standards.  Japan was the "compact culture"...everything here is much
smaller than European and American standards.  Westerners often
assumed that 'making small things' equated with 'thinking small', an
inference that the Japanese had thoroughly resented for a long time.
Unlike the US, Japan didn't blow 1/4th of its national budget on
military projects; thus, they spent the last twenty years contriving
large public works and infrastructure improvements.  They gradually
became accustomed to a larger sense of scale.  This ethos extended
into the commercial sector as well, which leads us to this shopping
mall, the largest in Chiba Prefecture.
     Not quite the Mall of the Americas in my home state, but close.
     The mall was located next to one of the 'new towns' built during
the 90s.  We spent about an hour on the road getting to it; cars
passing by staring at two guys on a motorbike in the middle of a light
snow in January.  Yep, we were crazy.
     I was on fire with anticipation, especially when Keiichi
described the parking lot as being much larger than that of the Clock
Mall.  I even offered to switch places with him, completely forgetting
that I didn't have a Japanese driver's license.  I was amazed that I
had been here almost two years and had never taken the driving tests.
     The mall had a three story parking lot adjacent to it, leisurely
spread out on the east side facing the mountains.  The view was nice,
as the mall was built on the outskirts of the new city, without any
housing mid-rise complexes to obscure the view of the mountain range.
     We were on the second floor, sipping hot coffee, getting ready
for my next lesson.  The parking lot had a huge section of parking
spaces vacant, which suited me quite well.
     I loved to learn.
     Once I got clean from drugs, the world became mine to explore.
Lacking the money of a jet-setter, I took the noble path of reading
all sorts of books to do my exploring.  Then I learned several
languages, hungry for the treasures of different cultures as I passed
through my undergrad years.  Graduate schools and scholarships took me
to several countries along the way.  Academic learning eventually
turned itself inside out; now, I was the teacher.  Responsible for the
learners, being taught by them as I shuffled information out for their
curiosity to glean over.
     Academic learning was one thing, but this was another.  Riding
Keiichi's BMW was rawly exciting, as if I was having a first sexual
experience.  I could see why the so-called "bikers" and "bosozoku"
felt such freedom in riding.  But Keiichi had refined his sense of
liberation a few steps beyond mere gang-biking.  His arena was
competition, his freedom was in pushing himself beyond himself.  By
propelling himself forward, he had passed into the narrow path between
hoodlumism and hobbyism...and had emerged with a stronger masterage of
himself and his abilities.
     And he had opened a new doorway for me.
     The parking lot awaited.
     Keiichi slapped me on the back right before I took off.  I
figured that the parking lot was a block, maybe a block-and-a-half in
length.  A couple dozen cars were parked near a stairwell, while other
cars were parked sporadically near the walkway that led to the second
floor of the mall.
     Perfect.
     I throttled up the bike and almost peeled out...
     "Slow down!" Keiichi said, nearly laughing.  "The parking lots
isn't going anywhere!"
     I took the BMW up to 45 kph, watching the lights overhead flash
by like giddy strobes.  Reaching the end of the lot, I slowed down and
slowly circled around for another run.
     "50!  50!" Keiichi shouted through cupped hands.
     How the hell did he know how fast I was going?  It was almost
funny in a way; you look at Keiichi and figure him to be the typical
tech school student.  Geeky, somewhat eccentric, a little errant
sparkle to his eyes that admitted to his intelligence.  But on the
road, he seemed to have some kind of supernatural mojo; a 'sixth
sense' that allowed him to *read* how fast I was going.  To sense my
thoughts and see when I was getting caught up in road 'fever'...
     "50 it is!" I shouted back, hoping that I could hold the bike
steady.  It wasn't exactly a bicycle.
     I cashed in the brakes and twisted the accelerator grip.  The
bike leapt out from under me and I started down the middle lane of the
parking lot.  Keiichi, standing near the end of the lot, was waving
his hands in imitation of a race official swinging the checkered flag.
I chuckled to myself, happy to see this playful side of my friend...
     I glanced down at the speedometer and noticed it was barely over
50 kph...and then I slowed down.
     "Way to go!" Keiichi praised me as I pulled up to where he was
standing.  A little bit of embarrassment shivered through me: here was
a guy who could drive a car at 350kph...and he was giving me kudos for
going barely over 50?  I tempered my dubiety with the awareness that
he wasn't encouraging me based on how fast I was going, but that he
was probably complimenting me because I was pushing myself beyond what
I was used to.  A couple hours ago, I wouldn't have gotten on his bike
if he had paid me to.
     "One more time, okay?" I asked.  Naturally, Keiichi nodded his
head.
     This bike riding thing was addictive!
     I questioned my impulsiveness, because I knew that the daring
involved in riding this bike for the first time was flexing my self-
gratification, juicing me with emotional electricity.  Not dangerously
so, but enough to cause me to remind myself that I could easily get
over-involved in the 'rush' part of the experience.
     I sped down the parking lot until I reached the end.  I noticed
that it had stopped snowing outside; in fact, the sun was starting to
back-glow some of the clouds with a bright grey luminescence that was
curious to winter...
     Turning the bike around without stopping, I headed back.

     I heard a screech, some shouts, a blaring horn, and then a thud.

     The world started spinning around...
     I wanted to go to sleep as lights and air whirled all around me,
but the solid embrace of cold concrete jarred me out of my micro-
seconds of daydream.  Footsteps seemed to echo in every direction.  I
tried to raise my head up off the ground; my neck felt like it had
been tied to a millstone.
     "Not another fuckin' accident!" I muttered to myself weakly,
aware enough to realize what had happened.  I didn't know whether I
had lost control of Keiichi's bike or what, but I hoped that he would
be forgiving if I banged it up.  God dammit!  I didn't want this to
happen!  The guy's kind enough to lend me his own fave motorcycle so
he can teach me to ride on a proper bike...and I dump it!
     I lolled my head to the side, and saw a 2005 Honda nearby, with a
big dent in one of the doors.
     "My entire body's energies had been drained into that hole," I
thought to myself, feeling abstract and dizzy.  I had been
inattentive, idiotic, irresponsible...all of the above.
     My arm was spurting some kind of green fluid out of my sleeve.
     Someone was trying to get my thick winter jacket off of me...when
suddenly, it disappeared.  My eyesight seemed to glaze in and out as I
looked at my arm.  Metal cabling, several severed paper-thin rubber
tubes, and some kind of metal rod or servo joint...
     My leg hurt.
     "Call an ambulance!" a voice shouted in the middle of a bluebird
of lights.
     "No!" I said in a voice thinned by physical shock.  "I'm not
human!  I need a *mechanic*, not a doctor!"
     "What?"
     "Look at me!  I'm a frickin' cyborg!"

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Keiichi watched in horror as the Honda pulled out of the ramp
onto the parking lot...and instead of turning into the nearby lane, it
sped up and cut across the lot diagonally, heading for the far corner.
     He didn't even have time to warn his friend.
     The car, filled with teenagers, saw Cevn too late.  It slammed on
its brakes, started to spin out of control, and broadsided him.
     It had all taken less than five seconds.
     "CEVN!" he screamed.  He heard his voice echoed by another, even
higher-pitched voice...
     Skuld dashed past him, running at superhuman speed towards the
accident scene.  Hopefully, the kids in the Honda were too dazed by
the accident to notice this.  They were all staring out of the windows
of the car at Cevn, who was lying on his side, crumpled-curled by the
impact.
     Keiichi immediately regretted his decision to try and teach Cevn
how to ride his BMW.  This could endanger everything!  N.I.T. didn't
know that Cevn was living with he and the others; if they found out,
not only could Cevn get fired...but he and Megumi could get suspended
from the school!  One of the Honda kids was on the phone, obviously
calling his parents or ambulance or police...
     Stupid shits!  They practically rammed him!
     Skuld was already leaning over Cevn when Keiichi reached him.  He
could see blood dripping out of the sleeve of his friend's navy-blue
winter coat.  It didn't look good at all.  The force of the impact had
ripped the helmet clean off of his head.  Keiichi was grateful that
Cevn was wearing a motocross helmet; otherwise, he would have bought
it for sure!  But his arm looked like it was bent the wrong way, and
his right leg was angled wrong as well.
     "Skuld, I'm going to try and get the jacket off of him!" Keiichi
shouted as he reached towards the zipper of the jacket.
     "Don't!  Let me!" Skuld insisted.  Forgetting...or maybe not
caring...that they were in public, she reached down and touched the
sleeve, making the jacket disappear into thin air.
     "What's he doing ridin' around *on a motorcycle* without a winter
coat?!  In fact, what kind of stupid asshole would ride a motorbike in
middle of January in a shopping mall parking lot?" one of the kids
asked, his voice clearly inferring that he thought the whole thing was
Cevn's fault.
     "Shut the hell up!" Keiichi screamed, standing up and getting
into the kid's face.  "You don't know shit, you little fuck!  *You*
guys hit *him*!  I saw the whole thing go down!"
     The kid got red-faced, balling his fists up like he wanted to
throw a punch.  Keiichi didn't care if the driver of the Honda was
taller than him.  Even if the kid would have been as big as Tamiya-
sempai, Keiichi was certain that he still wouldn't have hesitated to
get in his face.  Even now, his friends in the car were egging him on,
trying to peer-pressure him into hefting a punch...
     "Keiichi, this looks pretty bad!" Skuld said, trying to hold her
freshly-eaten ice cream in.  The force of the impact had torn Cevn's
sweater on the *inside* coat; a bone protruded from his arm.  When
Keiichi looked at the injury, it reminded him of the accident he had
during the beach rally a couple summers ago.  Or was it the time he
fell off the pole during SuperTyphoon Akira?
     And Belldandy had healed him of his injury, after some kind of
weird arranged wedding plan that her parents had set up.  No, that
can't be it!  Why would he interfere in her affairs if her parents
wanted her to marry some God?
     But that God turned out to be his enemy...
     "Bell-chan!" he screamed.
     Skuld looked up at Keiichi, her face completely draining of
expression.  He had actually said "Bell-chan"!  Ever since he had
started suffering his bizarre illusions about never being in love with
her sister, Keiichi had never referred to her sister as "Bell-chan".
It was always a very formal "Belldandy-san".
     Could his memory loss finally have shocked out by Cevn's
accident?
     "What's going on here!" a pair of shopping mall security guards
shouted in commanding voices, clearly intent on taking command of the
situation.  Skuld looked at them with barely concealed
resentment...she had little patience for adults who thought they had
the right to their power-trips just because they were wearing a
uniform.
     "This stupid fuck was riding a motorcycle..." one of the Honda
kids yelled.
     "Shut your ass up!" Skuld said, her vehemence even surprising
Keiichi.  The kid regarded her angry expression with a fish-mouthed
shock; and then he did what he was told, obviously scared to death by
her outburst.  Skuld looked like she on the verge of launching herself
at his throat.
     "Hey you kids!  Stop that yelling!  We're Mall Security!  What's
going on here?  Explain yourselves!" one of the guards shouted,
confronting the group with an authoritative stance.  His partner slap-
punched him on the sleeve and pointed towards Cevn.
     "That's it!  I'm calling an ambulance!  Don't anybody move!" the
mall-cop insisted in a no-nonsense voice as he fished a phone from his
belt.
     "Don't call an ambulance!  I'm a cyborg!"
     Keiichi couldn't believe his ears.  He looked at Skuld, who
seemed equally baffled by Cevn's claim.  And then Cevn repeated his
words, his voice shrill with panic.
     "Don't let them take me to a hospital!  I'll die!  I need a
mechanic from the LifeShip, not a doctor!"
     Keiichi considered the situation for a flash.  Cevn took a heavy
blow to the head, hard enough to knock his helmet clean off.  Now, he
was hallucinating that he was a *cyborg*?  One of the mall cops knelt
down near Cevn and informed him that an ambulance was on the way...
     The effect was immediate.  Cevn started writhing on the ground,
attempting to push the security guard away *with his injured arm*!
     "Keiichi, we gotta get him out of here!" Skuld shouted in an
urgent voice.
     "But..."
     "NOW, Keiichi, before he hurts himself!" Skuld said.  She waved
her hand in a circle above her head, light trailing behind it.  Once
she completed the circle of light, she motioned downwards with her
arm...and the light-circle descended, forming a cone around she, Cevn
and he.  Once it reached the ground, he saw the mall parking lot
disappear...
     And the temple reappeared around them, complete with virgin
snowed lawn.
     "Where'd you learn to do that, Skuld?" Keiichi asked, amazed.
Skuld had just performed an act of magic that belonged in a magical-
girl anime, not in real life!
     "I've been studying some things," she answered enigmatically.
     Keiichi wondered why she had brought them outside the temple
house, instead of inside the temple.  Obviously, she didn't have full
control over whatever she did.  He noticed that his bike was here too;
the handlebars and front wheel completely banged up.  Skuld repeated
her 'light circle in the air' gesture, and then they blinked into the
temple home's living room.
     "What happened?!" Urd shouted, literally flying up out of her
chair like a kitten surprised by a sudden foot gesture.
     "*You're* what happened, Big Sister!" Skuld shot back angrily.
"You locked these two out of the house, and then they decided to go on
a joyride.  Keiichi let Cevn ride his BMW, and a carload of kids in a
Honda reamed him because they were too busy being crackhead idiots or
something..."
     "Wh..wh..whoa!  This ish *my* fault?!" Urd confronted Skuld, her
hands quickly fastening onto her hips.
     "Oh great!" Keiichi thought sourly as he regarded Urd, and then
glanced at the empty bottles of sake next to the TV.  He immediately
sensed that something really bad was going to happen.  Urd was well a-
glow with the warmth of intoxication.  She leaned over to take a look
at Cevn...and the anger fled from her face.
     "By the Lord, he's hurt bad!  Why'd you bring him here, baka-
girl?  He belongsh in a hospital..."
     "Urd..." Cevn said in a gasping voice.  "I'm a cyborg...and
you're drunk!"
     "What'd you do to him, you brat?!  What is he babbling about?"
Urd shouted angrily, her empathy for Cevn's not-so-insignificant
injuries fleeing as she realized that Skuld had brought him to the
temple, not to a emergency room.  And then, despite being well into
her second bottle, Urd intuited that Skuld had *transported* the three
of them here, probably in front of mortal witnesses.
     "I didn't do anything to him, you big shrew!  You're the problem
here!  None of this would have happened if you treated him and Keiichi
with any kind of respect!"
     "I don't have to respect him...and I certainly don't have to
respect *you*!"
     "Oh yeah?  Then here...you can eat this Skuld Bomb!"
     "Urd Lightning Bolt!"
     Keiichi winced as the two sisters stared down each other,
completely forgetting about the medical emergency in the form of Cevn
lying on the living room tatami.  Forgetting about him as well.  This
was one of those times Belldandy would have stepped in and brought
some semblance of reason into the room.  Keiichi really found himself
missing Belldandy's presence as he watched a glow of purple-blue
kindlings of lightning crackling around Urd's hand, while Skuld had
her arm cocked back, ready to toss one of her softball-sized Skuld
bombs...
     "This is totally ridiculous!" Keiichi screamed, hoping to bring
the two Goddesses back to reality.
     Behind him, he heard the front door slide open.  Actually, it
*slammed* open.  Just as Keiichi started to think, "What now?  Who
could that be?", someone spoke in a calming, gentle voice.
     "Neither of you has the luxury to be arguing...let alone
fighting...at the moment!  Our injured friend is lying on our living
room floor, scared out of his wits and in deep-seated shock and pain.
Don't you think there's something wrong with him?  Didn't you hear
what he said?  He thinks that he's a robot!  You should be ashamed of
yourselves, Urd and Skuld!  My darling Keiichi is absolutely
right...it *is* ridiculous for you to be acting so
completely...irresponsible...under these circumstances.  This is one
of those times when I can't beleive what I'm seeing..."
     "B...Bell-chan?"