Part 51 A Question of Experience Chihiro felt an overwhelming echo of sympathy rebounding in her heart as she overheard Keiichi's deep feelings of self-dejection. As they huddled around Keiichi, her heart grew heavy as she saw how Belldandy and Skuld's faces were fraught with anxiety and fear. She noticed how the parents...obviously Belldandy and Skuld's...were crying, hugging each other for comfort. They all looked stranded in their despair, bearing resemblance to a mental image of castaways on a deserted island whose boat had been washed out to the ocean during a midnight high tide. As an afterthought, she realized that the parents were floating in *mid-air*! She could only suckle a gasp in shock at this...her mind was already toeing the edge of the cliffs of sanity. She had already witnessed a plethora of impossibilities: Skuld/Keiichi's 'machine'; the alternate universes; the singularity and the rabbit- cum-spider enveloped in the green tube of light...and the giant eight- legged horse that was standing next to her. She remembered old Dr. Morrow's ramblings about a 12-year-old girl who could invent robots with *true* intelligence, not simply AI programming...it was obviously the truth! The "secret" that Tamiya and Ootaki had been disguising for so long. The way Belldandy was on *every corner* when she first raced Keiichi in the micro-bikes. The mysterious hanetsuki game at Cevn's karaoke party... And now, she was in a room full of...Gods? The two floating beings looked like nothing less than divinities out of a Raphael triptych! Nothing made sense...except one thing. Keiichi had said that a mortal needed to ride this...horse...in order to save Urd, Belldandy and Skuld's lives. His starkling bitterness at his inability to ride Sleipnir was proof that Keiichi genuinely believed that the three sister's lives were on the pivot. She turned to regard Sleipnir. Gazing into the orbs of his skyblue equine eyes, Chihiro could almost imagine that the stallion was silently beckoning her to ride him. She regarded him with astonishment...and then he gallied forward, turned his giant head to the side and idly nuzzled it against her shoulder. "Aren't you the friendly one!" Chihiro said in a quiet voice, softly stroking Sleipnir's face as she surveyed the scene of Keiichi and Belldandy. Sleipnir seemed to low his head in agreement. "Keiichi, you've only lost one race in your career. You've won every time...except the time you and I raced. You're the best; but I'm just a little bit better. I'm going to *do this*, because you can't. After all, I'm your 'super-sempai, aren't I?" she mentally conversed with an imaginary Keiichi. Chihiro had to admit that the tomboy in her still liked to play the part of the hero/heroine. She was definitely feeling a strong urgency to try and rescue the situation from despair. Decision made, Chihiro grasped the saddle. Using all of her strength, she heave-struggled to pull herself up onto Sleipnir's back. The horse was *huge*, much larger than any equine she had ever seen, let alone ridden! Perched on his broad back, the immense stature of the stallion drove itself into her awareness. She had to hunker down in the saddle to keep from hitting her head on the ceiling. Unobserved by the crowd gathered around Keiichi, Chihiro situated herself on the saddle and caught her breath. The mechasaddle was designed like a racetrack motorbike seat; the stirrups were designed to keep her legs high and back, so that the rider would almost be lying on her stomach on the back of her horse. Sleipnir was far too girth-barreled to be straddled like a regular horse. However, this riding posture was familiar to Chihiro...she used to ride her horses like this when she first started riding, back when she was 5 or so. Now, all those years of English and Haute Ecole riding lessons were going to pay off... Then she remembered something from her early riding days. Sliding herself off the saddle, Chihiro leaned way way back until she was almost sitting on Sleipnir's hindquarters. With a kick, she shoved the saddle off. Equitation without artificiality. "This way, I'll be able to feel his emotions, his speed," she reasoned to herself. She was also grateful for the last minute decision at the hotel in Paris to *not* wear the new skirt she had bought in France. Chihiro knew that she needed to be one with the horse...which meant that she was going to him ride bareback. Sleipnir snorted with apparent relief once he was unsaddled. Straddling his back was almost painful...Chihiro felt like she was doing the splits. "You're gonna owe me bigtime for this, Keiichi!" she said to herself in a whisper as she kicked her heels together and grabbled Sleipnir around the neck. With a loud neigh, Sleipnir leapt in the air...and out into space. * * * * * * * * Chihiro clung tightly to Sleipnir's generous auburn mane as they hurtled forth out of the Earth's atmosphere like a rocket. She barely had time to gasp at the beauty of the planet...and then it passed behind her, rapidly disappearing into the emptiness of space. A minute later, she passed a huge dark blue gas giant. It was streaked with whorls of a lighter blue coloring, and ringed with thin divisions of dark gray rock. Chihiro realized that this was the 10th solar planet, whose theoretical existence astronomers had been arguing about for decades. Being so far out from the Sun, this planet had little albedo; thus accounting for its dull navy blue coloring. A moment later, they were traveling within the Oort Cloud, passing through a flotilla of small icechunks and asteroids. Sleipnir had taken the scenic route; riding past all seven outer planets with beauty passes so she could admire their individual globes... "Beauty passes...10th planet? Where's the oxygen!" Chihiro thought, her mind suddenly scrambling in panic as she realized that she was traveling in the vacuum of *space*. It took a few seconds for her mind to reel out of its disequilibria despite the fact that her breathing was quite normal...about as normal as a gal could manage while traveling at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light. Somehow, they were surrounded by an atmosphere...or *something* that allowed her to breath! It was nothing less than Magic, Chihiro reasoned. They were still accelerating...it seemed that Sleipnir was only beginning to trot briskly, not even galloping. Yet, stars and nebulae were flying by. A minute later, the surrounding welkin of star nebulae began to thin out. Chihiro gripped Sleipnir tightly along the neck as she clearly recognized the bands of the Scuttum and Sagittarius arms of the galaxy. The sight was inconceivably vast... They were escaping the spiral limits of the Milky Way galaxy! "This is...insane! A couple of hours ago, I flying back from France to visit Keiichi. Now I'm going where no woman has gone before! I'm way out of my league here!" she said to herself as the Local Group of galaxies shrank behind her like street signs on a highway. Sleipnir wasn't even breaking a sweat... Curiosity layered upon curiosity as she saw the Mandelbrot-like distribution of galactic groups all around her. Clusters turned into swirls turned into waves turned into large spheres turned into curls turned into an arcing horizon of light...the edge of a globe. Strangely enough, there was no indication of velocity such as a breeze in the face...or red-shifting... Chihiro wore her mind soft by trying to comprehend how all the laws of physics were being circumvented. They were obviously traveling far in excess of the speed of light...yet she could still see every manifestation of light with crystal clarity. Eventually, they reached the limits of space. The seas of galaxies began to form a sphere of light. Sleipnir shook his head from side to side and ran even faster. "Jump off! Save yourself! Don't look! Hold on tight! Don't freak out!" her mind shouted fearfully. Every instinct Chihiro possessed was pulsing with speed fever panic. Gripped by her own near-terror, she tried to calm herself down. Her body felt like it was going into shock as they sheared away from the 'bubble'....and burst *out* of the Universe! * * * * * * * * "Where's Chihiro? She was right here a while ago, before Sleipnir disappeared," Keiichi asked aloud. He looked at Cevn, who simply shook his head to say "I don't have a clue where she is." Everyone had been showering Keiichi with love and warmth. When he finally surfaced from Bell's warm bosom, he looked at Odeyn. The old God was looking at him with appreciation and condolence in his single eye. This was the last thing Keiichi expected; he thought that Bell's parents would be angry because he proved himself to be a weakling. A weakling who couldn't ride Sleipnir when his best love's life was at stake. "You tried your best. There is no weakness in a challenge well met, regardless of the outcome. Once again, you have proven your love for my daughter," Odeyn said in a voice rich with acceptance. Keiichi was thankful...but he still wondered where Chihiro was. "She must have ducked out when she saw all the Gods and Goddesses in the room," he guessed. * * * * * * * * Chihiro felt like her mind had been run over by a lawnmower while being turned inside out during an off-cliff plummet. She was in a different Universe! None of the familiar laws of physics applied here. This 'space' consisted of a light purple glow, with immense blue 'clouds' floating about. As they flew through one of the blue clouds, she could discern that the cloud was comprised of billions upon billions of razor thin filaments. Traversing the radius of the cloud, she noticed that there were no stars; instead each thin filament was an axial that was comprised of thousands of bands of illuminating light. Small rings of light with patchwork colors orbited along each 'cable' of light. Instead of planets, she guessed that the inhabited areas of this universe were the flattened colored 'rings" circumscribing around the beams of light. So she named this universe "the Band-Aid Universe" in a desperate attempt to grasp at something approximating sanity and reality. Then they splashed into the next Universe...and moments later, they floated into another Universe. The image of Dave Bowman flashed in Chihiro's mind as she recalled the ending sequence of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." But his cinematic travel was nothing like *this*! Each universe was markedly different in some way...as if they had been designed to be distinct. Chihiro thought she was going to lose her mind. Not just simply go insanely crazy...but *lose* every thought, every memory. She sensed her life's experiences eroding from the onslaught of sheer information, like a sandcastle being plunged by a shorebreak wave. This travel into impossible realms...was sensory overload! Chihiro imagined herself to be as overwhelmed as an allusory hamster at a techno rave. A Universe of Sound...nothing else. A Universe of Metal...nothing else. A Universe of Ocean, like a giant round aquarium. She was daunted by the fact that each Universe must contain trillions of civilizations. "I'm not going to survive this," she told herself grimly as Sleipnir reared up and galloped even faster. She could feel the extension to his galloping, as if he was running at a racing pace in a derby. Now, the steed and rider passed within Universes in flashes, instead of minutes and seconds. It was like diving into a pool; the moment she would open her eyes underwater, Chihiro would see thousands of bubbles all around her as she crashed through them... Chihiro was afraid of swimming pools and water, just like Keiichi. No, not like Keiichi. Keiichi couldn't swim, and was terrified of being in open water. She, on the other hand, could swim, and was only mildly uncomfortable in water. Eventually, a pattern emerged from chaos. They had passed through the last strands of Universe... Forming underneath her were many strands, converging what looked like a branch of a light blue...tree?...extending as far as the eye could see. In her mind, it approximated an infinitely large and long Christmas tree of brilliant blue light. The 'space' around it was a dark navy blue. "This...is...so...beautiful!" she said in a quiet voice of admiration. She realized that *everything* that existed...was part of that tree! All of reality...was shaped like a tree! Her mind wrapped itself around the concepts of space and time...while Chihiro's soul was awestruck. She could see red vein-like patterns reaching upwards about a third of the way into the blue tree. They looked like roots...as if someone had turned a tree upside down and made the roots crawl up the trunk of another tree. "'Which way is up?' is definitely a Gordian Knot at this point!" Chihiro said to Sleipnir as she tried to take in the scenery. The 'trunk' of the tree of blue light seemed to disappear into a white glowing sphere. She turned her head to look in the opposite direction. Beyond the sphere, she could see *another* tree, bright red amidst a dark rouge 'space'. Against its fire red glow, streaks of blue light traced about a third of the way up its trunk. "A blue tree...and a red tree. All of existence...in two trees?" she asked aloud. Sleipnir seemed to snort in agreement and gradually shifted the direction of his travel. They rose 'up' above the blue tree-shape until Sleipnir reached a dark blue surface...the edge of the surrounding space. Here, Sleipnir slowed to a trot, occasionally gamboling with fancy airs. Chihiro stroked his neck, realizing that he was exhausted from the exertions of their long journey. Unlike a real horse, he hadn't even tried once to buck her off...despite the fact that he had never been ridden by her before. "It's like they're mirror opposites of each other," Chihiro said, going by the empirical evidence in front of her eyes...actually suspended above her head at the moment. It was as if she was traveling the inner surface of a giant balloon; from every perspective, the blue tree-form was above her head, filling the hollow space with prismatic light. "The two trees are joined together...they've grown *into* each other! With this white sphere of light...like a hub...suspended between them," she uttered to herself in amazement as she roamed her eyes up and down the inestimable distance of the tree... She noticed that her senses were calming down as Sleipnir jumped into a fast racing gallop, heading in the direction of the sphere of light between the two trees of light. "I hope you know where you're going!" Chihiro screamed shrilly. Something about the white globe of light frightened her...possibly the fact that it was pure light, without any distinguishing features. Soon, they were skimming the fuzzy, indistinct surface of the white sphere. The space around them was turning dark velvet. Sleipnir shuddered himself, released a loud bray like a shout...and ran even *faster*. They were riding on what appeared to the equator of the white sphere of light, slowly making a circuit of the globular shape. * * * * * * * * *hnnnuuhhh!* Urd felt herself being lifted by an invisible force...as if the air itself suddenly decided to cradle her gently. "You have to choose now, Urd. You can walk with me into the Light and become one with the Instrumentality, or you can float towards the music...towards your world and your body," the little boy said excitedly. Urd considered this for a moment. "What do I do? Which should I choose? And what about you, Little Boy?" she asked, her face painted with indecision. He smiled to himself, touched by her concern. Despite the fact that he was maintaining a near-infinite number of manifestations at the moment...after all, his role was to *personally* greet the each and every newly-arrived Soul...he felt a small sense of loss. Rarely did he have the opportunity to meet a Norn; beyond this, it was even much more noteworthy for a Soul to remain suspended here between the dimensions of the Living Multiverse and the Instrumentality of Light. She had been his companion during the past several weeks, to the point where she had even created a nickname for him. It had been eons since last someone had provided him with so much company. "There is no right or wrong choice. You are beyond the realm of judgments and prejudices at the moment. Any choice you make is the correct one...the choice you have been created to build at this moment," he replied. This Urd had been the best companion...she didn't ask any stupid questions, she wasn't paralyzed into a stupor by the fact that she was dead, her presence here was accompanied by a most remarkable form of musick...in a place where the only sounds were nondescript background lulling. She was knowledgeable, her ethereal form was enchanting to behold... Obviously someone cared about her a great deal. Enough to keep her in the Living with a status spell. Enough to create a music that kept her Soul's vital memories from fading away with time and proximity to the Instrumentality. Enough to anchor a part of her Soul to the Living, so that she wasn't entirely free to take the Long Walk with him... So he decided to break a Rule...and offer advice. "Urd, Norn of the Past. It is my...wish...that you choose to return to your life in the Living Multiverse. I do not believe...that it is truly your time to join us. You have a task to complete. There is a Demon who threatens the Everything. His vile ambitions pose danger even to me. Even my Realm of the Mid-Light. His name is Isilblius. Remember..." he said as he reached out and held her hand, squeezing it gently. "I want to go back! To where I was. How do I go there?" Urd asked frantically. "Ahh, I thought you would say that! Just curl up and let the force that is holding you...pull you towards the sound." Urd tucked her glowing knees against her glowing breast, under her glowing chin. In a fetal curl, she felt a soft force drawing her towards the music. The little boy floated next to her as the music grew louder. "Such wonderful music," Urd thought as the young boy who was the Reaper stopped and waved cheerfully to her. "It is, isn't it? Bye bye! I'll be seeing you again! Bye bye!!!" Urd was returning his wave when... * * * * * * * * Keiichi flinched as Belldandy jerked with a series of spasms. "Oh...my!" he heard Freiija exclaim in astonishment. Belldandy was growing her hair back. It just suddenly sprouted out of her scalp and stretched towards the sun... It looked just like the rapidly growing grass in one of those- time elapse photography videos that he had watched in elementary school. Bell-chan's hair was returning on its own! "How?" someone uttered. Belldandy started to gasp and cough. Suddenly, their positions were reversed; where Belldandy had been hugging him because he was emotionally wasted, now he was lifting her up in his arms, holding her as she gave little shudders. He watched as her face filled out, its pale complexion slowly changing into the rosy glow of just a few weeks ago. The sags under her eyes smoothed out, the deep lines in her face receded into youthful vigor. Her incredible beauty was returning, full force. Keiichi could feel her body heavying itself in his arms as he cradled her. Glancing at Skuld, Keiichi was relieved to see that she was undergoing a similar transformation. She had just started losing her hair...and already, her hair had regained its sheenblack luster. In the silence of the moment, his heart leapt. Belldandy was going to live! * * * * * * * * *hnuuuuhhhmmppff* Urd gasped, then turned her head on her pillow. Her vision restored; she immediately realized that she was in her "Urd's Castle" room. Shelves of medicines, arcane alchemical texts, runic symbols... "I'm home!" she mentally shouted as she looked at her lab area. Then she heard strains of music. A beautiful music, wondrously filling her ears with candied sounds of joy. Her spirit was massaged with a blissful feeling as the symphony of sounds surrounded her like clean water. "I..I'm *alive*!" she shouted in a whisper. "By the Almighty...I'm really alive!" A celestial chorus filled the air...and she just let herself drift into the sound... "This...is God's Music! Am I in Yggdrasil?" she wondered. "This...is the music Cevn was composing. Cevn..." Urd closed her eyes as she remembered. She felt a strong stirring in her heart as she visualized her mortal boyfriend. "This music...and a soul full of hate...it doesn't fit together. Cevn...violated me? No...a person who could create God's Music...could never do that! I know that he loves me too much to do something like..." She remembered herself into a volcano of pain. A Demon disguised as Cevn...but not just a Demon. A very powerful presence of Evil...overflowing with malignant Hate. Not an ordinary Demon...there was something very important about this Demon that she couldn't remember. His name...what is his name? She shuddered violently as she remembered his taunts after he raped her...after he beat her...after he told her his name... "You bastard!" she snapped with all of her being. Her thoughts began to merge like pastels on a paint board, flowing together with the music. The brief star of hatred and pain submerged into the pool of sound... She opened her eyes again, and sat up in her futon. Kneeling at the end of her futon was Cevn, his face wet with tears, a joysaddened smile on his face. "Welcome back, Urd." A moment later, her room was filled to bursting with her family. * * * * * * * * Belldandy was overjoyed beyond belief. She wasn't sick anymore! Her body was back to normal! She could feel energies coursing through her being, clear indication that her Goddess Powers were fully restored! And best of all...Keiichi was smiling at her, his eyes a sparkling beard of gratitude and love. "My angel of love," he said as he ran his fingers through her rich hazel hair. Belldandy felt her whole body drawn to him, his words a magnet. Her soul reached towards his smiling tear-filled face, his handsome complex of smile, eyes, nose, cheeks...pulling herself deep into her heart. His presence...was here, with her. Belldandy did the only thing that mattered in the moment. She embraced his lips with a passionate kiss... * * * * * * * * "*Urd!!!*" Freiija shouted as she saw her daughter sitting up in her futon. She held her hands to her cheeks in amazed pleasure and gratitude; her daughter looked absolutely radiant with health and vitality. It was nothing less than a miracle. She ran over to her firstborn and hugged her with the witness of abandon that only a mother and child reunion could bear forth. Looking over her shoulder, she could see her husband lifting Skuld high into the air, spinning her around with playful glee. Skuld was squealing with girlish excitement as her father beamed a smile at her. Freiija looked over Urd's other shoulder and saw a mortal seated in the corner of the room, his face a mixture of joy and sadness. This mere mortal...had found a way to save her three daughter's lives...when there was no solution, no possibility of a cure! "How?" she said wordlessly. "Don't ask me, I'm only your daughter!" Urd replied with a giggle. Freiija clutched her, giggling between sobs as Urd's choice of words struck a chime of memory. She revisited the times when Urd was getting to the age where she wanted more independence..."don't ask me, I'm only your daughter" was her way of piquing her and Odeyn. Basically telling them to "screw off", so to speak. Back then, these words only served to heat up an already pitched argument. But as her daughter matured into an adult Goddess, these words had evolved into a private Mother-Daughter joke. She felt her daughter sobbing in her arms, her rich off-white hair meshing against Freiija's own wavy silver curls. On impulse, Freiija looked at the mortal with a thankful expression. He smiled and bowed towards her respectfully. She noticed Urd recovering herself from the emotional reunion somewhat, nestling and stirring against her shoulders. "I love you so much, Mother! Y..you were with me every day!" Urd spoke into her ear, then pulled away, looking at her with a soul- baring innocent smile. "Her spark is back!" Freiija thought joyfully. * * * * * * * * **scrritchhh** Keiichi, Belldandy, Skuld and Odeyn jerked at the sudden burst of sound in the living room. From out of nowhere, Sleipnir had returned with an electrical- like discharge of light and sound. Clinging tightly to his mane was an exhausted Chihiro. "Chihiro! You rode..?" Keiichi asked, clearly mystified. Chihiro's hair was wildly disarranged; it stood up on end with an electrical frizz, marking her with lunatic expression. Her brown-gray eyes were flung wide open. The eight-legged steed underneath her was panting, his broad girth heaving with deep gasps of fatigue. "Wowwwwww..." she gasped. * * * * * * * * Freiija was utterly amazed. She owed her daughter's lives to two mortals! One of Keiichi's friends, whom he called "sempai", had volunteered to ride *the* Sleipnir in his stead. And she had ridden the steed all the way to the Multiverse and back! The young mortal woman was sitting on the floor in the middle of Skuld's machinery, her eyes flickering with bedazzlement. "Sempai, how did you...how could you do it? You? You're only...a frail mortal woman," Freiija asked incredulously. All the mortals and her three daughters giggled in reaction to her question. If she weren't so filled with the sheer joy of having her daughters safe...she would have chastened them all for their crass impertinence. "Mother...her name isn't 'sempai', it's Chihiro," Belldandy corrected her, before bursting again into giddy laughter. "Kids!" Freiija observed aloud with amused disgust. Of course, they would have pet names for their friends! Even Gods and Goddesses did this peculiar thing when they were very young. "Chihiro, I..I don't know what to say," Freiija admitted. "Just say thanks," Keiichi answered. Thanks didn't seem enough to satisfy Freiija's gratitude. In fact, nothing could express her deep thanksgiving. It was so confusing, this topsy-turvy Earthrealm...where Gods found themselves blindly plunging into strife. And instead of being consumed by their woes, their huge cloudy spirals of fear were remedied by the most unlikely of sources; leaving them indebted to mortals! She couldn't never imagine herself deigning to recognize a mortal at all...let alone thanking one. However... "Chihiro...I, Freiija, Senior First Class Goddess, Unlimited; Titled the Goddess of Marriages; Genetrix to helm of Nornma; wife of Odeyn, head of the Energy Guild; Third Attester to the Valkyries; board member of the Continuity Emergence; Adjutant to the Level 1 Examining Bureau; onetime Leaderess of the Yggdrasil Society TrendDesigner Management Studio...do hereby exclaim my gratitude for your assistance in saving my daughter's lives..." "I..can't believe it! Mother...just *thanked* a mortal!" Urd whispered into Belldandy's ear with frank shock. Belldandy could only think about how grateful she was to have this Goddess as her Mother. In fact, she was proud of her Mother for possessing the grace to admit a gesture of gratitude when it was called for. "And in reward for your courage...I promise you, Chihiro Sempai...that you *will* marry the man for whom your heart is most evenly matched! I will ensure that this will come to pass, in my capacity as the Goddess of Marriages. The one Earthrealm male most suited to you...will become your loving spouse! And together, you both shall bear dear boughs of love; your hearts will be corded around each other." "Gasp!!!" Any sense of disorientation that Chihiro was feeling as residual from her journey on Sleipnir vanished like a leaf caught in an autumn gust. "B..b..b..but? M..m..me? M..married? But I don't *want* to get married! I'm *not* planning to get married to a man! No! N..no way! There's no way that I'm going to marry any man!" she shouted desperately. "Don't even try to argue your way out of this, my young dear! I'm a *Goddess*, remember!" Freiija shot back with light-hearted briskness. As Chihiro stammered, Keiichi and the rest burst into giddy laughter. "If you can get this...tomboy...to get hitched with a guy, then you must be a Goddess!" Keiichi jested on impulse. Freiija looked at him with a strange expression... "KEIICHI!" Belldandy and Chihiro both shouted, astounded at his impishness. "All kens atold, marriage really isn't such a bad thing," Odeyn said, quite amused by the youngsters and their chaos forming in the living room. "After all, I've been married to this one for several hundred years!" he added, pulling Freiija close to him in a gentle bear embrace and kissing her on the neck. "Admit it, Keiichi-san. I'm just the better racer. Ahem...I should correct myself. I'm not 'just' the better racer, I'm *by far* the better racer!" Chihiro said jokingly, trying to cool down from Keiichi's taunt with a taunt of her own. Keiichi bowed his head in respect to his sempai... "But if your serious about thanking me, you can thank me by forgiving your sister for going to France with us. By the way, Megumi did drive the Nissan...and she *did* qualify us for the Le Mans!" Chihiro added. Keiichi's face went dark at the mention of Megumi. There was no way that he was going to forgive her under any circumstances! "I don't ever want to hear her name again!" he thought, vanity compiling against his righteousness. * * * * * * * * Belldandy had learned from Keiichi that the reason he couldn't ride Sleipnir was because they had traveled into one of the Water Universes once he left this Universe. As soon as he was surrounded by a near-infinite expanse of water, his mind snapped. Still, she was proud of him for trying. And, much to her relief, Urd no longer blamed Cevn for the unmentionable thing that had been done to her... "It was a Demon who did this...horrible, cursed thing to me! He said his name was..." she heard her sister explain again. "WHO?!" her Father shouted angrily. I..I can't remember!" Urd said in blunt disgust and disappointment. She remembered every wretched detail of the abuse, except the one fact that mattered most. The name of her attacker. Her inability to recall his name made her feel violated all over again. Odeyn's face blanched as his oldest daughter held herself tightly in an expression of deep misery. "You are assured of your opinions, my eldest daughter? That the architect of this evil perpetration was a Demon most foul? You're absolutely sure?" he asked. This was very crucial; he could not afford to be mistaken about the identity of his daughter's attacker. "Yes!" Urd answered with a sharp nod to accent her point. "Someone has to tell Kami-sama about this immediately! This is one more reason why we Gods *must* go to war with the Demons! They've managed to create a new threat...a sexcrafted virus that can kill Gods! And they still must pay for harming my daughter! I must tender my apologies for cutting this celebration short, but I must leave. Now! My intuition tells me that I'll be needed very soon, lest we Gods be plunged into an abyss of suffering. For if this foul design can weave its poison among my daughters...there is no question that it is capable of sinking more Gods into a breathless sleep! I must depart!" Odeyn explained, finishing with a tone of reluctance in his voice. The last thing he wanted was to leave his family behind while he conducted some war with the Demons...but if Urd was telling the truth, *everything* was at stake. Keiichi didn't like the look of anxiety on Odeyn's face as he waved his hands and vanished to return to Yggdrasil. * * * * * * * * Urd smiled to herself knowingly; her sister and Keiichi weren't being very subtle as they were making love in Keiichi's bedroom. The telltale rhythmic succussives that lightly shook the floor was obviously the flowering of an energetic session of sex. After all, his room was opposite the sister's bedroom, and Belldandy wasn't in her futon. "Figures," she said to herself with a whimsical smile. The little earthquakes that vibed the floor suddenly ended. Urd could imagine her sister and Keiichi locked in a tight embrace, covered with sweat and heaving deep gulps of air. She looked over at Skuld, who was curled in sleep under the futon covers, a big smile on her face. She stood up, arranged her nightshirt, then padded barefoot out into the living room. The ensemble of Skuld's machinery that Keiichi used to summon Sleipnir was still in place. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she looked on the couch and saw a sleeping figure. "There he is," she said, smiling in the shadow-filled room. She walked over and sat on the floor next to Cevn. "I'm so sorry, Cevn," she conversed with his sleeping form. "It must have been hard for you to assume the blame for something you didn't do. I wish I could do something to make up for it. I hope that you still care for me. If I hurt you, I didn't mean to. I guess we were both victimized in a way by whatever unknown force who did this to me." "There are so many things I was thinking of before I got sick. Things I need to tell you. I..I still have a place in my heart for you, if you want to be there with me. We can try again...I'll get help for my drinking. I promise I'll go see the Proctors, as soon as possible. I...just really want to know...if you have a place in your heart for me as well. That you still...love...me, after all that we've been through..." "Still up, Urd?" Urd jerked up into the air and scowled. That damned Peorth was eavesdropping! "Go to sleep, Peorth! And not *one* word about what you just heard tonight!" Urd said in a threatening, yet quiet voice. "Normally, I ignore threats from Goddesses whose licenses are suspended. But this time I'll make a generous exception in view of your remarkable recovery from the maw of horrors. I will keep what I heard in silence; because if I don't, you'll start shouting and wake the whole house up. Things have already been exciting enough for one day..." she heard Peorth grouse sleepily. After a waiting few minutes to quell down her anger, Urd looked at Cevn again, watching the slight movements of his fingers, the weave of his long light brown hair... "What? He changed his hair color again?" she remarked to herself. She reached down to touch his face... *bump* Urd pulled her hand back with a confused look on her face, and then tried to touch him again. Once again, her hand was halted by an invisible field, an inch or two from his face. She held her hands clasped in front of her mouth, which was wide open with astonishment. It slowly dawned on her, like a deeply colored ocean horizon, that the Ultimate Force was back in effect, acting as barrier between the two of them. Which meant that the question she had just asked him...was already answered! Urd smiled broadly and winked at the sleeping figure, then somersaulted in the air a few times as the excitement burst in her like dandelions popping bold founts of fluff in the summer breeze. She had been brought back from the very brink of death...and now a wind of love had inflated her heart with joy. Not just a wind, but a gusting breeze! She floated over to Peorth, who had just fallen asleep. She shook Peorth's shoulder to wake her. "W..whaddya want, Urd?" Peorth asked grouchily. "He's come back to me!" Urd said, feeling giddy inside as she said *it* out loud. "Whatever...leave me alone, willya?" Peorth mumbled as she rolled on her side away from Urd. "Can you make me a rose, Peorth?" Urd requested. Peorth glanced at her with a liberal shot of stinkeye, and then snapped her fingers and a rose appeared in her hand. Handing it to Urd, she made Urd promise not to wake her up again. Urd inhaled the fragrance of the rose, then set it against the couch where Cevn was sleeping. On her way back to her bedroom, she skipped daintily like a little girl. * * * * * * * * Megumi arrived at Narita International on Tuesday. She still couldn't believe what had happened just a few days ago...the N.I.T. Motor Club had qualified for the Le Mans! After an exuberant victory party at a rented French loge, the flame red Nissan GT1 R390-LM hybrid was meticulously prepped and garaged. The economics of the situation just couldn't allow them to ship it back to Japan. They had sold the farm to get this far. Enigmatically, Chihiro left for Japan as soon as the qualifying heats were concluded. She left a detailed set of instructions for each Club member...and mouthfuls of mysteries concerning her hasty departure. In order to be free to race in the Le Mans, the Club members all planned to finish all their coursework early, so that they could return to France by June 1st. There, they would have a week before the course tour and judge's scrutineering, and then another week to prepare before the actual race. Several Club members had jokingly volunteered to stay behind to work on the car. Megumi daydreamed about remaining in France as well... Her apprehension gripped her as her plane flew over the northwest expanse of Tokyo; the wards of Itabashi and Kito passing underneath her. Seeing the large conurbation jarred her with the awareness that she was a few hours away from the inevitable confrontation with her brother. "I hate you..." She felt pensive as she remembered the harsh words Keiichi had said when she had left for France. The outburst of his anger volleyed in her mind like an endless reflection, skewering her excitement with a metalfrost shard of grim reality. And to make matters worse, Genji had contracted a stomach flu the day after the party. "Too much damned French food, the idiot!" she cursed under her breath. Genji had eaten *way* too much cheese during the party! Megumi had warned him not to mix too many dishes of rich French cuisine. Of course, her boyfriend had to play the culinard...claiming that all his schooling in France as a kid exempted him from any foodsickness. Armed by his arrogance, he completely ignored her cautions. Now, instead of being a much-needed emotional support for her during this testy situation, Genji was heading straight home to his sister's apartment and solid bed rest once they landed. Consequently, she would have to deal with her contentious brother on her own. What made this issue pricklier was the fact that there were no correct answers, no proper codes of behavior that she could cite in her defense. Megumi had acted from her gut...with a little encouragement from Sora. The fact that she had chosen to go to the Le Mans instead of staying at home was something she needed to do for her own survival; and what is survival without a thread of sanity to hang it on? Megumi had been going *nuts* staying at home, watching her loved ones slowly dying. She almost didn't want to go home...didn't want to return to the horror of seeing Urd clinging onto what little wisp of her life that remained. And the look of betrayal on Keiichi's face... * * * * * * * * Chihiro arrived home to her apartment and immediately went to sleep, ignoring the backlog of paperwork she had to wheedle down in order to get caught up. During her trip to France, she had left Whirlwind in the capable hands of an old friend. She knew that when she returned to work, there would be huge stack of bills, receipts and orders to be gone through. Just as she was falling to sleep, the phone rang. "Hello," she answered gruffly. "Hello. Is this Chihiro Fujimi?" "Yeah. Do you know what time it is?" "Uh, lessee. Ah...it's 9:05pm. I apologize if my call interrupted you..." "Go on," she directed. This man sounded like he was from the Snow Country or some other rustic setting; his voice clearly lacked the sophistication of a Tokyoite. "Well, this is pretty hard to believe, but...do you own three horses that have turned up missing? I'm serious! This is not a joke! We actually found three horses in our field a couple of days ago! We checked the National Horse Registry records and... "What!" Chihiro shouted, suddenly *very* awake. She jumped out of her futon bedding and padded barefoot quickly across the floor to her study table. "We found three horses that seem to belong to you, according to their brandmarks..." he began to explain. Chihiro was speechless. She pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment as she wiped her tears...staring at a treasured picture on the wall, depicting an elementary school girl with three horses... * * * * * * * * "Cripes...I didn't handle *that* well at all!" Keiichi admitted to himself sorrowfully. Everyone in the house was angry with him to some degree. When Megumi arrived back home, he had already decided to give her the silent treatment. When she tried to explain her reasoning to him, it fell on deaf ears. And then both Bell-chan and Urd forgave her without hesitation! Their sanction of his sister's decision incited Keiichi into a mountainous wrath. How could they just forgive Megumi? After she left Bell and Skuld behind, both of who were sick? And Urd on her deathbed, too! Couldn't they see, with any fixation of clarity, the depths of how irredeemably irresponsible his sister had been! Their pardon of Megumi didn't make any sense to him! But then again, it was probably one of those Goddess things that was grounded in moral superiority to his own set of values. This sense of a 'superior morality' was often a source of frustration as well...it often transformed Bell-chan into a venerable guru-figure at times when he just wanted a girlfriend. A girlfriend would have taken up his position in the matter; sensing intuitively that Megumi had obviously done the wrong thing! But all three Goddesses insisted that she had done the right thing by going to the Le Mans trials! Delving further into the pool of his reluctance, Keiichi remembered his initial reaction to their ready forgiveness of his sister. He had glared angrily at his girlfriend, telling Belldandy that she had just betrayed him once again. Unfazed by his resentment, Bell had responded by lecturing him on the fact that "love doesn't take sides" or something to that affect. And then Megumi added her voice to Bell's explanation about love, trying to justify her act of desertion... And Keiichi's rage boiled over! He looked up at the ceiling fan spinning blurs into his bedroom. For all practical purposes, his bedroom had become the figurative "dog house". Keiichi felt like he was pretty much exiled here after his flash of ire. Bell-chan was so shocked by his outburst that she spurned him and went to her room for the night. Urd reacted by shaking her head at him in that condescending manner which only she can pull off with such stinging tartness. Skuld mimicked her older sister, which only hastened Keiichi towards the chills of resentment. Then Megumi said "Fuck you!" before running to her room, full bore with tears and anger. "Why? Why can't I ever do the right thing?" he bemoaned, his fingers stinging with the memory of his hard slap to Megumi's face. * * * * * * * * "I just don't understand, Genji. Keiichi is the last person I thought would actually slap me! He should know better! Now I'm faced with trying to figure out how to react to this. You have a sister...what would you do if Sayoko was so mad at you that a reconciliation seemed impossible?" Genji sighed into the phone, clearly unable to answer her question. For one thing, Sayoko was nails-tough when she wanted to be. Genji could never hold his own against his older sister if ever they were grasped by a deep sibling breach. For another thing, he was still very sick. His stomach had booted him into queasy wakefulness this morning at Sayoko's apartment. He had expected Keiichi to react with anger when Megumi got back...but not to the extremes that she was describing to him over the phone. He felt an insistent voice in his head telling him to go over to the temple home and punch the daylights out of Keiichi. But that wouldn't solve anything. Their 13-year stay in the 14th century had taught him that the toll of violence...was only more violence and death. He could remember the battlefields littered with bodies...especially the *last* battlefield where their little band of four fought valiantly to ensure the escapes of Lords Mori and Shimazu. He had fought an internal battle to ease away from the years of rash impulses towards violence that were a fact of life for him in the 14th century. "How could you..." he said absently into the phone, angry with Keiichi. "How could I what? Whose side are you on, anyway, Genji? You're supposed to be *my boyfriend*!" Megumi shot back, clearly irritated. "Ai! Heh eh, I was envisioning your brother when I said that!" he stammered by way of apology. Pause. "What is Meg-chan thinking?" he wondered. This situation was clearly way out of his ken...he certainly couldn't offer her any answers. "Can I come stay over at your place?" Megumi asked after a pause of helicopter thick silence. Genji's mind immediately filled itself with all the sexual stuff, which had yet to transform his relation with Megumi into newer grounds. Ashamed of his lustful inclinations, he began to weigh the pros-and-cons. "If Megumi stays with me, then Keiichi'll be pissed. And what about my sister...how would she handle it? And what about the Club...Megumi staying here could divide the Motor Club right down the middle!" he pondered. And what...and what...and what... "Y..yes. I think I can talk my sister into it," he decided. That night, Megumi wanted to make love with him, as she lay next to him on his futon. Genji steeled himself and reluctantly refused her. He realized that she was desperate for affection...and that he was too much of a gentleman to take advantage of her insolvency. Besides, his daydream of a 'summer experience' with Megumi didn't resolve itself along these kinds of circumstances. So he remained a virgin, with the most beautiful girl in world sleeping next to him...guarding Megumi's honor with a precious dose of restraint. * * * * * * * * "What the hell is going on here? Didn't I ask you to forgive her!" Chihiro shouted at Keiichi amidst the arguing. The Whirlwind trailer that served as a clubhouse for the N.I.T. Motor Cycle Club was literally shaking with angry voices. She was saddened to see that Tamiya and Ootaki were even getting into it, setting aside years of friendship to argue about minutiae regarding the Club's funds. As if that had ever mattered before to the two sempai. "I'm not! And don't you go dragging our personal business into this!" both Megumi and Keiichi shouted at her, assailing her with misdirected resentment. "I'm just trying to fix things up, dammit!" Chihiro shouted back. "Well, maybe they shouldn't be fixed! It's all your fault anyway, Prez! You and your stupid freakin' idea about racing in the Le Mans! Has it ever occurred to you that this is a *motorcycle club*, O Mighty Founder! If you hadn't opened your big mouth, then my sister wouldn't have had to leave while Urd was *dying*!" Keiichi shouted above the rumble and din of voices. There was a brief snap of astonished silence at this, then the contentious verbal volleys continued unabated. Tamiya could only shake his head at the bitterness that seemed to explode during the club meeting. Keiichi was livid, screaming bloody murder at Megumi. Genji was mad at Sora for influencing Megumi's decision to go to France. Chihiro was as frustrated as a fox in a Skinner Box. Closer to home, Ootaki was upset with him about the lack of Club funds. Tamiya was pissed at Ootaki because he was unwilling to support Tamiya's idea of a 'repair auction' to raise more yen. Which was odd, because Ootaki was a geek when it came to solving mechanical problems...the notion of having an open day to fix vehicles of all sorts would be just the kind of challenge that Ootaki would normally eat up like braised sukiyaki. "Da Club is screwed!" he thought. The harmony that existed during the past couple of years was shredding itself away in front of his eyes, as surely as the reams of secret documents stashed away in a Dietman's office. It was kind of weird...the fact that it seemed that conflicts were happening all the more frequently in his life. Even his best bud Ootaki was siding against him... This was a nightmare...and the Le Mans was only a few weeks away. * * * * * * * * It was time for us to talk. I had been postponing talking with Urd for several days, because I *didn't* have a clue what my position was regarding this relationship between her and I. And without a position, there was nothing for me to defend or clarify. It was awkward, seeing her every day...and not knowing what to say to her. I looked at Urd, sitting across the room, perched on a couch with her legs curled under her. Her emerald green eyes concealing a rainforest of penultimances. Urd had acknowledged earlier that she planned to go to Yggdrasil to seek treatment for her drinking at the hands of the Proctors. After all that had transpired during April and early May, her drinking seemed to be the most minor of problems. But I realized that her boozing had widened a rift between us to the point where I had called it off between us. I wondered if she knew what was going to happen. I have to admit, it was a sound suggestion on her behalf to appoint Belldandy as a moderator. "You first, Cevn," Belldandy said calmly. So I reiterated my Soul to the winds of change. I explained the conflict raging between my heart...which loved Urd...and my mind, which was rigged with anxious peals of caution. I vividly flung a wave of words into the air as I attempted to explain my frustration concerning my powerlessness over the wasting disease that threatened her life. Recently, life had seemed to structure itself into a series of worse case scenarios, prickling me with recurrent bouts of anxiety and disenchantment. I told the two Goddesses about my spill into a madly mad insanity as I sought to find a means to arrest the disease. I described how, every night, I cried myself to sleep because I lacked a means to forestall Urd's suffering. I noted that I felt the loss of all the joy that was supposed to color my world. I described my feelings of clumsiness in admitting that, I was probably gravely mistaken by my withdrawal from Urd. Needless to say, this admission earned a knowing grin from the Norn of the Past. Then it was Urd's turn. Urd dodged the issue of her recent illness, talking instead about her reservations about our relationship. She expressed her frustration at the face of Ultimate Force not letting us touch, and the bald confusion she felt resulting from being in love with a mortal. She related the breadth of her fears about going back to Yggdrasil and trying to manage her consumption of sake...a power supply that she needed to maintain herself on the Earthrealm. So we debated back and forth, exposing our insecurities and our desires. Finally, Belldandy called a halt to our ping-pong of admissions. "Sister, regardless of the past, you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance here with this mortal. And Cevn, I hear your anxiety...and within your words, your fears are mirrored in Urd's discomfort. It's obvious that you both deeply want to love each other. "What isn't so obvious is whether you each possess the necessary resolve to work on yourselves, so that the *whole* may experience greater harmony! You both are so encouraged by the possibility of loss that you fail to see the strong potential for intimacy between you. However, loss *is* part of intimacy. What often appears to be a loss, is in fact, a liberation. You both need to decide if you are willing to delve deep into the humility that each of you will need in order to make this relationship you desire...work." I looked at Urd, sensing in her downcast expression that she felt dressed-down by Belldandy's blunt assessment of the situation. Just like I felt... If we even feel the same...then why not risk it? "I'll try!" I said. With wide-eyed surprise, I realized that Urd had said the same words alongside mine. "How romantic...we both agree that it's going to be a struggle," I mused sarcastically to myself while Belldandy cheerily remarked about how wonderful her love for Keiichi was...despite his recent contriteness regarding Megumi. * * * * * * * * Mara felt like a wet rubber knife. She was trapped, fastened to the slickened strands of a spider web. In her own lair. SpiderDemons were crawling all over her paralyzed body, slowly draining her life's essence with each bite of their steely-pronged fangs. Isilblius had returned from Vanagdrasil and promptly cast a spell on her without saying a word...a spell Mara couldn't break. Once she was fully paralyzed from head to toe, he had beaten her mercilessly. As the blows rained on her limp body, Mara felt her mood plummeting down... Her greed had brought this horrible fate upon her. She had created the Ultimate Demon with the expectation that she would be able to control him. Instead, he was controlling her. Then he wove a SpiderDemon web over one of the bloodwalls of her lair and hung her bruised manifestation on it. As Mara forested her disbelief, Isilblius patiently explained that she had to die, in order for his Evil to be fully realized. With a coldly calculated logic, he reasoned that one had to kill one's creator as an ultimate act of impiety and heartlessness. Mara had begged him to kill her, once he announced that he was going to feed her to SpiderDemons. She had heard about SpiderDemons; a mutation of the AncienGiants that the Dark Lord employed when he desired to inflict one of the more absolutely dreadful forms of torture or punishment. Only the Dark Lord could create them... And yet, Isilblius was mocking her by his own abilities...equal to those of the Dark One! With a lipcurling sneer, Isilblius explained his plan to destroy both Realms...in effect, everything that existed. His violent act towards Urd had already caused repercussions among the Gods. As much as Mara despised Urd, she felt a twinge of disgust as Isilblius gloated over how he had viciously attacked and molested her. Isilblius proudly exclaimed that, even now, Urd's father was convening a War Council. This made perfect sense to Mara...if *her* Father, Baeeal, were to find out that she was raped and nearly killed by a God...he would do the same! She felt sad that she would never see her Mother or Father again; no doubt Isilblius had isolated her away from being detected by any agents of the Demon Grief Office...or Vanagdrasil Mainframe. Somehow, Isilblius had cast his schemes into realities without being detected by Oni-sama! The very fact that he had trapped her in this slow death should have been enough to guarantee a reprisal by the Dark Lord...after all, she was one of His daughters. But the Ruler of Vanagdrasil had not come to rescue Mara from her plight, clear proof that Isilblius's activities were veiled from His notice. Mara realized that if the Gods attacked the Demons without a clear motive, the reprisal by her Demonic peers would be swift, merciless and bloodthirsty. They would be taken aback at the aggressive action of the Gods...after all, they were totally innocent of any wrongdoing against Urd. Casualties among the Demons would be catastrophic, since the first battle would be a total surprise. The Dark Lord Himself might become involved... Then she remembered one of the Rules...that a declaration of War had to be communicated between the Dark Lord and 'their Lord' before hostilities formally commenced. None of this would help her survive her present circumstances, however... "I'm going to die...alone!" she realized again as a SpiderDemon bit into her neck. * * * * * * * * Last night was truly strange. Keiichi and Megumi never came home from school. Late in the evening, a very drunk Megumi and Sora slammed their way into the temple home, gonging the bell with wild abandon, and then waking up the whole house with inebriate rantings. When we piled into the living room, half awake, Sora climbed up on a couch and promptly passed out. With her 43kg body, it probably didn't take much sake for her to get plastered. Megumi was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, muttering a flurry of indecipherable drunken litanies concerning "Keiichi" and "the stinkin' Club". I thought she was going to stay at Sayoko's apartment until things cooled over with her brother... An hour later, I was looking at the pile of graded exams from last week's mid-term. I couldn't help but wonder about Keiichi's aberrant behavior. He never even called to check in. Belldandy had taken things with a strange calm; in fact, she suggested patiently that Keiichi might be 'drinking it off with the guys'. Which kinda made sense, because his sister and Sora had obviously painted the town pink... On my way to my office, I ran into Chihiro near the campus center. Her expression was enough to reveal that yesterday's Club meeting had been a total disaster. She admitted as much, but then she told me the most amazing story about how a farmer in distant Yamagata Prefecture had found three of her horses. She went on to explain that her three horses had been assumed to have been killed when their stable was flattened by Supertyphoon Akira... I ate a quick lunch in my office, mulling over Chihiro's good news. Fortune had been a casualty in the past couple of months...it was gratifying to hear that someone was getting a reprieve from the sullenness which seemed to seep into our lives... As I was preparing to return the exams in my afternoon Intermediate Greek class, the loudspeaker suddenly crackled past its creak of disuse...and an old-sounding recording of the Japanese National Anthem suddenly started playing over the intercom. The dignified strains of the Kimigayo filled the air with solemnity, rallying all of us into a sense of suspense. The only other times I had heard the Kimigayo was during the 2006 Olympics...and today wasn't Beijing in summer 2008 the last time I checked. "What the hell..?" I wondered as I heard bells faintly chiming outside the classroom. It seemed like the early summer air had suddenly become blanketed with thousands of sounds...sounds that indicated that something unusual was afoot in the middle of May... "This is N.I.T. President Kintaro..." "Anybody know what's going on?" I asked aloud to my students. Despite the cheap PA speakers, I could hear Dr. Kintaro's voice wavering with barely controlled emotion. A dawning sense of numbness gripped the classroom as we all realized that this sudden interruption was something *major*. "It is my sad duty to inform you that Emperor Heisei has been assassinated...