Part 66 Transitions Before the initial flowering of victory-bliss had a chance to soften its touch on the N.I.T. Unified Club team members, Genji and Sayoko's parents had decided to grace the racing squad with another unexpected surprise. After bussing the whole team to Paris for a celebratory luncheon, the elder Mishima's announced that they were going to reward each and every N.I.T. Unified Club member with an all- expenses-paid 10-day vacation to Hawaii. In addition to this, the Mishima Corp. would provide a generous 500K yen spending allowance for each student, to be made available during the trip for shopping expenses. To a person, the team members naturally elected to share their vacations together, gleefully utilizing the lush package of perks that came with the trip. To Megumi, vacationing in Hawaii possessed a tantalizing hint of intrigue. After the irongrid reality of sweaty months spent preparing to race in the Le Mans, an expenses-paid vacation seemed feathery in comparison...a complete shiftabout in lifestyle. Relaxing within the wisps of a cirrus cloud dreamstate...Megumi felt transported away from the dance of the mundane; it was as if she and her teammates had won a top prize on one of the network game shows. True to their word, Genji's parents had spared no expense in festaling the victorious racers. Honolulu was a trip! The moment they got off the plane, the N.I.T. Unified Club was presented with floral leis by girls dressed in native Hawaiian dress...and the adventure began! Indeed, Megumi found herself to be somewhat of a minor celebrity with the locals; the humanitarian angle of the college students winning the premier roadrace was dangled to the TV audience by the media like cheesecake in front of a mouse. Within an hour of the Club's arrival, she and her teammates were getting requests for interviews from local broadcast stations. Chihiro had become a hero of sorts to the local Japanese community here in Honolulu. She had been invited to be the keynote speaker at a high profile businesswomen's luncheon at the Japanese Cultural Center. The deference that the business community exhibited towards her only embarrassed her. She disclosed this to Megumi the first night, under threat of injury should anyone else find out. Keiichi, Sora and she were swayed into signing glossy magazines at several Japanese booksellers. As she reclined on the hotel bed, Megumi observed to herself that she would probably never feel as proud of her accomplishments as she did that afternoon. When she and the others entered the first bookstore, they were met with wild cheers and applause. This, from her countrymen and others who lived thousands of miles away from Makuhari; people who had been following their progress in the Le Mans with attentive diligence. Stunned and tearfully overwhelmed by the attention, Megumi stole quick glances at her brother and Sora; once she noticed both of them struggling to hold back their own tears, her own sense of humble dignity was reinforced. Megumi was happy for several of her clubmates...word had quickly spread among the Unified Club that several of their members had distant relatives who had moved to Hawaii generations ago, kin that they were meeting for the very first time. In fact, everyone was having a blast here in Waikiki! Yet, Megumi felt a shadow of regret because Urd, Skuld and Cevn weren't here to join in on the festivities. Skuld had elected to return to the temple home in Makuhari, ostensibly to check on her robots and projects. Megumi suspected a more salient reason for Skuld's 'homesickness'...Tomohisa. Despite her denials, Skuld *was* in the body of a 16-year-old. Yet she tried to remain aloof of the strong play her changing hormones seemed to be causing. As one who had survived her teenage years, Megumi thought the girl was doing little more than fooling herself. Cevn had left with the youngest Norn, feeling downcast after his impasse with Urd. Belldandy had strongly suggested that he return directly to Japan, because a visit to his formal hometown of Honolulu might create some 'anomalies'. Megumi knew that Cevn had lived a life here; if he were to encounter any of his friends from Oahu, it could threaten his and their sanity. To them, he was dead. To him, they were untouchable ghosts. To everyone's surprise, Urd had declined to vacation with them in Hawaii. Instead, she announced dramatically to Belldandy and Skuld that she was going to return to Yggdrasil to spend some time "mending". The mid-summer temperature in Honolulu seemed hot to Megumi, but not as hot as its climatic counterpart in Chiba. Here, the heat possessed a different sort of grip, a sultry porveau that seemed to seep deeply into the skin. As a result, the air conditioners were blasting during the daytime in the swanky beachfront hotel lodgings the N.I.T. team were assigned. Their Club took up almost an entire floor of luxury suites...each room notable because of its breathstealing oceanfront view. Megumi was privately amused by the fact that the Mishima Corp had booked she and Genji into separate hotel rooms...but in adjoining suites. She was winning her bet with Sora, made the first day they arrived on Oahu. Genji *was* spending more time in her room than in his own. Especially after what happened yesterday... Megumi smiled as she let herself be wrapped and suspended by the soft comforter on the plush bed in her hotel room. Of course, one of the first things she had wanted to do when she hit the island was go on a shopping spree with Sayoko and Sora at the Ala Moana Center, right next to Waikiki. Sayoko was breathlessly enthusiastic as the three women strolled up Kalakaua Ave. towards the shopping center. Sayoko forenoted to Megumi and Sora in a brimming voice that this open-air mall would be a visual feast unlike anything that they was used to in Japan. Megumi and Sora had shopped through many of the vertical malls of Tokyo; illumned with waterfalls of neon, recessed lighting creating worlds- within-worlds, wallscreen TVs noisily advertising the latest styles, shops crammed tight and designed with an eye towards the future. The two N.I.T. coeds had frequently strolled through the block-long pedmalls of Chiba, with their tightly packed specialty shoppes and quaint kiosks... But as they approached the Ala Moana Center, Megumi was stunned by the sheer magnitude of the shopping center. Wrapped in an imposing cavernous bi-level parking lot, the mall extended for what seemed like a kilometer in either direction. She slid to a halt and darted a quick glance at Sora; the sense of awe on her best friend's face confirmed her own feelings. The scale of the shopping Mecca was daunting...in the same manner as the huge terminal of Kansai Int'l Airport in Osaka had seemed to her the only time she had been inside of it. Megumi didn't want to shop here...she wanted to capture the mall with a roll of photos... Sayoko seemed impatient as she and Sora struggled to decompress the mall into something less that short-breathedness. Megumi was too caught up in the initial flood of grandeur to be able to shift gears into 'shopping mode'. Her sense of amazement heightened one they entered the galleria: she could see indoor palm trees breezing noisily in the wind, hanging gardens exuding a panorama of floral odors, escalators wrapped in lava rock that confused the sense of nature-in-edifice. She had to dip her hand in one of the stylish fountain pools. Foodscent drifted from the food court, accompanied by the soundings in the distance of a jazz band performing onstage in the central hub courtyard of the mall. The visual impact of the Ala Moana Center suggested to Megumi the architectural breadth of the Makuhari Messe Exhibition Hall. After walking halfway down the main corridor of the shopping center, Megumi's awe gradually turned into delight. "There's *hundreds* of clothing stores here!" Sora announced with glee. Sayoko expertly guided them to all the trendy stores. They needed a guide, because there must have been a thousand little shops gathered in the four-story mall! Megumi bought several Hawaiian floral print wrap skirts, a bunch of touristy T-shirts and the requisite souvenir items for her friends back at N.I.T. In a beachwear store, one bikini captivated her the moment she laid eyes upon it. Silken to the touch, the swimsuit had a navy blue background, against which waves of bright blue fabric shined iridescently to the eye. As if this wasn't enough, it was cleverly bordered with loopknitted tiny seashells. She *had* to have it, even though the style was a bit more revealing than what she was used to... Returning to the present, Megumi hugged the pillow underneath her, wishing that she was outside. She fought an impulse to get out of bed and look out of her window at the night ocean... After shopping comes the beach! The next day, feeling a shade tentative, Megumi had worn her new swimsuit to the beach. When she peeled off her t-shirt and shorts, she had looked anxiously at her boyfriend to gauge his reaction. Genji was wordless at first, gathering delighted giggles from Sora and a smirk from Toshiyuki. In many ways Genji was the polar opposite of Toshiyuki Aoshima; where Aoshima reacted to Sora's new swimsuit with wolfish eyes, Genji simply stared wordlessly at her. Megumi noticed that once her boyfriend figured out that he was staring at her, he flushed red with embarrassment. Not exactly the reaction she had expected. But she could overlook his struggles with his own shyness...most importantly, Genji's appraising eyes more-than-hinted to Megumi that she looked *good* in her new swimsuit! The following day, they traveled over the Pali to the other side of the island, to the famed Kailua Beach. Much less crowded than Waikiki beach, Megumi liked this stretch of beach much better. A couple of hours after she laid out, Genji reacted with a charming yet rarely expressed protective streak; he was jealous because Megumi was certainly catching a lot of male admirers as she sunbathed. She ended up suggesting that he work out some of his energy by windsurfing... And finally, there was yesterday...the reason why Megumi had remained indoors all day today. The 'swimsuit effect' had proved itself to be *too* good. It was kinda Genji's fault anyway. Kicking the mattress with her feet with frustration, and then grimacing with the resulting pain, Megumi corrected herself. Actually, yesterday was *totally* her boyfriend's fault! In the morning, she had asked him to apply some suntan lotion on her skin...playing into the lore that it was every guy's dream to oil down their girlfriend with sunblock creme. At least, the anime, manga and shojo mags always portrayed this as an absolute...a powerful means for a woman to command masculine attention. Not to mention some confidences she had shared with Urd, and a little sleepytalk Megumi had overheard while her brother was napping several years ago...a month after a particularly interesting excursion to an ocean resort in which Urd dosed Keiichi and he ended up scaring the daylights out of Sayoko. Megumi remembered how Genji's face brightened with a tight admixture of embarrassment and lust when she asked him to put the suntan lotion on her. She was amused with her boyfriend's innocent bout of nerveskittles as he soothed the cream on her back with shaky fingers. He was so nervous that he had missed most of her back...and today she was paying the price for too much sun. So now Megumi had to deal with the frustrating matter of being forced to sleep on her stomach, because she sported a big bright red blotch of tender sunburned ouchy skin in the middle of her lower back. And she had to stay *inside* for most of the day today. No trip to the beach! Both Sora and Sayoko had stopped by her hotel room in the morning to offer their condolences...but ended up giggling at Megumi's misery. They both thought it was totally hilarious that her boyfriend's shyness would mark her. Megumi had planned to make their visit here a memorable one...even more memorable than the fact that they were in Hawaii. She had changed her mind about a certain something that remained unresolved between her and Genji. She hoped...she wished...that she and Genji could pluck the tasty fruits of Love's sweet sensual favors during this trip. In her mind, she was certain that she and he had waited long enough, regardless of her promise to herself to wait until she was back home. She wanted to *be* with him, to savor a physical realm of love with her boyfriend. But she recognized that he was probably much more tentative about sexual matters than she was. In one sense, Genji was the perfect gentleman; but this was one time Megumi wanted to be treated as more than a lady. As she saw it, Hawaii would be a memorable backdrop for a memorable first sexual experience. *Was* to be a memorable backdrop... But with a moderately uncomfortable sunburn in the small of her back, the possibility of any exertions of passion in a hotel bed was cast to remotion. It had occurred to her that Keiichi's first time with Belldandy had been in a hotel room; the significance of this fact made her desire a sweet encounter with Genji...in this room...even more. Crestfallen and feeling piqued, Megumi had spent most of the day putting Genji to task to salve her with fresh aloe on the sore spot every couple hours...while throwing in a few feigned exclaims of discomfort to further tighten the bonds of his already bouted guilt. She reminded herself that she *could* ask Belldandy to 'fix' her sunburn tomorrow, as Belldandy and Keiichi had spent today on Maui...and Genji's face certainly was flushed with enough guilt to possibly warrant a reprieve... * * * * * * * * Relaxing on the beachtowel, Keiichi looked on as Belldandy built her sandcastle on the beach a few meters away; her long auburn tresses blowing dancecurls in the shifting shore wind. Her slender fingers resembled those of an agile piano player's as they delicately sifted, shifted and shaped the sand. She was making a replica of their temple home; Keiichi instantly interpreted this creative impulse as homesickness on the part of his girlfr...his fiancee. Fi-an-cee. Belldandy was no longer his "girlfriend", even though his mind still seemed to fix itself upon the word he had used to mentally identify her immediacy in the orbit of his life. The assignation he had used so often during the past almost five years...no longer fit the circumstances. In a little less than a year, she would be his wife. He had done it right. So many of his friends had ended up getting married under less-than-ideal circumstances. Getting married just out of high school and having to live with the parents or in- laws. Getting married because of an unexpected pregnancy. Getting married in haste, a couple of months after first meeting each other. Getting married in spite of the animosity ushered by hostile in- laws...or even as a means of spiting their parents... Keiichi had done it right. His years of patience, sometimes tormented patience...had paid off. Belldandy wasn't just his girlfriend-now-fiancee; she was truly his *best* friend. As it should be. Theirs wasn't exactly a storybook romance, but it sometimes possessed many of the trappings of a love written in the heavenly stars. And Belldandy was the brightest star in his life... Fiancee. Very little had changed on the outside; the only noticeable change was the Metaixodenum ring on Bell-chan's ring finger. Yet, so much was changing on Keiichi's inner reality. Belldandy was still bonded to him by the Ultimate Force and the strong sentiments of her love for him. Keiichi knew that he could still share confidences with her, ride around on his motorbike with her, make tender love with her, enjoy her witty conversation, grimace at her naive gaffes, witness her feuding with her sisters, appeal to her sage wisdom when he was perplexed by the trudge of life... So what *was* different? In what way was this the beginning of another phase in his relationship with Bell-chan...this simple mental renaming of "girlfriend" to "fiancee"? And yet, this mere shift of mental nomination was *so much more*! By calling Belldandy his fiancee, Keiichi felt a pride in himself that he never sensed before. It was as if the wall-like strength of his Faith had been painted over with the rainbow hues of Love. Strikingly enough, Keiichi's belief in himself had deepened...here was a *Goddess* who deemed him as worthy of a lifetime's shared travels within the oasis of their love. Funny how the changing of a single word could change *everything*! His whole internal schema, or locus, had shifted from accompaniment to possession. Much as he wished to ignore or deny it, a part of his heart was rejoicing in the knowledge that their engagement had brought him a step closer towards Belldandy truly being *his*. He possessed her in a way that he hadn't when she was 'just' his girlfriend. And he sensed her heart was rejoicing in the knowledge that she possessed him as well. Belldandy was always old- fashioned...Megumi had been the first to point this out to him. She was loyal, attentive to domestic needs, deferential to his parents... But was her attitude really a case of being 'old fashioned'? Much of the dating and mating scene as he observed it at N.I.T. to Keiichi seemed to reek of insanity. A bunch of geekish tech students chasing after temporary romantic liaisons culled forth from the frothy brew of cupidity and paranoia. So many of his friends, both male and female, had been sliced down the heart by a loved one playing the furin...the two-timer. To cope with this, a wild polyamority had become the predominant ethic, not so much at N.I.T. but in Japanese society in general...demanding body-piercing and 'just so' fashions, snorting itself up the ass of lust-greed. If the Gods and Goddesses practiced an 'old fashioned' approach to romance and love...perhaps 'old fashioned' really was a misnomer for a performance morality that was based on virtuous sanity. Certainly, Belldandy was the sanest person he had ever met. Her two sisters...well, they were from another page in the book. Perhaps, they were from *another* book entirely... Even yet, despite the initial appearance of craziness, Keiichi had learned to recognize Skuld's years of lambasting Bell-chan's love for him as a form of sanity. Skuld was visibly acting on her concerns; worried that her older sister had fallen in love with the wrong man. And Urd's case, her attempts to 'hurry up' certain aspects of his and Bell's relationship...Keiichi acknowledged these manipulations as the product of Urd's maturity. With 'big sisterly' regard, Urd was basically intimating "look what you guys are missing!" every time she tried to dose Keiichi or Belldandy with a love potion. In retrospect, Keiichi had to grudgingly admit that she was right some of the time. Fondly strolling down the corridors of his memories, Keiichi could draw up hundreds of perfect moments he had shared with Belldandy. A particular memory emerged to paint itself upon the canvas of his mind. Once, when he found himself totally stressed out with his homework...because stress often unstealthes itself *suddenly*...Keiichi wandered in the kitchen to get a snack. There, he encountered Bell-chan busily prepping the evening meal. As if she could read the writing on his mind, she would always offer him a taste test to settle his anxiety... Memories... Their first kiss. Their first nighttime ride on his motorbike. The first night they slept in the same room. The first time he approached her out of desperation, totally out of his mind because of some now-forgotten dilemma...and she had offered him a hug. The first time he bought her a present. The first time they shyly caressed each other's hand... He wanted to give her *everything*...even the impossible. Keiichi wished that somehow, someday, he and Bell-chan would be able to Share. He knew that this was but one reality among many that she was willing to relinquish by choosing to be with a mortal such as he. And yet he was resolved to do anything in his power so that her sacrifice would be redeemed; redeemed in such a way that it would no longer haunt her. Redeemed by experiencing the very sensation she was relinquishing... As he watched Bell-chan deftly forming sandwalls around the replica sandtemple, he saw the same skill at play in the certain movements of her hands...that his fiancee employed while slicing vegetables at home. With a deep welling of respect, Keiichi reminded himself that Belldandy could shape Time itself with these very hands...yet she willingly allowed them to work the humble task of meal preparation. Not so humble...at least not in her mind, as he knew from personal experience. Bell-chan had tried to explain to Skuld on numerous occasions that "even tasks that are wrapped in meniality can be exalted to expressions of weighty importance by the presence of love." Whenever Urd snorted disgust that Belldandy should bother herself with mundane tasks such as laundry and cooking when she could accomplish these things effortlessly with magic, Bell-chan replied that it was the *doing* that contained the expression of gratitude and love. As the ocean waves swelled upon the golden sands of the beach, Keiichi smiled to himself, privately joking that he was glad he didn't have to experience the weighty importance of scrubbing down the furoba. At least for another week... And what was up with Megumi and Genji? Ever since Bell-chan had healed her sunburn, his sister and Genji seemed to be smitten with a terminal case of starstruck eyes and beaming grins... * * * * * * * * I climbed out the bathtub, feeling paralyzed. Normally, the wooden antiqued washbath area would prime me, creating a sense of being refreshed. But instead I felt swallowed up by lethargy. Not in a strictly physical sense, but in a means that I couldn't adequately mentally apprehend. My traveling companions of the past two weeks were vacationing in Hawaii, and I was here. Pretty much alone, ever since Skuld regarded me with chin-up eyes-away disgust any time she emerged from her "Skuld Labs" room. All because of Urd. I *knew* that she hadn't done anything untoward during that night of the post-race banquet and dance. But my jealousy had stripped itself to autopilot mania that night. Diminished to embarrassment and shame, I had elected to return home with Skuld. I knew that Urd was upset with me...her unexpected decision to visit her parents on Yggdrasil was an obvious fabrication. I strongly suspected that it was, in fact, a hasty departure to 'run home and cry to Mom and Dad'. Skuld was livid with me, accusing me of spoiling the joy in her sister's heart. She had every right to be... And now, I couldn't remember some of my Latin. I had spent years learning Latin thoroughly, and now I was having difficulty recalling declensions and genitives of words and phrases I knew by heart. As I toweled off, I felt diminished. The trip to France couldn't have tapped on my energy *that* much! If anything, the N.I.T. Unified Club members should be the ones fathoming bouts of fatigue, as they were the ones who were actually on the pivot of creating the possible out of the impossible. At the Le Mans, all I had been was a naive bystander. Yet, I was undeniably emotionally zonked. My heart felt pale and waxen, as if it was fettered by new and different invisibilities. The sense of dearth inside of me resembled the null-heartedness of the days when I shot heroin; but the shadings of a suspended 'being-of- feeling' made this sensation much worse. In a very real sense, I was overwhelmed by the impression that my world was crumbling... * * * * * * * * * It all started very innocently upon Keiichi's return from Hawaii. Once he landed back in Makuhari, Keiichi decided to take a couple of days 'off' to relax and unwind. The vacation in Hawaii had been spellbinding, even in spite of the numerous moments his fear of water gripping him with affright. He had relaxed...but he hadn't *rested*. Belldandy had spent much of her time in the ocean, playfully splashing around and swimming with the dolphins. With Sayoko's help, Keiichi had returned with a number of carefully selected gifts for his parents. His classmate at N.I.T. had taken time away from Tamiya to help him scout out several very distinctive and hard-to-find gifts while in France and Hawaii. Despite his anxious urge to take them over to his folks, he waited for a couple days before packing his sidecar with all the boxes and taking off for his parent's house. Keiichi was conflicted with emotions when he forevisioned telling Mom and Dad about his engagement to Belldandy face-to-face. The gifts were a secondary concern, yet he hoped that they would lighten the mood. His father collected clocks; with Sayoko's expert help, Keiichi had managed to procure an authentic 18th-century German cuckoo clock from an antique dealer in Paris. For his mother, he bought the obligatory tourbook and several handbags from France, plus a set of Polynesian carved koa bookends and other knickknacks to grace her statuette shelves. Megumi had thoughtfully made arrangements to visit Mom and Dad that day too. She told Keiichi that she wanted to be on hand to witness her brother's announcement...and to provide "sibling crisis support" if things were to get testy with Dad. They took the announcement surprisingly well. Keiichi had expected his father to be chagrined at the idea that he had proposed first, without getting any formal permission from him. But, as Megumi later noted on the way home, evidently their mother had been at work 'softening up' the old man. With a maternal instinct, she must have known that his marriage to Belldandy would be inevitable, Megumi explained. Having received the bestowal of blessings from both of his parents, Keiichi felt exquisitely unburdened. After eating a delicious homemade dinner that his mother insisted that he stay for, Keiichi and Megumi decided to stop by N.I.T. and check their first term grades. Looking up and down the class lists, he was floored when Prof. Sumiyama assigned him an 'incomplete' in Civic Systems and Demographical Engineering. Keiichi *knew* that he had turned all of his projects and papers! Trying to cheer him up, Megumi confided that she had had a "aloha experience" with Genji while in Hawaii. Despite her frank admission that she and Genji had introduced sex into their relationship, Keiichi felt strangely bereft of protective attitudes that had gotten him in trouble with Megumi in the past. He had to admit that his sister was deeply in love...and that she must really love Genji to allow herself to make love with him. He was grateful that he and his sister shared a tight enough bond that they could disclose such confidences with each other. In one sense, Megumi was more than a sister...she was a friend and support. Keiichi secretly wondered that maybe next year, he would be accompanying her and Genji to the family home so that she could make an announcement of her own. After a sleepless night, he phoned Prof. Sumiyama first thing in the morning. The professor dryly explained that Keiichi had never turned in his final 20-page paper. Stunned by this news, Keiichi was surprised that Dr. Sumiyama was willing to consider the possibility that he *may* have lost Keiichi's term paper. Nevertheless, the professor insisted that Keiichi would have to physically produce his missing paper, regardless of the circumstances. The whole household noticed that he was in a huff as soon as he got off the phone. The anxiety seemed to drip off the back alleys of his mind onto his forehead. From there, it sprayed invisibly towards anyone in the vicinity with the recklessness of a garden sprinkler. After Belldandy soft-talked him back to reality, Keiichi stalked off to his "Keiichi's Shop" study room, ready to pull the paper off of his computer and rectify the situation. Flipping down onto his futon cushion in his study, Keiichi pulled up the directory where he kept all his academic papers while Belldandy and Skuld leaned on in from the doorway. "SHIT!!!" he cursed, causing Belldandy and Skuld to shudder in response to the invisible pinch of his frustrated exclamation. His term paper was gone! Not a *trace* of it was on his computer! The fungus of his shock forced him to groan out a well of disbelief as he searched all the files of his PC, only to confirm that the paper wasn't there. Keiichi groused angrily, a blazing realization dawning on him...that he would have to rewrite the entire paper! He couldn't accept the fact that, in the rush to prepare for Le Mans, he had neglected making a backup copy of any of the drafts. He *knew* that there should be several incomplete drafts and an outline paper here in his computer. In a flash, he knew why... "Mara! She's got to be behind this! This is doubtlessly one of her stupid Demonic mischiefs! And it's goddamn working...I'm about ready to majorly LOSE IT! I have to rewrite a friggin' *20* page paper now because she jacked my final project!" he blazed angrily. Belldandy soothingly advised restraint in the face of her fiance's wildly-flung accusations. All the energy he was spending accusing Mara could be channeled into a rewrite of his paper, she suggested. A week later, he was finished with a new paper. * * * * * * * * * "I'm off to school to turn in my paper, Bell!" Keiichi shouted in a singsong voice as he chugged the last dregs of his coffee. Keiichi rarely drank brewed coffee, preferring the smoother taste of chilled canned coffee. But this morning he was ampped, because he was finally going to get beyond this issue of the missing paper! Belldandy looked at him from across the table, her blue eyes seemed to encapsulate a sense of pride that her beloved had finished rewriting his term paper with an economy of grumbling reflectance. For all the times Keiichi-san had been the target of Mara, Urd, Sayoko, Velpser, Peorth and others...he *should* have a victim complex by now. But her beloved always seemed to shrug it off and get on with his life. This durability was something *she* could rely on whenever her well of optimism would run dry. There were so many things about Keiichi that she loved so much! "Kiss me," she demanded with a demure smile, feeling an impulse to reward him. Keiichi leaned over the table and cupped her chin as he kissed her, stroking her cheek and her feathersoft tresses of hair. "Ummmm..." she purred happily, wrapped in the joy of his kiss. Another moment and he wouldn't be able to leave the house...Bell's soft aura had pulled him in once again... "I'll be back in an hour or so," he whispered in her ear, his voice tinged with reluctance as he stood up and walked towards the door. Looking at the beautiful visage of his fiancee one last time before stepping out, he felt a flash of curiosity as he saw Bell-chan cover her mouth in concern with her hand... ***BUMPB!!!*** Belldandy watched as Keiichi turned to smile at her a last time before he walked out the front door of their home. He wasn't watching where he was going...and thus he didn't see little Sigel careening around the corner at top gear dashout speed. The little shojo robot crashed into him as she dashed into the living room. Sigel, despite her apparent 10-year-old's physical stature, weighed *a lot* more than a human girl. In fact, because of her solid state robotic construction, she weighed a little more than Keiichi. With a gasping "whumph!", Keiichi was sprawled on the floor... With the deliberation of slow motion trajectory, Belldandy watched Keiichi's term paper spring itself free from his notebook and schoolbag. Arcing slowly in the air, it weaved a zigzag descent to the tatami. As soon as it landed in a tenting crumple on the floor, Banpei rounded into the front doorway and expertly leapt onto the living room tatami. Wherever Sigel goes, Banpei follows... Belldandy dropped her spoon as she watched their robot watchman tear across the living room floor in hot pursuit of his mechanical ladylove, right over Keiichi's term paper. The paper was instantly swallowed by Banpei's swifting metallic feet...and once it reappeared, it looked like it had been fed into a paper shredder. She looked helplessly at Keiichi, the vault of her forehead creased with worry. Her beloved had worked so hard on his paper! "H..honey! Your paper!" she mouthed, feeling a wash of numbing shock run up and down her spine. Keiichi's face was gripped with bitter disbelief as part of his final project fluttered by in the afterwind of Banpei's passing, almost as if it was taunting him. "I don't freakin' believe this!" he gasped, catching his breath as he pulled himself up to a cross-legged seated position on the floor. Sigel had knocked the breath out of him, so it was a moment before he remembered that he had a backup copy. Sighing with relief, he smiled at Bell-chan to reassure her that this mishap was only a delay, not a crippling blow. Strangely enough, Sigel and Banpei hadn't stopped to survey the scene of the accident. Normally, Sigel would at least be worried enough by her collision with him to stop and check if he was okay... "Not to worry...I'll just print another copy! I made sure this time to have a backup on my computer! No sweat..." he noted to himself. Bell-chan smiled at him as he stood up and walked to his room. A moment later, she heard a scream jamming with anguish. * * * * * * * * * Keiichi finished his term paper, feeling irritated that he had written it a third time. 60 pages of effort to draft a 20-page paper! It just wasn't fair! At least he had an outline from his last paper to work with. "I'm going to *kill* Mara for this!" he cursed angrily. Funny how his resentments seemed to have held themselves in check until the moment he had completed his rewrite. Now, seeing the finished product in front of him, he was reminded of how much time and labor had been wasted in reproducing his project...and the Demoness had forced him to do it... Keiichi decided that putting the finished paper in a plastic paper binder this time might prevent it from being shredded by stray mechas and household pets. As he fastened it into the binder, he looked warily at Velsper. The male cat cocked his head to one side, a quizzical expression on his feline face. "That's right! You're not going to even have a chance to rip this paper up! And don't you even think of peeing on it!" he said to the black cat with the white star on its forehead...a reminder that this very same cat was once a Demon who was Belldandy's doublet...and whose misguided passion for Belldandy had wreaked havoc in everyone's life a couple years back. Velsper hadn't demonstrated an iota of the malicious nature that defined him back when he was Velpser, the Demon. But Keiichi wasn't going to take any chances... Moodily walking into the kitchen, Keiichi set his paper on the counter and kissed Belldandy good morning. Once again, he had stayed up late, and he was feeling owlish from lack of sleep. But a kiss and hug from Bell-chan was usually enough to snap him from a potential foul mood. Besides, she had the very salve to remove his tensions. She was baking fresh cinnamon rolls. Keiichi felt the insides of his mouth watering at the fragrant sweetness... A few minutes later, a foul stench reeked from the oven. "My rolls!" Belldandy exclaimed in dismay. Quickly standing up, she floated over to the kitchen. The smoke alarm started to chirp as soon as she opened up the door to the oven. Grayish, stinky smoke slithered out of the open oven like fleeing worms. Keiichi recognized that familiar smell...the malodorous stench of burning rubber or plastic... With a gasp, he looked on the counter. Where his paper *had been*... * * * * * * * * As best as he and Bell-chan could reconstruct what had happened, apparently she had set down the metal oven pan with her rolls *on top of his paper*. Somehow, the plastic binder had gotten stuck to the bottom of the pan containing her rolls. When she put it in the oven, his paper had caught on fire... Keiichi was amazed that Belldandy could have made such a dumb mistake! He was momentarily livid with her, until he realized that she was stricken with enough guilt to tranquilize a giraffe. As for Belldandy, she was genuinely disappointed in herself; perplexed as to how she could have set the oven tray down without noticing Keiichi's paper and binder on the counter. True, she was excited about baking this treat for her fiance as a reward for his diligent efforts to rewrite his final paper. But the baking tray was *clean*; there was no frosting or anything else that could have caused the paper to adhere to it! She fought back tears as she realized that his paper was gone. All it was now was a pile of ashes in the oven and a mess of burnt paper and plastic stuck to the bottom of her oven pan. "It's not your fault, Bell," Keiichi assured her gently as her face quivered with sadness. *This* was why they got along so well...he had swiftly abandoned his impulse to shout her down, realizing instead that it was far more important to boost her out of her guilt. No paper was worth his beloved future wife feeling guilty for an honest mistake. Besides, he could empathize with her...this scenario probably seemed like a nightmare come true for his fiancee. "But...how?" she worried weakly, struggle to regain her composure. "And in *my* kitchen too! I *know* this kitchen...I *built* this kitchen...and I have never had an accident here since I taught myself how to cook Earthrealm food!" Keiichi could hear her quiet voice shadowed by disbelief. He felt helpless, trying to find words that could comfort her. Touched by her efforts today...and five years ago... Her words uncoiled the frameworks of his memory, loosening several recollections of Belldandy's initial struggles to learn how to cook Earthrealm food. She had literally taught herself the basics of cooking. Then she moved on, learning to select the right mixes of seasonings for certain foods, the appropriate ensembles of meal items, etc. It had taken her a few weeks to finally develop a mastery of the kitchen. Back then, Keiichi had wondered what could possibly motivate her to try so hard to cook for him...but now in hindsight, he knew that her efforts were but a reflection of her budding love for him. The same sense of budding love that had motivated him to eat some of her 'failed' cooking experiments back then...without regard to how sorely they would test his intestinal fortitude. His self-possessed smile seemed to reassure Belldandy as he pulled her into his arms and hugged her warmly. Still, there *was* the issue of how she could have overlooked his paper on the counter. And how the plastic paper folder had mysteriously pasted itself to the bottom of a *metal* baking pan. Belldandy looked him, the guilt flushing itself out of her face as she rested her head against his chest. "This has gone too far! I'm going to have a talk with Mara *right now*!" she announced with a decisive nod of her head. * * * * * * * * Mara watched the image of her younger sister waving away the drifts of smoke as she walked towards the phone. The light colors of Belldandy in her kitchen contrasted with the dark rouge of the bloodwall surrounding the viewport. The Demoness in her was initially quite amused by this turn of events, especially with the cementjaw-dropping expression of a stunned Keiichi once he realized that his paper had wound up in oven smoke. But Mara's good-humor was tempered by the guilt-stricken expression of her younger sister. Belldandy looked mortified, which took part of the fun out of this whole situation. Sisters will be sisters...and Mara didn't like to see one of her younger sisters upset, unless it was she that was doing the upsetting. And in this case... Mara was hagnagged by the fact that she had done *nothing* to orchestrate this particular strife. The past couple of months had been difficult for her. The sheer level of her workload as the head of a new Demon Office was almost overwhelming. It severely cut into her videogame time! Yet, she occasionally felt a certain sense of pride in her accomplishments, considering that the administrative chores alone would have certainly buried most Demoness First Class licensees into a labyrinth of craziness. Yes, Mara had been quite occupied recently. Having to learn the skills of the trade herself, Mara had to turn around and recruit Demons for her staff while still fresh herself...not to mention managing all startup tasks needed to get a Demon Office up and going. And as if this wasn't enough to wreak havoc with her confidence in her abilities, Mara had the added task...the gutwrenchingly *fearful* necessary duty...of having to report directly to His Dark Eminence! Consequently, she had decided to give herself an emotional boost out of the trudgery by demonstrating her newly-acquired skills... For the Le Mans, she had cleverly employed a faux mischief...leaving a Damoclean sword of a threat to hang over the three Norns, letting it do all the work for her. But recently, she felt increasingly inspired to create an *active* dispensation of strife; an inspired original bit of mischief to subject upon her favorite targets. When she discovered that Professor Sumiyama had lost Keiichi's term paper, and the fool mortal had neglected to make a backup copy... She'd be an idiot to ignore a *molten* opportunity like that! Reminded of the adage "the best-laid plans of Demon's are often the thoughts that are created by mortal ignorance", Mara gleefully wiped any trace of the paper from Keiichi's computer while sneakwareing a flirtation program into Skuld's robot Sigel. As usual, hacking into the AI of one of Skuld's mechas proved to be a much more than a trivial challenge, but Mara was able to pull it off with a moderate amount of effort. Skuld was 100,000 years too young to prove a real thwart to Mara's ambitions. The Demoness expertly reprogrammed Skuld's 'babygirl' robot to flirt very aggressively with Banpei...with predictable results. Once his robotic oil was about to boil over with mecha-lust, Sigel was to tear through the house until Keiichi's paper was ripped into tiny bits. It had worked. Flawlessly. But now, as she watched Keiichi pacing in a small circle near the dining table, Mara was worried. Belldandy's mortal charge had lost another paper, in what seemed like a spectacular bit of mischief that *she had nothing to do with*! Could it be possible that someone on her staff of new recruits...was scooping her by playing mischief on him? By taking full advantage of the fact that Keiichi had already been stung by Mara's own superb skills at wreaking strife in his life? Playing followup tomfoolery would be a means of scoring easy points... But unfortunately, if one of her staffers were trying to get an easy score...it would blow up in their face with coroneal fury once Mara discovered any misplay. It was Mara who dished out the points and awards. "My three sisters, Keiichi and their little entourage...are off limits! They're exclusively *mine* to play with!" she said to the nearest SereHawk. "What could be causing this?" she wondered aloud, once her ire cooled down somewhat. *Rrrring* "That would be Belldandy," she muttered to herself. Snapping her fingers, a BonePhone resembling a human femur floated in the air towards her outstretched hand... * * * * * * * * Keiichi finished the fourth draft of his paper late in the afternoon. Deciding that prudence was the best virtue, he immediately locked it in a metal tool case and asked Belldandy to put a ward on the case to prevent it from being tampered with by any Demonic spells. Before he started this draft, Bell-chan had told him that, yes, Mara had admitted that she was responsible for the first accident that resulted in the loss of his paper. But her sister the Demoness was adamant that the 'oven incident' was not of her doing. Bell added that Mara suspected that someone on her staff was in league with a Fortune Demon, perhaps even Senbei or his ilk... Keiichi didn't believe a word of it. Mara could lie as easily as Urd, if it suited her own ends. Exhausted from his overnight efforts, he slept with the tool case under his pillow... * * * * * * * * Finally, he was ready! After kissing Belldandy goodbye, Keiichi walked out to the garage with a confident stride. Tightening the seatbelts, he fastened the metal case containing his paper inside of his BMW's sidecar, where Belldandy usually rode. Using thick twine, he tied it securely to the back of the seat so it wouldn't find its way out of the sidecar in mid-transit. Humming a Move song to himself, Keiichi revved up his bike and departed for N.I.T... About 1 kilometer down the road, he spied oil leaking from the side of his bike. The side that the sidecar was mounted to. Gradually, his BMW started *spraying* droplets of oil. Caught up in the wind, the oil covered the sidecar, soaking it with a thick black vicuous fluid... * * * * * * * * Belldandy could tell that Keiichi was extremely upset by the way he dismounted from his motorbike. Usually, Keiichi sort of glided off the seat of his BMW with a practiced grace...but this time he dismounted as if he was jumping off a cliff. "Honey, what's the matter?" she asked. "It happened again! By the time I got to N.I.T., my paper was *ruined*! My motorcycle sprang an oil leak...no big deal, I thought. But then it kept spraying the metal tool case! Once I unlocked it, my paper was completely soggy with motor oil!" "But...how? Your motorcycle has never leaked oil! And you just tuned it up last week!" Belldandy protested. "Bell-chan, are you *sure* that Mara was telling the truth when she said that she caused only the first accident with my paper...?" he asked in an anguished voice. Belldandy didn't want to think that Mara would continue to pester Keiichi after the Demoness had told her that she only indulged herself a single piece of mischievousness on Keiichi. But this...this accident was too bizarre! * * * * * * * * Belldandy looked at Keiichi with concern, watching him as he observed Cevn eating breakfast. Underneath Keiichi's arm was yet another draft of his final paper. It was getting down to the wire...her beloved Keiichi had just days before the start of the Fall Term on Sept 3rd. If he didn't submit his paper, he wouldn't be able to start school. Keiichi explained that the N.I.T. Graduate Division was very particular about the fact that no marks of 'incomplete' could be carried over into the next term. In the year-and-a-half since Cevn had been brought here as a result of a substitute Urd granting his wish, Belldandy had grown quite fond of him. She was also happy to see that Keiichi had come to think of him as a friend. The two men had learned much about each other over time. Belldandy knew that Cevn was resolute about maintaining recovery from drugs. To Cevn, abstinence from mood- altering substances included everything; refraining from smoking or drinking caffeinated beverages. As drugs, nicotine and caffeine were no different than LSD or heroin...the chemicals they unleashed in the human body still caused one to waver from their true self. And as an addict, Cevn had to be extra cautious about his own behavior. Belldandy was very aware of the Earthrealm condition of drug addiction; she had even granted a few wishes that involved a 'cure' from drug abuse. And Cevn had maintained that Urd was 'addicted' to sake...right up to the point where her older sister's terrestrial powerup source had somehow been changed from booze to orange juice and peach juice. But what impressed her about Cevn was the diligence that he devoted to doing what he could to keep himself clean. Which made his actions the past few days quite enigmatic. Skuld had also noticed the change. In fact, her younger sister hypothesized that this change was a reflection of something deeper. While it may appear to be specious, the fact that Cevn was acting against his long-held convictions worried Keiichi; it seemed to indicate a very significant breakdown. Belldandy sensed that this was just the beginning of a decline that could take their friend into greater troubles. What was also troubling was the fact that Cevn seemed to be ignorant of the very changes happening in his life. Cevn had started drinking coffee. Not just any coffee, but dark espresso. But this wasn't all. Yesterday, Belldandy had found a pack of cigarettes while she was vacuuming the living room furniture. The half-empty pack had fallen in between the folds of one of the couches. Belldandy was adamant that their temple home was to be non-smoking. And she was certain that none of the house residents smoked. For a moment, she felt a slight suspicion that Keiichi had lapsed back into his smoking habit. But when she broached the subject of the cigarettes, her fiance didn't respond defensively at all; he was quick to assure her that he hadn't smoked since he quit, almost 4 1/2 years ago. He assured her that he wasn't planning to start smoking any time soon. Belldandy suspected that the cigarettes belonged to Cevn. Just that moment, Cevn hunched forward and started coughing. As he reached up to cover his mouth, his elbow crashed into the coffee mug, spilling coffee everywhere on the table. The rapidly expanding pool of dark coffee soaked Keiichi's term paper. Belldandy gasped, then looked at Keiichi; his lips were quivering with anger. Glancing at Cevn, she watched him hang his head low as the guilt gripped him. Belldandy thought she saw a split-second's recognition on Cevn's face; a recognition that something was amiss...that the fact that he was drinking coffee was *wrong*. But then the guilt flustered him. "What the hell!!!" Keiichi started to shout. Belldandy quickly waved him down; she had been in this position before. She didn't want Keiichi to fire off on Cevn when it was obvious that this accident was completely out of his control. But she also decided that it was time to confront Mara, who was probably in control of every accident that destroyed Keiichi's paper. Belldandy watched Keiichi head off to his "Keiichi's Shop" room to print up another copy of his term paper. She was almost certain that he would be unable to... "My printer's ruined!" she heard him shout in the hall. * * * * * * * * Mara slid her feet off her desk the moment she saw Belldandy. She looked at the Goddess appraisingly. Belldandy had actually come here, to her lair! She made a mental note to upgrade the detect and defend spells surrounding her Shinkansen tunnel lair. "Mara! What is the meaning of this? Keiichi's paper was destroyed again!" Belldandy announced. "Soooo..." "You assured me...you *insisted* that you didn't have anything to do with the destruction of his papers, except for that first time with Sigel and Banpei! You said that you weren't going to cause any more problems with Keiichi's paper!" she confronted Mara, hands on her hips. "What makes you think I didn't change my mind, little sister? Or that I haven't decided to cause Keiichi problems in other areas of his life, perhaps?" Mara replied with a leisurely taunt. She had to use a threat to create the appearance of being unconcerned and casual; covering up the waves of concern swarming her when Belldandy delivered this latest news. Someone was continuing to prevent Keiichi from delivering his paper...continuing the mischief she had started. "Don't call me 'little sister', Mara!" Belldandy said tersely. "Bwah hah ha hah! You look so much like a Demoness when your face is all flushed red like thus!" Mara commented, creating a holoimage of an enraged Norn for Belldandy to see. "Besides, the truth is...you *are* my younger sister. Don't deny reality, Belldandy! You sneak into my private lair unannounced, and then you have the audacity to accuse me of pestering your precious Keiichi when I *told* you that I wasn't doing it! Is this any way to respect your older sister?" Mara confronted her. "Mara, I'm sorry...but you don't know how important this paper is to Keiichi. It means the difference between..." "Ohhh, but I do know why it's so important, Belldandy! Why do you think I chose to create mischief in his life be preventing him from turning in the paper in the first place?" "Mara! How could you? My dear Keiichi is going to be your brother-in-law in less than a year! Can't you give him a break?" "Well, the fact that he is going to be my little brother is all the more reason to keep him on your toes, dontchya think?" Mara teased. Belldandy folded her arms across her chest at that comment. She realized that she was getting nowhere as long as Mara kept gainsaying her. But then she noticed Mara's face turning to a thoughtful, serious mien. Ever since they found out that the Demoness was Urd's twin sister, things had become a little schizoid between her and Mara. On one hand, Mara could really be vicious...but on the other hand, Mara seemed to react with a sisterly affection at times. It was so unclear to Belldandy; which Mara was she addressing now? "Belldandy...sister, you're still caught up in this idea of yours that I had something to do with all this! I was telling you the truth when I said that I had nothing to do with Keiichi's paper winding up in your oven! But in all fairness, I'm pretty worried about all of this too," she admitted. "Why? It's *Keiichi* that's suffering," Belldandy argued. "As if! I didn't even know about this incident with the paper getting soaked with motor oil! Drop your obsession about your mortal boyfriend for an instant and consider the significance of *my* situation! I'm the head of a Demon Office in charge of playing mischief and strife on Earthrealm mortals, Belldandy. Now, suddenly someone is continuing to harass Keiichi with *additional* mischief...without my permission or my knowledge! I don't have a single clue about know who is doing it or what is the cause of it. This whole situation is getting out of control! If the Dark Lord gets wind of these unauthorized actions, I'll wind up eyebrow deep in an iceberg! In other words, I'll be in bigtime deep shit!" Mara explained, shuddering as she mentioned His name. Belldandy shivered along with her. "I think I understand," Belldandy said in a half-asking-half- stating voice. "You really don't know who's been doing this to my fiance." "That's right! Right after you asked me, I tried to trace the source of the problem. I checked with Vanagdrasil Mainframe, I interviewed dozens of Demons on my staff, I monitored several million acts of mischief. I didn't find a single piece of evidence that could explain why Keiichi's paper keeps getting destroyed." "So what do we do now? Keiichi's sanity and your job is on the line," Belldandy noted. * * * * * * * * "Keiichi! I've figured out what's wrong! I know who's been doing this! Well actually, not who's been doing this...but what's been the cause of this!" Skuld announced excitedly. "Skuld, forgive me if I'm not too enthused at the moment," a red- eyed Keiichi warned her. "But I really do know! I really do!" Skuld said, almost hopping up and down with joy. "So do tell...what do you think has been happening to my papers?" Keiichi asked. "They're Bugged!" Skuld announced. "Huh?" "They have a Bug! That's why!" "That's why what? That's idiotic! How could my term papers have a Bug? They've been destroyed each time!" Keiichi snarled in frustration. "Why don't you believe me? I spent days trying to figure out what could have caused your papers to be destroyed...and now you don't believe me!" Skuld said, her voice iron-whining with accusation and betrayal. "I'm sorry, Skuld, but this notion of yours that my paper has a Bug seems a little farfetched. Especially since the evidence has been destroyed. How could a paper be infected with a bug once it's burnt in an oven, or shredded by one of your robots?" "It's not the physical paper that I'm talking about, dummy! It's not even the space that this paper is taking up in your mind..." "Then what is it?" Keiichi shouted. "The answer almost...almost...eluded me, but I figured it out. You must understand that it's kinda hard to explain to a mortal, because...well, just because. Your paper...the original paper that you handed in to your professor? He left it next to the microwave in his office, and that's why all these problems keep cropping up!" Skuld explained, nodding her head for emphasis "You mean to tell me that this is all due to the fact that Prof. Sumiyama set my paper next to his snack heater in his office! That's utterly ridiculous!" Keiichi said. He had expected Skuld to launch into a pedantic explanation that was rigored with profundity. Instead, her "explanation" was ridiculous beyond the pale! "You see! I *knew* you wouldn't understand!" Skuld chirped in frustration. "What is there to understand?" Keiichi asked, trying to calm himself. Maybe Skuld was onto something. "There is a trace element that was in one of pieces of paper that you printed your term paper on. That element, when in proximity with microwave emissions, is known to attract the attention of Bugs. Just like a light attracts moths in your Earthrealm. Anyway, the original paper you turned in got infected with an Yggdrasil Bug! But that's not all! If a Bug comes anywhere near this particle, it traps the Bug and creates a chronometric displacement anomaly! That's pretty bad! But once Mara played that trick on you with my two robots, the 'bugged' paper somehow got sealed by the Demonic arcane energy she was using in her spell. So it's become much worse, you see." Skuld was starting to make sense. "What do you mean...worse? What can be worse than this?" "Keiichi, in essence, you could rewrite that paper a million times and the result would be the same. The trapped Bug has created a temporal loop...a loop that will *always* result in the destruction of your term paper! There's nothing you can do in the Present to prevent this!" "Then...I'm royally screwed, if what you're saying is true, Skuld!" Keiichi said in a soft, shaky-with-frustration voice. Skuld grinned at him and flipped her hair. "Not so fast! Using my capacity for genius, I have developed a means by which your problem can be solved! All I have to do is whip up a time travel device...and presto! I can go back in time and get your paper before the professor sets it down next to his microwave. It'll never get zapped, the Bug will be history...and you'll be able to turn it in! See what a prodigy I am!" Skuld finished with her typical girlish arrogance. An arrogance that seemed out-of-place in a 16-year-old. "Well...okay. I don't know what other choices we have at this point. Can you build one of these time travel devices soon? School starts in four days..." "I'm on it! I'll have it finished in two!" Skuld announced, then skipped out of the room.