Part  81  Urd and Skuld--Glass Hammer, 2nd Movement




     "This is absolutely moronic!  How did we ever get in this mess?!
*I* certainly didn't ask to be here in some Urusei Yatsura otaku
nightmare!" Skuld yelled fractiously as she drew a tight circular pace
around Urd, Belldandy and Keiichi.
     "Urusei Yatsura?  What's that?" Belldandy asked, raising an
eyebrow.
     "I dunno...but it's a pretty good description of my wife.  She's
an alien, she's *very* irritating, she always interferes with whatever
I want to do..." Keiichi answered, drawing a look of ire from Skuld.
     Skuld cursed her bad luck.  Instead of reviving Cevn, the
Ultimate Returning Mandala had betrayed the purpose of its Metanative
energies...and *sent* her and Urd to some parallel Multiverse.  An
illusory realm, based on an old manga series that Urd fancied.  A
series that Big Sister Urd thought was *funny*.
     "Well, there was nothing funny about this place!" Skuld groused,
her remark drawing questioning looks from the others.
     To the best of her knowledge, there were no anime universes among
the trillions upon trillions of universes in the Multiverse, last time
she checked.  The only plausible explanation she could come up with
was that they were back in Yggdrasil.  The Yggdrasil Mainframe was
certainly capable of creating a virtual reality universe like this.
So either they were stuck in a VR simulation...or they *really* were
in a new universe based on a comedy manga.  If it were a new universe,
then Kami-sama Himself must have something to do with their situation,
as He was the only one capable of creating new universes.  But why?
Why would He even bother?  The more Skuld theorized, the more she
questioned her assumptions and intuitions...and the more she cursed
her bad luck.
     Therefore, 'here' was someplace that couldn't be explained.
     And to make matters worse, the Earthrealm was under threat of
total annihilation by Lum's Father...who was someone called the Oni
Warlord.  An attack was forthcoming unless she could somehow reconcile
Lum with her husband.  And in this reality, *Keiichi* had wound up
being Lum's husband.
     Finally, to cap off the entire comedy of absurdities...when
Belldandy arrived to offer her GRO services, this Keiichi had made the
worst possible wish imaginable.  Under the most freakystyle of
circumstances, his idiot wish required Belldandy to do anything within
her all-too-considerable powers to keep Lum away from him...
     In a nutshell, it was a fucked up mess!
     Skuld felt her face contouring with the authority of her
frustration.
     Matters were coarsened by the fact that Big Sister Urd wasn't
herself.  Ever since she had been reunited with Urd, Skuld had turned
the question over in her mind about whether or not she was *really*
her oldest sister.  Her suspicions increased when she learned that Urd
didn't even know why she had been brought here.  But the omnipresent
ethereal link that bonded her and Urd as sisters and Norns was readily
sensible to Skuld.  The 'sisterly' link between she and Urd...was
completely was absent between her and this 'Belldandy'.
     Skuld had to reluctantly admit the impossible: that her older
sister was suffering from a selective amnesia.  She gathered that Urd
remembered nothing about the loss of her mortal boyfriend, the
Returning Mandala, or what she was doing here in the first place.
     This was like a bad moonrise on Vega VII...
     "Oiii...you look really upset!  Wanna cigarette?" Keiichi said,
offering her a Lucky Seven menthol after he pulled one out for
himself.
     Skuld looked at him with bemused disgust, finding it hard to
believe that he could be so clueless.  *When* did she ever ask him for
a cigarette?  For that matter, when did any of us ever even hint at
smoking around him?
     Could it be...that this wasn't the Keiichi that she lovehated?
     Keiichi grinned idiotically at her.  Put off by his insipid
reaction, she turned to Urd, who was glancing nervously back and forth
at the sight of the lit cigarette and Belldandy's face.  Her older
sister was obviously expecting Belldandy to go off any minute.  Skuld
well remembered her sister's very strong dislike of Keiichi's smoking
in those early days of her stay on the Earthrealm...
     But Belldandy didn't react at all...which incited another bout of
moody disgruntlement for Skuld.
     "And *you*!!!  How could you possibly agree to grant his wish!
Keiichi is *married* to Lum in this reality...and you go and screw
things up for both of them!  Isn't there some kind of Rule that
prevents Goddess Relief Office workers like you from ruining
marriages?" Skuld remonstrated, already knowing the answer to her
question.
     "Of course there isn't!  If the person making the wish is in an
unpleasant marital situation, then wouldn't it be the most sensible
form of charity to grant their wish and act to dissolve the marriage?"
Belldandy answered.  Skuld looked straight up at the ceiling and
clenched her fists while hissing "Ooooooo!" angrily.
     "She's still a child sometimes, isn't she?" Urd quipped.
     "I heard that...and I am *not* a kid!  Especially now!" Skuld
responded.  Urd had forgotten a lot, but she obviously hadn't
forgotten how to taunt her.
     "Skuld, it seems that you must *still* think you're a child in
some recess of your consciousness.  Otherwise you wouldn't react so
harshly when someone deems you as being childish.  Observe how your
Big Sister Urd and I act.  If Keiichi decided to call one of us a
child, his words wouldn't upset us in the slightest.  This is because
we're used to being adults...we *know* that we're grownups.  Simply
put, you're not quite an adult yet.  Adult Goddesses aren't worried
about being mistaken for children.  Since you're so bothered by being
viewed as a young girl...the only reasonable explanation is that, in
your mind, you *still* see yourself as a girl!  And on the face of it,
there is no questioning the fact that you *are* a young girl!"
     Urd literally hung her mouth agape at this.  Belldandy had
basically blunted Skuld with a direct impugnment of her typical "I'm
not a kid!" reaction.  The younger sister she knew would never be so
tactless as to chew Skuld out for the trivialities of her instincts.
Skuld's "I'm not a kid!!!" reaction was pleasantly tolerated by
Belldandy...the job of teasing or remonstrating Skuld seemed to always
fell to Urd.  Urd realized that Skuld was a bit ampy, but then
Belldandy was the balance against Skuld's rashness.
     But this Goddess?  Urd sensed that 'this' Belldandy was every bit
as mischievous as *she* was.  Belldandy was resolute in denying that
granting Keiichi's wish was risky business.  Her sister seemed to be
mirthfully aloof of the consequences of her actions...
     Which meant that she *wasn't* Belldandy...

          *pound*   *pound*   *pound*

               *DAAAAARRRRLING!!!*

     "Oh great, it's Lum again!" Keiichi observed in a moaning voice
of exasperation.  The shuttered wooden doors to the temple resounded
with a knocking that suggested the full-fisted pounding of kobolds in
Medieval mytheries.
     "Skuld...*you* talk to her!" Urd insisted.
     "No way!!!  *You* talk to her, Big Sister!" Skuld counter-
exclaimed.  Urd shrugged her shoulders and stood up, spurring herself
to face the inevitable.
     "'Parmis tous les arts du monde, le plus beau sera toujours celui
de t'aimer,' as Peorth would say," Urd announced to no one as she left
the room.
     Among all the arts of the world, the most beautiful are always
those of love.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     In the hour that she and Urd spent talking to Keiichi, a
nightmarish picture emerged in Skuld's mind.  No, not a
nightmare...just a reality that was bent the wrong way.  In this
Earthrealm, the Keiichi Morisato her sister had been assigned to
wishgrant was a total slacker.  For one thing, his motivation was
strictly "freeter", to coin a phrase.  His uninspired attitude was
fitly described by the Japanese media's neologism...a world that
combined "arbeit" and "freeloader" to describe an unambitious part-
time worker.  Lum had remarked that he had no aspirations other than
tooling around on his motorbike and chasing girls, much to her
chagrin.  Having never even attempted the college prep schools,
Keiichi had never gone to N.I.T. in this reality.  After Lum had
appeared in his life, he basically sponged off of her allowance from
her father.  A Japanese government that was grateful to Keiichi for
saving the world...and PR-hungry...had chipped in with Lum's Oni
Father to buy this temple.  Lum's Father had furnished the temple for
his daughter and her 'husband' as some kind of bridal dowry...a place
to help her daughter feel grounded in her new home planet.  To
Keiichi, this arrangement was convenient insofar as it meant that he
never had to "lower himself" to fulltime work.
     And Lum loved him with all her heart.
     More and more, Skuld found herself contrasting the Keiichi of
this reality with the Keiichi that her sister was in love with.  Once
again, she had to reluctantly confront the errors of her judgment
regarding Belldandy's fiance.  Over the years, Skuld had put Keiichi
to task time and time again to prove his love for her sister...and he
had passed each and every 'test'.  He had even passed her parent's
test, the Ritual of Preparedness.  Belldandy's Keiichi and 'this'
Keiichi were like salt and water, total opposites!  Skuld found
herself fondly appreciating Keiichi's drive and ambition, especially
in terms of his desire to get his Master's degree so that he could
land a good job and support Belldandy.
     In contrast, this Keiichi was nothing more than a narcissistic
leech.
     Lum deserved better than this.
     But the whole situation reeked and stung, like an onion that was
many-layered with conundrums.  If she and Urd somehow managed to
outwit Belldandy's granting of Keiichi's wish, then Lum could have her
husband back.  Which would majorly suck for Lum, because he obviously
didn't love her.  And if she and Urd left things as they were, the
Earthrealm would wind up being vaporized.  And even if it wasn't, her
'sister' would wind up being saddled with a lamer for the next 60
years or so...
     Skuld hated lose-lose situations.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "So what did my Darling tell you?  Huh?  Huh?  Has he woken up to
his senses and decided that he's going to come back to me?" Lum asked
with machine-gun anxiety as soon as she and Urd returned from the
temple.
     Skuld pondered how to explain this one to the distraught Oni-
girl.
     Keiichi's wish had been very specific: that Belldandy had to keep
Lum away from him.  The gist of this was that it indebted Belldandy to
invoke all her Goddess abilities to fulfill the wish.  Lum and her
friends could literally find themselves pitted against an unsealed
Goddess First Class, Unlimited, Unrestricted licensee if matters found
their ways to an extreme.  And if Skuld and Urd sided with Lum against
Keiichi and Belldandy, then she might...no, she *would*...have to
challenge her own sister!
     A prospect that both daunted and discouraged the Norn of the
Future.
     "Keiichi's not coming back to you, Lum," Skuld started to explain
in a level voice.  The reactions were dramatic to a degree that
approached a hyperbolic candor: Benten looked like she was going to
explode with rageful disgust; Oyuki sat passively and bowed her head,
shaking "no" side-to-side with a look of rapt disappointment; Lum was
almost paralyzed, tears rimming her eyes as she floated in the air,
tight-fisted and silent.
     But to Skuld's surprise, it was her sister Urd who was sobbing...
     "I don't..snff..understand why I'm so upset.  It's not my problem
at all!  But yet, I feel like I've lost someone very close to me.
B..but I know I haven't, so my reaction's kinda..snff..ridiculous,
isn't it?" Urd explained as she wiped away her tears with a sheepish
expression of embarrassment.
     Skuld was well aware that Urd still didn't have all of her
memories back.  But yet, it seemed that the powerfully empathetic
reaction to Lum's dilemma disclosed a deep fracture in her sister's
memories.  Urd might be *feeling* the pain of her loss, without even
being aware of *why* she was swarmed by a deep sadness.  If this
emotional dissonance was real, it would only be a matter of time
before the tragic memories would reassert themselves.  Which pushed
the youngest Norn into a decision-making corner, so to speak.  If she
told Urd the truth about Cevn, Skuld would be opening up floodgates of
heartfelt turmoil for her sister.  And if she didn't inform Urd, then
Urd might discover the truth on her own, perhaps at a vital juncture
in their efforts to try and solve this puzzlepiece of an entanglement.
Three loony teenaged space-girls was bad enough; but an emotionally
ballistic Urd in addition to the three girls would be too much for
Skuld to handle...
     "I'm just a teenager myself!" Skuld observed in frustration while
trying to seize upon a possible solution to the mess she found herself
in.
     Another lose-lose situation.
     When faced with such perplexities, Skuld would normally rely on
the wisdom and experience of her older sisters.  Either one of them.
But Urd wasn't herself, and Belldandy...wasn't Belldandy.  Once again,
the forge of Skuld's awareness sheparded the uncomfortable reminder
that she was totally on her own; bereft of her sister's advice and
completely reliant on her own ken.
     "I say we take 'im by force!" Benten explained.  "This isn't
about Lum's husband as much as it is about Lum's friends!  He may be a
worthless undeserving scoundrel..."
     "HE IS NOT!!!" Lum screamed.
     "...but all the friends we have on the Earth don't deserve to
have their planet blown up by Lum's Dad.  I can call upon my fellow
Gods to help me out...we could raise an army if necessary to free
Keiichi from that intruding hussy!" Benten pledged.
     "I would advise against such a bold step," Oyuki commented.  "The
mysterious power that seems to prevent Lum from flyovers over her
temple compound must certainly have arisen from a very powerful
source.  Any rash attempts to remove Lum's husband by force from these
premises could be fraught with hazard.  I, for one, have learned the
soundness of eschewing such unplanned risky ventures."
     Benten seemed to collapse upon herself with frustration.
     "I just want my Darling back!" Lum lamented.
     Skuld felt like an engineer with "design block"...there were so
many factors to include in any decision that it would almost be better
*not* to make a decision.  But something had to be done soon, because
the Earthrealm was on a probation of sorts, facing imminent
destruction from the Oni...
     "Pro...bation?!" Skuld breathed out, as a proverbial lightbulb
flashed alit in her mind.
     "Ehh???" Lum, Benten and Oyuki exclaimed.
     "*That's it*!!!" she said with a burst of joy, jumping up into
the air with a skip.  "That's the answer to all our problems!!!"
     The solution drew upon her like a series of anonymous flashes,
flashes of light now discovered to be May fireflies.  Skuld vividly
recalled the truth: that the Earthrealm *was* on a probation!  Not the
week-long period that Lum's Father had commissioned as a result of the
insult to his daughter's honor...but the *true* probationary period.
The century-long observation period decided upon by the Almighty and
the Assembly of Gods, lasting until 2047.
     Would the August One allow this Oni Invader to destroy the
Earthrealm in the midst of the probationary period that He had
enacted?
     No way!

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "May I please speak with the Lord?" Skuld enquired in her most
polite voice.  The instrument clusters inside of Oyuki's icewalled
starship twinkled in the corners of her eyes like Christmas lights in
downtown Tokyo on Dec 24th.  She had requested Oyuki to allow her a
moment alone on the bridge of her Neptunian UFO so that she could
"make an urgent personal call".  Skuld had decided that caution would
be in order here, she didn't want to tip off to the others as to whom
she was calling.
     With the primitive Holophotic technology on Oyuki's starcraft, it
might even be possible that she could see whoever it was she wound up
talking to.  Of course, she wouldn't be able to see the Lord directly
through a vid-link; as He was loathe to have His image transmitted in
such a rudimentary manner.
     Hopefully, her call would go through...
     After a series of clickings and tones, a punctilious voice came
on the line.
     "You wish to speak with the Lord?  I'm afraid that this won't be
possible...Our Majesty is very busy at the moment!  He has no time to
answer calls right now.  Do you wish to leave a message?" the voice
noted, now animated on the vidscreen with an image of a young pink-
haired woman.  Skuld smiled at the screen; all of the Almighty's
personal secretaries had pink hair.  Why this was...was another one of
those mysteries that surrounded the Lord...
     This girl didn't look a millennium over 200,000 to Skuld.  Quite
young in comparison to the usual secretaries.  Maybe even a trainee.
As Skuld watched on the viewscreen, the young woman's expression
wandered even deeper into a frown as she tapped out some keys on her
translucent holographic desk.  Skuld felt her shoulders slink
downwards with disappointment.
     "Er, excuse me a moment," she heard the voice give pause.
Despite her attempt to project a polished, professional appearance,
the pink-haired girl's eyes seemed to widen briefly at something she
had read on one of the holospheres that surrounded her.
     "What now?" Skuld wondered as she heard the secretary say "Yes
Sir!" several times to an invisible presence, one she couldn't see on
Oyuki's viewscreen.
     "Is this Skuld, Norn of the Future on the line?" the operator
asked, fidgeting nervously with her hair.  Obviously, Oyuki's
holophotic viewer was a one-way connection...the Lord's secretary
couldn't see her.
     Skuld fought the urge to make a face at the viewscreen.
     She assented, curious about why the operator had switched from
"take a number and wait" mode to "I'll see if He's free" mode.
     "I..I'm very sorry about the mixup, Miss Skuld!  Please forgive
me...I'm new here!" she said, floating up and away from her desk.
Unexpectedly, she started bowing deeply towards Skuld on the
viewscreen.
     "Kami-sama has informed me that He has anticipated your call and
has prepared a response for you.  He has left a memo for you that will
explain everything.  It's at the bottom of the Earthrealm's Marianas
Trench.  You *do* know where that is, don't you?" she asked.
     "Yes, of course I know where it is!" Skuld blurted out with
irritation before she could check herself.  She recalled that she was
speaking with one of the Lord's personal secretaries...verbal rudeness
would not be tolerated, even with a trainee.  Her oldest sister had
gotten rebuffed several times by the Lord for being sassy with His
staff over the millennia.  Once such incident had resulted in a 50-
year license suspension.
     She didn't want to make the same mistake.
     "Is He okay?  I..I mean our Lord?  My older sister had to
sacrifice her boyfriend's life to try and prevent Isilblius from
appearing in the Multiverse, and..."
     "Isilblius?  Sacrifice?  The Lord in some kind of danger?  Tee
hee hee...of course not!" the trainee said, giggling so hard her pink
hair shimmered.  "Our Lord is Almighty, isn't he?  He's just fine.
What could possibly give you the ridiculous idea that the Ultimate
Demon is on the loose?  And what makes you think that..."
     Skuld didn't hear the rest of the call...
     She tuned out everything, except the loud sobbing of her sister
from behind her, who had just overheard the last part of her
conversation.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Urd was pain.
     She had killed her boyfriend, sacrificing his single mortal life
in a last-ditch effort to prevent sure disaster.  And now she was in
the ultimate Cartoon Network Universe, unable to do a thing to change
his fate, or prevent the impending release of Isilblius from wherever
his place of exile was.  The whole miserable paradox of all this was
the fact that she and the others had strived to create an Ultimate
Magical Returning Mandala, which should have somehow unsealed Cevn's
UF powers while restoring his Soul to him.
     Restoring him to life.
     Instead, it had transported she and Skuld here.
     And since the magical technique had failed to restore Cevn's UF
powers, it could only mean that there was no Soul to be returned to
her boyfriend.  It had already been consumed by the Mid-light.
     Which meant that he was truly departed...gone from her.
     Gone forever.
     Urd's grief submerged beyond any ocean of tears she could cry
over a thousand years...or even a thousand thousands of years.  She
sat silently in the darkened observation deck of Oyuki's starship,
watching patches of woods streaking underneath like highway signs as
the ship accelerated towards the ocean.  She was disheartened by all
that Skuld had told her, and Lum's misfortunes with the 'Keiichi' of
this universe only tended to depress her even more.
     But at least Lum had someone special in her life.  At least she
had a chance to recover his affections, or decide to leave him behind.
Lum had a *choice*...something that Life itself seemed to give
everyone.  Urd was crushed by the choicelessness of her situation.
Cevn had been ripped from her, without as much as a goodbye.  She
could half-remember the condition he was in when she saw him for the
last time...
     Urd's heart felt mummified.
     She was uncertain about why she and Skuld had been brought here.
Vague memories of being imprisoned in a nightmarish future Earthrealm
lurked like white shadows against the gloom that obscured her heart.
The shock of the sudden remeshing of memories left her feeling almost
stuporous.  It was so little to marvel at, the reason why she had
snapped into such a profound state of forgetfulness.  Now she knew why
she had holes in her memory...it was because she had a huge hole in
her heart.  Urd knew that her mind had been trying to protect her
heart by the only means possible...it had shoved the pain of Cevn's
death as far back into Urd's conscious as it could by using the
failsafe of selective amnesia.
     The Present is as much as the Past can bear.
     Still, there was the present situation.  Oyuki had been a
comfort; the Neptunian Princess seemed to dote on her with an earnest
concern for the past several hours, ever since Urd sorrowfully
explained how she had lost Cevn.  Even the wild Lum and the wilder
Benten treated her with some empathy whenever she emerged into the
common area of the starship.  Her visits to the common lounge of
Oyuki's UFO usually were very brief, because she just wanted to be
alone.  Alone...just like she was before.  The loneliness of being the
Norn of the Past weighed her Soul down once again.
     One miracle of love against the unending storms of despair...and
it had been blown away like the slender fibers of a dandelion...
     Despite being near-choked with grief, Urd could sense Skuld's
emotional conflict.  Her younger sister obviously didn't know how to
comfort her; so she was choosing the path of deference, letting her
grieve in private.  She felt sympathy for her youngest sister, who was
obviously deeply troubled by her inability to fix the situation by
consoling Urd towards feeling better.
     Skuld loved to fix things...
     A slight jarring of the ship's momentum informed her that Oyuki's
ship had submerged in the ocean...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "Where is this going, Skuld?  I mean, why are we traveling down
to the bottom of this planet's ocean?  Isn't that a bit of a radical
detour for us?  You know we don't have time to waste screwing around
on side missions!" Benten asked, pacing irritably across the common
area of the starcraft.  Skuld could sense the battle-fervor in the
warrior-girl had not abated.
     "Benten, it's because I've received a message from my
'friend'...a message that will probably resolve this whole situation.
My sister, Lum and Oyuki all agreed that we should investigate this
message.  You did too, remember?  I can vouch for the source of the
missive," Skuld replied, earning a brief snicker from the glum-
spirited Urd who was sitting by herself in the nearby observation
deck.
     "How is this going to bring back my Darling?  And how will it get
rid of that *other woman* who's seducing him?" Lum wailed indignantly.
Skuld was amazed at the singleness of purpose in this one-minded Oni
girl.  She had just spent 20 minutes convincing the group an hour ago
about the need for this dive into the oceans...
     "Have you ever wondered about *if* you should be with Keiichi,
Lum?  I may be an outsider, but he strikes me as being a few sentences
short of a paragraph," Skuld commented.
     "HOW DARE YOUuuuuu!!!" Lum growled, her Oni horns growing longer
and sharper.  Skuld backstepped in response to the ferocity of Lum's
wrathful expression.  She really *was* an Oni-demon when aroused to
anger...at least by the standards of vengeful stinkeye and reddened
forehead!  But she wasn't a Demon in the sense that Skuld was
accustomed to; unlike Mara, Lum's 'demonic' facial expression wasn't
filled with evil malice...it was just the forceful ire of a frustrated
young woman.
     The air sparked around Lum.  Oyuki immediately tried to calm her
down by grasping her on the arm.
     "Lum, there are so many other men in the universe!  Good men, who
don't chase every woman they set eyes upon.  Men with ambition, men
with deep feelings, deep hearts, deep minds.  Men who are good
listeners!  Have you ever *really* sat down and had a true heart-to-
heart talk with Keiichi," Oyuki offered.
     "Yes, I did!  I do!  I tell him that I love him all the time!"
     Benten sighed with exasperation.
     "So why did he chase after me the first time he attended our
annual Gods-Demons Tourney?" Benton said, turning to face Lum, her
tone confrontational.  "I remember him saying to me 'if Lum's
hamburger, then you're steak!' or something to that affect.  Don't
tell me you've forgotten that?!"
     "That's only because we were newlyweds and he didn't know that
you were my good friend!  A..and he was confused, and didn't know the
proper way to behave around Demons and Gods!  Being so new to
marriage, my Darling Keiichi couldn't have possibly known the correct
role that a husband should play back then!  And if you *also*
remember, a few days later I was able to cut him some slack and
forgive him for that infraction.  So there..uu cha!" Lum counterargued
with vituperant enthusiasm.
     Oyuki sighed with aggravation.
     "Well...that didn't stop him from acting all ecchi during the
Setsubon Festival the next year!  He *knew* that I was your friend, he
knew who I was by that point...and he actually groped me *here*,"
Benten replied, gesturing towards her ample partially-clad breasts.
     "That's because he was trying to hang on for dear life due to
*somebody's* gung-ho rabbit-crazy driving!  And that game was stupid!
How come the Gods get to pelt the Demons with all those..." Lum
justified.
     Benten's cheeks turned bright rouge.
     "Lum...that's a bunch of bullsh...er, nonsense!" Oyuki
interjected.  "Your husband is a known pervert!  He even tried to make
love to me the first time he and his friends visited Neptune.
Certainly, that wasn't a very proper first meeting between he and I.
I always have to be wary around him! I get the chills just by looking
at him some times...it's so obvious that he's undressing me in his
mind!"
     Skuld almost wanted to giggle at the idea of a Neptunian Princess
like Oyuki getting the chills...
     "Remember, he's very sly in his own way.  He's almost had me in
his grasp a couple of times," Oyuki added.
     "That's because you're ignorant of the world, sitting in that
ivory snowtower that your royalty allows you.  Besides, *you* led him
on, not the other way around.  Keiichi told me so!  Of course, back
then you didn't know that he was my husband, so I can understand why
you found him attractive, Oyuki.  Don't worry!  All is forgiven!" Lum
explained.
     Benten sighed with frustration, rattling the metal chain that
hung over her shoulder.
     As the arguing continued, Skuld had the distinct impression that
this topic was an old row between the three girls.  Their debating had
a ritualistic, almost rehearsed air to it.  What was very curious to
her were the types of descriptions and rebuttals being shouted about;
each description matched what she had read in the Takahashi Rumiko
manga.
     She overheard a long sigh behind her, and turned to see a
drained-looking Urd standing in the doorway to the common area.  Her
sister had been aroused out of her grief by the gradually escalating
argument.  Because of this, Skuld was momentarily thankful for the
consternation.  Anything that could ease the emotional pain her sister
was experiencing was more than welcome...
     Then Big Sister Urd pulled out of her grief-fugue long enough to
drop a bomb, so to speak.
     "So, if you guys have been together over four years, have you
ever 'done it'?" Urd asked slyly.  Skuld felt her back tense rigid, as
she fully knew the bent of Urd's question.
     "My Darling and I have done *everything*!" Lum replied proudly.
     "I mean...have you and Keiichi ever slept together?"
     "Yes, I sleep in his room every night when I'm not on my UFO or
somewhere else, like visiting Mom and Daddy!" Lum answered as she
floated in the air.  She folded her arms across her chest and nodded
her head as if to gloat.
     Benten and Oyuki sighed with frustration.
     "Lum...have you and Keiichi ever had passionate sex?  Ever spent
a gloriously naked night tightwrapped in each other's arms, just the
two of you and the gasping madness of your love for each other?" Urd
demanded.
     "W..what are you talking about?" Lum asked nervously, her face
turning pale.
     "Have you and Keiichi ever *fucked* each other?"
     Skuld felt her face rush with blood at the vim and bluntness of
her Big Sister's words.  Oyuki was so stunned, she dropped her raku
teacup onto the decking.  Benten was gripping her chain like a girl
would grip a stuffed animal to her chest.
     Lum's blush and wordless stuttering was answer enough.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "Well, that just about settles it!" Skuld said in a disappointed
voice after she read the Almighty's message.  She carefully folded the
slim metallic flower neatly and stuffed it in one of her pockets.
     In the missive, the Almighty had directed in no uncertain terms
that He would tolerate no tampering with Belldandy's assignment by
either she or Urd.  Skuld had expected some kind of injunction, so she
wasn't particularly surprised by His position on the issue.  But
strangely enough, He didn't mention either Lum, Oyuki or Benten.
Which meant that He *didn't know* about the three girls.  Which meant
that Skuld and Urd *could* interfere indirectly by aiding the trio.
     Augeries of innocence that could be concealed within patterns of
scheme-wise intent.
     For some reason, a mental image of Tomohisa arose in her mind.
The thoughtsight of him somehow made Skuld suddenly flutter with
homesickness.  Shuddering away the vividly nostalgic course of her
feelings, she tried once again to probe the intricacies of Future
TimeSpace.  And once again, she was rebuffed by some kind of invisible
wall that concealed TimeSpace from her...
     "Why Tomohisa...and why now?" she asked herself, feeling nervous
because of the persistent image in her mind.  In the four years she
had been on the Earthrealm, she had transcended herself on a number of
levels.  In fact, Skuld sometimes secretly felt like she had learned
more during this brief span on the Earthrealm than in all the
millennia that she had been training in Sysop work.  Instead of
clobbering Bugs with Mjolnir, she was learning about what makes
mortals tick.
     She felt a unexpected fondness for Keiichi in her heart.
Keiichi, who was the dreaded sister-stealer when she first arrived on
the Earthrealm.  Keiichi, whose goofy-go-lucky character had somehow
charmed her sister.  Keiichi, whose sincerity had shined through when
everything else seemed dulled...
     And now Tomohisa was invading her thoughts.
     Skuld recalled the past: how Tomohisa was only 12 when she first
came to the Earthrealm.  He was short and spindly in physique,
standing just a few cm taller than she, back when she was in her
"child's body".
     She smiled to herself.  The picture forming in the grove of her
memories reminded her how her first meeting with Tomohisa had not been
very graceful...


     She was arguing vehemently with Urd about why she was trying to
dose Keiichi with another one of her love potions.  Urd wasn't only
being obstinate, but she was being impractical as well.  What could
anyone possibly benefit from if she made Keiichi lust after Belldandy?
But Urd kept trying, despite a series of mishaps and failures.
     Skuld didn't understand her sister's whacko fascination with try
to get Keiichi to be all smoochy with Elder Sister.  She was already
smoochy enough with him.  And Urd was absolutely obsessive about
something called "sex"...
     She and Urd had been arguing so intently that they didn't notice
the small boy who had entered under the front gate torii and had
walked up the driveway towards them.  A stranger, who had simply
walked in as if he belonged at their temple home.
     "Hi!!!"
     Urd had halted in mid-taunt, while Skuld had halted just short of
pulling a Skuld Device out of her jacket flap.  Their heated debate
now discarded for the moment, they both stared at the newcomer, whose
short hair was ruffled...
     "Who are you?" both she and her sister had asked.
     "Hi!  I'm Tomohisa!  Is this where I'm supposed to be?" he asked,
showing Urd a hand-drawn map sketched out on a piece of notebook
paper.  Skuld was immediately put off by the gesture, sensing that
this boy probably figured that Urd would be more suited to help him
because she was older.
     "I don't know!  Where are you *supposed* to be?" Skuld snapped
irreverently, irritated by the fact that he hadn't asked *her* for
help too.
     "Ignore her, she's just a brat!" Urd said in a deadpan voice.
"What's your name again?"
     "Big Sister Urd, I am not a..."
     "Tomohisa," he said, interrupting Skuld's impending verbal flurry
against her oldest sister.  His bright smile was oblivious to Skuld's
burning narrow-eyed disgruntled expression.
     "Araaa?  Keiichi didn't mention any Tomohisa to me," Urd said,
resting a finger on her chin as she pondered.
     "I'm his cousin!  Y'know...*baseball*?"
     "Baseball what?"
     "Baseball!  As in the younger cousin who loves to play baseball!"
Tomohisa said brightly.
     "Ahhh, so you must be very popular with all the girls in your
school," Urd remarked.  Tomohisa's face promptly faulted into an open-
mouth paralysis.  Skuld didn't what Urd was hinting at, but it
certainly embarrassed the new kid big time.
     "W..well, I'm Keiichi's *only* cousin...but I'll be 13 soon!  Is
Cousin Megumi around?  She could explain things to you," he explained,
recovering his composure very quickly.  Skuld noted another thing
about mortals: children tend to regain their wits and emotions much
quicker than adults here.  They seemed to rebound from being flustered
as if nothing had happened.  Tomohisa was no exception.  Perhaps it
was immaturity...
     "Megumi doesn't live here.  She lives in an apartment near
N.I.T.," Urd said matter-of-factly.
     "Oh...I thought she lived here.  Who are you?" he responded
     "I'm Urd, and this is my kid sister Skuld!"
     "URD!!!"
     "Sorry, sorry sorry!" Urd said, waving her hand apologetically.
"She's a very sensitive child...she gets upset easily about her age!"
     Skuld bit her lip as she realized that the apology that she had
thought would be intended for her was instead directed at this
newcomer, while secretly, it was just more taunting by Big Sister.
She glared hostilely at the young boy.  He was wearing a sweatshirt
with a Yomiuri Giants logo on it, and his baggy jeans were piled up at
the cuffs, too long for his legs.
     Ignoring her completely, he suddenly seemed to change mental
gears...
     "Wow!!!  Isn't Tokyo such a *big* city?!" he exclaimed with
youthful amazement.  "My Mom and Dad just moved here from Shiojuri.
Do you know where that is?"
     Skuld rolled her eyes.  This kid was starting to really get on
her nerves.
     "Uh, Keiichi will be back soon.  He's went on a motorcycle ride
with his *girlfriend*," Urd noted, darting a telling sideglance at
Skuld as she emphasized the word "girlfriend".  Skuld reacted by
sticking her tongue out at her sister.
     "What's up with *her*?  You'd almost think that she hates my
cousin," Tomohisa asked.
     One thing that really virused Skuld's temper into the
stratospheres was being referred to in the third person.  In this one
area, she possessed a vanity that was fully the equal of her oldest
sister's.  And Tomohisa had just set her off...
     "I'm not a 'her', I'm *me*!  Did you come here just so you could
get on my nerves?  Why don't you go and play somewhere until Keiichi
gets back!" Skuld blasted, then spun on her heel and stormed into the
house.
     "Hmmm, I think that might be a good idea.  You can go play over
there," she heard Urd say calmly.  She watched her sister point
towards the main vehicle garage.
     "Cool!  I can practice catching!" Tomohisa shouted as he unslung
his bookbag.
     A moment later, Skuld was digging into a quart of butterbrickle
fudge ice cream in the living room.  Ice cream was the only remedy;
its cool taste distracted her, helping her cope with the rude boy.
She looked out the window and watched as her new enemy was throwing a
tennis ball against the side of the garage.  Skuld glared as her Big
Sister's back from inside the house as Urd watched him playing.
     "Time to tug on Skuld's ear again...and not just with words,"
Skuld overheard her sister mumble, just before she turned around and
started walking back into the temple house.
     Skuld knew that this was her cue to retreat to the safety of her
new "Skuld Labs" room.  She scooped up her ice cream and swifted down
the hallway to her room.  She was still in the process of setting up
her computer networks, chronometric interfaces, holophotic tech and AI
vats...so staying in her room a few hours wouldn't be total waste...
     Hopefully this 'cousin' of Keiichi's would be gone by then.
     But as soon as she sat down, the door flew open.
     "Skuld, you brat!  How could you be so rude to him?  Here you
are, acting all important by your lonesome!  He's just a young
Earthrealm kid!  He doesn't know any better!  You, of all people,
should know how impetuous and unthinking children are!" Urd said,
full-front Big Sisterish condemnation in every word.
     "Leave me alone, Big Sister!" Skuld warned, reaching inside her
jacket.  The gesture didn't even faze Urd.
     "And what if he *is* Keiichi's cousin, like he claims to be?  It
would mean that he might come and visit more than just this one time,
ya know!  In which case, his first impression of you might work
against you in the future!  As an Earthrealm Trainee, you're certainly
blowing it!"
     "It will not!  And I am not!" Skuld shouted back.  "I don't care
what he thinks of me!  And I don't care what Keiichi thinks of me
either!  So there!  End of discussion!"
     "Not by a long shot, *Little Sister*!  Think about Belldandy for
a minute!  Don't you care what our sister thinks of you?" Urd reasoned
sharply.
     "She loves me, and nothing's going to change that.  Not even
Keiichi and his hentai ways!"
     "Uh, I hate to break it to you, Skuld...but 'hentai' is the last
word I would think of to describe Keiichi.  He's actually too scared
to even *kiss* your sister!"
     "SHUT UP!  I don't wanna hear about h..him!" Skuld fired back.
     "Okay.  But think about this.  If you make one of Keiichi's
family members uncomfortable around the house, how do you think that
would affect our sister?  Don't forget, this is *his* house!  If
Keiichi's uncomfortable having company over to his own house, wouldn't
that cause Belldandy to be uncomfortable too?  And we certainly don't
want that to happen, do we?" Urd noted in a parental tone of voice.
     The voice that absolutely screamed for a Skuld-bombing!
     "No way!!!  That won't happen, because there's no way I would do
anything to make Elder Sister feel bad!  Besides, you're just being
stupid!  Why would she feel bad just because that rotten Keiichi would
feel all upset when his family comes to visit?"
     "It's something...that a *child* certainly wouldn't understand.
Just take my word for it!" Urd said, shaking her head in exasperation.
Skuld knew that she had scored one on Urd by calling her stupid.
     "Well, I don't understand it...and I don't *care* that I don't
understand it!  So why don't you leave me alone and go make some
poison in your room!  Or maybe you can make that kid your boyfriend or
something!" Skuld said.
     She held her hand over her mouth in shock...but it was too late.
Skuld watched Urd's eyes turn groundwards, instantly causing her to
regret her what she had just said.  Once again, Urd's status as Norn
of the Past had cast its melancholic shadow over her sister.  Skuld
knew that Urd could never have a boyfriend again.  And she had just
slapped her oldest sister with this terrible fact...
     Again.
     Skuld tried to voice an apology as Urd silently walked out of her
lab-in-the-making, leaving her to saturate with guilt and confusion...
     "It's all your fault, you little jerk!" she shouted at the open
window.  "If you hadn't come visit us this afternoon, me and Big Sis
wouldn't be fighting!"


     Skuld smiled wanly at the memories.
     "Was I really such a little sassy bitch back then?" she asked
herself.  If the events of that day were to be believed, she didn't
want to answer her own rhetorical question.  She had laid into
Tomohisa within moments of first meeting him.  And then she laid into
him again, later in the day.
     Not once, but thrice...


     As Tomohisa was pitching the tennis ball with greater force
against the wall of the garage, he had to steadily step backwards as
the ball rebounded in longer arcs.
     Step by step, inch by inch...
     And soon, he was standing in the middle of Belldandy's freshly
planted flower garden...a tennis-shoed human flower-mower.
     Skuld had picked just this moment to go out and take a walk
around the property.  She was too scattered by the accidental scathing
remark to her sister to be able to concentrate fully on her schematics
for the robotic watchman she was designing for the temple house.
After all, if she was going to live here, she would need to be safe
from Keiichi and any of those creepy guys he hung out with.  Which
might be impossible, because *all* the men on the Earthrealm were
creeps.
     She walked around the corner and saw Tomohisa, just as Elder
Sister and her goofy mortal charge pulled up the driveway.
     "Tomohisa!!!  What the hell are you doing?  You're stomping all
over Bell's flowers!" Keiichi exclaimed.
     Tomohisa looked down and frowned at the crushed roses and
chrysanthemums.
     "Oops!" he said as he tried to step out of the circular plot of
flowers.
     He only wound up crushing several more shoots.
     "I can't believe you!  Those are the flowers Belldandy tended by
hand for *weeks*, and you just trounced them!" Keiichi said, his face
screwed up with irritation.  Even though she strongly disliked
Keiichi, Skuld corked a wide grin, amused by how he was chewing out
his younger cousin.
     "Keiichi-san...is that your little cousin?" Belldandy asked, not
even bothered by the trammeling of the fruits of her Goddess Green
Thumb...
     "Yep!  That's why he should know better..."
     "Keiichi-san, I know that he didn't mean to wreck my flowers.
Even though he's only trampled about a third of them...the other two-
thirds he didn't step on should be okay," Belldandy noted with a
pleased smile.
     Tomohisa only hung his head lower in response to Belldandy's
assessment of the damage.  Skuld almost wanted to laugh as she saw him
being dipped in shame.  Not only had he pissed off the only other kid
his age, he was now in the doghouse for ruining his cousins
girlfriend's small garden.  He did the only thing that made sense...
     "Can I have a ride in your sidecar, Cousin Keiichi!"
     And that was when Skuld exploded the second time, rushing out
from behind the house and yelling "BAKA!" at the top of her lungs
while brandishing Mjolnir...

     Skuld's smile grew wider.  That first visit by Tomohisa was the
reason why Belldandy had decided to move her garden to a place
*behind* the temple house...away from budding baseball players with
big feet.
     Tomohisa's first visit was back in the days when Keiichi and
Belldandy used "san" when they addressed each other.  Skuld felt a
little nostalgic now and then about those first days on the
Earthrealm.  The "Furoba Incident" with Keiichi in the bathroom was
her introduction to her sister's new home; in many ways, her first day
at the temple was just as tumultuous as Tomohisa's first visit.
     Then again, maybe not...

     Belldandy had decided to cook a magnificent dinner to try and
repair the tension between Keiichi and Tomohisa.  Skuld could see
right through her sister's motives as she busied herself in the
kitchen.  Her middle sister was fully into the peacemaker role.
Actually, she was trying to smooth things out so she could have
Keiichi's undivided attention.
     Skuld didn't care if Keiichi and Tomohisa hated each other for
the rest of their lives.  In fact, she hoped they did hate each other.
Maybe then, they'd *both* go away.
     She rubbed the bump on the back of her head.
     "At least you got a bump on your head too!" she growlwhispered at
the young Tomohisa, who was watching...what else...a baseball game on
the TV.
     After giving Tomohisa a second dose of pithy ireful
pointers...actually, yelling at him until her lungs gave out...Skuld
had punctuated her chastisement of the young mortal boy with a blow to
the head from her mallet.  This earned the wrath of both her sisters,
so she decided to lie low and give it another try in her lab.  After a
couple hours, she looked outside her jalousied window to see Megumi
and Tomohisa playing catch.
     "Great...now there's *two* of them!" she thought dourly.
     This was definitely an "all Earthrealm mortals are scum!" day.
She already hated Keiichi, disliked his younger sister Megumi...and
now she had one more person to loathe.
     A half-hour later, she was totally engaged in a brainstorm,
feverishly weaving 3D mechadesigns on her computer.  The A.I.
circuitry for the robotic watchman was finally coming together!  She
was mentally debating how she should program the "Banpei", as she
termed it.  What personality matrix she should include?  She started
drawing up an behavioral psyche flowchart when she heard a crash.
     *Felt* a crash.
     Heard nearby yelling.
     "Tomohisa!  Look what you did!!!  You're not supposed to hit it
that hard!  It's not a softball, it's a baseball...and we're not at a
diamond, we're at my brother's place!  And look over at the temple!
You broke a window!  Didn't you stop to think that this temple has
jalousie windows?  I hope Keiichi makes you pay for it out of your
allowance!" Megumi shouted sharply.
     "Ooops!"
     Skuld glared towards the broken remains of a half-dozen
horizontal slats in her windowsill.  They were hanging loosely in her
window, while the tatami floor sparkled with hundreds of pieces of
glass from the shattered panes.  As she heard the outdoors voices
filtering through from the outside, they almost seemed to melt under
her intense stare...

     Skuld giggled.
     "Well, it *was* funny!" she reminded herself as she watched a pod
of whales swimming in the distance, curiously checking out Oyuki's
UFO.  Oyuki must have seen them too, because her UFO's searchlights
were basking the deepsea behemoths in a coolblue light.
     Funny how it turned out that both she and Tomohisa had knots on
their heads at the end of that bizarre day.  Tomohisa's visit had
turned into a nightmare, as surely as if the Ultimate Force had
planned it that way.  Skuld tried to imagine how Tomohisa must have
felt that evening.  His child-thoughts must have centered around the
belief that he had hopelessly pissed off the only person his age in
the whole temple complex.  Not to mention alienating his two cousins
in short order.
     It was amazing that he even survived that day...


     "Wow!  This is totally awesome, Belldandy-san!" Keiichi said as
he munched on the seasoned crab legs.  Belldandy smiled brightly as
his words of praise, while Urd made a finger-in-mouth "gag me!" hand
motion and Skuld slapped her glass of chocolate milk down on the table
a little too hard.
     Megumi, of course, was oblivious to the tension in the dining
room.  She was in full munchout mode.
     Skuld shot her a look.  Keiichi's younger sister sure seemed to
gorge herself whenever she came over for a visit.  Which was often at
meal times...
     Another reason why Skuld regretted her sister's growing culinary
abilities.
     If it wasn't for the exquisite dessert dishes that Belldandy had
prepared, Skuld would be totally put out at her older sister's
proficiency with cooking Earthrealm dishes.  All her cooking seemed to
do was make Keiichi act goofy, and make Megumi come around more often.
She agreed with Big Sister Urd, who thought that meal preparation was
way beneath Belldandy.  The idea of her sister actually *cooking* food
when she could simply materialize the best dishes from the best
restaurants on the Earthrealm...really irritated Skuld.  Belldandy
could look in a cookbook and recreate any recipe with a gesture of her
fingers.
     And yet she was spending time in the kitchen instead.
     Skuld wasn't too pleased with Belldandy's cooking abilities that
night...
     But that was no excuse for what happened next.
     As luck would have it, Tomohisa was seated next to her.
     And he was getting very quiet.

     "Ack...cough...hunnh!!!"

     She heard a throaty gasping from nearby.  She looked over to see
Tomohisa clawing at his throat desperately.
     "What are you doing?" Skuld asked in a thin icy voice, definitely
not impressed with the choking sounds.  She already knew what he was
doing; he was up to another one of his clownish attention-getting
stunts!  Now he was pretending to be sick...
     The young Earthrealm boy ignored her as he gasped for air.  It
almost sounded like something was blocking his windpipe.  Megumi and
Keiichi were both looking at their cousin with visible alarm.
     ...and a moment later, Skuld's lap was filled with warm, smelly
vomit.
     Tomohisa *had thrown up on her*!!!
     The little jerk had thrown up her sister's best cooking!
     Skuld was speechless with rage.  Not only was Skuld covered with
chunks of food which totally ruined her white outfit...Tomohisa's
sudden upchucking was a grave insult to her sister's honor.  Belldandy
had assumed diligent efforts to master the Earthrealm's varied
cuisines, and this...loser...had just barfed it up.
     All over her.

     *Crack!!!*

     As soon as Tomohisa had regained his breath and settled down from
his spastic heaving, Skuld had slapped him as hard as she could.  At
least as hard as she could while keeping the force of her blow within
mortal terms.  If she had *really* slapped him, his head would be
orbiting somewhere in the Oort Cloud right about now.
     As it was, Tomohisa was now reeling like a drunk from the blow.
     And everyone seated at the dinner table was glaring at
her...except Belldandy, who was looking at the table with a sad
expression.
     Skuld didn't care.
     "And because you're such an idiot, I'm going to actually skip out
on dessert!  I've gotta wash up!  I can't stand it here!" she screamed
in his face before storming out of the room...


     Skuld felt a tear in her eye as she smiled inwardly at the
bittersweet memories.  Much later, she had learned why he had gotten
so sick on that first fateful visit to the temple.  Tomohisa had
suffered a severe asthmatic attack while eating dinner that night.
The accompanying seizures and difficulty with breathing had caused him
to choke on his food.  He had no control over how and where he
vomited.
     Back then, Tomohisa had kept his asthma condition to himself; his
cousins Keiichi and Megumi didn't even have a clue about his ongoing
malady.  Skuld sensed that his secrecy was because of his pride,
coupled with his pressing desire to be viewed as athletic by his
peers.  And perhaps in his own way, Tomohisa didn't want to trouble
the two older cousins that he looked up to.
     "You idiot..." Skuld whispered to herself.  She had to admit to
herself that she missed him just a little bit.
     Over the past four years, Tomohisa had grown older in age and
body while she remained the same; manifesting every day in her 12-
13ish physical manifest.  He had outstripped her in stature, growing
almost 40cm taller that she.  His voice had deepened and his face had
peachfuzzed, while his eyes had even gained more of a sparkle over
those years...
     But his drive to be a good baseball player had never changed.  It
would be a futile attempt; kids with asthma were often excluded from
high school sports.
     Skuld regretted that she hadn't even tried to invent a machine
that would cure him of his asthma.  Now that they were stranded in
this 'anime universe', she might never have the chance.  She measured
herself with uncertainty; how could it be that she always wanted to be
helpful to others, and yet she'd totally forgotten about Tomohisa?
She felt stung by regret as she realized that she had never even once
offered to help him in anything...
     Four years is an eyeblink to a Goddess...but to a mortal, a lot
can change in a mere four years.  As Tomohisa grew into his teens, he
started regarding her more and more as a kid.  In a sense, Tomohisa's
visits to the temple that first year had served to remind Skuld of
that which she wasn't: a child.  Watching a real child at play made
her feel more mature in some ways.  But the next few years brought an
irony of their own.  Once Tomohisa started growing into a handsome
teenager, he no longer reminded her of what she wasn't.  Instead, he
reminded her of what she *was*...a physically immature girl with zero
bust potential and no curves to her hips.  And it even got worse,
because he started treating her as a young girl, unaware of how
uncomfortable the shifts in the nature of his attentions had made her.
     Then, just a few months ago, she experienced the miraculous
transformation that wasn't supposed to happen for forty millennia.
Overnight, she had 'caught up' with him in terms of physical maturity.
After mastering wearing a bra, Skuld would find herself gazing at her
naked body in the mirror in the bathroom, marveling at how her
proportions had suddenly filled out.  She gradually grew accustomed to
having the physical presence of a 16 or 17-year old.
     Almost immediately in the wake of her transformation, she noticed
another significant shift in Tomohisa's attitude towards her.  The
teenaged boy was no longer regarding her as a child.  Even a year ago,
he seemed to look at her from time to time with an interest that was
enigmatic...an interest that seemed to leap beyond the fact that she
was '13' and he was 16.
     Now he was 17...and she was a very lively '17', for all practical
purposes.
     His 'new style' attentions were extremely irritating at first.
He couldn't seem to keep his eyes from roaming up and down her body.
Skuld had reacted with a mixture of embarrassment and revulsion
towards his fascination with her physical appearance.  At times, his
mind seemed to wander off while he was talking with her, which only
fueled her irritation more.  He would be saying something...and then
he would mumbleword and stare at her for no reason at all.
     Skuld found her thoughts resurfacing on the trip to Algeria.  Her
sister had claimed that since Urd and she had fallen in love with an
Earthrealm mortal, then it was quite possible that Skuld herself might
develop feelings for an Earthrealm man.
     Or boy.
     As in one particular boy who was almost her age.
     Urd was always teasing her about being "Tomohisa's
girlfriend"...words that would always pull the triggers of
embarrassment.  Or more often, rage.  Elder Sister Belldandy even
seemed to side with Urd sometimes, patiently explaining to Skuld about
how she should behave more "delicately" around Tomohisa.  How
convenient that they thought he was her 'target', since he was the
only boy her age that visited the temple regularly!
     Any reasonably bright Earthrealm mortal wouldn't have ever spoken
to her again after that first day.  But instead, Tomohisa kept trying
to become her friend.  He had bought her ice cream at the malls
despite his meager allowance, accompanied her to the beach when
Keiichi and Belldandy would get "summer fever"...he even listened one
day when she described her ambivalent feelings towards Sentaro, the
bicycle boy.  And then there was that stupid 'body-switching' episode,
which forced she and her sisters to reveal the truth about their
origin to him.  When Tomohisa found out that she was a Goddess, he was
hesitant around her for a while...but he didn't bail on the friendship
that he sensed as existing between them.  Even though Skuld
discouraged him time and time again, he kept to an optimistic outlook.
     She had gotten angry with him many times since that first day;
and many of those times were fully justified by his idiotic
behavior...but he kept hanging out with her.  And just recently, she
remembered one afternoon on the porch.  For some reason, Skuld found
herself talking with him about music.  In the middle of their
conversation, she unexpectedly felt an urge to describe the grave
feelings of regret that she felt when she had told her Angel, Noble
Scarlet, to seal herself away.  Obviously, Tomohisa could barely
understand the complexities of the relationship between a Goddess and
her Angel...it just wasn't possible to convey such things to a mortal.
Or so she thought.  She remembered how he had smiled a comforting
smile at her anyway while he listened.  And she remembered what he had
said once she had finished describing the heartbreaking experience of
not being mature enough to have an Angel...
     "There's always the future, Skuld."
     And now Skuld found herself hesitantly wishing that he had tried
harder to impress her.  That he had made an effort to pay more
attention to her.  That he had been a little more assertive at times.
That he had maybe taken a risk, and said...
     "Skuld!  Hey, are you there?  We're almost back in Japan!" Benten
shouted through the metal doorway.

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