Part 85 Urd and Skuld--Glass Hammer, 3rd Movement "What's there to celebrate?" Skuld asked with a scowl as she sat in the command chair of Oyuki's starship, her white-booted feet were propped casually on the bridge's stellar navigation console. As she gazed at the hollow red ovals on the insteps of her white boots, she grimaced. There was no way to shunt the raucous noises airing through the metallic doorway roughly eight meters behind her. Of course, there *was*...Skuld was practiced enough with arcane hyperkinetic manipulations; all she would have to do is concentrate and gesture, and then the door would slide shut. Assuming there was a door. She had retreated here to the bridge to try and distance herself from the boisterous activities in the main 'lounge' room of the ship. Yet there was no escape; she couldn't miss hearing the loud shouting voices foaming with sentiment through the door hatch. Benten, Oyuki and Lum were getting drunk...*really* drunk...and Urd was already passed out. Another loud burst of shouting caused her to flinch. "Why the hell can't a Neptunian Princess afford to have a larger starship!" Skuld riled silently. Perhaps Oyuki did. For all she knew, the teenaged princess might have a fleet of starships. But this "UFO", as Lum called it, was only slightly bigger than the temple she and her sisters called home. One would think that a *princess* would deign to travel in the luxury of a more spacious craft. A huge sprawling palatial yacht of a starship where Skuld could hide hundreds of meters away from the noisymakers... But no. No...not Oyuki. Judging from what little she knew of Oyuki, Skuld concluded that the girl from Neptune was probably spacefaring in this small starship in order to be frugal and economize on travel costs. Benten and Lum both esteemed Oyuki as a confirmed businesswoman with a mercenary fiduciary streak that bordered on miserliness. But this cramped ship was the worst! Especially because there was no refuge from the loud shouts, giggles and arguing of the 'party' located in the very middle of the ship. Oyuki's ship was designed like a donut; the 'hole' being the large commons 'lounge' in the middle. The central room was ringed by the Bridge, the Stores Room, four cabins, the Observation Deck and several other utility rooms. "Wesh celebra..burp!..celabratin' becaush this stuff ish soo good at makin' ush forget just how misherable life ish! Right, Lum?!" Benten said. Lum nodded in agreement with drunken hyperbole, her long green hair shagging by bounds. Skuld was surprised at the tardiness of the reply...and the fact that the warrior-girl had been able to overhear her grumbled comment at all. Obviously, Benten's hearing transcended what was audiologically normal for an Earthrealm mortal. In response, Skuld turned to look at Benten, who...once she noticed that Skuld was looking at her through the doorway, reacted by toasting her with a spillwards heft of her bottle. Benten wasn't even bothering with the drinking implements that had sunk a thousand alliances in medieval Japan; the tokkuri...the traditional pouring flask, or the choko...the small drinking cup. Benten was in chugging mode, imbibing straight from a magnum- sized bottle of "Deer Brand" strong sake. Her eyes were slightly cross-eyed with intoxication...as were Lum's. Despite the compactness of Oyuki's starship, Skuld was surprised to learn that it was equipped with a bar fully stocked with sake, shochu whiskey, and all the traditional Japanese drinking appurtenances. Weren't Oyuki, Benten and Lum supposed to be teenagers? And wasn't there a prohibition against operating starships while intoxicated in this sector of space? Skuld fought with herself to keep from applying any tenets of 'realism' to this unrealistic situation. "Come an join ush, Shkuld!" Benten urged with a loopy grin. "That's a ridiculous reason to get drunk!" Skuld shot back. "Your shister tol' us tha' you and she can't do a thing. So it'sh up to ush to get Lum'sh darling back, even if Keiichi'sh ish an..hiccup!..idiot!" Benten replied, repeating the answer she had given Skuld every 20 minutes or so. Offended by the remark, Lum clenched her hands in fists as she yelled at Benten, who pacified her by pouring booze into her cup and all over her arm. "She's so unidimensional!" Skuld thought as she watched Lum's vehemence, shaking her head in vex at the display of disinhibited silliness. She mentally cursed Urd once more. Heartbroken or not, Big Sister shouldn't have let that bit of vital information slip. Now that Lum and her friends had learned about she and Urd's impotence in dealing with the Keiichi situation, Skuld realized that she would have to assume the additional task of trying to keep the crazy trio of space-girls in line. Hopefully, Big Sister didn't disclose any details about the 'source' of the message as well. Things were already crazy-clumsy enough around here as it is, without Lum and her friends learning of the involvement of Kami-sama. "Urusei Yatsura...my ass! This is *so* retarded!" Skuld thought angrily when she considered their dismal chances. "My darling lovesh her...and not me. When I finally..hic..get 'im back, I'm gonna zhack him like he'sh never been..urp!..zakked before! He'sh been unfaafful once too ma..many timesh! Tha'sh what'll do...Uuu-cha!..urp!" Lum exclaimed with a belch, the rosy glow on her cheeks almost matching her mispointed bloodshot orbs. She quickly emptied her flask into her drinking cup, spilling most of it on the deck while Benten applauded her 'speech' with staccato handclaps. "Why are thesh choko cupsh so shmall? They're teeny weeny little glassesh, not even enough for a mousesh to get drunk!" Lum complained before tipping another cup of sake. Oyuki looked at her friends as if she was making a study of them, and then sipped at her cup of peach wine in silence... Skuld marveled once again at how *cold* Oyuki's personality could be sometimes. Lum and Benten were cutting loose like divorced salarymen on a pub-crawling Saturday night...while in total contrast, Oyuki was calmly seated at the table in her usual formal tailor-style stance, sipping her fruit-liquor drink with dainty draws. Skuld marveled at Oyuki's demeanor; it must take a great deal of self- restraint to be at a drinking blowout with these two and act like it was the most formal of chokai tea ceremonies. The ice blue-emerald precision of her crystalline bangs of hair added to the impression...making Oyuki look like a female Jack Frost in Skuld's mind. Yet, the azure glitter of her hair was quite striking, especially as it flowed out around her milk-white face, framing Oyuki's delicate features with a geometric tableau. Not a hair out of place. Skuld wondered what thoughts were circulating behind that guise of quietude, within that silent effeminate chill-iron demeanor. Oyuki carried herself with an air that was almost always dignified and regal; but Skuld suspected that some part of the Neptunian princess's personality was wild...after all, she was best friends with Lum and Benten. In some ways, Oyuki's deportment reminded her of Elder Sister Belldandy...at least the cheerful, restrained, polite-mannered part. Skuld could sense an almost esurient calculation to Oyuki's actions; the type of sovereign bearing that a CEO of a major corporation would have while mingling with his or her employees. Machavellian clockworks of ambition. In vivid juxtaposition, Lum...who *was* a princess in her own right...possessed a brazenly impulsive nature, combined with a pedestrian lack of any semblance of self-consciousness. Acting without thinking, Lum was a complex galaxy of blithe collisions between id and ego, with a alluring charm thrown in for good measure. She was innocently ignorant... And then there was Benten. Benten had interrupted Skuld's wistful reverie hours earlier to herald their return to Japan. Skuld didn't know whether to thank her or resent her, considering that the daydream centered on a certain Earthrealm teenager...and it had embarrassed her in the most fascinating way! After decrypting the message from the Almighty, Skuld had immediately informed Urd in private about Kami-sama's decided prohibition against the two of them. He had specifically prohibited either of them from using their Goddess abilities to enable Lum and the gang to deal with Belldandy's 'protection' of Keiichi against Lum. Consequently, she and Urd had decided to swear themselves to secrecy about this development. After being on the ground for an hour, Benten...who was all "Ms.- Let's-Take-Action!" a few hours earlier...decided to convince Urd to join her in a drinking bout. "To flush out your melancholy," she had suggested. To Skuld's surprise, Urd had joined right in. But it was no surprise when Lum and Oyuki also invited themselves to the 'festivities' as well. Partygirls without a cause or a clue. Skuld could somewhat find it within herself to excuse Urd in this single instance. Big Sister Urd was suffering from mopery; as far as Skuld was concerned, she had a right to drink this one time. Perhaps a little "living it up" might improve her sister's mood. But then again, there was no 'a little' whenever Urd made her mind up to party. In Lum's case, Skuld felt that maybe even she deserved a few drinks, since she was dejected in the wake of being forcibly separated from her husband. But Benten seemed to appropriate *any circumstance* and use it as an excuse to party... And Skuld experienced the shock of her life when Urd was the first one to hit the floor! *No one* could outdrink Big Sister if she had her mind set on it... * * * * * * * * "Owwww! Whoohee...my head hurts!" Urd grumbled as she woke up. As she propped herself up on her elbows, she surveyed the central area of the UFO. Her eyes alighted on Lum and Benten, who were passed out alongside the round kosatsu-like drinking table. Oyuki and Skuld were nowhere to be seen. Everything was hazily bright. Urd's eye's were watering with irritation at the profuse light, which felt like sandspecks in her eyes. "Ahhh, Ms. Urd! You're the first to awaken," Oyuki observed aloud in her gently level voice. Urd glanced at her, once again noticing how Oyuki always seemed to speak in the most proper Japanese. The soft voice of the girl from Neptune seemed to pound echoes inside of Urd's skull. "You have anything for headaches? I have a killer hangover!" Urd mumbled in guilty admission, wincing as she raised herself to a sitting position. "Yes, I have several remedies...besides a caution that you really shouldn't overindulge, Ms. Urd..." the Neptunian Princess chided, as she walked over to a food bin. A moment later, she returned with a plate laden with some fruit. Urd looked doubtfully at the purplish round fruits. "What's this?" "Umeboshi...salted plums. It's a traditional Japanese recipe for combating hangovers, one that I learned from Lum's husband," Oyuki explained. Urd could almost catch the sense that Oyuki was torturing her; it was as if she was toying with Urd's hungover state by plying her with distasteful 'remedies'...and enjoying it. Urd tried not to grimace. "Big Sister!" Urd grimaced, covered her ears with her palms, and shuddered all at once in reaction to the loud shouts of her sister. Skuld was only a few feet away, but she had to *shout*! The girl was much too genki for this time of the morning! Why can't she be an adult just once?... "Skuld, what happened last night?" Urd asked, resting her fingers against the throbbing of her temples. As if that would make a difference. "You got royally drunk...that's 'what happened'!" Skuld said angrily. Urd sensed a bigtime confrontation in the offing, brewed with a vim that only her youngest sister could muster. Skuld was definitely hyper about something...the colors in her aura were quick- knotted like a rope, just like Keiichi's before a race. "Here we are trying to save this planet from impending doom and get Lum back together with her husband...and you decide to get drunk! You're so irresponsible!!! No wonder Cevn kept on you about..." Oyuki paused in mid-sip and set her tea service down with a quick motion. Urd immediately lowed her head; her platinum locks bailing over her face like the hood of a nun's habit, obscuring her expression. Skuld let her voice trail off as she saw Urd's instant reaction to the mentioning of her boyfriend's name. Skuld's eyes beamed apologetic for her careless words...but it was too late. Urd had dropped the plate of fruit she was holding onto the metal decking, shattering it...and a few seconds later she wordlessly left the central common 'lounge' room. Skuld watched the round plums rolling on the floorplating like marbles. "Oh great, now I've gone and done it!" Skuld thought remorsefully. She pivoted between chasing after Urd and just letting her be. She looked at Oyuki with a beseeching expression. Oyuki pointed her eyes towards the observation cabin, and then nodded at Skuld. Reaching a decision, Skuld decided to follow after Urd. * * * * * * * * Urd looked out at the mid-day scene from the darkened interior of the observation cabin. It certainly ranked as one of Kami-sama's most beautiful paintings of Reality...but the sense of appreciation and enjoyment was lost on her. The traces of shadows around the trees informed Urd that it was bright outside, possibly around noontime. Inside the cabin, she had turned all the lights down and set the window's light filters to screen out most of the harsh sunlight. Her eyes had been irritated by the after-wrang of last night's drinking; now they were swollen with more crying debts. "Just like me...glowing on the outside, gloomy on the inside," Urd observed to herself in a private voice. The positioning of life around her was allegory to her bleak sense of loss. Once again, she was crying...just like one of the main characters in any issue of Skuld's sizable shojo manga collection. It seemed to her that most of the female characters in the many manga series were always crying over something. "Ranma no Baka!" with a seasoning of tearfalls... "Just like me..." she whispered again. Of course, Skuld didn't mean any malice by reminding her of Cevn. The remorseful look on her sister's face told a tale of its own. Yet, Urd found herself smiling thinly, sensing the irony of it all. Once she refuged herself in this observation room, she immediately found herself wishing that it was Cevn who had chewed her out instead of Skuld. That Cevn was *here*, so that he could launch into some silly argument with her about getting drunk. Even a few censorious words from him would be treasured...would be much better than this emptiness. This silence. Instead, she had to feel the unquiet pangs of guilt all by herself. Cevn was gone forever from her life. "One more time" is an impossibility when you've passed out of the Past... All these years on the Earthrealm, and he was the only one who had really got on her the most about her forays into drunkenness. Skuld had scoffed at her affinity for sake with childish disrespect; but she wasn't as diligently contentious about the issue as Cevn had been. Belldandy was prudent about her imbibing; to the degree that she seemed to acquiesce to the fact that it was Urd's nature to party heartily with the sake. To Bell, Urd's drinking was 'fate' or 'karma'. And Keiichi seemed to react the same way as his fiancee; seemingly bemused with Urd's faeish relationship with intoxicants. Mara...well, there would be no reproof from her. Her twin sister was a drinking buddy as far as Urd was concerned. Besides, Mara loved the booze as much as Urd did. Most of the members of the N.I.T. Unified Club heartily cheered her on when she would bust out the good stuff at one of their victory parties; they endorsed her reckless drinking with an enthusiastic sophomoric stamp of approval. But Cevn had taken one of Urd's favorite pastimes and had totally flipflopped it. He had struggled to curb her will, claiming that she was addicted to the stuff. Even when she justified that sake was her powerup source, he brazenly continued to challenge her; constantly attempting to make her realize that her drinking wasn't "cute"...that it was the biggest chink of all in her emotional armor. She would have given the Sun to hear his voice one more time... "Urd...I'm sorry for what I said. I wasn't thinking..." a quiet voice sounded from the doorway, seamlessly plucking her out of her thoughts. Skuld. Urd turned and regarded her little sister, who bowed in deep apology as soon as she realized Urd had noticed her. Skuld's night- black hair almost touched the floor as she shook her head sorrowfully. "I miss him too. I..I never thought I would miss any Earthrealm mortals. But I miss Keiichi...and Cevn...and Tomohisa. It feels terrible! It's as if a charmed thread that was used to sew my heart together was suddenly pulled out, leaving me with an open wound. But that's just me. I can't even begin to imagine how *you* feel..snff..Big Sister. You *loved* him! Even with all his stupid mortal faults. Faults and all! I..snff..guess that's what love is, being free to share both the sunshine and the shadows of your heart with someone," Skuld said, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "She's really growing up!" Urd noted to herself with a prideful sadness. She couldn't help but notice that Skuld had mentioned Tomohisa in the same breath as Keiichi and Cevn. Grouping the three together. Perhaps in her mind, her youngest sister was beginning to equate Tomohisa as a boyfriend. Under normal, happier conditions, she would have let Skuld have it...gleefully indulging her 'Big Sister' spirit to provoke the youngest Norn to get all indignant and ampy. Skuld's "brat storms" could easily match the fury of Belldandy's "jealousy storms". But not today. "It could have been the three of us, with our three mortal boyfriends," she reflected mournfully. "Now, it'll just be Bell and Keiichi, Skuld and Tomohisa. A wounded triangle. As for me...I'll just have to nurture this emptiness for the rest of my existence." Not only had she been robbed of a lifespan with Cevn...in a sense, her sisters were also robbed. Belldandy and Skuld would never get to see love blossoming afield between the three families. "Families! I'm really getting ahead of myself. Me, the Norn of the Past...thinking about the future with such expectations! Imagining the families that Skuld, Belldandy and I would have had," she pondered with a dryness of humor. To be sure, they would have been joined together for just a few decades of years, but that would be enough for a lifetime of memories. But in her life, Urd always sensed that love was imbalanced. A shadowplay rendered invisible against the moonlit night. Impossible wishes for the flowering of the future, when the past lies trampled in the mud and the present buries all traces of the erosion of sentiments. All were lost to Urd, Norn of the Past. "He..was my only chance to have the kind of happiness that I *should* have been allowed to keep! That I was denied for so long..." Urd said in a barely-audible voice. "Why was I created a *Goddess*?" she shouted suddenly. "Why was I made a *Norn*? Why do I have this gaping hole in my heart, this irresolvable need for a companion of the opposite sex? Why do I need some kind of partner of the Soul in the first place? Why can't I just resign myself to the fact that I'm going to be alone forever!" "Urd..." Skuld noted warily. "And what difference does any of it make anyway, when Isilblius might destroy Yggdrasil and the Multiverse! What if he already *has* conquered the Multiverse? A..and this is some kind of hell that we're exiled in? This could be nothing more than his version of a torture chamber! I gave up the most important person in my life next to you and Belldandy...and I didn't get shit in return!" Urd shouted, getting worked up by flexes of despair. "Urd...*stop it*!!!" Skuld interrupted. "S..stop talking crazy like that. You're scaring me!" "What do *you* have to be frightened of, little girl? You have your whole future in front of you! Norn of the Future! How I wish I could be you instead of me, Skuld! Unlike me, you have a chance at love. You don't have to make the hard decisions like I had to! A..and you *will* find love, my youngest sister. I'm almost positive that you've already found it!" Urd exclaimed angrily, resentful at her sister's future...jealous of the love that would surround Skuld in the pathways of the Future. Skuld blushed crimson in reaction to Urd's blunt assertion. "You...get to be loved, while I get to be denied!" Urd shouted shrilly, pounding the metal wall of the observation cabin with the hams of her fists. Blue haired, green-haired and black-haired heads peered from the doorway. Skuld fought to keep her composure against Urd's burst of self- pity. "You're a Goddess because the Lord wants it that way, Big Sister! Just because you're female doesn't mean that you're weak, or that you're the only one that feels loss! Just because that stupid Ultimate Force restriction prevents you from having a romantic relationship with guys...well, it doesn't limit you totally. Something *did* happen between you and Cevn! Soooo, it might happen again! And you gotta stop thinking that it's the end! If you can't have a guy in your life, y..you could always fall in love with another Goddess!" Skuld offered, desperately trying to invoke some hope. Urd spun on her heel and facefaulted. Keeping her back to Skuld, she covered her mouth and bit her tongue to keep from either heretic laughter or bitter screaming. Then she turned back around to face her sister, shooting Skuld a pin-eyed look of rapt exasperation. "Well...I guess *that's* out of the question!" Skuld quickly responded, verbally backpedaling as Urd's look of astonishment transformed into a manic giggling. For better or worse, her outrageous suggestion had jolted Urd into a less remorseful mood. Skuld knew that sexual orientation was never an issue amongst the Gods like it was with the mortals. A large number of Gods didn't even didn't qualify as male or female; they were hermaphrodite or 'blends'. Still, Urd's shocked reaction to her earnest suggestion was a little strange. Just like last night, when Benten and Lum and Oyuki somehow managed to drink her under the table. Earthrealm humanity must be rubbing off of her sister a little *too* much. Just like when... Skuld almost choked on her thoughts. "J..just like when I was daydreaming..." she admitted reluctantly, myuttering silently. She found herself blushing as she remembered how...during a moment of solitude yesterday...her emotions had measured themselves into hectic flights of fantasy. * * * * * * * * "Ice cream! Ice cream! I want some! I *need* some!" Skuld announced impulsively in the middle of a 'conference' she was having with her sister and the three alien girls. "What is it with her and ice cream?" Lum interjected. "This is the second time this morning!" "Yeah!!! I'm jealous! I've never seen anyone put away so much candy and ice cream...and *never gain any weight*!" Benten added with admiration pooled in envy, raising an eyebrow. "I think Miss Skuld has excellent taste. She would fit right in with my house staff...they all enjoy chilled dishes," Oyuki commented. "Perhaps we should swing back by my palace on Neptune and bring a couple Sherbet Birds?" Skuld was intrigued by the concept of a "Sherbet Bird" and was almost ready to press the issue, when she noticed the expressions on Lum and Benten's faces immediately souring. She withdrew the questions she was planning to ask, sensing that the "Sherbet Bird" was a testy episode between these three. "NO! Don't even think about it, Oyuki!" Lum and Benten shouted emphatically. Oyuki shrugged her shoulders with the caption of the innocent. "Absolutely not! That rotten little bird *totaled* one of my skybikes! I don't ever want to see one again! So help me Oyuki...if you bring one of those birds, I'll blast it out of the sky!" Benten said angrily, causing the normally light-skinned Oyuki to turn a tinge more pallid. Lum eyes were animated as well, filled with the glaring hardedge look of someone who was reliving a resentment. "Excuse me for being premature. I was simply trying to be polite to our guest by offering a reasonable suggestion," Oyuki volunteered with a smile. "Polite? Those birds are a flying *disaster hazard*," Benten shouted. "I *did* pay for the repairs to your vehicle, did I not...Benten?" Oyuki said warily. Benten gulped and nodded her head. "Why do you want to go out for ice cream while my darling Keiichi is still in that hussy's arms? Don't you care about what *I'm* going through? He's always chasing after one girl or another!" Lum interjected irritably. She sighed and continued. "I've caught him many times with that rich girl Sayoko Mishima. And then he got a love letter at school from some *other* girl named Shiho Sakakibara, who claimed that he was possessed by ghosts! And he had her come over while I was visiting Daddy, instead of when I was home! Actually, I bet that all *she* wanted to do was possess my Darling! And then there was..." Despite the similarity to events in Keiichi's reality back in "realtime Japan", Lum's overboard complaining was exacting, reaffirming Skuld's need to get out of here...and enjoy some ice cream. "Big Sister...do you have any money?" Urd shrugged her shoulders...but Oyuki came to the rescue. The Neptunian Princess reached inside the sashbelt of her kimono and withdrew a selection of yen bills. "Is this enough, Ms. Skuld? I have more if you need it," Oyuki asked politely. Skuld gasped, counting at least 20 Fukuzawas... A moment later, Skuld was dispatched with a wishlist of ice cream orders to 311 Flavors. Lum wanted the Mint Chocolate Chip, Benten wanted Ginger Licorice Snap, Oyuki wanted Pineapple Peach Sherbet, and Urd wanted plain Vanilla. With a skip to her stride, Skuld bounded down the ramp of Oyuki's UFO and headed across the park towards an ice cream shoppe. Being a Goddess, Skuld had a 'radar' for detecting ice creams shoppes... As she walked past a shaded grove of cedars, Skuld suddenly halted in her tracks as the realization that Urd had ordered *plain Vanilla ice cream* fixed itself rigidly in her thoughts. Big Sister *never* ordered a 'regular' flavor; her favorite ice cream flavors were Cherry Blossom Burst and whatever "flavor of the month" ice cream that tasted closest to a mixed drink flavor. Once again, this was proof that Urd was acting quite oddly. Her sister's memory was spotty, she was moodswinging with grief over the loss of her boyfriend, and she was acting seriously *weird*! * * * * * * * * An earnest-faced young Goddess walked through the town towards an ice cream shoppe that was tucked away inside a drive-up mini-mart, alongside several small restaurants. As soon as she saw the desert shop, the young raven-haired Goddess picked up her quickening pace. Ignoring traffic, she sprinted across the narrow street... And she was almost ran over by a woman riding a Harley, wearing a red leather outfit. The onlookers gasped with shock, and then murmured with approval as the teenaged girl became a creature of instinct, effortlessly dodging the motorcyclist with a ready somersault... For some reason, Skuld once again was reminded that her 'adult' body was far more lithesome and coordinated than her 'child' body. A couple of years back, it had been a major struggle just for her to learn to ride a bicycle! Now, she could ballet! With a gymnast's grace, she settled back to her feet as she landed, just like one of the heroines in a martial arts anime. She had almost levitated out of the path of the bike rider...which would have spelled disaster for the very important task of getting ice cream. Not to mention that the passersby would probably had viewed her as quite unusual, something which could compromise their mission. Once inside, she ordered one of her fave ice creams, nestled deliciously in a chocolate-covered waffled cosmic cone. Several sugary tonguestrokes later, she was in bliss... "Waaah! I'm not going to buy you any more beefbowls, Megane! Never again! Just because I lost the damned hillclimb race! Well, just because I got beat by that dirtbag Aoshima *again* doesn't mean that I have to treat you to *two* beefbowls in one sitting! They're *expensive*! What kinda idiot wants to eat beefbowls at an ice cream shoppe anyway?" "You owe me Moroboshi! And we agreed that *I* got to pick the place! Besides, I lost a buncha money on those girls I hired to win us some fans at the race! Because of your poor racing performance, now everyone thinks our racing club is lame! And we didn't get anyone to sign up! So I ended up gettin' stuck paying *500 yen* a piece for those girls to parade around in their swimsuits. Not to mention that you lost the race...and wrecked the custom BMX!" "Quit harpin' on the damned race, willya? I already feel bad enough, ya vulture!" For perhaps the first or second time in her not-too-brief life, Skuld dropped an ice cream cone. * * * * * * * * "Bwah hee hee! Check her out!" the young man said, staring right at Skuld. "She's a total babe! Definitely the full package, dude! Her hair alone is beautiful! Just the way I like 'em, too. Long black hair...doesn't that remind you of a certain fox-spirit of a temple priestess, Nurse Sakura, back in the high school days, Megane? Only this girl's hair is silk-straight instead of wavy. And her face...she's like a total babe! She's gotta be a model! She's every bit as pretty as..." Skuld was so shocked, she simply stared back at the two young men, the dropped ice cream cone totally forgotten. "Woo hoo! And she wants to talk to *me*, Megane! She's checkin' me out! Me...not you, assface...heh hee! She's like a little princess! I wonder if she's outta high school yet? She looks like she's only 16 or 17. Maybe she's an idol star..." "Quit dreaming, you bastard! No way, Ataru! Not with that rack she's sporting! She must be least a C cup! Well, *two* of 'em, anyway! And she's got a *fine* ass under that weird pink and white bulky coat she's wearing. Thank you God, for spandex..." "AHEM!" Skuld cleared her throat irritably. She struggled between bringing down some 'divine retribution' on two college-aged pervert's heads...or going over and introducing herself. Distasteful as it was, she knew that she would need to break the ice with these two, especially with Ataru Moroboshi. If he *was* Ataru Moroboshi... Gulping deeply to keep from gagging in reaction to their leering stares, Skuld walked over and introduced herself to the two college students at the table. Her risk paid off, as she learned that the kid with the half-beard was indeed Moroboshi Ataru. Just like his idiot character in the manga and anime, he was a chatterbox of inanities... Not wanting to spend another second in their presence, she walked to the counter and ordered another ice cream cone, and then found a table on the other side of the ice cream shoppe where she could eat in peace. Her peace was short-lived, because the two boys actually continued to trade comments about her *body*! Right in front of her. Skuld fought with herself to keep from rushing their table and slapping them. She immediately regretted that she didn't have her trusty mallet, Mjolnir. If she did, those two would be sporting knots on their head! Of course, the two college students were discussing her in lowered voices, perhaps thinking that she couldn't hear them. And of course, she could. Ataru sprang to his feet and sauntered over to her table, trying to appear suave. Skuld almost giggled at his shallowness. Like his fictional counterpart, he was a domino blend of geek and moron, with a dash of cuteness thrown in. He was wearing an orange "Tour de Detroit" t-shirt and a pair of beatup jeans peppered with grease stains. But he differed from his anime alter by the fact that he was several years older...he sported a slight beard on his chin, neatly trimmed. Just like one of those boy-group MTV wankers. When she was '12', Skuld thought that the boy-group pop stars were the coolest thing on the Earthrealm. Now that she was '16', she found them quite detestable. Her musical tastes had just begun to change when she had been brought here... "Can I have your phone number, babe? Please?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye. "I don't have a phone. How about you give me yours?" "Whoo hoo!" Ataru shouted, leaping in the air with joy. Hastily, he wrote his number down. Lofted by his rampant excitement, he wrote it on the table instead of the receipt paper Skuld had pushed towards him. "Oops! Ain't every day that a beautiful chick like you wants my phone number!" he said, attempting to justify his idiot mistake. Turning towards his friend, he noted, "This is my lucky day, isn't it Megane?" His friend grunted a grudgeful assent. "Call me tonight babe! Better yet, call me and then come over to my house! I have a lot of model kits in my room I can show you..." Skuld grimaced. This 'Ataru' probably had much more in mind than simply showing her his collection of model cars. He was obviously a mechanic, which differed from the shiftless Ataru of Urusei Yatsura, but she sensed that he was still fickle and lustful. Somehow, he was a blend of the Keiichi she knew and the Ataru from the manga. "Great, just what the world needs...a witless motorcycle racer!" she thought to herself. "Better hide your porno collection if you plan to have her over, Ataru..." Megane said slyly as he adjusted his glasses, causing both Skuld and Ataru to blush. * * * * * * * * "Psst! Big Sister! He's here!!! I found him!" Skuld whispered, inches away from Urd's ear. Urd had fallen asleep while she was gone...which meant that Skuld had lucked out, because she ended up winning an extra portion of ice cream. Cheating at jan-ken-pon certainly wasn't beneath her, especially when the stakes were a pint of ice cream... After ice creaming herself to a place of delight, she waited until the others went to sleep before waking Urd. "Go away, you little pest...I'm trying to sleep!" Urd mumbled sleepily, pushing Skuld's face away with a half-strength wave of her hand. "He's here! The possible solution to all our problems!" "There is no solution, dear. The only way I can have my boyfriend back is to dream about him...so please just let me be," Urd slurred as she returned to sleep. Skuld was going to redouble her efforts to wake Urd until her sister's words kindled an understanding. Skuld had witnessed the dawning of trillions of Souls on trillions of inhabited worlds scaled within trillions of TimeWeaves...but Urd's searing sadness over the deeply tragic personal loss remained strangely meaningless to Skuld. The enormity of Cevn's death was deprived of meaning whenever she attempted to place an imaginary frame around the emotions that such a profound deprivation would evoke. Urd had nowhere else to turn but her memories and her dreams. Dream sequencers. Understanding the unfathomable always came harshly to the analytically-trained mindset of the Norn of the Future. Yet, Skuld knew that leaving Urd to her dreams was the best thing to do. In some instances, it was better to trade in the unknown for the known. She had to take her sister's words to mean that Urd *needed* a reprieve from her sadness, even if it was only in her dreams. Besides, Ataru wasn't going to go anywhere, except maybe to N.I.T. As she walked around the circular 'lobby' of Oyuki's UFO, silent except for the slight breathing of its female sleepers and the omnipresent humming of its energy drives, Skuld wondered if she and her sister would ever make it back to 'home'. Weary, she backed against a bulkjam and slowly slid down to the floor, the cold metal rub of the steel almost soothing her stress-knotted back and shoulders. If this was some kind of spin-off of the Urusei Yatsura universe, then perhaps it would make sense to try and get Lum together with Ataru. Could such a thing even be possible? Lum was so fixated on Keiichi, she seemed oblivious to all other concerns. Not to forget that her Father had oathed himself into a frenzy, threatening to blow up the Earthrealm if his daughter didn't get her way. Skuld felt every single one of her 120,000-plus years coiling in her fingertips as she sighed in confusion. She looked in on the sleeping Urd, who was smiling demurely in her sleep. Urd smiled only rarely after her memories had been restored; so it was probably a good thing that she was protecting her fragile emotions by seeking refuge in her dreams... But Skuld felt a stirring in her breast. Both her sisters seemed to *need* to be physically held by their mortal boyfriends. They seemed to thrive on a single word of compliment, or a single alignment of deep soulful eyes. Skuld didn't understand this phenomenon fully, and she certainly didn't understand how these mere mortal *men* could hold such power over her sisters. It was a paradox, to be sure...especially since she didn't ever feel the need to be held by anyone except Belldandy, Urd and her parents. She could only conclude that something had happened to her older sisters, a condition that caused them to have *additional* needs besides the warmth of her and her family. So what had caused the switch in her sisters? And would it happen to her? Someday, would she seek comfort in the arms of a boyfriend? Skuld felt a wave of fear, even as the stirring in her breast burned like a warm candle... Oddly enough, some words of counsel that Belldandy had once said filled her thoughts. Her sister had explained love to her one day, back when she was gripped by confusion about how to make friends with Sentaro. Elder Sister had said, "Skuld, Soul and life and love are all unified...when you enter into one, you are with the others as well." Skuld reflected upon her sister's words of wisdom, but they only ushered in more homesickness. "Who can *I* seek refuge with?" she asked silently. Her pensive mood struggled against another part of her being that cried, "As if!!! As if I need *anyone*...especially a boy...to make me feel like I have a refuge. No way! I am my own refuge!" "Who can I be with?" she thought as the feelings turned over and over in her heart. Nearby, the atoms obeyed her will...and soon she was watching elegantly cursive kanji form her thoughts on the sheen of the metallic plating. Just as fast as it had appeared, the question melted down the wall like dripping paint... * * * * * * * * As soon as she awoke, Urd remembered Skuld trying to wake her up last night with a shouted "we found him!" It was probably a whisper and not a shout, but it was unwelcome nonetheless. As she briefly studied the soft padding of her sleeping cabin, Urd tried to re-evoke the idyllic moodset of her dream. She and Cevn were strolling around a fun fair in Paris, France. They were watching the excited children bob and weave with joy as their parents giggled happily. Pennants and excited voices soared through the air; circus rides that thrilled and spooked, soft nasal Romaine accents everywhere... Nowhere. The last couple nights, dreams had become a joy to sink into...and a torment to awaken from. Life seemed to stretch like a vulture's wings over her; only in the flimsiest of moments could she feel a reprieve. Yet, a bright part of her heart still remained, still was enveloped in a reserve. A prairieland of hope against the bleak emotional terrain of her reality. There is no passive observer in the dance of life, as far as Urd was concerned. If she held out hope...then there *was* hope. But right now, 'hope' was a feather- flimsy word. Better to think of someone else. Lum was also in grieving, a fellow mourner in Kami-sama's lifeforce farm. Urd could empathize with the plight of the green- haired Oni beauty. In many ways, Lum reminded Urd of herself 100 millennia ago. Brash and impulsive, sexy and blatant, innocent and headstrong, possessive to a fault and a heavy partier. Urd felt *old*. "I need soo..ahhh...mmme *action*!" she said in a loud yawning voice, stretching her arms high overhead. Bounding out of bed, she gathered one of Oyuki's nightrobes around her shoulders and walked out of her sleeping quarters... ...and ran smack into Skuld. "Big Sister! Big Sister! I found him!!!" her younger sister shouted with the persistence of Krishna devotees chanting their mantras. For a isosecond, Urd felt her whole being brighten as she realized that Skuld have found *Cevn*. Her happiness quickly dissolved as she sensed that Skuld wasn't projecting *that* kind of anxious joy. Urd's mood blurred into disappointment and irritation. "Found *who*?" Urd asked, fists on hips. Had Skuld been spying on her while she was sleeping? Did she say something in her sleep? "Moroboshi! I found Ataru Moroboshi at the ice cream shoppe last night!" "EH?!!" Urd exclaimed as she shuddered from spleen to spine. One more impossibility had just manifested itself. Skuld had somehow located a version of *Moroboshi Ataru* in this version of the Earthrealm! As she listened to her little sister yammer on about her encounter with Ataru, Urd's mind rippled through the possibilities. What if they had been brought here to this reality to recreate the plot of the manga? In all the universes of mind and soul, the imagination was furthest afield...and yet closest to the mortal's hearts. Thus, their voracious penchant for fictions of entertainment; something they would have to discard in the 21st century if they were to survive the very real problems of population growth and environmental destruction. And yet, in this time and place, imagination had been rendered *real*. As real as the girl in the next room: a 17-year old Oni girl who wore a scanty tiger-striped bikini outfit and called Skuld "sempai". As real as sherbet birds and iceball UFOs flown by Neptunian princesses with azure ice-fibers for hair. As real as the maiden deity of the Shichifukujin who possessed the nature of Bishamon rather than the gentle biwa of her namesake in the pantheon of the 7 Lucky Gods. And now, according to Skuld, the cast of characters was expanded to include an idiot lecher boy who was attending N.I.T.... "How do we find him?" Urd asked, feeling a mounting excitement. "I got his phone number, since we don't exactly have a phone at our disposal in this UFO!" Skuld answered, shoaling Urd along with her own burst of excitement. "So why didn't you call him when you got home last night, brat?!" Urd demanded. She noticed Skuld's face immediately redden. This'll probably be good, she noted to herself. "B..because h..he said I was cute..." "So? In many cases, that compliment alone will cause Earthrealm girls to call as soon as they get home," Urd remarked. "...and he s..said that my hair was beautiful..." "Yeah...even I can see that." "...and he said. H..he said...I just can't say it! I can't say what he said!" Skuld exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her defensively. "You better say it, or else!" Urd threatened, reaching for Skuld's nose. Being taller and more agile now that she had an adult's body, Skuld easily avoided the nosegrab. She hung her head in embarrassment. "H..he said my breasts were bigger than average for a 17-year old mortal girl! Something about them being '80cm' and 'C cup'..." Skuld finally replied sheepishly, with thinly disguised rouge-cheeked uneasiness. Five minutes later, Urd finally caught her breath. Skuld's explanation had ignited a laughfest; she had hooted it up until her ribs literally were sore. She never would have imagined that Skuld's encounter with Ataru and Megane would yield such a bounty of hilarity! She regretted that she hadn't accompanied Skuld to the ice creamery, so she could witness firsthand the embarrassed look on her sister's face. As far as faces went, Skuld was glaring at her with a very sour stinkeyed expression. Urd thought that since they were in some weird anime-inspired universe, the only thing that was missing was the penciled-in hollow-cross on her sister's forehead. Urd smiled to herself after her sister stormed off in a huff. Attracted by the shouting and shrieks of laughter, Lum and her two companions were staring at her in amazement. Urd's outfit, skin and face were covered with every expletive in the book, in glorious black- and-white kanji. She didn't mind at all. Leaning out through the doorway, she delivered the fatal blow... "Besides, *Little* Sister" Urd shouted slyfully in a ranging theatrically-projected voice, "all the ireful letterzaps in the world won't change the fact that *mine* are a generously full and pert bra- filling 90cm!" Lum, Benten and Oyuki could only look at Urd with open-mouthed incredulity as something went "crash" in the kitchen. * * * * * * * * Day Four of the deadline found Urd and Skuld still at loggerheads over the "Ataru Pervert Incident", as Skuld deemed it. Urd could sense the curiosity and amusement registering on Lum, Benten and Oyuki's faces as she and Skuld squared off once again over some bento lunches that Lum's red-headed friend Ran had brought over. They both wanted the bento with sausages. Lum made a comment that, "Ran probably made all the lunches different, knowing that someone would squabble over them." Urd won at jan-ken-pon, so Lum offered Skuld hers. Skuld took the first bite of the curry, sucked a long gasping inhalation...and immediately made for the water dispenser. Benten casually explained that "Lum's people are used to a much spicier cuisine..." Oddly enough, their sibling squabble seemed to resonate in the discussion that had occurred between Ran and Lum. Like so many of she and Urd's quarrels, Lum and Ran's had started off filled with friendly cordiality and concluded in a screaming match. Something about how Ran had gotten spanked by her mother for setting something on fire in her mom's kitchen when she and Lum were playing at trying to bake cookies when they were both in kindergarten... Sucking on an ice cube, Skuld thought that the whole episode that had happened between Lum and Ran was patently ridiculous, totally lacking the validity of her contention with Urd. Urd had deeply wounded her pride by making fun of her bust size. No matter what, Urd always made fun of her bust size. And now, for some curious reason, Urd's teasing wasn't simply embarrassing, like it had been in the past. Now, *it mattered*! And Skuld found herself very resentful at her sister. For the past several years, she had wanted to "grow up"...and now that she had been mysteriously aged...she *was* grown up. But it still wasn't enough for her older sister. "Big Sister's always ruining everything that has to do with my bust! First, all those stupid 'Big Sister bust checks'. Then making fun of me when I had to learn how to wear an Earthrealm bra. Now, she's teasing me because some boys seemed interested in my bustline! And finally, she's acting all important because mine aren't as big as hers!" she grumbled irritably as she ate a sushi roll from Benten's bento pack. There was a bottom line to all of this, in the fact that the Earthrealm's days were numbered unless she and Urd found a solution. Stupid Belldandy! Even if this Belldandy wasn't her *real* sister... She had never gone to war with her middle sister before. And it would be a war, unless she could convince Lum to switch from Keiichi to Ataru. And even *if* that could be managed, then there was the whole problem of Lum's Father. Would he accept Lum if she broke up with Keiichi and hooked up with Ataru? Some fathers tended to frown on such behavior... Regrettably, Skuld surrendered to the fact that she would need to eat humble pie and patch things up with her sister. Of all the persons in their present group, Urd knew the most about all the in's and out's of human love relationships. Skuld didn't have a clue about how to attract boys...attracting boys was an unintended and irritating side-effect. One she would rather forget, because it always left her embarrassed and vulnerable. All she had to do was remember the time she was alone with Sentaro...and Urd, Keiichi and even Elder Sister Belldandy actually *spied* on her, thinking she was going to kiss him! Skuld had to accept that her evasiveness around boys had left her with an ignorance of how to play matchmaker. But Urd was the quintessential matchmaker, even if her methods were overblown in the case of Elder Sister and Keiichi. She *did* claim to be the "Goddess of Love"... And Urd had been in love herself with an Earthrealm mortal. But would Urd be willing to help out? In normal circumstances, Skuld was certain that Urd would readily volunteer to play 'Cupid' with a pair of Earthrealm mortals. In fact, Urd would probably throw herself into the assignment with the single- mindedness that she experienced when she was working on an new invention. But this situation was less than desirable. Urd *wasn't* normal...she was forgetful, spacey, prone to moodvaults and very fragile. Enlisting her help could cause more harm than good. This was one of those situations Skuld detested, the "I don't have any other choice" type of situation. * * * * * * * * "I'm sorry, Big Sister." "Eh? Are you talking to me, Skuld?" "Yes I am! And I just wanted to say that I apologize for how I acted." "Hmm, could you say that again?" "I said...I'm sorry, Big Sister!" "Skuld, I can barely hear what you're saying! Repeat after me: 'I apologize for being such a big-headed self-important brat, who is always pestering her Big Sister unnecessarily, and who is jealous that her big sister had bigger breasts and a prettier face...'" "I am NOT saying any of that!" Skuld screamed shrilly. She reached for the nearest throwable and barely missed Urd's head with it. Urd smiled at her younger sibling's angry face. "Well, you can't fault me for trying to get you to say it," Urd said with a shrug of her shoulders. She rolled her eyes in resignation and admitted, "Okay...I forgive you! Besides, I was at fault as well. This stupid melancholy that I'm in causes me to feel so edgy. I seem to get irritated so easily..." "Big Sister, can you say that again? I can't hear you..." "I said that I'm at fault because I'm irritable, and because..." Urd started to repeat, until she heard Skuld's giggling. "You *brat*!" "Bii--da!" In the background, Oyuki was heard to comment, "and I thought Ran acted childish..." * * * * * * * * After much discussion, Skuld and Urd agreed that the mission objective had shifted from combating Belldandy to getting Lum together with Ataru. Truth be told, Skuld didn't know which would be worse for the Oni girl...her current 'husband' or the overly sexcrazed Ataru. Skuld felt sorry for Lum, who seemed to be cursed to chase after men who didn't requite the love she had for them. Urd had offered a number of useful suggestions, each replete with the deviousness that only she could devise: impersonation of Belldandy; outright bribery; a drunken blow-out seduction scene; getting Belldandy reassigned; forging the Almighty's signature; and summoning Peorth. Of all these, Skuld favored the one which involved a certain love potion. The hardest part would be to convince Lum that getting back together with Keiichi would be impossible. In order to do this, she and Urd would have to visit the temple again. It would be up to Big Sister Urd to make sure that the love potion she was going to concoct *would actually work* this time. And to worsen matters, she would have to use 'primitive' methods, because she wasn't certain that she would have access to her "Urd's Castle" lab. In other words, making a love potion might require straight-up cooked-from-scratch alchemy using only Earthrealm ingrediants. * * * * * * * * "Hi Belldandy! Hi Keiichi!" Urd hailed in greeting as she walked past the two, Skuld in tow. She strolled down the hallway, feeling the crisp texture of the tatami underneath her feet. If her hopes were answered with truths, her hobby room would be the same as it was back home; fully equipped with all sorts of arcane materials, binding spells, mandalas, mystical icons and a full alchemistry lab. Otherwise she would have to do some major-league arcanical work. She stopped in front of the familiar shoji door, which was lacking the "Urd's Castle" sign. This was to be expected, because this temple had formerly been the resident of Lum and Keiichi. In this reality, she and Skuld had never lived here. If this 'Belldandy' would have been as responsible as her real sister, she would have at least transported some of Skuld's and Urd's gear from Yggdrasil, in order to make these rooms appropriate for visits from her sisters. Urd gulped as she imagined how crazy it would be to meet herself in this whacked-out version of reality... When she slid the door open, she frowned at the sight. The room was a chaos theory of boxes of old manga, discarded sports equipment, crumpled up newspapers, catshit, and several cases of Asahi beer. "Shit!" Urd cursed under her breath. This was going to be much more complicated than she thought. Skuld's look of intense concern steadied Urd's uneasiness. Urd regretted the fact that she was handicapped by her memory loss. Without her lab, she'd have to do everything from scratch. Would she be able to execute the arcanical formulae with any accuracy? A nudging elbow from Skuld caught her attention, just as Keiichi rested his hands on her hips and squeezed. Jammed in the doorway, with Belldandy and Keiichi right behind she and Skuld, they were in tight quarters. Urd immediately gasped at his lecherous forwardness. The guy must be a practiced train groper, the way he was feeling around her... "Sister Urd, what could be of such great interest in this room? It's just an old storage room..." Belldandy asked with wary curiosity. Urd squirmed as she tried to bat away Keiichi's hands. Lum was right about her husband...he *was* a pervert! He was actually playing grabass with her hips! "OWWW!" Keiichi screamed. "Skuld, you didn't have to stomp on his foot! It's in his nature to do these things...to be inquisitive. Keiichi can't help it if he's perverted. It really isn't his fault," Belldandy said censoriously. Skuld almost said "you're full of shit too!", but checked her tongue. Urd silently thanked Skuld with her eyes for 'diverting' Keiichi's attention. She didn't come her to be groped by some loser who was impersonating her younger sister's fiance! But there still was the matter of her missing lab... While mulling the contingencies of trying to use mortal technology and materials to mix up a love potion, Urd remembered her childhood. Centuries of difficult alchemistry assignments from the Proctors, accidental explosions, being tardy for her inculcation because she didn't want to screw up, the alchemistry set that Mother and Father had given her for her birthday... "Belldandy dear, could you do me a really major favor," Urd began. "Depends on what it is, Urd. My wish assignment to protect Keiichi from Lum has me quite occupied at the moment. And knowing you, a 'favor' always arouses my suspicions," Belldandy answered. Skuld grinned at the implications of that remark. "I understand. This would only take you a moment. Would it be possible for you to visit Mom and Dad's and bring back my alchemistry set from my old room?" "Why would you want that old alchemistry set, Urd? You haven't dabbled with alchemistry in 200 millennia. Why, you were much more interested in chasing after BoyGods and stealing Sleipnirs than any actual work," Belldandy asked. Much as she tried to stifle herself, Skuld let out a short whispered giggling. In this reality, Urd evidently wasn't an adept at arcanics or alchemistry...she had been boycrazy during her teen years! Urd glanced at her giggling sisters. Even Keiichi was giggling. But she was too intent on her 'mission' to be embarrassed. She was also thankful...at least she *had* a alchemistry set in this 'reality'. Which meant that she might have the necessary ingredients to mix up a "Flowering Ardor Special" potion. "Please, Belldandy! I've been feeling...nostalgic...for my old things lately. And since I'm going to be here on the Earthrealm for a few more days, I'd really like to have them here with me," she lied. "This isn't some trick to try and separate me from Keiichi, so you can have Lum come and sneak him away while I'm gone, is it?" Belldandy asked warily. Before Urd could answer, Skuld spoke up and confronted Belldandy. "I can't believe you! You're a Goddess Relief Office worker, whose assignment is to grant wishes to those who desire them! And now your older sister is asking you to fetch her something from Yggdrasil...and you're debating with her! What kind of example is that? Just grant her wish already!" Urd almost bit her lip in mirth as Belldandy blushed through the whole rainbow of shades of embarrassment. Skuld certainly had pounded her! "I guess you're right...I *do* have a reputation to uphold! I'll be back in a few moments with your alchemistry lab toy, Urd. But you both have to promise me that you'll do nothing to interfere with my work here while I'm gone. Which means that you have to leave Keiichi alone...oops! I mean that you'll can't do anything to interfere with the execution of his wish," Belldandy demanded. She had almost slipped up and made them promise to leave Keiichi alone, Skuld noted to herself. In the literal sense, this would have left the door wide open for Lum to come fetch Keiichi. With Belldandy absent and no one protecting the temple house, there would be no way for Belldandy's special seals to prevent entry by certain young women. Which meant that Lum could break in with ease...a couple zakks of her lightning bolt powers and the doors would be flung wide open. But Belldandy had caught her mistake before it was too late. So now she and Urd were committed to preserving their sister's special seals to prevent Lum and the others from breaking in and snatching Keiichi. Too bad...it was a near miss. Urd and Skuld both nodded their heads, regretful that Belldandy's "promise" hadn't left them a backdoor to smuggle Lum into the temple. A moment later, the bathroom flashed neon bright as Belldandy used the mirror there to transport herself to Yggdrasil. * * * * * * * *