This is the last of the pretty-much-completed chapters. 7 is still
undergoing some draft work, and I'll post it tomorrow.

************************************************
  An Oddzilla Productions fanfic, by Andrew Huang.
  Guard the Future, chapter 6.
  Based on Fujishima Kosuke's "Aa! Megami-sama!"
************************************************

  The voice, the unfamiliar voice, I did not like it, the voice that
confirmed Belldandy's guess, I did not like it at all it felt wrong GO
AWAY.

  I leapt to my feet as that dull roar echoed in my head, found Heaven's
Knuckle in my hand, and a blond woman dressed in black leather walking
into the kitchen, sneer on her face, and two odd vertical lines on her
forehead between her eyes. The sight of her made me quiver, made me almost
ill.

  "Mara," said the two goddesses behind me.

  "What?" I followed up. Half of my brain was trying to shove the violent
impulses back down into the dark red hole of my id as I took deep breaths.
There was no threat, no danger to Skuld. Yet.

  "I'm a demon."

  "...what!?"

  "She's a demon," the two goddesses said, again in chorus.

  "You know," I said as evenly as I could after a moment, "it's times like
these I wish I could really, really _cuss_."

  Mara laughed. "Oh, put that away. I'm not here to cause trouble. Not
now." She waved a hand carelessly and ambled over to the counter, without
another glance at me. You aren't worth worrying about, she said to me
without words.

  I bristled, but decided to do as she said. While Belldandy and Urd were
obviously wary, neither were they preparing for an attack, or preparing to
attack. And she might be powerful enough to brush me aside like a fallen
leaf. I didn't know.

  Still, I did move to place myself between her and the hallway to the
bedrooms, leaning against Heaven's Knuckle as if it were a cane. "So what
are you here for?" I asked, guardedly.

  "To do what you were guessing, Mister Guardian Angel. Give a little
warning." The demon...demoness? Whatever. She lounged carelessly against
the counter, sweeping her gaze over all of us briefly.

  I shook my head. "Okay, warn away. Tell us how Skuld's going to suffer,
how you're going to break us and wear us down and all that crap." I
paused, realizing that my hand was actually starting to twitch a little
bit.

  She snorted. "Gonna have to disappoint you, boy. Especially since I'm
not trying to hurt your precious little Skuld." She flipped her hair over
her shoulder.

  "Huh?"

  "That wouldn't be your style, would it, Mara?" Urd said quietly.

  "Nope!" Mara grinned. "Hey, it's one thing to torment the bunch of you.
Quite another to...well, let's say, I enjoy messing with the little brat
too. No need to go that far." She sobered up suddenly, and looked at
Belldandy, then Urd steadily. "As I was saying. There's...a faction back
home, that's all for shaking things up a little bit more than usual. Most
of us are content with the way things are going as they are--these stupid
humans hardly need our help. But not them."

  "And who are 'they'?" Belldandy asked.

  Mara shrugged. "We don't know. Not for sure. Oh, we've caught a couple
servitors running around for their masters, but they don't know anything
of course. They're keeping themselves hidden pretty well so far. It's--"

  She fell silent at the sound of the front door opening and a call of,
"I'm home!" Keiichi, of course. I turned around and opened my mouth to
warn him, but by the wide-eyed look he gave me and the feeling of
something very warm pressing against my back, I guessed he now knew.

  "Why hello there," Mara said, right next to my ear.

  Again with the wrestling with fury and fear and the need to fight.
"Please do not get so close to me, demon," I said, grinding my teeth.

  She just laughed, while Keiichi looked at Mara behind me a bit
fearfully. "Oh, you're so cute." I almost lost control when she patted me
on the head. "And how are you and dear Belldandy doing?" she continued,
now addressing Keiichi.

  "Just...fine," he said, slowly, trying to slip around me into the
kitchen. I let him, and stood between him and Mara as he went. I'd protect
him too, if I had to.

  I really didn't like Mara. Must be something built-in to me, now that I
was an angel. It was instictive, raw and unthinking. And frightening.

  My attention returned to the scene in front of me, as I calmed myself
again. Keiichi was at Belldandy's side, staying close--I couldn't blame
him--while Urd had still not moved from her place. There was something odd
about the look she gave Mara. Vaguely sad, if I had to guess. Mara was
still grinning as before.

  "So, where was I? Oh yes." Mara's grin diminished but did not disappear
as before. "They probably aren't going to strike directly at Skuld for a
little while yet...I'm guessing that they're still planning, and now have
to account for an extra little detail now as well." I nodded. Me, of
course.

  "What? What's going...oh." Keiichi looked very upset, as to be expected.

  "We'll explain in depth a little later," I said, my tone a bit more
clipped and harsh than I wanted it to be. I'd have to apologize to him for
that. "Anything else, demon?"

  "I do have a name, you know," she said dryly, then shook her head. "But
aside from that, nope! Not really. Although I must say, I was able to get
past your defense line a little more easily today than I expected. The
brat needs to reconfigure her robots and give them a less predictable
movement pattern." Then she saluted sardonically and walked past me to the
front door. "Don't expect any more help from us, though." And she was
gone, taking with her the oppressive jumble of emotions that had popped up
in me.

  Well, except for her screams as Banpei and Sigel--the two robotic guards
that Skuld had set up to patrol the temple--managed to be a little less
predictable than she'd gauged. It made me feel a little better instead of
worse, though. I sighed with relief.

  "What happened, then?" Keiichi said quietly, over the faint strains of
Saturday Night Fever. (Disco music was Mara's inexplicable weak spot, I
would learn later.)

  "I'll explain. I was there." I walked over and sat at the table. "Well,
you know about the anti-gravity engine Skuld's been working on the past
couple of days?" He nodded; it was probably difficult to miss that, since
he was living here. "Well, we went to go test it at the riverbank today,
and, well, it exploded."

  "And...it wasn't just because...."

  I shook my head. "It wasn't a very big explosion, and wouldn't have hurt
her too badly even if I hadn't protected her, but...."

  "There were traces of demonic energy, very small, but there," Belldandy
now added. "It was only noticeable if we looked for it."

  "I...wait, is Skuld all right?"

  The worry in his voice made me smile a little bit. "She's fine. I
shielded her from the explosion, which wasn't that serious anyway, as I
said. She's sleeping now, to catch up on pulling that all-nighter."

  "Two all-nighters," Keiichi said, shaking his head. "Well, as long as
she's safe."

  "Yeah. I guess she'll be happy that her design was correct after all.
And mad that someone went and blew it up anyway."

  "She will just rebuild it, I'm sure," Belldandy said. "She enjoys the
process just about as much as the result; it's her nature."

  I realized that Urd had been rather quiet this whole time, all the way
from Mara's arrival to now. "Urd, something wrong? Well, besides the
obvious."

  She just drummed her fingers on the table. "It's a long story. I'll tell
you another time." Then she frowned. "I suppose we have something to work
with now, though. Not much, but at least we know."

  "If she can be trusted," I muttered.

  "There's a possibility that she's deceiving us," Belldandy said
cautiously, "but we can't discount her words yet."

  "So, uh, what do we do?" I asked, scratching my head.

  "You be on your guard," Urd said, voice now firm, "and we'll have some
people look into things."

  With that, Urd retreated to her room, Belldandy went to wash the dishes,
while Keiichi and I were left to brood quietly.

  "I hate being in the dark," I grumbled.

  "At least you can do something," he said, sighing. "I'm just a normal
human."

  "Each person has his role, Keiichi-san," Belldandy said from the sink.
"You're far from useless. At this time, Skuld needs all the friends she
can get, in addition to protectors. And you do matter more to her than she
might admit."

  I nodded, then grinned. "And Skuld's protectors need support of the
emotional kind too, right?"

  They both blushed, as expected.

------------------------------------------------

  Somewhere along the way, I was invited to dinner tonight, because it
wouldn't be any extra trouble to Belldandy as Skuld would probably be
sleeping straight through dinner into tomorrow. And I felt like staying
near Skuld a little bit longer, so I accepted.

  In the meantime, Keiichi and I decided to help Belldandy out a bit with
dinner. Why not?

  "Hey, Belldandy," I said suddenly, while carefully cutting up some green
onions.

  "Yes, Andrew-san?"

  "Do I have some...built-in response to being very hostile toward demons?
Because I was having a pretty hard time keeping myself from hauling off
and slamming Mara with Heaven's Knuckle."

  "Oh, dear...we mentioned this when we were finalizing your power levels.
You don't remember?"

  I frowned, scraping the dregs of my memory. "I...hm, I do remember you
mentioning a warning sense for when there's second or first-class demons
around. But I there's a difference between a warning sense and a primal
urge to kill."

  "Yes, that would be it. But...oh, I think I know. There haven't been any
new Class I guardian angels for a long, long time, and the circumstances
for that sense have changed since."

  "Er...like allowing for the possibility of a peaceful encounter with a
demon?"

  "Yes, exactly. It might be a good idea to adjust that to be less
intense."

  "Please do. That was kind of...distressing."

  "Ask Urd to transmit the request. It can be done remotely; no need to
make a trip to Yggdrasil."

  "Sure thing, after we're done here."

  Belldandy nodded, and went back to humming a cheerful tune as she
worked. I watched as Keiichi handed her some pickled daikon slices, and
fought back the urge to remark on how wonderfully domestic this was. I
think I already hit my quota for teasing them this week.

  Instead, I now asked, "So what's the story with Mara?"

  Keiichi answered, which surprised me slightly. "It's a long story, and
I'm not sure we should tell all of it. She and Urd have some history
together."

  "Huh, really?"

  They both nodded a bit delicately. Keiichi continued. "She's given us a
lot of trouble in the past, definitely--she tries to break divine
contracts by offering other things in exchange."

  "She try to break you and Belldandy up?"

  "Yeah. We made it through that okay, though," he said, smiling.
Belldandy smiled back.

  "Good for you. Here's the green onions, Belldandy. I think that's it for
food prep."

  She took my bowl and glanced around. "Yes, that is. Thank you for your
help, you two. I can take care of the rest, if you'd like a break."

  "I'll go talk to Urd now, I guess," I said, washing my hands quickly and
then walked out of the kitchen, down to Urd's room. After some knocking,
though, I discovered she wasn't there, and walked back to the living room,
where I found Keiichi stretched out on the couch. "Do you know where Urd
is?"

  "She's not in her room?" I shook my head in response. "Well, she'll turn
up eventually, I'm sure."

  I plopped down on the opposite end of the couch, glanced briefly at the
TV. Nothing particularly interesting.

  Might as well get this over with, I thought.

  "Urd's trying to set me up with your sister."

  I was met with a thoughtful silence.

  "She was insisting."

  More silence.

  "I, uh, I've got a little sister too, so I fully understand and
appreciate the immediate reaction to hearing something like this." Like
with Skuld, as well, now that I knew about Sentarou.

  He finally laughed a bit. "I guess it's a little like that, yeah, but
you're a nice guy, so I don't think I have to worry too much. I'm more
worried about Urd, to be honest. I told you not to challenge her like
that."

  "I think I'll be okay. I think. I hope."

  "So, uh...." He hesitated slightly. "What does she have in mind?"

  "Nothing too much yet, at least so she says. She's going to get
Belldandy to invite your sister over for dinner next Wednesday. Just a
little bit of casual interaction for the both of us."

  "That's...remarkably restrained for her. I expected her to be pulling
out the love potions already."

  I shifted uneasily. "Love potions?"

  He laughed a bit nervously. "Way back, earlier in our relationship, um,
Urd really pushed at us to get more...intimate sooner. You know."

  "Ah. Yeah. I can see that."

  "She stopped doing that after a while, though she does try things every
now and then to get the two of us alone. I don't mind so much anymore. Her
intentions are good."

  "You think she'd try the potion thing on us?" The idea didn't sit all
that well with me.

  "I guess it's possible. But I like to think that she's learned from her
mistakes."

  "Well, she's already meddled with my dreams a little bit," I said,
sourly. Then I noticed the strange look he was giving me. "What? Oh...oh,
no, nothing like that," I added hastily. "No, no, just...a candlelight
dinner, sorta roman...never mind," I mumbled. "Sorry."

  "It's, uh, it's okay."

  I drank my tea quickly. So did he.

  "So," I said, trying to salvage the conversation.

  "So...."

  Something occurred to me. "Does your sister know about...well, the fact
that Belldandy and her sisters are...."

  "Not so far. We've managed to keep it hidden somehow this long, and....
I don't like doing it, because I'm sure she'll find out someday, and the
longer it takes...but I just don't know how to tell her." He frowned.

  "And now Urd wants to set me up with her," I murmured. "This'll get
complicated." I shrugged. "Well, we'll figure something out. I think."

  "Yeah."

------------------------------------------------

  Soon, dinner was ready, and Belldandy asked me to go call Urd. When told
that she appeared to be nowhere in the house, she suggested the backyard,
so I went to look.

  Very soon, I realized that there was a demon nearby still, by the way my
hands curled into fists almost of their own accord. I stopped where I was,
hoping distance would keep the reaction manageable.

  "Really, Urd, aren't you the least bit bored of this?"

  And Mara was talking to Urd. Had a history together, eh?

  "It's quite fun in its own way."

  "Don't miss the old times?"

  "Not really."

  I knew I shouldn't eavesdrop, but I really couldn't help myself.

  "But they were fun, weren't they? All the way back then."

  I heard Urd laugh quietly. "I suppose they were."

  "Well, I suppose it's about time I got going."

  "Mara--why did you come to warn us? I mean, really."

  There was a pause, while I frowned slightly, thinking about what they'd
said. It sounded as if....

  "Well, hey, we were pretty good friends a long time ago. I suppose I
still kind of...care."

  Well, yes. But what were a goddess and a demon doing being friends?

  "Ah."

  "And it was an order from your mother too."

  And what was a goddess' mother doing giving orders to a demon?

  "I...see."

  There was another brief pause. "Time to go! It was a pleasure meeting
you, Mister Guardian Angel. See you around, Urd."

  "What? Andrew-kun?"

  Ah, smeg.

  I stepped out just as Mara vanished into the shadows, and waved
sheepishly at Urd. "Hey, Urd. Dinner's ready. Aheh." Should have figured
that a demon could sense an angel nearby.

  She looked at me with an unreadable expression. "Well. Let's not keep
Bell waiting." She walked past me into the house.

  Dinner was going to be tense, yes it was.

------------------------------------------------

  Fortunately, Belldandy and Keiichi didn't seem to notice the awkwardness
between myself and Urd, or at least didn't show it if they did. Perhaps
they figured it was lingering unease over everything else that had already
happened today.

  Instead, they just talked with each other, not exactly sweet nothings--
you don't do that with other people at the table, and they were probably
still upset about Skuld and Mara's visit--but pleasant conversation
nevertheless. I just struggled to enjoy Belldandy's food, while Urd seemed
to be brooding.

  "Ah, that was delicious, Belldandy. Thanks again." I laid down the
chopsticks and leaned back from the table.

  She nodded and smiled. "You're welcome, as always."

  Urd now finished her food as well, and stood. "I've got some more things
to take care of," she announced, and moved to leave the dining room.

  Fear of disturbing things that weren't ready to be disturbed warred with
the fear of leaving things to fester that shouldn't fester. The latter
quickly won, especially as it was assisted by curiosity. "Hold up, Urd. I,
uh, have a request."

  She stopped at the doorway, looked at me as I stood up. "Yes?"

  I twitched, uncertainly, then nodded my head toward the door, hoping
she'd get the hint. And she did, walking out, as I followed. "Well, for
starters, I need to get my demon detecting sense dialed down a little. It
was kind of hard preventing myself from getting violent earlier."

  She nodded slightly, while I trailed her into the living room. "That's
right, the standard for that was never adjusted. I'll get on that right
away."

  "Yeah, I...wouldn't want to hurt Mara without good cause." I frowned.
"That sounded like I was baiting you, didn't it? I'm sorry."

  She turned around and looked at me darkly. "Just a bit. How much did you
hear?"

  I thought about this for a little while. "Not too much," I said finally.
"But enough to hear that, um...you and Mara seem to be old friends."

  She kept on looking at me.

  "And...I must wonder why she's taking orders from your mother," I
continued, quietly.

  "That's because I'm half-demon."

  Silence.

  "I really don't know how to respond to that," I finally said.

  "It's not something I think about much. I'm a goddess first and
foremost."

  "But you are half...."

  "Yes."

  I scratched my head. "I guess...I mean.... This was what you were going
to tell me about?"

  "Yes."

  Beyond the surprise and, admittedly, slight unease I felt at discovering
this about Urd, I was starting to feel a little concerned about the way
she was acting now.

  "I'm really sorry I was eavesdropping there. Er. I guess you would have
rather told me yourself and all...."

  She nodded. This was not much like her usual, more talkative self. "It
doesn't bother you?"

  I considered this for a moment. "Welllll...to be honest...er, yeah, it
does, just a bit."

  Urd didn't look surprised, only disappointed. "I'd expected that."

  I sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm still just trying to absorb that fact right
now."

  "I'm sorry too, that you had to find out this way. I really would have
preferred to tell you myself. But what's done is done."

  "Mmm. Yeah." I scratched my head again and smiled weakly. "Give me some
time to get used to it."

  She smiled back. "All right. I'll send up a request to tone down your
reaction settings."

  "You all have any other deep, dark secrets I don't know about?" I said,
trying to lighten the mood. My words fell flat, though, and I didn't think
it really worked.

  "We've all got our secrets."

  Nope, it didn't. I hoped this wouldn't last too long.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

  Indeed, I do not swear in real life. At least, I try my hardest not to
spout off four-letter words. :)

Andrew Huang...Shizumaru@KawaiiMUCK
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
NAC MAC FEEGLE!

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