OH MY GODDESS: META-MATICS 

			    CHAPTER THREE: SEVERANCE



Severance,
The birds of leaving call to us,
yet here we stand
endowed with the fear of flight.
Overland
the winds of change consume the land,
while we remain
in the shadow of summers now past.
When all the leaves 
have fallen and turned to dust,
will we remain
entrenched within our ways.
Indifference,
the plague that moves throughout this land
Omen signs
in shapes of things to come.

	Song "Severance" by Dead Can Dance

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



    The rumpled, aged woman could think nothing but disbelieve what Skuld
had just said: could Megumi really be dead? 

    In the parlour by the temple's main entrance, the three sisters
looked at each other in confusion.  Kosuke bumbled about, freed from his
mother's arms and bored of all that adult talk. 

    Urd refused to accept that Keiichi's sister had simply ceased to
exist, her mortal body disconnected from this reality and sent into a
fifth-dimensional reality of her own.  She had been standing at the
juncture where space had folded back into itself, so when this bridge, in
effect, was broken apart, Megumi was thrown into an interstice outside of
the space/time continuum.  As she was a three dimensional being, Megumi
was ill-equipped to conform to a five-dimensional standard. 

    "There must be a way that one of your devices can retrieve Megumi,"
Urd pleaded. "Maybe the Yggdrasil can--" 

    "Who is Megumi?" Belldandy wondered.

    "Megumi? I'm sorry," Skuld scratched her head in confusion. "Who?"

    "Keiichi's little sister!" Urd explained.

    Belldandy giggled at her oldest sister's ignorance. "Don't be silly,
Urd."  She wondered if those years of alcohol abuse had ruined her brain. 
"You know Keiichi's an only child." 

    Urd wondered if she had finally fallen into the pit of madness.  She
remembered Megumi--yet she never did exist.  What procured her
displacement?  The white bugs that now surrounded them would not permit
an answer. 

    They were everywhere.

    Almost on reflex, Skuld initiated her de-bugging method: smashing the
white rabbit-shaped anomalies with her trusty mallet.  Belldandy joined
her, first materializing a wooden hammer for herself and, realizing Urd
had not the resources to conjure up one, then created another for her
powerless sister.  The trio did their best to cope but grew tired from
exertion. 

    Kosuke laughed and giggled as the bugs tickled him.

    Urd didn't think it was funny. "Skuld?  Why don't you use one of your
devices?" 

    "No, there's no need," Skuld insisted.  "Our hammers should
accomplish the job." 

    "It's not a question of accomplishment, it's the expediency," 
informed Belldandy. "These bugs will begin to reproduce, accelerating
their number beyond our means." 

    "You forget, Big Sister.  I'm no longer responsible for de-bugging
the Yggdrasil,"  the youngest goddess predicated, crushing bugs underfoot
with a sadistic leer. 

    Belldandy argued, "Since you moved on to other duties, your
replacement hasn't been as successful." 

    "You know you're the best..." Urd added, appealing to Skuld's vanity. 

    "You must build a device because the manual method isn't
accomplishing anything," Belldandy begged. 

    Skuld just continued to vent her anger at the bugs with her good
friend, Mjolnir Mk II, but this only served to increase her rage.  The
bugs' nephelegenous corpses could not stain the veteran hammer head. "I
can't!" she cried, smashing the eight-legged ones with a crazed fervor. 

    "Why not?" 

    No one, not even her sisters could ever understand the pain Skuld
felt, the emotional maelstrom raging deep in her soul; the feelings, the
conflicts that gnawed at every conscious thought.  How could they know
the disease that infected her psyche?  "Creating mechas makes me feel
so..." 

    "...dirty."

    Belldandy screamed.

    Skuld and Urd stood with puzzled expressions as their flesh began to
bubble, stretching and sagging down from out of their clothes.  The
goddesses' eyes dripped from cavernous eye sockets, like melting wax of
white. 

    On the ground, Belldandy struggled backward away from the horrific
apparition, as the erstwhile recognizable sisters continued their
unnatural decay. 

    "What's wrong sis?" the goddess formerly known as Skuld asked as she
embraced Urd, violently meshing into her until the two had become one
blob of flesh and shattered bones. 

    Skuld saw no reason for the terror in her big sister's eyes, and she
wondered if she was hallucinating. "Urd, she could be experiencing
perceptual induction." 

    The eldest sister knelt by Belldandy, trying to reassure the
trembling goddess.  Urd gently placed her hand before her sister, but
Belldandy, in a sudden motion, jerked forward like a cornered beast and
fiercely gnashed her teeth into Urd's hand. 

    "Snap out of it!" Urd shrieked as she slapped the face of her
sister who, stunned from the impact, relented her grip. 

    "It's no good," Skuld said.  "Her reality has been disrupted by the bugs."

    "Don't be so quick to resign.  We must eradicate the bugs pronto,
otherwise we could permanently damage her already fragile psyche," Urd
said, annoyed at Skuld's reluctance to build one of her patented Bug
Removal Machines. "Quit making excuses!" 

    "But..." Skuld hesitated.  "Banpei-kun--"

    "Shut-up and just do it!"  Urd scolded the youngest goddess.  She
couldn't bear the sight of a broken Belldandy.  What did she see?

    Skuld had no choice. Belldandy would likely regress to the mental
state of a two-year-old or worse, a vegetable.  By sheer will power,
Skuld called upon the forces that assembled anything of metal from
throughout the temple, bringing the diverse assortment before her. Her
eyes closed, she controlled an unseen hand that twisted and contorted the
pile of metal; fresh scraps formed the material of which various
components were made.  As each part was born from Skuld's master design,
they swirled about in a tornado of inter-locking pieces, all snapping
into place.  The result resembled an old furnace.  But this was no
ordinary furnace: this was Mr. Bug Zapper Mk IX, a bug incinerator. 

    Skuld, sweating from the insufferable exertion of her powers, placed
her trembling hands upon the metal surface, contact with which made her
nauseous, and she imbued it with a bright glow that chugged the mecha
into life. 

    The bugs were trapped in it's gravitational pull, grabbing the vermin
as they struggled to break free.  It was of no consequence however, as
the machine accomplished its task and the bugs were incinerated in its
flaming maw, sublimating into clouds of smoke.  

    "Sister, are you all right?" Urd asked Belldandy who, now
precariously sitting, had picked herself up from a prone position. 

    "Nidhogg," the fair-haired goddess muttered, feeling her head.

    Urd was struck by the realization.  "Nidhogg?  The nemesis of the
Yggdrasil?"

    The bugs now dealt with--and reality back to normal for now--Skuld
began to cry uncontrollably.  She fled from the temple. 

    "I need a drink," Urd complained.



    "It's operating without a hitch," the woman said, brushing the dark
hair from her forehead.  "Maybe a few modifications on the phase
converter." 

    In the testing room, Keiichi and Kikuko did last minute adjustments
on the prized VR chair.  It was an odd contraption with its soft
synthetic-leather reclining chair, crowned with dark goggles--thicker
than standard ski gear--connected by an adjustable arm.  It made Keiichi
think of those electric chairs used for condemned criminals in America. 
It was a chilly thought. 

    "So," she started.  "I guess we're working together after all."

    Keiichi smiled.  "At this stage in the game, I'd say that we all need
to work together to get everything right for tomorrow's presentation." 

    "The whole world will be watching."

    "Don't remind me," he sighed, his stress level already applying
pressure through his bloodstream.  He loosened his tie and wiped his
face, though there was no sign of perspiration. 

    "How's the adjustments coming along?"

    "This is like working a bike," he commented sarcastically.  He
lamented on his lost chance at working on real motorbikes. 

    "Not quite," she laughed, realizing the humour. She inched towards
him.  "Looks like I've done my job." 

    "Finished already?"

    "Hmm-mm," she explained, "Making sure the signals ain't crossing.
This little chair gave me some strife earlier but I showed it who was
master." 

    "Sometimes a little diplomacy can go along way," Keiichi suggested,
"It's better than getting frustrated all the time." 

    Kikuko couldn't see it. "Why compromise if I can always get what I
want?  To compromise is to admit failure."  She leaned over and her face
was but a breath away from his. 

    Keiichi laughed thinking Kikuko was just being assertive.  "It's 
all right to stand up for what you believe in, of course..."

    "My last boss learned that the hard way," she remembered, "So far
FTIC has been good to me." 

    Keiichi took advantage of the segue. "I'm still amazed that
technology has progressed so fast and most of it originating here at FTIC
and that machines can respond to our thoughts." 

    She explained what she'd heard. "The chair operates via VR headgear 
that stimulates the pineal gland located near the top skull."

    "Pineal gland?"

    "Yeah.  The mythical 'third eye'.  It's an optic sensing organ, like
an eye but seems to have lost that function--so it may have once been a
real eye." 

    Keiichi rubbed the top of his head.  "Really?  So what _does_ it do
then?" 

    "It was believed by some that it takes thought images from the
brain's electro-chemical storage--the subconscious mind-- and reverses
them to be projected back onto the retina." 

    "But why would it do that?"

    "Dreams.  This is how we view dreams."

    "Ah!  Like REM?"

    "Seems so," she continued.  "It was only until FTIC experiments
proved this, and now they've found away to 'read' these images with
extremely light sensitive rods that translate the image into electrical
signals." 

    "And this signal is used to control the virtual reality environment. 
A person has to visualize a command, and the computer responds.  Total
hands-free,"  Keiichi realized.  "But aren't people's thoughts generally
too unstable to get a decent reading--even with absolute concentration?" 

    "That's where my department comes in.  Being a specialist in
cybernetics, I'm responsible for relating mechanical and electrical
systems to human control functions--are you familiar with cybernetics?" 

    "Not really.  It's been difficult adjusting to mecha building."

    "Essentially a missing arm can be replaced by a similarly functioning
robotic version; that's the essence of cybernetics. The robotic arm must
be designed so it can interpret information from the person and translate
it into appropriate action." 

    "So that must apply to the chair, as it must understand the
information from its driver." 

    "Exactly.  But the greater amount of information which will make
deciphering difficult, the probability of any particular choice being
made decreases.  Therefore, the chairs use a psychic damper to prevent
feed-back." 

    "And limit choices that the user makes," Keiichi says. "I think I 
understand. But is the will controlled?"

    Kikuko doubted it. "It's a one-way processor.  It's meant to
stabilize order out of the chaos.  You still control it even though the
choice is limited; the chair does not control you." 

    "That's a relief.  Otherwise, I'd wonder why I'm working here."

    "Say," she wondered, "when did you join the company?"

    "I joined three years ago, after my wife gave birth to Kosuke-chan. I
took the first job I could get because the pregnancy was sudden." 

    Kikuko sympathized, saying that although she was good in sciences,
she really wanted to be a regular mechanic.  "Anyway, all mechanical work
has gone hi-tech so I ended having to use my former skills to retrain for
mecha design, ending up here as a trainee.  I found cybernetics to be
quite interesting," she said.  "Difference from you is, I'm not married
and I don't even have a boyfriend," she said touching his hand. 

    "Looks like it's all ready," announced Keiichi, locking up the chair
while still stationary, Kikuko's face encaging his gaze. "Thanks for your
help." 

    "Isn't there anything else I can do for you?" she asked before
kissing him. 




    At a dark, disused shed, Skuld enjoyed the desuetude with a
comforting cigarette, the light from the hot ash providing inadequate
illumination; only the moonlight--in fact not light from the moon but a
reflection of a hiding sun--was witness to the goddess' saturnine mood. 
Her black attire allowed the shadows to bury her almost completely.  With
the nicotine now boosting her system, she calmed down.  She looked at the
old note again, and thought how wish-giving was not as seraphic nor
fulfilling as expected--she felt empty without Kenji and missed him when
she saw how she made others happy yet without satisfying her own desires. 

    It was a lustrous summer day after she returned from her two-year
trip, that she dropped by to see Kenji. Thrilled with the prospect, she
stopped near his house and closed her eyes in equanimity.  She slowly,
almost imperceptibly, began to levitate several inches off the ground,
as her classic white uniform became a luminous white before flowing down
her body and reforming into a pale blue floral-print dress.  Satisfied
with the result, she accented her outfit with white sandals and a
broad-rimmed summer hat before returning to terra firma. 

    She giggled, hoping that Kenji would like it.  No one was home so she
anxiously waited, swinging her hammer by the front gate, until he came
back. 

    Not long after, walking from the direction of the subway station, two
people approached the house where Skuld was standing.  One was a young
man which the goddess recognized immediately.  It was Kenji. His chestnut
brown sports jacket, opened, directed her eyes to his white shirt,
casually unbuttoned a couple of points down below his collar and
emphasizing his broad shoulders and firm torso; she admired this, as he
was obviously still very physically active.  Yet despite a mature figure,
he still had a boyish face unchanged from when he was a teen. 

    His companion was as utterly unfamiliar.  She was a short girl,
probably younger by a few years.  Her long, black hair fell to her waist
and, being completely matte, refused to reflect a single beam of light. 
Her matching black ensemble--including lace-up ankle boots, a long coat
that kept her hair from swallowing her body, and a suede mini-skirt that
hitched dangerously up her thighs--made her look like a vampire. 

    As they drew close, Kenji was first to speak.  "Skuld? Is it--?" 

    "Kenji!" she cried, dropping her hammer with a loud THRAK.  Skuld
ran to him and gave him a fierce bear hug, nearly knocking him down from
the momentum.  "It feels so good to see you again." 

    At first it was a shock to realize that she was embracing a warm
body, and not something cold, lifeless like images from memories which
resembled an old film--silent, worn out and colourless.  But here he was,
holding her, in sharp relief. 

    "I can't believe it," Kenji smiled looking at her. He thought of the
days when he'd have to strain his back just so Skuld could get high
enough for a proper hug. "You've changed." 

    "Have I?"

    "Oh, yeah. Look at you!  You're just like your sister, Belldandy."

    Skuld glowed at the compliment.  She had always admired her big
sister and yet she nearly disbelieved that she could ever be like her. It
was a nice feeling. 

    "You've matured beautifully, Skuld."

    Forget Heaven, her home couldn't compare to this; this was the real
thing.  "Kenji, I missed you so much." 

    Kenji's companion was confused.  "Um, Kenji?" she tried not to be
rude.  "Who--?" 

    "Oh sorry.  Forgive me for not doing the introductions." Kenji gently
disengaged and started, "Skuld, this is Miki, a recent acquaintance. She
shares the same interest in computer programming." 

    Now that Skuld was close, she couldn't help but notice how pale this
new girl's skin was, like a geisha.  Even her legs were translucent which
had given her the erroneous first impression that she was wearing white
nylons. 

    "Miki, this is Skuld. Her sister is married to my cousin Keiichi so I
guess that makes her related." 

    Miki nodded, as the look of confusion evacuated her face.  "So you're
into computers too?  What area?" 

    "Actually," Skuld admitted, "I haven't done much programming for some
time now." 

    Kenji looked baffled.

    Miki smiled nervously before changing the subject. "Um, are you from
India?" she asked, noting Skuld's caucasian features, embellished with
the plectrum-shaped marking on her forehead and two more on the far ends
of her cheeks. 

    "No, actually," she grinned, her left arm behind her her head, "but
people are always saying that." Skuld began to chuckle.  "You could say
I'm Scandinavian, though." 

    Kenji's new friend didn't think the Danes looked anything like the
resplendent girl before her.  Perhaps she was from Finland. 

    "Say, I have so many stories to tell you, why don't we go for some
ice cream?" Skuld suggested. 

    "Well," he thought, "alright.  How about it, Miki?

    "No," Skuld interrupted.  "I mean, can't it just be the two of us?"

    Kenji thought for a moment. "Uh..."

    "It's okay," said Miki.  "Why don't you go?  You haven't seen each
other for a while." 

    "Are you sure?"

    "Sure!  I'll call you tonight, okay?"

    "Uh, thanks," he said to the departing figure.  He turned to Skuld.

	

    Skuld could remember clearly how the parlor was bright as they sat in
a booth, relating her stories of adventures to her old friend. With her
hat and hammer beside her, Skuld faced Kenji as he made a comment about
her choice of ice cream, though she defended it. 

    Kenji almost laughed, "But it seems ironic that here we are at 131
flavours and you order plain, colourless vanilla." 

    "It's not colourless--It's white, thus it's every colour in the light
spectrum all in one.  To me, it's a beautiful rainbow of ice-cream," she
said, licking her spoon in ecstacy. 

    "Vanilla?" he questioned her in bewilderment. 

    "Sure.  Psychologically, if it were coloured differently maybe people
would realize it's an exciting flavour." 

    Kenji laughed in resignation. "You're probably right."

    "So, what have you been up to while I was gone?" Skuld asked.

    "Not much," he said curtly.

    "C'mon," Skuld encouraged.  "I'd like to know."

    Kenji's cheerful demeanor vanished. "How can my boring life compete
against your great tales of adventure?" 

    "But I'm interested in everything you do.  I haven't seen you for so
long, I'd enjoy hearing you talk about your life."  Over the table, she
gently caressed his hand. 

    He pulled back.  There was a flash of surprise in her eyes.

    "Kenji, what's with you?"  Skuld pleaded.  "Why are you so cold?" 
Suddenly, her appetite for vanilla had dissipated.  She stared down at
the cold ice cream.  She could sense the transfer of heat from her hands
to the dessert, as nature tended to do this. She couldn't help thinking
of Joule's friction experiment where, between two bodies, heat naturally
transfers from the the warmest to the coolest object until both share an
equal amount of heat. 

    "I understand about Miki," she said, trying to continue the
conversation while Kenji remained taciturn.  She inspected the buttons on
her dress.  "We weren't exactly going steady when I left for my trip. 

    "Oh, is that what you think?" he said cynically, raising an eyebrow.

    "Of course, I'd expect you to continue dating while I was gone..."

    "Isn't that just like you.  You're so sure that you know everything. 
And yet you always keep me in the dark.  What were doing for two years? 
You never explained." 

    She began to feel a deep quivering sensation devour her body as she
thought out the possible consequences of her revelation.  What could she
say?  She didn't want him to be left out; she wanted him to be close to
her, yet she feared losing him, as though the truth potentially could 
force Kenji away from her. 

    She looked into his eyes and saw a young man who, she decided, was
now mature enough to understand her dilemma; and after some
precariousness, she made her decision--the truth was the only possible
choice. 

    "I'm a goddess."

    Kenji remained silent for a moment to let the comment sink in. His
first reaction was that it was a joke, but he knew Skuld--she may have
been one prone to exaggeration but she would never tell an outright lie
to him.  Then he thought of all the strange happenings whilst in Skuld's
company, especially when her bizarre sister Urd was present.  Their
constant feuding always inexplicably coincided with equally unexplainable
phenomena.  Those two had an affinity for attracting trouble. 

    "That would explain a lot," he finally responded. "So what do you do?" 

    "Well... I provide wishes for the deserving."

    He lit up.  "What kind of wishes?"

    "Any kind," she explained, "although recipients are carefully
screened so we don't get people who wish to destroy the world, or
something." 

    "Would you sleep with someone if they asked?" Kenji said suddenly.

    He expected her to say 'what kind of question is that?' but instead
she said, "Yes... and I have sometimes." 

    "What?" he blurted out in surprise.  "Then you're nothing but a 
glorified prostitute!"

    "It's my duty; it has nothing to do with you!" she defended.

    "You just don't care, do you?" Kenji said angrily.

    "What do you mean?"

    "Don't you care about people's feelings?  Is every relationship just
a job for you?" 

    "Well...I don't think that's fair..." Skuld stammered, not
understanding him.  She remembered another aspect of Joule's findings
which in every transfer of heat something is lost and, with every
subsequent transfer, the reuse of its energy becomes less useful.  
Nature proceeded to the lowest level of energy.

    Kenji continued to release his frustrations. "Was that kiss real, or
was it just charity?" 

    A spark of memory briefly lit an event of long ago, when they sat in
the company of a large cherry tree, enjoying the warm summernight's
air--and each other. 

    But that was before the exam.

    "Oh kenji, why are saying this?  Of course it was real!"

    "Hmph.  That was two years ago. I have to get on with my life." He
abruptly stood up, dropping money on the table. 

    "Why are you being so selfish?" Skuld demanded.

    "Don't you get it?  It's over," Kenji said, ending the discussion.



    Skuld stabbed her cigarette into the wooden shed and pocketed the
card that had provoked those memories.  She got up, brushing the dust off
her black outfit. 

    Kenji couldn't wait for her; he just had to go find someone else.

    Skuld was relieved to be assigned her Iceland job to get away from
everything, to go someplace as cold and barren as her heart. 

    She spoke out loud, "You were right, Banpei-kun.  I could never truly
love a man."  And she left the shed. 

    In the corner, a rusting metallic, humanoid-shaped object sat in the
cobwebs, quiescent. 




    The phone chimed throughout the temple. 

    "Hello?" Belldandy answered, and a pause later she replied, "Oh..."

    For a long time it seemed she did not speak again.  Her cheery face
slowly dropped to sadness, closing her eyes to fight back tears.  She did
not speak a word as she replaced the receiver.  Her hands reached for her
face but they were unable to prevent the flow of tears.

    Belldandy dropped to the floor and quietly sobbed.




    Sometime later, Keiichi stumbled home in temulency and bleated his
familiar announcement, "I'm home." 

    But Belldandy wasn't there to greet him. 

    "Belldandy?" He looked around but the temple was quiet, dark, dead.

    Then he noticed the note by the telephone, which read:


		"Dear Keiichi,

		     I know about your affair.  Since you no longer 
		 need me, our contract is now void.  I have returned 
		 to the heavens.
		
		 Love, Belldandy."


    Keiichi trembled as he read it, feeling sick with grief.  In 
anguish, he cried out:

    "BELLDANDY!!!!!"



END OF PART THREE


[ps. For those of you who wish Megumi to be rescued, I suggest writing 
your own sequel that shows her becoming a god of her own dimension--Aa! 
Megumi-sama! ^_^ ]




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