Oh My Goddess! META-MATICS

			CHAPTER FOUR: ALL FALL DOWN 

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    "BELLDANDY!!!!"

    Keiichi's distress wended its way throughout every room in the
temple, eventually invading the domain of Urd who, not aware of her
sister's disappearance and not eager to abandon her growing collection of
empty bottles, grudgingly scrambled to Keiichi's side, sake firmly in
hand. 

    "Shh. Yer hurtin' my ears," she slurred.

    "Belldandy's gone!" said Keiichi in a panic.

    "Nah, she's not," she said, pointing over her left. "Nearly tripped
on her'n the hall." 

    "What?"

    "Think she's takin' a nap on th' floor," Urd mused.

    Moving towards the bedroom Keiichi found Belldandy unconscious,
packed bags and a stark Kosuke weeping at her side. "Mommy's sick,
Keiichi." 

    "Keiichi?" his father said. 

    The child sneered.  "That is your name, isn't it?"

    His father was unable to speak, as he was completely dumbfounded by
his son's bizarre behaviour. 

    Before his eyes, Kosuke began to shimmer inside a pale verdant glow,
and within moments the boy's physique contorted and stretched upwards,
acquiring additional mass as it did so.  Gradually, the liquid features
hardened within the glow like a newly cast mold, reforming into an adult
male with sandy brown hair and other features reminiscent of its former,
juvenile frame. 

    Keiichi, despite seeing many preposterous occurrences during his
time, was still unable to endure.  "Who are you? What have you done to my
son?" 

    The man towered over him and spoke with a voice long fettered and 
buried, his words flowing off his tongue like lava from an erupting
volcano.

    "Born of a goddess will, borne now my own."

    Urd resisted the urge to tip over. 

    "Why did you have to hurt her," cried a distraught Keiichi.

    No further did it reply, only blasting him and Urd with pure 
energy, it left without further deliberation.

    Struggling, Keiichi pulled himself up to follow the creature but Urd,
blocking his path, refused to budge. 

    "No, no use followin'im," Urd intoned with some concern for her
brother-in-law.  "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!--here, have the rest."  She handed
him her sake bottle.  It was empty. 

    Keiichi, sobered by soul-wrenching events, wasn't interested. "But
that bastard hurt Bell." 

    "S'okay. She's just sleeping," Urd chimed in, placing a sedative
spell on him, and she giggled as his limp form fell to the floor next to
his wife. Urd thought about how cute they looked together.  "Goodnight,
sweet prince. Perchance to--oh, fuck it." 





    From his bed Keiichi awakened, his head groggy, and saw Belldandy
beside, back facing him. They were stark naked. Still mischievous, Urd
must've done this, Keiichi realized.  He habitually moved his arm to
affectionately comb his wife's hair, but her eyes opened and she swiftly
turned to face him. 

    "Don't touch me," she said, her eyes seething with anger. She shifted
an inch away from Keiichi. "How could you?" 

    Keiichi  "What makes--?"

    "Your girlfriend," she said coldly.  "She told me all about it."

    What was Kikuko up to?  Keiichi wondered if it was one her plans to
get her way, even if she had to break up a marriage to do so. Feeling
guilt, he sighed before trying to explain. "I've been so stressed out
from work that my defenses were down." 

    "After all I've done for the family. I can't believe it."

    "I can't help being attracted to other people."

    "This isn't just attraction we're talking about here!"

    "It is," he said.

    "You were only attracted to her?"

    "Yes! I swear to you, Belldandy."

    "But you kissed her," she added, doubtfully.

    "Is that what she told you?" he deposed. "She kissed me but I swear,
I didn't kiss back." 

    Belldandy, having enough of his gall, got out of bed, her back to her
husband. 

    Feeling desperate, Keiichi reproached her. "Why are you willing to
believe whatever a stranger tells you?" 

    The goddess halted but her back lingered.

    "You once told me that you could not lie," he continued.

    "That is true."

    "And because of this, I cannot lie to you." He leaned forward,
directing his head to her as an offering. "You have my permission to read
my memories." 

    Belldandy stood there wordlessly for a moment before gently placing
herself back on the bed. She turned her head and looked him in the eye
and acknowledged his sincerity. "That is unnecessary as the offer is
proof," she said, feeling sick and relieved at the same time. She 
thought desperately for an answer.  "Where did we go wrong?"

    "My work. Stress at work affected me.  I shouldn't have kept it to
myself." 

    "I'm sorry, Keiichi," Belldandy amended.  "If I had tried 
communicating instead..."

    "Remember that day when I asked about your contract?" her husband 
asked.

    "Before we got engaged? Oh, yes."

    "Well, now that we've been married doesn't mean that I don't have my
obligations. A contract is still a contract, even for a mortal." 

    "And would you still be here with me even if there was no contract?"
she asked, playfully massaging the furry caterpillar under his nose and
smiling about the time when he had asked her the same thing; it was a
time when they picnicked under the stars and in-between the mountains, 
a time before Keiichi proposed.

    "I would still be here even without it," he said softly as he
caressed her cheek. 

    "Oh, Keiichi," was her reply as she moved forward, lips trembling as
she kissed him. But before her husband could react, she shoved him down
as she slid on top, letting her golden hair flow over his anxious flesh. 

    Keiichi was surprised with his wife's impetuous change in spirit.  It
had been so long since when they were previously physical that he had
nearly forgotten how she could behave like a veracious whore in bed. 
Blushing, he felt like a shy schoolboy. 

    The sensuous goddess stopped momentarily. "Still nervous after all
this time?" she laughed, resuming her onslaught. 

    Giving in, he clutched her breast lasciviously; she moaned in
pleasure before kissing him, violently now.  Keiichi deftly tumbled her
over so that he was now on top. As the osculation got heavier, so did his
desire to thrust his manhood into her fervid orifice. 

    "Please stop" Belldandy spoke unexpectedly.

    "Why?  What's wrong, Belldandy?"

    "I..." she hesitated, "...I can't."

    Keiichi, disappointed after being worked up, was reticent.

    "I've been a fool," she continued.  She sat up, the strain visible on
her face. "You must stop him." 

    "Stop who?"

    "He is at the conference. Stop him, Keiichi," the goddess pleaded.

    "Do you mean Kosuke?" he remembered.  Damn Urd and her stupid hexes,
he thought.  He just remembered that his son had gone AWOL, and he now
felt like an idiot for neglecting far important concerns.  "How do you
know?" 

    "A mother knows these things," she explained, her energy suddenly
depleted as she slipped once more into unconsciousness. 

    Giving Belldandy a soft, affectionate kiss, he gently placed the
blanket over her peaceful body as he got out of bed.  Now dressed in his
familiar suit and tie, he went to the kitchen where he encountered a
bed-wraggled Skuld, unruly hair invading her tired face, hacking up the
gunk in her lungs while fumbling for a lighter. Urd, energized and with
no sign of a hang-over, was making breakfast despite the fact that the
stove had been scavenged during yesterday's bug fight.  She was making a
mess of it, though. 

    "Instructions!  Why can't the eggs come with instructions?" Urd
sighed to herself as she whipped the eggs, shells and all.  "How does she
strain out the damn shells afterward? Aargh." 

    Keiichi wasn't in the mood for breakfast. "Why, Urd?"

    "There was no way Bell could make breakfast this morning, did you
think?" she smirked while Skuld, finally sucking in tobacco smoke,
coughed in disapproval. 

    "I mean, why did you sedate me?" 

    "There was nothing else we could do, because what would we do? No, we
can face him now that we are refreshed, ready for battle." 

    Skuld adjusted the sleeves of her turquoise nightie, the movement
inadvertently knocked the ash of the cigarette tip onto the floor.  Skuld
looked at Keiichi as it did so, wondering if he had noticed. 

    "Belldandy has reason to believe he is at conference," Keiichi added. 
He was too wrapped up to notice what Skuld was doing. 

    "Then he must be," Urd re-assured.  Her younger sister did have a
knack for compassing any situation. 

    "What happened to my son?"

    "I don't know, Keiichi. I just don't know. Perhaps Bell could answer that."

    Nearby, Skuld piped in, "I wonder if it's the result of the bugs? I'm
sure there's a connection."  She combed her hair with her fingers in a
futile attempt to tame the tangled mess. 

    Urd nodded. 

    "But why would it be at the conference?" wondered Keiichi.

    "Hmm," Skuld continued, strangling some of her hair until she could
hook it over her left ear. "The Yggdrasil has been going haywire recently
and, if the conference has any significance, then I'd say the two are
connected." 

    "This being may be a bug given flesh," Urd added.  "It might know
about something that is affecting reality." 

    Keiichi thought about this and frowned. "Could the FTIC be doing 
something that would cause the Ash Tree to malfunction?"

    "Well, that settles it then. Let's go," said Urd.

    "I'm not going," declared Skuld. 

    Urd raised an eyebrow. "We must put an end to this madness."

    "I don't care."

    "You're the one with the de-bugging talent."

    "I've got more important things to worry about than some wayward
bastard," Skuld said defiantly.  She inhaled a deep lungful of tobacco to
emphasize her point. 

    Keiichi appended, "Kenji is the test-pilot."  He knew it struck a 
nerve.  Skuld had given the game away with her startled expression.

    The youngest goddess adjusted her pyjamas before speaking, looking
not at the other two but at her extinguished cigarette.

    "Alright. We'd better do something," Skuld finally said to them. "But
it's not for Kenji, got it?" 




    Silent trees yearned towards the sky where a red sun, struggling to
remain buoyant above the horizon, promised salvation while staying beyond
the tendrilous rinds.  Below, a two-storey building complex imposed its
sombre facade behind the cold, black iron gate.  Endless vines climbed
the brownstone walls, threatening to mask the man-made structures with
its omnipresent green; some of it stabbing into the cement barrier and
accelerating its erosion.  The main building of Fujishima Technology and
Industry Corporation arrogantly headed off its natural oppressor. 

    Inside its besieged walls, a showcase of the newest innovation, a
technology separated from the natural world which gnarled at the
doorstep, was being presented to a number of prominent business people. 
Thousands all over the world were logged on the internet via their VR
chairs, all awaiting this historic event.  Everyone physically present,
except the president, sat in a VR chair, also logged in.  One super chair
presided at the front of the conference room; it was still empty. 

    The company president, standing beside the main attraction, patted it
with affection as if it were a pet dog.  Unlike the the collection of
navy-blues and pin-stripes, he wore a suit dominated by paisley. 

   "No longer will people isolated, be it from distance, remoteness, or
physical deformity.  With our devices, anyone can fully participate in
society, interacting with others in social forums, as well as access
anything that is required for daily life; no-one has to emerge from
their homes, or even their chairs. It does everything!" he proclaimed.
"Except help you go to the bathroom, of course." 

    The collection of business suits guffawed.

    "But you never know!" he knowingly winked.  "As the world gets
smaller and yet we become more physically apart, cities will become a thing
of the past under decentralization.  The trend has been the return to 
our rural roots."

    One businessman raised his hand.  "Please excuse me, Sir, you 
say that people are returing to the country, yet you are convinced that 
the same people will accept this new technology?"

    "That is correct."

    "Wouldn't that symbolize the rejection of technology?"

    "People may want to return to nature but they'll never be part of 
it, always the outsider looking in.  That is the dichotomy of mankind.  
Let me put it this way: have you ever gone on a camping trip to explore 
nature without bringing, say, your portable radio? Even your tent?  The 
trend is the dispersion of peoples away from organized cities, 
dispersing out  chaoltically until the land becomes a homogenized sea of 
equal population density.  In this state, a special communications 
infrastructure is needed to keep everyone together, keep society 
together.  Already, the internet is ideal..."

    The president smiled.

    "... FTIC's Virtual Reality chairs will be the pioneers in this 
modern society.  Currently the VR chairs allow manipulation of software, 
but today our beta tester will show that the newest operating 
system--Portals 99--will allow direct mental connection into the 'net." 

    The packed room gasped in awe.




    Traveling by motor-bike, Keiichi and his two goddess escorts--Skuld
in the side-car and Urd clinging to Keiichi's back--arrived at the
parking lot adjacent to the FTIC complex. 

    Skuld, hopping out of the confines of the side-car, ripped the helmet
from her head and snatched a cigarette from the breast pocket of her
black denim jacket.  A pair of torn black Levi's, and her inseparable
hammer affixed to her hip like a gun in its holster, completed her
street-wise ensemble. 

    Keiichi secured his bike before a smoke cloud alerted him. "You're
not smoking again, are you, Skuld?  It's a disgusting habit." 

    "That's all right then," Skuld growled, then coughed, "because it's
not a habit.  I'm an occasional smoker." She tried to fight the
persistent cough. 

    "Sure sounds it to me," her eldest sister commented sarcastically. "I
wonder why Belldandy allows it." 

    "Skuld's been hiding it, mostly," Keiichi explained. "Though I'm
surprised too.  Belldandy kicked me off that habit right soon when she
found out." 

    Making an aside to Keiichi, Urd said, "Skuld looking like that won't
win Kenji back." 

    Keiichi sighed. "Are you still at it?" he whispered.

    "You'd feel same for your sister," Urd expounded.

    "Wouldn't know," he said, wondering what it would be like to have a
sister, a sibling even for that matter. 

    Shit, Urd remembered.  "Uh, well, it was a retorical question."

    Skuld walked ahead of the other two. "Did you want me to come or not?" 
she said.  She continued towards the door, despite her threat.

    "Don't you want to stop him from getting married to someone else?"
Urd shouted to her sister. 

    "What are you on about?  We're here to find Kosuke-chan, not Kenji." 

    Urd placed a hand on Keiichi's shoulder.  "Men can grow old
gracefully but a woman's time is short," she sighed. 

    "Will you butt out?" Skuld said as she ran up the steps and through
the double-doors of the main FTIC building; one door remained fixed open. 

    "But don't you goddesses live forever?" Keiichi wondered.

    "We're goddesses, yes, but we're not truly immortal, and we do age,"
Urd explained, "relatively speaking." 

    "Then Belldandy...?" he realized.

    "Will someday...," Urd started, "...y'know.  Just as you will. 
That's why I'm telling Skuld she should take advantage of her youth,
while she has it." 

    "I know Belldandy will be beautiful when she's old," he predicted as
they approached the steps. "Anyway, I will love her, regardless, because
she's Belldandy.  I know everything will work out if I have her by my
side. 

    Urd smiled.  Despite such cosmic adversity, the old Keiichi she used
to know was still inside this man. 

    "Once this mess is out of the way, we can get back to making our
marriage flourish," Keiichi promised.  "I'm happy I never let her go." 

	Just inside the door, Skuld looked down, lost in thought.  As
Keiichi and Urd came up to the doors, Skuld darted away, almost knocking
over Kenji. 

    The young man looked smart in his business suit, and Skuld felt very
under-dressed. She blushed lightly. 

    "Skuld?" he said with a smile.

    "Uh, Kenji?" Skuld faltered. 

    "You look...nice. I love your hair. Dreadlocks?" he grinned. 

    Urd gave Keiichi a knowing wink before grabbing his arm, dragging him
off with her. "We'll meet you guys there, okay?" Urd grinned before
turning her head back to face her destination.  Keiichi smiled
sheepishly. 

    Pointing in their direction, Kenji beamed, "Oh, coming to see the 
demonstration?"

    Skuld became jumpy. "Um, Kenji?  Can we talk a moment?"

    "It's revolutionary!" he joyfully proclaimed. "Why don't you join me?"  

    "No!"

    "What?" he said in trepidation, not sure what was coming next.

    "Why couldn't you wait for me?"

    "Sorry, I don't have time for this." Kenji turned to leave.

    "Kenji!" Skuld yelled then softened her voice. "Please, tell me why
you couldn't wait two years." 

    Kenji became irritated, the cauldron of emotion threatening to boil
over.  "Two years!  How could I wait for you for two years when it seemed
to me you didn't want to see me anymore. You dumped me, remember?  Then
you come back begging.  What was I supposed to do?" 

    "Urd was nowhere and even Big Sister was distant from me.  I was
lonely but afraid of being hurt again. I didn't want you to suffer the
way I did." 

    "Pretty merciful," Kenji said sarcastically. "Then why did you come
back?" 

    "But I missed you!  I didn't know how much until you were gone."

    "Missed me?  You spent two years having a great time, screwing around
with anyone who asked!" 

    "It was against my will!"

    "That's not the point!  Don't you care about people's feelings?" 

    Skuld stopped for a moment, fighting tears. "I had mixed feelings
about being with a mortal, since one took my sister away from me. The
only one true friend I could rely on was Banpei-kun--and even he betrayed
me." 

    "But I was there for you; I was your friend." Kenji protested.  Then
his voice become more subdued. "Did I let you down or something, or were
you too good for me?" 

    "Kenji..." It hurt so much to even say his name.

    "Or were you blind or too self-absorbed to even notice?"

    "I was so excited to do what my sister used to do, I didn't realize I
hurt you." Her eyes were shining from overloaded tear ducts. She wanted
to reach out to him but knew he'd only pull away. 

    "A little late, don't you think?" Kenji rationalized. "And before you
went to Iceland--" 

    "I was confused!  When I saw you with Miki, I decided she was a
better choice.  I gave in.  But when I got the wedding invitation from
you, something inside..." 

    Kenji had enough. "I don't know why I invited you," he said as he
stormed off, "so please don't come." 

    "And why would I want to go to your stupid wedding!" Skuld shouted
defiantly to his back.  

    Kenji was gone.  

    "How could you be so selfish?" she said to no one in particular as
the tears, finally released, cascaded from her hand-covered eyes. 




    Urd and Keiichi arrived at the conference; Keiichi expected his
erstwhile son to have already arrived, but he was nowhere to be seen. 
Barging through the doors, Urd and Keiichi witnessed the president press
some buttons.  The aged goddess widened her eyes. 

    "Rohki! That explains it!"

    "Ah, Urd. My, you look just like Mother," he said suggestively. "Did
not expect you here. No matter." 

    A room of business people, strapped prisoners of their chairs,
writhed in pain. 

    "I admire your timing, though," he joked.

    "What have you done?" Urd demanded.

    Rohki gloated. "With our new interface software, the VR chairs have
linked up via the Internet, creating an enormous organic/sentient
computer--a planet sized-brain.  Thousands on the 'net have been honoured
with the privilege of becoming part of history!" 

    "That's monstrous," cried Keiichi, unable to believe that this was
what he was working on. "Don't you have a conscience?" 

    "Conscience is really the same thing as cowardice," laughed Rohki.
"Conscience is the registered trade mark.  Now, once the driver sits in,
the computer will allow me to bypass the Yggdrasil and create a reality
of my design and my control!" 

    "You were always chasing after the wind," Urd remembered. "But why?"

   "Gods should have fun with mortals, unlike our present policy that
forbids gods to partake in unsolicited intervention.  What is power if it
is not exercised?  I'd like to have fun without hindrance of those stupid
bureaucratic regulations--signed in triplicate.  Besides, these pathetic
mortals don't know how to look after themselves." 

    "That doesn't give you the right.  Stop interfering with the
destinies of the people here on Midgard." 

    "Interfering?  What about you, Ms. Righteousness? You're no different
than I," Rohki taunted, "except I'm not a hypocrite." 

    Urd, stung by the remark, refused to lie down.  "But you have to
stop; your experiments keep putting the Yggdrasil off-line." 

    Urd, you do understand, don't you?" Rohki scoffed. "We gods only
exist because of the will of the human race--the collective unconscious,
or the universal mind, if you will--but once mortals stop believing in
us, we fade away. Our existence is tenuous at best if that kind of 
power is left in their hands."

    "But many humans will always believe in a higher power."

    "That may not be a problem for Kami-sama and your ilk, since they
tend to have faith in destiny; but I was never worshipped by mortals, who
insisted on sombre deities. If I by-pass the Ash Tree with my own
regulator of reality, then my existence is as sured. You say it's cruel
for me to feed upon the humans, yet are they so different?  They
slaughter cattle for their survival just as I now slaughter their minds
for mine. Does that make me evil?" 

    "Vampire, I do understand your wish to survive, however it's your
method that is unpalatable,"  criticized Urd. "You must reconsider this,
before their minds are irrevocably destroyed.  Stop this!" 

    "Hmm?" he replied absently. "Besides, we won't need the Yggdrasil
once I control the world computer..." 

    "You idiot, Yggdrassil keeps entropy at bay," protested Urd.  She was
worried that Rohki wasn't taking the threat seriously.  The Yggdrasil
prevented the gradual increase of sub-atomic chaos by adding energy back
into the universe, itself a closed system, and restoring order.  "Unlike
the parasite that you are, the Tree and humanity share a symbiotic
relationship, not dissimilar to the relationship between plant and
animal--animals exhale carbon dioxide for plants to absorb which is in
turn converted back to oxygen; therefore, when the Ash Tree is cut off
from humanity, it withers and dies." 

    "Tree hugger," he flippantly replied.

    At that moment, Kenji walked in and Urd tried to warn him, while
Rohki was distracted, with a flash of lightning, seeking to disable the
master chair.  Rohki jumped in-between to absorb the blast, injuring
himself. 

    "Glad you could make it, Kenji," wheezed the president, ushering him
to the chair. "Please, sit down." 

    Utterly weakened from expanding much needed energy reserves, Urd
couldn't attempt a second shot. I knew I should've had some more sake
this morning, she lamented. 

    "Kenji, get away from there!" yelled Keiichi, himself incapable of action.

    "But, wh--"

    "I insist," said Rohki, pushing the confused Kenji into the chair and
locking him in place. The contraption issued a satisfied hiss.
"Comfortable?" 

    Rohki pressed a few buttons and the master chair hummed to life,
causing Kenji to moan. Rohki smiled. "Feels good, doesn't it? But
wait--there's more!" 

    "You bastard!" Keiichi shouted helplessly. He looked to Urd. "What do
we do now?" 

    Urd was concerned since she wasted her energy on Rohki. "We need to
disconnect the chair somehow." 

    "Oh, I wouldn't do that," he laughed.  "The resultant feed-back will
surely kill him." 

    Damn, where's Skuld? Keiichi thought.




    "Kenji can go to Hel."

    Wading her way through the labyrinth of corridors, Skuld made her way
out of the building, away from the conference, away from Kenji.  What was
happening back there had nothing to do with her, she supposed.  It wasn't
her fault that there were bugs in the Yggdrasil, nor was it her job to
rectify that problem; that was the onus of her replacement.  Skuld
refused to carry that mantle of responsibility. 

    Most of all, Skuld was mad that Kenji, a mortal, would accuse her of
callousness. 

    Escaping the oppressive gloom of fluorescent lighting, Skuld embraced
the crimson luminosity of the sun. The sensation of sunlight irradiated
her entire body which sweltered from the accumulation of heat. Vapours
distorted her vision, making the cityscape before her dance and shimmer.
Sensing something amiss, her eyes dropped to see that the smoke was in
fact exiting her body.  She was gradually sublimating into gas. 

    The bugs had proliferated and, in their irrepressible orgy of havoc,
have eroded the web strands linking all the dimensional planes, causing
matter to break down to its simplest, most chaotic state. 




    Reality warps were not localized--they occurred universally. As a
goddess sensitive to these disturbances, Belldandy awakened and decided
that she must head to the site.  In the bathroom, she reached toward the
mirror, placing her hand on the reflective surface but froze when she
saw the icon that reached out for her.  The shock of seeing the image of
herself compelled her to ponder. 

    The goddess had considered leaving this plane altogether, returning
to her home in the heavens--no, her place of birth; this temple, her life
with Keiichi, was her real home.  The sad face that appeared before her,
pleaded with her to go to Keiichi.  Belldandy hadn't been totally
truthful. 

    But she didn't think she could tell him; she couldn't bear to face
him, to tell him the truth.  He was hurt enough already.  The chaos all
about her was her fault. 

    Their life together was a lie.


END OF CHAPTER FOUR





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