Okay people. This is a repost of the prologue and first chapter of the fic
that i wrote back before the holidays, with a few minor spelling, grammar,
and continuity errors fixed. Chapter two is coming later tonight, just as
soon as i get final validation from my prereaders. Any reactions, flames,
or C&C you might come up with for this are still welcome, as nothing is
ever final. Hell, even the title is up to question. I had to call this
something...
PROLOGUE...
"The world is a dark and empty place."
Not a very original statement, but expressing the depth of Ryouga's
current depression would take vocabulary well beyond his regular verbal
strata, and he really didn't feel like wasting the breath.
Ryouga glanced again at the crumpled piece of card stock clutched tightly
in his right hand. The words written on it appeared floating behind
Ryouga's eyes before he even had a chance to un-curl his fist.
'You, Hibiki Ryouga, are cordially invited to attend the wedding of Tendo
Akane and Saotome Ranma, and witness the joyous union of the Tendo
and Saotome family lines. The ceremony will be held at noon on June 27th,
1996, in the Tendo Dojo. The reception will begin at 3:00 pm. Please be
prompt and properly attired.'
June 27th, three days ago. And Ryouga hadn't even set foot in Japan
any time within the last week.
"GOD DAMN IT!!" Cried the lost boy as he drove his fist through the
nearby wall, tears of rage and sadness streaming down his cheeks. A
peculiar whirring sound caught his attention, and for the first time in almost
a week Ryouga stood back and took in his surroundings.
He was in a maze of some sort. Row upon row of very futuristic, and
strangely organic looking modules lined the walls, all of them softly
droning in unison.
*Well*, Thought Ryouga bitterly, *I've really done it now*. It was clear
to him that, wherever he was, he was nowhere near the Tendo Dojo.
*Three days...* He had received the invitation almost two months ago, and
had immediately set out towards the dojo in order to prevent this tragedy.
And yet, despite all of his determination and advanced notice, all of his
efforts had come to naught.
*Why??!! Why must I be cursed so?! What have I ever done to deserve
this??* Ryouga slumped forward, suddenly unable to find the strength to
go on.
"Oh Akane..." *Right now, because of my incompetence, you could
be...you and Ranma might be.......NO!*
"NOOOO!!!"
Ryouga stood ramrod straight as he howled his anguish at the sky. A
blinding green column of light and heat expanded outward from the lost
boy's form, scorching the walls and floor. Then, as the weight of his
emotions drew it downward unto the abyss of his soul, a ten meter wide
sphere of light descended upon Ryouga's now kneeling form.
"No..."
Somewhere within the Yggdrasl central data storage archives, there was an
explosion.
Alarm klaxions blared, and panic and chaos reigned throughout the
heavens. System administration deities scramble back and forth throughout
the Yggdrasl complex, frantically trying to locate and contain the
disturbance.
It is now several hours later. Vital systems are slowly coming back on
line, but much of the archives were consumed by the yet unexplained
explosion. The Yggdrasl logic systems are attempting to extrapolate from
secondary data storage stacks, trying to fill in the gaps as quickly as
possible. A particularly heavily damaged archive is the personnel
archives. As many gods and goddesses are on hand at the moment, the
computer asks that they log into the system so that it might fill in the
missing profiles. After several more hours 97% of the deity profiles are
sufficiently filled in to allow for easy identification. The last 3% are
difficult, as these personnel profiles have been completely wiped, and the
deities in question are not available to assist.
Having compiled a list of unfilled positions, the computer begins to
access external files, in the hopes that there will be some reference to
the occupants of the unfilled positions. This search is largely fruitless,
as most personal and performance information is immediately routed to the
personnel profiles for storage. In the end, the computer comes up with
nothing more than a piece of office joke mail. A list of comically
exaggerated personality archetypes of various deitic positions.
The computer then proceeds to scan the Yggdrasl complex for unidentified
persons matching the archetypes of the various missing gods and goddesses.
Ryouga, meanwhile, has fallen asleep in one of many gardens in the
Yggdrasl complex. He is propped up at the base of a tree, snoring loudly.
<UNIDENTIFIED LIFE FORM #0047: MALE, HUMANOID;
ABNORMALLY HIGH LIFE FORCE READINGS; CURRENT
EMOTIONAL STATE: DEEP DEPRESSION>
<CROSS REFERENCING: DOCUMENT 0001>
<POSSIBLE MATCH FOUND ___ 'God of Unrequited Love: Man is this
guy a downer. The sort that can make you depressed just by looking at
him.'>
<POSITIVE MATCH CONFIRMED :: CONTACTING FOR DATA
COLLECTION>
Ryouga was roused from his fitful sleep when a computer screen seemed to
grow out of the tree trunk behind his head. Groggily rubbing his eyes,
Ryouga cast an irritated expression at the offending piece of hardware.
There was a prompt of some sort on it. The word [NAME:] was printed at
the
top of the screen, with a blinking cursor after it. Ryouga shrugged
noncommittally, then decided that since he wasn't likely to get back to
sleep, he might as well play along.
"Hibiki Ryouga" he recited, and was pleased to find that the first line
now read [NAME: HIBIKI RYOUGA]. A new prompt had appeared, just
below the first.
[CLASS:]
Ryouga debated this in his head for several moments, then responded
"Umm, Middle?"
<SUBJECT RESPONSE "MIDDLE" UNKNOWN ARGUMENT ::
EXTRAPOLATING>
[CLASS: 2]
"Er, ok." remarked Ryouga intelligently. Then yet another prompt
appeared.
[CATEGORY:]
Ryouga's irritation was returning, as the initial novelty of this
situation was beginning to wear off. He was losing valuable sleep time
because this stupid tree wanted to play twenty questions! To make matters
worse, Ryouga had absolutely no idea how to answer this latest query.
"I don't know." He spat sourly to the tree.
<CATEGORY: ? :: CROSS REFERENCING TO RELATED
POSITIONS ___ CONFIRMED 87%
CHANCE THAT POSITION GODOFUNREQUITEDLOVE IS A
CATEGORY 2 POSITION - CROSS REFERENCE BOOLEAN =
LOVE>
[CATEGORY: 2]
"Well, that was easy enough." Remarked Ryouga, as the number leapt,
unbidden, to the screen.
[LIMITED/UNLIMITED]
*Hmm...must be like a True/False question. Ah well, it's a good a way to
decide as any, I suppose.* Thought Ryouga, as he dug a coin out of his
pocket.
Ryouga flipped the coin into the air, catching it halfway through its
descent and slapping it on his other forearm. Glancing at the coin,
Ryouga spoke to the screen, "Hea...Er, I mean Limited."
[HIBIKI RYOUGA]
[CLASS:2 CATEGORY:2 LIMITED]
[THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION]
[HAVE A NICE DAY]
<SUFFICIENT MINIMAL INFORMATION OBTAINED ::
COMPILING>
A blast of pure white light erupted from the computer screen, catching the
still somewhat drowsy Ryouga completely off guard.
Ryouga awoke several minutes later, a strange tingling sensation
momentarily surging through his body before fading. After reducing the
offending tree, now sans monitor, to toothpicks, Ryouga proceed to stalk
off in a random direction, muttering under his breath something about
"stupid trees" and "cheap shots".
--SHATTERED HEARTS ON THE ROAD--
..CHAPTER ONE..
--THE EIGHTH DAY--
SUNDAY
JUNE 30th, 1996
9:53 AM
There are many places that are considered "holy" by the human race. The
city of Jerusalem, the Great Pyramid, and the Temple of the Sun to name
just a few. One of the lesser known places of divinity, however, can be
found just a short trip from the campus of NIT in the greater Tokyo Bay
area. A particular temple, with a beautiful cherry tree in the yard and a
small auto shop in the back. Within this domicile reside three Goddesses,
the Norns, and one mortal, otherwise known as Keiichi.
Keiichi is presently in the auto shop reassembling, piece-by-piece, a drag
racing bike. He is rather absorbed in his work, and not of any particular
mystical interest, so we'll just switch back to the Goddesses.
Skuld is hunched over a workbench in her room. She is wearing thick,
darkened goggles and is grinning widely to herself. Sparks fly from the
tortured-looking device that she's working on. Several feet of wire
connect the object to half a dozen test machines on her desk. One of them
looks disturbingly similar to an EKG. This one indicates what would
normally be read as a weak but steady pulse.
The device itself is _very_ roughly oblong in shape. Several dials and
switches dot the unopened side of it's outer surface. It rests
approximately one foot off of the workbench, supported by four
multi-jointed stalks affixed to what could probably be considered it's
"bottom." A gristly crown of "appendages" rings the "top" of the device,
surrounding two eerily glowing slots. Skuld is peering into an access
panel on the side of the device, manipulating something best left
undescribed with a pair of forceps and a phillips head screwdriver.
"This is gonna be great."
--RRIING--
"Hello, Morisato residence. Oh, Good morning sir. How are you today? I'm
sorry to hear that. Yes, she is. Just a moment, I'll call her."
Belldandy sets down the phone and walks out of the kitchen into the living
room. Urd is lounging on the couch channel surfing, an expression of utter
boredom on her face.
"Urd, could you go tell Skuld that she has a call from the office?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure." Urd sighed, as her mind revived itself from a
near-catatonic state. Dragging herself off of the couch, she turned and
walked down the hall.
"Thank you Urd. Oh! One more thing: Could you ask her if she's finished
fixing the toaster?"
Nodding, Urd continues down the hall towards the bedrooms.
She stops in front of one particular door and, completely ignoring the
numerous signs posted admonishing to knock first and warning of extreme
danger, barges in to the room.
-SLAM-
"SKULD!! PHONE CALL!!!"
Skuld, still hunched over her workbench, flinches violently and emits a
strangled cry. A small explosion echoes through the room and a malevolent
looking, basketball sized mushroom cloud rises from the workbench.
After a few moments of absolute silence Skuld straightens and, back still
to the door, removes the goggles.
"The office needs to speak with you." prodded Urd, poorly concealing the
rising mirth in her voice.
Turning around, Skuld favored her sister with a glare of unmasked fury,
eyes narrowed and face flushed crimson. The latter is evident only by the
rings around her eyes, as the rest of her face is thoroughly blackened.
Completely unimpressed, Urd was now clearly struggling to maintain her
composure.
As her fuming sister stalked past her, Urd turned and added, "By the way,
Belldandy wanted to know if you're done with the toaster yet."
Skuld seemed to deflate a bit, then glanced back at the workbench. The
EKG had flatlined and several of the other test machines were emitting thin
wisps of smoke.
"Yes, I suppose you could say that..."
"Yes sir. We'll be there right away. Goodbye."
Hanging up the telephone, Skuld's expression is very worried.
"Well?" asked Urd expectantly.
"Early this morning, someone tried to destroy the Yggdrasil system."
"WHAT??! Who would even consider such a thing? It's stupid! They'd
never get past security." Urd's expression changed from shock to irritation.
*No one should be able to do that*
"Well, apparently they did. An explosive device of some sort was detonated
inside the system archives. Yggdrasil had been off-line from about one
this morning until just two hours ago." Skuld's worry had deepened
slightly as she repeated this.
An expression of disbelief played across Urd's face. "Seven hours off-line
just for losing part of the Archives? That doesn't make sense."
"I know. Normally it wouldn't make such a big deal, but something strange
happened right after the bomb went off. For some reason, right after it
detonated, several new varieties of bugs were spawned from the central
processing core. They've been running rampant in there for the last nine
hours. The system had to be shut down to prevent it from spawning
progressively more virulent varieties as they eliminated the previous
ones. Cutting off the affected archives seems to have helped, but there's
still a ton of them up there."
Urd peered quizzically at her sister. " You're the 'system debugger.' Why
didn't they call you earlier?"
"They couldn't. They had to shut down all external lines to make sure that
the bugs didn't escape. That was a local call. One of the system
administrators came down to earth to make that call, then went right back
to heaven. We all have to go back too."
"All of us? Why? Isn't getting rid of the bugs your job?"
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Skuld continued. "The personnel archives
were at the center of the explosion. They're gone. All available deities are
being summoned back to heaven to fill in some paperwork and help with
the containment."
"Can I help?"
Both goddesses turned to see Keiichi standing on the porch, Belldandy at
his back with a small frown on her face.
"Bug-busting is hard work Keiichi! Are you sure you're up to it?" Skuld
said with a stern expression on her face. One should note that she still
hasn't washed her face, so whatever effect she was attempting was
completely ruined.
"I'll do all I can. It sounds like you need all the help you can get."
The worried expression returned with reinforcements. Sighing, "Fine, but
don't come whining to me if you get in over your head." Skuld conceded.
SUNDAY
JUNE 30th
3:00 PM
[CLASS:]
"Second."
[CATEGORY:]
"Two."
[LIMITED/UNLIMITED]
"Limited."
Urd sighed from the tedium. She'd been waiting in line all afternoon for a
terminal to open. That, compounded by the monotony of the questioning,
was quickly souring her opinion of the Yggdrasil Interface System. *Well,
at least with the personnel archive gone, they can't say that I'm suspended
anymore!* Urd thought happily.
-URD-
"Huh?"
-URD, YOU'RE HOLDING UP THE LINE. PROCEED TO BRIEFING
ROOM THREE.-
"But Kami-sama, I'm not finished filling in the form yet."
-I WILL FILL IN YOUR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND DUTY
STATUS _PERSONALLY_. NOW GO TO BRIEFING ROOM 3.-
(Sigh) "Yes Lord." *Well, it was worth a try.*
-YOU KNOW THAT IT WASN'T.-
(Groan)
There is a terrible racket in briefing room three. The room is crowded
with all manner of deities, all of them either milling about or trying to
get comfortable in those awkward, lecture room style desk-seats. Sitting
near the front are Belldandy, Keiichi, and Urd. Each one is wearing a pair
of protective goggles and each has a long handled mallet laid across his
or her shoulder. The other deities are, for the most part, similarly armed.
For the moment, Skuld is nowhere in sight. Then the room quiets as
Skuld steps in from the wings and takes her place behind the podium at the
front of the room.
"Ahem. My fellow deities...", she pauses here for a moment, "and Keiichi,"
she continues, casting said mortal a sour glance. Several heads turn
towards Keiichi, and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. "I'm sure you're
all aware of the reason why we're here. Early this morning there was an
explosion in the central data archives. While normally not a critical
situation, for some reason a massive bug outbreak coincided with the
explosion. The bugs have corrupted several systems already, thus
necessitating all the paperwork you've been doing lately." Skuld paused
purely for dramatic effect, savoring the feeling that everyone in the room
was hanging on her next word.
"At first we had no idea why this would occur. Then we did a better
analysis of the area affected by the explosion. It was not a chemical,
nuclear, or mystical device that caused the damage. Instead, it was some
sort of Ki bomb." Murmurs of confusion and disbelief filled the room.
"Ahem." The murmurs ceased. "As I was saying, a Ki bomb releases a blast
of highly concentrated spiritual energy. The archives near the epicenter
of the explosion were destroyed, but this was not the real problem. The
problem arose from the archives near the blast that had not been destroyed.
These archives had been charged and corrupted by the energy of the
explosion. It was in this state that the central processors found them
while they were trying to asses the extent of the damage. When the CPU
tried to access the archives, the energy and corrupted data was taken into
the central processing core. Now, as you know, bugs are spontaneously
created spiritual beings. When the spiritual energy was taken into the
processor core, it was transformed into several new varieties of bugs.
These bugs multiplied rapidly in the processor core, thus necessitating
the shut down of the Yggdrasil system." Skuld stopped and faced the
crowd.
"Now, the system cannot be brought fully on-line until the bugs are
eliminated. The bugs have been contained, but completely eradicating them
will take time and work. We are here to launch the first assault wave
upon the bugs in the central processor core. It is vital that this area is
cleared first, as the Yggdrasil system will not function properly until it
is."
The lights dim, and a projection appears on the wall at the front of the
room. It appears to be a picture of a rather silly looking, eight legged
rabbit creature.
"While at least a dozen new types of bugs have been catalogued in the last
two hours, this seems to be the most common type. It is much slower than
most of the other types, but it takes more effort to kill."
The picture switches to a grainy color video of a young red haired goddess
sneaking up on a bug quite similar in appearance to the one in the picture.
Crying loudly, the goddess pounces on the unsuspecting bug, mallet
swinging in a long downward arc to impact with the bug's skull. The cry
changes to one of surprise as the mallet's head snaps off, and the goddess
goes tumbling forward to land on her face. The bug looks thoroughly
unimpressed. The scene cuts to a different angle. The same bug is shown.
This time, however, the goddess is dragging behind her a _very_ large, long
handled mallet. It's head is almost two feet in diameter.
"It should be noted at this point that there is one more unusual trait
that this particular type of bug exhibits. Please watch closely."
The goddess leans back. Then, with a grunt of exertion, brings the mallet
up over her head and down onto the bug. Upon impact with the bug there is
a bright flash of green light and a deafening roar. When the light fades
there is a small crater where the bug used to be. The mallet is nowhere in
sight, but the goddess now lays on her back at the opposite end of the
room, scorched and groaning loudly. The image blinks out and Skuld steps
forward.
"Good luck. Try not to destroy any of them on or near the processor units.
Dismissed."
A collective groan of dread escapes from the crowd.
MONDAY
JULY 1st
11:42 AM
Urd collapses upon the couch in exhaustion.
"Ohh... It shouldn't be possible to feel this bad without being mortally
wounded..." She turns over and closes her eyes. *Two whole days...*
The battle against the bugs in her sector had been a stalemate for the
entire first day. The things kept springing up as fast as they could
destroy them. Taking into account the wallop those suckers packed when
you actually did kill them, and...well, let's just say that the deities in
processor bank 243D7X34 were in less than high spirits by the day's end.
*Then that psycho with the umbrella shows up and starts bashing the things
left and right. Must've been some sort of war god, though I've never heard
of any war god who 'effortlessly crushes his foes, mightily swinging his
holy transuranic umbrella.'*
The bug population in sector 243D7X34 had declined sharply on the
second day of operation "Hammer Time," until late that evening , when the
sector had been declared "clean." The responsible deities had then been
allowed to go about their own business, which usually involved immediately
finding somewhere to curl up and hibernate.
The system administrators had not been terribly pleased with the amount
of damage the sector had suffered. But, as no-one could locate the
umbrella wielding god responsible, the rest were let off with only a minor
reprimand.
*I wonder when Belldandy and Keiichi are going to get back.* They had
been assigned to a much larger group of deities in one of the inner
processor banks. When last Urd had checked the score, they had been
doing only slightly better than her group had been on the first day.
--|--
Belldandy quietly waves for Keiichi to come closer. Keiichi, who was
peering around a corner to their left, tiptoes to her.
"Keiichi, there's one over there." Belldandy whispers to him, as she
points to an alcove down the hall and to the right. Keiichi nods, and
readies his mallet.
It looks different from the mallet he had in the briefing room. First,
there is a small blast shield affixed near the middle of the handle.
Second, the rear end of the head seems to be hollowed out, the cavity
glowing slightly red. Near Keiichi's hands the mallet handle has a
single, trigger-like button on the grip.
*I hope this works better than some of Skuld's inventions.* prayed Keiichi
as he crept up to the alcove. Just as he was about to round the corner, a
loud explosion echoes through the hall and bits of wall and computer fly
out of the alcove. Keiichi ducks for cover as a young man bounds out of
the alcove, followed by a swarm of bugs.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!!" the man bellows as he turns on his pursuers.
The man swings an _umbrella?_ down into the massed crowd of bugs.
Keiichi tackles Belldandy to the ground and shields her with his body just as
one of the bugs explodes. When the flash dissipates, they turn to see the
young man, who appears to be completely unfazed, glaring at the remaining
bugs, which are now scattered around the room. He then takes off down
the corridor. The bugs quickly regroup and resume the chase, leaving
behind a stunned Belldandy and Keiichi.
"What do you suppose that was?" asks Keiichi, after he finally succeeds
in finding his voice.
Belldandy, unable to formulate any kind of explanation, just shakes her
head in bewilderment.
--|--
Urd sighed sullenly. *Well, they'll get back when they do, I suppose.*
TUESDAY
JULY 2nd
5:00 PM
"We're home! Urd, are you here?"
Urd woke suddenly from her peaceful slumber, and turned in the direction
of Keiichi's voice. This was a mistake, as several muscles she hadn't
previously been aware that she had immediately decided to make their
presence known.
"Urgh...In here." she called from the living room.
Keiichi and Belldandy looked terribly haggard as they entered the room.
Keiichi's eyes were bloodshot and underlined with dark rings. His hair and
clothes were a mess, and he listed slightly to his left side. Belldandy,
though not as disheveled, also seemed to be having trouble standing.
*Lord, I hope I don't look as bad as those two.*
"So, what took you?" she said, trying to keep Belldandy awake long enough
for Keiichi to lead her to her room
"What took us? We were the second group to finish!" declared Keiichi.
"Actually it would have taken much longer, but something weird happened
last night, about the time your group finished."
"Let me guess. Some insane god swinging an umbrella stormed through
your sector bashing the hell out of everything in sight." quipped Urd,
sounding like she had repeated this statement several times before.
"Something like that." Keiichi replied, examining Urd closely."How did you
know?"
"He was probably on his way out of my sector when you met him."
"Really?" asked Belldandy faintly. "Do you know his name? The system
administrators would like to have some words with him."
"Sorry sis. He never told us, and he disappeared right after the job was
done."
"Sounds familiar." Keiichi muttered. " Well, it looks like I'd better get
Belldandy here to bed."
As he turned them towards the hall, Keiichi suddenly paused and started
digging in his pockets. He fished out a computer disk and set it on the
table. "I almost forgot. This is for you from one of the administrators."
With that, he turned back to Belldandy and began slowly guiding her down
the hall.
Urd, against her better judgement, attempted to sit up so that she could
examine the disk. One hundred million nerves throughout her body decided
to light bonfires of protest.
She paused for almost a minute, waiting for the ache to subside, then
continued in increments, until she was standing stiffly with the disk in
hand. "This had better be good." she growled, as she tottered unsteadily
towards Skuld's room.
She paused at the door, smirking slightly at the mess. Then, giving the
"toaster" a wide berth, she made her way to the computer.
After opening the only file on the disk, Urd carefully read over the
simple text message. Urd read it over twice, trying hard not to laugh out
loud in self pity.
"They got me out of bed for _THIS_??!"
She read it over once more, just to be sure.
[To: Urd
Norn: Goddess of the Past
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
It has come to our attention that you are presently unassigned, and
thus are free to assist us in a very important matter. We are presently
unable to locate one:
Hibiki Ryouga
God of Unrequited Love
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
We believe him to be somewhere on earth. His name suggests that he is
perhaps based in Japan, although his current assignment is also unknown.
It would be a great help to us if you would endeavor to locate our Mr.
Hibiki at the earliest possible convenience, and direct him back to the
processing office so that we might update our files on him. We thank you
in advance for your cooperation. Have a nice day.
From: Mihrna
System Administrator
Goddess of Messengers
Class: 2 Category: 1 Limited]
*They have _got_ to be kidding.* Urd thought to herself. *They didn't even
include a cursory physical description!*
"How do they expect me to find this guy if they haven't got any real idea
where he is, and they won't even give me a picture of him? This is a joke,
that's what it is. One of those jerks in sys. admin. is making fun of me
because I'm stuck here on suspension." She snarled the screen. "Well, I'm
not buying it! They're just going to have to find some other way to amuse
themselves."
Urd popped the disk out of the drive and stalked off towards her room. Or,
at least she started to stalk off. At this point her muscles declared,
under no uncertain terms, that they weren't going anywhere without a
fight. The net effect was a rather painful lurch that truly _wanted_ to
stalk. And so Urd, mission received, acknowledged, and ignored, collapsed
on her bed, bruised but triumphant. *I'm not leaving this spot for the
rest of the week, no matter what anybody says.*
SATURDAY
JUNE 30th
7:17 AM
A dirty, bedraggled figure shambles down a well-worn cobblestone street.
Joggers and the like skirt around the stranger, making warding gestures
and hurrying along. His tattered dusk cloak flaps in the wind, seeming to
writhe and lash out with a life of it's own. The hood of the cloak is
pulled over the stranger's head, shielding his features from the rising
sun.
The stranger stops for a moment, peering intently at his surroundings. *I
know this place.* The stranger unlimbers his heavy pack and drops it
roughly to the ground, mindless of the cloud of dust this raises.
*This is the resort town where the Inn of the Vengeful Spirit Doll is.*
The stranger's stomach growls loudly. *Maybe they'll let me chop wood for
food again. A soak in one of the hot springs would be nice too.*
The stranger pulls back his hood, revealing the dirty, tired face of
Hibiki Ryouga. He sighs morosely. "No. I have to find the Tendo Dojo. I
still might have time to stop them. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to
postpone the wedding. Things can happen. Heck, knowing Ranma, they
almost _have_ to happen." *Still*, a small voice chimed in the back of
Ryouga's mind, *Eight days is a long time.* Ryouga quashed the voice
immediately.
"Well, at least I'm in Japan."
"RYOUGA-KUN!!"
Ryouga stops, for a moment not being able to believe his good fortune.
Then he turns in the direction of the voice.
Akane is standing there, wearing a flowing yellow sun dress and a smile.
She raises her hand and waves to get his attention.
"Akane-san!"
*She's here! I'm not too late!* Ryouga rushes across the street to meet
her.
"Akane-san. I'm so glad I found you." *I've got to tell her my feelings so
that she can call off the wedding.* Ryouga looked deep into Akane's
shining brown eyes, trying to summon the courage to open his heart to her.
For a moment his consciousness swam in those twin pools of warmth,
unwilling to ruin the moment with words.
"We were all worried about you Ryouga. We missed you at the wedding."
Akane answered.
Ryouga's reverie shattered as a swirling vortex threatened to pull him
under. "..wedding..?" he said weakly, unable to summon much more than a
whisper.
"Of course!" Akane replied cheerily. "Didn't you get an invitation?"
"But...but you're here. How...?" Ryouga managed, frantically grasping at
anything he could find as his hopes and dreams crumbled around him, each
jagged shard cutting away part of his soul.
"The wedding was eight days ago Ryouga. We're on our honeymoon now!"
Akane's smile widened as she held up her hand for Ryouga to see.
Numbly looking down, Ryouga noticed a gold ring on Akane's finger. Two
interlaced bands of white gold, worked to flow around a single small,
perfect diamond. Tiny leaves and thorns were etched into the surface of
the bands, all seeming to lead towards the diamond in the center.
"Yo! Mr. P! Long time no see buddy."
A hand clapped down on Ryouga's shoulder.
"You shouldn't tease him like that Ranma!" Akane said as she lowered her
hand, none of the usual venom in her voice.
"Ranma circled around him, his hands behind his back. "He deserves it. He
was _supposed_ to be the best man, but what does he do? He doesn't even
bother to show up. Where the hell did you go this time, P-chan?"
"It's not his fault Ranma." Akane admonished. Then she seemed to realize
something. "What did you just call him?"
"P-chan! You know! Little, black side of bacon with a bandanna and no
sense of direction?"
"I know my P-chan. But why are you calling Ryouga that?"
"Because of this!" Ranma suddenly brought his right hand around in a wide
arc, passing it a foot front of Ryouga's face.
Ryouga, still stunned and broken, failed to dodge the ice water that
splashed from the glass in Ranma's hand. The cold shock brought him back
to his senses, and he looked up from his new position at the quickly
changing expression on Akane's face.
"P-..P-chan?" Akane stuttered, confusion and horror warring across her
features.
Ranma whipped around to the side, producing a kettle from somewhere.
Ryouga squealed in terror as the stream of hot water hit, his cry quickly
becoming more human in tone before dying in his throat.
Akane stood stock still as Ryouga quickly re-clothed himself. He licked
his lips.
"Akane, I can explain..." He said, not looking up.
"EXPLAIN?!?!" came the reply. Ryouga raised his head to see Akane's
face. The confusion and horror were now replaced by a mask of pure rage.
"HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN?!?!" Ryouga shrank back from the
onslaught. " I treated you as a friend! And you used me!! You betrayed my
trust and my privacy! What kind of sicko are you?!" Then a thought seemed
to occur to her. If Ryouga could have screamed, he would have, as Akane's
expression suddenly darkened in hate.
"You listened to my most private thoughts. And I brought you to bed with
me. Every time I held p-chan, I was holding you. And you never tried to
resist, never once tried to tell me. You're not a man. You're not even a
pig. You're a monster." Akane's voice had been getting steadily louder as
Ryouga felt every last shred of his humanity being stripped away.
"I HATE YOU!" Ryouga flinched as if struck, but Akane never move a
hair. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN!" With that, she
spun on her heel and stormed off.
Ranma favored him with an amused smirk before following. When he
caught up with Akane, he placed an arm around her shoulders. Akane,
rather than hitting him, responded by wrapping her arm around his waist.
They walked quickly down the street, neither of them ever looking back.
Ryouga didn't notice. *Akane hates me.* He was too drained to cry. He felt
as though his chest was going to cave in, nothing left inside to support
it any longer. Her words echoed through his mind, reverberating and
redoubling themselves until the words "I HATE YOU" rang out clear and
deafening, blasting away his last vestige of conscious thought.
"AKANE!!!!"
An animal cry shattered the windows of the shops up and down the street.
What followed was a sound that would make the denizens of the darkest
pits of hell cringe. A soul chilling wail of pure despair that no beast of this
or any other earth should ever have been able to produce. A seven
kilometer high column of white flame lanced towards the heavens from the
center of town. The denizens of the town were thankfully blasted to ash
instantaneously. Not so lucky were those in the outlying countryside.
There, the people watched helpless as a new sun strove to escape the bonds
of gravity, and failed. They survived several moments longer as it fell,
brilliant and unstoppable, the wrath of the gods unleashed upon the earth.
"AKANE!!"
Ryouga sat up violently, knocking over the small hooded lantern that he
had set beside his sleeping bag. His breathing was quick and ragged, and
his clothes were soaked with sweat. He looked frantically back and forth,
searching for the blasted town. Searching for Akane. Then he remembered
where he was.
*It was only a dream.* He breathed a sigh of relief, still badly shaken.
"it was only a dream." Repeating it aloud seemed to help a bit. *Akane
doesn't hate me. I still have time.* After repeating this to himself
several times, Ryouga looked around his campsite. In the early light of
the morning, Ryouga could tell that something was definitely wrong.
He was still in the humid, swampy region that he had set up camp in. But
he had set up camp in an old growth region. His camp site had been
surrounded by large, ancient trees. While the trees around him now were
certainly not saplings, they were clearly not the same. Sometime in the
night, somebody must have moved him to a new growth region. The
natives? He had not seen any in the last day, but it was not impossible. *At
least it looks like they left me all my gear.* he thought uneasily. But it was a
matter for another time. Right now, the need to get to Tokyo overrode all
other concerns. So, with his gear packed and the rising sun at his back, a
determined Ryouga set off for Japan.
FRIDAY
JULY 5th
11:30 AM
"Skuld-san."
"Skuld, who was lounging tiredly in a chair in the administrative lobby,
looked up to see Mihrna, one of the system administration goddesses,
running up to her.
"Don't tell me they broke into sector 001C1A24 again." A pained
expression crossed Skuld's face. "I don't think I could move another inch if I
wanted to."
"No, sector 001C1A24 is fine." Mihrna conceded, but her violet eyes
reflected deep concern.
"What is it then?"
"Some of the guys in records think they've found a match for the energy
pattern in the explosion and in these new bugs." Mihrna took a seat next
to Skuld and handed her a data pad.
Accepting it, Skuld noted that Mihrna's expression was anything but
pleased. While it was not unusual for the Goddess of Messengers to be
depressed, as she tended to be the bearer of bad news, Mihrna was looking
especially uncomfortable just now. "What's wrong? You look like your
mother just died."
"Just look at the file."
Intrigued, Skuld scanned down the information on the data pad. It was a
historical record taken from the Ultimate Force System archives.
[ At precisely 7:17:24 am, earth relative time, on Saturday June 30th,
1908, the Ultimate Force System was engaged without authorization by an
unknown party. The access point was in the Earth realm, 101 E by 62 N, in
the Central Siberian Peninsula. The area is known as the Tunguska region.
A column of spiritual energy was projected to an altitude of 7.6
kilometers, where it stopped and collected for 1.7 seconds. A barrier was
erected around the resultant sphere of force, in the hopes of containing
it. The barrier fell .02 seconds after it was erected, when the sphere
moved into contact with it and destabilized.
The resultant explosion created a wave of superheated plasma which
expanded outward with an estimated explosive force of 40 megatons. A 26
kilometer radius was affected by the blast. Everything in that area was
effectively leveled. A 10 kilometer radius near the epicenter of the blast
immediately flashed into flame due to the intense heat. In total, 1000
sq.km. of forrest was consumed by the fires.
Since that time, plant species growing in the 2150 sq.km. effected
region have displayed increased growth rates and incidence of genetic
mutation. No Deitic or Demonic force has ever been implicated in the
incident. No trace of the perpetrator was ever found, though an analysis
of temporal flux at location of the incident suggests that the perpetrator
may have fled the era some time during or after the incident.]
Skuld looked up from the printout. "I'd never heard of this before. What
does this have to do with our present dilemma?"
"The archives are temporally aligned with the mortal plane. Relative to
us, this incident occurred less than five hours ago. The energy signature
of the Tunguska incident matches perfectly with the energy traces found
both in the archives and in the new bugs."
Skuld felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
"You don't think it could be...?"
Fear painted Mihrna's face. Skuld suspected that she looked about the
same. Mihrna nodded solemnly.
"This is very bad..." whispered Skuld, voicing their mutual thoughts.
FRIDAY
JULY 5th
11:47 AM
A terrible keening sound emitted from Skuld's room. It easily penetrated
throughout the temple grounds, scaring off the birds in the yard and
roughly waking the temple's single slumbering occupant.
Urd pressed the pillows harder to the sides of her head. It didn't help.
"AARGH!!" *When I get through with whatever is making that noise it will
wish it had been the toaster.* Urd thought crossly as she stumbled out of
her room in her nightgown and hurried down the hall.
Skuld's room was still in its previous state of disarray. Urd immediately
stubbed her toe on something and growled several rather unprintable
imprecations. *I'm going to have a talk with that brat as soon as she gets
back.*
The culprit turned out to be Skuld's computer which was, in addition to
producing the horrible noise, constantly flashing a bright yellow
[EMERGENCY] sign on its screen.
Urd roughly pounded the keyboard and the keening ceased. The emergency
sign was replaced by a message marked [URGENT] and printed in bright
red letters.
[ ATTENTION ALL EARTH BOUND DEITIES. A STATE OF
EXTREME EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED. THE
PERPETRATOR OF THE RECENT ATTACK UPON THE
YGGDRASIL COMPUTER SYSTEM IS BELIEVED TO BE A ROGUE
DEITY.]
Urd paled noticeably at this, but continued reading.
[ THIS PERSON, WHO HAS ON AT LEAST ONE OCCASION
ACCESSED THE ULTIMATE FORCE SYSTEM WITHOUT
AUTHORIZATION, IS BELIEVED TO SOMEWHERE ON EARTH,
TIME PERIOD JULY 1996. ALL AVAILABLE DEITIES ARE
ORDERED TO CONDUCT A BLANKET SEARCH OF THEIR
RESPECTIVE GEOGRAPHIC AREAS. AN ENERGY TRACE
SIGNATURE IS INCLUDED WITH THIS MESSAGE TO ALLOW
FOR IDENTIFICATION. ALL DEITIES ARE ORDERED TO REPORT
IN AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS IMMEDIATELY
UPON LOCATION. CONTACT IS TO BE USED ONLY AS A LAST
RESORT. CLASS THREE OR LESSER DEITIES ARE STRONGLY
ENCOURAGED TO RETREAT SHOULD CONTACT SEEM
IMMANENT. THIS PERSON IS TO BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS.
(S)HE IS SUSPECTED TO BE CAPABLE OF SPIRITUAL
PROJECTION, TEMPORAL SHIFTING, AND UNAUTHORIZED
ACCESS OF THE ULTIMATE FORCE. WE AGAIN ENCOURAGE
THE UTMOST CAUTION. THIS IS A CRITICAL SITUATION, AND
MUST BE ATTENDED TO IMMEDIATELY. GOOD LUCK TO YOU,
AND GODSPEED.]
Urd slumped into the chair as she finished the message.
*A rogue god...*
The very idea was abhorrent. And one that could summon the Ultimate
Force at will! *No. Mustn't think like that. They didn't say that.*
Slowly walking down the hall, Urd cast a worried glance at Belldandy's
room as she proceeded towards her own. *Belldandy and Keiichi went to
the beach for the weekend. And Skuld's still in heaven...*
She sat on her bed for several minutes, mulling over the situation at
hand. Then, standing and summoning her clothes, she marched towards the
living room. "Alright. Let's see that rogue god just try to destroy my city."
*God, I wish I was as confident as that sounded.*
Marler clicked off her small laptop computer and leaned back in the park
bench, contemplating.
*Heaven net is being really sloppy with their transmission encoding
lately. I wonder what's going on.*
Marler's computer vanishes in a puff of acrid smoke, much to the surprise
of several park-goers. But Marler is too deep in thought to notice their
looks.
*A rogue god, huh? That could prove very useful.* Marler smiled to herself
then. A smile of the truly wicked. The sort of smile that suddenly erupts
into maniacal laughter. But Marler really wasn't mad enough to get it right,
so she just smiled as she stood up and walked out of the park.
*And when I bring him to hell after I deal with those goddesses, I'll bet
they give me a raise and a promotion to boot.* She was tempted to laugh,
but held it in for later. *Gotta find `im first.*