M.F.E.O.
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by Florencio B. de la Merced, Jr. (fmerced@pworld.net.ph)

A fanfic inspired by the anime Oh! My Goddess! created and copyrighted by
Kosuke Fujishima

A project for the Fan Fiction Mailing List
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Skuld, with a container of ice-cream in one hand and a spoon in the other,
still had the hardest time concentrating in watching the movie playing on
the television.  Her oldest sister, Urd, laid sleepless and drunk on her
right.  However groggy and lifeless Urd was, to Skuld's amazement, she
still could maintain a firm grasp of her sake bottle.  Skuld didn't have
to bother about any liquor ruining the carpet since she's almost sure that
Urd would have finished the whole bottle before dozing off.  But, Urd was
the least of Skuld's distractions that night.  It was the other two that
were sitting behind her on the couch.

"Stop it, Belldandy.  That's starting to hurt."  Skuld didn't have to look
back as she perfectly knew how her other sister, Belldandy, was briskly
playing and pinching sore Keiichi's ears off.  She just scooped off
another spoonful of ice-cream in order to drown her melancholic distaste
of things happening between the two lovebirds sitting behind her.

"Ok, Keiichi."  The two quieted down, to Skuld's relief, and made her at
least catch up to the movie.  But her instincts perked after a few minutes
had passed.  Skuld noticed that the two behind her had been silent for
quite a while now.  'What's going on?' Skuld immediately sense the
strangeness of the quietness of Keiichi and her sister.  'Ack!
They're....they're' The spoon almost fell off from Skuld's aghast and wide
open mouth.  She looked back at the television screen but closed her eyes
instead.  'Kiss?'  Skuld thought of the times she almost caught them doing
it, and even catching them in mid swing of things.  But, somehow this time
she was quite awestruck by the sight.  A few minutes later she finally
decided to pull herself off the floor and walk out of the room.  Before
opening the exit, Skuld peeked back at the two.  'What does she see in
him?'  The thought made her retire for the night.

----------

"Urd.  Can I ask you a question?"  Skuld searched for her eldest sister
the moment she stepped out of her room that morning.  Urd just got out of
the bath and wasn't really in the most generous of moods for conversation.
Skuld quickly ignored Urd's excuses and pressed on to get her most
experienced sister to talk with her.

"Ok."  Urd slowly sat down one side of the soft lounge chair while Skuld
excitingly filled up the rest of the couch.  "Ah, damn this headache."
Skuld patiently waited for Urd to calm herself down before firing away her
first question.

"Urd, have you ever fallen for someone?"  Urd was surprised by the
question, but she was more concerned by the implied tone it was asked by
her almost-a-lady sister.  "Have you?"

"Wait...Why are you asking anyway?" Skuld frown a bit, as she didn't
really know the answer to that one.  Urd tried to figure out her little
sister.  "Ah, it was that movie last night, wasn't it?"   Skuld belted her
frustration towards her sister.

"It was a Die Hard movie!!!"  Urd felt sheepishly embarrassed as Skuld
returned a devilish stare at her.  "And I asked first!"  Urd could hardly
believe the serious tone coming from her bratty sister.

"Ok!  Gee."  Urd recollected her fondest memories. "Well, there was this
'cherry blossom' spirit..."  She quickly dismissed the idea forming in her
head.  "No.  Not him...."  Skuld sulked as Urd was taking a long time
recounting so many of her past, almost perfect, yet failed relationships.
"No.  I didn't really fell for him either..."  Skuld finally decided to
slip out of the room, and for sure she thought she'll disappear unnoticed.
Urd was lost in her memories, and Skuld knew better than to place her
sister back into reality.

---------

"Megumi, can I ask something?"  Skuld had chanced upon Keiichi's sister as
she was heading towards the cooler for some of her favorite snack.

"Fire away."  Megumi brought out a can of ice-cream and promptly shared it
with the young goddess.

"Have you ever fallen for someone?"  Skuld courteously waited for Megumi
to scoop up a cup of ice-cream before finally taking the whole container
for herself.  Megumi looked at Skuld strangely.

"You mean like...love?"  Skuld nodded as she was in between spoonfuls.
"Me?  He..That will be the day."  Megumi thought she would have elicited a
laugh or two from the lighthearted Skuld, but she was disappointed.  Skuld
frown a bit, but quickly resumed her ice-cream digging.

"That's the way I feel."  Skuld for a brief moment hesitated eating a some
of her ice-cream.  "I don't think I could ... you know."  Megumi sighed
along with the young, but lost goddess.

---------

Skuld found herself playing with some of her gadgets, which didn't really
work the way she tried or intended them to be.  "I'm bored."  Skuld
muttered into the void that was filled by her own self.  She caught a
glimpse of Belldandy and Keiichi outside in the yard.  They were fixing
the three-wheel truck, Skuld thought.  She remembered Belldandy's contract
with Keiichi, and also the free will that goes along with it.  That
further saddened Skuld.  "Why don't goddesses have their own wish granters
too?"  She immersed herself into her gadget and for a few minutes tinkered
with it.  "Hey!  Now that's why this thing won't work!"  Skuld adjusted a
few connections of the invention she was currently holding.  "There!  That
should do it."  Skuld inspected and checked the contraption twice.
Happily she stood up and crossed the open space to where Keiichi and
Belldandy was.

"What is it Skuld?"  Belldandy sense some urgency in her little sister's
rush.

"I've fixed this one.  It now works!  I've done it Belldandy!"  Skuld
jeered in full euphoria.  Belldandy cheered for her, but Keiichi sported a
concerned look.

"Really? You mean it can now immobilize people?"  The perplexed look on
Keiichi's face all the more challenged the spirit in Skuld.

"Yup!  Just hold still!"  Belldandy was caught off guard but her lightning
fast reflexes was quick enough to pull out a barrier.  Unfortunately she
wasn't sure if she had placed it just in time.  "See!  You can't move,
Keiichi."  Skuld skipped and hopped joyfully back into the temple.

"Keiichi?  Are you alright?"  Belldandy brought the barrier down but
Keiichi still didn't move.  Keiichi blinked a few times but still was
expressionless.

"My God!  She's...she's..."  Belldandy pinched Keiichi which drew a very
common response.  "Oww.  Why did you do that for?"

"Whew!  I thought you were immobilized, Keiichi."  Belldandy relaxed in
Keiichi's arms.

"You know what.  That sister of yours is a very dangerous little kid."
Both of them just laughed and drew some breaths of relief.

"I know.  She loves inventing things, although most of them don't turn out
the way she plans them.  But she's going to learn to someday.  I just know
she will."  Belldandy snuggled a bit closer to Keiichi.

"I think she already learned a lot.  Can you help me with my legs,
Belldandy,  I can't seem to move them."  That drew and exasperated look on
the beautiful goddess.

"Oh my!"

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END


C & C  greatly appreciated.

Signing out...