[AMS] "Future Goddess"

By Henry J. Cobb

$Id: future_goddess.txt,v 1.2 1997/11/02 17:02:20 hcobb Exp $



The Ah! Megami-sama! characters and situations are the creation of Kosuke

Fujishima.



No infringement of his copyrights is intended.



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In a Buddhist-style temple near Tokyo, behind a door marked "Skuld's

Room", a goddess sulked.  She sat lotus-style on a mat, with her long

black hair spread out to the mat behind her.



"That jerk!  He's using the leverage of that wish to get Oneesama to marry

him.  And she's such a servant to duty that she's going along.  He's not

at all like our father was.  What was father like?  It was so long ago..."



Her large brown eyes closed as she concentrated on her earliest memories.



She remembered laying on the steps down to a garage as she sketched

daddy's motorcycle with her paper and crayons.  She had finally gotten the

last detail right when the door opened behind her.



"There you are princess.  You shouldn't stay in here, you'll catch a

cold."  There was such warmth and concern in daddy's voice.  He really did

care a lot.



"Here daddy, I did it."  She picked up the picture as she stood and held

it in front of herself.



"That's very good Skuld."  There was an unexpected sadness in his voice.



The little goddess looked up into daddy's face...



Back in the present, the teenage goddess fell over onto her back.  She

stared up at the ceiling.  "It, it can't be!"



Slowly she rose to her feet.  "I've got to stop this!"



"Oneesama!"  Skuld flew into Belldandy's room.  "You have to call off the

wedding!"



"Not again!"  As usual Urd was painfully aware that the term did not apply

to her.



"It's OK.  Urd, Megumi, we can finish this later."  Belldandy put her

wedding dress to the side as the other two women left the room.  "Now,

what is the matter Skuld?"



"Oneesama!"  Skuld hugged Belldandy tightly.  "You can't marry Keiichi!

He's our father!"



"Wh-what makes you think that Skuld?"  Belldandy held her sister at arm's

length to study her face.



"I remembered from a long time ago.  Keiichi is our father.  I'm sure of

it!"



"Very well.  Could you please go get Keiichi?  I have something very

important to tell you both."



Skuld opened the door to the garage and stopped.  The scene was exactly

the same as she had remembered.  This temple was the home she had

remembered.  No wonder that it had felt so right when she had moved back

in a few years ago.



"Can I help you with something Skuld?"  Keiichi looked up from his

motorcycle.  He looked exactly like the father she remembered, except he

seemed a little bit younger.



"Belldandy needs to talk to you about the wedding."



"Is there something wrong?"



"Yes."  Skuld couldn't bear to say anything more.



As they walked back to Belldandy's room.  Skuld kept looking up at

Keiichi's face.  He had always treated her so nicely and she had always

treated him like scum.  He'd repaid her insults with ice cream and he'd

always been available to talk.  She had been a dreadful daughter, but no

more.  Now that she knew the truth, she'd show proper respect.  He wasn't

going to be her brother-in-law, but at least now they could become

friends.



"I brought Keiichi."  Skuld was followed by Keiichi into Belldandy's room.



"Good, I have something very important to tell you two."  Belldandy

whispered in the goddess tongue and Skuld felt the full power of a Class-1

goddess focused on putting a shield around the room.  Not even Kamisama

could peek through that without alerting Belldandy.



"Now Skuld, could you tell us what you remembered?"  Belldandy asked her

sister.



"It was a long time ago.  I couldn't have been more than three.  I was

living in this temple with my father.  And he was you Keiichi, except

maybe a few years older.  You're our father Keiichi!"



Keiichi backed up a step, his jaw slack from shock.



"That is not true."  Belldandy quietly announced.



"Is my memory a lie?"  Skuld turned to her sister.



"No, it is correct.  Keiichi is your father, but not mine.  You are not my

sister."



"Oneesama!"  Skuld felt the foundation of everything she had believed in

shift.



"Please come here you two."  Belldandy put an arm around each of them and

guided them to her large travel mirror.  "Skuld, do you see how much you

have in common with your father?  Look at the eyes, the eyebrows, the

nose, the chin, the overall shape of your face.  You look a lot like

Keiichi and very little like your mother."



"Who was my mother Belldandy?  Why don't I remember her?"  Skuld asked the

woman she had thought was her sister.



"I will be your mother."  Belldandy held up the other two as they slumped

in shock.  "Well Keiichi, what do you think of our daughter to be?"



"How, how is this possible?"  Keiichi asked, as he looked over their

reflections.



"When Skuld will be very young, she will be sent back in time so that she

can stay with her mother and be available to help with the trials we have

and will face.  I can tell you no more about the future.  Now Keiichi, do

you agree.  Will you marry me?"



"Belldandy, do-do you truly love me?"  Keiichi asked.



"I do."



"Then I will.  How can I turn down the chance to have such a wonderful

goddess for a wife and another one for a daughter?"



"Good, now you two must never tell anybody what you have heard here.  The

risk of paradox is too great."



"Oneesama... How can I call you that anymore mother?"



"How about Belldandy?  I think that has a nice ring to it."



"Yes Belldandy."  Skuld hugged her mother tightly, then reached out an arm

to draw her father into the embrace.



	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb