Okay, warning:  THIS IS DARK.  And if *I* think it's dark, you can
be damn sure it is.  Last chance to bug out.









	Still here?  You were warned.  This is the counter to a short
piece that SKJAM wrote a while ago.

                             "Be Careful ..."

	Moroboshi Kinshou looked wearily across the ruins of her home,
which had, once again, been reduced to ruins by one or several of her
idiot son's "friends", and breathed the words that had been her mantra 
ever since that bloody tag game.

	"I wish I'd never borne him."

	She walked to the phone in the hallway, past where her idiot
husband was still sitting, reading his newspaper, oblivious to the world
around him.

	The one upside to having as a permanent houseguest the daughter of
the ruler of a culture with which the governments of the world were trying
desperately to stay on good terms was that they were generally happy to do
anything to make her life comfortable, with spin-off effects for the
host.  The upshot was that, early on in the insanity that her life had
become, Kinshou been given the number of the Japanese office of one of the
best reconstruction firms in the world, and a reasonable expense account.
It paid for the repairs to the house whenever it happened to be destroyed.

	<If only the idiot would just do the right thing and marry the
girl!> Kinshou thought savagely as she dialed.  <Then *I'd* probably be
living in splendor, instead of this ... this -->

	"Hello," said a throaty voice through the phone.  "Unless you've
misdialled, you *know* where you've reached.  One of our ... operatives
will be with you shortly to deal with the situation."

	Kinshou blinked.  That didn't sound like the usual receptionist at
Dam--

	There was a tapping on her shoulder.  She made a face, and turned
to see who it was.

	The handsome woman who stood there had a trio of short stripes
running between her eyebrows, and was smiling at her in a ... very strange
manner.  "Hello, I'm Mara.  I'm here to grant you your wish."

	Kinshou stared.  "Excuse me?"

	"You *did* call the Demon Help Line?  Well, here I am, ready to
grant you any one wish your corrupt little heart desires.  What do you
want?  Power?  Wealth?  Hunky male admirers?  It can --"

	The words bubbled out of her mouth before she really had a chance
to think about them.  "I wish I'd never borne my son!"

	Mara's smile grew.  "Are you sure?"

	"Yes!" Kinshou said.  Then, "Why --"

	Mara's eyes had already begun to glow.  A strange, eerie wind
began to blow through both women's hair, even ruffling the pages of her
husband's paper.

	And then there came a word.  "GRANTED", said a voice, and then
there was laughter.

	Kinshou blinked, and found herself standing in a crosswalk.  She
looked around, very startled, and realized from the fashions that everyone
else was wearing, that she was nearly seventeen years in the past.

	And then she looked down to see that she was very pregnant.

	"But --" she said, and then heard the sound of the horn.  It had
been blaring for several minutes, but she had been too distracted to
notice.

	She turned to look in the direction the noise was coming from, just
in time to be looking at the truck as it slammed into her, killing her 
instantly.

				*   *   *

	The closed casket funerals for Kinshou Moroboshi and her unborn
child were held a few days later.

	And Mara laughed some more.

                                 The End

	"Urusei Yatsura" was created by Rumiko Takahashi and brought to
North America by AnimEigo and Viz Communications.  "Oh My Goddess" was
created by Kosuke Fujishima and brought to North America by AnimEigo and
Dark Horse Comics.  This story, while incorporating characters from
motion pictures and magazines held under copyright by others, is copyright
1998 by Chris Davies.

	Nobody sue me, okay?

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?" 
-- Death, in "Reaper Man", by Terry Pratchett.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html