This is a fragment of a fic I started to write...  

More is coming soon

James Chu

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-- Name   : tomorrowisyesterday.txt

Oh My Goddess and all associated characters are property of Kosuke Fujishima.

****

The smell of dried blood, bile and disinfectants wafted through the air.  
A slowly turning fan beat its blades in a futile effort to disperse the odor, spreading the sickening scent of death throughout the room.  The walls of the forward field hospital still had fading pictures drawn in crayon by its former occupants.  The converted school, one of the only standing buildings in the small village, was a hive of activity.  Writhing  near-corpses were being ferried in on stretchers, terrible holes were gouged out of their barely living flesh; patched with hastily applied field dressings.  

A single nurse sat by the side of a cot in the corner.  Her once properly 
creased and starched uniform was smeared with dust, grit and blood.  Her messy mop of dark brown hair and tired, mud streaked face couldn't hide her beauty from the sole occupant of the bed.  He could barely see her through his blood caked facial bandage; his numb fingers couldn't feel the warm hands that held his hand in her lap.  This didn't matter to the man.  He saw beauty, he felt warmth.  

Thomas knew he was dying.  He could see the glistening blur of the nurse's face that could only be tears.  Although one of his eardrums was ruptured, he could hear the soft sound of weeping.  He tried to speak.

"I'll be all right.  My buddies need your help more than I do."

The nurse gazed at Thomas's ruined face.  She tried not to gaze at the dark brown patch of gauze that covered his damaged left eye.  She didn't have the heart to tell him that his friends -- his buddies -- that he had dragged a mile and a half through the blighted no-man's land to the hospital were dead already.  She looked down at Thomas's fingers, and attempted to rub away the bluish color that was starting to mar his fingertips.  

Thomas gasped for a moment and finally managed to focus his good eye on the nurse.

"I guess I'll talk to you again tomorrow."

He closed his eye and sighed.  His sigh died off into a deathly rattle, and 
then an all too quiet stillness.  

The nurse sat there for a quiet ten minutes, rubbing the lifeless hand.  She stood up and gently pulled the raw cotton blanket over Thomas's corpse. 
 
A cluster of other nurses came over and consoled the young nurse as she 
slumped over the bed.  

****

Tomorrow is Yesterday

An Oh My Goddess Fanfic

by James Chu

****

Keiichi sighed inwardly.  Here he was in a small French village with 
Belldandy at his side.  

He had finally managed to find some time alone with his love.  He had given a fistful of francs to Skuld and artfully steered hertoward the nearest 
ice-cream stand.  It didn't hurt to not that the apothecary and the lingerie shop near the stand seemed to distract Urd quite a bit too.

Now that he was alone with Belldandy, he couldn't figure out what to do.

He was happy to stroll around hand-in-hand with her, but wanted to do more.  
Unfortunately, whenever she turned her head and smiled at him with that smileof hers, he lost all his senses and often ended up giving a big goofy smile right back.  

As the two lovebirds rounded the bend around a crumbling wall, Belldandy gasped in delight.  A small whitewashed schoolhouse stood at the end of a small cobblestone courtyard.  An ancient, hunched over figure swept the front steps with a reed broom.  A smattering of hard corn kernels was spread in the center of the courtyard, small birds pecking between the stones.  

Belldandy rushed forward, dragging Keiichi toward the schoolhouse.  She curtsied to the old woman at the school's front and spoke to the woman in French; the language seemed to fit her musical voice perfectly.  The old woman seemed to looksomewhat astonished at whatever Belldandy had said -- Keiichi vowed to learn _some_ French during the remainder of the trip -- and thrust her gnarled hands inside her apron pockets.  She drew an old brass key and thrust it into the lock with a shaking hand.  The door opened quietly with a well oiled silence.  

Keiichi looked inside with awe.  This simple, one room schoolhouse managed to exude the ambiance of a Gothic cathedral.  The light streaming from the generations old glass seemed to sparkle and change colors as it passed through the wavy panes and lightly floating dust.  The desks stood in straight lines, facing a clean blackboard.  The teacher's desk at the far end of the room stood in front of a small storage closet and the staircase to the room above.  

Belldandy stepped lightly between the center rows of desks.  She twirled around in delight, brushing the desktops with her fingertips as she passed by.  Keiichi followed, with a bemused expression on his face.  The old woman leaned against the doorframe heavily, smiling wistfully.  

Belldandy suddenly stopped twirling around and stared at the teacher's desk.  Her eyebrows knit together in a gesture of concern.  Keiichi rushed over to see what was bothering her so much.  

Belldandy picked up a picture frame, the sole piece of decoration on the desk.  She cradled it within the folds of her dress.  Keiichi heard the old woman gasp and rush towards them.  He looked at the picture.  It was a yellowing photograph of a snappily dressed service man on a motorcycle with a nurse sitting sidesaddle on his lap. 

Belldandy seemed to stare inwardly for a second.  She murmured something quietly.  Keiichi leaned forward to listen.

"Great sorrow.  Great pain.  Unrequited love."

The old woman had reached their side.  She stared at Belldandy and then gingerly pulled herself onto the desk.  Belldandy leaned forward and whispered in her ear for a few seconds.  The old woman smiled.  

****

to be continued...