This time I'm prepared to offer home made cookies for C&C...
Disclaimer time:
Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz Communications own Ranma
1/2. Kosuke Fujishima, Dark Horse Comics and Studio Proteus own Oh! My
Goddess (Ah! Megami-sama).
My deepest gratitude goes to my pre-readers, who helped me a lot:
Dave Menard, Gary Kleppe, Jeremy Fogelman, Paul Steele, Slyke, Thomas
Hackwood
Corwin (ely7@inter.net.il or corwin@virtuallyjeannie.com)
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/friday/573/ranma.html
* Previous chapters can also be found at:
http://members.xoom.com/phu_lam/index.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/rfics.html
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: wog-ch7-ffml.txt
Wrath of Gods
Chapter 7
Belldandy was staring at the ceiling passively, lying still as the
seconds ticked away.
'He's probably there by now...' she thought sadly. 'Walking right into a
trap.'
The goddess closed her eyes, attempting to hold back the tears that she
knew were about to come.
'Why must we fight like that, amongst ourselves?!' her mind demanded to
know, but no answer was forthcoming.
Belldandy thought back to the previous evening, when her sisters asked
her to come and meet them at a house where they were staying on Earth -
the very house she was in at the moment. Unwilling to raise any
suspicions, she came, walking foolishly into a trap. Just like...
Just like him.
Gods were supposed to be all-powerful and ageless. What a sham! All this
just meant that the pain will remain for far longer than any living
being should have to endure in a single lifetime.
Attuned to her sisters' magical energies, a skill born from working side
by side for countless centuries, Belldandy could feel them powering up
for the inevitable encounter. Her heart ached as she felt a discharge of
energy, and a third source of magical energy powering up; probably in
retaliation.
And there wasn't a single thing she could do!
Her sisters thought well about her trap. Warding the house extensively
has effectively turned it into a fancy prison for her, preventing the
Norn of the Present from living the premises by normal means or
intricate teleportation spells. Removing anything even remotely
resembling a mirror, the only object they couldn't shield from
Belldandy, who had complete control over it, completed the entrapment.
Even the bathroom mirrors have been relocated to somewhere outside the
house.
'And what would you do, if you had the chance?' Belldandy bitterly asked
herself, turning on her side.
She has only been kidding herself, and the goddess knew it. There was no
way she could ever take a stand for either side... not after the last
time.
'But still!' a small part of Belldandy's mind argued, refusing to give
up. 'I could've erected a barrier between them, and stopped the battle
for long enough to...'
To what? Talk? There was nothing more to be said, all possible words
having been exhausted centuries ago. She'd just be delaying the
inevitable...
Belldandy was about to get up and try calling her Father for help,
hoping for a miracle, when one presented itself. The goddess felt a huge
among of magical energy emanated from the proximity of the previous
three readings. And unless she was mistaken, the new arrival was a
goddess... a _very_ powerful one, at that!
'Auntie Amaterasu!' she thought, her eyes widening at the implications
as she deduced the new arrival's identity. 'Maybe... just maybe... there
was still a chance...'
Belldandy was so engrossed in her thoughts, that she hadn't noticed the
teenage boy entering her room until he greeted her.
--------------------------------------------------
"Hello," Keiichi greeted the beautiful woman with the diamond shaped
mark on her forehead, who was lying listlessly on a bed in one of the
guest rooms. One of the guest rooms he could've sworn had been vacant
the previous day.
Belldandy lifted her head to stare, unblinking, at Keiichi for a few
moments. Finally averting her eyes, she answered, "Hello."
"You are Belldandy, aren't you? Skuld and Urd's sister?" Keiichi asked,
unable to control his curiosity.
Belldandy silently offered the boy a business card, which he took.
"When did you arrive here?" Keiichi asked the goddess, before realizing
that he had been staring at her all this time and averting his eyes
hurriedly with a blush.
"I... didn't come here on my own," Belldandy answered, getting up from
the bed and walking towards the doorway to the corridor.
"Oh. Don't you like your sisters?" Keiichi asked, as she was about to
exit the room.
"What kind of question is that?" the Norn of the Present asked wide-
eyed, turning towards him. "Of course I do!"
"Then why aren't you at Mt. Fuji right now, helping them kill that
demon?!" he pressed on.
Belldandy's eyes flashed with anger and pain momentarily, before she
relaxed and turned away once again.
"You wouldn't understand," the goddess said with a sigh.
"Try me," Keiichi replied with more conviction than he believed he had.
"Ranma isn't evil," Belldandy explained, leaning on the door frame.
"Huh?" Keiichi blurted out, not expecting her to take him on his offer.
"But he's a demon... they're all evil!"
Belldandy laughed bitterly, before continuing, "That's hardly true.
Demons are just in another camp than gods. They have a central system; a
chain of command. All demons answer their superiors, and ultimately to
Hild. In a way, she's Kami-sama's counterpart in Nifelheim."
Keiichi listened intently, absorbing the new information Belldandy was
supplying to him.
"We, on the other hand, have pantheons. Groups of gods who bicker more
amongst themselves at times than against the demons. Without the
Yggdrasil Kami-sama designed himself to run Asgard and Midgard, things
would look differently in the human world..."
"Are you saying that some gods are more dangerous to humanity than
demons?" Keiichi asked incredulously.
"Have you ever had the 'pleasure' of meeting Ares?" Belldandy asked him
suddenly.
While the boy struggled for an answer, she continued, "Well, I have.
He's responsible for the deaths of so many mortals that everyone's lost
count of the body count several millennia ago. And then we also have
Loki, Susano, Mars..." Turning to look at the now stunned Keiichi, she
asked, "Need I go on?"
"But... But Ranma wants to destroy the world!" he tried to argue.
"All Ranma ever wanted was to make a certain goddess happy," the Norn of
the Present replied sadly. "And she let him down."
Pausing for a few long moments, Belldandy stared at the floor in
thought.
"That goddess... once upon a time, several centuries ago... she made a
mistake. A simple mistake anyone could've made in her place, but that's
no excuse. And then... everything changed."
Taking a deep breath, Belldandy continued, "That unfortunate goddess is
the one truly responsible for all the suffering that happened. She's
destined to suffer, as others pay for her mistakes... forced to watch
her loved ones fight... get injured... die..."
"That goddess... is you, isn't it?" Keiichi asked sympathetically.
"I am going to pray," Belldandy said, ignoring his question. "May I use
your phone?"
As he dumbly nodded in response to her question, the Norn of the Present
walked out of the guest room and went over to make a private phone call.
--------------------------------------------------
"We were so close this time!" Skuld exclaimed, fuming, as she and Urd
appeared in the Morisato living room half an hour later. "If that hag
hadn't intervened..."
"Hey, squirt, are you as dumb as you look?" Urd asked, irritated. 'I
should've known that Amaterasu wouldn't let her son out of her sight!'
The Norn of the Past mentally berated herself for not working that into
the equation before attacking Ranma. Next time the Goddess of the Sun
might not be there to protect the demon, but Urd and her sister wouldn't
have the element of surprise on their side.
Urd's thoughts returning to her current discussion with Skuld, she
continued angrily, "What's the big idea of badmouthing a goddess of her
caliber, and on her turf, no less?! She could be listening to us right
now!"
"So what? Let her listen for all she wants," the younger goddess
replied, smirking. "You know as well as I do that she can't do much more
than that. Amaterasu can't directly intervene with us, unless
provoked..."
"...which is exactly what you're doing! Do you have a death wish?!" Urd
shouted in exasperation.
"Um, hi," Keiichi greeted the goddesses, causing them to turn towards
him with looks promising pain.
"What do you want?" Skuld asked him, frowning.
"I take it things didn't go well, right?" Keiichi asked, only to cringe
as the force of Skuld's glare intensified tenfold. "Anyway, I just
wanted to ask you if either of you know where your sister is, that's
all."
"Belldandy?!" both goddesses shouted, their previous troubles forgotten.
"You mean you lost her?!" Skuld asked the boy, pointing a finger at him
accusingly. "How could you lose a goddess?"
"I didn't lose anything!" Keiichi replied in frustration. "She's just...
not here at the moment."
"I bet she went to look for Ranma," Urd said, holding a hand against her
forehead. "This is just what we need."
"But I thought that after we'd invited her here yesterday and put wards
all over the place, she couldn't leave the house on her own," Skuld
mused out loud. "Besides, we'd destroyed all the mirrors."
Turning towards Keiichi, she asked him, "When was the last time you've
seen Belldandy?"
"Hey, I've only met your sister once! We talked a bit, and then she
asked to use the phone..." Keiichi answered, before realization hit him.
The impact of Skuld's hammer was the precise moment of painful
realization that he had erred in letting Belldandy use the phone.
"How could you be so stupid to let her phone someone?!" the Norn of the
Future screamed in anger.
"And how was I supposed to stop her?" Keiichi groaned from the floor.
"Still, Belldandy would have needed someone's help..." Urd muttered,
before crying out along with Skuld, "Amaterasu!"
Running towards the phone, the goddesses found a small pocket mirror and
a note, addressed to them.
Grabbing it first, Urd read out loud, "Dear sisters. I'm sorry, but I
have to go and at least try to set things straight. The future is what
we make of it, and I believe it's not too late to save Ranma. Please,
try to understand. Belldandy."
Crumpling the note, Urd grabbed the pocket mirror and threw it against
the floor, shattering the glass.
"Dammit!"
--------------------------------------------------
As Urd proceeded to get drunk with a passion, Skuld retired to her room
under the pretense of work. Once safe in her haven, the young goddess
climbed into her bed and pulled her legs close to her chest, circling
them with her arms.
"I won't cry... I won't!" she said quietly to herself, determination
showing on her face.
"The world is a dark place..." Skuld muttered after staring into space
for a few minutes.
Some time later, the goddess was lying on the bed, curled into a fetal
position. A few tears made their way down her cheeks, but she refused to
acknowledge them, her eyes closed, shutting off the rest world...
--------------------------------------------------
... Skuld's arch-nemesis, the Evil Lord Ran had kidnapped her one true
love. Magical Girl Pretty Skuld had tried her every attack, and Ran had
shrugged them all off, laughing the entire time. There was only one
thing left to do, if Skuld wanted to see her boyfriend, K-1, again, and
it was to use her ultimate attack.
Although she was reluctant to use such an enormous power even on evil
villains who deserve everything they get, Pretty Skuld had no choice.
Gathering all her magical energy with her trusty, ever present heart-
shaped-wand-with-pretty-ribbons, Skuld released all of it in one
ultimate strike.
"Cute Magical Girl Forbidden Attack - Saccharine Sweet Pink Sugar
Bubble-Gum Crisis Ice-Cream Crash!"
With a frightened cry, Skuld woke up from her nightmare, covered in cold
sweat. Raggedly taking deep breaths to calm herself, the goddess turned
to her left, and found herself nose to nose with her boyfriend from the
dream, who was crouching next to her bed.
Not entirely awake, Skuld shrieked and responded to the intruder in the
only way she could.
"Kawaii Hammer Strike!"
Keiichi groaned on the floor, a huge hammer imbedded in his scalp.
Looking at her hands, Skuld shuddered and whispered, "Kami-sama... I
feel so... violated. So dirty..."
The goddess sniffed a few times, before burying her face in her hands,
sobs racking her entire body.
--------------------------------------------------
"Maybe it would help if you talked about your problems to someone,"
Keiichi finally said, after recovering from the hammer strike and seeing
the goddess in tears.
"I...," Skuld started saying, sniffing. "I think you're right... But I
can't talk to Belldandy about this!"
Keiichi groaned inwardly, and tried again, hoping that his act of
kindness won't get him on the goddess' bad side... again.
"Actually, I was talking about myself."
"You? What do you mean?" Skuld asked, looking at him puzzled.
"You can talk to me, baka!" Keiichi blurted out in frustration, before
realizing what he'd said.
"Maybe," Skuld mused over the suggestion, as Keiichi let out a breath
he'd been holding. "And don't call me a baka!" she yelled a split-second
later, hitting him over the head, while adding silently, "Whatever
'baka' is."
--------------------------------------------------
"It's Ra... That demon! We have to catch him, or else!" Skuld exclaimed
in frustration, raising her hands heavenwards.
Keiichi, having recovered in record time from the thankfully light
hammer strike, was listening to her intently, while occupying a chair
next to the bed Skuld sat on.
"You see, he tried to bring Ragnarok once, many centuries ago. I may
have been just a kid back then, but I still remember the whole thing."
Keiichi wisely managed to keep his mouth shut and resisted temptation,
when he heard the kid remark. Instead, he asked, "So what's the problem?
You got him last time, right?"
"It didn't matter," Skuld answered, shaking her head. "After Balder's
death, Ragnarok became a reality for all of us. Don't get me wrong,
Ragnarok was always prophesied to happen. But Balder's death set a
timeline for the whole thing, putting events in motion."
Skuld sighed, and put her hands in her lap, studying them intently.
"The Norse gods finally managed to corner Ranma before he could add the
final ingredient and make all of our darkest fears a reality. I was
still too young to fight, but Urd and Belldandy were there along with
the rest of our pantheon."
"This Ranma never stood a chance, eh?" Keiichi tried to joke, in an
attempt to lighten the mood.
Skuld raised her moist eyes to look at him.
"The battle went for several hours, with Ranma and his angel Akane
holding their own against everyone. Eventually, tired from all the
exertion, Urd made a mistake, and got blasted. She's only a second class
goddess, you see, and despite her age isn't as strong as Belldandy..."
"How do you know any of this?" Keiichi asked, seeing that the goddess
couldn't continue talking on the current subject for now.
"I have my ways. And even though I wasn't allowed to join the fight, I
visited the battlefield shortly after the whole thing took place. The
ground was horridly scorched for as far as the eye could see, and... and
in the middle of the area there was a giant crater. I later learned that
it was the place where Ranma used to fight from."
"But how did you guys manage to defeat him, if things were that bad?
Especially if, like you said, Urd was down..."
"I know!" Skuld replied angrily. "No one who had been there that day
would tell me how it happened, not even my sisters. Urd would always get
serious and change the subject and Belldandy... The only time I ever
asked her about it, she cried. I didn't have the heart to do it again,"
she finished explaining, lowering her head.
Seeing that his cheering attempts have been unsuccessful so far, Keiichi
decided to try and change the subject again.
"Anyway, Ranma was defeated. I also assume that Ragnarok was averted,
since we're all still alive. So, what's the problem, then? I mean,
what's the likelihood of him doing it again?"
Scowling, the Norn of the Future glared at Keiichi, who cringed under
the intensity of her gaze.
"Don't you get it? Ranma didn't die. He somehow survived, and we were
all too happy to find out that the world wouldn't come to an end that
nobody ever wondered why no god died along with Ranma, according to the
Doublet System."
"So..." Keiichi tried to interject, but was ignored by Skuld.
"He didn't die, which means he's bound to regain all of his lost powers
and memories, and do the whole thing all over again! Bringing Ragnarok
is his destiny! Ranma is the key, and the moment he remembers that,
we're all doomed!"
"But how can you be so sure? He might've changed during the centuries;
no one knows the future..."
"I do!" Skuld shouted, balling her hands into fists in frustration.
"Future is _my_ domain! I _know_ it's only a matter of time before he'd
be up to his old tricks again... and there's nothing I can do about it
now," she added dejectedly.
"Then why don't you call the rest of the Norse gods again... or, better
yet, ask the other pantheons for help as well!" Keiichi exclaimed
excitedly. "After all, the end of the world affects them too, right?"
Skuld chuckled sadly. "The other pantheons want as little to do with it
as possible."
"Huh? But... do they _want_ to die?" Keiichi asked, dumbstruck.
"Not really. Each pantheon has their own version of the end of the
world; Ragnarok is only the Norse version. Frankly, they don't believe
us. Not to mention that relations between pantheons are cordial at
best."
"But they're crazy not to believe it! How can they sit idly while the
world is about to end?!" Keiichi shouted incredulously.
"Do you believe in Christ? Buddah? How about Allah?" Skuld retorted.
"While every omnipotent and omniscient god worshipped around the globe
is basically a version of Kami-sama, the legends around each version
vary. The only way for the other gods to help us is if Kami-sama himself
decrees so. And he hasn't."
"Alright, I guess I can see that," Keiichi conceded, not even attempting
to argue about Kami-sama's logic. It would probably be bad for his
health, anyway. "But what I can't see is how this Ranma demon ties into
everything. Isn't Ranma a Japanese name?"
"Of course it is," Skuld replied, puzzled by the seemingly stupid
question.
"So how does a Norse demon get a Japanese name?"
"Ranma's not Norse, he's essentially Japanese," Skuld explained, getting
increasingly irritated. "Look, is there a point to all these questions?"
"Yes!" Keiichi shouted in frustration. "How can a Japanese demon play a
part in a Norse legend?!"
"I... I don't know. He just does, alright?!"
Recoiling from the agitated goddess, Keiichi decided to try another
tactic that came to him at that moment.
"If he's Japanese, why aren't Japanese deities doing anything about
this? I mean, you have Amaterasu, Susano, R..."
"Amaterasu?" Skuld repeated after Keiichi, laughing. "She's his mother.
In case you were wondering, it's just another reason why no other god
has joined Urd and I so far. Even the rest of the Norse gods won't do
anything until the last possible moment."
"The Goddess of the Sun is Ranma's mother? How can this be? Isn't he
supposed to be a demon?"
"So? What's that got to do with anything? Urd is a full goddess, and her
mother is Hild, after all," Skuld said, blinking in confusion.
"..."
Keiichi really didn't have anything to say to that. Deeming this as yet
another one of those things to take in stride and never ponder, if he
wished to keep his sanity, the boy decided to ask one last question he
wanted answered.
"So, Skuld... If you and Urd get this Ranma somehow, what are you going
to do to him?"
There was a long silence, before Skuld said quietly, "We'll make sure he
stays dead this time."
Excusing himself, Keiichi left the room, lingering a bit longer behind
the door after closing it, as muffled sobs made their way to his ears.
'Damn, she's still upset. Maybe talking about her problems didn't help
as much as it was supposed to,' the boy thought, before reasoning with
himself, 'But how can you help someone when they plan a murder?'
Walking into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat, Keiichi had the nagging
suspicion that the goddesses had other, more personal reasons for their
hunt of Ranma. If nothing else, the haunted look in Skuld's eyes when
she was describing the battle that took place between the gods and Ranma
in the past confirmed that.
'I'll get to the bottom of this... but not today. I don't think my head
can handle another hammer strike...'
--------------------------------------------------
'Keiichi might be a perverted idiot, but he's right!' Skuld thought,
when she finally managed to gather herself ten minutes after his
departure. 'We got Ranma once, and we'll do it again! All I need is an
edge, something that'd get him off guard... a hidden weakness...'
Cheering up, Skuld went over to her computer and started typing
furiously, as screens flashed in front of her eyes. Ranma and Akane's
files might have been locked before her, but she could still gather the
information she needed from reading the files of their friends.
'Now, how did they call themselves? Shampoo? Ucchan? No, that old woman
with a staff called that girl Ukyo. Who else?' Skuld scrunched her
forehead in thought for a few moments. 'Konatsu! Yes, that was the other
name I heard. And those two weird ones were probably siblings or
something, from the way they addressed each other.'
Skuld rubbed her hands together gleefully. All those names were
certainly more than enough for a search. The only way it could get
better only if one of those people had actually lived with either Ranma
or Akane during their stay on the mortal world.
Snapping her fingers, the Norn of the Future typed another name to the
list. How could she forget? Nabiki Tendo, Akane's sister by her own
admission! Her file could provide valuable information on Ranma, and
would be far more productive than the rest of the files altogether!
Putting a few finishing touches on the search criteria, Skuld ran the
program, noting with irritation that it would need the better part of a
day to run. Frowning, she went to the kitchen to fix herself a snack in
the meanwhile.
'It's still pretty early, so I can't go to sleep in the meanwhile,' she
thought, pinching the bridge of her nose. 'What to do with all the free
time?'
A smile crept onto the goddess' face, as she remembered the good times
she once had with her best friend, playing with Banpei-kun...
Banpei-kun! That was it! She'd build the robot again, and this time it'd
be bigger, better and much cooler!
Bursting with excitement, Skuld almost forgot about the lunch she was
going to eat, when her stomach rumbled loudly. Blushing, she turned
around to make sure no one had heard it, before hurrying to the kitchen.
After all, she'd waited for several centuries before rebuilding Banpei-
kun; she could wait a few more minutes.
'And besides,' Skuld thought, 'maybe I could treat myself to ice-cream
after lunch...'
--------------------------------------------------
Happily patting her stomach, the Norn of the Future slowly made her way
back to her room, almost skipping like a schoolgirl on a way to her
first date. Keiichi had the most wonderful collection of ice-cream in
his refrigerator... Skuld sighed contentedly at the memory. Maybe he
wasn't so bad. How could he be, with such great taste?
Cutting the disturbing thought short before it could lead to anything
else, Skuld decided that the Morisato boy was still a jerk, regardless.
And that's the only way she had to think of him, or her big sister would
make it her new project to get them together. Shuddering at the thought
of Urd meddling in her love life - not that she was interested in that
annoying boy one bit - Skuld's resolve to continue treating Keiichi like
dirt in the future tightened like freshly made cement.
Entering her room, the goddess walked over to a relatively clear area
and reached into her shirt pocket. Pulling a huge amount of nuts and
bolts, as well as various tools and blueprints, Skuld smiled as she
stretched a large piece of paper with various diagrams on the floor,
using a small hammer to keep it in place.
Raising a screwdriver to the Heavens triumphantly, Skuld swore that
Banpei-kun would arise from its ashes, like the Phoenix of legend, and
walk the Earth once again!
--------------------------------------------------
End of Chapter 7.