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Goddess Reborn

or

The End of All

"You can choose your enemies, but not your family"

PROLOGUE


	The darkness of the room was lit only by the glow
of the girl's picture on the computer monitor.

	She was looking over her shoulder, as though 
glancing back at a friend who'd just said something funny.
The photographer had managed to catch her in the 
middle of a laugh, eyes crinkled and mouth open just 
enough to show her slight overbite. She was wearing a 
modest school uniform with a bag that had several cute 
objects tied to it dangling from her shoulder. All in all,
she was a fairly ordinary looking girl, if slightly 
prettier than was common.

	One of the two men looking at the picture broke 
the silence by saying, "It's hard to believe that she's
going to destroy the world."

	The other man, rather than replying, brought up
another file on his computer and started reading. "Name, Jun 
Kizuhara. Age, seventeen. Lives in Meguro Ward, wherever that 
is. Blood type... who cares? I may well have the spy shot for 
including that.... Interests: Cute boys, shojo anime and
manga, cute animals, and Street Fighter. Dislikes: School,
motorcycles, and mean people."

	"She sounds so ordinary..."

	"She is."

	"And yet..."

	For just a moment, they both remained silent,
staring at Jun's picture. Then...

	"She will bring freedom and light to all the 
world." 

	The one standing up spat, "What a fucking flowery
way of saying that she'll end billions of lives!"

	The other sat, moving the mouse pointer about the
screen in random patterns. Then, he said softly, "The Tree
of Freedom must be watered with the blood of patriots from
time to time."

	"Thomas Jefferson." It was tossed off absently, 
almost as though the standing man did it from force of 
habit. "Why can't you face facts? Why can't you see that
any life, even that of a human, matter as much as ours!"

	"Because they DON'T!" The other slid his chair 
back from the desk as he shouted. Wheeling upon his 
companion, who had taken a reflexive step back, he shouted,
"What do their lives matter? They've taken everything 
we once had, bit by bit, and turned it into something 
foul! Everything that was once wonderful, once 
beautiful, they create stories about, trying to remember, 
yet only tricking themselves into believing that all that
was never existed!"

	"And is that so bad?"

	"Yes. Yes it is." The other sat heavily down on 
the edge of his computer desk and sighed heavily. "I 
don't know how you can't see it. I don't know how you 
can't taste it. I don't know how you can't hear it. I 
don't know how you can't feel it. I don't know how you can
look at what _they've_ made of the world, and not recoil
in disgust every time one of them so much as says 'good
morning!' to you!"

	The man still standing, his posture now seeming
somewhat awkward, waited a moment, then said compassionately,
"Is this about Castilue, big brother?"

	"What do you know about him?" Then, the elder brother
shook his head. "No, not really. I've... I've lost a lot of
friends to too many things over the last three thousand years to
let one more bother me that much." 

	After a moment, he continued. "It's what he represented.
Without him, there are but three real unicorns in the entire 
world. Three! Spirits know how many dragons are left. The 
humans... kill. That's what they're good at. They'll destroy 
the world if left to themselves."

	"We don't know that! That isn't what the Delphi 
Oracle told us, all those years ago."

	"It never pays a prophet to be too accurate in his
prophecies."

	"Robert Heinlein." The younger brother paced back and 
forth agitatedly. "I still think that humans will have the
power to save themselves! We don't need to interfere, and we
certainly don't need to awaken _her_." The word was spoken
with utter contempt, sheer disgust, and just a hint of fear.

	The elder brother watched the younger for just a 
moment, then said softly, "If they save themselves, where 
does that leave us?"

	The other flung out his hand angrily. "That's what I
HATE about you, brother. You're always so selfish! Why can't
you see that even if their lives are brief candles compared
to our eternal flames, their souls still shine as bright as
ours!"

	The elder stood up and roared, "Why can't _you_ see
that they are children, their brief lives don't give them
any way to see what they are doing until it's too late, and
that they AREN'T WORTH ANYTHING IF THEY CAN ONLY DESTROY!"

	The younger brother laughed out loud. "How can you
say that, brother? They created the building we stand in, as
grand and impossible a structure as stood when Atlantis was 
above the waves. They created the chair you sat in, and they
created the computer that you used so diligently in looking
for the being that will destroy them!"

	"And if she does, does it matter? Their lives are
so bound, so worthless, so _unfree_ as to be worse than 
death! Why not let her bring freedom, even at the possible
cost?"

	The younger brother shook his head and turned away.
"I cannot allow you to act out of pure spite, brother, and
destroy humanity simply because it exists and has taken so
much from you. I will stop you at any cost."

	The other brother reached to his sword for a 
moment before remembering he'd left it far away, just in 
case it came to this. "Then next time we meet, we will be
bitter enemies."

	"If you insist on protecting the girl from me...
then, yes."

	The elder brother shook his head. "You can't be
thinking of..."

	"Killing her. Of course I am, brother. It is the
only way to prevent you, or anyone else, from using what 
she is against her own race."

	"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths 
are a statistic."

	"Joseph Stalin." 

	The elder brother waggled his finger. "If she were
an ordinary girl, then of course you could kill her. But
with even the seed of what she is slumbering inside her,
you couldn't even harm her."

	The younger stalked out of the room. Just before he
closed the door behind him, he turned around and said, "We
shall see. We shall see..."


AUTHOR'S NOTES

	I think this could make a very traditional maho 
shojo-type story, but with a twist, because she'll be told right 
from the start that her destiny is to destroy the world with her
birthright (possibly). And the bishonen will be represented, of 
course, with the two brothers fighting over her very right to exist.

	Not to mention any mascots showing up... maybe a 
Chibi-Lavos? MUAHAHAHAHA!!

	I'd need to work it out a lot further, though. I may
have chosen a Ward in Tokyo (yes, Meguro is a real Ward) and 
a couple of characters, but it's the sort of story that needs 
to be plotted out beforehand.

	Anyone interested in seeing more (not that I know
when I'm gonna get around to it, that is) can email me at
iamfanboy@hotmail.com. If not, hey, that's your business.

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