Getting to the rest of this, as promised.

    I am so hung-over it's not even funny. I hope I was supposed to post
this today.

I hope it was all written before you got hung over. Of course finishing it
outright drunk would be worse.

    Fate and Destiny: Part Five

    Inchoatus Ludus

I tried one of those. Had flashbacks for years. My advice is to stick with
the brown acid and forget that exotic crap.

    ------------------------------

    Keiichi staggered to a halt, blinking blearily. What had happened?
His hands were blackened with grease, and pocked with shallow gouges.
His jeans were worn through at the knees, and the pain there told him
that he had likely hurt himself somehow.

Obviously Mara plays rough.

    Yet... he couldn't remember. Why, he asked himself, was the world
such a scary and unfriendly place?

He had sex with a hot demoness and he thinks the world is a 'scary and
unfriendly place'? I wouldn't mind my luck running so south. :)

His hands stung, the grease... motor

oil? The thick black substance. It was seeping into the cuts on his
hands, burning slowly. Whimpering, he looked around. Where was he?

Somewhere 'Not Nice' I'd wager.

    He recognized the street,

Sesame Street, to be precise.

and smiled gratefully. "I'm not far from

home." He managed exactly three steps before a pain in his ankle made
him limp, and he hissed in pain,

Two 'pain's close together. I'd change one of them. Maybe 'agony' of the
second.


 working his way ever closer to the house.

    When he got there, Banpei blocked his path, shaking his robotic
head, and offering his impassive smile.

Better than him using his rocket fists or such.

    In a disorienting rush, he reached towards the robot, and it stepped
backwards, shutting down. His hand fell to his side, his memory of the
incident fading... Why was Banpei outside and shut down?

Not shabby.

    Skuld grimaced, and frowned at Banpei. "Sorry," she explained,
pulling the robot to one side, "but I think... one of his capacitors
burned out, and he thinks you're..."

gay.'

^_^

trailing off, she blinked, and

shook her head. "I'll look at him later." She paused, staring at Banpei
in consternation. "How did that happen? I thought..." she trailed off,
shaking her head. "Time enough to worry about that later, she grumbled,
turning back to Keiichi.

she blinked. She paused. She etc. I'd try starting at least two of the
sentences with other words

    Drawing to a halt, he studied her, recognizing... "Megumi?" he
asked, stunned by her facial markings. She looked like... a goddess.

Urd put down the face paint. "She looks cool now, doesn't she?"

"What's going on?" The last thing he could remember, he was riding.

Mara

.. he

had picked out a ring, and was riding home. What had happened?

And where's the ring?

    Belldandy nodded solemnly. "I'm going to replay your memories,
Keiichi. Is that okay?"

Heh. Urd will probaby want to get some popcorn for the steamy scenes. :)

    Urd raised an eyebrow suspiciously, after conferring with Skuld.
Nodding, the eldest approached Keiichi, saying, "Let me try." He
shrugged, and Urd placed one hand on his face, frowning intently. The
surge of memory repeated again, more weakly this time. The goddess
blinked, and the memory replayed a third time, before dissolving into a
different memory, this one not of pavement and flames, but soft curves

and--

Heh

    Skuld frowned, peering between Keiichi,

'peering between Keiichi'? That really doesn't sound right.

on the verge of sobbing, as

not sure if you need that comma

    Urd calmed herself slightly, and shook her head quickly.

I'd drop 'slightly'

 "It's not

like that," she muttered. "He'll stop showing up like _that_ after he's
been away from Mara for a few days. It's just a side-effect."

Of course, she's forgetting that he registered BEFORE his encounter with
Mara.

    There was a momentary, yet subtle, surge of power, and then the
goddess stood straight up, managing to say only, "Oh, my!" before she
collapsed, limp, and had to be caught by Urd.

Yeah. I reckon that memory would have that effect on her.

    And still, somewhere, some part of him... was glad that it had
happened. And that part frightened him most of all.

Espcially since I'd wager it's going to try to come out for good real soon
now.

    She smiled brightly at Urd, offering a cup of tea, which the eldest
of the three sisters accepted, wondering what to say. That Belldandy
would forgive it, she had no doubt. Keiichi had obviously been spelled

Heh. Or is Keiichi himself the spell and what lurks beneath the reality?

    Sighing thoughtfully, she paused before the door to the furo.
Keiichi... She pushed the memories of he and Mara away, dismissing them
as unimportant. She only needed to wait a moment before Keiichi opened
the door, his eyes widening at Belldandy's presence. "Um..." he began,
nervously, his eyes searching about wildly, unable to remain on her.
Clad only in his jeans, his hair still wet, he cast about, mumbling,
"I'm sorry..."

Keiichi: Sorry I got partially dressed. Here, let me take my clothes off and
you can admire me for real.

    She smiled. At least he hadn't tried to call her anything less
personal. "Keiichi, I wanted to tell you... tell you that I trust you."

Belldandy: I'm helplessly gullible that way.

    "I know... I know what happened. And... it's okay, Keiichi. I trust
you, and more importantly... Keiichi?"

    He looked up at the questioning tone in her voice, flinching when he
met her eyes. "Yes?" he managed, not looking away."

Stray quote

    He stared at her blankly for a moment, seemingly in shock, before he
found the impetus to move again, and fumbled briefly in one pocket.
"Um," he mumbled, "I... Belldandy? I know that, well, this isn't really
the time for it, but I need to ask you, and if I don't do it now, I...
I..." He trailed off, shaking nervously, and withdrew a hand from his
pocket, clenched tightly.

Oh, if she's willing to forgive this, she'll accept. Best to strike now
while the iron's hot.

    Nodding, Megumi explained, "It's a very long story, Keiichi... one
that I don't have time to explain completely, right now. I, and my
servants,

Megumi: The three lackies... errr, I mean Goddesses. Yes, that's what I
meant. Goddesses, not lackies.

must locate someone. The way is hidden, and couched in

riddles...

Just like my speech.

we need to find him before I will have enough time to explain."

    Keiichi grinned boldly, releasing Belldandy's hand and cocking his
head to one side. "Need my help?"

    Megumi nodded solemnly, and Urd sighed in relief at Keiichi's easy
acceptance of the situation. "Yes," the Concept explained slowly,

what 'Concept'? Not clear who you mean. Didn't think Urd qualified as one.

 "we

don't know his name, though there's normally a pattern in these. I am
going to try and access Yggdrasil, and locate a pointer to him."

    Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, and a soft glow formed
about her. After a moment, she spoke, though the voice what

'was' I think you mean.

 no longer

wholly Megumi's, "There lives a boy, and he is the recipient of both a
Fate and a Destiny... Fated to change the world, Destined to die.

Most people tend to do that eventually, though.

    Keiichi grinned, waving his hand dismissively. "It's nothing," he
explained, "just that the kanji for 'protection', 'assistance', and
'generation' can spell out Sasebo, and it's a port city. Doesn't that
put it on the ocean?" At their stares, he shrugged defensively, "I did a
report on it a few years ago, in high school..."

"blind fools! HAHAHAHA...Oops. Did I say that last part outloud?" Keiichi
asked.

    Holding hands in a circle with the other women, Megumi put Keiichi
out of her mind. He was not Fated or Destined that _she_ knew of, and
couldn't possibly be worth Destiny's time to conceal... he would be in
no danger as long as he stayed within the temple.

Heh. Presumption is the mother of all f*ck up's. :)

    Keiichi smiled slightly, his back to the women as he left the room,
walking into the temple's back yard. "So sorry," he said softly, feeling
them depart, "that you couldn't rest longer. Mara, come."

Heh. Probably suckered them, all right.

    Furrowing her eyebrows, Mara searched, her programs delving deep
into the abyss to scan through the records her kind held there. They
were _all_ open to her, now that Destiny was back. "There's... a Tatsugo
Sannosuke in Sasebo... and he has a friend named Mizuumino Choji."

    "Well, well..." Keiichi's grin widened. "Choji, hmm? I think that
Sannosuke is the King, and unless I miss my mark, Mizuumino would be his
Lancelot. Excellent."

Mizuumino: Guess again, honey. I don't swing that way. Only guys for me,
natch. I'll be staying loyal to the king this time around.

    Choji grunted, striding forward slowly. He wasn't sure why, but the
impulse to protect his friend suddenly rose within him -- odd, since
Sannosuke was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

    The darkness before them seemed to coalesce into a pair of forms,
one of them a woman, glancing briefly at the boys, then away. The other
scanned about himself, seemingly unconcerned as the lights flickered
back on, banishing the darkness -- but neither of the pair.

Awkward. Not sure what you're saying here.

 The woman

sighed, walking away quickly with a fond glance at the man.

    The man himself

I'd drop this 'himself'

    Choji spoke first, "I'm... I'm Yamamoto Daisuke, and this is my
friend, Hamada Kintaro. Is something wrong?"

    The man grimaced distastefully, and shook his head. "Nothing to
concern either of you... put away your weapons." And with that, he
vanished, disappearing into the night that had seemingly given him up in
the first place.

Heh. Cute. Looks like he's too presumptive for his own good too.

    Mara sighed, watching as the quartet of goddesses strode into a
large circular courtyard, ringed in ancient iron lampposts.

    From the other direction, a pair of boys were approaching -- boys
that Mara dimly remembered from seeing when Destiny had shifted them
both through space... Her jaw dropped, as she realized the significance.
There was a circular fountain in the center of the courtyard, a perfect
circle of stone, and...

Heh. Looks like she's going to have to move fast.

    Fate was about to win this one -- the boy, whichever was the King,
would receive his blade there, whatever he would name it. The goddesses
stopped to confer, and Mara saw something beyond the simplicity of the
water and stone.

    A circle of iron. Rules were rules, after all... Alighting on a
rooftop, she extended one hand towards the circle of iron within the
stone. Circles could amplify her power just enough -- if her master
truly _would_ lend her the power...

Odd. I thought iron was anathema to demons, though.

    Feeling the betrayal washing from each of them was more than reward
enough -- they had known. They had to have known. There were more than
enough signs, as much as he had tried to hide it, save... they hadn't
_wanted_ to see the truth. "There is no 'Keiichi', not as you have known
him."

Ah. So I was right.

    And Megumi, so confused, her integration much less... planned than
his.

Again awkward. Not sure what you're trying to say.

    They shared a nod, and this time Sannosuke led the charge, moving in
from the creature's new blind spot.

Heh. Looks like he underestimated them a second time.

    Urd frowned nodding. "Well... yes."

    Keiichi snorted, turning away from her to face Skuld.

    ***

Don't need the stars there.

    He shook his head, dismissing her. "It is of no import. My vengeance
is come, and will not be halted."

    Belldandy stepped forward, shaking her head slowly. "Keiichi," she
warned, look behind you."

warned, "look

    "Keiichi!" Belldandy called to him, and he ignored the boy, who
still made no move to run, instead tending his wounded ally, as the
Concept turned to look at her.

    "Yes, Belldandy?" he asked her, smiling sardonically once more. "Are
you going to tell me that you can still forgive me, even after all of
this? That you think that somehow this can be undone?" He shook his
head, laughing softly. "Are you that trusting and innocent, even now?"

Heh. Of course.

    Urd felt her jaw drop, as Skuld and Megumi joined her in gawking at
Belldandy. Even Keiichi was stunned, his eyes widened. "What? How... how
long have you... you knew I was Destiny?" he asked, panic tingeing his
voice.

Hmm. Since he can get so angry at being deceived, it does follow he might
fell joy at being shown faith.

    The energy faded, and Keiichi was left to stare blankly again.
"No..." he whispered, shaking his head. "Mara!" Summoned, the demoness
reappeared, seemingly stunned herself. Not giving her enough time to
react, he wrapped an arm about her, and in an implosion of shadow... was
gone.

Hmm. Interesting. That felt like the climax, but we shall see.

    She smiled softly, and beckoned him to follow her, walking to the
shallow courtyard fountain. "Now, I give you a new weapon, since you
have lost your own." So saying, she produced a wooden blade from a burst
of light in the depths of the fountain.

Wooden? Heh.

 A fountain that Sannosuke knew

was far too shallow to conceal such a thing. "Name this weapon as you
see fit."

Sannosuke: I shall name it, "My Really Cool Blade That Can Kick Ass Even If
It Is Just A Giant Splinter."

Megumi struck him in the head.

Sannosuke: Or I could name it 'Chuck.'

    He stared at the blade, considering, as the other three women
converged on some point further away, whispering softly and worriedly
with one another. "I name it... 'Hoshi-no-shinzou',"

Which means to us?

Nice way to see love conquering all, unless you have a surprise waiting in
the epilogue.

D.B. Sommer


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