Eversor Iussu Deus
Disclaimer: The paints (A!MG) are the property of Kousuke Fujishima,
the easel is mine, and that's all.
Notes: This is a teaser for a story I'm nearly positive will never
be written. At least, by me. If someone else wants to take a crack at
it, drop me a line and tell me so.
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Keiichi was a student.
He reached this conclusion as Ootaki and Tamiya thrust a half-built
engine onto the table before him, explaining only, "There's a party.
Take care of this for us."
It only took him a few minutes of careful disassembly and cleaning
to discern what 'this' was -- one of the valves was crushed when the
block was dropped -- and set about removing the damaged part. But as he
was fitting in a replacement, that conclusion came upon him suddenly.
It wasn't that he was going to college, and learning things there,
because he was. He learned English, and maths, and physics, and even a
little bit of computer programming. Good things to learn, he thought.
It wasn't that he was a part of the motor club, and learning things
there, because he was. Care, maintenance, what made his machines _work_,
and what could make them work _better_. Competition, teamwork, and more
often than not, a degree of independence. Also, very good things to learn.
It wasn't even that he lived with three goddesses, and learned
things there, though he was. About love, living, and quite a bit about
worlds and beings that others would naturally have no concept or grasp
of. And when those things became part of his life, those too were good
things to learn.
When he actually stopped to think about it, he was hard pressed to
think of an instance since he'd met Belldandy that he _hadn't_ learned
something from. Even when he had been taken over by the Lord of Terror,
he'd learned something, though he was careful never to speak of it to
anyone. It was too unnerving.
But from that day forth, he was able to look at any small thing and
know exactly how to break it, even if he didn't have the power to do so.
So he hadn't let it concern him. He stared at the broken valve he had
removed from the engine, already completely reassembled. Closing his
eyes, he cast out with that strange sense he had been given. What would
cause the engine to break?
Patterns and numbers danced before his eyes at dizzying speeds,
finally spelling out that the engine's most immediate death would be to
make the already dirty filter a little more worn. He opened his eyes,
and stared at the construct. Shrugging, he opened up the casing, and
removed the filter, examining it slowly. Sure enough, while not
critically abused, it showed signs of aging.
He set the dirty filter to one side, and rummaged through the parts
bin for a replacement, finding it in short order, and reinstalling it in
the engine before closing his eyes again. This time, it was revealed to
be a cracked bolt that would split, rendering the engine inoperable.
"Ah," he said quietly. "A tricky one."
He collected the bolt, eyeing it closely, but no flaw came to his
eyes, despite the firm knowledge that there must have been a flaw there.
Perhaps that strange sense was wrong? To prove so would reassure Keiichi
immensely.
Still, there was nothing for it at the moment. Shaking his head, he
approached the non-destructive-testing section of the lab, and dropped
the bolt in a small canister of faintly discolored liquid. From there,
he retrieved it with a pair of tongs, then placing it on a tray beneath
an intense ultra-violet light, though he was shielded from being
directly exposed to the glow. Turning out the other lights in the club,
he slowly rotated the bolt, the liquid he had immersed it in lending it
only a faint glow.
He frowned thoughtfully, and was about to give up when a blazing
line of light neatly bisected the bolt, the liquid having seeped into a
fault too fine for his eyes to discern naturally. Sighing, he flipped
off the ultraviolet light, dropping the bolt in another canister to
cleanse it. At that same moment, someone opened the door, flipping the
light on.
"Sempai?"
He glanced at the slight girl as she entered the shop, staring at
him curiously. "Hello, Hasegawa," Keiichi greeted. "What's going on?"
"I just came by to see if you needed any help on checking out the
engine," she explained slowly, frowning.
He waved her concern away, pulling the bolt from the cleansing
solution it was soaking in, and setting it on the worktable to the side
of the engine. "This bolt's bad," he assessed. "I was just using the
non-destructive testing equipment that Tamiya and Ootaki got for us a
week ago."
Hasegawa approached to look at the bolt closely. "I don't see a
flaw," she opined.
Keiichi grunted, taking the bolt in his hands and tuning it slowly.
Focusing for a moment, he applied the merest bits of pressure to the
points that he knew through his odd new sense. Obligingly, like a
brittle thing, the bolt snapped in two, coming apart easily in his
hands. "See?" he asked, setting the pieces on the table.
The girl's eyes widened in shock, and her mouth widened in a round
'o' of surprise. "Wow," she said after she recovered herself. "How did
you know to test it?"
"Just a hunch," he said dismissively, fishing in a nearby bin for a
moment to produce a new bolt. And that was the other thing.
After he'd been taken over -- again -- by Celestine, his world had
taken another remarkable shift in how it worked.
He was able to more than see how things would break, and then change
that. That was an ability he could live with easily enough. But
something about him had changed when he had helped Belldandy stop the
attack that would have destroyed Yggdrasil. He had begged the god
Celestine for help, asked him, "Please lend me your power." And
Celestine had done just that.
But nothing more. Celestine had not moved to stop what had happened
beyond giving the power to Keiichi to do so, as short as his own
existence was after that. It was Keiichi who used the power, and it had
marked him, he felt.
There were no markings on his head, no aura of divinity that he knew
of, but he was able to sense things that he probably shouldn't have been
able to. He had always been able to know when Belldandy was near, and
that was something he had no issue with. But he had not always been so
aware of the spirits of the things about him, the small beings that
lived within all things.
Even the engine before him had a spirit, one that regarded him
fearfully, as he worked on it. But he pretended he couldn't see it, and
did his best to ensure the engine a long, functional life.
"Sempai?"
He jerked himself out of his reverie, raising an eyebrow and turning
to regard the girl again. No, woman, truly, simply girlish in
appearance. "Yes?" he asked, setting the new bolt on the table. How he
had known the bolt was fit without looking was another of the benefits
of being touched, he supposed.
"Um, do you need any help?"
Keiichi glanced at the clock, then shrugged. "Sure, let's get this
sealed back up, and make sure it runs before we go home, shall we?"
***
Urd was a goddess.
She was also used to irregularities, even those within Yggdrasil.
Now, however, she was offended. Why had it been decided that, given
all of the work they were putting into restoring Yggdrasil, she was not
needed to be there? More specifically, after a brief talking to with the
senior maintainers, she, Skuld, and Belldandy were all sent back to
Midgard, and from there, cut off from the Ultimate Force. 'Until the
system is completely restored,' they had said.
Well, it wasn't the first time, and -- thankfully -- they still had
the bracelets that Keiichi had manufactured for them. Still, she felt
put off by the entire thing, and for that reason, she had bribed some
computer-access time away from Skuld, and was examining the system remotely.
The file structure was nearly destroyed, data clusters scattered
seemingly at random throughout the tree. The servers were so heavily
taxed by the desperate attempts to restructure the system that Urd had
shut off the graphical interface, working solely by text. The script of
Asgard was good enough for her, and conveyed most of the information she
was interested in anyway.
"Oh, goody," she muttered dryly, watching another subsystem fail. "I
could have fixed that, but no," she grumped. Shaking her head, she
examined which accesses were still open, surprised to see which offices
were maintained. "Idiots are running the Goddess Relief Line when they
could devote more resources to the file system."
Wishing she weren't forced to be idle, she wandered through the
files and databanks deemed important enough to be chained to the core
processes, perusing them listlessly. Were she feeling malicious, it
would be the perfect opportunity to try and read through those files,
with all attention turned elsewhere. Still, she was content to merely
glance at their labels for the moment.
Until one of them caught at her eyes, causing her to rapidly thump
the 'page up' key. "Morisato Keiichi?" she asked, unbelieving.
She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. She was already
effectively suspended, and at the rate that work was being done on
Yggdrasil a ten year suspension would wear off before it was running
anyway. The file was swiftly downloaded onto Skuld's hard-drive, and
from there, Urd severed her connection, examining her newly snagged data
closely.
"Encryption," she mumbled. "Of course." The real question was how
many layers of encryption there were to it. Generally, each layer would
grant access to more and more data, with the central layer allowing
access to all the files within. Knowing the password to an inner layer
would automatically decrypt the outer layers above it, so the first
thing she needed to do was find out who had encrypted which layer.
The outermost layer bore the distinctive seal of Kami-sama. Urd's
eyes widened at that. It wasn't a proper security layer at all, more
just a label that asked in the polite way that Kami-sama asked for
things, 'Don't read this file without a good reason.' Urd fumbled with
the keyboard for a long minute, unsure of how to deal with the
situation. She could delete her copy of the file and pretend that it had
never existed. She could also read it anyway.
But what was her reason?
"Curiosity," Skuld answered for her, peering over her shoulder.
Urd resisted the impulse to leap out of her chair and strangle the
younger goddess. "Don't DO that!" she hissed.
Skuld smirked, clicking her tongue. "Shame," she chastised. "You
come this far, and then back down?"
Challenged, Urd tapped the keystroke that would bypass the unsecured
layer. "Fine," she grumbled. "Let's see what this is all about."
"Contingency Plan," Skuld read aloud. "Is that it?"
Urd blinked, but indeed, that was all that was there. "A contingency
plan concerning Keiichi?" she asked quietly. "That doesn't make much sense."
"Who encrypted the next layer?" Skuld suggested. "It's probably Loki
or something, as a practical joke."
"Right," Urd mumbled, investigating the next layer of encryption.
Both goddesses stared blankly at the name attached. "Vidar?" they
asked in the same questioning tone.
"Why the hell-- Vidar doesn't ever bother outlining anything!" Urd
protested. "He's just...." She let the rest trail off, as the finality
of the words 'contingency plan' settled in.
***
James Cagway was an artist.
He was many things in addition to being an artist. An atheist, a man
full of self-loathing, and due to a mix-up in Yggdrasil, the latest
recipient for a wish from the Goddess Relief Hotline.
"Hello?" he yelled into his phone, upset. "Is anyone there?"
"Right here," a low, nearly menacing voice called out from behind him.
James spun, dropping the phone, and scrambling away from the slight,
yet sinister man who stood behind him. Teeth spread in a wide grin
beneath an odd, hooked nose that only added to the aura of malice that
the man bore. Seemingly cloaked in blackness, an with no reasonable
explanation for how he could have entered James's fifth story apartment,
he stood aloof and relaxed, arms crossed over his chest as he stared at
one of the paintings adorning a nearby wall.
"Trite," he opined.
James narrowed his eyes. "Who the hell are you?" he asked, scanning
around himself for some sort of weapon.
"I'm Loki, and I'm here filling in for some certain others who are
unavailable. I've been sent by Kami-- You would call him God, I suppose.
Regardless, I'm here to grant you a wish." His grin never faltered. "Now
what do you want?"
"A wish?" James babbled, nearly hysterical. "This isn't real,
there's no such thing as a god!"
"Oh, certainly there is," Loki responded, not moving in the
slightest. "You see, we are given power directly by Kami-sama through
the Ultimate Force, and we can use that power to grant whatever you desire."
James's eyes unfocused for a moment, his mind recycling some old
rhetoric. "Can your 'God' create a rock so heavy he can't lift it?" he
asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Bah," Loki muttered, looking away. "Might as well wish that
Kami-sama was destroyed, for all that _that_ will net you."
"Then that's what I wish," James stated confidently. "None of this
matters -- it's all a figment of my imagination anyway."
"Of course," the self-proclaimed god chuckled, rising off of the
ground and dropping his hands to his sides, some strange power spreading
from him to illuminate the room.
***
"We have a problem!" one of the younger goddesses squealed, jumping
away from her terminal in horror as a random bolt of power incinerated it.
Maintaining her cool, Peorth asked, "What's going on?"
"The Ultimate Force is attempting to feed back into Kami-sama!" the
goddess wailed. "What's going on?"
Peorth studied a display panel, then dismissed the problem,
explaining, "Merely a juvenile wish. Once it reaches Kami-sama,
Yggdrasil will sort it out automatically -- that fail-safe is hard-coded."
"You mean this has happened before?" the younger goddess asked in shock.
"A few times," Peorth answered, narrowing her eyes as she studied
the display. "There's no accounting for what people will actually wish
for. Watch -- the system force and Kami-sama will counteract for a
second, and then Yggdrasil will re-route everything the way it's
supposed to be again."
And then the display flickered, and shut off.
In a quavering voice, panic just held in check, the youngest of the
goddesses said, "Yggdrasil just crashed."
Swallowing, Peorth tried not to flinch as the lighting suddenly
failed, summoning a small ball of illumination to her hands. "Okay," she
said, adding a tone of harshness to her voice to keep the younger
goddesses from panicking, "first off, we're going to need to get the
backup system online. Siff, Astar, I want you to get Heimdall -- we're
going to need his help to keep Bifrost secure."
"Then what will we do, Peorth?" Astar asked worriedly. "What next?"
Drawing herself up, Peorth shook her head, still holding the only
source of illumination in the vast hall. "I'm going to ask Freya to take
a contingent of Einheriar to Mimir's well. Once Bifrost is online, most
of Asgard is going to be unstable. Until I get back, issue evacuation
notices, and shut down unstable sections one by one. We're not going to
get Kami-sama back until Yggdrasil opens a path for the Ultimate Force,
and we're going to need Bifrost first."
The goddesses all stared at her, aghast.
She clapped her hands together brusquely. "Remember, we need to work
fast. With Yggdrasil and the Ultimate Force out of the way, too many
rules can't be enforced. So let's get to it."
Galvanized, the younger goddesses sprang to action.
***
"Hild-sama! Hild-sama!"
She raised an eyebrow archly, and asked, "Yes? What is it?"
"It's Yggdrasil!"
She sighed, turning to regard the lesser imp. "What about it?"
"It's _gone_."
Blinking lazily, she nodded. "I see. Hmm. Tell everyone to get out
of Niflheim. Asgard's going to need a little backup to keep it from
collapsing into Midgard."
"What? Why don't we take advantage of the situation?"
"We are taking advantage of the situation," she replied coldly.
"We're going to take this opportunity to make sure there's a world to
exploit in the morning."
"Ah.... I see."
She made a shoeing gesture with one hand. "Run along, I'm going to
be using Nidheg to shut down most of Niflheim."
"We don't have that kind of power!" the imp screeched. "We can't
just go to Midgard!"
"With Yggdrasil gone, there are a lot fewer rules to worry about,"
she advised him. "Now leave."
***
"Game," Loki murmured to himself, as he checked a small watch-like
construct on his wrist. "Set," he added, marching boldly up the stairs,
towards a small temple. "And with your help, my lovelies, match."
Having no reason to be rude, he rapped on the door smartly, awaiting
a response. In short order, it came, the middle Norn opening the door
and smiling at him, her expression seeming almost apologetic. "Loki!"
she greeted him pleasantly. "Please come in!"
The god did so, striding into the house, and glancing around. "Where
are your sisters?" he asked, not seeing a need to return her greeting.
"Oh, Urd and Skuld are playing around with Skuld's computer," she
assured him. "Do you need to talk to them?"
"Not immediately," Loki responded, crossing his arms beneath his
chest. "You know what's happened to Kami-sama, of course."
"Yes!" she said, her feigned cheerfulness fading. "That was your
doing, wasn't it?"
Loki was momentarily taken off guard, saying nothing until an
unassuming mortal wandered into the room. "Yes," he said slowly,
ignoring the human. "And with that being done, the Norns can define a
new god. That's why you're here, and I'm here, and Kami-sama's out of
the picture. You'll do it, right?"
"I think not, Loki, I'm afraid father had a contingency plan."
He blinked, not understanding, and asked, "Contingency plan?"
His only answer was the mortal's distracted musing, "A construct.
Breaks so easily...."
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Author's Notes:
And I'll leave it at that. I have no idea WHY these ideas come to
me, but they often do, so for what it's worth.... If someone wants to
continue this, seriously, just ask me, and I'll explain any vagaries in
the setup.