M Davis wrote:

      "Oh," Belldandy said, "I'm not just visiting, you know!  I'm always 
here."

      When she saw the confusion in the old woman's eyes, Belldandy 
added, "It was his wish, you see.  It was the way he phrased it.  His 
actual words were, 'I want a goddess like you to stay with me forever!'

      "And so," Belldandy said, smiling sadly, "here I am... forever."

Mrs. Saisho pondered this for a few moments.  "But...if you are a
goddess, shouldn't you be with him?  I mean..."  She pointed to the
clouds.  "...in the afterlife?"

Belldandy's face darkened, as her gaze lowered to the ground.  "I would
if I could.  But for reasons I do not understand..."

It took the old woman even less time to realize Belldandy was not
looking at the ground, but through it.  "I take it goddesses are not
welcome down there?"

"You could say that."

She stood there in silence for a moment, concentrating.  "I wish there
was something I could do to help."

Belldandy gasped as she felt familiar magic stirring around her...but
all too soon, it disappated.  The old woman seemed to have felt it, too,
for she muttered in disappointment and turned to walk away.
"Wait...what was that?"

"You are not whole, you know.  As worms and nature have carried pieces
of Keiichi to other parts of the world, so have parts of you gone hither
and yon.  Some of these pieces seek to release you from your bond, so we
can be whole again..."  Mrs. Saisho kept walking away.  "You will not
remember this encounter.  You never do.  But we will return and try
again, same time next year.  Perhaps, some day, the suffering of a piece
of us will be granted the same compassion as any human's...or the
suffering our dear Keiichi has endured since he was stolen from us."

Belldandy struggled to concentrate...but the birds around her, primary
consumers of the local worms, had already scattered away to their nests,
and she felt her essence once more spread too thin to remain corporate.
And so she faded away, too dispersed to even know why she was so sad,
for another year.

[Don't mind me.  Just playing "what if".  ^_^;]


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