************************************************
  An Oddzilla Productions fanfic, by Andrew Huang.
  Guard the Future, chapter 5.
  Based on Fujishima Kosuke's "Aa! Megami-sama!"
************************************************

  Saturday was a sunny day. I was glad for this, because Skuld would have
been running around even if it were pouring down rain. She's rather
focused when it comes to playing with new toys, and once she decided to
test it on Saturday, she was going to test it on Saturday.

  I knocked at the temple door at around 1pm, as discussed. As always,
Belldandy greeted me with her gentle smile. "Come in. Skuld's in her
bedroom. You know where it is?"

  I nodded, murmured my thanks, and walked down the hallway to one of the
doors. I knocked, vaguely curious what was inside--I hadn't yet actually
been within or even caught a glimpse of it. I thought back to my sister's
room when she was Skuld's age, filled with stuffed animals and a few
posters of landscapes (and fortunately no teen heartthrobs; she wasn't
nearly as hormonal then as some of her friends, to my great relief). Skuld
would probably have some mechanical blueprints and design sketches up
instead. A couple models around.

  The door slid open. I stared.

  There was a bed in the corner, a dresser next to it, and a desk with a
computer on top. That's where any similarities to my sister's old room
ended. The rest of the place was filled with bits and pieces of things. I
say things because I couldn't recognize any of it. Oh, this was probably
some kind of circuitboard, and that was a gear of one manner or another,
but that was the most I could say about them. They covered workbenches
lined up against any bit of wall that was free. Most of it was scattered
haphazardly, no order to them that I could decipher. One workbench,
though, was relatively clear and held only a gleaming metal...well, it
looked like a triangular block. Most of the floor was bare concrete. In
short, I would have mistaken this for a workshop, not a bedroom.

  "Andrew."

  I finally tore my gaze away from the mess inside to look down at Skuld.
"Geez, you actually live in here? I mean, there's hardly any...." I
trailed off, noticing the dark circles under her eyes and the fuzzy gleam
of madness contained within them. "How much sleep have you had since I saw
you last?"

  "Sleep? What's sleep? Sleep gets in the way." She grinned at me, then
rubbed her eyes. "Had to work on the engine the whole time, because--"

  I smiled in the face of the technical jargon that followed. Technophile
that I am, I have a better understanding of science and engineering than
the average person. What Skuld worked on, though, went far over my head.

  "--but it's finally DONE." She wheezed for breath, heedless of the fact
that I'd not processed anything of the past two minutes of ranting.

  "You know, it might not hurt to take a nap or something. The sun won't
set until after seven tonight, and that's plenty--"

  She marched away toward the gleaming metal thing, which I now could see
was the body of an aircraft, rather like the American stealth bombers, all
angles and flat surfaces. "It's ready now, no point in waiting," she
declared, picking up the flyer as well as a complex-looking remote on the
workbench next to it. I glanced around a bit more and saw the dirty plates
and bowls and a couple of ice cream cartons stacked in a corner. She'd
eaten the meals of the past day in here. Probably hadn't left the place at
all.

  "Smeg, you're of a one-track mind sometimes, aren't you?" I said in
faint awe despite myself.

  She pushed the remote control into my arms. "Technological progress
waits for no goddess," she declared, and let out a mildly crazed giggle. I
sighed. Well, this all seemed harmless. Until the point she just fell down
from lack of sleep. Oh well. She then proceeded to drag me along by one
hand, the flyer tucked under her other arm.

  "Promise me you'll get some rest once we're done?"

  "Yeah, yeah," she said, absently, pulling me to the front door and then
outside. "There's a river near here. Plenty of open space."

  "Not worried about people seeing?"

  "Nah. I've had Banpei-kun out there before. No one seemed to notice,
even with the...mmm, never mind."

  "Ah. Well. Okay."

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

  The test flight was, for the most part, a success. It floated well,
though Skuld had already tested that out in her room. It flew well, and at
a respectable clip. It accelerated well, and stopped almost on a dime.
However--

  "Uh...hm."

  "Whassit, Andrew?"

  I scratched my head, feeling the back of my neck start to prickle just a
bit. "I dunno. Something's weird." I frowned.

  "It's fine! Look how it moves. Isn't it beautiful?" She turned that
ever-so-slightly deranged grin on me again.

  "Yeah...beautiful. Right." I watched it as it swooped downward and
toward us.

  "Hee hee...."

  The prickle got really insistent. "Looks like it works pretty well,
Sku--"

  That was when it exploded, making the excursion fall short of being an
unqualified success.

  I immediately spun and grabbed her, catching the wide-eyed horror on her
face for just a moment. I flung myself and her to the ground, trying to
absorb the force of our impact with my forearms, while a sharp pain
bloomed in my right shoulder. I hissed in reaction, and then rolled to the
left. The pain got worse as I landed on my back, putting my weight (and
hers) on it, but I shoved that out of my mind as I rolled further away.
Must make sure Skuld is safe.

  We lay motionless for a few moments, as I continued to shield her. Then
I glanced over my shoulder, wincing as I saw a fragment of metal embedded
there. More importantly, though....

  Nothing. Just the smoking wreck of the engine and other pieces of the
flyer body scattered around. I sighed in relief and gingerly pulled myself
up, as I looked down at my charge. "You okay?"

  The same look of astonishment and dismay was there, as her eyes
flickered around, from my face to the scenery behind me. I reached down
with my left hand to pull her up, with another wince as the effort
tightened my muscles around the bit of shrapnel. I reached around to yank
it out; as I did, Skuld fell forward on her hands and crawled over toward
the engine's remains.

  "Hold on, Skuld, it's not safe yet--" I grunted, jumped up to my feet,
and ran ahead of her to the engine, kneeling down next to it warily. But
it seemed inert now, and there wasn't that odd feeling that I had before.
Hmm.

  "Noooooo..." she whimpered quietly as she finally came up by my side,
staring at the device.

  "I'm sorry," I said, sighing. She really looked crushed, poor girl. "I
know you must have been...well." Hesitantly, she leaned forward slightly,
then her hand darted out to take the engine. I suddenly felt the twinge
again, and reached out as well, but--

  "Ow! Ow...." But she burned her fingers on it before I could stop her.
She stuck her fingertips in her mouth, tears starting to pour down her
cheeks as she looked at me. "Murrmurfle."

  I sighed again. "Here, let me look at that." I took her hand, looked at
the reddening skin, and cast a small healing spell on the minor burn. "You
okay now?"

  She looked at me mournfully. And then started to bawl.

  "I can't believe it blew up! I worked on it so long! It was perfect, it
had to be! Waaah!"

  Ohboy.

  "It'll...it'll be okay, Skuld. I--let me cool this thing down, then you
can take it back to look at it, okay?" I patted her on the head uneasily
as she wiped at her eyes, still crying. I hadn't expected her to react
quite like this, but then, I haven't had much experience dealing with
young teenage girls lately. And she was suffering from sleep deprivation
too, which might have contributed to it.

  I turned and extended my hand out toward the wreck. Cool down, I
thought. Quickly, the smoke stopped billowing, and I could see frost
spread on the surface of the blackened metal. Oops, a little too much.
"All right," I declared, turning back to Skuld--just as she slumped
against me.

  I fought down panic as I realized she had just fallen asleep, exhausted.
I sighed again, smiling faintly down at her tear-stained face, pressed
against my side. I gently laid her down, gathered up the remnants of the
engine as well as the remote, paused to think a moment, then stacked them
on her stomach and finally picked her up as carefully as I could. She felt
lighter than I imagined, which was a good thing. That done, I gingerly
carried her back to the temple.

  As I walked, the smile slipped from my face. Was this just an accident,
or something worse?

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

  And sadly, Belldandy couldn't answer that question, at least not right
away.

  "I've contacted some people in Heaven," she said, over a cup of tea she
had waiting when I came back. She'd helped tuck Skuld in for some
much-needed rest, then sat me down at the table to talk about what
happened. "Nothing registered in this area, but it might have been
something too slight to be picked up easily. Of course, this would not be
the first time that one of her devices has exploded."

  "I know I felt something just before it blew up," I murmured
thoughtfully. "But it could have been just a premonition of the thing
blowing up, and not that there was something actively happening at the
time." I shrugged in frustration (though at least my shoulder felt fine
now). "You'll keep me informed of anything they find, right?"

  "Of course, Andrew-san. This is your concern as well now." She smiled,
and I returned it, before sipping some tea.

  "It's so quiet here today," I said, deciding to change the subject.
"Where's everyone else?"

  "Keiichi-san is working on a project with the motor club, and Urd is
elsewhere." She laughed lightly when I blinked. "I leave my older sister
to her business. She generally knows what she's doing."

  "Except when she doesn't," I said, remembering some of Skuld's
less-than-flattering stories of the oldest of the trio.

  "We all make our mistakes," Belldandy admonished me gently. "Even me."

  "Not nearly as many, I imagine. At least according to Skuld." I grinned
at her and leaned back. "She's really fond of you."

  "She likes you too, Andrew-san. I think she's wanted an older brother
sort of figure in her life, and while Keiichi-san has somewhat stepped
into that role...." She trailed off, blushing slightly.

  "He has the problem of being the one trying to take her Oneesama away
from her," I completed, chuckling. "She'll get over that in time, I'm
sure. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do." I finished my tea, and
Belldandy poured some more. "Thanks."

  We settled into a thoughtful silence for a brief while, contemplating
things. I was really hoping that this wasn't anything more sinister than a
fatigue-caused miscalculation or something along those lines. "How long is
she going to sleep?" I heard myself ask.

  "Actually, not that long, I think. She's exhausted, and probably will
sleep in quite long tomorrow, but she hasn't eaten at all today."
Belldandy shook her head in vague despair. "She's a growing girl; she
really shouldn't do this to herself."

  I laughed. "My thoughts exactly. I understand, though. Kind of. I've
gotten really engrossed in things and forgotten to eat meals lots of times
before. Pulling all-nighters, though, I just don't do those. I'm useless
without adequate rest. Anyway--if she's going to get up soon...you think
it's okay if I sit with her until she wakes?"

  "That would be fine," she said, with a smile. "Call me when she wakes,
so I can warm up the leftovers from lunch for her."

  I nodded, picked up my half-full teacup, and trooped down to Skuld's
room while Belldandy busied herself with other house chores. I cautiously
entered, found her still asleep. She looked like an angel, except, of
course, I was the angel, and she was the goddess.

  I shook my head, sitting down on the ground by her bed. It was still
odd to think of these things. But I just shrugged silently, and drank the
cooling tea. My gaze wandered over toward her computer, the monitor
glowing faintly. A goddess' computer, no less.

  I staved off the drool reflex as I considered what was under the hood of
that thing. I also had to resist the impulse to jump over there and play
around with it. Skuld wouldn't be too happy with that, no doubt. Instead,
I did some mental exercises designed to improve my magical control, ones
that Belldandy had been teaching me.

  Some indeterminate time later, I heard stirring from the bed. I eased
myself out of my meditations, and looked up at a pair of sleepy eyes,
blinking rapidly.

  "How're you feeling?"

  "Muh," she answered, rubbing her eyes. "Hungry."

  I nodded. "To be expected. Hold on." I stood and moved to the door,
opening it and sticking my head out. "She's awake," I called down the
hallway. After hearing an affirmative from Belldandy, I returned to the
bedside. Skuld was looking over at the workbench with that same mournful
expression as before.

  "It blew up. It shouldn't have blown up," she said plaintively.

  "I know," I said, reaching over and ruffling her hair. She just grunted
and didn't bother to rearrange it as she usually did. She was definitely
upset. Or tired. Probably both. "Well, after you get some food and rest,
you'll have a chance to take a look at it, see what went wrong." If it was
something that you can find, I did not add. Hope Belldandy's friends could
confirm something soon.

  She sighed heavily and flopped back on her bed. "This sucks," she
muttered, staring at the ceiling. "So much work down the drain. The design
was perfect, I'm sure of it." Her voice dropped into a mumble of
technical jargon and numbers.

  I patted her shoulder. "Worry about that later, kid. Let go of it for
now--no need in getting upset again."

  She made a face and sat up again. "It's going to keep bugging me until I
figure it out." Definitely grumpy now. The very picture of grumpiness, in
fact, as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted something fierce.

  "Well, until--ah, there's your sister," I said, at the knock on the
door. Sure enough, Belldandy was on the other side with a tray. "I'll get
that for you."

  She smiled and looked in. "Skuld? How are you feeling now?"

  At least, she would be able to elicit a small smile from my charge. "I'm
tired and hungry. But okay. Thanks, Oneesama." Skuld reached up to accept
the tray from me and immediately dug in.

  "You get some rest when you're done, all right? Andrew-san, could you
bring the tray to the kitchen afterward?"

  "Sure thing," I answered, and she nodded and closed the door again. I
looked at Skuld again. "You really shouldn't skip meals, especially at
your age."

  "Too busy," she mumbled through a mouthful of rice.

  "Speaking of your age," I said, as something occurred to me, "why aren't
you going to school?"

  She gave me an odd look, swallowed her food, and coughed as something
almost went down the wrong way. It made me chuckle a little. "I don't need
to go to school. I'm a genius. And a goddess." She jabbed at me with her
chopsticks before picking up a piece of fish with it.

  "Welllll, I expect you're a genius with some things," I countered, which
actually rewarded me with a brief smile, "but not with everything. That
aside, some folks around here might wonder why a girl of school age
clearly isn't in school on a weekday."

  She scratched her head. "That's never seemed to be a problem, actually."

  I paused, thought about that. "Like people not noticing Banpei out at
the river when...whatever happened?"

  "Maybe." She shrugged.

  "Okay. Well, what about having a chance to hang around with people,
well, 'your age'? I can't fault Belldandy's company, but I'd want to be
with some of my peers more."

  Skuld wrinkled her nose. "I dunno. I probably wouldn't have too much in
common with them and all. Besides...."

  Was that a blush I saw on her cheeks? "Besides?" I prompted her.

  "...I do know someone about my age."

  I stayed quiet. Let her fill up the silence.

  "He comes around every so often...."

  I raised an eyebrow. Still said nothing.

  "...name is Sentarou...."

  "You're squirming," I finally said, dryly. She glared at me, and I
laughed. "All right, all right. Fair enough."

  Way in the back of my mind, the creature called Overprotective Older
Brother woke up, and his eyes gleamed. They gleamed red.

  She shrugged, trying to act casual, even as she fidgeted with the
chopsticks. "He might come around again soon."

  "Perhaps I should meet him sometime," I said, matching her casual tone.
"See what kind of fellow he is."

  She paused, and looked at me warily, somehow knowing that something was
up. "Um...okay...."

  I flashed a lightning-quick grin at her, all teeth, then sat down next
to the bed as earlier. "Well. Anyway...." I decided to ease up on her a
bit. "Sure you don't want to try the school thing?"

  "Hmm.... I really don't know. Wouldn't it make your job tougher? If
something happens at school...a lot more people around and all that? And
you wouldn't be supposed to be on school grounds in that case."

  "You do have a point there. I just...well, like I said, I would have
wanted to be around more people like myself, at your age."

  "There's nobody quite like her," came a voice from the door as it slid
open.

  "Hello, Urd," I said, cheerfully. It was to make up for the sour look
that Skuld developed in immediate response.

  "Good afternoon, Andrew-kun. You all right, shrimp?"

  "Don't call me that!" Skuld fumed, and looked like she was about to
throw her bowl of rice, but put it back down on the tray, still glowering.

  "You heard, then?" I asked Urd as she went to sit down on the desk
chair, stretching her legs out.

  "Bell explained, yep. I'm inclined to think it was just a screwup by--"
Urd broke off as Skuld gave into that earlier impulse, resulting in a
chopstick plinking off her forehead. She glared at Skuld, but did not
otherwise react, and continued as I reached over to pick up the chopstick.
"Her projects have blown up before, and if it was a strike at Skuld, I'd
imagine that it would have been a little more spectacular. As it was, it
wasn't very powerful, was it?"

  I handed the chopstick back to Skuld, who wiped it off with a napkin
before she resumed eating. "Not that bad, no. I caught a fragment of metal
right here," I said, indicating my shoulder, "but that was it. It wouldn't
have hurt Skuld that badly if it had gotten her, so...." I finally
realized what I was talking about, and that Skuld was in the room too. I
glanced backward nervously.

  She was studiously avoiding my gaze. "'m right here, you know," she
mumbled.

  "Sorry, Skuld. I am, really." I shook my head, shot a look at Urd, who
actually had the grace to dip her head slightly in apology.

  "Yeah, me too."

  Skuld finished her tea and put the cup back down. She was quiet for a
bit, then looked up abruptly. I blinked.

  "It's okay," she said, a bit forcefully. "I know something's happening.
There's a reason Andrew's here." Her hands curled up into fists. "I guess
I'm important, and some people want to hurt me because I'm the Future.
It's just...the way things are."

  "I won't let them get to you, I promise," I said quietly.

  "Me neither," said Urd. "Nor will Bell. We're all watching over you,
Skuld." No teasing, no tormenting.

  Skuld finally smiled, just a little bit. "Thanks. And I'll get stronger
so I can protect myself too, right?"

  "Absolutely," I said. "But right now, you need some sleep."

  As if on cue, she yawned, and lifted up the tray to pass it over to me.
That done, she flopped down again and pulled the sheets up. "All right.
I'm gonna fix up the engine tomorrow, and...." Her eyes closed and her
voice trailed off into soft incoherence. I made sure the tray was
balanced, and along with Urd, left the room to Skuld, visions of
schematics dancing in her head.

  "Thanks for helping her, Andrew," Urd said, sounding a bit subdued.

  "Thank you too, Urd. We're all protecting her, we're all a little
worried."

  "Yeah. Hey, Bell? You've heard from our contacts by now, right?"

  We entered the kitchen, and I place the tray by the sink, where
Belldandy was standing. Instead of starting to wash the dinnerware right
away, she quickly placed them on the sink and walked over to sit down at
the table, which I then did as well. "Yes, I have," she said.

  "And?"

  "There were traces of demonic power in the area, barely detectable."

  I closed my eyes. "Aww, crap."

  Urd spoke next. "But why bother? If it was such a small incident like
that...it wouldn't have injured Skuld too badly, might even have missed
her altogether even without Andrew there to help."

  "Even a slight injury to Skuld would be a personal affront to me," I
said, a shade angry at the idea. "But you're right, Urd. I dunno. Maybe it
was meant as...a warning?"

  "Or it could be intended to worry us. Mind games," said Belldandy.

  "Very good, Belldandy," said a voice I didn't know.

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

  Yay, cliffhanger ending.

  Ah, the eyes gleaming bit I, er, borrowed from Terry Pratchett. It was
too good to pass up for that little segment.


Andrew Huang...Shizumaru@KawaiiMUCK
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
NAC MAC FEEGLE!

             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'