"Oh! My Demon!" by R. Zane Richards The storyline is based on "Oh! My Goddess!" a series owned and copyrighted by Kosuke Fujishima. The characters of Keiichi Morisato, Belldandy, Urd, Skuld, etc., are owned by him, and I am writing for enjoyment, not for profit. The main character and Jen are my own creation. ******************************** Chapter 10 Ah, is there anything better than a clear, beautiful sunrise? The quiet of the morning, the birds singing and the feeling of a new beginning? The shouts of Urd and Skuld? The shouts of..?? I moaned and rolled over trying to block the noise with my pillow. Geez, I thought, can't those two ever get along? That's about the time I heard an explosion go off. I like futons, you see, because you can get jolted out of one and not have to worry about hitting the floor. I had to check my pulse just to make sure I was still alive. I could hear Bell trying to get the other two calmed down, well I guess that's what she was doing, I couldn't understand much of it she was speaking so fast. But with Bell, you can figure out she wasn't trying to get Urd and Skuld to fight even harder. Wonder if United Nations could use her. If she could get those two to stop, how hard would it be for her to stop WWIII from starting? Speaking of WWIII...man, what I had to deal with the night before, after we'd returned to the temple...well, Belldandy didn't say too much but what she did say, I made sure I listened to. I have the idea if she ever really got upset...well, maybe it's better off unsaid. Urd wanted to yell at me, well at the least she wanted to yell, but Belldandy basically warned me not to ever do anything like that again. Strangely enough, the reasons why Mara was after me never came up. I wasn't sure if they were just avoiding the topic or if they knew something and didn't want to tell me. I wasn't about to bring it up on top of everything else. Jen was rather beside herself about the whole thing. After it was over, I made sure to make my apologies to her. "Hey, I'm sorry I worried you so much...I'm not sure why I took off like that, except it felt, well it felt like a good idea." I winced, that wasn't the best thing to say. "You dummy, what made you think you could deal with someone like her?" She had this rather strained look on her face, "What would I do if you went and got yourself hurt?" I looked into that face, so familiar and yet now so different. That slender face, with her eyes now telling me of the worry and care inside. I couldn't help think what else was going to change in my future now...I wasn't entirely liking the idea of it. "I won't do it again, and I can promise that...but, I don't think she's finished her business with me." "I would just love to see her try something more...she's not gonna get her hands on you." Oh boy. ...I got up after a few minutes of thinking about that, and headed for the kitchen. "Morning," I mumbled looking around, "Got any coffee?" She turned around and looked at me with a rather pleasant smile on her face. "Yes, I can have some ready in a few minutes, is that okay?" "Sure, I'll be outside," I turned to go, "Thanks." I headed outside and lit up a smoke, what a way to start the day. A lot of people don't understand just how good that first rush in the morning is. Oh well. Bell popped her head out a little while later to tell me the coffee was ready. I noted the disapproving little look that wasn't quite a frown. "There's some breakfast still left. I thought you'd like to sleep in this morning. I'm sorry about all the noise." "Oh, that's okay, no real harm done. Where is everyone anyways?" "Keiichi's at school, and I'm about to head there myself. Urd's watching TV, and Skuld's in her lab." She answered, wiping her hands on a towel. "Keiichi and I should be back around 5:00. And Jen will be gone all day for training." I knew I didn't have to ask where she went for the training, even though my mind still had trouble really getting it. "So the question is what do I do with my time?" I quietly mumbled to myself. "Well, I'm going to try to help and find out why Mara is after you. I'm a little worried about it." "You are? Hey, this has all happened rather fast for me. My brain isn't quite processing everything very fast." I said, "In fact I'm getting a rather bad feeling about all of this." She stopped her cleaning chores for a second, "I'm truly sorry, If I knew that all of this was going to happen because I invited you here...well, I just want your stay here to be pleasant. So please don't worry, Urd is here and Mara usually knows better than to try something with her around." A little while later, Bell left for school in her usual method. I wondered if someone was about to freak out when she arrived. What a way to travel, but it really hadn't been that bad, just...sort of strange to step through one mirror and a second later, come out of another one. It wasn't quite instantaneous, but it was close. ***** Later on, I decided to take a walk and get a little better acquainted with my surroundings. That and to get away from Urd who was either asking me about what kind of women I like or completely engaged with watching TV, and Skuld who just ignored me. I got back to the temple with little problem, since I didn't go too far and I had only a little money on me. Belldandy and Keiichi had returned, and Bell was busy with her chores and Keiichi with his motorcycle. I sat down watching him work on it, he had a rather nice BWM that he obviously knew inside and out. After a few rather feeble attempts by both of us to try and talk(his English was just about as good as my Japanese)I headed back into the house. It was rather embarrassing, to say the least. I walked into the 'living room' and stopped when I saw the look on Belldandy and Urds faces. The looked at me rather sympathetically and I could see something else, but I couldn't really tell at first. Then I realized they had something to tell me, and it wasn't good. Well, the day HAD been going well. Damn. Bell began with the delightful news that after checking with Yggdrasil... "Egg-what?" I asked. "It's the computer that maintains the universe, all of it's functions and my sisters and I are responsible for maintenance on it." "You mean to tell me that a COMPUTER runs all this?" I waved my hands around for emphasis. After a few quick explanations about how the universe really operated, during which I mostly just nodded dumbly, Bell finally got to the point. Which was that Yggdrasil now listed my residence as being the temple. "Wait...you don't mean permanent, do you?" I asked, already knowing the answer from her face and Urds. "Yes, it's been changed and we don't know why, except this might have something to do with Mara chasing you." Urd said. I was now confused as hell, a million questions began forming in my head each one spawning half a dozen new ones. "Wa...Wait. So what exactly does this mean. I have to stay here, right? So what do I do about school, about a job...what? What am I supposed to do?" "Please try to calm down some, I will look into it." Bell spoke then, "But the change is permanent. I'm...I'm sorry about this Zane, it's not what I meant to happen when I invited you here." She looked down at her hands. "Hey, it's okay...I'm sure there is someway this will work out right." I hope, I didn't add. "Please, it's not your fault, or least not directly. So don't beat yourself up over it, okay?" I couldn't handle having Bell suddenly start crying or something. Ugh. I needed to get out of there for the time, so I decided to take a walk. Urd then added, as she and I walked into the kitchen, "She'll be okay, this is sort of tough on her. She feels responsible for you, and your safety. That's why she was so upset over that little stunt of yours." Keiichi walked in and Urd quietly spoke into his ear, after which he went into the living room. He shot me a rather interesting look on the way out, not really upset but something close. Oh great, more people to have on my case. I decided to wait with my growing list of questions. Damn...well, I had wanted to come to Japan right? This just wasn't the way I was expecting. ***** That evening, after dinner I stopped Bell on the way into the kitchen. I had to find out just how things were going to work out now. "I don't know about school...but you're welcome here. I guess tomorrow we can return to your school and bring back your personal belongings." "I don't know about welcome, but I guess that's beside the point..." I answered. "I think tomorrow would be okay to get my stuff. Sorry if I seem a bit upset, but I hate this feeling...I can't describe it...except it seems like things are little bit out of control now. I just wonder what's next." Bell's sympathetic look helped a little, but not much. ***** Next day, we took off(so to speak)for my old dorm. We came out in a bathroom in the hall that was right across from it. I was completely disoriented. "Bell," I said, "we're not in the right place...?" "I know." Bell answered, "for some reason I couldn't get back to the same mirror I came through before." We quickly got our bearings and found our way outside. That's when we saw my old dorm, or what was left of it. "Damn," I muttered, "I'd forgotten it was scheduled for demolition...oh great." In place of my old dorm, was now a large pile of concrete, brick and metal. Looked more like Beirut than Ottawa, KS. And all my stuff? I'm sure they didn't just leave it in there, did they? "HEYYY!" I spun around at the voice, and saw the resident director of Brown Hall walking towards us. He explained that he'd moved my stuff into his RD apartment, since I'd left without telling anyone where I was going. "You can just come in and get it, it's sort of packed up anyways." Whew, that was a big relief...something's gone right this time I thought. We got back to his apartment, and quickly began moving the few boxes I had out, mostly consisting of milk crates packed with books. I was just going to suggest a location to start moving this stuff through a mirror, when Bell stopped. "I have to get back to the temple." Bell turned to me, "I'll send Urd here, to help you with the last part." "Okay, hmmm...hey, wait!" She was gone, running down the stairs looking for a mirror. Oh, great...now what? That's when I was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder and turned around rather quickly to stare face to face with...Mara. Damn. This again. "Told you, you don't have a choice in this." She gave me a rather catlike smile, one that told me that I was the mouse. "Now maybe you'll listen a little better without all the distractions?" I said nothing...what the hell was I gonna say? "Now...let's talk, you and I of a great many things, hmmmmm?" I had the feeling Mara would do most of that talking. ************END CHAPTER 10********** Sorry, this chapter took so long. It's become sort of a pivot, and where it goes from here I'm still not sure. Anyway, chapter 11 shouldn't take as long...but don't count on it. If you're interested in Oh! My Goddess! You can either go to the Dark Horse web site at www.darkhorse.com or visit your local comic book store. fans, flamage and assorted fluff can be sent to r_zane@yahoo.com ***********