"Ai Shiteru"
An Ah! My Goddess/Ah! Megami-sama Fan Fic
NOTE: Lots of x-overs!
By: icezer230, a.k.a Shu.
E-mail: icezer230@usa.net (love mail & hate mail are welcome...just don't bomb
me, 'kay? And none o' that junk, either!)
Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4806 <--icezer230's Animanga Pages. This
project is located at the fanfic archives.
A BUNCH OF COPYRIGHT STUFF...
This story rightly belongs to me (icezer230, a.k.a Shu), but the characters true
to AMG are owned by Kosuke Fujishima and whoever he sold it to (the numbers
grow!). Brett, Chia-Yao, and the rest of the gang are copyrighted by Darkwind
(whose real name is also Brett!). Thanks for letting me use them, Brett! Kenji,
of course, is copyrighted by Ed Sharpe. Thanks Ed!!!!
The idea of this project started when I was wondering what would happen if Kenji
and Chia-Yao was in the same world. This was the result...I hope you like it! Oh
yeah you have to read "Ai Shiteru" parts 1-4 to understand the plot! This is
mandatory reading for part 6. :D
LEGEND...hehehe, some people obviously thought I needed 1.
**=thought
""=speech
() or <>=explanations
[]=insertions/interruptions by the author!
*****
"Dear Skuld, when you find and read this letter, you'll probably know that I'm
not there. I am afraid that Duty has called once more--I have been summoned by
Kami-sama. For what, I do not know and do not question Him for he is the
Almighty. I wonder about your actions at the bar tonight but since you are not
with me to answer my questions, they will have to go unanswered for the moment.
You may or may not know this, but I care for you, Skuld, more than you know. I
am in love with you. I am in love with who you are, and I have loved you for a
long time--I do not know when I had started. I had to conceal my feelings for
you, keeping in mind that if I did, you might have turned me away and scorned me
forever and ever. You are a beautiful, charming goddess That is why I have not
told you all these years in the hopes that this feeling would diminish when I
find another.
When I saw you again, I saw that this hope of mine would not be true. My longing
for you only grew even further and now I cannot bear, for the good of both of
us, to leave you without telling you how I feel about you. I do not know what
you will say about this, but I know you will be very confused and angry at me
for not telling you earlier. If we are not meant to be, I will be more than
willing to be your friend. I am sorry to put a heavier burden and another
decision on your shoulders but I thought it would be better if you knew.
I now travel back to the Heavens in the hopes that you will forgive me for what
I have done. I hope you will visit me and tell me of your decision when you
decide to return from your journey. I would have gone away tomorrow anyway, for
I know that you must travel this dangerous and mysterious path alone. I, too,
had to travel such a path and I came back a changed Goddess. I hope that you
will survive and change for the better. This is where I must leave. May
Kami-sama bless you with his Divine Insight and keep you out of harm's way.
Love, Rhiana," Skuld read aloud once she unfolded the piece of paper she found.
Her eyes were dry when she had first read it but she found herself unable to
stop the tears that streamed out of them when she was done. Wiping them dry with
the sleeves of her pajamas, she looked out the window at the full moon and held
the letter close to her heart. She would visit Rhiana someday, she vowed, and
she would straighten things out with her. With that, she flopped back on her and
continued her slumber peacefully.
*****
"How do you know when you are there?
When you don't have to ask that question anymore."
--unknown
--------------------------------
SIDE STORY: THE UNSPOKEN JOURNEY
--------------------------------
After a week of trying to get a tan (and failing miserably because of the boys
that kept bothering her), she decided to go to Alps, where she could learn how
to ski. After a week and due to the overexposure of the sun in such high
altitudes, she finally got her tan (looking a little more like Urd--although she
wouldn't admit it for the world) and her hair was tinged to a healthy brown
(which attracted even more boys to her side).
At the end of the week, she found snowboarding to be more exciting than skiing
(actually, she fell a lot less by snowboarding) and learnt a couple of tricks
from some female snowboarder friends just a little older than her. She joined a
local open and won first prize on the female half-pipes, qualifying for the
international snowboarding championships that would take place a few months
later. Her friends (who got first and second runner up) were so happy for (and
proud of) her they offered to take her to France after the championships, so
that they could see the sights and sounds. She agreed.
After her friends departed for their own countries, she started to hone her own
skills so that she could perform well in the championships. In the middle of her
run, her watch started beeping loudly and she had to stop. She looked at it and
frowned. *There was an energy abnormality near here... Maybe I should check it
out... It IS my duty as the debugger...* she thought.
Her mind set, she went to investigate, trudging the snow on her snowboarding
boots and carrying her board with her right hand. Eyeing her energy radar on her
watch, she followed the energy until she was right in front of it. She looked up
but could see nothing. Not even a ripple of the abnormality. She sighed. *Maybe
I should fix this watch... I haven't serviced it in a month!* she thought. She
took a step forward to head back to her lodge but her foot was caught in
something.
She looked down. She was caught in a quick-sand like vortex! Cursing quietly,
she tried to use her board to get back to where she was. No luck. Her hands were
also being caught by the vortex. If she tried to call for someone, she would
have to erase their memory (which she knew wouldn't last very long) and it would
only waste her energy. The vortex soon swallowed her near her neck and she had
no other choice but to do one thing. Soon the Alps were echoing a woman's
high-pitched scream. Hers.
*****
"AAAAAaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaa!!!!! Shit!" Skuld swore as she landed hard on her back.
She had landed in some patches of grass (luckily) so the fall was not as hard as
it would have if she had landed on ice. She had a couple of deep cuts and
bruises from falling through branches but that was about it. *Geez, they sting!*
she thought to herself, touching one experimentally.
Feeling hot in her snowboarding suit, she quickly unzipped a part of her jacket
(leaving a bit to the imagination) and took off her gloves. She quickly felt the
heat nearly burning her alive. Luckily she wore some shoes inside her boots so
she took her boots off and tied her hair back so that she could see better in
this heat.
"An unknown jungle. Just great!" Skuld muttered to no one in particular. She
pushed back the left sleeve of her jacket to reveal a highly sophisticated (and
fashionable) watch, which was supposed to let her know where she was.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the watch had gone crazy since it kept spinning
numbers she didn't know had existed.
"Damn! Must have ruined it during my fall!" she swore again. *Maybe I should
whip myself a little something cooler* she thought as she started chanting the
words to make her appearance change. Nothing happened, however. She just stood
there wide-eyed for a moment and tried chanting again. Nothing happened again.
She spotted a lake nearby so she ran to it and looked at her reflection. No
marks, nothing!
"Shit! How am I supposed to get out of this place _now_?" Skuld groaned and
moaned. She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. *Lost, out of place, with no
supplies, and no one around...* she thought to herself. *I should have never
looked for that abnormal energy reading!*
Suddenly, she heard a rustle from the bush behind her. She quickly turned
around, her right hand already reaching back for her mini-hammer (she never left
the house without one). Something tackled her and she found herself face to face
with a light-blue-haired woman, who was...hugging her with eyes closed? She
blushed, thinking of Rhiana, and tried to get away from the woman.
"Wait a minute, Tenchi doesn't have breasts! You're not Tenchi! Who are you and
what are you doing here!" the red-haired woman yelled out, calling out a
lightsaber-like weapon as she released Skuld and got into a fighting stance.
*Did the mortals have such energy already?* Skuld thought to herself. She backed
herself into a tree.
"I-I'm lost! My name's Skuld and I come from Japan! What is this place and who
are you?" Skuld replied, taking her own weapon into her own hand.
"I don't believe you. I haven't heard of such a place! You must be a spy from
the intergallactic police, out to capture me! Well you'll never get me without a
fight!" the woman snarled, attacking. Skuld could only avoid her attacks by a
hairwidth. *This is NOT very good... I don't have my powers, and this insane
woman's attacking me without any good reason!* she thought, cursing silently.
"Damn it! Why can't you believe me?" Skuld yelled and attacked back at the
woman.
"Well, you're wearing a space-suit of somekind!" she said as the battle raged
on. Trees were falling down around them from the woman's attacks and there were
large deep holes made from Skuld's hammer.
"This ISN'T a spacesuit! It's a snowboarding suit!" Skuld replied angrily. *Geez
this girl hasn't gone out a lot, has she?* she thought. Then her eyes widened.
The girl she was fighting was flying! *What the hell!?* she cursed.
"I bet snowboarding's some sort of spy art!" the woman sneered, ready to attack
some more.
"W-why are you flying?" Skuld said, dropping her hammer onto the floor. She had
never seen a mortal fly before, not on Earth!
"...Wait a minute! You should be familiar with the concept of me flying! You're
not a spy, are you!?" the woman realized, dropping her sword as well, her eyes
widening. There was a blush to her face, a little ashamed that she had gotten
the wrong idea right from the start and was too stubborn to admit it.
"No, I'm not! That's what I've been trying to say for the last 30 minutes!"
Skuld replied, exasperatedly. She sighed and winced as she accidentally brushed
one of her cuts. The woman evidently saw that and became concerned.
"You should get that fixed. I'll take you back to where I live for the moment,
come on. Where is this...Japan you were talking about? I'm Ryoko. Being a
space-pirate, I know a million places but I've never even heard of that place!"
the woman who called herself Ryoko said, nearly dragging Skuld along with her
through the bushes.
"Japan's...on Earth. Where am I?" Skuld replied, puzzled at the fact that Ryoko
didn't know where it was.
"You're on Tenchi's backwater planet, that's where you are. I don't know that
places on here and I sure as hell wouldn't like to know. This place is as
backward as the Dark Ages," Ryoko commented as they walked along, Skuld in the
tow.
"You haven't explained to me why you can fly..." Skuld said in an uncertain
voice.
"...And go through walls, and release such huge energy. You forgot that part.
I'm partially cyborg, created by Washuu to be the greatest warrior in the
universe. Unfortunately, I believe she had something wrong in her calculations.
She put her OWN DNA to form...me," Ryoko muttered.
"So does that mean you're the only one who can go through walls, release such
huge energy, and fly?" Skuld asked.
"Nope, there's a lot of people that can release such energy levels, even Tenchi.
Others are protected by magic and all that shit so I can't really say much about
that. Other cyborgs, depending on their versions, can also fly. I can't really
say I'm unique," Ryoko said in a sad way.
"Why do you say that? Surely other cyborgs don't LOVE like you do. You nearly
squeezed me to death back there," Skuld said in a sarcastic manner. Indeed, her
ribs were a little sore from the 'hug.'
"I'll accept that as a compliment....er...uh...Skuld, but you better watch it. I
don't like my Tenchi being insulted in that manner," Ryoko said, her fiery red
eyes glittered dangerously.
"Who is...Tenchi, anyway?" Skuld wondered, her curiosity getting to her.
"Tenchi? He's the nicest guy around, but he sure IS a girl-magnet! He saves
damsels in distress nearly half his lifetime and I hear he's going to be king in
the future. Who knows?" Ryoko said, nearly spitting the words out. *Gee, I feel
sorry for her...* Skuld thought.
"You...haven't found anyone else worthy of your....devotion?" Skuld ventured.
"...I did. Once. That's over now," Ryoko said quickly. This time, Skuld knew she
shouldn't venture further, as that was the limit. The conversation ended there
and they continued through the ever-seemingly never-ending forest growth. As
they walked on and on, Skuld began to wonder if that was how her 'admirers' back
home thought of her. She sighed, shook her head, and continued on. Ryoko noticed
this change in manner but kept silent.
*****
"Ryoko? Is that you? Who's that with you? Have you been fighting again without
my permission?" a short, wild (in the same fashion as Ryoko's) and red-haired
woman called out from the steps out in front of the house.
"Yes, Washuu, it's me and I've been fighting. This is Skuld. She comes
from...Japan, where ever that is," Ryoko scowled. Skuld could see a resemblance
between the two but it seemed as if the shorter one had a little more wit.
"Japan? Where have I heard that place before?" the little Washuu wondered,
tilting her head as she ran her memories through her mind. Her eyes widened and
snapped her fingers as if she remembered something.
"Do you remember something about it, Washuu?" Ryoko asked, puzzled. Skuld
noticed the fact that even though Washuu was technically Ryoko's mom, she didn't
call her 'mom,' for one reason or another.
"Yes, yes. You must be...from Earth, dimension 89-R4?...Are you in any way
related to Brett Handy or Urd?" Washuu asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You...know them?" Skuld asked, flabbergasted completely.
"She's...a relative? Isn't she a little young to be...UMPH!" Ryoko replied, only
to be cut off by Washuu's hand.
"Watch your mouth, Ryoko! So you're a Goddess, a megami? What's your relation to
Urd or Brett anyway?" Washuu inquired.
"I am Skuld, Goddess of the Future. I am the youngest sister of Urd, the Goddess
of the Past," Skuld said, bowing as she introduced herself once more. The other
two bowed as well in accordance and introduced themselves as well.
"Are your powers available here in this dimension?" Washuu inquired further.
"Does that mean I'm in another dimension? I'll accept that as a yes. No, I
haven't been able to call upon my powers, which is why I have these cuts that
need bandaging. Can you help me?" Skuld asked.
"Certainly, certainly. I nearly forgot, due to my excitement. Ryoko, escort her
to the lab while I prepare my regenerating machine," Washuu replied, heading
inside. Ryoko looked at Skuld questioningly and then grabbed her hand once more,
leading her through the house to Washuu's lab. Once there, Skuld gazed and
became awed at the amount of machinery Washuu had. She spotted the one machine
Washuu was wheeling over towards them.
"Isn't the pulse capacitor going to override the machine and create a
malfunction?" Skuld asked the seemingly young genius.
"Ah, you must be the genius of a sister Urd's been talking about. I'm going to
have a field day, just talking with you. No, I created a bypass in the hydrolic
compartment so that it wouldn't destroy itself without my permission," Washuu
said calmly.
"Have you ever thought of cold fusioning the collateral erradicators? That way
the machine wouldn't have to need so much power to keep it going," Skuld
suggested.
"I haven't thought of that, but it sounds good. I'll put it in my notes the next
time I go upgrade this outdated piece of machinery," Washuu grinned as she
scribbled something on a small pad. Ryoko groaned at the amount of gibberish the
two were making as they talked shop. She guessed that this was the time to make
her exit. The two geniuses were busy trying to theorize which nocturnal
prollifigator would shorten the amount of time needed to do the job so they
didn't even notice the space pirate leaving. At the end of their conversation,
Washuu's pad was full, and the two had big grins on their faces.
*****
"Where are the others, Washuu? I haven't seen them since I left for a run,"
Ryoko wondered over the dinner table.
"They've gone to another planet to hone their skills, Ryoko. You are perfect
enough without having to hone yours, and you know it," Washuu said before
shoving another beef teriyaki inside her mouth.
"...But they didn't even tell me!" Ryoko complained.
"They had no way of contacting you. I was away to another scientist
confederation meeting in Prolatis so I didn't know either, until I got the
postcard this morning," Washuu replied.
"...But then Ayeka would get more time to spend with him than I would!" Ryoko
yelled at Washuu.
"...Ayeka's the other girl, I presume?" Skuld asked Washuu calmly. Ryoko was now
outside, burning down trees with lightning to vent her anger.
"Yes. Have you had any sort of experience like this, Skuld? Poor Tenchi has to
choose one of them to become his bride and then hurt the other. It's terrible,"
Washuu said, sighing.
"Actually...yes. I've got...'admirers' as well and they're all very good friends
of mine. Tenchi's lucky he only has the opposite sex chasing after him. I've got
two guys and a girl chasing after me," Skuld said in a quiet voice, looking at
the floor and blushing.
"WHAT!? That's incredible! Chalk this up to that theory which states that
records can be broken!" Washuu exclaimed. Ryoko, due to her sharp hearing, heard
this and quickly took a place opposite Skuld, watching Skuld's face as it
reddened even more. She smiled mischeviously.
"You aren't thinking of actually accepting the girl, are you?" Ryoko asked,
grinning and smiling mischeviously. Skuld curled up on her cushion-chair and
appeared uncomfortable.
"I see. So tell me, what's the story?" Washuu asked, her dinner now long
forgotten. Skuld had finished hers since Washuu wanted to clean up in the lab.
Ryoko had eaten with Skuld so Washuu had been the only left who hadn't eaten
yet.
"Well it all started when I got sick from debugging too much..." Skuld
explained. The tale had gone on and lasted deep into the night (well past
midnight) but in the end none of the three could sleep, thinking about the
situation Skuld was in. Tenchi's situation was a lot simpler, with just the
usual two girls. Yet Skuld was in a different situation, with totally different
rules.
*Tenchi didn't even know us when I first came here and fell in love with him.
Those three fell in love after they became friends for a while. I wonder who
Tenchi would choose in a few years* Ryoko thought sadly. She felt sorry for
Skuld and it seemed that the trio had become close friends, with Skuld just
pouring out her heart. At one point, she remembered, all three were in tears.
She now felt that she never had a friend as close as Skuld was. She never really
had friends when she was a space-pirate, not even her little pet cabbit. She
learnt quickly that she simply couldn't trust just anyone. It was strange how in
a matter of hours she had felt so close to the Goddess. *Is this an effect of
being in the presence of an immortal, or is it just me?* a wild thought crossed
her mind. After a while, she drifted off to an uneasy sleep, just before a hint
of dawn came to her window.
*****
"Good morning, Skuld. Did you sleep well?" Washuu asked with a grin. Washuu knew
quite well that Skuld didn't from the dark rings around her eyes, but the genius
kept quiet. Washuu hadn't gotten any sleep at all, but it didn't show on her
face as she had a rejuvenating cream that could fix nearly anything.
"It was nice of you to ask, Washuu, but you know quite well that I didn't due to
you working in the lab all night! What WERE you building anyway?" Skuld
wondered, clutching her head in agony as she groaned. She had a major migraine,
and migraines didn't do miracles for Goddesses' attitudes. She wasn't a morning
person either, so she sounded a little grumpier than she was.
"It's a secret. I'll reveal it to both you and Ryoko later when I've finished
it!" she said, grinning wickedly (not unlike Ryoko's).
"What's the big deal anyway?" Skuld wondered, drinking a sip of black coffee.
She felt the dark liquid get to her and she closed her eyes to contain all the
energy. Then she opened her eyes, her migraine lessening. She stared at Washuu,
who was whistling innocently.
"You'll see," she said. Just then, Ryoko stumbled in, looking like hell (well
not exactly, but you get what I mean). The two earlybirds just looked at
latecomer and started laughing uncontrolably at Ryoko's hairstyle (it was
totally messed up than it usually was).
"WHAT'S SO FUNNY!?" Ryoko irritatedly spit out.
"I couldn't believe that hairdo of yours could get messier than it was!" Washuu
said after moments of trying to stiffle down further bursts of laughter. After a
while the laughter died down. It was also due to the fact that Ryoko had a blue
aura around her and she was tightly clenching her fists as if she was going to
pound the both of them into hyperspace.
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" she yelled, sulking off to the forest.
"Geez, that daughter of mine needs to learn to keep her temper," Washuu said,
closing her eyes and folding her eyes as if contemplating something very
important. Then she opened her eyes and giggled.
"So you ARE related," Skuld remarked.
"Yes, but only in DNA and looks. As you can see, she's rather fiery in nature,"
Washuu sighed.
"Where did the other strand of DNA come from?" Skuld asked, wondering. Then she
blushed. *Did I go too far this time?* she thought.
"I used to have a person I cared about when I was younger. I took a strand of
DNA from...her," Washuu said quietly, her secret being exposed at last. Her face
was now beet red and she excused herself from the table to go back to work on
that machine of hers. Skuld knew she had left because she was a little
embarassed. *I guess she never told that to anyone* Skuld thought silently. Soon
her mind went into a reverie on which of her admirers to choose.
*****
"Skuld, Ryoko! Come, come! I've finally finished my greatest masterpiece of
all!" Washuu said excitedly, her face full of grease. Skuld and Ryoko had been
practicing their fighting skills after Ryoko suggested she needed some practice.
Skuld had been able to hold off Ryoko (surprise? Even though she has no powers,
she still has her superb fighting skills!). The two were breathing hard and were
glad that there was such an interruption. Neither of them could have kept
fighting for another minute before going into a 'berserker' kind of rage.
"...Well, seeing you guys are kind of tired as well, why don't we all take a
nice hot bath before I reveal it?" Washuu asked, already heading towards the
bathroom. The cabbit (Skuld didn't know what its name was yet) hopped after her.
The two girls quickly followed.
As Skuld hadn't seen the bathroom Washuu had made (with the dimensional
adjustments) she gaped at the space they had all to themselves as they stripped
out of their clothes and stepped into the room. Skuld had no problem with doing
so with the others as she had adjusted to such habits when she started living in
Japan with Belldandy, Urd, and Keiichi.
"Nice? I created this place so the boys wouldn't bother us," Washuu said,
washing herself first with cold water. She shivered with the contact. The others
followed and after scrubbing themselves clean they went inside the big 'pool' to
relax.
"This is great!" Skuld remarked. Ryoko kept silent and put a small hand towel
over her forehead. The two younger women's (Skuld found out exactly how old
Washuu had been and was surprised she was older than her) faces were flushed
from the exercising so it looked as if the water was hotter than it actually
was. After a while, the color went back to normal and they got out of the
bathroom to see Washuu's invention in her lab.
*****
"And now, ladies and cabbit, I present to you my greatest masterpiece, the
Love-Teller 2000, Version 1.0. I will take any questions from the audience
before I pull someone out of the audience to test this prototype!" Washuu
exclaimed, pulling on the white sheets to reveal a chair, lots of machinery at
the back, and a large sophisticated-looking screen on top of the machine. There
was a really big spray-painted sign 'Love-Teller 2000' on the sides of the
machine.
"...Um, what does it do?" Ryoko asked, making Washuu face-vault.
"Did I forget to tell you what it does? Oops, must have forgotten to do so in my
haste. Not to worry though! This grand masterpiece of a machine reads the
person's mind and tells everyone through that screen on who he/she is being
chased by and who is *really* suited for him/her," Washuu said in a rush,
afterwards trying to catch up on her breath.
"Are you *certain* this thing will work properly?" Skuld said in an uncertain
tone. She had heard from Ryoko that a LOT of Washuu’s experiments had gone for a
bad term, and she didn’t really feel like being the guinea pig right now.
"I believe that this machine will do its job. Who wants to go first?" Washuu
asked, an evil glint in her eye (not unlike a mad scientist). Skuld and Ryoko
backed up to a wall and Ryoko was lucky to be able to go through it. Skuld was
the only one left and Washuu had to have her 'assistants' drag her onto the
machine and bind her to the chair before Skuld didn't try to run away.
"Now...For the actual test!" Washuu said, pulling several levers and pushing
some buttons on the machine itself. Skuld felt the seat tremor for a while and
suddenly she saw something big engulf her head. Darkness surrounded her as she
tried to turn her head (she found she couldn't because of the thing holding her
head in place). She struggled against the rope bonds, but to no avail. Suddenly,
she couldn't breathe. It was as if the air was sucked out against her, and she
was floating. In a matter of seconds, she had passed out.
***** END OF PART 1 *****
‘Till next time, au revoir!
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