Skuld sipped the remains of the miso soup in her bowl and wondered who thought that giving Aunt Var a traditional Japanese breakfast was just the thing to welcome her to the Temple. "Probably that cheapskate Keiichi," she thought with a quick glance in his direction. While the soup was excellent and the rice was as perfect as only Belldandy could prepare, she would much rather have had what some Americans considered a proper breakfast today.  "Bacon... Eggs...Toast..." she muttered, adding "Coffee..." upon seeing Urd, who was just entering the kitchen. "Grouching around as usual with her usual hangover looking for some quick wakeup," she thought.  Due to the number of people around, breakfast was being served from the kitchen with everyone scattered between there and the common room where they normally ate.  Well, at least the fish was a nice change of pace.

     Skuld looked across the room and reflected on Megumi, who was sitting with Keiichi across the common room, speaking in quiet hushed tones and looking very serious.  Evidently, Skuld thought, they were discussing the day before and trying to come to grip with all its implications.

     Megumi suddenly rose and walked toward the kitchen carrying her dishes.  "Belldandy, thanks for the delicious breakfast.  Just the way I like it. How did you know?  Let me help you clean up," she chattered as she entered the kitchen.  A few words were then exchanged that Skuld just couldn’t quite hear.  Megumi quickly returned, looking rather startled, and quickly walked over to Skuld who was sitting in a corner, leaving the kitchen empty-handed.

     "When did Urd start doing that?" she asked very quietly, looking over her shoulder, a little shaken.  Looking over Megumi's shoulder and into the kitchen, the Goddess of the Future saw Urd hanging upside down in the air, drinking tea while having a quiet but very lively discussion with Var and Belldandy.  'She seems to have recovered from her hangover quite early today,' was Skuld’s first thought.  Her second was, 'How much partying is she going to do with those Valkyrior in town?' — and, with not a little resentment — 'Why wasn’t I invited too?'

    Var had changed costume and was wearing a quite different outfit from yesterday.  While Belldandy was wearing a conservative brown and green dress with an apron, something usually seen worn by homemakers in the neighborhood but nvertheless still looking stunning, this was still quite a contrast to what Var had arranged.  Somehow, changing to a metallic-silver colored long-sleeved silk blouse and a long slim black leather skirt cinched tight with a silver belt looking a bit like something out of a Sword and Sorcery flick wasn’t much different in effect then her regular goddess costume.   She would still turn quite a few heads walking about in that outfit.  Well, Aunt Var never did do things by halves, Skuld reflected.

    Meanwhile, various bowls and saucers were washing themselves in the sinkwater with no visible means of support while making slight clanking sounds.

     "The tea?  She must have reversed the gravitational direction very locally to aid her in levitation.  Sign of good control.  She must be trying to impress Aunt Var,"  Skuld answered in an extremely matter-of-fact tone watching Megumi's reaction.

     Megumi was barely paying attention, mesmerized by the dishes starting the line dance from some Disney cartoon, and replied, "I thought it was just a funny dream I had last night.  I mean Valkyries, Elves, yohkai… and… and Megami..." the last drifting off as she turned and gave Skuld a hard new look.  "Impress Aunt Var!" she suddenly said with slight relief.  "Oh, she was just showing off?" A tiny edge replaced the barely-noticeable shaking in her voice.

    She thought for a few moments, turned to Keiichi, waved, and called out to him, "Hey Keiichi, me and Skuld are going to have that long talk you wanted me to have with her."

     Keiichi returned her wave with little beads of sweat forming on his brow and said, "Not so loud, it was meant rhetorically, and it was Ms. Var's idea not mine.  But I was never able to talk you out of anything, so please don't get me in any deeper than I already am."  He added the last in almost a mutter. A look of pained resignation formed on her face upon seeing Skuld glaring quite hotly at him.

     "He has always been that way, but for a moment I thought I was upside down and flying. But then I saw Belldandy and Ms. Var were right side up and it was really Urd who was out of synch," she said, returning to her normally quick patter.

    She then turned and stepped back to Skuld.  "I'll meet you outside on the porch after you talk to your Aunt Var.  She said she wanted us to meet privately after she had a talk with you," she said with a slight grin.  Skuld didn’t quite understand what would make Megumi quite so pleased.
 
 
     Var was reading a display that had formed on one of the walls of the kitchen, Skuld noticed as she walked into the room to return her breakfast service.  Skuld noted also that the dishes had returned to a more mundane state and had arranged themselves in their appropriate cupboard spaces.  "She seems to be very adaptable and open-minded," Var commented while quickly reviewing the text that was scrolling across.  "I mean, Urd, you grand-standing like that would have sent a normal mortal of this culture running away shrieking about yohkai and we’d never have seen her again." She chuckled slightly.

     "Based upon the background reports, Megumi seems like she would make a good field agent. We always need reliable eyes and ears available for on the spot reports.  There are too many goddesses down here already;  we don't need to upset the universal equilibrium any more than we have to, do we?" Var said with a pointed look to all three goddesses now present.

     Urd, having rotated and returned to right side up, now smirked while causing her now empty teacup to float slowly in a circle around her head.  "It was your idea to see if she could handle small shocks on a daily basis, and floating the dishes to the sink seemed less of a shock than instant translocation," she casually observed.  Belldandy just shook her head and looked to heaven.

     "Which brings us to Skuld and how she is to evaluate our candidate,"  Var replied.  After giving the black-haired girl a hard glance, she added "We first need to find out if she is interested in the job and then decide how to use her best."

     Skuld looked thoughtful and said, "I hope you aren't going to play head games on her during her whole training, Urd.  Keichii will never forgive us if we drive his sister bonkers".

     Urd replied, too sweetly, "How nice, I think that's the first time you have ever said you cared about what Keichii thought of us — and in a normal way.  But I am not going to do the training. You are."

     This irritated Skuld a lot.  After all, she thought, she would never care what that ‘Keiichi’ thought about her.  Her hand was reaching for her hidden pocket, when the thought hit her that maybe Urd meant it as a compliment.  "A compliment... from Urd!!!" she thought.  "What’s the megaverse coming to when Urd tries to say something nice without being forced?"  Then the last part sank in.  She’d thought that after some training she was only going to do the final review and a little anger began to settle in.  Resentment with her sister unloading all the hard work onto her again was the main theme, with how proper retribution should be made as the counterbeat.

     Urd sat up straight, suddenly staring at Belldandy, and said slowly, "Belldandy, what does it mean when your eyes roll up, you turn bright red, and you start choking?"

     "It means, sister dear, you are pushing your luck." Belldandy managed to choke out while suppressing a giggle.  This while observing that the word "BAKA" was starting to write itself on Urd's forehead in roomaji, fitting well with its two siblings in other scripts.

     Var quickly looked out the window, shaking her head.  Then, while watching Megumi sitting on the porch, she negligently waved her hand, cutting out the display, which disappeared with a slight pop.  "We need to send Skuld out on a field trip with Megumi to investigate some rather strange events.  We need her only as an active observer right now, and afterwards Megumi will probably only be used part time." She was speaking too matter-of-factly.

     After turning her attention back to Skuld she spoke, "The word ‘observe’ will be strictly held to and Urd will occasionally be checking up on you for me. We don't want anyone to take any unnecessary risks, do we?"  The last was said with a very hard-edged special emphasis.  "You know Urd usually is only trying to help; please take it in the spirit it’s given.  You know that on this mission we will have someone participating who is not quite as ‘durable’ as the rest of us," she remarked in a pointed tone.  She waved her hand and the "BAKA" disappeared.

    This startled Skuld as neither Urd or Belldandy could erase her phantom writing, having to wait until it faded away on its own.  Skuld realized that Megumi wasn't the only one being tested here.

    "Okay, what is this ‘field trip” thing?  And how am ‘I’ going to train her?  I only know theory and don't have any real abilities yet," she stated carefully, feeling the waters with new caution but still a little upset over having new chores.

     "Verdhandhi informed me earlier you still haven't come into your full powers, so I arranged to have some tools available to lend you," Var replied.   She pulled in the air, produced a couple of silver motorcycle helmets with clear visors, and handed them to Skuld.  The material was slippery-looking and shiny and the visors very bowed.  "When you wear these you can become invisible to all mortal beings; we changed the design so they would be more unobtrusive when not being worn," she instructed.  "After all, silver-mailed helmets with gold filigree have been out of style since Sigmund's day." She chuckled.

    Out of another invisible pocket, she retrieved a grey hexagonal cloth badge, which she pinned on the inside of Skuld's frock coat. Skuld was wearing her official goddess uniform that day, with the Mjollnir (MarkII) sheathed on her back.  "This is a panic button.  Remember I said ‘observe’; while you will be invisible to mortals, demons and mechanical devices will still be able to observe, record or possibly pursue you.  Which sometimes would not be a good idea," she added.

     The fabric seemed to sew itself to the coat’s fabric and changed color to match.  In the center of the hexagonal design embroidery, there was a grey stone stud that had changed color to match also.

     "Touch the stone and think 'Panic' and it will allow you to transport back to the temple house bath using your water transport without you having to look for a water source to start from." Var said as Skuld inspected the change to her coat.  "Neat." she thought.  "A self-bonding polymer with temporary environment phasing."

     "The training is simply on what to look for and how to report it.  People see things everyday that are quite extraordinary but don't know them for what they are.  Then most of time they don't know how to give a good description so they can’t share what they observed with others in a believable manner. Verdhandhi was telling me this morning about the incident with Dr. Morrow.  Ban-Pei and the Robot Girl have been in operation for quite a while and no one in the neighborhood saw anything significant about bipedal mecha.  Dr. Morrow understood too well the implications and could have caused a lot of trouble.  It was a good thing that by the end he was pretty incoherent.

     “This is what I will need her to be trained in, to recognize things that are not normal and some of the implications that can be derived thereof.  And not necessarily in technological matters, she probably has that pretty well in hand already.  It's things having to do with the occult that she needs to be able to recognize and report."

     Skuld looked a little sheepish and said, "I hope she doesn't go overboard like that amateur exorcist did."

     "I think not, she will after all be trained to the limits within her own spirit and learn to distinguish one kind of spirit from another by one of our own.  After all, you can tell what they are just on their properties even though you have no strong psychic senses yet," Var said reassuringly.

     Skuld looked at Var with a resigned look and asked, "Ok, what is our first assignment and how long do we have for training?"
 
 
     Urd and Belldandy had excused themselves earlier, begging other tasks; so, while watching the tails of Skuld’s coat flip out of sight through the doorway, Var started chewing on a fingernail, a few beads of sweat beginning to form on her forehead.  Then she muttered to herself, “I wish I didn’t have to be here to begin with.  What if Mimir is wrong, Skuld? I’ll never forgive myself.”
 
 
     It was a bright sunny morning, with the usual chorus of morning songbirds that would appear whenever Belldandy was in residence.  While Megumi was waiting on the front porch Keiichi joined her.  "I don't think you know what you are in for.  I think they are discussing what to do about you," was his remark.  "Don't worry though, Belldandy would never let anything bad happen to you.  But volunteering yesterday made you another complication for them."

     "I wonder what Skuld got called in for?" he said offhandedly after a short pause.  Then he gave her a hopeful look.

     Keiichi almost jumped out of his skin when Skuld announced boldly from behind him, "That's between me, Megumi, and Aunt Var.  We have a lot of work to do and while I am gone, no funny business with my sister.  I saw all those hentai magazines you stash in that back drawer. I know where your mind is at!!  Ooh, ecchi!!"

     Keiichi turned bright red and started to sputter something about not being able to refuse gifts from his sempai.  Megumi was rolling on the floor desperately trying to contain her laughter and not quite succeeding, even with both hands over her mouth.  "Mmmf, mmmf, she has you all scoped out, doesn't she, Keiichi." she gasped.  "Kei, just leave me with Skuld and maybe later I can fill you in on the details.  By the way, I am certain Belldandy could use some help putting away the extra breakfast dishware," she said barely getting control.  Keichii saw the opportunity for escape and took it.  He quickly strode to the door without looking back.

     "Skuld, I don't think Bell would ever have a problem with Kei.  Even before yesterday, I knew her to be a very strong person, much stronger than my brother.  She can deal with anything he might think up, because I think it probably would have been her idea really to begin with," she said sympathetically while managing to sit back up.

     "So, can you tell me more of what's going on?  My brother started to tell me some of the most incredible stories before breakfast.  Suddenly a lot of things made sense that I have often wondered about.  You and your sisters being Megami and all.  I mean, that sort of thing is just something taken on faith and you never expect to meet one yourself," Megumi said to Skuld as she watched a quickly retreating Keichii.

     "Well, did Keiichi tell you that I am the Chief Debugger for Yggdrasil, and only currently here because of special training on Earth?" said Skuld with a little irritation in her voice.  "What had he told her?" was her next thought when Megumi looked at her and then grinned.

     "Well... no, all he said was that Bell, Urd and you had worked for Kami-sama on some pretty important stuff and that you were the one who generally figured out the 'why's first, and then Bell and Urd would usually figure out the ‘how’s and ‘where’s for the solutions with your help".

     This surprised Skuld.  She'd always thought that Keichii just saw her as someone who was always in the way.

     Megumi continued, "Your Aunt Var was someone he had never met before, but evidently held in pretty high regard.  Is it true that she is the boss of all those... Valkyrior, did she call them?  I would just love to have one of those bikes!!"

     "Well, we call her "Aunt" because she's like family to us, but we are not directly related.  She works as kind of a liaison officer sharing intelligence between the Megami and other groups. Mostly she works on monitoring relationships," confided Skuld.  Then she saw her opening and a conspiratorial smile crossed her face.  "Well, I know how you just might get one...  All you would have to do is a little part time work for us, and we will provide any special training or tools you might need." she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

     "Oh, wow, you really mean it, a ride like that!" Megumi said excitedly.  “But what's this part time work you need?  I mean you Megami can do anything and what could I do that you couldn't?" she added, suddenly very serious.

     "Well we needed your help yesterday didn't we, and we all have limits placed upon us by either Kami-sama or by our abilities.  Sometimes mortals can go places and see things that we can't.  Beings like myself and my sisters can set off alarms that mortals wouldn't, and things sometimes happen when certain individuals can be sure we are not around."  Skuld explained.

     Megumi looked nearly convinced and Skuld could almost see her thoughts as she weighed the pros and cons.  "What can I do to get Megumi to agree?" Skuld thought.  Then the idea hit her.  "Hey, want to have some fun?  I need someone to take me somewhere and all my sisters are busy.  Also, I can show you what kind of work would be involved."

     "What kind of fun do you have in mind?" asked Megumi.

 
     "That was fun.  It was like going through a very fast water slide without getting wet or dizzy!" exclaimed Megumi.  The short ride back to her apartment to get her motorcycle was via Skuld water transport, going from the bath in the back of the house out through a jar of water that Megumi was using to grow an avocado plant.  While she was there, Megumi changed clothes from the night before.  Putting on a fresh pair of jeans, a pale blue long-sleeved sweater, motorcycle boots and fresh makeup, she felt she was ready to go.

     "What are we going to do at the mall?" she asked as Skuld climbed on the back of her motorcycle.

      The goddess put on one of Megumi's spare helmets as she replied, "I need you to watch the front of the used bookstore there as I walk by."

      Megumi thought for a moment and then said, "What do you expect me to see when you do?  I hope it's nothing bad."

     "Aunt Var always wants to know if anyone is interested in our whereabouts and if we are being followed.  All the traces she has put out lately turn up empty the moment they are on the verge of detecting something from there, and she can't figure out who or why.  Someone is tracing our movements but is clever enough not to use any supernatural aids that we can detect.  That's where you come in.  You will watch from a distance to see if anyone reacts to me when I walk by the store I was talking about.  Since you will not be using a special aid, you won't tip anyone off that we are on to them."

     Skuld paused for a moment and added, "I don't expect anything to happen, but it's a black spot for any of our scanning and we would like to find out why."

      They arrived at the mall and parked the bike without any trouble.  The weather was nice and it was early enough that there were some good parking spots left.  There were only a few pedestrians about as they entered the shopping area and it was still relatively quiet with only street noise coming from the adjacent streets.  The street vendors were still setting up and sidewalks were still clear.  Skuld pointed out the bookstore and where Megumi was to watch.  The vantage point was about six storefronts down from the bookstore, which was on the opposite side of the walkway.

    "Watch what happens and then wait till I go out of sight.  If no one is following or nothing strange happens, meet me at the 131," directed Skuld.

     "Whose treat?" asked Megumi suspiciously, knowing Skuld's capacity for ice cream.

     "Mine. Aunt Var gave me about 5000 yen for expenses, so we can really pig out on Rocky Road.  But if something does go wrong walk back to your motorcycle and wait for me.  If I don't see you at the 131, I'll assume something’s wrong and try to meet you back there. But I don’t expect any problems," Skuld smiled back.

    Skuld watched Megumi stroll to her vantage position across the way.  When Megumi arrived at her observation point, she then started her walk toward the bookstore hoping nothing would go wrong -- she had never sampled the delicacies at this particular 131 location and was looking forward to a good ice cream indulgence.  As she approached, she sensed something wrong but just couldn't quite put her finger on it.  As she passed the door that was the entrance, she had to step away in order to avoid a large pizza box someone had discarded that had ended up on the sidewalk.  A piece of leftover pizza was hanging out of it, looking very old and disgusting.

     Megumi was watching, making a slight show of checking her watch; anyone watching casually would think she was watching for someone who had not yet arrived.  As she watched Skuld pass she didn't notice anything odd happening, except that she seemed to walk kind of funny in front of the doorway.  No one appeared to be following her as she stepped away and out of sight.  Later at the 131 and over a Berry Sundae, Megumi said "I didn't notice anything funny and no one I could see was following you from Spook Central."   This caused Skuld to giggle and choke in the middle of a spoonful.

     "Still, there was something wrong when I walked past ‘Spook Central',"  Skuld said suppressing a giggle.  She was have trouble deciding what to have for a second helping,  Rocky Road or a new flavor from the list.  "Decisions, decisions, so many flavors, so little yen," she thought, then it hit her.

     It wasn't what she didn't see, but was what she saw.  Thinking back when she walked past the store, she remembered avoiding the old pizza trash in the store doorway.  That was very odd because the owner of the shop wouldn't allow trash to stay that long in front of his store.  It would be bad for business and respectable shop owners were generally very concerned about appearances.

     "Megumi, please, I want to follow you as you walk past the store; pay special attention to the doorway and then meet me back at the motorcycle."

     Megumi looked a little puzzled but agreed quite readily.  This wasn’t so hard, she thought, and in addition, it seemed to her, Skuld seemed to be mellowing out.

     After two helpings of Cherry Garcia which the store manager didn’t even know he had and a pineapple parfait the two decided that was time to return.

     As Megumi walked in front of the store during her return to the parking lot, she noticed nothing strange except the lower half of the door was a lightly scuffed but still highly mirrored surface.  As she walked onward, she felt a tug on the soles of her feet as if she had stepped on some round pebbles.  'That's what caused Skuld to walk funny,' was her thought as she then stepped around the corner.

     Skuld was examining Megumi's boots when she returned.  "It looked like you walked almost right into that mess," said Skuld.

     "What mess?  My foot skewed on some pebbles, but I didn't see any ‘mess’?" replied Megumi as she looked at her boots hoping they weren’t stained.

     "She didn't see the pizza mess on the sidewalk?  She almost stepped right into it..." she said aloud to herself and then her words drifted off into thought.

     "What an excellent way to tell if the Megami are in the area!!" she remarked to Megumi.  Her tone was filled with admiration for the skill involved.  "Mortals would not see a thing, but one of us or our supernatural agents would react to what we thought we saw.  Naturally, we would avoid the spot, but in a slightly different way both in manner and in maneuver.  If we were observing from a distance, we would notice only the change in step, assuming the other walkers were avoiding soiling their shoes.  All a watcher would have to do was note a different foot reaction to the barrier and send out an alert.

    "The beauty of it is, we personally are not being tracked because there is no psychic trace, and only the shoe movement is the trigger, which can be seen by anyone.  Since we don't trigger the trip spell by avoiding the illusion we don't notice a thing.

     "What's even better, is the misdirection.  Anyone that could see the mess on the sidewalk would have all their attention on avoiding it and not notice the real origin.  Did you see anything odd when you walked by?" asked Skuld.

     "Just that the bottom of the store's door was a bad place for a mirror," was Megumi's answer. The logic of what Skuld was talking about was making some sense and she was amazed Skuld could come up with all these inferences in so short of a period of time.

     "Of course a mirror!  The magician always does it with mirrors and misdirection," Skuld agreed excitedly.  "Brilliant, that way the image could be changed occasionally as needed.  The spell on the mirror could be very weak but still work while not be noticed above the background noise of magic that's almost everywhere.  The image spell could be cast anywhere in line of sight to the mirror at will, be very powerful, and without the danger of the spell casting being observed. We'll want to watch this place a lot now."

     "Why?  What's so special about this store?  I have been in there a few times looking for old Chilton's Motorcycle and Car Manuals, but I have never seen anything odd there,"  Megumi asked.

     "There was a big surge of magical power around here last week and we have never found out the reason for it or its results.  We sent tracers but they bounced and dissipated with no clue as to why.  Aunt Var said the Mimir system kept predicting something big was going to happen here and soon.  Now we know that someone wants to keep tabs on any Megami-type being in close proximity of the store.  Our next job is to find out why." was Skuld’s response.

 
     The ride back to the temple was uneventful and Megumi noted that Skuld had that look of grim determination that came to her when trying to scope out all angles to a problem.  She'd had the same look while she was revising those bike blueprints for that big race a while ago.

     As Skuld hopped off the back of the bike she said,  "We are going to check in with Belldandy, then see Aunt Var and let her know what we found."  She ran into the house still wearing her helmet.

     'How did her shoes slip off so fast?  I didn't even see her stop,' Megumi thought as she entered the house, putting on the house slippers Belldandy kept for her by the front door.

     "Belldandy...Belldandy..." Skuld could be heard calling as she traveled through the living area attached to the temple.  "Belldan... Oh... Oh!!! What are you doing with my sister!!!" Skuld shouted in rage.

     Megumi walked into the kitchen as was confronted with the image of a livid Skuld staring down a very embarrassed Keiichi.  Keiichi was sitting on one of the kitchen stools with an slightly bemused Belldandy sitting more than very comfortably on his lap.  Var suddenly appeared out of a cloud of bright mist that spouted out of a corner of the room, picking up the defiant Skuld by her collar from behind.  The shock caused Skuld's face to turn ashen white as she realized who it was that had a hold of her.

     "Megumi, please wait outside, while Skuld and I have a little talk in the garden."  Var said through gritted teeth, accompanied by the rumble of distant thunder from outside.

     "Oh no, I am in for it now!!" Skuld wailed as they both shimmered out of sight.

     "Keichii-san, now where were we?" was heard by Megumi as she quickly left the kitchen, not wanting to irritate Var by continuing to invade the couples privacy, and if Belldandy wasn't concerned, well, that spoke volumes.  Keiichi had told her one of Var’s aspects was to help lovers keep their promises and she did not want to even chance enjoying the same pending fate as Skuld.

     As Megumi slipped on her shoes she saw that Urd was now sitting on the edge of the porch with a portable television.  "Now which show to watch?  The Comedy Channel or the Romance Channel?" she said with great anticipation.  "Megumi, come here, this will be too choice for words," Urd called, waving her hands anxiously towards Megumi.

     Megumi had just stepped over when the raster filled screen on the TV darkened a little and then cleared.  It showed an image of the garden with Var confronting a remorseful Skuld. The background hiss faded and Var's voice could be heard very clearly through the speaker. "How dare you interfere with my good works?" she said with an edge indicating extreme agitation.  "They weren't doing anything disrespectful to their oaths or Kami-sama's will.  You will stop interfering or you will lose even your probationary status.  What do you have to say?  I thought Urd was just exaggerating when she told me what was going on."

     Urd smirked at that and guffawed when Skuld replied, "That old Baka, she doesn't know anything.  Keichii's going to steal our sister."

     Var turned bright red.  "No one is stealing anyone.  Period.  They have an oath to each other, which they have been trying to keep in spite of you.  Now, there is no discussion on this because you know I am the authority on this."  A pause.  "Right, Skuld?" The last had a hint of steel.

     "I guess," Skuld whispered.

     "I guess!  I guess!" Var exclaimed.  She past her hands in a complicated gesture and Skuld suddenly found herself back in time watching from above while her angel overwhelmed her emotions to kiss that boy.  She returned to back to right after the  Ultimate Destruction Program', she was in her ‘older' body  and she was walking arm in arm with Keiichi down the lab hallway feeling very close and special.  Then she was back to normal, in a another time, testing Keiichi on that shopping trip, but feeling tested herself because she didn't know what these new feelings were.  They weren't what she expected.  There was now an avalanche of the many different reactions to all the large and small kindnesses that Keiichi and other boys she knew showed her. What made them special was she knew they were done just because they just liked her and didn't want anything back in return except seeing her pleasure.  Skuld refelt those emotions again and again, thousands of times.  "This is private....private and mine alone! This was different!" were her silent cries.

     "And what was different?" asked Var, the view on the screen suddenly showing her standing suddenly by Skuld's side in space.  The space around both of them was suddenly dark with only Var illuminated in a red light.  "How was what you were feeling different from how Verdhandhi feels about Keiichi?  Don't you want the best for your sister?  Keiichi has the best heart of almost any mortal I have ever met.  You diminish yourself with this selfish possession of your sister.  I can't imagine having the love Verdhandhi has shown you, without giving some of it back by letting go.  Keiichi has shown the patience of a saint to you, and that's a different kind love.  You don't know how hard it was to talk them into allowing me just to show you how to act reasonably, just because your feelings might be hurt."

     Skuld was weeping silently now, because she knew that Megami talking from their ‘True' authority never lie.

     "It's a good thing I can see you have true remorse and won't cross me on this.  Know this, you will never lose your sister's love.  Keiichi also loves you as a sister and would never hurt you intentionally.  You will all eventually will gain from this; and they feel there is nothing to be forgiven for, because they care for you that deeply."

     Skuld and Var suddenly found themselves standing back in the garden, the sunshine very bright with the darkness gone, and the birds could be heard singing again.  Skuld was drying her eyes with a handkerchief that Var had passed her.  "Remember, if  you don't learn from this and cross me by trying to prevent those two from keeping oath, I will be the one to return to this subject and will not be gentle." was the older goddess's stern warning.  "Now, wash your face and meet me on the porch in five minutes and no more will be said about this."

     Skuld walked quickly into the house through the back door, avoiding the kitchen.  As soon as she was gone, Var's face totally filled the screen and she said directly into the speaker, very coldly and with a smile filled with icy fury, "Enjoy the show, Urd?  We will now talk about privacy."

     "Ulp!" was all a startled Urd could say before disappearing in a sudden puff of mist, leaving a gaping Megumi alone on the porch.
 
 
     In exactly five minutes, a very serene Var strolled onto the porch accompanied by a very chastened Skuld.  "I wonder how long this will last?" was Megumi's thought.

     "Long enough," was the reply, which also startled Megumi.  "Strong thoughts and strong emotions are easily picked up by our kind, so don't be startled if we react.

     "Now, what was it you found?" asked Var in a normal tone.

     Skuld did most of the technical discussion, while Megumi either verified or added observations about what they found at the mall.

     "So we have a magician or at least someone who thinks like one," was Var's analysis.

    "The observation of the mirror was the key, Megumi," was Skuld's reply while Var nodded.

    This startled Megumi, as she was not used to hearing praise from Skuld.

    "We need to find where the illusion spell is being cast from.  From there, others can sense the psychic fingerprints and find out just who we are going against," Skuld added.

     "How are we going to do this?  Neither of us have any powers, so we can't psychically trace anyone.  Whoever's responsible is already alerted to my presence and will be doubly on guard," Skuld said in a very concerned tone.

     "The key is in the bookstore and we will have to see what occurs in there when it appears no one is around,"  was Var's response.  "Skuld, remember the tools I passed to you?"

     Skuld nodded and turned to Megumi.  "We have some special surveillance stuff I have to show you how to use.  I was hoping we could use it soon," she said with sudden enthusiasm.

     "We'll meet after lunch and discuss this some more.  Remember, Skuld, that we are going to use all due caution,"  Var admonished. "Right...????"

     "Right. Right. Right," Skuld hastily agreed.
 
 
     Lunch was excellent as usual with Belldandy producing an excellent pork Shogi-Yaki after a light salad of greens.  Megumi was reminded again why she seldom skipped any meals cooked up by Belldandy and never without much regret.  A desert of Nata-de-coco followed for all but Skuld.  She somehow had stashed a takeout bundle from 131 and produced it with great anticipation from the freezer --  "I haven't had Dutch Chocolate for a long time and it’s ALL mine --" and quickly consumed several scoopfuls.  Megumi was happy to observe quietly to herself that whatever trauma Skuld had experienced with Ms. Var she had quite gotten over it.  Var evidently knew exactly what buttons to push and how hard, she thought with admiration, and she hoped she could cope with children the same way when she had her own.

     Megumi helped Belldandy clean the dishes and cooking utensils while listening to the discussion Var and Skuld were having over approaches to the investigation.  She quickly learned that invisibility was a two edged sword.  While it was nice if you were unnoticed, it was also inconvenient and sometimes dangerous.  They needed to get inside the bookstore, but a door opening and closing on its own would be a big tip-off that something unusual was going on.  Also, arriving at the location was tricky, because pedestrian or other traffic would not see you in the way.  That might result in some disastrous confrontations.  The solution that was ultimately arrived at was that only one person would be invisible; they would fight misdirection with misdirection. Their partner would be the "Stalking Horse" leading the way,  providing a safe avenue of approach, and opening the entrance in a normal manner.  Megumi would return at later time and then retrieve Skuld by leaving in a normal manner.  An observer would only see Megumi come and go, and assume only one party was using the door and walkways.  Skuld could observe what was going on when the shop appeared to be without customers and then report later.

     Skuld and Megumi practiced "Shadow walking", as Var put it, for a few hours in the garden.  This allowed Skuld to learn effectively how to be Megumi's "shadow".  Not to follow so far away that someone might stumble onto her, but not so closely that she would be stepping on Megumi's heels or bumping into her.  They quickly learned a choreography which would serve.  It resembled something like a three legged race, with Skuld walking in the instep between Megumi's legs.  Taps on the shoulders indicated relative position, so Megumi would be aware of Skuld's position at almost all times.  Belldandy and Var had a hard time keeping their faces straight while watching this dance.  Whenever Megumi would inadvertently step into Skuld, the result would be either a tripped over Skuld or a stepped on Megumi.  This resulted in some minor falls and bruises, but was soon engineered in a workable pattern.  After a few successful sessions of  "Shadow walking" for five or so minutes without a stumble they declared themselves ready to go.

     Skuld pulled out of the null space that was her invisible pocket the two "helmets" and after handing one over to Megumi put the other one on.  She demonstrated how raising and lowering the visor after pressing a stud turned the stealth effect on and off.  The helmets somehow automatically adjusted in size to fit perfectly.  "Cool, the military would die to have stuff like this; the automatic fit wuld just be too much.  How does it work?" asked Megumi breathlessly.

     "Microprocessors sample for nominal pressure at certain points along the inside surface and adjust the shell accordingly.  Nanoid technology for the stealth effect," was Skuld's casual reply.

     "Nanoid technology?" Megumi asked, not quite sure what it meant.

     "The real quick explanation is: imagine lots of microscopic sensors covering your body, with the units 180 degrees directly opposite feeding an image being displayed on its corresponding unit.  There are probably 20 million units minimum being deployed when you turn it on.  Kind of like a chameleon's skin."

     Var and Belldandy looked at each other and nodded.  "Enough of the technobabble, please. You can compare notes later.  We are losing the afternoon and I need answers soon," Var interjected.  "I think you two are as ready as you need to be for this project.  Get in, look around, get out, and please come back safely."

 
     The return drive was a little more difficult as traffic had increased to its normal rate.  Skuld was in stealth mode for the ride on the back of the motorcycle and so rode totally unobserved.

    Fortunately, they didn't have to go into the "Shadow walking" routine until they were almost at the doorway.  Skuld noted that the leftover pizza had now been replaced by a spilled out bag of empty beer cans.  Entering the bookstore was less of a problem than they had been afraid of.

    The store itself, except for some small display windows showing hours and specials, was on the second floor up a stairway.  Luckily, no one was exiting as they were entering, so they didn’t have to worry about someone bumping into Skuld on their way up.

    The stairway squeaked a lot as Megumi stepped upon the individual steps, so Skuld was very careful to walk on the extreme side of the steps.  This kept the sound to a minimum.  When they entered, they found the store took up the whole second floor.  Shelves went from floor to ceiling, with convenient stools set about to help the browsing customer reach up and pull down any book that he or she might want from an upper shelf.  The cash counter was centered right in front of the stairway entrance; this allowed anyone running the cash register to watch all positions in the store.  An old fashioned grandfather style clock sat on the left side of the room, breaking the otherwise dead silence with its slow ticks accompanying the swing of its pendulum.  A path went directly back from the register to a doorway in the back.  Over the doorway was a sign reading "Sanitation Room," indicating that that was where they sanded the sides of the pages and performed other cleaning to ensure a quality product.

    Skuld ducked over to a wall where she could watch, and Megumi after making appropriate greetings wandered over to the Motorcycle Manual section and made a slight show of checking out the various manuals that were for sale.  The person behind the counter appeared to be a very bored middle-aged man who sat on a tall stool as if on sentry duty.  Megumi pulled an inexpensive volume from the shelf, looked it over and brought it over to the desk.  "I'm so embarrassed, but I'll be right back with some more money, could you please hold this book for me?" Megumi asked.  The man behind the counter shrugged and nodded yes.  Skuld had a pre-arranged 20-minute window before Megumi came back, and she hoped that something would happen soon or they would have gone through all this trouble for nothing.  She watched while the man behind the counter waited until Megumi had left, then reached under the counter and pressed a button.

     Five minutes later the door to the "Sanitation Room" popped open and the clerk walked over and called into the room, "Hey, no customers, so run the program.”

     Skuld could see into the workroom and saw something that chilled her to her soul.  It was a monitor similar to the one she used when in the heavens to trace problems before debugging, but it radiated Chaos not Order.  A hard vibration shook the floor and a green glow radiated from the doorway.  A voice returned back, "Integrity checks are still failing, but they are only 10 minutes out of phase now.  At this rate we need only one week to finish the job."

     "Is that enough time?  We are taking an awful risk with this.  If the Oni or Megami catch on they will not be kind,"  was the clerk’s  anxious reply.

     "Plenty of time if we aren't bothered too much, I think that we should see some results pretty soon.  Now pay attention to the screens and sensors.  Make sure those nosy Megami aren't back."  The door closed with a hard click.

     Skuld was really worried.  This was forbidden magic, not just because it was being done by unauthorized persons and on the Middle Earth.  It was Chaos magic.  All Oni and Megami at this time were now aligned with Order to some degree.  The last Chaos War had been where Oni allied with some Alfar against the Megami and their allies using Chaos magic against Kami-sama's Order. The war had occurred before Skuld's time and resulted in the destruction of many beings, sending them to the "real" death before their time.

    Finally as the only way to avoid mutual destruction, the duplex or doublet system was created. Each Oni and Megami would share the fate of an unknown opposite number in the case of premature death.   When a Megami reached their age of majority, they were magically paired with a Demon and any memory relating to it sealed.  As a result, no Oni would knowingly even attempt to "kill" a Megami because it would cause a loss of one of their own and vice versa (although that would be completely out of nature for most of the Megami).  The most either side would attempt would be a sealing, which was quite non-fatal but would put the opponent out action as long as the sealer had the ability to maintain the seal.

     Nevertheless, the problem with total Order was that it resulted in Entropy, which was as bad as total Chaos.  So Kami-sama decreed that Chaos should be allowed, but only in its natural state with no magical manipulation.

     The only followers of Chaos magic left were a few sects of the Alfar and a couple of resentful Oni. Which was why many clans of the Alfar were still under quarantine.  "And who just caused us a bit of grief lately?" thought Skuld.

     A few Chaos artifacts still existed under seal for instruction purposes, which allowed Skuld to recognize the monitor for what it was.  She suddenly felt that whenever Megumi returned, it wouldn't be too soon, feeling quite afraid.  The potential of such unbound power was dangerous to the Universe and anyone willing to use such extreme means would have no scruples.  She almost fainted when the large clock in the corner sounded out four strokes, quickly recovering and scolding herself for being so jumpy.

     A buzz issued from the register area and the man behind the counter pressed another hidden button.  The vibration quickly faded and then Megumi walked through the front door.  "There must be a switch on the front steps somewhere to alert the clerk of a entering customer,"  Skuld thought.

    When Megumi stepped up to the counter she presented the money required to purchase the book. As she was collecting her change, Skuld silently padded up to her to allow her to follow out the door.  When she got within touching distance to alert Megumi of her presence, a siren went off and all the lights in the room suddenly flashed in intensity temporarily blinding Skuld and Megumi.

     "What is it?!" Skuld heard the clerk from the counter yell.

     "Proximity alarm went off at the Register, that customer you have is not what she seems.  Grab her!" yelled a voice from the direction of the workroom.  This was accompanied by the sounds of running feet.

     Skuld grabbed the stud on her coat with one hand and wrapped her other around Megumi from behind.  "Panic," she thought as she broke the stud with her thumbnail.

     Suddenly she and Megumi were drenched with hot water and Skuld invoked her special mode of transport.  This trip was quite different as she had not prepared for a destination in advance.  A lack of preparation caused them to spin about haphazardly while Skuld tried to collect her thoughts.  "The temple house bath," was her final thought as she centered on that destination.

     They emerged in a type of waterspout, rising three feet in the air.  A clap of thunder accompanied their arrival, which immediately summoned a very distressed looking Var and Belldandy.  Skuld and Megumi dropped down into the hot water with a loud splash.

 
    Urd was already there, as she had dozed off soaking in the bath along with several empty ceramic bottles formerly containing sakë.  If the sound of their arrival hadn't woken her, the sudden splash of Megumi and Skuld into the bath with her certainly did.

      "Ouch," Urd complained loudly, still holding her eyes shut.  "I'll get out, you can have your turn, give me a chance."

     Grabbing a towel, she finally opened her eyes and was greeted with the image of a fully clothed Skuld and Megumi crawling soaking wet out of the bath.  Her giggling was cut short by the concerned look Belldandy and Var were giving Skuld and Megumi.

     "What happened?  I heard the alarm from the 'Panic' button and then you arrived almost out of control," asked Var in worried tone.

     "That 'Panic' button worked too well.  It didn't give me time to think straight and carry a passenger at the same time," explained Skuld in a slightly exasperated tone.

     "Next time we go on a ride like that tell me please," complained Megumi while wringing out her shirt and mopping off her face.  "What happened? One moment everything’s fine.  The next all Hell breaks loose with guys yelling to grab us.  Then you almost drown me in your sister's bath."  A pause as she counted the empties floating in the bath.  "Those all yours?" she asked Urd with stunned amazement.  Urd just gave a polite smile back.

     "We were lucky this time.  Those guys are probably playing for keeps and I didn't have time to explain.  I had a  ‘panic’ button to get us out of a jam just like this.  Boy, you mortals sure are ungrateful."  With that she grabbed a towel and stalked out of the room.

     Belldandy left and returned shortly with spare clothes that Megumi kept there for when she did all nighters for school assignments.  Keiichi had a much better computer than the one she had at her apartment and she liked to use it for some of the more complex engineering problems that sometimes required hours of processing time.

     Megumi had by that time stripped down and almost finished drying off.  Var showed immediate relief when it was obvious that no one was hurt.  "Well, when you are done here, meet me in the kitchen, where we will find out what scared Skuld so much."
 

     "A Chaos device?!  You must be mistaken, they are forbidden!" was Var's immediate response, more than a trace of anxiety coloring her tone.

      Skuld had been waiting with Belldandy, Var, Urd, and Keiichi in the kitchen when Megumi had arrived.  Keiichi was wearing his normal clothes, but the Megami had all changed to a version of their  ‘Goddess’ uniforms.  These versions, she realized, struck a chord in her in that spoke of barely contained power.  Belldandy's dress was almost glowing with blues and reds.  The white in Urd's outfit was almost blinding.  Var had changed into something that was mostly chain mail and leather, tightly covering her from shoulder to foot with a heavy cloak falling to the floor.  She was carrying a helm made of silver with what appeared to be dove’s wings on each side.  Skuld had dried off and was wearing something close to her usual outfit but had her hair tightly braided, rolled up in a type of twist on one side of her head.  On the opposite side, the head of a monster version of the hammer she normally carried emerged, balanced on large silver shoulder pads.  Megumi wondered how she could stand without falling over, as it was twice as long as her normal hammer.  One side had a nasty twin spike making it look like an incredibly violent claw hammer, a true war hammer rather than a device resembling something you would play croquet with.

     All of the Megami regarded each other with grave anticipation, resulting in even Belldandy developing a very worried look.  Megumi was starting to realize that maybe that fancy new bike would be a little harder to earn than she thought.  It was getting dark out and the morning birds had departed long ago, leaving only the zinging drone of the cicadas.

     "I know what I saw.  Now I couldn't see who was operating the thing but at about 4:00 he was talking about timing integrity checks coming only into synch this week like it was a bad thing.  But his partner said that whatever they wanted to do they could finish if they weren't disturbed really soon." was Skuld's reply to some earlier questions that Megumi had not been present for.

     "Sorry about snapping at you earlier, Skuld, but you really scared me when we bugged out of the store that way," Megumi apologized.  "Next time please warn me so I can get out my water wings, thank you," she added with a smile.

     "That's okay, I guess we were both rattled at that.  They must have had some sort of alarm that only reacted to the close proximity of magic, and I wasn't expecting that as no alarm had been sounded before." Skuld responded.  Returning the smile she remarked "Next time I'll tell Urd to sleep less soundly and leave some of the sakë for us."

     Urd's glare of response broke the mood in the room and everyone started to relax a little.

     "Well, I guess it’s time for me to find out what is required to be time synched with Yggdrasil to function properly." Urd said as she picked up the kitchen phone.  Megumi couldn't follow Urd’s fingers as she punched a very long string of numbers without even waiting for a dial tone.  'Must be really long distance,' she thought.

     "Check out the logs for who did a time integrity check at about 4:00 P.M, my time," Urd requested the phone.  Her face drew very tight while listening to a response and she quickly lowered the phone. "The logs show that a time check was issued right on schedule but that the Oni system still hadn't gotten in ‘Synch’.  You are right, it will be about a week before we're in synch again. But why is the data integrity so important...

    "Of course! That way they can hack into both systems through a back door without data integrity tipping either side off.  That's how we maintain mutual integrity of our records.  If they mess up our records, they ultimately mess up theirs because we use the same randomizer for running our databases." she said suddenly.

     "Randomizer?" asked Megumi, thinking how odd it was for a system that maintained order to have chaos intentionally inserted into the works.

     "Yes, it's a form of natural but controlled chaos which allows for better usage of storage and allows for extremely efficient retrieval from data bases.  The more complex or involved a database is, the more complex the randomizer the better," Keiichi answered, having just taken a class in Advanced DataBase Design at Nekomi Tech.

     Skuld suddenly realized what was at stake and what the unknown forces were after.  "It's blackmail!" she announced, startling everyone in the room.  She quickly explained that the Chaos device was controlling the randomizers in both the Oni and the Yggdrasil systems.  By controlling the randomizers and learning their keys, they could control random movements within their databases.  The irony was that while Controlled Chaos was the contradiction that prevented Entropy, it was what made possible a secret control over both systems which would lead to Uncontrolled Chaos.  The "Chaos" machine was the back door into both systems.  By triggering the termination effect of the Doublet system, they could eliminate their most potent opposition and no one could tell what was happening until it was too late, thinking that an unknown opposite number had somehow met a unexpected fate.  Later threats could be made to terminate anyone that didn't follow their lead.

     The telephone suddenly rang and Belldandy quickly walked to the phone and answered, “Moshi moshi, Morisato residence.”  There had been almost no delay when Belldandy responded, "Kami-sama,  you heard everything, right."  Pause. "You have already contacted your opposite number and alerted him to his peril. Good. Thank you, Kami-sama," and then hung up with a relieved look.

     It was very dark out by then and the sharp crack coming from the garden startled everyone in the room.  It sounded as if a giant hammer had hit one of the large boulders in the center of the contemplation area and shattered it into a hundred pieces.

 
      Keiichi and even the Megami present in the room were startled when suddenly a figure entered from the door leading from the garden porch. Megumi had seen her before on odd occasions, including very bad dreams revolving around being turned into a car and other more disturbing situations.

      "Mara... What... How did you get through the wards?" stammered Urd while everyone took a step back.  The Goddess of the Past raised her hands in the air and started chanting in a low voice that still seemed to resonate throughout the whole room.

      “Urd! Stop! She has safe passage! I haven’t had time to tell you,” was Belldandy’s quick response, which stopped Urd’s incantation dead.

      “Safe passage?  A demon through a holy sanctuary?  Are you sure?” Urd said very intently while keeping half an eye on Mara.  Mara would have passed as a punk rocker from the 80's if Megumi could have ignored the fangs and her eyes.  Eyes and teeth that would have belonged to a very large cat.  The torn jeans and T-shirt had seen much use and seemed a little singed around the edges.

    “Believe me, I would rather be elsewhere under different circumstances.  But orders are orders and I am here to help out,”  said Mara through gritted teeth.  “You need someone to help defuse a Chaos machine and the only way to do it is to combine White and Black Magic.  My Black magic will twist order to where Chaos won’t effect it and your White magic will twist the device to attempt to follow order,”  she said as she glanced about the room.

     “Kami-sama said someone would be coming, I just didn’t have a chance to pass it on before Mara made her entrance.  Tea, Mara?” Belldandy said with a gracious smile.

     “No time.  With these wards up, I can hardly stand it here.  Even with the safe passage, I still itch like you can’t imagine.  So let’s get to work!”  Mara replied quickly.   She rapidly strode out into the garden where a large boulder had been split vertically in two and fallen apart creating two smoking flat slabs of rock.

      “These damn Alfar, always causing trouble, with no profit for Me,” muttered Mara and began a low slow guttural chant while standing in front of the slab closest to the wall.  Skuld started to quickly trace a complex pattern with the post end of her hammer on the ground between each slab.  Weird green fire seeming to emanate from both slabs filled the garden with a glow that you could almost read by, yet it seemed to stop at the edge of the garden.  Skuld quickly rushed over to Megumi as soon as Urd moved over to the other slab and started chanting in counterpoint — but in a different tone that sounded almost like singing.

     “First, Mara will circumscribe the Chaos machine.” Skuld quickly confided to Megumi.  “Yep, there it goes!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down as one slab started to float up in the air, stopping at about 6 feet in altitude.  “Now, Urd will start having an effect,” she added just before the other slab rose up to the same height.  A quick flash of light and then total darkness followed.

     “This time he’s ours!  You guys were too kind to the other guy that was messing around; we won’t be merciful, that’s too much your style!”  Mara exclaimed with a wild light in her eyes.

     “Till next time; now time for some real fun!!” she yelled as she seemed to turn into mist and descended into the earth.

     “Boy, that was fast.  Mara was sure in a hurry.  I hope there's something left after the other side gets through with him, because we have some questions too,” Var said speculatively.

     “Like where he got the equipment and who else was involved?” Megumi added to Skuld who gave a quick nod.

     Var then looked over with an appraising gaze at Megumi and smiled.  “It looks like things are working out.  You’ve been a big help and I think we will need your help tomorrow — if that’s OK with you?”

     “Sure, as long as it’s for the right side, I’ll give you whatever aid I can,”  replied Megumi with a tired smile.  “Skuld, it looks like you and I are going to be in for a lot of work.  That had better be some ride I’m working for.”

     Skuld looked both tired and relieved.  “What will tomorrow bring?” she thought.
 
 
     Belldandy waited, biting her lip, until all but she and Var had left the room.  Then with a slight frown she quietly stepped over to Var and whispered, “We need to talk.  You haven’t told me everything and it shows.  You are covering it quite well, but I think you are really on the edge.  And if it involves risk to either Skuld or Megumi, I have to know.  As much as you try to show confidence in this, I see real panic in your shadow.”

     Var returned a look that almost approached panic, then a grateful look filled her face with a slight tear forming in one eye.  “Verdhandhi, you see things too clearly sometimes.  Okay, I’ll fill you in and you might not like what you hear, especially about my shadow.  But, later.  Please.”

'Raster' is the technical term for the static snow when a transmission is cut off or not available.

Oni are a class of sub-demonics that follow or are minions of true Demons and sometimes Youkai.

On the telephone, Urd reverted to Main Frame computer patter.  When we do systems checks we tend to draw out the sentences a little so we can think of any additions we need for our request.  System logs tend to have relative dates to the system.  I can log onto the Main Frame using one LPAR (logical partition) and see one time on the console and a different time on the log depending on the location of the terminal.

Why consistently refer to the gods as 'megami' (goddesses)?
Actually my impression of the venue was that there were no male "gods" other than Kami-sama.  The other male figures that we encounter in the series are all various incarnations of elemental spirits.  It appears that the author thinks that the high-level spirits manifest themselves in feminine appearance.  All the male characters have appeared as either lower-level lackeys or (in the case of Troubadour) as elemental spirits attached to natural forces or natural objects (plants, waterfalls, etc..)