4Disclaimer: Oh My Goddess belongs to KÅsuke Fujishima
2nd disclaimer: I forgot to upload chapter 5 of the Mara the wishgranter story. That's why this chapter was re-uploaded. I apologize for the shuffling around of the chapters.
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Lind frowned slightly and said, "Even though this has decent entertainment value, I seem to think that this could also be used to provide some measure of military intelligence. Assuming the things that it shows us are indeed true. What do you think, Cadet?"
Chrono whispered, "What if a Goddess actually did become a demon?"
"Clever," said the twin angel Goddess. "That would be useful to know."
The television hummed quietly, then began playing.
Keiichi knew that he just had to distract Hagal long enough to let Belldandy get close enough to use the crystal Hild had given her. But once the second Goddess power absorbing unit began to function, the plan fell apart entirely. He felt bitter tears of vexation and frustration well up in his eyes.
"What did you do to him?" Belldandy asked, trying to gather whatever strength she had remaining.
"Oh nothing much, just an illusion mixed with time dilation. You will not care for long. He's only a lousy mortal. After you become a demon, I'll make you kill him, just to make sure he's out of Hagal's sight." Hagal said.
Through her exhaustion Belldandy stated simply, "I would never hurt Keiichi."
"Hagal wants to see if that opinion still hold true if you become a demon," Hagal said as she walked over to a panel and pressed a few buttons.
The machine overhead began to hum and Hagal laughed.
"Keiichi, I will rescue you out of that nightmare that Hagal has subjected you to," Belldandy said, as she crawled towards him. She almost reached him when the machine finished draining her residual goddess energy. Then the true terror began. Belldandy shrieked in both pain and horror as she felt herself becoming a demon.
"Heh heh." Hagal cackled smugly. "Now you will become Hagal's treasured servant, Hagal's sword against the Heavens! Do Hagal's bidding henceforth!" Hagal said, with a victorious grin.
Belldandy's face rapidly switched between fury and passivity as Hagal's Machine rewrote the code that was the goddess' essence and began inserting demon energy.
Hagal's laugh ceased when Belldandy's face went blank and her arm fell to her sides. Speaking to herself mostly, Hagal said, "My beautiful demon. We will enslave all goddesses like this. This is the true power of demonki -"
Keiichi slammed his shoulder into Hagal's back. The rebel Daimankaicho fell over. Keiichi fell onto her and began inexpertly pummeling her with his restored limbs. She was smaller than he. He yelled, "If I can awake from a nightmare, you can too Belldandy!"
But it could not last. With the inherent strength of a demon, Hagal slapped Keiichi off of her with the back of her hand. Keiichi's jaw broke. "Hagal can be so crude," Hagal said. She walked over to where Keiichi was picking himself off the ground in preparation for another attack and kicked him viciously in the ribs. There was a horrible cracking sound before Keiichi fell over. One more kick resolved any further question of Keiichi trying to reassert his place in the fight.
"Hagal orders you to take you to take out the garbage," Hagal said as she pointed at at Keiichi.
Belldandy picked up the unconscious Keiichi by the belt as she might a sack of rice. She began walking to the trash chute. Suddenly, Keiichi jerked in her hand as coughing blood and convulsing. Seeing him like that stirred up some feeling of regret in Belldandy.
'Lady Hagal wants me to take out this gar...' Belldandy thought. "Is Keiichi really garbage?," a tiny voice whispered. Belldandy's eyes flew open.
"Keiichi really is something special, isn't he? Silly Hagal. That slave program would never work against someone like Bell-chan. I have a plan," Hild's voice said, as Belldandy put down Keiichi. When she noticed Belldandy was about to use a scan spell on Keiichi, Hild's voice then said, "Belldandy! Trust me, you can do that later!"
Belldandy refused to listen and scan spelled Keiichi anyways. What Belldandy saw horrified her.
"No... No... How... How could she..." Belldandy said, covering her mouth in shock.
"After Hagal is stopped, I'll help you get Keiichi back to a semblance of normal in any way I can. Go over to Hagal and blow in her ear. I'll handle the rest." said the tiny Hild.
"Hagal wants to know what is the holdup," Hagal said. Belldandy turned to gaze at Hagal with what Hagal took as a blank expression.
It was not a blank look on Belldandy's face, not at all. It was a look of supreme fury. With a swiftness that left no doubt as to her Valkyrie training, Belldandy flew at Hagal and hit her, breaking Hagal's jaw, knocking her down at the same time. A spinning kick followed milliseconds later, shattering part of Hagal's skull. Hagal collapsed to the floor.
"Belldandy, control yourself!" Hild's voice shrieked.
With a calculating hatred, Belldandy knelt down and casually broke one of Hagal's arms. Hagal shrieked inarticulately and mindlessly tried to rise. Belldandy expertly kicked Hagal in the ribs precisely where she had kicked Keiichi.
"Is this how a daughter of Tyr comports herself?"
Belldandy whispered quietly, "How dare you hurt Keiichi." With the incalculable strength of rage, she ripped off Hagal's arm where she had broke it and flung it casually aside. Hagal passed out.
Hild then realized how to stop Belldandy. "Would Keiichi want you to act like this?"
Belldandy paused to consider, then magically shattered all the bones in Hagal's left leg.
"Cover her eyes and we can proceed."
Despite herself, Hild found that she retched in horror. Hagal would never be using her vision based power again.
"Ok. We do not need to tell Keiichi about that. Blow in her ear and then heal her jaw. We can fix Keiichi. Focus Bell-chan."
"No," said Belldandy firmly. She bit down equally firmly, silencing one one millionth of the former Daimankaicho forever. She tilted her head to the side, noticing the increase in strength and knowledge that absorbing Hild gave her.
Belldandy looked around imperiously. "By the laws of Hell, there is a new Daimankaicho. In year zero of my reign, I, Belldandy, assume the position of Daimankaicho, Empress of Hell, together with the powers and responsibilities that come with that office." Belldandy glanced at the still alive Hagal. "I affirm the Doublet System. I will suffer this one to live." Her lips curved slightly upward at the double meaning.
The new Daimankaicho walked over to Keiichi and with a gentleness that belied her new office, stroked his cheek. "I will heal your mind, body and soul, my dearest one. Soon, we will never be separated again." Belldandy picked the broken sack of bones and organs tenderly. With a speed brought on by necessity and new demon strength, she flew with the limp form holding the small life spark Keiichi possessed even now to the Pampas of Silence, the storage place of demons who had broken the laws of Hell.
Belldandy placed Keiichi gently on the ground. She strode towards the machine that held the frozen Hild. She attended to the controls for a moment. A frozen Hild slowly emerged from the pod that held her. Belldandy levitated up next to the star marked demon and kissed Hild. She let go of the kiss once the energy levels between the two were synchronized. She said, "I am sorry, step-mother, but it is time for a reign of responsibility in Hell." Quietly, Belldandy began singing. It was an awful and terrible song. It grew louder, and then louder again. Wind and light began dancing around Belldandy and Hild. Belldandy kissed Hild again as the energy transfer took place. Once complete, Belldandy kissed the former Daimankaicho for the last time, before sealing her away permanently. "Three kisses for your one," she said seriously.
Kneeling next to Keiichi, Belldandy touched him gently. "Beloved. You will be well soon." His body began swiftly mending itself. Belldandy was satisfied as she felt Keiichi's life begin to glow warm again.
She would deal with her idiot sisters soon enough to teach them caution when playing with strange magic. And there was time later to inform all of Hell and Heaven of her reign. For now, it was enough to embrace Keiichi and hold him close as his life began to reassert itself.
The television went blank. Lind's hand unconsciously rubbed her eyes.
"Right," said Urd. "It definitely shows lies. Uh, Belldandy could never do that," she finished lamely.
Skuld vomited.
-oOo-
Interlude
In an abandoned arcade, three demons were sitting on a dirty couch. Two of the three demons were watching an old television in stunned silence with opened jaws. The third was also watching the old television, but had a smirk on her elfin face. The television showed the picture of a living room in a nearby temple house. In the picture, there were four goddess that had just finished watching their own television. The smallest one began violently heaving. The other three reacted to the little one with various means but all generally lacking effectiveness. A click on the remote control turned off the television.
"Hild-sama, surely that machine cannot show true things. There's no way Belldandy could behave like that. Even when she was temporarily made a demon, the worst thing she could find herself doing was littering a little. Not Belldandy."
"I am not so sure, Ma-chan," said Hild musingly. "Unlike last time, Belldandy had all her goddess energy removed by Ha-chan's machine. Her very code was rewritten. And most importantly, Keiichi had been hurt, badly."
Mara opened her mouth as if she was going to argue, but caught herself. For Hild, it was a wonderful invitation to impress a point, "You may want to remember that, Ma-chan. If you were to ever really hurt Keiichi, your punishment might be swift. Or worse, it might not."
Hild went on, "Still, I wonder. What do you think, my dear Mok-chan? Do you think the machine accurate? It would seem Skuld certainly thinks so."
Mokkurkalfi thought for a moment. "There's a theory that states different molecule movements create a near infinite number of different realities. If Skuld built that machine to view those realities, then, I suppose these actions could be real." Her emotions should have been difficult to hide under the helmet with built in welding glasses she was wearing, but her expansive features when compared to Keiichi made the latter look like a professional poker player.
"Could you do that?"
A giant grin appeared on the mechanic's face. "Anything that brat can I, I can do twice as well!"
"Good girl," said Hild sweetly.
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Note from HotelKatz: While I started the... well... roughdraft of the chapter (more of a snippet of a roughdraft, now that I think about it...), Trip of the Goddess Relief Office website really fleshed it out. He even managed to write in a way to have Hild and Mara's comments for future stories.
Note from Trip: Hotelkatz was nice enough to not tell me off when I screwed up one of his stories and polite enough not to tell me it sucked. Thanks buddy. I hope we work together more in the future.
