Disclaimer time: Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz Communications own Ranma 1/2. Kosuke Fujishima, Dark Horse Comics and Studio Proteus own Oh! My Goddess (Ah! Megami-sama). My pre-readers, without whose help this chapter would be much worse: Dave Menard, Gary Kleppe, James Merritt, Jeremy Fogelman, Paul Steele, Thomas Hackwood What else? Ah, C&C, public and private, is _always_ welcomed with open arms. Corwin (ely7@inter.net.il or corwin@virtuallyjeannie.com) http://lavender.fortunecity.com/friday/573/anime.html * Previous chapters can also be found at: http://members.xoom.com/phu_lam/index.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/rfics.html Wrath of Gods Chapter 6 Ranma and Akane walked over to the shrine, running a little late. Since one way or the other, they wouldn't be going back to their campsite, all equipment had to be packed and carried with them, which caused the delay. "I hope Bell will wait for us," Ranma said a few meters away from the shrine's entrance. "For something like this, I'd say she will," Akane answered, trudging up behind him. Nodding silently, Ranma closed the distance to the entrance, and stepped inside. "Hey, there's no one here!" he exclaimed in surprise shortly after. "Maybe she's late too," Akane offered, finally entering the shrine and dropping the heavy backpack on the ground with a thud. "Are you tired, Akane?" Ranma asked, concern showing in his eyes. "No," she lied, averting her gaze. She knew better than to try and hide something from those blue-grey eyes of his. "Alright," he conceded, not wanting to start an argument over something as petty as this. "So let's just make ourselves comfortable, and wait for..." "Ranchan!" "Airen!" "Saotome, you fiend!" Before anyone else had a chance to shout, Ranma was already on his feet and holding a ball of swirling ki the size of a basketball in his cupped hands. Akane, having abandoned her backpack, stood beside him, lightning coursing through her form. "What are you doing here?" Ranma asked in a low voice, that had a dangerous undertone to it. "Airen no go with Violent Girl, come stay with Shampoo!" Ranma's right eyebrow twitched. 'What did I do to deserve this?' he asked himself mournfully. 'Umm... Ragnarok comes to mind,' another part of him answered, pulling an eyelid as the first part groaned in disgust. "Oh man, I'm breaking apart," Ranma mumbled, too quiet for anyone except Akane to hear, before pulling himself together to say, "Go away. Shoo. None of you belong here." "But, Ranchan, I'm your cute fiancee. How can you elope with Akane when you have me?" Ranma's eyebrow twitched again. "Look, Ucchan, if I promise that I'm not eloping with Akane, will you go home?" Ranma said, while hurriedly thinking, 'I don't have time for this, Bell can get here any moment!' Before Ukyo could answer, a new voice spoke, "Are you in a hurry, Ranma?" "Urd," Ranma stated flatly, his expression darkening. Tilting his head slightly towards his guardian, he said urgently, "Get behind me, Akane." She started to protest, when the pigtailed demon hissed, "Move!" Turning towards the goddess, Ranma sneered at her. "Where's your pig, or did you leave him at home this time?" While he was projecting control and power outwards, inside Ranma was climbing the walls. 'Shit, what else can go wrong?! If I can't scare her, we'll have to fight and all those people will get in the way!' "We don't need any humans to stop you, Demon!" Skuld shouted from the other side of the shrine. "Oh, Ranma?" Urd said, drawing all attention to her. "Nabiki Tendo says hi." Ranma's expression betrayed the shock he felt, and his control over the ball of ki wavered, the energy dissipating harmlessly. Cursing, he began conjuring up another one, when a bolt of lightning struck him squarely in the chest. The demon flew backwards a few meters, taking Akane with him, until they impacted against a wall heavily. Shaking his head to clear it of the cobwebs, Ranma glanced down to see Akane slumped on the floor unconscious, having taken the brunt of the impact. His eyes flaring, Ranma jumped to his feet, his clothing changing color to black. "You shouldn't have done that," he warned in a low voice. As he was about to advance on Urd, a familiar voice shouted to him, "Foul demon! Release your hold on the pigtailed goddess at once!" Before Ranma could do anything about the annoyance, a glowing katana sliced cleanly through the wood, breaking Kuno's bokken at the hilt. While the kednoist could only stare at his ruined weapon in shock, a hooded figure quickly made its way over to Ranma's side. "Who are you?" Ukyo shouted, the first in her group to recover from witnessing the goddesses attack Ranma. Smirking, Ranma put his hand on the woman's shoulder. As Nodoka removed the hood covering her face, Ranma announced, "Allow me to introduce my mother, Amaterasu Omikami." -------------------------------------------------- Somewhere in Akane's mind, she groaned, slowly standing up. 'What hit me?' she wondered, before recent events came rushing in. They had been ambushed, and the goddesses caught them off guard with a lucky shot. 'Caught off guard? What could've caused that?' Suddenly, realization hit her. "NABIKI!" Akane shouted at the top of her voice, remembering whom Urd said had sold them out. 'I wonder where I am?' Akane walked around the clearing, following the edge of a huge crater, careful not to fall in. "Craters! Why do they always have to be craters?!" another voice exclaimed from behind her. Shrieking, Akane jump and turned around, only to find Ranma standing a few meters away from her, an annoying smirk on his face. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" she shouted, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Sneak up on you? What do you mean?" Ranma asked her, cocking his head to the side. "Oh, forget about it! Do you know where we are?" "Of course. You're dreaming," Ranma answered, starting to trace weird circles with his hands. "Stop it, you idiot!" she growled, narrowing her eyes. Ranma shrugged and started dissolving. "Hey! Where are you going?" Akane shouted, running towards him. "Like I said, Akane, you're dreaming. I can't stay here for long." Seeing that Akane was still frantic, and afraid to be left alone, he added, "Look, Akane, I'd like to stay here an' all, but someone's gotta defend us from those loonies tryin' to kill us." Smiling genuinely, Ranma said, "Take your time, and don't worry about a thing. I'll protect you," before dissolving completely. "Jerk!" Akane yelled to the empty space in front of her. The nerve of him, leaving her all alone like this. Well, she'd show him. She was a martial artist too... among other things. Akane was so immersed in her thought, that she almost missed the background changing. With a startled yelp, the guardian found herself in a place she instantly recognized, albeit not remembering being there before. Before she could contemplate how weird that was, she gasped at the scene in front of her. There she was, covered in blood, and holding Ranma! Throwing caution to the wind, Akane raced to help the couple, only to pass through them. "What the Hell..." she said, before reaching out with a hand to touch the other Akane's shoulder. Her hand passed right through, as if she were looking at an illusion. 'No, not an illusion,' her mind told her at that time. 'A mental projection.' "Whatever," Akane replied to herself, shrugging. It seemed that her mind wanted to show her something, another piece of her past. Who was she to argue? Accepting her fate for the time being, Akane watched intently as the memories played themselves out in front of her eyes... -------------------------------------------------- "Ranchan! Akane!" Belldandy shouted, running towards the pair. Ranma was lying unconscious on the floor in her living room, with his guardian holding his head in her lap, looking extremely exhausted as well. Belldandy decided that there would be time for questions later. For the time being, she had to concentrate on healing her uninvited guests. Producing a purple ball of mana, she released it above Ranma's chest, the glow spreading all over the demon's body. The cuts and bruises on Ranma's body flared in defiance, glowing angrily in reaction to the Norn's efforts. "It's... it's not working!" Belldandy exclaimed frantically after a few moments, the mana dissipating. "Akane! What happened? Why is Ranma's body rejecting the healing?!" "T-They m-must've poisoned the w-weap..." Akane got out, before slipping into unconsciousness. "No! Akane, Ranma, get up!" Belldandy shouted to no avail. Sobbing and sagging to her knees, she mumbled to herself, "I wish Urd were here..." Taking a look at Ranma's pale face, Belldandy rose from the floor, determination burning in her eyes. "Don't worry, Ranchan, I'll save you!" she declared, before rushing off to get her medical supplies. Retrieving her goddess medical kit, Belldandy cleaned Ranma's injuries, applying antiseptic to them and bandaging the wounds with care. She decided to break the arrows at the point of entry, and burn the portion still lodged inside Ranma's body with her mana, sterilizing the wounds at the same time. Akane was the next to receive Belldandy's ministrations. In a few minutes, both the young demon and his guardian were treated, and their condition stabilized. "Oh, Ranma, what am I going to do with you now?" the goddess sighed wearily, plopping down on a couch. -------------------------------------------------- The sound of Akane stirring woke Belldandy up from her slumber, and she hurriedly scooted over to the wounded guardian. "Wha... what happened?" Akane slurred, her unfocused eyes looking in Belldandy's general direction. "You just appeared in my house yesterday, Akane. I tried to help you the best I could, but I'm afraid that my magic didn't work on you," Belldandy said apologetically, her eyes downcast. "You saved our lives! How can you even think of blaming yourself?!" Akane exclaimed incredulously, before slumping. 'Besides, it was really _my_ fault that Ranma got hurt,' she thought dejectedly. "Well, as you can see, I've used standard medicines to try and help you," Belldandy started explaining, since Akane didn't seem to have anything to add. "You're already on your way to a fast recovery, however, Ranma... Ranma was in a far worse situation, and, well..." "Is he dying?" Akane managed to choke out, mentally berating herself for being to slow to get him to safety, for failing to follow Ranma's plan, and for anything else that went wrong during the mission and just had to be her fault. "He's not dead yet!" the Norn of the Present declared with power that surprised even herself. Getting her bearings, she sat up straight, and continued in a much softer voice, "We'll find a way to save him... somehow," the last word spoken barely above a whisper. -------------------------------------------------- During most of that day, Akane lay in a bed in Belldandy's guest room with her eyes closed, yet sleep avoided her. She kept reviewing their mission, and everything that had gone wrong on it. If only she could go back in time with the knowledge she had now... but no, it's not like a person could take some sort of a 'time key' and return to the past. Even if said person was a Demonic Guardian Angel. Ranma's condition remained critical the whole time, and Belldandy kept a constant watch over him, ready to move Heaven and Earth if it came to that to save him. The only thing keeping the goddess - and Akane herself, she realized - sane, was the slim possibility for Ranma's recovery. After all, he was pretty strong, and his healing abilities were unrivaled in any pantheon. 'I wish I could be there with Ranma, as well,' Akane thought, with a healthy dose of longing. She couldn't explain these new feelings that assaulted her ever since she saw Ranma take that arrow for her. Hell, she couldn't even understand most of them! But one thing Akane was sure of, and it was that her relationship with Ranma would never be the same again. 'Perhaps, this bedtime rest is for the best...' Akane mused to herself. 'If nothing else, I'm bound to sort out all of my emotions in the meanwhile. And if... No! When Ranma wakes up, I'll talk to him about all of this. I'm sure he'll know what to do.' Akane rolled over and lay on her side. Her decision had been well and good, but no easy solution was magically appearing. Sighing, she hoped once again that Ranma will be all right, and tried counting sheep to help her go to sleep. -------------------------------------------------- Surprisingly enough, Belldandy's thought mirrored Akane's almost perfectly. The goddess was sitting on a chair, watching Ranma as he lay, motionless, in her bed. At first, she dared not move him, either physically or by magic, for fear that it'd be the straw that crushed the camel's back and cut the young demon's already fragile connection to this world. Eventually, however, the goddess decided to take the risk, and levitated the demon's body as gently as she could into her bedroom, where the only vacant bed in her home remained. Ranma has always been her friend, ever since they met that faithful day when she accidentally shot him with a ball of lightning. And, subsequently, he was a boy. So, technically speaking only, of course, he was her 'boy' 'friend'. "Boyfriend," Belldandy repeated the word to herself, quietly, blushing fiercely. She had, in fact, been accused several times in the past of being overly 'friendly' with the demon. The goddess never took that too seriously, however, since all of her girlfriends who'd met Ranma swooned after him, forgetting their own lectures. 'Now that I think about it, that sort of thing always bothered me for some reason,' Belldandy mused silently, before adding mentally, 'The way those vultures always pawed my Ranma!' The goddess' blush grew to monstrous proportions, and she instinctively looked around the room to check if anyone was there who could've read her mind. 'Oh my! Did I just think that?' Belldandy got up and walked over to Ranma's prone form. Squatting on the edge of the bed beside him, she brushed a few bangs of his unruly hair out of his face, silently admiring it. 'Do you see me just as a friend... or as something more?' she wondered, momentarily tensing up as Ranma shuddered in his sleep. As the demon's body relaxed, Belldandy thought, 'I wonder what can I do to make him notice me?' biting her lower lip. She knew what several girls her age did to get boyfriends, but she wasn't like that; she couldn't possibly do any of those things! 'Maybe I should ask big sister for help,' Belldandy reflected. 'I'm sure she could help me out! And she likes Ranma... well, sort of... at least they don't insult each other every time anymore.' Frowning, the Norn of the Present decided to try something else before calling Urd for help. She certainly didn't want this to become one of her sister's 'pet projects'. Belldandy shuddered involuntary. 'Maybe if I ask him out, I can find out how he feels...' Realizing that there was nothing she could do before Ranma woke up, the goddess sighed and resumed her watch over him. Should he pull through the rest of the day and the night, Ranma's healing powers would kick in; all he had to do is just hold on for a little longer. Just a few more hours... -------------------------------------------------- Ranma regained consciousness, and immediately wished he hadn't. His whole body hurt, especially his right shoulder, which felt as if on fire. Trying to sit up, he felt something in the way. Groggily opening up his eyes, Ranma saw a blur, with small tentacled demons dancing happily around it. Blinking a few times helped clear his vision, and as the demons pouted and disappeared in colorful puffs of smoke, Ranma found out that the object keeping him in his place was an arm. A slender and very female arm. Suddenly, Ranma noticed that he was in a bed. The last time he checked, he hadn't gone to sleep in one. On the verge of panic, the young demon examined the arm, and found out that it was attached to an equally attractive and very familiar body. At that point, he did the only thing he could. Ranma screamed his lungs out. Belldandy stirred up and yawned, before realizing that she had fallen asleep when she should have been watching Ranma. Looking at him and fearing the worst, the goddess wasn't prepared to find him staring wide- eyed at her face... No, not her face, she realized suddenly. Remembering that in all the haste to treat Ranma and Akane the other day, all she had on was a robe, which had slipped slightly during the night, showing the young demon a healthy amount of cleavage, Belldandy blushed beet red and quickly rearranged it. "Um... did I die and go to Heaven?" Ranma asked hesitantly. "You got the Heaven part right," Belldandy replied just as nervously, before she couldn't help herself any longer and jumped into his arms, crying out, "Ranma! I thought I lost you!" "Gah! I-I'm h-happy to see you too, B-Bell-chan," Ranma stammered, on the verge of mental overload. 'He's glad to see me!' Belldandy cheered mentally, melting inwardly at his words. 'Oh, and he called me Bell-chan again. I just love it when he does that!' Filled with determination, Belldandy decided to take action. Even if he didn't feel the same way, she had to tell him, because she might never get another chance. Pulling back slightly from Ranma's chest, Belldandy looked at his face and closed her eyes. Closing the short distance between them, her lips met with his in a hesitant kiss that turned surer when Ranma didn't pull back. After what seemed like an eternity later to her, the goddess was brought back to reality with the beating of her own heart, and she pulled away gently, opening her eyes to gaze directly into his. 'I can't back down now,' Belldandy told herself, before opening her mouth and saying, "Ranma... I love you..." -------------------------------------------------- Akane seethed in anger, as her memories showed her double from the past standing at the door, frozen in shock over what she had just witnessed. She saw Ranma's mind finally go into overload and shut itself down. The female guardian saw the goddess virtually glow after the kiss... And all this bothered her more than she'd care to admit. 'Why do I care what that pervert does?' she thought, huffing, as the scene froze, before leaving her standing inside of the crater where she'd embarked on her little journey from. Akane felt herself being pulled into two different directions. One of them wanted nothing else to do but to go and bash Ranma on the head with something heavy, while the other was genuinely happy for him. "What's happening to me?" she asked no one in particular out loud. Ranma and his stupid quests. Where he went, trouble was sure to follow, Akane knew that and even managed to accept it to a degree. But this was ridiculous! Demons, goddesses, ancient enemies and spells... it sounded like a bad fantasy manga! By this point, she wouldn't be surprised if some reincarnated high elf suddenly showed up and claimed that she was Ranma's fiancee. At least there weren't any sailor-suited warriors of love and justice involved... yet. Akane gagged, and shuddered in a manner resembling Belldandy's earlier on. 'I better get out of here before I think of something even worse,' Akane thought, and immediately became white as a sheet. She had, and the... the atrocity had a name... Pokemon. Akane screamed in terror, and blacked out in her dream. -------------------------------------------------- "I'm gonna ask this only once," Ranma growled. "Where's Belldandy?" While the crowd from Nerima just blinked owlishly, Skuld stomped her foot and shouted, "You leave big sister alone!" "Oh? And did she tell you that she wants to be left alone?" Ranma asked the young goddess condescendingly. "Belldandy isn't fit to make that decision," Urd interjected, readying a lightning bolt in case Ranma tried a sneak attack. "You're a fine one to talk!" Ranma shot back angrily. "Yep, you're one prime example of maturity!" "Shut up!" Urd shouted, before regaining her head. "I knew you've been lying to Belldandy. You obviously remember more than you told her you did," Skuld piped in, pointing an accusing finger towards the demon. "Actually, I was only makin' an educated guess, based on the time you shot me an' Akane with that lightning all of a sudden. From your reaction it seems I was right," Ranma replied smugly, as Urd seethed in barely controlled anger. "Enough!" the Norn of the Past declared, gaining everyone's attention. "You're not getting out of here alive!" This statement spurred a lot of action, as Cologne got in a fighting stance, facing off Urd, while dispatching Ukyo, Shampoo and Konatsu to surround Skuld. Goddesses or not, she wasn't about to let them kill Ranma. Tatewaki and Kodachi faced each other, each planning what to do with Ranma after their glorious victory. Soun was in a corner, crying about the fate of Anything Goes, while Genma had already fled the area at the first sign of his wife's glowing katana. This left Mousse alone, and he used the opportunity to try and rid the world, and Shampoo, of Ranma, once and for all. Dozens of knives and shurikens were launched at his target, Ranma making no attempt to avoid them. When the objects were a few meters from him, the demon waved his hand, and a transparent barrier formed around him, stopping the projectiles. "Fool!" Ranma shouted at Mousse. "You dare attack a first class demon with these toys?!" Unabated, Mousse launched a volley of chains at Ranma, trying to penetrate the shield he had erected. Ranma pointed his hand towards Mousse, the barrier solidifying and flying towards the chains. Instead of stopping Mousse's barrage, the wave of water continued, until it hit him and reverted the nearsighted boy to a duck, subsequently driving him backwards and knocking him out. As Shampoo and Ukyo's attention was averted to the fight between Mousse and Ranma, Skuld took one of her bombs out of her shirt pocket, and sent it towards them. Konatsu barely had time to push Ukyo out of the way, while he himself wasn't quite so lucky. Shampoo, who had been shielded from most of the blast by Konatsu, let out a cry and charged the goddess, Ukyo picking up her spatula from where it had landed and joining the Chinese girl a moment later. Cologne hadn't been taken off guard like her great-granddaughter, and leapt out of the way of Urd's lightning bolt. The goddess decided to attack a fraction of a second after seeing her sister throw one of her bombs, as the situation had clearly spun out of control. Witnessing a gnarled little old woman dodge her blast so skillfully alerted the eldest Norn to the ancient Amazon's hidden skills, and made her consider her next move carefully. Cologne was thinking along similar lines. Her opponent was a goddess, and a powerful one at that, if she wasn't wrong about her. This meant that holding back was not advisable if she wanted to survive the battle, let alone win it. Having dealt with his nuisance, Ranma studied the shrine grounds. Tatewaki was trying to knock out his sister, but wasn't doing so well without his bokken. In fact, he was retreating, and using what remained of his weapon to create air pressure, to keep Kodachi at bay. Konatsu appeared to be out of it, and would probably need a few days of rest when all would be over. That, and a new set of clothes. Ukyo and Shampoo were doing a good job dodging those bombs, but that didn't leave them much room for counter-attacking. At least Skuld had her hands full with the girls. Ranma wondered briefly what would run out first - Ukyo and Shampoo's luck or the young goddess' supply of bombs. Cologne and Urd's battle was the most interesting of all. The Amazon was using her splitting cat hairs technique to attack Urd from several directions at Amaguriken technique speed, the goddess trying to retaliate with multiple lightning strikes at Cologne's after-images. Ranma found himself fascinated by the various techniques used in the fight and their variations, storing the information away for latter use. Just as it seemed that Cologne had gained the upper hand, Urd called for her angel, both of them putting the Amazon on the defensive. A few moments later, Skuld got a lucky shot and nailed Shampoo with one of her bombs, Ukyo managing to shield herself from the blast with her spatula, with became useless afterwards. One of Shampoo's bon-bori flew out of her hand and knocked out Soun, who had been oblivious to the rest of the world at that point. The tide in the fight was turning, and Ranma and his mother were bound to get involved in it soon. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Ranma began to form a red ball of mana, when a hand landed on his shoulder, getting his attention. "You must get out of here, my son," Amaterasu said. As Ranma attempted to argue, she gestured at Akane's prone form with her hand, silencing him, and continued, "You have to think of other people as well. Her life is your responsibility, don't forget that." "I... I know that, Mom," Ranma replied, bowing his head, his clothing reverting to his original outfit. "Go to the Grand Shrine of Ise; you'll be safe while you stay in its premises. I'll join you and Akane there as soon as I can." "Yes, Mom. Just... can you tell me what can I do? There has to be a way to stop this, I know it!" Amaterasu bowed her head, unable to lie to her son. "I... we'll try our best, Ranma." Nodding, Ranma stepped back, conjuring a puddle of water on the floor. Walking over to Akane and picking her up, he was about to open a gateway to his mother's shrine, when she gave him her katana. "Take Kusanagi with you, Ranma," Amaterasu said, smiling. "Use it well." "But... but what about you, Mom?" he asked, surprised. Amaterasu laughed, her smile growing. "Don't worry about me, Son. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve." Seeing that Ranma was still glancing nervously at the two Norns gaining more and more ground with every passing second, Amaterasu rushed him towards the puddle of water, saying, "Go!" Sighing, Ranma jumped into the puddle of water, teleporting himself and Akane out of Susano's shrine. The second he was gone, Amaterasu flared as bright as the sun itself, temporarily blinding everyone. Turning towards Urd, who was shielding her eyes with the palm of her hand, the Goddess of the Sun told her, in a voice that brooked no argument, "Return to your home. There's nothing left for you here to do." "And how do you suggest we do that?" Skuld asked of her. "You vaporized all the water here!" "Don't be insolent, Young One! You're out of your league here," Amaterasu said coldly, emphasizing her point by expanding her aura. "As for your method of transportation, I'd suggest walking." Walking towards her younger sister, Urd said, "You can't protect him forever, you know," getting no response. Casting a spell, Urd transported herself and Skuld to the Morisato residence without further discussion. Amaterasu disappeared from the shrine a split second afterwards, leaving four confused and battered people in her wake. As Ukyo collapsed near Konatsu from exhaustion, and Cologne limped towards the prone form of her great-granddaughter, Kodachi used her brother's distracted state to knock him out with her ribbon in the most painful way she could think of. -------------------------------------------------- A twenty-year-old college student was walking past a music store, when she felt a sudden, unexplained urge to come inside. Walking through the isles, the girl felt some unseen force pulling her in a specific direction towards the heavy metal section. Acting on the same impulse, she picked up and bought a CD that stood out to her among the rest. On her way back home, the brown-haired girl couldn't help but wonder what in the world possessed her to do what she'd just done. Nevertheless, the desire to put said CD in her stereo system was still present in her heart and just too great to simply ignore. Upon reaching her apartment, the woman decided to play the CD, and see what was so special about it, instead of doing her homework. As soon as she hit play on her CD player, a vortex appeared about it, a woman with twin slashes on her forehead appeared from hit, stretching out and exclaiming, "Ah, finally! After all those centuries..." before noticing the other woman and asking, "Hey, who are you?" "My name is, um, Megumi. Megumi Morisato," the NIT student timidly responded. "I'm Marller, Demoness first class, first category, unlimited. Nice to meet you." Hearing this, Megumi's eyes rolled up and she fainted. A little while later, Megumi stirred, and saw Marller patiently waiting for her to wake up. Letting out a small 'eep', she scrambled to get as far away from the demoness as possible. "Hey, what's wrong?" Marller asked in confusion. "Well, aren't you after my soul?" Megumi retorted, keeping a couch between them. "Um, no. Where did you get that idea from?" Marller wondered, scratching the back of her head. "Never mind," Megumi answered, shaking her head. "Just tell me what you want with me." "Oh, that. Well, you see, I was sort of imprisoned in that DVD..." "CD," Megumi corrected her. "If that's what you want to think, fine. Anyway, you finally released me, so I'll grant you a wish in return and be on my way." "Just like that?" Megumi asked, cautious. "You don't want anything in return?" "Like your soul?" Marller laughed, while Megumi got paler. "Nah, I'm not that kinda demoness. As for why I'm giving you a wish... I'm just feeling grateful, I guess. You did help me out, after all." "Um, since I let you out and all... does that mean I'm going to Hell?" Megumi quietly asked. "Heh, you should be so lucky!" Marller chuckled. "No, I don't think it changes anything. Go ahead and make your wish." "Hmm," Megumi said, tapping her chin, "I wish I knew why you were here." "An easy wish, huh?" the demoness asked, smirking. "Well, it all started when me and my kid brother were visiting Asgard..." -------------------------------------------------- End of Chapter 6.