Greetings once again...



And here is the first draft of Chapter Three of my fic.  Previous
chapters can be found at
http://atendido.home.mindspring.com/fanfiction.html



C&C, in any form, will be gratefully and humbly received.





***



                        Obeying Destiny



                   An "Oh My Goddess!" Fanfic

                       by Robert Atendido





All "Oh My Goddess!" characters created by and property of Kosuke Fujishima.

Used with the greatest of respect and the best of intentions, but
without any thought of profit.



***



Chapter 3



"Urd?  What the heck just happened?"  Megumi groggily lifted her head

from the table where it was resting.  The last thing she remembered was

flying through the air, being dragged by Urd towards a television set

that seemed to become impossibly large.  As her eyes focused on her

surroundings, she was puzzled.  "Are we in a bar?  Urd?"



Megumi caught movement in the corner of her eye, and turned to the

windows at the front of the bar.  There were many people milling about

in confusion in the streets, which at first glance looked relatively

normal -- it was a workday, after all.  However, the cars drifting

lazily through the air were definitely not normal.  As Megumi pressed

her hands to the glass, she saw a number of other things that were out

of the ordinary.  In addition to cars floating three meters above

ground, some seemed to be parallel parked on the sides of buildings.  In

the road itself, an irregular hole had opened wide, with an unearthly

light pouring up out of it.  Odd looking winged objects -- birds? --

were lazily flying from the hole into the sky, where they popped like

soap bubbles.



"Um, Urd, I think you need to look at this...Urd?"  Megumi turned back

to the oddly empty bar.  Now she vaguely remembered people running in

terror when she and Urd popped out of the television mounted in the

corner.  *Well, that explains why there's no one here, I guess.  But

where's --*



"URD!" Megumi shouted in surprise.  She finally spotted Urd sitting at

the far end of the bar, with a bottle in each hand.  "What are you

doing!"



Urd spun towards Megumi, almost falling off the bar stool.  "Heeeyyyy,

Morisato!" she shouted happily, waving a bottle of sake.  "Ish jest 'n

emergency recharge!"  Urd took another swig.  "Wan' some?"



Transporting both herself and Megumi had taken a lot of energy from Urd.

Fortunately, Urd and her sisters had ways to quickly regain their spent

power.  Unfortunately, unlike Belldandy, who used sleep, and Skuld, who

used ice cream, Urd's backup power source was alcohol.



More than a little disturbed by everything, Megumi grabbed Urd by the

arm.  "Get it together, Urd!  I don't know what the heck's going on out

there, but we've got to do something!"  She got the bottles away from

Urd, and started dragging her to the door.



"Hey, wait, I _need_ that..."  Urd managed to snag another bottle on

their way out.



***



Megumi had seen so much that day that was out of her realm of

experience, her mind was refusing to think too hard about it.  As it

was, if she had tried to rationally explain the sight before her, she

probably would have passed out from the strain.



"Well, that's certainly got to go," said Urd.  Megumi spun around.  She

was surprised to see Urd standing upright next to her, without a hint of

the intoxication she was showing earlier.



"You sober up quick!"



Urd raised an eyebrow at that.  "It helps if you're a --"



"-- Goddess, right."  Megumi shook her head, and turned back to the

gaping hole in the road before them.  "What is this thing, huh?  It

doesn't seem to have a bottom --"



"Is your mortal mind still having trouble wrapping itself around the

concept of goddesses and system bugs?"  Urd crouched down to take a

closer look, putting down the bottle and putting her glasses back on.



"Well, it's just so...so...weird, to think of reality as a giant

computer program.  And operated by gods and goddesses?  Besides, even

if all that's true, do you really expect me to believe that my brother

was going out with a goddess?  It's just...irrational."



Urd motioned to the hole in front of them, as if to say, and this is

rational?  Megumi took another look.  Clouds were drifting over a

distant surface.  She could see what appeared to be oddly shaped cities

far below, but not on the ground...



Megumi felt that her mind was twisting, trying to find an explanation

for what she could see.  She sat down for a moment, closing her eyes.

*Calm...I WILL be calm...*  After a moment, she opened her eyes and

extended a hand towards the gap.



Urd quickly snatched Megumi back from the gap.  "Don't do that.  That's

a dimensional gate...to someplace that uses more than the three

dimensions you're used to."



"What?"  Megumi's thought processes hadn't returned to normal just yet.



Urd opened her mouth as if to say more, but then she simply grabbed the

bottle and tossed it into the opening.  Megumi's eyes bugged out, as it

folded and twisted around itself, becoming a Klein bottle just before it

winked out of existence.  The liquor inside burst into blue flames that

scattered into the air of that other place.



Megumi gulped hard.  "Thanks, Urd...that was close.  What would have

happened if..."



"You probably don't want to know."  Urd's eyes looked out over the

expanse of missing road and narrowed.  "We'd better find the bug that's

causing this and squish him, quick."



"Uh, Urd..."



"Not now, Megumi, help me look!"



"But, Urd..."



"Oh, all right, what?"



Megumi pointed a shaky finger.  "The hole -- it's spreading!"



Urd's eyes followed Megumi's to where the gap in reality had spread onto

the sidewalk.  One of the cars that had previously, impossibly, been

parked on a wall fell into the hole and contorted unimaginably, breaking

up into wreckage that disappeared into the depths.



Urd saw that she had to do something quickly, before the entire building

followed.  *I hope I've got the energy to pull this off!*  She raised

her hands, and called out in an unearthly voice, "O gods of life and

light, let our eyes be opened to that which is hidden from us!  Reveal

to us now the creatures of chaos!"



A flash of power burst from Urd's upraised hands.  Megumi watched as the

light washed over the scene, coalescing around two spots at either side

of the chasm.  The lights resolved themselves into the now-familiar

fuzzy, long eared six legged shapes.  "There's two of them -- there they

are!"  She jumped forward, managing to bean one of the bugs before it

had realized that it had been found out.  Megumi spun around and ran

towards the other bug, only to see that it was running towards her.

Surprised, she managed to smash it in passing, only to overbalance

herself and fall forward.  Megumi screamed as she realized that she was

headed towards the hole in the ground, unable to stop herself.



Urd had fallen to her knees, suddenly weak after casting her spell.  She

looked up as Megumi called out.  The gap had reversed it's spread,

beginning to close itself, but not fast enough.  Urd again raised a

hand, and with the last of her energy, gave it a push.



"YAAHHH--uff!"  Megumi hit the ground hard and lay there for a moment,

gasping.  *That was way too close!*  She crawled over to where Urd had

collapsed.  "Urd...are you all right?"



"Uhhh," Urd managed to groan in response.  She was exhausted from the

rapid repeated use of her powers.  "Need...sake..."



"Oh, for heaven's sake."  Megumi shook her head, smirking to herself.

She looked around.  *Well, it looks like the immediate problem's solved,

I guess.  Oh, well.*  Sighing in exasperation, she hauled Urd to her

feet and helped her back towards the bar.



***



Sayoko came to her senses in the shadow of the tree where Megumi had

left her.  *What the heck...*  Her mind felt a little fuzzy.  *What was

I doing again?*  Sayoko got up and absently began to brush herself off.

*Let's see...ah!  I was going to bring my notes over to Keiichi!*  She

turned and walked briskly towards the parking lot, oblivious to the

small crowd staring curiously at the remains of the clock and sculpture

behind her.



As she drove up the hill towards the house that Keiichi shared with

Megumi and Urd, Sayoko began to frown in thought.  *Why do I do so much

for this loser, anyway?*  She pulled to the side of the road by the foot

of the stairs leading to the shrine.  *I mean, he _is_ a loser.  A

short, clumsy, yet kind of cute in his own way loser.*  Sayoko placed

her hands on her temples which had begun to ache a little.  *I could

have my pick of just about any man on campus, couldn't I?  I mean

really, why do I hang around this guy?*  Slowly, vague images began to

float into her mind.  *Wait...I wasn't just chasing _him_.... I

was...competing for him?  With who?*



Sayoko shook her head and scoffed to herself as she got out of the car.

*What am I thinking -- there's no one at Nekomi Tech who could even

_approach_ my standing as Campus Queen,* she thought, grinning to

herself.  *Right?*  As she got to the top of the steps, her smile

slipped a bit.  *That still doesn't answer the question, though, does

it?*  Sayoko re-adjusted her smile as she walked quickly to the door.

"Hello?  Anybody home?"  She heard a faint, indistinct response from

inside, and took it as an invitation.



"Keiichi?  Where are you?"  Sayoko didn't see him near the entrance, and

walked further into the house.  She heard a clatter, and spun around in

surprise to see Keiichi slowly sitting up at his desk.  "Are you okay?

What happened?"



"I'm okay, I think," Keiichi said, rubbing his face.  "I was looking

at..."  He froze up, eyes opening in surprise.  Suddenly, he began to

frantically search his desk, hands moving and dropping things in his

haste.  "Where, where is it?"



Sayoko looked concerned.  "Where's what?"



"It's, um, it's..."  Keiichi slowed down, and thought.  He held out his

hands as if he were holding something small.  "It was a gift, that I had

to give to...."  He placed his head in his hands, and mumbled, "I can't

remember.  Why can't I remember?"



*A gift?  To someone...*  Sayoko frowned in thought.  Incomprehensible

as Keiichi's words were, they seemed to resonate with some of the things

she was remembering.  Aloud, she said, "Let me try to help.  Was it a

man or a woman that you were giving something to?"



Keiichi's eyes went out of focus for a moment.  "A woman, I think.

She...she was -- ahhh!"  He winced as a sharp pain ripped through his

head.



Sayoko dropped to her knees beside. him.  "Shh...relax, it's okay.

Don't think about that now."  *Why did I say that?*  She was surprised

to see Keiichi visibly get better, the pain apparently going away as

fast as it came.  "Are you all right?" she asked again, uncertainly.



Keiichi sat up straight, looking at her.  "Yeah, I'm okay now.  It must

not've been a full blown migraine, thank goodness."



*That was weird,* Sayoko thought to herself.  *Something screwy is going

on around here.*  "So, you were looking for something, right?  Something

kind of small..."  Sayoko took note of the fact that Keiichi began to

rub his head again as he replied.



"Yeah, that's right.  I had promised to give it to...someone...."

Keiichi's head had begun to throb again.



"All right, then," Sayoko said.  "If you remember more about whatever it

was, or whoever it was, let me know.  Maybe I know who it is you're

talking about."  Keiichi nodded, both hands massaging his temples.

Sayoko pulled a notebook out of her bag.  "Anyway, since you weren't in

class today, I thought you might want to borrow these."



"Hey, thanks, Sayoko!  I really owe you one," Keiichi said, taking the

notebook from her.  "So, did the prof talk about anything really

important today?"



Sayoko again noticed that with the change of subject, all signs of

discomfort disappeared.  *Very interesting...*



***



Future chapters will be posted on the FFML (or a reasonable facsimile
thereof), and on my webpage:



http://atendido.home.mindspring.com/fanfiction.html



Or, drop me a line at atendido@mindspring.com and I'll send out new
chapters as they're written.



C&C cheerfully accepted, in any form.  Even flames will be read,
albeit with amusement -- after all, we just got hit with an ice storm
up here...



***



Raja can be reached at:

atendido@mindspring.com

http://atendido.home.mindspring.com