Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
1:01 PM
Ami held a freshly-steeped cup of Shui Jin Gui oolong tea near Mii's nose. After a moment, the aroma had the desired effect - Mii opened her eyes and stretched. "Good morning..."
"Good afternoon," Ami answered. "Time to get up."
"Just a few more minutes ..."
"You've already missed breakfast and lunch."
Suddenly Mii was completely awake. "Are there leftovers?"
Ami smiled; Mii's appetite was one of the few reliable things that she'd learned to expect in this new world they were in. "There's a full plate in the kitchenette. And more tea, made by Mahoro." Then she stopped smiling. "Rob's on the way, with Kazari-chan."
Mii got out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes. "To upgrade the Good Neighbour System?" Ami nodded. "How long until they get here?"
"Norgarth-san said they planned to leave at 8am, so maybe two hours from now."
"Rob likes to stretch his legs. Maybe three hours?"
"I wouldn't want to bet on that. Haven't you noticed that every time we tried to have our discussion, something interrupted us?"
Mii thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it... but what could throw that many different kinds of interruptions at us like that?"
Ami frowned. "Maybe the Ultimate Force. Or Hild-sama's equivalent, if she has one."
Mii put her change of clothes down on the makeup table. "Okay, you have my attention. I was going to get a shower -"
"Another interruption."
"- but now I won't." Mii headed for the bedroom door. "But I will eat lunch. Tell me your suspicions while I eat, Ami."
Inwardly, Ami winced. She wasn't one for making speeches - that was Usagi's specialty. But she had to try; she was the one who was worried. As she and Mii walked over to the kitchenette, she took a deep breath and released it slowly, then did that again to steady her nerves. "All right. You mentioned that there was some sort of filter that Skuld-sama had to apply so that you and your friends would stop being interested in being Rob-san's ... well, his harem."
"Rob-san said it was something about a psychic echo that was affecting us."
"I know. But why would Skuld-sama of all Goddesses forget to take measures to prevent us from becoming participants in a harem comedy?"
Mii put her lunch in the microwave. "That does sound out of character for her."
Ami nodded as she continued. "And did the filter work properly? Rob-san has been kind to both of us -"
"You more than me."
"Do you think so?" Mii nodded, and Ami went on. "He's been kind to us, and I love that about him, but Mamoru was kind to me back in Tokyo and I don't love him. Mamoru's the big brother that I never had."
"You know that your best friend loves him, though."
Ami thought about that for a moment. Finally, she replied, "There is that. But I'm not the only one who's acting strangely around Rob-san, am I?" Seeing Mii's blank look, Ami added, "Back in November, when we first found out about the Unseelie?"
Mii grimaced. "Don't remind me. I ended up needing emergency medical attention. These still haven't healed completely." She gestured toward her own chest.
"Because you just stood there and let them attack you. That isn't how the Konori Mii that I know acts."
Just then, the microwave beeped. Mii thought about Ami's words as she moved her plate to the table, grabbing cutlery along the way, and sat down to eat. "You're right. And Noike-san told me at the Halloween party that it would be a bad idea to let myself get hurt just to find out how he felt about me."
"But you did it anyway."
Mii thought for a moment as she started eating, while Ami sat down across from her and poured two cups of tea. After swallowing her first bite, Mii commented, "I'm starting to think that it's a good thing I suggested getting away from Ottawa for this talk. Oh, this is good. No -- we're not talking about how good Mahoro-san's cooking is. Are we being mind-controlled to love Rob-san?"
"You don't seem very worried about that possibility."
Mii shrugged. "There's a Level 5 esper in Academy City and who knows how many Level 4s who can change people's feelings for other people. I came to terms a long time ago with the possibility that I'd be influenced that way." She ate another forkful of lunch while waiting for Ami to reply, then looked up to see Ami just staring at her, mouth agape. "What?"
Ami shook her head quickly to clear the shock from it. "I could never accept the idea that my mind could be controlled, even - no, especially after I saw what Wiseman did to Chibi-Usa. My mind is the most important part of me, after all. But if we are being controlled, who's doing the controlling? And if we aren't, why did we fall in love with Rob-san so quickly?"
Mii looked at Ami for a moment as she took another bite of her lunch. Then she said, "We did know him for two months before we said anything about our feelings, Ami."
"Is that really long enough to fall in love with somebody?"
"You're a Senshi of Love. Wouldn't you know the answer to that better than I would?"
Ami sighed. "Maybe Minako or Mako-chan would know. I've always been more of a Senshi of Knowledge."
"Speaking of knowledge, how did you know that there's something going on with how we feel? Assuming we are being controlled."
It was Ami's turn to grimace. "The feedback from Hyoga-san. You felt it too, I know. I felt things that I'd never felt before, and when we found out that it was Hyoga-san who was feeling those things, I didn't get upset. And that frightened me."
"Things that you'd never felt before? You've never felt that way about anybody in the past?"
"Never. Not even for Urawa-kun, back when he carried a Rainbow Crystal."
Mii grinned. "You are a late bloomer," she said teasingly.
"Can we stop talking about that, please?"
Mii shook her head. In all seriousness, she answered, "No, we can't. If we are being controlled, that's important information that we have to consider."
"And I have considered it. That's why I wanted to talk with you in the first place."
"Oh, right." Mii ate another forkful of Mahoro's cooking, following it with some tea. "Okay, let's assume that we're being influenced in some way to love Rob-san. First question: Do you mind?"
Ami's reply was immediate. "I don't mind the emotion. I do mind being influenced."
"Agreed. For me, it was more lust at first sight because that filter wasn't in place, changing to respect that he didn't take advantage of me, and that became love. Second and third questions: Who's influencing us, and what do they have to gain from it? I want to establish a possible means, motive, and opportunity before I make any accusations."
They both sat in silence for a moment; Mii eating and Ami sipping her tea.
"You mentioned the Ultimate Force," commented Mii. "Do you really think one of the Goddesses could be influencing us?"
Ami continued to sip her tea as she considered how to reply. finally, she said, "Maybe. It wouldn't be Skuld-sama, of course."
"Of course not."
"Belldandy-sama... I don't think that Belldandy-sama could do something like that to us."
Mii nodded in agreement. "She never did anything like that in the anime that we saw. Marller did, though; that heart-balance-whatever thing that she used that one time."
"And so did Urd-sama with her potions."
"And Peorth-sama tried, too, come to think of it. I wouldn't want to be Keiichi-san. And Peorth-sama and Urd-sama both have access to Yggdrasil and the Ultimate Force. All right, I'll accept that it's possible that a Goddess or two might be influencing us; two of them have both means and opportunity. But that still leaves my third question unanswered, and that ties to motive."
Ami sighed as she nodded. "Right. What do they have to gain from it?"
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:37 PM
"It's good to finally meet you in person," Rob said as he offered to shake Norgarth's hand. "It's too bad you couldn't make it to the Christmas party."
"We aren't really part of your group. It wouldn't have been right for us to just show up."
Rob raised an eyebrow, Spock style. "Really? If you never come to the parties and meet us, you never will get to know us."
"I suppose." Norgarth gestured to a new box on the wall "Here's the Good Neighbour System."
Kazari smiled. "I'll start work here, while you go see Mii-sempai and Ami-san. Say hello to them for me, please?"
Rob smiled and nodded. "Of course."
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:53 PM
"I can't believe that a Goddess would do something like that to us."
"I don't want to believe it, either," Mii replied to Rob, "but Ami makes a good case. Even if it is based on circumstantial evidence."
Rob frowned. "Exactly. Circumstantial evidence. But it's all we have to go on." Then he stopped frowning. "Unless..."
When it became obvious that he wasn't going to complete his sentence, Ami asked, "Unless?"
"One week ago, Hyoga and I did the Goddesses a big favour." Mii and Ami smiled at the understatement. "She got a new body out of it. I got ..." He trailed off, slightly embarrassed.
"A geas, according to Hyoga."
Rob nodded at Mii's summation of his condition, then took a sip of the tea that Mahoro had provided for the three of them. "Exactly. Hey, this tea is good."
Mii and Ami exchanged a look. "You're getting sidetracked."
Rob blinked as he put the teacup on its saucer. "I am, aren't I? Sorry. Anyway, maybe - just maybe - the Goddesses owe me a favour." Just then, his teacup started to shake. Everybody in the room knew what that meant.
A moment later, Mii offered her arm to Skuld. "May I help you down from the table?"
"And how did you know to visit us?"
"Yes, thank you," Skuld replied to Mii as she stepped down to the floor. Then she turned to Rob. "We've been taking turns waiting for you to figure out that we owe you for last week. We owe Kazakiri-san, too, but you figured it out first."
"Owe them what?" Ami asked, suddenly suspicious. Hearing Skuld's comment, and not being in a frame of mind to trust anybody, Ami's list of possible meddlers in her life expanded to include the Norn of the Future.
"A wish, of course! Or a second wish, in Rob's case. What else could we possibly give them that's fair payment for the work they did?"
"I was hoping you'd say that," replied Rob. "If you've been listening in, then you heard what Ami and Mii explained to me."
Skuld suddenly looked completely serious. "We did. The Ultimate Force comes into effect when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess, and only when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess. And nobody has wished that the three of you be part of ..." Skuld's nose wrinkled in disgust as she finished. "... a harem."
"Not even Urd? She was the one who said I was getting three, no, four or more girlfriends as a 'hero's reward'."
"Don't remind me," Skuld replied, flatly. "No, not even Urd. But even if she did, the Ultimate Force only steps in to protect wishes, not to force people into living out a plotline from a stupid story."
Mii and Rob sighed in relief. Ami looked less worried than she had just a moment earlier.
Skuld went on. "And even if it did, I would have seen something in the system logs by now. It is not the Ultimate Force doing this to you."
The mortals in the room took a moment to absorb that pronouncement. Finally, Ami asked, "Then who is?"
Skuld sighed deeply. "I've said too much already - that's protected information. But I gave you a hint. Don't tell Kami-sama, okay?"
Everybody else nodded. Ami replied, "If we're going to use a wish to clear up this matter, then we need to be careful what we say before we have the wording just right."
"I'm the one who has to be careful. It's my ... should I even risk saying the word?"
Skuld gave Rob the "are you really that stupid?" look that teenage girls know and use so well. "Even Banpei-kun is smarter than that. It's safe to say the word 'wish'. I'm not an idiot that mindlessly reacts to what she's told."
While he was reassured, Rob used the word "wish", or "desire", or anything similar only a few times in the next quarter-hour as everyone discussed the exact wording of the wish. He did excuse himself for a moment to call Hyoga, though, just to explain things and find out whether she wanted to be involved in the effect.
She answered his question immediately. "Darling, we formed our feelings for each other under fire, in Niflheim. Nobody on Earth could have affected us there. Please -- don't change our feelings for each other."
Rob smiled at the memories that Hyoga's reply brought back, not that she could see him. "If you're sure?"
"I'm sure."
"All right. I won't include you in the wish. I miss you."
"I miss you, too. Hurry back, please."
"The morning after we're finished here and I've had a full night's sleep. You don't want me driving through Toronto tired."
The other women in Rob's life ignored the phone conversation except for how it affected the wording of the wish. When he rejoined the local discussion, Mii handed him a piece of paper. "What do you think of this?"
Rob read it, twice, thought for a moment, then answered, "I think it's good."
Skuld asked the formal question as she stepped out onto the apartment's balcony: "Have you reached a decision?"
Ami transformed to Sailor Mercury and cast a Shabon Spray, hoping that it would mask the light show that she was expecting to happen shortly.
Rob nodded as he looked at Skuld through the obscuring fog, silently thanking her again for the glasses that he was wearing that let him do just that. He gave the formal response: "I have."
"What is your wish?" Skuld asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
"I wish that any and all externally-imposed emotions that Rob Donaldson, Ami Mizuno, and Mii Konori feel for each other be nullified and made nonexistent."
Skuld smiled as a bolt of energy ran through her and into the heavens. "Wish registered." Then she stepped back into the building. "But I don't have enough power to cast a spell to grant it."
"Do we need to call Belldandy-sama for help?" Mii asked.
Skuld shook her head. "No, I just need some spare parts and a soldering iron."
Eleven minutes later, they were in the building's basement, in a room hidden in the back of a storeroom. Mahoro gestured to a man who they were just meeting. "This is Minato Hokaze, a very good friend of mine."
"I also carry out Mahoro's maintenance," he added. Mii and Ami recognized his voice - it was the second voice that had come from Mahoro's brooch just before the Boomer attack. "I'm pleased to meet you all."
Before anybody else could reply, Skuld shooed them out of the room. "We're going to be busy for a while! Don't disturb us!"
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
9:23 PM
Skuld burst into Ami and Mii's bedroom, holding up a cellphone-sized box with a single LED and a single push-button. "Done! Emotion-Restorer-kun is a work of genius, if I say so myself!" She looked around. "Where's Rob-san?"
"He's talking with Ryu-san," Mii replied.
"He isn't here?"
Ami smiled. "He didn't trust himself to be left alone with us. He was worried that, if we are being affected, whoever's affecting us might make one last push before losing his hold on us." She sighed happily. "Isn't he wonderful for thinking of us that way?"
Skuld looked at Ami for a moment. "If he's acting the way you are, it's a good thing that he did."
"Oh?"
"You aren't acting like the Sailor Mercury that I know from the files in Yggdrasil." Before Ami could reply, Skuld continued, "Call him. It's time for Emotion-Restorer-kun to work his magic!" As Mii stepped out of the room, Skuld continued, "I was expecting to take longer to make Emotion-Restorer-kun, but Hokaze-hakase had some Saint technology in his spare parts bin, including the hardware that gives souls to their androids. That made my work - no, our work - much easier!" She continued explaining the hardware that she had just created for three minutes straight.
When Skuld stopped for breath, Ami said, "Skuld-sama, I'm a pre-med student, not an engineering student. I can barely follow you."
"I thought you were a super-genius."
"I am. But I don't know everything. I'm not Washuu-chan, or you."
Just then, Mii returned, followed by Rob. Ami almost rushed over to hug them both, but caught herself just in time. 'Ami doesn't act that way,' she thought. 'I don't act that way.'
Rob walked directly to Skuld, purposefully ignoring the beautiful teenager who he was in love with. "What do we need to do?"
Skuld nodded. "All three of you need to take hold of Emotion-Restorer-kun at the same time, then somebody pushes the button."
They did so, slowly and reluctantly. Rob put his thumb on the button, then said, "Do we have to do this?"
Ami shook her head as she closed her eyes to keep the tears from flowing. Mii answered, "Suddenly I don't want to, and it isn't fair to ask you to give up happiness just after you were geased ..." Then she put her thumb on Rob's finger and pushed, forcing Rob to push the button. "... But we need to."
The LED on Emotion-Restorer-kun's case lit, glowing white for a moment. Then it turned itself off.
Then Ami and Mii let go of the box, leaving it in Rob's hand. "Oh, gods, what was I doing?" they said in unison.
Rob sighed deeply, tears in his eyes. "I'm so, so sorry, Mizuno-san, Konori-san."
"For what?"
He turned to Ami, looking directly at her eyes. "For thinking what I was thinking about you." Then he turned to look at Mii's face. "Both of you."
"Whatever you were thinking, you didn't take advantage of us, " Mii replied. "And I respect you for that."
Nobody - including Skuld - said anything for a moment.
"Can we still be friends?"
"I was hoping you'd ask that," Rob replied, still so affected by the removal of those imposed emotions that he wasn't sure who had asked the question.
Skuld glowed for a moment, then smiled. "Wish granted. And now I have to get back to Yggdrasil. Before getting to taste Mahoro-san's cooking, too."
"Do you want this back?" Rob held up Emotion-Restorer-kun.
"No, keep it. You might need it again. Until next time!" And she was gone in the glow from the teacup on the table.
Nobody said anything for another long moment. Then, suddenly, Ami put on her own debugging glasses, took Rob's right hand in her own, and looked closely at their hands. After a few seconds, she sighed - happily? Rob wasn't sure. He wondered what she was looking for... then he saw it, looking at their hands out of the corner of his eye, through his own debugging glasses.
There was still a red string tied between their fingers.
He saw another string between his hand and Mii's, and a third string stretching off in the direction of Ottawa and Hyoga.
"Let's take the time to become friends without being pushed into it," he finally said. "Then we can worry about what else we might become together. We have plenty of time."
Ami smiled slightly, and shyly. "Yes, let's. Now our relationship - whatever it turns out to be - can develop naturally."
"And be the stronger for it," Mii added.
Just then, there was a knock at the apartment door. "Excuse me," Minawa's voice came from the hallway. "Uiharu-san has finished her work."
"Thank you," Rob replied, heading toward the apartment door. "Time for me to get some sleep," he said. "I promised Hyoga that I'd head back tomorrow." Then he stopped, and turned back to the ladies who he had recently thought he loved. "There's just one more thing... If somebody or something has been throwing interruptions at you since you got here, how did you find the time to talk?"
Mii grinned. "Ami knows me too well. Washuu-chan worked me so hard installing the Good Neighbour System last night that I should have stayed asleep until you showed up, but Ami played to my appetite."
Rob raised an eyebrow. "Is Mahoro's cooking really good enough that it woke you up early?"
Both girls nodded in reply. Ami added, "Mahoro-san's tea is that good. Her cooking kept Mii awake."
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 29, 2016
9:04 AM
"You're leaving so soon? You just got here yesterday."
Rob nodded apologetically as he put his suitcase in his car's trunk. "I made a promise."
Norgarth turned to Kazari. "You're welcome to stay for a while."
She smiled. "Thank you. If it's all right with Rob-oji and Hokaze-hakase, I'll stay and take a look at the Saint technology that he has here."
"I don't mind," replied Norgarth.
Rob added, "As long as you can make your way home before New Year's Eve, the day after tomorrow."
"I think I can take two passengers in a Sailor Teleport," Ami answered. "And if I can't, then Usagi and Mako-chan can pop down here for a moment and help us get back home. We'll see you in two days, then."
Rob nodded. "So, you two have had the talk that you wanted to have. I know what Kazari-san is doing; how are you going to fill your time for two days?"
Mii grinned. "Chizuko-chan promised to take me to all the good places to get something to eat."
"And I'm going to - what was that?" Ami pointed at a crack in the parking garage's wall.
Mii knelt and looked at the crack in the wall... then looked through the wall. "There's a tunnel on the other side. It heads down ... and twists a bit ... and keeps going - oh!"
"What's wrong?" Rob asked.
"I saw something that I didn't recognize. It moved away, out of range of my clairvoyance."
Her x-ray vision, Rob thought. "Can you sketch it?"
Mii accepted Rob's help in standing up. She pulled a notebook and pencil out of her pocket, and sketched for a few minutes. "It looked like this."
Rob took a look at the sketch, pulled out his Passport, connected to the Internet and did an image search. "Is this a photo of it?"
"That's more a puppet version of it, but yes."
Rob turned to their host. "I don't know how to tell you this... may as well say it straight out. You've got Fraggles."
December 28, 2016
1:01 PM
Ami held a freshly-steeped cup of Shui Jin Gui oolong tea near Mii's nose. After a moment, the aroma had the desired effect - Mii opened her eyes and stretched. "Good morning..."
"Good afternoon," Ami answered. "Time to get up."
"Just a few more minutes ..."
"You've already missed breakfast and lunch."
Suddenly Mii was completely awake. "Are there leftovers?"
Ami smiled; Mii's appetite was one of the few reliable things that she'd learned to expect in this new world they were in. "There's a full plate in the kitchenette. And more tea, made by Mahoro." Then she stopped smiling. "Rob's on the way, with Kazari-chan."
Mii got out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes. "To upgrade the Good Neighbour System?" Ami nodded. "How long until they get here?"
"Norgarth-san said they planned to leave at 8am, so maybe two hours from now."
"Rob likes to stretch his legs. Maybe three hours?"
"I wouldn't want to bet on that. Haven't you noticed that every time we tried to have our discussion, something interrupted us?"
Mii thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it... but what could throw that many different kinds of interruptions at us like that?"
Ami frowned. "Maybe the Ultimate Force. Or Hild-sama's equivalent, if she has one."
Mii put her change of clothes down on the makeup table. "Okay, you have my attention. I was going to get a shower -"
"Another interruption."
"- but now I won't." Mii headed for the bedroom door. "But I will eat lunch. Tell me your suspicions while I eat, Ami."
Inwardly, Ami winced. She wasn't one for making speeches - that was Usagi's specialty. But she had to try; she was the one who was worried. As she and Mii walked over to the kitchenette, she took a deep breath and released it slowly, then did that again to steady her nerves. "All right. You mentioned that there was some sort of filter that Skuld-sama had to apply so that you and your friends would stop being interested in being Rob-san's ... well, his harem."
"Rob-san said it was something about a psychic echo that was affecting us."
"I know. But why would Skuld-sama of all Goddesses forget to take measures to prevent us from becoming participants in a harem comedy?"
Mii put her lunch in the microwave. "That does sound out of character for her."
Ami nodded as she continued. "And did the filter work properly? Rob-san has been kind to both of us -"
"You more than me."
"Do you think so?" Mii nodded, and Ami went on. "He's been kind to us, and I love that about him, but Mamoru was kind to me back in Tokyo and I don't love him. Mamoru's the big brother that I never had."
"You know that your best friend loves him, though."
Ami thought about that for a moment. Finally, she replied, "There is that. But I'm not the only one who's acting strangely around Rob-san, am I?" Seeing Mii's blank look, Ami added, "Back in November, when we first found out about the Unseelie?"
Mii grimaced. "Don't remind me. I ended up needing emergency medical attention. These still haven't healed completely." She gestured toward her own chest.
"Because you just stood there and let them attack you. That isn't how the Konori Mii that I know acts."
Just then, the microwave beeped. Mii thought about Ami's words as she moved her plate to the table, grabbing cutlery along the way, and sat down to eat. "You're right. And Noike-san told me at the Halloween party that it would be a bad idea to let myself get hurt just to find out how he felt about me."
"But you did it anyway."
Mii thought for a moment as she started eating, while Ami sat down across from her and poured two cups of tea. After swallowing her first bite, Mii commented, "I'm starting to think that it's a good thing I suggested getting away from Ottawa for this talk. Oh, this is good. No -- we're not talking about how good Mahoro-san's cooking is. Are we being mind-controlled to love Rob-san?"
"You don't seem very worried about that possibility."
Mii shrugged. "There's a Level 5 esper in Academy City and who knows how many Level 4s who can change people's feelings for other people. I came to terms a long time ago with the possibility that I'd be influenced that way." She ate another forkful of lunch while waiting for Ami to reply, then looked up to see Ami just staring at her, mouth agape. "What?"
Ami shook her head quickly to clear the shock from it. "I could never accept the idea that my mind could be controlled, even - no, especially after I saw what Wiseman did to Chibi-Usa. My mind is the most important part of me, after all. But if we are being controlled, who's doing the controlling? And if we aren't, why did we fall in love with Rob-san so quickly?"
Mii looked at Ami for a moment as she took another bite of her lunch. Then she said, "We did know him for two months before we said anything about our feelings, Ami."
"Is that really long enough to fall in love with somebody?"
"You're a Senshi of Love. Wouldn't you know the answer to that better than I would?"
Ami sighed. "Maybe Minako or Mako-chan would know. I've always been more of a Senshi of Knowledge."
"Speaking of knowledge, how did you know that there's something going on with how we feel? Assuming we are being controlled."
It was Ami's turn to grimace. "The feedback from Hyoga-san. You felt it too, I know. I felt things that I'd never felt before, and when we found out that it was Hyoga-san who was feeling those things, I didn't get upset. And that frightened me."
"Things that you'd never felt before? You've never felt that way about anybody in the past?"
"Never. Not even for Urawa-kun, back when he carried a Rainbow Crystal."
Mii grinned. "You are a late bloomer," she said teasingly.
"Can we stop talking about that, please?"
Mii shook her head. In all seriousness, she answered, "No, we can't. If we are being controlled, that's important information that we have to consider."
"And I have considered it. That's why I wanted to talk with you in the first place."
"Oh, right." Mii ate another forkful of Mahoro's cooking, following it with some tea. "Okay, let's assume that we're being influenced in some way to love Rob-san. First question: Do you mind?"
Ami's reply was immediate. "I don't mind the emotion. I do mind being influenced."
"Agreed. For me, it was more lust at first sight because that filter wasn't in place, changing to respect that he didn't take advantage of me, and that became love. Second and third questions: Who's influencing us, and what do they have to gain from it? I want to establish a possible means, motive, and opportunity before I make any accusations."
They both sat in silence for a moment; Mii eating and Ami sipping her tea.
"You mentioned the Ultimate Force," commented Mii. "Do you really think one of the Goddesses could be influencing us?"
Ami continued to sip her tea as she considered how to reply. finally, she said, "Maybe. It wouldn't be Skuld-sama, of course."
"Of course not."
"Belldandy-sama... I don't think that Belldandy-sama could do something like that to us."
Mii nodded in agreement. "She never did anything like that in the anime that we saw. Marller did, though; that heart-balance-whatever thing that she used that one time."
"And so did Urd-sama with her potions."
"And Peorth-sama tried, too, come to think of it. I wouldn't want to be Keiichi-san. And Peorth-sama and Urd-sama both have access to Yggdrasil and the Ultimate Force. All right, I'll accept that it's possible that a Goddess or two might be influencing us; two of them have both means and opportunity. But that still leaves my third question unanswered, and that ties to motive."
Ami sighed as she nodded. "Right. What do they have to gain from it?"
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:37 PM
"It's good to finally meet you in person," Rob said as he offered to shake Norgarth's hand. "It's too bad you couldn't make it to the Christmas party."
"We aren't really part of your group. It wouldn't have been right for us to just show up."
Rob raised an eyebrow, Spock style. "Really? If you never come to the parties and meet us, you never will get to know us."
"I suppose." Norgarth gestured to a new box on the wall "Here's the Good Neighbour System."
Kazari smiled. "I'll start work here, while you go see Mii-sempai and Ami-san. Say hello to them for me, please?"
Rob smiled and nodded. "Of course."
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:53 PM
"I can't believe that a Goddess would do something like that to us."
"I don't want to believe it, either," Mii replied to Rob, "but Ami makes a good case. Even if it is based on circumstantial evidence."
Rob frowned. "Exactly. Circumstantial evidence. But it's all we have to go on." Then he stopped frowning. "Unless..."
When it became obvious that he wasn't going to complete his sentence, Ami asked, "Unless?"
"One week ago, Hyoga and I did the Goddesses a big favour." Mii and Ami smiled at the understatement. "She got a new body out of it. I got ..." He trailed off, slightly embarrassed.
"A geas, according to Hyoga."
Rob nodded at Mii's summation of his condition, then took a sip of the tea that Mahoro had provided for the three of them. "Exactly. Hey, this tea is good."
Mii and Ami exchanged a look. "You're getting sidetracked."
Rob blinked as he put the teacup on its saucer. "I am, aren't I? Sorry. Anyway, maybe - just maybe - the Goddesses owe me a favour." Just then, his teacup started to shake. Everybody in the room knew what that meant.
A moment later, Mii offered her arm to Skuld. "May I help you down from the table?"
"And how did you know to visit us?"
"Yes, thank you," Skuld replied to Mii as she stepped down to the floor. Then she turned to Rob. "We've been taking turns waiting for you to figure out that we owe you for last week. We owe Kazakiri-san, too, but you figured it out first."
"Owe them what?" Ami asked, suddenly suspicious. Hearing Skuld's comment, and not being in a frame of mind to trust anybody, Ami's list of possible meddlers in her life expanded to include the Norn of the Future.
"A wish, of course! Or a second wish, in Rob's case. What else could we possibly give them that's fair payment for the work they did?"
"I was hoping you'd say that," replied Rob. "If you've been listening in, then you heard what Ami and Mii explained to me."
Skuld suddenly looked completely serious. "We did. The Ultimate Force comes into effect when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess, and only when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess. And nobody has wished that the three of you be part of ..." Skuld's nose wrinkled in disgust as she finished. "... a harem."
"Not even Urd? She was the one who said I was getting three, no, four or more girlfriends as a 'hero's reward'."
"Don't remind me," Skuld replied, flatly. "No, not even Urd. But even if she did, the Ultimate Force only steps in to protect wishes, not to force people into living out a plotline from a stupid story."
Mii and Rob sighed in relief. Ami looked less worried than she had just a moment earlier.
Skuld went on. "And even if it did, I would have seen something in the system logs by now. It is not the Ultimate Force doing this to you."
The mortals in the room took a moment to absorb that pronouncement. Finally, Ami asked, "Then who is?"
Skuld sighed deeply. "I've said too much already - that's protected information. But I gave you a hint. Don't tell Kami-sama, okay?"
Everybody else nodded. Ami replied, "If we're going to use a wish to clear up this matter, then we need to be careful what we say before we have the wording just right."
"I'm the one who has to be careful. It's my ... should I even risk saying the word?"
Skuld gave Rob the "are you really that stupid?" look that teenage girls know and use so well. "Even Banpei-kun is smarter than that. It's safe to say the word 'wish'. I'm not an idiot that mindlessly reacts to what she's told."
While he was reassured, Rob used the word "wish", or "desire", or anything similar only a few times in the next quarter-hour as everyone discussed the exact wording of the wish. He did excuse himself for a moment to call Hyoga, though, just to explain things and find out whether she wanted to be involved in the effect.
She answered his question immediately. "Darling, we formed our feelings for each other under fire, in Niflheim. Nobody on Earth could have affected us there. Please -- don't change our feelings for each other."
Rob smiled at the memories that Hyoga's reply brought back, not that she could see him. "If you're sure?"
"I'm sure."
"All right. I won't include you in the wish. I miss you."
"I miss you, too. Hurry back, please."
"The morning after we're finished here and I've had a full night's sleep. You don't want me driving through Toronto tired."
The other women in Rob's life ignored the phone conversation except for how it affected the wording of the wish. When he rejoined the local discussion, Mii handed him a piece of paper. "What do you think of this?"
Rob read it, twice, thought for a moment, then answered, "I think it's good."
Skuld asked the formal question as she stepped out onto the apartment's balcony: "Have you reached a decision?"
Ami transformed to Sailor Mercury and cast a Shabon Spray, hoping that it would mask the light show that she was expecting to happen shortly.
Rob nodded as he looked at Skuld through the obscuring fog, silently thanking her again for the glasses that he was wearing that let him do just that. He gave the formal response: "I have."
"What is your wish?" Skuld asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
"I wish that any and all externally-imposed emotions that Rob Donaldson, Ami Mizuno, and Mii Konori feel for each other be nullified and made nonexistent."
Skuld smiled as a bolt of energy ran through her and into the heavens. "Wish registered." Then she stepped back into the building. "But I don't have enough power to cast a spell to grant it."
"Do we need to call Belldandy-sama for help?" Mii asked.
Skuld shook her head. "No, I just need some spare parts and a soldering iron."
Eleven minutes later, they were in the building's basement, in a room hidden in the back of a storeroom. Mahoro gestured to a man who they were just meeting. "This is Minato Hokaze, a very good friend of mine."
"I also carry out Mahoro's maintenance," he added. Mii and Ami recognized his voice - it was the second voice that had come from Mahoro's brooch just before the Boomer attack. "I'm pleased to meet you all."
Before anybody else could reply, Skuld shooed them out of the room. "We're going to be busy for a while! Don't disturb us!"
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
9:23 PM
Skuld burst into Ami and Mii's bedroom, holding up a cellphone-sized box with a single LED and a single push-button. "Done! Emotion-Restorer-kun is a work of genius, if I say so myself!" She looked around. "Where's Rob-san?"
"He's talking with Ryu-san," Mii replied.
"He isn't here?"
Ami smiled. "He didn't trust himself to be left alone with us. He was worried that, if we are being affected, whoever's affecting us might make one last push before losing his hold on us." She sighed happily. "Isn't he wonderful for thinking of us that way?"
Skuld looked at Ami for a moment. "If he's acting the way you are, it's a good thing that he did."
"Oh?"
"You aren't acting like the Sailor Mercury that I know from the files in Yggdrasil." Before Ami could reply, Skuld continued, "Call him. It's time for Emotion-Restorer-kun to work his magic!" As Mii stepped out of the room, Skuld continued, "I was expecting to take longer to make Emotion-Restorer-kun, but Hokaze-hakase had some Saint technology in his spare parts bin, including the hardware that gives souls to their androids. That made my work - no, our work - much easier!" She continued explaining the hardware that she had just created for three minutes straight.
When Skuld stopped for breath, Ami said, "Skuld-sama, I'm a pre-med student, not an engineering student. I can barely follow you."
"I thought you were a super-genius."
"I am. But I don't know everything. I'm not Washuu-chan, or you."
Just then, Mii returned, followed by Rob. Ami almost rushed over to hug them both, but caught herself just in time. 'Ami doesn't act that way,' she thought. 'I don't act that way.'
Rob walked directly to Skuld, purposefully ignoring the beautiful teenager who he was in love with. "What do we need to do?"
Skuld nodded. "All three of you need to take hold of Emotion-Restorer-kun at the same time, then somebody pushes the button."
They did so, slowly and reluctantly. Rob put his thumb on the button, then said, "Do we have to do this?"
Ami shook her head as she closed her eyes to keep the tears from flowing. Mii answered, "Suddenly I don't want to, and it isn't fair to ask you to give up happiness just after you were geased ..." Then she put her thumb on Rob's finger and pushed, forcing Rob to push the button. "... But we need to."
The LED on Emotion-Restorer-kun's case lit, glowing white for a moment. Then it turned itself off.
Then Ami and Mii let go of the box, leaving it in Rob's hand. "Oh, gods, what was I doing?" they said in unison.
Rob sighed deeply, tears in his eyes. "I'm so, so sorry, Mizuno-san, Konori-san."
"For what?"
He turned to Ami, looking directly at her eyes. "For thinking what I was thinking about you." Then he turned to look at Mii's face. "Both of you."
"Whatever you were thinking, you didn't take advantage of us, " Mii replied. "And I respect you for that."
Nobody - including Skuld - said anything for a moment.
"Can we still be friends?"
"I was hoping you'd ask that," Rob replied, still so affected by the removal of those imposed emotions that he wasn't sure who had asked the question.
Skuld glowed for a moment, then smiled. "Wish granted. And now I have to get back to Yggdrasil. Before getting to taste Mahoro-san's cooking, too."
"Do you want this back?" Rob held up Emotion-Restorer-kun.
"No, keep it. You might need it again. Until next time!" And she was gone in the glow from the teacup on the table.
Nobody said anything for another long moment. Then, suddenly, Ami put on her own debugging glasses, took Rob's right hand in her own, and looked closely at their hands. After a few seconds, she sighed - happily? Rob wasn't sure. He wondered what she was looking for... then he saw it, looking at their hands out of the corner of his eye, through his own debugging glasses.
There was still a red string tied between their fingers.
He saw another string between his hand and Mii's, and a third string stretching off in the direction of Ottawa and Hyoga.
"Let's take the time to become friends without being pushed into it," he finally said. "Then we can worry about what else we might become together. We have plenty of time."
Ami smiled slightly, and shyly. "Yes, let's. Now our relationship - whatever it turns out to be - can develop naturally."
"And be the stronger for it," Mii added.
Just then, there was a knock at the apartment door. "Excuse me," Minawa's voice came from the hallway. "Uiharu-san has finished her work."
"Thank you," Rob replied, heading toward the apartment door. "Time for me to get some sleep," he said. "I promised Hyoga that I'd head back tomorrow." Then he stopped, and turned back to the ladies who he had recently thought he loved. "There's just one more thing... If somebody or something has been throwing interruptions at you since you got here, how did you find the time to talk?"
Mii grinned. "Ami knows me too well. Washuu-chan worked me so hard installing the Good Neighbour System last night that I should have stayed asleep until you showed up, but Ami played to my appetite."
Rob raised an eyebrow. "Is Mahoro's cooking really good enough that it woke you up early?"
Both girls nodded in reply. Ami added, "Mahoro-san's tea is that good. Her cooking kept Mii awake."
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 29, 2016
9:04 AM
"You're leaving so soon? You just got here yesterday."
Rob nodded apologetically as he put his suitcase in his car's trunk. "I made a promise."
Norgarth turned to Kazari. "You're welcome to stay for a while."
She smiled. "Thank you. If it's all right with Rob-oji and Hokaze-hakase, I'll stay and take a look at the Saint technology that he has here."
"I don't mind," replied Norgarth.
Rob added, "As long as you can make your way home before New Year's Eve, the day after tomorrow."
"I think I can take two passengers in a Sailor Teleport," Ami answered. "And if I can't, then Usagi and Mako-chan can pop down here for a moment and help us get back home. We'll see you in two days, then."
Rob nodded. "So, you two have had the talk that you wanted to have. I know what Kazari-san is doing; how are you going to fill your time for two days?"
Mii grinned. "Chizuko-chan promised to take me to all the good places to get something to eat."
"And I'm going to - what was that?" Ami pointed at a crack in the parking garage's wall.
Mii knelt and looked at the crack in the wall... then looked through the wall. "There's a tunnel on the other side. It heads down ... and twists a bit ... and keeps going - oh!"
"What's wrong?" Rob asked.
"I saw something that I didn't recognize. It moved away, out of range of my clairvoyance."
Her x-ray vision, Rob thought. "Can you sketch it?"
Mii accepted Rob's help in standing up. She pulled a notebook and pencil out of her pocket, and sketched for a few minutes. "It looked like this."
Rob took a look at the sketch, pulled out his Passport, connected to the Internet and did an image search. "Is this a photo of it?"
"That's more a puppet version of it, but yes."
Rob turned to their host. "I don't know how to tell you this... may as well say it straight out. You've got Fraggles."
- fin -
--
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown