Ah! Megami-Sama was created by Fujishima Kosuke, and while I might wish I owned the series, I don’t.

I wouldn’t mind owning Negima, either, but I don’t. It belongs to Akamitsu Ken.

Exchange Student

Lesson Three: Sleepover

"I’m very, very sorry."

Skuld rolled her eyes. "It’s all right, Nodoka. The Bugs...well, I can handle them. It’s my job. And it was my own stupid fault I ran out of there."

Yue was trying her best to stop snickering. "At least you’ve learned what questions not to ask a Goddess."

To her disgust, Skuld felt herself blushing again. The three girls were clustered around a kotatsu that Belldandy had thoughtfully brought into Skuld’s room. The night was a bit chilly, despite it being the middle of summer, and all three of the girls were dressed in flannel pajamas. Bowls of snack foods of various kinds littered the tabletop.

"I think the Diarus itself was causing the Bugs, though." Nodoka had the book out and open on the table. She indicated a number of blank spots. "Here’s where I asked you about Keiichi."

Skuld absentmindedly swung her hammer, bopping another Bug, and noted that the page that had just filled with text now had some open gaps. "Better not even mention him to me while that thing is open." She swung again, flattening yet another Bug. "Better yet, close it now."

"Abeat." The book returned to wherever it lived, and the Pactio card reappeared on the table.

"Seems to me," said Yue, "that you have somewhat ambiguous feelings towards Keiichi."

Skuld darkened. "I don’t want to talk about it."

"Don’t you have questions about Negi-sensei and us?" asked Nodoka. "If we’re supposed to be...to be friends, maybe we should...talk?"

Yue scowled at Nodoka. "Maybe we should talk about something else?"

"Good idea." Skuld turned to Yue. "What does your Artifact do? I’d better know, just in case it’s as dangerous as Nodoka’s."

"I don’t think it would be," said Yue. "Nodoka’s Artifact can read a person’s thoughts, and doing that to a Goddess...well, I can see where it might cause problems. Adeat." Her hat, book and broomstick appeared. She set the book on the table, and pointedly ignored Skuld’s snickers. "Yes, the hat looks stupid."

"What does the book do? If it’s like Nodoka’s--"

"It’s not," said Yue. "Our Artifacts reflect elements of our personalities. In Nodoka’s case, it’s her desire to understand those around her. In my case, it’s my desire for knowledge." She tapped the book. "In here is a list of every known spell, magical effect and artifact. And I mean every one." She smirked. "If it weren’t for the auto-search function, it’d be useless; I’d never find what I was looking for."

"Do you really ride a broomstick?" Skuld wasn’t laughing this time.

"Yes. Not all Mages do so. Negi-sensei uses his staff."

"My sister’s broomstick is the fastest in Midgard," boasted Skuld. "She beat the Daimakaicho in a race, and Hild’s broomstick - well, it’s really a vacuum cleaner--Why are you laughing?"

"Never mind. Old joke." Nodoka managed to get her laughter under control. "What’s a Daimakaicho?"

"You’d call her the Devil, I guess. She’s Urd’s mom, even though she normally doesn’t look any older than we do, at least not when on Midgard--Why are you laughing?!"

"When I meet Urd, I have to use the line." Nodoka was shaking with laughter.

"What line?"

"’Your mother rides a vacuum cleaner.’" Yue shook her head in disgust. "A joke insult used on witches. Nodoka, I’d reconsider. You haven’t met Urd; I have. She’s kinda scary."

"More than kind of," snorted Skuld. "She’s half demon, not to mention--" Her voice fell silent. "Darn. Protection program. Anyway, she likes to play at making love potions, and she’s always trying to get Keiichi to do something ecchi to Belldandy."

"So?" Yue looked puzzled. "They’re both grownups, and they’ve got a Pactio. That’s as good as being married."

"But she’s--" Skuld paused. "Wait. A Pactio is the same as marriage?"

Yue shrugged. "More or less."

"But you two--and all those other girls--"

"Our Pactio are provisionary," said Nodoka. "They’re temporary, and they have to be activated by Negi or ourselves. They’re also not as powerful as a proper Pactio."

"Oh."

"On top of that," continued Nodoka, "it’s not the same as marriage. A Magister and Ministra are closely bound, but they don’t need to--" She blushed. "I suppose they could...I wouldn’t mind...but they don’t have to. Probably a good thing, too. We met a man who was Ministra to Negi’s father. What was his name again?"

"Albireo."

"Yes. And that picture we found in Nagi’s house. It had Takahata-sensei and two other guys, and I’ve heard that Nagi had more than one Ministra. And Setsuna and Konoka discussed getting a Pactio, and they’re both girls."

"Aren’t they both Ministra to Negi?"

Yue nodded. "And again, that’s another way that a Pactio is different from marriage. A person can have more than one Ministra - as Negi does - or more than one Magister - as Setsuna nearly did. Or a person can have both Magister and Ministra, as Konoka would have had."

"A Goddess can have more than one Contract," mused Skuld. "Sis has a few. But the one she has with Keiichi has locked her up completely. She might never be free of it!"

"A Pactio can never be destroyed," said Yue. "Mana still has her Pactio card, even though her Magister is dead."

"Is she a Mage, too?"

Yue shook her head. "No. She’s a demon hunter priestess with a fetish for heavy weapons."

Skuld blinked.

"Kind of funny, really." Yue smiled. "When the issue of Pactio first came up, somehow the rumour came out that Negi-sensei was a Prince of Wales, and was going to hold a gala ball to choose his Princess."

Nodoka blushed.

Yue ignored her, and sipped her juice. "A lot of the girls were acting very silly over that."

"Yue-chan--"

"Including me." She smiled faintly. "Nodoka came pretty damned close to getting herself a permanent Pactio that day."

"Yue-chan!"

Yue raised an eye. "Would it have bothered you? Would it have broken your heart?"

"I thought we weren’t going to discuss that sort of thing," mumbled Nodoka.

"After all the stuff you read about Skuld in that book of yours?"

"It’s faded."

"You can’t un-read it."

Skuld was blushing pretty badly herself now. "It...the book talked about--well, it told her about me and...Sentaro."

"Oh?" Yue leaned forward. "Who is Sentaro?"

"He’s a friend of mine. I...Well, I like him a lot. It was after I spent some time with him that I stopped really hating Keiichi."

"You never hated Keiichi," mumbled Nodoka.

"Yes, I did!" snapped Skuld.

"You had a terrible crush on him, and he was in love with your sister, and she loved him, and you felt jealous and angry with yourself and--" The words came tumbling from her mouth, and she clapped a hand over it as though to pull the words back in. Her eyes widened, and she trembled.

But Skuld didn’t blast her. No bolts from heaven rained down on her either. Skuld just stared down at the table.

"I’m sorry."

Skuld sighed. "Can’t even lie to myself with that book in play." She looked up. "You’re right, Nodoka. I did have a crush on him. I was angry with him for locking up Belldandy, but then the System malfunctioned, and I found myself in adult form. Well, older. I still wasn’t very adult, not up here." She tapped her head. "And he was nice to me, trying to help me out and...I got a bit silly."

Yue shook her head. "Not silly. Just kind of...human."

"Revolting thought." Skuld snickered. "Anyway, I beat myself up over it for a while, then started taking it out on him. But then, my powers awakened. When that happens, a Goddess becomes very unstable, given to violent mood swings He thought it was my first period, and went out of his way to be very nice to me...and again, it made me very confused."

"So where does Sentaro fit into all of this?" asked Yue.

"He taught me how to ride a bike," said Skuld. "I liked him. I just liked spending time with him. He knows more about us - my sisters and me - than any mortal other than Keiichi." She leaned back. "He moved away, earlier this year. I promised him we’d meet again. So we will. A promise from a Goddess is as good as a Contract."

- - - - -

Nodoka awoke to the sound of someone singing.

She sat up slowly, one hand rubbing at her eye. She looked blearily around, waiting until memories of the previous night crept into her sleep-fogged mind.

"Goddesses..."

She stood up, stepped over Yue’s sleeping form, skirted Skuld carefully, and stepped out into the hallway. The haunting, beautiful melody drew her down the hallway, to the front door.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon, and the air still held a decided chill. She wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, and stepped out onto the stone walkway. The cold of the ground made her gasp, and she considered putting her shoes on, then decided to ignore it.

The sound of the song led her to the shrine. She noted the glow coming through the doors, and peeked in through the crack.

Within, Belldandy stood, her back to the door and arms outstretched. Floating above her, wrapped in fine white cloth, floated an Angel. Wide white wings held her aloft seemingly by their mere presence, and the Angel’s blonde hair glowed like gold. It took her a second to realize that the Angel was singing a second part, softer, in harmony with Belldandy.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, transfixed by the beauty of music and Angel alike. But eventually, the song ended, and the Angel furled her wings, enfolding Belldandy and merging within her.

Belldandy turned to face the door. "Nodoka-san."

"Sorry!" Nodoka opened the door, and stepped in, head bowed. "I didn’t mean to intrude, Belldandy-sama!"

"You did not, Nodoka-chan." Belldandy smiled. "And you need not be so formal with me."

"I..." Nodoka continued to stare at the floor.

Belldandy smiled. "Come. We’ll go start a pot of tea."

- - - - -

"I seem to be causing problems."

Belldandy set a teacup in front of her. "Whever the mortal and the divine intersect, there are problems. How much more so when the mortals in question are Mages?"

Nodoka said nothing, merely stared down at her tea.

"Problems are best viewed as oppportunities for improvement," said Belldandy. "Whatever the problem is, and however you solve it, you will be stronger for having faced it."

"What sort of problems have you and Keiichi had?"

Belldandy smiled gently. "Why not ask your Artifact?"

Nodoka shook her head vehemently. "No! That’s what started the problems in the first place!"

"Humour me."

Nodoka slowly pulled her card from the waistband of her pajamas. "A...Adeat!

The card flared, becoming the book. It hovered before her, and she touched it, causing it to spring open.

"You...you’ve been jealous. You thought your sisters were trying to steal him, and some other girls - Peorth, Sayoko, Shiho, Megumi - his sister?"

"In that case, I was more afraid that he was losing interest in me," admitted Belldandy.

"Good. Just my dirty imagination again." Nodoka looked around. "There are no Bugs."

"Reading the mind of the Goddess of the Future is considerably more dangerous than reading my own," explained Belldandy. "Bugs can be caused by Paradox, and Paradox is all to easy to be created when you have foreknowledge of the future."

"But I didn’t get anything about the future from Skuld," said Nodoka. "Just about her past."

"Nonetheless, you could have gotten such information, and that would have caused a paradox. So Paradox intervened, to stop you from reading further."

"Like an immune system," said Nodoka.

"The analogy is apt, though simplistic." Belldandy smiled. "Now, as I am the Goddess of the Present, you cannot generate Paradox by reading my mind. However, while it is safer than reading Skuld’s, you might still generate a Bug." She reached over the table and gently closed the Diarus Ejus. "Urd would be safer still, but aside from the probability of Bugs, I would recommend against trying to read her mind."

"Why?"

"I would not want you...traumatized."

- - - - -

Jealous...Belldandy?

Yue took a step back from the Tea Room door. The idea that a Goddess could be jealous was pretty easy to believe. But not Belldandy. And certainly not of Skuld!

"Something on your mind?"

Yue jumped. "Don’t do that again!"

"Sorry." Skuld raised a hand. "You seemed kinda spaced out."

"I was just...well, thinking about something I heard."

"What was it?"

Yue shook her head. "Not my information to tell."

"Wish I had that book of Nodoka’s," groused Skuld.

"No you don’t," said Yue. "If you haven’t picked a target, it reads your own mind. You want to deal with the resulting Bug storm?"

"Oh."

"Up for some practice Magic?"

Skuld frowned. "Does it involve a Pactio?"

"Not at this stage. If you feel you need to form a Pactio to improve, then you should select your partner with care. Plus, I cannot draw the Pactio circle; we’d need Chamo to do that, or possibly Negi-sensei."

"Who’s Chamo?"

"He’s an ermine spirit, and about as perverted a person as I’ve ever met," said Yue. "His hobby is stealing underwear."

"Ick." She paused. "Does he live in the dorm too?"

"He does, but Negi-sensei keeps him under control. Asuna helps."

"Oh. Good." Skuld paused, then said, "Okay, let’s go out back. There’s plenty of room to practice there."

- - - - -

"The first thing I want to do," said Yue, "is find out what you’re capable of. You told me that you could do one or two things."

Skuld nodded. "I can levitate small objects, and I can throw words, to label something."

"I saw Keiichi’s face last night," said Yue. "I assumed it was your work."

"Plus, I’ve got Noble Scarlet."

"What’s that?"

"Not a what. A who. Come forth, Noble Scarlet."

A flare of light surrounded Skuld, and a small figure burst into existence from her. Winged, blonde, and cloaked in fine white robes. She was a bit smaller than Skuld, putting her close in size to Yue herself.

"She looks like an Angel."

Skuld giggled. "That’s because she is an Angel."

"So she’s not a projection, or a golem, or anything like that? She’s got her own mind?"

Skuld nodded. "Every Goddess who has the power to support an Angel will have one. Some have two. Sis had two for a while, but she wasn’t quite strong enough to support both."

"Can a Mortal have an Angel?"

Skuld shook her head sadly. "Some Mortals have the power to support an Angel, but they can’t control them. No matter how well-intentioned the Angel, the Mortal will end up doing uncontrolled magic."

"That sounds like the voice of experience."

"It is," admitted Skuld. "On two occasions, Keiichi has had an Angel. I can’t tell you much about those instances. But I can tell you that losing an Angel is very painful for a Goddess. It can drive them catatonic." Skuld looked down at her feet. "Keiichi’s gone through that twice, and recovered. It’s part of the reason I respect him so much."

"Oh." Yue tried to imagine what it was like, and failed. Must be because I’m only a Mortal.

"An Angel serves many functions for the Goddess, the chief of which is companionship," said Skuld. "I love Noble Scarlet, and the thought of being separated from her...well, I know why Goddesses would go catatonic. I was separated for a while from her, because I wasn’t powerful enough to have an Angel. An Angel also serves as a power sump; she draws small amounts of power from me over time, and can return it all in one go. They also serve as a focus, and can assist in other ways...including as a spare pair of hands." Skuld snickered. "Noble Scarlet is almost as good with a soldering iron as I am."

"A focus." Yue nodded. "That’s a good thing. I don’t have a practice wand for you. You’ll need some kind of focus." She glanced up at Noble Scarlet. "She looks like she’s a bit...upset."

"You’re looking at her as though she were a tool," said Skuld crossly. "She’s not."

"I know that. Sorry, Scarlet." She looked back down at Skuld. "But this does mean that you effectively already have a Pactio."