***

                         Obeying Destiny

                    An "Oh My Goddess!" Fanfic
                            by Raja


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 hell 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 out
of 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'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?  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... things like this can't _really_ be
happening...*  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 like something out of an
M.C. Escher picture, 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."

	"Exactly...."

	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...*