He quickly opened up his phone, and at its question, said, "Urd," again. A moment later, he heard a single abbreviated ring.
"Hello," Urd said, somewhat tonelessly.
"Er.... Is this a bad time?" Ranma asked hesitantly. "I don't want to bother you or anything, but--"
"It's fine," Urd assured him quietly. Cheer came into her voice as she asked, "So what can I do for you, Ranma?"
"Um...." He hesitated. There was something about Urd.... And an appointment. He put that thought on hold while he retrieved his datacube from a pocket. While it flashed through menus, he said, "Mostly, I've just been a bit bewildered by what's going on. This isn't the universe I left, is it?"
"Well, it's the same universe, but, eh ... a lot ended up getting rearranged. Now, we warned you some things would be different when you got back."
"Yeah, but ... my mom's acting funny, my former fiancees are acting _really_ funny.... I dunno."
The calendar segment of his datacube warned him, and he winced. "Anyway, I needed to let you know ... I guess ... you may not have heard yet, but I.... I kind of blew up Tokyo Tower."
"That's hard to miss, Sweetie," Urd chuckled. "Don't worry about it! Meet me at the ruins of Tokyo Tower at the same time."
Ranma considered this for a moment. "Okay," he said. "But I'll be a girl when we meet."
"What? I didn't know you were like that!"
Ranma blushed, and shook his head, even though no one was around to see. "Gah! No, no.... But I'm worried that with the new clothes my mom and ... I need some better name for them than 'former fiancees'. Anyway. They're making me wear stuff with my name on it, and my mom got me this huge cloak.... I figure if I go as me to Tokyo Tower, people might recognize. I'll change into something after we meet up, since it's not going to be at the tower anyway."
"Fair enough," Urd replied. "It's good that you called to let me know about Tokyo Tower."
"I thought you knew anyway," Ranma said, frowning.
"Er.... Well, yeah, I did. But it means a lot more that you remembered to tell me about it."
"I guess," Ranma said, unconvinced. "Um, anyway. I guess I should make some of Tofu's tea for me and Hotaru and get to bed.... Mostly I was just wondering about how many more surprises I could expect."
"Ah.... Hopefully none," Urd said, a laugh sounding in her voice. "Don't worry about it, and sleep well tonight, okay Sweetie?"
"Er, okay, I guess," Ranma said. "Thanks again, Urd. I'm glad I can call you when things get really crazy."
"D...don't mention it," the goddess replied, sounding flustered. "Um.... See you for our date. Get some rest."
"Right," Ranma replied, just before the line went dead. He pocketed the phone and spent a few minutes staring at the stars contemplatively before heading back down.
***
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Urd growled, going through the mess of files at her desktop computer. "Oh, this is gonna be a mess. I can't believe how much of this garbage I'm responsible for."
Skuld peeked into the room. "Did you blow something up?" she asked suspiciously.
"What is it with you and explosions?" Urd asked in exasperation. "No. I just made a mistake in a file a ... decade ago, just about, and am trying to correct it."
"Well, it's a decade of corruption on a file, right?" Skuld asked twirling her hammer idly.
"About there," Urd agreed, nodding.
"Then you need to restore from backup," Skuld said with authority. "Corruptions cascade and eventually develop into sinkholes in the system. They'll eat up all reality!"
"Oh, no they don't," Urd retorted, rolling her eyes. "Your analogy is bad. A corruption is like a grain of sand in an oyster. It's a single grain, but it's not integrated into the system properly. The system tends to react by surrounding the grain with matter to protect itself -- in this case, the oyster makes a pearl."
"Show me a corruption that's like a jewel, and I'll be impressed," Skuld scoffed.
"Where do you think heroes come from?" Urd asked peevishly. "Look at Beowulf's file some time."
"Wait, you mean the chaos that surrounds corruptions in the system make people more heroic?" Skuld asked in surprise. "That can't be right!"
"No, no.... I mean that the chaos around corruptions tends to drive people to become heroic to overcome their situations, or not, in which case they fail. Usually quite badly. It's just that our current hero has a tad too much chaos in his life. I need to try and tone it down before it snowballs out of control. There was a second source of corruption after the initial issue."
"How did that happen?" Skuld asked, frowning. "And how would it not stack so the two corruptions became exponential?"
"Eh ... different facets of his life. One's for combat, which is the original corruption he was born with."
"And the second?"
"Well.... I was mucking around with his love-life in what I thought was a sand-boxed file when I was younger," Urd mumbled.
"You meddled!" Skuld accused. "I knew it! You blew it up!"
"Again with the explosions! Look, Skuld, I can fix this. I can find some way to sort out his romantic entanglements."
"No, you blew it if you tampered with a hero's file," Skuld countered, shaking her head. "You're going to be in trouble!"
"He hadn't been screened when I goofed," Urd admonished. "I can still fix this!"
"I'm not entirely convinced, Urd."
"Oh, be quiet, you!"
***
Setsuna watched from just outside of time, and concluded that the apartment building was adequate for her causes. Ostensibly she was an orphan. In reality, she was a wealthy orphan who enjoyed being emancipated.
This meant that with a bit of careful placement she could meet her new manager tomorrow morning, and begin working on snaring him from Urd. Whatever the goddess was up to, Setsuna was going to foil it! Or just arrange to fall in Ranma's lap. That was beginning to sound fun.
***
Suddenly, Ranma felt like the stars were scrutinizing him very closely, and he fled to the safety of the kitchen. "Tea," he mumbled. "Tomorrow's a big morning."
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(Posted Wed, 03 Aug 2005 07:35)
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