The goddess of the sea was lying in the warm sand underneath the rays of the sun, her eyes closed. For once, she wasn't wearing her godly vestments, but nothing but a comfortable, deep green bathing suit, adorned with tiny seashells. She had a content look on her face, and her turquoise hair was billowing in the wind.
For once, she had time to relax and enjoy her free time, away from the stressful job of an oceanic deity. Her youngest son had promised to take care of the seven seas in her absence, and up until now, he had always been the most dependable member of her family, even more than her adult daughter.
Yes, she still saw Hotaru as her daughter, even after over 4000 years. Nothing would ever change that.
Now if she only could get rid of that annoying whirring sound in her ears...
She opened her eyes when she recognized the sound. She groaned. Of course it was Haruka, who else? But Michiru wondered why the Goddess of the Battlefield always had to make such a noise when she arrived.
She looked up to the sky and sighed when she recognized Kauca, Haruka's favorite hurricane, as it was approaching her island. On top of the spiraling twister, she saw her wife, in a rust-free armor made of sea serpent scales (a present Michiru had given to her on her birthday), surfing on the hurricane as if it was a surfing board.
"Yee-haah!" Haruka whooped as Kauca sped past Michiru's little island. She waved to her wife, circled the island once and then jumped off.
She grinned. "Did you see that, Michiru? A new sport I just invented! I call it 'Twister Surfing'! For all sportive deities of any age!"
She turned around, and with a wave of her hand, the hurricane disappeared, obviously sent back to the real ocean, down on Aurius.
Michiru sighed. "Haruka, I'd like to remember you that this is my QUIET weekend, and I'd like to spend it in peace and QUIET for once. By the way, what are you doing here? Don't you have to train the Valkyries?"
"Ah, don't worry, Kor is taking over," the short-haired goddess grinned. "You know he always wanted to give it a try, and now that he's taking care of the Valkyries, we have more time for each other..."
She knelt down on the warm sand and shuffled closer to her wife, but Michiru wrinkled her nose. "Only if you remove that sweaty armor. It stinks like a pack of dirty lindworms. Do you really think Kor is ready for such a task?"
"It's no big deal, I just told him to give the Valkyries the standard training," Haruka shrugged.
"The... standard training?" Michiru paled. "Haruka, you know that the 'standard training' you two always do is the training for a DEITY, not for our troops, right? I mean, they still have been mighty heroes in their lives, but that's nothing compared to what you and Kor are capable of..."
Haruka grinned sheepishly. "Oops."
The tall, dark-haired boy stood on one side of the Halls of Honor, his mother's paradise and training ground for the Valkyries. He let his dark glare sweep across the female, golden-clad warriors who were nervously doing their training routines.
"GET MOVING, YOU LAZY PILE OF DELINQUENTS!" the loud voice roared across the training court. "YOU CALL THAT A WORKOUT? THAT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A WARMUP! I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE ARMY OF ALVERAN, AND NOT A BUNCH OF LAZY HOUSEWIVES!"
A short-haired Valkyrie gritted her teeth as she swung her lance for the thirty-seventh time this evening. "I swear, if he keeps it up, then I don't care if he's Haruka's son or not: I'm gonna take my mallet and pound him into the atmosphere!"
"Calm down, Akane!" her fellow Valkyrie Ukyo said. "I hate it as much as you do, but right now, he's our commander, and we have to do what he says."
"Yeah, besides, you better save your strength for our upcoming exhibition match," the red-headed warrior next to them said. "Don't waste it on that jerk!"
"YOU ARE THE SADDEST BUNCH I'VE SEEN IN MY LIFE!" Kor shouted. "WHY; I GUESS EVEN SHINJI WOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT ALL OF YOU!"
"Excuse me for a second..." Asuka growled, planted her lance on the ground and ran up to the front.
WHAM! BAM! "WOULD YOU PLEASE REPEAT THAT, KOR?"
"Gaaaah!" the godling yelled as he was pummeled by the furious Valkyrie's fists. "I'm s-sorry, Asuka, I didn't mean it like that..."
"Compare me with weakling baka-Shinji, will ya?" Asuka yelled. "I'm much stronger than that wimp, got it?"
Ukyo shook her head. "C'mon, Akane, we better pull her off of him..."
Akane watched Asuka with awe. "Wow... and here people say I have anger issues..."
"Well, I guess the girls will be fine by themselves just this one evening," Haruka grinned. "So, what do you wanna do tonight?"
"Sleep, and relax..." Michiru sighed. "I've prevented three floods yesterday, had to guide fifty-nine ships through the storms YOU caused, brought a couple of stranded whales back into the ocean and sunk at least three pirate ships before they could attack helpless coast villages. Managing a whole ocean isn't as easy as it might seem." She glared up at her wife. "What reminds me, you STILL haven't showed me that hurricane schedule of yours. You HAVE already written it, haven't you?"
"Um, well, the thing is, see..." the Goddess of the Battlefield muttered. "I... didn't quite get around to do it yet."
"EXCUSE me?" Michiru sat up. "What's that supposed to mean? Haruka, how am I supposed to guide my followers around those storms without knowing where you're gonna cause them? How typical of your, irresponsible to the end!"
"Hey!" Haruka protested. "I was busy enough to instruct my war monks about the upcoming battle with the orcs. I just forgot to do it, okay?"
"You know what? Forget it!" Michiru sighed. "We will do it together, tomorrow. As for now, let's just relax together..." And she lay back on the warm sand.
Haruka grinned. "Good idea!"
"Didn't I just tell you to remove that smelly armor?"
"Y-yes, ma'am..."
Just then, a big, floating door appeared in the air. When it opened, they could see the entrance hall of Michiru's domain, as well as a floating platform with two people on it.
When the platform came through the door, Nandus waved and smiled. "Aunt Haruka, Aunt Michiru... I hope we don't come at a bad time."
"No, not at all!" Michiru smiled. "You're always welcome here!" She then looked at his blue-haired companion. "But I am surprised that you've decided to look like a teenager today, Ami... and even in front of your son."
"Um, the thing is, I'm not really Ami... I mean, not the Ami you know. I'm her from the past..."
"I get it," Haruka smirked. "Setsuna somehow messed up and brought you here, right?"
Michiru and Nandus groaned. "Haruka, Setsuna is not allowed to 'mess up' anymore," Michiru said. "There has to be some other explanation."
"Actually, Mom just invited her younger self to take a look at Alveran," Nandus explained. "So she is prepared for when she becomes immortal."
"Ah, so that's the reason why Ami wasn't too surprised back then," Haruka chuckled. "A smart girl, our Ami."
Ami blushed and then looked around the endless ocean that surrounded them. "So... this is your paradise, Michiru? This is not the actual ocean on Aurius, isn't it?"
"She learns fast," the sea goddess smiled. "No, this is my own domain I created in a... what's the word... pocket dimension. This isn't the real sun either, just a facsimile Rei created for me... after Haruhi reluctantly agreed." She made a wide hand gesture across the water. "Down below, all of the souls that died at sea are now free, free to roam the heavenly ocean, and free to rejoice in the wonders of the sea."
Ami chuckled. "You always tend to get poetic when talking about the sea," she smiled. "So... this is it? A single island and an endless ocean? I mean, it doesn't look like much..."
"First of all, I can raise and lower as much islands as I want," Michiru said. "Besides, you haven't seen the ocean from below... care to take a little swim, you two?"
Ami's eyes lit up with joy. "Of course I do!"
Nandus grinned. "Well, then I have no other choice, do I?" He snapped his fingers, and without any warning, the floating platform disappeared, making him and Ami fall down into the water.
Ami spat out some water and looked at her future son in annoyance. "You could have warned me."
Michiru had walked up to the water as well, then she turned around to her wife. "You coming, Haruka?"
The blonde goddess shook her head. "Nah, not today. You have fun, I think I'm just gonna wait for you up here..."
"Fine, but don't complain the next time I refuse to watch your armies battle the next time," Michiru frowned and leapt into the water.
With a flick of her hand, she transformed Ami into a mermaid, with a beautiful, blue tail. She also turned herself into a mermaid, while Nandus transformed into a dolphin.
"Nice choice," Michiru told him.
Nandus chuckled. "Well, it is your holy animal, so I figured you'd like it..."
"You bet I do!" Michiru nodded. "Okay then, shall we?"
"Heeeyyyy!" a loud voice suddenly yelled. "Mom, I'm back!"
Ami gasped in surprise when the white whale surfaced next to them. To her, it almost looked like a whole island came out of the sea.
The whale looked at them with amused eyes. "Hey there, Nandus! Did you come for a small dip in the ocean?"
"Actually, I'm showing my mother's younger self around the citadel," Nandus explained. By now, he was a bit annoyed that he had to repeat that every time they ran into a godling or god.
"Hey, that's cool! Hey Mom, you don't mind if I come along with ya, do you?"
Michiru frowned. "Have you already finished your duties, Swafnir?"
"What do you take me for, Mom?" the godling grinned. "I've taken care of everything. Heck, I was already finished two hours ago."
"Then why didn't you come home earlier?" Michiru frowned.
"Well, I wanted to, but in the middle of the Sea of Pearls, I met Hranngar... and, well, she challenged me to a fight. I couldn't possibly say no, could I?"
"That's my boy!" Haruka grinned. "I take it you showed that mangy sea serpent who's boss, right?"
"It's... not like that," Swafnir said. "It was just a little duel, nothing else..."
"A duel?" Haruka shouted. "She's the goddess of all sea serpents, the daughter of a dragon and a demon... and yet you still show her mercy?"
"B-but Mom, she isn't like that," Swafnir protested. "She's actually a nice girl... and she isn't much older than I am."
Michiru frowned. "Swafnir, you're not dating the girl, aren't you? I mean, she is one of Herb's children..."
"And Herb was an Ancient Dragon, so what's the problem?"
"The problem is that Herb was also a tyrant who wanted to rule all of Aurius," Haruka grumbled. "If it wasn't for Ranma, he would still be alive. Any child of his is a spawn of evil that can't be allowed to live! The next time you see Hranngar, kill her!"
Ami never knew a whale could look sad. "Yes, Mom..." Swafnir muttered.
Michiru cleared her throat. "Well, let's talk about that later. For now, let's just enjoy the evening. Come on, Ami, let me show you the wonders of my little ocean..."
Ami smiled. "I can't wait!"
And one after another, Michiru, Ami, Nandus and Swafnir dove down into the blue depths.
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(Posted Mon, 19 May 2008 16:11)
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