The Hiro and the Goddesses - PSL for Hiro and Skuld

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Hey look, another portal to who knows where! There were a few things different about this one though.

For one thing voices were coming out of it in an odd mix of languages before resolving into the one Hiro knew best.

For another? It opened up right beside him, without any tech that he could see on his end that should have opened any such portal.

And if more weirdness was needed? It had gravity. Like a lot of it. He and much of the stuff around him was being pulled towards the center of it.

As to the voices coming out of it:

"You big baka! Mitaru at this mess! Everyone knows you can't make a mon to Yggdrasil with those calculations! That's not a bridge mandala! It's a summoning portal!" A youngish sounding female voice was screaming. "Idiot! Baka!"

An angry older voice, this one clearly belonging to an adult woman was screaming back. "Well maybe if the paper with all the calculations wasn't covered in ice cream I could read it!"

The voices grew louder, or rather, thanks to the increasing gravity, he was pulled closer.

"Maybe if you'd stop making your weirdo medicines and testing them on yourself all the time you could actually read basic Ndiminesional math!" the first voice accused

"Oho?" The second asked, almost purring now, all trace of anger seemingly gone. "Then who should I test it on I suppose? You, dear little sist... OW!" That would be when the first large item made it through. "What in the OW! It's raining... supplies of some sort!"

"I told you it's a summoning!" the first voice called, frantic. "Quick, erase the summoning sigil from the northwest sector."

"If I knew which one was the summoning sigil I wouldn't have used it!" the woman protested as he was falling into the portal.

"How did you ever get your license?" The younger one demanded. "It's this one here!" She started scrubbing at it furiously with the stick end of what looked like a comically large mallet.

Because now he could see the pair on the ground below him. The rapidly approaching ground. The woman was floating above some huge complicated design actually etched into the stone courtyard of some sort of Japanese temple. Her white hair was dancing weightless in the air around her.

The girl, on the other hand was firmly on the ground, fighting to obliterate one of the many complicated symbols, focused and frustrated, her long black hair hanging limp as an odd shaped robot and what looked like a small child tried to help her. "OH FOR GODDESS SAKE!" she finally yelled. "BACK!"

The woman floated up higher, the robot and the child rushed back as the teenager pulled what looked like one of those odd game balls with the wires out... of her shirt.... and threw it on the ground. The ground he was still approaching, though his fall was slowing.

There was a loud explosion that blew him back up several feet before letting him resume falling. More than half of the complicated circle and its symbols had been replaced with a smoking crater. The teenager looked more than a little worse for the wear standing right at the edge of it. She opened her mouth to speak, or cough when the woman finally looked up.

"INCOMING!" the woman said, seeing him falling at them with the last few of his belongings. "Wait, why is he falling as slowly as the book is?"

"SCIENCE!" the teen shouted in frustration. "SAVE HIM!"

"Yeah yeah," the woman said. "On it," she muttered, flying up to meet him, wings coming out of her back, one pure white, one jet black. And as she got closer he'd see that her face, chest, and clothes, had "Idiot!" written all over it in various odd typefaces. Usually with outlines, sometimes with drop shadows.

Comments

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Hmm?" Urd asked. "Oh, she uses it as a focus. When she gains control she won't need something like that," the words normally dismissive were said quietly. "Well, except for debugging the universe, and it works well for that, so the Almighty said to leave her be about it for now."

Belldandy moved to his other side and sat on the edge of the porch so she could speak softly and still be heard by him, one of her wings going around behind his back. It didn't touch, but there was still the sensation of a warm hug. And not the Olaf sort. "She is making a travel mandala. That will summon and beseech the gate to allow you passage."

"What exactly was your wish?" Urd asked, eyeing Skuld through narrowed eyes.

Unaware of all this, Skuld continued to sing and to draw what was becoming an increasingly complex design, each stroke, spiral, swirl, and dot exceptionally precise.

[baymaxing]

To be with Tadashi. My older brother. He -- he died in this fire at the convention where we were showcasing our inventions for the university, to see if we could get accepted. Or, I mean, he already was at the university, I was showing my microbots, but. He went back in, to save the Professor, and....

[And never came back out. Hiro answers, unsure what to make of the circle as he watches her draw and sing, watches the progress and listens to their explanation over the hammer.]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Wait, you wished for her to bring back the dead?" Urd protested, furious. "And the Almighty accepted that?" Her wings flared.

"He wished," Sigil said, "to go to a reality where his brother was alive, but there was no version of him alive."

Urd calmed slightly. "Oh. Wow. Guess you didn't think that one through, huh?"

[baymaxing]

How do you mean I didn't think it through? I just....I miss him. I want to see him again, tell him about everything that's happened since.

[Though they were probably right in the potential for this to go Very Badly. Namely in how Tadashi and everyone else might react if some kid shows up claiming to be his brother, or if something had happened to Hiro in that dimension and then he showed up....]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"A world where either he you there died or never existed? And what about the people in your reality that lost your brother and are now losing you. What about Baymax? Was he included in the wish?" Urd demanded.

[baymaxing]

I didn't want everyone back home to worry. I just....Baymax?

[There's that familiar 'oh no' from the robot as it clicks. Because Hiro hadn't necessarily mentioned the specifics? So it seems he can only hope this works out. Or that it just sends him back home, either way.]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Just didn't think this through?" Urd asked archly.

"Urd," Belldandy chided gently.

[baymaxing]

It's not like I've done this before?

[He hasn't. Wishes were for things like fairytale stories or comics or whatever. Not....something that actually happened like this? Hiro has no idea on the details. On how specific he needs to be with this to get what he wants.]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"Well, you can't mess it up worse than Keiichi did," Urd said with a shrug.

"Hey!" Keiichi protested.

[baymaxing]

Huh? What'd he do?

[Depending on the wish it might not have been that bad? And probably if he was new to this sort of thing same as Hiro maybe he just worded it poorly or something? Didn't give enough detail about his wish? Or so Hiro would hope....]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Keiichi flushed red, but at an encouraging nod from Belldandy, he spoke. Looked away from them all, but spoke. Still red as a tomato. "I didn't understand what was going on at the time. I was alone in the dorm, dialed the wrong number and then this girl comes out of a mirror and says she's a goddess. I half thought it was some sort of prank. And she didn't seem to care that I was short or broke or anything like that, she said she couldn't understand why I..." he flushed darker. "Anyway, she asked what my wish was and I... kind of blurted out the first thing that came to mind looking at her." And redder still. "I wished that a Goddess like her would be at my side, always...."

"And thus the rest of us got stuck here one way or another," Urd griped.

[baymaxing]

Why you what? But....you could wish for anything and you just wanted to be with her?

[Not even necessarily in making it romantic but....? Hiro would possibly never understand that sort of thing. Still, it wasn't his wish to be with Skuld. And he might have messed his own one up more than he initially thought in not being specific enough. Possibly. Probably.]

It's probably easier to screw up my wish, I guess.

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"And you just wanted to be with your brother," Urd pointed out.

Keiichi took a deep breath and then said softly, "The wish I made was made when I didn't believe, I was overwhelmed and shocked and confused and it is still the best wish I could have ever made. Life since then... it has been insane and chaotic and full of danger.But it has also been wonderful, with quiet moments and a house filled with warmth and love. I have a great job, a great place, and I'm not living alone, and I'm not living in a house full of senpais who push me around like I used to. But even if we lived in a cardboard box, I would still love my life. So long as Belldandy is beside me."

Bell got up, tears in her eyes. "Oh Keiichi..." she whispered and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly.

Urd however rolled her eyes. "Every once in a while he can say something like that. And yet... they still haven't so much as kissed. Strictly kiddy stuff."

[baymaxing]

I know. I'm not saying I have it that rough without Tadashi. I still have Aunt Cass. I have Baymax and our friends. Well, they were his. I got to know them better once I went to the university, after....after the fire. I just can't help missing him. Even after all this time still.

[He glances when they hug, gaze then turning to Urd.]

Isn't that up to them when they feel ready for that?

[It isn't really anyone else's business anyway. Least of all, Hiro's. But he supposes Urd has to deal with them.]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"It has been YEARS. It is boring to watch them take baby steps," she said, disgusted.

[baymaxing]

It might be boring for you, but it isn't about you. It's about them. I mean, I've never had a relationship or whatever but still.

[It isn't their business. Hiro gives a shrug, more focused on Skuld and what she was doing in helping him with his wish, if it worked.....]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Skuld was still working, but what she had already done was impressive. The Mandala on the ground seemed almost larger than the space that held it, and the detail work inside each of the thicker lines looked decretive. It also looked like the kind of careful wok that would take an artist hours if not days. And that was just the detailing. The Mandala itself was complex and convoluted with circles within the shape, and she was levitating boulders into those circles, after sheering them down with water to the right size and shape. Banpei was helping with moving some of them. Sigil was helping with placement. But most of the work was Skuld who was still hovering over it all, singing.

[baymaxing]

[Hiro doesn't necessarily recognize the mandala, all the pictures and details and what it means exactly. But he does watch, and he can at least admire the level of detail even if he was clueless about how it all worked, exactly. It isn't like he was around initially when she first did this to bring him here before. Even if that time was by accident.]

How long does this take?

[If this goes on a while surely this must exhaust her?]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

"She's almost done," Belldandy assured him.

[baymaxing]

I just hope it works once she is done.....

[Hiro comments, biting at his lower lip as he watches her finish up with the details or such with the mandala. This would have taken so much longer if he were to do it all by hand. Then again being Hiro he would probably try engineer some robot to do it for him, quicker. More precise where he could just program in the pattern he needed or something.]

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She dropped to the ground, smiling but looking exhausted. "Alright. Are you ready?" Skuld asked as the two robots moved clear of the design, joining the others on the porch.

[baymaxing]

Ready? Ah, I guess. I mean, as ready as I'll ever be. If this works out.

[Or, well. Was anyone really ever ready? For a second chance with someone they had lost? Hiro isn't sure, if he is. It's pretty sudden an opportunity after all. And he is still unsure on if he was specific enough about it, this being his first go at this wishing and all. But, well. If he gets to see Tadashi again....it was worth a try?

So he steps forwards when she asks, when the others move back clear of the mandala.]

Do we want her to follow him to that world (you'd have to play Tadashi) or wrap up?

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She Floated back to the inner edge of the Mandala. "I need the both of you to stand in the circles in the center please." The circles were set like the fat parts of a ying yang, inscribed with runes.

Already said my answer in Discord. But yeah, wrap up

[baymaxing]

Okay. In the center...

[He gives a nod, pulling Baymax with him to the center as she indicates. Or where he more or less figures the center is anyway. Close enough? At the least, it really was just him and Baymax. Nothing else he had to worry about bringing with him besides the huge walking marshmallow robot.]

Thank you for the awesome PSL! It was fun!

[manga_goddess_skuld]

She nodded and floated away and free. "Well, this should be it then, I hope your wish brings you joy!" she said happily. Then the wings behind her flared and she sang again. A light filled the mandala just before her face, surrounding him and Baymax. She lifted her hands and sang in a higher key. The light would get so bright that Baymax and the glowing symbols would be all that he could see for a moment, then faintly in the light, as if she was part of it he'd see what would almost look like a girl to him and oddly, like data to Baymax. "Yes, good!" a delighted childish voice cheered. "More information! MORE!" and then the light would flare so brightly that it would blind him and overload Baymax's optics for several moments. And when it settled they were in Sanfran sokyo, but one where things were just a little different. Where Hiro had rushed into the fire, and Tadashi had broken his leg trying to go after him, and thus Tadashi had been still outside, and Hiro was the one who died. Sure, there would now be two of Baymax, but... details, right?