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[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

On Wednesday afternoon, on the looooooong flight from New York City to Tokyo, in an effort to make Alex stop acting like a little kid on a sugar high, Shiro relates the story of Asgard to Alex and Mariko. Mariko discovers that her cousin is not the boy he used to be, which is actually a pleasant surprise.



Alex was bouncing around in his seat, looking out the window, playing with his CD player, reading the magazines in the seat pocket, messing with the table. He was excited and was never very good at sitting very still for long period.

Shiro was half-asleep. Despite his cousin's orders the previous night, he had not slept well and was very exhausted. But he forced himself to stay awake, because he knew that his neck would hurt and his body would be all achy if he fell asleep on the plane. So he forced himself to pay attention to the book he was reading, as hard as it was.

Alex had finally gotten bored with the tray table and resorting to poking Shiro in the shoulder, then turning to look out the window as if nothing had happened. He heard Mariko laugh at him at one point, which caused him to giggle and give it away.

"Grow up." Shiro swatted Alex's hand away, then turned to Mariko. "And don't encourage him."

But Mariko still laughed. It was all too cute. The Shiro she knew would have vaporized anyone who acted like Alex. She had to admit that she liked this new personality. "Your friend is bored, Shiro-kun. Entertain him."

"Yeah. Entertain me...or the poking starts up again." Alex grinned wildly, very very very bored and ready to do anything for entertainment.

Shiro groaned. This was going to be a long flight. Mariko held her hand over her mouth as she laughed, softly and ladylike. "Tell us about Asgard, cousin. Maybe a story will calm him down."

Alex nodded, more enthusiastically then usual. "Yeah tell us what happened...please?"

"Fine," Shiro said with a sigh. Question was, where to start? "We were playing softball back at school. I still don't quite understand what happened, but apparently the Norse god Loki cast a spell to send many of us to Asgard. I ended up by Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It was big. Bigger than any building I've ever seen."

Alex blinked. "So a god kidnapped the group of you...and brought you to a tree?"

Putting it in those terms made Shiro chuckle. "Yes. His plan was to abduct and separate us. Angelo ended up with a group of elves, Jamie with some dwarves, Doug was in a tavern, de la Rocha with Loki himself, and so on. I found the tree of life. That is where the Norns reside."

"The Norns?" This piqued Mariko's curiosity, and she tried to recall what little she knew about Norse mythology. "Verdandi, Urdr, and Skuld, right? The Fates. They weave Man's destiny."

"Yes," Shiro replied with a nod. "Although they thought it would be amusing to present themselves as Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld from 'Aa! Megami-sama!'"

Alex frowned, confused. "So...these Norn people have anime? If that thing you showed me wasn't freaky enough..." He whistled to finish the statement.

Shiro smiled at Alex's simplicity. "The anime is based on mythology, so to make me comfortable, the goddesses pretended to be those characters." Duh. "They told me that they had sent for me, and wanted me to become their personal warrior." Although personal bitch is more like it.

"So, these goddesses, pretended to be anime characters to convince you to be..." he eyed Mariko before saying softly, "Their personal mutant bitch? That totally sucks man."

"More or less. And you cannot turn down a goddess, much less three of them, especially ones like Urd." Shiro took a breath and forced his lustful thoughts away. "So I agreed and did their bidding."

Mariko shook her head and sighed. Maybe Shiro wasn't so different. Still a fanboy, even at 17. "What exactly did these goddesses have you do?"

"They treated me like I'm from 'Final Fantasy.' I hunted and killed goblins and trolls, tracked down treasure, and acted as emissary to the other gods." The people sitting around them were giving him funny looks, like he was out of his mind, but he ignored them.

Alex laughed. "Well, it sounds like you had a grand ole' time, living one of your beloved video games...so then what happened?"

Mariko and Shiro both scoffed at that comment. "I thought that being what amounts to a character in an RPG was exactly what I wanted," Shiro admitted. "But it got . . . well, dull. It was fun for a while, but it lost its luster. So I ask the Norns to send me back, and after some consideration, they said they would if I completed one final task for them. They told me of a witch terrorizing the countryside, and they wanted her dead."

Alex waited a moment before getting antsy..."And?"

"The witch they were so desperate to see dead was Marie-Ange," Shiro said flatly. "And I know that they knew it. They wanted me to kill her to prove my loyalty to them before they released me. When I discovered who the witch was, I abandoned my mission and accompanied her to find the others who had come to Asgard.

Mariko listened to all of this intently. She had to admit, for Shiro to survive this ordeal, he must be very strong. Much stronger than she'd imagined.

Alex had calmed a bit now, as the story got more serious. But he grinned and nodded at that. "Of course you would...you cool like that. So who did you find next?"

"We came upon a town," Shiro continued, "found Jamie and Miles, and then later found Doug. Jamie found Rahne and a pack of wolves she had been living with, and then we encountered a band of Dark Elves who had captured Jubilee and Angelo." He smiled fondly. "Doug bartered for Jubilee, but we had to get a bit . . . creative for Angelo. That involved lots of fire and explosions on my part," he said proudly.

"Sweet dude," Alex glanced down at his hands before looking back at Shiro. "So that leaves, Alison, Amanda and Manny right? Where did you find them?"

"A sorceress known as the Enchantress kidnapped Miles, so we did the requisite fantasy adventure thing and invaded her castle to get him back. We met up with Illyana, Paige, Mr. Worthington, and Ms. Blaire, as well as Sefton and de la Rocha who were already there. There was a lot of fighting, followed by more fighting, and after that, just a little bit more. I really felt like I was in my Playstation."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "In a good way or bad way?"

Shiro answered that question with a simple "Yes." After cracking knuckles, he went on. "As dangerous and frightening as it was at times, I cannot deny the rush it gave me. I developed considerable mastery over my powers in Asgard, and the chance to use them without holding back felt good."

"Huh," Alex sat back after that, "makes me almost wish I'd been there, instead of bugging Lorna by the pool." He looked down at his hands. "Wonder if good ole' Asgard could have made these blasters reliable..." Then he realized he was more talking to himself and smiled. "So how did you guys finally get home?"

Mariko remained silent, although she mentally filed away Alex's comment about his mutation.

Shiro looked at Alex's hands when he did, and nodded in sympathy. After a short moment's silence, he looked up again. "Sefton discovered a spell that could send us home. But it involved something or other that women inherently cannot control, so she siphoned her powers to Doug, and he cast the spell. And now we're back on Midgard."

"Midgard?"

Shiro blushed faintly. "The Norse term for this world. Sorry."

"Ahhh..." Alex nodded as he understood. "Nah blame it on the blonde, we're known for missing things like that."

Mariko settled back in her seat, getting lost in thought. Her own cousin, a champion of the gods. Who'd have thunk it? And yet, despite the power and acclaim the surely came with the position, he quickly gave it up in order to come home. Shiro was much more complex than he used to be. Good for him.