What you wish for chapter 2

[Spokavriel]

Ok I'm now going to ignore anything not an actual part of the story or from the author in this thread from now on. Its too much theological BS ignoring the whole fantasy aspect of A!MG! Its not suppose to fit in any set theology. I'll comment on chapter parts when I see problems or get a real kick out of things still but right now this thread is too hostile to fun.

[frice2000]

I apologize. I'm not trying to be hostile. All I'm saying is that their magic has to be hackable in the very least by the other side or their existence as enemies is pointless. It doesn't have to be easy but it still needs to be possible in my opinion. That's all. This no altering of spells cast by the opposing side makes this very likely to get very boring.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

Then be upset at/blame the author of Aa! Megami-sama!, rather than the author of this story. That's just how it works in the series, and Law's sticking with it. However, while it's not impossible for a goddess to succeed in hacking a demon's spell, it is impossible if access to Nidhogg is required. And hacking into Nidhogg wouldn't be a good idea -- it'd be a last resort sort of thing -- considering what happened to Velsper/Welsper (however his name was spelled). In the end, while it was vague in what way, and to what extent, a goddess casting a demonic spell would be hurt, it's bad enough to where it wasn't even considered as a viable solution for Peorth's problem.

Also, one shouldn't expect Norse Mythology and/or Abrahamic faith to have any bearing on anything. Fujishima Kosuke picked out a few morsels, at least from the former, and the rest is his idea. Later in the series it isn't even about good or evil, because, as it turns out, it's about competition over a middle ground for the sake of co-existence, in order to ensure mutual survival. That's how it was possible for the gods and demons to set up a neutral zone, in this story, in the first place.

That said, Law, I like this setup with the neutral zone. And I really hope that Akane continues to be as bad at being a demon as she is at cooking... and sewing... and swimming... XD;; Well, I don't think she's tone deaf, so maybe the spells that require singing will work out well, or really well. If so, maybe it'd become a matter of contention between her and Ranma, which gets him to put more effort and significance in singing himself. Or herself. Hrm. *Shrugs*

[LawOhki]

Kagami paused only briefly when entering the room to sit down for breakfast. This morning she woke up when Ranma and Genma began their morning workout. Tomorrow she would get up to help Kasumi with breakfast, but for today the eldest Tendo had declined her help. The reason she had paused was that Mara was at the table expecting to be fed. Kagami didn’t want to be a bother, so she sat down next to Ranma, who was the farthest from the Demon.

“Good morning.” She greeted her twin primarily.

“Morning.” Ranma replied along with similar greetings from the rest of the family save Mara who ignored her completely.

Kagami wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On one hand Mara was an evil Demon who had created her for the purpose of torturing someone. But on the other, Mara was her creator for all she knew. Did that make the Demon her mother? A shiver ran through her and down her tail at that thought.

“Excuse me, Mara-san.” She tried to be polite with the Demon.

“Huh?” Mara yawned lazily and seemed to finally notice her. “Oh, it’s you.”

Mara’s comment earned her a punch in the arm by Akane. “Be nice to her.”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be bossing you around!” Mara yelled at Akane.

“There’s no need for yelling.” Kagami tried to placate the two. “I just wanted to know-- if you could make it so I’m no longer part cat.”

“I could.” Mara looked just off to the side and didn’t go any further.

“But you want something.” Ranma pointed out.

“Of course.” The Demon smirked. “If you go to Asgard permanently, or convince Urd of Belldandy to, then I’ll do it. If more than one goes, then I’ll even make sure she gets a soul.”

“Like I’m going anywhere.” Ranma scoffed.

“Doesn’t really matter to me.” Mara inspected her nails and picked at some imaginary dirt. “I’m not the one wants something.”

“Is there anything else?” Akane jumped in.

“Hey, we’re the Demons here! We’re not supposed to help a God and some clone that cost way too much.” Mara grabbed Akane’s shoulders and shook her.

“And it’s your fault she is the way she is!” Akane knocked Mara’s hands to the side and then grabbed the Demon by the collar of her shirt. “So pick something reasonable.”

Mara grumbled something to herself. “Fine, I suppose I could get rid of the cat stuff for-- a favor from both of you.” The Demon pointed to Ranma and then to Akane.

“What kind of favor?” Ranma asked.

“Nothing much, nothing at all really.” Mara replied flippantly.

“You don’t have to do this.” Kagami put a hand on Ranma’s shoulder. “I just asked about it, I’m fine if I stay like this.”

#Don’t do it boy!# Genma jumped into the conversation with a wooden sign since he was still a panda. #It’s a trap!#

“As much as I’d like to help you out Kagami, I don’t really trust Mara on some undisclosed favor.” Akane declined the offer.

“You’re right.” Ranma shot her a frustrated look before switching to a confident smirk. “I’ll find a way to do it myself.” She boasted.

“Good luck with that.” Mara responded.

[LawOhki]

Walking to school with Ranma and Kagami, Akane felt frustrated about everything. Being a Demon now she realized that there was some self-imposed gulf between the side she now belong to, and the one Ranma was part of. She was also still angry about Ranma’s comments last night pertaining to her ability to learn. But there was a bigger issue than her pride at the moment and that was the clone of Ranma who Akane had chosen to not help.

She should have been willing to take Mara up on the offer, put some stipulations on what the favor could be, but helping Kagami so she could at least have a normal life should have been worth it. Instead, she had decided that putting herself in the line of fire for someone else was unacceptable. Akane had hoped that what the Demon who had explained things to originally had said about it just being a job, and a slight change of body meant that she wasn’t going to change who she was.

Hopefully just being more selfish was the extent of it. If Ranma wasn’t normally such a jerk about talking about personal matters, she would have asked if he had noticed any kind of personality change. Akane did notice that Ranma seemed slightly different, but not as much as she had noticed the day before right up until Mara had interrupted class. If she was a Demon and that was making her more selfish, did becoming a God make Ranma nicer? Well he certainly wasn’t nicer to Mara and had apparently had some kind of argument with the Goddess who was supposed to be teaching him.

Glancing at the reason for her thoughts, she watched Kagami walk for several seconds. With the cat additions it was easy to tell that she was in a depressed mood. The tail that she had which went straight down from her spine and had been perpetually curled upwards at the tip was hanging limply behind her nearly dragging on the ground. Her ears which were normally upright and alert, were tilted to the outside and to the back without movement. It was actually amazing how much could be expressed by the abnormal features. But it was probably best not to make a big point of it since those were likely what had depressed her.

Kuno didn’t bother them today which was a welcome change even if he would be back sometime to provide some sort of hassle. What she noticed out of the corner of her eye made Kuno seem like a welcome distraction. Mara was floating off above the wall around the school to the left side. The message that her home had become a neutral site where neither side could make open moves against the other came back to her because it didn’t apply anywhere else.

“Ranma.” She pointed towards Mara just in case the God had missed her.

“Oh great.” He groaned. “Now what does she want?” Ranma looked at her like she should have some insight.

“Don’t look at me. I’m starting to think they just stuck her on to me to keep her out of their hair.” Akane answered.

“I’m sure.” Ranma walked a little faster towards the entrance, seeming to pull a confused Kagami along in his wake.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked herself.

[LawOhki]

Kagami was just entering into the classroom when the homeroom teacher asked to see her. The glasses wearing man had some papers in his hands and he was sitting behind the front desk. She was a little intimidated that he might tell her that she had to leave.

“You wanted to see me?” Her tail twitched behind her and she could feel some of the stares from the students at their desks.

“Yes your transfer papers arrived this morning.” He slid a small pile of stapled together papers across the desk to her.

“Tr-- transfer papers?” She asked, picking them up. Her name was written out along with Saotome, she didn’t know where Solskinn High School was, or when she had taken placement tests. “But-- I never.”

“We have made exceptions in the past for the school uniform, such as your brother, and his gender issues. Do you also have something that makes the uniform impractical?” He asked, ignoring her weak protest.

“No-- not really.” She didn’t change genders and a simple modification to the Furinkan uniform would take care of the tail problem.

“Alright, the address for where you can buy the uniform is on the second page.”

“Thank you.” She bowed her head, deciding that she should simply accept this gracious action, and find out the cause of it later.

“What did he want?” Ranma asked as she took her seat.

“Apparently I’m now enrolled at Furinkan.” She held up the paper for him to see.

“Woah, how did that happen?” He snatched the papers to read them.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” She couldn’t help a small smile from appearing on her face. If she was enrolled then she existed somewhere in paperwork, which meant she had an actual identity.

“What’s up?” Akane asked. Ranma looked at her briefly before showing the new Demon the paperwork. “You don’t think Mara did it, do you?”

“Her? Yea right.” Ranma scoffed.

“Whoa Ranma what’s with that tattoos?” Hiroshi popped into the conversation, planting himself on her desk casually. “Akane too?”

“Don’t ask.” Both of the newly ascended beings said together.

“Yakuza?” Daisuke added.

“Shh, we’re not supposed to ask.” Hiroshi put a finger to his lips.

“We’re not Yakuza.” Akane growled.

“Ne Kagami, you doing anything after school?” Daisuke asked, completely ignoring Akane.

“No, I didn’t have any plans.” She answered before she remembered the surprise moments before. “Oh! I do have to go pick up a uniform.” Kagami also added to herself that she should pick up some more normal clothing while she was at it. Ranma’s closet was limited to shirts and slacks which she liked just fine, but she couldn’t keep taking from him. Then again she didn’t have any money.

“Shopping? Maybe tomorrow you’d want to get dinner or something?” Daisuke moved on.

“No thank you.” She answered absently, not particularly interested in either of Ranma’s friends. If they could have just been her friends as well it would be fine, but they weren’t looking for someone to hang out with, they were looking for a girlfriend.

The bell rang, the homeroom teacher went through roll call before moving into some announcements. Kagami was still figuring out how she would pay for her uniform when homeroom ended and a woman she recognized from yesterday sauntered into the room. Urd was wearing a black pencil skirt that ended at mid-thigh, she had a black jacket over top of a white collared shirt that was unbuttoned enough to show off a large amount of cleavage.

“What are you doing here!?” Ranma and Akane both got up out of their seats to point an accusing finger at Urd.

“My my, such a strange greeting.” Urd set down a trio of books she had been carrying in one hand. Grabbing a piece of chalk she wrote out something incomprehensible on the board. It wasn’t in kanji, hiragana, or katakana, and the characters resembled English ones, but had strange elements thrown in. “I’m substituting for Yamamoto-sensei while he’s out with a sickness.” A girl near the front raised her hand. “Yes?”

“What kind of sickness?”

Urd sweated briefly. “They’re still trying to figure that out.” She answered quickly. “Now, my name is Wodensdatter Urd, but you can all call me Urd-sensei.” The white haired Goddess announced happily.

“You think it was maybe here that set me up?” Kagami leaned over and whispered to Ranma.

“Could be.” Ranma answered with a shrug.

Kagami picked up a couple of students talking about the triangular tattoos that adorned Urd’s face as they connected that to Ranma and Akane’s new facial markings. Urd or Belldandy being the reason she suddenly existed legally made more sense than Mara and she would have to ask when the class ended.

[Spokavriel]

Great balance of what is shown and told keeping the plot moving and so many things ambiguous without making it seem like us readers are being left out of the loop any more than the characters the plot is following.

[frice2000]

Nice misconception the students are having about the tattoos. Not too sure how I'm feeling about Kagami. She's a nice enough character but right now she feels less like a person and more a plot contrivance. Hopefully that'll change. Was slightly surprised she didn't jump at making friends even with those making the romantic overtures as she seems pretty desperate to establish that she's her own person and a relationship with others she's not seeing as forced would be pretty nice, I'm also enjoying the slight personality changes you've made to the characters. I do have a couple concerns about certain things being in cannon with stuff in AMG which I've reread parts of after getting my head bit off here but I will refrain from any discussion on that. All in all some nice work, but it does feel like it's moving a tad slowly, but that could just be from seeing them come out on a irregular basis not all thrown together yet.

[LawOhki]

Not too sure how I'm feeling about Kagami. She's a nice enough character but right now she feels less like a person and more a plot contrivance. Hopefully that'll change. Was slightly surprised she didn't jump at making friends even with those making the romantic overtures as she seems pretty desperate to establish that she's her own person and a relationship with others she's not seeing as forced would be pretty nice,

She is a plot contrivance, she knows this at this point, and she's alternating between moments of being happy and then realizing she was simply poofed into existence a day prior.

Remember that she does have all of Ranma's memories, that's all she has to go on for interactions with others. She does have a different personality, but she's still trying to figure out what's acceptable and what's not, and jumping into a date right now with everything else going on would be adding extra complications to an already complicated situation.

I'm also enjoying the slight personality changes you've made to the characters. I do have a couple concerns about certain things being in cannon with stuff in AMG which I've reread parts of after getting my head bit off here but I will refrain from any discussion on that. All in all some nice work, but it does feel like it's moving a tad slowly, but that could just be from seeing them come out on a irregular basis not all thrown together yet.

If you are thinking of creating a paper trail, in canon, Belldandy transferred herself into Keiichi's school in chapter 4. That's all Urd did here, Kagami still doesn't exist anywhere else.

[frice2000]

She is a plot contrivance, she knows this at this point, and she's alternating between moments of being happy and then realizing she was simply poofed into existence a day prior.

So she's a plot contrivance that knows she's a plot contrivance? Interesting. I just have a bad feeling for her that you're going to go the whole golem were-cheetah route from GD and have her die killed by Mara with Akane indifferent. This will spur Ranma on to cut off amicable relations with Akane and get into his training so he can resurrect the girl since only he can do it for whatever reason (perhaps so he can restore her destroyed memories since she is a clone of his memories or something?). That just makes me feel for her. Poor little clone girl. Add to the fact that others will likely confuse Ranma and her and...pain is coming for her.

[LawOhki]

So she's a plot contrivance that knows she's a plot contrivance? Interesting. I just have a bad feeling for her that you're going to go the whole golem were-cheetah route from GD and have her die killed by Mara with Akane indifferent. This will spur Ranma on to cut off amicable relations with Akane and get into his training so he can resurrect the girl since only he can do it for whatever reason. That just makes me feel for her. Poor little plot contrivance girl.

Different types of golems. Kagami is quite literally like the three ninja former rat girls, a complete living being, not a magical construct/shell. Although she didn't come from any prior living creature, Fulcanelli is good at what he does unlike Mara, and was able to simply make her. Like how Mara made the fake Urd.

The only real difference between Kagami and a normal human, other than being part cat, is that she's a spirit like what inanimate objects have, which accrues over time as she experiences things. If she was killed right now, she'd basically just vanish because she has no experiences and thus no power. (Not the same kind of spirit that is at Megumi's home) While normal beings have souls, which are basically eternal.

[Spokavriel]

If you know the character of Moe from Love Hina it might help you to understand what is meant by soul of an object.

[LawOhki]

If you know the character of Moe from Love Hina it might help you to understand what is meant by soul of an object.

There's also Benpei and the android girl I can't think of the name of in series. With an arc that specifically deals with whether or not they are alive or not. (114-118)

[Spokavriel]

::blush:: newest one I DLed is 112. Guess I have allot of catching up to do. But I think you mean Sigl or Sigel depends on how they decide to translate it.

[LawOhki]

::blush:: newest one I DLed is 112. Guess I have allot of catching up to do. But I think you mean Sigl or Sigel depends on how they decide to translate it.

Ah yes, that's her name, she comes up with it in 118. And yes you have much catching up to do. The manga is up to about 260 now.

This has nearly all chapters
http://www.mangavolume.com/serie-archiv ... y-goddess/

This has the last couple but may be losing them soon.
http://manga.animea.net/ah-my-goddess.html?setl=2