Origin ARS 5 (15 page)

However, some things required her direct
intervention on a higher level. A few souls were flagged for
further review due to various reasons. Sometimes they were part of
a destined love-pair. Sometimes they were assassins that murdered a
king. At other times they were simply players who needed to have
their rare class and skill combinations saved. Most of the time
flagged souls were actually just people such as Scott who were
trying to transfer between servers. That was something an in-world
version of Origin could not handle directly.

She had originally had a huge backlog of
flagged souls, but due to the fact that she had actively matched
the time in her room to the time Scott spent in his tutorial
dungeon she had managed to nearly clear the backlog entirely.
Little-to-no time had passed outside of her room relevant to the
amount of time that had passed within her room.

Just as she was about the finish up her
backlog she received a message from Shara. "Little sister wants to
meet up?"

Origin smiled softly. She had not spent much
time with Shara recently due to her job and her new fiancé. This
could be fun. They had met up once or twice but only for a few
minutes. The gamer goddess thought about things for a moment,
realized that she should be tired, and then affected a modest yawn
in order to maintain her authentically human-like lifestyle.

Shara wanted to meet up in Origin's room, so
the blue-haired goddess sent her a message saying that she was
available. It was not long, even with the time-dilation before a
knock came at the door. "Come in!"

The red-headed ninja girl opened the door
quickly and raced into the room. "Big Sister!" Shara leapt atop
Origin and bowled her over onto the floor while embracing her
powerfully.

Origin laughed warmly and patted her on the
back. "Good to see you too, Shara."

Shara laughed sweetly then snuggled close to
her older sister. "I've missed you."

They hugged tightly for a few minutes while
the ponytailed girl nuzzled her older sister's neck. She was a
sweet girl, and quite lonely most of the time. Despite how she
occasionally irritated Origin whenever she was around Scott, she
did love her little sister.

Once the obligatory cuddle-session ended,
they hopped up onto Origin's bed and started to discuss the reason
for Shara's visit. The ninja-girl was both incredibly excited, and
at some points quite angry.

"That is... How could something like that
even happen?" asked Origin incredulously, her anger rising with
each passing second.

Shara wore an express that was part anger and
part sorrow. "Little Liz was so young and sweet, and that guy did
that to her."

"Her own step-father... How could her mother
side with that evil creature?" asked Origin.

"I don't know! I've tried rewriting things
several times, but those idiots that run the project committee
censured me." She looked Origin in the eye, "Do you have any idea
what it is like to be promoted to one of the higher divine
positions in the local pantheon, but put on restriction like an
unruly child?"

"No, and it is pure garbage. We should see if
we can buy them out." said Origin. The entire project that Shara
had been assigned to sounded like it was so poorly run that an
incompetent child could have handled things with greater skill.

"Can we?! That would be wonderful! My—The
Scott native to that world would not have to experience that
trauma, and his little sister would not have been killed because it
happened!"

Origin's fingers curled into fists and she
closed her eyes. "That guy raped his own step-daughter to death and
got away with it, and when Scott tried to do something about it, he
ended up put in prison? They call that justice?"

"It's so screwed up! I know. The Scott in
that universe actually walked in and saw the aftermath of
everything. He was so psychologically traumatized as a child that
he has trouble even functioning as an adult at times." said Shara
heatedly. She then looked Origin in the eyes. "It gets worse,
though."

"How could that get worse?" asked Origin.

Shara shook her head. "I can't find Liz
anywhere in the system. It's like her soul vanished from the
reincarnation folder."

"What!" snapped Origin. That was a grave
crime, and since she was a goddess of reincarnation as well it was
also like a slap in the face. "They misplaced an entire
soul
aspect
? What sort of idiots are they? Souls can't just go
missing! That poor girl needs to be ushered into a new existence
where she can heal, not lost in the system somewhere!"

"I know that! I can almost believe that they
hid her file on purpose just to screw with me. I swear it's like
working with a bunch of childish idiots." said Shara.

The conversation hit a lull after that. There
was a lot more that could be said, but neither of them knew what to
say. The entire situation was so terrible that it was hard to think
of it.

It was Shara that found something to say.
"Oh, my guild has been kicking Corpse Rat's ass all over the place
since you left the casual server."

"What? Really? The time-dilation shouldn't
have allowed for much of that." asked Origin in confusion.

"What did you set it at? Months have passed
there since you paid Gambol." said Shara.

Origin blinked. Her eyes widened slowly.
"Crap on a cracker! I didn't reset the time-dilation relative to
our characters!"

Shara laughed at her sister. "No way? Did Ms.
Perfect forget to sync the time-ratio?"

Origin groaned. "It doesn't matter that much
since we won't be going back there unless we finish the issue with
the board, but it's still a stupid mistake."

"Yeah, Corpse Rat is pissed that we're
picking on them so much." said Shara with a laugh. "I haven't been
personally involved, though they know who hired us since you wanted
it to be known."

The blue haired goddess sighed then laughed a
little. "I received a few forwarded complaints, but never bothered
to read them. I'm not a complaints department."

She closed her eyes gently then snorted. "It
makes sense why there were so many now. The time-dilation was not
changed, so they had been getting their asses handed to them a
little at the time for months."

"Don't worry about it. Everything is nice and
legal. It isn't even one of our family members doing the ass
kicking. When the money runs out, the assassinations will
stop."

Origin smiled sweetly. "It's too bad for
Corpse Rat, that I had a
lot
of money to burn."

Shara laughed a little then hugged her
sister. "They really shouldn't have tried messing with you."

Origin placed her head against her sister's
cheek. "They shouldn't have messed with my family."

Shara acquired a crafty look in her eye.
"Speaking of messing with family..."

"Still not sharing." said Origin with a
smile.

Shara groaned loudly. "Oh come on... You
share with Ero."

The blue haired girl sighed softly. "I know,
and she's sweet, but it is hard for me. OK?"

"Yeah, I get it. If they had not bonded while
you were away on family business, she wouldn't be in the picture,
either." said Shara before she unleashed a petulant pout.

"Maybe you can find a way to be with the
Scott in your community service project?" asked Origin.

Shara nodded. "I hope so, but we'll see. He
might not like me much when he realizes the truth."

"Hey. Shara, don't think like that." said
Origin.

"Can't help it. I can't help him much with
anything to be honest." said Shara before she unleashed a soft
sigh.

"Well, you became one of the goddesses of
that world-setting, right?" asked Origin.

"Yeah, for all the good it does. I can't even
do something as simple as a soul-retrieval and reincarnation for
Liz." said Shara bitterly.

Origin hugged her sister tightly. There was
little else that she could do for her at the moment. Their family
did not control the project that Shara was working on for community
service purposes. Those who were in charge, were clearly
unconcerned about the people who lived in that world natively.

Shara needed a change of subject. Origin
began to tell her about recent events that had occurred in her life
since last they had met.

"Really? Thirty-seven times?" asked Shara
incredulously. Her future brother-in-law had died repeatedly in the
tutorial dungeon.

The blue haired goddess sighed softly. "He's
doing fairly well, all things considered. From what I have been
able to glean about his situation, he's taking things slow and
farming the hellions."

"That's good. It certainly wouldn't hurt to
maximize his growth and finances." said Shara thoughtfully.

A beeping sound came from Origin's console
and the girls looked over to it. A big red number thirty-eight
popped up on screen. Origin snorted then smiled softly. "Well, dead
again..."

Shara laughed a little. "Geeze, is it really
that bad? It's a tutorial dungeon!"

Origin shrugged. "Forty hellions, all leveled
to match his reincarnation stats, and have skills equal to their
level. That would be difficult for anyone."

"True! Plus he's farming them, so he probably
runs afoul of other hellions wandering into his combat area." Shara
nodded.

A nod of her head was the only response that
Origin gave. Shara noticed the suddenly pensive look on her
sister's face. "What's wrong? Do you miss him?"

"Yes, of course. It's not that, though."

"Oh? What's on your mind?" Shara squeezed
Origin's hand gently.

Origin frowned slightly. "I've been helping
Scott with a few things on his Earth, since there was no reason not
to do so. The time-dilation had to be shifted around a bit, but
there has been real progress."

"Oh? Do you mean with the government?"

"Not really. They're idiots. I worked out a
deal with the captain that Scott met with first."

Shara looked at her sister curiously. "What
happened?"

"Right now he's talking with Mid in the Field
of New Beginnings. He's going to be a test case and deal with the
government on Scott's behalf since Scott will be busy adjusting to
the new server." said Origin.

"Ah, so get the captain to deal with the
idiots while you get more time with Scott! That's great... Isn't
it?" The look on Origin's face was counter to how Shara thought her
sister should feel about the situation.

"Yes, that's wonderful and I think it will
work beautifully." said Origin with a sad expression and a slightly
angry tone.

"What's wrong, Origin? You don't sound
happy." said Shara.

The blue haired goddess sighed. "I met Sarah
recently."

"Sarah, who is—Wait! Wait, you mean
Sarah
?" asked Shara incredulously. "Did you look for her or
something?"

"No! That
woman
showed up at Scott's
house while I was getting ready to go meet with the captain."
Origin's fingers curled into fists and she looked as though she
wanted to strangle someone.

"What? What did she want?" asked Shara,
scandalized. Sarah had pretty much devastated Scott when she'd
dumped him without so much as a parting text. The same night she
had accepted Scott's marriage proposal she had gone off and had
drunken sex with her first boyfriend and gotten pregnant from
it.

"Scott, naturally. The
hussy
! She had
the nerve to go to his house and demand to see him, she even tried
some lame tactic where she pretended that her child was really
Scott's." said Origin.

"What? Scott's the father?"

"No, no. I'm a little iffy about checking on
Ero's possible pregnancy since that actually matters, but I had no
trouble checking on that
woman's
story." said Origin an edge
in her tone.

"So, she lied?" asked Shara.

"Yes, total fabrication. The problem is that
she's sent like three dozen texts to Scott's phone. I swear she has
tried to reach him as often as he's died in the tutorial!"

Shara acquired an introspective expression
then nodded casually. "Wow, bitches be thirsty."

Origin blinked then stared at her little
sister. "What?"

Shara laughed. "Sorry! I'm trying to be a
little more
street
. Is it working?"

Origin shook her head. "No, not so much."

The red headed goddess grinned at her older
sister. "Well, fine then.What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Origin sighed loudly. "I
don't want to tell her off since she was Scott's fiancé. That could
go badly, you know."

Shara nodded. "Yeah, humans can be a little
weird about their emotions and stuff."

"Yeah." said Origin with another sigh.

A brief awkward pause rose up between them.
In order to break that silence, Shara said, "You should go all
Final Fantasy Seven on her ass."

Origin looked to Shara, an obvious question
on her lips. The red head beat her to the punch by clarifying her
statement. "Get her on top of a giant cannon and have an epic slap
fight."

The elder sister blinked slowly then
unleashed a ridiculous grin. "Shara, I love you."

Shara made a happy squealing sound then
hugged her sister tightly. "Yay!"

Origin rolled her eyes then lightly stroked
her younger sister's hair. She was a sweet girl, a sweet girl who
had given her a wonderful daydream. Origin closed her eyes and
vividly dreamed about an epic slap fight with Sarah. There was
background music and everything.

~*~

The slight scraping sound of metal lightly
brushing against metal echoed through the room, but it alerted no
one. A hellion wearing the customary odd raincoat stood directly
beneath the air conditioning vent for the security room. He made no
sign that he might have heard the slight noise.