Thor and Loki were walking through town in their disguises. Shops surrounded them, and they had to force their way through crowds.
Loki said, “I don’t see why you’re making me do this.”
“You promised to give a prize to whoever made it past your obstacle course, and Yuko did that,” the thunderer replied.
“A fair point. Besides, it could help you get close to her and protect her better.”
“Then you figured it out too?” Thor asked.
He answered, “Yes. Yuko shows incredible physical and mental prowess, and I looked in her records. She was born from a one-night stand. Her current father is not her biological parent.”
“Hang on, it says in her records that her mother had a one-night stand?”
“It says a lot more than that,” Loki smiled. “Yuko’s mother was pretty explicit. I’m surprised they didn’t burn them.”
Thor wondered, “Can you show me those records later?”
“Sure thing. In fact, I could show you them now,” he offered.
“Stay focused, dad. We need to get my best friend a present.”
Loki groaned, “I’m regretting putting you in this disguise.”
“It’s too late for regrets. Now, what do you think Yuko…umm, senpai? It’s senpai, right?” Thor asked.
He answered, “I think the honorific is either sama or kun.”
“Well, I think I have an idea of what she’d like,” the thunderer stated. “She’s trying to make a friend, and I have the feeling that there’s something more to it.”
“Then what are we getting her?” Loki wondered.
Thor said, “Something to help her with that, something any man would like.”
“She’s probably having trouble,” the trickster god speculated. “I’ve never see her show any emotion.”
“Yes, that can’t make things easy, but Yuko-samakun’s pretty smart. I think she’ll figure out something.”
The next morning, Oda Hideyoshi was on his way to school. A sharp tap came at his back and he looked behind him. Sanda Yuko was there. She poked his forehead.
“Be my rival,” Yuko said without emotion.
Hideyoshi replied, “No.”
She poked him again, “Be my rival.”
“No, and what are you doing here? I thought your dad drove you to school.”
“I told him that I wanted to walk,” Yuko poked Hideyoshi. “Be my rival.”
“The answer’s the same as before.”
He started walking with Yuko taping him in the back.
“Be my rival.”
“No.”
“Be my rival.”
“No.”
They entered the school, the interested gazes of students turning to them.
“Be my rival.”
“No.”
“Be my rival.”
“No.”
Hideyoshi entered his classroom, “You’ll have to go to your own class and study, idiot. Your plan failed again.”
“You’re useless if you can’t even accept my challenge,” Yuko said.
A crowd gathered around them. Whispers followed the two.
One student spoke, “Sanda-san wants him to be her rival?”
“Shouldn’t he be the one who wants to beat her?” another student wondered.
“She’s already beaten him,” a third stated. “Is she just rubbing it in?”
Hera walked by in her disguise as Nakamura Haruto and listened in.
“So, Yuko wants to be that boy’s rival?” she thought. “I already caused her trouble because I thought she was a daughter of Zeus. Now that I know that Thora’s that girl, I should do something to make up for it.”
She forced her way through the crowed and brushed her hair to the side with dramatic flair, “Really, a man backing down from a challenge with a woman? As a man myself, I could never bare the humiliation.”
Yuko said, “He’s already in the classroom.”
Hideyoshi was at his seat and more students were coming in.
“Dammit!” Hera groaned and walked away. “I can’t believe this!”
“I’ve never seen this boy before, but the first thing he does is try to get Oda-san to be my rival,” suspicion flowed through Yuko. “While I want him to be my rival, it’s still a weird thing to do. And he’s mad that he failed…is this boy really Hera?”
Soon after, Thor, in his disguise as Thora, entered the room and sat next to Hideyoshi. The latter of the two was sighing and fidgeting.
“You seem a bit distracted,” Thor stated.
Hideyoshi replied, “I promised to help someone annoying.”
“Someone annoying?” he asked. “Could you give me any details?”
The human decided to not give ‘her’ many details in case ‘she’ was Hera, “I’ve met someone who was in trouble, and I put myself at risk because she really helped me out; though, she did it without even knowing.”
“That’s an odd situation.”
“She isn’t taking it seriously either. Part of me thinks that she’s just dragging me along because she’s a sadist. She never shows any emotion,” Hideyoshi planted his head in his desk.
A slow realization came to Thor, “She doesn’t?”
“No,” he said as all rational thought left his head. “She’s stupid, impulsive, illogical, and nothing short of a bitch. But I’ve had more fun being around her than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I think that’s why I’m still helping her in spite of the danger.”
Yuko ran through the track field ahead of the class with Thor beside her. Loki, in his disguise as Thursday, was sitting on the sidelines reading a book on how to make pranks that don’t backfire on you.
Thor said, “Yuko-samakun, you’ve told me about this guy who you want to be your friend.”
“I did, Thora-san,” she nodded.
“Is his name Oda Hideyoshi?”
Yuko replied without emotion, “He’s mine and you can’t have him.”
“Calm down,” Thor sighed. “I don’t want him, I just want to help you.”
Her face turned contemplative.
He asked, “Is something wrong?”
“I shouldn’t care about this, about friends. The only thing I should care about is reaching my full potential at everything I do,” Yuko answered. “But I like being around Hideyoshi and you, and I need to figure out how to talk to people.”
“You’re not very good at that,” Thor stated.
She remained without expression, “Yes. I never bothered to learn since I thought it was a waste of time, but it’s important. I read some of my brother’s manga when he wasn’t looking to learn about interaction.”
“Right, that’s one problem,” he said. “All fiction is a reflection of reality in some way, that’s what it’s supposed to be, but it’s almost always exaggerated for entertainment. Even in grounded ones, characters tend to be larger than life. In some cases, it only reflects reality in metaphor. You can’t expect everything to be like it.”
“Then what was that myth where Thor dressed up a woman a metaphor for?” Yuko asked.
Thor stumbled and fell on his face. Yuko walked over to him.
She spoke, “Are you alright, Thora?”
“I am,” he got up. “How did you know about that?”
“Hideyoshi told me about Heracles, so I looked up the god with the hammer. It turns out that Thor’s that god. Heracles is the guy with a club.”
Thor groaned, “Sad to say, but I doubt that story’s a metaphor for anything. It’s the result of a horny jackass stealing something so he could get laid and Heimdall making me wonder why he and Loki are enemies.”
“You and Hideyoshi might like each other. He’s into mythology too,” Yuko said.
“Don’t worry about that. I’m going to help you with him, and I have just the thing for it. You remember the prize dad promised you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I made him get you something that can help you reconcile with Hideyoshi,” Thor smiled. “Here’s what you need to do.”
Ved'ma Story 