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Chapter Four
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Start small, indeed.  My fears were unfounded.  You can't get 
much smaller than a ladybug.

"Why am I guarding this again?" I asked.

"Just practice," Seiya said.  "Besides, there's always a reason 
for anything you do.  You'll be receiving assignments many 
times that don't make sense to you and sometimes you might even
want to object to.  Just have faith that it's according to His 
will."

"Okay."  I saw his point, but I still felt stupid hovering 
above a ladybug.  Of course, my body existed in a different 
dimension--that of the spiritual world, and not the physical--
so that the ladybug couldn't tell that I was observing it.  
Guardians are supposed to be unobtrusive unless called to do 
otherwise.

"Try to sense it's wooing," Seiya suggested.

"Bugs can woo?"  This seemed absurd.

"Of course.  It's not as complex as a human's, but they have 
several distinct states of emotions.  Fear or contentment are 
examples."  

"Okay..."  I think Seiya knew I thought he was nuts.  I tried 
to connect with the ladybug.  All I got was a major wooing of 
indifference.

It drifted a little, and I let myself float as I watched it, 
trying to figure out what I was learning.  The bug seemed to 
have a preference for white flowers over yellow, but that was 
all I was picking up.

"Let's try some TM," Seiya said.  I perked up immediately.

"You never told me what that is," I said, lightly accusingly.  

"TM.  It's an abbreviation for temporal manifestation," Seiya 
told me.  "It's when an angel bridges the spiritual and 
physical world by revealing himself..."

"...or herself..." I said, being politically correct.

"Or herself..." Seiya agreed, "...in the physical world.  It's 
fairly uncommon to need to TM, but it's something every angel 
must know how--and when--to do.  Much more common is TC, or 
temporal contact.  This is where the spiritual world interacts 
with the physical, in a manner that is detectable but 
unobserved."

"I'm sorry, I don't see the difference," I sighed.  

"That's alright.  Think of it this way.  Pretend you're human 
again.  Then an angel TMing before you would mean that he.."

"or she..."

"Or she," he rolled his eyes this time, "had appeared in front 
of you.  You would have actually *seen* it.  This is sometimes 
how angels deliver messages to their charges.  In contrast, TC 
means that they remained invisible to your eyes, but they could
make changes to your physical surroundings.  Such as...if you 
were walking past a wall and a picture was about to fall and 
hit you, they could hold up the picture until you were past to 
keep you from harm.  And both TM and TC are transferable to 
other objects."

"How?"  I asked.

"Well, once the angel Jacobe used TC on his sword to slice 
through a car engine while the driver was on a deserted road, 
causing it to stall out."

I raised my eyebrows.  "Uh, I thought we were supposed to 
*help* people?"  I ventured dubiously.

"He did.  He saved the person's life, when thirty seconds later 
a drunk driver suddenly appeared and swerved into the exact 
spot the other person would have been in had his car not 
stalled.  Instead the drunk driver ended up crashing into a 
tree on the other side of the road, leaving the other man 
completely unhurt.  And of course Jacobe knew this would 
happen."  Seiya looked at me.  "Remember, there's always a 
reason for everything we do.  Life on earth is like a weaving.  
Humans can only see the colors being used.  If it's black at 
the time, like a car breaking down in the middle of the road, 
they assume the whole pattern is black.  But as an angel, we 
can see the master design, and know that the black is only the 
outline."

"Wow," was all I could think to say.

"Yup," Seiya laughed.  "So, ready to try it?  We'll start with 
TC.  It's easier than TM."

I followed his instructions as he spoke them.  "Float nearer to 
the ladybug.  Yes, that's good, right about there.  See that 
yellow flower, a few inches to the right of the blade of grass 
its own?  Try to bend it nearer, so that it might fly to it."

"He doesn't like yellow flowers," I told Seiya, and saw him 
try to stifle a laugh.

"Very good, Usagi.  It's important to be observant of your 
charges.  But you did miss one thing.  'He' is a 'she.' "  He 
smirked.

Oops.  Political correctness can backfire.

"So, try bending that white flower in front of it instead," he 
continued.  To do so, I turned so that I was floating 
horizontally right above the lady bug, and gently reached down 
to touch the flower and tip it towards her.

And there lied the problem.  When I tried to apply the concept 
of TC to the flower, I got my signals crossed, and I TMed 
instead.  Which meant that my body became present in the 
physical world...which meant the law of gravity now applied.

In my state of complete panic, I screamed something decidedly 
unholy.  I was pretty sure guarding didn't involve crushing 
your charge, which was what would happen if I were allowed to 
crash to the ground.  The poor ladybug, almost started to death 
anyway by the appearance of a large object that had just 
materialized above it (namely, me!) tried to fly away.  But I 
was too close...I was going to land on top of it...

In the last instant Seiya was suddenly visible as well as he 
materialized right beside me and dove forward, cupping his hand 
over the ladybug to protect it before I crushed it to death.  
I landed on the ground with a thud, and, wouldn't you know, 
landed on Seiya's hand as well, which just so happened to be 
right above my--chest.  My cleavage made a rather convenient 
resting place for his hand.

I jumped up, my face burning, and Seiya set the poor ladybug 
free and hastily backed away, putting a healthy amount of 
interpersonal distance between us.  Friends or not, that was 
just a little too up close and personal than either of us 
liked.

"Uhhh...that didn't work."  I stated the obvious, trying to 
keep the embarrassment out of my voice.

"That's why we are practicing," Seiya said.  "We, um, aren't 
supposed to harm charges during training, that's why I did...
that."  I flushed a deeper red.

"It's not fair," I moaned.  "I'm an angel.  Aren't they 
supposed to have perfect bodies?  Why am I still clumsy?"

Seiya chuckled.  "Who said clumsiness is an imperfection?"  He 
paused.  "Though...there is one thing I might note, Usagi.  In 
general, angels use word 'hell' is used as a location, and 
not...any other way," he said tactfully.

I giggled sheepishly at my slip of tongue.  "Right.  Sorry 
about that."

"Don't worry.  Forgiveness is something we have plenty of," he 
said, winking at me.  And then there was an awkward silence, 
which was promptly broken by my scream when *another*  angel 
materialized in front of us.

"Seiya," he said sharply.  "I need to speak with you."

"Of course, Yaten," he said, his tone no longer teasing, his 
face deadly serious.  He frowned in concern.  "Is something
wrong?"

Yaten jerked his head in a direction away from me, and Seiya 
picked up the hint.  They walked a few yards away from me and 
spoke so lowly so that I couldn't hear them.  I groaned to 
myself.  No, nothing was wrong...just me.   Maybe I had had an 
unobtrusive observer myself who had just seen my latest 
debacle.  It didn't seem very angelic to go around scaring 
defenseless ladybugs.

Seiya and Yaten only talked for a short while.  I could see 
their faces, and Seiya looked like he was arguing with him.  
The disagreement was over with shortly and Yaten seriphicated 
almost as quickly as he had appeared.  Seiya came back to me 
with a worried look on his face.  

"Usagi," he said, "Something unexpected's come up.  We need 
you for an assignment."

"You mean besides guarding ladybugs?"  I teased, but sobered up
at the look on his face. 

"This is serious.  It's a matter of life and death."  His 
tone was so matter-of-fact, it frightened me.

"Someone could die if I don't do my job right?"  I broke into a
cold sweat, horrified at the prospect.  Suddenly I felt as if I
was in *way* over my head.  It was one thing to guard ladybugs,
but a human in grave danger?

"He--it's a young man-- could."  He hesitated.  "I don't know 
the exact details of the case, but...it's a possible suicide 
attempt, which complicates things a bit.  It doesn't fit in the
ultimate plan for him to die this young, so you can prevent it.  
You've got that working for you.  But a human does have free 
will, so...we can't force him to change his mind."

"So he might die anyway, no matter what I do."  I couldn't get 
past that.  I didn't want to be a guardian anymore.  I 
*couldn't* be one.  I couldn't even manage a temporal contact 
or manifestation correctly.  How was I supposed to protect 
someone if I couldn't do that?  "I'm not ready," I said 
desperately.  "I almost managed to kill my last charge myself, 
how am I supposed to stop someone else from doing it?"

"You were chosen for a reason, Usagi," Seiya said gently.  "We 
don't know how or why yet, but there's something about this 
case that makes only you qualified for it.  I'm sorry, I never 
expected you to have to deal with something this big, this 
soon...but trust me, you are never chosen for an assignment 
that you don't have the abilities to do.  And I'll be there 
with you, for support.  Though I can't lend you any actual 
assistance.  It's imperative you are able to do this on your 
own."  He paused.  "Trust me," he said again.

"You use that word a lot," I said.  "Trust."

"Because it's essential in life," Seiya told me.  "For both 
angels and humans."

I closed my eyes, steeled myself, and then looked at Seiya.  I 
tried to focus on his words, but all I could do was repeat 
'trust,' over and over.  Trust.  I had to trust.  Trust in 
myself, in Seiya, in God....and for the sake of the person who 
was in danger.  I just had to trust.

 "All right."  My voice quivered, but my will was resolute.  
"I'll go."

"Good girl," he said, sounding both encouraging and distracted.  
"We'll seriphicate there in celestial form."  Which was 
angeltalk that meant we wouldn't be visible.  

"Aren't you going to wish me good luck?" I joked feebly.

"Godspeed, Usagi," he told me seriously.

Oh.  Right.  

I closed my eyes.  I could feel Seiya take my hands and squeeze 
them reassuringly, and then felt a rush of wind that meant we 
were seriphicating.

And then we were there.