A/N: Hello again, all! Kairi-san here again with an update to the story. I apologize for any OOCness and for the wait. I have been waiting for votes on my poll. Also, I apologize to any readers who might be of the Shinto religion, I do not mean to make light of your gods. Rated T.

Disclaimer: I do not own Chobits, CLAMP does. I also do not own Musubi-No-Kami; he belongs to Shinto religious mythology, I am merely borrowing him for my story.

Without further ado, Chapter 9!

Chapter 9: To Be or Not To Be

Musubi-No-Kami looked at Chi, expectantly. She had opened her mouth to speak, but nothing was coming out but air. Had they planned it that way? He, as well as all other gods in the sky, no matter what religion they hailed from, did not like being tricked. He hoped that was not the case with these mortals he had chosen to honor with his presence. The wrath of a god was not something mortals wanted to deal with.

Hideki stared at Chi, surprised. His love had the chance to make her dreams come true, yet she was mysteriously silent? He would have to ask her and hope that the Shinto god would forgive his slight disrespectful behavior.

"Chi, are you okay?" Hideki asked quickly before turning back to the god.

Chi nodded. "Chi is fine. Chi is sorry."—she turned back to the god in all seriousness—"Musubi-No-Kami no Mikoto, Chi has one last question for Musubi-No-Kami before Chi makes Chi's decision, if Chi may?" Chi asked the god.

Musubi-No-Kami nodded. If Chi Motosuwa wanted to ask a question of him, he would allow it. It was best that all options were considered when making a decision of this magnitude. Hasty decisions were bad decisions, after all.

"Please do, Honored Chi. I will answer if it is in my power to do so," the god replied.

Chi paled at the words "if it is in my power to do so." What if her question was not one that Musubi-No-Kami could answer? What would happen then? Would she stay as she was? As much as her new black hair was beautiful, it was not her. She had been created with ivory hair and she liked it that way. She did not like the way she looked now and no amount of expensive plastic surgery would change that. Perfection did have its down side, after all. The outside did not correlate with the inside of Chi's heart. She would feel ashamed if she remained looking like she was if she chose to remain a human. She was not perfect, after all.

Hideki glanced at Chi perplexed. What could Chi possibly want to know that had not already been answered? She had a decision to make that they had thought long and hard about these last two days. What could make her hesitate now? She had the chance to make all her dreams come true, what was stopping her from taking the chance? She had been given the option to stay a human for goodness sake! What was holding her back? It was obvious she wanted to be forever human. He would love her no matter what, but it was her decision and he would respect that decision. He obviously wanted to take that fateful plunge with her, but he would sacrifice that if she chose to remain a persocom.

Chi cleared her throat to voice her question. It was now or never. The decision would not make itself up.

"Musubi-No-Kami, what exactly was this Great Mistake? Was Chi never supposed to be human?" Chi asked, realizing that she had actually asked two questions instead of one.

The god sighed. He respectfully ignored that she had in fact asked two questions and chose to answer both of them. He looked from Chi to Hideki and back again.

"Chi Motosuwa, I understand your concern. I humbly remind you that the option was 'human in the likeness of the persocom', meaning that you would look as you did as a persocom, but you would be human. My mistake was changing your looks. You were never supposed to look as you do now," the god began.

Hideki raised his eyebrows in alarm. Did the god mean what he thought he meant? Did his mistake of changing her looks cause the further complications leading to Chi being hospitalized? He would have to ask.

Chi nodded and was content with his answer. His mistake was not her being human in the first place. She was glad for that. It made her decision much easier to make. She opened her mouth to finally make the decision when Hideki stopped her with a glance in her direction. Apparently, he had something to say before she voiced her decision.

"Musubi-No-Kami no Mikoto, if I may? I also have a few questions for you," Hideki said, curiously.

The god nodded. "Go ahead and ask, Hideki."

Hideki stood up straighter suddenly and looked at Musubi-No-Kami in all seriousness. The answer to his questions could make it or break it for Chi's once-in-a-lifetime decision. He hoped so, anyway.

"Honored Immortal Musubi-No-Kami, did you mean what I thought you meant? Would Chi not have had to be hospitalized if you had just kept her looks the same as before?" he asked.

The god sighed yet again. Leave it to a mortal such as Hideki to get straight to the point of the matter. He would have to answer.

"Honored Hideki, I regret to inform you both that I do not necessarily know that for certain. It is quite possible that hospitalization would not have been necessary if I had not been focused on another girl at the time. You see, it all started with another girl, many centuries ago…" he replied. "At the time, the Shinto religion, which I am a deity of, was much more practiced in Japan than it is now. It happened during one of my planned indwellings of my Great Cherry Tree shrine. There was a young Japanese maiden that did not want an arranged marriage. She just then had turned a marriageable age and her father wanted her to make a good match. After she had turned down many excellent men, at least in her father's eyes, she had finally convinced her father to let her marry for love, if indeed she found such a man. Once she had reached such an agreement with her father, she went to my shrine daily for two weeks to pray to me for such an opportunity to love a great man. After a few days of such prayers, I decided to grace her with an appearance in my usual form, much like I did you, only I was not so straightforward with this maiden. You see, I graced her with my appearance from afar. I stood just far enough away from the maiden for her to see my form, but not recognize me for who I was, as is the norm for the gods and goddesses of the Shinto. I stayed just long enough for her to register me in her memory. Little did I know at the time, that she had fallen instantly in love with me? She thought I was a mortal like herself. She went home and told her father, who told her that if she could catch the man and persuade him to come home with her to meet him she could marry him with full blessings from him. Delighted, she kept coming to my shrine daily, praying that her "love" would return to her so that she could marry him. At the end of the two-week period, I returned to her once again, only this time I gave her a cherry blossom for her faithfulness. She then recognized me for who I was, Musubi-No-Kami, a Shinto god. Ashamed that she had fallen in love with a god, she became one of my best nuns in all my millennia."—he came back to the present—"Chi, Hideki, the act of using Musubi in the way I did to Chi had never been done before. I encased the power needed in the cherry blossom I gave Chi one month ago whilst the both of you were sleeping. I did not know at the time that the cherry blossom had affected the power of Musubi held within it. Chi, the act of my giving you the cherry blossom in such a way, associated you with that long-ago maiden. Originally, I had planned to keep you as you were as a human, but my late-night action affected it all. If I had not given the cherry blossom to you directly, you would have been human with the complete looks of the persocom. The power was just enough to do that, but when it associated you with the maiden, it was no longer enough to turn you completely human. The power within had to let nature take its course inside you which led you to being hospitalized. I am sorry for that." He sighed again; delighted that he was done with his story.

Hideki's jaw dropped in surprise. When he had asked the question, he had not imagined such a long answer. Of course, he recognized the god's story as a folktale he had learned in school as a boy before he became skeptical of all religions. Hearing Musubi-No-Kami tell it meant it was true. Did that mean that all supposed folktales were in fact true stories in some fashion? He wanted to ask but knew that now was not the time to ask. The truthfulness of folktales did not affect the decision at hand. He looked at Chi with love. His eyes told her that the time had finally come to make her decision.

Chi nodded at Hideki, agreeing with him fully. The time for procrastination had passed. It was decision time. Any further questions that needed to be asked could be asked after the decision was made. She cleared her throat and faced Musubi-No-Kami.

"Chi is ready to make Chi's decision," she declared, matter-of-factly.

Musubi-No-Kami nodded. "What shall it be then, Miss Chi Motosuwa?"

Chi cleared her throat, again. "Chi realizes that she was made a persocom. A special persocom, certainly, but still a man-made persocom that had no chance of being human. Chi was built, not created between a man and woman as is the way for humans like Chi's love, Hideki, to be made, but in Chi's eyes that is the same thing. Humans love each other to create children of that love. Love between a human and a persocom or between two persocoms does not have that opportunity to create a new being of that love. While Chi does not know exactly how that happens, Chi wants that capability. To be permanently human would give Chi that ability. Chi loves Hideki and Hideki loves Chi no matter what form Chi takes, but it is Chi's dream to be the same as Hideki in that special way," she answered. "Chi has decided to remain human as Chi should be."

Hideki smiled. He approved of Chi's decision quite perversely. Their love for each other could be acted upon fully. Of course, he realized he would have to explain it to Chi before hand, but once she knew about it, he was sure that she would agree to it. He looked at Chi again, lovingly.

The god smiled. He saw even greater things happening to them now. Now he had to make the power held within Chi's cherry blossom work again in his favor. He would reverse and remedy the problem at hand. He realized that it might take a while to fully work, but it was Chi's decision to be human as she should be. He would comply. He nodded and spoke again.

"Honored Chi, thank you for your wise decision. You shall get your wish. Please come embrace me so that I might make your wish come true," Musubi-No-Kami replied to glares from Hideki. He looked at Hideki reassuringly. "Not to worry, Honored Hideki, no harm will come to your beloved Chi whilst in my embrace. It will merely make the process easier. My intentions are pure."

Hideki nodded and urged Chi forward. Chi smiled and went to embrace the god shakily. She gave the god a big hug as a bright light encased them. Hideki looked at the light in alarm. He waited a few minutes to find that light was still there where Chi and Musubi-No-Kami were supposed to be. He tried to find some reassurance in that fact, but he could find none. He continued to stare at the light, worried out of his senses.

Meanwhile, Chi and Musubi-No-Kami were in a place between the earthly realm and the divine realm, still in their friendly embrace. Musubi-No-Kami had brought her there to be sure that there was no outside interference with what he had to do. Neither good nor evil could exist in this limbo of places very long, even a god. Roman Catholics ignorantly called it purgatory. While it was a place between Heaven and Hell, the deceased had been judged before they went there temporarily. This limbo heightened the powers of the gods who happened to come there. Living beings only came there with the assistance of a god or gods, for they would die within five seconds of arriving if even they could get there in the first place, hence the mistaken name of Purgatory. That was why Musubi-No-Kami had not parted from Chi while they were there.

Musubi-No-Kami put a hand between their bodies to separate them slightly, being sure that they still touched. He needed some space to work his magic, so to speak. Reaching to Chi's hair, he removed the cherry blossom from where she had put it one month before. Alarmed, Chi looked up at the god, questioningly. He nodded and spoke.

"Do not worry, Honored Chi. All will be well, shortly. I merely need the blossom to reverse its power held within," Musubi-No-Kami reassured her.

Chi nodded and looked around her. She gasped at what she saw. They were in place filled with white light and nothing else, literally. Her logic told her that such a place could not exist within Earthly terms. She reminded herself that she was in the hands of a god, which her logic had also told her could not exist either, yet he did. She sighed and looked back up at him.

"Chi! Please do what Musubi-No-Kami must. Chi wants to be human!" Chi replied.

Nodding, Musubi-No-Kami did his thing, knowing full well that he had a short time frame in which to do it. He glanced at the cherry blossom in his hand and placed it against Chi's heart, whilst at the same time, he returned to their friendly embrace. Musubi would work better placed against the heart, anyway. In order to control it fully, the god and the mortal had to both be touching the medium of the power in almost the same place on their bodies which they were currently doing. Concentrating on what he had to do, he went into a trancelike state of mind, being sure to have just enough control over his body to keep a firm hold on Chi, lest she die here. Those that died in Limbo simply disappeared forever, as no eternal judgment could take place here.

Smiling, Chi looked at the god's face, noticing that he was in a trancelike state. Worry etched into her face as she realized what was happening, or at least it did before she realized that Musubi-No-Kami would not let anything happen to her here, no matter his state of mind. She lost all sense of logic as a state of euphoria overwhelmed her. She would be human when she returned to Hideki! She could not wait! She would experience life as Hideki did! She would age as Hideki did! As much as she hated Hideki getting old with age and dying, she realized she would now experience it with him! They would enter and spend the afterlife together as well as this current lifetime! She smiled as Musubi took over her body.

Entering into a trancelike state herself, Chi unconsciously noticed the changes coming upon her. The power of Musubi cocooned her in an artificial womb of energy and light where only she existed, or so she thought. In reality, Musubi had transformed Musubi-No-Kami into his true divine self, who enveloped Chi in his divine light. Unconsciously, Chi and Musubi-No-Kami floated upward to the edge of Limbo and the divine realm as the god's light and the power of Musubi made their permanent changes to Chi. Perfection changed into rightness as Chi soared beyond euphoria into a state of unexplainable bliss. Hastily made bones, muscles, and organs became their natural selves as Musubi did its natural work. Bodily systems were brought to their correct places and functions as Chi remained in her Musubi-induced trance. What seemed like a lifetime later but was actually about fifteen minutes later, both Chi and Musubi-No-Kami returned to their previous states, both illogically exhausted, but looking like they should be.

Musubi-No-Kami looked down at Chi, smiling. Musubi had finally done what it was supposed to! What had been black hair only moments before now was ivory hair as it should be on Chi. The maiden's olive-tinted skin had been reversed to Chi's natural creamy peach. Her face now looked as natural on Chi as it had been when Chi was a persocom. Chi's natural curves were no longer displaced, but looked natural. She was now "human in the likeness of the persocom" in all sense of the phrase.

Chi glanced at what she could see of herself within the god's embrace and smiled. Her wish had been fulfilled! She beamed up at the god.

"Musubi-No-Kami, Chi thanks the Mikoto very much!" Chi exclaimed without much thought.

The god nodded and smiled back. "Honored Chi, I thank you for allowing me the privilege. Let us go back to Hideki now so that he will no longer worry for you," he replied.

Chi nodded and they both disappeared in the blink of an eye. What had been merely bright light only moments before, instantly transformed back into Chi and Musubi-No-Kami once again. Hideki's jaw dropped in both surprise and relief as he watched this happen.

Once Chi realized she was back where she was meant to be, she left Musubi-No-Kami's embrace and bowed to him respectfully. She went to Hideki, seeing that his face was filled with shock. She was now confused. Was Hideki disappointed in her choice to be human?

"Chi? Hideki does not like the new Chi?" she asked, moving into his embrace.

Hideki enfolded his newly-human love, Chi, in his arms lovingly. He smiled down at her and looked her directly in the eyes. That she could now be human mystified him, but he realized that nothing was impossible for them now. Their legacy would not end with them. He respected Chi's decision and was determined that they both enjoy it.

"Chi, I love you and will continue loving you until the end of time. Just because you are now forever human does not change that," he answered her, kissing her.

Realizing that the two lovebirds had forgotten he was there, Musubi-No-Kami cleared his throat, startling them apart. Chi blushed as they turned back to the god. The god sighed, content with his work.

"If neither of you have any more questions for me, I will now make my leave," the god declared.

Chi and Hideki stared at each other in agreement. They did not have any other questions for Musubi-No-Kami that they could not answer themselves with experience. They would take life as it happened, good or bad.

"No, we do not, thank you, Musubi-No-Kami no Mikoto," Hideki answered hastily, eager to get back to kissing Chi.

Nodding, the god vanished, never to be seen again by the two of them, or at least they hoped so. Chi looked up slightly at Hideki with an idea on her face. She blushed as she voiced her idea.

"Hideki? Can Hideki tell Chi what the "action" is now?" Chi asked provocatively.

Hideki's face reddened with a large blush. He had accidently forgotten about that promise to Chi. It was time to fulfill that promise to Chi.

Blushing, Hideki answered, "How about I just show you? You will like it, I'm sure!"

At that declaration, Hideki swept Chi off her feet and carried her toward their bedroom and closed the door. Their love was one that could happen only once in a lifetime…

The End

A/N: There you go, Chapter 9, the conclusion to the story! I hope you liked it! Reviews are greatly appreciated! Especially since this story is the first I've finished on FF! Please watch for a new poll on my profile. Until my next fanfiction, Kairi.