Plague of Skulds Part 7 of 8
An Oh! My Goddess Fanfic
By Jim Nutley
jnutley@lvnexus.net
Please send me comments! Good or Bad.
All characters created by Kosuke Fujishima were used without
permission, as were characters from products by Studio CLAMP and
Bandai. This story may not be sold. Many thanks to Brett Handy for
allowing me to use his character Brett, God of Destiny. Many thanks
to Lloyd Goodbar for allowing me to use his character Riana, a
Goddess of Relief Goddess Office.
Please do not repost this fanfic, since I will be modifying it in
response to comments from the ML. I will make a repostable version
available when I have had a chance to respond to comments.
***********
Back in the temple house, Belldandy was watching the continuing
campaign. Since a passing Skuld had answered her question of "Are Urd
and Brett all right?" with "They're together outside.", she hadn't pursued
their status. "Skuld@ she asked, "Are you treating Keiichi nicely?"
"He's fine, Oneesama.", said Skuld on her lap, "He's finishing two scoops
of Red Bean Ice Cream." Skuld on her lap sniffled a little, "You left me
again, Oneesama."
"What are you saying, Skuld?" Belldandy asked.
The Skuld on Belldandy's lap was beginning to cry, and the Snuggling
Skuld next to her was starting to sniffle too. "You always leave me,"
continued Skuld on her lap. "You left me at home to go to school, then I
went to school and you left to go to another school, so I got into that
school and then you went to College." Tears were running down both the
Skuld on her lap's cheeks and those of the Snuggling Skuld, the hair
combing Skulds were starting to sniffle and other Skulds were trying to
hurry by and not look at Belldandy. Skuld who was trying to cheer Terai
up started looking sad herself and over at the big table the PM Skuld and
other Skuld VIPs were very subdued. "Then," said Skuld on her lap, "I
tested out of College so we could all work together, and we were hardly
together for a year before you left for a new job." Skuld on her lap sobbed
out loud and the other Skuld's moods went down a notch as well. "No
matter how hard I try to stay with you, you always leave me. Right now
I'm sitting on your lap and you're thinking of everyone else except me!"
Skuld on her lap opened her mouth and keened as though her last friend
was irretrievably dead. The other Skulds were close to joining her and
Terai looked as though she might cry as well.
So Belldandy gathered the Skuld in her lap into a hug with her head over
Skuld's head and her hair draped down to one side and rocked her back
and forth, and said, "Hush, hush, little sister. There will always be a
place and time for you near me."
***********
Outside, the sky was completely clouded over. 100% satisfaction had
been achieved, and the Anti-Urd Corp, oddly quiet, had retired from the
field. Urd had reunified and Brett was trying to make himself useful. She
was leaning on him in a crooked position as he was trying to help her
walk back toward the temple house, but it was obvious that each step was
painful. "Here, I'll pop off a healing spell and you'll be fine.", said Brett.
"You can't. OW, don't make me walk."
"Sure I can, you taught me."
"OW, don't make me think. She spell-locked my butt, no magic can touch
it. OW! We'll have to get her passwords and probably need Belldandy to
take them off."
"Them?"
"Five interlocking lock spells. OWW! Or they would have interfered
with each other and evaporated. Little brat really outdid herself this time."
As they crept toward the temple, Brett searched for something for Urd to
think about besides the soreness of her posterior. "Say Urd, what can you
tell me about Temporal Topography?"
Urd stopped dead, not that she'd been moving very fast, and tried to stand
a little straighter. "OOOWW!", clearly a mistake, she bent over again,
leaning heavily on Brett. "And just who told you I had to take the test
twice!"
"Um, .. Nobody. Parvati said I should learn something about the subject."
"OW. Me and my big mouth. I should make Skuld help you, She got a
perfect score at the age of SIX. Ow. What did you get on the test?"
AMy Wishbringer tests? I passed, I didn't ask by how much.@
"I knew you'd do well on those, Ow!, Good job, on your test I mean."
"Thanks."
"But I was asking what you got on your Temporal Topography test."
"What Temporal Topography test?"
"The one you took to get into High School! You know! ... Oh, sorry.
Ow!"
Brett sighed. "Urd, It's kind of you to forget I wasn't always a God. Do
you mean to tell me that every God and Goddess has to take this Test, just
to get into High School?"
"Yes. Ow!"
"No wonder I get confused so easily up there." Urd started to giggle, in
between 'Ows'. "Hey", said Brett, "If you're going to laugh at me I'll let
you make it on your own."
"Don't leave! Ow! I'm really sorry. He, He, OW! Don't make me laugh
either."
A few scattered drops of rain began to fall around and on them. "We
better move as fast as you can, or We'll get wet.", observed Brett.
"Maybe the rain will feel good on my butt. Ow!"
***********
Back inside, the sound of the rain reached Belldandy, who had managed to
calm the Skulds down, so that even Skuld on her lap wasn't crying
anymore. "Chief Scientist Skuld!" she said, "Have you monitored the
weather conditions throughout the campaign area lately?"
"That's an odd request.", replied Chief Scientist Skuld, "Weather
throughout the target regions should be mostly clear." Chief Scientist
Skuld went back to her seat and started fiddling with her PDA while
another Skuld turned to the Weather Channel on the TV.
"This just in", said the anchor, "Unexpected rain showers are suddenly
blanketing central Honshu, please take appropriate care if you are
operating a motor vehicle or traveling for any reason, ..."
"YYIIIIIIII!", yelled Chief Scientist Skuld, "This is a Top Priority
Emergency!". She glanced around and saw that everyone was listening to
her. "Our recent emotional state change has induced a sympathetic
reaction in regional humidity and precipitation! This will surely overtax
the drainage infrastructure unless corrective action is implemented
immediately!"
Everybody in the room, including the other Skulds, just looked at her.
"Fine.", Chief Scientist Skuld muttered as she got red in the face, then, "I
SAID, IT'S GONNA FLASHFLOOD ALL OVER JAPAN!!!!!"
***********
Back at the Ice Cream store, there was a palatable change in the mood of
the Skulds, as they first became very quiet (though they never stopped
shoveling down the Ice Cream), then cheered up again. Keiichi was
surprised then, when Skuld who hated him said, "I'm sorry I've treated you
so poorly Keiichi, I'll try very hard not to hate you any more."
"Thanks.", said Keiichi, "Say, if you don't hate me anymore then which
Skuld are you now?"
"I'm the Skuld who thinks you should keep your hentai hands off my
sister!"
Keiichi sighed, "I bet there are lots of Skulds like you."
Then the mood of the Skulds changed again, Keiichi was much more
sensitive to it now. It felt like an unseen tide was washing around him,
but of course he was just watching all their faces change expression,
hearing them talk or breath differently, wasn't he? The Skulds in the Ice
Cream store, who had been eating Ice Cream, began hurrying toward the
door, some of them actually leaving scoops of uneaten Ice Cream.
"When they're gone," said Skuld who wanted his hands off Belldandy, "We
need to leave too, and go straight back to the temple."
"What's wrong?" asked Keiichi.
"Oneesama will never forgive me if you drown in the flashflood."
***********
There came a point, shortly after he realized his underwear was soaked,
that Brett had had enough of standing in what was now driving rain. He
swept Urd up in the 'over the threshold' position, ignoring her howl, and
with a few long strides was up onto the porch. The rain was relatively
straight, so the overhanging roof protected them. Surprisingly, a rather
deferential Skuld in Standard Goddess Uniform appeared with some
bath towels. "Set them near the door.", said Brett. The tone of his words
were a little tense, but he wasn't so happy with Skuld just now.
"Don't put me down yet.", Urd begged.
Brett's first thought was to make a joke about Urd's weight, but he bit that
off. She wasn't as heavy as he would have guessed from looking at her
anyway. They were both completely drenched. His God uniform, a rather
loose light blue shirt and matching pants was holding up rather well,
considering. Urd had been lounging about in, gulp, a very white leotard
with a long sleeve black blouse over the top and what might be a very
wide scarf with a print on it tucked through a thin belt around the outside,
like a loincloth. This last detail was quite fortunate, since the rain had
made the white leotard nearly transparent, but even then the scarf wasn't
exactly modest by itself. If he didn't watch out, Brett thought to himself,
He'd say something stupid and get slapped. Or his thoughts would
wander too far and she'd guess they were getting dirty, or some such
disaster. He shifted his eyes resolutely away from her all too appealing
body.
"Something wrong?", asked Urd.
"No. Suppose I carry you into your room and then go get Belldandy."
"Do it, Ow.", Urd replied.
***********
In the TV/Dining room, PM Skuld's cabinet was in chaos, many different
Skulds were running in many different directions and panicking in many
different ways. The only unpaniced Skuld sat behind the 'R. Burr'
nametag at the big lacquered table in a frumpy gray suit and shook her
head slowly back and forth saying, "I fear for all Skuldkind."
Over the din, Chief Scientist Skuld, with a science staff standing behind
her, eventually began to get the other Skuld's attention. "It's clear that this
plan will work but we must act now!", She said.
A hush settled over the Skulds. Belldandy interrupted it. "What must you
do, Chief Scientist Skuld?"
"Divide. An additional 2,000,412 Skulds, spread precisely according to
my plan, will disperse the magical energy feedback which is powering the
rainstorm."
"Do you need more power Skuld?" asked Terai. As she started to get up
though, Belldandy put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head 'No'.
"Additional power will not be necessary.", stated Chief Scientist Skuld,
"Only precision and expedience."
"Very well," said PM Skuld, "If we are ready,...", She looked at General
Skuld, who nodded an affirmative, "Then Begin!"
In various corners of the room, designated Skulds 'popped' like popcorn
seeds in a griddle. Producing two Skulds where there had been one.
***********
A Skuld had picked up the towels and followed Brett and Urd to Urd's
room. Brett decided to be grudgingly grateful rather than hostile to the
Skuld, since he needed to towel Urd off before he could lay her down
anyway. Then, as he accepted the towels, the Skuld 'popped' and divided
into two right in front of him. "What the ...! More Skulds!", he said.
"Flood control.", answered the two Skulds in perfect unison with a shrug.
"Get out of my room!", insisted Urd. "Brett, stay here, close the door
when they're out!"
The Skulds left and Brett slid the door closed. Urd was on her knees but
definitely not sitting down. Brett started wrapping one towel around Urd's
hair and handed her another. "Here, work on your body while I dry your
hair some. I wonder how many times she can do that?"
"She's already exceeded any limits I ever heard of.", Urd replied.
Brett began squeezing the water out of Urd's hair. "The little star, um ..
Terai isn't it. She said something about killing everybody all around
Tokyo Bay?"
"Yeah, I expected something like that when she showed up. Can't say I
blame her though."
"What?!"
"OW! Hey, don't yank that stuff! Gee, they were resurrected within 5
minutes."
"I didn't think we could do that!"
"*We* can't. It's Class One license only stuff, and usually takes a whole
lot of paperwork and permission from HIM, but Amaterasu can bend the
rules in her own solar system I guess."
"Amaterasu?"
"Terai's sister. Step outside tomorrow morning and look up, she's the big
bright thing in the sky, you can't miss her."
Brett rubbed Urd's hair for a minute. Urd yanked off the blouse and lost
the scarf, but left the leotard on. It was starting to turn mostly opaque
again as Urd applied the towel everywhere except her butt.
"Urd, if we can bring people back from the dead, then why didn't they just
bring back the previous God of Destiny, instead of selecting me for the
post?"
"There's a door," said Urd, a little subdued, "The spirits of the dead have to
go through it. If you're not resurrected before you pass through, you're not
coming back. Only Kamisama has passed in and back out of that door."
"What's beyond the door?"
"He doesn't say. Question him and he'll only tell you not to worry and that
you're not ready to learn the answer."
Being an imaginative person, that answer set Brett's mind to wandering a
bit. He wrung her hair out in silence for a while.
There was a knock at the door to Urd's room. "Excuse us," said a Skuld,
"Would you like to use the electric hair drier?"
Urd thought for a moment, "Bring it in."
A Skuld opened the door and offered Brett the hair drier.
"By the way", asked Urd, "Are you going to tell me the passwords to these
lock spells?"
"Of course," answered the Skuld just a little too readily, "But really there's
only one password, with an increment digit on the end."
"And they are?", growled Urd.
"They are; 'Wowwhatabigfatbutt1, Wowwhatabigfatbutt2,...'"
Urd screamed with anger and took a swipe at the Skuld, who bounced
merrily out of the way while Urd almost doubled over from the too quick
movement. "OOOWWW! Dammit Brat! OOOw! You'll pay for all,
OW, this!"
But the Skuld, immensely pleased with her selves, hopped out the door
and shut it after her.
*************
Keiichi was having a serious deja vu stress attack. It was the same road
he'd driven a Goddess up a little over two years ago. This time the
Goddess was younger and a lot smaller. Also this time the rain was
coming down so hard he could barely see three feet in front of him. He
should have stopped and waited it out, he told himself, in spite of what
this Skuld had said. Plus, there must be three or four inches of water
running down this road now. Once again he found himself blocked in by
concrete walls on either side. Somewhere up here was the same blind
turn that had hidden a red sports car until the last second, and only the
magical miracle of his Goddess had saved their lives. Keiichi edged as far
toward the outside of the curve as he dared. For all Skuld's increased
power, he suspected that only he could get himself and this piece of
Belldandy's little sister home safely.
***********
The Skulds had gone most of the night being seen by few or no people.
They had also done a good job of disabling security cameras wherever
they went. But as the rain poured down, one stand out exception to that
rule sat helping two Skulds hold her mother's pink umbrella over a rice
cooker modification site. Her name was Maho and she was a pre-
schooler in Tokyo. The roof above her bedroom was thin enough to hear
the patter of little feet. Her house had a proper stairwell up to the roof so
it wasn't hard to go and peep out. The Skulds had been gentle with her
and she, impressed with their dedication and urgency, insisted on staying
and helping. Mahochan had a serious bent but was still too young to be
anything but cute. It was hours past her bedtime but she drove herself to
stay awake and hold up the umbrella, even when the Skulds gently
encouraged her to go to bed. Since whatever they were doing was clearly
important to these magical things calling themselves 'Skulds', then Maho
must help them.
The rain had gotten very strong, and Mahochan was a little scared, but
then it got much softer, and the Skulds looked more relaxed too, so Maho
guessed that things would be all right.
***********
"It's working.", Belldandy breathed the words out like a sigh. Her eyes
had been closed and her senses extended to their very limits. Terai,
hearing Belldandy, let out a sigh as well.
The Skulds were, as might be expected, more boisterous. "Success!",
yelled Chief Scientist Skuld as the weather channel began confirming the
reports from Skuld units in the field. General Skuld was puffed up like a
peacock and PM Skuld appeared as serene as if she'd known it would
work all along.
A few minutes went past and Keiichi, soaked to the bone, popped his head
in the TV/Dining room to wave at Belldandy. "Tadaima.", he called, and
then she heard his soggy footsteps going down to his room.
