Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.
Ah! My Goddess!
Haloes
Chapter 10
Don't Stop the Carnival
"I'm going to skip ahead a few months," Urd told her flatly.
The announcement caught Belldandy off-balance. She wanted to know what happened after the night in the dorms. She wanted to know how Keiichi recovered. The declaration that she would not be allowed to hear this seemed almost cruel.
"Neesan," she replied evenly. "I would like to hear more about Keiichi," she said. "After that night."
Urd bit her tongue, trying to think of the best way to explain her reasons for skipping ahead. Finally, she settled on, "You don't want to hear it."
Belldandy's fingers gripped the table as a very unlady-like anger threatened to take her.
"Neesan," she began again. "No matter what happened or what you might have done, it's okay. I just want to hear it."
Ire danced in Urd's eyes. Belldandy had no idea what she was asking, and was once again making assumptions. "You see, you say that," Urd told her with a little heat. "But you don't really understand what it is you want to hear."
Belldandy listened as her sister continued.
"You see, you're assuming that I hugged Keiichi, maybe we had a tender moment or two, and then he shook it off and went on with his life," Urd said. "What you're failing to understand is just how much he loved you, how much of a role you played in his life, how much of a role he expected you to play in his future and just what your loss represented."
The younger Norn said nothing, chastened by Urd's tone. She rallied a moment later. "Then I want to understand!" she argued. "I want to know those things."
"Well maybe I don't want to talk about them!" Urd shot back. "Don't you get it? You're not asking me to tell you about serving Keiichi tea and talking about his feelings here! You're asking me to tell you about the nights he spent crying, physically unable to sleep due to uncontrollable grief!"
Belldandy blinked as Urd's emotional torrent went on.
"You're asking me to tell you how his ability to take joy in anything utterly disappeared!" Urd hissed. "You're asking me to tell you about Sif physically prying his jaws open while I pull a handful of pills out of the back of his throat with my fingers!"
The younger goddess flinched away, tears coming to her eyes.
"The three months you're asking me to tell you about were a nightmare, Sis," Urd told her. "A nightmare where I didn't dare sleep, and when I did doze off I'd dream of him swinging from a tree, waking up and fearing the worst."
Belldandy covered her eyes as Urd's drilled coldly into her.
"Still want to hear it?" she whispered.
Urd watched, feeling like an ass as her sister cried, hiding her eyes as she sniffled. She bit her lip and looked away, waiting and hoping Belldandy would shake it off in a moment, but a minute later she was still crying.
The elder goddess got up and rounded the table, hugging her sister.
"I'm sorry," Urd whispered. "I lost my temper."
Urd held her while she wept.
"I'm so sorry," Belldandy cried.
"Oh, God, whatever for?" Urd asked.
"Because I wasn't there," Belldandy wept. "I wasn't there for him! His one wish was that I be there for him, and I wasn't, and he..."
Urd hugged her tightly.
Ten years ago...
Keiichi listened to the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore as he lay in the sand on the beach. Above him, the stars were shining down on him. He could hear the sounds of animated party-goers behind him, the crackling of campfires and the familiar sounds of laughter.
It was his first time in three months. The first time since that meeting with Hild that he had been at a party or any social function for that matter. He knew he had bombed several of his classes in the meantime, but he had the hardest time bringing himself to care. It was only Urd and Sif's attention that even kept him alive and functioning.
While Megumi and their other friends didn't know the truth, they had nevertheless rallied behind him. Hotaru had put his flying lessons on hold, promising to pick them up when he was ready, and for the first time in a long time, he thought he might be. In the last two weeks, he found himself not dreaming of Belldandy, beating her fists against the inside of a glass prison, but of the sky, an endless blue sky.
He heard someone moving nearby and turned his head to the right as Urd sat in the sand next to him and laid down.
"You okay?" she asked. "We don't have to stay."
"No," he said. "I'm okay."
She smiled a little and looked up at the stars. "Good," she said. "It's a pretty kick'n party."
The corners of his lips curled up. The Aeronautics Club was throwing their end-of-semester bash with an all night beach party. Hotaru had hand-delivered his invitation and even invited the Auto Club to come along. In a way, it was like the party was meant for him. He wondered how much of it was Urd's doing.
The goddess turned to him again. "I was talking to Hotaru," she said.
"Oh yeah?"
She nodded up at the stars. "She said she doesn't usually do it, but it turns out she's not going to Australia this summer and is willing to give lessons. She said if you work hard, you could solo by the end of the month." She turned to him and gave him a long look. "She asked if that was a good idea, though."
Keiichi didn't have to ask her what she meant by that. "You mean she wants to know if I'm going to nose the plane towards the ground and have an 'accident,'" he surmised.
"Are you?" Urd asked bluntly.
He took a breath. "No," he said. "I'm past that now." He turned to her and met her green eyes with his own. "I never thanked you," he said. "You and Sif... for saving me that night."
"You don't have to," she said quietly.
The young man looked back at the stars, feeling the familiar guilt whenever he thought of that night two and a half months ago. It had started as just one more night of getting wasted before passing out for the night, unable to sleep any other way. But this time he hadn't been able to, no matter how much he drank. Her face always waited behind his eyelids. Desperate, drunk and stupid, he took a sleeping pill, then a few more, then a few more... until the bottle didn't rattle anymore...
"Thank you," he said. "I don't think I consciously thought I was..."
"I know," Urd whispered. "We all fall occasionally, Keiichi. It's the ability to get up and fight again that measures who you are."
He smiled. "You sound like her."
"Do I?" Urd blinked.
He nodded. Deciding to change the subject, he turned to her. "Heard from Skuld lately?"
The goddess took an unsettled breath. "Got an email from her," she shared. Skuld and Urd's relationship had become a very tenuous one. The girl-goddess had never really forgiven Urd for her actions the night of the meeting with Hild, and without Belldandy there, she had started feeling more and more isolated. When her mother had told her about an opening at a prestigious school for goddesses with an interest in the physical laws of Creation, she had taken it without argument.
"How does she like school?" Keiichi asked.
"It's not here," Urd replied. "And I think that's all that matters."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"It had nothing to do with you," Urd told him. "Things change."
He took that statement in, noting to himself just how true it was. Their little family had changed radically in the space of a few months. He wasn't the man he was when Belldandy last made him lunch and told him to have a good day at school.
The man sat up and rose to his feet. "I need to find Hotaru," he said. "I need to ask her when she can give me my next lesson."
Urd smiled up at him. "She's over at the campfire telling a ghost story," she said. "Grab me a beer on your way back."
He smiled. "Whatever."
888
"The man held the broken body of his son in his arms and faced the assembled gypsies, who all offered their apologies and condolences," the woman told the group assembled around the campfire. "'It waaaas an aaaccciiiiideeent! Whoooooo!' they cried. And the father said in a ghostly, otherwordly voice... 'Yooooou've gooooot tooo beee fuuuuckiiiiiing kiiiiddiiiiing meeee!' And the gypsy carnies replied, 'Noooooo! An aaaacccciiiideeennttt! Tooootaally!'"
Keiichi sat down at the edge of the campfire circle and watched in amusement as Hotaru raised her hands over her head and made more ghost noises while the Tower Bunnies clung to one another in fear.
"And the father cried out in his pain and rage, 'This caaaarniiivaaaaal blooooooooows! I caaall on Gooooood to cuuuuurse you aaaaall!'"
The Tower Bunnies started shivering in dread.
"And from that day on, the gypsies were cursed!" Hotaru went on. "They were condemned to run their carnival from beyond the grave forever! To this day, the carnival wanders from town to town, searching for place to rest. At night, the sounds of their ill-maintained rides and fixed games echo across the land, and the ghosts of the gypsy carnies reach into the windows of young girls with their small, cabbage-smelling hands, looking for someone to ride... THE ZIPPER!"
The Bunnies screamed.
"SAY IT'S NOT TRUE! SAY IT'S NOT TRUE! SAY IT'S NOT TRUE!" Cake cried.
"That story sucked!" Jiroo announced, followed by a swig from his beer. "You should have just read from a Harry Potter book!"
"Hey! Get fucked, mate!" Hotaru shot back. "You tell a scary story, then! Or better yet, get one of those sheilas you go out with to tell one! I can't imagine anything scarier than being out on a date with you!"
The crowd laughed, but Jiroo took the challenge and started to tell a story. Keiichi managed to catch Hotaru's eyes and the two stepped away from the fire to talk.
"Keiichi," she began carefully. "You're looking good, mate. Having fun?"
"Yeah, I am," he assured her. "Thanks."
"So what can I do for you?"
"Flying lessons," he replied. "I want to start again."
The Australian brightened and slugged his shoulder. "That's spiffy, mate! Spiffy! When do you want to start?"
"Whenever you can." He sighed. "Of course, I've gotta take a couple of summer courses too."
"Well, that's no problem. You can take Intro to Flight and get a couple of others out of the way," she said. "Have you decided whether or not you're going to change your major?"
"I think I am," he told her. "I need... I need a complete, clean break, I guess."
"Spiffy," she said again. "Swing by tomorrow. We'll get you a schedule."
"Thanks, Hotaru." He paused and smiled. "By the way, where did you come up with such a lame ghost story?"
"Lame?! I'll have you know every bit of that story is fair dinkum!"
He laughed. "Sure it is!"
"My bloody oath!" she swore.
"Sure, Hotaru," he said. "Whatever."
888
"A carnival?!" Sif asked, clapping her hands in delight. "Well, that's wonderful! Of course you can set up here! I think it would be just the thing Keiichi sama needs!"
Floating on the front step in front of her, two ethereal figures made of blue smoke smiled.
"Hooooow loooooong?" the first one asked.
Sif smiled happily. "As long as you like!"
"Ooooooooooh!" the second figure said happily.
888
Urd's watch beeped, and she stood up. "I gotta do something," she said. "You wanna go for a walk?"
Belldandy looked out the window and saw the sun shining down outside. After the last few hours, a walk in the sun sounded very good.
"Hai," she said, rising to her feet.
The elder Norn grabbed her purse and led her sister out the front door, turning to lock it as she spoke.
"It's not far," she said. "Otherwise we could take the car. Besides, it's nice out."
"Where are we going?" Belldandy asked.
"Megumi asked me to walk Sachiko home from school," Urd told her as they started down the front path.
"Sachiko?" the young goddess asked quizzically.
Urd winced. "Right. You have no id..." She cut herself off and started to explain. "Megumi married a guy named Toshio, and they have a little girl. Megumi's pregnant again, but there's some complications, and the doctor doesn't want her out of bed if it can be helped. So I'm walking Sachiko chan home from school."
It took a moment for Urd to realize that Belldandy was no longer with her. Turning, she found the goddess several paces behind her. "What is it?"
Belldandy stared down at the pavement and shook her head. "It amazes me," she whispered. "How much can change for them in such a short time."
Urd shrugged with a smile. "They don't have as long as we do to get it right," she said. "Did you know that by the time a mortal woman reaches thirty, a pregnancy is considered 'risky'? They don't have centuries to mull things over, to wait for life to offer them exactly what they want."
"You've given this a lot of thought," Belldandy told her.
The older goddess shrugged again. "It's the way they are. They have to discover what they want out of life early then hack it out of Creation with their own two hands. They have no time to sit on their hands and wait for life to get its act together."
"Is that what I did?"
Urd blinked and looked at her. "What?"
Belldandy met her gaze. "Did I... Did I wait too long? Did I wait too long to tell Keiichi how I really felt?"
The older goddess kept her eyes locked on her sister. "Are you asking," she began quietly, "If he would have married me if he had already slept with you?"
Belldandy sucked in a breath at the sound of the "M" word, the word her sister had not yet spoke, but had certainly implied.
She stood there, unable to speak, but at the same time unable to lie. The goddess nodded.
Urd swallowed. "I don't know," she said.
"Would you have?" Belldandy asked pointedly.
The question threw Urd off-guard. "Huh?"
"Would you have married him," she went on, "If you knew he and I had been intimate?"
Urd swallowed again and answered. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I would have."
The silence hung in the air between them for several moments. Finally, Urd turned and started walking again. "Come on," she said. "Sachiko chan's waiting."
"That's all you have to say?" Belldandy whispered.
"I keep telling you, Belldandy," Urd replied as she walked. "I'm not confessing. I'm explaining. And I'm not going to apologize for any of it." She paused and turned back to her. "You met him first, but I've known him longer. He's the best thing to ever happen to me, and I like to think I'm the best thing to ever happen to him. I love him. And I'll never again feel bad for feeling that."
She turned and started walking again. Belldandy fell into step beside her.
Ten years ago...
Urd's hands gripped his waist a little tighter as Keiichi took the turn onto their road a little faster than normal. Even in the dead of night, the road and the houses on either side were visible in a combination of good street lighting and the full moon overhead.
Sitting side-saddle on the Beemer behind him, she craned her neck to look over his shoulder, trying to catch a look at the temple. The party was still going on, but she and Keiichi had decided to leave just before midnight.
As the temple came into sight, Urd could immediately tell something was off. There seemed to be a lot more light and a lot of activity up at the top of the hill.
"Hey, you see that?!" Keiichi shouted over his shoulder at her.
"Yeah!" she replied. "Slow up!"
The Beemer came to a halt, and Urd hopped off as Keiichi removed his helmet. They looked up the hill atop which the shrine rested.
"You hear that?" Urd asked. "It sounds like music."
"Is that a circus?" Keiichi asked.
"Come on," Urd said, starting up the hill. Keiichi followed, and the two soon found themselves at the main gate. The music was louder now, and the movement they saw earlier turned out to be carnival rides spinning and rolling throughout the temple grounds. A ticket booth stood not far from the temple's front door.
Urd went straight for the temple entrance and rushed inside.
"Sif!?" she called out. "Sif!? Are you here?!"
The temple was still. Of the goddess there was no sign.
"What the hell is going on?" Keiichi asked. "Where's Sif?"
Urd chewed the inside of her cheek and stepped outside again. Keiichi stepped out behind her and walked up to the ticket booth. It appeared empty at first, but he could hear someone moving under the podium, probably looking for extra tickets or something.
"Excuse me," he said, knocking on the podium. "I'm looking for a blon...."
A man made of blue smoke rose from behind the podium and hissed at him.
"AUUGH!" Keiichi cried and fell back on his butt. "What the hell!?"
The spirit looked at him with hungry eyes as Urd rushed over to stand between the two.
"Twooooo ruuuuuples.... peeeer.... peeeeersooooon," it moaned at them. "Chiiiiiildreeeeen.... fiiiiiiiive.... aaaaaaand...... uuuuuuuuundeeeeeer................ FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
Urd eyed the smokey apparition warily. "We don't have any ruples," she told it. "We're looking for a friend of ours. A blonde woman in a green dress. Did she come through here?"
The thing cackled, the sound sending the hairs on Keiichi's neck standing on end.
"Sheeeeeeee iiiiiiiiiis.... wiiiith.... UUUUUUUUSSSSSS....noooooooow," it groaned.
"So she's in there?" Urd asked, pointing at the carnival.
It opened its mouth and moaned.
"I guess that means 'yes,'" Keiichi surmised, rising to his feet.
"We're going in," Urd said, either to Keiichi, the apparition or both.
"Twoooooo ruuuuuuples...."
"We're not paying," Urd told it angrily. "Your carnival's on our lawn. That means we get a free pass."
It hissed at them. "Yooooouuuu.... wiiiiill.... paaaaaaay........SOOOOOOOON EEEENOOOOUUUGH!"
Urd eyed it as she walked past the booth and into the carnival. Keiichi fell into step beside her.
"You think they have funnel cakes?" he asked. "I could seriously go for a funnel cake."
"You want to eat something from here?" she asked. "Funnel cake of the damned?"
"That's a trick question," he replied. "All funnel cake is funnel cake of the damned. It's deep fried dough covered in sugar, for God's sake."
Urd stopped and looked around at the rides and tents spread throughout the temple grounds. "Yeah, well, be careful what you eat," she said. "I had a cousin who ate some pomegranate seeds once. Next thing she knew, she was married and had to spend six months in Hades every year. Divorce lawyers really screwed her."
"Point taken," he allowed.
She pointed toward a larger tent and started for it. "You're taking this awfully well," she noted as they walked toward the bright red canvas structure.
He shrugged. "I guess it's been awhile since we've had a wacky adventure," he told her.
"Did you just call this a 'wacky adventure?'" she asked.
Before he could answer they were only feet from the ghost carny outside the tent.
"We're looking fo..."
"Whaaaat yoooouuu seeeeeek iiiiis in theeeere," it said, pointing at the tent entrance.
The two looked to one another, and Keiichi gestured to the tent. "Ladies first."
Urd led the way, parting the tent flaps and stepping inside. Keiichi followed her while his mind mulled over what the goddess had said. He was taking this better than he should. They were looking for their missing friend in the middle of a haunted carnival, but the fear he would normally have felt if they were facing Marller or any other agent of evil was nowhere to be found.
Perhaps I'm still suicidal, he thought.
"Check it out," Urd said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Keiichi looked over her shoulder and found row after row of mirrors.
"A hall of mirrors," he said. "They make you look weird," he explained.
"Huh," she grunted in answer, stepping in front of a mirror. She looked herself over and shook her head. "I look normal."
"Yeah, me too," he said, looking in the mirror on the opposite side of the hall. "That sucks."
He tried another mirror and saw the same mirror image of himself. "I don't get it."
The man moved to the mirror Urd was looking in and glanced at it. "Wow," he said with a whistle. "You look like a million bucks!"
"What are you talking about?" she asked. "It's just my reflection.... but thanks!" she added with a grin.
He squinted at the mirror as if it would change what he saw. Urd was decked out in an absolutely beautiful wedding dress. "It looks good on you," he said.
"What does?"
"The dress," he said.
"You need to start making sense," she told him. Her eyes fell on his reflection in another mirror. "Huh, that's weird," she said. "That mirror shows you in a labcoat."
He turned to the mirror she gestured to. "No it doesn't."
"Well, that's stupid!" Urd cried as she figured it out. "It shows you in different ways but only to other people! What a gip!"
"So what do you think it's showing?" Keiichi asked as he watched Urd walk past three mirrors, each showing her in a different outfit.
She shrugged. "Who knows?" The goddess arched an eyebrow as her vantage point showed his reflection in another mirror. "Nice tux. I approve."
"Thanks... I think," he said.
"We're getting off the subject," Urd said. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "SIF! SIF! Are you in here?!"
Nothing.
"I knew it," Urd muttered. "That ghost is full of shit."
Keiichi was staring into a mirror, eyes wide.
"Keiichi?" she asked, turning to him. "Hey, you there?" She followed his gaze and found her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes narrowed. "What am I wearing?"
"What?" he asked, snapping out of it. "Oh... um... something very stylish," he lied.
She stepped out of the mirror's gaze. "Sure I am," she said, smiling slightly.
"Come on," he sighed. "Sif's waiting."
Urd started toward the exit. Catching sight of movement in the mirror on her left, she suddenly cried out and threw herself against the wall, her eyes locked on the mirror but afraid to look into the silvery glass.
"What is it?!" Keiichi asked, rushing up to her.
"What do you see in that mirror?" she asked him breathlessly.
"Why?" he asked. "What did you see?"
"Hild."
He looked into it, and she watched his face turn ashen. She wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.
"What?" she asked.
The boy took a step back and bit his lip. He turned and walked toward the exit. "Don't worry, Hild's not hiding in there," he said quietly.
"Keiichi?" she asked, watching him walk out.
She poked her head around the frame of the mirror and looked inside.
Her mother's face stared back at her... except it wasn't. It was the same outfit, the same evil humor dancing in the eyes, but it was Urd's green orbs that looked back at her. She stepped around and looked at herself, every bit the queen of Hell.
The expression on the reflection's face didn't match the horrified one on Urd's face. Instead, it grinned at her maliciously. Unable to see it any longer, she rushed toward the exit.
888
She found him standing next to an animal pen, what appeared to be a petting zoo, leaning against the fence. Inside the pen, an assortment of skeletons meandered around aimlessly, munching at the grass on the ground.
"Keiichi?" she asked quietly.
"This is awful," he replied.
He must have really been shaken by what he saw, she thought. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
"I mean look at this," he said, gesturing to the skeletons. "A skeleton petting zoo? Really? I mean, I can't even tell what kind of animal this is!" He gestured at a skeleton grazing in front of him. "What is this? What?!"
Her eyebrow twitched.
The goddess leaned against the fence next to him and watched the creature graze for a moment.
"What did you see?" she whispered.
"I'll never tell," he replied quietly. He looked up after a moment. "I think those mirrors show different things. The future, the past, things you're afraid of..."
She mulled on that. Her as Hild definitely counted as something she was afraid of. Her worse fear was to become like her mother. The goddess turned around and rested her back against the fence.
"Hey, Keiichi," she began softly. "We should probably talk."
"What about?" he asked.
She took a breath. "She's not coming back," she said. "I think you know that."
He nodded slowly. "Yeah," he allowed, looking down at the ground. "Yeah."
Urd studied his face intently, wondering if he would cry or become emotional, but it seemed that after three months Keiichi had come to grips with the apparent reality.
"So," she went on. "You have to make a decision about the future."
Keiichi finally turned to her. "What do you mean?"
She licked her lips nervously. "What I mean is... well... this was never supposed to be a permanent arrangement. I thought we'd get Belldandy back, and things would go back normal. But if she's not coming back..." She broke off and looked over at him. "If you want another goddess... someone more... um..." She shrugged. "I guess 'suitable....' We can do that."
He looked at the ground. "No," he told her flatly.
"Keiichi," she began again. "This is your wish we're talking about. You're entitled to better. You can't have Belldandy, but you can have someone closer to what she is than me..."
"Urd, you're family," he said, turning to her. He looked at the sky while he tried to figure out a way to word it. "You and Belldandy and Skuld... and me... We were like a family. And living together... I mean... it had its screwed up moments, but it was the best time of my life. In the past five months, I've watched that family shrink. Now... you and me... we're all that's left. If you go... how would I know it ever really happened?"
She mulled on this.
"I mean, if you want to go, that's one thing," he said. "Please, if you don't want to stay, then please go." He paused. "It's okay. But if you're asking me to send you away, I'm going to say no." He looked at her, only the first hints of a smile lighting his face. "You're the only link I have left to that life."
Their eyes locked for several moments until...
"BAAAAAH!"
Keiichi slapped the fence post. "A sheep!" he cried. "That's what you are!" he called down to the animal.
Urd couldn't help but smile.
Then they heard the scream.
"That sounded like Sif!" Urd cried, turning and running toward the sound.
Keiichi took off after her, running past several games and rides being tended by ghostly shapes until they got to a ride that sat at the far end of the carnival, a Six Spin which whirled its carts through the air. Whoever was screaming was on that ride.
"Sif!" Keiichi cried. "Is that you!?"
There was no answer. The ride slowed to a stop, and the safety bars lifted up. Urd and Keiichi watched as a lone blonde woman got up, ran down the stairs and went right past them to climb the entry stairs and get back into the cart.
The ride started again. The woman screamed in joy.
Urd and Keiichi stood there, stunned.
"What... What's happening here?" Keiichi asked.
"That poor goddess," Urd breathed.
"Huh?"
Urd turned to him, fright in her eyes. "Those bastard ghosts! They've put some kind of curse on her, condemning her to ride this hideous thing forever! She probably tried to stop them from setting up their carnival, and they somehow overpowered her!"
By this time the ride had stopped, and Sif trotted over to them. "Actually," she began, breathing hard in residual excitement. "I just really love this ride!" She giggled and started for the steps again, but Urd grabbed her arm.
"That's funny," Urd bit out angrily. "Because I can't think of any other logical reason why a haunted gypsy carnival would be camped out on our lawn except that they overpowered you and forced you to let them."
Sif smiled. "Sure there is, silly! They asked if they could stay here, and I said yes!"
Keiichi took a quick look around, taking in the sight of the twisted, grim-faced specter working the ride, the sight of sheep skeletons grazing near where they kept their summer garden, the visage of ghost gold fish sitting in rows of bowls inside a tent, waiting for a well-placed ping pong ball to liberate them and take them to a new home every bit as screwed up as this one.
He shook his head and blinked at Sif. "Wh... Wh... What on Earth... made you think for one second... that that was a good idea?!" he asked.
Sif looked down at the ground and made little circles in the ground with her toe. "Because carnivals are fun?" she answered.
Keiichi stared at her, mouth agape. He looked to his right and watched a ghost throw a dart at a balloon and miss. The ghost stared up at the sky and gave a long, sorrowful moan filled with despair and bitterness toward an almighty God who refused to love him because he was a damned and soulless creature.
"Does it look like anyone's having fun here?!" he cried.
Sif paused, her gaze still rooted to the ground. "I was having fun," she muttered.
Urd pushed her way between them. "Okay, enough," she said. "Sif, just tell them they have to go."
"Leave?" she asked. "But... I told them they could stay as long as they want."
"How long is that?" Keiichi demanded.
"A few days, I guess," she said. "They didn't really specify..."
"Theeeeeere theeeeeey aaaaaaaaare...."
The three of them turned and saw two apparitions coming their way, one of them was the ghost working the ticket booth. He pointed a smoky, skeletal finger at them.
"Thoooooose aaaare the oooooones whooooo diiiiidn't paaaaaaaaaaaay...."
Sif seemed to recognize the other ghost. She brightened and clasped her hands together. "Ringmaster! How are you? All settled in?"
The ringmaster tipped a tattered top hat to the blonde and grinned a skeletal smile at her. "Weeee aaaaare aaaaall moooved iiin," he told her.
"Yeah, about that," Urd said, moving in. "Just how long will you be camping out here?"
The ringmaster threw his head back and laughed a deathly cackle like the sound of a thousand maniacs pulling the bows across a thousand violins made from the bones and tendons of the damned.
"So... what, a week?" Keiichi asked.
"Fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooor.....EEEEEEEEVEEEEEER!!!"
Urd and Keiichi threw dirty looks at Sif, who giggled nervously before gazing once again at the ground.
"Well!" Urd declared, clapping her hands together. "That just won't do. So you need to pack up your rides and your... creepy creepy animals... and go."
"Nooooooooo!" the other ghost cried. "Weeeee've noooowheeeere eeeeelse!"
"Yeah, well, I sympathize," Urd said. "But we can't have a haunted carnival killing people and taking their souls. The homeowners association will shit a golden brick."
"Weee dooon't kiiiill!" the ringmaster argued.
"Thaaat oone tiiiime waaaaas an aaaaacciiiiideeent!" the other cried. "Tooootaaaally!"
"In their defense," Sif brought up cautiously. "They haven't really tried to hurt anyone."
The ghosts shook their heads.
"Aaaaaand yooooouuuuu diiiiiiid proooooomiiiiise," the ringmaster pointed out to Sif.
Sif laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah.... I... I kind of did..."
"Weeeee've traaaaveled soooooooo looooooooong," the ringmaster begged. "Weeeeeee're sooooo tiiiiiired. Pleeeeeease.... Weeee wiiiiish oooonly toooo reeeest."
Keiichi sighed, wondering what Belldandy would do. Urd looked like she had no qualms about exorcising them by force. However, he knew that if his girlfriend were here, she'd probably make them tea and ask if their twisted, creepy, weird menagerie animals needed oats.
Urd turned at the sound of his sigh. "You're going to let them stay, aren't you?" she asked.
He didn't answer her, instead turning to the ringmaster. "You promise to keep a low profile?"
"Yeeeeeeeees."
"And you won't steal any souls... or kill anyone?"
"Proooooomise."
Urd elbowed her way in. "And we get fifteen percent of your ticket sales!"
"Aaaaaaagreeeeeed."
Keiichi sighed again. "Then I guess you can stay."
"Aaaaaawesoooooome."
The boy held his hand out, and the ringmaster regarded it carefully before taking it in his own and shaking it. With a nod, the two ghosts turned and walked away.
"And a new source of income falls into our laps!" Urd cried victoriously. "Sure, it's creepy and weird now, but just wait until Halloween! We'll be the Halloween party destination! At two ruples a head that comes to... um..." She paused. "How many yen in a ruple?"
"Fifteen hundred," Sif supplied helpfully.
"Fifteen hundred yen in every ruple!" Urd exclaimed, practically drooling now. "That's three thousand yen per person!"
"Oh, um... I'm sorry," Sif began. "Actually... that's... um... backward..."
Urd froze mid-victory dance. "Um... what?"
"It's actually fifteen hundred ruples to the yen," Sif volunteered.
Urd put her face in her hands, and Keiichi thought she might be crying.
Sif winced, but then caught sight of the skeleton petting zoo and brightened, clasping her hands in front of her. "Animals!" she cried. "I want to ride the pony!" She dashed off toward the menagerie.
"Urd?" Keiichi asked quietly.
"Let's... just... go..." she bit out from behind her hands.
The two started for the exit, passing Sif as she rode the skeleton of a pony around in a circle. Urd sighed.
"You're a good guy, Keiichi Morisato," she told him. "But you're kind of a blockhead."
"Thanks, Lucy," he replied, rolling his eyes. He stopped suddenly, his attention pulled to a tent with a picture of a blue orb posted outside. "Hey, Urd," he said. "Remember those mirrors?"
"Yeah," she answered uncertainly.
He broke away and walked toward the tent.
Urd followed. "Keiichi," she called after him. She watched him pull the flaps of the tent aside and step inside. "Dammit." She followed and found herself inside a dimly lit tent that smelled of musk and incense. In the center sat a circular table with a blue tablecloth upon which sat a glass orb that glowed a dim blue. Seated on the other side of this table, staring into the orb, was an ethereal spirit woman with pitch-black hair. She looked up at them with glowing eyes.
"Sit, Keiichi Morisato," she said, gesturing to a stool.
Keiichi sat down without a word.
"My name is Desdemona," she told her, voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. "I can tell you what secrets the future keeps from you, provide you chart and rudder for the course of your life and provide you with great hope or cripple you with despair...one thousand yen."
"The guy outside charges two ruples," Keiichi noted.
"The guy outside works cheap. Me and the universe do not."
Keiichi pulled out his wallet and produced the required amount of money. "I'm in love with a woman who is..." He swallowed dryly. "... far away. I want to know..."
"I will tell you what I can," Desdemona told him, looking into the crystal ball, which now glowed brighter.
Urd stood aside, watching the scene unfold with a sense of grim fascination. Most fortune tellers, she knew, were frauds. But this carnival, thus far, was anything but the typical collection of geeks, freaks and frauds.
Desdemona tapped the ball with her finger. She leveled a haunting grin at him. "It would seem, Keiichi Morisato, that you needn't worry."
"I needn't?" he asked stupidly.
She sat back and studied him with her glowing eyes. "Your chart is clear, your course set. You will wed a goddess of great power and beauty, and she will bear you children and provide you with love and comfort and joy the likes of which you have never known. Your lives will be filled with adventure, good times and bad, and there will always be for you that spark between you. So let not your heart be heavy, Keiichi Morisato, for the universe, though she has looked darkly on you in the past, sees you now with only love in her heart."
Keiichi smiled, not speaking as he took the prediction. "You know," he said quietly. "That helps." He raised his eyes to her. "Thank you."
Desdemona dipped her head in acknowledgement.
He stood up and looked down at her again. "Thank you," he said again. "It... it feels good to have a little hope."
The gypsy spirit bowed again.
Keiichi turned to Urd. "I'm ready to go." He suddenly yawned. "God, what time is it?"
"Late," she told him. "You go on ahead. I want to see what my fortune is." She dug into her pocket and pulled out two bills.
"Okay," he said. He turned and bowed low to Desdemona in thanks before walking out of the tent.
888
"So you knew," Belldandy gasped in shock as they continued down the street. "She told you... She told you I was coming back!"
Urd didn't say anything for a moment. She walked with her head down. "No, Sis," she finally said. The goddess met Belldandy's eyes, her own veiled with sympathy and regret. "She didn't."
Ten years ago...
Urd sat down and threw the two five hundred yen bills on the table. "Okay," she said. "Let me have it. Fame, fortune, what?"
Desdemona reached across the table and took the money, putting the two bills in her purse before picking up an emery board and working on her nails.
The goddess's eyes narrowed. "Um... hello?" she said, waving her hand in front of the gypsy's eyes. "My money not good here or something? What about my fortune?"
The gypsy looked up, her eyes boring into Urd's very being.
"I just told it," she said. "Urd Morisato."