--- Oh My Goddess characters owned by Kosuke Fujishima and not by me. ---

When Bell sang in heaven, she always thought of Keiichi as she sang. Her feelings for him filled her with the love & emotion to carry her pure voice high into Heaven. She was quick to cry sometimes only because she missed Keiichi so and wanted to be with him again. Was this unnatural? Maybe, but Kami-sama allowed her to feel this way, even silently encouraging it. Kami-sama knew the time was coming where Earth needed some full-time assistance, and Bell was going to be the one to provide it. The Love between her & Keiichi would be all the strength she needed to face the ordeals ahead for Earth. Their love was meant to be. Kami-sama decided that her sisters would be there for her while Keiichi was finishing up school and to fend off the demons that would notice her presence. When Keiichi married Bell (it was ordained to be so) the sisters could return to Heaven if they choose. However, a couple of other love potentials were in the works for them. If they choose to fall in love with a mortal like Bell did, they would be blessed to remain with them as well, and Earth would gain more protectors.

Chapter 5 - Urd becomes part of the Master Plan.

Skuld, being a natural young goddess of curious interest (to a fault), takes to visiting the spare equipment rooms for Yggdrasil when visiting her older sisters who are learning programming. Parts & pieces scattered on workbenches provide a rich source of eye candy for the little tinkerer who cannot escape the enticing opportunity to 'explore'the benches. Noticing noone is around in the room (since things rarely break down and need fixed) she scoots a crate over by a table and steps up on it to survey her find. Things that beep, things that flash, some things even float, and oh yes, many rolls of superconductor wiring beckon her little fingers to touch them. "Aw, you look lonely, I'm going to take you home!" she says to a circuit board loaded with primo Yggdrasil op sys components. She puts the board in her backpack, steps down off the crate and scoots it back to it's spot. She runs over to the door, peeks out, sees noone then happily skips to big sister Urd's terminal.

A few moments later, Urd hears a noisy little goddess approaching her station.

"Skuld, you seem happy, did you get to see Belldandy today?" asks a studious Urd who had recently been assigned to learn Yggdrasil code.

"No, but I want to go see her before I have to go home."

Urd's terminal flashes "Error 496 - Compile Errors Found - Please Verify Source Code." She winces and levitates a book over to her to scan the pages for an explanation, "Skuld, I can't believe I've got to learn this, we already have several good programmers. My specialty is potions, and this is nothing like that." Urd drops that book and levitates another over to her, flipping it open and cycling rapidly through the pages. "Let's see, Error 496, it says here to see volume 34." Crap! How many books do I have to look through to find the explanation of one stupid error!"

Skuld waves bye to Urd who hasn't been paying her much attention as she deciphers her coding problem, "Well okay, bye big sister, I'm going home."

Urd waves to her little sister bye without looking up from the book. Skuld just gets out the door when she hears a *ZZZAAAPPP* and suspects Urd gave the book a healthy dose of a bolt spell from Urd to vent her frustration.

Skuld skips along the halls of Yggdrasil's terminal complex, looking for big sister. The halls are grand with very high open ceilings, greenery growing up portions of the walls which are widely spaced, and brightly illuminated from the heavenly light above. The floors are smooth, not a crack anywhere, perfect. Most traveling through this hall is done several feet off the floor by the programmers that keep Yggdrasil & all the universes running smoothly. Skuld hasn't learned how to levitate yet, so she's stuck walking on the ground, which is okay as it helps dissipate some of the bubbly energy the little goddess always has.

Belldandy types away at her terminal, finishing the wish system upgrades as she sees Skuld skipping down the hall to her. Her big blue eyes shine brightly as Skuld comes closer, "Hi Skuld, how are you doing today?"

Skuld skips up to Bell and stops by her, smiling. "I went and saw Urd, she's not doing too well. I'm headed home but wanted to see you before I left. What's wrong with big sister?"

Belldandy sighs, "She received a new assignment, she's learning Yggdrasil programming, and she's struggling with it. I'm sure she will do fine soon, she just has to learn to think like the way the code is written and it will come to her. Besides, I think she needed to be distracted from her 'potion' making, Kami-sama wasn't pleased with her last attempt to give a love potion to that boy in her class."

"What's a love potion sister?" asks the little unknowing goddess who admires Bell's big blue eyes.

"Well, it's something that makes the one who drinks it think that they're in love with the person who gave it to them. To make the receiver want to spend time with the giver."

Skuld looks curiously at Bell, "but why? What is special about spending time with someone else? Is it like when I want to see you and big sister?"

Bell chuckles, "Yes, it's something like that, but different, and it's hard to tell you what you feel when that happens. I have someone who I love, we're connected through our love for each other. Unfortunately, he cannot remember me because of something I had to do a long time ago. It's like the love you feel for us, your sisters, but with a desire to be one with the person in a different way than you are with your family."

"Um, you mean boys? Yeacchh, boys aren't smart and they aren't fun."

Bell closes her eyes and chuckles to Skuld, "Maybe your opinion of boys will change someday, they're really not all that bad."

"Yes they are! Boys pull on my hair and call me scrawny! I hate boys!" Skuld cries out as she snaps her eyes shut and makes a mean face.

Bell places her hand over her mouth, "Oh my, do they really do that?"

Skuld starts crying softly, "Not all of them, but a couple do."

Belldandy smiles and chuckles quietly, "ah, that means they like you." Bell rubs Skuld's shoulder to reassure her.

"What??" cries Skuld, "then why are they so mean??"

"Well, boys at that age don't know how to show their feelings well and sometimes pick on the people they like because they don't any other way to show their feelings for them."

"Well I don't like it and I don't like them! Big Sister, does the boy you like do that to you?"

Belldandy sighs again and looks away from Skuld to her terminal. It shows a picture of a boy with black hair tinkering with a lawnmower. "No Skuld, but then again, I can't be with him right now, so I don't know if he'll be like that or not. I don't think he will be like that though."

Skuld looks over to her terminal when Bell does and sees the picture of the black haired kid. "Is that the boy you like? He looks scrawny."

Bell turns her head back and looks at Skuld with a concerned look on her face, "You mean scrawny like the boys call you? You can't say the same things of others if it makes you upset when you're called that Skuld. And yes, that is the boy, his name is Keiichi Morisato. He's the boy I met when I went to the surface world awhile ago, when I was about your age."

Skuld looks at the boy again, "What is he working on? It looks like a machine."

Bells smiles at Skuld, "Yes, it's what the mortals call a 'lawnmower'. It cuts grass."

Skuld wrinkles her nose at the picture, "Looks awfully primitive."

"Well, it supposed to be a simple machine. Their technological developm..."

Skuld cuts Bell's replay off, "I was talking about him!" she says as she raises her voice and points to the screen.

Belldandy gasps and puts her hand over her mouth, "Why did you say that little sister??"

"I overheard some of the other Gods talking about the humans on Earth, they say that they 'are primitive and couldn't even figure out how their own gravity works'" Skuld replies.

"Oh Skuld, they are steadily developing, just like the other species that we watch over. They shouldn't say things like that. They may not look like much right now, but their hearts and souls are as big as any other species I've seen. Their thinking process just hasn't matured yet."

Skuld apologetically looks at Bell, "I'm sorry big sister, I didn't mean to upset you."

Belldandy smiles down to Skuld, "That's okay, you mean no harm. I have to finish up my coding or I'll be in trouble with Velena. Run on home and I'll sing for you when I'm done."

Skuld brightly smiles to Belldandy, "Okay!! Bye big sister! Come home soon!" Skuld waves enthusiastically and skips out of the terminal room, heading for home.

Bell turns back to the picture of Keiichi on the screen, feeling her heart warm as she watches the young boy pull and pull on a string, trying to start the lawnmower. She places her hand on her chest and closes her eyes, feeling her own heart strings inside humming to her, the ones that will pull them together and bind them to each other.