Disclaimer : I do not own Ah! My Goddess or The Haunted House: The Secret of the Ghost Ball

-oOoOoOo-

Urd was idly watching TV. Well… more like just having it on as background noise. Keiichi and Belldandy were out helping out the Auto Club. Skuld had decided to just wander about.

Urd had woken up late, as she had decided to outdrink everyone in a few bars.

When she heard the door open, Urd only heard the sound of one person walking in. She thought with a smile, 'Skuld. Gotta be. Keiichi walks harder and Belldandy walks softer.'

Then her smile faded as she thought, 'Footsteps too long apart. More like staggering. Like something was wrong.'

Fear began to trickle down Urd's spine as she stood up and asked, "Hey brat. What are yo…."

Whatever taunt Urd had planned was forgotten when she saw Skuld.

The youngest Norn's mouth had been stretched out in a horrid smile. The edges were red, showing that the mouth had been stretched out. Tears threatened to fall from Skuld's eyes and half-hearted chuckles were coming from her mouth.

"Skuld?" Urd asked, almost in a panic before she ran over to Skuld, got on her knees and hugged her.

Urd's fears only increased when Skuld returned the hug without any complaints.

Urd had wanted to hear threats, yells, insults. Even bombs, tasers, and punches.

Instead, she heard faint laughs and scared sniffles.

-oOo-

Later, Keiichi and Belldandy came home. Urd explained what happened…

Keiichi stayed silent, but kept a bat nearby and stared at the door. The only thing he asked was that they tell him any information about who attacked Skuld.

Belldandy checked Skuld with a spell. The being that had attacked Skuld had been a female spirit, one that could drag people into another dimension. They were tall, wore a red dress, and had a black wide-brimmed sun hat. Their hair was dark and long. The mouth was wide and full of fangs. The eyes were big and crazed.

Urd nodded at the info, looked at Keiichi, and said, "We'll need to cover that bat with spirit talismans if you wanna bash a spirit's brain in."

Keiichi nodded once before Belldandy said, "It's a spirit, one that clearly has lost sight of its original intentions. If we talk to her, we can put a stop to this peacefully."

Urd glared at Belldandy before saying, "If you can get to her first, you do that. I'll be getting ready to beat her up. Nobody hurts my family and gets away with it."

After giving Skuld another hug, Urd walked away to her room. Belldandy looked towards Keiichi and asked, "Keiichi?"

He stared at her for a moment, studying her. Eventually, he said, "I'll be staying here, just in case they try to go for Skuld again."

There was no kindness in his voice. What was in there told Belldandy that if it had been a human who attacked Skuld, he'd have rounded up the Auto Club and dealt with the offender violently.

There was a part of Belldandy that was pleased to hear that, as it meant that Keiichi saw Skuld as a little sister of sorts.

Then he said, "If it had been me who had been attacked, would you still be willing to go the peaceful route?"

"I would still be as peaceful as I plan on being," Belldandy replied as she helped Skuld go to bed.

-oOo-

Urd and Belldandy had found the spirit at the same time. Urd had used some tracking potion to backtrack Skuld's footsteps, while Belldandy had checked out Skuld's memory to get a face to reverse image search.

The female spirit had been found near a playground, apparently hunting. She looked surprised to have been found by two adults.

"Silence Harpy! Please surrender yourself peacefully!" Belldandy demanded.

"Or we can do this the hard way," Urd added, cracking her knuckles. "Trust me, you'll be sorry forever if you don't do what Belldandy asks."

Silence Harpy glared at them, muttering, "Stay away. Stay away from me and my child. I need to cheer them up."

Urd said in a shaky and angry voice, "Oh… you're one of those spirits. You can't tell the difference between your kid and anyone else's kids. So you go and make any brat smile against their will."

Silence Harpy growled, "Do not call them a brat!"

"Urd! Stop antagonizing the spirit!" Belldandy ordered. "I found someone that-"

"Antagonize? Antagonize?" Urd chuckled, like she heard a funny joke. "I have not yet begun to antagonize."

Urd glared back at Silence Harpy and said, "You're a bad mother and not even the fun kind. I bet you drove your kid away. All the way to the afterlife."

Silence Harpy roared as her skin turned light purple, her black hair turned white, her eyes turned red, her red dress turned black, her arms extended, and she grew taller.

Silence Harpy rushed at Urd, who slid at the spirit. Silence Harpy tripped on Urd and began to fall forward. Urd grabbed the ghost, put her through a frankensteiner and then a piledriver. Urd let go of the ghost before reaching down and grabbing the ghost's legs. Urd spun the ghost around and around before letting go. Before Silence Harpy could hit anything, Urd rushed over in a moment and put the ghost in another piledriver.

After Urd let go of Silence Harpy and watched the ghost collapse in a heap, Urd gave Belldandy a Victory handsign, saying, "Dream Super Combo for the win!"

Then Urd felt something grab her ankle. She looked down and saw it was Silence Harpy. Urd crackled a few UrdBolts into existence as she said, "Well, I'll give you points for taking that combo, but this is the end of the-"

"Mama!" A child's voice called out. "Don't hurt Mama!"

Silence Harpy looked towards Belldandy. Besides the Norn of the Present was the blue transparent ghost of a child, dressed in a hospital gown.

"My... child? My child!" Silence Harpy uttered, shedding her physical form and becoming as ghostly as her child. She let go of Urd and rushed over to hug her child.

"Bell? What did you do?" Urd asked, still holding her UrdBolts.

Belldandy walked over to Urd as she explained, "I sent a copy of Skuld's memories of the attack and sent them to Peorth to find out who was responsible. In life, Silence Harpy was a human whose child was in the hospital. Both mother and child pretended to be happy to cheer the other one up. The mother found a music box and hoped it would cheer her child up, but on the way, she learned her child died. The mother lost her mind and then took her own life, thus becoming Silence Harpy, a type of spirit who could only remember bits and pieces of her life."

"Huh," Urd muttered as the mother and child passed into the afterlife. She extinguished her UrdBolts. "So if Silence Harpy refused to stop? What would you do?"

Belldandy took out her cellphone and dialed. After Keiichi picked up, Belldandy asked, "This is Belldandy. Is Skuld alright?"

"..."

Belldandy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. We'll be back shortly, Keiichi."

As Belldandy hung up, Urd asked, "Well?"

Without looking at her sister, Belldandy began to walk away as she answered, "Kamaitachi."

Urd raised an eyebrow, muttering, "That makes no sense."

-oOoOoOo-

Notes from HotelKatz - This was an idea on my mind when I heard about The Haunted House show. The Dream Super Combo is a secret move in the game SaGa Frontier.

Kamaitachi are a type of Youkai, meaning sickle weasel. I guess my intention was that Belldandy planned on cutting Silence Harpy to pieces without spilling any blood, if her peaceful plan failed. I dunno.