Ah! The following day

by zeroIQ

Getting married is never really simple for anyone, let alone a certain mortal and his goddess. One might expect that with the hard part out of the way, the rest would be just an ordinary married life. But with those two and the ones around them, there is no such thing as ordinary...

50. Chapter 50

I do not own the Ah! Megami sama / Oh! My Goddess series

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'Ugh… what a crazy day!'

Getting up only to realize that this wasn't a dream, Keiichi scratched his head and inspected his otherwise spartan quarters on board the stolen celestial battleship. Despite the suspiciously polite attitude of his captors, Keiichi couldn't wait to get out of here and go back to his wife, but no matter how much he argued with Odal the previous day, all he got was promises that they would send him back, once they found a way to do that without giving away their position. Unfortunately, that did little to reassure the mortal, as it could take an unknown amount of time and in the meanwhile, he wasn't even allowed to send any messages to his wife in order to tell her that he was doing fine.

The sudden chime of the doorbell made Keiichi jump slightly, until he realized that perhaps his captors had some news for him. Wasting no time, the dark haired mortal got up from his bed and rearranged his clothes to make sure he was presentable before answering the door.

"Enter!"

As the door slid open, Keiichi watched in anticipation and even anxiety at what was going to happen now, only for his eyes to grow as big as dinner plates when he gazed upon a rather… familiar face in a totally unfamiliar attire.

"Room service!" With a cheerful smile, Verthandi strapped inside the cabin, carrying a tray with Keiichi's breakfast, although… for some reason the mortal backed off of her as if she had the plague. "Oh, dear… Is there something wrong?"

"Don't give me that! What's up with that getup?" asked the worried mortal, pointing at her apron. Although it was just a regular one, not unlike the ones Belldandy owned, his lovely wife wore it on top of her clothes; not instead of them. And by the looks of it, that also doubled as the demoness' lingerie too, leaving practically nothing to the imagination.

"Oh, this? It's called naked apron and it's very popular with newlyweds!" said Verthandi, twirling around, much to Keiichi's embarrassment, as he got to see lot more than he was mentally prepared for.

"Hey, cut that out! I'm a married man, you know!"

"So what? I just wanted to give you a few ideas to spice up your love life! With me looking so similar to your wife, I thought you'd appreciate a little preview of what you could do with her!" said Verthandi as she set the tray on the bed, getting an even greater blush from the mortal as she bent over a bit.

"J-Just… s-stop, will you? I-I'm not interested!" was all Keiichi could manage, averting his eyes from the scantily clad demoness, much to the latter's amusement.

"You may say that, but your aura is really betraying your arousal! I bet you can't wait to go back and ask Bell-chan to try this for your happy reunion!"

"I do not!" countered Keiichi, his face beet red from a mix of both embarrassment and annoyance.

"Liar! I know that miss perfect goddess even tried Peorth's oh-so-decent clothes!" shot Verthandi back at him with a huge grin, as she immensely enjoyed his stupefied expression.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?"

"Because against my better judgment, I may had told her that tiny detail."

The sudden interruption caused the duo to turn towards the door, where a rather grumpy looking Odal was glaring daggers at Verthandi, causing her to dive for cover behind Keiichi; again.

"I think we've done that already…" muttered the dark haired mortal, tired of this gag.

Ignoring his comment, Odal approached the miffed mortal and peered over his shoulder. "I believe I've asked you to find a way to send him back, didn't I? Now, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Hey, someone needed to bring Keiichi his breakfast!"

"My robots are perfectly capable of doing that!"

"Your robots don't look nearly as good in an apron!"

Once again, Keiichi had to wonder just what was up with those so called rogues that everyone was talking about. Initially, he had expected a group of ruthless cutthroats, only to end up finding out that the closest analogy he could use to describe to them was the Motor Club back in his college days; complete with Tamiya and Otaki's harebrained schemes.

"Enough! You're coming with me!"

Watching the dark haired god drag Verthandi out of there, Keiichi let out a tired sigh, shaking his head in disdain. Aside from Angrboda who was somewhat intimidating, everyone here was kind of… decent if not downright pleasant, although he never really got to exchange more than a few words with the rest of the crew. There were two former convicts, one left without her memories while the other lacked a physical body and as such, he had no other option but use a mechanical one instead. Then there was Loki's two creations, Fenrir and Jormungandr along with another god called Vidar, who despite being polite towards him, refused to tell Keiichi much about his background. Finally, there was a sentient weapon that reminded him a lot of Excalibur, even possessing the shapeshifting abilities of his synthetic friend, although this one was called Gram; a former member of Excalibur's AI squad.

Remembering the tray Verthandi had brought with her, Keiichi decided that he wasn't going to accomplish anything by starving himself and sat on the bed to eat something and hopefully come up with an idea in the meantime.

'Hey, master! There's a note stuck on your back!'

Blinking, Keiichi craned his neck to look at his angel who was staring at something that Verthandi most likely left on his person. "Please tell me that it's not a stupid prank! I'm getting tired of that silly stuff already!"

'No, it's a message. If you want some answers, take a look at this room. That's what's written on it and on the other side there's a map on how to get there. Should we give this a try?'

Munching through his breakfast, Keiichi knew that it sounded like a trap, yet given that he was already at their mercy, if they wanted to do anything to him there was no need for such a roundabout way to do it.

"You know… as crazy as it sounds, let's give it a go. Who knows, we might learn something about this band of thieves."

'That's my master!' beamed Terrestrial Spark, floating towards the door only to realize that his host was still eating his food. 'Uh… master?'

"Hey, stop staring me like that! I need the calories! You can't get all dashing and heroic on an empty stomach!"

XXX

News of the double abduction spread like wildfire in the celestial capital, since it was so rare for such incidents to take place that anything out of the ordinary immediately caught everyone's attention. Keiichi's name was featured on all local news feeds, although certain details about the circumstances behind his and even Loki's disappearance were withheld from the general public. There was a need to reassure the celestial population that they were safe and this was merely an isolated event, yet that proved to be totally insufficient and only allowed more rumors to spread.

Some attested this as a further evidence of how dangerous those rogues were, while others believed that there was a conspiracy behind this incident, and the real goal was to rid Asgard of both its legendary troublemaker, along with the mortal who dared to defy the Judgment Gate Test. Especially with that particular measure now officially abolished, there were voices of concern that its most enthusiastic supporters wished to extract some kind of payback which resulted in this kidnapping. An assumption that was furthered backed by the fact that Loki was also behind Tyr's decision to repurpose the Judgment Gate, since the trickster god was the head of Yggdrasil's technical team and in his opinion that subsystem just had to go.

Still, as popular as this incident became in the eyes of the celestial public, their administration was busy trying to find a replacement for Loki. It was absolutely imperative to have someone in charge of the Yggdrasil mainframe and while Tyr could act as a temporary placeholder of the missing god, the Daitenkaicho's busy schedule prevented him from spending the necessary time to micromanage the operations of the celestial supercomputer. So, until Loki was available once again, the Councils had to find someone else to do that critical job and while it appeared to be a relatively simple problem, in the end it was anything but that.

Tyr's proposal was to have Sif, one of the senior administrators to take Loki's post, but that caused some objections as some Councilors found her to be unsuited for that task. In their opinion, while Sif was indeed an administrator with a long service record, she lacked the experience as a system developer, one of the most critical requirements for that particular job. Furthermore, there was an indirect accusation that the Daitenkaicho was trying to put yet another member of his extended family in a key position, just to consolidate his authority that was slowly undermined by his inability to effectively protect his own realms; with the latest kidnappings being a prime example of said inefficiency.

In their opinion, it was Regin the one who should replace Loki, as he was his predecessor in that post, with centuries of experience under his belt. And while the trickster may had managed to remove him not a long time ago, several Councilors found that given his rather shady practices, Loki might've exploited the situation to his favor.

The resulting debate inevitably brought the whole process to a standstill, with both sides making preparations to support their case with better arguments and while Tyr along with his stepmother revised their plans, a very similar discussion was taking place at the office of his most vocal opponents.

"Good riddance I say!"

Placing the datapad on his desk, Thrivaldi could hardly contain his euphoric feeling, knowing that his personal candidate was one step closer to reclaim his position as the head technician of the celestial mainframe, something that could allow him to regain much of his lost influence. Being a member of one of the oldest families in Asgard and yet sidelined by Odin's brood, Thrivaldi like many of his relatives felt that this practice of passing down the title of the Daitenkaicho from father to son was a most blatant display of nepotism. While the position wasn't supposed to be hereditary, in reality it was nothing more that just that; especially as that notorious family exploited their connections with the Fighting Wings to establish a thin veiled form of dictatorship.

For countless centuries, his family worked hard to establish themselves in the celestial political scene and every time one of them managed to gain sufficient influence and prestige, Odin and his relatives undermined their efforts, essentially ruining any chances to accomplish their greatest dream: to become the ruling family of Asgard. Worse, most of Thrivaldi's close relatives apparently perished under suspicious circumstances and while he spent most of his early days trying to pin the blame to the former Daitenkaicho, nothing came out of it. Still, his mistrust for Odin's son and current ruler of Asgard who was more than happy to sleep with a demoness, led the Councilor to criticize him on every given chance, hoping that in the long run his fellow Councilors would finally come to realize that Tyr is absolutely unsuited for being their leader.

"Um… are you referring to Loki or that mortal, my lord?"

Eying at Regin who patiently waited for him to review his CV, Thrivaldi paused and thought as to who he was most happy to see them disappear and much to his surprise, the answer was rather simple. "Both, actually! Loki was a royal pain in our backside, a god who acted like an immature juvenile and yet no one dared to punish him for his stupid pranks; all thanks to his adopted mother who protected him, of course. And let's not even start with this… mortal who threatens our very way of living."

"He does? But… how? He's all but a mere mortal," said Regin who found his sponsor's claims to be a bit too much to take seriously. While he personally didn't care much about Keiichi, he couldn't quite see him as a threat either, as the human was totally irrelevant in the grand scale of things.

"A mere mortal who also happens to be our illustrious leader's son in law? Or have you forgotten about that?" said Thrivaldi with a raised eyebrow as he leaned back on his chair. "Considering how that god's family passed the Daitenkaicho's title from one generation to the next, it's only a matter of time before one of his daughters becomes our leader. Now, I highly doubt that's going to be his firstborn to take that title, which… naturally means that the task will fall to his middle daughter instead. And she's married to a… ugh… human of all things."

"But… my lord… The Daitenkaicho's position isn't hereditary! There's no need for any of them to succeed their father!"

"Excuse me, but when was the last time you checked the list with our past leaders? Actually… have you ever done that?" There was a long and awkward pause as Thrivaldi drummed his fingers on the desk while staring at Regin who only returned the gaze with one of his own; a totally empty and clueless one. 'Seriously… where do I get those idiots from?'

"Uh… I never thought that, my lord."

"Well, if you did, then it should've been more than obvious that in practice, the whole system is just a sham! Given that family's influence, they're the only ones who manage to become real candidates for our leader's title, with everybody else being there just for show and nothing beyond that. And with Belldandy now married to a… mortal, the second most influential person in Asgard will be a hairless ape. Just fantastic… ugh…" Making a disgusted grimace, Thrivaldi reached for a taffy, much to Regin's confusion. "What is it now?"

"Forgive me for asking, my lord, but… if you don't like humans, then why are you eating their sweets?"

"For the very same reason why most of the lingerie designs goddesses prefer these days come from Niflheim! There's a distinction between the product and the person who makes it," explained the irate Councilor while giving his associate a warning look, only to have him completely fail to get the hint.

"But… wouldn't that make us appear as… hypocrites?"

"Stop bothering me with pointless topics and just give me that CV!" Suppressing a growl, Thrivaldi extended his arm towards the surprised god who immediately handed him the datapad. "Good! Now, let's see what you wrote down on… this…"

Noticing the Councilor's eyes grow as large as dinner plates, Regin wondered if he made a mistake anywhere, only to realize that while waiting for his benefactor to read the news, he may had opened that folder. 'Uh oh… This is bad… Really bad…'

"Regin! Why am I seeing, Peorth's scantily clad bottom everywhere I look?"

"Wait, my lord! Let me explain!..." started the horrified god as he dodged his datapad that went flying across the office, meeting an early demise against the wall on the far end of the office.

"No excuses, you… you!... After all the trouble I'm getting myself to get you back on your previous job, this is how you repay me? By spending who knows how many hours in order to collect photos of salacious administrators? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

At this point, Thrivaldi was livid and if it wasn't for the fact that he was caught red handed, Regin might've found it funny to see his boss throw an angry fit. "Please forgive me, my lord! It won't happen again!"

"Then keep that in mind!" shouted Thrivaldi before he plopped back on his chair with a grunt. "Now, give me that bloody CV!"

"Uh… there's a little bit of problem with that…" started Regin, glancing towards the now broken remains of his datapad.

"What is it?" asked the Councilor, before he followed his associate's gaze and palmed himself. "Tell me that you have another copy…"

"Um… I really wish I had."

"Just… go. Write another CV, and this time… no photos," snarled Thrivaldi through clenched teeth, as he rubbed his temples. "GOT ME?"

"Yes! I'll be back in a moment!"

Watching his idiot of a subordinate leave, Thrivaldi made an attempt to go back to his work, but found himself too annoyed to focus on the necessary documents, so he decided to take a short break and opened his personal messenger on his console.

[3ValD] joined the chatroom

3ValD: Anyone online? :)

0TKnight: I am! Wassup, Three? :3

3ValD: Same old. Idiots pissing me off -.- Wondering if you had anything new.

0TKnight: Depends… I've nothing from Rosy. She just got back from Earth ^^;

3ValD: Nah… how about Salty Pepper? I'm in the mood of something spicier X3

0TKnight: Still in Muspelheim, but I might get a photo. Bet she's hotter as a demoness! :D

3ValD: Awesome! :3 Can't wait for a spicy pic! O3O

0TKnight: On it! I'll get you a nice dose of caramel hotness ;)

3ValD: Thanks! I need that X3

[0TKnight] left the chatroom

[3ValD] left the chatroom

XXX

'Closing secure connection... Status of file transfer: 22.63% Logfile updated.'

Hearing the soft footsteps that progressively became louder, Excalibur left his routines run in the background and opened his eyes in order to properly greet his visitor. Since yesterday, the synthetic had refused to to sleep inside the house, opting to stay out in the lawn for the night and by the looks of it, they must've taken notice by now. "Lind..."

"You know that nobody really blames you for what happened, so why don't you give it a rest and come inside." There was no sign of annoyance in the goddess' tone, as the Valkyrie addressed the sentient weapon in the most neutral way she could manage.

"Even so, I've essentially failed to perform my duty, and that's something everyone knows too."

Despite Excalibur's superb control of his voice and even his body language, Lind could sense that there was some bitterness in his words, a sentiment all too familiar to the Valkyrie. "Yes, but everyone has to face the limitations they have and accept that reality doesn't necessary conforms to our wishes. As painful as it is, failure is always an option and that's then we must reflect upon our actions. But in this case, you weren't the only one to bear the responsibility of the outcome."

"How? I was the only one present who was capable of defending him," said Excalibur, raising an eyebrow at her either because of her attempt to reassure him, or simply because she sit next to him.

"We all share a part of the responsibility; even Keiichi himself. If he didn't insist for more 'personal space' then you should've been much closer to him and thus capable of defending him in a more efficient manner. Plus, I should've never left his side either, but… my superiors had other ideas; only to end up realizing just how right I was in the first place."

Giving her a suspicious look, especially after she pat his shoulder, Excalibur knew that it was probably a bad idea but in the end he did feel that he had to ask her. "You're not just saying this to make me feel better, do you?"

"No, not in the slightest bit. If I was genuinely annoyed by you, then you'd definitely know about it," said Lind with the calmest voice she could muster and for a moment, the synthetic could've sworn that she actually smiled. "I'm not that sensitive, after all. Actually… according to some of my fellow Valkyries, icebergs have nothing on me. If I honestly thought you cocked this up, you would've found yourself embedded in the pavement; trust me on that."

"Thank you… I feel much better now…" was the slightly sarcastic reply, although the sentient weapon made an effort to edge away from her.

"Anytime!" Getting up with a smile that made Excalibur fear for his digital life, Lind started for the house, only to pause and look back. "Are you coming or what?"

"Yes, I think you're right," said Excalibur with a smile, but not only due to the Valkyrie's unique encouragement.

For the last couple of minutes, Excalibur's mind was busy analysing Thrivaldi's contact list, after he managed to acquire it during his brief… chat with him. And by the looks of it, his runtimes were right to assume that he had secretly supporting the rogues; meaning that his previous attempts to steal information from him over the last couple of days weren't a total waste of time. Far from it since according to the logfiles, the Councilor had contacted an unnamed ship, although based on the communication protocol it was clearly evident that this was indeed the stolen Skidbladnir.

'All while chatting about naughty images. Sometimes organic beings never fail to amaze me by just how simpleminded they can be; immortals included. Hm… the ship's on the outer fringes of Svartalfheim Minoris, at a longitude of 89 degrees west on the system's equator, and I bet my wireless module that's where they got Keiichi. The question now is how to to get to one of demonic realms undetected and… without starting a war. Worse, according to my analysis they're far too close to Svartalfheim's forces for the latter not to take notice, which… probably means that they're deliberately ignoring them. If that's the case, calling Hild directly might be hard as someone could tip them of what's going on and let the rogues escape before the Daimakaicho can do anything. I need someone who's certainly on our side and reach them through a totally isolated communications network and… Hold on… Urd! The communicator Skuld made for her is working outside the grid! YES!'

Without further delay, a message was sent to the half demoness, and with this task now accomplished, Excalibur went after Lind who no idea what was going on. Finally, he had something to compensate for his earlier failure, and that's what really managed to put a smile back on his face again.

XXX

Muspelheim, Urd's apartment

"How are you holding up Bell?"

This was the third call the half demoness had given her sister since this whole mess and just like the other two, the stubborn goddess tried to sound as if everything was alright. But deep down, Urd knew that the goddess hurt and while lying was not an option, she could still hide her pain from others. Not unlike her bouts of jealousy, this dreadful emotion could too cause a catastrophic fallout if she kept bottling it up, especially since Belldandy didn't generally deal with things that would've given her an insight of how to handle situations like these.

"I'm doing fine, neesan. I just looked up a recipe for a watermelon pie," said Belldandy with some of her typical cheerfulness, although it was more than obvious that it was primarily for the sake of cheering her sister up.

"I see… At least that's going to keep you busy with…" said Urd, before she blinked and tried to process what she was being told. "Hold on! Watermelon pie?"

"Oh, there's indeed such a thing by the looks of it and there are even several kinds of recipes. For the one I've read about, you basically mash a watermelon's flesh together with flour, sugar, salt, olive oil and honey to turn into a mush, add a layer of sesame and put in a preheated oven. Roughly fifty minutes later, it should be ready to serve and before you serve you can sprinkle it with cinnamon and honey," said Belldandy, only to notice a rather peculiar scribbling sound coming from the other end of the line. "Neesan? Are you… taking notes?"

"Why? Is that a problem? I'm looking for something new to try my hands on, and no jokes!" said Urd in a warning tone. "Actually, can you send me the detailed recipe later?"

"S-Sure, I'll take a photo of the cooking book's page with it, but… I never thought you'd try to cook again after so many aeons. You always found the lessons boring and the results really underwhelming compared to alchemy," admitted the goddess with some trepidation, knowing that it might sound as if she was making fun of her elder sibling.

"That may be, but what am I supposed to do now that I've got a girlfriend who's hopeless in the kitchen? Mara may be capable of several things, yet cooking isn't one of them, unless of course we're talking about preparing precooked meals or microwaving things. And in all honestly, I'm too posh to settle for that kind of stuff, so… someone has to cook here," said Urd, almost as if she confessed a great sin.

"Well? How did it go?"

"I may have accidentally recreated the mortar used by the Chinese back when they were building that wall of theirs," muttered Urd in shame.

"The one with 3% sticky rice in it?" asked Belldandy, trying to recall those days.

"The very same. It's even better than normal concrete!"

"Oh dear... Perhaps you should try something more simple? I don't want to sound rude, but…" started the middle Norn only to get interrupted in mid sentence.

"You can say it, Bell… I suck. At least I've slowly started to remember a few things from those lessons back when we were little and even experimented on my own. And… I've managed to make pancakes and muffins and even blueberry pie!" finished Urd with a sense of pride that was almost uncharacteristic, given the topic of their discussion.

"That's fantastic! It's a really impressive progress for such a short amount of time, neesan! I'm so happy for you!" said Belldandy, although a part of her became a bit suspicious that it was bit too good to be true. "How did you manage that?"

"Like I said, my neighbor is really a good cook actually. She even knew my mom from back when she was a kid, although… I can't quite say that they were on friendly terms. Apparently my mother was the most popular demoness in this part of the city, given her… assets," said Urd with a chuckle, recalling the story she was told. "Which meant that the less gifted demonesses in the neighborhood really disliked her, since it made it hard for them to get any boyfriends."

"But… if that's the case, then why is she really nice to you?" asked the baffled goddess, failing to understand the logic behind that.

"Remember who our father is? Or should I say what our father is? Apparently dating a god kind of helped matters quite a bit."

"Oh, I see! At least, it's nice to know that you're making friends over there, neesan. Especially if you're going to stay there for longer than originally anticipated."

There was a long pause as Urd had no idea how to respond to her sister's words. The whole prospect of staying as a demoness was still something that she found it hard to accept herself, let alone try to tell her sisters about it. "What… makes you think that I'm staying here?"

"You never really tried to approach others while on Asgard, neesan. Most of the time it was either me and Skuld or even other family members, but rarely did you attempt to make friendships with outsiders. Yet, in such a short period of time you've approached someone you knew nothing about and I have no delusions that at this rate you'll manage to make a lot more friends there than you'd even make here," said Belldandy trying to sound as cheerful as possible. "Don't worry about us, though. I can always bring Skuld and Keiichi over there for a visit, or just hang around Earth if it's more convenient this way."

"That… That's not… Keiichi's not even there to begin with," said Urd, before she palmed herself at bringing that subject up, and especially in such a manner. Although she was upset or even annoyed that her sister didn't put up a fight and try to convince her to return, deep inside her, Urd knew that Belldandy only wished the best for her. It wasn't a convenient way of getting rid of a troublesome sibling and if she promised to visit her, then she really meant it. "I… I'm sorry… I got upset and said something really dumb."

"Don't worry, neesan. I know that you meant well and besides, grandma said that Keiichi's in good hands."

"She did? What makes Frigg think that? He was abducted for goodness sake!" Considering that the elder goddess was prohibited from lying, such a claim required some kind of argument to back it up. Of course generic wishes of well-being weren't normally taken as a false claim, although given the situation, offering consolation is such a half hearted manner just wasn't Frigg's style.

"In all honesty, grandma tried to avoid mentioning too many details about where she came up with that information, although she claimed that the god who accompanied the demoness that resembled me was trustworthy and wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to Keiichi. Now what really puzzles me is where that demoness came from…" said Belldandy with some concern as she recalled the image of her lookalike from the footage Excalibur provided them.

"Who knows? If she's some sort of shapeshifter, then she's definitely going for the whole innocent looking, yet naughty girl fashion. Kind of an overkill if you ask me but… hey some people like that," said Urd, lowering her voice towards the end, as she tried to drop a more that obvious hint and sure enough, her sister's cheeks began to redden.

"N-No… K-Keiichi's not…" Pausing for a moment as she reflected upon their private moments, the brunette realized that continuing that sentence could be troublesome for a first class goddess and immediately tried to revise her statement. "It's not like that! Just a little bit…"

"Oho! Details please!" said the grinning Urd, knowing all too well how embarassed her sister must've been at the moment.

"No!"

"Come on, girl! I've heard that you tried Peorth's style, so stop pretending that you're all innocent," purred Urd, her canines sticking out of her lips as they curved up in a grin. "Don't be so shy Bell-chan, I can offer you some tips…"

"I don't need tips!" objected the Norn of the present, only to realize that she made matters worse for her.

"Oh my! You're that good already?" The half demoness couldn't help but laugh at the panicked sounds coming from the other end of the line, barely resembling some kind of an excuse or the other, but then all of sudden the noise of her communicator was added into the mix. Curious as to what this all about, Urd briefly glanced at the screen, where her mail icon was highlighted, indicating that she had a new message and while she would've normally waited to end her call before checking it she couldn't help but tap that flashing icon; and that's when her eyes went wide in shock.

Hearing a soft gasp, Belldandy realized that something must've taken place on the other end of the line and it had nothing to do with their current conversation. "Neesan, is everything alright?"

"Uh, yes… it's nothing, I just… have to go now… Need to talk to Surt and all that," said Urd, making a valiant effort to hide the urgency in her voice, after she read Excalibur's message.

"Oh, it's alright, neesan. We can talk later if you want!"

"Sure thing, Bell!"

Urd wasted no time as she bolted for the door, heading towards the living room to retrieve her girlfriend. "Mara! Get your ass off the couch, we've got a job to do!"

"Hey, what up of a sudden?" came a voice from the kitchen, confusing the half demoness who had to do a one eighty turn and head there instead.

"I've got some news and we must go and ask Surt to…" started Urd, before she stared at the almost impossible sight of her blonde girlfriend in an apron while struggling to find out how to use a rolling pin the way it was intended. "What the Hell are you doing?"

"Trying to make a stupid apple pie… What else?" shot Mara back, her frustration evident in her voice.

"It looks more as if you're trying to beat the dough to submission, if you ask me."

"I'm a sadist, so… yeah, why not? Besides, it relaxes the dough…"

"That's… not how it's supposed to work... But.. whatever makes you happy Ma-chan," said Urd, grinning as she took a better look at the demoness. "Nice mittens by the way! They're so adorable! I totally dig the kitty design!"

Growling as she knew that Urd wasn't going to let her live this one down, Mara tried to change the topic to something that hopefully spared her from even more teasing. "Anyway… what did you want me in the first place? It sounded like it was something urgent…"

"Oh, yes! We need to go to the Central Command Center! There's no time for explanations, I'll tell you everything on the way there!"

XXX

On board CMV Skidbladnir, Svartalfheim

Surprisingly enough, Keiichi met little resistance as he headed towards the room where the alleged answers were hidden, expecting one of the towering robots he encountered on his there to grab him and simply drag him back to the cramped quarters where was supposed to stay until they found a method to send him back. Or so they claimed anyways, as the rather realistic possibility of all that being a convenient lie did cross his mind. Although Keiichi had no idea what they'd gain from such an plot. While he was relatively polite towards his captors, it was highly unlikely for him to suddenly become overly sympathetic to whatever their real cause may be. Keiichi's only goal was to find a way get back home. Still, if he could find out something useful about this group of immortals, then it was going to be a nice bonus.

By the looks of it, his captors didn't pay too much effort to keep his restrained, probably due to his very nature as a mortal and therefore not someone they'd consider to be a serious threat. Which… allowed him to reach his destination without any incidents and much to his surprise, the note Terrestrial Spark was carrying gave away a faint glow causing the locked door to open.

"Hm… so far so good I'd say. It looks kind of safe to enter." Peering inside, Keiichi made sure that there was no obvious trap waiting for him to walk in, and much to confusion the room was filled with all sorts of stuff.

'Master, this seems like a warehouse or… Skuld's room to be honest,' observed the tiny angel as he floated towards the piled boxes with everything imaginable, from old computers to books, electrical appliances and even a few bike components. 'Is it just me or everything here is from Earth?'

"You're… right. Why would a god gather all that stuff? Sure, they might be collectable or something, but…" pausing in mid sentence, Keiichi's attention was drawn to the area where the bike parts were gathered and soon he discovered that behind a stack of boxes was a whole bike. And to be more precise, it wasn't just any old bike but a Brough Superior, much like the one his grandfather had left back in that lakeside lodge. "Hey, look at that! It's just like…"

'Master! This isn't the right moment to stare at bikes! Although, I'll have to admit that whoever owns this must've a good taste.' Using what little strength he had to push his reluctant host away from the bike, Terrestrial Spark headed towards a desk where he hoped that they'd discover more clues as to the owner of those things. 'Okay, there must be something hidden in here, so, let's take a look, shall we?'

Nodding, Keiichi along with his angel started to scan through the assorted books, along with the rest of the personal possessions spread across the desk and soon they found what they were looking for: a name.

"There we go!" Holding up a cup with the O rune printed on it, he was certain that this was no coincidence, especially as that particular rune could be read as Odal; the very name of the leader of those rogues. "I doubt that this is a total coincidence, so, I guess it's safe to assume that everything here must belong to him. Right Terrestrial… Spark?... Hey! What are you doing in that drawer? Get out of there!"

'Looking for clues, what else? And… I found something really good!' said the tiny angel, holding up a magazine that Keiichi took before checking its cover.

Opening it at a random page, the mortal's eyes went wide in shock as the content was indeed not only unexpected, but downright… spicy. Photos of demonesses in various states of undress, from mere bikinis to… their birthday suites caused Keiichi's face to turn to a deep shade of crimson and for a moment he felt tempted to simply toss it back to the drawer and not look back. "Terrestrial Spark! We're looking for clues, not smut!"

'But… there's an interesting article here!' tried the angel, making a valiant attempt to keep the magazine open to a particular page, against Keiichi's wishes. 'Stop acting like that and let me see what's written there!'

"No, you stop acting like that, or I'm telling you on Holy Bell once we get back," said Keiichi, until sheer curiosity got the better of him and glanced at what his angel was so interested in. Although there was a large, topless photo of Hild in seaside resort, the caption under it was indeed quite peculiar.

Hild-sama during her first vacations after her successful reinstatement as the Daimakaicho. For more information about the incident and the role of the three Norns and the god accompanying them, please refer to the relative article on the previous issue.

Staring at each other in confusion, both Terrestrial Spark and Keiichi reread the caption several times and no matter how they interpreted the runes, its meaning was clear. The ones mentioned there were the three sisters and a… god, which was either a typo or a lie.

"Hold on a second! I was with them during that coup, so who's that god mentioned here? You don't think they mean… Tyr? He only showed up during the Test, and even then by possessing the Gate." Pouting a bit, the mortal shook his head and finally put the magazine back to the drawer as there wasn't anything more to read about that incident here, and hopefully find out who that mysterious god was supposed to be. "Seriously… I get no respect these days… And by the looks of it, that's where Urd got her habit of walking around topless while on a beach. Thankfully Hild didn't pull something like that when she showed up in the hotel me and Belldandy stayed during our honeymoon."

'Perhaps we could check that article once we return back and find out more about the topic,' mused Terrestrial Spark, while scratching his head. 'In the meanwhile, let's keep digging and see what else we can find.'

XXX

Elsewhere on board the ship, a very different type of conversation was taking place, as Loki stood right next to a really inconspicuous looking cardboard box.

"So, my other half wants to get this done with? I thought he was the patient one, instead of me."

"You have to understand that this situation has escalated to the point where it's no longer a mere inconvenience, Loki. People on both sides are starting to get agitated by the lack of action and want results, so, your counterpart wants to see this group of renegades sealed as soon as possible."

"As much as I'd love to agree with you father, I must point out that there's something going on here and I'd rather not hurry and jump the gun before I learn what that something really is. To begin with, the hair sample I've managed to get from this Angrboda proved to be a lot more interesting than anything I've expected," said Loki, taking a little test tube with a few strands of hair inside of it. Despite his seemingly random and downright infuriating jokes, Loki's efforts were indeed successful at annoying Angrboda to the point where she became less aware of her surroundings, especially as he plucked some strands of hair from her side bangs after patting her chest. It was a gamble and required the speed and dexterity of a skilled pickpocket to do without getting detected, but given her outrage, the trickster god hand managed to pull it off and for the remainder of the day he attempted to analyze the sample.

"Care to elaborate? I must admit that I'm rather intrigued about her, too," said Odin, finding it hard to conceal his own curiosity.

"Please don't tell that to poor mother…"

Growling as he palmed himself, Odin had to remind himself that despite Loki's rather crafty nature, he was indeed prone to random silliness. "Not like that, you moron! This isn't the right time for stupid jokes, so give me a break and tell me what you really found out about her!"

"Fine, fine!..." Letting out a sigh, Loki stashed the sample back to his robes and tried to recall his analysis, as he deliberately kept no recording of it, just in case his captors found out about him acting as a spy. "To begin with, she's far from Hild's clone in any shape or form. Although the physical resemblance is hard to ignore, Urd is more similar to Hild, compared to Angrboda. As a matter of fact, she's hardly a match for any known demonesses, or even conforms to the same properties associated with the physical shell of one. However, as far as her energy signature is concerned… that's where it gets tricky… She almost appears to be Hild's twin, if not an identical copy of hers."

"How is that even possible? It's the exact opposite of what can create! Physical clones are relatively straightforward, but… a metaphysical copy of our core is almost unheard of!" said Odin in disbelief and confusion. "Are you sure you didn't goof up somewhere with that analysis of yours?"

"Hey! I know my stuff!" protested the god of mischief, stomping his foot on the floor. "And for the record, I tried to check Verthandi too, although in her case, things are a bit more complicated given that she's a demoness. As such, a baseline comparison with Belldandy is really hard as we're essentially comparing two fundamentally different types of energy. Still, I guess that she's the closest you can get if Belldandy was born a demoness."

"Hm… interesting," said Odin, remaining silent for a while as he contemplated what all this could mean. "Although, please tell me you didn't pull anything funny to acquire a sample from someone who looks like your niece…"

"I'm a troublemaker, not a deviant… All I needed was the old trick with the hairbrush," said Loki, summoning the item in question.

"She let you brush her hair? That's the oldest trick in the book!"

"And it still works! Although, I must say that I'm not terribly surprised to see that from someone so similar to Bell. In some ways, she's kind of similar to her, despite her… mannerisms."

"Hm… really interesting."

"Indeed! She even baked a few cupcakes for me!" said Loki, pointing towards his cabin's desk where the tray Verthandi had brought him was left, but soon realized that while he was busy, Muninn and Huggin had decided to help themselves with the offerings, nibbling at them with their beaks. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Caw!"

"Caw, Caw!"

"Enough!" Getting everyone's attention, Odin decided that time was of the essence, especially with one of Ratatoskr's ships waiting to move in and take over this battleship. "What's really important now is whether you're coming with me or not, Loki."

Letting out a sigh, after he gave the two ravens a pointed glare, Loki took a moment to consider his options and then shook his head. "I haven't gotten the full story from Fenrir and Jormungandr yet, so I want to stick around to find out what's going on, and by the looks of it, even Vidar is planning to stay. Someone needs to keep an eye out for the kid, right?"

"I see… In that case, make sure that they're safe, although… no unnecessary heroics. If things get really bad, I'm expecting you to get them out of this mess," said Odin, hoping that his adopted son knew what he was doing. "In the meanwhile, I need to recapture the ship to make everyone think that the threat's gone. However, if it's like you said and there's more to this than we think… I want you to spy on them and report any further plans and developments."

"Got it!" said Loki, giving his father a thumbs up. "Although, don't forget to get Keiichi out of here, too! Belldandy's going to blow a gasket at this rate."

"Duly noted. Actually, I'll go and grab him before the show starts. Take care, Loki," said Odin as he headed towards the door, before he stopped and turned the box he was hiding in around. "Oh, and don't forget to tidy your room, especially if you want to get popular with that bodacious copy of Hild!"

"Okay, now you sound like mother…"

XXX

Central Command Center, Muspelheim

"No means no! Which part of it you cannot understand?"

Locked in a staring match, neither Surt nor Urd wanted to be the first to back off as their short but fierce argument went on.

"I thought you were going to be delighted to catch those rogues, but it seems like I was mistaken. Too much trouble for you, or… you're too scared to handle someone as tough as my mother?"

Growling as he restrained himself from calling her something he'd eventually come to regret, Surt realized just how trying having a student could be. Mere moments ago, Urd along with her blonde girlfriend had all but barged into his office with the former claiming that she knew the location of those rogues. The catch however was that those coordinates corresponded to Svartalfheim, one of the realms under demonic control; yet outside of his jurisdiction.

"Look, I know that you want to save your brother in law, but I cannot show up like that in someone else's realm and do as I please. Svartalfheim is under Gridr's control and as such, she's the one you should be asking to arrest them. If I try to pull anything funny, then I'm going to appear as if I'm enforcing my authority over there too, and the fact that your mother was my caretaker makes matters way worse. Everyone's going to claim that I'm acting like the Daimakaicho's favorite, doing anything I want just because she may feel inclined to defend me," explained Surt, leaning back on his chair with a sigh, as he tried to make her realize just what was going on here. Demonic politics had always been his least favorite topics of discussion and something the ruler of Muspelheim wished to avoid, but in the end such a thing was all but impossible. "I cannot afford to act like a spoiled brat and neither should you for the matter. If you throw a temper tantrum, thinking that you're going to get away with it because mama's going to feel sorry, boy you're in a surprise. Hild has to follow a certain protocol and that's going to bring her in the very difficult position of reprimanding you. Is that what you want this to come to? Fight against your own mother?"

Urd was slightly taken aback, not only by how rational that reply was but also by the prospect of ending up in the same spot she was even as a goddess; getting punished by her own parent, although in this case that was going to be her mother, instead of her father. So far, her life as a demoness was almost carefree and the idea of going back at being the family's troublemaker was definitely not a pleasant one. "No, but… you must realize that there's something strange going on here! This area should be well within their sensors, so… what if it turns out that Gridr's helping them? In that case, she might warn them before her forces search that area!"

"Well, that is another subject altogether. We can certainly go directly to your mother and have her handle everything using her position as the Daimakaicho, but… that could lead to some unfortunate implications," said Surt with a groan, rubbing his temples to fight back the headache he knew was coming. "It would appear that she doesn't trust Gridr and not only she could gain an enemy, but the rest of Svartalfheim's denizens could end up mistrusting Hild because of it. Without any sort of proof that their regional commander is acting against the Daimakaicho's desires, throwing around unsupported accusations is a sign of a very bad ruler."

"Then… what can we do?" asked Urd in utter frustration. "You can't expect me to either gamble and try my chances with her or wait until the Intelligence Sector investigates Gridr. There has to be another way, so give me something that actually sounds like a solution!"

"If you need to bypass all that stuff, then… why are you asking me? Have you forgotten who your grandfather is? Ymir-sama has both the necessary means and connections to pull something like that behind everyone's backs."

Considering the pros and cons of that suggestion, Urd had to admit that he had a point, although she wasn't that familiar with her grandfather to simply go and ask him something like that. Still, desperate times called for desperate measures and this was as good as any other opportunity to ask for her grandfather's assistance. Besides, she had nothing to lose aside from wasting her time, but arguing like this was pretty much the same anyway. "Okay! I'll give it a try! If I don't make it back, don't forget to feed my pet hamster!"

"You don't have one…" muttered Surt, as he watched her drag Mara along to their next destination. Shaking his head, the dark haired demon turned to his second in command who raised an eyebrow at him.

"I suppose we'll have to go after them? If anything happens, Hild-sama is going to be absolutely furious, and I don't think I need to mention what the consequences will be."

"Yeah… we're going to end up being Hild's pet hamsters… for life." Bringing up the security feed from all across his realm, Surt waited to see Urd reach the Gate room before he picked his phone's mouthpiece and hit the quick dial button corresponding to Hild. "Let's hope that we won't come to regret this."

"Me too, sir. While it's a convenient excuse for us to go after our… wayward demoness, this plan can backfire pretty spectacularly. Especially if Hild-sama doesn't like the sound of that," said the half demon, mostly to voice his own thoughts about this commander's brilliant idea. "Although I must admit that your assumption that she'd be the first one to learn about the mortal's location was spot on, sir. Dare I ask what made you think that?"

"Elementary my dear sub-commander… I'm the one with both the resources and the guts to go against that group of misfits," said Surt with a grin, although… the dubious look he was getting from his subordinate made it clear that he hadn't bought that. "Okay! I came across an interesting thread in one of our target's chatrooms, and I realized that it was that between that robot and a councilor. Their nicknames were kind of obvious. I mean… who in their right mind uses something that can be read as naughty knight or… even their own freaking name? Then again Thrivaldi had always been a bit of an idiot, and it's no wonder that spam bot decided to stalk him and find out what he's up to."

"Uh… aren't those chatrooms private, though?" wondered Hrym, scratching his chin, while Surt found the relief on the opposite to be quite fascinating. "You've got an account there too? I'm Fallen_Angel, by the way, sir. What about you?"

"That's you?!" There was a long pause, before the dark haired demon found himself in the oh so embarrassing situation of coming face to face with someone he knew online. "I'm… N33tBunny…"

The shrill laughter made both demons nearly jump and turn at the terminal on Surt's desk, where Hild's image could be seen through his phone's video feed; barely able to control herself as she cackled maniacally. As a matter, the Daimakaicho had ended up on the floor as she had somehow managed to slide from her chair and yet… she didn't stop laughing. "You've got a social media account? Are you feeling alright?"

"I'll survive…" Surt could only blame himself for accidentally hitting the quick dial while he was talking with Hrym. 'And that only means that she must've… heard the whole thing… Why me?'

"Oh, I bet you will, Mr N33tBunny! Nice to meet you by the way, I'm 30yroHousewife!" managed Hild before she started laughing; again.

"You're not a thirty year old by a long shot! Besides, who cares about stupid social media when… um..." snapped Surt, only to stop as he realized that Hild was unlikely to take the news well.

"And… neither I'm a housewife, Mister Bunny, but if you want to talk about more serious topics, then how about the guy who let my daughter run out of his realm?" It was really scary how easily Hild's voice could shift from a highly amused tone to a much more serious and downright terrifying one, in the same sentence. And if that wasn't enough of clue as to annoyed she was, her glare left no room for doubt; the Daimakaicho was pissed, and someone was going to hear about it. "Now, I doubt that she spontaneously decided to drop by for a surprise visit, and even then she should know that I'm not in my mansion during work hours. So… care to offer an explanation and save me the trouble of going over there to find out by myself?"

'Oh boy… that's not gonna be fun alright…' Tugging at his uniform's collar, the nervous leader of Muspelheim knew that Hild was going to chew him for this, but given her rather unpredictable nature, it was anyone's guess what his punishment would be. Regardless, time was of the essence and the longer he stalled the more likely was for things to go horribly wrong, should Ymir decline to offer his assistance and Urd just head there with Mara as her only backup.

"Well… It… may involve the location of a certain mortal…"

XXX

On board NCV FB-117sj, Svartalfheim

"Look, I don't want to sound like an ungrateful brat, but, are you sure this is a great idea?"

"After giving me the joy of thinking that my bloodline ran strong, you've suddenly gone all celestial to me? All bark and no bite?" Giving his granddaughter's shouldered a smack with his wooden staff, just hard enough to get her attention but not to actually hurt, Ymir continued his impromptu lesson whether the half demoness wanted it or not. "Your mother's too soft to tan that lazy bottom of yours and that boy of hers is too scared to make you get all weepy. From now on, I'll shape you up into a proper demoness!"

"Sorry to interrupt you, but acting like an old martial arts sensei still doesn't change the fact that we're inside a dingy freight barge! And we're flying this piece of junk straight to a battleship eight times larger and armed to the teeth!" said Urd, forcing an overhanging bundle of wires out of her face. "Not to mention that it's not even voidworthy! There are holes throughout the hull the size of a grown hellhounds, for hell's sake!"

"Are you done?"

"No! More than 62% of the systems are dead, with the rest of them keen to join the others in the digital afterlife, and the best… no… the only navigation system available to me is a sextant! A freaking sextant!" shot Urd back at her grandfather, pointing in the only window that someone could still see through where Mara was stationed holding the aforementioned instrument.

"So? She's doing a great job as a navigator, if I have to say so myself! And you should be more supportive of your girlfriend."

"You're only saying this because you want me to marry her…" muttered Urd.

"Yes, and make me a couple of great-grandkids, but that's a totally different topic," said Ymir, clearing his throat. "Now, what are we here again?"

"To get Keiichi back, what else?"

"Exactly! So, stop complaining about every little detail and focus at your task at hand. Besides, don't tell me that you expected to just waltz into your mother's ship hangars and casually ask to take a warship for a test drive!" said Ymir, rapping his granddaughter's head with his cane.

"Cut it out! I really hate this old geezer routine! Find some other schtick, will you?" complained the fed up Norn of the past as she shielded her head from the obstinate demon who simply refused to stop teaching her how to do things the proper way.

"Kids these days…" grumbled Ymir, only to have the half demoness interrupt him.

"Oh, please!...Not the back in my days rant! What don't you take your own advice and focus on the task at hand?"

"Mm… you've got some nerve. Not bad… not bad at all, I'd say! Still, you need some level of control, as it's a bit unrefined at the moment." Ignoring Urd's angry protests, Ymir turned to Mara who was still making her calculations. "Any visual contact on the telescope?"

"No, nothing yet. Although… at this speed, by the time we'll be in optical range, it's going to be a pain to bring the ship to a halt. Not with most reverse thrusters already scuttled from this wreck!" said Mara, trying to get her point across and make him realize the danger they were all in. But... much to her horror, the ancient Daimakaicho merely smiled; and she didn't like that smile a bit.

"That, my dear isn't going too fast. It's what I'd call an ideal ramming speed!"

There was a long pause as the two demonesses soundlessly mouthed the last two words and stared at each other across the derelict ship's bridge. And that's then… all hell broke loose.

"RAMMING SPEED?!" shouted Urd, her voice throwing some of the loose debris away from her. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED, YOU DUMBASS?!"

"Aw… you sound just like your grandmother! She would've so proud of you if she was here," said Ymir, totally ignoring his granddaughter, before adding in a much lower tone. "Although, I still think it's better that we left her in the dark as we might have to deal with someone that looks exactly like Hild."

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"And I'm still ignoring you. Now get your hands off the emergency break dear," said Ymir giving her a tap with his cane as she was about to pull the lever, but this time the determined half demoness was the one to ignore him and she pulled with all her might. Which… ended up with her staring at the inner workings of her control panel.

"See? Told you."

"OH… SHI-"

XXX

On board Skidbladnir, Svartalfheim

The more they dug into the god's possessions, the more confused they became. A naughty magazine was far from unexpected and in all honesty, that was something even Keiichi used to possess, but… a replica of his Beemer's keys was a totally different matter.

"I swear they look the same." Holding both the original set of keys he retrieved from his pocket and the other set he just found in the drawer, Keiichi allowed his angel to take a closer look too. "What do you think?"

'Hm… that one has a few more scratches, but… other than that I'd say it should be able to turn your bike on without problems.' Diving back into the drawer, Terrestrial Spark was seeking for any clue as to why a renegade god might be interested to make a copy of his master's bike keys. 'You think they've just made a replica of everything you carried on your person?'

"That's possible, I guess. Maybe they wanted to see if I had anything interesting on me?" wondered Keiichi with a shrug, before his angel's startled cry. "Terrestrial Spark? Are you okay?"

'Master! Look at this!' Fluttering his wings as he pulled an old cellphone out of the drawer.

"Is that all? Man, I thought that this was something really big," said Keiichi with a disappointed sigh, but his angel persisted, bringing the phone nearly right against his face.

'Look closer! There's a sticker at the back!'

"Whoa! calm down a bit, will you? What's so special about?..." started Keiichi, only to come to come to an abrupt stop when he found out what the angel was screaming about. Attached to the back of the phone was one of those photo stickers that were so popular in Japan and even other parts of the world, but in this case, it that wasn't what caught their attention. It was the mere fact that it depicted none other than Belldandy along with a dark haired toddler whose markings were awfully familiar. "Uh… isn't that?..."

'That Odal guy!' sent the shocked angel over their link.

"There's got to be a mistake here!... She's that… Verthandi, she has to be," said Keiichi, even though he didn't quite sound as sure as she wanted. "I mean, she did meet him when he stole this battleship from Frigg and failed to recognize him! And Belldandy cannot lie!"

'I know, but… this isn't a demoness in the photo! Those are certainly her markings, and she's got blue eyes too,' said Terrestrial Spark, pointing at the tiny photo and despite the relatively low quality, those features were more than obvious enough.

Of course Keiichi was familiar with the possibility that this might've been a case of photo manipulation with Verthandi's features readjusted to fit those of his wife, but then again, he had no idea what they'd gain from it. Even if this was purposely planted here as bait by the demoness who advised him to search for clues in this particular room, Keiichi failed to see what they would gain by having Odal appear as a child. If jealousy was what they went after, then it would've made a lot more sense to use a normal photo of him, and even then they should've known that Keiichi wasn't one to jump to such conclusions without irrefutable evidence.

And even then, he really trusted Belldandy more than anyone else, so any attempt to make him doubt her was doomed to fail. Maybe it would've worked if this happened much earlier when she first arrived on Earth, but after all this time, it was far too little and far too late to make any difference to him.

"You know… the more we look through his things, the more questions I have. I wonder… Are they playing mind games with us?"

'Never mind that, master. What are we going to do with this photo? Take it with us or leave it here?' asked Terrestrial Spark, watching his host scratch his chin in wonder.

"That's a really good question. I kind of want to take this with us and show it to the others and see what they think, although… if this the real deal, then I'd rather not steal someone's childhood photo," said Keiichi with a sad frown.

'Master! This is possible hints of some crazy cuckoldry going on! Don't tell me that you're going to just ignore it! We must…"

"All I need is ask Belldandy if she met this god while he was a kid and perhaps she just forgot about him. If you recall, she had also forgotten that whole situation with Peorth and given how old celestials can be this might've taken place who knows how many eons ago," said Keiichi with a sigh, taking a seat on a nearby box. "Heck, I don't even remember what I ate for dinner a month ago, so give poor Bell a break."

'Well… that's a very solid argument, master. I'm really sorry, I guess I went a bit overboard with my silly accusations of…' Pausing in mid sentence, Terrestrial Spark gazed down at the cardboard box his master was sitting on and blinked hard. 'Uh…'

"Yes, what is it?" asked the curious mortal as he noticed the strange look he was getting from his angel.

'That box wasn't there a moment ago…'

"Huh?"

However, before he could even offer a reply let alone get up, the very box he was sitting on shifted and suddenly the mortal found himself flying backwards and on a hard collision with the floor.

"Oof!"

Tossing the box over his head as he got out of it, the silver haired god readjusted this visor over his right eye and grinned.

"It's showtime."

XXX

On board NMV Myrkr, Svartalfheim

"So… what do you think of my little toy?"

"We've been squabbling on who was going to get the new battleship and you built yourself a battle-carrier?" Try as he might, it was hard for Surt to hide his envy at the sight of Niflheim's new flagship. It was rare for the capital realm of demonkind to construct a ship totally on their own, but apparently Hild spared no expenses to replace her old flagship with an even bigger one.

From its twin bows to the stern, the massive 18 km long ship dwarfed its escorts and was a legitimate threat even on its own. Unlike the closest equivalent the mortals had, this was perfectly capable of getting up close and personal to its intended target while carrying a large array of weapons and an equally huge number of troops, acting as a mobile base for any kind of operation.

"As the new Daimakaicho I thought I needed a little something to celebrate my second term in the office and what's better than commissioning a new ship?" said Hild with a proud smirk as she looked around the spacious and surprisingly comfortable CIC; which could be said for the rest of the ship as well.

"Hold on a minute! There's absolutely no way you could've this constructed in such a short period of time! Don't tell me, that…"

"Yep! I've commissioned this a couple of years prior to Hagall-chan's little coup!" said Hild, before she tugged Surt's left arm, forcing him to lean closer to her. "You see… Bell-chan's contract wasn't as profitable as some wished to believe. We just had a major black hole in our budget, but you never heard that from me."

"I knew it… And I trust that's where all the surplus from Hagall's silly contracts went to, as well?" asked Surt with a low grumble.

"Once again I'm not going to admit anything, but… I cannot say you're wrong either. Oh, by the way… You sound so jealous!" laughed Hild, much to her subordinate's annoyance. Despite her attempts to lighten up the mood, the Daimakaicho was indeed worried about all the things that could go wrong in a situation like this. Worse, her mother who was quietly sitting nearby had such an annoyed expression on her face, that it was quite evident that Hild had to save her father from Njorun's wrath once she managed to get her hands on him.

While thinking for a way to resolve the impending family crisis, the sound of an incoming call caught Hild's attention and turning to the console next to her, she decided to see what this was from none other than the head of her Intelligence Sector and commanded of Jotunheim. "Ah… you called just in time, Skrymir. Any news of my wayward daughter?"

"We've detected a small freight barge entering the system and heading towards the target's location. I cannot approach too close and allow Skidbladnir's long range sensors to see through my ship's stealth field, but I believe that we can attack in any moment now."

"Negative. We're not going to launch a large scale offensive and risk damaging that stolen vessel. Last thing I need now is to deal with accusations of purposely damaging Skidbladnir and turn this simple matter to a huge drama."

"I understand. Either way, I was hoping that we wouldn't even have to come to that, as I've already had a plan to get the mortal out of there, but… things changed." The annoyance was clearly evident in the demon's voice as his well thought plan was thrown out of the window when Urd decided to get involved and even drag her grandfather into this whole mess.

"Hm… and that probably has to do with the disappearance of a certain someone?" Even without explicitly mentioning Odin's name, it was evident for both of them who she was referring to and the nod she received from the commander of the Jotnar confirmed her suspicions.

"Yes, he's already on board the vessel and I've received news that he's spotted the mortal."

"Excellent!" purred Hild, a wide grin forming on her face as she checked the tactical map of Svartalfheim system with the position of all ships marked on it, not unlike pieces on a chessboard. "Tell him that my daughter is on her way there."

"Yes, Hild-sama."

XXX

On board Skidbladnir, Svartalfheim

"Uh… who might you be?"

Gawking at the sight of silver haired god's camo fatigues, Keiichi wasn't sure whether this guy was actually dressed like an 80's action hero or… his own brain had had enough with the absurdity of this entire fiasco and began to hallucinate.

"That's not the important thing here. We need to get you out of here, so follow me and…" started Odin, lightly tapping his visor to check the ship's layout for the shortest route to a portal room, but then paused when he noticed that all of them were guarded by robots. "Great… we'll have to work our way out of here, by the looks of it."

"Hold on a second! I'm not following anyone until I'm sure that I won't end up in the middle of nowhere," said Keiichi, dusting himself as he got up from the floor. "And especially not with someone who doesn't even offer his name."

"Well, excuse me for trying to save your sorry behind, mister ungrateful! What were you expecting anyway? A Valkyrie in a chainmail bikini?" shot Odin back to Keiichi who blushed a bit at the mental image of one of the war goddesses in such an impractical, yet salacious attire.

"N-No! Just someone I might recognize?" replied the embarrassed mortal, cursing under his breath as he knew that this god must've noticed his more than obvious blush.

"So… in other words you want to see Lind in a chainmail bikini?" asked the grinning Odin, scratching his chin while his two ravens laughed at the stunned expression on Keiichi's face. "After all, she's the Valkyrie you'd definitely recognize. Although your wife too possesses a Valkyrie's license and she would definitely look great in such a bikini. Actually, that's not a bad idea for you lovebirds to try once you get back."

'Master!... This isn't the time to consider such dirty things! He's clearly trying to distract you and… Oh my goodness! Holy Bell in a bikini!' Fluttering his tiny wings so hard that he took off, Terrestrial Spark ended up being the one who further distracted Keiichi.

As the unsuspecting mortal caught his angel before he hit the ceiling, Odin decided to move in and use this chance to grab Keiichi by his waist and then throw him over a shoulder, not unlike a sack.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Saving your bacon! You can thank me later, kiddo!"

In an almost comical fashion, Odin simply ran for it, carrying a protesting Keiichi who wasn't sure if his rescuer's claims were true or… he just got kidnapped again. Deciding that he had enough for one already, Keiichi simply wanted to avoid another detour and bet his money on Odal, since this god didn't even bother to offer his name.

"Someone help me!"

"Stop shouting, you idiot! I am trying to help you!" snapped Odin back at his granddaughter's unruly husband.

"Fat chance! You're totally unreliable!"

"What? Can't you tell just by looking at me that I'm one of the good guys? Come on! You must've seen an action movie at some point in your life!"

"As if that's going to make me believe any-..."

The loud wail of the ship's alarms put an abrupt end to their argument, and for Odin it was more than obvious that he had seconds to reach an exit before they were trapped on this vessel for good.

"Proximity alert! All hands man your battlestations! I repeat, proximity alert…"

Yet as he was about to resume running, Odin found the type of the alarm to be rather strange and despite the current circumstances, he paused for a moment. Normally, it should've been an intruder alert, but for some reason, the ship's sensors identified an outside threat instead.

"Hold on… a proximity alert? What's going on out there?"

XXX

"Proximity alert! All hands man your battlestations! I repeat, proximity alert…"

Nearly jumping from the captain's chair, Odal knew that something was going to happen sooner or later. Verthandi's idea to bring Keiichi along was admittedly a pretty bad one, as it was bound to attract a lot of unwanted attention. Yet, as inevitable as it was, facing adversity with a sense of dignity and poise was something that his parents pointed out on multiple occasions. Taking a moment to sip from his cup of Darjeeling tea, the dark haired god then turned to his sentient weapon who was standing nearby in his humanoid form.

"Gram, what do we have here?"

"An old freight barge is speeding in our direction," said the synthetic, much to Odal's surprise.

"That's all there is to it? We can handle a barge without much of a…"

Holding his hand up, Gram seemed to concentrate for a moment, before he decided to report his new information. "Incoming encrypted message from Grid. Myrkr along a group of escort ships are heading in our way."

It took him some effort to stop his hand from shaking too much, but Odal managed to take a sip without spilling his tea. "Okay… Prepare to retreat to the mortal realm immediately. I'm not sticking around and become a target practice."

"What about the barge?"

"Just blow it to…" started Odal, only to pause as a terrible thought entered his mind. Given who might be on that barge, he decided that wasn't going to take any chances and end up being responsible at killing a relative. "You know what? Just get us out of here! Course to Sagittarius A-Star! Lock onto the S-2 star and put Skidbladnir in orbit around it!"

"Acknowledged! Space fold in T minus 30!"

XXX

On board NCV FB-117sj, Svartalfheim

"Skuld, I'll never make fun of you ever again!..."

Tossing the screwdriver she was holding inside the gutted remains of the ship's control console, the frustrated half demoness knew that this kind of damage was way beyond her ability to fix.

"In all honesty, I think you shouldn't make fun of your poor sibling, especially if you're not capable of fixing something that originally supposed to be assembled without an instruction manual. The connectors are even color coded and designed to plug in a certain way, so you can't get it wrong anyway."

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you give me a hand instead of standing there doing absolutely nothing?" barked Urd, turning to her grandfather who wasn't only hovering in mid air without a care in the world, but he even checked a TV magazine. "Besides… what do you need that for?"

"Hm?... Oh, this? I need to find a nice movie to watch with your grandma and who knows? Maybe she'll get in the mood to give Hild-chan a brother or sister. Ideally both, although any combination of sexes is fine by me," said Ymir with a smile, while managing to dodge the incoming screwdriver that smacked harmlessly against the wall beside him. "Now, now… that's bad behavior little one! Close your eyes, take a deep breath and focus. Then rinse and repeat until both your sides stopped bickering like an old couple. After all, I can imagine that your goddess half wants to follow my instructions, while your demonic part wants to murder my face… Am I right?"

"That's an understatement, to say the least," muttered Urd, narrowing her eyes at her smiling grandfather. "It's like having you and grandma bicker inside my head, although without much of your innuendo, old man."

"High praise, my darling granddaughter, but if you find this situation to so stressful that you can't even accomplish such simple tasks, then pray tell me what makes you think that you'll maintain your cool under fire? Please don't tell me you're assuming that we'll just walk into their ship and get the mortal back without them putting up a fight…"

For her part, Urd simply stared back at Ymir with a stunned expression, as the ancient demon gave her a curious look. "What? You mean… this is…"

"A crash course of teaching you how to keep your cool before you start acting like that in the middle of a war zone. Given that no one gave you any serious combat training, nor any crisis management lessons, it doesn't take a genius to realize that you're ill prepared for such a mission. So, you can either adjust and learn how to cope with the stress or… go back and leave that mortal on that ship." Just listening to his voice was far more intimidating than Hild whenever she really got serious. Then again, that's probably where she got that from, as well as what made Ymir into such a feared demon in the first place. Raw power was one thing, but to strike terror to the very souls of those around him without using any of that power, was what distinguished a mere bully from one worthy to lead other demons.

"I'm not leaving Keiichi behind!" As much as she was intimidated by that terrible gaze, Urd stood her ground and glared back at her grandfather. However, instead of any more witty remarks, the ancient Daimakaicho merely grinned at her.

"That's more like it, Urd! Now that you have the right attitude, let's focus on the next part." Pointing at Mara who was still standing in her station, Ymir waited for Urd to take a look at her girlfriend before he went on. "Despite the circumstances, she maintained her position and continues running those calculations. Which should've been utterly pointless without your control console, meaning that she entrusted you to fix this damage, instead of just throwing a temper tantrum. Contrary to what some people think, acting in a controlled and coordinated manner can yield much better results than relying on bravado alone. No matter how confident or strong you are, logic can always turn a hopeless situation around or at the very least make you realize when to call it quits."

"Everyone knows that! But… what about you? I mean, what we're doing right now is the exact opposite!" said Urd, pointing at their surroundings. "What's up with this setting? It's by far the worst idea I've ever heard of and that includes mine or Mara's too!"

"Hey, leave me alone!" shot the blonde demoness back at Urd, while Ymir chuckled at their antics.

"Yes, yes... I know! I must admit that my primary reasoning was to give you a chance to get used to the stress involved in such a mission before we boarded that ship, but… we're not really going to make it there with this ship," said Ymir with a wide grin. "Since there's no such thing as a perfect stealth field, this rusty bucket was only meant to act as bait, while my… ship was following us. That way, any anomaly could be masked by this hunk of junk."

"Now that's more of a sane plan!" said the excited Urd, feeling elated that her grandfather hasn't gone senile on them and in the process get them in a suicide mission. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's get on board that ship! I'm tired of this heap of junk!"

Looking over his shoulder as if there was someone behind him Ymir offered his shadow a grin, much to the two others' confusion. "Heard that, Brimir? Three infernals for transport."

"Yes, yes… now that you're finally done with the theatrics, can we get serious? That whole old sensei gag really started to get on my nerves…" came a disembodied voice that made the two demonesses shiver at its menacing tone. "And speaking of that… I swear... if you dare call me Scotty while transferring your lot, I'm spitting you out in the void."

"Must you always be this grumpy?" Letting out a sigh, while the two demoness shared a confused glance, Ymir resisted the urge to tease his alter ego; especially at a time like this.

"Only when you act like an idiot. Now, enough of this nonsense!"

A dark portal opened on the floor right between Ymir and the two demonesses, causing everyone to back off a bit, although unlike the former, the latter had no idea what was going to spring out of the portal. A pair of silvery tentacles emerged from the swirling darkness causing the duo to scream in both surprise and horror at the sight of those wiggly appendages.

"WE'RE NOT GOING IN THERE!"

Laughing at the sight of Urd cuddling Mara in fear as the tentacles got hold of their legs and then pulled them hard towards the center of the portal, Ymir followed along mere seconds after they disappeared leaving the old ship's bridge totally empty.

XXX

On board (?) Brimir, Svartalfheim

Hanging upside down from the ceiling, Urd and Mara seemed rather miffed by their panicked overreaction to something that ultimately proved to be totally harmless. Yet as they were carefully placed on the floor, the silvery white surface seemed unlike any kind of metal they had ever seen. As a matter of fact it had a leathery feel to it, not to mention that the walls seemed to flex and curve as if they were alive.

"Strange… What kind of ship is this?" wondered Urd aloud, giving her girlfriend a puzzled look.

"Is it even a ship?" countered Mara, looking around with a worried expression. "It reminds me that story with the wooden boy..."

"I'm not a whale, and don't you even dare start up a fire inside me..."

Trying to locate the source of the voice, it quickly became apparent to the half demoness that it reverberated through the walls themselves as they moved and wiggled around. "Oh… I don't think this is a ship at all."

"You know… Just for the record, I'd like to note that we're not tasty," said Mara looking at the ceiling that simply grumbled in response.

Or it was simply the fact that soon afterward, the portal opened again, sending Ymir on a crash course to the floor. A collision that was only avoided thanks to his quick reflexes, as the ancient Daimakaicho managed to come to a stop right above the floor's surface. "Nice try, but that work on me again!"

"At least you can't say that I didn't try. Now, can I finally nibble at that ship? I'm starting to get peckish by looking at its scrumptious armor."

"No! Not while we're on a rescue mission, and besides… you don't need food!" shot Ymir back to his alter ego. "And speaking of the mission, it's about time we go and get that mortal back!"

"Once we catch up, that is… They just ran for it, seconds ago."

"What?! Don't just wait like that! After them!"

"On it."

Raising a hand, Urd made an attempt to grab her grandfather's attention. "Uh… excuse me for asking this, but… Just what the Hell's going on here? What is this thing and more importantly… what do you mean they ran for it?"

Letting a sigh, Ymir had to admit that while convenient, getting his granddaughter on board Brimir may had been a big mistake as there was no easy way to explain anything related to this ship without getting into topics that were either lost knowledge or simply too sensitive. Yet in a way to make her fully accept her demonic legacy, knowing about the origins of her kind was absolutely essential; as it would allow her to see the great picture for the first time in her entire life.

"We're definitely going to catch up to them, so don't worry about Keiichi. Instead… while we walk towards the bridge, I need to tell you a few things."

---

AN: I would like to thank everyone that has offered their feedback and support both here and on the Goddess Relief site.

There are a few things that I'd like to note for this chapter.

Originally I wished to deal with Keiichi's situation in a single chapter, but eventually I decided to split that into two parts, with this one providing the setup and the next to actually deal with the whole rescue operation.

Also, it's already kind of obvious that a lot of those hints I've dropped about Odal weren't just random peculiarities, but there's indeed something going on with his past. More of that will be revealed relatively soon.

The recipe Belldandy is talking about is a Greek version of a watermelon pie originating from the island of Milos. There are other types of watermelon pies around the world of course, but that one can be a bit tricky, since it's very easy to mess it up and instead of pie you'll end up with something more similar to a rubber sole. In Urd's case… I suspect it won't take too much effort to do that.

Most of the information about cloning of immortal beings comes from the earlier days of the manga when Mara created a copy of Urd's body in order to separate her personalities. However, it was considered to be a physical shell and not a fully functional version of Urd, so my assumption is that only the physical manifestation of their ten dimensional bodies can be copied, leaving the most crucial elements out of the process.

Sagittarius A star is the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky way and the S2 star (source 2) is one of the stars that orbit that black hole. All that information is actual and not something I just came up with.