Fanfic / Scarred Survivors

Scarred Survivors is an ongoing Ah! My Goddess fanfiction written by IdiAmeanDada, Nena-Camadera, and HotelKatz. Imaginos1892 does proofreading and minor editing.

It is an AU and Dark take on the world of Ah! My Goddess, a world where Murphy's Law struck true, and everything that could go wrong, did indeed go wrong.

While the goddess Belldandy is waiting eagerly for a certain call, she is interrupted by another call and goes to grant a wish to a completely undeserving mortal. She fails to return, and instead files orders that no one attempt to contact her. Her sister, Urd, gets into trouble by continuing to try, and after ten years finally locates Belldandy. Prohibited from direct intervention, she contacts a mortal soldier who saved her life five years earlier, a US Navy SEAL named Keiichi Morisato.

Inspired by Belldandy's picture, advised by Urd and equipped by Skuld, he sets out to rescue her. None of them are prepared for what they find.

The fanfic deals in some very heavy topics that are very real to our own world as well, such as rape, child abuse, pedophilia, and PTSD. As a result, reader discretion is strongly advised.

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Scarred Survivors contains examples of:

• Action Girl: All of the goddesses are pretty much it...Maybe except for Peorth.
• Adaptational Badass: Every single main character in Ah! My Goddess got major upgrades in badass, up to and including:
  • Keiichi being a Navy SEAL who has fought his fair share of battles in hotspots like Afghanistan and Iraq, being very buff and respected by his team.
  • Belldandy absolutely destroys the demon who was responsible for her misery. Even after that, she is not afraid of making threats and taking up the fight when Keiichi is threatened.
  • Urd, having been around Team 12 for over 5 years, has learned quite a few tricks when it comes to fighting. Those very techniques help her eventually overpower Lind!
  • Skuld likewise, has learned how to fight from Urd, and she even manages to fight the two Valkyries chasing her and beat one of them.
• Adaptational Villainy: While always evil per se, the demons in this fanfic are WAY WAY worse than the ones depicted in the manga.
  • While in the manga, Hagall had fairly justified reasons for what she did and out of care for Hild, here she is not above allowing an insane, depraved mortal to rape and torture Belldandy for over 10 years, all for the sake of her vendetta against Belldandy's sister Urd.
  • Toshiyuki Aoshima is transformed from an arrogant, entitled prick to a depraved, sadistic psychopath.
• Alien Catnip:
  • Belldandy gets drunk on root beer, cola and possibly other soft drinks.
  • Urd can replenish her magical powers with alcohol.
  • Skuld replenishes her magic powers with ice cream.
• Alternate Universe: The authors are retelling the story of Ah! My Goddess in a darker and more realistic setting. Most of the universe changes can be traced back to when the Morisato family immigrated to the United States. Other changes not related to this are:
  • Angels are much more private for deities. Seeing one is akin to seeing said deity naked.
  • Lind's angel Spear Mint originally had 2 wings. Lind never trained excessively in an attempt to call her second angel.
  • Peorth and Belldandy never had a rivalry. Instead they are good friends, albeit the relationship was a little one sided.
  • The goddess' bodies are not merely shells, but true flesh and blood bodies that are condensed down into something capable of housing their tenth dimensional abilities.
• Apologizes A Lot: Belldandy, after being rescued. It is very understandable.
• April Fools' Day: Chapter 33
• Back from the Dead: Belldandy literally kills Keiichi during a flashback. Urd uses her magic to not only repair the damage done to him, but to prevent his soul from escaping.
• Batman Gambit: Tyr sent Peorth with a mission to make Keiichi disclose his heart’s desire, intending to push Belldandy closer to Keiichi. It worked, but not in any way he anticipated. Tyr employed multiple levels of deception: Peorth told everyone she was there to grant Keiichi a wish, her orders were to discover his heart's desire, but neither of those was his true intent, and the final result was something else again.
• Berserk Button: Several characters have very prominent ones that really should be avoided.
  • Keiichi can handle pretty much any shit thrown at him, but he will explode at anyone messing with his team as Peorth personally realized. Also, child abuse will immediately set him off.
  • DON'T mess with Skuld's family and DON'T insult any one of them. Especially Urd.
  • Angels do NOT like having feathers pulled out of their wings — it's like pulling out a fingernail. They get…irate.
  • Don't threaten Belldandy, Keiichi, Urd or Skuld when any of the others are around. Skuld might not kill you for threatening Keiichi. Belldandy probably would.
  • Did we mention what Belldandy might do to you if you try to seduce Keiichi or threaten him in any way?
• Beware the Nice Ones: Despite having lost a vast majority of the nice after 10 years of abuse, Belldandy still remains a fairly benevolent goddess who you REALLY should not mess with.
• Birds of a Feather: Interestingly, Keiichi and Belldandy being so similar both helps and hurts their relationship.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens several times during Chapter 33, an April Fool's Day chapter.
• Broken Ace: Keiichi. Being in a military unit like the Navy Seals can really break a man in more ways than one.
• Broken Bird: Poor, poor Belldandy. Having once been the kind, loving goddess she was known for in canon, 10 years of hell left her as an insecure, traumatized and rarely smiling goddess who experiences constant nightmares and panic attacks. That very situation is later more literally displayed by Holy Bell, who was left looking like an anorexia patient and having no feathers due to 10 years of neglect, Belldandy having been forced to hide her as deep as possible in her soul so Aoshima cannot get to her.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Urd just can't tell Keiichi that she loves him, especially after Belldandy joins the group. In a less romantic aspect, Keiichi cannot bring himself to talk to Urd about the videos they saw in Aoshima's mansion.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: subverted by Belldandy who can pretty much drink as much alcohol as she wants with no ill effect. Just don't give her a Root Beer.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Urd and Skuld are literally prevented by Heaven from contacting Belldandy before the story begins. Lind is tasked to enforce this.
• Chekhov's Gun: According to the Authors, almost everything has a purpose in the story unless otherwise specified.
• Child of Two Worlds: Urd - half Goddess, half demon; born in Niflheim, moved to Asgard in her youth.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: If in the manga Belldandy's jealousy was fairly harmless, here she is not above and beyond chasing around people with knives if they so much as look at Keiichi funny, as Peorth personally experienced. Anyone kissing him will unleash a jealousy storm that is more like an active tornado than anything else.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Belldandy, oh so so much. She is incredibly Literal-Minded and has a very hard time understanding Earthly customs and phrases. She is also hilariously taken with Monty Python, videogames, and especially Old Spice commercials.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: As mentioned above, Belldandy wrecks Hagall's shit during their fight. And she was completely naked during it too.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Belldandy - trapped by a mortal psychopath, raped and tortured for ten years while her sister Urd searches for her.
  • Lind - captured by demons, tortured and experimented on for over a year. Partially subverted when she finds a way to summon help.
  • Sanngrior, Rota, Gunnr, Mist - Lind's Flight, captured with her and treated pretty much the same.
  • At least two other Valkyrie Flights, captured before Lind's.
  • Aiko - kidnapped from the hotel bathroom.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Multiple examples.
  • Keiichi feels responsible for the death of a boy named Fida while deployed to Afghanistan. That and other events led to him experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which led to the breakup of his marriage.
  • Aiko was raped at the age of 9 by a family 'friend'.
  • Belldandy experienced 10 years of hell at the hands of a depraved mortal, who continually raped, tortured, and forced her to 'star' in pornographic videos with the goddess taking on the aspects of various little girls, 9 years old and possibly younger.
  • Lind was held and tortured by demons for over a year. Her angel, Spear Mint, was gravely wounded in the process, leaving her without the ability to experience many emotions.
• Deconstructed Trope: While the story in general is more on the realistic side on what happens when mortals intermingle with gods, chapter 34 brings to a head very important points that are left unspoken in the manga: Keiichi is the lone mortal in the house, hosting several deities at any given time, and has an extremely hard time trying to enforce his authority on any of them. All of the deities living in his house are broken and scarred in one way or another, and he is just too delicate to truly be able to help any of them. After being killed by Belldandy, resurrected by Urd, and getting walked over in his own house, it goes to show that sometimes just feelings and good hearts don't resolve a problem. It is one factor that challenges Keiichi and Belldandy's legendary closeness.
• Double Knock Out: Belldandy and Urd when they play Video games, especially fighting games. Skuld accurately predicts that the video game console they are playing will crash before a winner is declared.
  Skuld: "Belldandy and Urd are playing video games together, and I think there's a universal rule somewhere that states 'Urd will not lose in video games' next to 'Belldandy shall always win a game.'"
• Downer Ending: was avoided as a result of Tyr’s intervention. Holy Bell manifested when Belldandy killed Keiichi during a flashback and revealed that she was wasting away. Had that not happened, Holy Bell would have died leaving Belldandy forever broken, unable to love Keiichi or anyone else. Keiichi and Urd would be left to seek a painful solace with each other.
• Drowning Her Sorrows: Belldandy has started drinking root beer at midnight.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • The Angel Eater. While in canon it was a fairly threatening enemy that appeared for only one arc, here it is a vile monster that even the most seasoned of Valkyries fear to even approach.
  • The True Self of goddesses and demons when they are released on Earth. Urd personally allows Aoshima to see hers, leaving him a babbling insane mess, and Keiichi accidentally sees too much when Belldandy nearly releases hers during one of her more horrific nightmares.
  • Nebo's Ssaratu Luna Spirit is the final angel prototype, terrifying to mortals, Goddesses and even Nebo.
• Erotic Dream: Both Urd and Belldandy have one of these. Both about Keiichi.
• Fanservice: There are a number of incidents, especially when Peorth comes to visit.
  Keiichi: I'm trapped in a porno.
• Genki Girl: Aiko Morisato. When she finally does learn the truth about the goddesses, instead of being shocked/awed/scared, she becomes over excited and begins asking all sorts of off the wall questions.
  Aiko: "Holy shit. Wait. Do gods poop? If they do is it considered a holy shit? Or is that only when the Pope worships the great porcelain god?"
• Giver of Lame Names: Urd names the hideous pink couch Belldandy picked out "The Ugly Beast". Later, when they purchase a matching recliner, it is named "Son of the Ugly Beast". The furniture does not seem to mind.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Urd and Skuld, literal Goddesses, are not allowed to interfere in the wish/contract that Belldandy has with Aoshima, so they recruit Navy SEAL Keiichi Morisato to do it.
• Heroic BSoD: Every single person who laid eyes on the videos shut down for a brief while as they attempted to understand the absolute depravity they were seeing.
• Heroic Second Wind: After getting completely wrecked by Thrymr, Belldandy shows no ill effects after removing her limiters and releasing her First Class Goddess power.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Skuld, during her fight with Kara and Chrono, really manages to surprise them with some very solid equipment and fighting techniques.
• Insecure Love Interest: Belldandy. Ten years of rape and torture have left her with trust issues, mostly with herself. These fears were justified later when she killed Keiichi during a flashback.
• Interspecies Romance: Keiichi, a human, and Belldandy, a goddess.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Keiichi is this for Belldandy. Being the person she has been waiting for for over 10 years and the one who rescued her, she is very attached to him and is one of the few people who can calm her down during her panic attacks. Skuld even says that when he is not home, the panic attacks get way worse.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Hagall subjects Keiichi to particularly nasty ones during his attempt to rescue Belldandy.
• Love at First Sight:
  • Jackson almost immediately falls in love with Lind when he sees her for the first time. He begs Urd to hook him up.
  • Skuld is attracted to McGuinness for his maturity and quiet confidence. McGuinness thinks he's too old for her. But wait — Belldandy became little girls, that means Skuld could appear as a woman in her 30s…
• Love Before First Sight:
  • Keiichi falls for Belldandy upon seeing her picture on Urd's phone.
  • Just like in the manga, it is revealed Belldandy has been in love with Keiichi even before she was supposed to go grant his wish. This love is the main thing keeping her sane during her 10 year period with Aoshima.
• Master of Illusion: Hagall
• Mind Screw: In-universe, Keiichi's aptly named "The Big Book of Weird Norn Shit" is pretty much a checklist of really strange events he witnesses the three sisters do. The most egregious one is when they connect to Yggdrasil, and he himself participates in it. He really cannot begin to explain what the hell happened there.
• Mission from God: Tyr ordered Peorth to determine Keiichi's heart's desire, although that was not his purpose in sending her.
• The Missus and the Ex: When Keiichi travels to San Francisco with Belldandy and Urd, they find his ex-wife Debra waiting at the airport to meet him. Awkward...
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Urd feels regret and guilt for not helping Belldandy before she went through ten years of torment.
  • Keiichi cannot forgive himself for not being there for Aiko when she was raped as a child and shooting Fida when he was rigged with explosives against his will.
• Naked Apron: Peorth while trying to seduce Keiichi. She uses food as 'props'.
• Nose Bleed: Belldandy gets one when she watches Keiichi when he competes with Jackson's impersonation of Terry Crews. Played straight when Belldandy broke Aiko's nose during one of her flashbacks.
• Odd Friendship: Strangely enough, Aiko and Holy Bell bond over origami.
• One of the Boys: Urd with Team 12.
• Parody Commercial: Chapter 33, an April Fool's Day chapter, includes a "Real Men of Genius" spoof commercial making fun of Fan Fiction writers, which is ironic considering what the authors are writing.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Belldandy. After releasing her First Class Goddess power, her hair turns from an almond blondish color to silvery platinum.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Belldandy to Hagall.
  Belldandy: I've ten years of pent up aggression I've not been able to release, demon. I'll purify myself of those feelings upon your body.
• Precision F-Strike: While everyone in the story swears and curses pretty regularly, it is very surprising to see even Belldandy does it. And she doesn't even like swearing.
  • When Belldandy gets extremely emotional, she can devolve into dropping multiple "Cluster F-Bomb" runs.
• Psychic Static: Keiichi uses images from Monty Python to confuse Hagall and lessen the effects of the glamor she has him under.
• Rape as Drama: Probably the biggest source of it too. The aftermath of what Belldandy went through is a major source of one.
• Rape as Backstory: Aiko, at the hands of a family friend at the age of nine.
• Red String of Fate: The Ultimate Force is almost a literal representation of one. It is what causes Urd to meet Keiichi in the first place, all for the sake of having his wish granted by Belldandy.
• Revenge by Proxy: Thrymr wants to murder Belldandy because she is the daughter of Ansuz, the 'Whispering Death' who destroyed many demons during the last Asgard-Niflheim war.
• Running Gag: There are a number of references to Melons throughout the fic, particularly in early chapters.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The demon that Urd sealed in Keiichi's watch. He screams sometimes when the watch alarm goes off — screaming every time would be predictable and not nearly as disturbing.
• She Is All Grown Up: Skuld. Belldandy is surprised by the fact that Skuld is now an adult. Later Skuld seems to exhibit symptoms of Growing Up Sucks.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Keiichi. His PTSD ruined his marriage.
• Shout-Out: Multiple examples, to include:
  • Keiichi using Monty Python as Psychic Static.
  • Belldandy's facination with Old Spice commercials.
  • Many references to the Alien franchise.
  • Belldandy quotes Kirk from Star Trek 3 as she finishes off Thrymr.
• Smooch of Victory: Belldandy gives Keiichi a big one. Urd has to interrupt before her wish-grant kills him.
• Super Mode: After removing her power limiters, Belldandy releases her full First Class Goddess power. This power increase allowed her to:
  • Dominate a demon who had pretty much wrecked her beforehand.
  • Completely heal Keiichi, who was impaled through the chest by rebar and had lost a significant amount of blood.
  • Remove a Goddess and Puma Spirit that had possessed Aiko by punching them in the chest.
• Super-Strength: All of the gods/goddesses. They have to consciously pull their punches so as to not One-Hit Kill the mortals.
• Tap on the Head: After issuing a challenge, Belldandy surprises Peorth by not accepting the challenge, instead stepping up and punching Peorth in the face so hard it knocks her out. Urd later comments about how vicious Belldandy's left hook can be.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Keiichi psychs himself into a cold, cold rage when confronting Aoshima and the 'video producer'.
  • Skuld almost sounds...helpful, after Kara insults Urd.
  • Belldandy goes into one while fighting Hagall, the demon responsible for her misery.
• Transformation Trinket: Belldandy’s earrings are not just to make her look pretty. They hold back her real power.
• Undying Loyalty: Subverted slightly as Belldandy actually kills Keiichi. After Urd brings him back to life he still doesn't leave her.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Urd and Keiichi, though it's unclear how much he returns her feelings.
• Unstoppable Rage: Every single person who saw the videos goes into one. Even Lind is not exempt.
• Will They or Won't They?: Belldandy and Keiichi, like in canon, take a while before their relationship advances, for very understandable reasons. Peorth trying to forcefully to move them along turns out to be a very, VERY bad mistake.
• Yandere: Belldandy can skirt the edge of this at times. While she generally controlled herself during many of Peorth's flirtations with Keiichi, on one occasion she chased the other goddess around the house with a knife when she caught her trying to seduce Keiichi with food while wearing an apron. A short apron. And nothing else.
  Belldandy: “I'm going to shove my fist up your ass to the elbow, and then I'm going to abort your intestines!”
• You Cannot Graspthe True Form: Being tenth dimensional creatures, the goddesses are not allowed to unleash their 'true form' on the third dimensional plane (Midgard). To do so could destroy our entire three-dimensional universe. Mortals who lay eyes on a goddess's true form will be literally driven mad.

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