The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok

FanFiction (which means that I don't own this)

*My little sister doesn't like calling Hel by her real name so in this fanfiction, she is referred to as Christine (laugh if you get the irony ;-)*

The doorbell rang, interrupting their cheerful banter. Everyone seemed to be experiencing a heightened sense of wanting to solve mysteries, probably due to the close call of Loki almost leaving the detective agency.

Loki turned with a sideways glance to his middle son. "That's probably your order of mushrooms," he said, knowing of his son's love for mail-order catalogs.

Yamino shook his head. "No, those aren't due to come until tomorrow!"

"Does that mean it's a client?" Mayura asked eagerly, squeezing Fenrir in her excitement.

"Daddy?" Fenrir squeaked.

"I'll go get it!" Yamino called as he dashed from the room with Eechan clinging to his head.

As Yamino left the room, Mayura turned to Loki with the gleam of new excitement in her eyes. "Hey, Loki, I bet this is a strange mystery!"

She didn't know how right she was.

Yamino danced down the steps and paused only for a moment before opening the door. The afternoon sunlight was warm and sweet like harmony as he pulled the door open to reveal a teenaged girl in a maid's uniform looking down at the doormat.

"Hello and welcome to the Enjaku—." The young woman looked up and met Yamino's eyes with a melancholy smile.

"Mother?"

The call was heard from Loki's study. Mayura's excitement dimmed, but her smile brightened. "It's not a mystery, then!" She said, but still heading for the door, "but I guess we should go meet—."

"Wait, Mayura!" Loki yelped before she could leave the room. She turned around and Loki snapped his fingers, flicking her into unconsciousness. He caught her before she hit the ground, transforming quickly into his adult form to carry her to the couch.

"Watch her, please, Fenrir," Loki said to the little black dog.

"Okay, Daddy," Fenrir said. "You can leave it to me."

Loki, with the use of his newly elongated legs, strode from the room and down the stairs where a young woman with shinning blue hair and glowing red eyes stood staring mutely at Yamino. Even in a human form, Loki recognized her aura, her very being. After all, what kind of man would he be if he couldn't even recognize his own wife?

"Spica," Loki said from the bottom stair.

She turned her head and her eyes met Loki's with a genuine smile. Of course, Loki was no fool and did not approach her any more than he already had. Why would Spica come now? Was this Odin's newest plan? To send Spica to kill him?

"Master Loki," Yamino stuttered, "is this really…?"

"It is your mother," Loki said evenly, tilting his head to the side as he regarded Spica. "Why are you here, Spica?" he asked bluntly.

Spica opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She grabbed at her throat and sighed, he mouth turning down into a frown.

"It appears she cannot speak," Loki said, both to himself and his son. "Yamino, would you please put some tea on and bring it to us in my study?"

"The s-study?" Yamino stuttered, "but what about Miss M—?"

"Already remedied," Loki said, smiling at his son. Yamino nodded and left for the kitchen.

Spica and Loki were left alone. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Loki offered his arm, "If you'll allow, Spica," he said with a polite smile.

Spica nodded mutely and took his arm, allowing him to lead her up the stairs and into the study. With every step, Loki tensed. Would Spica really kill him? Had Odin really gone as far as to solicit help from her? Could she really kill him? They hadn't been very close for the years leading up to Loki's banishment; it could be possible that she harbored feelings of resentment. But this was Spica. She couldn't hurt a fly, or so the humans said. There aren't any flies to be hurt in Asgard.

Inside the study, Loki motioned to Spica to make herself comfortable on the couch that wasn't currently occupied by the sleeping form of Mayura. Fenrir watched uneasily from his perch on Mayura's slowly rising and falling stomach as Spica sat down and looked at the folded hands in her lap.

"Daddy?" Fenrir said slowly. "Is that really—?"

Loki smiled over knit fingers, "You haven't seen your mother in a long time, have you Fenrir?"

At this, Spica smiled at the little black dog. Fenrir seemed frozen for a second, but then he jumped off of Mayura and into Spica's lap. "Mommy!"

Spica smiled and gave the little dog a tight hug. She patted his head warmly, ruffling his fur. Fenrir licked his mother's face, wagging his tail happily.

"Spica," Loki said.

Spica put down her eldest son and let him curl up in her lap, but continued to stroke his back. She looked up at Loki at tilted her head, clearly asking, "What?"

"Why are you here?" Loki asked again.

Spica seemed to blush a little, but pointed a finger at Loki, indicating that the reason she was there was because of him. That narrows it down, Loki thought sarcastically.

"Me?" Loki clarified. Spica nodded. "Was it under Odin's orders?"

Spica seemed surprised. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. She again pointed at Loki. Loki smiled, understanding. He was glad that Odin hadn't got to her. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to kill Spica, even if she was trying to kill him.

"Just me?" he smiled. Spica smiled back and nodded.

Yamino came in then with a tea tray loaded with cookies from the kitchen and a warm pot of tea. Yamino only spared a small, knowing smile for Mayura's sleeping form before placing the tray before Spica on the low table with a wide smile. "Please help yourself, mother," he offered.

Spica smiled widely and immediately began to shove cookies in her mouth in a very undignified manner, oddly reminiscent of a certain thunder god. Loki, Fenrir, and Yamino sweat-dropped as they watched.

"You may wish to pace yourself, Spica," Loki said quietly with a strained smile.

"Mother?" Yamino said.

Spica just smiled and managed to indicate that the cookies were delicious with a thumbs-up at Yamino.

After she had eaten her fill (a very strained five minutes), she became serious again. She glanced at Loki and motioned to Mayura with a questioning look.

"Mayura?" Loki said, the color rising in his face. He hid his mouth behind his hands, wondering how best to explain the pink-haired teenager. "She's a—Well, she's…"

But Spica was shaking her head. She pointed at Fenrir, Yamino, and then pointed to a lock of Mayura's hair that was falling onto the floor.

The color drained from Loki's face as he understood what his wife said. "Christine?" Loki asked. Spice nodded enthusiastically.

Loki didn't know what to say. How could he explain that Christine was… that their daughter was gone? Spica clearly hadn't been in contact with Christine, just as Loki hadn't. It made it hurt all over again to realize how alone Christine had been.

"She's… gone. She's gone, Spica. I'm sorry," Loki said to his desk. He looked up at Spica to gauge her reaction.

She looked sad and a little shocked, but not overly emotional. She tilted her head, waiting for more.

"Christine…" Loki didn't really know what happened himself. "Odin poisoned her mind," Loki said. He stood up and looked out the window, letting the whole scene play before his eyes. "He told her lies; that I didn't care for her, that the rest of her family was here and enjoying ourselves without her. She let the hatred take her. She came after me for my life. She wanted me dead so I could stay with her forever." Again, Loki felt those tears sting his eyes. He stared blankly at the front lawn. "She came for me one day. I went with her. I… I told her the truth. I elected to stay there with her. I would have stayed there forever with her if that would have made her happy. Then she… she…"

Spica silently rose and came to stand beside Loki. She took his hand and squeezed it comfortingly. He looked down at her, a few remnant tears still lingered on his face. She smiled sadly, but nodded.

Loki had forgotten how much he Spica meant to him. She had a way of knowing exactly how he was feeling, even if he wouldn't admit it to himself. Times like this, he remembered how good it was to have someone understand him.

"She died happy, Spica. That's all I can say."

Spica nodded and returned to her seat. For a moment there was silence as Loki tried to gain control of himself and as Spica let the news of her daughter's death sink in. Mayura stirred on the couch, but didn't awaken. Fenrir had returned to his original spot on her stomach, and now looked nervously between Loki and Spica.

Finally Loki sat down behind his desk and took a sip of tea. He looked up at Spica, who caught his eye. With her hands and a somewhat awkward expression, she managed to communicate her wish to remain at the Enjaku Detective Agency.

Loki pulled a weak smile. "Of course you may stay here, Spica. We would hardly throw you out."

Spica smiled broadly. Then she glanced over at Mayura with a look of questioning.

Loki's depression lifted a little in the face of trying to explain Mayura. "Her name is Mayura Didouji. She's…"

"Crazy?" Fenrir supplied.

Loki laughed. "Yes, she's that," he allowed. "She's a self-proclaimed part of the Detective Agency I run here." Loki explained. He thought back to when Mayura first started joining on the mysteries. The poor girl had no idea how many times she had come so close to a premature death because of her obsession with mysteries.

Spica looked between Mayura's sleeping form and Loki's grinning face with a questioning look that Loki didn't catch. But Spica smiled anyway. She was glad to see Loki smile after having seen him so upset only a moment ago.

"Unh…" Mayura groaned. She started to wake up. Yamino and Loki shared a startled look before Loki quickly transformed back to a child. Just in time, as well. Just as the last sparks of Loki's magic fizzled out, Mayura sat up, displacing Fenrir.

"What happened?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. "Did I pass out again?!"

She finally laid eyes on the smiling blue-haired girl. "Oh, hello! Are you a new client?" She turned on Loki. "Loki! How could you let me sleep when there's a mystery to be solved?"

Loki grinned. "It's not a mystery, Mayura. I'd like you to meet Spica, the newest member of our family."

Mayura's crimson eyes widened as she looked again at Spica. "Oh! It's nice to meet you, Spica!" Mayura said brightly. Spica stood and bowed respectfully. Mayura looked between Spica and Loki. Loki was smiling at Spica and Spica was smiling at Mayura, but something felt strange. It seemed like a mystery was afoot.

Why, all of a sudden, was Loki adopting this teenage girl into his household? Was she a fugitive of some kind? Was Loki protecting her from the aliens? Something, as Mayura looked into Spica's red eyes, tickled at the back of Mayura's brain. Something strange was going on, and it was up to Enjaku's finest to discover what it was!

Over the next few days as Mayura came and left Loki's house, she watched Spica. Spica mostly helped Yamino out around the house, doing chores and the like, but Mayura noticed two strange things. First, Spica never spoke. Mayura's theory was that the aliens had stolen her voice when they abducted her as a child. Second, was that Spica ate a lot. It was like watching Narugami eat after he'd been fired from his job. Mayura's theory was that the aliens had replaced Spica's stomach with a small black hole that could never be filled.

Then one day, Mayura listened at Loki's door as he spoke with Spica. Mayura had to admit, it was probably the strangest conversation ever, since Spica couldn't speak.

"Hmm? What is it, Spica?" Loki asked.

"You want to know why I stay in this form? I know it seems rather odd…"

"Yes, it is because of Mayura." Mayura had never heard Loki use such a… kind tone before. He sounded a lot older than he actually was. "She doesn't know about any of it."

"I don't know if I will be able to tell her, but I probably will someday."

There was a long pause. "Yes. That was because of her too. I had planned… Originally, I was going to erase her memories before we left. Erase her memories of all of us…"

"Miss Mayura?"

Mayura jumped. She turned to see Yamino with a tea tray walking up the hallway with Fenrir at his heels. What she had heard sunk in as the door to Loki's study opened with a bang to reveal Loki and Spica standing within, shock written across their faces.

"…Why I stay in this form?..."

"She doesn't know about any of it."

"…Erase her memories…"

LOKI WAS AN ALIEN!

Mayura had to shake her head. That was ridiculous! Of course aliens existed, and Mayura accepted that Loki was no ordinary kid, but Loki couldn't be an alien. That would be like saying that Fenrir could talk!

Ideas ran rapidly around Mayura's head. She became dizzy and sunk to her knees.

"Miss Mayura!"

"Mayura!"

The tea tray clattered to the floor and Yamino helped Loki to lift Mayura to the couch in Loki's study. Spica ran down the stairs to get some tea or water or something that might help. Fenrir scrambled around the hallway with the teapot stuck to his head, barking madly. Eechan, invisible to Mayura, sat atop Yamino's head, looking concernedly at the pink-haired teen.

"What happened, Yamino?" Loki demanded as Mayura collapsed into unconsciousness (this time of her own violation).

"I-I don't know, Master Loki!" Yamino exclaimed, pulling the teapot off of his brother's head. "I saw her listening at your study door, and then all of a sudden—!"

"Oh…" Loki cut across, looking down at Mayura's face. "She heard…"

"She heard what, Master Loki?" Yamino asked.

Loki's face looked horrified. What had he done? Mayura would never leave them alone now! It was terrible, Loki's worst nightmare! Worse yet, Mayura would know that Loki had lied to her. He had been lying to her ever since they met, and now she knew.

She knew.

She knew.

"What do I do, Yamino?" Loki asked, for once completely lost for words.

"I don't know, father!"

Of course, as fate would have it (Loki knew three goddesses that he would be having a very long chat with later), Mayura woke up just in time to hear that last sentence.

Her eyes grew wide with surprise and shock. "F-Father?" she repeated.

Loki, fearing that Mayura might faint again, sat down beside her. "Shh… Mayura, calm down." He warned.

Mayura looked over at him like he was some kind of monster. Loki, oddly, felt a pang go through his heart. What else could she expect? He had just said that he wasn't in his true form, what would Mayura's mystery-obsessed mind jump too? Aliens, probably, but it could be the chupacabra monster.

"Wh-What are you?" Mayura asked, scrambling as far away from Loki as the couch would allow.

Loki sat quietly until Mayura's hyperventilating subsided. Then he just looked at her. To Mayura, his eyes were filled with such an unfathomable expression that Mayura realized yet again that Loki was no ordinary kid. The thing that had been tickling at the back of her mind flashed forward. One night—at the lake… Loki's eyes flashed red.

"I'm sorry, Mayura," Loki said. A small smile tilted his mouth. "But will you listen to the whole story?"

Mayura was so frozen in shock, it didn't seem like she had much of a choice.

Loki took a deep breath and stood up.

"Master Loki?"

"Master Woki?"

"Daddy?"

Loki looked over at his sons and Eechan. He winked and suddenly, his body began to glow and transform. Mayura could only look in horror as the little kid-Loki she had known for the past months changed into the young man who had granted her wish.

As the last spark fizzled into non-existence, Loki opened his eyes and looked down to gauge Mayura's reaction. Mayura's face—actually, all of her muscles—seemed to be frozen. Nothing responded and nothing moved. She could only look up, transfixed at the strange mystery before her.

"I am Loki, one of the gods from Norse mythology," Loki explained calmly. Mayura was startled by how deep and, well, masculine Loki's voice sounded. Yet, it still had all the same inflections, the same… oh, there wasn't a good word for it… but it was still Loki.

"About a year before we met, Mayura," Loki continued, "I was banished here, to Midgard, by Odin, the king of the gods. I was banished in the form of a child, as you have always known me."

Spica slipped in then, placing a warm cup of tea in front of Mayura and coming to stand beside her sons. If she wasn't used to Loki flirting with other women by now, this might have been awkward. But she knew her husband well.

"But I swore to Odin that I would find a way back," Loki suddenly began to pace, unable to meet Mayura's eye. "I decided to collect evil energy. I put up this façade, this detective agency, so I could find those plagued by evil and harness that power to help me find a way back. Until fairly recently, I had quite a collection going."

He glanced out the window, per his habit, but found he still couldn't stand still. "Then you came along. I couldn't very easily get rid of you, short of probably killing you," Loki said honestly, with only half a smile. "It was around then that things became… complicated."

"Odin realized what I was doing. He sent assassin after assassin after me." Loki couldn't resist adding, "You have no idea, Mayura, how many times you almost died and how many times I almost died because of you."

Different things began to flash through Mayura's mind. When Narugami had first transferred into her class—the suit of armor… That purple-haired kid with the gloves who was a friend, yet not a friend of Loki's… that time at Koutarou's gaming arcade… among others…

"But then something happened," Loki said, finally coming to stand with his back to the room as he stared out the window. "A… a person very close to me helped me kind the way I could go back. I had the chance I had been waiting for, what I had been trying to do for as long as I had been banished. I could return to my home." He smiled slightly and looked down at the ground. "But there was one problem, unfortunately."

He looked up and his emerald eyes met hers. "You, Mayura. What was I to do about you?" He sat down at the chair behind his desk. Mayura stared at him, uncomprehendingly.

"I asked Ver—another friend of mine to help me. I wanted to erase all of the memories you had of me, of Yamino, of Fenrir, Naru—and everyone else, I mean." Just because he was telling the truth now that didn't mean that he was going to tell all of the truth.

He knit his fingers together. "And I was going to do it," he said. "Do you remember that day, in the park?" he asked.

Mayura, somehow having gained control of her body nodded stiffly. What other day in the park could he be talking about?

"I was going to do it then," Loki smiled. "But even when I finally told you the truth. Even when I said, flat-out, that I was a god, you only laughed." He smiled over his fingertips, meeting Mayura's glance.

"Do you remember that, Mayura? You laughed. You said that you didn't believe in gods. I… didn't know what to do then. As you left, you told me your wish, even though you didn't believe me. All you wanted was to see me again, the me you knew."

Mayura could recall with perfect clarity the instance to which he was referring. Now, knowing that it was Loki she had been speaking to the whole time, the entire conversation seemed rather silly. Another time… something different now nagged at her brain…

"I realized that I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave like that," Loki didn't even look up. "I broke the pin that would have erased your memories. I let it shatter. In the end, Mayura," Loki leaned his face against one fist and smiled at her lazily. "Out of all the assassination attempts, all the curses and threats that Odin sent me, the only thing that actually kept me on Midgard, was you, an average teenaged girl."

As much as Mayura wanted to deny the term "average", thinking about everything Loki told her… it was crazy, but she had seen Loki transform before her very eyes. How could she deny it?

As if on a cue, Loki transformed back to his child form. "Which leaves one question," he flicked his eyes open to meet Mayura's again. "What will you do now, Mayura?"

Mayura gasped. She remembered now!

"Cake!" she exclaimed.

Everyone in the room gaped at her. There was a moment of strained awkward silence as they each tried to come up with some explanation of Mayura's bizarre behavior.

"M-Miss Mayura?" Yamino asked, confused.

"That time when Koutarou, Yamino, and I went to go get cake! We ran into you on the street! That was when I first saw you—the adult you, I mean!" That day played again in her mind—finishing with…

Her eyes widened. "You cheated!" She pointed dramatically at Loki as he stared at her finger with a sweat-drop.

"Uh…" Loki stammered.

"The cake! You knew which one was smashed because you made me drop it!" Mayura declared. "You owe me one slice of strawberry short cake!" Mayura said decisively, folding her arms and nodding.

Loki smiled, realizing that as bizarre as it might seem that Norse gods and goddesses walked the earth, Mayura, and Mayura alone, was probably ten times stranger than any earth-bound deity could ever be.

"Whatever you want, Mayura," Loki sighed.