- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.


Curse of the Cat's Bell

written by Kurosu

- Chapter One.

Mayura counted down the seconds of the clock at the front of the classroom until the bell, throughout the whole school, went off because it was now the end of the school day and the start of a weekend. She threw her hands in to the air with her classmates, cheering ecstatically, for the next two days were going to be filled with possible mysteries, at least she hoped so. She was so giddy, every ounce of her was trembling with excitement, which was a positive sign of good things to come in to her future, right?

What an optimistic, mystery-obsessed girl she was!

She hurried and stuffed her books and things in to her school bag and ran out the classroom door, in such a hurry that she almost forgot to switch her indoor shoes out. She could be so absentminded too, but it was a cute and endearing trait about her, because her mind was always filled with her silly mysteries. She pondered over the different cases that could arrive at the doorstep of the detective agency that Friday afternoon, swinging her school bag at her side happily, her eyes plastered musingly to the blue skies.

A bounce in each step she took down the sidewalk, soon littered with all sorts of people, but she didn't mind at all and continued as happily as she did, when a hand suddenly grabbed for her wrist. She jerked to a stop and stared down at a scruffy, young man with an eye-patch over his right eye, squatting on the ground over some merchandises laid across a cloth.

Usually this type of person would be suspicious, but to Mayura, he just looked totally cool and handsome, for being an older man. She was blatantly staring, or maybe ogling him, which just added to the stranger's ever growing ego. The slyness in his one remaining eye held her fascinated gaze, and a playful smile twisted on his face.

"Ojou-san!" he grinned, releasing her wrist, "Take a look at my wares! These are one of a kind items from across the world! They all have great stories, and some will bring you good luck!"

For some reason, she felt the urge to do as he requested and knelt down on the ground, across from him, eyeing each piece of item. Some were cute, little trinkets that girls her age would love to wear, but she normally overlooked those for more interesting and mysterious items, like the ones stashed towards the back of the display.

He held up small charm on chain to her, "This will bring you great luck in love!"

"That looks mysterious!" she said in awe, pointing to the silver dagger with a skull hilt, to which the street peddler sweatdropped, and she picked it up to examine it more closely, "I bet this killed a lot of vampires!"

The sweatdrop grew bigger on his head, he snatched it out of her hand and replaced it with a ruby, floral hairclip.

"This suits a pretty girl like you better!" he insisted.

She looked at the new object with uncertainty, "Well yes, but I like the dagger more."

He rolled his one eye, "That'll cost you 10,000 yen ($100) then."

It was her turn to sweatdrop, and she checked in her pockets, pulling out a few coins, "Eh... I only have 800 yen ($8)."

She was a high school student after all, so he couldn't expect her to be walking around with money oozing out of her pockets, unlike a certain blonde classmate that was heir to the Kakinouchi financial empire, who happened to be strolling down on the other side of the road with a flock of females around him. He shook his head and motioned to the bottom row of items, "Then you can afford those."

A deep hum came from the back of her throat, hinting to her annoyance at not able to buy the dagger, as she looked at them, rubbing her chin in thought, "But they don't look very mysterious."

Quite true since they were more for the girly teenagers, from the array of necklaces and rings and bracelets, and just much too cute for this girl's strange taste. He sighed and refrained from slapping his forehead at such a difficult customer.

"Well, this one," he pointed to a random bracelet, "used to be owned by a girl who was left heartbroken at a lake. When her lover didn't arrive at their appointed time, she thought he had stopped loving her and jumped in to the lake, drowning herself. She wore this when she died, so whoever wears it now can see her ghost..."

"OH! A ghost! I wanna see a ghost!" she cried, reaching for the bracelet, but he stopped her and pointed to another jewelry, a ring this time.

Seeing her so excited over silly stories, he decided to play with another one just to see her reaction, "A long, long time ago, this ring was created by a witch and given to a handsome prince of some vast kingdom. She had fallen in love with him, but he scorned her for her lowly status and unsightly ugliness, so she secretly gave it to him. And when he wore it, he fell under her spell. So when he would look at others, he could only see the ugliness of the world, and because of this, he locked himself away in the castle, refusing to see another person, and eventually died alone."

"Aawe that's so sad!" she sniffed and picked up the ring, "So if I wear this, I will see the ugliness that the prince saw?!"

He shrugged, "If you believe the story."

"I BELIEVE!"

Mayura was ready to try it on, but the peddler stopped her again. Her patience was wearing thin with his interruption, and he told her, "Well you gotta purchase it first."

She held out the money to him, but he smiled and asked, "Are you sure you want that one? Don't you want to know about the rest?"

She furrowed her brows in frustration, dropping the ring back down, because she wanted to know about the all the mysterious stories yet she only had enough to purchase one item. Such agony that wrecked her brain, when all these mysteries were laid out before her, and she couldn't decide which one to pick. Plus, she was spending too much time already, and surely, Loki would be worried about her if she didn't show up, especially if there was a case and he was missing his lovely assistant.

"I still can't decide!" she wailed, eyes shut tightly as she flailed her arms wildly.

"How about this?"

Mayura ceased her silliness and opened her eyes, staring at a black choker with a golden bell on it dangling from his hand, and missed the devious grin on his face. She opened up her palms to it, and he dropped it in to her hands, in complete wonder, "What kind of story does this have?"

He shrugged, now being lazy to fabricate a story, "No idea. I just know it's supposed to be cursed."

"Waai! A mysterious curse!" Her eyes brightened like a light bulb, and he knew he had made a sale, to a very gullible, innocent girl whose obsession just happened to be the abnormal and extraordinary, "I have to solve this mystery! Find out what kind of curse it is!"

She handed over all her money to him and tucked the choker in to her pocket before standing up. She bowed and smiled, "Thanks, oji-san!"

His eye twitched, as he watched her run off and shouted after her, shaking a fist in the air, "Oji-san?! I'm not that-!"

He sighed, realizing what he was about to say, and began to pack up his things, having had enough of the charade of a street peddler. He figured he didn't need another painstakingly difficult customer to sell to, not that he really needed to, but he was bored as hell. He shoved the leftover curios in to a bag and got up, stalking down the street, lugging his belongings over his shoulder, still grumbling to himself about the disrespectful youth of today on Midgard.


Bubbling with excitement, Mayura could hardly contain it when she arrived at the doorstep of Enjaku Detective Agency, bouncing from one foot to the other, ringing the doorbell for the third time. She normally just hit it once and waited, but she had such an awesome mystery for Loki to help her solve, so before the bell could ring for a fourth time, the door flew open and an exasperated Yamino leaned against he door, breathing heavily.

"Yamino-san!" she greeted worriedly, "You look all worn out and tired!"

"Ah sorry, Mayura-san," he bowed his head in shame for his ghastly appearance, "I was cleaning upstairs... on the ladder, when the doorbell rang... and the boxes... fell on me."

He stepped aside to allow her entrance, and she gasped, "Oh! Sorry, Yamino-san!"

"It's all right," he smiled. She was making her way towards the stairs when he told her, "Loki-sama isn't home yet. He went on a walk with Fenrir."

"Oh okay."

"But please make yourself at home. I'm sure Loki-sama will be home soon," he smiled kindly, "I'll bring up some refreshments while you wait."

"Thanks, Yamino-san! You're the greatest!"

Mayura beamed in his direction, before bounding up the stairs, leaving a shy Yamino to blush at her compliment. Within a seconds, she was in the study and paused in the doorway of the empty room, soaking in the strangely quiet scene without a certain precocious detective at the desk, which wasn't unusual, just didn't occur often enough.

She strolled over to one of the couches and plopped on it, dropping her school bag against the armrest, leaning back against the comfortable cushions. When she tilted her head back, resting it on the couch, gazing up at the ceiling for a brief moment of peace, at least until she remembered the small item she had purchased. She reached in to her skirt pocket and pulled out the black choker.

She flicked her finger at the bell, and it made a cute, twinkling sound. She giggled and stood up, looking around for a mirror, and upon seeing none, she walked over to Loki's desk and hesitated, recalling the last time she snooped around his things. She sweatdropped and scurried away, finding the reflection of the glass on the landscape painting, just off to the left of the desk, worked just as well. She pulled her long hair aside and slipped the choker around her neck, attempting to clasp the ends together.

When it was done, she peered at her reflection and touched the bell, giving a few poses, "Hm, this sorta looks like a collar." She laughed at the silliness of it, "I wonder what sort of curse this'll be. I hope it's one of those fast-working curses!" She pouted, "Waiting for days would be terri-"

Lucky for Mayura, it was one of those quick activating curses all right, but unfortunately, it really was cursed!

A sudden poof of white smoke filled her vision, and she started to cough. She fanned her hands through the air to clear out the hazy obstruction, and by the time it dissipated, she stared straight ahead, noticing something was very off about the image in the glass. She moved closer to it and peered at the twitchy things on top of her head, her hands slowly reaching out to them.

Her fingers merely brushed over them, the texture much too real beneath her fingers, and then she screamed.


The front door had just opened, and a content Loki, with Fenrir at his side and Ecchan sitting on his head, entered, enjoying a nice, quiet afternoon, or so they thought when they heard the ear-piercing shriek from upstairs. They recognized the owner of the scream and rushed to the stairs, just as a frantic Yamino, who nearly spilled the plate of cookies, came running from the kitchen, following the young detective to the study.

They piled at the door, with Loki throwing it open. His green eyes searched the room desperately until he spotted some movements behind the couch and rushed over to it, "Mayura!"

He abruptly stopped at the sight of her sitting on the floor, her back to him, but he immediately took notice of the strange things on her head and the movement of something beneath her skirt.

"Mayura?" he called again, moving towards her slowly and hesitantly, with each step, a strange trepidation found its way in to his stomach, and a nervous Yamino was right behind him, both for some reason approached the teenager cautiously.

With a worried Ecchan floating above, Fenrir was the one to rush to her first, sniffing and pawing at her skirt, when she suddenly twisted around, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes, hands tugging at the choker around her neck, and a long tail smacked Fenrir in the face. The three residents of the agency staggered backwards in shock at the sight of a different Mayura, who now had feline ears and a tail, peeking from under her skirt, sashaying side to side as if it had a mind of its own.

"Loki-NYAO!" she clasped both hands over her mouth at the weird sound she just made, embarrassed and horrified.


After a few minutes of the water works turned off and everyone had a cup of hot tea to calm down the nerves, Mayura, her eyes glued to the swirling cup of tea in her hands, told them what happened with the involuntary insertion of 'nyao' every now and then. But all anyone could really do besides half listening to her story of woe was stare at the odd yet fascinating kitty ears on her head. Even Loki, seated beside her, had the urge to reach out and touch them but figured the distressed girl didn't need that sort of attention at the moment.

A curious Ecchan hovered over Mayura's head, peering closely at the new set of ears, one twitched unexpectedly as if the girl subconsciously felt a presence above her.

Fenrir was on the floor, happily munching on his plate of cookies, but his eyes followed the end of Mayura's tail like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen, swinging back and forth in a rather mocking manner. His eyes hardened in to a glare, and he began to move towards it, setting aside his snack for now. When he was close enough, he lifted his paw ready to smack it, but it suddenly disappeared, flying straight in to the air, and Mayura's skirt flew up too.

She squealed in surprise and shoved her skirt and tail down with both hands, embarrassingly.

Loki, grinning and trying not to laugh behind his hand, sent a curt glare in Fenrir's direction, who suddenly tried to look innocent, and Yamino snatched his brother up, "Sorry, Mayura-san, I'll take Fenrir downstairs."

'Oi, don't forget my cookies!' he barked, to which his brother obliged to, and after a nod from Loki towards Yamino, both of his sons, along with Ecchan, disappeared from the room.

The door closed again, leaving a very calm detective and his distraught, half-feline assistant alone. Mayura, rubbing her ears curiously with one while the other kept pulling on her supposed collar that wouldn't come off, exclaimed, "It's the curse, nyao!"

The boy sipped the tea and nodded, sighing, "It seems so."

He watched her from the corner of his eye as she tugged on her kitty ears and yelped from the pain, at least they knew it was quite real, but he had to admit this was an interesting situation, now that this mysterious curse had physically affected Mayura, who lacked any sixth sense or spiritual abilities.

"Tell me about this peddler," he put down the cup on to the table as she turned towards him.

"Well," she started, gazing upwards in thought, her ears twitched and her tail moving side to side, and he couldn't help but notice it, "He was good-looking, nyao."

He sweatdropped at her first description, and she put a hand over her right eye, "With an eye-patch, nyao, like a pirate! He was scruffy-looking, nya... like he hadn't shaved in days... Wow, like a real pirate, ny-!" she tried to bite back the sound in the back of her throat, "A pirate wearing cargo pants and a t-shirt?" She blinked at the memory, "And a blue and black striped beanie, nyao?"

They both sweatdropped at her failed attempt to stop the cute sounds.

"That's it?"

"Hmm, well... his eye was pretty, a deep blue, nyao!"

He was a bit impressed that she managed to remember what the man looked like, "He seems easy to spot then."

"Oh yes! He should still be in that place, nyao! It wasn't that long ago," she said, standing up, "I can take you there, Loki-nyao!"

He stared at the tail that was moving in the air, having lifted up the back of her skirt again, and grinned, "I don't think you want to go out like that."

"Huh?" she followed his eyes and blushed, pushing down her skirt and tail again, "Geez, how annoying! It's so hard to control it, nyao!"

He laughed, "Because your mind wanders so much!"

"Waah! How am I supposed to, nya, go home like this?!"

"You just realized that?" he continued to chuckle in to his fist, "Don't worry, Yamino has dealt with it. You can stay here until we solve this mystery."

She peered over to him, like a curious kitten, and seeing that he really meant it in his gentle expression, she smiled brightly and glomped him, forgetting the current state that she was in, "Thank you, Loki-kun! Nyao!"

Smirking with much amusement, he eyed her tail that was flicking side to side happily at his words, and he averted his gaze up to the ceiling, because as fun and entertaining he hoped it to be, it was going to be a long weekend with Mayura like this. He restrained the urge from playing with her tail, though the mischievous grin never left his face, and the feel of her hugs were always nice and warm, sending his insides all fluttering strangely at their closeness.


"Aaah! Loki-kun!"

He heard her voice, coming from outside his study, the platter of her socked feet echoing down the wooden floorboards, and raised his eyes to the door as it flung open. It was late evening, much too late to do any real investigation on the mysterious peddler that most likely had left for the day, and dinner had managed to end without much mishaps, except for the occasional tail chasing by Fenrir, whose canine impulses were apparently uncontrollable.

One troublesome puppy with an insatiable appetite was enough, and Loki was fortunate that a certain freeloading god of thunder didn't stop by that day. He had hope to do some research on curses relating to Mayura's circumstances, but nothing so far from the two thick books on ancient curses.

Now that she was in front of him, which was probably a sign to call it quits for the day, he arched a brow, wondering what had gotten her nerves all shaken up again. He stared at her new attire, already in her blue pajama set borrowed from Yamino, which were obvious a bit big and long on her, hence the rolled up sleeves, but she was pointing to her opened mouth, showing him her more well-defined cuspids in comparison to the rest of her teeth.

"Nya! My teeth, Loki-kun!" she ran her tongue over them, a slight flinch at the sudden sharpness of them, "I'm turning in to a werecat! Nyao!"

He reached his hand out to her face, taking her chin in between his fingers, as he studied her carefully, turning her head one way, then the other. "I hardly think that's the case," he snorted, "You're still furless."

She blinked and looked at her arms and pulled up her pant legs, which were long enough to sweep the floor, and then looked down her buttoned up top, and Loki sweatdropped at her cluelessness. His words were true enough at this point, but who knew what the night held, and he decided not to share that part of his thoughts with her, to ease her mind. A hint of a smile grew on his face when he saw her ears perk up, elated that she wasn't fully transforming in to a full-fledged feline.

"Ano," now that she was no longer that worried about her transformation, she leaned on the edge of his desk, "Loki-kun, did you find anything, nya, on the curse?"

He shook his head, "Not yet. We'll continue it tomorrow, so don't worry, Mayura." He gave her a reassuring smile and hopped out of his chair, "I'm sure you're exhausted from today, so why don't you get to bed early."

"Hmm, well, I'm not tired at all!" she beamed, her back straight and tall, and he could see her tail moving about behind her. She followed his gaze and blushed, fidgeting with the long sleeves of her shirt, "Nya, my tail won't stay still. It kept moving around so much, nyao... erm, and..." she leaned down and shyly whispered to him, "ripped through the back... nya... I hope Yamino-san won't be mad. I'll buy him a new set, nyao!"

He laughed and walked around to see her from the back, and with a huge grin, he took hold of her tail, running his fingers along the end of soft fur, much to her embarrassment. Her face turned completely red when he brought the tip to his lips and kissed it.

"Loki-kun!" she cried and yanked her tail from his grasp.

"He~h," he smirked, feigning innocence, "Mayura, why are you all red now?"

"Mou Loki-kun!" she began to fume instead, "I think I'll go to bed, nyao! Good night!"

In a huff, she stomped out of the study, steam blowing out of her kitty ears, while her tail, still a mind of its own, bounced happily after her. Despite the embarrassment and annoyance, her emotions were quite clear that she enjoyed the little display of affection as much as he did, and he was left to muse over her cute posterior, appreciating the view very much from his spot.

He was going to have some pleasant dreams tonight, and he laughed.


Notes: Lol, I have a few MayuLoki plots swirling in my head, so you might be seeing a few more in the coming days and weeks.

This story came about when I was searching for MayuLoki fanart and found a few cute ones by the talented So-Ha. In the bunch, I came across some neko-Mayura with Kakusei Loki! I was in utter fangirl land squealing and gushing with joy, lol! I know I have Chibi-Loki in the story, but I'll work Kakusei Loki in here somehow! Lol... goshdarnit I will!

Rofl, I originally had that street peddler as some random guy, but then I laughed at the thought of it being Odin. He was bored after letting Loki off the hook, so he decided to create some entertainment at their expense, lol... *sweatdrops* -kuro.