The Paradox Emotion

Disclaimer: Why yes I DO in fact own Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, the first 6 books to be exact… oh not that kind of own… than never mind I own nothing =D

Chapter 1

"I did it!" the voice resounded throughout the room turned crime scene.

Yako turned her head to see who had just confessed, she felt slightly relived that her job had become easier but thought that maybe Neuro didn't feel the same way, she dared to look at him.

Yako thought she would see that look of disappointment he wore when something didn't go as he planned; she found he was like a child in that sense. The look on his face however was not the one she expected; instead he was smiling his shark-tooth grin.

"Hey Neuro?" Yako pulled him down so they were just about eye level; even after the past three plus years she had only gained a few inches and he was so tall there was no hope of her ever reaching his height. As for Neuro he didn't mind submitting slightly to her demand to crouch, it's not like he couldn't repay her later.

"What is it louse?" he said with a sly tone.

"Hey! You called me partner before you left." It may have been long ago but she still held it to him, "At least call me top slug." she said under her breath, not escaping Neuro's ears.

"Oh Ho! You seem to think you deserve these titles right now." He stood up strait digging his elbow into her head and leaned on his open palm.

"What do you mean?" She asked, ignoring the pain she was slowly getting use to again. Was becoming a world renown negotiator not enough to please Neuro? Probably not she concluded.

"I know what you're thinking," Neuro began to explain, "But if you believe that this man committed the murder than you are still at the level of louse," Yako felt a little tint of guilt, she should have known people don't confess to a crime so easily, especially after an elaborate setup to disguise the murder and no DNA evidence. She blamed her lack of sleep, thanks to Neuro. "Maybe even lower!" he added with a blank face.

With the strange way he encouraged her, along with the hint, she mentally went through what she knew about everyone who knew the victim. The man who had just 'confessed' was the victim's boyfriend, he was sitting on the one of the couches in the penthouse, handcuffed. Ishigaki was questioning him, but he still looked completely shook up by this whole mess.

The other three who where suspects before the man 'confessed' where the victim's mother, sister, and roommate. The mother was crying into her hands while her daughter comforted her, the roommate was pacing back and forth biting her nails.

Yako walked over to them, leaving Neuro to continue investigating the 'how', she had a feeling he might need help with the 'who' this time, and of course she would figure out the 'why'.

"Excuse me," Yako asked politely, "But I would like to ask a few fallow up questions, that is if you don't mind." she decided it would be best if she played it like the murderer was already caught.

"Oh Katsuragi-san, we don't mind at all," the mother composed herself and wiped away tears as she prepared the for the interview. The other two did the same, the roommate stopped pacing while the sister took a deep breath.

Yako finished the interview, she had asked as many relevant questions that she could think of, while also comforting and gaining their trust. She noted physical traits of each woman as they left, both the roommate and the sister where of the same height and stature, while the mother was shorter and favored one hip making her limp. The roommate, whose name was Aria was a transfer student at the collage they were attending, she had long strait black hair, Yako felt a little jealous about that but ignored the feeling. She also had dark skin and stunning green eyes, but Yako felt they would never compare to Neuro's emerald orbs. Yumi, the victim's sister has short curly dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. Her mother had short graying black hair, which reminded Yako of her own mother.

Yako turned around after seeing them back to the police and was immediately greeted with Neuro's vice grip on her shoulders. He had on his innocent face as he addressed her, "Sensei, I believe that we are done for today."

"N-neuro." It was not like him to leave a crime scene without solving the mystery.

Neuro's next words, however, reassured her that he was not about to give up. "This mystery is on the tip of my tongue." He whispered almost seductively into Yako's ear.


When Neuro and Yako got back to the office Yako was the first to break the silence. "Um, Neuro, why didn't you solve the case at the crime scene like you usually do?"

Neuro stared at her with his hypnotic emerald gaze. "Louse, in order for you to regain your title as top slug you will have to solve this case. I suspect two people, one of them is the murderer, It can only be one of those two, I would have solved this, but this human did a very smart thing, instead of getting rid of DNA evidence they compromised it, there are multiple strands of DNA belonging to many different people, the boyfriend, the sister, the roommate, the mother, and various other people who were not at the crime scene." He paused to make sure his pet was sill listening, "I will not tell you anymore, but you may use the case files, be grateful louse." He paused once again but this time he looked at a particular nothing and seemed to be somewhere else, "This mystery has a unique flavor, and I believe the trick lies in the motive, your specialty."

"Oh! I see you just don't want to admit that you need me." Yako let out a yelp as soon as she finished the sentence, Neuro had her head between his hands and was squeezing.

Ignoring slave No. 1's last comment, Neuro continued to talk while trying to squeeze Yako's head like a lemon. "I expect the answer in two days or less, do not disappoint me."

Yako sighed as Neuro released her she walked over to her desk and opened the case file. As she went to sit down she felt a sharp pain in her buttocks and a small gasp escaped her mouth, in an instant she was standing again and taking out tacks from her rear end. Yako was grateful that they where regular tacks and not something demonic that Neuro had placed in her chair. She gave Neuro a quick venomous look before she returned to her work.

Neuro had been watching from behind Troy the whole time to see his favorite insect's reaction. Over the three years he had been gone Yako had become quite tolerant of his tricks, she rarely ever complained anymore and only gave him harmless looks in return for his pranks. Every once in awhile though, after putting much thought into how he would torture her, he sometimes got familiar reactions out of her, the ones he liked. Yako had more than proven that she had evolved, and he had to find new ways to 'train' her once again. Right now he was contemplating Chinese water torture and thumb screws with a few added improvements of his own.

Yako read through the crime report and indeed this case was tricky, not one of the four original suspects had a good alibi. Each was alone at the time of the girl's death. She could cross out Shiro, the victim's boyfriend, because Neuro had said that he had not committed the murder, Neuro had also crossed out one other person from the suspect list, but Yako had no clue which one. How had Neuro eliminated the boyfriend? If she found that out she might be able to eliminate one of the other suspects by the same method.

This was going to be hard work.

Akane brought her some tea and a plateful of snacks while she read each page carefully, it was already 9:30 p.m. but if she was going to help Neuro on this case she was going to have to use her time efficiently.

Nine plates of snacks, twelve cups of tea, and two and a half hours later, she had read through all the papers, taken notes, and solved the same problem Neuro had earlier that day, and she was exhausted! She had to fight the urge to drift off more than once, but since Neuro's had been staring at her the whole time she worked it was a little easier to stay awake. The fear of having something… demonic happen to her while she slept was all the incentive she needed to keep her eyes open.

The trick Neuro used to eliminate the suspects boyfriend had been a matter of forensics. The way the woman had been murdered was by repeated blunt force trauma with an unknown weapon. The team of police had done a great job on documenting the wounds, the woman died with the thirteenth blow to the head. If someone with as muscle strength as Shiro had hit her, than she would have died with the first or second blow, but someone who was as frail and weak as the victim's mother it would have taken five or six more blows to kill, and the victim would have had time to fight back, rather than be knocked unconscious after the first blow. This was a murder of hate.


Neuro had been watching his partner the whole time while she worked; he believed that she would definitely solve this case for him, not once since his return had she ever disappointed him, in fact quite the opposite she had surpassed his expectations, not that he'd ever let her know that. He didn't need Yako to get a big head. If things continued this well maybe he would attempt to learn human emotions, they baffled him and he didn't like to be confused about anything. He previously thought it impossible but near the end of his last visit, when he was most like a human, he felt something and it wasn't at all unpleasant. But when he left so did the feeling. Every once in awhile, though, when he was around Yako it came back, and he found himself wishing it would not go away.

Maby he could play with this, figuring out what it was about his human that made him have this feeling, but it could wait till after this case.

Yako stretched her tired muscles and looked to Neuro, a proud smile on her face. "I figured it out Neuro, the two suspects are Yumi and Aria, one of them is the murderer."

"I already knew that louse." The statement took the smile off her face, "It took you this long to figure that out?" he looked at her, not amused.

"Well if you had told me from the beginning…" she trailed off; Neuro had a way of making her accomplishments seem like dirt.

In truth Neuro was testing her to see how far she had evolved, top slug was no longer a sufficient rank, maybe something along lines of an arracnade.

"I swear I'll have this case solved within your time range!" Yako's sudden burst startled the demon.

"That is what I expected." Neuro smiled at her before dismissing her for the night. No torture.


Yako sighed as she walked home; thoughts of this case filled her mind. The young woman named Saiyuri had been killed three days ago now that it was past midnight. Her body had been found in her apartment by her mother and sister. They had come over for her birthday party and where the first to arrive, the second to arrive to the party where the roommate and boyfriend, they met while walking up the stairs. The police had already been called by the time they walked into the apartment. No one in the four had a solid alibi, the mother was home alone, the sister was window shopping at a mall, the roommate had spent a few days at a friend's house, but at the time of the murder had no solid alibi, but claimed to be at a crowded bar, and the boyfriend said he had slept in that day, and thereby was alone the time of the murder.

Now Yako knew that the mother and boy friend where most likely telling the truth, but one of the other two were not. The questions she needed answered where, who did it, why, where was the weapon and why did the boyfriend admit to a murder he did not commit?

To be honest Yako thought Neuro already knew who the killer was and was just testing her, like he did with the Aya Asia case, but whatever the reason Neuro was having her do so much work she was bound on seeing it through to the end. She had to not just to regain her title as top slug, but to prove to Neuro she was worthy to stay by his side. Why was that again? Why did she want to stay by his side so much? Five years ago she would have known the answer, but know that answer was a shadow on her heat.

As she boarded the subway she pushed the thought to the back of her head and tried to refocus on the murder. But as she sat down on one of subway's seats she realized just how exhausted she was, and decide to rest her brain and eyes awhile while she waited for her stop.

Yako didn't notice the tall figure that boarded the subway as well in the near empty car as she drifted off to sleep.


Neuro had fallowed Yako on her way home, it's not like he hadn't done it before. In fact every time she had been sleep deprived, thanks to yours truly, he had fallowed her. He did not want to find his property in the gutters too weak to be of any use to him. So of course when he saw her sleeping on the subway he rolled his eyes and sat next to her. It would not do if another male where to take advantage of her while she was vulnerable. By the time she woke up at her destination Neuro would have disappeared, and continued to fallow her undetected.

Neuro watched Yako's sleeping form for a while before he noticed that that feeling had come back again. Although he had decided to peruse understanding this feeling after this case was solved he could not let this opportunity pass him by. He tried to describe the feeling but couldn't, he knew he felt happy, but it wasn't the type of happy he got from devouring a mystery; he couldn't place it if it was more or less happy. The problem was that along with happy there where countless other feelings he couldn't name, some of witch where clashing and contradicting each other, and above all every one of the feelings melded together to create the new emotion he was feeling. He was never this confused before, and it excited him.

Neuro had been so focused on taking apart and analyzing the emotion he had not realized how much time had passed, they where now at their destination and Yako began to stir. "Mmm…. Neuro…."

What was that?! The feeling came in waves now and stronger than ever, it almost overpowered the demon. "Pass the ketchup…" and then it was gone completely.


The girl who was talking in her sleep woke up suddenly, she looked around, and she was alone on the subway except for the few people who had boarded while she slept. She got up quickly when she realized that she was at her stop. As she got out of the subway car she stretched, "That would not have been good if I missed my stop," Yako joked to herself, "And I was having such a good dream too."

"I'm home!" Yako walked in to the empty house and took off her shoes at the door, her mom was traveling again and wouldn't be back for about a month.

Yako's stomach growled furiously as she opened up their industrial sized fridge. She looked around for a while before gathering an assortment of items. She wasn't in the mood to make anything complicated so she decided to put together a few dozen sandwiches and eat them as her dinner/midnight snack. She hadn't gotten a break since lunch and she was starving.

Once Yako finished her quick meal she started getting ready for bed she glanced at the clock and a moan escaped her lips. It was 2:00 a.m. and she would have to wake up early if she was going to complete her work in time for Neuro's deadline. Yako reluctantly set her alarm for the morning and when her head hit the pillow she was already asleep.


A/N: Hope you like it so far ^^ Already working on the second chapter, I plan to make this long and hope to finish it! In fact I know I will this is the best thing I've ever written and ideas are flowing in XD

Please Review If I don't get reviews I don't write, because I think no one likes it and than I get sad. :(

Also point out any mistakes you see, thought I think I found them all :P