Sorry guys. I procrastinated. I had the next chapter fully written for a about a week and a half now. I finally finished typing.
But this chapter, is pretty lengthy, so prepare.
(The next day...)
MARIO'S HOUSE, 10:00 A.M.
Mario and Yoshi were silently "munching" and "crunching" at the breakfast table. It had been very empty without Luigi or Toad. (Don't worry, Luigi's fine. You'll find out in a second.)
"Mario, where the heck is Luigi?" Yoshi asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Oh, he decided to spend the night in his mansion. I'm still not sure why," Mario answered.
"Oh….well, anyway, where were you guys yesterday? You were gone for a reallylong time, and kept Yoshi alone," Yoshi replied, a bit ticked off.
Mario explained everything that took place. Yoshi silently turned back to his breakfast.
LUIGI'S MANSION, 10:05 A.M.
Luigi had the usual today: pancakes, orange juice, and crackers on the side. After the predicament the night before, he wasn't in the mood to be near anyone, so he went to his mansion.
Like as if the universe chose the opposite for our green hero, the doorbell rang. Please don't be Daisy, please don't be Daisy, please don't be Daisy! Luigi thought, panicking.
"Luuuiiiigiii," a voice called out (it sounded like Daisy). "Could I come in?"
It is! It's always when I'm not ready! Luigi thought. He started to run upstairs when he suddenly stopped at the door. He then said with deepest voice he could pull, and loudly, "Uhh, in a second." Then Luigi quickly ran upstairs and got dressed. Luigi strapped on his overalls, and then he sprayed cologne on himself.
He ran to the door, stopped to fix his hat, and opened it as calmly as possible. "Hi sweetie!" Daisy greeted warmly. "I was just coming over to say 'good morning.'"
"How'd you know I was here?" Luigi asked.
"Lucky guess?" Daisy answered. Luigi took Daisy's black jacket. Daisy kissed Luigi on the cheek and stepped inside. Luigi blushed madly.
"So, uh, are you hungry?" Luigi offered, after hanging up Daisy's jacket.
Daisy wore a blank face, and then humbly shut her eyes. "Meh, I ate breakfast earlier at the castle. Maybe just some orange juice?" she answered, as she sat down at the table.
"Sure thing,"
Luigi took out a cup, an orange juice carton, and poured some of the orange juice into the cup. He gave it to Daisy. She thanked him.
"So, um, Luigi," Daisy started after sipping her juice. "I was wondering if maybe we could play tennis in Peach's tennis court at 3:00."
"I'd love to, sweetie," Luigi answered, smiling at her.
"Great!" she exclaimed. Then she smirked, while teasing: "Besides, I got ten times better, and I'll be sure to win."
"Oh contraire. I do believe I have what it takes to beat'cha," Luigi smirked.
After a few moments of teasing, Daisy grew serious. Luigi grabbed the o.j. carton and turned to the fridge. "Luigi?" she called.
"I'm all ears, sweetie," he replied.
Daisy continued, "Good. Well you see, I saw this paper taped to your door, so -" Luigi interrupted her as he dashed to the door. He grabbed the letter. It was handwritten.
"This wasn't at my door ten minutes ago when I took the mail from my mailbox," Luigi mumbled, and a bit shaken, as he opened the letter.
It said:
You and your brother better drop this case or big trouble's coming!
(No signature.) "What's that say?" Daisy asked curiously.
Luigi quickly threw the letter down on the table. "Oh, just the electric bill." he answered.
"Luigi, I know you're lying." Daisy said.
"And how is that?" Luigi asked.
"I know the electric bill is not shipped like that," she answered. "What is it?"
Luigi slid the letter across the table to her, speechlessly. Daisy read it. "Yikes," she commented. Then she stopped. "Wait, when were you guys working on the missing Toads case?"
"Okay, well, don't tell anyone this, but we were conducting an experiment last night: we put four Toads out into Peach's garden and tested to see whether there was someone out there, to prove Toby Toad wrong. And then you guys came."
"We were unfortunately unable to continue. Toadly had to go for some reason, so we were forced to stall you. But sometime between that, we both had a tug on one of our two poles we were each holding. The fishing poles were connected to the Toads so we could pull them back in case something happened. When you and Peach left, Mario and I discovered two of the fishing poles, and two of our Toads, had disappeared," Luigi explained.
Daisy gaped. "You-"
"It wasn't our faults!" Luigi blurted out. "Please forgive us."
Daisy set the letter down and told Luigi, "Well, sweetie, I forgive you, but those aren't my Toads."
Luigi immediately caught her drift. "No!" he answered. "She'll lose her cool!"
"You have to tell her sometime,"
Luigi sighed. "Alright. I'll tell her, Daisy."
"Good," she replied.
"-BUT...when I choose to, and when it's the right time. But that's not the problem now. What isthe problem is the fact that something's out there and it's a sick game he's playing," Luigi announced.
"We have to discover stuff like fingerprints, right?" Daisy asked.
"You bet. We have to find out whom this human is…or if he even is a human!" Luigi answered. He stroked his chin. "I got it!" (He raised his index finger in the air happily.)
"What?" Daisy replied.
Luigi ignored her, and took out a bottle of the fingerprint dust. He poured it over the paper then blew it away. "How did you get that?" Daisy asked, softly chuckling. Luigi answered, "In my childhood, detective stuff was kinda cool to me."
No fingerprints. "What?" Luigi exclaimed. "How is that possible?"
"Well, if you notice it, though, Luigi, it isn't a normal-sized paper," Daisy replied.
Now that Luigi had looked carefully, she was right. It was right about three quarters of a paper. Could it have been possible that the writer handled it from the bottom when it was a full paper, then ripped off the bottom? This thought had run through Luigi's mind.
Daisy also noticed now that there were no fingerprints now.
"Well, this proved useless," Luigi finally stated. "The writer seems to think he's so smart for getting rid of the part he touched. "And the tape had no fingerprints seen in the sun. You can already see them on tape without the dust. But he wasn't smart enough, because I got him!"
"How?" Daisy questioned, confused.
"You see," Luigi answered. "We have to check for any marks to know where it came from."
"What do you mean?" Daisy asked.
"Every paper company in the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland have a secret mark on the top left corner of their papers. They're hidden though. But, if you spray water mixed with rubbing alcohol and baby oil on the spot, it comes out, completely visible. Besides, he has to get his paper from somewhere!" he explained.
"Do you know the different icons of the companies?"
"Not at all. But thank goodness we have technology on our side." Luigi pointed to the desktop computer in the room next to the dining hall. He and Daisy walked into it.
"Good thinking, Weedge!" Daisy said as they were walking.
Luigi sat down in the chair. He set up a small table next to the computer and the chair. Daisy put her arms on the back of the chair and leaned. "Yeah, thanks. Now we have to get the- wait did you just call me 'Weedge?'" Luigi replied.
"Sorry, Luigi. Let's get the info."
"Right." Luigi agreed. "Alright, you get the distilled water gallon in the fridge, and I'll get the rubbing alcohol and the baby oil."
Luigi ran into his bathroom to get the two ingredients. Daisy opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the water gallon. She set it on the table. Luigi came back with the rubbing alcohol bottle and the baby oil bottle. He set them down, and said, smiling, "It's Wintergreen!"
"Oh, Luigi..," Daisy said under her breath.
Luigi fetched a cup and started to mix the elements together. He poured the right amount into a dropper. (Look it up!)
"Toss me the paper, will ya?" he requested.
Daisy handed Luigi the paper. Luigi grasped it with his free hand (the left). Luigi set it down. He carefully made one drop on the top left corner, then did four surrounding the first.
"Once it dries, we'll know," he said.
"But that'll be a long time!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Nope. With those three things mixed together, it can dry quickly," (Once again. I'm not exactly sure those are true. But don't try it at home.) Luigi replied. "But for now, I'll check the computer for the logos or icons for the different paper companies in the two kingdoms."
Luigi proceeded to search "paper companies in Mushroom Kingdom" to find out what he was looking for. There was the Mushroom Kingdom Quality Paper Company, Toad Paper Industry, Dimble Wood Paper Distribution Corporation (Strange, because it's a forest, but makes sense because they're surrounded by trees), and Kempley Yosh Ee Paper Company. Mushroom Kingdom Quality Paper Company had a mushroom icon, Toad Paper Industry had a Toad head as an icon, Dimble Wood Paper Distribution Corporation had a star icon, and Kempley Yosh Ee Paper Company had an egg icon.
Luigi explained this to Daisy, whom had already known.
"Hm. Okay, let's check the paper," Daisy reminded him.
They ran back to the table. Sure enough, the liquid had dried.
"What is it?" Daisy asked.
Luigi examined it closely. "A mushroom!" he cried.
Daisy exclaimed, "You did it! Now we have to go to the Mushroom Kingdom Quality Paper Company!"
"Exactly!" Luigi replied. He ran off, taking her by the hand.
Luigi decided to go on foot. The paper company, though, was located in Mushroom City, which was a full 20 minutes by kart and had to be at least a full hour on foot. Fortunately, Luigi was sprinting extremely fast, so they had arrived in a full forty minutes (And yet he doesn't do this good in track-and-field .)
They arrived in front of the MK Quality Paper Co.
"You have the paper right?" Luigi asked.
Daisy held the paper up. "Yup!"
Luigi held the door for Daisy and he entered after her.
A Pianta was at the front desk, running through some paperwork. It was obvious the woman was very busy. Luigi finally got over the thought of interrupting her so rudely, and spoke up. "E-excuse me..?" Luigi stuttered shyly.
The female Pianta looked up. "Luigi Mario? Oh what an honor to have a celebrity like you come to my store!" she exclaimed ecstatically.
"Yup," Luigi replied.
Daisy finally looked up from the paper and made eye contact with the woman. She gasped, saying, "Mrs. Parker?"
The woman gaped. "Princess….Daisy?"
"You two know each other?" Luigi asked, dumbfounded.
"It's a long story..," Daisy answered, not even facing Luigi, but still staring wide-eyed at Mrs. Parker.
"My, you look so pretty today!" Mrs. Parker complimented.
Daisy giggled. "You have to say that; you're always so nice."
"Ah, well, I think your little boyfriend over there would agree with me." The two looked at Luigi.
Luigi scratched his head, blushing. "Well, you do look pretty today."
The women laughed.
After they had settled down and gotten to know each other, Mrs. Parker interrupted. "So what're you here for?"
Luigi explained: "Well, you see Mrs. Parker, I was sent" (exaggeration. It was hand-delivered and taped on his door.) "this letter and I checked for the watermark thing on the paper and it traced me back to this company." Luigi handed Mrs. Parker the paper. (Mrs. Parker didn't actually read the letter, because she valued privacy.) She examined the top-left corner.
"Luigi, dear, I don't mean to sound rude or cut the investigation short, but this kind of paper isn't used anymore," she said.
"What do you mean?" Daisy asked.
Mrs. Parker explained. "Well, Princess Peach did not approve of the secret icons on our products, no matter how positive they were. So she wanted to cut the sales of these kinds of papers to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Congressmen" (also known as "The Mushroom Kingdom Board Of Civil Rights") "did not vote positively on this notion. But she wouldn't give up, though. All she needed was something to back her up with.
"A few weeks later, Princess Peach discovered a paper from a company, whose name is now classified for secrecy, had a secret icon of the Nazi sign. She shut them down, and only then did the board agreed with the princess, sales of these kinds of papers to the Mushroom Kingdom. The only place you can find these is outside of the Mushroom Kingdom."
"What about Sarasaland?" Daisy asked.
"Well actually, Princess Daisy, sales of these to Sarasaland were cut over seven years ago. You never knew that?"
Daisy looked embarrassed. "I never really focused on paper companies a lot."
"So, where could this have come from?" Luigi asked.
"Well, Luigi, the only place I know of could be between Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom, maybe illegally distributed."
Luigi sighed. "Thanks for the information anyway, Mrs. Parker. Bye."
"Glad I could be of assistance. So nice to meet you in the flesh, Luigi! And Daisy, I hope to see you again soon."
Luigi and Daisy waved goodbye and left.
"Hm! Well this is a fine mess we're in!" Luigi said. "We have so much to search!"
"Well, think about it Luigi. Wouldn't it be smarter to live a spot nearer to the Mushroom Kingdom instead of the farther outskirts or Sarasaland? If it's the Mushroom Kingdom that's the victim, wouldn't you live outside it so you could enter at anytime, yet no one would expect you don't live in it?" Daisy told Luigi.
Luigi stopped. Daisy, whom was following behind him, stopped, too. "THAT'S IT!" he cried. "The kidnapper must live near the Mushroom Kingdom, not in it!"
He threw his arms around Daisy. "Thank you so much, sweetie!" he cried.
"It was nothin'," she humbly replied.
The couple walked out of Mushroom City. They walked and walked. They were finally near Luigi's mansion.
Humming, Luigi had a stride of happiness.
"Wait, Luigi," Daisy interrupted.
"Huh?"
"Isn't that Toby Toad's building?" Daisy pointed to a building down the street. Some was billowing from it!
Luigi gaped.
"TOBY!" they both screamed.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Ho, ho! The crook is now much closer to being found. But before anything could get done, Toby Toad's building is found destroyed! What has happened? Was this an accident or done on purpose? Find out next chapter!