Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

Digimon and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok and associated characters and concepts are © Sakura Kinoshita

Welcome to Oslo, Japan

Near the park restrooms an auburn-haired boy in a fancy frou-frou suit with short pants sat on a bench. A tall slim man with dark hair tied back in a ponytail was speaking to him. He was apologizing by saying "I'm sorry, Master Loki, but I haven't any idea where Mayura and Fenrir could have gotten to – I haven't been able to find them anywhere."

The young boy seemed unconcerned. "No doubt they'll turn up when they get hungry," he said calmly, then, as the puppy bounded up to him, he stated, "Ah, here they are now."

The ditzy girl was running behind the dog. "Loki – I found a Strange Mystery for us!" she called.

Shawn and Mimi exchanged a look. This girl is somewhat fixated on mysteries, Shawn thought. On the other hand, he could see if your name was Loki why you might name a dog Fenrir. And Shawn didn't mind ditzes – he'd fallen head over heels in love with one and married her after all.

Then Shawn did a double take. The signs on the restroom doors were clearly labeled in Japanese – Shawn knew some Japanese; being married to Mimi he'd had to try to learn her language, as she spoke his so beautifully. Shawn knew plenty of places in New York where the signs were written in Japanese, but they were also written in English, along with Spanish and German and French, and half a dozen other languages. There were also lots of places where the signs might be only in Spanish, or, in Chinatown, Chinese obviously, or a few other languages in various of the other old ethnic neighborhoods, but nowhere in New York that they'd be solely in Japanese. Nowhere near Central Park anyway. Of course New York was a big place...

The puppy woofed a long sequence of barks to which the man and boy both seemed to be listening intently.

"Fell from window in the sky?" the boy asked. How had he known that?

The boy didn't seem overly concerned, only puzzled. The dog barked some more, but the girl interrupted, "More like a glass pane full of numbers. They just fell out of it. Onto Fenrir."

This seemed a bit unfair – Shawn hadn't actually landed on the dog – and he certainly hadn't done it on purpose. Perhaps it was time to assert himself.

"Uh ... not exactly. Not onto him. Beside him, really." And then, because it seemed the thing to do, he introduced himself.

"Uh – I'm Shawn – this is my wife, Mimi." He started to shake hands and then hesitated. Mimi must have already unconsciously registered the restroom signs because she was making her most correct and formally polite bow. So Shawn bowed also, even though his was never as graceful as Mimi's, no matter how hard he tried.

The boy stood and returned the bow. Still calmly he said, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Loki; this is Yamino, and Mayura and Fenrir," as he indicated the man, then the girl and the dog.

The whole conversation suddenly felt slightly surreal. This wasn't helped by the boy prompting, "So you fell out of midair?"

Shawn, who, because of this kid's obvious maturity, had started to revise his first estimate of the kid's age upward by a few years, took a breath to begin explaining what had happened, and then hesitated, at a total loss.

Not so Mimi, who on very rare occasions could be incredibly succinct. "No. We fell through a hole in our floor in New York and we landed here." She paused a moment, then said, "We're in Japan, aren't we? That's Mt. Fuji in the distance, and I'm guessing downtown Tokyo is off that way. The hole in our floor didn't exist before we fell into it."

Suddenly she covered her mouth with both hands, turned huge scared eyes to Shawn, and gasped, "The children!"

"Palmon...," Shawn choked up, grasped Mimi, held her close, and for a moment could not go on. He swallowed and, for Mimi's sake, pulled himself together. "Palmon will cope – they'll be safe with her. Don't worry." Like he wasn't...

"There are children involved?" Loki asked.

"Our girls – they were left behind..." ...please, oh please, let them have been left behind... "and Palmon is capable – more than capable – but they're so young. So very young..." Shawn met Loki's green eyes over the top of Mimi's head.

"Palmon's your maid?"

"No, my Digimon," Mimi murmured, still buried against Shawn's chest. "She'll Digivolve if anything happens, but..."

This was met with a startled, blank silence from everyone, even the puppy, who seemed to have been listening to the whole exchange. Shawn got the distinct feeling that none of them had ever encountered a Digimon. He was also glad to see this kid could be surprised. He had unconsciously been continuing his upward revision of Loki's age – no matter how young he appeared, he acted and reacted like an adult.

It was Yamino who asked the obvious. "What exactly is a Digimon?"

And Mimi launched into an explanation that was more her usual style, involving how Digimon came from the Digiworld; only they'd first gotten theirs when she and Tai, Izzy, Matt and the rest had been sucked into the Digiworld; how lights from the sky had dropped devices at their feet and she'd been separated and chased and found, and Palmon had evolved into Togemon to fight a giant Teddy Bear who was actually also a Digimon and who was really nice only he'd been hit by a black gear and those, it turned out, had been sent by an evil rock star monkey Digimon, only before all that happened Tai's Digimon had Digivolved and then everyone's had done so to fight together and protect the children because, of course, this had happened years ago when they were around Loki's age...

The age Loki appears to be, Shawn thought to himself.

...and then later on they'd found the crests, one at a time, and she'd gotten hers, which helped Palmon Digivolve; and they'd gotten back home, and no time had passed at all but then bad Digimon started to come into the world because they were being sent...

Mayura's eyes were shining and her hair practically gave off sparks of excitement because she had just found the mystery to end all mysteries, but everyone else, even Fenrir the dog, was looking a little glazed.

And at this rate they might be here all day. Shawn decided he'd better take over the explanation. He held up one hand to stop Mimi in midflow.

"A long time ago, when Mimi was younger than Mayura here, she went away to summer camp. While she was there, she and some of the other campers were sucked into the digital world – a world that is connected to the energy that comes from computers and other electronics. While they were there they each found, or rather were found by, a creature which believed it had been waiting for its special person to appear. These creatures called themselves Digimon, short for digital monsters. They could change into a more powerful form when needed, usually two or three times, depending on the level of the threat."

Continuing, Shawn said, "Mimi's Digimon is Palmon – in her weakest form she is actually Tanemon and looks rather like a giant, floating turnip. Her first evolution – Digivolution – is Palmon, whose head stills looks turnip-like, but who has arms and legs and a short tail, and this is the form she likes best and usually takes. Her next form up is Togemon, which looks like a giant barrel cactus in boxing gloves and she's fairly dangerous in this form – she can shoot thousands of cactus needles out in all directions, for instance, as well as packing a wicked right hook. After that she can become Lillymon, who looks like a cross between a lovely flower and a rather sexy fairy, and, in spite of her delicate appearance, she is even more dangerous at this stage."

"And she's watching the kids," he added. "They'll be all right." Hopefully, he thought to himself.

Oddly, it was air-headed Mayura who broke the silence first.

"But you don't know for sure, do you? So you have to get home," she said compassionately.

She flashed around to Loki. Hands on hips, she stated, "That's it then. You have to take this case! We have a duty to solve it!"

"Mayura..." he started in a tone of long suffering patience. But she cut across.

"No. Kids need their parents. They need their mothers, and if they can't have them, they need their fathers. The agency has to take the case!" she repeated. Russet brown eyes locked with green ones in uncharacteristic firmness.

...And, surprisingly, Loki caved. That was the only word for it; Shawn could practically feel the inrush of air as something unseen gave way. Loki glanced back at Shawn and Mimi.

"You have no place to stay, of course. You'd better come home for supper and I'll have Yamino make up one of the spare rooms."