I have returned! When I started this story it was a collection of one shots, then after adding the baby, the story seemed to take on a life of it's own. At the time, I didn't know who the culprit of the baby mystery would be, but after I thought about it and planned it out, I wrote an outline that would see this story to it's end. Then that outline kept growing. This is one of those chapters that wasn't in the outline, but I think you will be amusing. :) Keep on sending reviews; this story feeds on them to grow bigger. Many thanks to my reviewers, the plot bunnies appreciate the food. :D

A Push in the Right Direction

Mystery 21: Fairy Tales

After prying the little Yako off his neck, Neuro resolved to go to the office and put slave number two and Akane to work searching for clues. Neuro had a feeling that the culprit involved in the baby's case and the one to blame for turning Yako into a toddler, might not be the same person, but he still didn't know the identity of either of them. "Get ready tiny slave, it's time to investigate."

xoxox xox xoxox

Before they went to the office, Yako had managed to change herself into a checker patterned shirt, which was as long as a dress on her small body and insisted on wearing a straw hat that would have been too big for the grown Yako and was enormous on the toddler.

Godai stared at Neuro as he arrived with the children, placing Mystery on Akane's desk and Yako on Godai's. Mystery would be kept amused if Akane simply tickled him now and then, but the little Yako would surely throw regular tantrums from hunger and slave umber two would have to feed her.

"What is this?" Godai lifted the little girl's straw hat and stared in shock at her face. "She looks just like Yako!" Godai had enough sense to know Mystery wasn't a normal human baby and that he hasn't been randomly abandoned at Yako's door; that would be far too convenient. Furthermore, there were too many similarities between Mystery and Neuro.

"I'm hungry," the little girl declared, calmly at first, but Neuro knew that wouldn't last long.

Godai was still in shock, but he had his theories. "Neuro, I don't know how your species' reproduction process works and I don't want to know, but if you and Yako keep having kids one after another, people will get suspicious." True that the girl who was supposedly younger than the boy actually looked older, but Godai decided that there were stranger things about Neuro's species. Maybe female babies were just born bigger, or maybe the size of a new born could randomly vary from baby to toddler. He pitied poor Yako if she had to lay a toddler sized egg.

Neuro decided not to reply and observed his second slave's stupidity.

"Little girl, where's your mother?" Godai was asking about Yako.

The little Yako thought about it and finally replied, "work; mommy and daddy are working." In her three year old mind, both her parents were still around and they were at work, leaving her with the man with glowing green eyes to take care of her. She was used to having different babysitters because they kept quitting one after another, terrified of her freakish appetite. Consequently she wasn't frightened to be left with a stranger, regardless of how strange he was. "I'm hungry," she repeated with more insistence and pouted.

The explanation made sense to Godai. Yako must be handing out flyers and Neuro was at the office, which was his work place. Poor Yako, having to work so soon after laying a huge egg; needless to say, Godai's theories were best left in silence. Godai glanced at Neuro quizzically, but only saw a blank expression in return, which he assumed meant feeding the child was his job. "What do you eat?"

"Everything!" The little girl cheered. Godai decided that he did not want to read too deep into her answer.

"Bring some raw meat and as many normal bentos as you can carry," Neuro instructed.

"Okay..." Godai knew there was no avoiding this and he was too weirded out to coherently protest, thus he went to purchase the requested food.

xoxox xox xoxox

Upon Godai's return, Mystery consumed the raw meat and Yako devoured the bentos. "So what's your name?" Godai inquired curiously but from a distance, he didn't want to lose an arm to the little bottomless pit. Yako's appetite mixed with Neuro strangeness was a dangerous combination.

"Yako!" The little girl replied between big mouthfuls of food. Godai assumed she was named after her mother because of the strong resemblance between them.

"Slave number two, it's time to investigate. Go out and use your connections to see if there is anyone who holds a grudge against Yako," Neuro ordered.

"I would guess a lot of criminals do because of all the mysteries she solved," technically, Neuro solved them, but in everyone's eyes, it was Yako.

"Find the one that stands out, someone unusual, now go," Neuro urged and grumbling all the way, Godai left. "Akane, search for the same on the internet."

Godai was out of the office and Akane was busy typing rapidly and precisely, yet somehow perceiving all the information on the screen with perfect clarity, despite being a braid of hair without eyes, or at least none outside what may be left of her long since dead body on the wall.

Yako and Mystery had finished their meals and made their way towards Neuro's desk. Yako tugged on his pant led, demanding attention, but Neuro ignored her until she bit his ankle. Amused, Mystery giggled and bit his other ankle, nibbling on his energy. Neuro removed the two children from his ankles and held them on his lap. "Little slave, don't give the hatchling a bad example, I'm not food."

"Story, story!" Yako demanded.

Neuro considered throwing her across the room, but knew she would start screaming, she could be crushed, but she would still scream even louder. She had no survival instinct to make her keep quiet. Neuro realized that as long as Yako was alive as a toddler, she would be loud, unless she was busy eating.

"Story!" Yako's high pitched voice echoed all over the building.

"When I find the one who did this..." Neuro muttered darkly. "Alright, one story," he finally complied. Neuro had read some human classic literature while studying the odd creatures, so he could use that as an acceptable human tale, but there had to be a few twists.

Neuro began his narration, "once upon a time there was an ugly girl who ate too much, her name was Yako. She lived with her two sisters, Akane and Kanae. One day, there was a ball in the royal palace in which the prince of the land would choose a new slave to assist him in solving all the mysteries of his kingdom. There would be a banquet at the ball and when she heard about that, Yako really wanted to go."

"However, Yako was a very ugly girl and knew the palace guards wouldn't let her in; they would recognize her as the ugly bottomless pit. She thought that if she wore a mask and a beautiful dress, that would be enough to hide her identity, but she didn't have either. She called her yakuza godfather and told him, 'Godai, I wish to go to ball, but need a mask and a beautiful dress and I don't have them, please help me!'"

"Then the yakuza godfather replied, 'don't worry Yako, I know a tailor that owes me money!' Thus Yako obtained the dress and mask. While she was getting ready, a mysterious package came in the mail containing glass slippers, which Yako decided to wear as well."

"Yako was able to enter the palace and started to feast on the ball's banquet until there was no more food left. Then the palace guard Sasazuka arrested her, but she devoured him too! So the handsome prince decided to dance with the bottomless pit to stop her from eating all his subjects."

"While they were dancing, Yako's glass slippers broke, because she was stupid enough to think glass was a strong enough material for shoes. She cut her feet with the pieces of glass and bled to death, the end!" When Neuro finished his narration, there was a moment of indignant silence.

Then little Yako took a deep breath and loudly demanded, "happy ever after!"

"Yes, yes, the prince lived happily ever after," Neuro replied.

Yako wasn't satisfied with that, "happy ever after! Happy ever after!" She kept screaming.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Neuro.