- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.

Ah, My Loki-sama!

written by Kurosu

- Chapter Twenty-Six.

Tyr, standing alone in Odin's court, shouldn't be so nervous at being summoned, but the last time he appeared here, he had been demoted from his lofty status of being worshipped as a heroic god to jaki-trash collector. Even a few centuries later, it still wasn't a pleasant memory - not the memory where one looked back and laughed at the hilarity of it - and he could only quietly fear the worst for his future.

He was afraid to look about, wondering if it was the appointed time that he was to meet the god of all gods, because said god had not arrived yet. It was like Odin was purposely making him wait, stewing in misery of the unknown, and Tyr cursed himself mentally for not taking the opportunity to see the Norns first to get a hint of what was to come.

He finally heard footsteps approaching the empty throne and quickly knelt down in respect as Odin appeared in the terribly lit throne room. One of the sconces in the back flickered like a dying firefly, so an annoyed Odin snapped his fingers and torched the thing into a giant blaze and sat down, not caring that the fire was catching on to the tapestry behind him.

"You may rise, Tyr," he ordered

Said god sweatdropped and stood up, "You summoned for me, Odin-sama?"

"Yes. I have a task for you."

At those words, Tyr tensed up and pursed his lips in a thin, tight line - at least he wasn't demoted or anything, maybe this was a job that could even promote him to... something higher? What was higher than a god? A god level two?

"I need you to travel to Jotunheim," he spoke at a steady pace to allow each word to soak into the warrior god's average, or perhaps below average, brain, "You are to retrieve a hand full of dirt from there."

He opened his hand and raised it in to the air, a swirl of cool magic danced in his palm for a few seconds and then revealed a fancy flask of immense power.

"You will also take this with you," he indicated the flask in his hand that eventually floated through the air and plopped itself in to Tyr's hands, "With this power and the earth from Jotunheim, you will then ride to Svartalfheim and give these two things to the dark elves there. They will know what to do upon word of my name.

"You will depart immediately."

As strange as the tasks were, but this being Odin anyway, they seemed easy to follow, and there was no need for him to question the Almighty because it wasn't his place to address it and that was just way too much work for a simple Tyr. It was obvious that the meeting had ended so, he just bowed and excused himself to start his journey, and on his way out, he passed by Baldur and gave a nod of acknowledgement to the young god.

Baldur walked up to his father, standing right below the steps leading up to the throne, and sweatdropped at the blazing tapestry in the background. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking very serious, but it was difficult to express such an emotion when the sight of your intimidating father on his throne with flames dancing in the background fell between dramatics or just ridiculousness.

Odin didn't even need to speak, because he was just that nonchalant and cool (according to him) and just stared at his son until the he finally spoke, "What do you plan to do, father? Now that Hel is on Midgard.

"If she has left the Underworld, then she must be plotting something."

"Don't worry, I will have someone deal with Hel for her insubordination."

"You should take care of Loki too."

"Hmm... he hasn't done something that warrants death," Odin figured the humiliation of his stolen, gold ring by Loki wasn't a matter to be discussed, period, and they were still blood-sworn brothers after all, so there should at least be some honor in meeting him on the battlefield.

Baldur growled, biting his fingernail (like a conniving, little brat) at his failure of convincing his father to get rid of Loki for good, even if this was for his own personal grudge against the ever popular, handsome god. As he mentally retraced all the information reported to him about the events on Midgard, he made a list of Loki's weaknesses, which happened to be quite a few that he would have trouble dealing with, except for one.

He oh-so smiled evilly, "Father!"

"Yes?" He looked up from his daily Asgard newspaper briefly before returning his eyes to the print again.

"You must do something about the mortal girl! I've read from the latest reports of how she subdued a group of jaki by just her voice! No mortal should have such powers! She will become a threat to us!"

Odin stared at his very dramatic son over the trivial matter of a mortal who could bewitch a few mischievous spirits, but he could tell that Baldur would not shut up if he didn't give it some thought. As much as he loved his favorite son, all kids at some point would become so goddamn annoying, and this just might be Baldur's moment to shine or fizzle...

He folded the newspaper up and laid it in his lap, and with a long sigh, he told him, "If you believe so, then I will leave it to you. Perhaps you can speak to Thor on the matter."

"Hmm," Baldur grinned at the suggestion, "I believe you're right, father. I haven't spoken to my dear brother in a decade."

"Good, now let me read the news in peace," he opened up the papers again, as Baldur turned to leave, both forgetting about he fire still burning in the background. And one could hear Odin mumbling to himself, "I wonder what the Norns say about my horoscope today." (Perhaps death by fire?!)

Back on Midgard, it was a beautiful Saturday morning at the Daidouji shrine, which had become such a huge attraction in the neighborhood due to all the gods and goddesses residing there. So on this particular day, the place was bombarded with patrons and many visitors throughout the neighborhood and nearby districts, and even a few foreign tourists who was recommended by word of mouth.

Even if her father was around - but he was still away - there was no way they could cater to the crowd with just two or three people, so Mayura and Narugami had no choice but to request aid from the rest of the Asgard pantheon of immortals. Sadly, the gods were the very reason these people were flocking to the shrine that Saturday morning, attracted by the obvious beauty and charisma.

After each person was given a set of proper shrine wear and dressed, they regrouped in the common room as Mayura inspected everyone, complimenting how they practically blinded her with their heavenly beauty, though Kazumi was the only one in a sour mood because he was the only kid there. (Lol, sorry, Heimdall-chan. I couldn't help but laugh... rofl... sorry *still laughing* Omigodz... I need to keep typing...)

After a very energetic pep talk that Mayura didn't allow any flirting or making passes, especially towards their mortal visitors and said shrine girl in charge, giving Loki and Freya the evil eye, she gestured everyone to follow her because she was going to put all of them to work. Even the whiny and cute human Fenrir was no exception, and he had to resort to his Ichirou identity for the time being.

As everyone followed Mayura out the front door, Kazumi called out to Freya. She stopped and turned around, just in time to catch something within her hands. Her lovely eyes widened at the object she held, a small gasp escaped her lips at seeing her beloved Brisingamen necklace, being returned to her, but she had embarrassingly pawned it off over two weeks ago in desperation for money.

Speechless, she stared at it then turned to Kazumi, at least wanting to thank him for retrieving it for her, but how would he have known anyway. She opened her mouth to speak, but he had waved her off, "I just happened to have found it." He made his way to her, eventually passing by her, "And returning it to its rightful owner."

He stopped in the doorway, a hand held on the frame, glancing up to her, "You will need it." With that said, he disappeared after the others, leaving a puzzled Freya with her jewelry. There was no use in trying to decrypt his words, so she shrugged it off and placed the necklace around her neck.

Mayura, currently ultra queen of the shrine, had mandated jobs to each person, sending beautiful Freya and handsome Loki to greet the visitors in the front courtyard, which helped bring in more potential patrons, because who could say no when a pretty person was staring one straight in the eye. Loki sometimes wondered if the girl was smarter than she let on, wishing he was doing something else, privately, than entertaining a bunch of strangers. He couldn't believe she was willingly throwing him to a bunch of mortal she-wolves.

"Tough luck, Loki-sama," she grinned in his direction after seeing his pitiful, unbelievable expression. He gave her a look that promised of future punishment as soon as the last crowds dispersed, but she only ran off, laughing at his misfortunes.

Freya, despite being surrounded by her admirers, had seen the display between two and frowned inwardly, still gracing the men her charming smiles.

Not too far, like right in the background, poor Freyr and Yamino were stuck at the souvenir stand, in charge of the sales of little trinkets and omamori charms, which were very popular at the shrine. Many of the women and children were swarmed at the booths, browsing through the cute array of charms for all occasions from safety and protection to love and good luck. Surprisingly, some were made by Narugami, noted by the clumsy detail of a fold or the stroke of a character - having been a type of focus training for the young apprentice from his master, to really keep him from destroying the more important areas of the shrine.

Off to the side of the pathway, Hel-chan and Kazumi along with Ichirou - aka Fenrir - in the small administrative building, were busy answering questions relating to the Shinto religion or to the shrine itself. The puppy-turned-human had no idea what was going on, so he ended up just sitting there, pretending to still be the adorable puppy that was able to entice treats and rewards from gullible humans, but unfortunately, he owned received requests for dates, which he scowled to.

"I can't eat dates!" he would huff out in annoyance, after the females left him, giggling.

Kazumi and Hel-chan sweatdropped, as the latter said thoughtfully, "Well, ani-ue, if you're speaking about the other kind of dates that you can actually eat..."

The smaller god rolled his eye, "You would get food if you go on these dates, but considering how you're just a wolf and broke, they are quite the unattractive qualities."

"Yeah, that's why mortal girls are so annoying!" the naïve demi-god continued to rant.

And that left the rest of the important shrine duties to Mayura and Narugami, having more experiences even if the latter had only recently picked up the apprenticeship. It was practically a three-week crash course in the Shinto religion and rituals, which was really a one-week course for Narugami who spent most of the time fixing what he destroyed. After a few blessings, he was getting the hang of it, and most of the time just mimicked his female partner, who was very adept in performing the rituals, having grown up with the religion.

Loki thought it was ironic that the mortal, who once didn't believe in gods, grew up in the Shinto religion that believed and followed the path of many gods, but he knew the reason why she had become that way, from her file. It was quite admirable of her in a way, how she continued through life with that piece of hindrance of her faith, but it was their fateful meeting - not that he believed in fate, per se, or left himself in the hands of the Norn sisters - that had changed the both of them.

Being around her, being with her, he realized how fragile human life could be and had forgotten the special connection between gods and mortals that originated from ancient times. The flow of time truly changed that symbiotic relationship - from the once intermingling between the various races to living in seperate worlds and calling upon prayers to grant wishes - becoming a large gap that stretched across the Nine Worlds.

Yet he, a proud, elite god, was here on Midgard, had created a strange but special bond with a peculiar mortal girl, though he wasn't alone in this journey as his gaze fell across the shrine landscape, identifying each immortal and his/her reasons for willingly or unwillingly joining him in the silly adventures.

Oh, and even more ironic was the fact that a Shinto shrine of Japan was literally housing a group of gods, gods from mythology that originated from half away around the world.

Loki closed his eyes and smiled at the thought, enjoying the warmth of the sun upon his skin and the breeze wafting through the golden silks of his hair, and many women swooned and fainted on the spot. He inwardly sighed at the background noise ruining the peaceful moment for him, also reminding him that he still had a job to do. The twitch of his eye muscle was a sign that he was going to truly punish Mayura dearly for her transgressions, and he prayed (to himself?) that the day would be over quickly.

By the time mid-afternoon rolled around, most of the crowds had unwillingly died out, not wanting to part from the greatest shrine in Japan, but if they didn't, the authorities would pull in and force a lock down and maybe begin an investigation of a possible cult that was brainwashing half of Tokyo's population to do nefarious deeds. They just couldn't have that and dealt with making a visit the next day a priority.

The remaining visitors were gradually leaving the property, which allowed Yamino to duck from his sales job and begin to make lunch for everyone. Mayura gathered everyone together, offering a grateful smile and a deep bow (and maybe a debt) for their assistance that day. She wanted them to take a break and enjoy the rest their day and excused herself to finish cleaning up.

Freya happily latched onto a sweatdropping Loki's arm, preventing him from seeking out his pink-haired target, which Freyr appeared to be doing already, insisting that he had a ton of energy left to help the girl in her tasks. Mayura smiled and nodded, her pleasant expression flustered the idiot to the point he was stuttering and tripping after her, and Gullinbursti even tagged along.

Loki's left eye was being all twitchy again, watching Mayura walk off with the klutz as if he didn't exist a tall, but he was quite wrong. The girl had glanced back to him, still in Freya's clutches, and he noted the furrowed brows and pout before she whipped her head away. Loki blinked, trying to take in her reaction as jealousy, and smiled, "Say, Freya."

"Yes, Loki-darling?" she nuzzled her cheek against the sleeve of his outfit, as he sweatdropped.

"Uh, why... don't we go help out too."

She sighed happily, oh-so very content on being with Loki and doing anything with him, "Anything for you Loki~!"

"Why don't you take these, Freyr-sama," Mayura pointed to the extra boxes by the sales booth, "to the storage room. I'll put away the rest."

"Yes~ my lovely Yamato Nadeshiko~!" he sang, overly delighted because he was now spending some quality time with his female perfection, and twirled around in her direction with outstretched arms, yearning for her loving embrace. He could just imagine her giggling in his arms as he snuggled his cheek against her hair, but if he had been in reality he would have noticed that... Mayura had ducked down to pick up a fallen charm on the ground, so poor Freyr's face slammed right into the pole of the booth.

Gullinbursti, sweatdropping, winced, "Bwee..."

"Nee-chan," Kazumi called out, walking over to Mayura, "Hel needs to talk to you." He looked over to a semi-conscious, spirally-eyed Freyr and sweatdropped, "Er, I guess I'll help out."

"Ah okay, thanks, Kazumi-kun!"

She handed the box she had to him and hurried off to find Hel-chan. After she left, Kazumi stomped over to Freyr and dropped the box onto his chest, bringing the god back to reality. "Let's finish, Freyr," he ordered, "There's not much time left on Midgard."

Freyr sits up, with crossed legs and the box in his lap, as he rubbed his forehead, which was already wrinkling with pain and confusion, "What do you mean?"

Kazumi looked down at him, seriously, "There's no turning back from this point. We can't return to these carefree days anymore." He raises his eye to the blue afternoon skies, and Freyr and Gullinbursti followed his gaze, both squinting and trying to see what was important up there (besides Asgard?).

"We're not freelance gods... We belong in Asgard."

Kazumi picked up a box and carried it away, leaving a bewildered god and his pet piglet.

Seeing that it was just Kazumi and Freyr and Gullinbursti in the distance, Loki had turned back, still with Freya attached to his arm, and he sighed, wondering how much longer his arm had before the circulation was cut off. He needed a magical crowbar crafted by the dwarves of Nidavellir to pry her, but all was forgotten when he spotted his eldest son on the shrine steps.

After the tough afternoon of human labor, Fenrir was still in his powerless form, since he probably had about four hours left, stretching his arms and legs. He would never understand mortals who enjoyed that type of work, or any work for that matter since all he ever did was eat, sleep, poop, eat more and sleep some more while harassing everyone else, which came down to pure slacking off.

"Fenrir," came Loki's voice, and he perked up like the obedient, attentive son that he was.

He glared at Freya, who returned the mutual feeling, before joyfully answering his father, "Yes, daddy?!"

"Have you seen Mayura?"

Fenrir shook his head, "No clue, daddy." He thought for a moment, "I haven't seen Hel either."

Freya, thinking too, put a finger to her chin, "Hm, you know, I haven't seen Thor for a while either."

Great, who else had gone missing?!

Speaking of Narugami, he had wandered off with the crowd of visitors when they were parting from the shrine, following someone he thought was very suspicious, nevermind that he didn't bother to let his partner and the rest know of his intuition. After a bit of trailing the stranger, he followed the young man into a very expensive-looking restaurant and was stopped by the host, who greeted him hesitantly because of his Shinto wear he still had on and Mjollnir strapped to his back.

"I'm just looking for someone," Narugami tried to explain, peering over the separation, and found his target. He followed the man with his eyes, frowning with a terrible feeling in his gut, and when the man reached his designated table, he turned around, smiling in Narugami's direction.

"That bastard!" he cried and marched right in to the dining area, up to the seated man, "Baldur! What in the Nine Worlds are YOU doing here?!"

A flustered host had chased the intruder down, but Baldur, oozing out an aura of the rich and powerful, waved the old man away. He complied and scurried back to his post, leaving the two brothers to stare each other down. Baldur snapped his fingers for a server and requested their best red wine before turning back to Narugami and gesturing for him to sit in the empty chair across from him, but Narugami didn't budge, still staring him down.

"Is that any way to greet your own brother, Thor?"

Narugami raised a brow, curiously, asking, "Are you here as my brother?"

"Of course," he gave a kind smile, one that seemed to work for Narugami, who took Mjollnir from his back and finally sat down, laying his faithful weapon on the table in front of him.

"I see you're having a difficult time here," he eyed his brother's outfit, "Working to make ends meet?"

"Seriously, Baldur, I hate all this fancy talk. Just get to the point."

"Father and I were just concern for your well-being."

"..."

"We would like you to return home."

For Narugami, it just sounded too good to be true, "What's the catch?"

"There's a small problem on Midgard you just have to take care of."

"What is it?" he looked up when he spotted the server returning to them, with a tray of the ordered wine bottle and two wine glasses. They waited till the cork was popped and the wine poured into both goblets and placed in front of each men. The man bowed and departed, and the conversation resumed.

"You need to eliminate someone."

Narugami frowned, knowing very well Baldur's animosity with Loki, and pounded his fist on the table, "I will not betray my best friend!"

Baldur rolled his eyes and took a sip of the wine, while Narugami ignored his.

"Loki is not your target," he snorted, "As much as I would like it to be."

"So you do have your own agenda after all," Narugami stood up and snatched Mjollnir from the table.

"Wait, Thor!"

Baldur, half out of his chair, had grabbed his brother's wrist to hold him back and offered his other hand to him, showing him a metal head plate sewn right into the length of the navy blue fabric - a head guard that ninjas of ancient times wore for protection, "I offer you Megingjoro, as good faith on my word. If you eliminate our problem, then your return will to Asgard secured." *

Narugami stared down at the item that once belonged to him, "What about Loki and the others?"

"Their opportunity will appear."

He wasn't technically lying, but he wasn't going to offer his enemy nor the others the chance to return to Asgard. That wasn't his job anyway, but he had to choose his words carefully, "But yours is right now, Thor."

The swordsman sighed and snatched Megingjoro head guard from his brother's hand, sealing their deal, which received a very creepy, evil smile from Baldur. Narugami narrowed his eyes at him, sudden regret surfacing in his stomach. He gritted his teeth, clutching both his possessions in his hands tightly as Baldur laughed.

Now that the agreement between two gods had been made, no matter what, Narugami could not turn it down or forfeit it all, because a god's word was his life, and his eyes widened as Baldur spoke...

"Daidouji Mayura."

* Megingjoro is originally Thor's belt in Norse mythology, but I made it as a head guard to fit in with the Japanese culture, lol. Though I could've left it as a belt. *shrugs* Wouldn't you like to know what is inscribed on the metal part? Bwahaha, I'll tell you later. *grins*

Notes: I can't believe this was so long! I know this chapter had little of Mayura and/or MayuLoki-ness, but it had some important scenes, lol... as hilarious as the first one could be... *sweatdrops* Sorry, I have a habit of adding some humor to serious moments.

Dundunduuun, poor Narugami has to kill Mayura! But Loki won't let that happen! I know I've made Baldur's such a jerk, different from mythology, but I dunno... I guess someone had to be evil... besides Odin. Baldur will get his due punishment later... in the future? Lol. Okay I'm rambling now... and this chapter is 4k+ words! Yikes! Which makes this particular story my number one story with the most chapters AND the most word count! Phew! -kuro.