Chapter 27: A Girlfriend and Oil Fires?

Good to her word, Mayura went to Tokyo University the next day. Loki walked his normal route to classes. He knew that at least half the 'I love Loki' fan club had would be waiting for him. Deciding to make known their relationship as soon and as loudly as possible; Loki pulled Mayura into his side and held her around the waist.

"Loki! What are you doing?" asked Mayura alarmed. "We're in public."

"I know. But I thought you wanted to create an 'I hate that ugly girlfriend' club?"

"I do, but could we just hold hands please?" begged Mayura.

"Alright," conceded Loki. Loki sweat-dropped and placed his hand behind his head. "Sometimes I still forget I'm in Japan."

"How Loki? You've lived here almost half of your life."

Ahhh… think Loki, think Loki.

"Are you okay Loki? You feel nervous for some reason."

"Oh… it's just that sometimes the people here remind me of my first home so much that I forget. And I feel somewhat silly for making that mistake." That's the third time today she's known my emotions when I was positive it wasn't on my face. What's going on?

"L… O… V… E… Love Me… Loki!" sang a group of girls dancing something between the YMCA and the chicken dance. "Gibberish gibberish gibberish love! Gibberish gibberish gibberish LOVE! L… O… V… E… Love Me… Loki!" Twirling around each girl ended in a different victory pose holding strange hand signs. Mayura was able to recognize a single V.

"Umm… Loki? Why making weird shapes with their hands?" whispered Mayura into Loki's ear.

"Its sign language," replied Loki in the same manner.

"What are they saying?"

"Love me Loki."

"You were right. They are scary."

"Excuse me!" screamed one of the fan girls and dragged Mayura away. "What were you doing within five feet of Loki without another female present? Don't you know the rules? I think they need to be explained to you again. Obviously one of our sisters did not inform you properly…

One, we do not steal the Prince's belongings.

One, we do not invade the Prince's home.

One, when addressing him, more than two must be present.

One, the titles of the Prince are as follows:

For seniors… Loki!

For juniors… Loki-kun!

For sophomores… Loki-san!

For freshman… Loki-sama!

Live long the Prince.

Loki clapped from behind. "I have to congratulate you on your originality. Weren't those exact words taken from Fruits Basket by Takaya Natsuki?"

"There's nothing wrong with taking the bylaws of a great society!" answered the strange girl as she turned around. "Loki! I didn't know it was you. My humblest apologies."

"Ah… president?"

"You know who I am? I didn't know…"

"It's written on that big button your wearing," commented Loki pointing.

"Oh… ohohohohohoho… of course it is."

"I just wanted to know, what are you doing with my girlfriend?"

"Girl… girlfriend? For how long?"

"Oh, almost six months now, but we've known each other for years. Come on Mayu-chan," stated Loki as he grabbed Mayura's hand again. "We'd better get moving or I'll be late for class. Nice talking to you president."

"Ah… yes, oh course Loki."

Loki stopped and turned around. "And by the way president… I'd prefer it if you called me Farbautisen-san. We don't know each other very well after all. Have a nice day." Loki and Mayura walked away.

"You're going down 'Mayu-chan.' I'll make sure your studies at Tokyo University will be hell. Ohohohohohohohoho"

.

.

.

"Mayu-chan, I talked to the instructor. Since this class is co-ed and on Friday's we have free swim, he said you could join in on the class."

"Co-ed? But gym classes are always separated."

"Originally there was too classes, one for the males and one for the females. But they're teacher came down sick and is in the hospital, so they had to join our class."

"Hooray! I just love swimming. But aren't there 'I love Loki' fan club girls in your class then Loki?"

"Fortunately all their rules stop them from annoying me in class."

"Let's get ready to go swimming! Yeah!"

This is going to be a long period.

.

.

.

"Hey, check out that new chick," stated one of the guys floating at the end of the pool.

"She's hot."

"I wonder when she transferred into this class," Heimdall mused.

"She's a supermodel."

"She's my girlfriend," commented Loki.

"No way! Mr. I have every girl in the school drooling over me has a girl friend! I'd a thought you'd stay single for as long as possible while dating as many girls as possible."

"Why did you bring her here? Now you wouldn't be able to cheat on her, like you know you want to," prodded Heimdall.

"Shut up Kazumi-kun. You're playing with fire."

"And should that scare me? Not in a pool," Heimdall snickered.

"Hey, why should we complain guys? If the leader drops out of the race, that puts us one car closer to the top."

"Will you stop comparing everything to auto racing Ken?! You're my friend since elementary school, but sometimes you freak me out."

"What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong?! It's creepy Ken. That's what. Don't you agree with me Kazumi-kun? And besides…"

"And besides what?"

"I'm going to talk to my girl friend. Umm… bye." Loki quickly swam away, not wanting to get stuck in another argument between those two. Have fun Heimdall.

"Loki, do you like the one-piece swim suit?" asked Mayura as she spun around to model for Loki.

Trying to notice other things besides her well shown off figure Loki commented, "You braided your hair."

"Of course! It's too awkward to not too. But I guess most guys wouldn't have experience with that. Watch out I'm coming in," called out Mayura right before she cannon balled into the deep end of the pool.

Loki peered up out of the water sputtering. "Why'd you do that?" asked Loki as he replayed a mantra in his head. My head is above the water. My head is above the water. My head is above the water. My head is above the water. My head is above the water. My head…

"Loki, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Loki lied.

"No your not, you're lying. Something's scared you."

"Really, I'm fine."

"Don't lie to me Loki," Mayura whispered forcefully. "I don't know why I know you're lying. I just do. So tell me. Please… I'm worried about you Loki."

"Let's go over to that side of the pool first, okay."

"You're not getting out of this Loki."

"Alright, I promise I'll tell you. But let's go over where they're no other people please?" How did she know I was lying? I can keep a straight face through almost anything, especially when I'm lying. Am I losing my abilities as a trickster god?

Arriving at the area he specified, Loki leaned against the pool edge with his arms over the side and stared at the folded bleachers against the wall. "Aren't you going to tell me?" asked Mayura.

Loki sighed and looked at Mayura. "Do you remember the conversation Professor Ikari and I had after class?"

"You were talking about a Trickster god called… called Loki!"

"Hush… I don't want everyone to hear this Mayu-chan," whispered Loki.

"Sorry. But how do you have the same the same name as a god? Are… are you saying that… that that god I met, the one you're associated with is the Norse god Loki?"

"How did you figure that out?"

"Well, if you look like each other and you've decided to dress like him too, why not have the same name. Mystery!"

Sometimes your insights are so accurate its scary Mayu-chan, and yet you take them in the completely wrong direction. Luckily for me that you're so trusting Mayura. "Well, Loki isn't just the god of tricks. He's also the god of fire."

"And you don't like water because of that? Because Loki-sama doesn't like water?" asked Mayura.

"Exactly, fire's mortal enemy is water. And well, when my head's underwater, I become really weak." Loki-sama?!

"Why did you take a swimming class then?"

"Kazumi-kun thought it would be funny and fixed my schedule so I had to take this class."

"That's really mean. But why don't you just beat your problem with water? That would show Kazumi-kun."

"But how can I Mayu-chan? Fire always loses to lots of water," comments Loki as he waves at the pool.

Mayura stared off into space, concentrating. "Pretend you're a fire that water hates."

"Eh?"

"When I was little, they taught us in school about all the types of house fires and how to put them out. Most used water, or dirt and if it was on our clothes we were told to 'Stop, drop, and roll'. Our teachers made us sing this cute little song too."

"You don't have to sing it Mayu-chan. I believe you. And I think we should at least tread water now, or I'll get in trouble."

"Okay, but it was a really cute song Loki! Ah… does that mean if you were buried in the sand at the beach you'd start to feel bad?"

"No… coal fires can last for hundreds of years underground."

"And you just think about coal fires?"

"No not actually. It's a really complicated procedure to describe."

"Oh."

First I have to realize which type of fire would be best in a given situation and then I internally shape shift the fire I'm currently associating with to the type I want. And everyone thinks I developed my shape shifting ability just to pull pranks and hide. It's an added bonus sure, but without shape shifting almost anything could destroy me.

"Well anyway, our teacher told us that water was very bad to use against electrical fires because the electricity would go through the water and hurt us. Special fire extinguishers are made for those types of fires."

"I still miss the point Mayu-chan. You don't use water to put out that fire because it would be dangerous to you. Not that it wouldn't stop the fire."

"I'm getting to that Loki! And finally we were told that there was one fire you should never, ever put water on. And it was one of the most common causes of fire in a house too."

"Well?"

"A grease fire Loki. Adding water only spreads it and makes the flames taller."

Why didn't I think of that?!!!! It was staring me right in the face! A grease fire… the answer couldn't be anymore obvious. There have been plenty of fires on the ocean. The Exxon Valdez, the fires in Kuwait… Oil burning on water! The water can't mix with the fuel, and therefore is ineffective! "And how do you remember all this information so well Mayu-chan?"

"I didn't believe my teacher and tried putting water on a grease fire at home," Mayura replied shamefully. "Luckily papa was home at the time and knew to put baking soda on it and cover the pan."

"That was real dangerous Mayu-chan."

"I know that now. But I was only seven and it was a fushigi mystery!"

"You must have driven your father crazy when you were younger."

"Yeah, I probably did. But now you should be fine in the water, unless you also get pounds of baking soda dumped on you! Let's test it!" Mayura jumped up in the water and pushed Loki's head under. Seeing that Loki wasn't injured, she started to swim quickly away.

"Mayu-chan! I can still drown you know! I'm going to get you for that!"

"But you have to catch me first Loki!

Author's Note: Would have been up sooner if I was given a server. Oh well
I loved writing this chapter, it was so much fun. I realize that I took away Loki's weakness, but the other Norse gods don't seem to have such obvious weaknesses—it's not fare! Anyway, these turn of events will be used later in the story. Hehe…

I fixed the weird signs/characters in "Locked In" if anyone hasn't noticed. Sorry, wasn't loading and posting the same way. It was fine on quick edit and messed up on the actual post. But it's okay, everything fixed.

Fix from last Author's Note: The two teams playing were the Hartford Senators and the Pittsfield Hillies, not the Pittsburg Hillies. And the rules were from 1882 not 1892. Everything else was right though.

To Master: Loki in a swimming suit… yeah.

To Manda-chan: Tickle attacks are fun. And of course Heimdall is a meanie, that's the reason for his existence as long as Loki lives.

To Kitiara de Astaroth: Glad you love it.

To Melrose Stormhaven: I copied it fan club verbatim. I have Fruits Basket on my computer and watched that part over and over again until I had it all typed down.

To akuweaselgirl: Heimdall is going to get comeuppance, and I'm a Loki fangirl so…

To Erinys: Glad that the title gave you shudders; it gave my beta reader shudders too. Course, he knows me way too well and already knew what I had written and was dreading it—I couldn't have pulled him away from the computer if I tried.

To Bibliomaniac: It's going to be cute for awhile, but with definite plot progression.