Herbal Green Tea
Disclaimer: I still don't own Matantei Loki Ragnarok… but doesn't stop me from writing stories about it! Bwahahahaha!
Author's Notes: I'd really like to thank everyone who bothered to read this fic. I'm quite aware that there is (and will still have in future chapters) insanity in this story (and I'm wondering why I haven't scared you people off already) O.O More trouble brews as more characters enters the scene! Hehe… I smell other gods…
Chapter Two
When Thor, or more commonly known as Narugami, came to the human world, he didn't expect to be a human student nor did he expect to be a human student working hard to death on part time jobs. He didn't even expect when he found Loki and learned that his friend-turned-enemy-for-a-moment-then-turned-friend-again was transformed into a boy.
He expected though that other gods would soon follow him and hunt down Loki. Heck, he even expected that all the other gods would screw up and would eventually just stay here and cause mayhem themselves – himself included.
So, he expected a bit that when he went to Loki's house (why does Loki get a house that big while he only gets more part time jobs was beyond Narugami) for some freeloading that the usual mayhem would occur – shouts, first to touch first to own basis when eating, occasional evil auras out to destroy their peace, gods popping out of nowhere, etc. And so he was surprised when he entered his friend's place and found that there was a different kind of trouble already present. But nevertheless, it was still trouble, just a bit different than usual.
When he saw his friends at the study room doing what they usually do – Loki reading newspapers by his desk, Mayura mumbling something about mysteries, Yamino and Fenrir bickering (Yamino reprimanding and glaring while Fenrir was growling and threatening), and Ecchan sleeping – he assumed that nothing was out of ordinary. But when he greeted them with his usual "Yo!", their responses just freaked him out.
Loki looked from his newspaper, said something like "Geerrritt", then raised a white board out of nowhere with the words -Hello, Narukami-kun- written on it.
Mayura was started out of her 'mystery' thoughts then turned to Narugami, the back of her hand scratching her cheek. "Ah, meow… Hi, nyao Narugami-kun!" she said while her head tilted a bit from left to right, occasionally 'meowing'.
Yamino stopped from sipping from his tea and greeted him, "G-good mo-morning, Na-narugami-sa-san," as if he stuttered all throughout his life.
Fenrir barked in acknowledgement and Ecchan woke up and said "Punyan!"
Narugami had to admit that the only ones that appeared normal at that moment were the smallest and furriest ones.
So, like any normal person, he stood there for a full minute before he took a deep breath and calmed his frantic nerves. He asked a very polite: "What is wrong with you people?" Calming one's nerves was always hard to do when one's friends are acting weirdly. 'In this situation,' Narugami offhandedly thought, 'weirder than normal.'
Everyone all looked at him for a moment and suddenly remembered their 'problems' that Narugami unfortunately didn't know yet.
Loki raised his white board. -Narukami-kun, please take a seat and we'll try to explain to you what happened- it said.
Mayura ushered the very confused Narugami to sit beside her, still meowing. Yamino offered the high school boy a cup of tea to, as the Yamino put it, 'c-calm h-him do-down'. Narugami, looking at them weirdly during the whole time, took the cup a bit shaken and sipped.
"A-ah we-well, h-how d-do we-we e-explain t-this?" Yamino bit his lower lip. He had encountered a great deal of problems before but this one clearly stood out in particular. He sat at the couch, across from the other two teens and glanced at Mayura in particular for help.
The girl scratched her cheek again using the back of her right hand. She meowed, "We don't nyow exactly how this happened but all of a sudden Yamino-san started to meow stutter against his will, and then Loki-kun can't speak anything understandable and when I got here," she tilted her head a bit to the left, scratching her left ear with the back of her hand again, "I somehow got this cat-like habits." There was that glint in her eyes again before she declared, "It's a mystery!"
Narugami drank from his tea. "Okay…" he mumbled. Then he drank again but - Mayura noticed - with large gulps.
'Here I am trying to freeload and I get something strange instead,' Narugami thought as he continued to drink from his tea, 'But this shouldn't surprise me. After battling gods and warding off evil in their worst forms, yeah, this is completely normal. Yup, it's perfectly normal, just… a bit unexpected.'
"This tea is good…" he commented after he got over his initial surprise and actually tasted the tea he had been drinking.
Yamino smiled sheepishly. "A-ah i-it's n-new. I-I j-just got i-it from m-mail-or-ordering," he said, sipping from his own cup too.
"Ahh…"
After convincing himself that his friends' condition was normal, Narugami remembered Mayura's enumeration of what happened.
"Hey, Daidouji, what you just said was all true?" The meowing girl nodded. "Loki can't say anything understandable?" Narugami asked and received something like "Yuuuniimmrrphh wwaaaateenniiikkrr" from the detective reading the newspaper. "And you're now a human cat and Megane(1) here stutters when he speaks?" Mayura meowed in agreement and Yamino said a "Y-yes".
Narugami slapped his right hand on his forehead. "Just what kind of mess have you gotten yourselves into this time?" he muttered while he buried his head further on his right hand, which was slowly descending near his eyes.
Loki raised the white board with his left hand while reading the newspaper on his right. It said: -A really big and weird mess, Narukami-kun-
Narugami peeped through in between the fingers covering his eyes and read what his friend said. He buried his face again. Suddenly, his body started to shake and he chuckled.
Soon, his chuckle turned into a deep laugh.
Mayura blinked in wonder at her friend beside her. Narugami wasn't the type to really laugh in a situation where his friends were in trouble. And, his laugh wasn't even sarcastic.
The others also had the same thought and they looked at their friend who was still laughing his heart out.
When Narugami's laughter had subsided a bit, Mayura touched his shoulder, worried and wondering. "Narugami-kun? Are you alright?" she asked, her tone still held a meowing tone.
"Hahaha… I don't know why I'm laughing. I hehe…" Narugami chuckled, "I suddenly felt the urge to laugh for no reason." He shook his head and touched his throbbing head with his right hand.
"Eeiiinngghh!" the detective said, alarmed. He had a feeling Thor's sudden laughing was familiar. He quickly wrote something on the board near him. He then called the attention of the people present by uttering, "Gaaahh!"
Written on the white board:
-Unfortunately, I think Narugami-kun's having whatever effect we are currently in. Just a different one-
As if on cue, the said boy laughed again for no reason.
Fenrir smirked, Yamino 'uh-oh'-ed, and Mayura 'eep'-ed.
Yamino had his right hand under his chin. "J-just e-exactly w-what i-is ha-happening? I-is t-this a c-curse?" Yamino asked no one in particular, wracking his brains for some logical reason for what has befallen them.
Narugami had his hands on his sides, across and holding his stomach. "Hahaha… Loki, if this is your doing, I'm so going to stab you with Mjollnir," he threatened, which didn't succeed because he was laughing so hard and he looked as if he had never laughed before.
"P-prob-bably s-some k-kind o-of p-punishm-ment for a-all t-the f-freeload-ding…?" Yamino asked, a bit distracted from his musings.
Loki knew that what his son said was the wrong answer. And if Narugami wasn't in a laughing state right now, Yamino just signed his death certificate.
As it was, Narugami only had time to glare at the green haired man across from him. "Huh? What did you say, Megane?" he asked in a tone that suggested a redirection of Mjollnir's stabbing. His glare – Fenrir noted – was fierce but would still be nothing compared to Loki's.
Yamino's musing disappeared as quick as a bubble's burst and he waved his hands quickly in front of him in a kind of defense. "A-ah, I-I j-just w-wondered h-how nice i-it w-was t-to have y-your p-presence w-with u-us…" he said lamely.
The green haired man didn't know what Narugami's reaction would have been since the high school boy was back to laughing his head off.
The detective raised an eyebrow at this. 'I think Yamino-kun's stuttering just now was real,' he thought, amused.
But before Loki could think more about Yamino and Narugami's situation, they were all startled by what Mayura just did.
The girl just jumped out of the window near Loki - the window which was two stories high.
And before Loki knew it, he was looking out at the window, jumping from it too, and was following Mayura's back.
"Hnn!" he called. Loki noticed that Mayura was using both her hands and feet while running, making her run fast. 'She's really becoming a cat.'
He could still hear the echo of different shouts from the window which he and Mayura just jumped from. There was a stuttering "Ma-mayura-sa-san!", a cheerful "Haha Mayura! Haha…", a worried "Punyan!", and an annoyed "Hey!" from Fenrir which was his not normal way of expressing his concern.
When he saw the girl slowing down, he also did so, noticing that they were now at a nearby street from where his house was.
He was panting when he reached Mayura, so he regained his breath first before doing anything else. 'Being in this form sure takes a lot of energy,' he thought dryly.
He wanted to ask Mayura what was wrong but considering his condition, he opted for a questioning "Hn?"
Mayura had her eyebrows creased and she was sniffing like a cat, looking from left to right and back. She meowed again.
"I smell something."
'Okay…' Loki thought, 'I don't think I understood that.'
So, he tried again. "Hn?"
The sniffing girl seemed to hear what Loki thought since she looked at her friend and said plainly, "I smell something fishy." And then she resumed her sniffing.
Loki had to blink.
'I just hope this is connected to whatever's happening to us all of a sudden,' he thought, 'because jumping out of a window to a mortal's probable death only to get worked up for nothing is certainly not good.'
"Here it comes!" Mayura said suddenly, her left arm waving excitedly.
'Here comes what?' the detective asked himself.
"Ah, Yamato Nadeshiko! What a pleasant surprise."
…
"Grryynn?" Loki was, to say it plainly, confused. 'Freyr? Mayura was waiting for Freyr? Since when did that ever happen before?'
The red eyed girl just grinned. "Ah! Kaitou-san(2)! I've been waiting for you!" she informed the happy god in front of her.
"You were wait-waiting for me?" Freyr blushed slightly at this. He put a hand at the back of his head, and found a speck of dust on top of a roof very interesting.
Loki crossed his arms across his chest. "Hmph," he said, looking away from the two. He really didn't like the fact that his speaking abilities have been reduced to a mere child's. 'But I'm a child… wait… uh… Forget that,' he thought blankly.
Mayura nodded and said "Hai!" in response. She grinned again at the god in front of her. She then meowed to Freyr's surprise.
'Wait,' the small boy thought, 'She's not grinning at Freyr… She's grinning at what Freyr's holding.'
"Hiingggnn," Loki pointed at the brown paper that the taller boy was holding. Mayura meowed in agreement, seemingly understanding what Loki intended to say.
Freyr followed his two friend's gaze and noticed what the finger was pointing to. He uttered an "Oh".
"You want some taiyaki(3), Yamato Nadeshiko?" he asked.
"Yup!"
'Ah… so it was the taiyaki that she was waiting for. Makes sense,' the detective thought, 'Wait, why am I relieved all of a sudden?' His thoughts were not helping him today, Loki decided.
The tall god gladly offered the taiyaki he just bought to Mayura and the girl gladly accepted a few.
Mayura took a few bites and meowed in satisfaction. "Thank you, Kaitou-san," she said so sincerely that the kaitou in front of her blushed again.
"Waannngggeeiiiinn," Loki said to Mayura, wishing that he could've brought the white board that he was now treasuring with him.
Mayura looked at the boy beside her. "Huh? Oh. We should go back now?" she asked, wondering if she asked correctly. The detective, however, nodded in response.
Freyr raised an eyebrow at the exchange. Was it an 'Act Strangely Day' today for the humans?
"Um… are you two okay? I don't think you were like this before," he said after noticing that the girl in front of him was meowing unusually and his detective friend was uttering strange words.
Mayura looked back at the kaitou. "Eto…" she paused, "We're in a bit of situation today." She meowed. "Mysterious things have been happening to us since this morning and we don't know why."
"Mysterious things?" Freyr echoed, confused.
"Hai," Mayura looked away, embarrassed. "I'm suddenly acting like a cat and Loki-kun can't speak anything understandable," she scratched her head then continued, "Yamino-san and Narugami-kun are also acting strangely."
The thief put a hand under his chin. "And you don't have any clue as to why these things are happening?" he asked.
Mayura shook her head sadly.
Upon seeing the sad look Mayura had, Freyr immediately made up his mind. "I'm going to help you, Yamato Nadeshiko!" he exclaimed, "I'll find the root of your problems and solve this problem of yours!" 'And replace that frown with a smile,' he added to himself.
"Really?" Mayura smiled. "That's great, Kaitou-san." She looked at Loki beside her. "Is it alright, Loki-kun?"
Seeing as their progress in solving their problem was not improving, Loki saw no reason to not let Freyr try and help them. So he just shrugged.
The pink haired girl brightened at this and meowed happily. "Then let's go back and solve this mystery!" Her eyes sparkled again when she thought of ways on how to solve the said mystery.
They made their way back to Loki's house which was a few turns of streets away. Mayura was taking a few bites of the taiyaki occasionally.
"Uh… Yamato Nadeshiko, I've been meaning to ask… What happened to the others you mentioned?" Freyr took a bite from a taiyaki. He offered one to Loki, which the boy politely declined with a shake of his head.
Mayura meowed again and laughed. "It's really weird. Yamino-san's stuttering whenever he speaks and Narugami-kun would suddenly laugh for no reason."
"Oh." Freyr took a bite again. "Eto… Why did you have to wait for me for the taiyaki though?" The brown haired kaitou blushed. "You could've just bought one on your own."
Mayura scratched her head. "Ehehehe… You see, I haven't eaten breakfast yet and I wasn't thinking when I followed the taiyaki's delicious scent. I acted on my stomach's command." She patted her belly for emphasis and laughed again.
Loki didn't know what he should do at that moment. 'So the taiyaki was what she was referring to as 'something fishy'…' His lips twitched at the corner. 'Although I don't know if I should be amused or not, considering that she could've died after that jump from the window,' he thought.
Freyr knew that it was in Mayura's character to exactly do as what the girl said. He smiled. 'Yamato Nadeshiko is so funny,' he thought to himself.
They turned at a corner and entered the street where Loki lived. Mayura took another bite. "But you know, I think I'm starting to like this cat habits I have." Loki raised an eyebrow at this. He certainly didn't like the condition he was currently in.
The high school girl continued, "My sense of smell is sharper than ever," Loki had no doubt about this, "And I'm running faster than before," and the detective already considered that a fact. What, with how she just outran a god-turned-human-child-but-still-a-god not too long ago.
Freyr smiled again. "That's a relief. I thought you were-" His sentence was abruptly cut off, however, when they heard a large crash followed by a few shouts nearby.
Mayura meowed in confusion. "What was that?" Loki and Freyr had the exactly same question in their minds.
They turned to look at the direction of the sound, all alarmed. For all they knew, it could be evil out to make their day worse.
But after they found the location of the loud crash, they were instantly surprised, or maybe not all that surprised considering that it already happened before. It was just a bit different from what they were accustomed to.
After all, the sound came from Loki's own house.
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Notes: (1) Megane: I think this means glasses. Narugami calls Yamino 'Megane' because Yamino wears glasses. (2) Kaitou: Means thief in Japanese. (3) Taiyaki: I don't know much about this except that it's the fish-like food that Freyr likes.
Argh! I don't particularly like this chapter but I hope you did. I promise I'll get better in the upcoming chapters. I'm really trying my best to make you people happy :)
Hm… About the LokixMayura fic, I'm working on it (Wheee!) and I'm making some progress with dealing with my laziness. So, expect it to pop someday (if I don't get depressed all of a sudden O.o).