Neuro's phone beeped. He picked it up. "Yako? She called me?" He thought about it for a moment. "Well, well. Is this what it feels like to be pleasantly surprised?" He flipped it open. "Although, that pleasantness might be short-lived."

"Yes, slave number 1?"

"Neuro..."

"Hm?"

"I opened my bedroom door... There's a huge fog of green gases in there. Care to explain?"

Yako watched as her house was sectioned off with police tape. She turned back to the guy in a yellow anti-radioactive-material suit in front of her. "Yeah, I closed the door as soon as I saw what was in my bedroom. Do you know what it is?"

"Where did you get gases of this sort, miss?"

"Uh... My subordinate, he accidentally left something in my bedroom, I guess."

"You generally allow your subordinates in your bedroom, miss?"

"Huh? No! It's not like that, he, uh, needed something..."

"From your bedroom?" Neuro appeared out from behind Yako. "Sensei! I'm sorry! I must have left the test tube after our tryst. I'm so sorry!" Yako blinked. "Neuro! Wait a m-moment! Tryst?! No- it's not-"

The guy in the safety suit had already processed the information as fact. "Yes, yes, test tube?"

"It was something new from the labs. Surely nobody's bare skin has come in contact with it yet? It's extremely dangerous." The guy clumsily scribbled down words on his notepad. "Oh, no, no! What... Does it do exactly?"

"Oh," Neuro looked right and then left. "I'm not supposed to tell you... But..." He leaned in and whispered something into the guy's ear. He choked. "God!"

"Yeah," Neuro nodded solemnly. Yako pulled on his sleeve. Her curiosity burned inside of her. What did you say? She shot at Neuro with her eyes, but he pretended not to see.

"How are we supposed to clean this up?"

Neuro shook his head. "No, no, you don't have to bother. We have very specialized teams for this. You may all leave. If any of your bosses have any questions, please call the number on this card." The man took the card, and froze. He stared at the card for a second, and then he turned as if a puppet on strings. "Boys, time to go!" His voice came out funny and forced. "Alright, pack up, men!"

Yako had an idea what was on the card. Going around and hypnotizing people... Jeez. In a few minutes, everyone was gone. Neuro grabbed her neck and lifted her off the ground. "Who told you to call the radioactive material department, eh?"

"Ack... It wasn't my fault. I screamed, and then my neighbor..."

"Oh, so your neighbors know about this as well?'

"... Yeah..."

"Yako, you are a messy worker, just as messy as the manner in which you eat."

"I'm sorry. I called you right after, didn't I?"

"That was the least you could do."

"Well, can you clean it up now? Please?"

"... Please, who?"

"Huh?"

"..."

"Oh. But... You were the one who put the gas ball in my phone in the first place!"

"..." Neuro tapped his foot.

"Fine."

"Can you clean it up now, please, master?"

Neuro let go of Yako. She landed on her feet, used to being dropped. Neuro was already gone. And when she blinked again, Neuro was back. He was holding a tiny metal ball between his thumb and pointer finger. "This is a special gas ball from Hell. It can be reused over and over again if collected properly."

"Is that a very subtle threat of it's re-usage?"

"Hm? Now, I think that shock has gotten to you. How did you ever get such an idea? Here, get into the car." He placed a hand carefully on her shoulder.

Yako climbed into the car without comment. And then, just as Nuero shut the door, she stopped him. "Hey, where're we going? I thought my shift was over." Neuro bared his teeth into her face. She didn't flinch. "There's still residue gas in your room. If you'd like, I can let you sleep in your bedroom, or..."

"I'd rather sleep in my poisonous-gassed-bedroom than wherever you go at night."

"Oh, Yako. It's just the workplace. You can sleep on the sofa bed." Neuro ignored her further complaints and closed the door. Then he walked up to the front and got in.

Yako didn't remember falling asleep as he drove.

She did remember seeing the deep, dark night outside.

Yako felt warm sunlight on her face. Her head was leaning against a plastic-leather surface. She was on the compact sofa-bed in the Detective Agency.

She shifted a bit and then felt something on her stomach. She lifted the blanket slightly with a hand.

There was a long and lightly muscled arm on her belly, over her crumpled white blouse. The arm curved up and its hand ended up right over hers.

The sofa bed was a two-person bed.

And she could see the hair of the other inhabitant. The yellow hair with purple bangs.

The door opened.

Godai stepped through, holding up a pair of keys and a huge stack of papers. "Yo, Neuro, when is the dang replacement computerrr-"

He stared at the sofa bed and the inhabitants for a moment. After a long pause, he turned around, opened the door, and walked straight out. He closed the door behind him firmly.

Yako scowled. "Oi, Godai! Where are you going?"

Godai dropped something on the other side of the door. "Tell him to get dressed."

Yako's eye twitched. "Don't assume now, he's dressed! Of course, why wouldn't he be, we were just sharing a place to sleep-"

She lifted the blanket.

...

She set it back down.

"Give him ten minutes!"

"Well, where else am I supposed to sleep?" Neuro calmly sipped a bubbling green mixture from a weirdly shaped glass bottle. The color of the liquid changed frequently. Yako was positive that the mixture was poisonous. Yako nudged Godai with her chopsticks.

"Does he usually sleep naked?" She mumbled through her sushi. Godai shook his head. Yako glared up at Neuro. "So why yesterday night of all nights?!"

Neuro shrugged. "It was hot and I didn't feel like keeping on the clothes that I had collected poisonous gases in." Yako sighed. "Those measly little poisonous gases couldn't have even fried a singe hair on your head... At very least keep on a pair of boxers or shorts or something." Godai choked on his black coffee.

Neuro looked up. "Oh? You saw that I didn't wear anything on that area? Naughty, naughty!"

Yako's left eye twitched again. "I didn't mean to, goddammit! What sort of person- or demon, would strip and go into bed with a coworker? I was thinking that surely you'd have at least something on!"

Godai wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Problem was that he didn't."

"Exactly!"

Godai sighed and set his bowl of rice down on a stack of paper. "I didn't come here to see Neuro naked, or imagine him like that either, so anyways..." He tossed Yako a folder. "Things have been quiet for a while now. Getting suspicious. Someone might be stealing business. Usually you'd be swamped- since Neuro would only do the big ones, and help out only when he felt like it, but now..."

Yako flipped the folder open. "It started just after I took the Love Tool."

Neuro blinked, his disinterested expression disappearing.

"Whoever the person was- let's called him X, he probably thought I'd be too unfocused to work, and decided to start his business right when I was flirting with a bunch of different guys."

Neuro raised a finger.

Yako nodded. "Oh, right. Person X should actually be Demon X 'cause he had the Love Tool."

Neuro shook his finger.

"Fine, we can only assume that Person X is either a demon or someone with connections with one."

Neuro tilted his head.

"Or some giant science and tech lab made a discovery on chemistry and fashioned a Love Tool from scratch."

Neuro nodded, satisfied.

Godai rubbed his forehead. "What is up with you two? Sign language? Psychic connection? Insanity?"

Neuro looked up at Yato, who was hanging from the chandelier precariously. "It's not a demon. I would have felt it if another demon broke free from Hell. And the ones who are already here have been... Talked to by me."

"You mean talked to as in threatened by death?"

"Now, now, what were you thinking? Of course not, Yako. Do you really think so horribly of me?"

"Oh, so I was chained to the chandelier by accident."

"Yes, yes. Shall I get out the chainsaw?"

"It has three locks. How exactly is this an accident?"

"Now, back on topic, Yako. It couldn't have been a demon that was new from Hell, so it must have been a human."

"With ties to a demon?"

"No."

"Then, how?"

"Think, Yako. Use that tiny little brain of yours."

"I have a feeling." Yako fidgeted away from the hot light bulbs. Her chain clattered and clinked. Neuro nodded for her to continue.

"The Love Tool that I broke from... It wasn't very strong, was it?"

"You broke free from it so, no."

"That means it was made... And then taken and transported." Neuro widened his eyes. "Correct."

"So... I have a question."

"Ask away."

"Is it possible... For a human to enter Hell?"

Neuro blinked for a shocked second, and then burst into laughter. Yako winced. Her chain shattered and metal hit the floor. In the space of a second she was on Neuro's lap, with his hand in her hair. He leaned in and stared at her surprised face. "Now, Yako, where have you been? Where, exactly, do you think a corrupted human being goes after he has died?"

Yako pushed his face away with both her hands. His chest was still vibrating from laughter. "Not after death! I mean, can a human enter Hell, contract a small deal with a demon- like a promise of a future on Earth, get a Tool for a limited time, and then come back to Earth?"

Neuro didn't say anything for a moment. It wasn't much, but Yako couldn't remember a time she had rendered him speechless for any amount of time.

After that moment passed Neuro looked back at Yako, just a hint of surprise in his gaze.

"It has happened before, actually, but none of them actually made it back with their sanity intact."

Yako felt like she had just derailed off to dangerous territory. Before Neuro could say a word, she pinched his cheek. "Just saying this once! You're never gonna make me go to hell in your life!"

Neuro didn't say a single word, but instead silently began to chain her up again. Accidentally, of course.