Yako opened her eyes and lifted her hands. She stretched and lifted her blanket... And blinked twice in quick succession. "This has got to be a joke..."

She made her hands into fists.

Then, she slammed them down on the shoulder, the bare shoulder, of the person, of the demon next to her.

Neuro turned around and opened his mouth. Yako shoved her pillow into his face, blocking his range of view. "I know, I know! I shouldn't care if you're naked or not because of your infected or dirtied clothes but..."

"WHY AM I NAKED TOOOO?!"

Godai handed her a neatly printed sheet of paper. "I'll need this filled out by lunch, Yako."

Yako nodded absently and chewed on the tip of her pen. She set the paper aside without looking at it. Yako typed a few more words into the computer and then leaned back on Neuro's chair. She grabbed her phone and flipped it open, pressing her first speed-dial number.

"Neuro... For case #237... What am I supposed to tell the police about how we found out that he had the jewels with him? He swallowed the gems and they were in a container so the normal security detectors didn't go off... And no, I can't say demon tools or intuition for this... We got surgery done on his stomach, we have got to have block evidence that we had the right to do that, even if he really was the thief at the end!"

Godai watched as she paused for a moment.

"... But how the hell did we get a x-ray all the way to Russia if I only brought a small suitcase?! And by the way, detectors that can instantly and accurately determine the location of a jewel through human skin and his thick, anti-scan clothing... Not to mention it had to be small enough that I could have scanned him without him noticing!"

Yako tilted her head and twirled her pen into the air. "No, I will NOT say that I engaged in sexual contact with him to undress him for scanning- for God's sake he's alive, they'll get the truth out in no time! No, wait! Don't kill him! I'm still not going with the sex theory either way."

She paused, listening to the tone at the other end. "Oh, fine! I'll just say that we got the metal detector from some shady doctor friend of ours! Out of nowhere! Without leaving the hotel even once besides to the crime scene!"

Yako slammed the phone closed and tossed it away. She slid back to the computer and quickly and angrily typed up the rest of the report.

After typing furiously for a few minutes, she sat back, read it over and then nodded to herself slightly. "This should pull us through... Whatever. They can't really argue with us on this. We are their top detectives. f they do have any problems, though, Neuro could take care of that with some tool he has... But then he'll be pissed off at me for making a terrible report and causing him to use that energy."

"Dammit. Lose-Lose situation. Oh, well." She hit enter and then stretched. "Woo~! Last report of the month and I've filled my detective quota. Free three days before the next month and the new mysteries it holds! Unless someone decides to murder someone else in the next three days, I'm taking a break."

She swung her leg to and fro, and then noticed the slip of paper Godai had given her. "Oh, yeah, this. I wonder what it could be..."

She flipped it open. "It's a flier..."

She read aloud the words her eyes ran through without thinking. "Save sex for after marriage-"

Her right eye twitched.

She looked up. Now that she thought of it, Godai had been running around pasting the green fliers and magazines around. There was a condom sitting in her pencil cup and it wasn't there before. There was another one in her bag. As she pulled open her drawer, she saw few more mixed in with her candy bars, erasers, and paper clips.

Yako crumbled up the paper.

"God, Godai. We didn't do it," she shouted. "Goddammit, how did you even know he was the same down there anyways?!"

Yako tossed the paper ball away.

A slight breeze wafted in and ruffled the numerous green slips that she suddenly noticed that were expertly and sneakily placed around the the room.

Her paper shredder will be busy today.

Neuro watched as the silly human investigators swarm the place and gape as his deductions proved to be true and the bloody knife was found in the murderer's freshly potted daises, along with a severed hand and the missing ring.

His stomach made a disappointed noise. A mystery? Don't make me laugh, he thought. The thought put in the murder was just about equal to the thought put in the unraveling of it- in Neuro's case, approximately thirteen simple connections and clues.

Neuro took his leave. Yako attracted mysteries that had energy in them like the plague. Time to go back home.

Neuro froze, his foot lifted up in the air, just about to be set down in a step. Around him, people walked on but he didn't move.

Home.

Home?

Home?!

Just when had he begun to refer to his workplace as home?

This was not home, hell was home.

Neuro set his foot down and continued walking. As he turned a corner, he passed a poster hanging on a furniture store's window and the slogan seared itself int his memory.

Home is where your loved ones are.

Well, he certainly didn't have any loved ones in hell.

Yako researched all the major detective agencies, especially ones that had been losing profit since she began- and then narrowing them down by looking at which ones had better business days when she was out daydreaming from the love tool.

She found one that matched the exact description. And then she found their best detective. She called their number and sat through an aggravating voice-mail, left a message, and then hung up.

Just as soon as the phone touched the base again, it started ringing. Yako grabbed it and pressed it to her ear. "Yes?"

A hand reached through the receiver and grabbed her face. "Yako. Ignore your silly trickster for now. I've got a real mystery. Get over here, now!"

It was an order. Yako immediately dropped all her items, jumped up, and tossed on her coat. In a few seconds, she was down the stairs and out the door.

Neuro grabbed Yako by the neck as soon as she got to the porch of the house that the victim lived in. It was in a secluded, western-style neighborhood. The ones that popped up in the suburbs around the city for the more well-off people.

Yako was dragged into the main bedroom, where she landed on the bed, right next to the dead body of a woman who was young enough to still be in college.

Her neck was missing.

The head sat on the pillow, eyes closed, sleeping peacefully. From the head to the shoulders, there was nothing but a surprisingly small pool of blood. The shoulder were showing from above the covers, which covered her from her chest to her toes.

An extremely clean, professional cut. Barely any blood.

The lady was wearing a dress that ended above the knee. It had a tank top shape on top. The dress was light yellow, with floral patterns, not a nightdress. There weren't even any blood stains on it.

Yako swallowed hard. She moved away from the corpse. it was a really well planned out murder, that's for sure. The neck could have been removed with a laser ray for all they could see. If they had placed a scarf from her shoulder to the remaining edge of her neck that was under the chin, Yako would have thought that the lady was just sleeping.

She looked around the room. Her detective sense already told her there was nothing to observe. The reporters were already pushing their way into the house. The police were uselessly searching the room for clues.

This had been very very carefully planned. There couldn't be anything left. She turned to Neuro. "This is the sort of case you would see in the newspaper that would lay unsolved for decades and then will never be solved."

"Her neck, Yako, did not just remove itself on its own."

"This house is the victim's, right?"

"Of course."

"She's pretty young. How did she earn up so much money to buy a house right after getting out of school?"

"This house was given to her."

"Let me guess... Classic shady male character? Rich player? Hidden psychopath?" A hand tapped Yato on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around. The man who tapped her withdrew his hand and stepped back.

"What are you doing here?" He said. He was the type of person whose face was set in perpetual disappointment. Yako would guess he was around 30 or maybe a little more.

"And... Who might you be?"

"A top detective of your rival company, Yako." Neuro whispered through his teeth.

Yako blinked. "Oh. Um. Hi."

The detective snorted. "Hello, there, miss Yako. I suppose you deem yourself too advanced too go on your knees and search through the dust?"

Yako forced a smile. "I'm sorry. I was thinking that the professional that performed this murder wouldn't have been careless, so try as we might we won't find anything anyways. I thought I'd ask my partner here on her past first... And then you walked in. So... What are you doing here? Wasn't this case assigned to me?"

He raised both his eyebrows, making a weird expression. Yato kept a straight face. "No, actually, you are mistaken, Yato. This case has been taken by my detective agency. You are not supposed to be here."

Yato glared at Neuro. You understand that we are NOT supposed to be here?! You jackass! Was her eyes' message to him.

"... Oh, well, then. That's a downer... This seems like a pretty interesting case, still." She paused. The silence stretched out. "So... I guess maybe if you don't manage to solve this mystery-" The man sliced Yako's heart straight in half with a piercing hate-filled glare. "-O-or, I could help you out a little... Well, bye."

She grabbed Neuro and get the hell out of there as fast as she possibly could.

"Don't you understand that I shouldn't have been there?! For god's sake why did you call me over?"

Neuro continued walking fast. "Mysteries are not supposed to be assigned or taken. It's all a matter of who can solve it and who cannot. The idea of having to lurk around and perhaps solve the case into his favor is almost sickening. They would definitely lock him up before I get to drain his passion. Then I'd have to use unnecessary energy to break into jail..."

"Well, then, all the boring mysteries of a missing dog or wallet would never be solved! No one would bother to solve that one if they hadn't been assigned!"

"I am a demon, Yako, I do not search for puppies. Our company is now above that. Any mystery without taste that could fulfill my hunger will not be accepted by me. You will do those by yourself."

"Of course! That's why I'm always found on the streets with dog biscuits and bacon!"

"They will never be able to solve this case."

"Don't underestimate humans. I'm sure they'll be just fine. Neuro! My point in all this is that you can't just barge in on every case you come across! And you can't pull me in either!"

Neuro abruptly turned around and stopped right in the middle of the crowded street. People passed by them. Yato bumped into his chest. His sharp eyes look straight down into hers. Yako could see her own tiny, tiny reflection.

"I can do what I want to do, Yako. I am a demon from hell. And I can kill you with a snap of my fingertips. Or have you forgotten that?"