Yako heard her alarm clock ring. She closed it and stretched. It was an off-day, but Neuro usually expected her to arrive at any new case that might pop up anyway. But her phone didn't ring, so nothing had occurred yet. Ah, how nice it was to be back in her queen-sized bed and not on that dratted couch at the company office. Her sheets were clean, the poison was gone, and the sun is shining outside.

Maybe she'll get a real rest day today.

She glanced over. Neuro, fully dressed, lay on her bed with his eyes closed.

Ha ha, nope.

Yako sighed. "I'm already used to it. Neuro, wake up. At least this time you're not naked." He opened his eyes. "Yako, I have not slept in three days. If you tell me to wake up once more, I will pull off all your fingernails and toenails and send them to hell. They're supposed to be quite the delicacy. Maybe I'll even send your fingers back too. I hope you haven't been using nail polish."

"... Just don't drool, okay? I'll die."

His eyes were closed again, not paying any attention.

"And move over, you're taking all over the bed. Get off the blankets!" She murmured, tugging them out from under his weight.

He got off and got under the covers.

She turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist. He was way too warm. Like a heater. He could sleep over in the winter then. How much would she save from heating costs? Enough to buy how many slices of cake? Yeah. He s definitely welcome in the winter.

She opened her eyes.

Neuro was preparing a giant centipede for its adventure to her face. He as pumping it with chemicals and setting it on a launch-pad.

Yako let go of him and shuffled away to the very corner of the bed. Never mind. He is never getting in here again.

Yako picked up the news and her cup of coffee and sat down at the coffee table in the living room. Neuro hung from the ceiling.

"Oh, look, the detective back there solved the case."

Neuro opened his eyes. "Impossible."

Yako tossed him the paper. "Front page."

He grabbed it deftly and glanced at the top, and then laughed. The paper dissolved into flame and then into ash.

Yako winced. It wasn't the most charming, soothing chuckle of the world.

"They're sending an innocent man to jail, Yako, and since you're a woman who doesn't barge in on mysteries I suppose you're completely fine with trusting the detective's judgement, correct?"

Yako froze. Her coffee splashed over the edge of the cup that it sat in.

Neuro continued speaking without pausing. "I can see their point of view. The man was the lover that the woman seemed to have had troubles with. He's rich wealthy, handsome. He has the key to the house that he gave her. The house that she died in after saying she'd think about his marriage proposal two nights ago."

"A overly wealthy young man getting rejected for the first time by a poor college girl who lives in a gift that he had bought for her... Seems like a perfect candidate to pin it on. The key to the house which he says he had lost was found in his drawer, with his fingerprint right on it. Bloodstains, of course, and the like all around some kitchen utensils. A few strands of hair, and now he's in jail."

Yako glared up at Neuro. "How do you now he's innocent."

"Oh you know that, Yako."

"Who did it? Who killed her?"

"Only the corpse and I know that secret."

Yako fumed. He wasn't going to open up. She knew the young man- whoever he was- didn't cut the throat. A spoiled rich boy couldn't possibly find a saw and cleanly remove a section of his former girlfriend's body... Which was a professional, trained cut, mind you, and then dump all the evidence in the exact locations where the police were definitely going to look.

Yako wiped off the chalkboard in the office, cleaning off the past two weeks of deduction. She grabbed a new piece of chalk and scribbled in giant characters: SUSPECTS and then she set the chalk down and grabbed her laptop.

Night fell

It was dark outside. Neuro was off taking care of another mystery. Godai was off torturing someone into paying their debts. Yako closed the windows and locked the door. Being alone and without either her bodyguard or demon left her almost protection-less. Akane sat in a tiny tub of conditioner-infused water. There was a gun in the cupboard.

She was perfectly safe.

Ha, who was she kidding she doesn't know how to use a gun.

A branch snapped outside and Yako jumped. Shadows began to filter in through the moonlight. The list of suspects she made seemed to become hazy and unimportant. Her heart was thumping. The room was cold. The windows were cold.

It was too quiet.

"Oh, please, Neuro, come back quickly..." Yako murmured. Her hand was clenched around her phone. There was a terrible feeling at the bottom of her stomach. Her gut instincts were almost always right.

The door opened. In a flash Yako was in the cupboard. She slid the gun from out under a cereal box and slowly flipped the safety off. She pressed the barrel against the cupboard's wooden door, ready to fire once it opened.

Whoever the person was didn't find what he was looking for. He sat in Neuro's chair, trying to bypass the password Neuro had set on the computer. There wasn't even an on button for the computer or any boxes for manual password input.

For Yako, to turn the thing on she had to sit in front of it and say, "Neuro is an exceptional master." with a straight face. Loudly. Three times. It took her three days of shouting praises for Neuro before she cracked into his computer. Once inside, a barrage of manual passwords halted her hacking. After three more hours, she gave up on its secrets and nearly tossed the damn thing out the window.

She had the faintest suspicion that the computer had complete access to the Deep Web and had those passwords to keep the FBI and hackers off its tail as it cataloged every criminal record it could find and sent it straight to Neuro.

Yako heard the door slam behind the man as he left. Yako knew who he was by then. It was the face in the newspaper. The man who was supposed to be in jail- or at the very least under house arrest.

The young man who was convicted of killing his girlfriend.

Neuro walked into his office and took off his dark blue suit jacket. He looked around. He sniffed the air and grinned. Something had taken place here. He walked over to Yako's desk and breathed in her scent, and then followed it to...

The cupboard?

"Did she receive a vision from God and decide to live with her beloved foods in the pantry...?"

He slid open the cupboard door and peeked in.

Yako sat curled up inside, holding a .38 gun with both hands, with her two pointer finger both on the trigger. She sat in the back corner with the gun angled to be able to shoot no matter how the guy tried to get in. The other side of the cabinet was sealed off to the wall. If the man wanted to get her out, he had to brave the bullets. Neuro knew for a fact she had a full round. He checked every day. Half a dozen pieces of metal. More than enough to kill a single human.

A perfect position.

That is, if she wasn't fast asleep.

Neuro pried the gun from her hand and dragged Yako out of the cabinet, dumping her unceremoniously on the sofa.

He put the gun back into the cabinet and slung Yato over his should like a she was a towel. He shut off the lights and walked out, closing the door behind him. He then ran along the wall up to the roof, almost losing hold of Yako in the process.

He wondered what sound she would make if she was thrown from his shoulder to the traffic road ten stories below. The speed of his running pushed his hair back from his face.

A splat? Or a thunk? Should he test it out? Would she still maintain most of her body parts?

No?

Could she live without a proper spine...?

Perhaps.

Maybe he should try it out.

Neuro slid to a stop right at his destination. He pulled a tiny eyeball demon tool from his pocket and slid it into Yako's doorknob's keyhole. After the tool pressed all the pins with a few clicks it ran back out and beeped.

Neuro tucked it back into his pocket and swung open the door. He walked in and closed the door behind him. He didn't turn on the lights. He could see perfectly without light. He walked into Yako's bedroom and tossed Yako to approximately where her bed was, and promptly walked out.

He ran his routine check that all three guns in the house (that Yako didn't know of, but he put them where she may one day accidentally find in a time of need- for example one was in her medicine drawer in the bathroom, which she almost never opened; Neuro figured she'd only open it if she was locked in the bathroom with an injury and a killer on the other side of the door) were full on ammo, spread a few traps around to keep her on her toes, and then went back to the bedroom, where he tossed a box of extra ammunition under the bed.

Things were going to heat up. You never know what may happen. On that thought... Neuro tossed a few grenades down there as well. Who knows? When are grenades ever not useful?

His scan complete, Neuro then walked up Yako's wall and attached himself to her ceiling.

And heard a rustle.

He immediately dropped down to her bed.

Someone was watching.

He couldn't sleep on the ceiling. People would wonder. Things would get messy.

He climbed into Yako's bed and pulled her to his chest. If he had to sleep with her for the whole night, at the very least he should be able to draw on her face for the meantime. Neuro pulled out his marker.

"So... You thought it would be a good idea to clamber into my bed and hug me as an unknown someone was filming?" Yako stated.

The blaring title on the newspaper screamed "FAMOUS DETECTIVE SLEEPS WITH PARTNER."

Neuro's face had his usual troll blankness. "I could have also slept on the ceiling, if you wish. The headlines might have said something different."

"Go to hell."

"..."

"Oh, wait... F*ck."