You know, I'm starting to realize with all the murder and mystery books I read, I really have no freaking clue how to go about with a mystery. Please bear with me XD

Chapter 5
Fifth Night – Undercover Pretty Girl Detective At Your Service!

"So do you think she ran away, Loki-san?" Mayura asked him as she walked next to him, munching on a crepe she bought at a stand earlier. Every now and then she'd drop a piece to Fenrir who walked between them, giving into the puppy eyes he was so good at.

"Since Sakura Toriyama took nothing with her that night except for her school bag, the evidence so far points that she didn't run away. People who run away tend to take personal things with them, and she didn't even take a change of clothes, or money. A runaway is extremely unlikely in this case."

"Hmm, I wonder what could have happened to her…"

"I doubt aliens had anything to do with it…"

Mayura looked to him with a surprised expression. "How'd you know I was thinking that, Loki-san?!"

"What kind of detective would I be if I couldn't deduce some of the things my assistant would think in certain situations?"

"Hmmm." Mayura looked off into the distance in thought. "Okay then…" She grinned. "What am I thinking now?!"

"I'd have absolutely no clue to help me out with what's going on in your head now Mayura, so I couldn't tell you." He smirked back at her. "I'm not psychic." Loki smiled and nodded a greeting to the housewife staring at him from a yard as they passed. Never hurt to be polite to the ladies. If he noticed the woman swoon after his passing, he made no sign.

"Mou, Loki-san is such a flirt." Mayura commented, observing the whole thing.

"Hmm?" He smiled at her, watching her from the corner of his eye. "Jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?" The expression on her face told him she was completely puzzled at the idea, and with a sigh he decided to drop the subject. The pink haired teen was just too dense at the current time on the subject, and he supposed it was too early to play that game with her anyway. Until then however, he'd continue to have fun at making her blush, a reaction he took much amusement in since starting their relationship over in his true form. Her attempts at trying to hide it from him only added to the amusement.

Mayura was just finishing up her crepe as the approached the plain, grayish concrete building with very few, small windows. Not what he'd call very attractive architecture. As they entered the lobby, he was even less impressed with the off white walls, cheap impressionist prints, and fake plants. He really didn't understand modern architecture's goal in minimalistic design.

"Welcome to Ohtori Prep School." Greeted the woman behind the counter who kept her hair in a tight bun.

Loki gave the two women what he considered his best, most charming smile.

Mayura watched as the two women gave Loki their full attention, completely ignoring her. As he began with the questioning about Toriyama Sakura she couldn't help but note a lot of the questioning was on the verge of, if not already, flirting. Some would call it shamelessly flirting, but whatever it was the women were eating it up.

Mayura looked around the desk, and found what she was looking for; the sign up forms for classes. This was the closest prep school to home, and she did promise Papa she'd sign up with one, even if it meant even less time to work on mysteries. Besides, the trade off of having Loki-san stay at her house seemed to even it out. She listened to the conversation between Loki and the women with half an ear as she filled out the forms.

"So Toriyama-san would come to classes here every weekday, and leave around 8:00 pm?"

"Yep." The one bun woman responded. The one in front of Mayura added "We close soon after, around 8:15 every night. Sakura-chan was in our last class of the evening."

"Which class was that?"

"High school Algebra." Both said in unison.

Ugh, the main class I need to sign up with. Mayura thought to herself as she filled out the contact information.

"It was such a surprise when they told us she had run away!" They went on. "Sakura-chan was such a good student, never missed a class. So when she didn't show up the next day, we were surprised. Even more surprised when the police showed up again."

"Again?"

"Yes, a couple weeks ago we had another student run away. Her name was Yamato Shiroi. She wasn't as well behaved and studious as Sakura-chan, but well… with Sakura-chan running away, one would suppose Sakura-chan wasn't quite what she seemed to be."

"Was Yamato Shiroi in the same Algebra class as Sakura-chan?"

"No, she was in…. umm.. I think it was English. Let me go check up on that for you."

"Thank you."

While the one left, the other stayed and battered her eyes at Loki.

"So, you're not from around here, are you?" Well of course! He's a blonde haired, blue eyed foreigner! Mayura thought to herself. It was so obvious.

"No, I'm fairly new to the town. I came here to start my own detective agency, and well, as you can see, I'm working on the Toriyama case."

"Mmm, yes. Well I hope you find out where the girl ran off to. Between you and me I suspect a man. Girls are always head over heels when it comes to young love."

"Did Sakura-chan have a boyfriend to you knowledge?"

"No, and the cops asked the same thing. Her father apparently knew nothing of a boyfriend, and from what I hear none of her friends knew of one either, but it wouldn't be the first time a girl kept a lover a secret. High school girls will do apparently anything for a guy these days." Mayura noticed the woman give her a side glance, more than likely since she was still in her school uniform. "But… that aside. Since you're new here, if you're perhaps looking for someone to show you around town, maybe take you places at night…" giggle "I'd be happy to show you around, any time."

Mayura could feel her cheeks burning at the apparent insinuation, and she turned her head slightly to get a look at Loki out of the corner of her eye. He seemed unfazed. Did he even get what the woman meant?

"That's very kind of you… Sunako-chan." A giggle from the woman at his reading her name tag. Was this how she was supposed to act around men? Constantly giggling and making insinuating offers? "I'll remember your… offer."

Was she really hearing this? Mayura sank slightly, red burning in embarrassment and another emotion she couldn't quite place. How could those two act like that in public? And in broad daylight?! Oh how she wanted to hide under a rock! The forms where finished anyway now, so she left them on the desk and decided to go do some exploring of the building she'd have to start attending since Loki-SAN seemed to not need help in the… questioning of witnesses. Besides, she might find a clue or two about Sakura-chan.

Time to be a detective! She thought as she entered a hallway and she put on her coke bottle glasses, more than likely with the intention of making it easier to find clues.

She wandered down the brightly lit, off-white halls, and took a look in the window at each door. Nothing but the usual chairs, desk, and a dry erase boards at the front of the room. But even worse, not a single window to the outside world to help her get her mind off math. Boo. She doubted she'd enjoy her time these classes.

As she turned a corner her next step slipped from under her and she suddenly found herself in the air, falling backwards. She tried grabbing for something before falling back onto the ground with a loud flop.

"Iiiitaaaaiii!" She whined, rubbing her rump until she noticed the janitor mopping the floor near her was watching. "Uh…."

The man turned around and went back to mopping the hall, ignoring her and not even offering to help her up she noted. Mayura spotted her glasses which had flew off her to her right, and reached out, picked them up, and put them in her pocket. Then she began to get up, but immediately found herself back on the slick wet floor. Maybe it's time I consider buying better shoes…

She saw no other option (since the janitor wasn't offering to help) than to slowly half crawl, half drag her way along the wall to the edge of the corridor in order to get a better hold of the corner sticking out which could help her with pulling herself up. That she decided was her best option on getting back up.

While crawling in the most undignified state, she couldn't help but go over in her head about how the janitor could have at least put on a watch for wet floor sign. If he did, she was sure she would have noticed it, and could have avoided her current situation entirely.

As she was just managing to pull herself up and stand on two feet again with the aid of the wall when a bark came from down the hall. She looked up to spot Fenrir coming towards her who gave another happy bark at seeing her. Soon after he was followed by Loki who every now and then was looking behind him, seemingly to see if anyone was following him.

He caught sight of Mayura clutching to the wall for dear life. "Ah, there you are Mayura." He stopped right outside the wet floor line, something she was too oblivious to notice her first time. He looked at her, then at the wet floor, then to the janitor, and then back to Mayura. "Having some difficulty, are we?" He smiled. She did NOT like his smile at that moment.

Her face burned in embarrassment. She would have preferred he didn't see her like this. She couldn't help but feel if she was a more skilled detective she wouldn't have fallen into such a predicament. "It's… really slippery." She noted for him as she continued to cling to the corner of the wall, wondering what her next move should be.

"Here, give me your hand."

She looked at the offered hand, and then slowly reached out for him before finally making contact. He gave her hand a squeeze and with that assurance she took a cautious step out onto the floor, and was instantly falling again. However this time Loki had her hand, and with a tug he pulled her to him. The first thing she noted was she wasn't on the floor again, thankfully. Then she noticed the rhythmic thumping coming from what she was pressed against, and slowly it dawned on her it was Loki's heartbeat. He had pulled her into a sort of embrace to keep her from falling, and so far hadn't bothered to push her away. Her own heart at that moment seemed to skip a beat as her face began to turn red once again.

"Are you ok, Mayura?" He asked.

She slowly looked up to notice his face just inches away from her, a look of amusement in his eye.

Instantly she pushed herself off of him, almost slipped on the floor once again, but this time managing to step away in time.

"Yes… Thank you for saving me from falling again, Loki-san." She couldn't bring herself to meet his face.

"No problem at all, Mayura."

She continued to look away, willing the blush to away. Come on, go away, go away, go away… "I guess I need shoes with a better sole grip." She laughed nervously. After a few more seconds she was confident enough to look at him. "Did you find out anything?" They had begun to walk down the hallway once again, apparently this time for the exit.

"Yes actually. It's not much, but I'm certain enough now that the girls are not runaways. It's rather surprising actually that the police haven't caught on yet. What we're dealing with here are kidnappings."

"Kidnappings?"

"Yes. Sakura disappeared with nothing but her schoolbag like I noted earlier. We'll know for sure afterwards after looking into the details of Shiroi's case. If she left without anything as well, I'll be convinced we're working with a kidnapper. Which leaves us now with somehow getting the details on Shiroi's case, but we can begin to list the similarities between the girls. For starters, we know they were both in high school, and both attended this prep-school."

"So you think if they were both kidnapped, the kidnapper could have been watching them from here?"

"Yes, and if they did, they probably are still here."

Mayura started to look around as if they were being watched when she was hit with a brilliant idea. "Ah! Loki-san!"

He looked at her.

"Allow me to go undercover!"

"Undercover…" He raised an eyebrow. "Here?" She couldn't help but notice the note of disbelief in his voice.

"Yes. Papa wants me to start coming here for prep classes anyway. In fact, I already signed up. While going here I can keep my eyes and ears open for anything suspicious like suspicious looking kidnapper types!"

"I don't think that's a good idea Mayura. We don't know what's happening to these girls, but if their kidnapper is using this place to select them, that would put you at risk."

"But I'd be ok! I'd be on the lookout!" This was too big of an opportunity for her to be really useful to him on a case. "Besides, what else are we going to do once we find out if Shiroi was kidnapped? Just watch the building? Start asking more questions around here?" She was too determined now with all the undercover scenarios from detective comics she had read, running through her head. "Undercover is the best option! Besides this is the closest Prep School to home. Am I supposed to go to one all the way across town because you think I'll get kidnapped here?"

He was giving her a not too pleased look. Did he really think she wasn't capable of working undercover? She COULD do things other than secretary work.

Finally after what seemed like an hour to her Loki sighed in defeat. "I don't like it, but I guess I can't stop you. You just have to promise me you WILL be careful, and if you suspect anything at all, you come to me first. Absolutely do NOT go after it yourself. The last thing I need is to be searching for you as well as the other girls."

She nodded happily. "I promise, Loki-san. I'll be extra super duper cautious! In the end you'll see just how well your assistant can do!"

"I never doubted the job you could do Mayura, I just don't want you to get hurt. You father would never let you work for me again if you did."

So was that it? He was just worried about her? Mayura started to feel really… warm and happy about that. She smiled at him, and nodded. "That won't happen. Papa wanted me to come here. If something were to happen to me here, who's to say it wasn't just because I was just taking prep-classes."

"Something better not happen to you, and don't use this as an excuse to not pay attention in your actual studies here either. Your father obviously made you go to a prep school for a reason."

"Mou..."

"And remember what I said about sticking your nose into something just because you're curious. You are to come to me first if there's any sign of something, anything at all, odd."

She nodded in agreement, still a bit fluttery over the fact that he actually was worried about her.

As they approached Mayura's home, Mayura kept going through her head about everything she knew about kidnappings, from Alien abductions to… well, she didn't know much actually. Ransom? None of the missing girls' families had received a ransom note yet, which made the kidnappings extra mysterious.

They had just come from the library where she suggested they look up information on the cases via the internet. Loki was a bit skeptical with the computer at first, but seemed rather interested in it after she pulled up a couple newspaper articles giving some of the details that they needed, like one article which interviewed Shiroi's mother stating she left with nothing, and also insisting she wasn't a runaway.

Mayura had even gone so far to suggest Loki get a computer for the agency, which he flat out refused stating her hated technology. She found it a rather odd attitude that an old person would have, but didn't think on it past that.

So now they were on the way back to her house after Loki had suggested he walk her since it was getting dark. He never offered it before which she found odd.

The shrine was soon coming into view, and she could spot several lights on signifying her father was home.

"Is there any time in particular I should try coming over tomorrow, Mayura?" Loki asked. Ah! That was right! He was going to stay there starting tomorrow. She'd have to make sure the guest room was nice and clean before she went to bed.

"I was thinking after I get out of school would be good. I could come over to your place and help you carry stuff over." She smiled.

"That sounds fine to me Mayura, and it's very nice of you to offer." He smiled at her, and she felt her heart skip a beat again. Suddenly she began to feel very odd again, like how she was feeling in the hallway.

"G… goodnight Loki-san." She bowed and began heading up the stairs, waving. "Goodnight Fen-chan!"

"Goodnight Mayura." He called back, joined with a bark from the dog.

She didn't bother looking back as she ran into her house, past her father who was resting in the sitting room, and into her room, practically slamming the sliding door. Once shut, she collapsed to the floor, hands to her face. Why was she starting to feel funny around him? It was much more odd than the usual feeling which caused her to blush around him. Unfamiliar, but also strangely pleasant…

Oh god, is this was they called falling in love? She really couldn't figure out what else it could be.

Someone was suddenly knocking on her door, causing her to jump. "Mayura.." Her father. "Are you alright? You ran in here pretty fast."

"Yes Papa, I'm fine."

"There's pizza I ordered if you're hungry."

"Okay! Thanks!" Was she in love with Loki-san? Maybe it wasn't love. Didn't crushes come first? It must be just a crush then. She never really had a crush before. Bah, having a crush on her boss was BAD. And bah, looks like Kaho-chan was right.

Somewhere far off she could have sworn she heard someone laughing.

Well, there's chapter five. Please tell me what you think, and I'd love to hear suggestions from you guys if you have any. I don't know when the next chapter will happen because I'm a bit stumped on how to go about with the next one because I'm discovering it's kind of hard now to write this with only two characters. . I must think on how to go about with the next chapter. I definitely must get Mayura around characters other than Loki so she can ditz out properly because I'm scared of getting her too OOC cause she never was cautious with her behavior around Loki before in the manga, but now… hmm. Just stuff for me to think about.

-Mischa