- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.
Ah, My Loki-sama!
written by Kurosu
- Chapter Twenty-Nine.
The red number twenty-eight, in such a fancy style of writing, was staring right back at the pink-haired student from its spot on the piece of paper that appeared to be a math exam, and a lot of red marks was scattered across it, leaving a very unhappy Mayura to walk home from school. Worried and depressed over the low score, she wasn't sure how her father would react to it, but she knew he wasn't going to be happy either.
Maybe if she came up with a good excuse for the failure, like aliens abducting her so she didn't have time to study, or a ghost possessed her and it wasn't a very smart ghost... or a witch cursed her to do terrible on the exams, in one particular subject...
Which one would her father believe in?
Not able to decide, she, in frustration, gave up and crumpled the paper in to a ball within her hands and tossed it carelessly over her shoulder. The wadded test soared through the air and right onto someone's blonde head, bouncing off his cute noggin and right into his hands - this was all too familiar!
Oh look, Loki, who was out walking Fenrir, uncrumpled the paper and smoothed it out to see what was the cause of the girl's turmoil and chuckled, "Really? A twenty-eight?"
Mayura turned around at the sound of his voice, looking horrified and embarrassed, quickly snatching the paper of humiliation from his hands, as Fenrir snickered, 'Geez, I knew daddy's girlfriend wasn't the brightest, but...'
Her face flushed red - not sure of it was Fenrir's girlfriend comment or the one referring to her level of intelligence - as she flailed her arms, one hand waving the test paper while the other holding her school bag, at their amusement, "I-I've just been distracted lately!"
The puppy snorted, 'How do you expect to help daddy with these terrible grades!'
"Hmm," Loki tilted his head to the side, looking up to the blue skies thoughtfully, "Fenrir's right. Maybe you shouldn't be my assistant after all..."
"No!" she blurted at him in panic, with two clenched fists where one had crushed her exam into a useless paper wad again, "I'm your lovely, detective assistant! So you should at least be more supportive!" She began to flail her arms again, but Loki grabbed a wrist, which calmed her down just a bit, and pulled her along, down the street, with his faithful son by their side.
Mayura was still worried, filled with pure dread, and he didn't like having her cute features marred with unpleasantness. "Mou!" she whined, fearing the reveal of her grade to her father, "Papa's gonna really put me in cram school when he sees this!"
"Hm, maybe I can help you," the blonde god suggested with a sly grin, chuckling into his free hand.
She stopped walking to give him a really bright, enthusiastic smile and then stared at him for a few seconds, brows now furrowing to a point. He blinked innocently at her uncharacteristic, quiet reaction, and she told him flat out, "No thanks!" She started walking again, and since he still had a hold on her wrist, he followed, as she continued to speak, "Because it's Loki-sama offering! You are most likely thinking of embarrassing me, or maybe you want a reward for your 'good' deed."
As grateful as she would be with his help, she knew him well enough that he was devious and knew of his infamous title as a trickster god. There was no way she was going to let him have his way and bully her, so she childishly stuck out her tongue at him, slipping out of his unwilling grasp, and hurried ahead.
She turned around with a big grin and a wave, "I'm heading home first!"
And off, Mayura went, to face her doomed fate, leaving a moody Loki behind and Fenrir chortled loudly, 'She sure knows you well, daddy!'
Loki grumbled, "Fenrir, you're not helping."
Mayura sneaked in to her home, quietly shutting the door behind her, and after taking her shoes off, she carefully tiptoed across the floor, but being someone with an attraction for trouble and just pure bad luck, she bumped into the side table, knocking the a small vase over.
"Mayura? You're home?" came her father's voice from the kitchen.
She sweatdropped, having no choice but to answer him, "Y-Yes, I'm home, papa..."
She glanced to the stairs, wondering if she had enough time to make a run for it... Oh screw thinking! Just run! Yeah, run right into her father exiting the kitchen, wiping his hands dry on a towel, but she had put on her brakes just in time, smiling up to him nervously.
He raised a brow at his daughter's suspicious agitation, so he had to inquire immediately, "How was the math test?"
The tiny sweatdrops by the side of her head appeared to have doubled in amount with each passing second until the man could take no more of the stalling and held out his hand for the test. Her left eye twitched uncomfortably, along with the corner of her nervous smile, wondering if she should test out her excuses, which were too farfetched for her father to believe in.
"Ano," she was sweating so much that she might need a shower after this, "Fenrir ate it?"
His flat expression told her he was not amused at all, and his hand remained still in its spot of waiting for the results, so she resigned to her doomed fate and dug in to her pocket for the crumpled exam. Instead of smoothing it out, she plopped the wad into his hand, and he frowned. He flattened the paper out, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head - commence freaking out.
She flinched from his loud tone as she brought up her school bag as a defensive shield till her father could calm down. When he was done, she peeked over the bag to see him glaring at her. "Sorry, papa," she started, "I'll try harder next time!"
"Of course you will!" he stated, "At least you know how important your education is! It's a good thing I expected this..."
Okay, that did not sound good when her father declared that he expected her to fail, and the determined and proud expression on his face, accompanied by a triumphant pose, was all very ominous.
"I've already registered you in to a cram school!"
Her nightmare had come true, and she could see the light decreasing in size as she fell into an endless, black hole, "Nooooooooooo!"
"Yep, within a few weeks," Daidouji nodded, oblivious of the girl's spotlight of depression in the background, "you should pass your semester exams with flying colors!"
Somehow that was doubtful, but who had the heart to really break the man's delusional dream?
Later that evening, a beautiful European-style mansion sat among the traditional neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan. It was a lovely sight to behold, yet many questions had left the citizens wondering curiously about said building because they had never seen the place before. Or was it always there and no one bothered to notice?
Impossible! Something as gorgeous and sexy as that, any architect or mansion fanatic would take notice of it immediately! Nevermind the many 'no trespassing' and 'no loitering' and 'no soliciting' signs in the front yard to deterred unwanted visitors, but the large plaque on the gates read 'Enjaku Detective Agency,' so one really wondered if this place had any clients.
"Papa is so mean!" Mayura declared as she cut in to the delicious, juicy steak that Yamino had thrown together for dinner. After the discussion with her father, he had quickly abandoned her for a last minute exorcism, which would have left her eating dinner alone, so she decided to drop by Loki's new house for a bit of freeloading. He couldn't quite complain about, due to their past together where he was the one freeloading at her place and the enjoyment of her cute company.
Even if she was ranting about the cram school situation to him, he always found her vibrant and animated personality very refreshing.
"He's totally taking away my social life!"
Her declaration snapped Loki out of his short reverie, and he raised a curious brow in her direction, grinning, "What exactly is this social life?"
"Ano," she blushed and corrected herself, "I mean my detective assistant duties! Which reminds me, have you gotten any cool cases?" With a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, she leaned forward, eyeing him carefully, which meant that he better give her a suitable answer.
He sweatdropped, skimming through a mental list of trivial cases that neighbors had requested of him, from finding lost pets to seeking pie thieves to fixing the leak of the garden hose. Those did not qualify as cool cases for a handsome detective like him, but a job was a job, right? He had to earn some sort of living on Midgard, just as a cover his secret identity as a divine being.
Yamino spoke up, from across the table from Mayura, "We haven't opened for that long. Perhaps a bit of advertisement is needed? I've been wanting to try out the new nail gun I ordered..."
'Hell no!' Fenrir barked from his spot on the floor, just to Loki's right side, 'We don't need another mishap like last time!'
The others sweatdropped at the puppy's protest over the mail ordered product, and Mayura suggested, "Or you could remove those signs in the yard. Clients would be turned away from such a harsh, unwelcoming atmosphere!"
Loki waved it off casually, "There's no need. I prefer the privacy.
"We specialize in the supernatural and abnormal anyway. So if they're that desperate, they will have no other choice but to come to us."
"Loki-sama shouldn't be so picky," she glanced at him slyly, "Or you will become an unemployed god again."
The father and his two sons sweatdropped.
Later that night, standing on a generic building that overlooked the skyline of Tokyo, giving the setting a more somber and mysterious atmosphere and a foreshadowing of future conflicts, four figures appeared to be contemplating the new landscape. The gorgeous scenery of twinkling lights only captured the attention of one as she leaned over the side excitedly, "Wai~ it's so pre~tty~!"
Her blonde ponytail whipped side to side, trying to soak in all the cute lights, when she suddenly got yanked back by her hair by her comrade, "Fullia, pay attention!"
"Yes, Hilin-san!" she saluted to her red-head superior.
"It's chilly, cold and depressing..." came their third companion's somber voice, "but its beauty can't compare to our queen!"
Hilin smacked her the dark-haired woman, "Gina! Pull yourself together! We are here for the sake of our queen!" She turned around to the fourth person, whose cropped, neon-green hair was a bit outrageous, and bowed, "I apologize, Eir-sama, for their behaviors. Please let us handle the mission! You can entrust us with finding Baldur-sama!"
"Do so," Eir's words were short and precise, lacking any emotions, and she held no facial expression, not even reacting to the trio's little display of disunity, "I will return tomorrow for your progress."
And with those final words, Eir disappeared from sight, leaving a very angry Hilin, fist clenched at her side, while her two comrades cowered nervously on the ground, afraid of what was about to come. Hilin threw her fist aside, shouting, "Damn that Eir! She's so... so arrogant, high and mighty, looking down on us like insects! I'll show her! I'll find Baldur-sama and bring her down from her high horse! Then stomp all over her corpse! Cut her into a thousand pieces, turn her into fertilizer..."
"But Hilin-san," Gina tried to get their leader's attention back to the mission at hand, "How will we find Baldur-sama?"
Hilin folded her arms across her chest, closing her eyes in thought, "Hrm, well... we know Baldur-sama was last seen in Midgard. Let's just start here."
"Here?" the two echoed, glancing at each other.
"Yeah, here!" Hilin pointed to the spot at her feet, or below her feet, and they looked down at the concrete of the building's rooftop, "This building! We'll start by searching here! So! Here's the plan..."
As Hilin discussed the plan with them on the rooftop of a once random building that turned out to belong to an educational institution that catered to many high school students and potential college applicants, for additional studies and tutelage, so it wasn't that random after all. And what coincidence that this was the very place Daidouji signed his daughter up for, and that was how Mayura, the next afternoon, found herself standing in front of said building.
Despite having a cheerful hairstyle of two meatballs with flowy pigtails for no reason at all, she was brooding, and after a few students entered the building, she followed suit, having no other alternatives because they would be reporting in to her father if she decided to skip the classes - curse her luck! And to think, this would be her normal schedule for a month, right up until the semester exams! She was going to miss out on all the awesome cases if Loki ever decided to take one, but then again, his slothfulness right now would be much appreciated.
Loki had been reading a book when the antique phone, on the corner of his desk, rang. He marked his page and put the book down before answering it. He was surprised that Urd was calling, though a bit sooner than he had expected from Asgard. He rapped his fingers across the desk surface as he listened to every word the goddess spoke, his expression gradually changing from amusement to indifference to seriousness.
"Ah, I will certainly take that job," his fingers stopped, and he leaned forward in his chair, "Don't worry, I'll look into that matter too... Thank you, Urd."
After proper goodbyes, he placed the receiver back in to its place and stared straight ahead, wondering if they would ever get a bit of peace. After the last almost catastrophic event, he needed a vacation.
'Daddy,' Fenrir began, trotting along side his father an hour later, as they took another afternoon walk through the city. Since his father had been in his original form ever since their return to Midgard, he had been attracting a lot of unnecessary attention from the mortal population of women. He noticed there were more females today than ever, but something was also different about the day's stroll, 'are we taking a new path?'
"Ah," Loki nodded - whether he was oblivious of the love-struck eyes or chose to ignore them, he paid them no mind - and continued straight ahead, "I want to check on something."
After a few more steps, he stopped abruptly and looked around, causing Fenrir to stop too. There was a strange energy in the area, and as his eyes scanned the vicinity, nothing appeared out of the ordinary, besides the female stalkers off to the side, and he tried to pinpoint the origin.
'Daddy, I think it's coming from over there!' Fenrir, having realized what his father was searching for, growled at the building across the street, Kawaii Ringo Academy - 'Cute Apple Academy,' a very misleading name for a secondary education cram school institution.
After a quick sign in, Mayura received her class information and searched for the room, and when she found it, she hesitated on entering, but she was at the point of no return. Sucking it in, she opened the door and walked inside. She counted about ten other students present, all wearing a terrible expression of fear and horror, some even cowering in the corner and she sweatdropped, thinking that it couldn't be that bad.
It was two minutes till class would begin, so she found an empty seat by the window and sat down. Just as the hour bell rang, the door suddenly flew off its hinges into the opposite wall, and Mayura gaped at it, her eyes nearly popped out. Now she was getting a bad feeling about this place, but a woman with vibrant red hair marched into the room like she was the boss, causing the other student to shrink in fear. She dropped her briefcase on the desk noisily and then proceeded to the podium at the front of the classroom.
"All right!" Hilin slammed her palms down on the podium, staring with laser-focused eyes at her pathetic group of students, "The name's Akano Hilin. I'm your new teach for... whatever class this is!"
"Math," someone in the far back had the nerve to speak up.
"Right! So I'mma start with roll call... Screw roll call! Anyone here know where Baldur-sama is?"
Wow, so this was Hilin's wonderful plan to search for the missing god? To ask anyone they come across?!
Mayura sweatdropped, now knowing for sure that this whole cram school business was bad for her health. But at the mention of Baldur, the god who had ordered her death sentence a few weeks ago, she stared at the woman and wondered if she was a goddess too and why she was looking for the god.
No one dared to answer the woman, even avoiding eye contact or any sort of contact, and Hilin scanned the room, scoffing at the weak mortals and thinking this room was another dead end, until her intense gaze fell on the strange, pink-haired student who was staring at her without any fear.
"You there!" Hilin pointed her index finger at a blinking Mayura, "You know something!"
"Ano," the girl smiled nervously, after looking around and seeing that the teacher was indeed addressing her, "I-I'm just here for math..."
"Lies! You fell in love with Baldur-sama, and when he wouldn't return your affections, you, filled with rage, were determined to get revenge! You kidnapped him and locked him away in your basement, keeping him from his loved ones! You, you terrible woman!"
At this point, everyone else had scattered out of the room, leaving a shock Mayura at the mercy of an angry goddess, because a red glowing woman did not look normal. The girl shoved her desk in to Hilin, pushing her back into the other desks, and made a run for the door, but the red-head was much faster, swiping the length of the mop down upon the desk in front of Mayura, smashing the object to pieces.
Mayura pulled back, half wondering where the mop had come from but then the woman was a goddess so anything was possible, and ducked behind another desk, only to have it destroyed. This continued for a few more seconds until a fireball incinerated the head of the mop, leaving the shaft in Hilin's hands.
"A cram school is a place for intellectual pursuit, not a brawl between beautiful women, which I prefer, but I digress…"
"Who the hell-"
Hilin started to say as both females turned towards the open door, where the voice originated from, to find Loki standing there with Laevateinn still smoking after throwing that last shot.
"Loki-sama," Mayura deadpanned, "Those were cheesy lines."
A sweatdropping Fenrir, at his father's side, barked to the mortal, 'See, daddy is a magical bishounen hero!" He added quietly afterwards, 'As embarrassing as it is.'
"LOKI?!" Hilin shouted, pointing the mop-turned-stick at the blonde god, "You're that accursed god that brought misfortune to Baldur-sama!"
He looked at her, tilting his head, trying to figure out who the woman was, but nothing came to him, "Hm, and you are?"
Hilin, sweating, knew that she was no match against a very powerful god like Loki, and even Baldur was defeated by such an evil being, so she had a very slim chance of any victory. Her best option she had was... to flee! She threw a smoke bomb to the ground, and in the explosion and confusion of everyone coughing and being blinded, she ran to the window and jumped out of it, glass shattering, disappearing from their sights.
Loki hurried to Mayura, who was still coughing, and helped her up. "Are you all right, Mayura?" he inquired, examining her for any other injuries.
She shook her head, her cute pigtails moving along with her, "No, I'm fine... but what about her? She jumped out the window!"
The god sweatdropped at the worried tone she held for their apparent enemy, while Fenrir shouted, 'This is the ground floor!'
"Mou!" Mayura sighed, even her odango hairstyle was matched her mood drooping a bit, as they walked out of the cram school, after a bit of explaining and complaining about the institution hiring some crazy psycho to teach math. So to avoid any lawsuit, they overlooked any damages Mayura and her companions might have caused, "That was depressing..."
Loki blinked at his companion next to him, "I would think you'd be more happy."
"How so?" she looked at him.
"Now you can tell Mayura-papa that this place is no good," he grinned, watching her expression change from sulkiness to pure joy and excitement. He laughed and draped an arm over her shoulders, drawing her close to him, "Now that's my Mayura."
She blushed when he placed a kiss on the top of her head and then pulled back just a bit, "About earlier though, what do you think is going on?"
"Hm, she called herself 'Akano Hilin'... but the name isn't familiar at all."
She gave him a flat expression, "Loki-sama, you've been around for a long time, maybe you just forgot? I mean, she could be one of your many admirers."
"Oh?" he leaned down to her face, his arm still around her, "Is Mayu-chan jealous?"
She turned away, not able to hide her blush, "N-No! Of course n-not!"
"You're such a terrible liar," he chuckled, pulling her face back to him, but even if she was avoiding his eyes, she still looked adorable doing so.
"Okay... maybe just a little..." Her face was bright red, staring down at the ground, when she started to speak again, she peered up to his face, "Ano... Loki-sama..."
"Hm?"
"I know you'll have to leave one day..." she started, wanting to hear his voice though she was afraid to hear the truth from him, and he seemed to understand, stopping her and holding her in front of him. Fenrir, having walked ahead of them, turned around and watched.
"Mayura."
"Yes?"
"You remember what Hel told you about the Yggdrasil System?" he asked, recalling Urd's earlier phone call, and when she nodded, he continued, "It was reset to the beginning, so all wishes that had been granted were null and void."
"I know, that's why you were able to return to Asgard," she spoke quietly, not understanding where he was going with the conversation.
"Yes, but that only means," he paused and smirked, making her ever puzzled by his words - why did he always have to be so mysterious with his meaning, couldn't he just out rightly say it, "without a record of your wish, you are qualified to receive a new one."
"Eh?!" she looked at him in surprised, wondering if she had heard right, but she still didn't understand, "What do you mean?"
Fenrir slapped a paw to his head, groaning, 'Daddy, I feel sorry for you.'
Loki sweatropped and sighed, thinking how it was just like her not to comprehend the situation yet she was able to read his emotions so easily. He smiled softly and cupped her beautifully innocent face with his hands, "Daidouji Mayura, I am a god...
"Here to grant you a single wish. Anything your heart desires."
She gazed into his lovely, emerald eyes, felt herself drowning in them, and there was only one thing she ever wanted. She smiled brightly, "I wish... to be by Loki-sama's side forever!"
Notes: Lol, I love you guys! So here's the start of a new season! I was inspired last night to work on it! I wanted to mainly address Mayura's new wish, from her original one where she wanted someone like Loki to be by her side to her new one where she wants to be by his side! I thought it would be so sweet! *gushes at how cute the two are*
And the new characters introduced, if you have some knowledge on Norse mythology or up on it - Eir, Hlin, Gna and Fulla are all attendants to Frigg, lol. Of course I had to give them quirky traits. They'll be more developed in the next few chapters. I noticed the chapters have gotten longer, and you can probably expect that from now on. I want to finish each subplot within a chapter, like a full anime episode, lol!
And if you noticed the few tributes to Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, you get cookies! I hope you guys enjoyed it! -kuro.