- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.

Ah, My Loki-sama!

written by Kurosu

- Chapter Thirty-Two.

One weekday afternoon, Mayura had brought Loki to a restaurant in her neighborhood, to a potential client who was old friends with her father. He couldn't say no to the girl, but as they sat there with the forty-something-year-old man who kept pounding his fist on the table during every other sentence, Loki was having second thoughts as he managed to save his cup of tea from spillage.

"You see, tantei-san," the restaurant owner named Takahashi Ryuu started, "My family's been running this place for generations, and those Makimuras are always tryin' to start trouble! Like that one time..."

So after several minutes of storytelling and random tangents, Loki gathered that these two family were rivals in the restaurant business - SOBA versus UDON, food was serious business here - having purposely opened up across the street from each other. After many costly pranks against one another, it was eventually decided that the best way to see who was the best was to hold a racing competition each year, which later opened up to all the restaurant businesses in the neighborhood. Then every year, it became more extravagant and widely known that gathered many people to come and watch. *

So here Loki was, being pleaded by a desperate Takahashi, "PLEASE! I beg of you! Please participate in the contest on my family's behalf! Mayura-chan has spoken highly of you!"

With a flat expression, he glanced to his right to his cute assistant, who was sweatdropping profusely and gave him a small wave with a nervous smile, and then turned back to the man and said, "Takahashi-san, you do realize that I'm just a detective for the paranormal and mysterious, not a jack-of-all-trades for hire."

"Yes, but you must!" he began to cry hopelessly into his arm, "Year after year, we've lost, and I don't know what to do anymore! You are our last hope!"

"Please, Loki-sama!" Mayura finally interjected, with determined, clenched fists and lovely, shimmering ruby eyes imploring him, "The troubled and weak need us! It's our duty as detectives!"

He sweatdropped at her proclamation, but there was no way he could refuse her insistence, not when she was so adorable with her little speeches, and she was his maiden in distress. So he finally gave in with a single nod, and he was taken aback when Mayura and Takahashi jumped out of their seats, high-fived each other and did a happy, celebratory dance.

He sighed and told them, "Maybe you should celebrate after we win."

"Right right!" Takahashi laughed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, and then began to describe the competition.

As he said before, the annual competition had been opened up to all eatery joints in the neighborhood, where registrations closed a week before the event would take place. It was a long delivery race of the each restaurant's specialty dish, with a series of obstacles along the way, to reach the finish line. Obstacles ranged from simple roadblocks to urban death traps to out right pretend muggings to public streaking...

It all sounded simple enough, as much as Loki tried not to question some of the obstacles, but he did inquire one thing, "Where is the finish line?"

"We won't know till the day of the race. The host selects a random address as the delivery house."

"Ah, then there will be no chance of sabotage."

The day of the race finally arrived, after Takahashi had registered Loki and Mayura on his family's restaurant's behalf, and Yamino, with Fenrir in his arms, had come to give their full support to their father and his assistant, and unofficial girlfriend. Loki was not used to dressing in simple clothing of khaki pants and a t-shirt that advertised the restaurant too, but he was enjoying the ones Mayura had on: the same t-shirt but much more fitted, with the bottom hem scrunched together in to a knot, revealing her fair-skinned abdomen, and a pair of short denim that showed the length of her lovely legs.

Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and she was chewing on bubble gum, hands on her hips, oblivious of the male attention she received, as she waited, standing next to the handsome god, who did his fair share of enrapturing the female crowd. This pair was a sight to behold, and the priority to keep an eye on, and Takahashi mentally patted himself on the back for hiring them because not only would he win the race but his restaurant was getting awesome advertisement.

She blew a bubble and then popped it, frowning a bit, "Mou Loki-sama, there sure are a lot of people participating..."

"Ah, don't worry," he tried to reassure her and casually put an arm around her shoulder, causing several males in the background to shout obscenely at the handsome man. Yamino sweatdropped while his brother barked at the crowd with just equally obscene words, and he was glad that Loki and Mayura were too distracted by their own thoughts to take notice.

"Ha~? Isn't that Narugami-kun?" Mayura pointed to the brunette complaining to the host, though they were not surprised to find him among the masses of restaurants present.

They walked over to their friend, wanting to know what was troubling him, and maybe even help him in some way... That was until they recognized the name of the Takahashis' rival restaurant across the back of his shirt.

Loki called out to him, "What's going on, Narugami?"

"Oh you guys are here too!"

"We're in the race," Mayura explained and then gave him the evil glare, "Narugami-kun, you're working for the Makimuras?"

"Yeah," he pouted, "But my partner got sick!"

"That's too bad," Loki shrugged, smiling smugly, not feeling sympathetic at all, and with their rival out of the game, it would make things much easier.

Narugami's eyes scanned the crowd, and he zeroed in on Yamino, who started to sweat when he caught the god of thunder's eyes on him. The dark, plotting glint that sparkled did not ease the unsettling feeling in Yamino's stomach, and he prayed that his father would save him.

"Oi Loki! Won't you lend me Megane!"

Loki stared, deadpanned, at his friend, "No."

"That's right!" Mayura pointed dramatically at Narugami, "We may be friends, but today, we shall be enemies! The Takahashis will win this race!"

Loki chuckled at the sulky Narugami, having no choice but to forfeit if he didn't find a replacement soon. He hurried off towards the crowd, and one familiar head was walking by, oblivious of the event with only one goal in his mind, and Narugami grabbed his arm.

"HEY! What's the big id-"

Heimdall was resisting against being kidnapped, willing to resort to shouting out like a helpless child, until he realized it was Narugami trying to calm him down, "Look, Heimdall, I need your help here. I need to get into this race and win, so how about you joining me?"

"I don't have time for your games," he growled, "I need to find my eye."

"Hey, if you help me with this, I'll help you find your eye, 'kay?"

"Fine," he huffed out, because the god of thunder was very persistent and got very whiny and he just didn't need all that headache, while a happy Narugami punched a fist into the air.

In the next few minutes, each team was given a bicycle and a map from the race committee members while their respective restaurants handed to their teams the box containing the special dish to be delivered to their mystery house. The rider would pedal the duo through the streets while the navigator sat on the extra seat behind the rider, with the map and the package, which needed to remain in tact upon reaching the finish line to the customer.

A lot of obstacles in the way could spill the contents, and attacks by other teams were allowed, so any ruined meal or completely annihilated one would disqualify the team from the race, so everyone would have to be careful and alert.

After a quick welcome from the district chief, the neighborhood leader began to go over the rules and such for the benefit of the spectators, while the teams stepped up to the starting line. Loki was pushing the bicycle up to the spot right next to Narugami and Heimdall and smirked in their direction, and Mayura popped another bubble as she looked at the map in one hand while holding the box in the other.

"Oh Kazumi-kun is joining too!" she smiled pleasantly, after taking notice of the god seated as the navigator, but then her demeanor changed to a slightly dark one, "Even so, Narugami-kun will not win!"

Narugami and Heimdall were surprised by such an uncharacteristic, sinister look and shot worried glances towards her partner, who just smiled and shrugged, finding her change rather sexy in a dark and evil way.

Oh, but that surprise did not beat the one that appeared on the other side of Loki, in the form of one Freyr pushing his bicycle up to the line, with sidekick pet Gullinbursti in the navigator seat- err, basket.

"FREYR!" the gods shouted in horror and shock.

The god blinked and turned to them, completely ignoring them when all he could see was a pretty pink-haired girl, shouting, "Freyr's Yamato Nadeshiko!"

"Ah hello, Freyr-sama..."

So ecstatic, he stretched out his arms to embrace her, but Loki had grabbed Gullinbursti and shoved the piglet in to his arms instead, giving the god some advice, "Keep your hands to yourself, Freyr. Especially away from other people's partners."

"LOKI!" he shouted, "How dare you keep Freyr away from Freyr's beloved Yamato Nadeshiko! You villain!" After a quick huff of annoyance, he brushed a hand through his hair and gave a sweatdropping Mayura a dashing smile, "Freyr will prove his worthiness for Yamato Nadeshiko's hand by winning this race! Right, Gullinbursti?"

He put his piglet friend back in to the navigator basket with their food, which only earned him questioning stares from the other gods, and Heimdall called the host over about the situation of a pig being Freyr's partner. The host just shrugged, "It's the first time this has ever been brought up, but I don't see why not. The pig seems intelligent enough."

Gullinbursti smiled and nodded, "Bwee bwe bweee~!"

Loki sighed, along with the other gods, and mumbled, "It's not the pig that we're contesting about. It's the other half of the pair..."

Narugami and Heimdall nodded, apparently agreeing on something together, earning much disdain and flailing from Freyr. Mayura giggled and gave him a sweet smile, "Let's do our best, Freyr-sama!"

"Oi Daidouji!" an irritated Narugami tugged on her ponytail for her attention, "Why'd Freyr get a 'let's do our best' when we got your stink eye?!"

Heimdall, smirking, stated the obvious, "It's because she knows we are the threat and not Freyr."

"Yamato Nadeshiko..." he sighed happily, making those googly, love-struck eyes, having overlooked the remark that his dear Yamato Nadeshiko didn't see him as a worthy opponent.

"Th-That's not true!" she whined, her face a bit pink, thinking Freyr need a bit more encouragement than Narugami and Heimdall.

If the group, or anyone at all, had paid any attention to farther down the starting line, they would have noticed a certain red-head and blonde pair had entered the contest too, with their sole goal of still searching for their beloved. Hilin looked out towards the many spectators, very smug about her awesome plan in participating in this mortal contest, because Baldur always had an interest in watching these high competitive events.

She scanned the crowd one more time and sweatdropped when she easily spotted Gina and her cloud of gloom amongst the people, having left the dark-haired woman to keep a lookout for Baldur. From the corner of her eye, she saw Fullia opening their box and slapped her hand away, "That's for the customer! If you eat it, we won't have anything to deliver!"

"Yes, Hilin-san!" she pouted.

And finally, the host announced the moment of the random drawing. All eyes fell upon the neighborhood leader as he drew out the random address that would be the finish line. He read the destination loud and clear, and all navigators immediately made the note on their maps.

Next came the countdown as teams mentally prepared themselves. Hilin appeared to be fired up, her eyes ablazed like the color of her hair.

"On your mark!"

Narugami and Heimdall looked very focused.

"Get set!"

Freyr checked the bell attached to the handle bar, giving it a ring, and smiled at the cute sound, reminding him so much of his Yamato Nadeshiko.

"GO~O~O~O~!"

At the final count, all teams disappeared from the starting line in a flash... except for a sweatdropping Loki and Mayura, who were still clumsily in the same spot. Mayura tugged his shirt, "Mou Loki-sama! We have to go!"

"Ah..." Loki felt the sudden dread, "Sorry, Mayura..."

'What's wrong with daddy?' Fenrir, now sitting on Yamino's head for a better view, asked.

Yamino sweatdropped, "Ano, I think Loki-sama just realized..."

Mayura peered over to him, concerned about his uncharacteristic trembling, "Loki-sama?"

His sweatdrop grew bigger as he found himself in the most embarrassing moment ever, "I... don't know how to ride this thing..."

The mortal girl fell over and quickly got up, "Mou Loki-sama! Why didn't you say so sooner!" She shoved the map and delivery box into his hands and ushered him to the back seat while she climbed on the bicycle.

"Hold on, Loki-sama!" she shouted, looking very driven and almost wild, and the warning almost came too late as she took off, but Loki was able to grab on to her just in time, leaving a huge trail of dust behind. He was amazed at her hidden strength and how sexy her will power and determination was. But he could feel his stomach getting queasy already and pressed his woozy head against her back, now regretting this whole ordeal because of his pathetic weakness with motion sickness, which he had thought happened only in his child form.

"Loki-sama?" came his partner's concern voice.

"I-I'll be... fine..."

Yeah right, he didn't sound like his confident and overbearing self, which prompt Mayura to slow down her speed until they stopped. He lifted his head from her as she turned halfway around to him, looking worried and upset at the same time, "Loki-sama, let's stop."

"Mayura..." he stared at her and felt guilty, "But you really want to win."

She frowned and boldly flicked his forehead with his finger, causing him to blink at her, puzzled. "Loki-sama is more important than a win!" she declared. Smiling oh-so sweetly to him, she whispered softly with a pink hue across her cheeks, "Loki-sama will always be important to me."

"Mayura..."

Deeply touched by her confession, he leaned up to give her a chaste kiss on her lips, causing her blush to deepen, and pulled back with a very confident grin, satisfied by her cute reaction, "Let's win this race!"

She blinked for a second, surprised that he gave her such a gentle kiss - after teasing her so much - but she shook herself out of it and looked in to his beautiful eyes to be certain that he was okay with continuing the race. She found her answer and mirrored his exact smile, before turning around and zoomed off again, still with a semi-ill Loki clutching her for dear life because she was going way beyond the bicycling speed limit - watch out for those roaming hands!

Narugami was pedaling as fast as he could, having no trouble with his speed, and avoided the road block ahead by going even faster and used the side bench to propel the whole bicycle over the block. He landed on the other side roughly, giving Heimdall's head a nice knock into the delivery box.

"What the hell, Thor!" he shouted, "You're going the wrong way!"

"Don't worry! I've been making deliveries all over Tokyo. I know all the shortcuts around here!"

"What kind of shortcut goes in the opposite direction!"

Then there was Freyr, who re-secured Gullinbursti and the package to the back of his bicycle because the piglet kept popping out of it every time he hit a pebble. He looked at the map, himself, and then resumed pedaling happily along as if he was going on a casual ride through the nice countryside.

Surprisingly, ahead of all the teams was the pair of Hilin and Fullia, with the former pedaling like a madwoman, because she was a hardcore competitor, leaving in their wake a nasty trail of fire and smoke. Her speed was so amazing that she flew straight across the huge pit hole in the middle of road, one of the obstacles in the way.

Navigator Fullia was enjoying her backseat ride, giving directions as they went along. The wind in her face was so wonderful, and like a child loving the rush, she threw both hands into the air with glee, and mother nature sneezed and snatched the map from her hand.

Fullia turned around and watched their map go bye-bye in the distance, "Oopsie?"

"Goddammit, Fullia!"

Back at the starting line, the spectators were all watching the large television screen, where an overhead shot of the district below was transmitted from the helicopter in the skies, but each bicycle provided also had a camera and GPS tracker attached to the handle bar to get a first-person point of view.

Yamino and Fenrir could see that the last place team of Loki and Mayura had a rough start, but they were soon catching up with the others. They were amazed by Mayura's speed and spirit of competition because she had just knocked out two teams from the race.

'Wow,' Fenrir's jaw dropped, 'I didn't think daddy's girlfriend had it in her...'

"Ah, Mayura-san looks dangerous," Yamino smiled nervously.

They watched the team in front of Mayura panic when she came closer, still out of arm's reach, but Laevateinn appeared in the camera shot, knocking against the back wheel of their opponents' bicycle, causing them to lose balance and fall over, tipping the delivery box to the ground.

Then a quick cut to the opponent's camera getting the shot of Mayura and Loki speeding away, and the god giving them a grinning salute.

All was fair in food delivery and war... magical staff included.

While everyone was glued to the screen, cheering and whistling at the hotness of violence and action, Gina moved about the throngs of people, searching for anyone resembling Baldur, but it seemed her mission would end up in failure though, and only the thought of her precious Frigg-sama cheered her up just a bit. In a daze and blinded by her bangs, she walked right behind Yamino and Fenrir, who were both to preoccupied, especially the latter, to notice her presence.

Gina even passed by the host, busy dialing the phone number that was attached to the address, and eventually off the whole scene, not realizing it all together.

"Hm, you know this address is very familiar," the host mumbled to himself, calling to make sure someone was present at the final location, although several media stations had already gone to it to record the results of the victorious team. He waited through a few rings when it was finally answered by a very polite woman...

"... You've reached the Kakinouchi residence," the maid servant spoke in a gentle tone, "How can I be of service?

"Why yes, there is always a person present... Yes, this is the home of the rich and famous Kakinouchi family... Actually, our young master, Kakinouchi Koutaro-sama, is currently home... Yes, I will relay the message... Thank you. Have a good day."

She pleasantly hung up the phone and walked down a few long hallways, making a few turns, until she reached the double doors of the study. She knocked and was quickly allowed entrance. She tread softly up to the desk where Koutaro was sitting and busily reading a book, "Obocchama, the neighborhood spokesperson has a message for you."

He put his book down and waited for her to explain, "It appears that we have been selected as the finish line for the annual delivery race today."

"What?"

"We will be receiving a free meal courtesy of the-"

A loud crash interrupted them, and Koutaro jumped out of his chair and ran out the door. The maid followed him, and they heard a few more noises in the front courtyard. After a long trek of winding hallways, because the Kakinouchi mansion was so large and vast, able to lose several visitors within its mighty walls, the two reached the front doors. He swung the doors opened to find the yard filled with familiar faces, Mayura and Loki, and some unfamiliar ones, Hilin and Fullia... along with the media posted outside the gates of his home.

Koutaro collapsed on to his knees, "Ma-Mayura...?"

A helicopter from above shining lights and camera upon the ground below, getting a good view of the showdown between the two teams that managed to arrive at the finish line in one piece, but...

"Team Takahashi Soba and Team Fried Fish Bowl!" shouted some random reporter, "They've reached the finish line together!"

A quick cut to the broken Kakinouchi gates that the two teams busted through, one door dangling on its last hinge fell to the ground, then back to the two teams. Hilin looked ready to run Loki and his partner down, while Mayura returned the same expression but less menacing and cute because she didn't have a violent and aggressive streak like a certain red-head.

"But we can only have ONE winner! The final fight of anything goes! Who will come out on top?!"

Now that he was finally on solid ground, Loki was back to his normal self, with Laevateinn in hand, and gave the delivery box to Mayura. He stood in front of her protectively, meeting Hilin and her mop at the forefront, and it all came down to destroying the other team's special dish.

With a battle cry and her red glowy battle aura, Hilin charged right at Loki, mop held high ready to strike, and Loki, in turn, dashed straight ahead, prepared to block and counter her attack.

"AND WE HAVE THE WINNER!" the reporter shouted, "TEAM TAKAHASHI SOBA!"

Loki and Hilin halted in their steps, comically, looking very confused, until they turned their heads towards a cheerful Fullia, who was sitting on a stone decoration eating her team's special meal, wondering why everyone was staring at her. She slurped the noodles straight in to her mouth, with bits of food still on her face, and asked, "What?"

"DAMMIT, FULLIA!" Hilin yelled at the blonde, "I told you NOT to eat the food!"

"But I was hungry!" she whined.

Loki and Mayura, sweatdropping, walked over to a stunned Koutaro and delivered their intact meal to him. "Enjoy the food, Koutaro-kun!" she chirped to her classmate, who was still trying to take in the whole event, but it appeared to be too much for the young master, who passed out.

After the closing ceremony along with the awarding the victorious duo with the prizes - which consisted of a monetary prize of 100,000 yen ($1000), a coupon booklet to the local restaurants, and a limited edition Lucky Star cast mug - a very grateful Takahashi bowed to Loki and Mayura and handed half the prize money and the booklet to them. He kept the mug though, "My daughter's been wanting this!"

"NOOOOOO!" Freyr cried dramatically in his spotlight in the background, causing everyone to sweatdrop.

"Err, is he your friend?" Takahashi asked the detective and his assistant, to which the god shook his head no but the mortal girl nodded yes, "Right, so thanks again, tantei-san. Mayura-chan."

"I can't believe we lost!" Narugami sighed, "All that money!"

Heimdall whacked his partner's head with Mjollnir, "I told you a thousand times we were going the wrong way!"

Loki sighed, shaking his head and wishing he didn't know those gods, as Yamino and Fenrir joined their father and Mayura, who seemed worried about Freyr and the sad, rainy cloud over him and Gullinbursti. She walked over to them and asked, "What's wrong, Freyr-sama? Did you want to win that badly?"

Through the tears, he gazed up at his lovely goddess, "Yamato Nadeshiko..." Wailing loudly, he threw his arms towards her legs, wanting to be comfort by any part of her, but Loki's shoe smashed into his face.

"Freyr..." his voice was low and very threatening, matching the evil expression, "didn't I warn you about keeping your hands to yourself?"

"Why are you even in Midgard?" Heimdall wondered.

Freyr looked at the ground, twiddling with his fingers, appearing very guilty about something, and the other gods did not seem happy about it because that was the sign of an extremely guilty conscience. They remembered the last time he did something terrible, like purposely destroying a jaki jar and releasing the two million evil spirits into Midgard just so he could be banished to the mortal realm to find his sister.

Loki, Heimdall, Narugami, Yamino and Fenrir surrounded the clumsy god, towering over him with furious eyes, promising of endless pain if the reason he was in Midgard was the same actions of the past. "Freyr..." Heimdall growled.

"Okay okay!" Freyr cried, "Freyr broke Odin-sama's favorite mug!"

"..."

"It was Odin-sama's limited edition Lucky Star mug..."

"..."

No words could even describe each god's feelings on the matter - whether it was about Freyr's forever clumsiness that once again banished him to Midgard or Odin's otaku side, it was best left not to be discussed.

* Soba is a type of thin noodle made from buckwheat flour, can be served cold with dipping sauce or hot in soup or stir fried. Udon is a type of thick wheat flour noodle, often used in hot noodle soup dishes but can be stir fried too.

Notes: Lol, I had too much fun writing this chapter up! I had all evening to finish this and wanted to get it posted for your early weekend enjoyment! Don't ask me about Odin and his otaku-ness, because it was just random, lol! I actually haven't read/seen Lucky Star yet, but gosh, I know it's super popular.

Some Ranma 1/2 inspiration, the episode of the Martial Arts Take Out Race, lol, and a shout out to its creator, Takahashi Rumiko-sensei!

Anyway, have a great weekend, everyone! See you next week?! Lol~! -kuro.