Other Fan Fiction ❯ A Push in the Right Direction ❯ Chapter 4
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: MikariStar 
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 236 | Status: Completed
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 236 | Status: Completed
A Push in the Right Direction: Case IV
Mystery 20: Little Cannibal
It was the middle of the night and Yako was exhausted, but Neuro wouldn't let her sleep, feeding her all sorts of strange things that Yako's stomach was probably the only human stomach that could handle them. Finally, Neuro realized that the hidden scent of magic would not go away, as if whoever did this was well aware of his resources, but how could that be?
The scent of mystery was not only sticking to the baby now, it now surrounding Yako as well, though they were not behind whatever crime was at stake, yet they were important pieces that he didn't know where to fit, they were puzzling.
Neuro resolved for not allowing Yako to sleep, since it seemed that whatever magic was at work, would activate in her slumber. This plan was not going too well, because Yako kept dozing off to the point where even if he shook her harshly and yelled in her ear, she would still continue to go further into slumber land.
Cursing human laziness and lack of energy, Neuro resorted to one last desperate attempt to keep Yako awake. He kissed her and suddenly her sleepy eyes shut open, closing again in pleasure. But just as Neuro thought he was victorious, Yako stopped responding and felt limp; he thought he should be offended.
That was it, it was over, the spell would take its effect on Yako, but Neuro didn't know what that spell was. He just knew that trying to deal with it had been frustrating and tiring. Thus he resolved to go to sleep. He placed Yako on her bed and laid down as well, holding Yako close.
xoxox xox xoxox
The next day... "Just as the police was ready to report the truthfulness of the note saying that the mysterious baby detective Yako Katsuragi was seen with was indeed abandoned at her doorstop with the request of her caring for him, it was discovered that the note, as well as other police evidence, including testimonials that defended Katsuragi's reputation, were false. As a result of this, Katsuragi's reputation is being further questioned, has the police been protecting her? Is she not the celebrated detective we think she is? Why does she refuse to give us an interview?"
Sasazuka turned off the TV and the reporter faded into the nothingness of the black screen. "I messed up," he muttered quietly. Then he continued getting ready for work that morning, acting nonchalant.
xoxox xox xoxox
What woke Neuro that morning was the sound of knocking on the door. He noted that his arms were still wrapped in Yako's shape, but they held nothing but empty air. Neuro's first instinct was to find her, but the knocking was annoying him, thus he investigated that first.
Neuro opened the door to find Ishigaki, who seemed surprised to see him, despite the rumors about him and Yako. "Um... I..." Ishigaki had not stopped by to talk to Neuro, he was there to make a delivery to Yako, but he couldn't with Neuro around.
"Are you here to see Sensei? She is still sleeping, can I take a message?" Neuro put up an act, but it came out a bit hasty.
"Well..." Ishigaki looked at the book he held unsure, then at Neuro, back at the book and at Neuro.
"Is that for Sensei?" Neuro snatched the book impatiently; it was titled 'One Hundred and One Ways to Kill a Ghost'. So first he was an alien that needed to be exorcised and now he was a ghost that must be killed, even if that was a contradiction.
"Don't throw it away!" Ishigaki attempted to recover the book to no avail.
"Is it for Sensei?" Neuro insisted, indicating that he wanted the conversation to end.
"Yes, it is," Ishigaki confirmed.
"Very well, I will give it to her. I'm sure you must be late for work, goodbye," Neuro closed the door, locked it and strode across the living room, carelessly tossing the book on the couch. It was time to find Yako.
xoxox xox xoxox
Neuro discovered Yako quickly enough. She had slipped away from his grasp because she was a lot smaller. She was devouring all the food that had been stored in the lower portion of the refrigerator where her three year old body would reach. Neuro observed the little girl closely, the magic was dormant, no other changes would occur, but he couldn't precise when or if the spell would run out, the scent was so ambiguous.
For someone skilled enough to blur his senses in the process of interpreting the scent and also capable of making the odd spell immune to his antidotes, Neuro mused that the culprit had a strange way of doing things. He had no idea what the mysterious culprit could possibly hope to accomplish by turning Yako into a toddler, other than annoying Neuro, it made no sense and the scent of mystery grew stronger.
"Slave," the little Yako looked up at Neuro.
She was so small, her shirt was now like a dress on her. She blinked and pointed at him, repeating, "slave!"
Neuro gave her a disapproving look, "I'm not saying that I'm your slave, you are my slave, small or not."
"Give me food, slave!" Little Yako attempted to climb on Neuro, to use him to reach the freezer where she hoped to find ice-cream.
Neuro picked up Yako, "you are my slave," he held her on one arm and showed his claws on the other hand, an inch away from her face.
The toddler Yako looked at the clawed hand without fear. She examined it closely, and found a spot on the wrist without a sharp edge, then sunk her little teeth into it.
Neuro attempted to shake her off to no avail, her bite was unusually strong, like a bear trap. He realized that he would probably sooner rip her head off than rip her off his wrist and then he would have to find another slave, not to mention that an important piece to the ever growing puzzle would be missing. Thus Neuro got a popsicle from the freezer and offered it to Yako, who extended her little hand first without letting him go and didn't release him until the popsicle was safely in her grip.
With one swift motion, the little Yako stuffed the popsicle into her mouth, before Neuro changed his mind and took it away. This prompted him to rush to get the stick out of her mouth, before she unwittingly chocked herself in her gluttonous rush.
This situation would certainly require further investigation. It might be difficult since the younger Yako had no fear of death or injury, thus his usual physical threats were rendered ineffective. "I'm putting you on a diet."
Yako gasped, then took in air and let out a mighty scream. Neuro covered her mouth with his hand in human form now and she took the opportunity to bite the gloveless hand.
Neuro knew this wouldn't be easy, but he would solve this mystery, the scent was driving him crazy. Was this how Yako felt all the time with her wild appetite? "We're going to investigate; you can stop biting me now, I won't put you on a diet until you grow big again, then I'll starve you."
The tiny but brave Yako let go of Neuro's hand, nestled into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. "If hungry, eat chicken," then she bit his neck with all her might, the taste oddly reminded her of a spicy roasted chicken.
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Mystery 21: Fairy Tales
After prying the little Yako off his neck, Neuro resolved to go to the office and put slave number two and Akane to work searching for clues. Neuro had a feeling that the culprit involved in the baby's case and the one to blame for turning Yako into a toddler, might not be the same person, but he still didn't know the identity of either of them. "Get ready tiny slave, it's time to investigate."
xoxox xox xoxox
Before they went to the office, Yako had managed to change herself into a checker patterned shirt, which was as long as a dress on her small body and insisted on wearing a straw hat that would have been too big for the grown Yako and was enormous on the toddler.
Godai stared at Neuro as he arrived with the children, placing Mystery on Akane's desk and Yako on Godai's. Mystery would be kept amused if Akane simply tickled him now and then, but the little Yako would surely throw regular tantrums from hunger and slave umber two would have to feed her.
"What is this?" Godai lifted the little girl's straw hat and stared in shock at her face. "She looks just like Yako!" Godai had enough sense to know Mystery wasn't a normal human baby and that he hasn't been randomly abandoned at Yako's door; that would be far too convenient. Furthermore, there were too many similarities between Mystery and Neuro.
"I'm hungry," the little girl declared, calmly at first, but Neuro knew that wouldn't last long.
Godai was still in shock, but he had his theories. "Neuro, I don't know how your species' reproduction process works and I don't want to know, but if you and Yako keep having kids one after another, people will get suspicious." True that the girl who was supposedly younger than the boy actually looked older, but Godai decided that there were stranger things about Neuro's species. Maybe female babies were just born bigger, or maybe the size of a new born could randomly vary from baby to toddler. He pitied poor Yako if she had to lay a toddler sized egg.
Neuro decided not to reply and observed his second slave's stupidity.
"Little girl, where's your mother?" Godai was asking about Yako.
The little Yako thought about it and finally replied, "work; mommy and daddy are working." In her three year old mind, both her parents were still around and they were at work, leaving her with the man with glowing green eyes to take care of her. She was used to having different babysitters because they kept quitting one after another, terrified of her freakish appetite. Consequently she wasn't frightened to be left with a stranger, regardless of how strange he was. "I'm hungry," she repeated with more insistence and pouted.
The explanation made sense to Godai. Yako must be handing out flyers and Neuro was at the office, which was his work place. Poor Yako, having to work so soon after laying a huge egg; needless to say, Godai's theories were best left in silence. Godai glanced at Neuro quizzically, but only saw a blank expression in return, which he assumed meant feeding the child was his job. "What do you eat?"
"Everything!" The little girl cheered. Godai decided that he did not want to read too deep into her answer.
"Bring some raw meat and as many normal bentos as you can carry," Neuro instructed.
"Okay..." Godai knew there was no avoiding this and he was too weirded out to coherently protest, thus he went to purchase the requested food.
xoxox xox xoxox
Upon Godai's return, Mystery consumed the raw meat and Yako devoured the bentos. "So what's your name?" Godai inquired curiously but from a distance, he didn't want to lose an arm to the little bottomless pit. Yako's appetite mixed with Neuro strangeness was a dangerous combination.
"Yako!" The little girl replied between big mouthfuls of food. Godai assumed she was named after her mother because of the strong resemblance between them.
"Slave number two, it's time to investigate. Go out and use your connections to see if there is anyone who holds a grudge against Yako," Neuro ordered.
"I would guess a lot of criminals do because of all the mysteries she solved," technically, Neuro solved them, but in everyone's eyes, it was Yako.
"Find the one that stands out, someone unusual, now go," Neuro urged and grumbling all the way, Godai left. "Akane, search for the same on the internet."
Godai was out of the office and Akane was busy typing rapidly and precisely, yet somehow perceiving all the information on the screen with perfect clarity, despite being a braid of hair without eyes, or at least none outside what may be left of her long since dead body on the wall.
Yako and Mystery had finished their meals and made their way towards Neuro's desk. Yako tugged on his pant leg, demanding attention, but Neuro ignored her until she bit his ankle. Amused, Mystery giggled and bit his other ankle, nibbling on his energy. Neuro removed the two children from his ankles and held them on his lap. "Little slave, don't give the hatchling a bad example, I'm not food."
"Story, story!" Yako demanded.
Neuro considered throwing her across the room, but knew she would start screaming, she could be crushed, but she would still scream even louder. She had no survival instinct to make her keep quiet. Neuro realized that as long as Yako was alive as a toddler, she would be loud, unless she was busy eating.
"Story!" Yako's high pitched voice echoed all over the building.
"When I find the one who did this..." Neuro muttered darkly. "Alright, one story," he finally complied. Neuro had read some human classic literature while studying the odd creatures, so he could use that as an acceptable human tale, but there had to be a few twists.
Neuro began his narration, "once upon a time there was an ugly girl who ate too much, her name was Yako. She lived with her two sisters, Akane and Kanae. One day, there was a ball in the royal palace in which the prince of the land would choose a new slave to assist him in solving all the mysteries of his kingdom. There would be a banquet at the ball and when she heard about that, Yako really wanted to go."
"However, Yako was a very ugly girl and knew the palace guards wouldn't let her in; they would recognize her as the ugly bottomless pit. She thought that if she wore a mask and a beautiful dress, that would be enough to hide her identity, but she didn't have either. She called her yakuza godfather and told him, 'Godai, I wish to go to the ball, but need a mask and a beautiful dress and I don't have them, please help me!'"
"Then the yakuza godfather replied, 'don't worry Yako, I know a tailor that owes me money!' Thus Yako obtained the dress and mask. While she was getting ready, a mysterious package came in the mail containing glass slippers, which Yako decided to wear as well."
"Yako was able to enter the palace and started to feast on the ball's banquet until there was no more food left. Then the palace guard Sasazuka arrested her, but she devoured him too! So the handsome prince decided to dance with the bottomless pit to stop her from eating all his subjects."
"While they were dancing, Yako's glass slippers broke, because she was stupid enough to think glass was a strong enough material for shoes. She cut her feet with the pieces of glass and bled to death, the end!" When Neuro finished his narration, there was a moment of indignant silence.
Then little Yako took a deep breath and loudly demanded, "happy ever after!"
"Yes, yes, the prince lived happily ever after," Neuro replied.
Yako wasn't satisfied with that, "happy ever after! Happy ever after!" She kept screaming.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 22: Happily Ever After
"Shut up and let me finish the story!" Neuro's order finally silenced Yako. "Yako looked like she was dead, but she was actually in a deep sleep and she came to be known throughout the kingdom as the noisy sleeping ugliness, because she was so hideous and snored very loudly. The royal knights tried to quiet her snoring by throwing her in a deep hole and burying her, but somehow it could still be heard, so they dug her out, cleaned her up and put her on display in the last room of a horror house, so she would scare the tourists and be profitable to the kingdom. The bad news was that the kingdom's people couldn't sleep at all because of Yako's loud snores, so they became very tired, cranky and clumsy, plus the neighboring kingdoms were starting to complain as well."
"The handsome prince became curious about who caused the spell that threw Yako into such a deep slumber. He knew it was related to the glass slippers and set off to find out who gave her those slippers. He first went to see her sisters Akane and Kanae, who told him of Yako's yakuza godfather, so the prince went to investigate him."
"'It wasn't me, I didn't give her any slippers, I only threatened to kill a tailor that owed me money to make a dress and mask for her. She must have gotten those slippers from her sisters,' after listening to Godai's testimony, the handsome prince returned to speak to the sisters once more."
"The prince spoke of his suspicions that the sisters were to blame for the curse upon Yako, in revenge for the great debt that she inflicted on the family, due to the cost of all the food she ate. Then Kanae was quick to explain, 'Yako's appetite isn't so bad because she always goes out to the woods and feeds on nuts and berries, or at least that's what she tells us.' The quiet Akane only flipped her shiny long black hair in agreement. After hearing of this new clue, the prince went to investigate in the woods."
"In the woods, the prince found a strange shape-shifting silver wolf, who looked very frightened, 'she's not coming is she? If you see her, don't tell her where I am, I beg of you, oh superior prince, please spare this weak unworthy creature!'"
"The prince assumed the silver wolf was talking about Yako, 'you mean Yako, don't you? Why are you so afraid of her?'"
"The silver wolf then transformed into a boy, 'I have the power to change my shape and for that reason the mean Yako keeps trying to force me to transform into a giant cookie so she can devour me! If not because the wizard feeds her every day, she would have already eaten me, even if I refused to transform.'"
"The prince felt that he was getting closer to uncovering the mystery, 'where is this wizard you speak of?'"
"'The wizard lives deep in the woods and spends all his time baking houses, cars, airplanes and giant robots made of gingerbread with chocolate chips, marshmallows and all sorts of delicious sweets,' the wolf revealed. Thus the prince went to find the wizard."
"The prince found wizard Ishigaki looking proudly at his collection of gingerbread structures. 'Hello visitor!' The wizard greeted, 'Do you like my collection? It's been a long time since that bottomless pit Yako has been here to eat my precious collection. Wait a minute, I know you, you're the prince! My best friend works as a palace guard, his name is Sasazuka, how is he?'"
"'Yako ate him,' the prince revealed."
"The wizard cried and mourned while muttering, 'what a mean girl that Yako is, even after I sent her those glass slippers in the mail to try to calm her violet spirit, so she would stop picking on me and eating my gingerbread models.'"
"The prince knew that though this wizard sent the glass slippers in the mail, he couldn't be the culprit because even if he was called a wizard, he only knew how to bake and was too stupid to cast real spells, so the prince asked, 'where did you get those slippers?'"
"'I got them when I was sight seeing in Oz, you can get there by following the yellow brick road. It's a wonderful place and there are many statues and paintings of Kishi the dragon in the castle. I even bought a special tie for my senpai there, but now he has been cruelly devoured!' Ishigaki cried."
"Leaving the inept wizard to mourn his loss, the prince set out on a journey following the yellow brick road. On his way, he found a little boy and asked where he was going, then the boy replied, 'I'm going to see the wizard of Oz to ask for a new name, because I am named after the most delicious food, Mystery. That might catch the attention of the legendary bottomless pit Yako, and I don't want to be eaten.'"
"'Come with me and we'll both go see the wizard of Oz,' the prince offered and they both went on their way."
"Finally, they arrived at the Oz castle, they forced their way in and ran to the Kishi souvenir shop, where the wizard of Oz was. 'Wizard of Oz, the culprit is... you!' The prince accused, 'The wizard Ishigaki came here looking for gifts for his friends and when he told you of Yako, you sold him cursed glass slippers that would release their magic when they come in contact with blood. Those slippers put Yako in a deep sleep after she injured her feet with them and her snoring is disturbing my kingdom!'"
"'You're right, prince, it was me,' the wizard of Oz came out of a Kishi robot to reveal that she was actually the witch of Oz and her true form was a shiny bug. 'I did all this and the reason is because I'm a pixie and pixies are a nuisance that do nothing but cause trouble!'"
"The prince considered eating the mystery, but decided against it, because only the bottomless pit Yako would eat a bug. Instead, he captured the witch of Oz and forced her to tell him how to break the spell on Yako, then he squished her under his boot after obtaining the needed information."
"The prince and the boy who was named after food returned to the prince's kingdom. Before the prince woke Yako, Mystery said, 'I could not get a new name, what if the bottomless pit wakes up and tries to eat me?'"
"The prince had an idea, 'don't worry, since you are all alone, you can stay here in the palace. When Yako wakes up, I will tell her you are our child whom she gave birth to in her sleep; she wouldn't dare devour you if she thinks you are her own son.' Then the prince broke the spell and woke Yako by twisting her neck around three times and snapping his fingers."
"Yako woke up and there was once again silence in the land. She believed Mystery was her child and was very happy, but she was also very hungry and devoured all the neighboring kingdoms, allowing the prince to conquer those lands. Yako swore she would live to serve the prince as his loyal slave and ate all those who dared to oppose him... and they lived happily ever after."
Little Yako clapped and cheered, this new ending was to her liking. Mystery joined the approval too, the two children were having fun, but Neuro only wished he could consume this mystery as soon as possible. He glanced in Akane's direction and muttered, "not a word of this to slave number two."
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Mystery 23: Vacation?
"Mr. Godai..."
Godai turned to look towards the source of the voice; he was on the way back to the office with some information to get started on. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, please give this to Master Neuro, he will find the answers he seeks there," the young man had silver hair and blue eyes.
Godai found him to be suspicious, but sensed no evil intentions. "Why don't you come give this to him yourself?"
"I cannot, goodbye." He rushed away and disappeared in the crowded streets.
Godai cursed under his breath, this would surely mean trouble.
xoxox xox xoxox
Godai entered the office to find Akane still busily typing while little Yako and baby Mystery occupied themselves drawing pictures. Who knows where they got the crayons, but Godai had a feeling that either he or Yako would have to clean the drawings on the walls later. He still mistakenly thought the younger Yako was the older's daughter.
"Slave number two, why are you making that hideous face? You are already repulsive enough; you don't need to try harder." Neuro's voice drew Godai's attention from the drawings to himself.
Godai approached and placed a list on Troy's smooth surface. "These guys are the weirdest criminals who could have anything against Yako," he considered not mentioning the suspicious silver haired man and the envelope he was supposed to deliver to Neuro, but decided that it was best to at least reveal the envelope, instead of hiding it and risking Neuro finding out. Godai knew his car and credit cards could suffer further. "I also got this," he wished he had taken the time to open the envelope before giving it to Neuro but, he simply didn't consider it, instinctively rushing to the office at a hastier pace after having realized he wouldn't catch the mysterious man. Besides, the envelope could have some kind of trap that would be activated when Neuro opened it; Godai had certainly seen stranger things.
Neuro eyed the envelope curiously and opened it, "tickets for a stay in a tropical island in the Caribbean and a bank account with a generous balance to cover all the expenses? Interesting, but this is no time for vacations."
Godai's jaw dropped and he immediately wished he had kept that envelope. "That's the wrong one!" He tried to recover the valuable papers, but Neuro ripped the tickets and bank book to shreds, rendering them useless.
Neuro then looked over the list of names, remembering their mysteries and the taste of each one. He compared the list from Godai with the list Akane had emailed, underlining the names that appeared on both lists and additionally circling the ones he thought were most suspicious. Yet somehow, none of them seemed skilled enough for something like this, but he had to start the investigation somewhere.
While Godai continued to lament over the torn pieces of paper, Yako and Mystery carried on vandalizing the office walls and Akane typed none stop, Neuro was in deep thought. He left the list on Troy and considered starting the investigation from a different angle. Whatever happened to Yako happened at school. Quemar was not a suspect because Neuro was certain that he was incapable of casting the sort of magic that affected Yako. Could he be underestimating Quemar? There were too many scattered pieces to the puzzle.
Silently and unexpectedly, an envelope was pushed under the door. Neuro noticed it after a moment and ordered, "slave number two, bring me that envelope that is on the floor near the door."
Godai glared, "get it yourself, I'm not your slave!"
"Now!" Neuro's eyes glowed threateningly; he was not in the mood to argue.
Grumbling obscenities, Godai picked up the aforementioned envelope and grudgingly tossed it on Troy.
Neuro opened the envelope and read the note. "Dear Neuro, I have left the key to restoring Yako to her normal form with your minion. Make sure you do not miss the flight." Neuro looked at Godai, "what is this about?"
"Don't complain to me, I gave you the envelope!" Godai pointed at the confetti Neuro had created. "I got it from some guy with silver hair, don't know his name, he got away."
"Such incompetence, you must inform your master immediately when a paper is of relevance, pick it all up and put it on the desk." Neuro sounded less angry than Godai expected, focusing on the new clue he had received.
Godai decided that it was best to comply with the order, grumbled about Neuro's choice of words, and placed all the tiny pieces of paper on Troy.
Neuro then summoned a tool called 'Evil Glue' capable of restoring any broken object to its original form and placed the perfectly repaired tickets and bank book in his pocket. "While I'm gone, you are in charge of the office," there was a small pause, "Akane."
"What? You're leaving the hair in charge?" Though at first Godai didn't know about Akane and for some time thought it was the name of Yako's cell phone, he had since learned who Akane really was. Needless to say, Godai was not happy to be placed under the authority of hair.
"Akane, make sure to monitor any suspicious activities during my absence. Slave number two, you are to do everything Akane orders," ignoring Godai's complaints and Akane's victory dance, spinning around on the wall, Neuro picked up little Yako and Mystery, then left the office.
xoxox xox xoxox
As the airplane took off, Neuro leaned back on his first class seat and watched as Yako and Mystery played with robotic hamster toys, probably acting out the plot of an imaginary world wide take over story. Neuro knew he had to keep them entertained if he was going to get anything done, which meant giving them toys. He could leave Mystery with slave number two, but surely no human, save for the parents of the bottomless pit, could hope to have a ghost of a chance in surviving taking care of Yako. She was more challenging than even the hatchling. Besides, Neuro felt better bringing both of them along, just in case.
The flight wasn't particularly eventful until the time when Yako ate all the food there was available on the airplane and kept crying for more. She wouldn't shut up and it was making Neuro look suspicious. It was ironic that the human of the group, with her human need for food, which was of inhuman proportions, would be the strangest one out of the three, from the perspective of the other passengers. Neuro resolved the situation by causing the engines to malfunction and with a violent shake, the airplane began its unexpected decline.
"Attention all passengers, this is your pilot speaking," the voice was trembling with fear on the speakers.
The flight attendants, who were supposed to help keep everyone calm and enforce the pilot's orders, were crying desperately. "We're going to die!"
"Everyone remain calm; we're experiencing some minor engine difficulties," the frightened pilot announced.
"Minor?" A scared and enraged passenger yelled, "the engines have some kind of green fire on them!" The aircraft was filled with murmurs, panic and wild theories about anything from terrorism to alien abductions.
"We need to make an emergency landing, please keep your seatbelts fastened at all times and... say your prayers." The pilot was supposed to repeat the message in several languages, but forgot how to properly speak anything other than his native tongue, instead drabbling about a random mountain of bottle caps and pink shooting stars in a failed attempt to translate.
The airplane continued its unplanned descent, while the flight attendants cried, the pilot mumbled incoherently, the copilot was passed out, the passengers screamed, Neuro grinned and little Yako and Mystery cheered.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 24: Karma
The airplane, which came from Japan, had already crossed the Pacific Ocean and crash landed on the very edge of the United States. Neuro took the children and escaped, nobody tried to stop him, since they were all too caught up in their own panic and injuries.
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Neuro traveled carrying the children, stopping at a random farm to feed Yako. The little girl ate the entire harvest, pestering Neuro to cook whatever shouldn't be consumed raw. He did so with fire, leaving things charred, but Yako didn't care. Although, when she realized that Neuro had no skill in cooking, she resolved that it was best to eat things raw, at least they would taste less like coal.
Neuro, Yako and Mystery, escaped undiscovered by the farmers, who would never be able to explain how their farm was looted so fast and how they missed the goods being transported away, because they would never imagine somebody ate them. Neuro theorized that Yako's larger appetite despite her smaller body, was due to being at an age when she was still growing and her expanding body demanded extra energy.
xoxox xox xoxox
When they reached the nearest airport, stealing food from farms and vendors on the way, they took another flight to the Caribbean and once again, Yako ate everything on the plane, though she finished just as they were landing in Puerto Rico. Then they headed to a beach side hotel for which they had reservations, maybe they would meet the generous challenger there.
Neuro knew this could be a trap, he expected it to be, but he didn't find anything suspicious at the hotel. While Yako devoured the entire food supply, save for the kitchen's supply of yet to be cooked meat which went to Mystery, Neuro kept looking for anything suspicious, anything at all, but found nothing, much to his frustration. He decided that maybe the one who led them there didn't know they had arrived due to the change in the flight plan, thus Neuro decided to take the first step. He researched the possible meeting locations and concluded that Yunque, a rain forest, was the most likely battle ground, possibly being the most private and secluded place on the relatively crowded island.
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The forest was thick and secluded, with tourists instructed not to leave the trails, though Neuro couldn't understand why anyone would get lost there since he didn't think there was enough room in the entire island the get lost in. Surely the humans could travel from one end of the island to the other in less than a day by car and they should be able to cross the at least the forest on foot in a day. Nevertheless, he remembered that humans were stupid and went in circles when panicked, instead of in a logical straight line.
If Neuro and the unknown sender of the letter were to fight somewhere on that island, it would most likely be in the forest, so as to not draw attention. At least Neuro hoped the other wouldn't draw too much attention, because he got angry when his feeding grounds were disturbed; even if it wasn't in the area where he usually searched for mysteries, the entire surface world was his to feed on.
Night fell, catching an angry Neuro, sleeping Mystery and complaining Yako in the dense forest. Neuro brought out the 'Evil Flashlight' which produced a bright light, floating high above him, much bigger than a regular lightbulb. With the light in place, little Yako stopped complaining about her fear of the darkness and instead started whining that she wanted to go play in the pool.
At the end of his already short and abused patience, Neuro put the little girl down and mentally counted to ten, he once heard slave number two mentioning it was something he did to try to calm down. Neuro reminded himself that if he killed the little Yako now, he would never recover his favorite slave.
With a cheer of "yay!" little Yako jumped in the shallow natural pool and splashed happily for a few seconds, only to climb out and complain, "I'm cold!" Sure the island was tropical, but one couldn't expect the water to miraculously remain warm in the center of a rain forest in the middle of the night.
Neuro clenched his teeth and made a scary face, "you're going to be quiet."
He should be terrifying to children, but Yako only giggled. "Cute!" She had the audacity to point and laugh at him, then she sneezed and Neuro grimaced.
He had heard in theory what karma was. Yako herself had told him that one day a divine punishment would come for all the trouble he caused her, she called it karma. He didn't believe it, Neuro was confident he could escape any sort of divine disaster, if this karma thing even existed, but now he was stuck. Yako wouldn't shut up and she couldn't be controlled with fear, pain would make her scream louder and her appetite was bigger than ever.
Only death would shut her up and Neuro had spent too much time and energy in the past keeping Yako alive in dangerous situations to give up on her now. Besides, he didn't feel like finding another cover for his detective agency and it would be difficult to find someone with as much understanding for the human mind and potential for evolution as Yako had. Maybe it was true, karma existed and it was indeed a powerful force, but Neuro was determined to overcome any obstacles.
Little Yako sneezed repeating, "I'm cold!" While stomping her feet this time and making an adorable pouty face.
Neuro picked her up and left, Mystery sleeping peacefully in his arms through the whole ordeal, the hatchling could sleep like a rock, but there was nothing wrong with him, he was simply a heavy sleeper.
Neuro had no reason to be certain that the one who led him there was going to fight in that specific location, if at all. He had no reason to believe that he was waiting on the island. Neuro was frustrated and he was rushing into theories.
The stress caused by little Yako and the indescribable feeling of being unable to stop the spell in the first place were taking a toll on Neuro. He didn't have the slightest idea what he was feeling, it was new and strange, Yako would interpret that he was worried because he cared and Neuro would smash her against a wall for suggesting such a preposterous idea. He would never admit he missed all that.
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Back at the hotel, Mystery continued to sleep in their room, while Neuro tended to a sneezing Yako. Human children were the root of all evil, the bad kind of evil, he concluded. Yako was unusually warm and she complained about aches and pains, she had to clean her nose continuously, several times using his sleeve, which drove him to toss the dirty blue jacket aside and tell her to "use the sheets!" It wouldn't be his problem then, though the maids would have it bad.
Finally, Neuro comprehended that Yako was sick and he didn't know anything about human illnesses. He called the front desk, which was in service twenty-four-seven, and requested a human healer, which the lady on the phone interpreted to mean a doctor.
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The doctor came up to Neuro's room and examined Yako. When told to open her mouth, she bit him and nearly ripped off his finger. The frightened doctor then hastily diagnosed a cold and prescribed a random over the counter children medicine, lots of rest, plenty of water and nutritious food. Then he ran away in horror.
Neuro was debating if he should kill the useless doctor for being so ineffective, while risking rising suspicions, but decided that he wouldn't jeopardize his true nature now of all times, he didn't want to give in and be pushed over the edge. Karma would not be the victor and neither would the mysterious troublemaker who led them there.
Yako continued her complaints while Mystery slept oblivious on the neighboring bed. Neuro frowned; this wasn't like when Yako whined that it hurt when her neck was twisted around. It wasn't like when she cringed when he gripped her head too tight, it wasn't like when she went "ouch" after being smashed into a wall. This was different, it was all out agony.
"Stupid Yako," Neuro sat down on the bed and held Yako on his lap. "You're so troublesome; when you get big again, I'll have to torture you for all this." It was ironic that Mystery, who was so closely linked to Neuro's kind, was sleeping peacefully, while the fully human little Yako was all the opposite. Neuro would never admit it, but he missed his Yako and he would endure her childhood to get her back.
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Mystery 25: Another Victim
The next morning, while Neuro sat frozen awake, Mystery still slept soundly and Yako had only recently fallen asleep, a summarized version of a local newspaper was slipped under the door of the hotel room, the cover depicting the blurred figure of a man with glowing green eyes, carrying away two smaller figures, while a strange light shone above, disrupting the camera and turning Neuro into an unrecognizable shadow in the picture.
The article on the first page was written the previous night and added to the newspaper in a hurry, just before they started printing, because the news was too interesting to leave it for later. There were aliens in Yunque. However, aliens and other strange beings residing in the forest were a common urban legend, so no one was alarmed and no one particularly cared to consider the possibility of there being some truth behind that article.
"Wakey, wakey, chicken slave!" Neuro was already awake and he was not amused.
"I see you got over your pathetic human illness, I'll definitely make you pay for this when you're older. Go clean yourself up and get ready, we're going to the beach."
"Yay! Breakfast and beach!" Though Neuro said nothing about breakfast, Yako cheered and rushed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Sometimes, while her parents were searching for a babysitter, when the previous had been scared away, Yako tried to be a big girl and show her parents she could take care of herself. Her true motivation was thinking that if she was a big girl, she would get bigger meals, but that aside, she could take care of all the basics, which Neuro wouldn't do for her anyway.
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"Ready!" The tree year old Yako was wearing a silly pink toddler bathing suit with a ridiculous amount of fuchsia bows.
Neuro had no idea where she got it, but upon noticing the open closet, he found a lot of clothes that would fit the three of them, which he was sure were not there before. They must have been brought in while he was in the forest, but he doubted that the hotel's service was that elaborate and detailed. This was very suspicious indeed, but Neuro decided to accept the challenge. He got Mystery and himself ready, then headed down to the beach.
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At the beach, Neuro had the hotel staff bring Yako food to keep her quiet. She ate and played in the sand, making castles with Mystery while she waited for the next dish to come.
Neuro looked around the beach, searching for the challenger and feeling somewhat silly in the blue swimming trunks he was wearing, being used to his ever present suit.
A woman suspiciously approached, but she appeared to be a regular human in every way. "Hi handsome!"
Neuro was about to tell her to go away, but little Yako acted first. "Mine!" She kicked the woman on the leg with all her strength and given the large amount of food she ate, she had enough force to knock the surprised woman down. Yako then relentlessly attacked, until the woman had to crawl away beaten. Yako pouted and gave Neuro a serious look, pointing at him with her tiny index finger. "My slave!"
Neuro wasn't bothered by anyone again; in fact, all those who witnessed the scene or heard about it, avoided him at all costs. Sure he was a handsome man, but that little girl with him was too dangerous.
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After spending some time at the beach without finding anything suspicious, Neuro headed back to his hotel room with Mystery and Yako. He was trying to think of what to do to speed up the process of solving the ever complicated mystery, when there was a knock on the door. Upon opening the door, Neuro did not find anyone from room service, instead he found Higushi.
"I'm here to see Yako," it was obvious that Higushi must have tracked their location by hacking the airline and hotel's databases. His reason for wanting to see Yako was also rather obvious, he liked her, a lot, and he wasn't ready to lose her to Neuro. Higushi had tried to give up after he heard about the child whom no one knew for certain if he was Yako and Neuro's biological son or a baby abandoned at their door, as they claimed. He tried to move on and understand that Yako had someone else, but he couldn't take this anymore.
"Why do you want to see Sensei?" Neuro pretended to ignore the raging look in Higushi's eyes, he could glare far more fiercely, but he kept up his innocent human act.
Higushi was furious. He didn't think Neuro was properly handling the situation, allowing Yako's reputation to be tarnished and all sorts of crazy rumors to float around. The hacker had decided that Yako was the damsel in distress of his little fantasy and he was the hero who was destined to rescue her from the evil demon, the part which was represented by Neuro, all ironies aside. "I want to see her, now."
Neuro's eyes glowed mischievously and Higushi blinked, then went back to glaring, he knew Neuro was not an ordinary being. "She's busy, but if you want, you can see the smaller Yako, she was named after her mother, they're so much alike."
Higushi stared at the toddler who was curiously looking back at him. "Yako..." the resemblance was amazing, this girl had to be part of Yako's biological family, though she looked about three years old and Higushi certainly didn't remember Yako being pregnant. The girl had to be a baby sister or cousin, maybe even a clone. Either way, if it came to that, he would take her in along with the mysterious baby boy. "I can take care of the children." He refused to believe the kids were Yako and Neuro's children, if Yako had been pregnant he would have noticed, but if she decided she wanted to keep them to care for as her own, he would have to be prepared.
Neuro's mood improved slightly with this new development. "I'll take care of the baby and you can take care of the little girl." Taking care of both of them would surely signify the death of Higushi and Neuro might want to torture him some more later so he couldn't die just yet.
"Fine," Higushi picked up the little girl who began to play with his glasses. "I'll be back this evening to speak to Yako." Surely it would benefit him to prove he could take care of the little girl by himself for the day, that should help Yako realize he was more reliable than Neuro and a better father figure to the children she adopted.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Private Evileye Nogami Neuro, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Ridinghood, Hansel and Gretel or Wizard of Oz. The idea of Yako turning into a three year old is from crystalgardian. Robot hamsters taking over the world is an idea from Shiro-Kitsune8's review, mentioned on Mystery 23. Higushi's apperance in Mystery 25 was requested by Yorushihe.
Mystery 20: Little Cannibal
It was the middle of the night and Yako was exhausted, but Neuro wouldn't let her sleep, feeding her all sorts of strange things that Yako's stomach was probably the only human stomach that could handle them. Finally, Neuro realized that the hidden scent of magic would not go away, as if whoever did this was well aware of his resources, but how could that be?
The scent of mystery was not only sticking to the baby now, it now surrounding Yako as well, though they were not behind whatever crime was at stake, yet they were important pieces that he didn't know where to fit, they were puzzling.
Neuro resolved for not allowing Yako to sleep, since it seemed that whatever magic was at work, would activate in her slumber. This plan was not going too well, because Yako kept dozing off to the point where even if he shook her harshly and yelled in her ear, she would still continue to go further into slumber land.
Cursing human laziness and lack of energy, Neuro resorted to one last desperate attempt to keep Yako awake. He kissed her and suddenly her sleepy eyes shut open, closing again in pleasure. But just as Neuro thought he was victorious, Yako stopped responding and felt limp; he thought he should be offended.
That was it, it was over, the spell would take its effect on Yako, but Neuro didn't know what that spell was. He just knew that trying to deal with it had been frustrating and tiring. Thus he resolved to go to sleep. He placed Yako on her bed and laid down as well, holding Yako close.
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The next day... "Just as the police was ready to report the truthfulness of the note saying that the mysterious baby detective Yako Katsuragi was seen with was indeed abandoned at her doorstop with the request of her caring for him, it was discovered that the note, as well as other police evidence, including testimonials that defended Katsuragi's reputation, were false. As a result of this, Katsuragi's reputation is being further questioned, has the police been protecting her? Is she not the celebrated detective we think she is? Why does she refuse to give us an interview?"
Sasazuka turned off the TV and the reporter faded into the nothingness of the black screen. "I messed up," he muttered quietly. Then he continued getting ready for work that morning, acting nonchalant.
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What woke Neuro that morning was the sound of knocking on the door. He noted that his arms were still wrapped in Yako's shape, but they held nothing but empty air. Neuro's first instinct was to find her, but the knocking was annoying him, thus he investigated that first.
Neuro opened the door to find Ishigaki, who seemed surprised to see him, despite the rumors about him and Yako. "Um... I..." Ishigaki had not stopped by to talk to Neuro, he was there to make a delivery to Yako, but he couldn't with Neuro around.
"Are you here to see Sensei? She is still sleeping, can I take a message?" Neuro put up an act, but it came out a bit hasty.
"Well..." Ishigaki looked at the book he held unsure, then at Neuro, back at the book and at Neuro.
"Is that for Sensei?" Neuro snatched the book impatiently; it was titled 'One Hundred and One Ways to Kill a Ghost'. So first he was an alien that needed to be exorcised and now he was a ghost that must be killed, even if that was a contradiction.
"Don't throw it away!" Ishigaki attempted to recover the book to no avail.
"Is it for Sensei?" Neuro insisted, indicating that he wanted the conversation to end.
"Yes, it is," Ishigaki confirmed.
"Very well, I will give it to her. I'm sure you must be late for work, goodbye," Neuro closed the door, locked it and strode across the living room, carelessly tossing the book on the couch. It was time to find Yako.
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Neuro discovered Yako quickly enough. She had slipped away from his grasp because she was a lot smaller. She was devouring all the food that had been stored in the lower portion of the refrigerator where her three year old body would reach. Neuro observed the little girl closely, the magic was dormant, no other changes would occur, but he couldn't precise when or if the spell would run out, the scent was so ambiguous.
For someone skilled enough to blur his senses in the process of interpreting the scent and also capable of making the odd spell immune to his antidotes, Neuro mused that the culprit had a strange way of doing things. He had no idea what the mysterious culprit could possibly hope to accomplish by turning Yako into a toddler, other than annoying Neuro, it made no sense and the scent of mystery grew stronger.
"Slave," the little Yako looked up at Neuro.
She was so small, her shirt was now like a dress on her. She blinked and pointed at him, repeating, "slave!"
Neuro gave her a disapproving look, "I'm not saying that I'm your slave, you are my slave, small or not."
"Give me food, slave!" Little Yako attempted to climb on Neuro, to use him to reach the freezer where she hoped to find ice-cream.
Neuro picked up Yako, "you are my slave," he held her on one arm and showed his claws on the other hand, an inch away from her face.
The toddler Yako looked at the clawed hand without fear. She examined it closely, and found a spot on the wrist without a sharp edge, then sunk her little teeth into it.
Neuro attempted to shake her off to no avail, her bite was unusually strong, like a bear trap. He realized that he would probably sooner rip her head off than rip her off his wrist and then he would have to find another slave, not to mention that an important piece to the ever growing puzzle would be missing. Thus Neuro got a popsicle from the freezer and offered it to Yako, who extended her little hand first without letting him go and didn't release him until the popsicle was safely in her grip.
With one swift motion, the little Yako stuffed the popsicle into her mouth, before Neuro changed his mind and took it away. This prompted him to rush to get the stick out of her mouth, before she unwittingly chocked herself in her gluttonous rush.
This situation would certainly require further investigation. It might be difficult since the younger Yako had no fear of death or injury, thus his usual physical threats were rendered ineffective. "I'm putting you on a diet."
Yako gasped, then took in air and let out a mighty scream. Neuro covered her mouth with his hand in human form now and she took the opportunity to bite the gloveless hand.
Neuro knew this wouldn't be easy, but he would solve this mystery, the scent was driving him crazy. Was this how Yako felt all the time with her wild appetite? "We're going to investigate; you can stop biting me now, I won't put you on a diet until you grow big again, then I'll starve you."
The tiny but brave Yako let go of Neuro's hand, nestled into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. "If hungry, eat chicken," then she bit his neck with all her might, the taste oddly reminded her of a spicy roasted chicken.
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Mystery 21: Fairy Tales
After prying the little Yako off his neck, Neuro resolved to go to the office and put slave number two and Akane to work searching for clues. Neuro had a feeling that the culprit involved in the baby's case and the one to blame for turning Yako into a toddler, might not be the same person, but he still didn't know the identity of either of them. "Get ready tiny slave, it's time to investigate."
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Before they went to the office, Yako had managed to change herself into a checker patterned shirt, which was as long as a dress on her small body and insisted on wearing a straw hat that would have been too big for the grown Yako and was enormous on the toddler.
Godai stared at Neuro as he arrived with the children, placing Mystery on Akane's desk and Yako on Godai's. Mystery would be kept amused if Akane simply tickled him now and then, but the little Yako would surely throw regular tantrums from hunger and slave umber two would have to feed her.
"What is this?" Godai lifted the little girl's straw hat and stared in shock at her face. "She looks just like Yako!" Godai had enough sense to know Mystery wasn't a normal human baby and that he hasn't been randomly abandoned at Yako's door; that would be far too convenient. Furthermore, there were too many similarities between Mystery and Neuro.
"I'm hungry," the little girl declared, calmly at first, but Neuro knew that wouldn't last long.
Godai was still in shock, but he had his theories. "Neuro, I don't know how your species' reproduction process works and I don't want to know, but if you and Yako keep having kids one after another, people will get suspicious." True that the girl who was supposedly younger than the boy actually looked older, but Godai decided that there were stranger things about Neuro's species. Maybe female babies were just born bigger, or maybe the size of a new born could randomly vary from baby to toddler. He pitied poor Yako if she had to lay a toddler sized egg.
Neuro decided not to reply and observed his second slave's stupidity.
"Little girl, where's your mother?" Godai was asking about Yako.
The little Yako thought about it and finally replied, "work; mommy and daddy are working." In her three year old mind, both her parents were still around and they were at work, leaving her with the man with glowing green eyes to take care of her. She was used to having different babysitters because they kept quitting one after another, terrified of her freakish appetite. Consequently she wasn't frightened to be left with a stranger, regardless of how strange he was. "I'm hungry," she repeated with more insistence and pouted.
The explanation made sense to Godai. Yako must be handing out flyers and Neuro was at the office, which was his work place. Poor Yako, having to work so soon after laying a huge egg; needless to say, Godai's theories were best left in silence. Godai glanced at Neuro quizzically, but only saw a blank expression in return, which he assumed meant feeding the child was his job. "What do you eat?"
"Everything!" The little girl cheered. Godai decided that he did not want to read too deep into her answer.
"Bring some raw meat and as many normal bentos as you can carry," Neuro instructed.
"Okay..." Godai knew there was no avoiding this and he was too weirded out to coherently protest, thus he went to purchase the requested food.
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Upon Godai's return, Mystery consumed the raw meat and Yako devoured the bentos. "So what's your name?" Godai inquired curiously but from a distance, he didn't want to lose an arm to the little bottomless pit. Yako's appetite mixed with Neuro strangeness was a dangerous combination.
"Yako!" The little girl replied between big mouthfuls of food. Godai assumed she was named after her mother because of the strong resemblance between them.
"Slave number two, it's time to investigate. Go out and use your connections to see if there is anyone who holds a grudge against Yako," Neuro ordered.
"I would guess a lot of criminals do because of all the mysteries she solved," technically, Neuro solved them, but in everyone's eyes, it was Yako.
"Find the one that stands out, someone unusual, now go," Neuro urged and grumbling all the way, Godai left. "Akane, search for the same on the internet."
Godai was out of the office and Akane was busy typing rapidly and precisely, yet somehow perceiving all the information on the screen with perfect clarity, despite being a braid of hair without eyes, or at least none outside what may be left of her long since dead body on the wall.
Yako and Mystery had finished their meals and made their way towards Neuro's desk. Yako tugged on his pant leg, demanding attention, but Neuro ignored her until she bit his ankle. Amused, Mystery giggled and bit his other ankle, nibbling on his energy. Neuro removed the two children from his ankles and held them on his lap. "Little slave, don't give the hatchling a bad example, I'm not food."
"Story, story!" Yako demanded.
Neuro considered throwing her across the room, but knew she would start screaming, she could be crushed, but she would still scream even louder. She had no survival instinct to make her keep quiet. Neuro realized that as long as Yako was alive as a toddler, she would be loud, unless she was busy eating.
"Story!" Yako's high pitched voice echoed all over the building.
"When I find the one who did this..." Neuro muttered darkly. "Alright, one story," he finally complied. Neuro had read some human classic literature while studying the odd creatures, so he could use that as an acceptable human tale, but there had to be a few twists.
Neuro began his narration, "once upon a time there was an ugly girl who ate too much, her name was Yako. She lived with her two sisters, Akane and Kanae. One day, there was a ball in the royal palace in which the prince of the land would choose a new slave to assist him in solving all the mysteries of his kingdom. There would be a banquet at the ball and when she heard about that, Yako really wanted to go."
"However, Yako was a very ugly girl and knew the palace guards wouldn't let her in; they would recognize her as the ugly bottomless pit. She thought that if she wore a mask and a beautiful dress, that would be enough to hide her identity, but she didn't have either. She called her yakuza godfather and told him, 'Godai, I wish to go to the ball, but need a mask and a beautiful dress and I don't have them, please help me!'"
"Then the yakuza godfather replied, 'don't worry Yako, I know a tailor that owes me money!' Thus Yako obtained the dress and mask. While she was getting ready, a mysterious package came in the mail containing glass slippers, which Yako decided to wear as well."
"Yako was able to enter the palace and started to feast on the ball's banquet until there was no more food left. Then the palace guard Sasazuka arrested her, but she devoured him too! So the handsome prince decided to dance with the bottomless pit to stop her from eating all his subjects."
"While they were dancing, Yako's glass slippers broke, because she was stupid enough to think glass was a strong enough material for shoes. She cut her feet with the pieces of glass and bled to death, the end!" When Neuro finished his narration, there was a moment of indignant silence.
Then little Yako took a deep breath and loudly demanded, "happy ever after!"
"Yes, yes, the prince lived happily ever after," Neuro replied.
Yako wasn't satisfied with that, "happy ever after! Happy ever after!" She kept screaming.
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Mystery 22: Happily Ever After
"Shut up and let me finish the story!" Neuro's order finally silenced Yako. "Yako looked like she was dead, but she was actually in a deep sleep and she came to be known throughout the kingdom as the noisy sleeping ugliness, because she was so hideous and snored very loudly. The royal knights tried to quiet her snoring by throwing her in a deep hole and burying her, but somehow it could still be heard, so they dug her out, cleaned her up and put her on display in the last room of a horror house, so she would scare the tourists and be profitable to the kingdom. The bad news was that the kingdom's people couldn't sleep at all because of Yako's loud snores, so they became very tired, cranky and clumsy, plus the neighboring kingdoms were starting to complain as well."
"The handsome prince became curious about who caused the spell that threw Yako into such a deep slumber. He knew it was related to the glass slippers and set off to find out who gave her those slippers. He first went to see her sisters Akane and Kanae, who told him of Yako's yakuza godfather, so the prince went to investigate him."
"'It wasn't me, I didn't give her any slippers, I only threatened to kill a tailor that owed me money to make a dress and mask for her. She must have gotten those slippers from her sisters,' after listening to Godai's testimony, the handsome prince returned to speak to the sisters once more."
"The prince spoke of his suspicions that the sisters were to blame for the curse upon Yako, in revenge for the great debt that she inflicted on the family, due to the cost of all the food she ate. Then Kanae was quick to explain, 'Yako's appetite isn't so bad because she always goes out to the woods and feeds on nuts and berries, or at least that's what she tells us.' The quiet Akane only flipped her shiny long black hair in agreement. After hearing of this new clue, the prince went to investigate in the woods."
"In the woods, the prince found a strange shape-shifting silver wolf, who looked very frightened, 'she's not coming is she? If you see her, don't tell her where I am, I beg of you, oh superior prince, please spare this weak unworthy creature!'"
"The prince assumed the silver wolf was talking about Yako, 'you mean Yako, don't you? Why are you so afraid of her?'"
"The silver wolf then transformed into a boy, 'I have the power to change my shape and for that reason the mean Yako keeps trying to force me to transform into a giant cookie so she can devour me! If not because the wizard feeds her every day, she would have already eaten me, even if I refused to transform.'"
"The prince felt that he was getting closer to uncovering the mystery, 'where is this wizard you speak of?'"
"'The wizard lives deep in the woods and spends all his time baking houses, cars, airplanes and giant robots made of gingerbread with chocolate chips, marshmallows and all sorts of delicious sweets,' the wolf revealed. Thus the prince went to find the wizard."
"The prince found wizard Ishigaki looking proudly at his collection of gingerbread structures. 'Hello visitor!' The wizard greeted, 'Do you like my collection? It's been a long time since that bottomless pit Yako has been here to eat my precious collection. Wait a minute, I know you, you're the prince! My best friend works as a palace guard, his name is Sasazuka, how is he?'"
"'Yako ate him,' the prince revealed."
"The wizard cried and mourned while muttering, 'what a mean girl that Yako is, even after I sent her those glass slippers in the mail to try to calm her violet spirit, so she would stop picking on me and eating my gingerbread models.'"
"The prince knew that though this wizard sent the glass slippers in the mail, he couldn't be the culprit because even if he was called a wizard, he only knew how to bake and was too stupid to cast real spells, so the prince asked, 'where did you get those slippers?'"
"'I got them when I was sight seeing in Oz, you can get there by following the yellow brick road. It's a wonderful place and there are many statues and paintings of Kishi the dragon in the castle. I even bought a special tie for my senpai there, but now he has been cruelly devoured!' Ishigaki cried."
"Leaving the inept wizard to mourn his loss, the prince set out on a journey following the yellow brick road. On his way, he found a little boy and asked where he was going, then the boy replied, 'I'm going to see the wizard of Oz to ask for a new name, because I am named after the most delicious food, Mystery. That might catch the attention of the legendary bottomless pit Yako, and I don't want to be eaten.'"
"'Come with me and we'll both go see the wizard of Oz,' the prince offered and they both went on their way."
"Finally, they arrived at the Oz castle, they forced their way in and ran to the Kishi souvenir shop, where the wizard of Oz was. 'Wizard of Oz, the culprit is... you!' The prince accused, 'The wizard Ishigaki came here looking for gifts for his friends and when he told you of Yako, you sold him cursed glass slippers that would release their magic when they come in contact with blood. Those slippers put Yako in a deep sleep after she injured her feet with them and her snoring is disturbing my kingdom!'"
"'You're right, prince, it was me,' the wizard of Oz came out of a Kishi robot to reveal that she was actually the witch of Oz and her true form was a shiny bug. 'I did all this and the reason is because I'm a pixie and pixies are a nuisance that do nothing but cause trouble!'"
"The prince considered eating the mystery, but decided against it, because only the bottomless pit Yako would eat a bug. Instead, he captured the witch of Oz and forced her to tell him how to break the spell on Yako, then he squished her under his boot after obtaining the needed information."
"The prince and the boy who was named after food returned to the prince's kingdom. Before the prince woke Yako, Mystery said, 'I could not get a new name, what if the bottomless pit wakes up and tries to eat me?'"
"The prince had an idea, 'don't worry, since you are all alone, you can stay here in the palace. When Yako wakes up, I will tell her you are our child whom she gave birth to in her sleep; she wouldn't dare devour you if she thinks you are her own son.' Then the prince broke the spell and woke Yako by twisting her neck around three times and snapping his fingers."
"Yako woke up and there was once again silence in the land. She believed Mystery was her child and was very happy, but she was also very hungry and devoured all the neighboring kingdoms, allowing the prince to conquer those lands. Yako swore she would live to serve the prince as his loyal slave and ate all those who dared to oppose him... and they lived happily ever after."
Little Yako clapped and cheered, this new ending was to her liking. Mystery joined the approval too, the two children were having fun, but Neuro only wished he could consume this mystery as soon as possible. He glanced in Akane's direction and muttered, "not a word of this to slave number two."
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Mystery 23: Vacation?
"Mr. Godai..."
Godai turned to look towards the source of the voice; he was on the way back to the office with some information to get started on. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, please give this to Master Neuro, he will find the answers he seeks there," the young man had silver hair and blue eyes.
Godai found him to be suspicious, but sensed no evil intentions. "Why don't you come give this to him yourself?"
"I cannot, goodbye." He rushed away and disappeared in the crowded streets.
Godai cursed under his breath, this would surely mean trouble.
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Godai entered the office to find Akane still busily typing while little Yako and baby Mystery occupied themselves drawing pictures. Who knows where they got the crayons, but Godai had a feeling that either he or Yako would have to clean the drawings on the walls later. He still mistakenly thought the younger Yako was the older's daughter.
"Slave number two, why are you making that hideous face? You are already repulsive enough; you don't need to try harder." Neuro's voice drew Godai's attention from the drawings to himself.
Godai approached and placed a list on Troy's smooth surface. "These guys are the weirdest criminals who could have anything against Yako," he considered not mentioning the suspicious silver haired man and the envelope he was supposed to deliver to Neuro, but decided that it was best to at least reveal the envelope, instead of hiding it and risking Neuro finding out. Godai knew his car and credit cards could suffer further. "I also got this," he wished he had taken the time to open the envelope before giving it to Neuro but, he simply didn't consider it, instinctively rushing to the office at a hastier pace after having realized he wouldn't catch the mysterious man. Besides, the envelope could have some kind of trap that would be activated when Neuro opened it; Godai had certainly seen stranger things.
Neuro eyed the envelope curiously and opened it, "tickets for a stay in a tropical island in the Caribbean and a bank account with a generous balance to cover all the expenses? Interesting, but this is no time for vacations."
Godai's jaw dropped and he immediately wished he had kept that envelope. "That's the wrong one!" He tried to recover the valuable papers, but Neuro ripped the tickets and bank book to shreds, rendering them useless.
Neuro then looked over the list of names, remembering their mysteries and the taste of each one. He compared the list from Godai with the list Akane had emailed, underlining the names that appeared on both lists and additionally circling the ones he thought were most suspicious. Yet somehow, none of them seemed skilled enough for something like this, but he had to start the investigation somewhere.
While Godai continued to lament over the torn pieces of paper, Yako and Mystery carried on vandalizing the office walls and Akane typed none stop, Neuro was in deep thought. He left the list on Troy and considered starting the investigation from a different angle. Whatever happened to Yako happened at school. Quemar was not a suspect because Neuro was certain that he was incapable of casting the sort of magic that affected Yako. Could he be underestimating Quemar? There were too many scattered pieces to the puzzle.
Silently and unexpectedly, an envelope was pushed under the door. Neuro noticed it after a moment and ordered, "slave number two, bring me that envelope that is on the floor near the door."
Godai glared, "get it yourself, I'm not your slave!"
"Now!" Neuro's eyes glowed threateningly; he was not in the mood to argue.
Grumbling obscenities, Godai picked up the aforementioned envelope and grudgingly tossed it on Troy.
Neuro opened the envelope and read the note. "Dear Neuro, I have left the key to restoring Yako to her normal form with your minion. Make sure you do not miss the flight." Neuro looked at Godai, "what is this about?"
"Don't complain to me, I gave you the envelope!" Godai pointed at the confetti Neuro had created. "I got it from some guy with silver hair, don't know his name, he got away."
"Such incompetence, you must inform your master immediately when a paper is of relevance, pick it all up and put it on the desk." Neuro sounded less angry than Godai expected, focusing on the new clue he had received.
Godai decided that it was best to comply with the order, grumbled about Neuro's choice of words, and placed all the tiny pieces of paper on Troy.
Neuro then summoned a tool called 'Evil Glue' capable of restoring any broken object to its original form and placed the perfectly repaired tickets and bank book in his pocket. "While I'm gone, you are in charge of the office," there was a small pause, "Akane."
"What? You're leaving the hair in charge?" Though at first Godai didn't know about Akane and for some time thought it was the name of Yako's cell phone, he had since learned who Akane really was. Needless to say, Godai was not happy to be placed under the authority of hair.
"Akane, make sure to monitor any suspicious activities during my absence. Slave number two, you are to do everything Akane orders," ignoring Godai's complaints and Akane's victory dance, spinning around on the wall, Neuro picked up little Yako and Mystery, then left the office.
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As the airplane took off, Neuro leaned back on his first class seat and watched as Yako and Mystery played with robotic hamster toys, probably acting out the plot of an imaginary world wide take over story. Neuro knew he had to keep them entertained if he was going to get anything done, which meant giving them toys. He could leave Mystery with slave number two, but surely no human, save for the parents of the bottomless pit, could hope to have a ghost of a chance in surviving taking care of Yako. She was more challenging than even the hatchling. Besides, Neuro felt better bringing both of them along, just in case.
The flight wasn't particularly eventful until the time when Yako ate all the food there was available on the airplane and kept crying for more. She wouldn't shut up and it was making Neuro look suspicious. It was ironic that the human of the group, with her human need for food, which was of inhuman proportions, would be the strangest one out of the three, from the perspective of the other passengers. Neuro resolved the situation by causing the engines to malfunction and with a violent shake, the airplane began its unexpected decline.
"Attention all passengers, this is your pilot speaking," the voice was trembling with fear on the speakers.
The flight attendants, who were supposed to help keep everyone calm and enforce the pilot's orders, were crying desperately. "We're going to die!"
"Everyone remain calm; we're experiencing some minor engine difficulties," the frightened pilot announced.
"Minor?" A scared and enraged passenger yelled, "the engines have some kind of green fire on them!" The aircraft was filled with murmurs, panic and wild theories about anything from terrorism to alien abductions.
"We need to make an emergency landing, please keep your seatbelts fastened at all times and... say your prayers." The pilot was supposed to repeat the message in several languages, but forgot how to properly speak anything other than his native tongue, instead drabbling about a random mountain of bottle caps and pink shooting stars in a failed attempt to translate.
The airplane continued its unplanned descent, while the flight attendants cried, the pilot mumbled incoherently, the copilot was passed out, the passengers screamed, Neuro grinned and little Yako and Mystery cheered.
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Mystery 24: Karma
The airplane, which came from Japan, had already crossed the Pacific Ocean and crash landed on the very edge of the United States. Neuro took the children and escaped, nobody tried to stop him, since they were all too caught up in their own panic and injuries.
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Neuro traveled carrying the children, stopping at a random farm to feed Yako. The little girl ate the entire harvest, pestering Neuro to cook whatever shouldn't be consumed raw. He did so with fire, leaving things charred, but Yako didn't care. Although, when she realized that Neuro had no skill in cooking, she resolved that it was best to eat things raw, at least they would taste less like coal.
Neuro, Yako and Mystery, escaped undiscovered by the farmers, who would never be able to explain how their farm was looted so fast and how they missed the goods being transported away, because they would never imagine somebody ate them. Neuro theorized that Yako's larger appetite despite her smaller body, was due to being at an age when she was still growing and her expanding body demanded extra energy.
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When they reached the nearest airport, stealing food from farms and vendors on the way, they took another flight to the Caribbean and once again, Yako ate everything on the plane, though she finished just as they were landing in Puerto Rico. Then they headed to a beach side hotel for which they had reservations, maybe they would meet the generous challenger there.
Neuro knew this could be a trap, he expected it to be, but he didn't find anything suspicious at the hotel. While Yako devoured the entire food supply, save for the kitchen's supply of yet to be cooked meat which went to Mystery, Neuro kept looking for anything suspicious, anything at all, but found nothing, much to his frustration. He decided that maybe the one who led them there didn't know they had arrived due to the change in the flight plan, thus Neuro decided to take the first step. He researched the possible meeting locations and concluded that Yunque, a rain forest, was the most likely battle ground, possibly being the most private and secluded place on the relatively crowded island.
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The forest was thick and secluded, with tourists instructed not to leave the trails, though Neuro couldn't understand why anyone would get lost there since he didn't think there was enough room in the entire island the get lost in. Surely the humans could travel from one end of the island to the other in less than a day by car and they should be able to cross the at least the forest on foot in a day. Nevertheless, he remembered that humans were stupid and went in circles when panicked, instead of in a logical straight line.
If Neuro and the unknown sender of the letter were to fight somewhere on that island, it would most likely be in the forest, so as to not draw attention. At least Neuro hoped the other wouldn't draw too much attention, because he got angry when his feeding grounds were disturbed; even if it wasn't in the area where he usually searched for mysteries, the entire surface world was his to feed on.
Night fell, catching an angry Neuro, sleeping Mystery and complaining Yako in the dense forest. Neuro brought out the 'Evil Flashlight' which produced a bright light, floating high above him, much bigger than a regular lightbulb. With the light in place, little Yako stopped complaining about her fear of the darkness and instead started whining that she wanted to go play in the pool.
At the end of his already short and abused patience, Neuro put the little girl down and mentally counted to ten, he once heard slave number two mentioning it was something he did to try to calm down. Neuro reminded himself that if he killed the little Yako now, he would never recover his favorite slave.
With a cheer of "yay!" little Yako jumped in the shallow natural pool and splashed happily for a few seconds, only to climb out and complain, "I'm cold!" Sure the island was tropical, but one couldn't expect the water to miraculously remain warm in the center of a rain forest in the middle of the night.
Neuro clenched his teeth and made a scary face, "you're going to be quiet."
He should be terrifying to children, but Yako only giggled. "Cute!" She had the audacity to point and laugh at him, then she sneezed and Neuro grimaced.
He had heard in theory what karma was. Yako herself had told him that one day a divine punishment would come for all the trouble he caused her, she called it karma. He didn't believe it, Neuro was confident he could escape any sort of divine disaster, if this karma thing even existed, but now he was stuck. Yako wouldn't shut up and she couldn't be controlled with fear, pain would make her scream louder and her appetite was bigger than ever.
Only death would shut her up and Neuro had spent too much time and energy in the past keeping Yako alive in dangerous situations to give up on her now. Besides, he didn't feel like finding another cover for his detective agency and it would be difficult to find someone with as much understanding for the human mind and potential for evolution as Yako had. Maybe it was true, karma existed and it was indeed a powerful force, but Neuro was determined to overcome any obstacles.
Little Yako sneezed repeating, "I'm cold!" While stomping her feet this time and making an adorable pouty face.
Neuro picked her up and left, Mystery sleeping peacefully in his arms through the whole ordeal, the hatchling could sleep like a rock, but there was nothing wrong with him, he was simply a heavy sleeper.
Neuro had no reason to be certain that the one who led him there was going to fight in that specific location, if at all. He had no reason to believe that he was waiting on the island. Neuro was frustrated and he was rushing into theories.
The stress caused by little Yako and the indescribable feeling of being unable to stop the spell in the first place were taking a toll on Neuro. He didn't have the slightest idea what he was feeling, it was new and strange, Yako would interpret that he was worried because he cared and Neuro would smash her against a wall for suggesting such a preposterous idea. He would never admit he missed all that.
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Back at the hotel, Mystery continued to sleep in their room, while Neuro tended to a sneezing Yako. Human children were the root of all evil, the bad kind of evil, he concluded. Yako was unusually warm and she complained about aches and pains, she had to clean her nose continuously, several times using his sleeve, which drove him to toss the dirty blue jacket aside and tell her to "use the sheets!" It wouldn't be his problem then, though the maids would have it bad.
Finally, Neuro comprehended that Yako was sick and he didn't know anything about human illnesses. He called the front desk, which was in service twenty-four-seven, and requested a human healer, which the lady on the phone interpreted to mean a doctor.
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The doctor came up to Neuro's room and examined Yako. When told to open her mouth, she bit him and nearly ripped off his finger. The frightened doctor then hastily diagnosed a cold and prescribed a random over the counter children medicine, lots of rest, plenty of water and nutritious food. Then he ran away in horror.
Neuro was debating if he should kill the useless doctor for being so ineffective, while risking rising suspicions, but decided that he wouldn't jeopardize his true nature now of all times, he didn't want to give in and be pushed over the edge. Karma would not be the victor and neither would the mysterious troublemaker who led them there.
Yako continued her complaints while Mystery slept oblivious on the neighboring bed. Neuro frowned; this wasn't like when Yako whined that it hurt when her neck was twisted around. It wasn't like when she cringed when he gripped her head too tight, it wasn't like when she went "ouch" after being smashed into a wall. This was different, it was all out agony.
"Stupid Yako," Neuro sat down on the bed and held Yako on his lap. "You're so troublesome; when you get big again, I'll have to torture you for all this." It was ironic that Mystery, who was so closely linked to Neuro's kind, was sleeping peacefully, while the fully human little Yako was all the opposite. Neuro would never admit it, but he missed his Yako and he would endure her childhood to get her back.
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Mystery 25: Another Victim
The next morning, while Neuro sat frozen awake, Mystery still slept soundly and Yako had only recently fallen asleep, a summarized version of a local newspaper was slipped under the door of the hotel room, the cover depicting the blurred figure of a man with glowing green eyes, carrying away two smaller figures, while a strange light shone above, disrupting the camera and turning Neuro into an unrecognizable shadow in the picture.
The article on the first page was written the previous night and added to the newspaper in a hurry, just before they started printing, because the news was too interesting to leave it for later. There were aliens in Yunque. However, aliens and other strange beings residing in the forest were a common urban legend, so no one was alarmed and no one particularly cared to consider the possibility of there being some truth behind that article.
"Wakey, wakey, chicken slave!" Neuro was already awake and he was not amused.
"I see you got over your pathetic human illness, I'll definitely make you pay for this when you're older. Go clean yourself up and get ready, we're going to the beach."
"Yay! Breakfast and beach!" Though Neuro said nothing about breakfast, Yako cheered and rushed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Sometimes, while her parents were searching for a babysitter, when the previous had been scared away, Yako tried to be a big girl and show her parents she could take care of herself. Her true motivation was thinking that if she was a big girl, she would get bigger meals, but that aside, she could take care of all the basics, which Neuro wouldn't do for her anyway.
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"Ready!" The tree year old Yako was wearing a silly pink toddler bathing suit with a ridiculous amount of fuchsia bows.
Neuro had no idea where she got it, but upon noticing the open closet, he found a lot of clothes that would fit the three of them, which he was sure were not there before. They must have been brought in while he was in the forest, but he doubted that the hotel's service was that elaborate and detailed. This was very suspicious indeed, but Neuro decided to accept the challenge. He got Mystery and himself ready, then headed down to the beach.
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At the beach, Neuro had the hotel staff bring Yako food to keep her quiet. She ate and played in the sand, making castles with Mystery while she waited for the next dish to come.
Neuro looked around the beach, searching for the challenger and feeling somewhat silly in the blue swimming trunks he was wearing, being used to his ever present suit.
A woman suspiciously approached, but she appeared to be a regular human in every way. "Hi handsome!"
Neuro was about to tell her to go away, but little Yako acted first. "Mine!" She kicked the woman on the leg with all her strength and given the large amount of food she ate, she had enough force to knock the surprised woman down. Yako then relentlessly attacked, until the woman had to crawl away beaten. Yako pouted and gave Neuro a serious look, pointing at him with her tiny index finger. "My slave!"
Neuro wasn't bothered by anyone again; in fact, all those who witnessed the scene or heard about it, avoided him at all costs. Sure he was a handsome man, but that little girl with him was too dangerous.
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After spending some time at the beach without finding anything suspicious, Neuro headed back to his hotel room with Mystery and Yako. He was trying to think of what to do to speed up the process of solving the ever complicated mystery, when there was a knock on the door. Upon opening the door, Neuro did not find anyone from room service, instead he found Higushi.
"I'm here to see Yako," it was obvious that Higushi must have tracked their location by hacking the airline and hotel's databases. His reason for wanting to see Yako was also rather obvious, he liked her, a lot, and he wasn't ready to lose her to Neuro. Higushi had tried to give up after he heard about the child whom no one knew for certain if he was Yako and Neuro's biological son or a baby abandoned at their door, as they claimed. He tried to move on and understand that Yako had someone else, but he couldn't take this anymore.
"Why do you want to see Sensei?" Neuro pretended to ignore the raging look in Higushi's eyes, he could glare far more fiercely, but he kept up his innocent human act.
Higushi was furious. He didn't think Neuro was properly handling the situation, allowing Yako's reputation to be tarnished and all sorts of crazy rumors to float around. The hacker had decided that Yako was the damsel in distress of his little fantasy and he was the hero who was destined to rescue her from the evil demon, the part which was represented by Neuro, all ironies aside. "I want to see her, now."
Neuro's eyes glowed mischievously and Higushi blinked, then went back to glaring, he knew Neuro was not an ordinary being. "She's busy, but if you want, you can see the smaller Yako, she was named after her mother, they're so much alike."
Higushi stared at the toddler who was curiously looking back at him. "Yako..." the resemblance was amazing, this girl had to be part of Yako's biological family, though she looked about three years old and Higushi certainly didn't remember Yako being pregnant. The girl had to be a baby sister or cousin, maybe even a clone. Either way, if it came to that, he would take her in along with the mysterious baby boy. "I can take care of the children." He refused to believe the kids were Yako and Neuro's children, if Yako had been pregnant he would have noticed, but if she decided she wanted to keep them to care for as her own, he would have to be prepared.
Neuro's mood improved slightly with this new development. "I'll take care of the baby and you can take care of the little girl." Taking care of both of them would surely signify the death of Higushi and Neuro might want to torture him some more later so he couldn't die just yet.
"Fine," Higushi picked up the little girl who began to play with his glasses. "I'll be back this evening to speak to Yako." Surely it would benefit him to prove he could take care of the little girl by himself for the day, that should help Yako realize he was more reliable than Neuro and a better father figure to the children she adopted.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Private Evileye Nogami Neuro, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Ridinghood, Hansel and Gretel or Wizard of Oz. The idea of Yako turning into a three year old is from crystalgardian. Robot hamsters taking over the world is an idea from Shiro-Kitsune8's review, mentioned on Mystery 23. Higushi's apperance in Mystery 25 was requested by Yorushihe.