Other Fan Fiction ❯ A Push in the Right Direction ❯ Chapter 7
[ 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: 6 | Words: 9.5K | Visits: 253 | Status: Completed
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 6 | Words: 9.5K | Visits: 253 | Status: Completed
A Push in the Right Direction: Case VII
Mystery 38: The Dance of Deception
Neuro wasn't planning to reveal his identity, he wasn't planning anything, he had gone to the party in the rush of the moment and his plan had already ended. He knew what he would do to blend in, he knew what he would do to keep his real identity a secret, he knew what he would do to get Yako away from the crowd, and that was it, he didn't plan anything beyond that. He didn't think he needed a plan, though now that he thought about it, charming a human could be complicated. It seemed that he was far from making Yako beg for his attention like he wanted; the stupid little bug didn't realize what an honor she was granted by the opportunity of being with him.
Without a word, Neuro hugged Yako, causing a little surprised yelp to escape her. It wasn't like he was crushing her, though the temptation was strong, and humans were supposed to like gentle hugs. "Um... excuse me, should we dance, or something?" Yako suggested.
"Yes, let's dance," Neuro mentally kicked himself for not planning this further. It wasn't like him to be so unprepared and he blamed his haste on Yako. Regardless of that, he had observed human dances enough to know how to dance, though apparently Yako had not, because she stepped on his feet quite often and if not because she was a slug with a single cell brain, he would think it was on purpose, but he attributed it to clumsy stupidity instead of malice.
Yako finally became comfortable dancing with the handsome stranger who felt so familiar when he held her close. His scent and expression also tugged at an unknown memory, but his image didn't match any of the pictures of her past. Even so, when it came to a certain someone, anything was possible and with a theory in mind, Yako smiled.
As the slow song ended, Neuro got an idea, it was about time his genius brain decided to jump start. "Are you hungry? I'll take you to a nice restaurant." Surely this was the perfect way to charm Yako, Neuro wouldn't have to bother with anything else.
Yako's eyes lit up and her mouth watered, "I would," she paused, if her theory was correct than she shouldn't be eating what he gave her, "I would like to go back inside and dance."
Neuro's jaw dropped, his eyes went wide behind the mask and it took him a moment to compose himself, "are you sure?"
"Yes," Yako forced herself to nod. She wanted food, but if her mystery man was Neuro, despite the lack of sharp teeth and glowing emerald eyes, then she was better off making sure he didn't feed her something like the essence of lust, or another similar thing that would make her irresistible instinct take him back, despite her firm disposition of teaching him a lesson.
"Very well, as you wish," on the outside Neuro smiled, and on the inside he felt like kicking himself for following Yako around as if she were the master, the thought of which was unacceptable.
Yako spotted Kanae and Higuchi dancing, she had forgotten about him when she focused on her theories about her mystery man. Maybe he wasn't Neuro despite the similar expression, albeit in a slightly different face. But his scent and the shape of his body was a perfect copy of Neuro. It could be a coincidence, but either way, it was best not to upset Higuchi by being seen, thus Yako hoped Kanae would keep him busy and snuck off to the other side of the large room.
Graduates passed by, looking at the dancing couple and wondering who that man was. They had seen him before, standing to the side with another unknown man who had since disappeared. They didn't dance with anyone, despite having received several requests, especially that one, who danced for the first time with Kanae, then disappeared and returned to dance with Yako.
Some wondered where Yako's assistant was. The public opinion, lacking certain memories, was unsure if they were a couple or not. The talk surrounding Yako, after people's memories were erased, shifted from the drama of the now forgotten baby to her upcoming career, everyone expected her to become a fulltime detective after she graduated.
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Eventually, Yako gave into the temptation of food and snuck out of the party, accepting the masked man's invitation, despite being told over and over in the past not to take food from strangers. She glanced at Kanae and Higuchi who were talking, Kanae pointed to some decorations and when Higuchi looked at them, she gave Yako a thumbs up, as if to communicate she had noticed her since she came back inside. Yako smiled and returned the gesture, then left with the mystery man.
The car was not the same one Neuro had, he claimed that if a human could drive he could do it too and got a false license with some help from Godai's connections. Yako felt uneasy as she questioned her theory. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that made her believe this was Neuro, maybe she was getting herself into trouble from which Neuro wasn't there to save her, or maybe this man was actually nice and she should give him a chance, yet her thoughts remained conflicted.
They arrived at a fancy restaurant and from that point on, Yako could think of nothing but food. Neuro did consider the possibility of slipping something into her food, but decided against it. He began to see this bizarre human ritual as a challenge that would, not only make him understand the human mind better and thus further enjoy devouring their mysteries, also he would prove his greatness to his slave and she would come crawling back to him begging for attention, or at least that was the effect Neuro was hoping for.
After the meal was finally done, which took several hours, Neuro paid with a credit card, which he made sure Yako could see, confirming that it was not Godai's, which Neuro usually used. By the name on the card Yako learned that her admirer was called Jigoku Kamen.
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Feeling confused, but satisfied with the meal, Yako was taken home, Mr. Kamen knew exactly where she lived, a fact she did not question, a lot of people knew where she lived. "Thank you..." Yako stood at her door, having decided that she would not invite the mystery man to come in. It looked as if her theory about him being Neuro was incorrect, but she wasn't fully convinced yet. "Will I see you again soon?" Yako inquired.
"We can go out tomorrow; we could spend the entire day together." Yako wanted to see him again; Neuro took it as good progress. She would be at his feet in no time.
"Let's go out in the evening, mom is leaving in the afternoon, she offered to take me along but I want to stay here for now. I want to spend the morning with her and see her off at the airport."
"As you wish," Neuro could not get used to saying such things, but it was all for a good purpose, imagining Yako begging her beloved master to honor her with as much as a glance would be priceless.
"Um... well..." Yako stood on her tiptoes and reached towards his face. Neuro assumed she wanted a kiss and decided to humor her, though a part of him was also angry that she was kissing a mystery man whom she had apparently no way of knowing was truly her master. However, as soon as Neuro's face was within Yako's reach, she proved his theory wrong by removing his mask. "I just wanted to see your face," she quickly clarified. "Your eyes..."
Neuro was careful with his disguise, his eyes had been a stunning violet with the mask, a rare color for a human, without it they were blue, thanks to a pair of contact lenses.
Yako stared at the man's eyes, which were not green or glowing. He moved closer as if to kiss her, then she stepped back and with a hasty, "thanks again, see you tomorrow," she shut the door on his face, hitting him on the nose.
Neuro touched his nose, though no damage had occurred given his nature, albeit a normal human's nose would have been broken. He felt oddly satisfied that Yako had decided against kissing Mr. Kamen, and swiftly left, heading back to the detective office.
In her apartment, Yako leaned against the closed door and contemplated the mask she still held, she was in such a hurry to get away from Mr. Kamen and have some time alone to clear her head that she didn't even return it. She missed Neuro, but if he wasn't even making an effort to win her back, then maybe he didn't really care. Perhaps she should try to move on with her life, but before she decided anything, she had to learn more about the mysterious Jigoku Kamen.
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Mystery 39: Dates
Neuro arrived at the office late that night after taking Yako home. Everything was going according to his plans so far. He was going to spend the night at the office, expecting to have the place to himself, but to his surprise, Neuro found the lights were still on and music was playing.
There was slave number two, dancing with Akane, whom he held against his chest, the end of the braid resting on his shoulder. He whispered sweet incoherent nothings and drunken romantic promises as he clumsily tried to follow the music.
"Take your strange pre-mating ritual elsewhere, I would prefer to sleep without nightmares tonight," Neuro commanded, with an amused undertone.
Godai looked at Neuro and nodded slowly, his face was slightly red and his desk and the floor around it was occupied by several empty bottles that explained his current situation. "Akane, let's -hic- go to my place," Godai staggered towards the door. "The lady and I are -hic- leaving now, see you -hic- tomorrow boss." Godai left, with Akane squirming helplessly in his hands.
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It was the start of a new day, but Godai wasn't quite ready to wake up. He was laying on his stomach on his bed, his face buried in the pillow, then someone kicked him on the head, as if it didn't already hurt enough. "Ow!" Godai agonized.
"Get up slave number two, I need my secretary to do some research for me," Neuro commanded, standing on the wall.
Godai looked up, his eyes red and puffy, his face blank, ears ringing and entire body aching. "Akane is your secretary."
"That's what I said, but I cannot take her with me until you move," Neuro pointed out.
Godai's shirt was somewhere on the floor along with the jacket of the tuxedo he wore the previous night. He was wearing the same pants he had when he got himself drunk and started dreaming about dancing with a beautiful lady with long ebony hair. He had only one shoe, the other was nowhere to be found. The yakuza was puzzled by Neuro's words and he was unable to analyze them with his current headache, but he did feel something squirming against his bare chest and quickly moved away from it. "Akane? Did I sleep on you the whole night? Sorry about that!" He picked up the squirming braid and petted it softly, "you're not hurt, are you?"
"She's fine, but I'm not, I find that I don't enjoy witnessing such bizarre mating rituals. Before I start coughing out mysteries, I would greatly appreciate that you tone down the rating," Neuro watched in amusement as slave number two's face turned bright red and Akane shook hurriedly.
"I wasn't! We didn't! Are you insane?" Godai blabbered endlessly. "No wait, don't answer that, I already know you are."
Neuro picked up Akane and headed out of the apartment, turning back towards Godai once more before leaving. "What my slaves do in their private life is really none of my business."
"That's not it!" Godai yelled, his own loud voice causing his head to pound. He collapsed back into bed and decided there was simply no arguing with Neuro.
As he headed back to the detective office, Neuro grinned in amusement, there was more than one way to pick on a slave and his servants could be very entertaining sometimes.
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When the evening came, Jigoku Kamen went to see Yako and took her to dinner, greeting her with a dozen red roses, an idea that came from the research report Neuro got from Akane. Though she kept telling herself to be careful, in the end, Yako always succumbed to the temptation of food and ate plenty. It was night when dinner finally ended after several hours.
Neuro had swallowed human food to keep up appearances and he didn't particularly like it. It was nothing compared to the taste of a mystery, even the smallest simplest mystery was better then that, but he managed to swallow the warm tasteless substance. Of course, the amount was just enough to keep up his act and certainly no where close to the quantities needed to satisfy Yako's abundant appetite.
The couple then talked for a while, or rather Yako talked and Mr. Kamen listened. He asked her about her life and kept her talking, although she occasionally remembered her wish to learn more about him and asked a few questions, which he answered casually, having memorized his false background quite well. To make his character a detective or even a police officer would be too suspicious, though jumping into an entirely different field might be suspicious in it's own way as well.
Computers were out of the question because that was Higushi's field and Neuro didn't want to remind Yako of him in any way. Medicine was simply too far from the truth and it would be too ironic for him to pretend to be a human healer. Thus Neuro settled for making Mr. Kamen a lawyer.
He didn't care too much for the aftermath of the mysteries he solved, though he often heard about the results or read about them on the newspaper. However, human law had never interested him too much, albeit he could generally identify what was considered a crime.
This field was close enough to the work of a detective so it didn't sound avoidant, but distant enough to be something that Neuro wouldn't care about, since he never cared to solve mysteries in court, when they had already gone past the point of being ripe and lost their taste. Besides, that involved too many human procedures and he didn't like it.
On the bright side, Jigoku could use his background to bring up the topic of detectives if he thought it was time to remind Yako of her master and he was well informed about the origin of many cases, thus was familiar with concepts of evidence so the studying needed to provide a background for his character was minimal.
Overall the date went well and the pair chouse to meet again the next day. First they would go out to lunch, as expected from Yako to want to include food; then they would go to the park.
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The following day after a big lunch, Yako and Jigoku Kamen were walking through the park. Yako had been saying suspicious things during their date, finding ways to bring the topic of mysteries into the conversation, though Jigoku assured her that by the time he heard about the cases, all the mysteries had been solved and all that was left to do was to present them in the best way possible, to encourage the interpretation that the client desired. He remarked with perfectly faked disinterest that he was not good at puzzles and relied on his knowledge of the human mind to win cases.
It was a dangerous topic if Yako tried to further discuss it, using her own understanding of the human mind to expose his lack of it. But the conversation was suddenly cut when something distracted Yako. There, at the park, was Neuro. He appeared to be examining a tree as if searching for clues. It was Yako who had chosen to come to the park and she would have never expected to find Neuro there, especially because she suspected, perhaps hoped, that Jigoku Kamen was Neuro in disguise.
"Is something wrong?" Neuro, disguised as Jigoku, was satisfied with the effect that his copy caused on Yako, albeit he made sure not to show it. "Is the heat getting to you? It is very sunny today. Isn't that an ice-cream stand ahead; would you like some ice-cream?"
Yako's face lit up and she forgot about her worries and theories for the time being, "yes, please!"
Giving Yako the cold ice-cream he bought her, Neuro was reminded of a tradition of his land. Though food produced no taste for him, swallowing something warm was a little unpleasant, while swallowing something cold felt good, albeit still tasteless. His natural body heat seemed to create an effect similar to a human licking an ice cube on a hot day, tasteless, but pleasant.
Of course, this didn't count, they had skipped a step in the ritual and offering Yako something cold wasn't meant to be with that particular meaning in this occasion anyway. Nonetheless, Neuro noted how easy it was to obtain cold things in the surface, a big difference from his world.
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Mystery 40: Unexpected Tragedy
Jigoku Kamen had been dating Yako everyday and she was sending mixed signals. She seemed to like him and was certainly happy to be fed, but then she turned distant when he tried to kiss her, which was both frustrating and reassuring to Neuro. It was silly to be jealous of his own false identity, not that he would ever admit it.
Jigoku had another date with Yako set for that evening; she was going out with Kanae and some other friends in the afternoon. However, the unexpected happened when even with the promise of a delicious dinner, Yako was no where to be found. Neuro, disguised as Mr. Kamen, had gone to Yako's apartment to find her, but she wouldn't answer the door so he let himself in and searched the entire place, it was empty. Puzzled, Neuro had explored the entire city searching for Yako, but he didn't find her.
In the morning of the next day, Neuro went to his detective office, which he kept running under the pretense that sensei was on vacation but being so skilled, she could solve cases from afar with the information he collected for her and email or text her verdict.
Akane reported having computer troubles, the screen of her computer had randomly turned to static on and off since the previous afternoon, a blurred picture would appear along with a distant voice, which was impossible to understand. She described it as looking similar to the computer being possessed.
Neuro was only half paying attention as he read Akane's written message. Maybe someone was trying to use the network to spread chaos again. It wouldn't be the first time it happened, but if that was the case, the mystery wasn't ripe yet.
Godai showed up to work, picking up the newspaper that was left by the door, Neuro had signed up to have it delivered to the office every day. Though it was usually Yako's job when she was there, now Godai had to bring the newspaper, because Neuro simply refused to pick it up himself.
Neuro looked at the newspaper Godai had just placed on his desk with disinterest, he was hungry, but the mystery that interested him the most was Yako's whereabouts. Finally, Neuro picked up the newspaper and looked through it, his eyes suddenly pausing on an alarming article. "Slave number two, where did you find this newspaper?"
"By the office door like always," Godai didn't understand the importance of the question or why Neuro was tearing the newspaper apart.
"Buy another one," Neuro ordered.
"Why did you do that? You ripped it to pieces and now you want another one?" Godai knew Neuro was kind of crazy, but today he made even less sense than usual. The strangest thing was that look in his eyes, as if he was worried or in denial about something.
"Go, now," Neuro sounded serious and menacing, Godai didn't dare to question him further and left the office in a rush.
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Just as Godai had exited the building he saw a little boy selling newspapers. How convenient, he wouldn't have to go too far to get a new one. "Hey kid, I'll take one of those newspapers."
"Thank you sir," the boy handed him the newspaper, taking the money in return. That child looked familiar, but Godai didn't know why, maybe it was that same boy that sold newspapers further down the street, who knows why he changed his business spot that day.
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With the newly acquired newspaper in hand, Godai returned to the office and delivered it to Neuro, who quickly turned to a specific page, focused on it, reading over the same lines several times, then ripped the second newspaper into even smaller pieces of confetti, which he threw on the floor for Godai to clean. Ignoring the yakuza's complaints, Neuro addressed Akane, "go online and see if there is recent news about Yako."
Akane did as she was told, coming up with several articles on the screen, which confirmed what Neuro read in the newspaper. She even came across pictures of Yako's terrible fate.
Godai curiously looked at the screen, with no clue about what in the world was going on. Then he saw it. "Yako is..." his eyes widened.
"She's dead," Neuro finished. "She was hit by a car when she was crossing the street with her friends and the body was shipped overseas to her mother... Track down Kanae; if I can't find Yako I'll hear the story directly from her friend."
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Though the evidence was abundant, Neuro was not convinced, it made no sense for Yako to be dead. Kanae was found easily, she was in the local hospital and Neuro went to investigate. "Kanae?"
Yako's friend was wrapped in bandages like a mummy, but her heartbeats and breathing were steady. "Who?" She slowly turned her head towards the visitor standing next to her bed. "Neuro? Why are you here?"
"I wanted to ask you about Yako," Neuro went straight to the point.
"Yako is... she's..." Kanae started crying uncontrollably and a nurse insisted that Neuro left, scolding him for reminding a fragile patient of the recent tragic death of her dear friend.
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On his way back to the detective office, Neuro was still trying to make sense of the situation. Yako couldn't be dead, that would mean that history itself would be riddled with paradoxes, though that would explain the pink elephants that were rampaging around the city, albeit no one seemed to notice them.
Paradoxes caused randomness as they tore the world apart, but humans were not perceptive enough to notice until their souls were thrown into the final stage of chaos, when the world was far too broken and it was too late to fix the paradox. The street, which used to be straight and solid, turned into a strange wavy scene and Neuro knew he had to hurry.
Humans were too brainless to notice anything going on, their eyes seeing nothing but what was left of their present, unable to perceive another beyond their native plane of existence. Neuro had a very bad feeling about this, he was strong enough to fight against fate and if history was changing, he would not be so easily carried to a new chaotic destiny, or subconsciously accept it as what always has been.
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"Neuro, come see this!" Godai called out as soon as Neuro went through the door.
There was a video displayed on Akane's computer where an alarmed Neuro warned his past self of the inexplicable disappearance of Yako and Kaiyo from the future, theorizing that something was dangerously altered in the past, causing a powerful paradox.
The Neuro of the present realized that Yako hasn't been kidnapped and hidden under the guise of a faked death as he initially thought; she really was dead and the time continuum itself was falling apart.
The weak humans were being consumed by the paradox in their plane of existence, their energies fading, becoming harder for Neuro to sense, all because Yako was gone. With Yako dead in the present, Kaiyo wouldn't exist in the future and without Kaiyo, the series of events that led Neuro to eventually become Jigoku Kamen while Yako was out running around with her friends instead of hunting mysteries with her master, wouldn't have happened, so her death would be a paradox in itself. But if her death was canceled, then the events which led to it would be possible after all.
The only thing left to do was to find Yako and bring her back to Earth. Gluttony aside, she was more good than bad, so she must have gone to the home of the angels. They cared for humans; that's what everyone said. If so, then surely the big boss would restore Yako's life if it was to stop the time continuum from collapsing, but what if he didn't? What if this was an apocalypse in the making? Neuro wanted to find Yako, he needed to see her, so he flew; he flew up into the skies, higher and higher...
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Mystery 41: The Gates of Heaven
Neuro desperately flew up, but he wasn't heading towards Earth's atmosphere, he was gathering his energy and summoning his deepest power to find a way to the dimension of Heaven. There was more to it then flying straight up, if he kept going he would reach outer space instead.
He searched among the clouds for the door between the dimensions, a door invisible to humans who still inhabited their mortal vessels. Finally he saw it, it was faint at first, but as he got closer the golden glow around it was almost blinding.
Neuro reached for the golden door knob but his hand went through it like a ghost. "Let me in!" He focused on his purpose; he had to find Yako, no wait, that wasn't right. His true purpose was to defend his feeding grounds, he only wanted to keep the Earth's time continuum from falling into chaos because mysteries required logic to grow and be consumed. He would starve if logic ceased to exist and he liked the mysteries created by humans; that was all they were good for, feeding him.
The door started to fade, the golden glow becoming dim, "don't disappear!" Neuro had never attempted to cross into the dimension of the angels. He had heard about it, hence why finding the entrance wasn't too difficult, but he had no idea what was beyond that door, or even how to open it.
A part of Neuro wanted to sit back and wait for the angels to fix things, but in the back of his mind he worried that they would either allow the apocalypse to come, or reformat the Earth with a great flood or something like that. Then he pushed the thoughts away, the feather dusters wouldn't like sacrificing the good humans, so if they outnumbered the bad ones, the Earth should be okay.
Then again, their solution might save the Earth and its logic, but it might not necessarily involve bringing Yako back to life. They may fix the paradox by rewriting history so that Yako and Neuro never met and that would get rid of the paradox of Yako's life and death. Even if Neuro somehow held on to his memories, seeking Yako would be difficult if the angels, to whom he was allergic, decided to get in his way.
The golden door glowed again and it puzzled Neuro. He had gotten lost in his thoughts, which kept going back to Yako. Was she the key? He thought of her, focused on his number one slave, her supernatural appetite and her endearing clumsiness, though he couldn't remember when he decided it was endearing.
The door glowed brighter. Why was it reacting to such thoughts? Was it because Yako was in the center of the paradox? Neuro continued focusing on her. Her determination to help him, even if she was only a weak human, her evolution little by little, her smile, her laugh, her complaints, the growling of her stomach, the look in her eyes, the fitting design of her hair clips, her voice calling his name... the door opened.
Neuro rushed in before the door closed, but he was disappointed to see that the other side of the door was the same as the previous one. He was surrounded by endless white clouds in a blue sky and there was a door in front of him. Then he noticed that this wasn't the same door, it was different, adorned with jewels. He repeated the process, focusing on Yako, concentrating on his desire to see her and the door opened.
This was becoming frustrating, Neuro found yet another door beyond the last, followed by more doors, one after another. The jewels adorning them were different so he knew the doors were not the same one in an endless loop. He didn't worry about getting lost, while his world was a maze of twists and turns, he had heard the way to the land of angels was a straight path, getting it to open up was the hard part. He had to keep moving forward from one door to another.
He continued opening the jeweled doors to find more jeweled doors, then finally, after twelve doors, Neuro came upon tall golden gates. By then he was feeling exhausted, as if his power was drained every time he went through a door. "Finally..."
Neuro approached the gates, which were of course closed. "Yako!" There was no answer and he was sneezing a lot. Heaven was a big place and she would most likely not be able to hear him yelling from the front gates, but he would try anyway. "Yako!" He gripped the golden bars, trying to open the gates, but it didn't work. He tried to push through, to somehow slip in between the golden bars, but he didn't fit. "Yako!" He coughed and sneezed, shivering in an unbearable cold, though he was certain it wasn't the temperature that was harsh, but rather his kind felt it that way.
"Yako..." Neuro paused and took a deep breath; he could hardly hear his own voice. "Yako!" Everything was blurry, maybe coming here was a mistake, this atmosphere could kill him; he was surprised he wasn't dead already. His breaths were heavy and uneven, he didn't need oxygen but he needed energy and the kind available in Heaven was one he couldn't breathe very well, and shouldn't be able to breathe at all.
"What are you doing there, son?" An old angel arrived, looking at Neuro curiously; he had a long white beard which reached all the way to the cloud floors. "Aren't you a...?"
"Yes..." Neuro mentally kicked himself for being unable to speak up, but his senses were failing him, his vision was a blur of white and his entire body hurt.
"You're going to get killed by this atmosphere if you stay here, go home. You're a curious one aren't you? I'm guessing curiosity brought you here, because it couldn't be a plan for invasion, you're all alone and besides, the alarms didn't go off, none of the doors were forced," the angel looked puzzled.
Neuro only half-heard the feather duster's ramblings, "Yako Katsuragi, tell her I'm here," Neuro gasped between labored breaths, loud sneezes and choking coughs.
"Yako Katsuragi? Just who are you, son?" The angel inquired.
"Neuro Nogami... Tell Yako I'm here; tell her to come to the gates. She just arrived, she was born in Japan, eighteen years ago," Neuro insisted.
"So you're looking for her, but if she's new she must be taking the orientation tour, this is a big place so the tour is very long. Let me check the list..." the angel pulled out a little futuristic silver miniature computer from the pocket of his flowing pearly white robes. "Yako Katsuragi... Japan... eighteen... hmm... Ah yes, she's listed on the database. However, she's not here, she's down there."
"Down there?" Neuro couldn't believe it; he went through all that trouble just to find Yako, when he could have easily searched for her in his world. "In my world..."
"No, no!" The angel shook his head vigorously. "Not that far down, son. She's a good girl that one, credited for solving many crimes, providing understanding and comfort, always trying to hold her own and help others too. She has some issues with gluttony but she's more good than bad. In fact, according to the database she's even credited with teaching love to a... Wait a minute, now it's all clear to me, that's why you were able to get past the doors. It was love, you're the one. Boy? Hey boy, don't go unconscious on me, son. Did you hear what I said? Wake up, son!"
Neuro's faded senses came back; he was only unconscious for a short while, albeit he couldn't really tell how long it had been. It couldn't be that long though, the old angel was still standing there.
"You don't look so good, son," it annoyed Neuro to be called son by the old feather duster, but he wasn't in conditions to argue, besides, he had come across plenty of creatures that called boys or men younger than themselves 'son', he should have known that annoying habit existed everywhere.
"Tell your boss that the time continuum paradox can be fixed if Yako comes back to life," Neuro managed to choke out the words. This was terribly embarrassing, being reduced to such a weak state.
The angel sighed, "Such is love; it's not easy to understand so it must feel like a chaotic paradox. I take it you didn't hear me. Well let me tell you, your beloved Yako is down there as in the human world, on the surface of the Earth, she's alive. I can even locate her for you, son. Let's see... Ah, yes, she's in Paris, France."
The part about love was filtered out by Neuro's brain. All that he heard was that Yako was alive and in Paris, France. Who ever took her away would seriously regret it.
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Mystery 42: Evolution
Neuro wanted nothing more than to rush down to Earth, find Yako and torture her kidnappers, but he couldn't because he had stupidly gotten his head stuck in the golden gates of Heaven.
"Are you okay there, son?" The elderly angel inquired. Observing Neuro's struggle, he shook his head, "don't tell me you're stuck there, boy. This atmosphere isn't very good for your health, but let me tell you, I've been guarding these gates for a long time and I've seen my fair share of angels and human souls alike get their heads stuck there."
Neuro was not happy to find that he had sunk to the level of humans and even feather dusters, getting himself stuck in such a disgraceful way. He desperately tried to pull his head out from between the bars, in human form of course, changing would make it impossible with his bigger head and he had only changed his wings to fly there.
"Listen here, son; the trick to it is to push your ears back. Just turn your head to the side and get your ear in there, now the same with the other one. Hold them back and move your head up and down, look up, look down, there you go. You're free now."
Neuro rushed out as fast as he could, he was tired and in pain, but most of all he, was frustrated and angry.
xoxox xox xoxox
Despite his exhaustion, Neuro took no time to rest before traveling to France. He flew over Paris, searching for any signs of Yako, but found none. He continued the search for a couple of hours until he landed on a branch of a plentiful tree, hiding behind its abundant leaves. He would have to make contact with the humans to gather clues. He wondered if Godai's connections extended this far, though he doubted it. Even so, someone might have seen Yako being kidnapped from Japan and any clue would be helpful, there was no time to waste.
Resting his back against the tree trunk and stretching his legs on the long large branch, Neuro looked at the sky past the lavish leaves of the tree. "Maybe I should have asked about the specifics of Yako's location while I was up there..." Yet he was so angry, frustrated and mortified, he had to leave immediately and he didn't think he could survive a return trip so soon. He would find Yako himself somehow, but what if he failed?
The earlier signs were not the arrival of a paradox but they could be the symptoms of its almost certain coming and the message from his future self was most disturbing. He considered risking his life to go back to Heaven and inquire about Yako's specific location; that should allow him to save her on time and prevent the paradox, or maybe the angels would prevent it.
"No, no, no!" Neuro shook his head in frustration. "I can't rely on the feather dusters, what am I going to do next? Pray for help? Ridiculous!" He looked to the skies and spoke with sarcasm, "hey big boss, mind giving this lowly creature some help, give me a sign!" He would find Yako on his own power.
Neuro grumbled and once again tried to clear his head, but his train of thought derailed when he heard a happy cheer, "this is delicious!"
Slowly, Neuro turned his head towards the voice and realized that the random tree he had landed on was in someone's yard and in that very large yard, way on the other side, was the one and only piggish detective, Yako Katsuragi, living up to her name with cake, safe and sound.
Neuro felt himself twitch then pouted looking up at the endless clear skies, "I was being sarcastic," he grumbled. If Yako wasn't in mortal danger before, she would be now. But first, Neuro wanted to get the full story out of her.
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Neuro snuck into the house and sneezed, then identified the source of his allergies as Angelus, who was dressed as a normal human. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
"Hello Neuro, what a nice surprise that you should come to visit. Actually, I was just on my way to the grocery store. Do you need anything?" Angelus smiled angelically.
Neuro rudely sneezed on him, "yes, I need you to leave so I can stop sneezing."
"My apologies for that, I shall go now, see you later."
After Angelus left, Neuro called Yako's cellphone, a thought that didn't occur to him before, since she couldn't answer if she was dead or being held captive.
Yako recognized the number as being Neuro's, he obviously had a different number as Jigoku Kamen. "Neuro?"
"Hello Yako," Neuro tried to keep his voice even, despite his fury.
"I guess I couldn't trick you after all," Yako laughed nervously.
"That was quite an elaborate trap," Neuro played along, "tell me my little slave, what inspired each part of it?"
"There's no hiding it anymore," Yako sighed. "I had Higushi make fake websites and email them to Akane; she helped arrange everything on her computer. I made the fake newspapers myself and took the false page to a print shop; they printed it on that big paper that makes your fingers black like I told them to, no questions asked. I bribed the paperboy to sell a fake newspaper to Godai if you weren't convinced by the one delivered to the office and sent him to buy a new one. Godai wasn't in on it, I thought he might get nervous and forget his lines, but I asked Akane to tell him the truth after you were gone so he wouldn't be sad. I called him a little while ago and told him he could use the car I got as a graduation present as much as he wanted and he forgave me. It's not like I have a license anyway, because someone always kept me busy so I didn't have time to get it. But I intend to get my driver's license sometime in the near future."
"I see, I was going to kill slave number two if he helped, I suppose I can't kill Akane since she's already dead. Maybe Higushi... Go on," Neuro continued listening.
"Kanae was in on it too," Yako confessed, "her aunt is a nurse and helped us set things up, we told her we were acting for an audition video. Oh and you can't kill her because you'll blow your cover, the same goes for Higushi. The video of your future self was a fake, don't get offended but Angelus did the acting disguised as you."
"I am offended!" Neuro growled; his day couldn't get any worse, and yet, the slug had evolved so much, coming up with an elaborate plan like that. "What about the signs of a paradox and the pink elephants? Nothing says illogical chaos like pink elephants!"
"You were just drunk, my cousin Yukari helped me do some research and I slipped something into Jigoku Kamen's drink when he was distracted. The effect took a while to work, and it didn't last long, I calculated the timing myself, how was it?" Yako had to know how well her tricks worked, her curiosity was strong and her fear nonexistent.
"Not bad..." Neuro admitted, "and how did the top slug figure out Jigoku Kamen's true identity?"
"That was too easy!" Yako revealed. "As if I wouldn't recognize you, plus, we saw Neuro investigating in the park even if there were no mysteries related to it. I kept track of the best mysteries through the news, internet and with some inside information from my friends in the police. I knew about every mystery in the entire city and picked dating spots that didn't involve them, so if Neuro showed up, I would know it was because of me and not because of a mystery. Besides, for a while, the dashing Mr. Kamen lacked a shadow in broad daylight and so did Neuro on that day. Then Jigoku suspiciously recovered his shadow after Neuro was out of sight. How bad do you think my skills of observation are? You were the one who trained me, remember?"
Neuro couldn't help it but to laugh at that last part, "you have a long way to go top slug, but I have made you evolve." He was certain that in the past, there was no way Yako would have caught the detail about the shadow, no one else around them noticed. She had become far more observant and analytical, also more courageous, maybe even too brave.
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Mystery 43: Together Again
Standing in the yard of her cousin's house in Paris, Yako finished her confession, "I have my memories back, for a while I forgot about Kaiyo and everything that happened. I only remembered being angry at you, but my memories weren't gone, just locked away. I remember now, I remember everything,"
Suddenly Neuro understood. If Yako had known about her future, she might have quietly gone back to him, but this moment of rebellion was necessary and maybe even vital for her evolution. The future Neuro had not created a paradox, he had prevented it.
"Neuro, you're here aren't you? When I turn around, you'll be right there." Yako ended the call, turned around and ducked her head just as Neuro reached out to grab it, she saw that coming from a mile away.
"It's about time you evolved, slave," at least something was accomplished from this ordeal.
"Neuro!" Yako hugged him, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to be mean but you need to learn to be nicer and I'll keep on being mean until you are. But why are you so pale and why do you look so tired?"
"Idiot slave, am I not nice enough by showing you the mercy of sparing your life and taking you back? You'll pay for all the trouble you caused." Then Neuro looked towards the entrance of the house were Yukari stood with a camera, "stop that!"
"I'm just recording the happy moment," Yako's cousin smiled cheerfully.
Angelus returned from the grocery store with enough food to satisfy their guest for at least another day. After putting the food away, he skipped out to the yard and announced, "the gate keeper called me because he knows I've been living on Earth and thought I might have heard about a certain someone."
Neuro saw red, "shut up feather duster," he sneezed.
"He told me that certain someone went all the way to Heaven thinking his beloved had died and started calling her name from the gates," Angelus continued.
"I'm warning you," Neuro sneezed again, making his growling low voice significantly less menacing.
Angelus proceeded, "then, when he realized his love was actually still alive and decided to return to Earth..."
"You wouldn't," Neuro sneezed yet again.
Angelus smiled in amusement, "he found that in his broken hearted desperation, he had gotten his head stuck in the gates and it took him a while to pull himself out."
Yako gasped, was that why Neuro looked so exhausted? "No way... Neuro! Did you really?"
Without confirming nor denying it, Neuro let out a great big sneeze, followed by a battle cry, "I'm going to kill you, dirty feather duster!" Then he rushed after Angelus, who ran inside the house. The sound of furniture being tossed aside and torn apart was heard.
"Well," Yukari laughed, truly amused, "I guess this is as good a time as any to take a walk around the city, since it's not quite safe inside the house at the moment. I must say Yako; your lover has quite the temper."
"He's not my lover, but..." Yako managed to mutter, she was still in shock from the news of all that Neuro did to find her. "I do love him..."
xoxox xox xoxox
Yako and Neuro were a couple once more and they returned to Japan to continue working as detective and assistant, now full time. Neuro had since recovered from his trip to the gates of Heaven and Yako was determined to finally get her driver's license. Neuro offered to help despite her protests, though they returned to the office sooner than expected.
"I thought you two would be out practicing driving all day," Godai greeted them with that observation.
"Slave number one is no fun," Neuro pouted like a child then went to sit at his desk.
"Don't be like that Neuro, next time I'll pretend to be scared, alright?" Yako smiled sweetly, which didn't help Neuro's mood at all.
"You were supposed to say, 'save me master, I'm terrified!' not 'wee, this is like a roller coaster!' stupid dishrag," Neuro glared.
"It's because I feel safe with you, you can be mean at times, but you won't let me really get hurt. You know, most men would take the entire 'you make me feel safe' thing as a compliment," Yako insisted.
"I'm going to sleep," Neuro put his feet up on Troy and closed his eyes.
"I'll find you a mystery, then you'll feel better," Yako left the office.
xoxox xox xoxox
Several hours later, Yako returned with her license and a lead for a new mystery to solve. "You were out getting your license, weren't you?" Neuro accused her the second she set foot back at the office.
"How did you know?" Yako wasn't even sure she could schedule a test on such short notice, she was lucky to have been able to do so.
"Because you just told me, stupid." Ah yes, he still had it, the dishrag was still easy to trick from time to time.
"You caught me there," Yako thought this was the best time possible to tell Neuro what else she had been doing. "That wasn't all I was doing, the driving instructor who gave me the test hired our detective services. He's a racing fan and wants us to find out who has been sabotaging the races in a near by track. A lot of racers have been hurt because their cars failed."
"I see, so you bribed him with a free investigation in exchange for passing the test," Neuro concluded.
"I did not!" Yako pouted, "I passed my test fair and square."
"Either way, I thought I smelled a mystery, it seems the scent stuck to you, interesting how it makes you less disgusting." It was quite close to a compliment, in Neuro's own special way. "We're starting this investigation right away!" Neuro announced.
"I'm ready, I even brought my new car so I can drive if you want, just don't damage it, please. If you don't hurt the car, I'll do something extra nice to thank you, okay?" Yako begged.
"Interesting, but I am your master, you should do everything I say anyway. Just who are you to tell me I must earn your infinite gratitude? Be honored that you have such an amazing master," Neuro twisted Yako's head as he said this.
"Ow, ow! Stop it, you can't hunt mysteries without me, the entire long distant investigations were starting to look suspicious," Yako reminded and surprisingly, Neuro let her go.
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Curious about Yako's car, the car she had promised to let him borrow. Godai followed the couple outside to see it. "This is it, I think it's cute, it looks all futuristic, doesn't it?" Yako patted the red vehicle gently. "Doesn't the color remind you of an apple, or a strawberry, or a cherry, or something like that?"
"It reminds me of blood," Neuro commented with his smirking blank face.
"This is your car?" Godai was in shock. "Are you truly going to let me borrow this one day?"
"I did promise," Yako nodded, "but why do you sound so shocked, don't you like it?"
"This is the most expensive sports car in the market," Godai yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing with excitement. "You're a beautiful car, yes you are!" Godai hugged the car.
"Slave number two, you should be ashamed, cheating on Akane with that car! Did you know dishrag, Godai and Akane slept together," Neuro pretended to whisper to Yako, but he was speaking loud enough for Godai to hear.
"That was not what it looked like!" Godai argued.
Yako gasped, "when a man says it's not what it looks like, it is what it looks like!"
"She's a braid of hair!" Godai reminded, his face as red as the car.
"Oh yeah..." Yako sighed in relief.
"I only said they slept together not that they did anything else, my gutter minded slave. Is the lust you have for your master getting to you?" Neuro inquired innocently.
Yako blushed, also matching the car, "I think I actually like your insults better than your teasing." The next part came out sounding funny because Neuro was pinching her face and pulling it left and right, "Godai, would you like to drive?"
"Would I?" Godai's embarrassment was forgotten and his eyes shone with joy. "I would love to!" Yako handed him the keys and he sat at the driver's seat with an expression of pure bliss.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro.
Mystery 38: The Dance of Deception
Neuro wasn't planning to reveal his identity, he wasn't planning anything, he had gone to the party in the rush of the moment and his plan had already ended. He knew what he would do to blend in, he knew what he would do to keep his real identity a secret, he knew what he would do to get Yako away from the crowd, and that was it, he didn't plan anything beyond that. He didn't think he needed a plan, though now that he thought about it, charming a human could be complicated. It seemed that he was far from making Yako beg for his attention like he wanted; the stupid little bug didn't realize what an honor she was granted by the opportunity of being with him.
Without a word, Neuro hugged Yako, causing a little surprised yelp to escape her. It wasn't like he was crushing her, though the temptation was strong, and humans were supposed to like gentle hugs. "Um... excuse me, should we dance, or something?" Yako suggested.
"Yes, let's dance," Neuro mentally kicked himself for not planning this further. It wasn't like him to be so unprepared and he blamed his haste on Yako. Regardless of that, he had observed human dances enough to know how to dance, though apparently Yako had not, because she stepped on his feet quite often and if not because she was a slug with a single cell brain, he would think it was on purpose, but he attributed it to clumsy stupidity instead of malice.
Yako finally became comfortable dancing with the handsome stranger who felt so familiar when he held her close. His scent and expression also tugged at an unknown memory, but his image didn't match any of the pictures of her past. Even so, when it came to a certain someone, anything was possible and with a theory in mind, Yako smiled.
As the slow song ended, Neuro got an idea, it was about time his genius brain decided to jump start. "Are you hungry? I'll take you to a nice restaurant." Surely this was the perfect way to charm Yako, Neuro wouldn't have to bother with anything else.
Yako's eyes lit up and her mouth watered, "I would," she paused, if her theory was correct than she shouldn't be eating what he gave her, "I would like to go back inside and dance."
Neuro's jaw dropped, his eyes went wide behind the mask and it took him a moment to compose himself, "are you sure?"
"Yes," Yako forced herself to nod. She wanted food, but if her mystery man was Neuro, despite the lack of sharp teeth and glowing emerald eyes, then she was better off making sure he didn't feed her something like the essence of lust, or another similar thing that would make her irresistible instinct take him back, despite her firm disposition of teaching him a lesson.
"Very well, as you wish," on the outside Neuro smiled, and on the inside he felt like kicking himself for following Yako around as if she were the master, the thought of which was unacceptable.
Yako spotted Kanae and Higuchi dancing, she had forgotten about him when she focused on her theories about her mystery man. Maybe he wasn't Neuro despite the similar expression, albeit in a slightly different face. But his scent and the shape of his body was a perfect copy of Neuro. It could be a coincidence, but either way, it was best not to upset Higuchi by being seen, thus Yako hoped Kanae would keep him busy and snuck off to the other side of the large room.
Graduates passed by, looking at the dancing couple and wondering who that man was. They had seen him before, standing to the side with another unknown man who had since disappeared. They didn't dance with anyone, despite having received several requests, especially that one, who danced for the first time with Kanae, then disappeared and returned to dance with Yako.
Some wondered where Yako's assistant was. The public opinion, lacking certain memories, was unsure if they were a couple or not. The talk surrounding Yako, after people's memories were erased, shifted from the drama of the now forgotten baby to her upcoming career, everyone expected her to become a fulltime detective after she graduated.
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Eventually, Yako gave into the temptation of food and snuck out of the party, accepting the masked man's invitation, despite being told over and over in the past not to take food from strangers. She glanced at Kanae and Higuchi who were talking, Kanae pointed to some decorations and when Higuchi looked at them, she gave Yako a thumbs up, as if to communicate she had noticed her since she came back inside. Yako smiled and returned the gesture, then left with the mystery man.
The car was not the same one Neuro had, he claimed that if a human could drive he could do it too and got a false license with some help from Godai's connections. Yako felt uneasy as she questioned her theory. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that made her believe this was Neuro, maybe she was getting herself into trouble from which Neuro wasn't there to save her, or maybe this man was actually nice and she should give him a chance, yet her thoughts remained conflicted.
They arrived at a fancy restaurant and from that point on, Yako could think of nothing but food. Neuro did consider the possibility of slipping something into her food, but decided against it. He began to see this bizarre human ritual as a challenge that would, not only make him understand the human mind better and thus further enjoy devouring their mysteries, also he would prove his greatness to his slave and she would come crawling back to him begging for attention, or at least that was the effect Neuro was hoping for.
After the meal was finally done, which took several hours, Neuro paid with a credit card, which he made sure Yako could see, confirming that it was not Godai's, which Neuro usually used. By the name on the card Yako learned that her admirer was called Jigoku Kamen.
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Feeling confused, but satisfied with the meal, Yako was taken home, Mr. Kamen knew exactly where she lived, a fact she did not question, a lot of people knew where she lived. "Thank you..." Yako stood at her door, having decided that she would not invite the mystery man to come in. It looked as if her theory about him being Neuro was incorrect, but she wasn't fully convinced yet. "Will I see you again soon?" Yako inquired.
"We can go out tomorrow; we could spend the entire day together." Yako wanted to see him again; Neuro took it as good progress. She would be at his feet in no time.
"Let's go out in the evening, mom is leaving in the afternoon, she offered to take me along but I want to stay here for now. I want to spend the morning with her and see her off at the airport."
"As you wish," Neuro could not get used to saying such things, but it was all for a good purpose, imagining Yako begging her beloved master to honor her with as much as a glance would be priceless.
"Um... well..." Yako stood on her tiptoes and reached towards his face. Neuro assumed she wanted a kiss and decided to humor her, though a part of him was also angry that she was kissing a mystery man whom she had apparently no way of knowing was truly her master. However, as soon as Neuro's face was within Yako's reach, she proved his theory wrong by removing his mask. "I just wanted to see your face," she quickly clarified. "Your eyes..."
Neuro was careful with his disguise, his eyes had been a stunning violet with the mask, a rare color for a human, without it they were blue, thanks to a pair of contact lenses.
Yako stared at the man's eyes, which were not green or glowing. He moved closer as if to kiss her, then she stepped back and with a hasty, "thanks again, see you tomorrow," she shut the door on his face, hitting him on the nose.
Neuro touched his nose, though no damage had occurred given his nature, albeit a normal human's nose would have been broken. He felt oddly satisfied that Yako had decided against kissing Mr. Kamen, and swiftly left, heading back to the detective office.
In her apartment, Yako leaned against the closed door and contemplated the mask she still held, she was in such a hurry to get away from Mr. Kamen and have some time alone to clear her head that she didn't even return it. She missed Neuro, but if he wasn't even making an effort to win her back, then maybe he didn't really care. Perhaps she should try to move on with her life, but before she decided anything, she had to learn more about the mysterious Jigoku Kamen.
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Mystery 39: Dates
Neuro arrived at the office late that night after taking Yako home. Everything was going according to his plans so far. He was going to spend the night at the office, expecting to have the place to himself, but to his surprise, Neuro found the lights were still on and music was playing.
There was slave number two, dancing with Akane, whom he held against his chest, the end of the braid resting on his shoulder. He whispered sweet incoherent nothings and drunken romantic promises as he clumsily tried to follow the music.
"Take your strange pre-mating ritual elsewhere, I would prefer to sleep without nightmares tonight," Neuro commanded, with an amused undertone.
Godai looked at Neuro and nodded slowly, his face was slightly red and his desk and the floor around it was occupied by several empty bottles that explained his current situation. "Akane, let's -hic- go to my place," Godai staggered towards the door. "The lady and I are -hic- leaving now, see you -hic- tomorrow boss." Godai left, with Akane squirming helplessly in his hands.
xoxox xox xoxox
It was the start of a new day, but Godai wasn't quite ready to wake up. He was laying on his stomach on his bed, his face buried in the pillow, then someone kicked him on the head, as if it didn't already hurt enough. "Ow!" Godai agonized.
"Get up slave number two, I need my secretary to do some research for me," Neuro commanded, standing on the wall.
Godai looked up, his eyes red and puffy, his face blank, ears ringing and entire body aching. "Akane is your secretary."
"That's what I said, but I cannot take her with me until you move," Neuro pointed out.
Godai's shirt was somewhere on the floor along with the jacket of the tuxedo he wore the previous night. He was wearing the same pants he had when he got himself drunk and started dreaming about dancing with a beautiful lady with long ebony hair. He had only one shoe, the other was nowhere to be found. The yakuza was puzzled by Neuro's words and he was unable to analyze them with his current headache, but he did feel something squirming against his bare chest and quickly moved away from it. "Akane? Did I sleep on you the whole night? Sorry about that!" He picked up the squirming braid and petted it softly, "you're not hurt, are you?"
"She's fine, but I'm not, I find that I don't enjoy witnessing such bizarre mating rituals. Before I start coughing out mysteries, I would greatly appreciate that you tone down the rating," Neuro watched in amusement as slave number two's face turned bright red and Akane shook hurriedly.
"I wasn't! We didn't! Are you insane?" Godai blabbered endlessly. "No wait, don't answer that, I already know you are."
Neuro picked up Akane and headed out of the apartment, turning back towards Godai once more before leaving. "What my slaves do in their private life is really none of my business."
"That's not it!" Godai yelled, his own loud voice causing his head to pound. He collapsed back into bed and decided there was simply no arguing with Neuro.
As he headed back to the detective office, Neuro grinned in amusement, there was more than one way to pick on a slave and his servants could be very entertaining sometimes.
xoxox xox xoxox
When the evening came, Jigoku Kamen went to see Yako and took her to dinner, greeting her with a dozen red roses, an idea that came from the research report Neuro got from Akane. Though she kept telling herself to be careful, in the end, Yako always succumbed to the temptation of food and ate plenty. It was night when dinner finally ended after several hours.
Neuro had swallowed human food to keep up appearances and he didn't particularly like it. It was nothing compared to the taste of a mystery, even the smallest simplest mystery was better then that, but he managed to swallow the warm tasteless substance. Of course, the amount was just enough to keep up his act and certainly no where close to the quantities needed to satisfy Yako's abundant appetite.
The couple then talked for a while, or rather Yako talked and Mr. Kamen listened. He asked her about her life and kept her talking, although she occasionally remembered her wish to learn more about him and asked a few questions, which he answered casually, having memorized his false background quite well. To make his character a detective or even a police officer would be too suspicious, though jumping into an entirely different field might be suspicious in it's own way as well.
Computers were out of the question because that was Higushi's field and Neuro didn't want to remind Yako of him in any way. Medicine was simply too far from the truth and it would be too ironic for him to pretend to be a human healer. Thus Neuro settled for making Mr. Kamen a lawyer.
He didn't care too much for the aftermath of the mysteries he solved, though he often heard about the results or read about them on the newspaper. However, human law had never interested him too much, albeit he could generally identify what was considered a crime.
This field was close enough to the work of a detective so it didn't sound avoidant, but distant enough to be something that Neuro wouldn't care about, since he never cared to solve mysteries in court, when they had already gone past the point of being ripe and lost their taste. Besides, that involved too many human procedures and he didn't like it.
On the bright side, Jigoku could use his background to bring up the topic of detectives if he thought it was time to remind Yako of her master and he was well informed about the origin of many cases, thus was familiar with concepts of evidence so the studying needed to provide a background for his character was minimal.
Overall the date went well and the pair chouse to meet again the next day. First they would go out to lunch, as expected from Yako to want to include food; then they would go to the park.
xoxox xox xoxox
The following day after a big lunch, Yako and Jigoku Kamen were walking through the park. Yako had been saying suspicious things during their date, finding ways to bring the topic of mysteries into the conversation, though Jigoku assured her that by the time he heard about the cases, all the mysteries had been solved and all that was left to do was to present them in the best way possible, to encourage the interpretation that the client desired. He remarked with perfectly faked disinterest that he was not good at puzzles and relied on his knowledge of the human mind to win cases.
It was a dangerous topic if Yako tried to further discuss it, using her own understanding of the human mind to expose his lack of it. But the conversation was suddenly cut when something distracted Yako. There, at the park, was Neuro. He appeared to be examining a tree as if searching for clues. It was Yako who had chosen to come to the park and she would have never expected to find Neuro there, especially because she suspected, perhaps hoped, that Jigoku Kamen was Neuro in disguise.
"Is something wrong?" Neuro, disguised as Jigoku, was satisfied with the effect that his copy caused on Yako, albeit he made sure not to show it. "Is the heat getting to you? It is very sunny today. Isn't that an ice-cream stand ahead; would you like some ice-cream?"
Yako's face lit up and she forgot about her worries and theories for the time being, "yes, please!"
Giving Yako the cold ice-cream he bought her, Neuro was reminded of a tradition of his land. Though food produced no taste for him, swallowing something warm was a little unpleasant, while swallowing something cold felt good, albeit still tasteless. His natural body heat seemed to create an effect similar to a human licking an ice cube on a hot day, tasteless, but pleasant.
Of course, this didn't count, they had skipped a step in the ritual and offering Yako something cold wasn't meant to be with that particular meaning in this occasion anyway. Nonetheless, Neuro noted how easy it was to obtain cold things in the surface, a big difference from his world.
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Mystery 40: Unexpected Tragedy
Jigoku Kamen had been dating Yako everyday and she was sending mixed signals. She seemed to like him and was certainly happy to be fed, but then she turned distant when he tried to kiss her, which was both frustrating and reassuring to Neuro. It was silly to be jealous of his own false identity, not that he would ever admit it.
Jigoku had another date with Yako set for that evening; she was going out with Kanae and some other friends in the afternoon. However, the unexpected happened when even with the promise of a delicious dinner, Yako was no where to be found. Neuro, disguised as Mr. Kamen, had gone to Yako's apartment to find her, but she wouldn't answer the door so he let himself in and searched the entire place, it was empty. Puzzled, Neuro had explored the entire city searching for Yako, but he didn't find her.
In the morning of the next day, Neuro went to his detective office, which he kept running under the pretense that sensei was on vacation but being so skilled, she could solve cases from afar with the information he collected for her and email or text her verdict.
Akane reported having computer troubles, the screen of her computer had randomly turned to static on and off since the previous afternoon, a blurred picture would appear along with a distant voice, which was impossible to understand. She described it as looking similar to the computer being possessed.
Neuro was only half paying attention as he read Akane's written message. Maybe someone was trying to use the network to spread chaos again. It wouldn't be the first time it happened, but if that was the case, the mystery wasn't ripe yet.
Godai showed up to work, picking up the newspaper that was left by the door, Neuro had signed up to have it delivered to the office every day. Though it was usually Yako's job when she was there, now Godai had to bring the newspaper, because Neuro simply refused to pick it up himself.
Neuro looked at the newspaper Godai had just placed on his desk with disinterest, he was hungry, but the mystery that interested him the most was Yako's whereabouts. Finally, Neuro picked up the newspaper and looked through it, his eyes suddenly pausing on an alarming article. "Slave number two, where did you find this newspaper?"
"By the office door like always," Godai didn't understand the importance of the question or why Neuro was tearing the newspaper apart.
"Buy another one," Neuro ordered.
"Why did you do that? You ripped it to pieces and now you want another one?" Godai knew Neuro was kind of crazy, but today he made even less sense than usual. The strangest thing was that look in his eyes, as if he was worried or in denial about something.
"Go, now," Neuro sounded serious and menacing, Godai didn't dare to question him further and left the office in a rush.
xoxox xox xoxox
Just as Godai had exited the building he saw a little boy selling newspapers. How convenient, he wouldn't have to go too far to get a new one. "Hey kid, I'll take one of those newspapers."
"Thank you sir," the boy handed him the newspaper, taking the money in return. That child looked familiar, but Godai didn't know why, maybe it was that same boy that sold newspapers further down the street, who knows why he changed his business spot that day.
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With the newly acquired newspaper in hand, Godai returned to the office and delivered it to Neuro, who quickly turned to a specific page, focused on it, reading over the same lines several times, then ripped the second newspaper into even smaller pieces of confetti, which he threw on the floor for Godai to clean. Ignoring the yakuza's complaints, Neuro addressed Akane, "go online and see if there is recent news about Yako."
Akane did as she was told, coming up with several articles on the screen, which confirmed what Neuro read in the newspaper. She even came across pictures of Yako's terrible fate.
Godai curiously looked at the screen, with no clue about what in the world was going on. Then he saw it. "Yako is..." his eyes widened.
"She's dead," Neuro finished. "She was hit by a car when she was crossing the street with her friends and the body was shipped overseas to her mother... Track down Kanae; if I can't find Yako I'll hear the story directly from her friend."
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Though the evidence was abundant, Neuro was not convinced, it made no sense for Yako to be dead. Kanae was found easily, she was in the local hospital and Neuro went to investigate. "Kanae?"
Yako's friend was wrapped in bandages like a mummy, but her heartbeats and breathing were steady. "Who?" She slowly turned her head towards the visitor standing next to her bed. "Neuro? Why are you here?"
"I wanted to ask you about Yako," Neuro went straight to the point.
"Yako is... she's..." Kanae started crying uncontrollably and a nurse insisted that Neuro left, scolding him for reminding a fragile patient of the recent tragic death of her dear friend.
xoxox xox xoxox
On his way back to the detective office, Neuro was still trying to make sense of the situation. Yako couldn't be dead, that would mean that history itself would be riddled with paradoxes, though that would explain the pink elephants that were rampaging around the city, albeit no one seemed to notice them.
Paradoxes caused randomness as they tore the world apart, but humans were not perceptive enough to notice until their souls were thrown into the final stage of chaos, when the world was far too broken and it was too late to fix the paradox. The street, which used to be straight and solid, turned into a strange wavy scene and Neuro knew he had to hurry.
Humans were too brainless to notice anything going on, their eyes seeing nothing but what was left of their present, unable to perceive another beyond their native plane of existence. Neuro had a very bad feeling about this, he was strong enough to fight against fate and if history was changing, he would not be so easily carried to a new chaotic destiny, or subconsciously accept it as what always has been.
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"Neuro, come see this!" Godai called out as soon as Neuro went through the door.
There was a video displayed on Akane's computer where an alarmed Neuro warned his past self of the inexplicable disappearance of Yako and Kaiyo from the future, theorizing that something was dangerously altered in the past, causing a powerful paradox.
The Neuro of the present realized that Yako hasn't been kidnapped and hidden under the guise of a faked death as he initially thought; she really was dead and the time continuum itself was falling apart.
The weak humans were being consumed by the paradox in their plane of existence, their energies fading, becoming harder for Neuro to sense, all because Yako was gone. With Yako dead in the present, Kaiyo wouldn't exist in the future and without Kaiyo, the series of events that led Neuro to eventually become Jigoku Kamen while Yako was out running around with her friends instead of hunting mysteries with her master, wouldn't have happened, so her death would be a paradox in itself. But if her death was canceled, then the events which led to it would be possible after all.
The only thing left to do was to find Yako and bring her back to Earth. Gluttony aside, she was more good than bad, so she must have gone to the home of the angels. They cared for humans; that's what everyone said. If so, then surely the big boss would restore Yako's life if it was to stop the time continuum from collapsing, but what if he didn't? What if this was an apocalypse in the making? Neuro wanted to find Yako, he needed to see her, so he flew; he flew up into the skies, higher and higher...
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Mystery 41: The Gates of Heaven
Neuro desperately flew up, but he wasn't heading towards Earth's atmosphere, he was gathering his energy and summoning his deepest power to find a way to the dimension of Heaven. There was more to it then flying straight up, if he kept going he would reach outer space instead.
He searched among the clouds for the door between the dimensions, a door invisible to humans who still inhabited their mortal vessels. Finally he saw it, it was faint at first, but as he got closer the golden glow around it was almost blinding.
Neuro reached for the golden door knob but his hand went through it like a ghost. "Let me in!" He focused on his purpose; he had to find Yako, no wait, that wasn't right. His true purpose was to defend his feeding grounds, he only wanted to keep the Earth's time continuum from falling into chaos because mysteries required logic to grow and be consumed. He would starve if logic ceased to exist and he liked the mysteries created by humans; that was all they were good for, feeding him.
The door started to fade, the golden glow becoming dim, "don't disappear!" Neuro had never attempted to cross into the dimension of the angels. He had heard about it, hence why finding the entrance wasn't too difficult, but he had no idea what was beyond that door, or even how to open it.
A part of Neuro wanted to sit back and wait for the angels to fix things, but in the back of his mind he worried that they would either allow the apocalypse to come, or reformat the Earth with a great flood or something like that. Then he pushed the thoughts away, the feather dusters wouldn't like sacrificing the good humans, so if they outnumbered the bad ones, the Earth should be okay.
Then again, their solution might save the Earth and its logic, but it might not necessarily involve bringing Yako back to life. They may fix the paradox by rewriting history so that Yako and Neuro never met and that would get rid of the paradox of Yako's life and death. Even if Neuro somehow held on to his memories, seeking Yako would be difficult if the angels, to whom he was allergic, decided to get in his way.
The golden door glowed again and it puzzled Neuro. He had gotten lost in his thoughts, which kept going back to Yako. Was she the key? He thought of her, focused on his number one slave, her supernatural appetite and her endearing clumsiness, though he couldn't remember when he decided it was endearing.
The door glowed brighter. Why was it reacting to such thoughts? Was it because Yako was in the center of the paradox? Neuro continued focusing on her. Her determination to help him, even if she was only a weak human, her evolution little by little, her smile, her laugh, her complaints, the growling of her stomach, the look in her eyes, the fitting design of her hair clips, her voice calling his name... the door opened.
Neuro rushed in before the door closed, but he was disappointed to see that the other side of the door was the same as the previous one. He was surrounded by endless white clouds in a blue sky and there was a door in front of him. Then he noticed that this wasn't the same door, it was different, adorned with jewels. He repeated the process, focusing on Yako, concentrating on his desire to see her and the door opened.
This was becoming frustrating, Neuro found yet another door beyond the last, followed by more doors, one after another. The jewels adorning them were different so he knew the doors were not the same one in an endless loop. He didn't worry about getting lost, while his world was a maze of twists and turns, he had heard the way to the land of angels was a straight path, getting it to open up was the hard part. He had to keep moving forward from one door to another.
He continued opening the jeweled doors to find more jeweled doors, then finally, after twelve doors, Neuro came upon tall golden gates. By then he was feeling exhausted, as if his power was drained every time he went through a door. "Finally..."
Neuro approached the gates, which were of course closed. "Yako!" There was no answer and he was sneezing a lot. Heaven was a big place and she would most likely not be able to hear him yelling from the front gates, but he would try anyway. "Yako!" He gripped the golden bars, trying to open the gates, but it didn't work. He tried to push through, to somehow slip in between the golden bars, but he didn't fit. "Yako!" He coughed and sneezed, shivering in an unbearable cold, though he was certain it wasn't the temperature that was harsh, but rather his kind felt it that way.
"Yako..." Neuro paused and took a deep breath; he could hardly hear his own voice. "Yako!" Everything was blurry, maybe coming here was a mistake, this atmosphere could kill him; he was surprised he wasn't dead already. His breaths were heavy and uneven, he didn't need oxygen but he needed energy and the kind available in Heaven was one he couldn't breathe very well, and shouldn't be able to breathe at all.
"What are you doing there, son?" An old angel arrived, looking at Neuro curiously; he had a long white beard which reached all the way to the cloud floors. "Aren't you a...?"
"Yes..." Neuro mentally kicked himself for being unable to speak up, but his senses were failing him, his vision was a blur of white and his entire body hurt.
"You're going to get killed by this atmosphere if you stay here, go home. You're a curious one aren't you? I'm guessing curiosity brought you here, because it couldn't be a plan for invasion, you're all alone and besides, the alarms didn't go off, none of the doors were forced," the angel looked puzzled.
Neuro only half-heard the feather duster's ramblings, "Yako Katsuragi, tell her I'm here," Neuro gasped between labored breaths, loud sneezes and choking coughs.
"Yako Katsuragi? Just who are you, son?" The angel inquired.
"Neuro Nogami... Tell Yako I'm here; tell her to come to the gates. She just arrived, she was born in Japan, eighteen years ago," Neuro insisted.
"So you're looking for her, but if she's new she must be taking the orientation tour, this is a big place so the tour is very long. Let me check the list..." the angel pulled out a little futuristic silver miniature computer from the pocket of his flowing pearly white robes. "Yako Katsuragi... Japan... eighteen... hmm... Ah yes, she's listed on the database. However, she's not here, she's down there."
"Down there?" Neuro couldn't believe it; he went through all that trouble just to find Yako, when he could have easily searched for her in his world. "In my world..."
"No, no!" The angel shook his head vigorously. "Not that far down, son. She's a good girl that one, credited for solving many crimes, providing understanding and comfort, always trying to hold her own and help others too. She has some issues with gluttony but she's more good than bad. In fact, according to the database she's even credited with teaching love to a... Wait a minute, now it's all clear to me, that's why you were able to get past the doors. It was love, you're the one. Boy? Hey boy, don't go unconscious on me, son. Did you hear what I said? Wake up, son!"
Neuro's faded senses came back; he was only unconscious for a short while, albeit he couldn't really tell how long it had been. It couldn't be that long though, the old angel was still standing there.
"You don't look so good, son," it annoyed Neuro to be called son by the old feather duster, but he wasn't in conditions to argue, besides, he had come across plenty of creatures that called boys or men younger than themselves 'son', he should have known that annoying habit existed everywhere.
"Tell your boss that the time continuum paradox can be fixed if Yako comes back to life," Neuro managed to choke out the words. This was terribly embarrassing, being reduced to such a weak state.
The angel sighed, "Such is love; it's not easy to understand so it must feel like a chaotic paradox. I take it you didn't hear me. Well let me tell you, your beloved Yako is down there as in the human world, on the surface of the Earth, she's alive. I can even locate her for you, son. Let's see... Ah, yes, she's in Paris, France."
The part about love was filtered out by Neuro's brain. All that he heard was that Yako was alive and in Paris, France. Who ever took her away would seriously regret it.
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Mystery 42: Evolution
Neuro wanted nothing more than to rush down to Earth, find Yako and torture her kidnappers, but he couldn't because he had stupidly gotten his head stuck in the golden gates of Heaven.
"Are you okay there, son?" The elderly angel inquired. Observing Neuro's struggle, he shook his head, "don't tell me you're stuck there, boy. This atmosphere isn't very good for your health, but let me tell you, I've been guarding these gates for a long time and I've seen my fair share of angels and human souls alike get their heads stuck there."
Neuro was not happy to find that he had sunk to the level of humans and even feather dusters, getting himself stuck in such a disgraceful way. He desperately tried to pull his head out from between the bars, in human form of course, changing would make it impossible with his bigger head and he had only changed his wings to fly there.
"Listen here, son; the trick to it is to push your ears back. Just turn your head to the side and get your ear in there, now the same with the other one. Hold them back and move your head up and down, look up, look down, there you go. You're free now."
Neuro rushed out as fast as he could, he was tired and in pain, but most of all he, was frustrated and angry.
xoxox xox xoxox
Despite his exhaustion, Neuro took no time to rest before traveling to France. He flew over Paris, searching for any signs of Yako, but found none. He continued the search for a couple of hours until he landed on a branch of a plentiful tree, hiding behind its abundant leaves. He would have to make contact with the humans to gather clues. He wondered if Godai's connections extended this far, though he doubted it. Even so, someone might have seen Yako being kidnapped from Japan and any clue would be helpful, there was no time to waste.
Resting his back against the tree trunk and stretching his legs on the long large branch, Neuro looked at the sky past the lavish leaves of the tree. "Maybe I should have asked about the specifics of Yako's location while I was up there..." Yet he was so angry, frustrated and mortified, he had to leave immediately and he didn't think he could survive a return trip so soon. He would find Yako himself somehow, but what if he failed?
The earlier signs were not the arrival of a paradox but they could be the symptoms of its almost certain coming and the message from his future self was most disturbing. He considered risking his life to go back to Heaven and inquire about Yako's specific location; that should allow him to save her on time and prevent the paradox, or maybe the angels would prevent it.
"No, no, no!" Neuro shook his head in frustration. "I can't rely on the feather dusters, what am I going to do next? Pray for help? Ridiculous!" He looked to the skies and spoke with sarcasm, "hey big boss, mind giving this lowly creature some help, give me a sign!" He would find Yako on his own power.
Neuro grumbled and once again tried to clear his head, but his train of thought derailed when he heard a happy cheer, "this is delicious!"
Slowly, Neuro turned his head towards the voice and realized that the random tree he had landed on was in someone's yard and in that very large yard, way on the other side, was the one and only piggish detective, Yako Katsuragi, living up to her name with cake, safe and sound.
Neuro felt himself twitch then pouted looking up at the endless clear skies, "I was being sarcastic," he grumbled. If Yako wasn't in mortal danger before, she would be now. But first, Neuro wanted to get the full story out of her.
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Neuro snuck into the house and sneezed, then identified the source of his allergies as Angelus, who was dressed as a normal human. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
"Hello Neuro, what a nice surprise that you should come to visit. Actually, I was just on my way to the grocery store. Do you need anything?" Angelus smiled angelically.
Neuro rudely sneezed on him, "yes, I need you to leave so I can stop sneezing."
"My apologies for that, I shall go now, see you later."
After Angelus left, Neuro called Yako's cellphone, a thought that didn't occur to him before, since she couldn't answer if she was dead or being held captive.
Yako recognized the number as being Neuro's, he obviously had a different number as Jigoku Kamen. "Neuro?"
"Hello Yako," Neuro tried to keep his voice even, despite his fury.
"I guess I couldn't trick you after all," Yako laughed nervously.
"That was quite an elaborate trap," Neuro played along, "tell me my little slave, what inspired each part of it?"
"There's no hiding it anymore," Yako sighed. "I had Higushi make fake websites and email them to Akane; she helped arrange everything on her computer. I made the fake newspapers myself and took the false page to a print shop; they printed it on that big paper that makes your fingers black like I told them to, no questions asked. I bribed the paperboy to sell a fake newspaper to Godai if you weren't convinced by the one delivered to the office and sent him to buy a new one. Godai wasn't in on it, I thought he might get nervous and forget his lines, but I asked Akane to tell him the truth after you were gone so he wouldn't be sad. I called him a little while ago and told him he could use the car I got as a graduation present as much as he wanted and he forgave me. It's not like I have a license anyway, because someone always kept me busy so I didn't have time to get it. But I intend to get my driver's license sometime in the near future."
"I see, I was going to kill slave number two if he helped, I suppose I can't kill Akane since she's already dead. Maybe Higushi... Go on," Neuro continued listening.
"Kanae was in on it too," Yako confessed, "her aunt is a nurse and helped us set things up, we told her we were acting for an audition video. Oh and you can't kill her because you'll blow your cover, the same goes for Higushi. The video of your future self was a fake, don't get offended but Angelus did the acting disguised as you."
"I am offended!" Neuro growled; his day couldn't get any worse, and yet, the slug had evolved so much, coming up with an elaborate plan like that. "What about the signs of a paradox and the pink elephants? Nothing says illogical chaos like pink elephants!"
"You were just drunk, my cousin Yukari helped me do some research and I slipped something into Jigoku Kamen's drink when he was distracted. The effect took a while to work, and it didn't last long, I calculated the timing myself, how was it?" Yako had to know how well her tricks worked, her curiosity was strong and her fear nonexistent.
"Not bad..." Neuro admitted, "and how did the top slug figure out Jigoku Kamen's true identity?"
"That was too easy!" Yako revealed. "As if I wouldn't recognize you, plus, we saw Neuro investigating in the park even if there were no mysteries related to it. I kept track of the best mysteries through the news, internet and with some inside information from my friends in the police. I knew about every mystery in the entire city and picked dating spots that didn't involve them, so if Neuro showed up, I would know it was because of me and not because of a mystery. Besides, for a while, the dashing Mr. Kamen lacked a shadow in broad daylight and so did Neuro on that day. Then Jigoku suspiciously recovered his shadow after Neuro was out of sight. How bad do you think my skills of observation are? You were the one who trained me, remember?"
Neuro couldn't help it but to laugh at that last part, "you have a long way to go top slug, but I have made you evolve." He was certain that in the past, there was no way Yako would have caught the detail about the shadow, no one else around them noticed. She had become far more observant and analytical, also more courageous, maybe even too brave.
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Mystery 43: Together Again
Standing in the yard of her cousin's house in Paris, Yako finished her confession, "I have my memories back, for a while I forgot about Kaiyo and everything that happened. I only remembered being angry at you, but my memories weren't gone, just locked away. I remember now, I remember everything,"
Suddenly Neuro understood. If Yako had known about her future, she might have quietly gone back to him, but this moment of rebellion was necessary and maybe even vital for her evolution. The future Neuro had not created a paradox, he had prevented it.
"Neuro, you're here aren't you? When I turn around, you'll be right there." Yako ended the call, turned around and ducked her head just as Neuro reached out to grab it, she saw that coming from a mile away.
"It's about time you evolved, slave," at least something was accomplished from this ordeal.
"Neuro!" Yako hugged him, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to be mean but you need to learn to be nicer and I'll keep on being mean until you are. But why are you so pale and why do you look so tired?"
"Idiot slave, am I not nice enough by showing you the mercy of sparing your life and taking you back? You'll pay for all the trouble you caused." Then Neuro looked towards the entrance of the house were Yukari stood with a camera, "stop that!"
"I'm just recording the happy moment," Yako's cousin smiled cheerfully.
Angelus returned from the grocery store with enough food to satisfy their guest for at least another day. After putting the food away, he skipped out to the yard and announced, "the gate keeper called me because he knows I've been living on Earth and thought I might have heard about a certain someone."
Neuro saw red, "shut up feather duster," he sneezed.
"He told me that certain someone went all the way to Heaven thinking his beloved had died and started calling her name from the gates," Angelus continued.
"I'm warning you," Neuro sneezed again, making his growling low voice significantly less menacing.
Angelus proceeded, "then, when he realized his love was actually still alive and decided to return to Earth..."
"You wouldn't," Neuro sneezed yet again.
Angelus smiled in amusement, "he found that in his broken hearted desperation, he had gotten his head stuck in the gates and it took him a while to pull himself out."
Yako gasped, was that why Neuro looked so exhausted? "No way... Neuro! Did you really?"
Without confirming nor denying it, Neuro let out a great big sneeze, followed by a battle cry, "I'm going to kill you, dirty feather duster!" Then he rushed after Angelus, who ran inside the house. The sound of furniture being tossed aside and torn apart was heard.
"Well," Yukari laughed, truly amused, "I guess this is as good a time as any to take a walk around the city, since it's not quite safe inside the house at the moment. I must say Yako; your lover has quite the temper."
"He's not my lover, but..." Yako managed to mutter, she was still in shock from the news of all that Neuro did to find her. "I do love him..."
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Yako and Neuro were a couple once more and they returned to Japan to continue working as detective and assistant, now full time. Neuro had since recovered from his trip to the gates of Heaven and Yako was determined to finally get her driver's license. Neuro offered to help despite her protests, though they returned to the office sooner than expected.
"I thought you two would be out practicing driving all day," Godai greeted them with that observation.
"Slave number one is no fun," Neuro pouted like a child then went to sit at his desk.
"Don't be like that Neuro, next time I'll pretend to be scared, alright?" Yako smiled sweetly, which didn't help Neuro's mood at all.
"You were supposed to say, 'save me master, I'm terrified!' not 'wee, this is like a roller coaster!' stupid dishrag," Neuro glared.
"It's because I feel safe with you, you can be mean at times, but you won't let me really get hurt. You know, most men would take the entire 'you make me feel safe' thing as a compliment," Yako insisted.
"I'm going to sleep," Neuro put his feet up on Troy and closed his eyes.
"I'll find you a mystery, then you'll feel better," Yako left the office.
xoxox xox xoxox
Several hours later, Yako returned with her license and a lead for a new mystery to solve. "You were out getting your license, weren't you?" Neuro accused her the second she set foot back at the office.
"How did you know?" Yako wasn't even sure she could schedule a test on such short notice, she was lucky to have been able to do so.
"Because you just told me, stupid." Ah yes, he still had it, the dishrag was still easy to trick from time to time.
"You caught me there," Yako thought this was the best time possible to tell Neuro what else she had been doing. "That wasn't all I was doing, the driving instructor who gave me the test hired our detective services. He's a racing fan and wants us to find out who has been sabotaging the races in a near by track. A lot of racers have been hurt because their cars failed."
"I see, so you bribed him with a free investigation in exchange for passing the test," Neuro concluded.
"I did not!" Yako pouted, "I passed my test fair and square."
"Either way, I thought I smelled a mystery, it seems the scent stuck to you, interesting how it makes you less disgusting." It was quite close to a compliment, in Neuro's own special way. "We're starting this investigation right away!" Neuro announced.
"I'm ready, I even brought my new car so I can drive if you want, just don't damage it, please. If you don't hurt the car, I'll do something extra nice to thank you, okay?" Yako begged.
"Interesting, but I am your master, you should do everything I say anyway. Just who are you to tell me I must earn your infinite gratitude? Be honored that you have such an amazing master," Neuro twisted Yako's head as he said this.
"Ow, ow! Stop it, you can't hunt mysteries without me, the entire long distant investigations were starting to look suspicious," Yako reminded and surprisingly, Neuro let her go.
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Curious about Yako's car, the car she had promised to let him borrow. Godai followed the couple outside to see it. "This is it, I think it's cute, it looks all futuristic, doesn't it?" Yako patted the red vehicle gently. "Doesn't the color remind you of an apple, or a strawberry, or a cherry, or something like that?"
"It reminds me of blood," Neuro commented with his smirking blank face.
"This is your car?" Godai was in shock. "Are you truly going to let me borrow this one day?"
"I did promise," Yako nodded, "but why do you sound so shocked, don't you like it?"
"This is the most expensive sports car in the market," Godai yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing with excitement. "You're a beautiful car, yes you are!" Godai hugged the car.
"Slave number two, you should be ashamed, cheating on Akane with that car! Did you know dishrag, Godai and Akane slept together," Neuro pretended to whisper to Yako, but he was speaking loud enough for Godai to hear.
"That was not what it looked like!" Godai argued.
Yako gasped, "when a man says it's not what it looks like, it is what it looks like!"
"She's a braid of hair!" Godai reminded, his face as red as the car.
"Oh yeah..." Yako sighed in relief.
"I only said they slept together not that they did anything else, my gutter minded slave. Is the lust you have for your master getting to you?" Neuro inquired innocently.
Yako blushed, also matching the car, "I think I actually like your insults better than your teasing." The next part came out sounding funny because Neuro was pinching her face and pulling it left and right, "Godai, would you like to drive?"
"Would I?" Godai's embarrassment was forgotten and his eyes shone with joy. "I would love to!" Yako handed him the keys and he sat at the driver's seat with an expression of pure bliss.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro.