Descent, Chapter 1
Notes/Warnings: This is a Matantei Loki Ragnarok fanfic, and consists of the first quarter of the first chapter in draft form. It's PG, PG-13 due to nudity and some minor violence. The pairing bias is Mayura/Loki. Canons are mixed lightly, and the story itself is AU.
Descent
Chapter 1: Velut Inter Ignis Luna Minores... (Just as the Moon amongst the Stars...)
Daidouji Mayura made her way home from school slowly. There hadn't been any mysteries nearby in much too long, and the news had been slow lately. Life was just too normal.
As she passed under the torii marking the entrance to the shrine she lived at, she resolved to go out and find a mystery when the weekend arrived if she had to. It was not like the gods would leave one at her gate, after all.
As she thought that, she heard a faint, masculine-sounding moan from the nearby bushes. Fushigi mystery! she thought to herself, before pushing through the shrubbery without much in the way of caution.
Luckily for her, all that lay hidden in the bushes was a naked, and very handsome, foreigner. The young man awkwardly lifted a hand up and ran it through his pale hair. When he pulled his hand away, there was blood on the tips of his fingers.
Mayura knew she was blushing -- but it was a mystery, and he needed help. "Um...sir...?"
"Huh...?" He turned his head to look at her. She noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and one of the pupils looked much larger than the other did. Also, now that his head was turned, she could see the source of the blood on his fingertips: a cut just above his ear, that was now bleeding freely.
Mayura remembered having been told that people with head wounds shouldn't be left alone, but she didn't have any spare clothes with her, not even a blanket.
She hoped that the path to the shrine was empty. It would be embarrassing to be caught taking him home...
Her father's reaction was surprisingly calm, though this was possibly due to the fact that the young man was starting to look a bit pale from his still-bleeding cut. It wasn't very long before the young man was wearing borrowed clothes -- in Mayura's opinion, he looked amazingly good in one of her father's kimono -- and an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.
She'd rode along with him, because he seemed reluctant. During the ride he'd been panicking, and almost passed out, but at least he'd shown more energy during the trip than he had the entire time up until then. In fact, the doctors had assured her that was a good sign, as they tried to convince the young man to let go of her wrist...
By the time they were finally able to start treating him, both a policeman and her father had arrived. One of the doctors had asked her father into his office, and the policeman took her to a quiet room and asked her to please tell him what she knew...without any embellishment. Please?
Eventually, though, the policeman had Mayura's story to his satisfaction (or perhaps simply gave up trying to get her to leave out the embellishment). She returned to the waiting room to find her father waiting for her, with the young man. Once again, he was wearing the clothes borrowed from her father, but now with a bandage wrapped around his head.
The young man followed closely behind her father as they walked up to Mayura. "Mayura, would you mind if we had a guest? The man you found has amnesia, and the doctors and Niiyama-san thought it would be all right if he stayed with us, at least until some relatives or friends of his could be found..."
"Ahh... Does he remember his name...?" It was a somewhat awkward question, but it simply wouldn't work to call the man 'you' all the time. Even if it wouldn't be rather rude, it could quite easily be confusing.
The young man smiled, in a way that made Mayura think that he was not quite comfortable with the situation but was trying to make the best he could of it. "My name is Loki," he said, pronouncing the 'l' in a distinctly Western manner. "I'm afraid I do not remember my surname..."
"It's nice to meet you, Loki-kun. I'm Daidouji Mayura." She smiled, which seemed to cause Loki to relax...a bit.
"They said he's well enough to manage the walk back to the shrine..."
Elsewhere, a mugger was finally feeling safe enough to go through the spoils from his latest victim. It wasn't much: the young foreigner had an absurdly low amount of yen on him, for somebody wearing such rich clothes and wandering around town looking lost. Still, every little bit counts, and since it didn't look like he was going to live there was no reason not to take his clothes.
Bad luck, being an equal-opportunity sort of thing, felt it was time to strike the mugger in the form of the young man working part-time in a cafe. Narugami had managed to keep this particular job for longer than any of his previous ones, and his boss hadn't even objected to him keeping Mjollnir with him. It probably had helped that he'd gotten rid of that robber...
Normally, when he took the trash out, the narrow alley was quite empty. This meant that the man sitting on a stoop and examining clothes was quite noticeable, but what really drew his attention was the clothing. They were clearly worn, and they looked very, very familiar.
Loki was perhaps the only man in Japan who wore that style of clothing, and it was unlikely that he'd ever sell his clothes. (Besides, all the clothing stores in the area only sold new clothes.) That meant that they'd been taken from him...
Narugami asked the man where he'd gotten the clothes.
The mugger, his thoughts currently more on how much drugs he could buy one he'd sold the clothes, and in his mind already selling the clothes to his fence, told the truth as he knew it.
The next morning's papers had an article about the mysterious case of a mugger who had been killed by lightning on a perfectly clear day. Mayura clipped it out from the newspaper when she noticed it, right beside the article on her finding Loki.
Loki shifted on the cushion uncomfortably. Though he had no memories to confirm it, he didn't think he'd spent much time sitting in this particular position before. Still, he was a guest, and something deep within himself said that he did not want to do anything that might cause him to be thrown out.
The man whose home this was sat across from him, wearing an outfit very much like the one he'd lent his guest. His daughter -- something that had been confirmed for Loki over dinner -- had gone to bed earlier, leaving her father to make sure their guest stayed awake. He'd served them both tea, a very nice green one, and had put out a tray of cookies.
"Loki-san, have you given any thought to what you will do if your memories never return, and your family and friends are not found?" his host asked. "I can't afford have you here as a guest for very long, because I don't earn that much as a priest."
He took a long sip from his tea, considering his host's question. "I don't know what I will do, to be honest. I don't know if I have a home, money, or even any way to support myself... And, while I do feel for some reason that I should stay here, I don't want to be a freeloader..."
"If you're willing, we could see how well you do as my apprentice. It shouldn't interfere with going to school, and it would help with the bills..."
"School...?" Loki didn't know why, but the thought of having to go to school surprised him, and he knew that his surprise had nothing to do with the fact he currently couldn't remember anything 'personal' aside from half of his name.
"The doctors said that you should try to keep a 'normal' routine, and the police think that you probably won't be attacked again."
"Probably?" Something within Loki told him that such qualifiers were to be as thoroughly investigated as possible.
Mayura took over from her father early in the morning, and the change in conversational topics was amazing. Her father had, on the whole, discussed the practical considerations of Loki's future. Mayura, on the other hand, was quite firmly fascinated by mysteries, of all kinds. This meant, of course, that she was fascinated by him, since he was mysterious, and -- while Loki did not quite notice it -- was a bit nervous.
It didn't seem to Loki that Mayura minded the fact that he really did not remember what had happened to him. It seemed to satisfy her that he was there, and that he was listening to her. He could understand why she might be like that, since she was a bit too single-minded about the subject for most people...but if he just listened to the sound of her voice, not paying attention to what she was saying, it really wasn't very bad. She had a very nice voice, and it rose and fell in the right places.
It didn't hurt that he liked hearing her call him 'Loki-kun.'
Soon, the world outside started to lighten, and Mayura's near-monologue started to fragment as she started working in the kitchen. Loki did his best to answer her questions, about what sort of food he'd like for breakfast, but he found some of the questions confusing. Even when he did remember what the various foods she was asking him about were, he didn't remember if he had any preference for any of them.
The meal itself was even more confusing. He had to stumble through it, watching his hosts' for cues on proper table manners. It ended with Mayura grabbing a bag and rushing out the door, and Loki without any greater idea of what was going on than before.
Descent
Chapter 1: Velut Inter Ignis Luna Minores... (Just as the Moon amongst the Stars...)
Daidouji Mayura made her way home from school slowly. There hadn't been any mysteries nearby in much too long, and the news had been slow lately. Life was just too normal.
As she passed under the torii marking the entrance to the shrine she lived at, she resolved to go out and find a mystery when the weekend arrived if she had to. It was not like the gods would leave one at her gate, after all.
As she thought that, she heard a faint, masculine-sounding moan from the nearby bushes. Fushigi mystery! she thought to herself, before pushing through the shrubbery without much in the way of caution.
Luckily for her, all that lay hidden in the bushes was a naked, and very handsome, foreigner. The young man awkwardly lifted a hand up and ran it through his pale hair. When he pulled his hand away, there was blood on the tips of his fingers.
Mayura knew she was blushing -- but it was a mystery, and he needed help. "Um...sir...?"
"Huh...?" He turned his head to look at her. She noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and one of the pupils looked much larger than the other did. Also, now that his head was turned, she could see the source of the blood on his fingertips: a cut just above his ear, that was now bleeding freely.
Mayura remembered having been told that people with head wounds shouldn't be left alone, but she didn't have any spare clothes with her, not even a blanket.
She hoped that the path to the shrine was empty. It would be embarrassing to be caught taking him home...
Her father's reaction was surprisingly calm, though this was possibly due to the fact that the young man was starting to look a bit pale from his still-bleeding cut. It wasn't very long before the young man was wearing borrowed clothes -- in Mayura's opinion, he looked amazingly good in one of her father's kimono -- and an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.
She'd rode along with him, because he seemed reluctant. During the ride he'd been panicking, and almost passed out, but at least he'd shown more energy during the trip than he had the entire time up until then. In fact, the doctors had assured her that was a good sign, as they tried to convince the young man to let go of her wrist...
By the time they were finally able to start treating him, both a policeman and her father had arrived. One of the doctors had asked her father into his office, and the policeman took her to a quiet room and asked her to please tell him what she knew...without any embellishment. Please?
Eventually, though, the policeman had Mayura's story to his satisfaction (or perhaps simply gave up trying to get her to leave out the embellishment). She returned to the waiting room to find her father waiting for her, with the young man. Once again, he was wearing the clothes borrowed from her father, but now with a bandage wrapped around his head.
The young man followed closely behind her father as they walked up to Mayura. "Mayura, would you mind if we had a guest? The man you found has amnesia, and the doctors and Niiyama-san thought it would be all right if he stayed with us, at least until some relatives or friends of his could be found..."
"Ahh... Does he remember his name...?" It was a somewhat awkward question, but it simply wouldn't work to call the man 'you' all the time. Even if it wouldn't be rather rude, it could quite easily be confusing.
The young man smiled, in a way that made Mayura think that he was not quite comfortable with the situation but was trying to make the best he could of it. "My name is Loki," he said, pronouncing the 'l' in a distinctly Western manner. "I'm afraid I do not remember my surname..."
"It's nice to meet you, Loki-kun. I'm Daidouji Mayura." She smiled, which seemed to cause Loki to relax...a bit.
"They said he's well enough to manage the walk back to the shrine..."
Elsewhere, a mugger was finally feeling safe enough to go through the spoils from his latest victim. It wasn't much: the young foreigner had an absurdly low amount of yen on him, for somebody wearing such rich clothes and wandering around town looking lost. Still, every little bit counts, and since it didn't look like he was going to live there was no reason not to take his clothes.
Bad luck, being an equal-opportunity sort of thing, felt it was time to strike the mugger in the form of the young man working part-time in a cafe. Narugami had managed to keep this particular job for longer than any of his previous ones, and his boss hadn't even objected to him keeping Mjollnir with him. It probably had helped that he'd gotten rid of that robber...
Normally, when he took the trash out, the narrow alley was quite empty. This meant that the man sitting on a stoop and examining clothes was quite noticeable, but what really drew his attention was the clothing. They were clearly worn, and they looked very, very familiar.
Loki was perhaps the only man in Japan who wore that style of clothing, and it was unlikely that he'd ever sell his clothes. (Besides, all the clothing stores in the area only sold new clothes.) That meant that they'd been taken from him...
Narugami asked the man where he'd gotten the clothes.
The mugger, his thoughts currently more on how much drugs he could buy one he'd sold the clothes, and in his mind already selling the clothes to his fence, told the truth as he knew it.
The next morning's papers had an article about the mysterious case of a mugger who had been killed by lightning on a perfectly clear day. Mayura clipped it out from the newspaper when she noticed it, right beside the article on her finding Loki.
Loki shifted on the cushion uncomfortably. Though he had no memories to confirm it, he didn't think he'd spent much time sitting in this particular position before. Still, he was a guest, and something deep within himself said that he did not want to do anything that might cause him to be thrown out.
The man whose home this was sat across from him, wearing an outfit very much like the one he'd lent his guest. His daughter -- something that had been confirmed for Loki over dinner -- had gone to bed earlier, leaving her father to make sure their guest stayed awake. He'd served them both tea, a very nice green one, and had put out a tray of cookies.
"Loki-san, have you given any thought to what you will do if your memories never return, and your family and friends are not found?" his host asked. "I can't afford have you here as a guest for very long, because I don't earn that much as a priest."
He took a long sip from his tea, considering his host's question. "I don't know what I will do, to be honest. I don't know if I have a home, money, or even any way to support myself... And, while I do feel for some reason that I should stay here, I don't want to be a freeloader..."
"If you're willing, we could see how well you do as my apprentice. It shouldn't interfere with going to school, and it would help with the bills..."
"School...?" Loki didn't know why, but the thought of having to go to school surprised him, and he knew that his surprise had nothing to do with the fact he currently couldn't remember anything 'personal' aside from half of his name.
"The doctors said that you should try to keep a 'normal' routine, and the police think that you probably won't be attacked again."
"Probably?" Something within Loki told him that such qualifiers were to be as thoroughly investigated as possible.
Mayura took over from her father early in the morning, and the change in conversational topics was amazing. Her father had, on the whole, discussed the practical considerations of Loki's future. Mayura, on the other hand, was quite firmly fascinated by mysteries, of all kinds. This meant, of course, that she was fascinated by him, since he was mysterious, and -- while Loki did not quite notice it -- was a bit nervous.
It didn't seem to Loki that Mayura minded the fact that he really did not remember what had happened to him. It seemed to satisfy her that he was there, and that he was listening to her. He could understand why she might be like that, since she was a bit too single-minded about the subject for most people...but if he just listened to the sound of her voice, not paying attention to what she was saying, it really wasn't very bad. She had a very nice voice, and it rose and fell in the right places.
It didn't hurt that he liked hearing her call him 'Loki-kun.'
Soon, the world outside started to lighten, and Mayura's near-monologue started to fragment as she started working in the kitchen. Loki did his best to answer her questions, about what sort of food he'd like for breakfast, but he found some of the questions confusing. Even when he did remember what the various foods she was asking him about were, he didn't remember if he had any preference for any of them.
The meal itself was even more confusing. He had to stumble through it, watching his hosts' for cues on proper table manners. It ended with Mayura grabbing a bag and rushing out the door, and Loki without any greater idea of what was going on than before.