I don't own Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, rather obviously. My goodness, I would be bilingual if I did, and rather skillfully so!

Hahi, I got a lot of comments concerning Neuro and Samish. To be honest, I was a bit surprised.

Concerning Neuro, Samish, and their differences in strength: Hina A. hit the nail on the head. I actually had Neuro giving Yako a longer explanation on the various differences between types of demon in Today's final chapter, but took it out because it seemed rather out-of-character for Neuro to surrender so much information so willingly (you can see a small remnant of that in that Neuro mentions demons that eat rain). There are, in this silly little AU (it has firmly stepped onto that land, I am sorry to say), different types of demons. Somebody will show up later in the story to explain things a little better, but I just wanted to drop a line to all of you saying that yes, indeed, the outrageous difference in strengths is on purpose and with definite reason.

Yako breathed in, breathed out. The air was cold against her face. She covered her nose, paused. Thought. Put her hands down. She couldn't very well keep her nose covered for the entire time she was in here, after all.

Looking around, Yako heaved a sigh of relief. The walls were that deep blue color of ice she saw on television programs about mountain climbers in the arctic, covered with intricate white vines of ice, spirals and loops and curls that covered everything but went nowhere. If Neuro was here, he'd probably have some cunning, cutting metaphor

but that's why she's here, isn't it?

Yako breathed in and out again, squared her shoulders, and stepped towards the curved corridor in front of her. The rustling plants at her feet followed like well-heeled dogs. She looked down at them thoughtfully as she walked; seeing nothing else with color attracted her eyes to the bright greens, as if drawn by some unmeasurably great force.

Where did they come from? Neuro had never shown any ability with... well, normal-looking plants, just demon ones (ones with too many eyes and too few weaknesses, she thought with an ornery grimace). Besides that, he'd always enjoyed telling her in excruciating detail what his toys did and what they might do to her. True, there had hardly been time, but Yako couldn't think of why he'd use some grass and flowers and not one of his terrifying tools. This... well, to be honest, all signs pointed to the fact that Neuro had nothing to do with these plants.

That made Yako worry more, and she was so distracted she almost missed the door glowing with what looked like angry emoticons. The sight made her stare a little. Each door was decorated with huge purple O! symbols.

"...I guess Samish must have gone on the internet," Yako muttered, feeling a little spring of giddy laughter bubbling up in her. She remembered the first time Neuro had gone on the internet- he'd immediately lain down with an ice pack over his eyes for three hours exactly (Godai had timed it, for some reason) before going back on, gritting his teeth in what looked, to the untrained eye, like a grin (Yako had seen it for what it was- an expression usually reserved for the greatest idiocy and her, which for Neuro were, distressingly, not mutually exclusive).

The emoticons broke the timid mood she'd been cultivating, and she pushed the double doors opened with authority, ready to face whatever Samish had thrown in her way. She'd come here to rescue a demon from another, not worry about... everything.

"Where are you going, Yako?" Yako turned so quickly her neck gave a vexed little twinge of pain.

"Neuro!" There he was, with black-rimmed glasses on and a perplexed expression he usually reserved for the customers and police. He was shirtless, too (Yako almost died of shock right there- she'd seen him in his vest, but never outright topless), and slung haphazardly around his waist was a towel. He was drying his hair off with another towel, and when he pulled it off his hair there was just fluffy blondeness, no black and no triangle pyramid ornaments. Yako stared. He looked... human. What had Samish-

"What are you wearing?" He sounded incredulous now, standing and coming up to her. His body was so close to hers that she could smell the shampoo he used- it smelled like tea tree oil and it suited him. Standing there in the oppressive heat (it felt like summer, and she absently shed her winter coat and started to undo her scarf, gaze fixed on Neuro), looking at Neuro, Yako felt an intense surge of relief. "You look like you're ready to go tromping around in the arctic with the penguins."

"There are no penguins in the arctic; just the antarctic..." Yako breathed, dizzy with happiness. Literally dizzy- she sat down on the couch (ouch, it was a little harder than she remembered it) and blinked, hard.

Neuro sat down next to her, close, close enough that their legs were pressed together, and peered at her, one hand moving on his head, still haphazardly drying his hair. "Aha, sorry, Miss Detective. I'm always surprised by what you know, Yako." He nudged her shoulder with his and winked. He looked stylish. Yako felt like she was missing something very, very important. "You should get out of that weird gear and into something more appropriate, though. Your parents are going to be here soon to interrogate me." He gave a rich, friendly little laugh. It was a sound that implied a joke between them, and Yako strained to remember what on earth he was talking about.

"My...?" Wait, wait. What?

"Yeah, remember? They wanted to interrogate the big bad man that had come in and started dating their sweet little girl," Neuro shook his head and gave her a rueful smile, "well, your dad did, mostly." She stared back at him, uncomprehending. There were so many things wrong with that...

wait, but, what was wrong? She'd met Neuro when she started her detective agency. He was her first customer, in fact! She'd saved him from his conniving older sister and jail, and he'd started showing up to work for her out of gratitude. They'd kind of just... fallen together one day, and since then her parents had been deeply suspicious. That's right- tonight they were all getting together for the first time! Aha, how could she forget something so important?!

"What time are we meeting them again, Neuro?" Yako looked around their office-slash-studio. She felt like... two people were missing, but no... it was just Neuro and she. How strange.

"Ten, it's six, and you always take forever. The shower's free if you need it." Yako's brows knit- it really felt like something was off, and terribly so, but... she had a dinner to get ready for, this was important...

"Hey, Yako," Neuro sighed, tilting her face towards him with a slightly damp hand (his fingers were pruned, he'd spent too much time in the shower again, he always did love hot water, hot water, hot water, hot springs, something in the springs, something), "you okay?"

She gave a little nod. He chuckled, then leaned down, clearly intending to kiss her. Yako tilted her face up to meet his, glad always for his sunny kisses (DEMON FISH IN THE HOT SPRINGS, THIS IS NOT NEURO)

"oh!!"

Yako jerked back and away, but there was no fake Neuro anyways. She was sitting on a block of ice, and she was freezing. Oh, god, she'd taken off her boots and coat, and the way that had been going... She let an intense blush warm her cheeks and poked at the little grasses around her with her re-clad feet. "Some help you were." They rustled in a distinctly embarrassed manner.

"Samish! You disgusting pervert!" Yako yelled out, feeling angry at being toyed with like that. It was none of his business, her thoughts and musings, and it was cowardly of him to use them against her like that. She strode towards the stairwell disappearing upwards, the anger of an insulted girl sliding quicksilver-fast through her. Yet another reason to give Samish what he had coming.

There was a long spiral of stairs, these darker, almost navy blue in color, and as Yako strode upwards, she furrowed her brows in thought. Thinking of him made her realize something important: she didn't know how to give him what he deserved. How was she going to rescue Neuro? She'd just kind of charged in, anger and desperation fueling her, but now that she was here Yako had to admit she was at a bit of a loss. He'd beaten Neuro up, not only up but into a bleeding unconscious state. He'd thrown Neuro through the outer wall of a building and he'd called up a storm of snow and suicide and, and, oh god.

The urge to cry rushed through her, but Yako fought it with an angry press of her lips. She could cry later, when she'd rescued Neuro and the flood of patients in the city's emergency rooms was ebbing. Yako shook her head. She really didn't know what to do, though.

The hesitant whisper of plants called her attention down. Something zinged through her, and Yako gave a gasp. She wasn't sure why, really, but she had the feeling that they... maybe they could help her. "Hey," she crouched down, extending a finger to them. A dandelion stretched itself up in near-instant growth, coming to a halt just at the tip of her finger. Okay, so... these were obviously somewhat abnormal plants. "Could you... help me? Rescue Neuro?" She held her breath. The plants stilled under her, then gave a little shrug, as if to say that it was up to her, not them.

The absurdity of talking to plants and thinking she was getting a response dragged Yako back to earth from her cloud. "O- okay. Well. Let's... go."

Seriously, though: what on earth was she going to do?!

The same standard always apply: I am shy, so I understand if you, too, are too shy to respond. It's very pleasing to me that people simply read these stories and enjoy them. That said, I'm coming to find that I love hearing everybody's theories about what is happening and why. There seems to be a core group of you that especially likes 'thinking aloud', and I am always interested to read what you all are thinking as the story moves on! I have everything already planned out, yes, but it makes me titter a bit when you clever people catch on to something I have dropped for you.