NO DOGS ALLOWED
by Irony-chan

---

NO DOGS ALLOWED.

The words were posted, bright red, across the glass doors of the Post Office, just below a big canine silhouette with a red X through it, and above a rather clumsy English translation ('dog not arrowed') that was apparently just there to show that they meant business. It was not the sort of notice that would stand for any argument or any amount of doe-eyed pleading whatsoever... and, Loki reflected, considering that this was the Post Office, he probably ought to have expected it.

"Looks like Fenrir-chan won't be allowed in," said Mayura sadly.

"That's all right," said Loki. "We'll just wait outside here. You go ahead, Yamino-kun."

"Right!" Yamino pushed his eyeglasses up his nose and straightened his tie, trying to project the image of a man who was ready to take on anything. Two weeks earlier, he had ordered a carpet-cleaning machine from the Home Shopping Network. The company had promised next-business-day delivery or your money back... but as of that morning, when he'd checked the mail, there was still no sign of it. When he contacted the firm, they swore up and down that they'd shipped it the same evening he ordered, and told him that if it hadn't arrived then that was the fault of the Japanese Postal Service.

So Yamino had come to the local office in order to take it up with them.

"Mayura," he asked, "do you want to come in?"

She shook her head. "No, thanks, Yamino-kun. I'll stay out here with Loki-kun, in case we see a mystery."

"All right, then." Yamino smiled. "Everybody, wish me luck."

"Good luck!" Mayura beamed.

Yamino drew himself up to his full height, squared his shoulders, and marched into the Post Office. The automatic door slid silently shut behind him.

It was a beautiful spring morning. The air was still a little chilly, and there were puddles on the streets from last night's rain, but the sun was high and brilliant in the sky, without a cloud in sight. With Fenrir cradled in his arms, Loki sat down on the curb, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight on his back. On perfect days like this one, he could almost forget how much he hated being trapped in the body of a child in Midgard... and not just anywhere in Midgard, but on a crowded little island surrounded by all the things he hated the most; water, automobiles, and all the most annoying bits and pieces of human technology.

At least he was not alone in this predicament. Knowing that Thor and Freja were in somewhat similar straits went a long way towards making it more bearable, as did the company of Yamino and Fenrir... and Mayura. Loki glanced at her; she was smiling as she tilted her head back to look at the dazzling blue sky. He wondered sometimes what might happen if he were to tell her who and what he was, but he'd never really entertained the idea in earnest; her ignorance was an essential part of what made her so oddly charming. Daidouji Mayura, wide-eyed with wonder at everything in the world, was perhaps the closest Loki had ever come to meeting somebody truly innocent, and he wanted to preserve that as long as he could. It was a rare, delicate, and infinitely precious thing.

Certainly, she didn't seem aware of anything amiss today; she was as cheerful as always as she sat down next to him on the edge of the sidewalk. It had taken some effort to convince her that Yamino's parcel had not been abducted by aliens or devoured by the Bermuda Triangle. She'd been terribly disappointed by everybody else's conviction that it was simply lost in the mail, but by now she seemed to have bounced back all right, and was wearing her usual sunny expression.

"Say, Loki-kun," she said. "did I tell you? I was just reading this book I found in the library, all about the giant octopus that lives at the bottom of the ocean. The author has a theory that it's a species that's been extinct for millions of years!"

Loki raised an eyebrow. "If it's extinct," he said, "how can it still be living at the bottom of the ocean?"

"Well, of course it's not extinct really," replied Mayura, not fazed a bit. "People just think it's extinct because nobody's ever seen one. But see, what the book said was that tentacles rising out of the water might be mistaken for sea serpents, like the ones that were reported by this ship..."

"Doesn't she ever stop talking about that nonsense?" grumbled Fenrir. "Basket case."

"She's harmless," Loki murmured. "Let her talk."

The puppy snorted and rolled over to let Loki scratch his belly. "How come I'm not allowed in the post office anyway? What's in there?"

"I don't think it matters," said Loki.

"Oh, but it does matter, Loki-kun!" said Mayura. "Just like that, the entire ship went to the bottom of the ocean, all tangled in the tentacles of the giant octopus! Not a trace of it was ever found!"

"Then what makes everybody so sure it was the giant octopus?" Loki wanted to know. "If they never found..."

"Well," Mayura held up a hand, "here's the thing: a few weeks later, there were some people walking down a beach, and they saw..."

"STOP!" exclaimed a voice. "THEIF!"

Loki, Fenrir, and Mayura all sat up to look as a boy came around the corner at an all-out run, clutching to his chest the black leather carrying case for a very expensive camera. Following close behind him but losing ground rapidly was a short, balding man, who was waving his arms and shouting as he gave chase.

"Police!" he panted – he was overweight and decidedly out of shape. "Stop that kid! My camera!"

Mayura immediately bounced to her feet. "Mystery!" she exclaimed. "Don't worry, sir, the Enjaku Detective Agency is on the case! We'll get your camera back for you! Come on, Loki-kun!" And before Loki could protest – or even open his mouth – she grabbed his arm and took off in hot pursuit of the thief, dragging him and Fenrir along behind her.

She followed the boy down the street, into an alley, and between a gap in some hedges, then came to a screeching halt as she ran right up against a crowd of people getting off a bus. They were in a hurry and said some rather rude things to her as she tried to push her way through, and by the time they'd done disembarking and left, the camera thief had vanished, leaving no obvious clues as to which direction he might have gone.

"We lost him!" Mayura said mournfully. She let go of Loki.

"Daddy," said Fenrir. "Could you put me down now?"

"Hmm?" Loki looked down and realized that in his effort to keep from dropping the puppy in Mayura's mad dash, he'd been holding on to him a bit too tight. Fenrir's eyes were bulging as Loki set the dazed little dog on the ground. "I'm sorry."

Fenrir shook himself, then put his nose to the pavement and began sniffing, turning in circles as he searched for the scent.

"Ohhh, that's it, Fenrir-chan!" Mayura leaned down to watch. "You smell out that thief, like a good detective dog!"

"I will, just as soon as you quit talking for five seconds and let me concentrate," Fenrir growled. He began to move on, then passed over one particular place and sniffed it again. "Here he is!" he exclaimed, raising his head. "He went that way!"

"Good boy!" exclaimed Mayura, as Fenrir bounded off, yapping excitedly as he followed the scent trail. She ran after him, and Loki was left with nothing to do but to try to catch up.

The thief's trail left the sidewalk, crossed the street, and went down a grassy hillside into a gully with a stream at the bottom. That momentarily caused Loki some concern; if the boy went into the water, Fenrir might lose the trail and be unable to get it back. But rather than wade, for some reason the boy chose to go through the mud at the stream bank, leaving big, clear footprints that went on to a place where two large rocks made a serviceable set of stepping stones. The prints and scent then continued on the other bank, as their quarry climbed out of the ditch and crossed the street into a warehouse district.

As Fenrir, nose to the ground, led the way into the maze of big, low, sullen-looking buildings, Loki began to get an unpleasant feeling about this chase. It was almost as if the thief wanted to be followed... but that was silly. More likely this was just an impromptu amateur job, and the boy was too inexperienced or too panicked to realize what an easy trail he was leaving. Loki had to be wary as long as he knew Odin was still sending assassins, but it wouldn't do to let wary cross the line into paranoid. This was probably just a frightened young man.

It was at that point in his thoughts that Loki realized they'd somehow lost Mayura. He stopped and looked around, but there was no sign of her anywhere; only empty streets and foreboding warehouses, without a living thing in sight. Of course, Mayura going missing was not exactly an unusual state of affairs; she was forever wandering off when something 'mysterious' distracted her... but it didn't help Loki's already troubled mind. Mayura had a habit of vanishing just before something big happened. Where could she have gotten to?

"Daddy," Fenrir pawed at his father's leg. "He went in there."

Loki looked. 'In there' was a warehouse with a large FOR RENT banner – also in both Japanese and rather broken English – hanging lopsided above the doors, which were standing ajar. The building was obviously old and did not appear to be in terribly good repair; paint was peeling, and several of the windows had been smashed. Not the safest-looking of hiding places, then; only a rather stupid or rather desperate person would go inside... but their camera thief had already shown ample evidence of being one or both of those things.

"Mayura's going to be upset that she missed him," Loki remarked as he climbed the stairs to the front door. Fenrir trotted along next to him.

Inside, the warehouse looked very much indeed like something out of a detective movie. It was absolutely empty except for a few discarded cardboard boxes and beer cans, and a pile of butts from where a group of people had been smoking marijuana in one corner. There really wasn't any place in the building where a person could hide... and sure enough, one Loki's eyes adjusted to the dim light, there was the boy. He was doing his best to squeeze out of sight in the shadow of a support pillar, but it was not quite big enough to conceal him.

"I'm not a thief!" he protested, as Loki approached him.

"You stole a camera," Loki pointed out.

The boy looked at the leather bag in his hands, then thrust it at Loki. "Here! Take it!" he said. "I wasn't going to keep it anyway. I just needed money, and the scary blonde chick said she'd give me a hundred thousand yen if I grabbed it and ran in here. She promised I wouldn't get caught!" he added, his voice climbing an octave as his face whitened with terror. "She promised!"

Loki began to reach for the camera bag, but hesitated. "Scary blonde?"

"Here!" The boy pushed his loot into Loki's hands. "Take it! Just don't turn me in! I can't afford to get arrested again!"

"Wait," said Loki. "What scary blonde? Did she tell you her name?"

The boy shook his head and began to say something, but before he could get a word out, the huge, empty space inside the warehouse started to reverberate with a low rumbling sound. "W-what's that?" he stammered, then shouted in terror and grabbed the pillar for support as the floor began to shake. A flock of pigeons roosting among the rafters took to the air, cooing unhappily as the vibration raised clouds of choking dust.

Loki's first instinct was to look for a rational explanation. "An earthquake?" he asked, turning around.

"Daddy!" shouted Fenrir.

The floor in the centre of the building heaved and began to crack, and then, of all improbable things, green shoots began to emerge from it. They grew at an astonishing pace, getting taller and wider before Loki's very eyes until, in less than a minute, there was an actual tree growing out of the floor, sending rough-edged fragments of concrete tumbling over one another as it forced them aside. Before long its trunk was ten feet in diameter and branches were brushing the roof, while immense roots chewed through the cement as if it offered no more resistance than wet soil.

The camera thief didn't seem able to cope with what he was seeing. His eyes got bigger and rounder, and the colour drained from his face until he looked as if he were going to literally die of fright. For a few moments he stood perfectly still, rigid with terror, and then he let out a strangled yell and ran out of the building, screaming fit to wake the dead.

Small white flowers budded on the tree's branches and then dropped off, aging from spring to winter in an instant and then moving into autumn as the leaves turned gold and orange. Fat red berries appeared and began to drop off in bunches; it was an ash tree.

Not just any ash tree, either. Loki was looking at a shoot from the World Tree, Yggdrasil. All the nine worlds of gods, men, and giants were hung in its branches... and only the norns could have called on it to send a shoot into the world like that.

He tensed, holding out his hands and shutting his eyes in preparation for summoning his scythe, but he'd already stood watching for too long. Before the weapon could manifest itself, a root burst out of the ground right in front of Loki and wrapped itself around his legs, pulling him off balance. He hit the ground hard enough that it hurt. The air rushed out of his lungs, leaving him gasping to breathe. There was little he could do as more roots wound themselves around his arms, torso, and neck, tightening until his extremities began to tingle.

"Daddy!" wailed Fenrir. "Hold on, I'm coming!" The puppy tried to sink his teeth into a root, but could not get a grip. The wood was as hard as iron, and even the teeth of the Fenris Wolf could not pierce it. More roots closed in around Loki's limbs, dragging him away into the middle of the building, and spreading branches cut off the last of what little light had been coming in the warehouse's tiny windows. The tree filled almost the entire building now.

"Fenrir!" Loki said, as his son tried again to chew through a root. "Stop that, it's no good, you'll break your teeth! You can't cut them!" He thought fast; Fenrir's bite wasn't powerful enough to cut through the roots of the world tree, but there were stronger creatures. The dragon Nidhogg could do it, as could Hati and Skoll, the wolves of the sun and moon... and Fenrir's younger brother, the Midgard Serpent, Jormungandr.

"Fenrir, stop!" Loki repeated. The roots had ceased to curl tighter; they only wanted to hold onto him, not to crush him. "Fenrir, I'm all right, so listen to me. You need to run and get Yamino, do you understand? Go back to the post office and get Yamino!"

"But Daddy!" Fenrir protested, backing away as new roots began to snake towards him. "I can't! The sign said no dogs! Daddy!"

"It's all right," Loki told him. "Just hold still for a moment. I'm going to cast a spell."

---

"Loki-kun!" Mayura called, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Where did you go?"

She looked around her and heaved a frustrated sigh. She'd followed Loki and Fenrir as far as the edge of the warehouse district before being distracted by the sound of running footsteps... or at least, she'd thought it was running footsteps. When Mayura investigated, she'd discovered that the noise was nothing but a hanging sign, tapping against the side of a building as it swung. What a disappointment – there was her chance to crack the case solo, gone!

But Mayura knew better than to let small setbacks get her down. Rather than give up, she hurriedly retraced her steps, hoping to catch up with her friends... but when she got back to where she'd last seen them, Loki and Fenrir had vanished, as had the camera thief.

"Loki-kun!" she repeated, calling louder. "Fenrir-chan! Loki-kun! Where did everybody go?"

As if in reply, she heard a terrified shout. Mayura turned towards the source of the sound.

"Loki-kun?" she asked.

She cocked her head, listening for a reply, and this time she really did hear feet running. It came closer and closer, and a moment later, the camera thief came barreling out of a side street and all but ran into her.

"There you are!" Mayura grabbed his arm. "I caught you! Now, give back..." she stopped, realizing that his hands were empty. "Where's the camera?"

"Tree!" he shouted.

Mayura blinked. "Tree?"

The boy pointed back the way he'd come. "Monster tree!" he wailed. "Roots and berries and... it was horrible! Quick!" he added, shaking her shoulders, "run for your life! Save yourself! It's coming!"

And with that, he pulled himself out of her grip and ran, still shouting, "tree! Tree!"

"Monster tree?" Mayura went and peered down the alley he'd come out of. There didn't seem to be anything of note at the end of it – just an obviously abandoned warehouse with a stack of old tyres piled up beside the stairs. No trees, monster or otherwise, were in evidence, although there were weeds growing here and there. Maybe the one he'd been talking about was indoors?

Either way, a monster tree definitely sounded like a creepy mystery!

For a moment, Mayura was torn. She still hadn't found Loki and Fenrir, and the thief was now getting away again. But, she reasoned, if the boy didn't actually have the camera with him anymore, then there wasn't much point in chasing him, and if there were really something as strange and mysterious nearby as a monster tree, Loki and Fenrir would naturally go there. That was settled, then – Mayura had to go right away and investigate the tree! She jogged down the alley towards the building.

She was almost there when the doors burst open, and a second boy came out at a run. This one was quite a bit younger, perhaps ten or eleven, and Caucasian, with dark hair and large round eyeglasses. He scrambled out the door, tripped at the top of the stairs, and fell head over teakettle down the six steps to land in a heap at the bottom. Mayura ran to help him up.

"Don't worry, I'm a detective!" she said, pulling him to his feet. "Where's the tree?"

"Huh?" The boy stared at her. "Mayura?"

Mayura was startled – did she know this boy? "Yes," she said, "that's me – Daidouji Mayura of the Enjaku Detective Agency! Have we met before?" Now that she looked closer, there was something a bit familiar about the boy, but she couldn't quite think where she might have seen him before.

His eyes darted back and forth nervously, as if he were looking for some avenue of escape. "Um... no..." he said, stepping back from her and rubbing his arms where she'd touched him. "No, we haven't. But... but Loki and Yamino told me about you... and I..."

"Oh, you know Loki-kun and Yamino-kun?" Mayura smiled at him as she realized, it was no wonder he looked familiar. "Let me guess," she said, "you're related to Yamino-kun, right? You look just like him!"

"I do?" The boy made a face. "I mean... yes. Yes, I'm Yamino's brother. And I really need to find him, so..."

"Nice to meet you!" Mayura bowed to the boy. "Yamino-kun never told me he had a little brother! You're adorable!"

"Uh... thank you..." the boy was still backing away, looking as if Mayura was far more terrifying than any number of mysterious ghosts or monsters. "Nice meeting you, too, but I have to find Yamino. Daddy wants him. Don't you have... something to investigate? Or whatever it is you do?"

"Oh," said Mayura, suddenly remembering. "Yes, I guess I do." She looked up at the warehouse doors; they'd swung shut behind the boy when he ran out, and nothing was visible through their tiny windows except darkness. "Is the monster tree in there?"

The boy blanched and looked at the doors, then grabbed her arm. "Monster tree?" he asked, a note of panic in his voice. "Don't be silly, there aren't any such things."

"But Otouto-kun," said Mayura, "that's exactly what people say about the giant octopus, and..."

"Yes, yes, and it sinks ships and is mistaken for sea serpents." The boy tugged on her hand. "I know. But I need to find Yamino..."

"You know?" Mayura was delighted.

"Yes, I do!" He pulled harder. "Now come and help me find my brother! The tree will still be here when we get back!"

That was probably true; trees were, by their natures, rather permanent sorts of things that were not likely to run off. Of course, whether that applied to the monster variety, Mayura couldn't say. But, she thought, even Audrey II had needed a pot.

"Come on," the boy insisted. "I have to find Yamino now!"

"All right," Mayura decided. Today was certainly turning out to be a busy day, wasn't it? "Don't worry," she assured her new friend. "Yamino should be easy to find. He's at the post office!"

---

Since he first arrived in Japan, Fenrir had spent more than enough time around Mayura to know that she had all the psychic ability of a bowl of cold ramen. There was absolutely no way she could possibly know who he was unless he told her, and he had no intention of doing so... but still, finding her here hadn't been good for his nerves. What if he said or did something without thinking, and gave himself away? He'd nearly done so already when he called her by name without thinking first. If she figured it out, she'd... well, probably run around in circles squealing 'creepy mystery!' for the next hour or so. And while that was a pretty harmless thing to do, it wouldn't help him find Yamino.

To his relief, she'd accepted 'Yamino's brother' without question; a never-mentioned brother was, he supposed, not a stretch for a girl who believed that the abominable snowman ate out of her trash. But then she'd terrified him again by her desire to see the 'monster tree'. Ymir only knew – and possibly not even him – what she'd think of Yggdrasil, or of finding Loki tied up in its roots. Mayura was enough of a pain in the ass when she didn't know what was going on underneath her nose. If she were to learn the truth about the detective agency... Fenrir didn't even want to think about it.

And those two causes to panic had come hot on the heels of another near miss, when he had only barely escaped the grasping roots of the World Tree. There were two shapes Fenrir could take on his own; his normal wolf one and the Labrador puppy he used when he needed to blend in. He had never noticed any side effects in switching from one to the other, but then both were natural to him and basically similar to each other. Being forced into a human body had been a different experience altogether – it hurt, and it left him dizzy and disoriented, with bright spots dancing in front of his eyes.

Those cleared after a few seconds, but then he was distressed to find that he still couldn't see – or rather, that what he could see simply did not make any sense. There were lights and shadows that should have represented objects, but they were mixed with some other, unfamiliar property that made everything look strange and left him unable to interpret what his eyes were telling him. It wasn't until something moved that things abruptly snapped into some sort of focus, and he made out the writhing roots coming for him.

"Fenrir, hurry!" Loki insisted. "Go!"

The roots were brushing against his sneakers as he obeyed. Fenrir more fell through the warehouse doors than ran – and then did fall, as he missed his step on the stairs. He landed painfully on his backside at the bottom and then, as if he didn't already feel as if he'd been scared out of several years of his life, the person who helped him up turned out to be Mayura. Thankfully, that whole mess seemed to work itself out all right; she reluctantly turned away from the warehouse doors, leaving Fenrir feeling limp with relief.

"Yamino should be easy to find," she said, undampened. "He's at the post office – follow me!"

Fenrir looked around at this new version of the world with its confusing extra layer – was that what humans were referring to when they talked about 'colour'? – and realized with a sinking feeling that he had no idea where he was. He wasn't familiar with this part of the city. If left on his own, the only way he would have been able to find his way back to the post office would be to retrace the scent trail the group had left while following the thief... but he could no longer smell it. The situation had left him totally dependent on Mayura, and while there were probably much worse places to be, there were also much better ones. She was as likely as not to run off as soon as she spotted something that looked out of place, and then he'd be completely lost.

"Otouto-kun?" Mayura looked back. "Are you coming? I thought you were in a hurry."

"Yes," said Fenrir, "I'm coming." He hurried to catch up with her, stumbling awkwardly over his own feet. This was ridiculous – no wonder it took humans a year to learn how to walk. Just keeping his balance took constant attention.

"There we go," said Mayura. "It's just down here and up the hill. I'm surprised Yamino-kun never mentioned that he has a little brother," she added chattily, as she led the way. "But then, he's never talked about his family much, really, so I guess it's not that surprising after all. Loki-kun is your cousin, right? Yamino-kun said he was something like that."

"Something like that," Fenrir agreed.

Mayura nodded. "And you live with your Daddy, do you? I live with my Papa, too. He keeps a shrine on Torii Street and does exorcisms for people, although he says he doesn't believe in evil spirits. Where does your Daddy live?"

"Oh... here in town," said Fenrir. Did she have to ask questions?

"I'd like to meet him," said Mayura. "Does he believe in mysteries? I guess he must, if he lets Yamino work for the detective agency. That's wonderful! My Papa says..."

"Don't you even stop talking to breathe?" Fenrir grumbled. Stupid question, really – the only reason Mayura ever shut up was for fear of scaring a mystery away. Mysteries also appeared to be the only thing she ever hurried for, too; she wasn't moving any faster than a brisk walk, and Fenrir couldn't decide if that was good or just annoying. They probably didn't have much time, but he doubted he could run with this body and not fall over.

It occurred to him that Mayura had, in fact, fallen silent. He glanced up to see what was the matter, and found her looking a bit hurt. Why... oh, right. He'd said that out loud, hadn't he?

"Sorry," he muttered. He was going to have to be very careful what he said.

She relaxed. "Oh, it's all right," she assured him, right back in her standard, disgustingly cheerful state of mind. "Actually, Papa says I talk too much, too – especially about mysteries. But I say what's the fun in only talking about things we already know for sure exist? You won't learn anything that way. Don't you think, Otouto-kun?"

"Yep," said Fenrir.

He continued making occasional affirmative noises as he followed Mayura back out of the warehouse district, across the stream, and up the hill towards the post office, but didn't actually listen to very much of what she was saying. Instead, he concentrated on trying to remember the places they were passing, so that he'd be able to find his way back with Yamino. This was much more difficult than it should have been – the colours were terribly distracting, and the fact that he wasn't entirely sure which name went with which hue made them useless as a mnemonic.

In spite of the less-than-scintillating conversation, however, he quickly had further cause to be glad he'd run into Mayura. Climbing the brambly hill beyond the stream was a lot more difficult on two legs than it would have been on four, and without her to catch him when he began to slip, Fenrir couldn't imagine how he would have made it. Why hadn't he just gone when Loki said, without arguing about it? He could have sat outside the post office and barked or something until he got Yamino's attention... in the panic of the battle with Yggdrasil, neither of them had been thinking clearly enough to realize what a bad idea this whole thing had been.

Mayura continued her happy chatter all the way up the hill, having somehow gotten onto the topic of Egyptian tombs. It made Fenrir wonder what went on in the mind of somebody who took such obvious pleasure in describing the curses ancient priests had placed upon the resting places of their mummified pharaohs. If half the things she was saying were true, it was a wonder there were any archaeologists left in the world.

"Here we are!" she announced at the top.

And there they were, indeed – the post office was only a block away. Better yet, this was an area with which Fenrir was rather better acquainted; even without his sense of smell, he could probably have found his way from here. But if he did that, Mayura would probably head straight back to see about the Monster Tree. He stopped and watched her, waiting to see what she'd do.

Fortunately, for once her bubble-headedness worked to his advantage – she appeared to have forgotten all about Yggdrasil, and continued her babbling as she walked right past him. "Where was I? Oh, yes, that's right. So Mr. Carter finally found Tut-Anhk-Amen's tomb and opened it up, and when he did... are you coming, Otouto-kun?"

"Yes," said Fenrir. "I'm coming."

The NO DOGS sign was still there on the post office door, and it gave Fenrir a moment's pause. Just like when he'd unthinkingly blurted out Mayura's name, he found himself nonsensically terrified of being recognized. What did they do, he wondered, if a dog did go into the post office? Call the police? The dogcatcher?

He shook his head. Now was not the time to be wondering about that – if it was really that important, which it wasn't, he could ask Loki about if after they'd gotten him out of the roots. To do that, he needed to get Yamino. Yamino was on the other side of this door, and since Fenrir was not a dog at the moment, walking through the door shouldn't be any problem at all.

All this made perfect sense, but Fenrir still shut his eyes and gritted his teeth as stepped toward it, half-expecting to hear some kind of alarm go off. He nearly jumped out of his skin when an electronic tone went off... but it turned out to be only a buzzer installed to announce the arrival of customers. Fenrir and Mayura walked right in without interruption, and the door closed itself behind them.

But Yamino was not there.

Fenrir stopped short – no! That wasn't allowed to happen; Yamino had to be there! How was Fenrir supposed to find him if he wasn't, now that he couldn't follow a scent? He took a second look, carefully studying each visible human in turn... maybe Yamino was here, and Fenrir, not yet used to this new way of seeing, had just missed him? But then again, he'd been able to recognize Mayura right away. Surely he could find his own brother. With no better ideas, he looked at Mayura for help.

"That's strange," she said. "He was here a few minutes ago."

Fenrir's spirits fell so fast they all but hit the floor with a thump. Now what?

"We must have missed him," Mayura added. "I wonder where he went."

"Maybe he went home?" Fenrir suggested hopefully. It was all he could think of, but it somehow didn't seem like the appropriate thing for Yamino to do.

Mayura thought about it. "Maybe... but I would have thought if he saw we were gone, he'd wait for us. Unless he had to go somewhere to get his package." She brightened a bit. "Let's ask somebody!"

Fenrir stood and watched as she went up to the counter. Now that he took a good look around the post office, he couldn't understand why they didn't allow dogs in here. There wasn't really anything in the building that a dog could damage; the floors were tile, not carpet, and everything important was up on counters and out of reach. Forbidding dogs seemed a bit superfluous.

"Hi, there," Mayura said to one of the postal clerks. "Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if maybe you'd seen my friend? He's tall and thin, and he wears glasses and an old-fashioned suit... looks sort of like an older version of him," she added, pointing to Fenrir.

"You mean the fellow who was in here a few minutes ago?" asked the clerk. "Yamino, I think he said his name was... he was looking for a parcel that had never been delivered."

Mayura nodded eagerly, and Fenrir took a step closer in order to hear better. "Yes, that's him," Mayura said. "Do you know where he went?"

"To Tokyo," replied the clerk.

"Tokyo?" Fenrir burst out. This was just getting worse and worse... Tokyo was fifty miles away!

"Er... yes," said the clerk, rather taken aback. "Undeliverable mail is stored in our main office there. Your friend was quite upset about not receiving the item he ordered, so we offered to let him go and look for it."

"Thank you very much!" Mayura bowed to the clerk, then turned around and smiled at Fenrir. "Well, that solves the Mystery of the Missing Yamino!" she said brightly. "Do you want to help me look for Loki-kun and Fenrir-chan while we wait for him to get back? Or we could go investigate the monster tree! What do you..."

"No!" Fenrir interrupted her. "I need to find Yamino now. How do we get to Tokyo?" Never in his life had he felt so completely helpless; how were they ever going to find Yamino and bring him back in time to help Loki? Anything could be happening to either of them, while this stupid little girl stood there grinning like an idiot and babbling about mysteries!

Mayura blinked, startled. "The fastest way is to take the train," she said. "Have you got a rail card?"

"No," Fenrir repeated. "How do I get one?"

"You can buy them at the convenience store," Mayura replied. "Have you got any money?"

"No." This conversation was only making him more and more miserable. How could something as conceptually simple as getting from point A to point B involve so many steps? Did humans realize how insanely complicated this world they'd built for themselves was?

"Well, don't worry," Mayura said amiably, patting him on the head. "I do! You can pay me back later. There's a store just up the street – follow me!"

---

It was probably a little silly, but Mayura was quite sure she would never again be able to look at the sign for the Nitsuki Convenience Store without it reminding her of Replentishing Seaweed. It had turned out to be an herbal medicine of some sort; the packets contained a dark green powder that could be stirred into water or tea and was supposed to purify the drinker's blood. She'd tried it, and it hadn't produced any noticeable effects... though it did taste absolutely awful. Her father said it was the biggest waste of money she'd ever committed.

The store still carried it, but there was no time today – today, she had a mission! With Yamino's brother in tow, she headed straight for the front counter to ask about rail cards... and was pleasantly surprised to find a familiar face.

"Narugami-kun!" she exclaimed. "You're working here this week?"

"Hi, Daidouji!" Narugami replied, grinning. "Yes, I am – just got the job yesterday, in fact. Welcome to Nitsuki's Convenience Store! How can I help you this morning?"

Mayura grabbed her new friend and pushed him forwards. "This is Yamino-kun's brother," she introduced him. "Otouto-kun, this is Narugami-kun. He's in my class at school. Otouto-kun needs a rail card," she explained.

The reaction to this was not quite what she'd expected. Rather than greet the boy and find him a card at once, Narugami paused, looking down at him in obvious puzzlement. "Yamino's brother?" he asked warily. "You mean you're..."

"Yes," the boy interrupted, nodding.

"And you need a rail card?" Narugami spoke as if this idea didn't quite make sense.

"Yes," Yamino's brother sighed. "Yamino went to Tokyo, but Daddy needs his help, so he sent me to find him, and I need a rail card to get there. Okay?"

Narugami frowned. "Your father's in trouble."

"Yes," the boy nodded. "Big trouble. And I have to find Yamino. Now."

"Right." Narugami nodded. "Well, just a second – my shift is almost over. I'll see if I can get off a little early, and I'll help you." He set a 'back in five minutes' sign up on the counter and hurried off into the back room of the store, leaving Mayura and Yamino's brother by themselves.

Mayura smiled. "Narugami-kun is always so helpful!" she said.

"Yep," was apparently the only response her new friend could muster.

After a few seconds, Narugami came trotting back out with a beaming smile on his face. "My boss says that since I arrived early this morning and my co-worker is already here, I can go." He stepped behind the counter again, opened a drawer, and rummaged around inside it. "Let's see – child's rail card. Which one do you want? I don't imagine you'll need one with a lot of credit on it, will you? I mean... you won't be using it again."

"Not likely," said Yamino's brother.

"Then here you go." Narugami handed him a card and accepted Mayura's payment for it. "Now, let's go and help your father."

Five minutes later, Narugami had changed out of his work uniform and back into the green gakuran he seemed to wear everywhere. "I'll see you tomorrow!" he called to his boss and to the girl who'd taken over behind the counter, and then he, Mayura, and Yamino's brother stepped out onto the street.

"So you know Yamino-kun's father?" Mayura asked him, as they set off for the train station.

"Sure," Narugami nodded. "He's... an old friend of mine, although he doesn't get along too well with my father."

"Why not?" Mayura was curious.

"Oh... he did some things my father didn't agree with," Narugami explained. "Sorry, Daidouji, but can we just have a minute here?" he asked, grabbing Yamino's brother by the sleeve. Puzzled, Mayura nodded, and the two boys stepped off to the side to talk.

She kept her eyes on what was up ahead, but could hear them whispering to each other and wondered what they were saying. Although she held her breath trying to listen in, she couldn't quite make out the words... but whatever the boys were talking about, it seemed to involve an awful lot of glancing at her. She frowned – obviously, the two of them were keeping something from her, some sort of secret... a mystery!

But what kind of mystery? Her face lit up again as wonderful ideas occurred to her. What kind of trouble, she wondered, was Yamino's father in? Maybe he'd been kidnapped, or needed to disarm a bomb! Maybe he was rich and being held for ransom! Maybe he was an international superspy or a diamond thief or... the possibilities were endless!

"Er... Daidouji?" asked Narugami.

"Yes?" she said eagerly.

"You've... got that look on your face again." He swallowed.

"Huh?" Mayura blinked. "What look?"

Yamino's brother and Narugami glanced at each other, then both of them imitated it in unison: "Creepy Mystery!"

Mayura was delighted. "Yes!" she agreed happily. "It is!" They must have been discussing whether they could trust her with the truth! "Don't worry," she assured them, "you can count on my help! What happened to your daddy, Otouto-kun? Was he kidnapped?"

"Um. Kind of," said the boy.

"Really?" Mayura had never heard anything half so exciting. "Why? And by who?"

"I... I'm not sure... exactly," said Yamino's brother, "but Yamino can find him, so I have to go and get him. I think we'd better..." he shook his head and straightened up, suddenly very polite. "Thank you very much for all your help," he said, giving her an awkward bow and straightening up quickly, as if afraid of falling on his face. "It was very nice meeting you, and I'll make sure you get your money back for the rail card. We'll see you later. Goodbye."

"Goodbye?" she asked, as the boys walked away. "No, hey, wait up!" They didn't stop, so she ran after them. "It's okay! Narugami-kun! Otouto-kun! I told you, you can trust me!" She grabbed the back of the smaller boy's shirt. "Whatever happened, I'll never tell a soul, I swear!"

"You're not coming!" He turned around and yanked his clothing out of her hand. "You've done your share, now go home!"

Mayura stopped short. Even her father rarely took such an angry tone with her, and she'd certainly never been spoken to that way by somebody younger than herself... or someone with whom she'd hoped to make friends. What had she done wrong? Tears began to well up in her eyes, despite her efforts to suppress them. "You don't want me along?" Nothing could be worse than being left out of a mystery!

"Do I need to use smaller words?" the boy asked, exasperated. "Go home."

There didn't seem to be any arguing with that. Mayura could only stand and watch in shock as, for a second time, the boys walked away without her. Narugami glanced backwards and waved at her, an apologetic expression on his face, but Yamino's brother just kept looking straight ahead.

Detectives weren't supposed to cry. Mayura wiped her eyes on her sleeve and looked mournfully at the slowly disappearing figures. Why didn't they want her along? Wouldn't a detective, like herself, really be the best possible person to have in such a situation?

But then again... when she stopped and thought about it, she realized that Yamino's brother really didn't know her at all. She'd helped him so far, but for all he knew, she could well be a member of the same evil conspirators who had kidnapped his father. Maybe he suspected that she was an imposter, hired to take the place of the real Daidouji Mayura and lead him into a trap.

Yes, when she looked at it that way, it made perfect sense... no wonder he didn't trust her! She stood up straight. There was only one thing to do now; she was just going to have to prove that she was the real thing! He would see – Daidouji Mayura was on the case, and she was going to help this boy get his father back or else die trying!

---

"I thought we would never get rid of her," groaned Fenrir, once Mayura was safely out of earshot. "It's like having a leech attached to me – a great, big, incredibly happy leech in a school uniform!"

Narugami nodded. "Daidouji can be awfully... um... tenacious," he agreed, leaving Fenrir wondering what other ways he'd considered ending that sentence. "Anyway... you were saying?"

"Where was I?" asked Fenrir.

"Camera thief," said Narugami.

"Oh, yeah." Fenrir took a deep breath and launched into the parts of the story he hadn't wanted to tell while there was even a remote chance that Mayura might be listening in. While Narugami listened, he described how he and Loki had pursued the thief to the warehouse, how they'd been confronted by the shoot of Yggdrasil, and the reason for Fenrir's current condition. "That's why I have to find Yamino," he finished. "He can get Daddy out. But he wasn't at the post office, and the clerk there said he'd gone to Tokyo to get his package."

"I see," said Narugami. "A scary blonde woman, did he say?"

"That's right," Fenrir confirmed.

"Probably the Norns, then."

"Well, yeah," said Fenrir, nearly supplementing the statement with a nod before he realized what he was doing... great, on top of everything else he'd gone through this morning, now he was picking up bad habits, too. Did humans realize how ridiculous they looked when they went around wagging their heads up and down? "How many other scary blonde chicks do we know?"

"Freja can be pretty scary." Narugami shuddered.

Fenrir did likewise. He hoped they wouldn't run into her today... the last thing he wanted to do was have to face the Goddess of Love while in a body that couldn't hide under the nearest sofa. "Yeah, but she's not that... subtle?" That didn't seem like quite the right word, but he couldn't think of a better one.

"No... 'subtle'... really isn't in her vocabulary," said Narugami tactfully. "Besides, I doubt she could call up the world tree like that. If she wanted Loki, she'd just come and get him, like she did every other time."

"And get her butt kicked," Fenrir added, "like she did every other time. No, I think we can be pretty sure he was talking about either Urd or Skuld. I'd say Urd; she's the scarier one, and it sounds like something she'd do." Urd was also the more unpredictable one. It would be impossible to guess what she meant to do with Loki once the tree had immobilized him... but whatever it was, they didn't have much time.

"Sounds right to me," said Narugami.

Fenrir thought for a moment. "Hey, Thor?"

"Yeah?" the taller boy asked.

"You were sent down here to kill Daddy, weren't you? So how come you're always helping him instead?"

"Because I don't betray my friends," said Thor defensively. His jaw clenched at the implied insult, and for a moment he almost looked like a thunder god instead of a skinny fifteen-year-old. "Besides, I've always felt like I never quite repaid him for all the things he ever did for me. Even if I wanted to hurt him, I wouldn't do it while I'm still in his debt."

"Good," said Fenrir. "If you ever do try to hurt him, Jormungandr and I will make you sorry."

"I'm aware," Narugami nodded.

"Just checking."

Narugami knew a shortcut to the nearest train station, having discovered it while working at a courier job. Once there, the boys inserted their rail cards into the fare machine, which beeped, buzzed, and then spat out a ticket for each of them. Fenrir scooped his up to look at it, and was disappointed to see that it was nothing but a printed piece of paper. "Is this it?" he asked, feeling rather gypped.

"Pretty much," replied Narugami. He frowned as he thought for a minute. "Why, exactly, did you want a rail card anyway? The machine accepts change."

"That's what Mayura told me I needed," said Fenrir. "I just took her word for it."

When the train pulled up at the platform, Fenrir discovered that it, too, bore a 'no dogs' sign... or, more specifically, one that read 'service dogs only', with an illustration of a blind man being guided by a retriever. It quickly vanished from view as the door slid open, but Fenrir made a careful mental note of the image; if he ever needed to travel by train under slightly more normal circumstances, perhaps they could manage it by having either Yamino or Loki wear sunglasses and pretend that Fenrir was a seeing-eye dog.

The two boys got on board and settled down for the ride, blissfully oblivious as Mayura came puffing up to the platform. She shoved her own card into the machine, grabbed her ticket, and darted onto the car behind theirs, the last person to make it before the doors closed.

---

Japanese commuter trains are not called 'bullet trains' for nothing. The trip to Tokyo, which might have taken an hour by car, lasted only a little more than fifteen minutes. That was still far too long, though, for Fenrir's peace of mind. He had a definite feeling that they were running out of time, if they weren't too late already. When the train pulled into the station in downtown Tokyo, he was standing just inside the doors, almost bouncing up and down in his impatience to get on with things.

"Finally!" he said, as the doors opened. "All right, now, how do we find the main post office?"

"I'm... not exactly sure," Thor confessed. "It'll be downtown, but there's a lot of downtown in Tokyo. We need a map."

"I know how to get there," said Mayura.

Both Fenrir and Narugami nearly jumped out of their skins at the sudden sound of her voice. Fenrir actually opened his mouth to shout at her again, but when he realized what she'd actually said, he closed it again in a hurry. "You do?" he asked.

"Uh-huh!" She nodded proudly. "We went there on a class trip last year! You just take the number five bus from this station, and it stops right in front of the building. See, Otouto-kun?" she added. "You can trust me! And I won't ask what your father's mission is, I promise."

"Mission?" Fenrir blinked.

"Yes, and if I find out by accident, I won't tell," she went on, "cross my heart and hope to die! If I tell a soul, or lead you wrong, then you can tell Yamino-kun to tell Loki-kun to fire me from the detective agency! The buses stop just over there."

Fenrir heaved a sigh. He did not want Mayura tagging along. She had been annoying enough when he couldn't actually communicate with her, and had only become more so now that he could... and anytime she'd ever come along on an 'investigation' before now, she'd caused nothing but trouble. He honestly didn't know why Loki let her hang around, though it was starting to look as if he might allow it simply because even the will of a deity was no match for her. "Thank you, Mayura," he said, carefully polite again, "but... um..."

"You've already been more than enough help, Daidouji," Thor tried. "We wouldn't know how to repay you."

"Oh, but going with you is the best payment I could ask for!" she said. "Investigating mysteries is its own reward!"

"Sorry, Mayura," Fenrir said through his teeth. "We'd love to have you with us, but... but Daddy's 'mission' is very secret, and even if you promise not to tell, we can't risk you finding out." Maybe that would do the trick.

"You mean... I might be captured and tortured or something?" asked Mayura, eyes wide.

She actually sounded concerned – could it be he might manage convince her to go home? "Yes," he said, "and I don't want that happening to you, so..." too late, Fenrir noticed that Narugami was shaking his head and mouthing the word 'no' over and over. "Um."

"This is so cool!" Mayura exclaimed.

Thor shut his eyes as if in pain. Fenrir badly wanted to bite something.

"So that means your father really is a secret agent, right?" Mayura's eyes were glowing with excitement. "Wow! I've never met a real one before! No wonder he lets Yamino work for a detective agency. I'll bet it makes for really good practice!"

"Yeah," Fenrir said weakly. "That's right."

"Oh, and Loki-kun... does he work for your father, Otouto-kun?"

"Something like that."

"I knew it!" Mayura could not have looked more ecstatic. "So when we investigate mysteries... oooh, I bet I've helped out on a secret mission and didn't even know it! I can't wait to meet him! Your father, I mean, of course I already know Loki-kun, and..."

"Well, you won't meet him if we don't find Yamino soon," Fenrir interrupted.

"Hmm... oh, right." Mayura settled down a bit, but her eyes were still bright and there was a definite bounce in her step as she motioned for the boys to follow her. "This way!"

The number five bus was, of course, not conveniently there waiting for them, so Fenrir was obliged to endure more of Mayura's inane babbling – this time about some absurd spy movie she'd seen last week – while they waited. When he got home, he decided, he was going to look through the rooms they didn't use, pick the best hiding place, and next time this twit showed up on the doorstep he would hole up in a nice, safe, quiet spot and not come out again until she'd left. He really missed being a dog. When he was a dog, she didn't encourage herself by thinking he was listening to her.

Fenrir estimated that the bus took approximately forever to come, and when it did, if he'd had the opportunity he would have happily tried to leave Mayura behind again... were it not for the fact that he had no money and Thor had only larger bills that he didn't want to break. After another promise that she'd be reimbursed as soon as possible, Mayura was happy to pay all three fares.

"It's no problem," she said again. "All in the service of solving the mystery, right?"

Furthermore, Mayura was also the only one of the three who knew what the post office building looked like... and it turned out to be a good thing she did, because neither Fenrir nor Narugami would have spotted it. Fenrir was expecting something more or less like the small post office they'd been to earlier, but instead, the place they were looking for turned out to be a skyscraper on a street lined with nearly identical buildings. If Mayura had not announced, "we're here!" and pulled the yellow cord, the boys would have missed it entirely.

"All right." Narugami looked at his transfer, then at his watch. "If we find him in less than half an hour, we can get back to the train station on the same fare, and save a little money."

"Great!" said Mayura. "Let's hurry, then." With her friends in tow, she ran up the stairs and through the revolving door of the office building – like the doors on the other post office and the commuter train, this had a 'no dogs' sign – with the English properly spelled, this time – but Fenrir barely noticed. He just wanted to find Yamino and go home... preferably before anything too awful happened to Loki.

Inside, the lobby was once again as different from the little local post office as it could possibly be. The best word for this room, with its faux-marble floor and high ceiling, might have been 'intimidating'. The post office back home might not have had any obvious reason for prohibiting dogs, but this was a place that seemed to dislike this on principle. Décor like this could only be invented by a cat person.

"Good morning," said a voice; a woman in a uniform, with her hair pulled back into a bun so tight it appeared to have dragged her carefully plucked eyebrows up to at least half an inch above where they should have been, was walking towards them. The expression on her face suggested that the 'no dogs' sign ought to have been augmented by a 'no children' one. "Can I help you?" she asked, in the tone one uses towards a person one means to 'help' by showing them the way back to the door.

"Oh, yes," Mayura nodded. "We're looking for Mr. Yamino Ryuusuke."

"My brother," added Fenrir.

"He's about this tall," Mayura held up a hand, "European, with dark hair and green eyes. I guess he's seventeen or eighteen years old... right?" she looked at Fenrir, who could only shrug.

"He wears glasses," Narugami put in. "And he had on a suit and a little tie."

"He would have been looking for a package that got lost in the mail," said Fenrir.

Mayura paused a moment. "Otouto-kun," she said, "if your father's an agent, then maybe the package isn't here! Loki-kun said it probably wasn't stolen, but maybe he was just trying to throw me off so I wouldn't realize your father's secret identity!"

"Why would secret agents steal a carpet cleaning machine?" asked Fenrir.

"But was it really a carpet-cleaning machine?" Mayura persisted. "Or was that a cover for something else?"

The woman in the suit had obviously been attempting to follow all this, and equally obviously failing. "Excuse me," she said to the three young people in front of her. "If I may ask, I... that is... er... what are you talking about?"

She was ignored. "Are you sure it was definitely a carpet-cleaning machine?" asked Mayura. "You're not just covering up?"

"Positive," said Fenrir.

Mayura was clearly disappointed, but she put on a cheerful face and turned to the woman in the uniform. "So have you seen him?" she asked.

"Uh... a secret agent with a carpet-cleaning machine?" The woman looked terribly confused.

"No, my brother," said Fenrir. "He was here looking for his package. Did you see him?"

The woman swallowed. "Well, no," she said, "I didn't. But if he came here, he would have been sent up to the lost parcels desk on the third floor. Let me show you the way," she added, her former hostility having been replaced by the desire to get this rather disconcerting trio helped and out of the building as fast as possible, without provoking them into doing anything even more frightening than the bizarre conversation she'd just overheard.

A short elevator ride brought them up to the lost parcels desk, which was clearly not one of the more oft-used areas of the building. The waiting room was empty of people and for the most part of furniture, too; there were only a few small, uncomfortable metal chairs and one table, upon which were exactly three dog-eared women's magazines. The desk itself was manned by a college-age boy who must not have had much to do – he had his back to the door, and was deeply involved in a phone conversation that seemed to consist mostly of repeating, "no, I love you more."

The woman in the uniform cleared her throat, and the boy at the desk glanced back. "Oh, hold on a sec, Nyoko," he said, "there's somebody here again." He pressed the 'hold' button, set the phone down, and said, "yes?"

"Hello," said Fenrir, who was starting to feel very much like a broken record. "I am looking for my brother. He was..."

"Oh, the skinny guy who wanted his carpet thing?" asked the boy. "Yeah, I sent him down to storage. Basement," he added, pointing at the floor. "Have a nice day!" He smiled – or at least, bared his teeth – at his visitors, then picked up the phone again. "Nyoko? Still there?"

"Storage," Fenrir muttered. The cynic in him wondered who they'd talk to there, and where that person would send them.

The conversation with the boy at the lost parcels desk hadn't taken more than a couple of seconds, but the woman in the uniform, considering her job done and glad of it, had nevertheless somehow managed to vanish on them during that time. Fenrir, Narugami, and Mayura thus had no company but each other as they took the elevator back down to the basement. There, yet another unhelpful government employee directed them down a flight of steps to the mysterious realm of undeliverable mail.

The series of redirections they were going through had by now begun to give Fenrir the impression that someone was deliberately trying to stymie him. Thus far he'd done his best to shrug it off; after all, if there were one thing he was learning today, it was that humans surrounded the simplest activities with the most bizarre complications imaginable. His first look at the storage basement, however, made him reconsider. This was a huge open space, structurally reminiscent of a parking garage, crammed to bursting with boxes, crates, and bulging bags of who-knew-what. At some point, the mess might've been arranged into tidy rows and columns, but the sheer scale of the place appeared to have stumped any efforts at housekeeping. It resembled nothing so much as a giant cardboard maze.

It occurred to him that he was probably seeing something no dog had ever seen before... but that really didn't help much.

"Oh, wow," breathed Mayura. "Think what might be in here!"

"No, you don't!" Fenrir grabbed her skirt to stop her from running off. "No time for mysteries! We have to find Yamino."

"Of course we do," she agreed. "Now let me see..." she straightened up to take another look around. Fenrir did likewise, but nothing he saw was remotely encouraging. In this place, you could probably pass within ten feet of somebody or something you wanted, and never even realize it.

"Nothing to do but get started, I guess," said Narugami.

Mayura nodded. "Okay," she decided, "we'll have to split up. Narugami-kun, you go left. Otouto-kun, you take the right. I'll go down the middle, and whoever finds Yamino-kun, shout! Got that?"

"Got it," said Narugami.

"Got it," echoed Fenrir.

"Then let's go!" Mayura struck a pose.

Actually getting in among the boxes only increased the impression of a maze. Most of the stacks were higher than Fenrir's head, and it didn't take very long for him to lose track entirely of where he was as he wandered up and down the narrow, crooked aisles. Even if he did find Yamino, it was going to be almost as much of a challenge finding his way back to the door!

"Yamino!" he called. "Are you in here? Daddy needs you!" If people went in here and didn't come back, did the postal service send a search party?

"Yamino-kun!" he heard Mayura calling. "Where are you? Yamino-kun!"

"Hey, Yamino!" Thor chimed in. "Where've you gone?"

"Yamino!" Fenrir's heart sank further. They weren't going to find him, were they? He wasn't here. Something else had come up, he'd been sent someplace else, the trail they'd been following would end here and they wouldn't catch up with him until it was too late. "Yamino!" he repeated desperately. "Where are you?"

There wasno response... at least, not from Yamino. But Fenrir did hear a surprised shout that sounded like a girl.

"Mayura?" he asked.

"Daidouji?" came Thor's voice. "You okay?"

There was a pause before she responded. "Mystery!"

Oh, boy. Fenrir looked around – her cry had come from not far away, somewhere on his left. He couldn't see anything in that direction because of a stack of junk in the way, but when he looked more closely, there was a space between two crates at the bottom of the pile, possibly big enough for him to crawl through. He got down on all fours and wiggled in.

This did not turn out to be a good idea. Fenrir still wasn't used to his human body and had no instinctive idea of how large it was; the space that would have admitted a puppy with lots of room to space was just a bit too small for a twelve-year-old boy. In order to squeeze through, he had to push the pair of crates an inch or so further apart. It wasn't much, but it was enough to bring the rest of the pile tumbling down on top of him.

For a moment he let out a panicked yell, convinced he was going to be buried alive, but most of the miniature avalanche turned out to be greeting cards and Styrofoam. He dug himself out of it, then sat up and looked around.

"Down here!" shouted Thor. The thunder god was at the end of the aisle, waving for Fenrir to come and see. "Are you hurt?

"No, I'm fine!" Fenrir picked himself up and swatted at some packing peanuts that had stuck to his hair, then ran to see what his friends had found.

"Mayura?" he asked. "What happened?"

"We're too late," she replied, pointing.

Fenrir followed her finger to a stack of boxes, one of which had been overturned and fallen on the floor. Shredded paper was spilling out of it, on and around a smaller, light green box with a lable proclaiming its contents to be 'The Super 5000 Carpet Cleaning System – the ultimate in home care efficiency!' Next to it in the heaped paper was something clear and shiny; Narugami bent down and picked it up, shaking the scraps off to reveal a pair of wire-rimmed eyeglasses.

"He's been kidnapped!" exclaimed Mayura, her characteristic melodrama seeming for once not out of place. "It's obvious now – this was all set up! Otouto-kun, your father's enemies distracted Yamino by making his package get lost, and then they sent Loki-kun and Fenrir-chan off chasing a thief so that there wouldn't be anybody to help!" She'd gone all but cross-eyed with excitement. "Mystery!"

That wasn't too difficult from Fenrir's own conclusions about the situation. He sighed and leaned back against a box. The norns must have finally learned something from all those times they'd been outmaneuvered... they'd at last come up with a really and truly foolproof plan. Loki was on his own.

"Maybe we should call the police?" Narugami suggested weakly.

"What good is that going to do?" Fenrir and Mayura both asked at once, for very different reasons; Mayura-logic dictated that policemen were just there to lock up people that the detectives had already caught, while Fenrir knew very well that Loki's enemies were not the type who could be stopped by arresting them.

"If we call the police," said Mayura, speaking with all the authority of someone who has read the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "we'll just waste more time. There's no such thing as a perfect crime, so whoever did this must have left some clues somewhere. We just have to..."

"Look out!" exclaimed Narugami. Fenrir and Mayura both looked up just in time to see the approach of a gigantic box on wheels. The three young people flattened themselves up against the stacks of junk to let it pass – it was nearly four feet square, being wheeled along on a trolley by a short boy with terrible acne. He hadn't seen them because of the box itself blocking his vision, and hadn't heard them because he was wearing headphones that were blaring rap music in his ears.

"Hey!" Narugami shouted as he went by. "Watch where you're going!"

The boy obviously didn't hear that, either, but somebody did... from inside the box, a muffled voice called, "Hello? Is someone out there? Can you hear me?"

Fenrir was so surprised he could only stare. The first to speak was Mayura.

"Yamino-kun?" she asked.

"Mayura-san!" Yamino thumped on the side of his cardboard prison. "I'm in the box! Help!"

"Don't worry, Yamino-kun!" said Mayura. "We'll save you!"

The boy wheeling the cart remained completely oblivious to all of this. He pushed his trolley around a corner and vanished.

"After him!" Mayura ordered.

The boys hardly needed to be told. They ran after the cart, but got around the corner only to find it had vanished among the rows of bags and boxes. Fenrir could have screamed in frustration – this was ridiculous! They'd been so close, just inches from him, and now he'd disappeared all over again!

A moment later, however, he realized that panicking now would be premature. They might not be able to see the box anymore, but Yamino, having determined that friends had come for him, was still calling for help. By following the sound of his voice, they found their way back to the elevators.

Just in time to see the doors close between themselves and their goal.

"Damn it!" shouted Fenrir, running up and giving the metal doors a good kick.

"Stairs!" said Mayura, pointing to a door further down the wall.

Narugami and Mayura took the steps two at a time, but Fenrir's legs were too short to do the same; all he could do was run as fast as he could and try to keep up. How he made it up two flights, he was never quite sure... but running did seem to be a lot easier when desperate panic kept him from thinking too much about where he was putting his feet.

At the top, Mayura burst through the doors into the lobby in proper cops and robbers fashion and stopped short, looking around at all the rather surprised people. Even the fish in the big tank on the far wall seemed to be staring at her in shock. "Where did the cart go?" she demanded.

Somebody pointed left.

"Thank you!" she said brightly, and took off again. Fenrir didn't even get an opportunity to catch his breath.

Going left brought them to a long and considerably less formal hallway that led to a loading dock at the back of the building. The doors were open and the sun shining in, and Fenrir, Narugami, and Mayura had an excellent view as the boy wheeled his box of Yamino into the back of a delivery truck.

"Stop!" shouted Fenrir.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Mayura chimed in. "There's somebody in there!"

But the cart boy could not hear them. He shut the back of the truck, and it rumbled off down the street. The boy turned around, brushing his hands off on the seat of his pants and smiling the satisfied smile of somebody who has done their job and done it well... then yelped in terror as he realized he was surrounded

"Where was that truck going?" Mayura demanded.

"What?" asked the boy, then whined, "hey!" as Narugami pulled the headphones out of his ears. "You don't have to do that. I can hear fine!"

"If you could hear find you'd have known that there was a person in that box!" snapped Narugami, grabbing the boy by the collar and giving him a good shake.

"Where are they taking it?" Fenrir asked.

"I dunno!" the boy held up his hands as if expecting to be attacked. "The scary blonde lady who sent me to get it said she wanted it shipped right away, but she didn't say where it was going... just told me to get it on a truck to the airport immediately!"

"The airport?" echoed Fenrir. As if this could get any worse!

"We'll never catch them!" moaned Mayura.

Narugami let go of the boy's shirt and stood up straight to look at the other vehicles parked by the loading dock. His eyes darted back and forth around the parking lot for a moment, then he smiled. "I've got an idea – over here!"

Not far away was parked another mail truck, and next to it, almost hidden from sight by the truck itself and row of garbage cans, was a little white motor scooter with a shipping firm's logo stenciled on the side. Its owner, identifiable by the same logo embroidered on his baseball cap, was standing in front of the truck, arguing with a post office employee over something written on a clipboard. Thor gestured for Fenrir and Mayura to follow, then crept up to the scooter, careful to keep either the truck or the cans between him and the driver the entire way.

"Okay, come on," he said, climbing on. Mayura got on behind him, leaving Fenrir to bring up the rear, his arms tight around Mayura's waist. "Everybody hold on," said Narugami, turning the key in the ignition. Fenrir obeyed, shutting his eyes – he had a fair amount of the experience with the disasters Thor was able to cause, and the idea of being in a vehicle under the thunder god's control was the sort of thing that gives small children nightmares.

For once, Mayura seemed to manifest some common sense, because it appeared she didn't like this much either. "Narugami-kun," she said, as Thor turned the key in the ignition. "Do you really know how to drive this?"

"Sure," he replied. "I was delivering pizzas on one of these, just last week."

The engine sputtered to life with a sound rather less impressive than a motorcycle roar. The scooter's rightful owner and the man he was arguing with both looked up in startlement.

"Hey!" the owner shouted.

"It's okay!" Mayura called to him, as Narugami hit the gas pedal. "We're detectives! We're commandeering your vehicle in the name of the law and we'll bring it right back!"

The tyres squealed on the pavement as they pulled out of the lot. The delivery boy shouted something after them, but between the engine and the wind in their ears, it was impossible to hear what it was... which was probably a good thing.

"I can't believe we're in an actual car chase!" squealed Mayura. "This is the best day ever!"

Fenrir tightened his grip and leaned out to one side as far as he dared, both to get a better look at what was ahead of them and to get his face out of the way of Mayura's hair, which was blowing back in his eyes. The truck with Yamino's box was just turning a corner ahead of them. "There he goes!" Fenrir said, pointing. Narugami sped up to follow.

"Think about it!" Mayura went on. "We could get a big reward or a medal or something! We'll be in the newspapers and on TV! Beautiful Detective Foils Kidnapping Plot with Help from Faithful Sidekicks!"

In less dire circumstances, Fenrir might have demanded to know who she thought she was calling a sidekick. At the moment, however, he had his mind on much more immediate matters, such as the way Narugami was weaving in and out of the traffic trying to catch up with the truck. Vehicle horns blared on both sides of them as they threaded their way between cars.

"Otouto-kun!" squeaked Mayura. "Not so tight – that hurts!"

"Sorry," said Fenrir, but didn't loosen his grip. "Thor," he said, as the scooter tilted dangerously on its way around a corner, "are you sure you know how to drive?"

"Of course I am!" Narugami swerved around somebody in a Volkswagen.

Fenrir's stomach lurched in unison with the motion of the scooter. "So how did you lose your pizza delivery job?"

"Speeding ticket," was the response.

It figured. Fenrir shut his eyes again.

Ahead of them, a light turned red. For a moment it looked as if the mail truck would make it through, leaving them behind at the intersection, but just in time the driver appeared to change his mind and screeched to a halt that left the nose of the truck sticking out into the crosswalk. Despite his reckless driving, Narugami had not managed to quite close the gap between the vehicles; he was forced to stop several spaces back in another lane. Mayura immediately swung her leg over the scooter and hopped down onto the pavement.

"What are you doing?" Fenrir asked her, grabbing Narugami's jacket so that he couldn't fall off when the light turned green again.

"Rescuing your brother, of course!" She took his hand and helped him down, and the two of them darted through the waiting traffic, earning startled looks and several rude gestures from the people in the cars. Fenrir wondered what they'd do if they didn't make it to the truck before the light changed again, but it looked like his luck was finally changing – they managed to scramble up onto the back fender just seconds before the light turned green, leaving them hanging on for dear life as the truck roared off.

"Now what?" Fenrir shouted over the noise of the traffic. Letting Mayura call the shots was probably a very, very bad idea... but he didn't have any better ideas, and she was certainly behaving as though she were in her element.

"Gotta open the door," she said.

The back door of the truck opened by rolling upwards, but it was operated by a switch; there was no crank or handle to use in forcing it open manually. Fenrir found this a fairly daunting problem, but Mayura didn't seem to; she got right to things, working her fingers into the narrow gap between door and floor. It didn't look as if it could possibly work, but to Fenrir's amazement, she actually managed to push it up far enough to get a proper grip.

Belatedly, he realized that things might proceed faster if he helped – he slipped his own fingers into the gap she'd opened and pulled. The door did not like being treated this way. The machinery could be heard grinding unhappily, and the edge of the door bit painfully into his hands, but with a lot of grunting effort, they got it open far enough for Fenrir to squirm under.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark – something they'd always done almost instantly when he was a dog – but once they had, the giant box was certainly impossible to miss. He knocked on the side of it while Mayura took her own turn at wriggling under the door.

"Yamino?" he asked. "Are you in there?"

"Nii-san!" was the joyful reply from inside the box. "How in the world did you find me?"

"It's a long story," replied Fenrir, cringing to hear himself say that – it sounded like a line from the type of movies Mayura watched. "Mayura and I are going to get you out... as soon as she manages to get in," he added. Mayura had gotten herself stuck halfway through the space under the door.

"Otouto-kun," she reached for Fenrir. "A little help?"

He grabbed her jacket and pulled, to no avail until the truck pulled up at another red light. Once again, the driver waited until the last possible moment to decide he wasn't going to try to make it through on the amber, and lurched to a halt that not only jerked Mayura free but sent her and Fenrir both tumbling head over teakettle, to land in a heap against the side of the box, which tipped over until it was resting against the front of the truck.

"Ow!" exclaimed Yamino. There was a brief pause, then he asked, "everybody all right out there?" asked Yamino.

"We're fine, Yamino-kun!" replied Mayura. She and Fenrir scrambled to their feet and pushed the box back upright. "Okay, Otouto-kun," said Mayura, "I'm going to lift you up." She took hold of Fenrir under the arms. "One, two, three!" she counted, and heaved him up on top of the box.

He climbed up. The flaps of the box were held together with a couple of layers of silver duct tape, which really wasn't much of an obstacle, but would have been insurmountable to a small dog with only his teeth for tools. It was, however, no problem at all to a pair of hands. After a bit of effort getting a piece started, Fenrir peeled the tape off easily, balled it up and threw it aside. When he opened the flaps, he could almost have fainted from relief to see Yamino, sitting inside the box half-buried in crumpled newspapers.

"Nii-san!" Yamino cried happily, then did a double-take. "Nii-san?"

Fenrir was not in any mood to explain. "No time," he said. "Come on, Daddy's in trouble!"

"Trouble?" Yamino picked himself up out of the newspaper. "What kind of trouble?"

"I'll explain on the way," said Fenrir. "We have to go now."

The two brothers climbed out of the box, and were promptly tackled by Mayura. "Yamino-kun!" she said, hugging him. "What happened to you?"

"I'm not sure," he confessed. "I had just found my carpet cleaner when somebody grabbed me from behind and stuffed me into that box." He attempted to straighten his clothes. "I lost my glasses, too..."

"Oh, that's okay. We found them." Mayura held them out.

"Oh, good!" Yamino accepted them and cleaned the lenses on the tail of his shirt. "Thank you, Mayura-san. Nii-san," he turned to Fenrir. "Where did..."

"Wait. 'Nii-san'?" Mayura looked at Yamino, then at Fenrir. "Yamino-kun... you're the older brother."

Yamino and Fenrir exchanged a look.

"Oh," said Yamino, "don't worry about that. It's sort of a family joke, that's all."

"I see." Mayura nodded, happy again. "Okay, then, let's go help your Daddy!"

Fenrir squeezed back out of the truck first, followed by Yamino, whose slender frame made it through with a minimum of effort. Mayura was, once again, more of a problem. Although girls' school uniforms were designed to hide it as much as possible, she did indeed have something of a figure, and couldn't fit easily through the narrow gap. Loki's sons were forced to wait for another red light, then stepped down off the truck and each took one of her hands.

"Hold on tight," said Yamino. "We'll just let the truck do the pulling."

And it did... much too well. The light changed, and the truck drove away... yanking Mayura's hands out of the boys' grip and leaving them standing in the middle of the street, listening to her fading call for help.

Half a second later the scooter pulled up, with Narugami still at the wheel. "I'll get Daidouji," he promised. "You two go and help Loki."

"Absolutely," Fenrir nodded.

"Thank you very much!" Yamino said.

"The train station's back that way, we just passed it." Narugami pointed. "Good luck, you two!"

---

Twenty-five minutes later, the brothers arrived back at the abandoned warehouse where Yggdrasil had taken root. There was no external sign of what had gone on inside the building, and Fenrir suddenly had the horrifying thought that perhaps they'd open the door and find no tree, no Loki, no anything. The only way to find out, however, was to look; they climbed the steps, then paused outside the doors.

"It's been over an hour since I went into the post office building," said Yamino. He checked his watch, and his eyes widened. "Nearly two! Do you think he's still there?"

"He'd better be," said Fenrir. If he wasn't, then he was probably someplace where not even Mayura's unbelievable luck would be able to lead them. "Ready?"

"Ready," Yamino affirmed.

They each grabbed a door handle and pulled... and found themselves confronted by a solid wall of tangled roots. These began twisting and writhing unhappily, as if they did not like the sunlight... and was it Fenrir's imagination, or were they hissing at the two young men standing before them?

At the bottom of the mess, roots and branches moved aside with a rustling noise, and a few small tendrils began snaking out. A tinkle of glass breaking brought their attention to another branch, slithering out through a window. The edges of the roof began to buckle as branches forced their way out at the seams.

"I'll cut the branches," said Yamino, rolling up his sleeves. "You get Loki-sama out."

Fenrir nodded.

And it was probably a good thing Mayura had been left behind in Tokyo – distracting her from this would probably have been impossible. The best they would have been able to hope for would be that something would come along and knock her out – hardly a rare occurrence, really, but not one anybody would feel comfortable counting on. Better she be somewhere else... because there was absolutely no telling what she would have done had she seen Yamino and his brother transform before her eyes into a snake that would have sent most dinosaurs running for cover and a wolf the size of a city block.

Although, whatever her reaction might have been, it almost certainly would have involved many repetitions of 'creepy mystery!'

The brothers dove into the mess, Jormungandr leading the way with the Fenris Wolf right behind him. The wall of twisted growth would have cowed even the bravest gardener, and the tangles would have been nigh impenetrable even if they hadn't been capable of fighting back... but these writhed and crawled, growing thicker even as the powerful jaws of the world serpent sliced them in two.

The roots tried to twine around the snake, but could not get a grip on its sleek, muscular body. What they could do, however, was grow back across the tunnel it was gnawing out as it went... the brothers found themselves plunged into darkness as they made their way towards the centre. Again and again, too, roots tried to close in around the Fenris Wolf. He lost clumps of fur to their twining tentacles as he hurried along.

Finally, there was Loki. The tree, literally filling the warehouse, was no longer able to move fast, but slowly and surely it had been pulling the little god in towards its ever-thickening trunk. The wood had already closed in around his legs... in perhaps another half hour, he would have been consumed by it.

"Keep the branches back," the snake hissed to his brother, then tore into the trunk.

This time, it was definitely not imagination – the tree screamed as Jormungandr's venomous fangs sliced into the living wood. Root, branch, and leaf shuddered in pain and lashed around wildly. The Fenris Wolf snarled at them, then realized that they were not attacking... in fact, they were retreating. The tree was shrinking; branches and roots retracted into the slimming trunk, which shrank quickly to the size of an ordinary tree... then a shrub... then a sprout...

And then it vanished into the rubble that was all that remained of the floor, leaving an unconscious child god and two monsters alone in the vast, empty space of the warehouse.

---

Loki paused, his teacup halfway to his mouth. "I'm sorry, Mayura," he said. "What was that?"

"I said," she replied, around a mouthful of chocolate chip cooki – Yamino had been baking – "that Narugami-kun didn't catch up with me until they were unloading at the airport. If he hadn't gotten there in time, I would have been put on a plane and shipped to Canada!"

Somehow, she sounded as if she were almost sorry things hadn't worked out that way.

"Well, I'm glad he managed to retrieve you," said Loki.

Mayura nodded. "But then," she paused to take another bite. "Then, the police arrived, and they said that Narugami and I were under arrest for stealing the scooter. I don't know why the delivery guy would have called them – we did say we were just borrowing it – but it all turned out okay."

"Really." Loki set his teacup down and leaned forward to listen. "How so?"

"Oh, I just told them we were detectives," Mayura explained, "and we needed the scooter to foil mysterious kidnappers and rescue my friends' father, who's a secret agent. So they realized right away how serious the situation had been, and let us go."

"I see," said Loki. He didn't doubt it – somewhere in Tokyo, right now, a policeman was probably writing a report on the dangerous scooter-stealing lunatics who were still at large because he'd been too frightened of them to arrest them.

"So then we got back on the train and came home," Mayura finished, "and we were just in time to see Yamino-kun carry you out of the building. Now it's your turn, Loki-kun," she added brightly. "Where were you all morning? You weren't hurt, were you?"

"Oh, no." Loki smiled. "I just got a bit lost following the camera thief. I sat down to wait for somebody to find me, and I suppose I must have nodded off."

"Fenrir led me right to him, just before you came back," Yamino added.

Mayura nodded. "I guess that was a lot of excitement for somebody so young... you know, it's easy to forget that you're just a little boy, Loki-kun, you act so grown up. Anyway, Yamino-kun," she looked up at him, "what happened to your father? Did you rescue him?"

"Of course I did," Yamino nodded. "He's just fine."

"Oh, good!" said Mayura. "The mystery was solved, then! But I wish I could have gotten to meet him... or at least say goodbye to your brother."

"They had to go home," Yamino told her. "They were very grateful for your help, though – they told me to pass on their thanks." He took a cookie off the plate and offered it to Fenrir, who was curled on the couch. The puppy snatched it from his fingers and sat down again, chewing contentedly.

"I guess a secret agent does need to be very careful who he reveals his identity to," sighed Mayura. She sat silently a moment, then brightened. "Although, if he's that secret, then he could be anybody! I might already know him, and not even realize it!"

"That you could," Yamino agreed with a smile. "Another cookie?"

"Yes, please!" said Mayura.

"Me, too," Fenrir spoke up.

"Of course." Yamino handed a cookie to Mayura, then broke one in half for Fenrir.

Mayura giggled. "Fenrir-chan is so cute, the way he yaps for food! But I read somewhere that you're not supposed to give dogs people food... especially chocolate. Isn't it bad for them?"

"He'll be fine," promised Loki.

And Fenrir was fine... he had earned a plate of cookies and some time to lie around on the couch, and was enjoying them immensely. He never wanted to go through another day like that. No more running around, no more worrying about impossible complications surrounding ordinary activities, no more having to figure out what colour things were, and definitely no more of the headache involved with actually carrying on a conversation with Mayura.

Yes indeed... who cared what was inside a post office, anyway?A dog's life was good.

THE END