It's strange, that you hardly ever see Loki with kids his own age. It's a pity, he needs friends that aren't years older than him.

So, when I saw the boy Kazumi doing something to Loki's door, I knew I had to say something.

"Kazumi-kun! What are you doing? Are you locked out?"

"Oh, Mayura-san." He smiled, quite charmingly. "Loki appears to be out."

"Oh!" I said, disappointed.

The boy continued working at the door with a hair pin. "Aha!" he exclaimed, as the lock clicked and the door swung open.

"Kazumi-kun... did you just pick the lock?"

The boy nodded.

"Wow! That's so cool! Can you teach me?"

He just looked at me, then turned back and walked into the house.

"So, hey, Kazumi-kun... why are we breaking in?" I asked, in a low voice.

"I wanted to... rearrange Loki's furniture."

"Ah! Like in the TV show! As a surprise for when he comes home!"

"... something like that."

The boy regarded the plant just inside the doorway for a few moments, then picked it up and took it in the direction of the bathroom.

"Hey, Kazumi-kun, is there anything I can do to help?" I asked, when he returned.

He paused for a moment pulling a chair across the room. "Well... you could move that sofa over there," he said, pointing across the room. "So it forms an l-shape."

"Okay!"

"And can you roll up the round rug and put it away somewhere?"

"Sure!"

Kazumi began diligently removing the doors from the bookcases with a screwdriver.

When I was finished, Kazumi was nowhere to be seen. I eventually found him in what must be Loki's bedroom, dragging the bed so that the foot faced the door.

"Um, I've finished in the living room," I said.

"Have you?" he said. "That's good." He pulled the bed into place, a couple of inches from the wall.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to do?"

He dug around in his pockets and produced some dried lavender and other flowers.

"Can you put these in a vase somewhere?"

"Of course!" I said.

As I left the room, I saw Kazumi moving the mirror to be at the head of the bed.

While I was finishing arranging the flowers in the front hall, Kazumi entered the room again, and stood back to survey his work. "That should do," he said, sounding pleased.

And not a moment too soon, as we immediately heard Loki's voice outside. The boy bolted for the back door.

"Hey! Kazumi-kun, don't you want to see what his reaction is?" I cried, but he was already gone.

Loki entered the house with what sounded like extreme caution. "Surprise!" I cried, as he entered the living room.

He blinked. "Mayura," he said, slowly. "What's going on?"

"Kazumi-kun and I rearranged the house!"

Loki looked around the room.

"You say Kazumi helped you do this?"

I nodded.

"That Heimdall... I wonder what he's up to."

I blinked at him, confused.

"Well, it can't hurt to leave things the way they are. I'd hate for all your hard work to be wasted."

"Thank you, Loki-kun!"

--

The next day I hurried to Loki's house straight after school. "Hey, Loki-kun, what do you think about these disappearing girls? It's a strange mystery, I think we should... Loki-kun, what happened to you?"

He glared at me. "Nothing," he mumbled.

"Don't say it's nothing! What happened, did you get beaten up investigating? Tell me!"

"I fell down the stairs," he muttered.

"You got a black eye from falling down the stairs?"

"Oh. No, that would have been the bathroom door handle."

"You hit yourself on the bathroom door handle?"

"...Well... you could say that the bathroom door handle hit me."

There was a distant explosion from the kitchen and sounds of distress from Yamino.

"What happened?" asked Loki, in a resigned tone of voice.

"The kettle exploded!"

"The kettle... exploded."

"Yes!"

I hurried in to help him clean up. Yamino was cleaning hot water off the bench. "That's horrible, are you hurt?"

He shook his head. "I was on the other side of the kitchen when it happened. Luckily."

As I reached for a sponge to help him, I accidentally knocked a glass off the bench.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it, Mayura-san," he said, in a long-suffering tone of voice.

The doorbell rang, and Yamino went to answer it while I finished mopping up the water.

"Ah!" came a cry of horror from the doorway.

"What?" That was Loki's voice.

"My mail order ming vase! It's smashed to pieces!"

There was the distant sound of a thud, like that of, say, somebody's head hitting the wall.

"Um, Loki-kun..." I said, walking back into the living room. "Has this sort of thing been happening all day?"

He nodded. "Ever since yesterday evening."

"Wah! How mysterious!"

Yamino entered the room, and dumped a box on the floor. It tinkled at the impact.

"Do you think..." I began.

"No," said Loki.

I glared at him, miffed.

"Go on, Mayura-san," said Yamino, kindly.

"Well, when Kazumi-kun and I rearranged the house yesterday... Could it have disrupted the energy flow in the house."

The two of them stared at me.

"Aha!" said Yamino. "Let me get my feng shui book!"

He returned a few moments later, with a thick volume labelled "Feng Shui Basics".

"Where did you get that, Yamino-kun?" asked Loki, curiously.

"Mail order!" he said, proudly. "Now, let's see," he continued, flicking through the volume, "feng shui for the house..."

He looked around the living room, with a slight frown. "The book tells me that..." He paused. "Everything in this room is arranged in exactly the wrong positions for good feng shui."

"Ah! Really?" I said, horrified. "I'm so sorry, Loki-kun!"

He ignored me, and wrote something on a sheet of paper in front of him.

"Hey, Loki-kun, what are you writing about?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Mayura, I don't suppose you'd like to help me put everything back where it belongs?"

I deflated. "Okay, Loki-kun."

As I moved the table, I managed to get a look at the paper. It said, in very clear writing, "Note: Kill Heimdall."

THE END