Ok let's tie things up in Asgard and get this puppy rolling....
It took a month an a half, hardly an eyeblink to the immortals of Asgard, but still enough time to theoretically make Loki "stew" for a bit before they took him to the courthouse for his trial. How exactly being treated with the same amount of disdain he had always faced in the rest of Asgard while he was in the dungeons was meant to be punishment, other than dealing with Thor's frequent awkward attempts to repair his relationship with Loki and convince him to recant his proclamation which Loki found quite dreadful, he had no idea. The food was good, if far more simple than that of the Royal Court, he had a cot to sleep in, and what his cage lacked in creature comforts it made up for in solitude. And honestly, after a year living (if one could call it that) among the Chitauri anything was a relief by comparison.
Although they could have at least brought him something to read. Even the Man of Fury offered him a magazine.
Still, the time eventually came when Loki was brought to face the tribunal that would supposedly decide his fate. He stared with a bored expression as the litany of charges ranging from his allowing the Jotun infiltrators into Asgard during Thor's coronation (something there was ABSOLUTELY no proof of, thank you very much. Loki had been more careful than that.), to his murder of Laufey, his attempt to destroy Jotunheim, the breaking of the Bifrost, conspiring with a foreign power, attacking a protected realm in the form of Midgard, murder, acts of malicious sorcery, etc., etc. Honestly, he tuned it all out about halfway through. They all knew neither the tribunal not the rest of Asgard cared one whit about what he had to say. The only one in attendance that would care was Thor from where he stood in the back of the room "hidden" under a ridiculous black cloak.
"What have you to say to these charges, prisoner?" the magistrate asked with a cool smirk.
"Does it matter?" Loki drawled lazily.
"It does for the public record. Your crimes against the Realm Eternal must be addressed," the magistrate sniffed back.
"Fine. Then let me first point out that there is no evidence that Loki Odinson allowed and Jotun into Asgard during Prince Thor's coronation. Something that the Heimdall and the Allfather himself would have to admit to under oath. And I fail to see how the death of the sovereign king of Jotunheim is any responsibility of Asgards considering that Laufey had declared war with Asgard following Prince Thor's attack on that realm. Or how killing Laufey to save the incapacitated Allfather's life, and very well that of Queen Frigga counts as muder. And considering the fact that Loki Odinson had been named legal regent by Frigga herself and was in fact betrayed by four of his supposedly closest friends who sought to defy the Allfather's last standing order before he fell into the Odinsleep I also fail to see how his use of the Bifrost as the reigning ruler of Asgard, broke a single law. It might have offended Prince Thor's newfound morality, but it was still within Loki Odinson's rights. And anyone who bothered to ask Prince Thor for an account of the battle will discover that it was he, and he alone, that destroyed the observatory and part of the Bifrost. Although all of that is moot as Loki Odinson was declared dead when he fell from the shattered Bifrost. As was proven more than a month ago and acknowledged by the Allfather, I am Senju Loki Hashirama and not Loki Odinson," Loki smoothly explained.
"You dare insult this court with your trickery, Silvertonge?" the magistrate growled.
"No, I present the facts as they are. Nothing more. Further, as to the charge of conspiring with a foreign power, how exactly am I guilty of that? I, after all, am not an Asgardian citizen. I was born on Jotunheim, and the only place that would claim me as a citizen of their nation, much less their world, was the nation of Hi no Kuni. If anything, the only court that should have anything resembling a legal right to try me would be one on Jotunheim. I suppose Midgard could charge me with war crimes, but they abdicated that right when they forced Prince Thor to bring me to Asgard with the Tessaract. None of the charges against me, as opposed to those that faced Loki Odinson, were committed in Asgard. And last I checked, not even the Realm Eternal bore the right to charge and punish those of one foreign realm for their misdeeds against another foreign realm," Loki continued with a smug smile.
"You will not escape your punishment with your sly words this day Liesmith. This is not the Royal Court where you can play on the Queen's sympathies. I do not acknowledge your defense and I will be the one to pass sentence upon you," The magistrate countered with a deadly leer.
"Ah ignore the evidence and damn the consequences. Asgardian justice at its finest," Loki sneered.
"You'll see justice at the end of the executioner's axe, Frost Giant. Just like you should have when the Allfather found you," the Magistrate sneered.
Something seemed to light behind Loki's eyes for a moment before his posture changed subtly as he responded, "Oh I doubt that."
"Feh, do you think someone will come to safe you, Jotun runt. You have no allies here," the magistrate informed him with an air of superiority.
"Ignoring the oaf at the back of the audience in the room in the cloak that is most likely ready to use his overgrown meat tenderizer to turn your head into past for your behavior aside, you may be right. But then again, I never was one to go crying for help in a crisis. I prefer to make my own luck. The important thing was that my valid and legal arguments were recorded my the transcribing runes and cannot be altered. After all, they give me reason to defend myself from what is an illegal attack since I am no citizen of Asgard," Loki replied.
"So you think to go down fighting do you. Not much of a challenge without your magick sorcerer," the magistrate replied. "Guards, teach this fool his place," he ordered.
What followed was more than a shock for most of the room as Loki leaped high into the air in a move that most Aesir could not hope to match, performing a somersaulting backflip as he moved his hands in a series of complicated handsigns as he called out "Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu," while inverted above the guards. Needless to say, there was a bit of a panic as the Trickters carms truned into rapidly growing tree branches that shor out and knocked two guards each to the floor with enough force to break bones despite his "bound" powers.
"What sorcery is this?" the magistrate demanded his face red with fury until it paled as Loki narrowed his eyes at the man as the wood retracted and his arms retunred to normal.
"Actually, it's ninjutsu. Rather similar to sorcery I'll admit but more of a related discipline rather than the same thing," Loki informed the man with a cheerful smile. At he took a menacing step toward the fool that had dared to threaten him moments ago.
"Loki, that is enough, brother," Thor called out as he tossed off his cloak and took Mjolnir into his hand as he prepared to fight his brother.
Loki sighed internally before taking a brief glace over his shoulder at Thor. he returned his attention to the magistrate as he spat, "Know that your Prince just saved your life worm. And even that is only because I have no desire to add an Asgardian murder charge to my record after taking so much effort to rid myself of the rest of your petty allegations. Pray to whatever gods you believe in that I never have reason to see you again under more favorable circumstances. I will not be so merciful a second time."
"Brother, you must stop. You have nowhere to go," Thor insisted. "The building is warded against trying to teleport out. You can not escape."
Loki looked thoroughly amused even as he rubbed his newly unbound wrists, the expanding wood of his jutsu having snapped open the warded bands that limited the rest of his magick. "You have a point, there, Thor. The one door out is behind you and I have no desire to get into a protected battle with you when I have places to be. I suppose I shall just have to be... creative," Loki replied with a grin as his hands moved again at breakneck speeds.
"No!" Thor bellowed as he dove at Loki, only to fall through the magickal clone.
From where he stood unnoticed behind the magistrate the real Loki whispered, "He always falls for that one," before kicking the older man, who barely had time to yelp in fright, before he was launched bodily into Thor, giving Loki the time needed to complete his next jutsu. "Mokuton: Mokury no Jutsu ," Loki announced as he summoned a dragon of wood nearly whose head crashed through the roof of the courhouse, making a convenient exit for Loki to leap out of. The Trickster looked down and offered a jaunty wave before he called down, "Sorry to run off, but places to go people to see and all that. Have fun trying to find me," Loki announces as he vanished from the head of the wood dragon in a blur of speed before the summoned 'creature' took off down the streets of Asgard eliciting screams and other exclamations of surprise and fright.
It was a good distance away, and cloaked from Heimdall's sight through his usual means that Loki rematerialized from his Shunshin in a swirl of leaves. He smirked as he moved through a few more hand signs and said, "Moku Bunshin no Jutsu," prompting three different tendrils of wood to shoot out of his body and grow until they formed perfect clones of the original Trickster. Once the "flesh" of the clones took on a normal pallor rather than that of wood the three turned to face their creator. "All right, you three know what to do. One in Asgard. One in Midgard. The other will makes waves in areas that will keep the Chitauri from looking for me. Get to it," Loki ordered them.
The three took off in different directions with playful replies, of "See you," "Gotcha," and "Say hi to Tsunade for us," before vanishing off into the distance.
"My clones still end up far too cheerful. I wonder if my fragment had the same issue?" Loki mused to himself as he centered his mind on his Astral Self and sought out the piece of himself he felt go active during his "trial" as Hela predicted it would. Once this was settled he would have to ask her where she learned that tidbit of information. The ancient gods of Asgard knew the Norns would not reveal anything to help Loki. In the end, he supposed the matter could wait as he finally made contact with the portion of himself that Orochimaru had raised. Odd. Why does it feel like there a thousands of distorted Moku Bunshins in the area? I invented Mokuton by combining Elven magicks with my chakra affinities to develop a new form of ninjutsu. It should be impossible for anyone outside of my family to use it and Tsunade never showed any aptitude for it when I observed her over the years. This will bear looking into, Loki thought to himself as he used his connection to his other self to guide him as he faded from Asgard and let himself fall into the shadowed paths between the branches of the Yggdrasil.
And when next be became fully aware of his surroundings, he saw his resurrected fragment of himself telling Sasuke and his companions a highly-edited version of the history of Konoha. Loki let the clone ramble for a bit before he cleared his throat and interjected, "Of course that is only half of the story. And you may not be quite ready to even believe the rest of it. Now, Orochimaru-kun, be a good boy and tell where I can find my cute granddaughter, would you? I've traveled ever so far to visit her."
Orochimaru was joined by the illustrious company Sarutobi and Tobirama in shivering at the sight of the grin on Loki's face as the Edo Tensai version of Hashirama cheerfully waved and said, "Hey me, long time no see. Welcome home."
