[FFML] [FIC][DEATH NOTE AU] Silent Partner, Unfinished Business ch. 09
Paul Durant
031537 at comcast.net
Fri Dec 13 10:59:35 PST 2019
I am not Brian Azzarello, author of 100 Bullets, nor am I Tsugumi
Ohba, author of Death Note.
Goodnight, Mrs. Tomago... Wherever you are.
* * * * * * *
SILENT PARTNER, UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
NEVER A CLOUDY DAY
* N A O M I *
The shinigami was leering at me. His face was built so it could do
nothing but leer and grin. He hovered closer and closer to us. Laughing.
His laugh was the kind of sound that only echoed off of bones.
"What's wrong?" His lips didn't quite match what he was saying.
But the malicious glee definitely fit. "Haven't you seen a shinigami
before? Oh, that's right. There was something you had to do, wasn't
there?"
He was moving to me. No. Misa. If he was going to possess her,
then... I had no idea how that would work. But I could see him, at least.
Misa was in my lap, quivering. Maybe this thing didn't know... Maybe if it
went for me instead... At least if it went for me to possess, it would
have a real difficult time writing names or circumstances of death. I let
Misa slide from my lap to the forest floor. I extended my quivering hand
for it to grasp. Beseeching the god of death.
"Ah. You want to greet me, then?" It extended its spindly hand. It
slid into my own for a handshake. It felt slimy. Like an improperly
prepared corpse. I grasped it tight.
I rolled back and yanked the shinigami onto my outstretched foot.
It made a confused caw sound, and I flipped us until I drove its face into
the dirt. I couldn't quickly stand, so I drew my pistol and I fired three
times right into the base of the creature's gangly neck before it had any
idea what was going on.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
The echoes of gunshots vanished. Eaten by the fog.
Everything was still. The creature sat up. Unharmed. Unperturbed.
Catching it by surprise did nothing.
"That's really rude, isn't it?" the thing said as it slowly turned
its head to look back at us. I scrambled to put myself between it and
Misa. Nabiki and Taro looked around in confusion and terror. I had no idea
what I was going to do if we'd summoned this thing instead of just being
able to see it. If it wanted Misa. God, what if she had a seizure so it
could possess her? I couldn't get out of here carrying her. "I was hoping
for a much warmer welcome than that." It was standing and leering at me.
Eyes not pointing at me. Shit. Shit. Maybe if I grab her by the collar her
legs will wake up on their own.
I gasped in pain as I unfolded my knee to stand. Oh God, I could
not run on this. I grabbed Misa by her shirt, maybe she --
Her eyes snapped open and she gasped as well. "Aaaaaaaagh!" she
squealed, but it seemed like an intentional vocalization. "I'm, I'm, I'm
back?" She looked up at me, then darted her vision everywhere else. "I'm,
I'm..." She took a deep breath. "I'm okay now. I'm okay. I'm okay now.
It's okay. Everything is okay." Her gasps were becoming regular breaths. I
helped her to her feet, to see the creature now squatting on a dead tree
root poking out of the volcanic soil. It still hadn't touched her.
She saw it. She dry-heaved again, and I had to grab her, keep her
from falling. I was only on one leg because I was holding the cane out to
the creature, maybe I could just keep it at bay.
And then Misa said "R-Ryuk!" Like she recognized it.
"Misa!" it croaked. "Your friend is very rude, isn't she? Tell her
we're friends. Just because she can't hurt my body, doesn't mean she can't
hurt my feelings." It grinned at me.
"N-Naomi." Her breaths were fluctuating like she was getting
closer to and further from crying. "That's Ryuk. He can't, he can't, he
won't hurt us. He can't possess anyone either. He just watches." She did
not say he was a friend, I noted. "I'm... I'm gonna fall over again. I
need to lay down. H-hold me. Please, hold me."
I did, the best I could. She fell onto me. I couldn't support both
of our weight on my knees, so I staggered backwards a few steps, until my
back was against a tree. She was sobbing. Crying into my breast. Holding
on to me for dear life. 'Ryuk' just stared at us.
"I'm sorry, Naomi," she choked. "I'm so sorry. I... I, I... I
remember. I, the Second Kira, she used that notebook, and, and, and when I
touched it, I got, I got back the memories she lost." She sniffed back a
wad of ugly snot. Her makeup was running down her face and smearing on my
jacket, and I slowly slid downward until I was seated and she was laying
against me. "I, she, the notebook... It... It was so easy... it felt so
good... She, she, I was useful... And... And... and..." she shuddered. "It
was me. I'm the, the the the second Kira. It was me. I did it."
We had an audience. A gangly god of death. A depraved, remorseless
rapist and murderer by proxy. And her helpless victim. All were staring
silently as I held Misa. Stroked her hair. To tell her I was there for
her. She sobbed wordlessly into me, and I held her. It was all I could do.
"I'm... I'm sorry..." What was there to say? To add? I already
knew what she had done under that thing's influence. So did she. She
killed people to send a message, she killed people for hurting Kira's
feelings, and for trying to stop him. She knew all of that and was trying
to stop it from happening. But I guess there's different kinds of knowing.
"I did it... I'm sorry... It was, it felt so right..."
All three were staring, but only Ryuk could speak. He was
uncomfortably close to us. "I'm not sure what is happening," he said, like
it was really interesting to him. And then he just stared with his mouth
hanging open, displaying his awful teeth. A harlequin of death.
Misa sniffed. "No. No. No, I'm... I'm okay. I'm okay." Slowly, she
stood again. "It's okay. I'm okay. I only -- I'm okay. I'm okay. She isn't
okay but I'm okay." She wiped her tears and helped me to my feet.
"We've... there is important stuff. To do. Uh. This is... this is Ryuk."
she gestured to the shinigami. "I'm -- but I'm okay. I'm okay." Closed her
eyes. Deep breath. "Ryuk is the shinigami who met Light. Guh-gave him the
Death Note. We m-m-m, we m-met, no, it's okay. I'm okay."
"And this is Naomi Misora," Ryuk said. "She's rather important
now, isn't she? I didn't quite understand what was going on. I gather you
two have been very busy."
"Y, yeah. She's Naomi Misora. She's, she's smart and she's tough
and she's cool and I love her so don't mess with her." Deep breath. "If
you do she'll figure out some way to kill you."
"Oh?" Ryuk asked. "How exciting. How many humans have you killed
in the past few days, anyway? The old fashioned way? You're clearly very
good at it. Maybe you could kill a shinigami! I don't want to cross
someone like that. Or maybe I do, just to see how!" Was he mocking me, or
his admiration genuine? Which was worse?
"Ryuk is... not like Rem. He's, uh, he's just watching," Misa
said. "He's not, like, actively taking part. So he won't, uh, he won't
help us. To take down Kira. But he's not going to help Kira to stop us,
either. Isn't, isn't that right, Ryuk?"
Ryuk chortled. "That was what I told our 'friend' Kira. Right
before I left him. Of course, he probably doesn't remember... Dying makes
you forget things, doesn't it?" He tilted his head and stared at me. I
think. His eyes were still pointing different directions. But he was
definitely mocking me.
I turned away from him. I was still holding on to the notebook...
to Misa's old notebook... by the spine, and when I turned, I jostled it. A
piece of paper fell out, folded. Misa leapt on it like it was a grenade
and fell into a heap as she grabbed it before it hit the ground. "Ack! I
have it! I have it!" she said. She sat up. We read it together, in
silence.
//MISA, BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, YOU SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED
EVERYTHING. DO YOU REMEMBER MY FRIEND AT TO-OH UNIVERSITY WHO WENT BY THE
NAME HIDEKI RYUGA? WRITE HIS REAL NAME IN THE NOTEBOOK AND KILL HIM.
THEN, TAKE A FEW PAGES FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE, AND BURY THIS
NOTEBOOK AGAIN SO IT CAN'T BE FOUND. WHEN YOU SEE ME AGAIN, CASUALLY TOUCH
ME WITH A PIECE OF THE NOTEBOOK.
IF YOU DO THIS FOR ME, MISA AMANE, I WILL LOVE YOU FOR THE REST OF
MY LIFE.//
Misa choked up. Tears were welling in her eyes. "He knew... He
knew I would come. And I would get my memory back. So he promised to love
me." Her voice was so quiet. Small. Unable to even echo in the great,
empty, foggy cavern that she thought her soul was. "I can't... I... I
don't think we should do that. If we leave the notebook here these two
could get it. Or Light. If we show them the letter... it won't work. His
handwriting is totally different than normal. I think he wrote it
left-handed, maybe. So, so so he can say someone forged it and didn't do a
good job copying it. And there's nothing in the letter I don't already
know." I took the letter from her. She was right. It looked more like a
forgery than the real thing, given the circumstances. Especially since we
wouldn't be willing to turn the notebooks over, not when there was a
chance Light would get his hands on one.
"Ryuzaki," I said, pointing to the two confused captives.
"Right! Right." she said. Any amount of time I was quiet was
enough for her mind to go wandering to dark places and need to be pulled
back to the light, I think. "We can still make sure L gets these two.
Ryuzaki can help Taro and she doesn't have anything to offer Light,
right?" I confirmed. We could also leave any non-fatal evidence we wanted
someone to look at. I sure didn't have a lab. "Let's, uh, let's call about
them on Nabiki's phone when we get out. And..." Her voice was low already,
but she made sure neither could hear her speaking. "We need to go to a
hospital. I think you tore your injury again." She caressed my right
side... and her hand came up slick with blood. Nervously, she licked her
red fingers clean.
* * * * *
On September 19th, 1997, Hayato Amane has to pick his daughter
Misa up from school. To sign the discipline report she was given in a
principal's presence, ensuring the child didn't throw it away or eat it.
She cannot meet his gaze when he comes to pick her up. Nor can she
in the car on the way home. Not until he pulls into the drive-thru lane at
WcDonald's does she look at him to say "I'm not hungry, Daddy," and then
it's back to staring out the window.
He pulls into a parking space. A long pause. "Do... do you want to
talk about it, pumpkin?"
"I'm sorry..." she mumbles.
"I know you're sorry," he says. He cannot reach over to clasp her
shoulder reassuringly as he drives, not with his bad hand. He has to
unbuckle his seat and come to a stop to comfort his daughter. "I wanna
know what you're feeling. You're really upset. It isn't like you to behave
like this."
"It was all Sayaka!" she whines. "We were talking about the
culture festival? And I said I was gonna be an actress? And she said, she
said I'd never be an actress because I was too fat and nobody would like
me? And she and her stupid sister laughed at me and, and and she shouldn't
be able to say things like that! It's not fair!" And then all the energy
that was rushing through her words leaked out of her, and she slumped
again. "So I pulled on her hair and I called her a skank and I got in
trouble and now you're mad at me."
There are several things he could say here. But being an old
softie, he says "...Is it really important to you to be an actress? You
didn't act like this when someone told you girls can't be astronauts."
"It is! It is!" she pouts. "I'd be super good at it! Remember when
we made that talk show for class and it turned into like a little skit?
And, and I was the Virgin Mary in Mom's pageant, and people liked my
performance, right? If I was an actress, lots of people would like it! And
people would know who I was and they'd like me!" That last part is the
most important.
"...Well... You'll have to be punished for attacking that girl.
You're better than that, Misa." She looks down in shame. "Acting is a very
hard job, you can't be an actress by hitting people who say you aren't. It
takes a lot more commitment than just wanting it." Then he takes a deep
breath.
"But... I know someone that does home video distribution. We can
see if anyone needs a young actress for some projects. To see what it's
like, get your foot in the door."
Misa's face lights up and she promises to take this chance very
seriously. She was ashamed of herself for lashing out to defend her
identity instead of proving her identity valid, but it wouldn't be the
last time she did that.
* N A O M I *
We couldn't stop for medical care before, not while we were
hounding Nabiki and Isamu. They could have gotten away. Now, though, it
was us and Light. We knew what he couldn't do with the police. and we knew
the deliberate approach him and Ryuzaki would take. We had time. Shoko
Maki had time to walk into the emergency room, show an informative card
explaining expressive aphasia, holding it with a blood-slicked hand.
It was okay, it was laminated.
Misa couldn't stay with me for treatment, of course. It's not like
she's officially licensed as my interpreter anyway. I was in silence as I
was taken to the emergency ward. My wound was disinfected with hydrogen
peroxide, which hurt intensely but briefly. I was poked and prodded. The
gash in my side was sewed up with professional stitches, and not left to
stick itself together. My treatment was impersonal and brusque, but
professional. My inability to communicate with my doctor was clearly part
of it. The moment it became clear that I could not speak fluently, the
doctor stopped talking to me, and started talking about me.
That was not the big problem, though. My wound was not complicated
and didn't need a lot of communication. It wasn't as bad as it could have
been, of course, it was mostly subcutaneous and no major arteries or
organs were hit. He said that to the nurse, like I wasn't there.
No, my problem was that I had a guest only I could see. And he was
more than willing to talk to me.
"Oooh, look at all the blood. How much is in you, anyway? Mmm,
could this kill you?"
"Oh! Your flesh is foaming up. Did they pour acid on you?"
"She's sewing you together! Interesting. Is that what these things
on my neckline are supposed to be?"
"Are you sure the Death Note is safe? Have you checked it lately?"
"Ha ha ha. How does it feel when you can't talk to them? You look
frustrated. Are you crying?"
He was trying to needle me. Get a rise out of me. Some kind of
reaction. Validate his presence and power, or gauge what sort of
relationship we had. In between barbs, he was scratching his neck, tapping
his fingers. When I laid on my side to be stitched up, his harlequin face
was right in front of mine. I didn't react, well, any more than could be
explained as reacting to them treating my only partially treated stab
wound. Or to their treatment of me. I guess I was really good about having
thoughts and not letting them slip out of my mouth. I've seethed about a
lot of things I couldn't open my mouth about, haven't I?
My wound was dressed. Without really consulting me, I was sent to
rest. Still no sign of Misa. She was probably sleeping, given how tired
she was, and I couldn't blame her. I could use a nap myself. But I wasn't
going to get one. I wasn't even going to get to watch her sleep. Not even
in a cramped car trunk, illuminated by a pen light that I shaded with my
finger to keep out of her eyes, smiling at how silly things were in her
dream. I was gonna deal with this jerk.
"There!" Ryuk said when the nurse left my recuperating room. "She
left. If you could talk, you could talk now." He stood before the doorway,
gangly arms and legs hanging over the tile floor. Silhouetted by the light
from the hallway. Bopping from one heel to the other.
I wasn't going to play his game. Not going to get upset at his
barbs. I was going to dictate how this relationship was going to go.
Slowly and calmly, I went through my index cards. This one had myself,
placing a box with a question mark into a machine made of gears. //HOW: I
am asking a question about something's method or origin!// "Kill."
"Oh, you should know that by now!" he chortled. "I kill humans
with the Death Note. Rem told you that too, I'm sure."
No expression. The problem is not me. The problem is not my brain
damage and I will not be frustrated with my brain damage. He knows what I
am asking and I am communicating that I will not tolerate his shit. I tap
the index card against my palm three times. //HOW: I am asking a question
about something's method or origin!// "Kill."
"YOU? Oh, there are no rules there, are there?" Like telling a
bawdy joke. "You can kill humans in any old way you want. It must be so
exciting to have that freedom."
Tap. Tap. Tap. //HOW: I am asking a question about something's
method or origin!// "Kill."
"If I knew how it worked, hmmm, I couldn't tell you," he confided.
"It doesn't make sense, does it? How a piece of paper can warp Fate.
Nobody has to read it. It doesn't even need to be on file."
Tap. Tap. Tap. //HOW: I am asking a question about something's
method or origin!// "Kill."
"Ahhhhhh." His bony finger went to his chin. "You want to know how
you died, don't you?" I did not react. He knew the answer. "I can't tell
you that either. We have an agreement, right? I don't help Kira, and I
don't help you. What if you get some information that you can use against
Kira, huh?"
My cold, intimidating silence was inevitably ruined. "Huh. Uh...
Fail."
"He did fail, didn't he?" Ryuk said, sidling up to me. "You're
discovering all sorts of new quirks and side effects of the Death Note
that were never intended. I find it all fascinating." He was pointing now,
above my head, where Misa said my hex code was hovering. "I wouldn't have
imagined you could do half of these things that all of you figured out."
My survival wasn't something I figured out. It was luck. He waved around
what looked like a booklet made of thin metal sheets. "We'll have to add a
lot to the rulebook! I'm almost sad to think it's going to end so soon...
Of course, it's also so exciting. Aren't you excited to end it all,
Naomi?"
Ryuk is clearly not an alien. Whatever type of thing he is is
based on a human being. He has human anatomy and human mannerisms, or he's
at least based on them. Whatever process of twisting they went through, he
once had human passions.
For one, he's a type of human that any law enforcer knows really
well. Ryuk's an addict. He's jonesing. I can tell he's hopping from one
foot from the next, popping his neck, shivering, looking for a fix in
places that clearly won't have one. Misa mentioned giving him apples on
the way over. Given the whole //L, DID YOU KNOW GODS OF DEATH LIKE
APPLES?// deal, and Light trying to get Ryuzaki to eat more apples -- I'm
guessing he wanted more laying around -- the obvious inference is that
this otherworldly creature is addicted to normal human world apples. I
think that's part of it. But he's not asking me about apples. He's not
stealing things to sell for apples. Nor offering to give up Light's
secrets in exchange for some. Only Misa and I can see him, but he is
trying very hard to pretend that there is nothing he wants. So there's
something he wants more than apples.
Ryuk wants us to think he's above us. The kind of person who will
take great pains to conceal their crimes, but once caught, claim "I'm just
doing this for a laugh, I don't really care." Someone whose emotional
investment is in appearing emotionally detached.
Ryuk was hanging around the secret mastermind Kira, while he
invisibly orchestrated everything. Ryuk got himself addicted to the rush
of power that comes with knowing something other people really need to
know, but don't. It sounds like they parted when Light died, a time when
Light had no idea what was going on. He wants to know so badly what we're
up to, but he can't bear the thought of revealing he cares enough to ask.
All he wants to ask is trivial, insulting questions to annoy me. Because
he doesn't really care, you see, oh God forbid I ever think he cares. Ha
ha, you're disabled and I'm not, I do things so effortlessly that you
can't, this is all just a game to me.
So he knew things I did not. Of course he did. He was quite smug
about them. He was quite smug about my inability to communicate, too. Just
walked in circles around an obvious question, to annoy me. As long as he
thought he was in charge, he wouldn't be blabbing anything. Feeding him
trivial details and otherwise keeping him occupied would keep him quiet,
because if he affected the outcome it would mean he wasn't a death-jester
doing it for a giggle. There was one very important thing I needed to
know, though.
"Kira. Uh. Kira. Kira, kira, and, and... and, and, and Misa. Uh.
Uh. Love."
He thought for a moment. He figured out what I am obviously
asking. I wasn't capable of subtly wording a sentence to give a false
impression of what my true intent is, but I could throw three words at the
wall. So he knew what the most important question here was, and resolved
to not answer.
"Hmm. Oh, Misa was quite a fan of Kira, wasn't she? You're quite a
unique person to trust her after that." He grinned. Of course he did. It
was all he did.
"Nngh! Misa, Misa, and Kira!" I was trying to ask him the wrong
question, and couldn't even get that out. Even when I am intentionally
using my disability, it frustrates me to no end. Tears were already
trickling down my face. I wished I could talk. I always will.
"Hmm, Misa and Kira, huh?" Tapped his finger to his chin
theatrically. "Yes, that should be interesting, shouldn't it? When they
meet back up. Won't it be fun to be a fly on the wall for that little
meeting? Maybe you should stay away -- you don't want to ruin the
authenticity of Kira's reaction, do you?"
I grunted again, but that time the frustration was fake. Thanks a
lot, Ryuk. Since I need to stay out of the way, and 'we' don't, and you
didn't make a joke about staying hidden, you know that Light can't see
you. You danced very effectively around the question of 'does Misa still
love Kira,' a question I didn't need the answer to. Well done.
* * * * *
It's August 22nd, 2005, and the Los Angeles BB Murders have just
been solved. The moment Naomi Misora saves the life of the final victim,
no more will be taken. Here in room 404, she slaps the matchbox out of the
hand of a pale, scrawny, shoeless guy with dark circles under his eyes,
wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans that have been soaked in gasoline.
And as she has just saved his life, she of course shouts at him "You! What
the FUCK is wrong with you?"
The man who called himself Rue Ryuzaki stares up at her with
giant, haunting eyes. "You stopped me. I wasn't done."
"This whole time. This whole fucking time," she admonishes
herself. "It was you. Pretending to investigate. Leading me along. Playing
word games. Strange clues pointing to the next murder site. Capital
letters. Roman numeral codes. Like you're Frank FUCKING Gorshin, right!?"
she bellows. Adam West's Riddler. She may have saved his life but her gun
is levelled at his head. "Keeping me dancing on a string. Keeping me
asking what letters look like, asking what the killer was trying to
communicate, so I wouldn't ask the obvious question of what the killer got
out of any of this."
"Of course," he says, like he can't believe this is a question.
"You almost ran out of time. I gave up hope that you would figure it out."
"This was a TEST?" she snaps. "What were you even testing? My
fucking patience?"
"Among other things." He perches on the balls of his feet, hands
on his knees, like he isn't covered in gasoline. "I had to ensure you
would be worthy of being L's successor. I had to ensure that L himself was
worthy of the title. How could he be the World's Greatest Detective, if he
had not faced the World's Greatest Criminal? Solved the unsolvable crime?"
"So it was all a game," she confirms. "You were making the, the
ultimate 4koma of perfect locked room murders." Didn't quite know the
right word in Japanese, much less English. "All of them would point to
each other and form an unsolvable puzzle. So L would be forever haunted by
the one he couldn't solve. That was your goal?"
"Precisely." He chews his nail. Then he spits out the gasoline.
"Bleagh! Mmmph. Precisely. I'm glad to see you figured it out."
"Three human beings are dead," she intones, "so you could get into
a dick-measuring contest with a faceless organization who doesn't know or
care about you. A test? A fucking TEST?" Her voice jumped again.
"Unsolvable murders happen all the time! The world doesn't need a piece of
shit like you adding to that number so you can, you can test the bona
fides of some prick who doesn't matter! What the fuck does this have to do
with being an actual investigator?" She pants and runs her fingers through
her hair. "I thought I was going to be killed. I thought it was worth the
risk to stop the serial killer. But I could have stayed in bed the whole
time and let you burn yourself to death, and nothing would have changed.
Instead, I got to watch you masturbate." The humiliation is bright red on
her face. "That's the only thing you've accomplished. You murdered people
because it's apparently the only way you can jerk off. Master fucking
criminal, here."
"Hmph." Ryuzaki is unimpressed. "I think you're letting your
emotions get the better of you, miss Misora. You should get all the
information from the suspect you can."
She grabs him by the neck and pulls him to his feet. "Get up. Get
up!" she shouts, pulling out her cuffs. "Don't act like you're lecturing
me. If you wanted a girl to listen to your sob story or your grand theory
of the world's injustice, you should have paid a hooker. I don't give a
shit." Her face is a mask of anger. A mask worn over self-hatred and
uselessness. The face of a child realizing anyone who complimented her
must have been planning to trick her. Of Carrie at the prom, being soaked
in the blood of three innocent people. "Hands behind your back! Ryuzaki
Rue, you're under arrest for the murders of Bartholomew Baxter, Quela
Quijano, and Bonita Bolivar. You have the right to remain silent. If you
choose to waive this right, anything you say can and will be used against
you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot
afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." The handcuffs slam
closed around his scrawny wrists, and she jerks him toward the door.
"My name isn't Ryuzaki!" he protests. "It's Beyond! My name is
Beyond Birthday!"
She grabs him by the cheeks and stares into his eyes. Through
gritted teeth, she tells him "Do you think you're going to go down in
history? Do you think that name is going to be said with hushed tones and
awe?" The look in his eyes tells her all she needs to know. "In three
months time, the only people who will even remember your stupid fucking
chuuni name are me, your public defender, and three or four trivia addicts
at the Los Angeles Times. And none of us are going to care. L isn't even
going to think about you. So congratulations, 'Beyond Birthday'. You
wasted four lives for nothing." She curses herself for relying on someone
else's judgment, trusting too easily and thoughtlessly, but it wouldn't be
the last time she did that.
* L I G H T *
"Do we have a lab?" I asked Ryuzaki. "Because I want to say 'Get
this to the lab!'."
In one sealed Baggie was my original Death Note, without any of
its pages -- all cut off at the perforation by a blade. My two fake rules
were still readable even though the bottom outside corners had been
burned, but the instruction about writing the circumstances of death was
illegible. In the other was a water bottle filled with dust, with a piece
of paper helpfully labelled //RESIDUE LEFT BY A DEAD KIRA// in Misa's
handwriting.
"We have a crime lab, but I doubt they have the equipment
necessary to analyze the residue of a dead god," said Ryuzaki. "I
recommend that we courier these to L's materials laboratory in New Mexico
for full analysis."
I had no use for the notebook, now that Ryuzaki saw the rules
written inside. I had no idea if there was any use for shinigami dust.
Maybe you'd get high if you snorted it, I don't know. "I know you say that
I'm in charge now, Ryuzaki, but it's weird how you still have the keys to
everything. Send them off, I assume you have a secure means of doing so."
He nodded and tapped some directions into his phone. "Are our new guests
comfortable?" I asked.
"Taro Ogawa is in a padded cell," Ryuzaki mumbled. "We'll lower in
tools at the appropriate time. Nabiki Egawa was sedated to place her in
restraints, but due to her condition, sedation will not be a viable
long-term solution."
"Because of the baby," I clarified. Nabiki could end my life by
saying three simple words, naming the game they contacted Kira through. I
had to ensure she wouldn't do that. It would be simple enough: she was a
spiteful, grieving woman. If I told her she needed to give me information
before I could help her, she would clam up because of course I'm trying to
rob her. Ryuzaki's method of interrogation took a long time, empirically
speaking. Judging by how long it took Misa -- who had amnesia and was far
less emotionally stable -- he was going to be dead long before Nabiki felt
like talking. "If we believe Misa, we don't need to straitjacket her. If
she's been strip-searched, we can be confident she doesn't have anything
from this... 'Death Note'." Such a relief to be able to call it that and
not the names people were making up. "Slightly more freedom may make her
slightly more cooperative."
"And?" Ryuzaki asked, expectant. "Do we believe Misa?"
"Yeah... I think I do. About this, anyway." I believed her
completely, and now I know she's back on my side. "She could have had the
two of these people killed, but she called up her talent agency because
she knew we had them wiretapped and told us where to find them. Left
evidence as well. It could be a deception, but, she doesn't have the
patience for that, and I don't buy it coming from Naomi either."
"Hm." He looked away. Chewed his nail. "I expected Misa to hang
around with you, Light, and help us because you wanted her to. But she
wanted to become a full member of the Kira Investigation because she
agreed with our mission."
"...Not because she'd come to realize Kira was evil and must be
brought to justice," I continued for him, "But because Kira needed
guidance. Kira needed help not to make mistakes like he'd done with Naomi
and Raye. And the Second Kira said that she wanted to work with the
police, didn't she? She did change her view... but only her idea of what
Kira's station should be. Leader to subordinate." This was true. She
wanted to work for me. Under me. To be useful to me, because I was her
obsession.
"Hm. You think that she was the second Kira?" Ryuzaki gestured to
the notebook. "She was in captivity for far more than 13 days."
"Shit. You're right. That kind of throws a wrench into things." I
giggled internally. That was what it was for. "And Naomi was conscious
when the Second Kira sent out those messages, but her disability would
make it impossible to create the tapes without an accomplice, which she
had a very meager supply of." L looked suspicious. Time to make a big
play. "Hell, for all I know, the rule is fake. Maybe you were right the
whole time, and I was Kira, and I lost my memory when the Kira possessing
me figured there was too much heat, and I put in fake rules to throw off
suspicion from Misa and they just didn't work. It would explain why Misa
is so insistent I am Kira, moreso than anger at an ex-boyfriend. Given
what a shitshow this has become, I don't think I'm in danger of relapsing.
If that's even a possibility -- maybe you become immune after one
possession. Maybe she's come to see the light of Kira again all on her
own." And now, my previous plan has been implemented with zero risk. Every
past suspicion is explained away.
Ryuzaki seemed to mull that over. "You did stop in place when you
saw Naomi in our room. The Kira could have fled your body then. But you
didn't say anything to communicate it like Misa did..." He looked at the
mystical evidence. Then left. Then right. Anywhere but the eyes of the
person he was talking to. "It's not a very parsimonious explanation
anyway. Why should an object that allows you to kill, also take your
memory?"
"We're dealing with magic, Ryuzaki," I said. "If it was the truth,
we'd also still have to explain how being possessed in the past made Misa
immune to the Death Note," which she wasn't and nobody but me and her knew
it, "but it didn't do the same for me. We've got a lot of questions that
don't fit together very well, but the most important thing right now is
controlling the danger. I think without Kira-Y running around, Misa can be
negotiated into surrendering. I don't suppose you can still hijack all the
TV broadcasts in the region to send her a message, can you?"
Ryuzaki shrugged. He seemed more distant than usual. "It would be
much more difficult and risky without the government's compliance. But I
also have access to more money than a human could possibly spend. If you
don't mind them not airing at precisely the same time, I can buy ads on
every station in the region to achieve the same effect." Then he went back
to looking off into space.
"Ryuzaki... You can't be considering it, can you?" I asked, full
of faux-concern. "You're not thinking that you want Kira to work under you
to not make mistakes, are you?"
"Hmph." He scoffed. "I'm asking myself, if this Death Note comes
from a god of death... why do they exist? Who printed the paper? Who gives
them pens?" He whirled to face me, his pupils the size of saucers. "Humans
can become immune to it by accident or design, so these gods can't be the
mechanism by which death exists. They simply kill people. Why? If they
exist because we do... how many other such beings? Is there a Memory Note
or Love Note? A Fortune Note? Harvest Note? Are they all notebooks? Are
they all Japanese? Are we being watched by the spectres of dead Russian
gods?"
"Where does the money come from, right?" Those were extremely good
questions. Between this and his Illuminati masters, I would have my hands
full.
* * * * *
Models, actresses, and singers, all are backstage in Shibuya.
Between acts, sipping champagne, they are ready for the ball to drop and
turn 2006 into a brand new rockin' 2007.
"I don't know what country these people live in," says the young
bluenette Tsubasa Aoi of Smile Kiss. "You go around and people are talking
about 'yeah, man, those criminals, they always get off because there's not
enough evidence, the courts are afraid to convict them, Kira's looking out
for us!' And it's total bullshit, you know?"
"Huh what?" asks Misa Amane, who is going to do the countdown this
year. Her face is all screwed up from champagne bubbles going up her nose,
but she sure feels warm and funny. "What's going on? Who's bullshit?"
Tsubasa doesn't look at who is asking the question. "Did you know
the Americans had to write into the Constitution that we weren't allowed
to convict anyone when the only evidence against them was their
confession, because the cops just couldn't stop grabbing random people and
beating confessions out of them?" What Tsubasa says is true. The policy is
a lot more equitable and justice-minded than some of the other things
Americans had inserted into Japan's constitution, like the hidden
provisions about staying out of the way of the Minutemen. "They just keep
doing it anyway. You can't get your case thrown out when there is
literally no evidence against you, right, so, like, where the heck is this
crime wave of supercriminals who keep skating off? People in this country
are just so ignorant." Tsubasa downs her entire champagne glass as
punctuation, to show how hard-bitten and worldly she is. She immediately
sneezes, gags, and proclaims "Oh my GOD that is awful!"
"Criminals get off. They get off all the time," Misa mumbles, and
the warm bubbly feeling is turning into something else. "If Kira didn't
stop them nobody would."
"Where, huh?" Tsubasa says with a contemptuous snort. "People
imagine things to be afraid of, you know? When was the last time you even
heard of someone being..." Tsubasa's eyes go wide as her brain catches up
to her mouth and tackles it to the ground. "Oh. Oh my God, Misa, I'm so
sorry, I didn't realize -- I didn't know you were, I mean, I knew--"
"No." The venomous sarcasm in Misa's voice burns a hissing hole in
the ground. "Keep going. Keep talking, Tsubasa. Tell me how nobody gets
off and nobody gets away, huh?"
"That-- you know that was different," Tsubasa complains. "That
guy, he had the public prosecutor paid off or something. His dad was
someone influential, right?" She looks around for support from the crowd,
who all avoid eye contact. "It, it's not--"
"Yeah, and that's how he got off!" Misa snaps. "There was a reason
he got off, so he got off! And if Kira hadn't been there to keep us safe
he'd get off again after he killed your family!" Her face is turning red,
and not in the fun tipsy way any more. Humiliation is flushing through all
of her skin. The others are backing away. "The cops are too scared to go
after anyone who fights back! Kira needs to know we're thankful so he'll
keep protecting us! Or does it only count when your parents are getting
murdered, huh?"
"NO!" Tsubasa barks in a panic. "It, you know, it's a tragedy! I'm
sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. I was wrong to talk so cavalierly
about a subject so painful to you. Please, accept my apology." Misa sees
Tsubasa bow, and turns away in a huff, but doesn't seem to be pursuing it
further.
And then, Tsubasa simply cannot help herself. Perhaps it is the
liquor or that she was never taught proper manners. She always has to have
the last word. She adds. "...All I meant was, you know, if you look at the
number of people he kills, I just think he'd have to get a couple bad
people just by chance, even if he wasn't a good guy..."
Misa leaps on her, clawing, yanking her hair, 45 kilograms of fury
shrieking "BITCH I WILL RIP YOUR WEAVE OUT!" It's not the first time she
substitutes her own self-worth for her esteem of a third party, nor is it
the last. And it certainly isn't a comfort to be told that since one is
only one in a million, one's pain doesn't matter.
* N A O M I *
I've had lots of nightmares, lately. Sometimes, in the past, I've
had dreams that were so illogical I stopped them midway: "Wait a second,
why would the FBI send me back to my high school for continuing education?
None of you are even speaking Japanese!" I never knew what to do in the
few moments of lucid dreaming I get before my subconscious gets swept back
up in the narrative. Take my top off? Insult people? Blow up a bank? The
nightmares, they all feel too real to figure this out. It hasn't come up
lately.
Anyway, Raye was on his hands and knees trapped in cement while a
wraithlike Misa curled her deathly pointy fingers around my mouth and
throat. One hand was needles, and they stitched my mouth shut so I
wouldn't scream for help. The other hand was scalpels, and they danced
about my neck, drawing the slightest slivers of blood to heighten my
terror. She cackled like a witch, brought her bladed talons up to drive
them through my brain. I tried to scream but I was muted. And she held
them there... and held them there... and held them there...
I was so god damn tired I couldn't even wake up from my nightmare
at the moment of climax. My brain had no idea where to go from there.
Dream-Misa apologized for flubbing the take in a voice that sounded like
that actor Hideki Ryuga and took out my stitches. I think I just enjoyed
the ability to talk for a bit, before it became a new dream about
following Misa while she filmed a remake of 'Matango'. I can still talk in
my dreams, but I don't remember that's special. At least I think it's
talking. Maybe what I say is nonsense and I can't notice it. Maybe a
psychic would interpret my internal monologue as total gibberish, but I
can't tell the difference.
Yeah. I was in a weird place. Anything to get my mind off of Ryuk,
off of Light Yagami and the fact there was nothing else to do but go after
him. The super-genius mastermind killer with all the resources of L at his
disposal.
Misa needed sleep too. It was 10 AM the next morning, the 20th,
when I woke up. I had to get myself discharged, against medical advice,
with a doctor trying not to talk to me but with nobody else to talk to.
And I still had to go find her, dozing with my crappy LN over her face.
She had a thick coat, long black gloves, a scarf, a cap, anything to
disguise her identity. We paid up -- another great thing about working in
Japan over America, cheap medical bills that don't require lots of calls
to be made. Our gear was where we stashed it, though we couldn't keep the
bright red import car. Train tickets to Kanto were inexpensive. The whole
time a cloud hung over us, dark as the shinigami. One question.
"What are we going to do?"
The pLaza was an impenetrable fortress. Designed to withstand a
siege. Light had access to all the resources of L there, and the whole
place was built after Misa's capture, so it wasn't like she had regained
any forbidden knowledge. We couldn't possibly attack him.
Every step we took through Tokyo, looking for supplies, looking
for shelter, the question hung over us. With every step our confidence in
Hugh Jackman's fifth-place lookalike contest placement lowered. No other
pressing issue to grab attention. Everyone here could recognize her,
attack her. We had to hide out for a while, amd stay close to the action.
Another in a string of motels, low-grade and nicer than most everything in
America.
Sakura TV's midafternoon news program was talking about sightings
of Misa Amane. We'd been seen by two people, at two places... but the
other eight had nothing to do with us. The newscaster didn't say what
people should do with Misa Amane if they found her. She tossed it over to
the sports desk like there was nothing unusual about that. We changed the
channel.
Misa sat in my lap. She wasn't saying a lot. Her mind was very far
away. I can't blame her, she's got a lot to absorb, and doom on the
horizon. She was holding onto my scars. Tried to start saying something a
few times, but stopped herself. Nothing more impactful than "I miss not
being scared," with no response afterward. Ryuk was at least quiet, since
we bought him a stack of manga, but it wouldn't mollify him forever.
At least it wouldn't have to. Because our regularly scheduled
commercials were interrupted by a gothic-font //L// and a scrambled voice.
"This is a message for Kira," it said. "The so-called 'Second'
Kira. You have seen what others have done in Kira's name, but you are
still out there somewhere. Followers of Kira have created nothing but
death and violence. Tragedy follows in your wake. In the past you claimed
that the police should work with Kira. It is time now to see if you have
convictions, or they are merely a cloak for your selfish desires. I am
willing to negotiate your peaceful surrender. You will not be harmed.
Whatever capacity you have cannot be trusted to your judgment, and you
know of the horrible mistakes you can and will make. But there can be a
chance your ability can be turned to the ends of justice with supervision.
You know how to arrange our meeting. If you surrender, this will prove
your chance of redemption. If you hide, you will only prove the cowardice
and avarice of Kira's acolytes. I await your message."
It went to an ad for detergent, and I turned off the TV. Misa was
shaking. "He wants me to surrender. He, he wants me to be Kira for him..."
He knew she had her memories back too. This was a ploy. We could
use that to our advantage. I gently shook her to bring back her attention.
"Uh. And, ah.... Remember?"
"Remember!" she said with a start. "Yeah. Uh. Something in my
memories. Something I lost before, but he would know, and helps us.
Something he wants me to know. Something he wants me to use for him." She
paused. Stayed silent for a while. "It's hard... it's not like they're
fresh. It was months ago. And, it, uh, I..." She winced. "I said I loved
him. I loved him so much. Uh, he told me I couldn't use the Death Note to
make him fall in love, because you can't put two names in... that was not
all the way true, I guess. Uh. I saw him at To-Oh but that was right at
the end... Oh. I know." She looked at me. "I went to his house and he
didn't want me to. He said we had to meet somewhere private. He said we
would go... to Hotel Shibuya Palace. Room 319. And nobody would know."
"Sure?"
"No, I'm not," she said. "But Ryuk was there. Ryuk, was it room
319?"
Ryuk chuckled. "Hmm. I'm not sure I can help you with that. I'm
neutral, remember?"
I grunted negative. One, he's telling her information Light wanted
her to have anyway. Two, "Nngh! Help!"
"You can ask for help all you want, but it doesn't change the fact
I have to be neutral."
God damn it! He's messing with me again. Or he isn't. Calm down.
What is the thing he did? He made something false. To help Light. "Rule."
"Yeah, she's right!" Misa picked up, "You wrote fake rules into
the Death Note for him. It was all the same handwriting. That isn't
neutral. And... You had to have communicated with Isamu in some way. You
should help us at least a few times. Then it's even."
"Hmph!" He laughed. "Assertive! But I suppose that's fair. He
wouldn't be mad if I told you again... room 619. But if you want more, I
need to see some apples." Of course. Still has to be above it all.
"We can... if I pick the park nearby there, right, as where I want
to give myself up, then he does the thing where he makes a cockpit in a
room to watch me surrender. Right?" she asked. I nodded. "He wants me to
surrender to him. And if I go there, he will go to that room, because he
knows I will go there. And I can go and meet him again."
Misa might have been okay with dying to slay Light. I wasn't. We
had to clear her name. To do that we had to get planning.
"Naomi, I... I know we need to make a plan. And I know that's a
lot of work and we have to write things down and make diagrams and I have
to write it all down and you need to sign off to make sure I get it right
so that's gonna be like, it's like four hours even if you know every step
already. Not like, not nearly as fast as Light can do it" Misa's voice
dropped to a whisper. "But I... I might die. Or you might die. And I want,
I want to make what I did right. But I need to tell you now, right? Once
we're done, I... I need to be alone with the Death Note." She looked down
in shame, unable to meet my gaze. Ryuk was right next to her, grinning. "I
wanna get one of the mini tape recorders and say what I did. In, in,
April, when I was the Second Kira. I need, I need the book there to help
me remember all the details. I just, I don't want you to hear me. Not yet.
When it's over. And if I die, you can just never listen and I die a hero.
I promise, I promise I won't use it. Won't write down anyone's name. Just
go out and get apples and whatever supplies we need, and, and I'll make
the tape."
I clasped her hands in mine. I needed her. I loved her. And I
trusted her. The person she was then did not exist. "Yes," I said, and I
slowly nodded. This was important. I respected her and her needs and her
desire to make it right. It would be a hard journey we would go on
together.
Misa looked relieved. Ryuk chuckled. But Ryuk chuckled at
everything.
* * * * *
It's April of 2004 and Naomi Misora drums on the steering wheel
with a pair of ballpoint pens almost in time with the rising music coming
out of the van's stereo, though when she smacks the imaginary cymbals it
has nothing to do with any actual sound. She lip-syncs along with the
singer:
"I see the way the salesmen stare into the sun! I stood and
watched them as they fell off one by one! And everyone's so blind! They're
not to help mankind!"
In the passenger seat, Raye Penber sips a gas station coffee and
watches. He says nothing, but the awkwardness is building. And eventually,
she pauses the CD player.
"What?" she says with a nervous chuckle. "You said I could play my
music, didn't you? Is there a problem?"
"What? Problem? No, I like it," he says with his hand up in a
conciliatory fashion. "Just was kind of funny. I feel like a punk in the
FBI is sort of a mixed message."
"Quit it, you!" she says and slaps him on the arm, but it is a
friendly tease. "And there's nothing mixed about it. I'm a punk in Japan.
That makes me an upstanding law-abiding conservative, uh, uh, Leave It To
Beaver in America."
"Oh, of course, it's a sliding scale," Raye joshes back. "In Saudi
Arabia you'd grow a lip ring and start throwing Molotov cocktails, but if
we went to Italy, you'd turn into a nun. Happens all the time. It's
actually why they have so many nuns. I'm half-Japanese, of course, so my
pants are punk. It's hard to tell."
She giggles. "That isn't how it works! It's the International Date
Line," she says and pokes out her tongue. "You go over that, you travel in
time. If I'd gone the other way, I'd turn into a beatnik!"
"That was why the stewardess on my flight went around collecting
bongos!" Raye says with realization. "And your skateboard turned into a
wholesome wooden scooter!"
"Hey!" Naomi says with false offense. "Don't talk about my
skateboard. I will get that out of storage and I will grind this van right
now. I'll fall off and look like a jackass, but I'll show you!"
Raye is fun. Nice back and forth. Hanging out with him might not
be all bad. She feels more comfortable with him than with herself. She
doesn't need to trust him more than herself, though. Her job hasn't broken
her yet.
"Well, I can't let you shred my face off on an empty stomach," he
says. "By that I mean I'm gonna go get us dinner, what do you want? No,
no, you don't have to get up, I'll get it. It's fine. My treat."
"Okay, your funeral," she says. "You know Mackey's up the street?
I want the garlic cheeseburger platter, no onions, large orange Fanta. And
-- and this is important! -- tell Mackey to put on 'five times as much
garlic as you think it needs'."
* L I G H T *
"It's crazy. I can't let you do this, Light," Ryuzaki implored me.
"You remember when Misa faked us out. How powerless we were.
Trapped with no idea what's going on," I said to him. "There's a chance
she tries something, and I want to be close by to see and react. She's got
no way of knowing where the command post is. There's nothing I can do here
that I can't do in a hotel room." And something big I can do in hotel room
619 that I can't do here. Meet with her. Show her Ryuzaki's face.
"There's still a chance. It's safer here," he mumbled. "We can't
secure a hotel without making it conspicuous."
"Ryuzaki, I'd be in more danger here than there. We need all hands
on deck out there. Yoyogi Park is huge, we might need to bring out Matsuda
just to have enough manpower to cover it," I told him. "If I stay here,
it's just you and me and the custodial staff, and maybe Misa never planned
to surrender. Maybe I get shot and Misa makes you declare her the L-Kira."
"Hmph." Ryuzaki kicked some dust. "Then I'm coming with you."
"You should hide, Ryuzaki. If you don't trust your judgment to
head the case, then you should hide in a bunker somewhere," I said. I knew
it wouldn't work. I had a plan in place in case it did, I could get a
picture of him, but I wouldn't need it. "You are L, after all. You're
supposed to be a shadow."
"Light, I can't..." He pushed his hand through his hair.
Expressing feelings? This super genius sure was rotten at that! "I can't
lose you, Light. Do you... Do you remember me saying you were my first
friend?"
"Ryuzaki. Of course I do." It was very off-putting.
"I wasn't making it up, Light," he said. He couldn't meet my eyes.
"I'm... I've not been right for this whole case. I can't shake this
feeling of doom. It only gets worse over time." He sat down on the floor.
Well, perched on the balls of his feet. I slid down the wall to sit next
to him, like a friend would. "I shouldn't have had Naomi Misora
compromised. She shouldn't have been brain damaged in the first place,
because I should have told Watari to pick her up from the airport and
escort her. I had an eye on her! I knew I wanted to see her and I, I, I
don't know, I just forgot. I ran out of ideas on how to prosecute the case
a while ago. I said I was bored? Like, it made it okay if I picked up the
most significant criminal investigation in human history because 'oh,
well, I was just bored, I had nothing better to do than my job'?Every time
I put a security detail on you, a week later I noticed a dozen places I
left open. I fixated on you because... I wanted to spend time with you, I
guess. The most prolific serial killer ever on the loose and I just want a
friend."
"Wow," I said. "I don't know how to respond to that." And I really
didn't. His emotions were kind of gross, though I hid my revulsion. "This
is the hardest case that has ever existed. It would mess anyone up."
"I don't think you get it, Light," he said with an uneasy, croaky
laugh. "You know I'm too young to be the first L. L's an institution. My
employers made it. It's been around a LOT longer than people think. Why...
Why bother with a secret identity? Why a name that's just a letter? Why
would you go to so much trouble to conceal the name and face of someone
who is only ever going to interact with law enforcers and administrators?"
"...You think the Illuminati, or whoever, made L to defeat this
Death Note before it ever appeared."
"I think I was raised since age 5 to be the only human being on
Earth who could solve this case." His voice was almost just a creak. His
eyes were wet, but not yet weeping. "And I completely, completely fucking
choked. You know what it is when you choke? When you see the ball coming,
you're already swinging in a perfect arc, but you miss because you're so
afraid of failing you can't succeed." He wiped an eye. "God. I'm supposed
to be a shadow in a trenchcoat. Nobody's supposed to see me like this. Is
this what normal people feel like when they're vulnerable? It's awful."
"...Yeah, it's pretty terrible," I admit. "But none of that
matters. We're going to get Misa and Naomi. If there is another Kira we're
going to find out who from them or Nabiki. You and me. We're almost done,
it's not time to bug out now." I extended my hand to him. "Come on."
"You're a lot more like me than you think, Light," he said. "I
think that's why we're friends. You're someone... you're someone who
everyone says was a genius. The best in the world. Everything was your
oyster. And you looked around and you said 'What? How? What do I do?' You
didn't feel any different when you got into To-Oh, did you? You were
wondering when you were going to start feeling smart. Wondering when you
would be a part of the world moving it, instead of watching it pass. When
all that genius would grant you the power to really act on things. When
you'd stop being a pair of eyes and start being a human."
Maybe that's who I'd be without the Death Note. But that person
was weak. I had to nod along anyway.
"But you're... better at this. Than me. I see you, and I see... a
person. I see how I could be a person. I just can't lose that. I focused
on you so much, so you could be this mastermind, so I could have been a
mastermind. I can't lose you, Light. If all I did was to pass lead to
someone who could solve the case, someone who deserves to be L, I, I can't
let that person die. I can't fail again. I can't lose you."
I put out my hand again. "You won't. You are going to be right
there with me and make sure I don't miss anything, make sure I stay safe."
He smiled. He took my hand. "And why should we bother asking who deserves
to be L? You're way better at the organization anyway. L is a shadow in a
trenchcoat. Who is going to know if it's two people? Four? Ten? Who will
care?"
He chuckles a little as he lets me pull him to his feet. He was
mollified at least a little. In his honor, after his death, I'll pretend
to be two people sometimes. One of them a spineless coward like him.
* * * * *
It's January 2nd, 2007. Naomi Misora has no idea she's been
followed. All her personal effects have been destroyed and her bike is
gone. There is no doubt as she approaches the cliff. No hesitation. She
mutters to herself as she binds the cord around her wrists and neck. The
last time she will ever speak fluent language. "What the fuck were you
thinking. You absolute fucking dipshit. You didn't deserve him and you
can't live without him. You're fucking worthless. All you ever did was
watch a punk kid jack off about letters and you tricked people into
thinking that made you important. You can't even bail out and be a fucking
housewife any more. You can't do anything. Everyone would be happier if
they never thought about you again. Jump. JUMP, you worthless twat!" And
she does.
It's March 20th, 2007. Misa Amane grabs on to the Death Note like
a life preserver, the only buoyancy in an infinite blackness. Kira is
truth and light. Kira makes the world make sense. Now she has a piece of
Kira. Now she can be like him and be a part of the order and sanity he
brings. Kira, the savior, killing criminals to keep the world safe. But
Kira can't be all knowing, if L is still around. Kira needs help. Kira
never picked up a very important name. Two minutes after Rem explains to
her how to kill a human using the Death Note, she does so. //PUBLIC
PROSECUTOR TAKAMOTO NAREO// falls to the ground clutching his chest forty
seconds after Misa writes his name. The previous 80 seconds were her
digging in kitchen drawers for a pen. Kira has made a tiny mistake of
omission, but Misa is there to make sure it was nothing bad. Her life has
a purpose again. Correcting mistakes.
And Light? What is he before the Death Note? What he is ten years
ago is the same thing he is November 27th of last year, one day before he
found it. He is waiting. He is disconnected. He is adrift in his mind.
He is incomplete.
* * * * *
Misa Amane has called Sunshine Talent Agency again to get L's
wiretap. The man who she borrowed the phone from was very confused to
overhear her call. She has negotiated a surrender for tonight. September
21st, 2007, at 9 PM. She will turn herself over in Yoyogi Park in Shibuya,
along with Naomi Misora. There is a complicated sequence of events and
signals that are to be carried out when she sits on a bench to indicate
she is ready to be taken, and that she believes herself safe. They need
not be detailed because none of them will happen.
Naomi Misora has a plan. Once her and Misa are in room 619, where
Light has set up his command center anticipating a rendezvous, there's
really only one step of it that can possibly fail. But it requires her to
trust Misa without hesitation. She does.
Light Yagami's plan is very simple. Once Misa and Naomi are in
room 619, where he has set up his command center, there really aren't any
steps of it that can fail.
There is only one way to see who is right.
Watari is perched on a rooftop, with anti-personnel munitions this
time. Wedy supervises the cameras placed in Yoyogi, though she can't
really conceal them, and then from her motorcycle she sweeps the roads
around the area. Matsuda sits on a bench near the entrance with a mask and
newspaper, ready for Misa to sit next to him, the investigator she has the
most bond with. Aizawa and Mogi sweep the park, also masked up. Two of
them are not enough to cover it. Even Aiber is running security in the
hotel itself. He talked his way into the hotel's security room with ease,
and he's double checking manually.
Above it all, Light and Ryuzaki, in room 619, monitoring a bank of
mini TVs and an audio system linking them all. "Aizawa. Check sector 4.
Something's rustling." "Wedy, did you see anyone get out of that truck?"
"Matsuda, wake up." It's only 7:30 and the surrender is scheduled at 9,
but the two fugitive women have to get there somehow. Ryuzaki wants to be
ready. He wants to take them alive, but he knows it may not be an option.
Naomi and Misa do not have to arrive. They are here. They have hid
in the building since about a half an hour after Misa made the call to
surrender. Naomi, Misa, and Ryuk. The former two holding each other,
hiding in room 108, and the latter not doing that. Going over the last
bits of the plan on paper notes. Even if it's easy, there could be
complications. Contingencies. One of them has a hard time expressing
herself. Better to be very clear. Things that don't go according to plan
are bad. And even then, a plan easy to think of, may not be easy to carry
out. Someone may not have the will.
"Mogi reporting. No suspicious packages. There was a stack of
girlie mags in a bush, but I made sure it wasn't hollowed out to hide
anything." Mogi doesn't dispose of it. He knows what it's like to be a
young man.
They have a ritual now, Naomi supposes. They stand next to the
door. She nicks a safe part of her wrist with a scalpel, winces at the
pain she inflicts on herself for Misa's happiness, and a stream of dark
red trickles out. Her ghoulish lover licks it up, puts her mouth on
Naomi's wound, thirstily drinking like she was dying in the desert. Like
she was desperately absorbing the essence of another human being because
she didn't know how to be herself. She needs this. She needs to be
reminded of their importance to each other. Blood trickles from the corner
of her mouth. Naomi gets worried well before she taps Misa to tell her to
stop sating her endless hunger for what it means to be a person.
"This is wedy. Stalled vehicle by the Italian deli. Traffic is
slowed but not blocked. Keep an eye out, it could be intentional."
Ryuzaki nibbles a marshmallow Peep. His headset is on his neck,
and he can only barely hear the chatter. Light puts a hand over his, and
he looks over to the man, and he smiles. Only slightly reassured, but
still reassured. He goes back to scanning the bank of miniature TVs they
have assembled to watch the camera feeds.
"Watari reporting. Still no sign of owls or wrens." It is simply
best practice to use code names for targets, and Watari does so even if
the rest of the group has spotty compliance at best.
Naomi touches her forehead to Misa's. "Hmm. Uh. Try."
"Aizawa here. It was a squirrel."
Misa nods. "R-Right. We're going to, we're gonna try our hardest.
To do what we have to."
"Yeah, it's Aiber. Still nothing at security. I'm going to check
the halls real quick, see if there's any evidence of break-ins. Gonna let
you know if there's anything hinky." He doesn't have a pina colada, he
needs to be alert. He left it in the security office.
Ryuk stands in the hallway, on the other side of the door.
Grinning, looking back and forth. Waiting for a guest. Finally, he sees
the one he is looking for. Misa has managed to negotiate two more favors
from him, at a cost of two apples each; there are six in her purse. The
room number, she argued, was something Light wanted her to know anyway and
therefore counted as half a favor for her and half a favor for Light. He's
going to get two apples soon after //TIERRY MORELLO 69803213// walks in.
Aiber, the blonde con man, is wearing a black wig but no mask, because
that would make it very hard to do his job here. Ryuk waves his fingers
through the door to get Naomi's attention. Then, as Aiber walks past, he
looks right through Ryuk's body to check for evidence of a break-in on the
doorknob. Of course Naomi would have to break in, nobody has checked in
since Light set up, and how would she have known where to go before he
arrived?
Swiftly and most importantly harmlessly, Ryuk snatches the
inconspicuous wireless body mic from Aiber's collar. He has enough time to
mutter "The fu--" before the door is kicked open into his face. With a
grunt, he falls onto his ass, and when he looks up Naomi Misora is holding
a gun on him. She looks down at the outline of the sawed-off shotgun in
his pants, now visible that he's laying down and rumpled up. There's no
way he can get to it, and he regrets having to rely on a gun to begin
with. He puts his hands up.
Misa goes into her purse with both hands and produces two apples,
which vanish before Aiber's eyes. She looks at him and pauses as she reads
his name. Honestly, she is confused for a moment if he has the same name
as Hulk Hogan, but that's Terry Bollea. She disarms him, guides him to his
feet, and escorts him into the room before anyone else can see what's
going on here. His means of communication and defense are gone in an
instant. Because he was, he is now realizing as he is tied and gagged, set
up to fail. Misa asks him what channel he wants the TV set to. He doesn't
have an answer.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," says Aizawa. "All of us are
out here chasing squirrels. Nobody's back at the base. How do we know they
aren't back in there setting an ambush, or stealing something?"
Aiber is left in silence, safe. A note under the door explaining
to the maid service that there is a captive inside, because by the time
they read it, his imprisonment won't be necessary one way or the other.
Naomi and Misa step onto the elevator like they own the place and punch in
the 6th floor. It is slightly less safe than the stairs, but Naomi's new
crutch isn't very good and isn't properly made for her height.
"If they're planning on attacking the headquarters," Light says,
"there's no evidence they can steal, no prisoners they can or want to
liberate, and no people to assassinate. With none of us there, the
security system can be set to total lockdown. We'll be alerted to
attempted entry. The security system can't be turned against them, so it
couldn't be turned against us... but Ryuzaki set it up so they'll be able
to be tracked once they leave." He looks to Ryuzaki again. "I don't think
that will happen, though. I think Misa at least wants to turn herself
over. Even if Naomi has other plans, her options are limited when she
deviates from what Misa wants."
Ding. Sixth floor. Naomi and Misa walk next to the wall, carefully
but not slowly. Walking next to the wall makes less noise if you're
walking on floorboards that can creak, and better safe than sorry. Ryuk
hovers to their side. Another two apples will be his. Naomi crouches,
below the vision cone of the peephole, and she creeps up until she is
pressed up against the door of room 619.
"If you say so," Aizawa mutters. Now he's sure that none of them
will see Misa or Naomi tonight, and it's all just a waste of time.
The chain on the door to room 619 is undone. The bolt lock is
turned to the unlocked position. The second bolt lock that Ryuzaki drilled
in is also carefully undone by invisible hands. Ryuk hovers back through
the door, and Naomi carefully pulls it open, lifting it upward so the
weight of the door doesn't make the hinges creak. Misa puts two more
apples in the hall for Ryuk to snatch.
Ryuzaki pops the joints in his neck. Rolls his head back and
forth. Tilts it backwards. He opens his eyes, to see Naomi and Misa in his
room, pointing guns at him and Light.
"Put your hands up," Misa says shakily. Naomi closes the door
behind them. "No. Don't make a sound, and disconnect your microphones.
Then put your hands up." Slowly, carefully, silently, they do so. "Walk
away from the equipment. Sit down on the beds." She gestures them over
with her gun. Ryuzaki's eyes are wide and shocked. Light's are not.
"Misa. Misa, be careful. Don't do anything rash," Light cautions.
Naomi approaches him. She glares. She puts her gun to his temple, and all
he says is "Please don't shoot me. I don't think Misa would be able to
take it." She groans. Then she pistol-whips him across the face. She draws
no blood.
"You found us," Ryuzaki says. "You ambushed us. But if you wanted
to shoot us you could have done so. What do you want, Misa?"
"I, I want..." Her hand is shaking. "I just want to talk, okay?"
Naomi looks at her. "Uh. Proof. Proof?"
"R-right! We're here to prove I'm not Kira!" she added. "We'll
talk about that!"
"You have the Death Note, don't you?" asks Light. "Doesn't that
make you Kira?"
"Y-yeah, I do!" she barks. "Have the notebook!" She pulls the
black notebook from her purse. When Naomi takes position behind her, she
can safely stash her own pistol. "But that doesn't mean I'm evil, does it?
I'm a good person!"
"Yes," Ryuzaki deadpans. "You're a very good person. That is why
you are holding us hostage instead of surrendering peacefully."
"Control yourself, Ryuzaki!" Light hissed. "Misa wants to do the
right thing. Don't you, Misa? I know you love me and you want to do the
right thing. You just want some help to find out what that is."
"Y-yeah. Yeah!" Misa says. Naomi is looking over at her and
blinking. "I don't want anybody to have to be shot. I want us all to be,
to be okay. Maybe, maybe I am Kira. But maybe I'm a good Kira!"
Naomi looks shocked. Her gun hand wavers slightly. "Misa!"
"No! No!" Misa says, shaking her had rapidly. "Right! You're
right! I'm not Kira! Light wants me to be Kira, that's all!"
"Misa..." says Light. "I just want whatever is best for you.
Because I still love you, Misa. You know that, don't you?" He smiles. It's
creepy.
"I do..." Misa whimpers. "I, I, I still love you, Light..."
Naomi's hand goes to her shoulder. "...But, but I love Naomi too! I don't,
I don't want to choose! I don't want to hurt her either, right?" The hand
gets tighter. "And we, we can't just let you be Kira any more! Not like
this!"
Ryuzaki tries to covertly look around for a weapon, something he
can use. There is nothing. Some especially fluffy pillows. "Misa. You told
me Light was Kira. I believed it earlier, but now evidence is against it.
What do you know that I don't?"
"He, he, he he was sending messages to Isamu Egawa!" Misa
stutters. "That was how Isamu knew to contact me instead of Naomi!"
"You had ample opportunity to send a secret message to Kira-Y,"
Ryuzaki says in an even voice. "I need more to go on than that."
"Uh. Hnn. Umm." Naomi stammers over a word.
Light tries to be conciliatory. "Naomi, maybe you can write it
do--"
"SHUT UP!" Misa shouts. "Shut up and let her talk! It's your fault
she's like this, the least you can do is let her talk!"
"...Ah. Letter. Letter," Naomi finally gets. "Misa." Tears are
starting to form in her eyes.
"Right! Light left me this letter about how he loves me and I
should kill you and be Kira!" She throws it onto Ryuzaki's bed. "He just,
he made it in different handwriting, so it looked like I faked it!"
Ryuzaki and Light share a meaningful glance.
"You can't keep letting him do it, Ryuzaki!" Misa continues.
"Naomi, Naomi wanted to just kick in the door and shoot you. I wanted to
give you a chance. I know you want to be a good person, Light."
"...Because you love me," Light repeated.
"...I do. I love you, Light," Misa said back. "So I don't, I don't
want bad things to happen to you. I want you to do good. I want you to get
the help you need."
Naomi looks to Light again, and to Misa. "Ah. Ah. Misa." The tears
are welling thicker.
"We want you to get the help you need too, Misa," Ryuzaki says.
With the tone of someone placating a grizzly that could get angry at any
moment. "But you tried to kill Light. You're scaring us, Misa. Maybe the
things you think are happening aren't really happening. Have you been
taking your medication?"
"I didn't try to kill Light!" she squeals. "I didn't, I wouldn't
do that! Because I loved Light! And I'm not psycho either, I just, you
know, I was on something to keep me up after my parents died! I don't
think it really did anything for me! Light, he, he's Kira and he wants me
to be too!" Naomi squeezed again. "Confess!"
"Okay. Okay," Light says. "Let's say I am Kira. And I still love
you either way. So why do I want you to be Kira, Misa?"
"Because, because I can see people's names!" Misa said. "They're,
they're floating over people's heads. Rem said, she said she was giving me
the eyes back. That I had before. So... so then I can help you. And be
useful. You could, you could only give me the notebook when you're sure
someone is really bad. And you can, you can use all your L investigating
to double check. And then nobody will make any mistakes. And people will
be safe."
"Misa..." Tears are starting to trickle down Naomi's cheeks. She
looks to Light. She holds her gun. Light looks back at her. He knows she
won't fire, not when it would destroy Misa's heart like this. And indeed
she doesn't.
"You can't kill people and be on the side of Justice, Misa," says
Ryuzaki.
"Of course you can!" she snaps. "People do it all the time! Cops
kill people because they're dangerous and there's no other way to stop
them, right? If, if if if someone is so well connected that the courts
won't do anything to them, and they, and they like to murder people's
families because it's FUN, then how else do you describe that? Someone
who's dangerous, and there's no other way to stop them!"
Light nods. Slowly. No sudden movements. "Kira did a very good
thing when he killed the man who killed your parents. Okay? I think
everyone in this room agrees with that." He casts a glance to Ryuzaki,
prompting him to begrudgingly nod. "Maybe we can help you, Misa. If
Ryuzaki agrees with us, we can take you on. And keep you safe. And we can
keep Naomi safe too. I want to make sure you're safe, Misa. Because I love
you. But you have to accept that you'll be doing what we say. And that
means surrendering."
Misa nods. She's choking back tears. "I'll do what you say, if
you, if you mean it. And Naomi is fine too." Naomi's breath is getting
more rapid. She looks like a caged animal. Perhaps she is trying to find a
word, but cannot even say 'uh'.
"Misa," Light says. "Ryuzaki doesn't want L to help Kira. You
really need to show him that you are serious. Okay? I love you, but that
just isn't enough. You need to make it clear to us both that you aren't
going to do anything bad. So you have to go outside and surrender to the
investigators. Okay? I love you, Misa."
She smiles and it isn't happy. "I love you too, Light." She kneels
down to drop her purse and leave her things. But she doesn't do that.
There is a sheet of paper in her hand, and she says to herself.
"//LESLIE... TAYLOR... LAWLIET.//"
Naomi's eyes go wide with horror. So do Ryuzaki's, or Leslie's.
Naomi pulls Misa to her feet, and yanks the paper out of her hands. Her
face is painted with panic.
"No! No! It's okay!" Misa protests. "I did it all ahead of time!
We're gonna, we're going to have a long talk about what justice means. I
even said he listened to you when you spoke. We're gonna, we're gonna tell
him, we're going to find out what it is that would make it okay for him to
let Kira be part of the organization, and then he's gonna do that, set it
all up. He's, I made sure he would only do it in a way that made it okay
for him. You know it's important! You know, you know how important revenge
is! He can't, but, but, we can do what justice can't, if he helps us!"
Naomi cannot speak. Cannot find words. She can only look horrified
and betrayed.
"I know, I know it wasn't the plan, but, but, but, Light wasn't
confessing!" Misa says like she's justifying it to herself. "Now we,
everyone can get what they want!"
Naomi looks around. To Misa. To Light. To Ryuzaki. The latter is
starting to hyperventilate, touching his chest, trying to feel if he is
under something's control. He looks up to Naomi. She looks so sorry, so
guilty that this has happened. And he nods to her.
Naomi grabs a pillow from the bed. She folds it in half to make an
impromptu silencer. She puts her gun up to it. She grits her teeth, closes
her eyes, averts her face, but Ryuzaki isn't moving. The pillow muffles
the gunshot.
WHUD!
Blood sprays from the dead center of Ryuzaki's chest, spattering
everyone in the room. He lands facedown in a spreading pool of blood
staining the comforter.
Instantly, Naomi's aim is on Light. Misa jumps in the way. "No!
No, don't! He didn't, he didn't do that! It was my fault! I'm, I'm sorry,
I thought, I thought it was okay!"
"I'm very sorry," Light says, his sincerity manufactured. "I
didn't want to hurt anyone. I made a mistake."
Naomi's hand is shaking.
"Don't, I mean, don't shoot him!" Misa says in panic. "I
thought... I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me! I thought, it seemed
like it was okay, I don't, I don't know why!" Her chin quivers. "I made, I
made another mistake, didn't I?"
"It's okay," Light says. He cannot help a little ribbon of
satisfaction being woven into his voice. "You made a mistake. But she
forgives you, because you are going to try harder. And she loves you.
Isn't that right?"
Naomi doesn't nod or shake her head. She just stares at Light.
"And I love you too, Misa," he continues. "I love that you want to
give me a second chance. Just like Naomi gave you. And I'll make sure that
all of us, we'll be happy. Just like you wanted. L and Kira can work
together. And nobody has to suffer like you. And nobody has to suffer like
Naomi. Right? Isn't that right?"
Naomi's face is now the picture of disgust. Of self-loathing.
Every feeling of uselessness she ever had, summoned back to her mind.
Powerlessness is the only rule of this world.
"R-right!" Misa says. Through tears. "I love you, Light. I love
you both so much. I know, I know you're a good person. We're going to help
people."
Naomi grimaces. Brings the gun back to bear. There is one way to
end this.
"Please, no!" Misa protests, standing in the way of the shot
again. "I know he's done some bad things, but, you don't understand. He's
not a bad person. He means so much to me, he only, if you only could see
in him what I see... He, he deserves a second chance, doesn't he? He only
wanted to do good, right?" She's nodding, like she's encouraging
agreement. "We can, we can all be happy this way. You can make sure we
don't mess up again. And we don't, I don't have to lose either of you.
Please. Please, Naomi. I love him so much. He saved me. I love you too. We
all deserve to be happy."
Naomi's aim is on Misa now. She did swear that if Misa went bad,
she would kill her if it was necessary. Light smiles ever so slightly at
her tormented expression. How could she kill Misa? She'd never be able to
kill her only connection to the world. She grimaces. Covers her face with
her hand. Back to the wall, she slowly slides down it. Shoulders heaving
with sobs. And she holsters her weapon.
"You... You made the right choice, Naomi," says Light. "The crew
is probably suspicious we haven't said anything in so long. Misa and I
need to escape first. We can, there's a place we can go to be hidden." He
picks up Ryuzaki's body by the shoulder, and he sees the spark of life has
not left those dark eyes. With Misa and Naomi unable to see his face,
Light grins sadistically. If he could put his thumb in the bullet wound,
he would. Stomp on the throat of the world's greatest detective. Let him
know how utterly defeated he is. He hopes it's the last thing Ryuzaki sees
before he passes away to oblivion.
Ryuzaki's face is betrayal. Despair. Utter, crushing defeat. He
knows how thoroughly he has been beaten and that he never had a single
friend. Light wishes he had a camera. He wishes he could bottle this
moment and drink it every day for the rest of his life like a fine aged
wine.
And when he turns around, his face is nervous and conciliatory
again. "Naomi, if the cops arrest you for murder, you'll be fine. You know
that." Naomi nods from the floor. "So I'll make sure you are taken into
L's custody peaceably, from the police, so there's no need for anyone to
kill you. Once you're there for 13 days, I can get you out, because you
can't be Kira. It will take some doing, but, but I'll make sure you come
back. So Misa can see you and talk to you. But Misa and I need to leave
first, okay?"
Slow nod. The sobbing of a defeated woman. She stands. She picks
up Ryuzaki's body, cradling him like the Pieta.
Light takes Misa from the room. He checks the hallway for
observers, and then begins grinning like a maniac. "Great job," he says.
"You did a great job, Misa."
"I just wanted to help," she says modestly. She unzips her coat.
"It's, it's getting hot. Let's go before someone finds us. Naomi had to
take the elevator, but we can take the stairs."
"Good idea." Light is not out of the woods yet, but the light of
civilization is visible. He takes Misa by the hand and leads her to a out
of the way rear stairwell. It's empty, unobserved. He could run down the
six flights as if they were nothing, right now, but Misa is all nerves and
guilt. He graciously leads her. He will still need her.
In the stairwell, with nobody around to listen in, Misa stops him.
Grabs his shirt and pulls him in close. "Did I, did I do good? Did I do
the right thing? I want, I want to be useful to you, Light..."
He smiles. As reassuring as he can fake it. "You did the right
thing, Misa. You're very useful to me, and I'm very happy. I love you so
much."
"Good!" she laughs nervously. "Good, good. I'm, I'm really happy,
Light. But, you know, uh. Naomi. She's useful too. You have to promise me
you'll help her. You won't betray her or anything. She's a really good
person who has had a lot of bad things happen to her. You need to make
sure she's okay, and she can do a lot for you. You need to promise you
will listen to her so she helps you not make any mistakes."
"Of course!" he lies. "You'll be there too, Misa. You'll spend
lots of time together. You'll work together, just like you have been. It's
okay for you to love us both."
She smiles weakly. "I'm not stupid, Light," she says. "I know... I
know what you did. What your plan was. I never was immune like everyone
thought. Rem was just protecting me. So when she died..."
"Misa, what are you talking about?"
"...you, then you wrote my name in the Death Note. So I'd fall
back in love with you." She does not seem very upset by her deduction.
"...No. Misa, you know, I would never want to hurt you..."
"It feels so good, you know? To be a part of something. To be
useful. To know you're making the world a better place and, and I'm
helping you do that. To not be so afraid anymore. I'm not mad. I just, I
need to see it. They had to be careful with the cop guy, because he can't
shoot anyone, they had to make sure they didn't do anything to contradict
the entry. And... You know. I think it's really romantic to know how
you're going to die."
Light is still looking like he doesn't know what she's talking
about.
"It's okay. I'm not mad," she says serenely. "I know how important
what you're doing is. And you're trustworthy, you will make sure that
Naomi is happy too. Killing me doesn't matter. I just... remember what I
told you, Light? It's okay if you use me up."
At this, he smiles. This is the only thing she ever said that got
a reaction from him. He huddles her against a wall, and he clicks the dial
of his watch three times.
//KITAMURA KOREYOSHI. AUGUST 24 2007 10:18 PM. MURDERED BY APHASIC
WOMAN.//
//LIGHT YAGAMI. DROWNING. 8:14 PM.//
//MISA AMANE. SUICIDE. FALLS BACK IN LOVE AFTER READING LETTER
FROM HER EX THAT REMINDS HER OF HOW MUCH SHE CARED FOR HIM. REALIZES SHE
MUST DO EVERYTHING SHE CAN TO HELP THE CAUSE OF KIRA, INCLUDING DYING ON
OCTOBER 10TH 12:06 PM TO AVOID SUSPICION.//
The writing was very small. It must have taken a lot of time and
concentration. Time alone, with Ryuzaki not watching. Misa reads the
entries and nods. "Okay. That should be easy to keep to. I will, I, the
only way I can kill anyone is with my Death Note. But I, you know, I
wasn't all that useful without it anyway."
"It's okay, Misa," he says, reveling in his power over her.
"You're still very useful to me. You are going to help Kira a lot."
They begin walking again. Speaking in hushed whispers to each
other. No investigator seems to have made them, Light has made sure they
had a blind spot.
"Light, I... Naomi guessed that you were going to make up pages
with fake instructions. And, and Isamu was going to plant them somewhere.
So it would look like other people were smuggling pages, right? But I, but
we, I didn't know what I was supposed to do yet. She got every page Isamu
had before he could hide them and I, I didn't know I needed to hide them
for you. Once I did, I didn't have any chances to."
"Ssh. Ssh. It's okay. We can make up some more. We have plenty of
time to create more fake leads, and you can even help me figure out where
to put them, okay? You're going to make sure Kira never stops making the
world safe." She smiles at that. Warm. Genuine.
"Yeah. You, you planned for everything, didn't you?" she says. She
seems so much more at peace.
"I did," he says. "I have a place here in the hotel they won't
find us. I know you would have used a room, but my place is much safer.
We'll escape safely, and we'll talk about how to make it look like you
took me hostage." He smiles. It's far more predatory. "But don't worry.
That's not how people are going to remember you. Once this is over, you're
going to be canonized. A Saint of Kira. They'll make a statue to remember
you."
"That's... That's really nice, Light. It really sounds like you
care."
"None of this would be possible without you," he tells her. Laying
it on thick, just to be safe. Lies like this are easy to tell. "Your
sacrifices are going to go down in history. The Woman Who Loved Kira."
They emerge into the employee area on the first floor. He takes both of
her hands in his, and looks into her face.
"It's funny, you know?" she says, avoiding eye contact. "There was
always some part of me that wanted you. Not just like that. Wanted Kira to
be right. Wanted to live together with you and hear you say you loved me
and I was important. Have a... a happily ever after where both of us were
safe and peaceful. Where we just got to live. But it was never going to
happen, was it?"
Light starts to say something about how what she is doing now will
ensure everyone else gets to have their happily ever after. But he stops
himself when he squeezes Misa's left hand. His expression becomes shocked
disgust.
"I guess that's why I had to do all this. I had to make sure, you
know?" Misa says.
"Misa? Are you... Are you missing fingers?"
"I had to... I had to make sure that part of me was dead forever."
Misa holds up her own piece of paper. The top margin of a sheet of
notebook paper, unmarked, not useful to make a bracelet with. She's
smiling now, and laughing a few weak, dry, laughs. Because it says:
//NAOMI MISORA. HYPOTHERMIA. IMMEDIATELY REALIZES THAT SHE IS NOT
IMMUNE TO KIRA'S POWER, AND SO SHE SHOULD WALK INTO THE FREEZER AT YOKO
CREAMERY. SHE IMMERSES HERSELF IN THE FREEZING WATER OF THE PLASTIC POOL
AND KEEPS HER ARMS AND LEGS OUTSIDE. SHE DOESN'T FEEL AFRAID AT ALL AS HER
CORE TEMPERATURE DROPS BELOW THE FATAL LEVEL AT 1:00 AM, IN A WAY THAT
MOST READILY ALLOWS HER TO BE QUICKLY REVIVED, AND NONE OF HER TISSUES ARE
PERMANENTLY DAMAGED OR FROSTBITTEN.//
//MISA AMANE. HYPOTHERMIA. IMMEDIATELY REALIZES THAT SHE IS NOT
IMMUNE TO KIRA'S POWER, AND SO SHE SHOULD WALK INTO THE FREEZER AT YOKO
CREAMERY. SHE IMMERSES HERSELF IN THE FREEZING WATER OF THE PLASTIC POOL
AND KEEPS HER ARMS AND LEGS OUTSIDE. SHE DOESN'T FEEL AFRAID AT ALL AND
LOOKS VERY BEAUTIFUL AND PEACEFUL AS HER CORE TEMPERATURE DROPS BELOW THE
FATAL LEVEL AT 1:15 AM, IN A WAY THAT MOST READILY ALLOWS HER TO BE
QUICKLY REVIVED, AND NONE OF HER TISSUES ARE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED OR
FROSTBITTEN.//
Read 'em and weep.
"Only one of them worked. It's, you know, you have to test your
hypothesis." Misa says through her meager laughter, "She already had an
entry, so she couldn't be affected again. I know Rem wasn't supposed to
tell us, she didn't, but, but it wasn't hard to put together that she was
protecting me." Another chuckle breaks her face up. "I bet, I bet the ice
cream shop, they were really confused why they came in to work and the
whole back room was full of warm water, they had two kiddie pools, all the
hot chocolate was used up, and their microwave was surrounded with empty
bags of IV fluid. They probably didn't even notice all the ice cream Naomi
ate."
Light's eyes are wide with horror.
"It shut my body down in the right way to let me get turned on
again, but, it wasn't a sure thing," Misa continues. Like she was just
telling a story to a friend. "Once my heart stopped, I think that was it
for the magic. Like, it stopped paying attention, stopped making sure I'd
be revivable. If Naomi wasn't there to start warming me up the instant my
heart stopped beating, it probably would have froze enough to keep me
dead. And I said no frostbite, but, my pinky and ring finger were dangling
in the water... they went bad quick. The hospital said they were dead, and
I needed to lose them to prevent gangrene. So, uh, snip-snip!" She
giggled.
She pulled off her choker, revealing the whisper-thin scar on her
neck made by the chain of her pendant spinning around. As if her head was
sliced off with a cut so clean it never fell, and simply healed back
together. "I'm exhausted and I'm freezing. They helped some when I got to
the hospital but, I've just, just been so tired and so cold ever since it
happened. But I could walk. With a fistful of caffeine pills and
painkillers I could focus on the other crazy shit going on instead. I
might have problems with my body temperature for the rest of my life. But
it was worth it, Light. To keep myself safe from you."
"Misa. Misa. Hang on. Don't do anything silly, Misa," Light says,
backing slowly, hands up. "I was only doing what you would have wanted.
You told me I could use you up. I can't be held responsible for your
wishes."
"I wanted it so bad, you know? She could have just shot you in the
gut and made you confess. We didn't even have to meet Yotsuba to do that.
But I wanted it so bad. We jumped through all these hoops, we made things
way worse, because I kept believing, I knew, I KNEW that there was a good
person inside of you. And I had to do something to show the world it was
there." She sighs. Morose. regretful. "But I was wrong, wasn't I? I don't
think there's a person inside of you at all."
"Misa!" he hisses. "If I, if you go tell the investigation this,
I'll be ruined. They will kill me. There will be no more Kira to keep you
safe. Criminals, they will get away with anything they want and it will be
your fault!"
"Light. You never cared at all, did you?" she asks. "You have no
idea who I am or what I do. I'm not going to go and tell the
investigation."
Light sighs in relief for exactly one second.
"I appear in public in this dress all the time. You don't even
know where my microphone clips to it."
* N A O M I *
I cradled Ryuzaki's, Leslie's... no, Ryuzaki's, bleeding body. He
looked at my face with horror and regret. Light and Misa left, and the
door clicked shut behind them. Ryuzaki whimpered. "You're betraying
justice... you're betraying Raye..."
So I handed him a pamphlet. He looked at it. Looked at me. Looked
at it. His eyes went wide. Color went back into his face as I got to work
tearing his shirt open and applying a styptic pencil to the bullet wound.
"This is... this is the worst idea anyone's ever had," he moaned,
as his hand went slack and he dropped the informational flyer.
//WHAT IS DEEP CIRCULATORY ARREST? Deep Circulatory Arrest is a
surgical procedure where the patient's heart and bloodflow completely stop
in order to allow surgeons to perform extremely delicate surgery on the
aorta or fragile cerebral aneurysms. Though it is frightening to think the
patient is technically "dead" during the procedure, the risks of a DCA
operation, when performed correctly, are only a few times higher than that
of surgery with anesthesia.//
Ryuzaki groaned, arm across his eyes. "'Isn't there an operation
where they kill you on the table so they can work on you without your
heart messing things up, and then they Frankenstein you back?'" Didn't
even try to sound like Misa's voice when quoting her. "So now I've been
saved by the fact that Misa Amane's coworker is a medical-themed model. I
would be angrier that you inflicted a dangerous medical procedure on me,
if I hadn't planned on doing it to myself the moment I figured out if the
13 day rule was real or not." He clutched his chest and I batted his hand
away, I was slathering him with analgesic and applying the gauze to go
under the bandage. "I'm assuming you used the pillow to decrease the
bullet's velocity and get it jammed next to my aorta? I hope Misa wrote
down that I wouldn't be in danger until then, and it could be safely
removed with no lasting side effects."
I shook my head yes. He looked horrified. Then I slowly, tongue in
my teeth, nodded. Damn it.
"Ah. Right. I'm impressed, miss Misora," he said. Then he stopped
to choke with pain. "You used a, agh, used Kira's power to create a homing
bullet that wouldn't kill someone. That was why you closed your eyes, so
the force of the Death Note could make sure the bullet hit correctly
without your interference. Very creative. I assume Misa is wearing a wire
to get his confession? Aiber's, of course."
Ryuzaki couldn't stop, I guess. Shot in the chest, the moment he
thought he was going to live he started throwing out deductions and being
condescending. Now that he was clearly comfortable, time for another shock
to his system. I tapped him with the cover to //ARVC-5//, still wrapped in
rubber bands. Ryuk waved.
Ryuzaki startled at the god of death. But only startled. He had a
very specific date with Death coming and heart failure from a shinigami
sighting wasn't involved. He took a second to catch his slow, painful
breath. "A god of death. A god of death..." He grimaced. Looked over to me
to confirm I saw it. "Hand me my headset, O Death, because you are the
least important thing happening right now. I need to hear this in real
time, I don't want to wait for the recording."
Ryuk laughed, but obliged him. I taped the gauze on Ryuzaki's
chest tight, and I wrapped an Ace bandage around his torso for good
measure. Then I took the other headset. I wanted to hear it too. I wanted
to hear what Wedy and Aiber and Watari and Mogi and Aizawa and Matsuda
were all hearing.
And it was goooooooood. I grinned. It was touch and go for a bit,
I was worried that Misa overplayed her hand vamping for Light to pick up
her cues, but no. There he was. He admitted it. He was about to tell her
everything while he thought she was totally on his side.
Everything went exactly as planned.
"A sociopath won't slip up due to emotion," Ryuzaki said. "But
only if he logically but mistakenly believes it to be to his advantage."
He sat up. Clearly in pain, but adrenaline was pumping through him. "Let's
go. Let's close this case." I handed him my crutch, and I helped him up.
Ryuk wouldn't help even if he could.
"All units... nnngh... I want radio silence," he groaned when Misa
and Light stopped talking for a bit. "Stand down against Misora and Amane.
Light is Kira, and he's going to confess. I want all of you to make sure
nobody gets into or out of the Hotel Palace Shibuya. Watari, get cellular
jamming active, and make sure we're picking up Yagami's audio clearly."
We stopped back on the first floor. Had to spring Aiber, who had
his earpiece still in his ear. He didn't have a mic, so we came in on him
shouting curses in French. He could have carried Ryuzaki, come along with
us. But Ryuzaki thought for a moment. "Aiber. Get to security. Lock the
doors if you can, make sure nothing goes out to the police."
One less witness. One less person to interfere. Was he helping me
do what came next, or simply resigned to its inevitability?
I heard him tell her that she could make new decoys, that he had
places to hide them. I grinned. That was it. He was done. He didn't have
any outstanding sheets hidden. Misa saw where he wrote her name. We
neutralized him, there were no loose ends. She worked him beautifully.
I did it. I won. Light confessed. Misa and I both won. Light
fucked up. Light thought Misa was his forever. Light thought I would throw
away my responsibility and trust Misa instead of myself, that I'd do
anything foolish rather than be alone again, and she'd lead me to ruin.
But he didn't know what this relationship was. She wasn't his toy. I
didn't throw away my responsibility, because she WAS my responsibility. I
did everything in my power to ensure her success. She was right now
banishing that part of herself that loved him, needed him, hated herself.
My chest swelled with pride. 'I had to make sure that part of me was dead
forever.' Beautiful. Poetry.
We got him, Raye. We got him.
The service elevator dinged open. Light screamed immediately.
"Help! Help me! It's Kira! Kira's going to kill me unless you--"
Then he saw who it was. He grabbed Misa's purse and ran. "Hey --
give that back!" He fled around the corner, not enough time to take a
shot.
Light was running to the lobby, a huge well lit centrally
accessible area. He wasn't thinking. He had no way out. For the first time
in a long, long time.
"His Death Note paper is in his watch, by the way," Misa said
directly into her microphone. "He pulled the knob thingy three times to
make it pop out." Then she helped me carry Ryuzaki forward. To follow
Light's slapping footsteps.
We didn't have to follow far. The moment he stepped from the
employee area out into the lobby, he was clotheslined by an outstretched
arm. Light's legs kept going, he didn't, and he fell to the tile floor
clutching his throat. Matsuda stepped out from behind the corner.
The lobby was quite big, for Japan anyway. Polished tile floors
that looked almost like marble. A wide empty space centered around a
fountain, a central column with water pouring out around it. Ferns and
fronds along the walls. A design of a crown in a circle, the symbol of the
hotel, set into the floor. A large revolving door at the front, now still.
Above us, the center rooms all overlooked the lobby over brass balcony
handrails. Glass elevators, also still, led up and down. Customer
staircase on the right, with the hall that led to the slightly less fancy
first-floor rooms. The path from the reception desk went past a room full
of overpriced toiletries, and forked off to lead to the pool. He was
finally flushed out into the open. Four passages. Zero ways out.
Light gagged, but found his voice quickly enough to shout
"Matsuda! Matsuda! You have to help me! Misa found us! Misa, she's used
the Death Note on Ryuzaki, and now she's, she's turning people against me!
She wants to take over L, you have to, you have to hide me!"
"Are we getting Yagami's audio?" Ryuzaki asked into his headset.
And we were. "Good. Kira is down. Everyone else, keep the screen up. I
don't want civilians interfering with Kira's confession." Then he stared
up at me. Big, sunken eyes.
"Let me see your watch, Light," Matsuda growled, standing over
him. "If she's lying about you, your watch should be fine."
"Sure! She made that up! Right here, look..." Matsuda reached
down, and Light tried to grab him. Tried to take him hostage somehow,
threaten to stab his neck with a pen. It went about as well as you'd
expect. Matsuda elbowed him in the gut, drove the base of his palm into
Light's jaw, twisted his arm, and sent him back to the ground while
ripping the watch from his wrist. Kira hit the floor like a sack of
bricks.
Light frantically dug in the purse he'd stolen from Misa. Tried to
catch his breath. To do something. But there was nowhere to run. Misa
didn't even look at him as she walked Ryuzaki over to the stairs. Her
other hand was in her pocket, where her gun was, so Light couldn't snatch
it.
One. Two. Three clicks. Matsuda's face turned to pure disgust.
"You son of a bitch, Yagami. You son of a BITCH!" Light tried to pull out
the notebook, but the fake cover on the ordinary composition book was
already slipping off. He threw a fistful of makeup out of the purse in
frustration, scampered along the ground toward the front doors.
And ran face-first into the glass. If Matsuda hadn't locked them,
Aiber would have. No way out, Light.
Matsuda and I closed in on him. He spun around, back to the door,
held out his hands. "Okay. Okay. Okay. Everyone just calm down, okay?
Let's, let's be reasonable. Let's think about this rationally. I can't, I
can't, you can't let this, I can't LOSE like THIS..."
I grabbed him by his tie. I yanked him away from the door, sent
him sprawling onto the Hotel Palace seal. Gun leveled at his head. He
didn't dare move, didn't dare breathe, while I pulled out a note card. The
one I had set aside. Chibi-Naomi, cutely pushing the box into the gear
machine. //HOW: I am asking a question about something's method or
origin!//
"Kill."
"I, I, I, okay, okay, you got me," he stammered, "I killed people
with the Death Note, okay? I, I, I got news reports around the world about
criminals, and, and, I saw their faces, and I wrote their names."
"That isn't the question she asked you, Light." Misa and Matsuda,
in unison.
"I... it was... The busjacking, okay? I was on the bus that got
hijacked. So was Raye. He showed me his ID, okay, so, so I'd trust him! I
knew his name and face, so, so, so, I didn't know the other agents... I
left the notebook on the subway. I made him write the names of the other
agents in the notebook, I figured, I figured he couldn't help but think of
their faces too. Then, then, he was, I couldn't keep him around, he was
too DANGEROUS, He was trying to let criminals GET AWAY, I--"
I stomped on his ankle. He screamed in pain. Heads were poking
over the guardrail from the luxury rooms above and I did not care. There
went his chances of running. He looked around for help. Ryuzaki was
leaning against the wall now, clutching his bloody wound. "Naomi, if he
doesn't tell you how he killed you in the next ten seconds I want you to
shoot him in the stomach."
"Okay! Okay!" I drew in closer. I crouched right by his face. "I,
I, you were looking on your own for Raye's killer! I found you, I found
you on the way to police HQ! You knew I was on the bus that was hijacked,
you, you were going to have me KILLED! I, I told you I needed your name,
you gave a fake, I, I, I couldn't let you stop me! I told you I was with
L, I had to have your real name to verify your identity if you were coming
to help!"
Of course. How much did I even learn here? I died because I
wouldn't stick to my guns. Because I couldn't trust myself. Or I went for
an easy way out. Lots of flaws could explain it. I already -- god damn it.
Of course. Light walked me through my last steps. I remembered pieces of
it, but wrote it off as false memory, filling him in the gaps. That was
it. That smug face he made, looking up from his watch, that was real. That
was the last thing I saw. He might have said something asinine like
"Sorry, time for you to die!" before the magic kicked in, but I doubt it.
Probably just smiled like a child pulling the wings off of a fly. Why the
fuck did I play along? Why would him claiming to be with L mean anything?
Anyone could claim that. L had worked with me before. It was a dismal case
that meant nothing, but he knew what my face looked like.
"So I, so I, I wrote in the circumstance, I waited for your
name... You gave it to me! You did that! You could have lied! But, but you
chose not to, even with the risks, I, I said, that you would want to kill
yourself so, so you didn't inconvenience anyone, and nobody found you,
but, but, I never said it would be painful!"
I didn't know who I hated more: him or myself.
Why would I choose to give him my name? Was I suddenly overcome by
suicidal stupidity? No. I was weak. I was a coward. I didn't want to trust
myself. I was desperate for someone, anyone, to take the responsibility
out of my hands. I was someone useless who only tricked people into
thinking she accomplished anything. Who sat around and waited for
murderers to give her clues and waste her time.
No, wait, I do know who I hated more. It was him. Because when I
was a useless fuckup, it was only hurting myself. I smashed the butt of my
pistol into his nose, sending blood spraying all over him. Soaking into
his white dress shirt.
Hate that had been seething inside me, eating away at everything I
was inside, was finally pouring out into the world. Where it belonged.
Pouring out of his face in a steaming gush of dark red blood. He whimpered
in pain, and I grinned. He was suffering. Good.
"That, that was it!" he shouted in panic. "I didn't do anything to
you after--"
"I saw your watch. You said she had to murder Kitamura," Misa
snapped. My hate was being reflected in her big blue eyes right now. Her
savior was moaning on the ground, utterly destroyed. Maybe she hated
herself just as much as I did in this moment, for being tricked by him.
For willingly giving herself over to him. But she was relishing his pain
as much as I was.
And that made my stomach churn. Just a bit. Just the slightest
unease. That was, it wasn't... I pulled back. Gave him some room to
breathe.
"Okay! Okay! I did!" he held up his arms. No idea what was going
through my head. "But, but, you wanted to! You wanted to do that anyway!
You weren't really under anyone's control but your own!"
I suppose he was right. Since it didn't work. He'd still tried to
make my soul his plaything. Everything he touched was limitless violation
and degradation. Maybe it was a good thing I failed. I'd been able to
fight off his hideous influence. But I did it by being weak. Being someone
it was okay to just hurt.
"Tell us everything else you did. Now." Ryuzaki wheezed. He said
nothing about lowering my weapon. He wasn't taking Light back to a
briefing room, whether he wanted to or not.
"Fine! Fine! Just don't shoot me!" He was trying to slide back on
his ass, put any distance between me and him. He left a streak of blood on
the Hotel Palace's emblem as he put his back up against the nearly silent
fountain. And he spilled his guts. Finding the notebook. His first kill.
Ryuk. Lind L. Tailor. Joining the investigation. Plotting to kill L and
take his place. He tried to make everything sound so reasonable. He showed
not a hint of remorse. Nothing he said told us anything Misa didn't know
or Ryuzaki didn't guess.
He must have seen my scowl deepen. Waved his hands out to the
sides wildly. "And, and, and MISA CAME TO ME! Okay? That was, she had her
OWN shinigami, her OWN notebook, her OWN plan, it was ALL HER! SHE put
herself in danger! SHE got caught, SHE was going to be tortured! If she
never showed up at all..." He gasped. He pushed himself further and
further back against the fountain, now he was half-crouching against it.
"And she, and she -- you know the rest! I sent Rem out to find someone new
with the notebook. I would have given up my memories too, I was willing
to, I was going to give them up! Stop being Kira! But YOU had to come
along, you had to put MISA in danger... I had to stay!"
"Ryuk. The entity. He contacted Isamu Egawa. He alerted Rem by
screaming into the microphone, didn't he?" Ryuk nodded. Grinned, or at
least grinned wider than usual. "That was why you winced. Only you could
hear it." Ryuzaki winced himself. He should have been lying down. But he
wanted to watch. He had to be here too. "Then you undoubtedly spoke to him
through your game. Right under my nose."
"Yup! Yup! Ha ha!" Light's nervous laughter threatened to eat him
alive. "You guessed it! Now, now everyone knows everything, and we can, we
can all just calm down and think about this rationally. You can, you can
take me to jail."
"I could." He could not. "You got close, didn't you? You had me
fooled. But it looks like I won, Light. I beat you."
"THE FUCK YOU DID!" he screamed, pride all of a sudden incensed.
He finally got his way to his feet, kneeling against the stone lip of the
fountain for support. "You got lucky, that's all! Misa came and ruined my
plans at the last moment! Naomi showed up right when I was going to
surrender my memories! Then she, she goes off half-cocked, she gets a
hunch, she makes a guess, right, and it HAPPENS to be true! You were ready
to make me L, it was all these two! You got outwitted by an, an, an..."
"You got outwitted, Light," Ryuzaki said with a smile. "You and
your magical relic and your two gods of death and your fortunate timing
and your cooperative accomplice chosen at random and your incredibly
convenient rules got outwitted. L is an institution. My employees...
hff... validated the trust I put in them."
"My God," Matsuda whispered. "This whole time. This whole time. I
trusted him. I admired him!"
He stared at me. At my gun. He wanted to say something, I could
tell. The words 'brain-damaged cripple' were dancing behind his eyes. So
were the words 'don't shoot me'. The latter won. I took half a step
forward, and he fell on his ass, backwards into the fountain. The blood
staining his clothing blossomed out into the water.
"I can't... I can't lose like this." Light muttered to himself,
shocked. "This can't be it... the, the God of the new world..."
You're not a god. You're a rapist, a murderer, and you're about to
be nothing at all.
I grabbed him by the collar. Pulled his face forward. Jammed the
gun to his temple. And I issued a very simple command: "Beg."
"Wh-- what?"
"Beg!"
"She wants you to beg for your life, Light," Misa said. "Give her
a reason to send you to jail. Give her a reason not to kill you.
Anything."
I dropped him back into the water so he could talk. "Okay, okay,
okay, Misa, you, you know me. You love me. You remember, you remember how
much you loved me. You don't want to see me die, do you? You don't want to
know nobody will be keeping you safe the way I did. I did, I did all of
this so I could save your life, Misa. You don't, you can't let her kill
me!"
"You thought my love for you was wavering enough that you were
going to kill me to get it back," she spat. "Yeah. Yeah, I've got all of
my... I've got all of her memories. As soon as I touched the notebook, I
remembered everything that made her want to serve you. I remember
everything about how you made her feel. They all came back like they had
always been there. Light, do you have any idea..." Her voice cracked with
a dry laugh.
"Do you have any idea how easy it was to decide between you? There
wasn't some kind of war in my mind, or a struggle to keep my mind from
her. The Second Kira was hollow." She shook her head. "She got the Death
Note when she was at the lowest, most vulnerable, most fragile point in
her life. You? You were just fine, Light. You had your memories this whole
time and you didn't care about all the suffering you saw. When I got her
memories back I puked my guts out. It hurt me so much to know how awful
she was. Every time I think about her I want to die. I was the one who
wanted to kick in the door and blow your head off, Light. Naomi wanted to
make sure we did it all the right way."
"You can't trust her, you can't trust her you CAN'T TRUST HER!" he
shouted. "She's a lunatic! You can't listen to her! Both of them, both of
them are insane! You need me! Matsuda, Matsuda! You know! You talked to me
about it! You said, you said if you didn't know if Kira wasn't doing the
right thing! That maybe, maybe he really should work under the police's
supervision! Right? You, you can't be okay with this!"
"well you know what Light, I think I've come to a conclusion about
that moral dilemma," Matsuda snarled. "Why don't we all ask ourselves what
Kira would do to someone who murdered innocents, forced them to violate
everything they cared about, and handed out his Death Note to another
amoral psychopath so he'd murder more innocents long enough to get the
heat thrown off?" I stepped aside long enough for Matsuda to punch him in
the stomach. "I can't believe I ever admired you. You were going to murder
every single person who ever put their trust in you. You disgust me."
Light couldn't stop his manic laughter at this point. "Ryu--
Ryuzaki! You can't be okay with this! You can't! You were, you refused to
do ANYTHING until you were certain you were right! You are on the side of
justice! You don't let murderers run free! You don't, you, ha, ha, you
can't! I was your rival! Your equal! I surpassed you! You were willing to
make me the new L! You ha, ha, you can't, ha, you can't think that you can
throw a mind like mine away! She's wasting, she's destroying the only
friend you ever had!"
"Light. I may not be experienced with having friends. But I am
pretty sure they don't secretly scheme to kill one another and usurp
everything they have made." He tried to wave a hand dismissively and
instantly regretted taking it off of his chest. "Ahh, ow... If they did? I
don't think our friendship was ever strong enough to convince me to stand
between you and her."
Light looked back up to the barrel of my gun. And he threw his
head back and screamed.
"I'M KIRA! THE GOD OF THE NEW WORLD! I KNOW YOU PEOPLE CAN HEAR ME
UP THERE! I KNOW YOU CAN SEE ME! SHE'S, SHE'S TRYING TO MURDER THE GOD OF
THE NEW WORLD, DON'T YOU GET IT? HELP! HELP! IF YOU, IF YOU COME AT HER,
SHE CAN'T FIGHT ALL OF YOU OFF! SHOW YOUR DEVOTION, SHOW HOW MUCH YOU
BELIEVE IN THE NEW WORLD! YOU'LL BE, YOU'LL BE MARTYRS OF JUSTICE IF YOU
HELP ME GET FREE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEONE HELP ME!"
Nothing. No response. No tide of zealous Kira advocates,
sacrificing themselves for the greater good. No sound but the babbling of
fountain water splashing over his clothing and his ragged, panicked
breath. Anyone who loved Kira here was too much of a coward to step up.
Everyone else had too much sense.
"Ryuk! Ryuk! I know you have to be here!" he gasped. "I have, I
have two apples here for you if you help me escape! Matsuda's still
vulnerable! He could stop them! The other customers could stop them!"
Ryuk stopped leering from afar and slapped Light in the face with
his own personal //DEATH NOTE//. "Ha! You had a good run, Light old buddy,
but it doesn't look like anyone's willing to die to extend your life!
Looks like it's the end of the line for you! Sure gave me a thrilling
ending to the story, didn't you?" Matsuda was clearly confused, the only
one who couldn't see Ryuk. He backed off to keep his options open.
Light turned away from the grinning god of death. And at last he
looked me in the eyes.
"Beg."
"You don't have to do this," he said, as evenly as he could. "You
won, okay? Maybe, ah, maybe you even, you, you proved you beat me, okay?
You don't need to kill me. That isn't what justice is. You can, you can
show mercy."
At no point in this entire spiel had I ever heard him express the
slightest remorse. My face didn't so much as twitch.
"Well FUCK YOU!" he bellowed. "You're worse than me, you know
that!? Your husband was going to stop me from protecting people! Innocent
people were going to DIE because of him! YOU were going to let innocents
get murdered because you were just too upset about him to see the big
picture! Huh? Huh? You think you get to take me out for hurting you, but I
don't get to defend myself? Hypocrite! Hypocrite!" He was a centimeter
away from totally breaking down into gales of nervous laughter. "What gave
you the right? If I'm such a monster, how come you, how come you get to
decide if everybody gets to live or die? How are you not just as bad as
me? Huh? Answer me! You can't, can you?"
"Everybody. Huh." I mulled it over. "Everybody." I took a deep
breath in through my nose and out through my mouth. I started slowly
shaking my head. "Everybody..." He was right. I did not have the right to
decide if everybody lives or dies. "Uh. Hmmm. Ah." Was it right? What made
me different?
"Everybody. Uh..." Passing judgment on everyone was wrong. Nobody
has that right. No single person can be Justice. "Decide. Uh... Decide,
and, and, everybody." He couldn't stop laughing, but his eyes were locked
on me, clearly awaiting every aphasic stammer. His face was starting to
light up with hope.
Light was right about one thing. If I decided I had the right to
decide everyone's fates because I could escape consequences for it, I
would be just as bad as him. I'd be everything I fought against.
"Decide. Ah... and, and, everybody." I lowered my gun arm. I
slowly shook my head, so I could know I meant it. "Everybody... uh,
uhhhh..."
Light erupted in another gale of frantic, nervous laughter.
"Ri-right, good! You know I'm right! We're all going, going, we're going
to do the right thing and--"
And then I spat "You." I pulled my hand back up. He started to
raise his hands in protest. I pulled the trigger.
BLAM!
The bullet went into his left eye socket and left an exit wound
the size of a baseball that sprayed brain matter and skull fragments all
over the central pillar of the fountain. Blood spattered on all four of
the humans here. The water instantly soaked deep crimson. He fell forward,
and his ventilated skull began to pour a lake of blood onto the crown logo
of the Hotel Palace Shibuya.
I didn't have the right to decide if everyone lived or died. That
is the provenance of Justice. That's someone who thinks they are God. He
murdered my fiance and robbed me of language, and that meant I had the
right to decide if HE lived or died. I can't stop him from hurting me. I
can't stop him from maiming me, taking the people I love, destroying my
life, violating my identity. But by God can I ever make him pay for the
privilege.
It was over. Kira was dead. My face was sprayed in his blood.
Matsuda and Ryuzaki looked horrified. Were they unconvinced I would really
do it? Everyone who had been silently watching above us started screaming
in terror. I was elated. He was dead. He was dead! Kira was dead! Raye was
avenged! Everyone else he ever killed was avenged! The would-be God of the
New World, gone! Never, never to slay again!
We won! We really won! We accounted for every page and had custody
of every active Death Note! I looked around to everyone. I wanted to
cheer. Misa jumped at me, hugged me as tight as she could, and kissed me.
I saved her too. I got my revenge, I saved the girl, we saved the entire
God damn world!
"I'd like to remind you that I was shot," Ryuzaki said, "and even
assuming the phone jamming was successful, we have maybe five minutes to
get out of here before all of us get arrested for murder."
* N A O M I *
They brought a truck they were going to use to escort Misa and I
to the headquarters. And they did just that. It was... pretty awkward.
But the previous plan was to bring us straitjacketed to holding
cells.
Instead of alone with Ryuzaki.
Where we were.
"Why in God's name aren't I in surgery yet?" he moaned from his
wheelchair. Watari had hooked him up with painkillers on IV, but they were
either weak or didn't kick in yet.
"I had to have a, a a a margin of error!" Misa protested. "I
didn't, I didn't know if there was going to be, like, a day-long hostage
situation that kept you from, from getting out. Then you'd die! And I
didn't know, like, if I could just write down that your doctor did a DCA
procedure for no reason, like, is that plausible, so I had to give you a
reason to get the surgery!" She couldn't meet his gaze, though. "I'm...
I'm sorry." I consoled her as best I could. She made the right call, but
she already knew why, so there wasn't much else I could say, I could only
push things along.
"Join. Ah, and, and, uh, done," I stammered.
"Right! Right, right, the investigation. We would like to
officially rejoin the investigation, please." Misa said.
He looked at us. And then at Ryuk. "Is the entity joining us as
well?"
Ryuk laughed. "Sure! I won't take orders, but I'd like a badge."
"Th-that's Ryuk," she said. She was distracted, preoccupied. "He's
a, a shinigami. They come from another world, like, another dimension.
They use the notebook. Uh. To kill humans. They have a bunch of rules for
it too. They're, I guess like aliens?" Misa was racking her brain at this
point, searching for every word she could. "Ryuk got an extra notebook and
dropped it in the human world to, to to see what would happen. And Light
got it. He was, he was following Light around the whole time."
"Until Light killed himself!" Ryuk helpfully added. "I did not
know he was going to do that."
"Y-yeah. But until then," Misa stammered. "He's a death alien so
he doesn't follow the same rules. But there are a lot of rules he follows
with the notebook. He could, maybe, he might help us figure out how it
works."
"Hmm..." He pulled out that metal booklet again and theatrically
licked a finger to turn a page. "I can't give you the rules... Maybe I can
help you learn them on your own. That seems like it could be very
interesting!"
Ryuzaki narrowed his eyes. Clearly, thinking of how often Ryuk
must have loomed over his shoulder when we all met. When he thought Light
was befriending him.
"Uh, uh, lemme think, uh," Misa stumbled, "They, they like
apples... They kill people with the Death Note to sustain their lives...
tied, like, tied together with the Death Note to exist and always need
one... We can't be mad at them for it because they're aliens. I, uh, uh,
Ryuk? Is there anything I'm missing? I don't want to leave anything out."
Ryuk shrugged noncommittally.
Ryuzaki squinted. "I'll need to run a background check before you
can join the investigation." Ryuk grinned at that.
"Right! Investigation. If we rejoin it, we, can, we can tell you
it's finished. We, ah, we took care of the Egawas and Light." She opened
up the bag of supplies that had turned into a bag of evidence. "There was,
uh, I gave you the spine of the Egawa Death Note. There was a bunch of wet
pages, which are in the plastic bag marked //EGAWA 1//, and, we also got
six sheets he was supposed to hide, one from his, from his pocket, two he
was copying, and one from his smoke detector we shredded. That, we already
closed the bag, uh, so, that's //EGAWA 2// here." Deep breath. Focus. "And
Rem's is just in //REM//. I took all the pages with writing out of the one
I used and put them... uh... this is the jerky... box of bullets... Here.
And this is the book." She held out the notebook with //ARVC-5// on the
cover, bound closed with rubber bands. "Second Kira's notebook." She
pointedly did not hand it to him.
"Do?" I asked. "Do, and, uh, and book?"
"Yeah. That's the question," she said for me. "What are you going
to do with these things?" Ryuk threaded his fingers together and leaned
in, staring at us with such interest.
"Hmm." I think the opportunity to mull something over was more
powerful than the pain he was feeling. "We need to test the material and
thus its capabilities. Our number one priority is neutralizing it as much
as we can." Ryuk chortled at that. "I can get a list of terminally ill
patients who have petitioned for assisted suicide just like I did with
Lind L. Tailor. I imagine that since you are not idiots, you are not going
to allow me to have that notebook unsupervised. As you have had ample
opportunity to use it and not done so, I would judge it safe with you for
the time being." He tried to steeple his fingers and lean forward, and was
reminded of the wound in his chest. "Hhhhh! Aaah! No television or
computer access. No telling... anyone outside that we're done, until we
all complete a lengthy debriefing. I don't know if it is safe to destroy
these objects. I know we cannot risk my employers getting their hands on
them. If necessary I'll encase them in Lucite like baseball cards."
I had no idea who his employers were. They had something to do
with the 'let's make a gun the law can't touch' people, I think. So yeah,
not good to let it slip into their hands. Ryuzaki wasn't mentioning any of
the obvious other risk factors. He knew I knew what a catastrophe this
would be in the hands of terrorists, some college Communist revolutionary,
or even worse the hands of the CIA. He wasn't saying it. He was looking at
Ryuk. We all were. Ryuk would have thought it very interesting to hear
what groups of humans would do the most damage with the notebook.
I slowly nodded to Ryuzaki. His priorities were in the right
place. Or he was lying. But if he was, it was a lousy position to do it
in.
"Right!" said Misa, still preoccupied. She had been ever since her
memory returned, but now it was even worse. "You're not going to try and
use them. So, uh, I can say the investigation isn't over. There's, there's
someone else you have to take care of. The Second Kira has to die too."
What? What? No! This, she couldn't! Words fled from me and I
grabbed her and I squeezed her and I hoped to God my touch would let her
know how much she meant, how proud I was of her, how much she had changed.
How much she deserved to live.
"No!" She squealed in realization. "No, no, no, no, no. I, uh, not
like that. I meant... do the memory thing again." She grinned sheepishly
and held up some normal paper labelled //MISA MEMORY PLAN//. "I, uh, I had
to write it down because halfway through I would forget I was doing it. I
put it on the first page of my notebook, too. It's a big complicated thing
where I have to GET all the Notes, and, and and then I have to LOSE all
the notes, and and someone ELSE has to get the one with my, with the
memories I need, and we have to ensure I never touch the OTHER one with my
bad memories..."
Oh. That made sense. And she was clearly distraught over her
memories. But why so secretive?
"I taped, ah, a full confession of everything I know and
everything I did, right before I made the plan," she said, rummaging
again. "I took out every page that had writing on it and put them...
somewhere... they were... Here, //SECOND KIRA//. We'll trade this book
away afterwards so it can't give me my memories back, so I got all the
evidence out. You need to laminate those. The, uh, the pages, not the
tapes, so I can't touch them. Okay?" She handed the bound notebook to
Ryuzaki. "D-double, uh, double-check my plan and make sure the rest of
it's blank. I don't, ah, I, I don't want to make a mistake. But I, I can't
live with these memories either. Knowing, knowing she existed is one
thing. This is different."
Ryuzaki looked the first page over. Cursorily flipped through the
rest. And put the rubber bands back on. "I would prefer to interrogate you
with your memories. There could be things you forgot. But as you are
clearly going to kill yourself if you retain them for much longer, you
have my permission to carry out your plan."
Misa was up to something. 'Making mistakes' was something heavier
to her than simple errors. She needed Ryuzaki to make sure her plan wasn't
evil. Something the Second Kira was doing from inside her.
She was hiding it from me. If it was something the Second Kira
wanted, then now was way too late to be betraying me. So if it was about
me I couldn't know... but she didn't conceal it from me either. Didn't
bother to not use a telling phrase. It wasn't about me. It was about Ryuk.
"I'm going to go get some actual morphine," Ryuzaki shuddered as
he grabbed the control of his wheelchair, "and replace this bag of what I
can only assume is children's-strength placebo. Give me thirty seconds to
activate the recording suite in this debriefing room; I would like as many
spectrums of camera as possible to be looking at you when you lose and
regain your memory." And he wheeled out of the room. Misa was going to do
something to Ryuk. I had no idea what. I could only follow her lead.
The lights came on stronger, and indeed there were a bunch of
cameras behind glass, mounted to the ceiling. Ryuzaki even left the door
open a crack so he couldn't drop the panic door on us. Misa got out the
two notebooks, and the bracelet, and shooed me some distance away. "Okay,
this is complicated," she said again, "And, and part of it I will forget
what I'm doing, so don't let me, don't let me grab the book off the floor
or we'll have to start all over. Let me know if you, you can't follow it."
Really playing up how complicated the plot was. She had to have a
reason to ask Ryuzaki if what she was doing was okay... But she knew
misdirection. The plan wasn't the big thing, Ryuk should be looking at the
plan. She had something else going on. Follow her lead.
Raye's extended family had a 'white elephant gift exchange'. where
everyone wrapped a present and threw it in the center, and in turn each
person could open a gift from the center, or steal a gift from another
family member. You couldn't steal a gift that had just been stolen from
you, nor a gift that had been in someone's hands three times, so they had
to make alliances, form complicated chains and loops and slide the same
gift back and forth to keep it in their hands. The rule of "no cahootsin'"
was frequently shouted but not particularly honored. I got a blender and
some rum, for daiquiris.
The Death Notes passed around like the gift exchange. I had to
give //ARVC-5// up to Misa, which involved inventing a hand signal. Then
Misa had to give all of them up while //ARVC-5// was on the floor outside
of arm's reach and she was sitting on her hands, so she wouldn't
accidentally touch one while she didn't remember what she was doing. Then
I had to be the next one to touch the bracelet and Rem's blank notebook,
so I would own them and Misa had no connection. Then, Misa had to touch
the bracelet and Rem's notebook to get her memories back, but not own
them, so she wouldn't risk the memories if the notebooks were lost. Then I
had to DROP Rem's notebook and give IT up so Ryuk could take it and drop
it again and I took it BACK and now IT would grant the ability to see him
and not just //ARVC-5//. I did not expect altering memories with relics of
death to be such a chore. Ryuk was etching in the back of his rulebook
about the process. I had no idea what was coming but I made sure, every
time Ryuk looked to get bored, he was looking at me, thinking of a way to
subtly insult me. This was boring and I was bored. The only things that
weren't boring were confusing. I wasn't tense. I wasn't waiting for
another shoe.
"Okay. Okay. I'm okay." Misa said after a few breaths. Getting her
memories back this time just seemed like a jolt of static electricity.
They weren't gone very long. "I remember... I remember being abducted a
stalker to put me in a dungeon, even, even though that isn't true. But I
remember walking into the freezer to die of hypothermia... and why I lost
my fingers. That's what happened, right? It is? That's it! The Second Kira
is gone!" She didn't run over to me to hug me. She stayed her distance.
"Now, Ryuk, you pick up the one on the floor... and you own both of
them... and then you drop the one you just had before that on the floor
into the human world to give it up," she said, summarizing. "So now I
can't touch //ARVC-5// by accident. And then we're done, and you can have
the last two apples."
"Ah! Clever," Ryuk said. "I can't trade with humans, but this
isn't a trade, is it? Another fun little technicality." Sure enough, he
grabbed the notebook from the floor, held the two together, and dropped
his personal volume to the ground, abandoned to the human world.
Misa had one hand in her coat pocket. I thought I saw her wrist
moving slightly. Fumbling with something.
Of course. Batteries. If she was waiting for an exact moment with
a battery-powered device, she needed the batteries removed to avoid
premature detonation.
Ryuk slipped a finger into the rubber band closing his new
personal notebook. I had to get his attention. I grunted at him. "Ryuk!
Ryuk. Ryuk, and, and, uh... ah... Ryuk?"
He stopped. Stared at me with a slight mocking air. "Hmmm? You
know, I can't understand you. Maybe you could act it out." He smiled
cruelly, but he stopped fiddling with the rubber bands.
"It's okay!" Misa said. "It's fine." She wasn't fiddling in her
pocket any more. "He can have the apples. We can work everything else out
later." She looked up at me. "I can... I can still see your name. There
wasn't anyone to give the eyes back to. But I'm fine. Ryuk can help us
figure out how to deal with that, right?" She picked both apples out of
her purse. She rolled them down the table to Ryuk.
I took a step back. He was looking at the apples. Another step.
Misa's hand went right back into her pocket. She needed to be outside of
his leash range. Needed to be far enough away he couldn't lunge at her.
Ryuk snatched an apple from the table with a coo of satisfaction.
In that moment, we knew, he was tangible. The physical world, the realm of
human beings, could interact with him.
Misa's arm tensed up in her pocket. Like she was mashing a button
very, very hard.
Ryuk's eyes bulged even wider. I kicked his previous notebook
along the floor into the corner. Outside of range.
"Oh my." Ryuk said. Smoke billowed from his wings. From his mouth.
Flash paper. From the magic shop. Good for starting fires
remotely. Misa needed to be alone because she needed to put the flash
paper and igniter in the Death Note. She needed nobody to listen to her
tape, because they'd hear her setting up the hardware. She needed to put
rubber bands on the notebook so nobody would see inside and nothing would
slip out. She had the detonator in her coat pocket this entire time. She
needed to hit the button when she knew Ryuk could interact with the world
-- when he was touching an apple. The plan wasn't that complex, but she
did every step to keep it secret. And then, because she didn't trust
herself but Ryuk would read over my shoulder, she ran it past Ryuzaki to
make sure she wasn't evil.
The shinigami exist for the Note, not the other way around. They
must have one. The Note can exist without them, not the other way around.
It is tied to them. Losing it is bad. Destroying it? Burning it up while
it was the only one tied to them? Much worse.
I couldn't tell if Ryuk was enraged or impressed. His eyes were
starting to glow. Bluish flames licked at his ankles. "Ha. Very clever."
He was making the same conclusions I was. "How long did you plan this?"
"As... not long after I remembered who you are, I think," Misa
said. She couldn't meet his gaze. "You did this for fun. You'd do it
again. You're never going to be sorry and there's only one way to make you
stop."
"I'm not." He wheezed. Black smoke come out. "You had to kill me,
didn't you? That makes three shinigami you've murdered, doesn't it? You
are quite the killer."
"No." I told him. Flame was building up inside of him, and he
seemed totally undisturbed. "No, uh. Ah. One."
"Right. Of course." He was talking to Misa but fixated on me. I
had to be ready for movement. I had no idea what his tell would be, if he
went after me. "Gelus and Rem chose to die. I'm the only one you
murdered." Tongues of blue flame were dancing up in the back of his awful,
jagged maw. "Rem, you know, she had a thing. She wondered if humans had
surpassed shinigami."
His eyes were all flame now. The black smoke was filling the room.
I couldn't move him anywhere, I was his tether point. "You two, I think
you've surpassed Kira. The ultimate killers! It was a lovely ride! More
fun following this notebook then I've had in fifty years!" He threw his
head back and chortled and blue cinders sprayed out of him. "Games in
games! Wheels in wheels! Killing to stop killing to stop killing to stop
killing! It all ended with three notebooks locked down and three shinigami
dead and a world in terror! I tore up the world, baby! Maybe nobody will
ever dare to try what I did again!"
And then in an instant he was right in my face, his smoldering
eyes filling my vision. "Or maybe you just pissed the Old Man off and
he'll want his revenge! Hahahahaha!"
He spun in an great, awkward circle, laughing. Mirthful? I don't
know. Maybe he was happy to have been fooled, to find a way a shinigami
could be murdered and not just commit suicide. Maybe he was happy to be
done with a dreadful existence he didn't have the courage to end. Or he
was just elated at all the fun he'd had until now. Or he just didn't know
how to react to what was happening to him. And then he stopped. He didn't
seem to try to take another notebook, or to take his out and put out the
flame. He stared wall-eyed. One eye on Misa, one on me. Motionless.
Misa and I watched the fire consume him. More and more black smoke
filled the room. We said nothing. Nothing needed to be said. Now the case
would be closed. Bearing witness to his passing would be the most respect
we gave him. Misa threw away the memories of the Second Kira, knowing she
would do this. This was never leaving my memories, I doubt it would hers.
But we did it. We stopped the monster and the creature that made him. No.
We stopped the monster. Misa stopped this thing.
At last, it was done. He was a pile of oily black ashes. Misa
jabbed it with a pen to make sure nothing would jump out, then she scooped
some of it into another water bottle. "Yeah. He's... It's dead."
I helped her with her task. The remains didn't have the notebook
like Rem's did, since it had burned away. But there was Ryuk's metal
reference book, as well as his pen that had an etching point on the back,
and some coins. Looked modern. Ryuzaki would want these. We had plenty of
evidence bags.
Misa sighed wearily. I picked up her chin. Looked in her eyes. I
held her. I couldn't have done this without her. Because of how much she
had grown as a person. People were safe because of her. She was a hero.
And all I could say was. "Pride. Pride, ah, pride."
And she smiled weakly. "Yeah, I know... you're proud of me... I'm
just, I was a Kira, SHE was a Kira I mean, I had to do so much, I have to
do so much to, to make up for it..." She started teetering forward, and I
caught her. "And I'm just so god damn tiiiiired. I need a nap. Do you need
a nap?"
I could use one.
* R U L E S *
Response: Gola, please stop submitting requests for changes and
additions to the rules of the Death Note. Rules are not derived from
observed experiences or data and no authorization exists to alter or
expand them at this time.
X-9a. In the end, all humans will still die without the Death
Note.
X-9b. The existence of gods of death benefits no one, and serves
no purpose.
X-9c. Gods of death do not know where they came from.
X-9d. Gods of death came from somewhere.
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