[FFML] [FIC][DEATH NOTE AU] Silent Partner, Unfinished Business ch. 03
Paul Durant
031537 at comcast.net
Fri Nov 1 10:52:51 PDT 2019
I am not Brian Azzarello, author of 100 Bullets, nor am I Tsugumi
Ohba, author of Death Note.
* * * * * * *
SILENT PARTNER, UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
BAD COMPANY
* L I G H T *
Today was moving day. The pLaza (ha ha) was open for business, a
skyscraper-bunker that could withstand any urban assault or deprivation.
The nerve center of the Kira Investigation, the most important criminal
investigation in human history, operable by skeleton crew. Once I killed L
and took his place, it would be Kira's new throne. My new throne. From
which I reigned over my perfect world as God.
So of course I had to get a ride there from my dad.
All my clothes and furnishings were loaded in the back of the SUV,
my brand new computer was in the passenger seat, and I was in the
backseat. Dad didn't usually like it that way, he felt like a chauffeur.
He'd been pretty distant the past few days, barely made eye contact while
we loaded up the car. Mom and Sayu were excited to see me off, though.
"It's weird," I said, trying to make small talk. "It's kind of
like I'm going off to college... only I know my roommate's going to be a
lunatic, instead of just fearing it."
"Hmph." Dad didn't say anything. His eyes were on the road.
"Geez, dad, don't worry. I'm still going to To-Oh. This is just a
sabbatical." I laughed. "Hanging out with L is probably worth transferable
credits for something."
"Hmph." All right, he didn't feel like talking. I looked out the
window, gazing at the trees and lawns of Japanese suburbia pass us by. Why
were the trees and lawns of Japanese suburbia passing us by? We should be
getting closer to downtown by now.
"Dad? Where are we going?"
Dad grunted again. His grip on the steering wheel was
white-knuckled.
"...Dad, what's going on?" The concern in my voice was not an act.
"How did you do it, Light?" he asked without looking back at me.
"How did you go in and see those people, look in all our faces, and act
innocent?"
Here's a question I'm rapidly asking myself: Why are the
child-safety rear locks turned on? Ryuk, normally content to hover over
the car and pretend to be a low-flying airplane, shoved his head through
the useless door latch and cackled.
Dad didn't comment on my frantic attempt to open up the doors. He
wasn't even looking at me. "Matsuda looked up to you. Did you know that?
You are a college freshman and he looked up to you. Your intelligence.
Your sense of justice. You lied to him. You lied to the woman you maimed.
You lied to the girlfriend you sent to take the fall. And you lied to your
own father."
He skidded to a stop in a muddy field near an overpass. He threw
his arm out to the left to catch my computer tower so it didn't smash
itself against the dashboard. And I pleaded "Dad, come on, you're sounding
crazy. If you have suspicions, why don't we just keep on going to the
tower and tell Ryuzaki, and he'll tell you I'm fine. Or he, or he won't!
But then everyone will get a say in it, right?"
"Looks like he gotcha, Light! Looks like he gotcha good!" Ryuk
crowed.
Seatbelt undone, he turned to the backseat, holding a gun. "Light.
At first I hoped you could be a force for good in the world." Oh shit, how
long had he known? "Then I thought you could be controlled." Wait a
second. "Then I thought you would at least surrender with dignity. I asked
Ryuzaki to treat you humanely." If he's about to execute me, why did he
save my computer from falling over? "But now I see the son I raised is an
animal. A selfish, rabid beast who has to be put down." His teeth were
gritted. His hand was shaking ever so slightly. I looked shocked, but now
my concern was fabricated.
This was a test. Ryuzaki put him up to it. He thinks I'll try to
save myself with Kira powers. Since Ryuzaki is a fool, he doesn't realize
that this test proves nothing -- I couldn't Death Note my way out of this
if I tried, but Ryuzaki is convinced Kira is some sort of mutant X-Men
power and not a device with a warm-up time. That gun is loaded with
blanks. Dad is going to shoot me, he will be fine, it will reveal I can't
save myself with Kira power, and then Dad congratulates me on passing the
test.
Wait another second.
If he shoots me in the back seat from the front seat I'm still
going to die! I need to be at least a meter away from the fake gun for the
paper wadding not to hit me like a bullet! That's how Bruce Lee's kid
died, Dad must not know how a blank pistol works!
My concern was no longer fabricated. My eyes went wide and I
scooched on my ass into the far corner of the seat. No good, I was 50 cm
away from the barrel at most. "Dad! Dad, dad, dad, calm down! Calm down!
You don't want to shoot me, do you?" That was the problem, nothing I could
possibly do would dissuade him from shooting me, because he had no idea
that it put me in danger. But I had to keep talking! I had to buy time!
"I'm not Kira! I'm not -- I'm your son, right?"
"I don't think he cares, Light my buddy!" Ryuk cackled. "Humans
kill their own family all the time!" Ryuk was SO many steps behind what
was happening right now.
"I think you stopped being my son the moment you killed Lind L.
Tailor," Dad gravelled back at me. That was impressively cold. He pulled
back to 55cm, maybe. "He wasn't even a criminal, did you know that?" he
added with disgust. "America doesn't keep Death Row inmates secret. He had
terminal pancreatic cancer. He volunteered for his family's sake." He was
still talking. Good. He had to. Maybe he had to give me an adequate
wind-up time, even if the Note still wouldn't help here. And he was giving
me emotional justification for his actions. He had to act like himself or
break the fiction. He wouldn't do anything that resulted in him not
shooting me...
"Okay! Okay! Dad, you, you got me! I'm Kira! Just... just put the
gun down! I've been, I've been made now, you can take me to jail. You can
tie me up like they did Misa." All of these words were useless, but I
couldn't at like I knew they were. "What-- are you going to walk over to
the tower painted in your son's brains? I don't, I don't, are Sayu and Mom
going to run up and hug you and tell you what a great job you did?" I hung
my head in my hands. It got me closer to the barrel, but it also got my
face pointed at where Ryuk was sticking out of the door. With the eye Dad
couldn't see, I made the most exaggerated winking motion I possibly could
without moving my head. If Ryuk was this far behind, he might write my
name in his Death Note to claim me when he thought my death was imminent!
Ryuk made a ludicrously exaggerated grin and OK sign before
sliding out of view. One problem gone. Dad sighed. "No they won't. I'll be
killing myself when I'm done with you."
"So they get to see the crime scene? The family car painted with
blood and chunks of gore? You think Sayu wants that, Dad? Come on, just
put the gun down..." Come on, come on. Don't put the gun down. But don't
break character, because if you break character, I know it's all fake.
Ryuzaki told you that you had to give me time to use the power. Make it
believable, don't let me realize you're just sitting in the car. Pretend
to care about something you don't think will happen so I won't find out
about something I know about and used to manipulate your actions. Man, I
led the best life.
He popped the childsafe locks and gestured me to get out. "Get out
there. Get on your knees."
"Dad, you don't have to, you don't need--"
"GET! ON! YOUR! KNEES!"
I didn't know where the cameras were, so my smile of relief was
very short, right as my face got up against the door.
* N A O M I *
I had to strip down to get through the security checkpoint every
time I wanted to enter the new Casa de L and emerge in the windowless
metal lobby. At least Ryuzaki had to go through it as well. He'd seen my
scarred body before -- we shared hotel rooms, most weren't opulent enough
for two showers -- and even though he didn't care then and didn't care
now, I shivered with a bit of shame. When I emerged from the checkpoint
wearing only my undershirt and yet to put on my jacket, and saw Misa and
Matsuda standing there, I squeaked and instinctively retracted my arm.
Ryuzaki did nothing, he just kind of softly clinked when he took a step.
"Naomi!" Misa squealed in glee. Her backpack bounced back and
forth as she sprinted at me for a tacklehug. Then she pulled back, holding
me at a distance, and said in a faux-serious tone "I mean, loyal bodyguard
Shoko Maki. Right?"
"Uh. Hmm. Right."
"This place is cool!" she raved. "My apartment's bigger than my
old one. All the meals are catered. There's even a do it yourself print
shop! I made a congratulations banner for Light when he shows up, can you
help hang it up?" Wow, had she ever bounced back. She was still
underweight and didn't look healthy at all, but she was dang happy about
it. I couldn't put on my jacket with her holding my arm, though, so I was
pretty uncomfortable. She noticed. "Oh, hey, are you... Naomi, you don't
have to hide your scars like that! I think they're really cool!"
Again with this? I scoff-laughed.
"No, seriously, I'm not just saying that!" she pouted. "Like...
Okay, the one on the wrist here, I would cover that with some concealer.
That one's not cool. That could have been done yourself. But now you know
I mean it about the rest of them! Like, you have this, like an energy bolt
going down your arm. And it's all bumpy and jagged," she said while
rubbing her fingertips over the scar, "so it looks interesting, and it
says that you, like, you survived something that did a lot of damage and
you came out stronger so you're really tough. Other cultures used to draw
blood and make scars so they could look pretty, you know!" I didn't know
what this was. Stockholm Syndrome? A successful building of rapport with
the prisoner? Little of Column A, little of Column B?
"Uh, Misa..." Matsuda said in a buzzkill parent voice, "Do you
think you're making Naomi uncomfortable?"
"Oh! Right. Sorry." she let go with a sheepish blush, and I got my
jacket back on. "Anyway, uh, the new place is cool. Although it's a
40-minute job to get through security so I gotta plan to do as many things
as I can in one trip." She had on a choker, jewelry, what looked like
three layers of blouse, lacy bridal gauntlets, a skirt, leggings, a ripped
mesh cover over the leggings, and go-go boots. Yeah, I could see 40
minutes. "And here! I made this for you." She produced a plastic sleeve,
with laminated, multicolored index cards in it. I turned over the first,
and it said //WHERE: I am asking a question about a location!// and
underneath, a cutesy sticker of a redheaded girl looking through
binoculars.
"I got the idea from the whole escape thing!" she continued
cheerily like she wasn't talking about a time she was put in terror for
her life. "I hope it's not disrespectful, but I remembered it seemed like
some words were a lot harder for you to use, so I figured, you say YOUR
word or two, and you hold up the card that goes with it. And there are
pictures so your brain doesn't have to know what the words mean and
confuse you!" She was beaming with pride. "I got who, what, when, where,
why, how, do you want, if/then, either/or, past, future, and opposite.
Although, I had to use what was already in the Sunshine Starlet Sticker
Book for the images, so that's why the picture for 'why' is Yoko Yokoko
holding a giant carp. I got a guy who does chibi art, I could get you
cards with a little cartoon you on them, but I figured handing out
people's pictures was a no-no." She held her arms behind her back, looking
expectantly for my reaction.
I... figured it was worth a shot. I took the top card, displaying
//WHERE: I am asking a question about a location!// and asked "Light?"
>From the context, Ryuzaki would have got it anyway, but shush.
"Light should be in screening behind us. He'll be out
momentarily," he said. I was surprised he hadn't commented on anything
else, or left.
I shuffled through the stack and thought I pulled out 'when' but
saw myself holding 'either/or'. Couldn't do it too fast, had to focus on
the pictures, or it would be routed through the defective switchboard of
my brain. Still probably faster than the alternative. //WHEN: I am asking
a question about time!// This one had Misa sitting on an hourglass. A bit
of the sticker's edge was torn -- probably had a scythe originally, for
the Gothic memento mori aesthetic, that she'd ripped off. "Light?"
"I understand that you are testing your new assistance device but
I just told you he will be here momentarily," Ryuzaki said, not even
rolling his eyes.
I gave Misa the thumbs-down and smiled. They looked like they'd
help at least a little. She looked confused, but then happy.
Light's stuff got through security before he did, his furniture
and clothes and computer, and it gave us ample time to hang the meager
//CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT BEING KIRA, LIGHT!// banner over the lobby. Misa
couldn't really help much, it seemed difficult for her to stand or balance
for extended periods.
Ryuzaki watched impassively before asking "Misa, what is this
about?" without really looking at her.
"Well, I just figured," she said, counting on her fingers. "You're
not going to let him in if you think he's Kira. You did a whole thing with
me to make me think I was gonna die unless I used Kira blood magic. He's
my boyfriend and you asked a bunch of questions about him and you were
worried he could be giving me coded messages. I haven't been allowed to
see him in 2 days ever since you faked me out. So you probably had a dude
pretend to shoot him to see if he'd use HIS blood magic and didn't want me
to blab it was gonna happen. And then he didn't do it, so you scared the
bejeebers out of him, and he would appreciate some congratulations and
cheering up!"
The cylindrical entrances rotated into place, allowing Light and
Soichiro Yagami to emerge, with Light complaining "I can't BELIEVE you
almost killed me, Dad!"
"Son, I let you out of the car," Soichiro protested. "You were in
no danger!"
"Ha, see? Also yay! Light!" Misa squealed, and tacklehugged her
boyfriend almost to the ground. "It's you! It's really you!" She rained
smooches on his face while he struggled to retain his balance. "They
pretended to shoot me too, but now they know I'm not Kira! Everything is
gonna be great!"
"Ack... MisaIcantbreathe..." he choked out.
"Ooh! Sorry." she said, gingerly letting go and stepping back.
"Anyway! I have a real big announcement now that you're all here." Heels
together, deep dramatic breath. "I would like you all to know, that you
are looking... at the newest member of the Kira Special Investigative
Team!"
Light, Matsuda, and Soichiro said roughly the same thing: "Really?
You?"
"Yup!" she bowed grandiosely. It seemed odd how cheerful she was,
unless you could see this wasn't cheer, this was confidence. Happiness at
certainty. She was satisfied in the way one is when solving a puzzle. She
was doing something that caused the world to make sense again. "I want to
do my best to help you catch Kira. Kira won't make a perfect new world if
he keeps making mistakes. He needs... oversight and responsibility,
whether he wants them or not!" I bristled. Then I wondered if I should
feel more angry. "And whether you believe in his new world, or you don't,
the first step either way is catching him, so we should all work
together!" Raye, would you want me to not let a slight against your death
stand? Or would you want me to be kind and charitable to someone who
hasn't completed her journey of moral development. Yeah, I ask myself
that, and it's the second one.
"Okay, but really? You?"
"What... I can help!" she pouted against the murmured doubts. "I
helped Naomi just now, she can't make cue cards. And I figured out they
were gonna try and shoot Light! And... I can be a spokesmodel for the
investigation! Put a palatable human face on things! You know that so far
as I've seen, only two of you have any charisma at all, and one of them
can't talk."
"I allowed Miss Amane onto the investigation because she has a
skillset that we lack," Ryuzaki butted in. "I am not certain that her
talents will be useful, but I am certain that I won't regret having them
available. And I am certain that, at this moment, she is not Kira and her
sentiments are heartfelt. This is important... as before her release, Kira
resumed his killing." He paused, like he expected a dramatic music sting.
"Hm. Speaking of... Light. How did your trip with your father go?"
"He almost killed me because he never heard of how Bruce Lee's kid
died. It wasn't great," Light snapped. Kid was a lot more testy today. I
don't blame him.
"Yes, but we've proven that you don't have the ability to use
Kira's powers when your life is threatened. This is not a situation I
would like to present you with while bound to you."
"Does this mean... we're not going to bother sticking together
because I've already been tested?" He was way too hopeful. Light, you have
to know the answer to that one.
Ryuzaki grinned and held up a pair of handcuffs with a two-meter
chain, pulled from his pants. "It means you get to choose wrist or ankle."
* L I G H T *
I chose ankle so my arms were free. He swallowed the key. After we
tripped three times trying to get to the elevator, Watari had to get the
spare key and chain our wrists.
Ryuzaki's room was Western-style, as much as it could be while
being completely unfurnished. Blank white walls, concrete floor, and a
single empty desk. The only distinguishing feature was the metal isolation
cylinder he was going to lock me in when he needed to do eyes-only
business. There were various candies laid out on the desk, but those
weren't going to last long. Not even a sheet on his California King-sized
bed.Oh great, we're going to be sleeping in the same bed. I am going to be
making a lot of sarcastic comments to myself for the next month or so,
aren't I?
"What's this," I asked him, "Were you waiting for me to tell you
how to decorate? Because I'm fine with any theme, just as long as you have
one." I walked forward with my box of textbooks, but about halfway there,
I reached the end of the chain and yanked Ryuzaki off his desk and toward
me.
He didn't verbally react -- pulled by his wrist he skidded to a
graceful stop as if that was his normal mode of locomotion, not even
spilling his bowl of M&Ms. "What do you mean, Light? This was how my
apartment looked before this case started."
Oh this was awful. I didn't look at him while I started stacking
the overpriced textbooks. Would have to make or buy a bookshelf later. "Is
this some kind of ploy to get me off balance and reveal I'm Kira? Are you
messing with your new roommate? Or are you just messing with me because
you can?"
"Hm." He slipped a butterscotch into his mouth. "Yes."
"Light, tell him he needs a fruit bowl," Ryuk added. Is there
shinigami rehab?
"'Scuse me, let me just slip under this now," Misa said, ducking
the taut chain to deposit my two garment bags on the bed. Behind her,
Matsuda wheeled in the computer and desk on a hand truck. "I slipped in a
special surprise in this one for you," Misa whispered conspiratorially.
Instantly, Ryuzaki was between us, smiling like the cat that
caught the canary. "A special surprise, you said? I wonder what that might
be?"
Since she actually wasn't Kira and didn't remember the Death Note,
there were two things it could be. Wordlessly, I unzipped the garment bag
and dropped the stack of girlie magazines on the bed while staring at
Ryuzaki -- on the top were two brand-new Misa Amane photo collections.
That actually was unusual; I would have figured she would throw the other
ones out, out of jealousy. Or scratch out every other model's eyes.
Perhaps she was trying not to make too big a fuss.
"Ah. Of course," Ryuzaki said as he picked up one of the
collections. "Miss Amane, even if you have given him a nude photograph,
I'm going to have to inspect it. Your boyfriend has no privacy with me."
"I get it!" she said. "That's why it's all my commercial work.
Very tasteful."
He started flipping through the pages. "I'm unsure if I would call
a vampire schoolgirl tasteful," Ryuzaki... Quipped? Observed? How snarky
was he? He may have been easy to lead but in situations like this he sure
was hard to read. "Anyway, thank you for your help, Miss Amane. You and
Matsuda may go now."
Ryuk looked at the photobook and pointed like he recognized
someone; it must have been a photo where the shinigami Gelus was following
her.
"No way!" Misa pouted. "I haven't seen Light in over a month, and
only got to talk to him through Naomi, and it was mostly about me being
locked up BY YOU!" She stomped her little foot. "I don't care if he has no
privacy, I'm hanging out with my boyfriend and you can't stop me!"
"Matsuda?" Ryuzaki asked.
"I'm not doing anything but assembling a desk," he said from his
place on the floor. "Naomi's in physical therapy, but I can hang out with
you guys." She was in 'therapy' every day. I don't think it counted any
more, after a certain point you've recovered and it just becomes 'going to
the gym', but she insisted.
"Hmph. Fine," said Ryuzaki, even though this was clearly not the
answer he was looking for. "Don't worry about unpacking his things any
further. I'll do that when I inspect them. But now that we're here, Light,
I want you to see something." He went to the far side of the bed, and with
a graceful little roll-tug, he yanked me forward and sent my splaying with
my arm out onto the bed, knocking the magazines everywhere. He pulled up a
file box about the time I got my balance back.
I grabbed the tether with both hands and I pulled for all I was
worth, because I was acting like an innocent person and what me and an
innocent person had in common was that we were pissed! But he hopped off
the ground and he rolled into the force somehow, and he didn't lose his
balance at all as I dragged him onto the bed with me.
"There you are," he deadpanned. "This box contains information on
Kira's latest killings. I was hoping you could take a look at them."
"I... Ugh, fine," I said. I was fine. Right now, Ryuzaki didn't
know what the point of this exercise was. He thought I was Kira and I
could be tricked into revealing guilty knowledge. But as far as this
investigation was concerned, I wasn't Kira. I was in the same place as
everyone else. I only needed to make the smallest adjustments, for which I
had already prepared, and other than that I was innocent. He could be
suspicious all he liked, but either he was going to find the Death Note
and conclude my alibi was 13 days of airtight... or I was going to have
nothing to do with his death.
I flipped through the clippings and samples he gave me. Murderer.
Rapist. Embezzler. Murderer. Securities fraud. Larceny. Japan, Italy,
America, America, Canada, Japan. The list went on. Misa sat on the bed and
nuzzled up to my shoulder, cooing at my touch. A quick peck on the cheek
was all the attention she needed before I could resume my task.
"The targets are still disproportionately Japanese," I said. I got
the info about Japan easiest, there was no denying that. "Kira seems to be
going after more white-collar criminals here in Japan... These all seem to
be recent criminals too, not those who got off or got short sentences. It
could indicate a change of tactics or focus. Once he runs low on
accessible violent crimes, he shifts to financial crimes. Or he overheard
someone angry at the Nikkei and altered priorities."
"Hm. I noticed that," Ryuzaki said. "There are multiple possible
explanations. We need to do more to narrow it down."
"Yeah, these aren't Kira," said Misa. The heck? She pointed at an
entry on the page I was reading, and added, "Well, okay, the other ones
might be, but he's not. 'Reagen Taylor, resigned from the board of
directors of Amalgamated Flourodynamics, amidst fears of an upcoming
indictment for insider trading. He was found dead in his home two days
later of a medically inexplicable heart attack.' Kira... makes mistakes
sometimes. But he's about criminals. Nobody actually accused this guy of
anything yet. He could have been a fall guy, and business regulations are
complicated. More complicated when they're in French or something! You can
break them without knowing you did anything. I don't think Kira would do
that because he doesn't know if the dude did anything wrong."
"Miss Amane, Kira's character is not an admissible factor,"
Ryuzaki said.
"No... she's right." She was wrong, I would kill such a man,
because fall guys aren't innocent -- they just shield others who are also
guilty. But she made me realize something. "Think about it. This company
isn't big, and it isn't Japanese. He wasn't indicted for a crime. His
resignation wouldn't be significant news, and it wouldn't be reported as a
crime. It would be reported in regional business papers. Does Kira read
regional business papers? From Canada? It's not his mission."
"...Hmph. A valid point. This Kira may not be the same one we
sought before." He smiled, just a little. He probably suspected the same.
He was testing me to see if I would point it out... and now he was going
to get to make fun of me for having my girlfriend figure it out.
"Yaay!" she cheered. "Score a point for Team Misa!" God damn it,
Misa. I was looking over each entry in detail, and she got there first by
skimming for things using only her emotions. I high fived her but I didn't
enjoy it.
* M I S A *
I wasn't as bad off as Naomi was, at least if I understood
correctly, because I wasn't in a coma and I had like the best
prevent-atrophy-nurses and a wiggle alarm to keep my muscles from totally
wasting away. But I was still a stick, I could see ribs under my blouse,
if this was Europe I would be legally prohibited from modeling. I could
stand, but not for very long, and I hoped nobody noticed that all the
hugging was for stability. I went out a couple times to get shit from my
apartment, but I had to do it in disguise -- if the tabloids saw me
there'd be no end to the stories about me being anorexic.
Luckily my new apartment has a world-class physical therapy center
on site! Fancy that. And a print shop and a laundromat and a commercial
kitchen and a surgical suite and a data center and a briefing room and a
recording studio that I was never going to use and like a target practice
range with some crazy security thing to keep you from taking guns out and,
for some reason, a movie theater. It made the omissions more glaring.
"So, you know, now that I am essential member of the
investigation, I never got a chance to ask for something for the
headquarters," I said. "You guys totally need, like, a salon kind of
thing. Where you do makeup and wardrobe." That sounded selfish, didn't it?
"I mean, not just for me! What if people need disguises or special
outfits, or, I don't know, they need to get a haircut but the barber keeps
talking about classified stuff?"
I had on my one-piece swimsuit, a very nice new one I got for free
after I ceremonially burned the old crusty one I was imprisoned in and
told Watari to put the ashes in acid. Which he didn't do, I know that, but
it felt good to say. I kept trying to enticingly lift the fabric for
Light, show off a little tantalizing glimpse of skin, but I didn't want
Ryuzaki to see so it was like a red-light green-light kinda deal. Anyway I
had a terrycloth robe over it and Naomi was already on some kind of weight
machine, getting attended to by the physical therapist, who had on a Daft
Punk full-face helmet and didn't speak any Japanese so he had to just use
hand gestures. It made sense that a building this big, you can't run it
with just investigation guys, so you need like a way to keep all the
people who keep things running safe. Just like a movie, for everyone on
the screen there's a dozen makeup artists and gaffers and lighting techs
and key grips that get them on the screen. So anyway I was waiting to get
told what to do. Also, Light was here to support me, and that meant
Ryuzaki was here too because they were chained together.
"Hm" Ryuzaki mumbled, mostly to himself. "I could see the
potential utility in that. I doubt we would end up getting any use out of
it, though."
"Bah, you're just saying that because I'm the new guy. Busting my
hump." Wait. Was it hump? That didn't sound right.
The physical therapist came over to me, guided me over to the
therapy tub. Well, it was clearly a Jacuzzi, but it was built like a metal
bathtub so it looked medical and didn't LOOK like a one-person Jacuzzi.
Separated only by low walls with pool cleaning supplies on them, I was
visible to the rest of the room, which is why I had a bathing suit on. I
figure they didn't want a bunch of hidey places around. The guy motioned
for me to just get in and have a seat.
"You know, if you are a full member of the investigation," said
Light, "My father's birthday is coming up. We can't all sign a card for
him, for security reasons, but we're all drawing part of a picture. Even
Ryuzaki," he added while elbowing the guy. "You want in on it?"
"Sure!" I said while I slipped in. Man, Light knew how to make me
feel like a welcome member of the team. "July's a good month for a
birthday, too. Nicely spaced from all the gift holidays." The water was
perfectly attuned to my body temperature, too. "You know how much it sucks
to have a birthday on Christmas? Everyone's like 'Oh, hey, this is like a
birthday present AND a Christmas gift, ha ha! And then it turns out all
they got you was a--"
Oh no.
I knew my muscles were weak, but -- They had me hooked up with a
tube thing, there was no way they were going to let me out of all those
restraints every time I needed to pee and Naomi still couldn't supervise
me all the time when they started letting me out and I guess the water was
so warm and I was still atrophied and it, I, I...
I pissed myself. Right in the tub, right in the same room as
everyone. My eyes went wide and my mouth clammed up. Awful, hot shame
seemed to blossom underneath my skin. Maybe -- maybe nobody noticed! Maybe
I could just sit here and hide forever. I could disintegrate and Light
wouldn't see me like an awful baby. I could just die and then people would
think I soiled myself after death.
"...What? Get a what, Misa?" Light asked.
"--ohyouknowlikesomeblankvideotapesorsomething," I mumbled. My
voice was so weak it could have been beaten down by a gerbil.
"Huh. That would be pretty disappointing," Light said. How was I
going to get out of this? Oh God, could he tell? He couldn't tell, could
he? Oh God he's a super genius he can figure it out! "Well, I promise, on
Christmas I'll buy you twice as many presents as you buy me." If he could
tell, he wouldn't let anyone KNOW, he's too caring to do that, but I
didn't care about anyone else knowing as much as him!
"Mmm," Ryuzaki kind of purred. "You know, Light, Christian
families often give more presents for Christmas than birthdays. You should
probably temper her expectations. One hundred and fifty percent present
budget." I don't know if I was Christian, Mom was Christian and I mostly
wore the crosses for her but I didn't think about it that much but I guess
like we cared a lot about Christmas but was he making fun of me or does he
know how to do that and OH GOD LIGHT IS LOOKING AT ME IS HE GOING TO ASK
ME A QUESTION okay no he's turning back to Ryuzaki and--
"It's not a super precise measurement, Ryuzaki. I'll be making up
for her lost time, anyway. Double the presents is easier for her to
verify, it's the only logical choice. Right?
"Yeah!" I chirped. "Yeah, yeah, sure! Super logical!" Oh God now
Ryuzaki was looking at me. Oh God, now Naomi was looking at me! She was
staring, like, like, no no no no don't say anything well okay you can't
say anything but don't call any attention to me!
Naomi got off her machine thingy, still looking at me. Like, I
don't know, her eyes went wide for a second too, and then she was, like,
she recognized something. Oh god, she knew! She grabbed her crutch and she
started walking over to me. She knew! "Ah. Uh... Uh. And, uh," oh god what
are you saying what are you saying is this the fuse on a humiliation bomb
burning down what's going to come out of your mouth are you going to get
Light to notice me? "Er... and, ah, Cold? Cold?" She kept walking toward
me, toward Light and Ryuzaki.
"Cold?" Ryuzaki asked. "Do we... do you want to make the room more
cold? Or are you cold, and we have to make it warmer? I'm in a T-shirt and
I feel fine."
"Nngh!" She grunted in frustration, her crutch was still tapping
against the floor. "Cold! Cold, and, and..." And then she staggered, and
her crutch went flying. She fell to her left, and she, she... She threw
out her arm to grab the little wall thingy... and she knocked a bottle of
pool cleaner off the wall into the tub.
"Shit!" I shouted, and I... I didn't launch out of the tub. I
yanked the cap off the bottle, hopefully it was something with a powerful
smell, and THEN I launched out of the tub like I'd been catapulted. It
HURT, and I collapsed to the floor when I landed, but I made it! "Is that
caustic? I can't get a chemical burn! Did any get on me?" I was out!
Perfect excuse! A reason to clean off!
"Naomi," Light said. "You need to be more careful around the pool.
Ryuzaki didn't put in bath mats, that's just asking for a slip." He was
making sure she wouldn't be hurt, but...
But she didn't slip. I saw it. There wasn't a puddle or anything.
Her crutch didn't touch the ground. It was a pratfall. She did it on
purpose. She was giving me an out. She must have, must have recognized
what happened, somehow. Had she been there before? Light didn't have to
see anything, I didn't have to say anything. Dignity intact.
"Thank you," I whispered as she helped me up, while nobody else
could hear.
* N A O M I *
I was still keeping an eye out for her, but by now, only half of
my job was being Misa's friend. Either me or Matsuda had to be with her at
all times she was roaming, but that still meant half the time I was doing
something else. Right now, I was alone, in the darkened computer room,
analyzing.
We had a new Kira. Our only lead, our only hook for the difference
between the old and the new, was the death of Reagan Taylor formerly of
Amalgamated Flourodynamics. AFD was a Canadian corporation, a subsidiary
of a much larger firm located in Vancouver. Every record would be in
either English or French, and apart from Ryuzaki, I was the best English
speaker around.
No. I was the best English reader and listener. I was not an
English speaker any more.
None of us doubted that the new Kira was still Japanese. That had
some implications -- Kira's power could go anywhere in the world
undetectably to kill, but to latch on to another person to use it had to
stick to the same tiny island? Was it a location in Japan that granted the
power, that someone else found? -- but they were not for me to plumb right
now. AFD was a medium-sized company that was made up of a bunch of even
smaller companies, each of which manufactured legacy components,
replacement parts for systems no longer in production. The problem:
nothing AFD made was for Japanese systems, none of their deals were with
Japanese companies, as far as they were concerned Japan didn't exist.
Raye was hafu. No, biracial, that's the word. He used to joke
about how his mom was always surprised that Americans didn't think about
Japan more. I think that's how it is with every country... except America,
of course. Everyone has an opinion about America. I sure did, ever since I
was a kid. I guess I was the reverse of those American kids who think life
over here is just like anime and think we're just the coolest.
No deals with Japanese companies, no replacement parts for
Japanese products. One Japanese employee I could see, but who lived in
Canada 20 years. Electronics and valves and chemicals first made in the
1970s. Reagan didn't seem to know any Japanese people; he seemed not to
know practically anybody. Why would Kira know about him? And why would
Kira care? The parent company, Midland Carbide Labs, had a single contract
with Mitsubishi to provide non-stick coating for older manufacturing
equipment. But Reagan had nothing to do with that deal, as far as I could
tell. Maybe news of his indictment just traveled through the grapevine to
Japan. It had to have travelled fast, the rumors of the insider trading
case were only just starting to surface when he resigned.
Or maybe Misa was right. Maybe Kira made a mistake.
Every other killing he'd done, that we knew of, was completely
typical of him. We gained no new information from them. He didn't show
off, he didn't taunt L. He just shifted a bit more to white collar crimes,
in Japan, and a single one in Canada.
What if this wasn't ideological? What if he's not going after
Japan's white collar criminals because he's out of violent criminals, but
because he hears about them more?
Kira tells me to kill myself and never be found. I try to do this,
but I can't. His power fails. I can't because of two things: I am followed
by a person I did not know of, and I jump at the wrong time to be taken
out by the tide. The first is outside my control, but the second is not;
it contradicts everything else about how I acted to ensure I would not be
recovered. I still died. They brought me back.
So maybe Kira's power is time-locked. I had to jump then. Kira
didn't know what the tides were.
So maybe Kira needs to plan in advance. He was able to spread out
the times of death of those he killed, periods longer than a person could
go without sleep, but maybe it was a hard, non-negotiable lock on time.
Reagan was told to do something but couldn't.
What would Kira want Reagan to do before he died? What would he
have told Reagan to do... that resigning prevents him from doing?
I looked. Reagan had nothing to do with brokering the Mitsubishi
deal itself, nor did he make decisions at MCL. BUT, he oversaw a plant.
Chemical engineering. They make their special legacy nonstick coating. If
Kira calls Reagan up, uses his dark voice while looking at his picture,
and says 'Reagan Taylor. Kill yourself by falling into the mixer, halting
production for weeks. Do it four days from now,' and he does... Mitsubishi
can't get the chemical they need. Whatever they need it for is delayed.
Stock goes down a bit. Maybe someone else gets a contract bid instead of
them. Stock goes down more. Somebody competing with Mitsubishi is happy.
Reagan is implicated. Forced to resign. He attempts to carry out
Kira's command, but he cannot do so. His keys don't let him in any more,
the guards don't let him pass. Maybe... he still has to die. So he just
has a heart attack. That's a chilling thought. If more had happened to
save me, I would have just had a heart attack.
Kira is running a game. Kill criminals brazenly. And kill
inconvenient people very, very quietly. That's the thing about Kira.
People die all the time already. It's nearly impossible to track a killer
who can choose any method of death he wants, and actually does so without
showing off. So if you show off your kills of criminals, but you're very
subtle with your corporate sabotage... it's going to be very hard to find
you.
Until you make a mistake.
* L I G H T *
Ryuzaki, Matsuda, and I were seated at the large bank of computers
that dominated the central control room, Ryuzaki and I were poring over
medical records and obituaries to see if there had been more
financially-advantageous deaths Kira had caused but had managed to make
look like an accident, Naomi and Aizawa were doing the same with paper
records even though they knew they weren't going to find anything. Naomi
was squishing the ever-present purple ball and Aizawa looked like he
needed to develop a nervous habit to match her. Aiber was chugging coffee
after coffee and Naomi looked like she was thinking her jug's worth of
orange juice wasn't matching it. Even Misa was getting in on it: she was
at my side, looking over the small share of deaths that had to do with
show business, in case there was a pattern there an insider would notice.
It was cute to see her try and help. The way it was cute to see a five
year old try to fix the family car with a plastic hammer.
The elevator opened to show Mogi and my dad, looking grim. "Hey
Chief, hey Mogi," said Aizawa while Naomi gave a wordless wave. "We're
apparently reading every obituary on Earth, come to join us?"
"There's no progress, then?" Dad asked in the manner of a doctor
who's going to cut life support.
"Well, we figure it's business related. We can see plenty of
patterns..." He sighed, spun in his chair, and stretched. "...problem is,
none of them match each other and almost none of them actually exist. What
was that word for what paranoid people have where they see patterns that
don't exist? I wanna say, you know, that thing, 'aphasia', but I know it's
not it."
"Apophenia," Ryuzaki, Ryuk and I said in unison. Naomi arched an
eyebrow at me and Ryuzaki, and Ryuk laughed his gravelly laugh. I don't
know which one I found stranger: that he would reflexively give someone
the word they were looking for, or that he would know the word
'apophenia'.
"Yeah, what he said. This entire investigation is giving us all
quadrophenia."
"Hm." Dad sighed. "Then maybe this is for the best, then. We just
spoke to the Deputy Director. It appears that Kira has made an offer to
several politicians... as long as the NPA doesn't pursue him, he won't lay
a hand on any politicians. So that's that. They caved. "
"What?" we all asked in shock. I was as surprised as they were --
offering clemency to politicians for security? I knew I was relying on the
decoy Kira not being like me, but still, I was disappointed. I felt like
he was sullying my good name.
Dad looked like he wanted to say more, but he kind of cut himself
off. Naomi was rising to her feet, scowling. hissing her rage through
clenched teeth. Her shaking hand held up a card saying //WHO: I am asking
a question about a person!// with a sticker of Misa Amane with her face
obscured by an apple like in Rene Magritte's painting. "Or... Order!" she
snarled, and I think she was actually trying to keep her voice level.
Dad was slightly taken aback. All of us had seen her cry in
frustration many times, but never this enraged. "The... orders come from
the Deputy Director. The NPA's chief administrator in the Kira case. But
they've been approved by all levels of the NPA bureaucracy. The police
have abandoned us."
L had looked slightly shocked, momentarily, but now wore the same
impassive expression he always did. Matsuda, Aizawa and I all still looked
shocked. And Naomi Misora didn't look shocked, she looked livid, inflamed,
like an old wound freshly torn at. "K--Kita. Kita! Kitamura!" she barked,
and she went back to breathing through her nose like a violent cartoon
bull.
"Ah-- yes," Dad said. "Deputy Director Kitamura Koreyoshi made the
call. He told us our careers would be over if we continued to pursue this
case." He put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. "His authority is
purely administrative, over employees of the police agency. He'd be unable
to lay any sanction against you, miss Misora!" She was choking on her
words by now. Nobody really knew how to deal with her outburst.
Except me, anyway. I tapped Misa on the shoulder. "Misa... Naomi
looks like she's having a really hard time right now. Maybe you could...?"
I held up my cuffed arm, indicating why I couldn't comfort her myself. She
nodded dutifully and went over to the source of the angry sobbing. I
wanted this problem to APPEAR to be dealt with, and I wanted this problem
to absolutely not be dealt with.
* N A O M I *
Everyone was staring at me. This was an important watershed moment
to the case and now instead everyone was staring at me, wondering if I was
going to start screaming, wondering if I needed to be escorted out,
turning up the intensity of the Shame Stare. I was so embarrassed,
blushing so hard my face was about to just start bleeding. Tears were
streaming down my face, they felt like they would sizzle and turn to steam
when they touched the metal floor.
Misa was at my side, trying to put her arm on me and console me.
She had no idea what to do or how, just saying "Sssh, sssh, it's okay,
it's okay. I'll help you, okay? I'll tell them what you want to say. And I
won't editorialize."
I couldn't believe it. That bastard. That unbelievable bastard.
That writhing piece of human fucking garbage. Kitamura sends Raye to his
death, he makes a deal with the worst serial killer to ever live, and he
says it's all okay so long as Kira doesn't kill him? Just keep hiding from
him, throwing other people into the abattoir to put off going in yourself?
He laughed. He laughed! He asked for undesirables in the FBI to eliminate
and then he LAUGHED! Why? Because they weren't Japanese? Or because they
hadn't personally sucked his administrative cock?
Say it. Tell them. Tell Misa and she'll tell them. Kitamura is a
coward who's willing to build a wall of corpses to hide behind it.
"Kuh... Kuh..."
He sent Raye to his death on purpose because he's a God damn
coward! A slimy, odious piece of shit who deserves to have his eyes gouged
out!
"Nnnggh... Mmmmhhh..."
He can't be trusted! He'll do anything and sell out anyone to save
his own crusty skin! You can't count on him to let this go, he'll use any
avenue he has to turn against us if Kira pressures him again!
"Ahhhh..."
SAY IT! YOU USELESS IDIOT! YOU BRAIN-DAMAGED IMBECILE! SAY IT! SAY
THE FUCKING WORDS! EVERYONE IS STARING AT YOU! YOU'RE MAKING A GIANT
SCENE! THESE MEN ALL LOST THEIR CAREERS AND NOW IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU AND
YOUR USELESS BROKEN BRAIN! TODDLERS CAN SPEAK BETTER THAN YOU! JUST SAY
IT! SAY ANYTHING! TELL THEM HE TOOK RAYE! TELL THEM WHAT HE DID! TELL THEM
WHAT HE IS!
TELL THEM ANYTHING!
My head fell into my arms on the table and I wordlessly sobbed.
Useless. Broken.
"She, she's right to be angry!" Matsuda stammered out. "This
conduct is deplorable! Our careers are over if we pursue the case? I would
have resigned anyway after this! I'd rather be Misamisa's fake manager,
I'd rather sell meat on a stick out of a cart than be a part of that
organization!" That wasn't what was important, Matsuda. He took Raye. He
helped have Raye killed. This isn't just deplorable, he's complicit!
"Uuuhhhhh..."
"That's exactly what Mogi and I concluded," said Chief Yagami.
"We're tendering our resignations tomorrow. We wouldn't want to work for
an organization we can't respect." Stop it, no, that, okay it's important
too, but he had Raye killed, he set up the deaths of all the FBI agents,
he did it on purpose to protect his own people! That, that's important!
You should talk about it! I need to, you should know the information! It's
not about respectability, it's about being complicit in murder!
"Nnnnhhhh..."
Aizawa stared down at the floor, letting out short half-laughs of
disbelief. "I... have a family." He turned to Ryuzaki. "Is there any way I
could--"
I cut him off with another enraged, incoherent outburst as a
angrily ransacked my own brain, trying to find a single coherent word. I
could have had a family too. I wanted a family. Someone deliberately chose
to take it away so I would be more useful to them!
Misa was ignoring what the men were doing, trying to rock me back
and forth like that would calm me somehow. She had no idea. She was
freaking out herself. "Naomi, I don't know what's wrong," she whispered,
"and now I'm kind of scared, but, like, if any of the things I know how to
do would help just point to something and I'll figure it out."
"...Look, if you can't handle this, maybe you should leave."
Aizawa said, switching gears. "Not, like, the investigation. Go upstairs.
Take a break or something." I was trying to take deep, cleansing breaths.
I was panicking. Couldn't speak at all. Had to calm down. Kitamura was
trying to undo another family, but losing my shit wasn't going to help.
Ryuzaki glowered at me for some reason. Long pause, waiting for me
to scream again. Then, "Hm. Aizawa, if you're concerned about your income,
perhaps--"
Yeah, yeah, you have a giant trust fund you pay us out of, we
know! I slammed my wallet on the table, flicked out the debit card, tried
to slide it his way but only hit an empty coffee cup. Aizawa was fine,
everything was fine, we can get over THAT.
"A card? You... want to buy something. No. On the card. The name?
Oh, the name is fake!" Misa said. "Oh, Ryuzaki set it up for you. So he
can set up Aizawa too. Right?" I never drew much on the account, but I
could have bought an entire Death Star with it and not even trip an
automated cardholder alert.
"...Yes. Of course," Ryuzaki said. "That much is obvious. I pay
her, and I bought this real estate in downtown Tokyo, didn't I?" I had no
idea what emotion he was conveying. I was trying not to freak out. Any
more than I had.
Aizawa arched an eyebrow. "...when were you going to tell me about
that, Ryuzaki?"
Chief Yagami saw disaster incoming. "Aizawa, you know Ryuzaki's
not like that. He's just indirect. He would have said something, right?"
"You weren't acting like a guy telling someone he has a huge pile
of money and he shouldn't worry. You were acting like you were going to
say something I didn't like. What was after 'If you're concerned about
your income, perhaps'?"
"'Perhaps I could set up an expense account for you,' of course. I
was going to tell you as soon as Naomi's outburst ended," Ryuzaki said. "I
was afraid that perhaps you would be too prideful to accept a handout.
There was no way I would force you to choose between your job and your
family. But the scene she made prevented me from doing that."
"Hey!" Misa snapped. "Don't be a dick! She has aphasia, okay? It's
hard!"
"Nothing about her disability impedes her control over her
emotions," he said, and everyone was uncomfortable at that. "She will not
be leaving the investigation, but if she cannot handle a situation like
this, perhaps she should recuse herself."
"It's a real good thing you weren't gonna force me to choose
between my job and my family," Aizawa spat, "because the way you run this
ship I don't know what I'd pick."
I won't be leaving? Like he owns me? Like he can make fucking
decisions about my life, solving his stupid Riddler puzzles? I was already
at my wit's end. I couldn't take it. Someone else deciding where I would
go. I bucked Misa's grip on me and stood up to punch Ryuzaki in the mouth,
because violence was still a language I could speak, but Light stood
between us with his hands out. "Hey, hey, whoa! Easy, easy! Everyone just
calm down! Nobody wants this to get out of hand, right?"
I hissed my anger through my teeth and stormed off.
* L I G H T *
It was the most perfect, most amazing, most wonderful display I
ever could have asked for. Strife in the team. Reason for Naomi to hate
Ryuzaki. Reason for Aizawa to hate Ryuzaki. Reason for EVERYONE to be
upset with Ryuzaki. "Light, I don't know, she was really upset, it might
have had something to do with Raye!" And it was obvious who the man in her
file had been, the one that got her thinking of revenge. Kitamura
Koreyoshi. A man whose face I'd seen.
If he were to die, that would be suspicious. If he were to die in
a way that couldn't possibly be Kira, it would be suspicious in all the
right ways. It will throw the new Kira off his game, badly. Leave the NPA
open to assisting me as I pretend to hunt Kira. And Ryuzaki is blunt and
manipulative, but he never gave Naomi the speech about 'you can leave if
you want, but poor poor Raye is unavenged'. She physically threatened him
and he didn't react. She's a valuable little toy to him. He won't risk
giving up his Kira-proof investigator to something like premeditated
murder. And that will drive a wedge through the team like we've never
seen. And that will put me closer to control.
But she's not Kira-proof. I just can't kill her. I don't have to
manipulate only the person who's dying. I don't just control my victims, I
control everyone. The Death Note can only make people do plausible things,
but last time, I didn't give it enough time to work her up, bring her to
it naturally, so she was on the very far end of plausible behavior. Not a
mistake to make again.
I know how horrified and violated you felt last time, Naomi, so
let's give you some freedom. Give you a couple weeks to work yourself up,
find the means to make you do this and really make this your own! Why, you
won't even suspect you're my puppet this time! Because next time I'm on
the toilet, and Ryuzaki can't see into my lap, I'm writing this in my
watch:
//KITAMURA KOREYOSHI. AUGUST 10 2007 10:18 PM. MURDERED BY APHASIC
WOMAN.//
* M I S A *
Tensions were high in the Tower of L. Everyone was pretty mad at
Ryuzaki for... honestly for just being a dick in general. And Naomi was
really mad at something but she couldn't say what and she hadn't left her
room in almost two days. And I used to be really mad at Ryuzaki for
locking me up for weeks but realized I mean it wasn't all THAT bad and he
did have to be careful and I did look pretty suspicious if you didn't know
all the facts. Most of what I was doing all day was eating, I had to get
back to healthy weight, so it wasn't like I had important shit to do.
Anyway Light suggested I should help because I was charming and
approachable and photogenic, so that's what I was going to do!
As soooon as Naomi let me into her room.
I banged on the metal panic door to her quarters another time.
"Come on, let me in! I just wanna talk!" Nothing. "Come onnn!" Nothing. I
knew she could hear me, the intercom was on when the door was shut. I kept
accidentally lowering mine. "I brought cupcakes!" Nothing. I slumped
against the door and waited. I wished Light was here. What would he say?
Something genius, I bet. "...Matsuda left me here, I don't have an escort.
I'm not allowed to leave without you."
Click. Hiss. The door retracted.
I was expecting her to be curled up in the corner crying and
eating ice cream, but that's just what I would have done. She was a lot
stronger than that. She looked fine, really. She was fully dressed, the
room wasn't a mess, nothing had been thrown about, her face wasn't red.
Okay she wasn't wearing makeup, and she'd been crying at least some, but
she never wore makeup, because she has always been crying at least some.
Because of... her condition.
"So, uh, Ryuzaki said you were right," I told her while I found a
place to set down this plastic container of cupcakes. She had a little
coffee table in the sitting room area, in front of the black leather
couch, and there was a photo album there. Only the first two pages looked
like they had anything on them. "About the new Kira. Some old business
guys have been dying of conditions they already had, but at real
inconvenient times. Mogi found some stuff linking them. And some, like,
industrial accidents that happened at the worst moment. They think some
company called Yotsuba is benefiting." I took my boots off, though I'm not
sure if I'm supposed to in a Western apartment, and I took a seat on the
end of her couch. She wasn't looking at me or anything. Just looked real
far away, in a real bad place. "So... I mean, I guess that's two points
for Team Misa, right?"
There's a real specific feeling, a real specific look, when you're
mad or you're upset and someone says something funny and you try not to
laugh because you're trying to stay mad. Where you're so disappointed in
yourself for feeling levity. That look danced across her face, and she
turned further away to try and hide her expression. That felt... God that
felt good. I wasn't used to this. I wasn't a person who was strong enough
to help other people. But, there it was.
"I mean, I don't want to talk mess about my boyfriend, but it
looks like he picked the wrong team to be on!" I continued in a silly
tone. "Ryuzaki and him have, like, half a point. At most. If we score
again we should say we get to rename the building after our team. I like
'The Misadome'." Her hand was over her mouth now and she was trying not to
giggle.
She fixed me with a not at all threatening stare and mockingly
said "Misa?"
"Yes, Naomi?" I said, fluttering my eyes innocently.
"Uh. Naomi," she said. That was her... Oh, she wasn't addressing
me, she was referring to my name. Got it.
"You want us to be Team Naomi?" I asked in mock disbelief. "But
I'm the marketable face! You're the strong, silent one that everyone wants
more of because you're so mysterious." She scoffed... but she sat down on
the other end of the couch.
We sat there in silence for a little while. Her ceiling fan was
off balance, so it made a little vwum noise.
"I'm not kidding," I said. "I mean, I'm kidding about scoring
points. But you, me, and Matsuda, and Light... we're a team. You saved me,
like, a bunch of times. Light is always watching over me and being super
nice and super smart. And I mean, I didn't get to see it at the time, but
Matsuda was helping too. It feels really nice to have a lot of people,
like, really care about you being happy."
She sighed, and she had her face on her knuckles. "Umm... Ah.
Would."
"We... all care about you, too!" I said. Was she saying 'that
would feel nice if I knew what it was'? I had to assume. "Everyone's on
the investigation together and they, you know, they look out for each
other. Light says he thinks you're really smart and brave, and he's the
smartest, sweetest guy in the world." I sighed, just imagining what it
would be like to drop him on this couch and snuggle with him right now and
feel his hands on my neck. "I think I'd probably go crazy of not for
Light, but he's right there for me, just like--" MISA WHAT THE HELL ARE
YOU DOING RAVING ABOUT HOW GREAT IT IS TO HAVE A BOYFRIEND YOU ARE SITTING
IN FRONT OF A PICTURE ALBUM OF HER DEAD FIANCE!
I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Bad? Probably bad. She
looked glum. "--just like you are!" I said. I mean... it wasn't wrong, I
guess. "I know, you're probably sick of me thanking you. I just really
think that you're a cool person. Maybe like... if I didn't have Light, I'd
only be 60% crazy." AAAAAAAAGH MISA WHY ARE YOU DIGGING THIS HOLE DEEPER
WHY CAN'T YOU THINK OF ANYTHING BUT LIGHT!
But she didn't tell me to stop or that I made her upset. She
couldn't. I knew there was so much going on in there that she couldn't get
out. I wished I knew what was in there so I could, I don't know, I could
tell someone and they'd be able to help her and I could know what to talk
about other than my still-alive boyfriend.
"So, that Ryuzaki, he really is a jerk, huh?" I said trying to
change the subject. She had said three words so far and it was still
difficult. "But, like, I don't think he's more than a jerk. He's not
trying to hurt people, he just... kind of doesn't know how to not do
that." I started fidgeting. "I'm real lucky that he has Light attached to
him, so he can be looking out for me all the time, and--"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MISA WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
I couldn't help it. I started to cry. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I
just... I'm trying to make you feel better and all I can think about is
raving about my boyfriend and it's probably making you feel way worse and
I don't MEAN to it just slips out sometimes and I'm really bad at this and
and..."
She just shook her head and patted me on the shoulder. I mean,
this was how things were supposed to go, I was weak and she was strong.
But I'd also taken her pain and made it about myself. I felt awful. "I...
I know it's hard. But whatever you're upset about has to do with Raye,
right? Can you... I don't know, tell me? Show me?"
She pulled closer to me on the couch and pulled the album over.
Only two pages filled. They really... thought they were going to have more
time to take pictures. Some of them had captions written underneath them,
but in English, I couldn't read a word.
At the top, one picture of her in a graduation cap and robe, and
one picture of him. She said they met on a case, so these must have been
their graduation from cop school, and they didn't know each other yet.
Then... there's a bunch of FBI agents including the two of them posing
solemnly. That must be that case they were on, and they aren't supposed to
make goofy faces for the record. After that was... a fancy restaurant? I
didn't see either of them in the picture of diners in gowns and suits
eating in a marble room where someone was playing a harp. And next to that
was... I guess a less fancy restaurant? It was darker and people were
sitting in booths and the walls were covered in like traffic signs. I had
no idea what they meant. Maybe one was their first date? Maybe they went
undercover at one, or used to work there? I don't know.
I looked over to Naomi to ask for an explanation, but she couldn't
speak. She was weeping, that way she does, but she was just looking at the
pictures, and any words she tried to form didn't go far.
The next one, they were in the forest. They had on face masks, but
pulled up, and they were back to back, each holding two weird plastic
guns. Smiling at each other like movie characters. Then I think Naomi's at
a ballgame, and Raye is taking the picture? Her cheeks are puffed full of
something and she looks surprised. Here both of them are on the beach, in
sunglasses. And then there's a fence, the kind you find on a farm. Maybe
they fixed it or built it together? There's a picture of an older Japanese
woman and white man, in Texas hats, behind a giant turkey dinner spread.
Maybe it was like a farmhouse and they fixed his parents' fence. Or maybe
they were 500 miles apart. Here's Raye with a dead rat, or some kind of
icky bundle of fur, on the end of one of those grabber claws and holding
it up like a trophy of conquest.
Then there's one I can recognize: Raye was in the park, kneeling,
with a ring extended. Naomi had her hands on her mouth, shocked. His
proposal. It's the ring she had with her now. Then she gots down on her
knees, hugging him and crying happy tears. Then she's looking straight at
the camera and she's running toward it kind of joking-mad. Then a picture
of a fancy church surrounded by a garden. And then nothing.
How far apart were these taken? How many more would be here if
they knew what the deadline was?
I looked back at her. She still couldn't speak. Just had her hands
over her mouth, like when he proposed to her. Her eyes didn't look the
same. "That's... why it's so bad, isn't it?" I said. "Because... because I
can't figure out what you're doing. And you can't tell me. And that makes
it worse." God, I wished I knew. I wished I knew exactly what she thought
when she saw them. I wish I knew what had her thinking about Raye so much
and getting so angry. I wish, I wish I could tell everything happening
behind that sad strong face. But I couldn't. She could try really hard and
be really clever and I could make little cue cards and even then she'd
give up lots and lots of detail. Nobody would REALLY know.
"I want... I want to learn," I said. And I did. This was something
I could do, just because nobody else could. Light would be proud of me,
for trying to give back to a person that had given unto me, helping his
respected colleague. "Maybe I can't do a very good job, or maybe, maybe
nobody can. But when you're with me, it's not just that you're my , like,
my fake bodyguard, okay? I wanna be your interpreter. I think I probably
have more practice with you than anyone else. I wanna make sure that... as
much as anyone can, that people understand you."
I leaned over and I hugged her. "I'm sorry. What happened wasn't
right. And we... we can't really make it right. But we have to do anything
we can to make sure it doesn't happen again. Even putting up with
Ryuzaki."
And then... then I don't know. I just wanted to let her know I was
on her side, so, I... kind of kissed her. On the cheek. I didn't know what
to do! It was like when you call the dentist and get ready to hang up and
say 'Bye, I love you!' She gave me a little smile, like a little one, like
it was some small thing that was no big deal. I was blushing red as a stop
sign.
* N A O M I *
It was a day and a half before the next time Ryuzaki called a
meeting. A business concern called Yotsuba was using Kira's power to
sabotage their competitors, either while maintaining Kira's killing
pattern, or just working in parallel with Kira. Without police backing,
the course of action to take wasn't yet obvious, and it was up to the
investigation lead to take it. Ryuzaki didn't say what the meeting was
about, and while we had time to kill, Team Misa went over some scripts to
pick her next picture -- a Gothic Lolita crime thriller about the baroque
yakuza. Our meeting's purpose became obvious when two new people walked
in. A blonde American woman in sunglasses and a fur hat that I thought I
recognized, and a blonde European man with the sleaziest shirt/jacket
combo I'd seen in a while.
"Who let these jokers in?" asked Light.
"Those two," said Ryuzaki as if he were stating patently obvious
fact, "are the newest members of the task force."
"Name's Aiber," said the man, and it looked like he really had to
resist reaching up to wipe imaginary cocaine off his nose. "I'm a con
man."
"I'm Wedy," said the woman, clearly trying to impress us with her
nonchalance. "Professional thief."
"Huh." Chief... Soichiro Yagami sounded displeased. "Ryuzaki, are
you just letting anyone on the team now, or do they have to be blonde?" he
deadpanned.
I tried to start writing something, but Ryuzaki started talking.
"These are not common crooks. They are uncommon crooks. Aiber is a
lifelong con man. His unparalleled social skills allow him to befriend and
gain the trust of any target." I was starting to sense a pattern, but said
nothing. "We'll use him for infiltration. As for Wedy, she's a thief who
specializes in cracking high-end security systems. As proof of that, she
was able to enter this building without setting off a single alarm."
"You expect us to work with criminals?" Soichiro scoffed.
Again, I tried composing a response, but Wedy started talking
again. "Aiber and I are the most skilled people in our fields. If you
prefer, call us 'professionals of the underworld'. It sounds a lot
cooler."
"Wedy and Aiber have made it so far without ever being arrested,"
said Ryuzaki, "so there is no worry that Kira will be able to find them.
If Kira is no longer an individual, but has ties to an organization as we
suspect, their services will be invaluable."
"Ummm... Crime..." I stammered, trying to buy time.
"I don't know about this," said Light. "I don't think we can
really trust people like this as part of the investigation. How do we know
they won't turn on us if they get a better offer?"
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Misa shouted, pounding her hands into the
table. "Er, sorry, Light, but we were kind of going too far. Naomi is
trying to say something! Naomi, please." She'd been kind of overeager ever
since she pecked me on the cheek. I knew exactly what it meant, it was a
completely normal gesture of friendship, but apparently I couldn't convey
that understanding either.
I dashed out a note as quickly as I could and handed it to Misa
while everyone stared in awkward silence. After a couple whispered
clarifications, she spoke my words, "Ahem. //CRIME MONEY. If/Then: CON
BEST > MONEY ACTOR. FBI WORK WEDY.// So if you are the best con you get
more money than the best actor, that's what you meant, right?" It was.
"You're the one with the, the what's it called, the aphasia,
right?" Wedy said, snapping her fingers to aid her recall. "I thought I
recognized you. Last April, right?"
I nodded. The Cavella operation. Wedy was doing surveillance on
that case. We had the warrant to wiretap Cavella's conversations, we just
didn't have the ability to do so without tipping him off. We needed bugs
in the house. That's where the surveillance expert came in. She was good.
She was undetectable. She could get info on people, at least that weren't
looking.
The Yagamis were talking about not trusting criminals and having a
little tete-a-tete with the new help. Misa almost interrupted them again,
but I waved her off. The note I was writing wasn't meant for this
conversation, and I didn't care about this conversation. I waited until it
was time for Wedy to get to her quarters and handed her a folded paper.
//KITAMURA KOREYOSHI. POLICE BOSS.
FOLLOW. SCHEDULE. SECURITY SMALL.//
"Schedule? Make it for him?" she asked.
I groaned. Handing people notes that they would silently nod and
understand was going to be beyond me forever. I had her hold out the note,
held up //WHAT: I am asking a question about something's nature or
identity!// and pointed to //SCHEDULE// and then //WHERE// and //WHEN//
while pointing at //SECURITY SMALL//.
"Gotcha. If I have time." She made a finger gun at me before she
left. I hope none of the other ex-cops suspected what I was doing. Given
how little a shit they gave about what I said publicly, I doubted it.
* * * * *
Wedy gets to work quickly. Yotsuba is a big enterprise; they have
a home office, seven subsidiary offices, and two dozen buildings they own
which might hold a nefarious Kiradoer gathering data with their research
apparatus, and that's just the greater Tokyo area. Too much for even the
world's greatest break-in artist. Fortunately, they make it easy. Few
companies or individuals think to spend much of their security budget on
hiding their security budget. Spikes in discretionary spending for
facilities in three places: Minato, Sumida, Yokohama. Very nice. New
contracts with security companies. Also very nice. They may be rotating
meeting spots, or two expenses are legitimate. Or all three.
That isn't likely.
First step is easiest and requires no breaking nor entering.
Directional laser microphones, pointed at panes of glass, are able to
detect microscopic vibrations in the glass created by sound waves, and
reconstruct the sound that made them. Finding latch points for enough
microphones, from enough angles, is difficult. But it's not impossible.
Wedy is a god damn professional.
* L I G H T *
Most of the time Misa hung out with me, we did nothing in
particular, other than stare googly-eyed and get stared at googly-eyed,
respectively. If Ryuzaki had a bit less self-control he would be making
gagging noises.
God, I hated him. We slept in the same bed together, bound by the
cuffs. No matter how he laid down, his feet never went anywhere but my
face.
But Misa was now pushing for us to all, quote, "be friends
together". So Ryuzaki would be involved in our date night. So would her
escort Matsuda. We all sat at the table we'd set up in my room and figured
we would play a nice, friendly game together, and we would bond and grow
and yada yada. Until Ryuzaki turned back from his dresser with a green
translucent visor and a deck of cards. Those never indicated anything
good.
"The name of the game is Texas Hold'Em Poker," Ryuzaki said in his
best grizzled gambler voice. "We play for the highest stakes imaginable.
And by that I mean each of us has 20 chips, and the last man standing will
get --"
"--Kakyoin's soul back?" Matsuda said with a little grin.
"No, a cheesecake from our kitchen," Ryuzaki deadpanned. "But even
I have no idea how San Michel makes them so delicious. Perhaps he does
indeed have a Stand that uses human souls for cooking." Yeah yeah,
Stardust Crusaders reference, even I got that one.
"I wanna be on Light's team!" Misa chirped, holding out her hand
for me. I grabbed her, squeezed her just enough to be romantic.
"There aren't any teams, Misa," Matsuda said. "We all play for
ourselves."
"Oh. Then I don't know how to play poker," she added. Ryuzaki was
bridge-shuffling the cards now that he got the chips out. White is one
point, red is five, the yet-unused blues are twenty.
"It's quite simple," Ryuzaki said, not looking up. "Each of us is
dealt two cards only we may see. Those are your 'hole' cards, from which
the term 'ace in the hole' comes from. Then three cards are flipped face
up in the center of the table, for community use. Then a fourth, then a
fifth. After each deal, there is an opportunity to place bets according to
how confident you are in the strength of your hand, and when the turn
comes to you you must either match the highest bid another player has
made, increase the bet, or recuse yourself from the hand, losing all you
have bet so far but not having to match the latest bid. At the end, you
attempt to use the community cards and your two hole cards to form the
best hand possible, according to this convenient hand rank chart." He
flicked the little insert cards that came with the deck at Misa and
Matsuda. High card all the way up to straight flush.
"Ooh, neat!" Misa said. "So you bluff and make people think you
have a good hand when you don't. And it's like we're in some glitzy casino
in Monte Carlo where the James Bonds hang out." Do I correct her on that?
I mean, there WAS more than one of them.
"Yeah, I played a few times when I was rookie," Matsuda said, "and
I got how the D'Arby scene worked. But, and I don't wanna get down on our
intelligence, aren't Light and Ryuzaki going to completely destroy Misa
and I?"
"I don't want to be a braggart but we would," Ryuzaki said. The
cards made a ssssshhhhhcccccttttt as he riffled them together. What is it,
21 perfect shuffles before you have a deck back in its original
configuration? "That's why Light is going to devise a handicap for the two
of us to make it fair."
Hmm. "Well, we should play a couple of practice hands with your
cards all face up and us helping, just so Misa and you get the hang of
things." That wasn't a manipulation, it really did seem fair. I looked
around the room. How would we give Misa and Matsuda enough of a chance
that when they lost, they felt like they could have won? Of course.
Ryuzaki's dumb visor he saw in the movies. "I know. Ryuzaki, do you have
like a sweatband or something for me to wear? You and me can't see our
second hole cards -- we wear them on our heads where everyone else can."
"And we must determine the strength of our card by how others
react to it," he smiled. "An interesting idea." I knew he'd love it. The
guy loved battles of wits.
Ryuzaki dealt two cards to each of us, and Misa and Matsuda
flipped theirs face up. Ryuk wasn't saying anything, but he was leaning in
very closely. I could in theory use him to spy on the other players'
cards, but that would require me to bribe him again to play along, and
also to communicate the idea to him without anyone else knowing, and also
Ryuzaki would figure out I had a means of seeing the cards very quickly.
This game was going to be an honest one.
"Okay, so, instead of ante, I know the big blind goes around the
table clockwise with every hand. And we'll represent it with, uhhhh..."
Matsuda looked around for something Ryuzaki wasn't going to eat, then
pulled out his car keys, with two colorful keychains attached, and dropped
them on the table. "These. And whoever has it has to bid two chips at the
start even if they don't want to, and the player to their right, they bid
one, correct?"
"Correct. Each hand will require two chips to play into. But two
of us may bow out freely if we are not confident." Ryuzaki dealt the cards
out. Misa and Matsuda flipped theirs over.
"I wanna bid five!" Misa immediately said.
"Er, no, Misa," I cautioned. "It's not your turn, first. Second,
the first round of betting should be very cautious, because the players
don't have much information. And third, a two and a seven of different
suits is the worst hand you can possibly have."
"...Oh." She sheepishly looked around. "I don't wanna bid five. I
abdicate."
"Smart play," Ryuzaki said. "A good hole is either a pair of cards
of the same value, or one or two face cards or aces." Pause. "Face cards
are J, Q, and K, Misa. Matsuda has a Queen of Spades and a Jack of Spades,
meaning he can possibly make a straight or a flush, as well as a pair, and
if nobody can make a hand he has a moderate chance of having the highest
card. He will want to bid two to enter this round, and perhaps 3 or 4 to
see if the rest of us are confident."
Ryuzaki and I walked them through the basics of play and strategy.
Matsuda mostly knew, Misa was eager to learn.
Misa was so eager.
She'd be quite eager to trade her life for the Shinigami Eyes the
moment she remembered they were an option. But I'd come to realize Misa
had another quality that would be useful to me. Misa Amane was incredibly
charismatic, even moreso than myself. Matsuda had risked his life in the
test to free her because he thought she was cute and spunky. Two
Shinigami, who have no sexual reproduction and no biological need for
pair-bonding or self-sacrifice whatsoever, had fallen so deeply in love
with her they would die to extend her life. She accumulated obsessive fans
and stalkers the way a diplomatic vehicle accumulates parking tickets.
People loved her and would do anything for her. And she loved me and would
do anything for me.
"All right, I think I got it!" Misa chirped after the third hand.
I'm ready to play for real!" Then she narrowed her eyes. "But if Light
wins he's my boyfriend so that counts as half a win for me. I get like a
slice of cake. I bet you're so good you could beat us without ever looking
at your cards!"
"Yeah, that's how it went in 'Stardust Crusaders'," Matsuda said.
"Jotaro bluffs by never looking at his hand, so D'Arby can't possibly read
him."
"Damn it!" she cursed. "I thought I came up with a cool idea!"
Two cards to each of them. One card to me and Ryuzaki, and one
more we slipped into our headbands without looking. Ryuzaki had a four of
clubs. Misa looked happy, so I probably had something good. She wouldn't
be happy based on suit, so I didn't know if I had a flush available with
my eight of diamonds.
"I'm in." I tossed two chips into the pot. So did everyone else.
The flop. Or the river. There's dumb names for each deal and I
can't recall which is which. Q-H, 3-D, J-H. I might have a queen on my
head... Matsuda looks like he's evaluating what we have. Ryuzaki obviously
has nothing, so I can't have a queen, or Matsuda wouldn't need to think
about it. King or ace of diamonds leaves me open for a flush, but...
The bid passed to me. "Eh, I'm not feeling it this time. I fold."
"Aww, Light!" Misa whined. "You had a king! That's a good one!"
"It's fine, I only lost two chips," I told her. "And sometimes
it's better to be cautious, you know. It's okay to lose a little if it
stops you from losing a lot." Then while the three of them played the hand
out, I got to my real work. "So. Did Naomi not want to play, or is she
busy? She usually spends her time with you."
"I think she's still pretty upset," Misa said. "Also, let's, uh,
let's make the bid... one more. That's cautious, right?" She clearly
wanted more, but was trying to impress me. "Naomi's been kinda out of it
lately. It's something about Raye. I think she's been going out for rides
on her bike to clear her head. I'm going back to work soon, so I hope
she's okay with that."
She was acting unusual because she was working herself up to
commit a murder. The hatred and resentment were boiling over inside her
and nothing would stop them. Maybe she was even trying to scout where
Kitamura's routine took him. The bid passed around again, everyone in for
three. The turn-flip-flop-creek. 9-H. Misa bid 1 more again. Matsuda
folded and flipped over his hand in disgust. Ryuzaki took Misa's bait.
Fifth card: 3-C. Ryuzaki and Misa were in for five each, and compared
hands.
"Read 'em and weep, boys!" Misa proclaimed. "Nine, ten, jack,
queen! That's a four card straight!"
"Misa." Ryuzaki said. "It's only a straight if all five cards are
in sequence. You have a pair of threes." He pulled the card off his
forehead to scrutinize it. "As do I. But your next highest card is a
queen. Mine is a king." He flipped it over with the slightest of smiles.
"Oh. Then I don't wanna bet five," she said, but it was already
too late. Her chips were Ryuzaki's now.
"Man," Matsuda grumbled, "I figured Misa had something good." He
flipped his three and six.
"Well... Ha, see, that's because I am a good actress, and I am
good at bluffing!"
Me and Ryuzaki shared a little glance. We both smile. It's clear
what the real game is now. We're not playing to win ourselves. We're
playing Misa vs Matsuda.
"Well, you know, I was just going to say," I endearingly stuttered
as Ryuzaki shuffled, "I think you're really important to Naomi, Misa.
She's in a difficult time and you've been a really good friend, even
though you had every right not to be." Misa had mostly just been present
in the room and not done anything of import, other than shout at us. But
someone as lonely as Naomi wouldn't need more than that. Their mutual
damage and loneliness drew them together like two asteroids caught in each
other's gravity, destined for collision.
"Aww, thanks, Light!" she said. Ryuzaki's eyes flicked to my card
once. Very fast. Fast enough that he was quickly dismissing what I had --
his eight of spades wasn't amazing, and whatever he had hidden he didn't
know about my king of hearts in the hole. Misa peeled up her cards to take
a look. "I mean, it's only fair, isn't it? She was nice to me when she
didn't have to be. She's a super cool person." Her eyes went wide for a
split second, and she slapped her cards onto the table like they would
burn her if she looked too long. "Ah, and, I mean, you know, all of us are
on the same investigating team. We should all get along and work together!
We should have, you know, professionally amicable relationships."
Matsuda didn't notice her obvious tell, he was scrutinizing his
cards. "We're all on the same team?" Whatever she had was obvious, he had
something he had to evaluate. "I thought you were on Team Misa and Ryuzaki
was Team L, wasn't it?"
"Ugh, Team Misa is clearly a SUBTEAM of the Kira Special
Investigative Team," she shot back. "Duh. That's how come Light can be on
both of them. Oh, uh, I am... just in for two." Overly cautious. She
definitely had something good. I wanted to feed her as much as I could
without scaring her off, and Ryuzaki wanted to intimidate Matsuda out of
the hand before he lost too much. This would be easy.
J-D. 8-C. 4-D. Misa was easy to manipulate, and through her,
anyone in prolonged contact with her but Ryuzaki and probably Watari were
easy to manipulate. You're so eager to get my approval, Misa. And everyone
else is so eager to make you happy. If L has a problem with you, then,
someone who loves you has a problem with L. If that someone is covering up
a murder she committed, and fears L might come down on the both of you,
well, at the very worst the investigation would be shattered. At best, L
would turn his back to her and she'd shoot him rather than let him
persecute the two of them. I doubt I'd be fortunate enough for Naomi to be
as idiotically self-negating as Rem and change her entire value system to
support Kira, so she'd have to be dealt with eventually, but she'd proven
that if she went missing not many people would look for her and not very
hard. Misa would get over it if Kira commanded her to.
"Hmph. Matsuda, I think you have a tell. I think you have nothing.
I raise 2," Ryuzaki said.
"I call your two... and I raise one more!" Misa came back.
"You're trying to mess with me, Ryuzaki," Matsuda grumbled. "Fine.
I'm in for three more. I'm not the wilting flower you think I am." Bad for
Ryuzaki, that his puppet was getting rebellious.
"I'll see that action," I said. I didn't care what I had, I'd fold
to feed Misa when I'd poured in enough.
"Nice try, Matsuda," Ryuzaki grumbled. He was being very obvious
about his goals, but sometimes you have to be to get through to an idiot
who can't get subtext. "Judging by how you looked back to my exposed card,
I'd say I already have a pair. You looked at your own cards again, so you
don't know what you have yet. I'm ready to take you for everything you
have. See the 1, raise 2 more."
"I check your two, and I... I raise... Nah, I don't raise," Misa
decided. Could be doubt creeping in, could be Misa not wanting to
interfere with Ryuzaki's and Matsuda's conflict.
"...Ugh. Fine." Matsuda laid down his cards in disgust. "I'm out."
I was still in. Next card. A-S. Ryuzaki let the bid stand. Misa
was in for one more, of course. Her pattern was becoming very clear.
"Hmmm... You seem pretty confident," I told her. "But I still have
a few tricks up my sleeve, Misa. See 1, and raise 1." Not too much. She
was in awe of me, couldn't scare her off. Like gently holding out bread
for a timid deer.
"Light, are you trying to rob your girlfriend now? You aren't a
bluffer. Misa, you may want to check if you understand the rules. He could
know something you don't." Ryuzaki tossed his two chips in without any
fanfare.
"Hmm... He is pretty good," she mused like it meant anything.
"Iiii don't know. If he had a really good hand, wouldn't he want to bid a
whole bunch to get more money out of me? I'll meet your 1," and she tossed
the chip in. "Also remember if you win anyway it still counts as half a
win for me so I get a slice."
Last card. 4-H. A pair on the table, Matsuda immediately stomped
his foot and swore. Ryuzaki checked.
"All right, I'm feeling really good about this hand!" Misa
proclaimed. "Put me down for... two more!"
There was a low pair on the table. Ryuzaki thought my card wasn't
worth looking at, and Misa would be happy to see me winning anyway.
Couldn't risk having a four and beating her pair of kings or queens she
felt confident in. "That's too rich for my blood. You knocked me out,
Misa."
"Hmph. Check. Call," Ryuzaki grumbled. I pulled down my card --
two of clubs.
"All right, NOW read them, and NOW weep!" Misa chirped. "A-one,
a-two, and a-three fours! I did good, right Light?"
"Damn it, Ryuzaki, you got inside my head!" Matsuda groaned. "I
had an ace and the last four! I would have had a full house if I didn't
listen to you!"
"Well, I clearly have nothing," I said. "Excellent play, Misa." It
was awful. Good thing she was so lucky and Matsuda so gullible -- a nine
and a four wasn't nearly the hand she seemed to think it was.
"Hmph. Looks like you take the pot, Misa," Ryuzaki conceded when
he pulled down his card. "All I had was two pair."
J-D, A-S, A-C, 8-S, 8-C. How appropriate.
* * * * *
The biggest point of failure in any security system is the human
one. Wedy calls it alarm fatigue. To neutralize an alarm system, it is
often best not to disable it, but to trigger it so often its users ignore
its warnings. The Edogawa building in Yokohama is a tough nut to crack --
pressure sensors alert the personnel to any sudden change in air pressure
on any level, such as from someone sneaking in, or a window breaking. No
way in without security being alerted.
The underpass near the Yokohama headquarters is a place that
middle-school delinquents have begin to hang out, bontan flapping in the
breeze. Wedy shows them an extended-range potato cannon she calls the
"Blessed Engine". She brags it can put a hole in the Moon. She instructs
them how to load and pressurize it. She informs them that the higher up on
the Yotsuba building the window is, the more points it's worth. They never
see her again, but she appreciates their work.
* N A O M I *
Misa Amane was still under a healthy weight, but getting better,
and she was ready to return to the world of show business, alongside her
manager Taro Matsui and her bodyguard Shoko Maki. 'Lolita ga Gotoku' was a
tale of revenge, love, betrayal and loss in an underworld of frilly
stockings. Filming just began but they always shoot these things out of
order and so they were filming some ending scenes, on location at this
fountain that was an Edogawa landmark. Near the plaza where Yotsuba had
one of its headquarters. That wasn't the only reason we chose the script,
but it played a part. Before shooting began, we had to stop by with the
director and producer to introduce ourselves.
"Hello," said Matsuda. He took a deep bow and came up with a
winning smile and his business card. "My name is Taro Matsui. I'm
Misamisa's new manager." Misamisa was a brand more than a person, he was
the only one using the name regularly. Another bow, smaller. "It's a
pleasure to make your acquaintance." I wasn't quite certain why both of us
were here, but I guessed I could see why. I couldn't really play the
manager, what with the way they'd have to fast-talk sometimes, but Matsuda
played the role well enough. Likable, smarter than he seemed. When both of
us were out here, I could keep an eye on Misa and he could keep an eye on
whoever she dealt with.
Misa gestured toward me like she was Vanna White. "And this is my
personal bodyguard, miss Shoko Maki." I bowed, and gave them a little
wave.
The director arched an eyebrow and looked at the crutch I was
leaning on. "Your... bodyguard?"
"Uh-huh!" she beamed, as if she were proud of it. "Miss Maki saved
my life, and that's why I want to keep her around all the time." I nodded
in agreement.
"Doesn't talk much, does she?"
I had a card in my pocket to explain it, but Misa started talking
before I could get it. "Miss Maki actually has a condition called
'expressive aphasia' where it is very, very difficult to speak, and she
can only use 2 or 3 words at most. She has some colored notecards to use
to help us know what she's saying. She can also write notes or type them
into her phone, and please do not interrupt her, because that is very
rude," she said, all very chipper yet matter of fact. Some crew were
staring.
The assistant director was scowling in disbelief. I could tell
what he was thinking. 'Your bodyguard is a brain-damaged cripple?' I
wished he would say something. I prayed he would start shit. I needed an
outlet for my aggression. I'd handspring kick him in the face and then my
knee would hurt but it would be worth it. I'd show him I could defend
myself. I'd show myself.
I wouldn't use the gun, though. The gun nestled snugly under my
armpit. That I took apart and oiled regularly, but couldn't practice with.
The one that was with me so often I could forget it because it was a
fundamentally true part of the world. The one that could not be stopped.
That was a responsibility, not to be used on people who were just mean to
me.
Ugh. I was out of it. I followed Misa back to her trailer and
accompanied her to wardrobe, and then nobody was talking to me, and all I
had to think about was how mad I was. I tried to focus on the movie, the
production. Misa was in an angel outfit. The male lead looked
nonthreatening. Would Raye have liked it? I'll never know.
People were steering clear of me. I was trying not to let my anger
show on my face, but that just made me a silent intimidating scarred type.
I guess I was doing my fake job.
Power was there. Close. I didn't know if I could take it back. I
didn't know if I should. Any time I was alone my seething thoughts went
back to Kitamura Koreyoshi. What would Raye want? Were vengeance and
justice on opposite sides here? Did justice even exist when the justice
system was declaring alliances with serial killers?
He took you away, Raye. He took you and I'll never have you back.
All of them did it. You and me can't sit here together on a bench and
watch this production fall apart. Because they just decided they got to be
the ones to take you away.
Misa was being lifted on wires in her angel getup -- for the last
shot, her dead soul was finally getting the romance she deserved. God, I
wished. I wished Raye could come back as an angel. Just for a while. Just
for a scene. Just a medium shot. We would kiss, and hug, and I would hold
his hair, and my last words to him wouldn't be "oh God shut the curtains
before you go". I'd know it was coming. I'd be ready. He could help me. He
always did.
It's not right that it happened. It's not right that he gets to be
happy again and you don't. You don't deserve to be someone people get away
with killing.
Misa got to the roof, lifted by the crane. "Okay, everyone, before
we start!" she addressed the crew with as much presence as she could.
"Just because I am kissing Kobi here, does not mean I'm not still in love
with my boyfriend! Okay? I'm... I'm a professional! You can still love
someone even if you smooch someone else!" God, it was a kiss on the cheek,
Misa. Like in a Rockwell painting. Nobody thought you loved me. Nobody
else was ever at risk of falling in love with me again, so you can stop
worrying.
Raye wouldn't mind it. I hoped Raye wouldn't mind it. But I'd
never know. He was taken. For nothing. And the taker was still here.
Misa got back into the rhythm of being a pop idol starlet very
quickly, and soon she was embroiled in love and betrayal amongst the
baroque mafia as if she hadn't been tied up in a room with no windows for
weeks on end. The special effects guy had not recovered so well, from what
I had to assume was a stay in some kind of POW camp. Misa almost got
thrown off the crane on the second take of the kissing scene. After
cutting the third, sparks went flying from the fountain. The gunfight
scene was next; in Misa's close in shots, she kept getting sprayed by
plumes of water from the fountain. Doves got loose. The last straw was
when the squib vest went off. The prop was supposed to recreate the
explosion and blood spray of bullet impact by means of stage blood-filled
condoms attached to tiny explosives taped to a bulletproof vest, but it
wasn't supposed to look like Misa's stunt double was shot five times in
the chest by an eclair at the craft services table. Everyone took twenty.
I sat on the bench, taking it all in. I tried to laugh at what I
saw. Honestly, I succeeded a lot. Misa always tried to roll with whatever
happened, and it usually ended up making the crew laugh more. Now that her
big smooching speech was done, she was fine with trying to give her dying
kiss to the dove that alit on her chest. It flew off.
But my thoughts kept going back to Raye. I felt the worst I'd been
since the neurology clinic. And I thought about Kitamura. And everything
he'd done. Again and again. A whirlpool my thoughts would always return
to.
Matsuda took a seat next to me. He sighed like I felt. "Big day,
huh?" he said. I grunted the affirmative. He stared up at the Yotsuba
building for a while. "You ever feel... like, I dunno. Useless?"
"Ummm... Forever."
"Ry--the boss told me to get him coffee today. Can you believe
that? Like that's all I'm good for." I just nodded. He looked sheepish.
"I... I guess I probably shouldn't be complaining to you."
Rather than try a word, I just held my hand in the 'it's fine'
gesture.
"I just feel like... I wish I was doing more, you know? I wish I
was contributing. That... so much crazy stuff is happening, maybe I could
stop a little of it."
I leaned my head over on his. I knew exactly how he felt. There,
we watched the production scurry apart. Misa came and sat next to us.
"Didn't have a very good shoot today, huh?" she said. "You guys
feeling crummy?" We were. "I'd have fixed it if I could. I'm sorry. I kept
dropping my props, too. I feel real clumsy."
The three of us watched the Tokyo skyline. Three weak, useless
people who could accomplish nothing. Misa muttered "I wish Light was
here," and that was it for speech.
Until our phones rang in unison.
"Yeah, I need Team Misa on here," said the voice of Wedy. "We got
a serious problem."
* R U L E S *
10a. Suicide is a valid cause of death. Basically, all humans are
thought to possess the possibility to commit suicide. It is, therefore,
not something unbelievable to think of.
CLARIFICATION: The circumstances of death related to suicide must
still be related to the human's suicidality; circumstances that are
unbelievable for other reasons do not become plausible when related to
suicide.
X-3a. The human whose name is written in the Death Note cannot
resist any compulsion his entry places upon him to end his own life,
regardless of what a human would consider to be strong willpower.
X-3b. Humans whose actions are required for the deaths of others,
such as a human who must leave a bolt loose to ensure another dies of
accident, have a much stricter standard of plausibility. In the example, a
human who has a reputation for fastidiousness would not suddenly cause a
fatal mistake.
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