Wrapped Around Your Finger
He was seated in a private booth of a rather swanky, but at the same time nondescript restaurant. It was the type of place that served an assortment of Western food, played old pop music, and was visited by the more privileged blue-collar workers on lunch breaks, and professional parents with their young children. The waiter already left a cold glass of water and a menu on his table, none of which he had any intention of touching. For he was there only to fulfill his duty as Kira's follower, and he had no time or patience to indulge in such trivialities as enjoying himself in a rather 'swanky yet nondescript' restaurant.
He knew that he was being followed. He saw that odd, dark-haired male seated at the other end of the restaurant, ordering drinks and casually asking for a newspaper from the waiter. Considering this, he did not think it was wise at all to agree to such a meeting, but that woman politely and sincerely asked, and had a number of reasons to justify her request. Through the telephone conversation, she reassured him that she would come to him disguised as a witness on a case that he's working on, and that this meeting of theirs is crucial to the ultimate victory of Kira, who requested for this meeting specifically.
He looked at his Rolex. Four minutes past two. He robotically put his hand down on the table again. He had 11 minutes of waiting to go.
"Prosecutor Mikami."
He looked up. An odd-looking woman with extravagant make-up was standing near the booth. Apparently, she was stealthy enough not to be seen by him when she came near.
She held out her hand and said, "I know how things are for you, so let us try to maximize what little time we can spend together."
Mikami nodded and shook her hand, again robotically, to adhere to the illusion of a first meeting between professionals. She sat down across him and neatly put her hands on her lap. The anonymous waiter put a glass of water and a menu in front of her. At that moment, a song familiar to the prosecutor's ears played. It was an old song by The Police.
She cleared her throat, albeit a bit nervously, and began. What she said first was not something that the accurate prosecutor anticipated. "First I must apologize to you, Mikami. This meeting wasn't his idea. It was mine. That is, I came here without his permission or knowledge."
At that moment, he felt an irritation building up inside of him. He did not like the idea of risking the failure of all the elaborate plans that Lord Kira made for them by meeting together in public like this, and to do it without his word! But Mikami didn't say anything, nor did he show any change in facial expression. He remembered that spy who was still tailing him.
"Then tell me why you came to me," he said.
The woman looked at him earnestly. She seemed to be trying internally to form the right words, but obviously what she was about to say wasn't at all easy. Finally, after moments of apprehension, she said, "I did not lie to you about the nature of this meeting, however. It is crucial for him to win."
He didn't say anything, but with his eyes asked her to continue.
"I… have a rather… uncertain request to ask of you… I am not sure how to say it here, in front of you." She was genuinely lost for words. Such a distinct moment for a celebrated speaker.
"Here." Mikami unlocked the keypad of his cellular phone and put it on the message composing screen. He handed it to her.
"Oh. Thank you," she said. Slowly, she began to punch in her message on the cell phone. The tapping noise made by her long nails on the plastic key pad was irregular and overly cautious. Mikami noticed that she was shaking.
She meekly handed him the phone. The message she typed in was:
I feel that something will go wrong before you can proceed with Lord Kira's plan. If that is so, he will not be in the position to give you the commands explicitly, through me. So if this happens, please make sure to take care of things on your own. Specifically, if such things involve me.
He looked up at her after reading the odd message. His irritation grew, and mixed with this was bafflement and confusion. Is this woman questioning the perfection of Kira's plan? And what grounds does she have to say such preposterous things? He tried his best to give her a neutral, curious look. "I'm afraid I do not understand what you are saying," he said.
She swallowed hard. Perhaps she felt the hidden anger in his tone, but the prosecutor saw that her eyes became watery.
"I am sorry if it is still unclear to you. But I suppose I'll give it to you straight. If I ever find myself in a bind because of this case, please eliminate me," she said. Her voice was weak, but determined. She was bowing in front of him, so that her face was facing the table. Small droplets of water littered the surface. They shook nervously as she spoke.
This is Kira they were talking about, what is she saying? "I do not understand your fear. He is the one who laid out the plans. They are the ones who will find themselves in a bind, so to speak. Do you not trust his word?" He said this as if he were challenging her.
"I trust him. With all my heart," she said, and then bit her lower lip. "But, Prosecutor, you don't understand…"
"What don't I understand?" he asked.
"I… don't know how to say this to you without being insulting," she said. "I know how highly you think of him. And I agree, there's no-one who can surpass his ability. His plans are flawless." She sighed. The woman can't say it. It seemed that she was at the brink of tears.
Mikami stared at her. He knew that this was not the right time for weakness, but he decided not to be strict with her at that point. Gently and softly, he asked her: "What are you afraid of, my queen?"
She fell silent. An uneasiness arose in her aura.
"Are you afraid of failing the king?" he asked her. He was leaning over the table and whispering to her. He seemed to not care of any spy who may be watching them. "Of getting in his way?"
She nodded.
"Ah." He sat down on his chair properly again. If that's the case, Mikami understood her fears perfectly. Because Kira is God, and there is only one true Kira, he should be the only one who is perfect. It follows then that the people around him—ordinary humans like his queen, as well as Mikami, who proudly acted as his knight, his right arm—were imperfect. And imperfect people, indeed, are capable of soiling the most perfect things in the world.
The next thing that the woman said to him was again, unexpected: "And Teru… I have to tell you right now, that you are probably the person I trust the most right now. That is why I am requesting this of you."
The queen trusted her knight more than the king? That seemed wrong.
"Please don't look at me like that," she said. The way that her eyes widened upon seeing the look on Mikami's face seemed to make her regret what she said. She self-consciously turned away from him and said, after a few more moments of apprehension, "I am sorry, Mikami. I…"
"If you wish, I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
She stared at him. The expression on her face was unreadable, her small brown eyes very emotional. Mikami couldn't help but to think how ordinary she looked beneath her disguise. Beautiful, but ordinary nonetheless. "I guess I'm not as faithful as you are. I'm actually rather jealous of you. Even though he's given me this big part in making his world—even though he's named mequeen, I can't… I keep thinking that I'm going to lose him sooner or later, and losing me will not matter at all to him. And it's a difficult fact for me to accept."
"It shouldn't matter to him. No-one will get in his way—not you, not me. If it mattered to him, he will be less great than a god. And that is a contradiction."
She nodded sadly. "That is true," was all she said, as if not believing the words as completely as she had hoped. Again they fell into a bout of silence.
(Devil and the deep blue sea behind me
Vanish in the air you'll never find me)
"And I guess, that's why I can speak to you about these things, Teru. I may be queen, but we're essentially the same. We are his pawns," she said sorrowfully.
Mikami, unmoving, said, "And we should be proud that we are hispawns."
He reached out and put his large hand over hers, which were folded neatly on the table. He felt the cold thin ring of the King around her finger, and upon that contact, felt all the responsibility of the world on his shoulders.
He inched his head closer to her, and whispered, "Nonetheless, you are still the queen, and I am just a knight. And because if this, I will honourably do everything that you asked of me."
(I will turn your flesh to alabaster
Then you will find your servant is your master)
Kiyomi Takada watched as his hand remained on hers. His voice and the look in his eyes were as cold as ice, and complemented the twisted nature of his smile. But as she felt that small patch of warmth on the skin of her hands, she knew that she had no choice but to be comforted by his total submission to Kira's will.
-end-
Author's notes: Dammit, I wasn't thinking straight at all when I wrote this. I can't write a decent, light-hearted romance story, even if my life depended on it. (Not that these two are the most decent and light-hearted people in Death Note anyway. Hahaha.)
Lines are from the song Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police. (I do hope the words are correct.)
Comments are always welcome. Thank you for reading. :)