I Promised You Forever
summary: Light's younger brother, Yagami Shotaro, succeeded their father Soichiro as the police chief when he grew too old. When a suicide bomber kills seven teenage girls at Spaceland, Shotaro finds himself involved in a much more twisted case than he thought possible. (AU where Light does not find the Death Note in high school)
A/N: Here is my new Death Note work. I hope you enjoy this, and remember, I don't own anything.
It was a nice day today.
He leaned back on his chair and sighed, massaging his temples. The cup of coffee sitting next to his desktop computer beckoned to him, but he ignored the bitter drink, knowing that what he needed was a nap, not yet another caffeine fix.
"You're slacking again, Yagami-san."
He looked up to see one of the senior officers gazing back down at him - and promptly snorted.
Tota Matsuda, the guy that nobody expected much out of. Sure, he was a senior officer, but that was all he had going for him. He had idolized his father to the point of almost obsession, so he felt the need to patronize Shotaro whenever he had the chance, constantly reminding him that his father would always be better than him.
That was fine with him. He didn't want to necessarily be better than his father, just a good detective.
Matsuda kept standing there, regarding Shotaro's desk with a critical eye.
"Those sticky notes are messy and unbecoming to the chief of police. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to file a report against you, Yagami-san. Just because you're the new chief doesn't mean that you have to scatter the everywhere."
He'd indulge his petty coworker today. Nodding, he carefully peeled the sticky notes off of the bulletin board, and disposed of them in the shiny chrome waste bin at the foot of his desk. As he was doing so, he fixed the push pins as well, straightening and organizing them.
If somebody were to say that he hated Matsuda, then they would be wrong. He felt a need to respect a senior officer, especially one that was quite a lot older than him. However, one couldn't put it past him to repeatedly agitate the sour-faced man.
"Matsuda-kun, I think that you have work to do, right? What about those case files that I asked you to organize? Also, please tell Aizawa-kun that I need to speak with him this afternoon...privately."
He saw Matsuda stiffen, and nod mechanically. That could only mean one thing, of course - Aizawa would be getting a promotion.
"Of course, Yagami-san. Also, please call me Matsuda-san, not Matsuda-kun. I prefer it that way."
With a sweep of his hand, Shotaro dismissed Matsuda, and went back to staring out of the window overlooking his office.
Even though it was apparently a safety hazard, he preferred not to keep the blinds down, since in his opinion, it ruined the entire look of the office, along with making it look boring and just like the others.
Boring. That was a word that one could not use to describe Yagami Shotaro, no matter how hard they tried.
He was not an average man. He was dynamic, sarcastic, and not above using dirty tricks to get what he wanted.
Everybody had seen his meteoric rise from a mere neophyte to the chief of the Japanese Police Department - or at least in that region.
Contrary to popular opinion, it had nothing to do with his father.
Father was a good man, yes, but sadly ignorant and naive. He had believed that Shotaro might wait a few years before claiming his soon-to-be vacated position, citing jealousy among coworkers, especially ones that had been working with him for years and had expected to be promoted in lieu of a complete stranger to the field.
However, Shotaro hadn't wanted to wait - and he hadn't needed the wait, either. Why should a child idle away years of his lifetime before fulfilling a task that he knows he can accomplish, no matter what age?
He snorted again, and turned back to his computer to read over the newest case file.
Scrolling past the unemotional and fake filler words - "it is my deepest regret", "the newest tragedy", "a terrible incident" - he started to grasp the general meaning of the case.
A young girl, Miyazawa Kotori, had recently been found dead in an alley. But that wasn't the interesting part.
Her body remained completely intact, but all clothing had been stripped away from her, and the hair on her body, except for that on her scalp and her eyebrows, had been removed for the most part.
And on her bare chest, in black paint, there was a message. Or so the article said. It was worthless, anyhow. He needed to see the pictures.
The photos were labeled 'not safe for work', but he figured that since he worked at the police department, he might as well ignore the warning.
So he clicked past the graphic filter, and proceeded to gaze upon the photograph of the corpse.
Her body was perfectly straight, and unmarred - but unmistakably, on her chest, there was indeed a message.
It read only a few lines. Short, and to the point.
To the public of this country, we will not stop until we remove all of the impure - White Rose
"Hey, Hideki!" he called. "Can you come over here for a sec?"
He always left his office door open so that he could be heard - so that he could listen.
Ide came, walking briskly, but stopped short when he saw the image on the desktop monitor.
Shotaro had turned around in his chair to face the neat-haired man, and waited.
When it appeared that Ide would not come any closer, he commenced.
"Hideki, do you know anything about these 'White Rose' characters? It looks like they're some sort of cleaning people. Maybe it's the janitors of the city, armed for a fight. Lysol and mops, you know. Very effective."
Ide paused for a second, and gave a cursory look around the room, as if to check to see if anybody was there except for Shotaro. When nobody could be found hiding underneath the tasteful paintings or the carved wood chairs, he turned back to face his boss.
"Well, Sho," he said slowly, "I heard about this case a few hours ago and went to investigate. Turns out that the same group left another message, but this time in a non-lethal way, that they were going to be at Spaceland in a few hours...and to try and stop them. I was just going to go check it out, see what they're talking about."
Shotaro stood up and stretched, then turned back to face his stone-faced companion, smiling a cat's grin.
"Okay, sounds great. Can I come with you, Hideki?"
Ide made a sound, almost as if to say no, but then thought better of it.
Slowly, a wan smile spread across his face. However, it was unquestionably a real smile.
"Only if we drive your car, Sho."
Cold. She was so cold.
She threw a glance around, gazing at her surroundings, looking for somewhere that wasn't cold.
But to her, it all seemed glacial, half-frozen.
Even her friends - bright-faced, smiling, - seemed to be icicles through her blue eyes.
She shivered, and hugged her coat closer to herself - then froze herself.
It had almost happened, what Rose had told her she must do. But at the wrong time, at the wrong place, with the wrong target.
She must not panic, she must not falter. She must embrace death with a cold and willing smile, just like Rose had said she must.
Sacrificing herself for the sake of Rose, after all, was a honor.
There was nothing that she would not do for Rose.
Sneaking a look at her watch, she noticed as the hands of the watch slowly crept along.
It was almost time at last, almost time to fulfill the purpose that had been set out for her.
She didn't need any of these superficial people. They would just get in her way.
Closing her eyes, she started to count to ten seconds.
Her fingers idly edged along the makeshift bomb hidden in her bag.
"Hey, guys, I want to show you something really cool!" she said cheerfully, stowing away her inner personality.
The other girls exchanged looks.
Kaori hadn't been the same ever since the summer...but she was still their friend, right?
Shrugging, they decided to go along with their friend's crazy notions, and soon enough they set out towards their doom.
Once they were in an isolated-enough area, Kaori discreetly looked around, noting that the girls surrounding her expectantly were losing patience with her wild mood swings.
"It'll all be over soon," she muttered, and clicked the button.
All hell broke loose, and an explosion was heard all over Spaceland.
As Ide was driving and Shotaro was dozing, they both heard the ringing of a cell phone.
Shotaro hastily pulled his phone out of his pocket, recognizing the ringtone - the opening from Naruto signified that Aizawa was calling.
"Yes, what is it, Shuichi?"
He was concerned immediately when he heard the gravelly, slow voice of the dark-haired man.
"Yagami, you're heading over to Spaceland, right? There's been a death there - er, several deaths, actually. They need help right away. Hurry as fast as you can."
He flipped his phone closed, and buried his head in his arms.
"When will it end, Hideki? All these deaths and protests...after the Kira scare, it seems that's all anybody wants to do. New groups are popping up all the time. They say that we're corrupt, that we never do anything. But that's because we're trying to manage everybody's requests. The leftists are calling for social reform, but the rightists are insisting that things stay the same. And then all of these independent things make me crazy."
Ide sympathetically patted the younger man's arm, and continued driving, steadily looking at the road.
"You haven't been an officer for long enough, Sho, to realize what it's like. It's true, you can't change anything. All decisions must go through the government, and that by itself is just hell. You just have to hang on and hope that their dissatisfaction passes. That's really all you can do. They'll never be happy with what you do for them."
He looked back up at Ide, and sighed.
"I know, but I'm worried about my sister too. She's too smart to have gotten caught up in all of these protests and movements and the like, but at the same time, I don't think that she can get a good education. Teachers are accusing teachers of doing the wrong thing. They're bringing up past grudges and using the protests as a cover."
They were nearing the gates of Spaceland. Upon seeing the logo printed on their car, the officers at the front allowed them to pass into the private parking lot, reserved only for employees.
Ide killed the engine and leaped out of his side, slamming the door. Shotaro did the same, carefully shutting his door.
He proceeded to look around.
"Where's the scene of the crime?" he asked, striding off in the direction of an idling officer, leaning against the gate.
The officer pointed him towards an area marked with yellow caution tape.
"Right. That."
They walked a length, pausing to get water before continuing on. This was serious business.
Upon reaching their destination, Shotaro recoiled.
A nearby officer briefed them on what had happened. A young brunette schoolgirl had blown herself up in a suicide bombing, along with seven other girls. It didn't look like she had been intending to kill anyone else but these seven girls, since she had set off the bomb in a secluded area. All of the bodies had been identified. The bomber's sister was the one who had told them their names.
"Mizuki Mei, Honda Kikuri and her twin sister Kumiko, Okuda Toko, Nishina Moeko, Ishida Nami, and Sato Kyoko. The only connection we have between them is that they all seem to have gone to a private school for girls in Tokyo. We know the bomber's name is Kataoka Kaori, but we can't find her body anywhere."
In a secluded corner, a shaking Kataoka Kamui was being interviewed about her sister.
"W-well, I think that Sis didn't mean any harm. I don't know. She was really distant for the past few months, and wouldn't talk to me or Mom. She'd have horrific fights with Dad, and end up storming out of the house."
The interviewer, twirling his mustache, frowned at her.
"Is that all you want to tell me? Did she say anything about this incident?"
Tears rolled down Kamui's face, and her breathing was quick and shallow.
"N-no sir, she never did. But I think that she was unhappy before she died. She tried to kill herself back when she was in middle school, you know? Mom wrote it off as teenage drama, a ploy to get attention. I don't think so. Sis was never that kind of person. I think she just didn't want to live anymore. Something happened over last summer that made her like that."
"Do you know exactly what happened?"
"I don't know anything. You might try asking her friend, though. She was friends with this older girl who said that her name was...Kadota Satsuki, I think?"
"Thank you, you've been a great help. However, I still have to bring you in as a suspect and all that. Standard police procedure, you know."
He slapped a pair of handcuffs onto her with a casual air, and roughly beckoned towards the car.
Ide watched the whole thing, shaking his head as he heard it. Then, he turned to Shotaro.
"You heard that? After he interrogated her about her dead sister, he won't even leave her in peace."
Kamui went willingly with the officer into the police car, and as it sped away into the night, Ide's gaze followed it.
His hooded eyes looked at Shotaro.
"Let's go home, Sho. I don't think I can stand anymore of this.
The voices coming from the television were hardly distinguishable under the loud pop music blaring from the speakers sitting on Sayu's desk.
In fact, the room's owner was sipping from a glass of wine, sitting on her neatly made bed in a silk robe, her damp hair twisted up into a messy bun.
Her bored stare made the man lounging on the bed besides her uncomfortable.
"Uh, Sayu, would you mind turning down your music?"
She turned to him, gazing at him uncomprehendingly.
"I said to turn off the music!" he shouted, gesturing towards the speakers themselves.
Finally understanding his words, she moved to get up off of the bed, and shut off the speakers, sighing audibly as she did so.
"Tota-kun, what a pleasant surprise for you to drop by my dorm," she said in a monotone, looking blankly at the man she was talking to.
Her eyes were a beautiful chocolate brown, but it almost seemed as if she were staring past you sometimes.
He smiled, and stuttered, "Uh, yeah."
She kicked off the lacy socks on her feet, and resumed looking at him.
He took that as a cue to take off his own shoes and socks, and neatly place them next to the door.
Her room, he reflected, was so much like her. There wasn't much to it, but the few things that she had chosen to display were eye-popping.
"So, how's university?"
In that second, he wished he'd never asked the question.
"Boring," she said mundanely, a surprisingly sedate answer, coming for her.
"Why is that?" he said, playing along.
"Because I don't get to see you," she said with a straight face.
He winced.
That was one of his problems with his relationship with Sayu: he never knew if she meant it or not.
The news station that the TV had been on suddenly got a breaking news alert.
"Breaking news! It is my regret to inform you that..."
Suddenly, Sayu moved out from under his arm. Her face was the perfect expression of shock.
"What is it?" he asked, alarmed.
She pointed her finger at the screen.
"That's my brother...but what is he doing at an amusement park?"
A/N: Done, and done. Stay tuned for the next chapter.