Chapter-2
The watch dog and the free dog
The clicking sound of heels, accompanied by the soft thuds of sneakers, echoed through the hallway until they reached the police barricade surrounding the business suite. A figure clad in a cream –suit raised a hand in gesture as if she was adjusting a pair of invisible glasses, before continuing onwards.
XxXxX
The young man stepped forward, his eyes flickering to something behind Light which Light chalked up as interest to the crime scene, before indicating to the boy, he said, "This is my master. Lord Ciel Phantomhive."
Ryuuk laughed again causing life to half-turn and glare at him.
The man then did an odd motion, putting his finger in front of his lips in a 'silent' gesture before letting it fall effortlessly by his side, which was noticed by Ciel and L, who unnoticed by all, had reached the barricade of 'DO NOT ENTER'-tapes.
'Wait, what's that?' Light thought to himself, the words that the butler spoke finally registering in his head, 'Did he just say Phantomhive? The Phantomhive- meaning that this kid over here is possibly heir to one of the world's most infamous empires-the Funtom Company? The family who is also one of the queens most trusted nobles. Why would the heir be here? And why would anyone allow kids, no matter the status, enter a crime scene? Well, unless he has something to do with the case. I'd better play along.'
"The name is Light Yagami. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Mr. Phantomhive," Light prompted in perfect English, as he held his hand forward to shake hands with the young boy. But Ciel ignored the offered hand, making Light flush red, and sharply said.
"Y-Yagami is it?" stuttering a little over the foreign name he continued, "You are Japanese aren't you? So Mr. Yagami, what is it that brings you to and your friends into a police only restricted crime scene and moreover, fiddle with confidential police evidence."
Inwardly cringing at the mention of the word friends, Light opened his mouth to say something, while trying to keep a leash on his anger, it wouldn't do for him to make enemy out of the Phantomhives, but was cut off by someone else barging into the conversation.
"Light-kun, you wouldn't happen to stumble across anything of importance while scouting the area, trying to catch air of our conversation, now, would you?" L said as he dragged himself out of the police barricade.
"What are you…," Light started growling but was cut off again mid-sentence by L.
"No, I suppose not," L said, "But, of course you would have surely noticed something if you were really interested in helping us…rather than talk to some outsiders."
Totally ignoring the multiple twitching veins on Light's forehead, L turned to Ciel, who was eying him with distaste at the horrible posture and dress sense, and spoke to him as if he was talking to a five year old, "Hey, this isn't a place for kids to play around in. So leave and let us grown-ups do our work, 'kay?"
The young man, noticing his master's cheek grow an unusual shade of red at being called and treated like a kid, decided to intervene before Ciel had the time to explode, "I present to you Earl Ciel Phantomhive, Head of the Phantomhive empire and the Funtom companies, here on a mission especially assigned by her Majesty, the Queen herself. As such, in order for him to successfully accomplish the task given to him, my master would be absolutely delighted if you and your companions were to take all your belongings and depart."
L quirked an eyebrow, a little annoyed by the man's flowery talk, and asked, "And who might you be?"
"Me? I go by the name Sebastian Michaelis and I'm but a butler to the core," he replied, flashing his trademark smirk, and continued, "Having said that, would you, sir, be kind enough to enlighten our knowledge with your identity, if you please?"
"You can call me Ryuzaki and I'm currently working under orders of Eraldo Coil under FBI's insistence," L answered in a matter of fact voice, waving his hand at the laptop with the capital letter 'E' blinking on its monitor, and resumed, "So the old hag appointed you to clean up this mess"-Here he gestured towards the crime scene, "Am I right?"
Ciel flushed, wincing at the man's disrespectful way of addressing the Queen, and exploded, letting his anger get the best of him, "Yes, I have been appointed by the Queen to 'clean up this mess' as you so eloquently put it," he turned to face the direction of the laptop and said, "Therefore, I relieve you from your meticulous grownup job, so that you may now leave."
"That, I'm afraid, can't be done," came the electronically muffled voice from the laptop, "You see, now that I've taken this case, there is no way I can leave it midway. You can say it's something like how you can't leave a addictive game until you have completed it."
"So, Ciel-chan, we can't leave this case until we solve it. Or else we won't be satisfied," L continued. Ciel narrowed his eyes.
"A game, you say? That you will not rest until you have seen the end of? Then I too swear, under the pride of the Phantomhives, to beat you in this 'game' by solving this mystery, by any means possible, before you."
"Master," Sebastian interrupted, "Are you quite sure about this…"
"Be quiet Sebastian. Do you think I'll let them get away having insulted the Phantomhive pride and the Queens name?" Ciel snapped, before turning to the Kira investigation team, who had by now entered the scene, and cast a significant look at L and the laptop, "Do you accept?"
With a contemplative look on his face, L muttered, "This sounds like fun,"-This caused Ciel eyes to twitch-, "But it's up to Coil, though I don't think he will disagree." L looked inquiringly at the computer, causing all eyes to turn at it too.
"I, of course, have no objection. Let's see who wins, Mr. Phantomhive," came from the computer.
L, with a cocky smile, declares, "Well, that's settled then. Though it does feel a little odd accepting a challenge from a little kid such as yourself. This game will be unfairly outsized."
A chibi aristocratic vein twitched as the height obsessed young Earl glowered at the insufferable man. Dark, fierce aura emanated from the two black haired prodigies, sparks were flying everywhere as the two stared fiercely at each other, one with a conceited look while the other was brimming with anger. Suffice to say it was a good thing that it was not an anime, like Dragon Ball Z, or else everything within a 100 meters radius would have literally gone flying.
The only thought passing through Light's head was, 'This was going to be interesting.'
Soichiro Yagami, deeming himself as the only right-minded grownup (who cares) present, decided to break up the duo, who were now viciously barking at each other. No sooner that he stepped forward to do so, his attention, as well as everyone else's, was caught by the arrival of a new female voice.
Zeroing down to the source of the voice, they found themselves looking at a team of two, who had just entered through the door: on the lead was a auburn haired beauty, who looked to be in her mid twenties, dressed in a formal classic-cut cream-coloured suit, a reporter's id hanging from her collar; Behind her was a middle-aged blond man donned in a khaki-coloured jacket over casual jeans and tee-shirt, an unruly beard covering half of his experienced looking face, and the other half hidden behind the professional camera he had in his hands, which was currently snapping away pictures of the scene.
Similar thoughts rang in every ones head: How did they enter? The guards were specifically ordered not to let anyone in, unless ordered otherwise.
Before anyone could say anything or voice out their thoughts, the reporter stepped forward. However she stopped and stiffened after taking a couple of steps, an odd look flickering across her face, her eyes darting around before they landed on her audience. She then introduced herself in a composed well-practiced manner:
"Christine Weiss, crime reporter, London times, accompanied by Mark Schrooge. Here assigned to report on the death of Professor Albus Chester…"
From behind Light, Ryuuk flew forward, with a curious expression, to take a closer look at the reporter.
The reporter suddenly halted in the middles of her speech, her eyes darting around again…the clock ticked…a pair of aqua blue eyes feel upon the chibi…a cricket chirped…those eyes widened…the birds tweeted…a high-pitched squeal echoed throughout the off-limits business suit.
"Aww, you are so CUTE!"
One second, Ciel was frowning at the sight of the unwelcome intrusion, the very next second he was blushing profusely into different shades of pink-red-purple-blue-green and gasping for breath-because the woman had engulfed him in a suffocating hug with inhuman strength and occasionally pecking him with kisses on his cheeks ad forehead. Ciel tried to fight back but it bore no fruit.
"Aww you really are very cute and cuddly too. My brother was never this much cuddly or adorable or cute or huggable. You are cuter than your creepy brother over there"-Here she indicated towards L, causing L to lift a brow and Sebastian to narrow his eyes-"I could do this all day," Christina blabbered. He tried to coherently call his butler, to command him to help him, as he didn't seem to want to do that without force, but all he managed was, "Seb…"
Ryuuk chuckled again, but Light was too busy gaping at the scene to pay him any mind.
Christine stiffened again, loosening her grip on Ciel, and Sebastian, with his trademark smirk and eyes glinting with pleasure, took advantage of the distraction, acting on impulse at the obvious command, and gracefully snatched the now panting Earl away from the reporter's clutches.
Blinking in confusion, Christine looked down at her now empty arms and then at Ciel, who was held protectively by Sebastian. It took her a few seconds to comprehend the situation before a look of understanding and maliciousness dawned on her face.
"Oh! Possessive, are we?" she said languidly and letting out a whistle.
Sebastian smirked, his eyes dancing with incomprehensible knowledge, while the boy in his arms blushed darker, doing a good imitation of a tomato, and yelled obscenities and denials.
Soichiro, seeing that he was the only sane enough adult present at such critical time, briskly stepped forward and intruded on the conversation in fluent English earned from years of experience, and introduced himself with his alias, "Blake Kijani, investigator under Eraldo Coil," at this he nodded towards the laptop before looking at Ciel who just shook his head, then continued, "How may we be help to you?"
Promptly slipping back to her professional mode, she pressed the record button on her mini-recorder and resumed:
"I would like to make a few inquiries about the case." L shifted but did nothing else, opting to observe the peculiar woman.
"Please go ahead," Soichiro said.
"Is it true that Albus Chester, Professor at London University, was murdered in his bedroom?"
"Yes, that is true. We have verified the victim's identity; there is no doubt about him being the genuine professor."
"When, according to the police, did his death occur?"
"It is our primary assumption that he died sometime around mid-night, last night, although we are yet awaiting the forensic report to narrow down the actual time of death."
"There has been a few death cases due to heart failures, which the police assured the general public was not the work of Kira. However, there is a rumor, about the Professor's death being a murder instead of a case of heart-failure. What do you have to say on that?"
"The rumors are correct-There are obvious signs of violence and struggle evident in the room but no fatal wounds on the body. It is our assumption that the victim was poisoned, but we are waiting for the forensic on that note."
"Do you have any possible leads on the criminal who killed the Professor?"
"So far it is unclear as to who would want to kill the professor. We have our man on the road and we are searching for plausible clues ourselves which would indicate to the possible suspect(s)."
"If I may ask your opinion on the matter: About the death cases that has been said to be 'heart-failures'. Is it really true that it is not the work of Kira?"
"Well it has been said that they are not. But-" before Soichiro could say anything else L cut in.
"I think that is enough. You have enough information that you need," L drawled out.
"Why? Is revealing too much information going to reveal the police's incompetence?" Christine countered. Before L could say anything scathing, Soichiro cut in.
"The cases of 'heart-failures' don't seem to be related to Kira." Christina then turned towards the laptop, and asked, "If I might be as bold to ask, what about this case, which can be said to be a normal murder case, attracted the interest of one of the world's three greatest detectives?"
"At first when I heard about this case, I must admit I thought it might have something related to Kira, however it doesn't really seem that way. But now that I have accepted this case, I shall not rest until the criminal has been caught and safely beyond the bars," said an electronically-altered voice.
"Would you like to offer any other opinion?"
"There isn't much to say other than what has already been said," came from the computer, "We are trying our best to catch the criminals. And hopefully we shall succeed soon."
"Alright, that would do for now. Thank you for your time," Christine said. She walked up to L and handed him a card, "If you have anything else to add, please contact us." She then turned to Ciel and raised her hand in a 'call me' gesture with a suggestive waggle of her brows causing the Earl, who had regained a normal skin colour, to blush again. She then jauntily left the room, with the cameraman right behind her still snapping away pictures.
"Well, that was interesting," L commented after a few moments of silence.
XxXxX
After a few moments Christine was seen stepping out of the hotel, with her companion still swiftly behind her. As she entered the alleyway, a few paces away from the hotel which was partially hidden from view, her entire posture changed and she hummed a happy tune under her breath. She walked deeper into the alley only to come face-to-face with a mirror image of herself.
She nodded to her mirror-image, smiling profusely, and did a hand gesture as if adjusting a pair of invisible glasses. Her mirror-image and the companion stilled for a moment before leaving the alley.
She waited for sometime before making move to get out of the alley. As she moved forward her long strides turned to fast paced springy ones, her smiling countenance turned into a full grown grin and when she exited the alley she pushed a real pair of glasses up her nose.
She then neared a grey Chevrolet and opened the door to enter the car.
A black haired girl with bright green eyes, which were currently alighted with delight, entered the car and relaxed into the soft leathered seat, motion for the man behind the wheel to drive. When she heard a few whispered words, she let out a smirk.
"They didn't suspect a thing."
Next chapter:
"L, I could understand. But Watari, you, of all people, I would have thought you would have more sense then accept a challenge issued by the Phantomhives," Soichiro said in exasperation.
L shot him an insulted look, "Hey I'm right here you know."
"Yes. But you are forgetting that Eraldo Coil is not Watari. If it were me, I wouldn't have been so brash as to do that. But this is L we are talking about. I've known him long enough to know that, if I didn't do that, he would never forgive me," Watari smiled.
…
Elliot: I can't believe that girl flirted with Ciel.
Robin: Really?
Elliot: Makes her a pedophile.
Robin: It does!...Wait I thought COD was going to be shounen-ai. *pouts*
Elliot: I wish.
Both: Review~! :3
