AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't been in much of a writing mood lately, so I apologize if this chapter is sub-par. But it's my last chance to get another chapter in before I have to work on some big papers for school.
"W-What is this?" remarked Lester as the car turned the corner. In front of the NPA building, a gathering of a bout a hundred people crowded the street. They were holding various painted signs and were pumping their arms in the air. Before the doors, about five police officers had erected barriers and were trying to get the people to calm down, much to futility.
"Another protest," said Lidner, sitting in the passenger seat. The smug look on her face said enough.
"Another? You don't mean… the Kira Disciples? These bastards…"
"Calm down," said Lidner, heaving a sigh. "We'll just get in and get out no problem. This isn't our quarrel."
Lester parked the car a good half a block away from from the NPA building, so as not to be caught in the throng, and the two got out to begin walking toward the building. When they got within a good distance of the front doors, the crowd finally recognized them.
All at once, about ten disciples rushed up to them to brandish their signs and yell unintelligible things. They still stayed out of their faces, enough for them to keep walking, but Lester looked upset enough that it seemed he would strike out at them. Lidner's face remained calm, though cold. Any time she made eye contact with one of the Kira's Disciples, that one hastily backed away.
Except for perhaps one. A man in a green hoodie met her gaze squarely as she passed by. He had somewhat disheveled black hair, and a cigarette in his mouth, and he was one of the few who wasn't shouting enthusiastically. He simply gazed back at Lidner, the same amount of coldness in his eyes. Her eyes lingered on him for sometime before finally strolling past the police guards—flashing their badges—and entering the building.
As the two took the elevator up, Lidner's face finally grew into a disgusted frown. "How repulsive… For people to support such an evil man as that. Yotoko is turning in her grave…"
Lester gazed at the ceiling. "You know it wasn't Yagami responsible for that. It was Higuchi who—"
"I know that," Halle responded, trying to keep the sharpness out of her voice. "But it was still the Death Note. It was still Kira. That's why we have to find it, before another tragedy like that happens again."
There was a long pause. "But do you really think the Police Chief knows anything about it?"
Lidner didn't respond.
…
"Bro?" Junichi started slowly, holding his backpack over one shoulder.
Takahiro looked up from his newspaper as he was sitting at the dining room table. "What is it, Jun? You look kind of… pale."
Junichi smiled weakly and shifted a little. "Could you take me downtown? I'm supposed to meet a friend somewhere, but I need a ride."
"Sure," said his brother, glancing down at his wrist watch. "I still have an hour before I have to be at my meeting. Where's he meeting you?"
"The police station."
Takahiro paused and looked oddly at his brother.
"I-I know," said Junichi, chuckling weakly. "He's got a weird sense of humor. But we gotta go before we're late."
Kymander loomed behind Junichi, looking down at the back of his head. When they had gotten in the car, Kymander slipped through the back door and sat in the seat behind him, unbeknownst to Takahiro.
"Junichi… what are you doing?"
Junichi ignored the Shinigami and squirmed uneasily in his seat.
"So who is it you're meeting? Taro? I remember that kid was strange…"
Junichi winced. It had been a while, but he hadn't told any of his family members what had happened that day in the woods. Of course, the two kids' bodies were found and reported in the news as accidents, but his brother was the only one who read the newspaper enough to have seen the story. And even then, he must have missed it.
"No," said Junichi, "it's this new kid at school. You've never met him before."
Kymander reached forward and clamped a hand down on Junichi's shoulder, who winced. "Hey… I want to know what you're planning. Remember… I'll kill you if you don't do as I say."
Junichi trembled a little, but remained silent. It was almost over… A short trip to the NPA and all this Death Note business was over and done with. Just a short way. It didn't matter if he died afterward… only that he at least made it to the station.
…
Lidner and Lester remained silent on their way back down the elevator, both with dejected looks on their faces.
"We should have expected it to be a dead end," said Lidner.
As the doors opened, the first thing they heard was a loud slamming noise. They could still hear the shouting outside, but it was much more violent. When they stepped outside into the main lobby, they saw it; the crowd of Kira supporters had rushed up to the doors and were slamming a metal sign against the class, attempting to shatter it. Five police officers were inside holding the doors shut, but in short time, there was the sound of shattering glass.
One door shattered and an onslaught of Kira Disciples rushed into the lobby, and the police officers were shoved aside. Immediately, Lidner and Lester went for their guns and pointed them at the crowd.
"Stay put!" Lidner shouted powerfully, but the crazed men rushed onward, and Lidner hesitated, her finger partially holding down the trigger.
By then it was too late. A wooden bat cracked down on top of her knuckles just as a fist hit her in the stomach and temple. She dropped her gun, and a volley of attacks came at her fast, and she had to fall back.
She thought she heard another crowd of footsteps coming from behind her; perhaps all the officers currently in the building were coming. But after reeling back against the wall, she heard a gunshot across the room, and then another. A fist came at her face from amongst the throng, and then there was darkness.
…
"W-What the hell is this?" Takahiro exclaimed as he slammed on the brakes as he turned the corner. They had arrived at the NPA, but all was chaos.
A large mob was in front of the building, and it looked like they were all shoving to get inside. The glass doors were broken down, and several police officers were laying on the sidewalk unconscious.
"I'm getting out of here!" exclaimed Takahiro, as they had turned into the very fringes of the mob, but the car had already been spotted. Like a plague of locusts, about two dozen men surrounded the car and began shaking it back and forth. Junichi screamed and hid his face in his hands, but Kymander only laughed gleefully at the entertaining sight.
"Damn it!" Junichi heard his brother yell. "I can't run them over, but what do I do?!"
Then all of a sudden, the shaking stopped. "Komori! It's Komori!"
The next few moments were a blur for Junichi. He heard the car doors get wrenched open before Takahiro had a chance to lock them. Six hands grabbed him at once and wrenched him out of the car so hard, it dislocated his arm. He screamed as he hit the pavement, but he couldn't even hear himself over the mob.
They had begun chanting. "Komori! Komori! Komori! Komori!" The words rung in his ears and resonated with the intense pain in his shoulder. Now he was being drug around the car, face first, the skin tearing on his knees. As he was being drug he received several violent kicks in the stomach.
The hands let go of him, and his head collided hard with the pavement, causing him to pass out for a short moment. When he managed to lift his head up, he found he was in a small circle in the mob. Next to him was his brother, whose suit had been torn, and he was bleeding from several places on his body. Even as he looked up, individuals took turns stepping forward to punch him or kick him.
"Komori! Komori! Komori! Komori!"
The crowd then erupted in cheers, and before them, they split to make a path for someone who was approaching through the mob. He had a green hooded jacket and messy black hair, and he was grinning with a lit cigarette in his mouth. And a pistol in his left hand.
He stepped into the circle and delivered a fierce kick right to Takahiro's stomach, who moaned in pain and spat up blood.
"Kira does not forgive those who stand against him."
Though the man said the words quietly, they rung in Junichi's ears as the man raised the gun to his brother's temple. The gunshot rang off the surrounding buildings. The image he saw before him speared through his eyes and into his brain. Everything became silence to him.
The man in the green jacket took a long drag from his cigarette and flicked it onto the body before him, then cocked the gun again. Junichi distantly felt the empty shell bounce off of his forehead. Almost as if marking where the next shot would land.
The man smiled down at him, but that smile quickly disappeared when another gunshot rang out, shaking Junichi's body to the core. A man behind Junichi fell over.
"Shit!" he saw the man's mouth form the words, but didn't hear him. "Scatter!"
Chaos again broke loose, and Junichi's eyes again settled on what was once his brother. He was slumped over on his side, facing away from him, his posture looking like he had just fallen asleep. The last thought occurring to Junichi was…
Maybe he is just asleep…
As a panicked man tried to jump over Junichi, he accidently kicked him in the back of the head. Junichi's head whiplashed forward onto the pavement, and also fell into deep black.