METALLIC FLOWER

Chapter IX:

Found Him

A.N. What do you know, I can actually plan my writing. I planned out this and chapters 10-13. No idea how many chapters there will be after that, but there will be at least 14 chapters plus the prologue overall. Oh yeah, by the way, this is right after the next timeskip. This one is the same timeskip as the on in the series.

I guess I should fast forward another four years, since nothing interesting happened, other than my managing second place after Mello left.

Matt, Near and I had stayed until we were 17 (well, 16 in Near's case), and then left. We ended up in New York, where Near ended up creating this agency... just to catch Kira. I'd say that's going a bit to the extreme, but hell, since the government outright refuses to go against Kira, there's not much else we can do.

There's still no sign of Mello whatsoever. Near told us not to worry, but I can tell he's curious as to what happened to the blonde as well. Matt's worried about Mello possibly being dead, and he doesn't even try to hide it. I try to tell him that Mello's probably just in hiding, conducting his own investigation into the Kira case, but honestly, for all we know, Mello could have been killed.

And it wouldn't have had to be Kira that did it. His temper could have gotten him into a fight with someone that he really shouldn't have been picking a fight with, or he could have frozen to death one night.

Either way, for us, he had pretty much vanished off the face of the earth.

"Hey guys, did you already hear about this?" I asked. "Apparently a minor gang in LA has been taking more than it's share of power lately."

"Check it out. For all we know, Kira could be there, helping them out some way," Matt said, not taking his eyes off his DS.

Nodding, I started digging around some. "Okay, so from what I can find here, the gang has recently acquired a new leader. This new leader has managed to kill a rival mob boss that even Kira couldn't catch," I told them. "Which means we should really be keeping an eye on these guys."

"Who's the leader?" Near asked.

"I don't know yet. I thought I would tell you guys what I found out so far before I forget the details later."

I started searching some more, and managed to find a file with the names and photos of everyone in that gang. I sighed. Honestly, who would be stupid enough to go and do something that fucking stupid?

However, when I started to try and access the file, I found it actually be difficult; too difficult for me anyway.

"Fuck," I muttered, "Matt!"

"What do you want?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

"I found a file with the names and pictures of everyone in that gang, but I can't access it. You're a hell of a lot better at hacking than I am, so I need you to do it. But I want to see first."

He agreed, and I moved my chair back to give him some space. After less that 10 minutes, he had the file downloaded and everything. All I had to do was open it.

I did, and when I looked at who the leader was, I was greeted with a familiar face.

"Holy SHIT!" I exclaimed. "Matt, you don't have to worry about Mello being dead anymore."

"Why?"

"He's that gang leader I was talking about earlier!"

"What!?" Matt rushed over and looked over the back of my chair to see the screen of my laptop. There was a picture of our hot-tempered blonde, with the name "Mello Keehl." It didn't surprise me at all that he was still using his alias. I mean, no matter what, it wouldn't take much digging around on Kira's part to find out about Wammy's House, and once you know that much, it wouldn't be that hard to find out Mello lived there. And since some of the many that have had Kira's power don't need a name, just having your picture online could be pretty damn risky.

"It looks like someone had to sneak the photo of him," I noted.

"Doesn't surprise me if they did," Matt replied. "I mean, Mels never has enjoyed having his picture taken, and if there's another with the Second Kira's ability..."

"It could get him killed," Near finished.

"Anyway, we know that he's in LA now, right?" Matt asked. I nodded. "Looks like I'm going to LA then," he said. Without another word, he just walked.

Right.

Out.

Of.

The.

Room.

He just ditched us to go find Mello. I guess that, if anything, this just confirms that there was something going on between them.

It would be a lot more interesting if I knew, but I know when I should stay out of people's personal lives.

A.N. Damn, another short chapter. Maybe I shouldn't be planning these out. Oh well. There will be a nice little confrontation next chapter between Silver and a certain somebody.