Dreaming of Death Note: 11 - Of Murder Over Coffee
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EDIT: Something got left out of this chapter towards the middle, as I had two massive files and was merging them together to make slightly less monstrous files we'll call 'chapters,' so I've gone back and fixed it. Thank you Redshirt Army for pointing that out! Completely my fault for missing it.
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Dreaming of Death Note: 11 - Of Murder Over Coffee
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"I'm just heading into the bathroom for a moment." Agent Rei told Michiko as they stepped into the hallway outside the lecture hall later that day. Class had yet to start and they had arrived an hour early, straight from making her last deliveries and turning in the payment at the workplace. They'd had a pizza for lunch hours earlier, free of charge, and though agent Rei had enjoyed the food it wasn't sitting well with her insane bike riding habits. Not everyone was able to keep up with Michiko's usual breakneck pace.
"Fine, I'll wait here." Michiko settled into a seat on the opposite side of the room from a set of vending machines, eyeballing the candy bars across from her and wondering how much change she had in her pocket. She was tired, having spent the entire night awake she was pushing two days with barely any sleep now, and she wasn't really used to that anymore. A little something in her stomach would do her some good. There was a coffee machine there as well, and it looked quite inviting. All of a sudden, she craved caffeine.
"You had better. If you try to run again I'm gonna have to shoot you." this was said in a joking manner, but the narrowed gaze somewhat disproved it.
"You wouldn't!" she sounded scandalized, pressing a palm to her chest as if it hurt.
"Technically you're supposed to go in with me."
"You need me to hold your hand when you tinkle?" she asked dryly.
"Very funny."
"Your bag, then?" said bag was unceremoniously tossed at Michiko's face. She caught it easily. She shuffled the smaller tote bag under her arm and set her own backpack on the floor under the chair beside her.
The moment the door closed behind Agent Rei, Hideo fell into place next to Michiko, right in the seat over the backpack. Having vaulted over the back of the foam cushioned seat, he plopped himself down beside her with a smile. The serious tone of his voice was at odds with his happy visage, "We need to talk." Yet again, the boy took Shikako by surprise. She could not sense him, even now. She looked him over, wondering what it was about him that just didn't ping on her radar. Other than him, the two of them were alone in the room, and the halls were empty as they had arrived during regular class hours.
"That's never good. Ok, I think I can take it. I know, it just didn't work out between us. I'm a big girl, I can take a heartbreak. Now go break someone else's heart, please." She fished into her pocket to check how much change she had, intent on getting a coffee. Seeing she was short some change, Hideo handed her a handful from his own pocket, not even bothering to count it.
"You don't have to-" she started to object.
"Boyfriend privilege. I get to give my girlfriend gifts, that includes spare change." he shoved it into her hand, dropping it so she'd have to catch it, and by the time that happened they couldn't tell which coin belonged to who to begin with.
"Huh. Ok." this was said as they walked across the room to the vending machine. They had it make them some coffees as there was plenty of change to afford two of them.
Shikako looked up from her steaming cup of coffee, having been savoring just how good it smelled and how it really was a pick-me-up she needed at that moment. Hideo's words were rapid, and quiet, "So. You met Wendy last night. You said you'd help her. How you gonna go about that?"
She glanced around the room, checking that no one was listening. "You were watching me?"
"I always watch you. So does she. I don't like working for Dan though. Yeah, I'm one of them. He wanted me to keep an eye on you, watch your every move." This knowledge should have irritated her, should have pissed her off, but really after all that had been happening, it just made her feel more tired.
"Omniscient; My ass." she snorted into her cup. He snickered as he did the same. "What are you, the invisible boy?"
"Exactly. No one is really sure what Dan's powers are, because even when he's got other people telling him what's going on, he always seems prepared for it. Maybe he knows already? If that's the case, why have us look? Makes no sense. I can also see you when you're far away, by the way; If I think about you, I can kinda tell where you are. I don't think Dan can do that though, unless he borrows other people's powers, I mean. And yeah, I was behind Wendy when you gave her the memory card thingy. I can be invisible if I want to."
"You can be invisible and see me from far away? Ok, that's not creepy at all. Neat powers. Very X-Men." she said between piping hot sips before she realized she didn't know for certain if X-men was a thing in this world as she couldn't recall having seen it here. It reminded her of jutsus she knew, as well, and could easily see how it could be used to gather information. If Dan had someone like this kid working for him, why the hell did he send her after the information at Placebo Effect? There was no logic to this.
"Thanks. I hear you're good with shadows, and Wendy's a dreamer. We've all got our weird quirks." Ok, so he either ignored the X-Men reference, didn't get it, or knew what it was. That works.
"Yeah. So Dan knows what you know, because you know it? Or does Dan know about your ability?"
"Something like that, but it's only what we tell him. He doesn't know I can go invisible. I'm surprised you figured that out so fast! How did you know?"
"I could kinda tell someone was there, not who or where though, when Wendy was looking around last night but only because of her behavior." she shared, "It had to have been you. You suddenly appeared out of nowhere to jump the guy outside my house. You weren't behind me, but you clearly followed me. Also, you suddenly appeared behind me just now. I can't tell when you're there, for sure."
"Hey, you're pretty observant. You can tell where people are, too? That's awesome, we're like two peas in a pod! Yeah. And, about Dan, we've tried it. I mean we withheld something important that happened once: As in we did not tell him about something that happened on a job we did for him, and tried to see if he knew about it. There was someone we were supposed to investigate, and it turned out to be two people instead of one. The one we told him about? Vanished. The other is still trucking. He only knew what we told him, since he never seemed to look into it. If we go there knowing we're not gonna tell him something, he's not prepared for it. If we go there knowing we're gonna tell him something, he already knows. Like he knew what we had planned. But even then, it's like, why bother asking? Because he already seems to know. He either likes fucking with people's heads or-"
"Or there's more to it." he nodded at her addition. "And why send people to investigate?"
"Yeah. The fact that you can get into the building without anyone knowing how you do it really rankles his nerves. Makes him paranoid if his ranting is a clue, according to Wendy. Man, he acts like he's heaven on earth, but most people hate his guts." he smirked. "It's his holier-than-thou attitude."
'He's probably able to see the future, like I thought. He knew I would be there, because of that. No surprise, really. He sees it ahead of time, so knows what people will say, but only after he sets up the situation for them to say it.' she thought while taking a sip of her drink, 'But it's limited, isn't it? Or else he could simply think of what he wants to happen and see what would happen because of that intent alone.'
"He sees the future, just before it happens. He doesn't read your mind, has no idea what you're thinking, or he'd know my trick with the building. You said it yourself, if you intend to never tell him then he'll never know."
"You mean... then that's why he wants us to look? Because if we do, he knows we'll tell him what we found?" He blinked.
"That's what I figure."
"Crap on toast. He's got a small army, all out doing things he wants, and reporting to him. I don't know how to act around him anymore."
'Unless you're actually acting around ME.'
She silently absorbed that, then something else occurred to her, "So the whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing? That was an act?"
"Eh...heh. If you want it to be." He smiled at her huff of irritation, "Yeah, you're not taking that seriously, are you?" he asked, sounding hopeful. She paused and considered his saddened expression but he shifted the mood when he suddenly broke out into a shit-eating grin.
"I was trying to shoot you down, if you haven't noticed." she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I got shot. I healed. I'm resilient. I can take a bullet to the heart. Come at me, yo!" in a stage whisper, he added, "Your aim sucks."
"Well... your boyfriend act saved my ass last night, so thanks. I dodged that one. The investigators think I snuck out to meet you instead of Dan. I don't want them knowing about psychics, period. It doesn't seem like that will be very easy, if Kira is one, though."
"Yeah, I figured. Dan said the agents are after Kira? You gonna let them get Kira? Or are you gonna protect Kira? Where do you stand on that?"
"You ask that as if I know who Kira is. I don't." she stated. He gave her a considering glance.
"Oh, right. Well. Anyways. You should know what your family is up to, you know. What kind of sister are you, huh?" he prodded, poking her in the arm with the hand holding the coffee cup. His was still mostly full and sloshed against the lid.
"The kind who doesn't think that Light has anything to do with this." she said in an adamant tone. She'd already worked her way through half the cup.
He waited a beat, "Well, that's en-light-ening." He playfully blinked at her as she eyed him incredulously. He then hastily added, "Sorry, I've been sitting on that one for a while. Had to get it out. That was my only opportunity. Won't happen again. I hate to make light of important things." his expression turned serious, the corners of his mouth straightening in a grim line hiding his continued mirth.
"Was that a... nevermind." She huffed in a scoffing half-laugh. Her brother got that a lot with a strange name like that. "Are you going to help me with that? From the way you talk, you sound certain you know."
He didn't ignore her question, but countered it with, "Are you going to help Wendy? She wants out, so do I. Problem is, Dan would know where to find us, and how, if we were to just take off on our own. We've been trying to figure out what to do for a while now. If we had Kira backing us..."
The stubbornness kicked in again, "What are you even going on about? I don't know Kira."
'I have no proof, only hearsay.'
"If Kira could take out Dan, we'd be home-free."
"You're talking about killing him? There's easier ways to go about it. Not saying it can't be done though, what of his unknown network? Taking down the leader doesn't guarantee your safety if he's got minions in hiding that will want revenge. If you just want to get away, if you need a place, and I mean right now as in today, I know some people that would help. They'd take you two in."
"What about three of us? I have a little sister, named Mariko. I want her safe, too." Hideo said quickly, the hopeful sound in his voice was not misheard. It was strange how he wasn't afraid to share her name.
"They would take her in too, if I asked. That shouldn't be a problem." she assured him.
"Dan would notice if I turned and ran, but Mariko might be able to go without being seen so easily. See, he knows about my family ties, but he doesn't know she's also psychic. The strange thing about psychics is there's usually only one in a family." He stopped to let her assimilate that knowledge, since her slightly agape expression told him she had no idea about that little tidbit. There was no point in hiding the surprise.
'Huh, that's new. That also makes absolutely no intuitive sense.'
Hideo continued when she motioned for him to keep talking, lifting her coffee cup in his direction, "He knew about me, so dismissed her as a possibility. She's avoided his notice. Kinda like how Kira did, too. He noticed you, and not Kira. You know, when he notices you... that he realizes you've turned on him... if you run... you cease to exist?"
She nodded, "Wendy mentioned it, but is it really that bad?"
"There's no bodies. They're just gone. We can't explain it, either. If we knew, we might have a better plan, but as it is..."
"That's very peculiar." she pondered what it could mean. Perhaps there was a psychic who could vaporize matter?
Agent Rei came out of the bathroom, seeing Hideo sitting beside Michiko as they sipped their hot drinks, chatting in hushed tones, heads leaned close together. She raised her brows then turned in mid-stride and headed to the coffee machine herself. She could give them a moment, she supposed.
From down the hallway, Shikako could hear Light's laughter echo. He was approaching, with a very pretty dark haired girl at his side, and his guard close behind him. They were chatting amicably, smiling at one another, while Agent Sora scowled behind him. She was getting used to seeing that man frown, as it seemed to be his perpetual state as of late.
The agent was the first to speak when Light's small group caught up to them, "You again?" He stared down at Hideo as if he just found a dust bunny under his bed.
"So what, jerkface?" Hideo grumbled, eyeballing the agent past the lid of his coffee. "You're still on a date with Light?" At this question the girl with Light began to smirk, then quietly giggle, clutching her backpack to her chest, then trying to hide her face behind her palm when she noticed Light watching her.
"Ah, I swear, it's nothing!" Light corrected, looking frantically back and forth between Hideo and the girl he'd been talking to. "It's just a joke, Takada! Honest!"
"I know. I heard the rumors, that's why I'm laughing!" she smirked at the look on his face. "I'm not taking this kid seriously, Light."
Hideo made a strangled sound in his throat, "Kid? I'm older than you!"
"I doubt that, by your behavior, though it is possible, I suppose." she nodded as the laughter faded into a soft smile.
"I can act any way I want to. That doesn't change my physical age." Hideo had been holding his drink to his mouth when he grit his teeth, biting the lid of his coffee cup, crunching the plastic loudly.
"No, but it's quite a telling reflection on your mental maturity." she countered with an amused smile.
Light let out a small sigh and, upon seeing the coffee in their hands, shrugged then turned to get himself one as well. Sora, seeing Rei leaning against the wall beside the machine, also headed in that direction. Hideo and Takada continued to argue among themselves quietly over the virtues of maturity and age until Light returned with a coffee for himself and his friend, who accepted it with a raised brow and a surprised smile, not missing a beat in her argument. Meanwhile, Michiko quietly sipped her drink until it was gone, savoring the last dregs in the bottom.
Light took the empty seat next to his sister as the others continued to chat in the lull between class periods. They had an hour before the next class would begin, and they both were signed up for it. It was a basic required credit course, so they couldn't avoid taking it, and signed up simultaneously so they could share course materials to save a bunch of money on the books. The two of them were relatively alone, considering everyone else was enough of a distance away to not be able to hear what she quietly asked him, "Light, tell me honestly, I won't judge. Are you Kira?"
The boy beside her paused in his motion to drink, then looked out of the corner of his eye at his older sister. He put his cup to his lips and took a long sip, then slowly exhaled. The heat on his breath from the hot beverage caused a swirling steam in the cool air, even indoors. He turned to look at her properly, having gathered his thoughts, his face impassive, "Sis, why do you ask that? You know I'm not an evil person! Why would you even think such a thing? No, I'm not Kira. And if I were, I would fully expect you to judge, as would I, myself."
His gaze hardened, and he appeared to not be seeing her, looking somewhere over her shoulder. "Kira is a criminal that dad is trying to track down. I will help him to do so, someday. Well, maybe not Kira himself if the criminal is caught before then, but definitely criminals like him. I'm going to be a detective, after all. I can't be committing crimes, when I'm going to be going out and solving them. That's just preposterous!" There was a certainty and conviction in his voice, which she had often heard before when he was talking about something he was passionate about. His face gave nothing away; if he told a lie, she couldn't see it.
Hideo jumped up from where he was leaning on the wall, shaking his empty coffee cup in Takada's face, while pointing a finger dangerously close to her nose, "How dare you call me that! Take it back! Light, your girlfriend is rude!" Hideo spun to face the brown haired boy, glaring once more, though his venom was not directed at Light.
"I'm not Light's girlfriend, just an acquaintance. Michiko, dear, your boyfriend is also rude," Takada informed her, her gaze never leaving Hideo. She had one arm holding an elbow, the other hand holding her own coffee cup out of his spontaneous reach. Her bag was slung over her shoulder. "I'd suggest looking for a new one, unless you're into hopeless idiots."
"Take it back!"
Light and Michiko looked each other in the eye, neither one willing to deal with this. Glancing at their respective 'dates', they rolled their eyes and went back to ignoring them. Seeing that no help was forthcoming, the two turned back to each other, rapidly bickering again.
"Sorry, I just had to hear what you would say." Shikako had been watching Light's even gaze closely as he'd spoken, trying to see any verbal or physical tics to tell her if he could be lying. She honestly hadn't seen any, and she wasn't letting herself be tricked by emotional bias in observing his reactions. He was either a perfect liar and wasn't giving anything away, or he was innocent. She wanted to believe the latter to be true. Maybe it was too easy to convince herself of this possibility due to what she wanted, but she had taken that into account when watching. She had to believe in her own perceptions, after all. She could see nothing fake or hidden, not in his mannerisms, nor his actions, or his voice; nothing.
She knew what to look for. It's that awareness of this world and the different mind set she herself held claim to, that would allow her to see such a person standing out sharply in contrast to what is acceptable. It simply wasn't present. It's the difference between knowing a seasoned S-Rank missing-nin who has experience and is expected to do so can kill an opponent easily compared to even thinking that an innocent civilian would be seriously considered as a suspect in a mass murderer case or suspected of any murder, when comparing someone like Kira to her brother. Not impossible, not improbable, but it is jarring, highlighting two separate worlds and mentalities as one does not logically fit into another. Is her little brother a cold blooded mass murderer named Kira, slowly taking over the world one heart attack at a time? Light's publicly portrayed image is not that of a killer, not even the type that hides it well, and Shikako was used to walking hand in hand with them. Anyone arguing that Light is Kira makes her question her perceptions because everything about him that she can see is not what others claim to be, and she knows what to look for. How can they be so certain, when she has seen nothing to prove it or even hint at it?
"You should have more faith in me, Michiko." He chided, softly adding, "I would have faith in you, you know." She nodded, not entirely convinced now that everyone was against him. Were they seeing something she was blind to? How?
He went back to nursing his coffee, a little slower this time. There had been nothing in his behavior to indicate guilt in the slightest. It was frustrating, because she didn't know how to approach the issue, and the truth of the matter would determine her future course of action.
She looked up trying to find a trash bin to deposit her cardboard coffee cup in, to discover Agent Sora and Agent Rei standing shoulder to shoulder, arms touching at the elbow as they were both identically crossed over their chests, even holding their drinks in the same hands. They mirrored each other's poses, leaning against the wall like two immobile statues watching them both intently. They really were a pair. With her luck they could read lips, not that it was hurting anything at the moment. Let them listen; There was nothing going on here, just a sister and a brother trying to have a heart-to-heart about murder over coffee.
Speaking of which, "Hey, that's mine!" Light protested as she snagged his right out of his hand to steal one last sip.
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When Michiko got home, Light and Sora headed to his room so Light could put his things away and work for a while on the homework he'd picked up from his morning class. The evening class they'd shared hadn't assigned any, thankfully. There usually wasn't homework except for assignments to turn in at the end of the week. She headed into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
Fishing into her pocket, she pulled out the little yellow envelope she'd received as a tip while delivering the pizzas that day. She opened it to find a pile of cash that could cover her next four terms expenses completely. Three paper bills on the top stood out like a sore thumb because they were American one dollar bills. Inspecting them closely, she saw tiny messages inscribed in pencil on the edges.
'There are multiple Kiras.' Ok, she could work with that. So Kira is a group of people. Somehow that isn't surprising. They would simply have to broaden their search parameters, rather than looking for an individual, it would be an organization, perhaps. If there is something big to cover up, a larger group of people with a support structure would have an easier time of it.
'The second Kira will see you soon. You have already met the first of the Kiras in person.' Shit, this wasn't looking good for Light, now. If there was any truth to that, then perhaps all of Ryuzaki's evidence did have something to do with her brother after all. But what is that about a second Kira 'seeing' her 'soon'? That sounded rather ominous. And less like an organization.
'Damn Dan and his vague games. He very well could have given a name or two.' On one hand, she wouldn't have wanted to believe it if it had outright said that Light was Kira, because that would upend all of her careful observations and leave her wondering where she messed up, but on the other... It was more than what she'd started with, at least.
If he truly was Kira she was certain she could handle the situation, she just had to know how to approach it. That was really what she was after. That's why it wasn't truly in her favor to let the investigation team discover the truth first, if it was someone in her family involved. She would deal with it herself.
There was one more paper bill behind this one. She slipped it out and searched for the message. 'Sticks and stones will break your bones and words will always kill you.' Now, that was something she didn't know. Kira's weapon to kill is a word? Something verbal, something spoken? Something written? A hand sign? The fact that fuinjutsu doesn't work in this world, but psychics have the ability to influence or interact with the world around them using their powers made her think that perhaps there was more weight to the verbal use of a weapon, but she didn't discount the possibility of it being conveyed otherwise. The Sound Ninjas came to mind, with how they would infuse the sounds with chakra and use that as a weapon in battle. A sound to cause a heart attack in that way, didn't seem too far fetched as far as paranormal and supernatural things were concerned. She had seen and experienced much stranger phenomenon in her many lives. She now had an idea of what to look for, at least.
She heard her mother calling everyone downstairs for dinner. She switched the light off and shoved the money, envelope and all, into her pants pocket. Peeking out the crack in the bathroom door, which would be dark and not draw attention, she saw Light and Sora followed by Rei who was talking with Sayu quietly. Sayu no longer had rings around her eyes, as she had the last time Michiko had seen her, and it appeared that going out to town for the day had done the girl some much needed good. She was even talking animatedly to the agent about something they had seen while she and her mother were shopping. It made Michiko feel better, and put her worried mind at ease to know that her sister was improving, even if it was slowly. The tragedy had hit her extremely hard. She watched as the four of them walked past the bathroom door, ignoring it completely as they headed downstairs at the call of food. A shiver ran up Shikako's spine as that strangely cold chill crept into the room once more. She hadn't felt it all day, and yet, there it was again.
The moment they were downstairs, she hurried into Light's room. The chill in the air seemed to follow her. He'd left the light on and the door was slightly ajar.
A hurried glance and she couldn't tell if anything had been moved recently as there was no dust anywhere, or Light was obsessed with cleaning. She didn't often spend time in here, so she wasn't that familiar with things and where they belonged, but Light was a generally neat and tidy individual, and kept everything just in its place. Sora's sleeping bag was even rolled up and stored safely out of the way against the wall with the man's duffel bag. For all she knew he was probably a neat freak as well. A fast search of the room led her to nothing. There was no sign of anything hidden that she could see with her eyes alone. She even searched in the agent's bag, and found a lighter, and a spare gun tucked into the inner pouch. He only had one spare clip, she noted. She carefully avoided touching them.
She found nothing out of place, and nothing of interest in her fast intrusion into her brother's things, searching through anything that could be opened or wasn't nailed down.
Words. Books. Papers. Things that convey a message.
There was nothing to hint at murder or death in any way. She couldn't check the CDs and DVDs but she doubted those would be used for killing in any way. Unless sounds were involved, and she couldn't see how a small thing like that would influence people on the other side of the world without complicated machinery or another conduit of some sort.
She found plenty of homework assignments, completed and already graded, tucked away in folders on a shelf as materials to be referenced when studying. There were even a few questionable magazines hidden in what used to be an encyclopedia book cover that put Icha Icha to shame at one point. 'Light is a little pervert! Boys will be boys, I suppose.'
As she was reaching to pull open a desk drawer, Light's bedroom door squeaked on its hinges as it was slowly opened. She spun in place to face the opening door, having sensed no one approaching.
There was no one there. The room was oddly cold.
It must have just swung on its hinges with a draft, since she had slightly left it ajar so as to avoid making noise, and so it would look like she hadn't entered if someone decided to come back upstairs to the bathroom. She could feel her family was downstairs, alongside the agents, already spread around the kitchen, probably grabbing utensils and plates and preparing to set the table.
Turning back to the desk, she ignored the strange feeling and pulled the leftmost drawer out, and searched the contents. Most people would think to hide their things in a desk, and it was a common occurrence to modify one to hide their possessions in plain sight. She searched for tells of this. She searched the next drawer down, also nothing. Then she reached the middle drawer, also a dead end. There was a drawer with a key stuck in it. That was... odd.
She pulled it open, and wondered why Light would leave the key in the lock, especially since there was a diary within. Well, if anything had words in it, it would be that. Then again, he had just left the room in a hurry, so he probably forgot to put the key away. She glanced through it, flipping the pages and letting her eyes scan the contents briefly, but saw nothing of interest. There wasn't even an entry for when Sayu's friends were injured and killed. In fact, it seemed as if he'd stopped using it that very day, as there were no further entries in the diary. She assumed it must have been too depressing to continue writing after that. It was the only thing in the deep drawer, so she returned it and closed it again. She looked under the desk, and on the bottom sides of the drawers as well, and there was nothing hidden or strange looking there.
Once she was done with the desk, she checked the book shelves and similarly found nothing of note. Nothing in, on, or under the bed, either. The closet was locked, but she picked the lock with a single metal pin. Only clothes, and a few electronics on the floor in neat stacks. She checked the walls and back of the closet for any hidden compartments, but there was no oddities there either.
She had taken too long, when she heard her mother call for her, again. She left the room, making certain that nothing appeared disturbed, being sure to leave the light on and door just barely ajar as Light had. Heading down to dinner, she paused at the top of the staircase when she felt the temperature drop in the hall. Rubbing her arms at the goose flesh that suddenly crawled up her elbows, she looked back at the open door, and wondered why she felt like the walls had eyes.
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BONUS- Flashback Omake from 'Nukka of Avatar'
This was written as I was writing this chapter, and I don't even know why I really wanted to include it. I ended up posting it on the forum, but figured there's no harm in putting it here as this story references her past life as Nukka in Avatar, and unfortunately, that past life only exists as forum posts! If I write any more of these (no guarantee on that, as it only happens as inspiration strikes,) I might tack them on to the bottom of a chapter but they'll probably have no real relevance to the plot and events in the Death Note fic as is. And probably no continuity at all. It's just for fun or flavor. I still don't know if someone from the forum is going to write the story of Nukka or not so don't expect that anything I write of Nukka would end up being part of it, though if they want to use this it's cool. It's just my imagination taking off on it's own for a little vacation.
As posted on the forum- Yeah I just copy-pasted what I put there:
(This may have been influenced by P.A.W.07's 'Reluctant Hero' chapter 37 update. Love that story, by the way. Read it if you're a fan of well written and In-character AU Avatar fics in which Zuko is the Avatar.)
SO- a random ficlet for "Nukka".
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"We should head out to the island on the west side, according to the map. Also, the locals I heard from said there's a village there where we can get more food and supplies." Katara informed them for what felt like the fifteenth time. Sokka narrowed his eyes at her, puffing out his cheeks. He had thus far made his disagreement known just as many times.
"No, no, we should go to that forest there." He emphasized the point by pointing to it on the map his sister was holding up between them, of which Aang was helpfully also holding up one end, so as not to lose it in the wind blowing over Appa's back as they flew. "We can hunt for our food, like Men. Like Manly Men. Like Manly Hunting Men should. Yes. I will get us some Meat. I am the resident Manly Hunting Man. You ladies can take a breather, find some rabbit-weasel food for Aang." Nukka could hear the qualifier in that title, or titles as the case may be, as Sokka shouted his opinion to be heard over their sister's idea. Aang looked up from the map, wondering why they would feed him rabbit-weasel food, then shrugged it off as one of Sokka's odd quirks. It probably didn't taste bad, if rabbit-weasels liked it. He was probably onto something.
Katara glared at her obnoxious brother in turn, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. She didn't seem to want to waste time hunting when food could be easily obtained, especially after Nukka had gotten them that amazing stash of pirate gold she'd found on that last island they randomly stopped at.
Granted, it was really Toph that found it, but no one was really counting that since the blind girl hadn't noticed what she had been sitting on. Since she found it by leaning against a tree, losing her footing, then falling into a ravine, it was a rather interesting adventure. Nukka had climbed down to help untangle her from the vines that caught her and snagged her on the way down, and her weight had disturbed the precariously perched rocks on the ravine wall, pulling at them until boulders and logs were falling alongside her. She discovered Toph was almost sitting on a small wooden chest of pirate treasure, at the very bottom where everything had finally settled.
"Bingo!" she'd said upon seeing the glint of gold within the half-opened chest that Toph's fall had unearthed. No one quite knew what that meant, but upon seeing the treasure and realizing what it was, they didn't think on it for too long. They grabbed the chest, and made their way off the island faster than you can say 'kink-horned-rhinocerous-ardvark'. (Nothing moves faster than an angry kink-horned-rhinocerous-ardvark. Nothing. Especially if you accidentally step on its eggs.)
They had plenty of money to spend, so Katara argued they should get what they needed! She'd been arguing that point for the past hour. Sokka continuously shot her down. They'd been fighting over it so much it had given Nukka a rather severe headache. The noise of the bickering teens behind Nukka was making her migraine even worse. The more Sokka raised his voice to impose his opinion on the others the more she wanted to stuff a pillow in her ears.
Finally having enough, Nukka shouted, "I swear, one more peep out of any of you and I am turning this flying-bison upside down!" Nukka blurted that out in pure irritation. She didn't really mean it. Much.
Blessed silence descended upon the crew in Appa's saddle. Nukka enjoyed the sound and feel of the wind in her hair, knowing that they were all taking her seriously.
For about ten seconds.
Then the snickering started.
A certain bald-headed airbender was to blame.
It was also him that eventually... "Peep!"
"Oh, sweet-spirits, no." Sokka began to pray, clutching the edge of the saddle in preparation for their eventual free-falling demise. His other hand wrapped protectively around the bag containing the pirate gold, just in case.
She could hear the slight hint of panic in Katara's voice, "Sis, not all of us can fly! Remember, we can't fly..." Did she really think that Nukka would... scratch that, of course they did. They believed her every word. She was always good for it, wasn't she?
"Miss Whispers, if you follow through on that I will end you. I. Will. End. You." Toph's warning was spoken in the most serious of voices, loud, clear, and full of killing intent, as she slowly turned her head to face Nukka's direction. Not that killing intent actually existed in this world, but Nukka could just hear it laced in her tone. She was rather impressed.
"PEEP! PEEP! Please, let's do a loop-de-loop! A barrel roll! Appa! Let's go! PEEP! Spin in the air! Let's go- it will be FUN! Peeeep!" the hyper airbender began to bounce in his seat, with Momo chittering on his head, agitating the bison and making him growl. He shook the saddle, excitedly trying to get his bison to listen to him.
Appa knew better. Nukka had the reigns. His enormous eyes rolled up into his head as if trying to look at her, then he shook his head, blinked, and went back to flying forward while attempting to all appearances to try to ignore his airbending owner.
Nukka would do a face palm, but that would involve dropping the reigns and signaling the bison to land. Over the ocean. She was sorely tempted.
Sorely tempted.
.
.
.
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Author's Note: The last chapter felt too long to post as it was, so this was the other half of what I had written already, which I expanded on. Sometimes I write fast, sometimes I'm a slowpoke. Editing takes longer. Speaking of slow poke, I'm seeing guest reviews dated from four days ago only just showing up today, what's up with that? Anyone else notice that on this site?
Since I'm only just seeing it now, in response to guest review from catgirl789:
I agree that the world they are in determines the actions they will take under certain circumstances, but the experiences that shape them also contribute, and this is one world after multiples that share the Naruto-verse's way of thinking because Avatar world is closer to Naruto-verse in that regard. I rewrote that chapter over 3 times, originally keeping the guard alive after he'd seen her but it only caused trouble for her down the line. She's not Naruto. She has dealt with minor mooks in a similar manner before. This was the only solution she had to that issue, and she'd long practiced it in multiple lifetimes. I put a lot of thought and planning into it as it serves that purpose, highlighting the differences. Alternatively, with Dan there was character incentive to keep him alive at the time- he could help her, he had a wide ranging and unknown network that knew of her but she hadn't figured them out yet, and he had his own reasons to not cause trouble for her with her and the others' 'psychic abilities' being useful to him. The guard had none of that going for him, and no one could pin it on her.
It wasn't that the guard had seen her face- it was that he had seen her powers. She had then fought him using the shadows with the knowledge she had no way of knowing when he woke while being shadow-possessed, as by then it was too late for him. It was the only way to guarantee he wouldn't out the supernatural side of the world which is something she and others had long tried to keep hidden in this lifetime and it was in her best interests to do so. Kira was already putting a monkey wrench in that plan, but no one knew how or that it was really a psychic phenomenon. Getting caught stealing from a drug company when she's already under investigation as the world's worst mass murderer is hardly something to be concerned with, in the big scheme of things. Trying to lock him in the bathroom was her way around killing him, and it didn't work but she did at least try first.
And to everyone- Thanks for the helpful writing advice! And, Happy Holidays as this is being posted on Christmas Eve!