Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note nor any of the characters contained therein.
Summary: L knew there was a 2nd Death Note. Higuchi died & L set a plan in motion, watching Misa, meeting Ryuk, trying to defeat Kira. Slight AU/AR; rated T for language and nudity; peripheral pairing; spoilers through end of series.
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Turn of the 8th Day
Chapter 21: Touch & Go
Feather of Supplication
"Sir, I've told you all I know."
"Bullshit! I was assaulted and my car was stolen – I know what happened, I was there! I gave my statement to the first cop I talked to. Now I get here, and you're telling me I'm under suspicion? For what – attacking someone's foot with my face?" Though his tinted glasses blocked some of the bruising, it was clear that the bald man had suffered some injuries.
Officer Niwa suppressed a sigh. No one was ever really happy to be in a police station, but being yelled at or cried on by a constant stream of people could be exhausting. He couldn't wait to get back off the desk and back on the street. "Sir, I know what your statement says. I just need you to wait in here so that the detective working your case can go over some of the details with you."
"What details? Why is that necessary?" The bald man's voice boomed.
"Well, he'll probably show you photos of your car's interior and ask you to identify which items are yours and what, if anything, is missing, for starters."
The bald man cracked his knuckles. "Because they're trying to put the evidence in context?"
"Yes, sir."
"I get that." He was shaking his head, the fluorescent lights making it shine. "But why do I have to wait in this room?"
"We've got a pretty heavy caseload right now, and it's standard procedure to separate witnesses and victims from the riffraff so that people don't overhear each other's cases." Niwa looked at the man, who still seemed unwilling to sit down. "Look on the bright side; you should have some peace and quiet in here."
"Yeah, a nice, peaceful interrogation room."
"Sir –"
"Enough with the 'sir' crap. As you probably can tell, my day has been less than ideal." He glowered over his glasses with eyes like a shark. "I'll wait here for the detective, as long as it results in catching the asshole who stole and crashed my car."
Niwa nodded and moved back toward the door, relieved that the bald man was proceeding to sit down at last. Though the man was older, he was tall and imposing. If he had chosen to try and leave or fight . . .
"Officer?"
"Yes, s – uh, Mr. Ooi?"
"Get me a cup of coffee, would you?"
Niwa turned to hide his grimace. "Yeah, no problem." He left the room, heading for the coffeepot.
This guy's day's not gonna get any better when we tell him he's being charged with assault and attempted rape, Niwa thought. The record in the system was clear as day – the woman's statement indicated that she had taken Ooi's car to get away from him after he had attacked her, and there was plenty of evidence listed and eyewitness statements backing this up. The bald man was likely not going anywhere anytime soon.
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Hidden Prize
The thup-thup-thup of the rotating blades was so loud it was more feeling than sound. They were flying low – Aiber supposed that Watari's intention was to make sure enough buildings were between them and To-Oh University Hospital to mask their escape before reaching a more appropriate – and less dangerous – flying altitude. Not that anyone had followed them onto the roof. Installing a program to wipe all security footage from the hospital for the past few hours had seemed ridiculously easy, though it made sense that Watari would have such a program ready to load. Aiber had been surprised at how smoothly their departure had gone, but wondered what Watari planned next.
As they had been loading Wedy in, Watari had remotely triggered a self-destruct on the device Wedy had used to track Aiber and had then tried contacting L's cellphone, but 'out of service range' had been the message Watari had told him he'd gotten, worry flickering in his eyes for a moment. Aiber knew damn well that L was never out of range – whether they used several service companies or somehow had their own, L and Watari were always able to find him no matter where they were Or what they were interrupting, Aiber thought, remembering the last time he'd been with his wife. Which meant that either L had turned his phone off, or it had been broken. It had been Watari's decision to proceed without him, since they couldn't afford to wait around with a stolen hospital patient. Aiber wasn't sure it was the right way to go, but Watari had told him that L was resourceful enough to handle a package retrieval on his own, so he followed his lead.
The helicopter listed to the left as Watari made a turn, and Aiber looked behind him to where Wedy was strapped in. They'd found a u-shaped pillow to help keep her head propped up, and her ear was pressed to one side of it, her face paler and more slack than he'd ever seen it. Even seeing her without sunglasses on was strange enough. She looks too young, he thought. He hoped she would recover quickly under whatever care Watari intended to provide for her.
As he was turning to face forward, Aiber noticed a panel next to Wedy that had fallen open during the twists and turns of their flight. Unsure if it would come loose entirely, possibly hitting one of them, Aiber stretched to reach behind them and put it back in place. The helicopter tipped up and began an ascent, and Aiber suddenly found his hand inside the open panel as gravity pulled him toward the back of the craft. Curious at what he felt there, he grasped and extracted the object.
Death Note . . . Aiber read silently, eyes widening; what the hell? His eyes darted around the interior of the helicopter, but nothing else seemed out of place. He thought back to when Higuchi had been captured – Aiber had been in the car with Mogi, in pursuit until Higuchi had been cornered on the highway. Though he'd been told to stay in the car, he'd overheard the entire conversation via the comm-link when Mogi and Soichiro had approached Higuchi and retrieved the "notebook that kills."
Could this be it? Aiber thought, turning it in his hand. He hadn't touched the supposed weapon that day or even seen it close up, but from a distance . . . His memory told him that this could be the same notebook. He had asked L later that day if he and Wedy would be allowed to touch it and see the "monster" Soichiro had described, but L had said no. "There may be negative consequences to touching the notebook of which I am unaware, and I would prefer not to endanger the entirety of my team," L had said. Aiber had taken that as the brush-off that it probably was, but he wondered now what those consequences could be. He certainly saw no monster here.
Maybe it's a decoy, he thought, though he wasn't sure why the notebook, real or not, would be stored in a compartment on the helicopter. They wouldn't have just forgotten it here for all this time, Aiber thought; maybe they brought it with them today for some reason. The helicopter listed to the left again and the notebook in Aiber's hands rapped gently against Wedy's knuckles. Merde. Aiber frowned. Noticing the corner of a post-it poking from its pages, Aiber opened the notebook and read it: "Brulez ce cahier le 22 Novembre." Wondering a bit at the date, he pushed the notebook back into the compartment and closed the panel firmly over it with a click. With once last glance at Wedy, he turned around in his seat.
"Everything alright?" Watari shouted to be heard, keeping his eyes focused on where they were going.
"Yeah." Aiber shouted back. He knew there was no point in trying to have a normal conversation over the noise. "She's still out." He popped a thumb in Wedy's direction as Watari nodded in response.
Aiber looked out at the bright lights of the cityscape piercing the night sky and realized that they were headed in a different direction than he'd expected. "Where are we going?"
"We are proceeding to a military base – someone there owes me a favor."
Nodding, Aiber decided he didn't much like the sound of that but reasoned that he'd be able to play along. His interactions with the military in several countries had been mixed at best. As long as no one there recognized him, he knew he'd be fine. "What about . . ." Aiber gestured vaguely, unsure of whether to say an alias, or which one.
"He'll be fine, I'm certain." Watari's eyes dashed to meet Aiber's before returning to task. "If I haven't heard from him by the time we touch down, I will try to contact him again."
Aiber averted his eyes. He didn't doubt L's skills, or that he might have his own plans, but something had seemed off when they'd parted ways. Is some kind of power struggle happening between L and Watari? Aiber wondered. What kind of package is so important that L had to handle it alone? Aiber considered the possibility that it related somehow to the notebook being in the helicopter. He didn't have quite enough to go on, but Aiber knew he'd be keeping these things in mind in case any new information fell into his hands.
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Sociability
"Woozy . . ."
"Just a little further."
"Mmm . . . can we go get ice cream?"
"I . . . actually, there will be ice cream where we are going. You may have any flavor you like." With his arm around Misa, who was moving unsteadily, L guided her along the sidewalk toward where he hoped he could flag down a cab. He'd managed to retrieve his cellphone from the alley, but it was no longer working. At least I can be reasonably sure that Watari knows where we are, L thought. The knowledge that Watari could track them wasn't enough to persuade L to simply wait for assistance, however – he was determined to keep moving.
"I wanna sit down." Misa pouted.
"Misa, we're almost to the corner. You will be able to sit down soon."
"Nuh-uh. I wanna sit down now." Misa slipped from his grip to plunk down on the sidewalk, legs crossed under her, blanket still enshrouding her.
"Misa . . ." L stared down at her, regulating his breathing. He knew he could carry her if necessary but wanted to avoid additional attention if possible.
"Duuuuude – I guess she had a little too much, huh?"
L turned to behold three college students, two of whom, he noted, had been at the café he'd seen just prior to literally running into Misa. The two boys were smirking, but the girl regarded him with suspicion. L sighed. "Yes. I'm trying to get her home, but I don't have a car."
"Hey, aren't you that rich guy from the freshman address?" the shorter boy asked. "Can't you just call up your limo driver or whatever?"
"Even if my phone was working . . . the less I have to explain to my parents, the better." L dropped his eyes to regard Misa, who was remaining uncharacteristically quiet.
"Ha – I totally get that, man." The taller of the two boys slapped L on the back, and L squashed the urge to kick him. "You know, we were about to head downtown and hit a club – if her place is on the way . . ."
"Aku! It's my brother's car – I can't drive all over town! I'm lucky he's even letting me borrow it." The shorter boy glared, round cheeks turning red under a stormy brow.
"It's alright. I just need to find a cab." L met the shorter boy's eyes. "Thanks just the same." L watched as the boy dropped his eyes and stepped back and wondered if this was even an opportunity worth using. As much as he and Misa needed a ride, L much preferred the relative anonymity of a taxicab.
"How do we know you're not going to hurt her?" The girl finally spoke up, eyes narrowed.
"Why would I do that?" L regarded her coolly.
"I don't know – you got her drunk. You tell me."
"That is most definitely not what happened."
"That's what you say. What does she say?" The girl looked pointedly at Misa, who was facing away from them, her profile to L.
L turned to Misa as well, keeping his face blank but evaluating possible escape routes and scenarios. It was difficult to tell how Misa would react. She had seemed a bit out of it after losing her memories again – although, as L thought back, her behavior in the alleyway prior to that had been unusual as well. L wondered if there were any drugs still lingering in her system.
"Ryuga?" Misa's voice was faint.
"Yes, M – Ms. Amane?"
Misa looked up to meet L's eyes. "I'm ready to go home now. Will you take me?"
"Yes, of course. We just need to catch a cab." L gave what he hoped was a benign smile. Realizing Misa was reaching up, L extended his hand to pull her back to her feet.
"You didn't answer, Amane. What happened?" Though the girl was likely trying to help Misa, her voice and demeanor were harsh.
"Too many questions today." Misa frowned for a moment, pulling the blanket tighter around her before turning to face the girl. "Ryuga saved me, that's what happened." To L's surprise, Misa embraced him, snuggling into his arm as he had seen her do to Light on numerous occasions.
"See? You worry too much, Haru." The tall boy squeezed the girl, who rolled her eyes as the other boy looked on. "C'mon Dai, we can't just abandon them. Hey," he said, turning to L, "where does she live? It's no problem, unless it's, like, in the opposite direction or something." He ignored the sigh of his friend.
"I can show you, if you have GPS on your phone. Mine did, but it's broken now, unfortunately."
"Yeah, sure." The tall boy extracted his own cellphone. "Oh, we should probably . . ." He gestured vaguely. "I'm Akuma Iwai, this is my girlfriend Haruna Mori, and this is our bud Daisuke Sakamoto."
L nodded his head. "I am Hideki Ryuga, and this is Misa Amane."
"Good to meet you guys. OK, I've got it showing where we are now . . ." Iwai stepped next to L and handed him his cellphone. "Just put in where you need to go so we can see if it's on our way."
L had no intention of leading these students to his own secure building, but there was no reason he couldn't use the neighboring building with the penthouse he'd used briefly as a destination. He continued to run contingency plans through his head as he entered the information, keeping his expression as placid as ever. Traveling with Misa was a little bit like having a bomb strapped to his chest, one that could go off at random, and he needed to remain alert in the event things went further out of control.
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Overdue Investigation
"It's still not conclusive."
"Yeah, but it's pretty suspicious."
"No one could convict on this without physical evidence!" Ide glared at Aizawa.
"We scoured that whole plaza – fountain, trees, trashcans and all, and the sidewalks leading to it. Any physical evidence that may have been there is long gone now." Aizawa frowned.
"It was a worthy effort, just the same." Rester finally spoke up. "If the range of the security cameras at the entrance of the NPA had been a little longer, we might have gotten a better idea of where she went afterwards."
Aizawa looked at the file in front of him. "You didn't get her parents' hopes up, did you? That would be cruel . . ."
"I think they just want closure. Her mother still holds out hope, but . . . I think she's ready to accept that her daughter's gone." Rester ran a hand over his buzzcut. "We're lucky the NPA still had those recordings. I just wish they'd been facing the cameras when they were still in the lobby."
"Well, we already know some of what was said just based on what those guys told us." Aizawa pointed out, remembering NPA officers Kenta Nakahara and Naoto Tomonaga. "Since they were both working reception that day, what they heard between the two of them was enough to raise my suspicions."
"But it still doesn't prove anything." Ide seemed agitated. "This is all guesswork based on circumstantial evidence!"
"Look, I'm not saying this isn't important – I'd like to stop Kira as much as you two – but none of this tells me where Misora went." Rester sighed. "That's my primary objective. Finding her."
Aizawa crossed his arms. What would L conclude from all this? he wondered. He thought back to the image of Naomi Misora walking past the entrance of the NPA, Light no longer with her, less than 5 minutes after Aizawa himself had entered the building. Aizawa knew he must have walked right past her – walked past both of them – but he couldn't remember seeing them. It had been the morning of New Year's Day, and he'd just come from meeting L for the first time. It seemed so long ago now. But fresh in his mind from the video was Misora's face in profile as she walked by, snow falling on her . . .
"She wasn't even trying to cover her head."
"What?" Ide looked at Aizawa.
"The weather – it was snowing when she walked by that last time. She didn't seem to care. Most women try to keep their hair dry in wet weather, or at least stay warm. But she didn't – she just stared straight ahead. Her steps didn't vary; there was no emotion on her face. It was like . . . she'd already decided what to do and was going to do it."
"If this is your way of trying to convince me that she committed suicide, I'd remind you of the evidence I have showing that she wasn't likely to do that." Rester glowered at Aizawa. "I understand why you would expect that of someone experiencing grief, but based on all the interviews I've done with her friends, co-workers, and family, it doesn't fit her personality. You've got to stop going back to the same theory."
Aizawa rubbed his forehead, wishing it would erase the echo from his mind. "I . . . couldn't tell you this before, and I probably shouldn't be telling you this now, but . . . Kira can control victims before they die. And Kira can kill in ways other than a heart attack."
"How do you know that?" Rester stared, unwavering, at Aizawa, who stared right back.
"I can't say. But I can tell you I have solid evidence on that." Aizawa noticed that Rester's sidemen, John and Tetsuo, didn't seem to be paying any attention to them at all. Not for the first time, Aizawa wondered if that was truly the case.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us that before?" Ide glared at Aizawa, not seeming to notice Rester's raised eyebrows.
"Ide, I know you knew about Kira controlling victims' actions – I told you that myself, months ago." Aizawa remembered that first long conversation he'd had with Ide upon his return to the NPA. Just knowing that there were still some on the force who wanted to catch Kira had meant everything to him, and he'd told Ide as much about the case as he could. He wondered now what Ide could be thinking, drawing attention to the differences in what they knew.
"Yeah, OK, I remember that now." Ide was flushed. "But the 'other kinds of death' thing is a pretty big detail. If we'd known that sooner –"
"It wouldn't have made a difference." Aizawa cut Ide off, earning another glare from his companion. "I only mentioned it now because I think it's relevant to Misora's behavior."
Rester was frowning now. "Are you saying that Kira could have made Misora kill herself?"
"Yeah, that's a possibility," Aizawa nodded, "but it's also possible that Kira just had her go somewhere secluded to have a heart attack or die in an accident. I mean, she might have been acting of her own volition when she walked by that last time, but . . . something's off there. She was so hot to tell the Task Force something important about the Kira case that she wouldn't even leave a message at the desk – not even her name – but then she has a long chat with the Chief's son, and awhile later she just . . . walks off? And that's the last anyone sees of her?" Aizawa glanced at Ide before meeting Rester's eyes. "Circumstantial or not, it's still pretty compelling."
"Agreed. I need closure on what happened to Misora." Rester was firm. "It's impossible to tell what she was thinking or whether she was controlled by anyone or anything that day. We know what direction she was going – we just need to extrapolate where she might have gone from there, narrow it down a little."
"What if we assume she went somewhere on foot?" Aizawa rubbed his chin. "I mean, we can't really rule out transportation, but if we proceed from the assumption that she was controlled to find the quickest way to die . . ."
"Right, let's look at the map again." Rester tapped a few keys on his laptop. "Should we stick to a one-mile radius from the last point she was seen?"
"Make it two miles; that should be a good span to start with, although we're really looking at more of a fan than a circular area since we know she didn't double back – not on camera, anyway." Aizawa leaned forward to get a better look at the screen. "We can expand the search area later if we don't find any likely locations."
"Even if we find a 'likely location,' how do we know we'll find anything there?" Ide seemed sullen.
"What do you mean?" Aizawa spoke before Rester could.
"What I mean is . . . if Kira can make people die any way he wants, how do we know he didn't just make her disintegrate or something?"
Aizawa blinked. "Ide . . . if Kira could do that, why wouldn't he have done that for any deaths he didn't want discovered?"
"What makes you think he didn't?"
Aizawa shook his head. "There just hasn't been the same rise in disappearances as there has been in heart attacks. Also, anyone can have a heart attack, but . . . people don't just disintegrate into thin air. That's pretty out there."
"Yeah, well, being able to kill with just a face and a name is pretty out there too." Ide looked out the window.
"Let's try and focus on more . . . plausible scenarios that fit Kira's MO for now." Rester said, eyes shifting between the two police officers. "If we have to investigate a more 'out there' explanation for Misora's disappearance, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"That makes sense." Aizawa nodded, but Ide remained silent.
"You know . . ." Rester seemed to look into the distance, as though they were outside rather than in a small hotel room crowded with empty food containers. "If her actions were being controlled by Kira, he wouldn't have to make her disintegrate in order to make her disappear." He met Aizawa's eyes. "Would you say it was possible Kira could have made her take precautions not to be found? Actually do something to that end, instead of just having her go somewhere secluded?"
"That's . . . yeah, I'd say that's possible." Though there had been several times Aizawa had wished for L's insight since starting to work with Rester, he was actually enjoying working with investigators on his level and drawing his own conclusions – he felt more like a cop again, instead of an errand boy.
"OK. Then let's focus initially on places where it would be easy to dispose of a body. Once we –"
"How the hell does a dead woman dispose of her own body?" Ide sneered. "That doesn't sound too 'plausible' to me."
Aizawa sighed, wondering why Ide was being more argumentative than usual, but Rester spoke up first. "If she took a header into an acid bath, for example, there wouldn't be much for us to find. The way she was killed or killed herself would have to result in little to no evidence being left behind."
"Like . . . suicide by disintegration?" Ide raised an eyebrow.
"Well, as long as there's a realistic cause." Rester nodded once.
"So, we're looking for any chemicals that might speed decomposition or induce . . . disintegration," Aizawa looked disparagingly at Ide, "or any kind of machinery that could reduce a body to pulp . . ."
"Or fire." Ide interjected.
"Yeah, any place where a fire hot enough to burn bones wouldn't be noticed." Aizawa nodded. "There can't be too many places like that within the radius, er, fan."
"Good plan. Let's start with that." Rester closed his laptop, and across the room John and Tetsuo rose to their feet as if responding to an inaudible command.
It felt good to be pursuing a lead after a long day of reviewing video and talking to family members and former NPA employees, but Aizawa still felt torn. Could Light really be Kira? The thought nagged at Aizawa. The Death Note's rules – one of them, anyway – proved that he couldn't be, but the more he investigated, the more clues seemed to point in Light's direction. If Light wasn't Kira, then it seemed like someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make it seem otherwise.
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Author's Note: Heh, Ooi may wish he was the one with the concussion once the police get through with him. You know, L only promised that the Yotsuba Six wouldn't be prosecuted for Kira's crimes, he said nothing about other crimes, or crimes they didn't commit . . . O_O Watari's going a bit far afield for Wedy's care, but he doesn't want to be followed once the authorities catch on – if they catch on. And the translation for the note Aiber found is "Burn this notebook on November 22." L was not expecting his current scenario, but he seems to be adjusting, heh, sort of. And Aizawa and Ide are back! ^_^ I missed them too. Oh, and I don't think the front desk dudes at the NPA were ever named, so I named them.
Things are coming together now, though maybe not in the way I – or they – envisioned. I'll try to update again soon. Thanks for reading!
Oh, and I finally updated my profile so that my favorites are showing – I had them as alerts only before, oops. They're all fics I had been reading before. I haven't been doing much reading since starting this fic (time-consuming? Yeah, sorta, but I also want to stay focused so I can actually finish this!), but I will no doubt get back to that. Let me know if you guys have any recommendations!