A/N: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews! It really makes me so happy to read them, and made me want to try harder to make chapters quicker! And I tried to fix the mistakes in the previous chapter. I had actually gone back before I submitted it to fix most of them. It was like 4 am and I could barely keep my eyes open, so considering that, I think I actually did pretty good, haha!

Director Hashimoto

They got me. Within a minute of exiting the car, they grabbed me at gunpoint, out of Mogi's sight, and threatened to kill him if I tried to call out to him or run. How could I have been so taken by surprise? I'm the freakin director of the National Police Agency for cryin' out loud! Of course, to top it all off, they had to do it in the overly cliché put-a-bag-over-your-head-and-throw-you-in-a-windowless-van way. They bound my wrists with plastic zip ties too, so I couldn't put up much of a fight. I understood my position and sat still and quiet. I was pissed off, but quiet. No need to make a bad situation worse.

I tried to listen for anything we passed that might give me a clue as to where we were headed. Mostly, I just heard the crowds of people and other cars, nothing really noticeable, like a train or something would be. I was also trying my best to remember turns and stops we made along the way, but we drove for so long it was difficult to keep track, and I couldn't tell how long it was between turns. Plus, I think it's safe to assume the driver was told to go in circles and make random turns to confuse me and throw off followers anyway.

I sighed, and felt the warmth of my breath fill the black sac. Yep, cliché, but I had to admit, effective.

xOx0xOx

"Ugh! I grunted as someone took another swing with his fist at my face. "Ugh!" Another. It had been going on like this for a while now. My glasses, as cracked and broken as my body felt, had been thrown on the other side of the room along with my heels. My face was a bloody and swolen mess of purple and red, and my stomach and ribs were no better off.

They made sure I was securely zip-tied and duct taped to a metal chair that screwed into the concrete ground. The room itself I could tell was larger, but it had been sectioned off with sheets and curtains hanging from the ceiling, and by the looks of it, with wooden beams criss-crossing above and pipes and insulation also visible, I guessed we were in some type of basement. There was a creepy lightbulb that swung down from above me, further evidence that this was indeed a basement, or perhaps somewhere that was under construction. It's light glinted off of the large guns that two of the guards carried, which I had also been hit with once or twice by the way.

When the man standing in the back corner of the area, who I presumed was Fear since he was wearing the same disgusting mask, had apparently figured I was good and beaten, he ordered the man hitting me to stop, and told someone else to "bring in the camera," and faced it toward me. "You be good and quiet now while I film your gorgeous face for your friends," he said in a twisted sarcastic way. "Or are you not finished yet?" He asked, obviously refferring to the beating.

I couldn't exactly answer him. Everything was a bit fuzzy at this point from all the times they hit me in the head. I didn't have the energy to move anyway, nor could I see through my swolen eye or the blood and sweat very much either. I was exaughsted and was in and out of consciousness while they filmed, so I didn't have to try very hard to keep my mouth shut.

I don't remember when he stopped filming, I just remember waking up to a bucket of freezing cold water being dumped on me. I gasped, and sucked in some of the water, choking on it and coughing violently. "Wakey, wakey, Minori. Rise and shine!" He was standing in front of me, leaning forward and propping his hands on his knees.

"Don't... call me that... you crazy bastard," I managed through shivering and gasping.

"Aww," he tilted his head. "Our little informant doesn't like me being so informal," he mocked. I said nothing for a moment, simply glaring at his ugly mask with indignance, spite, and regret.

"I was never your informant!" I spat at him.

"Well... almost. You did work for me though, however briefly," he stated, standing upright.

"You blackmailed me!"

"And you accepted," was all he said in return. I was silent. I knew he was right. The incident from my past being known doesn't matter to me now like it did before. I wished I could have seen how unimportant that would be. It's not like there was really proof that I couldn't disprove. I was just so scared it would ruin all I had worked for... but I would have told the team everything in an instant if I had known it would come to this.

"Do you see," he continued, "how humans are? Everyone makes mistakes, but a truly good person would admit to those mistakes instead of doing everything possible to hide them... like accepting blackmail, for instance. That is yet another mistake to add to your growing list."

"Oh? So are you gonna admit your mistakes and tell me who you really are?" I received a sharp slap for that comment.

"Now..." he grabbed my face and kneeled down in front of me to, I assume, look me in the eye. "Tell me. Are you willing to work for me one more time?" He asked slowly.

I took a moment before answering, and raised my eyes to meet the dark sockets of the mask. "Yes," I breathed, and lowered my head once again as he let it go, shame welling up inside me.

xOx0xOx

Matsuda

Again. The videos came on again. Exactly 24 hours later, and Fear managed to once again cover every channel with his copy-cat, calligraphic letter.

"Hello again," he said in his low voice."I know that yesterday was hard on all of you, learning the truth of Kira's death, but let me remind you, it was only his bodily demise... NOT the downfall of his empire and his beliefs."

"Kira himself may have met the tragic end of his Earthly life, but his reign lives on! We will carry it on for him! We, his children! Long live Kira!" I imagine that if I were in the streets of the city at that moment, I would have been surrounded by the cheers and screams of supporters.

Then he continued. "And as for the man who killed him..." he paused, and the screen flicked to an image I wish I could burn from my mind. Misa gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth. My blood ran cold. The director was strapped to a chair, beaten and bloody, and seemed to be unconscious. At least, I hoped she was just unconscious and not... I swallowed.

"This is Director Hashimoto, of the NPA. That's right, the same NPA that the Kira killer works for. Don't worry, she isn't dead... yet. However, this is another warning for the Kira killer. I don't want to hurt innocents, but he failed to show up again today. So now, he gets to see that this, and worse, will happen to his friends if he doesn't show up tomorrow at the new location I'm going to give him." I was shaking, and even though my identity wasn't given to the public, I was still being singled out. That was terrifying in itself, but now someone I knew was actually being tortured because of me. She could already be dead for all I knew.

"This will be all for today. IF the Kira killer gives himself up tomorrow, I won't have to do anything worse. Otherwise, the world will get to see what happens to his other friends until we find him." The screen reverted back to the F insignia. "Oh, and one last thing, Kira killer. Call your director's cell phone exactly 15 minutes after this video broadcast ends and you shall find her," he added. "Hopefully, she'll still be alive when you get there. Long live Kira's almighty reign." The transmission flickered dark, and the normal programming resumed, just like last time. Misa got up and ran toward her room, obviously disturbed by what she had seen.

"Quick, what time is it?!" Aizawa shouted.

"I-it's 1:03," Ide called out after a second of fumbling with his sleeve to try to pull it back to see his watch face. Had it really only been three minutes?

"Set an alarm for fifteen minutes!" He shouted again.

"Way ahead of you," replied Mogi as he finished setting the alarm on his wristwatch.

"So we'll call at 1:13," Aizawa said as if he was thinking out loud. It was almost like the video didn't even phase him, like everything that was just shown didn't shock him. I know he had been a cop for a long time, but seeing someone you knew like that still had to be gut wrenching. If it did shock him, he sure was good at hiding it.

I, on the other hand, was a shaky mess, and trying my damndest not to show it. I was sitting down, clenching my jaw to prevent my teeth from chattering and my hands were grasping my knees to steady myself. I kept my eyes open though, because if I closed them I would surely see the bloody image of Director Hashimoto strapped to that chair again. I'm glad no one thought to ask me if I was okay. I clearly wasn't, and if they asked, I didn't think I could give an answer. But I could tell no one else was okay either.

We were all silent for what must have been the longest fifteen minutes of our lives. Aizawa simply stared out the window the whole time, obviously deep in thought. Mogi sat on the couch across from me, still sore from yesterday and holding an ice pack to the side of his face where a bruise had formed, and Ide was behind him, slowly pacing back and forth.

Finally, 1:13 rolled around.

"It's almost one thirtee-" Mogi started, but was cut off by the sound of high pitched beeps emanating from his watch.

Faster than I could even look up, Aizawa had his burner phone out and dialed in the number. He put it on speaker phone so we could all hear. It rang a few times...3...4...5. We thought no one would answer. We weren't even sure who would answer. Then finally the ringing stopped, and there was a pause before we heard a broken, "H-hello?"

"Director! Where are you, are you alright?!" Aizawa called out.

"I, um... I'm okay... " she sounded exaughsted and confused. She gave us the cross streets she was at. I wasn't sure where exactly that was, but she told us she was outside of a mini-mart there. "Aizawa..."

"Yeah."

"I... I don't know if they're watching me," she whispered. "Don't come here, it's not safe."

"Director, with all due respect, you don't know where we are. We have to come and get you," he said as he rushed toward the door to put on his coat. "Besides, you are in no condition to go anywhere on your own!"

We heard heavy breathing from her like she was walking before she answered again. "A-alright. I'll wait by the side of the store, in the alley, so I'm out of the way of the public," she informed us.

"Don't move! We'll be there in eight minutes, okay?!"

"Please hurry."

"I will, don't you worry. Just sit tight. Ide, let's go!" He called.

"Right!" He answered.

"See you in eight minutes," he told her.

"Alright," she said as they both hung up.

"Mogi! Matsuda! Stay here! We'll be back as soon as we can," Aizawa ordered us.

"Be careful!" I yelled as the door swung shut behind them, and instantly, it was quiet again. I found myself standing dumbly in the middle of the room.

Whoever said life was like a roller coaster was right, especially in my case it seemed. Or maybe it was more like a suspense movie, always unsure of what will happen next, keeping me on my toes.

The only difference between my life and a roller coaster or a movie, was that I didn't know if it was going to to have a happy ending.

'Though...' I thought. 'There is a way I can make sure everyone else's lives will end happily...'