School's been holding me up a little, need to keep the average over 92...
Anyway, this chapter is really long to make up for it. Oh and there isn't a time difference between what happens in Japan and England, as one reviewer asked. Dmitri just took an airplane. And also, Reader-anonymous (you are absolutely brilliant), for reasons i'll add in later, May will never write into a Deathnote by her own will.
Chapter 29
"What?"
"Please act serious, Misa. If you don't then I'll have to kick you", L said into the speaker, irritated.
"I'm acting perfectly fine!" Misa pouted.
"It's a little unrealistic though", Light offered. The model 'humph'ed and went back to the sessions. I was seated on a chair in the corner with Aiber, Wedy was standing behind Misa, and Light was with her, supervising the act.
"I thought he said he'd tell us the full plan", I said, quiet enough for only Aiber to hear.
"He did, didn't he?" The con man retorted. I sighed, "he didn't tell us exactly why we were going to make Misa contact Yotsuba. Why her? It's not like she's a great actress", I pondered out loud.
Aiber laughed softly, "The stories of her having been interrogated for being Kira have been leaked by one of L's agents to Yotsuba. We'll have an easy time inventing the story because so much of it is true. The month she was away was highly suspicious to her fans, and if there's one thing I've learned, the best lies have a lot of truth in them."
I thought about it, and decided it was probably true. In the anime, Misa would never get to play this part because Matsuda would invent a situation for her. I momentarily thought of stopping him from putting himself in danger, and then ruled against it. It was too important to the storyline. I'd already made too many changes. I turned my attention back to Misa's acting. This time she was giving L the 'adorable wide-eyed curious look' instead of yelling 'what'.
"Misa, stop posing", the detective said, esperated.
"But that's what I do!"
"Normal people don't do that in such a situation."
"Misa's not normal, Misa's special", the actress retorted. But she settled back into another take.
Suddenly the door opened. We all turned to see Matsuda walk in, a little hesitant in disturbing us.
"Ryuzaki…you called me here?" He asked. L stuffed the speaker into his pocket, "yes. From now on you will be Misa's manager, Taro Matsui. Please aquaint yourselves."
He waited as Misa jumped up from her seat and ran over to him, "Hey! I'm Misa Misa. So you're my manager…well, apart from your stuffy fashion you'll do ok", she observed. Matsuda lightened up immediately, "Wow thanks Misa! Pleased to be working with you!"
"In around fifteen minutes Misa has a photoshoot to attend, and you'll have to take her there. I'm also sending May and Aiber with you two", L instructed, "I suggest you leave now."
Aiber got up and stretched an arm, "a photoshoot eh? Sounds fun, I'll try and meet someone useful", he offered a hand to me and pulled me up from where I had been sitting, "let's go then."
"I gotta go change first, and May I suggest you freshen up too, I'm planning on introducing you to someone", she winked at me, and then skipped off in the direction of her bedroom. I stood still for a while, and then realized I was still wearing my dorm pants and a t-shirt.
"Yeah, I'll meet you guys in the main room downstairs", I gestured and then left to took the elevator to L's floor, where my room was. She was going to introduce me to someone…it must be someone important to the case. Maybe L had informed her about it before. I had to make a good impression.
I stood in front of my closet wondering what to wear. The Spring chill had gone away, and it was a pleasant day out. I pulled out a layered and pleated white skirt and a light blue top with painted flowers down the side, and quickly slipped them on. I put my hair in a high ponytail and looked at myself in the mirror.
Because of all the rest I'd been getting on L's couch, my complexion was back to it's normal tanned shade, though I was looking a little paler than before from not being outside for that long. I picked up a small messenger-style purse and shoved my iPhone, USB and a little cash into it and slung it over my shoulder, walking out the door.
Aiber and Matsuda were already in the lobby when I got down, but Misa wasn't there.
"Where's Misa?" I asked. Matsuda smacked his forehead and pointed to Aiber. The con man shrugged, "she came down in black fishnet stockings, a frilled skirt that had the coverage of a belt, and a purple corset top. What can I say?"
I looked at Matsuda, confused at Aiber's answer.
"Our con man here told her that wasn't appropriate wear for public and that she would give people the wrong idea since she was traveling with two guys. She thought he meant she looked like a hooker so she's gone up to change. Though I'm pretty happy about that", the younger policeman said truthfully. I looked back at the elevator to see it stop.
"Oh look she's back."
Misa returned wearing candy cane stockings with bows on top along with a dark red fitted mini skirt. On top she was wearing a surprisingly modest off-shoulder top that flowed lose before cinching at the top of her skirt.
"How do I look, guys", she did a twirl for us, anxiously waiting approval. Aiber looked just as surprised as me that she was covering up, " it's just fine now, we can start. Matsuda-san only has five minutes to drive at this rate."
We hurried out of the lobby and into Matsuda's Suzuki. All through the drive, Misa sat up front and rambled on to her new manager.
"…so you have to be cheerful alright? My persona is goth and cutesy and you're supposed to be the one enhancing that so people will expect you to be really cheery all the time", she instructed. Matsuda soaked up her every word. I got the feeling that he was paying more attention to the tops of her stockings.
"Yeah, sure. I got it. Cheery, I can do that! Let's rock this photoshoot Misa Misa!" He tried. Misa winced, "you have the main idea Matsui but don't say 'rock' people your age just sound weird when they say stuff like that. Just tone it down a little."
By this point Matsuda was mixed somewhere between intimidated and miserable. It didn't stop him from taking his eyes of the road for the occasional glance at the model's legs. I honestly felt sorry for him, but it was damn funny.
When we finally arrived, Misa jumped out of the car, her stylist was waiting right there in the parking lot.
"Misa-chan! You're early! That's good, very good. And that outfit, it's genious! The red should add to be extra sexy for our next issue. You can spend a little time in the studio before I come and get you alright?" The woman told her.
"Yeah, I planned to come here early. These are some friends of mine, they'll be here for the shoot", she pointed at us. The stylist gave us a wave.
"Come on in, I told Ryuzaki an earlier time so he would let me hang out at the studio before the event", she lead us into the building.
We went to a room that had a large stage with a giant green screen at the back. There were lighting pieces all around and the magazine producers and editorial staff were all off stage, standing around and talking. We followed her right up to the Cosme-Misa producer.
"Mr. Aihara, I brought my new manager!" she said to a tall man holding a small camera.
"Oh good", he looked at Matsuda curiously.
"I'm Taro Matsui! Nice to finally meet you sir!" Matsuda proclaimed. He wasn't as bad as I thought he would be. They shook hands, and then he looked towards us.
"And who are you're other friends?"
"My name is Aiber, I'm a journalist and talent-seeker. Came here to Japan just last week, Misa here is my neice, and I wanted to come see her shine", he made it up effortlessly. immediately took interest and soon they were engaged in conversation.
Soon enough, she had dragged Matsuda over to her stylist in order for him to get used to the system, and her scheduling.
"Now I have someone for you to meet May-chan", she said slyly. I smoothed my hair down with one hand. She lead me over to one of the people who had just finished setting up the green screen.
"Rei!"
The guy peered around the screen from where he was putting it in place. As soon as he saw Misa he smiled widely, "Misa! You're here early! That's certainly a surprise."
I suddenly doubted she was introducing me to him for the sake of the Kira case. In fact, I highly doubted it. The guy was absolutely gorgeous.
"Yes! Misa came here early so her stylist wouldn't yell at her. In fact, Misa brought a friend too! To watch the photoshoot. This is May, she's Misa's new selected model", she rambled on in her cutesy persona. I gave him a hesitant wave.
"Oh hey, I think I've heard of a new girl. You'll fit right in", he gave me a smile and it took a lot out of me to stop myself from melting. Even I had a weakness in hot guys. His kept his hair up to date with the latest Japanese male fashion magazines. Slightly ruffled and anime-like, with a texture I really wanted to run my hands through. It was a dark brown, the same color as his eyes. He reminded me of a Light with darker hair and a more angular face. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans. I immediately added asian guys to my dating list.
"Yeah, I guess. I haven't been modeling for too long but I really enjoy it", I added. I wasn't as good as Aiber but I still had a few background-creating tricks up my sleeve.
"May's great. She's like this off-stage but her persona is smart and sexy and she's great at it", Misa put in cheerfully. I felt like strangling her. Why not just smart? Why did she had to put the sexy in there?
"But I'm going to go get my makeup done now. I'll see you guys later!" She skipped off towards the dressing room. I understoof exactly what she had planned now. She wanted me to hook up with a cute guy so I would let go of Light. But I wasn't complaining.
"Well, the setup's done here. Do you wanna go for a coffee break in the lobby while she gets prepared?" He asked. "Sure", I went along. Again, I wasn't complaining. We went out to the first floor and got cappuccinos. He lead me to a table nearby with a newspaper on it.
"So are you in modeling for a permanent job?" He asked, stirring his drink. I shook my head, "nope, I'm here in Japan studying at To Oh university. Computer Science", might as well get some of the reputation Misa stole by telling him my 'persona'.
"At To Oh? Wow, you're good", he seemed impressed.
"Are you still in academics too?" I asked. He seemed like a smart guy, and only a little older than me, and he spoke fluent english. I guessed he would still be pursuing education.
"Yeah, actually. I'm studying at Tokyo U. Design and Architectural engineering. My dad works here for Cosma-Misa so he got me a part time job in setup and backstage help", he took a sip.
"Cool, what does your dad do?" I was hoping a more interesting topic would eventually come up.
"He's a photoshop artist. You know, the government is trying to set a rule that all 'shopped images have to have a little note at the bottom saying that they've been altered", he tilted his head to one side. I saw an oppourtunity for interesting conversation, "wouldn't that be useless? Most people are aware of photoshop being used."
"Yes but people out there have huge beauty complexes because of the images they see in magazines. Maybe if there were aware of it we wouldn't have so much low self-esteem. They're not all as lucky as you", his eyes lit up in interest.
I smiled, "most people are aware. Girls don't really think what they see in magazines is real. They look at the pictures, think 'omg that's definitely shopped', and then still mull over their own image", I retorted, "in canada, there are a significant number of cases of anorexia nervosa no matter how educated about the media we are. It's ten times worse in America. It's the only country with losts of overweight people and lots of anorexic people."
Rei chuckled, "you're probably right. But that's the sad truth and it doesn't sell."
We laughed. He was fun company. Not as interesting as L or Light, but ten times hotter to make up for it.
"So smart and sexy huh? What do you model?" He asked once we had stopped laughing. "Clothes, accessories and perfume", I told him, "I also do technology", it was easier to think of things now that I had talked to him for a while.
"Techie all the way through. Cool", he suddenly noticed the time on his watch as he put down his coffee, "oh we've gotta get back for the photoshoot now. They're probably ready to start."
We threw out the empty coffee cups and headed back to the larger room. Misa was on stage, and a stylist was making last minute fixings on her hair. I looked around to see Aiber already totally comfortable talking to Mr. Aihara. Trust him to make friends quickly.
She started out in a pose bent over with one hand on her hip. After a couple of photos, she stood up and tilted her shoulder down, blowing a kiss. A few poses later, she was given the 'ok' sign and another male model wearing the brand she was advertising went up and posed back to back with her, holding one hand above their heads.
I wasn't watching the whole thing, halfway through I looked around for Matsuda. He seemed nowhere to be seen. The lady he had been talking to was long gone as well. I suddenly remembered exactly where he was. According to the anime, he was in Yotsuba.
I spend the next few minutes anxiously waiting for the shoot to finish, and Misa to be called over for her meeting. Rei seemed to want to keep talking so the silence didn't get to us. His topic? Clothes…
"You know I've never seen Misa wear an outfit like that. There isn't a trace of black in it, it's just all dark red", he commented.
"It's because her uncle strongly disapproved her previous outfit. She came dressed in fishnets and a miniskirt and she was given a firm no", I explained. He smoothed his hair back and I felt my heart leap at his good looks, "that's funny. Usually she ignores people who tell her that. Her persona is the weirdest I've heard of so far, but it seems to work. Everyone wants a hot girl on their advertisements, but not many people actually sit down to ponder how she's supposed to be gothic and cutesy at the same time."
"I think it's supposed to be a kind of double personality. Or maybe just cutsy but playing dress up", I put in. Truthfully I didn't really care what her persona was.
The shoot was finished in another ten minutes while Rei and I continued to make small talk. After a while Misa came running up to us.
"May, guess what? Matsuda got me a job as Yotsuba's rep! How awesome is that? I'm supposed to be heading over right now, but Matsuda took his car and I have no clue how to get there without it! Hell I don't even know how to drive in the first place!" She said it all in one breath. Rei lit up, "I'll drive you guys there. My car's still here."
"Aww thanks Rei that's so sweet of you! Let's go then! I can't wait!" She gushed.
"What about Aiber?" I asked her. She shrugged, "Ryuzaki said he can handle himself and he knows how to use the buses so he'll be fine. I'm the one that needs to get somewhere fast."
We hurried into the parking lot and stepped into Rei's car. She immediately took the backseat so I sat up front. I supposed it was another attempt in her matchmaking. You had to give it to her, she had great taste in guys. We arrived at the Yotsuba head office in five minutes and Misa scrambled out, checking her hair in the mirror before gesturing for the rest of us to get out and go with her.
"Why are we coming?" I asked, curious.
"You don't need to come into the interview, but I'm as nervous as hell about this", she gave me a wink, which told me that she was planning to implement L's Yotsuba plan a little early.
"Sure then, we'll come", Rei got out of the driver's seat and shut the door, following us to the entrance of the building. We walked in, Misa strutting her heels nervously. The building looked like every other skyscraper that I had seen in downtown Toronto, glass walls, desk in one corner, waxed tiles on the floor. We went up the the main desk to ask where we were supposed to be going.
"Misa Misa? Right, please go to floor three, conference room 4", the desk-helped pointed out. She nodded and came back to us, "there's a waiting room you guys can stay in while I'm doing my interview. If anyone comes by sell me like crazy ok?"
"I'll try my best", I told her. Not that I would, they'd be captivated by her anyway, because of her Kira connections. She gave me a smile and we rushed to the elevator, pressing the third floor. Once Misa had gone into the conference room, Rei and I settled down in the waiting room.
For a good two minutes we were absolutely silent. There wasn't exactly much to talk about. The silence was broken when my iPhone rang. I jumped a meter into the air when toccata and fugue in d started blaring out of my purse, but regained my composure quickly and unlocked the phone.
"May, I'm calling to tell you that in one and a half hours, Misa and her model group will throw a party for the heads of Yotsuba", L's voice filtered through the phone in his normal voice system.
"Oh, ok", I replied, "what should I do?"
"You're going to be there to observe. Matsuda has gotten himself into a deal, you can figure the rest out yourself", he said.
"Alright, sure. Since I'm Misa's new model I'm sure there's a lot I can learn from it", I said, quickly glancing at Rei. Now that he knew the identity I had, I wouldn't need to worry about creating any miscommunications. After I finished saying it, he cut the line.
"What's it about?" Rei asked.
"Misa's putting out a party for the Yotsuba members, my own manager said I should go. Might be fun", I told him.
O.o.O.o.O
"He's someone you never want to meet", Mello shuddered and then continued walking toward the cafeteria.
"Yeah, trust us on that one", Matt followed him. Near walked along, confused but calculating his own idea of what had just happened.
Once they reached the cafeteria, Near hesitated. He looked at Two and Three, but then he looked at the quiet table in the corner where he usually sat. For a second he stood there. Mello and Matt always sat at a table for four right in the middle of the place, and no one else ever sat with them. Probably because they were afraid of them. But they had been treating him differently lately. Would they be offended if he didn't sit with them? He didn't want to offend Two and Three, they were much too useful to him. But would they allow him to sit with them? Near wanted to, he wanted to sit with them. It would be a different experience. But-
"Hey Near come get a slice of cake for me the stupid cooks don't let me have more than one slice!", Mello called. Silent enough that no one else heard in the busy cafeteria. Near went to stand in line for the cake, glad that his question had been implicitly answered.
After the cook handed him a slice of cake, a little reluctantly because Near had never eaten cake, he went over to the table Mello and Matt were sitting and and pushed the cake onto Mello's plate.
"I don't know how you can even eat it, it is overly sugary and prone to cause tooth problems", the whitehead commented.
"Shut up, you don't know the pleasures of life", Mello retorted. He forked the cake, delighted.
"When will you tell me who the man out in the hall was", he inquired. Matt held in a little laugh, "why do you want to know?"
"Wammy's House has never had any new visitors such as himself. I am only curious. It would take a tremendous amount of human stupidity not to be", he replied, slowly digging his fork into a slice of tomato in his salad.
"And that means?" Mello snorted, "he's damn scary."
"Me and Mello thought that he was talking to Roger about Kira, so we hid in the coat closet to listen in. They didn't say anything important, and they knew we were there somehow. When we went to visit him later to bribe him, we found out that he had thought I was Mello's gay boyfriend and we were getting it on in the closet", Matt explained. The blond opposite him choked on chocolate cake, covering it up with a cough.
"So it was a failed bribery?" Near asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. We got away before we could tell him the truth because he was too scary. He may look like a pretty boy from far away but he's got this smile and it's way creepy. We both ditched on the spot", the redhead pushed mini potatoes around on his plate, "we're gonna try and stay away."
"But he's free to leave the House, and you say he's helping L hunt Kira?"
"What about it?"
"Why don't we contact him for our purposes?"
With that declaration Mello coughed loudly and kicked both Matt an Near under the table in a skilled double kick, "no fucking way."
Near brought brought his legs up and crossed them on the chair to prevent further damage, "it's our only chance. I suggest you put your personal complaints away and take it."
"I hate to say it but Near's right on this one. We could get him to investigate Rouselle for us, it's perfect. Once we show him a little of our reasoning, he'll definitely be interested. And our ranks should count for something, along with the fact that we're being trained to be the next L", Matt said hesitantly. He expected another kick and braced himself. Surprisingly, it didn't come.
"Whatever. Let's go get this over with then", Mello stood up, stuffing the last of his cake into his mouth, "I know where he probably is."
The three Wammy boys left the cafeteria and headed down to the guest rooms. Mello stopped right in front of the room Dmitri had stayed in last time and knocked loudly.
After a while, the tall man opened the door. He paused a second, and then smiled.
"Oh it's you two again. How nice. And you are?" He turned to Near.
"My name is Near. May we come in?" He went straight to business.
"Of course. You seem to be in a hurry to say something", he let all three of them enter before closing the door behind them and gesturing for them to sit down on the couch.
"We know that you've been hunting for Kira", Mello burst out. Dmitri didn't move a muscle, "yes. Many people are. But why are you three here?"
"Well, we're not allowed to leave the House, you see", Matt put in before Mello could say something even more fortright.
"Yes I'm well aware of that. Roger and I have had extensive conversations on why he shelters all of you in here instead of successively building your cognitive abilities via allowing you to interact with other communities. He seems afraid that you will be mentally primed by society. But I'm sure you're not here to discuss something that mundane", he finished.
"Actually, we've been hunting for Kira as well. And as Matt so brilliantly mentioned, we're not allowed to leave, so we need to find other methods to follow our suspects", Near told him.
"You have suspects?" Dmitri caught onto it immediately.
"You seem interested", Mello observed. Near thought of opening his mouth, and then decidee it would be better to let Number Two handle it at this point.
"I would be foolish to underestimate you three. Roger has told me a lot about you", he countered.
"Then would you investigate someone we had deemed a suspect?" Mello pushed on.
"It depends. I have to be in a country quite far from here in three days. However I don't have any qualms on funding airplane travel, so if you should present a good enough case for this suspect I will probably humor you", he leaned back in his seat.
"How do we know you won't just take the case to someone else? We could lose our credit", Mello asked. This one, Dmitri thought about. A few seconds later, he finally answered, "I don't know. There's actually no way that could ensure that, with me or anyone else. In fact, you don't even know whether your friend will tell someone, much less me. If you want me to investigate, you'll just have to trust me."
That was good. Near was satisfied. If he had tried too hard to make up a reason, they wouldn't be able to trust him. But he was open about it, which meant he was trustworthy.
"That should be fine then. Matt, show him the suspect", Mello ordered. Matt obligingly took his laptop out of the messenger bag he was carrying and turned it on. He navigated through his crowded file system until he reached what he was searching for.
"She's a journalist in France, 33 years old. We've used the census bureau and the occasional facebook status to figure out a basic biography of her life. Her name is Camille Rouselle, she studied law when she was younger and somehow became a journalist. She met her first husband in highschool, and after they separated ways for university, they met again and got married when she was 24. Six years later, her husband cheated on her with her older sister Helena, and one month after he was married to Helena he died of a heart attack. No previous symptoms or health conditions. In fact, he was very healthy, he won long-distance running contests."
"And that's why you suspect Rouselle?" Dmitri inquired.
"That's one of the reasons. The other reasons, I've typed up here as well. There's one reason that we can't tell you for security purposes, and that's why we're almost sure Rouselle is Kira."
"There's a reason you can't tell me? For security purposes…" For a second his face was calm, in deep though.
"Yes we really can't…" Matt told him apologetically.
Suddenly he burst back into his smile, figuring something out, "oh no, that's perfectly fine. I can work with the information you've given me. You have her address and where she works?"
"Yes, all her personal information is listed here. I'll send you the file", Matt assured.
"It would be nice if I could see a picture of her…" Dmitri started.
"Oh yeah, here, we've got her ID photo", Matt turned the laptop around. Camille Rouselle's face was in an ID box on the screen. She was relatively plain looking, a little on the lanky side. Her face was circular and framed with layered dark brown hair, the bones of her jaw harsh, and her cheekbones low.
"This is her?" He confirmed, looking over the familiar face.
"Yup", Matt nodded.
"Oh dear…"
"Is there a problem?" Near asked, picking up on his hesitation.
"Not at all", Dmitri gave them another smile.
