Chapter 13:
"Rage"
Light moved cautiously forward as he climbed the aft stairs to the Dining Hall. But when he got to the top, he halted and gasped. He couldn't believe the sight that beheld his eyes. It was like some scene from a horror movie.
The assassin was dead, sprawled out on the floor with a great gapping hole in his chest. Blood was spattered everywhere with clumps of tissue strewed around—his heart and other organs ripped form his body.
Valtros was with Light and she covered her mouth as if she was about to be sick.
Light's stomach was more hardened, but even he felt a little nauseous.
He looked around, but couldn't see how it happened. There was no way the assassin had done it to himself.
It was then Valtros stepped ahead of him and placed an arm across the his chest as if to halt him from going any further. Light looked at her and she appeared to stare straight ahead, looking at something he couldn't see.
He looked in every direction, then focused on the area Valtros was eying. "What is it?"
"He's right there, another Shinigami," Valtros said, not taking her eyes away. "I know him. You can't see him because you haven't touched his Death Note. Some Shinigami can make themselves visible to others, but most wish to remain hidden, so they can sneak up on their prey. Trust me, you don't want to meet this Shinigami in a dark alley at night. He's a particular vicious Shinigami with no morality or mercy."
"Describe him to me," Light demanded.
Valtros began. And as she described him, Light got the impression that this Shinigami was fond of war. He wore green and black camouflage Army fatigues, black boots, with an old style World War One English-style Battle Helmet. His face was a complete skeleton. And he had one nasty, unique feature which explained the gapping hole in the assassin's chest. He had a left arm that was completely cast in metal with a three fingered claw.
He also had another feature: he was actually two Shinigami-in-one.
Valtros described him as having a symbiotic relationship with another creature, a kind of gooey echo-plasma that made a home in the Shinigami's torso. But the echo-plasma was the more intelligent of the pair, an entity that came from a different realm.
That wasn't all. Apart from the Shinigami's Death Note, it had one more distinct feature.
Suddenly, the Shinigami inserted two fingers of its right hand into its eye sockets, plucked its head off its shoulders—whereas the echo-plasma took over—and used it like a hammer to smash the glass table top.
Both the action and loud shattering noise startled Light as he witnessed the table destroyed—still not able to see the Shinigami.
Then the Shinigami tossed his head at Light.
Valtros suddenly shouted, "Get down, my Lord!" and shoved Light to the floor.
Valtros ducked, as she avoided something only she could see, craning her head to watch an invisible thing, following it, as if it was flying through the air, returning back to the Shinigami—
All of which Light could not see.
"Rage just threw his head at you," she said through angry gritted teeth, on one knee. "He can use it like a boomerang bowling ball. If I didn't force you down, he would have decapitated you."
"Thank you," Light said.
"The moment he takes his head off, the other entity—Quintor—takes over," she then explained.
The Shinigami suddenly materialized for Light to see him, it happened in the blink of an eye.
Light was shocked to see the monstrous Shinigami. The Shinigami looked exactly like Valtros described, but even more freakish-looking. He looked like an old-time soldier who's flesh had rotten away, leaving only skeletonal remains with an augmented metallic right arm.
"Stop giving away all my secrets, Valtros!" Rage said gruffly. "And I was only giving him a little scare! I would not have hurt him. I know how precious he is to you." The Shinigami laughed.
Valtros called his bluff. "He would not have been able to see your attack coming if I wasn't here," she scolded.
Light continued to lay on the floor. He wasn't sure if it was safe to get up yet.
"Greetings, Light Yagami, or shall I call you Lord Kira? You may call me Rage. I was attached to this human here until the time was necessary to claw our relationship back, literally." He laughed again. He exhibited his three-fingered metallic claw. It had obviously been the instrument that destroyed the assassin's insides.
Valtros stood, then gave Light a small nod. Light took it as if to let him know it was safe to stand. He did.
Light then said, "Rage, is it? Okay, what is the meaning of this? Cross was about to unveil valuable information to me, I needed him alive. Why murder him? This man shot him and almost killed me!"
"Light, don't anger him," Valtros warned. "He's not the kind of Shinigami who takes criticism easily."
Light looked at her, then cleared his throat. He took a different approach. "How did you two get on board without either Valtros or the others detecting you? I want to know!"
Rage cocked his head. "He snuck on board after following you on a small jet-ski. He was instructed to observe you, since this has been the furthest you've ventured out of the surveillance zone."
"Instructed to observe me? Out of the surveillance zone? Explain!"
Rage looked at Valtros. "Pretentious and demanding, isn't he?" the Shinigami said to the other. "Kira will make a great Dictator if he ever rules his own country." Rage laughed boisterously.
Light folded his arms across his chest seriously. "Let me take an educated guess, the Savant Society," he said.
Rage's humorous demeanour seemed to fade in an instant and the Shinigami's eyes appeared to bore into Light.
"Correct, human. And be mindful of them, they are not to be trifled with. They are a group of influential people, culminated into a society of brilliant minds with special gifts. And they know all about you, Light Yagami. Ryuk may have dropped his Death Note to the Human World, but he was not the first. And you have a lineage that dates back since the dawn of the Savant Society with an ancestry ties to them."
"Yes, I'm aware of this," Light said, "and just recently. What is the Savant Society?"
"Let's call them users and abusers," Rage said cryptically.
"That doesn't help me," Light said, turning to Valtros. "Tell me, Valtros, since he won't. Cameron Cross was a member of this secret Society and you were his Shinigami. You must know information about them?"
"Enough!" Rage said loudly, putting up a hand. Light turned sharply. "Suffice it to say, apart from the Society's machinations, you must not be caught, Light Yagami. If you are, then the existence of the Death Note will be revealed. That will expose the Society to untold dangers, especially to its enemy…the League of Darkness."
Light was about to ask, but Valtros quieted him with an elbow to his arm. She shook her head, Light saw. He dropped it for now. He would ask her about this League of Darkness later.
"You must relinquish the Death Note you now possess and return to your previous mindset, doing so will allow you to forget everything you have learned here," Rage told. Light unfurled the book out of his left pants pocket. He had put it there just before he left Cross's torture den. "When and if you do again regain a Death Note, then everything you have learned here will be restored. That is the revivify nature of the Death Note."
"I was afraid of that," Light admitted. "But everything that happened here—all the death—questions were be asked, and I'm the prime suspect in the entire crew's demise. The last thing I want is more suspicion on me in being Kira. I spent nearly two months locked up in a cage in an attempt to prove my innocence. I'm just now only regaining some of that freedom back. And now all this? L is going to crucify me!"
"No, he won't," Rage acquainted. "The Savant Society knows all about L, even his real name. But I will not tell you his name or you will write it in the Death Note. That will be like helping you kill one of your fellow human beings and I will turn to dust. However, Kira will get the blame for all this—what has happened on this yacht. However, they—the crew—were all known as sexual deviants by varying law enforcement, even Cameron Cross and Benjamin Lakes. But no charges were ever laid."
"But something will need to be done about all the bodies?" Light voiced.
"Since I will need to disappear, my body will not be found amongst the others," Valtros said. "Therefore, I'll take the blame for all the normal deaths.
"I've already thought about this. I will make it appear I jumped overboard, committing suicide. A note will be left on board justifying my actions in murdering Cameron Cross, taking revenge upon him in trying to rape me. I'll also take credit for thrashing Benjamin Lakes. The rest will be blamed on Kira. You and Misa will be the only one's left on board alive. But things will appear you were asleep, unaware anything occurred."
"Brilliant!" Light said. "I couldn't have come up with a better plan myself. L will still suspect me, but I have no reason to murder anyone here. The suicide note will take the blame off me, and I will be free and clear. However" —he mused— "We have the particularities settled, but how will I explain all this to Misa?" He said it mainly to himself. "She will be devastated. Cameron Cross was a major financier for her movies. And when the Cross-Median Company learns of this, there will be an investigation. Cameron Cross, eldest son of the Cross-Median Family, killed by a stowaway terrorist while taking friends on a friendly trip on his yacht. That's essentially what the media headlines will say. I will still have to answer to L, but I'll handle it. Let's just hope Misa doesn't screw things up like she did before, foiling my rise to power in her getting caught. I hate the bitch so much!"
To be continued...