Part Twelve:
"Judgment"
Exactly as the instructions I gave Leandro and more dramatic than I had hoped, Light thought. This death is worthy of an Oscar. And I'm sure the Shinigami will enjoy the entertainment value of it.
Light smiled deliciously under his mask.
Suddenly, Nicholas Leandro burst into flames—he screamed—the gasoline engulfing him. He then toppled over the edge and plummeted to the ground with a heavy thud. The camera followed, but missed the impact—yet heard it. It then zoomed in on the fire that coursed Leandro's entire frame. Screams could be heard from the crowd, the fire department rushed in to extinguish the flames.
"Oh my god—the Humanity!" the reported decried. "Is this one of Kira's judgements? What did this poor soul do to deserve such a horrific death with such cruel intentions?"
Then silence, as Light muted the sound.
Nétè stood shocked, his eyes wide, unblinking, and his mind racing. "Kira?" He looked at Light, or Shinto Izanagi, the man behind the mask, the CEO of the Tsuku-Yoki Corporation. "They say, someone of Kira's calibre is someone who can hide anywhere, can be anyone or anything—some hidden god! All those deaths within the Yotsuba Group, every single one of their Board Members died in horrible accidents. The Tsuku-Yoki Corporation bought up the company and merged it with its own because its shares had fallen to where it was worthless because rumour had it that had gotten involved with Kira."
Light put the television controller down and sat back down in his chair. He eased back in his chair, amused by the situation. "To what are you insinuating, Mr. Nétè? That I—or someone—in my company are in collusion with Kira? That is absurd. Kira is a god and he knows what's in a person's heart. Since the dawn of Kira, there has been a drastic shift in the dynamics of human behaviour. I accept that and believe in Kira's judgements. Obviously Nicholas Leandro erred to the point Kira had to act."
Nétè suddenly reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pistol. He pointed it at Light. In his former years as a police officer, Light could identify hundreds of makes of guns. Nétè held a Smith and Weston .40 calibre handgun. Ritchie and Demetre rushed in, but Nétè got off a single shot before he was tackled. The bullet struck the mask dead centre in the forehead just above Light's eyes.
"Boss!" Ritchie shouted.
"Light!" Demetre shouted without even thinking.
Light had a flashback to when his father pointed a gun at him and fired. It was when he and Misa were in the backseat of a car supposedly on their way to an execution site accused of being Kira and the Second Kira. Back then it was a blank. If Light reacted to save himself and killed his father, then that would prove Light was Kira. But it helped convince L wasn't Kira at the time, which was a huge mistake. Light had lost his memories, purposely relinquishing the Death Note, and then joined with L to help 'catch' Kira, a ploy Light had put in motion weeks beforehand. It was to take the heat off him.
It all happened so fast. Light didn't have time to react or move away from the bullet's trajectory.
The mask began to crack, the metallic casing was enough to stop the bullet from killing Light, but not enough to completely prevent penetration. It split into two halves and fell from his face, exposing his real face underneath—a face that was not burned by acid, as per the story he had told everyone.
Demetre put Nétè into a chokehold while Ritchie attended to Light. Demetre brought Nétè up to his feet and slipped the Smith and Weston .40 calibre handgun into his jacket pocket.
"Boss! Are you okay?"
Light sighed. "I'm fine," he said, calm despite the situation that just unfolded.
Geist materialized through the wall of the office and asked what had happened. He saw the scene.
"I'll explain later," Demetre said to Geist. Everyone but Nétè could see and hear him. "Do you know it is illegal for anyone other than the police to possess a handgun in Japan, Mr. Nétè? Five years in prison!"
"Get off me!" Nétè struggled but to no avail. "You killed Nicholas! You bastards!"
Ritchie picked up the pieces of the mask. "Remarkable," he said. "Dr. Lovecraft is to be commended for creating this mask." The bullet was stuck in one side of it almost to the other side.
Light felt his foretold and touched underneath his hairline as a small trickle of blood streamed down his face. But the bullet had not penetrated beyond the mask despite mildly causing a possible laceration.
Ritchie handed Light the half of the mask with the bullet still lodged within, Light looked at it sagely. "No, Mr. Nétè," he said, "you are incorrect who killed whom." Indeed, the mask was remarkable. Dr. Lovecraft would get a sizeable bonus for designing it.
Light's 'Grand Agenda' would have ended with a bullet without it.
He came out from behind his desk and crossed the office to Leopard Nétè, then back hit Nétè with the mask and cupped the man's chin. Light's eyes glowered with disdain.
Nétè winched, then cowed at Light. "W-who are you? You're not Shinto Izanagi!"
Light smiled evilly. "Oh, but I am, Mr. Nétè—the one and only," he said. "And someone else!"
"B-but your face, it's not burned! Shinto Izanagi!'s face was disfigured with acid, that's the story!"
Light's smile remained. "The story about my face burned by acid was a lie," he admitted. "It was to cover up to hide my true identity." Light looked at Demetre and his friend smiled gleefully. He looked back at Nétè. "I won't go into the details, but I'll tell you this much—you could have been part of something great! Alas, you chose your own selfish wants. You're not welcome in my brand new world!"
"What are you talking about?"
Light snapped his fingers and Ritchie brought over one of the small white cases. Light opened up the white case and forcefully fit one of the Death Mouthguard's into Nétè's upper jaw. Ritchie also handed Light the Alpha Death Mouthguard that he retrieved from Light's suit jacket. Light felt the moisture with its previous use on Nicholas Leandro and bit down on it to secure it. It almost had the juiciness of an apple.
"Now, Mr. Nétè," Light continued, making direct eye contact with the other, "let's play a game!"
Nétè winched after he obviously felt an electric shock inside his mouth which indicated the mouthguard made contact with his neural and sensory pathways, the frontal lobe of the brain, where the ability to rationalize and make decisions were centred. It was the central operating system of the mouthguard's.
"What did you put in my mouth? Take it out!" Nétè said. "Why did it shock me?"
Light took a step back. He then used a handkerchief Ritchie brought him to wipe his face of blood that had begun to fork down his face from the laceration in his forehead. But instead of wiping the blood off, it smeared across his face making him look like some kind of crazed lunatic after he just murdered someone in cold blood. Ironically, that's just what Kira did to Nicholas Leandro.
His smile broadened.
"You're some sort of devil!"
"On the contrary, Mr. Nétè," Light said, "but in order to save the world, a few sacrifices must be made, and now that you know my little secret, I'm afraid going to momentarily act like one. Still, as the saying goes: 'Evil exists when good men do nothing'. I'm acting in the greatest good of humanity."
"Who are you?"
Light smiled. "The truth will shock you," he said, and then confirmed to Leopard Nétè what he suspected.
He was indeed the man behind the veil of Kira, a man wearing a mask, and not unlike in Alexandre Dumas's 'The Man In the Iron Mask', a royal, hidden away for his heritage.
Nétè's eyes widened.
After a very short game of 'Truth or Dare' that Nétè at first refused to play and ultimately lost, Light then began to relay a series of instructions for Nétè to follow using the Death Mouthguard in his mouth and the Alpha Guard to command him. What came next was Nétè's unwavering and inability to disobey. All rational thinking was replaced with a set of irrational thought but that all human beings were capable of, as per the rules of the Death Note. He issued Nicholas Leandro the same command.
It took less than a minute.
Leopard Nétè was then released, he didn't resist, and was sent on his way. He walked out of Shinto Izanagi's Study and residence. The CCTV camera in the outside lobby of the office showed Nétè walk pass his secretary without saying a word and then get into the elevator.
"Do you think he'll do it, Light?" Demetre wondered, looking up from Light's laptop, as Light wiped his face clean with a moist cloth, cleaning the remainder of the blood off, a small bandage partially seen over the laceration underneath Light's hair, given to him by Ritchie to apply.
"The command I relayed to him is a condition all human beings are capable of, so it will not be unheard of when a police investigation will commence," Light said. He removed the Alpha Mouthguard and placed it back into its black case as it had served its purpose. "But with Leopard Nétè's massive gambling debt, which will come out during an investigation, who will question a man with nothing left to lose?"
Light laughed.
"Leopard Nétè is as good as dead," Light concluded, "and nothing will save him from Kira's judgement!"
The Shinjuku Train Station in Tokyo was a busy hub for passengers to get to and from their destinations. It was one of the world's busiest railway stations. It was a major railway station in the Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan.
In Shinjuku, in the Kanto Region, it was part of the Nishi-Shinjuku and Shinjuku districts, and this is where Leopard Nétè walked in.
He walked through the vestibule of the terminal, swiped his transit card over one of commuter gates, and then stood on the platform, waiting for the next train to arrive. It would not take long, as an electronic voice signals the train was en-route and would arrive in less than a minute.
An inner voice was driving him to do this and he couldn't stop himself. He screamed at himself to stop, but his body wouldn't listen. No one paid him any mind. He was just like any other business man waiting to use the train to get to a place.
As the vibration of the train was felt as it begin to rush into the station, air blowing from the turbulence, he stepped closer, and then over the edge of the platform just as the train entered the station.
It would be last thing he would ever do—
As train hit Leopard Nétè, killing instantly with a wet, crushing blow.
END