CHAPTER 32:
"Battle On Two Fronts"
Raye Penber lunged at Demetre, grabbed his left hand, bent it down, twisted his arm, and brought it behind his back in Side Rear Wrist Lock. Raye then put pressure on Demetre's elbow to hold him secure.
Demetre hissed in pain, but he could do nothing to free himself from the ex-FBI agent's grip.
Not to be out done, Jasper Yuta quickly whipped around, and knocked one gun out of Hiro's hand with an inside arm block. Once residing in a mental institution and seeing it demonstrated on its residents on numerous occasions when they had weapons, he remembered it and it came natural to him at the moment. It had even been performed on himself. Then he delivered a frontal kick to Hiro's chest, forcing him back. Hiro staggered backwards.
Jasper then delivered a head-butt to Hiro, further disorientating him, and snatched the other gun.
He pointed it at Hiro. The tables had turned rapidly.
"No!" Demetre pleaded. "Don't kill him!"
Jasper reserved himself. But it was mere distraction.
In that moment of hesitation, Geist attacked, retrieving his massive bone club strapped behind his back, raised it above his head, and brought down. Jasper quickly moved. It came crashing down just feet from Hiro, slamming to the floor. The wind velocity and the impact threw Hiro backwards and he rolled down the hall towards the elevators. He was the only one not able to see Geist in his real form. Hiro landed hard and stayed there.
There was a rule of the Death Note: If they murdered a human to save another human with the Death Note, then they would die. However, that rule did not apply murdering a human by other means.
Geist swung his bone club at Jasper again, this time sideways.
Jasper ducked, just narrowly missing contact with it. He felt the wind, as it passed near his head, blowing his hair. The Shinigami swung it with ease just like a baseball bat. It looked like it weighed a ton, and Jasper thought if he attempted to pick it up, it may have been impossible. But to Geist, it seemed it weighed like a feather.
Geist swung the bone club again, and it came crashing down upon the floor. Jasper scurried away like a field mouse avoiding a farm cat, escaping underneath the Board Room table. But it provided little cover and he had to escape once more, quickly, as Geist slammed the bone club into the table, breaking it in half. The crash was deafening.
Jasper rolled out from underneath the table in the nick of time just as both heavy pieces of the table and the bone club came crashing down. His back hit the wall. He was pinned. He looked up at the now seemingly massive and monstrous Shinigami standing before him with the bone club.
"I have to admit, you're one scary son-of-a-bitch," Jasper said. "But I'm not ready to concede just yet."
"Kill him, Geist!" Demetre shouted. "Bash his brains in!"
Penber applied more pressure to Demetre's arm and Demetre hissed in pain.
"Shut up!" Raye told him. He had watching everything, but he knew the Shinigami would not harm its handler, so he was safe. But as for Jasper, he hoped things went differently.
"Don't be too cocky, Detective," Demetre said. "You're only safe at the moment because you have me as a hostage. If things were different, it would be your brains spattered across the walls of his room."
"I said shut up!" Penber ordered, but Demetre Draycott was right.
Jasper got to his feet, and then grabbed one of the murals off the wall, and threw it at Geist. The Shinigami caught it instead of destroying it. But the distraction was all Jasper needed. He charged the large brute and shouldered him at chest level. The hit made Geist stagger back and he dropped his bone club in the process. It was enough for Jasper to garner room to escape being cornered, and he backed out to the double doors towards the outer hall.
Just then, Jasper heard a moan from behind him. Hiro got up, recovering from the surprise attack against him.
Jasper now he had two problems. Geist behind him and Hiro in front, and he had no escape.
"You son-of-a-bitch! That bloody hurt!" Hiro said, feeling his head. Jasper's head-butt was obviously still felt. "And Honda, what the hell was that? Keep your hands to yourself! You nearly killed me!"
"Stop your whining, brat!" Geist/Honda chided, picking up his bone club. "And kill this human!"
Jasper quickly grasped the situation. Hiro could not see Geist. Presumingly then, he saw Honda attack, his arms raised high, instead of the bone club, coming down, and slamming into the Board Room floor, the impact so great, throwing him back.
Hiro suddenly reached behind his back and retrieved a third gun, tucked in his pants.
Jasper has disarmed the kid of two, but Hiro had come prepared, and he fired at Jasper, letting off three consecutive shots. All three shots hit or rather passed through Honda, as Jasper dropped flat to the ground, and embedded into the back wall of the Board Room. Shinigami could not be hurt by human conventional weapons.
But Hiro didn't seem to notice, thinking that he had missed.
Geist/Honda stepped forward with his bone club in his hand raised high. To Hiro, it must have looked like Honda was raising his arms to bring them crashing down upon Jasper, when he fired again.
Jasper rolled quickly, the bullet bouncing from the floor. Then it hit Geist's bone club and ricochetted elsewhere.
That was when the scream was heard, Demetre Draycott's scream.
Hiro gasped, and Geist quickly turned.
Raye Penber released Demetre Draycott the moment the bullet he hit his eye.
Demetre clutched his face from the impact, screaming in pain. He then staggered, folded over, and dropped to his knees, as blood dripped out from his hands.
In whatever Shinigami language Geist spoke, he cursed Raye Penber, believing that he had caused Demetre's injury, and swung his bone club at him. Penber ducked and rolled, as the heavy weapon bashed into the wall where he once stood.
Penber then quickly ran out beyond the Board Room doors towards Jasper, as Hiro ran past him.
"Master Draycott!" Hiro shouted. "Master Draycott!"
Raye saw an opportunity to escape, as both Hiro and Shinigami were distracted. Jasper shared his sentiments, and they both got the hell out of there, bolting into the elevator.
Both breathed heavy as the doors closed, descending to the lobby when the button was pushed.
"Jesus! That was seriously close," Jasper said. "We need to tell L and Near about this. We got what we needed."
Raye nodded, feeling his chest, his heart pounding. "Demetre Draycott is working with Light Yagami. Maybe L knows about this Grand Agenda Draycott spoke about? That looked like one of the Shinigami that destroyed Wammy House from what Near described to us. We know the name of Light Yagami's Shinigami, Ryuk, but I never got the name of this one, only that kid kept calling him Honda. But, I don't think that was his real name."
"Who cares what his real name is," Jasper said. "Call him Rockstar Regret for all I care. What matters most now is that L knows he needs to stop Yagami. What happened back there…to Draycott?"
"In all the confusion, I'm not sure. But I think Hiro shot him, the last bullet hitting him in the eye."
"Tough break, or lucky shot. Either way, good for us," Jasper smiled.
When they reached the Lobby, they played it casual, as they walked out the front doors, the Security guards watching them all the way, none the ware of what had occurred on the upper floors.
x x x
When Light entered the his condo using a swipe card to disengage the electronic lock on the other side, the first thing he heard was shouting. Ritchie also heard it and joined him inside for his safety.
Both crossed the main room and to the bedroom, where Kiyomi Takada was awake and very angry.
"Where is that fucking bastard?"
Light immediately knew she was inferring to him. He entered the main bedroom where she was with his mask on, she would not know it was him. Takada was covering her nakedness with a white bed sheet, but the moment they locked eyes with each other, she seemed to know, almost instantaneously, that he was the trigger of her ire.
"You son-of-a-bitch! How dare you!"
She threw a pillow at his head and he caught it just before it hit. But he wasn't shocked, knowing the reason behind her hatred of him. It was obvious she remembered everything. He was actually sad. He had hoped he could start anew with her, hoping she had forgotten what he had done to her. Alas, now that could never be.
"Takada, please wait…"
"Don't you Takada me, you heathen! You-you Judas! You betrayed me! I did everything you asked of me, and more! And-and you treated me like…you tossed me away like I meant nothing! And what's with that damn mask?"
"She knows you, sir?" Ritchie asked.
"I'm afraid she does, who I was before the accident. But she has no knowledge of what transpired, the reason why I wear it now, most likely due to severe memory lapse after she was kidnapped by sinister thugs. PTSD. I had hoped to find her after a long span apart and explain things. Now you know why I was nervous."
As Ritchie was not in Japan during the Kira Incident, he would not know about it. Aveeno and Dr. Lovecraft would know of Kira, but now of what truly transpired with the SPK and others. So, there was no reason to explain further.
He then said, "Everyone out, please. I wish to speak to Kiyomi Takada alone."
"No! Don't leave me alone with this monster!" Takada went to get up, but then something Light did quieted her. He squeezed both his fists. It was a signal of some kind. She seemed to see it and then sat back down.
He locked doors to the room once everyone was out.
Then he stood there, almost frozen to the spot. He stared at her from behind the mask, his eyes the only thing visible to the once love of his life. He didn't want to take it off. There was something about it that made it a shield from the anger in her eyes that made him feel ashamed. It was the first time ever he felt this way.
She covered herself with the white bed sheet, sitting still, unmoving, looking at him with contempt and bitterness.
He cast his eyes aside, not waiting to meet her gaze. He had murdered her in arrogant blind ambition to rule the human world with the Death Note. He thought it was the only decision, because if Near had gotten hold of her, then he would interrogate Takada, and use her as bait against him, or have her confess. Because she knew he was Kira.
He had a grand agenda back then and it was the same now. Hence, he called it the Grand Agenda now.
"Takada, let me explain," Light began. He opened his mouth to say: "I had no choice or Near would have used you against me." But then thought strictly against it. That would be the end of it all, and of him.
He approached her, and with every step he took, she inched back on the bed. After three steps, he stopped. He then took off his mask, and looked upon her with his naked face. The only thing that changed about him was the colour of his hair, from auburn brown to angelic while, a side effect of his resurrection. But otherwise, he would still look the same to her. But he was no angel with white hair. And right now he felt like he deserved her ire.
"How you managed to see the real me behind this mask is intriguing," he said. "But I thank you for not exposing the new persona I have set up as Shinto Izanagi, head of the Tsuku-Yoki Corporation."
"The doctor, Lovecraft," —Takada rolled her eyes— "Some name? Is that her real name?" Light nodded. "She told me about Tsuku-Yoki, and you, and then the rest I figured it out on my own. But I didn't want to say anything. I hate you for what you did. You killed me with the Death Note, didn't you? Gave me a heart attack while I was trapped in the back of that burning truck. I bet you thought all evidence of the Death Note would burn up with me? I'm not stupid. And you're not as clever as you think you are. And, I never got the results, but I was…"
"Pregnant, I know. I just learned of it myself." Light spread his arms out in complete openness. "Why didn't you tell me? If you had an even a smallest inkling, like when we met at the hotel for the last time, I would have…No, frankly, I don't know what I would have done. I've been rolling it in my mind. Nothing would have, or could have changed."
"Tell me truthfully, Light, did you write my name in the Death Note?"
Light took a moment. Then said, "No, I did not," he lied. "I found out Misa Amane had her memories restored for a time, and she wrote your name down, believing I would be happy with the result. I was not. So, I killed her."
It was a bold face lie, but there was no way for her to dispute it with Misa dead. He did kill Misa with the Death Note, that was true. She was no longer needed in the grand scheme of things, so he wanted no loose ends with her. And besides, he had to have someone to blame Takada's demise on. And who better than a dead woman?
This stunned Takada. Then she laughed. "So, that little vixen thought she would get the last laugh, eh? But I'm back, and she's not?" Light nodded. "How am I alive? And why do you have white hair? Is it part of your new persona?"
"It's complicated," he said, "but sufficed to say, my life was similarly restored with the help of Ryuk, and a small Imp named Morph, whom I encountered previously, before our reunion, before…some sort go time paradox thing."
Light sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. She let him, and did not move away. He reached out to her, wanting to touch her, but then relented, and his arm fell to the bed. He turned away, and looked down at the floor. He tried to hide the shame he felt for murdering the soon-to-be-mother of his child. He was different now.
He said, "It's a long story. But to make things easier, let's just say, the Death Note has evolved, and it has empowered me with even more divine god-like powers way beyond my wildest dreams. However, it didn't come without personal sacrifice." He took off his jacket, dropped it to the floor, undid his tie, and then unbuttoned his shirt, letting them both fall unfettered. He showed Takada the bullet wound scars on his chest and upper left shoulder, bare-chested. "Matsuda shot me. But I escaped, and eluded Near and the SPK, but then I died from a heart attack, alone in a warehouse. I was told the shock of being shot and being exposed as Kira was enough to kill me naturally without the Death Note. But that's when things get really interesting and complicated."
He smiled, and then told Takada the rest of his tale. The story of his second coming, and other things.
When he was finished, Takada sat quietly for a while, contemplating things, obviously disgusting his tale, and there was an awkward silence. When she spoke, she said, "So, you specifically asked Morph to bring me back?"
"Yes," he lied again. He mentally sighed. Thanks to Morph's spy in Quindecim, he was able to bring back Takada to the Human World. He would take credit for it, because she was smiling. And the very thought of her believing he wanted her back made her happy, incentive to make her feel special. "Because I love you, Takada. Ever since we met in university, I always knew you were the one for me."
"Oh, Light," she said, with tears in her eyes. She then hugged him, and they kissed. It was a deep, passionate kiss, and he felt his body tremble with her lips.
He shivered with her touch, and he grew excited by her closeness. She dropped the bed sheet, exposing her nakedness. It was an invite, and he took it.
He leaned her over on the bed and kissed her more, lying down. Parting lips, moisture bridged between them, their eyes glistening as they gazed at one another, he said, "You are the only woman I have ever truly loved, Kiyomi. And together, if you'd join me, we'll rule the Human World—I as its King, and with you as my Queen."
"Will I get a Death Note?"
"That can be arranged. And I'll introduce you to Morph."
"He sounds fascinating. It's not everyday you met a god-like being who wields the power of the heavens."
Light gave her an incredulous look. And she smiled playfully.
He leaned in to kiss her again, their bodies pressing together in a passionate embrace. Light didn't care how long the others had to wait for him to finish in the other room. He would be with Takada for as long as he wished.
However, just then, his cell rang. He sighed disgruntled.
Of all the times, he thought.
He had different ringtones for different people just in case he wished to ignore them. So, he knew who was calling. But it was unusual for Hiro to being calling him directly. If he needed to relay something to him, he would normally inform Demetre first, and then Demetre passed on the message, the chain of command.
He sat up. "Forgive me, Kiyomi, I should take this. It's the office." He bent down for his phone in his jacket that was on the floor, and answered just before it would have gone to his voicemail. He answered irately. "Yes?"
"Sir!" came Hiro's voice over the cell in a panic. He began to speak so fast that Light was not be able to get a word in. "I'm sorry to disturb you. There's a been a terrible accident. It's Mr. Cottré, I mean Mr. Draycott. He's been badly hurt. You need to come back to Tsuku-Yoki Tower immediately!"
Light turned and gave a scared worried look to Takada.
She emulated his look. "What is it, Light? What's wrong?"
To be continued...